The Ramsey Show - App - Stop Stepping Over Dollars To Pick Up Nickels (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm Ramsey personality, George Camel, joined by the one and only Dr. John Deloney. And this is your show, America. We want to help you take the right next step in your life, in your money, in your relationships, in your mental health. We are here for you. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. Fran joins us in New York City to kick us off. Fran, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you. When my husband and I got married, we combined everything and I took care of pretty much everything financial, paying the bills, ordering things,

whatever. And the only thing that he did was he was in charge of the investments. And that worked really well for 50 years. And then he passed away. I'm smart enough to know the things I don't know. And I don't know anything about investing. And I need help. How do I find someone who can help me without ripping me off? That's a great question, and I'm so sorry for your loss. How recently did he pass? About eight months ago. Can I just say, as our new friend, Fran, the heaviness of this season, I know it's extra, extra heavy, and I'm sorry.

Thank you. I know it's extra, extra heavy. I'm sorry. Thank you. I hate it for you. So you guys were married 50 years? 50 years and eight days. Wow. Well, what an amazing legacy and journey you guys have been on together. And I'm guessing over 50 years of investing, you've got quite the nest egg. It's probably just a little shy of $2 million. Awesome. Do you know what it's invested in? What kinds of accounts? Where they're located?

What kind of paper trail do you have? Oh, I have all of the paper trail and we've had some IRAs, some Roths, some investment accounts. It's a whole variety of things. Um, when he worked for New York city and they happened to have an incredible 401k, uh, you know, plan and the, um, from that alone, uh, I transferred over into my name, a little shy of a million, just from that. So you've got access to all the accounts, you know where they are, you know the account numbers, all of that is in your possession. Yep. It's everything that was only in his name from work or wherever has been transferred to me.

So the good news is it's already being invested in things. You don't have to go and choose all of these from scratch. Is your question more, how do I handle this going forward? Do I need to change any of the investments? I don't know where to get started. Okay. Well, I have, as I said, I have all different kinds and, you know, he was, he liked to not put his eggs all in one basket as it were. Um, so we've had, we have a bunch of little IRA accounts. What I want to do is, um, consolidate everything. Um, and a lot of the things that he did invest in, in terms of, um, his non IRA things is just

regular investment accounts are things that I was not happy with. And I know I want to change all of that because he had a different philosophy than I do. And, you know, well, I think at this stage of the game, you want, you want to manage all of the risks that you can you do want to be well diversified we don't want you investing in single stocks and unproven investments sticking to mutual funds and index funds is going to be your best bet and so when it comes to how to move forward i work with a professional it's the same reason i don't handle you know the electrician work around the house i I'm not capable. And even if I could watch some DIY videos, I'd probably screw it up and hurt myself.

And that's the case for most with investing, right? So we call these people smart investor pros through a smart investor pro program that we have at Ramsey. We can connect you with investing pros that can help you take that right next step and give you guidance when it comes to investing. And I've got one, Dave Ramsey has one. And the key here is you want someone with the heart of

a teacher. Like you said, you're scared of getting ripped off. You don't want to walk in somewhere and you hand them a bunch of money and they go, and it's gone. You go, what would you do with this money? You've worked so hard, you and your husband to build this legacy and nest egg. And I totally understand that you want to make sure you uh you're wise with it going forward well i've spoken to a number of financial advisors and they all pretty much say the same thing where fiduciaries were going to invest uh in you in diversified uh products that align to your risk level. And surprisingly, not one of them has said,

just give me your money, I'll take care of it. And if we do, okay, fine. If not, oh, well, oddly, no one has said that to me. Well, they all like to keep their jobs and not have the SEC breathing down their necks, so it makes sense. But I've got a great blog. I'm going to make sure our team sends it to you, and it's called Questions to Ask a Financial Advisor at Your First Meeting.

So make sure when we hang up, I'll make sure our team sends you that link. We can also put it in the show notes for today's show if all of you listeners out there want to check that out. But it's really, it's asking about their investing philosophy, asking them how they're going to get paid. How will you measure and evaluate performance? Those types of questions are the wise ones to ask and just vibing them out. Do I want to work with this person? Is this someone I trust? Is this someone that I get a good vibe with? And those are some great steps to take. And you can connect with a smart investor pro at ramsaysolutions.com to get started. Here's the one thing I think the reason I use the smart investor pro um besides

the fact that they've been vetted is it's an orientation to a problem most of the time when i call a plumber i'm asking a plumber to tell me what's wrong and how much it's going to cost them to fix it when you go see a financial advisor out of a book, what you're doing is you're saying, I want to invest. And they're going to say, well, what are your goals? Like a personal trainer. And you're going to say, I want $5 million. Or in your case, I want to make sure I'm comfortable and have enabled to pay my bills for the rest of my life. Great. When you sit down with a smart investor pro, they are a teacher first. You won't leave that room not knowing exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it and how it all works. And that is different than just, oh, you just trust me.

We'll put it in here and we'll take care of it for you. Oh, it didn't work. It's different. It is, I am going to co-pilot this thing with you. I am an expert, but I am also a teacher. Here's what's funny about SmartVestor Pros. I have a 20-year, nope, 30-year friendship with my SmartVestor Pro. We were friends before he ever got into this business and before I ever started letting him keep my money. After I hired him, he said, hey, I'm going to walk you through

how this works. And I go, I honestly don't care. I trust you. Just make it work. And he said, he said, hey, I'm going to walk you through how this works. And I go, I honestly don't care. I trust you. Like, just make it work. And he said, that's not what I do. What I do is I will teach you. So either we don't work together. I was like, are you kidding me, dude? Like, you're my friend for 30 years. He goes, either I teach you how this works or we don't work together. And I was like, all right, teach me how this works.

And so that's their orientation. And I really appreciate that you're going to walk into that office, not knowing up from down, you're going to walk out an expert in your own situation, which I think is awesome. That's a great reminder. You call the shots here. They don't choose it for you. They recommend and then you get to decide. And it's all on you.

So if someone's making, they're saying, hey, just trust me, I'm going to do it. No, you got to figure out exactly what they're doing, why, and you call the shot. Thank you so much for the call, Fran. So sorry for your loss. We'll connect you with that blog article. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. If you want to talk about your life, your money, your relationships, your emotional well-being, your mental health,

we are here for you this hour. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Rachel is up next in Ohio. Rachel, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for having me. Absolutely. How can we help today? So I am currently a stay-at-home mom. I am looking to get back into the workforce. However, right out of high school, I went right into the Air Force because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wasn't able to get my GI Bill because I got injured. So I've been kind of going from job to job to job trying to figure out what I want to do. The job that I really liked doing was being a bank teller, so I kind of want to get into that. However, I know that I have to have a good credit score because I do a credit check in order to get a job.

So I was wondering if in that case, do you guys still say to close all your credit cards? How would you go about that, needing a good credit score in order to get a job? Great question. Well, number one, I actually talk about this in my new book, Breaking Free from Broke, the whole section on credit scores, because I've dug into this, because this is a question we get a lot. People like to push back and go, I can't get rid of the credit cards. I got to keep my score because of jobs. They do a credit check. But the caveat here is what they're looking for is a mismanagement of money. They're looking for a bad or low score. I have yet to see someone who says, hey, they did the credit check and I had no score and I didn't get the job. What they're really looking

for is someone to make sure that you don't have delinquencies, that you're a person of integrity when it comes to money. And so I would just talk to them and say, hey, listen, you're going to do the credit check. You're welcome to do that. Here's what's probably going to happen. It's going to come up as indeterminable. Here's why. I don't have any debt. And that's a principle I live by. And I would love to work here. And I think I'd be a great fit. And I'm a person of integrity and character who just lives a debt-free lifestyle. Have you tried that? I haven't tried that, no. but that sounds like a good solution. That's my guess.

Now, someone could prove me wrong out there where they go, nope, I didn't have a credit score, and they said we can't give you the job because it's some sort of bureaucracy, stupid policy. But in most cases, what I found is the credit check just exists to see if you have a terrible score, which you don't. Now, I am currently on baby step two, so we are paying off the credit cards, which we'll have the credit cards completely paid off by the end of January and then head to the car. Oh, so you already have a credit score. And the student loans.

Yeah. So this is not even a problem. This is a hypothetical. Yeah, it's just a bad credit score, and I've had issues with, I've lost a job opportunity because it was bad in the past, but we are working towards eliminating that completely through the baby steps. Great. Well, here's what will happen. As you pay off your debt, the score is going to get better, and then it will disappear. After about six to 12 months with no open accounts, we're talking no credit card

accounts open, nothing. The credit score will become indeterminable. Okay. So you can also pull your credit report for free at annualcreditreport.com. And that will show you all of the accounts you have open out there because there's maybe one you forgot about. You might, oh gosh, I didn't realize that was still open. I got to go close that. But yeah, this is a, you're going to be okay. And again, to your point, the low credit score can't hurt you. The no score I found is not an issue, whether you're renting an apartment, cars, you name it. They're looking for bad money management. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

Yeah, I hope that helps, Rachel. Thank you so much. Let's move on to Landon in Jackson, Tennessee. What is going on with you to Landon in Jackson, Tennessee. What is going on with you, Landon? How can we help today? Hey, what's up, guys? I appreciate y'all taking my call. Sure. How can John and I help? So my wife and I are 26, and we are wanting to start doing small, small, small flips. And I'm just, you know, basically in my small town, you can get a small property for about 50 to 100,000 bucks and flip it for 250. And so we're wanting to start doing small flips like that, but it honestly just kind of terrifies me. But basically what I'm

asking is what, I guess, what does my net worth need to be at in order to be safe in doing that and also it you know makes sense. So you want to get into house flipping because you could 5x your money very easily in this town. Well I mean not necessarily because I want to 5x my money I love real estate I'm a realtor that's what I do in this career and it's just you know something that I grew up watching my parents do, and I'm not a fan at all of the current TikTok trend of finance, refinance, buy it over and over and over.

So do you have the money to do these flips in cash? I'll be cash debt-free. How much do you have right now? I don't have my belt as far as my portfolio goes. So how much do you have in cash? In liquid cash, about $300,000.

Awesome. Way to go. What are you making from being a realtor every year? This year I did about $450,000 in commissions. Oh my goodness. You're crushing it, dude. And this is in Jackson? You're talking this is small-town real estate? I'm about 45 minutes outside of Jackson. It's a small town outside of Jackson.

That's pretty impressive. I'm going to Jackson. Yeah. I think you make sure you're investing in your retirement and you're holding off the appropriate taxes if you are 1099 doing this. Yeah. Or if you're under a broker, they'll send you a W-2. You'll be fine.

But all that, yeah, dude, buy a house for $50,000 and pay for the rental in cash. It's going to be 3X as expensive as you think it's going to be. And probably take three times as long. Yeah. And just as long as you and your wife have a good plan to stay married after the reno, then yeah, knock it out. I mean, I don't think there's a magic number. I think the number is don't get yourself in trouble. And if you're buying a $50,000 property and you're going to put $50,000 into it and you have that in cash and you're going to sell it for $250,000, it's a great deal. Do you have your primary home paid off? I do. Wow. Yeah. That's amazing. What's your net worth? Just about $800,000. $750,000 to $800,000. Awesome. Yeah. If you're doing it with cash,

which is rare these days because it's so countercultural as to everything you've seen on TikTok, you are doing it the right way with a whole lot less risk. And so the key is paying cash for the property, cash flowing all the renovations, and making sure on the front end that you're getting a deal. That's where you're making your money is on the front end, on top of some on the back end if you do it the right way. But make sure you're doing your due diligence of what this project is going to take. Because like John said, you get into this thing and you realize, oh my gosh, this is going to be 50 grand more than I thought.

And the contractor dropped out. I got to find a new subcontractor for the project. All of that stuff is going to add some stress and headaches. So just be prepared for that. But you told me you love it. You love this stuff. So start small and go from there and learn along the way. For sure. Okay, cool. Appreciate you. Yeah. Proud of you, man. John, that was not how I thought that call was going to go. See? Usually. Judger. I had some prejudice and here's why. Most of the people that are younger that call into the show

are broke up to their eyeballs and they saw the TikTok of the guy who's like dude you don't even need your own money to get into real estate investing and buy my course and I'll show you how and all of a sudden they call the show and go hey I'm out two thousand dollars for this course and I made a terrible financial decision on this property or they watch HGTV and they watch uh Chip Gaines run a saw and you're like, I can do that. Forgetting that he's like an artisanal craftsman. Yeah, my favorite is when they're like, I'll just do all the repairs myself. Exactly. That's a dangerous, dangerous scenario to be in. So do not recommend that at all. All right, John, we got a lot going on in

the RamseySolutions.com store right now. And one of those things is the $12 sale where you can get bestselling books, Total Money Makeover, Baby Steps Millionaires, your book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future, just 12 bucks. And many of John's Questions for Humans Conversations cards are as low as 10 bucks right now. And the Christmas edition is back. These sold out early last year. So don't be angry. I told you, you're going to miss out. So go check it all out, ramsaysolutions.com slash store. While you're there, you're going to see a whole bunch of new stuff as well that's really exciting. Rachel Cruz launched her first ever illustrated kids book called I'm Glad for What I Have.

Our friend Jade Warshaw just dropped her new book. It's a quick read called Money's Not a Math Problem. We're so excited about that launch. And of course, I'd be remiss to not mention that I've got a book on presale. My very first book called Breaking Free from Broke is on pre-order right now in the Ramsey Solutions store. You can get all of that at ramseysolutions.com slash store. I've been loving...

Someone sent me a message, John. They said, I bought 10 Total Money Makeover audiobooks because they're on sale and I'm going to gift it to people in the Ramsey Baby Steps community to help them on the journey. That's cool. I was like, that's the kind of generosity we need around here. I like it. It's fantastic. So get the gift for everyone in your life. And if you've lived these principles out, go pay it forward. Ramseysolutions.com slash store is the place to go. We'll be right back. Hey, you guys, health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy.

So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience

a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, joined by Dr. John Deloney. We want to help you, America, take the right next step with your money and your life. So if you've got a question, give us a call at 888-825-5225. And John, we found that most money questions usually intersect with some level of relationships and mental health,

and it just gets messy and intertwined real quick. And so as we dig in, I love that you're here to help people really unpack the other pieces, not just the numbers on paper, but how do I deal with that in-law that's pressuring me to go on the trip? And how do I deal with the brother that's estranged, but now wants the money because he feels like he deserves? All of that gets intertwined. Yeah, there's always a relational aspect or an emotional health aspect. Money's scary. And especially nowadays when it's so expensive just to exist right it's just expensive to exist and you either have people denying that it's like just don't eat avocado toast which is nonsense and the other side of it

is just elect the right person and all this goes away and it's like that's nonsense and so there's an emotional component to all of this, right? Yeah. And so, yeah, if you've got emotional, relational stuff going on in your life, give us a call, too. 888-825-5225. Well, John, let's get to our question of the day brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services. With 19 service brands nationwide, Neighborly's provider network has trusted local service pros to handle multiple different services in and around your home. Visit Neighborly.com slash Ramsey to find and schedule service today. Just buzzing through this question real quick. It's fantastic.

It feels like a common core math equation. It does. Today's question comes from Alex in Virginia. I'm just going to tell you up front, Alex, buy the car. Just buy the car. All right, here's your question. Would you recommend buying an electric vehicle like a Tesla just to take advantage of tax credits? Our gross household income for 2023 will be $230,000. Our tax liability would be $9,000. We will get $2,000 as a child tax credit. That leaves us with a $7,000 tax liability. This is the only year where I can take advantage of federal tax credits of $7,500 for electric vehicle purchase. I have no other debt but mortgage, $190,000 balance. I already have a

decent functioning car. I hate the fact that federal government is taking taxes from responsible folks like us and giving it as a credit to people who will probably go in debt to buy overpriced EVs. Here's a pro tip, Alex. Get out of other people's heads and stop making up stories about why other people are doing whatever it is they're doing and as i tell my seven-year-old daughter you deal with you if you want a new tesla you

have the money and you've got cash go buy it george drives one rachel cruz drives one i will drive one one day i'll buy a truck first. It's coming for all of us. But I'll get one. I've been in both Rachel's and George's. They're awesome. And I'm not going to buy anywhere between $40,000 and $80,000, depending on the model, on top of the $7,500 credit

just to show those people who I made up stories about. You see what I'm saying? You're just causing yourself a bunch of angst. If you want a Tesla, get a Tesla. You could also donate money that you might get back in return. You could just give it, be a person of generosity, or you could sit down with a tax professional and work some of this stuff out. All I have to say is, is no i would not buy it george just for the tax credit would i recommend someone buying a car that they want if they can afford it absolutely well and then the ending was funny because he's wanting to stick it to the man to the government for giving the credits to those who get the overpriced evs by buying an overpriced ev yeah

he'll show them that'll show them and then you're going to pay sales tax on that vehicle to the tune of the tax credit that you just got back, which then goes to the government anyways. Okay. This is make the math math, John. It's not math-ing. But yeah, to his point, he makes 230K and he's got no debt but the mortgage. So the parameter around knowing if the car purchase is wise is number one, are you doing it for the right reason? Are you doing it as a flex? Or do you just want to enjoy the vehicle and you're paying for it with cash and the total amount of all of your vehicles, everything with motors and wheels, doesn't add up to more than half of your annual income? So if all your cars are going to add up to over $115,000,

yes, it's a terrible financial decision for you right now. But I don't think that's going to be the case. Get the Tesla because you want the Tesla. Don't do it for the tax credits. Don't do it to stick it to the man. End of story. Ta-da. Can we move on, John?

Can we move on? Tax credits, man. They'll get you. Stepping over dollars to pick up nickels. That's what Americans are great at. We'll show them. All right. Elena is in San Diego.

Elena, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, George. Hi, John. Can you hear me okay? Yes. How can we help? Okay. Well, thanks for having me. I started paying off debt. My husband and I, we started Dave Ramsey. We're on Baby Step 2 about a year ago. And we're posed with this question, if we should sell our house to pay off the rest of our debt or most of it. So some history and historical information here.

My mom has a rental property, and she lives with us. Her tenants are going to be leaving in the next three to four months, and she said, why don't we move to my house and you guys can pay less. You just cover the mortgage and it's significantly less. And then you can either rent your house or sell it. And so my husband wants to sell the house because he's done with my gazelle intensity. And I'm wondering if we should just rent it or if we should just sell it and get on the other side of the debt. A lot of layers to this financial tiramisu.

Let's break this down. No, it's good. It's good. So there's a relational component because that piece, you just dropped a little bomb right there of my husband is done with my gazelle intensity. And the other piece of this is it sounds like it's about to get real messy, moving into moms, but we don't actually own it. We're just paying her the mortgage amount. We get to keep ours, and now we're landlords, but we still have the debt. And so this, I don't know that it's just on paper this is looking like a rose. I would walk carefully either way.

But how much debt do you guys have? So we've paid about $140. We still have about $340,000. Is that non-mortgage debt? That's student loans. $340,000 in student loans? Good God, who's the surgeon? Anesthesiologist?

Give me good news. You're an attorney? But still, did you go to private school? I didn't buy any brand fees, so I sat on interest with these low payments. So they ballooned. It's probably more than you took out. Oh, over $100,000 more in interest. Is this why your husband's done with this program?

So we've gotten into this, and it's been a good year. But, I mean, I can just keep going. But he he's like, he's ready to be done with debt. What's your household income? So our household income is about $190,000 to $200,000. Is that with both of you working? That's with both of us. Okay. So what are you on track to pay off your debt by right now? Shooting for three years.

Did you have a big year just because you had a couple of great cases, or is this typical? No, I sold everything. You sold your practice? I sold, no. So I'm in-house. I don't have a practice, but I sold, we? I sold, no. So I'm in-house. I don't have a practice. But I sold, we sold our car and we sold a bunch of furniture.

We sold just all kinds of things. And then I do real estate on the side. Okay. Let's talk about the mortgage. What is your mortgage payment every month compared to your take-home pay? Mortgage right now is about $2,800. Okay. And what is your take-home pay? Mortgage right now is about $2,800. Okay. And what is your take-home pay? Take-home pay a month is about $11,500. Okay. That's net. So the mortgage is not killing you guys. It's about 25%, which is great. That's

in our parameters, which tells me you've got, you know, of course you have huge payments. What are your minimum payments every month right now? So right now, based on, you know, whatever income driven repayment type that they have, the minimum payment for all of the student loans is about $700. That's the problem. I would get out of this plan unless you guys are shoveling so much on top of it that you're actually solving the interest problem.

And so I wouldn't sell the house quite yet. I don't know that I'd move in with mom and do all of these maneuvers. In three years, you'll be debt-free and you can make different decisions and do it at a place of peace instead of fear. So that would be my goal for you. Yeah, if you think he's frustrated with the baby steps,

move in with his mom and pay her mortgage. They're going to set your marriage on fire. Don't do that. Thanks for the call, Elena. This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John DeLone. It's your show, America, so give us a call at 888-825-5225.

Lila joins us down the road in Nashville, Tennessee. Up next, Lila, what's going on? Hi, George. Hey, John. Happy holidays. Thank you so much for taking my call. What up? Oh, my gosh. Okay, so I'm 20. I recently discovered your show through a repost on Tik TOK and I was immediately hooked. I took the assessment on, yeah, I took the assessment on the Ramsey website and found out that I'm on step four, but my boyfriend and I are living paycheck to paycheck and just making things work by the grace of God. Um, to cut a long story short, I, uh, graduated high school with an associate's degree,

debt-free, and I'm a dependent of a veteran, so I received benefits. And I came to live in Nashville to go to school here, enrolled at Belmont, but with only three semesters left, a miscalculation by the Veterans Association suspended my benefits, and I was forced to take a leave of absence from the school. and that was paying for my housing. So now I'm working full-time, making just under $16,000 a year to cover my basic needs, and I'm transferring to MTSU for in-state tuition, and I'm planning on scholarships and the Pell Grant and paying the rest out of pocket to avoid student loans. I also have no credit history and no idea how or when I should start to do that. I'm worried about weathering the economic storm that the housing market is facing,

and I just need some trustworthy advice on how I can set myself up for some success given my circumstances. And our pet's heads are falling off. It feels like it's all coming down, Lila. Are you doing okay? You're a neighbor. Yeah, I'm just... It feels like a lot. I was actually thinking about coming down, but I thought maybe I'd give it a call and first try. All right, so I'm going to give you some very, very, very specific advice,

but George is going to talk to you in a broader picture. And the only reason I can give this to you is because I've been on the inside, okay? When I was a dean of students at Belmont in particular, they had a program, and I don't know if it's still there where they took care of the other part of a veteran's whatever a veteran needed they took care of it right yeah I had that but the VA miscalculated my benefits and said instead of the two years that I was supposed to be allotted they said that I had only I only had six months left and that I don't have any benefits left. Have you applied for a

recalculation? Yeah, I did, but the process just takes so long. And Gwen from the VA office at Belmont said that I should just kind of give up. Really? Yeah. I've never heard that before. I trust trust the person i don't know who's running it now but i trust that person i've just never heard that yeah oh no she's wicked smart she knows what she's talking about that's why i was like damn it sucks yeah that does suck because it's one of the best programs i've ever seen in the united states that they have at belmont there

where they really take care of veterans yeah i was yeah, I was so grateful. Yeah. I was so grateful that I was able to come and have a whole year at Belmont, and the only reason I chose to come to Belmont was because I was so lucky that they have that yellow ribbon program. Yeah, it's astounding. But once my benefits were suspended, there was just nothing I could really do about it

other than, you know, find a cheaper education. All right, so we're going to pick, I'm going to pass it over to George. I'm going to tell you two things. One, I respectfully would challenge you to not give up. I also respectfully challenge you to take a breath. You're going to be all right. And I'm going to say something that's going to offend people.

If you're making $16,000 in Nashville, Tennessee, you're making a choice to make $16,000. I took my daughter to breakfast the other day and at the McDonald's, it was starting at $20 an hour. So if you make 16 grand, you woke up today and decided I'm only going to make 16 grand. And unfortunately for you, I see the signs and I talk to people because this is my town too. And this applies to everybody. You might have to get uncomfortable everybody you might have to get uncomfortable you might have to get a couple of jobs for a six months while you figure out this va stuff and the va doesn't have a great track record of always just dotting all their i's and crossing their t's but i would not just bail on a world-class education that they're going to take care of you the way belmont takes

care of their veterans and um just sit in my house and be like, ah, it's all coming down. It's not. It's a mess, but it's not all coming down. Right. So one of the problems you're having right now, it's an income problem. It doesn't sound like you have extravagant bills. You're living a super luxurious life. You don't have a bunch of debt payments. You told me you're debt free. We're beans and rice. And you have an emergency fund in place already? Yeah, and I've got six months, more than six months worth of savings. Wonderful. Dude, you gotta cheer up. So you have a I'll never go into debt again fund is what that is. That's debt insurance because you're not going to have a car repair that tanks you. Yeah, I had fear instilled in me as a child to never go into bed.

Good. Well, that's good at least. That's a good kind of fear. But there is a sort of scarcity mindset right now of, I don't know how we're going to pay next month's bills. You're going to be okay. We need a path out with long-term income increasing. Let's talk about this boyfriend situation. Are you guys splitting the bills? How is this working? Yeah, so we live together in a two-bed, two-and-a-half bath with a roommate, and we split it three ways, $800 each. Okay, and you don't have any finances combined, right?

No. Okay, good. Let's keep it separate. We need to increase your income because right now, do you know your monthly expenses off the top of your head, what it takes to run your life? Yeah, so I pay $900 in rent and utilities, and then I've been honestly scraping by with a little bit less than $100 a week, and I'm not putting any money into my savings except i have this app called albert that takes like a few dollars oh no what are you doing lila those apps exist to take your money not make you money i know they these little micro

investing apps will take your spare change and make you a millionaire in the year 3000 you're gonna have a million dollars in that account yeah i'm ditching that you need to be investing 15 of a solid income into a solid retirement plan that's going to be your path to building wealth and getting out of the cycle so your a1 right now is to get a job that pays 15 bucks an hour 20 bucks an hour 25 bucks an hour that would change your world wouldn't it to double your income right now i work as a right now I work as a stagehand for IOTC, and when work is good, it's good, but right now it's the holidays. You need stable work, a lot of it. Yeah. So I'll get a retail job before doing seasonal work where there might be work,

there might not be, and so hospitality's always bumping they're always looking for solid people you sound like a rock star so i have full faith that you're going to find a great job and make great money yeah but but lila tell me if i'm wrong george she sounds like a rock star that is trying to play all the instruments on stage at the same time those you don't like one man bands are rarely good yeah they're all yeah the one man bands are just a little bit like a little bit like, what are you doing over there? So hey, are you going to marry this guy?

Yes. When? Well, the thing is, he's a VA dependent, and he is going to school completely for free because both of his parents are veterans. This is the longest answer for a date I've ever heard sorry what's the date okay if he loses his dependency status then if we get married he loses his education

benefits so after he gets a degree and what were you studying that sounds romantic so lovely um i'm studying i oh my god don't make fun of me I'm studying music business and minoring in tourism and hospitality I don't think that's bad oh no it's fine I'm not mocking you at all man

do you have a career goal? like what do you want to do? not what degree you're getting I want to I have a very clear dream I want to bring sustainability to music festivals

and stop wasting so much for events and I want to bring sustainability to music festivals and stop wasting so much for events. And I want to have a green music festival. Okay. That sounds fantastic. That's a very clear goal. So I would also, in the meantime, start to get connected with people who work on music festivals. There's a lot of that going on in this town. And I go get a job at the Ryman and at brooklyn bowl and work all day making money and then work all into the night um working in the music industry around artists and

sound guys and doorman and all those people seven days a week tell your boyfriend you'll see him after you graduate when y'all get married right but get after but just get after like only make 16 000 you're in nashville freaking t Tennessee, one of the hottest economies on planet Earth. Don't choose to make $16,000. And don't give up on this VA stuff. Call them and call them and call them. I just wouldn't walk away from Belmont right now. Keep fighting, Lyle.

I'm going to send you two great resources. One is our friend Ken Coleman's book, The Proximity Principle. The other is Dr. John Deloney's newest book, Building a Non-Anxious Life. I think both of those will be of service to you in the season that you find yourself in. So hang on the line. Our friend Ibu is going to pick up. She's going to make sure that we send you those two books. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back before you know it.