The Ramsey Show - App - Your Boyfriend Doesn’t Get a Vote! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 16, 2023

George Kamel & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: "My boyfriend wants me to sell my vehicle", American men's obsession with trucks, "How should I split my income between my mortgage and investments?" When it makes things to sell things to get out of debt, Using inheritance money to build the best financial future, from the blog: What to Do With an Inheritance "We're not on the same page about downsizing our vehicles" "How should we adjust our investments after having our first baby?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET 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 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 America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined this hour by Jade Warshaw, and we are elated to take your questions today about money and life. If you're at a crossroads, you need some motivation, inspiration, education, we are here for you, America. Give us a call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. You ready to go, Jade? Let's do it. All right. Rose is joining us up first in Detroit. Rose, welcome to the show. Hi.

Thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? So my question is, my boyfriend wants to sell both of our cars and get a truck. And I don't think that's a good idea, but he said it's for our kids' safety, so I was calling to see what you think. I say you sell the boyfriend. Hey, I'm kidding. I don't know, George. I wasn't fully kidding. Don't you guys need two cars? is he saying why is he why is your boyfriend wanting to sell your car well he has a van that he drives for for work um that's paid off his car is paid off i still owe thirteen thousand dollars on my car but he wants to do it um he wants to get a truck because he

he thinks it's it's best for the kids safety. That he sits on a throne of lies. He wants a truck because he's a little kid inside who played with a big twuck when he was little. Uh-huh, and he wants a truck. Is that fair? That's what I think. I think that he really wants a truck for himself. If he wants safety, he needs to get himself a minivan.

Here's the question. Was he specific about the truck that he wanted? Because this is going to tell us a lot. Was he specific? No, not really. No. The question still stands. What is he doing meddling with your finances? Good question. What does this truck have to do with your car is the big question. Okay, because so honestly, I'm not sure. So, I drive my car. My kids are with me most of the time. And he tells me that, you know, for safety-wise, if we get in a car accident or anything like that,

he thinks that having a truck is better than having a Ford Escape. Okay. And I still owe $13,000 on this car, which I know I could probably pay it off by the end of this year. And I want to keep it until it's all paid off. Rose, you can do what you want to do, girl. Yeah.

You can do what you want to do. And what you want to do, in my mind, is the best choice. Keep the car you have and pay it off. Is there any reason like logical reason because just a truck is safer is is not a logical reason there's plenty of cars on the road and didn't you say a ford escape that's like a mid-size suv yeah okay um yeah what he's saying is bananas don't do it what's your? I guess I'm not bananas then. No, you're not.

You are not. Okay, good. It's your car. It's your kids. And until you're married and sharing finances, it's your money, which means it's your prerogative. Rose, have you guys combined finances? Not yet. We are not married yet.

Then he doesn't get a say in what you do with your car. If he wants to go get himself a truck, he can get himself a truck and let you use it sometimes if that if it's really that big of a deal i told him i said if he wants to get a truck then he can get it everything in his name and i can drive it that's fine with me that's right rose you go tell him that and how have a little bit of an attitude when you say it. Give him the two. Rose, do you feel like this car is unsafe? I don't think so. I honestly don't.

Like I said, I still owe money on it, and I just want to pay it off and keep it because I'm tired of paying for this car. And I know I can pay it off by the end of this year. And by then, and it's I can pay it off by the end of this year. I love it. And by then, I... And it's a 2018, so it's newer. That's a great car. Okay. What's your income?

Yeah. Well, I was a stay-at-home mom this past year, but I'm starting a new job next week, and I'll be making about $40,000 a year. Awesome. Good. Any other debt that you have? $3,000 on a credit card that I'm working on, paying it off and then that's it. That's great. So let's attack that credit card first. Let's knock that out, free up a payment,

and then we'll attack that car loan. And I totally believe you'll have this thing paid off by the end of the year. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay, can I just ask one quick question? Sure. So both my kids have $1,000 each that they got for birthdays and such these past few years. There's four and six, and I don't know what to do with it. I would just throw it into a 529. Yeah. Okay. Just start putting it towards, yeah. If it's birthday money or something like that, I mean, that's what I would do.

Unless they have a purchase they want to make a little small, if they're trying to buy a toy or a video game and they want to save up and use some of that, that's okay. But it's a great opportunity to teach them to give, save, and spend. We're going to give a little bit, spend a little bit, and save a little bit. Oh, that's a good idea, George. Saving a whole bunch, they're going to look back at that money and go, I'm so glad I actually saved that because now I can go to college debt-free. Now I have some money to throw at my first car. So it's a great lesson you can teach them at this age. You're doing so good as a mom. Oh, thank you. So do I start an account separate for each or combined? I would just do, you could do separate accounts and make them the beneficiary

on that. And that'll help separate it when it comes time for college and it'll be in their own name. They'll have some skin in the game and they'll be excited looking at that account going, oh, that's for me to go to college debt free. Thanks, mom. All right. Okay. Sounds great. Well, thank you so much for answering my questions. That really helped. And you guys have a good day. Thank you so much, Rose. What a sweet woman. I love Rose. She is sweet. She's so nice. Her boyfriend, he was tripping. He saw a nice little Rose and thought- I can't imagine if i told my wife hey and we're married combined finances if i was like hey honey you want to sell both of our cars

because i want a truck for safety oh gosh i i don't know whitney very well but something tells me that wouldn't go over well she's not taking that i don't know what it is about guys and trucks i think we raised a generation of the kids playing with the big Tonka trucks. I mean, they're nice. We love a truck. Maybe it makes us feel like in control. I mean, Dave drives a big truck

and I don't want to be in his way on the road. True. I tell you that much. Let me, real talk. We used to live in South Florida. I mean, pickup trucks aren't really a thing there.

Everybody wants like electric cars. We moved here and I started seeing like Dodge Rams on the road and like F-350s. And I was like, this is nice. Something came out of me even that I was like, I don't mind this. And then make matters worse. We were a one car family. We needed a second car.

So my dad's like, hey, you can borrow our truck. It's an F-150. I love getting in and out of it, even though it's super old. What is it? It's rock and roll. I don love getting in and out of it, even though it's super old. What is it? It's rock and roll. I don't know, man. Trucks. Trucks are one of the main reasons American males are in debt.

I'll tell you that much. I mean, those things are freaking expensive. They are. And they'll happily go into giant payments for it under the guise of safety. Yeah. Yeah. No. You know what's safe?

Not owing anyone anything. Okay. And driving a reasonable used car, which are just as safe as your shiny new car. Which could be a Ford Escape in Rose's case. There we go. You don't need to take it mudding. You'll be all right. Go with your buddies who's in debt.

That's more fun. Oh, my goodness. I love it. More of your calls coming up. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey show well we had our building wealth live stream event last Thursday night and we had several hundred thousand of you tune in.

And I know there was a lot of new people who may have stumbled upon it. Someone shared it with you. It showed up on your YouTube feed. And so if you're a new listener, you're going, what are they talking about? They're getting out of debt and these baby steps. What is this thing? And how do I get started? Well, our team created a free tool for you at ramsaysolutions.com.

If you click on the get started button, you answer a few simple questions and we will help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. We'll give you some great tools and resources and it's absolutely free. Go to ramsaysolutions.com and click on the get started button. The number to call is 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Holly joins us up next in San Antonio. Holly, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you very much. How are you guys doing? We're doing great. How can we help today? Well, just right to the point, 56 years old, I just entered into Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6,

and I have a very minimal retirement. I just started last year. I need to understand how much I should put towards my retirement versus paying off my mortgage. Very good question. Well, you know, it's pretty simple in this case. You know, we always want to follow the Baby Steps in order. So if you're on Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6, you want to start with Baby Step 4, which is investing the 15%. So are you currently investing any amount right now? I am. I just started last year, but I fully funded the IRA last year, and I'm at 15% right now. You're at 15%. That's excellent.

So continue on with that. Is Baby Step 5 anything that you need to think about? Sounds like no. Okay. Okay. No. And then from there on, we're just being intentional about the mortgage. So if you've got extra money that you can throw towards that, now is the time to do that. So it's about being intentional, for sure getting that 15%. If you have extra money to throw out the mortgage, that's what you're going to want to do from that point on and get that mortgage paid off. How's that sit with you? So my goal would be to pay off the mortgage and then up my contribution percentages. That's right. How much is left on the mortgage? I still have about $220,000 left on that. Okay. And what's your income?

I take home about, well, I take home $4,500 a month every month, and then I also teach part-time at the community college, and that gives me an extra $1,200 a month about eight months out of the year. Oh, that's great. So what's your gross salary for the year? I'm doing math in my head right now. I knew you guys were going to make me do that. So my take-home gross is about $65,000 a year.

Okay, great. So if we say that we're going to do 15%, that's about $97.50. That's a little over $800 a month. And you said you're currently doing that through maxing out your IRA as well as a 401k? What do you have for retirement options? I have a a Roth and then I just have a traditional IRA. Okay. You don't have any employer retirement plan? No, no, we don't have a, I'm a teacher and we just have our pension and there's no match or anything like that. Okay. So do you think this pension is obviously a loan? It may not give you the retirement you want, but do you have any idea of what that will amount to in retirement? Based on what I'm looking right now, the step I'm on, if I retired at 65, that would probably give me about $2,900 a month. Okay. And is your goal to have more than that in retirement every

month? Yes, it is. Great. So there are other options that you can look into to invest in, including a brokerage account outside of retirement, which means you're going to have to pay taxes on that. There's no real tax advantages of this, but it can help your money grow between now and 10 years from now. Okay. So if you don't have, are you working with a financial advisor currently? I am, yes. Okay. Do you like them? You think they're giving you good? I love them, yeah. Good. Yeah. That's good.

I'd be working on a plan with them to say, hey, am I doing all the things I can do with this money to maximize it? And on top of that, having a paid for house decreases your expenses. So I would really be angling to get that thing paid off by the time I retire. Okay. And if you need to downsize to do that, is that something you would do in the future? It's not something that I would just say no to. Okay. You know, obviously my goal, I love the home I'm in and it's the perfect size for me and my dog. So, you know, I'd love to stay here. Love it. That's good. I'd definitely be aiming to pay that off because then that 2,900 even can go a lot further if you don't have a mortgage payment on top of that. Okay. So you're doing the right things. I would continue with the

15% and then pay off the house. Once we get there, we can increase investing, but that would be my goal for the next, you know, several years. Do you think you're going to retire in the next five to seven years? I probably have about nine to 11 years left in me, I think. Okay. That's great. Would I love to retire earlier? Sure, but I'm not, you know, I love what I do. What do you do? You said you're a teacher? I am a teacher. Okay. Yes. Work with your financial advisor. Have them write out the projections and go, hey, 10 years from now, with average returns, what will my life look like between the pension, the IRA, what I have in savings, what the mortgage will be down to, and start to base it off of that instead

of just hoping 10 years from now you have a great retirement. But you're on the path, Holly. We are rooting for you. Thanks for the call. All right, let's go to Joshua up next in Atlanta, Georgia. Joshua, welcome to the show. Hi. Hello, guys. How's everyone doing? We are doing great. Doing good. What's going on with you? Good, good. So I purchased my home during that house rush a couple years back. I have about $40,000 to $50,000 in equity right now of it, but I also have a very high student loan payment. It's a private student loan for $31,000,

and it costs me about $700 a month to pay. So things are kind of tight right now, but I think I could still do it. I also have a side job right now. Okay. And I was wondering if, but the thing with the side job is that it, you know, that I can make anywhere between maybe $200 to $1,200 a month, but, I mean, it's not, you know, it's not very secure. So I was thinking of maybe selling the home and moving and renting for about three years. I figured if I put together a budget because I used to live in Chicago.

And I figured that if I save for about, you know, I can save about 12 grand a year. What's in Chicago? A couple couple years. Is that family? Yeah, and also a job that I used to work at there. What's your current income? My current income is $70,000 a year. Okay, what's your total debt, not including the mortgage?

You got the $31,000 in student loans. What else? All together, it's about $65,000. What other kind of debt do you have? I have a federal student loan debt, and I have $3,600 of credit card debt. Okay. Now, how is moving to Chicago saving you the $12,000? Because Chicago is expensive, too.

Yeah, but I just, I could, you know, I would have been there for a while. Back when I was there, I put together a budget. It would save me because I wouldn't have to eventually purchase a car. And, let's see, I wouldn't have to purchase a car. So you would sell your, you have a paid-for car, or does that have a loan? Yeah, yeah, I have a paid-for car, and I wouldn't have to purchase a car. So you would sell your pay, you have a paid-for car, or does that have a loan? Yeah, yeah, I have a paid-for car, and I wouldn't have to pay the student loan debt.

Why wouldn't you have to pay? I mean, I wouldn't have, because I would actually use the equity to pay off, you know. So you sell the house, you take the $40,000, $50,000 in equity, and you pay down some debt, leaving you with another $ of debt? My question is, do you have to move cross country in order to sell a house and a car? Or is it just that you want that job in Chicago? Well, I mean, that's it. But it's also I really wouldn't. I don't really use public transit. I mean, I use public transit in Chicago, so I really wouldn't need a... I just want to make sure that you're making the choice based off of a long-term reason. I feel like wanting to use...

I feel like selling a house, selling a car, moving cross-country simply so you can use public transit doesn't make... I feel like we're missing something. George, are we missing something here? No, I mean, what it feels like right now is you think you've got two options because you're drowning in these payments and you're going, well, if I move to Chicago, this all gets solved. But the truth is you can do this without needing to do any of this.

And if you want to sell the home to speed up this process because you bought it at the wrong time and this will help, you can do that. But I would just rent in the area you're in, keep your job, don't uproot your life quite yet. Because moving cross-country is expensive. Yeah, you make $70K with the side you're in. Keep your job. Don't uproot your life quite yet. Because moving across country is expensive. Yeah, you make 70K with the side jobs even more. You can pay off $65,000 in two years. Yes, you can. And so I would make that the goal. And if selling the house, that's something you want to do and you don't need all the space, I would go ahead and sell that and use that equity to pay off that debt and speed up the process. But I'm not doing the cross-country

move quite yet. That's a big jump, my friend. Thanks for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by Jade Warshaw, and we are taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Our question of the day comes from Sarah in Virginia. Here's what Sarah's asking. I'm a 23 year old that graduated college in May of 2022 and I got a job at a non-profit making 45k a year. I live with my parents and plan on staying there until I can buy a home. I have no debt, no bills, and have an inheritance of $75,000 sitting in a savings account doing nothing. My parents are very against credit cards and truly believe cash is king. I agree, but I also think I should get

a credit card to build credit and get cash back, points, etc. I'm wondering if you have any advice on what to do with the inheritance that's sitting there, the money that I'm making, and if I should get a credit card. I would love to invest in real estate, but would love to hear from you first. Well, Sarah, thanks for the question. It sounds like you got a lot going on, a lot of different questions. Let's tackle the first numero uno question. What to do with the 75K? Hey, if it's me, you have no debt.

I'm making sure that I've got three to six months of expenses, right, George? That's thing one. My guess is maybe she does if she's been living at home. But if she doesn't. If you don't have other savings, we need to take a portion of that and allocate it to an emergency fund. Correct. And then if that's the case, or let's say you already had your savings,

I'm looking at a down payment, George. I'm trying to get up out of the parents' basement. Not to say that you're living in the basement. I'm just saying I'm trying to get out of my parents' house at this point and see about life on my own. And maybe that's an apartment at first because, you know, if you have no debt and you have no credit history, like George, George made a very good point earlier about making sure that you've established credit history with your parents as renters, so to speak, and that you're actually paying rent to your parents. So when it's time to get a mortgage, they can actually look at those payment histories as a way to do some manual underwriting. I'll let George explain that. But that's first thing that I'm thinking is let me get out of my parents' house. And so,

George, why don't you talk to that real estate question a little bit? As far as investing? Oh, the manual underwriting. Yeah, the underwriting. So part of your question is, do I get the credit card to build a credit and get the cash back? You don't need to play that game at all. Jade and I have both gotten mortgages with no credit history, no credit score, because once we got out of debt, the credit score disappears into the abyss.

That's right. It becomes... You don't miss it. Zero. And so you go, well, what does the lender do then? Well, they do what's called a no score loan, manual underwriting. A lot of lenders actually do this. You just have to do your research. And our friends at Churchill Mortgage have been doing this forever. And here's what you want to do. Get in touch with them to figure out what this looks like for you living at home. You need

to have some kind of rental history. That's a fact, which means you need to have paid your parents a sum of money consistently around the same time every single month for one year. And it needs to be a sum that makes sense. For instance, before Sam and I bought our first house, we did rent from his mom. She owned a property we rented, but we paid a reasonable rent.

I think she rented to us at cost, but every month we wrote her a check for $1,200. And so we were able to use that as our rental history. And so that was able to work for us, zero credit score. And there may be other history of payments they want to look at, like your cell phone bill. So you said you have no bills. I would just get more clarity on that so that you're not shocked a year from now. But if you are going to be buying a home, I'd have a clear timeline. I wouldn't just continue living at home with mom and dad for the foreseeable future until you feel like it. I would say, hey, one year from now, my goal is to move out. I want to start making payments to you guys so I have rental history and I have some skin in the game, start paying some bills around here.

And then one year from now, I'm going to continue saving. That inheritance can go sit in a high yield savings account because you've got a short term goal. So we don't want to invest this money into the market when we need this money in the next few years. She's also talking about investing in real estate, George. There's a lot of aspiring real estate investors out there in their 20s. And I love that. And we love real estate around here, but there's a time and place for it. And it is once you've got a primary residence paid off, you're in baby step seven, no debt in the world, then save up and pay cash for real estate. Then and only then. And it reduces risk. It increases your cashflow, which is what it's all about, right?

Tax. Reduces your stress from being a landlord at 23 while trying to get out there as an adult. There's just, there's a lot going on in your life and you don't need to be a real estate investor tomorrow. Yeah. Let's take it one thing at a time. You can build wealth without that. And so I would just focus on increasing your income. That might, and it sounds like you love the nonprofit space. That's great. If you want to stay there, if you want to move to the private sector, you might, you know, double your income depending on what you're doing. And then the credit cards, you just simply don't need. You've survived this long without them and you're doing great. You're doing so much better than most people

who have credit cards. And so what does that tell you about wealth building? Credit cards aren't a part of the game. They're not a part of it. There you go. Well, thanks for the question, Sarah. There's a lot packed in there, but you're thinking about the right things. And I have a lot of faith in Sarah that she's going to build wealth quickly at this age. Absolutely. All right. Let's move on to the phones. We've got Lisa over in Dover, Delaware. Didn't mean to rhyme, but I did it anyways. Lisa, how are you doing? Good. How are you?

What's going on? So we're 1662, and we have two cars, and we realize we don't need two cars, and we have two car payments. So the one vehicle has a lot of equity in it because of the type of vehicle it is. So we know we're definitely selling that. I've got a couple different options. My husband wants to sell that vehicle, take the proceeds and put it in our retirement account. I want to get rid of both vehicles, buy the best car we can for, let's just say $25,000. That way we have no car payments and we can take that money and start doubling up on our mortgage. The only

problem with that on the second vehicle, it's a hybrid. So we got a $7,500 tax credit last year. And if we dispose of that car within three years, we have to recapture 66 two-thirds percent of that $7,500. But my theory is if you have no car payment, that recapture penalty will go away in four months. So you'd lose out on about five grand that you'd have to pay back to the IRS? Right. And my husband's like, I'm not paying the IRS. Well, it sounds like you guys are,

you're wanting to do a lot of things at once. You're wanting to invest. You're wanting to save it. You want to pay off the cars. And so I would focus on one thing at a time. And the best thing you can do right now is to get out of all consumer debt. So are the two car loans your only debt? Or is there other things? There's a line of credit on the house.

So you got a HELOC? How much is it? I want to say 30. Okay. So we got how much, what do the car loans add up to? So the car loan, I just looked at that. I just about fell out of my chair while I was on hold. It's 70,000. Wow. Between the two. What's your household income? $150,000. That's a lot of cars. It is.

Yeah. Okay. Well, I love the idea of selling the cars. Both of them. Yeah, the 5K, while it hurts, you could call a stupid tax because that loan is going to hurt you even more hanging on to that thing. So let's see here. If you sold one car,

what would that give you? The one that has more equity in it? That would give us a $943 extra a month. All right. And would you clear any money? Is it worth more than you owe? Oh yeah. We'd probably clear $20,000. That's good. Okay. And then what's left on the other loan, on the hybrid? That's a new one, so that's $51,000 on that. Oh, wow. Sell these cars. It was a, I don't know how, midlife crisis decision I made. So it was stupid. It was definitely stupid.

I regret it. It's fun to drive, but. You know what's more fun? Retiring. Yes. When you want to. What's that? It's more fun to retire when you want to? What's that? It's more fun to retire when you want to.

Yeah, my husband had a health scare and that kind of accelerated our retirement too. What are we doing? And let's ditch this debt and be able to enjoy our life. Yeah. I mean, the solution's right in front of you selling these cars and you sell both of them. You buy something that's within range. Maybe you spend $20,000 on something, and then you, you know, whatever you have in this line of credit, clear that out. That's a much better situation than what you're in today, right? Right. It's just his theory is he does not want to pay back the stupid tax. You know, he's like, let's just hold on to it. We'll take the money that we had on the other car and we'll just accelerate. But he doesn't see the $70K of car payments as stupid tax?

I think he doesn't. Like I said, I didn't realize until I started pulling the financial, you know, the loan paperwork out. And I'm like, holy crap. Tell him to listen to this episode in that Jade and George told him that that's the stupid tax. If he was so keen on investing, he should have spent all that money he spent on the cars and put that into retirement. If he was such a retirement fiend. So I'm selling these cars. Get rid of the HELOC next.

Become completely debt free. Get a fully funded emergency fund. Then we can have a ball investing. That is the plan for progress. And you guys can get there with that great income. But we got to start focusing today. That's right. Thanks for the call, Lisa.

This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, Ramsey personality, joined by my colleague and friend, Jade Warshaw, this hour. Yeah, you know, George, it's a new year. Thank you, Lord. And that means you can george it's a new year thank you lord and that means you can't be giving up on those goals that you set out to accomplish and if your main goal is to build those money muscles but you've only been to the gym i love this but you've only been to the money gym once just like everyone else it's time to make progress not excuses that's what i'm talking about and let tell you, it can be hard when you don't have a plan or when you're starting

out with $460,000 of debt like me and my husband, Sam. Man, if you want to be practical, if you want a proven plan to climb out from under that pile of bills and start building wealth, it is time right now to grab yourself a copy of the Total Money Makeover. Guys, do not wait to do this. This is your life change right here. This book is literally, quite literally the reason that I'm here today on the radio. This is Dave's bestselling book for a reason, guys. You are going to learn the seven baby steps to guide you through your journey with real life stories from people who don't have to struggle with money problems anymore because they followed the same steps too. Guys, I cannot tell you how much this

can change your life. These baby steps. I remember when Sam and I first got the total money makeover, we brought the book home. We started filling it out. And I'll be honest, because it's like looking in the mirror, George. We first looked at it and we're like, oh my gosh. And at first, we've kind of felt like, oh man, like a little bit like, can we do this? And then we kept reading, we kept looking at the stories, and we were able to go forward. So guys, let me be real with you real quick, paying off debt and building wealth. It's not just for me. It's not just for those people over there. It's not just for the Joneses. It's for you, or the people in this book, it's for you too. So get back on that money treadmill and order your copy of the total money makeover today. This is at ramseysolutions.com

slash store. You guys got this, man. You got this. Order your copy today. I love it. Can I start telling people that I do go to the gym? I just go to the money gym. The money gym. Does that count? It's like when you like have two like things of money in your fist and you just like do curls. Maxing out an IRA. Yeah. That's my kind of workout right there.

Oh, I was really talking about like lifting piles of cash. Oh, no. No, that would be baller though. That feels dangerous. If I'm doing it at the gym, I'm getting mugged. Can I tell you something? No question about it. Talking about piles of cash.

Do you remember when we were kids, DuckTales and he used to dive into that pile of money and swim in it? If only that was possible. Let me tell you. That would be my money, Jim. Sadly, it's one of my retirement goals. I want to get a bunch of friends over. I just find George in the backyard.

Just get one of those inflatable Walmart pools and we just fill it with money. I love it. It's for sure going to be dollar bills. I can't afford to do it with tens. I definitely want to see a YouTube video of this, George, when it happens. I feel like Mr. Beast has done this. Someone will let us know. That's incredible. I love it. I love it. The guys behind the glass are like, yes, this is real. They're like, please, get Mr. Beast on a collab video

with George swimming in a pool of money. But we'll talk. Total money makeover, George. It's legit. There's not many books I would say are like life changing. Yeah. If you do the steps in them. Yeah. This is the one that like you can't walk away not fired up. You can't walk away and not do anything. The stories, the stories are real everyday people.

And then I don't know if they still have it, but we had the workbook version. We had the book version and the workbook where you can like plug in all your numbers and see what you're looking like. And I can tell you it's hard to look in the mirror but you need to you need to see all the areas that have just gotten since we're using the fitness reference all those flabby money love handles oh that's a lot of this feels like a personal attack it's personal you got you got the the credit card cellulite you know what i'm saying that's a new one for me i gotta admit

cellulite what a deep cut no one likes that oh boy you got the can i should i keep going i want to say something for back fat but i'm getting nervous it's getting dark real quick some people have already tuned out i hope not come on george let's keep it rolling all right let's get to the phones it's your show america give us a call at 888-825-5225. Matthew is in Grand Rapids. Matthew, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. How are you doing? Doing good. Doing great. How can we help?

Yeah. So first, I want to give a quick comment. I submitted for the student loan repayment since we paid them off during COVID, and I checked my Nelnet student loan account today, and I found out they are making me pay that back. And if I didn't find that out by June 30th, I would have student loan interest I would have to pay on top of that. So this morning, I paid that right back. So I just wanted to give a little awareness. Let me get this clear, Matthew. You made your payments, and they said, hey, we'll actually refund you $10,000.

They reinstate your balance to $10,000 and say, hey, hopefully the government clears that? Yep. So I got a check from the Department of Education November of last year for that $10,000, and my balance was $10,000. So the next thing, they said by June 30th, but I didn't pay that back. I'd have interest to pay on top of that. And since there was some CARES Act thing, I actually have to pay an additional $20 because some $20 of interest accrued, which

confused me. So probably some not nice words our Lord and Savior wouldn't want me to say on air. So they wrote you a check for $10,000 and then put you in debt for another $10,000 and said, all right, good luck. Pay it off. Wow. Okay. Good reminder for those out there that got a check, check your balances because they're probably reinstated for that same amount. Go pay that off immediately. Good looking out, Matthew. And it's interesting, you know, I was on a couple of weeks back with Dave and a guy called in and something really similar. He had the, he had requested a refund for the 10K and when they gave him the refund, they reinstated his entire loan. And they sent him a check for the amount of the entire loan, not just for the 10K.

Way more than 10K. Way more. I think it was like 20. It was a weird number. It was like 21 or 22 something. And this is what I was afraid of, which is, you know. Gross, predatory malpractice from these student loan companies. It's predatory.

But Matt did the right thing. He sent that check right back. And that's what y'all need to do. If you're listening and you requested student loan forgiveness, especially if you were already clear of debt, just be debt free, man. Amen. Just be debt free. Send that money back and be debt free. Quit waiting on the government.

Love it. Well, Matthew, let's get to your question. Is it related? Unrelated? Yeah, not directly related to this. Just had a quick question. So my wife and I, debt-free other than our house, we make about $120,000 a year combined. My company matches about 8% to 9% in our 401k. I have about $50,000 in there so far. And my question is, should I only match up to the 8% to 9% and then

go with a SmartVestor Pro for the other 6% to 7%? Or should I max out that 401k to the 15% and then let them match up to that 8% or 9%? Do you have a Roth 401k? I believe so. It's after tax. It is after tax. So therefore, make sure it's a Roth. If it's a Roth, you can just invest all 15% into that 401k. Okay. And you should get close to maxing it out. I don't think you'll get there with your income. Okay. But if it's not a Roth, if it's a traditional, then we would just invest. Then move to the Roth IRA.

Yeah. And max that out or get as high as you can up to the 15. Okay, that sounds good to you because, yeah, I have that 15% just taken out of my paycheck every single week. Cool. Yeah, it's great if it's a Roth. If it's not, we want you to take advantage of, in this order, match beats Roth beats traditional. So take that match up to 9%. Let's go to the Roth IRA

and start putting some money in there. Then if we run out of options, we can go back to the traditional 401k to finish it out. Okay. Is that a baby in the background I hear? Yeah, we're just pulling up. She was just crying a little bit in the car seat. So I was trying to keep her as calm as possible. And that's what I was just going to say. So that shouldn't change anything. Since she's about nine months old, just keep investing like we are. Yeah, I mean, I'd open a 529 and beyond that 15%, throw a little chunk of money into a 529 every month or an ESA.

Okay. My parents and I partnered on that, so we're good to go there. Love it. Man, what an awesome dad, Matthew. Pump for you. I know. How old are you? 25. Oh, my goodness. You guys are in such great shape. Thank you so much for the call.

What an awesome scenario. I love to hear it. It's a good problem to have. It never gets old, George, when people are doing the right thing. I wish I was that smart at 25. Like, you know, if you're listening, you're frustrated because you're like, gosh, I wish I, you know, you always hear this. Yeah. Man, I wish I knew this when I was younger. Hindsight is 20-20. But you know what? It's not too late. We got a call from the 56-year-old saying, I want to get out of debt. We got a call

from a 62-year-old saying, I want to retire with dignity. It's never too late. So if you're listening and you're 40 or 50 or 60 and you hear these youngsters who are debt-free and they're going to be millionaires, it's not too late for you. You can create a better tomorrow. You might have to work longer. You might have to sacrifice. You might have to downsize, but you can retire with dignity. You don't have to die with loans in your life, leaving your family in a lurch and leaving you with no legacy. That's not what I want for anyone listening and you can change that. So good hour, Jay. Thank you so much. Let's do more of it coming up on The Ramsey Show. We'll be back. Hey, George Camel here. If you love the show and you want a deeper dive on your money journey,

we've got a weekly newsletter that gives you helpful articles and tips on following the Ramsey way. Just go to RamseySolutions.com today to sign up for the newsletter. Again, that's RamseySolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.