The Ramsey Show - App - The Best Calls of the Year (So Far) (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА 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 actual amazing relationships. Jade Warshaw, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You guys jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money.

William is going to start this hour off in Dallas, Texas. Hi, William. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How you doing? Better than I deserve, man. What's up? Yeah, I got a question about a prenup.

I've listened to a lot of your clips. Some of them kind of applied. Some of them didn't. But basically, I own a business and have done well. I own some properties. And there's definitely a large gap between me and my fiance. What's your net worth? Net worth, property values are probably like 1.4. I only have 230 in debt on those.

And then in cash, I probably got like 750. What's your business worth? Seven mil. Okay. So you're a $10 million guy, and she has a more traditional, normal net worth. She's not a freak like you. I guess not, no. You're a good freak, though. I like you. So it's good. You're the right kind of freak, man. I'm just saying.

All right. Right on. Yes, I would get a prenup. Okay. I don't believe in prenups. I tell 99% of the people not to get them. The only time in 30 years of coaching that I've run into a situation where I wished someone had had a prenup was where there was a vast disparity between the two people getting married.

And 99% of the time, the problem doesn't end up being with the two people. It's not your fiance. It's weird dadgum people in her family that come out of the woodwork and screw up everything. And if she can just hold up the hand and go, nope, can't, I got a prenup. I don't have, I got nothing to say about that. I got nothing. Because all of a sudden, they're like,'re like, little Jojo married William. Yeah, let's go visit.

You know, I mean, this is what I'm saying. Yeah, I do. Yeah. And that's and bless your heart. Your fiance didn't see it coming because she did not think crazy was going to manifest itself that way in her extended friends or family. And so and it ends up screwing up y'all's relationship the prenup actually assists the relationship in this case so but for everyone

else i just say no if you have to have a prenup to protect protect your four dollars then you don't need to get married correct now what happens if you you know, your fiance, your girlfriend, what does she think about it? So that's an issue. You know, she thinks that I, you know, quote, unquote, love my money more than her. She's not thrilled, or at least at the beginning wasn't thrilled. And so I basically, you know, because in Texas Texas you're, you know, everything is common, you know, property once you get married. And so then it all gets split. Um, so I had pretty much what I had structured was, you know, separating everything and then

maybe giving her like forever you were married. If we were to anything were to happen, you know, she would get a certain amount per year you know so i guess my next question would be i would not do that um and i would explain to her that this is uh as much for her benefit it is as yours because of what i just described a few minutes ago this gives her this releases her anyone no one of your friends are going to be suspicious that she married a gold digger none of your family is going to think that she has bad motives this helps her and if you want to restructure or do away with the prenup at any point in your life you can do that okay you can just go back into the attorney the at any point in your life, you can do that. Okay.

You can just go back into the attorney. The two of you sit down and go, you know what? I'm going to release $5 million over here. But if you do a set thing on the number of years, the year that that kicks in will actually accidentally coincide to the roughest year in your marriage. Right. And you will have that roughest year you know that so i mean why complicate it that's true yeah and you can go in and change it anytime but i don't i i think i like her being beyond suspicion with all of your friends and relatives

for that matter her friends and she also gets to hold up the hand to her crazies that come along and go, look, it's William's stuff. But, but, and then now having put the prenup in place, that's the legal move. Then I would begin to run the relationship as if you own it all together. That's the key right there. I think that's the key that makes it all all good so in other words i if i were you i'm going to talk to my wife before i make a big business move so that she's included this is not just hey this is all my mountain over here you have no access you have you don't get to you don't get to speak about this that's not what we're saying we're saying if this if this whole hits the wall, you don't get any of this. That's all we're saying.

But that's different than you don't get to speak over it, because you want her to speak over it. Proverbs 31 is, who can find a virtuous wife? Her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her, and he will have no lack of gain. I have made more money and built more wealth while listening carefully to my wife who has a home ec degree and unbelievable hillbilly wisdom now let's ask let me ask another question on your behalf so your business is worth seven million now the prenup is only covering the current value no

let's cover it we cover the ownership of the business, period. Period. Regardless of what it becomes. Oh, that's crazy. Yeah, that's the way I would build it. You can work it that way. You don't have to put a dollar amount on it. That's interesting, though, because if they get married and now she's speaking into the business, the business is growing and she still is not. I'm not going to lie, that's a tough one for me. Okay, let me tell you, she is completely i'll help you she's completely benefiting if this business is worth 14 million later instead of 7 million she's gonna be eating that's right that is right she gets to fly in that airplane but if something happens even the growth is no longer up for yeah yeah but debate but again he can go back and

rechange that later he can and uh if he looked up and said look the reason this business went from 7 million to 25 million is uh she has really contributed yeah then you could just remove some of the prenup that is true that is true that's true now i'm gonna run it as i'm gonna run your relationship and your household and all of your business decisions as if she was there when it all began yeah and this is my child bride wife that we got married when we were whatever don't say child baby children's i mean like sharon i got married at 22 we were like baby children that's sam and i too yeah and so we were little children's children so we got you know we were both dumber than a rock and so

we grew the whole thing crashed it and then grew another one together. Yeah, right. And so there's no question about that. She owns it. Matter of fact, she technically owns most of it. But the point being, I'm going to run the relationship in a way that you don't lord over her assets or income. She completely participates in those and so we have an income from our business unless we're divorced and then it's not and then your boy gets it well that's it i mean it's it only turkey toenails only comes up if there's a problem, right? Yeah. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys.

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So if it's not done right, Neighborly will make it right. It's a great company. Visit Neighborly.com today to learn more. All right, today's question comes from Jeremy in Colorado. I'm a big fan of your show and love the videos. I'm married and we have a one-year-old daughter. I've been renting, but I'm contemplating purchasing a house. My gross base salary is $243,000.

Take-home pay after 401k and insurance is $11,000 a month. We are paying $2,200 in rents. So my question is, how do we know when we're ready to buy a house and how much money do I need to buy? I'm trying to think through the down payment and the mortgage payment, but I know there are other expenses during the buying process and monthly that I'm not thinking through and I want to be prepared? Great question, Jeremy. So when it comes to owning a home and buying a home, we always tell people to be completely debt free and to have three to six months of expenses saved in the bank. And then you're going to move on to what's called Baby Step 3B. So what you're going to do, Jeremy, is figure out, okay, we're going to try to get at least a 5% down payment, ideally more than that. 20% would be incredible because you could avoid PMI and other types of insurance and these fees

that you were asking about later. But we would recommend at least 5-10% down and your monthly mortgage payment being no more than 25 percent of your take-home pay so it'll be kind of around what you're paying for your rent right now honestly is what it'll end up being well no because the your take it says take-home pay is 11 000 after 401k and insurance 25 of your take-home pay not counting 401k and insurance it's just after tax take oh after tax that's true. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, and you're making $243,000.

That's $20,000 a month. So your take-home pay is not $11,000. You know, your take-home pay, you're counting 401k and insurance out of that. After taxes, it's nowhere near $11,000. It's probably more like $15,000. And so a fourth of your take-home pay not counting insurance and taxes with a properly withheld tax amount all we want to take out is taxes okay and then 25 of that number so you make a lot of

money you're going to be fine uh you know you need to decide if you want to stop your 401k temporarily to be able to save even more and build that down payment up but uh that's baby step 3b it's okay to stop that for a little bit but that 25 take-home pay formula does include like hoa fees insurance all of that yeah it's your principal interest taxes insurance and hoa okay um and because that's the cost of owning the house uh it not your electric bill not your water bill that kind of stuff and so uh but it's just what we're trying to do is not have you be house poor where your house payment is a huge percentage of your take-home pay but in your case you probably can go to a three to a four thousand dollar house payment without any trouble uh you're going to be right in you're still going to be

right in there and um probably four uh maybe between $3,500 and four, but somewhere right in there. And that's on a 15-year fixed rate with as big a down payment as you can scrape up before you make the purchase. Now, we've got a great blog on real estate, how much money do I need to buy a house. And it's in great detail. Some of the stuff we just covered, uh, at Ramsey solutions.com. We will put the link in the show notes, uh, for those of you on podcast and in the description for those of you on YouTube. And so you'll be able to, uh, pull that link up on and reiterate what, you know, am I ready to buy a house? Because everyone's

running around right now like a chicken with their head cut off. If you don't know what that is, you'll learn it from your country grandmother. But if everybody's running around like crazy right now thinking, I got to buy a house, got to buy a house, got to buy a house, got to buy a house, got to buy a house. If I don't buy a house, if I don't buy a house, oh God. You know, it's always been that way. I've been doing the show for 30 years and there's always been people with house fever and they lose their minds and they go with a big old debt they got big old car payment they got student loans coming out their ears and then they go buy a house and they're broke and they can't figure out why the purchase of a home was not a blessing it's because you bought

a house when you're broke that's why you know you shouldn't do that so we are you know Ramsey you're just too conservative no we're just using some freaking common sense a little bit of restraint in a culture where no one ever tells anyone no for anything no you shouldn't buy a house you're broke get yourself where you ain't broke and then you buy a house and then it won't be harmful to you it'll be and then it won't be harmful to you. It'll be a blessing. It doesn't affect me. I don't care if you do it or not. But if you're asking me how I can be a blessing to you, how I can make your life better, we're here to tell you that. And that's what we've done. How much money do I need to buy a house? It's a great blog at

RamseySolutions.com in the show notes or in the description on YouTube. Don't miss that. And Jeremy, you ought to go read that too that'll get him there amen tyler's in eugene oregon hey tyler welcome to the ramsey show hello how are you guys doing today better than we deserve what's up um my so i have an electric i'm electrical contractor and my truck just busted on a job. And then the truck's been giving me problems for a very long time. It seems like every two years I'm dumping five grand into it to do head gaskets or trainees or whatever. And then just did it again. And I'm just wondering if I should just fix it or bite the bullet and go get a new truck.

Depends on what kind of bullet you're biting have you gained money yeah i got enough to pay for but it tightens it up pay for how expensive a truck are you gonna buy uh i'm looking at 70 grand okay because you just spent five well no this truck keeps giving me problems. I know. And I have no other means for... I understand. I understand.

But I'm just suggesting, sir, that you're overreacting. Maybe you need a new truck, but I don't think you need a $70,000 new truck. How much do you make, Tyler, a year? After taxes, it varies, but last year was like 110 yeah what do you wire houses or commercial buildings what everything but in this area it's just mostly houses yeah so not a single person's ever hired you to hire wire a house based on the truck you drove no no they all they cared was you showed up and plugged stuff in where it worked.

Now, the showing up part, I'm with you on, brother. Okay? I think your truck's laid down. I think it's time to get rid of it. But you don't need a $70,000 truck. That's construction site bull crap. Let me tell you who the broke people are on the construction site, the people with new trucks.

You want to know who the rich people are on the construction site? The people with old trucks. So it's still worth it to get a used truck, just drive it until it starts falling apart and get rid of it and get another used truck? Because you know what that $70,000 truck's going to be? Backed into with the guy's skid steer the first week you own it. Yeah, yeah. You've seen it happen. I have too. I grew up in construction, man.

I didn't make this stuff up. I've been there there i've been standing on the site when this happened so now get you a you know the truck you got is probably worth five grand it's probably a piece of crap right i could sell it for 20 still really decent truck yeah it's still it it's like a collector's type truck it wasn't supposed to be a work truck but it turned into oh okay but a twenty thousand dollar work truck is an excellent truck compared to what you have right now as far as reliability wouldn't you agree with me yeah it's just used cars scare me since this has been honey soon as you drive it off the lot it's used yeah yeah when you've been driving your new truck for a year, it's called used. Okay. So maybe 20, you know, let's go a little higher.

I'm good with 30. Yeah. Pay cash. You're going to pay cash and buy a $30,000 truck? Yeah. And sell your truck for 20? Dadgum, man. Your life's awesome. All we're out is a net 10.

Would you think I should sell my truck and just keep it as a backup so no sell it it's a piece of crap okay you told me all the guys how bad it is well you said it's like a collector it's not like a fairly like a family heirloom or something what is it well it's a harley davidson that's 350 okay no sell it sell. Okay. I was just worried if another car would become a hassle down the road. No, go get a good Ford, Toyota.

100% of cars are a hassle. All of them break. It's just a matter of can we get something But this idea that a used car 100% of the time is going to be awful,

it's not. There's great, reliable used cars. Trucks, too. Don't buy a worn-out used work truck. Buy a good one for $30,000 that's been gently used. A little old lady drove it to church on Sunday.

I mean, come on. This is The Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We're so glad you are here. Tom is in Greensboro, North Carolina. Welcome to the Ramsey Show, Tom. Hey, how y'all doing? Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? All right, so I'm gonna get right to the point. I'm in financial peace. I got every dollar, but my dilemma is that I share custody of my son.

My schedule allows me to have him on the days that I'm off. But if I'm going to pursue getting out of debt as quickly as I need to, it would result in me having to give up some of those days. And that is the part that I'm struggling with. How old is he? He's one. How long have you all been divorced? Over a year.

I'm so confused. He's one and you've been divorced over a year? Yeah, so it happened all kind of at the same time. Okay, so about the same timeline. Okay. Yes, sir. So about the same timeline. Okay. Yes. Yes. So we'll make him the same age as the divorce.

Okay. That helps me a little. All right. Yes, sir. All right. Now, what do you do for a living? I drive a truck. Over the road?

No, I'm local. So you're working 40 hours? Well, with overtime, I'm looking at about 90 every two weeks. 45 hours? Yes, sir. Okay. And how much debt do you have? So total debt is, let's call it 27K. It's 26,729.

And what do you make now? So my take-home is 60K. Okay, so your typical day when you're driving truck, not when you're with your son, you go to work at what time? About 10 a.m. Okay, and you drive then until about 8 p.m.? 8 p.m., yes, sir. Yeah, okay.

All right, that gets you your 45 hours. All right. Yes, sir. Okay. What about on the days you don't have your son? You're at 50-50, you said? Yes, sir. What days of the week is that?

I'm sorry, say that again? What day of the week is that? So we work, say that again? What day of the week is that? So we work on a 2-2-3 schedule. Okay. So it rotates every week. So basically in the two-week period, I get him seven days out of that two-week period. Okay. And I'm just struggling with do I want to give up one of my days and have a babysitter or have a family member watch him while I go and work?

If I was you, I would be pretty intentional about getting up at 5 a.m. on the days I don't have to be in until 10 and drive Uber and Lyft in the morning. So I am doing a side hustle as well. Okay. That kind of tacks into the- What is that? So it's Amazon Flex. Okay. All right.

So you're doing that in the mornings before you go to work. Yes, sir. So in a strange way, and Dave, you've done this longer than me on this particular question. If this was inside your home, if you and your wife and your boy lived inside, in the same house, I would tell you, hit the gas, work seven days a week, and get this $27,000 off your chest. The fact that this is broken up in this way, with how rapid a one-year-old develops, six months of no dad is glaring. It okay it's glaring it's too much yeah i'm with you i'd rather slow the roll on paying off the debt and make sure i've got that time

with my son because that time is precious what is the 27 000 in debt what kind of debt i'm gonna ask um so 20k of that is car god almighty sell your car it's your kid i know no you don't yeah you don't know because you didn't you had to ask why'd you have to ask and you didn't even want to tell us because you knew we were going to say what you already knew you should do it's your kid don't trade your car for a kid yes sir so your stupid car this week what kind of car is it tom so a honda civic oh my god don't trade a civic for a kid for sure tom not even a really cool car i mean come on yeah if it was like a mercedes well i mean if i mean not if it was a you know a vintage camaro i mean give me a

oh my gosh no i mean no i'm kidding around, Tom, but hey, really. You thought through this, why? Really, you got this figured out. You thought through it. Get you a $1,000 car and take care of your one-year-old and get your butt out of debt and live on beans and rice, rice and beans, and do not miss a single day that you have available for this child.

He is the most important thing in this conversation. I will affirm you as being a good dad. You have a good heart. You were aimed at the the right thing you knew you needed to do that but you're trying to make the math work and keep the car and so we get to tell you the classic ramsey show line sell the car yes sir are you gonna do it yes sir good how old? I'm 32. Man, you're a good man. This kid's lucky to have you as a dad. Thank you. Here's what Dave and I are also giving you.

In about 10 years, he'll be 11. He'll make you real mad. And in a fit of rage, you can turn and stare him directly in the eyes and say, I sold a car for you. I gave up a Civic for you. And then he'll be like, seriously? And you'll be like, yeah, yeah. That didn't go as hard as I thought it was going to. Not much of a Civic for you. And then he'll be like, seriously? And you'll be like, yeah, yeah. That didn't go as hard as I thought it was going to. Not much of a flag shot.

I thought that was going to go way harder than it did, man. I gave up a Civic for you. I just don't think that could leave your mouth. Wow, Dad. I'll let the school counselor know next time we meet. Sell the Civic, brother. Oh, oh tom you're a good guy i appreciate your question you're awesome brother yeah here's the thing folks um very seldom are we as boxed in and trapped as sometimes we feel like we are uh because sometimes there's a simple thing you can throw a stick of dynamite right in the middle of it blow it up and you go oh well look at there and yeah there it is

oh that's so great but i do think it's important if if there's a you're in the household together and you're not making eye contact every day but there is passing there is they see you every day then i'm gonna tell you to go run and get this thing done because the long-term stress in your household's not gonna be worth it that stress exists but in that case i would sell the car too a hundred percent yeah if i'm worried about i would drive a john deere if i'm worried about being there for my one-year-old a hundred percent i'm not trading a car for that there's not a circumstance no not at all no i don't know not happening uh john's in portland maine hey john welcome to the ramsey show hey thanks so much for taking my call sure how can we help all right so i've been listening for a while um and love you guys the show my wife and i have been doing really good at paying down everything. We owe right now about $171,000, and $115,000 of that is on a mortgage in the house we live in.

And $56,000 is my student loans, which I've actually paid down from $180,000. Good job, John. Way to go, man. That's awesome. So we're at the point now where we don't owe anything else. We own our cars. We own everything else. We have about $300,000 not in equity in the house we live in, but that's what it's worth now with $115,000 balance.

And we actually paid off a rental property that we owned two years ago when I opened my own business and tripled my income. So we're at the point where we've been letting our grandmother live there as kind of like a mitzvah, like as a good deed, and she's ready to move out because she has dementia, unfortunately. And the market is fantastic, obviously, especially in Maine. Price values have gone up and are staying here. And we don't know if we should invest a little bit of money into the property and continue to rent it or to just take advantage now. How much is a little bit of money? What's the property worth now?

What would you invest into it? Why does it need investment? Because it just hasn't. Our grandmother moved in. What do you need to spend quickly? Probably $60,000. No. Not where you have $60,000. No. Not where you have $60,000 in student loan debt.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It would take years to get back what we could just make for one time. If you can't fix it up for a few thousand dollars and get it going, you probably need to sell it. But otherwise, I'd try to keep it because I love the idea of keeping a paid-for rental property and knocking out 56 when you've had all this other success. And if the house rates are going up, people are going to rent it. We're not going to turn this thing off that's been working and go over and fix a rental house for 60K.

Now, if you want to spend five or 10 on it, you can probably pull that off and still get your student loan paid off by Christmas. Let's go do that. Keep the rental. But no, not 60. This is The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America.

We're so glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Janet is in Boise, Idaho. Hi, Janet. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, Ken and Dave. It's a pleasure. Ours, too. Hi, Janet. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Ken and Dave. It's a pleasure. Ours too. How can we help?

Yeah, so I'm calling today just to see how we, as we, me and my husband, can get ahead of our bills. It seems like every single month we pay our bills three weeks after the due date, and then a week later they're due again. So we've tried, you know, budgeting and just trying to get ahead and we just can't seem to get that curve. So we're just calling to see what tips and tricks you could provide for us. Okay. What's your household income? It's about $75,000 gross. Okay. And how much debt do you have not counting your house 39 000 on what on student loans is 24 000 5 000 in credit cards and 9 000 or 10 000 on an rv travel trailer on a trailer okay and you make $75,000 a year. That's right, between the both of us. Okay. All right. All right. So where do you think your money is going?

Well, I know that it was going to a lot of eating out. I actually just got my husband on board about two months ago to do, like, the baby steps. I've been doing it probably by myself for like a whole year ever since. And it seems like actually we've been on this momentum of just being behind for like the last year. And we're just sick of it. I'm tired of handling it. So I have him stepping in on the finances as well as just really, you know, being careful where our money is going. And so, you know, I've tried for the last two months. We've just been, you know, paying every single week

because we get paid every week. So that's kind of helpful. Okay, so if I sat down with you and your husband with a yellow pad at the kitchen table and I said, okay, this is what you have coming in this week. Let's map out where every one of those dollars is going. This is what you have coming in the next week. Let's map out where every one of those dollars is going this is what you have coming in the next week let's map out where every one of those dollars is going let's map out you you should have enough with the numbers you gave me we should yeah we should

but you're but you're not doing that right there it is okay so you need you need to sit down and you can jump on every dollar but the number one the first thing is the two of you need to sit down and you can jump on every dollar, but the number one, the first thing is the two of you have to do this together, not turn it over to him because he can do it and you can't do it. That's not true. Okay, both of you together need to do this because what's going to have to happen is you're going to have to decide not to do a bunch of stuff you're doing now that doesn't matter as much as getting in control matters. Right. I want to get in control matters. Right.

I want to get in control more than I want to go out to eat. I want to get out of debt and have a life more than I want to go on vacation. I want to get in control more than I like this travel trailer. I want to get in control more than, and I'm sick and tired of living stress to stress to stress to stress to stress with no hope, feeling like a rat in a freaking wheel. And when both of you are saying that, and then you put numbers to that, and you say, okay, this week on Friday we get a check for X. The following Thursday we get a check for Y.

The following Saturday we get a check for Z. And you write that down, and you plan out every one of those dollars and where every one of them are going because the water bill is due on the second week the house payments due on the first week the uh student loan payments due in the third week and we're going to figure out what's coming out we're going to take this much for food this much for food this much for food in the four different weeks and we're going to allocate every one of those bills to a certain week and some of them across weeks so that we have enough money to take care of them. And every dollar has an assignment on paper, on purpose, before the month begins. We agree on it and spit, shake, and pinky swear.

And then we don't do anything else with money except what we freaking wrote down. Right. And it seems like we've been doing that for the last two months but we can't catch that curve we can't get out so so you write it all down and you don't have enough no we do have enough but it seems like it's gone every single week now if you wrote it down to have enough and then you did something else other than what you wrote down. Well, I guess where we're struggling is just like every time we do try to, we get our bill every single, you know, whatever, a month. We pay it once a week, but we have so many little ones, it seems like we just don't know where.

They're not all written down. Yeah, we need don't know where. They're not all written down. Prioritize them. Yeah, we need to prioritize them better. Every one of them on paper, on purpose, in a certain week. This is a week one bill. This is a week four bill. This is a week two bill. Different bills have different weeks, and they all go within the income of that week. And then when the check comes in, the check is already spent spent so you can't do anything except what you wrote down you are not managing to the budget you're writing it out

as a hypothetical and then going doing what you used to do right and you're not focusing on it but listen i'll tell you how you've got it that'll get you ahead just what i told you yeah if you you won't write down not getting ahead you'll get ahead as soon as you do that you've got room in this budget yeah you're disorganized and chaotic yeah and when you give every single if i paid you a hundred thousand dollars a year to pay these bills exactly on time and you had no emotional tie to them whatsoever and you would look at this family that this distant family over in boise idaho and tell them to quit going to freaking restaurants i don't care how tired you are no whining allowed you're going to pay the

freaking bill on time if i told you to do that you could do it for someone else right it's because it's not right it's sixth grade math you can do this so you have got to get very detailed very intentional and then live the detail don't write it all down and then go do what you used to do and so well i just i i didn't feel like cooking tonight. I don't give a crap. Go home and get some leftovers out of the dadgum refrigerator. That's how you do it. You can't. I mean, we all have that. You just got to talk to your whiny self and say, no whiny self.

I've done that myself. I mean, Sharon, I've done it to each other. We know what it feels like, but you have to go. I want control more than I feel tired tonight. You know, and that's the biggest thing that's the phrase that comes out of everybody's mouth by the way before they go out to eat or before they hit the fast food and get dog food at taco bell you know or whatever and so it's just it's horrible it's horrible value it's horrible nutrition and it's out nutrition. And it's out-of-control spending. And so it's just, you know, so you've got to write it down.

Get on EveryDollar. Download the app. And I'll tell you what, I'll give you the upgrade. I'll give you the premium EveryDollar where it ties to your bank. And we'll get you started on that, Janet, because what you all desperately need is a detailed budget. And here's how you do a budget, folks. You give every single penny a name every bill has a week allocated in every dollar it's called paycheck planning and you plan out

each paycheck for the month and you and your spouse both look at it every dollar is assigned to saving, to giving, or to a bill. Period. Every single dollar. There is no missile. There is no, well, 50% of my budget is non-allocated. Bull crap. Allocate every dime in every dollar. On the paycheck planning, every dollar has a name before the month begins.

August is coming. Where's your August money going to be? It's going to freaking disappear. If you don't tell it what to do, it will leave and go to people's houses who tell it what to do. And then you'll say stuff like the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Yes, they do. Because the rich tell their money what to do.

That's how this works. And so you got to get on top of this stuff and lean into it. Every dollar has an assignment. You stick to it. You agree on it with your spouse, and you do not spend a dime unless it's on that page, on that EveryDollar app. If it's not on there and it comes up and it's a surprise and you forgot it, you got to take something else off because if you put something on there and you're already spent it all now you're in overdraft and

now it doesn't work and i can't seem to get caught up well you're not getting caught up because you're not living your plan do the plan live the plan write the plan live the plan do the plan live the plan live the plan and it's your plan by the way you decide where it's going to go but i'm telling you what I'm doing. I'm not going out to eat. I'm not going on vacation. I'm selling a stupid travel trailer. Everything else is for sale.

So much the kids think they're next. We're going to take extra jobs and we're getting control because I'm tired of being stressed out. That's what I'm doing. If I'm in your shoes, and I did it, by the way, this is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ken. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to ramsesolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. Again, that's ramsesolutions.com and click Get Started.