The Ramsey Show - App - The Best Investment College Students Can Make (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 26, 2018

The show about you

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Alex is with us in Richmond, Virginia, starting this hour off. How are you, Alex?

I'm doing well. How about you, Dave? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? So, I'm a young entrepreneur, got a business that's taken off, and also have a house, family, and just trying to get an idea of what your thoughts are on balancing the growth of the business and personal finances to be able to pay down our mortgage, because that is a big goal. We want to get debt-free, pay debt. It drives me nuts, for sure. So, as far as, like, our mortgage and

our home value, we have about $250,000 on our home that's owed, and then no other debts otherwise. You have your emergency fund in place at home? Absolutely. Yeah, we have about overall between like, because we are on like the, I guess the staff four, five, and six, it's going into six here. So we have fully funded emergency fund around $30,000. Does your wife work outside the home? No, sir. Okay, so what is your taxable income going to be for 2018 roughly? About $70,000. Okay, so that's your net for 2018, roughly? About $70.

Okay. So that's your net, net, net profit on the business? That's a take-home. Yeah, about $70. Well, no, I mean, if that's your taxable income, that's your net profit. Yes, sir. Yep. Yeah.

Okay. That's not take-home. That's net profit. That's taxable income is before taxes, profit that the business made. Okay, you're running a profit and loss statement on the business. Yes, sir. What did it make in 2017? We grossed about $660,000.

We netted about, from what I remember, it's about $150,000. Okay, so why is it dropping in half on your net profits for the year? As far as retained earnings, because being able to keep a stable business, making sure we have like cash. Unless you have a C-Corp, retained earnings are taxable. I asked you what your taxable income was for 18. $150,000 as far as for the overall business is what we had. But I only paid myself about $70,000.

I wasn't asking what you paid yourself. I'm saying what are you going to pay taxes on in 18, and it's $150,000. No, for 2018, yeah, it would be about $150,000. Okay, so it's going up some, but it's not skyrocketing. No, not for profitability. Our gross revenues have gone up, but we've been growing so fast that we've had to keep up with it. Meaning that you're plowing most of the profit back into the company. Yeah, an inordinate amount because your

gross revenues are growing and your profits aren't exactly yep okay so um yeah because i have a struggle between the two yeah um we we've been doing the same thing here for several years um and uh what we established early in the process, it's over now, obviously, but we said we're going to take a percentage of the profits of the business before you get paid the taxable income, okay? And really, in your case, it's before you reinvest a bunch of it. And I'm going to say x percent is for reinvestment and the rest of it comes home okay and it can be 75 it can be 25 i don't care play with some numbers

and look at it and go well i gotta at least bring on this much and i wanted to bring on a little more so what percentage is that this year and then that keeps you from getting excited and throwing too much into the business or getting excited and starving the business out and taking it all home. Sure. But if you'll just use ratios, use percentages of your, really it's your gross profit in your case. Before you start all this reinvesting, in other words, what percentage do I want start all this reinvesting in other words um you know what percentage do i want to use for reinvesting and what percentage do i want to take home and um uh and you know

probably what you're doing now is not bad i mean you have 150 000 net profit after all this heavy reinvestment and you're holding some of that for retained earnings, which is half of that was going to retained earnings is what you described. You only took home 70, right? Yeah, that's correct. So I think you are over-saving and over-reinvesting. Okay. How much did your – you went from 600,000 gross last year to gross of what, in 2018? So we're projected to close out this year between like 1.2 to 1.5 million.

So you over-doubled your gross reps? Yeah, so the first year we did, or not even a full year, so we've been two and a half years in business. First half part of the year was about 250. First full year was about $250,000. First full year was about $660,000 in gross. Then we're looking at, as I said, about $1.2 to $1.5 for this year. You're investing too heavily. I would dial that back.

It won't take much of a dial back to get $250,000 home. No, no, it wouldn't. That's what I'm asking. Just slow down a little bit. Just slow down a little bit. I want you on the cover of Slow Company magazine. I got you. The tortoise wins the race, not the rabbit. You read the book, right?

Yeah, you're okay. You're fine. I mean, you don't have to. You can dial it back a little. But between your retained earnings and your gross doubling and all of your doubling of your gross went back into the business, I'd dial that back a little and take some home since you have a goal at home you've been very responsible and obviously you're great at your business congratulations very very well done hold on i'm going to have kelly pick up we're going to give you a copy of entree leadership

our book on how we run business here and i hope it's a blessing to you. Hey, thanks for the call. Carlin is with us in Knoxville. Hey, Carlin, how are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm looking for some advice from you.

I own my own home right now. I have about $144,000 left on my mortgage. And my question is that eventually I would like to move to a little bit bigger of a house. This is like my starting out house after I got a divorce. It's kind of small. I'll be done with baby steps one through three in January or February. Good for you. So my question is, how does it work whenever you want to pay down your mortgage and also be saving for a house? Like, do I pay heavy to get my equity up in my house? Do I not do that?

Excuse me, do I save it? It doesn't hurt anything to throw it all in the equity in the house because if you move up a house, you're going to sell this one. And when you sell this one, they give you a check at closing for your equity. So the money's not lost when you pay the mortgage down. And it's really a pretty good rate of return, because it's your mortgage interest rate. As your rate of return, you can't get that on a savings account. So if you want to build up a little bit of a house fund

and throw the rest of it at the mortgage aggressively and use that as your method to move up, that's a pretty good method. I like it. Way to go, kiddo. You got this on the run. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Guys, let's talk about that timeshare pitch that you fell for. They promised you exclusive access to travel anywhere you want. Tropical beaches, mountain getaways, or whatever. Oh, my gosh. They claimed it was the affordable way to travel anywhere you want. Tropical beaches, mountain getaways, or whatever. Oh, my gosh. They claimed it was the affordable way to travel, and then they convinced you it was a good investment.

But here's the deal. Search any auction site for your exact timeshare and see what it's selling for. It's listed for a dollar with no bids. That's not a good investment. Now, I know I'm just adding salt to a very old wound, but look, if you tried calling the resort and they won't take it back, if you tried selling it and no one will buy it, call Timeshare Exit Team. Timeshare Exit Team will get you out.

You'll have to be patient. It can be a long process, and it costs money, but it works. They're so confident in their exit service that if they don't get you out, you get a 100% refund. Call 844-999-EXIT. It's free to talk. 844-999-EXIT. TimeshareExitTeam.com. Allison is in San Bernardino.

Hi, Allison. How are you? I'm good, thank you. And yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? Okay, so basically I have more going out in bills per month, just with minimums, sometimes even under minimums,

than I have income coming in ouch and i basically want to know should i have should i basically pay off the little things first like you suggest even though i have higher bills that have interest even if those little bills don't have any interest or should i just let the first thing you need to do is get current and be able to pay the bills. Yeah. Before we even have this discussion. There's no extra to pay. Mm-hmm.

So you're going to pay. The first thing we've got to do is get the logjam broken where you at least are able to pay minimum payments. Then, once you do that, then you use your debt snowball and you list them smallest to largest. You pay minimum payments on everything but the little one, and you attack the little one regardless of the interest rate. And you start knocking off some of the little ones. So what kinds of debt do you have? I have about $12,000 on credit cards,

and I have about $8,000 in hospital medical bills and that's it what do you owe on your car uh i don't know anything on my car what do you owe on student loans i don't have any student loans good and what is your income we bring about forty thousand dollars after taxes per year. Mm-hmm. Okay. And what's your rent or your house payment? We don't have a house payment. We pay $1,400 in rent a month. How many kids do you have?

I have a one-and-a-half-year-old son. Okay. All right. And the $40,000 comes from one income? Two incomes. Okay. And neither one of you working full-time? What's the deal?

Well, both of us work full-time. I make about $50,000 before taxes, but unfortunately I took a 401k loan, so they take out of my check and then my insurance for myself and my son okay let's reset this what is your what is your household income before taxes not your take-home not your take-home pay what's your household income i'm sorry i apologize um before taxes or after taxes before taxes but not take-home pay what is your what's your gross income for both of you? About $70,000. Okay.

And you're saying $30,000 is coming out of those checks before it gets home? Yes. Have you got 401K contributions coming out? I just lowered it to 0% since I can't basically afford to have anything go into that but i was putting about six percent in previously what about him uh he has no 401k contribution okay what's your tax refund look like last year uh last year was about four thousand um but that was only because our son was that was the first year we had our son. Well, you still got him, right? Yeah.

Okay. And taxes went down, and your standard deductions went up this year, so your federal tax bill is going to go down pretty substantially in your case. So you're looking at a $6,000 or $7,000 tax refund, so you're sitting at about $500 a month roughly coming out too much on taxes right now based on what you're telling me. And you stopped the 401K. That should change it.

That still doesn't get us up. There's still something else. You've got a 401K loan. Have you got a bunch of insurance or something you're paying for out of this? We pay about $400 insurance for myself and my son a month. My husband has his insurance come out of his check about $80 a month. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Because the $40,000 still sounds low, still out of $75. So anyway, here's what we're going to do. With that kind of household income, I'm making the adjustments that we're talking about. You need to change your W-2 forms next week, W-4 forms next week, so that you bring more home. One of you or both of you. The second thing is one of you or both of you need to pick up an extra job. The third thing is you need to look at what you can sell around the house quickly. Because there's no possible way with the numbers you're giving me that you should not be able to pay the bills on a $12,000 credit card and $8,000 medical.

I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you should not be able to pay the bills on a $12,000 credit card and $8,000 medical. Mm-hmm. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not.

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I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know how you're not. I don't know a lot of debt. But you're not getting home with any of your money, for one thing. How much is the 401k loan? It was $4,000. I still owe about $2,700 on it.

So they take about $90 biweekly out of my check. So about $180 a month. So that's going to clear in under 12 months that's what we're saying and um the rest of this is going to clear the last thing is when you start doing a detailed in-depth written budget you will feel like you got a raise so if you're not using the every dollar budget budgeting app yet jump on and do it it's free and uh and give that a try and you and your husband sit down together and go, we're putting this household on beans and rice,

rice and beans. You're not going out to eat, period. You don't need to see the inside of a restaurant unless you are working there. You're not going on vacation. Christmas is going to be a craft if you guys don't get this moving. You have got to get this moving. But it's kind

of crazy you make $75,000 a year and you can't even service $20,000 worth of debt here. You should be able to. So service meaning pay the minimums. Now once you're paying the minimums, then we work the debt snowball and that's list them smallest to largest, pay minimum

payments on everything but the little one, and attack the little one with a vengeance. Jose is with us in Miami. Hey Jose, what's up? Hey Dave, how you doing? payments on everything but the little one and attack the little one with a vengeance jose is with us in miami hey jose what's up hey dave how you doing better than i deserve how can i help well sir i'm a recent high school graduate and i'm going to university right now i've been working a couple of part-time jobs so i can save up money and i just uh would like some directions and a little bit of advice as to uh what I should do in these upcoming years so that I can be in a good financial position straight out of college.

Okay. I would begin to pile it in a separate savings account that is not attached to your checking account so you don't accidentally impulse it. Okay? All right. And what this account is for is this is Jose Insurance. It's insurance that Jose graduates from college debt-free. How are you paying for college?

That's the thing. With all those scholarships and grants that I won, I actually get paid to go to college. Good. So I ended up making economics. Good for you. And why did you get all these scholarships? I think in SAT scores, GPA, stuff like that. Okay, so you're super smart.

Yeah, I mean, I guess. Good. Well, you are. I mean, if you're super smart, you ought to know it. Good. I mean, if you've got scholarships based on your academics, way to go, dude. Ring the bell. And you're studying econ, so you've got a good field of study that you're in.

Here's my point, okay? You could take this money and put it in a mutual fund, but a better rate of return mathematically, a better rate of return on the money is to make sure that Jose graduates debt-free. In case something happened to one of those scholarships or two of those scholarships, in case one of those grants didn't come through, I don't want you even saying the words student loan. I'll find you and smack you.

No student loans. You're too smart to do that. You're a freaking econ major. You should stay away from student loans. All right? And so if you graduate with nothing but a completely debt-free education and you have not sophisticatedly invested the money, and you simply have a pile of $50,000 laying in savings, you are ready to go.

No problem. You can start investing. You can transition out into your first property, buy a house, get married, whatever it is you're going to do, and it won't have cost you anything. There is no pressure for you to be a sophisticated investor because mathematically the most sophisticated investment you can make over the next four years is an insurance policy called cash that ensures that Jose graduates debt-free

because the rate of return on you, as smart as you are, getting an econ degree is higher than any mutual fund will pay you. So don't get confused about that. You are the best investment that we could talk to today. Way to go, man. Proud of you. Get after it. I love that.

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Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee, 37027. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Colton and Alicia are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Doing well, sir. How are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. Where do you all live? San Antonio. Oh, cool. Nice city. Love San Antonio.

And all the way to Nashville to do a debt-free screen. Yes, sir. Love it. How much you paid off? About $78,000. Good. How long you paid off? About $78,000. Good. How long did this take you? About nine months, and we also cash flowed an additional about $10,000 worth of things on top of that. Whoa.

And your range of income during this time? Between $90,000 and $125,000. Okay. All right. So you must have either sold some stuff or had some money in savings you threw at this. A reenlistment bonus really helped, too. Ah, okay. Thank you for your service.

Thank you. Very cool. So what kind of debt was the $78,000? We had two cars, four credit cards, a TSP loan, and a family loan. Two cars, credit cards, a TSP loan. You were normal. Yes, yes sir you were regular people oh my goodness so you decided nine months ago to go on this journey to be weird yes sir completely out of debt no financial stress now you're in a position to build wealth tell me what happened

what started this journey so you'll have to bear with me and if I break down, he'll take over for me. But our journey goes back to 2015. We started to try and grow our family and the doctors told us that I couldn't have kids. And then surprise, August of 2016, we were pregnant. Oh my goodness And we were so happy. The pregnancy was really hard. And the end of January 2017, at 23 weeks pregnant, I was diagnosed with a really rare severe form of preeclampsia. Oh, no. That became life-threatening. So we had to deliver our daughter, Shalimar, early.

And she only lived for three hours and when she died I had to put her expenses on a credit card and he didn't even know I had done that I felt like the worst mom in the world

and the same day we also found out that we were both carriers for cystic fibrosis. And so we went to the fertility clinics and all the doctors and they were saying that the treatments for all of this were going to be $7,000, $18,000. And I was like, we don't have that kind of money. We're doing everything everybody says that we're supposed to do. We have a great credit score. You know, we've got the new cars, we're making everything everybody says that we're supposed to do we have a great credit score you know we've got the new cars we're making all our payments but i don't even have the money to bury my child and so i started looking on the internet and i was uh stress buying things on amazon and

one of the things that was suggested while i was buying money things um was the financial peace university um so i got that and while I was at home recovering, I started going over the program, and I knew that we needed to do this, and I knew he wouldn't read a book. So I got him the CDs, and I asked him if he would listen to them on the way to work, and he jumped right on board. Yeah, I bet. Wow, what a heartbreaking thing to go through.

I'm so sorry. Thank you. But, boy, the wake-up call was thorough, huh? Yes, sir. Yeah. I mean, when it's something like that that just is already your heart's broken, but then on top of that, it's like, I've got to put this on a credit card. Oh, my gosh.

That just seals it. So what that tells me is you are done you will never go back i mean this is not a this is not a an intellectual exercise for you this was an emotional exercise for you you said we're never i am never going to be in a position like that again that's the kind of experience sharon and i had emotionally it was obviously a different a different set of events but uh i'm so sorry y'all went through that what a heartbreaking thing thank you and uh and you made it you made through the story good for you we did i was strong and um on top of that while we were going through

the journey we started to look around my husband and i were both active duty air force and we saw other people that were struggling with money um and other people that were trying to do the fertility thing too. And we were like, well, if we can do it, they can do it. And so we contacted your military coordinator and he hooked us up with a kit. And that first class was such a big success that both of our wing chaplains started to adopt the program and now they're offering it quarterly to people in our wings. And so it's really spreading. And we've done three so far, and the next one is in September. And all because of you guys.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, sir. That's pretty amazing. That's some good work you're doing. And lots of people have a lot of different lives and a lot of different stories to tell just because of that. Wow.

Well done. Well done. Well, I'm proud of you. Thank you, sir. I've had some hard times to walk through. Hard times to walk through. And nine months later, everything is different, huh? Yes, sir.

How does it feel to not have a payment in the world? The lack of stress is incredible. It feels like you can take on anything that comes your way. Yeah. It's a mission readiness issue, I think. Very much so. A lot of the commanders and brass that we've talked to about it in the different branches of the military tell us that it's a mission readiness issue. It really is. When people are, you know, because it's one thing if you work in corporate America and you fly a desk for a living and, you know, you got a little financial

stress and you don't keep your eye on your business, that's one thing. But when you guys don't keep your eye on the business, people get hurt. It's not a good thing at all. So very cool. I'm happy that you guys have turned this around. Very, very cool. So now that you're helping spread the word, you got Financial Peace University going all through your wing and everything else, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You paid off $78,000 in nine months. For me, it's communication, communicating on the goals, communicating on what you're feeling at a time, especially going through this.

There's a lot of stress while you're doing the whole beans and rice, rice and beans. So just communicating. Yeah. And what about you, Alicia? Just common goals. I mean, you have to be on the same team and you have to be fighting the same fight. Otherwise, you're not going to make ground either way. And I mean, once he was on board, we were just like, we just took off right away and

sold my Jeep and all kinds of fun stuff. Yeah, that's how you move the needle so fast. You just got so intense. But I mean, with what you all went through, it's like one of those old wood burning tools when I was a kid. It just burns it into your soul, doesn't it? I mean, it's like, I am never going to be here again. You know, it's a very intense thing. And so it's a horrible way to get there.

But the benefit of it is that you will never go back. Correct. You will never go back. And we're working on changing our whole family. Everybody for Christmas got the total money makeover and love your life, not theirs. And so to see the rest of our family starting to turn things around too, it's been such a blessing.

Man, you guys are amazing. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. I'm glad some good came out of that tragedy. And you guys are the good. That's good stuff. Very, very well done. Well, we've, of course, got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired.

And that's the next chapter in your story to be millionaires. Yes, sir. And outrageously generous. And you are on your way. You're going to be able to do things and already are doing things that most people never dream of doing. All right. Colton and Alyssa, San Antonio, Texas, 78,000 plus cash flow in 10. In nine months, making 90 to 125.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Wow. What a story. Oh my goodness. Wow. Absolutely amazing.

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That's 800-356-1780 or Zander.com. Thank you. Thanks for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Lynn is with us in Los Angeles. Hi, Lynn. How are you? Hi, Dave. Fine. Thank you for taking my call.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, so my husband and I, well, I just recently discovered you, and since about the last two months I've been hooked to your show, and I've been trying to see if I've heard any callers with my same situation, but I haven't. So I wanted to find out what you thought about us possibly selling a rental income that we have. We've had it for eight years.

It would sell for about $240,000 to $250,000 right now. And our balance on it is $146,000. The reason why we're considering selling is because we have a HELOC loan, which is $93,000. It's basically for being dumb and stupid. I know that was your next question. So we're wondering, would it be wise to just sell that off, get rid of it, even though we would incur capital gains and taxes? Should we do that in order to help us with our debt snowball?

Do you have anything in your debt snowball except that HELOC? No, other than... So you have a first mortgage on your home, you have a HELOC, and you have a rental property. Do you have any other debt? None, other than a car. Okay. How much do you owe on your car? $21,000.

Okay. And what is your household income? $110 net. Okay. And what is your... Okay. What's your first mortgage amount on your home? The first mortgage on our home is, let's see, $2,600. No, no, no, the balance.

Oh, the balance, let's see. The balance owed on our first mortgage is $241,000. Okay. All right. Plus 90. And so you owe $330,000 on the house. What's it worth? Okay.

So you're talking about our home. What's your home worth? Our home. Because the question that I had was on our apartment. I know. I know. What's your home worth, though? So our the question that I had was on our apartment. I know, I know. What's your home worth, though? So our home is worth about $740,000.

Gotcha. Okay, cool. And our interest is $3.125. Okay, cool. All right. Well, the reason I'm asking around your house and stuff is I'm trying to figure out how much equity you had there, not to sell your house, but to try to figure out what to do with this HELOC. Because basically we tell folks the HELOC, if it is a second mortgage on your home,

if it's more than half your annual income, which yours is, we move it to baby step six. And in baby step six, we would either plan to pay off the HELOC there or we would refinance to roll it into a new first mortgage to make it where it's more controllable because HELOCs have really bad terms on them where the interest rate is infinitely adjustable and many of them have calls and balloons on them and so they they put your home at risk i don't i don't like them at all um so in in this case what i would do because of all of that is um if you want to keep the rental if you really like your rental and your plan long term is to keep it you've always wanted to have that and you know you're you enjoy being a landlord you think it's

a good idea all those kinds of things um then i would refinance my home and take out the heloc that way on a 15 year fixed um if you don't want to refinance your home then take out the HELOC that way on a 15-year fixed. If you don't want to refinance your home, then you do need to sell the rental. Okay. So I'm thinking I don't want to refinance the home. I just like it where it is. I like the interest where it is. It's totally doable to me.

This rental was more, I was thinking at that point, my husband and I thought we would keep it for the kids for later to help pay off college or other investments down the way. But then since listening to your show, I've learned more about mutual funds, and I think that would be a better route to invest for our kids rather than keep the rental. And don't you think that if I sold the rental then – California real estate is a wonderful investment. Real estate in general is a wonderful investment where it's well-placed and well-managed and so forth. So I invest in both mutual funds and real estate. So if you're really excited about rental real estate and you want to do some things to keep that, but that HELOC is so large as a percentage of your income. I mean, it's almost one year of your income.

And so, yeah, you need to do something to get rid of it and get it stabilized. And so either refinance and, you know, your interest rate will probably come up a little bit and roll it into that, or I would sell the rental and pay it off. And you need to get the car paid off, too, in Baby Step 2 immediately and or sell it, too. So if you want to sell the rental and pay off the HELOC, that's fine. Then knock the car out as fast as you can. That would be fine, too. All of that's good.

Otherwise, I would refinance your first and roll the HELOC into that, keep the rental, and then just use your cash flow in your budget to pay off your car as fast as you can. Either one of those is fine with me. Leaving it as it is? No, I wouldn't leave it as it is. It's going to take you too long to clean it up. Thanks for the call.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Dante is with us in Orlando. Hey, Dante, how are you? I'm doing great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I just finished.

I got completely out of debt. Finished step two. And I've got my emergency fully funded. As I was getting out of debt, I noticed my credit score jumped up to an 800 credit score. Really? I know you recommend, yeah, getting out of debt it did. And I know you recommend a zero credit score, but I've been saving up for a house. And my question is, is if I have a zero credit score and I go and I still get a loan through Churchill Morgan, does that give me a credit score after that?

Oh, yeah, it probably will. Yeah, your credit score will come back. As long as you've got a mortgage, you're going to have – as long as you have any debt interaction that's active and open in any way on your credit bureau report, it's going to maintain. So I'm not sure how your credit score went up but you're have you closed all the accounts i have closed all my accounts except for one at this point oh what's the one the one was that credit card and the only reason i hadn't

closed it out yet was because i didn't know if i wanted to bring my credit score all the way down to zero no if you're saying if you're sitting at 850 i'd jump and get my mortgage at 850 it makes it easy there's no no problem with that but my whole thing around here is just don't worship at the altar of the credit score because it's a false measure of winning but i don't set out to destroy it that's not my goal i just teach people that you can live without it and don't go in debt just to have one but while you got one i would use it 850 is pretty strong dude and so yeah if you can jump out there and get you a mortgage right quick now if you're in a position to do that if you're you know if you follow in the baby steps and you're ready to go then yeah i would go ahead and do that our question of the day comes from blinds.com the number one

online retailer of custom window coverings you You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best deal at Blinds.com. Questions from Guinevere in New York. She says, I'm a newlywed, and I've dug into the Total Money Makeover book. I've started Baby Step 2, but I'm struggling to get my husband on board to combine our finances and to commit to our budget. How do I get my husband to fully commit to combining our money and creating a budget? You're a newlywed. You take his two hands and yours, you look deeply into his eyes, and you say, this is

extremely important to me. Therefore, it is extremely important to you. Yeah. Yeah, that'll work. i can promise you uh but also you just start talking about what you've learned and why you're excited about it and not what you're doing but what you're excited about why are you excited about debt-free what made you excited about the total money makeover and i gotta tell you he's in love with you And when he sees that the girl he's in love with is excited about something, he's going to go along. He's not going to dig his heels in unless he's some kind of crazy jerk. And that's just not the case. Hey, that puts this hour for The Dave Ramsey Show.

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