The Ramsey Show - App - Your Son Is a Grown Man… Quit Paying His Bills! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

George Kamel & Ken Coleman discuss:  Giving a wedding gift that's a long-term investment, Whether or not businesses should tithe, Replaces a septic system, Growing a business, Saving for a home, Paying off student loans. 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 Pods 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 George Campbell, joined by Ken Coleman this hour. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about your work life, your financial life, and your whole life. And by the way, if you like this show, which I assume you do because you're still listening, please consider subscribing, giving us a follow where you're listening,

leaving a review, and sharing it with a friend. We want to impact as many people as possible with this show, and all of that helps us accomplish that. George, you know I have the utmost respect for you, your friend and companion sitting next to me here in the office. It's a weird disclaimer. The way you opened up the show there, you kind of said, and we'll talk about your whole life. Now, we will talk about how bad whole life insurance policies are. That is true. But that is not what you were emphasizing. No.

I meant your whole life as a person. Entire life. Yeah, see? But we will tell you. I will talk about whole life. If you've got a whole life policy, we'll destroy that. Nothing drives my gears like those whole life salesmen can, I'll tell you. Grinds your gears.

It's a real gear grinder. Well, good for you. I've got some WD-40 over here underneath the desk. Thank you for that. If things get too grindy. It wouldn't shock me. Ken, he runs on Tums and WD-40. It's all you need. That's right. Two of my unofficial sponsors. Oh, I love it. All right, let's get to some calls before they take us off the air. Paul joins us up in Oklahoma City. Paul, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, thanks. Good afternoon.

My son is getting married in about a year and a half. My wife initially thought we'd pay for their honeymoon and such like that, but then some other folks suggested we do an investment for them. So with that said, the investment, any ideas what might work for a newlywed couple that they can, you know, get later in life? Okay, so you want to give them some sort of... Yeah, probably about two or three, yeah, probably two or three thousand dollars. Okay, and why an investment for their retirement versus something that kickstarts their marriage today? Good question. No answer.

It's all right. He's thinking. He's looking. He's thinking of options. Well, I'm thinking a newlywed couple is like, what I need is money today, not 30 years from now. So, I think it's a lovely idea, and you can encourage them to use that money to put it in a Roth IRA. Yeah, they're both working in a small Tennessee town making about $60,000. So they're in decent shape. Will they have any debt? My son bought a car and that's about it. Okay. So who's paying for the actual wedding? Her mom and dad. Completely. They're covering it. Yes. Yes, sir. Okay. And you want to cover the honeymoon, but now you're not so sure? We thought about covering a honeymoon, but we thought about giving them a longer-term investment that maybe, you know, when they get 40, 50, they can have a little nest egg of some sort.

Yeah, I mean, they can save for their own retirement if they're young, right? How old are they? 25 and 23. Okay. So they're plenty young. Are they aware of the Ramsey principles and the power of getting started early with investing and compound interest? No. He knows that I went through Financial Peace University about seven or eight years ago.

How much does he owe on his car? $376 a month. But what's the total loan? $17,000. Okay. And what's his income? You said they're 60 combined. Yeah, he's making about 32. Yeah, that's a lot of car to be making $32,000. I would encourage him to rethink the car, but I think, George, correct me if I'm wrong, your hesitation on putting $2,000 or $3,000 in a mutual fund, they're going to have to keep contributing to that. I mean, you can let it sit for 30 years, but I'm like, the kid's got debt on his car. Let's help him today. That's where i'm at or you know and money that they don't have to spend on their honeymoon is a very nice gesture

so that they can you know and i would really encourage your son to pay the car off quickly start paying it off now as a matter of fact i thought you said the wedding is a year a year and a half from now is that right right right five five four twenty four i would have i would really encourage him to pay that car off and go into marriage debt-free. And then I'd bless him with a honeymoon. That's what I would do. Great, because I'm paying $100 towards the principal. Maybe I'll just add it up a little bit more and help him out.

To the principal of his car loan? No, no. You need to tell him to put his big boy pants on. You shouldn't be paying his car payment. He's a grown man. Yeah, he is. Does he want to pay this thing off? Real good money.

My worry is he's just comfortable because dad's helping him pay the car payment and he feels like life is pretty good. I want him to have a little fire under his butt to go, I want you to have this car paid off by the time you're married. Hey, son, I got great news. I'm going to pay for your honeymoon, but I'm not paying for your car anymore. You know? I like that.

I like that leverage. Because guess what happens when he gets married with $17,000 in car loan debt? It becomes her debt, too. And what does that do to their marriage? When they say, I do, oh, by the way, we now owe this debt that you didn't sign up for. And so I think getting started on the right foot with marriage is great. And one of the best ways to do that is for them to go through Financial Peace University. Could you gift that to them with a $1,000 check and say, hey.

Absolutely. Let's do this thing. I just got you guys started. Oh, I like that, George. We got all kinds like that, George. We got all kinds of ideas, Paul. But I think today is the phone call and we cut the umbilical cord. You shouldn't pay another nickel towards his car. I think I'm old school, but I'm more of a teach him how to fish kind of guy. And so if you teach him how to invest, well, he's got another 35,

40 years to do that, to become a millionaire. What do you know about fishing? Well, he's got another 35, 40 years to do that, to become a millionaire. What do you know about fishing? Well, it's a metaphor, Ken. Yeah, Paul, he doesn't know anything about fishing, but you get the point. You know, Ken's always out there. He's got the reel and rod. I don't know anything about fishing either, for the record. But, Paul, I think we got some good ideas here. You feel good?

Yeah, best of gentlemen. Thank you very much. Yeah, you bet. Happy to help. Okay, bye now. Good stuff. Have a good one, man. That's interesting, Ken. It's an interesting conversation because a lot of parents do want to- I like that guy. Yeah. That's a nice gesture, you know? But boy, you shouldn't be paying your adult kids car payments, folks. That's a dangerous move. one that sets a precedent that

this isn't really on me if if this doesn't work out dad can cover it it's not the kid's fault i mean what kid's gonna say no dad i mean you know few high character people would but it's like you gotta be kidding me yeah you know um but part of it is showing him hey you know what if you saved you know 300 bucks a month that's's $3,600 a year. And two years from now, you could afford a $7,200 car. And when you work and save up that kind of money, Ken, you make your car purchase a whole lot differently. I like that.

I like how you got him started with the emergency fund. I thought that was a nice, I thought that was a really good idea. It's a fun thing to do. And I always like including it with, you know, if you don't just gift Total Money Makeover or Financial Peace University. You know, sneak the $100 bill in the Total Money Makeover. Or say, hey, if you go through Financial Peace University, I'm going to give you $1,000 when you guys finish the lessons.

And so you put it somewhere middle chapter three just to see. The problem is, please do not send that book to Goodwill with $100 in it. Oh, that would break my heart. As you like to say, George, teach a man to fish. There we go. I love saying it, and I love to fish. Take me fishing. Deloney will take us.

Dr. John, he's a big fisherman. Yeah. I've got to catch it quickly or I'm out. I have ADHD. I agree. I need to catch the fish right away. It's a young man's game. Yeah.

Hey, more of your calls coming up. 888-825-5225. This is The Ramsey Show well folks you've heard the news we are in a recession the stock market is falling inflation's out of control all right calm down for a second if you're, this is no time to panic. You've got to stay level-headed. Do not jump off the investing roller coaster because all of the gloom and doom you're hearing. A lot of people are messaging me saying, hey, I need to pull out of the stock market, pull out of my 401k. It's too scary. I keep seeing it go down. This is not the time to

jump. History shows us that the economy recovers time and time again. It's too scary. I keep seeing it go down. This is not the time to jump. History shows us that the economy recovers time and time again. It happened after the Great Depression, 9-11, and the Great Recession of 08. So here's the crazy news. This is actually a great time to invest because when the market's down, it's on sale. And who doesn't love a good deal? But you've got to be smart about this and have someone who can guide you through it. So if you need help finding an investing pro, check out our SmartVestor program. It's an easy way to find pros who truly serve with excellence. They'll be there to help you figure out what's best for you and keep you focused on your long-term goals and talk you off a ledge when you're thinking about pulling all the money out of your 401k.

So if you want to get connected with up to five SmartVestor pros in your area, go to ramseysolutions.com slash SmartVestor. You can talk with those pros, pick the one you want to work with, and then make an investing plan you feel confident about. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com slash SmartVestor. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. Amber joins us up next in Springfield, Missouri. Amber, welcome to the show. Oh, thank you for having me. Yeah, How are you doing? What's going on? Yeah. Oh, well,

my husband and I sold out of our old business and we're getting ready to start a new business. Our building is pretty much up and ready to go except for electrical and stuff, but we're hoping to be open in November sometime. Well, my main question is, it's just going to be me and my husband working and it's an automotive repair shop. And we are going to be paying ourselves a weekly paycheck just because that's going to be our only source of income. And then whatever we have for the business, like we'll pay tithes out of our weekly income that we have. But my main question is, will the business need to pay tithes as well? No, you would just do that off of what you take home.

Just what I take home. Okay. Yes. So if you're doing that, you are in good shape. I have not found anything to back up a business tithing from the business. And so it would all come from the net profit that you take home into your home, what you file your tax return on, that is your income. And so that's what I would be tithing on. Okay. Okay. Great. Yeah. Well, that was an easy answer. I'm so glad. We needed an easy win today, Ken, didn't we? Anytime we can get an easy win, it's good. Yeah, congrats. Good luck with the new auto repair shop.

We need some good-hearted people out there in auto repair who are honest mechanics, Ken. It can be scary. It's true. No one wants to get ripped off. It's true. So if you're in Springfield, go check out Amber's shop in November. There you go. There we go. Greg is up next in Cincinnati.

Greg, welcome to the show. Greg, are you with us, buddy? Yes. Okay. How's it going? I'm great. How are you guys? Appreciate your show. Sure. Thank you. So we are in our home for just over one, and our septic system needs to be replaced. And so we're just kind of weighing different options in regards to which financial route to go because the cost of septic we do not have in savings right now. Okay. Do you know how much it's going to cost? Have you got some bids from different folks?

Yes. So we've gotten four different bids. The one I think we're in note with is $34,000. $3,400 or $1,000? $34,000. That feels outrageous. It's a large septic system on a farm property. Okay. Wow. Did you know that the septic system on a farm property. Okay. Wow.

Did you know that the septic system was on its last leg when you moved in? So we bought the property as is because of the potential that's in it. And we knew that it needed some replacing, but they thought they'd be able to fix it in regards to replacing the whole thing. And then once they opened it up, it didn't need fully replaced. Okay. Well, what kind of financial shape are you guys in? So the only debt that we have currently is our mortgage. All cars are paid off. And so our mortgage is currently $160,000. Okay.

How much do you have in the bank? We currently have $6,000. All right. And do you have anything you can sell? No, we're kind of on a standstill. We're a single-income family. I'm a school teacher, and my wife stays home with our youngest. And like I said, we're kind of on a standstill.

We paid all cars and stuff off before we moved, and then we do have a slight extra income with it being a farm property. We rent out more stalls. Okay. What's that bring in? An extra $350 a month, $350. And what's your income? Yearly, it's $56,000. Okay. So the question becomes, how are we able to cash flow the septic system? Correct? Correct. Now, how long would this process take? Have you talked to

the companies and went, hey, this is a six-month project. Is this something they do in a day? I have no idea. So it would take approximately two weeks to complete. And is the septic system working now? It's working. There's no backup into the home. However, with us having six people in the home, it fills up quicker than it should simply because of the leaks in it. Who are the people?

Myself, my wife, and then four children from ages nine to two. Okay. So it's a party. So what is the septic system company that you're looking to go with? Are they requiring a deposit? How are you going to do this? Before you called us, I mean, what are the options? I'm assuming they know that you don't have $35,000 or whatever it's going to cost up front.

Correct, and that's why I was calling. We've explored home equity loans and second mortgages, so that's why I was calling to see what you guys kind of suggest as far as moving forward. We're very driven in regards to getting it paid off like we were with our cars. Are they asking for it all up front or all upon completion? I mean, what are they offering? Upon completion, yes. So paid in full, that's the deal?

Right. Which means if they started today, two weeks from now, you owe $34,000, which you don't have. Correct. And we have talked to several companies because of the weather here in Ohio. Since it is still functioning there, if it gets to be too late in November, then they would recommend waiting until the spring.

So we've explored obviously building up some extra savings. Can you wait until the spring? I mean, how much of an emergency situation is this? Is it going to cause more damage? No, simply because nothing's backing up into the home. It won't cause more damage. It's one of those things that has been aged and needs to be replaced. If we can kick it to the spring, then I'm definitely doing that.

I thought it sounded like this has to happen tomorrow. No. It's something that's as soon as possible, but it's not mandatory to be done. And you're saying there's no risk of this thing backing up into the house and causing even more financial damage that's what i'm concerned about no um the way they have it set up right now and it would not and then we've been in home for a year and um haven't had zero issues in regards to well based on that uh if i were you uh and i was i knew that there was no way it was going to cause even more damage,

yeah, I would put it off until you can cash flow it. Yeah. So here's the math on this, Greg. You have six in the bank. It's cost 34. That puts you at a deficit of 28. Let's say you have seven months. That means we have to save $4,000 a month to get there. Now you make 56, you get the extra 350. We need to up the income ASAP. Yes. We need to decrease all expenses for those seven months. And we probably need to look around and sell everything. If that means selling the cars and downgrading in car for a season in order to get to that 34, then it's worth it because you don't have a way out of this thing. I would never recommend you jump into a HELOC or a second mortgage or any of these options. It's moving you backwards.

It's going to put you guys in a bind. And you need to get this emergency fund loaded up ASAP because this is a dangerous situation. You get into a very expensive property with no money in the bank. Yeah, and if your wife can do remote work from home, part-time, that's all going towards paying this off. Everything has to be on the table. Wishing you the best, man. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, joined by Ken Coleman.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why they are the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Colin in Wisconsin. I'm 17 years old with a lawn care business. I'm making on average $800 a week and currently have about $22,000 saved. I enjoy working for myself and think that is what I want to do in the future. I'm wondering about any advice you have for me trying to grow my business and what should I be doing with my money? I don't want to just keep it in the bank. I want my money to be working for me, but I don't know the best way to do it. Well,

George, I will pass this question over to you on what to be doing with the money. I'll jump in here on the growing of the business. So fundamentally, the way you grow your business is increasing the cost for your product or service, or, and, maybe and or, adding new services or products, right? So you've got a landscaping company. And so you're doing very, very well. It's a lawn, excuse me, it's a lawn care business, but I would be looking at landscaping, right? So, you know, could you add some services to, if you've got residential clients or professional clients, like a restaurant or something, depending on what he has, I'm looking at my existing client base and I'm going, okay, if I'm cutting lawns, what are the margins for mulching, weeding, you know, other things like that. And if the margins are good and they already know you,

and presumably they're going to be doing that anyway, then that's the idea of adding a service. And so that brings in additional revenue. But then you've got to look at, all right, I'm taking good care of my clients and what is my annual bump? I'm going to look at the competition and I want to be priced fairly, but I don't ever want to be the bottom price. And so you're looking at those types of strategies. The other thing to be considering is, is if you're adding lawns, well, there's only so much you can

do. You are the face of the business. So what is the cost of adding lawns? Meaning, let's say I add 10 more lawns a month and I'm still charging the same amount. We're just making this up, but I'm charging $100 or whatever per lawn. If you add the lawns, then you have to go, okay, I can't do the cutting, and so who's going to cut? I'm now paying someone an hourly wage. So we take the income and then we minus the expenses of what it's going to take to service this new income. And you start to begin to just walk through this slowly. You're 18, I mean, 17, you're doing a great job. You know, you don't want to grow too fast, but you just look at what does it cost me to expand? And we're

looking at time and money, equipment, all of that and go, okay, is that a good move to try to increase my income, thus grow the company? But that's where you're going to go. If you stay in this business long term, that's how it will go. So you always got to price in growth. Absolutely. And have a vision for where you want this business to be. Do you want it to be the biggest in town? Do you want to have a team of 20 people? Or do you just like doing it yourself? And over time, you may get tired of that. So you may need to go hire one or two people. Now, Ken mentioned some great tips on growing the business. You can also look into some, you know, lawn care is all about marketing. And it's all about word of mouth. I go to my neighbors, I go to my neighborhood Facebook

group and I go, hey, who cuts a great lawn for a decent price? Great. They show up, they do reliable work. You can do referral programs where you go, all right, I'm going to give you $25 if you refer a new client over to me. So there's a lot of things you can do on that arena, but you specifically ask, how do I make sure my money's working for me? Well, number one, it doesn't sound like you've gone into debt, which I love. And so I want you to continue to grow your business debt-free. I want you to continue to live your personal life debt-free. And you have $22,000 in the bank. That's a great emergency fund. Part of that may become your retained earnings for your business. So have a separate savings account for your business. Make it official if you haven't

already with LLCs and you can look into what options make sense for what kind of business you're running. And then you're going to know. I need to upgrade the equipment once every few years. I might need to get the zero-turn mower and hire a new person. Let me do all of that with cash in the next year. I love those zero-turn mowers, George. I got to tell you, if I had a yard that justified one of those, I'd get one. Totally. You seen those dudes spin around on those things?

Oh, yeah. Looks like a lot of fun. It's a great time. So on the business side, there's that. You can also, on the business side, there's that. You can also, on the investing side, put your savings in high-yield savings account. You can invest in a Roth IRA with your earned income. You can look at SEP IRAs and Solo 401Ks. So those are for self-employed folks, which are a great option.

And so start to look into all of that. But you're 17, man. You've got your whole life ahead of you. So grow slow, like Ken said. Do it at the speed of cash. And I hope this thing takes off 20 years from now. You have an amazing business. I like his chances.

That's a smart 17-year-old. We need more of those. All right. We're going to the phones. Bentonville, Arkansas is where we head to next. Shane joins us there. Shane, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks, guys.

What's going on? I have a good segue into the next question here. Oh, great. I have a small business, small construction business here in Bentonville, and I was wanting to see what should I be making, like what should I be profiting from my business? Are you talking about your salary or from a just overall business standpoint? Sure, and overall as well.

Of course, it's my first year in business. I've known the business for a while, the first year on my own, and I'm scared to take a salary. Oh, so you're not even... I'm doing everything cash. Are you not pulling any salary right now? No, no, no, not for the whole year.

But I mean, I have a savings account and a tax account, if you will, so those might be considered salary at the end of the year. Okay. Well, how much profit have you made so far? Looking at what your gross revenue versus your net profit? So we're right at around 40, 40% if I don't calculate taxes, that's profit. That's pretty good. Have you talked to others in the industry and done your homework to see, hey, generally this is the number you want to be at for construction? Because every business is different. Some have very little margins, but high-priced products, and some have crazy margins. Yeah, it's actually a niche market. It's construction, but I install tubing for

pressure washer systems. That's about as niche as it gets. Yeah. And it's working, man. So what is your top line revenue so far? So this year I'm looking to make it right at 100. I mean, that's what the 1099 will be. Listen, you should be very happy with 40% profit. That is a tremendous margin right there. It really is. I mean, that's really good. What's your overhead currently? So my overhead, what it consists of or what the price is? What does it consist of? So I just work out of my home, like I have a home office, if you will. But a lot of it's flights, rental car, because it's all over the country. Are those expenses passed on to the client in addition to the work,

or do you have to absorb that within your pricing? That's what I absorb. That's what makes up that 50% to 60%. Got it. And how much money? You probably already asked this. I was doing a little research while you were talking, but what did you clear last year?

Actual net profit? Well, this will be my first year, dude. Oh, I'm sorry, that's right. What do you think your net profit's going to be at the end of the year? Well, that's what I'm hoping at that 40%. Of course, I need to... No, no, no. I get the percentage.

What's the actual number? What do you think the number's going to be in the bank net profit oh that'd be 40 000 okay so you brought in a hundred or or so you said yeah okay it may be or so yeah so you don't have a lot of you don't have do you have a bunch of equipment and other things like that i mean, what are you having to service outside of just your time? So, again, a lot of that's just the travel cost, if you will. So you don't have equipment costs and things like that? No, no, I got like a bag of tools.

You know, 50 pounds of tools. I love that. I think you should be paying yourself at the end of this year. I wouldn't keep living off the savings. I mean, you know, you're... It sounds like your base is now $40,000, and we work on upping that every year. That's right.

By increasing what we're charging and trying to decrease all of the costs. And maybe you end up hiring someone. Could you do that? Yeah. I mean, you know, I could go from there and take a lot more jobs for sure. Yeah. Yeah. The ease into that one.

But I think in this first year, you're trying to figure out where can I cut on some of those expenses. But some of those are kind of fixed and related to I've got to get there and do that and stay at the hotel and all that. But you've got a really nice profit margin, and I would be thrilled with that in year one. Yeah. Shane, hang on the line. We're going to send you a copy of Dave's book, Entree Leadership. It's his playbook for how he built this business from a card table in his living room to what it is today. Our scripture of the day comes from 1 Corinthians 8.2. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn't really know very much.

That is some timeless biblical wisdom from what I assume is the message. That was very hip. You could tweet that out. All right. Dick Van Dyke once said, Just knowing you don't have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn. And those are all good things. Wow.

I don't know if I feel confident giving advice here. We don't have all the answers. But what we do on the show is we try our best, Ken. Yeah. So we don't have the answers, but we're going to try. But we can give you hope. We can give you some homework and some steps to take. That's what we do.

I love it. Well, let's see if we can do that for our friend Christine. She's on the line in Philadelphia. Christine, how are you doing? Hi, guys. I'm doing good. Thanks for our friend Christine. She's on the line in Philadelphia. Christine, how you doing? Hi, guys. I'm doing good. Thanks for taking my call. Sure.

How can we help? So my husband and I are completely debt-free, and we are currently renting because we're a military and government family. So we really don't know where we'll live because we usually uproot every three to four years. We have $150,000 in our high-yield savings account right now, and we're wondering if we should keep that there just in the event that we might buy in the next couple years or if we should do something different with that. Well, it sounds like you guys are doing it exactly how I would do it.

So I love that you're renting with patients going, hey, we don't know what the future is going to hold. We're uprooted every three years. And especially in military communities, the housing market can be a very different scene because of how much supply and demand is fluctuating. So what does the future look like for you guys? Is it just continuing to move every three years for the foreseeable future? Well, he gets new orders next year in the fall. However, even with those new orders, it'll be another three years. But I just don't feel like that's long enough to buy a home and get settled and everything.

I just feel like three years goes by so fast to just, and he might be staying in for 20 years. Um, his whole 20, he's fixing now, but he's not sure. So I guess until we know that or not, I, I just don't know what we should do with that. I would continue to just stack on top of that. And if you can save up, you know, what's the household income? I'm 100 and he's 45, so 145. Oh, incredible. So making 145, how much can you add to it every year?

Could you add 50, 75K even? Yeah, probably. We're pretty fortunate where I can get like a lot of overtime. Like when he goes and deploys, I just do nothing but overtime since we don't have children right now. Wow, that is awesome. You guys are incredible. Yeah, I agree with George because depending on which direction you guys go, how long he's going to be in the service, I mean, you're stacking things up to where you're going to be in really great position to settle down. And right now, it's difficult. I've known a lot of military families. I grew up in the Hampton

Roads area of Virginia, heavy military, you know, population. And so I had a lot of, and that move in every two to three years is exhausting. And trying to sell a house, buy a house every two to three years is, that's a lot. Yeah. So I think, Christine, it would be a cool goal to say, how cool would it be if we could pay cash for a home down the line? And that might be five years from now because we don't know what's going to happen. And if you do buy a home and you have enough money to buy cash, you could buy cash and then sell it four years down the line. And that home, you know, history has shown us we'll appreciate in value. And so the only thing you have to deal with is, you know, fees and a headache. But again, in these military communities, I would work with a realtor to go, is this a good buy? Historically, am I going to lose money on this deal after fees by buying in

this area and selling three years later? Okay. And if we plan on renting, if he stays in the military for the 20 years and we just do nothing but rent, would it be wise to maybe buy a rental instead with that money and let that appreciate? That's an option. If you can buy a rental with cash and you guys just want to continue renting because life's kind of in flux, that's a great option. Now, the problem is you're going to be a long-distance landlord, which I would not recommend. And so you buy a spot where you live, and then all of a sudden three years later you move. And I'd never recommend a long-term landlord situation.

So I would do your homework on that one to see, is it worth doing it for four years while we're in this location to buy a rental property and rent it out? Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I appreciate you guys' advice. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for the call. And if you were going to invest that money long-term,

you knew it was going to be a five-plus-year play, I would contact one of our SmartVestor pros and look into, you know, opening a brokerage account where you might be able to make seven, eight, nine, 10% on that money instead of the 2% in a high yield savings account. And, you know, I didn't mention this because I don't know the full situation, not talking to your husband, but one of the conversations I think is worth having over a date night is, you know, what would make you stay in for the full 20 years? What would make you get out? You know, are you scared of it?

I know a lot of men and women in the military. In fact, we've got a lot of these calls on the Ken Coleman Show over the years going, hey, I'm getting out in two or three years. And, Ken, I'm scared that I'm not going to be able to do anything. And there's a real thing here um in fact we did a you know last year we did a full hour on Fox businesses that's right I went up to New York and sat with Charles Payne and the name of the entire hour is a special called from military to the marketplace and I'm just bringing this up because a lot of men and women in the military feel like it's my only option because that's all I've done so far and I've got experience in the military and I don't think it'll translate to the marketplace.

And we had several military veterans on that show that day who, you know, agreed with me. And they were basically saying, we've done it. You've been trained by one of the greatest organizations in the world. You are extremely relevant. I bring all this up, Christine and George, to say that you might be able to adapt your lifestyle tremendously if he goes, all right, next time I'm up for re-upping, if I think ahead and go, wait a second, what would I do? What could I do? What do I want to do? And if you want to stay in the service, awesome.

Love our men and women in the military. Thank God for them every day. But that's something to think about because now they're in a really good financial situation with what she makes and what they've saved. And then if he comes out and doubles his salary in the private sector, which is not unreasonable to believe, now it's a game changer, Christine. So I want to at least put that idea out there. Now that's a great call out. And please thank him for his service, Christine. That's incredible. Patrick joins us up next in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Patrick, welcome to the show. Hello, thanks for having me. My question is that I'm at $45,000 in college debt, and I will be going into my senior year in the spring semester, and I'm wondering if I should take out another $20,000 in debt and get my degree or pay it off before going again. Well, if the options are going further into debt and

digging this hole even deeper versus what's the other option, pausing? The other option would just be to pause and then find a job. I don't really have any skills to get a good job paid off fast what were you studying psychology what why were you studying that i didn't really think too much when i jumped into it but uh i suppose i'd be a counselor okay i can just tell you right now i would press pause on the final year and the $20,000. You don't have it. Not only do you not have it, you shouldn't borrow it. And then the third option is, I'm not even sure you're going to use it.

And now if we can get clear that we do need the degree, then we'd finish it. But this idea that, well, I'm three years in or I'm so many years in. It's sunk cost fallacy. Yeah. That's fancy language. You want to explain that one? Sunk cost fallacy. Yeah. When you dig so much time and effort and money into something, you go, well, I'm too deep in it now, so I got to stay here. I got to continue down this path that I know is going nowhere. And so that's what we're talking about here. And I know you feel like you paid a stupid tax and you go, man, that was a mistake.

But don't continue this. Yeah, Patrick, here's what I'm saying. You need to know that you know that you know that you know that you want to be a counselor. Thus, you do need the psychology degree, the undergrad. But then there's more schooling. If you don't know that and you just kind of jumped into it, it's okay. You're not a loser. You're not a flake.

You do have skills. You can work in this job economy right now. It's a really attractive job economy. I would absolutely press pause, go work, but not just work, work to pay off the current debt. And then while you're doing that, you are getting ahead. You're not a loser. You're not falling behind. And let's get really, really clear on what you want to do. In fact, George, right now, we've got the Get Clear

assessment on sale for only $10. That's right. At ramsaysolutions.com. I want to give that to you. So hang on the line. We're going to give you the Get Clear assessment. It's a 20-minute assessment. And it's going to give you real clarity about where you actually do want to go with your professional life. So hang on. Good stuff. Thank you, Ken. And thank you to all the folks in the booth, Austin and Ben and James and Andrew and Zach for keeping the show afloat today. And you, America, thank you so much for listening. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral?

Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.