The Ramsey Show - App - What’s the Best Way for Me To Save Money? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

George Kamel & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: Pursuing a career in a different city,  "Should I save with a CD?" "When is a good time to switch careers?" "How can I lower the payments on my student loans?" Talking to a spouse about debt. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by my good friend Ken Coleman, and we want you to jump in with your questions. This is your show. We want to help you take the right next step in your life. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Zachariah kicks us off, and Branson, Zachariah, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you guys for accepting my call. Happy to accept. How can we help you today?

Definitely. So my question currently is, by the way, again, I am 18 years old. I graduated high school when I was 17, and I'm about to actually graduate in May to get my associates in business. As far as my question goes, I've inherited a house in May, I did, and it was my father's. I'm not sure if I should continue evolving my career in Branson or to go and pursue education to a higher degree, like at a university of some sort and then sell the house. So my kind of question for you guys would be, should I continue to pursue education and kind of leave Branson as there's not much here career-wise for me in sales or in business,

or should I go ahead and stay here? Well, I think that's depending on what it is you want to do long-term. And you're a really bright young man who's already made some progress. It sounds like you see yourself long-term outside of Branson, so that's one indicator. But before we decide on more education, and I'm super passionate about this, Zachariah, because the world has told you and many other people for decades

that a degree is a guarantee for success. And that's a bunch of garbage, even more so now in 2023. And so I don't want to go for more education unless it is the only way to do what I want to do, or it's the best way. So it's a very simple decision process. Is it the only way to get where I want to go professionally? Or is it the best way? And parents, this is for you too. There's this cultural pressure for you to send your kid to college because it's about status now.

It's a status symbol. It's no guarantee for success. So the question for you as a young man, do you know what you want to do long term yeah uh which is why my my school had a program i spent like three years in it because i asked my same i asked myself the same question great um so i've partnered up with a few local physician assistants and i've shadowed them for the past two to three years. And I honestly think it's kind of a career for me. It is great. I had a master's degree, though.

Fantastic. I mean, OK, so that answers our question. All right. So is it the only way? The answer is yes. All right. So now we have to decide, do I need to go to a name brand school? The answer to that is no.

And so once I decide, okay, what are my options? What are the financial requirements for me to get through that program, that master's? And that's going to decide our timeline. We want you to save up the money to be able to cash flow your way through the master's program. You don't have to move outside of branson necessarily to do that you might want to but let's just go to the best opportunity to get trained that doesn't cost as much money nobody cares i've never ever ever george gone to the doctor and before i was examined i didn't say could you tell me where you went to school and also what your gpa was nobody ever does

that so let's get over all this name brand crap and this pressure like well i went to school and also what your gpa was nobody ever does that so let's get over all this name brand crap and this pressure like well i went to this school nobody freaking cares all right so once we decide where we want to go to school and then uh we figure out how much money it's going to take then the rest of these decisions take care of themselves right so now if you say in branson in the house you inherited because you can go to school locally, fantastic, right? But if you need to move because of the schooling and you don't have the money saved up, then that's going to take us a little bit of time. I'm going to stay in my sales job. I'm going to save up the money, and then I'm going to make the move.

So I think all of your big decisions have already been made. It's now just a selection. What mountain do I want to climb as it relates to the school? What's the best place for me to go? And then we make the decisions from there. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think it's more so kind of the paralysis by analysis of looking at a huge, huge kind of question or thing that you should do.

I mean, do you guys believe like, Hey, if I did went ahead and decided to go to college, it's like an hour away from here. Um, and in that event did want to sell the home as far as like taking that and, uh, investing obviously in the market and, you know, not even touching it, just letting it cashflow to me. Um, do you guys think it would be better to kind of pursue that? Or do you guys think it would just be... What's the house worth? The house right now is worth $282,000. Okay. So let's call it,

you know, maybe $250,000 is what you would net. How much do you have in the bank right now? Currently, I have in the bank around $15,000. Okay. And let's call that your emergency fund. Do you have any debt? I do not. So let's figure out what it's going to take to cash flow this master's degree because we may need some of those funds. Let's say we do sell it. That could help you cash flow the master's. Yep.

Do you know what that might cost you? It sounds like you have a school in mind. Yeah. It's MSU up here in springfield um total i think for undergraduate uh plus masters they both cost the same thankfully that's easy math um i think it was around 15 per year okay so is that total even yeah is that total six years four five Four, five years? How many years?

No, that's just for one year. No, no, I know. But how many years before you get through the master's? Is it a four-year or is your associate, you got some credits transferring? So how many years before you get out of the master's program and you can actually be a PA? It would be five. All right. Okay.

So there's your number. So now we have real hard numbers. There's no longer a kind of wishy-washy thing going on here. So 75 grand is what it's going to take. So if you sell this house, you net 250, I'm going to put that in a high yield savings account. I would not invest it into the market because that 250 could turn into 200, depending on how things go and who tweeted what that day. So I'd rather have that money liquid cash. It'll grow at, you know, 3% or 4% with today's high-yield savings rates. And that will really float you through this in a beautiful way.

And also, you're going to need to rent. Are you going to be able to work while you're in school? Yeah, I have my C++ and my Python programmer certification. So that's what I do now. What can't you do? Goodness gracious. I've got to tell you. plus plus on my python programmer certification so that's what i do now what can't you do goodness gracious um i i suck at drawing so i mean i could there we go that makes me feel better i love that he actually took the question seriously he was like well uh i'm having a hard time thinking of something i can't do no listen um jack right you're in great shape my

friend and george's advice is right you're gonna have a lot of people try to give you some opposite advice to that, but you want that cash so that when you get done with the Masters and you're ready to take that job and be a PA, now you've got a pretty sizable down payment. You've got a lot of options, my friend. We don't know where we're going to end up long term, so I don't want you to go buy a place not knowing what's next because someone told you it's a waste to rent.

I don't think that at all. I think you're going to do so well at 18 to be this sharp. Just call us back when you're a millionaire like four years from now. This kid's brilliant. Yeah, love that. Cheering you on, man. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys.

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make a wild assumption that you enjoy it. And if you enjoy it, I'd like to remind you that it's free. And therefore, I have one ask of you, and that is to consider subscribing to the show wherever you're listening, leaving us the show wherever you're listening, leaving us a review wherever you're listening and sharing it with a friend. Send them a link, tell them about it, send them to our site. We want to spread hope as much as we can this year.

And if you've read the headlines, there's not a lot of it out there. And so we try to be a beacon of light in this world that's gone mad apparently. So we appreciate all of our listeners out there. Keep spreading the word. We love you guys. Let's go to the phones. Roslyn joins us in Tyler, Texas. Roslyn, welcome to the show. Hi. Hey, how are you? Thank you for taking my call. Sure. Good. So I have a question about, I suppose, investing. I am wondering if it would be wise for me to put money into a CD account.

Okay, what's this money for? This would be more for saving retirement, just for future purposes. Okay, what are your current financial goals? Kind of give us a picture of where you're at. Do you have any debt? Do you have money in the bank? Currently, I have about 20 grand in my bank account, and I have no debt. I'm a university student going on scholarship. Wonderful. Full ride? Yes, sir. Way to go. And how much longer do you have until you graduate? I have about a year and a half to two years. Awesome. How'd you get the full ride? Well, I applied to the University of Texas at Tyler,

and they have a fantastic nursing program. So you've got a full ride for nursing? Yes, sir. Way to go. You're incredible. I wish Christina Ellis was here. She would be hooting and hollering for you right now, but you got me and Kent, so we're not as good at that. But here's what to do with that money. You mentioned a CD, a certificate of deposit, and I'm not a fan of CDs, and it's for a simple reason. You are locking up your money at a fixed interest rate. And so what I'd rather see you do with that money is put it into a online high yield savings account, which

is a variable interest rate, which means you can make more money over time versus getting stuck with whatever the CD is paying you. And if you need that money anytime, you can use it without any penalties or fees. Okay. And so I would avoid that. There's lots of options out there. We don't have any, you know, partners or advertisers in the space, but I know Ally and Marcus are great options for you to look into for that online savings account. And you can get upwards of, you know, 4% more just in that high yield savings account. And it'll stay completely liquid. You'll be able to transfer it to your checking account at any time in case you need it, which, you know, as a college student, we just don't know what the next few years hold as far as what your expenses will be.

Well, if you'll have a car repair and so on, I don't want that money locked up in a CD to where if you pull it out, you're going to have a penalty or fee. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for the question and the call. Very sharp. I'm seeing a theme here, Ken, of really smart young people. Yeah, you know, this idea, by the way, where we generalize around generations, you know,

as if to say that there's only certain generations with, you know, eagles in it and everybody else is a donkey. It's just silly. I mean, every generation's got their duds and their stars. We tend to get the stars on this show. We appreciate that. I think that's true. All right. Let's go to June over in Phoenix.

June, welcome to the show. Hi. Hey. Thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. I have a question. I've been with my company for 15 years. I've been able to learn a ton of things.

I love working there. Great people. But there's been a company that's been reaching out to me and we're getting pretty close to an offer right now. And I don't know how mentally to transfer outside of my company. And is it worth it? Like, is it ever worth it to even, like, do I put a dollar amount on it? Or is there ever a time not to leave a company? Well, sure.

But you're wrestling with really the same question. You're kind of asking it two different ways. So you never want to leave for just a paycheck, because a lot of people did that over the last two, two and a half years. And now they call it the great regret where people chased a bigger paycheck. And then they were, it's not necessarily that they were lied to. In some cases they were, but other cases it just was sold one way. It seemed like the grass was going to be greener. Yeah. And they get there. So you have to make a total decision. So pay is a

part of it, but it really needs to be purpose. And what I mean by that is, is this a job that either puts you squarely where you want to be? It's the work that you're really good at. You really enjoy it. And it creates results that naturally motivate you. That's what I call the sweet spot, right? Now, that is a dream job. A lot of people think the phrase dream job is like this fantastical unicorn. It's actually not. It feels like a dream because think about that. If you're spending most of your day using what you do best, doing something you love, and caring deeply about the result that you're creating, that feels really fantastic.

And that is just a wonderful place to be. And so it feels like a dream. Now, you want to go to a company where you're doing work that you absolutely feel equipped to do, that you are going to enjoy doing, or at least it's putting you on the next rung of the ladder so that you can get to ultimately where you want to go. So it's either the right seat of the bus because it's ultimately where you want to be or it's the seat you got to be in to get where you ultimately want to go. Then the pay's got to make sense.

And then the third piece is the culture needs to be healthy because you could actually get the first two right. It could be the right seat on the bus and the right pay but it's a horrible bus to be on and you're not going to want to stay on that bus very long so those are the three elements the actual purposeful work is the first and most important pay and then culture does make sense and then if all three of those check the box then you need to feel okay leaving. And the way you pose that question, I wonder if you've got a little bit of unnecessary guilt about the idea of even leaving. Yes, there is that. How long have you been there? 15 years. Wow. So this is very emotional. It's like a breakup.

It is. So June, listen, I get this call all the time on the Ken Coleman Show. Ken, how do I deal with the guilt of leaving a company that's been good to me? Very simple. Yeah. If you leave, June, for a much better opportunity for you, is that illegal? Yes or no? No. Is it unethical?

Yes or no? No. All right. So actually, this idea of guilt is really you dealing with fear of what people will say about you if you leave them. Okay. Because when you start to manifest that, what are they going to say? How are they going to feel when I walk in and turn to my resignation, George? Well, it feels like a betrayal to you as a person leaving. Yeah. So you start to assume that they're all going to be mad at you and say evil things about you and whatever, whatever, whatever. And before you know it, you go, oh, that means that would be

a bad thing to do if they say bad things about me and so now i feel guilty so it all starts with fear so i i ran you through those questions for you to realize that you're not doing anything wrong at all and you cannot control how they act and what they say you cannot control that that's correct okay the other piece is just the discomfort of change you've been you've gotten real comfortable with where you've been for 15 years and the people here's where the coffee maker is here's where the bathrooms are yeah this years and the people. Here's where the coffee maker is. Here's where the bathrooms are. This is my favorite stall.

These are the kinds of things you kind of get used to. And so there's going to be some change, which is uncomfortable, but it's also exciting. So I would lean into the excitement of it. And here's the thing, June. Let's say that this job that they're offering you checks out on all three of those boxes that I gave you just a moment ago. I think it is. That's the scary part. Well, okay. So George brings up a very good point about the comfort factor.

But if you don't take this gig for the two reasons we just pointed out, it's change, which means it's uncomfortable. Right. Or it's the whole, I'm afraid what everybody's going to say about me. And so it's this guilt. Guess what's going to happen? You're going to end up resenting those people, and you're going to end up being miserable. So you get to choose. Do you want to stay and resent and be miserable?

Or do you want to move forward and step into that uncomfort? And on the other side of that, a better life. That's the choice. Yeah, I don't want to live with that kind of regret. I'd rather leave with a little bit of discomfort instead. Absolutely. Well, we're cheering you on, June. Happy for you. This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. I'm George Camel, joined by Ken Coleman this hour. Sarah joins us up next in Illinois.

Sarah, welcome to The Ramsey Show. How are you doing? I'm good. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. How can we help today? Okay, so I'm on Baby Step 2, and I'm trying to figure out with the student loans on hold, I'm trying to figure out if I should be setting up an income-based repayment plan just so that I can actually afford to live.

What is your income? So I'm a teacher. I'm a single mom. I make about $43,000 a year. Okay. And how much do you have in student loans? Student loans, I have $1143,000 a year. Okay, and how much do you have in student loans? Student loans, I have $113,000. And do you have any other debt? The only other debt that I have left is just a car payment, which I only have $6,000 left on that. Awesome.

I've paid off about $12,000 so far. Way to go. Proud of you. So how much longer to get this car loan out of your life? Well, my goal is to have it gone by beginning of June. That's a good goal. And are the student loans broken up into a bunch of little student loans? I just have two loans left. Okay. So there's two giant loans that make up the $113,000? Yes. Okay. And are they federal? Yes.

Okay. So what is the minimum payment on those loans once they get unpaused? $1,322.60. Okay. And what is your take-home pay every month? About $2,400. Okay. So the majority of your-home pay every month? About $2,400. Okay. So the majority of your paycheck is going towards these student loans, and you still got to pay rent and feed the kid and, you know, keep the lights on. Right.

I'm so sorry. So my worry is that, like, I've been busted my butt. Clearly. Sorry. Sorry. Working extra jobs, any extra money. Sorry. Oh, my gosh.

It's okay. Take your time. You're fine. You're fine. You're incredible. I just worry about those months that, like, I just lost my second job. I was waitressing. So I'm trying to find another one and so my worry is with that big of a payment I want to get this done but what if I

don't have that money that month so would it be smart to do the lower cost and then just try to throw every little extra bit that I have at it, knowing that I can at least make that minimum and then hopefully, you know, make it my goal to make it that $1,300 every month. I totally understand. And I know that it feels like you don't have options right now, but I will say that the income-based repayment plan is one of the worst options out there and is actually hurting people like you the most. And it makes me really angry because here's what those income-based repayment plans do. They cause you to stay in debt for the rest of your life and the balance will grow because you're not even touching the principle. And so it's not actually a solution,

even though they pitch it as one. So there is one solution that you can look into, which is student loan refinancing. And here is one that makes sense to do student loan refinancing. It's got to be free to make the change. So no application fees, no origination charges, and you've got to keep the fixed rate if you have one. Are these all fixed rate loans? Yes. Okay, good. So we want to make sure we stay with a fixed rate if we do the refinancing. And then we also want to make sure it doesn't extend the terms. So if you're on a 10-year, we don't want to make it a 15.

That's how car dealers get you to have lower payments, is they keep you in debt longer. And then lastly, it's got to lower the interest rate for it to make sense, because that's going to lower your payment as well and help you actually attack this debt. Okay. And so you can look into that as an option to see if refinancing that would help get those payments lower. But at the end of the day, we've got to get your income up in order to tackle this debt. It's not going to go away. You can't bankrupt student loans. It's one of the worst types out there. And if you want to go watch Borrowed Future to get riled up about this, we go in depth on this issue as well.

So I want to dive in and let's see if we can come up with some income opportunities here, because part of the emotion that you're facing is you're just physically and mentally exhausted. And so what we want to try to do is give you the best opportunity to make the most amount of money. And I want to walk through that. So what are you making as a teacher? $43,000. Okay, and then you said you had two other jobs. You lost one waitressing job. What was the other one making for you?

I'm redoing furniture. Okay. I'm finding furniture on the side, and I'm painting it and selling it. How's that? And what kind of money are you making on a monthly basis with that? So in the last month, I made $1,000. Okay. And then how much money were you making waitressing?

Waitressing, I was making about $800 a month. All right. Okay. And so here's my point. I want you right now, because you have to. You've got to say, wait a month. All right. Okay. And so here's my point. I want you right now, because you have to, you've got to say, wait a second, I've got a finite amount of time and I'm so proud of you and you're busting it, but I would rather you be finding a better alternative to the time you're spending on buying and then repainting furniture. That's time. And right now we want to do two things with our time. Okay. We want to make sure that we aren't wasting any of it just with trying to find

some, every second that we're working, we have to be making money, not prospecting anything else. And so we want to maximize that too, by having the best paying gig when we are doing the extra work. Okay. So that's your mindset because what that will do is not only just bring in more money, but it's also going to give you a bump emotionally to go, oh, I'm actually making more with the time I'm spending. So I'm thinking maybe a better waitressing job, right? Where you're actually making more tips, maybe a better situation. That's just one idea. But I want you getting creative and everybody that you know in your area, you're going, look, here's my situation. Single mama, I'm a school teacher and I got this debt. I need, I've got X amount of hours. I'm just, I'm making this up for the mindset piece. I've got 20

hours extra. I got 20 hours. I need to be making $15, $20 an hour. I mean, let's put it out there and let's go after that because all of a sudden you're going to get a little bit more momentum and you start to make more progress because you can do this. I know you're tired, but you can do this, but you've got to be more efficient with your time so that you're making more money. Don't just take a job. Let's get the best paying job possible, okay, so that you're making more money and then you're making more progress. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, yeah. And Sarah, I want to help equip you to make the most of every one of those dollars coming in. So we're going to gift you one year of every dollar premium, as well as Financial Peace University. I want you to watch all the lessons, start doing that budget because you will actually feel so much peace. I know it feels like

there's not a lot left at the end of the month, but when you do this budget and you go, okay, here's my money coming in. Here's every dollar going out. I've given it a job. It's going to go towards the debt. It's going to go towards the rent, whatever it is. You're going to feel such peace and in control of your situation. And it's going to show you, hey, if I had an extra 500 bucks coming in, here's how that would change the numbers on this. So it's going to really encourage you. And I'm also going to make sure Austin gets you a link to our page that will make sure that you can refinance your student loans the right way. There's so many traps out there and terrible debt consolidation companies, and so we want to steer you in the right direction when it comes to this refinancing stuff.

And a real quick question here. I'm still brainstorming, Sarah. Are you elementary school teaching? What's your expertise? What's subject matter? What kind of skill set experience do you have as a teacher? I'm a music teacher. Okay.

Okay. I want you to research online teaching opportunities within music, okay? Because we're seeing things as low as $16 an hour to $28 an hour, and in some premium situations you can make $50 to $75 an hour. That's a game changer, is it not? Yeah, huge. Well, let's start looking. Hey, don't you ever count out a single mama. And I'm telling you right now, you can find

where there's a will, there's a way. I'm looking for some opportunities maybe where I'm not schlupping tables and you're at home. That's a whole lot better environment. So I want you looking for online tutoring and teaching situations within your expertise. Let's at least give it a shot. Absolutely. Sarah, hang on the line. We're going to get you all of those resources. You are a hero.

I want to encourage you and tell you that you are going to get through this. And I can't wait to celebrate your debt-free scream more than almost anyone else because you are doing such a hard thing, but such a worthy thing to change your family tree and get out of this mess. Thank you for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day comes from Romans 8.28. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. The great Fred Rogers once said, often out of periods of losing come the greatest strivings toward a new winning streak.

That's good stuff. You know, if I'd have known we were having a Mr. Rogers quote today, I would have wore a cardigan. You do love a good cardigan. I love a good cardigan. In all their forms. Missed opportunity. It's all right. Well, hey, we are having a good time on the Spring Building Wealth Live Tour. Oh, man, it's been fun. It's already halfway over, Ken.

Yeah, you were in Indianapolis. I was in Austin. We've got, what, Salt Lake coming up? And then Anaheim. And then Anaheim. To round it out. Oh, wow. So the first half of the tour Anaheim. And then Anaheim. To round it out. Oh, wow. So the first half of the tour completely sold out, packed house.

It's been amazing. Next up, like Ken mentioned, we've got Salt Lake City, then Anaheim, and we're coming your way. So if you want to join us, you can do that. April 24th, Salt Lake City, Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, Christina Ellis, and myself, and then Anaheim with Dave Ramsey, Ken Coleman, Dr. John Deloney, and Christina Ellis on May 5th. They can't pair Ken and I together on these events. It's just too powerful.

Too much for the crowd. They can't handle it. Yeah, it's just tough. It's like seeing a Beatles concert. They just lose their minds. Right. Who do you yell for? You can't.

Yeah. So that's why they split us up. At least that's what it is in our head. So if you want to join us, grab your ticket now before they're all gone. Tickets start at just 49 bucks. You can go to ramseysolutions.com slash events today. And this weekend, Ken, you know what I'll be doing? Some light reading because the Ramsey newsletter is dropping on Sunday.

And we've got the 10 best apps that make you money. And that's speaking my language. Yeah. You know, I'm all about making money. I love making money and I love apps. Did you make this list? You know, I'm not sure. I'll have to go check. I've had a bunch of- Oh, you're so busy, you can't remember. Well, I've done a lot of articles on our site about that. I'm not sure this particular one

is from me or from our team. I'll tell you my favorite all-time George Camel app hack or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. What do you got? You told me how to go into Southwest Airlines app and rebook your flight and save money. That's right. And he did it one time at dinner. It blew my mind. Saved you hundreds of bucks right there. Hundreds of dollars. Just like that. That's why I follow George Camel. I appreciate that, Ken. Well, you can follow me and you can also check out that Ramsey newsletter. It's free to sign up, ramsaysolutions.com slash newsletter. And this is not going to be another thing in your inbox. We want to help you win with money, making more, saving more. Be sure to check

that out. All right, let's get to the phones. Megan is waiting in Fort Worth. Megan, welcome to the show. Hey guys, thanks so much for taking my call. I really appreciate it. Oh, absolutely. How can we help? Hey, so first I'm calling. I'm a little nervous. You're doing great. Thanks, guys.

So my husband and I are just kind of starting our journey. Basically, the back story is he finished residency a year ago. And for the first three years of our marriage, when he was in residency, I just kind of dealt with the fact that we had a ton of student loan debt. And then I was listening to your show a couple of weeks ago and I heard Dr. Deloney talk about having the, I can't breathe talk with your spouse. So that advice was so helpful because I actually, I wrote it out and I share it with my husband. Like this, the student loan is killing my peace and I can't breathe.

And since then, it's been a really good discussion between my husband and I, but he's more on the fence of we have a really low interest rate. He'd rather pay our loan off a little slower, but he is willing to work with me on the debt payoff if we want to be intense about it. We have two small kids. I left my job to stay home with them when we were in residency I do work some side hustles on the side to bring in some extra income

I have two questions one is could you just give me a pat on the back to affirm me that paying off our debt is actually the right call and my second question is do I need to be bringing in more money because I feel like of the two of us I have the smaller shovel

because we're having our first budget meeting tonight to really hash out the numbers here. And I'm a little intimidated, um, to about, about sticking with my gut on this and just paying off the debt. Does that make sense? Yeah. But George is going to tell you how to, uh, how to play this out, but this is bigger than your gut.

This is proven over decades and decades and decades of people following these baby steps. So I want you to set yourself free in trying to sell your husband on this, that this isn't a gut feeling. This is a proven fact, George. It's not disputable that the baby steps work. Yeah. Well, and he's there crunching the numbers. He's a smart guy and he's going, well, honey, it's a low interest rate. I don't see the rush in paying this off. But what you see is not numbers. What you're feeling is the emotion and he can't get there right now. And so I think this is a continued discussion

and math is part of it. If you show him on paper, hey, what if we got aggressive? What would it look like if we paid this off aggressively? This was our one focus for the next few years to get rid of this debt. How could that set us up for the future? And remind him, I stayed home to be with our kids. It's a sacrifice financially. It's a sacrifice in a whole bunch of ways. And the only way I'm

going to feel good about this is if we don't have any debt and we have that peace and we have that margin and we have those options. And so doing a budget is a great step. I'm glad that he's actually willing to take a step into this. I think it needs budget is a great step. I'm glad that he's actually willing to take a step into this. I think it needs to go a step further. Have you guys been through Financial Peace University together? No, we haven't, no.

Okay, well, I'm gonna give it to you. That'll help. I'll gift it to you so there's no financial burden on you guys any further than these student loans have caused. And here's what I'm asking, and you need to ask him. Will you watch all nine lessons with me and have the discussions and actually be open-minded and

take it seriously? I would love that. And if he's willing to do that, we're also going to gift you guys every dollar premium, which is going to make your budget meeting tonight a whole lot better because this will connect to your bank. You'll have the transactions, you'll have paycheck planning, and it's going to give you guys some real peace and control. And hopefully it also shows him all of the money leaks because you guys have paycheck planning, and it's going to give you guys some real peace and control. And hopefully it also shows him all of the money leaks, because you guys have probably been living pretty good, pretty comfortably up until this point. Yeah, for the first year, we've just been settling into our new life. And then all of a sudden I woke up and was like, wait a minute, what are we doing here? We need to have a plan. Absolutely. And you're going to get

that piece. So the pat on the back is there. You're doing the right thing, getting this debt out of your life. And I haven't had anyone call us back and go, hey, I paid off my student loans aggressively and now my life is miserable and I have more stress than ever. Never taken that call. And so how much student loans do you have? I'm just curious. $176,000. Okay. And what is the household income? So this last year, we net a little over $200,000. And I think we're both on track to earn a little bit more, both of us. So we're hoping to get around $220,000, $230,000. So just crunching the numbers with him and showing him using the debt snowball method, you're going, all right, we're going to make $230,000.

We have $176,000. How much of that can we allocate towards our debt? And once you go, all right, we could do out of the 230, we could throw 120 at the debt. What would that do? 10 grand a month at this debt means we're done with this thing in 18 months instead of 20 years. Now I start to get excited and you start to crunch the numbers and go, what would, what could we do if we had that money freed up? How could we invest? How could we send our kids to college debt free? What vacations could we go on? And that starts to get you guys dreaming. Because right now it's all about the present and survival. I want you to get a vision for the future. What does the next five years look like? 10 years look like? What does an early retirement look like? And so start talking and

ask him, say, what are your goals? What does the future look like for you? And that will get you guys actually excited about doing this plan. So it's not just, well, Megan got ahold of this Ramsey stuff and she just wants to get out of debt because Dave said, that's never going to work. That's right. But I'm telling you the fact that George is gifting you financial peace. If you can just get the hubs to go with you, I mean, and just let him sit among other people, other couples, and begin to see how this process works out. You don't have to sell him on anything. Hopefully, he'll see the light. Yeah.

And generally, by lesson two, the switch turns and they go. That's right. Yeah. We got to do this. Yeah. I'm on fire to do this now. And I'm cheering you on, Megan. I know it's tough.

I know what you're feeling. And I'm glad that you're willing to have the conversation. That's the hardest part. The fact that you're willing to have that conversation and that he's willing to listen, willing to do the budget. I'm so proud of you guys. So hang on the line. Austin's going to pick up and we're going to get you those resources and you call us back if you need anything. Maybe he'll call. That would be fun, Ken. I don't think we've got a follow-up call from the husband. I like that. You know? I like that a lot. I like that.

But the big shovel helps. And that's something that, Ken, you help people do every day. And while you have the pile of student loans, it helps when you make $230,000 and you're actually willing to make use of it. Yeah. And let me just give you some positive news because you hear a lot of negative things, folks. Listen, now is one of the greatest times in our country's history to make side money, the gig economy, freelancing. I'm telling you, if you want to make more money, it is out there waiting on you. Go do it.

Love it. Hey, this puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. It has been our pleasure. I'm George Camel. He's Ken Coleman. On behalf of the entire team here at Ramsey and all the folks in the booth, we appreciate you guys listening. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously. Hey, it's George Camel. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps,

go to ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramseysolutions.com and click Get Started.