The Ramsey Show - App - You Can Make Progress Even When It Feels Impossible

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

This is the Ramsey Show where America comes to hang out and have a conversation about their life, specifically their money, their career and work and their relationships. The phone number to jump in today is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Alongside the fabulous Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. We're here together for you today. Let's get it going. Kathy's up in Dallas, Texas.

Kathy, how can we help today? Hi, I find myself in a lot of debt because my husband has... We've been married 27 years. Sorry, I'm rambling already. We've been married 27 years and I've always allowed him to handle the finances. I equipped my job, stayed home with our four children and, um, have just trusted him with the finances. And in the last couple of years, I, I've just slowly been uncovering a lot of dishonesty and, um, finally ended up filing for divorce after I found out most of it. Um,

I'm still not sure I know everything, but I, I think there is a close to a million dollars in debt right now. And I'm afraid that I'm going to be responsible for half of it. If in worst case scenario, hopefully I won't be on the hook for all of it. What kind of debt, Kathy? What kind of debt is this million?

Well, there's about, he hasn't paid income taxes in three years. How much is that? About 160. Okay. There's about 80,000 in credit card debt with cards I didn't know existed. There's a $550,000 mortgage on his office building that I was a personal guarantor on. And you didn't know about it? I signed it.

It's my signature, but I don't remember doing that. Like I said, I feel like an idiot because I've trusted him. All right. Well, hold on a second. While we're on this list, I want to just cover what you've given Jade so far. How much of it are you on the hook for? Well, I'm assuming all. I mean, our taxes are joint.

The credit card, some say they're from his business, but others say... I just started opening the mail recently and I'm seeing this. The only card I was aware of is is maxed out at 30,000 Did you and the rest are other ones? Did you know? Is there anything else on the list by the way before we keep going through so so far? We're at well. We're not at a million yet Okay, well on teeth in 2019 my father passed away and left me a significant amount of money

And he immediately started asking me for money to help with his businesses and said he'd pay me back. And I've totaled all that up and it's about 500,000. Okay. So I'm counting that in the debt that he owes me. And when he was borrowing that money, do you have any idea what it was being spent on? Or it's just kind of that cloud of businesses?

Well, he would say taxes or payroll or this bill or that bill. And is there any record of that? Like, did you guys, other than you just talking about it in the kitchen? No, other than just the check. Right, right. Okay. Well, you could probably kiss that 500,000 goodbye. Yeah.

So let's take that off the debt list just for the functionality of this. My guess is that, how long has it been since you filed the divorce? Two weeks. Oh, okay. My guess is that, I mean, Ken, they're probably gonna look at this and split it down the middle based on how long you guys have been married

and based on- And that your name's on these things. Yeah, your name is on it. Now, I do, I hate this is happening, but there's a part of this where you do have to, it's like, he did these things, but you also have to own your part in it, which is, you know, he has an office building.

How do we think it got there? You know, there's all these things cropping up. How do we think that we're paying for him? And you know, here on the show, we're always teaching how money is just, it is a joint thing that, I don't wanna say venture because it makes it sound business,

but it is this thing that we both work together. We're both plugged in. We both are dialed in as to what's going on. It can't just be, he handles that, I handle this. Everybody's gotta have their brain on and looking at this because really this is what happens when you don't. So. Yes, I'm realizing.

All right, so let's talk about how to dig you out of this. So if I'm paying attention, I'm trying to. We're really talking about, and I think Jade's right, let's assume that you're going to have to pay half. Hopefully that doesn't happen, but we haven't even started this fight. So that means you would owe 250,000 if the judge split it down the middle. Is that correct? Approximately.

I'm anticipating, and my lawyer thinks we'll end up finding more of it. Yeah. Are there any assets? Okay. So what we know today. So the question is, what about your house? Is your house paid for? Okay. So our house is paid for. We sold a house and we cleared. We rolled part of it over into the new house, so it's paid for it. How much is the current house worth if you were to sell it today?

I think it's probably worth maybe two million. Okay. That's good news. Yeah. Any other assets? Well, it was all of his business holdings, but I think they're all gone from what I can tell. But the problem is he won't tell me anything.

He will not give me any information. Well, it's not your problem anymore because this is going to get hashed out between the lawyers. So the way you started this call is how do I get rid of this debt? And best that we can tell, what we're operating off of right now, Jade, is 250,000, we think, worst case scenario. We can't guess what may be out there, but what we know today, how would you get out of it? And that becomes the issue. You haven't worked in how many years? 27. I just got a job last week.

Oh good, what are you doing? Yeah, I'm an attorney. No way! Well hello, you hid that detail. What kind of an attorney are you? Appellate, so I don't know anything about this financial stuff. I'm learning, believe me.

Yeah, but what can you- I'll never be in this position again. No, we're not beating up on you. We're actually trying to help you here. So my question is what are you going to make this year? 130. Great. Okay great. All right so between the houses and asset Jade and you making 130 this is not the end of the world. No. That's the one thing I wanted to hear. You'll probably split the debt in some form of fashion. Okay. You'll probably split the assets in some form of fashion. Hopefully it's fair for both parties. And it sounds like there's going to be enough assets for you to clear your debt and still have a decent amount of money. My guess is something's going to happen with this house. You're probably going to sell it and split the profits is usually what I suggest, especially

if there's not kids living at home, that kind of thing. Um, and then yeah, house, you're probably gonna sell it and split the profits is usually what I suggest, especially if there's not kids living at home, that kind of thing. And then yeah, whatever debt you're on the hook for, you'll take that money and pay off that debt and you'll likely have enough money to go out and probably buy another house outright, depending on what you choose. And you'll ride off into the sunset and like you said, you will have learned many, many lessons out of this. What's the big one? What's the practical takeaway? Let's fast forward. Let's be positive, Kathy. Now this is going to be too soon on some of this I'm about to say, but I'm leading my my partner here somewhere. So let's assume we're all clear of all this mess. She meets another

fabulous man and she's in a relationship. She's in a married relationship. What does she learn from this practically and tactically? What does she do different next time? Different the different move is everything is 100 like we're keeping everything above board. We're talking about it and Anything that you have questions about you're saying out loud you have something to bring to the table He has something to bring to the table. No one gets to just Quote handle it. You know what I mean? Yeah.

No excuse, Kathy, to not know anything or very little. So now you know. And get your head up. This is not fun. You're getting ready to go through a really tough deal and you're in the middle of the storm right now, but you're going to be okay financially and you're going to be okay emotionally

and you'll be okay long-term. So appreciate the call. Okay, thank you so much. Yeah, oh, that's tough stuff, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It's just so duplicitous to be... Oh, Word of the Day by Jade Warshaw, folks. Use that one. You think you know a guy.

Oh, boy. On behalf of all men, I'm sorry. Yeah. It's May, folks, and that means another Ramsey Cash giveaway is here. You can enter every day from May 1st through the 31st. And there's gonna be one grand prize winner who will win $5,000, Jade, how about that? And there is one $500 winner every week.

So that's a pretty good deal. And you can enter daily to increase your chances of winning. This could be a game changer. Think about $5,000 going towards your debt or boosting your emergency fund. Or maybe you finally get that AC unit repaired before it gets ungodly hot. Whatever the situation, go to ramsysolutions.com

slash giveaway, that's ramsysolutions.com slash giveaway now to enter no purchase necessary to win. I put $5,000 in your lap. I said it right here. Ken Coleman, what are you doing? Oh, wow. I mean, this is probably not the best example because I'm, you know, I don't have to worry about the, the, the, uh, dead snowball or the baby steps. I'm going to splurge splurge on, on, on me, mom, the family, you know, something like that, something fun. Okay. That's what I'm doing. Yeah. Put it towards a trip? 5,000, yeah, yeah, something really fun.

A surprise for Stacey first. Oh, a surprise. Yeah. Look at you. Look at this guy. I've been married a long time. Good job, Ken. And so you immediately go, hey, I found some cash in the form of Jade put it on my desk. For some reason.

And we don't know why, but that's the deal. And so I would, something special for mama. Something for mama, always. Always. And then, I don't know, I'd have to think. I wish I had a quick answer for you. That's all right, I put you on the spot. I guarantee you clothing.

Oh, okay, okay then. And with clothing comes the accessories of shoes. You know I have a shoe problem. You're very aware. I do, we both do. We both do. We're both recovering shoeholics, if that's a thing. Yes. All right, James is up in Fort Myers, Florida.

James, how can we help today? Hey guys, how are you guys doing today? We're doing well, what's going on with you? Well, about seven years ago, the wife and us, we decided that we had a baby on the way, we decided that we were had a baby on the way and we decided that we need to get a house. And at the time her parents said, Hey, we're in the process of moving and you guys need some childcare since it's very expensive where we live. Let's just get a house together and we will watch

the kids for you guys and you guys can work without worrying about babysitting. So we purchased the house together under both of our names. And now we're in a situation where we got more than just one child and we are ready to move out and we're in the financial situation to go, but they're really not ready to go. So we're trying to figure out what's the best way to, to move out because we are either considering refinancing and just taking our names off

and taking the portion of the profits that we would make from the house ourselves or just selling the house outright. And they don't know what to do and this market has everybody pretty concerned. So we're just trying to figure out what is the best thing to do. So break the numbers down for Jade real quick.

So give us an idea of what everybody put down, what's owed on the house, what it's worth. Give us some of those numbers. Well, when we first purchased the house, we put about 20,000 and then that 20,000, I believe we had about like 12 to 13,000 and they had about 7,000 in it. Okay. And listen, I'm already a little concerned because you're speaking in about, so that lets me know this is not written down

anywhere. This there, there was nothing. Yikes. And not much. So what's the house? But the house is worth a lot more now. So we purchased the house pre COVID and it was about three hundred thousand. And now the house is worth about five hundred and fifty thousand. What is owed on the house?

Oh, somewhere around two hundred and twenty thousand. OK, so you owe two twenty is worth five fifty. They don't have the money to buy you out, and they probably don't have the financial status to keep this loan anyway. Right. Is what you're telling me. Because we were thinking about just taking like whatever portion, like, you know, whatever profit would be from an appraisal, we'll split it in half and take that and go buy our own new house with it.

Right. But how can you get that money? Exactly the situation we kind of I was talking. So what I would do, there's a couple ways you can look at this. Sorry. There's a couple ways you can look at this. You can go to them if you haven't already and sit down and say, hey, this has been a seven year run and it's been good, but I don't think any of us intended for this to be forever. At least I, we didn't intend forever. At least we didn't intend that. And if we didn't communicate that, we are sorry. That is our, you know, and try to put some of the onus

on you on this, that you should have done a better job communicating that you didn't want this to be forever. Also try to be really understanding, hey, I get it. It feels like it's not the best time to be buying a house. Neither of us are likely gonna get the interest rate we had before and that is a loss. I hate that, I'm sure you guys hate that too, right? So you're setting this up in a way that is really just

aware of the facts is really what it is. And then you're saying, here's what my wife and I would like to do. We're going to move out and we need to have access to our portion of that money, which means that you're going to have to move out as well. And this is the part where I would be very direct about what is going to happen. And then let them say their piece. And hopefully it goes swimmingly and you guys can set a timeline and say, okay, here's a timeline, six months, da da da da da and keep going from there. If for some reason that's not the case,

then this is where, and I pray it doesn't go to this point, but this one you might have to get a lawyer involved and say, okay, I did this thing with my family, I want to sell, they're not selling, can I get a judge to force this sale, that sort of thing, and that, my friend, is where I hope this does not go. Have you floated this idea to them? Yeah, we have we sat down with them a few weeks ago

And we discussed exactly what we wanted and they were super indecisive Because that's where we're really stuck on because they they just don't know what they wanted to do and we're like Well, like let us know and then they said oh well We'll think about it and it's's been kind of like that situation. And they've been very great to us. So I don't want to seem like they haven't been. No, I get it. So the good news is they weren't mad about it.

They just kind of kicked the can down the road. I think the problem was you put the ball in their court instead of saying, here's what we're going to do and here's what we need from you. And they may need some direction, Jade.. In other words when you tell this guy and you already told him what you wanted to happen so presumably when you sat them down and told them what you were going or wanted to do you played out the numbers. They mean if you have it you probably need to do that. That's also true.

Here's how we see this going down we walk walk away with this, you walk away with this. They just, it seems very passive and that to me tells me they're very afraid. And I think Ken is right. If you let them know what your plan is, hey, we're going to take our cut of the money and we found this neighborhood over here, we're going to purchase it. And you let them see there's a way to go forward out of this. I think that'll also help them get an idea as to what they can do.

I don't know if their income situation is the same as yours, it's likely not, but at least, you know, that is giving them an idea of, okay, this is what we could do. And yeah, I think that you need to speak in no uncertain terms of saying, here's what we need the timeline to be, because here's what we're going to do be because here's what we're going to do

and here's what we want you to do. Question for you, Jade. Because they are his in-laws, I think his wife needs to take the lead. I wanted you to speak to that. Yeah, Ken. Yeah, Ken is right. This is her, she needs to be talking to her mama and daddy, not putting it on you.

And I'm not saying that she's not, but I wanted you to speak to that. Ken said it, he's right. Let your wife do the talking, otherwise I wouldn't wanna be you is all I'm saying. And let me also say, I hope it doesn't happen, James, but there's a reason why if you were to call us in the front end of this and say, should we do this?

We'd have been like, no, in slow motion, because you can see that this thing could get messy really fast. It's already messy. The question is, is it gonna spill out further? Because you both have, you both sound like very nice people, very reasonable people. Like for the listener, for the people listening,

let you see that these are all good people with good intentions and no ill will, and still it's an uncomfortable situation. And I'm going to say this. I'll give enough time for my colleague to say something different if she disagrees. I think this is rip the bandaid off type stuff. You guys already sat down and we slowly started

to pull the bandaid off and they were like, oh, oh, oh. And it's like, come on. Oh yeah, get the hair in there. Get it all in there. It's going to sting. I think the next conversation is your wife takes the lead and we rip the bandaid off.

That's the only thing I think that's going to work out because there's pain. Regardless, let's do the least amount of pain possible. Oh, it hurts, Jade, but I want it to hurt for just a little nanosecond. Remember Klobber Lang?

Oh, Rocky. Great reference. Jade wins the Ramsey show today. Let's go to Terry in Manchester, New Hampshire. Terry, how can we help today? Hi, so the reason my call is I got two notices of being served in small claims court over two different credit cards it looks like. And so I went and I looked at my credit report, you know, because you always hear, you know, who really owns this stuff.

And it looks like it's on there a couple of different times under a couple of different names. And so I'm just kind of a little confused of what to do. Is it you said it's on there a couple of different times under a couple of different names? Is that like different credit card names? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like like this one, I don't know if I can say who's actually the person suing me. No, it's okay. I just you're saying it's the same amount, but it's listed in several different ways. And you're positive that they're not several different debts is, I guess, is what I'm getting at.

I'm fairly sure it's that they aren't different debts. OK, but you did not pay them. Yeah, yeah, because they're kind of, because according to this, you know, the paperwork that I got, you know, I haven't paid me since July and August of 22. Okay, does it look familiar at all? Or are you contesting that you even, is it fraudulent? I don't think it's fraudulent, I don't think it's fraudulent, but I'm not sure. You know what? I'm gonna say no. They are probably true to me. Okay. What's happening right there? Can we learn a little bit more about that response? You know what? I just don't want to assume because I mean, I don't have a whole lot of,

I guess it would be considered consumer debt on my account. Okay. It's probably, you know, five to $8,000 in total. Okay, well how much are these? Not counting car payments and the house and student loans and stuff. How much are these contested bills, what you're being sued for? How much is that, Terry?

So these two combined, because it's the same company suing me, I guess for two different credit card lines, it's only $1,800. Okay, my guy. Yeah, but the thing that I'm hearing here, I'm just pointing this out real quick, Jade's on top of this,

but for everybody listening and watching, you don't know what's going on in your finances. That's what we're hearing. And so you don't have a clear grasp of what you're doing with your money and that's the bigger issue here. What you're calling us about today is symptomatic of the fact that you're just all over the place. Am I right? Yeah, I mean, we know now what we spend our money on, because we went out and signed up for that every dollar thing that you all have. And you got sued. That woke you up. Yeah. And so I went and I looked at it, because it's not like I've gotten any notices lately like, hey, you owe this bill or whatever.

And so I like, I like. Do you think it's a scam is what I'm asking you. And have you done? No. Okay, well, let's, let me, Terry, let me, I like you, Terry. I like you a lot. Let me level with you and give you a couple of steps here.

First thing is, I think this is relatively new for you. You got the thing in the mail. It kind of made your stomach do a flip flop because it was scary, right? But you really haven't done much due diligence on it yet. So I would, yeah, call the number. If it's telling you the court, right? Call the court separately from the number on the,

don't use the number that's on the sheet. Google the number, get the real number, call and say, Hey, is there a docket for this? Is this really going on? Find out if it's real. Then if you know, Hey, this is, I did that. I did, I did, I did call the court and they said, yeah, because there's a due date. Like I have to respond by cause there's no like actual court date that's been set. Sweet. Okay. I want my response to this. Yeah. These two lawsuits. So it's like, okay. So it's real. And so it's, yeah, so it's step by step, hey, this is what you gotta do. I'm not going to go hire an attorney. No, and don't. And then Terry, let me take it to the

next level. Do you have the $1,800? No. What do you have? Can you get the $1,800? No. What do you have? Can you get the $1,800? Or can you get enough to settle? No. Because, I mean, we've got about $1,000 in our emergency fund. I've got about $800 that I could pull out of an investment account. What if we did a big yard sale, Terry?

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I could probably do that. investment account. What if we did a big yard sale, Terry? Yeah, I mean, I mean, yeah, I could probably do that. I have, you know, because we've been talking about that. Even our kids have been saying, Hey, are we going to do a yard sale in the summer? Here's what I would, here's what I would do in your shoes. I would try to work until you get the actual court date. I'd work on piling up some money and I would ask, is it too late to make a settlement? Here's what I have, I have $800 but it's all I have. I'm in debt, I'm trying to work my way out. I don't even know if this is really real. It could be fraudulent but I'm tired of dealing with it. Can I just give you

$800 and it be settled in full? So I try to make that deal and see if you can. It may be beyond that point but it's likely not. So I would to make that deal and see if you can't. It may be beyond that point, but it's likely not. So I would try that and say, hey, I didn't even know this was a thing. This is my first time hearing about it. If I had known it was a thing, I would have been happy to pay it. You know, that spilled milk, can I please make a deal?

Here's the money, I'm ready to give it to you today. And then I, yeah, I would go into the emergency fund and I would knock this thing out and be done with it and make a deal, yeah, for $800 or $700 or whatever they'll take. And that way, I just don't want you spending a lot of mental calories on this. It's $1,800, which is a lot of money. Don't get me wrong, but it's not something that I want you to lose sleep on for months on end, especially if it's money that you truly owe owe which it kind of sounds like you do. Yeah I'm sure I do it's just you know back in 2022-23 I had a bunch of medical issues and so I wasn't working and so bills piled up so this is

probably true. Yeah. You know. Yeah so let's knock it out. Yeah you got to get your hands around your finances. This whole time I'm sitting here listening to you Terry I don't know You know, yeah, so let's knock it out. Yeah, you got to get your hands around your finances This whole time I'm sitting here listening to you Terry. I don't know if either one of you Terry or Jade I'm pretty sure James our fearless leader has seen the viral July 4th video every year It's the the guys in the wheelchair and his buddy. Let's seem like a bottle rocket Have you seen that video? I have because James showed it to me. And the whole time I'm just wanting to yell, good Lord, Terry, Terry, Terry. I don't know why my brain was there. I wanted to say, Terry, you don't even know if it's real credit card debt. That's a good reference.

That's a good reference. I didn't want to interrupt you. No, because I was like, if I throw if I in the middle of you giving advice, That's a good reference. That's a good reference. I didn't want to interrupt you. No, that's good. Because I was like, if I throw, if I in the middle of you giving advice, I start going, Terry, back away, Terry, good lord. Then you would look at me like

I had horns growing out of my head. I'm glad you set it up because I kind of forgot about that, but that is an excellent reference. And I want to say for our audience who's going, what is Ken talking about? Is it really that funny? It is absolutely.

Just type in Terry fireworks on YouTube and sit back and enjoy yourself because it brings me so much joy every year. I find seven new people to text that to James every July 4th. I'd never seen it until James showed it to me. Oh this is perfect. Yeah, this is perfect James I had no idea that you introduced Jade to that great glorious I've been a great metaphor even if this caller's name wasn't Terry, but it was just it works both ways What's the lesson we want to back away from the mess get our hands in there? We dollar which by the way, he did he did he's doing the right thing credit

He had his thousand dollar emergency fund and my guess is and we didn't ask him this but my guess is he was feeling great About the fact that he was making some progress. He did every dollar. He had the emergency fund He was working on his debt, which wasn't much but he was making progress and then this thing kind of rolled in Set him back a little I want to point out James our studio audience is watching it on their cell phones right now There's a dude who looks like Joe Rogan out there who is shaking. It's funny. It's one of the great videos of all time.

Do we have it to roll? No. We were gonna kind of bump out with a video without audio, but we can. Yeah, cause you can't play the audio, I don't think. Yeah. Oh, nevermind. If you just go on YouTube and do Backup Terry,

you'll find it. Yeah, Backup Terry. Am I right, folks? They are thanking me out there. Everybody's loving it. Look at these people enjoying that video. That's the gift that keeps on giving, by the way. It really is.

Ever have a bad day? Just watch that and think, well, I could be Terry. You don't want to be Terry. Terry. Terry's been through some things. Backup Terry? Oh man, that's good. Ruth is in Washington, DC. Ruth, how can we help you today?

Hi, I'm a public school teacher who, I'm 16 years in, I still need 14 more years till I get full retirement and it's gotten gone really hard. And I've, I'm sorry, I applied to a Christian school. It's 80% of the day, none of the retirement. But almost, I mean, currently I have 29 students of all different ranges of ability, of ability to speak English. You know, one is on the autism spectrum, very a couple major behavior problems, including parents that are combative, and like the Christian school is a cap at 18, and you know, even if the parents write a mean email, the kid gets sent on their way, you know, like, um, totally different environment, totally different.

And I, I'm far enough along that I'm kind of invested, you know, maybe it's a couple of bad years, you know, but it's, it's one of those things where I commute three and a half miles in a 17 and a half year old's car that can only go so far. Like I don't trust it very far. But it is my debt-free car, so it is my transportation. The other school would be a two and a half hour commute every day because of traffic. And it is-

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The Christian school would be two and a half hour commute? Yeah, it'd be an hour there and an hour and a half home. Okay. Yeah, outside of DC the traffic is a little scary. Oh, trust me, trust me. I grew up on the coast of Virginia, so not too far from you, and I know what traffic is like in northern Virginia and down and all that, so I get that. Yeah. Well,. It would be a longer day but it might be an enjoyable day. No. I think that's a fallback. I think that's probably our last option to escape the burnout that you're experiencing right now but I don't think it's our best option. So what do you make now? What's your income? Well I think it's 82. I'm projected to be about 88 next year. Okay, all right. On my contract. And you've been teaching for a long time, so my question is, if I'm you, my first move is to look at private schools in the DC area. First move, just to go, okay, doesn't have to be a Christian, it doesn't have to be a

Christian school and doesn't need to be an hour away, but I know the amount of income in Washington, so I'm gonna start, first thing I'm gonna do if I'm you is I start looking at private schools, the very, the expensive ones where they pay their teachers very well, and again you've got a very different clientele. So I'd start there. The second thing I'd start looking at is community colleges or colleges. If you're qualified for that. You may not be, but I'm just throwing out my immediate reaction. Okay?

Third, because you've been teaching for 16 years and you're a trained trainer, I would be looking at training jobs, jobs where the company will bring you in and they'll train you on how they need you to train, whether it be training through HR or something like that, but I would be looking at any kind of training job in corporate America because you're already qualified and so they can look at you and go, here's a woman's been teaching for 16 years, she knows how to teach. That's where I would be starting because I think sometimes public school, I know so, I've talked to so many, so many teachers over the years. I've counseled them on the Ken Coleman show and they all think the same thing, that they're

only qualified to teach in a public or private school setting, that they can't do anything else, and that's just simply not the case. You would admit to Jade and I today that you know how to train people, don't you? I hope so. Come on. You do. Ruth, you know how to instruct, correct? Yes.

Okay. So I would be looking at anything that involves instruction and Imagine how fun it would be to instruct somebody who wants to be instructed Exactly. All right then. So we've got to open up the possibilities and I would put the situation that you brought to us the two and a half hour commute for an 80% pay Absolutely last worst-case scenario Jade Yeah, last ditch effort on that one. I just think there's too many opportunities

that can very eloquently laid out for you. Yeah, so let's just brainstorm for a minute or two. What does your brain do with the information I just gave you? What started popping in your head? Give me the fears if you've got fears. If you've got questions about what I said, hit me. Yeah, I mean, I've spent most of my teaching in kindergarten, second grade, so I feel like teaching adults, I would, you know, want them to sing a song or, you know, do a dance while

they learn it. No, you wouldn't. And it makes it not worth it. No, you wouldn't. That's how I teach. I know that's how you teach because that's how you had to teach a kindergartner. You figured out what will help them learn this and then you came up with a solution for how they would best learn it and you would do the same thing with adults.

You would say how will they best learn this and then you'll come up with a solution on how that will happen. Why aren't you thinking about some of these high-end prep schools and private schools in the DC area? Well, so I'm not quite in DC. I'm a little bit out. How far out? I know the area. How far out are you? Two counties. What are you in, Loudoun County? Prince William. Prince William. Okay, well what about Prince William County? I mean there's a lot of spillover. What are the... Okay, here's their homework assignment. I'm going to speak to you in your language. I want you to find

all of the private schools in your county and a county or two over. You don't have to go into the city because of that nightmare of traffic. But have you done that? I've looked at some of them probably Fockier County, so a little bit the other direction so I'd be going against traffic, but the pay is much less than 80% of my current. At the private schools? Yeah. The high-end ones?

The ones that I, I mean, it's been a couple years since I looked at a particular one, but yeah, they are high-end. Okay, I'd still look is my point. You have got, here's, you don't know what you don't know. You're giving me two year old, now again, I'm not thinking that it's gonna be a big difference here, but first thing you said to me is,

well, I looked at another county, not the county you were in. So my point is, is you- Well, yeah, my county doesn't have a high end one. Okay, great. So, but my point is, is you see what we're doing here? If I were coaching you for an entire hour, we would be turning over a lot of rocks.

And so you need to be looking online at openings that are involving instruction, okay? If nothing else, go into chat GPT and put in everything that you have learned how to do as a teacher. And don't say helping kids with glue and popsicle sticks. I mean, I know how to lesson plan. I know how to instruct and teach,

you know, whatever, whatever, whatever, and begin to just see what is out there. And then go to these job sites and start to see what's out there. Then the other thing you've got to do is you've got to talk to everybody that you know, everybody, and say, hey, this is what I've been doing.

I now am looking to transition into any kind of role where I'm spending most of my day in an instruction capacity and watch the opportunities get suggested to you. You have got to put the word out and then let things come to you. You've got to go look. And when you look, you will see things you have not seen before. You tracking with me? Yeah. Ruth, you remember the last time you and your husband bought a car?

Like a nice car? Yeah. You remember seeing it everywhere for about three or four or five days? Mm-hmm. Isn't that a phenomenal effect? That's a psychological effect. And what that is is the power of focus. And when you're so focused, Jade, on buying that car, then we begin to see it everywhere.

And the car fairy didn't just drop that in. And so what I'm trying to teach you here is to focus. I heard you about to ask a question. Hit us with a question. What do you got? I, so when you work for the government, have like the state retirement which is a good retirement, but it Like obviously you can't take it with you. I mean not that it disappears, but it wouldn't be something that I Should be concerned about changing out of no Because you said you have 16 years before you'd be able to get it, correct 14 yeah 14. Sorry. I want you to imagine really quick, 14 more years of what you've been experiencing that drove you to tears at the start of this call.

Is that worth it? Yeah. Is that worth it? No. No, because you can go make more money doing what I'm telling you to do and you're gonna invest that money the way we've taught you to invest that money. Jade, final word on that. I think she needs a little pep talk here. My final word is I want you to invest that money. Jade, final word on that. I think she needs a little pep talk here. My final word is I want you to do a vocab rehab. I hear a lot of you saying things where it was just this and I just did this. I want you to start talking about

what you do as a profession with a lot of power and a lot of authority. You're a person who's good at their job, they're great at what they do, and I want you to sound like it and stop kind of selling yourself short. Like, you've got a lot to offer and anybody would be great to have you.

That's a good word. Go, Ruth, go. This is the Ramsey Show, where America talks about their money, their profession, and their relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by the fantastic

and talented lady, Jade Warshaw. Always fun. Thank you, Ken. Yeah, there you go. You gotta turn that mic on after I brag about you there. Let's get right to it. You ready to roll? Rock and roll. Serenity is joining us in Houston, Texas. How can we help today?

Hi y'all. I just want to say how much my boyfriend and I love the show. I mean, it's such a pleasure to talk to y'all. Oh, thanks. I'm doing great. How are y'all? Great. We're happy to talk to you. What's up today?

Okay. So my best friend has an itinerary for her bachelorette party, but it's outside of my budget and I don't know how to tell her that. Uh-oh. How much outside the budget? So she's an engineer. She makes six figures,

so every activity is at least $150. What do you estimate the total trip gonna cost you? The total, I've already paid for the flight, and I already bought the hotel, and I didn't wanna spend any more than I spent on the hotel flight, so I have about $400 for a three-day weekend. Well, sounds like you're in it now, Serenity.

You bought the flights and you bought the hotel. Yeah. Are they refundable? Yeah. No, they're not, no they're not. Oh man, so now you're gonna be at the restaurant just eating the chips and drinking water is what you're saying.

Are you in the wedding, presumably? So it's just gonna be her siblings in the wedding. Oh. Listen. I'm not gonna be in the wedding. Here we go. Now you and I went viral one time before talking about one of these type of trips.

It's so messed up. Listen, I feel as though, can I just, Serenity, give me a moment to just rant for a minute, because I'm sure your bestie, like she's your friend and everything like that, but I do feel like it can be a little tone deaf to have these big bachelorette trips You already if you're already in the dat gum wedding you already have to get a dress or a tuxedo and then don't let it be a destination Wedding in the wedding. Did you catch that? You're not in the wedding at all. No

No, just the siblings of all the other women in the wedding Okay, and shoot now, let me so this is great No, just the siblings of all the members that are gonna be in the wedding. Okay. And she, now let me, so this is great. Let me get a little more information because I knew she was about ready to rant. I was. So you've paid for the hotel and the airfare and if I heard you right, you have $400

of spending money for this weekend, three day weekend, correct? Correct. But how much did you spend on the flight and hotels so far? They were about 350 each, 350 for the hotel you spend on the flight and hotels so far? They were about $350 each. $350 for the hotel, $350 for the flight. Girl! Well, so what's the prequel?

Well, I mean, why are we getting to it? Do you have debt? It's like, clearly this is bothering you. Is it because you have other financial goals and this is really just sticking in your crotch? Yes, and I just wanted to show up for her. Yes, I just wanted to show up for her. And yes, I just wanted to show up for her. Uh huh. You know, can you hear me?

Yeah, I can. Is there anything happening that's not $150 every time they go do it? Like, is there some, is there like- No, and I was gonna suggest it, but I don't know if that takes away from my moment. You know? How many, okay, sorry, I'm asking a few more questions.

How many events does she have scheduled and what would that cost you? I'm trying to be real here, at 150 per pop, how many things does she have scheduled and what's that going to cost you? Ken, I'm busting. I know you are, but you're going to bust too soon on this deal and I've got to get some information. How much are we talking about, Serenity? Honestly, if I was to do everything on a temporary,

I'll be spending about $650. OK, you have $400 to spend. I'm trying to help her with a reality. I know you're upset that she's even going. But my point is, see, this is how we went viral before. I'm trying to help her in the moment. So in the moment, OK, you can do two events. Yes, but.

That's all you can do. You got two events at $150. That leaves you a do two events. Yes, but. That's all you can do. You got two events at 150, that leaves you a little $100, and you come up with a headache on a couple of these deals and miss it. I don't think it's too late to not go. She can't get refunded. Here's the thing, usually, I would call.

If I spend it, I'm gonna spend it. Usually with the hotel, if you go back, as long as it's more than 24 hours notice, usually you can get that back. But she said she couldn't, so let's clarify. Serena, did you go to as long as it's more than 24 hours notice, usually you can get that back. But she said she couldn't, so let's clarify. Serena, did you go to the hotel? You know for sure. All right, that's what I'm saying.

So now here's the deal. I'm always thinking about the big picture, all right? This isn't just a money play. So she wants to be a part of this weekend, special lady in her life, longtime friend. I say go and you budget the $400. You got 400. Yeah, I mean you can only spend 400.

So you can have a $400 worth of fun or Bachelorette activities. Am I right? Okay, yeah, that's reasonable. And here's, you have two options. You tell her, hey listen, I'm getting out of debt. And so I've- No, you can't tell her that.

Sure she can. She can just be straight up and go, look, I've got $400 to spend. I'm gonna come to this outing and I'm gonna come to this outing. I can't do the rest. I said she has options. She didn't have to do that.

Yeah. I'm not suggesting she does that, but I don't know their relationship. Or you know what? They think she didn't get in the wedding. We've all, now I'm gonna be real straight up right now we've all been to a thing where we didn't want to do all the things yeah and we go I got a headache mm-hmm or my stomach doesn't feel very good right now I mean come on

I think it calls for that because we want it you're there she feels loved and supported you don't want to feel ostracized for your being Ramsey what I think it calls for that because you're there, she feels loved and supported, you don't wanna feel ostracized for your being Ramsey cash. What are the activities? Are you allowed to tell us or does it involve some of the bottom line? Oh, I like this even more.

So it's basically like the biggest things on the list are just dinner and brunch. Okay, so I feel like you can- Everything on the menu is like maybe minimum $40 minimum. Okay. Well, now I can get around that. Right. That's where you make a couple friends.

You know any other girls going on this trip? Mm-hmm. There you go, Ken. You see where I'm going? I get it. It's a group. It's a group. Hey, but you know the girls.

You're not the only one feeling this is what we're saying. I'm telling you what I'm doing. I'm sitting here like this. I'm looking at the menu and I'm going, hey, Jade, do you wanna split a salad? This is where you call up the friend that whenever something happens, y'all just look at each other like this. You don't even have to say anything.

You just look, you call up that friend and say, are you thinking what I'm thinking? I ain't spending $40, girl. Exactly. Or however it is you all talk to each other. That's my best impersonation. Just that, just that, girl. Have you looked at this menu? Because I am not the one.

I am not going. How can we make this work? You and me, let's get together. Because I'm only trying to spend $400. That's how we're doing this. I mean, Caesar salad, soup. Yep. I could stretch $400.

You don't want to go to brunch. How come you're not coming to brunch? We're not ordering alcohol, unfortunately. I got to get my TPS reports in. I had to leave work. I mean, come on. Oh, now don't tell her to tell a lie now, Ken. You know, I gotta get my TPS reports in, you know, I had to leave work, you know, I mean, come on. Oh, now don't tell her to tell a lie now, Ken, come on now. See, I don't think that's lying. I think that is just socially,

kinda we're just creating some harmony. I don't wanna come to everything. Don't tell me you've skipped out on some invite. I bet you, Stacey, that I've invited you and Sam and you gave me a little excuse at once or twice. You've never given me an excuse? No, not to you, Ken, I would never do that to you. But you've done it before. I've done it before Sam and you gave me a little excuse at once or twice. You never given me an excuse. I would never do that to you.

But you've done it before. I've done it before. All right, then. I think we can call it a little white lie that doesn't hurt anybody. Oh, yeah, but I like the idea. Yeah, you get together with your other bestie, the other one of you that's not in the wedding. And y'all make it happen because guaranteed stuff like this. We think, you know,

we're isolated. We think we're the only one. And I promise you, somebody else is feeling like you're feeling. By the way, Serenity, since I'm so full of helpful tips on this call, I'm feeling pretty, pretty, pretty good right now. How long do we have before we go on this trip?

It's next week. Next week. Okay. I'm going to sell two or $300 worth of stuff around my house that I don't need. No! Yes! Pay for the trip!

I am not selling my stuff to go to your wedding. Like, period. That's not... I would. Ken, you're trying to please too many people out here. I wouldn't do it. Oh, shh, shh, shh. What did you say, Serenity?

Say it again. I could try to hustle. Try to hustle the money. Then we make everybody happy and we don't go backwards in our baby steps journey. Jade, you're too cheap. You gotta be a friend. No, man. You gotta be a friend.

Gotta go. A $1,200 friend? I still gotta get the gift, Ken. 600 max. I still gotta get the gift. If you are tired of living paycheck to paycheck and wondering what in the world is happening with your money, first thing you got to do is get on a budget and this is for you.

Our team is hosting free budgeting trainings this month. That's where you're going to learn step by step how to make and stick to a budget using every dollar. Get all of your biggest budgeting questions answered in the live Q&A. Folks, listen, we've coached, I'm telling you, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people on this, and they always get a little hung up on the newness, the unknown of a budget, and fear of the unknown

is the number one crippling factor in any area of life when you want to go from where you are to where you want to be. And knowledge is the bridge and take advantage of these. These are free webinars, everydollar.com slash webinar, everydollar.com slash webinar. It just takes all the fear away and you realize, hey, this is actually an app, a budget app that I can use and it's going to help me win. So take advantage of that. Jessica is up next in Dallas, Texas. Jessica, how can we help today? Hi, thanks for taking my call. So I have been helping

my baby sister through the baby steps and she's actually further than my husband and I. She's just about to finish step three and move on to step four. She doesn't need to do five. She's only 20. She's not married. She doesn't have kids. And so I just need some guidance on like how to help her with step four and six. I know that she needs like a Roth IRA kind of thing, her investments because she's self-employed as a tattoo artist. So she doesn't have have automatic retirement going in. And she's very like, tell me what to do with my money

and I'm gonna do it because I helped her get to where she is now living on her own and that kind of stuff. Wow, that's great. I thought this call might go a different direction when you started with the I'm helping my baby sister, but it seems like this is going well. Yeah, it's good. I think you're a great sister

for pointing her in the right direction, and I wanna make sure it sticks with pointing her in the right direction versus kind of what you said of, tell me what to do and I'll just do it, especially when it comes to the investing part, because that's the part where we do wanna have more of a hands-on approach

and making sure that she's really understanding it for herself versus, my sister told me to open this up and put my money right here and so I'm just gonna do that. Because the truth is, you know, being in the market can have volatility and we don't know what her sense is gonna be around that and so if she has a day where she sees her investments go down, I don't want her to look at you and go,

you told me to put my money here and now, you know, the stock market's had a down day, right? We want her to look at you and go you told me to put my money here and now you know the stock market's had a down day right we want her to make right we want to make sure she understands it so let's go back to just the basics of what you're telling her um which is yeah you're right if she's self-employed a Roth IRA would be a wonderful place to start and if she finds that she's able to fund that um fully and still has money to go out of her 15%, then she could sit down and set up some other types of funds. Maybe she does a SEP, maybe she does something else, an individual 401k, something like that. That's where she would go with that.

But what's important is that she's learning what this all is and what this all means, right? Because you can tell her, hey, invest your money across four different types. That's what we would say, you know, growth and income, aggressive growth, international. And you could go through all that stuff with her. But if she doesn't understand it again, it's just her taking your advice and not doing her own due diligence. So.

Do you think that you have a grasp, enough of a grasp to really teach her? Or what do you think? I think I have like an intermediate level grasp, which is why I'm not feeling super confident because my husband and I are still in baby step two and she is progressing further and I haven't like, we're focused on Baby Step 2 and she's getting further down the line. I'm like, oh no, she's gonna need help again soon. Like in the next couple months,

she'll have her six months, you know, saved up and with the investments and stuff like because- You've not actually done it. I've not actually done it. And I know that she's very open with me about her finances. I know that she can find the 15% and have money left over to save for a down payment on a home or if she wants to upgrade her car or whatever. She's 20. Great, great. So what I do is if I were in your shoes, I would get financial peace university

matter of fact will gift it to you. And I'd sit down if I were in your shoes, I would get Financial Peace University, matter of fact, we'll gift it to you. And I'd sit down and I'd watch the investing lessons with her and I'd watch it one night, like in the week or whatever, pop popcorn, do whatever. And then I'd go back and watch it again, because it takes some time to get it in there. And then if she feels confident, like,

hey, let's look into these Roth options, then it's like, okay, now we're looking at it, we're seeing what it is, and we're kind of putting the teaching together with like, practically actually doing it. And if there's still any question on what do I pick, then it's like, okay, let's go to SmartVestor Pro, let's sit down with them, and let's see if they can

help teach it, because I just don't want her to do it because Big Sister said do it. Yeah. Right, yes, yes. And she's very, I did like sit down and show her like the investment calculator on the Ramsey side. Like this is for your future, this is like, kind of like, you know, like is this something

you wanna do? Do you wanna set yourself up in the future, you know, and stuff like that. And she's very like, just watching our parents having gone, they went through the baby steps, they became millionaires and now they lost it all and they're divorced. And she's like, and they have to work past retirement. Like that's how bad it is. And so she's looking at that and saying, I don't, I don't want to do that. You know, which is so great at age 20. I mean, my goodness, like she's not even fully brain developed yet.

No, you're doing great. You're teaching her the philosophy, right? You're teaching her the baby steps. You're teaching her kind of like that overarching thing. But yeah, for the details, make sure she gets that advice from a deeper source and make sure that she's understanding it and not, like I said, not just doing it because it was said to do.

I think it's a great point. The only thing I would add to that, Jessica, is, and you've done this, like I said, not just doing it because it was said to do. I think it's a great point. The only thing I would add to that, Jessica, is, and you've done this, it sounds like stay in the posture of guiding, not directing. Because that older sister, it could be very easy and if she starts to make other moves, moves that maybe you wouldn't make, doesn't mean that they're against what we teach at Ramsey,

but it might be different than what you would do. Just stay in that guide stature. and I think that'll help your relationship as she continues to mature. Great job, both of you. That's such a great story. Debbie's up in Tampa, Florida. Debbie, how can we help? Yeah, thanks so much for taking my call. I'm kind of, you know, like I'm playing like financial pin-pill on the donkey. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing here. My husband, um, recently passed away. I'm going to say about eight months or so ago. Thank you. It was rather unexpected. Uh, no life insurance.

He has had an annuity of quite literally $7,500 and, um, our boys are 13 and 17. So one of them I was getting, it was a health issue and we're about 18 years apart. And so it was, it was, there was a lot going on there and health wise for him. So one, one of my sons will be getting social security about 2000 a month for the next four years and the other son will be getting the same 2000 a month for maybe another 12 months. And you know, I make about 4,600 after taxes, after investing, after, you know, my health, my dental, all that, I do have term life at 500,000, which is about, you know, 10 to eight times

actually my salary. So, um, I have investment about 300,000, you,000. So I'm kind of secure there. But what's happened now is I have about $97,000 in a HELOC, and I have about $94,000 in credit cards. So we have a primary home, and I also have an investment rental that that I tell us about that really quick. How much do you owe on it? And what could you sell it for? The rental I bought for 175 right now. It's at 2.875. So that tells you it's Yeah, two eight seven five and right now the mortgage on it is what 13, but what could you sell it for? About three three fifty and we depreciated the basis on it to about $100,000. So I'm willing to pay the... I'm sorry, you broke up.

How much do you owe on it? I'm sorry. I owe $113. Oh, $113. $113, yeah. I bought it for $175. I owe $113. Hey, if I were you, I hate to cut you off,

but we're against the clock. If I were you to get better settled on this, I'd probably clear that rental and take the profits and pay off the debt as much as you can. I agree. And I would never go into debt again. You can't afford to. Right now is the time to continue to build up that retirement account and yeah, stay out of debt. That's my best advice to you at this point. I'm sorry for your loss. So sorry, but this investor property is a gift. Get out of it and get completely

debt free and then continue to rebuild. You'll get there. That's what we would do. So hopefully you will do that. All right. Time for our question of the day, which is brought to you by why refi, why refi refinances defaulted private student loans that other places won't touch. And they're going to help you get your life back. So kick your private student loan debt to the curb at yreify.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y, R E F Y dot com slash Ramsey. It may not be available in all states. Okay. Today's question comes from Alexis in Mississippi. She says, I'm a stay-at-home mom with two children. My husband earns about $55,000 a year. We

owe $65,000 on our house and that's our only debt. It seems like we're stuck though and I would love to get some guidance on how we can move forward on the baby steps. Neither of us have a retirement plan. My goal is to pay off the house as soon as possible, but I know investing in our future is also important. So how do we do both? Great question. Hey, congratulations on being debt free

except your mortgage. I think for a lot of people, that's the biggest hurdle, right Ken? So the fact that you're over that, or maybe you never dealt with it to begin with is a major win. So really it's just walking the baby steps up. So you've already done baby steps one and two essentially,

which is you get $1,000 saved for baby step one, baby step two is you pay off all of your consumer debt, right, everything except the mortgage. So essentially now you're on baby step three, which is when you're stacking up three to six months of expenses. You didn't mention in the question that you had that, so I'm assuming that you need that so three to six months of

Ken what I would say kind of like your bare-bones budget like you don't need your bells and whistles budget That's gonna take you a long time to do and we want to get you to that investing step So yeah, three to six months. I based that um Alexis off of a couple of things because a lot of people ask should I do three months or six months? And it really does matter, Ken, about a couple of things. A, what's your health like? Are you a person that is in and out? Is there a possibility that you might not work? You go bouts where you're not working.

So that's gonna play into whether you want three or six months. You look at, are both spouses out earning income? If you're a stay at home mom, that'd be another good reason to go for six months. So these are the sorts of things that I'm looking at when I'm determining that. In my world, Ken, I just like six months period, honestly. I agree. But I'm just... I was gonna get your take on this. As I was reading that, they only owe $65,000 on the house. Not a lot. No. But it looks like she was torn between

do we pay the house off sooner versus the 15% baby step four? And we know the answer. And I think she kinda knows that, but we wanna see her, and if she can even work part time after the husband and if he's making the income, let's get the 15% done.

Every month now we're paying towards our retirement. And if she wants, that's baby step four. And if she wants to work towards, you know, paying the house off, if they've not been investing with the kids for their futures, stick with the plan because in the end, the momentum in baby step four and five will propel them to six to pay the house off. It's not that much.

Don't take it out of order. And you can understand the intensity, right? Yes, yes. But you really wanna take advantage of the fact that you don't owe much on your home and you've got to start piling cash for retirement. That's why baby step four, 15% of your income is so vital. You gotta do that.

And I think probably what you're feeling and Ken touched on it, you know what, $55,000 a year, if that's the gross, what you're taking home, once you've put the 15% away, it doesn't leave a whole lot to do all the things you wanna do in your budget, plus put what feels like a substantial amount extra, on the mortgage, plus you gotta think about kids' college.

So Ken is exactly right. Nothing takes away from the 15%, we gotta do that. So Ken is exactly right. Nothing takes away from the 15%. We got to do that. And Ken is right. If you can find a way to supplement your income so that it feels like you're putting more on the mortgage, that's a good deal. Yeah. All right. Let's go to Charleston, South Carolina, one of my favorite, favorite cities in the South. John is there. John, how can we help today? Hey, I hope you guys are doing great. I got a funky situation for y'all that I need your opinion on. Well we can handle funky all right. It doesn't scare us. It's funky. My wife and I are next week we are about to complete baby step three. Okay, super pumped about that congrats

I'm confused on where to go next. So my wife is a nurse She makes about 50,000 a year gross and I am a professional athlete and I make about 200 gross What sport that has that has I'm not really allowed to say what sport but it's in the World it's in the automotive world. It's in the what? Automotive world. Oh, all right. Okay, all right. It's a little funky, like I said, it's funky. Okay, all right.

Keep going, we're tracking with you. My question here is, I know my next step here is to start the 15% all of a sudden paying off the house. With my job, my salary and how long it will last is very unpredictable. And when I say that is basically the way my contract's laid out is X amount of money for X amount of years, but that they have the ability

to fire me basically if my performance goes bad or if I get hurt. Well so far everybody's job is like that so so far it's not too funky so keep going. I'm thinking one of the things you need to do is get a better phone. I think that's probably what all of us are wondering. We're having a hard time hearing. Is my phone bad? Well yeah you're coming in and out so are you in a tunnel? Are you moving around? You're coming in and out, so are you in a tunnel? Are you moving around? Is this any better for you? It is, that's good. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

So what is your current contract length right now at making 250 a year for how many years? How many years you got left? I have two more years left on my current contract. All right, are you doing well right now? How's your performance? Oh, it's great, it's great. And it has potential to go up if I continue to do well. What would cause your performance to start going down

since you can't tell me what sport this is? What in the world would cause, what would have to be true for you to get into a place where your performance dictates them firing you? It's more along the lines of like week after week bad performance which isn't really concern. My biggest concern honestly is the average lifespan of an athlete in this sport is about 10 years. And how far are you into it? I'm about three years into it. Alright great.

I'm not seeing a massive problem so let's go back to your financial question because we only got about three minutes left. What is it that you need to know about your money? Basically, I'm curious if I should focus on paying my house off instead of going towards the investment side of things, just throwing all my money at the house while I'm making the money that I do? Yeah, no. I would not do that because then you're making some sort of assumption

that once this career path is over, you'll never make money again and you'll never make quote this kind of money again. And that's absolutely not true. If anything, I would follow the baby steps as they're written because you are gonna retire one day and compound interest is your friend and time is your friend.

So take advantage of this timeframe that you have and start investing now because, well, in a month when you're done with Baby Step 3, but you know what I'm saying, so that you can have that time for that compound interest to compound. And in the meantime, like you said, if you know there's kind of a seven year stretch for you,

that's the time to start thinking, how can I reinvent myself? What's next for me? What does this look like? You got time to build a bridge. So what's happening is you're approaching us, it's a very good question by the way, but you've got a scarcity mindset, right?

Very good. And so what you wanna do is move into an abundance mindset and go, okay, I've done all this hard work to this point. My wife and I have got a great combined income. We're making great progress. We're about ready to start going all in on our retirement planning. And then we'll move to baby step six when we get there.

But to your point, you kind of know none of this is gonna be a real shock out of nowhere. And I'm sure you've allowed yourself to wonder what would I do if I weren't doing this sport? And so begin to lay the groundwork by making connections. Act like you're gonna get fired tomorrow as far as professionally, but financially don't act that way and continue the course as Jade has told you. So let me ask you this really quick, why is it that you can't tell us the sport?

I know you said you couldn't but I'm curious to know why. It's, it's, there's certain things in my contract where I'm not allowed to, there's some names and stuff that I'm involved with that are not allowed to be. Is your name really John? Yeah. That's what I'm wondering. I wonder if he's demolition Derby guy. Cause he's not making huge money.

Or like monster truck rallies. Yeah, it's not NASCAR or IndyCar. Those guys weigh way more. So I'm trying to sit there and I'm just, it's killing me. It's killing me. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. Yeah, I'm wondering.

But I would say, he said you got 10 years too. So that makes me wonder if he's just smashing other cars every weekend or something. But I don't think demolition derby pays that well. Maybe he's like a, I don't know. I would drive a monster truck and smash other cars. I would tell you. I'd go to a monster truck rally. That'd be fun.

All right. We'll get tickets. Hey folks, we'd love for you to subscribe to the show if you haven't already. We'd love for you to share, share, share, and leave a review. Why do we tell you this? Because we don't have any choice. It's the algorithm, folks. That's how we grow and want to help so many people get control of their money, win in

their work, and have great relationships. And so we grow by you spreading the word in those ways. So we appreciate you joining us. However, you are joining us We'd love for you to subscribe review and share. Thank you very much Catherine is in San Diego, California Catherine how can we help today? Yes, this is more of a question about how versus what I was on baby steps five about 15 years ago and

went through some issues and got a divorce and single mama now have a little 13 year old and I'm not doing terrible but I don't love the trajectory I'm on and I need to get back into budgeting and I'm wondering that how do I get back to that place where I was where I was budgeting every month? That's a very interesting question from someone who at one point was pretty far down the path Were you budgeting back then? I was and I think a lot of it has to do with being in burnout because I Just came off of working six months of a lot of overtime Right and the reason I did that question is because Jade's going to jump in.

She's the budgeting queen here. But the reason I asked that question is because it seemed a bit odd the way you presented it. And now I'm starting to understand a little bit more. It's not the actual dotting the i's, crossing the t's of a budget. It sounds like you're just emotionally exhausted. Yeah.

Yeah, probably. Yeah. Okay. How can we help with that? What's going on there? The idea of budgeting just seems like, is it that you don't feel like you've got enough? Are you paycheck to paycheck and it feels like the last thing you want to do is try to get in this mess

because you've just been holding on so tight. I just think there's something going on here that's not actually how to use a budget. Yeah, I think it's, I'm not sure. I know part of it is the burnout and coming off of the overtime and now I'm going into a time when I won't be working as much over time and hopefully like recover from the burnout. Yeah. Okay. I think that's good.

So Jade, knowing that, hearing that, what, cause you coach people. What do you think? I don't think this is as much tactical. How does she get back into it? What would you tell her to do? Well, I have a couple of questions. What baby stuff are you on now? Are you back in debt? I do. I did get, yeah. I had a car that I was going to keep until the wheel fell off. It was a

beautiful old Camry and I fortunately got hit by a car. so I did have to, it was totaled. So I have a loan for a car, a used car and I think it's about 7,000 something. I was planning on paying that off with a bonus I'm getting in August. And then I do have a, I have a credit card and I usually I've been paying off the credit card every month, but this is the first month that I wasn't able to pay it off and I owe a little under a thousand. So I, from what I know, from what I learned before, I've never lost the principles like they're there and I don't want this car debt. I never planned on getting a new car, a newer car or replacement

vehicle. But I see now that I didn't pay off this month this balance for the first time. And that really scares me. What about, okay. Yeah, I can understand that because it feels like something was lost here because you've always been able to do it. What happened? Okay. I understand that. What about your housing? Are you a renter? Do you own your house? Um, I'm renting. Okay. So my guess is this is just a guess. You can tell me if I'm wrong. My guess is you were doing this process, which is a fairly intense process, Catherine, you've been doing this for a long time. And at one point you had something more to show for it. And right now you're feeling like, man, in many ways I'm starting at the beginning.

And that's very daunting, right? It's daunting to have to start and push play again and go, okay, here we go again. And I think that's probably what you're up against more so than, like Ken said, the dotting of the I's and crossing of the T's. Is that fair enough? Yeah, I know what to do. I just, I've done it before, so I know what to do. Here's what I'm hearing. I could be wrong. Sorry to jump in. That's okay. Go ahead. But I keep, I think we keep coming back to this point. And the only analogy I can come up with right now is, Catherine, it feels like you know how to exercise and eat right.

But you just, when it comes time to hit the gym, or to walk, or to eat the really good meal, you just go, oh, I just really want the chips in queso instead. It keeps coming back to that. And there's the giggle of confirmation. So that's what I think is going on. She knows, she said it twice, I know what to do. But when it comes time to sit, when the first check comes, when the first of the month comes in, getting back into that and having to make hard choices. Because when I decide not to eat chips and queso

at 10 o'clock at night, and the last meal is before seven, or I gotta go to the gym, I'm giving up something else. I'm having to do something that initially is not fun to do. It's kinda yuck. Yeah, I think, yeah. There's a philosophical answer,

and then there's just kind of like the basic answer of if you want the results, you just kind of got to do it right. There's the bite, the bullet part of it. But I find that what makes it easier is figuring out why do you want to do this? Right? What is the clear reason?

And it can't just be vanity at this point, right? The vanity reason is because because I wanna lose 10 pounds and I want my jeans to fit better, but a deeper reason is kind of more of a life and death thing where it's like, hey, I'm gonna retire at one point and I don't wanna retire with nothing. My doctor says my cholesterol is high and anything could throw me into a catastrophic event

heart-wise, right? Those are the things that make us go, holy crap, I gotta get moving. And so you might have to have one of those moments where you go in the mirror and you just look at yourself and say, I'm, how old are you Katherine? I'm 46. You look at yourself and go, man, I'm 46 years old. If I don't get on the ball, here's what we'll be. And you get real and you list those things out.

Here's what I have in retirement and I'm glad that I've made it this far but I'm not done yet. I have to keep going. And that's kind of like, I mean, Catherine, I'm not telling you anything I haven't said to myself. And so I'm just relaying that message and then you start getting practical.

You start putting those sticky notes on the window of on your mirror every morning of what it is that you need to stay focused of so that why is in front of you. Yes. And it probably has something to do with your daughter and it probably has something to do with how you view yourself after your working years are over.

And how many months, Jade, would you say, rule of thumb, it takes somebody to go from, oh, I hate budgeting too. Okay, I got this. You know, you should feel at least like it's something that I know how to do this in at least 90 days. You might not ever love it, but you know, you'll be proficient in it. And don't expect the first budget to be great, Katherine. I've heard Dave Ramsey say that a million times. Like this is a process. And so you just gotta do it. You gotta just rip the bandaid off and go, I've gotta start diving in,

which means I'm gonna have to change my spending. You said this was the first month, either in a long time or ever, where you couldn't pay your credit card. So I think that's coincided with this phone call. Am I right? Yeah. Yeah.

So what needs to change? When my daughter too, I just, yeah, my daughter too, I don't want her thinking like, you know, there's just an infinite amount of money we need to live with. So guess what? Let her see the budget. Show her. Yeah. Go, hey, mom's making some changes. I want you to understand what I'm doing, but more importantly, I want you to understand why I'm doing, but more importantly, I want you to understand why I'm doing it. And she ain't gonna like it. I've never met a 13-year-old who's really thrilled about you cutting some of their frills or whatever. So be prepared for that as well.

But Catherine, I just sensed this entire call, and by the way, I just want to encourage you. You've been through a lot, and you've just feels like you've come out of a season where you have just been all grit. And your body, your mind, your spirit are just fried. And I think you're going, I can't start a new discipline right now. And that's not the case. So be encouraged. You can do this. You've done it before.

Yeah, come on. Believe in yourself. We know you can do it, Katherine. We believe in you. And by the way, you have to. You have to. There's a lot on your shoulders. And I know you can handle it. We're cheering for you the whole way through. Thanks for the call.

This is The Ramsey Show where America talks about their money, their profession, and their relationships. The phone number to jump in for you today is 828-825-5225. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. Let's get to Sherry in San Bernardino, California. Sherry, how can we help? Hello. Thank you for taking my call. You bet. I'm living in a home that is paid for and I own, I have no bills. I mean I have bills, but I don't have credit bills. I don't have any debt. Let's put it

that way. Cars are paid for. The problem is my home is in a trust for me and I'm running out of money myself. I've been able to survive since 2007 on my savings, but I'm down to $4,000. Oh my goodness. Hold on one second. How much are you burning through in a month and then in a year? About $1,000 a month. Your expenses are only $1,000 a month and then in a year? About $1,000 a month. Your expenses are only $1,000 a month? Yeah, I don't own anything.

I just pay my gas and electric and cost of living. I do have food stamps and I make sure that I don't shop beyond what's on those food stamps. How old are you, Sheri? I'm 63, yeah, 63. And you've been doing this since 2007, essentially living on a thousand dollars a month out of a savings account?

Well, 2007 to 2013, I kind of lived off of whatever I could make doing garage sales or helping an old person or little things here and there. So sometimes it was less than that. But you don't have any social security? No, because I'm too young. And when I applied for disability, they kept denying me and denying me and denying me. And they said, you can reapply again next year. What's your age? What's your age for social security? Have you done the math? 67. Yeah, 67. So, um... You live on your own? After five years of denying me, they said, well, you've already passed the five years of being

eligible for disability, so now you can't have disability. What is, what would the disability be for? You have some type of physical limitation? Oh, I have a time Okay, so are you able to work at all? No, you can't do something over the phone. You can't do customer service all day long You sound great on the phone right now. I had the same thought. Thank you Well, the problem with because I've thought about that too Is that I have chronic headaches and complicated migraines. Also, with my diabetes, sometimes my blood sugar drops really quickly, although I'm getting better control over that. I was even thinking about just doing something for like four hours a day, like renting cars.

Sure. That's what I was about to say. I do not want to minimize your physical ailments at all, but those headaches aren't all day long every day, presumably, correct? Well, the headaches are the migraines are. The migraines are worse in the wintertime. Wintertime is the most difficult. I have three months, but I'm pretty much dysfunctional. But my point is you have got to do some type of work in and around your ailments. There is no other alternative.

You don't want to be a ward of the state. So you call us today in a pretty desperate situation, correct? Correct. So what is the core of your question? The house is paid for. I didn't know what would be the best way to get money out of the house because it's in the trust. No, no, no, don't borrow against the house. Is that what you're asking? Yeah, if I should borrow it. No, Jade, tell her why that's a horrible decision.

Don't borrow against it because that's now putting the one thing that you have that's safe and secure at risk because income is an issue for you. And so you don't want to do anything that's going to add debt to your life. And then next thing you know, you can't make the payment. But I do want to circle back to the Social Security. Why are you not able to take the minimum benefit at 62? I mean, obviously, if you wait longer, you'll get more. But why are you not able to? Are you have you checked into that?

I checked into it. I talked to a disability lawyer this past week and she said, try and apply for SSI first. So that's what I'm doing this week. I'm applying for SSI. I can at least get like $600 a month from SSI. If they deny me, then I will have no choice than to tap into my social security, but you know my

property taxes are $2,600 a year and then you've got the insurance and the car insurance and bills and I don't even know if that'll be enough to... Well, it'll be more than what you have now. I want to come back to the fact that you have if even if you're working 20 hours a week, anything, four hours a day, five days a week, doing customer service on the phone, you're very sharp, you're very kind, you can be doing something like that. You have to.

You've got to be bringing in some income. But here's the good news. How do I get jobs like that? How do you get jobs like that? You just apply, you gotta apply online for customer service jobs. You apply. Here's what's news. I get jobs like that. How do you get jobs like that? You just apply, you gotta apply online for customer service jobs. Here's what's great about those jobs.

Everybody's not looking for those. In fact, most people turn down their nose at those things. Sherri, that's your dream job for you. For you, I mean, you understand what I'm saying, right? I've said it before, I've said it before and I'll say it again. We in no way endorsed this company, but back in the day when I used to work

on cruise ships, I'd go out for a long contract, but then I'd have a little spurt of time that I would look for work and I'd go on this website, it's still there, you can go on arise.com and it's all work from home, remote, customer service jobs. You pick what you want, it tells you ahead of time what the pay is and you get to, you literally go on and pick your hours.

So you can say, I only wanna work a 30 minute block or here I want to work an hour and a half block and you do it like that it's out there I'm telling you go to arise.com and see what's out there. You do not have competition for those jobs Sherri people don't want those jobs you actually need this job and you get on the phone you go hey I'm 63 I'm great with people I need some part-time work they don't need to know about all your business they don't need to know about all your business. They don't need to know about your headaches and all that stuff. Those ones, you don't even have to do that. It literally, it's not even an interview, girl.

You just go on there, apply for your stuff, put your headset on and you're in it. I love it. So here's the, let me do the math for you, Sheri. If you're working just 20 hours a week, okay, you can make enough to take care of all of your basic bills. The good news for you is you own your home free and clear. You have no debt and you've been living unbelievably cheap.

So we're not talking about a 40 hour a week, six figure job, but you've got to bring some income in. I don't care how you do it. So are you going to hop on a rise when you get off this call or no? Well, on Monday. I gotta get my FSI applied for today. Okay. Alright, well point is is I'd also be looking at... Probably this weekend I will probably die. Yeah, don't wait till Monday.

...tell her into the internet and learn. Yeah, I was gonna say, what you got going on tonight? The way you're living, you don't have a big party life going on tonight. It's not you and the fried green tomatoes hitting the town, right? Fried green tomatoes. Do you like that reference? Yeah, you know. I'm just trying to go to her age group, you know?

It could be the sisterhood of the ya ya pants or whatever that was, I don't know. That's good, anything. Yeah, anything I can. I'm pulling up anything I can right now. It's not Thelma and Louise tonight. They're not painting the town red. Got it.

Sherry's around the house. You can get online. And listen, this is a serious, serious thing. And you've got to happen to this problem. You've got some spunk, Sherry. So, sum it all together and say, I'm not gonna be a victim here. I'm gonna take control.

And you can, but you gotta get after it. And for no reason at all, I'm afraid people coming be a victim here. I'm going to take control and you can, but you got to get after it. And for no reason at all. I'm afraid people coming up to her going, well, Jayden, Ken said not to borrow against the house and somebody telling her how she needs to do that. Don't do it. There you go. Thank you, Sherry. We're rooting for you.

Buying or selling your house is a big deal folks and you want to make sure you don't do that on your own. You want an expert in your corner? The Ramsey Truster program is the only way to find a top agent that you can trust to help you make your home a blessing, not a burden. Find a local Ramsey Truster Real Estate Pro for free by going to ramsysolutions.com slash agent. That's ramsysolutions.com slash agent, or you can click on the link in the description

if you're listening on YouTube or podcast. I like to mention this from time to time, Jade, but the show notes are a treasure trove of goodness. This according to James Childs, our fearless leader. All right. And producer. I believe you. All right, let's go to Richard in Boston, Massachusetts.

Richard, how can we help? Hey, how's it going? I recently just turned 18. I currently have 160,000 in my name. Whoa! Richard! Very unique situation here. I'll bet.

How'd you stack $160,000 away at 18? So I got lucky here. You know, it's not me. You what? I got lucky here. How? It was a trust fund. Oh, okay. And so I'm guessing you don't have access to that, or do you already have access to that?

Right now, so I just turned 18, so I have full access. Oh, okay. Okay that's a good setup. So what's your question? I'm really passionate in aviation. I started flying when I was 17. Hey Richard, Richard I'm sorry to interrupt. Are you on speaker phone? No sir. Okay try to get a little closer to your mouth here. You're just having a hard time understanding you. All right how about now? That's a lot better my man hold it right there okay what's your question? Awesome so I'm really passionate about aviation and I've been flying since I was 17 and I'm looking on planning to pursue a career

in that field as going to university however I'm wondering if I should use this money to get a jumpstart in something like investing or building a business. And given my age and this opportunity, what would you guys recommend I do with this money? So where do you see yourself 20, 30 years from now? And I know this is a big question for an 18-year-old, but how do you see aviation in your future? In my future, I definitely see myself at an airline and just driving and flying and exploring the world.

Great. Having a family and... Great. So what I would do if I were you, at 18, I would go to the military and I would take those flying skills that you've already acquired. I'd let the military continue to train me and make me one of the best pilots in the world. That's fighter jet potentially one of those big C-130s I think they are. You got helicopters. You know all the toys and I would let the military train you

number one. Number two, then you come out of there and you got the GI bill which would pay for any furthering education that you wanted to get. And I would save the 160,000. I want to bring my partner in on that piece in just a minute about what you could do with the 160. But I'm suggesting you don't touch hardly any of that. Jade will coach you through that. But I want you to just get trained

and let the military train you. You're gonna come out of this thing a very, very attractive candidate to an airline. And so that's what you want to do. I wouldn't spend any of your money on further training for flying if aviation is the long-term play. Now I'm not gonna put pressure on you with that because not everybody wants to serve, Jade, but I'm not gonna put pressure on you with that because not everybody wants to serve, Jade. But you asked me what would I do and Richard, that's what I would do. Jade, I want you to walk in here on the 160K.

What do we do with that? Yeah, so it's in a trust right now. It's invested. What happens if you don't touch it? It keeps accumulating growth or how is it? I assume so, yeah. I know it goes up with the market goes up and down yeah I've been talking to my my parents about it recently and we're getting to it now just because I just turned 18 last month

so but it's not like it's money that if you don't touch it it's gonna continue to grow so there's nothing keeping, like there's nothing causing you to say, I have to touch it, I have to do this. Not like an inherited IRA where you gotta like spend the money, right? So I would hold off. There's nothing that's on fire.

I would too. That money's gonna be there. It's gonna continue to grow. When you need it, you know, the next thing probably coming up for you is probably one day you're gonna to want to buy a house. And so you can let that accumulate. But for now, we're looking at going into the military to do our flight school.

And if something pops up, the money is there. But yeah, I don't see a need to pull this money out. I think that what happened is it's like now it's available to me. It's like found money, right? You open up your wallet, you got a bunch of cash there. You're wondering what can you do with it next. And a really great option is nothing. Yeah. Are you open to the military option, Richard? Yeah. So I was actually looking, if I went to the university that I was planning on going to,

it would be a four year to state school. So you could always do a reserve program in any branch of the military and they pay either full or a big part of your tuition. And you go for it's two days or one weekend out of the whole month and then two weeks in the summer. I would just have to go to a basic training, which would be eight weeks. And then I could enjoy, you know, the college life without spending any of that money. I like that option as well. The point I'm trying to make,

and this is to a much broader audience, it is very expensive, Jade, to go into aviation. The cost of training is absolutely, if I can be honest, absurd, and it's very prohibitive. And so if I can go the military option, and by the way, this is advice that I've gotten from so many people, but I've got a good friend who flew helicopters in the Navy.

And he now flies those jumbo FedEx jets. Oh, uh-huh. Like the dudes flying to China every other week. You know what I mean? Dropping off packages all around the world. Castaway style? Yeah, yeah. As a matter of fact.

And so Richard, I like the reserve play and and just real quick, get out your investment calculator. Let's say let's just say he invests that and he keeps and come up with a number. I want to blow Richard's mind on this. He takes the 160 and let's say puts in you do your little math here, Jay. This is going to blow your mind, Richard, about what that 160 could be if we barely touch it and we keep adding to it. And 30 years from now, it's gonna blow his mind.

What do we got, Jade? Give me just one minute. Okay, sorry. Keep it rolling. I gotta keep doing my tally here. How many years do you wanna go? Let's go to- Let's go 40 years. 40 years? All right.

Cause is it only 160 or is it 160 a year? It's just 160. Yeah, just the one, let's go 30 years because that's gonna put him at 48. Okay. So he's not even 50 years of age. Okay. By the way, I'm 50, I'm young.

You know what I mean? So let's be honest here. He's a young man at 48. All right. I think I put in that, there we go. All right, so if we throw this in here, yeah. From age 18, which you are now, to age 48, it's 160,000. This is you adding nothing to it.

Just letting it sit, buddy. Nothing, let it sit. $3.173 million. Wow. Richard, talk to me, buddy. That's called opportunity cost. What we're playing out in front of you is opportunity cost. It's looking at a sum of money and saying, I can do this with it or I can do this with it

and playing it out long-term to see what the benefits are and what you're not just what you can gain, but what you would lose. So going to aviation school means you would also have the propensity to lose $3.17 million. That's right. Now here's why I asked Jade to put in 30 years, Richard. Okay? Because you answered the question. I said, Richard, tell me 20, 30 years from

now what your life looks like. And you said, I'm flying in an airline, I got the family and everything. So I'm giving you 30 years from today, you've got $3.1 million in the bank. If we just leave the 160, we don't add anything to it. And now you can walk with the retirement plan at one of the major airlines and that business that you said you wanted to own. Now, my friend, you've got so many options. If you wanna be an entrepreneur

and you're still a young man, you've paid for the kids' college, that's the picture I wanted to paint for you. Don't spend the 160. Invest most of it and watch it turn your life into an absolute dream. You got me? I got you. Richard I'm proud of you buddy. That's great. Man that's fantastic. You gotta love that. An 18 year old. Yeah that's great. And you quoted a great song. You're still a young man. I didn't know I quoted it.

Remember? What's that from? Oh gosh. Oh, I don't know. Tower of Power. Oh yeah, very good. I always like it when you sing on the show. So it's always fun.

It's very, very intimidating folks because she's really, really good. I introduced her on the Ramsey Cruise, James. She didn't know I was going to do it. She belted out some Whitney. Acapella blew the room away. Yeah, my co-host folks, Jade Warshaw. All right, let's go to Zachary in Charleston, West Virginia. Zachary, how can we help? Hey, thank you for taking my call. Sure. Just wanted to get some quick advice here. So I was just recently introduced to the whole

Dave Ramsey not too long ago by a buddy of mine and my wife and I are both wanting to get out of debt as quick as possible. And we're pretty close to being there. Um, however, I'm wanting to get a, another job, uh, to help get out of debt as quick as possible. And she does not want me to do that at all because she doesn't want me to. Sacrifice family time, which I understand. So just kind of want to get your all take on that to see what direction I should take. What does family time mean? Yeah, you have kids? Yeah, so we got three kids and we have our fourth one due in about two

weeks. Whoa, okay. And boy, this is good. I'm glad Jade's here with me today because I was just going to confess right now, I've got the male mindset and I'm going, I'm sitting down with a wife going totally get it. And so let's be real specific about what family time means for her. Because we got another one on the way. How old are the kids? So my oldest is five and then I have a three year old, a two year old and then I'll have this one. My Lord, wow. Okay, so Jay, tell Zachary exactly what his wife is afraid of if he's out there working

that second job. What is, what's her concern? Ah, well, I'm not exactly sure. I have to ask two more clarifying questions first. My screen says that you're living with the in-laws. Is that true? Yes. Okay.

So is that a thing that is stressful or is that a thing that's like, hey, this actually helps a lot with childcare and picking up for the kids and making sure the kids are squared away? It's kind of both, but mainly it's very stressful for both of us.

Mainly it's very stressful. What is so stressful? Just a lack of privacy. Lack of privacy, okay. But there is some childcare help out there as well. I'm guessing mom, is mother-in-law helping out or no? Yeah, yeah, she helps out when she can. Oh, well then I got my answer now.

So. I'm taking it back. I'm taking the ball back so that Jade can criticize because this is kind of fun for us. I never know what she's going to say. I don't know. And I love that. Okay.

So I'm taking the ball real fast. Okay, take it. Because mine's quick. It's an assist. I'm passing. Thank you. It's a good bounce pass. Zachary, so because in-laws are helping out with the babies

and because you said you're both stressed about the lack of privacy living with her mom and dad, then it's a very easy conversation to the wife to go, when I'm working, you have help, number one. And when I'm working, I am making more money so that we can get out of here, number two. So babe, it's a short-term deal We got to do it. I'm sorry

That's the deal. That is the deal. All right. That's all I got. Yeah, I didn't know if you were gonna like that I'm that's why I asked that clarifying question because I had a sense that that Was where we would go Zach. Have you said that to her? I've said that in the very exact same thing. What did she say? She doesn't agree. She's afraid of our children growing up without a father in the home. Okay, now I'm jumping back in. Okay, the father not in the home. Whatever drama queen. How many hours a week do you anticipate having to...

Me saying? No! I'm just trying to understand your life. I don't know how she jumped to that. So how many hours a week are we talking about you working? And for how long? How many months or a year to get where you feel like you need to get to? So it might help if I'm just a little bit... if I clarify just a little bit if I clarify just a little bit more. Oh boy So so far for our debt Our first our very first home that we bought we still owe on it and then we owe on our minivan We are selling our house within the next two months and that will be enough to pay off all of our debt completely And will be debt-free, but you'll be living with your in-laws.

Correct, but at that point, once we sell all that, then we'll be able to actually afford something to go and rent out of their house. How much debt do you have right now? Altogether, probably about $500. Not including the home, just the consumer debt. How much? Altogether, probably about... Not including the home, just the consumer debt. How much? Oh, just our van, we have about $28,000. And what other debt?

That's it. So, how long are you working then with this new scenario that we didn't have a couple of minutes ago? How long are you doing this extra work? Well, I don't have any extra work yet. I'm wanting to get some. I know, but the whole point of you bringing this up is, is I wanna go make some extra money

to get in a better financial situation the wife doesn't want me to. So I'm saying now that we can sell the house and clear all this. But wait, wait, I gotta run back the sell the house idea because hold on a second. Let me understand. I'm so confused. Let me understand.

Okay, are you living in the in-laws house right now because you're trying to stage your house for sale? Is that why you're doing that and you've got kids and it's too much stuff? Yes, and because I've recently got a new job and our house is over two hours away. Got it Clarifying we love that. Okay, so we're not selling it to pay off the debt We're selling it because you moved jobs and your family has to move. Correct. But again, I gotta lean in. I can't get a straight answer, Zachary. I need a straight answer because it'll allow me to help you. How long do you need to be working the extra job, which was the whole point of this call because the wife won't let you.

How long of a period of time do you need to work the extra job? I guess I hadn't worked that out in my head. It wasn't solely just to pay off the debt, but it was also to save money for a down payment for another house. Both good reasons, by the way. Both good reasons. But my point is, I don't know what to tell you. If you can't tell me me and thus tell your wife,

babe, this is only for three months I'm doing this, or this is for six months, or that's what you have to be able to, I guess to have a marital disagreement, we gotta bring all the information to the table. Listen, if you're coming with a woman, you better have your facts straight. If I go to Stacey and I go, hey, babe an extra job and she throws a concern at me I gotta have

some reason yes so let's help him come up with as close to numbers as we can so Zachary when you sell the house how much will you guys pocket from it after fees and everything like that what do you think it'll be we're hoping anywhere between 40 to 50,000 okay 40 to 50,000. Okay, 40 to 50,000. Now, how much is your income? How much do you take home pay in your pocket every single month? I take home about 2,600. Total?

Yeah, for a month. So, now we're starting to shine a light on where some of the problems are. What do you do for a living? Work for the federal government. Okay, 40 hours a week? Yes. My guy. We got to, we got, Ken, help me out. Well, he's got to, he's got to get the other job. So the- But is this an extra job thing or a different job thing? I'm thinking this is a new job

thing. Well, he just landed a new job. What field are you in? Department of Justice. Okay, all right. And so what does the ladder look like for somebody with your current qualifications? Can you get a better job to Jade's point? Yeah. You can? Yes, I can move up really quickly. I just now got my foot in the door. Okay, great. So he's in a situation where he's on a ladder, Jade. So to answer Jade's question to me, if you're where you want to be long term and you want to be in the criminal justice area and you've got a ladder to get a significant raise, then yes, you stay where

you are. But we're coming back to the point where you've got to sit down and just tell your wife, babe, I'm doing this for us and I'm only doing it for X amount of time. And here's how I'm going to do that. Plus, step in and you know, all the things. So back to the original conversation, I don't think he needs a new job. Yeah. That additional job is for a season. And in Zachary, you've got to be able to look at her and go, babe, it's for X

amount of months, which is going to turn into X amount of dollars. Here's where we're going to put the dollars. And that's how this is how it makes our life better. And you meet those other frustrations. You just got to explain to her something tells me she doesn't know the numbers. You've got to explain to her honey. Yeah, she does. $40,000 a year. I can't take care of a family of six. Yeah, that's right. It's almost impossible. Yeah. And that's where you're at.

That's exactly right. And you come back to that number and go, this is where I'm now, this is where I'm going to be. But in the interim. It's impossible. Yeah. And we don't want to be living with our in-laws. Let me remind you.

So casting vision a little bit more specifically, I think, is the answer to your problem. And then at some point, you've got to be the man of the house. She ain't gonna like it yeah but it's for everybody's good after you've made that clear. Kelly give him every dollar so he can help make the point clear please. Our scripture of the day comes from Romans 12, 2, do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Our quote today, Mrs. Country Music, Reba McEntire, be different, stand out and work your butt off. And I can hear her saying that, you know, she's kind of got that unique, I think she's in Oklahoma. I think you're right. I think you're right. Got that unique kind of draw. So I can hear her saying that. She's a real spitfire. Love that. Lily is up in Dallas, Texas. Lily, how can we help today? Thank you so much for taking my call today. Of course.

I have a question about paying for college. I have a child starting college in August. We currently have our college savings account just in our high-yield savings account at 4%, and we're just wondering if there's a better option given our limited time. How much do you have in that account? Currently, it's mixed in with our emergency fund. We have about $90,000 total, but we have about $40,000 to $50,000 set aside that college – we're not spending that set aside for college. And does your child know where they're going to school?

Yes. What's that going to cost per year? It is going to be about $10,000 to $12,000 a year, so we have the full four years already saved up. Oh, okay. Okay. So show me, is there another child that's coming after this that you're concerned about or? No, this is our youngest. Our older one did not go to college. My husband has a military background. So we were expecting to do Hazelwood Act for the state of Texas, but our youngest son is going to the ministry. So he's going to of Texas, but our youngest son is going to

the ministry. So he is going to go to Pensacola Christian College. So to pursue a field in ministry. So we thought that would be a better option for him. Great. And you've got the money, the money's there. And you're just saying, should we move it elsewhere? Is that, is that it? Yes. I was just wondering if there is a better way to pay for that. I'm looking at a tax advantages or maybe putting a little bit in the market and letting it grow to pay for the third and fourth year. Because I'm thinking of better options.

Okay, and go back. You may have said this, but I was writing down how old is he now? He's 17. He started Yeah, I Wouldn't move it your horizon is too short I mean tops This is gonna be a four-year play and I would not move money into the market unless it was gonna be a five-year or more Play just based on what the return the the probability of a return basically is what I'm saying

So I wouldn't you need because you need the money right something It would not be good if when you needed the money, the market was in a downturn, right? You would feel that. So for this reason, I'd leave it in a high yield. Okay, so just let it grow at the 4% and just use it and cash flow it. That's right.

It's too short term for you to get any investment out of it to use. So great job, way to go. You guys are in a rare situation to have put that money aside. So way to go. Let's go to Lauren in Orlando, Florida. Lauren, how can we help today? Howdy. How are y'all? Great. How are you doing today? I'm doing well. Thank you. So my question is actually perfect for the two of y'all because it's both a career and financial base. So my husband and I both work in entertainment remotely, thanks to COVID and my husband works on a major motion picture.

Um, we cat people, do you know what I mean? Okay. Uh, and he, it looks like, um, certain companies are kind of dragging their feet on whether or not they're going to continue certain series involved. And so I have a feeling that they will, but with that idea, my husband may end up getting temporarily furloughed. We are able to float our, we have, we're on babysit five and six, we're able to float everything just on my paycheck. That's all fine. Well, I'm good. The issue comes from, uh, my father in law recently lost his life last year. That's why we moved where we moved. And, um, he has started to kind of come out of his shell and wants to go on a

trip with my husband, uh, kind of a dad, son trip, which is a big deal for him. But the trip is a six thousand dollar expedition cruise to Alaska and I'm just wondering if that is a viable financial decision because that will most likely occur after his furlough and I although we would be able to float it financially like you, you know, the month to month, if we were going to level with my pitch, it could be a little bit on the tighter side. But we do have the money to do it.

So that's one of my questions. When you say you have the money to do it, is the money already set aside or it's in your normal flow of money in a month, you could float it, as you keep saying. We have a six-month savings. On top of that, we have about $27,000 in the bank, not including our retirement funds or anything like that. So if he were to get furloughed today, that's what we would have in the bank.

And I could still theoretically, off paycheck float our friends, childcare, all of that. What was the $27,000 earmarked for? When you guys put that there, what did you think you were going to spend it on or what that it would go towards eventually? We didn't have it earmarked for anything. We thought because we didn't mean to end up in Florida. We moved here because you can't buy time and his mom was sick.

Got it. And so we got two and a half years in there when we thought we were gonna have six months, it was amazing. And we've always gone with the idea that you can't buy time, which is why we're considering this trip. Yeah. What's you guys' income?

We were total, he makes 180, I make 87, that's pre-tax. So after taxes, it's about a little over 16 grand a month. Okay. And didn't you just tell us that you didn't think he'd get furloughed, but it was a possibility? It's a possibility. It just depends on what other companies do. I don't know how much I can say. No, no, you don't have to tell us more. I just am trying to understand, because here's what I heard in your voice. Jade, I heard, she was like, 6,000? I mean, the way you said it, your physiology changed. And I think for that reason,

I think you got a level head on your shoulders. I think you guys are smart with your money. And I think it's probably not the best time. So I would, I'm gonna vote. I'm gonna, we are surprised by this? A little bit, because I'm looking at this, I'm going, you have your emergency fund, you have almost 30,000 above your emergency fund.

You've already said that your budget works without his income. That's right. So if he were to lose his job, you're set in two ways. A, you didn't need it anyway, it was extra. And B, you've got the emergency fund plus another after the trip, $21,000. So I, and it's not something that you know will happen.

I mean, probability wise, what is it 50 50? Or is it even less of a probability? I theorize that it'll probably be maybe a five to six month ordeal and then certain companies will make a lot of money in December. I'm saying if it were to even happen. I'm saying if it were to even happen,

is it a 50-50 shot or is it like a? I would say 50-50. Listen, the first thing I'd say is how can we move this trip? Like I want you guys to move this. I'd feel better if we did it next year, like that sort of thing. That's what I'm getting at.

I would say I would delay the trip until we knew about this uncertainty. That's my take. I agree with you if that's what you're saying. And if it's something that you can't delay, I probably would still do it. Good for you. Yeah, I'd probably still do it. How old's father-in-law? He's 72. Yeah, I'd probably still go ahead and do it. Wow. I think they can afford it. How old's father-in-law? He's 72.

Yeah, I'd probably still go ahead and do it. Wow. I think they can afford it. Listen, I don't disagree with you. It's just, I feel like I'm usually of the two of us, I'm a little bit more like go for it. Is it 6K a piece or for all in? 6K total.

It's six grand all in. The only other thing would be flights, but I mean, we can always go on. I don't disagree with you. Just kidding, this is not like, I would not go. How long is it? Six days, it's an expedition cruise, so they like go on a glacier

and like it's like a National Geographic thing. I can't see. I don't disagree with you, partner. I don't, I just was a little more conservative on this one to delay it a little bit, but I don't disagree with you. If you can't delay it, I would. If you delay it a little bit, but I don't disagree with you You can't delay it. I would if you cannot I do it. I am so excited

Ken you are finally showing your heart Yeah, normally she's mrs. Play it by the book she's up tight and play it by the numbers and I'm the one with the big heart You're trying to help everybody. I have a heart, Lauren. I didn't say you didn't. I said you're finally showing it. You said finally showing it. Letting America see your heart. I like it. I love it. I love it. The people that listen to us all, they know what I'm talking about. Listen, I can be hard. I can drive the point. Yes, you can. You don't want that poor lady to go be a part of the wedding, the bachelorette party. She didn't have any money. She had money.

All right, Lauren, you're amazing. You've heard Jade speak. I'm with Jade. I don't mind which way you go on this. I think you're in good shape either way. And I would say, always choose family, choose the heart. You never promise tomorrow. So I'm going to change my answer and save James for her.

This is The Ramsey Show.