The Ramsey Show - App - You Can't Build Wealth with Financial Chaos Around You

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

📈 ⁠⁠⁠Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan⁠⁠⁠ Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: "Should I take back my car from my brother?" "Can we make our relationship work with financial differences?" "Crazy manipulative" dad expects son to pay him $2,800 a month. "Sell rental houses to invest in bitcoin?" "I threatened the credit card companies and now I'm scared." Next Steps: ✅ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Help us make the show better by taking this short survey!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 weekdays from 2–5 p.m. ET or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠send us an email.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💵 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🏠 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get organized and prepared to buy or sell a home.⁠⁠⁠⁠ 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Get tickets for Money & Marriage Getaway.⁠⁠⁠ Connect with our Sponsors: Stop paying more and start shopping smarter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Aldi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get 10% off your first month of⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ BetterHelp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Boost Mobile⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to switch today! Learn more about⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Christian Healthcare Ministries⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get started today with⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Churchill Mortgage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get 20% off when you join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DeleteMe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FAIRWINDS Credit Union⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for an exclusive account bundle! Save 15% on your first ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Field of Greens⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ order with code RAMSEY Find top Health Insurance Plans at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Health Trust Financial⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To find out more about student loan refinancing, check out⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Laurel Road⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ NetSuite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ today to learn more Use promo code RAMSEY for 18% off at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Nokbox⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Timothy Plan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get started with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YRefy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or call 844-2-RAMSEY Visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Zander Insurance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for your free instant quote today! Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Ramsey Show Highlights⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🧠 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Dr. John Delony Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🍸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smart Money Happy Hour⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💡 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Rachel Cruze Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💰 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Kamel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🪑 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EntreLeadership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy⁠

This is the Ramsey Show where America hangs out to have a conversation about their money, their profession and their relationships and we're so glad you've joined us alongside the fabulous incomparable and very fit Jade Warshaw ladies and gentlemen I'm Ken Coleman good to be with you guns out today thank you I thought when you said fit I thought you meant like swagged out well you take it to what it means I just know that you're on Instagram talking about your workout I know you're working at you got a trainer and you show up today with the sleeveless sweater vest to what it means. I'll take it. I just know that you're on Instagram talking about your workout. I know you're working out. You got a trainer and you show up today with the sleeveless sweater vest

and it needs to be called out because you're pulling it off well. Thank you, thank you. It's a little collegiate vibe. Yeah, I on the other hand, I'm gonna be doing pushups in between segments just to get a little extra pump. Listen, you didn't hear it from me

but Kent Coleman's got a tricep. I'm telling you. Just one, just one. A single tricep is very exciting. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. You can tell we like being together because we enjoy coaching people. And so Jay's gonna help you keep the money. I'm gonna help you make some money. That's our combo tag team today. We start off with Carmen in Tampa, Florida. Carmen, how can we help? Hi. I have a difficult decision to make and I wanted to see if I could get some advice.

You can. It's a financial decision until about four years ago I helped my brother go through, you know, I helped him move into my home, never charged him anything, and I helped my brother go through, you know, I helped them move into my home, never charge them anything. And I helped them get a car under my credit that he pays. My financial situation has changed a lot since. And we went from being a family that was making over $400,000 a year to half of that this year, because my husband made a change in careers that

will end up paying off and it will be a life-changing move but for now it is not. We had to move and now I need to we want to purchase a home but when we went through the process of getting approved the person that went through our debt said, you need to get rid of this debt and pay it off among others. And I went to my brother right now. He's fully recovered. It's been four years. He has stocks, he has CDE, he has a full retirement, he makes commissions and is living a good life And he basically said no, I'm not going to take that off on my credit and I don't I'm not gonna pay off the car

So I'm in have to make the tough decision to either pay it off myself and put it under my name and then pay it off myself and put it under my name and then Repo it and sell it and send him whatever's left off from paying myself back or You can't repo it because if you do that that's gonna destroy your finances No, what I'm thinking about is Paying it off. How much is it? How much is it? It's 11,000. Okay Yeah, and once it's under my name going and having a company pick it up

Because I'll be the owner of the title. How are you gonna put it under your name? How is that because it's his loan they come that you cosign? No, it's my loan. No, it's under my name fully Is he driving the car? Yeah, he's a car. So it's under your name fully just take the car back and pay it off. Now? Well, it's causing a lot of drift in the family. My mom. It already has. Yeah. Amen. Hold on Carmen, did you just hear what Jade said? It's our, the damage you're worried about being done has already been done. And so for you, the best thing to say is you asked him, hey, can you pay this? You're driving the car.

He said no. So then the only fair thing to do, and that's it. You're just doing what's fair. Okay, no problem. If you don't wanna pay it, that's fine. But the car is in my name and I am willing to pay it. So if I'm paying it, I'm going to take it back in my possession.

That is not mean Carmen. That is not a bad sister. That is just you doing something that is very normal and fair by saying, if I'm paying for a car that's in my name, I'm going to be the one owning it and driving it. He's delusional. Your brother's delusional and he's manipulative.

Yeah, that is definitely true because he has the money to pay it off, but he has been making the payments monthly himself. So he's like, I want to continue to make payments monthly because I want to not have to. Then he needs to go rent a car. He needs to go over to Avis or Thrifty or, you know, Dollar and rent a car

because that's what he's doing. He's paying payments on something that's not in his name that he's never gonna own. What's the car worth if you were to sell it today? So I looked up the trade-in value. Not trade-in. I'm not interested in trade-in. That's always a bad deal and you don't need to do that.

What is the car worth, Kelly Blue Book, today if you were to sell it private seller? 19,000. I would go get that car from your brother today and sell it. Instantly. Instantaneously. Yeah. Well, what? He's always made the payments. It doesn't matter, Carmen. It's your freaking car. He rented the car from you. That's what he's been doing. It's your car, true or false? Yes, it is undermining. All right Carmen, let's start all over. I know how the call started, but I want you to tell us how it started. What do you want us to tell you today? Because we told you and now you're trying to talk, you're trying to debate us.

This is your car. Yeah, you're right. I know I'm right. Cause then all we say then is, okay, just let the guy keep it. Yeah, I mean, that's not it. I can't do that. I can't do that. I have two kids. Why?

Why can't you let him continue in this current arrangement? Tell yourself. Because I have two kids and they need a home. There you go. Sweetheart, you know what you are supposed to do. You called us to say, what should I do? And we both are in agreement. You need to go over there today, no drama at all, but make it very clear.

Hey, I brought this to you. You said you didn't want to pay it. I'm changing my lifestyle. Here's where we're at financially. This car is an asset. I need it and I'm taking it. And if you don't want to play ball, I'm going to call the authorities because it's already ugly. You're being ugly about this little bro or big bro, whatever his deal is.

And I would say I'm taking the possession of the car and then I'm going to sell it. So at which point he gets to decide, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, I want the car. Then you go, fine, $11,000, thank you very much. Yes, and then we can transfer the title. It's worth 19, big bro, little bro. But I'll give it to you for the fabulous price of $11,000. Oh, see, and that's too nice. Well, but I'm trying to make it clear.

I know you are, I know you are. I don't disagree with you either if you say, well, pony up 19 19 or even 15. Come on now. Yeah. I like that Jade's negotiating with me. We're negotiating on your behalf, Carmen. On my behalf. We just, we want you to, we want you to be respected in this. And that's what it boils down to is this is a disrespectful transaction. And if you let it, and if you let it continue, if you let it continue, he's not just disrespecting you, you're disrespecting yourself at that point.

I'd like to get him on the phone. I call it abuse. It is. I call it abuse because it's like. I wish we could third party call him in right now because I would go, hey dude, you're treating your sister really poorly, you're showing a real lack of responsibility

and you want your cake and eat it too. She provided the cake, now you're eating it and that stops today. So Carmen, you know what to do. We told you exactly what to do. Now, we didn't say this was gonna be fun, but as Jade pointed out just a moment ago, it's already not fun.

So let's go ahead and rip the bandaid off and take possession of the car, sell it, you pocket some cash, and now we're moving forward. Jade, final word on that. The longer this goes on, the worse it gets. So put an end to it today and maybe you can still salvage the relationship. it today and maybe you can still salvage the relationship. All right, let's go to Nicole who's joining us now in Chicago.

Well Nicole was there. Okay, let me see. We're going to Jennifer actually in Sioux Falls. Jennifer, how can we help today? Hello. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's going on? I have a question. I am 50

years old. My husband has diabetes, had some medical issues in the past. I was stupid and got a whole life insurance policy that I've had about 20 years now. I did sign up for Zander Term Life. I'm waiting for paperwork back in the meantime. I just feel like this whole life thing is cancer and I just want to get rid of it. Um, but I know that may not be the smartest. I'm not sure. I just want to, I want to be done with it. Hopefully, you know, this term life comes back.

Okay. And once I get term life, but if I don't, for whatever reason, because of my age life. But if I don't, for whatever reason, because of my age and medical issues, do I hold on to this whole life for two more years until we can save up enough money where we're in a good position and then just dump it? It's only a $250,000 life policy. So, but I did take a loan out on it and I am making payments to that for $500 a month. And I just wanna be done. I just wanna be done. Yeah, that's how you know it's not it.

You know, when you can take out loans on it and you're paying them back to the tune of $500 a month. Yeah, wait till your term policy comes back and once that's for sure in place, yeah, cancel this, get out of it. That's what I would do immediately. Yeah. If it doesn't, what if I don't get my term life insurance

because of, you know, I'm considered obese, but I don't see myself as obese. I'm just tall. So the, you know, the calculations are totally off on that. Who told you? I am a little overweight. BMI calculations tend to be off the way that they do it. I will say that and I will agree with you.

I don't know what you, you know, I can't comment on that part of it. I will say that obviously it has the ability to increase your premium at the very, very least. For sure, but is there anything else other than that that would make you not coverable? Or are you saying you would be coverable, it might just be really expensive.

What are you expecting? I be coverable it might just be really expensive? What are you expecting? I think it'll be okay it'll just be a little bit more expensive is my thoughts. You're only 50 so by the way I'm 50 Jennifer and I got news for you. You and I are young. 50 is the new 40. Thank you very much. Thank you. Which means I are young. All right. Let's be 50 is the new 40. Thank you very much. Thank you. Which means I'm 30. I knew there was something in it for you.

Here's the thing though, truthfully, it doesn't based on what she's telling us, it doesn't sound like there's any reason you wouldn't get approved. But let's talk about this further because you are 50. Tell us more about your financials because the goal is to be self-insured and to not be carrying these policies, you know, in perpetuity. So what's your financial situation? Well, I'm on baby step two and this is embarrassing, but I'm on baby step two for the third time. I'm really stupid, slow learner. I haven't made financially mature. Hey, third time's a charm.

I've made some really great decisions in my life. Like my boys' college, if they go to a state school, is gonna be paid for. Okay, good. My first one doesn't graduate for two more years, and my second one doesn't graduate until four more years. So the college is good. Good.

We have roughly $150,000 left on our house. Um, I just sold my navigator. Good. I got rid of that. Um, what else is left of the debt? About 150,000 a year. My husband works for the state. So between us both, we work about 150,000, make about 150,000 take home. And how much debt do you have left in baby step two? We have $78,000 left. And what kind of debt is that? Oh, it's, oh my God, it's so embarrassing. A mattress loan, um,

that'll be paid off this week, actually. Um, a trip that we, um, we paid for for the school, you know, like this world classroom thing that we've been paying on for two years. But we just made the final payment on that credit card debt. And that's basically just credit card debt. Have you cut out the credit cards, Jennifer? Oh, yeah, yeah, they're done. They're done. Yep, and we got the budget thing two months ago.

Boy, that's a tough one. We keep changing that and changing it. I'm like, oh my God, I just want to get on top of everything. And the apps on the phone are driving me crazy. What do you mean? I want to flip phone again because of all the apps and the different things that come out of our account for different things.

Okay. It sounds like you need to simplify. Listen, for somebody who's on baby step two, it is all about cutting down that budget. And what I'm getting towards the reason I asked you that is because, yeah, I want you to get to the point to where you are entering into retirement age here in the next 15 years and you want to be in a place where you are entering into retirement age here in the next 15 years, and you wanna be in a place where you are debt free. You do have the house paid off, and you have built up that nest egg

to where when this term runs out in 15 years, you don't have to re-up it, because that's when you could run into issues, trying to get covered, if you do have some pre-existing conditions. So that's kinda why I had you unpeel that onion a little bit, but. Yeah, it's funny, you said you were kind of sharing

all the different things and you said, we have $78,000 left, it's mostly credit cards. That mattress didn't cost you that much, did it? What kind of mattress are we talking about? Oh, no, no. I was about to say that. That was like three or four thousand, I can't even remember now.

Right, and you said something also that was fun and I'm trying to encourage you on this, but you know, the answer is not getting a flip phone. Although, I think that would probably be great for the whole world. Like, if every smartphone were destroyed mysteriously, it would be. That's not a bad thing. It would actually be great for the world.

But the issue is not you getting a flip phone to deal with the apps that you're spending money on. The issue is, stop spending money on all those little things and go, I'm going to rearrange my priorities right now as to what I'm spending on. Jennifer, that's the key. Jennifer can I have a my, my spidey sense is going off and I have a sense. Jennifer, I like when this are you are candy crush. Is it a, you know, I do not have any games.

No, I am so busy. Yeah, no, I actually run, you know, I run two businesses. I'm busy. I am like, I'm hammering this stuff out and I'm just tired. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. And I keep going, okay, we got this. We're doing this again.

We're doing more. We're doing that. And I'm like, okay, I'm only gonna do this this last time time. I'm done. I'm going to be smarter. I'm not getting into debt again. This is so stupid. Well, it's your husband too. It's your husband too. Where does he fall in all this? He's very passive, but he goes like, it's, it's, um, I'm, I'm more of a go getter. I'm more of a go-getter. I'm more high energy. He's more chill, but he's very loyal to his job. He's only had two jobs his whole life.

You know, so he's pretty more calm and collected. We're definitely opposites. Is he the saver or is he a spender? No, he's very frugal. And unfortunately, I don't know we I'm a little bit disappointed But it's my fault too. I can't have him in control of You know, I would spend his foot down you're driving To say you need him to be strong when you're not to be like hey Jennifer We're not doing that and he's you can't depend on him for that right now. That's what it sounds like.

Yeah. I get it. I know you do. Jennifer, you know what? I'm going to say something to you and I hope you receive this with total. Okay. You are a force of nature. You're a storm. And I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that as in like negatively. I'm just saying you got power girl. If I can feel you pulsating through the phone, I can feel it. And I'm going to make a suggestion from my own experience here. I think you need to slow your life down, period. And I'm going to challenge you over the next seven days to take an inventory of your life down, period. And I'm going to challenge you over the next seven days to take an inventory

of your life. I want you to start with where you're spending most of your time, how that time is actually being spent. So where, so that's work, personal, family, whatever, relaxation. I want you to do an inventory. And I think one of the reasons why you're back for the third time through Baby Step 2 is that you are going so fast and so furious and you are off the seat of your pants because that's how you're wired number one. But I think your life has gotten so intensely chaotic and fast that you don't even give yourself a chance to think about the impulse spending. And I think if you could slow your life down

and slow it in the form of how do I want my day, my week, and my month to look? I think the third time around, because you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, I think that's gonna help you. I just think you're going so fast that you don't even know what's going on with your finances.

I hope that encourages you. that you don't even know what's going on with your finances. I hope that encourages you. Alright folks, investing for those of you who haven't done it, maybe you've only heard a few things about it, it can be intimidating. There's a lot of minutia to it. You want to get somebody you trust and it creates a lot of emotions for people. It makes it very scary and it doesn't have to be scary and it doesn't have to be complicated. So whether you're a beginner or you're looking for next level strategies, the Ramsey Investing Hub,

this is a fabulous, fabulous opportunity for you to kick the tires, learn what you need to learn, get really confident because of how clear you are about what you need. It's got tools and a ton of information. Go to ramsysolutions.com slash investing. That's where the hub is, ramsysolutions.com slash investing.

Or you can click in the description, the link in the description if you're listening or watching, listening on podcasts or watching on YouTube. So again, the Ramsey Investment Hub, fabulous information for you. Let's go to Jen now in Columbus, Ohio. Jen, how can we help? Hi, thanks for taking. Great. Let's go to Jen now in Columbus, Ohio. Jen, how can we help? Hi, thanks for taking my call. I am a single parent of a special needs child and have,

I'm at step three of the baby steps and I'm trying to create financial security for us in our future and debating if I should have a financial advisor take over my investment and retirement account just given the amount I take on a daily basis. And then also in the future, there's some pretty big things I'm expecting with my child. Okay. Tell us that first. Give us the big stuff that you're thinking about that you're going to be dealing with. Um, unfortunately he has a genetic condition and will likely need a heart transplant. Um, it's a really hard reality, but, um, I enjoy him every day.

Um, it's also a possibility he He may be handicapped. Um, the genetic condition he has is incredibly rare and we have like best doctors, but you know that that's what's falling on me. I'm the full time caregiver. How old? Eight. Eight years old. Okay. Any idea what the timeframe could be for that surgery? Um, it could be, um, so typically with, uh, transplants it's either at newborn, toddler,

adolescent, or adulthood. Um, I'm kind of planning that when adolescence hits that it may hit, um, just cause puberty is rough. Right now he's really stable, doing great, has a great medical team, and is more stable than he's been for a long time. So it could be on the short side, five to six years, and it could go into young adulthood,

so well past 10 years. That's a rough idea, correct? Yes. Okay. And is this something that you're insured for and you'll just hit your out-of-pocket max for the year? Or is this something that has the potential to have heavier financial ramifications? Fortunately, my I, um, my background, um, before I stopped working and taking care of him was, um, medical research. And so I have been in a clinical environment, um, for many years. And so I have Medicaid, I have a transplant, uh, funds set up. Um, I also have an ABLE savings account, which is for disabled people.

And so I do have my foot in the door for the worst case scenario to happen. Again, I'm doing everything I can taking the best care of him in the world. Are you working outside the home? I'm working part time from home. So I do make 60K a year, which is great. That took five plus years to get to a point where I could work. You're amazing.

You truly are. Oh, thank you. Does that cover all of your necessities? That gives you a little bit of margin as well? Fortunately, before he was born, I had a good cushion with my investment fund from working for several years. So I was able to use that to get through hard times

and now just kind of at a point where I can think about investing in retirement, which is really great exciting and one more question Because jade's gonna coach you through here this but I'm just curious Do you have any kind of child support from the father or are you on your own there a little bit? like 500 a month But I would rather it's better for me. I got you manage things. Yeah Okay, so First off kudos. Like I said, you're you're incredible. Honestly

the whole transplant and the Understanding how to prepare for that, you know more about that than I than I do so Very good on starting those things in place, but to talk about the investing You know what we teach here is fairly simple. And I think that it's something that you'll be able to implement with the greatest of ease because you're smart as a whip, I can tell that. So it's once you get out of baby step three,

you're just gonna take 15% of your gross income and you're gonna put it away. Does your part-time job, I'm guessing there's no benefits there, is there a 401k? There is and I have a Roth IRA that um it's not where I want it to be but um yeah again it's exciting to think about um investment in retirement uh from where we've come but it also completely overwhelms me. Yeah. Um like Like if I am gonna do that myself, I forget if I previously mentioned, I have found a special needs financial planner.

Okay. And he is capable of kind of taking that off my plate. Obviously they charge the percentage. What is the percentage? Given, I think it was 1.5. And then once it gets to 100,000, it was 1.5 and then once it gets 100,000 it decreases. How it decreases? Okay.

You said once it hits, it decreases. Yeah, I think once it hits 100,000, it goes to either 1.1 or 1.2. I don't know how much of an impact that would have. Okay. And so the biggest point then is just to make sure this is not something you're just handing over and saying, Hey, do this for me. Um, I want to make sure that you are speaking into that because we would say, you know, that, that investment mix needs to be across four different fun types. And he might have a different idea of what that is. Right. So you kind of have to have

a clear point of view of what you want to accomplish, and then you guys need to work together as opposed to him saying, here's what I'm gonna do. Does that make sense? Yeah, I definitely want to understand and not just hand over the money, but then also like if hard times hit, like money's, you know, I'm still even just trying to get like on top of my budget. But yeah, I

want to be informed. Yes, you want to be informed and let's just go back to what you said right quick because yeah, if you do this three to six months and in your case I would do six months because you've got the health issues and you're single mom so I would do six months of expenses and that really should be a good safety net, Jen, against hard times again, because what I don't want is for you to invest this money and then at some point in life have to take it out before you're ready because of emergencies, right?

So for you, I think it's gonna be so important not only to have an emergency fund, but to also keep on stash whatever your out of pocket max is for the year. And just to have that there because you know you're going to the doctor, you know you're hitting these deductibles so that you're not depleting that emergency fund that's there.

Because emergencies are things that are unexpected, they're urgent, they're things that must be done, but the unexpected of it is really the key thing of an emergency fund. You know that these health issues are going on, right? So that is something that we can plan for in a sinking fund. So think of having that out of pocket max there

as a sinking fund all the time. And each year just know that you're replenishing whatever that is. And I don't know if you are, you know, in a high deductible plan or not, but if you have access to an HSA, after you do that Roth IRA, an HSA would be a really great option for you. Because you know you have these to an HSA, after you do that Roth IRA, an HSA would be a really great option

for you because you know you have these health expenses. Yes. So, if I were you- What if you're- Go ahead. Sorry, go ahead. No, you ask. What are your thoughts about outsourcing to a financial planner?

Like, as long as I'm informed, is that something that's kind of equivalent to me managing it on my own or? Yeah, don't think of it as outsourcing. Think of it as something that you're working together with. And Ken just mentioned our Ramsey Investing Hub. I'd like you to go over there because you're going to start to see all the different tools that we offer. And off the bat, just for your Roth IRA, you might find that you can pick those four types of mutual funds, right? Growth, growth and income, aggressive growth and international. And you're just taking that 15% of your income and you're putting equal a fourth into each of those different funds. And then as it starts to grow and as you start to plan for the future, you might say, hey,

I do need somebody on board to help me plan long-term, especially with taxes and things like that. Jen, you're an amazing mama bear. Keep your chin up. Keep moving forward. All right, folks, how you doing on the baby steps? I don't ask to shame you or make you feel any kind of negative emotion. Just a quick check in, because this is a journey. The steps are simple to understand,

very, very difficult, obviously, to hustle through it. And we've got a quick quiz that will allow you to see where you are in your progress and get a personalized plan. And this is just that extra little encouragement and gives you a plan. And so all you gotta do is go to the show notes, click on the link titled,

Are You On Track With the Baby Steps? and complete the quiz and I think you'll be really, really encouraged by what you get back. Anna is going to start us off now here in Chicago. Anna, how can we help? Yes, hi, thank you for taking my call. I'm calling with a question, ask for an advice about financial and the relationship aspect of my life. I am with someone for around three years and we have a bit of a different approach to money. I also make

almost three times more as he does. So I'm trying to navigate that aspect. He's more of a spender, go with the flow type of persona. I'm more of a favored slash investing type of personality. I am 39, I have two properties, One is a rental property. I just recently bought a house Even though that we are together. We're not married. We're boyfriend girlfriend But the goal would be to hopefully get married at one point So hold on because I know you're leading towards a question But I'm assuming based on what you just said, that you guys are keeping your finances separate. Is that true?

That is correct. And at one point we had a joint account where we were contributing, I would say 50-50, and all the bills were split 50-50. However, That didn't work, did it? The accuracy was, it did not work, yes.

Well, you're living two different lifestyles. If you're making three times more, that's a whole different lifestyle than what he's living. So of course that's not gonna work. Okay. So what is your question? What can we address specifically? Yes, so I wanted to know how would you approach that type of discrepancy? He's a very hard-working person. He is an electrician. He makes a good income, but he's not as driven as I am. I'm in sales, so I think I am on trajectory to make more and more money. That's the goal for me at least. How do you find, how do you,

can I just ask you this question because this will help Ken and I know what your definition is of driven and successful. Does driven to you and successful equate to dollars or does driven and successful equate to promotion? What does that mean to you because that'll help us understand how you're talking about those words a little bit more going forward. Yes, great, great question. And I think for me, it's more so about the lifestyle. Money, of course, is gonna,

I think it's gonna translate ultimately into money because then you can travel more, potentially retire early. And that's one of my goals to retire in 10 or 11 years. And that's essentially how I see it. Also just being a go-getter, right? Trying to network, maybe, if he's an electrician, get more of a side business going. Where he can kind of keep up with me.

Okay, I gotta get to this. What is your question for us? We've got a lot of detail now, and I think I know completely what's going on. I got more on that in a second. However, I wanna make sure that we get your core question. What is your question? Can we make it work?

Yes. Yes, you can make it work. I'm glad that's the question. Me too. Because I know that Jay and I both have opinions on how. One other super fast question and then I'm ready to unleash. Alright. How much money do you make and how much money does he make? I make $300,000 a year. He's around hundred thousand. Okay. All right, so we got we got we got a lady who is extremely driven

I love by the way Jade your question Jade's question revealed everything that I needed to know right and Anna here's here's my take and then Jade will come in and she'll Agree disagree edit clean up. This is what we do. Male perspective right here. You said that your man is a hard worker. As an electrician who doesn't own his own business, he's making $100,000 a year in a trade that is never going to go away. And you said he's a hard worker.

The man's making $100,000. That's great. This guy is going to go away and you said he's a hard worker the man's making $100,000 great. This guy is not a loser and you didn't say he was he's in the top 21% Yeah, this guy's doing real well Yes, he's a yes. He's a Spender and you're the saver Okay, but that can be dealt with and relationally through pre-marital counseling and really diving in on why you do what you do Why you spend the way you spend understanding each other is the key word here And then and then getting on the same page, which to me is also marriage

Not this playing house that you guys have been playing house for three years That's the first thing second thing is I'm a little troubled by the fact that you are in a position where in a sales role you have no limit and when Jade asked you the question about defining success for you it was go getting, staying on the treadmill of success, which I'm that way, I get it, but not everybody's wired that way and that's an unfair thing to expect of a spouse or a boyfriend. If he's not wired that way, that's okay.

He's not a loser, he's not a lazy duffer, this guy is a good dude, hard worker, he's just not wired the way you are and you've got to be understanding of that because that's going to end up creating tension long term in the relationship if you expect him to act the way that you act. Now you guys should value money the same way and have shared values and then get the behaviors on the same page. That can happen over time. Last thing, I don't want to get Jade's take on this because she's paying attention.

I want the female take on this. I think that you need to check yourself a little bit on what you expect of him and long term what a successful relationship looks like in light of what I just said. I think you got a little bit too much of your own personal baggage somewhere, we don't have time to unpack that, and you're kinda putting that on him. That'd be my quick take, but I'm anxious to know what you think, Jade.

I, yeah, I'm with Ken to an extent, I think. Yeah, for you, it does equate to dollars and cents equals success, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but to Ken's point, if the goalpost is always moving, it's hard to know when did I hit it? Like did I did I meet the goal? Am I ever going to be quote successful? Right. Um, I think the problem in the relationship is for you with, you know, you're dating this man.

If for you success, um, if that also points to whether or not you're a leader, like if that definition filters into those areas of is, is he a leader because he's not making this money? Is he considered strong? Like, right? Because he works for somebody. Right? Like if it starts filtering into those areas to where you're viewing him as weaker, you're viewing him as less of a leader. I think that is gonna cause problems over time. So I think your homework is to keep everything in its proper place and say this, you know, how can I say this? To keep everything in its proper place and say,

these are the goals for my life. And for me, you know, I view this as a measure or a bar of success for me. And if somebody else doesn't meet it, it doesn't mean that they're not successful because they might have a different bar of what they view as success. And so sitting down with him and saying,

hey, you know, Biff, what do you consider to be a successful measure? Like, what does that mean for you? And then it's you being inquisitive to him and you being curious about what his definition is. And so you guys can start to learn about what that means Because I think the breakdown would be if you start viewing him less than or as somehow weak or somehow like not a leader Yeah, if you're married to this person that is not going to work exactly right

He doesn't you said one little thing that concerned me you said I'm just you know He doesn't have a side hustle or he doesn't own his own business. He doesn't have to. He's making $100,000 as a tradesman. The bigger thing that you guys have to do is get on the same page about debt. No debt, a controlled spending budget, things like that. That can absolutely happen. But this idea that he has to have the same professional drive as you, I don't like that. And you may have a hard time finding a man that ever has your drive, sweetheart, because you got the drive.

This is The Ramsey Show where America Hangs Out to have a conversation about their money, their profession, and their relationships. Excited to have you with us, triple 8, 825-5225 is the phone number, triple 8, 825-5225 is the phone number, 88825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman joined by the fabulous Jade Warshaw, and we're here to help. She'll help you save and budget that money. I'm gonna help you try to make some more money. Austin's up in Peoria, Illinois.

And let's go to Austin. How can we help? Hey guys, how's it going? Good, how are you? Oh, pretty good. So my question is, I'm 19 years old, moved away from home, currently living on my grandpa's farm, and my dad wants $2,800 a month from me.

For what? And he does not. a month from me. For what? And he does not, so basically his dad, my grandpa, most kids turn of age when they're 18. My grandpa decided to do that for my dad when he turned 21.

For me, when I turned 21. Okay. I turn 21. I'm confused. Your dad decided to do what? Your grandpa decided to do what? I'm not understanding. Like you become adults when you're 21. Is that what you're saying instead of 18?

Yes. Yes, that is correct. Okay, but let's just go back to why does your dad want $2,800 a month from you? I don't know. That's your adult tax? I don't know. That's your adult tax? Yeah, I don't know. No, you're telling me your dad said to you in some form or fashion, you went to live with your grandfather and he said, I want $2,800 a month and you just need to send it

to me and no explanation and you didn't ask any questions? Yeah, I had a couple of conversations with dad about it, but you know. But what? Well, okay, so the conversations kind of went like this, you know, I asked him, you know, I told him I didn't think it was fair, you know, I told him that if I'm living away from home and he's not paying any of my expenses, then he shouldn't get any of my money. Yes, and he shouldn't get any of my money. Yes and amen. Jade, do you agree with this statement so far? Yeah. She's stunned. I'm going to get her a cold rag. She's completely stunned. I'm in shock. I don't get it either. So you said it's not fair. What did he say? Um, so he just said that he was offended that I even have the,

uh, how would you say it? Maybe the ball, you know, I like your way of saying it. I like your way. Sure. Okay. Can you, I feel like there's a missing link here because as you were rolling this out, you mentioned the adulthood thing. Does this, is there a link there that you're saying, is there some sort of link? I'm trying to understand this other than to just tell your dad where he can put his opinion,

which is where the sun doesn't shine. You know what I'm saying? Jade's asking the right question. Is that basically your dad's demanding that because until you're 21, you do whatever he says? Yes. Got it. Got it. Wow. Okay. Wow. Yeah. Well. So you know in my opinion if I'm living under his roof eating his food he has the right to make whatever requirements that he wants. No. No. No. Let's just say let's just nail that down. Uh,

if you were living with him now and you were making money and you are, um, he could ask for rent and that's totally fair and pay a portion of the utilities. At which point you still get to decide whether or not you want to do it or not. And then he gets to decide whether or not you get to stay. So that is a normal relationship thing. But this idea that if I lived with him then I'd have to do whatever he says is bonkers. What I meant by that, maybe I didn't make myself clear, what I meant by that is you know if he doesn't want the living room lights on after 11 p.m. I agree. Yeah. No, I get it Ground rules yes demanding money from you that you make is what I was when you don't even live there Austin you're 18

Is that right? Yep, I'm currently 19 Is that right? Yep, I'm currently 19. Have you paid him any money? Yeah. What have you paid him? I definitely have. $2,800 a month.

Actually, last while I've been sending him $3,000 a month. Just to, yeah, kind of... How long have you been sending him $3,000 a month? So... How long have you been sending him three grand a month? So about a year ago, I came up to my grandparents farm, worked and- No, no, no. Just answer my question. It's a number. How long have you been sending him $3,000 a month? About four months. And then before that it was 2,800 bucks a month.

And then before that he was paying for my expenses And he got all my money. Is there something wrong with him? Like is is there a reason he can't work? Is there something? No Sorry, no, it's a legit question. I'm laughing not at your question, but because that's laughing not at your question but because that's something is so weird about this so okay so Austin you've already paid him way too much you should have never paid him a nickel don't give him any more don't give him any more money and so if you called today because you're like this doesn't feel right and I'm

gonna get two strangers opinion on this hear Hear us loud and clear. Your dad is manipulating you. This is crazy unhealthy. There's no good way to stop doing this other than just to stop doing it. He's going to come at you. He's going to guilt you. He's going to do a lot of things. But this is a point in your life where you have got to say no more. And you made the first right move by moving out, you know, by going to your grandfather's house. The next right move, once you have that, here's the thing, Austin, once you have that 2,800 or that $3,000 back in your pocket,

do you wanna know what you can afford to do? Yeah, I wanna fly a plane or a helicopter, so yeah. Or get your own place, my guy, get your own place. So you're out of this kind of, you know, what I'm doing here is I'm kind of formulating that you guys are all kind of tangled up together is what it feels like, and you might need to get out of that. I'm glad you said that. Okay, quick question.

Is your grandfather for, against, or is he have no clue about this at all? Don't give me the long answer like you're a politician. Just tell me the answer. Does your grandfather know about it, yes or no? He does know about it. Does he approve of it or disapprove of it? I did ask him about that a while back ago and his answer was that he is not against dad getting some but not that much.

Okay then you need to get up out. You need to roll out. That's where I'm going. Roll out. Because grandpa is not helpful. He's not. And now when you make this call to your dad and go pop, the gravy train stops. By the way, name me. point blank, no problem at all. Ken Coleman on the radio said... Said that you were manipulat- I'm not kidding you. I said that he'll probably listen to this. Good! Well then dad, if you're hearing this, I gotta tell you my friend, I'd shake your hand. I'd have coffee with you. But I would tell you straight up that this is twisted.

It is manipulative, it is wrong, and it is destroying, if it not has already destroyed the relationship with your son. Stop this nonsense. Let the boy fly. Now, Austin, back to you. Jade's right. You've got to get out of grandpa's house as soon as you can. By the way, $3,000 a month is going to allow you to go get a nice apartment, my man, today.

Instantly. Okay, so the thing is, grandpa does not live thing is, my uncle does not live on the farm. My uncle does live on the farm. Well, that's fine. My point is, we gotta go. I'm running into a break. But listen, you've gotta get out on your own. You can afford it now.

And move all family ties off of this deal so that the grief from your dad doesn't have a collateral damage coming from them. That's our point. Oh my goodness. All right, let's go to Aiden in Denver, Colorado. Aiden, how can we help you? Oops, that's the wrong one. Hold on.

I apologize. Happy fingers there, Jay. You got to be careful. There we go. Line five. I was quick. You like that? Aiden, we got you, how can we help?

Hey guys, thanks so much for taking my call. I'm a huge fan of the show. Oh, thank you. Yeah, so my fiance's parents, so my soon-to-be-in-law has recently announced a family dinner that they'd be selling off the majority of their current assets. They own about nine rental homes,

and they're planning on selling about five of them and investing the money into Bitcoin I know this is a highly volatile investment. And so I guess my question is just like how do I handle that? What's my responsibility? And you know if they you have some sort of like, you know Bitcoin just tanks one day is it my responsibility to take care of them in the next coming decades and My brother-in-law he's in huge support over this. He's saying, you know, he is, he's investing the majority of his money into Bitcoin right now. He's saying,

Hey, you know, I'm here for my parents. Even as things go south, like I'm going to be taking care of them. He just, I'm not sure that he's a hundred percent sure of the responsibility that he's taking on by Drastic where is your wife in this deal? Because these aren't your parents No, no, they're there. She's with me. We're kind of the black sheep of the family. We Were like guys. This is a terrible idea and they're just you know, they have faith that We're a Christian family. They have faith that Bitcoin's going to multiply 10 times over.

Faith in the coin? Well, not in the coin. We're a, yes, yes. Yes, they do. They do. You said we're a Christian family and we have faith that the coin is going to go to the moon. They do. Yeah, but I was just saying, that's wild. Yeah, it is.

Well, okay, so I'll just jump in real quick, because the first thing that do. Yeah, but I was just saying, that's wild. It is. Okay. Well, okay, so I'll just jump in real quick because the first thing that came to me, Jade, was you and your wife are not responsible to take care of them. No. If you have objected to this and have said, we think this is highly risky, and if we're right,

and the bad happens, and the rest of the family and all the other kids are going, go for it, mom and dad, then they're on the hook to take care of them. You're not. That's my opinion. That's an extreme opinion. However, I'm answering this, Jade, as if this were Stacey and I and a similar situation. And if I felt like this was really risky and thus should not do it, and if it goes the way that I think it could,

I'm not, that is not my burden to bear, and I want to make sure that's clear, and I think if I were you, I'd have your wife take the lead on this because they're her parents, not yours, and you're already the black sheep, and it already sounds like this decision has been made. So I got good news and bad news.

The bad news. The bad news is you can't stop them and it's not your job to stop them even if you could. The good news is is you guys have made it clear to them or you should make it super clear where you stand, draw a boundary and say we do not agree and we are concerned for you. If this goes bad this is not something and we are concerned for you if this goes bad This is not something that we're gonna be in a position to bail you out I hope you understand that and I would also make that clear not just to her parents But to the other siblings and again your wife has to take the lead and you are standing behind her

Supporting her that would be my take Jade Yeah, Ken exactly. I 100% second what Ken is saying. And the only other thought I had is the good news is, well, I had two thoughts. One is what is on fire that is making them do something so desperate? Is something going on that is causing them to just sell everything off and go into Bitcoin? I mean, what would cause somebody to do that? Then I thought the other point was, well, they're not selling everything, right? They're just putting half of the assets over there. So that's the one upside of this.

And maybe you brought this up, so I'm just going to say it, and I'm not suggesting that you necessarily go over and quote a bunch of scripture. But I mean, really scripture says to be diverse in your investments, not to put everything in one. One in one basket. So I think part of it is that their nest egg isn't totally where they'd like it to be. 100 percent. They say that they're worth a million dollars right now, but they have, you know, nine houses and the majority of them have mortgages on them. So none of these houses are worth more than $200,000. So my thought is, you know, this is a Hail Mary attempt at a retirement home.

You nailed it. You nailed it. So tough. That's what this is. This is a wing and a prayer. And here's the problem with that. You wing it and the prayer doesn't get answered who's picking up the pieces? Oh it's so listen I feel your pain I when you put it like that I felt that because that is hard to sit by and watch because here's the thing what they've built is really good like they've got if they're worth a million dollars now they should be proud of that and the fact that they could throw it that away is

painful to watch from the sidelines 100% Whoo, but you can't you can't make them. I that's the hard part of this you can suggest and say hey before you guys Here's your Hail Mary. Hey guys, and this is through your wife not through you We love you. We heard about what you're getting ready to do. It's your life. But please promise me that you'll watch this before you do it. And let's give them Financial Peace University. And let's make sure that they watch the investment segment. For sure, they don't watch nothing else. Make sure they watch that. Because that's going to teach them how to diversify their investments.

It's going to teach them what to do for the long haul. And at least it's not you telling them, it's, hey, I saw this thing and, you know, again, this is coming from your wife and this is how me and my husband are handling our finances. It's really working for us. And we just want you to watch this before you make any drastic moves

because it could influence the decision you make for the better and like frame it in a positive way because That's what they need. They they don't need to be told you're about to make a big mistake They need to be told hey, oh, I'm you guys are trying to maximize your investments. I'm on board with that Hey, look at this because this could be a route for you to do that. That could be even better, right? So play to that part of them that's trying to do better Instead of playing to the part of oh, you're gonna make a big mistake is this thing. Where is it sand right now? What's the timeline because I'm just gathering that this has been discussed and they're pretty much ready to roll

Yeah, well, I'm told that they have almost or I guess a hundred and thirty thousand in Bitcoin right now, but then Father-in-law he told me that he took out $50,000, I assume on his T lock and has already invested into Bitcoin. So they're like, Bitcoin's about to blow up, Bitcoin's about to blow up. They're ready for it to shoot up any moment now. And so they're just putting everything they can into it while they can. So I'm assuming that they're, you know, the next five years is their timeline. I'm not totally sure though. Wow. Well, you're a good man and I appreciate the call,

but it feels like this deal has already happened. So now they're playing the prospecting game. They're watching it. When are they going to sell? Are they going to just keep investing, investing, investing, and hope that it's high when they're ready to pull it all out? You know, at this point, I just don't think there's much you can do. Right, right. Well, and that was my question for them too. Like, hey, what happens if it does blow up? Like, what's the number that we're going to get to where we decide to sell it off and put it into the SMP or something, you know, anything else that's less volatile? You ever played blackjack at a casino?

You ever gotten up? Ooh, yes. Have you, Aiden, have you ever gotten up? You had a nice little run. Poker's my game, but yeah. Yeah. Right. But, but just to be completely honest here, like I've done that and I'm telling

you, I'm sitting there and I'm going, I need to walk away. Yeah, you can't stop now. I just won myself, my wife a dress. I won myself a nice pair of shoes. I got tonight's dinner covered. I got the first two nights of our steak. I mean, I've been up, you know, like, and then what am I doing?

You put another hand. The smart move is to do it. And I go, wow, one more hand. Let me just see if I can take this and double this. And then what happens? You ever had a rough run of cards or that fricking dealer just keeps just absolutely nailing you?

Okay, my point is, this is the same psychology here except I'm out there with just money that I've already said is just waste money and it's fun and I got nothing on the line. It's not your retirement. Yeah, this is like money I got permission from my wife. It's in my little envelope, right? You know what I'm talking about.

I do, I do. There's no risk on this deal for me, but I'm still getting greedy. And so that's the thing that I would be really, really concerned about, but again, this is not your call. Maybe your wife, she's got access that you don't, but even then, like Davis said a million times, Jade, it's hard for those people who change your

diaper and raise you to listen to your salient financial advice. Right. It's tough. Oh, I hope it works. I really do. I got to go check Bitcoin. See what it's at right now. I gotta go check Bitcoin, see what it's at right now. Ha ha ha!

All right, it is time for our question of the day, brought to you by Yreify. Some lenders won't touch defaulted private student loans, but Yreify was built for this exact problem. They'll explore refinancing options with a low fixed rate custom built for your situation. Visit wirefy.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. It may not be available in all states. Alright, today's question comes from Jared in Maryland.

He says, I've seen videos on social media recently of money coaches telling people that it's better to rent as opposed to making payments on a house. With rent being completely out of reach for most people, it seems wrong to suggest covering someone else's mortgage rather than investing in our own equity and net worth. What's your take on this? Okay, so I think it just depends on the person and it depends on the situation. There is not a one size fits all approach to renting or home buying because it is a direct reflection of where we are financially speaking. So it can't just say renting is bad or buying a home is good, you know, at every, at every

turn because that's just not the way it works. So the way I like to think about renting, Jared, is renting is buying yourself time until you're ready to buy a house. That's really what it works. So the way I like to think about renting Jared is renting is buying yourself time until you're ready to buy a house. That's really what it is. It's I don't believe that renting long term is or for you know renting without ever the the goal of buying a house. Yeah that's not a great idea. You're going to be throwing money away long term so that's not good but if you're renting for a short period or even a long period until you're able to afford to buy a house the correct way, I think it's a great thing. Now let's talk about the other side of it because a lot of people think buying a house no matter what,

get into a property, get into a house no matter what, you got to start building wealth. That's also erroneous because again it's the same thing. If you cannot afford to purchase a home, you cannot, you won't keep it. You'll end up foreclosing, you'll end up having to sell it, you know, it'll end up causing you to go into further debt, right? Because you can't manage the payment. And so buying a house prematurely is also a bad move.

So the best time to buy a house is when you can afford to buy a house. And so around here, and my personal experience as well, is that the best way to buy a house is a, when you're out of debt, because now you have the fullness of your income available and you can start to kind of frame this up in the right ratios, right? Because you don't want your home payment to be any more than 25% of your take home pay.

And if you're in debt, that could feel like, well, that's impossible. But when you're in debt, a lot of things feel impossible. So being out of debt first. Second thing is, yeah, you do need to have an emergency fund there because let me tell you something. Can I see it all the time? Somebody buys a $400,000 house and can't,

they buy it too soon with no emergency fund and the AC goes out and they can't afford to fix the $4,000 AC, right? And so now they're like, you know, on the rocks because of all of this. So you've gotta be ready. So that emergency fund is so important. And then now we're doing the down payment.

Now we're getting the money together to actually purchase the house. Again, trying to put anywhere between five to twenty percent down twenty percent We'll keep you from PMI, but five percent's fine Especially if it's a first time home buy and yeah now you're getting in and it's the right footing and you can actually keep the house Enjoy the house build equity in the house the way it's supposed to happen But yeah this business of renting is always bad buying is always bad renting is always good buying buying is always good, that's bananas, that's somebody who's not using critical thinking skills.

Yeah, well said, I couldn't add anything to that, so I'll just say be careful what you're watching on social media. Good call, Ken. I just cannot explain to you how much the experts, when they're given financial advice, how much of their stuff is all about clicks and then selling a product. Right, right, as opposed to somebody who's an actual financial professional.

So I love what you said. You got to do what's right for you in the moment. And it allows you to set yourself up for the long haul. Let's go to Justin in Atlanta. Justin, how can we help? Hi, thanks for taking my call. Yeah. Hey, can you remove the blanket from the phone there? I can barely hear you Is anybody not much maybe a little bit more volume from you, uh-huh Let's see if I can move to a better area well what you just did what you just did help So maybe hold that phone right on your mouth there

All right. So I just started doing the baby steps this past month. Okay, great. Kind of a preemptive question for when I get there, but I do have a car payment, which will be my largest debt. So the last debt to pay off in baby step two, it is at 0% interest though. So my question is, when I get to that last debt, should I continue to, you know,

baby step it and snowball everything into that 0% interest or would that be time to maybe start working on the house or investing more since it isn't accruing any interest? I thought you said you were working the baby steps. I am. No, no, no. What do you mean? Well, he's doing it just, he's justinized it.

Yeah, this is a justinized version. Justinized. So I, this is a justinized version. Justinized. So, I get what you're doing, a lot of people get that. They do that, right? They look at the baby steps and go, okay. I'm a little tweak here. Yeah, just tweak it, adjust it a little bit more for the, to my liking.

But the truth is when you do that, it doesn't work right if you do that. It is a system, and a system works when you do all, it doesn't work right if you do that. It is a system and a system works when you do all the steps in the system at the right time, in the right order, the right way, right? Otherwise it's not a system anymore. So by you breaking down the system, I'm telling you right now, if you do that,

it's not gonna work and it won't be our fault. It'll be because you justinized it. So let's talk about why it works to do it the way that we would teach here and the way that we do teach here. So if you say to yourself, all right, I'm gonna pay my debt to a certain point

and then I'm gonna keep some of that debt around. And now what did you say? Maybe I'm gonna move over to investing. If you move over to investing and you still have debt, if an emergency comes because of your debt, let's say you, I don't know, lose your job. And now all of a sudden, even though it's at 0%, you still have a car payment and it's probably pretty hefty.

And now it's like, oh gosh, I need money. Now you're dipping into your investments for an emergency fund because you don't have an emergency fund. It's like, oh crap, why did I do that? Right? So all of these things, they work together. So when you pay off all of your debt, now you have the fullness of your income at your disposal,

all of it. And now how quickly could you save up three to six months of expenses? Super duper fast. It's the only thing that you're paying money towards other than your normal budget at that point. So you can do that super fast. Now that you've got that cushion, it makes sense.

Okay, the next logical thing for me to do, I've got my insurance in place against debt, which is your emergency fund. Now I can go and I can invest with confidence because I know I'm not gonna have to pull out this money. I know there's no rainy day that could come that could make me have to take this money out. So now you're investing with confidence and investing early before paying off the house is so important because

Everybody is gonna reach a day Justin where they can no longer work and you're gonna need actual money that you can get your hands on You're not gonna want to sell your house, right? so we start with that nest egg first so we can build it up take advantage of compound compound interest over time. And that's why that's happening before we pay off the house. Now, after we started that train going, now we can start reaching over and putting extra payments on towards the house. So do you see, I mean, that's just a very, it's not even going super deep into it, but you can see how these things build on one another, right? Right. Yeah. I mean, I misspoke originally. I meant to say to start building the emergency fund. I do understand where you're coming from and it does make sense. I was just because

of the zero at 0%. I was like, Oh, well, you know, I'm not losing money by keeping it longer, but it would put a risk for a worse emergency. You're right. You're not losing money in that way of, you know, of interest, but because it is still this risk that's hanging around and because it is still putting a drain on your income on a monthly basis. It's like rip the bandaid off, pay that thing off so you can finally have all of your income at your disposal. And then that's going to help you to go faster in a lot of other ways. It's like a pitcher of water.

You know, if you're having to pour it across six different cups, it's gonna take forever to fill up those six different cups, as opposed to if you just have to pour it into another cup, then you can fill it up fast. So that's how the debt snowball works. Yeah, great. Just, I love what you said earlier.

If you start modifying the system, it's no longer a system. You've just created Frankenstein. That's right, that's right. I love that. I think the system works. If you don't like the system, you don't have to use it. But if you want to use a system that works, there it is. Appreciate the call though. We get the question all the time. Answers are still the same. the time, answers are still the same. All right, if you are buying or selling your home or thinking about buying or selling, don't get stuck in the headlines and all of the TikToks and the reels on Instagram because this is a massive decision and we want to help you. Let me just give you an idea of the latest

trends based on maybe what you've heard or what you've read. The median home price did go up slightly last month to about $430,000. More homes are on the market, nearly $1 million, the highest since 2019, but in some areas still not enough to meet the demand. The average 15-year fixed rate rose to 5.9 last month, but it's still under 6%. If you're financially ready, a small rate increase shouldn't hold you back. But if you wanna learn more about the housing market trends and get some free tools to help you buy or sell

with confidence, go to ramsysolutions.com slash market. That's ramsysolutions.com slash market. Great resource for you to get some clarity. And if I've said this once, I've said it 100,000 times, clarity always gives you confidence. And on a big decision like a home purchase or a sale, you need clarity so that you can confidently move forward. Jessie is up now in Los Angeles, California.

Jessie, how can we help? Hi, this is exciting. i've never done this before don't try to make this uh... brief and seventy eight i've been a widow for five years uh... i'll go back to two thousand nine our house was paid for we had a time with that dramatic brain injury uh... who lived in that that could no longer so we called it we did not know that we needed to reinvest that money.

We got caught going the IRS $96,000. We had that money, but we were told not to use that. So I took a small loan out on my house. My house would sell for about 600,000. I owe 44,000. I have one credit card that I owe $5,200 on. My income after taxes is a survivor benefit for my husband and a little of my social security, which after taxes is about $2,500, $2,600 a month.

I have enough money to pay my bills. I don't have much left over. I drive an old Lexus that's 22 years old that has three hundred and seventeen thousand miles on it, which I love You know, I don't need new things I've lived in this house 58 years. So I'm not thinking and selling that at all So just kind of wanted a little advice. I need to get rid of this credit card The one that's got five thousand and some change on it Yes, okay. You threw a lot of you threw a lot at us very quickly.

So I wanna make sure I- Oh, I'm sorry. No, you don't apologize because you know your stuff. And so that's great. I just wanna recap and make sure I understand the big picture here. So you're living in this house,

you owe 44,000 on it, but it's worth six something? Yes, it probably would be. Okay. And then you've got one credit card for 5,000 or is there still more debt left over from the IRS? Oh no, that's been paid off. I took a loan against my house for $44,000.

Got you. By oh, is from that. Got it, got it. And so the only debt is the 5,000? Yeah. Okay. And the income, albeit very low, it's been enough for you to live on, correct? Well, I can pay all my bills. Yes, I don't have much less. The hard thing is, it's like,

you know, like I had to go buy a pair of glasses and I didn't have the cash, so I put it on the credit card, you know? Oh, yeah. Or if something happens to my car. I only have, well, when we invested the money from the duplex we sold, we used all of that money, which was our 401k on my husband's care. Got it, so there's nothing left, there's no nest egg left. Just $7,000. $7,000, okay. That's your only savings, only cash to your name.

Yes ma'am, that's your only savings, only cash to your name. Yes, ma'am, that's it. Okay. Okay, and 78 years old, yes? Yes, ma'am. Okay, listen, you're smart as a whip. Like you're on it, you know your numbers. Is there anything that you could do to bring in a couple hundred extra bucks a month?

I knew you were gonna to ask me that. And it truly is a question. I'm asking you because you know your limits and you know what you're able to do, but just talking to you, I'm like, listen, seems like it's possible. Well, you know, it's just, well, yeah, I just don't like I I want to go out and look for a job at my age I guess that's what I'm thinking, you know I was always a mom at home. We were married 55 years and I only worked out of the house 12 Yeah, and that was for the school district and I would not go back out there now. It's hectic, you know

I get it You know, I have to say I don't know if we're allowed to say this on program or not But you know God is my provider and I try to be as wise as I can, although I have put things on that credit card that I really didn't need to, you know. So I think what I think what I need to do is just, you know, be a little bit more careful with my spending, but it's just that I mean, I go out for lunch with my friends and they automatically pay for me because they know I don't have a lot of extra money. Sure.

You know? So I'm glad you're telling me not to sell my house. I'm not telling you to sell your house. Here's why, because if we put you in a rental, it's going to be in a situation that there's a lot more variables. Now there is a situation, there could be a world where you downsize to a smaller house to free up some of this money.

Well, you know, if where I live, my kids live in Nevada, so I wouldn't sell my house and try to move up there because it's not cheap up there. And the city that I live In I really don't live in Los Angeles. But anyway, that's what the closer. Yeah, sure I feel I feel really safe where I'm at. I've lived in this house 58 years. I was 21. I moved in It's all I know, you know, yeah, and I feel very safe here and I think that's important, you know Yeah, I just want to I want to give you options because right now you're in a corner. And so Ken,

I mean options are your friend here. As I'm listening, I'm wondering if, let's just have some fun with this for a second. If you could snap your fingers and generate X amount of dollars every month, and that would just, we're not talking crazy, we're talking just, it would take care, it would give you a lot more breathing dollars would change. What is that number? Is it 500 is a little bit more than that? What's a number that if you could just manufacture today every month you'd go I am so I got plenty of margin and I am feeling safe You know, it would be it'd be hard for me to come up with a number because I'm just so used to not having any extra money.

I did have a job for a while and it was $25 an hour. I helped a lady out, took her to her errands, did things like that, but she moved away. All right, but here's the deal. You know what? I want you to give me a number. You sound like a politician on a Sunday morning show. You can give me a straight answer. You can do it. Give me a real number. Think about your finances right now and think about how tight it is. And don't think about how you're going to make it yet.

Yeah, that's right. I'm taking you on an exercise. What's the number? Okay. Maybe 700. $700. All right. I want you to. I just picked that. You know, I don't know. That's good. Okay, but go no. Let's go. Let's find out. Like, go over your budget and come up with another number after the phone call. That's fine. I'm just walking you through an exercise. Here's what happens. When you're 78, and God bless you, you sound like you're 58. Okay, but here's the deal. You've also outed yourself on this call

that you did have a job that was right in your alley, right in your lane, taking care of an older lady, making 25 bucks an hour. If she existed, other things like that exist. I actually think you do not have to go out and go get a job, a traditional job, but I think the non-traditional jobs, I would tell you, I bet you there's couples all around you

that cannot afford daycare. That's what I'm thinking. And they're paying three, $4,000 a month in daycare, and if they paid you $2,000 a month, you would lose your ever-loving mind, wouldn't you? If you lived by me, I would pay you to be there when my kids get home from school. They're looking for somebody who can do some light laundry, meal prepping and planning. You don't have to work like a dog, but I just think that you're not seeing that and you

need to start seeing that and all those fried green tomatoes that you're having lunch with they know everybody that's all they do is talk they know everybody and everybody's business you need to go on care.com I promise you there's another option yeah go on care.com and you can provide those types of so I believe I believe that you could be bringing in 1500 to $2,500 a month very soon and that will change your life would it not? Okay, then get after thank you so much get busy You got it girl. I'm telling you call the fry green tomatoes and get them on the horn. They're on Facebook They're talking to everybody

She'll have jobs coming out of here man This is the Ramsey show where America hangs out to have a conversation about their money, their profession, and their relationships. The phone number to jump in is triple eight eight two five five two two five triple eight eight two five five two two five. Alongside the incomparable Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. Let's get right to San Bernardino, California. By the way, one of my favorite cities to recite. It sounds like the beach voice. Yeah.

It's fun to say San Bernardino. It makes me feel good. I don't know why. Yeah. Mary is there. Mary, how can we help? Hi guys. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. So I've been listening to the show for a whole month and this was my first month doing a budget. Yes and I am trying to attack my debt but I have about nine thousand dollars sitting in collections and ten thousand dollars in active student loan debt. This morning I got a call from debit card collector it's six thousand dollars and he was threatening to sue me. Like I said I've been listening to the show but I don't know if what I did was right. I just listened to an episode of Dave Bramsey

telling them that you know I'm gonna file bankruptcy leave me alone and that's what I did. I was like my financial advisor told me that I might call bankruptcy so if I do you'll get the call remove me off your call list and I hung up but I was I'm really scared I don't know if that was the right thing to do. I love it my financial advisor she was like I'm gonna file bankruptcy and then like hung it up good for you yeah coach her up now you got another financial advisor. All right, Jade, she's a little scared. I understand. Cause some punk with a credit card collection agency called her up and played the script. Talk her through it coach.

All right. You did the right thing. What you essentially told them is I don't have the money that you're asking for and I'm broke. And so if you think you're going to get that money from me, you're wrong. That's essentially what you told them, right? So now you're asking for and I'm broke. And so if you think you're gonna get that money from me, you're wrong. That's essentially what you told them, right? So now you're causing them to sweat a little bit and you're basically saying, yeah, if you're gonna sue me, sue me.

And credit card companies do sometimes sue you, but it takes a long time to get to that step. So let's talk about where you are now and where we're gonna prioritize this because the nine thousand in collection, I would say, you know, if that's your smallest debt, then that's what we're going to tackle first. And that's just us making a deal.

Right. So how much cash do you have? So right now I, my budget is putting me at a surplus of two hundred sixty one dollars a month. Okay, great. And so, and there's no other savings anywhere else, right? Well, yes, I have the Baby Step One. Oh, okay, yeah, beyond that.

Okay, so you've got Baby Step One, that's good. I just wanna check, the only debt is a 9,000 of collection and a 10,000 of student loans? That's correct. And I actually paid yesterday $445 of the 9,000 in collections through a money order. And I did the tracking. Also, I listened to that advice from your show,

but I don't know if I did that right. I sent a money order out to them. That's great that you did that. I would stop doing that. Cause at this point I would stack up money so that you can make them an offer. Right? So they'll see, hey, you're not getting

this money because I'm broke. And the next time I talk to you, it's going to be when I have $5,000. And I'm going to say, this is the only you've been blowing me up and blowing me up and blowing me up. This is the only money I have. And you're going to make a deal with me because this debt is, you know, eight, eight years old. And this is all I have. And so we're gonna set up a payment and a plan that this $5,000 is gonna make this paid in full today. And you're gonna send me it in writing

and that's how we're gonna do this. Does that make sense? Okay, yes. So you're saying it's okay to settle, not pay in full? Yes, that is what you do with debt in collection. You settle it because they've already sold it off. They've already sold it off for pennies on the dollar. They're never gonna get the fullness of what this debt was.

And so whatever they get now is just ice cream on top of a not very good brownie. Oh man, all of a sudden I am hungry. Sorry, that's what it is. Wow, it's true. Yeah, so I mean, Mary, you're not a bad guy here, right? You're just sticking up for yourself. Yeah, you're just doing the thing,

and now you gotta deal with all the negative emotions that come with this, but on the other side of this, you're free. Because you're already making great progress, only having been dialed in for a month, right? Right, yes, I am trying to be. And I've never spoken to anybody like that on the phone, so I was terrified after. Listen, I love it.

It got your blood pumping. You know Mary is probably a very sweet, kind, precious person. She was like, who is this person? And it freaked you out a little bit. Yes, it did. But didn't it feel good a little bit? Yes, it did. It actually did because after I said remove my phone number,

I don't know, something broke in the spirit, I believe. And I'm like, if another debt collector calls me right now, I'm gonna shoot the same thing. Come on! This is great. This is excellent. Mary, you're my favorite person on the show today. Don't tell any other callers that.

But that is my favorite line. Something broke in the spirit, she said. Yeah, that's really good. Well, hang in there, kiddo. What can we give her? What can we do for her? Let's give her something. Let's make sure she's got...

Do you have every dollar, Mary? No, I don't. All right, we're going to give you the premium version of every dollar, and every dollar is better than ever, and it's continuing to get better than ever. So we'll make sure that you get that for free. And let's give her, hey, what are you making every month?

Because you said you only have $261 in margin. So what are you making? And that'll inform my next free giveaway. Oh. I'm making $2,040 a month. All right. What do you do for a living? So I just started my own nutrition consultant and meal prep

business which is what I went to school for and got the loan for. Each week I have clients and then I meal prep for them. Wow what a cool business that's right up my alley. Okay we're gonna give you build a business you love that's Dave Ramsey's new book on how to build a business from scratch which is essentially what you're doing. And I'm going to throw in since we're this is so fun. Like I'm sitting next to Jade Claus over here. That's what they call me. That's what they call me.

How about proximity principle, which is a fun little concept is one of my books about just the right people in the right places. And I think along with Dave's book on building a great business, the idea of making great connections, being around the right people in the right place is gonna lead you to some tremendous opportunities You grow your business because you are a small business. Whoa, man Watch out love Mary is coming after you. So Hang on the line. We want to give that to you because you're you're just you're you're welcome to the club So proud of you Mary. Yeah, so fun.

Okay. She let the roar out. She did, and I want to come back to you on that. When you hear that, translate that to other people who are in a very similar situation as her. Analyze what happened there and what do they need to take away from that. I think the takeaway, that's such a good question, Ken.

I think the takeaway is sometimes we limit ourselves and we kind of think, you know, when we talk about this thing of getting out of debt and we're giving all of these pieces of advice and you should do this and do this and do that, it feels overwhelming. I can't do something like that. I can't, I don't have that inside of me.

And I think what Mary tapped into is she does have it inside of her. And I think what Mary tapped into is she does have it inside of her. And I say all the time that you're capable of far more than you ever thought possible. You really, really are. You just have to nudge it. And when you do, Ken, when you just get the right, oh, in there, you can't take it back.

She tapped into a piece of herself. She's never gonna be able to go back to the old Mary because now she's like, I don't let people walk all over me anymore. I got a Katy Perry song in my head. Oh, yeah. Talking. Oh, yeah.

The eye of the tiger. Yeah, that's good. Dancing through the fire. Man, that's the song. I got goosebumps because we heard Mary roar. That's right. And I thought that was great. Mary, keep on roaring out there.

Hang on the line. We got some freebies all courtesy of Jade Claus. Ho, ho, ho. Lois is up next in Memphis, Tennessee. Lois, how can we help? Hi, so my question is, before we got married, my husband took out a two-year lease on a home and in the middle of that term, we got married, we moved in together. The lease is now up, but when he moved out of the home, he allowed his mother and brother

to move into the home. And now that, now that the lease is up for renewal, they're asking him to extend it. And I'm telling him that I think it's not a good financial decision for our family to, for him to continue to lease in his name. And, um, it puts a financial obligation on us, but his mother is a widow. And so I just need some advice on kind of how to handle this situation and what would be the best thing to do. Are the mother and brother both equally paying him?

So the mother has no income, so no payment there. And the brother has no income, so no payment there, and the brother has inconsistent income. He's somewhat self-employed, but he also works sometimes for my husband's company. So they're basically, sounds like there are some months where they don't pay or not much and he covers it. Exactly. Oh boy. where they don't pay or not much and he covers it. Exactly. Oh boy. And now that tells me what's going on here.

And he doesn't wanna, he wants to renew cause he feels like he's gotta take care of them. Yes. Have you had this conversation with him? Yes. And how'd it go? And I've even offered, well, I've offered that his mother could move in with us. Our

home is not that big, but I think it's the smartest financial decision for us to make that we can all sacrifice if we live together at this point. And she's elderly and just had a knee replacement. What did he say to that? He thinks that his mother won't be very happy having to give up her own space. And he's concerned about that. It's not her space. Yes, but she feels like she has her own space

and she won't if we make that change. Okay, but he's more concerned about how his mom is gonna feel than how you're feeling. That's what I'm hearing. I think he's more concerned about how his mom is going to feel than how you're feeling. That's what I'm hearing. I think he's very torn. He's very torn at this point. And so he's having difficulty making the decision, but I'm worried if he delays it, he's going to go with the easier option, which would probably be to renew, but the harder option long term. How much does the lease cost every month? the harder option long term.

How much does the lease cost every month? Um, it costs between 22 to $2,700 a month. That's a big range. Why does it range? Because the utilities are included. Gosh, gosh. Wow. Okay. That is steep.

What's y'all's combined income? So I'm a stay at home mom and I have a little bit of side money but I don't really count that as our main income. Okay, what is his income? And his is around $200,000 but he has a significant amount of debt that takes pretty much all of his income every month. What's the debt? How, okay, wow.

So what happens, okay, I'm going to, what happens when the brother doesn't pay the lease? He's having to come up with the difference, correct? Correct. And you guys don't have the money if the debt payments are covering everything else plus your basics. So how does he make do when he has to cover the difference on the lease? It's just month to month moving things around to be honest, it's it's really tight, but it's not here. Here's the thing I think from an in I'm gonna say this and because I think it's the right thing

Your your husband can't afford to help and he's putting your family at stake and at risk Financially by doing this and so in that way his priorities are out of balance because he's now said I'm Prioritizing brother who is perfectly capable of going out and making money on his own. I'm prioritizing brother and my mom Over me taking care of my family. That's right. Meaning I'm taking care of my debts, making sure there's food on my table first so that then I maybe could reach over and help later. Does that make sense? So his priorities are out of whack. I agree with you that he's confused. Hopefully you can help him see that. The first priority here is us and our family.

What's the most you guys have had to cover in the difference between the lease payment when he's had to step up and help out to actually cover it? What's the most? Do you have an idea? I mean to be honest there's a lot of blurred lines because like his brother will work for his company sometimes and so he may work for him a few days and then he counts that as a contribution to the rent. Oh, wow. See, that's wacky. Okay. Jay to walk through the debt stuff, what you guys got to do, but

I'm going to tell you what needs to happen today. He needs to tell mom the jig is up. Like this is, this is done. And so you're moving in with us, mom. And the reason you're moving in with us is because you can't live anywhere else. And I can't afford to do this. The brother is fine. The brother can work for him or go work for somebody else. The brother's a big boy. Mom's not gonna like it.

She'll get over it. She didn't have any options. But that needs to happen, step one, because that's going to free up some cash, true or false? True. Okay, so that's what you need to then attack the debt. Yes, yeah. What Ken is saying is exactly right. That's going to clear up the financial aspect of this. It's going to also clear up some emotional drama, because this is a month-to-month drama,

it feels like. Every month it's, are they going to pay? Are they not going to pay? How much of you know my work went towards the rent payment. Like this is a lot. So doing what Ken said I think is gonna clear up, you know give you a lot of emotional and financial clarity there.

And then it's about attacking you guys' debt. I heard you say the words his debt and his income and it made my ears perk up and I wondered about that. Is there anything you want to add about that? Well, we just recently got married and we have two very different, we came from two different backgrounds as far as our approach towards debt. And I lived a very conservative life.

And so I was able to pay off pretty much everything that I owed except for the home that I live in. And he came into the marriage with a significant amount of debt before we got married. Okay. And are you on board with viewing that as our debt and not just his moving forward? I do view it as our debt in the marriage aspect, but it's not in my name. Got you. And so what does that mean for you? Like the fact that it's not in your name, how does that affect you? And how you guys pay it off? I want to pay everything off, but I'm also a stay at home mom at this point. So I'm not contributing financially the way I potentially could be.

Got it. So you're just viewing it as his money is what's really what he's earning is what's going towards paying off this debt. Yeah. Okay. I got it. I do think it's worth it as you guys go forward. Just to change up that vocabulary a little bit. I think it's going to cause him to feel supported. I think it's going to cause you guys to feel like a unit to really approach this as our income, our debt, our finances, and try to try to alleviate that, that individualism that I'm hearing. But yeah, you know, the way this goes, I think you know this, it's smallest to largest,

you make minimum payments on everything and all the extra money goes towards the smallest debt. Do you know what the method has been up to this point? Because what I don't want here, I'm saying all this lowest because what I don't want is, and can you know we hear this all the time, I'm a stay at home mom. He makes the money. It's kind of his debt.

My name's not even on it. So I'm not even in the conversation. I can chill over here. And then what happens is 15 years, 20 years later, some indication happens and you realize, oh my gosh, this debt has gotten out of control and I didn't even know about it because I haven't been dialed into our finances

because I always just viewed it as his thing, right? That's what I'm trying to get a void for you. Yes, I agree. And since we just recently got married, I feel like it's taking a learning curve for us to really get on that page. I'm very much trying to stay dialed in and in tune and aware of what's going on. But I think he's also having to make an adjustment of how he manages things as well. And you're on the right track, it is. Yeah, you know, last thing I would say is,

I just think you've got to sit with him and not, and you're not an attacking person. You have a sweet spirit. I would keep that spirit, say, hey, babe, can we talk about this? Cause this is new, we just got married, trying to come together, two different styles, two different backgrounds, but I want us to win

and gosh, I really think this is what we need to do and this is gonna be tough for a season, but we'll get out of it. They gotta approach it that way, see if we can relationship our way through this. All right, if you are sick and tired of scrapping by every month, living paycheck to paycheck, you need to join our free budgeting trainings this month.

You'll learn step by step how to make a budget, stick to that budget, using EveryDollar. You're gonna get all your biggest budgeting questions answered in the live Q&A. Sign up for free, it's absolutely free. Spots are limited, so you wanna move on this. EveryDollar.com slash webinar, EveryDollar.com slash webinar. Amarillo, Texas is where we go now. Janice is there. Janice, how can we help?

Hi. Hi. I was hoping you'd talk about turning your finances around in the midst of some medical issues. Okay. Give us a picture of the medical issues and what it's done to your finances? Well, my husband's been a cancer patient for about five years now, and then last year I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Oh no. And so the sudden onset of the tumor caused me to have an ER visit that just seemed to escalate from there with testing and thus

having some combined medical that between my husband and I with majority of it at this point is mine. I'm so sorry. Yeah. What's the current situation that you're dealing with? What are they telling you with the tumor? Well, I'm actually on the road to go to meet my daughter so that I can go see a neuro-oncologist in Dallas area. Okay. But I pulled over to the side of the road so I can make the phone call safely and have this discussion with you.

Oh well thank you for calling us. Okay what has it done to your finances? Give us, I'm assuming we're talking about a big chunk of debt and while you're giving us the rundown of debt, give us your income, assuming we're talking about a big chunk of debt and while you're giving us the run down of debt, give us your income, your combined income, total income coming in. Okay, so we own our home, we don't have any debt on any vehicles except for mine, which is about $9,500. Okay. I had a vehicle from 2006 to 2023, but the transmission was going bad and I made the decision to get a new vehicle. I had some money in savings, so I plopped it down on it and some of it anyways, and

at that time and now I've been paying as much as I can extra on the payments so I can get it down quicker, but I've got it down to about $9,500. Combined income, I would say is somewhere around $50,000. Okay. Annually and... And you own your home outright? Yes, ma'am. Okay, that's great.

Okay, so what do you foresee? You know, what do you see coming up? What's the, you know, give us that that picture I have the job I have right now I switched to a different insurance plan because when when When I realized that I had this diagnosis I was on a different insurance plan medical insurance studies It was an 80-20 and I wound up owing well over eight thousand dollars being on that plan And so I switched over to an HSA because Max out of pocket is $5,000 and then everything's covered.

So that would be about $3,000 something dollars less debt every year knowing that my neurosurgeon wants me to have scans of my brain every three months. Right, right. That was a good choice. So you know you're out of pocket max now and what about your husband's condition? How is his being covered? Is he on your insurance?

Does he have his own insurance? No, my husband is older than I am. He's on Medicare and social security. Okay. Okay. And what's the prognosis? Are you going to be able to continue working? Tell us about your working future. I'm not certain at this. I'm not certain at this point. The most recent discussion I had with my neurosurgeon was that we were going to start radiation, that I'm going to see

a neuro-oncologist, as I stated. My appointment is Monday morning. Our daughter lives in between our home and Dallas, so I'm just going to her, and then she's gonna drive me there, and then drive her away, so someone can be with me at the appointment. Do you have life insurance?

Yes, both of us have life insurance. Okay, so how can we help you today? I feel like there's a lot of tough news to deal with, but in the midst of that financially, you're not in a bad situation. You've got to pay for a home. You don't have debt except this car that's gonna be gone here in a minute.

You're both working. You did the right thing with your insurance. You know you're out of pocket max. How much do you have saved? Do you have three to six months of expenses saved? Yes, ma'am. About $30,000 in savings, about $40,000 invested, and then 401k. So you started off the call. Okay, and so to Jade's point, you start off the call going, hey, we're struggling to make ends meet. Now,

you don't have a lot of income coming in. No, what I'm trying to figure out is, I have the medical debt I have, I was paying monthly payments on it, but they've sent it to collections. They sent two of the four bills to collections, and I'm not certain what to do there. And moving forward with my husband's medical debt,

should I dip into the savings? Should I continue to save? I'm not sure what to do with the money that with the debt that's gone to collections. How much is it? How much is how much medical debt total? I guess it wasn't enough for them because they sent it off. How much total? Yeah, total your husband's because we talked about your debt, but it's our debt. So we get the 9,500, we know that for the car. What is your husband's total medical debt? My husband's total medical debt is actually much less than mine right now.

It's about, it's really only about a thousand dollars. Okay. And how much is your medical debt? Cause I thought you said you only had the car. And how much is your medical debt? Because I thought you said you only had the car. I have this about $6,000 in medical debt that went into collections. Okay.

Okay, so it's your sixth. I was making payments on it every month, but I never received a letter or a phone call or anything saying that it wasn't enough of a monthly payment. And before I knew it, I got a letter in the mail from one that went to collections and then another. That's all right.

We're here now. We're here now. You don't have to, I mean, don't beat yourself up for this. This is a lot to manage. So there's $7,000 total of medical debt. Is that correct? Yes. Okay.

And it's all in collections. So the good news is you're gonna- Not all of it. No, no, just hers. Oh, just yours, just your 6,000. So the good news is you're gonna- Not all of it. No, no, just hers. Oh, just yours, just your 6,000. So what- I want mine. Two out of four of my bills are in collections. And the what's in collections amounts to about 6,000.

Okay, so what's in collections is 6,000. What else is there that's not in collections? Tell me all of it. Okay, there's about $1,000 of my debt that's medical debt rather that's not in collections. So when my husband has about a thousand. Okay, so we got 8,000 total dollars of debt. Yes.

Okay. And going forward, so let's talk about going forward first so we can prevent this from happening again. And then we'll talk about how to pay this off. So going forward, you've got the emergency fund. And I talked to a caller about this earlier today. Your emergency fund is for emergencies. Those are things that are unforeseen, right?

You don't see it coming around the corner. It's unexpected. It's completely necessary, right? And you need to do it today, right? That's an emergency. But then there's things like, I don't know, a medical deductible when you know that you're dealing with health issues that really do fall in line with more of a sinking fund

that I just keep this out of pocket max, you keep his you keep yours, because you know, you're gonna hit it, you know, you're gonna have to pay it, think of it as a bill that you know is coming due. And so I'm not sure what the I think you said yours is 3000. I'm not sure what that looks like for him with Medicare. But if you can keep that money on hand every single year and you're saving towards it. Minus five every year.

What is it? Minus 5000 every year. Okay. Out of pocket cost before they cover anything. Okay, and what about him? Is there? With his his it's much worse it's over 14,000. When he first signed up for Medicare he signed up for just your regular Medicare and he didn't sign up for any prescription coverage because he wasn't taking any medication during something like that.

Working, being self-employed. Okay. Didn't have the income at the time. He didn't want to purchase a plan. So stacking up as much as you can, stacking up as much as you can for the two of you, knowing that this is our medical fund, every single year is going to be so important, even if you can get $10,000 in there. And in the meantime, I'd reach over and yeah, I'd pay off the $2,000 that are not in collections, I'd pull that out of your emergency fund, get that done because

it's debt, and then the $6,000 I'd offer them $3,000 and I'd pull that out of your emergency fund too because it's debt. And that will get you out of baby step two back into baby step three. Back into baby step three Our scripture the day comes from Proverbs 26 verse 20 without wood a fire goes out and without gossip quarrel Dies down our quote from Ronald Reagan I've always believed that a lot of the trouble in the world would disappear if we were talking to each other instead of about each other Now there's a novel idea. It's what we need in this world, don't we? Love that. Hannah is up next in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hannah, how can we help? Hi, thank you for having

me on the show. You bet. What's going on today? So I am looking to change careers. I want to become a financial coach, but I'm kind of having a hard time making that leap. I think it's due to some imposter syndrome. Could you give me some advice? Sure. It's my favorite thing to talk about is the imposter syndrome. So let's start with this. Number one, you are not an imposter. An imposter by definition is someone who is fraudulent and taking the identity of somebody else. True or false? That is true. You are not an imposter. Secondly, you don't have a syndrome. You don't have a disease. taking the identity of somebody else, true or false? That is true.

You are not an imposter. Secondly, you don't have a syndrome, you don't have a disease, you have what every person on the planet has when we consider something new. And new is always related to some type of change or challenge and change and challenge create unknowns, correct? Yes.

So what you have is not imposter syndrome, what you have is some fear and some good old fashioned doubt that are tied to the unknown. And the big unknown is, if I become a financial coach, will I be good and will I be successful? Successful being helping people and actually being able to pay my bills. Am I still correct, Hannah?

Absolutely. All right, so now we're all on the same page and welcome to being a human being. I know, that's right. So how do we overcome fear and doubt? The answer is we go get the unknown known. Right? So we go, okay, let's go through the ones that I just laid out for you systematically together. All right. So first thing is, will I be good? You know, will I be able to actually coach people? And

so the question becomes, if you go get training on how to be a financial coach, do you believe you have the talent, communication talent, listening skills, connecting skills with people? Do you believe you have what it takes? If you're trained on how to be a good financial coach, can you sit with somebody and actually help them? Yes or no? Yes, I think so. No, no, I don't like that answer. You blew it at the end. Ah, okay, yes. Yes. I mean, you truly believe that if you're trained properly, you have all the personal skills, correct? Yes, I do. Okay, good. All right.

So next, the question is, what must be true or what is going to have to happen for me to actually be successful at this as it relates to money? Now, this is where it gets tricky, Jade, because to be a successful financial coach, you are going to have to learn how to prospect just like a salesperson, and you're going to have to learn how to prospect just like a salesperson and you're going to have to learn how to handle the word no and it sucks. But you have to develop tough skin. You have to hold to your guns to go, I'm worth what I'm going to charge you and I'm going

to have to take a lot of nos in order to get a few yeses. And when I help the people who say yes, they're going to eventually tell other people and I'm going to figure this out. But that part is going to be hard. So the question is not can you do it? The question is are you willing to do that? And then this is the toughest part, Jade, and this is where I wanna bring Jade in.

Are we, if you are in a married situation, are you in a financial situation to where you can step into that prospecting starting from scratch and slowly build your pipeline to where this is a very successful business? Now that is not about fear and doubt, that's just good old fashioned common sense. And if you assess, Jade, well we're not in a place in our life or financially we're not a place where I can do that then the answer is not can I be a financial coach it's win so I what did I leave out there you

know what it's like to deal with fear and doubt I do you know Ken I feel like I've said this many times on the show today but I feel like you got got it, man. I feel like you said it. Somebody write that down, please. You were right. It's true. I think the biggest fears come from what we don't know and whether we're gonna be able to meet the expectation we've set in our minds, right? Which is some sort of expectation of success, and that's where the fear comes from. And you know, only only time will tell but the good news is here's the good news is if you start it and you suck at it, there's one of two things that can happen. You'll get better because you'll work on it or you'll realize this is not for you

and you'll move on to the next thing. It's a great point. And to that end, Hannah, you know what I would do? Do you know any financial coaches? Yes, I know a few. Have you sat down with them over tea or you know lunch or just called them up and said hey I want to basically do a high school level research paper interview with you and learn everything about what you do, the good, the bad, the ugly, how long it took. Have you done any of that? I have done that with one person but I'm aspiring to do that with more. Great.

Now, when you did it with one person, what was your takeaway? What did you really feel and think post-conversation with them? I thought that this would be something that I would be really good at. And I have a story that could reach people. But at the same time, I look at my circumstances and how they are now. My husband and I are, you know, we're still early on in our financial journey. We're pretty young. We've lived debt free, but you know, we're still on the road to homeownership. I drive a vehicle that's older than I am. Like there might be some external markers

where people are like, I don't know if that person is qualified to give me advice, but we've been able to have a lot of peace and purpose and blessing in our lives, but that's not something tangibly that people look at. I disagree. So I feel like that's where a lot of my doubt has. I disagree. You just laid out a list of things, peace, purpose.

I can't remember everything you said, but I went, that's what people are buying. They're buying your ability to not just guide them to that, but you've modeled it. So who cares how old your car is, park it two blocks away from where you're meeting them. That's also true. Plus some of the things that you were concerned about

as being negatives, those are things that come with time and you can't jump ahead towards those I don't live in a paid-for house No, it doesn't negate what I know about Paying off a house or how to get there and a lot of that is because of the people I work around as well So, I mean I could say well, I don't live in a paid-for house I can't very air but the very thing that gives you unique credibility is That you've paid off half a million dollars of debt with your husband and you guys walked the walk But it's the unique story is what I'm getting to and that's what she has is you've got your unique story and your unique story

has gotten you to where you are and The rest of the gaps you filled in with hard work, right? Do you bring any income in right now, Hannah? Yes, sir, I do. I actually have been an educator for the past six years in some form or fashion. Three of those were spent in the classroom teaching high school math.

And my daughter was born this past year, so I left the classroom and I now work kind of like in an independent role where I piece together tutoring and I bring in a decent income. What do you bring in? I bring about $2,500 in a month working part-time. And if that $2,500 went away, how would that impact you guys? We are kind of transitioning now so we're saving up to like buy our first home and when our housing cost is a lot less, we'll be able to live on just my husband's income. Then I think timing wise, then I want you learning, getting the training, cash flowing

any training, certification, stuff like that. And let's wait until we get the house situation where we want it, and then you don't need your income. I wouldn't try to do financial coaching full-on. Now, if you want to get a client here or there, but the fact is you're bringing in $2,500 a month right now, and I would continue that because that'll be, you guys will knock that goal out, and then you can move. So I think this is seasonal, although I would dip my toes in the water. I would continue to sit with other financial coaches and come up with your own best practice.

Here's the best wisdom, the best knowledge. Go ahead and if you can cash flow your training, do that and be ready to go. Maybe pick up a client or two, but you're not trying to replace the $2,500 right now. Thoughts on that? I think that's good. And truly, it's not going to take you long when you do start doing this to replace the $2,500 with it's not going to take you long when you do start doing this to replace the 2500 with Coaching clients and also I meant to say a person who has taught high school math This is she win. You're no imposter You can crush being a financial coach to adults who are hungry and actually need it. You've been dealing with hooligans Pythagorean theorems. Are you kidding me the square root of pi? I don't know what I'm talking about. This is The Ramsey Show. for free today with the EveryDollar app, the easiest way to budget. Track your expenses

and reach your goals faster. Go to EveryDollar.com today.