The Ramsey Show - App - Should We Be Worried About the National Debt? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: "Should we be worried about the national debt?" "Can we use our paid off land as a down payment for a house?" Using savings to start a business, "I feel like our debt is never going to end" 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/3cEP4n6 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 studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they really love, and create actual amazing relationships. Jade Warshaw Ramsey personality is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. The call is free and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.

The phone number is 888-825-5225. Thanks for being with us. Chris is with us in Dallas, Texas to start this hour. Hi, Chris. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thank you so much for having me. Sure.

What's up? So I'm a high school senior right now taking just kind of a personal finance class, and I was just wondering if you're concerned about the national debt reaching $30 trillion and how that should affect just our overall personal finance strategy. Well, I'm sorry. As a high school senior, you're having to worry about such things. I've got a long history of fretting and alternately being angry about the national debt being out of control, mainly because it represents a Congress that's out of control,

and we don't seem to have the backbone in the American people to vote the bozos out. So they keep spending like there's no tomorrow, and everybody's a little bit lazy about it. So it just keeps going and going and going. So, yeah, I'm with you. It's no tomorrow. And everybody's a little bit lazy about it, so it just keeps going and going and going. So, yeah, I'm with you. It's bothersome. Obviously, there's a tipping point somewhere. I will tell you that the end of the world has been predicted as long as I can remember due to the national debt

or due to whatever other boogeyman you want to come up with. And I actually read a book when I was a little bit older than you called Bankruptcy 1984 that predicted that the national debt was going to hockey stick and the nation would collapse in 1984. Obviously, that was wrong. There was another book that a friend of mine wrote called The Coming Economic Earthquake, predicting the exact same thing in the Same Decade. He was wrong.

I had another friend of mine wrote a book about the end of the world due to Y2K. Do you know what that is, Chris? Yes. Year 2000. Yeah, exactly. When the computers all turned over, the world was going to come down. We were a little bit worried that the entire electric electronic grid would collapse and a lot of people bought water and

bullets and uh all kinds of things to get ready for the end times and the uh new year's eve came and went nothing happened except three days later the stock market went through the roof up and so um i just i i i have honestly i'm not making fun completely but i look back on all the things i've worried about and none of them have happened so um i think it's bad because i think it represents a lack of discipline on the american people's part and on our quote-unquote representatives part i think it's pitiful it It's outrageous. But does it affect my investing? Not a dime. Not a dime.

I don't sit and worry about it. I invest based on good long-term track records because the debt's been out of control as long as I've been alive. And so I've been investing and investing and investing. If it ever absolutely fell in on itself, there's not anything you could have invested in except bullets that would protect you so i wouldn't i wouldn't fret about it um and the next time someone can you know comes to me and one of the other things i'll just as a side note for our listeners out there and for jade jade may not know this about me um it is one of the things i have vowed that when i get old i am not going to be one of those financial guys that writes an end times book because most people in my world, you know, we go along, we teach

people to get wealthy, we teach them about all this, and then we get enough knowledge that this stuff starts concerning us. And so we write the end of the world book and it's coming soon, usually when we get old. And I've just vowed I'm not, even if'm tempted i'm not going to write as a matter of fact i've even told my publishing team to refuse to publish it if i did write it so if you have a moment keep me from making the mistake of doing it to myself burn burn the manuscript throw it in the fire just it it apparently um takes more than a single president being a moron because we've had multiple of that um it takes more than

than i think it takes to collapse this thing called America. And, you know, I remember thinking that when X or Y president got elected way back there, like before some of you were born, that that was it. That's a sign it's over. Yeah. Jesus is coming, you know, and he didn't and we didn't die and the nation survived the idiocy in the White House. That's true. And the lack of morality in the White House and the nation survived the idiocy in the white house that's true and the lack of

morality in the white house and the whatever in the white house that and you know we'll survive whatever we're going through right now it's just we're more resilient than i then i think we think we are in the middle of the night when we wake up scared that's a really good point dave i do think that we're resilient as people and also as a nation. And a lot of this stuff is so cyclical, you know, the sky is falling and then somebody comes and does, you know, one or two things that are just, you know, whatever. And everybody does a big, deep breath and then somebody else comes and they spend more and it's like, oh, you know, I think all this stuff just goes in a big wheel. And, you know, for your own peace, you just gotta let it let it remain external and

not let it get into you so much yeah and when you look back on it you go you know it i it was it was a lot bigger deal in my head yeah i mean you talked to somebody who lived during the great depression yeah that that was real yeah i find in moments like this, when you just look back and go, okay, it gives you a little bit of perspective to go, okay, this is not any crazier than any other moment in history. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I think the, you know, what is different is access to conspiracy theories. F's the social media internet i mean because it used to be you had to really work to find kooks that's right and now they are delivered to you because you've been looking at other kooks and so the algorithm sends you a whole list of kooks oh it'll just put it up in your feet you don't get stuck in the kooky algorithm and you're going to

get lit up with kooks and so you know if you think the world's coming to an end you type that in about three times you're going to have a lot of incoming in time stuff showing up on your desktop and all of a sudden you're going to start to believe the dadgum world's coming to an end and it's the same thing as you know again when i started all of this a million years ago we didn't have the inputs you know the moral of the story is there is a moral to the story we're going to finally get there watch your inputs that's so good dave you know you become what you consume and who you hang around with so are you watching the news 24 7 right you're going to be pissed off all the time because it used to just be that it was fox news

msnbc and you go you know i used to be walter cronkite and you had to wait till six o'clock there's that was it and then you got 24 7 24 7 and then you got 24 7 both sides of the political spectrum yep uh yelling at each other yep and now you got youtube instagram and all and it's not even it's not even real news outlets anymore it's just it's just the stuff that we call news now we used to call tabloid oh true that well i can go on there and make news and somebody listen to me well there you go you cause cause a little cause a little ruckus i might have to only i'll tell you the truth i won't be out here telling you fake news i'll tell you the truth this is the ramsey show jade warshaw ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones at 888-825-5225 there's been consistent focus on and funding for traditional subjects in the world of education, like math and science.

But there's been a consistent lack of focus on common sense stuff like personal finance education in the classroom. Kids have to memorize the periodic table, but they can't balance a checkbook. They don't know how to stay out of debt. The Financial Literacy Crisis in America 2023 report focuses on the lack of personal finance education in America. However, we come to the rescue with Ramsey Solutions Foundations in Personal Finance, taught now in 48% of the high schools. But here's what the key findings of this report said. 88% of U.S. adults said high school did not leave them fully prepared three and four u.s adults said the years after high school they often or sometimes felt stressed because of money

lack of knowledge well that's just everybody yeah that is everybody you don't need to spend a bunch of money on that research all you gotta just talk about four people and you can figure out that we're not taught this stuff in school anymore from the first time i wrote the little blue version of financial peace and i carried around the trunk of my car one of the first times i ever set it out on the table after i spoke and i went back to work the book table and sell my little book for 12 dollars from then on people would come back there and go you know they should teach this stuff in schools uh-huh it's come up from day one of me starting this stuff 30 years ago and so we are and guess what this month is financial literacy month woohoo hey hey love it and to do that uh to celebrate that we're going to honor a bunch of teachers and uh so what we're going to be doing in this process is we have the ramsey teacher

appreciation giveaway sponsored by the army national guard we think teachers are heroes as a matter of fact we're downright sure of it so one teacher no purchase necessary will win a five thousand dollar vacation wow that's nice yeah because you need a vacation i'm telling you and two more teachers are going to win a three thousand dollar vacation of their choosing you go wherever you want to go we're going to fund it along with help from our friends at the army national guard so uh way to go teachers so the giveaway ends april 30th no purchases necessary but you've got to be a teacher to register or if you register and you're not a teacher you're not going to get it so there you go get your name in the running go to ramsey solutions

dot com slash teacher tell teachers you know to come and register to ramsey solutions dot com slash teacher because we are definitely giving somebody a so we vacation that's what we want to do there that's nice and they get to choose where they want to go to it's not like all expenses paid to some some place in the Caribbean I got a discount on yeah that's not no didn't happen just five thousand dollars real dollars and we're going to give you that exact amount and you're going to go towards your a place of your choosing Dale is with us in Jacksonville Florida Florida. Hi, Dale. How are you? Doing good. Hey, I had a question about using land as a down payment and what you're on that. Help me walk me through. Down payment for what? A house. So when I talked to Churchill Mortgage, they said that we could use the land,

our five acres, it's free and clear as as a collect like as our down payment oh okay absolutely and actually you don't have a choice you have to you have to because here's how it works all right you're going to take out a construction loan and they're going to take a lien against the property that the house is being built on which happens to be this land so now the land is wrapped into the deal immediately. And when the construction is finished and the construction loan has fully funded the building of the property, you will then put in place what's called a takeout loan. You're going to take out the construction loan with the permanent mortgage that pays off the construction loan

and is in the amount of the construction loan. And guess what? The equity, the total house will be worth X, which includes the land. And you end up with just the mortgage at the end of the story. And so it has worked its way into becoming the down payment because it's in your equity at that point. You see what I'm saying? Yeah, so it's already more equitable.

Is that what you're saying? No. I'm saying that, okay, the 5,000, the five acres is worth what? About 70,000. Okay, and what are you going to spend on the build? Probably about 200. Okay, and that 200 is probably going to be worth 250 actual app appraisal when you complete it because you're building it, right? Okay. And so you're going to have $270,000 in the property.

I'm sorry. No, you're going to have a mortgage of $200,000, but you're going to have a value of about $320,000. The equity is the difference so you'll actually only have 200 200 000 in the whole package when you're done but because the 70 acres is paid for and because you're building it for less than appraisal i'm sure sure you're not paying full appraisal to build a property uh you're going to end up with about a $320,000 property that you only owe $200,000 on. The difference is $70,000. That's called your equity.

Okay. All right. That makes sense. And so you see what happened is the land ended up being like a $70,000. The land and the better deal on the house ended up being like a $70,000 down payment. Okay. And so, like, we have some money set aside already, like, for a down payment? Should we, I mean...

No, it's okay. Go ahead and put that down, too. That means you're just going to borrow even less and have a larger equity, but you're going to have less debt because we want to get this house paid off as soon as possible. Okay. How much have you got set aside? Not much. We just finished paying off debt, so only about $10,000 right now.

But I was just curious what your thoughts were on that. Is it above your emergency fund? No, we have a different emergency fund. We have $15,000 in emergency fund. Okay. So you have your emergency fund plus $10,000. So, yeah, put the $10,000 or any other money you can scrape together while you're building, and that makes you end up with less than a $200,000 mortgage, thus more equity. Equity,

Dale, is value of the property, the whole property minus what you owe. That's your equity. That's what you call that. At what point, Dave, let me take this question one point further. So we're talking about a $200,000 loan, $70K for the land. Is there a ratio, land to home value, that you would say, hey, that land is not going to – I want you to put cash with that. Yeah. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah. Unless you're on a huge tract of land, and five acres is not, unless you're on like 300 acres or something, or in a very expensive tract of land, an unusual property. A good rule of thumb in the building world is don't let your lot be more than about 20% of the total picture.

Interesting. Okay. That's a good rule of thumb. And so if you had a half a million dollar project total then you wouldn't want your lot to be more than a hundred thousand that's good twenty percent of that and so um and she's she's right around twenty percent is where she ends up so again it ends if the lot's paid for it ends up having the net effect to her question of having put down twenty percent right because her mortgage is she's going to have more

than a 20 percent or less than an 80 percent loan to value more than 20 percent equity so she's going to avoid pmi private mortgage insurance it's the same rule that we would say for any other regular purchase but this involves a construction loan with a permanent mortgage as a takeout yeah yeah and so that's that's very very good it's a very standard transaction there's nothing to be afraid of here that's a very normal process the construction uh loan will not increase except as you pay the builder and the builder will not get paid unless they meet certain milestones they'll get a certain amount at the foundation they'll get another certain amount when they finish the framing they'll get another certain amount when they finish the framing they'll get another certain amount when the roofing goes on when the rough end is done on

the mechanicals and so there's about five in a typical construction there's about five break points as the construction goes along they issue a little bit more a little bit more put you a little bit more in debt but the house is a little bit more higher percentage of completion sure and so it's doled out to the builder and it's very standardized. It's very careful. They're not going to do it unless they can prove that the framing package is up. Yeah. Builder doesn't get draws on something that

hasn't happened, in other words. I like that. And then you don't end up in a pinch. So that's where we're going. That's a really good question, Dale. It is. A thing a lot of people are looking at right now in this world today. So very fun. Very fun.

Love it, love it, love it. Jade Warshaw, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host. This is The Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America. Jade Warshaw, Ramsey Personality personality is my co-host today if you're new to all this ramsey stuff and we know some of you are a bunch of you are based on our increased in ratings our increase in rankings recently um one way to find out what in the flip we're talking about is go to ramsey solutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out exactly where you are and what your next best steps are,

and we'll plug you into your plan, your journey, and you'll start learning some of the lingo from around here, some of the vernacular. And we'll show you how to go win with this. We literally have shown millions how. Click Get Started. It's free at rseySolutions.com. Brad's in Denver. Hey, Brad, welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. Thanks for making time to take my call. Sure. How can we help? Well, thank you so much. My question is, I've got about $650,000 in cash in the bank. Where'd you get that? Well, we actually saved a lot of it, and part of it was inheritance as well.

So the big thing for me is I've been listening for years, and I know that you said, hey, take it slow and really educate yourself on what you want to do with the money. And so I've scheduled an appointment with One Year Investor Pro investors here locally, but I also, my wife and I have been wanting to start a business of our own in commercial real estate, specifically in self-storage. And I don't want to use all of it. I just want to use a certain percentage of it as part of the diversification strategy and then the other part of it in investments. And so I just wanted to get your thoughts on the best way of how to, I guess, diversify that amount of money.

Okay. How long have you had this inheritance? Like, when did you receive it? About two years ago. Okay, so you've sat on it for a while. So tell me about the self-storage thing. So my family, my parents had their own business and actually had some commercial buildings that they operated. And probably about 10 years ago, they handed it over to the kids, including myself, my brother and sister.

So I'm actually a 33% owner in that. And so learned a lot about commercial real estate in that, but we're very conservative. We just kind of keep that separate. Um, one of the buildings that we had, um, we sold. And so part of the proceeds, we have kids got distributions from that. And that was really kind of just, um, an opportunity for us to, or at least my dad's heart was, Hey, this can help you accelerate your retirement strategy in your plan. But I haven't moved forward with it because I don't want to. But as far as doing mini storage or self-storage, what price range are you looking at a property?

Well, the big thing I was thinking of is an RV boat storage facility. So, you know, just understanding, you know, if it's a couple acres, maybe worth a half a million to maybe a million dollars. I'm still doing research, but I think the thought is that if you can put about 65 units on one acre of land, where it generates maybe about $100,000, maybe $150,000 of gross revenue, after expenses, I think the net operating income that we've kind of looked at would probably be half of that. And so part of it is kind of the strategy and the thought of— So you're talking about buying a piece of property with debt. Yeah, either acquire one or actually buy a piece of land and

then build it up from there okay well I own a bunch of commercial real estate I own a bunch of residential real estate I don't borrow money you probably knew that though didn't you yes okay so I'm not going to instruct you as a method of building wealth to take half of your $650,000 or half of your $700,000 and put it into a down payment. No, I would not do that. I would pay, a little higher hassle factor than a lot of rentals, and certainly a lot of commercial property. But you basically got to have somebody running it, in most cases. I have some pretty incredible technology, one of the two, and we've looked at both, looked at a couple of those deals for ourselves, as a matter of fact,

but we pay cash for investments, Brad. So that's going to change the discussion here, because I'm not going to tell you to go into debt to do this, because as you know, things don't always work the way they work when you lay them out on paper. That's true. I mean, he talked about splitting up the money and doing some towards investments and some on the storage. I wonder if he just said, I'm going to go all in on the storage and find a piece that's half a million. He said half a million to a million storage i wonder if he just said i'm going to go all in on the storage and find some you know find a piece that's half a million he said half a million to a million so maybe if you can find the one that's half a million yeah you can pay cash pay cash and then put 700 000 i mean put the other you know yeah put 100 000 in improvements and 100 000 in mutual

funds and then just take your cash flows and let's let's build that cash back up with the cash flows that's not a bad idea there, especially since if you're dealing with boat and RV storage, you're not dealing with a ton of improvements usually. It's just a chain link fence. But yeah, that's probably the angle I would end up going here, Brad, because I'm going to have to figure out a way to do the type of deal that I want to do but do it with all cash. I don't borrow borrow money and i'm not going to tell you to do something i wouldn't

do that's also going to make his his his um revenue and what he's earning off of that because he said gross he'd pull in about 150 and then he'd keep half of it so if he's not having to if he's not mortgaging and you're not having you're not having to service the debt, it obviously increases your cash flow. Yeah, exactly. Good point. All right. Anselm is with us in San Jose. Hey, Anselm, how are you?

Doing all right. Thank you. Good. How can we help? I've been just trying to figure out, like, the whole investment process um and kind of in the process of the uh you know investing 15 percent of uh income and or trying to buy a house i live in the you know one of the most expensive places in the united states yes you do so even a decent house is like a million dollars plus. So, um, how old are you? Should I, uh, 29. What do you make? Uh, well, it keeps increasing kind of a lot. Last year was, uh, about 144 this year. Uh, about, I'm going to

guess about 170, 180. Good. Good for you. What do you do? Accounting, revenue. Excellent. So what's the question exactly? Well, I'm able to save, you know, a decent amount of money. But it's like, you know, down payment is a lot. Yeah. is a lot. Yeah? And... Are you just discouraged because it's going to take you a while?

Yeah, it's like it could take five years. I maybe could reduce it by a year if I invest less. Do you have a family? It's just you? It's me and my wife. You and your wife. What does... And then so... The just and then so the 170 is that including

her income or is that just yours that's basically just mine okay well what does she make she she uh is potentially gonna make around 140 if she can get a nursing job so she's not working yet currently not working yeah she's just finishing nursing school yeah she just finished she can get a nursing job in about 20 seconds yeah she passes her board she's going to be employed as soon as she wants to be now you got a 300 350 000 household income shut up and save a down payment save it up it's just the two of you guys and it's going to take some time you're not going to get you know you're not going to be up. It's just the two of you guys. And it's going to take some time. You're not going to get, you know, you're not going to be done in six months. It might take a little bit, you know, it's going to take longer.

But here's the thing. You want the house. So the time is going to pass anyway. So just start saving up, start cutting expenses. And you might have to kind of, depending on how quickly you want this to go, you can decide how intense you want to get with this. I mean, you can go scorched earth or you can just go la-ti-da, you know, and make it a stroll in the park

and it's going to take you five years. Yeah, I mean, you can make it take you 10 years, but you can make it take you just a couple of years too. You guys are making bank. Yes, you're an expensive market, but you also have two excellent careers. You're doing a great job of earning. And now what you're facing is,

oh, we want to do big girl and big boy stuff like buy houses instead of play. Oh, we have to stop the playing so we can do that. Oh, there it is. There it is. This is The Ramsey Show. Jade Warshaw, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Madeline's with us in St. Louis.

Hi, Madeline. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my us in St. Louis. Hi, Madeline. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I am losing faith. Excuse me.

I just feel like this is never going to end. This debt is so big. And I'm just frustrated. And I want to do a debt freeze cream so bad and it just it feels like it will never come how can i keep going how long you been in this madeline well off and on for like five years but we've been gizelle this whole year we have decreased our debt by 80 000 this year way to go it feels 80 000 in one year we my husband we had saved a bunch my husband had a great paying job we've been working

hard both of us but i just don't know that i can do this for another two years potentially how much debt have you got left we have 221000 in student loans and $120,000 on our mortgage. Okay, your mortgage is not in the intense side, so you've got the $221,000 to deal with. What do you guys make? You currently have $221,000 in student loans. I do, mine alone. We paid off my husband's this year, just last month actually. Very good. What do y'all do for a living? I'm a chiropractor. I'm self-employed, and he's a nurse. So what's your household income? Last year, we grossed about $250. What will you make this year?

He is in between jobs, and my income fluctuates, and that's the hardest part. Wait a minute. Why is he in between jobs? He's a nurse. They did away with his one job that was very well-paying, so now he's waiting to hear for another job that is a local travel so that he can be home every night. How long has he been waiting?

He just applied this past week. He accepted a position. He's waiting for a religious exemption to go through so he does not have to get vaccinated. How long has he been waiting? Two days. How long has he been out of work? He's not currently out of work.

He's working weekends part-time right now until he gets this full-time. I was going to say, so the facts are that he hasn't lost much income no okay so the facts are you guys are gonna make 300k this year we hope to no there's no reason you shouldn't no no you are okay yeah you can't let you know all these ifs ands and buts the the fact is you got a job and of course your income fluctuates you're self-employed but that didn't change and the fact is he's a nurse which means he can get employed in about 30 seconds and he just proved that yeah yeah so the fact is you're not in trouble at all. You got a stinking $300,000 potential income. It's amazing.

Way to go. And you said you've been gazelle intense for one year, right? Just this year, actually, just the last couple months. Oh, so you're going to be right on track. From the point of you getting gazelle intense, you're going to be right on track with everybody else who's debt-free in 18 to 24 months. Okay, so I'm a little bit confused. There's something that you're not telling us.

Well, I want to know about the, she said they've been at this for, I think you said four or five years, but you just got intense. I want to know about those years, what was going on with that. My husband just got on board this year we we started financial peace at the beginning stop stop a second here's what i'm struggling with and you need to help me okay you make three hundred thousand dollars a year your husband's got a new job and you have 221 to go you've just proven that you can do 80 000 in what period of time how long did that take about four months good god yeah okay so we just did 80,000 in four months and um four months is not exactly i'm out of steam and i've lost hope i don't understand where this the tears and uh i'm not saying you

shouldn't have them i just don't understand where it's coming from. Why would you be hopeless? You should be like Rocky right now. You paid off $80,000. You make $300,000. You should be like doing a touchdown dance. I know. So where's all this hopelessness come from? We had kind of an unfair advantage. We sold our truck.

We really just like went hard. As soon as we took the financial piece, we sold the truck. We had a little saving. That's what gave us the business at the beginning of the year. I'm not saying you can maintain 80 over four months, but we know we can maintain 150 over a year. Yes. If you make 300 and you lived on 150, that would be 150 towards debt in a year.

Which you can do in your area. Yes. It feels like i'm giving my life to this and i'm you are better on my hey you better you're $221,000 in debt you better give your life to it i know i know hold on hold on hold on hold on here it is you're tired from before you were tired from before trying to get your husband on board and and you're letting that make tired now. But that was gone. That's in the past. And now you guys have a new lease on life. He's on board. He's on the plan. You got intense. You paid off $80,000. And don't forget what I just told you. Now you're just like everybody else. You're on the 18 to 24 months plan. You can live on 150 and put the other 150 on your debt and you're going to be out of

this in no time this is the walk there's not an easy button to press uh madeline this is the walk there is sacrifice there is you do feel tired i i can't you can't wave a wand and get out of that part but um but there is real hope absolutely i mean if you can't be out of debt in 24 months making $300,000, and you can't pay off $150,000 a year for two years and be done in 24 months, I mean, somebody needs to come smack you. You need to do this. This is doable. The math is doable.

This is not hopeless at all. When you started this, I thought you were going to tell me you made $22,000 a year and owed $400,000. Me too. This is the way it sounded. But this is not hopeless at all. The math on this is easy. Yeah. But, I mean, yes, you're signing up for a pain in the butt 18 to 24,

but at least you'll be free forever when you finish. Forever. Yes. You can do this. Okay. This is really, really doable. But I think Jade's right. Is she right that you're tired from before

not from now yes yeah because this last go-round you hadn't done enough to be tired yeah no she was pulling him up the hill before she was rolling a a pushing a mountain up the hill that's what it was but he's on board now hooray you guys are you guys are finally doing the plan together now to the extent that he is not on board or you're not sure he's on board that would give me pause i would be hopeless then i would be crying then because if you got to drag him all the way through this you may not get through it you've already figured that part out right i think it's just we i know this is the beginning of a very long you know it feels the day feels so long yeah how old are you we're doing 18 31 do you have kids what were you doing

when you're 29 do you even remember no okay it's two years ago yeah two years in the scope of your life's not spit yes it's going to be hard but yes it's going to be hard. But yes, it's going to be worth it. And yes, it's doable. And the time is going to pass anyway. And that's the question you have to ask yourself. Are you going to wake up a year and a half, two years from now, and you can wake up two years from now and be in the exact same spot you're in now, or wake up two years from now and be finished?

And that's where you need to put your mind. Imagine waking up two years from now, Madeline, having decided it's too hard, we're not going to do it, and you still got $221,000 more because it's student loans and the interest is going to come back and it's going to tally up. So here's what's happening right this second. Jade and I can see this math and are more excited for you than you are for you. Yes.

Right this second. I know. And that's what we're trying to translate for you. We're trying to zip some of that excitement over on your side of the aisle. Yeah. Because you need a little zip of that. And we love you. We want you to win.

Yes, you're signing up for two years of hard. Or if you don't do it, you're signing up for 20 years of hard. Yeah, we're yelling at you because we know you can do it. And we don't want you to tap out. I can see it. I can see it very clearly that where you're going to be if you and your husband both stick with this you both do beans and rice rice and beans you stop the vacations and the eating out we have job one and that's evict this ugly old woman from

your house named sally may she needs to go she's got a wart on the end of her nose she's a she's a she's a squatter in the bedroom. She needs to go. We need to throw her on her can in the street. That's where she needs to go. And it's war, baby. It's war. And you need to declare war and get energy out of that and kick that old woman out. You can do it.

The numbers say you can do it. So put all the past tired behind you, embrace the 18 to 24 war and get her done. You can do this. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, what's up guys? It's Jade. Look, if you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to RamseySolutions.com and click the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's RamseySolutions.com and click Get Started.