The Ramsey Show - App - You Need a Lawyer To Put the Fear of God in Your Renters (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 21, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: "What do we do with our money during a sabbatical?" What to do when your renters stop paying rent, The best way to save up for a rental property, Transferring mutual funds when employer switches 401(k) plans, "Should I take out small loans to boost my credit score?" from the blog: The Best Way to Improve Your Credit Score Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Jade Walsh, our Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Cece is in Indianapolis.

Hi, Cece. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking the call. About two years ago, we paid off our house. And as of May 2022, we have the million-dollar net worth. Yay! Yeah. But I'll be honest with you. I'm more fearful now than when we were broke.

I'm not sure what to do with this stuff. I know that we have about $430,000 in cash spread across three banks and we have 650,000 in our house, which we are selling in May. And then we are taken off for about a year and a half to two years sabbatical. So, um, I don't know where to park this stuff. Um, I'm fearful of banks. I'm fearful of, um, you know, there is a little bit of inheritance in there. So I have that pressure of like, I'm the third generation, so I don't want to mess that up and um i'm the some of our money came from real estate investments but i went out of that because i don't want the responsibility of it when we're

gone um so i don't know what to do how much money do you still have in real estate just the house just the one just just our personal health so right, at the end of this story, you've got a million dollars in cash is what you're saying. And you've got to decide what to do with it while you take a year and a half off. Yeah, and I could potentially, honestly, all of that is outside of, in addition to, we still have my dad's house. So either A, I could end up purchasing, buying my portion and buying my brother out. Or my brother could buy me out. So there's another swing of money. How much would it take to buy him out? $200,000 to buy him out or, you know, obviously 200,000. I mean, so really, honestly, I have closer to a million, two or more.

Yeah. So I don't have a clue what to do. Okay. Well, the only thing that's concerning me here is, is all of your fear. Cause fear is one of two things. Okay. There's one of two things that fear comes from. All right.

Fear is either a reasonable reaction to an actual threat. Don't touch a hot stove. That'll hurt. That's good fear, right? Don't run in the traffic. That's good fear. Okay. You know, don't eat poison.

That's good fear. You know, I mean, hello. You know, so that eat poison. That's good fear. You know, I mean, hello. You know, so that's all good things. Then there's false evidence appearing real. There's fear of the unknown brought on by I don't understand something, so I'm afraid of it. I've never ridden a bicycle, so I'm afraid of bicycles. I never learned to swim, and so I'm afraid of swimming.

But neither one kill you. On a regular instance, you can die on a bicycle or swimming, but it's not like swallowing rat poison, okay? It's like a 100% fatality rate. The bicycles are not, right? You see what I'm saying? But the fear that a child feels the first time they go into swim is a a fear based on the unknown ignorance of the process not based on the actual threat you see the difference yes and i think that's the one you're struggling with

okay i think you're afraid to put money in the stock market you're afraid to put money in the Okay. SVP, SVB. But the, I mean, and I've got money in the stock market in mutual funds, millions of dollars, and I am not even, my pulse rate has not even changed. Okay. Except maybe a little bit of excitement every now and then. But anyway, but yeah. So, and when you bought your home, an example of that is, there were no guarantees when you bought the home. There was not a federal guarantee against a loss, but you were not afraid because you were comfortable with your knowledge of the real estate market just because you had walking around since.

You didn't have to be a real estate expert. You're just old enough to go, man, I remember when houses sold for X, and now they're selling for Y, and real estate's just solid, and I can be in real estate. So you're comfortable with that one because you're comfortable with the history and the track record and your knowledge of it. So I don't want you to put your money in something that causes you to lose sleep, but if you put a million dollars aside in good mutual funds and if it makes 7%, 8%, 10%, you got seventy or hundred thousand dollars a year to live off of

and not touch your million dollars while you're on sabbatical so how do i go about i don't know anything about mutual funds my my my son is saying the same thing and he is in the stock market a little bit but he's so young and inexperienced that I just can't take it. He's not trustworthy enough to cause your fear to leave. No, no, he hasn't earned me experience. Not because he's a bad guy, but he's just a neophyte. No, right. And he's good at what he does, but he's only been doing it for a year or two,

so that's not enough for me. Okay, what I want you to do. What do I do? I want you to get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros, and that's why we tell you to work with people with the heart of a teacher. And I want you to tell them what you're struggling with and say, you've got to teach me enough about the history of a mutual fund. Give me a few mutual fund examples.

There's some really good brochures out on mutual funds that show the history and show the stability. And, you know, once you study those for an hour, if you can do sixth grade math, you're going to be going, oh, my gosh, I get it. So do you think I should put all of it? Am I hearing you say put all of it while I'm running around? Only if you can get comfortable. Okay. So do you think I should put all of it? Am I hearing you say put all of it while I'm running around? Only if you can get comfortable. Okay.

I don't want you on a sabbatical in freak-out mode. No. Okay. Okay. What does it take you guys to live a year while you're in the sabbatical? Oh, my gosh. It's so cheap. It's probably thirty

thousand dollars okay so here's the thing if you put a million dollars in a couple of banks you know five banks and four banks and spread around where you've got the fdic coverage and you make nothing but you sleep and you have a good sabbatical and you pull 30 grand out to eat on whoopty-doopty that's okay i would rather you do that than invest in mutual funds only because dave and jade said so okay i want you to study now so get in touch with a smart investor pro begin learning but only if you can get enough knowledge like you do about real estate and it's not like you got to go get an MBA in finance. You've just got to learn the history of these things. So, and ask the Smart Investor Pro to give you a brochure. There's a wonderful brochure on Investment Company of

America, ICA, as an example. It'll teach you some of the history. It's one of the best brochures on mutual funds I've seen. It's a good mutual fund too, but ask them to give you the American Funds ICA brochure. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981.

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Jade Walshaw, Ramsey Personality, is our co-host today. This is The Ramsey Show. It's a show about your life, your relationships, your careers, and your money. Catherine's with us in Baltimore, Maryland. Hi, Catherine. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hey, what's up? Well, so we started attacking our debt snowball

like in earnest two months ago. And to do that, we're selling a rental property my husband brought into our marriage. The equity would wipe out a big chunk of our debt. The issue is we let the renters know at the beginning of this month we weren't going to renew their lease and they've stopped all communications.

They've got two months before the lease terminates because they get 90 days notice, and our lawyer let us know that really the only thing we can do is file for a formal eviction, but it could take three weeks to four months, and the lease just might expire before it goes through. And so I guess my question really is, do we go forward with an eviction process in the fees since we're planning to sell the property anyway? Should we eat the lost payments? I think my biggest concern is that, like, if the renters are already acting in bad faith, that if we bring legal action, they'll not only stop paying rent,

but they'll, like, trash the place, and then we have to pay repairs and stuff. How much is the monthly rent? It's like $1,500. And so they're going to be $4,500 into you by the time this is up? Yeah. And how much of a deposit do you have? We have one month, so we have a $1,500 deposit.

So they're going to be $3,000 into you. Yeah. Okay. The lawyer that you talked to, how many evictions has he done this year? Two, which is why he said that like... He's done two this year? Well, he's saying that he's had two that have like finished proceedings start to finish this year which is why because when we asked how long it would take he like said it would go three weeks

to four months so he does this regularly but is not successful um i don't i don't know we uh we asked the um the attorney who helped us drop like the paperwork. So I don't know that he does a lot of eviction. I think he just generally does rental property like general law. That's kind of what I was thinking. So what we need is a lawyer who makes his living or her living doing evictions. Okay. They're a little meaner than the one you talked to. Okay. They're a little meaner than the one you talked to. Okay.

You need one that is a little nastier, that's going to put the fear of God in said renter because said renter has decided they're a thief because they got their little girl feelings hurt, little boy feelings hurt. And said renter is not owning up to a contract, and contract law is still good even in Maryland. Yeah.

I guess my question is just like, is it worth it for like $3,000? Yes. Do not let them steal from you. Because here's the thing. If you continue to play from a hand of weakness, they're going to completely strip this house. Okay. Instead, if you knock the crap out of them,

they're going to be afraid of you, which is the way this ought to be. I'm not very scary, Dave. I'm not going to lie. But your lawyer can be. I think you hire the hit job here. It's called a lawyer. You contract out the hit.

Metaphorically speaking. I don't have a husband that we're hiring a hitman. Metaphorically speaking. I have a husband that we're hiring a hitman. Metaphorically speaking, yeah. If you're going to hire a lawyer that does evictions, they have to know how to get all up in somebody's face. It's part of the process. Because what you've got is you've got adults that are throwing a little hissy fit over here, and we're going to have to teach them how the law works

okay and i you really if you do not if you just ignore this as an act of weakness or an act of i avoid confrontation you're gonna get what you do you're gonna get they're gonna take you out they're gonna keep your three thousand dollars they're probably gonna sue you for the deposit just because they think they can. Because these people are not bright. Don't let them try it. Do not let them try it, Catherine. Okay.

Yeah. It is worth $1,000 to give them a hard time. Oh, and by the way, your lease probably says you get to add that to their bill. Yeah. Probably says attorney's fees are added to the bill yeah most good leases do in most states so this is not vengeance this is i don't do good with adults having hissy fits okay and just going i'm just gonna walk on the contract just because i don't like it well i don't care you little wuss You get to pay your rent. You signed up big girls and big boy paperwork.

And so this is how this works. God, that makes me mad. I don't like thieves. Yeah. This is a thief. Yeah. Yeah. So I think you do what you want to do.

I've been doing rental property a long, long time. We're never mean to people. We're never unkind to people but we do have lawyers do it sure if they are misbehaving and stealing stuff and you know they decide they're going to do drugs and the you know the dadgum drug enforcement surrounding my house that i own because i got a druggie in there we're not going to do this this is not what we do so you get to move and we're going to have somebody help you do that since you don't have sense to do it, sense enough to do it on your own and do this

with class. They signed a contract that allows you to end it at 90 days from today. All you did was do what you said you were going to do on the paperwork. You've done nothing wrong. You were not unkind to them. You did not violate their rights. You didn't do anything wrong. They're just having a fit. And they hadn't paid their bill. Yeah. Yeah. So you really, really, really do need to lean on them. I don't know if you follow it all the way through or not, but you at least need to represent that you're going to because that puts them back on their heels where right now you're on your heels and you're the one in the right.

So I don't like dealing with right so i don't like dealing with lawyers i don't like dealing with any of this stuff i don't i don't choose the fight but these people chose to not pay their bill and sometimes we have to have a judge remind people how things work that's why we have judges and i hate it i don't want to do it i don't ever seek that out. Right. But oh my gosh. It is a matter of posturing and your guy you talk to is a wuss. You don't need to use him. Yeah. She needs to get more of a pit bull. Sometimes you need to hire an attorney that you don't even like. Brett's with us in Atlanta. Hey, Brett, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Jade. I love your show.

Listen to your YouTube channel almost daily. So thank you for taking my call. Thanks. How can we help? Yeah. So I plan on buying another investment property with cash within the next year or two. So I've been saving up. So right now I have $83,000 cash currently sitting in a high yield savings account at 4%.

Very cool. I plan on saving another $50,000 over the next few months. Good for you. So with that said, thank you. With that said, I want to make sure I am maximizing the return with the cash that I have just sitting there. I'm used to investing. I'm used to getting a mortgage and doing investment property. So I'm doing it a little bit different this time.

So I have a lot of cash. What is the best thing to do with it? Right now, 4% is good, but it's not great. I don't want to invest it because I'm going to use it within the next year or two. So what should I do? 4% is a parking fee. You're parking the money. If you invest the money and don't park it you make more but you take more

risk as you just said so if i'm you i'm parking it because this the money that you're going to have for this is not coming from your return on investment it's coming from you putting money in the account correct you're the secret sauce not the the investment. If you make 10% rather than 4% over two months, that amounts to like 3% difference. It's nothing. I mean, 3% on $100,000. You're not within $2,000 of doing your deal here. Your deal is a $150,000 deal.

You follow me? Yeah, I do. So your return on investment here is not going to make this happen or keep this from happening. I wouldn't. I would just leave it in the pocket if I were in your shoes. Got it. Cool.

You understand why I'm doing that? Yes, I do. Yeah. So, Brett, people that think like you and i think because we're math nerds um we look for something to fix the investment and sometimes the thing that fixes the investment is you you're the one that's doing the investing you're the one putting the money in the account not the investment and so don't try to fix it just pile up money go do it pile up money go do it this is the ramsey show And so don't try to fix it. Just pile up money. Go do it. Pile up money. Go do it.

This is the Ramsey Show. Jade Warshaw, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Lots of live events going on all around america right now including the inaugural event at the new ramsey event center we are just moving in it was just finished literally this week and uh the first public event will be the smart conference april 14th and 15th it's going to be a blast all the ramsey personalities r, Rachel Cruz, Dr. John Deloney, Ken Coleman, George Camel, Christina Ellis, Jade Warshaw, all going to join me as we kick off this event. It's a two-day event

or a day and a half event. So here's the deal. We're going to broadcast this show from that stage for a live studio audience of several hundred. If you want to come to that, you can. Let us know you'd like to come, whether you're coming to Smart Conference or not. But if you're coming to Smart Conference, come in early, be part of that, and then there'll be a few-hour break where you go get some dinner when this is over,

and then that evening, we're going to have the Smart Money Happy Hour to kick off the Smart Conference weekend, Friday evening, followed by some uh country music icons uh there's a couple of them around here in nashville if you hadn't heard they're going to come hang out with us so we'll have a little nashville experience uh from the stage of the ramsey event center inaugural weekend on friday night and then all day saturday we're going to be teaching cool and uh it's going to be a blast and going to have a lot of fun.

Really looking forward to it. It's almost sold out. There's about like 52 tickets or something like that left. Tickets, the only ones left are general admission. They're $119 for that whole thing. Wow, that's great. It's a deal. Yeah.

RamseySolutions.com slash events. And you'll get the inaugural ticket so you can have the memory of being at the very first event that ever occurs and you get to be part of that experience and we're really we're pretty pumped about it around here i can just tell you so um a lot a couple of building wealth live events in anaheim and in salt lake city left this spring here in april and may check those out at ramsey solutions.com slash events money and marriage event in the fall with dr john deloney and rachel cruz that is on sale uh i think it's about half sold out already i think it's an october date so check that out uh ken coleman

is coming to four cities to do his uh career uh get clear assessment process and sit with small groups of three five hundred yeah not going to be large events little three to five hundred events and going to be a lot of q a and so these we're everywhere you guys we are all over the place uh career breakthrough that's what that event's that's going to be good yeah and so you can check these out in all the different cities all this stuff at ramsey solutions.com slash events events. All right, Jeff's with us in Miami. Hi, Jeff. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Good afternoon. Thanks so much for taking my call. I listen to you guys all the time, so I appreciate it. Thank you. How can we help? So my question is I just found out from my current employer that they are changing the administrator of our 401K retirement plan. And my question was,

when I looked through the new investment options in the upcoming plan, most of my investments, my mutual funds don't transfer over. So probably about 80% of my portfolio. So my question is, you know, should I, should I move this all into cash before the blackout happens and then reallocate? Should I let these just transfer directly into the new equivalent funds? You know, my concern was some of these I've held for four or five years, bought at lower market prices, and I'm going to be basically forced to sell them. Or maybe I'm overthinking this, so just wondered what you thought. Okay, if you sell them and there's a profit, there's no tax

because it moves just into another mutual fund, so there's no loss. You don't lose anything. That's true. of the mutual funds, so there's no loss. You don't lose anything. You don't lose anything. That's true. I figured when I change to the new fund, though, I'm buying it all at the current market price, so I'd lose some of the share. But you're selling at the current market price. Yeah, that's true.

That's correct. So assuming they're equivalent funds, it's a break-even. Okay. If you're moving into a substandard fund that's a different issue but it doesn't there's no loss just due to the transaction right that's correct i need to probably look at the equivalent funds in more more detail but um and so you're saying essentially just let them let them transfer over let that occur i would try to i would try to select the funds and uh it sounds like you may know what we're going to say, where you pick a fund that has the longest possible track record.

I love a minimum of a five-year track record. I love a 10- or a 20-year track record on an old-time mutual fund. Got a little gray hair in it, in other words. And, you know, that long track record gives me a lot of comfort, and I'm obviously picking something that's beating the S&P 500. Otherwise, I'm dumping it into an S&P. Okay. No, that makes sense.

I'm sorry. If you don't have anything that beats the S&P, you dump it in the S&P, right? Yep. No, that makes sense. The one fund that actually transfers over is an S&P 500, the next fund that actually had my largest amount in. Yeah. I mean, that's a mid-cap fund or a standard growth fund it just happens to follow

the index um and so but you know a standard growth fund should be performing about the same way it might not have the exact same portfolio mix but should be performing about the same way. Got it. How large a company? We're a medium-sized company, probably 2,500 employees. Okay. What do you do there? It's construction management building. What do you do there? I'm involved with technology and project management.

So the upper half of the food chain definitely we're we're uh we're a general contractor no you are in this 2500 you're not an entry level but you're also not a senior leader that's correct okay so but i mean what i was thinking is you drop in the cfo's office or the hr director's office who have made this decision if you don't like the options, and go, hey, could we pull some of these other funds in? Because there's some good funds they all didn't put in here. Yeah, that's a great point.

What I was trying to figure out is if you had enough influence to pull that off. I don't know. It sounds probably not. It sounds like the decision's been made because we only have 30 days. No, the new administrator can choose the fund selection. Your HR director can direct the new administrator to add funds as options. I got you. So definitely let them know what I think.

And so, like, if you've got an XYZ fund in your current mix that you love, has a long track record, has performed like a beast, and it's not in the new one, go in there and go, hey, look at this. Would you add this one? This one's killing it. Gotcha. They may want it for themselves, you know. I mean, I would.

So that kind of thing. But, you know, I actually had some people come into our funds, our 401K funds, and say, look, that fund over there is misbehaving. They're doing this, this, and this. And I went, oh, crap, you're right. And we axed them we took it out of our options because they were screwing around with stuff they shouldn't be screwing around and trying to virtue signal instead of run actually running a mutual fund and so we dumped them and um but it was based on a team member's suggestion but it

was a team member that had influence obviously keyword influence yeah i mean it's not wasn't somebody got hired three weeks ago at an entry-level position it was you know that kind of thing so it's not not that there's anything wrong with that but i mean we listen to anybody but the more weight you can swing on it so it's not a big deal to add for your administrator to add funds or to take away funds change the selection mix uh if they want and you know it's you can ask it doesn't cost anything to ask good stuff that is a good question so he said that some of the funds were equivalent and some of them weren't so for the ones that are equivalent is that just an automatic it's just an automatic roll through well in other words do i have a i've got a good

international is there a good international over there? If there is, it's an equivalent. You just move from international to international. I've got a good aggressive growth stock mutual fund. And there's a good aggressive growth stock mutual fund over there. That's an equivalent. Then by good, I mean long track record performing above the index. And so I can move it over there and not have any big deal.

I just got a Chevrolet rather than a Ford, but they're both good trucks, right? That kind of a thing, and that's what we're looking at. But what happens is sometimes people just pick – sometimes mutual fund people are like they follow the fads of something somebody's yakking about in that nerd world instead of actually looking at stuff with soul and long track record and gritty and that kind of stuff and so sometimes you just point it out and you go no don't go over here oh okay you know they don't really have it they don't die on that hill very often this is the Ramsey Show.

Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 4, 25 and 27. Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet. Stay on the path. Stay on the safe path. Don't get sidetracked. Keep your feet from following evil francis bacon said fortitude and the power of fixing attention are two marks of a great mind oh the ability to focus and stick with it wow scott is with us scott's in pensacola florida

hey scott how can we help hey uh hey i'm uh wanting to know um about uh bringing my credit score up i haven't financed anything in 15 years at least or even or on the credit card 15 years at least i'm 59 my credit score is a zero as of last week i i've it up, and I have just a little bit of money. I mean, just a couple of thousand dollars in savings. I just went recently unemployed. I'm probably going to be making about $500 a week. Self-employed, my wife makes about $650 a week. After tax, we have a house that we owe about 50 on it.

It's worth about $220, $230. It needs some work. I can do all the work. It's with equity because I did remodels for 25 years, and I want to get that credit score up so I can buy property eventually. You've done so good for so long without a credit score. Why can't you just save up and pay cash for the property that you want because at this point you don't want to borrow well i mean um i could do something like

owner finance of a house about to fall down do all the work and sweat equity and not have to pay for that enormous labor bill on it um the one thing I'm wanting. I'm wanting to buy some old houses and flip houses and find owner finance. And with the money down, you know, the thing. I had an idea of borrowing small loans against my savings and paying them off and then getting out of zero at least i think i figure out within a year let's let's let's stop a second okay um you're you're new to this process around ramsey and i appreciate you calling and uh we'd love to try to help you get ahead so what we have learned scott and what we teach folks is the most powerful wealth building tool you can have is not borrowed money.

It is your income and staying out of debt. My credit score, Scott, is zero. I don't have one either. And so because I don't borrow money ever, I don't want those people in my life ever again. Life is too short to let banks speak into my life and own sections of who I am. And so I'm going to recommend that you don't do flips with borrowed money.

The number of people that do flips with borrowed money and are not bankrupt within five years is very small. The vast majority of people who do flips with borrowed money go bankrupt. It's a mythology. Now, can you get into the real estate business? Yeah, but you're probably going to have to improve your career and get your income up. You're not making any money well my idea was to find people who when i say a loan that would invest in um to put up the money invest you don't need a credit score for that yeah. You need a credit score if you're dealing with some stupid butt bank.

Yeah, right. And the only way to get a credit score is borrow money so that you can borrow money. Why? So you can borrow money. Why? So you can borrow money. Why? It sounds like we're supporting the banks when we keep a credit score open, because we are.

So I'm going to advise you to do your deals without going into debt. And if you bring in somebody with you, like a money player, like you're talking about, give them a piece of the profits and you don't have any payments with them and you don't have a credit score. So let's say you go find a house that is worth $200,000, but it's all the pieces and you can buy it for a hundred. Okay. Right. Your money, your money guy puts up the hundred and puts up some money for materials and you

go do all the work. And a year later you sell it, uh, for, uh, the 200 and you and the money guy split the money. But in the meantime, you don't have any payments. Right.

Okay, that's an okay deal. I don't mind that deal. That's what I'm planning on doing eventually. You don't need a credit score for that. What you need is a deal and a money guy that wants to be in a deal. Okay. That's the two things you're missing. It's not I need to go borrow a bunch

of money so later i have the opportunity to play kissy face with a stupid bank right you don't want to be there man you work too hard to get away from them right yeah and in the meantime while you're doing all that i think you need to get your income up too you're not making any money so let's get your income up you have the opportunity to make a lot more than you're making right now if you poke around out there and there's a different side hustle different thing to do there's no reason you can't do all of it at once uh but don't go be borrowing that hundred thousand dollars from that bank and be making payments for two years while you finish up this rehab that takes longer than you thought it was going to take and then it takes

longer to sell it than you thought it was going to take, and then it takes longer to sell it than you thought it was going to take. Oh, and then you become motivated because the bank's about to foreclose. Now you become the guy who gives somebody a deal because you're in debt to the bank. This is how that world works. Yeah, these foreclosures eat each other sometimes. So that's what I would do, sir. Thank you for being a new listener. I hope we can continue to serve you.

Chance is in Birmingham. Hey, Chance, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Good afternoon, Dave. How are you? Great. How can we help? I was calling to get some guidance from you. I've been following you for years, and you've helped me tremendously.

I want to personally thank you for that. I am debt-free now. However, I am running into an issue where housing prices and interest rates here in my area, in my county, livable houses are at least in the $ hundred thousand dollar range and i've been working for a while to set up my down payment um however even to get a down payment large enough to get a 15-year mortgage with a payment that is less than my at least less than 25 percent of my bring home seems to be impossible.

Sounds like your bring home pay is low. What are you bringing home? My gross is $70,000. I think after taxes I bring home around $52,000. Okay. Which that includes health insurance and everything. What we're talking about by take-home pay is not a health insurance deduction. It's just simply taxes.

Okay. So a little different take-home pay than you're calculating on, number one. Number two, I'm looking for some ways to increase my income if I'm you so that you can get into a house that you like. Definitely. See, I've been saving for the last year, which i intend to save for the next few years i'm just afraid that by the time i have enough saved interest rates and home processor just going to continue to increase well i think what dave was saying is is the anecdote for that if you can get your income up and you continue to save you're gonna you're gonna get there eventually but you've got to do those things combined in order to make that happen.

Because here's your other option. Your other option is you stop saving today. And if you stop saving today, then you're never going to get a house. But if you keep saving and you keep trying to drive your income up, then don't you think eventually you'll get there? Absolutely. You will. You will.

It's just... If interest rates go to to 14 you're not in the market anyway right true that so you're going to wait on the comeback down at that point so um you know and i was selling real estate in the 80s when they were 14 when they were 17 and they came down to 14 and we thought it was a deal but um know, six is really not exactly a hardship compared to history anyway. I mean, you have to look at your options and none of them's good. If you stop today, you're not going to have enough money saved. And if you bought a house with what you have today, you're going to be house poor. And that's not that's not an option for you.

So, Jansa, I just want to assure you, you're going to get there. Yeah, you'll get there. You're going to get there. You're going'll get there. You're going to get there. You're going to get there. You're going to make it. Don't let the fear of being priced out of the market cause you to do something stupid. Be patient. Get there.

Buy something you can afford. Move up later. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you following us. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books. Austin, Ben, James, Zach, and Andrew, the booth dudes, are pulling it off in the booth. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. 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.

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