The Ramsey Show - App - Your Goals Need to Be YOUR Goals (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 10, 2019

Home Buying, Debt, Retirement   Tools to get you started:  Take TDRS listener survey to win a $100 Amazon gift card, click here: http://bit.ly/2krRePv Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV... Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Phone number here is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Roxy's with us in Florida. Hey, Roxy, how are you? Hey, Dave, how are you?
Starting point is 00:00:52 I'm so happy to talk to you. You too. How can I help? Okay, so about 13 months ago, my boyfriend and I at the time, he's my fiance now, found out we were pregnant. And flash forward to now, we have a beautiful five-month-old girl. And we're in a very interesting position because we have no consumer debt. None. Zero. And my fiance decided that he just needed to get his income up and he went from making
Starting point is 00:01:27 literally nothing to bringing in about 70,000 a year. Now, we're in a position of, he's an over-the-road truck driver, so he's like, baby, I'll fill the bank account, you write the checks. And I don't want to let him down. And I don't know. Having a baby has made me realize I don't really understand money. And in order to be better with money, I feel like you need to understand it. And I'm terrified of debt. And having found you, I realize that's the right gut instinct. So I just wanted to know, he's hell-bent on buying a house,
Starting point is 00:02:13 but I kind of feel like maybe that's a little putting the cart before the horse. Maybe we should continue to rent and, you know, yeah. So that's kind of where i'm at so when is the uh wedding date um it's next year sometime we haven't really set a date um i don't know he put a ring on my finger recently he just we hadn't really talked about it because he's driving like he drives you know continually comes home maybe. What would you say if I say this is holding your wealth building back? I'd say you're probably right. Because it's hard to build wealth with your roommate.
Starting point is 00:02:58 Very true, very true. You don't buy a house with your roommate. And so, you know, you call me, and so I'm going to tell you that the shortest path to wealth is for couples that intend to live together is to be married. Okay. It's not a moral statement. It is a moral statement because I'm a Christian and I believe that. But aside from that, that's not why I'm bringing it up. Okay. do it in conjunction, highly unified with their spouse. They don't do it in spite of their spouse. They don't do it in spite of their boyfriend. They don't buy houses and cars and stuff with people that they're not married to.
Starting point is 00:03:55 We just don't find those people succeeding financially in any of our research. And in 30 years of doing this, I haven't seen it. And so that's why i'm bringing it up so you don't hear you don't hear me being a jerk in my voice right no no no all right good so this is just me telling you i love you here's how i want you to win okay so if i woke up in your shoes i get married when he comes home okay um this weekend. And then we would start talking about how we're going to handle money as a married couple. And I can help you a lot better with that than I can with your roommate. So then what we're going to do is you don't need to be worried about letting him down because you're going to lay out the budget,
Starting point is 00:04:39 and the two of you are both going to agree on where the money is going to go, and you're going to write the checks on what you've agreed to do. Okay? So you're not going to be, I'll just make money and throw it in the account, and I sure hope you get your crap together back home, baby. That doesn't work. Okay?
Starting point is 00:05:02 That's not fair to you, and ultimately it's not fair to him because he's out there wondering if you have a clue you're back home going crap i sure hope i have a clue right and that's just too that's too much there's too much guilt tripping going on back and forth here so all i don't expect him to do a lot but you're i'm going to put you into uh um financial peace university is my wedding gift to you okay thank you and i want you to go to the class and the thing about the class is it has a one-year membership and all the videos and the lessons are online and he can watch them while he's on the road and you're going to do your budget on every dollar and every dollar plus and he can look at it on his phone he'll know exactly what you're doing and the two of
Starting point is 00:05:45 you together are going to approve your budget each month even if he's on the road he can do it takes 30 minutes okay well he's sitting in the hotel room you put the baby to bed you've got the budget built okay baby bring it up let's jump on the phone let's look at the budget okay all right you good with all this good then you go do what both of you agreed to. Then if there is a mistake or a problem, the two of you did it together. Right. If there's success, the two of you did it together. Absolutely. And I cannot recommend that to a couple that is not married.
Starting point is 00:06:19 I can only recommend it to a couple that is married because it presents relationship problems and all kinds of legal problems when you've combined money with people you're not married to. Right. And buying a house with people you're not married to is really scary stuff. So I agree. I think you guys are very close to being able to buy a house. You're debt free. Let's build your emergency fund.
Starting point is 00:06:40 Then let's start working on down payment. And we'll teach you all of that in Financial Peace University probably by spring or this time next year you're going to be in the market for a house and i think that's going to be fine the good news about your man is he ain't afraid of hard work he took off and got on the road and made some money for his his fiance and his baby he's a good guy he's got a good heart he's got a good work ethic you probably found a keeper so go ahead and lock him down when he comes in this weekend close the deal all right hang on kelly's gonna pick up i'll get you signed up for financial peace university oh and all you people that don't like dave ramsey being judgmental and all that stuff
Starting point is 00:07:21 dave ramsey's not judgmental dave ramsey loves you. I just want you to win. And you can just put over whatever you want. You can write a blog about me while you live in your mother's basement, and you can have your liberal fantasies or whatever it is you're going to do. That's fine. Have at it. I'm going to keep doing this show. Don't call this show if you don't want my opinion,
Starting point is 00:07:45 because it is my job to help you as best I can, knowing what I've learned in the last 30 years of doing this. What can I guide you to do to help you the most, even if you don't like it? Even if the ideas are foreign to you, even if it feels funky to you, it doesn't matter to me how it feels. What I want to do is I want to help you win. That's my goal. And so she's probably about the age
Starting point is 00:08:12 of one of my daughters. And so if one of my daughter's good friends that has grown up in our neighborhood came and sat down at the kitchen table with Sharon and I, that's exactly what I would have told her too. So if you don't like that kind of stuff, there's a real easy fix for you.
Starting point is 00:08:30 Change the channel. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. If you want a show, get you a show. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Business leaders, if you're not using LinkedIn jobs, you're missing out. Our Ramsey Solutions Company page on LinkedIn has over 100,000 followers. That's 100,000 potential like-minded people our team communicates our current openings to. We also post our jobs on LinkedIn because we know the best candidates already have jobs and linkedin makes it easy by doing the legwork for you it's no wonder a hire is made every eight seconds on linkedin and over 600 million members visit linkedin to make connections
Starting point is 00:09:38 learn and grow as professionals and discover new job opportunities. Get started today with LinkedIn Jobs and get $50 off your first job post. Visit linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. here's what's interesting if you want to hit your goals they need to be very specific they need to be measurable they need to be your goals and they need to be in writing you know what most people mess up the last one it's not written down that's not magical but if you write it down it means that because you can't write it down if it's not specific it's not measurable and you don't have some sense of ownership it's like i want to it needs to have a time limit too which will help you do the math right i want to lose 30 pounds how many times over 40 years now i want to lose 30 pounds in 90 days boom now we have math right 30 pounds in 90
Starting point is 00:10:59 days is 10 pounds a month that's two and a half pounds a week. Instantaneously, your brain starts taking you towards what you must do to cause that to happen. What must be true that's not true now? Well, I have to increase my aerobic activity, increase my water intake, decrease my carbs, and decrease my sugar. And ding, ding, you will lose weight. It's magical. You don't even need Oprah.
Starting point is 00:11:23 I mean, you know, you just lay it out and it happens, right? And the same thing is true with money. I want to pay off $30,000 in debt, okay? When? One year. Oh, that's $2,500 a month. Oh, that's $600 a week. Oh, can I do that? Well, I'd have to increase my income. See, ding, ding. You automatically start asking, what has to be true that's not true now? When you write that down and your debt snowball and you start putting it in your budget, those are written game plans.
Starting point is 00:11:51 They're written goals at that point. I want to run a marathon next April the 18th. Okay. Then you lay out a training plan that gets you ready for that. And it's easy to pull up. There's 27,000 plans online that you can pull up and prepare you to run a marathon by the 18th of april and in the process you'll have a bunch of other things that you'll have to do to get ready to do that but i mean you'll learn about equipment clothing you'll
Starting point is 00:12:16 learn about shoes which if you don't do that you'll blow your knees you'll learn about weight loss because that's coming baby you're you're going to learn about intake and proper nutrition while you're training. You're going to learn about rhythm of training. You're going to learn about all these things in order to hit the goal. As soon as you write down a goal, that's what happens. It's powerful. Christy Wright knows this, and so that's why she put together the brand new 2020 Goal Planner, the planner for next year.
Starting point is 00:12:46 Now, we launched our first gold planner with Christy and the Business Boutique Gang last year, and it sold out in like 20 seconds, and we had to reorder and all that. So we're putting these on sale all the way down here in September so that you're ready for January when it gets here. And it is an incredible tool. I mean, it is a full-on planner. I mean, it's like two and a half inches thick. It helps you grow in your business, your personal life, guides you through putting the goals on paper, gives you the inspiration to see them through. It's got the monthly and weekly calendar views, the monthly lessons, activities, inspirational
Starting point is 00:13:24 quotes, actions to hold you accountable all year long, walks you through the whole thing. That's why it's so popular. It is a massively thorough goal planning tool. The 2020 Goal Planner. It's on sale right now, $49.99 at DaveRamsey.com and at BusinessBoutique.com. Or you can talk to the Ramsey Concierge Team, and they'll help you out at 888-22-PIECE, 888-227-3223. Jeff's in California. Hi, Jeff.
Starting point is 00:13:51 How are you? Good. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? We started your program like late August, probably mid-August, and we're already on baby step two. Yay. Yeah, we're,
Starting point is 00:14:06 yeah, we're pretty excited. Uh, we're ready to start attacking the snowball. And I had a couple questions cause we have, um, our car, one of our cars is about 9,400, um, with a 1.9% finance. But, uh, we also have our credit card which is uh like 17 percent interest rate and then we have like 19 or sorry 1300 on that i've got about 7500 that's coming this week from a freelance project that we can put towards our debt and then i don't know if we get rid of the car and then um go attack the credit card with the snowball, or do we go after the credit card because it has a higher interest rate? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:50 Where did you learn about the debt snowball? We were reading your book. Actually, one of your recruiters sent us a book when I was applying to work there. Oh, cool. And we just jumped right in. Okay. So you were reading Total Money Makeover? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:04 Okay. Go back and reread the chapter on the debt snowball. Okay. Here's what it's going to tell you. Okay? It's going to tell you, list your debts, smallest to largest, regardless of interest rate. Okay. And attack them in that order with any money you can find and squeeze out of your budget.
Starting point is 00:15:23 In your case, you've got a wonderful freelance check coming in this week of $7,500 or this month, and that's going to increase what you can throw onto your debt snowball. But based on that, and based on what you told me, I heard two debts, a car and a credit card. Is that the only two debts you have? Well, we have one more car, but that's like $20,000. Okay. So we have three debts, a $9,000 car, a $20,000 car, and a $1,700 credit card.
Starting point is 00:15:51 It's $1,400. $1,400 credit card. Okay, so fairly easy to put those in order, $1,400 to $9,000 to $20,000, regardless of the interest rate. So $7,500 is going to pay off $1,400. That's going to leave me $6,100 to throw at my $9,000 car balance, leaving a $3,000 car balance. What's your household income? We're about $140. And so next month that car is paid off, isn't it?
Starting point is 00:16:19 Yep. If you only have $3,000 owed on it after this check, right? Yep. You see how I'm doing this? Yep. Ding, ding. Both of them are gone in less than 35 or 45 days, and then you're on to attack mode on the $20,000, and you're going to be done on it before you know it because you make really good money household-wise.
Starting point is 00:16:40 Yeah, we do, okay. Yeah. So just follow that plan exactly, and any time you have a doubt about exactly how to apply these principles, the book, The Total Money Makeover, will walk you through exactly what to do. And then just all you have to do is just remind yourself, I'm not the exception. I'm not the exception. I'm not the exception.
Starting point is 00:17:00 Seven million people have bought this book. Six million people have been through Financial Peace University. Tens of millions of people are doing this plan, and I'm not the exception. That's all you got to do is remind yourself of that and then just plow right through, dude. And, you know, before you know it, you'll be there. Very cool. Good for you. Craig is with us, and Craig is in Washington.
Starting point is 00:17:20 Hi, Craig. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you doing, dude? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, so I'm kind of piggybacking off your question of the day earlier. Last September, I cashed out about $200,000 in non-retirement investments
Starting point is 00:17:34 and company stock to pay off the house, so we're babysat seven. Way to go. Yeah, thank you, and had a very intentional plan and immediately met with HR. So we're investing about $100,000 a year. 58 of it is in Roth investment. We are maxing everything out. And there's a couple of different strategies. And I kind of wanted to get your take on whether or not that's a viable means of diversification or if you would recommend just taking that 25 grand and doing non-retirement investments. I get it at a 10% discount. I can sell it immediately, but I've been holding it for a year.
Starting point is 00:18:21 So it goes to long-term capital gains. I just, I'd like your take. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Just a couple of things to keep in mind while you're doing it. This is the place if you were going to do it, you would do it, at maybe step seven where you're cooking along and you maxed out everything else. Okay?
Starting point is 00:18:36 Yes, sir. You would obviously not buy stock in any company if you did not project through some logical means the fact that the value of that company is going to go up you wouldn't buy a stock in your company just because it's your company i mean if you think the stock's going to go down obviously you wouldn't buy it right sure so that's that's thing one we need to actually look at this from a logical perspective read some articles on your company by third party people not just information you have from going to work every day and go well i really think this company is going to go up in value.
Starting point is 00:19:07 Okay, good. Then maybe the stock's a play. The 10% discount's not worth doing it if it's not a good play because a 52-week high and a 52-week low probably covers more than a 10% spread. So it's not really enough to make a big difference there. And then the last thing is when you're building, and some of it is in single stocks, do not let it become more than about 10% of your total net worth. That way, if it all goes upside down, it doesn't change your life.
Starting point is 00:19:36 If it goes straight up, it's just gravy on the biscuit. That's it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Let's talk about low interest rates, baby. I know right now that Churchill Mortgage can get qualified buyers into a 15-year conventional loan for well under 4% with no discount points or no hidden fees. Listen, if you're even thinking about buying a home or refinancing, do it right now. These rates are incredibly low. Here's what I'd like you to do.
Starting point is 00:20:15 Take 10 minutes and call Churchill Mortgage and see what you can qualify for. So even if you have to get creative and buy something further out of the city to get something you can afford, now's the time to make the move. That's why I'm sending you to Churchill Mortgage. I trust them to look out for you and your budget. Don't miss this opportunity. You can secure these low rates now for up to 90 days through Churchill Mortgage. Call 888-LOAN-200. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. John is with us. John's in Ohio. Hi, John.
Starting point is 00:21:10 Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Mr. Ramsey. My question is, I have a rental. It's a duplex. And currently, with the mortgage and monthly bills from it, it doesn't cash flow. What I was wanting to do is take about $30,000 and pay the mortgage down and do a loan recast. If I did that, that would give me a positive $100 a month on it. I was just curious if this would be a terrible decision or an okay decision to do.
Starting point is 00:21:44 Well, if it's a terrible decision, I think what you're doing, though, is you've got a property that has no equity in it to amount to anything. If it did, it'd be cash flowing. No. Yeah, I mean, I bought it in 2006, so I've been paying on it for years, and I've been paying extra on it to try and get it paid down. But so what is it worth today? About $115,000. Okay, and what's the mortgage on it to try and get it paid down. So what is it worth today? About $115,000.
Starting point is 00:22:07 Okay. And what's the mortgage on it? $89,000. $90,000. Okay. So after expenses, you've got $10,000, $12,000 in equity after you sell it. Okay. So you don't have any equity.
Starting point is 00:22:20 So it's not really much of an asset. Right. So it's not really much of an asset. Rental property that doesn't have any equity creates a lot of risk that offsets any blessing that it is. Because this thing's not making any money, and the only way it starts to make money is you pay it off. So you have $30,000 you can throw at this duplex. Do you have any other money you can throw at it? No. I mean, I got a little bit extra extra but i didn't want to go down to nothing yeah i don't want you to go down to nothing either so um how much do you have in
Starting point is 00:22:50 total savings that is and investments that's not in a retirement account about 33 000 oh yeah you don't want to go below 30 okay and what's your household income? $80,000. Okay, and you own a home as well, right? Yes. Do you have other debts? No. Good, very good. Okay, so if you're going to do this and you're going to recast it, put it on a 15-year fixed, what's your current interest rate? Four and an eighth okay yeah you probably can reduce it a point
Starting point is 00:23:29 by refinancing it and throwing the 30 at it and but you're not going to make much money on it what i'm trying to do is get the thing paid off if i'm in your shoes so you owe 90 we throw 30 at it we got to pay 60 we owe 60 on it after that. We need to get that 60 knocked out. And with your income, that may take a little while. That's the only way this thing starts to make sense is to get it paid off. Right. Recast is a step in that direction, but it's not the final step. It's not like recast and forget.
Starting point is 00:24:00 You've got to recast and attack and just get her paid off as fast as you possibly can i'm not worried about your monthly cash flow as much as i am your ability to get it knocked off completely that way the monthly cash flow will make it worth keeping but if it's going to stay in this range of debt meaning around this 90 000 mark in debt with $115,000 value, it's never going to be much of a property, even when you throw $30,000 more at it. So this is why I pay cash for rental properties. And then my need to sell one of them just goes away. So, hey, thanks for the call.
Starting point is 00:24:41 Open phones at 888-825-5225. You can have a lot of patience with a property when it's making you money and when it's going up in value but when you have debt on it it makes the patience go down and there and because you could be writing a check for it as easy as you could be um you know right now he's losing money almost or is losing money by the time by the time all the expenses are paid since i started paying cash for real estate which is after i went broke i quit borrowing money money almost, or is losing money by the time all the expenses are paid. Since I started paying cash for real estate, which was after I went broke, I quit borrowing money, that was 30 years ago, and I bought my first piece of real estate, investment real estate, after that, about 27 years ago.
Starting point is 00:25:18 In 27 years, I've sold two pieces of property, and I own a bunch of real estate. And one of those was a condo that was in Knoxville where our kids went to college, and it really wasn't an investment property. It was just a place for us to sleep, and we don't go over there as much because the kids are obviously out of college. We just go for a few football games a year, so I sold it the other day. It was a drain. It was not an investment property.
Starting point is 00:25:45 And the other one was a building that was just a pain in the butt. And I just, you know, out of 27 years, I've sold two properties. Now, what that tells you is that they're very easy to hold on to when they're paid for. Some of them are more disappointing than others. Others are a touchdown. You go, yeah, boom boom that was a home run right touchdown home run whatever sports metaphor we want goal i don't know score whatever but you
Starting point is 00:26:11 know but bottom line is there's some of them are really good and some of them are like yeah but they're paid for and they always make money when they're paid for if you keep them rented you know it's just magical and it changes everything when you're doing that and it's hard for me to convince real estate people to do that because most real estate people just love debt you know i grew up in that world you just love debt all right tyler is with us tyler is in utah hi tyler welcome to the ramsay show hey dave how are you better than i deserve what's up hey i was just calling had a little predicament come up just recently um so my wife and I, we have got two kids, and we are building a home in Idaho. I'm trying to save everything we can for a down payment.
Starting point is 00:26:53 And so we moved in with my in-laws actually last week and got hit with about $7,000 worth of car repairs and wanted to know what we should do what we should do i can't imagine a car i would spend seven thousand dollars now that wasn't the plan we weren't wanting did you did you fix the car no no that was the that was the bill that they had given to us and we're like you know what no what's this car worth not even maybe five thousand oh you don't spend seven thousand dollars on that car you sell it for junk yeah and so and so that was from here we're wondering do we get a clunker just a thousand dollars okay you don't have any money right and that and that's where and i kind of grew up where
Starting point is 00:27:37 parents had those clunkers car after car after car and they just sunk a ton of money into it i did not suggest you do this car after car after car i suggest you do it right now because you're in the middle of an emergency you live with your in-laws and you're building a house in idaho okay but when you get into idaho you better get your freaking act together get yourself out of debt build your emergency fund up then start saving up for a better car i drove a clunker too but i drove it so i never had to again yeah that's what you're doing here. And we've been pretty fortunate where we don't have any debt, and so that's why we were trying to do everything we could.
Starting point is 00:28:13 So we didn't, you know, buying a house is a necessity and where we want to be. But then this car came along. He's like, well, in a few years we want to get a car so we could grow into it. We've got two kids right now, might have one or two more. Well, you've got a few years to save up for it. Yeah. Okay. So in terms of maybe $1,000 for a car, $2,000, what would you say? Do you have any money?
Starting point is 00:28:29 We've got right about $6,000, $7,000 saved right now. Oh, good. Okay. And we're hoping to have, by the time the home is done, right about $15,000, $16,000. Okay. So, I mean, I probably, in that case, it sounds like you're, what's your household income? $60K. Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, I probably, in that case, it sounds like you're, what's your household income? $60K. Yeah, okay. And two kids?
Starting point is 00:28:50 Two kids, yep. And a wife that works hard at home taking care of them. I'm sure. I'd probably spend about $3K. Okay. In cash. And here's the thing, just a reminder. Number one, the reminder is this discussion is this is a temporary fix 24 months from now you're living in the other house and you're saving money aggressively again only this time it's to finish your emergency fund and above that save up and move up in car so we're not driving clunker to clunker okay that's not the plan number one okay number two
Starting point is 00:29:23 given that that's the state of affairs, a reminder on how to buy a $3,000 car. You want to buy an ugly car that is mechanically reliable. I do not care about the aesthetics. A $3,000 car should be a car that you need to give a name to. Old blue, big red, the big bomb. A $3,000 car should be a car that you need to give a name to. Old Blue. Big Red. The Big Bomb.
Starting point is 00:29:50 I don't know. Give a name to it, and the kids can call it that, and the kids will remember having that car when they were little for two years when Mom and Dad were saving money after they bought the new house. Okay? But you're looking for something that has low miles and is in incredible mechanical condition, and I don't give a rip about the sex appeal. Sex appeal and $3,000 cars do not go together.
Starting point is 00:30:13 They don't even go in the same sentence. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. At The Dave Ramsey Show, we really value your input. It helps us to know what's important to you so we can deliver relevant content to help you crush your money goals. We just launched a brand new survey, and we'd love your feedback. It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary. Take the survey at DaveRamsey.com slash survey or text survey to 33
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Starting point is 00:32:25 gift card that's pretty cool so davramsey.com slash survey or if you want to just text the word survey to 33 789 that'll get you as well text the word survey to 33 789 and um again davramsey.com slash survey. Thanks for helping us with that. We really appreciate it. Beth is with us. Beth is in Indiana. How are you, Beth? I'm great. How are you today, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:32:57 So first I want to share with you that I've been listening to Dave with my two and a half year old daughter in the car and so now she asked to actually she says, hey mommy, can we listen to that Dave show now wow so I'm trying to do the cops and tots there you love it I'm honored thank you thank you how can I help no I have a question on baby step six so my husband is a union carpenter and as you likely know their income just varies greatly. He can be laid off for two to five months at a time, or he can be making over $6,000 a month. So we are really trying to push to pay off the rest of our mortgage.
Starting point is 00:33:34 We have about $99,000 left. And I paid in advance about five months earlier this year in about June until December. And then, of course, he was working tons, and now I was making $2,000 to $6,000 additional principal payments. And so now I feel silly, like I prepaid all this interest on my mortgage. And I know you say don't prepay the interest on your mortgage, but so what do you recommend in terms of variable income and how to kind of do payment versus principal payment?
Starting point is 00:34:06 Yeah, I would only do principal payments ever as far as extra payments go and if you need to set aside a separate fund in addition to a traditional emergency fund that's just your unemployment fund because it's just part of the rhythm of your life we used to be when we first started doing this stuff we were in the real estate business and we had some months we made zero some months we made 15 000 bucks you know and so we had to we called we had a different account other than the emergency fund that we called the hill and valley account like on when you're on the hill that's like a big month a good month when you're in the valley that's like when there is no money and so you need some money to fill in the valleys that you set aside when you're on the hill.
Starting point is 00:34:47 Or you could call it a winter and summer account. You know, in the summer we set some money aside, put some nuts in the nest if you're a squirrel, right, so that you've got some stuff for the winter, right, and that's what you're doing here. And you might need something other than just a house payment paid as well. So I think you need to build you a pretty good sized hill and valley account. And then you can, without punishment, just throw extra principal only on the house. How much would be appropriate? You broke up. Try one more time. I think your cell phone screwed up, hon. So sorry about that. At least we got one question in.
Starting point is 00:35:25 Thank you for calling. All right, Stephen is with us in Texas. Hi, Stephen, how are you? Good afternoon. It's an honor to speak with you. You too, sir. What's up? All right, so my wife and I are debt-free.
Starting point is 00:35:40 We're youngish. I'm coming up on 39. She's 32. We've got our three- six month emergency fund, and we're putting quite a bit more than 15% into our retirement. We've been presented with the unique opportunity to relocate from Texas to Idaho with a job for myself. She does not currently have any job prospects lined out up there, but the pay would be enough that I don't think that's an issue. And so I'm wondering with us owning our house outright, and of course we'd sell it. We would probably end up having to take out a mortgage at least until the first house, the old house, sold. And with the difference in housing prices, we would probably end up with some sort of a mortgage.
Starting point is 00:36:37 And so I'm wondering, how do we go about that? I guess I'm looking for some level of approval to get a mortgage after just having paid ours off two, three months ago. So what will your house sell for? Probably right around $100,000. Okay. And where would you be moving in Idaho? To Rexburg. Okay.
Starting point is 00:37:01 And what is the job you'd be taking? It's just a maintenance position. Making what kind of money? Around $50,000 a year. And what do you make now? Around $46,000, $45,000 a year. So why are you going to Idaho? To enjoy the scenery while we're young and be able to enjoy the outdoors.
Starting point is 00:37:27 Where we're at, there's not a lot to look at. So your move has really nothing to do with your career? No, no. That's a byproduct. Yeah. Okay. And what does she make? She brings home about probably $1,500 a month, give or take.
Starting point is 00:37:48 Yeah, so she makes $25,000, $30,000 a year. What does she do? She's a shop owner. Okay. All right. What kind of a shop? It's a niche-type deal. Okay.
Starting point is 00:38:04 Is it something she could do there? Most likely it is not So basically we're saying we're going to cut our household income By 30-40% Yeah, sounds about right It's a pretty heavy price to pay to go hiking. That's a good perspective. Yeah, I think I'd just take some money and go hiking.
Starting point is 00:38:38 And enjoy the scenery. That's an excellent perspective. Yeah. It is. It's a really good perspective. Because you're going from about a $75,000 a year household income to a $50,000 household income, and you're going up in housing cost. And all of this.
Starting point is 00:38:52 That is true. Yeah. The only reason driving this is that you want to enjoy the scenery. And I don't disagree with you. Idaho's a beautiful place. At least sections of it are. And so I wouldn't mind if you took, you know uh extended vacations there and spent some money doing that but i think it's and i think that would cost you less than moving there
Starting point is 00:39:11 um unless there's something else drawing you uh but but so far uh it sounds to me like you've got more holding you in texas than drawing you drawing you to Idaho is what I'm hearing. On the list of things you gave me, now maybe we didn't have a complete discussion, and it's your life, certainly. You get to lead it, but one of the things I do here is just give a place for people to bounce their ideas off of, and I bounce them back at them and see if they make sense when they come back at you, and that's kind of one of our goals. So, hey, man, thank you for the call. Interesting discussion. Folks, this is personal finance, and what that means is it's okay to do what he's doing and take into consideration things you enjoy, where I want to be.
Starting point is 00:39:56 I want to be near my church. I want to be near my family. I want to be near nature. I want to be in the mountains. I want to be on the beach. I want to be on the prairie. I want to on the beach. I want to be on the prairie. I want to have a farm. I don't want to have a farm.
Starting point is 00:40:09 What is your personal thing? It's personal finance, and it's good. What he's doing there is very smart to consider living your life well. Now, then what you've got to do is you have to apply wisdom to the decision and say, okay, here's the numbers, and is there another way to get at this, or is there some other things that I should do to make this to, you know, three other steps I should take or something like that so that this becomes a wise decision. And it might be that all she needs to do is add some income to this equation, and that Idaho move becomes a good decision. But it's not yet the way he laid it out. It doesn't make sense yet.
Starting point is 00:40:48 Good, good, good discussion. Very smart. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.

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