The Ramsey Show - App - When should I start investing? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 13, 2023

Ken Coleman & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss:   "Should I start investing at 14-years-old?", The affordability of a spouse staying at home, "Should we sell our car?", Zoom layoffs, Pulling from savings to pay medical bills, Moving out of state, from the blog: Ramsey Cost of Living Calculator  Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Potts Moving and Storage Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we talk about your life, your money, your work, and your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. Joined by George Campbell this hour. The phone number is 888 eight two five five two two five triple eight eight two five five two two five let's go to

winchester virginia in the shenandoah valley area i believe george well done you know your your geography well i'm a virginian so i hope i got that right if i know where Winchester is. Peter is on the line. Peter, how can we help? Hey, so I'm 14, and I have $8,500 sitting in the bank. I was wondering how much I should invest and if this is a good time to invest. Goodness gracious. How did you make the $8,500, young Peter? Well, I am a Little League umpire, and I do a lot of side hustles. I run a lemonade stand in the summer and a hot chocolate stand in the winter. That's fantastic.

How long have you been a Little League umpire? This is actually my first season. Also, I have very generous grandparents. Okay, all right. What do you make being an umpire these days at 14? I'm curious. I get like $45 a game. And how old are the kids that are playing in this game?

Oh, they're probably like 9 and 10. All right. Now, I got to ask you this because I think people want to hear this. I want you to give me a really strong third strike. All right, so it's a third strike. How do you call it? Strike three. Very nice.

Okay, all right. He's got a style. You've got confidence. Listen, I like that. He didn't go overboard because I would be like, something like that, I think. You get kicked out of the game? No, I'm the umpire.

I do the kicking out. Wow. Yeah, you got to get, George, you even know what baseball is? I've heard about it. Where you call his third strike. All right. Nonetheless, Peter. Back to Peter's question.

You got $8,500. You're doing incredible. You're asking about investing. And right now, the best thing to do is invest in Peter. I know that sounds like a cheap answer, but the truth is you've got a lot of life expenses coming your way in the next six years. When you think about, all right, you're gonna need to buy a car, right? Yeah. Those ain't cheap. You're probably gonna have some expenses with further education. You thinking about going to college one day?

Yeah, but my parents do the baby steps, so they have some money saved away for that, but I don't know how much. Okay, and some living expenses. So the truth is we may have some upcoming expenses in the next two, three years that you may want to use this money for. And if it's invested in the stock market, it could be risky because that money could go down 20% when you need it. Yeah. So if you want to have some fun with this, you could park some of it in a high yield savings account. Where is it sitting right now? Well, it's just in the bank. Okay. It's making a terrible interest. I should probably have it in. Don't be depressed. Well, Peter, first of all, you have a higher net worth than most American adults,

so you're doing great. Don't knock yourself. You can put in a high-yield savings account, which will get you 4%, and that's a great thing to do is you keep stacking cash. Because what if it comes time for you to buy a car in two years, and you go, man, I could buy a $12,000 car, $15,000 car. Wouldn't that be cool? Yeah. And you've got a lot of time to invest. I mean, once you are really working and you've found your career path, whether that's entrepreneur or whatever you find yourself

doing, you're going to be investing way more at that point. And that's what's really going to get the power of compound interest going. So if you don't get started for two, five years investing, you're still going to be a multi-multi-millionaire when you retire, based on talking to you here. And when that time comes, I want you to utilize all of the tax-advantaged retirement accounts that are out there, which aren't available to you right now. There's something called a custodial Roth IRA

that you can work on with your parents to open up for you. There's UTMAs you can look into, and of course, the 529 plan. So I would put my focus on making sure college is paid for. Beyond that, your future savings goals. Beyond that, you can look into one of those custodial accounts. How about the 14-year-old Peter? Gosh, the kid is thinking about his future. Yeah, it's really really fantastic he was so down he's like well it's just sitting in the bank making nothing love that kid man he wants the compound interest all right let's go to ralph in houston texas ralph how can we help hey kind of kind of tough to follow up an all-star like that oh you're doing great i think we great. We got a baby on the way. Oh, congratulations. Very happy.

Right now, we're making about $180,000 a year. We're thinking it's probably time for my wife to stay home. We'll go down to around $140,000. We're still on baby step two. We have paid out $38,000 in debt since 2020, but we still owe the big guy. We have paid out $38,000 in debt since 2020, but we still owe the big guy. We sold the student loan, which is about 50 K. So I just want to make sure we're making the right decision, having that drop in income where we have our last consumer debt after the,

after the student loan, we'll only have a mortgage. So I want to make sure we are doing the right thing and just stopping one income and just taking care of the kids and just attacking the student loan on a solo income well I before we get into all this it's not a right or wrong it's it's preference is is the narrative what do you two prefer well you know for the longest time i was like oh she's gonna we'll send the baby to daycare no problem we'll do it and then the more the number the more i cursed the numbers the more i thought i'm the stress on her like you know what maybe it would be

a bigger payoff for her so she's making about 40k she's making about 4040,000? She's making about $40,000, yeah. And so after taxes, we're talking closer to $25,000, $28,000? Yeah, she probably takes on like $25,000, $26,000. Which is probably just above the cost of daycare at this point. I think our estimated daycare is like $1,600 a month, so it'd be $1,000 a month hit, but that would help us burn up that would help us burn up that soon loan because we just paid off the final credit card but here's the thing so what you mentioned was the stress so you were coming at this from a husband's point of view and

you're going the stress of her worrying about the baby being in the care of someone else the normal stress that she goes through with her job and all all of that combined, you're like, I just don't think that's best. And so that's not a wrong decision. That's a great decision because you go, you know, I want what's best for my wife. And in this situation, because we can afford it. Listen, there are a lot of people watching and listening to the show right now, Ralph, they can't afford for the wife to go home. So you're in a really unique situation. So mathematically, you're going to be fine. You make well, even solo, you make well above the average household income. This student loan is gone in under 12 months, regardless of what happens. Have you discussed remote work though for her, even part-time remote work?

Yeah, we've talked about it. I listen to some of the other shows and talk about the type of freelance stuff going on. Yeah, yeah. She was thinking about going full remote, but I think her job decided they're not going to go full remote. That's when I really contemplated, you know what, I think it might be best if we go down to one income. Well, Ralph, here's an easy way to get clarity. Go create an every-dollar budget with that scenario. It's just your income. Add in, you here's an easy way to get clarity. Go create an every dollar

budget with that scenario. It's just your income. Add in the new expenses for the baby, and you'll go, oh, we're going to be fine. Yeah. And I hope he was referring when he said other shows on the Rams Network. I've been talking a lot about the freelance economy. It's as hot as it ever has been. Freelancing opportunities are all over the place. Just look into it. After you do that budget, just see what could she do from home. You may be surprised how it knocks out all that debt just from what she does. welcome back to the ramsey show where we take your money questions your work questions your relationship questions. George Campbell is joining me. I'm Ken Coleman. We are here for you this hour,

888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. George, you got big plans for Valentine's Day? Did you budget for it? I'm not a, like a night of Valentine's stresses us out. It's too much. We kicked it a few days. How long have you and Whitney been married? Four plus years now. Yeah, so Stacey and I are coming up on 25 years in May. And I can't remember the last time we actually went out on Valentine's just because...

It feels like a pro move not to go out on the night of. It's a pro move to miss the actual night. It's still the same concept, the thought that counts. But I was just curious. 25 years. You're a planner. Oh, yeah. That's impressive. Well, it's still the same concept the thought that counts but uh 25 years you're a planner oh yeah that's impressive well it's it's not it's uh it's impressive for stacy to put up with me that long that's the angle i was going yeah okay easy to easy play for me very difficult play for stacy you know this wow you've known well you guys are what i consider a power couple oh is that right two amazing people coming together to create something even more amazing.

That's very nice. Thank you, George. You'll get there soon. It goes fast. I got 21 to go. I'll never catch up. That's the problem. Well, you know, it's good stuff.

So no Valentine's Day. No, we're going to be on the road next week in Indianapolis for a Building Wealth event. This week? Yeah. So we'll do something relaxed at home, and then we'll celebrate next weekend. Oh, next weekend. Oh, you're pushing it further. I do the multiple reservations so that she has options. That's the real pro move. And the neurotic move. Let's be honest. I like that. All right. Very good. Carter's going to join us now as we go back to the phones. He is there in

Des Moines, Iowa. Carter, how can we help? Yeah. Thank you for taking my call. You bet. What's up? Well, hey, about a year and a half ago, my wife and I purchased, well, we had our van breakdown. We had a 2007 van and it was going to cost more to fix it than we wanted

to put into it. It had 230,000 miles and so we went and bought a nice vehicle. It's a 2018 chevy equinox and um we ended up taking payments on it and and i think it was a stupid decision we both do but but uh and we took a very high interest rate um it for a 72-month payment period. And we've got about $21,800 left to pay on that 2018 Equinox, and we were getting tired of making payments. They're $450.97 a month.

And when we took it back to the dealer to see how much we'd get, they said $14,000. And most other people we've talked to said we can only get $16,000 out of the car. So we're kind of stuck in between do we keep the car and just, I guess, make the best of our mistake, or do we try and go about selling it at a loss, be a fairly significant loss, but to be out of debt. So that's what we're trying to figure out. What other debt do you have? We do have two rental properties, which we have some debt on those,

but that's paid for by rental income there. So, but no other personal debt. Okay. And what's the household income? Around this year, we should be $75,000 to $80,000. That includes the rental income? That does not include the rental income as we we're not making a lot off that at the moment. Okay. And what's your other car? Well, we have two other vehicles. We have a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan, and we have a 2006 Chrysler Town & Country that we had bought, thinking we were going to sell the Equinox, but we have not been able to sell the Equinox for any amount that we would like. So you don't need three cars?

No, we don't. Okay. So if you sold this one, you don't need to turn around and buy another car? Correct, correct. You could just keep the 07 and the 06 for now and upgrade later. Do you have the cash, the difference, to cover the part you're underwater on? Yes, it would just be a little tight. Okay.

Well, there's nothing wrong with keeping it and just paying it off. It's not like there's too much of your world tied up in cars. So if you want to pay it off, it sounds like you don't really like the car that much. Well, it just hasn't provided the practical service for my business as we thought, and it's costing us more than we'd like to pay for it. Yeah. Well, this is what we would categorize under stupid tax. If we have to cover the difference, if you feel that pain, it means we'll never do it again. And so there's nothing wrong either way.

It'll speed up your debt-free journey, of course, if you go ahead and sell the car and take the hit on it, or you can just pay it off and keep it and sell one of the other cars that you don't need. Right. So there's no real right or wrong here. It feels like you're leaning towards wanting this car out of your life, though. Well, that is what we're leaning towards. It's just we didn't know would it be worth it.

Is that a wise decision to put that much money against it at a loss? I mean, if you can try to get top dollar for it and keep searching around to where you're less underwater on it, yeah, it'd make you feel better. But at the end of the day, I just did some quick napkin math here and it looks like that's about what you're going to get is 16 grand max for that thing. Correct. So I don't think there's going to be a day when you go, oh, we got 22 for it. We're ahead unless the used car market goes back up, which I mean, it's been a wild ride, man. It's already starting to go back up as we speak. So I don't think you're going to get out from under

this. The only two options are sell it and take the hit, or you just pay it off and keep it. Yeah. And Carter, I understand what you're feeling, but here's the mental approach on this. It's not how much I'm going to get for it. It's how quickly I get out from underneath the whole thing. So I'd sell it for the 16 now, get as much money as you can, pay it off, and then just move on. And with that freed up payment of 450, you'll make that money back of just not having to pay that freaking payment when you have three cars sitting in the driveway. That's absolutely right. Thank you so much for the call. Let's go to Austin, Texas. Dave is there. Dave, how can we help? Good morning. Give you a quick rundown. I'm almost 70 years old. I retired about a year and a half ago.

Our Social Security income is the only income that we have. We come up about $500 a month short, so we're having to pull out of our checking savings account to make up the difference to pay the bills. We're trying to keep the quality of life that we've had for the last, you know, 40 years, which is not extravagant. It's just, you know, that's what it is. Um, my question is whether I should, we owe about five more years on our mortgage, uh, just a little over $50,000. We've got about 500,000 in 401k and IRA. Just wondering if I should pull the money out of that and pay the house off.

So that would leave you with $450,000 in retirement? Yes. Okay. And it would free up the payment, which was how much on the mortgage? $1,200 a month. Ah, okay. So we went from a negative 500 deficit to now have a positive 700? Well, 500, 200 is taxes and insurance. Okay. But it still puts you in a much better spot to where you're not kind of bleeding out here and you have no way to create extra income at this

point unless you guys go back to work. Correct. Yeah. And I would also crunch the numbers on, hey, can we survive off of this 450? You're saying you cannot touch the 450 for a while and just live off Social Security for now? No, no, no, no. No, I mean, I don't really want to touch it for a while until I have to start taking the government-required... The RMDs on that? Because it's all traditional? Yes.

Okay. Yeah, I'd pay off that mortgage. Right now you guys really need to get this payment out of your life just to stay above water. And that 50k is not gonna make enough of an impact to destroy your retirement and destroy your nest egg. Okay.

But I would be working with a financial advisor to go, hey, what does this look like for the next 25 years? And you start to get a picture of that. But I'm getting rid of that house payment, man. I would be working with a financial advisor to go, hey, what does this look like for the next 25 years? Right. And you start to get a picture of that. But I'm getting rid of that house payment, man. That's how I want to retire. Game changer.

Mm-hmm. $1,200 back in my life. I'm taking it. Yeah. And again, I know that the condition in our culture is, hey, let's just work, work, work, work, work so that we don't have to work anymore. And I, you know what, take a little time off, but I'd be doing something. And in this case, to make a little bit of extra money, you don't have to work. Do something you enjoy.

Skills, hobbies, passions. Yeah, I don't like this idea of I just work for 60 years and then all of a sudden I'm out. I don't know. I don't think it's good for who we are. I think we're created to work. But, hey, who knows. Hey, don't move. He's George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman. And don't think it's good for who we are. I think we're created to work. But, hey, who knows? Hey, don't move. He's George Campbell.

I'm Ken Coleman, and this is The Ramsey Show. More calls coming up. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show, where we walk you through practical steps for you to move forward in your life, specifically in your money life, in your work life, in your relationships life, in your work life, in your relationships life. I'm Ken Coleman, George Campbell, my Ramsey personality colleague and co-host this hour joins me. 888-825-5225 is the number. I'm the Ramsey work personality focusing on all things work, whether that's trying to figure out what you want to do, or if you know what you want to do, but you don't know how to do but you know how to get there if you're dealing with toxic co-workers

a really bad boss all things work related helping you win at work so you're winning in life that's what I do and on the Ken Coleman show which is a part of the Ramsey Network George we as you know we cover current events and and in the world of work and layoffs are are in the news because all the rage it's scary stuff and the news likes to scare us that's how they get us to pay attention and i covered this on the ken coleman show today uh zoom the uh the wonder kid of the pandemic everybody was zooming you know it was like hey how did skype not get on that they just they missed the boat man i don't know how skype missed it it was like zoom was kind of new and a couple people

started talking about it and so zoom blew up in a good way they were the darling of the tech industry because everybody was zooming zoom this zoom that zoom zoom zoom and so they went zoom zoom too many zooms so many zooms like i used too many there probably three mazda commercials exactly just three too many but nonetheless announced uh that they laid off 1300 employees or 15 of its workforce this is from ceo eric wan announced uh last week to staff now he went on to say something that I've seen in the news, feels like nine out of ten times when we see layoffs announced, well, we staffed up and we overstaffed. And now the economy's changed, the outlook has changed,

and we've got to let some people go. I'm really sorry. It's my fault. Now, that's been the general message, and that's what he said as well. He took responsibility, said he was going to show accountability by reducing his salary for the coming fiscal year by 98%, as well as foregoing his 2023 corporate bonus. Members of Zoom's executive leadership team will also jump in and reduce

their base salaries by 20% for the year and forfeit their corporate bonuses too. His base salary last year was $301,731, just to give you some context. And he offered support to those they had to lay off by including up to 16- salary and health care coverage now i'm sure he got criticized because that's what people do i thought this was a classy move um in that saying you know what i'm going to penalize myself as well uh i'm sure he's made millions of dollars potentially in stock obviously uh but still it's a good move but i know he was widely lampooned by people who think, well, you're the rich guy, so I don't know if they want a pound of flesh, a gallon of his own blood. What do they want? What's enough? I think they really want him to just resign. Why? Because they're

feeling pain, and therefore, everyone needs to feel pain. Well, believe me, he's feeling pain. His pain is relative to their pain, but he's feeling pain. It's not fun for a CEO to lay off a bunch of people. We're seeing this across the board with big tech companies. And the truth is, these are all mostly publicly traded companies. That's right. So they're shareholders. And so at the end of the day, like it or not, that's how this runs, is you got to keep the shareholders happy at the end of the day. Disney did it.

Disney laid off 7,000 workers last week. You're probably following this story. I know you're a big Disney guy. I saw you talk about it on the Ken Coleman show. Thank you, George. Thank you for watching. Bob Iger, former CEO, comes back and announces a restructure, lays off 7,000 people, and pointedly says in his press release, we've got to cut costs and fix the stock price.

And after hours trading, the stock price jumps. And again, this is what you will be at a large public company. You will be a number on a spreadsheet because Disney's obviously struggling from a business standpoint, but they're not going to have problems keeping things open. But I will tell you the lesson about Disney that I'm going to take this away from big corporate news, and I'm going to give a quick lesson about authenticity and winning in your professional life. When Disney stopped being about kids having fun and fantasy land and all the wonderful smiles and parents being happy because kiddos are happy.

And they started getting involved in pushing the social agendas. When ESPN stopped talking about sports and started getting into things outside of sports, their numbers are hurting. I'm not saying they're right or wrong for doing it. I'm simply saying the business cases stick to who you are as a business don't try to be cute with who you are as a person who are you authentically uh who are you as a business and trying to get cool trying to follow the uh the waves of culture you'll get burned is my point that's the bigger lesson yeah so there you go even from this zoom story their stock jumped 10 after the layoff news well of course because the investors say yay you cut expenses but what about all those people i appreciate the 16 weeks of salary yeah when the health care did you see google's layoffs their perks i mean when they left i was like these people could

retire today just off of those but that was still still, as you know, Google just laying people off in the middle of the night. The way they did it was not cool. So a lot of leadership lessons to be learned here. Be careful. Oof. All right, let's go to New York City. Miranda is there. Miranda, how can we help?

Hi, how are you? We're having a blast. What's going on with you? So I'm a new listener to Dave Ramsey, and I just started listening to the radio show here just to kind of keep my financial guru helping me get out of debt. And I have a little bit of a unique situation. So I have about $47,000 in debt, which is all fertility debt that me and my husband, you know, happily I'm about five and a half months pregnant now. We accumulated. And some of it is on zero interest credit cards and some one that is, is an 11% fertility loan. But the unique thing is I, when we, when we first began this journey, I had money that was tied up overseas in Europe. And since then, I was able to

untie that money up. So I have about $151,000 saved. So my husband said, you're crazy, pay off your debt. And I feel that I just got that money back. So I'm hesitant to do so. When I'm listening to Dave, he does the debt snowball, list your debts, you know, smallest to largest, and, you know, kind of work through the debt snowball. So I had wanted to work my debt snowball, and, you know, my husband thinks that's crazy when I have the money sitting in a bank earning, you know, 3.3% interest.

We're both professional people here in New York. I would say our household income is about $166,000. We have a home that we purchased, and we're currently renovating it. We're cash flowing the renovation. We do have a mortgage because in the tri-state New York area, you cannot purchase a do have a mortgage because in the tri-state New York area, you cannot purchase a home without a mortgage. And our goal is really just to kind of, you know, pay down the fertility debt. So based on what I'm telling you, I just wanted to know what Dave's advice would be based

on, you know, his plan. What other debt do you have outside of the medical debt? That's it. So Miranda. It's just, it's fertility debt and then a mortgage, which we have about like 390,000 left on. So Miranda, George is going to tell you what Dave would say, because George says it just like Dave, just a little bit different. But I'm just really curious, very quickly, what is scaring you about using some of that money you just got sent back over to you? Because I think this is fear-based.

I think you're reluctant to let go of it for some fear-based reason. Am I right? Yes. What are you afraid of? I'm afraid with the baby coming. And when I go out on maternity leave, I will not have an income. And, you know, children are expensive. And I'm afraid, you know, you were just talking about layoffs.

And God forbid my husband loses his job. And, you know, my income. All right, well, let me get George in here real quick. Miranda, pay off the debt today and you'll never look back. You won't regret it. You still have six figures sitting there. Still. Kids aren't $100,000 a year expense.

So just lay it out in the budget. It'll become a line item, and you'll be just fine. You have so much money, and once baby's here and healthy and happy and you've got the budget figured out, let's throw the rest at the house outside of a six-month emergency fund, and you'll be sleeping a lot better at night. Congrats on the baby. Your husband needs to hear this because very few husbands hear this.

Honey, you were right. Tell him that today and pay it off. Thank you for the call. Congrats on the little one. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by George Kimmel. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. Our scripture of the day comes from Matthew 5,

verse 16. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Our quote of the day from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. George, do you even know who that is? Absolutely. Tell me about Kareem. One of the greatest basketball

players of all time. Wow! He is growing, folks, right right here before our very eyes it's only because i've seen space jam too many times that's true uh the quote from kareem i think the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice he's a deep thinker played for the great john wooden uh fantastic stuff hey um george um you, prices on everything seem to be continuing to, you know, we hear a little bit about it slowing down, inflation slowing down, but it doesn't feel like it, does it? No. And we're here to help figure it all out. We are getting back on the road again this week, Building Wealth Live, coming back to a city near you, Indianapolis, this week, Thursday, February 16th. That's Thursday night, February 16th.

Dave Ramsey, George Campbell, Rachel Cruz, and Jade Warshaw. And then the following week, February 23rd, Dave Ramsey, myself, John Deloney, Jade Warshaw in Austin. On April the 24th in Salt Lake City, Dave, Rachel, Christina, and George. And then the final stop, May 2nd, Anaheim, California. Dave, myself, John, Deloney, and Christina Ellis. Tickets start at $49. And it says here that Indianapolis is almost sold out.

I believe it. It feels like you just need to do one Instagram post, George. That's all it takes. And it'll just go. Well, here's the thing. We do these events, and then the next day after, they'll go, when are you coming to Indianapolis? I'm like, we were just there.

Yeah. Where have you been? It's a big world, George. Pay attention, folks. All right, so to get your seat for only $49, ramsaysolutions.com slash events, ramsSolutions.com slash events. There you go. All right.

New York City, again, love going back to the Big Apple. Casey is there. Casey, how can we help? Hey, George. Thanks, Ken, for answering my call. I do 100% agree with that quote from Kareem of Dujabah. Yeah. My question, I'm having a bit of anxiety in making this decision. My wife and I

are both career employees in the healthcare industry. We live in New York, high taxes, a little bit of a toxicity in the workplace. We made about 300K in the last two years. We're looking to move down to Georgia. However, the pay difference is huge and significant. How much different? We're looking to take almost $100,000 paycheck for household. I'm not sure if it's the right move or not. $100,000 pay cut? So you'll be going to $200,000 a year? Correct.

Okay. And where in Georgia? Because I lived in Georgia for 11 years. I'm somewhat familiar. What area? It would be around the Gwinnett County area. Yeah. As a matter of fact, that's the county that I lived in, Gwinnett County. So doing the same type of work? Doing the same type of work, correct. Okay. But each of you making significantly less. Have you looked at the cost of living there? Have you looked at homes, rent, mortgage, the whole nine yards? rent mortgage yes those those definitely georgia pans out a bit better um than of course new york

so those have not in fact they're just looking at salary numbers that is what it's costing me right so if you adjust everything um and george i want you to jump in here you know the cost of living i mean your expenses are going to go down, I would guess, pretty significantly, yes? Yes. All right. Do you own a home in New York now? We do. And what would you make if you sell that house?

Currently, about $350 left on the mortgage. We'll make about $575. If we sold it, that's what the agent is saying it will possibly sell for. We were also looking at the option of possibly just renting it until at least the first year until we settle down there. I wouldn't recommend that because that's a headache for you. Long distance landlord while you're trying to settle into Georgia is going to be a tough, tough one, man.

I'd sell that. And you need the equity if you're going to be. Yeah. I would just sell it and just park that money, rent for a year, get used to the area, and then you'll know where you want to live. What size house, what price range are you looking at in Gwinnett County? With four kids, we're looking at roughly a four to five bedroom. Yeah. How many square feet, though?

Something small, not big, less than 3,000. Yeah. How many square feet, though? Something small, not big, less than 3,000. Yeah. I'm going to look that up, George, while you give him some advice, because I think it's a good move. To put some real numbers on this, we have an incredible cost-of-living calculator that you can get on our website, and I'll have the team put that in the show notes as well as the YouTube description. But it will break down exactly how much you need to make going from New York to the Atlanta area. And you can even adjust the housing, utilities, food, transportation, healthcare, lifestyle, all of those costs. And it will tell you exactly what you'll need to live. But I'll tell you, just based on the numbers you're sharing with me, you can have a great life in Georgia making 200

grand. But emotionally, it feels like you're taking a huge step back because you're losing $100,000, which feels crazy. But remember, if you move from Georgia to New York, you'd need to make another $100,000. And so it goes both ways. It just hurts because you're moving backwards on paper, but you're really not. All right. Just to give you one idea here, George, just to give you some numbers. I love doing this real time. This is just one house. It's a very nice looking house. Four bed, three bath, 2,783 square feet in Grayson, Georgia. And I can tell you there's good school systems there. I'm telling you, I know this, my man. Oh, is that right? Oh, that's crazy that I...

Ken nailed it. I can't believe I just got lucky on that. What's the cost? $439,000. God bless the South. That's all I got to say. So if he sells his house, he makes $575,000, they pay it off, he could put a really nice down payment on that, and you can really run those numbers and see what that looks like.

You're going to be in great shape. Because think about it. Your mortgage is going to be way less. Your cost of living is going to be way less. Everything is going to shrink down. And so another thing you've got to do is we'll send you EveryDollarPremium, our budgeting tool, and start to lay out these numbers and lay out some different scenarios and go, all right, our income is $200,000.

Here's what the numbers could be. Here's our limits. Here's what we're going to have to adjust. Here's the sacrifices we might have to make. Or you might find, wow, we got more wiggle room than ever before. And we're going to pay off this house within a few years. And our incomes are only going to go up. And so I want you to be optimistic about this move. I personally feel great about it. Awesome. Quick last question is, would you recommend rent for a year, then buy or go ahead and buy when you're down there? Well, if you're going to buy, you better be making at least a trip or two to the area, get to know the areas, and really feel it out.

Otherwise, I'm just going to rent a house for a year. It's going to hurt because you're paying rent when you have a pile of money, but you're going to move with a lot of peace and wisdom when you go to buy that house. Instead of, we bought a house, we weren't really doing our research, now we want to move again. That's a pain. Casey, I will tell you, when I moved from Gwinnett County, a little place called Suwannee, Georgia, back up here to work for Dave in 2014, we rented for two years. And we did it because the first year we were guaranteed, we were going, we're going to just get a lay of the land, figure out where we want to drop our roots here in the area. Well, year one got close and we were like, we're not ready to buy financially. So we took another year and it's the best decision we ever made to rent for two years.

So either way, George is right. You better spend a lot of time in Gwinnett County, all over realtor.com, which is what I just did. And you can get a real good idea. And work with a real good real estate pro. You can find that at ramseysolutions.com as well. They're called endorsed local providers. These are real pros that we trust. They sell hundreds of homes a year.

It's not your brother-in-law who just got his license. And they'll be able to help you find the right place. They know the area and help you get a good deal. But But George, there's just something about 12 months in a place. You're going to get a real feel for the place. I want to know where my favorite restaurants are, what the grocery stores are. Yeah. And you don't know that no matter how many weekends you go down to visit. That's a very, very good point. And I love the idea of renting. Yeah. And he's going to stack that cash and you never know what the real estate market's going to do. You just don't know.

That's true. So what are you hearing about real estate? You got a real estate reality check? It's a little bit dry out there for the folks because of interest rates. And so I think once we see the Fed bring the interest rates back down even a touch, people will get frenzied again and get excited. And we're going to see real estate tick back up. But as far as home values, the crash ain't coming, folks. It's just not happening. It's just cooling down for a little

bit. Yeah. All right. That's my hot take. So if you're ready, buy is what I'm hearing from George Campbell. That's my advice always. Don't time the market. When you're ready, go for it. I love it. Good stuff. Always fun to be with you, my friend. You too. Thank you, sir, for a great hour. Hey, I want to thank James and the entire team behind the glass for keeping us on. And to you, America, thank you for listening. This is your show. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ken.

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. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com and click get started.