The Ramsey Show - App - You Can Dig Your Way out of This! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

🎵 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 amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined by the host of The Dr. John Deloney Show, Dr. John Deloney. We're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. If you want to talk about mental health, wellness, getting debt free, building wealth, how to live a less anxious life, we are here for all of that. And we'll help you take the right next step. Cynthia joins us this hour in New York. What is going on, Cynthia?

Hi, how are you guys? Doing well. How can we help? Good. So I know this is a difficult question. I probably know the answer to it, but I'm wondering if I should file for bankruptcy. I really dug myself a really big hole that I'm having a really hard time getting out of. And I need to know like what are the best steps that I can take to maybe not have to go down that route. But I'm kind of in a bad place financially right now. I'm sorry to hear that. And I hate that that's even on the table for you. And I'll tell you upfront, most people that call in asking if they should file, we tell them, no, you can absolutely get out of this. And it's not because we're just like power of positive thinking over here.

We have seen people get out of bigger holes making less money. And so we know it's possible for you as well. So tell us about your financial situation. How much debt are you in and how much do you make? So I make just under $95,000 a year. I live in a – I actually own my home. I bought a home a few years ago. I'm a single mother as well. Um, so my debt between credit cards and personal loans is about 32,000 a year.

And my car is about 70, I'm sorry, 32,000 total. And, um, my car is about 17,000, um, that I owe. So just under 50,000 total in debt. Wow. Okay. Before George even talks, as of right now, I don't even know the rest of your situation. Bankruptcy is off the table. Okay? Okay. We're not even going to think about it. That's not even an option. Okay? Okay. If you were told me you were a million dollars in debt you made 95 000 different conversation you are gonna be good to go cool okay i know you think i'm crazy i'm just telling you you are squared up you are all good you are about the average person that calls into the show cynthia and the reason i say that is because most people that call in, they have about half of their debt tied up. And so if they make 100, they probably have 50 in debt.

And when I started this program, I had 40 in debt and I was making 40. And so it feels even more daunting when you have as much debt as you have income. And so what has led you to this place where you're like, I can't make these payments anymore? Is that what's happening? Yeah, I'm paying the bare minimum. I did start the snowball method. So I was dumping some extra money into one loan or credit card at a time. I'm actually paid off one loan. Well, I'm going to be paid off.

I owe like $200 more. So that's the next paycheck. That'll be done. What loan is that? I still have a long way to go. Is that your smallest one? It's the smallest one since I really started trying to buckle down and get better. Okay. And do you live in New York City proper, or are you outside of the city?

I'm right outside of the city. Okay. And you use your car to commute to work? I do. Okay. I do. What's the car worth? Well, about $17,000 left on here.

It's probably less than that. I would check the Kelley Blue Book private party value just to see what it's worth. Okay. Because there's a whole bunch of options you can do before ever thinking about bankruptcy. But one option would be to sell the car and downsize and buy a cash car that you drive around for now. Because that would free up, you know, a third of your debt right there. And that car would be embarrassing. You would roll your eyes.

People would be like, but I thought you made a bunch of money. And you would say, yeah, I'm just, I'm free now, though. Yeah. Is public transportation an option where you are? No. My commute is about an hour to work. So I do need something reliable reliable i am a single mother i need to make sure i can get my you know my child to and from school she's in a lot of extra

activities and things okay i do want something that's reliable and safe as well but downsizing could be an option sure well i'm just saying like the price of a car doesn't have a ton to do with reliability i drove a six thousand dollar car and it's more reliable than my wife's luxury suv that's in the shop right now okay and so i just say that i say that out of frustration and so i'm just saying you know it you can find reliable cheap used cars and by cheap i'm talking maybe eight thousand dollars but it's better than being 17 000 in debt so that's one. Are you investing right now at all? I do have my 401k. That's really about it right now.

How much are you putting into that percentage-wise? About 4% of my salary, of my income. Congratulations. You just got $3,800 back in your life every year because you're going to pause investing while we get out of this debt. Yeah. I was thinking that I should do that. So that's going to free up. Get this. You ready for it? You just got to raise $316 a month back

in your paycheck. Yeah, that sounds about right. That you can now throw to your debt. All right. Now, I'm going to really challenge you. Are you ready? Okay. How much are all of these activities that your kid is involved in costing you? Oh, gosh. So I took a sacrifice and I decided to coach one of the teams so that she could play on it for free. So I'm really not paying much for that. That's one of the teams.

That's one of them. What about the rest? There is a team that's coming up. It's going to be a little costly. Okay, so maybe not this time. Because I'm going to tell you something. Well, I look at it as an investment. It's not.

It's not. You called us saying, should I file for bankruptcy? It's the greatest scam on American families. If your kid is not in this soccer team when they're seven, then they're never going to get to the team when they're 12. And then they're never going to. It's not an investment. It's blowing up families.

And I'm a travel sports kid. I grew up that way. I make my kids do sports. Okay. So I'm not anti-sports, but if you can't afford it, or you're about to do something that statistically is going to wreck you, which is filing for bankruptcy, the greatest gift you can give your kid is not another season of a thing that you're flying around our commute here trying to get to this game, trying to move. The greatest gift you can give that kid is peace in your home.

This is true. I know it's true. It's definitely stressful. I know it's true. It's definitely stressful, so there's not much peace. And sometimes when you're a single parent, the idea you carry around that guilt, you carry around that shame, and the idea I would never ever say no to my kid on something they want to do, I can't never do that. I'm telling you, you got to because you can't afford it. But if you buckle down for the next 18, 24 months, you can say yes to everything after that.

Okay. You see what I'm saying? How often do y'all go out to eat more than we should yeah probably yeah i think i've already tried to cut back on that i want you to cut back to zero no more going out to eat not until this debt's paid off i think switching the language cynthia from i'm going to try to I'm the kind of person who's going to meal plan because I want to get out of debt that badly. And bankruptcy will destroy your life. This is not a get out of jail free card. It will implode everything around you. And so I'm telling you, pause investing, cut up the cards, budget. I'm going to give you a one year of every dollar premium to help you on this journey. And FPU. And financial peace courses. Watch all nine lessons. Have your kids watch it with you and go, this is the plan mama's on. This is why we can't do travel sports. This is why we're not eating out. And as you figure out ways to cut expenses, ways to make more overtime side hustles,

you quit eating out, you pause the investing, you're going to find some serious traction with this debt snowball. And I can't wait to hear your debt-free scream when you're done. Hey, you guys, health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will

pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. 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. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. If you're enjoying the show, be sure to check out all of the other great shows on The Ramsey Network, including The Dr. John Deloney Show and my YouTube channel, which you can find by searching George Campbell with a K. We are firing out that content, John. Every week, we are feeding the

beast, as I like to say, but it's working. People are getting helped because of it and they're engaging and they're changing their lives and that's why we do this. So we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225 and we've got our question of the day. In the meantime, John, it comes from Kelsey in Georgia. What does Kelsey have to say? All right, Kelsey writes, we have a family member that is seriously dating someone and will probably get married in the next two years, but they aren't engaged yet. I love it. So good.

That's going to stop. We are seriously dating. They're not engaged. Maybe they'll get married in two years. Probably. That would reduce the seriousness to which they are dating. But alas, should we allow the boyfriend to be added to the family cell phone plan to save him $50 a month? This is going to be the fastest question of the day answer ever.

Hard no. No. That's weird. You don't add them to your other bills for him to save money. It's just so great. Maybe you share the Netflix login, but that's about the extent of it. And by the way, when he gets married, him and your family member start their own family plan. You don't add new, what, man.

If he needs to save 50 bucks per month there's cheaper cell phone options out there so if he's still paying and he's then saving 50 he's probably paying upwards of 100 right just yeah just don't just don't like it's from it's they discuss this cleanly in uh ghostbusters don't cross the streams everything bad happens when you cross it just don't just don't and then it gets weird because they break up. It's already weird. But he's still on the phone plan. He's on the phone plan, and he just decides,

you know what, I'm not going to pay anymore. Oh, boy. Just don't. Just don't. Just don't. Just don't. Just don't. Not worth it.

Never. When they get engaged, no. When they get married, kick her off the plan. They get their own plan. Nobody's joining your phone plan. Ta-da. That was easy. Man.

Thanks for that, John. We should have one of those easy buttons. They're not going to give that to us. They won't. You can't be trusted with it, first of all. I agree with that. You'd be hitting it all the time for no reason. All right, let's go to Savannah in Melbourne before George hurts my feelings anymore.

What's going on in Florida, Savannah? Hi, thank you so much for taking my call, guys. Absolutely. How can we help? So my question is, should I go back to work, and would that be the best way to get our family finances under control? Obviously, I can unpack that. Sure. So are you staying at home with kids right now?

So I have a one-year-old son, and I have a baby on the way. She's due in late May. Woo! Party. And you're saying I'm going to go back to work right now? Well, right now would be, like, after the postpartum period. Okay. So we're saying, like, by the fall, you might go back to work.

Yes. And so, okay. So I've got birth costs that will be due in a couple weeks to my midwife. It's about $3,000. My husband's an airplane mechanic and he makes gross about $56,000 a year. Though that varies a lot because sometimes he has overtime. He has his own business on top of his employee job, but he puts all he makes into his business. He has a toolbox debt that he got when he was in school, and then tools, etc. We are homeowners. My mom bought the home, and she owns it with us, and she gives us a really good interest rate. Wait, hold on. Hold the phone.

So whose name is on the mortgage? Well, it's not a mortgage. I just pay my mom. So it's your mom's real renter and it's your mom's house. We are all on the deed and she bought it cash. Oh, she bought it cash.

There's no mortgage. Both of your names are on the deed. What happens when... She gives us a really good interest rate because she. Both of your names are on the deed. No, there's no mortgage. What happens when... She gives us a really good interest rate because she made up the interest rate. Oh, my gosh. Wait. I'm so confused. You're paying a fake mortgage payment?

Why not just... Yes. Just I'm zelling her. That's all. Oh, gosh. Okay. That's a story for another day. This is going to go bad in so many ways.

It means that we can afford to have a home with... But you don't have a home. But you don't have a home. But you don't have a home. You're renting from your mom. But, hey, that's a whole other conversation. Here's the deal. Your husband has another business

that he's trying to build the business. He's got a baby coming, so he needs to pay for his baby. The business doesn't make money. Y'all made a choice to get a midwife.

I don't knock that choice at all. My wife got one. I mean, she got one as well, but it's expensive. I'm very anti-hospital birth. But you can have these philosophical points. Like, I'm anti this. Cool. But that anti costs a lot of money, and it doesn't work with insurance.

I will be reimbursed most of it, but it's obviously after the birth and you have to be out that money. So yes, so maybe your choices mean you got to go back to work or maybe your choices mean your husband's got to stop investing in his business and pay for his wife and baby to have, you know, to be born, right?

There's all these are just choices. How much debt do you guys have right now? So we have $14,000 of debt, and half of that is medical debt for my one-year-old. He was hospitalized. And that's another point that I have is if I go back to work, then we would have to look at child care. And so there's a cost to that. But then also every time my son goes to the nursery at church, which he's never been in daycare, but the nursery, he gets sick.

And then that caused him to have to be hospitalized. And then it just meant that I've had to stay home a bunch. And then I've had to pay for prescriptions and doctor's appointments. And he just gets sick a lot. Do you guys have good health insurance? Then we do luckily okay and are you going to hit your out-of-pocket to where this you know what your limit will be unfortunately the timing of when my son was hospitalized made it that it started over this year i'm like oh i have to do it again that stinks okay so you guys make 56k total per year

and you have 14,000 in debt. Unless my husband decided to pay himself. Which I would advise him doing. Yeah, because he has a baby on the way and he's got another baby in the hospital. So I would pause everything right now and just make minimum payments on your debts and stack up as much cash as you can

until baby's here, you and baby are healthy, Then we'll restart the debt snowball. And then we'll look at what it's going to look like. Should we go back to work? Is it going to make sense with the daycare costs? Because having two kids in daycare means we need, you know, 1500 of our net income going to daycare. So you're going to have to sit down and do a budget with your husband and count the cost for that and see if it's going to be worth it. What could you make if you went back to work? Were you doing something before career wise? Okay. So I was, but I hadn't graduated by that time. And then I was pregnant with my son when I

was in school. So the job that I had was like 17 an hour, but it was at a marketing firm. So my degree is kind of weird because I have a minor in digital media, and all my courses are digital media courses, but the course itself is called Bachelors in General Studies, but it's essentially digital media. My degree, my first degree was in humanities. It didn't matter. So you have a degree.

Okay. Yeah, it doesn't matter. It's a box they check in some interview process. Cool So you have a degree. Okay. Yeah, it doesn't matter. It's a box they check in some interview process. Cool, you have a degree. And what they're really looking for is, can Savannah do this job that she applied to do? And that's your job to prove that to them. So I think you're going to have to count the cost because daycare may end up costing $25 an hour of net income. And if you're not making that, it's going to cost you money to have your kids in daycare.

But the other side of it is, and this is something you've been avoiding you've been avoiding and i'm only telling you this because i love you okay you've created a world where we can't do that because he just gets sick every single time i statistically speaking that's impossible unless he has an autoimmune disorder okay every time he does this we can't do that and we can't do this and that's not going to be and so you've created a world where you are allowing the world to happen to you and you're slowly feeling yourself getting buried and i don't want that for you and i believe in you more than you believe in yourself and it starts with what george said this is going to sound counterintuitive or you're just saying that because you're on the ramsay show it starts with

you and your husband sitting down and making a budget because the budget's going to force you to say, okay, we want to hate the hospital system. We cannot afford a $3,000 midwife to have a home birth. We can't afford that. Okay. It's going to force you to decide what you actually believe and what you can afford and where those two intersect and then what you're going to do next. So hang on the line as a birth gift. We're going to give you Financial Peace University and every dollar app, but y'all got to sit down and use the tools and they will help you. I promise. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Dr. John Deloney. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Nathan joins us up next in Richmond, Virginia.

Nathan, what's going on? Hey, can you guys hear me good? Yes, loud and clear. Awesome. Hey, thanks for having me on the show. A long-time listener. Not as good here in the last couple of months, but I was calling because I think I'm going to be out of debt here soon whenever I get this bonus in May.

But I've been out of debt before, and I went through your program. I don't want to be too long-winded, but I used to live in South Carolina. I met my wife. We were in debt. I got us out of debt. We saved up some money. We moved to Virginia. We bought a house and then, uh, life just came down pretty hard before I got the emergency fund going. So I, uh, I took on some debt. I didn't know what to do. And, uh, now I'm sitting here with almost twice as much as I had the first time. And, uh, I want to get back to being intentional about breaking it down. I know what to do. I've done it before, but I'm worried that whenever I get to baby step three, it's like you got a brand new paycheck. You almost double the amount of money that you have.

And I just didn't do it right. So I'm just wondering if there's anything that I should be doing now to prepare my mindset before I get there here in a few months. Well, I think this is as much an emotional call as it is financial, and I'm going to let John address that. I think you don't trust Nathan anymore because you backslid, and there's some shame and baggage from that. Because you're like, man, I worked so hard to become debt-free. Now I have more debt than I did, and now I have a family, and this is just different. Is that what's going on here? Yeah, for sure.

That's tough, man. There's something else at play here. What is it, Michael? Nathan, are you with us? Nathan, I'm sorry. Nathan, are you there? Yes, sorry. I read the wrong name on the board there's something else at play here

I don't know man I you know we got married my wife has a job but she doesn't really make any money she works her own business and she keeps herself afloat she's an athlete and I

promised that I would be able to provide for her, give her everything that she wanted. And we're- Is that how you got into debt? New property. No, no, I don't, I don't like loan her any money or give her any money. And she runs her own business and she is really good at her finances. But she, she basically says, you know, you make the money, you pay for the house, you pay for everything that we have here. I'm going to do my best to make sure that I don't pull any money from what's coming in. And, you know, I just don't feel like I've really been a good steward to her as far as, you know, taking care of business.

I don't think that, Nathan, I don't think that's it. I, man, I wish I'd said it out loud first. You sound like a guy who opened his eyes and found himself running parallel lives with his wife. Y'all aren't doing this thing together. And you've taken it all on your shoulders, which is noble, but you can't carry it all because you don't make enough money. Well, we do really well. shoulders, which is noble, but you can't carry it all because you don't make enough money. Well, we do really well. I live on 45% of my income, but I'm a spender. Where's the other 55% going?

We did it the first time. I'm sorry? Where's the other 55% going? Right now, it's going towards the debt, at least 40% of it. I spend one paycheck that pretty much covers us for the month, and the other paycheck I allocate to what we got going on. So how much debt do you have versus how much you make? I make $3,600 a paycheck. I don't know what that comes out to. I'm in the military, so I have non-taxed income, but my W-2 is $90,000 a year. And I have $56,000 in debt. What kind of debt is this, if you listed it out?

I have $15,000 on a vehicle that I bought for her after her last truck blew up. And then I have a motorcycle. And then I've got some left on the loan that we took out for the wedding. And then the rest of it is on credit card. Alright, you told us at the beginning of this call, dude, that life just hit you in the

mouth. It didn't. Life didn't hit you at all. You had a wedding. My HVAC, well, the wedding, we only paid like $7,000. I'm just saying you had a wedding. You got a motorcycle. You bought a truck.

I mean, you made some choices, and then you gave yourself zero margin, and then your air conditioner went out. Well, that's not the timeline, but, you know, that's fair. I had to buy the truck, or she can't do her job. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean? What's her job?

She is an equestrian athlete. She needs a vehicle to be able to move her horses up and down the country to do her job. But you said this business does not make money. And she's committed to not pulling from the family finances until you'll get out of debt. No, it breaks even.

It's net zero. She covers herself for her gas. So it's a hobby. It's a hobby. It's 100% it is not a hobby. She is an Olympic-level athlete. I'm not trying to diminish her capabilities. We're saying financially.

She's amazing. I'm just saying it diminish her her capabilities she's amazing I'm just saying it's not making money so it's not a business or it's a business that's going under or it's just barely staying afloat what was her W-2 this year? she doesn't make an income

therein lies the problem my friend you went into debt for a business that doesn't make revenue. And now the truck is depreciating and you have no way to pay it. So I think we need to call what it is. I understand, but I do have the money to pay for it. But most of the debt that came was because of me. I've got $22,000 on a credit card. She didn't do that. What was the credit card money spent on? I spent $16,000 on the HVAC,

and the rest of it I spent on myself because I thought I deserved it. I think we need to have a come-to-Jesus meeting tonight with her and go, listen, and this is not on her. This is on you just as much. And you need to say, I have not done a good job leading this area of finances and this situation ship where like I've been floating the business and I've been trying to cover our bills. It has not been working. We need to do a different plan. I need you to go make some money right now for our family

so we can get out of debt. I can't do that. Why? She's an Olympic-level athlete, and I make enough money to get out of debt, and I am getting out of debt. I'll be out of debt in the next six months. And what's to say you're not going to be back in it when she needs a new truck for her business? I just don't really see what that has to do with that. It's not a... You called in saying, how do I make sure I never

go into debt again? And I think we need to get to the root of the problem. What is the question? Well, my question is, whenever I get out of debt again here in a few months, the problem was, is I had the emergency fund, I was building it up. And then every time I got somewhere around $10,000, only around three months, I had $10,000. And I was building it up. And then every time I got somewhere around $10,000, only around three months, I had $10,000. And I was like, oh, I want this thing. And that's what I spent my money on. Because I've never had a savings account.

I've only ever had the emergency fund. So I treated it as a savings account. And so I'm wondering whenever I need it out of debt. I'll tell you right now, Nathan. Until, until, dude, listen. George and I are all on team Nathan. We don't win if you don't win. I want you to win this thing. I want your marriage to be amazing. I want your wife to go win a gold medal. So you're, you're, we're not coming at you and your voice is as though we're trying to attack you. We're not, but you have remained untethered from

reality. What I mean by that is you're not the worst husband in the world and you walk around as though you are. You bought some things on a credit card when you knew better. That doesn't make you the most evil guy in the world. You made some dumb purchases. And you didn't have any margin and then you needed $16,000 for an HVAC system. That hurts. And you are carrying the weight of this hobby that's an amazing hobby. It's so good and I want her to win so I can do the national anthem in my living room on her behalf. But you can't afford it right now in the current iteration with which you're trying to do it.

And so I think the conversation is sitting down with your wife saying, I'm drowning and I need to at least come up with a plan. Will you help me be on a part of this plan, a part of this budget? And then when you get $10,000, no. All right, this is when I usually blow it. I'm going to take extra steps. I'm going to put some hurdles in the way that I don't blow it this time. But you've got to come down and have a conversation with reality because brother, you're going parallel lives with this person and y'all have to come together and do this thing together. I'm not going to tell you to sell the horse, but I will tell you to sell the motorcycle, Nathan. Best wishes to you. This is the Ramsey show. I'm George Campbell joined by Dr. John Deloney. If you're enjoying the show, don't keep it to yourself.

Don't hide it under a bushel. Just go ahead and hit the share button, hit the subscribe button, hit the follow button. Leave us a kind review. All of that stuff would mean the world and it helps us spread the word, helps the algorithms love us. What is a bushel, George? You know, you don't know the old saying, don't hide it under a bushel. Don't hide your light. I remember like the VBS song from when I was a little kid. That's what I was referencing. Oh, you don't want to hide it under a bushel don't hide your light i remember like the vbs song from when i was a little that's what i was referencing oh you don't hide under that either

yeah when people ask me hey why don't you wear hats i say don't you don't hide this under a bushel and i point to the hair they never laugh just it was exactly your reaction and that's why i do it there we go off to the phone lines we go because if we don't have your calls then it gets awkward on this show. So thank you for calling in, America. Carol is up next in Sarasota. What's going on, Carol? Hi.

My husband and I are a little late to the party, but— George is always late to the party, so you're in good company. I don't get invited to the party. Because he's too busy fixing his hair. Exactly. That's okay. Carol gets it. He doesn't hide under a bushel, that's for sure.

So how can we help? There you go. Well, my husband's 67 and I'm 62, and he does not have a retirement plan because he's self-employed. And I was wondering, we paid off all of our consumer debt and we're just trying to knock out the house now. And I'm just wondering if I should up my contribution to my 401k. I have a Roth 401k, and I didn't know if I should up my contribution to make up for him not having one. Well, who told him that he has no investment options as someone who's self-employed? Nobody did. Because there's tons of investing options.

Not to kick you while you're down, but the way you phrased that was like, he doesn't have it because he's self-employed. It's like, no, he doesn't have it because he didn't save it. Well, that too. Okay, there you go. We made a few mistakes along the way, and we're getting our act together in the last few years. All right, good call. How much do you owe on that mortgage?

We're down to $178,000. Okay. What's the household income? About $200,000. Wonderful. Okay. And how much are you guys currently investing out of that $200,000 income? 15% is going into my Roth 401k.

Okay. And I also maxed out my HSA. Wonderful. For the year. And then he's not doing any investing. And then the rest we're throwing at the mortgage. Okay. So what kind of business does he have? He does consulting work. And it's a solo business? Yes. No employees? None. Okay. Have him look into something called a solo 401k. Okay. And this is a great option for him and he can put away a lot of money in order to start saving for retirement. And so I don't, for anyone out there that is self-employed or they don't have a traditional retirement plan, there's tons of options. Number one,

the Roth IRA, as long as you're under the income limit. And even then you can do what's called a backdoor Roth IRA, where you fund a traditional IRA with after-tax money and then convert it. The other option is a SEP IRA, Simplified Employee Pension IRA. The other one is a simple IRA. And then there's the individual 401k that I mentioned, the solo 401k. So there's tons of options out there. I want to encourage you that now I take that he's 67 and he's just hearing about this now. That's a bummer, but it's still going to with a $200,000 income and you guys continuing to work, you can have a solid nest egg. All right. So I want to

ask George a question, Carol, on your behalf. Is that cool? Okay. All right, George. So we've got a 67 and a 62 yearold. Retirement is big. They're playing catch-up. Carol, how much do you have in your Roth IRAs across the board? About 100. Well, some of it is in a traditional because I only started the Roth since I got on board with the different plans. Sure. What's the total portfolio?

So altogether, it's about $150,000. Okay. So, George, when I'm looking at their total risk profile, it feels like the thing that I would love to give them when he turns 70 and she turns 65 is a paid-for house. Oh, absolutely. That's the number one goal. And so this late in the game, if you're having to choose A or B, I feel like let's dump everything we can and get this house paid off, or are you still doing 15% at the same time?

I would still do the 15%, and then anything beyond that, aggressively attack the mortgage with. Like almost baby step too aggressive. I just want to make sure. This is not like a seven-year plan to pay off the house. This is what would it take to pay this off in three years. Yeah, I'm hoping to get it done literally maybe by the end of this year because his income just tripled in the last year. Oh, wonderful. You're saying get the mortgage knocked out in a year?

I think we could. Wow. Do it. Do it. Do it. You're going to have peace that you did not even know. It'll be very close to it. Wonderful.

Who makes the lion's share of that $200,000, you or him? Well, it was me until just this last year. Was it just an anomaly year, or did he hit into a new, is he like hit a new level with his business? He hit a new revenue stream, yes. Love it. Okay, well, if he can keep that up and you guys can knock the house out, and then you can invest as much as is possibly human.

Right. And that means maxing out every retirement option available, catch-up contributions, even a brokerage account outside of retirement to help create some cushion for that nest egg. And what's your mortgage payment? Because I live in Florida and the insurance is ridiculous. Well, I'm paying an extra $300. Well, automatically, I'm paying an extra $300 on the payment. Well, we are. But what's the total for the principal and interest?

$3,600. $3,600 is the payment. And you'll free up a majority of that once you get this house paid off? Yeah, we'll need to put away about $1,000 a month for taxes of insurance. Great. So $2,600 gets freed up that you can now invest after the year's up. And so that gives me great hope. With that amazing income, you both will probably have to work for a few more years in order to make this happen. But with no mortgage payment, that lowers your expenses. It lowers how much you need in retirement. Absolutely. All right, Carol, this is going to be annoying.

Okay. I want you to hear me. And this is a cornerstone of American culture that we've just thrown out. And we're all leaning over because we don't have this cornerstone anymore and that is reality okay the reality is your husband chose to be self-employed for a long time and didn't put any money away oh yeah the reality is so what that means is y'all are going to be making a bunch of money and your friends who are in these same circles are going to be 65, 66, 67, 70, and they're going to have been retired and they're going to have put money away for years and years and years. And that's not going to be y'all. Right. And so you just know that that frustration will be there. What catches people off guard is I get so just angry that I'm making this much money. I should be sailing into the bay, and all my friends are, and I'm working, and that's the reality of the situation you find yourself in.

So it's okay to be angry or frustrated, but then you've got to go do the next smart thing and not just have a weekend where you go blow $25,000 doing X, Y, or Z. See what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Awesome. Yeah. My husband actually thinks he's never going to retire. Good on him. He likes to work. Good on him. And I'm like, yep.

I always told him he could not retire. I love it. Well, the goal is he can work because he wants to at some point, not because he has to. And right now, it's a little bit of both. And I think there's a little more peace in not needing that. So, Carol, what I'm going to do for you is, as a gift to you guys, I'm going to give you free tickets to our Investing Essentials virtual event. It's happening May 21st and 22nd. It's 200 bucks, but for you and your husband, I'm just going to gift it to you. So hang on the line, Skylar will pick up and Taylor, and they'll get you virtual tickets to that event. And for anyone out there who wants some confidence in their investing plan, whether they're 22 or 62, please join us for this event. I'll be joining Dave for a two-day, we're going to do about two

hours a night, May 21st and 22nd. It's called Investing Essentials. And we're going to cover Dave's personal investing strategy. We're going to help you understand all of your investment options, even if you're self-employed, help you maximize your 401k, help you figure out how to choose mutual funds with confidence and plan for that retirement, even talking about real estate investing. And that's something that is something Dave has done very well. And we have a very countercultural approach that will allow you to build wealth with a lot of peace. So go to ramseysolutions.com slash events to get your tickets for the Investing Essentials virtual event. You can join us from anywhere in the world. It's going to be a good time. Ramseysolutions.com slash events.

This is Dave and George not hiding this information under a bushel. We're not going to gatekeep anymore, as the kids say, John. Nope. We are cutting the bushels to the ground. There's no cap. We are spilling tea. That's what they... I don't even know what that means.

Ask your children. They'll probably tell me that I'm three years too late to all of those sayings. Oh, that puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. Thank you to my wonderful co-host, Dr. John Maloney. I could not ask for a better co-host unless Ken Coleman or Rachel Kruiser, Jade Warshaw were here. Thanks to all the folks in the booth. Thank you.