The Ramsey Show - App - The Best Side Hustles To Earn Extra Income (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

Ken Coleman & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss:  "Should I refinance my student loans?" "Pay off my house or save?" "What should I do with my new raise?" "How do I make my first real estate purchase?" Side hustle ideas, from the blog: 27 Side Hustle Ideas to Earn Extra Cash, "Should I let go of this dream of building my own home?" Support Our Sponsor: Zander Insurance Neighborly Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help people win with their money, their work, and their relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me this hour. It is a free phone call for you to jump in, and that's what we do.

We coach you. We counsel you. We cheer you on. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. You ready to go, George? Game on like Donkey Kong. Yeah, I just had some green tea with honey. I got the green tea with honey as well.

And so I'm ready to go as well. Let's go to Megan in Des Moines, Iowa. Megan, how can we help? Hi. Thank you for taking my call. You bet. My question is, I have about $80,000 in student loan debt. That's all of my debt.

And about $40,000 of that is in private loans. One of my loans is $20,000. That's a lot of breaking down. But that loan is my smallest loan at $20,300. My concern is that the interest rate just went up again to 11.25%. Ouch. I got an offer to refinance my private loan, and it would refinance it to a rate of 7.25%. And I was just wondering, I know that interest rate isn't always the end-all be-all of it,

but that's a huge jump. Yeah. Wow. So here's how we view student loan refinancing. Now, generally, we're not a fan of refinancing because it kind of makes you feel like you did something, but student loan refinancing can be a good move. And I'll tell you the parameters. So check off these boxes as I say them out loud, right? Number one, it's free to make the change. No application fees, origination charges, whatever fees they want to throw in there. No fees. Number two, you've got to keep a fixed rate or move from variable to fixed? You said it's a fixed rate currently. The one that I have currently is a variable rate. It would be going to a fixed rate. Love it. Great. Another box checked off there. Then you've got to keep the same term or shorten it. Is that the case with this one?

Yeah. I'm not quite sure how long my current one is, but it would be going to a five-year term. Okay. Then in that case, I would go through with it in order to chop down some interest without causing you any further financial damage here. And without losing any gazelle intensity. Because you want to pay this thing off really fast. Yeah. If I have all my numbers right, I should have the $20,000 one paid off by the end of this year. Love it.

And so that was part of it. If it would still be worth it, if I'm going to be paying it off by the end of 2023. Yeah. I would absolutely do it then. And you can get quotes from other places too. Maybe don't take just the first offer. You can go through some different companies and see what they offer, but always make sure they're not charging you anything, you're going to a fixed rate, and that you get a shorter term or the same term. Thanks for the call, Megan. Good advice, George. Let's go now to Allentown, Pennsylvania. Connie is waiting. Connie, how can we help? Thank you for taking my call. I am a 62-year-old divorced single mom. My daughter's 22.

She just graduated college. My question is, I owe $84,000 on a mortgage. My salary is $39,000. And I do have some $10,000 in a Roth and a 401k. My concern is, and my reason I'm calling, is I'm terrified that I'm not going to be able to retire and pay off my house at my age. I feel like I'm basically starting over. I work second jobs. I just don't know how to get ahead. And also, my main question is, when I do work second jobs, do I put that money in savings or do I work on paying off the mortgage? That's my first question.

George, before we dive in on this, Connie, I'm curious to know what you're making. What is your income in your main job and then what are you bringing in in these second jobs? Give us a snapshot. $39,000 is my salary. Okay. And what do you do? And that's my full-time job i am a secretary okay all right and then what are you bringing in from the second job so you know give us an example it varies um i yeah it really varies i've done home care home health care i've done um i also

do some crafting where that's kind of closer to Christmas. I, you know, bring in some extra money that way. I am looking at, and I love your opinion on this, I do QuickBooks at my job. And I was thinking of possibly doing that part-time on my own, like maybe picking up. I think you could do that full-time and double your income. Yeah. Let me give you an example. I was looking at this today, George.

Connie, I was reading this today before the show. I was looking at what is the current list of some of the best-paying part-time jobs, and bookkeeping is one of them. And in certain places, now again, you got to kind of see what the lay of the land is in Allentown, but you can make as much as $40 an hour doing bookkeeping part-time. Connie, that's good money. Yeah. And George is right. You could transition into a role like that because there's just so many opportunities for you right now. And that's why I wanted to start here because George is going to walk you through the answers to your questions,

but I'd like to see you increase your income in meaningful ways, not like crafts here and there, but okay, if I can work an extra 10 to 15 hours a week, and let's say I'm in that $20 to $40 an hour range, that's real money, Connie, and George is going to teach you how to use that, and let's say I'm in that $20 to $40 an hour range, that's real money, Connie, and George is going to teach you how to use that. So let's work on that, that QuickBooks skill, and you could be able to take, you could take several other classes or courses that you can cash flow that give you more opportunity to do freelance work like that, and nobody cares how old you are, by the way. Right, right, right. And you've got a lot of transferable skills. Even as a secretary, you could do office management, you

could be an executive assistant, you could do some of that virtually, part-time. And so I would get creative and get excited about what that could do for you as far as savings and retirement. So to your question, do you have any money saved for emergencies currently? I do. I do. I have, well, I have about $18,000 in savings, $10,000 in a 401k, and $7,000 in a Roth. Okay. So we've got a good start here. What we need to do is continue down the path of investing for retirement. So I would do 15% of your income, regardless of what it is, add in all your side income, any part of your income, 15% towards retirement. Then on top of that, I would start chipping away at the house with whatever's left. Right now may not be a lot, but if you double your income, let's have a goal for a few years from now, we have no mortgage payment and we've built up a nice little nest egg so that we can have a dignified retirement. That's my goal for

Connie. Yeah. And she can do it. Fantastic. Love it, love it. I think we, should we connect her to one of our financial coaches, kind of help her through this? I would love to do that. Let's do that.

Connie, hang on the line. We're going to take care of you and get you with one of our financial coaches. We're going to pay for a session. We're going to pay for a session and get you that jumpstart into what George told you, because there is a way and you can do it. You aren't too old.

You've got plenty of time. Thank you so much, Connie. Hang on the line. For the rest of you, don't move. More Ramsey Show coming up. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by my colleague, George Camel. The phone number if you want to jump in on the conversation is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Raleigh, North Carolina is where Peter waits. Peter, how can we help? Hey, how are you guys doing today? It's good to be on. I think you guys are both really cool. Well, let me tell you something. I appreciate that. I have three teenagers and they remind me all the time how cringy I am. So I'm going to hold on to that the rest of the day.

Thank you, sir. George, on the other hand, is always cool. Me, it's very rare that this happens. Thank you, Peter. How can we help? You're welcome. Yeah, so my wife and I are on baby step two, and we've actually kind of had to pump the brakes a little bit

because we're having our second son in about a month. Hey! That's exciting. We've been able to save about, yeah, we've been able to save about $3,000 extra in preparation for that. I mean, we were hitting the ground running, paying off stuff and we're like, let's save up a little bit. But actually, I just want to make sure I'm on the right path here. I'm hoping by the end of next year, we'll be debt-free, fully funded emergency fund.

I'm getting about a $50,000 raise in February. Wow, that's amazing. What are you currently making? I just wanted to know. Currently $70,000, so it's going to be bumped up to about $120,000. Heck yeah. Peter, let's go, buddy. Let's just pause for a moment.

What did you do to get that raise? That's fantastic. Yeah, so I'm actually a UPS driver. No kidding. And yeah, so from the third year to the fourth year, it's a pretty substantial raise. I'm so glad that we asked, and I'll tell you why. Because I want people to hear that you can make really good money wearing an all-brown outfit, some great thick brown socks, and driving a truck.

I mean, that's a big deal. That's good work, man. Good for you. It's good, hard work, and it provides, yeah, for my wife. Good for you. Myself and our two kids, so I'm grateful. Good for you. All right.

Keep going, Peter. Yeah, so we're $40,000 in debt. We have student loans, personal loans, HVAC loans, credit cards. And so my projection is we will be debt free hopefully by June of next year. Does that sound doable, you think? Or we are a little house poor right now. And we knew kind of we would be before we started the baby steps. Is it a mortgage? It's a mortgage, yep. Okay, what's the payment on that? So the mortgage is $1,300, but with the escrow in there, that's another $600 with the escrow rolled into it, so it's about $1,900. That's some serious escrow, man.

Yeah, we had to get flood insurance and then homeowner's insurance and then stock tax, so our mortgage is about $1,900 a month right now. Okay, and what's your take-home pay currently? Yeah, $5,200 a month right now. All right, and that's going to change drastically. So right now you're at 36% of your take-home pay going towards that mortgage, but once you hit $120, you're going to be right on target. So it's going to be tight, but we know that raise is coming on the horizon,

and you're still knocking out some debt along the way. And can you work extra? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. We can. I basically work as much as I possibly can. You know, we have an 18 month old as well right now. So my wife's kind of in the trenches and she's eight months pregnant. So I work basically as much as she's okay. That's wise. Peter, you asked us, you said, is this sound right? Can we pay it off, be debt-free next June? I think the question is for you. What did you base that on?

How much money, based on the amount of debt you have and the amount of money that you have said, okay, this is what we're going to be able to put on each month. The question is, is it doable for you? Is it doable? Or have you over-projected? No, I think it's doable. We're able to save, I mean, leading up to this moment, we're able to save about an extra $1,200 a month with our lifestyle.

And then, you know, once the baby's born, we can put all that towards debt. And then our lifestyle is not going to change once we get this pay raise. We to get that free and get that emergency you're going to do it and here's the deal i appreciate the question peter the reason i brought it back up is because and george can speak to this too but when stacy and i went through our debt-free journey stuff happened and you can put it on paper which is what you should do and you can project and you can be disciplined and then stuff happens. So if something happens and it ends up being August, that doesn't matter. What matters more is what you just said, which is our lifestyle isn't going to change once I make more money.

We're committed to being debt-free, and I think that's what matters. Give yourself grace. But also what I like to do is set a goal that scares me just a little bit to where I go, I don't know if we can make that, but we're going to try. I love that. And then try to beat that as you get your feet under you. That's usually what happens more often than not versus, oh, it took us a month longer.

And if it does, dude, you're still debt-free a month later. Way to go. All right, Peter, I'm going to turn the tables if it's okay with you. George has got his first child on the way. Yes, Peter, give me all the advice, man. Peter, you're about ready to have number two. Give George one piece of advice about parenting a newborn because he knows nothing. What would you tell George?

Just enjoy it. Honestly, that's it, man. A lot of people tell me it's going to be really hard, but the love that you have for that baby just kind of outweighs how tough it is, honestly. Beautifully said. Peter, for the win, that's as good of adviceweighs how tough it is, honestly. Beautifully said. Poetic. Peter, for the win, that's as good of advice as you'll hear all day on the show. I love that.

We turn the tables, George. We should do that more often. I think our listeners have a lot of wisdom to impart to us. It's absolutely true. All right, let's go to New York City, New York. The Big Apple, John, is there. John, how can we help? Hey, guys, how you doing?

Good. What's going on? I'm 24 years old. I've managed to save just under $100,000. Wow. I have zero debt. Woo. And I'm making now nearly $130,000 a year.

Wow. John, slow clap for you, my friend. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's taking some sacrifice. But basically, I'm just wondering, I do want to get my first real estate property. I'm wondering if now's a good time or if I should wait. You know, I hear so many different things.

Tell us about it. Give George the details. Is this a primary residence or are you wanting to get into real estate investing? No. So I still luckily live at home. I have no payments on rent or anything, which is why I've been able to save so much. I'm really not in a rush. I mean, you know, it would be nice to live on my own, but I do want to get my first property. This will be a investment property. Okay. So why not get yourself a place? I think I would, you know, I don't know. I am not uh I'm not in a rush to are you living with your

parents I am yes well let me tell you something you're no loser okay everybody heard your story but I mean either mama's cooking is good or you're just cheap or maybe a combo what's the story it could be both yeah you're a numbers guy you're looking at this going another thing is I'm not I'm not home all the time uh I make good money i work on ships so i'm gone almost half the year oh see okay that makes that makes total sense okay all right yeah all right so you may not like my advice but when it comes to buying real estate property as an investment we only recommend paying cash got it and that sounds as insane as it is because have you seen the world? They're even more insane and they're broke. And all the people out there on TikTok, they're telling you to put as

little down as possible and then rehab it and then do the HELOC and take the equity out and put it on another property. Dude, these people have debt up to their eyeballs and they're freaked out that actually do this stuff. The ones pitching it are making money from their online course, of course. So what I would tell you to do is if you're wanting to do that in New York City, is that right? No, I think it's too expensive here. I'd probably go somewhere else. I like Maine a lot. It's cheaper up there. Because the other side of this coin is being a long distance landlord is tough business. So I would try to get something more local, somewhere that you can actually go check out whenever you want to check in on the property. And if that means we're getting the spot outside

of the city by a half hour, 45 minutes, an hour, so be it. But I would move at the speed of cash. So when is the right time to buy real estate investment property? When you have the cash to do it. How old are you, John? And you can find a deal. Got it. How old are you, John? 24. Yeah. My friend, you're're crushing it you've already been able to put a hundred thousand dollars in the bank you're 24 uh now whether you choose to believe george or not he's right uh everybody tells you oh just use the bank's money blah blah blah riches untold but here's the deal if you choose to to believe George and do it the right way where you have no risk, no stress, how much longer would it take you to get $200,000 more in the bank?

You're only 24. You could be a multimillionaire as a result of waiting five or six years. And no expenses, making $130,000. And no expenses. Just keep stacking the cash, my friend. And you're going to be way ahead of everybody else. I promise. Wow. That dude. That's impressive. He's a hard worker.

I like that. Really good stuff. George Campbell, Ken Coleman, with you right now. We're going to go away for just a few moments. Don't you go away. This is the Ramsey Show. Welcome back to the Ramsey show i'm ken coleman i'm joined by george camel the phone number to jump in on the conversation is triple eight eight two five five two two five that's triple eight eight two five five two two five the question of the day is brought to you by neighborly your hub

for home services neighborly has local service providers to repair, maintain, and improve your home. I could put in there to keep Ken married because I can't do anything. You know what I mean? And so I need resources like this. Their network of experts offers top quality work and customer service by trained, reliable service providers. Find the help you need at Neighborly.com today. Today's question comes from alan in ohio

he writes i live in an apartment but i'm looking to get a home in the next year to year and a half i work as a design engineer and currently make 25 bucks an hour i've got 25 000 student loan debt to the government and i graduated in may of 2020 i want to know of any side hustles that can help me pay off my student debt and help me build a comfortable life for a future family? Thanks for the question, Alan. I love this question. And when you talk about somebody of Alan's credibility, or the word I'm looking for is actually pedigree, because he goes to school and he gets an engineering degree, right? And so engineers can command really good money, not just in salary, but in freelance hourly rates. And the freelance economy is what it's being labeled as right now. The gig economy is another term you hear. It's just fancy language

for it's a side hustle. It's above and beyond my full-time job. And professional, white-collar, skilled jobs have more freelance opportunity than ever before, George, because of this weird economy we're in where we have 10.1 million jobs available, but only 8 million people unemployed. So companies are also worried about recession, and so they've cut back. So instead of hiring a full-time employee, they're looking for a contractor. And you've done this work before, and in his situation where I would start, the practical advice is his top two or three skills is where he's looking as an engineer. And he's separating those and he's going, okay, I'm really good at this, this and this. And so now he's looking out there where are freelancing opportunities because he brings

credibility in that degree and everyday experience. And that's where he's going to get the biggest bang for the buck is actually his professional skills. Now, he can do other things we're going to talk about in a minute for everybody. But you've done this early on. I lived this out. You actually did this, and I wanted you to share this because you made really good money using your existing professional skills. Yes.

So first of all, I was willing to do anything. And so I was driving for Uber and Lyft and doing some of the normal side gig economy stuff. You were an early adopter on that. I got some sign-on bonuses when they first came to Nashville, when Uber and Lyft showed up.

So they gave me like a thousand bucks to do like three rides. It was great. So it was some great side money. But beyond that, I went, I don't like driving strangers around. It's not something I enjoy. Can I find the side gig I enjoy doing that I'm good at? That's when I went, I don't like driving strangers around. It's not something I enjoy. Can I find a side gig I enjoy doing that I'm good at?

That's when I went, I've got marketing skills. And I found this post I did, Ken, back in 2019. I was trying to save up for our down payment for the home. Oh, is this from your personal blog? This is my personal blog, my Zanga page. Here's what it says. If you need help with social media, email marketing, branding, copywriting, content creation, website creation, podcasting, video, audio production, keynote presentations, DM me for consulting work. And I got some great gigs

helping small business owners, authors, speakers build websites in Squarespace. How much? I was making 1500 bucks a website. 1500 bucks? Yeah. And were you using one of those? The website in a box, Squarespace. That's right.

So that was one. I did marketing consulting back in when I was getting rid of my consumer debt. I think I made 23 grand doing that part-time, nights and weekends. It's very doable. All right. So let's also bring this down to summer jobs for kids trying to make money for college. Teachers too that are out for the summer. People that are trying to make extra money. We've got an article that we did at RamseySolutions.com.

We're not going to go through all of these. And I've got some personal anecdotes, some stories here of what I'm seeing young people do that can be done, quite frankly, by anybody. But you mentioned Uber and Lyft. Let's just say delivering food, delivering groceries, delivering people to places is still a very, very accessible opportunity. Now, I will say this. It comes with wear and tear on the car.

I've interviewed some of these drivers. And I think, George, I've got to weigh it. You got to weigh that. Like, okay, the wear and tear, insurance, all that kind of stuff, gas. Yes. Make sure that you're covered. Contact your auto insurance. Do not surprise them.

If you get in a wreck while driving for one of these apps, you may not be covered. Don't say it until you sell. Okay, here we go. Here's some creative things. Photographer, tutoring, and any type of topic there. Also, online teaching is an opportunity for a lot of people. That's big. The one that I love from the list, and I'm seeing this, is the reselling.

People that are going to flea market, the flea market flipping. That's big. You can really score and make some really good money. You know, you got to know what you're doing. Yeah, garage sales, yard sales, flea markets, even Goodwill. Yeah. Buy stuff for cheap and look it up on eBay, see what it's selling for, and go clean it up and flip it. The one that I love sharing, I shared this on my show uh about a young lady who had just graduated uh from law school and she was looking to get on with a firm

and uh wasn't finding what she wanted she's trying to figure it out and she stumbles into uh someone who says i've got some friends who want someone to walk their dogs they've got three dogs and she says well what do they pay and it's really really, you know, it was pretty good in New York, Manhattan. Okay. That's big money there. So she starts doing it and she realized like, this is really good money for my time. She now makes over $130,000 a year in Manhattan with a dog walking service to where now she's got so many clients that she farms it out, if you will, to other people, but she's clearing over six figures walking dogs. That's amazing, which is well over 60 bucks an hour, by the way. It's fantastic.

You're doing the math at home. All right. Here's a fun story, George. My wife, Stacy, shared this story with me of a young man in our neighborhood right here in Franklin, Tennessee, who's making several hundred dollars a week. Are you ready for this? Yeah, hit me. Power washing.

This is a big one. Garbage cans. A power washer costs you, you can get them for a hundred bucks. Yeah. And so you got these nasty stinking garbage cans. I never even thought about it. And he's going around, he's power wash, pressure washing these garbage cans. You can charge 15, 20 bucks a pop for these. Yeah. And it takes you a few minutes. Yeah. Here's another absurd one. And I say it's absurd that people pay for this, but folks, we live in a world where people have so much disposable income. All you got to do is think about, can I solve a problem? Now, this is absurd.

But this is my neighborhood again. This guy's 55 years of age. He's retired, but he does this just for fun. And he's making a really good, he's making over $5,000 a month. You ready for this? Picking up glass bottles. What? And recycling them for people.

They just put them out there. They don't want to get rid of them. They think they should recycle, but they don't want to deal with it. And he goes around and picks them up and he's charging people very handsomely. We have several hundred homes where he's picking up.

I know where you live, Ken. I may roll around that neighborhood and pick up some glass. Who's throwing money out. Like, that's wild. Is that not absurd? It's a great side hustle. I saw one in my neighborhood painting mailboxes. Your mailbox gets a little weathered, a little worn. We'll repaint the mailbox. So you can get so creative. And let me tell you, dog walking and pet sitting, one of the most lucrative things out there. You can charge 25, 30 bucks an hour. One of my kids is going to make $1,000 over eight to 10 days dog sitting another golden doodle who looks just like our dog, Ellis. You know what I did the other day?

Got my car mobile. My house. James, he's looking at me like I'm nuts. I'm not kidding you. It's 10 days we're watching this dog, $1,000. That's insane. That's the market rate. I might do it.

You might? Maybe. I'm open to it. But this is another one, Ken. Mobile car detailing. Show up in someone's driveway. That's the market rate. I might do it. You might? Maybe. I'm open to it. But this is another one, Ken. Mobile car detailing. Show up in someone's driveway. Big bucks. Use their water spigot and clean their car.

I paid a guy to do this last weekend. He did my car. He did such a great job. I said, come back tomorrow, do my wife's SUV. What did he pay you for? I think it was $100 and maybe $125 for an SUV. So in a few hours, he made $100. Another few hours, another $125.

And he can do three, four of these a day. Wow. That's some serious money. Yeah. So get creative. And the more you're willing to put effort in, the more money you're going to make. If you want to sit at home and take little surveys on your phone, you're not going to make good money. I'm sorry.

So why do we spend time on this? Because there are a lot of people that are constantly coming into our atmosphere, watching the show, listening to the show, and they feel like getting $1,000 in Baby Step 1 is almost impossible. It's the wages, Ken. That's the problem. And the fact is, folks, it's never been easier to make $1,000 in quick time frames to be able to get that Baby Step 1 funded and then quite frankly keep that momentum going and walk through baby step two so you can do it it's very all kinds of options by the way if you want to dive in deeper that article ramsey solutions dot we're going to link it in the show notes in the description very nice thank you george for all the podcasters it's 27 side hustle ideas ramsey solutions.com all right we got to pay some bills. You know how important that is.

And we'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show America. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by George Camel. We're taking your calls this hour. It is toll-free, 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

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You can join at ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. That's ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. I'm teaching a class right now, George. Have you finished your class? Mine starts June 20th. So people don't know this, but for the first time, all of the Ramsey personalities are leading a class themselves virtually. Ken's has already kicked off, so you can't join that one. Nope, too late. It's not too late for me. If you want to join me,

June 20th, we're going to be meeting around lunchtime. You can catch the replays if you miss one. Oh, that's fun. I love that. So that's an option. Very good. Let's go to Beth in Birmingham, Alabama. Beth, how can we help? Hello. Hi, Beth. What's up? Well, I'm calling in with a question. I've been through a divorce, and I have a five-year-old little girl, so I'm living with my parents. My parents have been so supportive, but I am feeling pressured just by my own, I guess, expectations to move out in like around two years. I feel like that's a pretty good goal. But because of what I'm trying to save, I'm nervous that I should rethink my dream of building our house or I should rethink my time frame. So I was just curious what you guys had to say about that.

I think you set this up well, you know, build it at all or adjust my timeframe to make it more realistic. What's, which way are you leaning before you even asked us? Um, well, I guess, um, I'm struggling with, like my parents have sat me down and then like, are you kidding? Like we want to be supportive during this time. Like, they're amazing and they're such, they're incredible. But I just feel guilty. And I also feel like through all of this in the divorce, I feel like I've failed in a lot of different ways. But I feel like I just need to be able to show my little girl.

I guess I feel I'm putting pressure on myself, but I think sometimes that's good. As a parent, you know, I have expectations for myself, but I do struggle with perfectionism. But are they realistic expectations? I don't think they are right now. I don't know. Well, I don't think they are.

I think you've got a timeline in your head that you pretty much have gotten to the point where you realize this isn't possible. So I'm going to call Ken and George and see if they think I should abandon this dream of building my own home. Yeah, I don't like this either or pass-fail. If it's not done in two years, bet this failed as a mom. You're an amazing mom. I agree. And having a house or not will not change that. And your daughter seeing you build this house or not

doesn't change how she sees you. I would tell you point blank, don't abandon the dream because you can get there. Now, we're going to walk you through the financial steps to do that, but there's no reason why you should abandon the dream. Adjust the timeline?

Yes. And also, Beth, it's okay for dreams to change. Yeah, I would rent for a while. I'm sorry. I would rent for a while until you can afford it the right way, and we have very specific parameters to help you do that, and it's wait until you have enough down payment to where you can get a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage where the payment's no more than a quarter of your take-home pay. Right. to help you do that. And it's wait until you have enough down payment to where you can get a 15-year fixed rate mortgage

where the payment's no more than a quarter of your take-home pay. Right. And also, you know, what was this dream house you wanted? Is this like a big house? What were the must-haves? Why build versus just buy a current home?

Well, I've been looking at homes and basically what I'm finding in my area is like, there's just everything's just really expensive. And then it's just not at all what I want. And I don't I and I could be like, I guess I'm a romantic, but part of me is just like, I want to be able to have this. Like, I just like it would be something really special to have from the ashes of my situation. Like, like I, cause I've, I've even created it in Excel, like the floor plan and everything. Um, I know that's silly, but, um, No, no, hold on a second, Beth. So you've interrupted yourself about three times

as you, uh, attempted to answer George. Nobody puts my friend Beth down, especially not Beth. I agree. And this perfectionism that you just admitted to, that's what's going on. And it doesn't have to be perfect. You're going to design your own home in Excel. Then you're going to get with an architect one day when you're ready to do this and you've got the cash and the financial situation to do it.

And you're going to build a custom home. I believe that if you believe it. But there's going to be a season where we're building up to that financially. And if you've got to buy a house in the meantime and pay that off, or you put so much down that you get great equity in it, and as you continue to build, then you sell that and you turn that profit into being able to put a huge amount down or all cash on building a home. This is very, very doable, but you've got to decide what must be true in my financial life, then what must be true in my personal life to be able to get to that financial place, and then we just walk that out. And then the time will take care of itself. Right, George?

Yeah. So, Beth, walk us through some numbers here. Do you have any debt? No. Thankfully, I haven't gone through, like, officially financial peace, but I've gone through the steps. So I have $20,000 in my emergency fund. So that's a fully funded emergency fund. And so now I have nine, and I also was a stay-at-home mom.

So, like, God has given me the opportunity to have a job, and I'm making, it's more than I have ever made. It's $60,000 a year. So that's a big deal for me. But so I've got $9,000 from my house down payment savings. That's wonderful. No debt, fully funded emergency fund. You've got a $9,000 headstart. So now we need to look at what is our savings goal? Is it $100,000? We need to get some real numbers on what this would cost to build this custom home or work with a home builder in an existing neighborhood that can give you what you want. Have you looked into that? Well, I've talked with a builder, which he just goes to my church, so it's nothing formal,

but he said that it's going about $180 per square foot. And so the house that I've planned or whatever, sketched, whatever is like about 1800 square feet. So it would be like 300. 325 plus you need the land? Yes. Okay. So with my take-home pay, like I'm only going to be able to afford about 1200 a month, I think. Okay. And so then we need to go, this may be a six-year dream instead of a two-year dream,

which means we can't live with mom and dad for the next six years. Let's have a strategy to where we move out in a year or two, we rent for a while, we get the income up, and we continue to save up that down payment until we can have that dream home. Or we compromise and go, I really want to get in a home faster than that. I'm going to get a $200,000 townhome in my area until I can get there. So you have a lot of options, but I don't want it to be either I build this home in two years from a failure and I'll never accomplish what I set out to accomplish. And this home will not fill any void. And so I don't want you to have the illusion that going through this is going to change that. I want you to deal with the past hurt and grieve what you lost and now create a

new picture of what's to come. That's what our friend Dr. John Deloney would say. Yeah. And Beth, listen, you are a hero to your daughter. I mean, this is about the future and the best for you is still yet to be. You've got this. You got to believe it and be okay waiting for it while we work for it. That's the hardest part. Thank you so much, Beth. We're cheering you on. Thanks to George Campbell for a great hour. I want to thank James Childs, our fearless leader behind the glass,

and the entire crew that keep us on the air. I want to thank you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, George Camel here. If you love the show and you want a deeper dive on your money journey, we've got a weekly newsletter that gives you helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to RamseySolutions.com today to sign up for the newsletter. Again, that's RamseySolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.