The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Sell Some Jewelry To Pay Off Student Loans? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

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🎵 live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio this is the Ramsey Show where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money my name is Anthony O'Neill host of the Table with Anthony O'Neill, host of The Tastebook with Anthony O'Neill. It's the YouTube show and podcast show. And I am hosting the Ramsey Show by myself today, America, so you get me. Our personalities and the lead personality, Dave Ramsey, is out impacting and helping people get out of debt, build wealth. And so they asked me to fill in. I said, absolutely.

Why not? As long as Kelly and Ben are here. James missing. I don't know where James is. But it's all good. Ben is a better music producer than James. Don't tell him, though, and we'll be all right.

But hey, the number here is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Whenever I'm on a show, you guys, I like to keep it real relevant and relatable. I love having a conversation about all things, really. I am the only single personality. And so I love actually encouraging and talking to single people. So if you're a single person and you're having questions around how to date around money, how to make good relationship decisions around money, or you're just a single person and you're having questions around how to date around money, how to, you know, make good relationship decisions around money or single person. How do I start attacking my debt or getting out of debt and building wealth as a young single person?

You'll give us a call if you're anybody you want to talk about, you know, whatever life, money, relationships. Give me a call. You know, it's going to be a fun hour here. And I would love to talk to you. Triple eight, eight, two, five, be a fun hour here, and I would love to talk to you. 888-825-5225. It's a number. And Zane is going to kick off this hour in Phoenix, Arizona.

And thanks for calling in, Zane. How can we help? Hey, yo, my man. Thank you so much for taking my call today. It's an absolute honor to be talking to you. Oh, man, it's an honor to talk to you, man. Thank you so much for calling in. How can I help you today, bro?

Yeah, thank you. So a little bit of background about me. I just graduated from Arizona State. I'm 23. I'm single. Graduated with a degree in supply chain management. I have currently about $22,000 worth of debt. After graduating, I got a job working in consulting.

So currently making $67,000 a year. So during school, really important for me, my parents made the sacrifice. They let me live at home. And so I had a good job. I worked as a server and made a lot of money. And so I made a really stupid purchase. I purchased some jewelry that was, you know, I purchased it for about $4,000 and now it's worth that $18,000 to throw at the pile. And so wondering if I should maybe sell this jewelry to close that gap or if maybe hanging on to the jewelry isn't such a bad idea after all. Did you just say you had $18,000 to throw at the pile?

So that's all of your jewelry added up is about $18,000? Oh, no, no. So I have $18,000 cash that's not including the jewelry. The debt is $22,000. It's not including my emergency fund or anything. But I was wondering if I should sell the jewelry to kind of close the gap between the $22,000 and the $18,000, you know, to kind of make that up. Or if to, you know, maybe just kind of keep going along the path I was already on. Cool.

So let me make sure I have this correct. You got $22,000 in debt. You have $18,000 sitting in your savings. Then you have jury that's worth $10,000, which means technically you have about $28,000 to your advantage with a $22,000 in deficit with debt. Correct? Correct. I'm selling the jury. Gotcha. Instantly. I'm going to sell the jury because that's just something that, you know, we did a millionaire study last year, right? We studied over 10,000 millionaires.

The number one millionaire study in America. Nobody trusts what we just did. And when we talk to these people, one of the top things that they said they do not invest into is jewelry. They don't invest into gold. They don't invest into gold. They don't invest into things. Only time they invest in a jewelry is because they want to get a wedding ring and get some jewelry to actually wear on their fingers and stuff like that. So I will go ahead and sell the jewelry.

It's going to put you at $28,000. Boom, I'm going to pay off the debt of $22,000. I will actually go ahead and take that $18,000. Take $17,000 of that. Go ahead and put that towards that. Once you sell the jewelry, pay off the rest of your debt, and you go ahead and get you three months. Are you still living with your parents right now? I am, but currently I'm about to move out in about a month.

Okay. $67,000 a month. I mean, a year. You live in Arizona. So rent's going to be good. Okay. Yep. Do you have a car now? I do, yeah.

$5,000. $5,000. That's a part of the $22,000 of debt? It is, yeah. And then the rest is student loans. Okay. Okay, cool. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and pay off your car today.

I need you to hang up for me and go pay off your car today. Today, yes, sir. Yeah, yeah. I mean, as a matter of fact, follow me on Instagram. Send me a screenshot of you paying off your car $5,000. I'm going to give you two hours to do that. I expect by the time I get off of the Ramsey show that you've paid off your car. You got it, man.

I want proof of that. And then from there, I want you to pay off the rest of this stuff. And then this is what I want you to do. Have you taken, because you're young, Zane, have you taken Financial Peace University through our Ramsey Plus? I haven't, no. You haven't? Okay. Would you like to? Yes, sir. If I step down the limb and ask Kelly to give it to you for free, will you do it?

Yes, sir. Absolutely. Let me ask you this question. Why will you do it? Well, you know, a big motivation for me growing up. So my dad was a taxi driver supporting a family of five. And so kind of watching him struggle growing up has been a big motivation for me and kind of put a fire, you know, under me. And so, you know, kind of to honor his name and, you know, change my family tree is kind of the reason for sure.

Okay. All right. I like your why right i like your why i like your why here's the thing zane i want you to stay on the line kelly's gonna get you a copy it's gonna be one free year on myself uh to put you through ramsey plus for free you're gonna get the every dollar uh budgeting tool for free as well you're gonna get on clear budget man and you are going to live below your means you are going to hang up for me and within the next two hours you're going to pay off your car and then you're going to get on instagram and you're going to screenshot it and tag me in it at anthony o'neill look for that blue check mark that's right and i'm going to reshare it and we're going to show the whole world that this young 23 year

old just paid off his car and within the next 30 days he's going to sell his jury and be 100 debt free and then you're going to give me another instagram when you pay it off and i'm bring you on to my show and we're going to talk about your journey and then i'm going to walk you through how do you become successful how do you build true wealth if we can start at the getting these young people at 20 23 years old thinking about the future thinking about legacy thinking about generational wealth thinking about building true wealth man america will be in a much better place so zane stay on the line kelly's going to take care of you. She's going to give you a free year of subscription of Ramsey Plus.

You're going to hang up from her. You're going to pay off your car. You're going to screenshot that and share it to me on Instagram stories. Then within the next 30 days, you're going to pay off your debt. You will be a millionaire within the next 20 years. And you probably won't be single too much longer because ladies love a debt-free man. This is The Ramsey Show. Your number one wealth-building tool is your income.

For business owners, this comes as no surprise. As you're used to putting in extra hours and watching your bottom line, that's why Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, is a great option for those who are faith focused and budget conscious. CHM is not health insurance. Rather, it's a health cost sharing program. It's not harder, but it is different. To learn if CHM is a fit for you or your business, visit chministries.org slash budget. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show America. My name is Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, doing the Ramsey Show by myself today.

Now, according to the United States Census Bureau, nearly one in ten people relocated last year and you guys that was in 2020 that means this year there's a good chance you or someone you know is planning a huge move now i know it feels like there are a thousand unknowns you're juggling when you're relocating, but you cannot lose focus of one of the most important personal and financial factors in your move, your housing. Now, I recommend hiring a quality real estate agent like one of our endorsed local providers or EOPs to help you find the right home in your city. EOPs are top performing experts in their local market and have years and I mean years of experience helping folks just like you and I to make a successful move. Okay, it's just easy to get. It's easy to get instantly connected with an endorsed local provider agent. Just go to RamseySolutions.com forward slash agent to talk with ramsey trusted agent

about how they can help with your relocation again that's ramsay solutions.com forward slash agent and one of the main reasons why i endorse and promote um our eops is because i've used them for both times i built a home and recently I moved during, I sold my home during the pandemic and moved them to another home during the pandemic. And, um, man, my ELP, indoor soaker provider, you guys actually made about an extra $30,000 on a house. And then what I thought my house was worth, uh, he priced it right. And he told me to be patient. And within a matter of two hours, we had a offer above asking. And then we went back and they came back and offered me some more money. Now, here's the best thing about it with our EOPs. He said, OK, now we've

sold your house. We got to get you into another house. And so we went down to downtown Nashville to get us a nice little townhome with a nice little rooftop balcony, you know. And the house was a little bit too expensive. You know, I was like, I don't want to let out my budget. Now, if he can come down to my budget, I'll do it. But, you know, me. OK, I got to be within my budget. Bottom line, I cannot go over by a dollar.

He said, OK, I got you. And, you know, within a matter of three days, he calls me back he says, hey, I got I got the house down to your budget. We need to put an offering. And I said, OK, cool. Let's put the offering. They accepted my offer below the budget. So not only did he make me money, he also saved me a lot of money. And I walked into my new home with equity in it.

And so these EOPs, you guys, we're not just saying this just to be throwing fluff out there. No, I'm actually living this out, okay? I use my EOP. I've used them two times. And when I move again, I would use honestly the same EOP because I just, I trust them.

They are good. They are experts. And so I really want you to go to ramdissolutions.com forward slash agent. If you or a family member is moving, let us help you save money and make money. Nathan is with us in Omaha. Good afternoon, Nathan. How can we help?

Hey, thanks for taking my call. Yeah. So I have an interesting kind of situation coming up here. It's like a financial crossroads, you might say. Okay. So my parents are looking at selling their house this year because the market's nice and hot, and they're probably going to get the most premium for the money on it. They want to give my wife and I $60,000 off of that sale.

We currently have $35,000 in savings. And by the time we'd like to look at buying next year, we should have between $110,000 and $120,000 in cash. We just paid off all of our credit card debt. We're working on getting the vehicles paid off. We're projected to have those paid off by the end of the year, which just leaves my student loan. Student loan is at $120,000. So we're going to hit a point where we're going to have $120,000 in cash and $120,000 on student loans. Pay off your loans.

Pay off the loans. Nuke it. I mean, pay off the loans, man. I want you debt-free. And I know, Nathan, it's not a popular thing. I know you're like, oh, my gosh, man. I could be, man, I can go. No, no, no, listen here, man.

How old are you and your wife? I'm 30. The wife is 26. Oh, yeah. So you're young. So I want you to think about this. How much do you all make in the household right now? Last year, we made $166,000.

This year, we'll probably make about $175,000. We both put in for promotions. Next year, I think we're going to be at right at $200,000. Okay, cool. You're in Omaha. What does the average house go for? If you went to go purchase a home today, how much would it cost you? What's your dream home?

We're looking in the range of $200,000 to $300,000. So average, I mean, $225,000, $250,000. Okay. And how long do you think it would take you to save up 20% of that? So that'd be about $50,000.

So if we were debt-free today, saving that up would probably be seven, eight months. Yeah. All right, so let's dream here, brother. I want you to follow me. You get this money from your mom, from your parents. You're going to have about $120,000, right? Yeah.

You already have $30,000, you said, $35,000 in your savings account right now, right? Right. Okay. Immediately, I'm going ahead and just dumping all of that into paying off your debt now. Then when you sell the house, right, I'm taking that money, putting that towards the debt.

So if I'm hearing you correctly, by the beginning of next summer, you could be 100% debt-free, correct? Yes. Okay. Then by the end of next summer, you could be 100% debt free, correct? Yes. Okay. Then by the end of next year, you can have $50,000 sitting in your savings account? Yeah.

Okay, cool. So this means within the next two years, you could be into your home and the only debt that you have is a mortgage. Now, here's why I'm saying within the next two years because it's going to take you one year to pay off the debt. Then I need you to spend at least three months

stacking up at least a three-month emergency fund. Okay? Then you need to go ahead and save up that 20% so that way you can put down on that. Then on top of the 20%,

you probably need to stack up at least another 10K for moving expenses and some extra things to get into your home. So by the time you turn 32 years old and by the time your wife turns 28, you can be 100% debt free, homeowner, millennials, killing the game. That is beautiful to me. I would rather do that than to rush into a home and then I'm still bound in debt. Nah, man, I want you to get into the home, have freedom, have peace, enjoy your wife, enjoy your life. Y'all can get out there and just have the financial

peace. And you wake up on the first of the month and the only thing you have to pay for is your mortgage, utilities and insurance bills and eat. That's it. That's it. That's peace, man. And then from there, here's the thing, Nathan. I want you to get into that thing 15-year fixed rate. And when you get there, man, I want you to attack this mortgage.

Can you imagine being 100% debt-free on path to being a multimillionaire by the time you turn 45 years old? Yeah, that's what I'm looking at. That's what I'd like to do. That's it. No, no, no. Don't say that's what you'd like to do. Say that's what you will be doing. Think about it. Your wife?

Come on now. Let's be real, man. Can I be real with you, Nathan? I only got like 30 seconds. Can I be real with you? Ladies love financial security. Let's just be honest. They love it.

When you're a man, when you're leading, when y'all are leading together, when you're providing financial security, emotional security for your wife, ladies love that. So go ahead and pay off the debt and the man, when y'all pay off that house, man, take her to wherever she want to go. Say, baby

girl, where do you want to go? Wherever she says she want to go, take her. If it costs you 10 grand, you take her there. Okay? I'm telling you right now. If I'm in your shoes, that's what I'm doing. I'm doing that right there. Man, I'm excited for you, man.

We good, Nathan? Yeah, that sounds good. Hey, man. It's a big pill to swallow but I guess you just gotta rip that bandaid off and get it done hey man listen here successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do

nothing extraordinary happens inside of people's comfort zone it's gonna be uncomfortable but that's what you're here for to be uncomfortable so you can be successful don't allow your comfort zone to become your kill zone. Don't allow what's comfortable to you to kill your dreams and your goals and your vision. Nah, step outside of your comfort zone.

Be uncomfortable for the next two years. In the next 15 years, you're going to be amazing. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. Well, I'm loving this boy. I'm loving this. James, I'm going to tell Dave. He can take off loving this boy. I'm loving this. James, I'm going to tell Dave. He can take off all he wants.

I'll tell the other personalities, too. Hey, this is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to The ramsey show my name is anthony o'neill ramsey personality and i am so excited because during this segment we have mitchell and alexa on the debt free scream stage how y'all doing great how are you man so where y'all from? Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Yes. Okay. So let's go ahead and get straight to it.

How much did you pay off? I paid off just over $68,000. I want to say that it was my debt-free journey, but since we got married three days ago, it became our legacy. What? Three days ago? Three days ago. Like three days ago from today? From today.

I love it. All right. So how long did it take you with her praying with you? It took me 20 months. 20 months. All right. Cool beans. And how much were you making during those 20 months?

I started netting 30 and finished with 45. What? 30 to 45 and you paid off $68, 000 in about a year and eight months man so uh what do you do for a living i own a lawn and landscape company oh man this is amazing the last young kid was just talking about he wouldn't do a lawn oh this is amazing landscaping man i wish you lived closer i'll hire you today so all right so what type of debt was it i was everything it was tires phone lawnmower loan from my parents student loans two vehicles everything you had you were single you had two cars i had two trucks two trucks one for the

business and one for the personal yeah okay okay okay and tires yep that was probably the first debt i ever got was getting new tires oh man so 20 years ago what got you on this journey what what say you know what hey i need to get my life together um so it started a little bit before 20 months ago um alexa sent me a quote, live like no one else. So later you can live like no one else. And I was like, cool. Sounds great. And then one of my clients that I mowed for, he actually like, he asked me, what do you listen to? Well, mowing lawns. And I told him just country music, whatever. And, but I do get sick of music very quickly because I listen to it all day, every day. And he said, you should try podcasts.

So I was like, all right. Went on Spotify, looked up business podcasts. And Dave Ramsey was the first one to pop up. So I started listening to him. And I was like, dang, I could do this. I need to provide a what kind of life do I want to provide for my future wife? Because we were dating at the time, starting to get serious. And like, do I want to go into marriage with a ton of debt or be debt free? provide for my future wife because we were dating at the time starting to get serious and yeah like

do i want to go into marriage with a ton of debt or be debt free so when did y'all start dating alexa started dating in 2017 so it's been a while yeah so what made you give him the you know the dave ramsey book and you know stuff like that what what were you trying to send him a little message or were you just like this is pretty cool or were, hey, you need to get this fixed if we don't get married? Well, so I had taken in my high school, they offered the class for financial peace. And so I took that as a senior in high school. And then I actually had paid off some of my student loan debt as well, all my student loan debt. The first year I was out of college.

And so that was which also that was at the point that he was starting to get into it too. And I had a chunk of cash sitting in my bank account, and I had student loans that I could pay a large chunk of. So I did that. But then really just when we started to think about the future and what our legacy was going to look like, doing that together and just having that vision for the future, really. So what was your why?

Like why did you be like, hey, I want to get out of debt? My why is 100% standing right next to me. Are you serious? Yeah. I mean, do we want to go in struggling with money or do we want to go into marriage completely free? I think that's why she said yes as quick. Yeah.

It's been awesome. Like since leading up to marriage and getting married, we paid for all of our furnishing in cash, paid for the wedding in cash, paid for a truck in cash. Like it's been awesome. We're free to do whatever we want because we're debt free and have good incomes. This is lovely. I love it. All right, so let's rewind. What did you do to get out of debt?

Because you started off making $30,000. Now, let's be honest. That's not a lot of money. No. And everyone says, well, $30,000, I can't pay off in no debt. But then you did it. So give us that journey a little bit. How did you do it?

So we stopped going on as fancy dates. No. So that sucked for her a little bit but she knew why um i that dream truck that i had the sweet lifted hemi all the good stuff i sold that i'm so sorry it's all right and then towards the end of the journey i also moved back in with my parents, lived rent free. I am so sorry. Yeah, I was living alone for quite a few years and a little tough moving back in home, but it was worth it. It was definitely worth it, man. I hear you. Now, what would you say was the hardest thing? I'm asking you this, Alexa, watching your fiancé at the time, your now husband, go through this journey, what was one of the hardest things you think he had to endure and encounter during that time? I would say definitely just I haven't experienced living out of my parents' home until we got married here.

But I think the moving back home was a huge sacrifice. And that was also I'm actually from Jackson, Michigan, so about 30, 40 minutes from Ann Arbor. So he was going back to Ann Arbor with his parents. So we were, for both of us, it was difficult being 40 minutes apart after being so, so close together for a few years. But yeah, I think that really just, I think that the Lord really just helped us during that time. And I think our relationship both through the debt-free journey, and then also just, just that distance just helped us grow even closer and stronger before heading into marriage. I love it. I love it. So what would you say is the key to getting out of debt? Definitely stick to the budget. That helped me a lot. And then have your why. I couldn't have

done it without knowing that I was doing it for Alexa and our future family. Yeah. I really do love that. So you went up by $15,000. What'd you do to go up? Just acquired more clients. The business has just been booming. And then this year it's going to be even greater. It's been insane how much the pandemic has helped and it's just gone up from the start and it's looking like it's just going to keep going up. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking for a guy like you to come out to my house, man. I wish you lived in Asheville.

Hey, it's only a eight hour drive. I can come do it for you. Hey man, listen, we'll talk after we'll talk on the break. So who were your biggest cheerleaders along the way? Definitely Alexa pushing me through it. I have another friend named Tom that he's doing his debt-free journey right now too, and we kind of just talked and every so often just checked to see where we were at. And he definitely was cheering me on too.

And my parents were supportive. I mean, they let me move back home, so I couldn't have – I mean, it was towards the end, but still that push of not having to pay rent made it that much quicker. And if I didn't move home, I don't think I could have done it before the wedding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You moved back in your home, made some extra money, stopped going out on fancy dates, had to tell people no, so you can eventually tell her yes. Oh, yeah. This is our honeymoon.

We haven't held back too much because we got the money to got the money to do it got the money um did people think you were crazy i got a couple naysayers and a couple like i mean not to make him feel bad but my brother made fun of me a lot well your brother's gonna be loving you now you're You're debt free and he's going to try and follow your footsteps. And I absolutely love it. So how does it feel to be 100% debt free, newly married, walking into the future with no bondage? I mean, it feels amazing.

Like he said, I think really just the one, the Lord's faithfulness throughout this time, but then also just like he'd mentioned, you know, being able to pay for the wedding in cash furnishing with all new furniture, our home, our first home in cash and, uh, you know, him buying a truck recently while us buying a truck, um, in cash, I think it's just been really a testament to the Lord's faithfulness, um, really, and just, you know, being good stewards of what he's given us. So I love it. No, I really do love it. Well, you guys, I'm just excited to hear your story and excited to hear your journey.

So we got a copy of The Legacy Journey for you and The Totem Money Makeover. Since you all have both already read it, we want you to pass it forward to someone else, maybe to your friend

or maybe to your brother. Does your brother have any debt? He's got debt. He needs the book. We'll give him the book. All right. So we have Mitchell and Alexa from Ann Arbor. Paid off $68,000 in 20 months, making $30,000 to $45,000 a year.

Count it down for us. A debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Let's go! Man! Listen, listen, man. Today has been an amazing day, you know, seeing two people do a debt-free stream.

This is what it's all about, America. Keep it locked, because when we come back, we have some more good information for you. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. My name is Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, filling in for the other personalities and our lead personality, Dave Ramsey, in their absence today. It's been a great day. It's been a great hour. I want to encourage you all. If you are a young person and I say, well, I think everyone's young, but if you're in the 20s and the 30s, I want to encourage you to go over to my YouTube channel and watch my show, The Table with Anthony O'Neill. This week, I am talking about the 10 things

to not do with your paycheck. And the reason why I did this video is because I remember getting my paycheck when I was 25 years old and I would get my paycheck on a Friday. And by the time it turned around to like next, the following Wednesday, I was broke. I didn't know where my money went.

And I did all kinds of things with my paycheck. I didn't invest it. I didn't budget it. And so I really spent about 45 minutes at the table. I pulled up the whiteboard and I literally write down, do not do this with your paycheck. Do this with your paycheck. This is what you need to do. This is how you invest it. This is how you start paying with your paycheck. Do this with your paycheck. This is what you need to do. This

is how you invest it. This is how you start paying off your debt. Here's the four things you need to be spending your money on first. And I really want to encourage you to go over to my YouTube show because I'm trying to be very, very detailed and making sure that I'm creating videos and show topics that are really helping young people really identify how to really become successful. And there's four things that I'm really focusing on within my brand, within my show. And the number one thing here is everything starts with a spiritual foundation. And then when you have a good, strong spiritual foundation, we're going to talk about your network. Who's speaking into your life? Whose. Who's speaking into your

life? Whose life are you speaking into? What kind of friends are you surrounding yourself with? Who are you dating? Are you dating the right person? No, I'm not a relationship expert, but I do understand that your network impacts your net worth. See where I'm going? So that's the next thing that I talk about is your net worth. How do you build a positive net worth? You do this by getting out of debt. You do this by is your net worth. How do you build a positive net worth? You do this by getting out of debt. You do this by following our baby steps. You do this by having a plan for your money that is congruent and working hand in hand with your life, with your vision for where you're going.

But you really can't know where you're going if you're not really putting something positive into your mind. And that's the last thing that I talk about is our mindset. I'm teaching people to mind their business, not really to mind the business as far as instead of the people business, which we should be doing, but I'm teaching them that their mind is a business. And if we can be hyper intentional, hyper focus around our spiritual walk, around our network, around our net worth and around our mindset, we will be successful.

And so in this week's video, I really lay down the 10 things you do not need to do with your money when you get paid. And these things are crucial. And I made all of these mistakes. And so if you are someone who's 20 years old, 30 years old, or if you know someone in that age bracket, please go over to my YouTube channel. Watch the video. Share the video. And I promise you, you will learn something on this.

Again, that's the YouTube dot com for slash Anthony O'Neill. It's called The Table with Anthony O'Neill. We have almost 300000 subscribers over there. And I'm just so happy that you all are trusting me with giving you the information. So Aaron is with us in Pensacola, Florida. Good afternoon, Aaron. How can I help? Hey, good afternoon, Anthony. Well, I have a problem with my wife and buying a new vehicle. Our family recently expanded. In the last three years, we've had three children, and we purchased a new car, an SUV, two years ago when we only had one child. We're running into the dilemma that we might need to get a minivan, that sort of thing.

Currently, we can't fit everybody into the SUV, including my mother-in-law and the dog, and I'll go somewhere. I own two cars right now, both free and clear. I paid off the new car, and I have a legacy vehicle passed down from my grandmother that's in pretty good shape, but it is 20 years old. My concern is, is if I sell this recently purchased car from the last two years, I've gotten some price quotes and everything. I'll probably lose about $7,000 from what I paid for it. I want to purchase, say, a pre-owned minivan for around $27,000. And the gap that I would have in selling my recent car would be about $7,000. Now, my thoughts are that my wife thinks I should sell my older legacy vehicle. I believe I should keep it, and we should sell our newer car cause it's paid off. We have cash and, um, to go ahead and, and buy the new one. So, um, I really don't know what's probably the best

decision. Um, you know, money wise, uh, we have about 17,000 in savings. Um, you know, if we would have to come out for the new vehicle, we'd want to pay for cash. But we're really just not sure. Should I keep the newer vehicle? Because, I mean, it's only two years old. It's still under warranty. It's reliable. Or should I just try to sell it and keep my legacy asset and get my wife a new car?

Okay, cool. Let's start with the basic financials. What are you making a year right now, household income? I make around $50,000 a year, and that's going to increase to about $55,000 starting in a month from now. I'm going to be on a new pay scale. I work for the government. Love it. All right, so right now you're making $50,000, okay, which could go up to about $55,000. Is your wife working at all?

No, she's a full-time stay-at-home mom and with the three kids. Love it. You have any debt right now, Aaron? We have zero debt. We own our other than a mortgage we took out a year ago. And we've been we've been paying on that like double payments when we can. And then also I contribute to a TSP for my savings. I put about 15 percent of my income into that. So we've got a pretty good cushion. Real quick, Aaron, because we're about to go to a break.

If you sold your old car legacy, how much could you sell it for? Right now I could sell it for $22,000. The old car for $22,000? No. The old car I'd probably get maybe in this market $1,500 to $2,000. It's low mileage and in excellent mechanical condition. Okay, cool.

Here's what I'd do if I'm in your shoes. You can't go wrong with either or, okay? How much is the other car worth, your new car? Right now, if I were to sell it, I'd get $22,000 for it. $22,000. All right, cool. So here's the thing that we teach. We want to make sure that your car's values do not add up more than 50% of your income. Well, you're only making $50,000. So this means that the new card you have is worth more than half your income. But since you already have it paid off, I like the fact of you having a reliable car. I do not believe you need to spend $26,000, $27,000 to get a brand new car,

be a brand new van for your wife. I think you can go out there and find you a good reliable car for about in between $10,000 and $12,000. So if I'm you, I'm selling an old school legacy car because it's going to require you to put some money into it in the future months to keep it running and going.

Okay, so I would take that money, put that on top of the $10,000 and then go buy a quality used van. Now you have two quality paid for cars and you're not buying any more cars. No time soon, okay? Because your income just doesn't justify it, all right? And so what I would do, that's what I would do.

Now, if you wanna sell the new car and keep the used car, then you need to up your savings account, go buy a van, but you gotta up your savings account go buy a go buy a van but you got to up your savings account because you're going to run into issues with that old car so with it already being paid for i like keeping the the quality up on these warranty car get you a good quality van and then really focus on getting your income up and focusing on building your wealth long term. So those are my two cents on that. I definitely am appreciative of you calling in.

It's been amazing. It's been amazing, America, talking to you all throughout this hour. James Child, our producer, is back in the building. He decided to take off half of the show. But I'm happy to have him back. And Kelly Daniels is still with us. Hey, that's a wrap for this hour. We'll see you all again soon. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show.

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