The Ramsey Show - App - We Make Almost $500K per Year and Still Live Paycheck-to-Paycheck (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Jade Warshaw. I'm joined today by bestselling author Rachel Cruz. Thank you for being here with me today, Rachel. So great, Jade. It's been a good show. It sure is. All hour, we're going to be taking calls about your life and your money. So give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. We'll take your call and we will give you our best shot at advice. I think we do a pretty good job, but I guess at the end of the day, it's up to you.

So let's go straight to the phone lines where we've got Jason from San Jose, California. What's going on, Jason? All right. Thanks for taking my call. The problem that we're having is my wife and I can't decide if we're in baby steps three, four, five, or six. And we seem to be moving in and out of those baby steps. Okay. Tell me more. Well, we make about $320,000 as our household income.

We've got two mortgages, one on our primary home with about $220,000 left to pay on it. Then we have a rental property that we break even on every month. And we've got about 300,000 left on that. We both save for our retirement. And we max that out every year to get the matching contributions. I have ESPP along with other investments that I place. And then we have college funds for our kids. And the issue is, so my wife manages all the month-to-month, you know, daily checking operations,

and she wants to have the six-month savings in, you know, in a savings account tied to the checking account. And I keep explaining to her and showing her that, hey, we've got all this money elsewhere, you know, money market funds and, you know, stocks. What's in the money market? The money market has about $100,000 in there. Okay. Would you say that that's more than six months of expenses? Oh, yeah, definitely.

Okay. And so you're saying she wants money on top of that. It sounds like she just wants a little slush fund so that when, if you go over a budget, it's all good, right? No, because we do use the money app and that's working out well. She just wants to have access to it. Yeah. Well, I don't know if it's, yeah, I don't know if it's much access. I just wonder, Jason, because in your head, yeah, there's money there, but it's kind of attributed to whatever may be needed and I think for her there could be a level of safety of saying hey we're going to open up a you know a new account in this money market account and we're labeling it the emergency fund and we're going to have six months in there and that's it and like that that's what it's

titled that's what it's labeled and that's what it is and nothing else because when you start to say because i could even feel that like yeah there's money here or there and there's some stocks and it's like okay but how can i get to it if we really need it i think it's more of a security thing for her and i think and i think that level of organization too is really healthy and good and so what you could do jason seriously and this is what we tell people for your emergency fund it's its own account. It's over here. You don't touch it unless you need it. But it's designated specifically for that.

And would that help her, do you think, if you just say, yeah, we're going to take some of this $100,000, have another account. We're not touching it, but it's here if we need it. I think it would. But the question is, you know, the follow-up question to that is, do we stop the baby steps four, five and six? No, because you have the money. You have the money in that money market account. A hundred thousand could be it. Oh, I see. Is it just because it's the same place where like all your like where all of your retirement is and like where all your investing is?

Is that why she's not viewing it as an emergency fund? That's right. Yeah. And, you know, we've had issues come up, like last year in the rental, we had a flood that we had to deal with. And we went into, you know, we went into one of the accounts, we pulled the money out, we paid cash, there was no issue. Yeah, because it's accessible. Yeah. But then did you go back and replenish that? Because in her head, she's like, Oh, my gosh, we've used that. Is it here? I don't know. I can see what she's saying. Because that's how I am. Like we have a high yield savings account, Jason, my husband and I. And so we'll put extra savings every month in this

fund. But underneath it, like when I go into ally.com, we have one line that says like savings. We have one line that says emergency fund with that amount of money. And I need those separate. Like I need to know there's this, there's this here and we don't touch that. But everything else is just extra savings on top of what we need. You know, this, there's this here, and we don't touch that. But everything else is just extra savings on top of what we need. If something happens at a rental, if we're going on a trip or something, here's money we spent.

Here's money we just don't touch. And it's here just in case crap hits the fan. And that feels good to me with the distinction. Even Jason, this may sound crazy, even to the point that I'm like, if we're talking about money, I'm like, well, babe, how much is in the high yield? He'll give me the number.

And I'm always like, does that count the emergency fund? Are you adding those together? And he's like, no, I never add them together for your sanity. And I'm like, thank you. So you don't think we should slow down on paying off the mortgage early? No, you have the money. You have the money. So I would take part of that $100,000 that you have in cash or somewhere else.

I don't care where you get it. And get a six-month emergency fund and a new account and labeled emergency fund. And I think that will ease her tension. I really do. I think that would be, that's what I would do. That's what I would want personally. I just want to make sure we're covering this because the screen says we can't save up an emergency fund. And is there something we're missing here? Is it just as simple as relabeling this money? Yeah, it is.

It's because she wants, you know, in the regular checking savings account that are, you know, the day-to-day operations, she wants to see the savings account be the six months. She is wrong about that. If we want to do that, then we've got to stop, you know, we've got to stop on the, you know, the extra mortgage payments we're making. We've got to stop on the 401k payment. We've got to, you know, we've got to stop those other baby steps to rebuild that six-month savings. Well, I think you guys both have a place where you need to concede a little bit. Because to her, what she wants is I wouldn't keep the emergency fund with the normal checking. And, you know, like we have we have Ally where we do all of our savings and then we have like

Chase over here that has, you know, other things. And so I wouldn't keep it with your normal day to day funds. But to your point, I mean, we recommend all the time you can keep it in a money market or you can keep it in a high yield savings account. So whatever feels right. But to Rachel's point, you do have that money. And so I think that you guys both have to give a little and take a little. You have to be willing to pull it out of a money market because for whatever reason, that's making her feel some type of way. And then she's got to be fine with you putting it in someplace else that has a nice rate of return. You know, Ally's a great one. We used to say back when cash was like the prevalent thing of the emergency fund,

and it would be like, you know, don't put it in the sock drawer where the pizza guy can get it that's right like kind of that joke that like it can't be so accessible that you just go and you can just get it you know you want to forget about it yes you want it in a place really blessed because we don't argue about this this is just like you never argue about money we don't we don't have to yeah what's the best approach you know yes yeah i think i think for her to know she can get access to it if you guys need it for an emergency number one and number two for her just peace of mind that there's extra money over here it's for this it's not going to get tied up in some stock deal that you're doing jason here that right like it's like there's a level of like that's for the emergency

and we don't touch it and i think okay now one one quick question now do you pay off your primary first or your rentals? Primary. Primary. Okay. I want the place where you guys lay your head at night to be completely debt-free and peaceful. Perfect. Awesome. Thank you so much.

Thank you for the call. That's a really, you know, that's an interesting thing, Rachel, because I do think that when it comes to savings, you know, you do have to keep it a little bit. It's got to be enough out of reach to where you don't quote accidentally spend it. But at the same time, it's got to be liquid enough to where if the water heater goes out and you can't cash flow it, you can get to it. So you don't want to invest it. And you made a good point earlier that, and I don't think this was her from what he was saying, but you also don't want to have a bunch of money so that you can be lazy with your budgeting and you spend more than you make, but it's okay because we got 10 grand over here. We'll just get it. Yeah. Don't, don't let it be a cushion for your everyday expenses. It's a cushion between

you and life when the big stuff happens. That's your emergency fund, not to cover lifestyle. That's right. This is The Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Rachel Cruz, and we're going to be your hosts for the next couple hours. Hey, our month-long sale is almost over, so don't wait. Every May, we do a really fun May sale for you guys. And so tomorrow, May 31st,

is going to be the absolute last day to participate, the last day to shop the sale and get our best-selling products that have literally helped millions of people. So if you stop by, you can get bestsellers like Baby Step Millionaires for under $16, which will help you learn how ordinary people build extraordinary wealth. I would be one of those people. I love Baby Steps Millionaires. All right. Next, we've got Building a Non-Anxious Life for less than $18. Another great one by Dr. John Deloney. You can learn the six daily choices to have a more peaceful, joyful, non-anxious life. Also a banger. Love that one. All right. And finally, from Ken Coleman, From Paycheck to Purpose for under $16, you can discover seven proven stages

to finding meaningful work and increase your income. So hurry to get these bestselling books and gain confidence. Knowing that you have a plan for your money and your life, you can do this at ramseysolutions.com slash store. And remember the sale ends tomorrow, May 31st. So go do that today. Love it.

All right, let's go straight to the phone lines. We've got AJ. He's from New York City. What's going on, AJ? Hi, how are you? Thank you, Rachel and Jay. You're welcome. How can we help you?

So my question is, and this is going to go against everything Ramsey has taught I want to buy a sports car okay tell us so far you're not against what Ramsey teaches now where are you financially that might be do I have a rapper he's a car guy yeah yeah we're not against cars he said but it's it's a brand new car and He said, but it's a brand new car. And he said, you can't buy a brand new car unless you're a millionaire. Do you know why we say that? I've read, I've went through financial peace and I've done everything. Right, but do you know why we would say that?

Because it's going to make me in debt. And I know because I went to the dealership and I got sick out of my brain. I couldn't purchase it. So wait a minute. Are you trying to buy this brand new car on payments or are you trying to pay cash for it? Wait, Jade, can you tell me why maybe I missed something?

I didn't let you finish what you were going to say? Well, there's kind of. Oh, no worries. There's there's kind of two ways to thinking about it. Number one, the first thing is, yeah, if you're going to buy a car for sure in cash, whether it's brand new or used. Then the second part of this is what you mentioned, which is Dave would say not to buy a brand new car until you're a baby steps millionaire where your net worth is a million dollars. But the reason for that is because when you drive these brand new vehicles off the lot, they depreciate so quickly. Within the first four years, you're losing

sometimes up to 60% of the value. And so most of us can't afford to just put that kind of money in a pile and burn it, right? We need it for other things. We need it to build our net worth and we need it to help pay off our home and all of these other things. And so logically speaking, most of us can't kiss that kind of value drop goodbye without seriously feeling it.

And so essentially that's what Dave's talking about when he says that. So I just have questions for you about your personal finance situation. So my personal financial situation, I mean, so I'm buying, so the car I'm looking into is a Mustang Cobra, which is insanely priced at $110,000. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I know.

It's very, and they also have a dark horse, which is a little bit cheaper, but they're like $800,000, $900,000. Okay. So what do you earn every, what do you earn a year? So I don't care about the resale value. So I took a step back this year. I pushed the pedal off the gas. I made $240,000.

Okay. For since actually right after, actually COVID is what actually got me. And I mean, I'll get into the backstory later. What's your net worth? For the past three years. What's your net worth? I mean, define net worth like. It's what you own minus what you owe

so think real estate i didn't i didn't that's why i was like calculating my house how much i own like right when you asked that question i was calculating how much i owe on the house so it's a 440 000 i bought the house for 4440,000. Okay. I owe $180,000. Okay. But now the house is worth $740,000. Okay. I have $500,000 $490,000 something in my rock.

Okay. Which I invested since I was 21. AJ, do you have the cash for this? If you have the cash. If you have the cash, buy it. You're fine. I just don't want to use cash. All we had to hear was the car and the

savings. So you're there. And it's less than half of your annual income. It's less than half of your annual income. So just pay for it. So no, we would not tell you. But I also have financial responsibilities. So I had, and the reason to buy this car it's because i've been i had a divorce and i was going to therapy and my therapist

asked me when were you the happiest and i used to have a sports car before my marriage when i got my divorce and i would just drive along the beach. That's a bad motivator. That's bad. That's a bad motivator. A car is not going to make you happy. Cars are fun. Things are fun. Like things that we can buy with money are fun.

And you might have a bit of happiness for a moment, but that's not going to be the thing that's going to make you happy. But what you called for was to say, Hey, can I, a, can I afford to get this car based on your standards? The answer is yes.

Uh, net worth wise. And then, you car based on your standards? The answer is yes, net worth-wise. If you have the cash, yeah. And then looking at your income-wise, percentage-wise. But the third caveat of that is you've got to pay cash for it. And if you have some liquid cash sitting around, that's not your three to six months emergency fund. The answer is yes. But if you don't have that money sitting around, you need to save it up and then you can pay cash for this car.

Yeah, and the challenge of the emotional side of it, AJ, I mean, when your therapist said, when were you the happiest and you remembered a sports car? It probably wasn't because of the actual car itself. That doesn't bring the monetary value of happiness and joy. It may have been where you were in your season of life, right? The people that you were around, maybe your job, your career, like depending on where you were during that time, but it's not the object that's going to do it. And so again, that's another caveat. When you're buying large purchases, check your motivation, you guys. I mean, ask yourself, is my expectation of this item thinking that it's somehow going to change me or make my life so much grander and so much better because it doesn't.

Like you may be, you know, sitting in a prettier kitchen if you buy a new house. But at the end of the day, it's still your life. It's still you. You're still you. You're still you. And so. So, yeah, I mean, we're not mad at cars like we were saying earlier. And, yeah, Jade, you walk through all the the situations that he

needs to have in order to wisely purchase this and other than that you guys like it's a car it's a car so i don't like the motivation of it aj and it's coming out of a lot of pain and and the reason for it i think it's going to leave you in a lot of disappointment and you'll be out $110,000 where you could buy a $60,000 car that's not brand new and have some fun and that's fine, but it's not the thing that's going to be the pivotal change in who you are. I agree with that. It was like, at first, it sounded like maybe it was just going to be a fun discussion, but digging deeper, it did feel a little bit more like, it was almost like he was anguishing over it too like should i do it should i not do it if i do it and it's this and there's this option and that option and i yeah i mean financially speaking you're probably fine but i agree with you rachel 100

items cannot fill voids yeah yeah you know it's temporary fun but speaking of temporary fun i also want to reiterate the fact that you know we have a lot of rules and guidelines and guardrails, Rachel, when it comes to money. But and sometimes we kind of get a bad rap. People think that we don't know how to do the flip side, which is like sometimes you do get to have fun. And the whole point of building this foundation is so that you can do things like buy the car that you want to buy and have the home that you can afford and would like to have and, you know, take the trips that you want to take. And so I really want people to hear us say that there is a time and a place to do that. And when you do it, do it big. Yes. Yes. You know, and you do it with more freedom because you have more control over what's going on financially.

So, yeah, we're not Scrooges. That's right. That's right. Yeah, AJ, if you can afford the car, do it, but don't do it if you think it's going to fill a void and take you back to a place in time when you were happy. There's only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace.

This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, we're happy to hang out with you guys, taking your calls all afternoon about your life and your money. So give us a call. Anything from budgeting to planning for a vacation to a spouse that just doesn't seem to get it. Give us a call. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is bestselling author Rachel Cruz, host of The Rachel Cruz Show and Smart Money Happy Hour. If you don't know, now you know. All right, let's go to the phone lines where we've got Parley in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hi, guys. Can you hear me okay? Yeah. It's such an honor to talk to you guys. I have so much respect for you both. I'll get right into it. So I have about $30,000 to $35,000 in debt. And I've been working for a company that's a shop. I work in a shop and

they build stuff for like some of the different Lbs temples and like some of the apple shops around the world and whatnot and i feel like i've hit a brick wall and i wasn't making enough money so i started a lawn company cutting grass and i make about the same cutting grass part-time as i do with my full-time job and it's on to the point at my day job that I wake up like Ken Coleman always says I'm dreading Mondays I'm depressed I can't stand my job I work some pretty pretty pathetic people that I have no respect for that really don't know how to treat people kind. They have pretty profane mouths, and it's gone to the point where it's really difficult for me

to want to go to work anymore. So are you applying for other positions in your skill set? I have been trying to apply for other positions, yes. So kind of where I'm at right now is if I get my license to go to be a subcontractor, I can make more money than I do right now. Right now I'm making $29 an hour. Okay. And if I get the licensing to become a subcontractor, I could probably get closer to 40. Okay. How long does it take and what does it cost to get the license?

It's about 30 hours of class work, and I believe it's about $2,000 dollars. Okay do you have any money saved? I just have a thousand dollars. Okay so you're in baby step one. Yes. And how long does that take to get the to get the license? It's a 30-day class. Okay well it sounds well worth the investment. I mean, you'll be making $11 or more at an hour for two grand. So there's a part of me, yeah, probably that I may pause the debt snowball just for a bit and save up that $2,000 and then go get this license and then start again. Is it just you or do you have a family? I have a fiance and her two daughters. Okay. So you guys aren't married yet.

Does she have debt as well? And when do you get married? She does. She has debt. She has about $6,000 in credit card debt and about $15,000 to her parents. Okay. And when do you guys get married? We're supposed to be getting married in October. Okay. And you guys are saving up paying cash for that?

Everything's looking good on that side? It's probably going to have to be delayed. I kind of want to just do something at the the court and and and maybe delay the ceremony and the party and all that till till later because of the debt yes i mean i would definitely talk that over with her because she might have something else planned in her mind um listen I like this idea of you getting the license. How quickly will that parlay into like you making this income? Is it because you're in essence, you're striking out on your own? Yes, I'm not sure exactly. So another quick thing is I took the Ken Coleman assessment, and it talked to me about doing stuff in communication.

I feel like I'm really good with communication and talking to people and whatnot, and I feel like my years and experience in the construction industry, I would rather do like a, like project managing or something in communications to where I can, I can do that. Okay. Well, that's different than the license. So I, here's what, let's solve the immediate problem. The immediate problem is you work in a toxic work environment. Nothing is stopping you from applying for a couple of things and getting set up and getting out of there. You might not be making exactly what you were, but combine that with the other side jobs that you were doing. And I think you're going to be fine. And you really just... Cutting grass. That's what I've been doing is cutting grass. Yeah, cutting grass. Keep doing that and maybe take on more clients so that you can get out of this toxic work environment. And

I have a feeling that once you get out of that environment, it's going to kind of like clear the clouds a little bit because right now you're in a mode of, I just, I got to do something. I got to find something. Is it this? Is it that? And there's probably a little bit of just lack of clarity there in general, because I think when you're in a toxic environment and when you're in debt, it just causes you to have to do things out of necessity instead of out of what you truly want to do. And so maybe if we can clear one of those off the list and say, okay, I'm out of the work environment, that's good. Make sure on paper, you've got the plan for this debt, even though you're not tackling it yet. It'll kind of help, you know, relieve the stress of that a little bit. And then, you know. And then if there's a real opportunity for, because the communication thing, I think,

is a dream idea that you may have to work into. But if there's a real step, though, Parley, of doing some level of contract work with this license, and I'm talking about a realistic step. You've talked to somebody, you know that they need that position. You could be in that position in 60 days after you save and you take the exam and all of it. Like I would want that not just to be a dream of like, ooh, that sounds great because I don't want you to stop the debt snowball, quit your job, go take this test. And then you're like, oh, I have my license,

but nobody's hiring. And oh gosh, you want to make sure there's actually opportunity there. But I'm sure there is. And so I would would look into that but I would not stop the debt snowball until you actually have a plan of okay I could save up this amount and this amount of time and there's an actually opportunities at x y and z place for me to plug into so just make sure that that's it but yeah the work environment thing I'm with jade i would be applying other places i would be upping the you take a pickup probably at this point yeah i mean the way you described it's pretty bad and then like do add more yards more like jobs for my

yard yes that's yeah that's what i would do yeah because it's not like you just hate your job you're like oh my gosh i hate working on spreadsheets all day i'm. Because it's not like you just hate your job. You're like, oh my gosh, I hate working on spreadsheets all day. I'm so bored. It's like, it's the whole thing that you're like miserable in your life. Right. So I think that there's just other opportunities out there for you to be making as much as you are now, though, because that's another thing. Don't just assume because you're switching jobs that you're going to make less. Have the, you know, have the belief that, yeah, I could switch jobs and make just as much and cut more grass and make more money. I've been told my whole life I'm not good enough and that I wouldn't be able to, like, this is all I can do.

And so I'm scared. I'm scared to do something different because I don't know if there's anything. I mean, with my yard business, I do really well with that. But I'm just scared. I'm scared to leave something that I absolutely hate. I think that you're going to shock yourself. I think that you have a unique set of skills that you have to offer. And there's only one parley. And I think that when you get out there, because here's the thing, you've been in that toxic environment that probably hasn't done much for the state of your self-esteem and I think breaking free of that and literally taking the

time to pour into yourself and you know change that negative talk in your head I would tell you to get connected with Dr. John Deloney a matter of fact uh Christian will pick up and we'll give you a copy of own your past change your future because I I hate that no one's told you how unique and how valuable and special that you are. And Rachel and I know it. It's just up for you to figure that out. And I think that you will. I think that the more that you kind of take that slack

and really put your effort into it, I think you're going to see, listen, you're resilient. You have great skills. You care about values. Like you truly value hard work and you have integrity. We can hear that just being on the phone line with you. So I'm excited to see what happens next. The book he was talking about is Find the Work You're Wired to Do. That's got Ken Coleman's assessment in it. If anybody else is interested in finding the work that they're wired to do, this is The Ramsey Show. You are listening to The Ramsey Show. And hey, thank you for listening to this show.

This show is bringing hope to so many people, changing millions of lives. I'm one of those lives. And so I just have a special appreciation. And by the way, if you want to show your appreciation, something that you can do that's so easy, it'll cost you nothing, just share the show. Whether that's you sharing it through text, whether it's you liking and subscribing, because when you do that, it does share it through the algorithms. It makes it more readily available. And so when you do that, it just gives more people access to the life change that we know is within this content that we share day in and day out. So thank you for listening. Thank you for liking. Thank you for subscribing. And thank you. Thank you for sharing this show. We really, really appreciate it.

It helps us. Oh, so much. So keep doing that. And in the meantime, we're going to go to the phones. We got Brenda. She's in Jackson, Mississippi. What's going on, Brenda? Hello. Hi, Jayden, Rachel. Thank you for taking my call. You bet. Me and my husband are having a little bit of a disagreement about a job that's coming up. Me and my husband are in baby step three. So saving up for that three to six month emergency fund. Um, my, uh, my husband and I just run a little side gig of, um, handyman service. We have not been formally trained or anything, but we work on our own house. And, um, so do it for friends and family that need help.

Um, the job that's coming up this weekend is for a missionary friend of ours. The wife doesn't work and the husband works two small part-time jobs. And they had a leak in their bathroom and they knew about it, but didn't deal with it for a couple of years. So now the damage is pretty extensive. um so uh my husband wants to charge them about uh ten dollars an hour for us to do the work they will cover the materials um in addition and then but i want to charge our standard service which is about fifty dollars an hour oh okay um he says that they're poor um and so we shouldn't charge them and they have told us that they don't really have the money to do it but it's getting to the point where their shower is about to fall through the floor did they come to you because they figured you would give them a discount like have they given any indication that it's like, oh, they'll probably give us a discount?

Not necessarily, but they know that we're going to be cheaper than a regular contractor that's going to come out and do it. I mean, Brenda, how long would the project take? Two to four days, depending on how extensive it is once we get into it, if it's worse than we think it is. And if you did it, that would be the only thing you could work on for the two to four days? Yes. But it's time that my husband has off anyway. So it's not like we're taking off additional work. Yeah. I mean, if you feel like you're being taken advantage of, that's one thing for sure. That doesn't feel good ever to anyone. But we also, when we talk about giving, you know,

there's giving in money, there's giving in time, there's giving in talents. And maybe it's a thing your husband's like, yeah, I just feel called to help this family. And they're in a really rough situation. They don't have the money to fix something like their water. Like, I mean, it's kind of a need. It's a necessity. And I i mean if he wants to do it and again i think it's a one-off if it becomes a pattern where he constantly is using his time and keeps losing money continually maybe like a red flag but for two days if it's something that he wants to do um i mean i get you guys are on baby step three i understand it and again if you're being taken advantage of like that feels gross right like there's a there's a level there where you're

like oh i don't know if that feels right and but i feel like if he wants to do it out of just who he is and he can and y'all aren't paying y'all it's no out of pocket for y'all it's really just time at that point um i don't know i i could see it, but I'm more of like the emotional side person when it comes to that stuff. We're like, yeah, absolutely. We can do it. But I don't want it to be detrimental to you guys, but I don't think two days is detrimental. I mean, I'll tell you what my husband and I do because I'm always the one that's like, let's give this much. And he's like, cool out. Like, let's pull back. Like, let me let me look at the numbers. And so what we always do is we agree to

pray about it. Like you go over there and pray about it. I'll go over here and pray about it. And then when we come together, it's like one, two, three, say it. And still, I'm always the one that's trying to do the most. And he's come up a little bit, you know. And so then from there, we just kind of meet in the middle. So maybe it's, you know, you trying to do the most and he's come up a little bit you know and so then from there we just kind of meet in the middle so maybe it's you know you want to charge the whole $50 an hour he was doing 10 maybe it's like hey maybe getting off this call you're like fine I'll just do what he wants to do but if you're not like go pray about it give yourselves 24 hours or whatever time you have and then meet in the middle like you'll either come out on on the same card or it's something that you have to meet in the middle and maybe it's like okay we're not going to charge 50 but we're going to charge 25 and we're going to give them half rate whatever it is um yeah or maybe it's a time thing too that

if you guys get into it and it's going to take an a day beyond that that you guys may say hey there's a point that we're not going to be able to continue this because of x y and z and letting them know that up front have you guys asked their budget at all we know they follow we know they've heard about the ramsey plan and they agree with it but we also know that they they don't have the money yeah but did they say that to you guys like we don't have money to fix this? Well, not necessarily, but they told us that they might put, like we said we would need money up front to pay for the materials. And they said, well, if we don't get paid this week, like if our check isn't big enough, we'll just put it on a credit card. And that's when my husband was like, no, we don't really have to pay that much. Yep. So again, I think.

My point is, you know, we didn't put them in this position. They knew about this leak for years and they did nothing about it. Sure. Could have been a cheaper fix. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. And again, I think if there are people in your lives that you continue to enable and

continue to give and give and give and give and give and they don't... I mean, like there's a level that you could start to be taken advantage of for sure. But if you haven't had history of that or history going forward, and he just feels this like tug on his heart of like, I just feel like, you know, I want to do this not because I have to or because I feel bad. Like, you know what I mean? Like there's bad, there's not great motivations always. Like it needs to be something that he's like, listen, I see this family. I know I can do this. I'm going to give them two days.

I'm going to give them a significant discount. They need the help. And I feel called to do that. Like that may be what he wants to do. You know what I mean? But I do think, yes, I hear you, Brenda, that it doesn't feel right. There's not a level of justice there. She's not working.

She could go and get a job and bring in money. Like I hear all of that totally what's the real numbers here because you gave us by hour like what how much money is this equating to so if it was my fee it would be um a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars not including materials and we don't upcharge on materials at at all. And if it was my husband's, it would just be $200 flat. And who covers the materials they do? They still cover the materials. Yes. So it's about $300 in materials and then an additional $200 for labor. So $500 total. Okay. So we're talking about the difference between like $200 or $1,800.

No, $1,500 or $500. Okay. So it's a thousand. The material is 300 and it'd be the same either way. So it's a thousand dollar difference. You know, I, I wouldn't tell you what to do. I mean, I can sit here and be like, listen, if you guys have the money, do it. But at the same time,

you and your husband have to be on the same page. And that's something that Rachel and I can't do for you. So listen, take my advice, go home and give yourself a quick little bit of time and be like, we're going to pray about it. We're going to take you get 24 hours. I get 24 hours. We're going to reconvene. And no matter where we hit, we're going to meet in the middle. And then there is some bit of give and some bit of take, because I would be feeling some type of way if I was like, this is my this is my vacation time. Like we were supposed to go away with the family and do something fun because then it's not the time, but it's the value of the time, too.

So there are yeah if he's having to take pto and all yes i think that there's yes wise ways to go about it but if you're self-employed he's doing his own thing and he has two days that he has to go and help i don't know i think service is a great way to give yes and it hurts and it hurts sometimes more than money time is so valuable it's so valuable oh yeah oh that's a conundrum but you know i always like to live to lean a little bit on the side of generosity i mean you have to do what you can afford and what makes sense for your family um but yes generosity is very very important that does it for this hour of the ramsey show thanks for hanging out with us check us out next

hour show. Thanks for hanging out with us. Check us you next time.