The Ramsey Show - App - Talking Alpacas (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 17, 2018

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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 circle of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America, because it's all about you. It's a free call, and some say the advice is worth what you pay for it. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Isaiah is with us in Columbus, Ohio.

Hi, Isaiah. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Same here. You're kind of on a constant loop in our home my daughter calls me uncle dave uh-oh um so i wanted to know um we watched that a lot and uh one of the shows uh someone said something about alpacas and uh at the time you laughed and thought it was pretty funny apparently but. But I just wanted to know, since my wife and I were saving up and working to start our own ranch and raise alpacas, I want to know if you knew something that I didn't, and maybe I should change course or something.

I don't even remember what you're talking about, but I guess I can comment on alpacas. I think we were talking about emus, weren't we? I believe so. Yeah, there was a bunch of people went broke several years ago because there was this emu fad, and a bunch of people bought emus, and then there was supposed to be this huge demand for the meat, and it was basically a bunch of crap. There was no demand for emu meat, and pretty soon people just had dead emus everywhere. But, you know, alpacas, I mean, I'm not an expert on alpacas.

I'm not even an expert on ranches. But from a business perspective, I think you're entering a pretty narrow market. Agreed, yes. And you better really know your stuff and you better really do this. You can't do it just because you read in some article about alpacas are making people rich because they're not. I mean, any more than any more than cows are making people rich. Cows make people pretty poor all the time. And some of them, they make people rich.

But it has to do with running a business called cattle, you know, and it's a business. And when it ceases to be a business, it starts to be a fad or never becomes a business because all it is is a fad, then there you go. So what is the deal? What do you get out of alpacas? What's the end product? The end product is the fleece. You can turn it into sweaters and socks and so forth. It's very similar to cashmere in the quality of the fleece.

And you can also breed and, of course, sell them and show them and all that. But it's almost completely about the fleece. And the big part of it is it's hypoallergenic and stuff. So with everybody that has allergies, my children, for example, have allergies. And are you a rancher? Have you been in agriculture and ranching before? No, this would be my first venture into it. So why would you take your first venture into ranching and do it with a very narrow product line?

Well, that is actually the second half of it. The first I'll be starting with is goats, and I don't have all of the expertise myself. It's a good friend of mine who does, and we're going to be working together. And has made lots of money on alpacas and goats. Not alpacas. That's a different thing. But the goats, they did in their native country yes

okay all right well i mean it sounds like you're going into something you're inexperienced in and um obviously i'm going to tell you don't borrow money to do it because whatever money you may put into this may go away because you uh you know from a business perspective you just got a very narrow demand product line that the general public is not aware of and um so it's not like your you know cow hides leather obviously would be a completely different thing a broad market for that and um or wool obviously there's a broad market for that and so forth. But if you've studied the market and you understand who's thing, I don't want to just trust a guy who once raised an alpaca halfway around the world and his family did that for two generations or something. That's,

that is a bad idea. I mean, you're in the United States and you need to think about it. You need to understand exactly how this is going to turn into money and how likely it is. Because you're talking about a business here. But you can't get enamored with hypoallergenic narrow market stuff because your kids have allergies. That's a good way to lose all your money. So you need to look at the business aspect of this.

Where does this turn into money and how many steps does it take to turn into money and how much money does it turn into and how likely is it to turn into money and how many steps does it take to turn into money and how much money does it turn into and how likely is it to turn into money? And because it scares the crap out of me. You're in a really narrow market, a fad like market. And it sounds like you've got a guy from another country who has come along and told you goats and alpacas worked in another market and another country. And now you think they're going to work in Columbus, Ohio. I just I don't know.

Again, I'm not an expert, but it just sounds weird. So I would want to know a whole lot more about it. If somebody brings something in here that feels weird to me, usually I find out the reason it felt weird is because it was weird. And so you just kind of got to get down into it and go, okay, what's the problems with this? What am I not seeing? What are my blind spots?

And really study it because otherwise every dollar you're putting at risk here could be gone. Veronica is in Texas. Hi, Veronica. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. I'm such a fan. Sorry I'm nervous to talk to you. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. How can I help? Well, a few years ago, my mom needed dental work and we had just moved in with her. And so I figured I might as well help her. So my husband got a credit card for $9,000 out under his name. It's a medical credit card. You can only use it for medical things. And she was making the payments on it and she paid it down to $5,000. The payments are like $250 a month. And lately she's been getting slower and slower with the payments. She would have faltered by now, but sometimes we'll pay it for her and she pays it back.

The thing is, we're trying to get on the baby steps to get out on our own. And every time that we're kind of ahead... You still live with her? Yeah, we still live with her. How long have you long have you lived we can't get on our feet well the first we've been here for like i want to save five six years because every time we get on our feet to move out my mom's really bad with money she does pawn um and you know i'm confused so she takes all your money every time and we will pay the payments or come up with the payment or something like we bail her out and then we are stuck living here again and so this time so it sounds like she sounds like she's sabotaging everything so you stay

yeah that's that's yeah so you need to move like no matter what even if we don't immediately have all our don't you both have jobs i stay home i have two babies my husband works and what does your husband make he makes about 30 000 go get an apartment okay um and you're not gonna do that are you the credit card you're not gonna do that yes i well as long as you stay there as long as you stay there i can't help you as long as you stay there i can't help you because you you are in a cycle you know what the cycle is and you're refusing to deal with the cycle every time you get ready to move out your mother takes all your money and you've been living there five freaking years.

It's time to leave. Now. Then you're going to end up paying this dental credit card because you were stupid enough to put it in your name and do it. You get to pay stupid tax. I've done a lot of stupid stuff in my life. And every time I write one of those checks, I call it stupid tax. You're getting ready to write a $5,000 stupid tax check. After you move out and work your own death snowball and your husband's working three jobs and you're working one.

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years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Scott is with us in Denver. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Scott. Hey, thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help?

Well, I work as a truck driver, and I'm never home, so I'm planning on buying a house later in life, like in retirement. And I'm wondering, what would be a good idea on how to invest that extra money I have to put my house payment away now in investments instead. Good. Good question. How old are you? Fifty-four. Fifty-four. And you're single? Yes.

Okay. And how many years do you think before you'll buy a house? I'm thinking at least 16. Okay. All right. Okay. And how many years do you think before you'll buy a house? I'm thinking at least 16. Okay. All right. Cool. Well, as long as you've got more than five years, I would use a simple growth stock mutual fund or a series of them. For something like that, I probably would just use an S&P index fund because it will grow virtually without paying taxes on it until you pull it out.

It has what's called a low turnover ratio, which means the taxes aren't charged much on the growth until you cash it in. And so I'd start to look at just an S&P 500 fund, an index fund, and use that to grow for the next five, ten years or so until you buy a house. As long as you plan to leave it alone at least five years, you can survive the gyrations of the stock market, and you should be fine in that. And that's exactly what I would do. I do a similar thing, Scott, in that sometimes I've got some extra money

and I'm just saving up for my next real estate purchase as an investment. And even if I don't have five years in that case, I'll ride the market with it, because I can afford for it to go down if I miss up a little bit. But, yeah, that's the direction I would go. Good question. Robbie is with us in Pittsburgh. Hey, Robbie, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, how are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Thank you so much for speaking, Mike Hall. Yeah, I, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Thank you so much for speaking, Michael. Yeah, I had a quick question. So I am a nurse by profession and my wife is a nurse anesthetist. I am wondering if I should go back to school again next year. So my question is, is it worth for me to go to school now i'm 32 years old my wife is uh 29 we make a combined income right now of uh 200 uh 220 000 a year so if i go to school it's going to cost me three years of not working and a tuition of around $90,000.

But our gross income after I go to school and be successful together would be close to $300,000. What do you make a year now? Right now, around $70,000. Okay. So you're saying this is going to cost you $300,000, three years of $70,000 missing plus $90,000 out of pocket? Yeah. Okay, can you cash flow the $90,000 out of pocket and can you live on her income while you're doing this? I can live on her income for sure. That's how we did it when she was in school, but I don't think I can cash anything right now because I also don't have a house at the moment,

so I was planning on buying a house or at least putting a down payment for a house next year before I start school. Then you need to wait until you can pay for school. I have never in 30 years of doing this show recommended somebody borrow money to go to school. Okay. You've got the cash flow to do it. It's just a matter of when you do it and what you put first, what you put second.

You make plenty of money to come up with $90,000. Yeah. Plenty of money. And you don't have to have the whole $90,000 up front. You've just got to see in your budget how you can cash flow it. I can see it pretty easily. How long does it take to go through the class again? It's a three year program. So 30 grand a year? 30 grand a year, yeah. And she

makes what? She makes $150,000. You can't cash flow 30 grand out of $150,000? Well, not when I'm not in school. No, if you're in school, she makes $150,000, and you need $30,000 of her $150,000 to go to school a year for three years. I'm sorry, it's going to be around $60,000 a year. I thought you said it was $90,000. Sorry, I got that wrong. It's $60,000 a year. I thought you said it was $90,000. Sorry, I got that wrong.

It's $60,000 a year. Seems high. Yeah, it is. It is an expensive program. Yeah, go to a less expensive program. Okay. But cash flow it. Whatever you're going to do, pay for it.

Figure out a way to pay for it. It pays you go. You don't necessarily have it all stacked up ahead of time, but you've got to see where it's going to come from. I would not recommend you go get student loans. Because here's the thing. Everyone that starts that program doesn't finish it. But everyone that takes out student loans to start that program has those student loans, whether they finish or not.

And then you've got what's known as a freaking mess. And so I'm not suggesting you're dumb or you can't pass the test or something like that, but life happens, dude. And the last thing you want, the only time debt works is if everything works. Other than that, that doesn't work. And so we tell you to stay away from it. Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Joshua is in Dallas, Texas.

Hi, Joshua. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So basically, I am stuck in between whether I should file for bankruptcy or just go ahead and start paying all my debts off with debt snowball.

Basically, all my debts except my car are in collections. So that's the only reason I'm basically contemplating bankruptcy. Why are they all in collections? They're like old medical bills. One is a car that got repoed because I lost my job, and I think like a phone bill is in there too. Okay. So how much is the repo bill?

That one's actually only like a couple grand. The biggest one I have on there is $9,445 from an old apartment. How long ago was that? Three and a half years ago. Okay. And how much medical debt have you got? I would say about $2,000. And how much other debt have you got?

The rest of it is just mixed in there with, like, my phone bill. Oh, and some payday loans as well. Yeah. So your total debt's less than $20,000. Right. And then I have my car, which is $12,000. Okay. And what do you make a year?

A little bit over $45,000. I make $1,000 a week. I'm an independent contractor. And you're single? I'm married. You're married? How old are you? I am 28 on Saturday.

Happy birthday. Does she work outside the home? No. She stays at home and takes care of the daughter. Okay. Good. All right. Well, let me tell you what i'm hearing

okay and i think i'm hearing maybe i'm wrong um uh larry burkett used to say that debt is not the problem it's the symptom of something else that's going on um right and it sounds like you guys have never told your money what to do you You've never had any savings for emergencies. So every time an emergency comes up, you get thrown out of an apartment and sued. Your car gets repoed, and you end up with a mess. Yes, sir. So we've got to get you on a plan where you are telling your money what to do. Or you're going to be back here.

If I waved a wand and made all this debt go away, which is what bankruptcy might do, maybe, if it did that and you have zero debt, all of a sudden accept your car, if you don't change the habits that caused this mess in the first place, you'll be back right where you are someday. Do you agree? Yes, sir. So we really need to get under that because bankruptcy doesn't solve that. You've got to solve that in the mirror, you and your wife learning how to handle money.

I don't think you're bankrupt. I think you're scared, disorganized, don't know what to do, and have done nothing so far. I think you can probably settle that old apartment debt for three or four grand if you saved it up and offered them a lump sum settlement. I've actually called them multiple times. I started listening to you. That was one of the first videos that I was looking up was how to get debt collectors up from under you. It doesn't change my answer, dude.

Whether it's $9,000 or $3,000, you're still not bankrupt. It's still about you getting control of your money. And when you do that, then you're going to see your way through this bankruptcy. It's not a debt problem. It's a behavior problem that's gotten you here. I'll help you out. I'm going to send you a copy of the Total Money Makeover book. Read that, take an extra job, sell everything in sight, and let's get this mess cleaned up. I'll show you how to do to improve their family's money situation.

Two of the most overlooked things are term life insurance and disability insurance. Both plans make sure that you have income to pay bills and take care of yourself and your family if something were to happen. For term life, you need to carry 10 to 12 times your income, and I recommend 15 or 20-year plans for most families. Stay away from cash value or return of premium plans. They're just a ripoff. Disability insurance is just as critical. How are you going to pay your bills if you're unable to work? Disability is the leading cause of bankruptcies and foreclosures. And that's why I send you to Zander Insurance.

They've been helping my listeners find the right plans at the lowest cost for almost 20 years. Call 800-356-1780 or visit zander.com and compare online that's 800-356-1780 or zander.com Chris and Nicole are with us in San Diego. Hey, guys, how are you? Fantastic, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations.

Thank you very much, sir. Love it. How much you guys paid off?. Congratulations. Thank you very much, sir. Love it. How much you guys paid off? A little over $63,000, sir. Good for you. And how long did this take? 22 months. Wow.

And your range of income during that time? $55,000 to $59,000. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. So what was the debt on the $63,000? It was a little bit of credit cards, student loans, a consumer loan, and a car loan. Ah, how much was owed on the car?

It was about $22,000. Did you keep the car? We sold the car. You sold the car. What did it sell for? We took a little loss. It was about $18,000, and then we just got a $1,000 car to drive around. Look at you.

Wow. You've gone all in. I love it. Good for you. Well, that makes the numbers make sense on $63,000. Wow. So what happened 22 months ago that put you guys on this radical journey? Y'all went nuts. We did. We did. Basically, our daughter was just born, our second child, and I received

orders to drill for the school in San Diego. So I left for school about three days after she was born. And as I kind of got in the routine in the school, I got into the podcast, came across your podcast, and we got into the EveryDollar app. So during the three months that I was in school, we basically finished the budget and were able to kind of get all the kinks out. So when school was over and I got everybody out to San Diego, we basically hit the ground running from there.

Wow. Love it. So the family joins you and we go all in. Yes, sir. All because you had a little bit of time on your hands and found the podcast. A little bit of time. Not too much, but a little bit. Yeah, very cool.

Well, thank you for your service, sir. Thank you for your support, sir. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You paid off $63,000 in 22 months, sold the car. What's the key to getting out of debt? I think for us in particular, it's basically getting on that written plan because for the first couple years of our marriage, we were kind of spending a little bit. We made a plan or made like a budget to pay off the minimum payments

and everything like that. We didn't have the extra money where to go, so it disappeared in the restaurant or disappeared in Target or wherever it may be. But once we gave it a plan and said, you know, give everybody an assignment, then we had a better understanding on getting to where we wanted to go. And also with our little ones being able to look at, we have three little ones, and looking at them every day and knowing the sacrifices they were making at that time was going to pay off for their future, not only our future, but for their future

so they didn't have to go through what we were going through. Yeah. Change the family tree. That's a big motivation. Yes, sir. Amen. Way to go, guys. So how's it feel, Nicole?

You did it. You're debt-free. I know. It feels fantastic. Way to go, you guys. Very proud of you. Who was your biggest cheerleader? We had some co-workers.

We had some family members that were very supportive. And being in the Marine Corps, I've had the opportunity to become a command financial specialist for the Marine Corps, which has allowed me to help fellow Marines kind of win their own financial walk as well. So got a close little support group over here. Very cool, as it should be. Well done. Very well done. We're proud of you.

You guys are amazing. Great job. Well, we got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired, number one best-selling book, and that's the next chapter in your story to go on and be millionaires now and be outrageously generous as you go along wonderful thank you you wouldn't believe the percentage of millionaires in the study that we just did that were in the military for 15 or 20 years hit the 20-year mark and then had their second career sometimes sometimes they were

career military all the way through and uh but they used sometimes the 20-year military retirement, and then that second career on top of that catapulted them into serious wealth. So you guys are in a great position. Very, very cool stuff. All right, Chris and Nicole, San Diego, California, $63,000 paid off in 22 months, making $55,000 to $59,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

One, two, three. We're debt-free! Well done, you guys. Very, very, very well done. Tricia is in Huntsville. Hi, Tricia. How are you? I'm good, Dave. How are you? I'm good, Dave.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I was calling about my mom. I'm not really sure how to handle her situation. She has taken FPU three times over the past few years, and she had to file for bankruptcy. And now she still doesn't know how to manage her money yes she does come to me she doesn't know how to manage she just won't do it exactly and so now

she's going to have to have surgery on her wrist and she's coming to me because she's going to have to file fmla so she's going to have to be without some of her paycheck, and she's telling me that she can't manage it. She doesn't know what she's going to do. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What's the next one? I don't really know how to. What's the surgery on the wrist?

She has some kind of knot or something that's very painful, and so she's going to have to have it removed. Yeah. How long has it been there? Probably for about a year or so. Okay. All right. Well, I think this is her wake-up call.

Okay. I think it's time for her to stay at work long enough to build up enough pay in a savings account to be able to survive the time that she's off while she's on FMLA. Okay. I mean, what if you weren't there what if you weren't there to buy this drunk a drink they wouldn't be able to drink right if you weren't there to buy to buy her her drinks she wouldn't be getting drunk right when you finance her misbehavior you ensure it is going to continue.

Okay. Does that make sense? I don't want her to die or something. I'm not trying to, if this thing's cancerous and it's going to cause her hand to be cut out or something. But it sounds like this woman lives from one crisis to another and they're all self-created. Definitely. Yeah. Definitely. I thought I was reading that in the mail, but I wasn't sure.

So I understand, and I'm not trying to be lacking in compassion. I want to be compassionate, but continuing to assist her in this behavior line that has been destructive to her is not compassionate. Okay. So just completely cut her off. Let me just tell you what. I don't know. I mean, you've got to sit down and figure out how you're going to do this in layers. But maybe you assist her partially in return for her engaging in behaviors that she knows she's supposed to be doing.

Okay. But so far, she has refused all help that has to do with her straightening up. Yes. When I was a little kid, my dad used to say, straighten up and fly right. You ever heard that? I don't even know what that means. I don't even know what that means i don't even know what that means i just knew we better straighten up i never did fly so i don't know what he meant but i didn't fly right you know but you know i'm talking about straighten up behave you know yeah and you get and i did i mean because he he would have whooped us if we didn't do what he said so you know but um so so

in this case we can't do that kind of stuff. But I got to just think that's what needs to happen here for her own good. You're aggravated with her. I am. Because you love her because you love her and you don't want to see her in pain. And she refuses to do the things to cause the pain to go away. That's right. And you're more concerned about her behavior than she is.

I agree with that, yes. I think I'd just sit down and tell her all that. Say, you know, I love you. Because let me just tell you, when you do all this, she's going to get pissed off, isn't she? Mm-hmm. She is. Because she feels entitled to your money.

Definitely. Yeah, that's weird. Henry Cloud calls that a boundary violation in the book boundaries how is she entitled to your money because she misbehaves you're supposed to take care of your mama cigarette hanging out of your lip and iron lung in the closet i mean come on seriously i care your mama oh my gosh this is is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Mike Pearson. If your teen has a part-time job, did you know that they can start investing for their retirement right now? Yeah, if you actually file a tax return, you can have a Roth IRA for your kids. And I recommend doing that.

I did that with my kids. Everything we paid them, we defiled the tax return on. And they'd be working here in the business or doing their babysitting or whatever they were doing. And then I paid, if there was any taxes on the tax return, I'd pay the tax return. And then I actually funded their Roth IRA. I didn't take it out of their little incomes. And so they had some pretty substantial savings by the time they got through college. From making money and filing a tax return on that money.

I paid the taxes and I paid the other. Just enable us to shift some of our wealth in that direction. That's a way you can do it. You can get started on that kind of stuff and learn all kinds of ways you can invest and save money with a SmartVestor Pro. You'll be ready for tax time. Yeah. DaveRamsey.com slash SmartVestor,

and you can find someone in your area that we endorse for investing. We do not do investing at Ramsey Solutions, but we show you how. And then we connect you with people that do it the way we teach smart Vester pros. They're called. You can click smart Vester at Dave Ramsey dot com. Don's with us in Longview, Texas. Hi, Don. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey show.

Well, thanks, Dave, for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, first of all, I didn't even know anything about you until three weeks ago when I was driving and I heard you on the radio. But my first baby step was my mother putting her nine foot in my rear so I could save you money and go to work. But I have five, between me and my wife, we have five 401Ks, IRAs, and I was wondering, I'm 56, and I'm wanting to know when you might consider consolidating those because I've left some former employees or employers. And so is she, and we've rolled some stuff over into IRAs. So I was just wondering what your thoughts were on that.

Well, every different 401K will be a different IRA when you roll it. But you could have five IRAs that were all rollovers from previous 401ks or previous IRAs, and they could all be at one investment broker and one person watching over it with you, and that's advisable. So, yeah, I would get with one of those SmartVestor pros I was just talking about right before I picked up the call. Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com, and they can show you how to do those rollovers. There shouldn't be any taxes involved. If you'd roll over a traditional 401k to a traditional IRA, there's no taxes on that if you do a direct transfer rollover.

And, Don, we always always recommend and i personally invest with the recommendations that i use oddly enough uh to that we put your in retirement and my retirement in four types of growth stock mutual funds growth growth and income aggressive growth, and international. And I spread the total of the nest egg across those four evenly, 25% each. Kathy is with us in Wisconsin. Hi, Kathy. How are you? I'm good. How are you doing, Dave?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Yes. My husband and I are looking to retire within the next two to three years, my husband for sure. Now, we have a third of our income or a third of our retirement savings with a financial advisor currently, and I'm wondering what your opinion is on having more than one financial advisor. Why would you need more than one? The only reason that I worry a little bit is that you'd have all of your retirement savings with one person. It's not with them.

They're just advising you on where to put it. You're not with them. I mean, it's like saying, you know, I've got four different cars, and so I'm worried about the mechanic. Well, I already own the cars, and the mechanic is just helping me manage all the four cars. It doesn't change the mix. If you had two of the cars with one mechanic and two of the cars with the other mechanic,

you've still got the same four cars, and you still have to manage all four of them. Does that make sense? Yeah, I do. I don't know if the analogy is completely the same. Okay, well, it's not connecting then because it's perfect. But the idea is this. The investments that you have are not owned and operated by your financial advisor. You own them.

Your advisor is just telling you what to do with what things you own. And so you could own mutual funds in three different mutual, four different mutual funds, and have two of them with one advisor and two of them with another advisor, or you could have all four of them with one advisor. And in either case, you still own four mutual funds. The exact same four, by the way. Because you should be making the decision about where your money goes. The advisor teaches you and advises you, but you should be making the money, the decision

about where your money goes. You're not blindly turning over a block of money and go, just do with it whatever you want. You know, no, that's just dangerous as crud. You need to know everything about where this money is going and understand everything about it. And so if that's the case, then the financial advisor is simply the conduit and an information source. And if you don't trust the information source, they shouldn't be your advisor. That's why you don't need to. You need one that their information aligns with your value system

and what you are planning to do with your investments, and then they walk you through that. I have one. And there's 25 accounts with this one guy in my case. But the 25 accounts are mine they're not his and he just advises me on whether i want to put more in one of them whether i want to open another one whether i want to put two of them together we just talk through what these funds are doing what these investments are doing i understand what they're doing based on his advice and based

on that then i make the decision of what's going to happen with my money and that's what i want you doing and if you do it that way then there's no benefit whatsoever to having two financial advisors the only reason you would do that is if you didn't trust one of them which means you shouldn't even have them and so that's the idea that's what the analogy was trying to get to but i guess i missed it sorry about about that. Sean is with us in Tucson, Arizona. Hey, Sean, how are you? Better than I deserve, sir. Good.

How can I help? Thanks for taking my call. I'm going to give you some numbers here real quick. I have $55,000 in liquid cash. I have about $40,000 in my Roth IRA, IRA and I make 72,000 a year. I'm a traveling nurse and I sold it all, everything except for my truck and my trailer. And I'm traveling with my dog and we got cheap rent, 250 a month. So I'm going to post up in Tucson while I search for land. When do I buy a house?

I would say I'm in baby step four, and I'm not contributing to the Roth or any kind of. You know, you've got some money sitting there to buy a house above and beyond your emergency fund. Some of that $50,000 cash we would label an emergency fund, and some of it we would label. Okay. Then $30,000 of it we would label for your down payment, right? No, I'm paying cash. Okay.

$30,000 of it we would label that you've got that much money saved up. You're going to buy a piece of land because you're going to stay there. Yes. Okay. Cash. I got the cash part. And you're going to move the trailer onto it initially yeah and then i'll build build the the home with cash so your traveling nurse days are over yeah but the kicker is is i can if the land is so far out i can do this contract work um you know indefinitely so that that's good that's a

good thing there's plenty of work here and and just work my point is you're not going to be you're not going to be hooking up to this trailer and hauling off to uh to new york to do traveling nurse stuff while you got a piece of land over in Tucson. No, no, I'm not. So you are settling down. You're settling down. Then I've got no issue with it. Yeah, you're right on track.

I think you're doing the right thing. We set the emergency fund aside. We buy the land. And then it sounds like you're going to pile money into building for a while once you get the house built for cash. Then we would start retirement investing very aggressively because you'll probably be a little bit behind at that point and i would go from there so hey man good question interesting situation you put yourself in there a lot of good pile of cash there 50 grand's legit that puts us out of the dave ramsey showing the

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