The Ramsey Show - App - The Best Investment You Can Make Is in Yourself (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 20, 2022

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. My co-host today, Ramsey personality, George Campbell, host of the Fine Print Ramsey Network production, a whole season of that podcast now in the books. You should dial over to where podcasts are found and listen through the fine print. You'll learn a lot. George does a great job with that. We talking today is always about your relationships your money your career and your work and you the phone number here is 888-825-5225 trevor is in new york city hi trevor welcome to the ramsey show hey dave hey

george happy bestseller day thank you sir we appreciate that yeah how can we help today yeah so i have a question regarding uh my my student loan I took out probably about seven years ago. I went to college when I wasn't able to do it without taking out loans, but obviously now I wish I could have. But back in that time, we had a cosigner go on to that loan. It was a family member. They didn't really want to do it, and it proved to kind of be like a point of contention. Nothing bad ever happened with it so far, and now that I'm in baby step two, fast forward to today, I've been paying off all my loan snowball style.

And my question is, being that that's kind of part of my why, I recently received a cosigner release application for that loan. And I was curious what you guys thought about if I should go ahead and act on that cosigner release. Why are they offering to release the cosigner? I've never heard of that. Because it's been a certain amount of time since I've been paying on the loan now for like two to three years. So after, I think it's 24 months, they offer you to be able to drop them as a cosigner. Drop them? Why wouldn't you? Okay.

Because that's kind of part of my why. That's the why I want to pull it off. And like, it's kind of giving me my intensity to go hardcore. So in essence, like I could take them off, but then I also fear like that would kind of halt my progress a little bit, my motivation. Why would it halt the progress? What's the motivation behind having the cosigner on there?

Because by having them on there, it makes me want to pay it off even more to prove to them that it was possible to start with and that it was a – I know it wasn't a good decision at the time, but that I was trustworthy with that decision. Yeah. The student loan is not going to do that. You're going to do that with the way you live your life. You know, you're trying to make the student loan work too hard in this relationship it doesn't have the ability it does not have the ability to make this person respect you yeah so no i'm i think you can manage your own motivation the fact that you can ask the

question tells me that you can manage your own motivation and uh you need to let them go as soon as possible for their sake your sake the sake of the relationship plus there's no point in having them on there i mean it lowers the risk of the overall situation i love it yeah get rid of them definitely yeah i didn't even know they did this i've never heard of it so that's awesome yeah yeah um yeah because i figured it'll be paid off within the next year and a half anyway but um release them and then you just be uh you just man up and say all right i gave up my bitterness motivation so i have to have a new motivation yeah a more positive one let's just get a noble one that's not me pissed off at somebody and i'll

show you yeah if anything's going to show him it's you removing them as a cosigner that to me is going you know i get now that just lets him go it doesn't show that he's reliable sure to his point but but you know the the yeah find something else to motivate you that was my instinct was you need a bigger why than the chip on the shoulder there you got the family that's it that was it i mean but i love the spirit of it the intensity you've got to pay this thing off but don't let the family member be the motivation you need a bigger why man you got to do it for yourself yeah i mean if they can't look at you and say look that you know trevor paid off all his loans while he was doing it he let me off and gosh i always wondered if he was going to be able to do it and he did it he and it proved it if they can't do that without being a cosigner they can't do it while they are a cosigner.

Yeah. They're just going to be that guy. They're just going to be the twerp, whoever this is. They're just going to be a twerp. And so, you know, you're asking the student loan to give you the power to make them respect you. And it does not give you that power. You being you, you manning up, you taking care of business, it puts you in a seat

that should be respected and then it's their choice whether they're going to do that or not so don't ask this situation to do that for you uh and that that's how i would look at it but it's a it got you started we'll give it that but at least it got you started and catalyst there's nothing wrong with having a a little bit of a selfish or negative reason for getting started, but then you don't keep going. When I got started, I got started because I was pissed off at American Express, but I'm still pissed off at them, but it's not my motivation anymore. Yeah.

Anger's a good start, but it's got to turn into excitement about the future. There you go. Good, good. Marcus is with us in L.A. Hey, Marcus, what's up? Hey, Mr. Ramsey. How you doing? Better than I deserve.

How can we help? Yeah, so I'm wondering if you guys can help me out. Me and my wife, we're due for about our fourth kid within the next couple weeks. Congratulations. Yeah, appreciate it. We have a regular vehicle that I use to get to and from work. And with this fourth kid coming, we're definitely going to need a new vehicle to be able to accommodate the extra child.

You only have one kid? You only have one vehicle? Yes. Yes, sir. We have one vehicle. Okay. And what's it worth? We would say fair market value about $5,000.

Okay. And what is it? It's just a regular sedan, a Ford. Okay. And what is it? It's just a regular sedan, a Ford. Okay, so you sell a $5,000 sedan and you buy a $5,000 minivan. Okay. Just that simple? Leaves you in exactly the same place you were, but it's got seats. Yes, sir.

And she ain't going to be pretty, but that'll give you motivation to upgrade as you get through baby step two and have a carrot dangling there in front of you. But it'll get you from A to B. Okay, that's what I was looking for. We just wanted to know, yeah, because we were just like, okay, the market's crazy for all these vehicles, and they look like they're up about 20% plus. They are, but you're selling one in that market too.

Gotcha. So you're selling a sedan that's not a great vehicle, and you're going to buy a van that's not a great vehicle and you're going to buy a van that's not a great vehicle oh that makes a lot of sense but but you're gonna but george's point is you're not gonna stay there this is just this is just hey you're gonna get out of debt and we're gonna get ourselves moving and get this baby step two finished then we're gonna get a better car and uh honestly after baby step three it is what a whole lot of people do. They've been driving some kind of freaking hoopty, and they do a move up after baby step three a lot.

I don't know what the percentage is, but that's north of 50% of people. Yeah. Well, cars are one of those things everyone feels like they've got to upgrade on. And when you're in debt, it's not the time to do it. When are you going to upgrade that hoopty of yours? I was hoping that we'd avoid this. Dave, it's going to be a while, man. Why? It's just the car market's

crazy right now. There's no deals to be had, and you know I love a good deal. George is just going to drive it. You just got your house paid off. You know what, Dave? Let me borrow one of your cars for a little while. You won't miss it too much. I'll take your worst one. George, this is not about my car. I will take your worst car. This is about your car. See? This is about your car. You don't like it when

it's flipped on you. No, it's not. I have on you no it's not i have good cars it's not flipped on me don't flip at all here you got one to let me borrow it'll be all right i got a spare but you you're just cheap you're right you're just we landed there thank you this is the ramsey show You've got a lot on your plate, a job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family. While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries or CHM for your health care. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey

trusted provider. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. If you've been paying attention to the real estate market, you've noticed the competition out there is high, in part because available inventory is low. When inventory is low, it simply means there are more buyers than sellers, and that turns the pressure up and drives the prices up, and it makes it hard to snag a right house. Sellers want to accept the right offer. This is not amateur hour. Just because a house will sell quick does not mean you need to do this on your own.

This is a good way for you to screw this up. You need to have a pro by your side. If you're buying in this weird market, you need to have a pro by your side. If you're selling in this weird market, you could really miss out on tens of thousands of dollars if you don't. It's a problem. The agents that we endorse, our endorsed local providers have years of industry success. They're not going to compromise your financial goals.

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That's a Ramsey trusted agent. You'll find one near you right there in your neighborhood. ramseysolutions.com slash agent. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They are the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best possible deal. Today's question comes from Britton in Utah.

My wife and I are in our early 20s and make about $140,000 per year with no other debt other than our home. Wow. We expect our income to increase once I graduate college in a few months. How do I calculate the proper amount of life insurance if we expect our income to go up drastically over the next 15 to 20 years?

Good problem to have in this situation. It's amazing. Sure. Looks like there's only one person working and they got 140K coming in. So it's a good question though. People think, you know, if I get my life insurance, my term, we recommend term life, 10 to 12 times your income. And people go, okay, well, if I get that in place, what happens if my life changes, my income goes up, my income goes down. So it's a valid question. And our friends at Zander, they deal with this stuff all the time.

But you can change the amount of term life you have. Yep. You can buy some more. And that's the thing to do. Just buy what you need now, 15 to 20-year level. And then later on, you can buy some more, 15 to 20-year level. And that's what I've ended up doing. And here's what's strange.

It's not true at this moment in my life, but there was a period of time over 15 or 20 years that I was buying policies ever so often, new ones to add to the coverage, and some of them were starting to drop off. During that time, life insurance became so competitive that the rates dropped, and I was buying life insurance 10 years later for the same price although i'm 10 years older and so it's still it's still very very competitive and there's still a pressure in the marketplace in that direction but it's not like that and today but uh the point is it's not going to cost if you're 20 early 20s so let's call them 24 okay and if you go back 10 years later at 34 and you add a policy it's not going to be a bazillion dollars difference it is different but the difference in a 24 year old and a 34 year old is not it's not it's just not it's not 50 or something it's not that of thing. So you're not going to see that much difference. So just add policies as you need.

That'll lengthen the time you have coverage, by the way, if you do the 15 to 20-year every time. And 10 years later, you do a 15 to 20-year. So you've got another 10 years on the plan now if you need it. And that's what I have done throughout my career. And then, you know, at this this point I don't need life insurance we have some and the joke has always been because SWI Sharon wants it but those policies are dropping off I dropped two of them uh two weeks ago they hit the end and I'm not renewing them

and so uh you know you just change them out I'm 61. I obviously don't need life insurance. But that's what will happen is you just keep adding. And what you're doing is you're kind of parlaying this and layering it out. Yeah. And it's important to remember what life insurance is for to replace your income for people that depend on it. We've gotten questions of, do I need life insurance on my baby? And, you know, I keep life insurance until I die. And we always talk about you don I need life insurance on my baby? And I keep life insurance until I die. And we always talk about, you don't need life insurance. If you follow our plan,

once that 15 to 20 years up, you've got a paid for house, you're on your way to becoming a millionaire, you're going to be self-insured to where no one's going to need to rile in your income. They can use the money from the life insurance if something did happen within the policy and invest that and peel the money off to live off of. So it's a great plan, and it's worked for millions and millions of people. Josh is with us. Josh is in Huntington, West Virginia. Hi, Josh.

How are you? I'm doing great, Mr. Ramsey. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Yes, sir. First of all, I want to thank you for your plan. Because of that, my wife and I, we are paid at free with a pay-for house. Wow. Look at you, sir. First of all, I want to thank you for your plan. Because of that, my wife and I, we are paid at free with a pay-for house.

Wow. Look at you, man. Yeah, we're 35, and we've had our house paid off for almost six years. Oh, I love you, sir. Anyway, I don't want to take up much of your time, but when we're doing our budget, I know you do a zero-based budget. What comes into the paychecks, you put that down. But what happens with your savings? If you've got savings, like if I make a new budget now for February, but we've got savings and I want to make a purchase,

so say we're going to purchase a flight for a trip, how do I put that savings into that budget without because if i book the flight without putting the savings in and it blows up my budget how do i get that strategically to account for the savings our extra cash above and beyond our investments and everything else how do i budget all that out to not blow up the budget well i guess there'd be two types of purchases you're doing they're very large and then a small purchase booking a flight's a small purchase and let's say you booked a three thousand dollars worth of airline tickets and you had the money set aside for your trip and it's in your trip savings and so you just move the savings over into your checking and it shows up and you drop it into the budget as income for that month and uh and you And you just integrate it in. A large purchase would be that you saved up $30,000 to buy a car.

I'm probably not running that through the budget. I'm just going to write a check for that. And just because it comes out of the checking account doesn't mean it has to come out of the budget. Okay. All right. That makes it easier. I was freaking out because it was blowing up my budget every time we did that,

and it was kind of stressing me out a little bit. I guess the difference is if you're using a debit card and it's showing up automatically in your every dollar, then you're going to move the money. That's a smaller purchase, and you're going to move that money out of savings over into your budget as income so that it doesn't blow your budget up. That's what's happening with an airline ticket purchase, right? But my point is you're buying a car, you're probably wiring the money into the dealership.

Cashier's check or something like that and so you're not necessarily running it through every dollar if you're not running through your every dollar budget then you're you're not going to run into this issue yeah the simplicity of just saying all right i've got three thousand dollars for this trip when move it from savings to checkings that now counts as income that's then allocated to that trip in the budget yep so you got a vacation line item in your every dollar at that point you fund it from the top as income and then it's sitting there oh and by the way when you write the airline ticket that's fine oh when you go on the trip and you go to dinner that's out of that same one you know and you allocate it over

there and you're just you're it's a little miniature budget inside the budget yeah for your trip yeah for the trip it's your travel trip that's great they're they're doing the stuff i mean that's impressive man 29 years old they're maybe seven paid off the house very well done that's it that's beautiful i mean the guy's on his way to being serious serious wealth yeah and uh here's the thing about all that it's a great question i'm glad he asked it because it's good to get these little nuanced things, these little issues where the thing starts just running like a machine, where you just don't have to think about it. You get it on autopilot, the machine runs, you start the car, it runs, right? And same with your financial plan.

You start it, it runs. And your systems, you have systems and processes in place that run. And you do need to get those tuned in. But here's the thing. All that means is you're paying attention and 98 percent of the people that don't win it's not because of a nuance in the system it's because they ain't even paying attention it's a good this guy this guy's beyond paying attention he paid off his house at 29 he's beyond dialed in he's nerding out on the budget now yeah it's a good problem to

have well it's just we're dialing in processes here and just take heart those of you that are doing this and if you're getting caught up on something small like that just smile enjoy the ride for figuring out how to make the machine run a little bit smoother but you're fine because you're paying attention broke people don't ask these questions that's what it comes down to exactly Exactly. George Campbell, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Paige is with us. Hey, Paige, how are you? Good, how are you? Good, welcome, welcome. Where do you live? Salt Lake City, Utah.

Well, that's a long way to Nashville. Yeah, always an excuse to come to Nashville, right? Hey, I hear you. Any excuse. We're glad you're here. Nice and cold for you. So, how much debt have you paid off? $25,137. Good for you. And how long did have you paid off? $25,137. Good for you. And how long did that take? Six months.

Wow, kicking it. And your range of income during that time? $58,000 to $70,000. Okay. And what kind of debt was the $25,000? All student loans. All right. Yeah.

All right. What's your degree in? Experience Design and Management with emphasis in non-profit management. Okay. Wow. Okay. Wow. Good. So what do you do for a living? I am an event marketing manager.

I actually just got a new job, started a couple weeks ago. All right. Good. Yeah. That's a good use of that knowledge there, huh? Yes. Yeah. Very good.

All right. Fun. So how long have you been out of school? Three years in April. Okay. What made you decide six months ago to turn this on and do this Ramsey stuff? Well, it kind of started before that of like when I graduated, I would just lay awake at night thinking about these student loans because I just hated that

they were there. And I didn't really know how to tackle them, especially because when I got out of college, I was making 50 and it just felt like that's half of my income that I need to pay off. And the principles were so high that every time I paid the next month, it felt like it was the same exact balance. It was. So it was really disheartening. And then COVID happened. There was no interest. And one of my friends randomly had mentioned that they listened to the Ramsey show. And I was like, I've never actually listened to that. So I started listening to the podcast and I was like, wait, I should budget. And so I started.

What a realization. Yeah. Touchdown. Yeah, I was working from home. And so I was listening to every single podcast every single day. It just really lit a fire underneath of me. Wow. And I just set a goal that I would be done by September of 2020.

And on September 1st of 2020, I paid off the last of the balance. So you hit the goal? Yep. Just like that. Ding, ding. off the last of the balance. So you hit the goal. Yep. Just like that. Ding, ding. Exactly. That simple. Wow. It was awesome. Well, and so you used the fact that there was no interest during that time, and you budgeted, and you leaned in,

and did your income go up early in the process or late in the process? Kind of in the middle. So I started trying to look at different side hustle things. That's something I heard on the podcast a lot, and so I've always had an interest in interior design. So I actually started taking on a couple of clients and redoing homes. And so that helped bring in about 12K on top of my income. Very good. That was a huge piece of it. One more use of your degree. Yeah. I mean, all of your income looked like it was going towards debt. I was going to ask if there

was some kind of side hustle involved here. Yeah, definitely side hustle. Wow, very impressive. Is this something you want to keep doing or is it you're like, I'm done for now? No, actually, I love it. I'm continuing to take clients and hopefully we'll transition that to a full-time career in the future. Wow, turn into a business. Good for you. Fun.

How does it feel to be free? It's the best thing. I can go to sleep at night without these fears of losing a job and having this debt to pay off. So it's been the best. I've just been so happy and trying to get everyone to understand the joy of not having any debt. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Who was your biggest cheerleader along the way? I had a lot of them. I had some really great friends. Actually, one of my friends,

when I told her, hey, I've started listening to the Dave Ramsey podcast, I got an Amazon box in the mail, and it was the Total Money Makeover book. Oh, wow. But the note said, love LeBron James, because I'm a huge LeBron James fan, and so it took months for me to figure out who it was. I thought LeBron James sent you books.

That's your friend? I did, too. I was going to say, yeah, LeBron James got me involved. He got you a Total Money Makeover book. Did this happen? Not. Okay. Yeah, and then my family has been super awesome and supportive, I did, too. I was going to say, yeah, LeBron James got me involved. He got you a total money makeover book. This happened. Not. Okay. Yeah, and then my family has been super awesome and supportive, so just had a lot of people

along the way. All right. Fun. Fun. Awesome. Fun. Okay. Now, because you can't, it's hard to do this and not talk about it.

So when somebody says, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, shut up. How did you do it? You pay off $25,000 in six months making 58 you didn't even make 25 obviously half of it was a side hustle you kicked in that's the way the numbers work right and uh but what do you tell people they say okay how'd you do what do you do to get out of debt you said you tell them what the two things for me one the law of tithing um being a religious person i just know that like being committed that, that Christ always assists us and helps make up the difference.

And the second is budgeting. Obviously, it goes hand in hand with that of just making sure that when you actually know where your money's going, you realize you have so much more money than you think you do because I'm not just going to Target every weekend and dropping money on random stuff at Target.

Which is all Target has. Yeah. It's the black hole of random stuff at Target. Which is all Target has. Yeah. It's the black hole of random stuff. Wow. You're very impressive. So here's what I want to know. Paige, talk to the person who maybe is like you, but they're going, well, I mean, student loan forgiveness is going to happen. And I mean, there's no interest, there's no payments. Why would you even make a payment? And instead you went, no, I'm making extra payments. I want this out of my life. What do you say to that person? I think that when we wait for other things to happen

to make it so that our life is easier, we're going to end up waiting a lot longer than we think we do. And I think that it's just so much more instead of being told like, oh, actually you don't need to pay this. I feel so much more like I just feel a better human being and I have more control over my money because I know that like, no, I'm the master of my own finances. And I'm not going to wait for the government to tell me that like, oh, you're forgiving. You don't need to worry about this anymore. It's just like get it out of the way and move on with your life and take that next step to becoming a millionaire. Mic drop.

Wow. She says it with such a sweet voice. I know. It's like freedom. I felt that. Like there's, take your destiny by the throat! Yes. That's it. That's exactly what you did. Yeah, that's very good. Most people don't even think it's possible. They don't think they can get control, and you just decided one day that, no, I'm going to be in control. I'm going to be the master of my money.

That's incredible. We're so proud of you. How many debt-free screams do you think you've watched? Probably like at least 300 whoa watched a lot listen to a lot of Dave Ramsey and now you're inside of one so better well now so now I was just thinking because now you are that for someone because you were laying awake and somebody said check this out you tile in the podcast and it's like this is a strange strange podcast strange radio show and then i'm actually going to pull up youtube and watch some of these people do their debt-free screams and then now that's you that's a pretty cool trans process there that you've gone through very neat very proud of you thank you well done very well done how's it how's it feel to be free again amazing the best all right we got a copy of the brand new number one bestseller baby steps millionaires for you how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and how you can too

and i'll also give you a copy of the total money makeover and you can ship it to lebron james perfect because he might need it you never know probably not but okay page from salt lake city Probably not. But, okay. Paige from Salt Lake City, Utah, $25,000 paid off in six months, making $58,000 to $70,000, plus the old home interior side hustle. Very well done. All right, Paige, count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. One, two, three. I'm debt-free!

Yeah! And a trip to Nashville. Boom. There you go. Just like that like that why not this is the time to do it it works man it works what an impressive young woman yeah inspiring she's going to inspire a lot of people that were like her so you know it's she she just said i don't want to lay awake at night. This is, you know, it's amazing how much real estate in our brain, how much free rent in our brain that we give these negative things. And the Bible talks about taking every thought captive. And really, in a sense, that's what she did.

She went, I'm not living like this and uh underneath that uh sweet voice and demeanor the there's a warrior in there there's a lot of grit a lot of grit that's a good word a lot of warrior and uh she she moved you know looked in the mirror and said i can do this yeah and my generation is just plagued with anxiety and fears and cynicism and it's just your generation with anxiety and fears and cynicism. And it's just amazing. Just your generation. It was only yours. And Gen Z. But especially ours. Dave, we love to complain.

Everything's everyone else's problem, and we can't do anything to it. It just happens to us. It's every generation. Woe is us, right? Every generation. We just have social media now, so we can just blast it a lot more than you guys could. You get to have an opinion. But other than that, every generation's had this.

Yeah. I mean, in recent memory, in the last 50 years, boomers too. Even those horrible boomers. That's right. Thank you for saying it out loud. We're all thinking it. But it's amazing what happens when you get control of your money, how much of that can go away. And you're not cynical anymore.

The anxiety goes away. You can sleep at night. Even the boomers. Even though they don't deserve to. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture today, Psalm 3419, The righteous person may have troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. Thomas Paine said, The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. George Campbell Ramsey Personality is my co-host today as we talk about your life and your money. It's a free call, 888-825-5225.

You jump in and we will talk. Karen is in Washington, D.C. Hi, Karen. How are you? Great. How are you? Great. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Well, I am on baby step two, paying off debt.

I have credit card debt of about $25,000 left, and then I have three mortgages. One mortgage is a rental property that I've had since 1998 and the other is my primary care and then my mother passed and left me one that we have a mortgage on. My dilemma is I recently lost my job, and I'm 64, and I was wondering, sell out and retire rather than try to continue with another job. You have no money saved though well i have a 401k um of about 310 000 oh that's helpful okay good i feel a whole lot better now all right and um okay what's the house worth that your your mom left you um it's probably a worth about 150 what do you owe on it and i owe on that 29 000 okay all right and what about the other rental what do you owe on it the rental i owe um 145 000 on what's it? It's probably worth at least $200,000 or maybe $225,000.

It's not in the best condition. I've rented out the HUD since 1998. You said we earlier. Are you married? No, I'm single. Okay. All right. And your personal residence, what do you owe on it?

I owe $214 on it. Okay. And what is it worth? It's probably worth about $300, maybe $325. Okay. $340 is acceptable last year well let me ask you this okay um i think if i were in your shoes i would want a real clean and simple life which would lead me to selling your mom's house on the rental and paying your house off with the proceeds.

You can get enough out of those two to pay your house off. Then you have a paid-for house, no bills. You've got those $25,000 in credit cards. You need to chop those things up, and you're going to have to get some money together and get those, get rid of those, whether you take it out of your nest egg or whether you just scrape it together and get them knocked out. But that's not keeping you from retiring you get it you i want those two things i want the credit cards paid off and i would take the money from the sale of the other

two houses and pay your house off and just breathe this in for a second because i know i just sold your mama's house and i know you got a tear in your eye when i did that okay but breathe this in for a second you're sitting there in your house it's the only thing you have to repair you have to deal with repairs you don't have to deal with tenants you don't have to deal with insurance and taxes you got your house and it's paid for and you've got three hundred thousand dollars in your nest egg and you've got your social security coming in i think you're gonna be okay if you do that okay how's that feel how's that feel it feels really a big relief off of me building i think if you i think if you go back to work you're going back

to work to keep those other two houses that you probably shouldn't keep right you're right you're right yeah so get in touch with one of our endorsed local providers on real estate and have them help you get those things listed and let's get them sold. There's something to be said for simplicity in our lives, for just cleanliness. Yeah, it's definitely underrated. And a lot of people, especially when you're 64 and you've got all these mortgages and you lost the job, it just adds all of the stress into your life. And when I'm 64, I want to be relaxed, more relaxed than I've ever been. And that's what I want for our friend Karen here. Yeah, I could see you draining down that $310,000

trying to keep those other properties propped up. Yeah, it just sounds like a mess to deal with. That doesn't sound like she loves any of them. I think I talked her into it. That was pretty easy. That might have been your best sales pitch. I mean, I'm shocked because I sold her mom's house. That's a hard one.

Well, you are a good salesman and you've been in real estate a long time. You've got a future in this. Yeah, you think it'll work out for me. All right. Nathan's in Salt Lake City. Hey, Nathan, what's up?

Hi, Dave. Hi, George. How are you guys doing? Good. How can we help? So I just had a question about what we should be doing next with our money.

So me and my wife, we just had a new baby in November. Congratulations. Thank you. And we have just finished our baby step three with our fully funded emergency fund. Yay. But I'm still in university. Thanks. I'm still in university.

I have two years left. So I wasn't sure if we should continue on to four, five, and six and start investing in retirement and doing the 529 for the baby or if we should just be like what we should be doing at this point. Are you able to cash flow the rest of your school? We should be able to. I haven't had to spend any money on school so far. I have a full academic scholarship, and then we get the pell grant in as well okay what is your household income

um i make about forty four thousand dollars a year before tax so okay and what's your degree gonna be in it's biochemistry but i'm planning on going to medical school after so it'll be more school okay all right i think we invest in you right now i think you got your emergency fund you got clear of debt and i think you just keep piling up as much money as you can pile up for school because your best rate of return is going to be on nathan yeah so would you recommend putting that in an index fund or should we just have it in the bank or what would you suggest? You know, some mix of that probably, but the money you're going to be leaving alone for a long time, you can drop it into an index fund. But how old

are you guys? We're both 22, me and my wife. Okay. Yeah. I mean, if you drop it into an index fund, you're going to be fine and just just load it up and just we'll see how big a pile of money you can get man i mean you you're not gonna be a huge pile because you're making 44 000 but um anything we can do to make a dent in this medical school is going to be the way to go yeah i'd want to avoid any kind of student loans and the house and all that stuff that's great and the college that can come later that's all yeah the college for the kid you get that no trouble you can go be an md um and you know buying a house i wouldn't worry about buying a house right now this right now that this is game on for nathan you're 22 you're still super young you got all kinds of time here to do all this stuff

and the other things the other acquisitions and the other processes so if you're a debt-free doctor you're going to be able to do all of that easily and not be stressed because you're not going to have three hundred thousand dollars in student loans then trying to go i gotta buy a house i gotta do all these things yeah good question man thank you for joining us i think it's a good idea to remember um we are huge believers in buying and owning a house but we do not agree with what most people will tell you in the culture which is by everyone right this second everybody ought to buy a house buy a house buy a house buy a house buy a house you ought to be out of debt you got to have the emergency fund in place and you ought to be stabilized meaning that you're not you know

finishing up something where you're going to be jumping cities. And because jumping in and out of houses is super expensive. And so buying a house is a good idea when you've done those things. But everybody should not buy a house. Yeah. No matter, you know, broke people buying a house, it makes you broker. It does not make you anything else. That's why they call them brokers. But it's just... I see it all the time time people in their 20s and their 30s and they go well there's two things either outside pressure that's going hey you should buy a house what are you doing you're an idiot or it's pride where you go i i deserve a house yeah and both or it's or it's fomo yeah houses are going up i gotta gotta i gotta get in i gotta get in i gotta get in for the for the i'm gonna get priced out of the market i gotta get. And none of those things are true.

Yeah. None of those things are true. You'll get there. You'll get there. Patience, Grasshopper. I wonder who knows what that means. No one knows. I barely know. I do.

I do. Oh, my goodness. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, guys, this is James, senior producer for The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week?

And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to theramseyshow.com.