The Ramsey Show - App - Should We Buy a House or Keep Renting? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 12, 2022

George Kamel & Dr. John Delony discuss: Buying a house that you've been renting, Going back to school for a MBA, Paying off student loans vs. buying a house.   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

МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА From Ramsey Network, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you get control of your money, get ahead in your career, and get on the path to living well. I'm George Campbell, your host, joined today by Dr. John Deloney, and we are excited, even pumped, to take your call. I'm pumped. That's right. 888-825-5225. We'll talk about your life, your money, your mental health, your relationships, your boundaries, or lack thereof. We're here for you, America.

And Hannah joins us in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania. Hannah, welcome to the show. Hi. Hey, how you doing? I'm good. How you guys doing? Fantastic. What's your question today? My question is, my husband and I are currently in a rent-to-own situation with my parents, a property that my parents currently own.

My husband just recently, I guess he's been listening to different financial advisors, and I guess some of them advise not to do that, to go to the bank and get a loan out and, like, pay it out and then just have a loan through the bank. And I was, we've just been talking about it recently, and I was wondering what your guys' advice would be. What's the agreement with the family as far as purchasing this home? As in? You said rent to own, so what are the terms of that? Are you guys paying market rent, and then at some point it just becomes yours? Yeah, at this point it's like there's a set price that we've agreed to,

and we just kind of like keep our own book work as to when we have got that paid off and then when it's paid off, it's ours in that sense. And then we would go to the bank and do the paperwork to switch it over. So is it a certain point you go get the loan and it becomes yours? You're not talking about bank. You're talking about going to the title company and having a sister loan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Okay, okay. He's kept talking about getting a loan, but I'm confused because it sounds like...

So that's what he was like. I guess he was thinking... Some people were... Some financial advisors were saying it's not smart to do, like, an agreement just among family to, like, go and get a loan from the bank and say, pay our parents out for it

and then just owe the bank money and slowly pay off. Yeah, it does get messy when it's family, and you're kind of paying into something that's not yours. I've never had an issue, and my parents have done this with my other siblings. Like, my parents own a couple rental properties, and they've done this with them. So, I mean, I've seen it work out, you know, so I don't know. That's why I thought, well...

How long are you in debt to your parents? So we've been here about two years. I think we have about just over eight more years if we just do the bare minimum payments right now to finish paying it off. And are they charging you no interest? Yeah, no interest. Okay. So what does that amount to, the amount you will have paid over that time? Currently, I think about right now, we have about just over $60,000 left.

Okay. I'm just wondering, are you paying more into it than the home is actually worth? No. Or is this an incredible deal for you guys? It's an incredible deal, no interest. Did you pay in $100,000 and the home's worth $300,000? They're charging us. They bought it and they remodeled.

They did some upgrades and stuff. So they pretty much just charged us what, in a sense, I guess, what they paid for it just plus the upgrades that they did, nothing. But that doesn't – I could care less about that. If they bought the house for $500,000 and they put $200,000 in it and and then they're $700,000 in it, but the house is worth $350,000, they're ripping you off, right? No, no, no, no, no, it's not. It's not.

I don't – I'm trying to even think what the original set price was. That's okay. We trust you. You're getting a great deal on it, and it's an interest-free deal. Yeah, no, no, it is a good deal. I trust the integrity of the parents. I don't have to worry about that at all. That's not. We trust you. You're getting a great deal on it, and it's an interest-free deal. Yeah, it's a good deal. I trust the integrity of the parents. I don't have to worry about that at all. That's not at all.

But you're asking, should we go get a loan today to be done with the parent side and just give them the $60,000 and say, hey, we're good. It's ours now. Yeah, I guess a lot of people have just been in his ear saying, no, that's not a good idea. That makes me feel better because then it's actually mine. My name is on the title, and if something happens, it's my house. And I wasn't paying into this for eight more years, all for something to fall through. Yeah, I think that's where I think he's more caught up.

Yes. So I would guess that he's got more of a problem with, well, I'll just ask you a hard question. We'll just do this here. Do your parents speak into how you raise kids what you're doing does is there does he comment on your husband's work like oh i wouldn't be driving a ford i'd be right is there a participation in his life in that way no okay actually not i feel like my parents are very much the opposite okay i mean and he would tell you i feel like that's his thing like he when we talk about it he's always like i never feel

like they would be like that and i never feel, he's always like, I never feel like they would be like that. And I never feel, but he's always like, I see this happen with other people. Right. And I think that's more of our hiccup. Like we've seen it or hear things that, you know, somebody else has done a rent to own. And then, you know, something happened in the parental child relationship that it bit them. That's right. Or you're going to have a kid and then it's like, oh no, my kid is not going to that school.

And it's like, well, that is the school. Now we've got a whole mess. And it's like, well, I'm thinking about my house. I mean, we just had our first child within the last two months. I mean, we still haven't seen any like hiccups, but. Sure. So here's what me and George are saying. They're not going to guarantee that there's hiccups.

Your parents may be amazing. They may be wonderful. Our show wouldn't exist if people weren't following plans that everybody else told them to do and they went sideways yeah you see what i'm saying and so uh like i'll let george tell you the math of it i think this is a there's no way to go forward without a hard conversation okay this would have been a way easier conversation on the front end saying hey we'd love to buy this house but we want to go we want it to be ours and so we'd love to buy this house, but we want it to be ours. And so we'd love to buy it at the price you're offering, but we want to go to a bank and do it. Now y'all are a couple of years into it and you're kind of into it, right? Okay. Do you love the house? Do you

want to live there? Yes. And it's a house that's been in my family. My grandfather built it. So it's kind of like we wanted to keep it in the family. It's kind of why we did it. Okay. Well, if I'm in your shoes, I would go write him a check and go get a loan and pay this thing on our own and have our name on the title. Okay. Are you guys in debt at all other than the mortgage? Yeah, we have a car loan. Okay.

That's it. Well, our A1 is getting rid of the car loan. Yeah, so that's what we've been working on right now. Okay. How much did y'all make a year? So that's a little bit different because I just stopped working when we had our son. I'm going to guess he's the only one working. I'm thinking, and he just got a raise, so don't quote me, but I'm thinking we're going to be just over between $60,000 to $70,000 this year.

Okay. And you think it's going to take you eight years to pay off $60,000? That's what it was. Okay, okay. What is your rent every month? What's the rent amount every month? $600. Oh, okay.

So this is real low rent you're paying, which is why it's taking so long to get it to $60,000. Yeah, so that's why we were knocking out other debt. We got our credit card debt away, and we were working on our car and then it was going to be like, okay, then we were going to knock out the house. But if we just did bare minimum. Yeah, this is a snail's pace. If you go get a loan for 60 grand from your local credit union and you go hard at that thing and you start paying a thousand, 1500 bucks a month, $2,000 a month, this thing is going to be gone within a few years instead of eight. And Georgeorge you can push back and say you're an idiot deloney um i would

never do that we do that off air quite a bit um if you could come up with a mathematical way that in two years it's going to be done and go tell your mom and dad hey in two years we're going to accelerate this i'm going to go back to work we need some help with child care because we don't want to be in hawk seal anymore. It is a, it's a, and your parents are doing great and everybody's in good, doing well together

and it's interest free. I wouldn't have a problem with it, but beyond 18, 24 months, go get a loan and just simplify your life. Yeah. It's a little too squishy for me

because at any point they can go, nope, still our house technically. Yeah, that just makes me, I don't, I wouldn't sleep well at night. Thanks for the call.

Appreciate it. This is The Ramsey Show. Guys, with the rising cost of everything these days, a lot of folks are worried about having enough money in their bank accounts to get through the month. The good news is no matter where you're at with money today, and no matter the state of the economy, you can get on a path to building wealth. So at our Building Wealth live events we've been doing, you'll learn simple common sense principles to build real lasting wealth. And this tour is blowing up. We've already sold out two nights and the rest of these events are on track to sell out real soon. So if you're thinking about joining us, don't wait to the last minute because your chance might be gone. So we're going to Phoenix,

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content about mental health, work, relationships, and how it all ties in to building wealth. Yeah, it's a blast. You don't want to miss it. Ramseysolutions.com slash events. Jay joins us up next in Atlanta. Jay, welcome to the show. Hey, guys. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. What's going on?

I'm weighing the option of potentially going back to school for my MBA and just wanted to get your insights and thoughts. I'm a little bit kind of senior to my career. I have a good income, and me and my wife are on four, five, and six. I just want to see what y'all's thoughts are and things that I should be considering. So why an MBA? So currently I'm in the accounting field and I work with a work in a large public company i'm wanting to more transition to like an fp net or financial planning analysis or strategic role so to say do you have a role in mind that is nba required like i've got a i got a friend who's an exec with a comp with a large

company and they asked him to join the senior tier but it's nba is a minimum and so he's having to go back and get an nba so that he can do it like it's just that's i don't care how much experience you have this is just a credential to get into the door and i'm inviting you into the door is it one of those kind of things or do you think this is going to differentiate you and you just want this credential in your back pocket i I think it's going to differentiate me. I just started a new role at a new company and was kind of exploring some career opportunities within it and kind of found in talking to some folks that, you know,

transitioning from accounting to some of the other roles is a little bit more difficult. So thinking that I might have this degree might help me make that jump a little bit easier. I'm just wondering if there's other, you know, financial planning certifications that you could do that are faster, cheaper, that don't require an MBA. Because in my experience, like John mentioned, some there's some requirements, but a lot of the times people kind of feel stuck and they just go, well, I'm going to go back and get my MBA and hope things work out. And so I don't want you going down that path to where this is a waste of time, doesn't increase your income, doesn't get you to where you want to be. So I would just do some more research and have conversations with those employers or check the

requirements. And a lot of times, sometimes the MBA is a nice to have, but increasingly, I think they're less important unless you're in one of those fields like John mentioned. Here's the last data I looked at, Jay, and I've been out of university studying for a couple years now. The last data I looked is if you can afford it, if you pay cash for it, and you can go to an excellent school and you are committed to getting involved with your class,

like you make close, deep connections with your classmates and your professors that it's an extraordinary buy. Okay. If you are simply, if you are trying to learn how to do some things, and this is an avenue that you want to take in an adjunct to the work that you're doing every day and you can afford it, it's a good investment. If you're going to go take $250,000 in loans out and mortgage a job that you don't even have yet, it's insanity. If you're going to just do the bare minimum

to get the credentials so you can move on with your life, it's insanity. Okay? Okay. That's what I would say. So don't go borrow a bunch of money is that is that ultimately what you're asking us yeah it was going to be cash free or you know we were going to do it um we're going to cash flow it um you know we don't have any debt other than our mortgage and

make a pretty good income to um to kind of cash flow throughout the program i don't have any cash flow in nba if you don't have any problem with cash flow in an MBA if you're working and getting it. I would sit down with some of your senior leaders and just say, hey, what does this jump look like? Just get some clarity there. But if you're in cash flow, man, I don't have a problem with it. Just make sure y'all know what you're investing in and make sure you go, if you're going to do it, go all in. Okay. As our friend Ken Coleman would say, make sure that your education matches the goal. And so that's what I'm trying to confirm here. That's the right path for him instead of just- You said something important, George. People often just get stuck in their career and they think,

well, I'm just going to go get a graduate degree and maybe that will be the, and often it's not. Often you find yourself highly indebted or you've just spent three or four years. Like when I was in education and I knew I want to learn more about mental health, getting a PhD in counseling was an avenue towards becoming very skilled at a particular thing. Very specific purpose. That's right. Right, right. Love it.

All right. Kevin joins us up next in Miami. Kevin, welcome to the show. Welcome to Miami. I apologize for that, Kevin. Well, thank you so much for having me. Sure. I've been a big fan of you guys for a while now.

So my question, it's more of an advice, is on what I should or we should do with my fiance on saving for our wedding and setting up after we move in. Okay. What's the issue currently? So, well, right now we're both going to school. I'm working, we're both working full time. So as you might know, Miami is a pretty expensive area to live in. Oh yeah. So yeah. So we're going to school and working. It's, we can't really do double shifts kind of since we're doing full-time hopefully by next year we will be graduating from um college so that should help a lot but at the moment i'm

not sure right well right now i'm doing 15 of my income towards the savings or church retirement. 50% or 15? 15. Okay. Okay. Are you guys out of debt? Both of you? Well, I am out of debt. I finished paying off about 19 grand, which was my car maybe six months ago. Awesome. Following the baby steps. And so right now, well, once we move in or we get married, the only debt we'll really have will be her car, and that's if we even keep it because right now we're talking, we have decided or she has decided to sell the car, to sell the car to get rid of the debt and get maybe a beater car, you know, a less expensive car. Yeah, that's a good point.

So you're trying to make sure you cash flow this wedding, and so you're wondering how does this all play into it? Yeah. When is the wedding? We're hoping to, well, the wedding day is April 28th. Okay, so we've got some time. Do you know how much it's going to cost? Well, we're doing everything ourselves.

We're doing very budget, very humble, I guess. It's costing about $13,000 total for the wedding. And is that on you two to pay for all of that? No family help? Well, they have helped us with about six grants together, both of them. And you still owe $13,000 on your end? No, no. It will be the difference. Okay. So I'm just trying to get on paper what is the goal.

The goal right now is $7,000 by April to make sure we pay all the vendors and deposits and all that good stuff. And so then the question becomes, can I save up $7,000 while doing all this other stuff, while going to school, while working full time, while investing? And if the answer is no, then it's okay to pause right now and stack up cash so that we don't go into debt for this wedding. Yeah, correct. But I feel like, dude, you've been going hard. You paid off that car, 19 grand. You could save up $7,000 between now and April and probably still invest 15%, right? Yeah, I think so. Say it with confidence, Kevin. Yes. No confidence. Okay, that didn't instill a lot, but I'll take it, Kevin. I will take it.

I believe in you, man. You call us back if you need help. And once you guys are married, combine bank accounts and then start attacking her debt after the wedding day. There you go. Thanks so much for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. welcome back to the ramsey show i'm geel, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast, joined by Dr. John Deloney, host of The Dr. John Deloney Show, which has been just exploding in popularity, John. So congratulations on that. Pretty wild.

You can catch it on YouTube, podcast, you name it. And all of those shows that I just mentioned are on the Ramsey Network, and you can find them on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts, and I encourage you to do so. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. Tyler joins us up next in Anchorage, Alaska. Tyler, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, what's going on? Yeah, so I just wanted to call in.

I'll be moving. I'll be relocating with my company here in the next couple weeks. I was intending on buying a house that fell through. So the equity in my house is just going to be sitting in the bank account. And I've got a rental set up and I'm trying to make the decision of, you know, pursuing a home purchase still for myself and my family, or, you know, taking the dive and paying off my only outstanding debt, which is my student loans still. So just kind of wanted to get some advice from you guys on that. How much do you have in student loans? I've got $47,000 still outstanding.

Okay. And what's your income? I got, it's about $150,000 a year. That's gross, about $8,000 take home each month. Fantastic. And you're talking about your family here and moving. Where are you moving to from Alaska? We're moving to the Midwest. We're going to Ohio. Okay. What's the net profits of the home sale going to be? Um, so it's going to be around a hundred and, uh, 120, 130, something like that. Okay. How much money do you guys have in the bank outside of that? Um, we've got somewhere around 20 to $25,000, um, in savings. So, and then, uh, you know, a bit of personal information, but

possibly heading into a divorce, heading down there too. So, so certainly a hard time. Yeah, thank you for that. Certainly a hard time. You know, I don't want to get on my feet and make sure I do all the right things. And I think, you know, it'd certainly be nice to have one less, you know, thing over my head and get rid of all the debts and finally be debt free. I've had this for about five years now, paying off slowly. Well, regardless of an impending divorce, I would tell you to get rid of all your debt before going into another home purchase. That's going to make it a lot less stressful. So with that $120,000, $130,000 you get from the home sale, we're going to clean

up that student loan debt, which is still going to leave you with, what, $70,000 or so? Yep, something like that. Which will become your new kind of down payment savings. I would leave the 2025 there as your emergency fund, and you could be going into a storm. So I think it's really wise to rent for a while until you know what's next for you. Go rent for a year, and then save up on top of that. You've got a big pile of cash. Once you know what's next for you, you can buy a house in the future.

Tyler, does your spouse have an equity claim to this, to part of this money? Yeah, it would be split almost entirely. I think with our savings and the home equity, we'd each kind of walk away with $80,000 to $90,000 once everything's settled. Okay. Tyler, you once everything's settled. Okay. Tyler, you can listen to this. I'm asking George this question. This is going to go counter to what I've said over and over and over again. So tell me, punch holes in this if I'm wrong.

And again, I say this tongue-in-cheek, but the latest word is there's going to be some sort of announcement on what the final plan with the student loan forgiveness will be coming in the next couple of weeks. I would, if this was me, I would wait two weeks before I just find out what they say is going to happen. I have an idea of what's going to happen, and it's not going to be to wipe out all $47,000 of this dude's loans, of Tyler's loans. But is that worth waiting for that? Or is it, I'm just not giving that credence anymore. I mean, I wouldn't give it credence, but there's not going to be a lot of harm in waiting two weeks either. Okay. My guess is

they just kicked the can down the road. They say, we're going to forgive this very specific portion of people who got scammed or this level of debt. It's not going to make a huge dent. But if you want to wait two weeks and then pay them off, either way, regardless of the divorce, I'm going to pay these off as part of this move and part of the home sale to clean up my mess and have a solid financial foundation because you're going to need that regardless of what happens next with this move and the divorce.

But, yeah, I mean, if you want to wait two weeks, it would blow my mind if they were like, no matter how much debt you have, it's wiped away. America, we're clearing the decks, right? It's only happened once and it was Jesus who did it. And the White House ain't wiping nothing away. So we're wishing you the best, Tyler, with what's next, man. That's a lot of life change that's about to happen. But the good news is you are going to clean up this debt real fast. You've got a great income, and we're wishing you the best with this move and this new career thing and this divorce situation. That's tough.

Isaiah joins us up next in Oklahoma City. Isaiah, welcome to the show. Hey, guys. How can John and I help? So I had a question about purchasing a semi truck. Okay. Is this for your business? Right. I'm currently a local. No, George, he's going to drive it around the neighborhood. John, stranger things have happened. I probably make more money.

But anyway, so it's essentially like buying a house almost. I mean, it costs upwards of $200,000. The only thing, I guess it's like a 20% down payment as well, but the long term is more like a car, five, six, seven, eight years. And I just wanted your guys' advice if that would be a wise decision right now at my age or not. What are you doing now for work? I'm a local CDL driver, truck driver.

Okay. How old are you? 26. Do you have any debt currently? Yes. I've got about 5,000 student loans, 15 on a car, and about 140 on my mortgage okay well you're not going to like my answer but it is not to buy a $200,000 semi truck and go into debt for that hey like you just met us and

you didn't really meet us from the phone please whatever you do don't take out a $200,000 mortgage against a depreciating asset please okay and this is, this is future you talking to yourself through me and George. Don't do this. Don't do this. Don't do this. It's going to be really hard to get a business off the ground when you have, you know, $400,000

in debt looming on your shoulders as you try to kickstart a brand new business at 26. So what's wrong with your current job? It sounds like you're not happy there. No, I mean, it's got its ups and downs. The pay's not bad. I mean, I'm home every night. I just, you know, if you bought your own truck, you could possibly be just successful and just make just money on it, I guess.

You just said it perfectly. Possibly. The other side of possibly is you can have $400,000 in debt as a 26-year-old and you think you know what stress

is. You have $400,000 worth of bank sitting on top of you, man. And it will take your soul. Right. And that's why I just wanted to hear from you guys because I didn't know if that is a lot. I mean, almost half a million, I guess. But if that would be any kind of exception just because you could make.

Okay. I wouldn't take out a $200,000 loan to buy a burger stand. I wouldn't take a $ hundred thousand dollar loan to to buy a burger stand i wouldn't take a two hundred thousand dollar loan to buy a lawn business like i'm not going to take out a loan to buy a business because i i don't know when the next covet sitting around the corner man i don't know when the next government regulation on a thing is going to come into i don't know when they're gonna gas is going to go up to 17 an hour and i've got my own i mean 17 a mile or whatever. That's not really a calculation for gas, but you know what I mean.

I don't know any of those things, but the bank still gets their money every month, and I'm just not going to live like that. We run our business here at Ramsey Solutions completely debt-free at the speed of cash, and that's what you need to be doing as well if you want to be successful as an entrepreneur. And so that means we're going to clean up our personal mess here. We're going to get rid of the student loan, the car loan. The mortgage will fall into baby step six. But if you want to do this, it means it might be seven years from now when we save up $100,000 and we buy a used semi in cash to kickstart this business.

Hey, I think it's a good call-out, George. Most people don't know. Dave built half this building. He just built half. One wing. It was just like a one-winged airplane. We'll do the rest when we have the cash. When we have cash, we'll do the rest.

And then we got the cash, did the rest. But it's literally at the speed of cash, right? And you can do it. I'm going to send you a copy of Dave's book, Entree Leadership. It's wisdom from the trenches in business. And part of that talks about how to do this with financial peace as you kickstart a business. So hang on the line. Austin will send you a copy of Entree Leadership. Thanks for the call. what's up america you're listening to the ramsey show i'm george camel joined by dr john deloney our question of the day comes

from Blinds.com. Their 100% satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, as John and I are prone to do, they will remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. All right, the question comes from Kate in Kentucky. Kate writes, I'm 23 years old. I started working in banking at 16 and never went to college because I didn't enjoy school and wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I'm not married, and I have no kids.

After working through my mental health challenges of the past 18 months, I realized I have a lot of work potential, and I think it would be a good idea for me to go to college. I've never seen that before. Fascinating. That's how grandparents do it. Yeah. It's awesome. Some incentive. Up front, I would need to purchase a laptop, then pay for the books and anything above the $3,000 along the way.

I'm currently in baby step four and wonder if I should stop retirement contributions altogether, just go down to the match, or get a second job to cash flow college. So there's a lot of unknown variables in here, like how much do you make a year, do you have a stable place to live and all that kind of stuff um but we do know she's out of debt and she's investing has an emergency

fund if she's saying she's on baby step four there you go that's good but i do like this i do like um i didn't want to go i didn't want to go to school right away so i went to the workforce and now i've got a couple years in and now i found a thing that i think i like and now i'm ready to double down on it, which I love. That's great self-awareness at 23. Most people realize that at 43. Exactly. And they have a lot of regret and feel like they wasted a lot of time.

That's right. My recommendation would be to go begin at a community college. $3,000 can get you a long way at a community college and begin to get a lot of this work underneath you and then begin to figure out what comes next after that. Yeah, my personal goal would for her, I like her second option of getting a second job to cash flow college and going to a school that's as affordable as possible. Right. Because it sounds like she's not quite sure what the path is. And community college is a great

place to not, you're not wasting time. You're getting all your prerequisites in. You can always transfer to a different school and finish out a four-year degree if you want to do that. But I love the idea of her continuing to invest. I mean, she's been working since 16. Who knows how long she's been investing and how that's going to set her up for success to be a baby steps millionaire very early in life. Is it okay to stop retirement contributions while you're doing this? It would be if it means the option is to go into debt for your student loan. I would say, okay, we're going to do anything we can to pause right now,

and this is kind of a storm. We need to make sure we cash flow education. And if that means going down to the match for a temporary period of time, I would be okay with it. But I love the idea of the second job to cash flow it. Now, it's going to be a lot going to college and working two jobs. We may have to scale that back down, but if the job covers $3,000 and that covers community college, that solves a whole lot of problems. We can focus on the job and school. So, thanks for the question,

Kate. Appreciate that. Christine joins us up next in Minneapolis. Christine, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can John and I help? I'm calling. I have a question for you. I recently inherited some money, and I would like to use some of it, maybe about half of it, to buy a house and pay cash. I have a financial advisor that is telling me to just put 20% down on the house and then invest the rest with him. I could have guessed that was going to be the response. Christine, that's bananas.

Do you trust your financial advisor? Well, it's a new financial advisor. I'd never really worked with one before. But with this inheritance, I thought I better get the advice. Okay. How much is the inheritance? Just under a million. Wow.

And where did it come from? The death of my father. I'm sorry. How recent was this? Last fall. What was his name? David. Good guy?

Yeah. That's pretty amazing. He left quite the legacy. Yeah. How old are you? I'm 53. 53. Incredible. So what's your financial situation right now?

Do you have any debt? Do you have money in the bank? I have 401k, no debt, and I have a pretty decent job. Okay. And you have an emergency fund already? No, but I thought I would build it up with that money. That's quite the emergency fund. So do you have a home currently? Well, I'm recently divorced, so I have to go out and buy my own place now on my own. Okay. Are all the I's dotted and T's crossed in the divorce? Yes. Okay.

Can we pause before you answer, George? Yes. Christine. Yes. Okay. Can we pause before you answer, George? Yes. Christine. Yes. I want... I'm smiling here because you know why? You're really smart, and you're coming out of one tragedy followed by another tragedy, and somewhere along the way, probably a lot of different times,

you've been convinced that you're not smart or that you shouldn't trust yourself. You should trust other people. And you know, like you're just telling me and George, you know exactly what you should do. And yet you ran into a financial advisor that was giving you bananas, bonkers information. So George is going to walk you through this, but I want you, from this moment forward, to never again believe that you're not smart. Is that fair? Sure, thank you.

Am I right? Yeah. Yes. You are really smart, and you've done a good job, and your dad did a great job with you. You're lucky, and he was lucky. Both of you. Fair? Thank you, yeah. Awesome. Beautifully said, John. So as far as your situation, Christine, I think it's very wise to buy a reasonable house in cash. You can invest the rest of that money. And I would fire a financial

advisor today and say, hey, thanks so much for all the advice. I'm going to be moving on. Do it in song, Christine. Just sing. That would be nice. But I would connect with one of our smart investor pros at ramsaysolutions.com. They've got the heart of a teacher and they'll actually help educate you on why they're saying what they're saying. And they're not going to just say, oh, Christine, you should put 20. No, you shouldn't buy a house in cash. They're going to say, fist bump. That's awesome that you bought a house in cash. How can we help you make the most and maximize all of this wealth that you've amassed? And that's what I want for you from a financial advisor. That's what you're looking

for as you start interviewing them. So that's what I would encourage you to do. What does a reasonable house look like for you? Well, you know, two years ago I was looking at anything kind of in the 300s, but now with the way the home prices have inflated, those comparable homes are now in the 4s and close to 5. Okay. Are you going to stay in the area that you're in? Yes. Okay. One of my mentors who taught me about counseling and about especially dealing with life after trauma, one of his rules was six to nine months, six months to a year after something hard like the loss of a loved one after a divorce, don't make any wild major decisions.

But if you're staying in the same area, an area you've been in a long time, you know this area, right? So this isn't a wild decision for you. This is where your life is. Is that right? Yeah, that's absolutely true. Okay. Okay. And when it comes to a large sum of money, sometimes it helps to have some balance because you may feel out of balance going and buying a house right now. And so I like to look at it through the lens of give, save, spend. So may we give some to a charity you're passionate about, your local church, wherever you want to give, bless someone with you're passionate about, your local church, wherever you want to give. Bless someone with that. We're going to save some. We're going to invest a chunk of this and we're going to spend it. Spend it on Christine. What would Christine want to do? Would

Christine want to go on a trip? Does she need to upgrade the car? Does she need a mani-pedi? I don't know what that is for you, but enjoy it too. I think your dad would have wanted that. Would you agree? Yep. I, as the dad of a six-year-old little girl, I can think of nothing else than I'm able to leave her close to a million dollars one day when I pass away and she's coming off a situation where she's not safe and she's exposed

and I've set her up in a position to go buy herself a home with cash. I can't think of a cooler thing that I could, as a dad, I could leave my daughter other than character and love and all that stuff. Do you think your dad would be honored by you going to buy yourself a home? Oh, yes. He'd love that. Yeah.

That's great. How much do you have in your 401k, Christine? About close to $ 700,000. That's incredible. Well, you can go ahead and max out your 401k for the year while you're at it. Just to high five yourself. I mean, you're doing so great. So proud of you.

Thank you so much for trusting us with this call. We appreciate it. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to Dr. John Deloney, all the guys and gals in the booth, Austin and Will and Andrew and Kelly and you, America. We appreciate you listening. We'll be back real soon. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show.

Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.