The Ramsey Show - App - VISA Has a Plan for Your Money...Do YOU? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: July 22, 2022

Rachel Cruze & Dr. John Delony discuss: Steps to take when you discover financial infidelity. How manual underwriting works for mortgages. Grieving a tragedy and how to move forward.   Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, Rachel Cruz, hosting today live here in Nashville, Tennessee. Next to me is Dr. John Deloney. So we're taking your call. It's a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225.

And what's fun about this whole setup here is that you can travel in, hang out with us. We have some great people here in the lobby today watching the show. Get a cup of coffee, some goodies, eat some cookies, drink some coffee. And somebody's got incredible hair out there and you need to do that, Rachel. Oh yeah. She's got like purple hair. It's fantastic. Rachel's going to do this. I'm on it. I'm on it. Well done. There's stuff you see and you're like, I could just never pull that off. Like you see things on people and you're like, 100% you can pull that off. I wish I could pull, you know what?

I can't pull off hats. You can't. It was like those wide brimmed hats. You know, you see like hats inside. Like I can't, I can't do that. Not a hat person. Not a hat person. Well, I know what I'm getting you for Christmas.

It's a hat. But again, it's a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225. So this article came through, John, and it was just fascinating that this couple bought a shed and turned it into their home and then sold it for a profit. They made money off of it.

Yeah, did you get that? Yes. Did you get that? It's pretty radical. This is like a, fantasy is the wrong word here, but this is like a thing I dream about. Like I want to get some land

and then just go to Home Depot and buy a shed and make it incredible. And no, I'll never do that. And they did it. Yes, they did it. And they made money off of it. They did. They sold it.

Or I guess they had acreage or another farm or a house sold it for $312,000 April 21 after living in it slightly longer than a year. Or is that the shed? They didn't sell the shed for that much, did they? Is that what it was? Have you been to Home Depot lately?

Well, that's where they bought it, right? Sheds are $300,000. They're not really. I'm just being silly. Oh my gosh. I was like, wait, what? Yeah, and I think there was actually a TikTok video, right, that we can play and see.

But they... Okay, that's way nicer than what I was expecting and they decked it out too it's got like it's got a porch yeah it's got a porch it's two stories okay i when i had pictured when i read the article was something way different than that right there that's pretty nice no and they put wood floors in it and it's got like uh you know granite countertops and stuff it's really nice inside see there you go and so they just said that people were burdened by debt and the weight of life and they didn't want that to be their story so they yeah just went to a different extreme which i think is awesome so we're hearing that all over the place that people are like i'm just gonna sell my house and move to an rv

and or i'm just i want people to be careful though because there's a lot of folks that watch a lot of HGTV and a lot of YouTube clips about living in a shipping container and a van down by the river, right? Or whatever. Be careful, because that looks really cool. There's some great shows that you can go look, documentaries on. I moved into a tiny home, and then four months later,

here was my actual life. It's not great, right? So it's just different. And I feel like, too, actual life. It's not great, right? So it's just different. And I feel like too, a little bit of the Gen Z, the younger level of the millennials, that's a thing though to go buy a school bus or to go buy a van, you know. Oh, I'm in. It looks incredible. But again, on Instagram, you'll see like a reel and you're like, oh my gosh, you get to go there and you're sleeping here. Like the whole thing.

And it looks glamorous and wonderful. And then, yeah, you don't see. There's a reality to it that's hard. Everything else, everything else. But I do like the idea of just opting out. And I think you and I talked about this on another show. My wife and I moved into like a residence hall, like a dorm, right, with a two-year-old.

And we did it for a year and cleared up our lives, changed our whole, so there is a season to do that if you're gonna get radical. It's not always a forever solution for most. That's right. All right, we're going to go to the calls. And Steven from Lexington is up. Hey, Steven, welcome to the show.

Hey, good afternoon. How are y'all doing? Absolutely good. How are you? I'm doing well. Good. How can we help? So I've got a question.

So my wife hit me up the other day and informed me she has $30,000 credit card debt that I didn't know she had we've been married for about 20 years we've got a 20 year old and 16 year old and so she's done this to me once before. She racked up $25,000 in credit card debt. And I didn't really watch her show then. So I kind of blew my top and split up our accounts and took all the credit card debt myself and got it paid back off. And I really thought if she got another credit card, she wouldn't get a horrible limit.

She wouldn't get a big limit this time because it wouldn't be in both our names anyway. Yeah. And it looks like I was wrong. So now she's informed me that she wants to, her 0% on her credit card are expiring and she wants to take out a home loan against her house that's paid off. No.

No, you don't want to take a lien against your house. No, no, that's a hard no. Okay, so Steven, where you guys are at, just in marriage, would you consider yourselves on the same page with money or are you guys still living pretty separate lives? Oh, no, we're completely opposite money-wise. I mean, I'm more of a cash-only person. I mean, I know y'all don't

agree with it, but I still have a credit card, but I don't use it. I run everything through my debit card. Steven, she's not on the phone, so I'm just going to address you. Is that cool? That's fine. So she did something, she violated your trust, right, the first time around. Violated your trust, was deceitful. We call that financial infidelity here, right? She cheated on you with money. She lied to you. And another way to look at that is she acted like a child, right?

She's acting childish. I want it now. I'm going to do whatever I have to do to get it now. And you responded like a child. You threw a temper tantrum. You split everything up. You yelled and you kicked and screamed and you took your ball and I'm going home and I'll just do it myself. And now you found yourself right back in the same spot. And so with this situation, this isn't a math problem. I mean,

it's a math problem. Like Rachel said, absolutely don't put your house up on the block to clear up this mess, right? You're gonna have to have some directed behavior change inside your house. But, brother, y'all are just not on the same page when it comes to your marriage. You're not on the same page with much of anything would be my guess. And y'all have been probably great roommates and good buddies. But this is a wake-up – is that fair? That's pretty much right. Okay.

That's pretty much – yeah, that's right. So there's a place where she is violating your marriage covenant. She's lying to you. There's also a place where she can't talk to you because maybe you blow your top and maybe you get pissed off and run around

and then it's just solved the problems. And so this can become either the thing that breaks, breaks your marriage up and you say, I'm done with you. You don't tell me the truth. I'm out of here.

Or this can be the moment that you stop the music, you throw all the lights on in the disco and you look at her in the eye and say, we've got to heal us. And that's going to start with us getting honest about where we are, fixing our marriage and then getting serious about money. Because even, you know, when we hear these kinds of numbers

or situations for us, we're like, okay, there's a money problem, obviously, and there's a tactical way to go about that, the 0%, do I take a lien on my house and all of that. But really what we're hearing though is underneath the surface, that there are more marriage issues than even financial issues.

And when you guys can get the marriage issues solved, out of that comes healthier habits with money that you guys then can work as a team. Because right now you're not working as a team with your money. And just like John said, probably a lot of other areas in life. So I would really, it's a symptom. This credit card debt is a symptom of things going on in the marriage. So I would encourage you guys get some help, get therapy, get counseling, and start working on your marriage. And then your money becomes more of a team. Hey guys, George Camel here, and I'm so excited to tell you about the newest product from Ramsey. It's called Gazelle and it's a digital banking experience that will help you spend and save the Ramsey way with banking

services provided by Pathword NA. You'll get a single spending account with no monthly fees and it's FDIC insured through Pathword NA. We're offering early access to our beta customers so you can help us make it the best experience it can be. Just go to ramseysolutions.com slash gazelle to sign up for the waitlist today. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ramsey personality Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with Dr. John Deloney. And David is up next in Richmond. Hey, David, welcome to the show. Hey, how you doing? We're doing great. How can we help?

So basically, I have 19,000 owed on a truck, and I was wondering if I should sell it. I can get between 21 and 28 and buy another vehicle that I found, another truck, for $14,000 cash. Okay. How much other debt do you have besides the truck? That's it, just the truck. Oh, it's just the truck. How much do you make a year? I'm not exactly sure. Right now I'm bringing home about $2,000 a week.

$2,000 a week, okay. Yeah, so I'm unsure about before taxes. Okay. Yeah, so it'll be a little less than $100. Okay. Do you have $14,000 in cash? I have $34,000 in cash. Why don't you just pay off the truck david yeah

well i really don't don't want it anymore oh okay you're you don't care for it it's kind of like yeah well it's uh it is a 1500 truck and uh 2500 would really suit my lifestyle better fantastic that's the first time i've ever heard somebody say it's a 2500 that really will suit my lifestyle that's does that mean you're going up and i don't know anything so you need a bigger you need a bigger truck that means i need... I need to be able to haul more. To haul more. Oh, so you're actually hauling. You're not just like wanting to show up at the club a little bit louder, a little bit cooler?

No. No, you're not exactly hauling. David, I think you are... Yes, I'm with you, David. John's not, but I'm with you. No, I'm not. I don't even know what that means. Okay, so my thing is, so you don't want the current truck you have.

You can sell it for $28,000 and then you can turn around and pay cash for the actual truck that you want. Is that what I'm hearing? Correct. Yeah, do that today. Do it. Do it today. Yeah, your gas price will double, but do it today. Why would you

not? What would cause you not to? What causes you to even call and ask? So, I'm a Dave Ramsey nut, basically, and other than financing that darn truck. I mean, I've worked really hard to save up $34,000. I went today, I pulled the $14,000 out in cash, and I almost had a panic attack just looking at it.

Is that your emergency fund, dude? I guess you could, I don't know. You could consider it my six months. Well, it would definitely last longer than six months. Yeah, you're in a spot. Yes, I would sell the truck, make some profit off of it, take some of your savings, put it together, and go buy a truck in cash that you can afford. And then you're going to be even probably past maybe step three at that

point with a fully funded emergency fund. Just lock up your emergency fund and never, ever spend it out of it ever, unless it's an actual emergency. This isn't an emergency. This is something that's going to fit your lifestyle. That's a different thing, right? Right. And I also have another truck. It's just older, a lot more miles. That's what I'm using to work out of. But I also have another truck that's just older, a lot more miles. That's what I'm using to work out of. But I do a little bit of landscaping and tree work on the side. Yeah. So that thing, it's on its last leg.

But I'd like to get rid of this newer one, get another new, well, not new truck at all. It's a 2005, but another really nice truck that can tow a lot more. It'll be better set up for my lifestyle. Yeah, do it. Do it. Do it. Quit thinking about it. Get it done. Get it done. You got it, David. And then lock up that emergency fund, put it away, and then get on with your life.

Yeah, and I think that, and I feel, and we could be different on this, but I'm like, I kind of feel semi-justified for him using that savings because it's, he has more in it than what he needs for his emergency fund. Right.

And he's going to be in a position where he's on baby, he's getting rid of that truck, pairing some money together for what he, yeah, for what he needs.

Yeah, yeah. And he has the extra margin. That's right. So that's great. Great call, David. Thanks for, thanks for the question. Up next,

we have Andrew in Phoenix. Hey, Andrew, welcome to the show. Hey, Rachel and John. How's it going? Great. How can we help? Hey, so my wife and I, we're 27 years old. We follow the Ramsey plan, but we have credit cards

for the sole purpose of buying a house one day. And if I'm willing to get rid of the credit card, but I don't see a clear path to buying a home using manual credit writing, can you just walk me through that process and what it looks like? Yeah, you're kind of breaking up a little bit, Andrew. So yeah, so basically what manual underwriting is, is where you don't have a score and it's not a score of zero. It's basically an undetermined score because you have paid off all of your debt. You have no debt on record for close

to 24 months. A credit score. So your credit score will start to lower as you're paying off debt because the way your credit score is calculated mathematically is all around debt. So it's how much you're paying on your debt, how much new debt you're acquiring, your debt history, all this. So if you stop going into debt and you pay it off, naturally that score is going to lower and it's going to take about 24 months for it to basically get to undetermined, 18 to 24 months. And then from there, when you go and get a mortgage, you do the process called manual underwriting. And that's where the mortgage company actually has to look at you, the person, versus just a credit score. They look at you. So you have to have really on record an employer for two years to show that you have income,

a stable job, and you have to be current on all of your bills. So your cell phone, electricity, so you keep track of all that and to prove that you've paid on time bills for two years. And usually those things together, maybe some more paperwork. It definitely is more of a confusing labor intensive process to do manual underwriting versus just a credit score. Because again, when you have a credit score, it's a score and it's just you get it or you don't. I mean, it's that simple. Where manual underwriting, they actually have to look at you, the person. So there's some investigating that they do.

But then the mortgage company will literally just underwrite you the mortgage. They'll just write it themselves, basically, in a sense. It's always picture it. And you can go through the process. So and if you've ever in the last few years. Now's always picture it. And you can go through the process. So. And if you've ever in the last few years, now's the time, right? Because mortgage companies are not having the years they've had the last few years. Yes. And so if you sit down and say, I want to do manual unwriting, they'll work with you.

Yes. They'll figure it out. And having a good down payment too, Andrew. So when you guys go into purchasing a home, you want to make sure that you're completely debt-free and you have a fully funded emergency fund in the bank. And then separate from even that savings that you guys have a good down payment. So if you're first-time home buyers, 5% is kind of the low end. If you can get up to 20%, you can avoid PMI and you save some money. And that's ideal. I know that's not the case always for people.

But that's kind of the formula we look at and that your mortgage payment is no more than 25% of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed rate. So if all of that kind of works, Andrew, yeah, then that's what you do. And again, mortgage companies, they still do this process. Some won't. I've talked to people like, well, I tried with this bank or this, and they said no. So you do have to shop around. Churchill Mortgage is a company nationally that for sure does it. We endorse them because they are some of the top ones that help people get homes without a credit score

doing the Ramsey way and what we teach. So it is possible, Andrew. And yeah, that's exciting. It always blows my mind how that conversation never happens. Nobody knows that even exists. There's an alternative pathway. There's a way to opt out of the system, right?

And to still get the home that you want, still do the things that you need to do in your life. Just people just don't know. Just don't know. Yep. And Andrew, too, I would encourage you guys, just get rid of the credit cards. If the sole purpose was to have them to build up this credit score

of a credit score that you don't even really need when you buy a home, then get rid of them. Just don't even have the temptation there. Yeah. I think back to college, I had a credit card that I just used to pay off everything till that one month that my reimbursement check came in and my transmission fell out of my little 88 tercel hatchback. And I have a check and I have no transmission. So I took that check and I fixed transmission. And now I've got a credit card bill. Right. And I never had a bill,

but I didn't have the money to pick it up. And all of a sudden, Oh, that's how that happens. I was just playing the game. It was always going to be a dollar for dollars. It was never going to happen to me. And then it did.

Right. And everyone's like, well, I just have it just in case there's an emergency. You know, we never use it, but it's just there. And I'm like, okay. And then Christmas sneaks up and you're like, oh, crap. We got to get, here, just charge us this one time. Somebody gets sick and we got to buy tickets right now. Yeah, we got to get airline tickets.

Just go ahead and do it. You know, life starts happening. Yes. And Visa caught your slack. That's right. They had a plan. So have a plan, America. Your memories are meant to be relived, not chewed up by the VCR or worn away with time. Converting your old media with Legacy Box stops fading in its tracks,

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you'll learn simple common sense principles to build real lasting wealth. And this tour for the fall, y'all, it's been blowing up earlier this week we announced our September 13th show in Phoenix is already sold out as well as Sacramento and so the rest of these events you want to get tickets for because they're yeah they're continuing to sell out but Phoenix we actually added a date so we'll be there September 13th but that show is sold out but we're going to come a day early so we'll'll be there September 12th. So that date is added. So that is an opened up night in Phoenix, Sacramento, November 1st, sold out Minneapolis, November 10th, tickets still available in San Antonio, November 15th, tickets still, still available and passes start at just $25. And you

get a four pack starting at $60. If you go to ramseysolutions.com slash events to reserve your seats in those cities. And those are fun events. They are fun. We did a few this spring.

Really was our first time back, I feel like, since the world shut down two and a half years ago. And so we are glad just to be out again. We just went, we went to Orlando and Vegas

and did the show and it was so fun. So fun to meet all of you to Orlando and Vegas and did the show. And it was so fun. So fun to meet all of you guys, so many fans of the show. My favorite part is people don't get to see us behind closed doors, right? And how we all roll our eyes or be like, that's stupid. Or we challenge each other. And so we just brought all that on stage, right? So we have good information.

And we also have like, oh, I think you're wrong and here's why and i i just love the yeah love the the people getting to see this is how these guys really yes the friends how they interact it's john myself uh george camel ken coleman and dave ramsey and so part of the event yeah we're just sitting around a table discussing current events and we all have a little bit of different takes and opinions on certain things but the overall value and principles of building wealth, you know, we definitely all land in the same way. But the way we go about that, some can be different, but it's good.

Sometimes somebody will say like, no, pretty sure we landed on the moon. And then other people at the table, like Rachel will say, never happened. I'm just saying it's during the Cold War and the Soviet Union was sketchy. We really tried to race to the moon. That's all I'm saying. There we go.

I would just not be sure. I'm not going to get into it. We can have a conspiracy theory segment later. That would be fun. We landed on the moon. Dave would fire us, but it would be really fun. Okay. Up next is Cindy in Anchorage, Alaska.

Hey, Cindy. welcome to the show. Thank you. How are you? We are doing well. How can we help? Well, we had a bit of a situation up here. We are currently in baby step two, plugging along. But several weeks ago, we had a major house fire.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, it's okay. We're very blessed that my husband is healing quickly. He's nearly healed and we all made it out, even the dogs and cats. Oh Cindy, that's so scary. Very well given the situation. Was it a total loss of your place? It's not habitable. We have major, um, rebuild in our future and we can't even get to the start of the rebuild until next spring. And we'll hopefully be in our home again by Christmas 2023 is the hope. Okay. Uh, I don't even know why you're calling, but before we get going, can I challenge you on one thing? Yes, sir. And then after I challenge you,

then you can ask the question unless you just hang up on me and say this guy's a moron. One of the great curses of our time is comparison of grief. Okay. Something happens to us that's devastating, hard, scary,

frustrating, annoying. And we, our first thought is, because we have no cultural capacity to be sad we don't have any space for it right if if your mother passes away you get three days off of work and you better be back here and if it's a grandparent or a cousin if you have vacation time you can go right we have no cultural capacity for just stopping and saying this is awful and the way you presented, it's fine. Everything's good. Husband's healing. And we lost everything in a year and a half. We'll have our house.

Here's the thing. Your body, to quote Van Der Kolk, is keeping the score. You can pretend and play that it's all going to be great. I think it's really important to spend some time being real, real sad. That's interesting because no one, including myself, can figure out why I haven't cried about this yet. I'm not really sure if I haven't. Most of the time when I've worked with people behind closed doors who say that line, closely behind, I don't know why I haven't cried yet,

is if I started crying, I don't think I'd ever be able to stop. Understood. And so you don't think I'd ever be able to stop. Understood. And so you don't have to quote unquote cry. There's not a right way this is going to look for everybody. Some people just simply don't, but it is important. And also it's a gift to your kids because your kids are still probably scared. They're still mourning. They're still late, lost their stuff.

We, unfortunately we don't have children. Okay, okay. But, well, we have dogs. Oh, we have a dog mom on the phone. All right. But here's the thing. Grieve together, okay? Absolutely.

I know the temptation, and it feels like it's right to make everything look great so husband can feel better. Man, y'all lost a lot. Okay? We did. We definitely did. Yeah. And you're going to rebuild out of the ash together and what comes next is going to be incredible.

But it takes a season of grief. All right. So that's all that. So how can we help? Oh, I do. Well, first off, I really appreciate you telling me that because I was wondering if there's something wrong with me for not losing my mind yet.

No, you probably haven't exhaled yet. Yeah, not really. We're very busy. I have a full-time job. I have a secondary job, and I help my husband run his company. In the Western world, we use busy as Xanax. Pretty much, and I'm trying not to. I just can't.

Work doesn't stop, so it's a little difficult, especially in baby step two. There's immediate concerns. Do I pause or keep pushing? My situation is as follows. If I can just explain it for just a moment. Do I have a minute? Yes, absolutely. Go for it.

Okay. So immediately, you know, house burns down, homeless. We, a friend brought in a fifth wheel. It's older, you know, leaks, things aren't working, things like that. So we're kind of sheltering in place in there. We were on a generator until a couple weeks ago. We finally have temp electric. So we do have like power and stuff now.

However, and I've got a hotspot, so I'm working. But our options are as follows of what we're thinking about doing. And I don't know if I'm thinking about this just completely psychologically or what the actual logical choice will be. Being that we're in baby step two, we have 53,700 plus that we are plugging away and have planned on being done this year. We make between 125 and 130 on average with our own business that can fluctuate up and down. The two options we're looking at is, number one, we purchase our own four-season fifth wheel stay in place because our business is here, all our equipment is here, and the day after the fire, someone did try and come in and steal one of our trucks. So there's a psychological fear there that if we are not right here, that we could lose more by somebody actually getting away with it. Luckily, we were able to get home and stop the situation, but it's a definite fear for the amount of equipment we have here for our company.

Do we purchase that fifth wheel? That's like $75,000. Do we take money out and do that? And then we'll have a stipend as well and just pay that. And I don't want to take on more debt, so that's freaking me out. Or the other option is this. There's costs to bring in a Clonax, lock everything down, build a security fence, lock that down,

try and get security cameras up again, because, of course, all that went up in the fire as well, and then go to my amazing parents have said we could rent the bottom of their house from them. They're not too far away. But we have two dogs, a cat. They have two dogs. They're older.

My husband works the night shift in the winter because we switched from construction to snow removal. Hey, Cindy, let's do this. We're going to put you on hold. We're going to put you on hold, and we're going to hold you over the break. We're right up against the clock. And so hang on the line, and we're going to circle back. Yeah, because there's a couple of things that we want to kind of talk through. But some good options that you presented, Cindy. So we'll get right back to you after this break. We're up against the clock. And so hang on the line and we're going to circle back. Yeah, because there's a couple of things that we want to kind of talk through, but some good options that you presented, Cindy. So we'll get right back to you after this break.

Hang on. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. So we're going to pick up this call from Cindy in Alaska. And her and her husband were on the journey of getting out of debt. Baby's up too. They have $53,000 left in debt. And then they had a major house fire, house burned down. Everyone is okay. And now just trying to figure out and navigate next steps and what to do. So Cindy, would you say that covers kind of the high level part of your story?

Pretty much. Yeah. When we've gone through all the logical decisions, we have two options now. We're a few weeks into this and I want to make sure we're making the right financial decision and not to making a decision based on our emotions because those emotions are unstable when it comes to finances right now. I don't want to pull the trigger. So let me ask you a few questions.

First, Rachel and I were talking off air. Has the insurance company circled up and said, hey, here's how we're going to take care of your housing over the next few months? Yeah, they have given us a stipend. Okay. So regardless where we rent, that will cover that. So I can continue with my regular income to pay the mortgage and all those items and utilities that will not affect that. And it's enough that we can get through on that stipend towards our loss of use. And the two options you said were to take out $75,000 to buy a fifth wheel to be around your work and making sure that that stays secure, that area, or create security around that and then go move in with your parents or in-laws, live in their basement. So my question is,

would the stipend of the rent cover if you guys just went and got an apartment or a condo for, because you'll be moving back into your home Christmas of 23, so you have a year and a half of this journey. So what causes, what's the thought process of not just going and renting something else with that stipend from the insurance company? The stipend with rents up here is not enough. Okay. Okay.

So you've priced it, you've priced it out. It's not enough for rentals here. Yeah. It's, it's pretty expensive. And to find a place that allows pets as well, that increases it as well.

So our best financial option would be to rent from my parents because the rent would be cheaper within the stipend range. Yep. And we do have a great relationship with them. I would challenge your insurance company. I would challenge your insurance company because most provisions, not all, but most of them are based on making you whole in the process.

Some have dollar amounts attached to them like this is what this is going to provide for you. But often they're about making you whole, okay, in the gap. And so it may be push. Here's what I want you to do. Anytime there's a tragedy or there's something scary in our lives and we back ourselves into a corner and say it's either this or this, we give ourselves two options. Rarely is that the case, and rarely do we make good choices when it's an either or situation. Okay? Okay. And so I would love to see y'all get with somebody that's going to spread out your,

because you've boxed yourself into, we take out $75,000 on a depreciating asset, or we live with my mom. We would pay ourselves from the business instead of waiting until the end of the year and use that money to purchase it. And then after we're done with it, the plan would be to sell it back to the business because we do remote jobs and we could do better bids by being able to house our guys in it. Yeah, I hear that. I didn't get a chance to mention. Yeah, and there's a part, Cindy,

that it starts to feel a little messy because you're taking my personal, we're trying to do the business, we're trying to band-aid this to get this and this and this. And so there's a part, honestly, and what John said earlier in the segment of just resting

and grieving what was lost and just to do the simplest thing between here and a year and a half. What is the simplest path? And so whether, and if you guys and I agree, John, go press the insurance company to say, hey, here's market rate on rent. Here's what's going on and talk to them about that.

But if it gets down to, I don't personally think it's a terrible idea to move in with your parents. Because again, it's a year and a half. If we're talking five years or something, this would probably be a different conversation. But because of the timeframe, it's not a lot. There's a safety net there. It's familiar. And you guys are going to have a lot of decisions and a lot of work ahead of you when you're rebuilding the home. I mean,

you're going to be having a part-time job basically during this project because it's going to be a lot. And so I think being able to minimize as much stress and make things as easy as possible in the next year and a half feels right to me. So I lean towards moving in with your parents. Again, you have a time frame. It's a year and a half. Figuring out the safety part of it, yeah.

And then, yeah, circling back and figuring out the safety part of your business. So, Cindy, and I'm going to speak broadly to everybody listening right now. One of the great challenges we all face is this idea of when it gets back to normal. And it can be, in my life, it was when my wife got pregnant for the first time. And I was like, oh, well, whenever the baby's born, and then we get back to. And then Hank was born, and I realized a month or two in, like, it's probably going to be two years until we, quote, unquote we get back to, and then Hank was born and I realized a month or two in, like, it's probably gonna be two years till we quote unquote, get back to. And I never stopped to realize there is no going backwards. Right? So it's important to note in this situation, Cindy, you guys had $53,000 left in baby step two with a plan to pay that off this year. That will not happen. Your world exploded.

And the more you try to duct tape and move and shuffle and buy a fifth wheel, the more you try to do stuff so that you can get back to the way things were, the more likely you are to make a decision that you're going to just compound your issues. And so really,

my favorite analogy is from the great Esther says, you can't take all of the dust and glass and steel from the twin towers and sweep it all up and rebuild those towers. You have to excavate all of it, clean it all out, get architects, get engineers, get different professionals to come in and build something new, arguably stronger and arguably more beautiful, but you got to do in and build something new, arguably stronger, and arguably more beautiful, but you got to do something moving this way. And so y'all need to stop and say, where are we for this year? What's reasonable for this year? And then let's make that plan happen. And then we're going to just do this on a year by year basis. Yeah, so good. Thanks,

Cindy. And we're so sorry. So sorry for your loss. Thanks for the call. Up next is Jacob in Scranton. Hey, Jacob, welcome to the show. show hey thank you guys so much for taking my call absolutely how can we help so my wife and i uh we have a question about college savings we have a blended family um we actually have two children from my uh relationship my late wife and i who are 14 11 um we have two together, one who is three and one who is, uh, unfortunately in heaven and one on the way in September. So we've got a pretty wide age range and, uh, we're trying to figure out how to invest, uh, or how to save rather for, for their college funds and, and cashflow, everything we've, you know, got the Anthony O'Neill book. Just trying to figure out when do we stop?

How much do we save? Is there a number to get to or just keep on throwing money? What do we do? Yeah, it's a great question. So when it comes to kids' savings for college, there's really two great options, an ESA, an educational savings account, and a 529 plan. And depending on your income and how much you guys want to contribute, you may not qualify for the ESA. So most people do a 529. But I would also, I would sit down with a SmartVestor Pro because they're gonna be able to walk through very specific options for you guys and run numbers. Because here's the deal, the 14 year old is gonna have less than the one that's going to be born in September, right? I mean, that's just, that's going to be the facts. And so the biggest stuff

when you're looking at college and what you're saving for is to say, okay, by the time that this 14 year old's 18, what's realistically, what are we going to have to save? And when you look at that number, that's going to really determine whether that 14-year-old stays in state, goes to a community college, applies for scholarships and grants. But for this 14-year-old to go to school debt-free is the number one priority. And so part of that's going to come from you guys since you're on Baby Step 5. But there could be a realistic situation that your 14-year-old's 18 and it's like oh wow we didn't have as much money saved as we as we were planning or what we thought and so school choice jacob is going to be the biggest is going to be the biggest factor in this conversation and hey brother actually

go ahead sorry go ahead sir i was gonna say um there's been a lot of loss in your family and sometimes on the back end of that grief is a sense of guilt. I want to make up for, I want to get, I want to make sure that all this is taken care of. There is that feeling is real. That sentiment is real. That desire is real and it's good. It's right. And there's a mathematical reality. So it may be that you look at the numbers and what y'all are going to be able to do over the next few years. And you have to sit down and tell your 14 year old, I think I'll be able to cobble together 10 grand. And so we're going to have to start working now on scholarships, jobs, grants,

all of it together so that in four years you've got enough because this is the best we're going to be able to do. Or maybe you'll be able to save it all. And it's okay if it's different for each kid. Absolutely. That's going to be the reality as well. Thanks, Jacob, for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramsaysolutions.com slash debtfreescream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash debtfreescream.