The Ramsey Show - App - Where There's A Will, There's A Way (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you win in your life with your money, with your work, and with your relationships. The phone number to jump in, because it is your show, 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. And we're going to be here together with you this hour. Let's go to Boston, Massachusetts, George's old stomping ground.

Let's see if a little Bostonian accent makes its way into the advice. Chris, how can we help? Great. How are you, Ken and George? We're having a blast. I just heard it. I heard it in the way you said, George. That's beautiful. I love the Boston accent. Maybe a little bit. A little bit. So what's going on? So I have a question. I am currently a, my wife and I are network worth millionaires. I'm 45, she is 32. I'm struggling a little bit on kind of what's underneath that and the approach that I should take. So we have a house and we also have a second investment property on top of that, some student loans and a car loan. Um, just kind of curious, um, you know, essentially we're in baby step two and we do have an emergency fund of a little

bit more than a thousand dollars. I'm struggling with the emergency fund of a thousand dollars. If something major goes wrong and we need to repair the house, a furnace goes or a roof needs to be replaced, or, you know, something like that where, you know, we are net worth millionaires. So I'm just kind of looking for advice on the next step to take and whether or not I should sell my investment property potentially and get rid of all of the other debt underneath and just have my mortgage left. So I'm just kind of looking for some advice.

Yeah. Well, I'm glad you're on the plan. I mean, congratulations on being net worth millionaires at such a young age. That's an accomplishment. So tell me about these debts. How much do you have in student loans? So student loans between the two of us, we have about $37,000. And the car loans? $35,000, just one car loan. My wife has a car, but it's paid off. Okay. And your primary mortgage? The primary mortgage is $214,000. We do have a secondary of about $42,000 on the mortgage. The property's worth about $550,000 currently. Okay. The secondary, is that like a HELOC or a home equity loan? It is. It is. And that's actually, that's one of the main reasons why I'm looking to sell the investment property because the HELOC rates are just not favorable at all right now. And I'm guessing yours is variable, right?

It is. It is. It is. And then your rental mortgage, what's left on that? $40,000. And that's worth about $230,000. Okay, so let's play this out. You sell the rental, you would net how much? Like $160,000 or something? After taxes, I would net approximately like $160,000 to $170,000 after I pay taxes and the realtor fees.

Okay. And then from smallest to largest debt, we would pay off the car loan and the student loans, right? I would pay off the car loans, student loans, the condo, and the second mortgage and have everything gone. Yes. So that would leave you with, let's say 46 grand46,000 in savings. Let's call that your emergency fund. And I would add up what all those payments add up to. Between the student loans, the car loans, the rental, the second mortgage, are we talking $2,000, $3,000 a month that you'd have back in your life?

No, not quite. So between what I pay for payments now and what I would save, I'm looking at an extra like five or $600 a month in payments. What's your rental mortgage every month? Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm looking at it differently. So I'm looking at about two grand in payments. The difference between the two, it's about two grand in payments. Okay. So you just got a sizable raise with 2000 extra dollars a month back in your life. And for that reason, I'm doing this. And if you want to get back into real estate investing later on in life, it's totally fine. We love real

estate, but I would do it with cash and that's going to be a slower process, but it's also going to be a more peaceful process. Yeah, I think I'm done with the real estate world. I think, you know, at my age, I went through some health issues, was out of work for about four and a half years. And I'm back to work now, but I'm looking to eventually get into something that I love. I've actually been contemplating, you know, financial planning and being a financial coach. I've actually talked to Brad a few different times. So I'm looking to even potentially

downsize my job, so to speak. Do what you want to do. I'd love to help. Yeah, that's awesome. What's your current household income? I'm curious. It's about $2.25. Wow. What do you make of that? About'm curious. That's about two and a quarter. Wow. What do you make of that?

About 140. Okay. So what do you think the options are beyond financial coaching? Because that's a start from scratch. That's a hang a shingle. That's like really gutting it out. That takes time to build. Are there other things in the finance world that you're intrigued by? Yeah. I mean, I could always I could always be a, you know, there are a lot of companies that look for maybe a part-time controller or, you know, even, even bookkeeping, something a little bit more simple. You know, if I, if we downsize and all we have is this one mortgage left, you know, the funds don't need to be as great.

And we have about 650,000 in retirement savings as well. Good. Wonderful. Well, I would look at— We're on track there. I'm going to give you a couple things. I'm going to give you my Get Clear Career Assessment. It's a wonderful little tool. It's not a personality assessment. It's not at all.

It has nothing to do with personality. It's really about how you're wired. And I want you to take that. It's my gift to you. And I think it's going to really help you with some more clarity and maybe just a whole lot of confirmation and confidence. So I'm going to give you that. And then I want to give you the book, The Proximity Principle. It's the number one bestseller. And it's all about the right people in the right places to help you make that transition when you're ready to make it. And it works. The Proximity Principle works on

the front end in that before I confirm that I want to pivot to something different, I want to hang out with people that are in that world. So maybe an accountant, maybe a CPA, maybe a bookkeeper, maybe a financial coach. Spending time over coffee or a meal with all those people allows you to kind of do a high school level term paper on the good, the bad, and the ugly about these things. And it allows your heart to go ding, ding, ding, or the eh, and I want you to have those two gifts because I want you to have a smooth transition because financially, with George's advice, you guys are, boy, you're just going to have a lot of peace and a whole lot of opportunity to build. I agree. I agree. Awesome. Love it. Well, hang on the line. It's exciting. And we'll get you both of those to get clear

assessment in the proximity principle. I love the heart of this because we're now going, we're getting out of debt so that we have career options. We can do the thing we've always dreamed of. To do the thing he wants to do. And most people, they don't have the margin to do that. And point something else out. He has this insight because of a health issue that thankfully he got through. And four years of not working because of health, George.

I just want to point out to our audience, when you hear me talk, because I'm not the money personality, you're like, oh, why is that guy on the show? Maybe you say that. No one thinks that. Here's what I'm saying. Four years without doing work will get a person to a place of tremendous clarity on doing something that matters.

Have you ever talked to somebody who hasn't worked? And I'm not talking in retirement. I'm saying there was a stoppage of work. There's something about the soul, George, that craves to make a contribution. And I love how it led him to this point. And because of this financial opportunity and financial peace and the baby steps, he's going to be able to pursue it. That's how it all ties together.

Full circle. Yeah, really good stuff. Thank you for the call, Chris. All right, George, take us out in the Bostonian accent, please. Wicked sick show, dude. We'll be right back. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you,

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Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me. The phone number for you to jump in is 888-825-5225. So George and I always enjoy being together, love being together on the show. We really do. We have a lot of fun. Hope you can tell.

We call it camaraderie. Is that what we call it? You know how to spell camaraderie? The question I've got is after the C-O-M-R-A. Oh, you already lost me, Ken. C-A-M-A. Camaraderie's with a C-A, not a C-O. C-A-M-A-R-A.

Wow, I gotta tell you. It gets wild. I'm dealing with the reality that I'm not hooked on phonics. I thought I was and this moment has revealed that I'm not. But anyway, one of the things we were talking about during the commercial break is how much we enjoy when we have the live studio audience. Great crowd today. They've been so great.

And we love live events. We were just talking about how we miss doing all the live events. And so we've got a big one coming. In fact, it's a brand new one. And you may have heard us talk about it. If you haven't, George, what are we calling it? Total Money Makeover Weekend. May 10 and 11, right here on the Ramsey campus in our sparkling, spanking brand new, what do we call it? The Ramsey Event Center. Yeah. State of the art. State of the art. And this is a one weekend crash course on

everything we teach about money. Now, listen, we're all talking money. So if you come and go, all right, I'm waiting for Ken to give me a little career direction, well, we're going to sort of, but it's money, money, money. In a roundabout way. I'm going to be talking about how to become rich. Wow. Yeah. I might be in attendance for your talk. And some of you are going, yeah, we know, Ken, it's the baby steps.

Uh, it's something. Not so fast, Padawan. It's right. So that's all I'm going to reveal. It's actually a little bit more than that. And we're also going to be doing a live taping of your wildly successful runaway podcast with Rachel Cruz called Smart Money Happy Hour. And I'm going to see if my busy schedule will allow me to show up and sit in the crowd and have a sip.

To be fair, we can't stop you. Can I have a cocktail as well? We can't stop you from storming the stage. I'm not going to do that. It's not that exciting. If you rush the stage, you're on stage with us. So anyway, it's going to be great, great, great. A lot of fun.

All the Ramsey personalities, including Dave, as well. Don't wait to get your tickets. Our Platinum Plus tickets have already sold out, so uh-oh. Some of you waited too long for all that Platinum Plus-age. There's a lot going on there. I don't even know what that means. It's the whole kit and caboodle. They're going to be having a time at Dave's Barn.

There's a special private event there. Oh, but here's some good news. You can still get, according to this lovely piece of paper in front of me, you can still get Platinum or VIP tickets. Yes. So go to ramseysolutions.com slash events. What are you doing? Can you tease your talk at all?

I can. It involves multiple microphones. That's about all I can tease legally right now. So during your talk, there's going to be, that's all you'll tell me is that there's going to be multiple microphones. I'm very excited. It's a different talk. Any chance you'll juggle those?

No, not physically. Okay. But mentally, yes. Did you just give us a clue? Unintentionally? I won't be physically juggling. If that's a clue, I hope that helps. Well, you said not.

I said, will you be juggling? And then you said not physically. So now, you see what's happening at home, folks? They're doing some mental juggling right now. Boy, I tell you what. Let's go to Vicki so that we're not juggling, we're helping. Vicki's joining us in Salt Lake City. Vicki, how can we help?

Hey, I just was wondering if you guys might have some ideas or solutions as to how we can get out of our debt pothole that we've got into. I think we have a few. How big of a pothole is this? Well, from what I'm seeing with our credit cards and our HELOC loan is about, now it's about $109,000. What's on the credit cards? How much? What's the balances total? $30,000. And the HELOC is another $80,000? Yeah, pretty close. Wow. And that's all of the debt outside of your mortgage? Yes. I think we owe like $340,000 on the house.

What's your household income? I think it's $130,000. Okay. So what caused you guys to go $110,000 into debt between the credit cards and HELOC? Well, my husband bought the house before we were married and decided he was going to try to flip it. I don't like the word try to flip it in there. That scares me. Well, it's been two years now,

and we're still living in an unfinished house. Oh, boy. It's like a TV show on one of those channels about fix my flip or something. Flip or flop, one of those? No, it's like fix my flip, I think. Yeah, I think it's a flop right now. Oh, yeah? All right.

So what was the $110,000 spent on? So, obviously, we both have kind of like a spending problem as well, aside from deciding to flip the house. So tell me what kind of things are out of control on the spending side. Well, um... I don't know where I would even begin to spend a hundred thousand dollars on just stuff yeah was it just stuff accumulated over furniture a couple years lifestyle going out massages what was it because i think there's i want to get to the root of the spending addiction beneath it all um it's kind of a lifestyle thing. He's into like hunting and all that kind of stuff.

We all know that that stuff isn't cheap. And I like the girly girl things. And I did figure out a way that I can still get my nails done and not have to actually pay cash for it. How's that work? I got to know more on that one because I'd like to tell my wife. Trade work, I do sewing off to the side, and so I make clothes and stuff like that for my nail artist, and she does my nails in return. Okay, so it's a barter situation.

So it's a haggle. Yeah. Okay. Well, we're not going to be able to haggle our way out of $110,000 in debt. So here's the deal. Your lifestyle is about to be cut down to nothing. Yeah, I see it going that way. So no more gear.

In fact, we're going to be selling everything in sight that's not tied down on Facebook Marketplace. We're going to be doing our own nails. I was going to say that. She's got to paint her own nails. Now all this knitting's got to go to selling stuff. So make it 130. How much margin do you guys have outside of all these payments, the minimum payments on your mortgage, the HELOC, the credit cards? How much extra could you throw at these debts every month? Well, some good things happened in the last week um we did get our tax return which was 5 000 and we put all of that into the credit cards and we did actually pay off um i think

two credit cards good are you cutting them up closing the accounts yeah neither of us even carry the cards on us at all like we, we don't have access to them. So here's the key. You're going to make a budget every month. You guys are going to sit down, you're going to agree to it, you're going to stick to it, you're going to track all the transactions, and both of your goals to go, how much margin do we have at the end of each month to throw at the debt? And your goal is to increase that amount every single month. Make it a game. And go, all right, we were able to throw $2,000 extra on the credit cards this month. Let's try to aim for $2,100 next month.

And let's see what we need to move around in the budget to get there. Okay. And that means meal planning, hanging at home. We're not going to hunt. We're going to use anything we have at the house. We're not spending any extra money beyond food, utility, shelter, that's it basics okay and making 130 you guys can get out of this in a few years you know if you're think about it if you're able to put let's say 35 grand a year at the debt well guess what it's gone in about three years so now you do the math on that you go all right that's 2,900 bucks a month we got to to throw out this debt. You guys get that amount in your paychecks every month, right? Yeah. That sounds

doable for sure. And so I want you to set the goal that scares you just a little bit. If it feels like you're going to be able to hit it easily, you haven't set a big enough goal. There needs to, you have to feel the sacrifice where you go, Oh, we're really going to have to cut back to get three grand to throw out the debt this month, but we're going to do it. And I promise you, it will actually create a better marriage. You guys are going to communicate like you never have before. Yeah, I hope so. So hang on the line. I'm going to gift you guys Financial Peace University, watch all nine lessons together, and I'm going to gift you the every dollar premium budget.

It'll connect to your bank account. You can track the transactions. You're about to experience some serious life change. And I can't wait for you to call back and let us know how it's going. Yeah. Yeah. Especially the do-it-yourself nails. Now, you did say no more hunting, but now that he's bought this stuff, he needs to bring home some meat. Well, ammo is not cheap.

But yeah. But the savings on the venison and all those things, I mean, you fill up a freezer full of all that good stuff. Send Ken some deer jerky. How is it that you aren't hunting now that you're debt-free? You love to save money. No desire. I'm an indoor cat, Ken. I'm all good. We'll settle it on the break. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. This is where you come for advice on your money, your work, and your relationships. And we're so thrilled you're here. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me.

The phone number is 888-825-5225. All right, let's go to Christy in Fargo, North Dakota. I don't know why I went Carolina, but it is North Dakota. Christy, how can we help? Well, I have a question about paying for my son's college. Okay. So here's the deal. My son is gifted. I never saved for his college because I always knew he'd probably get a full ride somewhere,

which he has been offered multiple of those. However, he applied at MIT where he wants to go for a math degree and he actually got accepted. Whoa, congrats, mom. It's awesome. I know. So very proud. His father, neither one of us are college graduates. So of course, we want to give him every opportunity. But MIT, maybe you're aware, they don't accept outside scholarships. They basically go by your income, and then they grant you the difference. So I'm looking at paying about $28,000 a year out of pocket for him to go. I don't want to do loans, like I realize, but I guess my question is, is it going to be worth it for me to do that?

I know Dave always said you don't need a pedigree, you just need a degree. But it's like a once-in-a-lifetime kind of opportunity. Let's flip the question. Can we flip it? Yep. Okay. So instead of should I do it, the question is can you do it? Well, I think so.

Well, no, not think so. Do we know that you can? So $28,000 a year, right? Correct. That's what you would be responsible for. So it's a little bit over $2,000 a month, right? Correct. Can you do that in your existing budget with your existing income and everything else you've got to take care of.

With a lot of cutbacks, yes. Okay, when we say a lot of cutbacks, are we barely making it by? Is it paycheck to paycheck? No. We just spend a lot on probably foolish things that we just want and don't need. How much could he earn during a summer job, maybe a spring break here and there? So let's just take the number $28,000. How much do you think he could make that could contribute to that?

Well, actually, he's done that the past three years, and he's saved. So he makes about $12,000 to $15,000 a year at his job. Now when he's in college, he won't be able to work. So he does have some savings. So he would pay, use that. So how much? So let's start playing this out. So of the $28,000, by the time that bill is due, how much do we have? How much can he contribute each year? Well, I mean, this year he could cover almost all of it. He has $24,000. So first year would be okay, but I'm just worried about the following years.

I mean, because he obviously won't be able to work as much while he's in school. Again, I'm going to give it to the budget expert to my right. So by year two, when that bill comes due, can you guys cover the $28,000 that year? I feel like we can, yes. Okay. And then year three, can you save up another $28,000 in a year to cover year three? I think so, yes. I know so.

This is where the budget comes into play because it's very simple math, Christy. You take $28,000. We're going to divide it by 12. That's $23,000, $33,000 every single month we need to save. Now, with a high-yield savings account, it's actually a little bit less. If we're on a short term, you may want to just do it in a high-yield savings. And so now it becomes, all right, we've got to save $2,300 a month. Can we find that room in the budget if we cut back on XYZ?

Maybe it's he's going to work part-time on the weekends. You guys are going to take on a side job for a little while until we know that the rest is covered. So bingo. All right, and he does plan to tutor at MIT. That's already been discussed. Great. If he goes, he can do that. But Christy, let me just talk to you parent to parent, because I got an 18-year-old going

off to school in the fall, and I'm doing the same deal. And let me just tell you this. If I was in your situation, and I really wanted to do this, my first thought would be, all right, we need to do a budget. And we've determined, you just told me and George, that you could cover it. You could cover the $23.33 every month out of your monthly income. You'd have to cut back on some stuff. But you know what I'd do? I'd go, you know what?

That's not good enough. I'm going to go make some side money or my husband's going to pick up a couple of jobs and we're going to make it to where we're not cutting back that much and we're able to bless our son. Where there is a will, there is a way. And I'm saying this is close enough to where you guys can go, there's no reason for us to cut back and suffer. Let's go hustle a little bit and let's make junior, and you are, pay a good chunk of it. And so we've only got to come up with three years or two years or whatever it is. I just, I think this is extremely doable and I'm going to go ahead and tell you it's doable. You just got to decide how you are going to do it. We haven't even talked about him still applying

for other scholarships and grants and awards. Right. If he's that sharp. And MIT only lets you use 5,600 of outside scholarships. So he has gotten more than that, but that's all they will apply. That's the student portion. All right. Does that play into the 28? No, because they will not apply that to the parent expected contribution. What if it's an award paid directly to you rather than the school? Because that doesn't get subtracted from your aid. I'm sorry. What was the question? expected contribution what if it's an award directly to you rather than the school because

that that doesn't get subtracted from your aid i'm sorry what was the question if it's an award that is paid directly to you rather than the school that won't get subtracted from them are payable to the school but there are a lot out there that are just classified as awards that get paid directly to you and so i would focus his efforts on that. Kid is so smart. So I got a quick question. Where's that $5,600 that he's earned? Where's that going? Well, so he'll pay that portion.

The $5,600 is what MIT expects the student to pay. But I'm saying, is that coming off of the $2,800? That'll come off of, no, it doesn't come off the $2,800. The $2,800 is on top of that. So our family contribution is like $3, no, it doesn't come off of 28. The 28 is on top of that. Okay. So our family contribution is like $3,300, whatever, or $33,000. I got it. That's what I was trying to get at.

So I still hold my position that you guys can do this, but why have to scrimp? Just go make a little extra money, do whatever it takes. Cut, yes. He needs to be writing essays. So the other thing is our income is a little variable. My husband works for the railroad so it's when they call him for a train then he goes and when there's no trains he doesn't go so guess what he's doing a side gig well hold on a second what i i know what he's doing when

the train hadn't called he's somewhere else he needs to find himself some some labor work where when he's not on the train he's working yeah but he has to be available on the phone to get on the train within 90 minutes right so he goes and works for a guy that goes here's the deal man i'm working for you i'm busting it if the choo-choo calls i'm out yep the other thing to realize christy is that this is not fatal if he doesn't go to mit and he gets a full ride to another great school, the kid's brilliant. He's going to be okay in life. He'll do great wherever he goes.

And by the way, you save $120,000 that he can now use toward buying a house. And so I'm truly not, I don't think the, MIT is truly, I'm from Boston, it's one of the greatest institutions out there, and it does hold some weight out there with employers. He might get an amazing job. Why can't he work in the the summer again oh he will work in the summer when he's home but

i'm just saying currently when he was making 15 000 a year he was working year round yeah but but but if he's as smart first of all i can't even compute what the brain must be like to get an mit like that whole part of my brain is dark there's no brain waves at all i'm with you yeah they're going to study me. When I die, they'll study me and go, this dude literally had no functional ability in science and math at all. It's really extraordinary.

But my point is, if he's that smart, he could be tutoring online, tutoring there. He could be making more money. So it's, hey, junior, you want to go to MIT? Awesome. You're that smart. Math is easy for you. Go make some more money.

Okay. And you help out some, too, but I would say yes. I would commit. But the husband, but again, I'm telling you what, we always tell you what we would do. If I were your husband in that train job, I would have something on the side where I could be making money. And if the train calls fine but you know let's let's let's take control of this and not feel like we're being controlled that's what I'm getting sure okay by the way congratulations you birthed an MIT level student that's this

deserves to be honored doesn't very impressive yeah that's like my husband I always say too stupid to make a smart. Well, not true. Too negative to make a positive. No way. Not true. Not true. Unfortunately, I did not pass along any math skills to my daughter either. They'll be all right.

All right, George. We did this earlier in the hour. I feel like we're MIT. Give me a Bostonian MIT level out. Take us out to break, George. Bro, you got any algebra? Come on, dude. Give me a freaking equation real quick. There it out to break, George. Bro, you got any algebra? Come on, dude. Give me a freaking equation real quick. There it is, folks. George Campbell, Boston Zone.

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Colvin. George Campbell joins me. It's time for our scripture of the day from Proverbs 14.25. A truthful witness saves lives, but one who breathes out lies is deceitful. Our quote of the day from Mark Twain. A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Love that. And that was before social media. Big theme on honesty today. I'm not sure what's going on with the team there, but we're driving some honesty. Is that a dig, guys? What's going on in the booth? Austin is feeling a little virtuous today. Okay.

And a great shirt, I might add, by the way. Yes, sir. Hawaiian shirt Fridays. Look at that guy's shirt, would you please? Fantastic. Don't look at it too closely. It's jarring. It's very bright.

All right. Denise is up in Carson City, nevada denise how can we how are you hey good how are you guys well we're having a lot of fun how can we help well um i recently got married in september and um we've been doing the baby steps since january and since january we paid off the Home Depot card, which was almost two grand, the tonal, which was a thousand bucks, my car, which was 6,000. And we're almost complete with my credit card, which was $3,000. We owe 700. Wow. My question is now, I owe for a Peloton rower, which is no interest for three years. and the balance is $3,200, and my house

is $53,000. Since there's no interest on the Peloton rower, should I just work on the house for the next three years and get that down and not pay the rower? How long have you had the Peloton rower? Oh, I just got it in November. Duh. All right. All right. How often are you using it? I got to ask. Every day. Really? You like the Rowan, huh? Yeah.

Well, that's what I do is I work out excessively, probably too much. But I have all the equipment, so my gym is pretty nice. So that's what I like to spend my money on. All right. All right, George. What say you, sir? Well, Denise, here's the thing. When we look at debt and we look at payments, we here at Ramsey, we don't look at interest rate.

We look at solving for freedom. And we see payments and debt as a thief regardless of the interest rate being 0% or 40%. And instead, we focus on psychology because we know that personal finance is 80% behavior. It's only 20% head knowledge. And so the debt snowball is when you list the smallest debt, next smallest debt, next smallest debt. And that would mean your Peloton is up next on the pecking order. And that's because you're going to pay that off pretty quickly. How much do you make?

Well, my husband makes about probably $ 000 tax free he's a combat veteran disabled and i make probably about 70 000 a year okay so you guys are making six figures and you have no debt except the peloton as far as consumer debt um well a credit card that's 700 which we're going to pay off in like probably a couple of days. Do you have the money in the bank right now? To pay the roller off? No. To pay the credit card off. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I'd pay it off today and never look back and just cut it up. Okay. Because part of the problem here is you're living a life where you're now okay with payments, whether it's the Peloton at 0%, the credit card minimum. And I just want you to be comfortable where you go, we don't need payments. What if we just had our amazing six-figure income at our disposal and gave none of it away to lenders? Right.

And instead built up, you're great at building muscle. Work on building a savings muscle. I see what you did there. If we put $300 away for 10 months, we could just pay for a Peloton with cash. Right. Or even better, you go, I'm going to find one on Facebook marketplace that the last person thought they'd use, and I'm going to buy it at a deep discount. And so those kinds of, that mentality helps you make wiser spending decisions

and helps you build wealth faster. So if I'm in your shoes, credit card's gone today, the Peloton's next, that gets rid of all of your consumer debt, correct? Correct. And now we have every payment back in our life. What's the payment on the Peloton? $81 a month. Okay. So that's $81 a month you have now to throw extra at the mortgage with, which is $1,000 a year. Right. That's a lot.

That's a lot. You will row differently when it's debt-free. I'm telling you. You think so? You will row like no one else. Yeah. A little faster? A little faster, a little more pep in the step. Have you seen Boys in the Boat, Denise, the movie? I have not.

You should. I want to read the book. Yes. Read the book, but yes, you should see the movie, too. I just thought of it because you love rowing. It's fantastic. Yeah. And my next question, too, is my deferred comp. I work for the state, so I have a pension, which is 75% of my paycheck after 30 years.

But I also have a deferred comp, and there's $74,000 in there right now. And I add $800 per month. Should I up that to more? I mean, if we could definitely afford it, just cutting back just a little bit. Well, I just focus on the percentage. And right now, once you're debt-free and you have an emergency fund, then I would begin investing 15% of your income into retirement plans. And do you have a 401k as well? Well, no, it's just a deferred comp.

Just deferred comp. Yeah, I don't feel much difference. Well, whatever your employer retirement plan, I would focus on getting 15% in there. Whatever your income is, that's what you should be investing. And so that will help you dictate what your wealth building plan is. And once the house is paid off, you can increase investing even more. Yeah. There you go. Thanks for the question. Yeah. Thank you, Denise. All right. Let's go to Brooke in Dallas, Texas. Brooke, how can we help? Hi. So I recently got engaged and I have absolutely no clue how much money I can put towards the wedding comfortably.

Wow, that's exciting. Congratulations. When's the big day? Thank you. We're thinking spring of next year, but no official date or venue or clue, really. Tell George, we only got about three minutes. I need to get him. He needs some information.

When you say that you don't have any idea how much you can spend on the wedding, what does that mean? So I know how much I can contribute, but my fiance, he doesn't quite know what his finances. So I make about 70K a year and I have about 40 grand to my name that I've saved and that I have from an inherited IRA. And so I know what I can contribute, but he makes about the same, but he has a lot of debt, whereas I have none. So we don't know what comfortably we can put towards that and then still try and save for a house. Have you talked to family yet, both sides of the parents, and going, hey, are you guys able and willing and wanting to contribute to this wedding? So his family, they are covering rehearsal dinner, but I only have my dad. My mom

passed away, but my dad, he said that he could contribute maybe two grand. And so it's mainly funded by me and my fiance. Okay. So what I would do is take in consideration what all the parents are doing, how much you have and will have, and then how much he's going to be able to do, even if it's not much, then create a budget based on that. And so the budget is now based on reality and not aspirations. Yeah. And instead of going, well, we need a $100,000 wedding.

We're going to go into debt for the rest. We go, nope, we have $35,000 total. And I'm looking at my spreadsheet for my own wedding. And it is nerdy. And I've listed all the expenses, what's estimated, the actual total, who bought it. Let me see that thing. The due date is so nerdy. How much did you, I got it.

And so it involves, you know, hey, my in-laws chipped in, my parents chipped in, an aunt chipped in. And so that will help you start to plan this out. And so let's round number, let's say you have $50,000. Does that sound about right? About. I would go spend $50,000 and no more and take into account taxes, deposits, the miscellaneous stuff that ankle biters, there's going to be a lot of random stuff. I don't like how you just threw go spend $50,000. I think that's crazy money. Ken, you don't know. You're old. You're antiquated. All right, here we go. A venue alone is $15,000

these days. No, I get that. You set me up. This is going to be great. Boy, this is going to get the comments coming at me. I'm not saying she has to spend $50,000. All right, listen to me, Brooke. Do you have a reasonable amount in your mind, Brooke? I was about ready to go on a rant brooke what's your reasonable amount i think 20 grand is yes yes i applaud brooke brooke can i speak to you and all the brooks out there i've been married only i've been married almost 26 years and i will tell you that the only thing I would spend really legit money on is a photographer. And I think if you're creative, you can, because a photographer is the most important part of the wedding, because 26 years later, my wife and I will look at the photos, and I'm glad for every nickel I spent on the photographer, because that's what it's about the cake i don't remember the cake nobody cares about the freaking cake you shove it in her face

anyway what are we doing here wow it's all a bunch of it's all a pony show don't act like you know what i'm talking about when she goes to eat it you do that it's all fun and here's a point just make beautiful location find a way get good pictures of it don't feed the party they can feed themselves wow photographer and a pastor in a good setting this is the ramsey show Take care.