The Ramsey Show - App - The Road to Financial Freedom Is Paved With Grit

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Live from Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I am Rachel Cruz, it today with my good friend Ken Coleman. And listen, if you love The Ramsey Show, if you are an active listener, we need your help. We want to know what your favorite parts of the show are, what you like, what you don't like, what you want to hear more of. And we have a survey that is live right now that we would love for you to participate in. So two ways you can do that. Number one, you can text survey to 33789. Text the word survey to 33789. Or you can visit ramsaysolutions.com slash survey. And if you are listening on YouTube or podcast, just click the link in the description. We're actually giving away a $500 gift card

to someone that fills it out. But these surveys really do help us click the link in the description. We're actually giving away a $500 gift card to someone that fills it out. But these surveys really do help us shape the content of the show and what you guys want to hear. And so we are thankful for you to do that. Now you can give us a call at 888-825-5225. And Ken and I will be answering your questions. You know, I'm looking at the screen here in the studio, and it just occurs to me we look like we're very coordinated today.

We did not communicate ahead of time, James. This is just, you know. Ken loves a coordination of outfits, and here we are. I'm a little excited about it, which is why I pointed it out. It's rare that we, you know, coordinate outfits. It never happens. So this is fun. But we're here to coordinate efforts on your behalf.

How about that? Well, well done, Ken. Do you like that? Like that segue? Well done. Okay. Up next we have, which is one of my favorite calls to take, is actually two people on your behalf. How about that? Well, do you like that? Like that segue? Well done. Okay. Up next we have, which is one of my favorite calls to take, is actually two people on the line. I'm assuming there are a couple. You're kidding me. And this is Valerie and Bill. I couldn't be more excited that we have a couple on with us. Yeah. They're calling from St. Louis. Hey, you guys, welcome to the show. Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for

having us. Absolutely. And you're both here, right? Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. So fun. Okay, so great. All right. How can we help? What's going on? Yes, ma'am. So I inherited a large amount of money from my dad. How much? Million plus. Wow. And it's in the cell of his house is where it initially comes from. There's actually an addition to that inheritance that's in IRAs and things of that nature.

It's like 2.5 locked up in that. Wait, 2.5 in the investments and the million from the house or is 2.5 altogether? No, it's separate. Yes, ma'am. Okay, so 3.5. Okay. Yes, ma'am. So my question is, I would like to give a little bit of this money, not a lot, just a little bit to our four children right now. My dad didn't leave him anything. I was the only child, and so he pretty much just left everything to me. But I would like to gift them some.

And the dilemma I'm having is that I have four kids in four different financial situations. My oldest one is married with three kids, a wife that works, has a house. He's financially okay. My second son is married, has a wife, two children with one on the way. Could use a financial bump, if you will, owns a house. My daughter, who is also older, she owns a house but is living with her boyfriend, who they own the house together. I know that's a real Dave Ramsey no-no, but anyway. And so she's financially well. She's graduated nursing school, and she's got a good head on her shoulders financially. She's the saver.

And then I have a daughter who is currently in college and still lives at home who needs to get hit heavily in the head with the daver and the financial piece, seriously. So you can see I'm kind of all over the map with if I give them some money, how do I gift it to them? I don't want one. I don't want to enable one. I don't want another one to just blow it. I don't want to, you know, potentially give them money and put it on the house. Let me, let me jump in for a second. So how much are you planning to give each child, the same amount or different amounts? Same dollar amount across the board. It's not, I mean, it's not huge. I'm just thinking like, you know.

Where's Bill? What do you think? Maybe just $10,000. Just like $10,000. Just something just to kind of help them ease their financial life right now. So where's Bill at on this deal? Bill? Yes, sir.

Where are you at? I personally think they wait until something happens and we pass on to the other side and they get the whole shebang that's in our truck. Okay. This is a fun. Okay. This is a, yes, this is an interesting discussion. Okay. Because I read a book, which you guys should read just for this discussion because I don't agree with the entire book, but it's part of it.

I love that you're coming with a book recommendation. It's called Die With Zero. Have you heard of this? I know this book and it's on my list to read. It is interesting because part of this discussion is what you guys are talking about. And it's his philosophy basically is give your kids their inheritance. Now. What now?

So that's because the most time, according to the book, that people need money. So to your point, Valerie, is really between 24 and 34. You're paying off student loan debt. You're getting your first home. Usually transitions within marriage and kids. Like The most happens usually within that time frame. And they could get a head start, quote unquote, financially if they had help with a down payment or whatever it is. And then they get to build above that and they get to start earlier versus them getting money. This is not kind of against you, Bill, a little bit, but versus the older

kids now being in their 60s when Bill and Valerie passed passed to the other side well when you're 60s you're pretty much all set up you don't really need it or you shouldn't and then what do you do with that right so it's just kind of like all right so let's stay there go ahead and use it so before we get them so if that's the case and and you're not necessarily saying they do that here no it's just a but it's just a take they don't valerie to my knowledge, you two, you all speak up here, you don't have already a set amount that you were going to give outside of this conversation of give them all $10,000 out of this inheritance. But, Bill, if I'm hearing you right, you're going,

we don't know what chunk it'll be, but whatever we have left when we die, that's what they get. There's not a certain amount of money that you would be in favor of giving them now, this idea that Rachel put out there. Would the two of you go, all right, if we gave them a larger chunk now, would you be okay with that? Well, my thing is, so we're going to be paying off our house and a few other things that we have. I just don't want to, I would rather that money continue to grow because now we will be financially set. And then in hopes, if the market is the way it should be, we would have multi-millions in there for them whenever we die.

All right. But that's contingent on you guys stewarding it as you would, and it grows over time. So I appreciate the book idea but that's i feel like that's only applicable to people who have a large chunk of money that is true yes that's fair so in this case which is them in a sense they have 3.5 million yeah so in this case uh you two you guys are you're calling us to weigh in the middle of this deal i want to know bill from you i mean it's 40 grand which granted it's nothing to sneeze at but 40 grand out of 3.5 million it's not a ton that's where i'm at so is it what what's bothering you about it bills it is it it's less about the dollar amount probably maybe the principle of it is it is it truly equal

to all four because there's four different situations yes i'm going to tell you as a father of three rachel's a mother of three my vote is yes each one of them gets the same tell you as a father of three, Rachel's a mother of three. My vote is yes, each one of them gets the same amount. You create a whole, I don't like giving them all different amounts based on their realities. And you could wait with like the one in college and say we're going to hold it until you're 25. You know what I mean? There could be an age. But where are you at on the 10 grand each? Forget the number amount.

Is it an equal amount? Oh, it's equal. Yeah. You agree with me? Yeah, for sure. I think it needs to be equal. I feel like it'd get real messy real quick. Yes.

Even though certain kids obviously maybe need more right now. But I also want this, whenever you give a gift of money, you want it to be a blessing, right? You want this not to continue to harm. So if you do see a situation where this could be actually not good for them and leads them in more of an unhealthy path that would be more of a pause for me just to think through that's why the age limit may be something to think about like when you're 25 you get it i don't know yeah just throwing it out there but no i'm in favor sorry

bill i'm on valentine and it's such a small percentage compared to what you guys will leave them anyways. So this is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. We are taking your calls on life and money. Up next, we have Kel in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Hey, Kel. Welcome to the show. Hey.

Hi. How are you doing? I'm doing well. I sent an email because I didn't think I could get on, but then I called and got on. There you go, Kel. Lookie there. You're live right now. This is exciting. I have a two-part question. One about investment, and the second part is about beneficiaries. Okay. Alright, what's your first question?

I started watching Dave Ramsey heavily last year. I love his advice. All of you all, your perspectives on life and your sense of humor is just amazing. Thank you. I feel like she's talking about me there. So I really appreciate that, Kel. Thank you. I've always been well financially, like pretty decent,

but there is definitely room for growth and improvement, and this show has really helped me. As a social worker, I make about $88.6 annually, and I get about $4,200 a month for my rental properties. I own the rental properties outright. I manage them myself, so there's not a whole lot of overhead. There was this one episode Dave talked about being able to charge low rent, give grace, et cetera, due to circumstances,

and that just really resonated with me. But also I have quite a nest egg in savings, and that comes from a financial insecurity that I once had that I'm now healing. So now I'm open to spending some, you know, leisure, having fun, and just investing more. There we go. I've always wanted to, the properties that I have, they're all single family homes, and so I've always, a long time ago, I was like, hey, I'm done with that.

I want to do multi-unit, and I think I'm ready, but I'm really not sure about the best way to go about doing that. And some of my ideas just don't align with your principles. I know, but I'm just going to say them anyway. So I'm not sure if I should finance the multi-unit, get a HELOC on my personal residence where I owe one-on-one, and it's worth about $300. My nest egg is $175 cash. That's not quite enough to purchase outright, and the prices are just rising. And I sometimes I feel bad for not doing this a couple of years ago when the prices were lower. But I was scared and all those things. OK, let me let me interrupt you real quick.

OK, let me ask this. So you make eighty eight thousand a year. You bring in forty two hundred in rental properties that you own outright. How many homes is that? Five. Five. And how much are they worth? They're not worth a lot of money. They much are they worth they're not worth a lot of money they're in Alabama they're not worth a lot okay no that's fine that's fine no I mean still it's fantastic um and then you have 175,000 in just savings is that what you said just

different savings accounts one is an account where I put all the money from the rental. That's about a hundred. I just pay insurance. I just do the repairs. And then the other ones, it's just regular savings. But recently one account has 30,000 in it. And I was just looking and it was gaining like 25 cents a month. And just listening to you all,

I listened to the mutual, uh, say the mutual trust, I believe. And I went with LPL Financial and I invested there just to see where that goes. But that's new. I was, you know, nervous. But like I said, I'm trying to be more open. Yes, totally. No, I hear you. Well, Kel, you've been, let me just tell you, I mean, it's very impressive what you've done. I mean, you are in an incredible spot financially. So you call the Ramsey Show. Yes.

Any of the examples or options that you gave to purchase a multi-unit, we would not go for because they all pretty much involve debt. So I'm not going to go down that route with you. But what I would encourage you in is, you know, I so appreciate your willingness and urgency to continue to grow, right? You want your money to grow. And what's the next thing? And I think that that is fantastic. But what happens so easily is that emotion and that motivation sometimes crosses a line of risk. And then people take on debt and then take on risk. And they take this beautiful, peaceful life that you have where you're just not, I mean, you're making $4,200 a month on

rental properties. I'm like, you have this incredible life set up. And then they go and kind of mess with it. And suddenly now you have a bank in your life. You're worried about tenants. And suddenly this peaceful life has now brought on a level of anxiety and work and risk. And, you know, it takes a part of your about a part of your mindset away from you and away from the peace that you have. So I want you to grow financially. We are all about that on this show. I think that that's fantastic I just want you to do it in a slower wiser way that's going to ultimately for you Kel set you up as a whole person not just the financial piece of your life but every every element of your life to still continue this piece

that you have so what I would do is either continue to do, because you can't, I mean, from our regards, you can't afford to go buy a multi-unit complex. So what I would say is either continue to do what you're doing, maybe save up and go buy, you know, you said that our homes aren't worth a lot. You know, maybe you go and step up and rental and go buy in a nicer neighborhood somewhere that's more expensive. You can get more rent that way, right? Growing in these ways that is more within your means when it comes to cash. Because right now you're on baby step seven. I mean, you're good.

Yeah. I'm sensing, Kel, that you gave us a real window into what's really going on here. And I think you need to be okay with how well you've done. I think Rachel nailed that. And there's the same thing that you identified at the start of the call where you have some financial insecurity and you've saved all this money up and you're just afraid to spend it. That's also driving this question, which is, I feel like I need more and more and more, and I'm willing to be risky and go into debt to fill this hole in your soul. And the hole in your soul here is whatever you've come from that you've conquered, by the way, but you still have that fear. And by the way, we all have those. So you're not abnormal.

Rachel's right. You've crushed it. I think you need to identify today that the same thing that's not allowing you to go spend some of that cash and live some of your life and enjoy the fruits of being disciplined is the same thing that's making you question, should I add more to my portfolio? Do exactly what Rachel said. When you can upgrade in cash, right, to better investment properties, do that. But don't have this burning in your soul that I've got to do more to break some generational poverty or whatever you've come from. And I sense that that's probably true with you. Am I right?

Yeah. Okay. So Rachel's already giving you great advice. I say amen to what Rachel said. I'd add one other little thing. I want you to enjoy some of your money for a bit. Stop thinking about adding your portfolio right now, and why don't we just take a really great vacation? Why don't we bless some people in your community with some nice, generous financial gift that's easy for you, but you begin to see the value of what you've done

and allow you to soak in that, that, hey, I've earned this. I've broken this generational poverty. I'm never going back. I'm the future. I'm the model. So let's model the way. I think that's my encouragement for you today. And I would say, Cal, too, jumping off what Ken was saying, and I think he is so spot on, is that growing your portfolio, again, that's not wrong, but we want it to come from a right motivation. And if the motivation is out of a lack of fear or scarcity or, oh, gosh, if I don't do this, what's going to happen is you're going to get the complex and then the finish line moves again and then it's like well i probably shouldn't have gotten one over there so maybe i should you're

going to keep keep going going going going there has to be a level of contentment in your soul like a level of peace well and then it's been about six years since i've invested in anything so i have i was content you know and this was a long-term goal. And I just, you know, starting to feel like, okay, I think I'm ready. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, yeah. So then maybe your motivation is pure,

but I would just do it then from a tactical sense in the right, wisest way, which we would say is not with debt. It is to continue to be autonomous when it comes to your money and not have other people telling you what you have to do because then you make totally different decisions with your life and money when other people are involved you are in a state of autonomy and that's where i would stay kel continue to grow you've crushed it and you're doing great and go take a vacation yes spend some money on you go enjoy

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download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. It's free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. Welcome back to The Ramsey show. One of the ways for you to get a handle on your finances in 2025 is to get control of your money. And we have a live stream January 23rd free to you called Take Control of Your Money. It's hosted by Dave Ramsey and Jade Warshaw and you're going to learn how to stop living paycheck to paycheck, free up some breathing room so finally you can pay off debt, have some margin and some peace when it comes

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Rose in Washington, D.C. Hi Rose Welcome to the show Hi how are you guys? We are doing great How can we help? So my question is financial, but it's also affected by like relational stuff. So my question is, is it the right decision for my boyfriend and I to move out from living with his family when the lease ends, knowing that our rent will double and we're still on baby step two.

And then we also have two colleges we have to pay for starting in the fall um for some background i'm 31 he's 27 and we're currently going through like an intense disclosure process in therapy so we're thinking of being with families like adding some stress and then at the same time we unexpectedly got custody of his niece a year and a half ago when she was 17 um so we got her late in life so we know we won't make it to baby step five in time to save up for her college that we have to start paying for in the fall. So what's the alternative if you don't move out of the brother's house? We would have to stay living with, like, family members,

which the rent is cheaper, but just it's – and it's not with his parents. It's with, like, brother, nephew, family his parents, it's with like brother and nephew family. So yeah, it's a disaster. You know, you want to get out of there. You know, you should get out of there. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So is there not a better rent option? Um, it's just like right now, each like me and my boyfriend are each paying like 550, but if we move out, you know, getting an apartment near the DC areaC. area for like a one-bedroom or two-bedroom with our niece would be like double what we're paying now.

Okay, I know that area somewhat. Where are you now? What area are you in? We're in the suburbs. We're in like Springfield, and we're in a big house, so we split it between six people versus if we go out on our own, we'll be paying double for ourselves. Yeah. So give us, run the numbers for Rachel here. What do your income is versus what this new rent would be? Okay. So I make about 86,000 per year with multiple jobs. And then last year, my boyfriend made 2020,000 because he was part-time in college. He's about to take a break on that. So together, it's about $106,000 total per year. And then the rent that we're paying right now is $1,120. But if we move out, it'll increase to about $2,500, which I think is still in the 30% monthly income, but we're nervous about that we're going to be cash-flowing colleges

starting in the fall. Okay. Rose, let me tell you this. A little bit of a red flag that I have going up is that you're saying a lot of our, our, our. You're taking care and putting money towards a family member and a situation that you don't have any legal right to, in a sense, meaning that you are putting your money into a life and a relationship that there is no marriage,

there is no legal binding. And there's a part of me that worries me because even though I'm sure you guys are in love and you've been in you know been in a relationship for a while we get calls on this show quite often that you know we get a call and it's like yeah my boyfriend and I just broke up and I and I you know still have debt and I don't really have a ton and and then turns out that they you know were giving their money and your income to a situation that if something were to happen with the relationship, you don't get anything from on the back end. Does that make sense? Like there, there's a,

there's a big risk there. And, and I'm not, and I'm not a huge fan of you feeling this burden either because it's not your niece, it's his. And so I, there's a little bit of breadwinner.

I hate to say in this situation, which I really don't like. I mean, boyfriend needs to get his act together why don't you get married well there's that um so okay well that's the the little part um but yeah so we've been together almost six years and we were about to get engaged but um he had a relapse and so that's why we're in the intense therapy process what What do you mean? We kind of put that on pause. Without getting into the nitty-gritty, what kind of relapse? Like a full relapse?

Are we talking about substance abuse? No. Okay. All right. But I am on a 12-step program. You are? Yes, and him too. He's in recovery now, and then we're in the disclosure process.

Okay, when you said disclosure, I figured there was something. Yeah, we don't want to dig anymore. Okay, yeah. So, Rose, I would be— Separate, separate, separate. Yeah, and again, this isn't to punish him. This is to be wise for Rose. And I would tell you this.

I mean, honestly, Rose, we are one of the shows in America, one of the only shows that tell married couples to combine their finances. A lot of people say, just keep everything separate, regardless if you're married or not. We say, when you get married, you need to combine everything, except for with the asterisk, if there is an ongoing addiction, if there's abuse, if there's something in the relationship, we do recommend separating, again, for protection of the other spouse until trust is rebuilt and all of it so from a financial perspective rose i would really um and again it's not to punish him but it is to say hey we we are not married and we were going that direction there was a relapse which again i

think happens in the recovery world we have good we have a good friend you know that that is in recovery too and so like like it is wonderful and there is a healing journey and a process that I totally believe in. But I would just, I would slow down and I wouldn't be fretting about the niece's college. That's not even your niece yet. I mean, all of it. Do you know what I'm saying? I would keep some things very, very separate until you feel comfortable enough to marry this man.

And at that point, then he is trustworthy then to together start working on this life financially together. But until then, there's no we in it. It's his niece. He got custody. You know what I'm saying? And I know that probably goes against so much of how you guys have been living. And I know that feels really counter to it.

But that's the advice I would give you. Because again, we hear the other side of it too. Yeah, and just to follow up, Rose, is it fair to say that when you're going through whatever you're going through now, is it possible that this process leads one or both of you to the point where you guys go, we're not going to stay together or we're not going to get married? Oh, no, we're pretty sure we're going to make it. Okay. All right. I didn't understand that. Okay. So, you know, at this point, I'm never a fan of anybody shacking up together, but I'm old school. No judgment, by the way, when I say that. No

judgment. That's just my personal opinion. I'm not judging anybody. Now, with that said, then he needs to be truly paying 50-50 on the rent. And you, I'm just clarifying something that Rachel said. You're not taking any of your income to help out with the niece or anything else. Not until you guys are a legal couple. You pay for you. That means you pay your half of the rent. You pay your half of the utilities. You pay your, that's the, and then everything else is separate until we get legally married.

I want to make sure you catch that. And that keeps things really nice and clean. Okay. Okay. Which means he may need to delay college for a little bit. That's right. Yeah. And get his income up.

Yeah. That he, if you guys are going to move out of the family situation that is toxic and not fun to be in, then your rent goes up. And as two adults, we have to split that rent. Well, if he looks up and says, wow, I don't have a lot for this rent, then I'm gonna have to figure out a way to pay for this rent.

And you have to problem solving that, right? Instead of just leaning on you, Rose, for everything. And yeah, I would be very cautious of that, which again, this is hard and messy in the point of the journey that you guys are relationally too. So I know we're adding on probably an extra layer of hard conversation, but you called. So good luck to

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Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Today's question of the day is brought to you by YRefi. YRefi finances defaulted private student loans and builds a custom loan based on your ability to pay. You'll have a payment that you can afford with a low fixed interest rate that you couldn't get anywhere else. To help you really stick to your budget and work the debt snowball, go to yrefy.com today slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. May not be available in all states. Today's question comes from Carissa in Oklahoma. I'm 25. My husband is 37. I have been the main breadwinner since we got married because I wanted my husband

to focus on his writing career. I recently had our second child and would like to stay home to raise the babies. The problem is I can't convince my husband that we can make it on one income. He has not consistently held a job for the last three years due to company layoffs. I'll address that in a minute. I make about $30,000 a year. My husband, when he's working, by the way, that's in parentheses, makes about $30,000 as well. Our rent is $800 a month. And besides our normal bills, we have a car payment of $300 a month. We also owe $3,700 in medical bills. We budget and don't live outside our means. It would probably be a big financial change to only have one income, but I feel like my most important job is to take care of my children. Is my desire to be a stay-at-home mom

unrealistic in this economy? In the economy? No. In your household? Yeah. In your husband's reality where he can't seem to hold down a job. Tell us about what you think. You heard me? Okay, so I'll address that one. I want to know the layoff situation. Well, okay. Let me get my tea. All right, let me remind you.

He has not, these are her words, he has not consistently held a job for the last three years due to company layoffs. False. If I had a buzzer sound, I would hit the buzzer. It should be worded. He has not consistently held a job for the last three years due to his lack of effort. Now, what I'm not disputing is that the guy's been laid off maybe multiple times over a three-year period. But when someone is not consistently holding a job down for anything longer than six months, it's an effort issue. And that's going to cause a little stir with some people. Let me explain. In the American economy as of today, one can go work. It may not be the career that you got

educated in or that you want to be in, but I can promise you that if I'm shown the door later today after the show, which the jury's still out, I'm not going to be without work for three years, no matter what

happens. I am going to work somewhere and i will make 20 22 25 an hour at a bare minimum not because i'm great or i'm special or uniquely talented because i have a pulse am i am i am i making a clear point and so there's zero reason for him to go 36 months, and I'm putting it that way on purpose, without consistent income. You know, and I have a heart for this. It's what I've been doing the last seven years

at Ramsey Solutions on the Ken Coleman Show. It's coaching people who aren't where they want to be professionally. But there is no excuse for a man that has a wife and a child to go three years without consistent income. Three years with industry volatility? Sure, it's happened. So I want to make sure that the critics are really hearing what I'm saying. I'm not saying he hasn't gone through layoffs in maybe his industry,

but you can go do something. And we're talking about $30,000 a year is what she's making. Right, right, right. And he makes about $30,000 when he works. I've got to get my calculator out here. I'll give it to you, but I believe that $20 to $25 an hour range gets you there. It does. It's well over that.

Let's just go $20 an hour range gets you there. It does. It's well over that. Let's just go $20 an hour times 40 hours a week. For those of you, it's $800. It says $3,200 a month. So that does it. Don't tell me that in America today that you can't go get a $20 an hour job or a $15 an hour job and then a $16 an hour job. My point is I'm going to job we split my point is i'm going to take care of my wife and i'm going to take care of my baby yep so that's what i think carissa the issue here is not that there is a lack of opportunity out there for him to go do that so that you can yes have the desires met it the ball in a sense is in the relational court of your marriage not the financial because there is something that he a mental block he has whatever his thing is

and that's your issue and now to get a man to see that a husband to see that who is in a belief system obviously that is not that that is counter it it is is difficult and so you know what the bro needs he needs some grit good old-fashioned grit hey dude i know it's a landscape i know it sucks go do some manual labor that's what i would get some grit man i wish i could i wish i had a big fake um what do you call those things you what do you i'm blanking out you give people a shot what do you call those things you what do you i'm blanking out you give people a shot what do you call it a syringe thank you i need a big giant fake syringe james and it's filled with grit i'll get right on that thank you and i just bring out i bring it out on calls like

this i know this is horrible and they're making fun of me but it's making the point and i just hold it up i go you need a shot of this my man help this woman out so that she'd go home and take care of her babies because we've talked about this before on this show and I'd like to say this is what this is her desire being a stay-at-home mom is the highest honor and the greatest job on the planet period that's what I think I love it my heart's that ken i mean amen hallelujah i mean it well let me tell you it's it's harder work to do that than to do what i'm doing right here chatting with adults right and by the way that's not that's right seriously it is it is very difficult and by the way that's not to say to be a stay-at-home mom that i i knock professional

women because every time we do something i listen, my wife, different seasons, was working outside of the home. One of my dearest friends on the planet, my little sis right here, she does it. I'm not knocking. I'm just saying we got to get to a point where there's no shame for stay-at-home moms. And the ideal within a marriage family unit like this is that both people individually,

that your desires, your needs, your wants, your passions in life, all of it. Like, how are we able to live in a world where both of you have that and you can support each other within it, right? So that's holistically, I think, what makes part of a really healthy, beautiful relationship when that is in play.

It doesn't happen all the time. It doesn't happen every season, but when you're kind of in that rhythm and so when you can do that for each other, so for him, that's what I would say to him is like, there is a level of sacrifice and in reality and grownup world that you're an adult with kids, like you have to go have a job, like you have to make money. And then if your wife is able to stay at home after you go and do those things, because that's her desire, like that's beautiful. Like that, that is something that we should all be reaching for to do the things that we want. Right. It's a great point. I know that you and I could speak to this, but there are many times in our two marriages where each one of our spouses has made sacrifices for us to do what we get to do.

That's right. Yes. With the travel and the speaking. Yes, totally. Multiple. We could go down a list. And I think it's really important what you said, that there are times where one of the spouses has got to make some massive sacrifices for the other spouse, knowing that your season is coming um and it's just part

of the deal i believe that both can have what they want they may not get at the same time no that's right but when you can set it up so yeah so it's a really good point it's a long-winded long-winded and you know what but that's and i want to say this too we're talking about in this case thirty thousand dollars we're talking about the i'm giving this guy a hard time with my fake grit syringe and all the stuff i'm saying but he could he could get to the point pretty quickly where she could come home yes well and their bills i mean they owe you know thirty seven hundred on medical which you know it's not fifteen thousand we got a car payment that's a big chunk but of three hundred $300 a month, in the scope of life, though, is what I'm saying. This is manageable.

This is manageable, right? This isn't two car loans that are $900 each, a student loan, $15,000 in medical debt, $90,000 in student. It's not this overwhelming amount. This is a very doable. It's going to have to be, yeah, does he make the decision to do it or not? Boy, needs some grit. Good luck to you you Carissa, we'll be mailing out that syringe

James has already got one, he's googled it it's going to be ordered, it's going to be great it's going to be a great prop, America's going to love it For a great hour, thanks to everyone in the booth and thank you Ken Coleman we'll be back Live from Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love,

and create amazing relationships. I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with my good friend and best-selling author, Ken Coleman, and we'll be answering your questions. So give us a call at 888-825-5225. And we'll chat about your life, your money, anything and everything. So give us a call. Up first, we have Hunter starting us off in Oklahoma City. Hey, Hunter, welcome to the show. Hi, how are you guys?

We are doing great. How can we help? So I just finished the Complete Money Makeover book. Me and my husband have been living off of a budget for the past year or so, and we were able to pay off our cards last year, and now we're just working on the remainder, which is our student debt. So we currently have $39,000 in student debt. Part of that's my husband's, and then the other part is mine. And we have $20,000 in savings right now. So I'm just wondering, would it be better to pay off, like, my husband's student loan right now, which is $15,000,

so pay it off right now, or if we stay on track with our budget budget we would be able to pay off the remainder within like pay it off all together within the next four months and just pay it off like at one time and I'm just wondering which one do you guys think would be better so the question is do you pay you know pay one of them off today because you have the money or do you wait for four months and then pay them all off together uh I would go ahead and pay it off yeah go, go ahead and pay it today. I mean, I would start that momentum because as soon as you can hit the principal and get that lowered, then everything else ends up being more in your favor even over the next four months. So I would, yeah, I would for sure go ahead and pay some money off today, get that momentum going. So let me ask a question to you. What would keep you from paying

the big chunk of it today? What's keeping you guys from doing that? You know, my husband just got a bonus and I just got a raise within the last couple weeks. So we kind of just acquired a large amount into our savings account, which is super exciting. And I don't think that there's anything that's like stopping us. We're both on the same page of like, okay, we're so excited to pay off debt. Like we're pumped about it because it can happen really soon. We've both been blessed immensely. But I think, I just think of how exciting it would be to just pay it off all at one time and then just be done with it. I think that that's just what's exciting to me is like, oh, we could do it that way.

But the other part is to just pay it off now and then pay off the other half later. Let me tell you why. Let me tell you. And I love that answer. And I believe you. I think that's an honest answer. The challenge is the humanness in all of us. And so what happens or what could happen?

Let me put it this way. What could happen? Rachel, at any point, tell me if you think this is off. I will. Always can. Oh, I know. Like I even had to say that. But you got that money in the bank, and it sits there. And the whole goal, it's earnest, it's honest, it's well-intentioned. We're going to wait until we get the whole chunk of $39,000.

Then we're going to pay it off. It's going to be woo-hoo and great fun. Okay. But you sit that money in the bank and you keep looking at that. You wake up every day and you wake up differently when you get a big chunk of change that goes in the account. You just do. You wake up. I do.

Yeah, it feels great. And I go, I wake up and I go, oh, my God, X amount of dollars in the bank. And what happens is you get real comfortable with that money sitting in that account. And then you don't want to actually have that money leave. I remember the first time we got a fully funded emergency fund. Years and years ago, we first started this process long before I worked for Dave. An emergency would come up and I was coming up with ways. Not to use it.

To not use it. Yes, totally. I'm making this up three thousand dollar emergency and i'm selling stuff breaking my back stressing out and see if we go we have the money and i go i know but i don't want to pull it out yes totally the account yes and so just just being i think honest the human condition is to hold on to that. And then life comes up and an opportunity comes up to do something. You go, oof, we could pay off the student loan debt, Rachel. Or we could go on this trip.

And I think that's why we always say, act now. That's right. Get the win today. And I mean today. And you're still going to feel great when you're paying off the $19,000, right? You may be paying $4,000 next month, $5,000 the next like you're going to be chomping away at the 19,000 remaining and it's still going to continue to feel great and that momentum what Ken's saying you just kind of keep on this track in this trajectory and you're going to do it so Hunter you agree

you agree with that by the way we tend to sit on the money 100 well and people hers is pretty short term being four months some people that are oh, I could wait 18 months for sure. Don't do that because a Christmas trip comes up with the family and you want to travel and you pull some, you know what I mean? Like you end up not really sticking to the plan. So as much as you can, just staying on track helps your behaviors and the rhythms of your life. All right.

Up next we have, is it Nadine in Chattanooga? I'm going to say Nadine. Nadine. Did I? Yeah. Which one's right? I'm so sorry, Nadine. That's why you have me. I'm always your pronunciation guy. Gosh, the phonics. That's why I'm here. It's tough. All right, how can we help? Hey there, thanks for having me. It's Nadine,

thank you. One point for Ken. I'm in a bit of a weird pickle, in a sense. I inherited my family's farm, my parents' farm, and some money. And it excluded my siblings. And now they're... I...

Well, two out of three of them are millionaires. So the original will kind of mentioned like $10,000 each. And then my dad had mentioned after my mom passed that he's going to put the farm in a trust, the little pass-through without probate, and he was going to change the will. I had no idea he'd cut out my siblings, and now they're all mad at me because they think I'm the one who did it. Oh, interesting.

No. Yeah. So it's kind of like opposite of winning the lottery. You know, everyone wants to be your friend when you win. But when you inherit something, they feel like you're the bad person. And even if I were to, I mean, $10,000 is not going to make a huge difference in their lives. Is that all that's left? Is that what you're saying? If you did split it four ways, is it just $10,000 to each person?

Is that what it would be? No, actually, that was my parents were savers, so there was a little bit more than that. Okay. So what's your question for us? Is it what to do? Yeah. I mean, 10,000 seems so nominal to be petty about, but even if I were to give it to them, I feel like it's never enough. And well, hold on a second. I'm still confused. And we have only about a minute here. Is the amount that was given to you is how much? It was over, well, with the farm and everything, it was like half a million.

Okay, where do you keep coming up with this $10,000 number? I don't understand. That was in the original will that my dad had before my mom passed. And is that what they're wanting? Is that $10,000, or are they wanting a fourth of the $500,000? That's the thing. I'm not sure. Why don't you sit down with your siblings and have an honest conversation and go, guys, I had nothing to do with this and that's why I wanted to have the conversation.

What do you all prefer we do? What do you all think is fair? If that's what you want to do. Now you've got two directions. You can either say, I'm going to honor dad's will and I'm going to deal with the fallout or I don't want to deal with the fallout. I love my siblings. Let's get in a room and solve it. Yeah. We're all adults here. Let's figure it out. And again, if they are competent, healthy people and you can do that, that's great. Millionaires too. Yeah, that's true. Oh, I hope that helps. Thanks for the call. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. All right, so I was born and raised in Texas,

and I love the myth of the lone cowboy. You know, the guy who doesn't need anyone or anything. It's a fun story, and it's a lie. In our self-obsessed society, we're obsessed about our own diets, our own workout routines, our own jobs, our own social media feeds, everything. It's easy to forget that no one can do life alone. And I don't care if you're an introvert, an extrovert, or whatever you want to call yourself, we all have to have a community and a support system to do life with. It's time to shift the focus from doing it all by ourselves to knowing that we can only be well and whole when we ask for help. Therapy can be a great source of help and support for any area of your life. And if you're thinking about starting therapy, try BetterHelp.

BetterHelp is 100% online therapy, so it can fit with your schedule. To get started, just fill out a short online survey to get matched with a licensed therapist. And if it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists at any time for no extra cost. This month, start to build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash Ramsey Radio to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash Ramsey Radio. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with Ken Coleman. And we're going to Wilmington, North Carolina and talking to Jeff. Hey, Jeff, welcome to the show.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help? So I'm powering through the baby steps. I'm about halfway through baby step two. I'm paying off all my debts. And I've gotten to my next smallest debt, which is my wife's student loans.

The balance is about $8,500. And with our debt snowball, we can kill this in about four months. And I'm ready to do so. But there's a caveat that I can't find the answer to. So it went into default before we were married. And we have now entered a loan rehabilitation program with the Department of Education. And the deal is, if we make nine months of consecutive payments, they'll remove the default status from the loans and transfer it back out to a normal servicer. So I'm left with two options.

Either A, I can debt snowball this and kill it in four months, but I'm stuck with that word default on my credit history, even though it's a paid in full account, or I stretch it out, keep accruing that interest and go through the program to remove the word default from my credit history and just do it that way. And I really don't know which one's more, or I should say less harmful to me. Well, the only reason I'd be really concerned is if you were needing your credit score, credit reports for a reason, right? So the main reason someone would pull your credit score,

obviously, is to go into more debt. Also, your credit report, if you're looking for a new job, you know, maybe an employer pulls it. But if there's any situation that they pull your credit report if you're looking for a new job you know maybe an employer pulls it but if there's any situation that they pull your credit report and you have another human that you're talking to and being able to discuss and talk through why that is why it is and be able to explain it um then i would i mean i would get out i don't like i always hate playing the system game of trying to like you know figure our way through it because of this, that, or that, you know what I mean? I like the idea of paying it off, being done with it. And then in the next 12 to 18 months, if someone pulls your credit report

for a reason, to be able to actually have a human conversation about why that word defaulted is on there. And honestly, Jeff, when it comes to student loans and defaulting and all of that with COVID and everything that happened, like you're're not gonna be the only one either like I mean it's not like it's this you know thing now it may drop it may hurt your credit score so if you guys are you know if you're gonna go borrow money which I wouldn't suggest you do then it could hurt that you know the loan process but I don't want you doing that anyways. Okay. You don't think it'll haunt me when I try to get a mortgage in a couple years?

Not in a couple years. At that point, your credit score will basically be non-existent because if you stop borrowing money after this and you're done with debt completely, your credit score will continue to actually get worse because the way the credit score is calculated, you need new debt recurring to continue and paying on it to keep that credit score high. So when you stop this process, and anyone listening that is doing the debt snowball, always know this, your credit score is going to go down until it gets to undetermined, basically gets to zero. And then when you do that and go and buy a home, they're going to pull it and see that you don't have a credit score because you haven't borrowed money in over two years.

And you can do what's called manual underwriting and get a mortgage that way. Okay. Thank you very much. Yep. Absolutely. Thanks for the call, Jeff. So that's, yeah, that's a big, that's a big reason I get so annoyed with the, with this whole industry is they like make you play these games, right? And if you're like, I'm not playing your games and I'm going to figure out a way to actually do the plan that I want to do, and I want to get out of debt in four months and not wait nine, 10, 11 months to play this game, it's so frustrating because a lot of people,

I mean, it's a very legitimate question that Jeff asked, and I think a lot of people get in those situations, and they're like, yeah, what do I do? But when you just kind of don't play their game, it's amazing that you can still survive. And really, a different form of consolidation, the best consolidation is the baby steps and the snowball. Really the debt snowball does, it's like you're consolidating your money towards that debt. That's where the greatest momentum is.

It's not through one of these consolidation programs. It's like, all right, I'm going to consolidate my own payments and really work that debt snowball. That is absolutely the number one psychological and financial way to pay off debt, period. It just works. Up next, we have Stacey in Philadelphia. Hey, Stacey, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for having me. Absolutely. So my question, so I have a bit of problems, me and my husband, we recently purchased a house over the summer and we've gotten into a lot of pretty much debt, even more than we had before, just from purchasing the home with renovations. So we want to know what steps

should we prioritize to manage and pay off our current debt given we have, you know, the renovation loan that we took out, our student loans and car payment, and even with credit card debt. Okay. Will you give me a list of the numbers of everything? So like how much in credit card debt, how much in car debt, everything. Okay. So the car we owe about 15,000. Okay. Uh, uh, student loans, it's about 130 for the both of us. Okay. Yeah. Um, and that's just our undergraduate loan. Um, and then our renovation loans, we took out about $70,000. Okay. And then with credit card debt in total with both my husband and I, it's about, I would say, $60,000. What were you using the credit cards for?

Yeah, so we used the credit cards. Just a little bit back story. When we took out the loans was to pay a contractor to do work in our home, but the contractor did not finish everything that he did not actually complete what he promised to do. So we ended up having to use our credit card to cover a lot of the other expenses. We had other contractors and even people to come in and fix some of the issues that he had left with the house, along with just buying appliances and everything. All right.

What's your combined income? So maybe about $75,000. It would be close, with his two jobs Roughly about $180,000 Okay And you said that's for our undergrad When I asked you about student loans Do you guys have more student loans that's not undergrad Or you're just saying we just have our undergrad degrees

Yeah just our undergrad degree Okay perfect Alright So Stacey I need to know your why What's making you guys Want to clean all this up? Because, yeah, yeah, you kind of got a mess on your hands. And what kind of got you to this point of, oh, gosh, we got to start paying this off?

Well, one, he ended up getting a part-time job. And it's just been a lot where all of our money is just going towards bills where we find that we don't have any other wiggle room to do anything else. And then we just, on March, we'll make a celebrate our two-year anniversary since we've gotten married. So we're a pretty young couple. And my husband would like to go back to school eventually and go into medical school. And he has that dream since he was a child. So essentially we would love to pay off our debt so we can start living our lives again.

What's his degree? Right now we're just drowning. What world is he in right now? You said he's got a full-time job and a part-time job. Yes. They're both in the health field. Okay. And it's the part-time job just to help pay these bills?

Yes. Oh, okay. I got you. Well, you guys are going to have to dig out of this. Yeah. We got a plan. So, I mean, Stacey, here's that. One of the reasons I ask you why is because you're going to have to feel that really deeply

in this process because you guys have, you know, you are going to have to have a lot of intentionality because there's a lot of debt here. And so what you're going to look at, and I'm just running the numbers, like if you guys made 180, and even if you went and got an extra job, and made $1,000 more, right, you could get up to 192. Like you could, you guys could be on the brink of $200,000 income, and completely scorched earth in your lifestyle, not going on vacation, not going out to eat, doing zero more furniture buying, no renovations, no trips with friends, no celebration on the two year. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. And if you can do that and you guys could live on, let's say, $70,000 a year. You got $120,000 to $130,000 freed up and you can sit there, pay off that car.

You go down the list. So it's the car, it's the credit cards, and then next is the reno and then the student loans. So you go smallest to largest. And if you have multiple credit cards in that, then I would split those up where you have each individual card within that debt snowball. Again, listing all of your debt, smallest to largest, pay minimum payments on everything, Stacey, and attack that smallest debt first and working your way out of this. It's going to take some time and intentionality,

but you can do this. There's a time in your life and at the baby steps for renting, but you don't want to do it forever because when you rent, you're still paying for a mortgage, just somebody else's. Plus, rent means instability in your budget because it always goes up, never down. So when you're ready to buy, make sure you work with a mortgage partner you can rely on, Churchill Mortgage. Churchill is Ramsey trusted to help you make the move from renting to home ownership wisely. Churchill understands that when you buy a home the Ramsey way, your mortgage payment will be a consistent, manageable part of your monthly budget. Plus, when your home is paid off, that was your largest expense. Now it's extra money in your

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Equal housing lender. 1749 Mallory Lane, Suite 100. Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Coming up next, we have Jana in Phoenix, Arizona. Hey, Jana, welcome to the show. Hi there. Hello, hello. How can we help? Hi. Well, I'm making this phone call a little earlier than I anticipated. My husband and I have worked really hard and paid off our home. We'll have paid off our home this January.

We have our last $5,000 left on our home and will be paid at the end of the month. Oh, my gosh, Jana. That's amazing. I mean my gosh, Jana. So we're really looking forward to doing our debt screening with you guys. That's amazing. I mean, paid off and everything. Yeah, just $5,000 left. However, I'm really, actually, I wish I could be celebrating, and I'm so upset right now. My husband just left our home at 3 o'clock this morning to drive across the country to buy a brand-new truck.

I guess this is his way of celebrating, but we haven't even done it yet. Unfortunately, we're going to have to take out a car loan for a brand new truck that he is traveling across the country for. And I'm just so angry and also hurt. This is not something I agreed on. This is a total surprise. I just feel i'm so mad and angry and upset yeah and um what a big you know um what a big accomplishment we had and

now we're just i feel like we're just that clean slate that we have is just being pounded on with another um with more debt okay so was he on board all this time? He's been with you? We are the dream team. Yes. I don't know what... When did you find out about this car purchase? Was this like yesterday? He's been saying it forever. He wants this

tractor like Dave Ramsey. Oh, this... I'm like, after our house is paid off, after our house is paid off, after our house is paid off after our house is paid off after our house is paid off and obviously when we can afford it right i'm not taking out a loan and he just okay so if i heard you right okay so if i mean please don't and he says you don't even know he hasn't discussed this at all he just literally says matter of fact i'm going across the country to get a raptor like dave ramsey um i mean we've had lots of talks on this

truck and he knows i don't agree and he says says, I'll never agree. I don't handle well big purchases. Well, I just paid off a $300,000 home. I can handle big purchases. I just can't handle down purchases. So, okay. You got to give us a little bit more here. I'm sorry. I'm going to dig a little bit, Rachel. Okay. That's fine. All right. So this conversation, he's been on board and paying off the house and the debt and the baby steps but how long has the i'm going to go into debt for a raptor how long has that conversation been going on and when was the last time it was had before 3 a.m this morning right so maybe for the past two months he's like i'm just going to do it i don't care what it takes um and you say i know takes. And you say? I'm not on board with you. Not at

all. I don't agree. Okay. So while today was the day, he'd been kind of tipping his hand that he was going to go do this and I'm going to go get a loan. How big is the loan? Well, I probably, well, he's going to trade in his truck. We had another $30,000, so I think it'll be around $30,000. And how much is left on the house again? Five? Five. Yeah. So I really, in the big scheme of things, will pay it off quickly.

I'm just angry. How much do you get? Well, yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, and the anger and the hurt comes from not being heard at all. And that your opinion doesn't matter. That there's no pause in the person you're doing life with, your partner, your spouse. That there's no back and forth. It's this like dominant one way and, you know, I'm not going to listen to you. I'm going to do what I want to do.

That is hurtful in anything, right? one way and, you know, I'm not going to listen to you. I'm going to do what I want to do. That is hurtful in anything, right? And this could be a husband calling us and his wife's like, I don't care. I'm going to go do what I want to do. Like, I mean, it doesn't, you know, it's not a, you know, a wife-husband thing. It's a spouse, right? I mean, Rachel and I commiserate with you. We're here to listen, here to encourage you. But I can tell you right now, this is a marriage therapy session or two or three or six. I'm serious. That's how I feel

today, for sure. Does it sound like him, Jana? I'm curious. I'm like, is this a, oh yeah, I can see him doing this. I can't believe he's driving across country for this. Well, not that, but I'm just saying not listening to you. Not the actual idea of buying a truck, but this idea that he would go make a decision that you so adamantly do not want him to make and he still makes it. Is this a pattern? Yeah, does that happen in other parts of your marriage? No, not at all.

Not at all. We have a great marriage and great relationship. Yeah, you know what I think? I think this guy has been on board and he was like, okay, this all makes a lot of sense. But what also makes sense is after we do all this, we can handle the truck payment and I'm going to go do it. He's been telegraphing this for months. How much do you guys make a year? I brought in, I think 137 last year and he's we haven't finished up his yet but it's between 140 and 145 yeah yeah i don't think this is a crisis based on what i'm hearing but i do

think this is a this is a marital no listen i i'm trying to validate your feelings everything you're feeling i completely understand and i i completely understand you know why you're feeling, I completely understand. And I completely understand why you're feeling that. I think you should feel that. But I don't think that there's only so much. And I'm saying this philosophically. There's only so much Rachel I can do today other than say, man, we feel you. I don't think that's right. I don't think it's a good marriage move. Should have talked it through. Should have come up with an alternative plan. He knows how much this means to you. But then I will also say the reason that why I believe you guys need to sit with a marriage therapist is because I can also see, I don't agree with his action at all, but I think I'm seeing a window into this

dude. And I think he thinks it's justified and i here's what i would say not knowing him at all and if i met him for the first time i said hey uh janna just called me on the show and she told me what happened hey listen bro um i don't think you think that's as big a deal as it is it's a big deal i think he's been he's minimized it. I think so. And I think because he's justified. And because he makes almost $300,000 a year. He's crunched numbers. We're paid off the house. We have no debt.

We'll pay it off in two months or whatever. In his mind, and I'm not defending him. No. But I am trying to make maybe, Jana, you feel a little bit better. I think this is a situation where he is completely unaware of how he is truly making you feel. I think he's clueless. And I'm not insulting him. I'm saying we are all that way in relationships at times where we are in a place where we're not healthy enough

or we're not attached enough that we don't realize what we're doing. Yeah, in the truck conversations that you guys have been having in the last few months, Jana, have you said, I would love for you to get this truck. Let's map it out, and in May, let's take a road trip and go pick up this truck together. I'm so excited for this truck for you.

Did you have any excitement and celebratoriness towards this truck for him at any level? No, Rachel. I did not. Okay. No no that's fair i appreciate your honesty i appreciate your honesty time with it yes so i think that's the i think that's gonna be the relational rub that you guys are feeling is he doesn't feel yeah i'm assuming we're all guessing here that that you that you are so gung-ho on this. You don't want to spend any money. You're fear-based.

You're scarcity-minded. Life is fine. We make $300,000 a year. In the grand scheme of things, yes, in six months, none of this is going to matter. Jana, have some fun. I can't. Now I'm going to have to go make my own fun and enjoy this. And again, not the right move.

Not the right move. But right, that's his mindset. So you guys have to come together. And that's where, Jana, I would really push you and him. I hope he, I hope he listens to this call that, that, that you have to embrace the differences of your spouse and that your spouse's differences is not the enemy. And in fact, they can make you a healthier, rounded person because he's going to bring things to the table, Jana, that may make you uncomfortable, not debt, but the fun and the

spending. And he's going to bring that and you need to embrace life and he's going to help you do that. And then also he doesn't need to be a freaking, I won't say it. And just like basically middle finger your wife and go in the middle of the night and go get a truck. That was not okay. I do not agree with that.

I got to add this. Our mutual friend, Ian Cron, we were together yesterday. He said, when we're upset at somebody over their behavior, we're really irritated. He goes, it reveals in us something where we can grow. And I'm adding that onto what your advice and your insight. I thought that was really good. We're going to leave it there. Pay this truck off.

Thanks, Jana. Pay the truck off. You'll be okay. I'm sorry, though. Get a therapist in there. Be good. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. When it comes to your money, Ken, one of the largest purchases that majority of people make is their home.

Yes. And when it comes to buying and selling your home, it can be very overwhelming, right? The whole housing market, the industry, when it comes to real estate, it can be really hard to tackle, especially alone. And so that's why we created Ramsey's Real Estate Home Base. It's a place with all the tools and resources that you need to be prepared when you buy and sell your home and to give you the confidence that you're doing it the right way.

So there you're gonna find calculators, a start to finish guide, multiple of them to help you, how-to articles, a podcast, a book, and even a video course, all packed with actionable steps to help you navigate this process of buying and selling your home.

So if you're ready to take the next step towards your home goals with peace of mind ready to take the next step towards your home goals with peace of mind, make sure to go to ramseysolutions.com slash real estate, or click the link in the description if you are listening on YouTube or podcast. All right, up next, we're going to Diego in Sacramento. Hey, Diego, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you. Absolutely. My wife and I just had a baby, and we've been having a discussion about opening a college account for him at 529.

And my wife's on the side of saving as much as we can, enough to pay for his whole college tuition. And I'm more on the side of maybe not doing that just because, you know, for me, when I went to school, I didn't have that. And I think it built a lot of character in myself. You know, my parents, they provided a place for me to sleep. You know, they didn't charge me any rent. And, you know, they provided food for me every day. So I felt like I was really blessed that in what they gave me, you know, what they could. And i felt like it you know it built some character in me i worked through school and and it um you know showed me like

you know the value of money and how you know um you know what i'm paying for it for school it you know it you know it just showed me the value in it so i just wanted to get your guys's opinion on whether uh maybe there's like a middle point between my wife and i or or maybe you should just avoid it all together or or yeah saving all of it that we can and maybe that's a middle point between my wife and I, or maybe you should just avoid it altogether. Or, yeah, saving all of it that we can. Maybe that's a good thing. Well, I think this comes down to, Rachel, how big of a stressor this is for you guys when you talk about it. Are you both pretty adamant and it gets kind of tense and there's a lot of separation?

Or are you guys a couple more conversations from going, okay, I see it your way? I mean, what's the real tension level now on this? Oh, super low. I mean, we're very good about, you know, communicating. We've never had a problem with that. So when you told her your point of view, did she agree with you and go, hmm, that's interesting? Or did she go, eh, it's too old school and I want to help?

No, yeah, she said, yeah, pretty much what you're saying. Yeah. Like she, she would prefer, you know, us having more, you know, better means than our parents did. She's saying like, we should, we should afford something that we didn't have. So let me tell you, Diego, your, um, the way you're going about this and your, your heart and your thought process, I really love because I do think that our kids have to have grit. Our kids have to have a level of struggle. Our kids have to be able to know how to appreciate things, not be entitled, know how to work hard, right? Like all of these elements of who they're going to be, the character part of them, we all want as parents, right? Or at least I hope parents want that for their kids and that's what you're wanting right and so what you're thinking is you're going

to do it through the means of paying for their own college so where I would challenge you is are there other places that they can learn those same character qualities and and and also be able to have their college paid for because my parents paid for my college. And I'll tell you, there was stipulations around it. And so we had to go to an in-state school. We had to graduate in four years. And that was kind of the main barriers. So I remember thinking, you know, I want to go to Auburn University.

And I remember dad being like, all right, well, calculate the tuition and the difference between a school in Tennessee, a public university in Tennessee, minus the tuition of a school in Alabama, you pay the difference. And I looked and I was like, no, thanks. Go Vols. I'll go instead. And then it was all right. Well, now I have to take 15 hours every semester while some of my friends were taking nine. So, you know, because people will graduate a semester late or a year later and they kind of just like work their way through i had to be on a screw you know what i mean like i i had to have that schedule so i think it's a misnomer to generalize if your school is paid for you're not going to have hard work and grit i don't think that's true i think it's a way that you feel that winston my husband you know he had to work his way through not the tuition part but everything else he had to figure he had to have a job to pay rent and pay for food and all of that right so um but i so i think that there are ways

to accomplish what you want for your kids and it may look different and i'll give you one more example then i'll be quiet like can jump in but like for us right now diego we have a nine seven and five year old and winston sold his lawnmower about three years ago and we have a lawn company mow our lawn and he really really struggled with our kids not growing up watching him mow the lawn because he had a lawn care business in college and he was like i want my kids to see physical i want you know he was so hard on that on himself on that but then as we talked he was like but right now my time is better spent with them on saturdays than going and doing that what are ways now that we almost have to manufacture a life where they don't get what they want they're gonna have to work and do things to

get what they want so does that make sense i just don't to overgeneralize that if your college is paid for, you're going to be some spoiled, entitled brat. Because let me tell you, there probably are some spoiled, entitled brats whose college is paid for and isn't paid for, but it's more of the character of who they are. And maybe it's revealed to them. And I'm glad you really segued nicely for me. You didn't even know.

I'm going to throw a different angle at you, Diego, because on one hand, I love the fact that you're going, I don't owe my kids a college education, and I don't think you do. But I'm not going to qualify this. I'm just going to say this, and this comes from experience. Diego, just because you worked your way through college and you took all the benefits that you obviously did, doesn't mean that your child or children are going to do the same as you. They aren't you, number one. They really aren't. They aren't you.

They will have some of your DNA, but they are not you. And they will have different experiences. They will have different environments growing up. I think one of the challenges that we face, and I'm just being really vulnerable here that I've had to learn as a father of three, is that the things that I did,, if you played this out the way that you desire, let's say your wife just went, I love that, Diego. Let's do that. There's a really high, high probability that one or both or all of your kids, however many you have, won't deal with it the way that you dealt with it. And they may go, dad's out of his mind, the old coot. He's a goofball. And I'm going to go get a student loan because with it. And they may go, dad's out of his mind, the old coot. He's a goofball and I'm going to go get a student loan because I can. And they get it done so effortlessly.

And the very thing that you idealized and kind of thought, this is how I see it going, it would even break your heart. And so to that end, I would say, if you can fund it, you should. As an option in the 529, as we teach, I'll give it back to my partner here. It's very, it's flexible as to how you can use those funds for lots of qualifications because the world, here's the other thing. The world's changing. The world is changing so quickly right now. What will higher ed look like when these babies are to that age?

You and I have zero clue what it's going to look like so I hope that perspective helps you I don't think it's as easy as you just going this is how I want to be because that's how it was for me and I get that if anybody gets that believe me I actually talk like that sometimes I mean is that you know me well I'm trying to be transparent i think that's true and i think and again i want to reiterate diego the sentiment of what you're longing for your kids to have is so good like that is so good absolutely because we want our kids and you're right to be able to do that but i think that there is i'm like there's there's different other and there's so much between and like have them pay for their car when they're 60. There's things you can implement along the way.

Have them try an instrument, a sport, a hobby. Let them fail. And they're going to. And the world's hard enough in general. They're going to bump up against it. But I think you can create an environment within your home between now and 18 that creates, you know, I knock on wood, I believe this and I hope it's true. You know, not perfect kids, but kids that

you are able to shape under your household and you as a parent get to put some of those guard rails in place. And if you give them everything they want, are they going to be more spoiled? Sure. If they got to work and figure out and problem solve, then that's going to be good for them too. So I think there's ways you can do it.

But thanks for the call, Diego. Thanks for all the guys in the booth. Thank you, Ken Coleman. Thank you, America. We'll be back. Live from Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. I am Rachel Cruz hosting this

hour with my good friend and bestselling author Ken Coleman, and we are here to answer your questions. So give us a call at 888-825-5225. We're talking about your career, your life, your money. So give us a call. Up first, starting us off this hour is Gary in Houston, Texas. Hi, Gary. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Absolutely. How can we help? Well, I'm going to be 79 in March and I work. My wife's retired and can't work. And I've got myself into, we have got ourselves into credit card debt probably the last 20 years. 50, that's the right figure, $53,000. In credit card debt?

Yes. Okay. And I did start at Baby Steps. Good. credit card debt yes okay well I did start at baby steps good I got I got 2,000 in the bank uh over about I don't know how long it's been probably six months in between that time I hit triple a bypass surgery and went in the hospital for 12 weeks and couldn't work oh my gosh at a grocery store and produce um lift about Lift about 2,000 to 3,000 pounds a day in produce, you know, bananas and stuff like that.

I don't know how long I can do that, but I came back out of the operation probably healthier than I was before. What do you make? That at that store, the total. Your total. If I work at the store at 32 hours a week, it's $7,000 a month. $7,000 a month off of 32 hours a week? See, I got $5,100 in retirement.

Okay, you're giving me your total. So you got $2,000 at the grocery store. Okay. So your total income is about $7,000 a month. And when you say retirement, are you pulling from retirement that you have? Is that social security? What is that? I've got two retirements out of New Mexico, one out of out of school teacher out of one about one out of louisiana my wife has a fina retirement um and two social securities okay and that's gonna okay so all that equals about 5100 about 5100 right okay um how much margin do you have in your budget what's your what's the the bare bones amount of money you two need to live on what's that number i i have that figured um that's what that's what i thought i'd be able to pay off the smallest credit card but there is basically no money i'm current with all the cards i tell you what help

me with that answer first do you know because of budgeting, what it costs you guys just to live? I'm not talking vacations. I'm not talking... This is like food, keeping the lights on, gas in the car. That's right. Basics. Okay. $3,413, $3,323, and $3,400.

So that was $7,400. Okay. So you've got some margin in there. $3,400. $7,400 to live. $7,400. Okay, so you got some margin in there. $3,400. $7,400 to live, $7,400 to live, $7,000 income. It varies. Okay, tell me, what's causing you to pay $7,000 a month in lifestyle? What is causing that?

Is it the mortgage? The mortgage is the house is worth $320,000, and we have about $190,000 on the balance. How much do you pay a month on the mortgage? $1,650,000. Okay. Give me, where's the other $5,000 going? Let me get to that page.

Sorry, I'm slow. No, you're fine. Okay. I know the car is going to be a real problem, but we have to have a car that will get us out 400 miles or 500 miles away once a month with both sisters that live 500 miles a long way away, and I can't do a beater. Anyway, car insurance is $300.

Cell phone is $250. The basic monthly is $3,400. And there's hospital bills that come from my wife and mine, but it wasn't mine until the operation. But she has a lot of medical problems. $2,500 a month. Credit cards are $2,300. Okay.

And what's the car loan? $800 with a... How much do you owe on the car? I'm not sure. We just got it a year ago, so I did not look that up. That's probably... It was under...

We put 100,000 miles on a car every two years. So we're always have been the last six or seven years. We've been what he's called upside down. Yep. Yeah. And I can't, I bet that's probably what a $30,000 car. It's 35. Yeah. I think it was, okay. All right, Gary. I found a solution, but I don't know if it's going to be any good or not. What's your solution? I have a mortgage with Rocket Mortgage, and I can take out a consolidation loan through the mortgage company.

You don't need any more debt. What's your total debt number um with the car a little bit everything and medical 88 88 000 is with the car and how much medical do you guys have i don't know on mine yet i haven't got all the bills yet but hers was 2000 2000 okay so you guys 90 and then yours will probably be, what, $5,000-ish maybe? Yeah, probably. So you guys are bumping up to $100,000 in debt. Okay, so Gary, if I were in your shoes, and what do you have in retirement?

I know you guys were pulling pensions because of your teachers. Do you have any like an account, a retirement account somewhere that you're pulling money from either? No. Okay. It's all monthly paid by them. So I think what's hard about this, Gary, is the mindset at which you have thought through some of this. And I'm going to just give the car as an example. We can't have a beat or we have to have a nice car because we drive this. There's some absolutes that you're putting into your life, which I understand from a family dynamic and all of it. But if you want to get out of this, some of those are going to have to ship for a period of time. They're going to have to shift for a period of time,

not forever, but for a period of time. And I would, if I were you, I would call the hospital. I would negotiate the medical bills. I would look to sell this car. If you were able to get a loan for the difference, that's what I would do. And I would get a beater for now because that's going to lower all of your debts down

to basically the credit cards. And I would call, I mean, you're current on the credit card, so they're not going to go to collections anytime soon. And I probably wouldn't recommend you doing, you know, not paying them so they go in collections. So I would start, you you know slowly paying some of this off but if you can if you can if you can get back margin in your budget and the quickest way I see that honestly Gary is this like eight hundred dollars um you know that's going out to this car

loan if there's ways to eliminate some of that to free up money to be able to pay this off, it's gonna take you guys two, three years or so to dig out of this. But I think that's your only option or you're gonna just keep going down this road that you've been going down. So if you do want something different, that's what I would say.

But if you hang on the line, Gary, Kelly's gonna pick up and we're gonna get you with a financial coach because I want you guys to really kind of work through some of these numbers. That way you have some some peace of mind during this time in your life. Thanks for the call. Welcome back to the Ramsey show. Up next, we have Austin in Tucson, Arizona. Hey, Austin, welcome to the show. Hi there. Thank you for taking my call.

Absolutely. So to get right into it, my question is I've got 10 grand in a checking account, not doing anything. I have a Roth IRA through Charles Schwab and a Robinhood account. And I'm just debating where the 10 grand should go. All right. If you did the Robinhood account, what are you wanting to invest in? Are you

doing single stocks? Are you day trading? What's going to be in that? Just mostly ETFs. I do the S&P through there as well. It's a little more risky than the Charles Schwab high yield, large cap, whatever ETF. It performed significantly better this year than the IRA. But with the tax benefits, I guess I'm just confused. For sure. Do you have any debt, any consumer debt? No. And do you have other liquid cash available for like an emergency fund? I do have an emergency fund. Okay. So great. Well, for the Roth IRA, I think the max is 7,000.

So I think to max that out, you could use part of that 10 to do that which is what I would do I would go ahead just max out your Roth I mean honestly Austin it sounds so boring and not exciting but if everyone maxed out their Roth every year you retire a millionaire I mean like seriously it is such a simple great place to put your money long term and since you already have some money that you don't need to get to this quickly, that's what I would do. And then I would look at your next kind of financial goals, because at that point, are you a homeowner? I was. And then my brother and I split and I took the equity from that.

That is a portion of where the 10 grand is from. Okay. What's your next housing move? Oh, sorry. What was that? Or what's your next plan for housing? I'm with my parents temporarily. I'm 23, so kind of in between that weird phase of figuring it out

but not wanting to go and rent right away. What's your next big purchase purchase if you had to guess i've no no kids no wife uh i have an older car that uh is running fine right now but how old it won't be uh 2012 how many how many miles 188 yeah the reason i'm asking this rachel i'm going, if I'm in his shoes and I've got $10,000, he has no debt, he's got a fully funded emergency fund, and you are contributing the 15%, right, of your income that we teach? That's about 25% right now.

Okay, all right. In that case, I'm going to look at the $10,000, and I don't disagree with you to put it in the Roth, but I also go, if I meet him and I got an older car with 188,000 miles, you start to go, okay, how many more miles do I think I'm going to get out of that? He's got the emergency fund to fix that car. But you're looking at maybe one to two years max on that car. I would start to me, I almost think about, do I keep that in savings for that next major purchase? Yes. Something to think about. Well, my question to you, Austin, is if you're

funding 25% into retirement, which I wouldn't do, honestly, I would back that down. So you had more cash to do exactly what Ken's talking about, but where's that 25% going? What are you investing in um it's right well my income is not very much i'm uh you know okay i'm college student part-time bartender oh my cash okay put it into the the robin hood and the roth okay okay well you're you're doing an amazing job by the way at 23 i think it's great but i'm kind of with ken there's a part of me that in the next five years so kind of our rule with investing and it's kind of loose so take it or leave it is that kind of that five-year mark so if you know you're going to have that you don't need the money in five years investing in the market lets it ride the ups and downs where you actually

get a gain at the end if you need the money in less than five years, then I would put it in something like a high yield savings account or a money market account. And because you're 23, Austin, and there's going to be so much transition in the next five years for you, I'm going to broke back a little bit of mine. You can totally use this and invest in the Roth. That's not wrong. But I do think you're going to have some major transitions coming up in the next five years, whether that's finding a job in a different city, that's going to be buying a new car, possibly a down payment on a house. You know, you think about you're 23 now and, you know, 27-year-old Austin, I could see,

you know, being very mature and successful in his job and looking to be a homeowner, right? Like there's a lot that this money could do for you down the road. To that end, Austin, you started the call by saying, well, I got $10,000 in an account not doing anything. Well, in this case, it's doing something. It is going to be buying you a replacement car or whatever. And so I'm not trying to talk you into buying a car right now, but I just think if I were you, I'd probably build on that cash because again, you're going to need a vehicle. And I would take it out of your checking. That's right. And I would just

do a high yield savings. And some of them, you know, it's four, some 5%. I mean, like, you know, some of the rates of return, they've gone down a little bit, but they're, they're not bad right now. Again, for what you need in the short term. so if you needed that money in two years and then you build upon that having some cash available is not bad and and i'll say this too austin that um you could get you can go to uh ramsay solutions.com and use our investment calculator because as much as we talk about which i definitely believe the earlier you start investing the better off you're going to be but But also investing, starting a lot, you know, really doing a lot at 25 is okay too, right? So you're already doing some investing, but don't feel like you have to just like throw all your money in investments

right now. Having some set aside that you can get to with some of these big purchases coming up is wise as well. Awesome. Yes, that is a very good point. That does bring up the question as far as taxes go. If I were to put it in a high yield savings, what does that look like when I need to use it in two or three years from now versus the long-term capital gains tax if I were to take it out of a Robinhood account. Yeah. So there would be, yeah. I mean, if you did put in investments, you will be paying taxes on the gains of that. You will not be doing that in a high yield savings. You will not pay taxes on that. Which is why we're saying that. That's the right move for you. Okay. Yep.

I feel really strongly that you can do whatever you want to but i feel pretty strongly that the 10 000 right now is best sitting there and it's not sitting there not doing anything you're going to add to it incrementally for something that you are going to need it for and i feel like the car is coming around the corner maybe a deposit on an apartment hello i don't know if this helps austin but you know even with my husband and I we have like our checking accounts we have our emergency funds we have another high yield savings that we just like put money in extra for savings and then we do our 15 investing and that funds that extra fund that high yield is just what we're kind of telling you to do you kind of have that extra fund beyond the emergency fund and we use that when we have to replace a car

if we go on a trip or, you know, whatever it looks like. So you can be investing because you're on baby step four, which you are. So continue to invest your money. It's going to be a small percentage because you're a part-time student, but continue that rhythm. But then anything above that, again, I would have continue to build upon that high yield savings account because there's going to be some stuff to purchase in the next couple of years for you. Maybe a lot quicker. Maybe a lot quicker. Yeah. I know it's always impressive when people like a 23 year old's like, do I invest in Robin Hood or Roth? I like the fact you're even asking these questions, Austin, I think is fantastic. But yeah, investing is one of those things that sometimes we get so aggressive

and we do talk to people that they invest 20, 25% of their income, kind of like what Austin was saying, but they're doing this on a full-time salary. And back that down. You know, the 15% is aggressive enough. Most people are only investing three to 4% of their income in general.

But with the baby steps, that 15% really catches you up if you feel behind. And it gives you a lot of margin if you're at that point early in your life. If you're in your 20s and you're doing 15% of your income into retirement after you're debt-free with an emergency fund, you're going to be doing great. So no need to do more than that. Have the other spare to pay for things in your life that come up as you need them. So thanks again for Austin for the call.

We appreciate it. And we'll be back after this break. Ken Coleman. Yes. You're a busy guy. You got a lot of things happening. Got a lot of things happening. Well, you know, it's got a lot of things happening got a lot of things happening well you know it's not a lot of things uh one of the uh top sellers in the ramsey store online that's

right is one of ken's products that's absolutely incredible it's the get clear assessment and it's literally helped thousands and thousands tens of thousands of people when it comes to getting a really clear picture for the work that they are really wired to do, that they would love the most and be the best at. And also your new book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do, actually comes with that assessment. But it shows you the big questions in life. You ask these of who you are, why you're wired the way that you are, what you want to do professionally, and how to get there.

Scary questions, very intimidating for people. And what the assessment does is give them a very detailed report. It's not a personality profile. It's going to give you three key findings. A, your most gifted talents or where you're just the best at, what work really fires you up, what work you enjoy doing, and then what results motivate you. You don't have a problem getting out of bed in the morning when you see that your work is creating results that you care about. So that's the methodology. And the book itself is a coaching manual. Once you get your assessment results, the small book can take you about 45 minutes to read. Super simple. But it picks you up at the end of your results. Now I know what I'm good at, what I enjoy doing,

and what motivates me. Now, Ken, how do I take that information and get clear on the type of work that would really fire me up and give me the opportunity to make the most money? So that's a very practical, tactical assessment and book. It's called Find the Work You're Wired to Do. The assessment comes with the book, by the way. Yeah, so great. So go to ramseysolutions.com slash store and check that out. And yeah, make your next career move, life move with a lot of confidence knowing who you are. Simple methodology really helps out.

Love it. All right, let's go to the phones. And we have Nisha in Atlanta, Georgia. Welcome to the show. Hi, I hope you all are doing well today. We are. Thank you for calling. How can we help? Yes. So my question today, I recently experienced my employer. They were started with documentation for a garnishment for me. And the process has started. And I just kind of wanted to see what would be the best way to navigate through this. What caused it? What's the story behind having your wages garnished?

So it's from an old credit card from a few years ago that I completely forgot. It went into collections and yeah. Did they ever get a hold of you before they started garnishing your wages because that's really the last big step that they take they did not and the the paperwork that was um presented to my employer had an old address on it um so and i i guess someone was signing for the mail when they delivered it there. So I never received, um, the paperwork for court or anything. Did they sign your name? I'm assuming so.

Um, it was shown that the, like the certified mail was, um, retrieved by someone at that address. Okay. Well, that's, yeah. I mean, from a legal standpoint standpoint it has to be obviously you and if you're not the one getting you know this mail and the one signing it um and then the fact that they go in and go straight to your employer is your checking account the same account do you have the same account you had when you opened that credit card like is all your banking still the same all

those years later? No, it's not. Okay. And they came into your employer. And how much are they garnishing? Everything? No. So they're garnishing about 20%. How much is on the credit card?

It is a little under $2,500. Do you have cash to be able to pay that off today? I don't. I wish I did, but off today i don't i wish i did but right now i don't do you have any money even you know four hundred dollars no um the initial they started the process um so from the last pay period they took a little over 350 um for it and i i was having a communication with the collector um because I tried to settle it for a lesser amount but they stated since it was under five thousand dollars there wasn't much that they

could do for me as far as lowering it. Okay what what do you do for a job? I'm a patient a patient care coordinator at an audiology practice. It's a private-owned small business. Okay. And how many hours are you working? I would say roughly about 37 hours a week. I'm full-time. I'm salaried. Okay.

How much are you making per month? How much is hitting your checking account? I would say per month, I would say my growth before taxes is around $4,200. Okay, and after taxes, do you know? Maybe around $1,700. $1,700 after taxes? Yes. That can't be right.

Per paycheck, maybe? I'm biweekly, yes, per paycheck. Per paycheck, okay, there we go. Okay, I was like, oh, no, that's not right. So $3,400 net, is that what I'm hearing? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, so I don't know, I mean, what is the question?

What can we help you with? Because I don't know that you can do much here and in some ways I'm kind of going well you gotta you gotta take your medicine here and you're gonna pay this off pretty quickly with the garbage I was gonna say I would get yeah and I would get an extra job I would make in a thousand bucks and get this paid off yeah two and a half months I mean seriously, seriously, I would just be like, yeah, get a little aggressive. It's only 2,500 bucks. Right. And that's the thing. So I do have a second job. My dilemma is right now I have a two hour commute. Um, really it's a four hour commute to and from home every day. So I haven't even been able to be in a position to really. Okay. Hold on. Tell me,

tell me where do you live and where are you commuting to so i live in a small town um it's commerce georgia i don't know if you all have ever heard of that i actually have i lived in the atlanta area for 11 years so i have heard of commerce georgia so where are you driving to so i'm commuting from commerce to east cob every day good heavens i wouldn't wish that drive on anybody. I know what it's like to live in Atlanta. You know, it's been said that if you go to hell and you live in the South, you're going to drive through Atlanta to get there. That's how you get there. It's specifically 285. And for people that are listening in GA right now, they know you don't get to hell without going on 285. Right.

So what can we do about that? How many hours did you say that is? Two hours each way. Four hours a day? That's not sustainable. You can't do that. Yep. So I'm trying to move, which was when I accepted the job offer here, my full-time employer,

my plan was to move. So I was getting all of that in the works looking for something in the area and this happened so of course it kind of again a little bit of fear yeah but listen that you can do this rachel already told you a couple things you could sell i'll bet you got a thousand dollars worth, minimum, that you could find. You can get another job, you know, move to overtime, move somewhere. You don't have to move to Cobb, but there are multiple places that I would recommend in the Atlanta area, you do your homework, where you can get a roommate even, whatever you got to do, but you got to get this thing out of your life. It's only $2,500. So either you go get a job to make up for the garnishment or you pay this thing off faster so the garnishment stops.

That's all this is. But you got to stop driving from Commerce to Cobb County. I mean, I honestly, and I'm not having fun with this, but I honestly feel awful for you. Yes, it's exhausting. I know what Atlanta traffic is like. That's absurd. That's torture.

Because, I mean, cut it in half. Is there a place an hour closer in? Even then I wouldn't do it. No, I know, but I'm just saying at least make it halfway. Yeah, we've got to make our life better. In the next month, you've got to be making some moves. Make our life. We got to make our life better. In the next like month, Nisha, you got, you got to, we got to, we got to be making some Just attack this. I think my advice is simple on this.

It's just happened to this. I think you're letting life happen to you. And you're so kind and sweet. Oh, very sweet. Nisha, you just, yeah, you got to get in there. Bless her heart. Man. That, I'm not kidding.

They're laughing in the booth, but Kelly in there, she knows she's a Georgia girl. Oh, she knows. Atlanta's terrible. I would sit in LA. I would not wish that on anybody, that commute every day. I mean, it's sitting in traffic. God bless her. One of the nicest people I've ever met who has to deal with that.

Yeah. Wow. You're too nice for that traffic, Misha. You really are. Move closer. Yeah. Get a job, an extra job, that extra second job and pay this off. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the call. If I never ride on 285 the rest of my life, it won't be soon enough. Welcome back. Our scripture of the day comes from John 14, 27. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be

afraid. Les Brown said too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. Ouch. Man, fear. It's a real real struggle. Real struggle there Ken. You know what? Real quick, just before we's a real struggle. Real struggle there, Ken.

You know what? Real quick, just before we get to the phones. I think it would be fun for people, and if you don't want to answer, you don't have to answer this because this is all unscripted. Is there a fear that you still deal with when it comes to money? Just curious. A fear that I still deal with when it comes to money. And maybe you never had major fears. I don't know um I I still always ask and want to look at the numbers and that kind of thing um that like okay we're good

right so like we did a pool this year uh we waited five years saved up for it and as we were cash flowing it's because we don't use debt here um you know some of these were some big checks that we are you know and I'm like okay and looking at our high yield savings and making sure okay and then winston was doing real estate at the time too right he's flipping houses so making sure that everything is going according to plan so i um a big check and a big check gives you pause and i went a little scarcity mentality on a couple a couple of months i was like i won't i think i need more money in that like to see it. And one's like, well, we're good because next month we'll get the, you know.

Did you slow down the pool because of it or you just went with him? I just went with him because it wasn't logical. My fear wasn't logical looking at the numbers, but I felt this pause. So how did you overcome that? I think it's when you put your emotions aside and you look at numbers and you look at the reality i mean truly there's a thing we always say facts are your friends right we say that a lot here and it is true when you live it out you can kind of create a worst case scenario in your head yeah but if the facts aren't saying it sometimes the facts do and we got to face

that reality but the facts there it wasn't there but i but i did feel that when did you uh finish the pool um we gosh when was that uh it's when we got back uh january 3rd i'm gonna say oh so just like last oh yeah we just jumped in it when i we did a cold plunge okay i feel better just this is gonna be an awkward moment james because i don't remember getting an email invite you I want to be like Cousin Eddie. Because we finished. She comes home one afternoon and I'm in the wife beater and the bathing suit and the big floaty. Just jumping in.

Malik-alik-i-maku is the thing to say. One of the best Christmas movies ever. Come on. It would be hilarious. No, but I know. And we finished the pool in January. Uncle Kid's in the pool again, Mom. Call the cops. Get the pool in January. Uncle Kid's in the pool again, Mom. Call the cops.

Get the restraining order. We've told him enough. Ken, stay out of the pool. Get out of here, Ken. Get out of here. All right, enough of that. Any fear for you? Money, career, like in your repertoire?

Yeah, you know what? I think I fight the fear of provision, right? And not at this stage, I'm not like fearful that I'm not going to be able to provide a, you know, a home and utilities and all that. But I think that's how it always was. I think when you, just cause I didn't come from any money at all and saw my mom and dad scrape having no idea until many years later, how tight it really was. Yeah. But I think that my fear is always around provision. And so now it's moved instead of, now it's no longer the basics.

It's a good car for the kids or the good college. You just think, I want them, there's just some of that. Am I giving them everything that I should? There's a sense of duty there uh and sometimes those fears and again that's real quick how you get into that keeping up with the Joneses and you you you write extensively about that um and so I think that for me is where my fear with money comes in and then maybe a little bit of FOMO I'm being very vulnerable right now I didn't expect you to turn this on me. I hang out with wealthy people. I don't think that's so vulnerable.

I have wealthy friends. Well. I know that sounded really, that was a real jerk statement. It's not. Let me sip my tea. No. My point is, I talk about this in the proximity principle. Hang around with people that are more successful than you.

That's what I'm talking about. But you have to fight their normalcy compared to your normal. I'll give you a real example. For anybody that follows me on Instagram, the day after Christmas, I'm in my buddy's barn that's not even close to a barn. It's a brand new pickleball court. Oh, I saw that. You know this friend. Fantastic.

When you hang around with more successful people, and by the way, I recommend everybody do that. But you have to also keep, and this is where I'm saying i'm being vulnerable you got to not get into that comparison thing you got to be humble because when you walk into their house sure and their toys yes are really nice yep and you go i'd like a pickleball court in my backyard in a heated barn sure that would be good the fomo yes i hear you I'm just saying yes I'll leave it at that gotta be careful about that fear yes oh yeah for sure and that's that's the uh that's the gut check that's the ego check right in all of this of like okay okay be happy not that I'm not happy for them no but it's like don't get in your head and go I sure would like another house this

big and why did I miss the boat there? And should I have that? This is all real. 100%. I think that's a fear that I deal with. Yes, that's totally fair. Well, that was an interesting, fun discussion. As Les Brown says, you know, too many of us are not living our dreams.

I think you're living your dream, though, Ken. You're not living in your fear. And I'm not living in mine. I am. And we don't want you to live in our fears either. I'm a very blessed, blessed guy. All right, let's head to Detroit. Detroit.

Adam. Motown. He's up next. Hey, Adam. Welcome to the show. Hey, Ken. Hey, Rachel. Let me start by saying that I did dumb and I'm trying to figure out if it's already stupid

tax time. Woo. Oh. Can't wait. Tell us what happened. In the fall, after three years of hunting, my wife and I found a house that we bought. And it was the first offer that we had accepted in those three years. And I turned into a stubborn mule.

I was not going to let this house go at all. Basically, I made the joke that it could be haunted. I'm still buying it. And now I'm eating my words. Oh, no. What's happening? The house has so many issues. We did an inspection. It flagged several big-ticket items, and I really didn't listen to my wife's concerns

when she got a little bit uneasy about that. Oh, that's going to make the stupid tax hurt even more. Yep. Yep. That's the number one dumb thing we're going to do. Oh, I feel for you, bro. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I feel for you, bro. Yeah. Oh, man.

I hate when I do something stupid, but I hate when I do something stupid that Stacy said it's probably stupid. Don't do that. Okay, so tell me what's going on. Give me numbers. Give me numbers. Yeah, house was a half million dollars. Okay.

We put 10% down, and we've already put probably $25,000 to $30,000 in extra repairs after that, and we probably have another $20,000 to go before. Are you cash-flowing those, or is that debt? Yes. Okay. It's cash flow. We do have the cash. Oh, that's okay.

It's more of just me feeling like, wow, I made a terrible decision, and now I don't know what to do because we have a house that we can't even move into. Probably another two months of repairs in, like, moving condition. And you'll have cash the whole time for this stuff. Correct, yeah. And once it's all done, Adam, in these next two months, is it a pretty good, stable position then? Like, you feel like you've got the big stuff handled,

and it's a great house beyond that? It'll basically be good enough at that point. But every room in this house basically needs to be gone through after that. And that's the rub. We can address the problems in that next two months time frame, but there's probably some other things lurking behind the scenes. Can you get enough lipstick on that pig to be able to sell it yes is the short answer and the only reason why if it were just myself this thing would be gone tomorrow the only reason why i'm second guessing myself on what to do is i didn't listen to my wife the first time and now

she's concerned that we might just end up falling into another bad home down the road. So she wants to stay? She's leaning towards staying just because she's concerned that we might just be having terrible luck with homes in the grassland. No, that's not rational. I understand why she's saying that. But yeah, there's rational ways. If you sold it today, what could you sell it for? About $510,000.

So we'd probably end up taking a small loss that we could handle in the grand scheme of things. Yeah, I mean, I would get someone in there. Yeah, I'd get someone in there, though, that you trust and is really reputable and try to get as much of a ballpark of the overall, right? When you're like, every room needs something lurking. Find all the answers before you make this decision. And then with all the facts, you guys together, and yes,

her fear, I understand it. Not rational, though. You guys can still find a great home somewhere else. But if it's something that you guys are going to have to work on over and over and over again, that's exhausting. And you probably don't want to do that. I just got a great idea for a documentary that needs to be shot. It's called You Were Right, Babe.

And it's all the stories from men around the world who didn't listen to their wives' guts. I love it. I think it'd be a huge hit. Oh, well, this is The Ramsey Show. Remember to take control of your money and create a life you love. you