The Ramsey Show - App - Use Your Money To Create a Life You Love

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Welcome to the Ramsey Show, where we help you win in your life. We help you win with your money, we help you win in your work, and we want you to win in your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. Rachel Cruz joins me this hour. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. That's 888-825-5225. Rachel is our resident money expert today. She's going to help you figure out how to spend it, how to budget it, how to save it, how to invest it. And then I'm going to help you make it. How about that? So it is your money, your life. So we've got income and outflow is what we're going to work on today. So we want to help you. Let's get started with AJ in New York City. AJ, how can we help you today?

Hi, I'm just calling in because I got this big loan from my mom and what happened was, um, I was supposed to get a loan from the bank, but we didn't have a credit score. I was just a recent grad. So we took a loan from my mom who I really don't have a good relationship with. And it ended up being, she wanted,

we tried to ask her to do monthly payments, you know, pay her back. And she wanted the whole tried to ask her to do monthly payments, you know, pay her back. And she wanted the whole payment in full. So then we actually had to end up getting a loan from a bank anyways. And I just feel like this loan is, like I have two small kids. I just feel like this loan is stopping us from getting a house, just like starting our life. Sure. You know, it's a huge chunk of payment every single month.

How much is the loan in total did you borrow from her? From her, I borrowed $41,000, 41. Okay. And what was it for? It was to start a business. My husband, he's an MMA fighter and he opened up a fight gym and, you know, that was his dream and he did it. We did it without loan, but right now, because it got closed down during COVID and we're still recovering from that, I think this year, finally, we're making, he's making a little bit off of it now. And he's thinking to expand and things like that this year. Okay.

Well, hold on a second. If we don't want to expand until he pays off the 41K, because the $41,000 is on the actual gym, the business itself, correct? Yeah. Right. So I would be cautioning him. Let's not expand. We actually, at this point, after he pays himself,

is that your primary income as well? Or has he got income from another, I'm guessing from his fighting? Yeah, he does have income from fighting. And also I have income from my job as well. What's your combined income? Let's not include the gym right now. About 80,000 a year. Okay. And how long has it been? Because you said you borrowed this money before COVID so how many years has it been it's been since

that was in 2018 and then the loan from the bank that we got was around two years ago I want to say two and a half years ago so you got the loan from the bank to pay your mom back so your mom's no longer in the equation correct this is just now

which honestly AJ I know mean, in that case, to solidify or heal any part of the relationship, not having money in the middle of it, if that was ever to be a day, I think it's better. I'd rather owe a bank than have a strain on a relationship, you know, with a parent. Okay. So how can we best help you today? Is it just, is it figuring out how to find margin to help pay this loan off faster? Absolutely. So like, I do want to find margin, but then there is like a little twist in the story. So my husband, he has a student and I guess the student is, you know, very well off. He told my husband that he wants to invest $150,000 into the business to have a park. And so I'm wondering if you guys

think that's a good idea. I think it's a great idea. Okay. Real quick clarification. I'm assuming that the $41,000 loan that's in the name of the business correct or is that a personal loan that loan actually is a personal loan it's in our name okay yeah well okay okay and then the student wants to come in now and give you guys 150 000 to be a partner in the gym yeah okay so partnership and business i mean ken can speak on that more that's a whole other ball game in a sense that like yeah yeah that's that's kind of changing the whole way. I'd want to know the terms and that's a stickier situation. I mean, Dave has very strong opinions on partnerships. I'm not quite as anti that, but it comes down to there's got to be a really, really strong relationship and there's got to be very, very clearly defined roles. But it sounds like a great

idea to you because the business has been struggling. So a cash infusion of $150,000 on the surface does sound good. There's no question that it sounds good and it feels good. But we've got two separate issues. And without your husband on the phone and walking us through the terms, I'm limited in what advice I could give you. What I'd rather us do, Rachel, is focus on, okay, what we know is we've got an $80,000 combined income, and we have a $41,000 personal loan. I thought that the loan was on the business side, but this is a personal loan. So you guys can clean this up and should clean this up, and that's why you called.

Yes, absolutely. Yep, that's the main reason. Yep. yep for sure what other debt do you guys have so then um five thousand dollars in credit cards for me and then for him around ten thousand in credit cards and then two car payments so on his he owes around six thousand know. And then my car, I, I made a bad financial decision with this car, but I owe about $28,000 on this car. Okay. So it's not even just this loan. It's kind of the way you guys have been living with money up until this point. That's absolutely causing you to stress. And yeah, yeah. And, and, and I would, you know, with an $80,000 income um yeah you guys are kind of right at that at that brink of of and then we pay for daycare yeah other things though

it's not a loan but you know totally yeah you have more debt than you make you're at about $90,000 in debt if I'm doing quick math so okay, okay. So yeah. So AJ, I mean, honestly, when you're looking at the financial part of this quickly, I mean, money flows two ways, right? Money flows in, money flows out. And from the expenses side, you guys sitting down and together, together, you and your husband doing a household budget every single month and looking through and saying, what are the non-negotiables? So food, shelter, utilities, transportation. Next would be childcare. Next would be insurance, right? These things that we have to have. And then everything else down below that, I mean, I'm putting a full stop on and that's going out to eat, that's subscriptions, that's vacations. I mean, any extra spending

is just halted completely, completely. And any luxury, anything that you're paying for convenience, stop. This is down to the bare bones. And that's the outflow. And that's going to help you guys get control of that income that hits every month. But then you're probably going to look up AJ and realize, oh my gosh, we're not making enough to make a ton of headwinds. So the income is where the problem is going to be. And so for him and his full-time job is great. But what he's doing beyond that is the gym. And it's not making a ton right now, right? So I think you guys as a family have to say, hey, as a couple, where is our time best spent to get us out of this financial hole? Because until you guys have a solid financial foundation under you,

are you going to be able to make clear decisions? You're not making clear decisions right now. Someone offers you $150K to have in the gym, and you want to jump at it because there's cash right there, right? So I don't feel like you guys are making great decisions. And so there's something to be said of, hey, even though there was this dream and we have this investment, we have this stupid $40,000 loan to open said of, hey, even though there was this dream and we have this investment, we have this stupid $40,000 loan to open this gym. Where is our time best spent to bring in as much income as

possible for the next 24, 36 months? And then beyond that, we can dream and say, hey, where do we want to go? But you guys started the opposite and untangling that. It's going to be hard, but it's going to be needed to get any level of progress in this. You can do the work. Hang on the line. I going to give you uh the total money makeover book you guys need to read that together this is the ramsey show what does the future hold for business ask nine experts and you'll get 10 different answers economic growth or a recession Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us work or it will replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 40,000 businesses have future-proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud enterprise

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It's free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you with us, America. I'm Ken Coleman. The fabulous Rachel Cruz is alongside today. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. We want to help you win. Rachel will help you with your money.

I want to help you with your income. And let me tell you something. When you get control of your money and you start increasing your income, you are on your way to living like no one else. And that's what we want today. Let's go to Matt in Utica, New York. Matt, how can we help today? Ken, Rachel, so excited to be on the show.

Thank you so much for taking my call. In fact, I was in the middle of driving to the hospital. We are welcoming our third child into this world. I had to pull to the side and try to call you guys, and so I'm so thankful to get through. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Rachel, take over, please.

Matt, your wife's in labor right now? Yes, ma'am. I don't know if Rachel approved. I don't even know if I want to talk to you right now. I feel like you need to. Hey, I wanted to set a first for the show. She technically is not in labor. She's actually being induced, but not till later.

That's fair. Okay, well, I'll... And she knows this all is happening. That helps. You saw what I did there? That helps. induced but not till later so I do have some time and she knows this fall is happening that helps you saw what I did there I immediately went to Rachel and said shall we proceed because Matt if I was if I was your wife in the car like I was with three babies and went down the interstate I got nervous nice things were coming out of my mouth so I was nervous I was medication I mean Matt you made me nervous like I was going to get in trouble.

So I'm glad we settled that. So you're on the side of the road. You're safe. I'm glad we started this call on a high note. I definitely want to get to my question. Go for it. Go for it. This kind of purpose.

But congrats. Congrats. We didn't say congrats on the third baby. Thank you, guys. All right. What's going on? Very, very excited and blessed. I appreciate you.

So here's the question. So my wife and I, we have had to move three different times for my work during the COVID era. And so we find ourselves now settled in a position in a home that was owned by her grandmother who has since passed. And now ownership belongs half to her mother and half to her aunt. We are the only ones living in the home right now, and we've assumed the mortgage, which has just $57,000 left on it, and the payment's about $480 a month. And we've obviously taken 100% of the mortgage, so we're just taking it. There was an offer- Hold on, hold on, hold on. Yes, sir. Do you mean you're just paying the mortgage payment as like a rent?

You haven't actually assumed. It's actually a rent. Okay. But the mortgage isn't in your name. Correct. Okay. I wanted to make sure that I understood that. Okay, go ahead.

So we ended up getting an assessment on the home to see the valuation of what it was, and it turns out it's worth $148,000. That was three months ago when we first moved in. We've been offered by her aunt to buy her out for a number of $38,000. And in that capacity, we would take on 50% ownership with her mother if we decided to move forward by paying her aunt $38,000. And you're saying the house is worth $138,000? $148,000. Oh, sorry, $148,000.

Okay. And you guys, oh. The house is worth $148,000. Balance is $57,000 on mortgage. We were offered to buy her out for $38,000 to retain 50% essentially of the home's value. No, I wouldn't do that. Rachel, do you agree or disagree? Yeah, no.

I mean, where all this gets really messy really fast, Matt, is when multiple people are on deeds and mortgages and ownership and equity and you're paying rent, but it's not going to you. I mean, like, it gets really complicated really fast. So, honestly, the cleanest way I would do this, number one, if you guys love this home, would you have bought this home if it wasn't in her family? We would not.

Okay. Yeah, there's your answer. So I would rent for, you know, three, four more months, get you guys in a position to go and buy your own home. That's what I would do. Your rent is peanuts anyway. Peanuts. It's peanuts.

And the caveat to all of this is any improvement we've made. So, in other words, if we wanted to put a mini split in, which is something we're working on, if we just put a fence in, for example. You're adding value to this house that you have no ownership in. I wouldn't have done it. Exactly. So the deal is that if mom has to come out of pocket for her 50%, she's making us whole for every dollar

that we've spent. We have nothing contractual on that. It was just a verbal agreement. She just said that. Okay. Oh, that's nice if she does it. If she does it. But I know lots of situations where parents are like, I'll pay for that. And then they don't end up paying. Yeah, Matt. I mean, I think if this was a house you guys loved, it's in the family and they're giving you a great deal, I would just buy it outright, get everyone off the mortgage, get everyone off the deed. You and your wife assume it as your house.

You pay the mortgage, and you drive off into the sunset. But if this is not a house that you would not have bought, then if I were you and your wife, I would be looking to say, hey, where? And now you can rent this as a renter for the period of time while you guys save up a good down payment for another house. But I wouldn't do any more improvements. And I wouldn't try to like, yeah, piece mill this together because it gets complicated so fast. And it's a much cleaner. I have a follow-up question with that said. Just because you have a baby coming. I really appreciate the follow-up here, guys, and your time.

So in a what-if scenario, because this is more hypothetical, I can't speak for the aunt, but she is the one of the two that's more motivated to basically turn this into money, to liquidate the home. Yeah. What if she comes back and says, if that's your plan to rent, we would prefer to move forward with sale of it, and creating a very different situation for us having to leave.

So you move. So you move and you rent somewhere. It doesn't change everything that Rachel said. What Rachel said is spot on. It's just straight up wisdom she threw at you. You don't want to live in this house long term. So don't even start entertaining the idea of, well, what if, what if. It's time to move on.

Yeah, the only reason I would settle for a house that I don't really love is if you get a great deal on it. And there are some family situations where they're like, hey, we'll give you, you know, we'll sell the house for 75% of what it's worth. And you get a good deal. You guys get in it. And financially, it's smart. But if it's not apples to apples, you guys don't like it, and they're not going to give you a great deal. Yeah, well, you're not even getting the whole house. You have to share it with mom, which is weird.

And Rachel would just say. So mom actually doesn't live in house. Doesn't matter. But the ownership. But she owns it. The ownership part. Gotcha. Matt, I've got to say something to you.

And I'm going to give you a pass because you pulled over the side of the road and you got a baby on the way. But I'm not feeling like you're hearing what we're saying. And you called us, and that's our opinion. But it feels to me like you want to do this. Why do you feel like that? Because you feel like he wants to do it. He's still, he's like, but what if?

Matt, what do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you and your wife want to do? So, Ken, it's a great point. And I've been told all my life that I'm hard-headed, so I'll take that feedback. I appreciate that. No, but also, I am listening. I'm going to take everything you guys say as gold. I promise you that. You guys mean a lot to me. You've done a lot of good things in my life. I'm debt-free.

I've got some money in the bank. We feel good about our life situation. That's in large part due to Ramsey and all you, so thank you. What I would say, though, what I want to do is keep expenses extremely low. And to your point, yeah, I got to make the best move, but I'm trying to keep my expenses super low so I can buy my next home in cash. And we're about halfway there. And I just projected out about 18 more months where I can get more cash flow and be able to do that. So that's kind of my other thing. And the thing that hangs in the balance is I just don't know where I'll be long-term. So to purchase another home, if I get promoted again, for example, I don't know what that's going to look like. Moving again, just seems like a tall order. Okay, totally hear you. So I would sit down with aunt and mom,

I would lay out the mat formula of which you have laid out because if you keep renting, we're not mad at that. But like you said, the the asterisk here is that aunt wants to get out and mom wants cash and they want to sell and be done with it. Right. So that would that that puts a wrinkle in your plan. But then the other thing is, too, Matt, if you guys are not going to be somewhere five years or more, it wouldn't even be worth buying at that point. Even four years. That's right. I wouldn't. I don't think that's a smart use of your money and time and energy and all of it. So what's your what's the what's the you know the probability that you guys will move in the next four to five years likely uh i would venture to guess 75 chance okay so

honestly matt if i were you i mean you have a new baby coming which just like adds to the stress man i'd go find a nice great house i would rent three years and then you're gonna move i i'm a hundred percent agreement like go get a great house and rent it with your family and i appreciate that you're trying to save some cash flow by staying in this current house so if auntie wants to kick you out you're going crap now i got this super low rent and i got to play more but but you don't you don't sacrifice your long-term plans for a monthly number when you're getting paid well enough. You can afford to rent.

You're a big boy. That's what we're trying to say. Yeah, and then if you get two years down the road and it looks like your job that, no, you will be here full-time, you guys will have a ton of money in the bank to go and put a big down payment on a house and have your roots planted. Matt, we've done all we can do. You've got to get back on the road.

Get to the hospital. You've got a back on the road. Get to the hospital. You got a child on the way for heaven's sakes. I cannot believe that. Unbelievable. Oh my goodness. God bless your wife. God bless all of you. This is the Ramsey Show.

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betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Ramsey Radio. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz is with me. I'm Ken Coleman, and we are here for you to help you win with your money. Speaking of which, our colleague, Dr. John Deloney, and the EveryDollar team are doing a free live training Friday, September 27th at 1 Eastern, 12 Central. So you can lunch and learn here. It's a free webinar, everydollar.com slash webinar, everydollar.com slash webinar. And we've been doing these. We've been telling you about these throughout the last month or two.

We're doing more of these as the Ramsey personalities jump in to help out and so if you want more breathing room, you want to learn how to spend money without anxiety and guilt, emotional awareness around your money, Dr. John Dillon is going to be walking you through that with the EveryDollar team. So again, September 27th 1 Eastern, 12 Central

EveryDollar.com slash webinar. All right, Ryan is going to join us now in Orlando, Florida. Ryan, how can we help? Hey, how's it going? Thanks so much for taking my call. So my question, I'm 31, my wife's 28. We just got married about six months ago.

I'm kind of a weirdo in that I've worked at my job in finance for the last 10 years at the same company, but kind of getting to the point where I want to quit my job at the beginning of next year, so 2025. And we're seeing this as a good opportunity to kind of take four to six months and maybe do something like move to Europe. You know, we've kind of lived like no one else. We've saved up a good bit over our lives. And so we have about $700,000 of net worth, no debt other than the house. We would probably sell the house if we did go out there for six months. But kind of wanting to have kids in the next one to three years. And so this is kind of our main shot from a timing standpoint.

So wondering if that makes sense from a financial standpoint. What do you do for a living? I'm in finance. I work at a bank. And how much do you have saved beyond your emergency fund? Yeah, so we have about $90,000 of cash, about $100,000 in our brokerage, about $225,000 in our retirement, about $275,000 in our home equity, and then about $35,000 in kind of other stuff.

I'm ready to rule, Rachel. I'm ready. What was the first number? I just kept thinking, I want a man in finance, a trust fund. Is that Ryan? Is he the guy the internet's been looking for? Sorry. Blue eyes. I try to keep in decent shape. That's so funny. Okay. Sorry. I missed the first number. I picked up at $150,000 in a brokerage account. Did you have a number before that? Sorry, yeah. It's $85,000 in cash, $100,000 in brokerage account.

Perfect. Okay. I just want to make sure I got it. I say do it. I say do it. Because you can jump back in that industry. You've worked in that industry for 10 years. You can explain your gap.

I think it's pretty stinking awesome and i think if i were in your particular situation um i'd absolutely say do this because you're in financial ability to do it it's not risky at all yeah you're not taking on debt you're i mean from a long-term financial standpoint i mean pausing for six months you're fine i mean there's nothing i think it's a great move the house though is a question for me why would you guys want to sell the house i mean obviously because you're not living there for six months and you're fine. I mean, there's nothing. I think it's a great move. The house, though, is a question for me. Why would you guys want to sell the house? I mean, obviously, because you're not living there for six months, and you'd be paying a mortgage and rent, but that's just for six months.

I'd hate for you to lose out on it. Well, wait a second. How long is the Europe adventure? It would be about six months. Oh, okay. I thought I heard something different. I felt it. Yeah, and I think the reason you want to sell a the reason we're thinking about maybe moving up in-house,

it'd be like a good break to sell. Oh, perfect. I love everything about it, man. It's great. Pocket the cash. You don't need the cash for the Europe adventure, correct? You're not going to borrow from them? No, we don't.

I like it. Quick follow-up question. So my wife works in telehealth, and she could work part-time there and kind of wants to work like three days a week. Yeah. Do you think that's smart, or just go ahead and actually enjoy her time there and spend full time? Oh, I'm weighing in on this one too, Rachel. I think I would have her, I would live off of, I would take that would be the fun money.

Yeah. I would try to live off as much like the Europe trip. Yeah, if she can do it. And she wants to. And she wants to now because you're over there, you know, feet up in the air the air you know with your mid-morning juice and she's over there doing telehealth i don't know how long that's going to last when you're in paris but so true but if she's willing rachel's right yeah she may want like a routine and she's thinking okay this isn't for three weeks for six months we're going to be somewhere i kind of want a little bit of a routine and that's spa

money is why i'm looking at it rachel i I'd be allocating that on the budget. Yeah. Yeah. We thought to do it cost neutral so that we wouldn't end up actually being out of pocket. Are you kidding me? If she's a great woman, if she'll do that. Oh yeah. She's a great jackpot. Yeah, you do it, Ryan. That's awesome. What countries? I got to know what countries are we looking at? You know, I think we would probably start off probably somewhere in Portugal. She really likes France. And then we kind of just keep moving to the East, maybe Germany and Austria and then like Slovenia area. My goodness. It's great. I feel like you might need a mentor couple. Stacey and I would be available. All right. We'll get you guys out there we would love to mentor you guys

through that trip that's really fun good for you hey um i i love this rachel this is a great story here 31 and 28 if i recall he's 31 she's 28 and the fact that they can do this before baby and yeah this is the spice of life well and this is great and this is to the degree that we talk about living and giving like no one else right when you have no payments you have money in retirement that's going to be growing like you've set yourself up so early in life i love this that you were able you know what i mean to to to say hey i'm this is the choice and what i want to do because that's what money is i mean out of all of that we talk about, it's to have, our job is to help you guys have a plan to have peace with your money and your life,

have a sense of peace, and to allow money to be a tool to create a life that you love, right? That's what it is. It's not a scorecard. It's not a net worth. You know, this idea that my net worth is my self worth. It's not who I am is the number in my account.

Like it's none of that. It is just paper there in a sense, right? To use on your life to help your family, enjoy life, help others, enhance your life, all of that. That's what it's here for. And you guys are doing it well and in a wise way. Yeah. I think years from now, you guys will be still talking about this decision. I think it's a great decision as a couple. I couldn't endorse it anymore. Fantastic. Let's go to Bryce now who's waiting on the line for us in Houston, Texas. Bryce, how can we help?

Hello. I'm 21 years old and for the last three years I've been working in the oil field and I got laid off about two months ago and I want to do a career change and join the military to better my future. The only problem I'm having is I have a 2021 F-150 and I'm upside down on it. And I don't want to repo it and ruin my credit because I'm trying to better my future.

You know what I mean? How much upside down are you? About $10,000 to $15,000. So how much is the car, how much do you have left on it to pay? How much is left on the loan? I owe, I think it was last month I checked, it was $50,000 and some change. $50,000? Yes, ma'am.

And it's worth $35,000? Is that what we're hearing? Yes, sir. And where'd you get that $35,000 number from? On the website. Like Kelley Blue Book? Yes. Okay, okay. You got any cash? Um, on like, uh, on the website to wherever. Like Kelley Blue Book? Yes. Okay.

Okay. You got any cash? Uh, no, sir. No, not a lot. And any job? Are you working at all? Uh, so like, uh, like I said, I was laid off about two months ago and I'm, I've been joining the military.

I just got out of MIPS, uh, yesterday actually. Okay. So when, when does all that start full gear? When did what start? I'm sorry. Military. When do you start getting paid? Whenever I go to boot camp, which will be pretty soon. I got to go back to MEPS one time for a job list and then I'll get my boot camp date okay and whenever I start okay and that's pretty soon after meaning like a week after or like a month after uh it could be a month okay so I mean honestly Bryce I'd go wait tables I'd go work nights I'd go I mean I would go do anything that you can just to earn some cash right now I know that's not your long-term plan but what I

mean the ideal situation um would be to get as much cash as possible. And even if you're still upside down, you know, three or $4,000 by the time bootcamp starts, you can take out a small loan for that difference and sell the truck. And then you have $3,000 that you owe versus 50,000, but I would make it a goal to do as much as you can here in the next six weeks to earn extra income. And again, that can be through any means to be able to get some cash. But that's what I would do. But yeah, if worse comes to worse, do not go down the repossession route. Don't let it get repoed, any of that. Stay on top of your payments.

And if you have to, take a small loan out for the difference. Sell it. Be done with it. And I'd rather have a smaller loan than a $50,000 loan on a truck. Yeah, you want to move this truck. If you can't pay it off, get that difference made up quickly, you want to sell this thing quickly so that you have the least amount that you're going to have to pay back. So get the highest value for this and then learn from this.

All right? You don't need the big, giant truck to be successful, to be who you are. So thanks for the call. Thanks for your service and signing up to serve our country. You're a great American. All right. We'll be right back. This is the Ramsey Show. You know, one of the first things I discovered working in the financial world is how absolutely devastating it is when the breadwinner of a family dies and there's too little life insurance or none at all. Grieving families are suddenly left behind scrambling to pay bills and trying to make ends meet.

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So you know they'll be there when you need them. Zander is the real deal, and that's why they've handled all my personal insurance for over 25 years. I trust them, and you can too. Visit Zander.com for instant online quotes or for a more personal touch. Give them a call at 800-356-4282. How you doing out there, America? Thrilled to have you with us.

I'm Ken Cohen. Rachel Cruz is with me, and this is The Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. We'd love to hear from you. We want to coach you up today. 888-825-5225. Danny is up next in West Palm Beach, Florida. Danny, how can we help today?

Hi, Rachel. Hi, Ken. Thank you so much for taking my call. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Well, pretty much. I purchased my home in 2015 and it's an older home. And now I feel like there's so many home improvements that I need to make, but I don't have the money. And I was wondering if it would be a good idea to take a home equity or a HELOC loan to fix these things before they completely

break down on me. So what kind of repairs are you needing to make on the house? Well, recently I noticed there was a spot in the ceiling that had mold, and I'm assuming that water is getting into the attic somehow. So I need to fix my roof and some of my doors and windows doors and windows okay has someone have you had a professional come out and look at the mold and look at the leak and look at the roof or is this your assessment of it all this is my assessment I haven't done that yet because I'm afraid of what I might hear yeah yeah, yeah. So what I would do, Danny, yeah, is I would call, I would probably get, honestly, two to three different people,

companies, service companies out to get three different bids because I feel like sometimes in this industry, I don't know if you feel like this, Ken, that it's like the dentist stuff. Like you can go to one dentist and they're like, oh, you need a root canal and you go to the other dentist. Everybody's got the dentist stuff. Like you can go to one dentist and they're like, oh, you need a root canal. And you go to the other dentist and they're like, oh, you need this. Yeah.

So the opinion is going to equal money in this instance. So the more opinions you have, the more options you have. So Danny, facts are going to be your friends. Our friend, Dr. John Deloney always says that. So in your head, you just said, you know, I'm scared to do that because I'm scared of, you know, what this is going to mean. But I wouldn't even go there right now emotionally because you don't even know you

could get someone over there and they're like oh yeah there's this right here in this one little patch like our roof danny we had to do some work on ours and it was in one little it was one area and insurance covered it so it was like oh okay so it may not be as big of a deal as you think it is um but then if it is then we have to make a game plan. So do you have like good home insurance and everything for some of this stuff? If it comes back really damaged and you're able to possibly get some insurance money? Well, I have insurance. I came for it.

That I know. But I don't know what it covers, to be honest. Okay. So yeah. So I may call your insurance company and just double check your coverage and know what that is and then i would get again two to three people and i would get reputable people if there's if there's other people in your neighborhood that have used someone um that you know that they can recommend i always find that's very helpful to find someone that's trustworthy but again get two to three different bids on these improvements and then from there

make some assessments so overall though danny i would not go deeper into debt on this house i would not take out a heloc i would not take equity out to fix the stuff i would figure out a way to cash flow it and prioritize it so do you have any money saved at all i have my emergency fund okay how much is that one thousand a thousand dollar emergency okay perfect are you working your way out of debt I have my emergency fund. Okay. How much is that? $1,000. $1,000 emergency fund. Okay, perfect. Are you working your way out of debt? Yes, yes.

I started listening to the Dave Van Vee show about two years ago, and I'm doing my best to be in a better place financially, but it's really hard. I do have two jobs, and life has been really hard because something always comes up and kind of throws me off that budget. Absolutely. Well, I'm proud of you for doing this. I mean, you've made great. You're making progress, even though you feel like you're maybe two steps backwards, right, four steps forward or whatever it looks like.

That is life during the baby steps, which can be difficult. But I would keep going on paying off this debt. And then once you get some bids, Danny, if it is work that has to be done, right? There are some cosmetic work that we would like new windows and doors, but they may be fine for another two years, right? I mean, like if you can put anything off, I would. I would just do the necessities, the bare bones, and I would pause the debt snowball, save up and pay for those repairs, because that's part of your four walls. I mean, that's food, shelter, utility, transportation, making sure

that those things are covered. And again, I will say it again, get multiple bids, because some people, they just go get one roofer, and they quote this insane amount. That's exactly right. And then you could have had someone else that's like, no, I could actually probably fix it for way less. And they don't work for a big company and they do it on their own or whatever it looks like. Right. So get some options, Danny. And if it causes you to pause it at snowball to fix these, then that's what I would do. Yeah. And, you know, I've just had a little bit experience on this. And shockingly, there are some dishonest contractors. That's true. Yeah. But even with honest ones, you know, they're coming in and there's an exchange for time, their time and your money. And I think it's always great to get at least three quotes. And I'll tell you why I like to, Rachel, when someone comes in, I go, well, the last guy said this. And this is what he said he would do. And what happens is it just comes down to everybody's got their own opinion and everybody loves their opinion.

And by contrasting and comparing. And believe it's right deep down. That's right. But you might have one guy go, well, he told you too much. I can beat that by it. I'm telling you, you can actually get a lower price and a little bit more honest thing by doing that and letting, tell everybody, each contractor, what the other one said and what they do.

Yeah. And that's a surprise how that works. Totally. And what that does, Danny, what Ken just said, is it puts you in the power seat. Yeah. I think sometimes when you enter into parts of life, or for me, that I'm not super knowledgeable on, it can be intimidating, right? Getting your car fixed or whatever that I'm like, I don't even know if I know

what they're really talking about. But the more that you have knowledge, understanding, and other people's opinions, like you're saying, you get to go in now with the power to say, oh, no, but I learned this and this. Well, what about that? And have that question. So there's some learnings here. But again, Dani, I would only fix things that are absolutely needed in this time right now. As much as you can focus on that debt snowball and getting through that that's going to be

so helpful when those payments are out you're gonna have more margin to do more fixing in this house if that's what you want to do all right so Rachel we're going to go to a social media question and I feel like this one is got Rachel all over it so I've picked this one this is from Valley Farmhouse that sounds like somebody that would follow you. It sounds magical. Yeah, right? It feels like somebody who already follows you is my guest. It's a good question on Instagram. Okay. How do I budget for baby items and still tackle debt?

I feel guilty not having a finished nursery. Oh. What say you? That's a first-time parent. 100%. Because by the third kid, you're like a nursery it's just another room you should still see my kids charles's room he's four almost five and i'm like yeah you got a bed you got a nice bed we got him a nice bed besides that there's not really much going on in that room no the yeah oh gosh yeah the the nursery all that all that. I would not feel guilt about that.

The baby's going to be fine. And the truth is, the baby's in your room. I mean, I guess depending on how you do the newborn stage. But for at least six weeks, usually. Really? Was it six weeks? Yeah. Now, some people, it's years.

So we can't, don't be judgmental. We read, okay, you're right. I read a book. You know the book. And I read it too. And we had the kids in their bedrooms, day one. Oh read. Okay. You're right. I read a book. You know the book. And I read it too. And we had the kids in their bedrooms day one. Oh, day one. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. We weren't day one. I think it was six weeks. I was early though for some of my friends. There's a young lady in the audience that looked at me like I'm a caveman. We did feed and clothe the child. We did do that. I'm saying when it was nighttime, baby went to bed in the crib and we had a monitor and

we were up when we needed to be up. We didn't, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. We didn't let it sleep outside, but sleeping in our room, this particular book, and I don't want to say it cause I'm not trying to endorse anything, but I'm saying. I'll say it cause we did it too. By eight weeks, all three of our kids were sleeping eight hours.

Ours were too y'all. Shut up. We're about to get, we're about to get, we're about to get three of our kids were sleeping eight hours. Ours were too, y'all. Sleep schedule. We're about to get hate on YouTube. Ken is a caveman. He is so insensitive. People are going to hate this advice. But I know. I'm not saying, by the way, let me be clear.

I'm not saying you're a bad parent if the kid sleeps in your room with you. I'm just saying, I'm not casting judgment. No. I'm just saying. I'm just saying what you did. So did so what you did is yes you would have more of a finished you would have more of a furnished nursery so what i would say to her yeah she's you know what she's talking about the the curtains and the pillows yeah and while you're getting out of debt and you're having a baby um and once they becomes yeah that that baby whatever age you know or number it is in the family it may not have the nicest stroller it may not have the nicest gear because you're going to

probably go cheap on it but you know once you're out of debt and you have a fully funded emergency venue and you have another baby yeah you get to have the nice stuff because you have the cash for it and it's great the baby's fun i was born in the 70s i slept in a tree the first four years all right so you know come on on. I kid. I kid. Rachel Cruz, always fun to be with you, my friend. Thanks for hanging out. And for you, America, thank you for being with us. This is your show.

This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome to The Ramsey Show, where we help you win. We help you win with your money. We help you win in your work. We help you win in your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. We'd love to have you jump in. 888-825-5225. Rachel Cruz, the incomparable Rachel Cruz, is our money expert in the seat today, and I'm thrilled to be with her. I'm Ken Coleman. I'll be captaining the good ship financial piece today.

I thought I'd try that out. Set sail, Captain. I couldn't even get it out without cracking. That's terribly cheesy, but hey, it's always fun. And we're thrilled to be here with you. As I said, I'm going to help you with your income. Rachel will help you with what we do with that money. So let's get it started.

Kent is up first in Indianapolis. Kent, how can we help? Well, I'm trying to find a way to communicate with a 28-year-old nephew and get them to buy into the Ramsey Way. About 20 years ago, you guys sold a product for, I think, junior high kids. I got all four of my nephews that product for Christmas and all three of them are doing pretty well. One of them is going to have his home paid for before he's 40. But this one nephew, he's got a good job. He's not in debt, but he's wanting to buy a $60,000 new car. He's paying $2,500 in rent. I'd like to find a way for him to go through and decide what are really needs versus wants.

But it's hard to get through to him. You know, he's not in debt, but he just, I don't think he's got a lot of wants that he pays for every month that he just, maybe, I don't know, I think it's kind of not necessary items, but it's hard to get through to him. You know, homes, interest rates are too high, or the home prices have gone up too much. I tried to explain to him, you know, we went through similar things in the 80s,

but I just can't seem to make headway with him. I tried to get him one year. I was going to match him dollar for dollar and gift him some money to put into an IRA. He could only come up with $1,000 or $2,000. Well, so he's 28, number one. He's 28, number one. And number two, he's your nephew, so he's not even your son.

So, you know, this kind of feels like, for you, something that you're trying, whether, and and again you're not doing anything wrong i just think it's i think you're putting too much pressure on yourself to try to you know get through to him you know part of that is i never had kids so i'm pretty close to my nephews and i'm just trying i've seen from example you know living debt free i mean it sets you free at some point. Sure. And he's not currently using debt to fund this lifestyle. Is that right? He's just using his money in a wasteful way, in your opinion. Exactly.

Yeah. I'd like him to come across something and say, hey, maybe if I did this differently, I could do this or that. But I don't want to preach too much to him. But at the same time, I want him to kind of realize on his own. Okay, there's the key phrase. All right. He's got to realize on his own. This is the first time in this call where you got outside of this self-imposed pressure to get through to your nephew because you're such a good dude. Okay. You're the, you're your uncle of the year, Kent. But he's got to realize this on his own. The other two, for whatever reason, they got it. He hasn't picked up on it. So I would liken this to a parent

raising multiple children and some are going to get it quicker than others. Some, you might have a prodigal or whatever. In this case, I wouldn't qualify this nephew as a prodigal. But what I would tell you is I would give him the Total Money Maker or George Campbell's book. In fact, if you don't have George's book, I'll give that to you. I just think it's such a fabulous book. And give it to him and then let it go. And he knows what you believe. You've told him over and over and over again. Oh, yeah.

He knows. Right. So here's my point. When he gets to a point where he has realized some money pain, there's a good chance he's calling you, true or false? Probably. I think that's all you can do. Rachel, do you have a different take on that? Yeah, and I would be, you know, Kent, how old are you?

I'm 66. Okay, so you're 66. He's 28. So what he spends his money on, and again, he's not using debt, right? So he's not, I mean, in a way you could say, yeah, so for you, you think that's so silly. That's so stupid.

Why would he spend his money on that? But the truth is too, people value different things in life. And what, you know, Winston and I spend on a weekend away. People may be like, that is so stupid. What a waste of money. But it is. I bought a Tesla. value different things in life and what you know winston and i spend on a weekend away people may be like that is so stupid what a waste of money but it is i bought a tesla my dad couldn't believe that i bought an electric car and he thinks it's the stupidest thing ever but i but i want a tesla

like i don't care what the 60 year old guy you know even though i love my dad and respect him but like i i you know i wanted to i'm not i'm not living for him or what he likes she parks it next to me it's pretty cool and i park next to him too which is funny that is funny yeah i charged next to his when i was younger yeah i spent stuff on on stuff my parents you know nice trips and things but i also oh you know i did that outside of you know i would always yeah you are different than him and you keep coming back to that i did this i did that and i think too he's gonna learn kent because even for me right i didn't go into debt i was budgeting all of it but i i mean part of my financial

struggle it was the comparison game it was accumulating i'm a spender i love i enjoy spending money so like i had to get to a point in my life where I where I finally just realized Rachel what is the motivation in all of this and I had to like learn all of that right and so people's journey even with money is going to look different and the lessons they're going to learn are different and and you know and that's and that's for him I'll try that approach and see what happens yeah Ken, Ken, I would just be there for him. Be a friend. Be an uncle that you don't have to teach him everything.

And the fact he's a 28-year-old man and the most beautiful relationships are those that were in authority in your life and they end up kind of becoming peers with you. You actually respect those people a lot more. I mean, mom and dad, I laugh all the time. I'm like, they are not perfect people. Love them. But one thing they've done so well is they treat us like adults. They're no longer preaching or telling us what we should and shouldn't be doing. They don't do that. They just are like, how's life? How are you doing? And it's a relationship at that point, right? So you may actually be turning off the relationship by continuing to teach and

preach. He probably is saying, Uncle Kent, let me live. I'm okay. You know? Yeah. I think it's, I do the soft stuff. I don't see, I came only three or four times a year and it's, you know, I don't go overboard. Sure. Okay.

Yeah. I just like to find some way that he could decide on his own. Yeah. And I think one of the best ways to help people get there for them to realize on their own is asking questions. And there's an interest, there'd be an interesting exercise for you in the next conversation with money is you don't tell him anything what to do. You ask questions and be like, okay, so what are you doing with there? How was that? And you know, I think that's incredible advice. Yeah. Because what happens is, is now, now you're entering into a conversation by handing him the ball. You're asking, you're not making a statement. And I'd give him a few resources. Hang on the line. I think Breaking Free from Broke is a fun book from George. It's just kind of a, hey, I listen to this show. That's a young guy. He's got a great youtube channel you know just keep it simple and i appreciate your heart i really do i mean the fact that 20 years ago you gave them as students you know

foundations and personal finance and you know what i mean like you you've done uncle of the year and honestly the fact he's 28 and isn't in debt that's a win for our world today yeah that's a great i'm like that's amazing take a victory you've. Yeah, you've loved your nephews really well, and I bet a lot of people wish they had an Uncle Kent in their life. I appreciate you helping out. Thank you for the call. What a great heart. Good, good stuff. Great advice, Rachel.

That's really good. Alright, quick break. We've got to pay some bills. I mean, this is the Ramsey Show. We're on time. And we'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you with us here on The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Rachel Cruz is with me. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. We'd love to coach you up, taking your calls about your money, your income. That's a work-related situation from time to time, obviously. 888-825-5225.

Long Island is where Lisa is waiting for us. Lisa, how can we help today? Hi, Rachel and Ken. Thanks so much for taking my call. You bet. What's up? My husband is not eligible for life insurance. We've been denied many times due to health issues

in the past. And my question for you is, um, we're going to be debt free except for our mortgage at the end of this year. Wow. Great job. And I want to know, thank you. I want to know if I should be taking that money that we were putting towards our debt and putting it into our outstanding mortgage, or if I should just be stocking it away and making like a huge emergency fund. What's your emergency fund now? Is it more on the six month side? Well, right now we just have the thousand dollar emergency fund. Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. Because you're, yeah, you're working around debt. So Lisa, is this, the way you asked that question, is this this basically you're saying because your husband can't get life insurance should we

have a massive savings account or should we pay off the home is that what you're essentially asking yes yeah the home the the home has got greater value than that savings account just because where you're at right now what is the house worth right now? It's probably worth about $450, and we owe about $195,500 on it. Yeah. Do you agree with that, Rachel? Yeah, for sure. I mean, when we say baby step three, it's three to six months of expenses. And for you, I would definitely lean on the six-month side. So I would have a six-month emergency fund, not the three-month on that end of the spectrum. And with his health condition, Lisa, are you guys on ongoing medical treatments?

Is there a diagnosis? Is there something that could be happening in the near future to him and his health? Or is it just... He does not currently have ongoing issues, no. But I have seen changes in him. He works a lot. Okay. And I could see him kind of deteriorating.

Why did he not qualify, if you don't mind asking? If you don't mind me asking. Yeah, that's okay. When he was 29, we were still dating, actually, and he needed bypass surgery. Oh. Okay. So they're just kind of holding him. Have you tried, we're not fans of whole life, but sometimes whole life is more, has a bigger span of what they accept than term life.

Term life can be sometimes more narrow, I guess you could say, health-wise. Have you guys applied for, yeah, have you, have you applied for whole life by chance? I did inquire about the, because he recently just turned 50. Yeah. So I went through like the colonial pen, you know, you see the ads, I'm like, oh, he's 50, I can get life insurance. Yeah. And it was just outrageous. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. What is your, what's your, outrageously priced, I'm like, I'd rather put that in my savings account. Yeah. What's your combined income?

He makes, he brings home about $88 a year and I'm around $24. Okay. And you guys have kids? We have a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old. Okay. Okay. So I'm kind of like, I stayed home for five years and then when my little one went to kindergarten, I started going back to work.

And then COVID hit. And I took a hiatus. And so I've kind of been floating between part-time jobs. So I have a part-time job during the week. And then I walk dogs and dogs as my side hustle. Okay. Okay. Yeah, because the reason for life insurance, and for those of you listening and watching,

it is, you know, in case something happens to you, that your income can be replaced if people are dependent upon it. So in the off chance, Lisa, obviously we would never pray for this, but if something happened to him, you know, in a perfect world here in the next couple of months, you know, you would have six-month emergency funds. You guys would be paying down on the house after that uh after putting some money away in retirement and at that case yeah i mean if there's a level that he just doesn't qualify then there's there's no other option but um to continue to put yourself in the best financial position and that would be in my opinion to can to be paying

down on the house i would be putting money away for retirement. Do you guys have retirement saved at all? Yes, I have a traditional 401k that was a rollover. Okay. And that's got like about 120 in it. Okay. And does he have any? We have two small, like very small Roth accounts that we are, you know, have good intentions. Sure.

Yeah. So what I would do is after that six-month emergency fund, I would go down the baby steps and fund that 15% of your income into retirement. You both need to be doing that. And then, yep, and then kids college, all of that. You know, Lisa, you're young enough that if, you know, Lord willing, his health, you know, and he lives quite a bit longer,

I mean, and then if something were to happen with that initial investment you've got going on, you can make up some real ground. But the reason why we really want you to pay the house off is let's, since you took us there and it's a good question, let's stay there for a moment. Let's say that you pay the house off in the next two or three, four or five years. Is that about what that would take? Did I get that right? Or is it more than that? Well, if we take what we're putting towards the debt right now, I calculated that it would knock like five years, eight months off of it. So it would be that six years. Okay. So let's just say that six years from now, the home is paid off

and you've been investing as Rachel's been telling you to do, and something happens to him. While you don't have a huge insurance policy, what you have is a paid-for home. And just imagine being on your own with the kiddos right now and not having a house payment. You just have to – that's a lot of peace, is it not? Absolutely. Yeah. And so the idea of – because if you were to call us six years from now

and we'd want you to pay off the house with all that cash that you would have stocked. That's right. That's right. And so I just want to, I want to give you kind of that, that full view of what we're saying here, because at this point now, the most important thing in your life is your home, especially when, you know, you've got kiddos. And, and so in that situation, you are in some way self-insured because you can always downsize and sell the home and get a chunk of cash. So that's why we're saying go for the house and live wide open, praying that he's going to be okay because we don't know what tomorrow holds. And it's not going to be paid off tomorrow anyway, and you're not going to have a bunch of cash tomorrow anyway either. So really go that direction. That's why we're telling you that.

That's going to put you in the best place of peace, which is what insurance is about anyway, is peace. I agree. Thank you so much. Yeah, you bet. Appreciate you sharing that story with us. Lisa, I would check out Zander Insurance as well. You can go to zander.com and just look around,

because they are an insurance broker where they'll go and shop multiple companies and not just one. Because if the one you mentioned, you call one number for one company, you're going to get just one answer where they actually do. And again, he may not qualify at all

because of all the preexisting conditions. But it's worth a shot one more time just here for the next few years. But yeah, maybe check them out. All right, let's go to another social media question. You you ready you did so well on the last one i thought she needs some more put me in the hot this is riley from facebook thoughts on giving your adult children money toward a down payment on their house oh yeah i'm picking the good ones today this is a good one what do you think i'll wait okay i have okay i do have thoughts on this because initially the front row says no okay okay initially people people are that they're

like absolutely not nope they need to work for it work for work for it what's interesting can we talk to so many people recently that have called this show that are young i mean they're 28 and they're paying off their house like they're like they're doing crazy good stuff, like right with their money. They're going to build wealth really quickly. And so by the time that that 28-year-old that calls us that doesn't have a mortgage payment, by the time they're in their 50s and their kids are buying houses,

they're going to have multi-millions of dollars, right? And there's a point that changing your family tree is it not enabling, but is there a financial benefit to saying, hey kids, we can fast forward your financial picture so that what if we help you? And then they become 28 and debt free. They start investing. They change their kid and the line keeps changing.

And the stipulation to this is, and I agree, you have to have the margin to do so. You are not borrowing from your baby steps. You aren't borrowing from your progress. And it's not enabling. You have to know your kids and they still have to have the dignity to be adults and to stand on their own and know how to work. But we were talking to Dr. Arthur Brooks from Harvard. He's a Harvard professor and he talked about happiness. And he said, one of the benefits of this is to be able to pour into your kids financially within assets, and that's education, that's home. If you can do that, fast forward the timeline for them, they start building wealth earlier to help their kids.

It's just the trickle-down effect. I don't know. I'm not fully against it on those two speculations. Got to run. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer,

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at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Excited to have you with us. I'm Ken Coleman. And the graceful Rachel Cruz is alongside today. I know, I'm trying to look for another adjective. So how about that? I'll take graceful. You'll take it? All right, very nice. Hey, today's question of the day is brought to you by WhyRefi.

Politicians make a lot of promises, and sometimes they might even keep one or two. But if you're in over your head with private student loans, don't rely on the government. Contact Y-Refi. Y-Refi refinances defaulted private student loans and gives you a low fixed rate loan built for you. Go to Y-Refi.com slash Ramsey today. That's the letter Y. R-E-F-Y.com slash Ramsey. It may not be available in all states. All right. Today's question comes from Elizabeth in Missouri. We have two elementary school-aged kids, five and seven. We budget for the kids to buy school lunch once a week. The school is cashless, so we add money to an account to be used for the kids to scan their ID card in the lunch line. In addition to the regular lunch lunch the school sells snacks at checkout we have

told the kids that they can get lunch but would have to pay us back from their piggy bank money for any extra treats that they buy initially we thought this would be a good intro and teaching them about money management but then realized that it's more like buying on a credit card and paying mom and dad back later are we teaching them that credit is okay uh with this plan that they in the cashless system where there's no tangible money to be exchanged uh how else can we teach young kids about money management oh that's funny um no i don't think that's teaching them about debt i'm like they're as long as the pain comes from the piggy bank they're learning yes yes and and the reality is too you know you're teaching them about money management in 2024.

I mean, there's a lot of cashless vendors and retailers that it is what it is. So what are you going to do with that with your debit card and all? So, yeah, that doesn't bother me. I think this is great, actually, because treats at school is ground zero for kids learning to kind of be content. You're the queen of contentment over there. You know what I mean? Like, you think about it. That's where their greatest temptation to spend is the treats. Do you have a story?

Well, this just felt close to home because we're our school is the exact same way and there's an app of course that you go and you can load and use apple pay to load the money back in the school lunches all of it um and it turned i didn't know this this is back when my oldest was this was a few years ago when i didn't know how everything worked and one of my friends was like you know you can go back and look and see what all they've bought and i was like what no and sure enough tracking little amelia's spending sure enough there were treats upon treats upon treats and i was like sweet girl i know i just said amelia she was like well some of my friends wanted some she was buying some for other kids and i was like no no so the

teachers are great because when they're little like that like first second grade you can email them and even tell the teacher hey they're only allowed a treat on Fridays and they kind of help you know manage it but some of these kids it wasn't always just Amelia but some of these kids are bartering and hey you pay me that and I'll get you I mean they they figure out how to work the system those little like an open air market overseas you know amazing yeah I like it I like it she wasn't buying treats for little Johnny, was she? Do what? Who's little Johnny?

I don't know. I'm making it up. I don't know. I don't think so. That'd be Caroline probably, let's be honest. I love it. I love it. All right, let's go to Davenport, Iowa, where Daniel is.

Daniel, how can we help today? Hey, Ken. Hey, Rachel. How are you doing today? Good. What's going on? So I'm wondering if I should stay with my current employer or if I should start looking for a different job. Tell me more. I got to know more. Should we stay or should we go is the question.

So I am a husband and a father. I got three little girls and I got another one due in about four and a half weeks. Wow. Congratulations. Thank you. All girls. I'll pray for you. God bless you. Yeah. Lots of prayers right now. So my current employer, I told them that my family is growing and what I'm making there just currently isn't cutting it. And I just being professional, I informed them I'm a trucker. So I informed them I'm getting my hazardous materials endorsement to get a job that pays me more money, a job where I can be home daily so I can be with my girls every night. They had no problem with that. They understood.

But then they asked me to wait about a couple days to a week later, saying that there could be a significant raise coming down the pipe because they did some third-party research in our area and found out that their salary is pretty bottom of the barrel. So that was about four months ago, and I've been kind of politely pestering them. And there has been no raise thus far. And every time I ask about it, they just say, because it has to get shot up to corporate. And they say that corporate has not

given them an answer thus far. Yeah. So you're being stonewalled. So this was four months ago that they told you hang out for about four days or a week. So I love the fact that you have taken this into your own hands and getting that extra licensing. So when are you eligible to step into that role or driving those hazardous materials, which gets you the big raise and a better schedule? Well, I've done, you have to get like fingerprinting all this stuff through like the federal government and everything. I've done all that. I literally just have to go to the DMV and take the test. I've taken the test twice, but it's a very hard test, and I missed it by four questions last time. So I just pass the test, get the endorsement, and I can walk onto these jobs.

Let's go. But do not quit yet. We got a baby on the way, three girls at home, a lot of responsibilities. Do not leave this current employer until we have the other gig lined up. That's my clear-cut advice on that. So let's go. Stop waiting for this current company, my friend Daniel. The current company, they're not going to call you back. I remember in high school, I'd have some buddies. I always got the quick clue, Rachel. But I had some buddies who would ask a girl out about three or four times. After the second no, it's time to move on, you know. And they're not answering your question.

They're kicking it up to corporate, and I'm not even sure they're talking to anybody in corporate. So the sign is on the wall is what I'm getting at. It's time for you to take the next test. Let's get this thing done, and let's move on. Okay. Now I'm only allowed one question, correct? No, go ahead. When I say we'll allow it, I mean a smart way.

This just takes care of my immediate, but I actually took your get clear assessment. Okay, great. And so I just kind of wanted some guidance on that. So I'll just tell you my purpose statement and got it memorized. Okay. Um, but I was created to use my talents of, um, I thought I had it memorized. Um, my talents of communication, uh, instruction and imagination to perform my passions of leadership, advising, and performing to fulfill my mission of service by providing assistance and security.

Gotcha. So what's coming off there for me is that's a lot of people work, people and ideas, right? So when it's, when it's, there's some creativity in that, but mostly all of those answers we're driving at, you're good at people stuff and you enjoy people work, correct? Correct. Yeah. All right. So at that point now, I mean, you, you, if you don't have the book, find the work you're wired to do, I'm going to give it to you. Do you have the book? Cause you need, you need some more coaching. I actually currently have it checked out from the library. Oh, well, fantastic. I'm going to give it to you for free. And from paycheck to purpose. Great. I'll give you both for free today. And from paycheck to purpose. Great.

I'll give you both for free today. Christian, let's get this guy hooked up here in just a minute. We'll give you both for free. But here's what you've got to do. What you've got to do is take that purpose statement, and you now look at that as a job description, okay? Because it's all laid out for you. So now you go, okay, if this is a job description for me,

then where in my area, where in the world of work where I live, are jobs open that allow me to do this. It's that simple. So you're not sitting around scratching your head. What am I supposed to do? So you're going to be doing people work. You talked about the imagination piece, the instruction piece. So that is a communicative.

You have the communication, instruction, and imagination. That is you are going to be working with people, training them. The leadership thing popped up there. The advising thing popped up. So, you know, guide, instructor, coach, that's the type of thing you're looking for. But it may take some time to get into that. So I really like the path that we're on. Let's move into the hazardous materials right now, as soon as we can, bump up that salary, new baby, let's get everything stable there. And then let's take the steps next to go into that work that you were absolutely wired to do. Hang on the line, Daniel, you're a good man. You've already got your sign, your current company, they're not going to bring the

race. Let's move on. Hang on the line. We'll get you those two books and I'll coach you through via the book. All right, quick break. She's Rachel Cruz. I'm Ken Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. There's a time in your life and in the baby steps for renting, but you don't want to do it forever because when you rent, you're still paying for a mortgage just somebody else's. Plus, rent means instability in your budget because it always goes up, never down. So when you're ready to buy, make sure you work with a mortgage partner you can rely on. Churchill Mortgage. Churchill is Ramsey trusted to help you make the move from renting to home ownership wisely. Churchill understands that when you buy a home

the Ramsey way, your mortgage payment will be a consistent, manageable part of your monthly budget. Plus, when your home is paid off, that was your largest expense. Now it's extra money in your pocket and an asset towards turning you into a baby steps millionaire. So get started on the American dream of home ownership today at churchhillmortgage.com. That's churchhillmortgage.com. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLS consumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 1749 Mallory Lane, Suite 100. RentWidth Tennessee 37027. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman and Rachel Cruz is joining me right now for you. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. So if you've been paying attention to the news,

and I imagine most of you have, you're seeing that the real estate market, you're paying attention to that. Like, oh, mortgage rates are coming down off of some highs over the last several years. Still probably some room to go. But the point is, don't sit around waiting, waiting, waiting. If you've got the money and you're ready to go, the Ramsey Trusted Program is the only way to find an agent that you can trust to keep you on track with what we teach here at Ramsey and get the best offer on your house or find the right house for you. These Ramsey Trusted Agents of years of experience will help you make wise decisions. Find a Ramsey Trusted Real Estate Agent for free at ramsesolutions.com

slash agent, or you can click the link in the description if you're listening on YouTube or your favorite podcast app. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash agent. Erie, Pennsylvania is where Susan is joining us. Susan, how can we help today? Hi, Rachel. Hi, Ken. Thank you for taking my call. My husband and I are on baby step seven, and I'm calling today to get your advice on the type of loan to apply for to cover the startup expenses for my brick and mortar takeout business. Tell me more about these expenses. The expenses would be about $250,000, which would cover the kitchen setup, plus the contracting to actually make this happen, and the, you know, food and things necessary to actually get going.

So it's takeout only, not dine-in? Yes, sir. You got it. Takeout only. Have you been doing this, like, via your house right now, with like a startup kitchen, and then you're wanting to move? Or what's the, what's been your history in this? So my history is just that I've been cooking my whole life, but no, I have not done this professionally. What kind of food? So it's going to be, we're going to specialize in smoked meats, plus a couple like great family recipes that I've had for, you know, 40 years and kind of just whatever I feel like making.

Have you ever sold any of this amazing stuff? I mean, just even on Facebook. Yeah, tell us. Rachel's on to something here, and I agree with her. What have you sold? Like, how much? And give us an idea. As far as quantity?

Yeah, like, no, I mean, how have you sold it? How much have you made? Is it on Facebook? Are you selling $500 worth in a year, $20,000? That's what we're trying to get a picture of. Right now I'm selling maybe $500 a year. Yeah, you're not ready to launch into a business, whether it's in your backyard or, like, you've got to prove that this thing can actually make money. We know you can cook.

Right, and so I have done that. I mean, I know that this will make money. No, you don't. It's through my business plan, because I've read Christy Wright's book, Business Boutique. My business plan and my market research have confirmed my... I love Christy Wright, and I love that book. But if Christy were sitting here with us right now, I'm fairly certain that she would say, you've got to start cooking and selling in your home.

That's how we prove it. Everything else is on on paper and i love your moxie and please susan i am not in any way trying to discourage you we just don't want you to go get a loan for 250 000 susan for something you've not proven and restaurants are the number one small businesses that close yeah the number one high high risk low margin yes i mean food is one of the i mean honestly one of the worst industries in a sense to get into but if you're just looking at numbers from an industry standpoint um so what i would do so i would so i what i would do susan if i were you i would not take out this loan and i would start to cash flow this business meaning i would get up and I would be selling you know eight to ten thousand dollars worth out of my kitchen which then you know you're able to go in and buy some equipment

for the garage start cooking out of there start I mean start making your way little by little to the point that you guys are flooded with cash flooded with customers you keep turning people away and then you start moving up but you're going from from point a to point you know z is what it feels like i mean you're going all you're going all the way in yeah from a location standpoint okay but it's not i'm going it is and i'll be all the way and i own my brick and mortar. I own the LLC. You own the building? Yes, ma'am. But you need $250,000.

I do to purchase the equipment. Susan, I love your spunk. But a minute ago you said, I agree with you both, but it doesn't sound like you agree with this. So where are we off here? You still think you need a $250,000 loan? Yes. Okay. We don't think you need it. You've got to prove it.

You haven't proven this. You haven't even sold. You haven't even lined up catering contracts within several thousand dollars to where you're delivering brisket for a local small business annual dinner with 250 people. That's right. Like I got to prove that before I would ever go this route. Well, that's correct, but that's not my vision isn't a restaurant and my vision isn't catering. I know that. And I'm fulfilling a need. No, but what, no, you're not. We don't know if there's a need yet. You haven't proven that there's a need for your food. I think your food's probably great.

What I'm telling you is by proving- Are you having to turn down customers right now? No. No. She doesn't have any customers. And I'm not trying to talk into catering. I was making an example of this is how we make money with your food. And we got to prove that first.

Yeah. And you're, and you're cooking in bulk, you're cooking in all of this to do the takeout and all of it. So I would be doing takeout dinners, Susan, from your house right now. And I would getting a Facebook group. There's a, there's a, there's a mom in our school and she's, she bakes and she has a, she has four refrigerators stocked in her garage. And every Friday there's a sale and she's like, whatever stocked in her garage,

and every Friday there's a sale. And she's like, whatever I don't sell you. I mean, and she has an Instagram account, Susan, with thousands of followers. I mean, and people that do want birthday cakes, they come to her, all of this, right? So like she's proven out of her home without a loan to do all of this. And as this starts cash flowing,

then she's able to step up and say, okay, now I'm going to extend and I'm going to go share a space with someone. It's moving at the speed of cash, Susan. And that's what we're cautioning you with is that the idea may be perfect. I mean, moms that need food to go like, yes, all day. But I want to see the list of people that are going to be buying from you. I want to see your social media account, your email list. Start building out this business so that when you do open up at the brick and mortar, you have the cash and you have the clientele that's going to be rushing to be able to cash flow and keep your business afloat. Does that make sense? It does make sense.

Susan, have you ever watched Shark Tank? Yes. Okay. Because I don't want Rachel and I to seem like bad guys here, but if you've ever watched Shark Tank, this would be like you standing in front of them going, I need a $250,000 investment because that's essentially what this is, is a loan and you're going to invest in yourself, and that's a $250,000 loan. If you were standing in front of the Sharks right now and said, I'm looking for a $250,000 investment, and they walked you through,

okay, what's your annual revenue? What have you sold? And you said $500. What do you think they'd say to you? They would laugh at me. Okay. We're not laughing at you. We're gently saying, please don't do this. You are spending, here's what you asked us. Should I spend $250,000 to make $500? Because that's all you've made at this point. We don't have it yet. Please listen to what Rachel's saying. I promise you it's the safest way to go. If you believe in yourself this much, here's what I'd say. Do you think you can make $100,000 your first year? I venture to say, Susan, you'd probably say yes. All right. So then let's go at it for two and a half years on your own and then buy your super

fancy pants equipment because you already own the brick and mortar. You're halfway there. So be patient. Yeah. Be patient. Or rent equipment. See if there's a business going out, right? Like find creative ways because the hard thing is...

Not yet. I don't want her spending any money other than what she has in her home. I'm with you on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know what I mean? That's fair. I know. But find creative ways.

Can we get 50 families to commit to X amount of dollars to order her takeout dinners? Yep, that's right. For six months. We've got to start to prove it on a simple level. Totally. Because I don't want to get the call, Susan, a year from now and say, I have a $150,000 loan I've got to pay back

because something didn't work, right? That's the risk you take on when you take on debt. And Christy's book would say, do not take on debt. We should have phoned a friend. I should have called Christy. I know. We'll call her on the break. She agrees with us.

Hey, good, good call. Thanks for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win with your money, win in your work, and win with your relationships. It's a free call, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Rachel Cruz is with me. She'll be our resident money expert.

I'm Ken Coleman, and I'm going to help you make more money, and we're here for you. Let's get right to the phones. Sashi, I hope I'm saying that right. We'll find out momentarily in New York City. How can we help? Hi. I've been holding down the phone for about nine months in our household. My family just started working, and I wanted to know what to do next. Okay, Sashi, here's what I want you to do. You were breaking up on us, and so if you could repeat that one more time,

we want to make sure we can hear you so we can help you. Yeah, and speak right into the phone. Okay, hi. I've been holding down the fort for about nine months. My fiance just started working, and I wanted to know what to do next. Okay, tell us what that means by holding down the fort. Give us the financial picture. So it's just been me financing for for the last uh nine months with your income yeah what's your income uh my income is about um wow uh 2,800 a month yeah that's your

take-home yeah okay and you guys aren't married. So are you sharing expenses? I mean, what's the situation where you're kind of helping? Is it just the rent you're hoping for help with from the fiance? What's going on? So we live together. And we're intentionally planning to get married next year. But with the way things have gone this year,

we decided to push it back and focus on our finances and make sure we have things in order before we get married. And now that he's working again, I wanted to get a clear path about what we should do next. Okay. Rachel, what do you think about the we business? We've got a lot of we going on here. Yeah. I mean, the one thing I would say, Shashi,

is that, yeah, you don't need to combine finances. You guys don't need to be working together financially, meaning on a tactical sense. So, I mean, whatever that looks like, living together and splitting expenses, but I would not be paying on his debt. He doesn't need to be paying on yours. You don't need to be necessarily supporting him.

He doesn't need to be supporting you. I mean, I would keep everything very, very separate. And then the conversation is, okay, when we get married and when we combine finances, what are our goals? What are our dreams? Are you a spender? Are you a saver? What would our household budget potentially look like when we combine our money together? You can start having those conversations, but I think the problem, in a sense, that you guys have created, and a lot of people do this, is they act like they're married

when they're not married. And so it's going to be more difficult to have these real-life moments of splitting bills and trying to be roommates financially, because that's what you are. I mean, there's no legal matter that is saying that you are one. So I would not be combining anything

because of that. And yeah, I mean, and I wouldn't wait, Tashi, to get married until your finances are in order because that's always going to be a moving target. So if you feel like he is the one

and you guys love each other and you know this is going to be a healthy target so if you feel like he is the one and you guys love each other and you know this is going to be a healthy great relationship go get married because you're basically acting like it yeah i mean go tomorrow have a celebration later yeah so but i would not rush you into a marriage if there's caution if there's caution then i would take some steps back and move out and say hey let's let's let's separate for a second our lives and figure out how we can get our relationship on a good path. Well, I'm very grateful to have an amazing relationship with my fiance. It's more so my spending. Are you with us? Sorry, I went on mute. I have a great relationship with my fiance thankfully

um it's more so my own doings in dealing with my past and the the debt that I have uh the car that I'm paying and so I'm feeling all the repercussions from that okay why don't you run us through real quick your debts uh smallest to largest uh my my smallest currently would be my car. It's currently $17,000 that I need to pay. If I did the loan about, it would be $27,000. So that's a crazy APR rate. I enrolled all of my credit card debt into a finance company that like fights to lower the bill. So that would just pay it over time rather than just paying the full amount because it was getting to a point where I couldn't keep up with the payments because the APR was so bad. How much is that? How much is all that debt with that company? So it's $620 a month. It takes them half of, it takes half by each

paycheck. So I pay it biweekly. Okay. How much in total though, will you owe this company? So they estimate that they would be able to get it down to half and I pay 25%. So it should be about 36,000 rather than 45 ish. Okay. And is there, okay. Um, okay. So you have the car, you have the credit cards and then anything else? That's all. That's all. Okay. Um, and how much do you make a year? Did you say? She's bringing on 20. I make about 30, 32,033. What do you do for a living? I work at a supermarket currently. Okay. And you guys are in New York City. Are expenses high? I mean, how much is your rent a month? $1,750. Okay. That's actually not bad. And again, we don't want you guys combining finances yet, but does he have any debt?

No. Okay. Okay. So we got an income issue too. So I would just say really quickly, I'll hand the ball back to Rachel here on walking through how we eliminate debt with a snowball, but you've got to make some more money. And to the extent that you have the ability to make better money in a better job, not just a supermarket, or if you've got to get a second job, you've got to start bringing in more money because the reality is this debt, Rachel, is very gettable. She can knock that out. It's not crazy, but you've got to throw real money at it every month. That's right. For the car, how much is it worth? Have you Kelley Blue booked it? It's worth, if I sold it privately, $14,000 to $16,000. Okay, so you might

break even. Do you need that car or can you use public transportation? Based off the hours that I work, I would need the car. Okay. Do you have any money saved no no okay all right so what i would do first and foremost is i would get a thousand dollars asap before you do anything stay current with everything but i would get a thousand dollars and then i think my next step would be to save up a couple of thousand more um to get a really really cheap junker car that's going to get you from point a to point b and i would get this car my next goal would be to get this car sold because if you can break even on it and have a four thousand dollar car that you're driving around you know that's that's going to be that's going to be way better than

this because how much is your payment a month on this car? My payment is $420. Getting the car was very unexpected. My old car broke down. Okay. So, yeah. Yep. So just think about that's $420, you know, back in your pocket, which is great once that car is gone.

Yep. And then I would talk to this company. I mean, these companies, they market to people that feel overwhelmed and feel like they have no other options. And then they end up charging tons of fees. They claim they can do all of this. And if they can and get it in writing, that's great. But I don't want you on a payment process

for the next four to five years. I want you to pay off this credit card debt next with a lot of intensity. And again, if you guys love each other, Sashi, and it's a great healthy relationship, go ahead and get married. I mean, again, you're addressing some of the issues by getting out of this debt,

but I do think asking the questions of what got you here in the first place are great questions to ask as you guys grow. This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show, where we help you win with your money, win in your work, and win with your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number.

888-825-5225. Rachel Cruz is with me. I'm Ken Coleman, and we're here to coach you up. We go to Charlotte, North Carolina now, and Lauren is there. Lauren, how are you? Hey, I'm good. How are y'all? Good. Sounds like you might be in a cave. Are you okay? I am. I am. We're in the middle of a tropical storm. Oh my. Y'all okay? Is this a little better? Yes. Much better. Are you really in the tropical storm right now?

Like, it's made its way to Charlotte? It's working on it. We're getting some weird rain before the tropical storm actually hits. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty crazy right now. All right. Well, how can we help? So I just got married last month, and it a super super big step for us and i found i listened

to ramsey as a kid not really knowing you know who he was or what was going on and i don't know now i found him again i know he hates tiktok but i found him because of TikTok. I know he's going to love that, but he does, he does beat down. And so I have been working on paying off my debt. I'm right at about 20,000 with my car at 16, a personal loan. I have 2,800 left out $8,000 and a credit card with $1,200. I've paid down a little over $6,000 since I started listening to him. Good for you. Yes, I'm super like, I feel like I'm starting to breathe. And so I just, I'm trying to get my husband on the same page, but also stay focused myself and just to make sure that I'm doing everything right that I can. And I told him, because we're saving for a house, I said maybe, you know, at least every week put down one or two hundred extra dollars towards the house. But also, but he won't really talk about his debt, and I don't know how much he has,

and I've even like, I'm like, well, maybe like we could take some Ramsey classes together or something. I just don't know how to get him on the same page as me. I have got him to stop eating out. I'm cooking more. I just don't know what I can do for us and to help me still stay motivated. Yeah, it's a great question, Lauren. It's one that a lot of couples face in a marriage, especially if one spouse, yeah, kind of gets on board and they're like, well, I want to get my money together. And the other spouse is a little bit behind, if you will, the program. You don't even know how much debt he has implies that you guys have separate finances. We do. We do. And it was one of those things, like we were talking about it and talking about combining. We are combining a high-yield savings account to save towards the house.

We did agree on that. But as far as his bank account and mine, it's like he kind of wants his own thing and so i'm like yeah so lauren so so everything that you've listed is true and right right that the um that you want the same account you got you wanting to get out of debt you don't want to go out to eat as much right and these are all the tactical symptoms of what you're wanting deeper down. And I think going to him in this and not saying, oh, well, like, just put some money here, put money there. Let's just try to get an account together. It's the deeper desire of what you're longing for in your marriage. And for most people, when they're getting married, the deep desire is that, you know, you want to do life together with a person. You want to be on the same same team you want to share your dreams in life you want to talk about your goals you

want to talk about what makes you excited you want to talk about oh my god this this fear that is coming up in this area right like you're you're walking alongside this other person and doing life together and when you when you don't have that in any aspect of marriage, but this is money specifically that we're talking about on this show, it magnifies the desire that you have even more, that you long to be on the same page. You long to know your spouse because when there's secrets in a marriage,

it erodes it so quickly. It is a cancer within a marriage, secrets are. And again, he may not be malicious. He may have a marriage secrets are and and again he may not being malicious he may have a lot of guilt and a lot of embarrassment and a lot of shame right i mean so these were not normal conversations that you guys were having and then he suddenly shut off right you guys have never even entered into these conversations so i give him some grace in the sense that you know this this isn't a normal conversation that you guys are used to having and so what i would do tonight lauren is in this tropical storm that you guys are having tonight um you know

i would sit down and and be very honest and it's not a don't go out to eat anymore conversation and it's it's a lauren conversation it's not that what he's doing it's about what you're longing for what are your desires in this what do you want your marriage to be? Because a marriage that is unified and is strong and is open and is vulnerable and that you know your spouse deep down, that's the beauty of a rich marriage, of walking through life together with another person. And that's what you want, Lauren. You want to be on the same page.

When you guys have kids, you want to be on the same page on how you parent. You're going to have different parenting styles, just like you're going to have different money styles. So it's not taking away you guys as individuals, but it's saying, we have entered into this covenant of a relationship, and I want to do this life together with you. And here's what gets me excited, right? I'm paying off debt, and it's more than just seeing more money in my account. I can breathe.

That's what you're communicating to us, right? There's deeper benefits to this for you, Lauren, as a person and communicating that, communicating your fear of, gosh, it does make me fearful that I feel like I don't know you fully. And that is down to some numbers of debt, right? Like, so I would be talking about the,

not the symptom of the money, but the root cause of what's gone here is that that you guys don't have a really open stable marriage an open marriage i don't want to say that do you know what i mean no i i do but i'm glad you stipulated just the show it's a very different show very different open and emotional that's right that happens over on the Dr. John Deloney show, those calls. Lauren, I think Rachel's absolutely spot on. We want to serve you well. But yeah, we believe that this is a super important conversation. We don't want you to be a statistic. And the statistic is not good when couples have separate money lives, it leads to separate lives. So it's pretty important. You can't go in demanding this. You're're going to have to win him over unfortunately because this we're not playing armchair quarterback but i would say for those people that are listening in that are not yet married and are in a similar situation i think this stuff needs to be solved prior to marriage because it's that important but i also want to give you great hope that he may just be in a situation

rachel where that's the way his mom and dad did it. Yeah, he may not have any other tools to even know. So, Lauren, do you think he's going to be receptive to this as Rachel laid it out? I thought she laid it out beautifully. I hope so because he's not used to having a person that's a true teammate from his past relationships. I've noticed that. Okay. And I told him, I said, if we keep putting money

back every week, I said, in two to three years, we will have a huge down payment. Like this is doable. I was like, we can do this. And, you know, so I try to encourage him and he's just like, yeah, or, oh, okay. And, but when I show him numbers and how it can grow, I do see his eyes kind of change. So that's key. So Lauren, take everything that Rachel said and add your little element there. I would add two things that I thought you said that are great. Number one, I want to be your teammate on this. We're together. I'm your partner on this. So I don't want this to feel yucky or tension filled. I am not that person. I want us to win and then show him some actual numbers.

And when you do say getting rid of your debt, whatever you have, and I can help. We put it together. Ramsey's got this plan. Blame it all on us, by the way. And, you know, what can we give them as a wedding gift? I'd like to at least see if he would sit through maybe FPU. FPU or in total money makeover and every dollar premium and do a budget. But to the numbers point, Lauren,

one exercise I found that it's helpful for some people, especially when it's a wife trying to get the husband on board, like you said, numbers, paying out, okay, if we combined our finance, you're telling him this, if we combine our finances, this is how much we would make.

Here's how quickly we could be completely debt-free with my debt and just say, maybe you have 30,000. I don't know, but like, here's how quickly quickly here's all the payments that are going out that would suddenly be freed up and that would be income back to us that's not going out payments here's how fast we can save up a down payment like yeah run some of those numbers and they don't have to be really specific right you can be pretty high level but to show progress, I think is better than like, don't go out to eat, right? Like there's something more there.

But I would talk about, yeah, Lauren, from your perspective, what you're longing for in this marriage and in this relationship. And then here's tactically how we can go about it. Yeah. Really good advice, Rachel. Good stuff. Thanks for the call, Lauren. Hang on the line.

We got some wedding gifts for you. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Rachel Cruz is alongside, and we're here for you. 888-825-5225. It's happening, folks. It was delayed by a pandemic, and it's now back.

You can't sink the Ramsey cruise. Yeah, I know. I worked hard on that one. Knock on wood. I worked hard on that. It's called the Live Like No One Else Cruise, setting sail March 22 through 29, 2025, and 90% of the cabins are full.

And this is a premium Caribbean cruise. cruise turks and caicos puerto rico saint thomas and the bahamas and uh this holland america uh new stottendam ship i hope i'm saying that right it's beautiful look at the pictures it looks really great yeah yeah yeah and ken and i are bougie too we're bougie. Dave has sailed on this particular boat, so he knows. And the restaurants, top of the line, all the food is inclusive, and there's going to be some great content. All the personalities, including Rachel and I, will be on there, as well as Deanna Carter of Country Music fame, Stephen Curtis Chapman, comedian Trey Kennedy and world-class chef Manit Chauhan, and more.

A lot of surprises, I'm sure. You can lounge at the pools, the hot tubs, the fitness center, pickleball courts, the spa. I've already told people, if you're looking for me, I'm either at the pickleball court or the spa or my assigned speaking situation. One of those. That's where I'll be. But it's going to be a lot of fun, and you need to move quickly, though, because it's going to sell out.

Book your cabin today at ramseSolutions.com slash cruise, RamseySolutions.com slash cruise. All right, to Crystal now in Amarillo, Texas. Crystal, how can we help? Hi. So I'm having an issue with pulling the 15% retirement investment thing. So we've done everything right except for that. We paid off our house.

We've done some retirement investing, but with the economy and things getting so expensive, I'm scared to put that much away that I can't get to it. So help. Okay. Do you guys have, do you have cash? Do you have an emergency fund in place? Yes. Okay. And you have a paid off house, right? So how much would 15% of your income be if you were to do the math? We don't make a ton. We make about 120 a year. I think it would be around $1,000 a month. Okay. And what kind of margin do you have right now in your existing budget? $1,800. Okay. What would be your plan, Crystal, if you didn't invest in retirement, what would it be? Well, I'm putting $200 into my retirement

and then $300 into a mutual fund. Okay. And I want to increase that, but I like that it's still liquid. Yes, sure. No, I hear you. I'm having a hard time committing to it's gone, and it's gone for the next 20 years. You know, not gone, but you can't touch it.

Yeah, you can't, and we don't recommend you touch it unless there's a bankruptcy or a foreclosure. So if you went into absolute panic mode and were absolutely desperate, you could pull it out. You could. It's actually not gone. Yeah, I mean, you could pull it out. You'll pay taxes and have some fees with it. That's it's not smart to touch it it's growing you need a different g word yeah so the the the idea here crystal is that so like the roth ira all of there's so many great benefits to these retirement accounts from a tax perspective that in the amount of

growth that you're going to get in 20 years where you don't have to pay taxes when you cash it out at, you know, 59 and a half or start pulling from it is tremendous. And, Crystal, in the market, yeah, inflation's high. The housing crisis is, you know, the housing pricing is still high and interest rates and all of that. But the market itself did fantastic this year. I'm like, if you had money in it. Yeah, I mean, it's doing well. Yeah, it is and so um yes i mean it's just another investing vehicle to help you know protect you in a sense from some from taxes and all of that when you pull it out later so i wouldn't see it it can feel like

it's in a black hole but you could get to it if you needed to we don't recommend you do that but if you guys were in a situation that you absolutely had to get money out, you could. I think you should go to ranzysolutions.com, and I think you should have some fun with the investment calculator. I really do. Because I love how honest you're being. And by the way, you make sense. I get it. It's a natural fear.

But I think you've got to go on this investment calculator and put that money in, put the full 15% in that we recommend. Okay. So let's put the thousand dollars in and play with that calculator and, and, and just have some fun with it and watch that money grow. What does that thousand dollars a month year in year out do, uh, over the time of, let's go five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 years. Have some fun with it. And I think if you do that experience, your fear will be replaced by absolute excitement.

Yeah, because you're already investing in mutual funds and you will be investing in mutual funds within the Roth IRA. I mean, you're using the same funds, but it's just kind of in a different avenue, if you will. So, I mean, I guess at the end of the day, Crystal, again, I would use them because I think it's more benefit to you long-term different you know avenue if you will so um i mean i guess at the end of the day crystal again i would use them because i think it's more benefit to you long term and it's only 15 of your income

but again it's just god forbid what if crystal didn't invest in a roth ira and she just put everything in a regular mutual fund you'll just have you know more taxes and all of that at the end of the day but you're still investing still making making money. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know. I would take your fear and put more logic around it. And you're investing in the same thing now that you would be within a Roth and even a 401k. Right. But yeah. And just a final point on that, we're talking about investing versus saving. And so the saving is, that's why we talk about the three to six months expenses. That is, I'm saving for very specific rainy day situations.

The very idea of investing is for long-term growth. So either you believe in the power of investing or you don't. I think you just got to get to that point. And I think you'll get there. Let's go to Kimberly next in Springfield, Illinois. Kimberly, how can we help? Hi, how are you? Good, how are you? Good. How can we help?

Well, I have twin grandsons that are two years old, and what I'd like to do is invest in, I don't know what, something for them for when they get older so that they have money, you know, when they get to be maybe 25. Some kind of account. And I don't know what kind of account to put it in so that it will grow and they'll have money then because you know i've always with their mom she's one of my twins and then of course she had twins rich paycheck to paycheck and i was a single mom and that's so kind of you kimberly yeah to to be able to reach out and help your help the grandkids are they are the parents going to be investing in a 529 for their kids' education so this is above and beyond that? I don't know.

I don't know what they're going to do, but I don't want anybody to touch it. And I've already talked to them about it. I said, you know, this isn't something that you guys can take out because you want a car. You know, this is something you can't touch. Even if I'm not here, I don't want you to touch it. So then I talked to my daughter's twin brother and he, he said, you know, I said, I kind of want you to be in control of this so that nobody can touch it until they get old enough or they're mature enough.

So they won't. Sure. Well, so what I would probably do, Kimberly, in that case is I would just probably open up a mutual funds. I would open up to put money in both of those. And then, you know, you can gift that to them at a certain age or put in your will, if you die, those two funds go to them. And from a custodian perspective, you know, that they can then be free to do what they want at 25 years old. So I mean, that that's probably what I would do. But I think Ken's point is a good one as well,

depending on the future family dynamics, all of that. But you know, even just funding a 529 for each of them, since they're so young, and putting some money in that and letting that grow for their college, that's probably going to be a very helpful tool for them to use for a specific good for them, a college education, versus what you're scared of, of what they're going to do with the rest of the money. So, yeah, I would look into a 529 plan for college, or you could just open up a mutual fund or two and put money in and let that grow for them and then eventually hand that to them. But I would talk to even a smart investor pro. If you go to RamseySolutions.com and sit down and map it out, because there's some estate level questions I would have to say, hey, what's the best use of this money and how it can grow best for them?

Thanks for the call, Kimberly. We'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Rachel Cruz is alongside, and our scripture of the day is Proverbs 4.23. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Our quote from Teddy Roosevelt, if you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month. That's funny. Pretty good. Some good humor, old Teddy. Old Teddy himself. The phone number for you to jump in is 888-825-5225. Phones, phone lines are still open. 888-825-5225. Tacoma,

Washington is where Joshua is. Joshua, how can we help today? Hey, guys. How's it going? Good. What's up? I just got a phone call from a collection agency yesterday saying that I owe them $817 for a hospital visit from which I had a head injury done

when I was at work. My boss actually drove me into the hospital. Nice of him. My question for you is that should I just go ahead and take my baby step one, my $1,000, and just take care of this collection issue, or should I fight it in legal court? Okay. Why is it anyone else's responsibility besides yours? I may have missed that.

I got injured at work. It is a work-related injury. Everything should have been done through Department of Labor Industries, but it wasn't. Why was it not? Hospital never filed it, and my employer never reported the incident. Okay. Are you still currently employed there? No, I stopped working there at the beginning of this year. Have you contacted them about the bill? I have contacted them, but they told me that because it's been over a year since the incident, they cannot do anything. Yeah. That was my suspicion is that you're going to get a bunch of, you know,

doors thrown in your face, and it's not worth it. It's $817. I mean, just the legal bill alone to play with this is probably not even worth it. So I would probably just get it out of my life, and I'd call the collection agency. I'd tell them the truth, tell them exactly what happened, and this is news happened and this is if they'd settle with you yeah see if they'll settle for half say look I can give you 400 today can we settle let's see what they do yeah if any bills and collections there is a there's a great opportunity to negotiate always because they bought that debt pennies on the dollar from the. I mean, like it's just a roundabout way of getting it paid. So they'd probably be happy with $452.62 that you have or whatever.

I think that's the offer you make. I think it's so specific. I think they kind of have to take that one. What was it, $452.36? Maybe. I like that, Rachel. Yeah, because, Joshua, here's the deal. If you try to sue your company, they've got real lawyers.

They've got a bank account. They're just going to wait you out, and you're going to spend way more than the $800, whatever it is, or Rachel's $452.36. I'd settle it. I'd settle it. I'd pay it off. It is what it is. It sucks.

I'm sorry. Yeah, I hate that for you. Are you okay? Do you have long-term issues at all or are you healed and good? I'm healed and the scars in my hairline so nobody can even see it. I had stitches done. It's a pretty simple head injury.

So sorry. Obviously, I'm trying to get out of debt and I'm getting more debt thrown at me. That's a hard thing and I think that's a good reminder to people listening and watching as well as that you know when you're going when you're going through life and you're being intentional with your money life is still going to happen so there's still

going to be ups and downs there's still going to be things that pop up that you weren't expecting i mean just like this but you know joshua thank god you have you have the emergency funds you have the cash to be able to pay it and um yeah if it was eight thousand dollars i probably would you know do some investigating a little bit more but honestly i think yeah you pay it and i'm sorry yeah so sorry but hey move through this move forward and and you're going to be okay let's go to Chicago now where Jessica is. Jessica, how can we help? Hi. So I just had a question. We've been following the Ramsey plan since I was a teenager, and my husband kind of joined in when we got married six years ago.

So we're in like the baby step where we just paid off just paid off, um, all the debt that we had. So we're excited. Good for you guys. Um, and yeah, and we had, um, um, our emergency fund in place and stuff. So we have three months of the, of emergency fund right now. Um, but we're trying to figure out what to do. Um, because like I, I have never had a credit card, so I have zero credit credit score. Um, and because the debt was on my husband's credit card that he had, um, he, he, he like just paid it off this week and it's in like the five eighties now. Um, But about two months ago,

our landlord said that he wasn't going to renew our lease because he's giving our property to his son. Well, it's not our property, it's his property. But he's going to give it to his son instead because he needs a place. And so we've had two months to find something and we've been like, you know, applying everywhere. We have five kids, so that makes it a little hard for finding space

to rent. Um, but what keeps coming back is like, um, everywhere we have applied, they say like, your family is a very high risk situation. They're like, you have, um, absolutely no credit. So your, um, um, so we don't know, have any history. We don't know what you're going to do. Um, and then they'll say, and your husband is bad with debt. So like this is a very high risk situation yeah so um yeah so we were wondering what we should do yeah we're down to five days so we're a little stressed well girlfriend we'll be making some more phone calls is what we're going to be doing so i i would either find a landlord of a home that's an individual that you can go and talk to and show them your financials, show them, have you guys been current on a job for more than a year? Well, so we were missionaries with our

church in Chicago, and so we were support raising for the last three years, and we kind of got ourselves into like a bad financial situation which was why we did the debt because we weren't raising enough to get our to cover our financial expenses um and so this job he has he started in january okay um and he got his first promotion and stuff okay um so do you guys have money saved? Would you have enough for first month's rent and last month's rent in security deposit and cash? So we have three months of living expenses in our savings.

Okay, so I think you're going to have a bet. The best bet is to find an individual that owns a home, and you can sit down and talk to him and just say, hey, here's our situation. Here we are. We can pay more upfront if that secures it. So that's gonna probably be your best bet. But when you get into apartment complexes,

if you're going that route, you're gonna have to go speak to a manager. It can't be just the guy at the front desk taking applications because he has limited power on what he can do. But we did an experiment. Actually, it was George Campbell on the show and he called around nashville like 15 or 16 different uh apartment complexes and said i don't have a credit score but i have first month's rent last month's rent i can show you um payment on

other bills and it was like 13 out of the 16 said yes so like even utilities is what she's talking so they are out there jessica you guys going to have to just call around and around and around, and you may have to even go specifically to the place. And some good old-fashioned, desperate enthusiasm. Yeah, and when it's just, if it's an apartment situation, I would just have them put your name down, right, and have them just run yours, because it's going to be easier with a undetermined credit score than a bad credit score yours because it's going to be easier with an undetermined credit score than a bad credit score because it's going to take his about 12 months to get to undetermined. So in an ideal world, yeah, they wouldn't pull it, but I would just tell them the situation. That's why working with an individual is going to be the best.

So I would be looking around and looking for a rental from an individual. That's probably going to be your best bet. And see if the church can be able to help you as well. I mean, if it's a situation that you're plugged into a church, somebody in that community hopefully will be able to have some contact somewhere. So I would reach into that community as well. Yeah, but I mean, it's go time, Jessica. And that's your part-time job for the next 72 hours is finding where you can live. You've got to get those kiddos somewhere. My goodness. But that

urgency, by the way, sometimes is very appealing. And I'd be going back to those places you got nose on with Rachel's strategy. I like that a lot. Good stuff, Rachel Cruz. Thank you for joining. Thank you, America, for being with us. This is The Ramsey Show. you