The Ramsey Show - App - This Is Belligerent Incompetence! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving and storage studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose and host of the Ken Coleman Show on Ramsey Networks is my co-host today. He talks a lot about jobs and careers and work. You got questions about that, this would be a good day for you to jump in and do that,

but we're going to help you with whatever you need. We're talking about your life. 888-825-5225. Jackson baltimore hey jack how are you hey dave and ken thanks for taking this call sure i'm just going to find out um if i should move forward with uh selling my home or taking a chance um to remain in it and possibly sell it next summer. Here's the issue that's going on right now. Currently behind close to $70,000 on my mortgage. You're behind $70,000? Yes.

How much is your house payment? House payment is about $2,300, so that's about 20, about 2,300. So that's about two and a half, three years. How in the world have you gotten two or three years behind? They haven't foreclosed on you. Um, oh, it was COVID. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. So they're just not getting around to you. The post COVID foreclosures are catching up now. Okay. So have they started foreclosure yet? Uh, no, they haven't. I went through the loss mitigation process, which was a grueling process. My application was accepted.

I did receive a trial payment plan this past Saturday. The payments, well, it's a three-month payment plan. The payments are feasible. Definitely can afford it. However, on this past Monday, I received a letter from my lender stating that my loan was being sold to a new lender. What kind of a loan do you have? FHA, VA, or conventional? VA loan. Okay. The loss mitigation was approved by the VA then. The lender, it'll go with the loan.

Okay. The new lender will honor this. Okay, alright. And then the other thing is, during this process, since we were just waiting to hear back if we were going to basically receive a payment plan or not, we put our house on the market. We did receive an offer. If we were to move forward with the offer, it can potentially, after the payoff amount, net us close to $100K. Okay, let me ask you this. Why are you three years behind on your house?

Lost income. For three years? okay are you back why did you why did you not work for three years uh disability reasons okay um so was the disability permanent uh yes it's permanent and i just started back working again within the means of my disability. So what do you make? Right now, household with my wife, about just a little over $200,000 as of right now with the new job. What was the nature of your disability, sir? I mean, from physical ailments to mental ailments, I'm a 100% disabled veteran. Oh, okay.

Okay. Well, thank you for your service. Yes, sir. Which is another reason you got lost mitigation from the VA. Okay. How long have you lived in this house? For about five years, I believe. About five years.

If I'm in your shoes and I've been through the hell that you all have been through um the last thing i want to do is uh walk through mud knee deep for the next many many many many months trying to get current when i have a good offer on the table that gives me a fresh start i'm selling this puppy and taking a fresh start clean take the whiteboard, erase everything off the whiteboard. Now we've got a fresh, clean, grace-filled windshield looking forward. If I look in the rearview mirror, I'm going to see some piles of poop. But looking out the windshield, it's clean. You follow me? Yes. And I really personally like that kind of fresh start feeling. You've got a real opportunity to do that here

um it involves moving which is a pain in the butt but you know you make 200 a year you got 100 in your pocket and this problem is gone i really like that yeah okay you see why do you get you see it's not really a financial thing as much as it's emotional and you're going to end up either way you're going to end up, either way, you're going to end up with a house. But you're going to have to go through, I mean, every time you pay double, triple payments, it's like a bell going off in your head reminding you of the disability you just clawed your way through.

But if you don't have that, you just got a fresh new life, then you got a fresh new life, then you got a fresh new life. You know, you don't have something reminding you of the past every time you write a dadgum check. You know what I'm talking about? Totally understand. And I, I, so I just think there's some mental health to that.

If I'm in your shoes now, I've never been in your shoes, literally where, where I served and I, you know, came home, you know, with disabilities. And I've never had that problem. But I have had the problem of my past following me around. We all have had that problem, right? And so I can relate to you in that regard. And I just, I personally love a very clean fresh start that's why i like when someone uh for instance goes through a divorce make sure that everything is

paid and clear and clipped we don't keep paying payments together we're not married anymore get it all cleaned up get it separate you want the x to be an x you know you don't want to half but still be tied in. Well, we got the kids. Make that the only thing you got together. Everything else needs to be clean because that way you can get on with the second chapter of your life, the third chapter of your life, whatever it is. You can't close the last chapter.

And I just want to close your last chapter for you because I care about you. And I just, I hear it in your voice. I want the cleanliness. I'm taking the deal. I'm gone. Yeah hear it in your voice. I want the cleanliness. I'm taking the deal. I'm gone. And take your time. If you've got to rent for a season, do it. You've got a great combined income.

Yeah. Assuming that it looks like you're pretty healthy, you're cleared, the best is yet to be here. And I think Dave is absolutely right. I wouldn't even think twice about this. I would clean it all up and begin the process of re-entering he's been in a long season of healing and hurting and all the stress of the house i i absolutely agree dave i think you absolutely right here this is new square i think you're i think your wife's gonna

feel like that you took you took a you know like she's been walking around carrying something on her shoulders, and she gets to set it down. Yeah. Like, breathe. Yeah. Clean, cool, mountain air, peace. That's what I want here. That's what I'm after. And I want to just, on behalf of Dave and our entire audience, point out that Jack's a true American hero, a great American that would put his life on the line to serve our country and have to deal with all this junk. This is tough stuff, and we're really hoping and praying and cheering you on that this next chapter is going to be the best. So thank you for who you are, and you got this. We're going to walk alongside of you.

You got it, Jack. This is The Ramsey Show. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Lindsay is in Bangor, Maine. Hi, Lindsay. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave and Ken. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, my father passed away this Sunday. Oh, my. Two days ago? Yeah, two days ago. I'm so sorry. How old was he? He was 62. Young.

What was his name? Michael. So what are you, in your 30s? I am, yep. I'm so sorry. What happened to him? He had cancer. So it's been coming a while.

Yeah, about a year. Oh my, honey. How can we help? Well, he left me some money and I'm kind of freaking out because part of it was cash that he gave to my aunt to give to me upon his death, but he had just been saving. And then part of it is several smaller life insurance policies and his house and vehicles and some other cash in the bank. And I'm back at baby step one again for the second time due to to i had a baby and then um our income went down so we've been working on um getting back to baby step two and restarting the debt process again we paid off about so you're his you're his sole heir all right well um i have two brothers that also are receiving a portion of one of his life insurance policies,

but they didn't have a relationship, so he left a majority of it to me. So you have a car to sell, a house to sell. I assume there's a will. There's a will. There's a will. And to me, the thing I worry about the most is the money I have already, the $17,000 he had in savings that my aunt just deposited in my account yesterday. I just am very worried that I was hoping to be through my, that free journey, um, before he passed. So I wouldn't, he, he worked his whole life, um, to, to save and to leave something behind. And he was extremely frugal and didn't spend money on himself because he wanted to have

some money, um, for us. And what are you worried about? I don't want to, I'm, I'm worried that the money is just, I want to honor him and I want to be a responsible handler of this money. And I, I'm worried where we're back in baby step one. I don't, I don't know how to handle it. I don't know if I should use it towards our debt-free journey. I had thought about giving it back to my aunt and having her hold onto it for me for a little while and keep working the plan as we were. Let's stop a second, okay? If someone I love this dearly died two days ago, this is not the decision I need to make right now.

Okay? You're trying to talk through a heart that's hurting and make math decisions. So what I want you to do is take the $17,000 out of your account, go open a savings account, a six-month CD or a three-month CD, and it's not attached to your checking in any way, and just pretend like it's not there for a little while. You do not need the weight of losing your father

and the weight of worry about you misbehaving with the money at the same time. Yeah. It's too much. It's too fresh. It's too raw. Yeah. You give yourself room to cry, okay? And let's just hurt about losing him for right

now and we'll worry about the money stuff when we can breathe a little better is that okay yeah yeah yeah so here's what i want you to do i want you to work through the estate stuff as whenever you can but just keep it all separate for two or three, four months, five months, and get where you can breathe. And then when your head is a little more clear, because you're a human being that loved her dad, okay, you've got to give yourself a little room for that. And when your head's a little bit more clear,

then you sit down with your husband. I take it you're married the way you've been saying this, right okay well you kept saying we are on baby steps i'm making sure you and you you just had a baby so that's what i was going with okay so um you sit down and say all right we're going to go through financial peace university and we're we're going to dial this in we're going to get on the every dollar budget and we're going to work these baby steps exactly, and we're going to use dad's legacy to do that. But the only way I can do that and keep my sanity is to know that we never go back.

Our habits are permanently changed. You and him have to make a pact packed pinky swear and spit shake, right? You have to make a contract with each other because what's scaring you is that you're going to, your dad works so hard and you're going to mess this up. That's what's scaring you. Yeah. And what keeps you from messing it up is two things.

One is you commit to this system and two is you and your husband make a pact that we are sticking to this and the reason we're doing that is to honor the legacy of my dad because that's where this freaking money came from and so you have a real reason to do this right going forward don't you yeah yeah but you don't need to do any of that today that's later on when you can breathe and the bad news is is that we're having this conversation today the good news is it's on a podcast you can listen to it in four or five months and it'll make more sense is that okay yeah yeah and we're going to help you we're going to put you through financial peace university we're going to pay for it okay so you hold on and austin will get you signed up and you can get on every dollar but i would just take any go you work through getting the house

sold the car sold and every time something sells or you get another chunk of money in from a life insurance policy just throw it all in that savings account just keep that side savings account you get a big old pile of money over there it's continuing to add up and then when your head clears you can take that money and drag it right over into the baby steps and go but that's after you have some confidence from a contract with your husband that we're never going to do anything except these baby steps exactly this way. And you have some confidence that you've dialed it in. You believe that you're going to do it because you're going to have a different kind of broken heart called regret. And that's what you're afraid of if you mess this up. And you're not going to mess it up because now you've got a real why.

Honoring your dad's legacy is a great why yeah you need to forgive yourself lindsey we've all done dumb with money we've talked about it on the air and there's a there's something hanging on you right now and i think what you have to do beyond what dave said is you just gotta forgive yourself you just gotta know i'm not an idiot i'm not a moron and and i've got a plan though and the plan helps you're just like everybody else so we fell back we're on baby step one again that's right so i remember when i went bankrupt i had to do that yeah it took me a little while it not only stole my confidence but i also was pretty pissed at myself. And so I finally had to come to this real conclusion with the language in my head is just because I did some stupid things does not mean I am by definition stupid. That's correct.

That's right. Smart people sometimes do stupid things. And I was a smart person that did a bunch of stupid things and it bit me in the butt. Well, welcome to being human. Yes. And so I can forgive myself for that. that did a bunch of stupid things and it bit me in the butt well welcome to being human yes and so i can forgive myself for that it's but i'm not going to identify i'm not going to say my new identity is stupid person that's correct no my new identity is a person who never does those stupid things again yeah that's right that's my new identity i'm tired of learning that thing over

and over it's time to move i've got plenty of new stupid stuff to do i don't need to do the old ones twice there's always that chance. Hey, hang on. We'll get you signed up, kiddo. If you need some more help, you call us anytime. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down.

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CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budgets at chministries.org slash budgets. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Amy is with us in Chicago. Hi, Amy. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi, thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? My question is, is it comments or debt that you paid off to come off your credit report and then return on your credit report the next month? Just a little bit of context. We just finished Baby Step 2 in July. My husband and I paid off $28,000 in student loans in July. It came off of our credit report. And then last week I got an email saying our score has increased by 78 points.

And then our loans are listed again. Okay. 78 points um and then our loans are listed again okay um no that's not common um it's um so here's the thing 52 of the credit reports have errors 36 of them have errors that are so egregious it could keep you from getting credit. Yeah. Okay. So this falls in the category of error, obviously. And I think I know how it happened. I'm not 100% sure what to do about it.

There's a couple of things you can try. But what happens is that these massive companies, in this case the student loan servicer, they do downloads usually quarterly of their database to the credit bureaus. So what happened was a single item was removed as a single item, and then when they downloaded their latest data it still had your student loan in it they hadn't taken it out of that piece of data so when they did the batch download you were in the batch again that's what put it back on there i'm pretty sure okay so if i would do two things to get it off. Number one, call the idiots. This is the problem with student loan servicers.

They're absolute morons. I mean, it's just you've had to deal with them before, right? I mean, it's like, are your parents cousins? I mean, what is wrong with you people? You know, it's just they can't find their butt with both hands. It's ridiculous how inept they are. But there's nothing you can do about it except fight through the bureaucracy so call them like 62 times because that's what it'll take and tell me get the stupid thing off your credit report again because it's paid off would you please note the file is zero

balance now please turn that into whoever what who is it experian or who is it yeah yeah and and poor experian they're dumb as they are too because they just take whatever these people send them and load it on there right with no thought whatsoever that it might be full of errors by some goob that didn't key you know entering key data that doesn't care so um this is what you're dealing with just a a whole bunch of in-app people that don't care. So that's one thing you can do, is call them two or three, four times, maybe they'll take it off again. The other thing you can do is with any debt on your credit report, you have the right, according to the Consumer Fair Credit Reporting Act, federal law, to dispute in writing any item on your credit bureau report if they do not repair the error within 60 days you have the right to require them to completely completely remove it, the whole item, as if it never existed.

Okay? And so what I would do is just dispute this item, send it to Experian, return receipt requested, or FedEx, so you have a date of delivery, proof when the 60 days started. Okay, you have 60 days from this date to prove the accuracy of this item. It is inaccurate. It should be a zero balance. Okay, you have 60 days from this date to prove the accuracy of this item. It is inaccurate. It should be a zero balance.

If you have not corrected it within 60 days, you will be forced to remove it. I will force you according to the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. Write that down. Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. So any of you that have an error on your credit report, that's how you get the error fixed. Now, here's what normally happens in the real world, not the land of law and theory. In the real world, when you do that, almost never – so Experian will send it out to the loan servicer, Navient or whoever it is then, right? You know, the loan servicer is almost always too incompetent to respond within 60 days.

So Experian will hear nothing back from them to correct the error within 60 days. And so then you'll go back and go, you haven't heard anything. Take it off. Now, the problem with that is the next time they download a batch next quarter, it may show up again. Yeah. That's possible okay but and so uh i you know i probably i'm going to go ahead and do both i'd fire off the letter federal fair credit reporting

i get the 60 days started and in the meantime i'd start calling navi and or sally may or whoever the flip this is and just wearing them out no that's their new carrier now so it's who no that oh yeah yeah great still not any better but i mean no nope have you called them yet by chance have you already called but did you already call them i have yeah i called they say a zero on their end so they're they're not sure why it shows up like that is what they tell me yeah well here's what i'm sure of you reported it to him wrong that's what i would tell him so you guys need to call you need you need to send a note over and tell him to take it off like now or i'm gonna file suit on you people and by the way ma'am what was your name i'm gonna just you know i want to get the person on the other end's

name because i won't blame you in the lawsuit so you need to get off your assets and get this fixed. Right? Jack them up. Jack them up because they deserve it. And, you know, I'm not going to be mean until they just persist in their, you know, belligerent incompetence. And then we can turn it up. We can turn it up. We can make a hobby out of you people, you know. And that we can turn it up. We can turn it up. We can make a hobby out of you people,

you know. And that's what I would do, you know, because you need to get this off of there. And the problem is if you were dealing with normal human beings, you just call up and they go, oh, my bad. I'll call and get it off. Okay. But we're not dealing with normal human beings. You're dealing with student loan servicers and credit bureaus and it's just the it's like dumb meets dumber you know and it's just god what a what an aggravating industry it's just there's and it's just so so that you know don't let me help you guys with this life hack okay some of you are going oh i've got bad credit on there i could lie and write it and dispute it they'll probably never correct it so i can make them take the whole thing off well that may work but it'll be temporary

until they download next quarter's batch of data and then you'll be right back on there so you've wasted all your time so you've got to go to the root and dig out the dandelion otherwise it's going to keep showing up on stinking experian transunion whoever whoever you're dealing with over here so um you got to get the thing dug out by the root and the root in this case lives over at the student loan service or god help us yes by the way uh two things she's going to be okay she knows that but you just have to stay with it so don't freak out if that happens to you. And also, I've got to mention again our student loan live stream event. We've got a free event coming up. Dave Ramsey, Jade Warshaw, and Rachel Cruz.

We're going to give you a lot of solutions on getting rid of your student loans, but none of them have anything to do with that call. None of them at all. But when we mention student loans, I've got to mention that because there's just so many people that are underneath this thing, it is coming it's like a it's like a freight train coming uh payments started accruing in september interest starts accruing in september payments due in october yeah and so that's a reality coming to a lot of people so i think piper moved to uh washington dc now it's time to pay the piper. There it is.

I'm just thinking. I was wondering where your guy liked that. It's not bad. I think he's got a new address. His new zip code is D.C. That's right. You got to pay the piper now. Yeah.

And I'm sorry, guys. Some of y'all are really facing some hard times, and we're going to help you. The name of the company is Ramsey Solutions. Why? Because we got some solutions. None of them are magic. That's right. None of them are magic. That's right. None of them are easy, but they all work.

So it's that easy, that hard. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash studentloans. Sign up for that free live stream. Why do they make it so hard to pay off debt? You know, they make it easy to get, but that whole call illustrates, they make it real easy for you to get into debt, any type of debt, student loan, credit card, anything. They don't want you to have it paid off that's right collecting the interest that's the point we have that navient former employee you know with their identity held on a borrowed

future documentary yes talking about how they trained them to intentionally screw up the loans so they stayed on the books and they kept collecting interest oh my they trained them to do that they're freaking crooks this is the ramsey show ken coleman ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us, America, open phones at 888-825-5225. Ryan is in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Hey, Ryan, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Mr. Ramsey, Mr. Coleman, thank you both for taking my call today. Sure, what's up? So, we are in baby step four, five, and six, me and my wife.

And we've been married for almost two years and found out yesterday that we have a baby on the way yay thank you sir appreciate y'all um so my question today is this um i know i've heard in previous shows that you recommend us pause the baby steps when we have a baby on the way um but should we pause baby step number four or investing no if we have no you've got that would be if you're in baby steps one through three where you don't have any money but now you've got a fully funded emergency fund yes sir yeah how much is in your emergency fund we got 15 000 okay you're fine you got good health insurance to cover labor and labor and delivery yes sir and i'm actually one of those guys that has an emergency fund for my emergency fund so we have about six grand and another

savings account so we already have the money you got you got twenty one thousand dollars laying around to cover deductibles and whatever else you got good health insurance you don't you know you what we what we're talking about when you push pause is when you have just no money you got a thousand dollars in the account and you're trying to pay off debt well you don't need to be there with a baby on the way so you push pause and pile up cash build up an emergency fund essentially right and then you push play again and start reducing your debt after baby comes home and push pause and pile up cash, build up an emergency fund essentially, right? And then you push play again and start reducing your debt after baby comes home and mommy and baby are healthy. But in your case, you're in baby step four, five, six, you're already there.

So, no, you don't need to do that. Okay. Well, that's good to hear because I really didn't want to lose that momentum when it comes to investing. Yeah, you're doing great. And now you get to thinking about opening up a college fund in nine months good yes sir yes sir and we're we're excited uh about john deloney's new book we're we're excited about uh purchasing that and getting that in october so we uh definitely appreciate all you guys and what y'all do but uh we just

wanted to know about that because we didn't know if we needed to pause or if we needed to keep on going because i think you're in good shape brother congratulations thank you thank you for calling in mckenzie is with us in tulsa hi mckenzie how are you hi dave doing great thanks for taking my call sure what's up well i'm active duty military and my husband's a stay-at-home dad at this time due to my career our family is expected to move at least five times over the next 15 years or so. We don't want to be long-term renters, but how do we get in the housing game and build equity at this point? You don't. You should be a long-term renter with rare exceptions. I would invest in a mutual fund, build you up a house fund so at the end of 15 years you can just pay cash for one,

get a mutual fund aside and pay up a house fund, so at the end of 15 years you can just pay cash for one, get a mutual fund aside, and pay yourself a house payment into that. But you do not want to be buying. You're going to lose your butt, Mackenzie, jumping in and out of houses every two or three years, by and large. Because the equation is the house usually in three years, unless it's a very unusual real estate market, does not go up enough in value to be able to sell it and break even. You'll lose money, number one.

Number two, most military markets, if it's a small town and the economy of the town is largely supported by military, there's always a flood of military houses on the market. So there's always an extra supply, and so they don't appreciate, and it's hard to sell. Now, there's exceptions to that. So no rental properties either. I'm sorry? No rental properties either.

No, you don't want to be long-distance landlording across in military markets everywhere you've been stationed. Oh, no, that's a nightmare. No. You talk about, that's a nightmare. No. You talk about having a house torn up. My God, the Harley oil will get changed in your living room. You know? No, that's the last thing you need to do.

You don't want to be in the rental market that way. That's rental property by default, not by plan. Now, there's a few markets that's an exception. You know, if you were in virginia which is the largest naval base in the world right you've got enough you've got a big enough economy there that those houses in the d their proximity to dc and everything else what they'll they will appreciate or san diego you're doing navy and you land in san diego you're probably going to appreciate enough in three years to get in and out of it and actually make some money but in none of these cases are you there long enough to have that real estate story of

the house doubling while you're there the only the only question is can i get out of it in other words is the market vibrant enough to actually sell the stupid thing when i leave and will it have gone up enough that i can sell it and make money on it? And you can actually pull those statistics. It's average days on the market, DOM. You can have a realtor pull them. What's the average days on the market for a house here? If you've got average days on the market of nine days, then you've got a vibrant, hot real estate market.

You can know you can get rid of it when you get ready to leave. You've got average days on the market of 270 days. That's a nine-month sit. No. And some of these markets will have that no you can't that means you're stuck you're going to become what's known as a motivated seller and get yourself in a pinch i know it's aggravating it's but it's part we work with military we work with military for 30 years all over the world and we love you guys we appreciate what you do serving your country and the last thing we want you to do is get stuck in a stupid house. This is not a popular opinion, is my guess, but I would take advantage of military housing, base housing when you can. I know it's not desirable

for everybody, but you've already decided to make this long-term commitment to serve. And to your point, Dave, if you take advantage of that and you're investing in a mutual fund in your entire career, you're going to come out with a and you're investing in a mutual fund in your entire career, you're going to come out with a massive, massive payment on a house, maybe able to buy something cash. And I think that's the long-term thinking that if I was in the military, I would be thinking about. There you go. Michael is with us. Michael is in Fort Collins, Colorado. Hey, Michael, how are you? Good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Real quick, get to the point.

New to your system. My fiance and I are getting married in a month. We just purchased a house. I had a house before we came into the relationship, and so did she. I just sold my place. The thing about putting hers on the market, and we don't know whether to put it on the market or keep it, and use our funds together to go towards our new house.

I was doing, like I said, I was new to your program. I didn't know I was doing the whole Dave Ramsey thing. So you were already a responsible adult before you met us. Oh, yes, sir. Way to go. Congratulations on the marriage, Mike. Good job, man. Thanks so much. So how much do you owe on your current

home that the two of you just purchased uh so a total home is 800 000 that's the mortgage no no that's the price the house no what's the mortgage oh uh on her house no your house one of my house i just sold no the one the two of you just bought. Oh, it'll be $2,800. No, honey, the mortgage balance. What do you owe to pay it off? $250. Okay, that's what I'm after.

And the other house that... We owe $250. I sold my house, and I'm bringing in $550. Oh, so you can pay it off. Well, yeah, we got about uh um should be about 100 from hers so you got 650 000 cash and you have a 250 000 mortgage when her sales yes and so you pay off the mortgage right uh yes okay then what uh well we do have a small car loan on her Explorer. And that's gone.

Now what? So what's your question? You're debt-free when you get married and sell her house, right? No, sir. I don't think you're understanding. You're right. I'm not. You got $550,000.

Oh, you put that down on the $800,000 house already? Yes, sir. That's what I got from my house. You're right. I wasn't understanding. I thought you were sitting with a half million dollars cash. Okay, so one more time. You owe $250,000 on your house.

How much is she going to get in her hand when she sells her house? About $100,000. Ah, which would reduce that by $100,000. You'd still owe $150,000 other than the fact you need to pay off the student loan first. We'll be coming to the table about $650,000 on an $800,000 home. You haven't closed on the new house. We close in about a month. Oh, I thought you told me you already bought it.

Okay. No, we did. It's a brand new build, but we put our earnest money down. We just haven't closed. Okay, yeah. So, yeah. I want you to pay off all consumer debt first, build an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, and pay the rest of it on the house.

And then let's concentrate on paying off what little mortgage you have. It sounds like you're going to have about $150,000 left over, give or take, in a mortgage. And let's go ahead and get that paid off as fast as you can. The faster you have a paid-for house, with the income the two of you together are throwing at it, you're going to be millionaires. This is The Ramsey Show. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes. Download the Ramsey Network app in your favorite app store today.