The Ramsey Show - App - This Is What It Feels Like When You Don’t Owe Anybody Anything (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 10, 2021

Debt, Home Buying, Home Selling, Relationships, Career, Budgeting As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about life. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. We're together in the studio for you this hour. It is a free phone call, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Reminder, some of the questions you've got are pretty deep, pretty sticky,

sometimes kind of messy, and we will protect your name and location if that's something that will give you the courage to call us, John, and I love teaming up. It's always fun when we get together. And we'll take our specialties, John, of course, and relationships and the mental health space, and then me in the work space. Work and life are inextricably connected. And a lot of the junk you're dealing with with relationships has got a work call.

So John and I always love it when we can kind of tackle those together. We'll take those calls today if somebody's really hurting, really confused, you got some emotions you want to deal with, we're here for you. 888-825-5225. Doc, it's always fun when we're together. You ready to rock? Let's do it, man. I mean, I know the answer to that question. I fully expected it. I needed the rocker signal. You didn't give it to me. I'm low-key today. You're very chill today. We're going to do it. That's right. Did you just take some medication? Yeah. Okay.

No, not at all. Okay, good. Let's go north of the border, Toronto, Canada. Dylan joins us there. Dylan, how can we help? So I have just over a quarter million dollars of consumer debt on top of two houses that I own. Whoa. A rental and my primary residence. Um, and $250,000 of consumer debt. Yes. Yeah. And then what is, what is that debt? How'd you get it?

Um, so I bought a, I bought a property, um, and then the renovations cost $150,000, just over. And then taxes that I haven't paid for my business are $50,000, and then the rest just sort of things here and there. So the two houses you mentioned, they're a part of this $250,000? No. No. The rehab on one of the houses is. Okay.

All right, so let me ask a follow-up here. So is one of the houses paid off? What's the debt on the houses, if any? Yeah, so the one I owe, or I own, sorry, 50-50 with my dad, and that one we owe, well, my portion is $277,000, and then the other one is $670,000 that I owe. So you're a million dollars in hock. Yeah.

Yeah, I want to make sure we're dealing with it. You're not $250,000 in debt. You're a million dollars in the hole. You're a million plus in the hole. Leveraged out. All right, so what's your question? So my question is, obviously, I'm going to be selling my rental property. Everything, good.

So then what? I'm wondering, with the debt snowball, should I pay off? Because I have smaller debts on line of credit. Should I pay them off first because they're smaller, or my parents, who I owe $100,000 each? Do the debt snowball. The debt to the parents is in the snowball. Yeah, who cares?

The one caveat here is you said you owed $50,000, and I'm ignorant here. In the U.S., it's IRS. What is it in Canada? The CRA. But, yeah, I figured that one goes first. Yeah, the one you want to roll out. That's the only time we get out of the baby steps is if you're in hock to the government

because they're going to take everything else from you too. How much is the house worth, the rental, the one you owe $600,000 on? The rental is worth $800,000. The market's been kind to us that way. Okay. And then... Sell it today. Sell it this afternoon.

Tell your dad we're selling this house. Will he do it? That's the plan. I think so, yeah, because he's incurred some debt in our recent renovation. How much is the other house worth? The other house is probably worth about $900. What do you owewing that one? $675?

$670. Are you married? I have a partner, yeah. Okay, do you have kids? No. Okay, how old are you? I'm 26. Okay.

If I'm you, let me back it up. If you're my son or you're my best friend, and you come to me and you're 26 and you tell me what you're telling me, I would tell you to sell your primary residence, your million-dollar residence. I would tell you to get with your dad and sell that thing. Get squared up with the government. Get squared up with all of your debts.

Have zero. Have some cash. You'll end up with some cash here if you do this right. And either buy a small home that you can actually afford based on the income you produce from your business, by the way, which is a business that pays taxes from now on, or rent for a year or two and just get your bearings back. Man, you are underwater.

You know that though, right? 100%. Yeah, that's right. Are you just stressed out of your mind? Yeah. I don't know how you breathe. Absolutely. Okay, then.

John's right. I couldn't agree more. I would have said the same thing. Because of the, not just the financial freedom, but can I just throw the emotional freedom in this? I mean, dude, which they're obviously tied together, but this isn't just a numbers play. Right. This is some health and your future. And if you can fund that emergency fund and then save up for a little bit while and rent,

and then you guys buy again, I mean, hey, that's the play. Yeah, dude. Your relationship with your dad gets better, your relationship with your partner gets better. Relationships everywhere get better. You're able to breathe. What business do you have? Funnily enough i'm a realtor well then here's the other thing you know you know that you can make up ground quickly

yeah yeah hey dude i i don't even think this is even up for vote no i mean well at the end of day you're voting john and i are consulting i sell everything. And we're talking fresh start. Imagine how that would feel. January 1st, 2022, you could be out of a million dollars in debt, have a new smaller place you can take care of, and you will be able to sleep the whole night without popping awake at 3 a.m. How does that sound? It sounds much better.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. So do it. yes do it yes do it do it do it do it man can it gets it you just look at the the instagram or you look at the computer you look at whatever's on tv and you just think oh that's the path. And I can just borrow my way too. And man, what a blessing. We talked to people who are 60 having this, oh crap moment in the middle of the night. He's 26, man. He's got his whole life ahead of him. And we're talking about being a multimillionaire as a result of this too.

Doing it the right way and being able to be a multimillionaire and breathe at the same time. Yeah. And I love it's got the income potential with being a realtor. I'd be going bananas because you could fast forward all this. Everything. I love it's got the income potential with being a realtor. I'd be going bananas because you could fast forward all. Everything. I love it. Wow. Well, John, it's that time of the year.

In a few weeks, we're going to be doing what I think is one of the great shows of all time in the history of The Ramsey Show. It's our special giving edition of The Ramsey Show. We want to hear your stories from you about how you have paid it forward and given generously to others. Maybe you've tipped a waitress. Maybe you bought Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe you bought Christmas for some family that needed it. Maybe you've been on the receiving end of an unbelievable gift or blessing. Go to ramsaysolutions.com slash ask.

That's ramsaysolutions.com slash ask and put giving in the subject line. Share your story. It's going to touch so many other people. We'd love for you to be a part of this very special show. All right, don't go anywhere. More of The Ramsey Show coming right up. People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries. Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with health care expenses, and they have successfully shared each other's medical

bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Welcome back, America. You have joined the conversation here on The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. He is Dr. John Deloney. We're taking your calls about your life, your money, your work they're all connected aren't they so we're here to help you the phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225 888-825-5225 russell joins us now in dallas texas

russell how can we help how are we doing today today, guys? Well, I'm living the dream, and we're here for you. So what's going on? Perfect. Perfect. Well, I have developed some clarity lately that's really got me energized. I love my job, love my life, really. And I've decided that the thing that really speaks to me in my work is being able to coach people and train people. And you and Dr. Deloney, who, by the by the way i'm a graduate of acu and i was there when uh dr deloney was there so go wildcats okay well let's not drive able to talk to you man all right let's not drive by that did you know him and do you have some damaging information that you could reveal to james after the segment um yeah i personally don't know him but my wife took his mom's class

oh great that feels all kinds of yuck right there. Yeah, it's just getting grosser by the second, Russell. Listen, I need this job. I haven't paid my house off yet. Yeah. Russell, please, please, we'd like you to sign an NDA after the show today. Happy to do it. Happy to do it, of course.

So you're excited. You love your job, but. Yeah. Yeah. Well, all I want to know is I see you guys as leaders in the space that I want to go into someday. Like, I want to be a coach. I'm insufferably positive. It's one of my spiritual gifts.

I listen to personal and professional development stuff for fun. You guys, Horst Schultz, Andy Stanley, Donald Miller, Jim Whitten. Like, it's just my thing. I love it. And so I'm seeing an opportunity in my job where I can go into that space and kind of step more into there rather than like admin stuff. And so being at this point with my newfound clarity and excitement about what I have to do, I just want to know what you guys would do. If you could talk to your, I'm 30, if you could talk to your 30 year old self about your current job, because you guys are doing what I'd love to do

someday, what would you say? What advice do you guys are doing what I'd love to do someday. What would you say? What advice do you guys have? Well, I don't think that's the question you want from us. I don't think you want us to answer that. I think you want us to answer how do you get into that type of coaching role. Is that what I'm understanding? That's definitely part of it.

I mean, yeah, for sure. So you're an admin assistant or you're in operations type work right now. Is that what I'm understanding? No, forgive me. I'm in sales. You're in sales. But a lot of it's just like, a lot of it is just like computer work. It's looking at quotes, moving on to the next thing. It's not face-to-face in front of people. Okay. So, so I'll partially answer the question. If I could talk to my 30 year old self and I knew that I was going to do what I'm doing now, which at the time I didn't. That's why I do what I do now, right?

I thought I was heading down a different track. I would delineate the specifics as follows. Do I want to coach, speak, write? Do I want to do counseling? And then of those areas, and I'm trying to pull out your list, who is it that I want to coach or counsel or speak to or write to? What problem or desire do they have? And then how do I want to come about helping them get that?

That's what I would tell my 30-year-old self, because I think you've got to understand that and really learn it before you just go, well, I want to coach or I want to do what you guys do. John and I do what we do because of the problems we want to solve. And I think that's first and foremost. John, anything you'd add to that? Yeah, the thing I would add, man, is my 30-year-old self, and you can go back and ask some of your classmates that were around me.

Dude, that guy was hell-bent on being the leader of a thing, being at the top of a thing. Interesting. Being around influencers and being around presidents and doing writing and getting published it was all these external things and what i would tell my 30 year old self is brother you need a decade of being in the middle of the night in hospitals with people sitting behind closed doors helping marriages falling apart you need to do that work for 10 years before you have any business giving other people wisdom on how they can make decisions. And so a mantra I give myself is find

the learning anywhere you are. So if you're grinding out as a salesman right now, while you're going to, and Ken's going to walk you through the steps, while you start leaning into what coaching is going to look like, make sure you're keeping close notes of what you're experiencing, what the people you're calling on are experiencing. Talk to them about their families. When you're trying to sell something to an executive somewhere, talk to them about the job they're in, what they love about it, what they don't. That A, that's going to help your sales.

B, it's going to help you develop relationships. And C, you're going to get to learn. It's the proximity. You're going to get to learn how this job actually works, the one that you actually want to do someday. Russell, do you know who you want to coach or counsel? Yeah, I'd like to do executive kind of business development stuff. But like you said earlier, it's all kind of intertwined.

So you're correct. I do need to delineate and specify before I just attack everything. Well, you're close, though. So I think you have a little bit more homework in stage one. So I teach this through seven stages. How do you do what you were born to do and experience tremendous meaning stage one is get clear i think you're 90 clear i think you gotta dive into okay i want to help business leaders i want to mentor them maybe i want to walk with them and be an accountability part i mean who knows you got to kind of delineate that a little bit further by going through what's

the problem that a uh executive has that i most get excited about solving i think if you get into that one right there and you get some clarity there that's really huge now you go okay i gotta get qualified you gotta do some homework what are the qualifications in the industry yeah first and then second like john said i want to see you actually lead a team and lead maybe a division or two before we start coaching people. Unless you've been a business leader, know what's going on there, right? Yeah. Right, right. It's like the marketing professor at college who's actually never had to market anything.

They just studied theory. Theory's great. But at some point, theory must meet brick and mortar. Yeah. And so I think those are the steps for you is to actually begin to lead and learn how to lead. Now, here's the good news, Ross. I want to encourage you on something. You've been following and learning how to follow is vital to learning how to lead. But I do think if you're going to coach leaders, I think you need to understand the moccasins that

they put on. What's it like to walk in their shoes, to deal with that? I think that's really, really important. Yeah, I'll never forget. I have several close buddies who had positions that I wanted in universities, and I finally got one, and it was a few months in, and I realized, oh, they earned that money. But you sleep differently when the whole thing rests on you. It's easy to see that title and that position.

But I wouldn't have been half as good at helping walk alongside people had I not laid in bed at night with that weight on my own chest. It's 100%. Or I know what it's like to be sitting through dinner and be completely not present because my head's back at the office. So you've got to spend a season in that time. That's why you walk the journey what it's like to lay awake at 3 a.m and think that i wasted my life there you go i'm not doing something that fires me up during the day yes and then i know what it's like to go seven years ago yeah and then figure out what i think it is

yep confirm it and then go now what yeah right and then really suck at it and not get much opportunity for a while he's like so that's the point i don't think you need a ton of experience to actually lead somebody but i do think you need a good amount of experience to coach somebody who's leading there's the difference that's right and the i we tell all the time dave talks to is one of the only ceos if not the only ce CEO in the United States that spends three hours a day with a frontline customer right think how different

Burger King would be if the CEO took lunch orders every day five days a week but the Andy Stanley's of the world and the John Maxwell they've sat with people

for years and years and years which gives them the wisdom to it's not just a bunch of theories and a bunch of books that they read right

yeah you got time for a quick social media question real quick let's see real fast how can i move on from a broken friendship and business relationship with my sister-in-law we're still around each other and she doesn't seem sorry for what she's caused oh man um at some point somebody if you're in relationship with somebody and you're going to be around them and that's just going to be life i I always suggest two things. Number one, you've got to go have an upfront conversation. And just call is what is.

And it's that unspoken secret stuff that causes drama. And that true conversation will cause drama too. But at least it's out in the open. Here's where everybody is. And number two, you have to decide every day to set it down. I am not going to carry my drama into this Christmas event. I'm not going to carry my drama

into this thing. I don't like her. She doesn't like me. Partridge in a pear tree. I'm going to go about being a respectful adult and move on with my life. I'm not going to carry that.

I'm not going to give her that power over my life. There it is. Because you can't control how she's going to react. It's driving you bananas. But by letting her speak into my soul, I'm giving her permission to ruin my... That's a...

What a waste of a life. Cheer up, man. There it is, folks. Cheer up. And one quick answer, how to never have tension at Thanksgiving again. You just solved it. It's that answer. Uncle Larry, it's his fault.

It's always his fault. Go out to eat somewhere on Thanksgiving. There it is. That works, too. All right. Don't go anywhere. He is Dr. John Deloney. I somewhere on Thanksgiving. There it is. That works too. Don't go anywhere. He is Dr. John Deloney. I'm Ken Coleman and this is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. We're taking your calls.

About life, 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. 888-825-5225. And I look across in the lobby and I see Adam and Vicki. They're on the debt-free stage. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you. So I guess since you're standing there, you're here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir.

See how sharp I am? Very, very few things get by me. Ken was in honors classes. Ken was in honors classes. So true. Well, where are you guys from? Raleigh, North Carolina. Raleigh.

All right. And let's hear the story. How much debt did you pay off? We paid off $156,105. Whoa. How long did that take? 18 months. 18 months? Wow. Whoa. Okay. did that take? 18 months. 18 months?

Wow. Whoa. Okay, what do you guys, tell me the range of income, then we'll figure out what you do. What range of income? $280,000 to $305,000. Whoa, we're not playing around. What do you guys do for a living? Real estate quality assurance.

And I work in enterprise risk. Nice. So I always love to hear the story here. 280 to 305, what was the cause for the bump? God is good. Okay. I really like that. I'm going to press you.

I mean, was it just a natural raise? Did you go after a promotion? What happened? Just natural. Natural stuff. Great. Fantastic. All right.

And 18 months ago, you guys decided we're going to get after this. What spurred this on? Well, for the next 30 minutes, I would like to talk about the precursor to that story. No, it really started, we were on the show in 2015. Oh, wow. So we are repeat screamers. And we had paid off $89,775 in 2015. Oh. And that was credit card debt and cars.

And I was a personal financial wrecking ball. And my wife was patient and loving and kind. And the Dave ramsey teaching helped us get through that and wait a minute so is this your house yeah this is our house baby so we got done with all that debt and we just went straight into uh let's let's save money um and we did that and then my wife said hey hon um i'd like to pay off the house too and i thought is this ever going to end so no in june of 2020 we pivoted to the house and we just went gazelle intense and you know let's uh let's knock it out let's not have that debt anymore and so i am we

longed for this day to come here with the mortgage satisfaction notice filed at the courthouse and say we're totally debt free. Wow, that is so fantastic. Wow, that is really cool. How does that feel? Amazing. Have you received the first paycheck where you didn't have to pay your mortgage yet? Yes. How does that feel when all that money deposits and you realize, oh, we can just do whatever we want to with this?

Yeah, we're still doing our budgets though, so we're being good. Yeah, we still have goals, and I think that was another important message for us is not losing that momentum. So we focus a lot on that nasty consumer debt, but it really feels good not to owe anybody anything and own all your own money and not rent it. And so it's exciting because now that baby step seven, the building wealth and the giving, now seems so much more fun.

Okay, so the question that pops up for me is how was Gazelle Intents different, if at all, when we just paid off the house? So having paid off all other consumer debt prior, doing your debt-free scream, then it's like, let's do this. Was there any different things? You've done it once before. It's kind of like being a millionaire a second time over. Curious. What's the answer to that?

So, you know what? The first one felt good because it felt a lot of guilt. I had accumulated a lot of debt. I had squandered a lot of income. And so that was a guilt release moment. This is, people don't feel as guilty about mortgage debt, but this feels so good because it's like it's all gone now. It's all gone. We're two people with no college degrees who

scratch and through life, and we don't owe anybody anything anymore. And now we can get to that generous level that we want to be at. And that's exciting because that's more, we feel more of what God's called us to do. We can now financially fund. And so this feels great.

And we've got some great friends that have joined us, that have walked this journey with us and are on their own journey. And we have some friends back at home that are in that same position. And we're coming back in July when they're going to celebrate their debt-free screams. So the answer is, is this ever going to end? I don't think it is. You guys are just going to keep bringing more people to do debt-free screams now. That's like your new thing. And when I told our kids, you know, when we had a whole group together and we did a mortgage burning party and I threw the mortgage in the fire. That's fun.

And it felt great. But then it hit me, this is a Corvette ZR1 that I could have had, right? But it feels so much better to have a house, and we own it. I wish the people listening could see them. It's almost like you have to be strapped to the stage. You're just floating over there. Yeah. Having paid off every single thing you own.

Tell me about the journey in your marriage. I know there's a little bit of frustration, a little bit of, come on, a little bit of, do we make $300,000? I can drive a Corvette for God's sake. Yeah. I mean, that's a lot of money. And it's a different level of of why are we working like this

if we're not going to enjoy it. What was that like for your marriage? They both looked at each other like, there's a pattern going on here. No, you say it. Yes. No, she's emphatic that I do most of the talking. Okay.

Anyways, will you ask me that question again? How did this impact your marriage? So we've been married 32 years. We got married when I was 19. She was 18. I was in the Marine Corps. We are pregnant three months later. I mean, we made so many choices that people probably would classify as bad.

And then to compound financial mismanagement on top of that. But she is a saint, and she has been loving and patient and kind through this. She's frugal. I'm an idiot. And so her patience and love helped us get through this, and so that just built our marriage, meaning that she was there when I was doing all the dumb stuff.

And I bet if she would talk off air, she would say that you've been there for her, too. So, man, just two incredible rock stars. What a gift. So fun. Speaking of gifts, we've got two books for you. One is a copy of Dave's book, Total Money Makeover, and that is a gift to you to give to somebody else, because you guys are definitely looking for other couples to influence, and you've obviously

modeled that already. The second is Dave's new book, which comes out in January, Baby Steps Millionaires. You can get it right now, pre-sale. But we're going to give that book to you, because you guys are on your way there, obviously, and you have done it, and so we're really proud of you. so that's a gift

to you so you guys ready to go yeah but i want to say one more thing well sure all right i want to also shout out to my my kids my four boys because they all graduated from college they all graduated with some student debt and they all paid off their student debt within two years of graduation they went rice and beans paid it off and they lived debt-free lifestyles. Tell us their names. Chad, Ryan, Cody, and Kyle. Way to go, guys. Way to go, fellas.

You did good, Mom and Dad. That is awesome. That's legacy stuff right there. All right, here we go. Adam and Vicki from Raleigh, North Carolina. They paid off $156,000 in 18 months. The house this time around making between $280,000 and $305,000. Add a Vicki.

It's your turn. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're totally debt-free! Yeah! I love it. I love it I love it That's your kind of style there The totally

You know A little bit of A little Bill and Ted's Yeah Totally I like that What a great story They're debt free

Except their house Then they say Let's get after the house And then they say Let's go back and do another one But listen They did something really hard It took them a long time

The first time And then any other hard project They go through the rest of their life, they can go, Yeah, we can do that. 18 months, we'll do that. That's true. We'll knock it out. And then they're four boys. Oh, man.

Seeing mom and dad model the way. That's incredible. That's legacy, man. That's what we all want. Great stuff. What a great couple. All right. Hey, here's some great news.

We've got more of the Ramsey Show coming up. Don't move Welcome back, America. You are joining the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, Dr. John Deloney. We're taking your calls this hour about your life. 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Now, I love the old nursery rhymes, the old children's stories, and I think if we were to take a vote of the entire population, John,

that the tortoise and the hare would clearly be a top three, top five for sure. We all love it. And it's one of our favorites around here because it really is, I think, the theme of what we teach here because it really is i think the theme of what we teach here at ramsey solutions that slow and steady like the tortoise wins the race every time certainly in money and in your work in your relationships every area of your life and we sometimes though we kind of romance the story we forget why the hare actually didn't win because he actually took some time off and took a nap he just got off the path actually didn't win. Because he actually took some time off and took a nap.

He just got off the path. He didn't stay on the path and keep moving. He put off what he knew he should do in favor of what he wanted to do. So for all you tortoises out there, we know it's hard to keep pushing, fighting, and hacking away, especially when you see all these other hares quitting jobs, deferring student loan payments, and financing fancy stuff. So if you'd like to get a boost at this time of year, we'd like you to take part of a Ramsey Christmas Cash Giveaway. This year we're giving away up to $5,000.

You can enter at ramseysolutions.com slash giveaway. That's ramseysolutions.com slash giveaway. And you can keep entering every day to increase your chances of winning. And if you need an extra dose of motivation just in time for the new year, our team is featuring a new deal every day this week. So today only, when you buy, oh, that says me, my book, From Paycheck to Purpose for just $20, you'll get the career assessment for free. This is a great gift for somebody who's looking at new year, new career.

We're just giving that away? Yeah. I need a new pair of shoes so that's not going to help. It's going to help somebody else which is what it's all about. Kelly has a pair of Christmas shoes for you. She does. It's her favorite song. Look at her now. She's so upset. She's like, what? If you'd like to make 2022

your best wealth building year yet, shop our one day deal at our online store at RamseySolutions.com today. All right, let's get to the phones. 888-825-5225. Chicago, Illinois is where we go to talk to Tim. Tim, how can we help? Hey, guys.

How are you? We're living the dream, Tim. What's going on with you? So I'd like to purchase a home, another home. Um, I currently own the home that I live in now and, uh, I I'd like a bigger, nicer place. And I just want to make sure that it's something that's financially responsible for me to do at this time. It's a little bit complicated because I own a company. Um, and, and historically I've, I've dumped every bit of money I've ever made back into it.

So it feels a bit guilty to start taking from it now. Wait a second. You mean you're talking about you pay yourself a salary, but traditionally beyond the salary you've never paid yourself anything as the owner? I paid myself dividends, but they've been pretty small. For example, last year I reinvested $309,000 of what could have been my personal income back into the company just to grow the company debt-free. Did it ROI? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

So what's complicated about this? The amount of money that you would have to give yourself is way higher than you've ever done before, but it would also allow you to buy that bigger house and a much better financial play. Is that what's going on? That's right. Well, what's complicated about it? Well, I do have some loans through the business, and I probably misspoke when I said debt-free, but I've kept the debt to a very minimum. I owe $400,000 on a commercial building that I just purchased. $220,000 is in one mortgage, and the rest is in an SBA 504. The $220,000 balloons in five years. So I'm a little bit worried I'd like to get that mortgage paid off before it balloons in five years.

So we pause on the house. 100%. We get the business healthy and pay it off, man. That five-year clock is ticking. That's why you're nervous. So no on the house right now. No. You don't need a house.

You want one. Does it make a difference that the 220 is not an incredible amount of money for the amount of income that I have. Reverse engineer that question. Since you make so much money, just pay it off. You know what I mean? Right, right. Well, yeah, so the company does $2.5 million. My bottom line is about 15%, so I'm at about $375,000 a year.

That's what I could pay. That's the salary you pay yourself? Right. Historically,000 a year. That's your salary you pay yourself? Right. Historically, I have not. Okay. But I could. But I could. I have $20,000 in emergency funds, $120,000 in a savings account that was supposed to go towards a down payment,

and then another $200,000 in liquid capital to run the company. And then, of course, I do my 19-5 to 401, $6,000 to IRA. Tim, you're the one that's making this complex. This is really simple. We told you what you should do, and then you asked us another question. And I think it comes down to what is it that you are leaning on or counting on to not pay this debt off? You're just counting on nothing ever going wrong. I mean, you know what?

He's right, John. We've not had a pandemic recently that changed the whole world. Nothing like that happened. No. Tim, I mean, this is ludicrous, and you know it's ludicrous. But I also know you really, really, really want to buy a house. Yeah. So hear us say, we know that you're probably not going to do what we're suggesting.

But what we're suggesting is be debt-free in your business in six months or less and then go buy a house. Ta-da. And if you've got reserve capital for your business and you're running a debt-free company and you've got next year lined up and you want to take a bigger dividend as the CEO and owner of your company, don't make it an identity statement that I don't ever pay myself anything. That's silly. That's a recipe for burnout.

Choose to, or it's a recipe for resentment. Choose to take care of yourself in a season. I don't have any problem with that at all. Yeah. I mean, I would sum it up with this. I really want a meat lover's pizza sometimes at midnight it's not a good idea yeah don't do that i know and so he really wants a house and then keep the dead alive on his business

don't do it that's right you'll regret it in the morning for sure that's my point there's just nothing good is going to come out of that situation that's right and i think sometimes we try to like talk ourselves into, well, what if, what if, what if, what if? So who knows? Let's go to Ken in Columbia, South Carolina next. Ken, how can we help? Hey, how are you doing?

I am about to celebrate my 15-year anniversary coming up this summer, and I am trying to decide what kind of trip and if I should take a trip. I'm thinking about New York and some other trips, and I'm just not sure that I should put that kind of money into it. My wife's a little more conservative than I am. I guess I would say I'm in the middle,

so I'm just trying to ask for some advice on that. Well, so the budget, what's the budget telling you that you guys can actually afford to do? I mean, I think, yeah, I mean, we're okay on that. I mean, we do have retirement. We are ready to pay bills, you know. All we owe is the cars right now. So I guess the reason I asked you that, Ken, is I want to kind of get you to walk back into this thing. If you guys have a budget, and the budget's actually working, and it's allowing you to move forward,

and you've budgeted for this trip, a 19th anniversary trip, and you can afford it, then do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Am I missing something? What's your debt load? You said you owe two car payments? Yeah, we owe two car payments. How much do you owe on the car? We owe about $30,000 together.

How much money do you make? What's your annual salary? Together, it's right at $100,000. Yeah, so can I be totally transparent with you? Yeah. I celebrated my 19th anniversary last summer, and my wife and I have some financial goals. We're trying to burn through this thing and get my house paid off.

So you know what we did for ours? Hang on to your hat, brother. We went to a KOA in North Carolina. It was a very nice one, though. It was a real nice one, but it was a couple hundred bucks. You know why? Because we want to be out of debt. That was the decision that we made.

And we don't have any consumer debt. You don't have any car payments like you all do. But that was a choice we made. And so we're going to set ourselves up for the 20th this summer. Let me tell you, I did not catch that. I don't know how I missed it. I must not have been listening well, so I need to clarify that. Yeah, you don't need to be going on the anniversary trip.

You need to get rid of those cars. 20 is a bigger one than 19 anyway. Absolutely. So I'd recommend saving that one. So save it. We're going to work the debt snowball is what we do. That's right. And so it's rice and beans. Let's knock this thing out. Sorry I missed that, pal. I'm glad you clarified that. KOAs are awesome.

Dude, campgrounds rock, man. Alright, folks. This hour is in the books. I want to thank our producer, James Childs, our associate producer, Paul Screener, Jenna Sears, rather, and Dr. John Deloney for hanging out with me. Mostly you, America. Thank you. This is The Ramsey Show.

Hey, guys. This is James, senior producer for The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, head to theramseyshow.com.