The Ramsey Show - App - You Can Always Go Back If You Hate It (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, number one best-selling author and host of the ken coleman show ramsey personality talking about career jobs and having a fulfillment in that area of your life also making more money than you ever made in that area of your life it's a good idea he's my co-host today as we take your calls about your life and your money our congratulations we learned a few hours ago that dr john deloney has his second number one bestselling book, Building a Non-Anxious Life, debuts at number one in the nation on the nonfiction list.

Way to go, Dr. John. John Deloney's in another city right now doing media and podcasts and such for this book, as a matter of fact, to continue to promote it. So we'll have an official celebration on the air with him when he gets back next week. But in the meantime, a few hours old is that information that we just found out he's number one in the nation. Very cool. Quite a milestone. That's his second number one.

Very, very good stuff. He and Rachel will also be doing the Money and Marriage event coming october 19th through the 21st and so we're talking seven days from today and there is still a few tickets left it's here on the ramsey campus it is a weekend long very intense very hilarious because the two of them oh my god they're stand-up comedy and um i mean just walking around with them they're that but you put them on stage it's even worse so you're gonna laugh you're gonna cry you're gonna learn about marriage you're gonna learn about money uh bring your spouse obviously it's a married a couple's weekend and it's here on the ramsey campus you're gonna we're gonna treat you

like kings and queens you're gonna have a blast and you're gonna learn a bunch there are a few tickets left if you'd like to come. That's why I'm mentioning it. It's $7.99 for this multi-day event, and it's just a few hundred people. It's a small event, very intimate. You'll be able to ask a lot of questions, have a lot of interaction with John and with Rachel. RamseySolutions.com slash events, and make your way over here in about a week and hang out with a couple of number one best-selling authors that will help you do all that stuff.

Lindsay is in Washington, D.C. Hi, Lindsay. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Thanks for having me on. Sure. What's up? I have a rental property in Washington, D.C., and I'm trying to decide if I should pay off the mortgage and keep it as a rental or sell it when my tenants leases up.

I'm currently debt-free and I'm not ready to settle in one area, so I'm renting as my primary resident. But currently, my rental income covers the mortgage and the condo fees, but I'm paying a property manager out of pocket. Should I continue paying those out-of-pocket expenses and put all my extra income and my RSUs towards paying down the mortgage? You have the money to pay off the mortgage now or not? No, but I could pay it off in probably the next, like, seven years is what I've calculated. But you're not going to stay there. But it's a rental property right now.

I know, but you're not going to stay there. You don't want long-distance rental properties. You don't want a rental property in Washington, D.C., and you live in Dallas. That's a bad plan. You're going to end up with a mess. So I own a bunch of rental property. I don't do long-distance landlording. Bad idea.

That's how people end up changing their Harley and your living Harley oil in their living room. So, um, I know you've got a property manager, but there's another property manager, like the person that owns it. So you got it. You're always looking at it. You're thinking about it.

The property manager is not saying, uh, I don't know. I mean, the property manager for the past few years has been really like, it's been an amazing setup. My only like qualm is that I'm, because my condo fees keep going up little by little. It's like, I'm, I'm closing the gap to cash flowing, but I'm,

I have not yet cash flowed it. What could you make if you sold it today? Um, I could probably make like profit, like $50,000. Yeah. Okay. This condo is not a financial blessing to you. It's an alligator. It eats.

It doesn't feed. So you're feeding it. I don't want it. I want something that creates money, not takes it. Did you used to live in it? I did, yeah. Yeah, okay. you became a landlord by default not by plan because very few people would sign up for the plan you've got it's not that much fun because you're not making any money you're paying money i was in the military and a lot of them

like the the going advice in the military was like my property everywhere you go and going advice the military is wrong we work with the military all the time that like buy property everywhere you go and going advice the military is wrong we work with the military all the time that's a dumb idea you'll end up with a condo in every city you were ever stationed in oh my lord talk about a bad idea let's have a rental property portfolio scattered all over america yeah yeah no i'll pass i would sell it you don't make any money on it it's not there's no there no financial fund. It won't even buy you dinner. I mean, you just pay for it all the time. No, I don't want that.

I wouldn't have a piece of property I lost money on all the time. I had one, and I was sitting and waiting on it to get better, not because it wasn't rented. It was a big old office building that was a shell kind of thing, downtown Nashville. I bought it at a deal, and I sold it for a couple million dollar profit over what i paid for it but it was sitting there eating taxes and eating insurance and eating everything because we didn't have any tenants in it because it was shell we were going to build it out and i finally just went this is done and i

just sold it i'm gonna put a couple million in my pocket and forget it why am i i don't want things i have to feed yeah they're supposed to feed me i'm'm not supposed to feed them. That's not how this works. So, yeah, get rid of it. That's what I would do. Parents all over America are questioning having teenagers now, Dave. Well, they might feed you later. No, that's not what he meant, but I couldn't resist. Yeah, that's there.

That's true. That's my reality right now. You're sitting there talking about that, and I'm going. I've got a bubble above my head. I have a mortgage payment that is called my food bill yeah i have two teenage boys that eat a lot uh oh yeah yeah yeah well a lot yeah these are these are uh yeah strong big humans big humans that's right love it rainy is with us rainy is in is in Orlando. Hi, Rainy. How are you? I'm doing good. How are you? Great. How can we help? So I recently quit my job stupidly without having another one lined up, and I wanted to know,

is it worth it to take a low-paying temporary job versus doing side jobs like delivering food or packages or something like that? Why'd you do that? Yeah, what? A lot happened, and it was really draining my mental health, and we discussed it multiple times, and nothing ever got better, and I just kind of got to my breaking point that day. Okay, so let's look at your question. So have you run the numbers? Can you give me numbers on the low-paying job versus these, what you're calling delivery or side gigs? What's the difference that you've figured out that you can make between the two? some debt and bills that we have to pay. I've been offered jobs that only pay $12 an hour versus doing like delivering food, which I have the opportunity to make tips and stuff, which I feel like could make more, but it's kind of up in the air because it's per delivery. All right, so here's the thing.

We can't feel anything. Right now, you need your income. It doesn't seem like it's an option. So you're taking the best paying job or jobs to get back to what you were making in your salary job while you're busting it to get your mental health in a situation where you can get back into a full-time role. There's no option here. You've got to make as much money as possible to get back to where you were.

$12 in this market is absurd. Yeah. Everything's paying $20. Yeah. Don't take a $12 job. This is The Ramsey Show. 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

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So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host to the day today our question of the day is sponsored by neighborly your hub for home services if you're moving you have a long list of to-dos but neighborly has local pros like housemaster five-star painting window genie and junk king to check items off that list download neighborly the app to find and schedule

home service experts near you it's a great company yeah it really is today's question comes from tara in south carolina i'm 49 years old a single mom of an eight-year-old and i'm debt-free including my home i've always been risk averse and an aggressive saver before i discovered your program i was planning to have my home paid off by September 2024, but went ahead and pushed through and paid it off in August 2023. I have a net worth of approximately $1.5 million and have an established college fund for my daughter, which I continue to contribute to. However, I feel unsettled about what's next. I've always been working to pay off something. I feel like maybe I should be saving up for a retirement home or making some other financial move, or maybe I'm just not used to being still and not hustling so hard. Am I

crazy? Well, Tara, no, you are not crazy. You are a hero as a single mom. You have so much going on. What you have done is unbelievable. I think this is just a function of you've been going so hard so long. It's kind of like the runner's high where people, they get that another gear, the body, and everything's moving. You're used to that pace. And then you come off of that and you kind of crave it. You want to get that again. And I think you need to be still for a little bit, rest, relax, reward yourself for what you have done. You've earned it. And then instead of the hustle to pay something off, I love moving into a different gear, not quite as intense.

Instead of fifth gear, maybe how about fourth gear of investing towards something that you care deeply about, giving some of your money, your time to causes that you care deeply about. I think that's a great downshift and there's just no way you're ever going to just be still. So I'm not worried about her. Yeah. 49 year old single mom worth a million and a half. Wow. Um, that's pretty cool. Including, including a paid for house. Yeah. Yeah. You're in really good shape. And so yeah, do hit the next stage. There's nothing left to left to do but baby step seven we say maybe step seven is build wealth and give and so continue to build set yourself some investment goals but as ken said you can dial back the intensity of a couple notches and set

yourself some crazy generosity goals um one of the things we did as we started hitting the early stages of baby step seven was we had a goal okay i want to give away more than we made one year yeah that was fun you know or more than we made our first year or something like that you know maybe maybe when you were you're for 49 maybe when you were 29 what was your income that's my generosity goal and on top of my tithe i'm a evangelical christian so i give a tenth to my church but then other than that what other generosity can we come up with it's fun and different and you'll end up enjoying the investing and enjoying the generosity and it won't be this the haggard desperate sense that pace that you've been running on um you know pain and pleasure are both motivators. Now you're on the pleasure motivated side.

You've been running in desperation away from all the stuff for a long time. And, and that's the play, the pain side, but I know, I know the feeling. And then you go, oh, that's so much fun. I want to do that again. That's the pleasure motivating side. And that could be a travel thing. It'd be something you do with the eight year old. It'd be something you buy.

It could be an investment. It could be generosity. You know, you find out, I'm going to fund XYZ, something I never thought I could do. You know, and wow, it's fun to watch that happen. Virginia's in Durham, North Carolina. Hi, Virginia. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Good afternoon. I am 66. I have no spouse, no children, and I'm doing some estate planning. It is likely that it will be a niece or a nephew that will handle the details of my funeral.

I've talked to a funeral home to get some estimates, and they are telling me that they will require payment before they render any services and that they won't wait for probate so they can be paid out of my estate. So I'm looking for ways to put money aside so that my family can get to it quickly without having to pay for it out of their pocket first and then get reimbursed from the estate. Yeah, you can have a POD, a paid-on-death account in most states. Just a regular savings account? You can have a savings account or a checking account that says paid-on-death, POD.

Ask your bank if North Carolina does that. I'm pretty sure they do. Most states do. They do. And that just simply means it's not a probate issue, that the money's just paid out to them at death. They can go over to the bank and pick up the money and then go to the funeral home.

Okay. Just like that. Are you going to pre-plan the funeral home? I'm going to pre-plan probably, but not pre-pay. Good. That's what we advise. So if you've already got the budget done, then you know how much to put in the account, right? Right.

By sitting down with them. Okay, I've already got all the selections done, all they've got to do. And then they don't have to go over there and make any decisions. They've just got to go over there and punch the ticket. Right. Because you pre-made all the decisions that's very wise and um let me tell you funeral homes uh often tell you what they told you but they also often will work with a family in a real situation the reason they tell you that is they'd like for you to prepay that's why they push you on that and i don't like for

you to prepay i like for you to pay when you die. I don't need the funeral until I'm gone. And in the meantime, the money can sit in a savings account, put it in a highly-yield savings account, let it earn 4% or 5% instead of sitting in their bank account. Okay. Yeah. Okay. You're very wise, and you're very kind to your family.

That's very diligent of you. Well, I'm not really close to any of my nieces or nephews, and so I'm trying to make it as easy for them as possible. Somebody's going to have to do it. Yeah, I made it easy. Don't screw it up. I'm the youngest in my generation, sir. They'll be gone.

Everybody else will be gone. Good for you. All right. That's fun. And, you know, you could have just a friend that does it too if you'd prefer but um you know however you want but pod account and you don't need to put as just the right amount in there to cover the funeral that's all you need to do and if it's a tiny bit off believe me the funeral home will work with them it's not they're not quite as hardcore as

they like to come across yeah peter is in new york city hi peter welcome to the ramsey show hi how are you guys thanks for having me sure what's up um so we're on baby step two my wife and i we're both 28 um we have a child we're planning to have a second child sometime in 2025 um and uh currently we have about $25,000 in savings, and we're thinking about saving some of that money, not going down to $1,000 in order for when my wife goes on paternity leave. She's not pregnant? No, not yet. Okay, we don't do't do that now you need to get out of debt how much debt have you got um we have about 927 000 total debt

that includes your mortgage yes we have two mortgages yeah i'm not counting your mortgage how much debt have you got, honey? $63,000, roughly. What's your household income? About $198,000 gross. Okay. So if I woke up in your shoes, I'd put $24,000 on the $63,000 today, and I'd be debt-free before probably Christmas.

Oh, my God, you make so much money. Pay off this debt. Quit screwing around with this little debt. You're acting like you're going to keep this debt around like it's a pet. You make $200,000 a year. It's $63,000 and you already got $25,000 of it. How fast can you come up with

$40,000 in about three heartbeats? Quit spending everything. With our expenses. Yeah, I know know you got really expensive because you live high on the hog that's what we call it in tennessee not new york but yeah no i'm actually european i'm from croatia that is not a thing in europe especially not in croatia which is a former uslavian country yeah and it's separated people didn't trust banks. So my parents really weren't into that. The only thing they got was a mortgage, and that was a seven-year mortgage.

You have a fabulous income. Take some of your huge lifestyle and turn it back and clean your wonderful debt up so that when your wife gets pregnant, you got money in the bank and you have no debt except your mortgage. That's where I would be if I were you, Peter. That's very doable with the math you gave me once you make the decision you're a ways from making the decision based on your sentence structure this is the ramsey show in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt-free stage, David and Tammy are with us. Hey, guys, how are you?

Good. How are you, Dave? Good, thank you. Better than I deserve. Welcome. How much have you paid off? Well, $442,517. $443,000.

Very good. Way to go, guys. And how long did this take you? About 12 years. Okay. And your range of income during that time? We started out about 110,000 this year we're on pace to be at 360 cool what do y'all do for a living well i'm a product

strategy manager for the world's largest construction and mining equipment company and i'm a technical writer i specialize in proposal work and i moved into business development about two years ago oh very good that was a smart move like that yeah very good both of you killing it excellent job where do y'all live peoria illinois oh fun what kind of debt was the 443 about 138 of it was credit card normal debt right car boat loan uh things like that and then this march uh we paid off our mortgage. Yay! Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. Looking at weird people.

Yeah. What's this house worth? About $350,000. Love it. How much in your retirement accounts? About $1.5 million. I love it. Did you guys inherit any of this money, or are you Baby Steps Millionaires?

We were Baby Steps Millionaires when my parents passed away a couple years ago and did leave us a nice gift okay but prior to that you were already millionaires yes so proud of you look at you man how that's so fun from the ground up baby how long y'all been married 28 years so what happened 12 years ago put you on this ramsey stuff tell us the story well um about 2009 I guess um we had a you know kind of a blip in our employment and I sat down and we read your book he had heard about it from work um and I did a spreadsheet and honestly Dave I cried I cried because it was so bad um we had so much money going out and not nearly enough coming in um we were making pretty good income um but it was just all going to dumb stuff honestly we just weren't we weren't paying attention to where it was going we weren't naming our dollars and they were getting away from us so it was a problem yeah and and then once you guys decide to attack it, I mean, you've got the skill set.

I mean, you're technical writer, business development, and he's in project management. This is like the ultimate project management process, right? Exactly. We're just going to, okay, let's whip this thing. Yep. That's exactly what we did. And then you just lean in and boom. How long before you got rid of the consumer debt?

It was about 23 months. And then we went out and bought a new house, following your principles and guidelines. We needed a house with a little bit of land to put up a bigger garage. I still have the first car I ever bought. Very nice. Part of our celebration after we paid off the house was to start restoring that car. What is it?

1979 Trans Am. Oh, nice. Yeah. Is it black with a bird on the front? That's what I was going to ask. It is not black. It's got the bird on it? It does have a bird on it. It black with a bird on the it is it is not black you got the bird on it it does have a bird on the bird oh my god it's uh it's it's in restoration field right now and we were able to buy two more for him now that we've paid off all our debt so we now have a garage with with fun cars two more transams yes i have three total we have three yeah he's there's a slip yeah he's an awesome mechanic and

um it's really cool to watch him build them back so that's so fun very cool what are the other two uh 1992 trans am convertible and uh 2001 trans am ws6 i don't even know they're making i mean i'm i'm from the 70s so yeah they quit making them in 2002. Okay. All right, that's the last one. Yes. Okay, wow. All right. Oh, man. Amazing. Well, I guess Pontiac's gone, really, isn't it? Yes, it is.

Yes, it is. So there you go. Oh, my gosh. Wow, that's cool. That's a classic. That's the Smokey and the Bandit. Smokey and the Bandit. Burt Reynolds.

Burt Reynolds, yeah. That's it. The black one would be. He didn't have the black one, but yeah. All right, so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You pay off everything, house and mortgage, and build a $1.5 million net worth in 12 years. That's pretty impressive. Well, Dave, just slight correction, almost $2 million net worth.

Oh, I'm sorry. The $1.5 was just savings. Just savings. Yeah, just savings. Oh, yeah, you're right. Okay, plus $1.5. So we have 1.85. Yeah, all right.

Yeah, so really for us, it was just getting on the plan naming every dollar um having budget meetings um spreadsheets as you can imagine as we started out and and just naming every dollar where it went our friends think we're so weird because we had financial meetings every month where we sat down and said okay how's it working and then once a year we get together and say okay you know do we need to bump up this budget here do we need to move this down um like groceries you know have gone up so we're like well we should probably put a couple hundred dollars more in groceries this year and they're like you're so weird but you're not yeah but you're not broke and they are oh my gosh yeah they sit down to a spreadsheet and cry and you don't anymore

not right oh my goodness way to go you guys way to go i'm so proud of you were people outside cheering you on or did anybody know you were doing this um several people didn't know we were doing it we had family and friends cheering us on um you know everybody would call me cheap or frugal if it's not in the budget doesn't doesn't get spent right especially if it's a just a discretionary purchase right that's how a project works exactly you execute on the project i love exactly that's great that's so great very cool good for y'all good for your heroes man i mean you did it we did do it how old are y'all i'm 52 and i'll let her tell her age i'm 53 okay um so you know we're we're feeling like we're we're ready to

you know retire i mean i couldn't believe we would be here yeah um where we started so it's it's just really cool and you know we have family members now who are following and have gone through financial peace and i think this will change their lives as well as it changed ours oh yeah well when he got the third transam i thought maybe he was knew what he was doing you know it's like they had nothing to do anything else it's like he keeps buying cars he must be okay you know i like it yeah i can hear family now that's just fabulous well done very well done you guys well you fit the mold you fit the template from the uh from the millionaire research study that we did. Typical millionaire is 52.

So you're right on it. And you were there a long time ago. But of the ones that we studied, we found that number of 49, 52, 38. Now, we found a bunch of young ones, too. And we found some old ones. But you're right in the median right there. That's a perfect hit. Good job, you guys. you job so what's the first big thing you're going to do other than

buy cars to celebrate well we're going on a cruise here uh next month where are you going uh just a short one through the bahamas and just getting warmer weather being from illinois you know it's fall it's starting to get a little cool yeah why not we laughed because uh when we um we paid off the house we both got on a conference call you know and sat down with the bank and they said okay it's paid off and we're like okay like that's it we went back to work so we tell everybody we just went back to work after so no steak dinner no nice dinner that no no no exactly went back to work we were busy so no i love that you very serious serious individuals all right we have a plan for pretty much everything i'll bet so good hey real quick uh because of that

are you beginning to plan about some kind of big vision that's that's out there you guys are still very young 52 53 what's what's what's that plan yeah so our retirement goal is we we mentioned we own a boat so our retirement goal is to do the america's great loop oh yeah that's a great yeah it's awesome so motor yacht we have a yacht okay good very good so we are building our way towards that goal when we retire do you need a cabin boy you know we have a lot of volunteers already he doesn't need much i don't we have several nieces and nephews who've already volunteered he's fairly he's fairly needy emotionally though takes one to know one

that's a great plan you guys that's a great i want to do that loop one of these days i never thought of that i need to i'm going on dave's list that's one that's one i would do i need to put that on the list i never put it on there we might see you out there yeah absolutely hey we've got the live and give box for you baby steps millionaires book which is you and the total money makeover book which is you and the financial peace university membership which is you so apparently you will be giving all that away but we'll give it to you and let you give it to who you wish and uh you may enjoy the book or who knows great stuff you guys i'm so proud of you david and tammy peoria illinois 52 baby steps millionaires 1.85

paid for house and everything 443 000 paid off mortgage and everything in 12 years make it 110 to 360 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yes, they are! Woo! Yeah! I love it! This is The Ramsey Show.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We're so glad you're with us. Our scripture of the day is Proverbs 28, 19. Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty. Sam Ewing says, Hard work spotlights the character of poverty. Sam Ewing says, Hard work spotlights the character of people. Some turn up their sleeves.

Some turn up their noses. Some don't turn up. That's a great quote. I've never heard that. I haven't either. Some don't turn up at all. Some just don't turn up. You've got to love it.

Eric is in Canada. Hi, Eric. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi there. Thank you for taking my call. Oh, in Canada. Hi, Eric. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Hi there. Thank you for taking my call. Oh, Erin, I called you Eric. I'm sorry. It's okay. I recently found the Ramsey Show and enjoyed listening to it, even from Canada, where I have to mentally juggle the differences between Canada and U.S. financial products. Sure.

And I apologize in advance if I sound confused. I kind of am. I'm really just looking for direction on what to do to get a better sense of how my husband and I are doing and what we should do next. But I think it's really just kind of to get on the same page. As a new listener, I'm familiar with the baby steps, and I think that we're on four and five. We both have, my husband and I both have jobs that we enjoy with healthy salaries and index government pensions. We own our own house with a mortgage that has considerable equity. We have a rental house with a mortgage with considerable equity that's profitable after tax.

We both have emergency funds and we have funds started for education funds for our children. And in addition to the work pension, we both pay into registered RFPs, which is Canada's version of a registered retirement account with automatic transfers. But despite all that, I feel like we're living paycheck to paycheck. And I'm always confused that a family with the gross annual income of over $250,000, it feels like we're just getting by. And I don't know if it's because like how we're managing our money or just because we live in a very expensive area in Vancouver. But my husband and I have been together for 14 years and married for nine and always sort of kept our finances separate because we bought our first house that's now our rental when we weren't married. And I know

it's not recommended from what I've heard, but we've kind of kept our accounts separate and just combined it a couple that we really needed to get by. But I'm really just looking. And I think the next step is to kind of just get back on the same page and create a plan for us and start doing monthly meetings. But I don't know how to start that process. And I've always kind of been the family CFO and I just monthly meetings, but I don't know how to start that process. And I've always kind of been the family CFO,

and I just need to get like a better sense on how to bring this up to him and some practical steps on how to get on the same page for the first time. Okay. All right. A lot going on here. Thanks for the outline. Now, I'm trying to figure out, like you, the core of this is when we do whatever it is you're going to do,

combining finances or any other moves that you make, the net result needs to be that you get some peace because there's a lot of strife and struggle and scratching and clawing in this, isn't there? Well, I don't know why we can't live on $250,000 and feel like we're not broke, you said. Well, it is. We look around and we're like, I feel like that's healthy and we see friends doing well.

I just always think I i wish i could see what someone's bank account looked like no you can't because most of them are not being nearly as smart as you are you've got your stuff dialed in most of them are just living you have no idea how screwed up they are their life looks good it looks like it looks good for a second on instagram but if you really get under the hood it make'd make you puke. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what I tell my husband. That's what I tell my husband. That's exactly right. I promise you.

I pull up at a stoplight. I see a nice car. Now, I don't see a nice car. I see payments. Yeah. That fool's got a $1,250 payment. That's what runs through my head. I used to see a nice car.

Now, I see a fool. But anyway, yeah, I think you need to sit down with him and say, hey, you know, we've done it this way 14 years. It's passable. But I feel like I'm holding this together. I feel like I got all 10 fingers stuck in the dike, and it still feels like water is getting over me. And I really want to combine these things so that I don't mind doing the execution of our plan but i'm tired of developing the plan by myself and i want us to combine things and you and i make a group of basic decisions on what we're going to do with our money lay out a budget each month where we know where every dollar is going to go we both agree

to it and then i'll do the execution. I doubt he wants to or would relish taking over the tactical paying of the bills, which you kind of actually enjoy probably. I think I like having control of it. Yep. And I think that there's like a level of trust too, or like I would worry about relinquishing that. And I think that that's why I've always kind of wanted to keep some of my money. Relinquishing the trust?

Or relinquishing the power, sorry. Oh, okay, that's fair. Of, you know, knowing it all. But with the power comes the stress. Yeah. And that's probably what's putting the strain on you. That's what I'm saying. Listen, I'm America's financial nerd, right? So don't you know, I do this stuff and I, and I, you know, my opinion between Sharon and I

carries a lot of weight, uh, but we don't do anything unless she's in alignment first. And then that helps me because we're emotionally carrying the decisions of our giving, emotionally carrying the decisions of our investing or our big decisions together and then i'll go do the execution of it it becomes a no-brainer and that also prevents i told you so um i knew you were gonna screw that up you know well sharon could say i told you so it could happen at my house and it doesn't happen because she can't she was in on it you know if something screws up it's like we screwed that up not like i know you're gonna mess that up you know that doesn't

come up at my house hasn't in 30 years so it's really nice i like it so um i got a question aaron because i'm listening to this back and forth here and you said that you that i thought i heard you say that you and your husband both have emergency funds. Is that correct? Yeah. Is that three to six months on each side between the two of you? No, not each side combined together. It would be that, but when I think if we both lost our jobs at the same time, that would not be great. And you're both investing or you're combined, you're both investing 15% or you're combining

investing 15? No,'re combining investing 15%? No, we both have government-funded pensions. Do you have any other debt besides the mortgages? No, none. I think it would be really cool to dream together again. I do too, yeah. To dream together in high definition about, okay, if we could find some money in this $250,000 budget, what would be fun for us to do?

What investing would we do? Would we pay off the house? Would we pay off the rental? Would we do some additional generosity? And making those decisions together rather than just running this like it's a joint venture, I think you're going to find a whole new depth to your relationship. I don't think you've got a horrible marriage,

but I think you're going to find a whole new depth to your relationship. I don't think you've got a horrible marriage, but I think you could, I think, I think you're going to find it being better when you come back. Matter of fact, I know from working with millions of people, talking them into this. And it's amazing the number of people that hate us for telling people to combine their finances, but whatever, we're right and you're wrong. So you ought to do it. Really? I mean, it works. It changes your marriage.

It forces you to dream together. It Really, I mean, it works. It changes your marriage. It forces you to dream together. It forces you to carry the weight together. It forces you to communicate about purchase decisions. And for God's sake, where we're going to go for Christmas this year, your mother's house or my mother's house? It's in the budget. We have to talk about it. There's no surprises.

There's no side agendas. It's like the budget. We have to talk about it. There's no surprises. There's no side agendas. It's like this unity thing. And it creates a level of unity that nothing else will do. So, hey, here's the thing. What if you combined it all and tried it a year? And I was wrong and you absolutely hated it. Well, you didn't lose any money. Just split it back apart. what's wrong with trying it

that's what i'll do give it a shot and ask tell him that too just say hey what if it doesn't work if we hate it we can always split it back apart it's not like a tattoo i mean we can change it right there's a lot of stuff we can do here so it's not a permanent fixture so ken coleman good hour thank you sir thanks for having me well done well done to the booth people they did a great job we can do here. So it's not a permanent fixture. So Ken Coleman, good hour. Thank you, sir. Thanks for having me. Well done. Well done to the booth people. They did a great job today. Good work in there.

That puts us out of the Ramsey show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Ken. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to ramsesolutions.com and click on the get started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. Again, that's ramsesolutions.com and click get started.