The Ramsey Show - App - Why TikTok Financial Influencers Are Lying to You (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 25, 2022

George Kamel discusses: Is it ok to rent from your parents? Why you should probably sell the motorcycle to pay for the wedding, So-called TikTok "Financial Gurus" and their obsession with credit scores, Should you put money in your 401(k) even without a match? Dealing with student loans in collections. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

I'm out. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money, your relationships, your work, everything that matters to you. I'm George Campbell, Ramsey personality, and I will be your host today with no co-host. That's right. I'm flying solo, and I want to talk. I want to talk about your money. I want to talk about what you're worried about, what you're excited about. On this show, we dive into the lowest points of people's lives. We celebrate the highest of highs with them, and we talk about everything in between. So if you've got a question, give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. And if you are, let's say, under 25 years old, I want to give you

a quick pro tip here. Pull out your phone. There's an app that says phone, and you tap that, and then you're going to dial 888-825-5225. Our friend Austin is going to pick up in the booth, and he will patch you in, and we can talk about things. Maybe you want some confirmation. Maybe you need some affirmation. Maybe you just need a third party who's a little unbiased to tell you that you're doing great, or maybe I can slap you around a little bit and walk you off a ledge. That's what I'm here for. Justin is going to kick us off this hour. He's in Tampa, Florida. Justin, welcome to the show. Hey, George. How are you? Doing great, my man. How can I help? So quick question for you. I'll give you, I guess, a brief background.

I am on baby step four, and I'm going to be getting married this December. And when I get married, my fiance and I are going to be starting out and baby step two. And so just kind of trying to think about our living situation right now. I'm anticipating my rent going up here the next couple of months when my lease is up. And so my question for you is my parents have actually offered to, I guess, buy a house for my fiance and I and allow us to live there and pay them the mortgage. And then when we're able to get our debt paid off and save up a down payment, we could then buy the house from them. Didn't know if that was a good idea. You know, honestly, kind of a prideful person and don't really like the idea of them buying a house

for me because I want to feel like I've done it on my own. But I don't know. Just wanted to see what your thoughts were on it. That's a great question, man. There's a lot of wisdom just in the way that you've been talking. And you said, hey, we're going to be in baby step two once we get married because she's coming in with debt and it's going to become we. And the question really becomes what's the relationship like with your parents, and are you going to be okay with this decision? So my relationship with my parents, I don't know if it could get any better, to be honest with you.

I'm really open about our finances together. You know, they do my taxes for me because they're accountants. You know, so, I mean, we're really all on the same page. I just, I don't know, part of me wants to feel like I did it all on my own and not ask for help, but then the other part of me says, well, if this is going to help us get out of debt faster, then maybe it's not a bad idea. Now, are they in a financial place to buy another house? Do they have their mortgage paid off? Yeah. So they're in baby step seven, paid for house, and they just want to kind of bless you guys by creating the situation where

you can rent and then one day buy it from them. Yes. That's very kind of them. Well, here's what I'm wondering about. Are they going to charge you market rent? Are they going to charge you way less than they could make? No, no, no, no. It would be we would just pay them whatever the mortgage payment is up until we were able to buy the house from them and then just kind of take it over from there. Okay. But you don't know what that amount will be yet?

I don't. I mean, I haven't really gone into the weeds with them yet, you know, on what the price range of the house would be or anything like that, mostly because I haven't really felt like I wanted them to do this. Not to sound like a broken record, but because I wanted to do it on my own. That's what I keep coming back to, man. It sounds like you're going to, even if this all works out perfectly, you're still going to sit there and go, man, I don't feel like I did that quite on my own. It feels like I got a little handicapped there

and I kind of got to leapfrog a step. So I don't think there's anything wrong with either situation, but I think you're leaning towards pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and doing the hard work and saving up the down payment and being patient. And I think that's, there's a lot of wisdom in that. Do you know what your income will be when you're married? It'll probably be, if it was based on income from last year, it'll be about $150,000. But I expect that to go up. Dude, that's incredible.

Well, here's what I'm thinking. You guys have a great income. You're going to pay off her debt pretty soon, right? It's not going to take longer than a few years, two years? I don't even think it'll take that long. I've done a pretty good job of saving up money on my own, and so my goal is to, with the progress that she makes this year um and then when we get married and combine finances by i'm hoping by that time i'll just be able to write checks and pay it all off

well i think you have this conversation with mom and dad and you say hey thank you so much for your generous offer i love you guys i love the way you've raised me i appreciate this but we want to do this on our own and we want to kind of start this new chapter. And that's no diss to you. We just, I really want to do this on my own to prove to myself that we can do this and that we're financially set. And that seems like the route that's going to leave you the happiest. Would you agree? Yeah, I would. I don't know. You know, I just, if the math part just starts popping in my head to where, you know, if we could get a slightly lower mortgage payment than a rent payment,

would that allow us to make, you know, maybe a little bit more, if I'm not able to save up all the money necessary by the end of the year. How old are you? You know, what a lower 25. Yeah, you're doing great, man. There's no rule that says you have to have a house at 25 and you have to have a house as soon as you're married. I think it's totally fine to rent for a while and get to know your new spouse and just hang out and you're going to have a whole bunch of quirks to figure out just with being married. The last thing you need on top of that is kind of this weird quasi-home ownership with mom and dad tied to it, and there's a relational element, but there's this business transaction that needs to happen, and I think it's going to be better for everyone if you just do it on your own. Okay.

Yeah, dude. Perfect. Yeah. Good luck with it. Hey, can I give you a wedding present? Sure. Do you have Ramsey Plus right now? I do. My fiancee does not. Boom. Okay.

Well, let's get you one year of Ramsey Plus. Is she on board with the plan? She is. Well, she's going to be extra on board now. So I want you guys to watch FPU together. All those Financial Peace University videos, has she seen them before? No. Okay. This is going to be a game changer for you guys. This is the best premarital counseling I can give you is to watch all nine lessons of Financial Peace University. Jump onto EveryDollarPlus, our premium budgeting tool. Make your first budget together when you guys are married later this year, and then start making a plan for what this looks like. Hey, how fast are we going to pay off this debt? How fast are we going to build the emergency fund? We're going to start investing and saving for the down payment. You guys get a plan for your lives together,

and your marriage is going to be great regardless of your parents helping you out. So hang on the line, man. That would be awesome. Austin's going to pick up. Congratulations on the impending wedding, on the impending house purchase. You guys are doing great. We need more Justins in this world. Hey, this is The Ramsey Show. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. I'm George Camel. We'll be back with you. You've got a lot on your plate, a job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family.

While you're enjoying the present, you can't help but think about your future and your finances. As you explore your options, consider Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, for your health care. Their generous maternity program and budget-friendly monthly programs have been a blessing to members welcoming children into their families. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey Trusted Provider. Visit chministries.org slash budget to see if it's right for you. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey Trusted Provider. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, Ramsey personality, host of the Fine Print podcast and the Entree Leadership podcast, all of which you can find wherever you listen to great podcasts from the Ramsey Network.

Okay, I got to talk about something. Got to get something off of my chest. So I'm a millennial, and so I keep up with the burgeoning social media trends that are out there. And one of those is TikTok. I do it for you guys so that I know what's going on out there so I can fill you all in. And there's a lot of, how do I say this, financial gurus out there who can't grow facial hair yet, and they are giving some terrible financial advice that truly makes my blood boil. And it's one of the reasons why I want to get in there. I don't want to become a TikTok star. I just have to get in the middle of the mess and walk everyone off the ledge because they're listening to 60-second videos and then making huge financial decisions

because of it. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to play a video that producer James found that made my blood boil. He really knows how to push my buttons. We're going to react to it and then we're going to teach you guys a better way. So let's roll that beautiful bean footage. When I'm 30, I want to be debt free and own no credit cards. You know, you might regret that. What? How? Well, how are you planning on getting a house or a car? Yeah, I'm just going to use all cash. By chance, did Dave Ramsey teach you this? Yes. Why? That advice is for people who are already in debt or don't know how to manage their money. The truth is credit cards can help build your credit, which is very important. And

if you pay them off in full, you'll never owe any interest. And with housing prices so high, good credits might be the only way most people are going to be able to get a house. Now that I think about it, saving up $400,000 in cash doesn't sound very reasonable. That advice might work for some, but personal finance should never be a one-size-fits-all. Follow to learn the truth. Okay. Wow. That moved so fast, I thought I was having a stroke for a second. All right. I don't want to have to watch that again, so let me recap it for you because he was moving pretty fast. He was saying that it is unwise to save up $400,000 cash to get a house and that our advice is terrible.

And on top of that, that you need to be building your credit score. You need to be opening that credit card, going into debt, staying in debt, paying it off all perfectly so that you can build that beautiful FICO score. I'm here to tell you that he ended it with, learn the truth, follow to learn the truth. And the truth is that that is a lie. And here's why I know that's a lie, because I have purchased a house without a credit score, and I didn't save up $400,000 cash to do it. And what he's doing is he's playing into the FOMO that a lot of young people feel out there, where they go, man, the Dave Ramsey guy, he wants us to save up and pay cash for a house? That's insane. That'll take me 38 years. Why wouldn't I just put zero down and get in on this, and then

I'll get more real estate, and I can leverage more debt, but also I have a car payment, I have student loans, I've got medical bills, and then life crushes you. And you go, well, that advice sounded good in theory, but in reality, I want to have financial peace. And so here's, let me tell you our actual advice when it comes to housing, just to make things clear. Yes, we don't want you to have any debt at all. The only type of debt that we won't yell at you for is a 15-year fixed rate mortgage where you can put 10 to 20% down and the payment ends up being no more than a quarter of your take-home pay. That's exactly what I did, me and my wife. In fact, we put more than 20% down because we didn't want to be in debt any longer than we had to. And so we sacrificed, we did side jobs, we hustled for

a long period of time in order to put that much down. And then we ended up paying off the house in 26 months. And we did our debt-free scream just a few months back. And it was incredible. On top of that, when we got the mortgage, we did not have a credit score because we had paid off our debt long ago. And that leaves your credit score indeterminable. And so you've all heard that you want to have, you know, 750, 800, 850 perfect credit score in order to go into debt. That's all it is. It's an I love debt score. It's playing kissy face with the bank. And too many young people are learning this. And guess who they're learning it from? Their parents. When they turn 18, the parents go, you got to open a credit card. And they go, why? Well, you got to have the credit score. Well, why? So you can get

a car loan. So you can get a massive mortgage with nothing down. Here's what a credit score is made up of. 35% debt history, 30% current debt level, 15% how long you've been in debt, 10% any new debt, 10% type of debt. Are you hearing a theme? Debt. That's right. So you don't need a credit score to buy a car because we're going to pay cash for cars. I've done it multiple times. It's amazing. They'll actually take your money. You don't need to use credit cards to build your score because we're paying to pay cash for cars. I've done it multiple times. It's amazing. They'll actually take your money. You don't need to use credit cards to build your score because we're paying cash for things with our debit card and we're budgeting.

You don't need to rent a car, and I can tell you that because I've done it multiple times. Sometimes they'll just add a buffer. Maybe, let's say, 20% of your total will be added as a deposit on your checking account temporarily. You don't need it to rent a house or an apartment. And I've called all over the country. We did this on the fine print on our credit score episode. And almost every single one said, oh, I mean, that's fine if you don't have a

score. Now, a low score will hurt you, but no score, that's fine. You just might need to pay an extra, you know, first month, last month, an extra deposit. That's it. And then finally, the big one, you don't need it to buy a house. And our friends at Churchill Mortgage do this every day. It's called manual underwriting or a no score loan. And they do it like they did back in the old days, where they just look at your actual financial picture. They look at pay stubs, your W-2s, do you pay your utility bills, that kind of thing. And they go, okay, well, based on your situation, we're happy to give you a loan because we know you're going to pay it back. And so that's what we did. And most people are shocked by this. I did a media hit for a news station over in

Chicago, and they were just flabbergasted that someone could even buy a house without a credit score. And so we need to start dispelling these myths. And parents, you got to stop telling your kids this. And TikTokers, you got to stop spreading this misinformation because that video has millions of views. And the comments are all very thankful and they're all going, yeah, that Dave Ramsey guy, man, what a scam artist. Because he tells you to get out of debt and stay out of debt because he wants you to build wealth and have financial peace. So TikTok at your own risk. I'm not telling you to go there. I'm just telling you if you want some entertainment or you want to get angry, it's a fun place to be. All right. Let's move on to Joey in San Antonio, Texas. Joey, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hey, thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can I help? So I've had a really good six to nine months financially for me, and what it's done is it's jumped me ahead to Baby Step 4. Awesome. I'm starting, you know, investing for retirement and really looking into it, and I have an IRA, a Roth IRA, and a current 401K that my company opened when I started there. And my question to you is,

should I be investing in the 401k if my company doesn't do any match? Or should I be starting with the Roth IRA first? And then secondly, because it was auto-opened and I've already got 9k in there, should I be keeping it in there? Or is there something I can do with that to better serve myself if I'm not going to be matching it?

This is a traditional 401k, not a Roth 401k? Yeah, it's a regular 401k and a Roth IRA that I have. Do they have a Roth 401k option? They don't. Okay. Well, our methodology is we move from Roth. We move from the match to Roth to traditional. So match beats Roth beats traditional.

So if you have a zero match, we're going to move to the Roth options first. That will grow for us tax-free. So, yes, I would be fully funding the Roth IRA up to the total. What's your income? $45,000 to $60,000. Okay. So let's go on the high end. Let's say 60,000. That's going to be $9,000 a year. So if you fully fund the Roth IRA, let's say $6,000, that leaves 3,000 that we're going to go back to that traditional 401k and put over there. Okay. And that's how I do it. I would leave the 9,000 in there. We don't tell you to roll that to the Roth until you're at baby step seven with a paid-for house

because we have bigger financial goals, and you're going to have a tax hit when you try to move that to a Roth account from traditional. Mm-hmm. Okay. And then if you're okay with that, I've got one more question for you. Sure. Hit me fast. Saving up for a car, should I just be putting that in a savings account

or should I be doing something smarter with that if I'm looking at a year or two away? A year or two away is not enough of a timeline to be investing. I would just put it in a sinking fund and a good savings account, money market account, high yield savings account.

I know it's hilarious because it's like a half percent, not quite high yield. But stay the course. Don't put it in anything volatile. Put it somewhere liquid where you have access to it a year from now without any issues. Thanks for the call, man. Appreciate it. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, and I am your host today.

Listen, people are craving connection, they're craving community, and they're craving the energy that only comes from humans being with other humans. We hear you, and we need it too. And that is why we're bringing back our life-changing events back on the road. And we are not holding back this year. First up, we've got Building Wealth Live, and we are coming to Orlando on Thursday, May 19th. This event is selling super fast, so if you're waiting around to buy your ticket, don't do that, because it's going to sell out. This event is going on tour this year, and we're going to have more locations to share with you guys really soon. We're also bringing our largest event of the year to Dallas, Texas on October 22nd. That's right, Smart Conference is back. We're going to have largest event of the year to Dallas, Texas on October 22nd. That's right. Smart Conference is back.

We're going to have all of our personalities there. Myself, Rachel Cruz, Dr. John Deloney, Ken Coleman, Dave Ramsey, Christina Ellis, Pedro Latorre, and our good friends Craig and Amy Grishel from Life Church will be there as well talking about marriage. You do not want to miss this. If you've never been to a Ramsey event or you want to get someone in your life on board with the Ramsey plan, this is the best way to get them dunked and indoctrinated here. We're hitting every single topic, not just money.

We're talking about career, relationships, mental health. If you want to learn more about all of the events that we're planning this year, go to RamseySolutions.com slash events. Open phone lines this hour. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Sarah is joining us in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Sarah, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, George.

I'm in baby step two, and I'm on my last 13,000, but we got a bit of a curveball, and now we have a student loan that's in collection that has reared its ugly head. And my question is, what do I need to do in order to negotiate some kind of settlement? Because I don't want to do month-to-month payments with a collection agency. So you want to pay in full with a lump sum, ideally? Yes.

How old is this debt? Well, my husband had paid me, I think, for a couple of years, doing month to month out of his bank account. We got married. I said, we can't do that. So it's been over a year since it had transferred to collection agencies. We haven't touched it. So you haven't made a payment in over a year?

Yeah. How did it end up in collections? Were you just not able to make the payments anymore? I'm assuming that's what happened. Yes, probably. That's your husband's? Correct. How much is the current balance? I believe it's between $5,500 and $7,000, somewhere around there. Okay. My guess would be about $6,000. And is that included in your $13,000 for Baby Step 2? No, because $13,000 is our active debt, so it's a small student loan and a car loan. Okay. How much cash do you guys have on hand between all your savings?

If I were to include my emergency fund, $4,000. $4,000. But I have $3,000. Yeah, $4,000 if I really needed to max it. But I would like to just use $3,000 of it if possible. What's the margin right now? If you guys tighten it up and you stop eating out, you cut all the expenses, you work extra, how much margin could you create each month?

Well, on debt, I was paying off about $2,500 to $3,000 on debt. Every month? So I could pause, yes, I could pause and switch it over to this bad debt snowball, if you will. Have you talked to the collection agency? I was going to call them today, but I didn't want to call them because, you know, sometimes you get frustrated. And I just am seeking guidance to how to, one, be calm on the phone with them. Yeah. And just some guidelines or tips on how to prepare myself and negotiate with them because they lie.

I just don't want to. Yeah. Well, number one, I want you to confirm this debt in writing. They have to legally do that. They have to confirm every single little detail. I don't want to – so you can formally request that from the debt collector when you call them and you can also make sure this is big do not give them access to your checking account when you talk to them say hey listen here's how much i can do and you know if that's the if that's the real balance you get the letter in writing in the mail or emailed then say hey listen i know the debt is 7 000 what would you guys. What would you be willing to take if I was able to give you a lump sum today? And if they say $3,000 would do it, I'm writing them that check today. But I should get that in writing before I send them the cash.

Get it in everything in writing. Because like you said, they can tell you one thing on the phone, and they go, nope, you still owe some more money. And you go, no, no, no, the guy on the phone said, and so you've got to have this in writing before we make any decisions when it comes to negotiating. Okay. And once you do that, we're moving on to the other debts that you've been making the minimum payments on. But I like the idea of doing it in a lump sum, getting a deal on paying off this debt. But at the end of the day, this is the debt. And if they say, no, we're not willing to negotiate, and they just keep fighting you on it, then you're going to have to pay up. But I would get that thing out of your life.

You do not want those collectors. They're relentless. They're never going to stop. So the best thing you can do is be proactive and call them more than they call you to where they want you out of their life. It's called twice. They called my in-laws, and I was like, oh, geez. Yeah, that's not a fun thing to deal with.

I hate that you guys are going through that. But I would try to negotiate. I mean, usually they're going to take half of what the debt is, especially if it's years old. If this was three months ago, you'd have a harder time. But you think because it's been at least a year almost, I think no... The more time that goes by, the less likely they feel like they're going to get any money. And so they're going to take what they can get at that point and let them know, hey, listen, this is the money I have to my name.

You can either take this or it's going to be a long time before you're going to get your money back. So I want to confirm, I guess just to recap, I want to confirm the debt, the age, the amount, whether they actually have the authority to do it, whether it's email or hard copy mail. Yes. No access to bank information or personal information like that. And then if they are willing to negotiate an amount, whether that's an email or hard copy letter to myself, then how is the best way to pay them? A personal check or something like from my bank, like a cashier's check?

Yeah, a cashier's check would do fine. I just would not just give them blind access to your checking account through your routing number and checking account number and all that. Okay. Sound good? And then you're going to continue on. You won't have much debt at that point. What's your total income?

Total income, $160,000 together. This whole thing is going to be gone in a few months. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. We were at $120,000 a couple years ago, and now we're at the end of the tunnel. You can see the light at the end of this tunnel. Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better. I was very lucky right before I got engaged.

Right after I got engaged, I started on the guidance program, and six months into my marriage, I became debt-free and then kind of just put it on the back burner when I got engaged. I started doing the guidance program. And six months into my marriage, I became debt-free and then kind of just put her on the back burner when I got married. But it's so good. I just said to my husband, let's get this done. We're too young. We make too much money. Let's just get her done. And I'm just so thankful for it because we are this close and this is real now. so it really helped me. That's so great to hear. So is your husband on board with this plan? Yes, he just wanted me to call, I guess,

because he's quick to get a little bit more temperamental than I am. Oh, so he delegated this to you because he was like, I'm not going to say anything nice to these people. Yeah, he was afraid he'd get that out of shape, and I told him I will take the big step back and I'll get all the information I need now. Stay calm, cool, and collected. It'll be fine. It'll be fine.

I think he just worries about that kind of stuff. Yeah. Well, hey, give us a call back when you're debt-free, Sarah. I'm excited for you guys. Thank you. I really appreciate it, George. Yeah, stay the course. Thank you so much for the call. Folks, listen, if you are where Sarah's at and you feel that feeling in your chest where you almost can't breathe because you have this debt looming in your

life, I want you to have a vision beyond Friday because you're living paycheck to paycheck. I want you to have a vision for your life where you sit down with your spouse and go, we don't have to live like this. We can get this debt out of our life. We can stay out of debt. We can make a plan for the future. We can build wealth and we can have financial peace. That's what the whole plan is about. This is a get rich slow scheme and it works every time you work it. But you have to make a decision and go, we've got to do something different. We've got to become a different person than we are today. And when you do that, man, that is the first step to freedom.

This is The Ramsey Show. so so Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, Ramsey personality and host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast. And I'll be your host today on The Ramsey Show. So give us a call, 888-825-5225. Whatever's on your mind, whatever's freaking you out, whatever you're excited about, I love to talk with you, celebrate with you, guide you through whatever is going on in your life. Stephen has decided to join us. He's in Cleveland, Ohio. Stephen, welcome to the show.

Hi. So I'll get right to it. Currently, I'm 26 years old. I'm debt-free except for my house. Awesome. Currently making $70K a year and contributing 15% to my raw 401k. I'm engaged, set to be married in October. My fiance is currently in school getting a master's. She's going to graduate with about $120,000 in student loans. I've been paying her housing and living expenses for the last two years, so I'm a little house poor, I guess you can say.

As we get closer to this wedding in October, I'm a little worried about having the funds ready for a wedding at honeymoon. And I guess I'm wondering if it's okay to back off or stop retirement savings to have the extra cash for the wedding. So you've been paying her housing bills for how long? Yes, just under two years now. Why? I didn't want her to end up taking more in student loans. Man, well, that is a, it's a bold move for sure. A strange one to be paying someone's housing bills that you're not married to. What happens if you, if it doesn't work out? Would you have any resentment for paying all the bills for a long time? We've been together for eight years now, so I guess we're pretty confident. Okay. Well, I'll focus on your question here about how to pay for this wedding. Is it all on you guys to pay? Have you guys had the conversations with family? Yeah. So right now, I probably am maybe seven or eight short of my goal. And if I was to pause

retirement, I'm pretty sure I'd be there by the time the wedding comes. Yeah. I mean, I'm okay saving for something like this and pausing retirement for a short period of time, especially how old are you? 26. You're 26. So you're going to be okay pausing this thing for a few months to make sure that we're set for the wedding. Do you guys have a wedding budget currently? Yeah. Okay. How much is the total? The total is right around 30K. We got 10 from her parents and I got the rest. Okay. So 20K is on you and you have how much saved right now? Just under 14. Okay. So you only have six to go then.

Yep. Could you continue to invest and still have the margin to save up and pay for this? It doesn't look like it. I've been trying to see what else we could cut back on. Is she working? It seems like the retirement school. No, she's not. Is she able to?

No, she's going for a med school thing, and she's not allowed to work per program. Well, this is a tough situation because I don't like the idea of you continuing to pay her housing bills even until the wedding. And I don't really want you to pause investing. I'm okay with it because I don't want you to go in debt for the wedding. So if this is the only other option, then this is where we're at. How much longer is she going to be in med school? She graduates in August, so only like four or five more months. Okay. And then she'll have income. Yep. Okay. Well, my wedding parameters are this. Don't ever spend more than you have in cash,

regardless of who's paying for it. And there is no Ramsey parameter for wedding spending, but my personal parameter would be not to spend more than a third of your gross income if you're paying for it yourself. So in your case, you're putting 20 grand in and you make 70. So you're not outrageous there and you've already had the conversations. Do you have a checking account that is just for the wedding budget? Yes. Okay, great. And you have exactly what you need in that wedding budget and you're not going to go over? Yeah. Okay. I feel good about this plan then. I don't love it. It's not my favorite plan, but if this is where you're at and you're getting married and you said October and it's currently March, so we've got time, but I would try to work extra. I try to save so that you don't have to pause retirement.

Or you can get back to it real quick. I would try to hunker down, get this money saved up, keep it aside in that savings account for the wedding, and then continue investing. Okay. I guess one other question with that is I do have a motorcycle that's paid for. It's worth about $10,000. I mean, I could easily sell that and probably be clear for the wedding. I love that plan. Are you willing to sell it?

Is it going to hurt you emotionally? A little bit. But you have another vehicle. I do. Yeah. I got two other vehicles, actually. Oh, wow. You've two other vehicles. Yep. You just love things with motors, don't you? I do. What does the value of all of those add up to? All the vehicles you have, anything with a motor in it? Probably right around 50K. Yeah, that's too much vehicle when you're making 70. We say no more than 50% should be tied up in things with motors in it. So, yes, I'm selling that motorcycle, and congratulations, you now have a wedding fund.

And you get to keep investing. Gotcha. That hurt, didn't it? I can feel it in your voice. You didn't want to hear that. But hey, you brought it up, man. I didn't know you had a motorcycle. You were keeping secrets from me.

I didn't know we had options here. There's more motorcycles in the world. Exactly. And once you get rid of her debt, you know what I would do? Once you guys become debt-free, you pay off that $120,000 in student loans, make it a gift to yourself to save up and get yourself a motorcycle. If she's okay with it. I mean, you know, I'm too scared. I won't even ride in the back of one of those things behind James, our producer.

But you're a brave man. All right, cool. Congrats on the wedding. Can I give you a gift? Sure. Okay. I'm going to send you a one-year membership to Ramsey Plus, and I want you and your fiance to go through all of the Financial Peace University videos, get on an every dollar budget. You can make a separate one for the wedding and have one for your life once you combine your incomes, once you're married. But you can go through the videos

now and get on the same page and start to make a plan for how we're going to pay off these student loans. Sounds lovely. Awesome. I'll have Austin pick up and he will get you that Ramsey Plus membership. Thanks for the call. Congrats on the impending marriage. All right, let's move on to John in LA. John, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you doing, boss? Great. I like that you called me boss. I appreciate that. Usually Dave's the boss.

What's going on? I'll make it quick and simple. I know you guys have a lot of people you guys help out and thank you for everything you guys do. My question is, I'm 24. I still live at home with my family and I live by the Dave Ramsey principles. I live it like it's religiously and my family is not on the same plan as me. They live by old principles and they don't do any research when it comes to buying a house or really any research. They just go off their own basic knowledge, which I don't believe in. And it's creating a lot of friction in the home between us. We're finding ourselves arguing and debating a lot when it comes to about finances. And I'm just trying to figure out, is it time to just move out and go on my own?

Are you working? Yes. What's your income? About 70K. Awesome. What do you do for work? I'm a security manager. I manage at different companies. Now, making 70K, can you rent somewhere near you, near work? I can. It's just going to take my rent from approximately less than $500

to well over $16,000 to $2,000, even if I went and bought a house, it'd be the same price. Well, I'm moving out if I'm you. And I know it's a crazy area over there, very expensive. But here's the parameters I would give you as you're looking. Try to keep the payment under 25% of your take-home pay. And if that's difficult, it may mean getting a roommate for now so that you can afford it. But living with your parents in what you would probably describe as kind of a toxic environment, I don't want that for you guys. You can maintain this relationship and go, listen, I love you and I disagree with you. And that's okay, but I don't want to have these disagreements every day at dinner.

And so you're 24. You make a great income. I think it's time to fly the coop. Okay. Another issue is I am on the lease to the home that we're renting. So they are throwing it in my face that I'm going to leave them high and dry to take care of my portion of the rent. And it's kind of making me feel bad. But it's kind of hard to feel bad when they order DoorDash and food and go to restaurants,

but then complain that I'm the reason why they won't be able to afford it. This might be the kick in the pants they need. So I'm going to try to get out of this lease legally and respectfully and tell mom and dad, I love you, but you guys need to figure out your financial situation too. And you're dragging each other down at this point. So I think it's time to get out, man. And I know that's going to be easier said than done, but I believe in you.

You got this. Appreciate the call. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.