The Ramsey Show - App - Where Do I Start When It Comes to Investing? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 5, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. Sitting in for Dave, I'm John Deloney, joined with my good friend and best-selling author, Anthony O'Neill. We're taking your calls on life and money and everything in between. Anthony, how are we doing? I'm doing well, man. Excellent, excellent, excellent. Let's go.

You know what? Before we go to the phones, Anthony, how's your podcast doing, my man? It's doing great, bro. You're funny right now. I man? It's doing great, bro. You're funny right now. I mean, it's doing good, man. I'm grateful for just everything that it's doing, man. So we can talk about it, man. I want to get to the phone lines. Let's go there.

All right, all right. Let's go to Shanley in Honolulu, Hawaii. Shanley, how are we doing? Happy 11th Friday. And also with you. I'm doing good. Good, good, good good how can we help um okay uh real quick just a little background my husband and i um were married i am four months

four months pregnant with my first child or our first child um we haven't started the baby steps yet for dave ramsey so we're not on the program just yet, but I follow Dave Ramsey on Instagram. I watch his videos. And so I have like the general knowledge of his program. Um, my husband and I, we, we do agree on one thing that we, we need to get out of debt. And it meant you, you guys earlier with, um, the Christie answer to Christie about, we share our debt and we share our income. So we agree on that too yeah but um we also just come from different backgrounds so we kind of see money differently and we spend it differently and have different ideas of how we save it as well but we we know

we need to get out of debt like as soon as possible um so i was trying to think like you guys and get all my questions answered thinking like d Dave and Chris Hogan and Mayo and all you guys. And the only question I, not only, but kind of one of the big things that stood out that I need help with before we get started in the program is my husband. He resells shoes. So he's like in the shoe game and hacking. I don't know if you guys know what that is.

Absolutely. Yeah. He's on the shoe game and hacking. I don't know if you guys know what that is. Absolutely. Yeah, he's on the app. It's also a hobby. Like he loves to do it. He loves shoes, Nike shoes, Adidas, all that. But he likes to buy and resell them. He uses credit cards often

and I know Dave Ramsey program is anti credit cards. I'm a little more pro debit card or checking account. I feel better using money. I know I have. But he likes to use the credit cards because he gets cash back as well. You know, we have like Rocket 10.

We get cash back. But I just don't know how his shoes, like reselling, fits into the program. If we did get started. And we just have a lot of debt that I'm like, we, I just need to get started already before we have a child and just more debt and all of that. Yeah. You're absolutely right. And I would love to have a conversation with your husband.

I wish he was there. Is he there? Yeah, he is. Yeah. Put him right next to me. Yeah. Put him on. He's right next to me. Yeah, put him on. Put us on speakerphone. He made you call.

Come on, man. Well, I'm the one that's like, I want to do the program. He's not anti-Dave Ramsey, but he's also like he wants to understand it and have a clear path before we get started. That's good. Yeah, I'm not going to talk to him about his shoes. I want to talk to both of y'all. Put him on speakerphone. Okay. Let me know when y'all are'all. Put him on speakerphone. Okay.

Let me know when y'all are on speakerphone. We're on speaker. Okay. What's y'all's last name? Her last name is Anja Mawa. Samoan. Samoan. Samoan.

I'm just going to say brother and sister then for right now. All right. Here's the thing, man. I'm not even going to talk to you about your business. I want to talk to you about you being on one accord okay I think that YouTube if you're going to say hey we're going to get out of debt you can't build debt if you're racking up other debt okay you can't you can't get out of credit card debt you can't get out of build debt if you're racking up other debt, even for the business.

So I think before we can address the business side of things, bro, I think you and your wife need to get on the same page. Bay is our end goal to be 100 percent debt free. If that's our end goal, then we both on both sides are going to work towards that end goal. And that end goal means we can't have credit cards because we want credit card points and we want reward points. Because what's going to happen, bro? I'm going to be real with you as a brother to brother. OK, something's going to come up. That's not an emergency. What you're going to do is put it on the credit card because it's convenient.

So what I want you to do is before you cut up anything because this ain't about cutting up i want you and your wife to get on the same page when you two get on the same page then backtrack that all right what are the steps we need to be doing to get to that goal and if that goal is to be 100 debt free you need to cut up all your credit cards still run your business because i know you can make money flipping shoes. I'm with you on that part. But how do we cash flow that and build cash from there? I'm not coming for you because you're the man of the house. I respect the king of the house.

I'm just saying, yeah, yeah, yeah. As the king of the house, just make sure that you and the queen come together on the same message. And y'all go after the same goals, man. So here's what I'm going to do for you, okay? I'm going to give you two things. One, because I like giving away my stuff. And two, because I like giving away other people's stuff. Just don't give away my stuff.

Not going to give away Anthony's stuff. Not going to do that. He charges me for it, guys. It's just the way he rolls. All right. So the first thing is, when's your baby due? July. July.

All right. Oh, yes. So I'm going to give you guys a ticket to the digital date night, the money and marriage event that's coming up with me and my good friend, Rachel Cruz, Dave Ramsey's daughter, on February 12th. And we're going to send you a – you're going to be able to have this date on your own couch. You're going to prop your feet up. And we are going to walk you through some things that are challenging couples and marriages across the world right now.

The last year and a half has been a zoo. And how y'all can come together practically with your money right now. And the second thing I'm going to give you, because I love you and I've got faith in you. Are y'all all in? Yes. Tell me you're all in. All right. I'm going to give you a year subscription.

A whole year? A year subscription. Oh, you good today, bro. To Ramsey Plus, which is all of the Financial Peace University, all of the videos. Y'all are going to watch them together. You're not going to just sit there. You're going to do it together. And it's going to come with a year's subscription to the EveryDollar app.

So y'all can be together in your finances. No hiding, no cheating, no nothing. You're going to be together. And listen, you're going to work real hard together, coming together. You're going to build a marriage that no one around you has. You're going to be the light on a hill for your friends who are married, and that baby is going to come into a marriage of peace where y'all get to laugh, y'all get to play, y'all get to be silly,

and you're not going to be pacing the floors every night wondering how we're going to pay our bills. Okay? Are you all in? Amen. Thank you so much. We're all in. I want to be that person with the board that says we're dead free with with our money and there's two thank you so much two people

between you and that goal and it's y'all too okay those decisions start together they start united and they start today see couples like that you hear hear them, oh yeah, let's go. What? Huh? Yeah, I want to be that person. That's who we want calling in to the Dave Ramsey Show. Um, I'm, we, a whole family tree is about to be different. About to be different. Because these two are going to stand up and do it different. I'm proud of them.

You have a good heart, John. Huh? You have a good heart, man. I just like giving away Dave's stuff. I see. 888-825-5225. Give us a shout. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I've been telling you for years that credit monitoring is a complete waste of money. It makes no sense to pay for something you can easily do yourself for free.

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That's Zander.com. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm John Deloney with my good friend Anthony O'Neill. Give us a shout at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Talking about life and money. When it comes to making big life changes like buying a home, getting married, having a baby, the last thing on your mind is making sure you have, drum roll please, the right insurance coverage. I get it. Big changes are overwhelming, but what would be even more overwhelming is to find

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to 33789. All right, let's go to Jonah in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jonah, what's going on? How can I help? Hi, thank you for taking the call. Jonah, what's going on? How can I help? Hi, thank you for taking my call. Can you hear me all right? Absolutely, man. What's going on? Perfect. Perfect. So I am receiving about $20,000

from my grandmother here soon. Thankfully, she has been staying with me since I was born. So very grateful for that. Right now, I have about $3, so very grateful for that. Right now, I have about $3,000 in credit card debt, and then

I've actually grown a portfolio of about 150 things. I have about $10,000 in that account, but I've kind of done it in a way that I'm not too proud of. I actually don't have any emergency funds right now.

So all of mine are cash. I don't have any cash, actually. So my goal is essentially to be financially free, and I want to make sure I do this right because I don't necessarily have the most job security. So I'm trying to kind of do what I can with what I have. How old are you, Jonah? I will be 25 in March. Okay, 25 years old.

Okay, you're getting a heritage check for $20,000. I have a fiancé and one son as well. You have a fiancé as well? And a son. We have 16 of them. Okay, and you have a son as well. Mm a son. He has a 16-month-old. Okay. And you have a son as well? Mm-hmm.

All right. Sounds good. So you're 25. You're about to get married. You have one son. And you are $3,000 in debt. And I think you said you built a portfolio of how much? It's at $10,000 right now.

Okay, cool. And then you have a $10,000 right now. Okay, cool. And then you have a $20,000 check coming in. Okay, so I'm not really worried about the inheritance check right now. I want to talk to you about what are you doing as far as in creating a solid foundation for you? What are you doing as far as in a career right now at 25? So currently I have a 29-year-old job at a super place. I graduated with a five-degree degree. I'm working towards going to grad school.

With that, specifically, I would like to teach as a professor. Aside from that, you know, I've been applying, actually, for a couple years, and I've had no luck so far. But in the meantime, we are here. I'm actually in Morgan Conference again. We are trying to set up a community resource center here focused on arts and kind of operating as a cooperative for creatives and also for people. We're just providing opportunities for community connection and all that.

So, yeah, We have prospects and plans and goals. Here's the very first thing I will tell you, ma'am. When you get this inheritance check, I will go ahead and pay off all your credit card debt. Then when it comes to your portfolio that you're

building, you're not really in a place yet to be investing because you don't have a job, a stable job right now. And so for me, I will be focused on getting you a stable job with stable income, especially what you about to be a provider for a family. You have a wife and a kid that's about to, you know, be moved about to move in with you. I'm looking for a job and and I'm even looking at, OK, is school right for me right now? OK, that's the kind of questions that I'm looking for a job and and I'm even looking at, OK, is school right for me right now? OK, that's the kind of questions that I'm asking myself.

I'm what I'm doing is I'm stepping back and I'm looking at the next 20 years of my life. Where do I want to be when I turn 45 years old and how do I get there? Do I want to be a good father? Do I want to be a good wife? I have a good father and a good husband. Do I want to be a good father? Do I want to be a good wife? I have a good father and a good husband. Do I want to have a solid job? And once you answer all these questions, then, John, he needs to work backwards right now. I mean, but you got this $20,000. That's great.

Pay off your debt. Then what I would do is set aside the rest of that money so you can cash flow your wedding that you have coming up. And honestly, man, I'm not spending no more than $2,000 to $3,000 for my wedding. This is a, you don't have the money for a big wedding. Yeah. Knock it out. Get it done. You need an emergency fund.

You got a little one. You got to have some cash in the bank. And then, like Anthony said, you got to start hustling. I know you have a dream of being a professor. That's a hard job these days. They're getting rarer and rarer to come by. What I don't want you to do is go to grad school with this dream that's going to come true seven years from now. Get one job, two jobs, three jobs, and start socking some money away, man.

Good stuff. Good deal. Let's go to Andrew in Houston. Andrew, how can I help, man? Hey, thanks for having me. So a quick back story. Been a huge fan of all y'alls for a while now. Took the debt-free freedom class nine years ago.

Got married nine years ago. Nice. I was making $15 an hour. Didn't know anything about money. And after I took that class, I started working towards just understanding money. And now, nine years later, I'm making over $100,000 a year. My house is paid off. My house is paid off. My cars are paid off.

Yeah. Way to go, man. It's been a journey, but got there. Now, you know, my question is I've got 80 grand in the bank. I don't want to buy a new car. I feel like that's a waste of money at this point in my life. I want to invest. new car. I feel like that's a waste of money at this point in my life. Okay. I want to invest. I'm thinking real estate.

I'm trying to stay away from stocks, but I wanted to hear from you guys, see what you thought. Yeah, talk to us, man. What do you have invested right now? Are you doing like a 401k? I don't have a 401k. I do have company stocks that bust every year. Okay. But no, nothing other than that.

Do you have a Roth IRA? I do not. Okay, cool. So that's where we're going to start. That's going to be the foundation. You have $80,000 in a bank. What I'm going to do, I'm going to hang up the phone for myself. I'm going to call a smart investor pro.

I'm going to let them know that, hey, I want to invest. Now, before we ask this, $80,000 in the bank, your household income is about 100. So that means you need about 25K for an emergency fund. All right. So we're going to take that as 60. So you're going to have $55,000 that you can invest.

All right. What I'm going to do is the very first thing I'm going to go into my office tomorrow. I'm going to say, hey, if I can start opening up investing into a 401k, do y'all have a traditional or a Roth 401k there?

I haven't even looked into it, to be honest with you. I'm not sure. Cool. That's what I'm going to look into. I'm going to look in and see if they have it. So, when it comes to investing, it's three things, Andrew. Number one, it's going to be a match. We always look for how we can get the match. Number two is going to be a Roth. Number three is going to be traditional. Okay. So if your company has a match, I want you to invest up until that match. Then you're going to come go over and invest into a Roth IRA. Okay. So as soon as you hang up the phone, you have $55,000 that you can invest, call an investor, let the investor know, Hey got money cash money real money fifty five thousand dollars in real cash money that i want to invest what should i do the very first thing you're

investing into is a roth ira make sure that they get invested into a growth stock mutual fund and then you can open up other mutual funds or you can leave that there and then stack that money to now get into real estate but right, you want compound interest working into your favor. Once you have that all situated, then yes, we can start looking into real estate. We can start looking into land. But right now, let's do the foundation so you know for sure you have some compound interest

and matches working on your side. Then you can call us back. And I would say call back and holler at Dave because Dave is the king when it comes to real estate, man. And Andrew, I heard it in your voice. You're right. It's not sexy. There's not going to be fireworks. It's not as cool as going to buy a rent house or taking out a mortgage on a rent house. Slow and steady. You've done it over nine years. Now you are making a phone call that says, I've got no mortgage and 80 grand in the bank.

You're doing things that nobody does. Keep taking the small steps. The tortoise wins every time. Yeah. Good for you, Andrew. 888-825-5225. Give us a shout. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

I'm John Deloney with my good friend Anthony O'Neill. And I'm excited that there are two beautiful people standing on the debt-free stage here in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. David and Sonia from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. How are we doing? We're doing great. We are good. We're glad to be here. So you are debt-free. We are.

That is correct. Outstanding. All right, so how much have you paid off? We paid off $132,131 in five years and one month. Five years. Oh, this is a grinding one, right? Yep. Y'all grinding.

What was your range of income during this time? We started off at $62,000 and we ended at $150,000. Woo! Why the jump? How'd you do that? Changing jobs and then she was out of the workforce for a few years with our three kids at home, and then she got back into the workforce again. So, David, was this 132, 131?

Was that student loans? Yes. That was student loans, medical, car, and our house. You paid off your house? We did. You're weirdos. You're crazy. Weirdos.

Yes. Fantastic. How old are you two? I am 34. I just turned 33 this week. Y'all are millennials. Yes. With a paid-for house.

Yes. See, Dave should be here today. Tell me why. Because, you know, he needs to see millennials doing this. Nope. We're going to take it all for ourselves. This is awesome, David and Sonia. All right.

So take me back five plus years ago. Something rattled the cage that set you on this journey. What was it? We took FBU September 2014. At that time, we had a six-month-old and we had an 18-month-old. We had two kids 12 months apart. So we had two kids in diapers. We had one on formula.

The fact that you can remember a date from that time is remarkable. Oh, yes. It was crazy times. So at that time, I was teaching. David was working at a different job at the time. I was working as a CNC programmer. Wow. I thought you were going to say CNC Music Factory.

Okay, and so then what happened? It just was one of those things where I think every time I came home from Target, I think his blood pressure went up a little bit more every time. And quite honestly, I wasn't spending crazy money on foolish things. Like I was paying for diapers, and I was paying for formula,

and laundry detergent, things like I was paying for diapers and I was paying for formula and you know laundry detergent things like that and he was just like I mean he was just stressed out and I didn't like to see him that way and he kind of brought it to my attention he's like I think we should do this class and I'm like what do you mean like what kind of class are you talking about and he's like oh it's called Financial Peace University and I'm like oh and he was kind of discussing it and he's like oh it's called financial peace university and i'm like oh and he was kind of discussing it and he was like there's one actually in our area and you know it'd be once a week you know for eight weeks they had like child care included so like we could drop the kids off i'm all in i know i was super excited yes it was very helpful because yeah we had two young kids at the

time so who introduced you to the program um i actually found Dave on the radio when I was traveling back and forth from my technical school. Okay. So put me in your driving. Yes. You start imagining this conversation that you're going to bring up to a working mother of two half people, and you're thinking, all right, how am I going to do this? How am I going to do this?

Yes. Walk me through that moment of courage when you said hey what if you what about this um i i do not remember that what's uh out well played so long ago well played excellent so what was the key thing to getting out of debt i mean because this is a lot of money that you all paid off and it was a long time time it was it was um like i said when we first started we had the two kids um i was a teacher for a couple years um i went down to part-time and then we found out we were expecting again so we at that time i was teaching part-time and we knew when our third child came along, it's like, you know, was it really a point of me working when we were going to have three kids under the age of three in daycare?

So that was the time when I decided to step away from teaching and to stay home, and it was very much an adjustment, very much where I love teaching, I love children, but it was just one of those factors where something just had to give. So I did. I stayed home for probably three, four years. Four years. Yeah, because it was helpful for us that we had about $30,000 worth of just non-mortgage debt that after we had our third son or our third kid,

we were able to pay off that debt completely at that point. Wow, awesome. Yeah, so that was the beginning of October 2015 that we were debt-free. And for a while, we were just kind of, you know... Going along casually. Going along. And then, like, my income sort of kept growing.

And I'm like, what do you think about trying to pay off the house pretty quickly here? And I have to give her a lot of credit. Like, the last year, she was anything and anything. We're just going to throw out the debt. We're throwing out the house. We're throwing out the house nonstop. I think every time, like, he came home and he was like, oh, were you coloring on our chart again? I'm like, yeah, I just threw another $5,000 at the house we're throwing at the house non-stop i think every time like he came home and he's like oh were you coloring on our chart again i'm like yeah i just threw another five thousand dollars at the dot and he'd be like oh it helps that david does not spend literally any money

like he's just very like yeah he's like he doesn't need anything he's very yeah so how old are your kids now? Our oldest just turned eight this week. Our daughter will be seven in a week or two. And then we have a five-year-old. So tell everybody in just one sentence. You've changed the entire trajectory of their childhood. They're not going to know that stress.

They're not going to know that gritting teeth moment. What does that mean to you? I mean, it's awesome. When we were doing this, they were little. They had no idea what they were missing out on. Honestly, I really don't think they were missing out on anything. I felt like we were very normal. I don't feel like we were skating by.

We just didn't do anything very extravagant or anything yeah i mean we just we live pretty simple lives we're not very extravagant um you know some of our friends and we're kind of following us you know as we were paying off our house and um they're like i just feel like you're like normal people just feel like you're normal people. Ta-da! You're not normal anymore, right? You're not normal anymore. David and Sonia from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin paid off $132,000 in five years,

making $62,000 to $150,000 with three kids. Count it down for us. Three, two, one. We're God-free! We're God-free! Anthony, have you ever grinded something out, I don't even know if grinded out is the right word,

for five years to change everything. I mean, I have, but to hear other people do that specifically for them, you know, in a process of raising three small kids, uh, she wasn't working and they was like,

yo, we're just going to go gazelle intense. And I love how they kept the same gazelle intense from paying off their consumer debt and flip that over to their mortgage and so now that it's a young couple younger than you and i yeah do not have a mortgage payment so when they wake up and they see their kids and their kids say mom and dad can we go to disney world they can say yes and if they're saying no it's just because they don't want to go not because they can can't afford it. So they said so many things that are different and countercultural. They said things like, we're just simple people and we like hanging out with each other. Yeah.

We just decided to pay our house off. We just decided I'm going to stay at home because I want to. Right? Right. All these options and choices they made that fly in the face of you can only be happy if you have more crap. The more stuff you own, the happier you are. Right. The bigger the house, the more, the more, the more.

They just said, listen to this man. They started off making $62,000. That's a lot of money to some, but that's really not a lot of money. Right. Okay. And they said, you know what? We're just going to be good stewards of the resources that we have right now. And we're going to attack this debt and i believe it's because they were good stewards with this little

bit just the spiritual side of me saying is god trusted them with more and look flipped their money not just flipped it but doubled it to 150 changing their whole trajectory of their family tree and i loved what you said your friends are starting to say, huh, y'all don't look like people who have a paid-off house. Y'all are just regular old folks. Yeah. Started on the bottom, now they're debt-free on top. And we think paying off your house

comes from scratching a ticket or from money falling off a tree. It just comes from hard work day after day after day. You too, Dave and Sonja, are free. Congratulations. Inspiring millions right here on The Dave Ramsey Show. This is The Dave Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225.

Let's go to Josh in Tyler, Texas. Josh, what's going on, man? Hey, John. Hey, Anthony. How you guys doing? Good. How can we help, man? I am in a i'm not a matter of a pretty unique financial situation a blessing um but we're on step three b we're saving up for a down payment on a house very cool my wife's a teacher but my end is the unique part um i am a i'm a youth minister at a church, but I'm getting my master's program, and the program, my master's degree and the program that pays for my master's degree is also paying for our housing.

So we were going to go the traditional manual underwriting way, but we have no rental history. In fact, we only have two bills. And so my question is really, should I be still trying to get a manual underwriting way to go about getting a house? Yes. Or just have credit cards for gas only? Nope, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And Josh, I want to definitely thank you for doing ministry, man. I know exactly where you are and where you're coming from. Because before joining the speakers group here, I was a full-time minister as well within the gospel. And I had the exact opportunity, the same opportunity as you, to where I could, I had housing. I had a housing allowance. And so for you right now, the main thing is to, yes, reach out to Churchill Mortgage and just tell them your situation. And yes, they will help you get a home mortgage.

OK, and so what I would recommend is how much money do you have down to go towards a house right now? Well, we're trying to figure out what to do for the next year and a half. I'm in this program for a year and a half longer, and we will have, I think we're looking at $30,000 for a down payment for more than 25% down payment for a house. So you're going to have $30,000 in Texas? Oh, yeah, that's good. You can get you a nice little home out there for about $200,000, $225,000, $250,000 if you want to stretch it. And that's a beautiful home in Texas, oh yeah, that's good. You can get you a nice little home out there for about $200,000, $225,000, $250,000 if you want to stretch it.

And that's a beautiful home in Texas. I'm kind of jealous of the homes in Texas because y'all can get a 5,000, 6,000 square foot home for a quarter of a mil and that out here would cost us a million. And so I think that's a great route, $30,000.

And what you're doing right now is I will go ahead and call Church Hill Mortgage and just start building that relationship with them. Tell them, hey, my time frame is about a year and a half. Go ahead and allow them to pull your file and let them coach you on what you need to be doing, but right now just be renting and just pay off your stuff and just pay your light bills, your utility bills on time. Keep track of that. And you're going to be all right, man.

Trust me. I did that, and it was perfectly fine. All right? Josh, you married? I am. It's just me and my wife. How long have you all been married? We have been married, oh, gosh, almost two years.

Yeah, that's a number you got to know off the top of your head, man. Yeah, right. All right, so here's what I'm going to do. We've got a February 12th at 7 p.m. Money and Marriage livestream. Me and my good friend Rachel Cruz, I'm going to give you a free ticket to this event. That way you can have a date at home. You don't even have to go anywhere. Y'all can dream about what this home is going to look like that y'all are going to buy.

You can learn a couple of tips on how to stay married and connected in this madness season that we're in. And you can also learn how to deal with your money together. So hang on the line, and Kelly will get you hooked up. All right, let's go to Jack in Charleston, South Carolina. Jack, what's going on? Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on the show. Good to talk to you. You too, man. Thanks for calling. What's up? Yeah. All right. It's just sort of a general question I wanted to bounce off of you.

My wife and I, we owe about $418,000 on our mortgage. Okay. But we have a rate, a really nice rate at 2.375% for 15 years. We just refinanced. Okay. We don't have a ton of debt besides the mortgage. Hey, Jack, what's not a lot of money? Like how much debt do you have? I'm sorry money? Like how much debt do you have?

Yeah, how much debt do you have? The mortgage, $418,000. Okay, so that's it. You don't have any consumer debt? Well, you know, we pay off our credit cards every month, but there's nothing. We have all of our cars paid off. We have two kids in college and they're pretty much paid off with our 529 plans. So all that's in pretty good shape.

All right. So my question is, we have this joint investment account, which is basically just a bunch of mutual funds that are helped run by our financial advisor. And we have $770,000 in that account. Okay. So my question is, you know, we're making decent money on that. You know, it could be 8% to 15%, just depends on the year. Is it worth it to drain that account and pay off the mortgage where our mortgage rate is only at, you know, two and three, seven, five. Let me ask you this question. Do you have, what's your retirement situation looking like?

Any 401ks, any Roth IRAs? What's your retirement fund? We do. Okay. Give me those numbers. We do. Yeah, we have 401ks, my wife and I, and we also have a Roth IRA. And the total amount is about $2.5 million.

$2.5 million in both of those? Combined? All combined. Okay, cool. And then you have a $408,000 mortgage, and you say you have no consumer debt. And then outside of, what's your savings account looking like right now as far as an emergency fund? You pretty good in that area? Yeah, yeah.

So, you know, we have probably about $70,000 or $80,000 in savings or money that we can get to pretty quick without taking any capital gains hits. Great. So what I do is like right now, I am actually stacking money into mutual funds right now to go ahead and build my dream house in the next couple of years um after i get married and so when i find my house right i'm going to withdraw from my mutual funds and i'm going to pay cash uh for my dream home so in this situation which you already having 2.5 million dollars in your

retirement funds you already have a fully funded and invested fund. Yeah, I would say go ahead and pay off your mortgage today, all of it. And I still wouldn't leave you with another $200,000 inside of your mutual funds. What I would do is I would just hop on there and maybe look into, if you want to, I would probably look into buying maybe some more real estate and some more property to start creating another stream of cash flow for you. But to answer your direct question, because you are following the baby steps and this mutual fund, America, who's listening right now, you're probably saying, well, wait, I thought you shouldn't withdraw funds from your mutual funds. No, there's two different kinds. You have one

that's covered from retirement, which is a Roth. Then you have regular mutual funds that's just sitting there. You can withdraw for that because you're not withdrawing from your retirement. So I will go ahead and pay off your mortgage and then look into investing that, the rest of it as well, Jack. Such a great question, man. You and your wife are doing some extremely, extremely good stuff right now with your finances. All right, let's run to Rodney in New York. Hey, Rodney, we're up against the clock. Get right to your question, man. What's going on? Hi, John. Good afternoon, Anthony, too.

My question for you guys is my parents sat me down last week and told me that there's some money that I'm going to be taking over when I turn 25 later this year. But they've already started to throw hints around what I should be doing with it. And, you know, over the past few years as I started working, I've worked hard, I think, to set boundaries with my parents around, you know, what I'll be doing with my money and what freedom I'd like to have in making those decisions. Where's this money come from? Is it a trust? Is it an inheritance? What's it from?

It's money that they had set aside for me and put in just investments from when I was a kid, and I just never knew about it. So my guess is they want to give you some money, and you're going to become a marionette. Is that correct? I'm not sure what a marionette is. It's a puppet that's operated by strings.

That's kind of what it seems like. Yes. So here's the deal. If you take money from somebody and they want to tell you how to spend it, it's their money. Right? So I'm going to be very, very careful. Anthony, I'm going to be very careful before I accept money from other people or I'm going to have my own. I'm going to say, once it's mine, this is mine. And if people want to hold it over me, I'm going to say thanks, but no thanks.

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