The Ramsey Show - Most Americans Go From Payment to Payment... Be Weird!

Episode Date: April 11, 2024

💵 Sign-up for EveryDollar today - The simplest way to budget for your life! Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss: "What should we do with my fiancée's house?" "How do we prepare for early retirement?" "How should I start paying off my student loans?" "How can I afford to move out on my own?" "What's the fastest way to start a business?" Support Our Sponsors: BetterHelp NetSuite Zander Insurance Next Steps 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET or click here! 🏦 Take Your 3-Minute Money Assessment - Get a personalized money plan! 🍎 Enter the Teacher Appreciation Giveaway 💼 Find The Work You're Wired To Do 📈 Dave Ramsey's personal playbook on investing and real estate. Listen to more from Ramsey Network 🎙️ The Ramsey Show   🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 💰 George Kamel 💼 The Ken Coleman Show 📈 EntreLeadership Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Number one best-selling author and host of the Rachel Cruz Show, co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality. My daughter is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Josh is in Sacramento. Hey, Josh, welcome to the Ramsey show. Hi, nice to be here. Thank you. Good to have you. How can we help? Yes. So I'm 50 years old. I'm currently in baby steps five and six. Um, and I met a wonderful woman a year and a half ago. We're now engaged. She is. Yes. And she's in Baby Step 2, and she's the one who got me into you. So she's in Baby Steps 2. She has debt. She has $16,000 in credit card debt and $65,000 in equity line debt.

She's going to be moving in with me in a month, and her house is worth $600,000. She owes $300,000. Her mortgage is only $1,700 at 2%. And we're looking at renting it out so we can get about $3,000 a month. But my question is, sell it, have $200,000 out of it, and be debt-free? Or rent it out. And, um, can we rent it out for three up to three years and not have capital gains? Um, and she wants to handle her debt. If we don't sell the house, she wants to handle her debt. She doesn't want me to help.

We're engaged. We'll probably be engaged for about a year. And I know after that, then I'm going to be more hoping to contribute to her debt. But up to the time we're married, she's kind of standing firm with wanting to handle this herself. So when are you guys getting married? We're looking at next spring, summer. Okay. So a year. Yeah. You said a year from now. Yeah. So I wouldn't do anything combining anything until that happens. So if she wants to sell her house, rent her house, whatever that is, take care of her debt.

I mean, I still see this as two completely separate finances until you guys get married. And then at that point is when I would, yeah, I would probably just sell her house at that point and take that equity. And for you guys, yeah, to pay off her debt, to have some savings. I mean, do you have any savings, combined. And then she's not contributing right now. I'm contributing with my job. And so we have that, but I have about 90,000. I have 40,000 in my high yield savings. And I have about 50,000 between my checking and my Robinhood account that I could do money with. So I have about $50,000 I could do money with. Let me ask you something.

Yes, sir. Why are you waiting a year to get married if she's moving in? That's what we feel is the best for us right now. That's not an answer. Why? Why do you feel that's best for you? Because we just got engaged a month ago, and we didn't want to get married right away, but she is moving in, in about a month.

Okay. Okay. she is moving in in about a month okay um well what i was going to suggest is just get married um solves the whole thing you know but but if you're not going to get married keep everything completely separate like rachel said until you're married and she should not sell her house until she's married okay because she might need a place to go. Yes, I understand. That's my biggest concern. And I really wouldn't even, I mean, I don't even think I would rent it, because then you still don't have a, no, I mean.

So, no, I might not even rent it. I might let it sit there. But if you want to rent it for one year, I guess you can. And you're right. You can rent it three of the last five. She can rent it three of the last five and is still considered personal residence, and there's no capital gains on up to a half million dollars married filing jointly. So if she sells it after you're married, she can make up to a half million dollars on the property

and have rented it for one year. That would be fine if you want to do that. Can we rent it up to three years? Yes, three of the last five. Okay. Okay. Three of the last five. So, I mean, it's kind of weird.

You could actually rent it and then move a renter out and live in it two years and then rent it two more years. So three of the last five. You know, you can do it that way. But I wouldn't obviously do that. That's just strange. But that's how the law says. So the regulation on it.

So, yeah, just do not combine anything and do not make any of these permanent moves. And she's right. Run everything completely separate while you're roommates. And until then, but honestly, you're 50 freaking years old. You're setting up and playing house. You might as well get married that's my opinion but you didn't ask my opinion and you've already quote thought this through unquote but i don't i mean you're doing you're making all these moves as if you're married but you're putting off the

marriage which then it's not that that's not logical it's really not so uh if you were if you're 22 or something i might say well okay whatever but have a little longer engagement but you're 50 yeah it's not your first ride on the cabbage truck dude i mean seriously so um yeah i i'm just thinking that's what would i do if i were in your shoes um if i'm willing to move in together i'd'd be willing to get married. That's what I would be doing. There's a lot of benefits to that whole discussion in addition to the financial and legal implications. Yeah.

But if you're unsure about the quality of the engagement leading to a marriage, you shouldn't be doing all the things you're doing. Which is more of the reason for her to keep the house and keeping everything separate. Yeah, that's a mess. Okay, good question, man. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We appreciate you hanging out with us, America.

This is your show. And listen, all of you, whether you're 22 or 52, we have seen disasters in people's lives when they combine their finances and are not married. Putting their names on each other's debts, and then she gets stuck with the ex-fiance's car. Yeah, well, worse than that, he drives off on and it's got your name on it and you know that was the breakup you know and uh and we've had that one so and then doesn't pay the payment on time or gets repoed and guess who got repoed the the ex-fiance that

got ditched yep and so are we worst thing has bought a house together and we're not married. Oh, man. The list of stupid things that that violates is long. You really get yourself in a mess. A car is really bad. Bank accounts are really bad. Sharing the mustard is bad. But going on, man, buying a house. Oh, please don't do this.

Please. This is The Ramsey Show. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. This is the season for Halloween. It's October. We're wearing costumes and we're wearing masks. So if you haven't started planning your costume yet, get on it. And while you're thinking about it, I want you to be honest.

A lot of us hide ourselves. We hide our true selves behind costumes and masks all the time. We do this at work. We do this around our friends. We do this around our families. We even do this when we look at ourselves in the mirror. I know because I've been there multiple times in my life and it's the worst. If you feel like you're stuck hiding behind masks and costumes all the time, if you find yourself hiding from your true self, I want you to consider talking with a therapist. Therapy is a place where you can be honest, where you can talk to somebody else and reflect and learn and you can accept all the parts of yourself over time and start living an authentic

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and you'll be matched with a licensed therapist. Plus, you can switch therapist at any time for no additional cost. Take off the costumes and take off the mask with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Deloney to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp.com slash Deloney. Number one best-selling author, Ramsey personality Rachel Cruz is my co-host one of the books that she had a number one was a children's book I'm glad for what I have about contentment it's a sister piece is coming out next week on the 16th it's called I'm glad for where I am

with fabulous illustrations by Lauren Gallagos. She's incredible. The internal illustrations are absolutely amazing. She just does a great job. Quick short book all about gratitude. First one was about contentment, right? Yep, that's right. Yeah, gratitude, contentment, and generosity are the three like big subjects focusing. So this book is the gratitude one. And just really, I mean, it's amazing, you know, teaching kids, these kind of bigger principles of life. It really can be that simple. It really can be simple in a sense that, you know, going back to the basics. And that's what this book does of the foundational piece of gratitude is the stuff that money can't buy. And that for a little one is their home, It's their family. And getting to that foundation level of it is what I wanted to do with this book. And so it's it's sweet. The animals go on a little adventure and they find they find gratitude for their families in their home. And it's short. Parents, you are welcome. And it rhymes. And yeah, Lauren Gallego stood amazing with the illustrations. and uh it launches on tuesday and so and i'll be

traveling around uh to i'll go to phoenix and la and dallas and atlanta for some book signings so you can go to rachelcruz.com and get the schedule for all of that and actually i think lauren i think might be maybe speaking too soon might be joining me in the la signing so you'll get the illustrator and the author at the bookstore. So it'll be fun. I bet you might get a cool signature from an illustrator. I think you will. I think you will.

Yeah. Very good. Very cool. Good stuff. Good stuff. Yeah. If you, uh, if you have an adult that has learned contentment, gratitude, um, you know, these things are absolutely, it's amazing what it does for their lives.

And so it's very difficult to overspend when you have gratitude and contentment. Yep, that's right. Most overspending has something to do with something opposite of those things. And so what you're doing is putting that foundation in there. Also coming up the first week of May, the book Find the Work You're Wired to Do by Ken Coleman will be out, and it includes his Get Clear Assessment. You'll get a code for the assessment, which you can just get online at ramsaysolutions.com.

Almost 100,000 people have taken the assessment already, and it's all about getting clear in your work and finding the right things you need to do, going the right direction with that. It answers the four questions, big questions about life and work, who you are, why you're wired that way, what you want to do professionally and how to get there. And the book walks you through how to read and how to implement the assessment. And so a little different type of book for us at Ramsey. But both of those coming out, Rachel's next week and Ken in about two weeks, and the first of May.

So you can preorder both of them and get all kinds of preorder specials at RamseySolutions.com. Kylie's in Augusta. Hi, Kylie. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hello. Thank you for having me. Sure. What's up? I have a question for you. I am 35 years old. My husband will be 40 in August,

and we are active duty military family. He is the active spouse. I stay at home with our kids. But I was active duty for five years and left to stay at home and raise our kids. He is looking at retiring. We want to retire or at least stabilize. By the time my oldest is in high school and he is in sixth grade right now. So within the next five years, we're looking at leaving all of this behind. And so I need to, I'm panicking because we have quite a busy lifestyle. Will he have his 20-year mark at that point?

Yes, he will be past his 20-year mark. He'll be, I believe, at 24. Okay. And you didn't quite get to 20, did you? No, I did not. Well, thanks to both of you for your service. So you're both going to have military retirement. Obviously, his is going to be substantial in those situations.

So when you say retire, what do you mean? He's going to do nothing? Well, I would like for him to do nothing, and I would like to take up the role. So we have a substantial gap between our two children. Our oldest is 12. Our youngest is 2. He just turned 2. And so I would like for him to stay at home and kind of enjoy his retirement that he's worked these last 24 years for and take up that mantle

of filling in the gap of where, so we're going to lose a lot of military allowances. His pension is going to, you know, cover a whole bunch, but we're going to have to think about buying, not think about, we're going to have to purchase a house. We have no debt. Our kids' college funds paid for. One, our oldest has the post 9-11 GI bill, so he's covered for college. And then I, we're putting my SGLI, not my SGLI, not my life insurance, but my TSP account has about $35,000 roughly now, and we'll use that. We're just going to leave that alone until my youngest. How old will your husband be when he retires?

Probably 43 to 45. And you'll have a six-year-old at home? We'll have a six-year-old, home we'll have a six-year-old yes at that point yeah okay um you're you're not gonna like me but i'm gonna tell you what i think anyway okay because i because i like you and i appreciate the service you've given to our country a guy that comes out of the military in a highly structured very mission-driven uh organization and comes home with a six-year-old he's going to be a very unhappy person yeah he's going to need he's going to need a task

he's going to get he's going to get emotional whiplash so the dream is um i another issue with this is that I am a horse person. So we're looking to get basically a hobby farm, if you will. We just kind of want acreage, and he wants chickens, goats, the whole shebang. I just need a couple horses to train and sell and train and sell just to kind of stay happy. And so we're going to need to, right now, we have zero debt. Our kids' college funds paid for. This is all, I just need to bolster some money so that we can buy a house with cash, not go into any debt. So where are you going to get the money to pay cash for a house in four years?

I'm confused. Okay, so my husband makes about $11,000 a month. We have no debt. So how much are you saving a month? How much are you saving a month? How much are we saving a month? Oh, man. So we are saving about, let's see, so it says here on his little budget notes that we are in the green monthly balance about $2,300. That's $30,000 a year for four years is $120,000.

No hobby farm for $120,000. No, no, uh-uh. And he's got about $700,000 in a 000 in a tsp account yeah but you can't access that no so he will be able to pull um some of that out very little very little until he's 59 and a half it's tiny okay okay so that's not going to happen with cash then. Oh goodness. Yeah. So you guys, you're doing exactly what you should be doing. We're just doing it live on the air in front of everybody. But what you need to be doing is to lay out exactly where we want to go, your desired future, as my friend Henry Cloud calls it, and then what must be true that's not true today.

So here's the budget for the hobby farm. Here's what our income looks like now. Here's how we can throw money at it. What can we adjust? What has to be true? And we've got to get a house in the meantime. And what does our careers look like on the other end? And so prior to me being blunt with you, you had planned to go

play with horses and he was going to babysit a six-year-old. And that might work. Some guys can do that. But I got to tell you, you're asking him to make a dramatic change in his daily activities and the neuroplasticity of his brain is really going to have to go into overdrive to make that turn. The whiplash is going to be pretty incredible. And maybe there's a season of it, Kylie, that he takes six months and he's just kind of, you know, he's home and all of it. But the long-term plan of that may not be what he wants either. Yeah, let's look at that.

So, again, I think you're doing the right thing. You've just got to continue to dial out the details of how we're going to get there. What's the battle plan, to use a metaphor from your world? What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get 10 different answers. Economic growth or a recession. Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us work or it will replace us all.

But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 40,000 businesses have future-proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud enterprise resource planning system. Ramsey Solutions uses NetSuite, and you should too. Whether your company's earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. With one unified business management suite, there's only one source of truth for the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. NetSuite's real-time insights and forecasting help you see into the future with actionable data. And when you're closing the books in days, not weeks,

you can spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next. And speaking of what's next, download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. It's free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America.

Hey, if you guys want to help us out, we can use some help. You want to help us? Here's what you do. Click the share button on your uh computer if you're have a particular platform you're listening or watching us as a share button do that or cut the just cut the link out and send it to somebody and share it say folks listen to this show or watch this show uh subscribe click that button follow whatever it is. And, and you know, to where you're regularly getting the feed that changes the algorithms on these shows a bunch and allows them to be put in front of folks.

And it's caused our, uh, listenership, our viewership to go way up in the past two years. Pretty amazing. And those five-star reviews, they actually help too. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Those of you that have something nice to say we appreciate you among the rest levi is with us in phoenix hi levi how are you hey very good thank you all for your time sure what's up

well i have a student loan question i have 400 000 student loan debt it's broken up into 14 disbursements with different principles and interest rates. But I also have 35,000 sitting in savings, wondering how I should allocate that best. Wow. What's your degree in? Pharmacy. Okay. So you make a 150? No, 130 before tax. You paid $400,000 for a pharmacy degree? Well, not yet. What do you mean, not yet? He's in debt.

That's why I'm calling you sir. Nope, I hadn't paid for it yet. It's actually very accurate. Good for you. Wow. Well, yeah, you're, you know, it's going to be a little while. It's going to take a bit. I mean, if you lived on $35,000 a year and put $100,000 on it, you've got four years, right?

That'd be great. Now, are you single? I am. Okay. Can you pick up some weekends at the hospital and stuff yeah well in retail yeah we can pick up extra shifts shifts and that with that what kind of income can you add if you go crazy for a short period of time like a couple thousand a month it's good another 25 a year yeah okay yeah see that's a big deal that is and then you know so

what i'm gonna do if i'm in your shoes is i'm gonna live like no one else so that later i can live and give like no one else i'm gonna get on beans and rice i'm gonna work all the time and i'm gonna throw all but a thousand dollars is 35 at these i'm gonna list these 14 loans smallest to largest and start attacking paying minimums largest, and start attacking, paying minimums on everything, and start attacking the little one with a vengeance, and I'm going to take all the OT I can get. Because if we had $25,000 to the equation, you might do this in three years. Nice. But that's living on nothing and no life.

Understood. But you're clear in three years. Otherwise, you've got a 10-year program right yes and i'd rather sprint for three years than limp for 10 right the budget is i have my budget very tight planning put everything extra towards it every day um i'm just i was wondering about that yeah i would lump i'd take it down to take it down to a thousand dollars that's maybe step one everything that is not retirement and no money going into retirement and no eating out and no vacations and we're just in

attack mode here dude i mean this is war and that when you and i can kind of hear that in your voice i think you're dialed in. I think you're ready to go. Your only question was about, do I really clean out that $35,000? Yeah, I really would clean out $34,000 of it. And, again, that helps us move the needle. I think you can do this in three years. But it's going to be three years of hell.

And we've talked to people that have done this exact equation. And they'll be on the debt-free stage and you look at the numbers like holy crap and then the income goes up right they there's always a boost of income even with just your salaried position um as a pharmacist like you'll you'll get increases right as these years go on too but it is it's amazing when you talk to people and they were like that the number one thing in a situation like this it will be work where you you just say i'm going to get my income up and i'm going to work all the overtime i can and you know the beautiful thing about working all the time is you don't have time to spend any money and it's not forever like the free screen remember she took she worked two jobs and

she put in her notice the day she like paid off the debt she's like i'm done i'm done with that other job because i don't need it we had one yesterday lady had two babies at home and uh when they hit submit on the pay off the mortgage yeah they're 28 years old paid off their mortgage oh my god the the next thing she hit was send on the resignation email you know that that day this said that two two pieces of paper went out the computer that night two digital pieces of paper went out and so um and she wasn't mean about it i mean she was thankful for her job at the bank but quit the bank job and went home yep yep i love it josh is in columbus ohio hi josh how are you i'm good how are you better than i

deserve what's up so uh i actually just inherited um about340,000 from my grandparents, which is amazing. Yes. So I, you know, I just, I've been trying to do some research and I just don't know what the best course of action with that money is. Do you have any debt? Yes, I have student loan debt. How much? $50,000. $60,000? $50,000. $50,000, okay. Yep, I'm married. My wife, she's basically out of debt herself. She's paid off almost all of her loans um so that's pretty much it i've basically almost how much does she have left uh i think she has like seven thousand okay how much do y'all owe

on your cars uh i owe seven thousand on my truck what does she owe and she owns her car and how long have you all been married uh 12 years well we've been together 12 years we've been married too what's your household income 120 a year good for you okay kids no kids no Okay. And any money saved just in a high yield or anything? Yeah. So I have, I put that inheritance into a money market and then I also have like 7,000 cash and about 11,500 and, um, like a Morgan Stanley, you know, trading account. Very cool. Good for you. All right. So what we teach folks, Josh, is the number one key to building wealth.

Your number one most powerful wealth building tool is your income. When you give that away in debt, it kills your ability to build wealth. Your grandparents probably avoided debt. It's one of the ways they had this kind of money. And they were very conservative and careful and intentional, and that's all you need to be. So do you own a home? No, no, that's something I want to do.

Yeah, I think that's a good idea. So the first thing we tell folks to do is get $1,000 saved. That's maybe step one. You've already done that. Two is pay off all of your debt. So immediately we're going to pay off all the student loans and the car debt immediately. Right. Okay. And then you need an emergency fund between the Morgan Stanley, the $7,000, and the $350,000 minus $50,000.

You pull out some emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. And so in your world, that's probably a $25,000 emergency fund set to the side, never to be touched except for an emergency in a money market account. It's not for purchasing things. It's for emergencies. Then whatever's left, you could use as a down payment on your home. Or pay cash for a home in Columbus, Ohio. Yeah, I do home remodeling, so I kind of want to buy something low and build equity in it myself.

Don't make your wife live in something while you rehab it. Right. Bad husband. You'll probably have around $280,000 left, Josh. I mean, yeah, you guys, it's a good head start. I mean, if you can find a house for $300,000, that's awesome. Yeah, if you can get something like that and build some equity into it while you live in that apartment, go ahead and do the rehab,

and have it paid for, oh, my gosh., you got a huge leapfrog into the future. And the only warning sign is that this inheritance wipes out all of your bad decisions that you guys have made with student loans and car payments. So don't go back into debts because you don't feel the pain of sacrificing it, of getting out. So just be aware of that. I've been doing this show for over 30 years, and some of the saddest calls I've taken are from situations that are completely preventable. Yeah, and what's so hard is I feel like one of those, especially the ones that I'm like, oh, it's terrible, are people that call in and their spouse has passed away suddenly, and they don't have life insurance.

When you have to think through, how am I going to pay my bills? How am through how am I going to pay my bills in the middle of all that grief, it's terrible. So life insurance is the one thing, especially as a mom with three little kids that I'm so big on for people to get because it's inexpensive. Zander is the place that Winston and I actually get all of our life insurance. And it doesn't cost much because Zander shops among a gazillion different companies. It doesn't cost much. You just have to admit that someday you're not going to be here. You got to say it out loud, and you got to say, I'm going to say I love you to my family by taking care of them and taking the time to put this stuff in place. The cost of stinking pizza. To get a free quote, call 800-356-4282. That's 800-356-4282, or go to zander.com.

Thank you for joining us, America. Derek is in Delaware. Hi, Derek. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a question for you.

In January of this year, my car that I just paid off last October was rear-ended by a drunk driver and totaled and I'm a new to our truck driver I'm gone 10 months out of the year and I'm currently in the process of building up my trucking company in about five years I'm hoping to have six to seven trucks and drivers running for me and right now I don't have a car. So my question is, while I'm gone for the next couple years, for 10 months of the year, should I rent a car when I'm home for those two months a year, or should I buy a car and have

it financed and just sitting in my driveway for 10 months of the year? Okay. I'm a little confused. Why are you off two months a year? I just like trucking. It's what i'm passionate about no i mean that doesn't mean i said why are you home two months a year um i go home for christmas and birthdays and take a whole and you take an entire month off yeah a month off at a time okay so that's just the way you're you're running two months of vacation yes while you're doing this interesting okay and they're not they're not

contiguous months meaning they're not connected they're two odd months separated right i take off the entire month of september yeah and i take off the entire month of September. Yeah. And I take off. The entire month of December. December 20th. Yep. Into about the middle of January. How much did you get for the insurance payment if it was totaled? I got $18,000. Why don't you just go buy a car with that? Why do you have to finance it?

Because the car I want is about $40,000. Why do you want a car that's going to sit there 10 months a year? No, I would not do that. You don't need a $40,000 car to sit in a garage. Yeah, that makes sense. And it going down in value, and you're paying insurance on $40,000, and you're paying taxes and title on $40,000 to sit there. No. If you want a car just to sit around versus renting something,

you buy a cheap car to do that, just something to get around while you're at home. But if you want to drive a $40,000 car two months a year, you should rent it. Gotcha. You should go to, you know, whatever. Yeah, but is that a smart financial move long term wouldn't you rather just have a ten thousand dollar car i might i might rather have a five

thousand dollar car or a five i mean like you know but no i would not have a forty thousand dollar car sitting in the garage collecting dust in your situation i only plan on being otr for about five or six years because i know but after five or six years buy a car if you want a forty thousand dollar car when you're off the road when you're not over the road anymore then that's fine because you're home driving a forty thousand dollar car if you pay cash for it and you're making 80 yeah i know but two months of renting per day i'm like that just gets expensive it can yeah yeah you know the cheapest way to do it would be buy a five to seven thousand dollar car that that just is for transportation during this period of your life while you are only needing it two months a year yeah it's that it's that that's the best financial move the other doesn't make sense at all um

and you know you just told me you have this goal of getting all these trucks and every dollar you type in a stupid car keeps you from going towards the goal of that truck so you know if i'm you i don't care what i drive because i'm trying to build a company and now after i get the company built maybe i'll get me something nice right because i'll be making bank at that point but you get 10 15 trucks running around then you're making some money and drive you can drive your 40000 car then if you want that's not a problem but no I wouldn't definitely not put a car I wouldn't buy a car for cash that was 40k and leave it in the garage in your situation because in one year it's going to be worth 30 in two years it's going to be worth 20 while it sat there and that that's what

you know they go down in value like a rock that That's where Chevy got that, like a rock. Steve is in Cape Cod. Hi, Steve, how are you? Hey, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Me and my wife are 60 years old. I'm still working.

She's retired. We owe $135,000 on our house and our mortgage at 2.5%. We've got about six more years left. And we need to do some work on the house in addition and stuff. We have $140,000 in the bank. How much is your mortgage balance again? $135,000. $135,000.

And what's your household income? $200,000. And what kind of work are you wanting to do to the house? It's only 1,300 square feet, and we need to make it bigger and better. How many people live there? Us two and two of our kids. How old are your kids? Hopefully they're leaving soon, but one of them's going to be here for another two years

and one of them's supposed to be leaving how old are your kids 25 and 20 yeah they need to leave that'll solve that no i know but uh we would there's some renovations you want to do okay you want to do some renovations for the two of you that's fine how long have you lived in this 1300 square foot house uh since 2017 okay what will it cost to do the renovations 140 grand okay all right and you make uh 200 all right and your house payments how much now it's 2500. Okay. We took out a 10-year note for two and a half, about three and a half, four years ago. Okay.

And you have $140 in savings, right? Mm-hmm. Yes, yes. Yeah. So, Steve, you called here with one game plan, and our goal is going to be to change your game plan for your good. Okay? Okay.

So if I woke up in your shoes, you don't need to do this renovation for these kids. You know that. You're doing the renovation for you and your wife. But you've lived there now. Exactly. You've already lived there for about eight years, and you've survived so far. So I do want you to do the renovation, but it's definitely not an emergency

because the kids are leaving, and you've put up with it for eight years. You can put up with it for a minute more. So I'm gonna take the 140 i'm gonna pay off your mortgage today you're 100 debt free then and i'm gonna sit down with the wife i'm gonna get on a tight budget and i'm gonna try to with no mortgage payment i'm gonna try to save 70 a year for two years and do the renovation with cash two years from now after the kids are gone okay and you got zero debt all of that time zero that's a cool place dude you never lived there in your whole life have you yeah yeah we're gonna retire down here that's for sure yeah yeah and cape what do y'all have in what do y'all have in retirement steve i'm sorry. I just got him. Oh, no, you're good. Go ahead.

Steve, how much you got in retirement? I get about $600,000 and a 401k. I got two pensions, and I got some profit sharing that's worth about $400,000 or $500,000. Good, good. And you said you're 62? I'm 60. 60. And what's this house worth today?

It's probably a million. Yeah. So you're worth a couple million dollars right now. Good for you. Way to go. Home run. Home run. So you deserve a nicer.

You've earned a nicer house. And so. That's what they keep saying. Yeah. Yeah. I think you need to get a better house. But I would do it with cash in the next two years. And I'd pay off my house today. Yeah. It's a different order than going renovation and then paying off the

mortgage in in eight years and i will say this since you're over 59 and a half you could use some of that retirement to do the renovation i wouldn't have any problem with that at all as soon as the kids are gone but i don't want you doing any renovation that causes them to stay it's not good for them. They need to grow up. It's good for them. An eagle that doesn't leave the nest is eventually called a turkey. I know. So it's really good for

grown-ups to be grown-ups. It's a neat thing when it happens. And so it's not hardcore. It's not being mean. It's actually the kindest thing you can do is to help the people that you love be what God designed them to be and have the dignity of standing on their own two.

It's a good thing. It's a powerful thing. And so recommend it highly, and I think you're going to enjoy it, and they are too. So yeah, as soon as they're gone, I'd pull enough out of retirement to do my renovation, even if you hadn't saved it up yet. But I'd pay off your mortgage today. That's a good question. Very good question. What a great guy.

$2 million net worth. He did it. And Cape Cod. And Cape Cod. So just like dreamy. Yeah, there you go. Hey, 1,300 square feet in Cape Cod. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

It's a million bucks right there. Yeah, you just see those little things rolling over on the slot machine right then. That just happened right there. Those little dollar signs right there. This is The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, co-host of the Smart

Money Happy Hour on the Ramsey Networks, number one best-selling author, and children's book author. New book coming out next week. I'm glad for where I am. She's my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Alexis is in Orlando. Hi, Alexis. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So I'd love to move out of my parents' house. I was just wondering what I can do to increase my income. Okay, so how much are you making now? Um, after taxes, about $28,000. What do you do? I'm in the wedding industry.

What does that mean? What do you do? Um, I'm planning weddings and also managing a venue. Part-time? No, it's about 40 hours a week. Event planners make more than $28,000. What's wrong? When I'm making it hourly, it's $15 an hour.

I think you're underpaid. Not a lot of stuff going on over at the old wedding chapel, is there? It's $15 an hour. I think you're underpaid. Not a lot of stuff going on over at the old wedding chapel, is there? Unfortunately, no. I was going to say, it's probably really busy. Yeah, I think you're... How old are you? I'm 29. What did you do before this?

I was a teacher for eight years. What did you make doing that? Pretty much the same, sometimes less. Okay. So what would make your voice change and be full of excitement if we were talking about you doing it? That pays $100,000 a year. That would be nice i think i'm

uh being a mom um um well it doesn't pay a hundred thousand a year yeah i'm like i like what i do right um i planning, prepping, and organizing that comes with my job. I think that's in teaching, but it's the void of being in front of a person or students all day long. So I'm not sure that I've found that niche of what can provide enough income. Because your skill sets, Alexa, I mean, I have a friend, and she works in the healthcare industry, but she does the planning for all their events internally for a healthcare company, right?

So I'm like, there are kind of random sectors out there that have positions that have this skill set. But they work. I mean, they work a lot. Yeah, but it could be 40 hours a week, too. I mean like you could literally be working the same amount i just feel like you're being underpaid well there's nobody coming in the wedding chapel no there is no you there are right you said she said it's boring no it's busy right who wait which one i'm sorry okay i misunderstood i'm like there's less people getting married in the church but there are definitely people getting married um how many how many hours How many hours a week are you sitting there with nothing happening?

Never. Then you're dramatically underpaid. Yeah. Because an event planner ought to make double what you're making. I mean, Target's paying $20 an hour. Do you know what I mean? I'm like, yeah. So I would be looking for another position and I really think

Alexis Alexis that yeah I would look around for some type of events coordinator position even in corporate America and again it may not be what you want to do forever but at least for a couple of years to make some income I mean get out of your parents if you want to just take you know and start back fresh and go all the way at the beginning, I'm going to give you Ken Coleman's Get Clear Career Assessment. I want you to take it. It'll take you about 20 minutes to take it, and then read the results carefully and see if something in there doesn't tickle your funny bone

and cause you to want to go do X or Y or Z, and you may have to go get a certification. You may have to go, but it may be a completely different industry. I kind of have a sense you just fell into this job. It was like I needed to fall out of teaching. Yeah, yeah. So you're running from something versus running to something. And I think if you have a good game plan to say,

hey, here's some other options out there for me I think would yeah give you a lot of freedom start being very goal oriented towards something rather than just you know sitting in the in neutral and letting all these things happen to you and so you say okay what do I want to be what does Alexis want to be doing when she's 39 that makes a substantial income and is fulfilling professionally? And I feel good about me. I make good money. I'm enjoying the daily work, those kinds of things. Now, you never do anything that every day is easy. There are some days that suck in anything you do okay i've been doing this radio show for over 32 years and almost every day i love being on the air but i said almost

some days i don't feel like being here i think we know i think we know those days everyone's like dave's extra feisty today i'm like i don't know if no that just meant i had too much coffee that wasn't because i was miserable i'm not miserable i'm not if i if i'm miserable doing something i don't keep doing it very long it i change so that's the entrepreneurial side so anyway so what yeah that's what you need to do and so that's what i would say alexis is you need to aim at something and then pull the trigger. Don't go ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, fire. And I'll say this, Alexis, that the next step may not be the absolute perfect dream job scenario.

It may just be, hey, I'm getting in that right direction. It's paying me $20,000 more, which is significantly different. And that's a stepping stone right there's a progression there that has to occur and that gets you out of your parents house which was your question yeah you know so you've got an income problem but it's associated with your career not having a clear direction so the get clear career assessment will help you with that i will pay for it and give it to you for free hang on the line the team will pick it up and get you signed up it's going to work going to work going to work so uh there is an energy that occurs it gives people energy it gives you uh I think it comes from a sense of hope or a sense of destiny. When you

spend some time contemplating, thinking on the back porch with a cup of coffee, right, or whatever it is you do, tea, whatever it is you do for that. Your mother would be tea, me it would be coffee or something else. But do i what do i want my life to look like what do i want my career to be what do i want to do and then you don't fall and then you say you start clearly defining that in high definition in hd and and then you start living in that future state and you start identifying with the person that you're becoming and then you start taking the steps so that's what goal setting does it energizes you because all goals are are little miniature vision pieces with work clothes on you know and you start taking

the work you take the work clothes and you go put the work boots on and the work gloves and you go to work towards getting your goals. And that all of a sudden, even the energy in your voice changes. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour is my co-host today. Today's question comes from Margaret in Iowa. She says, my husband has passed away recently and had credit card debt in his name only. Am I responsible to pay that debt? The credit card company says his estate is responsible for the debt,

and they're coming after me for the funds. All his properties came to me as we were joint owners of everything. Am I responsible for paying that debt? If not, how do I respond to the credit card company? They are correct, Margaret. His estate, which includes all the stuff that was in his name that now you own, yeah, that was responsible for his credit card debt. So yes, you have to pay the debt, not because you're liable for the debt, but because you took the stuff out of the estate, and that was liable for the debt.

So when someone passes away, what they own in their name, assets, stands good for any debt that they have, liabilities. And when you're married, if it's in both of your names, then if you want to keep the stuff that had his name on it then uh you have to pay the debt that had his name on it because his estate stands good for his debts but um to take that to a different type scenario um we've had the call over the years, many times, uh, my mother, my father passed away living in an apartment with $50,000 worth of student loan or credit card debt. Um, and a car loan that on the car that was worth, uh, that the loan was more than the

car was worth. They had absolutely no money. Uh, am I responsible as the child for that debt no you're not no you're not but um you know so you call them up tell them to come get the car and the other people the credit card's just not going to get paid because they died with a negative net worth but you can't take a sixty thousand dollar boat out of the garage that was in mom's name or dad's name and keep it and then not pay the fifty thousand dollars or the credit card debt right that was in his name and that's in a sense what margaret the position she's in and so what that person when they died own stands good for what they owe we've also had

sad calls of a couple calls in and she has you know she has an illness and cancer but she has student loan debt and we got that call of hey should we be paying down the student loan debt no and in that yeah but in that scenario right student loan debt student loan debt is forgiven it's forgiven at death and It's forgiven at death. And that's the only debt forgiven. That's the only one that is, yeah. And so, yeah, and it's also forgiven if you're permanently disabled and get SSI. So, you know, get your disability approved permanent.

So in that case, that's one of the few times you're going to hear me tell you not to pay down student loans. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. But if this was not credit card debt, but it was student loan debt, then it would be. Then she would not owe it. She would not owe it. It would be forgiven on death. And so it would not. The estate does not stand good for student loan debt.

Yes. Federally insured. Federally insured student loan debt. Right, not private. Not private debt. But yeah, that's the rule on that process. So thanks a bunch. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Jennifer's in Minneapolis. Hi, Jennifer. How are you? Hi, doing well. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have a question.

My husband and I both live – my husband works at a boarding school. So we live there on campus, uh, you know, rent free expenses free. Um, I'm a sales rep. Um, our combined income is about 150,000. Um, we have no debt. Yes. Um, we have no debt. Our cars are paid for. Um, you know, we just bought our last car in cash and contributing a couple hundred dollars a month for each child to education. I did stay at home with my kids for 10 years, so we're a little bit behind in our 401K. I only have about $300,000 in it. But I'm wondering, should we be focusing on buying a house to rent out?

One thing I'm worried about is just down the line when my husband, he's a soccer coach there at the boarding school. So down the line, we won't have a house if something happens to his job. That's just a little bit of a concern. Yeah, I would have a mutual fund that is nicknamed the house fund that's not in your retirement and i'd just be throwing money in it like it was a house payment yeah okay and so that someday when you need a house you've got a big pile of money yep okay okay yeah versus going and buying something now jennifer and you guys aren't living in it, but you're renting it to somebody else

and all of that. That's just an investment that's hard to manage in your situation. Yeah, I would not do that in your situation. I would just get a low turnover mutual fund. You can talk to one of the SmartVestor pros at RamseySolutions.com and sit down with them and open up an account. And I would put $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, $6,000 a month into it and just

see how big a pile of money we can have. You might look up and be a half million dollars in there in a few years and, and, uh, he changes careers and boom, you pay cash for a house, you know, that can happen. Um, and that's the same kind of thing we tell folks, Rachel, that are a little different scenario, but not much where the pastor is living in a parsonage yep you can get to retirement as a pastor in a parsonage and you you you're homeless you know because you retire and the next pastor is going to be living in the parsonage and so you've got to go get a house you know i talked to a young couple out here the other day they said their mom and dad are on the mission field for 20 years and you've got to prepare to come off the mission field. It's biblical to prepare to do that, to get ready. Same thing if you've been living, this usually for a shorter period of time,

but a lot of young couples or even singles living on base in military where, again, housing is furnished, but when you quit that job or that portion of that job, then housing is not furnished. And then you get into this whole thing. So, Jennifer, you're very wise to think about that. I wouldn't fret about it, but I'd put in place a basic game plan and say, hey, I'm going to start paying myself a house payment and see how quick that turns into a million dollars. It does turn into a million dollars pretty quick, by the way.

It's pretty incredible. Open phones at 888-825-5225 jessica is in sacramento hi jessica hi hey what's up i okay so i have a question i have kind of have a job um offer that's being given to me and i don't know if I should take it. So right now, um, we originally started out with $390,000 in student loan debt. Good Lord. What's your degree in? I have a doctor of pharmacy degree. Um, and that's all my debt and my husband doesn't have any. So what are you making? 135? making 135 no well right now i make around 180 oh good um and then my new job would basically bring me up to over 200 000 okay um my husband or excuse me i probably make more around like one i don't know 160 my husband brings in some so our total net of our house is like around 220 okay um right now our student my

student loan's at 185 000 um we've had what's wrong with a new job why would you not take more money what's what's wrong with it well so i have three kids and i really just i'm really bummed i wish when i was younger someone would have told me i just would have wanted to be a mom and so I really want to be home with my kids and so this new job would just kind of be more stressful my job right now I'm really good at it creates no stress at work what kind of stress I'm home um well I've become a pharmacist practitioner so I would be running my own clinics. Right now, I'm an oncology pharmacist, so I do all the chemos, and that's fine. It's all IV chemos. Basically, there'd be a big learning curve.

I'd be switching to oral chemo, which is just two different ballgames, which is fine. I would just then be doing that. Just because you're learning something new? You got a PhD. Learning doesn't bother you. She's going to be running a clinic, though. You're going to be the one in charge of it. Yeah, I'm going to be running my own clinic,

which right now I don't run my own clinic. I work in a teacher and I see my own patients. Is that what you're talking about is stressful? Yeah, just outside of learning, because I do have three small children. When I get home, the time to learn is low because I do work full-time as well as I doesn't sound like you want to take it I don't think you want to take it I don't know what to do because then I could pay off my loan you can't quit and go home and be with the kids you made a decision to go

$300,000 in debt so you have to stay with something I would stay with what you have that off the table. But if you want to do the other thing or this thing, either one. But under all this is you really just want to quit, and you really can't. And so let's just decide which big girl thing we're going to do. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today thanks for hanging out with us America hey this is the last day to get the early bird pricing on the Dave Ramsey's essential investing

uh event that I'm doing May 21 and 22 it's a two-night virtual event where I'm talking to you about not only the basics of investing, but we're going to open our playbook on how I do real estate, how I do my other investing, as well as my mainstream stuff like 401ks and mutual funds. Tickets are $199. If you buy today, you save $50. That's cool. RamseySolutions.com slash events. All right, Lana is with us on the debt-free stage. Hey, Lana, how are you? Good, how are you? It's a pleasure to be here.

Honor to have you. Where do you live? Los Angeles, California. Welcome to Nashville. And how much debt have you paid, Lana? $173,000. Wow, how long did that take? 18 months.

Good for you. And your range of income during that time? $134K to $22 to 223k wow look at you way to go and you're dropping basically about a hundred about ten thousand dollars a month average that is correct rowdy what kind of debt was this all student loans wow what's your degree in i'm a pa physician assistant ah is that what you do yes great career field thank you uh expensive to pay for though very expensive yes way to go it's a good choice so uh what in the world happened 18 months ago that made you decide to do this ramsey stuff yeah so when i graduated pa school back in

late 2019 i had such a huge debt 173k i had moved back home from connecticut actually to los angeles where my family's from and i realized that i needed to pay off my loans and that meant having to move back into my parent with my parents house again so that was a hard change but it had to be done and then i realized that at that time with covid happening um the government was giving us a zero percent interest i needed to take advantage of that and so that leapfrog get forward yeah yeah it definitely helped a lot so i worked hard i picked up you know one job it was kind of tough because during covid we didn't have enough volume i work in the emergency room so i was getting let go on some days to go home because we didn't have

enough volume but eventually i picked up side jobs. I worked in the urgent care. Eventually when the volume returned, I was able to get two full-time jobs, work in the emergency room, averaging about 22 shifts a month. And that helped me pay down my loans quickly. I think my main goal was to get out as soon as possible so that I could start buying assets and hopefully have some passive income down the road. Good for you. That's amazing. So how, what, like on an average week, how many hours were you working? That's tough. I would say it varies because, um, let's say between 60 to 70 hours a week. Oh my gosh. Just absolutely doing it. It is. It's very tough because working the ER, I was expected to work not just day shifts but days and nights

and so i was averaging about 22 shifts a month an average full-time er provider would work 12 shifts a month i was working 22 and so i had to flip-flop my sleep schedule from days to nights that was tough for sure but it was worth it at the end because i'm here yes and now you can do whatever you want right exactly how's it feel to be free? It feels amazing. I remember when I was listening to your show back then when I was going my runs, and I was like, wow, one day I'm going to be on the show. Ah, there you go. And here you are.

Yes, here I am. Look at this. Thank you. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? $173,000 paid off in 18 months. I think for me it was mainly staying focused and disciplined. I'm a very disciplined person. What really helped is,

I think for me, for my age and generation, is staying off social media. Sometimes people my age, once they have a nice degree, they feel like the lifestyle inflation creeps up. You want to get the new Tesla. But for me,

I just was staying off social media, was focused on paying off my debts, and just living below my means, really. That's the key. Yeah. It's being weird because all my friends had nice Teslas when they graduated, you know,

and I'm just, I was still with my beat up car and I still drive and see beat up car today. That still works. Okay. Was there anybody that was in your life that was cheering you on or were most people like looking at you like, you're crazy, Alana?

I think I do have a close friend who cheered me on because she became debt free and she's like you're gonna you know get there too one day but it was hard you know socially to um not be able to hang out friends as much because my schedule was so flip-floppy but at the at the end it's worth it and now i'm able to hang out my friends again who welcome me back yes yes so even on the show today we've had two or three calls of people with pharmacy degrees and i mean some even on the show today we've had two or three calls of people with pharmacy degrees and i mean some big student loan debt that we've had called in just today and the conversation is this encouragement kind of actually using your story for an example of

you know if you if you condense this down with a short period of time and you sprint and you do it you're done versus it you know stretching out 10 years so what encouragement do you have for people that are listening that probably could have six figures of student loan debt and they're thinking oh i could do it in five or six or seven eight years what would you tell them i would tell them just to stay disciplined don't get distracted with you know keeping up the joneses and it's possible because if you're in that field and you make good income, you're able to pay it off quickly too, but you just have to not let the lifestyle inflation get to you.

It's okay to sacrifice for a few years because once you're done, a few years go by really quickly and you're out of it. Then you're able to enjoy life again. I think a lot of times people are afraid to make these sacrifices for the short term, but I think to me it's so worthwhile because now I these sacrifices, you know, for the short term.

But I think to me it's so worthwhile because now I get to move on to the next step in my life. That's right. That's awesome. You're a hero. You're amazing. Thank you so much. Well done. Thank you, sir.

Well done. You're a force of nature, girl. Thank you. I like it. Thank you. I like it a lot. Well done. You knock this out and there's no stopping you.

You can do whatever you want to do. You set your mind to it, and it makes a difference. It is an irony that when we had a pandemic, that the volume to the emergency room was down. I guess because no one was doing anything that could cause them to get hurt. That is true. In the beginning, I think people were so afraid of like leaving the house yeah i know but i mean yeah it's just funny it's like but i mean if you're hurt bad enough to go to

the hospital yeah that's weird that's weird if you think about it but it's that's exactly what happened yeah i mean we knew that stuff like uh uh uh elective surgeries you know like plastic surgery that kind of stuff was just gone completely gone but emergency room i did not ever hear that the er went down in volume that's so interesting right yeah way to go you you figure you you navigate your way through it you're not someone that oh well the next thing let's figure out how to solve that let's solve for that let's solve for that whatever's put in front of you you you find a way to jump the hurdle way to go thank you very proud of you very proud of you very cool much good for you you did great so again rachel said it a different way i'm going to say it one more way what do you tell people the key to getting out

of debt is uh staying disciplined yeah that's it that's it that's it and i will say that one thing you mentioned uh i just was seeing some data the other day. There is a direct correlation between the amount of debt that someone has, consumer debt that they have, and how much time they spend on the Internet. The more time you spend on the Internet, the higher your debt is across the board. Because it's just, you're constantly looking at a highlight reel of someone else's life that's not real to compare yourself to, because people don't put ugly stuff on, you know, they put up the only time that everything's perfect, you know, and it's like, you know, and Rachel used to say, you know, no one puts a used Honda on there. Look what my husband got me, hashtag blessed, right?

You know, nobody does that. They put the new Lexxus on or the new whatever right tesla yeah that's it but that's all those are all fake moments and that's why you know like facebook friends are fake friends that's why we say we help you with actual amazing relationships on this show because they're not they're not virtual virtual means not true and so this is that's so that's so insightful on your part. I turned that off and it helped me to stay focused. Because you're like a fish.

The shiny lure going in front of us when we got the dadgum Instagram feed going. Exactly. It's crazy. So look at you. Way to go. Very, very proud of you. Good work. All right.

Lana from Los Angeles. 173,000 paid off in 18 18 months making 134 to 223 we've got a couple of years of every dollar subscription for you we'll hand that to you in a few minutes count it down let's hear a great debt-free scream three two one Dead free! Yeah! Woo! That's how you do it if you're Lana. I like it. So good. Yes.

Brother to tears. Just free. Slam dunk. Free. Absolutely free. That's it. I've been waiting on that. I've been waiting on that.

I've been working for that. Look at her. Way to go, kiddo. So good. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Megan is in Omaha, Nebraska.

Hi, Megan. How are you? I'm good. Thank you guys so much for having me on. Sure. What's up? Yes. So my husband and I were married in September. He is financially disciplined and manages money very well.

I'm learning quickly and currently in baby step two. I have about $46,000 in debt, $40,000 in student loans. He has no debt and $90,000 in savings. He has worked really hard to save this money, and I feel uncomfortable using his savings to pay for my mistakes. We have discussed putting $20,000 of the savings to put towards my student loans, and the remainder would be paid off in 13 months. I wanted your thoughts on if we should use the savings to pay off the entirety of the student loans,

or is it okay to do the partial payment of $20,000 and then pay the remainder off in 13 months? Pay it off today, Megan. Pay it off today? Pay it off today. Open a nice bottle of wine, and you guys cheers, and say we, as a couple, as a married couple, our money and our debt is paid off.

And now we get to start working towards a future that we want and we are going to start building wealth and we are going to do this all together because we are married and we are one for richer for poorer in sickness and health unto thee all my worldly goods i pledge that's the old marriage vows thank you we had a feeling you would say that but i think we just needed that extra push we're fairly predictive let me let me tell you another way to think about it that helps me emotionally because we get this type of question a lot and a lot of actual pushback from the troll land on the internet um that now you should never combine your money yes you should always combine

your money because of several reasons number one the data says that you have a much higher probability of staying married, having a good marriage, and building wealth than if you don't combine it. Tons of data, lots of research, including the 10,000 people that we studied. Number one. Number two, from a relational standpoint, when you can agree on what you're doing with our money, when we are combined in our goals, we agree on our money. We're really agreeing on our dreams. We're agreeing on our fears. We're agreeing on the path that we're going to use to get to the future that we want to do, all of that agreement is called unity, and it spells excellent marriage is what it does.

High-quality relationship, when you've got that kind of unity with anyone else, but particularly with a spouse. So in business, we want the teams to be in agreement aligned towards an agreed unified future and when we get that in business we get synergy and productivity and all kinds of things same thing occurs in a marriage so all of that being said here here's a new one i can try on you let me see how this works if you had if you had uh if you got a check in the mail today from a rich uncle that died and it was $96,000, you would pay off the loan today, wouldn't you? Yes, I would.

Okay. So what we're saying out loud that we're trying to encourage you guys to change your vernacular on change your verbiage on is you're saying that that's not your money and it is your money you're now married and he's saying that's not his debt and it is his debt because you're now married and if he gets sick and has the flu you're going to make him chicken soup in sickness and in health right and we're going to be living our lives together so if you would use your money to pay off your debt then you should use your money that's right to pay off your debt yeah and and and i would be so uh i would just challenge you guys i mean honestly my getting that not just the tactical stuff of get going

online and paying off the debt today which i think you should i think it should be gone tonight and it's what a celebration uh but when you actually do have that mindset shift and instead of his account your account his savings my debt and it's this still two lane idea. There's something about just going all in, all in in it and saying we are this is us together. And you start really looking at your money as as us. It doesn't have someone's name on it. It is it is our money when it hits that account. And it it just changes something. There's

something in it that is so empowering and so exciting because you can get to your goals so much faster. So much faster. That's exactly right. Leona's in Michigan. Hi, Leona. How are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay. So I am wondering what the best way to buy land is. So we got an opportunity to buy some land. It's about a little over seven acres for $15,000. But we have a vehicle loan out right now. We owe $8,446.99 on that.

Anyways, we would like to pay off one debt before we have two debts. So I'm just wondering if we should use the money that we have saved up for that land, if we should put that towards the van and use that van as collateral for the land. No. You should pay off the van today, and you just save up and pay cash for the land okay so do you know that we should no debt pass no debt on the land opportunity yes you should pass on it it's not an opportunity it's a trap you don't have the money okay you don't have the money to buy it no debt if you get out of debt business, you're going to have money for the

first time in your life. But as long as you're playing hide the P under some shell, trying to move it around so that it makes the debt all fun again, you're going to continue to be broke. This is what broke people do. They constantly have payments and they constantly figured out a way they thought it was smart, but they constantly have no money. And so I want to, if I'm you, I want to, and because I love you, I want you to break that off of your life. I want those chains to never come back into your life ever again. Stop it. Get out of the debt business completely for the good of Leona.

How old are you? 25. Yeah. When you're 35, you will love this discussion if you go do what I tell you to do because you're gonna have so stinking much money. Otherwise you're gonna be 35 and you'll have a new set of payments because you had a new plan. And no money still. How much you guys make a year Leona? A little over $56,000. $56,000 okay. What's the money saved that you have you mentioned that um so we have seven grants saved and our van we owe 8 446 and 99 cents okay so that's yeah i mean i would keep a thousand pay it off you'll have a little over 1800 left on the van

not the van i'll take over time put some stuff on craig's list sell so much stuff the kids think they're next name the dog ebay and put the cat on craig's list and then get an emergency fund have money saved in the bank with no debt and then be looking at options if you guys want to move later on down the road you can but yeah not there's just not the the money to do that with the land issue and everything today when you buy something that's a dream with debt, you turn it into a nightmare because it takes control of your life. It takes control of your largest wealth building tool, which is your income. When you don't have any choices anymore because you're wearing this

stuff around your neck all the time, it takes the fun out. It sounds fun. It sounds like a way to get something I want when I'm not ready to get it yet. But the net result is hell. I mean, you just get stuck in this forever mud hole. And that's what most Americans do. They go from car payment to car payment. They've got a stupid student loan that's been around so long they think it's a freaking pet. And then they run from MasterCard, who named that anyway? You have a master in your life. MasterCard to American distress to a visa to the land of debt. I mean, come on, seriously.

Think about this, people. If you break that cycle off of you, it changes your whole thing. We're known for getting people out of debt, we're only want to be getting people out of debt so that they can increase their generosity and increase their investing and become wealthy so they can increase their generosity and increase their investing so they can become more wealthy so they can increase their generosity and increase their quality of life and instead of that when you're in the debt cycle you you're making everybody else rich. You're making the banks rich. I mean, everyone else wins, but you in it. Who's got the tallest buildings in the skyline?

Life insurance companies and banks. You think Santa Claus built those? You did. They screwed you. They got furniture nicer than yours, and you paid for it. This is The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show where we help people

build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, number one best-selling author and number one author in the children's category. And my co-host, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. The book she has coming out next week is I'm Glad for Where I Am. I'm Glad for Where I Am.

The other one was I'm Glad for What I Have. The first was a bestseller. Great kids books. Be sure and check them out. She's going to be out touring around America in the next week or so. She'll be looking in Atlanta and Phoenix and Dallas and Los Angeles and you'll see book signings there with Rachel

and story time and come out and bring the kiddos. She'll sign the book. You'll hear this book read by her. It's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of cool stuff going on. Also, let you guys know it is Financial Literacy Month, National Literacy Month, and we're celebrating teachers right now. The teachers of America love our kids well, and so we want to just stop, whether they teach our high school curriculum, the Foundations of Personal Finance,

or whether you are a teacher of another subject, we want to salute you. One teacher is going to win a $5,000 vacation, plus two other teachers are going to win a $3,000 vacation each to wherever you choose, completely free, no purchase necessary. This is the Teacher Appreciation Giveaway, sponsored by Ramsey Education. So for more information, go to ramseysolutions.com slash teacher and enter for a free chance to go on a vacation. Love our teachers. I did a shout out on Instagram about something and I had so many direct messages from teachers because my kids are in public school. And I was like, there's just still so

many great teachers who love our kids, who are wonderful people, and they do a lot. They work so so so hard and so they you know there's so few of them that i mean you i know they're out there but there's so few of them that mail it in yes i mean they just they bring everything they bring their whole self to the deal yes they're amazing they really are so we're so Thankful for all you teachers out there. April is in Austin, Texas. April, how can we help today? Hi. I'm calling in because my husband passed away in a car accident that we were both in about a year ago. Oh, my, honey.

How horrible. Yeah, we were T-boned. I woke up in the ICU finding out he had passed. Oh, my gosh. How long were you in ICU? About a little over a week. I had two emergency surgeries. I was air flighted there.

How are you doing now? I am healed. I'm back to where I was before the accident. But I'm still just learning how to do this. We've just been married for two months. Oh my gosh, April. I'm still, you know, just learning how to do this. We've just been married for two months. Oh, my gosh, April. I'm so sorry.

You're physically healed, but you still got a broken heart. Oh, my gosh. How old was he? He was one week after his 31st birthday. Wow. Gosh, I'm so sorry. How can we help today, hon? Well, I got, um, because of all this, um, a life insurance policy. He worked for Apple and, um, had one and I want to make sure that I'm

doing the right things with it. Um, we were both like, we had bought our home together. We had worked hard to save the money for it. We were actually working to pay off the debt through the baby steps. We were basically almost debt free. So I have paid off all like the residual like little debt.

But I just want to make sure I'm 27. And so I just want to make sure that I'm doing the right thing. And you said this was a year ago. Yeah, that happened on February 25th of last year. It's just been about a year. Yeah, okay, a little over a year then. Okay.

Yeah. And so what do you make? I make just, I make $74,000 a year. And how much is owed on the mortgage? So the mortgage currently is at $210,000. Okay. And how much life insurance did you get? A million dollars.

Okay. And any other debt? April, now you said you guys were working to pay off debt is there any consumer debt left no so i i paid off there was like five thousand dollars and then we had um we had just gotten a new car for me and that is now paid off um which was our goal too we wanted to pay it off like in full um i take it you you plan to stay in the house.

Yes, yeah. We were settled here. I have a community here, so I don't want to move. I wasn't trying to run you off, but sometimes the memories are in every room and people decide not to stay, right? Yeah. But that part is okay, but you've been,

that part is okay and you're working through that part and you're enjoying the, the benefits of the house right now still. Yeah. We, I mean, we picked out the house when it was just a lot. We built it and picked out everything in it. So it has a lot of special, special things in it for us. Okay. Wow.

Well, you've illustrated the importance of life insurance for sure. And you'll be a proponent of that for the rest of your life. Anybody that'll listen, you'll tell them about it. So if I woke up in your shoes, I can't imagine waking up in your shoes, but I would go ahead and pay off the house. Okay. Yeah, that was kind of something I was wondering. And then I want to just systematically do three things with money the rest of my life,

and that is invest it, enjoy it, and give it. And so, you know, if I'm in your shoes, I'm probably thinking of something that was close to his heart that I could do in his memory. I mean, if he had a real thing for starving children or foster care or sex trafficking or water or whatever, I don't know. Maybe you all have talked about that. And it doesn't have to be a ton of money. It's just whatever you decide. But I'm probably going to do something that's representative of that because I think that feels right.

And that starts the generosity muscle. For the rest of your life, you're the rest of your life you're going to be generous because you're going to you know you're you're set you don't have any trouble now and um and then i'm going to have a chunk invested i'll sit down with a smart investor pro and start learning about investments click that on ramsey solutions.com click on smart investor pro and they'll help you start to learn about some mutual funds. I'd place the majority of this money in investments, and I would have some I would just enjoy and not feel guilty about that at all. That's what he would want.

It's what is normal and healthy, and it's awkward, but everything's a little awkward right now. Yeah. And so whatever it is you want to do, if you've got a sister you're close to and you two want to go on a nice cruise for a week and you pay for hers and yours, that's fine. Go do that. I'm making something up. You do whatever you want to do.

But enjoy a segment of it. Give a percentage after the house has paid off. I'm going to put this percentage to enjoyment. I'm going to put this percentage in investments, and I'm going to put this percentage to enjoyment. I'm going to put this percentage in investments, and I'm going to put this percentage towards generosity. And then that'll set you free to start taking action on each of those three buckets. Start your investments, start your generosity, and plan some enjoyment. And you need some enjoyment. It'll be good for you. So sorry, April.

Wow, what a devastating thing. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Guys, we are super pumped about the upcoming Total Money Makeover weekend here on campus at the Ramsey Event Center. It's May 10th and 11th, Friday afternoon, evening, all day Saturday. And it's Rachel Cruz speaking, Jade Warshaw speaking, George Camel, me, Dr. John Deloney on relationships and emotional health, Ken Coleman on how to make more money.

And we're going to walk you guys through a total money makeover like you've never seen before. You're going to leave here equipped, inspired, fired up and bring that person that thinks you're crazy. When you leave with them, they'll be crazy. We'll teach them how to be crazy. We teach crazy right here. We know how to do it. so we want you to come this is the ultimate motivator bring your friend who thinks you're nuts because we'll by the end of the day we'll have them completely convinced it's what we do and we can show you how to win and give you a step-by-step plan you're gonna leave here jazzed wired up and fired up and ready to go man so do not wait to get your tickets our platinum plus tickets are sold out. You can still get Platinum or VIP,

but there's just a couple of those left, and the general admission is also going fast. So ease anxiety, learn to invest, learn to become wealthy, learn how to get out of debt, and learn how to work with your spouse and your kids. Oh, it's everything. A total money makeover weekend here. Come to ramsaysolutions.com slash events.

Come join us just south of Franklin, Tennessee. We would love to have you for that weekend. It's going to be really exciting. We have a blast doing these. I was going over some of the materials this morning. You guys are going to be blessed. We're just so glad you're coming. Thanks for hanging out with us.

All right, Nicholas is in West Palm Beach. Hi, Nicholas. How are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? I'm 29. I'm looking to start my own business. And obviously, I have hiccups every single year to get into that point. And I'm wondering if there's anything that I can invest my money in to be able to reach my goal faster. What are you trying to start, Nicholas? I'm currently an assistant trainer for race horses, and I'm trying to be my own trainer in a couple of years from now.

Okay. So would you not go to other people's farms and barns to do the training uh currently i work for somebody so basically he provides the horses um no i'm asking if you were a full-time trainer yeah all you need to do is have a way to get to the barn to do the training what does you need to do to start a business you need to have money in the bank but also you need to build up the clientele to be able to get there yeah but why do you need to have money in the bank because sometimes when you build the owners even though you build them for a 30-day cycle sometimes it takes them 45 days 50 days even 60 days yeah but that's all i mean you're not there's nothing you really have to buy to start this business uh you do have to buy equipment um not a ton

not a ton not if you don't have all of the horses though yeah and most of the owners have the equipment too another the equipment's provided by the trainer everything the feed and everything's provided by the trainer yeah okay all right so you don't need it you don't need much money how much how much do you think nicholas will you need realistically somebody had told me 50 000 but before the market got crazy you gotta be kidding me that's what somebody had said well somebody's an idiot what do you that's ridiculous okay dave you don't you're not a horse expert. No, I'm a business expert.

I know, but listen, Nicholas, have you, Nicholas, priced this out? Have you said, okay, here's realistically, if I had eight clients or whatever, here's probably what I'm going to need. Have you just run some numbers realistically? Yes, I have, yes. And I would say that the average racehorse per day would cost, at the cheapest way possible, would probably cost about $80 a day to maintain. You don't maintain them.

The owner maintains them. But the owner has to pay me back. The owner maintains them. He has to pay you the training fee, but he's maintaining the horse. Correct. So it doesn't cost you. You've got to go over there in your cowboy boots and sweat and get your work done.

You also have to put up with the payroll and the bill. I understand. You don't have any payroll. You're it. Well, for now, yes. Yeah, well, that's it. That's all it takes so what it takes you to start a business is five thousand bucks max maximum i started this business on a

card table in my living room i didn't have spit i didn't have anything except just nobody would tell nobody could tell me no that's all i had i wouldn't be denied yes but you do not you you do not create all these false barriers in your head to go do your dream so you are already a trainer the first thing you need to do is start getting some clients that you didn't that you didn't steal from your employer and that you do start doing five on the side two on the side three on the side and you go over there and you work. And whatever money you make, you set over in a little account. So if you need to buy a few pieces of tack here and there,

you can pick up a saddle, you can pick up a piece of equipment or whatever. But it's not a lot of money, man. The secret sauce in this business is you. It's not you needed some $40,000 piece of equipment. You're the horse trainer. You're the man. You're the sauce on the on the big mac dude yeah if anything the biggest jump is going to be from a income stream standpoint

and being sure you can pay your bills personally so if you could get if you could pick up a couple clients on the side that you didn't steal from your current employer or they may be clients your current employer did not want and he would allow you to work them on the side and you start a little side hustle and you get your clientele built up you get your reputation built up you're going to be a whole lot wiser on what you actually need to purchase but dude you don't have to have money set aside for payroll you're it you keep working the full-time job you go get the horse bill and listen when you're little here's what you do you walk up to the owner and you go i'm little what i'm not your bank you gotta pay me today yes you gotta pay me on the barrel head man i need to be

paid in money at the end of the week because i'm little i'm not your bank that's okay there's nothing wrong with being little nothing wrong that's how i started yeah i didn't have terms we didn't bill anybody you if you wanted to get counseling from me when i started you paid before we sat down then i would do counseling and because i there's no way i'm gonna bill you and hope broke people pay their bill no we're not doing that how do you how do you build how do you charge broke people for doing counseling up front that's how you do it you know and so i mean this is what you this is when you're little this is how you think and it takes a level of humility but honestly it and it takes some swagger great yeah and you're awesome nicholas so it's

like you're the best horse trainer ever right it's that level of confidence that you go in and say hire me yeah i'm amazing that's it and and i'm a small business so i'm not your bank yeah and you know pay me and and i'm gonna give you a great deal and then you're gonna be glad you've had me around and i'm gonna be training your grandkids horses because we're gonna be friends the rest of your life and so i'm gonna do such a good job you can't get rid of me and you know this is who you are nicholas and go be that but don't sit around and go i need somebody told me i need fifty thousand dollars to be oh no yeah no no no no no but also nicholas to your credit and dave not being a horse trainer himself which may be shocking is that you there really may be these costs that you're that you do know nicholas so do it in cash like don't get out ahead of yourself either right so

like plan accordingly and be putting money aside to make sure that when you jump over to your full-time gig that you're able to support yourself but also realistically if there is equipment and there's saddles and different things that you're using don't smirk you're not you're not horrible i mean for 50 grand you can buy the horse i mean come on that's just you know you don't need you don't need the equipment you just get the horse I mean it's just uh no that's you never know that's just yeah so you can do it Nicholas you can do it you can do it you bootstrap it dude you organic cash flow you make money put it back in make money put it back in make money put it back in, make money, put it back in, make money, put it back in. That's what I started doing 35 years ago. And here I sit, um, being this guy, this is the Ramsey show. Thanks for joining us, America, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one, bestselling author.

My daughter is my cohost in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, one of our favorite things is to look out and see folks watching the show. We do the show here on the glass from one to four central time every day. Come by, have some homemade cookies. When you walk in, the place smells like mama's kitchen. And you can have you some coffee, all of it's on us, and watch the show and hang out. Also in the lobby, there is the debt-free scream, so we get to talk to people doing their debt-free screams every day. That's one of our favorite things as well, but our most favorite thing of all is one of our own Ramsey team members is on the debt-free stage doing their debt-free scream. Natalie Fleener and her husband Hunter are on the stage, and Natalie's

on the Entree leadership team as a marketer been here what about six years natalie yes six years six years way to go guys fun well i knew you'd been here working in the entree team for a while and the entree team's killing it we got summit coming up and uh it's completely sold out and you know we can't we can't seem to do enough to keep people the people just beating the doors down to come to summit so you marketers are doing a good job way to go thanks we have a fun time good stuff good stuff hunter what do you do i am a general dentist okay excellent excellent okay so what kind of debt did you two guys have and how much well we had a mixture we had some credit cards we had a car loan

we had student loans for my undergrad um and his undergrad and then we had the big honker the big dentist loan yes yes uh so that was i think she talked about your loan i don't think she called you big there we go all right all right so what was the grand total of all this mess 382 161 dollars wow amazing and how long did it take you to pay it off? Six years. Six years since you've been here. All right. Very cool. Very cool. And we're not going to ask your all's income because you got about 50 of your team members standing around and that's completely awkward and unfair. So we're not going to do that. But so you came here six years ago. What's the rest of the Ramsey story? Is that about the time you got out of dental school,

or how did this whole story unfold to where six years later you got almost $400,000 gone? Yeah, so I graduated 2017 and then moved back here. So I was in Memphis for school, and then I guess we just got out and we were looking at the loans and they were just, it seemed like a mountain. And of course we. How long y'all been married? Four years at that point.

Okay. At that point. So 10 years of marriage now. And so at four years in graduate dental school and you look at this mountain, you go, I just finished a really hard thing. Now I got another hard thing. It was crazy because we were, you know, making the minimum payments or even trying to we couldn't make the minimum payments but we were watching the balance go up because interest builds so quickly on an

amount that large and so I just don't think that was something we were really expecting so it just felt like a mountain honestly so I started looking for work and I am a unicorn I grew up here in Nashville and so just knowing the reputation that Ramsey had of being a great place to work and I used to listen to the Ramsey show with my dad when we would drive around town he's a realtor and so I was just familiar and so I started researching the company watching other people's debt-free screams and I was super inspired by that and wanted that for ourselves so I applied thinking I wasn't going to get it because of how much debt we had yeah we don't we don't we don't turn people down for employment because they have debt we would have no workers yeah so um anyway as part of my

onboarding we started fpu and that just gave us a super clear plan um and plan of attack to just get on top of it and so that was what got us started and we've been going ever since golly because six years is long i mean we talked to people on the show you know we had one earlier last hour it's 18 months you know and people are at all different lengths so six years i mean that's that's the marathon status right there 400k is a lot though yeah I know but I'm saying did you guys six years ago did you map it out to think okay in 2024 did you have 2025 in your head like did you guys have like a a goal that you were seeing out there and you knew it was going to be six years or were you just like one month one quarter at a time yeah I mean we were just kind of taking

it one month at a time almost I mean just getting on the budget first and just trying to stick with it we have two beautiful daughters where we had to halt our you know debt snowball yes save up and pay for them you know pay for everything yep so had a pay cut there for me and then yeah so um I mean it's just been trying to stick with it and trying to keep the blinders on and the mountains and valleys through six years. Cause it is, it's a long, long time. Yeah. Hard to keep going, but just having perseverance.

Yeah. And what was a real game changer for us was actually when they pause the interest on student loans for three years. And when the media was reporting, like the payments are paused and i was like no the interest is paused pay right now pay right now um and that's what we were doing and it helped us a lot because everything was going straight to the principal so good and then you had yes two kids two kids two girls during that they're five and two uh so what was the hardest part because there's so many parents that listen to the show and they have young kids and they're thinking, how do I even do this journey?

Because I'm juggling work and kids and all of it. It's a full life, right, that you have. So what encouragement or what things really helped you in that journey? I mean, I think really just one, staying with the budget, even though, yes, when you say you have kids, it's like, how can we afford it? You got to plan it out. When you get that plan and you stick to it, it really work even though it is a long like we had six years so it's hard and there were times where I was like you know getting frustrated but you know I think

we had to separate it when we got to my big school loans into like all right we paid off this amount of money you know so then we kind of did a little celebration and then just set goals to achieve and then yeah and then it was like literally we paid the last payment and was like oh that's that's it we're done it's almost surreal it is yeah is that all is that all yeah once you finally get there because you've been holding your breath so long it feels like yes yeah yeah way to go good job guys so uh natalie you're working in the middle of the entree leadership team which which is not all financial principles all day long. It's all small business, but you're in the whole team here as part of Ramsey. So this stuff's all around you.

Lots of peer pressure. Does that make it easier or harder? I don't know if I would call it pressure as much as encouragement, honestly. I mean, I would keep people updated of like how we were doing on our debt payoff. We have our walk the talk at staff meeting. And it's just, you know, everybody's cheering you on. It doesn't feel like pressure. It just feels like, you know, you have 70, 80 people every single day rooting you on to your goal.

Yeah. Good. Good. I was hoping that was the answer, but you never know. You never know with some of these people. I'm just saying. Okay, so after six years, you guys, do you have something fun that you're going to do?

Like, is there like a celebration, exclamation point at the end of this? Well, we paid off in February, and so it was fun for me. It was a work trip. I had a CE course, and I went out to Arizona, and so I learned a lot. But I mean, we almost use that as like a debt free trip. Yeah. It was like right after we paid it.

We literally paid it off that week. And then I went to that trip. So I was like, we're coming. And then, of course, we're going to the beach this summer. So great. So great. Very good. Good for you guys.

Guys, it's amazing. What do you tell people the key is to getting out of debt? I mean, you got it. The budget is always the answer right um so I'm going to give a little bit more um so I think six years of kind of going through this there's a lot that you have to say no to and I think it's really helpful to think about the things that you can say yes to like you can say yes to having people over in your home. It doesn't have to be this huge party all the time. You can say yes to hospitality. You can say yes to just opening up your lives to people.

And then you have community around you and it doesn't feel like, oh gosh, I'm saying no to everything. Like this isn't any fun. And then I'd probably say the other thing too is learn to love outside because it's free yeah that's right that's right oh so good especially with kids yes good so good way to go you guys all right bring the pretty girls up what are their names and ages

again two and five did you say eliana is five and joanna two. They're so cute. Oh, my gosh. Well, those two kids have parents that are heroes. You guys have changed your family tree. We're so proud of you. Way to go. Good work. $382,000 paid off in six years.

Natalie and Hunter, count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free scream three two one and the whole department out there a hundred people cheering them on way to go guys i love it this is the ramsey show MC show. Our scripture of the day. Romans 12, 12 rejoice and hope.

Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. The great Les Brown said, when life knocks you down, try to land on your back because if you can look up, you can get up. He was a, he is a great one.

I had the honor of sharing a stage with him many years ago out in la and he's a man he's something else he he's the one if you're sick and tired of being sick and tired people change their lives when they finally say i've had it he's that guy he's good if you get a chance to look up some youtube on les brown you'll you'll have a good moment i can tell you that all right fay is with us faye is in jacksonville florida hi faye welcome to the ramsey show hi i'm so excited well it's an honor to have you how can we help yes so i've been asking my husband saying hey we need to just bite the bullet and pay off our car for two vehicles and pretty much says, the only way that we're going to do that is I call Dave Ramsey, and he tells us to do it.

Well, I mean, that's a fairly predictable outcome, don't you think? I know. Exactly. It's like asking Dave Ramsey if the sun's going to come up. Exactly. Exactly. So how much do you owe on your cars? So we both owe about $7,000, so $14,000 total.

And how much money do you have? About $45,000. Just in your savings account. Pay it off. Why have you not already paid them off? Why do you need me to tell you to do that? Why haven't you done it already? Because we've done so much in the past year we built land built a house and had a baby so all these things kind of came at us and now i'm like okay we have money

let's just pay it off stop paying the stupid interest yeah okay so he got his wish you got your wish pay off your cars dave ramsey just said that okay so we got that behind us now uh but here's the thing uh paying off the cars and doing 17 other things that aren't smart is not going to be your answer either okay right so i mean paying off the cars is not a single magic bullet by itself. It's one of the things you do that is on the list of wisdom. Yes. And so, all these things coming at you, I heard chaos, I heard out of control feeling, and the $40,000 is giving you some comfort with all these things coming at you. And so, what that means is you guys need to be doing

a better plan overall with your money too probably getting on the every dollar budget why don't we give you that so that you can get the premium version so you can hook it to your bank are you already using every dollar i'm not no we just combined we just combined our money recently great see there's a that's a wise thing to do that's on the list of wise things. So check, check. Paid off the car. Combined our money. We're going to give you every dollar so the two of you can build a budget tonight to celebrate your new freedom from debt. Do you have any other debt?

Only our mortgage. That's our only other debt. Okay. So when you're celebrating and doing your every dollar budget tonight, y'all can light a candle and have a plastic surgery party and drop up all credit cards and only use debit cards from this point forward okay that's what we do anyway yep good one more wise thing on the check box right so if you check enough of the wise boxes and don't check the stupid boxes you come out ahead of this money thing it works and so you guys are well on your way but what i'm trying to get you to do is not just endorse a single item of the advice that we give, but instead endorse the whole thing because that's what takes you to wealth, and that's what brings you to peace and unity

in your marriage and those kinds of things. But it sounds like you're starting to one at a time, doing a whole bunch of it. It sounds like you're doing really good. Yeah. So we'll give you that thing you were asking for which is rachel and dave both said one two three pay off the cars all right there we go just got that covered that's thorough denise is with us in orlando hi denise how are you hi dave i'm doing well thank you good how can we help how you were i would ask you how you were doing, but I know what you'd say.

Oh, I'm predictable. I don't think I don't care. Yeah. I'm predictable. So how can we help? So I'm calling today because I have just turned 62 years old, and I have pretty much nothing for retirement. And I have almost half a million dollars in mortgage debt because I have two rental properties and then a house that I live in. And I've kind of been counting on them, you know,

to sell them eventually and use that money to invest and retire. And I'm calling you to see if I should go ahead and sell them now, one or both of them. And along with that, if I do sell them, if I should do like a regular conventional sale or sell it to one of these investors that I keep getting calls and texts and mail from. Okay. I'll answer the last question first. No, you're going to sell at retail. Those guys are wholesalers. Okay.

Meaning they're going to buy it at a discount so they can flip it and make money. Okay. And you might as well make that money. You've been the one holding on to it all these years. So what do you make a year? Well, I'm just getting ready to do my taxes and my W-2. Say I make like $70,000 a year well um i'm just getting ready to do my taxes and my w-2 say i make um like 70 000 a year um but when i did my taxes in 2022 my income was relatively the same and my taxable taxable income ended up being around 18k okay all right uh yeah i'm not talking about deductions

and taxes i'm talking about what your income really is. So you really make $70,000 a year? Yes. Okay, and did you say 6'2 or 5'2 years old? 62. 62, okay, all right. And so your personal residence has how much owed on it? $274,000. What's it worth?

About $400,000 400 something at this point. I've had it for about, um, two and a half years. Okay. And the, uh, rental number one, what is owed on it? Uh, 129,000 and I'm rounding. And what's it worth? It's worth, uh, just talk to a realtor, it could be $320,000 something to $369,000. Okay.

And what's rental number two mortgage? $93,000. And what's it worth? Around $350,000. Okay. All right. And so how long have you owned these? Rental number one, I've owned since 1981. I bought it when I was 21 years old.

And rental number two, I've had since 2015. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, rentals are an investment and you know, you could sell rental number, whichever one you don't want, I don't care and use it to pay off the other one and pay a chunk towards getting your mortgage paid off. Okay. And you'd have a one property free and clear. And that's a nice investment to have a $350,000 rental property. That's as valid an investment as mutual funds. I own both. And really, real estate has a lot more hassle to it. As you know, you're a landlord.

It's not passive at all. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard, passive income on TikTok. But it's not passive. You're landlording. It's the funniest thing I've ever heard. Passive income on TikTok, but it's not, it's not passive. You're, you're, you know, you're landlording, it's an active behavior, right? So, you know, but you've been doing it since you're freaking 21 years old. So, obviously, you know, a landlord and you're, you know, how to maximize these investments, unless you've got them way under rented or something. But I think if you were a week, if you were a weak landlord, you'd have been out of it a long time ago this is true yeah so you kind of know what you're doing so do you prefer i mean it's almost as if you felt like you need to sell these because they weren't sophisticated and the

mutual funds were and i'm trying to call that out if you like these keep them okay Okay. I think, you know, part of it is that, I mean, I've been a Ram zoning for many, many years and I've heard your story about how, um, you know, you've had mortgages called in and that's how, you know, you went broke the first time. And I think I'm concerned about something like that happening or, um, I have renters in both properties right now that have been um good and i'm always on time with their rent and everything um but i'm concerned about that going south nah it's not gonna go south not you i would sell one of them and pay off the other one and a bunch of your house if i were in your shoes and then i'm gonna use your income to finish up paying off the mortgage and start to build a nest egg on the side.

And you'll have a piece of real estate and a nest egg. I think that's fine. Unless you just want to get rid of them, it's fine with me. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. If you're a leader, your personal growth matters for your organization, because whatever you lead can only grow as much as you do.

I know from experience. I've been CEO of Ramsey Solutions for over 30 years, and now I'm sharing that leadership and business coaching experience with you on the Entree Leadership Podcast. I'm taking your calls and helping you figure out how to overcome challenges within your organization. One episode could change your business. Check it out on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or on the Ramsey Network app.