The Ramsey Show - App - You Can Change Lives and Family Legacies (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 30, 2018

The show about you

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey. Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Roger is in Anderson, Indiana. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Roger. Thank you, Dave.

It's an honor to speak to you. You too. What's up? Well, I'm looking for a health check. 61 years old. My wife is also. She's been retired for three years. I'm looking to retire in about six months right after turning 62.

We have no debt. House is paid for. Great. We've got roughly 700 or so in our main retirement accounts. I've got a 401k that's got 155. Our property's worth about two and a quarter on the high side, maybe. The only... 700 plus 155 or 700 including 155?

No, plus the 155. Okay. All right. So 855. So you got a net worth of over a million. Congratulations. Thank you. We've worked hard at it.

We actually lived this way before I ever found you on the radio. Sure. Sure. Yeah. It was before you got into a local radio station. I bought an O2 vehicle that bought on time, 0% financing, and it was still $500 a month, and I said, never again. Yeah, I hear you. And paid it off in three years.

It was a five-year note. And then soon after that. Do you have any other pension coming in? I do. I will have a pension from my job besides the 401k. How much? It's roughly $62,000. Okay. What do you make now? Right now, I'm about $33,000 an hour, probably about $70,000 with my overtime. Okay. At our high, we were making around $125,000.

Then my wife retired, like I said, three years ago after 38 years of her job. Yeah. She was due. Right. Does she have a pension as well? Yes. It comes in on a monthly stipend. How much is that?

That's just under $800. Okay. All right. And then I've got another pension that if I wait until I'm 65 to start drawing it, it will be roughly in the $450 range a month. Mm-hmm. Okay. Do any of these pensions have the ability to do a lump sum rollover?

Yes. At my employer now, I do. I haven't checked the other one out. We worked at an automaker spinoff, and when they closed us, they took over our pension. Okay. And so I'm set up for their pension. Here's what I heard you tell me, okay? You're making it now with your income at

70 something as the household sits yeah and your income at least 30 000 liquid in cash yeah if you take the pension if you take the pension your income would drop from 70 to 62 right you easily with it's kind of a no-brainer, can supplement that other $10,000 out of the investment income off of $850,000. Yeah. So you're in great shape. You've got no issues at all, none whatsoever. My wife's a little bit nervous about it. And also we have an unknown fixed retirement from her folks when the time comes.

But here's the point. Okay, you need to just do some simple math with her, okay? We have $800,000. If we take 5% off of that, and it's earning a lot more than that because we're in mutual funds. Yes. that and it's earning a lot more than that because we're in mutual funds but if we take five percent off of that that's forty thousand dollars a year that gives us a thirty thousand dollar a year raise you know forty plus sixty your pension over what you make now yeah yeah so you're my 60 would be a lump sum oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

I thought you said they were paying you $60,000 a year pension. No, no, I'm sorry. That's a lump sum. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, then we roll that over. So now we're not at $855,000. Now we're at $900,000. And so $900,000 at 10% is $90,000 a year at 8% is $81,000 a year and so on, right?

Mm-hmm. Right. And so you just show her those numbers, sit down with a SmartVestor Pro, and lay out a game plan to draw enough off the income only of the $900,000 to live well. Okay. And you won't even have to touch your nest egg. This is basically what our financial advisor has told us. We haven't sat down and specifically gone over numbers with him yet.

I have found in these situations that even though I'm the expert, it helps my wife to hear someone else say it. Yeah. I understand. I don't know what that is. It wrong but it is that way so roger thank you for calling in man congratulations you're another everyday millionaire very well done porsche's with us in dallas texas hi porsche how are you hi how are you better than i deserve what's up okay dave i have an issue I am a single mother of five.

I did buy your book, and I love the book, Total Money Makeover. I have student loans totaling in about $68,000. I have credit card debt in about $5,450. Cars that I pay for about $523 a month, and I owe about $20,000 on it. I am needing to find out how I can actually start this process. I do have the $1,000 saved up. Good. But I don't know if I should be saving money when I still have debt.

No. Right now we've got to work on the debt. That's the first thing you do. What we teach folks to do is baby step one is $1,000, and then baby step two is we list all our debts, smallest to largest. We stop saving and we stop investing, and we pile up and we tear into that smallest debt and get rid of it. You need to cut up your credit cards tonight, all of them.

Okay. What is your income? As of right now, my income is about $47,000 a year. I had a job making more, but I was recently laid off for about two months, so I picked up, you know, the nearest job that I could get, the quickest job that I could get. And how much child support do you have coming in? Total, it's about $14,000. A year?

A year, yes, sir. All right. So we're dealing's about $14,000. A year? A year, yes, sir. All right, so we're dealing with a $60,000 household income. That car is a very expensive car. Mm-hmm. It's not where you have to sell it, but it's where you need to think about possibly selling it and moving down in-car. Okay. A $500 car payment in your situation is a huge ouchie.

Mm-hmm. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, is a huge ouchie. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. It's going to hold you back. Okay. So it sounds like you've got a high interest rate on it, too. I do, unfortunately. It was my first car, and I didn't know anything about buying a car on my own. I'd love for you to get about a $5,000 car for a little while while you get this mess cleaned up and get no payments. Just for a little while. But you're going to have to pull back on some stuff and lay

into this and then you can get this moving. It'll work for you though. Hold on, I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, to show you exactly how to do what and when to do it. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs.

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It's a deal. It's a serious deal. Get it all at DaveRamsey.com or call us at 888-22-PIECE, 888-227-3223. Sarah is with us in Milwaukee. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a question. We are wrapping up Baby Step 2 and it'll take us a few months to do Baby Step 3.

In the meantime, to help with Baby Step 2, I started a consulting business, which actually ended up being a very good move for us. It pulls in about $5,000 a month, which is about my husband's and my salary combined. Wow. I know. Yeah. It was pretty awesome for us. We live off of our salaried income, though. So all of that money goes straight towards our debt snowball and our debt, which is why we have been able to do it so quickly. So my question is, when we get into baby step four, five, and six, do we do 15% of our salaried income because that's what we live off of, and do I continue to funnel that money towards our mortgage, which unfortunately is a 30-year, 4.5%, and we do have PMI because it was a pre-bave buy.

To get it just kind of wiped out, we owe about $160 on it. What is your five years from today? Will you still be doing consulting? Yes. In an ideal world, that would be what I would be doing full-time. Well, you make more than the two you put together right now. Correct. It's the benefit.

So we have one child, and we know that we want to have one more, and my benefits at my salary job are significantly better than any of the private benefits that I could find, and a lot cheaper. And right now I can do both, and I still only work Monday through Friday, daytime hours. Okay. So, like, right now it kind of isn't worth leaving. Then today I'm counting the consulting in the 15% because it's your household income. It's not a part-time job you're dropping.

No. You're going to keep it. It's part of your household income. And then if your income ever goes down, you adjust your contributions down to 15% of whatever your income is at that point. If your income goes up, you adjust it up. It's 15% of your income year in and year out. You're not dropping this

it wasn't a temporary thing just to get out of debt it's how it started but it's turned into a huge blessing and maybe even into your future which is very cool so um and uh so yeah i'm gonna do that and then that doesn't change the equation much though because you're still going to be putting a ton of money over into Baby Steps 5 and 6. You're going to be rolling. I mean, you have one child, you said? Yeah, she's three months old. Wonderful.

Okay. Very fun. Very fun. Okay, so what are the benefits that are so awesome? I do medical social work for a hospital, and so my health insurance and my retirement is, well, when I contribute again, is really good. They actually match 6%, and then at the end of the year, give a 4% bonus into our retirement based on my salary. Okay, and what do you make? There, I make $65,000.

Mm-hmm. Okay. And then my submission other work for the city. Okay. So that's 6% of that's $3,000. Mm-hmm. That's 10% of that with the 4% matches, $6,000. Okay.

So what's the health insurance uh the health insurance is i think it's about two you pay two hundred a month you pay two hundred a month and what is what is the coverage that's so unbelievable that it has um that i don't pay more than 1500 a year okay for services so like so essentially you know i just had my daughter we didn't pay more than $1,500 a year for services. So essentially, you know, I just had my daughter. We didn't pay more than $1,500 for me to have her in that case. You have a $1,500 stop loss as a deductible, and they pay 100% after that. Yep. Okay. And so for us right now, still being in Baby Step 2.

You're not in Baby Step 2 in this discussion. Right. We're discussing 456, and you're saying you want to keep doing consulting for $10,000 a year and an above-average health insurance policy that has a value of $5,000 or so. Okay. So what I wanted to point out to you is this. The benefits are nice that you're being offered. Okay?

They have an actual cash value in your world of about $15,000 or $20,000. Right. Okay? You know, with the money you're making consulting, and if that consulting income continues to go up, do not ruin your life by overworking for these benefits because you think they're more than they actually are. Right.

Okay. So I just want you to grasp what that is because sometimes people have this, derive this emotional safety net and treat the benefits like they're a hundred grand or something in value. And these are really nice benefits benefits admittedly and but they're probably have a cash value between you know fifteen twenty thousand dollars a year that's what it sounds like to me uh that you couldn't get in the market that you'd pay extra were you in the open market and so don't walk away from a raise of thirty or,000 or $40,000 a year because of these great benefits. That's my point.

And people get, you know, that has the desired effect for an employer offering these because, you know, you stick it out for the benefits. And it's like, yeah, but they're not really worth that much. So these are. They're worth a lot. But just kind of measure that out as you go along. Good question. Thank you for joining us. And congratulations. You guys are doing very, very well. Ben is with us in California, Bakersfield

to be exact. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Ben. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking the call. Sure, man. What's up? Hey, so I'm a 28-year-old. My wife's a 26-year-old. We have a one-year-old boy. We are $667 away from being debt-free. We just paid our car a couple days ago. And I make $72,000 a year. We already were done with Baby Step 1. We're almost done with Baby Step 2.

So my question is this. Two years ago, we bought a house. We rushed into it, and it's not the best house. We rushed into it and it's not the best house. We have a 30 year fixed rate loan on it. And I just recently, you know, took you seriously, took my wife seriously and started taking the reign of our finances. And so I'm already thinking ahead. Of course, I first got to get step three, got to get my fully funded emergency funds. So I'm not even ahead. Of course, I first got to get step three. I got to get my fully funded emergency fund. So I'm not even going to think of doing anything with the house until then. Okay.

But my question is more on the lines of selling the house. And of course, this is after baby step three is done. Sometimes my wife feels like, you know, we're never going to be able to get something better or anything like that. And I'm just wondering if after Baby Step 3, should we? The house needs some repairs. I'm thinking maybe about $7,000 or so just to be able to get it sold. Yeah, well, get it up and get it ready to sell and then decide if you want to stay in a little while longer or if you want to get it sold. Either one's fine.

If you don't want to stay there, it's okay to move. But just as you move, buy a 15-year fixed where the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay. I get asked all the time, when in the baby steps is the right time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents.

It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance, since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive, and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com.

John and Ashley are in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. Hey guys, how are you? Hey Dave, thanks for having us. Absolutely. Where do you guys live? We live in Louisville, Kentucky. Wonderful. And all the way down here to do your debt-free screen. Yes, sir. Fine. How much have you paid off? We have paid $167,000. All right. How long did this take? About five and a half years. Okay, cool. And your range of income during that time? So started off at about $80000, and then through a variety of income sources ended at about $160,000. Whoa, doubled it. Very cool.

What do you guys do for a living? So my husband's a physical therapist, and I stay at home with our kids. And since becoming debt-free, I've started a family travel blog, too. Oh, very good. Good for you guys. Fun. So $167,000. Oh, very good. Good for you guys. Fun. So, $167,000. That's a lot.

What all did that include? That'd be our house. You paid off your house? Yes, sir. I'm looking at weird people. You know what they say about normal. That's right. Normal sucks.

And you're not it. Way to go, guys. You're young to have a paid-for house. How old are you guys? I'm 31, and my 30 year old wife looks like she's 25 it's because she's got no debt that's what it is great man how fun five and a half years so you start this whole thing in your early 20s yes sir like 24 23 years old you get out you say we're to pay off our house. What's the

house worth? It's probably worth about $275. That'd be a guess, but I know that it's paid for. Yeah, it's okay to guess. Wow. And so you had no debt at that point, except the house, and you decided to go ahead, we're going to pay off this house early. What inspired you to do that at such a young age? So we actually, part of our senior required curriculum for our school was your course and thought that was such a great way to have such a good foundation. So we got married at 19 and 20. So senior in high school. Yes.

You took the foundations course. Yes, sir. Oh my gosh, our curriculum. Yes. So although we were young and married, we probably didn't make the best choices. I don't also think we made any horrible choices. And so that started us off on a good foundation. And then when we got married, we kind of just looked at the marriages around us,

and it seemed like finances were either abundantly blessing marriages or just absolutely destroying them. And we felt like, you know what, if we can just do one thing really well, this is a good place to start. Yeah, that's good. That's a good way of looking at it. The money thing is such a big thing. Let's get that right, and then we'll work on other stuff. Yeah, good.

Very good. Fun. So you lean into the mortgage, and you pay off $167,000 in five and a half years. So that's like $30,000 a year. Yeah, we did some things along the way on the front end. We had to buy a couple cars, paid for, finished our basement. So we did like $111,000 in the last two years. Oh, wow.

Yeah, so really got it to the point where it's just time to knock it out all the way. So you looked up a couple years ago, could really see the light at the end of the tunnel. There's not a train. Let's knock this out. That's right. Sprint to the finish. Good, guys. How's it feel?

You're three years old. You don't even have a payment. Feels pretty good. You know, life at Baby Step 6 was pretty good. I mean, we had some good things. We took some fun trips, all that stuff. But life at Baby Step 7 is pretty awesome. Yeah. You're going to be so rich and you're going to be so generous. You've completely changed your life and your family tree. That was so proud of you. So did

you have cheerleaders? We did. I think one of the things that we looked at was this was something we were really doing for us. So between the two of us, that was really what we tried to make sure this was building our relationship with each other. One of the things that we did find that was kind of funny, it seemed like for a lot of people, our specific income is the only income this plan would work for. So we found a lot of people that made more than us and didn't need this plan or made less that I think would work for them. So it was kind of humorous for us along the way just to kind of see because we just worked the plan and went along and did it. Wow.

Yeah, your specific income because everybody else is, yeah, that works for you. But people like me. Yeah. Yeah. So you have people saying you're crazy. Maybe not crazy, but maybe close. Yeah. Maybe good for you, but not for us.

Yeah. That thing. Yeah. Which is pretty much saying you're crazy. So who was your best and biggest cheerleader, other than each other? I mean, all our family has been super, super supportive and cheering us on the whole way. So we haven't had anyone that has, you know, just acted like we were insane. That's good.

Very cool. And along the way, you had some kid insane. That's good. Very cool. And along the way, you had some kiddos. Yes, sir. What ages and names? Brandon is six and Abigail is four. And we're headed down to Disney World after this. Oh, yeah. Well, we've got to stop by and see Dave,

but Mickey is the thing, man. That's right. That's right. Bring it, Mickey. Happiest place on Earth or whatever they call it. Yeah, very fun. Happiest place on earth is called your street address. Yes, sir.

No payments in a paid-for house. That's adult Disneyland right there, man. Well done, you guys. So well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Well, we hear people talk about it all the time. Talk about your why. And I think that's the answer that we would land with.

And so one of the things that I look at, um, from watching Simon Sinek's video from the beginning is you've got to define that why until it's so tangible and so clear and so specific that it gives you goosebumps. And if you're so inspired by that, the mechanics of doing a budget and the, what the outcomes of the baby steps along the way, it's just, you're going to do it because it's just that you're so inspired by what you're doing. Probably when I was probably 14 years old, I was listening to the radio, and this guy was kind of screaming and ranting a little bit,

and he said something that stuck with me a little bit, and here's what he said. That opportunity is missed by most people because it's dressed in overalls and it looks like work. And so when you're inspired to do something like that, the extra work is a blessing, and the opportunity to do that just becomes something that it's not necessarily easy, but it makes it so clear and so worth it when you know exactly why you're doing it. And so for us, our why in a very practical way is we want to honor the Lord with our finances.

We want to improve our marriage. We know that it will improve our marriage. We know that it will improve our legacy that we leave for our children. We want to give crazy generously, and we want to have a lot of fun traveling. So for us, that gets us excited. Yeah, and you're going to get to do every bit of that and more. Well done, you guys. I'm very proud of you. That's so neat.

14 years old, he's listening to the radio. You take the class as a high school senior, our high school curriculum, which those of you out there that don't know, we've got a high school curriculum called Foundations and Personal Finances. Now in about, oh, it's about 53% of the high schools in America are now teaching it. Thank goodness. So we're getting there. But, wow, you guys, you're the fruit of that.

Our Ed Solutions team will be so thrilled to hear this particular debt-free scream. It's very, very cool. Good stuff. Good stuff. Well done, you guys. Very well done. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. And that's the next chapter, to be millionaires and outrageously generous, which is your plan, obviously.

Well done. John, Ashley, Brandon, Abigail from Louisville on the way to Disney stopped by to do a debt-free scream. $167,000 paid off five and a half years, making $80,000 to $160,000. That's their house and everything at 31 years old. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right, you guys ready?

All right. Three, two, one. We're dead free! That's what it is right there. Oh, my gosh. You look at that little four-year-old girl and you think, her daddy, when he was 14, heard somebody say, go to work, me, ranting about work.

And that little girl right there, because her daddy decided, her mommy decided to be grownups and not blame everybody else, not be a victim of everything that's going on, instead be a victor. They're not only in control, they're destined for financial greatness. $167,000 paid off. Their home is worth $275,000. They make on his income alone

$160,000 a year. Are you hearing this? You see what has happened. And this is they get married straight out of high school. So you can do this. You can do this. Only question is when you're going to start.

Ready? Oh, it's your turn right now. You ready? Set. Go. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Our Scripture of the Day, Galatians 6-9. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Winston Churchill said,

Success is not final, failure is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. The number one character attribute of people who are successful is just simply perseverance, isn't it? Wow. Have you downloaded the EveryDollar app yet? If you haven't, you need to try to do it. And if you downloaded it and you weren't consistent using it, a ton of people have good intentions. But without the monthly plan where you're regularly checking your progress, your money slips away. So just because you got it on your phone, it's not magic. It doesn't tackle you and make you behave.

Now is the perfect time to re-engage. You need to check out some of the stuff we're doing over on EveryDollar that's brand new. Log into EveryDollar. Make sure the September budget is done. It takes less than 10 minutes. You're going to be amazed about how intentional you can be with a plan for your money and how much traction you'll get when you do. EveryDollar.com, the world's best budgeting software,

the world's best budgeting app, and it's free. Stephen's in Austin, Texas. Hey, Stephen, how are you? Doing well, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome.

Just wanted to note and thank you. A buddy led me on to you back in about March or April. I read through your book, and just paid off a little over $58,000 in student loans. Fun. Way to go, man. You're on fire. Yeah. How can I help? Moving on.

So it felt really good. I'm 29 and didn't have student debt, obviously, since I graduated college, but never really understood it or looked into it. No one explained it to me. And like I said, a good buddy turned me on to you, and I've just been snowballing ever since. Wow. Very cool.

Good for you. Man, amazing. Good. How can I help today? Thank you. So I have my own consulting gig. I pull a small salary from that. I'm the only employee.

My question is, is it more beneficial to open up a SEP IRA or a Roth IRA, or can I do both? You can do both. Okay. And it depends on how much you want to throw into, but you want to be saving 15% of your income overall. As you know, that's baby step four now that you've got your emergency fund in place and you're debt-free. And so, you know, a traditional Roth IRA allows you to put in $5,500. The SEP allows you to put in, there's a calculation, but it ends up being about 13.8% of your net profit on the business can go into the SEP. And as long as you don't have employees, the SEP is a wonderful thing,

and you can do it as a Roth. Gotcha. So, yeah, just get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros. Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com. They can show you how to set up either one. Truthfully, the traditional Roth is the easiest one to manage and to set up. So if you're just going to do one or the other, I'd probably just do that one. But if you've got the money and want to load some stuff up here,

you can load up the SEP and the traditional and your retirement plan over at work as well. Zach is with us in Houston. Hi, Zach. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? I knew you were going to say that. Awesome. I am wondering, what do I need to do next? I already have a feeling you're going to tell me it's move out. I'm 24. I live at home with Mom. I've been debt-free forever because I don't have a house.

I paid for my truck cash. I've been working since I'm 14. I have 41,000 saved as of right now good for you i really want to get a house but i don't know if i'm ready to make that step there's nobody says you have to today um yeah i think the first step before i did buy a house i would move out and just get an apartment and uh you know get you a decent place don't spend a bunch of money on rent maybe get a roommate i don't know, get you a decent place. Don't spend a bunch of money on rent. Maybe get a roommate.

I don't know. Up to you whether you want to do that or not. But let's get used to the rhythm of paying those bills. What do you make a year? I make $43 at my main job. My side job I just started recently. So it's part-time. I make about $13 an hour doing that.

But you've been very frugal and very systematic about your savings, so you've done a great job, man. Way to go. Thank you. Also, with my main job, I've been putting in about 40% of my paycheck into a deferred comp. I know you say $15 because I live at home and I have the extra money. That's why I've been doing it. I just reduced it

down to about $150,000 a paycheck instead of $600,000 a paycheck. I would be, if you have a 401k as an option, that's a better option than the deferred comp. But the deferred comp's not bad. It's not the end of the world. I have a it's a 457B.

Is that what that is? That's deferred comp. I also have a pension that's a 457B. Is that what that is? Right. Yeah, that's deferred cope. And then I also have a pension that's being put into automatically. Okay. So you're working for the government. I work as a fireman. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. That's what I figured. Okay, good. That's fine. You're doing great, man. Way to go. So here's the thing. You can get out, get settled um continue to save money in your out the month where the place i would pile up money is in that forty one thousand dollar account

because the bigger down payment on the house you make the quicker you're gonna get it paid off later right so let's let's rent a little while and pile up cash um are you dating anyone seriously no okay no kids okay i didn't ask about kids i said are you dating anyone seriously? No. Okay. No kids. Okay. I didn't ask about kids. I said, are you dating anybody seriously? That's expensive, too. Okay. All right.

That's fine. Because if you buy a house and then get married, you will discover you probably bought the wrong house. Right. So, you know, it's okay in the early stages of your life here to go slow on buying a house but hey if you're a confirmed bachelor and you're liking this and you want to you know get you a place then think about the type of property that you want to own given your life and your lifestyle you might want to buy a condo so you don't have to mess with maintenance and stuff, you know.

You might enjoy the single life, you know, spending your hours doing something other than cutting grass. And so that kind of thing. So, you know, just decide how you want to do it and then make a purchase based on that. The other thing is whatever you buy, you probably will not own it five years later. Well, I was thinking that I'd want to do real estate. I'd want to keep it paid off and try to rent it out. Well, that'd be fine as long as you have the money to pay cash for the next property. Okay.

Okay, that was going to be a question. Yeah, I'm not going to have you borrow to buy your home because you have a paid-for rental that you didn't want to sell. Okay. I would rather you sell it, use the money from that to have a paid-for home first, and then start building your rental portfolio. But I don't know, man. You're a serious saver.

You can probably pull it off and pay cash for the house, too. But, yeah, talk about getting you a little condo of some kind or something like that to get you in there and get it paid off, and then start saving money like a crazy man. And, you know, see where that takes you, you know, by the time you're 30, where you're going to be sitting at that point. So you really are doing a good job, sir. I'm very proud of you. That's excellent, excellent stuff.

But you're a frugal person. You're somebody that doesn't like to spend money. So make sure you're giving. Make sure you're enjoying some of your money while you're doing all this saving and while you're being so responsible, which I do want you to continue to do that part. You're really doing well. Sean on Twitter says, how can I keep fun in my life while becoming debt free? I understand making sacrifices, but the day I lose my inner child is the day I go the way of old yeller.

Oh, you're a drama queen. Oh, seriously. My inner child. I have to protect my inner child. That's because you're an outer child. Oh, brother. Is it okay to budget a date night once in a while, or should we put it in gold for 24 months?

Dude, seriously, the hyperbole that's going with this tweet is unbelievable. Drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama, drama. You act like your world's coming to an end because you sacrificed a little bit. This is called being a grown-up. Adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good. You can have a date night without spending a dime. You can have fun without spending a dime.

When you start defining fun as money being spent, you need to redefine fun. So, yeah, you can do a lot of stuff here. Yes, you need to sacrifice. Wah. You need to sacrifice. Wah. You need to sacrifice. That's how you're going to get there. The Bible says no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness. This is grown-up time, but you're grown-up, man. That puts us out of the Dave 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 guys, this is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsay.com slash show.