The Ramsey Show - App - Sometimes You Just Need to Listen to Your Inner Nerd (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 15, 2019

The show about you

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave 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. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Any of you old enough to remember when the real estate market crashed in 2008? You couldn't give a house away. House prices dropped. Some of the markets, the bubble burst. There was some dramatic bubble bursting out there. Well, I'm happy to report that almost every market has returned its value. Home prices are back to where they were and beyond. And most major cities in America today, the real estate market is white hot, like 98% of them. There's a few places that have problems that are not national economy problems.

They're local economy problems. And, you know, the micro issues within that city are screwing up the city, but that's different. Most neighborhoods in most cities right now are white hot. You put a house on the market, you get multiple bids by the weekend. Most of the time right now you've got that. And that is driving prices up, of course, because any time you've got, it's a simple supply-demand economics lesson from the seventh grade if you had seventh-grade econ,

if there's such a thing anymore. But, you know, when there's a limited supply and a whole bunch of people chasing that limited supply that drives prices up when there's an oversupply and not as many people chasing is something as much as there is supply it drives prices down it's called a glut in the market it's pretty simple we know that scarcity drives price up in other words and when a market is white hot like the residential real estate market is right now prices are generally going up um and you know that is creating a couple of situations in the real estate world that we're running into out here and i'm talking to you about it

one problem is this market watch came out this week and I'm talking to you about it. One problem is this. MarketWatch came out this week and said 1.6 million homeowners are predicted to get new home equity lines of credit. Now that people have equity, what are they going to do? Go borrow it! Well, that's just stupid! But there's 1.6 million people out there. They're getting ready to do something stupid, according to this report.

Don't go borrow your equity out of your house, especially on a freaking home equity loan. It's the credit card of the mortgage world. You know what a home equity loan is? It's a good chance for you to lose your home. Let me tell you why. Most of them have an annual or a biannual every two-year call in them, meaning the bank can just decide they want all their money, and you have to go get another loan or have the cash to pay them off right then,

or they foreclose. I mean, it looks like something in an old 1930s movie or something. But everybody just bebops along and acts like it's nothing because usually they don't do that. But they have the right in the paperwork to just decide they don't like you anymore and call the loan. You know, the second thing is, you know what the interest rate on your home equity loan is based on? Your banker's mood. It's not tied to any index. It's not tied to any index it's not tied to any national publishing it's somewhat controlled

by competition but you know when they change they just change it it's completely variable and it's variable based on i think we can get a little more out of george this week let's just raise it and they just raise them or they they might lower them, but not very often. And so you are setting yourself up in a piece of crap loan with a call and a variable rate that is based on the banker's whim. That's just dumber than a rock. That's just dumber. You are asking for trouble.

And then when things turn down, you're going to go, oh, I didn't think that was stupid. Because, hey, when things are going really good stupid gets covered up stupid can look smart when things are good but like warren buffett says when the tide goes out you can tell he was skinny dipping when things go down his home equity loan is gonna be oh i had no idea well where were you in 2008 i mean were you not born yet? Seriously. How did you have no idea? You didn't even look at it. All you cared about was I wanted a new kitchen, princess. Come on.

Shut up. Stupid butt stuff. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't borrow this equity out. You're supposed to be building wealth in the ownership of your home, not constantly borrowing it out to buy crap. And that's what your home equity.

I'm going to move my credit card debt over there. I paid off my credit card debt with a home equity loan. See, that statement right there is the dumbest thing I ever heard. Here's why it's dumb. You didn't pay off your credit card debt. You moved it onto your mortgage. So you go to the steakhouse and eat a steak. Talk about buying a depreciating asset on debt.

Put that on a credit card, and then when you can't pay the credit card, you roll it over to a home equity loan. Then when you can't pay the home equity loan, you put it in your refinance on your new 30-year mortgage. So now you've financed a freaking steak over 30 years. This is stupid on steroids. And this is what people do regularly. This is a problem, folks.

It's a problem. Every time things get good, people do regularly. This is a problem, folks. It's a problem. Every time things get good, people get lazy, financially fat, sassy, and undisciplined and not watching what you're doing. One of the key elements to becoming a millionaire is not borrow on your house. It's get your stinking house paid off. It's one of the key elements of becoming a millionaire. All the data points show us that. This is the stuff I made up.

Don't go borrowing your home equity loan. And, oh, by the way, some of you that have been thinking about selling your house, I don't know what you're waiting on. I can't. You know, you're supposed to buy low and sell high. It's high. It's high. It's high.

If you were ever going to sell a house, right now is the time to sell it. Right now. This minute. Jump online at DaveRamsey.com. Click on ELP for real estate. high if you were ever going to sell a house right now is the time to sell it right now this minute jump online at davidramsey.com click on elp for real estate get you one of these high octane high protein real estate agents and get the sign in the yard i can do it myself because i'll just get multiple offers yeah there's a good way to lose an extra three percent and three percent of two hundred thousand dollars is known as six thousand dollars because you don't know what the flip you're doing and you're you know you hire a professional to work on your teeth. You hire a professional to do your will.

You hire a professional to do your taxes and work on your car. But you're going to sell your largest asset by yourself. That's stupid. Don't do that. A monkey can sell a house in this market, but that doesn't mean they did it right. Don't hire a monkey. Don't hire a real estate agent that's been in the business for 20 minutes

because they're your relative. My aunt Jessie just got her license. That's a good way to screw stuff up right there. Stay away from Aunt Jessie until she figures out how to, you know, like these doctors, my practice. That's because you're practicing still. Yeah, I mean, don't get somebody still practicing. Get a professional that's getting it done, that knows what they're're doing somebody sells three houses a year and sold 10 houses in their

lifetime doesn't need to be selling your largest house your largest asset and this is time to do it baby so put it on the market max it out get the most you can get for it it's a really good time to sell a house if you're thinking about moving i've always wanted to well do house. If you're thinking about moving, I've always wanted to. Well, do it. What are you waiting on? I mean, don't wait until things get bad. This is the time. White hot on fire. Get you a white hot on fire

real estate ELP at DaveRamsey.com. Get somebody who knows what they're doing that sells 50, 60, 80, 100 houses a year, knows what the flip they're doing. Maximize the asset

and for God's sakes, don't go take out a home equity loan on a stupid thing. Hope that's helpful because I don't like to be unclear this is the day ramsey show There's nothing smart about smartphones if your wireless plan is blowing your budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. You never pay data overage fees and we never turn off your data. No contracts, no hidden fees. And if you're thinking our low cost means less coverage, think again.

Our voice and data service covers 99% of Americans. And our 4G LTE network provides the fastest internet speeds like more expensive carriers we operate on the largest gsm network in the u.s to ensure you receive reliable coverage virtually anytime anywhere plus you can keep your same phone and number and add multiple lines to save more we're so confident you'll love pure talk usa that we invite you to try our service risk-free. Visit puretalkusa.com or call 844-862-3677. Enter promo code SAVEDAVE and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com. Thanks for joining us, America. It's a free call at 888-825-5225.

Sam is with us in Grand Junction. Hi, Sam. How are you? Good. How are you, sir? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So right now, I just completed Baby Step 1. I just recently discovered you. I had some friends that I went through in college and I just graduated. And right now I have 80,000 in student loans. I'm a mechanical engineer and I'm on the job hunt. But primarily why I'm calling is because I know that you, like I heard a little bit about your story and I was wondering what it took for you to make sure you didn't, like,

do like a dumb spending mistake or things like that when, you know, you're basically just going full force with the debt. Because there's just some days I'm like, I want to kill this debt, I want to get it done, and then other days it's like, I really want to go spend this on XYZ stupid item. And so I was wondering how you built and maintained the discipline to keep on track towards being debt free well i have the benefit of being married to a lady who is not impressed with me and so she calls out my stupidity for the last 36 years pretty regularly

and that's one thing accountability in other words i'm joking around but accountability helped and sometimes you can use a friend for that or a parent for that a pastor for that a spouse for that whatever but someone that says hey i'm gonna walk with you and i'm gonna get up in your business if you start messing up okay the second thing is that i had a huge, and I always recommend this to others as well, a huge reason, a huge why. If you have a why that is big enough, it will draw you away from being sloppy in your discipline. To give you an example of that, if the doctor came in and said if you don't lose 10 pounds in the next uh two months you're going to die 100 chance you die if you don't lose 10 pounds guess what you're going to do you have now have a really big why you are going to lose 10 pounds

there is no cookie in the world that looks that good, right? But if it's kind of like, I think I might feel better and the jeans might fit better if I lost a little weight, cookies look better than that, right? And so you've got to have a big why on whatever it is you're doing. And the bigger your why, the more disciplined, the more intense, the more focused you'll get there, you know, and the more urgency you'll have with it. And so what I would do is, and it can be a positive thing, a negative thing.

It doesn't have to be you're going to die. It can just be that, you know, that I really, I can visual, I can see myself being wealthy, and I can see the amount of generosity I could do if I was wealthy, and it breaks my heart to look at this certain group of people that are hurting, and I could help that group of people. God could use me to do that, and so I'm going to pay a price to win just to be able to do that. That's a positive why, right? It doesn't have to be I'm going to die, right to win just to be able to do that. That's a positive why, right?

It doesn't have to be I'm going to die, right? It doesn't have to be that. It can just be, you know, I've got real big things to do with money, and so I need to go get some. And you need to outline that. Chris Hogan says to make sure that in his book, Retire Inspired, he says make sure your dreams, your why, is in high definition, HD. It's like your HD TV.

You remember the old TVs when it wasn't HD? I flip in channels the other day. They changed our cable lineup in Nashville, our channels on where they are, and I accidentally landed on some of the old channels. They still got them going out that aren't HD. And I'm like, I can't watch football on that. It's just awful. I don't know how we did it back in the Stone out that aren't HD. And I'm like, I can't watch football on that. It's just awful. I don't know how we did it back in the Stone Age before we had HD.

And so, I mean, you got to have HD. I mean, come on. 4G, maybe, right? I mean, 3D, you know, hologram. You know, what is it? I mean, but you just get your dreams really crystal clear. Smell the waves breaking. Smell the salt off the salt water as the waves are breaking on the sand if you're going to do a vacation trip in the Caribbean

or you're going to own a house there in the Caribbean and you want to be able to go down there and visit, right? Just set that aside. I mean, you've got to hear it. You've got to smell it. You've got to feel it, the sun on your face. You've got to think about what it's going to be like to be out there fishing as the sun's coming up if you're a fisherman because we're able to get that bass boat

because you've got your finances under control and you've got the time to go do that. Whatever it is you want to do, I don't know. But you've got to, it needs to be crystal clear, HD, your goal, your dream, and that becomes your why. And then have folks come around you and publicly state what your goal is. Don't keep your goal, keep your dream to yourself say it out loud so that other people even some of your friends might shame you you know they might they might be negative accountability but uh dude i'm doing this and then that oh what happened to your deal you know that's coming at you if you've said it publicly but if you've not told anybody

then that's the other thing so really good question question. Mark is with us in Phoenix, Arizona. Hi, Mark. How are you? Hey, Dave. I'm great. Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure. How can I help?

I have a question I've never heard you directly address. A lot of questions about loans and graduate school loans, but never this specific one. We've got about $400,000 in investments, and we're on baby step five, with the exception that I still have $50,000 of about $170,000 in student loans left that I specifically haven't paid off completely because of the fact that the interest rate on them is only 2.75%. The only other debt we have is our house at three percent and right now the market you said you have you have 50,000 student loans used to be 170 paid down from 170 correct yeah okay and the money that's in investments 400,000 is that in retirement accounts only

uh no um about 200,000 is in retirement and the other 200,000 is in 529 plans for my children okay so on your premise then you actually have heard me address this like every day, but anyway, aside from that, on your premise, if you could borrow $50 million at 2 point something percent and invest it, would you? If I knew that the... No, no, no, no, no. The return was going to be more than $5 million. No, no, no, no, no.

This is in the real world. If I knew, this is in the real world where your scenario is. Your scenario is in the real world. If you could borrow $50 million and invest it the way your $200,000 is invested invested would you um i it seems like the answer is no but in my mind it seems like yes good good at least i got you moving a little bit here all right here's here's the purpose of my bizarre scenario okay when you are doing math with your head, what I did with the bizarre scenario is I made you feel it a little bit rather than just have the intellect. Because you are somebody that has a strong intellect. You're a bright guy.

And you tend to think things through only. When I made you feel it for just a second there and you were like confused, but okay, I get it. I'm going to bite. Okay, no, I wouldn't. What happens there is your heart is where you measure risk, and you are leaving risk out of this scenario. And the risk is acceptable to you because you have the money to write the check today and pay off the debt, and so it doesn't bother you that you've borrowed money to invest effectively. That's what your balance sheet shows.

And so it doesn't bother you. But when I try to put a couple zeros on the end of that, it all of a sudden, you feel the weight of it, and you go, oh, there is risk here. And you've left risk out of your mathematical equation. So the borrower is slave to the lender. The millionaires that we have met with, and we've studied 10,000 of them recently, tell us that they get out of debt as quickly as possible, 100%, and they stay out of debt.

And they use that lack of risk, not leverage, and they use just simple cash flow to pour into their investments. So all of that having said, Mark, what I would do if I woke up in your shoes is before the sun sets tonight, I would be debt free. That fast. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Let me tell you a story about two families that are very much alike in a lot of ways. Both families have two working parents and a couple of young kids. Each has debt and has struggled to make ends meet. But they're starting to make headway with their budgets and smarter decisions with money. They have dreams and plans, and the only real difference is that one family has the right

amount of term life insurance and the other doesn't. Big difference. If one of the parents die, and that does happen, their well-being would be destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and other bills would be impossible, let alone saving for education or retirement. That's why every day I talk relentlessly about getting term life insurance. Just go to ZanderInsurance.com or call 800-356-4282 and see how inexpensive it really is. Be the family that takes those deliberate steps to be different and responsible.

It really does make you the hero of your story. And it puts you on course for better things ahead. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Patrick and Vanessa are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Good, how are you? Better than I deserve. Where do you guys live?

Outside of Chicago. Cool. Welcome to Nashville. And all the way here to do your debt-free scream. Yes. How much have you paid off? $40,000. $40,000, good.

How long did that take you? 17 months. Very good. And your range of income during that time? It was $75,000 to $90,000. Good. How long did that take you? 17 months. Very good. And your range of income during that time? It was $75,000 to $90,000. Okay, cool. What do you guys do for a living?

I'm a warehouse foreman for a union moving company outside of Chicago, and then I also am part owner of an American Ninja Warrior gym for kids. Oh, cool. That's fun. Yeah, super fun. Yeah, it's awesome. And I'm a data analyst and also a Ramsey Solution Master Financial Coach. Oh, very neat. Well, thanks for coming through the course.

Thank you. It's rewarding, isn't it? Yes, very. Very fun. Good for you guys. So, $40,000. What kind of debt was that? Mostly car, credit card, student loans, and a warranty.

What was the big parts? Student loans. Student loans. Most of the student loans, and a warranty. What was the big parts? Student loans. Student loans. Most of the student loans. Yeah. Okay. Good. So how long have you two been married?

Eight and a half years. So you've been married a while, but 17 months ago, what happened? We were planning our son's fourth birthday party, and we had separate checking accounts at the time, and I gave them my debit card to run at the end of the party, and I didn't have enough in my checking account, and I gave them his debit card to run, but then they ended up running mine instead, and I was overdrawn, and I was very embarrassed

and thought that this should not happen to me or anyone that's older. She's so old. Somewhere after college, this should stop. Right. Exactly. Don't start it when you're 25. Yeah.

So our church, Waterfront Community Church, decided to have Financial Peace University, and I drug him along, and we completed the course. Okay. So about the time that you had this embarrassing moment, and I drug him along, and we completed the course. Okay. So about the time that you had this embarrassing moment, the church makes an announcement, and you went, okay, God, I heard that. Yep. I get the hint.

Wink, wink, and here we go, right? Yep. Okay. So you said you drug him. Patrick, you didn't want to go. Unwilling, no. I'm a free spirit. I love it.

I'm all about wasting money. I hear you. I got it. Okay. So how did she get you to go what did she say a lot of begging and pleading and then i had to humble myself a little bit because i wasn't i was in charge of the finances before and then so when we were going here now i had to surrender a lot of that so it was a lot of humility not wanting to change and uh you know sticking to my gun so but i went i

went unwillingly but yeah okay so the heel marks in the parking lot where you're going into the class okay and then you get into the class lot were yours going into the class. Okay. And then you get into the class. How long were you in the class before you started going, I think I can do this. I think I can buy into this. How long? I think after the first one. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, right after they started laying out the budgets and everything, it just made,

I mean, I had done, you know, like a somewhat of a budget, but not clearly as strict as this. And if I didn't follow it, I was in charge. So what did it matter, you know? I just rolled it over the next month. But, yeah, it was laid out much more organized than I would have done things. So it was nice. So once you got in there, you went, okay, yeah, let's do this. Yeah, absolutely.

So it didn't take like five weeks. You did the first week or two you were in. Yeah, absolutely. Cool. Very cool. Good. Good. Well, congratulations congratulations y'all

how's it feel awesome yeah it was the one death that when you paid it off you went i hate you people i'm so glad you're gone student loans yeah absolutely sally may uh-huh give the old woman her eviction papers out of my house absolutely i love it way too much i love it that it is you know people feel like you feel like that's that you're stuck with that forever. Right. And so when it's gone, you're like, wow, we did it. Yeah. Literally, you have that kind of moment.

It's like this thing you thought was going to be with you forever is gone in a bad way. I mean, it's great. Yeah, that was awesome. Very, very cool. So you're now a master coach. You've been through our financial coach master series program. Yeah. And and you paid off forty40,000 worth of debt.

Mm-hmm. And you got your husband to go to Financial Peace University, which enabled you to do all this together, which is the way it's supposed to be done, right? Mm-hmm. So when people say, how did you do that? How do you get out of debt? What do you tell them the main things they need to do to get out of debt are? First thing, humility. Humble yourself.

Channel your inner nerd, right? Because if you're a free spirit, it is not going to work, right? Or marry a nerd, right? It's one or the other. You've got to be dragged in by the nerd. And or. Right, and or. One or the other.

So you've got to humble yourself or be dragged in. But yeah, really just, you know, my ways obviously weren't that good. So, you know, humble yourself and listen to your inner nerd or your partner nerd and just trust and know that God's got a better plan for you. Okay, cool. I would say that doing a budget, obviously, and just realizing that it's God's money first, and then we just have to manage it the way that he wants us to,

and he doesn't want us to be in debt. He wants to give us the life to the fullest. And just really being content with what you have and not trying to keep up with the Joneses. So, and I just wanted to thank you and thank our friends and family and our church to get us where we are today. Very cool. So have you had lots of cheerleaders then? Yeah. Yeah. A lot of cheerleaders. I've had a few opposers, but people at work couldn't understand why I had to surrender my money to my wife.

But they came along. You didn't. You surrendered it to the two of you. I did. This is very true. Very true. Good. Well, well done, you guys.

Very well done. Thank you. And you brought your young son with you. How old is he? He'll be six on Monday. Six years old. Yeah. Okay.

And his name is? Carter. All right. Carter's got some cool shades I saw earlier in on Monday. Six years old. Yeah. Okay. And his name is? Carter. All right. Carter's got some cool shades I saw earlier in the day. Yeah, he's ready. He was sporting some shades there a minute ago. Yeah. Very cool.

So did he learn something along the way while we were doing this? He did. You know what, he gets paid on Sundays when he does his chores, and then he separates his money into spending, giving, and sharing. And so, yeah, he's really disciplined about it, and he breaks all his money out. So, yeah, he's on board. You got the whole Financial Peace Jr. thing going. Exactly.

Well done. Thanks to Vanessa. Good job. All right. Patrick and Vanessa and Carter, $40,000 paid off in 17 months, making $75,000 to $90,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Ready?

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Good job! That's the best six, seven-year-old screamer we've had in a long time. Well done, Carter. Good job, man. Well done, Carter. Good job, man. Well done. Wow.

So you see what happens. Your marriage starts to work together. You start thinking about, I want to teach my child how to handle money so that they never have these same kind of problems that I've had. That's called changing your family tree. It's what happens when people decide to handle money well. It changes everything. Well done, you guys.

Very proud of you. Very proud of you. And Kat's got a copy of Chris Hogan's Retire Inspired book for you. That, of course, will help you go into the next chapter of your story where you are not only debt-free, but you become millionaires and outrageously generous as you go along. That's what we want to teach you to do, so that you're really, really, really winning with money.

A couple of folks follow me on Twitter, at Dave Ramsey. Look, about 850,000 of you. Thanks for hanging out there. Who should single people with no children appoint as the executor of their will? Well, if you do not have a relative that you want to make the executor of your will, then you can have your attorney be the executor of your will. Some people use the trust department in a bank that can serve as the trust, as the executor of your will.

Beware of trust departments in banks giving you estate planning advice and investment advice because they generally will err on the side of crazy conservative to the point that it's bad advice. But they do do a good job of actually serving as an executor if you need somebody to do that. You can check in on that. Jenny says, what's your opinion of using apps like PayPal for transactions? I use PayPal. I've got PayPal.

I use it, you know, certainly on eBay purchases is where I first got it years ago. And I've used it for a few other things. We take PayPal here. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just a method of moving money around is all it is. It's a different kind of a debit card, if you want to call it that, an electronic transfer, right? I wouldn't hook it to a credit card. So you hook it to your, mine's hooked to my checking account, you know, and my debit card number, both in case I want to vacillate between the two. But it doesn't matter. It's the same thing, right?

So I use PayPal. It doesn't matter what it is. Just like anything else, you have to manage it and watch it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Our scripture of the day, Galatians 6-9, And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. John D. Rockefeller said, I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success

as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature. It does. I love it. Jesse is with us. Jesse's in Augusta, Georgia. Hi, Jesse. How are you?

I'm doing well, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? Yes, sir. I just want to get your advice. If you woke up in my shoes, what would you do? I'm soon to be married in May of this year.

Good. Yes, sir. My fiance, she's on board with the whole baby steps and your plan, as am I. But she has a horse, and it costs roughly $4,000 a year to keep this horse, and it has about 15 more years to live. And she's talking about getting another horse after this one passes. I'm in love with my fiancee, but I'm not in love with the idea of paying $333 a month for the rest of my life. I was just trying to see if you could, uh, or what advice you could give me as to

get her to see how much of a financial burden this is or what would a compromise be? Okay. Um, how old are you guys? Uh, I'm 28 and she's 28. Cool. What do you all make? We're broke. We have 46 total together. We have $46,000 in debt, and we make annual income of $55,000. We make $55,000 take home. Between the two of you? Yes, sir. You both work in 40 hours? Yes, sir.

Okay, cool. And what is your career? I'm a millwright apprentice. Mm-hmm. Good. I've got two more years on my apprenticeship, but my income is going to go up dramatically. I was going to ask that, yeah.

And what does she do? She works for, I'm sorry, she's a medical biller. Okay. And what is her long-term career plan? She's been kicking around the idea of going back to school, but nothing's set in stone as of yet. Okay. What is the $46,000 in debt that the two of you have? I have $26,000 in student loans,

and she has $9,000 on her car, and the rest of her is a student loan. Okay, good, good. And you said that you're both on the plan. The only separation is this issue on the horse. Did you guys go through Financial Peace University together yet? No, sir. That's on our to-do list.

Our church that we're going to, yeah, we're doing the premarital counseling. Good. But our church doesn't offer financial peace to the university. Okay. Well, there's other ones in the area that do. You don't have to leave your church. You can just run over and visit the other place enough to go through FPU. I'll give it to you as a wedding gift, and the two of you go through it.

And what I want you to do is not say another word about the horse. The horse comes with a package okay because you're not going to win this battle she's had this horse a long time since she was a little bitty girl she's loved horses yes sir she's emotionally attached and i don do that to make her give it up. Yeah, and so I think you just let it go. Here's what's going to happen. I'm an old guy looking at this. Okay, you guys get married, and you start having other goals in your life that start to be more important than the horse,

and then as you're making decisions together, she's going to release the horse. If you force it out, you'll never live it down. But it will not be there, and she will not buy another one at the end. That is my prediction. It won't be there for ten years even. I bet it's not there seven years. I bet as soon as you guys have two kids, that horse is gone. Yes, sir.

You know? You see what I'm saying? mean all that all that's going to happen is other things like maybe getting her education other things are going to start to be more important than the romantic idea of a horse that she had when she was a little girl and she got this horse and but if you today make this a big deal uh she'll find her way out of this if she becomes a woman and not a little girl, and I think she is. Okay. Because other things are going to become important to her.

Other things are going to become important to you along the way, too. Yes, sir. And you've got to keep a nice big why in front of you. Why are we doing this? Why are we managing our money tight? Why are we saving? Why are we building wealth? What do we want to be when we build this wealth? And if you've got that why in front of you, if it doesn't include a horse,

all of a sudden the horse is in the way. In her mind, not yours. And when that day happens, that horse will be gone. Okay. And that is not ten years from now. It will happen sooner than that. That's my prediction. And that's nothing prophetic. I'm just an old guy and seen a lot of this stuff.

So I think you'll be fine. Hold on a minute. I'll have Ms. Kelly pick up. We'll get you guys in Financial Peace University, and we'll start the horse eviction now. All you've got to have is a reason. I mean, it's just like selling a car. Why would I sell my car? I love my car. I'm in love with my car.

Your fiance's looking at it going, but you've got a stupid $300 car payment. I mean, you're driving me nuts, but you can't go sell your spouse. You can't come home with your spouse and go, hey, I've been listening to this Dave Ramsey podcast. We're selling your car. That's your great financial plan. You think that's going to work? That crap's not going to fly. That's not going to work.

You got to come home and start talking about fun. You got to start talking about how we're going to live in the future. What would it be like if we didn't have any payments? And when somebody gets really excited about not having any payments, they sell the stuff that they got payments on it, don't they? But they got to get excited about not having any payments. And then it becomes their idea. And you don't have to talk them into it.

But if your great plan is to announce the sale of your spouse's vehicle or your fiance's horse, you don't have a great plan. You're not on track yet so that's how this deal works hold on jesse and we'll help you out brother honored to have you on our team here and any way we can serve you we're glad you called in open phones at 888-825-5225 jasper indiana britney's with us hi britney how are you hi dave thank you so much for taking my call i'm great sure how. How can I help? Okay. My husband and I went through Financial Peace University this past fall,

which we realize now we should have done many years ago. We've been married about 12 years, and it has done great things for our relationship, for sure. Good. I'm glad uh so we are very close to starting on baby steps four five and six probably within less than two months probably about a month yeah so we're yeah so we are um kind of trying to plan ahead on to how to make that work i know that i've i've listened we've listened to lots of your um discussions on this and kind of however it works best for each family is how you've recommended, I guess, on how much do you want to put into college fund now versus when you get further along on paying your house off and that kind of thing. So I guess I'm kind of wondering if we follow the 15% of your gross income into our retirement,

I don't know how that fits into our current budget. And I don't know if I'm just missing something or I don't know how to make that work. What percentage of your take-home pay is your house payment? Percentage of our take-home pay? Yeah. How much is your house payment? I think about 25%. Our house payment is about $900.

Okay. So your take-home pay is like $4,000 or $5,000 a month? Uh-huh. It's about $5,200. Okay. All right. 15% of your household income is what? $9,000 a year, give or take.

Okay? So this is doable. You can do that. And we're not talking about $600, $700 a month. And you used to pay that out in payments. So you're not going to do huge chunks towards college or huge chunks towards the house extra on five and six right now. But as bonuses come in,ances small and you know grandma dies

leaves there by five thousand four hundred dollars or something that goes on the house or in the college fund you get a bonus or you sell something or some money some found money shows up it goes on the college fund or on the house college fund in the house college fund in the house until both are done and when both of those are done then that's when you hit baby step seven. But today, you're not going to see a big advance on those things. You're going to get in the rhythm of monthly investing in your retirement. And that rhythm over a long period of years, 15 to 20 years, is how you become a millionaire.

And you keep that rhythm going, you'll get there. That's exactly how that works. But you can do it. You can do it. You've been doing this other, and all of that was new when you started. You're doing good. Thanks, Brittany. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books.

We will be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey guys, this is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.