The Ramsey Show - App - The Best Way To Do a Home Remodel (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 10, 2023

George Kamel & Kristina Ellis answer your questions and discuss: "How can I remodel my home without spending a fortune?" From the blog: What Are the Best Home Improvements to Boost Value? Update on Kristina's #NoSpendChallenge, "Do we need life insurance?" "How long should we save for a house?" From the blog: How to Save for a House Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbellel. Join us our by my colleague, Christina Ellis, and we are taking your calls at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Now, before we get into the calls here, I want to mention that if you enjoy this show, I want to remind you that it is free. And so here's the only thing I ask in return. You don't have to Venmo me. Here's all I ask. Leave us a review, subscribe to the show, and share it with a friend. Wherever you're listening, whatever platform, there's about a bajillion of them out there. We would so appreciate that. We want to spread this hope to so many more people in 2023, and you are the way we do that through word of mouth. That's how this happens. Let's kick off the hour with Lori in Kansas City. Lori, welcome to

The Ramsey Show. Thank you so much. So I'm calling because I'm in baby step seven, yay, and I have a 1950s home that is in desperate need of some remodeling just to make it more livable. My only concern about doing remodeling that I want to do, I don't want to make my house the most expensive house in the neighborhood because Dave says not to. It's going to be harder to get the money back. There are homes in my neighborhood that some have a basement and some do not, so I don't know how to look at the overall view of the values of homes in my area to get a good price point as to like how much I can invest in the remodeling

of my home. Are you planning on selling it or are you going to live there for the foreseeable future? Yeah, it's supposed to be my forever home like that exists. Okay, well that changes the way I look at this. Yeah. And what kind of remodels are we talking about? So the kitchen is original and it doesn't have a dining kitchen. So I'm wanting to open up a wall for the sunroom that has been finished in to expand that and to add some storage in there. It'll make the house a lot more comfortable. And anything else? Or is that the only renovation? I mean, dreaming big, I'm going to put in like a faux deck in the back and a hot tub, but I mean. Party on, party at Lori's. Love it.

So have you gotten estimates? Financial freedom's great, yeah. Yeah, you got the money to do it. What is the home worth? I bought it at 130. The house just down the street sold for209, but it also has a basement. So that's also another thing. I don't really know if that factors in too much in the value of the home. So you think the home might be worth around $200 now? That would be ambitious, but yes. Okay. And how much are these renovations going to cost? Just the kitchen specifically? I haven't gotten that far.

Okay. So still getting quotes. Right. Yeah. To make this less of an emotional decision, I would just do some due diligence, get in touch with some contractors, get in touch with a real estate agent and say, hey, I'm going to do these remodels, the remodels that I want to do. It's going to cost, you know, 25 grand to do it the way I want to do it. Will that increase my home value by roughly that? Now, if you're going to stay there for a long time, it just matters less and less about the ROI. It's okay. If you, if Lori wants it and then Lori can get it, just know that you may not ROI on that remodel and that's okay. Okay. So now if it's going to cost 150 grand to do these renovations, I'm just going to move at that point. Yeah, no way.

It's not like you live in a million-dollar neighborhood. And so you want to just take that into account when you're doing these renovations. There's a lot of things you can do that are kind of a no-demo renovation. Things like paint, lighting, front door, smart home upgrades, landscaping. There's a lot you can do without tearing down walls and all that, but I would get some quotes. And if it's reasonable and you're cash flowing it, it's okay if you don't get the dime for dime ROI on that investment. Okay. Can I ask one more quick question? Completely unrelated.

Sure. It's Lori's show now. So I used to be a teacher. And so I hear you guys talking about teachers being like the third most common millionaires. Is that because they're also married? Oh, that's a good question. I don't know how that was taken into account in the study regarding marriage. Yeah, I don't know about married, but I know that Dave has talked about how teachers are such great planners. They're great with lesson plans. They are great at working students through plans.

So when they see a plan, they tend to follow it. You know, they follow the baby steps. They do it without question. They're diligent. They stick with it. They're able to stick with it for 10 to 15 years. So I know that that's a huge factor in it. And from what I gather, there's a lot of great retirement benefits for teachers out there.

And so that also, they know about that. And so when they get into the field, hopefully, you know, they're not trying to keep up with the Joneses driving luxury cars into the school. And so they've just got good heads on their shoulders where they go, I'm going to live on less than I make. You know, I'm trying to just stay alive here with all these kids. I'm not trying to impress anyone. And I think that causes you to make different decisions financially. Lori, I'm curious, why do you ask that question? Do you have a special insight? Are you married?

Yeah, I was a teacher for six years and I struggled. Oh my gosh, it was really, really hard. Of course, this was pre-Dave Ramsey. But the only thing that really did save me is they mandated that I contribute 11% into the retirement fund. And so looking back, looking back, I'm so thankful because that compound interest is working in my favor. Yeah. If mom makes you eat the vegetables, you're eating vegetables and you're going to be healthier because of it. And so that's part of the deal. Are you married? No. Are you on the path to becoming a Baby Steps millionaire? Oh, for sure. Yeah, I love it. That's awesome. Well, Laura, you're doing great. I'm excited for the home renovations, the hot tub. I mean, that's the new American dream is the hot tub. Right? That's the life. That's like one of my

go-tos when we're looking on Airbnb or VRBO. It's like, does it have a hot tub? Oh, and Christina, you are in the home buying process. Are you thinking about these kinds of things when it comes to renovations? And Dave always says, we can look past paint colors and ugly carpet. So when you're looking for a home, you don't want to make the decision just based on what the photos look like necessarily. Oh, gosh, there's so many factors to it. And I mean, I've definitely had moments in looking at houses the last few weeks where it's like you see so many investors in the market right now who are flipping properties. And it's like, I don't want to spend an extra

hundred thousand dollars because they picked out the carpet and they picked out the paint. It's like, give me, you know, the lower price and let me fix it up. I don't want to spend that extra money because we're going to DIY a bunch of that. Oh, wow. Well, Slate is very rock and roll. This guy can do it all. We're super frugal. We want to save the money. We don't want to pay premium for all those upgrades. That's true. See, I wanted to get in a place in life where we could just hire the handyman for 50 bucks an hour and we just ate ice cream watching him put up the floating wood shelf. And I got to tell you, that was luxurious. That's that baby step seven life, George.

There's something about watching someone else do hard work while you don't that feels good. Oh. You know, you're just like, it's not me. That's the dream. You mean you're not a handyman? You know, I can hang up. I hang up pictures and I'm on the tech side. So like I will set up the entire smart home and all the gadgets and gizmos and the wifi, but I don't want to be out there, you know, doing drywall. It's just not

for me. My parents didn't immigrate to this country so I could do drywall. You know, I want to support a local handyman to do all of that. There you go. So there it is. More of your calls coming up on the Ramsey show. Give us a, give us a call at 888-825-5225. We will talk about your life and your money and help you take that right next step in your financial future. We'll see you next time. this is the ramsey show i'm george camel ramsey personality, co-host of this show, of course, but also Smart Money Happy Hour with our friend Rachel Cruz. I'm joined this hour by Christina Ellis, taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Now, Christina, you are doing this hashtag no spend challenge in January, and you've taken a lot of people along for the ride over on your Instagram. And I need the update. Have you been successful? We are doing it and we are succeeding so far.

So for people that don't know what the no spend challenge is, how do you explain it? Because it's not you obviously have to pay the bills. We're not saying don't pay your mortgage. Yes. You still pay the four walls, food, utility, shelter, transportation, but you try to cut out all discretionary spending. So, you know, you pay your needs, but you don't do any wants. Discretionary feels squishy. Oh my gosh. So it's everything that's, you know, it's a bad that I want to say it's everything that's fun. So it's all the things that you don't technically need. Anything you're excited to spend money on is probably discretionary. Right. No eating out, no shopping. And for us, we're also trying to

cut back on our grocery budget. So we've given ourselves $100 a week to spend. In today's economy? I know, George. Wow. item and say, you know, is this a need? Is this essential to living my life? And if it's not, we cut it out. We cut our miscellaneous budget. We cut out shopping. We cut out makeup. We cut out all the things. I mean, granted, if I start looking kind of awkward on the show, it's because I ran out of something. And that's all I got for the month, y'all. The problem is a lot of people go, well, Christina, the drive-thru on my way to work is

essential. I need it for my survival to get through the day. Is it? Is it really now? Oh, Christina just called you out. Oh man. Y'all, and I only call you out because I am feeling the pain. Like I am feeling the pain right now.

What's been the biggest temptation for you guys? I mean, our grocery budget was getting pretty out of control. It was a bit ridiculous. And I think it's easy. You know, we're on baby steps four through six. It's easy for your budget to start getting kind of fluffy and squishy. And so, you know, you're saving, we're saving money

to pay off a house. It's easy to go, you know what, inflation, we're just going to move a little money into our grocery budget to increase it just a little bit. And all of a sudden, we look, we look at our budget, and we're like, this is nuts. We should not be spending this much money on groceries. And so we've really had to sit down and strategize and think through, you know, how can we still eat healthy, but eat for $100 or less a week. And so far, we've only spent $45 the first week, and $38 the second week. Are your kids getting skinny? What are we feeding them? Like ice cubes in a gust of wind? How are you doing this? Now, part of the challenge is also using pantry items. So we've been bad about food waste.

You know, we were busy. We have a one and a four year old. We're running around. Some days we're just trying to survive. So it's easy to just be like, this is what we're eating this week and we're going to buy what we need. And then we go through our pantry and we throw away a trash bag full of stuff that we could have eaten, but it went bad. So it's like really challenging us to think through, you know, how can we use what we already have? How can we be super strategic and just use what we have? Go to the grocery store with a meal plan, with a list, shop sales, and just really cut it back. And I'm learning so much through this because it's like, wait, we can eat on about $400 a month. As a family of four. As a family of four. It's been really eye-opening. It's challenging, but forcing

yourself to not have another option and to really cut back and break some of the bad habits has been huge. Another big thing is eating out. We hit this spot Friday night where we're rushing around, we're trying to go to the gym. I worked all day and we just had this moment where we're like, yeah, we'll just grab food on the way home. And it's like, no, we won't. And the thing is, we had leftovers in the fridge. We were able to cook something up in 10 minutes we saved 30 bucks that on a different month we would have just been like ah yeah we'll just buy food on the way out it's easy i found out christina people there are people out there who are just anti leftovers they just refuse to eat it whoa we are not those not those people. Now, here's the thing. If you're broke,

you don't have a choice. Right. Like you're eating those leftovers. And in the camel household, Mama Camel, we had leftovers. That was this line that when we went past any drive-thru and I tried to, you know, I made my case to go to the drive-thru. What do they say? We've got food at home. Exactly. That's the line that shut everything down. We have food at home. Well, and the thing is, is some of these meals. So I put out a meal plan on my Instagram, food at home. Exactly. That's the line that shut everything down. We have food at home. Well, and the thing is, is some of these meals. So I put out a meal plan on my Instagram, kind of walking through what we're doing, what our family's eating this month. And there are several meals that were like seven bucks. So it's like, even if you don't like leftovers, if you're willing to be strategic, if you're willing to take 10 minutes to cook, you know,

you can do that. And here's the thing. I don't like cooking. Like I'm not going to be the person that puts out like recipes or things like that because that's, that's just not my thing. I want things that are super easy and super simple. So I think a lot of people may resist and go, well, I have to eat on a Tuesday night because we've got soccer and we've got band and we got to do all these things. But there are plenty of recipes that you can cook quick. You can do it in the morning. You can do it over lunch and get it done and out of the way so you can save money. But no excuses. No excuses. It's just about prioritizing. And you see the margin and that keeps you going because now you want to keep this up.

It's super exciting. And I know a lot of you are doing it with me. And it's super exciting seeing your messages, seeing how you're carving out space in your budget, how you started the year thinking, you know, I'm not going to be able to pay off my student loan. I'm not going to be able to save my emergency fund. But when you get that momentum and you look through your budget and you go, wow, I'm spending way more than I thought I was on silly things, on stupid things that don't really matter, then you can cut it back and you can see

that progress. But I will say we are reaching that time in the month, both with the no spend challenge and just with goals in general, where people start giving up. I was reading a bunch of articles about like the cliche times people give up on their New Year's resolutions or they give up on challenges. For 30 day challenges, days 10 and 11 tend to be when people give up. And then for resolutions, there's actually a fitness app

that was kind of making fun of people and they call January 17th the give up day. It's like the cliche day. Called out. Right? And then the 19th is what another study found. So it's like if you have goals right now, if you have resolutions, if you're doing the challenge with me and you're starting to feel discouraged, this is the time to push through.

This is the time to buckle down. Look at your plan again. If you didn't have a plan, create a plan. If you don't have a calendar where you're checking off your progress, do that. If you don't have the goal planner that George put out with the team, have that, but get clear on those goals and really press in. Get the tools and accountability you need. Yeah, this is the time where it's hard.

If it's hard, I'm right there with you. We can do this. Well, keep it up, inspiring us all to greatness. Eric is up next in Mesa, Arizona. Eric, welcome to the show. Thank you. What's going on? Well, I'm trying to determine if my wife and I need life insurance at the life stage that we're in. Okay. Where are you guys at?

Okay, well, I'm 57, she's 52. Our house is paid for. We've got, uh, I would argue a substantial amount of money in various, uh, retirement vehicles. How much is your nest egg combined? Uh, well for retirement, we're somewhere in the neighborhood. Well, last year it was more. Now it's down to probably 1.5 million. Okay. And kids, are they in the picture? They're grown. We just spoiled grandkids now. Oh, I love it. And do you have life insurance currently? We did up until two months ago. We had term life insurance where you're carrying basically 500K on each of us. the term expired now our age and everything has changed so the rates are now astronomical so i decided to let it last we both are employed still so we can get some life insurance through work at a reasonable price but obviously if we decide to retire quit then that

goes away so i'm just trying to determine whether we actually need it at this point in the game. You don't, my friend. You are what we call self-insured. Okay. Because no one is relying on your income except your spouse, correct? Right. And so if something happened to Eric, she's going to be okay because she's got $1.5 million to live off of. And so if you just invest a portion of that, pull off a portion of that, she's going to be okay.

And so that's the whole goal of this plan, and you are a great picture of that, a poster child, if you will, for being self-insured and following these steps. Okay. Do you feel the peace? I mean, you've got a million and a half in the bank. That $500,000 policy was a third of that.

Well, based on the current administration and their spending habits, I still don't feel that comfortable. Well, I can't give you confidence in the White House, Eric. I don't think anyone can. But the good news is you've taken control of your house and you've done so well investing for the future. You've got no debt, very little risk in your life. And so you can sleep easy knowing you're self-insured. Very proud of you guys. Way to go following these steps. The number you can sleep easy knowing you're self-insured. Very proud of you guys. Way to go following these steps. The number to call is 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពី welcome back america this is your show

888-825-5225 we want to help you take the right next step with your money. If you're not where you want to be financially, you need a second opinion, that's not your broke brother-in-law. We are here for you. Peter joins us up next in Charlottesville, Virginia. Peter, welcome to the show. Hey, Jordan and Christina. It's an honor to speak with you guys. Thank you so much for all you do. Oh, we appreciate that. How can we help today? So my wife and I, my wife is 25, I'm 24. We have an eight-month-old baby, and we have been married for almost two years now, coming up on our two-year anniversary. And we've been saving for a home those whole two years.

And I spoke with a smart investor pro about whether or not we should start investing for retirement or save for a home about a year and a half ago, and they suggested we save for the home. Problem is we've only been able to save about $8,000 for a home in those two years, and it's just feeling like no matter what we do, no matter how simply we try to live and save for a home down payment, we're just not able to make any traction. Wondering if you have any advice for us. Well, good on your smart investor pro for telling you to save up for the down payment instead of invest because most financial planners out there are going to say,

hey, you should absolutely invest. Why would we waste your time and money saving up for that down payment? And so that's awesome. And I do think two years would be the max. I would go, all right, we got to start investing because we also need to take care of our future. And you can continue saving up for that down payment. Obviously, it's going to slow you down a bit to reduce it by 15%, right? Yeah, significantly. But I don't think the 15% is the issue here. It sounds like we have an income problem. What's the household income?

So my wife is at home with the baby, but I make $46,000 a year. What do you do? I am a leader on a landscaping crew. Cool. So my income is going up, and I'm very satisfied in my job. I love what I do and I want to stick here. I've thought a lot about switching jobs to make more money, but I'm working a lot of overtime as much as I can. But the biggest problem is that my wife and

I also in ministry at our church. So that takes evenings and stuff like that where I would be able to make more income. Are you on staff at the church or is it volunteer based? It's volunteer. Okay. And with the overtime, is it primarily with your full-time job? It's with my full, all of my full-time job. So what is your, what's your base salary before you do the overtime? Uh, $22 an hour. Okay. What about, you said that you that you love the full-time job, but how about doing like a side hustle where you're building the clientele and you're making a little bit more

money outside that full-time job? I've done some of that. I'm decently handy and I've done several handyman jobs here and there. Biggest thing is finding time out of our schedule to do it. I would, honestly, I would back off of the volunteer ministry for a season in order to step up the side work and get that income up, and then we can step back into it once we're closer to the goal. Would you be able to do that? Okay. Possibly, yeah. Okay. So here's what I'm saying. I mean, the handyman work, I've hired lots of handymen.

We just talked about this. And you can easily make 50 bucks to 75 bucks to 90 bucks an hour doing handyman work. Now, obviously your area, it depends on your neighborhood, your area. But if you just become the neighborhood handyman and you get in the Facebook group and you say, hey, I'm here. Here's my hourly rate. Call me. It's amazing how much work you'll get just doing that. And you could double your income when you're making 22. You could easily charge 50 an hour. And there's a huge need for it now.

I feel like people right now are like clamoring after Handyman. We've had neighbors and people posting on Facebook where they're like, I can't find anybody who does quality work, who has integrity and will show up. So it's like, if you are that guy, if you get that reputation, you could develop a really great business. Are you guys doing a monthly budget together? We are, yes. We went through financial peace several months ago, and we had been kind of on an ish budget up to that point, and we've been cutting everything down as much as we can. And, Christina, we're actually hoping to, in February, do the no spend month. Yes!

Yes, let's go! That will be eye-opening for sure. Because the question is, you saved $8K in two years, and so dividing that out, the math just hurts my brain going, wait, how is that possible that you were only saving $300 a month? Where is the rest of this? I mean, you have a decent income here, so where is the rest of it going? Once you guys started doing the budget, where are the money leaks happening? So it was happening a lot on impulse spending. And just living comfortably is where it was happening a lot on impulse spending and just living comfortably is where it was and like three months ago we really started pulling our pants up and saying we really need to

to get somewhere with this we were almost two years into this and only saved up about a thousand okay well it sounds like things have changed and that's great. So I'm going to begin investing 15% of my income. Beyond that, I'm going to go, what is the goal we have for this down payment? We have eight. I need to get to 25, 30. Okay. That means we've got a $22,000 gap that I need to fill in the next two years. That's my goal. Can I make $11,000 extra a year to put into the savings account? And the answer is yes, because this side job alone, 50 bucks an hour doing handyman work and you work 10 hours a week, that's $500 extra every single week. Well, and I love that you're doing both because one of the biggest things that's like, you need to stop the bleeding. So many people immediately go to getting another job and adding

more income. But it's like, if you don't stop the bleeding, if you don't get control of your spending, then you're just going to keep upping that budget. It's going to be, you know, a lack of discipline, and it's just going to bleed out. So the fact that you're doing the no spend challenge, that you're going to face the bad habits, that you're going to tighten in, and you're going to increase your income, that's where you're really going to see some progress and momentum. So I would sit down with your wife, Peter, and say, hey, I want to make sure that I set our family up for success financially. I want us to be homeowners and I don't want it to be 10 years from now. Here's my plan. I'm going to scale back on the volunteering at the church. I'm going to

up my side income. I'm going to start this kind of side handyman business. Here's how much I'm going to charge. Here's how much I'm going to work. And that will create this much extra income for us. You think she'd be cool with that? Sure. Oh, yeah. And she's definitely on board. We're in this together. I love it.

Well, I think that's going to change the game for you guys. And once you do it and you see the progress in a month and two months, I mean, if we're talking the numbers I just threw out there, that handyman gig alone at 10 hours, that's $2,000 extra a month. That's $24,000 a year. Do you start to see how this stuff compounds and changes the numbers? Yeah. Wow. I didn't really do the math on that. That's inspiring stuff when you do the math and it's to your benefit. And so, man, I'm cheering you on. This is an awesome thing. And again, the folks in the trades, if you are handy and you're good with your hands,

you can make so much money. And I know that because I've given a lot of that money to them and I'm happy to because I don't want to deal with it. And people like Peter, they love it. They live for it. And don't discount the value that you have, especially if you're in those spaces. And don't discount how much a side hustle can impact your life. And a lot of people say, well, I already work too hard. But man, it becomes

addictive. Once you go, oh, I can make 300 bucks on an evening just doing that. Changing light bulbs. Oh, my goodness. Sign me up. Right. Well, and with the trades, you're always going to have a job. Like there's always going to be somebody like George who wants to hire you. Thank you, Christina. I'm happily supporting the trades because, I mean, you talk about electricians and plumbers and HVAC. These are things that people are willing to pay others for. And pay premium. It will never be automated by the robots. I'm sorry. So that is very encouraging for those in the trades. And people in Peter's situation where you go, we're doing the baby steps. We're not making the traction we should be. We're discouraged.

Start to look at those numbers and start to do the math and say, if we cut these expenses, that's 50 bucks a month, right? It doesn't sound like much, but that's 600 bucks a year. And now what else could we do to bring in more income? Well, if we bring 500 extra bucks a month, that's 6,000 a year. And then you really start to feel the progress and you're motivated to do it because you see the results. Yeah. It's fun to just have a dream session. A lot of people don't think numbers can be exciting, but when you see them add up and you

see the impact over time, that'll get you pretty stoked. I love it. And if you want to know this plan, you're like, what are they talking about? 3B, the two and the... We've got a really great resource for you on ramseysolutions.com. Click on the Get Started button. And after taking a few questions, we're going to throw a bunch of tools and resources at you and teach you this Ramsey plan that has helped so many people get out of debt, build wealth, and feel like they are in control of their money for the very first time. And we are cheering you on in that process in 2023. More of The Ramsey Show. About this time of year, we get flooded with calls on the show because everyone is looking for a fresh start with their money, especially after a tough couple of years. So if that's you, you can't wish for things to change and expect it to happen. You've got to do some things differently when it comes to your money. You've got to have a plan. And we teach you that plan in Financial Peace University.

This is the course that will help you rethink how you manage your money. And you'll learn step by step how to pay off debt and how to build wealth. And here's the crazy part. Nearly 10 million people have now gone through FPU. They followed this plan, and they've changed their lives. I'm one of those people. This stuff works. Don't try to reinvent it. I tried George's plan back in the day. That didn't get me very far. But Dave Ramsey's original plan, the OG, 30 years now, 10 million people. It's hard to beat that. And when you intentionally follow this plan with the OG, 30 years now, 10 million people. It's hard to beat that. And when you intentionally follow this plan with focused intensity, this year will be different. You'll have more peace in your finances and your life. So go start Financial Peace University right now

at ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. That's ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. Kalina joins us up next in Chattanooga. Kalina, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for taking my call. Sure, how can we help? So my husband and I just started the Baby Step. We're in Baby Step 2, and we have two vehicles. One has a loan. We know we're selling that one. But the second one is paid for and I'm just trying to determine if we need to sell it or not. Okay. What's your household income? We bring home about $7,000 to $8,000 a month.

Okay. And what are these cars worth? Well, the one that's got the loan, it has $27,000 on it. It's worth about $34,000. And so we've already listed that one, but the one that's paid off is worth about $22,000 to $25,000. Okay. And why are you wanting to sell the paid off car? Well, because, I don't know, I guess I was trying to go gazelle, I guess, intent, you know, just thinking that I could get something cheaper and take the, you know, equity and pay off something. So. What other debt do you have?

Well, we have about $150,000 in consumer debt. Okay, list some of that out for me. Is that on top of the car loans or is that total? Well, that's with the car loan, yeah, that's total. What else? So we've got some personal loans, some credit cards and student loans. Now, you're taking home $96,000 a year, about? $80,000, $90,000, or is that gross? Yeah, we're taking home $96,000 a year, about? $80,000, $90,000, or is that gross?

Yeah, we're taking home that. No, gross is we're close to $121,000, $130,000 probably. Okay. So the question is, how quickly will you pay off that $150,000 going gazelle intense? Have you guys done the math on that or used our debt snowball calculator? We signed up for the FPU, and so I've put our debts in there and right now it's saying like September of 2026. Um, right. Um, and I don't like that. So like, I mean, it was just saying that, and I think I just put like minimum payments or something in

there. So, um, you know, and that has the truck in it, too, that we're selling. So once that comes off, I know it'll drop. And are you both working full-time right now? Yes. I'm a teacher. My husband does HVAC. Can either of you work overtime to increase your income? Well, I'm going to take on whatever home bounds I get, which will help, and then do some after-school tutoring.

Awesome. We have two little ones as well, so it's kind of hard. Yeah. What are their ages? Three and five. Okay, so they're still not in school. You're still in the thick of it. Do you like this paid-off car?

I love my car. I mean, my car is a paid-off one. It's a 4Runner. I love it. But, you know, it's got 140,000 miles on it. So kind of one of those things like, am I going to find something, you know, equally reliable that I don't have to worry about?

If I'm in your shoes, I'm not selling it. It's paid for. You're not going to free up a payment here. And if you guys sell this truck, my goal would be for you guys to be completely debt-free in two years. That's mine too. And so reverse engineer that and go, okay, after the truck is sold, that takes our debt from $150 down to $125.

All right, how quickly can we pay off 125 making 120? All right. Well, let's see if we can throw 60,000 a year at this debt then, right? Right. And so now we start doing the math and going, that's 5,000 a month. How do we find $5,000 worth of margin in our budget every single month? What would we have to do? We'd have to cut expenses for sure. Probably have to sell more stuff. Yeah. We started the budget on the app you guys have. On every dollar. Yep. That's great. So I started that this month. I'm still kind of figuring it out. You know, there's a lot of things in there. Yeah. It takes about 90 days to dial in that budget, but the key is to do it every month, track your spending, figure out where we went wrong. Oh, we thought about 90 days to dial in that budget. But the key is to do it every month,

track your spending, figure out where we went wrong. Oh, we thought we were going to spend 500 bucks on food. Turns out we spent six. And really, I think we could get it down to four because we were a little bit lackadaisical with it, right? So it takes a little bit to get that piece dialed in. But I think with your income and working overtime and selling this truck, you're willing to do the right things. So now it just becomes a game of math and it kind of gets addictive. We go, all right, we were able to do 4,000 this month on the debt. How can we get to 4,500 and then to 5,000 and 5,500? Well, and I love that you're calling to even ask that question. You know, we're saying, you know, don't sell it. But the fact that you're calling and saying, I am ready to get so gazelle intense that I will sell things. I will do whatever it

takes to get rid of this debt. Keep that. Yeah. That's amazing. I'm done. She is done. I'm over the debt. Yes. I love it. My husband's on board, but he's not quite as intense as I am right now. Well, he better be watching those Financial Peace University videos with you, creating the budget with you. That's a huge part of this. And he needs to see the math too and go, here's how much we're throwing away to lenders and interest. Here's how much we could be investing and building wealth. And here's how much more quickly we could pay this off if we get intense. So thank you so much for the call. Love that you guys are going through Financial Peace University. And I love to hear that I've had it moment. That is when people succeed. Whenever they've had that moment where they're like, I'm so sick of it. I am willing to have a yard sale. I'm willing to sell the truck. I'm willing to do what it takes to get rid of that debt. loca and we went $150,000 into consumer debt and we looked good and we felt terrible. It's amazing how that works. The better you look without actually owning anything and the more payments

you have in your life, the worse you actually feel behind the scenes. Yeah. And I think that there's, like she said, she's in the first month of budgeting. So she's had the I've had it moment and now it's where the rubber meets the road and she's got to start budgeting. And that part can be really hard. There's a lot of people who, you know, they get on every dollar, they try it for the first month and they're like, I'm not good at budgeting. But I just want you to know that a lot of people feel that way. I would venture to say most people feel that way. Like a lot of people are just not natural budgeters, but you have to stay with it. It's like working out, you know, the first time if I went out and tried to run a mile right now, I would struggle, but.

You'd still beat me. So that's good news. That may not be the best example, but keep at it because over time you will get better. It's like anything you try to do for the first time, like don't expect to be amazing the first month, but over time you will get better. It will feel easier and you'll get the hang of it. I love it. And a huge part of budgeting, you're looking in the financial mirror and that's scary. And sometimes it makes you want to throw up. But that first step of just showing up and being willing to actually look at your money and go, where did it go? I'm working so hard. What is all this for? We make $60,000 a year. Where did it go? And you start to look at

your bank transactions and those little things start to add up and you forgot about that bill and you didn't pay attention to that. And then you got emotional, you were tired. There was some retail therapy. I wanted to eat out. I want, I want, I want.

And when we act like children like that, we end up real broke and miserable. Right. But doing that budget for the first time and going, oh, that's not pretty. I got to change the way I spend on food. I want to start cooking at home like Christina, spending 45 bucks a week on groceries for a family of four. Turns out you can do it. It's a choice. And it's a great reminder. It's a great reminder. And it's hard. I mean, there are emotional parts

of those first few months where you're like, man, this is like kind of embarrassing that I like spent this much on groceries. It's kind of embarrassing that I spent this much on shopping. But it's like, you know, we all make dumb decisions with money at some point, own it and then change it. Yeah, we can't walk around with that baggage and shame. We just got to move forward and go, all right, the good news is I can change. God gave me that ability and it's wonderful. So thank you so much, Christina. Great hour of The Ramsey Show. It's another one in the books. We'll be back real soon. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone.

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