The Ramsey Show - App - What Should Juan Do with His Settlement Money? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 18, 2018

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave 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. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America. Thank you for joining us. It's all about you. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Joy is with us in Denver, Colorado. Hey, Joy, how are you?

Hi, great. Thanks, Dave. How are you? Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? Hi, I've been listening to your podcast regularly for about five months and got serious about three months ago. My husband and I have paid off around $10,000 in debt and we have decided to, well, we decided we wanted to take FPU and there wasn't a course offered in our area. We're actually in a small mountain town. And so we decided to lead a course. And our first course is tonight. Yay! Thank you.

Yeah, we're so excited. I was wondering if you have any last-minute words of wisdom for people like us that have never taken FDU, and we're starting out by leading a course. We have 11 families signed up. Wow. Yeah, I'm really excited. So why did 11 people sign up? They knew you and trusted you? Most of them I know, and yes, I would say yes to that. And then there were a few random recruits from, I advertised in all of our local churches and paper and elementary schools and stuff like that.

Okay. I'm going to guess and say the ones that know you signed up because of who you are as a person. And my best encouragement would just be be that person because they already trust you. In other words, don't try to be something you're not. I don't think you're going to just in talking to you. I don't think you're that person. You don't need to act something you're not i don't think you're going to just in talking to you i don't think you're that person you don't need to act like you're a financial genius you don't need to act like you uh have all the answers um you know all you got to do is be able to turn on the dvd player play me yapping about whatever lesson i'm yapping about that night and then put chairs in a circle and love people and be yourself. The other thing is always just talk about the times that you failed

or that you were unsure or that you goofed, whether it was 10 years ago or 10 minutes ago, because that gives other people permission to not be perfect. And there seems to be this illusion with people that everyone else has got their money act together but me i'm the only doofus and it turns out we are all doofuses that makes sense yeah absolutely two of the primary barriers to people receiving financial teaching is guilt and shame. Okay.

And if you can remove those by just, that's what I do, tell my story all the time. You hear me tell it. If you've been listening to the podcast that much, how many times I've screwed up and, you know, I went broke. I lost everything, had to start over and all that. And that's where all this came from, this passion for helping other people came from. And this idea that I hate debt, that's where it came from was i've got a phd in dumb and so what that does it makes me approachable right and uh i'm not i'm not some guy drops his glasses on the end of his nose and looks down in the southwest he looks down his nose at you you know uh you know it's snobbish and i you know and that kind of stuff it's just me i'm

just a guy and I'm just really good at this stuff but I've been doing it for 30 years I ought to be good at it and so um you know but when I started I know beans and um uh so that that that just be a that kind of a person and just care about the people they're there if you look in their eyes and listen to them, you're going to be just fine. Because that's why they came anyway, because you're a person they trusted. And just be the person that caused them to come in the first place, and you're going to be fine. Don't try to know everything, because you don't. It's okay.

Well, I definitely don't. Well, I don't. I sit in front of 15 million people, and sometimes on this radio show I have to say, I don't know. Because sometimes I don't know, and that's the only answer because it's the only truthful one anyway. And, you know, you can Google it like I can Google it. Let's try it together. I don't know, you know. But that's why I don't take a lot of tax questions because I'm not very good at taxes, that kind of stuff.

So you don't have to be everything. You've just got to be somebody that cares. And if you're that, you're going to be a great Financial Peace University coordinator, world class. You've already got 11 people coming to the class. It's pretty cool. Hey, thank you. Thanks for leading it. We really appreciate it.

Don is with us in Tampa, Florida. Hey, Don, how are you? Hey, Dave. How are you doing, buddy? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, quick question for you. We're on baby step seven.

Paid off our house in July. Yay! And, yeah, I'm really excited about that. However, just to give you a background, I make about $325,000. And I live down here in Tampa. My wife is from North Georgia, wants to move back up to Georgia next year. We've been looking at houses and found a few that we like. The question is, being out of state, you've got to come up with, you know,

20% down, can't homestead, and so forth. So I don't have the cash right now. So what we were thinking was, and I pretty much know the answer to this, but I'll take it out of a home equity loan and then for a down payment, then when we sell our house, just pay everything off next July when we move up there. What if interest rates went up and the real estate market froze and you couldn't sell your house. Well, I understand there's a lot of risk here, and that's kind of my hang-up here, is, you know, rates go up, shoot up, can't sell our house or sell our house for what we're looking to get right now.

Yeah, then suddenly you become what's known as a motivated seller, and a guy making $325,000 is giving a house away. Right, and that's my problem. I'm trying to do this cash, you know, where we go up there with no mortgage whatsoever. Yeah, well, you know, it's difficult. Something's going to be difficult, and I don't know. You just have to choose which difficulty you want. Do you want the difficulty of the risk of the debt,

or do you want the difficulty of a double move because you've got to sell your house so you have the cash to buy the house in Georgia, and so you end up renting somewhere for a little bit or something like that because you're caught in the middle there for a minute. That's a pain in the butt. But it's also a pain in the butt to get stuck with a mortgage because the real estate market swings on you. Now you've got a house in Tampa you can't stand because you progressively hate it more every day when you can't sell it.

You know what I mean? It just pisses you off. I couldn't do it. I can't fathom emotionally going back into debt after I got out. Well, and that's the big, to be honest with you, that's one of the big hangups I have because right now we're in the process of piling up cash for the move. Yeah. And it's just hard for me to fathom trying to go back and get it. So what is your paid-for home in Tampa worth?

Probably about $330,000. Okay. And the house you're wanting to buy in Georgia is? Roughly, well, we're looking no more than $425,000. Okay. And you see you'll have the money if you sold your house uh it would be pretty goddamn close yeah yeah so i'm not flying uh i work in the airline i'm gonna fly my backside off right now trying to make extra money yeah you got you gotta do what you guys want to do. You called and asked me. Sharon and I would sell the house, pay cash for the house in Georgia,

and that might mean we had to move twice because it didn't line up perfectly. But we don't borrow money. And I couldn't go back into debt if I was you. After you got out, I couldn't do it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Identity theft has become an epidemic. Data breaches are being reported every day, and hundreds of millions of people have had their identities stolen, sometimes multiple times.

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Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? Okay, so me and my wife recently just won a settlement of $180,000 and we're not really agreeing on where this money should go. Oh my goodness, what happened? Where'd you get a settlement that large from? I got in a pretty bad motorcycle accident. How are you doing? I'm blessed to be here, honestly, yes.

I'm doing okay. You're physically coming back? Yes. My body recovered great, so I'm happy I can do just a little bit of movement issues in my shoulder, but besides that, I'm fine. You got any future surgeries coming up? No. Okay. Well, good. Well, I'm glad you're doing so good that's awesome okay so uh what what are you uh thinking of putting the money on so me and my wife have agreed that we want to use this money

to buy a house but she um well we're not agreeing on is that she wants to put the majority of the money all as a down payment and save about 20,000 for emergencies. And I think this is a perfect time to get rid of all our debt and we'll still have a good amount for a down payment on a house and still have some leftover, but she's not agreeing with me with that and i just wanted your your opinion on what you think would be the better move okay well she's not agreeing with you i don't know why she would agree with me but anyway the uh uh we tell people not to buy a home unless you're debt free how much debt do you have uh together we have about $45,000 in debt.

I would pay that off and I would hold $20,000 back for an emergency and put the rest as your down payment if I were in your shoes. I would not buy a house with debt still laying around. I think that's dangerous. You're asking for trouble. And so my vote is going on your side of this argument, I'm afraid. But I don't know. Honestly, I don't know why she would listen to me.

Now, let me tell you this. I will tell you that I would not do any of this unless you guys get on a budget and you agree to never borrow money again. Okay. Yes, I have tried to talk to her about that. I'm actually a new listener. I'm trying to get her on board, but she's not really too convinced about it. I'm also having trouble

getting her on board with your plan as well. Yeah, I can imagine. I highly recommend you don't do anything until you can come into agreement. Okay. Because you're going to make a mistake.

Sharon and I, when we have sharon and i when we have an argument like this we we have to we have a rule we have to do nothing until we can come into agreement on large purchases large gifts large decisions we decide nothing is the only thing we can do until we're in agreement and uh so I recommend you do nothing until the two of you can get on the same page. Do you think that she would go to Financial Peace University if I gave you a one-year membership? I honestly do think. I've been talking to her mother, trying to help me out just because she's so stubborn about this. And her mother is on my side as well

that wasn't what i asked what i asked was can you get your wife to go to financial peace university to the nine lessons if i give you the one-year membership yes sir you think so why she's pretty stubborn i think that me and my me and her mother would sit down with her and explain to her go to the class. It's free. Okay. I'm going to give it to you, but I'm only going to give it to you on the condition that she attends with you. Okay.

Because if you go by yourself, it'll cause a divorce. Because you're going to get more and more and more and more excited about getting out of debt and living with a plan. And it's going to drive a wedge further between you all, and I don't want to do that. So if you can talk her into just attending one or two classes with you, I think she'll go on and go to the others. I'm pretty persuasive. But don't go by yourself, dude.

It'll cause problems. Hold on. I'll have Kelly pick up. I'll give you the Financial Peace University membership for a year, and that includes the nine lessons that you can attend, and you can watch them online and everything else. But do not do this without her. It's contingent upon that. My gift is. All right. Dave is with us in Stockton, California. Hi, Dave. How are you? Well, good afternoon, Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, that's good. Say, both my wife and I are FPU coordinators, and we're debt-free, and we need your wisdom

and guidance on something where we also have a little disagreement. Last year, soon after our son got married, we loaned him some money to help him out. Really? Knowing that we would never probably see the money again, okay? Why would you do that? You're a Financial Peace University coordinator. You know what? That's a good question.

That's a good question. Maybe it's because I haven't taught it for about a year, and I lost touch with that aspect of it. But we volunteered to pay for the materials, let them take a class, which they did. But in the end, they didn't discipline themselves to follow any of the principles or build an emergency fund at all.

Well, after six months, we decided, since they weren't trying to pay us back anything, we kind of let them know we weren't going to loan them any more money because they had made no effort to reimburse anything of it. And there was no communication from them indicating they were paying us back. Well, you know, as life goes, several months later, their only vehicle broke down and it could not be repaired and my son had no way to get to work. This is where it gets sticky.

Knowing that my wife, as executive of her parents' trust, would be dispersing funds to all the beneficiaries, including him, we both agreed to front about 90% of what they would receive with the understanding they would immediately pay us back when the checks were written. So the logic was that they were barring from us funds they were already keeping to them by her parents' trust. As of today, we have not distributed that money, but it's getting a little stickier here. It's going to be distributed in the next couple of weeks, and we wonder what you'd do.

So in the meantime, they've took out a $8,000 loan to pay off four months of overdue rent. Otherwise, they'd be evicted, and our daughter-in-law just does not want to work to help out. So my angle is since our son lives near us, and because they have not demonstrated responsibility in paying back our loan, I have strongly suggested, and that's about as far as I can go since this is my wife's side, that my wife write the check to them, have them come over and sign an order to us, and we would write them a check for the balance of what they didn't borrow from us.

We didn't front them. And it seems simple, and we know if we approach it that way, that would be successful, and it would eliminate the temptation of them using the funds and necessarily not paying us back as agreed, and in my opinion, be more proactive to solving this situation. So how much?

$9,000, right? Yeah, $8,800. You're right. Now, what's your net worth? What's that? What's your net worth? I don't know. $500, $600.

What's your household income? $130, maybe. Okay. Well, let me just tell you. Here's my opinion. This is all your fault. My fault? Yeah.

Okay. You loaned people money that were broke and don't handle money well, and you went against everything that you were supposed to have been taught by us, which was you loaned family money. Right. You're the one who made this mess. Okay. I take your job.

Now I'm trying to be proactive in not making it worse. Yeah. And so. Well, one thing you could do is just say, forget it. Don't pay me back. Forget it. I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have given you money.

I'm never giving you any more ever under any circumstances. Right, right. She believes that we should just be trusting, mail the check to them, and then hope they'll reimburse us. They're not going to reimburse you. Well, that's my angle. 100% They're not going to reimburse you. Well, that's my angle. 100% they're not going to. That's a completely ridiculous assumption. That is not going to happen.

You mail that check to them, you're never going to see this money. And then you're going to have to decide if you're going to speak to your own children over money or not. This is the crap you get into when you loan family members money. It's all your fault. So, I mean, if she wants to walk you through that, that's fine. But don't ever do this again. This is absolutely ludicrous. You're asking for all the trouble you've caused.

You've caused every bit of this. Thank you. Grand Forks, North Dakota. Luke and Lacey are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. Doing good. You're doing great. Welcome, welcome. I see you? Hi, Dave. Doing good. We're doing great. Welcome, welcome. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you.

How much have you guys paid off? $120,000 in 36 months. Way to go. Very good. And your range of income during that three years? $85,000 up to $110,000 was the highest. Cool. What do you guys do for a living i'm a state trooper and lacey i'm an administrative assistant for elementary school very cool 120 000 in debt what kind of debt was this was our house and our property dave. You paid off your house? Yes, sir. Talking to weird people.

I love it. Way to go, you guys. How old are you two? I'm 44. 43. And you have a paid-for house. Man, how does it feel to not have a payment in the world? It's awesome.

Feels great. So what happened 36 months ago that made you guys at 45 years old, 44 years old, decide you could do this? Well, Dave, we had paid off her car, and I was shopping for a new truck, and I just happened to hear you on the radio. I didn't know who you are and started listening for a while and started running the numbers, and I was skeptical at first, and then I presented them to Lacey. Lacey, you said, I'd rather have a paid-for house than you have a truck. That was not a hard sale there.

It works pretty good. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You paid off your house, and you're not even 50 years old. One of the biggest things is just don't be skeptical and just start. Just do it, you know. Seems like everybody we talk to up here anyway, not a lot have heard of you,

and I just try to spread the word to those who I think are interested. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. So starting is a big part of it. What did you guys do on a practical level? What's the step-by-step thing? What did you do that allowed you to pay off your house? Because, I mean, you paid off, what, $30,000 or $40,000 a year for three years,

making $85,000 to $110,000. You were really watching your budget. Yes, we were. So we didn't sell anything, Dave. We worked. I had up to three extra jobs at once. I worked for a sandblasting shop. I worked for a welding shop.

I worked for a local farmer. Lacey, she worked at our local church. She's the church secretary here. And we just, I signed up for any overtime that was available at my main job. What was the best paying part-time job you had? The best paying? Oh, probably the local farmer was pretty good to me. Yeah, very good.

Good for you guys. That's fun. Congratulations. Wow. So you didn't tell a lot of people, or you said people are skeptical. Did you have any really good cheerleaders? You know, some of our close friends were very good cheerleaders. We didn't tell a lot of people, I'd say, for the first 12 months

because we didn't know if it was going to work, but it started working, and it started working really good, Dave. Yeah. It went fast. I didn't believe that it was going to happen that fast, so I just went along with it. Was it pretty even? Did you do like 40-40-40, or was it different one year over another year? It was about 38-37 and a little heavier at the end

wow you can see the finish line you see the finish go ahead that's right if you can see the finish line we're almost there it was getting scary yeah yeah when you can see the line you can run harder yeah yeah very good congratulations you guys Very proud of you. Awesome. You don't have a house payment. I love it. You're strange. I love it. Normal's broke.

Normal sucks. We don't want to be normal. You guys are weird. That's the best compliment you can get on the Dave Ramsey Show, I'll just tell you. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. That's the next chapter in your story for you to be not only debt-free, but now to be millionaires and outrageously generous as you go along. And you make good money.

You don't have a payment in the world. You should be there pretty soon. Well done, guys. Thank you. Luke and Lacey, Grand Forks, North Dakota, $120,000 paid off in 36 months, making $85,000 to $110,000. House and everything, baby. Touchdown. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Yeah. That's it, man. That's it. Well done. Very well done.

Well, over the past month, our fall live event season has been going nonstop. Man, we are going crazy. Record crowds, sellouts on every event. And when you leave one of these events, it's kind of like a pep rally for getting your act together, you know? It's a pep rally for your family. So when I say touchdown, man, I mean you scored. You're the hero of the game, man. You did it.

And it's pretty humbling. We had 6,000 folks at the Smart Conference last weekend in Kansas City. I remember it well. And San Francisco the week before. We were doing, Chris Hogan and I did one of the smart money events there for about 3,000 folks. Sellouts everywhere. So, as we do every October, are you ready?

It's time to announce the spring smart money tour schedule. Drum roll, please. February the 5th, Chris Hogan, Anthony O'Neill will be doing smart money in Raleigh, North Carolina. February the 20th, Anthony O'Neill and I will be in Grand Rapids, Michigan. February the 21st, the next day, Chris Hogan and Anthony O'Neill will be in Cincinnati, Ohio. Boom! Atlanta, Ohio. Boom! Atlanta, Georgia, March 14th. Chris Hogan and Anthony O'Neill.

And we'll wrap up with March the 25th in San Diego, California. And that'll be Chris Hogan and me. That's the first event we've done in San Diego. So you guys get ready. This is going to be a big deal. The Spring Smart Money Tour Schedule. All on sale right now at DaveRamsey.com. Now, we're opening registration for the entire country for these five events, but what we do any time we kick off the events, we give you the best deal ever, the lowest prices

ever on the tickets. We start at $29. Now, these tickets are typically around 70 bucks okay as we get closer to the event but we start right now at 29 and we've got a tiered and so it's set up you know the faster you buy the cheaper you get it so go ahead and get your tickets raleigh north carolina grand rapids cincinnati atlanta san diego davramsey.com or call 888-22-PIECE 888-227-3223 29 bucks.

I mean, you can't go to a fast food place for 29 bucks. So, come on out. We would love to have you. We'll show you how to walk through the baby steps. We'll walk you through the plan. 5 million people around the world have gotten out of debt using this process. We're going to show you how to do it.

Take control of your money. You can do this. You can not only get out of debt, you can be one of these everyday millionaires that Chris Hogan writes about. It's possible, it's probable when you follow the process. Raleigh, North Carolina, February the 5th. Grand Rapids, Michigan, February the 20th. Cincinnati, Ohio, February the 21st, Atlanta, Georgia.

March 14th in San Diego. March the 25th. And they're either Chris Hogan and Anthony O'Neill. Anthony O'Neill and me. Chris Hogan and me. Some mix of the three of us will be at each one of these smart money events. And they do sell out early. San Francisco sold out.

We'll be in Minneapolis in a week and a half. And that's sold out as well. Been sold out for a month on that one. That one sold out really, really fast. So you got a shot at that. We'd love to have you. We'd love to have you. There's still some tickets available for San Antonio, Texas, November the 15th, too, by the way.

So check out these events. They're everywhere. The spring events are launched, baby. $29 tickets on those I just talked about. DaveRamsey.com. Yeah, get them while you can. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Christy's with us in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Christy.

Hi, Christy. Hi, Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So my question to you is, how should I go about tackling my car debt? Should I continue to pay it off, or should I sell it and pay the remaining loan? How much do you owe on it? $20,000. And what do you make a year? $72,000. $72,000? Do you have

any other debt? No, this is my only debt for now. Because in the next year, I'm planning to buy my first home. Right. Well, you need to get the car paid off before you buy a house. And you need to have an emergency fund in place before you buy a house. I think you can pay that car off in a year, don't you? Yeah. I mean, you make $70, of $72.20 in one year.

Do you like the car? Okay. If you want to keep it, I mean, you just need to get it paid off. Yeah, you just need to get it paid off and then save up your emergency fund and then save up your down payment for your house. But what you've got to do is sit down and start doing your written budget, get on EveryDollar.com and get the EveryDollar app downloaded for your phone and your computer and get going. Are you single?

Yes, I am. Yeah, and just lean. You've got to have that guideline. Everybody does, single or married, those boundaries, those guardrails. And that's what your budget is. It tells you what you can spend if you want to hit your goals. And you have a goal of $20,000 in one year. And so, you you know it's like

seventeen hundred fifty bucks a month you're going to be paying on this car okay which means you're not going to be doing some of the stuff you're doing now yeah because you want it because you want the car and you want it paid off true yeah i mean so it's just you you just punch it in the face hard and fast hard and fast and you know i i think you can pay it off the face hard and fast, hard and fast. I think you can pay it off in a year, and I think you should commit to doing that and then save up your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses and then save up your down payment for your house. I think you can do it. Hold on.

I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover. It'll walk you right through the baby steps of exactly how to do what I'm talking about. I think you can do this. If you'll read that book, it'll show you exactly how to do what I'm talking about. I think you can do this. If you'll read that book, it'll show you exactly how to not only get out of debt, not only get your house, but also become wealthy, okay? Toby is with us in Topeka, Kansas. Hi, Toby. How are you?

I'm all right. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a quick question. Me and my wife are on step two. We plan on being debt-free within six months. And our goal is within two years to move. Now, we'll be on step three.

And my question is, if we come in about $5,000 to $10,000 short of our emergency savings fund, but yet we sell the house for a pretty good profit. Can we roll some of the money from the sale of the house into the emergency fund in order to bring that up to date and then put the rest toward the house? Or how would you want us to go about doing that? I'm confused. Why would you come in short? Just because we need to save up for some other things. She needs a car before we move out of town.

And just with the money we'd be putting in there, we'd come up maybe just a little bit short before we want to move. But we do need to move. Okay. Well, you can do what you want to do. I mean, you're a grown-up. You're allowed to. There's no law on any of this. Yes, sir.

What would i do i think when you buy stuff that's not an emergency before you have an emergency fund you are inviting murphy to move in your spare bedroom okay i think you're asking for trouble when i got an emergency fund in place i quit having emergencies it was the weirdest thing but as long as i was broke my life looked like a country song and i think you're asking for it um so no i don't think her buying buying her car is not an emergency and so it does not supersede your uh your need for an emergency fund now if you want to say three to six months of expenses is your emergency fund and you want to to say, well, we're going to get to the three mark, and then we're going to do some purchases, and we may beef it up a little bit more later, but we're comfortable with the three month of expenses emergency fund,

at least until we get her a car or whatever these other things are that you're wanting to do. That's fine. But buying her a car is not an emergency. It's not. She's got a car so that's how we know we don't use the emergency fund for it mark is in orlando florida hey mark how are you doing good new better than i deserve what's up okay so my girlfriend and i have been together for about three years we're very young and we would like to move on and move forward in our lives and get married good and move in together good uh we don't know if we're financially stable though and we would want to

be smart about it and financially smart how old are you 21 okay and what do you make? About $30, $35 a year. And what's your career? Right now, I'm just a warehouse worker. Okay. So what's your plan? I'm not sure. I don't know if we should go and do it. No, no, no.

What's your career plan? Oh, a career plan. Sorry. Pretend like some young man who's a sharp young guy who's working in a warehouse who's 21 just walked into your house and wanted to marry your daughter. Yeah. What would you tell him? I'd want to know what his dadgum plan is, right?

Yes, sir. How are you going to take care of this girl? I would love to take care of her as best as I can. I know. I'm giving you a hard time, brother. Okay. I would love to take care of her as best as I can. I know. I'm giving you a hard time, brother. Okay? But if you'll think about it that way, it forces you to think about your long-term prospects, which is, as her dad, that's what he'd be looking at, right? He'd be saying, okay, this guy's a sharp young dude.

He's not making anything right now. He's working in a warehouse. But he's got a really good career path. He's got a plan, and it's going to work out. I mean, by the time he's 31, got a really good career path he's got a plan and it's going to work out i mean by the time he's 31 what are you going to be doing you know so i'm more concerned about that i think you can make it on 35 does she have a job uh she's in school and doing a part-time job at a restaurant when does she graduate from school she has about another year and a half to two years okay and. And what will her degree be in?

She's teaching. Okay. And who's paying for her school? Right now, her and her parents. Okay. All right. Would they continue that and she could complete and be a teacher while you are married? I would have to ask, but hopefully, I think they would, yeah.

They'd be pretty cool with it. Okay. That's good. So you could go ahead and get married and you'd have her part-time income, I think they would, yeah. They'd be pretty cool with it. Okay, that's good. So you could go ahead and get married, and you'd have her part-time income and your $35,000 income, knowing that in a year or 18 months, she's going to be a teacher, and your household income is going to more than double. You'd be making over $70,000, close to $80,000, depending on what she's teaching, where she's teaching, and all that kind of stuff, right?

But with a teaching certificate in Florida, she'll make good money. And then you've got better prospects because you're going to start thinking about what you want to be when you're 31 and start taking the steps to be that so that when you're 41, you're also a better one. And 51, you're a rich one. Does that make sense? Okay. Yes, sir.

So I think you've got the stuff to get married, but I'm more concerned about where you're going than where you are today to answer the question of are you ready for marriage. And I think you are. You're a sharp young guy. And obviously she's got a great career track there. So, you know, what I would want you to answer for your own satisfaction, I was poking at you and saying, let's pretend it's her dad, right? But for your own satisfaction, what do you want to do?

Where are you going? Because let me tell you, if you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time. You'll be a 31-year-old warehouse worker. And you don't want to do that. There's nothing wrong. There's no shame in being a warehouse worker, but you want to be growing and evolving, right? Yes. You want to be something better. I want you to own the freaking warehouse. Okay?

Okay. That's how I would look at it. And if you got all that kind of talked through and so forth, then you got a game plan. See, my goal was I was going to be rich in real estate. When I was your age, that's what I wanted to do. I was dating my wife. I was 21. I was so broke I couldn't pay attention.

I had $1.16 in my checking account. I'm driving along on our second date in a Monte Carlo that had 250,000 miles. The third engine and the second transmission had been hit on every side. This car was a piece of crap. We're driving along on our second date, and I'm telling her how I'm going to be a millionaire in real estate one day. And as I said that, we went across a railroad track, and the muffler fell off my car. So where I was right then was not indicative of where I was going.

Because if anybody looked at where I was right then, there was no evidence to say I was going to be anybody. But you've got to be aiming at something, man. That's what you've got to be doing. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey guys, this is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.