The Ramsey Show - App - Stay Calm During the Chaos (Hour 1 )

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

Free Livestream: Is the housing market going to crash? Register now: https://bit.ly/3n9bhyR Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman discuss: How to save money for kids from an accident settlement, The crazy real estate market, What to do with the house post-divorce, Selling a car to pay off debt. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual, real, amazing relationships. Life as it's supposed to be done. We invite your calls today. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author and host of The Ken Coleman Show, where he talks about work and about career every day, is here as my co-host today on The Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

The call is free, and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. 888-825-5225. Lynn is with us. Lynn is in Tulsa, Oklahoma. How are you, Lynn? I'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? So several months ago, my kids and I and my husband were in an accident, and we are getting a settlement. My kids especially are going to be getting a good settlement. And I'm wondering what is the best way to go about saving that? Okay. Are they – is everybody okay? yeah um i'm glad so there's is there any ongoing medical need or uh future surgeries that we need to set money aside for surprisingly no good okay

all right and so what is the uh what do you think the size of this is going to be? What have they indicated? My youngest child is going to be getting about $100,000, and then we have about $50,000 in medical bills for him. For him. And then the other kids, it's going to be a couple thousand for them. But has he got a permanent situation from this? No, it was just when it happened, my kids are here because it wasn't their time to go. I believe that. It's a bad wreck.

Yeah, we were really blessed. It was a pedestrian auto accident, and my kids, we were the pedestrians. But your baby had $50,000 in medical bills but is completely healed. Yes. Wow, thank you, Lord. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to the world, I had $50,000 in medical bills, but it's completely healed. Yes. Wow. Thank you, Lord. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to the world, but I know it wasn't his time to go. Yeah.

I'm more than comfortable with that, and I'm also glad for him and you. Yeah, this is – but I'm thinking about how to allocate the money. So the bottom line is we don't need to allocate the money for anything. You've already covered the $50,000 in medical bills? Or the $50,000 is coming out of this $100,000? That's coming out of the $100,000. Okay. All all right and the others are going to get a handful of dollars all right now yeah this is coming through an attorney in a settlement process i assume correct okay in more cases than i like the court will dictate to you what you can invest this in i don't like it because I think the parent should be allowed to decide what to invest

for their own child instead of the judge being the parent. But a lot of judges will take the position that the parents are idiots, and so the child must be protected from their idiot parent's investment. I disagree with that on a lot of levels, morally, legally, and everything else, but it doesn't matter. The judge may tell you you have to put it in something stupid like just a CD. It may not even keep up with inflation if you do that. If you have the option, this child's not going to need this money until they're grown.

No, he's not. Then I would set the money aside in a mutual fund. I'd get with a SmartVestor pro and pick a series of mutual funds. It's how I invested my own kids' money that I invested for their college, so why wouldn't I invest this kind of money there? Where it came from doesn't matter. What matters is that they don't need it for 20 years or so. And what matters is that, you know, we need to outpace inflation, right?

Right. I know, you know, with interest, hopefully, you know, he'll have a good chunk when he's 18 because he's only two now. So he has several years. And so I'm trying to also figure out how to best teach him to use it wisely so he doesn't turn, you know, get it when he's a certain age and be dumb yeah don't don't number one don't let him be surprised that it's there um it's like sex don't wait till they're 20 to tell them exactly because they'll mess the whole thing up you know and so we need to talk about it age appropriately we don't slam a three-year-old with too much information

right right but we do teach a three-year-old with too much information, right? Right. But we do teach a three-year-old something's happening, right? There's something there. And so money, we're going to teach the kid how to handle money because we expect them to have some. By the way, we're going to do that with all your kids. This is what rich people do. They teach kids how to handle money, age appropriately. We don't make the five-year-old go to the salt mines, but we do teach them to work because they need to call Ken Coleman for a career later, right? That's right.

Absolutely. year old go to the salt mines but we do teach them to work because they need to call ken coleman for a career later right that's right absolutely and i think i think dave i think this is great advice too is as you walk him along and the others uh you know at some point they may talk and he got more of a settlement than they did so i think this is you know telling everybody in the kids this is not some big secret this was something that happened because what you don't want is resentment uh to grow either so i think this is probably need to be more uh transparent than than normal it's the only way extra conversations and extra communication shut down uh all kinds of things because this a horrible event and is a is a part and and the survival of it the miraculous survival of it is uh part of your family story now yeah and so we're going to tell that we're going to tell that story not to continually bring up

trauma but it's um it's god's hand on our life yeah and it's part of the story it's part of who we are at our house and part of it was little one got hurt worse and got more money and that's just the way life worked and so yeah you go ahead and talk about that i wouldn't surprise the siblings either that he's getting some money when he gets there or she gets there right we've already told him you know we're you guys will be getting some money but we're not yeah we don't need to talk about it look we didn't talk about what the ramsey net worth was until our kids were grown and we started talking about estate planning with them you know like when they were in college we started talking about it but we you know they knew we had some money but i didn't want

them running around school going my dad has a bigger net worth than your dad and the community we live in that's kind of a thing so um you know i yeah i just want them to think we know we're just working stiffs and we are working stiffs we just did really well and so i wanted but i wanted them to feel the responsibility of it after i had built their character on saving giving working spending wisely throughout their whole years so by the time i turned this on and we started that meeting with as for me in my house we serve the lord so this is actually a responsibility to manage god's resources for his glory it is not you hit the lotto and so when they see the number they actually kind of felt the weight of the number

instead of, woo-hoo, I can be in a reality show now because I'm stupid and my parents have money. And so, you know, that kind of stuff, right? And so they didn't have that reaction, and none of my three did. But, again, it was a gradual increased process through the years. So I would invest it in mutual funds, and I would, you know, just age appropriately, begin to reveal that it's there, to where by the time we get there, you're not afraid he's going to go crazy or she's going to go crazy and head off to the Caribbean and do cocaine or something

because he suddenly got a bunch of money. I mean, it's just, you know, we're going to fix all this ahead of time. So my friend Andy Andrews says we're not raising kids to be great kids. We're raising kids to be great adults. And that's really the target here. That's where we're going. This is The Ramsey Show. People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries.

Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with health care expenses. And they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Well, when it comes to the economy, there's always a lot of feelings, a lot of emotions, fear, anger, shock, dismay. When I filled up my Raptor the other day, I kind of passed out in the parking lot and woke up a little bit later. That's so true. Rachel was standing over me

making fun of me talking about her tesla so i don't know but it's um yeah oh man uh it's scary out there see i got my real estate license 44 years ago so i've seen a lot of emotion yeah over the years uh i got my license in 78 jimmy carter was helping us with interest rates they went to 19 to 18 fixed uh and by the time i'm selling real estate in the 80s they're coming back down Jimmy Carter was helping us with interest rates. They went to 19, so 18% fixed. And by the time I'm selling real estate in the 80s, we're coming back down to 14 in 1982. And we thought that was good. So I've seen a lot of end-of-the-world predictions that didn't come true.

And Chicken Little has always been alive and well. And he's alive right now. People are going crazy out there. Some of y'all are scared to death, and if you're under 35, truthfully, this is your first big financial thing because the last one was 2008, and you were a teenager, and so this is your first time to actually kind of get the gut punch of what inflation or recession or gas prices or real estate uncertainty feels like.

So we're going to help you. We're going to walk you through what is really going on, not your broke brother-in-law that's got the conspiracy theories, feelings about the crash of the real estate world because of fiat money or something. We're going to actually talk through real estate data and what's really going on and how real estate prices, where they come from. It's a free, free live stream called the real estate reality check it's this thursday night rachel cruz george camel and i are going to do

this and we're going to show you how the market actually works and then you can decide for yourself but you need to be dealing with facts not feelings and fear is not a fact fear is a feeling and we all have fear we all have uncertainty and your uncertainty usually um think about the first time you drove a car how scared you were death grip on the wheel because you're uncertain you know how to do it now you drive a car with your knees put on your makeup and eat your big mac on the way to work right and so but you because you you're you know you've gotten comfortable with the process that's right right. And perspective of time and experience gives you actual facts and data that says, okay, I can walk because sometimes people die in cars, but the tradeoff's not worth it.

It's a long walk. So I'm going to take the chance. I'm going to drive the car. It's not that big a risk. So this is the thing about investing. You've got to get used to the ride, and you've got to know what you're doing and feel it instead of just going on feelings. So real estate reality check this coming Thursday, July the 14th. Rachel, George, and I go to RamseySolutions.com to sign up.

It is a free live stream. RamseySolutions.com slash reality check. The real estate reality check. Be sure and tune in. We're doing this just as a service, just to let you guys know. Long form discussion. Charts and graphs and stuff. Stuff I don't usually do. Yeah.

It's because it borders on boring. Yeah, but it's going to calm a lot of people down. That's why people really need to check this out. By the way, your friends and family who are telling you all this scary stuff, tell them about it as well. Send them a link. Let them jump in and get something that they don't see on broadcast news all the time. Speaking of data, Dave, we saw job numbers from June come out.

The economy added 372,000 more jobs. So we're still waiting to see, are we in a recession? Are we not? But people need to relax because even if we see the gdp uh slow into where we are in a recession we are still seeing a very hot job market well i would have been wrong then if because i predict i predict a recession a light one yeah but i think the economy is going to shrink two quarters in a row and shrinking two quarters in a row is a recession it's not the end of the world and we might see just a slowing down of that's right the craziness i mean because people came out of their

caves after covid you know like a baptist after a casserole i mean they bought everything in sight they started buying stuff hand over fist and and the factories hadn't been making nothing and so the prices went up on everything drove inflation crazy and you can blame joe biden but it's not all his fault part of it's his fault but it's uh you know it's not i mean if you watch fox news everything's his fault but um but the uh if you watch cnn nothing's his fault but um but the uh if you watch cnn nothing's his fault and they're still talking about trump that's all they talk about over there but bottom line is that it's trump's fault yeah that's whose fault it is i don't know how but it is probably reagan's fault actually but clinton that's who we should blame sure but um but yeah

and the truth is none of them have as much control as everybody like to think they do but they can do some stupid stuff like cut off the gas supply and drive gas prices up. Oh, sure. That one was stupid. But a lot of this other inflation stuff is COVID-based because of demand. Yeah. And so that's driving this job market thing. Man, I'm telling you, we took some time off for our 40th anniversary last week.

And we're in a resort setting beautiful area they're having trouble getting people to work that's correct still well because labor shortage we're still seeing more jobs created the pandemic spun off a lot of new jobs and a lot of people went on their own that's true a lot of entrepreneurs and so again here's the point well we're going to see in the real estate reality check the live stream you're going to see really good data you're going to see encouragement in in a major of this economy, and that's real estate. And I'm telling you, in the job part of things, we are still in a historic job economy. We are at 3.6% unemployment.

That is the same number that we were in February of 2020. This is right before everybody went home for a season when the pandemic hit in March. And the economy was quite hot then. And it was. And so we saw a lot of people lose their jobs. And just to give people perspective here, we're seeing now the unemployment rate back down to pre-pandemic levels. So the sky is not falling. Did you see that coming?

I thought employment was going to cool off. Well, two things. I did see that we would come out of this pandemic where we had a lot of people i mean in the last in the last 90 days i thought it was going to come down yes because we did see a lot of layoffs in in may yeah it was reported big time companies you know that was the pre-pre you know the pre uh condition for the recession second quarter that's right leading into recession and and this indicates i might be wrong that there might not be a recession well because companies don't hire big time in a recession.

They do not. And so I think you're going to see parts of the economy will. We might technically see a recession. I'm studying a lot of economists right now. They're still waiting to see. I think your prediction is going to be right. I think we'll see an actual small recession of the GDP. But that can be true at the same time we see companies laying people off.

We saw big tech lay a bunch of people off in May as a reaction to a slowdown in consumer spending. Amazon announced layoffs. Yes. Yeah, in the last two weeks. But that's because inflation fears are naturally bringing people, the everyday consumer, the American family that we talk to day in and day out, they are spending less. We are seeing consumer spending drop. But it doesn't mean that you'll see layoffs happen in a healthy economy, and you'll see people add jobs.

So what we're seeing now, Dave, is a little bit of a reset and a return to a normal job economy where some companies and industries will lay off, others will increase. So, for instance, I think you're going to see in the construction and manufacturing spaces a lot of jobs added and we saw that in the june job report because now things are starting to heat up again well that's encouraging because that's very that's people who make things yeah and see you're going to share this i'm sure in the real estate reality check event we've been talking about but a healthy uh construction and housing start economy is always good when we see good things there, we see good economic indicators. So I just think, to your point, let's focus on the facts and not the headlines that are designed to get you to click on them,

designed to get you to snap your neck in the living room and keep watching. So if the jobs report came in that positive. Yeah. In fact, the only area that contracted, Dave, were government jobs. Oh, darn. If the jobs report came in that positive. Yeah. In fact, the only area that contracted, Dave, were government jobs. Oh, darn. I knew you'd appreciate that. You're killing me here. I knew you'd appreciate that.

To which we all said, thank you, Lord. But yeah, and the congregation said amen. Right. All right. So, hmm. Because the great resignation was both an existential thing where people got the crap scared out of them. I'm going to die someday, so I'm not going to work a job I hate. Yes.

So I'm going to quit this job and go do something else. That was an element of it. But another element of it was there was such a shortage of labor they could go. They could. They could go anywhere they wanted to go and do anything they wanted to do. And it also spurred up this work home home school on a home school i work from home stuff that's right and uh uh that that you know people were tolerating anything just to hire people that's correct in terms of you work wherever you want just help me i need some help and that kind of

thing and uh so i'm wondering i was wondering i kind of had the hope that that was all cooling off but if this job report's heating up then that stuff may still rock on for a while. We may be sitting in that all summer. You're going to see the great resignation, the job hopping continue. Because we saw May's numbers, 392,000 jobs were added June 372. So you're looking at almost 800,000 jobs in the last two months. Things aren't as bad as the news would lead you to believe. Yeah, there it is. Real estate reality check.

You've got to check it out. It's going to be a great event. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Join us anytime in the lobby at Ramsey Solutions. There's all kinds of things to do here. It's kind of a visitor center almost, including watching Ugly Paint dry. Us do the show for three hours every day. We're here from 1 to 4 Central every day live. A couple of us Ramsey personalities doing it every day.

And with very rare exceptions, obviously holidays and things, we're not here. But come in, there's homemade chocolate chip cookies and coffee, and it's all free. And there's usually 50 to 200 folks hanging out out here. Also included in the lobby is the debt-free stage, and Jeremy and Heather are on that. Hey, guys, how are you? What's happening, Dave? Where do you guys live? We live down the road in Columbia, Dave.

Oh, right down the road. Neighbors then. Mule town. Very cool. Good to have you. So how much did you pay off? $50,000. All right.

How long did that take? About 23 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? It was about $83,000 to about $130,000. Very cool. What do range of income during that time? It was about 83 to about 130. Very cool. What do you all do for a living? I work at Pinnacle Bank in Franklin.

So I work in loan operations. Yeah. Really good job. Very thankful for it. Good people. We bank with them. Yeah. Really good people.

You don't see me in the loan operations side, but the rest of it's awesome. Yeah. I'm a national account manager for an outdoor power equipment company. Oh, great. Very cool. Good for y'all. All right. So what kind of debt was this?

$50,000? Let's see. It was a variety of stuff, Dave. Medical debt, IRS stuff. Student loans. Student loans. Medical bills. Cars.

Court stuff from my first divorce. Yes. Y'all were kind of normal yeah yeah how long you've been married two and a half years okay so you get married and you say okay one of the things we're gonna do immediately because 23 months right you must have started almost immediately tell me your story what happened well basically jeremy started telling me the dave Ramsey story when we first met. Jeremy is very, very good with finances and I myself was not. And so it took a lot of encouraging and a lot of time.

I know. Well, previous to the bank, I waitressed and bartended. And so, you know, there was a lot of cash. There was no bank account. There was no budgeting. I actually didn't even really comprehend what budget entailed. And so when we first met, shortly after we started talking about finances and the idea of the budget, and so it took a very long time for me to get on board.

I was what you call budget-ish. I said, we can do a budget-ish. But yeah, I wasn't really on board. Jeremy wasn't having that. He wasn't going with that. Budget was a four-letter word for a while. So how did you break your foot? No, I'm kidding. That's a whole other story.

That's an ultimate Frisbee story, yes. Okay. I wish it was cooler than that. It was actually my Achilles tendon, unfortunately. Ooh. Ow, that hurt just hearing it. Anyway. Okay, so you're newly married, and you don't even know what a budget is.

You said you're budget-ish, and so you break it to her, and you seem like a free spirit. Is that fair, Heather? Spender, baby. So how tense was it when you really started to lock in on this? Was it really hard? It was horrible. Like, I remember the thing that actually set me on the right track was I actually watched Rachel. And I watched her talk about when her and Winston first sat down to do a budget.

And she rolled her eyes and she said, oh, you're one of those people. And so I think watching Rachel, there was something where I connected with her and I connected with what she was saying. And so that kind of made me want to go ahead and take the plunge. But every budget meeting, it was kicking, dragging, screaming. Three months. It took us four months before I understood that when you have a budget, that means you don't go over. It means you actually stay under this designated amount. You just thought it was a suggestion.

Yes. Budget-ish. There are guidelines. suggestion yeah yes yeah i get it yeah rachel is the nice ramsey she is and a free spirit so i could see how you connected with her like if rachel can do it i could do that yeah sure yeah and poor jeremy is like he is amazing he's been so patient and he's been so kind and he's had so much grace and so um it's really been a journey and it's really been a journey for our marriage too um you really get to know one another and you really get to you really push yourselves and you kind of see what you're made of and you learn how to work together and so that's powerful it's been amazing yeah good very good very very cool okay now you. $50,000 in 23 months. So now we can spend lots of money, right?

I like that. No, now you get to still be a grown-up, and you decide if you're going to spend lots of money. You don't need my permission to do it. You get to do whatever you want to do. Between you two. I'll let you guys figure that part out. So what is the secret to paying off $50,000 in 23 months? It's a few things, Dave.

I think it's being the budget is, of course, you have to do the budget. Right. Every month is really different. Yeah. So, I mean, different things happen month in, month out. So you have to do it every month. I think consistency, intentionality, and really one thing that really, for us, was from day one when we decided to do this. You know, we both know what it was like to struggle.

Yes. You know, Heather, you know, into her, like I said, we got married in our early 40s. Yeah. So she knew what it was to struggle. Like I said, I had a previous marriage. I know what it's like to be a single dad struggling and coming together and having two incomes. It was a blessing. That was a blessing.

But then we also, we decided from day one, you know, as we do this plan, we're going to start tithing every paycheck, you know. And that's been, I mean, that's been a game changer. Yeah. Honestly, we wanted to make sure that we made mention of that and talked about the tithing because, you know, we know that everything we get comes from God. And so to be in a place where we have two incomes, where we're able to give back. And I, you know, I have a list of probably, I don't know, 20 animal organizations that we're going to give to when we can, when we get to that step. But giving back to God is like the most important thing for us. And so we wanted to make sure that that was something that we mentioned today.

And he blessed us along the way a lot. Yeah, for sure. It was amazing. I already know the answer, I think, but I'm curious as to your take on it. Why do you think it is that when you start tithing it changes everything go ahead um i think number one it number one you're acknowledging that like i said everything comes from him yeah um exactly number two i think it starts instilling generosity so i mean even above tithing, there were times throughout those couple of years, you know, maybe our church was raising money for something, you know, something specific,

and we were able to give and do that or help out, you know, some individuals along the way when we could. So, it's just, I think it's just about a posture of your heart. Yeah. And it's about, yeah, it's a posture of your heart and it's giving, you know, everything good we have comes from God. And the reason why we're both standing here and we've been through every trial and tribulation we have is because God has brought us through it. And God has always been good. And so for us to be able to be good to God, like it's the right thing to do. It's biblical.

And yeah, I think just having a posture of your heart that instills giving, like, it's just a beautiful thing. And so we just love the fact that that money goes to the church and it goes to food banks and it goes to, you know, it filters out to people who really need it. Very good. Well done, you guys. Well done. Yeah. There's something about when you take your eyes off yourself, the posture of your heart, and you put your eyes on other things, other people people other others there's a nobility to that that changes who you are and then you don't whine as much about something in the budget yeah it just it changes that you've got i didn't say i didn't

say i said as much i said as much i didn't say not at all and so because we all still we all we all reserve a little room for some budget whining, okay? Yeah. Some more than others. Very transparent, Heather. It works, but gosh, it stinks. I love it. Good stuff, you guys.

We're very, very proud of you. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? We had some friends in the church. We had some folks that worked here that we knew, and my parents were very supportive supportive along the way too so we got a copy of baby steps millionaires for you great that's the next chapter in your story a copy of the total money makeover for you to give away and help somebody get started on this same journey and also a one-year subscription to financial

peace university cool and the brand new videos that are in there and uh they'll change everything way to go you you guys. Awesome. Thank you so much. So proud of y'all. Jeremy and Heather, Columbia, Tennessee, $50,000 paid off in 23 months. Newly married, did it with 83, making $130,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Okay. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! We're debt-free! Woo! That's fun. Very well done. This is The Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Michael is in Las Vegas.

Hey, Michael, how are you? I'm doing well. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? All right, so here's kind of the rundown. I am 38. I have three boys, and I'm going through the middle of a divorce. I'm sorry. It is what it is. Trying to make the best of it, though.

We are splitting the house, though, 50-50, and Zillow currently has estimated at $108,000. We already kind of have a buyer. He wants to bring in his own assessor, and whatever it is, and whatever price we agree to, obviously we're going to split it 50-50. On the low end, I'm thinking it's going to be around about $300,000, you know, less the broker fees and all that other stuff. The question is, is what should I do with that? Because my dad says I should maybe get an apartment, kind of figure it out for a little bit, see how the housing market goes up and down.

I'm thinking I should buy an RV, a nice one, roughly. No, your dad's right. No, not an RV? No, your dad's right. RV's going to go down in value. This is not the time for an adventure. You need to just get calm, settle down for those boys, and just settle in, and then wait a year and then buy something.

I'm fine with that. I think your dad's right on track. Because, man, RVs are hard to sell, and they go down in value. And so you're getting ready to park your money in something that's hard to sell and goes down in value. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I do want to get out there and use the RV as more than just, you know, something to live in. But maybe I should scale that back and get a trailer as opposed to.

Just go rent something. Yeah. You don't have to buy anything. Just go rent something. Okay. There's plenty of RV rental things out there, several programs out there that you can rent. If you want to go be gone for three weeks with the boys and just have a you know a post-divorce healing time a trip to you know whatever uh yellowstone park or the grand canyon or whatever it is you're going to do

and something where you just spend a lot of time with them and you're going to rent something but i mean that's going to cost a handful of dollars you'll lose more than that when you drive the new RV off the lot. Okay. Okay. And then what, so reinvest into a house. The other thing is, is what should I do? I want to set up like a college fund for the boys as well. Okay. Are you debt free? I have about 6,000 in credit cards and that's literally it.

Okay. All right. I would pay those off and cut them up and get debit cards so that you don't go into debt again. I already cut those up. Good. Good. You're on track.

Okay. And let's set aside a portion. You're getting actually $50,000, half of the $100,000 equity? No, no. It's a $300,000. It's paid for? I'm getting, yeah. The house is worth about $700,000.

Oh, you're getting $300,000? Yes. Okay, all right. I thought it was selling for... Earlier there was a $100,000 discussion. Okay, anyway, so you got $300,000. That's awesome. Set aside a chunk for an emergency fund,

three to six months of your household expenses. What do you make a year? Right now I'm in between jobs. I get a stipend from the VA for... What would you make when year? Right now I'm in between jobs. I get a stipend from the VA for disability. What would you make when you get back to work? Right around $30,000. Okay. So if you set aside $15,000 for an emergency fund, you'll be fine.

If you set aside another $10,000 for trips and rental fees and whatever and take the boys somewhere, that'll be fine. Okay? Okay. And then you go rent you an RV. You can rent one forever for $10,000. Oh, my God. And so then we're going to just park the rest of it for a year

and rent something inexpensive and just let yourself settle down and decide when some of the smoke is cleared out of your brain from this, you'll make a better decision on a piece of real estate. Okay. Like, you don't want to get remarried three days after you get divorced. That's called rebound. And buying a house on the rebound is also a bad idea. Okay.

All right. And the other thing is the Boys College Fund. You'll get it. You sit down with SmartVestor Pro. They'll help you park the money for the year and get some going to kids' college, and you'll have the rest of it for the down payment on the next house. Okay. You make $30,000 a year.

How the crap did you end up in a $700,000 house? Her parents helped with some of the payments as well. Okay. And they're not recouping any of that. You're still getting half of it. Mm-hmm. Wow. What's the plan going forward for you professionally?

Well, initially, like I said, I was going to take some of this money and invest into a business that I was going to start. But I think right now, I think I just need to try and figure out what I should do with this money and really evaluate if going into business for myself is a smart move or if I should just get back on track with a job. I would do that first. So as Dave was talking about not buying a house on the rebound, don't start a business on the rebound. Get a good, stable day job. And as you begin to settle into renting and settle into parenting these boys as a single father and all of the new things coming your way, then you begin to look towards the future. What is it that I want to do? What's

the best way to do it? I would hold off on starting any business for a while. Business is too hard to fall into it. Yes. You've got to walk into it with your shoulders square and a resolute look in your eyes, like you're bound to start a business because it's hard. It is not an easy process. Johnny's in New York City. Hey, Johnny, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

How are you doing, guys? Great, man. How can we help? Good. I'm trying to decide if it's a smart move to sell my paid-off car to accelerate paying off my student loan debt. What's your car worth? So right now I could probably sell it for about $9,000 to $10,000. What do you make?

And I have about $80,000 after bonus. And how much is your student loan debt? $14,000. No, I wouldn't sell it. How old are you? 25. Okay. So where's all your freaking money going?

That's the thing. Yeah, that's the thing. And that ain't going to be fixed by selling your $9,000 car. You make a ton of money and you're wasting a ton somewhere. Yeah, but I have been actually paying off a lot of student debt. I started with $50,000. Oh, good. Okay.

That's not as bad a story then. So I have been. Okay. Yeah, no, it's not completely thrown away. But I'm getting a little exhausted of, you know, sacrificing so much. And I don't necessarily need my car. How much did you pay off in what period of time? In three years, I paid off $36,000.

Dude, you haven't exhausted anything. Yeah. Okay. That's $12,000 a year out of $80,000. That's pretty wimpy. You should not be exhausted from that yeah but this job that i do have now is actually pretty new good oh okay you weren't making 80 the whole time i keep beating this guy up and then he keeps coming back and i have to back off of him okay i want to help a little bit johnny you said you don't need the car why don't

you need the car he lives in new york city i know but i want to hear him say it yeah i mean i i think i i commute to work without my car yeah so you literally don't need it at all i mean if you were to remove it today uh would it change your habits of transportation getting in and out of the city not at all correct no no it wouldn't um i think it's just more a luxury item to go like visit family or friends. I would sell it. I would, Dave. I would sell it in his case because it's going to fast-forward the process. If he gets nine or ten for it, now he's got five left.

He can pay it off quickly. I'm game with that. But, Johnny, let's make sure we do get to the bottom of, you don't have to do it with me, but you've got to do it with the guy in your mirror. You need to get to the bottom of what you you kind of indicated that you've uh in one sentence you were sacrificing deeply and you're exhausted in another sentence you were talking about how sloppy you were and that you could do more so i'm not sure where you are and so i was trying to pick on you and then i couldn't pick on you and i can't figure out what to do so trying to help you but the point being i want you to look

in your mirror and go okay what do i need to do as a 25 year old man i need a man up here and what have i got to do to be grown up and handle my money with a diligence in in a way that that feels very dignified and noble because i'm being such an adult about it and i'm not partying my life away or i'm not disorganizing and being sloppy because you're making 80 grand you ought to be able to pay off 14 in a heartbeat that's right okay that's the thing i'm hearing but you just started making that and then parts of it you were sacrificing and parts of it you weren't so you got to figure that out but i don't want you to sell the car and still not face the guy in your mirror so sell it that's fine but only if you look at the guy in the mirror and tell him he needs to straighten up.

Because that changed my life when I did that. And I was about your age when I did that. And I'm a multimillionaire now because I did that. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, folks. Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Get your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts. The Ramsey Show.