The Ramsey Show - App - Your Spending Habits Are a Reflection of Your Values (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 27, 2020

Rachel Cruze, Debt, Home Buying, Budgeting, Career, Savings Tools to get you started:  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 

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. Joining me this hour answering your questions, Ramsey personality, best-selling author, and my daughter, Rachel Cruz, is with us. Welcome back. Thank you. Thanks for having me back on.

Good to have you back on. Things are booming here. All right, let's go to Olivia in California. Hi, Olivia. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel. Thanks so much for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? Dave, I just want to start by saying, first of all, thank you so much. If you would have come into my life 10 years sooner, oh, my God, I would be a millionaire by now. Well, that means 10 years from now you will be. I'm on it. I am on it. I am focused and not finished. I am a be-dell-entend. Love it.

So here's my question. My husband and I are interested in moving back to the East Coast. We're originally from the Catskills, in moving back to the East coast. We're originally from the Catskills and we moved to California for work, but we're finding that even though we're making pretty decent money, we can't afford the home prices out here. So we're looking to move back to the East coast in February when our lease is up, but we want to know if purchasing a home right now, while we're still in baby step two,

we've paid off about $30,000 in debt in the last year. But we're now at our student loans. And they're $67,000 and $22,000. So we want to know if moving back to the East Coast is a good idea with having those student loans. And should we stop the student loan payments considering what's happening right now with the government and put that money towards our down payment? Well, if I were in your shoes, Olivia,

I would hold off on buying. I think moving to the East Coast, that's a lifestyle decision you guys want to make in February once your lease runs up. Is it February, right? So it'll be about another nine months? Yeah, nine, 10 months.

So yeah, I mean, by that point, you guys will be tackling this debt. You'll, you know, your debt load will be less because you'll be paying on it. But if you still have that student loan, then I would rent or lease something out on the East Coast. But I would still make the move. I think you can do that.

You'll have to account for some expenses and things that will cost. But I think that, yeah, that's a lifestyle move that you guys can still make. But I would not purchase a home. I wouldn't save up for a down payment. I would use any money you have to pay down those student loans. Olivia, the reason is that in 30 years of doing this, I've never had someone ever who said, I paid off my debt. I saved my emergency fund. I put down a down payment on a home. Oh, that was such a big mistake.

But I have met with thousands of people and taken calls from thousands of people that say, I bought a house while I still had a bunch of debt around my neck, and the house turned into a curse rather than a blessing. And the reason is it just costs money to own a house. Stuff breaks and things happen and stuff comes out of nowhere, and it's a different level of strain on you than renting. And so I would rent the cheapest thing you can rent that is reasonable and safe so that you can pay off the debt even faster so that you can buy.

But Rachel is exactly right. I definitely would be debt-free and have your emergency fund plus a down payment when you buy. I know that sounds super conservative, but today, in the middle of this mess, it doesn't sound conservative. It sounds reasonable because it was always reasonable. Luke is with us. Luke is in California. Hi, Luke.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Rachel. Thanks for having me on. Sure. What's up? So my wife and I are getting our stimulus payment this Friday, I believe, and we're having some qualms on whether or not we should tithe with that.

Because, I mean, we already gave money to Cesar, he's just giving it back to us. So I'm just going to probably get your idea on that. I think your reasoning is sound. It's your money you're getting back, because the government doesn't create anything. It only extracts money from us. And then it gave you some of what it extracted back. And so I don't see that as a tithable event. The other side of it, of course, is you can never mess up being generous,

and the tithe is your baseline for generosity. And I don't ever want you to tithe or not tithe out of a set of rules, but if you're having a kind of a theological, philosophical discussion about the tithe and how it works, I think your reasoning's sound. I don't know. Rachel, what are you all doing? Yeah, well, my knee-jerk reaction was any money we have coming in, it doesn't really

matter where it is, besides a tax refund that we just paid, if we got a tax refund, but anything else, I just see it as streams of income. And at the end of the day, I mean, we just kind of put it all in one thing and we just tie that of it. We're not that strict or legalistic either way. So, look, I think you're I think you're fine either way. I think even just your heart and asking it. Yeah, I think I agree. I completely agree with that.

And so if again, if it it's certainly not a salvation issue. No. And it's not God loves you more if you do this or don't do this uh generosity is always a good rhythm to have in your life and so the way you're doing that rachel makes a lot of sense uh and the fact that he what he's saying is i gave it caesar caesar give me some of it back you know it's almost like a tax refund yeah absolutely coming straight from coming straight from the government in a very real sense so it's okay either way uh i just uh when in doubt i always give and that way when i get up there if i was wrong about one of the

equations uh i don't have any issues and not to put you on the spot because i can't remember i have the chart in my head but i can't see the numbers if you're a married couple the most tax refund or the i'm sorry the most stimulus you will get, the stimulus check. $2,400. The most amount. Okay, so it's $240 in the tithe, right? 10% of that. So $240, make or break. Yeah. Not going to kill you. Yeah, that's right.

It's just kind of a good, it's a good discussion to have these things like when to tithe, when not to, when to save, when not to. Yeah. But don't get caught up too much in the rules of it, so to speak. You always want giving to be a hard issue. Right, exactly. Very fun. All right, Mary is with us in Illinois.

Hi, Mary. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. I appreciate your input in this question. Sure. So I consider myself financially blessed at this point. I do have some debt.

I'm in baby step two. So I picked up a second job. I was one of those people, bought a house, used all of my savings for the down payment to get out of a very terrible situation I was in. So it was kind of necessary. But as you said, you know, it comes to show the sewer line had to be replaced. The tree fell over, and the transmission went out of my vehicle within four months of buying the house. That guy Murphy moved in the spare bedroom, yeah.

Yeah, so I racked up debt, and I'm a single mom, three kids. So my question at this point is I picked up a second job so I could start paying stuff off. So teaching children online, I make about a minimum of $1,000 a month. I'm supposed to receive child support every month, which I currently do. Right quick, Mary, what's your question? So my question is, with the extra money that I'm getting every month right now, should I be still continuing to put that through the Baby Step 2, or given the COVID situation and about a month and a half ago there were layoffs at my work,

which is a Fortune 500 company, it's huge. Okay, if you think you're going to be laid off, I would stop all your baby steps and pile up cash. If you think you're stable, then I'd work the baby steps. Pretty simple. But if it's a 50-50 chance, then I'd pile up cash. It's not a 50-50 chance. If it's a 10% chance and you're just generally worried, no, you need to work your plan then. For most of us, health care costs seem to increase every year,

and saving money on health insurance feels more and more out of reach. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Cherise had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had a health scare involving one of their kids that was completely unexpected. With today's health care climate, this could have bankrupted them. But thanks to Christian health care ministries, the Olcheskis were spared from a ton of medical bills. As members of Christian health care ministries, they're part of a group of believers who financially and spiritually support each other. CHM is the original health cost sharing ministry and is a Better Business Bureau accredited charity. It's biblical, affordable,

and it's shared nearly $97,000 to help the Olszewskis. To be a part of Christian Healthcare Ministries, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Retro Cruise joins me this hour on the Dave Ramsey Show. Most of us have been stuck at home for almost two months now. Some of you have. If you're going stir-crazy, it's a really weird time. Divorce rate is up.

Domestic violence rate is up. People are tired of being. We used to call it. I don't know if y'all from the South. We call it cabin fever. You're stuck in the cabin all winter. I need out. I got coronavirus fever, but not the kind of fever you're thinking of.

I just need out. I've been out every day, so i'm not having that problem but uh sharon my wife did determine that she never wants me to retire so uh she really does want me out of the house on a daily basis she likes her space that's what i'm saying so um not that i've been there that much more but she just already has figured that out well that's great dave because i have a i have an event you and Sharon Ramsey should tune into. Maybe we will. This Thursday. As a proud mom and dad or maybe as a participant.

Probably as a participant. I have some great thoughts on marriage. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But no, we really do. We have our Money in Marriage Hope Edition live stream. Live.

We're going live. Live. Going live. So that. We're going live. Live. Going live. So that'll be on Wednesday night. So April 29th, 7 p.m. Central Time. It'll be myself in one little room talking to a camera. No audience. Nothing.

It'll be funny. And then John. I like doing radio. Just like this. I'm in a little room. Except a smaller room than this. And then Dr. Les Parrot. And i'm in a little room just a smaller room than this yeah um and then dr les parrott and he's in a smaller room probably in seattle padded room yeah he'll be in seattle uh and he'll be you know having a part as well and then dr john deloney our newest ramsay personality so it'll be us three and talking about um marriage money and all the

things that comes with uh not just the coronavirus and being stuck home. Yes. But all the things that you can do to work together as a team in your marriage. I mean, I think we've joked about everyone's binge-watching things on their TV constantly. Winston and I have been through like three shows, I feel like. And so, binging, it really is. One had to do with a tiger. The other had to do with Jesus.

We watched the Jesus. There you go. So, I feel i feel really tiger king and jesus king i feel really balanced really balanced but this will be something that you guys can watch together that actually will help hopefully hopefully your marriage but i'm excited about it we well this event has been a the marriage and money event has money and marriage event has been a huge hit. Yes, we've done it. To start with you and Les for a long time. And we were thinking, the live events team said, hey, during the shutdown, a lot of people at home, a lot of issues with marriage, a lot of issues with money, two big subjects that do go together. And right now, in a very unique way, they go together. So we need some unique, fresh content so it's not something y'all did a while back and we're replaying it.

This is live. Yes. And it's you and Dr.all did a while back and we're replaying it this is live yes and it's you and less dr less parrot and dr john deloney you're the only non-doc there we go you should be working on my doctor we're gonna have to get you a phd by by the time we do this but imagine we can buy one somewhere i think i'm okay sounds like a lot of work right now three kids five and under i'm good i'm good right now. You got a PhD. It's piled higher and deeper. Yeah. Yeah.

So Money in Marriage, Hope Edition, live stream Wednesday, April 29th. It's only $10. It's 7 p.m. Central Time. Went on sale on Friday. Already sold over 1,000. Over 1,000 tickets. Yep. So go to DaveRamsey.com.

It's our digital date night. There we go. Yes. That's catchy.com it's our digital date night there we go yes that's catchy digital date digital date night Wednesday April 29th money and marriage hope edition live stream only 10 bucks 7 p.m central time and DaveRamsey.com to sign up and uh you'll be able to get your you know a whole ten dollars and you'll get relief for your money and your marriage. Well, the tagline for this event on the road is always a date night worth investing in. But $10, it's not a big investment these days. It's just a digital drive-by date night.

But it'll be fun. We're actually really excited about it. George Camel is hosting. He hosts your show usually. And so he'll be a part of it as well. He'll do great. Yeah,. But it'll be fun. We're actually really excited about it. George Camel is hosting. He hosts your show usually, and so he'll be a part of it as well. He'll do great. Yeah, it's going to be fun. It's going to be a fun night. Dr. John Deloney and Les Parrott, and all three of you are funny.

So you'll be laughing, and they'll be cutting up, only you won't get to hear them laugh because you will be in a small room. And we won't be able to hear less laugh because his room is padded so i think it's fabulous as a psychologist in a padded cell but anyway i'm just because it's less and i have to mess with less if he was here i'd mess with him even more he's gonna get mad he's not he doesn't know how to get mad no i know i'm kidding i'm kidding anyways it's gonna be a really fun night so two two months is enough of this crap and so money and marriage home edition live stream digitally wednesday april 29th that's this coming wednesday by the way for those of you that are

date challenged because you've lost your way at home um rachel cruz dr les parrot ten dollars dave ramsey.com to buy your tickets 7 7 p.m. Central Time. Be there. It's going to be amazing. This will be fun. I will tune in, just for quality control purposes. Yeah, thank you. Just making sure we're all doing what we should be doing. Make sure you guys are all behaving. Make sure you're putting out good product there.

All right, Jen is with us in Wisconsin. Hey, Jen, welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure, what's up? My husband and I were hoping to get your thoughts on a couple different options for paying off our mortgage while doing some home remodeling. So we were wondering if we're better off paying off our mortgage more quickly in like a three-year time frame and cash flowing remodels after it's paid off,

or if we take five to six years to pay off our mortgage and cash flow throughout and get those remodels done as we pay off our mortgage. Sounds like some big remodels. Yes, kitchen, master, bathroom and the basement finished. option three would be a hybrid yes and you're always great at option three so like do it like do one of the three uh remodels and then wait on the other two till you're paid off or something like that oh that's a great option i didn't think about that so maybe the most important one to us and then figure out the rest after yeah at our house it'd probably be the kitchen but i that would be my vote i don't know if i don't really get a vote so i just have to know what hers is no i do if he wants to eat dinner that would be a good yeah i do get a vote we just we're kitchen people we stand around the kitchen eat and talk and

you know fan whole family gathers in the kitchen when Rachel and the kids are over and everything that kind of stuff so I don't know Rachel you got any thoughts I mean no I mean I went into more of the logistical side of like okay so whichever one you pick that's you know you're gonna it's gonna be a mess because remodels are always really tough and so yeah do you knock out two on the first floor pay off the mortgage then do the basement because the basement's isolated which one you want first yeah so i went into all of that just the hassle that you guys will go through during a remodel um and figuring out what what's easiest for you guys on that end is where my head went yeah i here here's what's weird our experience with sharon and i and other people we've worked with for that matter too is um if you if you give yourself a little reward that's kind of

why i kind of went a third of the way or whatever um and then you say all right now we got to bear down and no fooling around no goofing off okay we're going to be game on and get this house knocked out because we can't do the basement we can't do the master bath till we get the house knocked out and we kind of make an emotional game out of it we set it up to ourselves to work to play against ourselves to work against ourselves to go okay we can't do that because we can't if every time we go on the stupid vacation you know super expensive vacation that's that's that much more on the house and that means we don't get the master bath done and i'm not doing that i'd rather stay home and you know we just it keeps us with this value assessment continually in front of our face when we delay it.

If you do all the remodels first and then do the get out of debt thing, there's nothing pushing you as hard. And if you do all the remodels last and do the get out of debt thing, it's kind of cold. Yeah. That's why. No, those are great options. Thank you so much. I mean, there's not a really wrong option as long as you're paying cash for the remodels you're not doing anything i wouldn't say don't do any of them i'm just thinking it through with you i always just like to set stuff up where it pushes

me well it gets yeah i mean it kind of scratches the itch because obviously jen's at a point where she has no debt she has an emergency fund they're probably saving for retirement if they're doing the baby steps yeah they've done great yeah so that's where they're at and point, it's like, yeah, you can have a little bit of fun. That's what we always say. You can let the foot off the accelerator after baby step three. So have a little bit of that fun and then have that intensity, like you're saying, to pay it off. And then you can cash for the rest, and it's great after that. Kitchen is a real quality of life issue.

Yes. It raises the quality of your life. It really does. That's when you can do it with cash like that. And, yeah, that's why I went there. But, hey, this is the quality of your life. It really does. When you can do it with cash like that. And, yeah, that's why I went there. But, hey, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. You may feel like there's not a lot you can control these days, but I'm here to tell you, you can control your budget and you can control what you feed your family. My longtime friends at eMeals are here to help.

They have simplified meal plans and created new recipe collections such as easy pantry meals and freezer meals utilizing basic ingredients. It has never been easier to shop smarter and stay on a budget. Try it free for two full weeks at eMeals.com. on the line is luke in iowa luke it says on my screen you're debt free congratulations hey dave and rachel how's that welcome. How much have you paid off, brother? I paid off about $39,000. All right. Amazing. And how long did that take you?

12 months and about one week. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? I started at $60,000 and ended up just over $90,000. Wow. How did you increase your income $30,000 in one year? Got a good promotion in there for about $10,000, and then $20,000 was commissions from sales throughout the year.

Okay. So you just kicked butt, huh? Good for you. What kind of debt was the $39,000? So I had about $25,500 on my student loans and then $13,500 on a car lease that had started as a gift and then turned into not so nice of a gift. I understand. How old are you, brother? I'm 25 years old.

Wow. That's awesome, Luke. So a year ago, what caused you to do something different are you, brother? I'm 25 years old. Wow. That's awesome, Luke. So a year ago, what caused you to do something different at 25, 24? I had a co-worker of mine, they were talking about the podcast, and they'd been following his plan for a while. And they had mentioned it to me and said that if they were my age, it would have been amazing to get started on this at a young age. And so my car lease was just about to come to the end of the contract, so I started to give the podcast a listen, and everything added up. I'm a big numbers guy, and I did the calculations and realized I could do this.

That's awesome. So, so amazing. So what was the hardest part about this? I always wonder this with people in could do this. It's awesome. So, so amazing. So what was the hardest part about this? I always wonder this with people in their 20s. It's different. Are you a single, married? I'm single. Single, yeah. So what was the hardest part for you in this process?

It would be probably turning down, going to lunch with friends and coworkers and just learning to be disciplined with what I'm spending and just, yeah, not going out quite as much. I still had some fun along the way, but learning to live below my means, I guess. Absolutely. So what do you tell people the key is to getting out of debt? What's the main thing that you did? The main thing for me that I think I picked up off of your show was learning that how you spend your money is a reflection of your values. And that made me, I started budgeting very aggressively and looking at my spreadsheet, you know, every day and realizing what I'm spending money on, where I could cut and what isn't really necessary and getting that out.

It's interesting. When you start thinking that way, you start automatically thinking longer term and you don't manage with your feelings as much. And you go, okay, what is important? What is real and what is important to me and then you make the call based on that to not do some more impulsive childish type things in order to have a bigger result live like no one else so later you can live and give like no one else it's exactly what you did well done sir very well done proud of you. So who were your biggest cheerleaders?

I had a few people in my corner. My girlfriend at the time, she would tell me whenever I was about to make an impulsive decision, she would just ask, what would Dave say right now? I'd walk out of the door. I'd just take my hat off. A bit sarcastically maybe, but said it anyway, huh? Yes, a little bit. I had some friends that were also listening to the podcast,

and they'd get excited whenever I paid off another loan or something like that. Yeah, very cool. Well, congratulations, sir. Very proud of you. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book, Everyday Millionaires, for you. And that's definitely the next chapter in your story. You are on your way. 25 years old.

You've gotten control of the money monster, baby. You made it behave, and you got rid of the debt. Very, very, very well done. Congratulations, sir. Very good. Amen. Luke in Des Moines, Iowa. congratulations sir very good amen luke in uh des moines iowa thirty nine thousand dollars paid off in 12 months making 60 to 90 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one i'm Yeah! That's exactly how it's done right there.

I love it. Well done. Well done. And Rachel, right now, with the coronavirus suppression of the economy, the shutdown, people, 22 million people on unemployment, we don't want to drive by that and without saying luke's in a different place because of that yeah absolutely i mean and and at his age too so not even just the situation we're in as as a world but man at 25 having no payment starting to invest that young that's incredible i mean when, when, when you, so young

people listening, I mean, I know a lot of the millennials, the younger generation, like myself, watch, watch the show on YouTube and podcasts and stuff. But seriously, like, man, if you just buckle down and you make these decisions for a short period of time, that took them a year, a year, and he had a great income, not a, not a huge amount of debt. You know what I mean? Some people call in with $200,000 or something insane, right? But gosh, people are in that position all the time and they just live with it. They just live with the 20 grand, 30 grand, 40 grand. It's just there.

But when you just knock it out, it just not only motivates your getting out of debt situation, but it also just motivates you being intentional with your money. Because to get out of debt, you have to to be intentional you have to be purposeful and when you create those habits over a long period of time which takes to get out of debt usually a year to 18 24 months that's the habits that you take with you out of being getting out of debt and so with you throughout your life you're right it's only a year while you're doing it it feels like an eternity it's like you know running a half marathon or marathon or something because the sacrifice while you're doing it, it feels like an eternity. It's like, you know, running a half marathon or marathon or something. Because the sacrifice, yes.

While you're doing it, it's painful. It's hard. But 100% of the time when you run through that yellow tape at the end, you go across that finish line, they put that medal around your neck, and you're yelling touchdown. You know, I got this. You drove it into the end zone. I got this.

And there's a tremendous sense of satisfaction of having paid a price to win. And there's the mathematical freedom of stupid crap like coronavirus hits, and you're sitting there with an emergency fund and no debt. It's a completely different story. Yep, puts you in a completely different mindset. And I know some of you out there have, you know, you're struggling struggling right now and i'm not making fun of your saying i told you so but when i went through crap it was my wake-up call so let this be your wake-up call not as a shaming event or a condemning event or i'm so stupid or something like that just go no

the old me was stupid and i didn't but the new, from this point forward, you could draw a line at coronavirus and say, April of 2020 was my turn time. I mean, I can go back. I know exactly when Sharon and I started handling money right. It was right before we got all the way to the bottom on the bankruptcy. But we had already reached the end of ourselves. Like the prodigal son, it says in the Bible, he reached the end of himself. He found himself in the pigsty, and he said, that's enough.

Enough. And you could draw that line right here in April of 2020 and say, that's it. Never again. You can look back and go, 20, 25, 40 years from now, the grandbaby's sitting on your knee. You can go, yeah, back in 2020 there was a coronavirus, and that's when we stopped borrowing money, kiddo. You know, you'll be telling these stories

because that's when you changed your family tree. Like I talk about 1988 that way. Yep. The year you were born, you know. And that's when we filed bankruptcy. And it's just like, oh, my gosh. We drew a line that year, and it's never been the same. Never got worse after that.

Couldn't get much worse. We were bankrupt. But it never got worse. We had some years that we had more encouragement and forward progress than others. But it never got worse. We never backtracked year over year. Every year was at least a little better since we drew that line in the sand. This could be your moment for that, and we'll help you with it.

It's why we live. It's why we're on this planet. Join us. Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz here. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Please hear me loud and clear. The government is not going to bail you out of your student loans, at least not completely and not without a catch. What they're talking about only impacts federal, not private loans,

and you need to take responsibility for what you owe and pay your debt down quicker. Right now, Splash Financial is offering their lowest rates ever. With lower rates and extra payments, you could just find yourself debt-free in the next five years. Visit SplashFinancial.com slash Ramsey to see if you qualify. thanks for joining us america rachel cruz joins me this hour on the dave ramsey show a live brand new never before seen money and Marriage Hope Edition this coming Wednesday night, April the 29th. Day after tomorrow for most of you. Rachel Cruz, Dr. Les Parrott, and Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, are going to be talking about money, marriage, mental health during these crazy times.

We have to talk about mental health during crazy times. I mean, it's just nuts. But seriously, Dr. Angeloni, all of his stuff around mental health during this time is so, so powerful. Whether you're on the side that you think all of this is like, oh, and you're so mad at it, or you're just absolutely panicked and freaked out like no matter which side of the spectrum you're on he has some good advice dr les parrot obviously brilliant when it comes to marriage and then i'll be doing the money piece as well for couples to start working together so it's a digital date night

come join us wednesday night and it'll be something i mean it's a great i like the alliteration but there's just something wrong with digital date night. There's just something wrong with that. Oh, you think? I don't know. I like it. It's an oxymoron. It's like social distancing.

It's an oxymoron. Oh, because you have something digital. Digital date night. Well. But anyway, it is a digital date night. Welcome to 2020. It's very cool. Welcome to 2020.

It's very snazzy. Everybody knew what you meant. I'm just making fun of it there you go ten dollars for a ticket at davramsey.com i'm not making fun of the content because these three speakers are not only fun funny but they're also thought leaders in their space all three of them and you would pay hundreds of dollars to get to sit in your living room and talk to any one of them over Zoom. But you get to do it for $10 with a digital date night. See, now you've got me doing it. Okay, digital date.

Hey, I got invited to a, we got invited to a triple-double date that you go on Zoom or whatever. I don't know how people do this. And you play games like Pictionary and all this. People are doing date nights because they can't be around other people right now. So, anyways, it's going to be fantastic. It's going to be so great. It's going to be amazing, anyways, it's going to be fantastic. It's going to be so great. It's going to be amazing. Join.

It's going to be amazing. All kidding aside, it really is because these guys are, this is, we've already sold 1,000 tickets since Friday. So, that's how, I mean, and we just, the live events team just rallied up and said, we're not doing any live events, so we want to do one. And so, we're going to put Deloney and Cruz and Parrot to work. Okay. Crack the whip.

All right. Here we go. April 29th, 7 p.m. Central Time. This coming Wednesday night, Money and Marriage Hope Edition live stream. Brand new live content. Not recorded. Live. Y'all are going to be sitting there live, right?

Yes. Which makes me always a little nervous good good that'll mean you'll be on your toes you'll be sharp all right amy is with us amy is in georgia hi amy welcome to the dave ramsey show hello thank you for having me sure what's up so my situation i just need a little bit of um uh insight to i am currently employed with a small business and we are closed fully i'm one of like seven people still employed um in the management what kind of business um children's recreation activity oh yeah that one's gonna be a while huh you're gonna be on the same thing with gyms and barbershops, right?

That's right, yes. And Georgia's been pretty, Governor's been pretty forthcoming getting you guys open. When are they saying you're going to open? So Children's Recreation, as I understand it, doesn't fall under gyms. We do not yet have an idea from the state. Our shelter-in-place, I believe, is at the end of this month. And our reopening plan is still being worked on right now. A lot of stuff in the air. I bet.

I bet. Man, I'm sorry. You've had a tough month. Okay, how can we help today? Well, I personally am on baby step two, and I do have a good position. Because everything is up in the air, I started to stock my Baby Steps in stockpile cash. However, I'm looking at that savings, and I see that the end is near for Baby Step 2, and I just want to knock it out um and i just would like

a little bit of help what are the uh well normally i wouldn't do that unless the ratios are big so how much is in savings oh just two thousand i just have extra thousand dollars so two thousand dollars and how much is in your baby step i, how much debt do you have left? $6,000. Well, you can't knock it out. I know, but I saw it in, you know, July or August. I could see it, you know, coming up. No, you need this $2,000 pad right now, kiddo, and you need more than that. You're out of business right now.

You need to pile up cash. Let's stop the baby steps completely. I don't know. I know. Listen, you're an entrepreneur you're you're you're a scrappy you're scrappy i like you you're gonna get her done you're gonna get back open you're gonna be okay but right now that two thousand dollars is a big amount of money in your life rachel yeah well amy you said you're in a management position so you do you foreseeing

your your position to be eliminated do you, in like the next month or two? No, I don't. I'm not really privy to a lot of the complete numbers. That is something that we're working on. Yeah, well, the hard part about your position is that you don't have that control to decide. Obviously, you're employed by someone, right? It's not your business you're operating. So you don't know what you're going to be told. And considering the industry you're in, I would pause and wait.

Because the worst that can happen is you just pile up some cash. We get through this. Come August, life looks so different. And then you just write a check and pay off the debts. So you can save it on the side knowing that that's earmarked towards eventually paying off that debt with that money once life gets back to normal. But I would wait now. now yeah what if you visualize what if you saved up let's just say you had ten thousand dollars in your savings account and uh it's uh july 1st and you're back to work okay that would be like ideal that'd be unbelievable wouldn't it

so that's like your you know your worst case scenario in the sense that you didn't pay off the debt but you got a big pile of cash so you got six thousand dollars in debt you got ten thousand dollars in your account july one that the children's rec opens back up your job is stabilized we get back on with life and you push play again on your baby steps well then you would take six thousand dollars out that day once you determine everything stabilized and write a check and you'd be done so rachel's point you're not going to lose any ground because of the same period of time that you could pay off six thousand dollars you could save six thousand dollars yeah but it gives you options in case this job thing goes sideways and you need

cash right now you don't have a stable income and that's um that's the thing to do and again it's all and it's mostly about the industry that's the the point i want people to hear is that you know this coronavirus can just freak people out and paralyze people in general and people are going gosh i just want to stockpile money because i'm freaking out no we use the facts so the fact is that she works for a child recreation company. And right now, kids are not really recreating. Well, indoors inside of a thing. I mean, can you imagine how much stuff you'd have to wipe down in that?

That's like running a daycare. Yeah. So, yeah, that's going to be one of the tougher things to reopen is our point. And so it's going to reopen and you're going to be fine. It's just a matter of when. And in the meantime, a big old umbrella while it rains is a good thing matter of fact a tent while it rains is a good thing rather than uh being caught outdoors with absolutely nothing like happened to me the other day one of those rainstorms and i got drenched and um but you know that that you know

with a bald head it's even worse because you got nothing to care just runs down your face but yeah i mean it's just stupid but the point is that grandma's rainy day fund you got a rainy day and um that's what it's for so i wish you had 20 000 in the account and i'd still tell you to sit on it if you told me you had 60 000 i'd probably tell you to pay off 6 000 and be down to. But not your last two grand. No. You're scrappy, though. You're going to be okay.

You're a go-getter. When she sees something in front of her, she goes for it. You can tell that. Yeah. In the horse. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. So are you going to change?

Obviously, you're going to change a lot of what you say in Money and Marriage Wednesday Night. What are you going to say different? Yeah, I mean, I think just focusing on couples. This is obviously a specific time when we did content for Money in Marriage. It had to be a little bit more generic in general with the event. But since this is high in corona, we're all kind of tired of talking about it. But it's the reality. So it's going to be focused a lot on how you work together as a couple during this time.

Yeah, a lot of high-stress decision-making. Yes, especially with finances. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Don't kill each other in the process and all this kind of stuff. Wow. Money and Marriage, Wednesday night.

Check it out at DaveRamsey.com. Tickets are only $10. Rachel Cruz, thanks for dropping by this hour. Thanks for having me. James Childs is our producer. Kelly Daniels, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back.

In the middle of these uncertain times, Ramsey Solutions wants to give you some hope. For the very first time ever, we're giving you Financial Peace University free for 14 days. Go to DaveRamsey.com slash hope so you can watch from home.