The Ramsey Show - App - You Need To Get Your Butt in Gear! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

George Kamel & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: "Should I file for bankruptcy?" "I got a car lease from my parents - should I keep it?" "Does a company match count toward my 15%?" from the blog: Should I Take My 401(k) Company Match? Saving for a home. 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pod's Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work they love, and create amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by my fellow Ramsey personality, Jade Warshaw. And we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. And I know we got a lot of new listeners coming into the show. We're so glad you're here. And if you're wondering, you want to dive deeper into all this lingo we're throwing

out there, baby steps, 3B, 5, 6, you can go to ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button, and we will help you figure out the next best step for you in your financial journey based on where you're at today. That's ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. All right, Jack is kicking us off this hour in Austin, Texas. Jack, welcome to the show. Hey, how you doing, folks? Doing great. How are you? I'm good. Thanks for asking. So yeah, I'm in credit card debt, and I'll just give you the numbers to start off with. We could say $26,000 in combined credit card debt across five

credit cards. In addition to that, I also owe $12,000 on my car that I'm still paying. So $38,000, it looks like we're in total. I can tell you my monthly expenses right now if you're interested. What's the total expenses per month? Total expenses per month is $1,400 approximate. All right. What's your take-home pay? Take-home pay, I can do about $2,500 per month for a total of $30,000 per year. Okay. That's your take-home pay? Take-home pay, I can do about $2,500 per month for a total of $30K per year. Okay. That's your take-home. So you're making about, what, $45K?

I'm sorry again. Can you repeat that? Are you making about $45,000 gross? No, no, no, no, no. No, I think my gross is the $30K.. Right now I'm doing delivery with DoorDash and Uber Eats. Okay. So everything I'm getting is just I'm cashing out. Oh, you're having to pay taxes on that down the road. Yeah. Okay. All right. Got it, got it.

And what's your question today? Well, what I want to know is mostly just trying to focus on the credit card debt. Three of those credit lines have already been charged off. Two of them are still active, but with the impending loom that they're going to be charged off. The highest one is around 9,000. The lower one is around 2,200. What I want to know, because I have about 8,900 and my Roth 401k was shot, is if I should to know, because I have about $8,900 in my Roth 401k with Schwab, is if I should pull that to curb this debt specifically for these active accounts so that they don't become charged off,

because I want to avoid as many charged off accounts as I can possible, and then even further than that, bankruptcy. Because if it's just a matter of if I have to pay taxes now, fees next tax season, and it's like, okay, I'm paying money, perhaps I'd rather do that than have this be for next seven years. That's my mindset. You're breaking up, Austin, a little bit, Jack. Make sure to speak directly on your phone.

Okay. So we hear you. I don't think bankruptcy is in your near future. Me either. This is not that kind of situation. Very rarely would I say that might be the best option for you. It's not even on the table. I agree. You're far from it. Okay. And the reason I say that is because they're so far for you to go on your income that it's not like you're, you know, at the top of your income and you've got this crazy debt and your back is against the wall. You have actually a wide open field in front of you. You've just got to start running. Right. You know, how old are you?

28. All right. So you're doing a lot of door dashing and things like that. What's the long-term plan career-wise? Not to be doing this. I was let go of my last job in June of 2022. So that's the reason why I'm doing this. But for long-term, I can't say exactly what I do want to do, but I do expect to be making minimum within the range of like $35,000 to maybe $50,000 just with my experience so far. What kind of work is this? What were you doing?

Prior, I was doing just like an advisor for a video game company with their accounts and then whichever way I could ramp up from there. So I did get some testing experience. So if I could go into testing for companies, that's the experience I also have as well. Can I ask a question? So you said you got let go June of 2022. I'm going to kick your butt a little bit. What's taken so long to bounce back here?

It's part of the problem that I've got myself into this predicament for the last four years anyways. I'm just now at the point where I want to put an end to it. I've acknowledged that I've had it, but it's just pure laziness. That's all it is. Are you living alone? I'm renting a room from somebody, but yeah, I only account for myself. No other dependents, no spouse, no SO, nothing, just myself. Okay. Well, there's only one way out of this, and it's you getting your butt in gear and making more money and selling stuff, and maybe even the car. I mean, that would clear some debt. What's the car worth?

If I'm just going off of the car facts, you know I get monthly, I think it's around 18K. It's worth that. And you owe 12? Yeah. So you net six, and you can go buy a car for six, and it clears your car payment, which is how much? Four or eight a month for 12K remaining. Could you pay off some credit cards

if you had an extra four or 500 bucks a month? That was rhetorical the answer is yes yes yeah yeah sure i'm selling that car today and then i'm attacking whatever profit i can make after i buy a beater car i'm going to use to attack that smallest credit card debt jack i'm gonna i'm gonna use the words of dave ramsey here you can wander into debt but you can't wander out of it and you've been you've been wandering in the wilderness here for several, several months. And you got to get your butt in gear, dude. You got to start running out of this. And you can. Your income, man, you've got nowhere to go but up. There's a really beautiful place about being at the bottom. The only way to go

is up. And you're right there. The world is your oyster. You can go out there and make money. Don't sit around and wait for your dream job. Get a job that makes anything more than what you're making now and take it. Tell yourself, hey, this is just temporary. It's means to an end. But by all means, keep going forward. Keep making sure that every step you take is getting you a little bit closer to where it is that you want to be. But do not stay right here. Do not stay at $2,500 per month. Don't do it. Keep pushing and keep pushing until you... It's $38,000. It's a lot of debt,

but it's not that much debt, right? And we're about to clear 12 of it. Let me remind you. We're going to clear it. That car is gone, dude. What kind of car is it? 2018 Camry SE. We're going to get you a 2018 Camry SE down the line when we're not broke.

It'll come back. There you go. All right, now let's clear this up. Let's go get a retail job that pays $18 an hour. Boom, you just got a raise. And then on top of that, let's go wait tables at night. You're a single guy. This is the time of your life to do those kind of sacrifices.

What were you making back in June before you got let go? $15.75 per hour. I think I was making just shy of $2K per month. Bringing home. That's after contributions. And that's working for the video game company. That's correct. I think we've got to set our sights higher. Oh yeah, let's shoot for the stars. You can work in video games

but we're not doing it for what we could make working at our local hardware store. Alright right. Yeah. So have set a real big goal of where you want to be five years from now. But in the next year, let's get rid of this debt. Let's get the IRS offer back, pay your taxes, make quarterly estimated payments and call us back when you're debt free, man. This is The Ramsey Show.

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Well, a lot of you have questions about taxes, and it's that time of year we get it. Taxes are confusing. Nobody wants to talk about it, but we're willing to be brave and do that. And so I wanted to unpack a question from one of our listeners. Here's what they asked. I'm really nervous about trying to do our taxes ourselves, but it's almost 300 bucks to get them done with a tax pro. What should I do? This is a common conundrum people have. So here's how we look at it. If you think your tax situation is pretty simple, you can definitely try using tax software. We've got one called Ramsey Smart Tax that will guide you through the online filing process step-by-step. Anyone can do it. It's super simple. We walk you

through it. And you don't pay until you file, so you actually have a chance to figure out if it's right for you. You just want to go check it out. Plus, the federal classic version of Ramsey Smart Tax comes with built-in support. There's also a premium version that gives you priority level support for all of your questions. And if you still feel uncomfortable filing taxes on your own, it's worth it. It's worth the money. You can connect with a tax pro that makes it all really easy. And if your situation is complicated, you've got properties and all kinds of jobs and side hustles and you're self-employed, you better be working with a tax pro. You know what I'm doing, George? I'm going to get a sinking fund and I'm going to put a little bit aside.

I've got that line item. It makes me feel better. Because your girl is not going. I'm not doing my own taxes. It just gives me a headache. It's the same i i pay someone to mow my lawn could i do it myself yes that's debatable but you know what i'm buying my time and sanity back is what i'm doing now some people our friend ken coleman he loves to get out there in his new balances and just go to town on that lawn does he take his shirt off i hope not god bless his neighbors guys sorry kid he's like an extra from twilight when he's got his shirt off all right well i don't know how we come back from that but here's the deal we've got a hub for all of you with resources links to everything i mentioned at ramsey solutions.com slash tax if you want to learn

more about ramsey smart tax or get connected with a ramsey trusted tax pro like one of our endorsed local providers again ramseyolutions.com slash tax. Jade's still losing it over here. You brought it up, not me. I'm trying to be quiet over here. She's playing it cool. You just painted such a clear, the twilight is what, it was the twilight for me.

Vivid. All right, let's go to the phones. Christian joins us in Los Angeles, California. Christian, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for having me. Sure. How can we help? So I'm 20 years old, and when I graduated high school, my dad said that he was going to buy me a car based off an arrangement that we had.

But he ended up leasing a car for me, a three-year lease. The lease ends in May, and he agreed to pay half of the remaining balance, which is $15,000. I was wondering if it still made sense for me to pay $7,500 to have a relatively new car, even with the craziness of life and becoming an adult coming up and how expensive that is. How old are you? 20. Okay. And you have the money to do this? Yeah, I do.

Oh, that's good. And so it's 15 grand for the buyout at the end of the lease. Dad's going to pay 7,500. You pay 7,500. Correct. I think it's a no brainer. I'm not mad at that. And here's why. We hate leases with an undying burning passion, but the dumbest part of those decisions is over. You've already paid for the depreciation. Or dad did. And so now you getting $7,500 and trying to buy a car,

you're going to have a hard time doing that versus getting the car that you already have. Yeah, that makes sense. I was just wondering because I'm pretty sure I could get him to give me the 7,500 instead of it just disappearing if I decided not to buy it out. And so the car's worth probably around like 21,000. And so. Well, here's what, either way, why not buy the car? He puts in 7,500500. You now own the car, free and clear. You can go sell that car for $21,000. Okay. And that puts $21,000 in your pocket to buy whatever car you want.

Yeah, it's just a hard pill to swallow, especially being so young and knowing that, like, I'm trying. I graduate college in December, and I wanted to marry next year and all this other stuff. And that's just a large chunk of money to have gone. What's your, so what's your other option then? What do you want to do? I don't know, buy a beater car for like $5,000. You can do that, but I would still, because of this transaction and what the car is worth,

pay for the car. You put in $7,500. You put in $7,500. Dad puts in $7,500. That's $15,000. You sell it for $21,000. You now have $21,000. You take $6,000 of that, leaving you with $15,000 left in savings. Oh, okay.

Do you see the math? Do you see what he's doing there for you? So you're still better off going through this. I know it's a lot of hoops to jump through, but you're going to end up netting six grand more than if you just took the $7,500 from dad. So you're spending some money up front to make some money down the line. Got it.

I'm with you. I just wish every 21-year-old was forced to have a beater car. I know, right? I just don't. I know I'm old school. I don't think young kids should be driving nice cars. And it's not just because I was jealous driving my beater Honda Civic

while these 16 year olds are driving brand new Jeep Wranglers. I'm like, who, what? You're going to wreck that thing and then you're going to get a new car and it creates entitlement to where that's now the worst car you ever drive in your life.

That's true. I think you should always upgrade. It depends on the kid. I know. You know, you should always upgrade, George. You're right about that. depends on the kid i know you know you you should always upgrade george you're right about that like nobody needs christian you know what you need to do man yeah proud of you for not feeling like you deserve a twenty one thousand dollar car that's what i'm talking about but i like it all right we did what we needed to do there nick joins us up

next in dc nick welcome to the ramsey show, thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. What's going on? Yeah, so my question is basically, I feel stuck between either Baby Step 3B or if I'm on Baby Step 7. Oh, I like that question. Why is that? So I'm 26. I live in DC. Um, you know, I'm debt free at my emergency fund. Um, I'm single, no kids, all that good stuff. Um, and you know, I'm working my job and I'm able to save about half my income, which is pretty good. Um, but I'm also renting with a couple of housemates and I just feel kind of stuck because I can't afford to buy a house out here, even with like a 20% down payment and all that kind of stuff. So I don't really know kind of where to go from here. What do you want to go? What's the goal?

You want to be a homeowner in DC? I've been asking myself that a while. I do want to be a homeowner eventually, but probably not for the next few years. Probably like I see that as maybe something like four or five years away. Um, which is also kind of complicating how I should save for down payment for a house eventually, because typically from what I've heard from listening to your guys' shows, you usually don't recommend investing in mutual funds and things like that if it's shorter than a five-year period. Losing the money.

So I don't know if I should just keep piling up money in the bank and get like the measly 2% on it or what. I would because here's the thing. You said the time is going to pass regardless, right? Those three to four, four to five years are going to pass regardless. And no, you're not going to have enough money in a year and maybe not even two years. But if you're piling up that money, there is going to come a time where suddenly you have enough money. And some of these high yield savings accounts are getting more than 3%. Some of them I've seen.

I'm getting over four right now. Yeah. Some of them are pretty decent. And when it comes to that, that rule of not investing the money unless it's over, you know, past a five year term, there's actually been some study done on that of what how likely you are to make money off of that. Yeah. Return after five years and it drops decidedly after three, you know, from three years, even to

five years. So that's why we say that. Cause there's still even a risk if you were to leave it for five years, it's just considerably less. So it's up to you. I mean, only, you know, your long-term goals. If you're like, Hey man, I'm renting, I'm enjoying this. I'm happy to just keep plugging money, putting it aside for baby step three B. If you were to jump to baby step seven, what would that look like for you? Is that you saying I would rather do something like real estate? Like what are you as an investment? Like what does that mean for you? If I were to jump to baby step seven, I'd still be renting, but I'd probably just, I don't know,

I just like kind of go on more vacations, I guess. That's kind of part of the quandary of where I'm at. I think we find some balance for now, Nick. I want you to live your life and not just, you know, devote your life to a down payment. Live your life, but also have an aggressive down payment savings goal. And maybe it's a condo. Maybe you move from D.C. to make this more affordable. But don't wait 10 years and don't jump anything a year from now.

Let's set a reasonable goal and work towards that. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw. This hour, open phones at 888-825-5225. It's time for our question of the day, which is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services. When you need to make repairs, schedule routine maintenance, or find local help for home improvement projects,

Neighborly is your source for reliable home service providers in your area. Just go to Neighborly.com and start your search. All right. Today's question comes from Camber in the Baby Steps Facebook group. She says, when you have a company match, does that count towards your 15%? My husband's work has a 3% match. We invest 3% of his gross into our RSP, which is a Canadian equivalent to a 401k, and the employer contributes 3%. Would you say that this is 3% or would you combine it to make it a 6% contribution towards our 15%? That's a really good question. And we hear this a lot, George, because a lot of companies do offer a match, which is a great thing. However, we really just

kind of see that as, you know, icing on the cake per se. We actually don't count that towards the 15%. It's really gravy for the Canadians. They're putting it on the fries. It's poutine. Yes. Poutine for the fries. There we go. It's gravy on the fries. You just want to make sure the Canadians get it. I love it. Thanks, George. Appreciate that. That's such a good thing. Always thinking about you. So baby step four in our Ramsey baby steps, invest 15% of your household income into retirement, which means your money, not your employer's money. Off the gross. Off the gross. And so there's good reasons for this. Number one, we don't know what your employer is going to do this year, next year, but we know what you're going to do. Invest 15%

of your income into retirement. That will cause you to be wealthy regardless of if you have an employer match or not. And I don't know about you, but I would want more in a retirement rather than less. Heck yeah. And so if it's 15 with the employer match, but 18, if you did the 15 on your own, I'm doing 15 on my own. I know, right? And some of these matches, it takes time to vest. That's true. And so I don't want you tied to your job because now you're beholden to the match and getting this money because you were counting on it as part of your 15%. Yeah, that's a really, really good point. Yeah, I just like the idea of building that muscle of contributing 15% regardless. And in the end, like we said, it's gravy on the biscuit, gravy on the fries.

And if you had a 6% match, but then you move jobs and all of a sudden there was no match, now you don't know how, you can't budget for that. You're not used to that. So I like just being used to setting that savings on autopilot. It comes out of my income before it ever hits my bank account here at Ramsey with our 401k. And I love that because now I just learned how to live on less. I love that. And I flex that muscle. Set it and forget it. Ron Papil. Was that the rotisserie chicken reference? That's it. Of course you would know that, George. She's a real one. All right. Let's go to the phones. Lynn joins us in San Jose, California. Lynn, welcome to the show. Hi.

Thank you, Jade and George, for taking my call. Absolutely. And like many listeners, I wish I had started listening to you years ago. Hey, me too. I know. Anyways, here's the situation. The question is, what, if anything, can I do to use what money I have to make more? And here's my situation.

I have no debt, own the house, and 73, retired. But my car is 16 years old. My water heater is 14 years old. My refrigerator is 16 years old. My water heater is 14 years old. My refrigerator is 17 years old. I need a new stove. My house needs repairs and a new roof. That's a long list. I know.

That is a long list, isn't it? And I'm just very stuck as to what to do and nervous about my income. I only, let's see, make, well, income, just Social Security and a little bit of a pension, $31,000 a year. Now, you said you have no payments, including you don't have a mortgage. No mortgage. Do you have any money in savings currently? I have about $143,000 in savings. And that's pretty much all the money you have to your name outside of this pension coming in, Social Security coming in. Yeah, I have on hand cash, $50,000 and yeah, $20,000 in checking

and that's it. And that's on top of the $143,000? Yes. Okay, great. So we have over $20,000 in checking. And that's it. And that's on top of the $143,000? Yes. Okay, great. So we have over $200,000 in liquid cash. Yeah. Hey, good job on being debt-free. Good job on having that mortgage paid off. You've got three to six months of savings.

You've done a good job. It just sounds like your nest egg, your retirement egg, isn't what you wanted it to be, you know, for you to easily handle, you know, some of these appliance and just like that upkeep of life, right? Yep, exactly. You plan on being in this home for the foreseeable future? Well, here's the glitch. I live in an area that is outrageously priced. I cannot afford to relocate in this area.

Besides that, I have a daughter who lives on the property. She works full-time, but she's not a highway turner and cannot afford to live on her own. So you would put her in a bind if you chose to move. Yes, exactly. And this is not a house I want to stay in because it's just high maintenance. What could you sell the house for?

It's very challenging. You know, because of our area, probably, I don't know, roughly close to $650,000. Wow. That could set you up for retirement. Yeah, that would set you up for retirement. If I move to Arizona or Tennessee or something like that. Well, I'm wondering what's keeping you there other than your daughter? What if daughter moves with you and you guys live in the same area? Or what if you let daughter be daughter and spread her wings and fly? Well, I just don't know where she'd live.

So I feel very responsible. Is she physically able yes okay like i said she does work full-time but she's not a high wage earner what's a high wage earner because california i i don't know what a high wage in california is oh well i don't either but for this area it's it's uh you know like let me just say something to rent here goes for about $2,500 a month. I'm calling a little bit of BS on her situation because I think that she, here's the thing. If you said, man, she's disabled or she's facing this challenge or she's got, I don't know.

There could be a long list of things, but it sounds like she's just, you're helping her out. You know, you're able to help prop up her lifestyle a little bit and make things a little bit easier for her. And that's probably very convenient for her, but you have a situation too, and you've got a life too. And if you wanna sell your home and do something different for retirement and change your situation,

I'm telling you right now, you have the freedom to do that. You don't have to prop up your daughter's life. It sounds like she's got a job if she needs to make more income. The same way you're calling in here trying to find a way to better your situation, she can do that for her darn self. And so just be at peace with that. Yeah, I understand that. You know? I'm guessing she's older.

Yeah, she's probably, well, gosh, now she's probably mid-40s. Okay. And she's uh probably well gosh now she's probably mid-40s okay and she's single yes okay i want to help her with her career not because i want to punish her and you know if you move and she's got to figure it out because i care about her well-being too and her financial future yeah because what happens when she retires broke yeah that's a problem. And so right now you're a crutch for her, not a true safety net. And so I'm not saying you have to move. I just, I don't know that it's worth doing all these repairs. If you can sell the place for 650 and move somewhere you actually want to live and upgrade the car and live your true retirement dreams, that's what I'm doing. Yeah. It would have been one thing if you're like, man, I love this house. I don't want to, but you said it's like, it's too much. It's all of this. So I have... I'm 73. I'm just, I don't have the chutzpah anymore.

Okay. I love the Yiddish. Very good. Well, we have two options. Either take some of this cash you have sitting around and start to do these repairs and upgrade the car, or we just sell the house, move, we keep the cash that's in the bank, and we set ourselves up for a better retirement down the line. Okie dokes. Sounds like a plan. Yeah, you got it, Lynn. Wishing you the best. Yes. That's a tough one, Jade.

It is, man. Kids, parents, money, retirement. It's tough. It's one of those things. I mean, and I could feel her mom love because, you know, you love your kids and you want to do for your kids. But sometimes when you do the most, it's actually not so great for them. You know, it's a little bit of a failure to launch there. My mom did that with me in cooking. She's an amazing cook. I never lifted a finger when it came to the kitchen. And now here I am as an adult. I'm, you know, I'm trying to learn how to cook for the first time. What are you making, bologna sandwiches?

No, we can't even eat gluten, Jay, and processed meats. Get out of here with that. Oh, okay, okay, okay, George. But it is tough. I need some cooking lessons from Jay. So I'm waiting for you to launch your big cooking show one day. My gluten-free series. That would be amazing.

Hey, more of your calls coming up. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show. What's up, America? This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Jade Warshaw this hour. 888-825-5225 is the number to call. You jump in.

We'll talk about your life and your money. Tyler joins us up next in Eugene, Oregon. Tyler, welcome to the show. Howdy. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? I just recently paid off our mortgage. Way to go. Don't act so sad about it.

No, I'm nervous on these phone calls. Oh, you're doing great. We're just excited for you. I called a couple times, and you guys helped me through it, so I appreciate it because I wouldn't have got debt-free without listening to you. All right. Well, it's an honor, man. You did the work. But I'm lost.

I don't know really what to do. I'd like to venture off. I have my own business, and I'd like to venture off and build that, but my wife wants to keep saving. Oh, what does she want to keep saving for? Well, the location we're at is, it's a commercial building with living in the back, and she wants to buy a house so we can just turn it full commercial and rent it out. That's a good goal. My shop rents the front part for the commercial. Okay, and mama doesn't want

to live in the back of the nail salon anymore. She's ready to have her own space. Yeah. I think that's fair. What do you think about that, Tyler? I think I have ADD too much. I like to do too many things, so I want to venture off and do, you know. What does venture off mean? It sounds so exotic.

What does this mean for you? I like to get a CNC machine and start making, well, they're not handmade because the CNC machine is making it, but lighting fixtures for my store. I'm an electrical contractor, so I figured, you know, and I wanted to be a comic book artist when I grew up, so I figured that's some way to get some creativity into my boring job. So what's this house worth or this commercial space? I'm still fixing up about $300,000 right now.

Okay. And what's the household income? Last year I net not $198,000. Okay. Awesome. So $200,000 and let's hope that it does

that or even better in the next year. How quickly could we save up and buy a house? About or even better, in the next year, how quickly could we save up and buy a house? About, if I don't fix the building, two years. And what's it cost to fix the building? If I don't get extravagant. There we go.

I'm guessing your wife is like, does it really need to be that fancy, and you go overboard and spend way too much money on time because you just love this stuff yeah yeah it sounds like okay from what you said before about you know you guys are living in the back of this commercial building it sounds like a lot of your life has kind of revolved around your business your business what tyler wants yes and i i i your wife is not on this call but I'm hearing something in my spirit telling me that if you can't do both I mean doing both might be a good idea but if you can focus

more towards what she's maybe wanting to do this time that could be I'm just I'm sensing something here uh Tyler am I off base or or tell me if i'm off no no she she'll let me do whatever i want but i don't wanna i want to do what's best for my kids and my wife okay the us and this house is it attached to the commercial property yeah so you can't just sell the house outright but keep the commercial side oh it's right on the highway so it's going to be it's no i not too many people want to live on the highway yeah so your your equity is kind of locked in there as long as you run this business from this space correct okay so we need to save up cash elsewhere and get a home um is this something where you would want to pay cash or would you

take on a small mortgage and pay it off quickly with this house that since she started listening to you and me on cash okay that's a great goal but if you were going to say hey it's going to take us five years to save up and pay cash and she's got to live in this space for the next five years i think we need a different solution either take on a small mortgage or we go rent somewhere until we have the money. But I love you guys living right now without any payments. Yeah, we don't want to go back to that. Can you set a small budget to do these upgrades to the commercial space? Yeah. Like compromise with her and go,

all right, I'm not going to go crazy. I'm going to spend, I don't know, 20 grand. Give me a number. Yeah. Are we talking like... Yeah. I could go with 40 because i still got it i still got to fix my sign there's this there's quite a larger and what is the roi for you doing this that i don't know because right now my business an electrical contractor so i think she wants she also wants to have it but because it would be nice to have bring people to come in because a lot of people like to come into your business. Yeah, my question is, does it matter to anyone but Tyler if the lighting is cool? Is this affecting your income?

Is this affecting your business? Are these needs? Are these wants? I feel like there's a couple of ways we need to sift this out, George. That's my worry is you do this and the ROI isn't there and you don't make a dime more in your business and it set us back financially from our other goals. So that's why I want to put a cap on this.

I could put my side stuff away and just focus on my current business that's already bringing revenue in and just improve that and not venture off into anything else. I mean, with my business hat on, that sounds like the better move. It's what's going to create more impact for the business and for our financial goals down the line. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Well, whatever you do, be on board with your wife and don't make it, hey, can I do this wife? Instead, it's, hey, what are we going to do as a couple? What are our goals? And I think once you do that, everyone's going to be happier and we can find some happy

mediums. It doesn't all have to be weighted on one side or the other. That's right. And thank her. Be like, hey, you've been on board for all these things that I wanted to do. I really appreciate that. We've got this money ahead of us. We've got some things that we can do. I want to make sure we're both being represented and we're both, you know, getting to see through some of our goals here.

That's right. I think that's really. Oui, oui. We speak French around here. All right. Let's head to canada home of the poutine jared joins us there jared welcome to the show hi guys i really appreciate you guys taking my call today absolutely how can we help okay i'm 39 years old and married with a daughter. And my wife and I are looking at building a house in the next two to five years, probably, timeline. Just was wondering what's the best way to save up for that? Do we just save up mortgage-wise or a little lump sum sum anyway for it and do we invest that or do we

just go and get a mortgage right now but you know we are debt-free currently right now and own our own house and we are uh i'm a little apprehensive to go back into debt again so you own a house outright no payments that's correct would you sell that house outright, no payments. That's correct. Would you sell that house? Yeah, once the time would come, like, when it would be finished, yes. Okay. What's that house worth? Probably around $300 right now. Great. And what's your savings goal for this new house? On top of the $300, how much are you wanting to save up?

Well, it would be great to save up the extra $300,000, right? We're looking at probably spending $250,000 to $350,000 in that range kind of thing. Okay, so the total cost of this new build is about $550,000 to $600,000? Yeah, it all depends. Yeah, but probably somewhere in there, probably. That would be the low end, probably, but yeah. What's your household income? We're in the, it varies year to year, but it's probably in the $110,000 to $130,000 range.

Okay. And so you're saying the next two to five years, we want to try to save up $200,000, $300,000 and do this with cash? Yes. Or if we have to take on a small mortgage we'll do that yeah it what well i'm just looking for your guys opinion on what what's the best way to tackle this would be i guess i mean of course it's great we always are like the best way to buy a house is if you can afford to pay cash for a home by all means pay cash for a home but we also understand that for some people there's time constraints on that know, do you really want to save for seven years, maybe, or maybe you want to take a small mortgage. And we're not against you taking out, you know,

a loan for a mortgage as long as it's done the right way. Now, in your case, it's slightly different because you've tasted what it feels like to be completely mortgage debt free. And that that's, that's a tough one, you know, but I do want to kind of put you at ease that if you were to take on a small, and I would say small, like you don't want to go back to where you started. You know what I'm saying? If you were to take on just a small percentage of that, and if that was going to shave two years off of your process, that could very well be worth it for you. So the better parameter to look at is how can we get a 15-year loan where it's no more than a quarter of our take-home pay?

I think once you're there, go ahead and bite the bullet. Because home prices are a moving target. And my worry is you save up in five years from now, that house is $150,000 more than it was to build. And so I would go ahead and jump into it and pay it off aggressively. You're the type of people that will do that. And you'll be in good shape, my friend. And I put that money in a high-yield savings account. I would not invest it into the stock market with that short of a time horizon.

That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey, we have a weekly newsletter that gives you trending and helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to ramseysolutions.com today

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