The Ramsey Show - App - The Real Impact of Inflation (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

Rachel Cruze & Ken Coleman discuss: The real impact of inflation, Considering a job move, Dealing with a toxic family member making bad money decisions, Investing in a future house for your kids vs. saving for their college. How to invest $100k, Selling a house to get out of debt. 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 studios. This is the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I am Ramsey personality, Rachel Cruz, hosting today with bestselling author and Ramsey Personality, Rachel Cruz, hosting today with best-selling author and Ramsey Personality, Ken Coleman. So we are taking your calls this hour at 888-825-5225. Give us a call. It's free anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225. So Ken.

Yes. I don't know. I just feel like, I feel like things are fascinating right now in the world. Oh, that's a very, very mild way of putting that. It's a very positive way of putting that. Yes. It's a, we have a lot of confusing economic data. We've got political stuff going on. It's a very interesting year to say the least. I would say a watershed year. I believe that. I think when we look back, you could probably say that about the last two years, but I think this year, you know, with it being a political year, we're going to have midterm elections,

which mean a lot. And then you look at how the economy's doing, you know, we're seeing high job opportunities. We're seeing increased pay. Pay is at an all-time high, but inflation is at an all-time high. And then you've got the interest rates going up, but yet we're not in a full-blown recession. There's just a lot happening right now. In the next six to 12 months, I think, are going to be even more fascinating, to use your word. Yes, for sure. So, I mean, obviously the Fed raised the rate recently. I mean, this whole thing, the inflation, everything, people are feeling. Yeah.

And specifically on their budget side, the expenses, right? For sure. You're still feeling gas, even though it's gotten a little bit better. But groceries are still at an all-time high. I mean, everything. Food. At any time, I buy anything. Whether we're, like, booking a hotel room or, I mean, just everything.

Don't forget utilities. Just seems so high. We see electric. Electric is going up. A lot of economists are saying and industry insiders are saying that electric bills are going to go even higher. So now we're coming into, obviously, a season where you're going to have your heating bills go up. So it's not just food and some of your clothing and retail expenses. It's as those utilities are going up as well to the point that for people who have gotten nice pay raises,

the pay raises haven't outpaced inflation. Okay. That's what I want to talk to you about. That's hard. Yeah, for sure. Well, and people are feeling this. I mean, and even us, I'm like, I was just doing our budget for October and I was like, I'm having to like kind of bump up because we just keep going like on groceries, on this stuff. Like I'm like, I was just doing our budget for October. And I was like, I'm having to like kind of bump up because we just keep going like on groceries, on this stuff. Like I'm like, we're just feeling it. So talk to me about wages though, because I see statistics that wages are going up, but some people are saying, no, I'm not feeling that at all. So what are you seeing? Well, wages are definitely up. That's just historically we're seeing hourly wage earners are making way more money.

People that have changed jobs in the great resignation, which just a quick snapshot on that. It's about 60 million people have changed jobs since the middle of 2021. It's extraordinary. Since 21, not even COVID. That's correct. Which was a whole other thing. It doesn't even count COVID.

So what we're seeing is yes, incomes are going up, but if you don't have the discipline to use the Ramsey way, right, to budget and know where your money's going, well, you can get a nice bump. But number one, it feels good. That always feels good. You see a bigger paycheck. But if you're not in the details of a budget, you don't necessarily see immediately the cost of groceries. If you're not paying attention to your grocery budget and you're just going, I'm buying all the same items that I buy before. And then I look at

it after I pay and I go, wait a second, the same exact thing that I paid for six months ago is now $100 to $200 more. Well, that starts to creep up. We did see gas prices go up. So to your point, money's not going as far as people think it's going. And then they wake up and go, wait a second, something's not right. I got a 15% pay bump, but I'm still having problems with not meeting all my monthly needs. They're eating out, by the way. Let's not talk. I mean, let's just not just let this be focused on groceries what about eating out yeah the other day and i'm infamous for not paying attention to the bill

like stacy gives me a hard time about it i just don't pay attention to the bill you just say you just keep going i look at the total and i pay attention to the tip yeah she's a line item looker oh yeah i've already looked at it she reads right to left if you will on a menu i go right to the bottom and i go what do i owe my waiter yeah that's all i care about yeah Like I've already looked at it. She reads right to left, if you will, on a menu. I go right to the bottom and I go, what do I owe my waiter? Yeah. That's all I care about. Yeah. Because I've already preselected my- What you want to eat.

Yeah. But then here's the deal. If you don't pay attention to that, it's like what used to be a little family outing- Oh, yeah. Of 50 bucks is now 75. Yes. 80. Yes.

So all of these things is the real impact of inflation. We hear economists and newsmakers talk about, well, this category, this category, this category, but here it ends up going across the board. So bottom line is life is more expensive right now. And to where people are a little bit depressed, they changed for a job to get a better paycheck and they're going, it didn't keep up with it. So am i going to do ask for another raise i can't ask for a raise can i've only been on the job three months the answer is you give yourself a raise by using the financial principles we teach on the show yeah and being so diligent and more than ever it's this whole conversation too of of needs versus wants and what's what's hard is what

what is a want has become a need right like because you're just used to it you're used to having x y and z fill in the blank, whether it's a subscription or whatever it may be. And it's like, yeah, we can't live without that. We can't live without Hulu. We can't live without Disney Plus, all these things. So what does Hulu cost? Do you even know?

I don't even know. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime. Probably like $10, $9.99. What is it? I think it's like $6. There's all these different tiers now, but the one we did is $6. But then here's the deal.

So I'll call ourselves out. You look up one day and you go, oh, that's right. I forget. Stacey signed us up for Disney Plus. And we got Netflix and we got Amazon Prime because we buy everything from Amazon, sadly. 100%. So do we. And then you go, oh, I got Apple Plus.

Yeah. And then I see this really cool commercial for a show that I got to see on Hulu. And then on Showtime. Yeah, Paramount plus because i gotta watch uh yellowstone oh yeah you gotta have them all and to your point man big tech they know they know how to get us now you got what 100 bucks in subscription services you know what's the worst for me here's where i'm not diligent and i really i really should just like figure this out Apple Apple takes my money I have like a $2.99 here oh boy a $4.99 and I'm like I think I've bought the cloud somewhere the cloud but yet I have Dropbox like I'm like I have all this stuff that I'm like oh yeah I'm duplicating probably the same thing oh gosh and I'm like oh it's just you know $4.99

here and over time you're like oh my gosh gosh. Okay, while we're confessing. We need to be diligent. Here's my confession. I'm the worst at this. My poor wife. Y'all pray for her. I'll sign up for something, some sports app that I got like I'm traveling and I can only watch the game on this one app or something like that. And it renews. And it's the automatic renewal.

Because I say to myself, oh, it's free for 30 days. And I'll remember to tell Stacey. I'll remember to cancel it. Here's the deal. I never remember. And she's like, what is this charge? I know. CBS Sports Plus?

What is that? Well, I had to listen to the Michigan game. Yeah, I'm the worst at that at the old, they trick me because I always forget to unsubscribe or whatever you're going to do. You know what's sneaky to me is you buy something. This has happened to me twice, Ken, in the last five months. And I'm like, is this the new model? I bought a hair product thing and a makeup thing.

Separate companies. And they have shipped me the same product four months later and charged me again. I was like, whoa, I didn't sign up for a subscription. I didn't sign up for that. Oh, but you did. Sneaky. for a subscription. I didn't sign up for that. But you did. Sneaky. Sneaky subscription. So watching your expenses, people, is going to help so much.

And even the $15, $20 that's saved gives you margin. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet

spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget at chministries.org slash budget. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I am Rachel Cruz hosting today with Ken Coleman and we are taking your calls on life money career relationships anything and everything we are here to have a conversation with you so give us a call at 888-825-5225. Up next, we have Micah in Cincinnati. Hey, Micah.

Welcome to the show. Hi, Rachel. Hi, Kim. How are you guys? We're doing great. How can we help? Awesome. Well, so I have this really kind of random opportunity for a job,

and it was one that HR basically said I didn't have an opportunity to have, so I thought, well, I'll just go ahead and apply and get my name up there anyways, and just so they can kind of get a name to a face in case it opens up again. And the two people above me in seniority that applied did not get the job. So I got a phone call, and they said, okay, 3.30, come in, you've got an interview. So it's like, crap, what do I do? So just a quick background is the job I have now, I absolutely love it. And it's one of those where it's so easy that you just feel like you don't ever want to leave.

But I also am kind of struggling with job satisfaction, I guess, because I'm an aircraft mechanic and I build jet engines. And basically this new job will offer me more opportunities to develop as a mechanic. And I'm only 27. So I would love to retire doing what I'm doing. It's just I feel like 37 years to retirement doing the same thing over and over is probably not going to work out great. So I'm kind of puzzled because it was such a fast opportunity. Yeah. And it's today, Micah, the interview?

Yeah, it's like literally in an hour. Okay, so why'd you call us? What's on your mind? I guess I'm trying to outweigh does the little raise and the opportunity to

advance myself in my career, should that outweigh the security and the ease of the current job that I have? So it's basically, yes. Yes. For the reasons that you just gave it, you gave to the audience. It was very eloquent, by the way. I mean, you just laid it out. Look, I got a really good job. I like it. I'm good at it, but I don't have any satisfaction. And what you didn't say is that you're bored. And I think that's what's really going on. And there's no way you can do this for 37 more years. Those were your words, not mine. And so, yes, you are in a comfort zone right now, but all growth happens outside of the comfort zone. And what will happen is,

is if you were to not pursue this, whether you get it or not, but if you were not to pursue this or pursue something else and continue to climb the ladder, when we stay in this place of comfort, then we find that complacency and misery are not very far behind. Complacency leads to misery. And yet, as people, Rachel, we prefer, we'd rather be miserable than uncomfortable because change is so scary. Change is just, it puts us in a place of being uncomfortable. So I would say, young man, yes, at least go listen. At least go listen. I mean, it doesn't hurt for you to show up.

You were interested in it before enough to kick the tires. I'm not sure why I even applied but that's just from leaving my last job to coming here i was like oh man i did it and then god just opened these doors i wasn't supposed to get in this job in the first place in this company in the first place because i don't have the experience and here it's like fantastic god's just opening these doors and i'm like crap i mean maybe maybe maybe god's opening the doors because you're sharing with him your heart. Maybe he knows your heart. He knows you're bored.

I don't believe you that you say you don't know why. I think you know why. And it's just a gamble too, Micah, because I'm curious the two people you said that were even above you didn't get it. So I'm curious like what the qualifications are, what they're looking for, the credentials, all of that. So let's just say, Micah, you go and you don't get it. But this is still stretching you.

Like there's still that opportunity for growth. Even if there is a rejection on the other end. That's a great point. You're still doing something. You have movement. And what Ken was saying too, being stagnant for a while, I guess, can be comfortable in the crazy world

where you live in that you're just like, you know what, it's predictable. And we're here and I know what I'm doing. But that only will take you so far. And the boredom will catch up, Micah. So I think that that's a great question. And I appreciate you calling right before your interview. So I hope you kill it.

And I hope, yeah, you walk right through that door that's been open to you. Yeah. And the last thing I'd say on this is no pressure today. Ask every question you open to you. Yeah, and the last thing I'd say on this, no pressure today. Ask every question you want to ask. Allow yourself to be so engaged in this interview that you allow your brain to get out of the way and your heart to talk. Your heart will tell you whether or not you want to do this. But it is always good to listen. That's good.

All right, up next we have Julie in Phoenix. Hey, Julie, welcome to the show. Julie. Hello. Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you? We're doing well. Thank you so much for having me on the show. Yeah, yeah. Thank you for taking my call. For sure. Basically, I have, I'm not sure so much financial family. It got to the point that I literally had to stop speaking to my mother, and I'm guessing it has to do with finances, and I just wanted to get your advice. I got saved at the age of 21. I was in debt over $10,000.

I put myself in bootstraps. I paid it off in one year. Wow. And after that, I just kind of stayed living in New York. My mother accumulated debt from about 10 to 12,000. Um, they started suing her, dragging her to court. I felt I needed to do something because she was not doing anything. And she turned to me and I paid about $4,000 to file for bankruptcy for her. And, um, that was about seven, eight years. I'm 30 now. So that was seven, eight years ago.

And I paid and that was all of my money. And I made her promise and promise and promise that she will never get a credit card again. Because after I paid off all of my credit cards and debts, I cut everything. I've never used a credit card, any debt again, basically. And you found that you can't change people. Yes. And within a year or two, she had multiple credit cards again. She tried to kind of hide it from me that they were coming in the mail.

Sure. And within maybe five years, she was right back where she was, maybe $12,000. And they started to try to drag her to court again. Yeah. She turned to me basically like, are you going to take care of it? Like, I didn't know what to do. I called the attorney, her bankruptcy attorney, and she was like, what's wrong with your mother?

You can't file bankruptcy every four to three years or five years. You can only do it every 10 years. Long story short, I moved to another state to be in full-time ministry. Then COVID hit. She moved to that state with me. And then after some time, it's just he was making very not smart financial decisions and it was just I'm starting to feel the point I was getting suffocated and I when I moved when I was done with the ministry and I moved to another state now I'm in Arizona I she always wants to move in with me, so basically, you know, I can pay at least half of the bills.

Yeah, so Julie, we have a hard break coming up. Hey, Julie, we have a hard break coming up. What gave me the situation today and how Ken and I can kind of walk you through and give you our thoughts? She keeps asking me for money. Okay. I keep trying to move in with me. Okay. And I can't.

When I was 19, she was encouraging me. Okay. And I can't. When I was 19, she was encouraging me to take out a student loan to pay. Hey, Julie, Julie, Julie, listen, this is a hard no. You've got to put up some boundaries. Rachel, she's got to put some boundaries up with mom. And it's a tough situation because it's her mother. Yeah, it is. I tried for the last two years and she would emotionally like blackmail me she would guilt trip me it got to the point where she would call and i would like my blood pressure

would go up yeah i know sweet listen listen i have to stop speaking to her julie listen i i i understand this is so wildly painful and so hard but the fact is is, you're already in pain. She's already putting you in this situation. And so it's not going to get any worse if you literally say no and you put the boundary. It's not going to get any worse than it already is. But by giving her continued power to manipulate you, and I'm being very specific with that word. Your mother is manipulating you and you do love her. And it's because you love her that she has the power to manipulate you. But we can hear the pain in your voice, Rachel. Well, it is. And Julie, putting up those boundaries is really difficult. And I think being very clear with her and saying, mom, I'm not giving you any more money. And if that

is the string that keeps us together, then Julie, there's a point in which is the most heartbreaking thing when a family is destroyed, but she's destroyed. Like I hear it in your voice, Julie, that you can't handle this anymore. And so there's going to be a really hard boundary that you, that you say that I just, we can't have a relationship if this is how you're going to treat me. And this is for the good of you, Julie, for the good of you and your life. And that's a hard boundary, but it's a loving one for you. This is The Ramsey Show. so so welcome back to the ramsey show well it's no secrets that we love talking about money and we know not everyone feels that way but that's one reason george camel and i started a new podcast that we wanted to bring the fun back to money we wanted to make a casual

conversational podcast around things that are going on in the world today and in regards to money. So last week we launched a brand new Ramsey podcast called Smart Money Happy Hour, where again, George and I, we kind of dig into the stuff that your friends would talk about at a weekly happy hour, you know, pop culture, what's going on in the world, how you can afford to live a life you love, and obviously some money stuff in there. So you're slipping the money stuff into normal conversations. Into the normal conversations. Yeah, we're just like, okay, so what's going on in the world? Give people an example. First episode's going bingo bongo. It's amazing.

Congratulations. Thank you, Ken. But let's give them a, first of all, wait a second. I have ADHD. I want to check this, James. Make sure this is. We had no happy hour happening no happy hour happening here okay it's water it's water i can attest that is water that is water i didn't know you know you do the smart money happy hour george where you have an adult beverage i was wondering if it was going to creep into the big show and i can now tell everybody rest assured and there's water in here as well, folks. Oh, my gosh. All right. People want to know. They're curious. I'm sure they are. I'm sure they are.

So give me an example of the first episode, a pop culture thing, and then you kind of pivot into money. Yeah, so first, yeah, we talked about the things that are keeping you broke. And so we walk through the first episode, about nine different things, everything from Amazon Prime to the free shipping. Things will get you on websites. So, yeah, we kind of walk you through all that. We talk about the second episode is about your house, HGTV, and how it ruined our generation. Oh, I know.

Man, tough times. That almost got me in some trouble. I wanted to buy every fixer-upper I would drive by because I love Chip so much. Yeah, and you're like, I could be Chip. Chip and Joanna. I could take a sledgehammer to that wall and kill him. Stacey's like, you can barely hold a hammer. You can barely do it. Slow your roll. So could take a sledgehammer to that wall. Stacey's like, you can barely hold a hammer. You can barely do it.

Slow your roll. So yeah, if you want to listen, you guys, make sure to subscribe to Smart Money Happy Hour. And it's living in the top 20 of all podcasts. It's been there for now like five, six days, which is awesome. So we have new episodes every Thursday that launch. The Royals might be one topic launching soon uh disney the whole disney conversation from disney world disney adults all of that yeah we just have some fun stuff some

reality tv episodes coming out so anyways we're really excited about it and we have a lot of fun so we hope that this will be a great podcast that you guys will enjoy and if you have a friend or a family member that they maybe the ramsay show is a little too hardcore or something for them this is a nice little nice little lighter fair yeah a little lighter and i think you gotta point out that that you that you guys have one beverage and uh do you review the beverage or you just do so yes so every episode we have a different drink there may be a mocktail we had a mocktail in one episode too so we're mixing it up and we'll give you the recipe at the end and we'll give you the recipe at the end and we'll rate it

but like any good happy hour yeah so you get some money wisdom you get a little pop culture update and you get a great recipe a little something okay speaking of pop culture

oh boy Instagram Instagram Kenneth oh is my yes it's my

it's my it's my social media of choice so people will send me clips all the time which I so appreciate, America. Thank you for doing it because it's fascinating money advice that's out there. So I saw this clip, Ken, and I would love to have a discussion. So let's play this Instagram reel. In 16 years, your daughter will not be able to buy a house. It will not be affordable for her to buy a house unless you help her. I would argue that it is a better business decision.

It is a better financial decision for you to buy a house for her. It's an investment property. It's a rental property. All of the money that comes from that goes into an account. And that is her college, number one. And number two, that house is being paid for by somebody else. So then when she is 22 years old, graduated from college, you can say, here's sweetheart, here is the home that you will never ever have been able to afford if I had not bought it for you 16 years ago. And I'm telling you right now, that is the best financial decision. Rather than going to 529, whatever that thing is, college fund, that is complete and total bull. I agree with that. I'm telling you right now, going ahead and buying a house as an investment, that is the best thing that you can do for your children. And I'm not selling anything I own because i wish i'd kept everything i ever bought yeah wow a lot there fascinating she was a bit of a machine gun there she knew what she

wanted to all right couple things to the world uh myth number one first thing she said that's incorrect and it's just absolute emotional hyperbole is that your daughter won't be able to buy a house it won't be affordable she won't be able to buy a house. It won't be affordable. Oh, yeah. She won't be able to on her own. That's fear-mongering. Yes. And that's kind of playing into this whole, you know, upper class versus lower class. It's a little bit of middle class warfare because she's making a point. But that's exaggerated, and it's not true.

Secondly, what she's prescribing there is most likely, I don't have any other context. Do you know this person? Nope. I don't have any other context. Do you know this person? Nope, nope. I don't have any other context, but she's probably saying take on debt. So let's say an American family's got a bunch of debt, and then they were to take what she were to say as gospel truth. Go get a second mortgage. Now they're going to go get a second mortgage, and under the guise of, well, this is really,

really smart. So it's incomplete advice. So there's two things right out of the gate. Okay, so number one, yes, I'm with you on the fear thing. I'm like, no, that's just not, I just am not, I don't agree. Number two, yes, getting on that second mortgage where I'm like, man, now if you ever pay cash for it, that's a different discussion. But people think in the real estate.

Most people wouldn't be able to. Yeah, but people think with real estate, they're like, oh yeah, it's, you know, you just buy it and someone else will pay the mortgage. Sure. It's no big deal. Yeah. It's a part-time job. Oh yeah.

When you have other properties. And risky. And risky because what if you don't have anyone to fill it? And then who's going to pay the mortgage? So. Third thing, the 529 is a wonderful investment vehicle. She makes it out like it's some sort of piece of crap and they're both like, oh yeah, 529, that's so stupid.

Well, that's not right. 529 is a wonderful investment vehicle, and it can be used multiple ways. So, you know, again, the poo-pooing what's normal and the fear-mongering here, this is incomplete. However, all right, those are three things I didn't like. Okay. Give me what you did like, Kenneth. Here's the caveat. All right. The caveat is if you have no debt, all right, you have no debt the Ramsey way, and you can put a sizable

down payment on a home, a future home, and in the context of what she's saying for your child versus fund their college. I don't think that's foolish. And I only say that to say you have to be financially responsible. Like this is not stressing you out financially. You can put a huge down payment on it. So you're going the amount of money I would put towards their college is more than a 20% down payment. And we have no other debt. Therefore, this is not stressing us out. In that situation, it is a very interesting idea because college has increasingly got more expensive and less relevant. That is true. Yes.

So you're giving your kids some options to where they could cash flow their way through college. With the rent is what she's saying. That's right. Well, or no, they work, and so you've now given them this long-term investment. You've gifted them this long-term investment. It's interesting. I'm not recommending it or endorsing it. Right, right.

But I at least want to be an equal opportunity commenter. To see both sides. If you have the financial wherewithal and you're not going into any kind of risk and you're not assuming a very large amount of debt. Right. It's not it's not a it's not a horrible idea but the way they set it up is an incomplete narrative yes that's a that's a great way of putting it that's fair because too i'm like when you transfer an asset

like a house there's a lot of things you were talking about this early yeah you got it there's like a tax that there could be tax implications if you're not careful all this and and the rental income that you make is taxable like like it's just yeah all of this and i'm like man i don't know it's just i don't know why i'm like it just it feels uh like get an up or something like start investing and this is the nature of social media people like this can sway people with an incomplete narrative and what you need to understand is is that you're assuming risk and you can't guarantee that you're going to have renters all the time there's a lot of things that are that are at play versus the 529 can be used in a variety of ways towards qualifying them so if they don't go to traditional college yeah they could still use the 529 for trade school yes now is like you know it can be passed to different children all that

so what yeah but college is it is a fascinating topic right now because there's a part of me though that i still am like that transition from 18 to 21 still having a level of responsibility still learning and growing like that that is a i want to challenge you i know i know but listen listen like that still there is there is pros to that. There are. But my question is, what is college going to look like in 15 years? Very different. And I am putting money in a 529.

Very different. So what is it going to look like? Well, I don't think. And that makes me a little nervous too. Yeah, I get that. Hey, I got to tell you this. Yesterday, Entree Leadership Master Series happening downtown Nashville. I took a question from a business owner that operate big like

backhoes and big giant tractors and things like that on construction sites. They're hiring kids straight out of high school to operate these big machines. And the kids are loving it. They're making as much as $55,000, $60,000. That's pretty awesome. Right out of high school. Don't go anywhere. More of your calls coming up. This is The Ramsey Show.

We are taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Up next, we have Mark in Sacramento. Hey, Mark. Welcome to the show. Hi. I listen to you guys through YouTube highlights and my best friend listens to you a lot. I have a question. My only debt that I have is my home. I owe $295,000. I have a good interest rate to me at 2.14%. I have a small investment account through Edward Jones of about $14,000. And then I have cash of about $100,000. And I want to do something with $100,000

to invest it, but I am very leery to listen to people on Instagram and follow them and do what they recommend. And I was hoping for some guidance. That's some wisdom right there. Don't take financial advice straight off of Instagram. Okay, Mark. So you have no other debts. You have a lot of cash. I mean, six figures of cash, which is awesome. Do you have anything in retirement? Do you have a Roth IRA open? Do you have a 401k at your work? No, I don't. My investment account was intended to be as a retirement. My grandfather needed to pull some cash and he got penalized. And that's always been a fear of mine is not being able to have access to my money. That's all.

Do you have the option for a 401k or a Roth through your work? No, not at the moment. That's in the works. I work for the family business. Oh, okay. I got you. It's a matter of me setting that up. Yeah.

And still a Roth IRA could be an option. So, Mark, I would encourage you, though, to look into that. I understand being able to get to your money is important to you and I get that. But also you're going to miss out on a lot of growth and tax-free growth if these accounts are wrapped in a Roth. So if it's not just a traditional IRA, but it's a Roth and if you get a Roth 401k as well. So there's just so much opportunity for growth there for retirement that I would recommend looking into that. So if I were you and I woke up in your shoes, I would take this $100,000 and I would put some of it still and just have in a money market account for an emergency fund, anywhere from three to six months

of expenses there. I would open up a Roth IRA and I know the 401k will be a little bit more complicated within the family business. But once you get that up and running, funding some money into that, and even maxing that out for the year, and then taking the rest and saying, okay, what else do I want to do? Is there, you know, am I, do I want to purchase a home soon? Do I need to replace a car? Like what else with this money? What else could you do? Or could you go and just invest it in just a standard mutual fund, just a growth stock mutual fund as well? So those are some options, but I would hate for you to miss out on putting your money in some type of retirement vehicle because of the growth, the tax-free growth that happens that when you go to retire that, oh, it's so nice to have.

So nice to have. Yeah, it really is. Do you recommend a certain place that I start my research? You know, I would sit down with a SmartVestor Pro. They are investment professionals that we actually recommend. And they will sit down with you and teach you and give you options. These people eat and breathe this stuff. So if you hold on the line, Austin will pick up and he'll get you connected to one of our Smart Investor Pros and find where on RamseySolutions.com that you can find that and help you navigate that.

So I would sit down, yeah, with an investment professional and look at that. But it's a great question. And I appreciate your diligence and the amount of saving and your intentionality with all of this. But I think that there is some stuff that you could do with that $100,000 that will really, really help you in the future. Yeah. And Mark, I would just echo what Rachel says. But when you sit with, and I want you to interview at least two or three of our SmartVestor pros. We recommend that because we want to make sure that you have a good fit and feel with them. And they need to have that chemistry with you because they should have the heart of a teacher. That's why we work with them.

And we hold them to that standard. And we want you to be able to understand everything that you would do. So when you sit with them, come in there, pencil and paper, lots of questions, ask the specifics. I'm scared of this because, and take those real scenarios to them and let them walk you through to the point that you go, okay, now I understand. And knowledge is a wonderful antidote to fear. So take those questions, decide who you feel is the best partner with you because you're the one making the decisions, not them. I just want to make sure that you know that and then you're going to be fine. You're so disciplined and measured

that you just need a good guide. Yeah. And that's a great point. In any of these industries, when it comes to your money that is specific, whether it's investing, tax, insurance, having someone on your side that you actually like and trust versus someone that's slimy and you're like, I don't trust them. It's not worth working with people that you don't like. I mean, honestly. So yeah, I think that's a great point. So Mark, yeah, get a couple of names of some SmartVestor pros, interview them, and hopefully they can help guide you when it comes to looking at some retirement options. All right. Next up, we have Janelle in Orlando. Hey, Janelle, welcome to the show. Hi, how are you guys doing today? We're doing well.

How can we help? Yeah, so my husband and I are wondering if we should sell our house to pay off our debt that's just taking up most of our income. Yeah, okay. So how much debt do you guys have? Just in revolving credit card debt and personal loan, we have $95,000. And then we have like 20,000 student loans, $33,000 in our car loan. And so it's just a lot.

Yeah, yeah, that is a lot. How much do you guys make a year? My husband makes about $135 a year, and he also gets VA benefits. Okay. And your house, tell me about that. How much is your, how much do you guys owe on it? We owe $495. Our realtor is saying that we should list it at 675 to 685.

And that would probably bring us home with just enough to put like 20,000 in savings and pay like all of our debt or most of our debt off completely. Yeah. Okay. Where would you live though? Big thing is our family. So we would rent,

we would try, we would get a rental in the same neighborhood to try to keep our kids in the school systems that they're in right now. Um, and the thing is that our, you know, we have family members that are used to be our realtors that are very close to us that are pushing back and saying that because we have a low rate straight, we should try to get a HELOC or something to like fight it out and try to make a little more room in our budget. But right now, the amount of money that we pay out to credit cards and all this stuff

is, you know, my husband makes so much money and he, I mean, we don't see any of it. We have nothing. Are you upside down in the cars? We only have one car. It's just the Jeep. I wouldn't say upside down. How much could you get for it? Probably break even.

We could probably break even for it. It's $33,000. We haven't explored the option of selling it yet. Well, that will relieve a car payment. How much is that car payment a month six hundred dollars yeah so that's gonna that would feel good just to get that out of the way do you guys have any savings we have the the baby step number one that keeps getting depleted because we have had thing after thing happen with us with like that vet bills and all these things and we didn't have and how much how much is what we really want yeah for sure how much is your mortgage payment

um it's 2700 2700 okay oh man um yeah you're it's well here's the deal. We don't always recommend just selling your house to get out of debt. If there's a way for you to stay in it, because if there's a way for you to stay in it, then it's not the thing that's going to make or break you. Yes, could you sell it and wipe all of this out and have money in savings and feel completely different at the end of the day?

Absolutely. But in y'all's mortgage payment, I mean, it's it's climbing up there with that, you know, that 25, 30% that we talked about. So you're kind of still in that range. For you, Julie, or I'm sorry, Janelle, what's what is your do you guys want to sell? Do you want to sell and just get out? Who cares what your family says? So yeah, that's the thing. It's such a beautiful, big house, but we value things, our experiences more. And my husband, you know, feels like there's a lot of pressure on his shoulders.

And so we just, a big part of us wants to just wipe it and be done and be like, let's pay all of that off. Sure, okay. So there's the factor of having completely that peace. So Janelle, that could be an option. Yeah. For you guys looking at it, don't listen to your family and look to see, okay, what can we do? Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramsaysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.

We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash debtfreescreen.