The Ramsey Show - App - What Is an Index Fund & Should I Invest in One? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

Take our Audience Survey & Enter to Win a $500 Visa Gift Card: Click here to take the Survey Dave Ramsey & George Kamel discuss: The futility of trying to change someone else's mind when they aren't willing to change, How to build wealth with the baby steps, What to do with an inheritance, Index funds, Avoiding loans for furthering education, Pausing investing to prepare for a move. 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 POTS 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. Open phones here today at 888-825-5225. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host.

Akosia is on the line in Orlando. Hey, how are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Thank you for all you do. God bless you. You too. So I have a question about my mom. Her landlord is planning on increasing their rent by $400 and she has no way to pay this for the next year. She currently makes about $2,400 a month. So with the new rents plus utilities and her personal bills, she's looking at over $3,000 a month. As her daughter, I've tried to look for many different places for her to move to somewhere cheaper so she can save money

and buy a house for next year. But she keeps tossing them aside because she's very picky. Anything that's not in her taste, she would just disregard it. So how do I convince my mom that she needs to find somewhere cheaper so she can save money? She's 54, and she doesn't even have a single dollar in retirement savings. She has nothing, but she wants all the bells and whistles. How old are you? i'm 26 years old okay why does a 54 year old woman need help picking out her new place because she she just needs help with those things she's not too tech savvy like going on websites and finding new places

you don't have to be tech savvy to know you can't live there anymore yes you can do that with a yellow pad and a number two pencil she's she's not finance minded at all i'm the person who's always on her to pay her bills on time avoid late fees fees. I always give her business ideas, but she just tosses them aside. She doesn't see the urgency in fixing her finances. She'll get urgency if you don't fix them for her. They'll evict her, but. What's her plan currently? Just to go into debt, $600 a month?

She said she's going to get a second job, but here's the thing. My mom is a single mother. She's always worked two or three jobs, so it's taken a huge toll on her health over the years. So I really don't want her getting a second job. And I want her to buy a house and save money for retirement. But she doesn't understand that she needs to find somewhere cheaper and save money. I agree with your conclusion. I agree with your conclusion. I agree with your conclusions.

And I appreciate you loving your mom and wanting good things for her. I am really confused why you're the only adult in this conversation with your mom. This is not your job. She's 54 freaking years old it's time that she learned how to do something you know yes i mean i don't my kids don't run around taking care of dave yeah and i don't even run around taking care of them they're like your age so i mean these are supposed to be like adult activities you shouldn't be having to caretake your mom unless she has some kind of mental disability and then you're taking care of her i understand that but she doesn't have a mental

disability she just doesn't give a crap yeah it doesn't sound like she has a lot of drive either what's she doing for work exactly she's a cna drive either. What's she doing for work? Exactly. She's a CNA. That's all she's done for many years. Full time? She works three days and then four days. Okay, so what would I do if I were in your shoes? Now that I'm getting over just being aggravated at your mother for being irresponsible. Okay.

I appreciate the journey that you are on and the question that you're asking but i the answer is i don't think you can do this for her and i don't think you should do this for her it's not good for you it's emotionally weird it's a boundary violation and it's not good for her so instead what i would do is step to the side and have a conversation with her that sounds like this. Mom, I love you. And I want you to have a great life. You have worked so hard for so many years that it makes me cry that you are struggling. I can't do this for you.

I won't do this for you. I won't do this for you, but I will be your biggest cheerleader, and I'll even coach you on some things I think you should do, but you're going to have to ask me what you think, what I think you should do. I'm not going to tell you anymore, and if she decides to sit over there and do nothing and get evicted, that is her grown-up decision. It is not your responsibility. You need to wash your hands of this. It is not in your – you can't fix her life. She has to fix her life, and even if you could, you shouldn't.

It's weird and toxic so your love for her and your uh honor for her for all the wonderful hard work she's poured in and your wish for her that that she has good things is dependent not on you it's dependent on her to go get those things you can't do it for her nor can you just nor do i have a sentence that you can say to her that says oh now all of a sudden this lady who's never had any ambition gets some this lady who's chosen not to ever deal with finances at all suddenly wants to go do that now but what you can do is come alongside her and just say mom i love you i'll help you any way i can in terms of coaching you and i'll be your biggest cheerleader.

But I'm not going to do it for you, and I'm not going to carry the emotional burden of you not being able to pay your rent when you refuse to carry your own emotional burden of you not being able to pay your rent. Does that sound harsh to you? No, it sounds reasonable. I'm just very concerned about her health. I don't want to lose my mom. She's 54.

She's not going to die from getting evicted. But she's had a lot of health scares because of working so hard over the years. She's always had three jobs because... You can't fix it, honey. Okay. She has to fix it, honey. Okay. She has to fix it. You're more worried about her than she is. She's not worried about it.

Is she? Yeah. I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10, you're a 9 on worrying about her. On a scale of 1 to 10, she's a 2 on worrying about her on a scale of one to ten she's a two on worrying about her am i right you're right yeah so i mean you cannot you know uh if my kid doesn't want me to eat pizza and fried bologna anymore toughies i'm still gonna eat it i'm 62 i'm free i get to make these choices and if my 30 year old doesn't like it toughies i'm still eating fried bologna and i'm still gonna eat pizza and biscuits and stuff okay and dad i'm worried about your

health i understand but i'm not worried about as much as you are i'm still gonna eat that these are choices that grown-ups get to make all change starts with being angry about your situation until she hits that point she's not going to change and enabling her is not going to help her long term. But you can put your arm around her and say, I'm worried about you. And when you're ready to do this stuff, I'll be your biggest cheerleader and I'll be your biggest coach. But I can't coach a wet blanket. So you mom, when you get ready to move, I'll help you. But I can't do it for you. Hey, you guys, health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down.

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How are you, Tom? I'm doing great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my wife and I are at the end of the baby steps. We're debt-free, thankfully, in large part to you and your program and just some crazy life experiences that enabled us to get there.

We've worked real hard, and that's where we're at now. So we are both now looking into our retirement, but both of us started this whole journey in our 30s. And so our retirement investments were rather kind of pretty delayed. We didn't start investing until, like I said, our late 30s. And so what we have now is we started with a very modest income. Now my wife works and I own my own business, and we have a much larger income than we had before. So what's your household income now? Right now we're close to $400,000.

Wow. Look at you. How old are you again? I'm 39. Oh, wow. Amazing. You're ancient. I can't believe you're getting around.

I know. Yeah. And how much do you have in retirement? After this year, we'll have about $100,000. Good for you. Good. Okay, and how much debt do you have? We are debt-free.

It's taken us eight years. House and everything? Everything's gone. Everything's gone. House and everything? Yep. Way to go, dude. Way to go.

How much debt is the house worth? I personally think it's worth probably about $400 or so, but the market says that it's about $650. Well, I mean, the market gets to decide. You don't get to decide. So I'm calling it $650 then. Good for you, man. Well done.

Well done. And you're making a bank. What a great business you've got. This is awesome. So now all you've got to do, you're making a bank what a great business you do this is awesome so now all you got to do you're what we call baby step seven so now you are all you got to do stack up cash now dude and with a four hundred thousand dollar shovel you ought to be able to stack it up pretty fast that's what we're we're really excited about and we're looking at potentially retiring um in the next 10 years yeah for sure for sure. So what's your question today?

Sounds like you're doing great. My question today? Yeah, well, my question really is, as far as the 15% of your income into retirement. That doesn't apply to you. You're a baby step seven. That's only when you're on baby step four. You can ramp that up once you get the house paid. That's what I needed to hear. Yeah, baby step seven is save as much as you can give as much as you can live as much as you can in your plan oh that sounds so great to hear you say that if we if we dump in you know 100 to 150 a year into this into this investment firm that um that we found through your smartor pros. They're helping us out because I am very investment unsavvy, so they're guiding us through that. If we just dump in $150 a year,

their forecast says that within 10 years we could retire as multimillionaires and live off interest. Oh, yeah, you probably have a couple million in that alone, and the house will be worth a couple million then. So, yeah, I mean, you're going to be $4 million net worth at 50 years old is what it sounds like to me. It's good to hear you say that. Yeah, I mean, if you keep making this kind of bank and you drop $150 in there, I mean, $150 for 10 years is a million and a half,

plus the growth during that time is easily another half million probably another million actually so 10 times 150 is 1.5 million dude okay 39 to 49 so that's what we're looking at yeah you don't have to have like a calculator or anything to do that you can do that one in your head so then then you just add some you know the growth that you're going to make on top of that during that time is astronomical. And so, yeah, there's another million easy on there in growth. In growth, yeah. Should have doubled over about seven years or so. Yeah, you're going to be in great shape. Just work with your smart investor pro.

Keep laying out a plan. Shovel the cash over there. And here's the trick is to avoid getting arrogant in the middle of this and blowing it up before you get there that's the trick because what happens is you look over there and you got a million dollar paid for house and you got a couple million dollars million dollars laying in mutual funds in your retirement and then you go i can afford to go do this stupid thing now and people can you can blow the whole thing up by derailing just dance with the girl that brought you stick with the program the you know dance with the one that brought you to the ball just stick

with the program don't get over here and go oh now now i'm going to bitcoin is now my answer put it all in doge you know people they get you get a little bit of hubris, and suddenly your brain just fries out. So just don't do that. Just mutual funds and paid for real estate. Just keep it simple and stack cash, and you're going to be in really good shape, man. You've done a great job. And largely because, A, you're paying attention, and, B, you're making a lot of money. It's a big shovel.

That helps. Yeah. Very nice. Proud of you. John's in Houston, Texas. Hey, John, how are you good guys how are you better than we deserve what's up all right here's what i got going on so um we have recently sold some farmland that we had down in florida um made some cash we currently owe the only thing we owe on is the house. We owe $287,000 on the house.

Cash on hand right now, including everything in our checking and everything else, is $282,000. That includes the farmland proceeds? Yes, sir. Okay. So I have some employee stock purchase stock, about $45,000 worth. Perfect. That's an individual stock. I work in Houston, so it's oil and gas, so it's pretty volatile. What are your thoughts on selling that $45,000 worth, getting out of the individual stocks, paying off the 287, being completely debt-free,

houses current valued at about 650, 680, the 40 grand or so as the emergency fund, and then we can stack some cash from there. You just saved me some wind. That's exactly what I was going to say. I'd cash it out, pay off the house, and that leftover becomes your emergency fund, anything beyond that. You guys can do what you want with it. Go take a vacation. Celebrate. I mean, John, you pulled it off here.

You got the trifecta. You paid off the house. You got your emergency fund, and you saved George Wind. All in one answer. It was well done, sir. Well done. Yeah, definitely do all that, brother. It's an awesome plan.

You're right on track. What do you make a year 140 yeah and so now you now you get your baby step seven and just like the last caller all we got to do now is save more than 15 percent into retirement load your retirement you can load your 401k up you load roth iras up in good mutual funds and how old are you 39 same age yeah you're going to be a millionaire by the time you're 45 mathematically because as the value of the house increases and you save 25 or 30 thousand dollars a year uh for the next six years and the growth on all of those things you're going to be over a million dollar net worth by the time you're 45 well done i'm loving this trend you are truly a baby steps millionaire you know george there may not be another radio show or podcast in america where you can call in and be succeeding and prospering and find people happy about it we'll celebrate

with you we are happy that you are winning we are capitalist pigs we are glad you are winning most shows are mad we don't we are we are not angry at success we think success is amazing we don't think you're a crook we think you're awesome we think you left the cave killed something and drug at home you're demonstrating work ethic you are demonstrating character and perseverance and you are causing these variables to move. You are not waiting on Washington to fix your life. We love people like you people. When you call in here, you will get celebrated here,

and if it starts pissing off the left-wing nuts, that is just a bonus. You're only fueling Dave, guys. That's just a bonus. It's just a bonus, man. I just love it. A guy making $400K,. That's just a bonus. It's just a bonus, man. I just love it. I'm so... A guy making 400K and he's 39 years old. That's just awesome.

That's a trend I can get behind. Forget Bitcoin. That's a trend I'm popping off. Let me just tell you. You know what that means? It means he's helping a lot of people. Because people don't give you money if you're screwing them. You've got to provide value.

They give you money when you're helping them. That's how this works. You're providing value. You're adding value when you're helping them. That's how this works. You're providing value. You're adding value to their life in some way. So when you're doing that, you are enhancing humanity. Well done. Well done. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us America have you ever noticed that when you commit to change in one area of your life it's easier to make progress in other areas we met thousands of people on their journey to building wealth who accomplished other amazing things along the way, like losing 50 pounds.

They find a career that they love. They learn to overcome stress and anxiety. What seems impossible becomes possible when you have a smart plan. You turn up the focus and intensity on your goals, and that's why we're bringing the Smart Conference to Dallas, Texas, on Saturday, October 22nd. It is our only live event of the fall that is not yet sold out. Oh, I take that back. There's a few tickets left in Minneapolis for the

Building Wealth, but that's it. Other than that, this is it, and you can come live in person all day. Total top-of-the-line, number one best-selling authors and thought leaders in each of the subjects, whether it's marriage. Craig and Amy Groeschel will be there. Pastor Craig will be there from LifeChurch.tv over in Oklahoma City. Our friend speaking on marriage, Dr. John Deloney on mental wellness. Rachel Cruz on money. Ken Coleman on career. George Campbell on money. There's going to be a few other surprises. I'll be there. We're going to be talking about relationships, career growth, everything. It's all day long.

You will leave smarter. You need new information and new inspiration to keep moving. It is a giant pep rally. There will be about 8,000 of us there, and there are about 2,000 tickets still left, so we can still get you in. The VIP and Platinum are all sold out tickets still left so we can still get you in the vip and platinum are all sold out but the general admission is still available and it's a great great event dallas texas saturday october 22nd ramsay solutions.com slash events for the smart

conference our question of the day comes from blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they'll remake your blinds for free. Free samples, free shipping. And with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best possible deal. Today's question comes from Taylor in Indiana. I've come into some inheritance money and wanted some ways to invest that is best for me at 68 years old. I have no outstanding debt and I'm very healthy. I've read much on index funds, but need some guidance. Thank you. All right. So 68, we don't know how much this inheritance is and we don't know much about

Taylor's financial situation, but I would tell her to make sure she has all of her debt paid off, including the home, and beyond that, we can invest some of this money into mutual funds and potentially index funds. So I think that is wise as far as investing goes, and she needs to be working with a pro who can guide her because this is clearly very new to her, new territory territory yeah yeah take your time and learn about it um sit down with one of the smart investor pros one of the things in order for a smart investor pro to be ramsey trusted and become a smart investor pro someone in the mutual fund in in investment advice business uh they're not they don't work for us but in order for us to put our stamp of approval on them they have to have the heart of a teacher meaning that their job is not to sell you something their job is to teach you and then you decide to buy it or not based on what you learn but george is right i would have you at 68 become debt free

before i did any major investing and again we don't know how much inheritance you got how much debt you've got the other pieces this, and he's exactly right. Now, an index fund is typically referring to an S&P 500 index fund. S&P is a company called Standard & Poor, and they rate the top 500 companies on the New York Stock Exchange called the Big Board. Okay, so they rate the top. These are the largest 500 companies that stock is sold publicly traded on the Stock Exchange. And an index fund mimics if you were to buy each of those stocks and you bought 500 shares, one share of each or 5 million shares. And it was an even distribution across the top 500 companies so if you take the top 500 companies on the stock market and a a measure of all of them as a group

goes up or goes down you are really measuring the stock market it is a much much more accurate measure of what the stock market is doing than the Dow Jones Industrial Average. There's much fewer companies on there. Yeah, which is just a handful of companies. Okay, so it's kind of the bellwether because it made, back in the industrial age, it made the grade for the media to pick up on it. But the statistical, mathematical measure of the stock market is really the S&P 500. So if you buy an S&P 500 index fund, your money will do exactly what the stock market does.

Not any better, not any worse. And so that's how we measure against if you're going to outperform the market with another mutual fund, then that would be a fund that has a better historical track record than the S&P 500 does. And those are actively managed. Someone is actually choosing which companies they think will beat the S&P 500. Exactly. That's a good point. So it's not a mix that's exactly the same. Thus, it's a mix that is superior to the average. And they can be weighted differently. Exactly. You can put it however you want. And it's a mix that is superior to the average. And they can be weighted differently. Exactly.

You can put it however you want. And it's all kinds of different funds out there that do that. But an index fund is a very safe play when you're playing for a long haul. That's not a safe play to do anything in the stock market when you're doing it for six months or doing it for one year. Which we've seen with the market the last six months. Yeah, I mean, it's down 15% right now. And so, you know, it's not a safe play. You would have lost, you put in $100,000, you would have lost 15 grand.

You know, you didn't lose all your money. I didn't lose all my money. But you did lose $15,000 out of your $100,000 in the last, since the first of the year. And it hurts to see the balance go down ever when you're investing. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, that's what, but that's what the s&p is and what it has done and so what you're buying is a very boring mutual fund and there's nothing wrong with boring we like boring when it comes to investing now exciting is uh is often stupid so we're not trying to be exciting here we're not we're not trying to win any sex appeal contest here we're not trying to be exciting here. We're not trying to win any sex appeal contest here. We're just trying to get the tortoise to beat the hare.

The tortoise is ugly, he's slow, and he's steady. That feels like a personal attack, Dave, but I'll take it. Why, are you a hare? You call me ugly, slow, and steady. Oh, because you're a tortoise. Yeah, I'm the tortoise. Okay, well, there you go. And let it be known, Dave has not won any sex appeal contests.

Wow. You heard it here first on The Ramsey Show. Wow. Sorry, this is a family show, Dave. I apologize. This is George. This just got personal. But this is a good point to make for Taylor.

The goal, let's go back to, let me backtrack. Quickly, let me change the subject. To the inheritance. My goal is to be a steward of what was given to me. This was a gift. This is an amazing blessing. And so this is how we see money, through the filter of God has given this money for us to me, right? This was a gift. This is an amazing blessing. And so this is how we see money through the filter of God has given this money for us to manage, and we want to be good stewards and not have this money disappear. And so I want to try to grow this money and maintain it and

allow me to have an incredible retirement, which hopefully she's doing at 68. We don't know her situation, but that would be my goal. If you get a million, let's have that balance remain at a million. And we invest this wisely in order to do that there you go folks that's how it works george camel here to help us with so many things you never know yeah he's um he's he's a helpful lad thank you if nothing else at least i will be helpful but that's what we do here on the show dave uh i'm i'm just i I'm just flabbergasted at you. Jennifer is in New York City. Hi, Jennifer.

How are you? I'm doing great. How are you guys? Better than we deserve. What's up? All right. So I know financing anything is a big no-no. Correctamundo.

Okay. This, in my opinion, and my husband's, we're tossing, we have the opportunity to finance solar panels versus paying the electric company. You have the opportunity to go into debt? Wow, that's amazing. I'm glad they gave you this opportunity. Because not everyone can get this opportunity. Okay, so why do you want to do it? The opportunity is our bill will be significantly lower with the financing of the panels versus our monthly electric bill. How much are the panels?

The payments come out to $330. No, I wasn't going to ask. How much total? Poor people ask how much a month. Right, no. With the new roof, it comes out to $97,000. So you're going to spend $100,000 to save a few chunks of change on your electric bill. That's going to take a long time to ROI

while you're paying interest. Well, we figured that the way we pay off our bills, we'll have it done within five years. And then there's no more electric bill, no anything. Solar panels are a good investment if you pay cash for them only, not finance them. And they're a good investment if you can run a break-even analysis

short of about three years. Five years is too long to break even on them. Because here's the good investment if you can run a break-even analysis short of about three years. Five years is too long to break even on them. Because here's the problem. You get ready to market the house, you now have a $97,000 extra mortgage on the house. That did not increase the value. That did not increase the value of the house. That's exactly right. So you're going to get yourself stuck. Do not finance these things. No, no, no, no, no, America. George Camel is my co-host today. This is The Ramsey Show. Christian is with us.

He is in Fort Worth, Texas. Hi, Christian. How are you? I'm good, Dave. How are you doing? Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help? So I am currently a police officer.

I've been for about seven years now. And I've been looking to change careers into the aviation industry, get to the airlines. But I'm having some questions as far as finances go. Getting into the aviation industry is not cheap. It's kind of a club that you have to pay your dues to get into. And, um, and so my, my question is, uh, I know loans are obviously your big no, no, but, um, I'm kind of looking at is I'm, I'm investing in myself rather than investing in, in, uh, in some, some other thing that I don't have control over. So my question would be, should I get a loan to cover my flight expenses to get to the airlines quicker,

or do you recommend that I save up for maybe a year or more and take more time and then just cash flow it as I go? You're going to regret it if you don't cash flow it. Okay. Because here's the thing we discovered. 100% of the time, none of our plans execute exactly the way we think they're going to. Right. Nothing works out perfect.

I mean, you're a police officer. You see people have bad plans all the time. Oh, yeah. So you actually have a good plan, but none of our plans work exactly like we think they're going to. I mean, little short plans can. You can say, I'm going to get in the car, I'm going to drive to work, and that plan works out. I get to work. You know, we don't even think anything about it.

No big deal. That plan worked out. But when you're talking about something this expensive, this extensive, the world of the airline world, the world of being a pilot, whether it's a corporate pilot or whether it's working for a commercial airline, is changing every day right now. Right. day right now right i mean years ago you could come out of the air force and roll into a cockpit and you know make 200 000 which in today's dollars would be a million you know and those days have been long gone for a long long time uh and now the airlines have all kinds of mismanagement not all of them i mean southwest is well run but uh the vast majority of them are poorly operated every little bump in the gas prices puts them into a tailspin no pun intended um they uh i mean it's just it's a it's a weird world and by the time you get there

it will have changed it's not it's not going to be what you think it is and i don't want you to have you know a hundred thousand dollars in debt and you're walking up and now you feel like you've got to take some horrible pilot's job just to be a pilot and just to get to pay you don't pay on these debts and you box yourself into a corner i would much rather you have the freedom to do this at a at the speed of wisdom meaning your career change and the way you do that is you don't go in debt for this but but they here's the thing I'm guessing you've had a lesson or two yeah so I already have my my private pilot license yeah and so you've already you've already been infected yes then that's the thing is i've already yeah i've already it is it is a disease i mean it's a

you you can't it is so freaking fun oh yeah yeah i fell in love with it it's exhilarating and i have never met a pilot that hated being a pilot now some of that they hate some of this crap they have to do sometimes but the takeoffs landing and flying they love it a hundred i mean it's very unusual running against somebody goes you know i really hate doing this it just bothers me everybody it's like it's like a disease and so you the problem is when you you got it's it's an addiction and you got to be careful, man. You're going to make bad decisions in your enthusiasm. Using the filter of wisdom, I just go, all right, debt's off the table.

How are we going to do this? How long is it going to take? How do we speed it up? How can I speed it up? How much overtime can I take doing something I don't like so I get to get my hours so i can move up you know and go from a a single engine to a you know get a jet license and move on and move and then get the hours and get the hours and get the hours and keep moving along and then that puts you in a position to choose your gig you know like i mean i've got a good friend that uh is a corporate pilot and meaning he flies

for a guy that has a big jet and he makes a couple he makes a quarter million a year you know it's not bad and he's not putting up with airline crap he's not doing he's just flying his buddy up there to montana you know i mean that's all that kind of stuff right and it's a good life so but but to get to that stage you've got as he said you've got christian's right he's got some expense and he's got to get his hours and that kind of stuff but it's it's different than i want to be an architect and i once drew a plan and it was fun no no no no no this is addicting you just i gotta get back out there people people that want to become pilots it's not unusual for those of you that are in that category to go do really stupid stuff in pursuit of your addiction.

All in the name of aviation. Yeah. So don't do it. Just take your time. Be wise. It's a career. It's what we're going to do for a living. And no, you don't need to have a bunch of debt.

You don't have a dime of debt around it. You can do it. You can work through the hours and, as you said, cash flow it if it delays it a little. But that also sets you up for taking the right job because you're not some broke guy. Not desperate. You know, that's trying to squeeze your way into aviation. Because, I mean, if you get on some of these little, the guys and gals flying some some of the uh regional prop commercials um i really that's when i know i'm old when the pilot looks like i've got socks older than them it scares you know i mean they're they're just straight out he just started to grow some chin hair just just green man and

i'm sure they're competent pilots so they wouldn't put put them in there. I mean, I'm not questioning their skills, but for an old turkey like me, it's just like, oh, my God, he looks like he's 12. Well, they could play in video games, so it's not too much of a stretch at this point. George, that was not comforting at all. Nick is with us. Nick is in Atlanta. Hi, Nick. What's up? Hey, guys.

Thanks for having me. Sure. How can we help? So I'm 29. my wife's 27, and as of last week, we became both consumer debt free. Yay! And, yep, very excited about it. And also our emergency fund's fully funded, so we're technically on four, five, six right now. No kids yet.

We have our house, and for us, we are planning to move. We have a house here in Georgia, but we're planning on selling it in the next eight months or so and then moving up north to Pennsylvania. So my question is, do you think it's wise to just pause on investing right now and instead for the next eight or so months just try to save as much money as possible to get ready for the next home purchase? You mean put a down payment you have equity in the georgia home don't you uh i do i do i just i'm thinking that it might be a little bit better just to save in the next eight months instead i wouldn't know i'd say 15 of my income towards retirement and anything else you can save uh above that and you've been paying more than that anyway on debt so you're used to

living on less so i just act like it's dead i'm gonna start but i'm gonna go ahead and get your emergency fund in place and you just became consumer debt free so now you got to do baby step three and four and no i'm oh you got the equity coming out of the house in georgia you make the move with that and just roll that right into the next house as much as you can. Yeah, I mean, that, I don't, because here's the thing. I don't want to get us, any of us, in the habit of jumping in and out of investing. We just need to be steady. Steady and invest. Steady and invest.

And don't look for reasons to quit investing, even if it's temporary. Because you get used to it. Okay, now we're going to buy a bass boat, so we need to stop investing for six months no no no no no no no no well now we're going to no no no no no no there's always something and this is a this is a very it's a valid question but what i don't want is i just you know the the people that we've studied that became millionaires never stopped they They stayed with their investing. Steady and consistent. And that time and consistency thing is a big deal.

Yeah. The only time we'd want you to pause investing if there was a true storm, a true emergency, and you know this move's happening. It's eight months away. It's not an emergency. You've got the cash. You can do this. And you've got money coming out of the house.

You're just trying to beef it up a little. Maybe move up in house or something as you're going. I don't mind you doing all that, but no wouldn't stop investing nope wouldn't do it hey thanks for the call man that puts this hour of the ramsey show in the books our thanks to james andrew zach ben and austin in the booth the booth dudes are with us this is the ramsey show Dave here. We just launched a brand-new audience survey for The Ramsey Show, and we'd love your feedback. You can be entered to win a $500 Visa gift card.

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