Transcript
Discussion (0)
Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solution, it's The Ramsey Show,
where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships.
I'm George Campbell, joined by Rachel Cruz this hour.
It's a free call at 888-825-5225.
You call us, and we'll help you take the right next step for your life and your money.
Welcome back, Rachel.
You've been on the road doing book signings for your new book.
I'm glad for what I have.
It's good to have you.
That's right.
Yeah, thanks.
It's good to have you here.
I'm glad to be here, George.
Glad for where I am in the studio with Rachel.
I know.
So, yeah, the the kids book was great. I'm glad for where I am launched and we were in New York, LA, Phoenix, Dallas,
heading to Atlanta this week to finish it out and it's been great and then it was good to be home
and I thought I'm glad for where I am you know. We did Smart Money Happy Hour yesterday so that
she's also my co-host there my co-host today on the Ramsey Show. Let's get to it. Marco awaits in Greenville, South Carolina.
What's going on, Marco? Well, not much. I just have a question about the advantages of renting
long-term, like 15, 30 years instead of a mortgage. I'm not really interested in building wealth long term. I'm more, I guess, interested in like a quality of life now and
not taking up my time with house repairs or my money with house repairs, but just kind of
having a life that's different through renting. And I'm not so interested in the building wealth.
How old are you?
I'm 40 and my wife is also 40. And she's also not interested in building wealth. How old are you? I'm 40 and my wife is also 40. And she's also not interested
in building wealth? No. I mean, we have retirement accounts and we're saving and all that, but in
terms of real estate wealth and that kind of thing long-term, we kind of feel like the peace of mind
that comes with renting, knowing that there's no surprises, expenses and things like that,
is there an advantage to renting long-term over mortgaging yeah i mean i think one of the
the big things is just the diversification piece so if you have all of your money you know in the
markets um you know in a sense to a degree all your eggs are in one basket on that side of
investing and then real estate is the next way that we look at investing because of the long track record that it has.
And for you to have home ownership
gives you a level of not just diversification,
but I think overall just power.
And I understand that you're,
or when you say like, I don't wanna build wealth.
And just to be clear,
like we don't encourage people to build wealth
just to build wealth, right?
I mean, it's building wealth,
I think to a degree
that you have a level of options in your life. You have a level of
peace that you're not living paycheck to paycheck. So your wealth building that you don't want to do,
quote unquote, may look different than another listener that's watching this or listening to
this. But I think one of the biggest pieces of this, Marco, is just that idea of diversification
and that eventually renting ends up being more
expensive because you end up throwing money away. It's a good short-term situation for some people
financially, but long-term, it's better that you're kind of almost paying yourself because
you'll end up building equity. I hear a lot that obviously housing market prices are not coming
down. So when you say it's better to rent short term and then buy long term, the longer, every
day you wait, prices are going up.
So how long realistically would you rent before trying to actually buy something?
I mean, I would wait till I'm in a position where you're in a position, regardless of
what the market's doing, that you're in a position to buy.
So for us, our parameters that we have is to say,
yeah, we would love for you to have at least 5% down
for a down payment and a 15-year fixed rate mortgage
and that your mortgage is no more than 25%
of your take-home pay.
So it's a quarter of your income.
So that way you have 75% of your money that you're making
going to things like investing,
like you're doing for retirement
and to be able to enjoy your life like you want to do. Gotcha. That makes sense. And Marco,
yeah, the big piece here is we're not saying get a mortgage and hang on to it for the rest of your
life. The goal is to pay this off. And what that does is it lowers your expenses when you go to
retire. The problem is if you keep renting, rent could be double what it is by the time you retire
and you're stuck with that expense for the rest of your days.
And so I wouldn't be as worried about maintenance and repairs as I would be about the increasing
cost of rent.
And instead, I'd rather see you get the mortgage, get rid of it, get rid of that fixed expense
to where you're only paying property taxes and insurance.
Because right now, you're paying that already through your rent to the landlord.
They're covering their costs through your rent.
And so the key is when you're an owner, you own that asset, that home will appreciate.
It becomes part of your legacy.
And regardless of if you want to build wealth or not, that's fine.
That's a different discussion.
I think it's wise financially in the long term to own a piece of real estate.
Yeah, because Marco, if this is encouragement to you too, people that do the baby steps,
baby step two is get out of all consumer debt,
but your house and people do that on average,
anywhere from 18 to 24 months on average.
And then when we see baby step six,
which is paying your house off early,
people are paying it off
in seven to nine years on average.
So to George's point,
you'd only have a mortgage
if you're doing all of this stuff,
maybe for 10 years,
not 30 years, like a 30-year mortgage says.
Do you have any debt, Marco?
No, my wife and I are debt-free, and we have a couple of retirement accounts. So I guess what
you're saying is that long-term owning a house isn't just about wealth creation, although that
definitely is a piece of it. It's also about future expense reduction, which would be, you
know, rent would be a big piece of that. And
when you're not paying rent, when you're retired, it's a lot more comfortable of a life than having
more paying rent when you are retired. Exactly. And you don't need as much in retirement,
because if you have rent to pay for the rest of your life, you need a lot bigger nest egg.
And so there's a nice trade-off there when you go, all right, I'm not going to have a mortgage
payment. And at the same time, we want you investing 15% until that mortgage is paid
off. Then you can increase that. So how much are you investing right now?
Right now, we're right at about 15% of our household income.
And do you have money in savings?
Yes. Yes. We have about six to seven months of expenses and savings. And then I have a 401k
through work and two Roth IRAs.
Okay. You guys are doing great. And you're at the step where I would say,
now that you have all the foundation laid out, let's start to get that down payment.
And I don't know what the housing market's like in the Greenville, South Carolina area. I imagine it's pretty hopping, but I'd begin to go, all right, let's get in the game. And that might
even be a condo or townhome and maybe eventually a single family home. Get something reasonable
under the parameters Rachel said and get that mortgage paid off as soon as possible. Okay. That sounds like a great
plan. Thank you so much for the call. Great question. And I want to call out to all the
renters out there, Rachel, that renting is not a sin. It's not a waste of money. There's such a
hot debate on either side. There's people saying, you should always rent. It makes so much more
sense. You don't have all the liabilities.
You get more flexible.
And that's all true.
And the homeowners are saying, stop renting.
It's wasting money.
And we hear this from the older generations to the younger generations.
And they're going, yeah, I'd love to own a house.
It's just impossible right now.
I want to be the referee flag on the playing field.
Everyone's right and everyone's wrong.
Settle down.
Yes. Yeah. And renting is a
great option for a season of your life, right? While you're getting yourself in a financial
position to go and buy. Because I mean, let's be honest, when you buy a home for most people,
it is the largest financial investment that you make. I mean, it's the largest purchase you make.
It's so much. And so you want to be making sure that this is wise, that you've done it really
well. And renting for a lot of people is kind of that medium step, which is great, which is great.
But to Marco's point, what he was asking, that doing that forever and ever, amen, ends up costing you.
A hundred percent.
So whether you're a renter or a homeowner, the goal here is to minimize expenses in retirement, to build wealth, to live the life we want.
And that's what he was really getting at.
Marco was saying, I want to have a quality of life now.
I believe you can do that and be a homeowner and be a renter.
The key is to be on a budget, living on the lesson you make, and staying out of debt,
and make home buying a part of your wealth building plan.
More of The Ramsey Show coming up.
Don't go anywhere.
I'm George Campbell, joined by Rachel Cruz this hour open phones at 888-825-5225 call us and
we'll help you take the right next step for your life and your money Jennifer's in New Orleans
up next what is going on Jennifer hi how are y'all doing well how are Great. How can we help today?
So I have a 17-year-old son, almost 18, and we've pretty much raised him on FPU principles since he was about six or seven years old. And he is in a pretty serious, healthy relationship
with a young lady that we do really like. And I know it may seem like too early to tell or
anything like that.
And we're not the kind of parents that's like, oh my God.
But, you know, you have to feel like.
But you're hopeful she might be the one.
I'm pretty sure.
So, you know, not anytime in the near future,
but she is set on being an orthodontist.
Sounds expensive.
Exactly.
That is my question of how to approach this with them.
We have talked to him just briefly.
The conversations have just started.
He does think it's dumb to take out student loans.
She briefly said that she's totally fine with having $250,000 of student loans
that might take her 20 years to pay off
because that's usually what orthodontists have.
And I kind of briefly said that you guys may not even be able to afford to eat.
And I just don't know how else to approach this
besides maybe getting them to watch the bar of the future,
take foundations and finance, but, you know, it's just starting.
Yeah, well, a lot of this stems from how she grew up with money and what her parents believe about money.
Right.
And so this is a money values conversation that your son will eventually need to grapple with as they head toward maybe a marriage.
Right. That's what we've been talking about with him.
Yeah. And I think it's it's I mean, he's getting to the age.
He's 17, almost 18.
So, and again, I don't have kids that age, but, you know, there starts to be that level of letting go, right?
That eventually they're going to be off in college, they're going to be making their own decisions. Like there is that, that season of life is coming soon.
And so it always begs the question, it changes a little bit because he's still under
your roof, in my opinion, but it always begs the question of if no one's asking advice,
you know, when do we give it? And what can we control? Because the truth is you can't control
what she chooses to do. And it gets to a point too, that eventually soon, they're going to just
be making their own decisions, regardless of what you guys think or not.
Right. So so if anything, it would be a conversation with him.
I don't know what y'all's relationship was. Obviously, they've been dating a while, but you're not her parents.
Right. So but you are your son's parent.
And so I think having that relationship of being able to have the conversation of, hey, this is what this is what life will look like, you know, if she chooses to go down this path. And
and then, you know, we get people, you know, in the medical field call us all the time,
Jennifer pharmacists and all this, and they have $200,000 in debt, but they're making
$160,000. Right. And so usually the hope is, is that you have a bigger shovel
if you're choosing to go a path, know in this medical type field it doesn't
always happen you know they could get married she gets pregnant and wants to stay home and then all
of her options are gone right because she has to go pay the step back so there's a lot of life in
there um but as a for i don't know i i i don't know how much you can control it right and until
they're married he doesn't really get a vote in her life he may have influence but he doesn't have a financial vote as to what she does or doesn't do the the worrisome part was how
flippant she was about it well she's 17 though well this is normal i'll just pay off my 300,000
over 20 years i think we need to give her a dose of reality and i think you're right like sitting
them down and saying hey would you guys watch this documentary yeah but if it's not her daughter
well if she's over the house a lot.
But if they're not engaged and stuff.
I don't know.
I mean, I'd probably pop on Barred Future because I am that dad.
And just to have it on in the background.
Just to have it on.
Yeah, I mean, I guess if it's in a very organic conversation.
But I don't know.
I don't know.
It would feel like overstepping boundaries.
Do you feel like that?
If you brought this up, it would be overstepping your boundaries?
Well, I have brought it up to my son.
To your son, yes.
He would watch it with him.
He has brought it up to her.
So we do plan on doing that this summer.
Okay.
And as her family...
Okay, Jennifer, is he about to buy a ring?
Like when you say they're serious.
Okay, so honestly honestly too and
you know this jennifer at 17 you're 17 i'm like i knew multiple friends that were dating in high
school they go to college within you know nine months or so they're they're off on different
schools they mean i mean you change so much in that but also rachel got married in college i
wouldn't i had a semester left thank you. Winston had been graduated a year.
I had a semester left.
Thank you, George.
So it can happen.
But what I'm saying, though, is I do wonder if you're wringing your...
I don't want you to worry about something that's not your problem right now.
Do you know what I mean?
It's not like they're getting engaged this summer and getting married,
and then she's choosing to go in at 18 years old, right?
I don't know.
We may have different opinions, George.
No, I just think it's one of those things you cross the cross the bridge when you get there and if she ends up in a
bunch of debt and they do end up getting married and she's aligned on the values of wanting to get
out aggressively then they'll be okay yes their life's not over you can still have a great marriage
but it is going to add a wrench in whatever their plans are yes that's right it just adds that weight
it's going to hold them back building wealth but the long-term hope is that she gets on the same page with money and goes,
you know what, I'm not waiting 20 years.
If she does end up taking this debt, I want to be done with this thing in three or four.
Yeah, and Jennifer, you do this after school too,
and I know people, majority of people change their major, right, like halfway through.
So I'm like, she may not even end up doing it anyways, right?
That's what I'm hoping.
Yeah, yeah, and they may not even be dating. I anyways, right? That's what I'm hoping. Yeah, yeah.
And they may not even be dating.
I mean, I don't know.
That's a tough one.
There's no easy answer here.
I don't want you to worry, Jennifer,
because I just don't feel like the reality is happening.
It may happen in like four years,
but a lot of factors have to play in for this to actually happen.
But I really do appreciate you looking out, obviously, for your son.
That's what I'm thinking.
It's for your son.
What she does, though, is, I don't know.
Well, keep us posted.
Call us back in a few years.
Yeah.
Okay.
So tell me this.
Let's split the tables a little bit, George.
Okay.
Let's say Mia comes home.
Oh, my goodness.
We need a different.
Okay.
Let's go.
First of all, America, Mia is my eight-month-old daughter, just for context.
Okay. So she comes home, and this is not picking on Jennifer, but it does raise the question. Where was she? let's go first of all america mia is my eight month old daughter just for context okay so she
comes home and this is not picking on jennifer but it does raise the question where was she if
she was at her boyfriend's house okay okay and her boyfriend's um i was gonna use health i don't
use money as the example but health okay and she comes home and she says um yeah i mean brad's mom
set me down she's dating a brad She has to date a Brad in this scenario.
She's dating a Brad.
Oh, I already have feelings about this.
And she says, oh my gosh, Brad's mom.
You know what?
You're not the mom.
You're the dad.
You may feel differently.
Brad's mom set me down and told me,
like, the way you've been feeding us gluten-free,
all this stuff is actually really harmful.
And I actually need gluten and dairy and all of this
that you've deprived me of, Dad.
So I, because of this Brad's mom, like I'm choosing to say,
would you be like, Brad's mom, what the heck?
Stop teaching me about.
I'm trying to put myself in a place where there's a contentious argument about gluten.
I'm trying to make a different example.
I'm trying to put it in your world.
Yeah. I mean, I think as an adult, I would have an adult conversation with the other adult gluten i'm trying to try to put it in my world i'm trying to put it in your world yeah i mean
i think as an adult i would have an adult conversation with the other adult and come
to a compromise okay so you would reach out to brad's mom and be like hey okay so that's what
i'm saying like the blurred line with jennifer and this girl who's not her daughter is it overstepping
boundaries is it parenting another person's child when the girl isn't asking? You know what I mean? Sure. Yeah. And it's not a fiance. It's just a girlfriend.
That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like future mother-in-laws give unsolicited advice
all the time. It's just a part of being a potential future mother-in-law, you know?
I guess so. I don't know. They may never get along. I'm so glad you called Jennifer,
because that's a really good, it's an interesting scenario to be thinking about, for sure.
I would love to hear from the girlfriend's parents parents but i also and i'm thinking about little
charles now my son like if he was yes dating a girl and she was gonna go i would be like y'all
don't do like stop no no like i would feel that you know that tension oh i'd feel like you're
about to enter into something really hard that you don't have to enter into right now like
yes because the damage hasn't been done yet that's right going like we can prevent a lot of this
yes or another way right right that's what i don't know did the girlfriend parents save for
college at all did she just on a whim decide i want to be an orthodontist one year before going
off to college yeah there's a lot of further questioning that we don't have the answer to
100 but yeah well if mia starts eating gluten and she met, we have had that discussion in
the camel house.
You're like, will she eat gluten one day?
I don't know.
We don't have it in the house.
What will she get?
She dates a Brad.
It's like alcohol.
It's like she's not drinking in our house.
I'll tell you that much.
That would have been a better one.
If you don't, if you're a family that doesn't drink and that, oh, save that one for next
time.
Yeah, we'll do that next time.
Hey, more of your wonderful calls coming up.
Always a great conversation. 888-825-5225 this is the ramsey show
welcome back to the ramsey show i'm george camel joined by rachel crew she's my co-host today also
co-host of smart money happy hour where it's not a call-in show, but still very fun,
conversational show about money and pop culture and what's going on in the world
with a lot of laughs. So be sure to check that out if you enjoy this one.
Well, Rachel, we've got a brand new event coming up, and this is one that I don't have to travel
far to because it's right here in this building. It's a virtual event that you can join from
anywhere, and it's called Dave Ramsey's Investing Essentials. So at this event,
Dave and I will deep dive into investing, and for the first time ever, he's going to
unleash his personal playbook on investing, including how he buys real estate, which he
has amassed quite the portfolio. So you want to tune in for that alone. This is a two-night
virtual event happening May 21st and 22nd. And because it's online, you can watch from the
comfort of your own home. And you guys are always asking us, we want a deeper dive on that baby step for investing for retirement,
investing beyond retirement, investing in real estate. We get a lot of questions around that.
I know. And when I heard you guys were doing this event, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad because
for a lot of people as they are doing the baby steps and for some people listening or watching,
they've been doing this for 10 plus years. I'm like, they've been following.
And George, I want you to talk about, because we don't do it a lot on this show, but like backdoor Roths, like there's options out there, other retirement things out there.
Beyond your normal 401k and IRA.
Yeah, for high income earners too.
And so I get a lot of those questions on social.
And so people really do.
They want the detailed plan of, okay, what exactly do we do?
Mega backdoor Roths, all of it. And for folks that are self-employed and they don't have an
employer 401k, there's tons of options for them and they don't know about it. That's exactly right.
So I'm so glad you're doing that, George. It's going to be fun. Way to step up to the plate.
Someone had to do it. Give the people what they want. I'm pumped for this. So join us. We're
going to, of course, start with the basics, but we will quickly get into 201 and 301 and into formulas
and stuff that will blow my mind.
I'm so excited, George.
Well done.
Dave's going to go full Goodwill hunting on the board
and crack some Pythagorean theorems and stuff.
So it's going to be a good time.
Tickets are $249 for about four hours of content over two nights.
So it's well worth your time and money.
Go get your virtual ticket, ramsaysolutions.com slash events. All right. Tariq is in Seattle. Tariq, welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hi. First, I just want to thank you guys so much. All the work that you do has completely changed
my life, and I just really appreciate it. That means the world. We didn't do much,
man. You changed it, but we're glad and honored to be a part of it. Yeah. So my question is, I'm really struggling with grappling with car insurance and
auto insurance. And so I think my case is a little special because I've never had a car and I've
never been put onto car insurance. And I know you guys always talk about buy a car in cash. I'm
totally down with that. But once I started looking into it, I tried about buy a car in cash. I'm totally down with that.
But once I started looking into it, I tried to get a quote for insurance.
And if I bought a car for, say, $4,000, I might have to pay $1,000 more for the insurance premium.
And I just don't know how to plan for that.
Also, whenever I call insurance brokers and tell them I'm trying to plan ahead to save up for car insurance.
They immediately hang up.
So I just literally have not been able to get any progress on this.
And I don't know how to fit this into the baby steps.
I'm just wondering what your guys' insight is on that.
Sure.
So how old are you?
I'm 23.
Okay.
And you're going to purchase a car in cash.
Do you know what the budget is right now?
Do you have that cash saved up? Well, right now I'm in Baby Step 2.
Okay.
So you have $1,000 in your starter emergency fund.
You're tackling debt.
How much debt do you have?
Yep.
I have $10,000 left in student loans.
After that, I will be debt-free.
Oh, good.
That's awesome.
How much do you make a year?
I make $138,000.
Oh, good for you. That's great. And for the car situation, what's the change all of a sudden that you're like, oh gosh, I really do need a car?
What's driving this decision, pun intended?
Yeah, so right now, I've been living in Seattle and I haven't had a car for the past two years.
I just take public transportation anywhere or I take an Uber if it's time sensitive.
But I am going to be getting married soon and we're going to be moving to an area
where I might have to start commuting by car to work.
And it's just going to make sense for me
to get a car based on my girlfriend's schedule
who will be my wife soon.
She works as a nurse.
And so our hours are just going to be different.
And so I'd like to get ahead on that
so that I'm prepared when we need to sit down
and think about our transportation
options. When's the wedding? Next spring. We don't have a date yet, but next spring.
So we got a year to sort of get this all, get our ducks in a row.
Yeah. I mean, if I were you, I think, you know, I would pay off that $10,000. My next step would
be to build up an emergency fund. And then I would have, yeah, I mean, you could have a goal of 10,000,
maybe set aside for a car and all of that.
Because honestly, right now, and most people know this,
car insurance, it's insane right now.
I mean, everybody is feeling the increase.
And like, it's just, it's been so dramatic
is what it feels like over even just the last six months
when it comes to car insurance.
So honestly, this time next year, I don't know.
I don't know what's going to happen.
It could be a change the other way, right?
I mean, we just don't know.
That's such a long amount of time for something that's been so volatile recently.
So if I were you, I would just plan on having a car fund after my emergency fund.
And it's almost like your baby's up 3B.
And instead of a town payment for a house i would just do a car should i do that before um the investing into retirement yeah i probably would because it's
going to be a necessity i would assume if you guys are moving and you know you're going to need a car
and you're 23 so i mean retirement even if you have to hold off for a few more months of
retirement you're gonna even if you start at 24, with your income, you're going to be unbelievably wealthy without any debt.
Okay. Have you tried to check out our independent insurance brokers at ramsaysolutions.com?
I have. I actually talked to a trusted insurance broker. And what's interesting is that he told me
of the 15 insurance companies he covers, only three of them would even offer me insurance
because I don't have any previous auto insurance.
Oh yeah, no pressure.
We did do a discussion and he said what was probably the best case would be to go
on to my girlfriend's insurance, which she got from her parents.
But that's, she's paying $350 a month, which he said is way above the average, but I haven't
even, like he wouldn't give me a quote because I'm playing too far ahead.
Yeah.
They'll need to actually know what vehicle and all the conditions.
And that's a really good point too on his end that once you guys get married,
like things that you can combine and maybe it is cheaper,
maybe it is cheaper to go on her insurance after you guys get married.
Because both of your names will be on all the cars on the insurance.
Yeah.
That could solve your problems.
That could be helpful.
But yeah, I think I really appreciate your planning. But I but i do think yeah there's you you can't really nail
down a number just like they're saying because it is so far ahead in the short term if you want a
car before then or need one you might need to just budget and go all right it's going to be 700 bucks
a month for the short term to get insurance but you've got to have it so not something you can
skimp on unfortunately do you have parents that have insurance that you could jump onto temporarily?
Not that I could in Washington because we're a different state.
Got it.
Okay.
Well, I like this plan.
I think you're thinking the right way about it.
I would just have a pile of money, and then when it's time to buy the car and the insurance,
there's just cash there, and you can budget from there.
But if you're having a good time commuting in Seattle, keep it up.
Yeah, for sure.
That's the city life right there.
I know.
So good.
Let's try to take a quick one here from Jared, who is in Denver.
What's going on, Jared?
How are you doing, Jared?
Doing well.
How can we help?
Long story short, I was a law enforcement officer for about seven years. I was injured
in the line of duty and forced to medically retire. So now I'm on a fixed income of $44,000
a year. Um, I'm a stay at home dad now as my wife is doing real estate and I cannot
decide or figure out what type of remote jobs I could do that offer the flexibility I need for my
18-month-old son. What does the child care situation look like for the 18-month-old?
All three of our children so far have stayed home with my wife until they got into grade school.
We have two in elementary right now, and the 18-month is home with me.
Okay. And you're looking for a job that you could do while caring for the 18-month-old all day?
Mm-hmm.
So something pretty flexible, where you might be able to get in a few hours during nap time and
kind of log off and log back on. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of those jobs exist now,
especially in a post-COVID world. I'm going to hook you up with our friend Ken Coleman's Get
Clear Career Assessment, as well as his new book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do. It's all paired
together. Because I think right now you're in the research kind of dreaming phase. And so I want to
get you something that you actually enjoy doing versus just something that you can do. And I think
with your background, there may be something in the law enforcement world that you could do remotely.
And so I would look at... That is actually kind of a curious part, and I'm open to your suggestion,
but the curious part is, due to my disability coverage, I actually cannot do anything first
responder related. Oh, yeah, so that gives you a boundary. Yeah, that'll give you a boundary. But
yeah, there's a lot of options out there, Jared. But I think George is right. If you can find something that you love and you're passionate about, get You call us, we'll talk about your life and your money.
And while you're hanging out enjoying the show, do me a quick favor and do something. Share the
show, subscribe to the show, hit the follow button, leave a kind review, share it with a friend,
maybe send them a link to a clip that you particularly enjoyed or a show you enjoyed.
That helps us reach more people that's the goal it's
not for personal information although it does give that to rachel or validation it just helps us
reach more people with the algorithm that's right george it's all about the algorithm feeding the
algorithm because we need to reach more people because uh word of mouth is one of our it's it's
how most people find out about the show yeah we don't have a massive marketing budget sponsoring
stadiums you know i mean we're not that people. That's right. I know. But, yep, you're
sharing the love out there. You are the marketing plan. You're the billboard. So, thank you for
that. All right. Kevin is in Pensacola, Florida. What is going on, Kevin? Hi, George, Rachel. How
are you guys doing today? Doing great. How can we help? You're good. So I just have a bit of a question.
I've been watching your show for a while now
regarding combining finances.
And so I'm going to be getting married next month.
Oh, congratulations.
Oh, thank you so much.
And me and my soon- be wife, um, uh,
have taken, um, uh, sorry, I'm a little nervous.
We have taken a premarital counseling and so we're on board with, uh,
regarding finances, the financial, uh,
finance portion of our premarital counseling. And, but, um,
regarding my situation, um,
we're actually going to be doing a long distance marriage.
So to give you a bit of a context, I'm actually active, active duty military.
I have about four years left until I retire from the military.
And so I'm living in Pensacola and she's living in the United Kingdom.
And so the plan is, is that after I retire from the military,
I'm going to be making my move over there to the, to the UK.
But in the meantime, we're not sure if we should
just keep our finances separately for just temporarily until I retire from the military,
or perhaps I was thinking maybe another option is possibly getting a bank account that can support
the UK and the US because the bank that I currently have
charges international services. And, you know, of course, you know, then you have the fluctuation
of like, you know, the currency conversions between the US dollar and the British pound.
So I was just trying to see what would be like the best option for me to go.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know know george what your thought is on this i
mean mine and i'm all pro combining money you know that about me that's like one of my number one
things um but there are some caveats on why you wouldn't um and i don't know kevin this may be
one of those for me i mean if you're in completely different countries different if it's a logistical
issue yeah i'm like yeah at that point, I mean,
yeah, you guys could have different checking accounts,
but you just communicate about it.
You obviously, I guess, promise each other that there's no secrets or you guys look at stuff together
maybe once a month and you have a plan.
You guys still have the same goals,
but logistically speaking,
where your actual dollars and cents are for the time being, because you are in different countries with different banking
systems, yeah, you may have to have separate ones just for the ease of complication, you know?
Is she working full-time?
She is, yes. She is working full-time.
And I'm guessing it's not an option for her to move to Pensacola and be near you?
Well, she's not opposed to it,
but I'm actually going to be transferring to another location, so I'm not even going to be
in Pensacola for very long. Where are you transferring? She's not opposed to moving to the U.S.
Say again? Where are you transferring to? I'll be moving to Virginia. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think
more of my concern is not necessarily the checking
account, Kevin. I mean, it's being away for four years from your spouse. Like that's a...
A marriage surviving like that is just tough on its own. Have you guys been long distance
for a while? Yes, we have. And we do go back and forth. Like she'll come visit me and I go
visit her. So we actually do go back and forth and visit each other. Yeah. I mean, if she's unable for all the
reasons that I don't know of why she can't move to Pensacola or Virginia, then combining finances
may just be a logistical issue. There are accounts out there that help you avoid these international
fees. I know one of them, this is not a sponsor, we're not affiliated, but Charles Schwab has an
investor checking account that you can use internationally with no fees whatsoever. So you probably have done more homework than I have on
this, but there may be, I'm sure these kinds of accounts exist that will allow you to do this
and switch currencies and all of that with little to no effort. Yeah. And I think the point of the
combined account too, Kevin, is not just the logistical side is, you know, definitely a pro when you're living in the same
under the same roof, right? And you start having kids and like, life starts happening, you know,
you're just functioning out of one account, it just makes communication just so much easier.
That's one pro. But the other pro is that is that piece of unity and seeing yourself as one.
And I think for you guys in the season, you can still to a degree accomplish that. It's,
you know, the idea that your money, you guys are on the same page with it. But if you can't,
from a logistical standpoint, figure out how to do this with currency, taxes, all of that, then
for a short period of time, I mean, I would be okay.
Yeah. So she's covering all of her expenses. You're covering all of your expenses. Is that
the plan going forward? Yes. Yes. Is that the plan going forward?
Yes, yes, that is the plan going forward.
And like I said, once I retire from the military and move over there,
then we're both on board with combining our finances together.
Yeah, that's great.
Yeah, and again, I never want to be legalistic with stuff, so it's not this like, you know, I think the spirit behind it
is what is the most important, right?
And your values and your goals.
Yes, that unity perspective, I think, is really important.
So if you guys have a time frame with all of this,
and that's the end goal that you both agree on, then I think that's great.
But Kevin, too, I would really encourage you guys to look into her moving.
I mean, it's different when you're dating and all of that when you're like when you're married to somebody I mean it just
it's more enjoyable because I'm sure I mean obviously you love her and you want to be with
her so I'm like being away would be so sad it'd be so hard I can't imagine yeah and again I know
we thank you for your service too because there are so many people that are deployed for
nine months a year right overseas and all that there's so many people that are deployed for nine months a year, right?
Overseas and all of that, which there's so much sacrifice. But if you can avoid some of that
unneeded sacrifice, just meaning that she could be here with you while you're here,
I think is going to be helpful for you guys as you start out.
Yeah. Well, that's a first. I've never taken a call like that. So thank you for enlarging my brain,
helping me think a little deeper today.
Hayden is in Denver.
What's going on, Hayden?
Hey, guys.
Thanks for taking my call.
I was very excited.
I've never called into a radio show before, so I'm a little nervous.
No, you're great.
Thanks for calling.
The purpose of my call is I'm looking for some advice on what to do with the next move.
So my wife and I are currently
trying to sell our house. We've been Dave-ish for a little while, you know, we've been listening to
the show and we want to commit to being debt-free. So we're selling everything, selling our house,
selling our cars, all that stuff. Yeah, we're're going all in and the problem is that my wife is from
the east coast i'm from colorado all of my family lives here in colorado uh all of her family lives
on the east coast we have a two and a half year old son and my family has not been
they're not very involved like they're kind of cold and distant,
and it's just hasn't been very enjoyable for my wife,
and she's really missing home.
So she would like to use this opportunity of being debt-free
to move back to the East Coast.
What I'm struggling with is I work as a firefighter in Colorado,
and I have great pay, great benefits, and I love my job.
If I were to move to the East Coast, transferring medical certs and fire certs is not very simple,
and the pay and benefits are significantly less.
So I'm just concerned, even with our new debt-free lifestyle, of just not having enough. I'm not too concerned
about not liking the East Coast. I'm sure it will be great, and having her family be more involved
would be phenomenal. I'm just really torn with the idea of starting completely over.
Yeah, there's a trade-off here, right, For sure. And it's not going to be easy.
You're going to have to figure out the search.
You're going to have to figure out
how to get your income up,
hopefully faster,
and maybe find out
if there's other opportunities there
that could increase your income
versus taking a notch down.
And I would do a mock budget, Hayden,
of what life would look like over there
on the salary that you would have
and see how you guys feel
because that's the part of being debt-free.
It gives you options.
You can say, you know what?
We're going to lower our lifestyle to live where we want to live, and that's the part of being debt-free. It gives you options. You can say, you know what? We're gonna lower our lifestyle
to live where we wanna live.
And that's great.
Or we wanna have a higher standard of living
and live somewhere else like Colorado where you guys are.
So it's really a choice you guys have to make.
That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books.
We'll be back before you know it. Thank you.