The Ramsey Show - App - What Do We Do With Our "Storm Mode" Fund? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Chris Hogan, and I'm joined by fellow Ramsey personality, Dr. John Deloney, and we are excited to be with you, and we are ready to take your calls. That number to call us is 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888-825-5225. And I want to let you know you can also find us on social media. You can find John at John Deloney on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

You can find me at ChrisHogan360 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTubes, and all the things as well. So we're excited and ready to take your calls. Are you ready to do this? Let's do it. All right, here we go. We got Amy on the line calling from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Amy, how can John and I help you? Hi, thanks for taking my call.

I am wondering, we are a Navy sports folks, and we've just been working a really long time for really hard, and we're just kind of running out of steam, but we want to know how long it will take us to do Baby Step 6. Okay. Well, how much do you owe on your house? We owe $168,000. Okay, and what's your household income? It is $85,000. Excuse me, how much?

$85,000. $85,000. And you said you're running out of steam. What does that mean? We've just been working on, you know, getting out of debt and saving for emergency fund and everything. And we have six kiddos. on getting out of debt and saving for emergency fund and everything. And we have six kiddos, and so we're just feeling kind of tired. Hold on.

Okay, Amy, I'm sorry. I think I had a little glitch in my system, in my headphones or whatever. How many kids do you have? Six. Yes, you're tired. You just made me tired when you just said that. Yeah, you're tired. Six kids. What is the age range of all 20 of them?

They're four to 13. Goodness gracious, you are busy. Four to 13? You need a medal. Yeah. You need a medal. If there's any consolation, when you pass away, there's an express lane for you, and you're just going to get straight to the gates. It's going to be good.

We're working backwards there, but you're good. I'm taking back over this conversation. I don't know where Deloney just went. Of course you're tired. You've got six kids. You've been taking care of people and things

for 13 years now. But you're also moving in a direction financially. of people and things for 13 years now. Okay? Right. But you're also moving in a direction financially. You got yourself out of debt. You've got an emergency fund and you're investing. So what's wrong? Well, all the online calculators that I can find just give if you're paying extra, which we are doing. But

then we also, my husband does side work. And so we make between seven and $10,000 a year in side work. And so when he does those, we want to put the big chunks on the house as well. But none of the online calculators I can find allow for paying extra and the big chunks. Okay. So here's what I would tell you to do. A couple of things, right? Like I tell people, baby steps one and two and three are a sprint. You're sprinting to get the $1,000. You're sprinting to attack the debt. You're sprinting to get that emergency fund.

When you get to baby steps four, five, and 6, this is a marathon, Amy. It's a lifestyle. So I would tell you this. Because you said you're tired and you do have 27 children, I want you guys to begin to identify some things, some fun. I want you guys to have some mile markers. Like, when's the last time you guys took a vacation? It's been a little while.

We've been saving up for an RV, so it's probably been three years. Oh, wait a minute. How much is this RV? You stepped in it now, Amy. Amy, don't you clam up on me now. You better give me this info. It's 10 to 12,000. 112?

No, no, 10 to 12,000. Oh, no, $10,000 to $12,000. Oh, okay. Yeah, and we've got it saved already. And do all 26 of the children fit in there? Like, will they be able to? Yes. Okay. All right.

Yeah. Okay. I like this, though, seriously, because I like that you guys are looking to do something that's going to bring some fun, that's going to bring some joy, because too oftentimes people forget it's a mindset. And so, Amy, I do like, I think you guys sitting down with one of our real estate ELPs looking at the home with you sending some of the chunk payments, obviously with the husband, you guys are saving up to pay cash for the RV, but the chunk payments as you're throwing it at it, you should be able to see, okay, hey, when can we get this thing out of our

lives? And so I want you to balance it. I want you to be focused on attacking it, but I want you to live, meaning I don't want you to hold your breath. Amy, how long have y'all been digging out of this hole? How long have y'all been on this debt journey? Five years. Five years.

That's a long, you're right. That's a long, long time to run as fast as you can, like a gazelle, like something's chasing you. Yeah. I hope you'll take Chris's wisdom and get with your husband, get four or five babysitters to cover the spread there, and y'all go out on a date. And I want y'all to dream together, have a good time together. And then here's the other thing. Maybe break it up into bite-sized chunks. I know right now you want to know how far, are we going to have to do this for a decade?

Are we going to have to do this for a decade? Are we going to do this for 13 years? Make a goal for this year. Make a goal for between side business, between you don't need a debt calculator for that. You need a piece of paper and a pencil. You need a pocket calculator or most an Excel sheet. Here's what we're going to do every month. Here's what we think we can earn in side gigs. And let's just say we've got $25,000 to knock off

this year. That's our goal. Let's set it a little bit higher. Let's reach and stretch, and then let's be done with it. Let's breathe, then let's reconvene for next year. Instead of, I know it feels like you want to just know how long we're going to keep doing this. Chris says, slow down to a jog now. Slow down to a jog. Stop at one of those stations, get some water. I'm going to beat this

marathon metaphor to death here. But stop and get some water, get some Gatorade, and reconvene every year, okay? Okay, thank you. Amy, thank you for calling in. And you know what, John? It is a shift for people that are in Baby Steps 1, 2, and 3. This is an all-out sprint. This is run as fast as you can, as hard as you can to get to that destination for the $1,000 or attacking debt or getting the emergency fund.

But once you shift into baby steps four, five, and six, now it becomes more of a marathon, meaning it is a way of life. You're investing 15%. We're putting money away for college, and we're paying extra toward the mortgage. And I think people, they tend to forget that I can live in the midst of that. So you called something out, and I want to make sure everybody hears this. One of the things about feelings that we often skip is we often have a feeling, and we trust it immediately. And feelings are important. We need to own them.

We need to listen to them. But sometimes I wake up, and I feel in a bad mood. And then I look to the next thing in the room and it's my kid that came and slept in the middle of the night. Or it's my wife tossed and turned. And it could be that I'm in a bad mood because I ate a whole pizza last night and I stayed up way too late. Instead of going through my evening routine, I watch The Office until 2 a.m. or whatever. So our feelings sometimes, we don't listen to it right away. Right?

She's feeling exhausted and she's blaming the debt. Yeah. It could be just life's tired. It's okay. Yeah. Get a little bit deeper into that. Spend some time with her husband and let's dream bigger and let's get to the feeling beneath the feeling.

Ooh, that's good. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Families all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs, whether they're anticipated or completely unexpected. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had another expensive medical issue come up. They could have faced a huge financial setback, but thanks to Christian Health Care Ministries, the Olcheskis were spared from a ton of medical bills. As members of CHM, they're part of a group of believers who financially and spiritually support each other.

CHM is the longest serving health cost sharing ministry and is a Better Business Bureau accredited charity. It's Christians helping other Christians, and it shared nearly $97,000 to help the Olcheskis. To be a part of Christian Healthcare Ministries, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. Welcome back to the Dave Ramsey Show. Before we went to break, we had a caller, Amy. Her and her husband, they have six kids. And, you know, seriously, with that and being busy and having, you know, kids, life can get hectic.

And as you're still working through the baby steps, a couple of things we were emphasizing. Number one, you're a hero because, you know because raising six kids, that's a big deal. But at the same time, maintaining the journey and being clear about what it is you're trying to do, we've got to live along the process. And so a couple of ideas I wanted to throw out for Amy and her husband was a couple

of things. A, you have the husband take the kids on Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. That's Amy's time. Yep. Now, she can sleep in or go to the coffee shop and drink 42 cups of coffee if she wants, but it's non-kid time. Then she comes back and has the kids.

Then he has time from like 1 to 6 to him. And then they have family time later. But beginning to kind of lay out the day to be able to give each of them individual time as well as family time is an option as well that's right and it goes back to that word intentionality just thinking through that um yeah raising kids is hard and hey let's let's put this on the table too chris i've got two kids you got three boys three boys my my in-laws my brother-in-law's got six kids my wonderful sister-in-law got six kids let let everybody know loud and clear man if you've if you're raising kids we are with you 100 we're gonna make jokes and those jokes are based out of our own sadness and insecurity

and frustration and we don't know what we're doing either so i want everyone to know we're gonna make jokes we're gonna have some good time but listen you have 17 kids you've got five kids you've got no kids we are with you we love you man we are in this together and please take our jokes for what they are they are our hearts reaching out to you saying man god bless you that's impressive god bless you but this mindset is we can walk these baby steps and still be moving in a direction financially, reaching out, reaching some life goals, but also enjoying life on the journey. And I think it's really important to remind people of that. All right, let's go to Felix. Felix is down in Florida.

Felix, how can we help you today? Yes, hello, Chris. Hello, John. Thank you for having me. Oh, you're welcome, buddy. What's on your mind? Thank you. Thank you.

I've been following you guys for the show since I came to the U.S. almost four years ago, and I feel very grateful. And I appreciate a lot what you guys do every day, so thank you for that. Thank you. We're grateful for you, man. How can we help? Thank you. Thank you. So I'm debt-free. I'm 30 years old, single. I'm working as a self-employed software developer.

I've been able to save some cash. I have, besides my emergency funds, I have around 200K saved into my account. So I am debating if it's a good idea to invest into real estate together with two other friends or to buy a house and take advantage of the low interest rate or invest into a Roth IRA. So I'm just debating. Right now, I'm renting, and I'm paying around $1,400 per month in Florida since January.

So we have been doing some research and by the end of the year, maybe we would like to close a deal of 20 or 25 apartment units, putting 20 or 25% down. I'm just wondering, is it a good idea to do that and get into the real estate or buy a house, even when it's just myself, instead of having that money on my bank account, producing almost nothing? Right. Felix, real quick, is this money that you have, is it in the bank, or is this in an investment? No, that's the thing. All that is new for me. It came from Cuba almost four years ago.

So my money is basically in the bank. Besides the money, I need to run my business and to live on every day. So I basically don't spend too much money. Okay, Felix, you just blew by something, and I've had a chance to catch my breath. You said you had some money in the bank with which you followed up with over $200,000. Besides my emergency fund. Yeah, thanks for kicking me while I'm down. So on behalf of everybody listening, we're applauding you, brother.

That's a little bit more than some money. That means you are absolutely crushing it. You're a rock star hero good for you felix now here felix now it's time to dig in i love the fact that a you've got the habit of saving the intentionality and if you're looking to buy a home i tell people minimum 10 down i'd prefer you do it with 20 down and buy a home however i am going to throw the flag on the real estate as an investment with four of your other friends. That's what's called a partnership, and those things don't sail. I have seen a handful of examples of it working out in the 15 years that I've been here.

Headache, heartache, and drama is what I see. So I would tell you without a shadow of a doubt, you can go to dinner with your friends, you can hang out with them, you can even throw a football, frisbee, play golf with them, but don't start a business. Because the bottom line is, is no one is going to put the level of effort in that you will. So that's something, and I'm not saying you're being antisocial, I'm just trying to prevent headache and heartache for you. Because, again, you've got so many issues that can come in and wreck a partnership.

So, you can look at buying you a home. If you're wanting to invest, I want you to plug over, get into Ramsey Plus. You said you've been in the States for four years and kind of learning about investing and learning about kind of just how to handle money the right way. I love that you have the habit of saving. That's one of the things we typically have to teach people to have. You've got that in you naturally, which is great. But buy a home, or if you're going to invest in real estate outside of your home, I want you to do it 100% down with cash.

That's right and just know if you've got two hundred thousand dollars in the bank plus your emergency fund you're that kind of saver you're that kind of hard worker there's always going to be a friend or a buddy with a scheme with an idea hey hey hey hey let's uh that's always going to be a part of your life and you're going to have to be real disciplined about staying plugged into your goals i say buy a house chris yeah no i like the idea of him buying a house. If Florida is where he's going to be, then yeah, absolutely. Find a home that you're going to be in that's modest. Go write a check for it, man.

Yeah, don't try to go buy anything crazy. Just get something that you're going to be happy with. Because he said he's single, he's got money. I mean, it's about his preference. Yeah, it's really important. Now, don't send me a bunch of emails in out there trying to tell me your example of a partnership that worked. I'm just talking from experience and watching what other people have walked through where they go, man, I didn't know. And I know it just leads to just frustration and irritation as people try to work their way out of cleaning up that mess or fixing it.

And it just, you know, it's just it's better for you to be in control of your destiny. And overall, and I think that's the smartest play. All right, let's see what Caden's got on his mind. Caden, how are you? Hi, how's it going? I'm good. How are y'all doing? Oh, we're focused and not finished, my friend.

What's on your mind? All right, so I just had a couple questions. So I'm 18, and I'm trying to build my credit. So like when I turned 18, I got one of the loans from my bank where you basically give them the money and then you pay, pay for, I can't remember what it's called. It's like a secure loan or whatever.

So I started off to that and I paid all that off. And then I got like a small credit card from like a store that i go to all the time and then i just pay it off every week um so now i have a 685 and i'm trying to figure out what what's the next step kate what are your goals um uh a lot i don't know i have a lot and here's why i'm asking you this because you've plugged into the system that tells you you got to build credit and and i'm going to tell you something real quick just an overview of what the fico score measures walk with me here buddy how much debt you have how well you've paid the debt the type of debt the likelihood that they're going to give

you more debt now i am i that i'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I heard debt four times there. So FICO score is a measure of your debt. It's not a measure of your wealth or your goals. So I would encourage you to come up with some financial goals for you. What are things you're trying to accomplish? Don't fall into the quicksand trap of the thinking debt is the tool. That's how the world thinks. But if you think about it, it's also one of the most beautifully marketed two things we've

ever had, and that's debt. And as far as from a business approach, the message behind debt, making you feel like you belong and like it's not a bad thing, which in reality, it's a thief. It steals from you now, and debt also steals from your future. So, Caden, stay allergic to debt. Get you some goals. Plug into the baby steps and walk the path. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Hey, guys.

At the Dave Ramsey Show, we really value your input. It helps us to know what's important to you so we can deliver relevant content to help you crush your money goals. We just launched a brand-new survey, and we'd love your feedback. It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary. Take the survey at DaveRamsey.com slash survey or text survey to 33789. welcome back to the dave ramsey show and oh as we look out we have people standing on the debt free stage so it's not an accident that means something good is about to go down well we've got scotty and shelly out here how are are you? Good. How are you? Good. Good. Are you ready for this?

Yes, sir. I have you. Okay. Tell us, how much debt did you pay off? $37,000. $37,000. What kind of debt was that, Shelly? Credit card, two car loans, medical and dental bills, and some personal loans.

Oh, wow. Was it one credit card or a couple? One credit card. One credit card. What else was it? Two car loans. Two car loans. A personal loan and medical and dental bills.

Wow. How long did it take you? 16 months. 16 months. So you all, something happened where you got real serious. Whose fault was it? Ours. Ours.

I like that. I like that. I tried to trick them. I tried to trick them. I tried to trick them, John. They didn't fall for it. But seriously, who started the thought process around it? So to answer that, we've got to go back a little bit. Me and Shelly, both of us, our parents lived paycheck to paycheck.

That's what we were taught to do, live paycheck to paycheck. When we got married, that's how we lived, paycheck to paycheck. And then into our marriage we had an opportunity to adopt our son and that kind of that and me opening the business a little bit before that kind of zapped all of our savings and all of our 401k at that point in time we go through our marriage and in 2018 we're having marriage problems. And at that point, court dates are set. Lawyers are involved and everything. And in our church family, Christian Life Church, the counseling in that, they suggested, you guys need to go to FPU.

You need to get involved with FPU. And our coordinators, Pat and Kelly Francis, came today. They were our coordinators. And that kind of just started it. After the first week, it just opened up so much for us. The communication. Previously, we didn't communicate at all. She handled it.

She handled our monthly bills. And the scary thing was we both handled multimillion dollar budgets at our jobs. Right. But the stress was all on her. And I realized when we started to have the counseling, the FPU just opened up the communication where we talked about it daily almost. Wow. Shelly, as you hear that, do you have some flashbacks? A little bit, yeah.

Are you? How does it make you feel? I feel proud now because of the struggle that we were going through and that we've come through it. And it's a God story. Somebody after the court dates were set, after that first FPU class, somebody looked at the other one and said, I'm in if you are. Who did that? I think we both did. We had gotten to a point that we couldn't go anywhere else. It was either we were going to go completely separate or we were

going to try. So one more shot. Yeah. I mean, like I said, court dates were set. It was, this was it. This was really it. And the, just the class. I mean, we were even to the point where we were going to, when we were talking, we were going to start fresh. We're going to go buy a new house and start fresh. We were living in a house that she's, she's been living in for 30 years. We got married and everything. Our Pat and Kelly was like, wait till the session.

We've talked about buying a house. We got to the second session. We left out of there. Both of us looked at it. Nope. We're not going to do it. Nope. Because the scary thing is the fact that we, with the position we're in now,

we're actually going to pay off our house two, maybe three years. Wow. Because of this plan, how God worked through this plan through you guys. No, no, no, let's flip that around. The plan exists, but it's because you all two looked at each other and said, let's do this, and you went and did it. You didn't give up on at each other and said, let's do this, and you went and did it. You didn't give up on one another. You didn't give up on yourselves, and you went and did it.

Scotty, what did you find out about this lady beside you through this walk? She's a very powerful woman. She's the one who encourages me daily. That's fantastic. Brother, let's get beneath the power. What did you find out about this woman? Well, first of all, I looked at how much I put on her in those years before this and then realized that she wasn't doing anything wrong. I just needed to come along beside her.

You're doing a great man thing right now, and you're skirting it. I'm going to ask you one more time, what did you learn about this woman? I'll answer it for you, that she loves you. Yes, sir. And you're worthy of being loved. Yes, sir. Very much so. What did you learn about this guy? That he loves me. There you go. Beautiful. You guys, not only do you save your marriage, begin to work together as a team like you never have before. But lo and behold, you're able to impact somebody else's life. Have you thought about that? You know, the mindset and the shift, the willingness you all made to put down personal preferences

to pick up team, you're going to change this young man's life. He's our why. Exactly. That's why he's our why. Exactly. That's why he's here with us today. When we got the call about being on the show, we asked him, said, Bud, do you want to go? He's like, yeah, I'm there. He's been a part of this process.

When we went to every class, he went. Now, he might not have been sitting there, but he's been aware of it. He knows how many no's we've had to tell him, and he understands why, because we tell him why we couldn't do X, Y, and Z, whatever it was. But we've also incorporated that into he's doing the commission. He doesn't get any kind of money. He does something, he gets paid for it. He doesn't do it, he doesn't get paid for it,

kind of what Dave was talking about with the commission format for him. He has his envelopes of spending money savings and tithing he does all he does it all i mean i give him the phone to do his tithe for our church for our church family stuff so that's amazing what was you all's range of income we started out at 110 and up to 127 127 and you paid that 37 000 off in how long? 16 months. So you shut down a lot of stuff. I also want to point out, we also cash flowed about $10,000 during that time frame of buying a... Murphy.

Yeah, Murphy came in quite a bit. I mean, literally after the first week we had, our air conditioning went out. Wow. And we were able to, I mean, throughout it, the cool thing is, throughout it, we didn't have to touch our emergency fund because we were able to adjust, tighten the belt on a few things to be able to pay for something. That's amazing.

And I'm proud of you all. So, all right, here we go. We've got Scotty and Shelly paid off $37,000 in 16 months, range of income of $110,000 to $127,000, dealt with some Murphy, but they kicked out credit cards, car loans, personal loans, dental, and brought a young man into this life, which is fantastic. All right, you two, I want you to count it down, and let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Fantastic. Oh, he missed that one. Oh, boy, my one hair on my head stood up on end with that. That was powerful. That's amazing. They paid off some bills, but way, way bigger than that. They changed family trees.

They changed legacy. They saved a tree. They saved a tree. I like it. They saved a tree. I like it. They saved a tree. I like it. And that fruit from that tree is going to feed thousands. Scott and Shelly, we're going to give you Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaire book.

That's your next step. And these are the kind of folks that become millionaires so they can give recklessly. They're going to have some fun, fun, fun, making sure other people are eating and smiling and enjoying their life, too. Absolutely. And providing this young man a loving environment and a place for him to call home, which, you know, that's a big deal. What a gift.

That's a big deal and a great opportunity. And for people that are out there that are thinking of doing foster care or adoption, you've got a great opportunity to be able to influence and impact some young people's lives. And so what do you have to do? Well, you've got to make a decision. If it's something you're serious about, then you've got to start making sacrifices and have a plan.

It's not something to talk about. You want to be about it. And that's where you're doing stuff. And more importantly, for them to pay off $37,000 in 16 months, boy, don't tell me you can't. Don't tell me you can't because I know focused people find a way. You can tell me you won't. Just tell me flat to my face, Chris, I'm not going to do it.

I'm out, Chris. I'm not going to do it. But don't tell me you can't because I've seen people where it looked like, John, that they shouldn't have been able to figure it out, and they did. It's possible. Dream big. Try harder, people. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Welcome back to The Dave Ramsey Show.

Today's scripture comes from Ephesians 6.10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Today's quote from John Singer, great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths. Wow. Two good ones. We're glad to be back with you. We're glad to take your phone calls here. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888-825-5225. And we're going to get back to the phones. We've got Samantha on the line in Lansing. Samantha, how can John and I help you?

Hi. So during the COVID, my husband and I had just started Baby Step 4. So we just started investing and we have a small business and we were shut down. So we stopped investing and just kind of went back to Baby Step 3 and just everything that we had we kept saving just not knowing when we were going to reopen yes ma'am um we have reopened and now we have a big emergency fund but we don't we don't know there's so many unknowns we don't know when do we start investing again like we just we're not sure what to do with the big emergency fund. Do we just keep it? Well, okay. How much is in there now, Samantha?

$45,000. Okay. And how much would you normally have had in that emergency fund? Probably $25,000 or $30,000. Okay. Because we want to be able not only like household expenses for six months, but some of the business expenses just in case. Yeah. So still in sore mode.

So your business is back. Are you back at 100% capacity, 75? Where are you? We're really close. I mean, we haven't made up our deficit yet from being closed. But, I mean, we're doing great. What kind of business are you in? What market?

What do you do? Yeah, we're a greenhouse and a florist. Okay, okay. And so on the personal side, what baby step are you all on? We would have been on four. Okay, so you have no debt. You didn't accumulate any new debt during this COVID situation. You were just saving everything.

Yep. Okay, so here's what I would do. I told people to go into conserve mode, store mode, save up. As things start to get back, what I would do is, again, look at, A, okay, what are we doing? Do we start to invest? Because you've got that extra cushion there, the emergency fund, an extra 15 to almost 20 than what you normally have. I would, as revenues are coming in from the business,

you all getting back to normal, okay? I would leave that there, that extra cushion there for now to see what happens over the next four to six months from a business standpoint. And if you get back to you're at 98% to 100%, then yes, you could look at investing that on that side. Or does your business have any debt at all? No, except for our house.

We have no debt on the business. We paid off our business debt like six months ago. No, that's amazing. So the other side of that is if you get back to investing, you might say, hey, in four to six months as we're back, maybe that extra 15K you throw toward the house. Yeah. That's what we're wondering. Do we invest it for the month that we missed or do we do it on the house? I would invest the month you missed and then I would take the other amount and throw it on the house? I would invest the month you missed and then I would take the other amount and throw it toward the house.

But I'm with Chris, Samantha. You're not going to hurt anybody's feelings by hanging on for four to five months waiting to see what flu season does, what opening shuts do, what elections do. You're not going to hurt anybody's feelings by having another $15,000, $20,000 in an account. Yeah, and it's sitting there and just waiting

until things start to really smooth out and get clear for you. So I applaud you guys for a having that and not frittering it away because it can become so easy. So again, the plan, go back, you and your husband talk, you're going to invest for the month or two that you didn't. And then you're going to take the rest of that and throw toward the house. And so that's going to keep you all moving kind of right along. Thank you very, very much for that call. A lot of people out there, John, are having that question. So if you've been in storm mode and you've been conserving because your hours got cut or you got furloughed, once you get back to stability, then you're going to get back to the baby steps.

So that meant if you were attacking debt and you had to stop because income got cut, then you're stopping. But now income comes back, you're going to unpause and take the money that you had saved up and you're going to apply it toward the debt. But a key question of the unpause is, do we need to go refund ourselves? Do we need to repay ourselves back or can we just

start from where we are and then just move forward? Okay, that's an excellent question. And it's all going to be- Do I owe myself, basically? It depends on what baby step you were on. Okay. If you were on baby step two, you weren't investing anyway. Right.

You were attacking debt. So you're going to just get back to attacking debt. All right. If you were investing and now you've got an opportunity to put that in a Roth IRA or something, you could do that. Okay. But for most people, it was a matter of taking care of the necessities. Right.

And so that unpausing means now you're going to go back to where you were, back to doing the 401k or whatever it was, you're unpausing once things stable out. But people have permission to have a little bit more, people in Baby Step 4, a little bit more in their emergency fund for a few more months. I think holding on to it for a few more months, it depends on what your industry is doing. You know what I mean? If I've got somebody that's owning a restaurant and you're at 50% capacity and you've still got 100% of the obligation, well, you're going to have to hang on.

You're going to have to be smart. But if you're back to work and your income is back where it was, then there's no reason for you to continue to stockpile. Love it. You go back to three or six months, period. The rest of that money gets sent towards something. Love it. Yep. Good question.

All right. Let's catch up with Nicholas in Austin. Uh-oh. We got a Texan on the line. Deloney's going to lose his mind. Here we go. Nicholas. How you doing?

How you fellas doing? Doing good, my friend. What's on your mind? So I was listening to Dave a long time ago. I lost my way, and I just recently found him back. Problem is there's a back story between me and my wife, and it's kind of sort of the straw broke the camel's back type deal. And I want to do my debt snowball, get everything, try to get everything cleaned up,

but I don't know what I should do or how I should do it. When you say the straw broke the camel's back kind of thing, man, I'm an imaginative guy. I went all over the place. Be more specific. What's a kind of thing? Some infidelity. On your part or her part?

On hers. Okay. On your part or her part? On hers. Okay. She had a major loss in her life. Okay. And she turned to drinking. Okay. And that was kind of sort of the last deal. So are you guys separated now?

Not really. Okay. the last deal and so are you guys separated now not really but um i'm just i just don't know what to do okay what i hear in your voice brother is a guy who is carrying a lot of shame you got your head held low even how you started this call with man i used I used to be doing it right, and now I've lost my way, and I'm trying to come back. I want you to put your head up, okay? You came back. We'd love to have you here. If you're like any of us who've tried this, you get on the wagon, you fall off, you get on. Sometimes I would park my wagon and get off of it, and then get in front of it and run over me. I did it myself. You came back, you got your head held high, and now you're a guy trying to figure out how to love his wife, how to move forward with someone who's struggling, and how to love right. There's nothing to hold your head down about.

You hear me? Yeah. Okay. And so this is a bigger than a debt issue, right? And I get it. We're going to give you a year subscription to Ramsey Plus to kickstart where you're at. You've got a whole lot, a whole lot.

And it's bigger than just a money conversation. So after this calls over, I want you to hang on and Kelly Daniels is going to get you signed up for Ramsey Plus. It's going to walk you with the baby steps, the, all the videos, all of the stuff. Okay. But bigger than that, do you want to stay married to this woman? Um, I don't know yet. So what you've got to do, my man, is you've got to go find somebody. You've got to go find a counselor, a pastor, and you've got to sit down and unwind where your heart is. You've got to decide where it is you want to go, because right now you've just found yourself in a desert,

and you're looking around, and you don't know what's next. You've got to get somebody to walk along there with you. There's plenty of people there in Austin. Go find them, okay? I want to thank all of the callers for calling in, all of you for tuning in. I want to thank James Tiles, our producer, associate producer Kelly Daniel, and, of course, all you listeners. We appreciate you.

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