The Ramsey Show - App - Should We Start Saving Now for Having Kids in the Future? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 11, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm John Deloney, here with my good friend, best-selling author, and pretty cool person, Mrs. Rachel Cruz. How are you? Doing great, John. This is fun. We never co-hosted together. This will be the greatest hour in radio history, probably.

Hopefully. Or maybe not. Or maybe not. Hey, before we get going, what do we got going on Friday? Yes, we have a fun event. We did the run-throughs this morning for it. Yes. It's going to be really fun.

It's going to be super fun. Money and Marriage. And the live stream starts at this morning for it. Yes. It's going to be really fun. It's going to be super fun. Money and Marriage. And the live stream starts at 7 p.m. Central Time. That's right. Friday nights. This Friday. Yes. Tomorrow, if you're listening live.

And you can still get tickets right now at DaveRamsey.com. But yeah, it's going to be a fun event because these two subjects in our lives are huge, right? There's the big parts of our lives, our health, our kids, but marriage is always part of that conversation. Money is always part of that conversation. So it's, uh, it's going to be fun. And all over the, the, the, the country this year, I've been taking call after call about, man, we've become great co-parents. We've been we've had to figure out schooling from home working from home all the stuff man our marriage has gotten rocky it's gotten messy right we've become roommates what

do we do now right and you've been talking to a person after person dealing with loss of a job furloughed unsteady income so man we're gonna join forces superpowers and have a blast well what's interesting too is i'm like 2020 was a fascinating year because for some people, yeah, their marriages, I mean, they're hanging on by a thread. Yeah. You look up and you're like, wow, I actually don't like my spouse because we're forced to actually see each other, right, for a while. All the time.

Or you got the election and they're like, you believe what? Yeah. Right? And it's in the same house? Yes. I mean, all of that. Or I've talked to some couples that have thrived. It's been the best ever. Yes. I mean, all of that. Or I've talked to some couples that have thrived. It's become the,

it's been the best ever. Because they have had more family time. They've kind of reestablished these values in their home. Like, man, I just miss this. And so it's this wide spectrum

and the same with money. For some people, they've been laid off, furloughed, stressed out, freaked out. 40% of Americans can't cover a $400 emergency

in cash. I mean, like, they're struggling and they feel it. Yep. Or some people, they're in this niche business, and they've had the best year of their life in their business because they make plexiglass or whatever their thing is.

Right, right. They're booming, and all these revenues are coming in. They can't believe it. So, I mean, it's just like the spectrum has been magnified. That's right. Do you feel that way? Well, it's almost everything's been put under a microscope. And we always say stress reveals what your default setting is, right?

I don't want to say who you are because that's a character issue, but stress reveals how you normally handle things. Do you turtle up and just wait for the storm to go over? Or like the teacher we talked to that just said enough's enough and took on 47 jobs in New York City, right? And paid off everything and now she is free and now she's fair. Everybody responds differently to your marriage when you realize we're going to be locked in a house indefinitely. Right. Let's make this awesome. Or do you realize I don't like you, right?

You have to figure it out. And what's cool about Friday night is we're going to be talking to everybody, right? That's right. If you're trying, if you're hanging on by a thread and you feel there's only a few strings left, join us. If you want to level up, like, hey, we found a new stride here. We want to run even faster. Join us, man.

It's going to be a blast. It's going to be exciting. DaveRamsay.com to get your tickets. Tomorrow night, it's going to be a hoot. Alright, let's go to Lynn in Houston, Texas, my hometown. H-Town. Lynn, what's going on? Hi. I'm here with my husband, Mitchell.

Hey, yo. Hey, guys. Are you guys setting this up? Yeah. So we got married in July. We're both 23. And we have a question sort of looking forward into our future, like in the three to five years out. We're hoping to

transition into like the next phase of life with me staying home with kids we hope to have in the future. And we're just sort of thinking about if there's like another savings account we need to have at this point to start preparing for that. To be saving for the kids. You know, honestly, Lynn, no. I think the fact that you're thinking about it and understanding, okay, once you have kids, if you want to be a stay-at-home mom, obviously that cuts your income in half if one income drops.

And so being aware of that. So there's a part that you're having, the dinks, the dual income, no kids, that you can really get ahead. I've never heard of that. A dink? Nope, never heard of the dinks. My brother has been a dink for a while.

I'm like, double income, no kids. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. Learning new things on the Day of Rehabilitation. So you guys can get ahead financially with these two incomes coming in. But then, so take advantage of that now is what I'm saying. And then once, whether you get pregnant, you guys decide to adopt, however that happens for you guys, once that process starts, and then you can say, okay guys decide to adopt, however that happens for you guys,

once that process starts, and then you can say, okay, now let's look at our lifestyle, start to pan back and get used to living this certain lifestyle with this one income. But I would not necessarily have a separate savings account right now. But I think once that process really begins, you're pregnant or adoption, whatever that looks like that begins, then I would kind of bunker down and say, okay, let's start cutting our lifestyle so we can get used to it because there's going to be whiplash with a baby and then whiplash with dropping an income. And good for you, Lynn, for y'all planning ahead. I don't know many 23-year-olds that think past next Tuesday, so good for you guys, man.

That's incredible. I don't know that I knew what next week was going to look like when I was 23, so good for them. All right, let's go to Christian in San Antonio. Christian, what's going on? How can we help? Hello, how are you guys doing? Hi, doing great. How are you?

Miss Rachel, I don't know if you remember who I am, but I talked to you back in March. You talk to a lot of people I know. I was the one about calling about how I was so scared about COVID and me quitting for a semester and how I wanted to, you know, fill up my emergency fund. Does that ring a bell? Yes, it does. It does. Yes. Oh, well, hello. Hi. I wanted to say, first of all, that I am doing very well. I don't know what the heck I was thinking. I let fear get over me. So get to the point, right? I actually not paid off my debt. I am in my last semester.

I paid off all my student loans. I am done. No more debt. I'm so happy. Way to go, brother. Well done. Yes, yes. And right now what I'm, I listened to your father.

I wish that he was there, but I know I'm sure you can just pass the message. I decided to do a DoorDash, and I'm doing pretty okay. But anyways, let me get to the point, right, because you guys have a lot of stuff to do. So my question for today is this for you, Dr. John, and for Rachel, is that I know what I have to do. I read the book and everything else, but to both of you, I do feel like I've been feeling a little bit overwhelmed because I'm trying to get $10,000 for my emergency fund. That isn't my goal.

And the thing is that with everything that's going on, with me, like, say, doing a 45-minute workout, door dashing, doing my school. My problem is that I have a lot of time, but I just have horrible time management. I will admit that I have a problem with procrastination. You know, I'm putting things off, and I know it's important, but I tend to sometimes get a little bit depressed,

and I get overworked, and I'm just wondering to any of you, like, how can I make sure that I don't lose steam because yesterday literally was the day that I did not do anything because I was just so down the dumps. It's just one of those moments that's why I wanted to talk. We have a hard break coming up but I want you to stay on the line and we'll talk about it

because I think there's a couple of pieces of this story that I think will be great for the listeners. That's great. Hang in there, Christian. We'll be right back. You have some good stuff, man. We'll get to you right here on the Ramsey Show. I heard a statistic recently that absolutely blew my mind. In the U.S. alone, over 3,000 people die every day without life insurance. Now, I don't want to sound unsympathetic, but this drives me crazy. What are people thinking?

I don't understand how taking care of your family is not a top priority. Most of you probably just spent a bundle on Christmas on things you really didn't even need. And now you're making New Year's resolutions that are focused on yourself. But if you want to use the New Year as a reason to do something right, like protecting your family, then take care of it right now before it's too late. Term life insurance is something every family needs, and that's why I talk about it every day. It's not complicated, it's not expensive, and Zander Insurance is the only place I recommend. Go to Zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282.

Please learn from other people's mistakes and get this taken care of. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. This is the Ramsey Show. I'm Dr. John Deloney, joined with my good friend and best-selling author, Rachel Cruz. And we're taking your calls on life, taking your calls on money, your relationships, whatever's going on in your life. Give us a shout at 888-825-5225. We're talking to Christian in San Antonio, and Christian has been busting it. He has been working like crazy to get his school paid off, to get his debts paid off,

and he's almost there. Now he's working on, or he's cleaned off his debts. Now he's working towards an emergency fund, and he's just sometimes running out of steam. Is that right, Christian? Pretty accurate, yeah. And so what's your main question? How to better manage your time? How not to be a stress? Yeah so what's your main question? How to better manage your time, how not to be stressed? Yeah, what's your main question?

It is more of just how do I, you know, keep everything aligned? I mean, I guess you can say time. Like I said before, and I'll be honest in the fact that I do have time because I don't really have a full-time job. It's all part-time work. But, you know, from what they say is that, you know, more time, it seems that I tend to procrastinate a lot. Hey, Christian, why are you getting out of debt?

Why are you getting an emergency fund? Like, what's the purpose? The purpose, well, mainly is to help my family out. I'm not doing it for me. I'm doing it more for, you know, my family to make sure that, say, if something goes wrong, I can help my, you know, my family out make sure that say if something goes wrong i can help my you know my family out i would think that's main the main reason i just don't want to you know i don't want my family to suffer so if there's something that goes wrong i have the money right

there for it and you know it's less stress for the family so and it'll be a nice feeling to do it i know that's another thing too if i got to mention that. Always ask yourself why, right? You know, I ask myself, why am I doing this? I know that's a big thing is why I do things. So, Christian, I would say on the money piece of this, we always say baby steps one through three. We call it gazelle intensity, right, which you have done. I mean, you've been in school and you've still paid off your loans. I mean, it's just unbelievable.

So that is your intensity. So any moments you have, I would schedule your time like you did your debt snowball. Like you scheduled exactly where your money's going, right? Your budget for your money, you knew it was going. You were intentional. You had a plan or you wouldn't have paid off all that student loan debt in less than a year. So you have the intentionality bone in your body, if you will, to be able to use that towards your time and to know, hey, I'm going to be intense. I'm still going to do all my side work. If I have spare time, you know what, I'm going to still buckle down because your foot is to, you know, the pedals to the metal, if you will, on those baby steps one through three. And then knowing that end point, whatever that dollar amount is for your emergency fund, once that's completed, then you can kind of take a break off, you know,

put your foot off the gas and say, okay, what else can I be doing with my time? But being able to be constructive with your time, intentional with that, and then knowing, yeah, you're still going to stay intense through baby step three. And when it comes to the personal stuff, I always want to make sure, even when you're running gazelle intense, you want to have people in your life, Christian. You want to make sure you're spending time with folks, even if it's a few minutes,

even if you're working out with somebody, even if you are choosing to stay at home dinners or lunches, invite somebody over if you can. In Texas, I think they're opening back up. I don't know if they're ever even closed, but you want to make sure you've got people in your life. If you've got a lot of those thoughts and you were alluding to, man, I just start getting a little bit depressed. I don't want to get up. I feel like I got so much to do. Make sure you write those things out. Like you mentioned,

I love that idea, Rachel, of almost like every thought, almost like every dollar, right? Every thought. Budget your thoughts out, man, and demand evidence from them. And if one of them says, man, you're not going to get there. You're a loser. You're exhausted. You can say, nope, not true. And you can move on to the next one. And here's the last thing.

This is a not cool thing to say in certain circles, but you got to sometimes do it when you don't feel like it. We let ourselves get driven by our feelings sometimes and our emotions, and I just don't feel like it today. That's when you really got to do it, right? And if you've got that budget, if you've got that time budget,

you've got that process budget, then you're going to look at it and say, nope, I've got to go do this today. I've got to get that workout in. I've got to, I don't want to make my lunch today, but I've got to make my lunch today. You've got to make yourself do those things.

Don't forget to remember how good it feels when you get to the end of a day and you've got yet another victory, another small win. So, Christian, you are crushing it, man. You did so good since March when you called last time. You're an inspiration to everybody, man. You can make this work.

Good for you. We're proud of you, brother. All right, let's go to Sam in Dayton, Ohio. Sam, what's going on? How's it going, guys? Thank you so much for taking my call. Thanks for giving us a shout. How can we help?

So I'm 25, and both my parents have passed away. My mom passed away in 2015, and then my dad passed away about three weeks ago. Oh, Sam, I'm sorry, man. I appreciate that. I've got a lot of really good people around me, And so it's been a lot easier to, uh, like, you know, handle this whole crisis. I know that you were saying to the last caller that having people around you is super important and I couldn't agree more. I'm lucky to have the friends that I have. Um, uh, to get to the point, I am receiving an inheritance from my dad. I'm not entirely sure how much it's going to be. It's going to be between $250,000 and $400,000.

$27,000 of it is going to be coming to me in the next few weeks, and the rest of it is tied up in the estate, and it has to stay open in Ohio for six months. And it's more money than I've ever had to deal with before or ever had the opportunity to deal with because I am very similar to Rachel. I'm a spender and I'm not great at naturally saving. So I've been kind of an ish kind of guy

and I'm not in really any debt. I've got like a $2,000 medical bill, but that's it. And I feel like this has kind of given me an opportunity to financially reset and do things the correct way. And I know nothing about investing, know nothing about handling this sort of money. And I'm just completely out of my league. Yeah. Well, it's a great question. So you said you have about $2,000 medical debt, no other debt, no student loans, car loans, nothing. Do you have any other savings?

I did before 2020, but I was the little pig in the straw house, so that went away pretty quickly. For sure. Okay, so what I would say, Sam, is that $27,000 you're going to get pretty instantly, and I would go ahead, just pay off the medical debt, and then I would set everything else in a money market account. You can open one on an online bank or a local bank, but it's going to get you a little bit better rate of return than versus a traditional savings account. But usually with some money market accounts, at least mine, I can say you can't just use it as a checking account. You can't just continue to write checks.

You can write like two checks a month or something. So it will help prevent you to spend it all. And it's in a separate account, not your checking. So it's over here. And I would let that sit. I would let that be your emergency fund. And then when you receive everything else, it's going to be, like you said, it's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. And so I would have someone in my corner that can help me. So we have smart investor pros all over the country. And so I would really sit down with someone, interview a couple of people in that investment

world and find someone that has the heart of a someone, interview a couple of people in that investment world and find someone that has the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman is what we always say. And that's so true because you'll feel them. Like you'll sit down, Sam, and some guy will start talking and you're gonna be like, gross. Like he's just gross, right?

You can just pick up on people. He's just gross. Yeah, I don't like him. I don't like him. So find someone that you really, really like on a personal level, honestly, because that's gonna lead to say, okay, I trust you and them. I don't like them. So find someone that you really, really like on a personal level, honestly, because that's going to lead to say, hey, okay, I trust you.

And you're doing all of this because they are teaching you along the way. And so since you said, I know nothing about investing, have them teach you and say, hey, here's what a Roth IRA looks like. Hey, your company matches. Okay, well, let's put X amount up.

Like do different things or have them talk to you about different options. So that would be one thing I would do. And then do you own a home? Are you renting? No, I rent. Okay. I rent and I'm actually getting ready to move across the country here once I get this whole estate thing dealt with.

Oh, wow. Okay, perfect. So I would wait probably a year in your new city wherever you're moving before you settle down. But you could also use some of that for a house, whether a down payment or not. And Sam, so as you cycle through this, was your father's passing, did you all know it was coming? Was it out of the blue? It was relatively out of the blue.

He was in kind of declining health. He wasn't a big fan of doctors and making sure to keep up on his health. And so it wasn't completely unexpected, but the timing of it really, really was. I had just seen him like four days beforehand and had no idea. Oh, wow. Well, you're going to experience this grief with him being your dad, with him being your second parent. This is going to come in waves and in stages. You're going to wrestle with this. You're running on adrenaline right now. Over the next few months, I love this rule in Ohio. I recommend nobody make any major decisions with this type of

inheritance for three to six months to a year. Once you get that check, you're going to have a whole other wave of grief. There's going to be some finality to it, so make sure you've got people in your life. And then do what's going to honor your parents with this money, right? Is that going to be a home that you pay for in cash? Is that going to be setting yourself up down the road so that you are completely taken care of? What is the thing that's going to best honor your parents? Take your time. You're in no rush. I'm Dr. John Deloney, joined here with my good friend and bestselling author, Rachel Cruz, and we're taking your calls on life and money.

Give us a shout at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Let's go to Paula in Santa Barbara, California. Paula, what's going on? Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Thank you so much for calling in. What's going on?

How can we help? Well, I wanted to see if buying property with my sister and my parents, or a land basically, makes any sense. My parents live with me, and they have just a little bit of savings. And so they have like about $100,000. And then my sister has about that same amount. And then I would have to sell my house in order to come up with that same amount of money. And I have no other debt besides my mortgage. And so, you know, we've kind of considered finding land where we can all build.

But I don't know if it makes any financial sense. I mean, you know, building is pretty expensive. Are you all going to, so you're talking about pooling all of your money to buy some land. You're going to make like a little family commune? Basically, yes. Will you own your own individual portion of it, Paula, or are you guys going to just own the whole land together? Well, we just talked about it. So we don't know what the right way would, I mean, if there's any way that we can actually make it work. We know that it has to

be clear from the start so that we don't have any issues in the future, which basically I think would mean dividing the land so that it's already divided on the get-go, I think. So what's driving this? Why do you guys want to do this? Well, basically my parents. The fact that, you know, yeah, they don't have a place to work, to retire. And my sister doesn't own a home. She rents where she lives.

And so I'm like the only one that has, that owns a home. And so it just seems like it could be the best way so that we can all have something. Do you want to do this, Paula? Yeah, I mean, because I have four kids and we have a three-bedroom home, so I'm hoping that we can build a bigger house where maybe four rooms where my kids can actually have a room. And then it just seems like it could be where we could actually have some farm animals and stuff. Do you have the money to go build a four-bedroom house, Paula?

No, we don't. We just have the money to buy the land, basically. Yeah. Well, from just the numbers you've given and where you're at, I don't feel financially you're not there to a part that I would feel good advising you to say, hey, go and do this step right now. Yeah. Santa Barbara, you're in an expensive area and your sister's life and everything is not

your responsibility. John can speak more into this. Your parents, I know we all respect and honor our parents and love our parents and want to take care of them. But there is something to be said to Paula that you have to make sure that you're in a good spot and that you and your kids are OK. And for you, that would mean being completely debt free, having some money in the bank for an emergency fund and working on those basics is going to be the best bet. Even though the house is cramped, I know it's stressful. It's exhausting. all of that. But I think you're going to put yourself in a worse financial

position if you move forward, considering you own a home, you don't have the money to build one, you're gonna have to sell your current home to buy the land with your sister who doesn't have the money. Or she does, but she's renting. I mean, all of it. It does not sound like the best case scenario. It sounds like one of those ideas that got floated at dinner and sounded like oh this could be a solution it's not a solution because nobody can afford to do this your sister living in an apartment can't afford to pitch in and buy property and build a home on this thing right it's it's a fantasy it sounds so cool and i chickens. I love goats and horses. Whatever you want to put on your land, it sounds so fun.

This is going to turn into a nightmare. A secondary part of this question, and Rachel, you alluded to this. Man, when you split land with your family members, we're just going to all put it in a big pot. It's just going to be ours forever, right? Somebody gets married, and that husband always wants his other friend's brother-in-law to come hunt on that land or hey he's just gonna leave his dogs out here it just gets messier and messier they move and want to loot and they need that money so yeah i need you to buy me both out both of you need to buy me out we can't afford to and so i'm gonna

rent it right it just turns into a mess and so your family. If you all want to go in on a plot together. Great. But you got to everybody's got to have it deeded up to where I own this piece. You own that piece and you own that piece. Otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for a mess. Yeah. And if you can afford it. And this is like the classic example of a home.

It should be a blessing, not a curse. And this is a situation that it's going to end up being a curse down the road. It's going to be hard. And bless you, Paula. Your heart is so big we can we can feel it here in nashville you got four kids uh a small home your house is mayhem right now and you're thinking well i guess i could just figure this out no yeah that's not a good idea i love your heart i love your family's heart this isn't a good idea you have to come to come up with something else. Sorry to be the bad guys here today. I'm not sorry.

I am. I'm just a softie. All right, let's go to Will in Oxford, Mississippi. What's up, brother Will? How can we help? Hey, how are you? Good, man. I was just calling.

I'm 22 years old. I'm a senior in college now. I'll be graduating in December. And I'm currently a manager at a retail store. I'm making around $30,000 a year. And I've gotten out about $15,000 in college loans. And now I'm just paying on college as I go. And I've kind of read David's book, The Money Makeover Plan, and I've saved about $7,000 for like an emergency fund. So I guess my question is, what should I do next?

I would hold tight, Will, with that $7,000, and I would pay. Do you have the money to pay for fall's tuition because you're going to be graduating in December? That's kind of what i'm trying to wonder should i pay for that now yes and like just save up enough for the next tuition year exactly yes so you're gonna be working your way through that's what i've been that's what i've been doing then that's great then that's great and even will if you didn't even if you have next month's tuition and you still have that seven grand i would say pause just pause everything while you're in school

you're doing great you're working and you're saving that's all you need to be doing because the best investment right now is in will so making sure you graduate debt free is your number one goal uh and then once you graduate then you can be using that money you saved up in college to do things like pay off any other debt that you have, save up that emergency fund, start investing, like doing that. But while you're in school, you just save and make sure you can pay cash to go through school. Yeah, I don't know a lot of college kids that are thinking, how can I be getting the most out of this money? But an amazing question and well done to you, because most people

average has $36,000 in student loan debt, and they're just going to be taking out more debt for next semester, but you're working your way through it. You're doing an amazing job. Good for you. Alright, Rachel, we're going to hit this one more time. Trying to find the perfect Valentine's gift. It is Thursday, and Valentine's is tomorrow.

I'm sorry. No, it's not. No, it's this weekend. I just screwed that up. It's coming, but we've got it for you. Sheila, it's this weekend. I just screwed that up. It's coming, but we've got it for you. Sheila, John's wife, I got your girl. Man. All right, consider this your friendly reminder. In order to make real progress with your money, you've got to be on the same page as your spouse,

which clearly I am. You need to work together to create a budget and a plan that will help you reach your goals. To help you get on the same page, we've gathered up all of our best-selling books, budgeting tools, and bundles for couples in all in one big sale, so you can save up to 83% on the gifts that will help you reach your financial goals.

Folks, this is the last week for the sale. Plus, you don't want to miss the Big Money in Marriage livestream event that's tomorrow with me and Rachel. Rachel Cruz, the... We're going to have so much fun, I can't even wait. Visit us at DaveRamsey.com

backslash store to get your live stream tickets, your Valentine's Day gifts that will help you build a bright future for your spouse. Hurry! This sale ends on the real Valentine's Day, February 14th,

but the live event is tomorrow. Go get your tickets, DaveRamsey.com. I tell you what, it's going to be fun. It's going to be awesome. We'll be right back. today's scripture is from proverbs 16 16 it reads how much better to get wisdom than gold to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver. Sheryl Sandberg says, The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have. I like that.

The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have. Rachel, how often do people get to the top of wherever they think they're going? They get a leadership role, then they call it good. Oh, yeah. But you know what it takes for that is humility. To say, hey, I don't have it all. I need to learn.

Right? Yeah, we've got all these... That's the best leaders out there. It is. But it's also the best husbands and the best wives and the best teachers and the best professors

and the best plumbers. Everybody. It's when I get my plumber license. I'm done learning now. No, man. That just means you've crossed a line on this journey that's the rest of your life, right? Or we spent so much energy getting to the wedding. It's like, man, that's just the start.

You haven't even started playing yet, right? You've both got a lot to learn, right? I love that quote. The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have. That's awesome. Continuing to learn. All right. Let's go to Jonathan in Rochester, New York. Jonathan, what's going on, man? Yes, how are you guys doing today?

Outstanding. What's up? Great. So I got a question. So I graduated from college in May of 2019. I've been working since, and ever since I was like 16, I've been giving money to my advisor and just straight mutual funds. So I got quite a bit saved up there. I got about $160,000. Nice. You had a mutual fund when you were 16? Yeah. My parents had an advisor and I started going to him.

And I just have listened to him since I was a little kid because I figured, hell, he's 20 years ahead of me. And I just said, if he was in my position, what would he want me to do? And I've just always listened to him. Make sure you hug your parents every time you see them. Okay? Yeah, and then, so I still live at home and my mom just kind of told me that

kind of a good blessing. They said that they want to give me $200,000 to put towards a home. Is that their buyout? Is that their nice way of saying, dude, you got to go? Yeah, get out of the house, right? So my question now, so obviously the housing market's a little hot right now.

So do I sell some of the mutual fund and completely pay off the house, right? I can probably get a really nice house here that I would really be happy in for about $300. Do I sell some of the mutual fund to just be totally debt free or house free like that? Or do I keep some invested with a $100,000 mortgage, which I could comfortably afford to pay? I don't know what you guys would recommend. Jonathan, any of the mutual funds, they're not retirement based, right? It's not a Roth or an IRA or anything? No, it's not it's not a roth or an ira straight up broke it straight up brokerage fund yes straight up brokerage fund uh i don't have any iras 401ks or anything like that all my money has been just in a straight brokerage fund since i've been a kid so if if you were to buy a two hundred thousand dollar house what would that look like

it wouldn't i would have to put some money into fixing it. Honest to God, I've been like for a little bit. No, no, it's fair. I would need to spend about $300 to be something that I would be. And if I do that, I mean, some of my buddies, I mean, they're all roughly graduating now, too. I graduated college in three years. So I'm a year ahead of a lot of my friends. And a lot of them were saying they would move in. So, I mean, I wouldn't be covering the mortgage by myself.

That's what I'm trying. That's why I kind of, I don't know. And how much income do you have? How much do you make a year? About $115,000 to $120,000. Okay. So, honestly, if I were you, Jonathan, I mean, either way, there's probably not a right or wrong because you technically have the cash just to go ahead and cash out the mutual funds,

buy the house outright, and then you have the time to invest because of how young you are. So to catch up on any kind of compound interest, you're going to be able to do that very, very quickly. So there's something I love about the idea of having a paid-for home, Jonathan. At 22? At 22 years old. Come on, man. And then you have the rest of your life to invest.

Right. That's almost where I would go. But knowing you have an emergency fund and you do have some savings in the bank oh yeah I do and that's why the only reason it was great is because you can get a rate for 2.5-3% right now and I know

a typical mutual fund will get me significantly more yes totally so the math so we say that a mortgage is the one type of debt I won't yell at you for and so yeah if you put down 200 get have a hundred thousand dollar mortgage and have the goal to pay it off in 18 months and say and then you have the mutual fund there all that it's just kind of like which way you want the the money to be if that makes sense so there's something i kind of love about the no risk no no debts. It's just fun for me.

I mean, obviously we're Ramsey, so we're going to kind of push the, I love the no debt. I love the no debt idea. Right. Because of how young you are and how much time you have left to invest. And Jonathan, I moved to Nashville a few years ago

and I didn't have a mortgage until recently. And I can tell you at this stage of life, I got two kids, I'm married. Dude, I want no, a mortgage until recently. And I can tell you at this stage of life, I got two kids. I'm married. Dude, I want no – I'm with Rachel. I would go into being my 23rd birthday owing nobody anything with a $300,000 paid for house and the rest. I get the math. And you wouldn't be where you are if you weren't really smart and really savvy.

The challenge for you is to understand the wisdom of the psychology of this, not the math part. You've got the math part, and you're going to look at the ROI on the interest rate versus this, and I can cover the gap there. I'm telling you right now, there's something to being completely debt-free over your own home. There's a psychology to it, man. That's where I'd lean. Absolutely. I know it's the wrong way. Congratulations, man. You were way a psychology to it, man. That's where I'd lean. Absolutely. Thanks, Josh, that much. Congratulations, man.

You were way ahead of the game, brother. Amazing. All right, let's go to Jacob in Seattle, Washington. Jacob, what's going on? I just got engaged with my girlfriend. And we are in the first stages of looking at what to plan for budget for a wedding. Congratulations, man. I don't have any kind of guidelines or anything. Thank you. of looking at what to plan for budget for a wedding. Congratulations, man.

I'm not sure if there's any kind of guidelines or anything. Thank you. Oh, man, you are talking to two people who probably did this very differently. Number one, Jacob, where are you guys financially? Are you bringing debt in the marriage? Do you have any savings? Do you have cash? Who's paying for the wedding?

Give me a little background. So I am currently in baby step three, and I have just been lazy in terms of putting my money forward to getting through in baby step three and i'm i have just been lazy in terms of putting my my money forward to getting through my baby step three so i've got about three thousand dollars out of my three to six months that's about one and a half months right now for me and then she has a ten thousand dollar car debt and that's it okay okay that's awesome she makes about thirty five thousand dollars a year and i'm about fifty five,000 a year, and I'm about $55,000 a year. Okay.

And who's responsible for paying for the wedding? It's going to be solely on us. My parents have shown interest in wanting to help, but I don't know what they're actually going to be able to contribute, and I'm not really expecting anything. Okay. So we're in February. When are you guys getting married? We're waiting. We're thinking about maybe waiting until COVID is over. But, I mean, that's kind of why we're asking about the budgeting and the money version of it

so we can kind of think where we need to be in terms of how much time we have to save up and what you guys recommend for that. So we don't have a date or anything set. Okay. Well, I never give a specific dollar amount by any means or even a percentage. So I would say for you guys, what you can pause right now and if you just saved as much as possible

for the next nine months, whatever that would be, and have that amount of cash there to say, okay, we have the ability to spend all of this on a wedding or we can spend half of this money on a wedding we can take the other half and put it towards the ten thousand dollar car loan after we get married and pay off debt and be in a better place financially all of that so the thing with weddings is you can go

real expensive you can go real cheap we had friends that got married during covet on zoom they literally were like you know what we're just gonna get. And they texted us like, get on at 6pm. We're just going to get married. And I know that's not everyone's cup of tea, but part of me was like, I kind of love that. Oh man. Yes. That sounds incredible. So just don't go crazy. Pay cash, number one.

And what you guys can say towards the wedding, have that amount of money because you can emotionally get attached to some of that cash to say, let's not spend it all. And just don't be emotional about your decisions. Yeah, and also don't be afraid to get married in a smaller ceremony. And a year from now, two years from now, when all the smoke is hopefully clearing on all this,

you can have the party of a lifetime. Yeah, don't wait on COVID, Jacob. You know what I mean? If you love her, just get married. Just do it. And then it's the year of 2020, 2021. You'll look back and tell your grandkids, yeah. That's right.

It was a pandemic, and then two years later. I had the party of a century that we paid for in cash. It was awesome. So, you know what? We're going to talk about weddings. You got saved by the bell on that one, Rachel. You got saved by the bell. Maybe tomorrow, John.

I want to thank producer James Childs and associate producer Kelly Daniel. Thank you, everybody, for joining us. Join us tomorrow night on the live stream Money & Marriage. Go to DaveRamsey.com to get your tickets. We hope to see you there. It's going to be a blast. Be kind to one another. Tell everybody that you know, that you love them.

We'll talk to you soon. This is The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.