The Ramsey Show - App - We’re Underwater on Our Truck (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 2, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony discuss: Selling (half) a house, What to do when you're underwater on a vehicle, Using funds from mutual funds that were gifted. Saving up for a house vs. investing in retirement. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET 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 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, host of the Dr. John Deloney Show,

and number one best-selling author of the book Own Your Past, Change Your Future, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Michelle is in evansville indiana hi michelle welcome to the ramsey show hi dave i'm glad i got through to you today long time listener i have a little complex situation my parents filed bankruptcy back uh my latter latter teen years so mid 80s there were um some property that was given to us or by dollar transaction from an aunt, totaling about probably 40 or so acres, with a separate section cut out to build a home on after they filed bankruptcy. That was about a house built in five acres. Long story short, my sister, my parents couldn't take out a loan, so she was 18 years old. So they took the loan out in my sister's name and deeded the ground and the home, two separate deeds, in my sister Mai's name. She's since married, and her and her husband now are on the deed along with myself.

My question is this. We do not get along. My father has passed. My mother had a lifetime estate to this property for as long as she lived she could live there however my sister was her caregiver and there has been some discord that my sister was basically maltreating my mother and so my mother has relinquished her rights to this property so i have never been interested in this property um it is not my homestead my sister lives adjoining

property that my father-in-law gave her and her husband for a wedding present so when i mentioned i live in evansville indiana so i am in different states where's the house where's the property illinois southern southern very tip so crazy is in a pile in ill, and you're not in the pile of crazy. I am not in the pile of crazy. Never wanted pile of crazy. Have asked to be purchased, have bought out, things like that, until this recent transaction when my mom decided I want out of this. I'm moving up north with my other family, nieces and nephews. And I said to my sister then, once she had mom sign off the deed, I want out, I want

you guys to buy me out. And she said, just sell it. Well, it's hard to sell a home and for five acres, half of it to someone without her authority and her agreeing, I guess. Well, you got, you have two choices. Okay. You don't have anything in this. I do not.

You can deed it to her and walk away from crazy okay that's probably what i would do okay life's too short it is this is a screwed up pile of mess it is these people these people have done everything they can to duck reality for decades and twist and turn and the whole thing's a pretzel and um now the other option is technically legally you are partners and you could file a lawsuit in chancery court for the disillusionment of the partnership which would force the sale of the real estate okay and you would get your half. What would you guess your half is worth? Well, in that area right now, it's going for roughly $6,000 an acre,

plus their standing timber that my dad would not allow anyone to cut. What do you think the property is worth? Between that house and the other acreage, probably around $150,000 to $200,000. Your half? My half. $75,000 to $100,000. No, probably closer to $200,000. house and the other acreage probably around 150 to 200 your half my half 75 to 100 no probably closer to 250 to 2 your half is worth 150 to 2 okay correct okay because there's a house and five acres and there's additional like 20 to 40 acres with timber so just how much trouble you want to go to to get that because it's probably going to cost you 30 grand in legal fees okay and you will win and you will lose

right no there is no winning when it comes to family yeah the only thing that the only the only ones that win these things are the lawyers but you will you you will i would guess if you have a decent attorney that you will uh that the judge will hear you and say, this thing has to be liquidated, or he'll look at your sister and say, buy her out. One, two, and your sister will go, okay, I'll do that, or whatever. But you cannot sell a one-half undivided interest. It has no value. Because nobody else wants to be partners with these crazy people either.

No, I don't. I would give you $10,000 to not make me a partner. Exactly. Well, I would love to turn around and walk away. I was married for 22 years and actually walked away from about $350,000 in assets and gave that to the ex-husband. Well, you know, the other thing that could happen, I guess, is you could file the lawsuit or have the attorney let her know,

put her on notice that you're filing the suit. You're not suing her. You're asking for the judge to make a declaration. Declaration, just like that. She hasn't done anything wrong. You're just asking for the judge to declare that this partnership needs to be dissolved. Because I'm positive there are no partnership documents. No.

No, of course not. Absolutely none. Of course not. I was probably 15 or 16 when this all took place 40-plus years ago. As a minor, I knew nothing. And they did this with your sister's permission, or they stole her identity? No. Actually, the sister was of age, and she wanted them to be able to build a home,

so she went out and took this loan out and had me as a co-signer on it as a 15-year-old. Oh, well, that's not legal either. No, it's not. There's a lot of... 15-year-old co-signers? You can't even buy cigarettes. No. I know.

I know. When you're 15 and you live in the 10th and 15th... But you can get a mortgage in Illinois. Exactly. Not really. No beer or cigarettes, but I'll give you a house. John, I mean, you see anything from the family standpoint? I don't think there's anything heels this way.

No, nothing. Can you afford to walk away? I can. I can. I know the sad thing is I know it's not my parents' wishes, but yes, I can. And I am a walk-away person. So your parents, they created a mess. And it's not your obligation to fix the mess to create a picture that's going to satisfy something that they – you see what I'm saying?

Correct. You're going to be putting together puzzle pieces in a puzzle and the picture keeps shifting on you if you have the energy i might you know spiritually it's okay to just say i'm going to rise above this toss them the keys okay there's something freeing about just doing that and noble about doing that um from a just a legal strategy standpoint uh you could just file the thing without going to a huge amount of expense if you want to drop i don't know five thousand dollar retainer with a good lawyer and see if that doesn't bring her to the table okay because when she discovers what this is actually going to do it's going to force the sale of the real estate that is next door to her she may come up and go okay

if you'll make me a deal i'll buy you out and. And I would sell it to her for 50% of what it's worth. But that way you get $75,000 out of it or something instead of nothing. If you want to put a bluff on the table, that's the way to put it. But I honestly would not play it all the way through and force the auction and the drama of the auctioneer. If you win, everybody loses. Yeah, there's no winning this deal. I wouldn't go through all that.

But I might make her think I'm going to. I'm in for that. See if she could come to the table. See if we can give her a little redneck wake-up call. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Dr. John Deloney Ramsey, is my co-host. In case you hadn't heard the news, we're in a recession. The stock market's falling. Inflation's out of control. We're all going to die!

Okay, calm down. If you're investing, this is not time to panic. Fear is not your friend. Calm down. Breathe. Breathe. Facts are your friends. Dr. John Delaney says it all the time. You got to stay level-headed. The only person who gets hurt on a roller coaster if you're investing are those that jump off in the middle of the ride. Ride, ride, ride, ride, ride.

Don't jump off in the doom and the gloom. Turn off your television. History shows us that the economy recovers time and time again. It's happened every time there's been a dip. There's always a, it always comes up and you may miss the coming up if you jump out at the dip that's how this works so if you need help in finding an investing pro someone who can guide you through all of this someone can talk you out of your tree and we all need those check out our smart investor program it's an easy way to find

pros who truly serve with excellence they'll be there to help you figure out what's best for you. Stay focused on your long-term goals and to get connected with up to five SmartVestor pros in your area, go to ramseysolutions.com slash SmartVestor. You can talk with the pros, pick the one you want to work with, and make an investing plan you feel confident with. That's ramseysolutions.com. So we'll just throw in with that particular mention about smart investor john that um lots of research tracking the actual statistics of the stock market the people who try to time the market 100 of the time do not get the performance of the people who just get in the market and stay yeah and so what we then find is that people who buy mutual funds on their own, for instance, I buy some no-load, no-commission mutual funds, and I buy some mutual funds through my SmartVestor Pro. But if you do not have an advisor, if you only buy no-loads and you are there subject to your own self as your own self telling your own self what to do all the time, you will have more of a tendency to jump in and jump out and attempt to time the market usually in fear rather than greed but sometimes in greed rather

than fear and in neither one of those cases do you end up outperforming the market so what we also find in the research is is the people that have a good investment professional who's got a steady hand at the wheel not some slime ball but somebody's got a steady hand the wheel that talks you off the ledge and talks you out of being greedy talks you out of being afraid and stick with it be boring be the tortoise don't be the hare be boring be the tortoise don't be the hare and they say that to you a thousand times over 20 years and you never jump in and you never jump out because of that investment professional you make more money that's right not even because of

they advised you on some trick stock scheme they just made you stay in yeah they just talked you into staying in yeah and that's all they did and if that's all they do they're worth their money because people that don't have one have a higher tendency to jump out and it's pretty simple you people that you you know you stay invested the number of times i have sold out of the market because of economic situation is precisely zero never and i've been investing for 40 years yeah but once i got that dialed in in my head i have not broken that And I've not thrown money into the market when it was down out of greed trying to time it. I almost did once in 2008. And I would have been, or 2009, I would have been so right.

I would have caught it right at the bottom. But I didn't. I just said, that's not my policy. It's not my principle is just steady. Principle is not try to figure it out. Catch it at the bottom. Catch it at the top. Principle is not try to figure it out, catch it at the bottom, catch it at the top. Principle is just keep going. And that works every time.

Jeremy's in Jackson, Tennessee. Jeremy, how are you? Doing well. How are you, Mr. Dave? Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help? So I am trying to get rid of a massive amount of debt on a vehicle. It's approximately $75,000.

That's massive. Yes, and I am $22,000 under trade-in value. What kind of car is it? It is a truck. It is a 2021 Dodge Ram. And it was a false need that my wife and I felt we needed whenever we were getting ready to move. We thought we needed a truck in order to save money on a U-Haul and moving companies. That's incredible.

Now that we're trying to do the baby steps and get a hold of our debt, I understand that this truck needs to be gone. What do you guys make a year? Our net take-home is approximately $105,000. Holy grimole. You owe $5,000. Holy gramoli. You owe $75,000 on a Dodge pickup. Yes. Okay.

And you looked up the trade-in value on Kelley Blue Book? Yes. And you got $50,000. Yes. Did you talk to a dealer? Not yet, no. That's my next step is to go in and talk to a dealer? Not yet, no. That's my next step is to go in and talk to a dealer. Did you trade a negative equity into this thing?

Yes. Oh, okay. Yes, it was a very... It was 2021. It wouldn't have gone down $25,000 yet. No. You'd probably make money off of it. No, it was a very poor decision

yeah one that that's an understanding that one that obviously should have never happened that's an understatement yeah and yeah when you trade a 75 000 vehicle for a u-haul rental you you really screwed you really struggled you're really struggling with math on that one yeah yeah so um okay wow oh man i'm so sorry how old are you i am 26 as is my wife okay you have any money i know i guess not no money uh no sir no sir okay like none saved yet Is this a Hemi? Yes. Yeah. Okay.

And you are in Jackson, Tennessee. Okay. So here's what you need to do first is you need to learn a lot about the Dodge Hemi truck market. I don't know a lot about it. But the truck market in general is way up, and it's not as up as far as it was a few months ago. And because of the electric car craze and the threatening of doing away with nice big engines and trucks,

stuff like the Hemi have an unusually good popularity because those of us that are rednecks that burn gas, we want a big old honking gas engine, and that one is. Okay? So the good news is you kind of got a cult truck. You got a truck that a certain segment of the population thinks is unbelievably cool you follow me so i i want you to poke around and find that nuanced segment of the population and let's figure out what they get 62 for it, okay, which I'm going to guess and say it might take four or five months

of poking around and learning about where to sell it, how to sell it, but that might be full boat retail on the thing. What did you pay for it, actual sticker at the time? I think it was $68 or $69. And it's a 21, you said, right? Yes, sir. How many miles? It's currently got 8,200.

Have you torn it up? No. Do not run it through the brush. Treat it like it's a Mercedes, okay? Because you've got to keep it in pristine condition and sell it like new. A like new 21 that was stickered at 68, you might get 62. I might be right. Yeah, you're not going to fall off. I'm impressed at how good I am at this.

So I'm thinking you're going to do that, okay? But you're still 14, 15,000 bucks in the hole. You're 26 i'm thinking you're gonna do that okay but you're still 14 15 000 bucks in the hole you're 26 years old and you're broke so you're still gonna have to go down the credit union and borrow 15 000 bucks and buy a three thousand dollar car or two thousand dollar car for cash right and you're gonna have fifteen thousand dollars that and the fifteen thousand dollars the amount of money you lose on this truck, I want you to write it down. I want you to take a picture standing beside the truck, write it on the back of the picture, print the picture out, and keep it in your file.

I used to do this stuff. I've done a lot of stupid things, and when I lose money on something, I call it stupid tax. And my young friend, you are about to pay some stupid tax because you were straight-up stupid when you did this. And so you want to remember it so you never do it again. You can get out of this and we'll help you. Are you sick of planned obsolescence? You know, when companies make products crappy so you have to buy more of their crappy products? Well, me too.

And it's why I love companies like Grip6. Grip6 is all about quality products meant to last forever. That's why their comfortable, bulk-free belts, slimline wallets, and lightweight wool socks all come with a lifetime warranty and simple returns and exchanges. So check them out at Grip6.com today and get up to 20% off with the promo code RAMSEY. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host. Mark and Stephanie are with us. They are in Portland, Oregon, and it says on my screen you guys are debt-free. Congratulations.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Well done. How much did you pay off we paid off seven hundred and five thousand dollars in 144 months wow and your range of income during that time we started at 45 000 and went up to 310 000 and now back,000. Cool. What do y'all do for a living? I'm in software sales. And I used to work at automotive dealerships as a pick-stop director, but now I'm driving a semi-truck. Cool. Very cool. All right. What's the house worth?

Well, we paid $400,000 for it, and right now it's worth about $750. Awesomeness. And I'm guessing that $705,000 over 12 years you paid off your house. We did, sir. Woo! Talking to weird people. How old are you two? We are 39 and 40 years old. I love it.

And how much in your retirement accounts we have about 350 so you are baby steps millionaires yes sir we are i'm so proud of y'all and not even 40 that was our goal we set a goal years ago we wanted to be debt free by 30 and we wanted our house paid off by 40 so you're millionaires 40, and people say rich people stole all their money. Where'd you steal yours? Sweat equity, sir. How much of this did you inherit? Because rich people always inherit all their money.

We did get a small inheritance from my grandma after we'd already paid everything off. How much was the small inheritance? It was about $40,000. So it's safe to say mathematically you did not become millionaires because of stealing it or because of an inheritance? No, sir. We already passed that finish line before we received it. You're pretty stinking amazing. Awesome.

So proud of y'all. How does it feel? It feels pretty incredible. We, you know, it was kind of a long journey to get here for sure. We had all kinds of normal weird debt of bedroom furniture. We owed the tool truck for Mark's job in the car industry and student loans, cars, personal loans, everything. And, you know, it's been a long road and we were really really thankful that we were able to get to the finish line because it was um 12 years is real it was a

short journey for us yeah 12 years is a long time but that's a normal track for paying off a house is 10 to 12 years that's what we find among millionaires well done so how is this altering how you live because you've been living a certain way for more than a decade and now you've got to live completely different what are y'all doing differently you know i think we're still figuring that out you know after after so long we've kind of just stuck to it we've we're kind of thinking of maybe doing some upgrades and things but right now at least for me i'm kind of still doing the same thing. Here's what's so cool about being a millionaire and making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year and having no payments is you can do anything that you want whenever you want to. That's something we really learned last year is that we were really heads down focused on

getting to baby step seven and paying off the house. And we were working a lot. We, um, you know, we're doing everything we could to reach this goal. And we realized that it was detrimental to our health, especially to Mark's health, that he was in the hospital several times from stress from his job. And we sat down and we said, all right, well, we're six months away from our goal we want to stick with it or do we want to have a life-changing event and pause and made the decision the next day for mark to take a pause in his career and he took five months off and sort of decided to reset and go a completely different direction And had we not been on this program and not had our emergency

fund and everything set up, you know, we wouldn't have had that option, but it was such a blessing to us to be able to make that life choice for his health, for our family. And we're in a much better place. And we found that, you know, making a lot of money while it's difficult, it can be done, but that's not what it's about. It's about creating a better life for your family and yourself. Well, and that's the net result of the whole thing, is you're controlling the controllables. Absolutely.

So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You paid off your house in 144 months. Your baby steps millionaires by the time you're 40. What's the key to doing all this? Well, definitely the budget i will say that um before we got married i came from family that didn't watch the finances and didn't do a budget and when we were dating mark came from family that did and and we started to talk about money and he flat out said to me he said either you do a budget or we're done dating because i'm not going to put up with this for the rest of my life and probably wasn't the best approach i would recommend your approach but you're a real romantic mark but it definitely

got the job done and i i got on board so the budget definitely is key and I'd also say it's good to give yourself a little bit of grace and be able to step back a little bit especially when you're in baby step six once you've had your nose down for a while and you're driving towards that goal it's tough to give yourself permission to spend but we definitely did that along the way. You need to that's the you go from intense to intentionality when you're in baby steps four five six and that's what you're supposed to do and you guys sounds like you did a really good job of catching the rhythm on that well done very very well done so what's the first big thing you're going to do to celebrate being millionaires and having no debt

house and everything i am planning on buying a polaris razor wow that's cool yeah i've wanted one for about five years now but it wasn't in the the plan but now it is i gotta tell you man i've got uh uh one of the can-am versions and it is a beast it It is so freaking much fun. I've almost died a few times with Dave driving that thing around, man. They are a blast. We have one couple that we're friends with also on Baby Step 7, and they have one, and I instantly got hooked the first time I sat in one.

You should. You should buy that toy. That is an awesome toy, and you have earned it. I'm so proud of you guys. Very, very, very well done. Excellent, excellent, excellent job. So, good stuff. We got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you because you are one. Copy of Total Money Makeover for you to give away to someone and a one-year membership to Financial Peace University. You may want to give that way or you may want to go through it. Either one's good with us. We're happy for you. We're proud of you. Very, very well done.

Who were your biggest cheerleaders? Probably our biggest cheerleaders are Jimmy and Kendi. I'll throw their names out. They were that couple that are also on Baby Step 7. They were actually one of my – Jimmy is one of my lead techs at my dealership I worked out, and just somehow we found out we were both on the plan. He was already on Baby Step 7, and he just really encouraged me for the last probably four years to stick with it.

Yeah, that's good. It's good to have friends that are positive. I would say Tim, our ELP as well. When Mark quit his job last summer, we were ready to, you know, spend quite a bit to get our house paid off sooner, and he kind of paused even though it wasn't in his best interest and said, no, no, no, no, that's not what Dave would tell you to do. Let's stick to the plan and, you know, take your few months

and then we'll get back at it. But, you know, we're not going to change things just because of this. So I appreciate the LPs as well. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Very well done. Good stuff, you guys. You're awesome.

Way to go, rock stars. Freaking 40-year-old millionaires, baby step millionaires, house and everything is paid for. That's a way to live right there. Mark and Stephanie, Portland, Oregon, $705,000 paid off in 144 months, way to live right there mark and stephanie portland oregon seven hundred and five thousand dollars paid off in 144 months 12 years where i come from 45 000 to 310 back down to 205 on the income 39 and 40 years old count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one Three, two, one. We're going to win! Yeah!

Woo-hoo! That was a decade-long scream right there. I love it. Dave Ramsey doesn't teach people how to become wealthy. He just teaches them how to get out of debt. Have you heard that one? This is The Ramsey Show. The our scripture of the day john 10 10 the thief comes only to steal kill and destroy i came that they may have life and have it abundantly diane Ackerman said, I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it.

I want to have lived the width of it as well. Ooh, that's good. I like that. Very good. Good stuff. Joe's with us. Joe is in Chicago. Hi, Joe.

How are you? Hi, I'm doing well. I'm talking to you is a good one. Thank you, sir. How can we help? I've got a question today talking to you's a good one thank you sir how can we help yeah i've got a question about what to do with a gift that's currently sitting in a mutual fund so uh i'm 19 years old and i have one year of college under my belt and uh due to my generous parents a good scholarship and a relatively cheap school i'm cashflow in college with my on-campus job and then saving what I make in the summer. Good for you.

What are you studying? I am taking a major in business information systems, and it's a master's program as well for public accountancy. Wow. Good for you. Good, good, good study. Good field. How can we help? about pulling it out. She voiced some concerns about pulling it because the market's down. And I was trying to balance pulling it out, which I think would be a good idea.

Why do you think that would be a good idea? You don't need the money today. No, I don't. But if I had the money in cash, I wouldn't invest it. That's a fair assumption. I don't disagree with that uh if you call me and had the money in cash in your situation i would have you pile it up just to make sure you graduate sounds like you've got our answers on this show dialed in i'm sorry it sounds like you listen to the show and you know how we answer questions yeah i listen every day okay all your shows so i, I mean, because you're, you know, I'm hearing my words. So thank you for that.

I appreciate that. I'm honored by that. So you're right. Thank you. If you called me at 19 years old and you had $5,000 or $3,000 cash sitting in the middle of the table and said, I want to put it in mutual funds, I would say don't because I want you to graduate debt-free first, and you've got it mapped out where you can without using this money probably,

but just in case, I would use it as an insurance policy, okay? And so you're right. I would do that, and that's what you're saying. In this case, the money is not in the middle of your kitchen table. It is already in the market, and your aunt is actually right. It's the wrong time to pull it because, you know, in the market and your aunt is actually right. It's the wrong time to pull it. Yeah. Because, you know, with the market, it went down.

You know, we were technically in a bear market, probably not technically now, but whatever. It's down a bunch either way since the first of the year. And I don't think it's going to stay down throughout your college career. And you don't need the money today. So I probably would ride this thing back up. I kind of agree with your aunt here, which I usually wouldn't do. I admit that. I admit that, okay?

I usually wouldn't do it. Or if you told me that I have to have this money to keep from borrowing money to go to school, I would tell you to cash it out in a heartbeat. Oh, yeah, no, that's not happening. That would be in a heartbeat. I mean, I'm sorry the market's down. You just need the money. But right now you have the luxury of not having to cash it out while the market's down,

and that's your aunt's point, and I tend to agree with her. All right. Well, thank you. Yeah, so, but I, man, I really appreciate that you had thought through what we were going to say. Yeah. appreciate that you had thought through what we were going to say yeah yeah but my my understanding is when the market's down you cash out you're solidifying the loss and so if it goes down at some point you either got to in general in general you never sell or write it down right because you what we call lock in your losses right uh solidify the word you but you're locking them in you're

you're promising yourself you're going to lose you're not just haven't just lost on paper now you really lost right you cash it in while it's down so if you don't have to take it out while it's down it's the exact wrong time to take it out um but if you have to you just have to i mean it's just part of that it just sucks but uh but yeah i i you know i'm gonna ride it back up and and let it get back up in that $3,000 range. Then I might cash it out just as a matter of safety. And I might miss out on some upward returns. That seems a little backward to say that, but I'm sure that's consistent. But either way, it's just what I would do.

And it's not a lot of money. It's not going to make or break your college career probably. It's not like $30,000 or $100,000 that's gone down to $75,000. We're talking $3 100 000 that's gone down to 75 000 we're talking three grand that's gone down to 2500 that's true we're playing with we're playing with house money too well so let me let me i have a problem with that so if i worked and earned 3 000 bucks and put it in there and it drops 500 bucks i feel a psychological angst that is different than if somebody gave me 3 000 bucks and it's dropped down because that's house money but i don't know that that's the right way to look at it 3 000 bucks is 3 000 bucks is 3 000 bucks where no matter where it came from

that's right that's that's my problem i got to get over and um the only thing you don't want to dishonor the giver here correct but it didn't sound like the aunt was being controlling it sounded like she was just advising wise yeah advising and saying i didn't sense that from him anyway so interesting good discussion rich is with us rich is in phoenix hi rich how are you hi dave and john honored to talk to both of you you too how can we help so a quick snapshot of my situation um i'm 45 years old and my wife and I have been married for about two years, just over two years. And we became debt free last year. Both had a little bit of car debt coming into our marriage and we paid it off really quickly. And I've got about $111,000 sitting in a retirement account and we have our emergency fund saved up. So I'm just kind of at that point where if you were in my shoes, what would you do, Dave?

Uh, you mean in the baby steps or what? Yeah. I I'm, I'm debating on jumping right into step four, uh, with 15%. Uh, but my wife and I were talking about it that we don't want to skip over three B and I just don't know if there's like – So you're wanting to buy a house? Yes, sir. Okay. And, well, I mean, what if you took two years to work on Baby Step 3B and did not put money into retirement?

Okay. And you built up a good down payment. What does that do to you versus putting 15% during that two years into there? How much will that affect your down payment? What's your household income? Just over $100,000. Okay, so it's $15,000 a year swing, $30,000 swing on how much is in your down payment. If you put 15% away, you're going to have $30,000 less in two years correct correct in in your down payment fund that's correct yeah so um you know can we get to a good down payment doing that and would

we rather have a smaller down payment and do that or would we rather 3b is kind of optional how much you lean into baby step four while you're doing it we let you decide that uh we suggest you don't go zero into baby step four for more than three years while you're doing your down payment saving. But if you want to do partial, if one of you has got a match, sometimes people do that. Like one of you has got a 4% match, so you put in 4% to get the match, and we do a partial Baby Step 4 while we're working on our down payment in 3B. And then as soon as the down payment's done, boom, we're at 4, 5, 6,

which is 15% kids' college and and house so once you've done that but while we're working on this down payment during this three-year state of flux it can be zero to 15 going into four into baby step four your choice there's not a wrong answer it's how do you guys want to work this stuff? How much do you want to lean into it? But I would, you're asking what I would do. I would lean toward, I would lean in the direction of buying a house because I don't think houses are going to go down in value. And I've spent the last several weeks being criticized for saying that. But, you know, such is life um some of my uh predictions come out crystal clear correct and some of them i was just wrong so this one i'm not wrong on though um so

there's way too much data on this one this is not just a dave gut feeling there's just data so anyway yeah i'm buying a house that's what i that's what i would do if you're in this market i'm gonna save up as fast as i can and i'm gonna buy a house. That's what I would do. If you're in this market, I'm going to save up as fast as I can, and I'm going to buy a house because I think they're going to go up next year 4% or 5%, and the next year 4% or 5%, and the next year 4% or 5%. And that means 15%, 20% up three, four years from now. So I would buy, you know, as quick as you can get the down payment saved and do your 15-year fixed where the payment's no more than a fourth

of your take-home pay. Good job, Dr. John Deloney, Austin, Ben, Zach, Andrew, James, and Kelly in the booth. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. 600 plus radio stations across the country to find a station near you go to ramseysolutions.com slash show