The Ramsey Show - App - When You Get Out of Debt, Don't Go Back In! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 22, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Rick starts off this hour in Texas. Hey, Rick, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve, sir sir what's up hey so i'm in a situation where i just moved to a new

house and a new city and i'm a faithful giver to my church and my tithes but i don't have a local church and and i haven't um taking your program and i'm not real sure where you stand on should i be saving money until i find a home church and then tithing it all to them, or should I roll that money into my debt? Well, number one, when it comes to giving and tithing, there's a lot of grace around the subject with me. I do believe that the Bible teaches tithing, and I am a tither. I give a tenth of my income to my local church, which it sounds like you are as well.

I don't do that so that God loves me. I don't do that so that he blesses me. I do that because he instructed me that this is a really good way to live is become generous. And make that a part of the rhythm of your life. And I'm very convinced in the studies of the scriptures I've done over the last 30 years that that's a good way to do things. If you don't want to do it or somebody else wants to do it differently, that's fine. You're allowed to be wrong. I'm kidding.

It's okay. I'm not a Pharisee about it, in other words. So the point of the generosity is because God's trying to change us into a generous person, not because that church needs your money and not because God needs your money. That's why he teaches us to give. So if we lay that under the question, then that gives us a lot of freedom on how to answer the question. I would say, if it were at my house, probably, non-legalistically,

that that money is the tithe money, and so it would not go on debt. And so then the only question is, where do we give it while we're between churches? And I've been between churches a couple of times in my adult life and what i did in both cases was i just poured that tithe over into a little savings account and uh when i found my church i emptied that account into that new church okay that's what i was leaning for i was going to open an account yesterday but i wanted to talk to you and see where you stood on it. Yeah, but again, I wouldn't do that because Dave Ramsey said, do I just pray it through?

You think, you know, does that line up with what you believe Scripture says? If you understand the reason God has me to give is he's trying to change me. That's the reason. And then that frees me up to do a lot of different things with the money generosity wise um and by and large you know evangelicals we do believe that the local church is a new testament representation of the old testament storehouse bring all the tithes into my house it says in the old testament so um anyway all of that comes back to those of us some of you that aren't people of faith out there listening,

you're going, say what? Well, you're just listening to inside baseball here, boys and girls. It's okay. But anyway, you could do that. The other thing you could do, I've heard people do, is just as you're visiting churches, wherever you happen to land that week, just leave them a tithe for that week if you wanted to. That's a little more complicated, and you end up with 14 people giving you stuff for your taxes later, but either way is okay.

I would end up, if it's me, giving it somewhere because that's the intention behind it. Okay. That make sense? Thank you, Dave. Yes, sir. Thanks for the call, brother. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Kimberly's with us in Ohio.

Hey, Kimberly, how are you? I'm doing good. How are you, Mr. Ramsey? Way better than I deserve. What's up? I have a question regarding term life insurance. Both me and my husband have term life insurance through our employer, and then we also have dependent coverage on each other through each of our employers.

My question is, is it okay to only have life insurance through our employers, or should we have a supplemental coverage? And then how would you break up that coverage for the 10 times your annual salary? Are they furnishing that to you as a benefit or are you paying for it? Oh, we pay for it. Okay. Well, the first thing I would do is shop it because it's not always cheaper. So go to Zander Insurance and shop what you're buying against term insurance in the open

market and then that'll give you a piece of information to make this decision with as well. If it's cheaper to buy it somewhere else, it's kind of a no-brainer. We buy it somewhere else. The downside of having all your insurance with your employer is it is not portable, meaning when you leave the employer, you lose the insurance. And if you have had a medical event and have become uninsurable while you're there, then you won't be able to get insurance when you leave and you'll be without insurance.

And so that's the downside of having it all there. And so, you know, if you had a heart attack, a cancer scare, or you were diagnosed with diabetes, those would be the three big ones. You're going to have a real problem potentially with life insurance immediately following that diagnosis if you were to leave that place and try to go into the open market and buy insurance so i don't want you to be without life insurance so i always would have some outside of work and if it's cheaper or near the same price i just have it all outside of work for that reason but that's

the main reason does that make sense to you? Yeah. Cool. Thanks for the call. We appreciate you joining us. Ben is next. Ben's in Arkansas. Hey, Ben, how are you? Hey, Dave, I'm great.

How are you, sir? Better than I deserve, man. What's up? I've got a question about Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6. My wife and I are currently about to wrap up up baby step three praise jesus yay and good for you how long did it take you in regards it took us about to wrap up baby step three we are going on a year and probably four months or so out of debt and finishing in a year and four months oh no no out of debt i'm sorry about three years to wrap it all up okay perfect good good for you

okay which we we were good on our cars and so we just ended up selling them and buying some cheapos like you always recommend. Okay. Cool. So now you're going to get to invest. Good. We are, yes. And so in regards to investing and working on four, five, and six, I'm paying the house

off early. Okay. In the segment yesterday or the day before i think i heard you make a comment about maybe doing 15 and traditional until you pay off the house and then moving into a roth or did i misunderstand that yeah that was something else i don't know what you're listening to what when i would do is i would not do a rollover into a Roth while you're still paying off the house. That's what the question was. And the reason is it creates taxes.

And we don't need a tax bill while we're still trying to get out of debt. So I would roll to a traditional, then get the house paid off, and then roll that out to a Roth and pay the taxes on it at that point. But that's only a rollover. That is not new contributions. Gotcha. Okay. Does that make sense? Sounds good.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate you joining us. Open phones this hour. Common sense for your dollars and cents. God's and grandma's ways of handling money. Turns out it works. It's highly marketable.

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It truly has become an issue of not if, but when. That's why the only plan I've ever recommended is through Zander Insurance. I actually sat down with them and we put together a plan that I felt provided the best protection, but didn't waste dollars on things you could easily do yourself or were just gimmicks. The key is getting protected before you're a victim and it's too late. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. We are all at risk, and it doesn't make sense to wait. Numbers don't lie.

That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Rachel's with us in California. Hey, Rachel, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you for having me. Oh, my gosh. Like, I'm so nervous but so excited. Well, I'm honored to talk to you. How can we help? I was calling.

I had two questions. The first one is I'm going through financial peace alone right now. My husband doesn't want to go with me because he says that I'm the only one with money problems. And I was wondering how I can just get some advice on how to talk to him better or just actually get on this plan together because we are not. Yeah. Well, going through Financial Peace University when you're married without your spouse is very dangerous because you will come to think of your husband as inept in the areas that you learn about and decide that you want to work on because he is inept in the areas that you learn about and decide that you want to work on

because he is inept in those areas. And that's not a good thing for me to drive a wedge between you and your husband. So that bothers me. I'm a little worried about that. I'm also a little worried about a husband who would say something like that to his wife. If I said that to Sharon, like, you've got problems, I don't have problems, that wouldn't go well in a hillbilly household, I'll just tell you. Yeah.

I don't think she'd be as sweet about it as you were, because you just kind of wandered off the financial piece and went, well, okay. Sharon wouldn't have done that. It would have come out a little differently at our house. She's not a jerk, but she wouldn't react well to her husband treating her that way. So how long have you guys been married? This will be our fourth anniversary, and we have two babies, too. So, yeah.

Okay. All right. Well, your husband does not know how to be married. That's our problem. Because when you get married, you join everything if you want a high-quality marriage. And so it is impossible for you to have money problems and him not. And so sending you to be fixed as if you're a car that needs to go to the garage and be tuned up is not very husbandly. So if he called me and told me he did that, I would call him a jerk to his face and tell

him he needs to go sit down with his pastor or with a good marriage counselor and learn how to work with his wife. Now, how can you handle that yeah um i think we're gonna have to break through his arrogance because if there's financial problems in his house under his roof uh and he's thinks that they're all someone else uh he's arrogant because he's wrong And so I don't know how to do this exactly. Because right now I'm just kind of frustrated with him. I'm going to have to think about it a second. How old are you two?

I turned 31 today, and he is 34. Okay. And so you got married around the time he was 30. What's he do for a living? He's a stay-at-home dad at the moment. Okay. Well, that really adds to this equation, doesn't it? Yes. He's starting, like, side hustles with, like, selling food and doing other and doing other little side hustle things. It's just, yeah.

And what do you earn? I earn, you said earn? Mm-hmm. I earn 60. I'm a teacher. But I guess after taxes, it would be 5050,000, $48,000 to $50,000. All right. Well, I guess the way it would sound if we tried to do this a little more gently

and a little less sarcastic or caustic than I was earlier, it might sound like this, okay? I talked to a financial coach, and he told me that almost 0% of couples that don't work together succeed financially. Almost 100% of the 10,000 millionaires that we researched that were married worked together with their spouse. Very seldom, it's almost never happened statistically, that two individuals that are married operate as two separate entities

as if they're roommates instead of being married and become successful financially and build wealth. So running two different tracks inside the same marriage, inside the same household, does not lead to financial success. You follow me? Yes. And I think that's an important data point that is a fact, by the way. And so if we are going to be successful financially, we are going to have to work together. And even though you feel like you know all of this material, it would be good for our

marriage and our relationship and increase our chances of winning with money if we were aligned on how we were going to go about it, and that would require you attend this class with me. And if he says no to that, then you need marriage counseling. You don't need Dave Ramsey. Okay? Okay. Is there other stuff going on in your marriage too? Yeah.

Yeah, like, when you say the, what is it, get married and the wee-wee, kind of realize that, like, that really hasn't happened yet. Say that again? There hasn't been, like like a wee-wee? Yeah. Yeah, there's not a... Y'all are still operating as two separate entities, and that's what allows him to think that you have a problem

and he doesn't have a problem, because he doesn't see you as one. He sees you as two separate entities. And that's what I mean by he's off base on his understanding of how marriage relationships work. They just don't work that way. And that's not to say that you can't be all you can be as a professional young woman, and he can't be all he can be as an independent professional young man. That's fine.

That's not the point. The point is when we're married, we become one. And so that's what you guys have to work on. So I would work on your marriage more than I would work on your money, and I think you'll then lead back to going through Financial Peace University together. But I'm afraid if you go over there and learn a whole bunch of right things and he doesn't agree with those, that it's going to cause you to disrespect him even more, and I don't want that for you. I want you guys to get on the same page, okay?

Okay. Thank you so much. Hey, thanks, kiddo. You're going to be all right but you do seek some help with your marriage by the way there's no shame in that people who don't need help with their marriage haven't been married very long uh sharon and i about killed each other for a period of time there it was rough um our marriage counselor wore a referee's shirt and a whistle i mean it was you, it was bad.

And that was after bankruptcy. But anyway, and during bankruptcy, we about killed each other, too. She thought I was an idiot because I was, and I didn't like being called an idiot, especially when it was right. And so it didn't go well around our house. And we had to learn how to live together, learn how to be married. And it's just raising kids. They don't come with a manual. You've got to learn how to be a parent. how to be married. And it's just raising kids. They don't come with a manual.

You've got to learn how to be a parent. You've got to read Mac Meeker. If you're going to be married, you have to read people like Les Parrott and Emerson Egrich. And, you know, Love and Respect is a great one for you to read, by the way. That would be a great one for you to pick up and read right now, Rachel. All right, Brad is with us. Brad's next.

He is in Tennessee. Hey, Brad, how are you? Hi, Dave. How are you doing better than i deserve how can i help uh well we started the baby steps in january this year good and we have actually heard of you for a long time just never fully changed behavior so this january we started it and we've paid off four of 12 of our debts. Great. Paying off total since then $50,000. Great.

My question is, we have three very large debts that we are very upside down on, being wheels, and are wondering how we should approach getting rid of these. We've tried on all three, and it just seems like we hit a brick wall on all three of them when you try. Are they cars or what? Well, one's a fifth-wheel RV. We had got it. We thought we were going to go full-time RVing. It's still a possibility in our future. What do you owe on it?

A lot. What do you owe on it? $42,600. What's it worth? From what I've researched, it's only worth about $28,000 or $29,000. Okay. Can you borrow the difference? That's kind of one of the things I was wondering. Would you get a personal loan?

Yes. Okay. I would rather have a $10,000 loan than a $48,000 loan or $42,000 loan. And I'd borrow my way out of every one of these and reduce these debts, especially if they're that big to the point that you feel stuck on them. Maybe pick out one to keep, but that trailer is gone, dude. Thanks for the call. If you own or operate a business, particularly a small business, we're going to be doing an Entree Leadership Theme Hour in the next few days,

taking your questions about business, about leadership, hiring, marketing, whatever you want to talk about, about business. Our number one best-selling book, Entree Leadership, is our playbook of how we have grown this from a card table in my living room to a major national brand. If you've got a question in that, you want to be part of that Entree Leadership Theme Hour, just email me at daveonair at daveramsey.com. Put Entree Leadership or Leadership or something like that in the subject line.

Kelly will get back to you, and we will arrange for you to be on the air. We never tell you what to say. We just want to make sure we've got calls associated with that subject if we're going to devote the entire hour to the subject. You can talk about whatever you want to talk about. And I'll tell you, I'll talk about whatever I want to talk about, too. So it's a fair trade. DaveOnAir at DaveRamsey.com.

Put leadership or entree leadership in the subject line, please, and Kelly will get back to you. Chris is with us. Chris is in Virginia. Hi, Chris. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, thanks, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Good. Can you hear me okay? I can. Cool. So my wife and I called out of debt, got into Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6, fully funded emergency fund, good to go, found the house of our dreams, and then bought a $51,000 car.

So my question, should we pay off the car? I'm sorry. Wait a minute. You got out of debt, you built your emergency fund, and then you went into debt to buy a car? Yep, absolutely. Okay. Okay. So my question is, once we get to the point where we pay the car off, which should be March,

should we pull the money from the emergency fund and go back to baby step two, pay it off, $1,000, be done, or do I leave the money in there for my wife's security because she appreciates the fact that there's a pile of money there? Well, I don't know. Are you going to follow your plan or mine? That's a great question. I guess I'll follow your plan, then I'll take the money out and pay it off, right? Well, I mean, and then after that, are you going to go buy another car? No, no.

It was, I mean. What's your household income? About $150,000. Okay. Yeah. Well, I can tell you that when we do the Millionaire Theme Hour and we interview the millionaires and we ask them what their largest mistakes were, it usually falls in the category of what you just did gotcha okay just to let you know so uh you can impulse a candy bar you don't need to impulse a $51,000 car

right what i got it yep okay all right so i mean yeah, I mean, I guess you're on baby step two, aren't you? Okay. So I guess you would take it down to $1,000 right now. Okay. And throw it at the car if you were working our plan. Although it feels like it's a bit circular, obviously, because of the way this story's gone down. But it's not a bit circular, obviously, because of the way this story's gone down, but it's not a bit circular. It's completely circular.

But, yeah, that's, I guess. The thing is, I guess you and your wife need to sit down and decide what you're really going to do. And I'm kind of being sarcastic with you, but you guys need to both be on the same page, and you both need to say, this is where we're going to live so that if you try to do something like that again she smacks you sideways you know um or vice versa metaphorically speaking but i mean sharon doesn't go out and buy expensive stuff without talking to me i don't go out and buy expensive things without talking to her

we don't make decisions that reverse on values that we've set in place. For instance, we don't borrow money anymore. And so you guys have got to get aligned on that and both committed to that or you're going to repeat the cycle forever. And that's what you've got to figure out. Ian is with us in Georgia. Hey, Ian. Welcome to Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. Not debt-free, but we're working on it. Good. Got a question. My mom is 80 years old. She worked her whole life, and a couple years ago, the company she was working for went out of business. She had a little bit of debt, and so she worked out some things with her creditors, and it's been going pretty well, but she's reached the point now where she just can't live off. All she has is Social Security. We're helping her with what we can. So we're trying to figure out how to go back to her creditors and revisit. Bottom line is my wife's done the math more than I have. She owes a little less than $10,000 in debt. She just can't pay her bills and buy her medicine and live,

and we can't make up the difference. What is the debt? It's a little less than $ thousand on what on several different small creditors a couple of small credit cards uh she used to buy stuff off of hsn that was kind of her little her little thing and so she she has some some debt there yeah okay so ten thousand dollars worth of credit cards probably pretty much yeah it's all unsecured debt okay that's good news that's what i was asking and um is she has she been paying on all of it until recently she has and she's just gotten to where she can't buy groceries and and pay her credit cards so she's so she's got uh rent is how much well thankfully she owns her house oh is it free and clear yes okay and how much? Well, thankfully, she owns her house. Oh, is it free and clear?

Yes. Okay, and how much is her Social Security income? It's about $1,100 a month. And that's what she's trying to live on? Yes. She has no other income? No. How old is she?

She's 80. Okay. And she has no other money? We would love for her to move in with us, but that hasn't happened yet either. Well, I mean, obviously you sell the house, everything's gone in a heartbeat. But what is the – does she have any money anywhere in anything? No. No.

The only thing, she has the house, and it's over 100 years old, and when we sell it, we'll be lucky if we get anything for the land for it. I mean, she really has no real equity or anything like that. No other pieces of property, no items that would bring a few dollars? She has a few maybe trinkets. If we had a yard sale, we could probably raise a little bit with all the stuff she has in her house. That's what, okay. But I'm talking about like a $10,000 item that you just hadn't thought about. No, nothing that we know of, no.

Okay. What's her car worth uh her car is um i don't know probably about seven thousand um and i'm actually told me 27 i just sold it and paid her bill but i'm trying to figure out okay all right seven's okay we're not going to fool with that so okay here's's what will happen if she does not pay the bill. Right. Nothing. Okay.

Okay. They're not going to bother to sue her on debts that are this small. And if they did, the only thing they could do is take a judgment lien, and you can't lien Social Security income. Now, they would put a lien against her house but they can't they won't do anything with it if they did do that and that's if they went all the way to lawsuit and 90 something percent of the time on a small under ten thousand dollar credit card debt and each one of these is under 10 uh they're not going to bother with it because their legal costs are more than the stupid account is worth okay right so if she doesn't pay them

another dime she's what we call judgment proof okay she doesn't have anything for them to get if they file and get a judgment now that's not a good long-term plan and they will call her and pester her and they're going to give her a hard time and there's going to be a lot of emotion around this so it's not a great long-term plan. But for today, the first thing we do is keep the lights and the water on, a roof over our head, and we eat. Right. That's the first thing we do.

If there's any money left after that, she needs to start squirreling it away to start working settlements with these guys. And what is your household income? My income, well,'m trying thankfully working now between me and my wife probably 60 000 okay so if she is unable to pay her bill which is what we've outlined here she makes 1100 bucks she pays her lights and water insurance on the house puts food on her table there's not much left okay agreed right so if you declare and she declares emotionally and morally after feeding herself and taking care

of necessities only she's unable to pay the bill you quit paying the bill these debts are going to go bad okay right and when they go bad you can go back and you guys, you and your wife, can go through and work them and settle them for probably 20 cents on the dollar. Now, I don't suggest people go do that on purpose, but you don't really have a choice here. That's what she's going to do. She can't pay the bill. She needs to eat. I would never suggest you pay a credit card bill and not eat. That's morally wrong.

But if you can't pay the bill and it goes bad, then you go back and settle with them later. That's probably your best strategy at this point. And that's probably the direction you're going to end up having to go. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. So the way people nowadays judge if they are living sacrificially so that they can win, if they're living like no one else so that later they can live like no one else, is how old and junky their smartphone is. If you're really living sacrificially, you have an old junky smartphone, like one of the original antique iphones or

something right and um but once you've lived like no one else later you can live like no one else and give like no one else then that means you can buy the new one now the new ones though i i'm getting one because mine's about two years old i'm a multi-millionaire i can afford it shut up so but i'm getting one of the new ones and it's they're creeping me out it looks like a three-eyed monster y'all it looks like something from monster inc with the little three eyes looking at you and two eyes is like a normal thing but three eyes looking at you as a monster it's just creeping me out y'all i'm sorry but i'm going to call it the three-eyed monster i think i'm going to name the new ip. That's the Pro, right? The 11 Pro or whatever. I think it's called the...

It's the three-eyed monster. I still have the 6. You still have the 6. James still got the 6. So you're living like no one else. Yeah, totally. 6. How big is that?

It might be a 6S. 6S? It's like normal size. It's not the big one. It's not normal. Yeah, but I mean, it's tiny. It's not. No, no.

It's not like the old, old ones that are really small. It's like a normal size. It's not normal. Yeah, but I mean, it's tiny. It's not. No, no. It's not like the old, old ones that are really small. Okay. It's like a normal size. Okay. All right. Good. All right. Well, so there you go.

Producer James is living the life appropriately, sacrificially. He's got an iPhone 6. Wow. I'm impressed. Well done. Thank you. Very well done. But I mean, the three three odd monsters they're freaking me

out you know when they take a picture of you it looks like something from monsters inc is looking at you i don't think i don't think the iphone people thought of that in their design all they were doing is trying to get the coolest camera in the world built into a phone and so yeah and nobody's got like a real camera anymore got, you know, if people have a real camera, I mean, one in a hundred has a real camera walking around. They're usually, like, real photographers or something. So you can do everything with a stinking phone now. Jason is with us in Arizona. Hey, Jason, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave, how you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So we went through an ELP to get a shop around for insurance for home and auto. He ended up saving us $3,000 a year. Good Lord. Yeah. That's awesome.

When he told us that the bank that holds our mortgage would want us to take the refund we're getting from the home mortgage and pay it into escrow. You said they might want us to do that. The bank did say that that would be a good idea. That refund was $989. Last year, I was $120 short for property taxes on escrow. And I kind of want to put that towards paying off debt because we're killing baby step two right now so what's the smartest way to go about that okay so before you reduced your insurance bill by three thousand dollars you were 120 short for the year yes and now you've reduced it three thousand dollars yes sir so why is it that you should pay the $3,000 into escrow? I don't understand. No, no, no.

So we reduced what we were paying into insurance for home and auto by $3,000. And so we got a refund from, because we canceled the policy early, so we got a refund from the homeowners. And they want us to pay that refund into escrow just in case we're short at the end of the year. And the refund was not $3,000. The refund was $900. Refund was $900, yes. Okay.

The savings of what I paid during the year was $3,000. Okay. Well, here's how you can decide that. You don't want to come up short on the escrow. You did come up short last year. You can decide that by doing an actual calculation. How much are your taxes and how much is your insurance now? And will there be enough in there when they come due based on what they collect out of what's in there now

and what they collect out of your check between now and then. Okay? Okay. So you can do the math. So when are your taxes due in your town? I'm new to all this. It's been a couple of years ago, so I'm still trying to figure all this out. In a lot of places, it's in the fall.

In a lot of places, it's in the fall. So October, November, like right now, is not unusual. Okay? It's not necessarily true, but you can find out. Jump on the phone. Maybe you'll find Intelligent Life at your mortgage company, and maybe they can walk through this with you. But basically, the math is what you're putting in monthly out of your payment

for taxes and insurance, will there be enough in there by the time the bill is due for both of these or either of these, taxes or insurance? If you're going to come up short by $486, then you would send them $500, right? Yes, sir. Go ahead and make sure the account balance is out. But I have no desire to park an extra $1,000 in there that's not needed. Yeah, I'm with you there.

So how much was your homeowners and autos you saved $3,000 on? How much of that was homeowners and how much of it was autos on the savings? $500 a year on homeowners. Okay. So that's like $40 a month. Yes. on homeowners. Okay. So that's like $40 a month? Yes. Savings. Okay.

And you came out $120 low last year. If they have the proper balance in there, and if you already made that $120 up, everything's timed out, you really shouldn't have to put any money in there to cover it. Okay. Yeah, and we have twice as much in there now as we did last year at this point when we were in escrow, when we were 120 short. Jump on the phone with your mortgage company if you find somebody that's fairly bright and can walk through this with you on the math with what's in there versus when the pay dates are and what's going to be needed. But, you know, basically you've lowered your cost by $500, so you should be in the black without adding anything, unless the timing of the payments screws you up.

Okay. That's the only thing that could do it. And so that's what you've got to jump on the phone and figure out. So I wouldn't want to come up short, because they're going to want to jack around your escrow account and screw it up and everything else um i wouldn't want to come up like six or seven hundred bucks short because of timing and um but but also don't want to have an extra thousand dollars sitting there earning no interest forever because once it goes in there it's very difficult to get an overage out uh it's a process hey thanks for the

call i'm glad that the ELP helped you save $3,000. That's pretty stinking incredible. All right, Matt is in Tennessee. Hi, Matt. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, how's it going? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yeah, so I just started listening to you probably about a week ago, and I just finished your book this morning, actually. So it's gotten me thinking more about finances and stuff like that. So essentially my question is this. Me and my fiance are 23. We are completely debt-free.

About a month ago, we just got pre-approved for our first house. We have about $10,000 between us, which would go towards, you know, the closing costs and stuff like that. But my question is, do you think we should go through on getting a mortgage this young since we are completely debt-free, or do you think that we should, you know, stay renting and get a little bit more in savings? It won't hurt you to get a little bit more in savings. I don't care how young you are. It's all about the math and the process. I would never, under any circumstances, buy a home until you're married. Gotcha. Because all kinds of bad stuff can happen legally.

You get yourself into a real pinch. Because basically, from a legal standpoint, there's no romance involved in the law. And so from a legal standpoint uh you just bought a house with your roommate as a partnership and if your roommate decides to run off to oklahoma you own a house with a deadbeat roommate oh by the way your heart got broken in the process but um but the law doesn't care about any of that. So you've got a real stinking mess on your hands, and you're just getting the cart before the horse. There's no hurry.

When's the day? When's the wedding? Next April. Awesome. Okay. Why don't you buy a house this time next year and save money until then? Yeah. I mean, it definitely makes sense.

I know that we're kind of just in the beginning stages. All we've kind of gotten is fair proof. So I think my only real concern is, you know, having to run my credit again. No, whoopee. You're 23. You've got time. You'll be all right. Yeah, don't buy it with somebody you're not married to.

But if you want to buy April when you get back from the honeymoon, you could. But I don't mind if you wait a year and save up. It takes about a year to know how far from your mother-in-law to buy this is the dave ramsey show hey guys it's blake thompson senior executive producer for the dave ramsey show this hour's over but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rants, debt-free screams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to The Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.