The Ramsey Show - App - What’s My Best Investment Option? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

This is the Ramsey Show where we help you win with your money, win in your work, and win in your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell is joining me this hour. He'll take the lead and help out on those money questions, and I'll take your income and work-related questions, because all that goes together.

888-825-5225. We go up to Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia is where Vanessa is joining us. Vanessa, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call today. I've been listening to your show now for a couple months, and I'm super grateful to have found it. I love it. So thank you for that.

I'm a financial advisor, and I've been doing that for about eight years now. So I help my clients with investments, but I also lend. So my question today is how do I make sure that I can still be successful in my career, but not make my clients feel like I'm selling them debt? Because I believe in the process and I love the baby steps. So yeah, I just want to make sure I'm morally keeping to myself and, and having strong integrity as well as pursuing my career. Yeah.

Well, let's address the moral component to this. Cause I think there's a pivot that's coming up and I think that's fine, but from a moral standpoint, you aren't in any way selling a product that is immoral or that is illegal. Right. Right. Yeah. So this is a mental thing where you're going to have, and by the way, we've had this call before. We've heard this many times. We totally get it.

But you're going to have to cut yourself a break on this and go, okay, I am now misaligned with my values and my work. My values and my work aren't matching up, but you're not doing anything wrong morally. Okay. And so now it is a real discovery process to actually answer the question that you asked us, which is, and I know George got some ideas, I got some ideas on how I can help people with their finances and help them win without selling them a product that puts them into debt. And just off the top of your head, just, you know, free flow here. What are some things in the financial industry that you could get qualified for, you could pivot to, that you actually would be proud to sell to someone or to advise somebody within? Yeah, well, I do have my investment license, and I love investments way more than I do lending. So there's definitely something there.

I kind of put a stop to extra learning because you need certain credentials to move forward, just because I did recently have a baby. So I kind of put that on the back burner. But yeah, I mean, that's a good thought for sure. Maybe I should just look into an investment side of things because I know that can truly help people. Where are you working right now? Is it a bank or is it an actual investment firm? It's a credit union. Okay. That was my next question because you could just work for an investment brokerage that just focuses on investments that don't also sell debt products right and that's something i would encourage you to look into because i understand at a bank one of the big ways they make money is selling debt

products but that's not the entirety of the you know investment industry of course yeah yeah so that's an easy option to stay in your field of work remove this piece that really bothers you because the bank is going hey van, you got to hit the quota. We got to sell these debt products. Let's move these. And you're going, no, I don't want to do that. So at some point, there's going to be a rub while you continue to work for the bank in this capacity. Yeah.

No, that makes sense. Does that answer the question that you had for us? Yeah. No, for sure. I think I should definitely look at doing a pivot, as you guys call it, and maybe just transitioning from like a multi-role of lending and investments into just one. That's right. Just become an investment advisor for a firmer brokerage, and you get to focus on the part that you love. So it's kind of a both and. Yeah. And the reason I led Vanessa with the whole mindset issue here is just going to give you a little bit more peace and patience to do what it takes to make the actual pivot.

When you're not feeling bad about yourself, then it's less likely for frustration to turn into desperation and where you make a quick move. So map this thing out. I know I love finance. I know I love the investment side. You've got some qualifications you still got to get to. So there's four questions. I call these the four qualifying questions. I'm going to give them to you really quick because it'll help you actually put together a plan that will turn into a path that you walk from one to the other, okay? The first one is,

what do I need to learn? So you've already talked about the qualifications that you put on hold, some of the certifications rather, that you put on hold because of baby. So, you know, look at everything else. Let's create a list. What do I need to learn? Okay. And then what do I need to do? So that's an education question. What I need to do is there's some experience that I'm going to need to get. So does that mean I have to kind of come in at a lowest level? You got to look into all this and understand what the path looks like. So what do I need to do from an experience standpoint to eventually get where I want to go? Third question is, what is all this going to cost me financially? That's not just the cost of the certification, George. That's also the cost of,

if I've got to kind of take a temporary step back, you know, that's cost. And then finally, how long is all this going to take? So it's what do I need to learn? What do I need to do? How much is it going to cost? How long is it going to take? Those four questions, I'm telling you folks, it's tried and true. It will get you the answers that you need. So now this change is informed, thus it's not as scary. It's just less emotion. It's more facts. Yeah, because there's-

What's it going to take? When we have the unknowns around something like this, George, our brain does an unbelievable job of creating another narrative. So it's like, I don't know what I have to do, or I don't know how long it's going to take, or I don't know how much it's going to cost. Well, then your brain starts to fill it in, and it's usually with really bad news and fake news.

So I found that those four questions and coaching a lot of people becomes a really great process to come up with the information we need to be able to move forward. So thanks for the call, Vanessa. Let's go to Orlando, Florida, where Joseph awaits. Joseph, how can we help? I just retired from my job. I'm about 49 years old. It's funny you guys are just talking about a major company that I just retired from after 30 years with them. Oh, okay.

Hey. It's pretty funny. And I retired with them about a year and a half ago. Cool, congrats. I did really well for myself. I put about 20% of my 401K for about literally 30 years of my life. I have zero debt whatsoever. My house is paid for.

Everything is good. So I kind of wanted to know. I have a couple hundred grand sitting there, and I usually put it into CDs or whatnot. So I was getting 5.5%, 5.6%. And I'm kind of living off of that. So I'm kind of prolonging, touching the 401k, which is a couple million. So I wanted to know, is there a better place to put it in that can yield something without any risk? Well, there's always going to be a risk when it comes to investments. So the question is,

what is the time horizon that you're looking at for this money? So you're saying you're planning on kind of using this $300,000 as a bridge account to get you by until you can access the 401k? Yes, but also with that, I have zero debt. So if I told you $800 a month is what I live off of, that's pretty much what it is. Are you single? Yes. Okay. So you don't need much to live off of.

You could just park this in a high-yield savings account and keep it liquid. I don't like the idea of just playing with the CDs and locking up your money. Put it in a high-yield savings account for the short term. But for the long term, I would look into putting this money into a taxable brokerage account. And you put that money into a good index fund, and it's going to do way better than 5.5% over the long term, over five plus years. But in the short term, if you need this money to live on, park enough in that high-yield savings to get you by. But way to go.

That's impressive. Very impressive. And maybe find an encore career as well. I like that. 49 years old, a lot of life to live. Come on, man. Do something you just totally love to do. Maybe try doing it for free for a little bit to make sure.

And then find a way to make some dough doing what you love. Love the call. Good stuff. We'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So, if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance. Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also

helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Camel

joins me this hour. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Now, George, I get it. You know, listen, I get a bird's eye view a lot of times with Dave, hosting with Dave, and now you. And you know, when you get the money stuff, you've got your own style. That's true. As you should. You're not Dave Ramsey. You're George Camel. And I have a confession to make.

What's that? I like when you talk nerdy. To you? Yeah. Wow. And just to everybody. But so I do have a penchant for trying to get in the weeds and get a little nerdy. Yeah. I do have a penchant for trying to get in the weeds and get a little nerdy. So, you know, it feels like we're in shock and awe land on social media and media.

Everybody wants to talk dirty. We're talking nerdy. But I thought today we should do something you do very well. And I want to create a new segment. James has given me the green light. It's called Talk Nerdy to Me. Wow. Okay.

All right. So I'm going to hit you with a topic here. You knew there was going to be some talking points. You didn't know it was going to be called talk nerdy to me wow okay all right so i'm gonna hit you with a topic here you knew you knew there was going to be some talking points you didn't know it was going to be called talk nerdy nobody filled me in on that i think this is about to take youtube by storm all right we'll see about that all right here's our topic are you ready i need a drum roll but our first talk nerdy to me is what is equity george oh that's a good one a lot of people throw that word around and it sounds kind of hoity-toity, kind of a $10 word. We got a crack staff. They give me the good stuff.

Well, let me try to explain this like you're five. Well, that's probably a good decision. There we go. So equity, Ken, is the value of something you own minus any debt owed on it. Can you give me an example? Well, think about it this way. It's the amount of the asset that you truly own. So a home is the easiest example.

Ah, there we go. You got a home worth $300,000. You have $100,000 left on the mortgage. So we're going to subtract that. That's your debt, the liability, which leaves $200,000 in equity. There it is. That's the part that you owe.

Love when you talk nerdy. So this applies to a home, a car, pretty much anything. And no matter how much or how little equity you have, you want to make sure you keep it rather than borrowing from yourself. So the goal in my book is to have 100% equity, which means you own it outright. So when I paid off my house, I no longer had a mortgage, I no longer had debt or liability attached to it. So it was 100% mine. So just think of equity as ownership. And the other term that comes along with equity is the term underwater.

We use that often when it comes to- Oh, we hear that all the time. Hey, I'm underwater on my car. And people go, what? How did they get in water? No, this has nothing to do with- It's about negative equity, right? Am I paying attention?

Yeah. So what you owe is greater than the piece that you own. That would put you underwater. So if the car, you've got a $20,000 loan on the car, the car is only worth 10, you're $10,000 underwater. And that is a very scary, scary place to be. And that's what happens when interest and fees pile up, the asset drops in value like a car does. And that's the one you see most often is that scenario is the underwater car. So that is why we teach the baby steps of paying off the debt, staying debt free. It's the best way to build wealth because it frees up your income.

And so, Ken, when you do your net worth calculation, which is your assets minus liabilities, what you own minus what you owe, the most beautiful part of living debt free is that you have nothing in the liabilities column. So nothing is detracting from your wealth when you have 100% equity of the things that you have, your car, your home, and it's the power of paying cash, power of paying stuff off. And if you want to learn more about this, you can learn more about equity at our blog at ramsaysolutions.com, and we'll also put a link in the show notes. And again, George does it once more. You know, your grandmother never wanted you to talk dirty,

but she's okay if you talk nerdy. That's the big difference. You see the difference? It's a difference maker. So here's what I say to you, the masses. What would you like to hear George talk nerdy about? I like that. So maybe drop a link in the YouTube comments if you're watching over there.

Drop a comment, email the show. I want George to talk nerdy about i like that so maybe drop a link in the youtube comments drop a comment email the show i want george to talk nerdy what's the concept the word you want to explain i like this man this is wholesome for the whole family i try to keep it right there my friend that's g-rated all right that's good stuff so well done we need more of that in today's world more wholesome content yeah more talking there's enough filth out there on the internet i'm not going to add to it yeah good for you not on my watch you know that's we should have a t-shirt talk nerdy to me i don't know that i want to wear that in public it feels like you're asking for something you're not prepared for yeah i try to be invisible look great under the bomber jacket thank you just saying do we have a tally on how many times i've said bomber jacket in today's show

we our team can search. My guess is we're at 10. I feel like I stole one right there. So there you go. Always great fun. Let's go to Jason in Sacramento, California. Jason, talk nerdy to us. I'll do my best.

Tim, George, I really appreciate you taking my call. You bet. So I inherited a house from my mom who passed away. The house has fully paid off. The Zillow value is around $500,000. I'm active duty military, so I couldn't live there if I wanted to. And so in the meantime, I'm interested in turning it into a rental. However, it needs a significant amount of renovation,

probably around $100,000 to $150,000. And so I'm kind of in between a rock and a soft place right now, I feel like. But just seeing is this maybe the time a HELOC one would be okay, or should I just try to sell it for much lower, or I'm not really sure what's my best option here right now. Well, I'm not a fan of HELOCs for a whole lot of reasons. Number one, it's moving you backwards financially. Number two, it's going to have a variable interest rate that can change with the market, which is scary. And it puts that home at risk. Right now it's paid off.

Very little risk involved. As soon as you add that HELOC, something goes wrong, you default, life changes, and you can't pay back the 150. Well, that's a huge problem. And so I would recommend, number one, either you keep it and you cash flow the renovations, or you just clean it up to your best ability and sell it for what you can get for it. And could you think you could get 350 without doing 150 in renovations? Are you saying it would be worth 500 if you did the renovations? 500 if I did the renovations. So I'm thinking if I sold it now, it may be around 300 to 350, maybe closer to 300 though. Then I don't think it's worth the hassle. Yeah, I agree. I would sell it and it's still a part of the legacy that your mom left for you.

And you can invest that 300,000 and that money could double every seven years based on the history of the stock market. And it's okay to not become a landlord long distance. I think it's actually wise to avoid that right now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that doesn't sound too inviting, but it just, you know, you hear a lot of ways to handle these kind of things. And it's just kind of hard to sort of, you know.

Oh, yeah. If you scroll social media for half a second, you're going to hear a bunch of dimwits telling you to go get four HELOCs on this thing and leverage it and go buy 17 more Airbnbs and put that in a whole life insurance policy and borrow against it.150,000 renovation and then be a long-distance landlord on top of that. And I hate to just kind of pile on here for those that tell you to do this kind of a thing that we're saying not to do. But, you know, you could say, well, I think it's going to be $100,000 to $150,000. You get into this thing, an older house like this, and next thing you know, it balloons by 50 to a hundred thousand dollars. Now you're in a rock and a hard place because you you're well beyond what you plan to borrow. And now it's a real pain. I'd let somebody else, this thing's got some real value. Sounds like it's, it's a good house. Got some good bones. Is that fair? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Yeah. Then I'd let somebody else come in with

a vision for this and take what you can get for it. And to George's point, I think George is spot on here. That money is going to be used for so much good, and you don't have any blood pressure issues having to deal with this. Absolutely. And, Jason, I would jump on to RamseySolutions.com slash agent, and you can connect with a Ramsey-trusted real estate pro who can help you list this to get the most out of it, even without the renovations. I think they're going to have a lot of great strategies

and they know how to list it, market it, stage it, all of that, even if it is a fixer-upper. So that's going to help you avoid, quote, lose a ton of money on this, even though it was a free asset to you from your mother. So that's what I would do if I was in your shoes. It's just too much hassle for this stage of life. If you had 150 grand and you were excited about renovating

this thing to live in or to rent, I would say go for it. But that's not the current case. Yeah. If you had Chip and Joanna and the whole show and the crew, they always made that look so easy. Oh, yeah. But what you don't see is crews working 24-7 and in unlimited budgets to make this all happen. Yeah. With a big reveal. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, I'd take the cash, Jason.

I agree with George on this one. All right. Don't move because we've got more of your calls, more of the Ramsey Show right around the corner. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. All right, so I was born and raised in Texas, and I love the myth of the lone cowboy. You know, the guy who doesn't need anyone or anything.

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This is The Ramsey Show where we help you win with your money, win in your work, and win in your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. George, we've had several calls today around real estate. People trying to buy, people trying to sell, homes not selling because they're working with a bad real estate agent. All kinds of calls. We really have. It's been a real big theme today. So I think it's important that we just mention our Ramsey Trusted Program is the only way to find an agent

you can trust to keep you on track with what we teach. In other words, they're versed in what we believe about money, how we teach you to handle your money. And so they're going to guide you the right way through what can be a disastrous process if you don't have somebody who's really, really knowledgeable in helping you. So what does it mean when we say Ramsey trusted agent? It's the top agents in your area who we trust because we've put them through a strong vetting process. And then you get to review their data, how they've done. You interview them. Do you have chemistry with them? You get to decide if you use them or not. So Ramsey Trusted Agents, a lot of experience, a lot of wisdom,

and a lot of them out there for you to choose from. They're going to help you with pricing, marketing, making, choosing the right offer. You can find your Ramsey Trusted Agent for free at RamseySolutions.com slash agent. That's RamseySolutions.com slash agent. All right, Phoenix, Arizona is where we're going to go now. Josh is there. Josh, how can we help? Hey, I just want to say, first of all, thanks for taking my call. My question to you guys today is just kind of what order am I supposed to be paying off my debt? I've got two really big loans that are kind of the last two pieces aside from my

mortgage payment. And I'm just kind of wondering which way to attack them. Okay, lay it out for us. What are the debts and what are the balances? So as of right now, we have paid off about $125,000 in debt in just over a year's time. Wow. Most of that, yeah, Most of that went towards student loans and we have two paid off vehicles. What is remaining here is we have about $100,000 in student loans. And then the other one besides the house is we have a solar payment, which we assumed when we bought our house, that's about $20,000. So I'm just kind of wondering here, should I keep my momentum, keep attacking the student loans that we have, or should we switch our focus and pay off that solar? So that's just one less thing that we have to worry about every month.

Well, my guess is unless you consolidated, these student loans are not one giant $100,000 loan, correct? Is it split up? Correct. Yes. And her loans, unfortunately, my wife's loans, they cannot be consolidated just based off of the way that they're broken down. They're broken down into four individual categories. Okay. That's fine. I wouldn't recommend consolidation in your case anyways. You guys paid off $125,000 in a year. You got $120,000 left, which tells me you're going to be done in less than a year, right? Correct. Okay. So if you listed out all of the debts and you actually split them, because you don't have $100,000 in student loans,

you have a $10,000 loan here, a $12,000 loan here. So how many student loans are comprised in there? She has four loans that are remaining. Okay. Are they even? Are they all random numbers? They're relatively even. The lowest one right now is about $19,000,

and then they range anywhere from $20,000 up to, you know, in the low $30,000 split out. Okay. So if I'm in your shoes, what I'm going to do is just list out my debt snowball, which means smallest to largest balance. So a student loan that's $19,000 would go first. That's the next one to attack, make minimum payments on the rest. And then my assumption is solar probably is the next one up, if not close. Okay.

And so either way, if you did the math, the way you guys are attacking this with intensity, it's not going to matter if you do the one that's 19 or 21st, but the debt snowball method psychologically causes people to actually finish and to actually stick with it. And that's the power of it. Right. The key is you're not focused on interest rates, trying to play this game and listing highest interest rate first, and then falling off the wagon because you're trying to tackle a mountain up at front. So

you guys are on the path. In one year, you'll be debt free and you will have paid off $250,000 of debt, which is amazing. In two years. Yeah. What an accomplishment. Yeah, Josh, way to go. I mean, absolutely phenomenal effort over the last year, and this is going to change your life forever. Let's go to Grace now in Boston, Massachusetts, George's old neck of the woods. Grace, how can we help? Hi, thank you guys so much for taking my call. How are you guys doing? We're having a good time. George, how would you answer in Bostonian? Wicked sick. She'll know what that means. She liked it.

She liked it. Oh, yeah. I love it. George, I'm starstruck, by the way. But anyway, I just closed on... Wow. What am I, chopped liver, Grace? Sorry. Sorry, Ken.

No, no. I love you, too. It's a Boston thing. Wow. Thank you, Grace. How can we help? Ignore Ken. How can we help?

Yeah, it's just a joke, sort of. I just closed on a condo in Norwood. Oh, right next to my hometown of Dedham. Wouldn't you know it? Oh, yay. I didn't know that. Wow. I work in West Rockbury, so it's great.

I feel like I should just take the rest of the segment off and let you two talk. Yeah, we're just going to bro down about Boston stuff. I feel like a real third wheel all of a sudden. Okay, so you bought a condo in Norwood. Yep. Continue. And I literally just closed on it today, and I'm having buyer's remorse because I really, really wanted a house. And now I'm looking at a $257,000 debt that I will try to pay off as soon as possible, but I want a house.

The watchman area is so expensive that I grabbed the first thing. It's not the first thing. I've been looking for three years, but I bought it and now I have it. I'm having violence. So where's the regret? Because you said you really wanted to be a homeowner. Now you're a homeowner. And today, as you close, you're going, oh boy. Because she got a condo. Was it because of the condo? You're saying I wanted a single family home? I really wanted a multifamily because I want to have the investment.

So long term, if this could work for me and the condo be an investment where I rent it out and then I buy a house, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how am I going to pay this off and then save for a down payment in time before I'm like 40. How old are you? I'm 32. Okay. So you're 32. I don't know if there's any like Massachusetts state law that says you must be a real estate guru by 40, but I love your excitement to do this at a young age, which is great. So how quickly can you pay off this $257,000 mortgage with your income? Well, I'm really like looking to you. So I make, I'm averaging about $140,000 per year in salary. Great. And I have this, I owe on the condo $257,000. So how long do you think I would comfortably be able to pay it off?

I love it. This is a great riddle. And I'm going to point you to an easy home payoff calculator at ramsaysolutions.com slash realestate. And this is exactly what I did when we paid off our house. I used that tool to find out how long it's going to take. And then you can say, all right, what if I added an extra $300 a month? What if I could shave enough money on my budget to put an extra 300? Well, now it shaves three years off the payoff. Okay. What if it was 400? What if, what if, what if? And now you know the gap of

what it's going to take to pay off that house in whatever time. So maybe you set a goal. I make 140 a year. I can throw 40 a year at the mortgage. That's the principal interest plus the extra payment, right? Which means that puts you about six years. So by 38, you'll have a paid for condo that's now appreciated thanks to the Norwood real estate market in Massachusetts. And now you have no mortgage payment and you're probably making $200,000 at your pace right now with your income. I hope so. So how quickly could we save up another few hundred thousand,

making 200,000 with no payments in the world? Pretty fast. Yeah, you're right. And maybe you don't need to go big, start small when it comes to real estate investing, but I'm telling you, make it a goal to pay cash with your investment property. It's going to be so much more peaceful. Don't do it today and go buy a fourplex. Because guess what? Everyone else wants a fourplex, because they also saw that Instagram video showing how great it is. But you also got to be a landlord with your three other tenants, and they're right downstairs. They're knocking on your door every time there's a toilet leak. Do you recommend, when I do have the money to buy it in cash,

do you recommend buying a multifamily or just keep this condo, buy like a single family and rent this out? There's nothing wrong with it either way, but you just got to know the pros and cons of going with that duplex, you know, multifamily versus a condo or a single family home. The key is buy what you can afford in cash and what you're comfortable with and that's in your area because you want to keep an eye on it. But I think you're going to get there. 32 years old, she's crushing it. She's got a mortgage payoff goal. I think investment property is in

your future, just not in the next two. I'm a little surprised you didn't select single family as a little bit more desirable. I'm curious about that. It is, but it's way more expensive. Right. Okay. So it's going to take longer. Okay. I just wasn't clear because I was a little surprised at that. I was like, hmm, I would go single family, but you're, you know. It ain't cheap in those neck of the woods. I mean, you're the star, so. Sorry, Ken's a little miffed. I'm still just wounded over here.

I'll give him a hug at the break. All right. A quick hug and we'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show where we help you win with your money, win with your work, and win in your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. I'm Ken Coleman. George Camel is alongside. Our scripture of the day comes from Job 17, verse 9. The righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

Our quote of the day is from Mark Twain. Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. George and I were talking during the break. I just want to call out that the word astonish is a fantastic word. Got to bring it back. I'm going to highly recommend at some time in your next week, if you want to score some points, you got to be ready for this. You got to pull it off. You can't be smiling and laughing. But, George, I want you to – Just as a reaction, if someone says something, you've got to go, I am astonished. Fantastic.

That will do it. That will get their goat, as they say. Yeah. Another one, instead of saying awesome, the word that is so overused, it almost should be banished. Instead of saying, that's's awesome you could say i'm astonished really sets you apart i think that word doesn't get used enough communication uh from ken i like that ken's school of communication but i like you acting it out i think it's a real

you got to be a little exasperated a little you know theatrical about it let's go to houston texas where i'm hoping uh lee has got some power Have you been reading about the power outages in the Houston area? Oh, man. Let's check in on Lee. Hurricane Beryl came through and took the power out. Going live to Houston. Lee regenerated. Not entirely around Houston, but, yeah.

It's a real problem, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, really feel for you all down there. Hopefully, when do they think they're going to get your power back? Well, by the 14th. Good gracious. That's a lot of time to be without power.

Speaking of astonishing, this is one of the biggest cities in America they can't get the power back on. Unbelievable. Lee, we're here for you. Glad you're safe. How can we help today? My question is, how do I really get my spouse on board here with budgeting? I'm 63, and she's 62. The both of us are retired. And she's not one for budgeting. She tells budgeting she tells me she says I don't like the

budget okay and I say well honey how we gonna get through this so that's that's my biggest question how do I get her to buy in on this we We currently, like I said, we both retired in 63 and 62. We've been married 37 years. House, we have a mortgage of $1,450 a month.

She retired and went out and bought her a new car. Not a new car, but a different vehicle. With payments? With a note of $1,300. Oh, my gosh. A month? Gosh.

A month. What is she driving? For the next five years. What kind of car is this? I got to know what kind of car is worth a $1,300 car payment. Range Rover. Oh, boy. Boy.

Is this the nicest car she's ever had? Yes, but she's had nice cars as well. Okay. So now you guys are stressed about money because money's tighter than ever as you enter retirement with no working income. What is your monthly income? You know, I think I'm stressed about money, okay? She's not.

She's not stressed because she's not dealing with it. She's relegated it to you, right? She said, hey, you handle the money, but don't come telling me how to spend. Yeah, because she told me when she retired, she says, hey, I'm going to buy the car that I've always wanted. There you go. And you allowed that to happen. We can get it. You're complicit in this crime.

Is he? Repeat. You're complicit because you allowed her to do this. I don't know if he did or not. I don't think he's got any control. What did you say when she said, I'm going to go buy a $90,000 car? I'm complicit. Oh, George,orge you were right i was trying to give lee i was fighting for you man but now i can't i can't fight for you anymore i'm throwing in the towel okay so she

doesn't want to get on a budget she wants to live la vida broca over here in retirement you're stressed out about it she's not does she have any awareness that you guys are broke because clearly unless you have some nest egg you're not telling about, how much money do you guys have? Well, the breakdown is we've got 20. I get a Social Security check of $2,300. She gets one of the $2,200. She has a pension of $5,000 a month, okay?

And all of that, and then we got retirement accounts. 457, we got around, it's right, $322,000 there, an IRA. Let's see, when she has an IRA and I have an IRA, and we're just north of $3 million with our retirement accounts. Amazing. So why are we going into debt when we have money to pay for all these things in cash? Here's the deal. My house, because this is how we function.

This is how we've been functioning for the last 10 years. My house, I owe $300,000 on it. 20 years ago, I owed thousand oh is this because of helox and second mortgages yes we move yes and what'd you do with that with that money okay so we've had a basically a spending addiction for our entire marriage that's never been addressed, even though you guys have done a great job still, you know, building wealth. Right, but this money has to last us for 30 years. Have you done the math with her to show her, hey, honey, I know you don't like math and numbers. I'm just going to show you we're going to run out of money.

We're 62. If we make it to 95, here's what's going to happen. Yes. Have you shared your feelings with her? Hey, honey, I'm scared. I know you're having a good time with this brand new car, but we make decent income with all the pension and social security, and we got money in the bank, but I am not comfortable with our monthly spending with all these payments in our life. We have never been able to solve a problem when it comes to money. It blows up every time. So now we're talking about, honestly, marriage counseling to where I would set up some marriage counseling sessions and say,

look, this money issue has always been a problem and a professional can help you all start to deal with what makes this stuff blow up. But aside from that, you're going to have to go back to work, my friend. You're going to have to pay this stuff off. If she won't, you're going to have to. You told George you were complicit. So if you two don't come together and figure this out, and even at that, I think you may have to go back to work, my friend. I don't have a feeling your wife's going to go back to work. I think she was like, I'm out, deuces, and I'm going to get this car. And I think since you're complicit in it, aside from the therapy here, I'm just trying to keep it real as if you were my dad or my older brother.

And I'd say, look, you're going to have to deal with this. If you won't deal with it with her, then you're going to have to go work and pay this stuff off, pay the car off, and not allow it to happen again. So you got some options. I roll over every time. I know you do. And it sounds like this is not your first rodeo doing this, and it's not just with money.

It's probably with everything. Yep. And so that's where I go. the money is just a symptom of a bigger problem in 37 years truthfully it's going to be really hard to uncover these stones and deal with the trauma underneath and so it's going to take some work but i'm telling you if you guys live to be another you know 30 years i'd want a marriage that's fun and a retirement that's fun and not one filled with communication where we can't even talk because it's going to blow up she's going to be doing her thing you're going to be doing your thing i want more for your life and i hope she does too and so i would have a real come to Jesus, sweetie, this is a big deal to me. I need you to listen. And you be real honest with her.

And I would really, I'd set up the therapy sessions. Do you think she'd go with you if you set them up? I said, honey, let's go talk to a counselor. She says, no, I don't want to do that. Oh, so we've been down this road. Yep. Does she shower? Does she brush her teeth?

Yeah. Does she like doing those things? No? Yeah. You do them because it's part of being an adult. So she needs to understand that some things you do, even though you don't like doing them, she's got to act like an adult instead of a child because she's 63 years old. I'm afraid you're going to have to go back to work, Lee,

because you don't want to do the work on herself and on your marriage, so you may have to go back to work. She's going to find more things to get payments on if you're not careful. Thanks for being with us. Good show, George Campbell. Thank you, James Childs.

This is The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time.