The Ramsey Show - App - What's the Point of Combining Bank Accounts?

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

Ken Coleman & Rachel Cruze discuss: The benefits of couples combining their finances, Being discouraged after depleting your emergency fund, Buying your first home, Pursuing a new career. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you live your best life by being healthy relationally, successful professionally, and peaceful financially. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague Rachel Cruz. We're here for you this hour. 888-825-5225 is the toll-free number to jump in. 888-825-5225. A lot of new people, Rachel, joining the show all the time.

And I'd like to remind folks that some of these calls are very sensitive in nature. One of the things you may not be aware of, we will change your name. Kelly is standing by. She'll change your name, change your location, because we want to protect the sensitivity of some of these calls, because we want to meet you right where you are in your life, because we want you to understand how your relationships and your professional life and your money life are all intertwined. And Rachel, you could be winning in one of those three areas, but losing in two or whatever

formula you want to look at, and it's going to drag the other one down, no matter where you're winning. You just said money, professional relationships. Money, relationships, and your work life. Okay. Give me, list out yours right now. Yeah. Like the best, what's killing it. A work life's killing it.

Okay. So professional number one. Professional number one. Personal's tough because I'm parenting teens. I know. So is that third or is that two? Oh, it's definitely three. Okay. So money's your number two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying teens. I know. So it's like a roller coaster. Is that third or is that two? Oh, it's definitely three. Okay, so money's your number two.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think what mine would be. Yeah, we're winning. I'm going to say, hmm. Because you're in the throes of it. Financial's three for me right now. You're not losing. I'm not losing, no, but I'm not killing it like I have been in years past.

I pull back a little bit, so I'm home a little bit more yeah so i'd say relate i'd say uh work number two relation number one there we go that's good i went backwards yeah yeah and again and again i want to be careful you know the first of all the coleman kids aren't watching so there's no chance they're great kids but like i was telling some people the other day i was telling another dad who's successful in another area yes and we were we were just talking. And I was like, sometimes I'll have this high. I come home and work has been great. Doing something I'm good at. Something I love.

Getting feedback from people that were helping them transform their lives. You feel pretty good about yourself. Yeah. Then you walk in the door and you feel like the village idiot inside of 30 minutes. A hundred percent. He was like, listen, man, I'm the same way. It's a teenage thing. Man, I feel

when they're three. Same deal. You could have a great day. You could do Good Morning America. You could do all these things.

You come home and all they care about is like, sissy took my toy or who knows. And it's just hard. It's hard. It's hard.

I know. So we're going to meet you there. We understand it. We get it, y'all. We get it. Let's go. Elisha joins us in Billings, Montana.

Elisha, how can we help? It's Elisha. Oh, Elisha. I'm so sorry. I didn't know if it was a hard I or soft I. So there we go. Elisha, how can we help? I just started the baby steps.

And it took me like three months to build up my emergency fund. And I just started paying off the debt that I have this last month. And I actually, this is horrible. I'm tailing this in front of a whole bunch of people. Anyway, I actually ran over my dog he's okay but I already depleted my emergency fund to take him to the vet

now I'm feeling discouraged because I'm like you know how long it took me to build that up I know I know okay so what were the things you did to help build it up in those three months what were a couple of the things? Well, I did some small work that brought in some money under the table, kind of like quilting and things like that.

And then I kind of cut our grocery fund a little bit. Good. Okay. Because the only reason I'm asking is because when we teach the baby steps, like that baby step one, we want you to do it in like 30 days. Okay. So this next time around, I would encourage you to kind of pour the gasoline on, right? So even if it is taking a whole other job, maybe four times a night for just three weeks, four weeks,

you know what I mean? Like whatever it is, looking around and say, okay, what are things we can get rid of? Like you said, we cut our grocery budget. Where can we cut? Anything that you can do to get it faster because here's the deal too, is that life, you're gonna go forward four steps,

back two, forward three, back one. I mean, it's this back and forth thing. So the idea of using the emergency fund, it was there, which is amazing, for when you needed it. That's what it's for. But I totally understand the discouragement of going backwards because you think, oh, I'm just going to be making forward progress. And when you go backwards, I want you to hear it's normal,

but I want you to refund it twice as fast as what you did the first time just to continue to keep you motivated. Yeah, I think that's great advice, Alicia, because here's the deal. To this day, anytime I have to use that emergency fund, it irritates me to no end. And I've got it fully funded. It drives me bananas because you know how hard you worked. So I would flip that. I love the advice that Rachel gives, but I think mentally not only do what she's saying, so very intensely get that $1,000 emergency fund backup, but also while you do it, I want you to maybe flip your mindset. Instead of being discouraged, she told you to get determined. And I think that's great. But I would also realize, pat yourself on the back. Instead of being so discouraged that you had to use it, be encouraged that you worked

hard enough to be able to do it. And so when this horrible thing happened, you didn't go backwards financially. I know you depleted your emergency fund, but you actually didn't go backwards financially. That's why we have the emergency fund. Does that make sense? Yep, it does. All right. Well, you're doing great. Hang in there. Isn't it interesting, Rachel, that it's like life just happens this way. When you get serious and you get intentional to go do something and you get some momentum,

it's like we always, I don't know what it is about our humanness where we just think, oh, this is going to be great. Yeah, yeah. I'm just going to run up a hill and I'm never going to sprain my ankle. Yeah. I'm never going to run into a thorn bush or whatever. It's just, I'm going to get there. Yes.

Well, because of life, you're like, okay, I'm going on an upward trajectory that I want, but the line doesn't look straight. I mean, it looks like turning and deck down and up and all that. I mean, hopefully over the scope of time, it's heading up because we want to be improving and learning from mistakes we've made, all of that. But it is all over the place. It's all over the place. Yeah.

And how do you handle it? When you coach people or you personally, when someone is in that place and they're looking at this emergency that really comes out, and how do you determine for somebody that's very early on in the baby steps, can I move my budget around to make this a, or is it a true emergency transaction where I'm pulling it out of the emergency fund? Does that make sense? Wait, say, well, no, I was going on a different track. So when someone's learning how to budget, right? So they've kind of got their working budget.

Now they've established a budget. Yes. So now they're on the budget. When something bad happens, how do you determine, well, this is clearly I'm going to pull the money from the emergency fund versus maybe I'll move some money from my blow envelope and try to keep that. That's what I'm asking. Yeah. I mean, I would say for your emergency fund, for me, it's the ultimate safety net.

So if I can't finagle things around to have the cash to do it, then it's kind of my last resort. But it's there. It's that safety net. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, I mean, in a perfect world, yeah, you would have some stuff over here or you're planning on making a purchase this month that didn't happen. So you have that money there, you know, all of it.

But it's... That's my goal is to always find a way to cash flow it, not pull from the emergency fund. But it's there. And, you know, like she... She did it the right way. She did it the right way. That's all she had.

She didn't have it. And when your budget's that tight, that's why we go to the emergency fund. So I want to make sure you all understand that. But that's a really good word from Rachel. Okay, coming up, we've got more of your calls. 888-825-5225. We're here for you.

I know there's breakthrough coming to somebody today. Let's go. We're here for you. This is The Ramsey Show. welcome back to the ramsey show i'm ken coleman joined by rachel cruz we're here for you this hour 888-825-5225 rachel it's finally here we are back on the road. Ramsey Solutions events are happening again. And I'm very excited about this. The Building Wealth Live event is coming to Las Vegas and Orlando this May. And this is a big topic right now.

A lot of opinions on how to do it. Crypto, single stock, zero down real estate. Seems like everybody wants to get rich and seems like everybody's giving advice. Oh, boy. Stay off of Instagram with the financial advice, will you please? Twitter. Put that in there. So we want you to join me, Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, George Camel, and Dr. John Deloney as we unpack these hot topics.

And John and I are pumped because we're going to lead a free bonus session before the main event. We're going to talk through how to balance your work and relationships so that you can live a richer, more fulfilled life. So get ready, Las Vegas. We're coming to you Thursday, May 5th. Orlando will be in your beautiful town on Thursday, May 19th. And rumor is that Rachel might wear her Mickey ears on the stage in Orlando. You have to show up to see if this is true or if it's rumor. And we're also excited because we've just confirmed four more cities. Stay tuned. More on that next week. So we are ramping up the bus and we're coming to a town near you. Tickets for this building wealth event start at just $25 where you can get a four pack. For only $60, it's a great deal. Don't wait.

RamseySolutions.com slash events. That's RamseySolutions.com slash events. Are you excited? I was going to say, how pumped are you, Ken? I'm actually really excited. We announced it on Monday on the show, and I was like, I just can't wait. I'm very excited. Events, man.

Yeah, I miss the live crowds. I know. And you and I have done a lot of events together. I was talking about this when I was on the show with Dave a couple weeks ago. We do a good job. Our live events team does a really great job of creating a great mood in the room. It's not boring, and it's just fun. We always have a great time.

The energy is there. People are there to get better and to win in life. And that kind of is infectious, even for us on the stage. We feel it from the audience. And it's so much fun being with a live crowd. I can't wait to be in a capacity crowd again. Oh, I know. Oh, yeah.

So, man, Vegas and Orlando, two fun, great cities. Very fun cities. We are pumped. We're pumped to be with y'all. All right. I'm going to make sure that they pack her Mickey ears. We'll see if we can get her to wear them on stage. We'll die.

Yeah, and I've been telling the audience that we're going to try to get a tiger at the Vegas stage. You know, we'll see. We'll see. A lot of insurance forms on that. All right. Sophia is going to join us now in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Sophia, how can we help? Hi, how are you? We're having a blast. Oh, that's very nice. What's going on with you? Yes. Okay. so I wanted to know how I go about, you know, owning my first home. Currently, I own a mobile home, and I just found out it went, like, up in value. I'm just not too sure whether I should rush into getting my own home instead of um instead of you know staying here for a couple of years and just saving up um so i just wanted to know like how do i go about like getting into my first home like carefully because it's you know it's a huge like step owning a home for sure

well it's a great question and the idea of you being in more of like a brick and mortar situation versus a mobile home, I love just for long-term value and everything. So I think it's a really smart first step that you're even thinking about this, Sophia. So kind of our formula that we talk about when buying a home. So this is for your first home. This is for your fourth home, for those of you listening. But the formula is to have at least 10% to 20% of it for your down payment saved, for a down payment. And then your payment should be no more than 25% of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage. And so you're going to go and see what you can afford and what the bank will give you from a mortgage standpoint. But I also would warn you, Sophia, that right now, obviously, the housing market is just crazy right now. And be careful not to get emotional about it, though,

because you're going to see that top dollar that they're going to allow you to take out. But want that top dollar may not be what you need to take out you may not need to take out all of that again run the numbers that formula i just told you to see okay what what does this feel like with my my numbers and my money what's realistic here um because the home buying process it is if you find a home that you love you you can get in this emotional state. And people, I just saw a stat, Sophia, literally today, that millennials will pay close to $100,000 over asking price, even if they don't have the money to do that, to get the house that they want. So the bidding war thing is so true, and you can get caught up in that. So I would just go with a lot of caution sophia a lot of caution um yeah um also because i'm trying to like you know invest i do have a 401k i i do have a

fidelity account and i i've been investing in stocks and crypto so i kind of want to juggle that I can still do those things. Do you have debt right now, Sophia? No, I have no debt. And did you say, I thought I heard you say this, I want to make sure I'm correct on this, that your mobile home has gone up in value? Did you say that at the start of the call? Yeah, yeah, I actually found out it went up in value. I don't know if it's because what's going on right now.

I got it for a really good price. It wasn't expensive, and I just found out it did go up in value. And so you paid cash for it. Is that right? Yes, yes. How much is it worth right now? About $45. Interesting.

I paid $21. Yeah. I got to tell you, I've never heard of a mobile home going up in value. One of the things I would encourage you to do is let's get some real hard evidence, maybe two or three different real appraisals on that. Rachel, the reason I'm asking that is because selling that mobile home at its height is a strategy that I would recommend. I don't know what your thought is on this. And then let's put that towards and maybe go down and rent for a bit until she gets that down payment to where we like since she has no debt.

I would also pause all that investing for the time being to really juice that down payment. Do you agree with that? Oh, absolutely. I mean, yeah. I mean, if you're in a position, Sophia, that you're able to sell it at a tight and you have a buyer and everything. Yeah. like I said, go rent an apartment or something for a year, pause everything else, save up for that big down payment. And that will really springboard you into that home buying process. Yeah. I think that's what I would do

there and be smart. And again, what Rachel told you is the formula and that's going to protect you. One other quick point for those that are kind of feeling that crunch right now, and Rachel's right. People are seeing the escalating house prices. And so what they do is they go, I've got to buy now. I've got to overpay because they're going to keep going up. And I would tell you, I think that housing prices are going to start to cool off and reset at some point. And so patience is the key here. A house, a great house, a house that is wonderful, maybe even described as perfect for your family,

is still going to be there. Don't get sucked into that. I've got to buy now or I'm going to even keep paying higher prices. Yes. So that's, yeah. And even the idea of having options, like I feel like that's one thing. Yeah. I learned from my parents, they would always say in a situation, but I'm like, this is the only thing, this is the only way I can do it. You're like, no, pause and look at all of your options. So Sophia, even bringing in the rent conversation that Ken did, that is a different option. You know, if you did find a great deal on a home and you don't feel like you're overpaying,

it's what you wanted and you're able to just kind of transfer that money, that $45,000 to the down payment. You get that ball rolling quicker. That's great too. There's a lot of options here, but looking at the wisest thing for you, I think if you're able to sell it at the height of where it's at, I'm like, that's great. I jump on that. Absolutely.

You just think about the exercise. Run the exercise of how long, if I didn't sell the mobile home, and it is going to eventually devalue. And then you're left with really not much of an asset at all. So how many months would it take you to save up $40,000? And that will help you with that mental hurdle to go, ooh. Go get yourself a decent apartment. Renting, in this case, is not throwing money away. No, it's being very wise.

And I'm very nervous about the crypto investing because right now all you've got to do, don't take my opinion, just go pay attention to the news. Watch how that stuff is extremely volatile right now. It's wild. Wild. It's crazy. I wouldn't touch it.

And it's something if you want to do later on down the road because you're investing in your 401k and Roth and you're paying off the house and you're being smart about stuff. But man, I wouldn't dabble on it. I would not dabble in it right now if I were you, Sophia. Sophia, thank you for the call. Proud of you for being debt-free. Stay that way. All right, coming up next, more of your calls. It's a free call, 888-825-5225.

She's Rachel Cruz. I'm Ken Coleman, and this is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. The Ramsey Show continues from our Nashville-based headquarters. Thrilled to have you with us. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by Rachel Cruz. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSEY to get the best deal.

Today's question comes from Devante in Chicago. I'm a recent college grad with $50,000 in mostly student loan debt. I'm 25, and I work two jobs as a delivery driver at $16 an hour and another with a local news program at $14 an hour. I'm looking to grow professionally as a videographer. My skills are in media, TV productions, and marketing. I've heard many success stories where people have grown their videography business and are making over six figures per year. What's your best advice on how to clear debt and grow my savings so I can then support myself as an entrepreneur? Yeah, it's a great question. So the debt side of this,

Demonte, is that we teach the debt snowball. So if all of that 50,000, which I'm sure it is, is broken up into multiple loans, keep them separate and list them out smallest to largest. And you're doing a great job working your two jobs. Um, but, and I think you're at a point that you're able to live your, your lifestyle extremely low. And so you're going to be doing nothing, nothing except for working, which means you may even add on another job in addition to these two, and putting everything towards that student loan. And ideally is that your skills and everything that Ken's probably going to talk about here in a second, but that as you grow, your income is going to grow too.

So you're not going to just stay at this position where you're at. It'll take some time, but the point is to get that income up where you can and be focused on those loans because the student loans is the one type of debt that people just sit with

because it is so normal and they're just not in this urgent state. And then they've even pushed back the student loan payment even recently this week. So it's like there's not a lot of urgency. So create that urgency in you to put as much money towards that smallest loan as possible. Yeah, and the reason I love this advice, Devante, is paying off the debt really is the first step as it relates to you doing the dream job, which is working for yourself as a videographer.

Once we clear that debt, now we've opened up two main things. Number one, we freed your finances, which takes off a tremendous amount of stress for you. And now you can invest in yourself as you walk the baby steps out. So we're going to get that emergency fund, which is going to be huge. It's baby step three for an entrepreneur. Having that emergency fund is so, so vital. The other thing it's going to do for you is that mentally, you're going to be for you is that mentally, you're going to be able to dream a whole lot more and be able to see what a future looks like because you now realize, I can fund my future.

It's not such an impossible mountain. So what I would tell you is, do exactly what Rachel said. I would like to see you get to a point where we can make the same amount of money in one day job. So you've got two jobs, and go gazelle and get out of debt. But I'd like to see you eventually work for somebody who has a videography-type business. So, for instance, this local TV job is in that space. It would be great if you could work full-time for a local production company,

and that one full-time day job pays you what you were making with the two. Now here's the second step. company, and that one full-time day job pays you what you were making with the two. Now, here's the second step. Then you begin to do side hustles, contract here or there as a videographer and begin to build your reputation. And also, company XYZ, we'll call it that, okay, the Devante's Production Company for a horrible name. We'll begin to put all that money, because now we're debt-free and we have an emergency fund, put all of that side hustle money into the side hustle bank account, and I want to see you build that up to where you've got six months

of your day job income in Devante's production company bank account. Then we step into the dream job. We don't jump. Yes. That's how I'd like to see him do that. It's a big deal, because I feel like a lot of people are shifting.

Oh, entrepreneurial starts are huge. I mean, it's just wild. So there's a real move there to be made eventually for sure, which I just love. I love seeing that. I love people that are kind of self-starters. I do too. And this is how the baby steps work as it relates to what we're helping you do as it relates to work you love. The financial component is massive.

You can do them side by side, but you've got to have your financial house in order. All right, let's get to the phones. Michael is up next in Tampa, Florida. Michael, how can we help? Hey, thank you for taking my call. So I recently have been looking into web development. So right here in the state in Florida, and I reached out to the instructor, and when he reached back out, he recommended that I don't take the web development course because his concern was about how competitive my resume would be versus going for software engineering,

which has web development in it. And he's recommending that I do that while I'm in school. I can get a job because web development, the courses are breaking them into pieces in web development. And it would take me approximately a year for web development versus two to four for the associates in software engineering. But I had concerns about doing that because of my current living situation. Like, should I go to school that long or should I not?

So the end result for you is what? Truly to be a web developer? Yes. Yeah. Well, there are a lot of ways to get there. What do you mean by your living arrangements? Can you be more specific so I know what you're facing? Okay, so me and my wife, we still work full-time.

My wife is also in school now. Well, she works part-time, and she's in school, and I still work full-time, and we have five children. So that forces me to go part-time, and he said part-time would take me over approximately almost three years. And the class is fully online for software engineering, but web development would take me a year.

Well, I tell you, in my opinion here, I think he's giving you some decent advice except that there are multiple paths. So I wouldn't compare one of those paths to the other. I

understand what he's saying and I don't disagree with him, but I also know for somebody who wants to be in web development and the web development training is less time and money, I'm going to go do that because here's what I know, Michael, relationships are how you get opportunities. And so if you want to do web developing, you know, taking something that takes longer and you can only go part-time right now with the five kids, wife's in school. I don't want you to flame out. There's an organization that I endorse and Ramsey Solutions endorses called Bethel Tech. I want you to at least call them. They have a nine-month online program, nine months. And for Ramsey Solutions listeners who can cash flow it, okay, you're going to do it for less than $14,000, nine-month program.

I would look at that based on where you are. Now, again, there's other competitors. Kick all of the tires. I want you to look at all the competitors. But a multi-year program right now I know is not necessary for web development, and you can start in the $70,000 range and maybe even get to $100,000, it does not take as long and it should not cost you near as much to do the web developing versus software engineering. So don't go get a degree or certification that includes the one thing that you want to do when you can go get that one thing you

want to do. Time and money are your most valuable resources right now, correct? Yes, sir. So I want you to do your research. I want you to press pause and get all of the options on the table, Rachel, because I want to see how that fits into their financial plan. Yeah. Because here's the deal. Here's why I'm saying this, Michael, and I'll give it to Rachel. The work in software, excuse me, in web development is always going to be there. I want you to get there the right way.

What are you doing now, Michael? Right now I'm a truck driver. Okay. I need an increase because outside the next step for me in trucking, if I stay in trucking, it's going over the road with my own truck, and I can't do that. I think I'm already at the max where I'm at. For sure.

Also, I want to add that here in state, the instructor I reached out to, that web development course, I mean, I already have the cash for it. It was a little over $4,000. Do it. You got the cash. Yeah. Do it now. Here's the deal. And look at other options, too, Michael.

Ken said that. But go and price out three other routes as well that would give you the same outcome. Again, options will give you power and it'll bring a lot of clarity. And I think this guy did give you some good advice. I would look to are there some side hustles where I can do some contract work in web development to get that resume built up while you're getting fully certified. You got this. Hang in there.

Great job, Michael. That's awesome. Yeah, I really appreciate the call. Wow. He and his wife are getting after it. Five kiddos. Hey, you can do it. Keep your head down.

This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by Rachel Cruz. We're here to help you win in your life, relationally, professionally, and financially. It's a free call to join the conversation. 888-825- 5225. Let's go to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where Mark joins us. Mark, how can we help?

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. For the question, before my wife and I got married, it'll be 13 years in October. Congrats. We took the financial peace. Oh, thank you.

We had a choice between financial peace or marriage classes. And I said financial peace, she said marriage classes. We did both. Anyhow, I recently lost my job in July and this past October, I got a different job and I've been listening to you guys on podcasts.

Now, the whole point of the question is, since we were married, we have had separate checking and savings account and then a joint savings for extra funds and whatnot. My question for you guys, I recently listened to your podcast yesterday and, uh, you know, talking about combining everything. Um, and I asked her about it and she really wasn't on board with it because we've been doing it for so long and it's not really broken. So she's like, why do

we need to fix anything? It's not broken. So my question for you, just keep doing things the way we have been. There hasn't been any real financial issues. Yeah. How's it paid for? Pretty much, we're almost debt free. That's awesome. Congrats. Yeah, you called.

Rachel can help you with this this but i'm just curious before she dives in here what you called asking if it's okay which tells me you may or may not think it is okay or one of you thinks it's okay and one of you doesn't am i right or am i wrong um i i just i think it's relatively okay but listening to you guys and uh previous podcast um you guys are like really saying that marriage is working well it's the best idea i got so you're kind of wondering all right tell him rachel yeah and that in that segment that was with john deloney and myself yeah we talked about a study um that we found from the journal of personality and social psychology and it talked about how they did a study that yeah when couples

pool their money together they actually experience greater relational satisfaction or less likely to break up because here's the deal mark now could the dollars and cents work with how you're doing it sure absolutely like i mean you it could literally like you said nothing's been broken it could work but in my what i would argue is that it could be so much better because the things that you guys don't even know are there and or the things that are not even being talked about because you are living in these separate with these separate checking accounts that's the stuff that you miss out on because there is this level of kind of independence i'm doing your my thing over there you're doing. But when you throw everything together, it's like a,

it's a clash and a explosion in a good way that makes you kind of rethink things in a sense that like, man, I, she's going to see that purchase or he's going to know that I went there. And, and not that you're intentionally trying to hide anything, but there's just this level of openness that's there when you have your money together. So my thing would be, yeah, it may be working okay, but how much better could it be? Because it's going to force conversations that you're not forced to have right now. And again, not even just money conversations. Like Winston and I, we go through our week to talk about like, okay, so what does our evenings look like? Because we got to figure out, are we picking up Chick-fil-A after the girls gymnastics or my cooking? Like

what's happening? And you end up talking about the out to eat budget. You end up talking about what's going on in life and calendars. And man, this feels really busy right now. I know I'm exhausted. I know I've missed seeing you. Like you end up in all these other conversations that combining your accounts brings. So it's not just the tactical side of money that you benefit from, but it's the relational side. So that's what I would push you guys on. Do you feel a nudge mark to do it differently? I know you heard us talk about it on the podcast, but do you think it would bring like a level of richness that's not there right now? I feel like we communicate really well now. The only debt we have is a truck payment, and we just talk about it.

So we want to knock it out quick, and she's putting money in each check, and then it comes directly out of my checking account, and we're just trying to – we communicate well to start with, but like you said, I get to hold each other accountable. Like, for example, our oldest daughter is in softball, so she wouldn't have got the batting helmet, and I wouldn't have got the bag and the fielding mask. So, I mean, we're pretty open with each other about everything, but I can see your point about holding each other accountable. So you to interrupt you. Holding each other accountable, you know?

So you feel like you are holding each other accountable? I think we just trust each other. Yeah. Let me tell you the flip side of this, because we get this call a lot on the Ramsey Show. Couples with separate accounts, Rachel, good people, well-meaning people. And when you have separate accounts and you're not really accountable, so you don't know what he has, she has, whatever. And we get the call, we had separate accounts and my spouse ran up tens and

tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. And I just found out about it. That temptation could hit anybody. I mean, nobody's above that. Yes. So there's no judgment here. I'm just saying that's the reality of this when we have separate accounts, and then one person goes, well, I kind of get to do whatever I want to do in this, and then maybe they get themselves in a hole.

We hear about gambling problems. We hear about spending problems. We got a call just last week, separate accounts, and the wife found out that the husband had racked up nearly $100,000 in credit card over legal fees for custody for a child from a previous marriage. She just found out about it. This is bone-crushing kind of stuff. And I would say, too, and I would be curious your thoughts on this, Ken, because this is how passionate I feel about it about it mark is that you can go down like that road what ken just described for sure happens 100 but what what even made me like kind of like cringe is that their daughter plays softball and she goes and buys part of the equipment and he goes and buys the other part do you know i'm

saying mark like like there's just this level of of a division that you're like, no, no, no, we're all supposed to, we're all supposed to go and buy the stuff and it comes out and it's not a big deal. It's, it's the dividing roommate. It's weird.

So like, I'm not trying to say you're weird, Mark. Like, like I want you to hear like a lot of, a lot of grace in this. Okay. Because I get that it's working and it's almost the same mindset when people

use credit cards. Like, but I pay it off every month, but I pay it off every month. but I pay it off every month, but I pay, but you have no idea how much more you're spending when you don't have the emotions

attached to your checking account. You don't even know what conversations you're missing out on, Mark, and the things that are dividing y'all because you haven't even done it because you haven't combined it yet. Rachel, I think you make

an incredible relationship point. And that is that we are joint. We are a team. We're not roommates. I could think of example after example, but I'll tell you an example that you made we are joint. We are a team. We're not roommates. I could think of example after example, but I'll tell you an example that you made me think of. So we have a daughter, Josie, who's 13, and she and her little friend just decided

they wanted to start a bracelet business, so these beads. And I came home the other night, and one of the first things in the door, Stacey said, hey, I've got to let you know. Josie came to me today. She's all excited about starting this little business, so I told her we would invest. We would buy the first things in the door, Stacy said, hey, I got to let you know. Josie came to me today. She's all excited about starting this little business. So I told her we would invest.

We would buy the first supplies, helped her with pricing, all that stuff. So this was a couple's moment where she was just proud to say, this is Josie's idea. I went out and it was $40 for all the things. It wasn't an accountability issue, but it was this idea that it could have been shin guards. Yes. Cleats. Right, right. You name the other. But it was this idea that it could have been shin guards. Yes. Cleats. Right, right, right. You name the other.

But it was like, we had a fun little conversation. It was like, that's awesome. Yes, yes. And that's a joint account. We tell each other, we can see what we spend. Yeah. There is, you don't even have to hold someone accountable when you're just open. Well, that's what I was going to say, too.

The accountability thing, even that term, I feel like it's- It does feel weird to people. It's a little overused to of like i'm going to keep you accountable where it's like no i'm actually going to just know what's going on and we're like married i can't spend something without her knowing yes it's fantastic right so that is built in but i don't feel like yes yes totally totally so yeah there's it's a it's a real thing. Again, study after study. Another one, that one that we just talked about that came out last week.

But yeah, you just have a greater level of satisfaction because you share everything. And John Deloney made the point, and we laugh about it, because I'm like, you share your genetics in a child that's running around in front of you. So if you can share your bed, if you can share your refrigerator, you share everything.

Share everything. And the money piece, it may not feel like a big deal because you feel like it's on the track and it's working. But I'm going to push y'all, Mark. I mean, I would. And I would see how your relationship changes because your marriage changes

when you see yourself 1,000% as one. Totally agree. She's preaching and she's right. She is Rachel Cruz. I'm Ken Coleman. I want to thank our team in the booth that makes all this possible. I want to thank you, America, because you're the reason we do the show. It is Rachel Cruz. I'm Ken Coleman. I want to thank our team in the booth that makes all this possible. I want to thank you, America, because you're the reason we do the show. It is your show. It is The Ramsey Show.

Hey, folks. Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? It's your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts.