The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Try To Improve My Credit Score? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

George Kamel & Ken Coleman discuss: Improving credit after bankruptcy, Social Security, Choosing a career. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage studio, this is the Ramsey Show where we talk about your life, specifically your money, your work, your relationships. It is a free phone call to jump in, 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me this hour, and we are here for you. We're having a good time, but we're going to give you some practical advice so that

you can get where you want to be to cover that gap from where you are to where you want to be, whether that be in your money, your professional life, or in your personal life. So we're so excited that you've joined us. Let's get to it. We go north of the border. Winnipeg, Canada. George, can you name the name of the NHL franchise in Winnipeg? Boy, I'm guessing it has something to do with Maple Leafs. No. Good call. That would be Toronto. Winnipeg Jets. There we go. Jay is there. Jay, how can we help? Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call.

You bet, Jay. What's up? So I declared bankruptcy about three years ago after a combination of a bunch of stupid decisions in my late teens and early 20s. My question is, now that I'm a couple years back from discharge and I've been focusing on saving and doing all the right things and not taking on any debt after that. I'm curious as to the best way to improve my credit rating with TransUnion and Equifax given the bankruptcy without taking on a bunch of dumb debt products. I know the conventional wisdom is go get a crappy 20% loan and just make sure you make all your payments. But that doesn't feel like something

that you guys would suggest me do. So I was curious about your opinions on that. Well, you know, we don't get too worried about the credit score. And I understand with bankruptcy, it's a different situation when that thing's dangling on your credit report for what, six, seven years in Canada? Yeah, about seven. I'm not concerned about financing or anything like that. My fiance and I are in the process now looking for a new apartment. Okay. And I know that we want to be looking at purchasing a house in say two to three years time. Now I know with our savings rate, we'll have about $100,000 in cash savings in about that time.

So we'll be able to comfortably afford a 20%, maybe 30% down, but real estate is expensive here. So there will be an element to the mortgage if we purchase a home at that time. So I want to make sure that I'm prepared to be able to enter into those things when the time comes. And likely that could be before seven years from discharge. Yeah. Well, I mean, the only thing that you would need or be worried about the credit report and score is when you're getting a mortgage because the rest you said you're paying cash for, right? We don't really need it. To rent an apartment, you can

do that without a score. You may need to talk through if it's a low score and the apartment does a check on you and they go, hey, what's going on here? But you can find a place that will rent to you regardless of your bankruptcy. Okay. And now on the mortgage side, I would proactively reach out to a lender in your area and say, hey, listen, I'm about three years out. I want to do a 15-year fixed. It's going to be less than a quarter of my take-home pay. We're going to have a nice down payment, 20% or more. What does that look like for me knowing that I have this bankruptcy still on my file for another year or so? Okay.

And they'll walk you through what that looks like. Yeah, Jay, thank you for the question. George, when you get in a situation like that, what's the mindset someone needs to start with? Because there's always a lot of fear. There's a lot of shame and baggage when it comes to bankruptcy, which is understandable. He said, man, I made some terrible financial decisions,

and so I don't want that to hold you back. I mean, the man himself, Dave Ramsey, filed many, many years ago for bankruptcy, which is understandable. He said, man, I made some terrible financial decisions. And so I don't want that to hold you back. I mean, the man himself, Dave Ramsey, filed many, many years ago for bankruptcy. He's doing okay today. And so I don't want this to be kind of a scarlet letter you walk around with. Let's just look to the future and go, all right, we made some mistakes. We learned from it. We're going to pay cash for things. We're going to do things the right way going forward. And I think any lender, especially when you're seven years out, if they say, hey, sorry, man, you can't do this until it falls off your report, then we wait one more year. We have some patience. We save up more money, have an even bigger down payment, and you just bought yourself some patience there. So I don't think it's the end of the world.

You're already three years into this thing. You're living your life. You're paying cash. But I would not worry about the score but i would do my due diligence do some research call lenders and say what does this look like for me so that you're not blindsided when the time comes good stuff all right let's go to robert who is in indianapolis indiana robert how can we help yeah hi how are you guys doing today oh we're having a blast what's going on it sounds like it hey what, what I've got going on, I'm retired. Also on social security disability, I was a police officer, got injured at work,

had to medically retire through work. And then also, you know, so I get both those pensions. My wife's getting ready to turn 62 here pretty soon. I'm 62. I've been retired for eight years, nine years, somewhere in there. And, you know, she won't get much. We're looking at about $900 from Social Security. She's a homemaker for most of her life. And I was wondering, do I grab that and invest that? We don't need her money. And she will always get mine if I pass away, and that's my main thing. I can wait until she's 70 and draw her money, but I don't know. I'm playing the percentages.

I don't live that long just from being a police officer, and usually our life expectancy isn't that long after work. So that's kind of my question. If I need more, I can give you more. How old are you two? 62. We're both 62. Okay.

Both 62. Yeah, I mean, I think it's great to start drawing it down now and invest that money since you don't need it. You guys are living comfortably on the rest of your income? Yes. I get close to $7,000 a month with Social Security and my disability. Oh, that's great. Yes, and we're fine. Pay the $900. Do you have a financial advisor? No, I don't. I was going to look into doing that. Yeah, I would jump on ramseysolutions.com and click on Trusted Pros. Reach out to a smart investor pro in the Indianapolis area because they can walk you through even doing the math on Social Security. And what if we waited? And what if we invest it now? And where should we invest that money? I've done a lot of that study of

myself. And of course, I'm not that, you know've done that and I'm leaning towards taking it and invest in it is what I'm leaning towards. Well, and the beauty of investing it is that that then gets passed down generationally with your family versus it going with you guys. Yeah, absolutely. That's a great opportunity, but do consider meeting with a couple of our SmartVestor pros, RamseySolutions.com, just so they can help you devise a plan, show you how it all works, and then you get super confident and pick somebody you've got the best connection with and you understand everything they're telling you. This is a wonderful opportunity to invest, and you never know.

Don't sell yourself short, my man. Don't try to check out too early. And we appreciate your service very, very much. All right, George, we're close to a break here. And the thing I wanted to ask you again, we're talking about mindset on that previous call, dealing with bankruptcy and all that. And then, again, I feel like that's another money mindset question,

which is, okay, do we take the money now, the Social Security money now, and invest? I think a lot of this comes from confidence. Both of these callers, like, when we are very clear on what our opportunities are, how we can reframe or dig out of a situation in bankruptcy, or in this case, how that money could be invested. It feels like confidence is such a key play with this. I think that's a big reason people call in. They're at a crossroads. They're not sure what to do. They need a third party to go, okay, I heard everything you said, heard all the details. Here's what you need to do.

And you do that with confidence, and it empowers people. You're not sitting on the sidelines anymore. You're in the game. So the takeaway, folks, is get clear on these money issues. And when you're clear, then you can be confident and, uh, confidence gives you the courage to make the moves you need to do to stay with it as long as it takes to have true financial peace. All right. Don't move. More of your calls coming right up. We'll see you next time. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman.

George Campbell joins me. And we are here to answer your phone calls. 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Adam is on the line in Pasadena, California. Adam, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. So I'll jump right into it. I've been working for a general contractor for almost the past 11 years. Um, and I have two job opportunities ahead of me. Um, one is with the city of Los Angeles,

which pays me more and, uh, has benefits and all that stuff. Or there's another job with the, uh, Caltech university in Pasadena, which is a couple of blocks away from my house. It also pays more, but it's kind of in the middle ground. What do you mean by middle ground? Sorry, I'm a little nervous, guys. That's okay. You're doing great. I just didn't know when we compare the LA jobs, City of LA and Caltech, you said both pay more, but then you said Caltech is more middle ground. I didn't know what you meant. You got it. So right now after taxes, I think I took home about

46,000. The city of Los Angeles job as a carpenter starts at 90.8 a year before taxes. They don't have a pension. They have more of like a 401k and that after three years, you're in full control of your money. So you can kind of choose where they put it or how much you want to put in and they also have benefits.

Are you doing carpentry for both? Yes, yes. I'd be working for the city of Los Angeles. I would be doing street services, which is far more brutal than what I do now. Now I'm more of a woodworker. I do custom cabinetry, woodworking, furniture, things of that nature. At Caltech, I would be kind of doing the same thing I'm doing now, but more in a school setting. So that'd be building dorms or lab tables.

How old are you? Repairs, maintenance, things like that. I'm 37, and I just had my first son, and he's four months old. Awesome. Congratulations. So the reason I asked that, Adam, is what's your long-term play? What's the top of the professional mountain for you as you sit here today? You don't have to hold yourself to this answer, but what's that look like for you? Because you're a young man, so when you're 50 or 45, where do you want to be professionally? You know, I just want to be secure, and I know that sounds like a fear thing, but I stayed with the current contractor that I'm with under the pretense that he was going to mentor me and I was going to take over his shop when he retired.

That was kind of the carrot in front of the horse. Is that what you wanted, is to run your own shop? It was what I originally wanted, but now... What do you want now? And I know you want to be stable, so I'm going to push back. Everybody wants to be financially stable. I'm asking you, assume financial stability. What kind of work would you love to be doing over the next five, 10 years as you kind of finish out your professional journey? What's the top of the professional mountain for you? I mean, it would be great to run my own company, although that's a big hurdle and I've seen a lot of failures throughout here. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I love what I do. I love doing

woodwork. Yeah. That's my point. And so here's the deal. It's a craft. Right. So you love the craft that you're doing now. And so sure sure, you love to own your own business. Forget about the fears and the hurdles. If everything were ideal, you'd eventually like to work for yourself in the space you're in. Correct? Sure. Okay. All I'm trying to do is help you go, all right, because we need to know this when we make decisions like this.

The reason I walked you through that quick exercise is because on paper, the city of LA seems to make more sense. On paper, if we just look at, well, it's 90,000 versus, I'm rounding up, 73. But I don't want you looking at it that way. I want you going, okay, long-term, what do I want to do? And for right now, we're not holding you to this, but for right now, it's I want to stay in the craft that I'm in. I'm a craftsman. I work with my hands. And so I want to be doing that kind of work and maybe work for myself, but I want to keep moving up.

So the question becomes, will Caltech give you a better ladder or will working for the city of L.A. give you a better ladder? And I'm removing finances right now. I'm saying what would give you the best opportunity to continue to advance? I would say the city of Los Angeles has more opportunity because it's broader, whereas Caltech is a school that is affiliated with JPL. So that's nice, but there's not as much room to grow. A lot of people love their job there. And from the research I've done, tend to stay there for a long time,

so it's hard to get, say, the boss's job or a promotion if someone already is holding that position. Whereas the city of Los Angeles has several different departments, so you can bounce around. You're still a carpenter, but maybe you're working street services or you might be working general services. You could go to Parks and Rec.

You could work at LAX. And because of all of that you just named think about all the connections you're making which could lead to some tremendous private sector opportunities you're going to be meeting a lot of people right sure so i like the city of la okay Joe. Okay. Okay. I appreciate that. Yeah. But one last thing I was going to say is I live two blocks away from Caltech and there'd be zero commutes, zero wear and tear on my car, zero gas, zero time wealth loss driving my truck to and from work every day. I mean, you know, we're looking at a couple hours every day, you know, to and from work every day. I mean, you know, we're looking at a couple hours every day, uh, you know, to and from work, uh, with the city of Los Angeles. Uh, so I always take all those things into account. But, um, the other thing I wanted to just lastly ask is, um, you know, I, I've been with this guy for 11 years and he's hasn't done anything to kind of lift me up.

There's no more ladder for me to climb and that's why I'm leaving, but it's not without a heavy heart. So I just wanted to make sure you guys, or maybe get your opinion that I was on the right path, I guess. Yeah, you are, and you have no opportunity to grow, so you shouldn't feel guilty about pursuing growth. You're a good guy. Absolutely. Could you move closer to work, Adam, if you took the city of L.A. job? To be honest, I probably could, but it varies so often that which department they might send you to, it would be kind of... You're going all over. Yeah, I'd be going all over.

And I've lived in the same rental for the last, like, 10 years because I'm really good with the landmarks. I do all the repairs myself and he hasn't raised my rent. So I would love to do all the baby steps. I mean, I'm not in debt, but I don't have anything else kind of handled other than about five grand put away. Well, you're about ready to get a big race. Listen, Adam, here's the deal. Yeah. I don't like the commute. The commute sucks. there's no way around it but that's la so i mean yeah that's part of the deal uh yeah you know moving around isn't really an option because because of the city of la so vast and you might be doing projects i would take this i would take the la job primarily because of the raise and the connections because i don't think

you're gonna have to stay with the city of la very long if you have your head up and you're making connections you're talking to people on the job uh that would be my goal yeah and if a year or two from now the commute's killing you and it's not what you thought it was you can leave yeah i just think you are stacking connections big time over the next year two years so yeah i would take the la city job the caltech job it's just gonna it's gonna force your hand down the road anyway because you're not gonna have any growth you've been you've been with a guy for a long time where there's no ladder and you know how that feels why would you go from one ladderless place to another ladderless place well that's hard to say george ladderless place yeah but this is point, Ken. If you're a leader out there and you're not giving your

team members opportunities for growth and talking about what that looks like, they're going to leave. And that's what we're seeing right now is people want growth. We're designed for growth. And if we're not advancing, now we're not talking about getting a raise every 10 minutes. I'm talking about, is there room for me to grow in this company long-term? That's correct. And if you don't have that as a leader, they're going to go find another leader who cares enough to help them grow. George, you're all over it. In fact, the data backs up your opinion.

Saw an article this week, a new study out. The number one reason people left their jobs over the last six months, they did not feel that they had professional advancement opportunities. And that's not always about money. No, it's actually not money because the third factor was income. They actually want a chance to grow and do more. We are creatures of progress, leaders. You've got to make sure you're answering that question for people. So they don't want a better job.

They want a better life, George. There it is. I'm going to drop my pencil on that one. Pencil drop. Don't move. More Ramsey show coming up are you sick of planned obsolescence you, when companies make products crappy so you have to buy more of their crappy products? Well, me too.

And it's why I love companies like Grip6. Grip6 is all about quality products meant to last forever. That's why their comfortable, bulk-free belts, slimline wallets, and lightweight wool socks all come with a lifetime warranty and simple returns and exchanges. So check them out at Grip6.com today and get up to 20% off with the promo code RAMSEY. This is the Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined today by Christina Ellis. Hey, folks, if you didn't know, we do this show live on the glass,

and you can come watch us like zoo animals. It's a good time, and I love meeting people. We come out there twice an hour to greet folks, take pictures, sign things, and it's a blast. So if you're in the Nashville area or you plan on heading this way, make it a point to stop by. We've got free baked goods, free coffee, a free Ramsey Show mug. You can take a picture on the debt-free stage. It's a good time. There's a whole fan experience. You can walk through a timeline wall of the history of this place. We try to make it very inviting to our guests. So that's my invitation to you as we head back to school.

The coffee's the best, y'all. Mostly because we're lonely. Not a lot of people out there today, Christina. But the coffee is good, and it's even better when it's free. Yes. There we go. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. Danielle is in Jackson, Mississippi.

Danielle, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me. Sure. How can we help? So my dad passed away two years ago and gave us a family inheritance of about $115,000. So we are debt-free, and all we have left to pay is our home mortgage, which we got at like a 3% interest. And so being debt-free and having this kind of money,

we already have an emergency fund set aside. So we're trying to figure out where to plug this money in. Should we put it on our home to begin the payoff for it, or should we make some investments? We're just trying to see where to go from here. How much do you have left on your home? About $193,000. And do you have kids?

We do. We have four. All right. Party. What ages? Six, five, three, and a two-month-old. That is quite the party. You got your hands full. I'm surprised you had time to make this call. Well, I got my five and six-year-old baby sitting the baby. Oh, good, good, good. Okay. Well, there's only three things you can do with money, and I think it's amazing that you were left this legacy and this blessing, but I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you. So when it comes to the baby steps, you guys are in four through six currently. So that means we're investing 15% of our income into retirement.

Are you currently doing that? Yes. Okay. Next would be saving for college. And so you could put a chunk of that. Maybe you throw, you know, five or 10 grand for each kid into a 529 or an ESA. That could be an option to kickstart that. Do you have anything safe for college currently? We haven't started that yet, no. Okay. Are there any upcoming repairs, renovations, car upgrades you guys need to make? My husband may need to make some type of upgrade on a vehicle because he's our real one-income family. So he's our workhorse.

So we might be needing some type of small used something to get him back and forth to work soon. Okay. So I would get a very reasonable commuter vehicle. This is not the time to get the Ford F-150 new on the lot because you got this pile of cash. Right. So you could upgrade the car, put some towards college. If you wanted to fully fund, you know, a Roth IRA for the year, you could do that as well. And then whatever's left over, I'm throwing at the mortgage.

Okay. So that's how I see it. Just filter it through those baby steps. And of course you can, you know, there's only three things you can do with money in general, which is give, save, and spend. You guys already have the emergency fund, and you're already on track for investing, and so you could give a little as well. If you're part of a local church, you could tithe some of that money, or if there's an offering that's something you're passionate about, you

could give to that, but otherwise, maybe you take some of it and spend it. Would your dad have wanted that? Do you enjoy it? Well, he was very much a debt-free guy. He was all about not owing anybody. And so I'm kind of wanting to keep that legacy alive, which we don't owe anybody. And throw it to the house. Make daddy proud. Awesome. Well, thank you all so much.

Absolutely. Thank you so much for the call. Yeah, that's a beautiful way to honor him, just knowing that that's something that he valued and treasured and for you to keep that legacy alive is amazing. One other thought is just making sure, I don't know where you are with your emergency fund if you have three or six months, but just making sure, too, that that's really beefed up. Being a one-income family, just making sure that you have that extra layer of security so that you can make sure if a big thing happens that you avoid that debt. And with four kids. With four kids. Who knows? That's a lot of life that's going to happen with those kids, and they're all going to go to college debt-free.

That's my hope for them, and I think you guys are on track to do that. And pretty soon, you're not going to have a mortgage. I mean, that'll really kickstart this journey, and they might be debt-free within a year or two completely. That's beautiful. And just such an amazing way to make your dad proud. Yes. Thanks so much for the call, Danielle. Josh joins us up next in Birmingham. Josh, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. I'm calling because my wife and I just are in the early stages of the baby steps and just got introduced to the Ramsey stuff. Welcome to the club. Thank you.

We just wanted to call and kind of see about some fundamentals, like some first steps, some practical ways to get us jump-started on this. Absolutely. So how much debt do you guys have? We've got about right at 50 to 55. Okay. What kind of debt? $11,000 is my student loans.

$26,000 is a car, and we've got $26,000 is a car. And we've got $4,000 in credit card. And I think that's about it. Okay, it's not adding up to $55,000. Looks like there's something missing there.

I'm getting about $41,000 based on the numbers you just threw at me. Is there another debt in the picture? Not that I'm, not that I can think of right now. Okay. What's your income? Uh, so I just, I just changed to a new job and I'm going to be making about $45,000 initially a year, but then, you know, in about two months, they're going to transition me and the low end is going to be about $58,000. And then my wife makes about $12,000 to $15,000 a year working part-time. Okay. Is she home with the kiddos?

Yeah, when she's not at work. Okay. How many kids you got? Two. We just had twin girls last September. Oh, that's sweet. Do you guys have another car? It is, but yes, it's paid off, though.

What's that car worth? I paid $4,000 for it, and I probably wouldn't get that out of it. It's just my get-to-work car. Okay. I'm just looking at that car loan going, that feels like a lot of car for your income, and I'm wondering if you could sell it and make a net profit and clean up this debt a lot faster and get something more reasonable right now? I took it by a dealership last weekend and they valued it about $4,000 lower than what we owe. Sounds like a dealership. Yeah. I would be checking Facebook Marketplace, Carvana, Vroom, Craigslist, Autotrader, and maybe Kelly Blue Book as well and get a real value for that because the dealership is trying to make money.

And so they're trying to get it at a deal so they can sell it for more and make profit. So that might be an option for you, but you're asking for tips on how to do this plan. And the number one tip is to stop the bleeding and don't go into debt anymore. Number two is to get on a tight budget every single month, and I'm going to help you with that by gifting you every dollar premium, which will connect to your bank account. And number three, get your wife on the same page. Are you guys pumped up about getting out of debt? Yeah.

Yeah, we both kind of recognize that there's a problem, and we want to be able to set up our girls to, you know, go to school. And, you know, I listen to the show often. That means you have a strong why, my friend. You look into those little girls' eyes and say they're never going to know debt as they grow up, and they're going to watch their dad and their mom sacrifice to avoid owing anyone anything. And so hang on the line.

Austin's going to pick up. We're going to gift you every dollar premium to start your written budget. Do that together, you and your wife. And I'm going to gift you Financial Peace University. Watch all of those videos and stop going into debt. Make a plan using the debt snowball. List your debts smallest to largest. Let's get our incomes up as much as we can and call us back when you are completely debt-free and do a debt-free scream. Can't wait for it. Thanks so much for the call, Josh. Appreciate you listening. Appreciate you joining this club of weirdos who believe that you can liveomy 31.6.

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. Frank Sinatra once said, The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything. There you go, Ken. A little Sinatra for you. I feel like if you're going to read a Sinatra quote

that's got baby in it, you've got to try to take his voice on. Give me that for a second. I feel like it's offensive to all people groups if I try the Sinatra impression. The big lesson in life, baby, is never be scared of anyone or anything. That was pretty good.

Not bad. I picture him with the bow tie done. He's got a cocktail martini in his hand. Good enough for government work, Ken. Yeah. Nice impression there. Not bad. I picture him with the bow tie done. He's got a cocktail, a martini in his hand. Good enough for government work, Ken. Yeah. Nice. Nice impression there. Thank you.

James is thrilled with that. It'll be in show notes afterwards. It'll be heading to the principal's office for that one. I've only heard him sing. I don't know what his voice sounds like. I've heard him in a few interviews. That wasn't bad. I'm not going to give it a good impression, and it certainly wasn't

great, but it was serviceable. That's exactly the commentary you want. It was serviceable. Well, I'm trying to keep it real. It might have been bad. We'll listen to it later. Well, let's serve Christina, who's in Washington, D.C. That's what we can do. All right, Christina, how are you doing? Good. How are you? Thanks. Very good. How can we help? So my husband and I are in steps six and seven, and we're planning on moving in a couple of

years. But our house needs, well, it could use some updating. And so I guess our question is, should we continue to decrease the mortgage with the extra money that we have every month or start making some minor and major updates to the house to potentially increase the value that way and, you know, make it more marketable. Okay. So you're in baby step six, seven, we've got a paid for house at that point and we're building wealth and good. So you're squarely in six. What's left on the mortgage? We've got about 515 on our about $515,000 on our mortgage.

$515,000 left? Correct, yeah. What's your income? Our growth is $280,000. Awesome. Tell us again, did I hear you say you're planning to move and sell this house in a couple of years? Correct. Our kids are all out of high school by then.

We don't really like the county that we're in, so we'd like to move at that point. So why not just move? The kids don't. The kids. So how many years are we talking? We don't want to leave high school. Just two years. Okay.

They don't want to switch schools. And what are the renovations going to cost? We're thinking about $40,000. We have two bathrooms, and that would be the major, well, bathrooms shouldn't cost that much. I was going to ask you. These days it might. Everything is crazy expensive right now in that world.

Yeah, but when you say major renovations, are you talking about the Master Bath is one of those? Master Bath is one, but to be honest, we're in an old colonial from the 80s, so our Master Bath is like, you know, not that master compared to what houses are these days. There we go. What's the house worth? We think about $750,000, $800,000. Okay. And if you put this $40,000 in there, do you think it would then sell for $790,000 to $830,000? We do, and we think that it would make it more marketable.

The area that we're in has a lot of high-end builders, and they're putting in a lot of 500,000 square feet plus houses um so just the area is changing and we're just we want to make sure that we have you know buyers for i mean i would do your homework i i've my father-in-law is a custom home builder and does a lot of renos and so i learn a lot from him and i've done some reading too and you can do this on your own but you know you look at kitchens and you look at like a master bathroom those are those are two areas that you can get real value from also backyards i saw so recently we're doing stuff with your backyard and outdoor living that can certainly add a lot of value so i would just do

your homework you know what are some of the minor changes versus the majors? And I would really only focus on the majors because you're just trying to make this thing more marketable. So, for instance, you've got an old colonial home. What could you do to make that master bathroom actually a master bathroom? I think that would certainly add some value. So I think if you just do your homework there. George, is that where you're leaning? Because they're not going to pay the house off even with their aggressive payments by the time that they sell and move anyway.

I'm leaning towards do what the necessary renovations are, necessary repairs. And as you go to list it, you're working with a pro, and let the pro help you go, all right, if you want to sell this for this asking price, here's what we're going to need to do, and here's the value you're going to get. That's good. So I might pause on that and just do what's necessary right now. And I want it to be livable. It doesn't sound like you guys are miserable over there. Sounds like a cool property. No.

Okay. Yeah, we have about four acres. It's pretty cool. I got to ask, you're not in D.C. So you're in... Oh, we're in the suburbs. Yeah, we're actually suburbs in Maryland. Yeah. How much money do you guys have in cash outside of the emergency fund? We have about $70,000 outside of cash.

We drive 20-year-old cars that we're getting ready to replace because they keep breaking down. And we have never taken a honeymoon, so we're going to Costa Rica. So we have some money set aside. I would upgrade the cars and go on the honeymoon before making these renovations. I agree with George. You got two years, and George is right. When you get closer to selling the house, I'd have one of our real estate pros

give you some good advice on what changes to make. But right now, yeah, replace the cars and go on a honeymoon for heaven's sakes. Yeah, I think you can do both of these things and we'll just put them in order. So let's upgrade the cars. Let's go on the honeymoon. Let's start to make some renovations that would make it really pop for now for us to enjoy and then begin, start to knock off some of that mortgage so that you can build more equity. And you're going to only gain that back when you go and sell it. And you should have you know if you're at 515 you sell the thing for 850 you're going to have a good 300 in uh net profits out of that yes and then

hopefully we can just get a house for cash which is our goal that would be amazing now you'll probably need to downsize in house at that? Yes. You're moving to a different area that's more affordable? Yeah, exactly. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for the call, Christina. Appreciate it. Yeah, that's exciting. Ty, we'll close this out here in Santa Ana, California. Ty, let's get right to the question. Hey, what's up, gang? Hey, how you doing? Good, good. Hey, so I know we're short on time. I'm just going to get right to it. That's what they told me. So I need to know if I should sell my business or sell my houses to pay off my debt.

How much debt? I got $1.2 million in debt. Whoa, is that all business debt? No, it's two houses, one in Hawaii, one in California, and then about $200,000 in whatever, you know, the basic, everything else. I would sell the houses before the business unless you're trying to get rid of the business anyways. What could the business sell for? If the business, I had two companies reach out to me that want to buy the business.

So if I sell the business, then I wouldn't have to sell the houses. And you're okay selling the business? Not really. Yeah, I was going to say, I mean, do you own your job here in this business? What would you do if you sold it? Well, the business is in Hawaii, and I live in California. And there's no hassle there for you to run it from California?

Well, there's two options. So one company wants me to sell them the business and move back to Hawaii. And then the other company wants me, wants to buy the business and have me stay out here in California. Or I can just sell the houses, pay off all the debt. What's your heart telling you today? Which one gets you the most excited? I don't know.

I'm just torn. I don't know. I'm just torn. I don't know if I want to move to Hawaii. Well, do you want to move to Hawaii? A year ago, I was born and raised in Hawaii. You know, we just got out here to California. But do you want to go back? I don't know. Yes, you do.

Ty, I've got to tell you, we're short on time, but I think you are leaning one way. So why don't you just tell us which way you were leaning when you called to get our advice? Because I know you were leaning one way. What was it? I think I – so both companies want me to work for them after the sale, and I think I do better in Hawaii. That's where I'm from.

All right then. So then I would do that. There it is. Appreciate the call time. That puts us out of the Ramsey show in the books. My thanks to my co-host, Ken Coleman, all the folks in the booth, keeping the show afloat and you America, we appreciate listening in until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally and give generously. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from The Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to The Ramsey Show channel on YouTube. Hey, it's James, producer of The Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services you heard about during this episode.

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