The Ramsey Show - App - Should We Rent Out Our Current Home? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 14, 2022

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel discuss: Whether or not to let a home buyer move in early, How married couples can set up their health insurance, Tithing in baby step 2, Budgeting after a large promotion, How buying a duplex affects the 25% of your take-home pay rule, When you're debt free but don't actually own anything. 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

I'm out. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. George Campbell, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. William is in Tampa to start off this hour. Hey, William, what's up?

Hey, Dave and George, how are you guys? Great, man. How can we help? Me and my wife are flipping an investment property, and we are in contract. And come to find out, the people purchasing the house are in an extended stay, and they're paying them $3,500. Now, I had the bright idea to let them move in before they closed, and my wife instantly said no. So we're not doing it philosophically.

I know she's right, but can you tell me logically why she's right? Well, she's not necessarily right. It's done all the time that people move into properties or remain in properties after they sell them, either one. But what you would have to do is you would have to have a series of checkboxes that made it wise. One is I'd want to have a series of check boxes that that made it wise okay one is i'd want to be very sure of their financing okay that they're that are they financing the property that they're purchasing yes okay i'd want to i'd want a lot of details about that and know that

they're qualified their mortgage company needs to give me a lot of assurances this deal is closing. Okay. Two is, I want a ridiculous deposit. Okay. That is refunded upon closing. Like, I don't know, what's the property selling for? $315,000. Okay. Like $10,000, $15,000.

That's what I'd call a ridiculous deposit. Okay. Like 10,000, 15,000 bucks. That's what I'd call a ridiculous deposit. Okay. But they get it back as long as they close. Right. Yes. Uh, then the next thing is, is obviously, well, not obviously, but the other thing is, is there's a lease, a written agreement that if they don't close by a certain date, they move out and they forfeit their deposit. Okay? Would you do a weekly lease or a monthly lease? It would just be a written document that gives the terms of the lease, which is how much they're paying you, how much the deposit is, and that if they don't close by X date, they move out and forfeit their deposit.

Okay? Okay. Now, if you've got a solid document like that, you've got a big butt deposit like that, and you've got real, real good assurance on these people are studs as far as their finances go, their financing is going, then there's not much risk to this. You kind of almost hope they don't close and you pocket 15 grand. Okay. That make sense?

Well, it does. That's why I wanted to do it, but when she doesn't want to do something, I listen to that. Well, I listen to it, too. Just letting them move in she's right i wouldn't do that with no without those other three things okay but if they don't want to put up a deposit good sit in the extended k they don't want to sign a lease good sit in the extended uh stay i call it extended care this is daycare but the uh um or if their finances look iffy then yeah that would be she would be

right in any of those if you don't do at least those three things okay i'll flip it on its head i just did this only it was me okay or something similar i sold my home which was a multi-million dollar property and the buyer part of the agreement was i did it last year part of the agreement was i got to stay there rent free for four months after i closed on it but i i left them a big deposit and we had a written agreement and then we moved out and we got our deposit back simple Simple deal, right? But part of the agreement was I stayed in a house that they owned because we closed it, and I stayed in my old house four months after closing.

You see what I'm doing? So that's a similar deal, but it's a seller deal rather than a buyer deal. But still, that's the process. So the whole thing, George, is dot your I's, cross your your teeth you know now are you doing that with any of your sales are you moving in or out so the the buyers of our current home are allowing us to live there 10 days after closing for free as part of the deal yeah and so that's part of it and it's all in the agreements and it all makes sense and if we don't close there are ramifications and so you know all of that makes sense when you have your your eyes dotted your t's crossed but when you just do it willy-nilly without any agreements on the table that's where it's dangerous wife would be right yeah and so

people do that they just oh yeah whatever you know and then you get into a problem yeah you know so just make sure you do your due diligence you've got the right paperwork in place you've got the agreements you feel good about the closing parker's in atlanta hey parker how are you i am good how are you better than we deserve what's up i understand so my wife and i just accepted new jobs about a few weeks ago and just so happens we ended up starting at almost the exact same time cool so with So with that comes, of course, open enrollment for health care, things of that nature. And that got me wondering, do you have any thoughts or opinions on each of us having a family health care plan where one of them would be like a PPO or something generic, and the other one is an HSA that we would attempt not to touch.

You can't do it. You're going to screw up everything. Okay? If you have two health plans covering the same people, they argue about who is primary, and neither one of them will pay. So just buy a health plan for your family at one place or the other. Okay, so I should not do dual at all?

No dual. Dual gives you absolutely zero benefit. They are not going to both pay. Okay. They're going to argue about who pays. Okay. How many people in the family, Parker? It's just my wife and I.

Oh, okay. So does your company furnish yours free and hers furnish hers free? I mean, we pay into it, if that's what you're asking. No, that's not free if you're paying into it. No, okay. Right. So you both have to pay for it okay uh are you paying for yours more than you would pay extra to be on hers no or vice versa because it might be

cheaper for both of you to be on one or the other as an add-on than it is to have two standalone policies but it might be cheaper if the companies are subsidizing it for both of you to each have your own at your own companies. It'll be fine. But there's no reason for any kind of dual, double coverage because you don't benefit from it. You pay for it and you don't get anything except a hassle. Oh, yeah.

My wife works here at Ramsey, and we both have separate policies because it makes more sense. It's mathematically better. Because you've got to do the family plan. If not, and we don't have kids there's not you know there's all and it doesn't save you any money because we pay for a bunch of yours okay so you got to crunch the numbers here and go what makes sense for us based on health and cost that's it that makes sense okay good this is the right time to buy life insurance?

My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance, since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.

These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive, and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com. Or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Guys, we get it. When you're worried, money is all-consuming. You can wonder if you've got enough to pay your bills or even afford to fill up at the gas stations.

Always on your mind. But you work too hard to live like that. You shouldn't have to be stressed out. You should have peace. And when you have a proven, detailed plan that millions of people have used to not only get out of debt, but to become millionaires, well, it gives you a lot of peace that's why we named it financial peace university almost 10 million families people have gone through this class now to learn how to budget to save to spend to invest to become debt free to be outrageously generous. And now is a great time to take the course.

We just updated all of almost every single video, and it includes George Camel and Dr. John Deloney now, and you don't want to miss it. So it's Rachel Cruz, Dave Ramsey, Dr. John Deloney, George Camel, and it's quite a lineup. You're going to love the new lessons. Decide today that you're done letting money stress rule your life. You can do this.

Get started with Financial Peace University by visiting RamseySolutions.com slash FPU. That's RamseySolutions.com slash FPU. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why they're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings with free samples, free shipping, and new promos every month. You'll save even more. Always use the promo code RAMSY to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Sean in Mississippi. He says, my wife and I have been tackling our $200,000 of debt for the past three years, and we have about $55,000 left. We've continued to tithe and

contribute to various Christian organizations. This has caused some debate between us. I'm more aligned with taking a step back from tithing and paying off our debt. However, my wife remains steadfast in our need to continue to tithe at least 10% of our income. I know the Baby Steps say that we need to complete Baby Step 2 before starting Baby Step 7. However, our charitable contributions are very important to us. If we had not donated over the past three years, we would be debt-free now. Do you have any recommendations on how to persuade my wife to concentrate solely on paying down debt? Wow. Well, that's assuming that we agree with you, Sean, isn't it?

That's a problem. Yeah, I think the problem is we're probably not going to agree with either one of you here. Yeah, Sean is looking at the math and going, well, if we stop tithing, we could pay off debt faster. Doesn't that make sense, Dave? That's the whole point of the process, but it's not. There's a heavy spiritual component, if you're a person of faith, that you should tithe 10%, and that's the baseline yeah and scripture is pretty clear that it's first fruits the tithe the 10 to your local church is first fruits it comes off the top before you do anything else now uh we're not legalistic about it that's just what the bible says and so if you want to do something else god's not going to be mad at you, but his instruction manual is very clear.

A tenth of your income goes to your local church. This is what evangelicals have taught and believed for years. Now, lots of people have different viewpoints or whatever within different denominational movements, but evangelicals across the board, this is what we teach, what we believe, and there's a lot of scriptural basis for it, obviously. But again, nothing has to do with your salvation. God doesn't need your money. The church doesn't really need your money. If they do, they've got other issues.

But really, this is about you having a rhythm of giving in your life, and that God wants you to have giving at the top of your list always. So now, where I would disagree with your wife is the other things that are not a tenth of your list always so now where i would disagree with your wife is the other things that are not a tenth of your income going to your local church are not tithing the extra to those are called offerings those are called offerings and there is no scriptural indication that offerings come from anything but surplus and while you have debt you don't have surplus. So offerings should come from surplus. So I personally did and would recommend that while you're getting out of debt, you tithe and nothing more.

And so I did not give to any other ministries, any other parachurch organizations or anything else while I was getting out of debt except my local church, my 10th. You'll have plenty of time to do that later once you're out of debt. But you're taking care of your own household first. You don't have surplus, and offerings come from surplus. And so even extra things that the church is asking for. We're in a building program.

We're trying to raise money for whatever cause that the church is doing. They're going to have to take it out of my tithe check. And that's what I did while I was doing it. Again, none of this, though, is a salvation issue. None of this makes God love you more or less. None of this falls in that bucket. But these are just the, if you do a detailed, in-depth Bible study, this is where it will lead you.

And that's why it's what we've done and what we've told you to do. Now, where would you say to bring those back in, the offerings, the charitable contributions? Would that come after Baby Step 3? Yes. Because we're kind of done with the gazelle intensity. We're moving to intentional. Because Baby Step 3, as far as I'm concerned, is taking care of your own household. If you don't have an emergency fund and you're not debt-free, you haven't taken care of your household.

You've got a rocky foundation. And Scripture says take care of your own household first or you're worse than an unbeliever. Okay, so take care of your own household first. And that doesn't mean be selfish as a course of your life or as a character quality. It just means that you've got to, you know, you've got to feed your kids before you feed hungry kids because yours are hungry too. Okay, and so that's all that means. You pay your light bill before you pay the light

bill at the homeless shelter and so and you can let that fuel you i mean if you're on the debt free journey absolutely it should fuel you they're passionate if you have a desire about giving it means you're going to that's high correlation between that and people that build wealth let's get out of debt faster so that we can do what we really want to do exactly just give outrageous and the most fun you'll ever have with money. We teach on generosity a lot. We believe in generosity. But that's the nuanced detail of how to flesh out your generosity. So your wife is trying to do too much.

You all have been doing too much, and you're trying to do too little. So you both are wrong. Split the difference. According to what we teach and according to what I believe. So there we go. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Carla is in Las Vegas. Hey, Carla, how are you?

Good, Dave. Hi, George. Hey. How can we help? So I have a question. We have a home. We have our house that we paid off. And we are currently in the process of purchasing a new home.

Great. Yeah. So my husband and I initially thought about putting the house for sale, using the funds from our current home into the new home, but we're kind of unsure if we should do that or just keep it as a rental property. Do you have the money to pay for the new home in cash if you don't sell yours? No, we don't. I'd probably sell it then.

I'm going to sell it and use the proceeds on the new one. What's the new one going to cost? So the new one is right under $600,000. And what's the mortgage you'd need to take out on that? It's about anywhere from $300,000 to $3,400 a month. But are you taking out all $600,000? Do you have a down payment on this new one? Because all your money is tied up in the old house.

Right. So we do have savings, and we are putting, I mean, the minimum that we should put is about $50,000. Here's the thing. I would not do this. I just wouldn't do it. You need to sell your current house. Here's why, okay?

Let's say that you keep the current house, it's paid for, and you have a debt on your home. Effectively, it wasn't directly, but effectively, it's the same thing as having borrowed on a paid-for home to buy a rental property. We would never tell you to do that. But you see how that's exactly what you've ended up doing yeah yeah so you're going to take this money and any money you got in savings and you're going to either pay cash for or almost pay cash for the new property get it paid off and then you should start saving in cash to buy your next rental in cash. But I'm not going to lead you to borrow money on your residence to go buy rentals. And effectively, that's what's happening here. You're not quite at a place to be a real estate investor. Yeah, you need to get rid

of it. And I know it sounds fancy or it sounds sophisticated. I'll buy you a rental property. Yeah, that's great. But you don't do it this way. This is this is you're going to get yourself in a crack here, kiddo. Don't do it. Don't do it. Get in your residence, get your residence paid off, and then start saving up and buying rentals with cash. It's what I did years ago, and I've got several hundred million dollars worth of real estate.

This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt-free stage paul and stephanie are with us hey Hey, guys, how are you? Hello. We're good. Thank you. Welcome. Welcome. Where do you live? We are from Lynchburg, Virginia. Oh, fun. Liberty Town. Yeah, that's right. Good stuff. Did you go to Liberty? Yes, I went there for grad school and then he went there for about a year. Excellent. Okay, cool. So how much debt have you paid off? $100,887.95. Love it. How long did that take? 29 months.

Whoa. And your range of income during that time? Started around $53,000 up to about $95,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm a physical therapist assistant. And I'm a marriage and family therapist. Excellent.

So what was the $101,000? All student loans. All student loans. And did it in 29 months. How long y'all been married? Just over three years. Okay. So right after the honeymoon, basically you sat down and said, okay, this is a problem. Tell me the story. What happened? Yeah. So it started more so in 2017. We had you come to our church and did the whole cutting up of credit cards and offered, after that, our church offered financial peace. And so we ended up taking it. You were at Thomas Road?

Yeah. With Jonathan? Okay. Yeah. All right. Cool. Yeah. And we had never heard of you before that.

And so we ended up taking the class with our life group. Honestly, like really enjoyed it, but still at the time felt like we didn't have any money to save or like to spend yeah so we waited a couple years um got married we got married two weeks after i graduated from grad school and then the six months later was when our my um tuition payments started and so at the time i had started calculating how much it would cost to if we did like the 10-year plan that they automatically put you on and it was going to be 20 000 extra dollars and i told paul that and we were just like no that's just like wasted money it felt like you didn't want to make

a donation to sally may no no we didn't yeah when steph said that it was pretty much game on uh then you remember that guy that was at church that time. Yes, that's right. Because then we got back into, I don't remember this, but he said that I just started YouTubing you and was looking up a bunch of videos. And then got back into, we started listening to podcasts. And honestly, from there, we've just been doing your plan since. Wow. Good for you guys.

It was awesome. Yeah. Very cool. So basically, right after you got married all this stuff comes loose because you graduate yeah everything starts coming to you where there's $20,000 discussion youtube pops up and you go okay we're getting out of this yeah absolutely pretty much yeah good for you we just yeah we just didn't we didn't want to do it anymore because he was still in school when I finished so we got to like thankfully start with

mine and then his started a little bit later so as a newlywed couple you kind of want to do all the things and upgrade the cars and we graduated and get the house what were the sacrifices you guys had to make in the face of probably all of your friends doing those things yeah um i'll start we kind of loved that process just because we honestly like have not really i don't, we haven't really spent our lives just getting expensive things. And so we always tell everyone, our apartment, you can vacuum the whole thing from one outlet. And so it's super low cost.

There's a perk. It's a long corridor. A small apartment. We should be a real estate agent. You're in the wrong field. Right. It's so small. So we just had really low expenses overall. We had low you know low cost of living um super cars that's right yeah super low um

phone payments um the laundry oh yeah we were um we had to do use quarters at the laundromat and we decided we weren't going to dry our clothes we were just going to hang them up in front of a fan and save the dollar 50 and50 and put it towards our bed. Like Little House on the Prairie. Pretty much everything we did, we tried to save because I didn't have a fan. Yeah. You just have to wait a couple days. You know you're going to wait a couple days until you need that shirt or that pair of pants.

That's perfect. That is some sacrifice. Impressive. Wow. All to save $1.50, but that added up. It did. Yep. Yeah.

$101,029. That's legit. I mean, you kicked it. Wow. but that added up. It did? Yeah. Yeah. $101,029. That's legit. I mean, you kicked it. You kicked it hard. So now, at the end of the day, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Because you're professionals. You've done it. Mm-hmm.

I think a big part of it was getting on the same page. And, like, with sacrificing, try to find some fun things to do along with it. We did a lot of hiking, like, things for free, even, like, with our laundry or not turning the heat on all winter. We just found ways to save money, like, wherever we could. And it felt like it brought us closer together. You guys made, like, a game out of it, didn't you? We did.

Oh, yeah. It was so fun. The $1.50 really didn't matter. It was just part of the game. Yeah. It was just the... I think it's just the attitude of saving, like, brought us closer together in our marriage.

And then just it gave us a very real goal. It helped for us to set dates and try to hit those. Which also makes it super sweet when you pay that last payment. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And even we had setbacks. We had like an $8,000 tax bill because we didn't know. She was a private contractor, and so we were working through that.

The first year. Setbacks is staying the course and chipping away a little bit at a time. What was it like using a dryer for the first time? It was magic. We haven't done it yet. We haven't done it. Oh, my goodness. Oh, wow.

It's time. We go over to our friend's house, and it's pretty magical. That's amazing. I thought I was frugal, Dave. This is impressive. They go to their friend's house. That's not even $1.50. That's great.

Oh, guys. That's awesome. Very, very cool. We're very proud of you. Congratulations. Thank you. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? friends house that's not even a dollar fifty you know so that's great oh guys awesome very very cool we're very proud of you congratulations thank you who were your biggest cheerleaders i would say our families have been super big encouragers throughout it and then we've had friends along the way um specifically friends who we think like have been just wiser with their money and so especially with like the different setbacks that we've had, we've been able to just ask them and say, hey, what do you think we should do

in this situation? And without them, we probably would have, you know, had bigger setbacks. So I think that was the biggest thing. Yeah, I think family in our corner was always supporting us. And then we just had good people around us that were pointing us to good tax accountants

figuring out her taxes and just good ways to save and good ways to handle our money. Yeah, very good. Well, congratulations, you guys. Very well done. We've got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires, our latest number one bestseller for you. How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth How You Can Too. That's your next step.

That's your next process. You go ahead and think. Go ahead. Next big milestone, anyway, becoming a Baby Steps Millionaire. We've also got a copy of Total Money Makeover for you to give to somebody that was encouraged by your story probably and if you haven't been through financial peace university officially and now you can do it we're going to give you a one-year membership to that or you can give it away whatever you want to do so well done you guys we're very very proud of you all right paul and stephan Lynchburg, Virginia, $101,000 paid off in 29 months, making $53,295.

Count it down, and let's talk. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right, three, two, one. We're debt-free! That is how it's done, ladies and gentlemen. That's how it's done. Hanging the clothes to dry. Love it.

Tyler's in Orlando. Hey, Tyler, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, I've always wanted to ask this. How are you doing, sir? Better than I deserve. What's up? Not much. So I'm in a position where I'm going to be getting a promotion soon where I'll be making $200,000 a year and currently making $80,000.

Wow, that's awesome. Big jump. Yeah. The thing is, though, is that I come from a humble mechanic background, making $30,000 to $40,000 a year. This is an unfathomable amount of money to me. I don't want to go stupid with it. I want to do good with it, and I just wanted some advice. I've listened to you for the past year or so. I kind of have a little bit of an idea, but like I said,

with these kind of extra zeros at the end, I'm kind of a little scared, a little anxious, and a little lost. Well, congratulations, man. I know it's scary, but it sounds like you want to do the right thing here. Do you have any debt? I have about $20,000 in debt between the truck and just some other little things, dye-cure, bake-cure places, truck, computer, and stuff like that. Okay. But I did plan on my first paycheck that I get from the company in October, just going ahead and paying it off.

How much do you have in savings? Zero dollars and zero cents at the moment. Well, that'll all change very soon. I'm going to put you on a plan here because we're running into the break, but I'm going to get you Financial Peace University. I want you to watch all nine video lessons, And with that, you're going to get every dollar to start budgeting and paying attention to where every single cent of this $200,000 is going. We're going to get you an emergency fund. We're going to pay off the debt. We're going to get

you investing. And you're going to put this $200,000 to work, my friend. So hang on the line. Austin will pick up. We will hook you up with Financial Peace University. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. George Campbell, Ramsey Personalities, my co-host today. I'm Dave Ramsey. This is The Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Dan is with us in Boston. Hey, Dan, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

How are you doing? Great, man. What's up? I just have a quick question for you because I listen to your show quite a bit. First, I want to say thank you for taking my call. And I wanted to, like a lot of this stuff is structured around houses. So I know you would say do the 15-year fixed, and it should be, the mortgage should

be no more than 25% of your take home. If you wanted to get, like, let's say you wanted to get a two unit instead of a house, you know, I don't have kids or anything like that. Would you, would the same thing apply? And then how would you factor in the rents that you get? Okay. You know what I mean? If that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. yeah i think the the way to answer the question for you for you to answer the question is this why i'm asking you why do we tell you to save to not have a house payment more than 25 of your take-home pay so you're not biting off more than you can chew basically right and so you can get the house paid off yeah okay now the duplex changes that because you have a renter you have repairs and you have rental income right yeah okay so what would keep you from uh you know what what percentage

would keep you from uh biting off more than you could chew and not being able to get the house paid off? Like sooner. I mean, like you said, I like your – I mean, you could use the 25%, but my point is if you – okay, we're going to use that rent as – I'm not counting it at 100%. Like it's not there like it's always coming because rent doesn't always come absolutely but if i wanted to raise the 25 up a little bit by

you know let's say that the unit is renting for the other units written for a thousand bucks okay if i wanted to say all right i'm going to take three to five hundred of that and add it to the 25 percent that might still meet the common sense guideline that we're giving you does that make sense that makes absolute sense i figured you'd either say that or have a bigger instead of three to six months do like you know 12 to 18 just to no i'm still gonna stick yeah i'll still stick with the three to six months now the other thing you got got to know is you do need in your property account, in addition to your three to six months, you need some money there. Anytime you have rental property, crap breaks. Yeah.

And they break stuff if it doesn't break on its own. Absolutely. Yeah, you're going to be surprised at what your expenses are on these things. It's not all skittles and rainbows. And let me remind you, you live next to your renter. So they will be knocking. They will see you outside, and they will complain about things. So you've got to think about that, too, when you're looking at duplexes.

Yeah, and which renter you're putting in. So the great news is you live next to your renter. You can see them and get in touch with them. The bad news is you live next to your renter. So vet them and get in touch with them the bad news is you live next to your renter so vet them very well so yeah that's that's going to be the thing francis is with us in salt lake city hi francis how are you dave and george what a privilege thank you so much for taking my call i've been listening to you dave since i was a teenager my father turned me on to you, Dave, since I was a teenager. My father turned me on to you, my mom and dad, and what a privilege. Thank you so much and bless you.

Well, bless you. How can we help, Ellen? Thank you. So, brief overview. I'm 55, single mom. I've raised two kids. I've been through two bouts of breast cancer, but I have fabulous news. As of three years ago, I'm 100% debt free. Yay. I know I need, I haven't celebrated that with anybody.

So thank you. I guess my heart is still heavy because I am debt free, but I own nothing. I don't own a home. I've rented this entire time. So just quick overview on my income and my bills. I make $22 an hour. I'm an admin assistant here in Salt Lake. I get paid every two weeks. My checks are $15.60, but my take-home is only $8.50, and this is why. I have been diligent in putting 15% into my Roth 401k, which is $4.60 a month, and I get a 4% match from my employer. And I do my HSA max, which is $300 a month. And as of today, there's $4,000 in there. What's your question, Frances?

My question is, I have two questions, Dave. I have $10,000 in an emergency fund, and that is it for savings. I work part-time. Frances, what's your question? My question is, do I use my few extra dollars I have a month with my side job to save for a home. Yes. And I might even back off on the HSA and some of the retirement savings temporarily and get you a down payment saved up for a house.

Oh. Is that not what you wanted to hear? I just felt – I know you're going to be honest with me. I guess I just, I had 20 grand in there, and I started getting the, you're never going to have 20% down with the house. A starter house is $400,000 and $500,000 now, Francis. You're not going to ever make that at your age now. You'll be buying a house at $70,000.

So I thought, okay. A starter house is not four or five hundred thousand that's a meaty that's the median house price in america right now is 380 and that would be very true in salt lake city a starter house is 150 to 200 000 and you don't have to have the 20 down on your first purchase you're just going to have PMI if you don't have 20% down. But you need to get in the real estate game because you do not want to live to 85 and for the next 30 years pay increasing rents every year. Because rents are going to go up every year. They have as long as I've been alive. They go up every year. Rent doesn't go down and it doesn't and it doesn't stabilize and it doesn't level off

and so you want to get rent out of your life because it's a destabilizer to your golden years so yeah it's time to do that and it might mean getting some more income in the door if you might want to look for a new job you might want to take on extra work right now in order to get that down payment yeah and it's okay to slow down or stop your retirement and certainly your HSA savings for a short period of time, two years, three years here, and you buy a home when you're 58. It creates a fixed expense. You know, and you get a good, a cute little starter. It can even be a little condo, but let's get our foot in the door on this real estate thing so it doesn't continue to escalate and get out of reach for you permanently. But, yeah, you're going to get there.

And, yeah, George is right. You may want to relook this career. You're not making a ton of money. You're doing okay. You're not starving to death. And you're very diligent and you're very careful and smart. But that's what I would do if I were in your shoes. Going into retirement, it's important to not only own a home but get one paid off

because it stabilizes the largest part of your budget. And it changes what kind of retirement you have. You don't have a mortgage hanging over your head or any other kind of debt. Or rent. Well, Francis, tune in tonight for our Real Estate Reality Check event. I think it'll be encouraging for you to hear what's going on in the market, the right way to buy a house, how to do it with wisdom. I hope it's encouraging to you. And that's at 7 p.m. Central tonight. Yeah, just jump on ramseysolutions.com. For those of you listening

to this, this is July the 14th. On Thursday night, we'll be doing this event, the Real Estate Reality Check. There's a lot of people facing a lot of stuff out there emotionally regarding whether they think real estate's going to crash or whether they're going to be priced out of the market for the rest of their lives or whatever and there's some real things to talk about on this and to get things done so let's um you guys join us tonight it's completely free by the way the live stream tonight and it'll be from seven uh central about 8 central, give or take. And so jump in and join us.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. That was a good hour, George Camel. Good times. A lot of housing calls, which not shocking, but we didn't really plan for that with this real estate event tonight. But it's on top of mind for a lot of people. It's what a lot of people are talking about. Austin, Ben, Zach, Andrew,ames and kelly in the booth great job in there guys that does put this particular hour of the ramsey show in the books hang on we'll be with you before

you know it Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.