The Ramsey Show - App - Should We Sell Our House and Live in a Camper? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

George Kamel & Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss:   "I feel guilty about my line of work; should I look for another job?" "Should we sell our house and live in a camper?"  Selling a rental property to pay off the house, "Pay off student loans or invest with my savings?" "Can I use a virtual debit card to pay off a bill in collections?" "Should we build a house now or save up more?" Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Enter The Ramsey Cash Giveaway for a chance at $3,000! https://bit.ly/TRSgvwy Shop our bestsellers during the $10 Sale! https://bit.ly/TRS10Sale Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pod's moving and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell. Joined this hour by the Rachel Cruz, who is also my co-host on Smart Money Happy Hour. That's right. Which we're having a blast with. Appreciate all of you listening to that, subscribing, sharing with friends.

We just released one about 90s nostalgia and how they're coming for our wallets with it. Yeah. People loved it. It was great. You know, there was an Instagram post. People were sending me an Instagram handle.

I can't remember who it is, but they go back to all this nostalgia moments of commercials and catalogs. So they had like the JCPenney 1993 spring catalog for girls. And I was like,

that was my, there's my wardrobe. That was your aesthetic. There it was. So yeah, it was a fun episode. Go check that out that out well we're taking your calls this hour at 888-825-5225 you jump in we'll talk about your life and your money Neil is kicking us off in Denver Neil welcome to the show hey guys how you guys doing today great how are you I'm doing great

doing great um Just a little background on what's going on here. We just started Baby Step number two, my wife and I, and I can't tell you how much of a difference it has made in our life and even in my marriage already. So I really appreciate the work you guys do. That's awesome to hear. Awesome. Well, my question today, I've worked in lending for the past seven years, five of that doing lending, and then the last two years in lending tech. And after starting the Dave Ramsey program, the baby steps, I'm feeling a little bit like I just don't want to be a part of the problem. And I've put people into more debt before where they probably shouldn't have gone. And our tech doesn't necessarily help that. It's an education tool. But I just really don't want to have – I'm struggling with it.

So I was wondering what you guys have for me. So you've been in the lending world and the financial world. Are there other companies, roles that wouldn't involve you being so connected to people getting into debt? Well, yes. I'm in tech now, so I've considered looking for another role, but the economy is kind of interesting when it comes to tech. And I have, I don't know, I need to stable income. I've got a little baby at home. And like I said, we're trying to crank out baby step number two. So I'm nervous to jump ship. Yeah, well, I wouldn't suggest that you jump ship, Neil, because I mean, I mean, obviously, what you're doing is now conflicting morally in what your convictions are, what you're believing

about money. So that's a real thing. And I think it's important to listen to because if you're in it for a long period of time, naturally, that's just going to wear on you and who you are. And we don't want that for anybody in their work, right? Their line of work. But you're not doing anything illegal, right? I mean, like you're so I mean, obviously, if you came on here, you're like, I'm dealing drugs. We'd be like, all right, now we got to shift careers. Maybe you should jump. Yeah, you're not, I mean, you're not doing anything illegal. So you have time to give yourself some patience to go. And, but I would be actively probably looking for someone or something else. Again, just because you going into a line of work every day, 40 hours a week, doing something that starts just to rub up against you morally, like that's just not a fun place to be, right?

So again, I wouldn't jump ship right now, but I would be pursuing other stuff. And the great thing is, you know, I mean, there are some layoffs happening in the tech industry. We're seeing that a lot, but there's also a lot of places still hiring. And I think in your line of work,

there's still opportunity to be had. So I would, if I were you, be actively, proactively looking for something, but I wouldn't just quit tomorrow because I feel like that's unwise. Yeah, I hear you there. I'm going to send you Ken Coleman's Get Clear assessment because I think it will help you go, all right, it really isn't lending that I'm all about. I really love helping people do X, Y, Z. I can go work in the tech space, but not in the finance space. Or I can go work in the finance space, but not be a part of the lending section. And so the thing with banks make money from debt products largely. And so anywhere in the FinTech space, you're going to

have this moral issue. And so I think you also need to go, is there another line of work that I could do that's connected to the skills that I have that doesn't connect to the financial world? Yeah, yeah. I think it's definitely out there. Just got to find those opportunities. We're rooting for you, man. Yeah, for sure.

Hang on the line. Austin will pick up and we will make sure you get that get clear assessment from our friend, Ken Coleman. All right, let's move on to Cassie in Huntsville, Alabama. Cassie, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you so much for taking my call. How are y'all? We're doing great. How can we help? Good. So I have a situation. I'm just trying to make sure that I am doing the right thing here. So basically my question is, should I sell my house and live in a camper until my husband and I can save

enough money to pay for and build our home? So a little background there. I know that like campers, they depreciate and we would buy one anyways later down the road. I am in nursing school and I plan to do travel nursing, so we're going to need one regardless. But I don't know if I'm jumping the gun here. We are on Baby Step 2. We have about $32,000 in debt, and we have just over $100,000 in equity in our home.

So we would use that to pay off our debt and then just pay for a camper. So how far away are you guys from actually buying this future house or building it? Well, just however long it would take us to save up. Because if we do this, I mean, that would be it. No more debt whatsoever. So we would just work on saving $250 maybe to build. My worry is that this sets you backwards instead of forwards because the camper goes down in value, you sell your house, which is appreciating in value, and so by the end of this thing, you're actually down instead of up.

What if you just stayed in the house, stayed put, paid off your consumer debt, get through nursing school, and then we can see where we're at financially yeah cassie how old are you guys uh i'm 22 and my husband is 23 okay and how much do you guys make a year uh we make about 4,800 a month so i think it's like 15 maybe yeah um yeah i would probably slow down a little bit i think think when you said, am I jumping the gun? I kind of feel like you might be. I think that it's a great goal to have, and I think a very realistic one for you guys in the future.

But I think you have a couple of steps ahead of you before I would jump to selling your home right now. I think paying off this consumer debt, like George said, and if you get into travel nursing too, that pays really well. And so you'll be able to even knock out that consumer debt, like George said. And if you get into travel nursing too, that pays really well. And so you'll be able to even knock out that consumer debt if you still have some going into that new job. And so I would focus on all that, get an emergency fund in place, save up a down payment, or I guess if you guys are building the construction loan and going through that whole process. But I wouldn't be in a rush to do it right now, Cassie.

I think it's a great five, eight-year goal maybe to look out there, but I think you would be rushing some of the progress that could be made. And like George said, you could end up actually financially backwards if you do this. So I would stay in the home, pay off the consumer debt, get an emergency fund, get in a great financial position to get a down payment, the construction loan, and go from there. I like that. Slow is usually the best path and the most frustrating. And so patience is a virtue for a reason, delayed gratification. You guys will get there in no time. You're 22 and 23. You got so much time ahead of you to hit those financial goals. More of your calls coming up. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Rachel Cruz this hour, and we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. We're talking about your life and your money, all the stuff that's ruminating in your brain, inflation and your debt payments. And what about student loan forgiveness and this mortgage fees? This is getting out of control in the housing market. And we just want to give you a breath of fresh air and tell you the truth, even if it hurts a little bit, because we want to see you win with money. Murphy is joining us in Phoenix up next. Murphy, welcome to the show.

George and Rachel, thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So my wife and I are completely on board with getting debt free. There's a little contention in regards to some property that we own. And the question is this, we own a condo outright that's currently worth about $275,000 on the open market. But we have an existing mortgage as well, about $250,000. I'd like to sell the condo and pay off the mortgage. And she kind of thinks because the condo has been paid off for that we just keep ticking along with the mortgage. And I'm just looking for advice from you guys in regards to that.

Do you have any consumer debt, Murphy, or is it just the mortgage? We have a car loan, yes. There's about $30,000 sold on a car loan. Okay. How much do you guys have in savings? So that's a little difficult, too. We had $150,000 in savings that we let our son borrow for a business that he started, but he's going to be paying that back to us here real soon in less than 30 days.

As like a lump sum? Yes. Wow. Okay. So you'll have $150,000 in a month? Yes. That'll clear the car loan and clear a huge chunk of the mortgage too. Yeah. Outside of leaving a big chunk for your emergency fund of three to six months. Yes. I mean, honestly, Murphy, I don't think there's a right or wrong here. I mean, if you guys had a mortgage on the rental property, I would say just sell it.

But because you guys own it outright, I mean, it's an asset. And at that point, we always say to be intentional through baby steps one or four through seven. And which means to me, I don't feel like you have to be overly intense and overly intense would mean selling the condo and putting it, paying off the mortgage and you're just, you're done.

So I don't feel like you guys have to, I think you have some great cash coming in. You're able hit the mortgage how much you guys make a year um so i'm self-employed so that fluctuates quite a bit a year but like last year uh the combined income was 850 000 850 oh yeah mur $850,000. That's great. So your mortgage is gone within like a few months at this point.

Okay. So I think... No, no, Murphy, if you don't... Sorry, George. No, continue. If you... This changes things.

If you don't want to be a landlord, though, and you guys aren't happy about investment real estate and you're like, it's a drain, it's not fun, we don't want it, then yeah, for sure, sell it and get out and do some other investing with your

money because you guys are going to have plenty of cash coming in, plenty of income coming in to be able to go and do whatever you want to do investment-wise. So if it's not something that you guys want to, if you don't want to be a landlord, then yeah, sell it. But if you guys love it and you enjoy rental properties, I would keep it and then pay off the mortgage with your income. Okay. Yeah. That's also where we disagree because I don't necessarily enjoy it. Okay. Who deals with the property more, you or your wife? My wife does. My wife definitely does. Okay.

She enjoys it? And she likes it? I don't know if she does or not. Anytime there's a repair that's required, she gets involved. She takes care of it. She calls repairmen, stuff a repair that's required, she gets involved. She takes care of it. She calls repairmen, stuff like that. She collects the rent from it. She deals with all that. Okay.

I don't think she, she has a corporate job as well. So I don't think she necessarily likes or enjoys it. Okay. So what, you know what I would do, Murphy, is you'd say you can get $275 for it? Yep. Okay. I mean, I would kind of, I would have a date night. We always talk about doing like a dream date night and take 270 275 on the table and you and her talk about what could we do with this money

is there better investments what if we just put it in the market and do an investment calculator and just say what could that grow to in 20 years what if we found a small business that we loved and we wanted to get in and you know be part owners of that and we could put that there? Do we want to maybe buy a different property? Do we want to take this and go and travel the world? Go and just dream with $275,000. And if nothing keeps bubbling up as something, gosh, we have to do this right now, we want to do this, and she's fine with keeping it, then maybe keep it. But at least have the discussion of what would we do with the money if we sold it, just as for the heck of it. But if she's fine with it and it's not a big problem to

her, then I wouldn't see what I'd do with it. Making 850, even if you regret the decision after selling it, you can go buy another $300,000 property by the end of the year. So the intent of the condo was never to be a positive cash flow income for us. It never was. The original intent was as a backup house because we bought this in the crash of 2008. We only paid $38,000 for it on a short sale. Oh, wow. And the goal of the property had always been that, hey, we have this million-dollar house.

If we ever lose it because something happens and I'm self-employed, we have a backup. Oh, I gotcha. That was always the goal. And if I can take the cash from the condo and pay off the existing mortgage, now we have that home security in our main house. So that's kind of why I'm trying to steer her in this direction, because the goal of the condo was just housing security. And why does she want to keep it? What's her reasoning for keeping it? I'm not sure. You know what? We have a date night tonight. So I will ask her tonight. Perfect. That's great. Yeah. And I honestly think since you can't even answer that question, I think you guys may come to a conclusion really quickly. You know, she may be like, oh, perfect. That's right. That's true. That true that makes sense if our home's paid for then there is no risk on that end with our primary home

so we don't need it you know it could be a pretty easy but easy discussion yeah but originally she she and i both agreed that we wanted to keep it for that housing security because that was in 2008 murphy now i mean that's like 15 years ago and you guys obviously haven't talked about it recently, so I can't even remember what I said in 2008. That was a long time ago. So I would have a current discussion with her, and again, to George's point, there's not a right or wrong here. I mean, you guys are in great financial shape. You make great money.

You don't go into any more consumer debt. That $30,000 car loan needs to be paid off today. Save some money, and yeah, I think you'll be okay. What's your net worth combined? So it varies a little bit, but we're kind of touching that $10 million mark. $10 million and we're arguing over a $250,000 mortgage. But we've gotten to this point because I've been really aggressive with tackling everything. And the finish line is near, and I'm not letting up.

Murphy, you need to chill. It's Friday night. Get some appetizers tonight. Get dessert. I think you just need to take it. You guys are doing great. You're an intense guy, and I like it. I have an intense dad.

My husband has some intensity. My old friend George Camel has some intensity. We need Rachels in our life to balance us. And it's all good, but you're fine, Murphy. Y'all are good. You're good. We talk to actual broke people on this show. And so talking to you, I'm like, why does this guy, I need to ask you for advice, man.

I know. Help us with our money, Murphy. Goodness gracious. Well, I'm rooting for you guys. Thank you so much for the call. Great job. I aspire to that. Y'all have worked really hard and done a really great job. I know we're kind of poking fun at you a little bit, but well done. I mean, it's impressive. Well done.

It's hard to turn that intensity off for sure. And Winston Cruz was on this show earlier this week. So I feel like chopped liver compared to him. Everyone loved having Winston Cruz, which is Rachel's husband by the way on the show talking about real estate and how to do it the right way he missed you George

he wanted to he really I'm secretly hoping me and Winston can do an hour one day because I can't hang Winston doesn't want to hang out with me

outside of having to do this whatever George you came over and watched Dumb and Dumber I did that was a great time a few months ago

at our house I know Winston learned that George had never seen Dumb and Dumber and Winston was like George changed my life George you need to come over and you need to watch this movie oh well what was the big takeaway from having winston on earlier this week the big takeaway on real estate um did he have any hot takes yeah i mean he did great kind of processing with some of the callers through there i think. I think the biggest thing is if you're

doing investment real estate while you still have other risks, whether that's a mortgage on your primary home and other things, it's not worth it in the long run because usually the cash flow that comes in from the rental doesn't have a big weight because of everything else you have to do with it. So if you think it's kind of this get rich quick, oh, if I own this, I'll be great. It's a little bit more difficult than that. That's good. Good summary. Thank you for that.

You're welcome. More of your calls coming up right here on The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The ramsey show i'm george campbell joined by best-selling author host of the rachel cruz show rachel cruz herself here with me today the number to call is 888-825-5225 well rachel a lot of people send us stuff on instagram and the dms like things that they think are funny or that will rile us up. And occasionally enough people send a video to me that I'm like, we got to put this on the show. It's funny. It's worth everyone's time. So I want to play it for you. You've seen this because I saw you comment on the video. It's from a comedian who lives in New York City named Nathan McIntosh. I want to give

him credit on this one. And it's a hilarious bit on student loans. So let's check that out. How did we ever decide to lend students money in the first place? Didn't that seem like a terrible idea? Somebody just out of high school, they have one poster to their name. Why? There are people with jobs and credit who can't get loans. They walk into banks with business plans. They're like two-year projection, five-year projection. The bank's the bank's like get out of here man it'll never work and then some kid waddles in what do you need horse literature degree okay here's eighty thousand dollars so good it's so true though it's funny because it's true that's what they say because it's true people come with business plans show roi show

show everything you know and they still get turned down and they get turned down but student loan companies will just give out free money going you'll be fine just get your horse literature degree you know it doesn't even matter if you graduate we're gonna give you eighty thousand dollars that's on the low end that's right for real for oh my goodness well there's a there's truth to it and there's also the story behind it, which we cover in Borrowed Future, both on the podcast and the documentary. But Sally Mae and the government, you know, they co-mingled. They're in cahoots with each other.

And they said, the government's like, hey, Sally Mae, we need more people to get educations. So we'll cover the loans. If they can't pay, the government will back it. Yep. And so it began the federally backed student loan program and student loan companies are going sweet we're just going to give out as much money as possible the colleges love it they're going to sweet we'll raise prices we can keep raising tuition and they still get the money and they still and it's just this wonderful cycle that's happening in america today and it's it's crazy do you feel a backlash from college though right now? Like, do you feel people are pushing back against the idea? Yeah. I think

Gen Z are the ones going, this is stupid because they're seeing their brothers, sisters, family still paying off student loans with student loan forgiveness dangling out there. And they're going, this isn't the path. So we're seeing a lot of Gen Z folks who are going, I'm going to turn my side hustle into the full-time thing. And so I respect the hustle of these younger generations who are going, I'm too smart to fall for something this stupid. Because we're all for higher education. I mean, I think it's wise to continue to learn and to grow, but it's when the ROI doesn't play out in the marketplace, right? I mean, he's joking about horse literature, but there really are the most- I feel like there should be legislation around what degrees you can even offer.

I mean, seriously, because you can't go into the marketplace with that degree and make that amount of money. If you go to a private school, not even like a super fancy one, but just even like a liberal arts, even some of these Christian colleges that are private, you're paying $140 getting out. They're so expensive for a degree that's not going to make that in the marketplace. So, yeah, it's, I think, yeah, people are finally waking up being like, okay, what? And now, granted, if you're, you know, a dentist or a doctor, I mean, like, there are obviously massive degrees to get that will create a wonderful career path and even a business degree, right? I mean, there are still degrees to be had. And we have degrees. We can call that out.

Yeah, we both went to college. But then you're still just looking at the ROI. I don't know. Yeah. I don't think the degree is what caused any level of my success. You know what I mean? The degree itself. Right. I know. It it's great it's a check mark but more and more employers even ramsey solutions is going do you have the skills do you have the talents are you a culture fit did you get the experience and knowledge from somewhere and because i think the degree is just watered down that almost everyone has one right like when our parents it was special we're doing it yeah it set you apart it did and now it's like well everyone can get one because anyone can get alone to the comedian's

point like you know you anyone can just walk in and get alone so yeah it doesn't create that like oh that weight that it used to and then us millennials we were we were right on that front end of the of the crisis so yeah i don't know it's an interesting conversation to have well go watch borrowed future if you are a parent if you are a student and you're curious about this stuff, we lay it out in 88 minutes flat and it will create some amazing conversations with you, your kids, and get you riled up about this problem, which I think we should be riled up about. And we shouldn't be waiting on the government to fix it because we could be waiting a few lifetimes. Let's get to the phones. Luke joins us up next in Kansas City. Luke, welcome to the show.

How are you guys? Doing great. How are you? Doing good. So, calling in about student loans. Perfect. Oh, great. So, yeah, perfect, right? So, my wife and I, we have a combined about $47,000 worth of student loans. Uh, $37,000 of that comes from me and the other 10,000 is from my wife. Um, so over the last two and a half years, we've taken advantage of this, no interest here or not having to pay our loans. And we saved up about $60,000. Um, so we have that to pay it off. Um. So since we started doing that, we've started investing into our 401k, which I do have a follow-up question on that. But the question is, you know,

I don't want to rely on the government and I don't necessarily agree that they should pay it off, but is it worth going ahead and throwing that money there and paying those loans off? Or, you know, we've waited this long. Should we wait just a little longer to see if it actually happens or not? Luke, you know our answer. I know. I was afraid. What are you going to do with that money if you don't pay off the student loans? Well, the only debt we do have right now is the student loans and our house payment. And we have about $110,000 left on our mortgage. So it could go to that. But I mean, we're at the point now to where I started investing my 15% into my 401k Roth. And my wife, I finally got her talked into doing at least 10%. She's not 100% on board with paying the loans off.

I mean, she's to the point she's looking at cars, and I'm trying to talk her out of it. So, you know. So here's the thing, Luke. What we have found with people with debt scripture says the borrower is slave to the lender and whether you believe with scripture or not it's a saying of wisdom that when you are in debt and you owe someone something there is a level of a there's a lack of freedom that you just naturally have and it may not be a hundred percent financially in

your boat right because you have the money to pay it off not be 100% financially in your boat, right? Because you have the money to pay it off. But there is something to be said, I think from a mental health standpoint, I think from a spiritual element, there's just something when you know you owe someone something. And when you pay it off and you have the money, Luke,

so today is what we would say that when you get off the phone with us, you guys freaking just log into your account and pay this thing off. There is a small weight that you are carrying, even though you have the money in the bank, there is something to be said that when you don't owe anyone anything,

there is a level of freedom that comes, a level of levity, a level of peace that you just can't fully have when someone else's name is attached to your income and to your life. And so from the financial perspective, we're all about getting out of debt because when you free up your income,

you can invest it, you can build wealth, you can do so much with your income versus it going back out to car payments and credit cards and student loans and all this. But then there's that other element, and Dr. John Deloney talks about this from the mental health perspective, that there is, again,

there is something that happens in the human, I think, body, mind, spirit, soul, when you are just free, when no one else, when you don't owe anything. And so I would say, you guys pay this off, pay it off today.

And if she just wants to get back I would say you guys pay this off. Pay it off today. And if she just wants to get back into $43,000 of debt again, if she just so misses debt, if she misses it and you guys want to go get back in as a couple, there are plenty of ways to go back into debt if you guys want. But I guarantee you, when you guys pay it off and you look forward to your future and you see money that is saved, you see money that is saved for a car and you guys cash flow these purchases, there's a reason people don't go back into debt.

Pay it off. You'll still have $13,000. Call that your emergency fund. Now you can actually invest with pure freedom. But you're lying to yourselves if you think you have $60,000. You don't because you owe the student loan companies $47,000. That's bad math. Yeah. Net worth is your, yeah. You don't because you owe the student loan companies 47. That's bad math. Net worth is what you owe and that's the truth.

You know what to do, man. You got this. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel here with Rachel Cruz this hour, and we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. You know what's interesting, George, is when you start to change the way you think about money and you actually start to win with money, those changes spill over to other areas of your life.

So before you know it, you're not just out of debt, but your mental health, your job, your marriage relationships start getting better. And that's what happens. We talk about all those things at the SMART Conference. So this is two action-packed days that you'll leave with a plan to win with money, get free of anxiety,

and start knocking out all of your goals for the future. And this is our biggest event that we do here at Ramsey Solutions. So you don't want to miss it. This is more than just money. This is about your entire life. And so we really say that this one weekend could change so much because there's so much content around your entire life. So we are actually going to have the Smart Conference this fall in Chicago, which we are so excited about. So Chicago, Illinois, we'll be there for the Smart

Conference weekend in September the 15th and the 16th. So it's Dave Ramsey, Dr. John Deloney, George Camel, Jade Warshaw, Ken Coleman, and myself. We will be in Chicago for the Smart Conference weekend, and we would love to see you there. You can get early bird tickets that just start at $79. We've got VIP level tickets that include a lot of swag and opportunities to meet all of the Ramsey personalities. Plus we have a new platinum package

that includes dinner with Dave and all the Ramsey personalities. So go to ramsesolutions.com slash events for tickets and start to take charge and control over your life. Love it. And I assume we'll be getting and control over your life. Love it. And I assume we'll be getting deep dish at some point.

We better. I think that needs to happen. And probably a live Smart Money Happy Hour recording. We've been doing that in some of these and they're so fun. And they're so fun. I can't promise it, but we'll push for it. We will try. Rachel's got some pull around here.

We will try hard. All right, let's go to the phones. Cody joins us up next in Atlanta, Georgia. Cody, welcome to the show. Are you with us, Cody? Yes, I am. Can you hear me? Yeah.

How's it going? How can we help? I'm good. Hey, so I had a question as far as collections went. Got a collection bill working on pretty much paying off all the debt, and that's pretty much the last one. I was seeing, I know Dave recommends do a cashier's check for it. I was seeing, is privacy.com okay for something like that,

or should I really probably do a cashier's check on it? So privacy.com, where'd you hear about that? I've been using it for a bit. I know how it works. I was just seeing, you know. Yeah. Well, I was curious because we've talked about it on this show and producer James Childs is a fan too. But I can see that being a good tool because you can set limits on it. And so that's what you want to look out for is you don't want to give them just blind access to your account. And so you can set a limit where you say, hey, this is a one-time transaction. It creates a virtual debit card based on your actual debit card. So it's a lot safer and you can set those limits. So that would be a good

modern way to do this. How much is the debt that's the last one i have two other medical bills and then me and my wife have no debt that's called you and rachel um actually a couple months ago about uh selling the very nice car that i had bought. And you did it? Yes, I did. And bought another one in cash. That's awesome. Cody. It's fun to hear the where are they now stories. They actually listen to us. It does. We're so shocked, honestly. We're like, nope, they're not going to sell the car.

Paid off. Nope. Paid off the student loans, too. I don't have those. I don't have to worry about, you know. Good for you, Cody. That's awesome. And you have the money to pay off the collections debt today? Yep. And I still have above, you know, a couple thousand in a emergency fund. Nice. And you're going to knock out those medical debts with some of that money? Yep. As soon as they're done processing. Yep. Man, that's awesome. Good for you, Cody. We're excited for you. Yeah. That's great. But that's totally cool. If you want to

do privacy.com, just make sure you have those parameters on there to set limits. Can I be ignorant for a second? You can. What is it? So it's a website and I use it for like trial subscription things because it creates a virtual debit card. So it has totally different numbers than your debit card, but it's attached to your debit card. And you can set limits and say, hey, this is for one transaction only. You can only use this up to $100. This only works for the next 30 days.

And so you can set a lot of cool parameters on this virtual debit card. And you use it for trials for subscriptions? Yeah. So websites where I'm like, hey, I don't want to forget. Yes. Or sites I'm like, I don't want to put my actual debit card information. So it's great for actual data protection, fraud, things like that, because I can just shut down that card, delete it anytime I want.

Yeah. So it's a really cool tool that people can use when shopping online for safety. So I would use it across all online shopping. Interesting. Because there's a big fear out there. People go, I'm going to use my credit card, Rachel, because the debit card is not safe. That's your money if they take it.

Yeah, yeah. So this card virtually is different. You can set all kinds of take it. Yeah, yeah. So this card virtually is different. You can set all kinds of different parameters. Okay. So it's a cool tool. Hashtag not sponsored. But, you know, I think it's a pretty cool product. Yeah, I think it's awesome.

There's some great, that's what's funny about the financial products out there. There's some that are just terrible. And I feel like we talk about those on this show a lot to warn you all. Yes. And then there's those that are actually very helpful and useful and there you go.

Most financial products exist to sell you debt. And this one actually is for the debit card users out there. Yes. Keep us safe. Love it. All right. Andrew is in Providence, Rhode Island. Andrew, welcome to the show. Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? So I'm on baby step seven, 33, 33 years old and my wife and I, um, are looking to build our future house and I hired a real estate professional, got some numbers and I'm a G I'm GC in the project myself. And with all the numbers that I came up with, um, I'm going to be into the house for $975,000. That does not include the land. I paid for the land in cash.

Awesome. So with that being said, I can't borrow more than $300,000 to stay within my 25% of my monthly income between my wife. And with the sale of my house at the bare minimum at $550,000, I'm going to be short roughly $125,000. The project is going to take roughly a year to build. And in that time, I would be obviously saving money.

So my question to you is, do I pull the trigger with proceeding with building the house, knowing that within the next year I can't save the $125,000? Or do I wait to save that $125,000 and then go ahead and sell my house and stop building my house? I'm just concerned with the real estate market right now. Yeah. How much, how much do you make, Andrew? Between me and my wife, we're roughly 200, 225,000 a year. And do you guys have a lifestyle that would support you saving $125,000 in a year? Yeah. So her and I are extremely frugal. We literally, we don't do anything. We don't have any car payment. We don't go out. Yeah.

It's our dream to build this house. And within the last six years listening to you guys, I've paid my house off in cash, and I've paid a piece of land that was worth $225,000 in cash. Awesome. That's great. So when would you have to actually have any money due? Would you get a construction loan for this? Yeah, so I would pull out a construction loan loan and I'd be borrowing $300,000.

But I'd be short based off of the numbers. And the numbers that I came up with, I fluffed up. I have a spreadsheet and I added a little bit onto each one just because I know things can change within a year, construction costs and whatnot. Yeah. And also the sale of my house, I went on the low end at 550. My real estate professional said roughly I could get anywhere between 550 and six on the high end. So that's not net of fees. Correct. Okay. Correct. Yeah. So I have to also factor that in i mean i'm i feel like this is a little bit on the risky side i might give it some pause until we're closer to that finish line because right now you're battling what if the housing market moves and what about if i don't have the 125 what if our income changes just gives me some pause yeah i mean honestly i would i would

feel comfortable with you guys trying to cashflow the 125,000 because my husband and I, when we were building, we were short a little bit and we just knew within that nine months what we were gonna make. We had locked in our income, so we knew that. But my only fear, honestly, Andrew, is that it's contingent on the sale of your home.

And with the market being so crazy, that almost makes me more nervous. If you guys could pause for nine months, 12 months, and save some cash and have some buffer, I think that would give me more relief and more peace during the process versus being so stressed out. So I would probably pause, like George said,

just for a little bit, save some money, and then proceed. But I think you've run your numbers well, and I trust that, yeah. And also, live a little. You guys have worked so hard. Enjoy your life. Do go out. So create some goals in all of those areas

and you'll get that dream home in no time. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey, we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way.

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