The Ramsey Show - App - There Is No Magic Pill to Get Out of Debt (Hour 2)
Episode Date: January 9, 2020Retirement, Home Buying, Debt Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/...2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR
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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios,
it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king,
and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.
I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us.
Open phones at 888-825-5225.
That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is going to be Chris in Oklahoma. Hey, Chris,
welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. My pleasure. How can I help?
Yes, sir. So my wife and I, we're new to the FBU program.
We're currently in Baby Step 2, like we just started Baby Step 2.
I'm kind of stuck in a rock and a hard place on something I need to make a decision on.
And so our situation is that we're roughly about $75,000 in debt.
Um, and a couple of years ago I lost my uncle to cancer.
Um, and through that unfortunate event, I inherited his motorcycle, which was like his pride and joy.
Um, and so I'm trying to decide if it's best that I get rid of this thing, uh, to get out
of this debt.
And I just don't know what to do.
What is it worth? Um and i just don't know what to do what is it worth
um i honestly don't know if i'm looking around on uh the nada guide it says roughly maybe 7500
to 9500 and uh what kind of bike is it it's a 2004 harley davidson ultra classic schreiner
wow you ride it?
About 5,000 miles on it.
Yeah, every once in a while.
I mean, I have kids, and I try not to do it too much.
You were close to him?
It's nice to be able to have him.
Yeah, yeah.
He actually bought himself a new bike every year.
He was a business owner, and he did pretty well for himself.
But I never got to ride with him.
I would just always talk to him about that kind of stuff.
What's your household income?
Between both of us, our net income is about $70,000.
Okay. And you have $75,000 in debt to clear? Correct.
What's the $75,000 on?
Student loans and then credit cards and then also some personal loans as well.
No car debt?
No, sir.
Okay.
All right.
What are your cars worth?
We have one car, actually.
The company I work for, they allow me to drive their vehicle, but we have one family car,
and it's probably
worth only about $6,500, but when I took out a personal loan, they wanted to have a
lien against that vehicle that we have, so.
Okay, so you do have a car loan against that car.
Okay.
Correct, yeah.
All right.
Well, here's the thing.
It does not fix your problem to sell the motorcycle.
It helps, but it doesn't help that much.
It's 10% of the problem, right?
$75,000 in debt, $7,500 motorcycle.
If it was just your toy that you bought, I would sell it in a nanosecond but this is a one of a kind
because it was his it so it has some um you know it has some emotion tied to it that is legitimate
and personal finance is just that it is personal and so if I were in your shoes, what I would do is work the plan really, really hard,
cutting lifestyle, working extra jobs, selling everything else in sight,
and try to hold on to it.
But if it means your family's financial future, then I'm selling it.
But I don't think it does today.
Yeah, I kind of feel like if he was in my shoes,
he would want me to make the right decision of saying,
hey, you know what, it's more important that you have your things set up right for your family like I had at one point.
Agreed.
But here's the thing.
It's 90% of the debt left over after you sell the motorcycle.
Right. It does you sell the motorcycle. Right.
It does not solve the problem.
What solves the problem is all the other stuff I was talking about.
You and your wife being on the same page.
You're on a written budget every month.
You don't see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there.
And don't talk to me about a vacation.
You got to clean up this mess.
That is 90% of your answer.
10% of your answer could be the motorcycle so if i'm in your shoes i'm gonna just crank down the lifestyle to nothing to where the kids are
screaming about how bad and how poor we are and all that and i'm gonna be working extra jobs and
i'm gonna be selling other stuff and having a garage sale and uh put the dog on ebay the cat on craigslist you know and and uh let's see how this goes for six months if the motorcycle
does change sell if selling the motorcycle does save your family and set them up for the future
then i agree with you i'd sell it um but it does it you know if it was 50% of the debt, I would sell it.
Oh, sure.
You know, it's 10% of your debt.
So I'm going to make a run for six months at this at keeping it.
If you're not getting traction, you know, at the end of that six months,
you want to sell it.
It's not doing anything wrong to sell it.
But it's not, you know, if it was a $50,000 bike, i'd sell it in 20 seconds until you get over your hurt feelings you know yeah you know but but for this i'm i would make
a run at keeping it because 20 years from today you're kind of going to wish you had that
probably maybe i don't know for 20 year old, it's going to be fun or not.
But there you go.
Hey, good question.
Thank you for joining us.
So when I was in college,
I lived in the family lake house, they called it.
The cabin, they called it.
That was a romantic description.
It was basically a, didn't have heat okay so just telling you how
wonderful the family cabin was we put heat in it to live there we later added an air conditioner
while I was there and I stayed live there three years while I was in school it's 26 miles from
campus and I wrapped my car around a tree in a snowstorm my senior year in high school.
My grandpa, who lived up in town, loaned me his 1967, which even then was old, pickup truck, lime green, three on the tree.
That means it was a straight shift, and you changed gears on the tree that means the uh it was a straight shift and you changed gears
on the column of the steering wheel if you've never driven a three on the tree
and uh i would give anything for that truck right now i wish i had that truck in my garage right now oh man oh and uh he passed away years later and i was not in a position to
buy the truck that it was sold as a part of the estate sale and to the neighbor across the street
who's a good guy i'm glad he got the truck but man it was in perfect condition had just a few
miles on it he drove it nowhere i drove it more while I was getting my car fixed than he did in the two years previous.
You know, I would have, I'd do anything to have that truck right now.
So there's stuff like that you think about when you're 60 years old, and that's when I was 20.
That you kind of want to think about that.
If you cannot have to sell something to get your family straightened out.
But if you've got to sell it to get your family straightened out. But if you've got to sell it to get your family straightened out,
you always take care of your family.
This is The Dave Ramsey Show. I can't believe 2020 is here.
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Today's question is from Katie in New York.
Dave, my husband and I are due with our first child in January.
Well, congratulations.
Do I continue contributions to my 401k while on maternity leave?
Am I still eligible for employer matching?
In the event that I do not return to work immediately following my leave,
what type of rollover is recommended?
Well, if you are on baby step four, yes, I would continue my contributions.
And as long as you're making contributions, your company is going to match them
because you're still employed there.
At the point that you leave your company, you always roll over your retirement account
if you're able to, your 401K, your 403B, your 457, your TSP,
even a pension if they allow you to take a lump sum.
You always take it with you.
And by that, I mean you direct transfer rollover into an IRA in mutual funds.
And we always recommend four types of mutual funds.
That's what my personal portfolio is in.
And that's growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international, and all
that have good long track records that outperform the S&P, and those are available. And that's what
you're looking for, and you roll over a direct transfer. Now, direct transfer means that you
go to your SmartVestor Pro, and you fill out the paperwork for the new IRA with the mutual funds,
that paperwork then is sent directly by the SmartVestor Pro to your HR team. The 401k check
is cut or whatever it is directly into the mutual fund, directly into the IRA. It's a direct
transfer. If they send you the money to put into your IRA, they are
required to withhold 20% on it. And you're required to roll it all over. And so if it's $100,000,
they're sitting on $20,000. You can only put $80,000 into your investment. You have a $20,000
tax problem because that money becomes taxable until you can get it out of there the next year as a tax refund.
So major problem.
So you want to do a direct transfer.
Don't let them send you the money.
Brianna is with us in Arizona.
Hi, Brianna.
Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Hi, Dave.
It's great to speak with you.
You too.
What's up? So I started listening to you
back around September, October time, and I've been on fire since. I'm engaged, and I'll be
getting married in about four months. Way to go. Thank you. And I've had kind of a hard time, you know, getting him on board for when we are married and we should get the ball rolling.
He has a lot more debt than I am and he's an accountant. So I think that might be where my challenge comes in.
I tried bringing you up in October, and it didn't go well. He mentioned he felt that I guess I was, like,
undermining his knowledge of finance in a sense.
So how old is he?
He's 25, and I'm 26.
Yeah, okay.
And how much pre-marriage counseling did you do?
None?
None yet. You need some. I've been looking into places. Okay. And how much pre-marriage counseling did you do? None?
None yet.
You need some. I've been looking into places.
You need some.
You need to get in touch with your church immediately or your friend's church immediately
and have someone counsel you guys in pre-marriage counseling.
This is not a financial issue.
Your husband-to-be does not respect your opinion.
That's not good.
Right?
Okay.
Let me add to it, okay?
The number one cause of divorce in North America today
is money fights and money problems.
You are going into your marriage
disagreeing about the area that causes the
most divorces. Danger, danger, danger. Does this mean put off the marriage? No, but it does mean
get this solved. It is vital that the two of you get on the same page. You know, my youngest child is 28 and married two years ago, okay? So if either one of
you were my child, I would be up in your grill, not because I'm Dave Ramsey, but because this is
such a vital area of you having a high-quality relationship. Regardless of Dave Ramsey or what
you heard from me or him not believing in me, that's not the point.
The point is he's unwilling to listen to you, and you're not in agreement on debt,
and he's an accountant who's deeply in debt.
That's weird.
He's a mechanic whose car is broken.
Yeah.
That's weird.
And he's insecure about it and unwilling to talk to you about it and
you undermined his authority he's 25 he doesn't have authority
he has an accounting degree so now that's a dad talking did you hear me
that's your old uncle dave telling you the way life is.
So it's not about whether you follow my plan or not, okay?
I really want you guys to do the pre-marriage work that you need to do
and get on the same page on this money issue.
And it's just vital that you do because you're going to struggle in your relationship
and you're going to struggle in your relationship and you're going to struggle
in your uh finances unless you can get on the same page and stay aligned uh i just i have um
i'm sorry one one more quick question so today he actually um texted me which is why i called about
wanting to buy a house next year, which obviously we're
not ready for. So that's why I called, because I figured it could be a good, like, segue into
getting on the same page and, you know, finding our why. But anytime I bring up a budget, he
kind of goes back on, like, oh, budgets are unrealistic and, you know.
And he knows a lot because he has nothing but debt.
Exactly.
So, see, you guys have got, you really have some issues here that you're going to have
to get solved.
I just see all kinds of danger.
And I don't want anything but good things for you and for him. But you guys
are already having major stress points and arguments over the number one cause of divorce.
That is a very big deal. And so you really, really, really need to do the work to get that
solved. Please, please do not marry this guy unless you can get on the same page.
I think you can do the work and get on the same page,
but he's being an arrogant little twit right now, and he really is.
And, you know, he's unwilling to listen to you.
He's got all the answers.
And the problem is I know this guy.
I used to be him.
And life will knock
him down until he quits being that guy.
Uh, so that's, yeah, please, please, please let's get past this.
And the two of you sit down together and get some pre-marriage counseling.
And that's, you know, please don't get married unless you can get on the same page. You're going to, he's going to, he's going to treat you this way on other issues.
Every time you bring something up, he rolls his eyes and goes, you're not smart. That's what I'm
hearing. And that's not going to be okay. That's not going to work. Catherine is going to be up
after the break. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for
joining us, America. If the number one cause of divorce in America today were anything,
you would make sure that item, if you filled in the blank on that and you were engaged, you would make sure that item were handled. If the number one way you die is a
certain thing, you would avoid that thing, right? Because you don't want to die. This is not, I mean,
this is simple. So you really do have to look at this stuff and realize that you're not the
exception to this. All of us are not the
exception to this. The borrower is slave to the lender. You're not the exception. I'm not the
exception. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Business leaders, right now you have the opportunity to take your business to the next level this new year.
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In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Ricardo's with us.
Hey, Ricardo. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Thank you, sir.
Where do you live, sir?
Palmdale near Los Angeles, California.
All the way to Nashville to do a debt-free scream from L.A.
Yes, sir.
Cool. How much have you paid off?
$60,000.
$60,000. And how long did that take?
22 months.
22 months. Excellent, man.
And your range of income during that two
years? I started off at $35,000 and last year I ended up at $65,000. Good for you. What do you do
for a living? I'm a professional driver, aka truck driver. Okay, good for you. Cool. So what kind of
debt was your $60,000? A little bit of everything, pretty much normal. I had about $22,000 in student loans,
$19,000 on a car, $16,000 in credit cards, and the rest on personal loans. Wow, okay. So were
you listening to us in the truck? Yes, a lot. Okay, all right. Podcast or XM? Usually in the
YouTube channel. YouTube channel, okay, cool. Very cool. So what happened
22 months ago made you go on this journey? Well, it's kind of out of nowhere. I was one day,
I was listening. It was actually on November 9th, 2017. I was just listening and wasting time on
Facebook. And one of my cousins actually, she shared one of your videos because she
was taking FPU at the time.
Oh.
And I think, I believe it was your dumping debt video.
So, you know, I was curious.
I'm like, well, I have debt.
You know, let's see what it's all about.
So I listened to that video and at that moment, I felt like you were talking directly to me.
Everything you said, you know, I felt I was
going through and I was like, it just makes so much sense that, you know, why haven't I thought
about this before? One of the key moments that I remember was in that video, you said, take a
moment, you know, close your eyes. Now think about how it would feel if you had no payments, no debt, nothing.
I remember I closed my eyes and I just exhaled.
And I felt this burden just go away.
Wow.
And I was like, wow.
I'm like, just by thinking of not having it, I felt that release.
I was like.
What would it be like to really get rid of it?
Exactly.
I was like, I'm doing this.
All right. I'm doing this. Game on. Yeah. I love it. And so you tore into it. What was the key to getting out of debt for you in that 22 months? Definitely the budget. Definitely
the budget. You know, you just need a plan. You need a guideline to tell your money exactly where
to go, what to do and what you need to accomplish.
I think for me it was a little bit easier to get on board because prior to that,
I was already in this self-improvement journey.
So I was already listening to Zig Ziglar, Les Brown, Graham Braun.
Oh, that's the best.
Brian Tracy.
Oh, all the good ones, yeah.
And so to me, after listening to your videos and all your podcasts and everything,
everything correlated together.
Some of your sayings I just found similar to Les Brown and Zig Ziglar,
and I was like, it connects.
It just makes sense.
So that's one big thing.
Like Zig Ziglar says, if you don't have a goal, if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every single time.
Which, especially with money, that's what happens.
You don't have a budget.
It goes here, there, here, there.
Then you're wondering where it went.
So definitely the budget.
Also, work, work, work, work.
And you also have to be, you have to basically decide that you want to do this.
If you don't decide you want to do this, you'll always find some kind of excuse,
some kind of reason to not do it or try to find a caveat and always find a do-ish basically.
Yeah, you can find an excuse to lose. Exactly. Exactly. And, um, um, and then you have to be willing to sacrifice.
Um, you know, you won't, you won't, you won't reach a goal unless you sacrifice and you put
your mind to it. Um, because everything good requires, you know, some sacrifice.
Wow, man, you're on fire. Proud of you.
Thank you.
So did you tell your cousin what he caused?
Yes, I did.
I did.
And she actually joined me here today.
Oh, wow.
Good.
Okay.
So she's been number one cheerleader then.
She's definitely one of the top ones, yes, number one.
Who were your other cheerleaders?
My family, my sister, you know, my father, other relatives, you know, that would, you know, like most people, you know, maybe it's not for me, but I'm glad you're doing it.
Yeah.
So, you know, they were definitely cheering on and, you know, encouraging me.
Yeah.
Way to go, man.
How's it feel now that you did it?
You have that feeling you thought you were going to have when you watch that video?
Yes.
And more. Yes, definitely yes definitely just peace financial peace yeah just a relaxation where you
know i don't have to worry about this payment that payment this bill that bill i'm done i'm free yes
yeah very cool very well done very well How long have you been driving truck?
I've actually only been doing it three years.
Like I said, I was on this self-improvement journey, so I was feeling stuck,
and that's what caused me to be on this self-improvement journey.
So I switched careers to truck driving, and now that I'm debt-free, you know,
now I can take my time and decide what I really want to do when I grow up.
Yeah.
Because like most people, I did it to out-earn my stupidity.
Yeah.
And it just won't work.
Yeah.
It won't work.
You won't ever out-earn it.
Well, you got this dialed in, man.
I'm proud of you.
Thank you.
And Mr. Zig has passed away, as you know, but I'm sure he's proud of you.
And Les is a friend, and he lives in your area there in L.A. Yes.
And I'm sure he's proud of you.
He's a good man.
So good stuff, man.
Very well done.
Thank you.
Very well done.
All right, Ricardo from los angeles sixty thousand dollars
paid off in 22 months making 35 to 65 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two free yeah way to go dude we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you number one bestseller
everyday millionaires and your self-improvement journey you're on is going to take you there
you're going to be an everyday millionaire so we're going to show you that stuff that's the
next chapter in your in your book next chapter in your story very very, very, very well done. So if you ever get a chance to listen to the famous Zig Ziglar talks, they're classics.
He's the master.
And for that matter, Les Brown as well.
Look Les Brown up on YouTube, you guys, and watch some of that stuff.
He is fabulous. He's the guy, the first guy I ever heard that said you will change your life
only when you become sick and tired of being sick and tired.
When you get hungry, not hungry, hungry.
When you get hungry, you'll do it. You know, there's just so much to this idea that you have to get mad.
You have to get visceral about changing it, where you finally say, I've had it.
You'll hear all that from Les Brown.
And he's a great motivator, but it's exactly true.
It's exactly true.
He's a wonderful world-class communicator and speaker,
but it's exactly true.
You will change your life when you finally say, I've had it.
Not when you get your intellect tickled with a new idea.
Doesn't do it.
Sorry.
It's only when you get disgusted.
You say, I've had it.
I've had it.
I'm not going to live this way anymore.
When you reach that healthy level of disgust that Les talks about and that Ricardo found, that's when you change everything.
A simple little exercise.
Close your eyes.
And don't do that if you're driving.
But close your eyes.
Think about what it would feel like to have no payments.
No MasterCard. No MasterCard.
No American Distress.
No student loan that's been around so long you think it's a pet.
No, baby, you're free.
Breathe that.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
Catherine is in Canada.
Hi, Catherine.
How are you?
I'm good.
Thank you so much for taking my call.
It's such an honor to talk to you.
You too.
What's up?
So I just have a question.
My husband, a little back on my husband, I went to a free financial course yesterday
and it was just about money.
And we're like, okay, what the heck?
Let's just go.
It's free.
And they were saying it's better to do a line of credit instead of a mortgage because you
can pay more of the principal and interest at the same time instead of a mortgage.
And on the drive home, my husband and I were like, oh, would this be something Dave would
do? What Dave would do?
What would she do?
So as I'm calling in, I need to know what you think.
It's a scam.
Okay.
They wanted to charge you $3,000 or $4,000 to show you how to do that, right?
Well, he said it was free.
No, you went to the free seminar.
Yes, yes.
Yeah, but didn't they have a course to sell you on how to do this?
They wanted you to join their thing? No, no. He said it was free. the free seminar yes yeah but didn't they have a course to sell you on how to do this they want
you to join their thing no no he said it was free they do everything they'll show you what to do and
everything they just want to help people get out of debt and pay off their mortgage faster yeah
okay but i don't know it's it's all it's also false okay so aside there's a scam there's a
scam going around it's not a scam but it's just a it's just a rip off where they're charging three or four thousand dollars and teaching people to get a HELOC and
then use that to pay their mortgage into their HELOC then pay it back and forth and and they
try to convince you that that pays off the mortgage faster here's the deal okay whether
you have a HELOC or whether you have a mortgage there is only one way that it gets paid off.
When you pay the amount that you owe, called the principal,
and when you pay the interest that you owe.
And, of course, the faster you pay down the principal, the less interest there is.
In either case, that is true on a mortgage that is true and on a uh on a HELOC it is true
okay so what happens is that your interest is calculated on a mortgage monthly
and it's calculated on a HELOC monthly so example, a simple example would be if you had a 6%, which would be unusually high, but it's an easy example.
That's a half a percent a month, 6% divided by 12.
Okay.
So whatever you owe that month in outstanding principle,.05,.005 on that, which is a half of a percent, is your interest amount.
Anything else you pay above that reduces the principal.
Okay.
In either case.
It's called a simple interest calculation, and that's how it's done in both cases.
So there is no magic pill to get out of debt.
Yeah. The way you get out of debt. Yeah. The way you pay, the way you
get out of debt is you pay off the debt and it doesn't change if it's a mortgage or if it is a
HELOC. So these guys are running something. I can't tell exactly because they didn't figure
out where they're going to charge you yet. But it sounds like that other thing that was going
around a few years ago.essica is in texas
hi jessica welcome to the dave ramsey show hello hi what's up i am calling because me and my husband
actually my husband introduced me to listen to your pod and your podcast and i've actually been
listening to the past three nights. We've saved money.
We have paid off four of our credit cards, working on three other ones.
We plan to have them all paid off by February 1st.
Good.
We are, yes, we are trying to buy our first house at the end of the year,
close to August, September area.
Phenomenal.
But I'm running into an issue.. But I'm running into an issue.
Yes.
So I'm running into an issue.
My husband, his parents live with us because his mother had multiple heart attacks last July.
And his stepdad has early signs of dementia.
And then we have three kids.
So we were pre-approved for $450,000 on a house loan. I honestly am scared to pay for a house that's $450,000
because our goal was to pay it off in 10 years,
and it scares the living devil out of me.
So I was like, maybe $400,000 to $350,000 is more realistic,
but I know we're going to need a bigger house than what we already have now.
So I just wanted to get some advice, like how should we
move in the process? Should we just buy the bull and spend the $400,000, $450,000 on the house loan?
What is your household income?
We make roughly $150,000. If my husband works overtime, which he does, it will be $175 by the end of 2020.
Okay.
And you're out of debt February 1st.
Then you have your emergency fund in place of three to six months of expenses next.
That is baby step three.
Yes.
Then you save your down payment, and that puts you into a position to buy late summer, early fall.
Correct?
Well, we have our car loans.
They have to be paid off before you buy.
Yes.
So that's our goal.
I have a bonus coming in, so it's going to pay one of our cars off.
So are you debt-free February 1st or not?
No, just credit card debt-free.
Oh, not counting your cars.
When will the cars be paid off?
My husband's truck will be paid off in February, probably March.
I don't want to overextend ourselves, but probably March.
But my car won't be paid off for another maybe two years.
I'm scared.
I don't want to pay.
You don't buy a house until your car is paid off.
So pay off the car first.
You need to be debt-free, completely debt-free.
Okay.
How much do you owe on your freaking car?
My car, I owe $20,000.
We just got it.
Okay.
So why don't you just pay it off?
Why does it take two years?
You make $175,000 a year.
Let's just pay it off no that's what we're thinking but i'm just scared that we're going to overextend ourselves how would you overextend yourself you're broke
and buying cars you can't afford you're already overextended okay i don't want you i don't want
you to pay it off and not have money for your current house payment or food or something like that.
But that car is in your debt snowball.
You list all of your debts, smallest to largest.
Pay minimum payments on everything but the little one.
Attack the little one in the next one, then the next one, and then the next one.
It sounds like the order of the three debts is credit cards to his car to your car.
Sounds like your car is the largest debt of the three.
It is.
Okay.
And going to attack it in that order.
And so now you're not buying a house until this time next year.
Because you need to get this car paid off,
and you need to have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses,
and then you need to save your down payment for your house.
At that point, let's go back to your original question.
Once you're debt-free, once you have your emergency fund in place,
and once you have your down payment, then the most house you should buy,
the absolute maximum is after you put your down payment down,
whatever your loan balance is, the payment on a 15-year fixed rate
should not be more than one-fourth of your take-home pay.
Your husband have money coming out of his check right now for 401K?
He does, yes.
You should stop that temporarily until you achieve these goals.
Okay.
Temporarily.
So let's knock the debt out, get the emergency fund, get the down payment, and then buy a
house where the payment is no more than one-fourth of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed rate,
and let's go that way.
And if you do all that, you're going to be fine.
But that's going to be this time next year.
You're not going to be able to do all of that by fall, now that we introduced a $20,000 car payment into this
equation. So you need to be debt-free. If you buy a house with debt, you are asking for trouble.
I want you to buy a house, but I want it to be a blessing and not a curse. As you said, I don't
want you overextended. I don't want you stretched by your house. And as soon as you
move in a house with that, Murphy will show up. If it can go wrong, it will. He will bring his
three cousins, broke, desperate, and stupid. And this house will become, everything's going to get
messed up. This house is going to become a problem. One of those elderly relatives you're
taking care of is going to have some kind of a medical crisis. All kinds of stuff's going to happen as soon as you buy a house while you're
broke. Never buy a house while you're broke. It makes you broker. That's why they call them
brokers. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
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