The Ramsey Show - App - The Only Thing Holding You Back is Some Indecision (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 28, 2018

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Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Eric is with us this hour in Tampa, Florida.

Hi, Eric. How are you? Good afternoon, Mr. Ramsey. I'm doing great. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? Fantastic.

I just want to start by saying my wife and I discovered you back in June and started to implement a lot of things in your program. And it's just been fantastic in so many ways. But I have a question that I thought only you might be able to help out with. We first purchased our first home back in 2007 and ended up moving away from that house, but we still own it because we were so upside down on the value. Here we are today. We are in our second house since then, but still have that home and rent it out to the same original renter. We are about $50,000 underwater on it still. My gosh.

We owe about $220,000, $225,000, and we think we can get about 170 to 175 when we sell it. Okay, so now let me stop you a second. Where is the house? Sure. It's in Aberdeen, Maryland. And has that market not recovered? I mean, that market has recovered economically. You've got a bad neighborhood or what here? Yeah, so unfortunately, we got in early into a new townhouse complex, and before they finished out the complex, we were the third of about eight buildings that were planned.

Only one or two more were built after that, and then Section 8 housing started to be put in when it changed ownership. Got it. So now it's unfortunately just not recovering. Unfortunately, I've had other folks, actually the gentleman that introduced me to you, said the same thing, said, Eric, it's got to be back to where it was. No, you've got an outlying factor here that is not the economy.

It was caused by the economy, but the outlying factor is the Section 8 housing, and you've got a neighborhood in decline. Right. And it's not going to come back, probably, is it? Probably not. When we first moved in there, we were sold on. It's right near the Aberdeen Proving Ground base. There was a lot of military coming in. Bottom line is, if you walk in there today, you don't look at that neighborhood with much hope.

Absolutely not. And so the problem is, no matter how long you keep it, it's not going to recover back to where it was. So what kind of a mortgage do you have? FHA, VA, conventional, or something else? It was a conventional. Okay. I would be in touch with the mortgage company and try to get some special attention to this particular deal and see if they will agree to write this mortgage

down or get some kind of a program to write the mortgage down for you so that you can get it sold without such a big loss. Because otherwise, you're just going to rent it forever, and it's not going to go up in value. Yeah, we've already been doing that for a few years, and that's exactly what's happening. Yeah, and so I'm going to try to get it sold. So, okay, there's a couple ways out. Way number one is you write a check for the difference.

Simple, right? Yes. A lot of money, though. $50,000. Yeah. Right? Out of pocket. What's your household income?

My base salary is about $135,000, and then a bonus on top of that. So last year I made about $155,000, $160,000. Okay. So you probably could pay this off and just borrow the money and be done with it, right? But that's like your worst case scenario. The next thing you could do

would destroy your credit and that's called a short sale. You quit paying, you let the mortgage get behind and then you begin to work with the mortgage company and sell it and get them to take the you begin to work with the mortgage company and sell it and get them to take the offer that's made, the actual value on the property, as settlement on the mortgage. Okay?

But that obviously destroys your credit, and that's just to the right of a foreclosure. It's almost as bad as just giving them the keys. Okay? Sure. It's right there with it it that's not very appealing either neither one of those sound like much fun but uh you could option three yeah option three is the first thing i said and that's call them and go guys i can hand you the keys or i can force this thing into a short sale scenario but we've got a neighborhood in decline due to you financing a property and the development not being completed. And it was completed instead with Section 8 housing. And so we're not in thing here.

So I need to talk to your supervisor or your supervisor's supervisor and find out who's got special programs over there inside this organization. Does Fannie Mae have a special program? Is there any kind of a thing we can do here? Because I'm getting ready to toss you guys the keys and you're threatening them with the foreclosure right but you're just to try to get somebody because you know nobody on the headset in the phone room can help you you got to get a above their pay grade and i'm not sure anybody can help you but but i'm going to try my best to try to create a creative solution where they go, yeah, you know, this is a rare, unusual situation

and in these situations we've got this program over here that hardly anybody knows about, but since you called and asked 14 times, we're going to tell you about it. And we've got a subsidy program and you pay half and we'll eat to tell you about it. And, you know, we've got a subsidy program, and you pay half, and we'll eat the other half, and it's not a short sale, and it's not a foreclosure. Done. You know?

Done. Because if you pitch them the keys, they're going to chase you for the difference, and you're going to have to settle with them on that anyway for 25 or 50 cents on the dollar. So you're not getting out whole, I don't think, period, unless there's some magical program the feds have that I'm not aware of. And I think I would know about it. But you just got – I'm sorry, man. You just got caught. You bought at the worst possible time at the highest point and everything dove.

And then this neighborhood unraveled and now is not going to recover. What a horrible thing. I'm so sorry. That's a horrible place to be. I'd hate to be stuck in that, but yeah, that's, I'm going to try that other program. If that doesn't work, I'm going to toss them the keys in one form or another. Um, I don't want to, or, or you can ride check you can ride check for 50 grand if you want to pull together the money. If everything else in your life is good and you got a big pile of cash on the side or something and you can just take care of it, just take care of it and be done with it.

I would do something along those lines, but I would not just sit there and wait on it to recover because I don't think it's going to recover. Twelve months from today, this house has gone in some methodology. Ricardo is going to be up after the break. I reached for the button and I looked up and saw how much time was left on the clock. Sorry about that, Ricardo. Scott says, I'm sorry, Justin says, we followed your plan to get ourselves debt free. We're so thankful. Recently, I started a small business wondering how many months of expenses we should have in the bank. Does three to six months expenses apply to business? Yeah. In business, we don't call it an emergency fund. We call it retained earnings. And you do more than just cover emergencies with your business savings. You use it to grow the

business without borrowing money. You use it to take advantage of opportunities out there or buy a piece of equipment or buy a competitor out or a supplier out at pennies on the dollar because you're sitting on the cash and can do it. And that's, you know, that's the way you look for it. So, yeah, definitely need to have savings in business as well. And that is called retained earnings. The book Entree Leadership is where we cover our business principles, and it's outlined in there for sure. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I get asked all the time about what people need to do to improve their family's money situation. Two of the most overlooked things are term life insurance and disability insurance.

Both plans make sure that you have income to pay bills and take care of yourself and your family if something were to happen. For term life, you need to carry 10 to 12 times your income, and I recommend 15 or 20-year plans for most families. Stay away from cash value or return of premium plans. They're just a ripoff. Disability insurance is just as critical. How are you going to pay your bills if you're unable to work? Disability is the leading cause of bankruptcies and foreclosures, and that's why I send you to Zander Insurance. They've been helping my listeners find the right plans at the lowest cost for almost 20 years. Call 800-356-1780 or visit zander.com and compare online. That's 800-356-1780 or zander.com.

Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is 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 RAMSY to get the best deal. Today's question is from Kathleen in California. I just graduated in May as a nurse practitioner. I make $100,000, but my student loan debt is over $200,000. I also leased a car before I

started listening to you. How do I get out of this car lease to free up some of my income? Well, the way you get out of a car lease is you find out what the car is worth today if you sold it. Private sale. If you sell it wholesale to a dealer, you don't get as much because they're buying it a way they can make a profit. That's what dealers do. There's nothing wrong with that. That's just what they do.

They're trying to make a living. And so you find out what you could sell it for. Let's say you could sell it for $20,000. And let's say then you call the fleece company that you fleeced it from, and you ask them what the early buyout is if I pay it off today and get my title. And they say that's $24,000. Well, that means you're $4,000 upside down on the car, and you would need to finance the difference.

Or you would need to save the difference, because you have to have the $4,000 to go with the $20,000 the buyer of the car gives you in order to give the fleece company $24,000 so that they will give you the title to give to the new buyer. And that's how we do it. Ricardo is in Fort worth texas hi ricardo how are you hey dave i'm doing great how are you better than i deserve what's up so my wife and i are looking to buy our first house and hearing talk of a market crash similar to 2008. Who are you hanging around with? I heard from Peter Schiff on a podcast and then my father-in-law. So what do you think about waiting a bit to see if that happens to get a better deal on a house? I wouldn't because I don't think it's going to happen. I disagree with the people who are teaching you.

Listen, I've been in the real estate business since 1978 i got my real estate license when i turned 18 years old that's almost 40 years how old are you 25 okay i have only seen one time one time in my working lifetime during that almost 50 years now that the real estate market has gone down in value so substantially that it took it more than 12 months to recover. Okay? It just doesn't happen. Now, what could happen is the market could get a little bit softer. That could happen. In other words, like right now, it's really difficult to buy because there's six buyers for every house, right?

It's like a bidding war. Right. Which is driving prices up, up, up, up, up, up, up, and up, and that kind of thing. So, you know, that's what you're facing right now. The market could slow down, and I do think that probably will happen at some time in the future. But the 2008 market crash, there is no logical data out there to support that that's coming again. And so I disagree with whoever's been telling you this. I think that's bad advice.

And so if I were 25 years old, what would I do? I'd buy a house if you're ready to buy a house. If you're out of debt and you have your emergency fund, you have a good strong down payment, you're putting in on a 15-year fixed, and the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay, I'd buy a house. I wouldn't wait because I don't think they're going anywhere in Fort Worth, Texas, but up. Now, will the market slow down if the interest rates continue to climb? And they have been climbing.

Yeah, I think it'll slow down. Is it going to crash? Are we going to experience a 2008 again? No. Listen, here's what's weird, okay? I got in the real estate business, Ricardo, like I said, in 1978. You know what happened after 1978? Interest rates went to 17% by 1981.

17%. Think about that. You know, did the market crash? No, it stopped. Nobody was buying houses, but the weird thing is house prices did not dive. The market went from 9% interest rate to 17%. Can you imagine buying a house at 17% interest rate? It's like putting a house on a credit card.

Now, we sold some houses, but they're very difficult and very few and far between. I was selling real estate in those days. I was in college. By the time I got out of college in 1982 83 rates were down to about 14 percent and houses were selling like crazy again crazy because everybody's been waiting on interest rates to come down when they came from 17 down to 14 it caused a spike in the market can you believe that so even in that extreme crap house prices did not dive like they did in 2008 so interest rates or economic conditions really did not cause the real estate market to dive

in 2008 even what caused it to dive was the mortgage company crisis and the market the financial market crisis which is an economic crisis of sorts, okay? So I guess I misstated that. But bottom line is this. There are always people out there who are going to predict the end of the world. There are people who make a good living predicting the end of the world. The end is coming! The end is coming!

And there are always people that do that. There always have been. And I've just made a commitment as a financial guy, unless I see real data that tells me that, I'm not going to say that. And even then, I'm going to question my own sanity because I've got a long history in America of that not being true. So if I'm in your shoes, dude, I'm buying a house. I think real estate's a good investment.

Could it slow down? Could it go down? Yeah, but it'll come back, and you will not have missed the best opportunity ever in your life to buy. That probably was 2008. I bought a lot of real estate when it was down. But if I'm ready to buy real estate today, I'm not waiting on the market to go back down to 2008 levels before I buy. I'm going to buy.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jeremy is in Rochester, New York. Hi, Jeremy. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up?

I've got an investing question. My wife and I are just about to finish up Baby Step 3 and at work I have a 401k at a Roth that has a small match. If I put in 4%, they will put

in 1. Good. I'm trying to figure out, is that? I know you usually say go with the match, but that seems like on the weaker side, and so I'm just trying to figure out over the long haul, am I better to do that and then open a Roth for the rest, or should I just go Roth, or does it not really matter? So it's a traditional 401K. It does not have a Roth option.

Correct. Okay. Yeah, I would do the 4% there. Because here's the thing. Okay. There's not any mutual funds that pay 25% rate of return that I know of. Regularly. Ongoing.

And when you put in 4% and they give you one back, they give you one on top of it for doing nothing but showing up, that's 25% interest on your money, your one. You see what I'm saying? Okay. And so you really can't screw that up, even if the mutual funds aren't great. So, yeah, I definitely would do that 4%. And then I would do a couple of Roth IRAs, if you and your wife, if you're married, and bust through those two.

And then if the three things we just said don't total 15% of your household income going into retirement, then you would go back to a 401k, yours or hers, and add more to it until you get to 15%. Okay. Great. That's helpful. As far as she has a pension through work, and I don't have any details on that. I'm trying to get information on that. Are there cases where a pension is a good idea or it's not a required, there's no requirement to invest there?

Yeah, don't invest in a pension. Yeah, you'd be better off to go in a 401k or Roth IRAs than you would be investing in a pension. But my guess is the pension is just furnished to her. She's probably not paying for it. There was some kind of withdrawal because we stopped it when we were in baby step two. But I don't know if they do any kind of matching or anything. I don't know anything about pensions. Well, you need to find out what it is they're offering.

My guess is that they might have a 403B, which is like a 401K. And if they do, you look into what your options are to invest there. Just decide where you want to put the money, at your work or her work, and decide based on the quality of the investments you can put it in and the way it's handled. And that's the way. So just keep investigating. Keep gathering information, and the information will tell you what to do.

If you just keep gathering options, you'll know what to do. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major healthcare costs. Christian Healthcare Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry, a Better Business Bureau-accredited organization CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other.

It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years. And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Jeff and Leslie are with us. Hey, guys. How are you?

Good, Dave. How are you? Welcome, welcome. Where do you guys live? Just in Grapevine, just north of Dallas. Yeah, wonderful area. Well, welcome to nashville and all the way up here to do a debt-free scream yes sir very cool how much debt have you paid off

just over 60 000 and it took about 24 months good for you well done very well done and your range of income during that time um it started around 60 um and then we ended 105 to 120. Cool. Very good. Doubled your income. Yes, sir. What do you all do for a living? I'm an escalation engineer at Microsoft.

And I homeschool our kids. Okay, cool. So you've just been jamming on the... You said you're what kind of engineer? An escalation engineer. What is an escalation engineer? I support the core operating system. Oh, okay.

Okay. I kind of knew what some of that was. All right, good. Very good. Cool. So you've just been accelerating in your career. Yes, sir. Escalating in your career. All right, cool. What kind of debt was the $60,000?

It was mostly a motorcycle, her car, student loan debt. Why are you pointing at her? It was a motorcycle. Motorcycle, her car. loan why are you pointing at her it was a motorcycle motorcycle her car thank you student loan some medical debt

I think that was it yeah that was it got it cool the first time around so how long have you two been married we just celebrated

10 years on Thanksgiving okay so after 8 years of marriage you decide we're going to get out of debt what happened so it kind of goes back a little bit from that. So about, I guess to start, we both grew up at a church where the pastor has been out of debt since the late 90s, and he's kind of taught those

principles along the way. Good. And I would say about eight years ago, a friend of mine, Ben, gave me a total money makeover. And I read it in about a day and a half. And I came home and told Leslie, we're selling everything and we're getting out of debt. And she kind of gave me a thumbs up. And then I didn't do anything. And that went on for, you know, it was just trying to not get further in debt over the course of time. And then about two years ago, I just said, hey, if I bought FPU, if I bought the home study kit, would you go through it with me? And then we went through FPU, and getting her on board,

not saying it was completely her fault, obviously, but getting her on board was kind of the key to move it forward from there. Because I was grocery shopping, making payments. That was my job. Okay. So you were like spending money on ridiculous things like food. Yeah. Yeah.

I can't imagine that. Yeah. Why you would do that, buying food. Gosh, what kind of a woman are you? Exactly. Well done, you guys. Okay. So it's kind of hovering in the background, so to speak.

It's kind of out there in the edge of the fog. But it comes out of the fog, and you go, we've got to do this. And you bought Financial Peace University, went through it, and then did it. So what prompted you to come out of the edges of that? Because, Jeff, I mean, you came in, you said, if I bought it, would you do it? What caused you to do that? You know, I think it was, I think I realized that we had kind of been just spinning our wheels for six years. And that was, we had kind of brought up, because we're budgeting every month and we're watching where the money goes and we're keeping track of where the money goes but not making any progress.

And I think that was what it was. It's finally, it was kind of i just like came home one day and was like i'm done i'm fed up with this leslie you were doing you said you were buying stuff were you doing the budget too i was signing the budget and then just kind of not abiding by the budget oh okay now i get the picture i was dead weight for like six years, I can admit it. He had to drag me. Well, but what happened was, I see. Okay, so what happened was that you guys were working on it together,

but you're like, okay, I got to get, until Leslie gets on, until we're doing this together, it's not going to work. Correct. That's all he said. He didn't call you dead weight. It was kind of that whole, Dave was a curse word for the first six years. Church people cussing. Good for you guys.

Well done. I'm proud of you. Thank you. How's it feel now that you did it? Amazing. Kind of still unreal, I think. Was it worth it, Leslie? Yes.

Yes, absolutely. It was worth it. Did you sell his motorcycle? He sold his motorcycle. I was okay with it. What kind of bike was it? It was a Kawasaki Vulcan Custom. Oh, that's hard to get rid of.

A little bit of a tear when that went out the driveway. Yeah. Just kind of little eyes leaking a little. We kept it in the family. Yeah, I sold it to my brother. He sold it to his brother. Well, you can ride it whenever you want to. Yes. I do sometimes. Yeah, that's cool. Okay. But it's not the family. Yeah, I sold it to my brother. He sold it to his brother. Well, you can ride it whenever you want to. Yes. I do sometimes. Yeah, that's cool.

Okay. But it's not the same. No, it's not. No. I'll get another one. Giving your brother your prize hunting dog. Exactly. Well, good job, man. Good job. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now that you're dead at? I think for me

there are two aspects of getting out of debt. now that you did it? I think for me, there are two aspects of getting out of debt. Not getting upset when the saver wants to save because the goal is to get out of debt so you can do stuff. And as a mom, it was really hard to be like, oh, you can't do that. It's not in the budget. But now they get to do, and they're here. They've got to do everything they wanted to do on vacation that we've paid for. Yeah.

And there's no stress. It's like, oh, sure, you want that? Go ahead. Yeah. So that was a big deal. Just living like no one else so that you can live and give like no one else, including your kids. Yes.

Yeah. Good. Very good. Yeah. It's, yeah, there's a delayed gratification thing is what you're talking about there. Good. What about you, Jeff? What's the key to getting out of debt?

I would say, aside from the budget, I mean, for me, that was the key. But getting your spouse on the same page. Yeah, that's some old-year-old story. Yeah, just getting her on the same page to understand what I'm seeing long-term and what I was thinking long-term rather than, you know, just the short-term gratification. That was, I think that was key for me. Yeah. Now, this is an interesting dynamic because Leslie's the relationship person.

You're the process guy, the programmer guy. And so you see things through the programmer process eyes. And she's like, no, you're not going to process our family. You know. Simple inputs and outputs. Until she figured out that it was relational to do it. Yeah. And then we did it together, and then there we go.

That's a good story, y'all. Thank you. Very good story. Well done. Outside of the two of you, who are your biggest cheerleaders? Probably, there's a, like I said, my friend Ben. Yeah. Ben and his wife Kelly, um, they're ones that he, he kind of got this whole ball rolling when he gave me the total money makeover and

he's always, he's always encouraging me. And, um, um, where'd it go, Ben? Yeah. Yeah. And obviously our family, nobody's been negative about it. They've all, we got really lucky. I say nobody, nobody in our family has been negative about it. Obviously, friends and people like that are, well, what are you doing?

Just go on vacation. Live your life. No, yeah. I would say Ben and Kelly and then our family. Cool. Cool. And you brought the kiddos with you. What are their names and ages?

Jason is eight and Laurel is three. All right. Very cool. Very cool. Good job. And so we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. That is the next chapter in your story. We want you to be millionaires now and outrageously generous

along the way and with your income shooting up and now newfound control of money and no debt, you're going to be in a position to do that. Yes, sir. Well done. So the kiddos have been practicing their debt-free screen? You better believe it. We had a ride from Texas, and we practiced a good portion of it. All right.

Let's see how the practice worked out. It's Jason and Laurel, Jeff and Leslie, Dallas, Texas. $60,000 paid off in 24 months, making $60,000 to $105,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Are you ready? You ready? Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah, baby! Woo-hoo! Yeah! That's how it's done. You know what you just heard then? Did you hear the sound?

That was the sound of a family tree changing. It just changed. That family will never go back. They're done. And even those little kids will remember the day they did this weird thing called a debt-free scream. That was the celebration of our family getting out of debt and never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going back. We're free. Finally, we're free.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our Scripture of the Day, Galatians 6-9. Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Maya Angelou said, You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, and how you can still come out of it. John is with us in York, Pennsylvania. Hey, John, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Hey, what's up? So I have a question about my car policy with work, or my car allowance, rather. If my car is a specific color, I get a higher car allowance. Color? I don't want to sell my, yes, the color of my car is a specific color, I get a higher car allowance. Color? I don't want to sell my, yes, the color of my car. Company policy. Must be the company color.

It's one of the company colors, yes, but it's not like some random color. The color is actually white. My car is currently like a metallic black. And I know, I've listened to you for a little while now, and I've heard you say you don't put money into things that go down in value. So what I've been considering doing is wrapping my vehicle with like a vinyl, and that would increase my car allowance each month. It would take me roughly 10 months of that additional allowance

to make back what it cost me to wrap the vehicle. Okay, so how much is your car allowance now, and how much does it go up if it's white? It's about $350 a month now, and it goes up about $300 extra if it's white. You get $650 versus $350? Correct. What is their motivation for that? I'm honestly not quite sure.

I've got to know. Who's the company? Oh, I can't say over the radio. Okay. All right. So it's a major national company? No, it's actually not. It's in Baltimore, Maryland.

It's a small company. Okay. That's wild., Maryland. That's, you know, it's a fuel company. Okay. That's wild. All right. Okay. So what's your car worth? My car, well, so that's a loaded question, but I'll give you the quick story, is that I purchased a car and didn't realize that it was a buyback.

So when I went to trade it in a while ago, I couldn't get what it was worth. So the dealer wanted to give me like $20,000, not even $20,000. It was really worth closer to $32,000. So I don't want to sell it. I don't want to get a different car. You want to wrap it. And it costs like three grand to wrap it.

Correct. Interesting. My wife and I have three grand to wrap it. Correct. Interesting. My wife and I have the cash to do it if we need to. Do you have any debt? It wouldn't be just this car yet. I still owe $20,000 on this car, roughly. And do you drive a lot for work? I do.

I drive about an hour every day back and forth, two hours total. Wow. But that's a commute. Correct. Wow. Okay. But you're not like on the road for work? Not a whole lot, just a little bit.

Okay. What's your household income? We're about $165,000, roughly. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. You'll get your money back in 10 months. It's a break-even. If you get fired inside of 10 months, you lose money on this,

but it sounds like you feel like the job's pretty stable. Right. And so if you do and you don't mind driving a car that is wrapped, and, of course, you can unwrap it and clean it easily when you get ready to sell it. Yeah, and I'm told the wrap lasts roughly seven years, so it looks like any other regular painted car apparently. Yeah, if it's done right, it can. It's almost like a skin. It kind of protects the paint actually wow that's wild that's just that's bizarre i know

i thought it'd be a great question for you it's it's different that's for sure so yeah i believe i would do that pay cash for it certainly we're not going to do anything with that and then take your wonderful income and get this stupid car paid off as soon as possible if you're going to drive it because you're obviously putting a lot of miles on it just with your commute, if nothing else. But, yeah, sure, they're willing to double your car allowance almost. Wow, that's amazing. All right, Ramsey is with us in Maryland. Hi, Ramsey, how are you?

Hey, Mr. Ramsey, thanks for taking my call. Sure, how can I help? Well, first I just want to let you know you're really inspirational to me and I'm kind of trying to get my friends involved in listening to you and plan our young adult lives the right way. So thank you for what you're doing for everybody. Well, thank you, sir. How can I help today? So my girlfriend and I are currently renting,

and through listening to you and getting inspired, we've decided to move home for about a year or two to do some really hardcore saving. Our goal is in the next three years to get a ring, get a wedding, and get a house. How old are you? So my question to you is, you know, we currently, debt-wise, all we have is our vehicles, $20,000 each on each vehicle. And we want to go and we want to maximize our savings, and I'm trying to convince us to maybe get rid of the vehicles, although I love my car very much and so does she. What is your opinion on, you know, getting rid of those to maximize savings for the next two years? How old are you? I'm 26, and she's 25.

Okay, and what do you make a year? I make $90,000. What does she make? She's currently making $40,000, although she's in school for nursing and will graduate in the next two years and hopefully make another $90,000. Okay. What would be wrong with just getting married? Well, we've been together coming up on two years,

and I really want to hit that two-year mark and at least have that under our belts before committing. And also, I'd like to save up enough money to pay for the wedding in cash, which would take about a year. You make $90,000. And she makes $40,000. Mm-hmm. Listen, you do whatever you want to do.

It's certainly cool. And I appreciate you being a listener. The way I answer questions on this show is what would I do if I was 26 years old and I was in your shoes? I would sell both cars and I would get married tomorrow. Okay, well, she'd love that answer, and I appreciate that. And then if you want to celebrate six months from now with a huge celebration that looks like a wedding, after you went to the Justice of the Peace or the Preacher or whatever on the cheap right now,

and you save up a bunch of money, and you're married. Yeah, I mean, after two years, dude, you know. You just got all these other things swimming around in your heads all. And you got to decide. If this is the girl that you're willing to move back home for, and you're willing to sell the car for, and you're willing to save money and all this other stuff, then this is the

girl you know get married it's time do it if this is it game on and because you guys can work out of the debt on the cars or you can work out of her she's going to make a great income as a nurse you're making 90 grand you're making a lot of money for a 26 years old you're doing great you got a good income you're thinking this. You're using critical thought process. You're way ahead of your friends in that sense. And so all I'm doing is just saying, take action. You can do this. Get married, sell both cars.

And then start saving like a crazy person and have a big celebration six months from now called a wedding. It's after the wedding thing, the wedding after the the wedding thing and then save up and buy some cars and finish up her school and it's game on you guys are going to be very very wealthy if you learn to to set priorities and execute on decisions no i don't think you need to backtrack and move home you're 26 you're too far along you got things going you're making good money There's nothing holding you back here except some decisions. That's the only thing holding you back. You guys are rock stars, man. You got it on the run, Ramsey.

Good job, man. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jeff is on Twitter. Dave, my wife and I are debt-free, including the mortgage. Wow. First child's due in February. Should we be doing any additional investing or just saving? Household income, $115,000.

No. You have your emergency fund in place, you're debt-free, including the mortgage? Way to go. And you got $115,000 income? No, you're going to be just fine. When a baby's born, if you want to start your 529 or your ESA, your educational savings account,

at that point when you get the Social Security number, which you have to have to do those two things on the baby, then you have to be born to get that. So there you go. Then you can move forward at that point. But right now, I think you're doing great. Thanks for following us on Twitter, Jeff. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it.

In the meantime, remember there is 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 Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.