The Ramsey Show - App - You Make Too Much Money To Be This Broke! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: July 28, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony discuss: 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP meaning we're in a (little baby) recession, How to stay motivated after paying off the house, The best way to invest without a 401(k), Treating the symptom vs. the problem. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do work that they actually love, and create real, amazing relationships. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author of the book Own Your Past, Change Your Future, and host of the Dr. John Deloney Show, is my co-host today. We'll be taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Well, John, I don't get to say this very often at home, and occasionally I get to say it here.

I was right. I was right. We are in a recession. But barely. It's such a wimpy little recession, it doesn't even count. It looks to me like a rounding error. It really is ridiculous. I mean, so a recession, if you don't know, we've been laughing about this the last couple of days because the White House, you know, anytime somebody doesn't like a term these days, they just redefine it.

So we made fun of you redefining anxiety. Yes, exactly. And Biden and the White House came out and tried to redefine what a recession is. It's econ 101. They teach you in your first week in class in college. I mean, come on a recession is two consecutive quarters of the gross domestic product which is the adding up of all the goods and services produced in the united states shrinking it's a little bit less two quarters

in a row it receded like my hairline yes okay that's what a recession is it receded however this one didn't recede nearly as far as my hairline i was gonna say this recession is such a joke that it's not even a real recession it's not even a good one i mean as it went down like one and something one and a quarter one and a half percent first quarter last quarter we got the numbers out just a few hours ago that it went down 0.9 percent that's like a rounding error this is like getting a ticket for going 71 in in a%. That's like a rounding error. This is like getting a ticket for going 71 in a 70. It's like, come on, man.

I was speeding. 70 and a half. That's right. I was speeding, but come on, man. 70.9 in a 70. Oh, this is ridiculous. So now the Democrats are all going to run around in circles acting like it's no big deal because there's really no big deal.

And the Republicans are all going to scream at the top of their lungs, we're dying, it's a recession, Biden has crashed the economy, oh my God! And neither one is true, by the way. We are in a recession, and the economy is not good, but this is not like a hurricane recession. This is a light mist. It's not like the last one we experienced. It's not even a hurricane recession. This is a light mist. It's not like the last time we experienced it. It's not even a real rainstorm. In Q2, when it plummeted. Oh, in 2020?

Right. Yeah, we shut down the world, and the economy completely shrunk by like 25 or 30 percent. It shrunk during quarantine, right? Because everybody's sitting at home eating donuts, right? Donuts went up. Plexiglass went up everything else went down right and so then they came out of their caves and bought everything in sight and the economy exploded by 35 the next quarter so that was a bizarre thing in 2020 but what we are is we we are experiencing a slower economy it's not growing it's not a time of prosperity for sure but it is not chicken little you don't have to

get your helmet out it's just 0.9 i was telling rachel that it could have been up like 0.2 i mean the numbers we were getting there's a lot of precursor reports that come out that you can read and so i was seeing the indicators i knew it was going to be basically flat yeah but it could have been up 0.25 it could have been up a quarter of a percent and then we wouldn't technically been in a recession which would be like what 30.35 percent difference in where we are right and it would have been reversed the the the the right would have been saying well i mean it's really a recession and the left would have been saying see look at how wonderful we bailed it out right exactly and neither one is true okay it's not the end of the world don't let the right tell you that because they're trying to win the midterms

uh based on the recession they need to win it based on something else because there's not much of in the left this is a wimpy little misty math isn't real again tiny recession okay so so in all reality but but it does suck because we're not booming. Okay, so yeah. The economy is not on fire. In all reality. It's hurting. I'm just a guy with two little kids and stuff's expensive. Yeah, that's inflation. What do I do?

That's inflation. Right. This means nothing. That's helpful. Like for just a regular guy. Other than the economy is not, it's kind of, you's just it's going for a walk it's not going for a run gotcha you know and it's and it's a slow walk but it's not had a heart attack in an icu either okay so there you go i mean stretch this metaphor all we can but but you said something

important for the average guy like me this number means nothing means nothing other than the idea the economy's slow so turn the the idea the economy's slow. So turn the news off. The economy's slow. Yes. Okay. But it's not a deep, dark. I mean, I'm 62 years old.

I've seen some deep, dark recessions. They're not fun. Right. That's a whole bunch of layoffs. A bunch of businesses aren't doing business, so they don't need people. They're not buying stuff because they're not doing business. So they're goods that they produce. They're not producing them because they're not doing business. And so it slows produce they're not producing them because they're not doing business and so it slows down it's not good it's ugly recessions are ugly

uh but this one's a joke this one's just moderately unpleasant but the uh uh yeah this one could get a date i mean it's not really ugly right so hey yes this is a recession like me and you and we both ended up getting married this is good this is good i could get a date but i do get to tell rachel cruz i was right hey this is worth something because she was dogging me on the air the other day because i said it might be up a quarter of a percent she said wait a minute america he just said he might be wrong it's like yeah rachel calm down oh yeah i could have been wrong but i actually wasn't so i'm really kind of basking in this a little bit because i did call it a while back i thought we were going into a recession and

we did but you said a lot of time ago joke it's gonna be a minor i could have missed it as easy as i hit it truthfully because it's basically flatline it's just right down the middle so that that's the thing so you're going to hear this all over the news and you're going to hear the fed increase the interest rates again yesterday to slow inflation which is stupid on steroids they're screwing around with the economy they need to leave it alone let it heal itself it's going to be all right but they're going to mess this thing up and i just man when you start messing with supply demand stuff and you start messing with supply-demand stuff

and you start messing and tinkering with, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Yeah, well, he can't complete a sentence. It's not a good thing. Okay, so let me ask you this. Let's take this metaphor because that's my bigger concern. You have a couple and their marriage, it's fine. Things are fine.

And you're going for a walk and you've got the one person who's saying, hey, we should probably talk. Last night, I just felt, and the other person's saying, I was in a bad mood. And we're going to dig into this. And well, what if we just, we're going to try to start, well, let's start doing this together. Let's do this. And we need to go do this. We should probably go sign up for this. And let's read this book together. And the other person's saying, hey, I was just tired tired there comes a point when the intervention becomes worse than anything that was actually going on is there a moment here so that's a long long drawn out analogy here to say got lost in your analogy okay now i'm not caught up i got it okay is in other words you know you're making a mountain out of a mow wheel can you can we

tinker with this and the tinker is gonna crash the car well it's not gonna crash it but it could make it worse instead of making it better um you know it's just the first rule is do no harm right and so exactly take your hands off if you don't know what's going on take your hands off for a second the beautiful thing about capitalism is it has a real tendency to heal itself if you leave it alone okay like crooks they don't make it because people quit doing business with them why because they're crooks yeah or don't make it because people quit doing business with them. Why? Because they're crooks. Because they're crooks, yeah. Or eventually.

If your product breaks on you, you quit buying it, right? If you make a crappy car, eventually people call it a pinto. I mean, you know what I mean? You know, that's eventually, the marketplace will punish you for being stupid. And it will cleanse itself. And it does that with cycles as well. But God almighty, we have to mess with it. This is The Ramsey Show.

In an uncertain world, being a good steward of your money is more important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey Trusted Provider. Dr. John Deloney, number one bestselling author, host of the Dr. John Deloney, number one best-selling author, host of the Dr. John Deloney Show. Ramsey Personalities, my co-host today.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. How many times have you found yourself saying, one day, when thinking about a goal that you have, one day I'll be able to buy a house, one day I'll be happy with my career, one day I won't have to battle with anxiety, one day I will set some boundaries. Stop waiting around. Whatever your one day is won't have to battle with anxiety. One day I will set some boundaries. Stop waiting around. Whatever your one day is, you need to start right now. And that's why we created the Smart Conference. Smart Conference is a one-day event where we will

tackle all the areas of your life. And guys, let's face it, we could all use that kind of boost right now. You'll hear from the nation's top thought leaders on money, career, mental health, relationships, marriage, and leadership. The event is hitting the road and will be coming to Dallas, Texas on Saturday, October 22nd. It is already 60% sold out. Event passes are selling fast. The VIP and platinum are gone, and you can get general admission still for $39. So Dr. John Deloney will be speaking, Rachel Cruz, Ken Coleman, all number one best-selling authors, George Campbell, Christina Ellis, best-selling author. I'll be there. I've sold a couple books too, and I had a couple ideas in my life, not to mention

our friends and leadership experts from Life Church. Life Church is Craig and Amy Groeschel. They're going to be speaking on marriage, and let me tell you guys, there's big surprises all day. This is a day-long event. You will leave inspired and smarter. It's Smart Conference, October 22nd. So jump online at ramseysolutions.com slash events. Get your event passes right now. John is with us to start off this hour in Cincinnati. Hey, John, how are you? Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm going to give you a quick background before I ask my question. So I'm 28.

I have all my debt paid off except for my house, and my house is about to be paid off here in about five weeks. Great. I've been working a ton of overtime. I've been doing it going gazelle intense for about three years now, working average 70 hours a week, had a baby with my wife. And, uh, so my question really is, is about what kind of advice you would give a young person like me that's in my position. Cause I'm kind of lost, of lost on a path and I don't really have a path and I'm starting to be burned out. So just looking for some advice.

Sounds like you got a path. Sounds like you got several. Sounds like you're a new father and you're a husband and you're working to pay off some debt and you're working a professional job. Are none of these paths, are you not feeling a certain way? It sounds like you've got some pretty important, pretty cool paths. What path is missing?

I don't know. I just felt like I worked so hard, and now that I'm about to cross this finish line with paying off my house too, at such a young age, I just like i'm i'm really burned out and i can't light the fire back in me and get me going again okay number one you you don't need to light a fire back in you you're fine yeah um number two we don't tell you to we don't tell folks to do what you've done uh once you reach the baby step four we don't say gazelle intense anymore. We move from intense to intentional and work to systematically more of a marathon than a sprint, be putting money in your retirement, be putting money in your kid's college, and systematically paying off your house.

But 70 hours a week to stay gazelle intense to pay off your house is not what we tell folks to do. It's okay that you did it. You didn't do anything wrong. But no wonder you're burnt out, other words you fried your you fried your brain man you put it on a and put it on the skillet on the on the dadgum uh stove so you know let's just say hey let's uh work 40 hours a week uh systematically save for retirement, save for my kids' college, increase my generosity, and, um. Going on vacation? Yeah, going on vacation, put your feet up, rock the baby. Oh my gosh. I mean, what's wrong with that number? What are we missing here? You need a new goal?

Is that what you're saying? No, I, yeah, sort of a new a new goal um i just feel like after i've done this i'm just kind of settling and i don't know if that's what i'm no you're not so okay so you've you've seen the the marathon pictures where the uh runner comes across the finish line and collapses at the marathon yes you see the finish line and you're about to cross it and your body is failing you as it should after you run an Olympic marathon and you're thinking what workout can I get in tonight because I don't want to waste this evening and what every coach and trainer on the planet would say

you need to take a couple weeks off take some time rejuvenate, relax your next goal and mission and purpose it'll come to you man that's just who you are you're a driven guy you're gonna go make it happen you're not settling you are leaning into rest you're leaning into peace there's a reason why you did all this it's so you can put your feet up and go so you can give like crazy you're there now and you're gonna have

to practice what that feels like because you've never experienced that it's an it's all new feeling what what we're saying is is there is as much dignity in running a marathon as there is a sprint and right now you think the only thing that is that is worthy is sprint so if i'm not sprinting i'm settling i see and you're playing a much different longer game yeah now you're playing long ball man yeah okay different game and I'll tell you

the key to all Olympic workouts is not the workout program it's the rest program it's teaching these Olympic driven athletes to put

their feet up to rest to get some peace so that when they get back into the game they are full in I'm going to throw a book at you

alright there's an old book a buddy of mine named Bob Buford wrote called Half Time So get some peace so that when they get back into the game, they are full in. I'm going to throw a book at you, all right? There's an old book a buddy of mine named Bob Buford wrote called Halftime. And the premise of the book, Halftime by Bob Buford, the premise of the book is that men in particular spend the first half of our lives in acquisition mode. The second half in the in in search of significance now this is in the case of a with a life well lived okay but what happens sometimes to men and you're not a candidate for this but what what you've observed with maybe friends that are a little bit older than you or i have when i was in my 20s or 30s late 20s earlys, is a guy will kind of be winning the, quote, success game,

and it's not fulfilling because acquisition doesn't fulfill. There's only so much of that you can, you know, eat enough lobster, it tastes like soap. And so there's only so much gathering of stuff that is fulfilling. After that, you need significance. And so where you're going to find great joy and depth and soul refreshment is in working for significance rather than acquisition. Because what you've done so far is an excellent job on the acquisition stuff. I mean, crap, man, you knocked out your house. You're 28 years old.

You killed it. But now you've got to have something that's a little deeper, a little more philosophical, a little more spiritual. And the guys that don't do that, and again, I'm not accusing you of this, but just for the rest of your edification, what happens to guys is they just keep going and going and going, going, going, think acquisition, acquisition, acquisition. And then they get all this stuff and all these accolades, and it's still not enough. And so that's when they have what we call a midlife crisis. They go get other wives and other homes. Yeah, they go they go out you know the red convertible and the blonde secretary and here we go you know and so or whatever the whatever the stereotype is of a midlife crisis right so um uh no disrespect to your blonde secretaries but the uh but the uh uh oh my gosh

but the you that's what happens is you happens. If you don't intentionally change that gear at that apex, you will fill it up with the wrong stuff. Here's a fun adventure you and your wife can go on. Go take a half-day retreat in the next week or two and ask her this question. Who do we want to become now that we've done all of this? Another half-day serve soup at the homeless shelter. There you go. And let's get up three or four books that we want to become now that we've done all of this another half day serve soup at the homeless shelter there you go and let's get up three or four books that we want to read together

over the next few months as we start thinking about who are we going to become and also let's make service a regular part of our marriage of our giving back to our community that'd be incredible yeah and yeah it's it is the best part of life and it's the best part of money, actually. It is the live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else. You've got to do that second part, the live and give part, enjoying things and continuing to embrace things and do things and so forth. I was with a group of guys last night. One of the guys said, hey, I want to ask you guys some questions.

Can we gather up? And I just, yeah, I want to ask you guys some questions. Couldn't we gather up? And I just, yeah, I'm always in for that. That's fun. And real philosophical thing kind of thing on the back porch, right? But it was this whole idea that, you know, what are we going to do now that matters? And, man, that's just, you've got to live a life with that kind of intensity, that kind of intentionality. That's a different thing. That's where you are, man.

You're in a really good place. And your question is not weird. It's actually a very, very good question and a very good place that you're in, that you find yourself in. But be intentional about the next steps. Thank you. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Nicole is in Orlando. Hi, Nicole. How are you? Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

So I'm new to the Dave Ramsey. I just heard about you guys about a week ago. I've been living under a rock. But I looked through the baby steps, and I'm kind of coming up with an issue right now. So my family, I was living in Los Angeles, California. I sold my home, and with the profits, I was able to purchase a home outright in, well, we live in Kissimmee, Florida, where I took a position that now has doubled my income. Fabulous. Life is rough.

You have a paid-for house and a doubled income. See you, California. So we are really, needless to say, we feel incredibly blessed. Yeah. So we are really, needless to say, we feel incredibly blessed. But the problem I'm having right now is, you know, with the home, we still have about $100,000 left over. We have about $150,000 between cash in the bank, and we've also invested in gold. But my problem is my new employer, we don't have a 401k, and I don't qualify now for a Roth. So I'm kind of getting a little nervous as far as what what to invest in what's the best way to grow my money um i'm 30 years old right now and so let me

get this straight you're a hundred percent debt free you don't owe on your house you doubled your income yes i don't think there's anything to be nervous about except where we're going to throw the party. I mean, you are really doing it. This is great. Good for you. So not to make light of you or anything. Dave, I might be wrong, but should she buy a bunch more gold? I did buy some more, but not like metal. He's being facetious.

Don't listen to him. I'm being a moron. Don't buy gold. Don't listen to him. We tell people not to buy gold. So here's the thing. You are what we call baby step seven. Okay. All the baby steps lead you out of debt while building an emergency

fund, while starting your retirement, while starting your kid's college. Do you have kids that you need to save for college for? Yes. I have one daughter. She's 13 and we have about 20,000, which was kind of our, my husband and I agreed that was kind of our max as far as what we wanted to contribute. Put a little skin in the game, but she also has to have some skin in the game. Yeah, like $150,000. Okay. A lot of skin your daughter is going to be putting in there. But anyway, there's – yeah, I'm probably doing a little more than that if I'm going to argue with you guys on that.

Even if you're not going to pay for 100%, that $20,000 ain't going to touch it. Nope. So any price of college, it's going to argue with you guys on that even if you're not going to pay for a hundred percent that twenty thousand ain't gonna touch it nope so um price of college it's gonna blow your mind but anyway so here's the thing you're at what we call baby step seven which that step is build wealth and give so I want you to make sure you're you're doing all you can for retirement all you can for the kids college a good way to do that is to sit down with a good financial advisor. You can do what's called a backdoor Roth IRA, and you can put $8,000 a year, $6,000 a year, $7,000 a year, wherever you are in the process there, into that each. Is your husband working outside the home?

No, he's actually a paraplegic, so I'm the sole income provider. But you can do a spousal IRA and a regular IRA, and they can be Roth IRAs, and you can backdoor them. Okay, what a backdoor is, it's called a backdoor Roth. What you do is you open an after-tax traditional IRA and instantaneously roll it to a Roth. Okay. I have a income that far exceeds the limits and I do those every year. So it's perfectly legal. It is a loophole, but it's perfectly legal and moral to do that. And you put it in good growth stock mutual funds like your kid's college should be in. So we have have we're not in the investment business around ramsey but we have a group of investment advisors that we have vetted all over america

many different brands meaning they work for different companies but they all share a couple of traits one they have the heart of a teacher which you want to learn about this stuff and two uh that they are going to give you advice that's consistent with what you hear around here and they're we call them smart vesters and you are you're the smart vestor they're the smart vestor pro so you click on that at ramsey solutions.com it'll give you a list of three or four in your area you can interview all of them and decide which one you like which one you feel good about and you can do your roth backdoor roths there you soup up your kid's college fund a little bit in your 529. Let's get that thing moving a little bit better than it is.

And you can do some other type of investing beyond that, which you're going to be able to do with your wonderful income because you don't have any bills. Way to go. And they're going to tell you what I'm going to tell you, which is don't invest in gold. It's a bad investment. It's had a bad rate of return over the last 70 years.

It's averaged about 1.2%. Gotcha. Now, it's had some big years that the gold bugs like to talk about, but it's had a lot of down years. And it is basically a commodity, and commodities are not things I invest in. So you can do whatever you want, but that's what I would do. I have some gold cufflinks and that's it. Yeah, so yeah, that's what I would do. The last thing you can do is what's called a,

if you want to write this down, is a, you got backdoor, you got to write down for Roth. The other one is a low turnover mutual fund. And so I do a lot of those now too. And what that is, is they don't sell the stocks inside the mutual fund. And so I do a lot of those now too. And what that is is they don't sell the stocks inside the mutual fund much. So a low turnover ratio would be like a 4% turnover ratio, meaning only 4% of them are sold in a year. So there's hardly any of the gains are activated for taxes.

So it works kind of like if you buy a single stock let's say you bought a stock of home depot for 50 bucks i don't even know what home depot goes for but let's say you bought it for 50 bucks if it goes up from 50 bucks to 70 bucks you don't pay any taxes on that 20 gain until you sell it because they're not selling the stocks inside the mutual fund there's low turnover it's growing like that stock was growing and you don't pay taxes on it until you sell it because they're not selling it now if the mutual fund turns over all the time it's activated even though you didn't sell the mutual fund it's still activating the gains and you have to pay tax on it every year so you want this is capital gains growth and it's a

good way to do that another excellent way to get at that is just a no-load S&P 500 fund will put you in that same thing. Almost all of those are low turnover ratio. So just check for the turnover ratio or talk to your SmartVestor Pro about that. I do some through my SmartVestor Pro, and I just occasionally just dump some into an index fund. And what I'm typically doing there, Nicole, you do whatever you want, but I'm a real estate goob. So I'll just use that fund, build it up until I I got enough money to buy a piece of real estate in it. And then I'll cash that in and go buy some real estate. And if I keep it longer than a year, it's taxed at capital gains rates to the ordinary income rate, which is half.

15% for you, 20% for me. But just on the growth? Only on the growth. Yeah. for me versus just on the growth only on the growth yeah yeah so um but it's an excellent vehicle for uh because you get you know a better tax deal if you hold it a year and you don't pay taxes if you know if you just keep holding it it just keeps growing so i remember back in the early to mid 80s dave my dad took me down when i started my little lawn business and he took me down to open up a savings account and my interest rate was 11 12 13 percent

we're coming out of this that bad inflation i remember it and i remember circling back in college and getting a savings account and it was one and i remember thinking the bank was ripping me off and i didn't understand about economics can we expect with inflation and with the fed rates that we can go down to normally we'd put money in an index fund, we put it in a money market account. Can we expect to go down to our banks and just get these elevated rates that we haven't experienced the last decade? Well, Fed was running when it was high as 18, the Fed rate did in 1982 and under Jimmy Carter, and it was out of control. And so the Fed, that's an example of government tinkering with the economy that they shouldn't have been.

So they ran the Fed rate up. And what the Fed funds rate is is what one bank borrows from another. So it's their cost of money. So if they pay more to borrow money from another bank to loan to you, then they're going to charge you more. So it drives interest rates up to the consumer. So the Fed funds rate's a big deal. But no, you'd have to say I think interest rates in general, the interest rate environment is going to go through the roof again.

And I've got to tell you, man, it got Carter booted out of office for sure. That and the Iran hostage crisis cost him the presidency. And he was a sitting president one term. Yeah. And that's unusual and it cost him that for sure it was political suicide to do that so no i mean six percent fed raider you know i mean a six percent mortgage market is not a it's not a high mortgage market no no it's not it's not it's not anywhere near that kind of numbers so no you're not going to see a savings account that's going to pay much more than 1% or 2% in your coming years.

This is The Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Sylvester is in New Haven, Connecticut. Hi, Sylvester. How are you? How you doing, Mr. Ramsey? How you doing, Mr. Deloney? Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help? How you doing today, sir? I'm calling on behalf of me and my wife.

We just have a question. We would like to know, should we sell our home right now due to inflation because it's up to pay off our debt and move into an apartment for two years and just try to save for another house? It's my last choice if you can't do it any other way. So how much do you owe on your home? Right now, we owe about $11 got 114 000 what's it worth right now about 205 and how much debt have you got not counting the house um the debt is 70k uh 40 40 student loans which is my wife and she has another 15 in

personal and i have 10 personal so we're around 70. No car debt? No car debt. We own our car, but we actually need another car because we have two children. Yeah. So what's your car worth? Insurance won't be considered a total loss, so they'll give us probably $6,000 for it. They won't fix anything on it, so we'll get $6,000.

That's the one that totaled. What's the other one worth? No, we don't have one. We need an additional car. Oh, so you have one that you're out of cars right now. Yeah, we just have one car, one car, but we need another one. If we sell, we'll be probably able to get another car. I got you.

Okay, so what's your household income um honestly um i i make over six figures with three incomes um so my wife brings in maybe um right now she's about to start a new job which is around 60 so she averages maybe 60 80 000 a year right now she's trying to find so you have a household income of like two hundred thousand dollars uh at least 180 yeah that's what i'm thinking yeah so no you don't need to sell your house how long again your wife your wife's not been working until recently uh yeah she just stopped me she's been you know job searching looking for the right job that you know how long has she been out of work? Maybe the past two months.

You know, she just needed me time dealing with the children and just, you know. I'm not picking on her. I'm just trying to find out where this math is going. So basically, you've had over the last two or three years a household income of $100,000 to $180,000, somewhere in there. I would say I just got my highest paying job this year, so you could say before that was W2Js making $135,000 together because we owe every year in taxes, and now we're at $180,000. Well, New Haven, Connecticut, $200,000 for a house is not a fancy house. No, it's a condo, so that's why she would like to sell,

take the game, be debt-free, move into an apartment with our children for two years, and hopefully buy another home. You know, we're just asking for recommendations. She spoke to other financial advisors, and he was like, use your line of equity. You know, it's up to you. Don't use that financial advisor.

He's an idiot. Yeah, fire that person. So here's what you need to do. Can I pick on you? Is that okay? Absolutely he's an idiot. Yeah, fire that person. So here's what you need to do. I'm going to pick. Can I pick on you? Is that okay? Absolutely, sir. Okay.

You make too much money to be this broke. Y'all are disorganized, out of control, and overspending. You make a lot of money, especially if we get Jacket all the way up to $180,000. $180,000, you'll be able to pay off $70,000 in about nine or ten months. Right. But, you know, granted, you've not made $180,000 through this whole story while you got into this mess, but the way you knock this out is not selling the house.

Selling the house is, the debt is not the problem, it's the symptom. Okay. And you're treating the symptom when you sell your house. I'd rather you treat the problem, which is you guys get on a tight budget, no eating out, no vacations, no life, and you pay all of this off in nine or ten months. I mean, how would it feel to be ten months from now, have no debt but your house?

That would be great. That's the ultimate plan yeah and then guess what you can do figure it out yeah then that condo goes up in value for the next couple years while you're saving some more money to add with that condo and you can move into a little better house which is really what your wife's trying to pull off here without dealing with the fact that you guys are overspending like you're in congress but you got to deal with that or dude you're gonna be broke your whole life you can't out earn stupidity i tried it for a long time and you can't outlive disorganization and i've tried that for a long time there's a lot of stress

in this story isn't there sylvester yeah my wife is extremely stressed that's why i was job searching yeah hold on hold on hold on hey you're stressed too when you're working i'm fine i'm fine honestly it's my wife i care about and i love her i just want to fall on your sword if you want but dude the numbers you're giving me are stressful if you're working three jobs you you think you kind of know what you're making what you're not that's a that's hard right and you're you're you're got you're strong you you're you go to work you work hard there's some ego there but it's okay to say man i want to live a more peaceful life too yeah if you had no payments and all your money was doing exactly what it was told you'd be breathing deeper and one more step you you mentioned your wife's got

some debt and you got some debt if you were so in sync with her that this was y'all's debt and this will be y'all working together on getting out of this thing and then your marriage is you're going to look up in a year after grinding this thing out and y'all will have accomplished a big hard thing together and then your marriage is going to be in a place that you didn't you don't remember it being so here's the deal you're a good guy i can tell by talking to you absolutely you're a solid guy um and uh i think you guys are almost ready to do the smart stuff if you are really ready i'll give you financial peace university the nine-week class for you to go through you and your wife go through it together find a local church and plug into it or get get on with an online group and go through it with your online group

and then watch the videos and do the budgets and do the stuff we teach you and in literally in nine weeks i can show you how this debt should be gone in nine months and both of you be on the same page we can show you how to do it we've shown 10 million people how to do it if i give that to you for free can you get her to go along with you and the two of you do these lessons together well she's on the phone now if you don't mind clicking in okay what's her what's her name her name is sherry does she know about all this discussion we've just been having yes sherry shay shay yes hey i'm going to give you guys financial peace university if you'll promise to actually go

through it together will you break that promise yes if you guys will do this we can show you how to get out of debt in nine or ten months 12 months max and you keep the condo let the condo go up in value and then you can move over and jump into the better house later on that's about a three-year plan or so does that sound good good? Sounds good. Okay. You guys make too much money to be this freaking broke. You agree with that? Absolutely. All right.

You hang on. Austin will pick up, and we'll help you guys get through this. You're the kind of people we like to help. She's on the phone. This is good news right here, John. I know. And I love, man, I'm smiling ear to ear. I love talking to husbands who have run up against, like I've tried to flex my way through this,

and I need to go ask somebody for another plan because my plan of just go, go, go is not working, and I'm looking around. I've got a stressed wife. I've got stressed kids. I've got debt. Maybe we can come up with a scheme to get out of this, and then I'm going to go to somebody and say, hey, I need some wisdom, go to somebody and say hey i need some wisdom and you say i got a path for you i

got a path that's called a good man it's called wisdom that's a good man she married well good man golly and she's good lady she jumped right in there i mean we didn't have to drag her kicking and screaming so this this is the kind of folk that turn these things they'll be on the stage doing a debt-free scream in a year yep and um in in five years they'll be telling me they're baby steps millionaires oh for sure they're on their way because they make 180 000 let me just tell you man new haven connecticut not a cheap place to live nope so um that's that's a big market there so uh so it's a nice market but um yeah wow wow very very cool and i love to hear those three i'm working three jobs and i'm making it happen. I love it.

Yeah, it's just so interesting that 98% of winning at this stuff is just deciding to do it. Yeah. Deciding, I'm not going to live like this anymore. So I was hiking the other day. My wife and I were on our anniversary trip. I was hiking up a hill and I think mental health, I think financial health, physical health, I think if we distill it all down, it comes into three words. Do it anyway. Just do it anyway.

It's hard. I need a plan. Just go do it. Do it anyway. Go do it anyway. I don't want to have a conversation. Go do it anyway. That old Art Williams talk.

Just do it. Yes, just do it. Just do it. Do it. Just do it. Get on the right plane. Love it. Love it.

This is good stuff, man. Good stuff. Thank you guys for joining us. just do it love it this is good stuff man good stuff thank you guys for joining us thanks to Austin, Ben, Zach Andrew, James and well in the booth this is the Ramsey Show Dave here

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