The Ramsey Show - App - You Can't Outearn Your Stupidity (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Best-selling author Jade Walsh, all'all. Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Her new book, Money's Not a Math Problem, a quick read, 74 pages long. You'll be through it before you know it. Hit the bestseller list last week, so she's an official best-selling author, just like that. The phone number here again, 888-825-5225.

Carl's in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hey, Carl, how are you? Oh, I'm doing good. How are you, Dave and Jade? Better than we deserve. What's up? I have a question or looking for advice. I am recently engaged.

Oh, congratulations. When's the wedding? Well, June 21st or 14th of 2025. A year and a half. Wow. Okay. Our little brother is getting married right before us, so we took it easy on the family but um i'm trying to get a realistic idea of like what to spend on a wedding it's driving me insane

i think it's everything's astronomical right now but she's also the love of my life and i want her to have her day bar none you know um you're trying to fight against your natural cheapskate tendencies. Correct, correct. You called that, dude. So who's paying for the wedding? Our parents combined, luckily, are giving us $8,000 as a wedding gift, like just to pay for that. And I am responsible for the rest. She's not.

Does she have a say so as well, or is she contributing? i'm sure she could but i feel like as as the guy provider quote-unquote and old-fashioned and old-fashioned is her dad pays for the wedding is old-fashioned i think she i think she can help yeah and he's not correct they're giving you they're giving you eight thousand dollars okay so what do you make wait let me real quick say quick say, I just want to say, it's both your weddings. It's not her wedding. So there you go. Yeah. This is not your gift to her.

That's right. This is you guys getting married. So what do you make? $110,000. What does she make? $55,000. Okay. All right.

And how much debt do you two have, each of you? I have $14,000 in credit card debt, and I have $235 left on my mortgage. Okay. Cool. And how old are you? 30. And how old is she? She's 30. And how old is she? She is 28. Okay, cool. Does she have any debt? She has 22 and a student loan. Okay.

All right. So 14 and 22 are one of our targets. The other target is the wedding budget and laying that out. And all three of those things should be gone during this year and a half. Okay. And she should be taking care of the 22, you should be taking care of the 14, and then the two of you add to the eight to get to the wedding budget. Has anyone discussed any numbers as to what you all think you would spend on the wedding? Yes, I said I would like to be under 20,

because I think that's astronomical. I think that's insane. I don't mind your budget, but it's not astronomical or insane. The average wedding in America last year was $29,000. That was the average. So astronomicalica last year was 29 000 that was the average so astronomical and insane would be double that i i think you guys need to get tactical because it sounds like you're kind of pulling these numbers out you both need to be on an every dollar budget and let's get tactical and find out okay like dave said um if you're paying off your debt which was the 14 000 what would you realistically have left at the end of every month

after you've paid that debt off to set aside for the wedding? And then do the same thing for her so that you guys can actually arrive at a number. Because at the end of the day, the wedding can only cost what you can afford. Is she living at home? No, she is living in my house, soon to be our house. Okay. All right. Well, I would like for her to use her 55 and clear her debt.

I would like you to use your great income to clear your debt and add to the wedding budget. And if 20 is the budget, then you need 12 more, right? Correct. But that's not an astronomical number. It's not a bad number. It's a nice wedding. And I know people that get married for half of that, and I know people that spend 5x that. So, you know, there's not a moral construct here.

But I think if you set the wedding budget at 20, you put in the 12, which is kind of was your intent anyway in this call, and you make, you know, double what she makes, and you've got half the debt she's got so that's okay all of those things indicate you could fund that 12 you knock your 14 out fund the 12 she knocks out her 22 right correct i'm in for that and then uh then we do a 20 000 wedding okay if 20 000 is the wedding budget the two of you need to already start breaking that down because that is a vague number to uh jade's point yeah like if you haven't if you haven't called some places and you haven't sat down and talked to her and been like hey what what are your thoughts to really see um yeah in other words this is a project yes and you manage it like you were building a house you have a line item budget

i've yes we've had three big weddings at the ramsays uh years ago and uh the best thing we ever did was we put a number and then we backed into a budget so okay on a twenty thousand dollar wedding that means the dress budget is x whether that be 1200 or 800 but it's somewhere around there that means the reception which is the most expensive thing typically is y and that means the photographer is z and each of these numbers you you know and uh the church or the venue is going to be you know a or b or whatever twenty thousand dollars you're going to have to be really very clear on what the what your priorities are is it the venue is it the food is it the dress20,000, you're going to have to be really clear on what your priorities are. Is it the venue? Is it the food?

Is it the dress? Like, you're going to pick one or two top priorities, and everything else is going to fall in line. I've seen people spend $20,000 on the flowers. That's right. So you're going to have to say the flower budget is whatever it is. Right. And you've got to set that out. And then when you're sitting down with a

caterer and they have the little tasting thing yes before you decide what the is going to be served at the reception you go uh like father of the bride we're having the cheaper chicken i know that's right when you start seeing how much it costs per head you go you'll lose your mind you'll lose your mind yeah and tactically just think about it like this. One last little tactical thought. Sometimes you think about oh, okay, I'm going to spend $20,000 on a budget and once I have $20,000 I'm just forking it over. No, you've got to be thinking

about what chunks of money you need to have ahead of time to put deposits and things like that. So really sit down and plan this out because you don't want to have any excuse to go into debt. even if it's temporary. If you do not have this line itemed out, 100% of the time you'll go over budget. That's right.

Every time. Because you'll be in the heat of the moment and you go, that's the dress. The heat of the moment, I want to upgrade and do this level of videography. The heat of the moment, I love this particular little appetizer. And all of a sudden you're spending a hundred they go there in a heartbeat man this is the ramsey show jade washall ramsey personality is my co-host today she has one of the three new books we just put out all of which have hit the bestseller list or at least least we think Georgia's has.

We'll know next week. Rachel's new book, I'm Glad for What I Have, a children's book about contentment. Our first ever illustrated kids book by Rachel. Perfect to help parents spark a great conversation with their kids on contentment. Breaking Free from Broke with George Camel. We launched that book this week

we'll know bestseller list and so forth next week on it it is selling very well bless you excuse me thank you thank you wow and uh great data in that book and then jade's book uh money's not a math problem it's a 74 page quick read and uh hit the bestseller list last week so all three of these new books are available, along with many other wonderful things, at RamseySolutions.com. Check out the store. We'll help you out. It's what we do.

All right, Heather's in Nashville. Hi, Heather. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my call. The question is, should we stop saving for Baby Step 3B in order to fund for my husband to make a career change to be a pilot? Interesting. So not buy a house, instead be a pilot for now.

For now, yeah. How much is it going to cost for him to be a pilot? It's what we've seen, what we've looked at. It's been about $80,000 to $110,000. Cool. How long would that take to save up that money? And what are the chunks that you need it in? The reason we're considering stopping is so we can try to get him through in about a year, year and a half. Okay.

Neither answer is wrong. It really is just you guys looking at this and deciding what your priority is. What does he make now? 60, 65. Okay. That's about what he'll be making as a starting commercial pilot too. That's after he's gotten enough hours to fly a jet commercially.

Which I don't know if you're going to get that many hours for 80K. Do you? For 80,000? Yeah, we thought so. Between 80,000 to 110,000, yeah. Okay. That's a lot of hours to get commercial jet certified. I don't know. So, yeah, we thought so, between $80,000 to $110,000, yeah. Okay.

That's a lot of hours to get commercial jet certified. Mm-hmm. I don't know. I mean, if you get there, that's fine, but you're going to spend that for him to make about what he's making now. Starting, now, eventually he can fly the big boys, and he can make double or triple that. Sure, right.

But you don't start in those. Mm-hmm. Sure, right, of course. What's he do now? but you don't start in those. Sure, right, of course. What's he do now? He's an electrician. Do you guys have kids? No, no kids. And what we were thinking was we were trying to take advantage

of the cheap rent we have right now while pushing him through school. I mean, I have limited knowledge, only what you told me, but I'm thinking to myself, okay, there's not a big press. It's not like I'm busting at the seams with my home and I need to buy a house. So there's part of me that's like, okay, maybe this is a great time to pursue this. What do you make? I make $70,000, $85,000.

Okay, and so you've got $130,000, $85,000. Okay. And so you've got $130,000 together. He stays in his job while he's in pilot school? Correct, yeah. And you guys have how much saved towards the $80,000 or $100,000 already? We have nothing saved. We're flowing it as we put him through school. Okay.

Cash flow. Okay. So you've already started then?'s been trying it yeah he's only done like three or four flights okay this is not yeah yeah it's not a it's not a technical school it's uh just him picking up hours with uh flight instructors yeah okay so before you make the rest of this decision, I think you need more detail than you have. I mean, I know a tiny bit about this enough to know that you guys have not run this all the way down. And so what I want you to do is I want you to detail out exactly where he's going to go to school, exactly how many hours he's got, and exactly how many jobs are out there and what they're paying i talked to a commercial pilot yesterday that was you know on the millionaire theme hour and he was making 300 and i asked him what a junior level starting pilot was making right now because you typically go in flying the regionals like an american eagle or something like that

and he said they're starting at 65 that's a guy yesterday so that information i know is correct and the only other thing i know is it takes a lot of hours to be certified not only fly jet versus prop but also to fly jet commercially and have passengers right whose lives are dependent upon you. So I want you guys to really get that dialed in exactly. Right. My understanding is that our understanding is it takes about 1,500 hours to get to that first job. Yeah. His instructor was on the job.

And I don't know how you get 1,500 hours in one year. Listen, if you can. Year, year and a half. I don't know how you do that. I don't either. I think you really got to sit down with a school that says, here's how we're going to map that out. It's going to be this many hours this month, this many hours that month, and here's the cost exactly.

And then the second piece is I'm going to get on the other side of that, and I'm going to line the people wanting to do what your husband's wanting to do, are addicted to flying. It's an addiction. And they will do almost anything to do it, including lie to themselves about what it costs and how long it takes and what they're going to make. So, like, I'll give you an example. I'll bet your husband doesn't believe he's only going to make 65. Yeah, he probably thinks he's going to make. So, like, I'll give you an example. I'll bet your husband doesn't believe he's only going to make 65. Yeah, he probably thinks he's going to make more. He probably thinks he's going to make 130, and he's not, okay? I just talked to the guy yesterday, Heather, so I'm not making this up. He's a commercial pilot, been a commercial pilot in

the big jets for 20 years, and he's a millionaire now but he said it that isn't where it starts and everybody talks about that's you know you just start there and you don't start there you might start there or close to there if you come out of the air force but uh but going through flight school the way your husband is no you're not going to i'm not riding on a plane with somebody who's only been flying one one and a half years yeah you have no don't tell me that oh gosh that's scary you you got 1500 hours she's right about that you've already done that uh yeah i need my pilot to have been in the air force and then he turned around haven't you gotten on one of these regionals and

noticed that these kids look like they're younger than your socks listen i try not to do it oh they're there i'll tell you i have i need i need my pilot to have some gray hair good luck with that glasses looks like opie taylor his name is mike like i need somebody who's been in it for a while oh not a year don't tell me that it's okay they're competent they're fine they're just young and uh and they got quick reaction skills because they're young so that's good you want them up front listen the person i don the person. I don't know if you want the codger up there. The person driving the plane and the person delivering the baby needs to have gray hair. That's all I'm telling you, Dave.

Those are two areas where you want an old guy. You don't want Doogie Howser as your OB? No, I don't want anybody who's younger than me. Oh, my gosh. I love it. I love it. All right, Heather, more detail, and then, yes, go your plan. Run your plan out.

But base your plan on facts, not wishes, of someone who just loves to fly. Okay? Because there's something that is about flying, about, you know, as a friend of mine who's a pilot says when you're landing it's actually a controlled crash and so um he said there's something about that is just thrilling and fun and addictive and people tend to ignore the economic realities of becoming a pilot and so you want to really get into that and actually know exactly talk to major airlines and say are you hiring and what's the come what's the

rate coming in learn what that is what am i going to be entering at and then lay the flight school out to get to 1500 hours if that's actually what it is for the certification i'm not positive you are but i'm not and so get all that laid out exactly and then y'all go do it i think you're we're endorsing the plan we just want we want you to plan it in more detail so it is an actual plan and not just a dream. Yeah. And I think you're close. You got some of the stuff gathered, but I also think you haven't dug it all the way out yet. And then if you're willing to wait on your house for your husband to become a pilot,

then that makes you a championship wife. Way to go. That's cool. This is The Ramsey Show. James is with us in Miami. Hi, James. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you.

Thanks for having me. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, I've been following you guys for a year. Appreciate everything you do. I want to find you. I feel kindred to how you guys, uh, think about, about money and debt. Um,

I'm in a really good spot. I'm 37. Um, I have a net worth probably about 1.3, uh, two properties. Um, each of those properties does have a mortgage. One's at 200, one's at 250, my primary house. The other one is rented at a pretty good profit. My life circumstances have changed a bit. I had twins, you know, and thinking about, yeah, I've had a couple of blessings come into my life. Change of things, life obviously had to stop working. But right now, I'm at a crossroads where I'm debating what to do. I've seen all of the money we've printed and inflation and definitely a little bit. I have money invested in the stock market. I'm pretty cash heavy at the moment and debating what to do with that cash. Do I, I have 3.75 rates on both my properties and 25 on one and 20 years left

on the other. No, no other debts, no credit card, got rid of all my, paid off all my student loans, paid off all my cars, paid cash for pretty much everything now. I put in solar, paid cash for that. What's the balance on the mortgages? 200 on the rental property, that's cash flowing about $1,200 a month, and that's after paying the mortgage and all that, and then $250,000 on the house that I live in. So how much cash are you sitting on? Cash, so outside my IRAs, IRAs are at about $450,000. My actual cash on hand is, flush cash is about is about 80 with another 50 kind of just invested in the market. So I'm debating, do I, you know, I'm, I'm thinking there might be a dip. Do I,

do I leave it there? I also have two $25,000. Um, Florida has a prepaid thing for, for student love for future student loans for your kids. So, um, I'm on a five-year plan with those. I could pay them off if I want. I can pay off my property. I can start to put a cash flow probably around $15 a month. And what do you make a year? What's your personal income? About $350.

Okay. James, you've done extremely well. Congratulations. Thank you. I mean, what a beautiful job you've done extremely well congratulations congratulations thank you i mean what a beautiful job you've done um you know the the only the only point that our discussion would have with you is not to help you uh not to help you become a millionaire you already did that okay and not to help you do that it might be just that you know i'm sitting here with the buildings i'm sitting in for instance are um about600 million in value, roughly, okay? And they're

paid for. And so, and that's just a portion of, I mean, that's the larger portion of our real estate portfolio, but I've got a bunch of other real estate. I love real estate. And of course, I own Ramsey Solutions as well, which has a value, and so on. So, I'm a few years ahead of you, is all I'm saying. I'm not better. I'm just ahead of you. I'm older. Dadgum, you're twice your age. And so you've just done extremely well. So if I were talking to you and I really don't know exactly what you're asking,

I would probably just give you a couple things I would do, and that would just be fine-tuning an engine that's already running really well, okay? This is not, the car's not about to blow up. You're not about to bankrupt. You're not doing anything stupid. You know, you're doing a whole lot of smart things. So I have found, and you listen to us for 10 minutes, you know this, that the less debt I have, the more peace I have, and the better my

cash flows are, and the lower my risk is. Thus, the peace is up. Less anxiety. So, you know, for instance, this building, we have a pandemic hit. I've got 1,100 team members that are on payroll. I want to make that payroll. I don't have to pay myself the rent because there's no, you know, there's no mortgage on the stupid building so i don't have any stress so that's an extreme situation but with more zeros on it but it still still outlines the idea that first thing i would do if i were in your shoes is i'd start working towards getting my home paid off without cashing out any retirement to do it then the next thing i do is i pay that rental off and okay so pay the house first then

the rental yes yes well my personal residence where i sleep to have zero mortgage there is more than just math and investing going on here there's a spiritual element to this a psychological and a relational element to this your wife will feel different you will feel different when you lay your head on the pillow you don't think you will but when it is paid for you will okay so my one my one counter to that and this is i guess the next point of information is i'm debating so my i bought my house back in 2012 so i have it at a great interest rate and a great value um the the other thing is if i ever wanted to now that i have twins which i have plenty of room i have enough room 21 hundred square feet um four bedrooms so there's enough room but when family comes to visit my parents are getting older

our parents are getting older people are coming to stay longer than me maybe a paid off house will sell as quick as a mortgaged house i'm not thinking about paying it off i'm thinking about expanding it okay pay it off with expanding with cash you make 350 000 a year okay so what's happened is is you hit a plateau and you quit uh pinching every little nickel and and you relaxed a little bit and it's gotten a little sloppy okay it's what a little sloppy. Okay. It's what I'm seeing. I might be wrong, but if I were you, I'd pay off your house.

I think you've just hit your goal. I think you've been working so, so hard, putting your head down and plowing forward to hit whatever the goal was. Yeah. And you've gotten there, and now you just need another very clear goal to keep you motivated. And the only other thing I would do is I wouldn't do Florida prepaid college. Yeah, that's garbage. I would just do good mutual funds and a 529.

A lot more flexibility, a lot more options to do for college, and you can make a much better rate of return than prepaid college. Anytime you prepay something, James, your rate of return is the inflation rate of the item. Tuition inflation rate's been about 8% for the past two decades. And so you're making about 8% on your money. You could do better than that in a good mutual fund and you'd have more flexibility. So I would move the prepaid stuff into a 529. Again, a minor tune-up, paying off your house, minor tune-up, then paying off the mortgage

on the rental, minor tune-up. Somewhere in there, cash flowing the expansion if you want to expand or change that house that you're living in. Any of that's okay. But you keep going back to the mortgage interest rate. I don't give a crap what your mortgage interest rate is. Mine's zero.

You can't beat my rate. And you can't beat the cash flow I've got on our properties. They cash flow like a bandit. And I don't think about my home at all it doesn't come up in my financial brain it doesn't even it doesn't it's just it's just a really calm safe place to go sleep yeah you know and it just changes everything and i've been because i've been debt free on the house for so long that it just my spirit doesn't even connect to that I can't I can't imagine how I would you know how I would sleep if I had a mortgage yeah I could see that now because I've been doing it

for so long so that that's all we would do James but again you're 97% on board with what we would do those are just a few tune-up things and way to go hero I mean you killed it 37 year old millionaire man excellent well done well done and did it from nothing starting from nothing didn't inherit it it's not a not a um not a rock star not an actor not not an nfl star not to our knowledge anyway and if he plans on buying more real estate obviously cash for that pay cash after you get the other stuff paid off and you could build a really large portfolio 10 15 years from now real estate if you fooled around with this and have it all paid for in the process and pay cash for it as you go it wouldn't you know once you clear these two

properties so but that's what we would do you do whatever you want uh you're you're obviously not a dumb guy so well done well done hero proud you. That's very cool. Those guys are everywhere. People that have done smart stuff with money. In a culture where most people spend like they're in Congress. Oh, yeah. That's normal. Go into debt. By the way, don't miss $350,000 income, $1.7 million net worth.

Yeah, 37 years old. 2,200 square foot house. Yeah. Don't miss that. He's living below his means. Not 8,300, 2,200. Living on less than he makes. This is The Ramsey Show.

Our scripture of the day, Psalms 145.8, The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. Thomas Jefferson said, If angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to 100. Okay, Tyler is in Michigan. Hey, tyler welcome to the ramsey show hi thanks for having me sure what's up so my wife and i we came to the realization and knowledge that hey we don't want to be in debt anymore um and we have an obstacle that's kind of in our way hindering our get out of debt plan. So every three months we have to save up for a custody exchange where we have to travel two states away and that's about four to five hundred dollars. So how do we navigate that in

saving up our emergency fund as well as paying off our debt? I think it's just something that you're planning for monthly throughout your budget. Yeah, if you had a $500 electric bill, it would be the same thing, right? Yeah. Okay, so how would you do that? Well, you're going to manage your budget, meaning we're going to cut expenses all over the place, and we're going to do anything we can to get our income up, extra jobs and overtime, and or new careers.

So what's your household income? Last year we made $68,000. Okay. And how much debt do you guys have? Together between cars, credit cards, and personal loans, we're at $42,000. And how much of that's car? $30,000. And how much of that's car? $30,000. One car?

Two cars. Okay. I mean, one car that's $30,000? No, sorry. Between the two. Sorry, that's... That's both of them. $35,000 between two cars.

So it's $30,000, and the breakdown of that is what? So one car is $12,9009 and the other one is 11. Okay, about half and half then. Okay, all right. Yeah, if I'm you, I'm just plugging these numbers. I'm guessing this is you driving to another state. So this is gas, food. Are you staying overnight, one night?

What is it? My wife and I, we turn and burn. We try to cut expenses as much as possible like we'll pack sandwiches and stuff but yeah mostly food we'll stay at a relative house if we need to that kind of stuff mostly gas okay and uh whose children are these yours or your wife my wife your wife's children okay and how old are they uh oldest is 10 youngest is three okay all right well um so here's the only hope i can give you on this that we're here's the light at the end of the tunnel if you'll continue to work extra tighten your budget clear these debts if you had a larger income and no debt, this would be much less of an issue.

Obviously, no kidding, right? But, you know, the point is, is that if you'll work for a couple years here and get these debts cleaned up, and in the process of that, review your careers and say, where are we going with our careers? And you get your income up, which most people do throughout their life. That's a fairly standard living process, right? But let's pretend two years from now you've got a household income of 80 and no payments but a house payment. All of a sudden, this is a different discussion, right? And so it's really not what's killing you.

It's all the other stuff that's killing you is my point. It's highlighted because it's an emotional thing that you're doing, and it's draining the drive of two states over. Yeah. Yeah, we have a plan to use our income tax this year to go right towards crushing a lot of the high-interest debts and the smaller debts. Great.

Have you changed your withholding so you don't get a refund anymore i have not done that you're expected to get a refund yeah i would change that because having that money in your monthly cash flow every month is going to be of way more value to you yeah especially with this situation a refund just means too much is coming out of your check in other words. That's not something we knew about. Yeah. So what's your refund typically? Right now it's close to $8. Okay, cool.

Yeah, so we're talking about $700 a month. Yeah. That's pretty substantial. No, it's not. Yeah, it's $700. Oh, yeah, it is. That's a lot of money. Yeah.

That would clean up a lot of stuff right there. So, yeah, let's look at changing your withholding. If that's been your refund every year, bring home that $700. And as Jade said, you'll still get the $800 from $23 when you file your taxes in $24. But go ahead in $24 and set it up where you don't get a refund next year. Instead, you get the money now. Because all it is is an interest-free loan to Washington, D. dc and then they give it back to you and act like they did you a favor yeah so very cool i think you're gonna i think you're gonna see some progress here hang on i'm gonna have austin send you a copy of the book the total money makeover and a copy of jade's

new book money's not a math problem you guys read through both of those and see if it doesn't help you get some traction on these things. Christine is in El Paso, Texas. Hi, Christine. How are you? Hi. Good. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Thank you for taking my call. I'm calling because I'm 53, so I'm late to your method. The question is, after I finish and get to the investment stage at the point in my age should I be investing more than 15% into investments? Do you have a house payment still?

I do, yes. No, you should put 15% because we need to get you at retirement with an estate and a paid for house. Okay, so first I will pay off the house and also pour all the extra money into that. No, baby step, okay, you're debt free off the house we'll pour all the extra money into that and no baby step okay you're dead free except the house you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses then we do baby steps four five and six at the same time four is 15

percent of your income going into retirement five is kids college if that even applies in this situation six is we throw my extra money at the house and try to get the house paid off typically people will pay off their homes in somewhere around seven to ten years from the time they start okay which would put you at a paid for house at retirement gotcha what's your household what's your income000. Great. Are you single? Yes, I am. Cool. So if you'll drop into an investment calculator, sit down with a SmartVestor Pro,

you're going to find $20,000 a year going into good mutual funds for 15 years is going to give you a really nice nest egg. Okay. I am starting very late, so that was my huge concern is that i will never i want you to do it because you are starting late but if you do it if you put 15 of 115 000 20 000 bucks a year into good growth stock mutual funds in your 401k and roth iras and you do that for 15 years you're going to have substantial money and you're probably going to be doing think about that what dave said you're probably going to be doing, think about that, what Dave said, you're probably going to get to that sooner.

Like, for instance, if you pay off your house in the next seven years, it won't just be 15%. It'll be more because after you pay the house off, you'll be adding more. Yeah, you can load more and more and more in then. But, I mean, in 10 years, you're 67. So we want the house paid for. Absolutely. Because what we find, Christine, is a paid-for home and a nest egg

are the two essential things to stabilizing your golden years. If you retire with a paid-for home and no money, that's not stable. With a pile of money and a big old mortgage, that's not stable. So what we want is we want that largest line item in your budget, which is housing. We want that to drop way down and be extremely stable and peace around the subject of it, being you know your house is yours. And then we just put as much as we can put in those old retirement accounts to see where we can get there.

I mean, when you have zero payments, suddenly what you need to live on monthly is a lot lower yeah that's true too that's true but i mean if you work like to 70 in your case christine um i'm gonna i'm trying to do this in my head but you're gonna have about six hundred thousand dollars000. I like it. Plus a paid-for house. If you pay off your house in 10 years and you work until 73 more years, you're going to have $600,000 in nest egg. If you'll sit down with a good smart investor pro, put them into good mutual funds, you know, pick good funds, and always do it.

Don't ever stop. And then every extra dollar, let's figure out what the house balance is and what do we got to do to get it paid off. And the faster we get it paid off, then you can do what Jade said, and that's jump in there and throw extra above the 15% in that nest egg. And then we can start talking about cranking back the retirement date from 70 to 68 to whatever at that point. So you'll be okay, Christine.

You got this. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Thank you.