The Ramsey Show - My Husband Has Always Kept Our Finances A Secret From Me (I Want Out)

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

💵 ⁠⁠⁠Have a money question? Ask Ramsey is here to help.⁠⁠⁠ 📈 ⁠⁠⁠Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan.⁠⁠⁠ Ken Coleman and Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss: "The warehouse my business was in burned down and I didn't have insurance" "My husband has kept our finances hidden from me and now he wants a divorce" "Should I buy a home to get out of a toxic relationship?" "I'm $90k in debt and living paycheck-to-paycheck" "Should I loan my cousin $75,000?" Next Steps: ✔️⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Help us make the show better. Please take this short survey.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 weekdays from 2–5 p.m. ET or⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠send us an email⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. 💵 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🚢 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Set sail with Dave Ramsey. Book your cabin today.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💻 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Need help with your taxes? See who we trust.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connect With Our Sponsors: Get 10% off your first month of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BetterHelp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Boost Mobile⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to switch today! Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Casper Sleep⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and use promo code RAMSEY to learn more If you want your car to keep going and going, trust ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Christian Brothers Automotive⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Find a local shop and get an exclusive Ramsey discount of 10% off Learn more about⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Christian Healthcare Ministries⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get started today with⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Churchill Mortgage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get 20% off when you join ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DeleteMe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ FAIRWINDS Credit Union⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for an exclusive account bundle! Debt collectors hassling you? Take back control of your life at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Guardian Litigation Group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find top health insurance plans at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Health Trust Financial⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Use code RAMSEY to save 20% at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mama Bear Legal Forms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ NetSuite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ today to learn more Get started with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YRefy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or call 844-2-RAMSEY Visit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Zander Insurance⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for your free instant quote today!   Explore more from Ramsey Network: 💸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Ramsey Show Highlights⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🧠 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Dr. John Delony Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🍸 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Smart Money Happy Hour⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💡 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Rachel Cruze Show⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 💰 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Kamel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🪑 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📈 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EntreLeadership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broken. Common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. This is the Ramsey show alongside the lovely Rachel Cruz. I'm Ken Coleman. The phone number to jump in is AAA 825-5-2-2-25-2-25. AAA 825-5-2-2-25. You ready to go? Let's do this, Ken. He's ready, folks. Joe starts us off in Newark, New Jersey. Joe, how can we help today?

Hi, sir. I've got a small distribution business plus a honey-packing facility. We recently had a fire. I lost all my merchandising goods. I owe SBA and credit card bills 70,000 on the card, and SBA about 60,000. I don't want to file bankruptcy, but I want to know what is the best way to move forward. So you've lost everything in a fire? Is that what you said? Yeah, there was a fire in the warehouse. Oh, gosh. Yeah.

Burn all my merchandise and my machinery. Any, well, insurance, pick up some of that? Unfortunately, I did not have insurance. Oh, no. Okay. Wow. How long ago this happened, Joe? This happened on January 1st.

Just January? So how have you been running the business at all for the last 50 days? Or has everything been on pause? Everything been on pause. Just have a little saving on a side that I am using to stay alive. Oh, my gosh. So you literally have no business to run. You can't just start up from scratch again, true or false?

I can start from scratch again. What would you need to start from scratch? Merchandise. What were you selling? I was selling a lot of stuff. I was selling teas, oil, cooking oil, essential oil, salt, salt. Okay. So do you have enough cash to be able to buy some products, some supplies,

so that you have something to sell? Yes, I have a little cash. Okay. So what's your question for us? I am concerned by my SBA loan and my credit card that I have racked up $70,000. I don't want to file bankruptcy. I want to know what is the way to go with these guys and how do I explain them. So this way, at least they give me some time to get back in there.

Yeah. You don't have anything to worry about on the credit. card because you just call them up and you tell them what's going on. And the fact of the matter is, if you were to file for bankruptcy, they're not going to get much, right? And so we talk all the time about people have to settle with credit card. That is the least of your worries. The credit card debt is down the road. We're going to have to get you back up in operational. So whatever cash you have, that has to be stretched, I guess, between two key things, Rachel. One, taking care of your needs right now because you have no income and two buying some inventory that we can turn around

which helps us get paid yeah so yeah on the income side joe that's what kin's talking about which is what you're going to have to start doing and or getting another job where you can be making an income asap right that you may not have the leeway like this is to be working but then the debt side of it yeah with the credit cards especially if you are late and it goes into default it'll go into collections and and in this case I'm like you know some people want to do that way Joe and they have the money to pay it they just don't want to pay it so they take that easy way out you don't have money to pay it so you legitimately probably if you stop paying them I'm like they will go to collections and you're going to have to tell them like yeah I don't have money

and then that's where the settlement can come in that if you save some money and and a lot of the times I mean it's it's a nickel on the dollar pennies on the dollar that they'll settle for so there's a good chance that this 70,000 if you get some money saved you may be able to settle some of this for 10,000, 15,000, right? But that's one side of it. Is the SBA, who's it with? Is it bank or credit union, local bank, big bank? Well, I applied SBA to a chase.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, you could go down the same route and talk to them. I think that's a little bit of a harder game to play than the... Although, here's a deal. There is a shot at the humanness of your situation. And by the way, they're going to be very suspicious. But to the extent that you can show them, you're not making this up, this isn't some fraud in around, your world got rocked.

And you hope you can get a real human on the phone and you just tell them what's going on. And to the best of your ability, say, here's what the next three months looks like for me. I've got just enough, excuse me, I don't know what's going on with my voice all of a sudden. But I would be casting vision. Now, they may not care, but Rachel, I think it's important to at least go, here's where I'm at. I don't want to file bankruptcy. Yes. Because they know what happens if you file for bankruptcy. They don't get anything. Yeah. That's right. So I do think there is a humanness to this. And I think, again, I'm such a

take the bull by the horns kind of guy. And my advice is always going to come down to it may not matter, but I certainly would cast vision with them for three. Here's what's going to happen the next three months. In six months, I think I'm going to be able to start making payments again. I would do this with the credit card company as well. Because you have an extraordinary circumstance, and if you got a good track record, your payments were always on time, you make a case for why they should not harass you. You have nothing to lose with that approach and everything to gain. That's right.

And do not, by any means, Joe, give them access to your checking account or any accounts, okay? So this is keeping them at an arm's length, if you will, but seeing if they'll negotiate at any point. And usually with that, that settlement, you usually have to have the cash. on hand to say, hey, here's $5,000. Will you settle 30,000 of it? Or whatever the case may be.

So you kind of have a couple of lanes you're going to have to be thinking about. One, restarting the business, which is what you were saying at the beginning of the call, Ken. Also, just having money to pay your bills as we sit today. And, you know, if you have a family and you're supporting people, like figuring out some income, which means you may be doing a job that is different than what you were doing for a period of time, which is fine. We're just bringing in an income. And then to start, yeah, talking to these creditors, credit card companies and Chase about the debt just to see if there's, you know, what that looks like.

And again, it may take a few months of you not paying for it to kind of get to that point. But I'm with Ken, as proactive as you can be in these situations, the better off you're going to be versus just going in filing bankruptcy or keeping this around for an ever and ever and hoping, like, you know, you can do some negotiations. And I think it's really important, okay, bigger audience now. So we're not picking on Joe. We feel bad for Joe. But what can we learn from Joe? There's two really key lessons for small business owners, solopreneurs. Key that you catch this.

Number one, when you need to insure something, don't put it off. Ensure it. If you have something that is insurable, and I'm not talking some scam, I'm talking like you've got a warehouse and you have product. You need to insure yourself because these kind of things happen and it can rise. your world and poor Joe's dealing with. Second lesson. And we teach this in Entree leadership, which is our business division here at Ramsey Solutions, retained earnings in your business. I don't care what you're selling. Always make sure in those early days that you adopt this principle and you stay with it, that when you make any profit, that there is a percentage

of that that goes to a good old-fashioned savings account. We call it retained earnings, but it's just a savings account. And you should have an emergency fund for your business, just like we teach for your personal life. And no debt. He's done that to some degree. Thankfully, he has some cash. Oh yeah, no debt. Yeah. And you know, that too, right? So the idea of what you do in your personal life to be wise with money, stay debt free, have savings that applies to you business owners. You don't get a pass on common sense. And so move at the speed of cash with your businesses. It creates zero risk and a lot of peace. Hey, what's up? This is Dr. John Deloney for my friends at Mama Bear Legal Forms. I spend a lot of time talking with.

people about anxiety, relationship challenges, and all kinds of other things that keep people up at night. One thing I'm always telling everybody is that peace does not come from avoiding hard things. Peace comes from facing hard things and directly walking through them. One of the hard things we all face is our own mortality. And if you've got kids or people you love, creating a will is one of the most important things you can give them. I'm such a big fan of Mama Bear. When I moved from Texas to Tennessee, one of the first things I did was set up my will through Mama Bear so that my family was protected in my new state. Mama Bear will help you make a clear, legally valid will in about 20 minutes. They provide step-by-step guidance that makes getting a will simple. Believe me,

if you're ready to love your family in a real, impractical, and lasting way, go to Mama Bearlegalforms.com and use the promo code Ramsey to save 20%. That's Mama Bear Legal Form.com. That's Mama Bear Legal Form. dot com use code ramsie all right susan is up next in las Vegas susan how can we help you today hi yes um i have been married for six years um to my husband when we got married um he wanted me to sign a a last minute pre-up um day before we were going to go get married um nothing was written up but i so i didn't agree to sign anything because He wanted me to sign a blank piece of paper and have him, and his attorney was going to write up whatever he told him to. And I said, well, we've never even discussed finances in our year of dating, so I'm not comfortable doing that.

Good for you. Good for you. I've never even heard of such a crazy request. Well, yeah. So the day before we were leaving to go out of state to go get married, he said, well, I want you to come down to the attorneys and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I just said, well, and then he said, well, don't you trust me? And I said, this is ridiculous. I said, we've never even talked about finances.

And when we were dating, he was throwing money around like he had all this money, but I didn't know what he had or didn't have. Sure. Anyway, so, so anyway, fast forward, I didn't sign it. I'm like not signing a blank piece of paper. That's ridiculous. And so anyway, so fast forward six years, finances have always been kept a secret. it. He gives me a small allowance. He puts in a joint checking account to cover, you know, whatever small things on the side. He pays the main bills. You know, I pay the groceries and other small things. But anyway, so now he, fast forward. He wants a divorce because I've finally put my foot down and said, I'm not going to leave in secrets anymore. You either become transparent because as far as I can tell from how he's acting, And he's put his one business, I think it's like going in the hole because he's an accountant.

And he went from having a dozen employees to having two. And anyway, I think he's just lost a lot of money. So he started another driving business on the side. And he started that a year and a half ago. And he went into a ton of debt for that. So, Susan, this is really bad. And I am so sorry you're going through this. What specifically would you like us to weigh in on today?

Well, I'm just wondering with all this debt, I'm like, what am I responsible for? And is he really in debt or is he not in? I mean, I don't really know what he's doing. When you push him, to the point that he said, I'm going to divorce you, when you push him on, I want transparency. I want to see everything. What's his response? Is it it's none of your business? Is it like, yes.

Okay. I just said. I need to know what's going on. Like, where are we and how can I help on what's going on? And he says, I'm not telling you. It's none of your business. Yeah. This is an overlord, not a husband.

He's acting like some, you know, crazy, maniacal overlord. I think, let's answer your question as technically as we can, Rachel. If your name's not on it. Yeah, the debt, you're not going to be responsible for it. But that doesn't really help you with your problem is that you don't know what he's done. You don't know what he's put in your name. Do you guys have a mortgage? We have a mortgage.

So right after we got married, he had the house appraised. Are you on the mortgage? No. Your name's not on the mortgage. Only his is? No. So he bought the home about a year before we got. Great.

It's a year and a half before we got married. Great news for you. So then we got married and then a couple months later, he decides, doesn't even tell me that he's talking to the bank about refinance. So the morning of, I said, where are you going? He goes, I'm going down to the bank. I'm refinancing the house. And I said, oh, well, that would have been a good thing to know.

And anyway, so he just goes down and does it. And I'm like, well, wait a minute. We haven't even discussed. Do we want to put it on 20 or 30 or what's the plan and how much is off? But your name is not on it, even after the refi. Nothing. Okay, which means you, okay, so that is, that's hard because any equity that's built into this thing, either you don't have you don't have which is a negative but also if he is underwater

a hundred grand in business loans and he has to file bankruptcy they're going to take the house and use the equity in that to I mean you know what I mean like that gets yeah our hope is that your name's not on any of his debt but to Rachel's point you're not going to benefit from anything from the house yeah yeah I mean Susan the way he's talking to you with money that this doesn't, like, your marriage overall, is it? He engages, no, he doesn't engage in any marital. Okay. Yeah, you, yeah.

So I think you have to make a decision, Susan. Either he changes and he chooses to be a spouse in this relationship, which means a commitment and transparency and oneness and a team in everything, healing in all areas of life. I think not just money is what this sounds like. And if he doesn't do that, which you probably want, then you have to make a decision, Susan, on how you want the rest of your life to be. And we never are pro-divorce, right? like I never wanted to get to this point.

But I also want you to protect yourself in a situation like this where the allow, like all of it. Like this is, it is the most controlled financial situation on his benefit and not yours. And that's unfair. Well, and that's what he's told. You know, I was trying to fix it and go to the counselor and stuff. And he just told the counselor, he just said, I set things up the way I wanted it. This is way it's going to be. Okay.

So then you have. You have grounds here. We're not recommending divorce, but this is a marriage that's non-existent. It's only on paper. And who knows what else he's hidden from you. So yeah, I mean, I don't know how forthcoming he's going to be in divorce proceedings, but he won't have much choice when you start getting down to it. So at this point, it's like you have to take your losses. And you called asking, what do I do about death that's in my name? If it's in your name, you're going to have to walk our process of the baby steps out. And it's a, Baby Step 1, Baby Step 2 is you start over. But the reality is you don't know and we don't know. What's that? Don't you build any credit after you're married? Any equity that is built... But it's not in your name.

After you're married? It's not your name. Here's the real answer, Susan. But in our state lot does say that any equity that's built from a marital perspective. Well, again, that's where you need a divorce lawyer. Yeah. A good one. We don't know.

But I'm saying, though, Susan, And if he goes to, but if he goes and tries to get any, any assets that he can to avoid a bankruptcy or something, you know what I mean? Like, he's going to be fined in anything, which scares me that there's going to mean nothing for you. Well, I know that's what I'm like. Are you working right now? No. Okay. Do y'all have kids?

I went to school. No, I went to school for this last year. I just finished and I have $9,500. in school loans that I have to start paying back in six months. What did you go to school for? Master aesthetician. I have a cosmology life. Yeah, great.

Can you go get a job in the next week or two as an esthetician or doing makeovers at Nordstrom or something like that? Oh, I. Yes. I don't know. No, no. No, no. Sorry. It was kind of a trick question.

The answer to you to my question is yes. No, I can't go make enough money in the next. month to support myself. That's the answer. Well, no, okay, but that's the wrong, but you got the wrong mindset. I didn't say to be able to make all that up. You have to now go get a job, like Rachel said, because you have to assume that you're not going to get any money out of this, and you need a job, because you're going to need to go rent an apartment or go find another divorced lady who needs a roommate. This is your reality right now, and I hate that I'm telling you this, but. It's that, or if you choose to stay in the marriage, you guys have.

No, no, I'm just saying, either way, you're functioning, you're functioning as an individual, whether you stay in the marriage or not, which means you need money to your name, Susan. Yeah, so go get a full-time job. Because you don't even know, I mean, he could take everything tomorrow, you know. I know. So, how old are you? 59. 59, okay.

Do you have any retirement, anything in your name? No. No, okay. Okay. Urgency. Yeah. It's the word. I'm proud of you for going.

back to school though. That's seriously. You're making some right the right steps. Yeah. But there's some. Well, I just kept seeing this coming and I'm like, I've got to have some more something. Yeah. As a foundation to be able to earn some money. And I'm just like I'm, I'm just like what you're saying. I'm scared that I'm going to be left with nothing. Yeah, but here's the deal. Here's the good news. You have a very good skill and you can work and make enough money as an esthetician. You can. So now you must. But what do I do in the meantime if I don't have any access to funds? You open up your own bank account.

You're a grown woman. Your money goes into your account. Go work at Target for now if you need to. You know, go work somewhere and you start your own financial life. Yeah, today. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Sometimes it seems like everyone else's love life is this perfect little hallmark movie. Here's the truth.

Married, dating, or single in trying to figure it out. Everyone is wrestling with what it means. to be in a relationship. I've been married for 23 and a half years. I've got a PhD, my wife has a PhD, and we have all the answers and we're still trying to figure out how to keep our marriage on track. Both of us have benefited greatly from time with a good therapist. No matter if you've just met someone or if you've been married forever like I have, therapy can help you find your way in a relationship. Identify what you want, what feels heavy, and how you can take some pressure off yourself and build a strong relationship. To do all of this,

I recommend BetterHelp. BetterHelp is an online therapy platform that matches you with a licensed therapist based on your goals and your preferences. You can message your therapist and schedule sessions through the platform and if the first therapist isn't the right fit, you can switch anytime at no extra cost. When it comes to love and relationships, everyone is still finding their way. Find yours with my friends at BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash Ramsey to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P dot com slash Ramsey.

All right, folks, we wish that we could get to every call and question here on the show, but it's just not possible. So if you have a money question and you want an answer for your situation, you can now go to our website and use Ask Ramsey. Ask Ramsey is our free AI tool that's built and trained on the proven Ramsey principles. You get the answer the same way we'd answer it right here on the show. So you can ask your question today at Ramsey Solutions.com. and the Ask Ramsey is right there. You can't miss it, or you can click on the link in our show notes. Let's go to Steve in Hartford, Connecticut.

Steve, how can we help today? Hey, so my situation is basically, I'm in a pretty toxic relationship, not abusive, you know, but definitely needs to end. And I've been working on saving for a house. And it's been more pressing lately that I move out due to the nature of the relationship. relationship. So I found a home and it's within my budget. I'm working with a Ramsey agent. I have no debt, but the home needs pretty significant repairs and I legitimately cannot find another one. It's a, you know, it's a seemingly good value in the property, but it does need repair. So I don't know what to do and how to move forward. Yeah. My caution always when someone goes and buys a home

in an urgent situation, it's not always, it's not always the best purchasing mindset to be in, if you will, right? So like if you had called and said you had been looking for a while and you find this and you really love it and like there's some more, you know, I don't know, there's one situation I may say yes. I'm a little concerned that because you're running from a situation urgently to get out of, which I, that's great. It's not really urgent for what it's worth. It's been prayed through and thought through for years. And I just now have the ability. So I don't know what the right move is. Well, my actual question is, you said, I have some concerns. I'd love to know what your

most pressing concerns are about this move. It definitely needs new electric. The entire home, it's very old. So I'm looking at 10 to 12K for that. It needs a new roof within the next several years. It needs a new porch. So those two things combined are probably another 30 or so. it really looks like it needs about 50 to 70,000 worth of work within about a seven year, five to seven year span. Now, I can handle it. That's the thing is I can actually handle it, but I wanted to truly, you know, make a 20-year mortgage work. I couldn't get a 15, but I couldn't afford the 15.

I could make a 20-year work, and I wanted to make that work. But in my head now, like, I do need to leave the relationship. And I am not, I don't actually qualify for an apartment. I can get a house, but I can't get an apartment. Because I have no credit because I do what Dave Ramsey says. Yeah, we have a lot of Dave Ramsey listeners who can get into an apartment. I understand. I'm in the low 600.

And everywhere around me needs to 640, but I did qualify for a mortgage with about 6%. Well, again, I'm going to challenge you that there's a way. This is, again, you go to it in and you get past the policy and you go talk to a person. And you go, here's why my credit score is what it is. Let me show you my entire financial life. Like, if you sit down with a manager of a place like that, I think there's a way where there's a will, there's a way. But let's go back to this. The house itself, you're the one that called us with concerns about this house. And then you just said, I can handle the costs. But I just wonder if this is the right house. And I also wonder, back to Rachel's point, I'll bet you there's some elderly folks who have a room over a garage.

be happy to take your money as you're in a transition. This just doesn't seem on the evidence that you've given me, like this is a really solid decision. And I don't think you think it's solid either. And that's why you call. So I would not do it for those reasons. It's an old dilapidated house. It's going to have way more problems than you've just identified.

You're moving into this house only because you think you can't get an apartment. And what you've done is you've narrowed your choices falsely to this. and yet your gut and your brain and heart are going, this is probably not a good idea. Why don't you call two strangers and get their take? That's where I'm at. So that all tells me. Oh, we're friends.

Yes, Steve. I'm not your friend. I'm not Steve's friend. The point stands. I appreciate the respect that you called us, but we're completely objective. And I'm telling you it's screaming bad decision. I would rather see you say, yes, I have three homes I've been looking at.

And out of the three, this is probably the best deal, maybe more work and all of it, but I have, I have multiple options. Or I have an apartment that I, you know what I'm saying? Like whenever there's only a one solution to a problem, that's usually when people make bad financial decisions. I'm not saying specifically this is a bad decision, but all the circumstances around it give us some red flags from what we've seen. And again, you said it's not urgent, but you're like, I need to leave this relationship, but I can't live in an apartment. So it does feel like you say it's not, but it does feel like it's become the only solution right now for you. Is that true? Absolutely. Yeah.

So that's what we don't like. Like I'd rather you, again, have option A, B and C. And you may hate B and C, but at least there's other ways out that you can figure out that, you know, it's not just the one. So I would run the numbers. Usually homes like this, as you probably know, Steve, you're smart guy. Like it's, you know, it's always more expensive than what you think. There's always more issues than what you think. And if you choose to walk into that, which a lot of people do because they just, they'll have the fixer up.

And that's what they know when they're comfortable with it. And that's fine, right? And if you have the money for it and that's what you want to do. It's just all the data points around it give us hesitation and pause. Yeah. So I would call on a few more apartments, Steve, honestly. Like we did that a few years ago. I mean, it's here in Nashville.

It's not in Hartford, Connecticut. And they were like, I don't know, 15. apartment complexes that were called. And I think, I don't know, maybe five of them said no, but more than half said yes, that you don't have to have credit. So if you have first months rent, last month, run all of it. Like, you're going to be able to find a place. This house is not the only, is not the only option. Those policies are designed, obviously, to be a filter for people that have made bad financial decisions because I don't want to rent a place to somebody who's not going to pay. But you have a very different narrative, I'm sure, and you can prove it. So you got to go

sit down and prove it to somebody and go, let me tell you why I've got this score, which flagged me. I think that's far more doable than you think. But again, if I was coming out of a toxic relationship, Rachel, and I loved your advice, I just want to go land somewhere for a bit. And I don't even, and I want to be flexible as I possibly can. Yeah, a home purchase, you do not want to rush into. And certainly not an old. And justify it. Do you know what I'm saying? Oh, it's going to be fine. It's going to be, you know, at the end of the day, you're like, is it, though? Like, is it really the best option right now. Yeah. And here's what I know about really old houses, because I have a friend, you and I have a mutual friend. I will not say their name. And they have a very, very nice old house

in this area. It's almost like a landmark. And I swear to you, every time I talk to him, he gripes about all the things he's doing to that daggum house. Yeah. It's a lot. So it's, my point is, is more than the porch and the roof. And it's just a mess. Electrical, it is, yikes. So that's why we're staying away from it. Let's go to Andrew in Phoenix, Arizona. Andrew, how can we help? Hey my friends appreciate you taking the call my daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the end of October of last year because we're getting out of debt we had the thousand dollars in the emergency savings but we blew through that in about two days and so my question is we've we had great friends who stepped in and helped us and um everybody listening who knows type 1 knows that it's not the same as type 2 so type 1's a little bit more involved yeah and and um everybody listening who knows type 1 knows that it's not the same as type 2 so type 1's a little bit more involved yeah and and One of my best friend's daughter just to start using with that. So it's a lot. Yeah.

It's a lot. Yeah, there's a lot. And she's, we've recovered from that initial. We've, we've been able to put $2,000 back in the bank. My wife started about seven sinking funds just to kind of get our money in order. But my question is, because of this, should we put more into the savings? I'm sorry. It's okay.

It's still a lot. Four months later. Totally understand. She's 11 years old. Honestly, we have four kids of the four. We're glad it was her because she's like, I'm an independent woman. I will handle this. This is my responsibility.

Real quick, because we're, we're, we're, uh, yeah, I know. No, no, no, no. What I'm saying is, is we're going to hold you over, okay, so that you can get a chance to gather yourself. This is heavy stuff, man. So no apologies. I got three kiddos. Uh, we get it.

It's a lot. It's a lot. Well, one of my best, yes, one of my best friends, because we're, We're heading to break, but her daughter was, it was last December. It was horrible, horrible, and it's been a full year. And it is, it is so much, Andrew. Like, it is a lot. So the scariness and the, in the tears and fear, that is real.

But from the financial perspective, hold on the line. Yes, we're going to get back. To talk through how you guys can get an order financially as you're in Baby Step 2. This is Dave Ramsey. We all want to know that the money we give to charity is doing something that matters, that it's making a real change, giving someone lasting hope. And here's one way to make sure of that. Give to preborn.

They're the real deal. Proven, transparent, and changing lives every day. I trust preborn, and you can too. They're on the front lines of the battle for life, partnering with clinics to offer free ultrasounds to mothers in crisis. Because when a mom sees her baby on that screen, something changes. It's not just a decision anymore. It's a person.

And 80% of the time, when a mom sees that ultrasound, she chooses life. Your $28 gift provides one of those ultrasounds. Just $28 to be the reason someone chooses life. And at every clinic, the gospel is shared, giving moms the chance to choose life and find real hope in Christ. $28. One ultrasound. One heartbeat. One mom who realizes she's not alone.

That's the kind of life-changing impact your giving makes through pre-born. Go now to preborn.com slash Ramsey or call 855601-2229. That's preborn.com slash Ramsey. All right. So we're going to get back to Andrew in Phoenix, Arizona, dad, whose heart is really, really heavy, 11-year-old daughter, diagnosed type 1 diabetes. And so we're going to dive into the money question that we've got here. So, Andrew, coming back to you, I hope you had a chance to catch your breath.

You're such a good dad. Let's walk through your money question for us. So basically, we're taught to have the $1,000 in the bank while you're getting out of debt. But because of her illness, we have good Samaritan health insurance, so we're self-paid. But Dave now put my daughter as it's a terminal illness. And so we only have a health insurance for this situation for, I think, another 30 days. And then they won't really cover any for medication because of the type of plan that we have. And so we're looking at other health insurance options.

And so I'm not really worried about that. I'm worried about in the event that she has an emergency and I have to take her to the hospital. And there or I have to go see a specialist and there's money that's demanded up front on top of a house issue or something like that happening. And believe me, when she got diagnosed in that first week, my other daughter got hurt. We did have a house issue, and this is how we blew through our $1,000 within five days. But again, we had amazing friends who stepped in and helped us. We have been able to get $2,000 back into the bank. But should we put more away while we're still trying to pay off debt?

Or do you guys feel like, no, that $2,000 is okay? Keep tackling your debt. We are cash flowing, our medication. We are cash flowing her insulin. We are cash flowing. Her dexcom patches. We are doing that. Okay.

How much do you make a month and how much is going to? going towards medical expenses each month? I bring home after taxes and paying ties and offering. I bring home about 72 and about, you know, so then with the medical expenses, we're spending about $6 or $700 a month. Okay. So, but she, we're hoping the next few months

that she will get approved to get an insulin pump, that's gonna be $5,000. Yep. That only lasts three or four years. and plus the insulin that goes with that, obviously. Yeah. So these are things that we're looking for. We don't want our kids to feel like they're being punished because of this.

So we're taking care of them at the same time, you know, with the things that they're trying to do. We're not trying to take them out of what they're doing with their extra cooker activities. And we're able to, we're not going further into debt with them doing their things. We're cash flowing everything. Again, I just wonder because of the type of. Yeah. And I think should there be more, should we put more away? Well, I think the key is to get a stable number eventually. I think four months in, you're probably not able to do that because there's so many things in the air right now with, is she going to get the pump? How much is insurance going to cost? Are we able to get more insurance, new insurance? There's a lot floating around right now. And because of how new this all is, yes, I'm good with a bigger buffer right now just to have some breathing room for you guys to make sure that she's taken care of. Our families are the number one priority. Getting out of debt's amazing. And we love.

love that. But we want to we want you know when there's medical stuff like we say pause like take care of your family. But also this is going to be an ongoing for the rest of her life, right? Like she will she will have this. So I do want you to get to a place though where you can say, okay, here is a regular number that we're comfortable in month to month. Let's put that in the budget. And then beyond that, we're going to go back and freaking tackle this debt because how much debt do you guys have? We have a we have two credit cards that have medical debt. My wife had the bad COVID a couple of years and we're still paying on that. How much?

How much is all of it? With the car and the two credit cards were right at $34,000. My wife has this on track within the next 14 months, 16 months to have that paid off. Amazing. And that's with... My wife is amazing. My wife is phenomenal. That's awesome.

By the way, you can speed that process up at any time. It's just going to require more time of you to work, sell some things. You know, this is... You can be more aggressive. on that time now. Oh, I know. I know that, but at the same time, I don't want to, my family needs me present. Totally good. I'm a mechanic by trade. I'm a mechanic by trade. And so I work hard. And you're a good dad, Andrew. Your life just got turned upside down. Yes. And we get these calls, you know, whether it's, you know, spouses that got diagnosed with cancer. I mean, like, this is the stuff that happens in life. And this is one of the reasons why getting your finances in order is such a gift to your family. So everything that y'all did up

to this point of getting out of debt was a blessing, right? You don't have what you had before this because you guys have been paying it off, which is amazing. So yeah, I would get some stability in this. And then I think there is a point that you got to press play again on life and on this plan so that you guys don't have to stress about it. Right. So again, give yourself some grace, give yourself some time. Everything's okay on the money side. But I would you and your wife sit down and just say, okay, once we get the insurance figured out, check, the insulin pump I know is a, that's a big deal. That's like a, that's a huge checkmark for them. So that check that off. And then kind of just, I always like to look at the months and just say, okay, it's February.

If I, you know, by, by June or July, we want all of this figured out. And then we're going to press play and get intense again. And then by next April, we're going to be debt free, you know, whatever it is. So have some grace, but also be still looking out. out there to say, when can we press play back on this gazelle intensity? But we want to have some stableness in her life and you guys as a family. Yeah. Thank you for the call, Andrew. You guys are going to make it. You're doing a great job. All right, let's go to Sam and Lafayette, Louisiana. Sam, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thank you so much for taking my call. You guys have just changed my life and my wife's life for the better. So I really do appreciate y'all taking my call.

Thank you. So, you know, we, I understand Dave's traditional advice as it relates to student loans. So my question is a student loan question. So I'm a physician, and I have a lot of kids, and I've often wondered if my kids want to pursue medicine. Is it reasonable to suggest that they do take out loans for medical school, but to live small after they finish and to pay these loans off very aggressively like I did? my reasoning for this and something I kind of grapple with because we're very davish about a lot of things but you know I really do feel like medical training is definitely a young person's game you know plenty of sleepless nights 80-hour work weeks and it's very difficult for a college

grad you know with really no skills to save you know what can't be 200,000 dollars for medical school you know that's just tuition for housing and food and in your early 20s you're often married and starting families too. So my question is specifically, you know, for my kids. I wonder, no med school loans at all if they decide to pursue medicine, or is it reasonable to say take out loans prudently but pay it off very aggressively? Do you know right now if Ken Coleman and I said, gosh, Sam, you're so right. We didn't even think about medical.

You should get student loans. Dave and Cabo would be turning over right now. I know. We will never, ever say. I was trying to catch all on the day when Dave wasn't on the studio. Yeah, well, I don't think you understand how our employment must work. So here's a couple of real questions. How old are the kids?

Sure. Well, I have seven kids, my old, this is 11. Okay. So how much money do you make as a doctor? About 550 to 600,000. Okay. And what baby step are you on? We have no debt just paying off the house at this point.

Okay. So how much are you putting away each month for all 11 of these kids? I mean, excuse me, five kids? How much are you putting away? Seven. Seven. So, yeah, I intend to fund their undergraduate education. But when it comes to medical school or professional school, I just have no intention of it. I think that would be pretty detrimental to our overall financial health and family outlets. Okay. Well, so there's the answer to your question. like you paying cash for it is detrimental to you, but you're willing to, because you did it, that you think they can do it. And I just, I did think this is the wrong question. First of all, your oldest is 11. We have no idea what medical school is going to look like. Honestly, things are changing so rapidly.

Then why don't you invest in their med school? And this doesn't even make sense. I'm going to stop myself. Because here's the deal. You don't know what they're going to do. So you're asking a question. about kids, do you have no idea if they're going to go into medicine? Sam, you make a million dollars every two years. Safe for your kid if they want to go medical school. You're not going to ruin all.

I was going to say that. Safe for grad school. If my kids decide to not go to college, I'd be, you know, I mean, sure. I just want them to live a virtuous life. My question is not necessarily for me. It's just that broad traditional students. Yeah, there's ways, we have talked to people that have gotten medical degrees because they've done different, you know, programs and situations that happen. But no, we're not taking out loans. We'll never, ever say to take out student loans. Running a business is hard work. You're the CEO, the accountant, and the sales team.

You don't have time to moonlight as your own benefits department. That's where Health Trust Financial helps. In fact, health insurance is one of the biggest and most confusing line items in your budget. And most of you are overpaying because you're stuck figuring it out alone. You don't have time to figure out all. the fine print about networks and deductibles. My friends at Health Trust Financial have been helping Ramsey listeners for over 20 years. Their focus is simplifying health insurance and serving people with empathy.

No pressure, no games. They give you clear, unbiased advice that fits your life and your budget. Most of their clients save hundreds of dollars every month. That's real money you can put back in your business or into the babysat. steps. So stop wasting your time, your energy, and your money. You run the business. Let Health Trust Financial handle finding the right health insurance. Go to HealthTrustfinancial.com today. That's health trustfinancial.com. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. Alongside Rachel Cruz, I'm Ken Coleman. Glad you're with us today. The phone number is

AAA-825-2-2-25. Dylan is joining us now in Lincoln, Nebraska. Dylan, how can we help? I am in $90,000 of to loan debt, not including a mortgage, and me and my fiance are living paycheck to paycheck. And I'm wondering how we can further our life without living like that. Is it 90,000 combined Dillon, you and your girlfriend or just yours? Your debt? Just mine.

She was a, Luckily, a good enough athlete to where she didn't have to pay for college. Okay. So yours is $90,000 and it's all student loans? Yep. Okay. And how much are you making a year? I make $55 before taxes, roughly $40 after.

Okay. And how much is she making a year? She makes about $30 before taxes. Okay. What does she do for a living? She is a receptionist at a veterinarian. Okay, yep. And what do you do?

I work in low voltage. Okay. So cameras and whatnot. Okay. And you guys are engaged? Is that what you said? Yes. Great.

When's the wedding? August. August. So exciting. Okay. So I would say first and foremost, I would not. combine your wedding until August. It's not that far away, but just as kind of a rule of thumb, I don't want her paying on your student loans right now until you guys are officially married.

And then once you are, you guys need to be, yeah, you guys are going to combine your money and look to say, okay, if we, you know, we have a, you know, $85,000 income before taxes, household. And what does our life you need to look like to live within these means? Do we need to be renting somewhere cheaper? Do we need to be taking on or finding more work? You know, she probably has the most opportunity, I would say. I mean, she's making 30. There's probably other opportunities out there for her to be. What is her field? She is a psych degree, psychology degree. Well, that's just her degree. What field does she want to be in? She likes the, well, she likes a veterinarian field and she wants to further pursue that and go back to school for that, but at the moment

it's not in our budget. Obviously not. So what is she doing now to make 30 grand? She is just a receptionist's a front desk gal at a vet. Okay. Well, so since being a vet and going to school and vet school is insane from everything I've heard, as far as cost, let's go get a better paying job or let's go get a second job and let's tackle this debt. You guys are double income, about ready to be double income, no kids.

This is the moment to get after. She's a former athlete, if I heard this right. So let's set some goals in place. She knows goals. And let's look at how do we increase her income from 30 to 50, okay, whether that's through two jobs or a better primary job. She's got a psych degree. Let's just see what's out there. Like this is the moment where you all are like all in on ideating. Let's get out there and let's make more money. Because you guys. can do this. If you take Rachel's advice and you go all in after you combine incomes, you guys can knock this out and not be paycheck to paycheck. But cutting costs and raising income is how you do this. Okay. How much is your rent right now?

Well, we don't own the house and our mortgage is $1,400 a month. You do own it or you don't? We do. Okay, okay. So you have a house together. And it's $1,400 a month. Okay, which, yeah, isn't terrible. And then where else is your money going? So we got the mortgage, and then it's an older house. So especially now in the winter times, the electrical bill and gas bill kind of skyrocketed because, like I said, it's an older house.

We're working on redoing it slowly because of financials. Okay, well, so how much is the heat a month? Let's just, what's the number? How much you pay? Gas is around like $2.50 a month. Okay. In the colder months. Okay.

And what else? What else? I'm doing a rough budget for you, and I got $3,400 left out of your monthly income. Where else is it going? And then I have $750 in student loans. Yeah. And then electrical is around $200 to $250 depending on the month. In the summers, it's a little bit more, but not much.

Okay. and other than that grow trees and we just got done paying off a couple of pet bills because we have a dog okay so yeah i i i want you guys to do a written budget because i'm sitting i'm just doing rough math it's not i'm not saying that this is exactly what everything is but you should have around two grants isish left 1800 two grants and i'm like where's that And it's probably eating out and some target runs or whatever. It's life. I understand stuff.

But I think if you guys do a written budget, you're going to feel like you got to raise. And I mean a strict budget. Like we're shopping at Aldi. We're not going out to eat. Like we're doing nothing and we're doing food for, it's just the two of you for 400 a month, which can be done. You know, like so I think it is a level for you guys of actually living on a plan. and being pretty frugal until this 90 grand has paid off.

And working extra. Yeah. And pausing the little housing projects. If it's not an emergency and it's a $250 little thing we'd like to fix, no, we're not doing that. We signed up to live in an old house. We've got to focus on this debt. So that means we're camping a little bit, right? You know, it's, again, emergency common sense here.

But other than that, you know, if this floorboard creaks and it's going to cost $300 to fix. Sorry, the floorboard is going to creak. So it is, Rachel's right. And I just want to throw that in there because you need the right mindset in order to adopt what she's talking about, which is a strict budget. So you go, what does strict mean? And strict means the four walls, Rachel. Yeah. And explain that, you know, I'll give it to you back, give it back to you.

But I think that that's what they've got to have. It's like we are saying there are certain things that we are not going to spend money on and simplifying so that we can be super strict. Yeah, that's right. if she ups her income, Dylan and you guys get an extra, gosh, $1,500, $2,000 a month just from a salary job. Game changer. That's huge. You know what you mean? So, yeah, it is hard.

How old are you guys? We're both $23. Okay. So there is a hard reality, too, Dylan, of coming out of college, getting your first jobs, which are always entry level. You're starting at the bottom. And seeing how expensive life is. Like life is not as, you know, you look at your parents and say, oh my gosh, look at like the life they're living or people 15 years older than me.

There's a reality of starting off. And y'all are feeling that. You know what I mean? So there's something really beautiful about it. I think there's something that creates in you all some really good habits to tighten up. But it's a little bit of you kind of get hit in the face with reality that it's not an Instagram world. When you actually got to make the money and you actually see after you pay taxes and insurance and everything, you're like, oh, wow. Yeah.

Yeah, everybody wants to own a home. And I'm like, you should probably enjoy renting and let the supervisor take care of all your problems for two years. Because as soon as you own a home, you got problems. And I'm not in any way knocking the dream of a home. Sure. It's not all it's cracked up to be. Okay? I mean, you could talk to me into going right now in some apartment where I don't have to do anything.

I'd change my mind in two hours, but for two hours it would be Shangri-La. Everyone is at risk of identity theft. I don't care if you're a hermit living off the grid listening to the show on a battery-powered radio. All of your data collected by every company you've ever done business with lives online. Your bank, your doctor's office, retailers, the apps on your phone, the gas station where you have loyalty rewards, they all store your info online, making them ripe for a cyber attack or data breach. And no matter how careful we are, once thieves hack a company, they've got that data forever, meaning you could be victimized at any moment.

That's why I've been telling people for almost 20 years, they need an ID theft protection plan, and the only one I've ever recommended is from Zander Insurance. They monitor your personal and financial info, even your home title, and take over all the work if you become a victim. It's the most thorough and affordable plan out there. I even have it for my family and our entire team at Ramsey. Visit zander.com or call 800-3564282. All right, Adam is up next in Seattle, Washington. Adam, how can we help?

Hi, Ken. Hi, Rachel. Hey, so admittedly, I've been kind of Dave-ish for seven years, but two days ago, I became debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

My fiance, the woman of my dreams, and I just got engaged this past August, and she also started law school about five hours away and is taking some student loans for that and starting to accumulate some more debt. So we're kind of considering a couple things. One kind of independent, and we're not married yet, should I just start building my emergency fund and saving for a wedding. Or should we maybe rush the engagement, maybe a lope to a small wedding, and start cash-flowing law school? That one.

That one, okay. I was going to say, whichever one you want. There's not a right or wrong necessarily. Did I say one was right or one was wrong? He called the show. He gave us two scenarios, and I voted. And Ken said the... Maybe I can throw in something else then.

I'm not super fulfilled with my current job in the place I'm working at. Not necessarily what I'm doing. I'm even more concrete now on this decision. Okay, we'll keep going. So what do you think of? Yeah, sorry. And then living five hours away, so I commute over almost every weekend to spend time with her. But if I keep my current job, we can cash full everything, but maybe not live with each other for the next two years.

Okay, that's absurd. Wait, when's the wedding? Well, he doesn't know. That was part of the question. Oh, yeah, the allope. He's like, do we save up and do the wedding? And I know you love a good wedding. I...

Or do I elope? So I got more questions. I was having a little bit of fun. Yeah, no, it's great. With the certainty of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, okay, so let's go back to if I stay in my job that I'm not fulfilled in, I can cash flow the law school, but we can't actually live in the same city.

Did I hear that correctly? You heard that correct. Well, that's a terrible idea. Yeah, that's, yeah. So the question is, can you start to look in the area where she is? And is that where you two would like to start your life, where she currently is? That would be the first question. Yeah, we've kind of agreed that's not necessarily where we want to spend any time after she finishes school.

And it's going to take her, what, two years from now? Yeah, about two. So May of 2028, it will be the graduation target. When, what, can you? find a job where she is, where she's going to law school. Do you have a job that's pretty easy to kind of transfer and make similar type of money that you're now? I would probably, I would probably take around a 10% pay cut to live in that side of the state. Okay. But I could probably find something similar. And how much would it be? How much would you be making? Probably closer to 89 to

90,000 instead of like 100 to 105. What is she doing now? She is part time for a law firm, a family law firm, and she is doing like legal intake and processes for them. And while she's in school. So she has, she has started law school? Yes. And is that, is that helping pay for hers at all what she's doing now? Yeah, it helps basically cover the cost of living. She got a really good scholarship that's non-conditional, which is awesome. And so like the out-of-pocket cost for tuition is like $13,000-ish thousand dollars a semester. That's not bad for law school. Yeah.

Yeah, I think you move to her temporarily. Oh, Rachel has a- Adam. Stay tuned. She has a plan. I just wrote it down. It's right here. This is what I would do, Adam.

Okay. I would plan for a December wedding. You got 10 months, okay? Okay. If you can make similar money, I'm leaving. I'm going to go next to the fiancé. You know what I mean? So I'd go rent.

You go rents an apartment that you both like and say, okay, this is probably we're going to live for two years. You stay there, stay at the new apartment. and you start working at them, and you start saving, saving, saving, saving, save and, and, spend a little bit of money and have a little wedding. It doesn't have to be big or wonderful or fancy. And then you're going to use some of that savings and or savings in the future after you guys get married to cash flow the rest of law school.

But I'd move on this. If you guys are really going to get married, get married. I don't like this two-year hanging out. You pushed him out to December. I like your planning. Oh, you go faster, summer? I would literally alone. I just have a December wedding.

And I like December wedding. So that's what I would have planned. This is why I do what I do on this show because I am agnostic about weddings. I'm very public about this lately. It's come up a lot on shows. I'm very strong position that no guy ever wants to go to a wedding. It's only their wives. So what are we doing?

We're spending money on something that, quite frankly, we could just do very intimate, small group of people, take some really nice pictures, skip the ship. Whatever now. Like now. I'd go get a job first in this other place. Yeah. And then when I got the job and somewhere around the same week that I started the new job, we would go get a pastor or Justice of the Peace to a small little ceremony, get married, combined finances, move forward.

Call it a day. And then eventually do a really amazing honeymoon to celebrate it. But I understand what I'm saying does not play well with women. I understand. It was half of the equation. So I understand that what I'm She's also someone that just chose to go to law school And there is a little bit of like

Hey I kind of chose this So then this over there is going to have to give, right? Tradeoffs. Yeah, it's fair. What do you think, Adam? Any did we cover everything? Yeah, no, I think you covered everything quite a bit. I appreciate all of that.

And I think it gives me some real clarity on finding a job on the other side of the state And what's going on. Yeah, and just starting a new life. Yeah, I love. that you're going to cash flow law school. That's amazing. That will be the greatest decision that you ever make. How smart is she to get that job that she was getting and scholarship and all of it? So the fact that they can cash flow law school, Rachel, is why I'm so bullish on let's just skip the 20,000 or whatever.

Because a small wedding now costs. I know. It's expensive. It's absurd. And you can do the renew the vowels and have a big thing there, you know, in five years or something. I should get some online license, and I'll just marry people live on the show. Just Pastor Ken. Yeah. Just get Adam and his fiancee on a video call. I'll do the thing. We'll marry them. We'll do the joint account.

It's great. And then it's done. For people who want to move quickly like me. It's fair. Efficiency's the game. Hey, you know, we get fun social questions, Rachel, from time and time. So I've picked out one for you over here, all right? Give it to me.

You like the TikTok, don't you? Aren't you over there? I don't like the TikTok, the Instagram. Let me see if I have one from the gram. I don't, but I'm going to give you one from TikTok because you're super cool. They're younger than me, but go ahead. This is Hayden from TikTok. Why do you recommend term life insurance over whole life insurance?

What was his name? Hayden. Yeah, he's on the talk, throwing it your way. I'm trying to sound cool. And it occurred to me that doesn't sound cool at all. No. Okay. Okay, basic reasons is whole lot.

is significantly more experience, or expensive, I'm sorry, than term life. And with Whole Life Insurance, they're mixing, why it's expensive is because you have this investment inside the insurance. So always remember, keep your investments and your insurance separate. Because when you combine them like that, you get a crappy rate of return. Whole Life Insurance, there's so many different names for it, but there's so many hoops of, like when you died, they keep a certain amount. You don't get as much. I mean, it's just, it's an exhausting product that actually ends up screwing the consumer in the long run, where you could have had, which you should, term life insurance if someone is dependent upon your income, that's

significantly cheaper. And then whatever you would have paid for the whole life, just invest that. And you will come out so ahead. We did that on the show. We did this on the show. It was maybe last week. Someone had a whole life policy that like their grandparent opened for them when they were like seven years old. They were 40 something and they were going to cash it out. and there was only, I want to say like 90 grand in there, after all of that, when we said if they had paid and we had did the investments, it would have been, it was like over, it was over a million dollars. Make you sick your stomach.

It's unbelievable what you are missing out when you are using your insurance as an investment. Don't do that. And that's what whole life does. So it's usually a family, a young family member selling it too. They come out of school. Don't get tied in. Don't get tempted by whole life. Here's what we want you to do.

You're thinking about life insurance. And you need to be. You need to contact our friends at Xander Insurance. Zander.com is the website. Zander.com, exactly like it's spelled. Z-A-N-D-E-R.com or call 800-356-4-2-8-2. Tell them Ken sent you over there, and they'll give you a quote.

You won't believe how affordable term life is, and it takes care of everybody that matters to you. And it's simple, simple, simple. They've been with us for three decades. Trust me, they'll take great care of you. You've worked too hard to get control of your money just to let strangers control your data. Think about it. Just about every time you sign up for a newsletter, grab a coupon code, or start a free trial, your personal info, like your name, email address, phone number, and more, gets scooped up and sold by data brokers.

Here's the deal. Freedom isn't only being debt-free. It's also being free from companies cashing in on your data. And that's where Delete Me comes in. Delete Me's privacy experts. Find your personal info. on these shady data broker sites, they get it deleted, and they keep it gone. It's like having a digital cleanup crew that scrubs your online life. So you get way fewer of those spam calls, creepy texts, and scam emails that make you wonder how they even found you. Guys, the less noise in your digital life, the more time you have for what actually matters. Because when you protect your privacy, you protect your peace and your freedom.

So go to join delete me.com slash Ramsey to get 20% off their annual plans and take back control. That's join deleteme.com slash Ramsey. The Ramsey Show question of the day is sponsored by Y-R-R-R-Fi, if your private student loans are in default, and other lead lenders said no, why refi could be your next step. Why Refi was built for this very situation, helping borrowers refinance with low fixed rates and in affordable payments you can get back to winning with money. Check out Y-refi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y.com slash Ramsey.

may not be available in all states. Today's question comes from Steve in Minnesota. My cousin is a home builder and needs $150,000 to fund his business. He asked me to loan him $75,000 and my brother to loan the other $75,000. He says that he has all of his assets in property that hasn't sold. I'm concerned he's over-leverage and won't be able to pay it back. Should I do it because he's family? I mean, my short answer is no, I wouldn't be loaning money to family regardless.

If you have the $75,000 in cash and you want to give it as a gift to help the old cousin out, you're welcome to do that. I probably wouldn't. So I wouldn't because it's a loan and I wouldn't because of the assumption that just because it's family, you're supposed to help all the time, no. but if you if you guys are really close and you're like hey

I don't know this is Steve what I think Steve's cousin's name is what would you guess Steve from Minnesota so I feel like I need to go with a strong Minnesota Midwest name

I'm gonna go Owen Oh wow okay so Owen Maybe Yeah so if you love Owen Or a Ben And you and Owen are Oh my gosh my friend Ben is from Minnesota Oh that's right

Yeah But yeah if you and Owen are like brothers You're really cousins and you're like, and he's, listen, I'm giving you a situation. Steve's a millionaire. And Steve's like, poor Owen and Betsy's wife, they need help. Steve is not a millionaire.

And we're going to help them. Then you can. You can give. And if that's what you choose to do. Sure. But that's probably not the situation. There's a reason why he's asking for $150,000 from you and his brother. I know.

And goodness gracious, you've got to trust your gut on these things. Yeah. If somebody presents like that every time, he answered his own question. Just a little object lesson really quick. I'll go right back to the phone. But you need to hear this, folks. Okay, if you ask somebody this question or you say, I'm concerned, he is over leveraged and won't be able to pay it back.

Should I do it? Because he's family. He's probably a leverage. No, the leading sentence. I'm concerned. He's over leveraged and we'll be able to pay it back. Ding, ding, ding. There's your answer.

I think sometimes people just need someone else to say no. We really should say, would you like to hate this guy? In the future, because you're going to hate him when he doesn't pay you back. It's terrible. The whole loaning money to family, y'all, it don't do it. It ruins the relationship. Do not do it. Oh, such a hard pass.

So Steve, no, unless you're a multimillionaire. I don't care what his name is. Christina is up next in West Palm Beach, Florida. Christina, how can we help? Hi, thank you for taking my call. I really appreciate it. Sure. I'm going to try to be straight to the point.

I'm 56 and my husband is 57. We make about $200,000 to $250,000 a year, and we have a net worth of $2 million. That $3 million net worth is made up of our primary residence, which is worth about $2.2 million, and we have no mortgage on it. We also own an investment property that's a townhouse in the same area where we live that's worth about $350, and we have a $200,000 mortgage on it. So of our $3 million in net worth, $2,350 is equity in property that is unrealized because it's sitting there as it is.

In our retirement account, we have about $500,000. We have well over six months of living expenses, so about $150,000. And that makes up where we get to the $3 million. So here's my question. My question is, in about seven to eight years, we're going to probably want to retire. We'll be around $65. If we sell our primary house right now, it's worth $2.2 million. we, as I said, we have no debt on it.

So we would get the 2.2 minus real estate commissions minus taxes, capital gains, and all of that. And then in seven to eight years, that the money that's left over about $1.9 million, based on, you know, investing conservatively like you guys have talked about and putting into a good solid mutual fund, that 1.9 can be really worth close to like 3.8 somewhere in that range. So then when we're retiring, now we're upwards of 3.8. And of course, over the next seven to eight years, we're not going to retire. I work from home so I can be no while. My husband has a small business that he would sell.

It gives us a different chapter in our life that we're ready to start, we think, but we're nervous, which is why we're calling you. As a matter of fact, I'm calling you. My husband has no idea. But we're calling you. And because we, you know, we don't, it seems like, so we would be working for the next five to seven, eight years. Yeah. So we'd still be dumping money into our retirement. We'd still be putting money away.

Christina, if you just, let me ask you this. Let's pretend for a second. You sold the investment property, okay? Just go with me. You'll net out about 150,000. Add that to your 500,000. So you're at $650,000 in retirement right now. You're not going to stop working.

How much could you guys be putting away in retirement for the next five years? How much extra do you think they'll be in there? We can probably put away now that our home is paid off. And if you were to sell the investment property, which really is an expense just, probably $50,000 a year we could probably put away into retirement. So another $350. Yeah. Okay.

So with that, with the money doubling every seven years, we'll kind of shorten it to five years just for the math sake. You probably would have around $1.5 million without selling the home. Okay. If you run that out through retirement, my question to you is, and you may want to sit down with the SmartVestor Pro to look at all these numbers more specifically, but would that be enough for you guys? How much do you live on a year? About $200,000 a year that we live on. So you live on basically everything you make?

You make $200. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, we make $200. I'm sorry. No, we live well below our means. We probably live on about $95,000 to $100,000. We put the rest into retirement and paying down mortgages and things like that over the year.

Yeah. Probably closer to $100. Yeah. So I would run those numbers out and just see what it looks like. Because ideally you're not, you don't want to touch the nest egg, but you'd be, you'd be hitting it pretty close. You'd be squeaking by at 1.5 million. And to that end, I just, I'm wondering, have you guys discussed staying in this house long term, even as you are aging? Do you want to stay in your current home that's paid for, or is that at some point we're going to downsize or relocate?

So our home is a very small home. Okay. It's a two-bedroom one bath. Our home is not worth the money. It's worth the 2.2 is the dirt. So we live in an area where people are coming down and knocking down the old home and building a huge house. So for us, the house that we want to stay in, it's, we're getting to an age where we want to be in a community, not a downtown area where, you know, there's a lot of Airbnbs and people coming and going and people staying for two months out of the year and then leaving. Yeah.

One of our, we're about to be in a community where it's people more, I mean, I don't know, maybe. Do you have a community in mind? Yeah, do you have a community in mind right now that you guys see? That would be fun to live in? We are, no. But we have looked into staying in Florida and perhaps maybe going to a different area of Florida, maybe the Tampa region or the Jacksonville. Okay, yeah. So I would just look, go online and just look at some places, see how much those are, right?

Because depending on the city and Florida, depending on the community, depending on how far you are from the coast or not, like the prices are going to vary. And I would see what could you get if, you know, you would get what, 2.2 is that what you said? And, golly, a million bucks. would that buy? I don't know. Do you know what I mean? It could be an expensive area. So that's what I'm saying. I think it's worth the exercise in the chance that you might go, well, let's go ahead and cash out of our current home right now. And we take the windfall of that, and let's get that invested to Rachel's point. I mean, I'm saying that's possible to put that money in and you guys live a little bit less expensive, maybe in another place. Just all stuff to be

thinking through. You guys aren't in bad shape, but you're not in great shape. However, at any point, time, 2.2 million by selling that current home, as you're older, that puts you in good shape. Yeah, and Christina, the good thing is, too, from like a mental perspective, you're, you know, it's a small house, it's the dirt that's expensive. And so there's a part that guy, you get 2.2 million for not a big house. So that's not, it's not like you're going from a nice big house to a small one downsizing. You actually may get the same size house somewhere else. I know. That's why you get. Half the price. So, so yeah, nothing's on fire. I don't think that, you know, you need to rush by any means. But yeah, here in the next two years, you guys really start thinking, okay, if we take these

numbers and expand it out, could we live on this and do we need to sell this? It sounds like you want to sell. You don't want to be with next door to the Airbnbs. I think your mind's made up on selling. So I'd do it sooner than later if you guys want. Tax season is coming up fast, which means a lot of you are paying more attention to your money and maybe realizing the holiday damage. So if you're trying to clean up the budget and start the year strong, cutting your phone bill is an easy win. With Boost Mobile, keep the phone you love and pay just $25 a month for unlimited data, talk, and text forever. No contracts, no traps, just predictable savings that help you stay in control.

Switch now at boostmobile.com slash Ramsey. Restrictions apply. See website for details. Okay, breaking news. You know, I love to do a little breaking news every once in a while. Oh my gosh. It's very exciting. I thought you were being for real. I was like, oh my gosh, what? You just killed the fact that I'm not being for real. I'm trying to act here.

of all the current events happening. You just stepped right on it. Do we know, do we, something happened while we're on break? Folks, you got to know this about Rachel. She's lovely. She's exactly who you think she is. She's very literal. Like, I'm being sarcastic about something I got to tell you about.

I knew you were. I was playing a little bit, but you're like, we got breaking news. Like, Ken, there's a lot of things happening in the news right now that we are on pins and needles. Well, this is breaking news. Okay. Ramsey style. Go. The VIP package on the Live Like No One Else Cruise has sold out.

What? I told you it was breaking. Oh, my gosh. What's it when they had the newspapers back in the day? Right. And what would they yell? We need a broadcast news style flashing logo that, you know, makes it seem even more important than it is. I cannot believe it.

Well, it's going fast. So this is a lot faster than the last one. So you're looking for a trend. It's happening. There it is. It's good. So now that means that there's what's left. Yeah.

It's a good question, Rachel. Thank you for asking. The preferred package for. extra access, better seating, more time with Dave and the Ramsey personalities, for those of you they care about that. So if you're debt-free, this is your chance to celebrate with us. You can secure your cabin with a $600 deposit. That's nothing for you people that are just, you know, four, five, and six, you're just cash heavy. You just got cash. 600 bucks, get you a cabin. We're going to the Western Caribbean in March of 2027. And so there you go.

VIP package, too late. No, breaking news. But the preferred package is still available. It's there. What was it called, though, when the guys, we have newspapers on the streets, I'm thinking like Titanic Days, what would they yell for you to buy the newspaper? Do you know what I mean? Hear ye, hear ye? Extra, extra read all about it. I went about a hundred years earlier.

I went with the hear ye, hear ye. That's what I said. That shows you where my brain is at. There's people in the audience out there going, I don't know what yee means. It means you, but they said yee. Hear ye, hear ye. All right, William is up in Birmingham, Alabama. William, how can we help today? Hi. So I am so much stressing about finances to the point where I have given myself a few months ago a miniature stroke. My doctor says that I'm probably want to receive past 40 because of how much stress I'm under.

Good gracious. How old are you? And I'm 29. Okay, Lynn, what is this debt? How much debt are we talking about that's causing you to have a stroke? It's not as much as I've heard on, you know, on the show. It's about 15,000, give or take. Okay. I'm not a doctor. I have wanted to play one on TV. It's never going to happen, but I do like to wear scrubs. Okay? Long setup. I think you're going to be okay. $15,000 feels, and I'm not in any way minimizing your feelings, what's going to be? Well, I'm not in any way minimizing your feelings. going on, but I want to give you some advice here that we're going to walk you through how to get out of this $15,000. It is very doable. And nothing that you should be dying over. Yeah, but the

doctor may be for real being like, well, he may be really, he may be all the way. No, no, I believe he is, but I'm trying to say. Yes, as a financial. We can help you. Yes. William, why are you, how much do you make a year? Um, roughly about $55,000 a year. Okay. What's the $15,000 in debt? 10,000 of it's for car payment, the rest of those collections. Okay, what's the car worth? I want to say it's worth 15. You could sell that like that's private, private sale. You could sell it for 15?

And you owe 10 on it. Great. That one's solved. We can solve that. You can sell that today and sleep like a newborn baby. Yeah. Like literally. Like in like five days.

What's the collections? Five grand of collections for what? Credit cards, stood alone, and I believe that's it. Okay, I want Rachel to walk you through what she would do if she were you with those collections. Well, I would, do you have any money saved? I don't. I don't have any nests, emergency funds. Okay. So you go. I'm living paycheck to paycheck. So here's what I would do. Today, I would go. find us, you know, sell the car, get a $5,000 car, be done with that. You have $5,000 in collections.

It's what, mid-February. I'd make it a goal by March 30th. I'm just throwing that out there, that I would have $5,000, William, that my life depends on it because apparently it does for you, like literally. Like you need to go and work every night until 10 p.m. somewhere. You need to sell everything. You need to eat nothing, but beans and rice, rice and beef. as Ramsey would say, like, do nothing for a month and a half and work your butt off and save $5,000. Make it, make it like an extreme goal. It's extreme, but I would do it. What do you do for a living, William? I'm retired military. I got out medically. I had two kids, recently divorced. I still have custody of my kids. So are you on full benefits? So in other words,

you're not pulling income from any other source? Correct. So what do you, Okay. So what do you do during the day? What could you do? Yeah, what are you doing during the day? I'm looking for employment. I made some really bad choices a couple years ago and left me with incarceration. I'm still dealing with it with drug courts. Hopefully I'll be getting my charter dismissed in September when I complete the program. I think the stress is coming for other places than $15,000 of debt. You're right? Yeah. Oh, okay. I could tie, you know, with the employment and finances and all that, tying to the bigger picture, but I think it's more of the bigger picture.

Yeah, I agree. Okay. Well, that does make more sense, and we can't necessarily help with that. But I would tell you that you need to be doing something. It will help with all of this. But this, you know, ruminating all day long, getting rejected because you're applying and you've got the incarceration. So what I hate about the American culture is it's very hard for someone like you who didn't do anything crazy, but you should be employed. But I know someone can employ you.

And so here's your homework assignment. Where in your area are people working that have stuff on their record probably worse than you? You know what I'm talking about? Where are they working? I can tell you where they're working on construction sites. Okay? In the trades. Do you have any skill set that would allow you to do some basic trade work?

Not trade work. degree, you know, in business management, but as far as trades, construction, all that, I don't have anything on that. Are you any good at it? Can you pick up a shovel? Can you work for a masonry crew and haul around bricks and make brick mud all day long? I think I can manage. Yeah, I know you can't, because I did it at 18 and I can barely put gas in my car at 51.

So we're talking manual labor. No one wants to do it except the Williams of the world. So I'm going to go find a manual labor job just to get out there. I'm going to say, I mean, honestly, it's less about the money. The money's going to help get you this five grand ASAP, which you need to get just to pay it off. But it's the dignity piece. There's something about getting up, having a destination to go to, completing something. Like there's something in that William that that self-confidence comes back to you.

But you need that $20 to $22 an hour labor job in a warehouse. Don't get locked in on my one example. I'm just trying to get you. If I was you and I needed to do what Rachel told me to do, and she's right, by the way, I would go, where are the jobs that most people don't want? Because they're hard. They're like my good friend. Mike Roe calls them dirty jobs.

Go do that because they pay really well and it will help you in the short term on this money stuff. And then help your soul. You got me? Yeah. How old are you, William? I'm 29. You're 29. Okay.

And you said recently divorced? How recent was that? We finalized yesterday. Eesh. Manly, I'm sorry. That's, there's, you've had some, yeah, some challenges, some uphill, really hard, hard things in your story. But what a beautiful thing that you are still so young, honestly, and that you could turn your whole life around. Like, you, you know, and you probably are making steps to do that now.

But getting some of this accomplished, and I think there is. something about paying off that debt that actually, again, good financially, obviously, but there's something about that self-dignity and progress that you make in life, that you're actually making positive progress towards something positive, the direction's going positive. And it's just one day at a time making those decisions. And then over the scope of a year, two years, three years, William, like, you're going to be a different man. You really are. But you've got to change and you have to put in that effort because that's what's going to help help this. whole process from the financial and the work and who you are, William.

So we're cheering for you. We're so glad you called. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio alongside Rachel Cruz. I'm Ken Coleman. The phone number to jump in is AAA 8255-2-2-25. Wes is up in Los Angeles, California. Wes, how can we help?

Me and my wife, we make around 165 a year. We have no debt. We have about $50,000 in savings. And I was just wondering to be dumb to do a nice vacation this summer and spend about $10,000. Okay. $10,000. And are we cash flowing this, or are we going to pull that from somewhere else? We're going to be cash flowing it.

Okay. Yeah. I don't see any red flags here. What are you concerned about? Well, I mean, we still owe on the house. So, you know, we could white-knuckle it. And I mean, we project to pay out the house in about eight years, and that's way faster than 30 years. So you're doing great.

Could throw more retirement. I don't know. I just hear a lot of stories about people who retire and don't have enough or stuff like that. So you think your $10,000 vacation is going to put you behind some of your key goals? Well, I don't know. That's why I've been going back and forth about this for months. Well, but I'm actually trying to dig into the source of why you would ask you. that question because that's, we need to kind of get that up and to the top and go, okay,

let's, if, if you're concerned that 10,000 is extravagant based on your financial goals, then you have to play that out and go, okay, if I didn't spend any money on vacation, which I think is crazy, and I would never recommend that. Sure. So what would be the difference? So what would be the budget conscious vacation? How much would you spend on that if you didn't spend 10? Well, we've done other vacations where we've sent maybe like five or four.

All right. So this would be a lot. So I could do that. But also, I mean... Well, let me play that out. Let me play that out. So I'm trying to help you. So let's say we say, no, 10,000 is too much.

And so we spend five because we've done that before. So now you've saved $5,000 to go into one of two of those buckets, either towards the house or throw extra $5,000 in retirement. When you play that out, I think that's important to go, how much impact is that really making versus I'm really winning in the baby steps? I'm going to pay my house off in eight years. And it's a nice vacation that will remember the rest of our life. And oh, by the way, we're not promised tomorrow. Now, that's where I'm coming at it.

And so I don't think it's too much, especially that you're cash flowing it. Yes. I would 100% do it. Yeah, yes. You guys have no debt. You have good savings. How much do you have in retirement just in general? Okay, so we both have California pensions, and I also have been maxing out in IRA for the last year and a half.

And I can, I'm worth only in our 30s, so I'm going to continue that. How much do you have currently in all of your retirement accounts? I don't know. I know I have about 12,000 in my IRA that I started about a year and a half ago. And the California pension stuff, I don't know. It doesn't have a cash value the same as others do. It has like, you'll make 85% of said salary at the end. of your job or whatever.

Well, hoping that the California pension is still around is a bit of a risk, in my opinion, but maybe that's not, maybe I'm being crazy. But, I mean, seriously, the way that government runs. What is your wife say, Wes? She hasn't cared about the vacations as much as I do. I'm just going back and forth because I'm like, how much do I really need in savings when I'm 60 versus how much did I miss on living during the time? Yeah.

Are you taking, is it wife kids? Just you and the wife? Who are we talking about? Just me and the wife. Going where? Hawaii. Yes. Bro.

Life is short, man. I would go to Hawaii. Eat all the shave ice you can possibly get away with. Make memories, man. That's what I was thinking. Let's go enjoy, Wes. Don't worry. You are doing fine.

You're doing great. You guys are doing awesome. You are. Wow. I like these calls. Wes, you're fine. Go do it. No guilt. That's it, too. It's such a scarcity mentality.

But you got to look at your facts and play everything out. Debt free, 50 grand, makes $1.65 a year. Like, we're all going to be okay. He's cash flowing. It's great. We're all going to be okay. Fantastic. I love it. All right, Stephanie's up in Greenville, South Carolina. Stephanie, how can we help? We're in a military family. We have one income, no debt.

And we're feeling a little bit behind on these steps six because of our frequent moves. And so we have a news this summer. And I was just curious if you would recommend, I know, you guys don't normally running out our current health since retirement is on the horizon. Rensing out your what? Sorry, say that again? Our current, the current home we live in right now before we move this summer. So you're talking about being a long-distance landlord? Correct, yes.

Yeah, we're not fans of that. It's just if you run the numbers on it, I bet you'll find that the amount of profit after all of the expenses that are required to take care of this home. If you take what I'm going to get in rent, okay, minus the mortgage, minus expenses. I'll bet you're going to find it's very little profit, if any at all, and it's a whole lot of hassle. Right. Our thought was that we might potentially move back to this house, and we have a really great interest rate. So I didn't know if any of those factors mattered if you guys always recommend it just sell them.

How long would it take you to get back? Somewhere between two and four years. So it's a short-term deployment, and there's a – how much control do you have over being transferred back in, or is this the idea that we're going to get out of the military and then settle back? He's at 20 years right now, so retirement is very much on that. Okay. I do think that changes the question a little bit if they're talking about short-term coming back. Yeah.

I know. The only thing, which this is going to be – Still a headache, and all the things I said are still true. Yeah, and this is going to be picky, but I'm going to be honest, Stephanie, too. You got to remember, if you have someone living in your house, maybe two or three different people on 12-month rentals and you move back in, it feels different. There is a reality of people living in your home, that you're home, that you're going to do it. Do you know what I mean? So not that that's a reason not to, but I think we paint this ideal situation.

And then when the rubber meets the road and we're actually walking in it day to day, it's like, oh, it just hurts so much when you go in and the house is. all banged up because of renters and you know what I mean all the things yeah okay that actually brings up a good point is this house Stephanie that you're currently in that you would you would rent and go somewhere else and then come back is that a house you would stay in long term if if the move wasn't involved if you weren't transferring out here yeah five to seven years it's not like a forever house but we do we do like it um we just like said we're feeling very behind on baby step six because we just haven't had a mortgage to work to pay off and we're 43. That's fine. But how much is the house worth if we were to sell it today and how much would

you make on it? So we would make around, somewhere around 100, 110. It's worth about $450. Okay. Well, the fact that you guys would not stay in it longer than five to seven years and it's I would probably honestly, Stephanie, I would too. If you had said this is our dream home, that was where I was going. I would have changed my mind. I'm with Rachel. I'd sell. Pocket at the $100,000. Let it work for you. Yes, put the 100 grand, gosh, for four years. You may even just throw in an index fund, Stephanie, honestly. And then when you guys are ready to buy again after and settle down,

yeah, you'll have a good amount in there, too. I mean, you know. And I also sense that he's probably going to go into a private sector job. If that's the case, we want to know what that is, how much money he's going to make, because that's all going to play into what we buy when we come back. I love selling this house. Peace of mind, extra cash. I like it all. You guys are not behind it all.

What's up? It's Jade. And I'm pumped for the new year. And I hope you are too. But the problem is most people start the new year with a lot of promises and no real plan. You know how it is. I'm going to save money or I'm going to get my financial act together. But without a plan, you just wing it and hope it works out. Listen, don't play yourself. I want you to win. And our every dollar app is the game changer you need. In 15 minutes, every dollar helps you build a plan. based on where you're at with money right now. And every day, the app coaches you with ways to find extra money

so you can beat debt and build wealth faster. It's like having me in your pocket, helping you stay on track all year long. So don't just wish your money works out. You can be the one to actually make it happen this year. Download the every dollar budget app and get started right now for free. All right, folks, one of the best things you can do for your finances is to have a really good tax pro in your corner.

They're going to help advise you, on the best moves to make for your situation or for your small business, especially if you've had some big life changes in the past year. Go to Ramsey Solutions.com slash tax pro to find CPAs and enrolled agents that have been vetted by the Ramsey team. All right, let's go to Bill in Detroit, Michigan. Bill, how can we help? Hey, how you doing, Ken and Rachel? Thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. What's going on? I have about $850,000 in my 401k and my other investments.

Good for you. Excuse me. It's like, good for you. Great. I don't know if that's good or not. I'm 62. I want to retire in a couple years. And my advisor is wanting me to invest in an annuity.

Is that something I should think about? No. No. Nope. Your advisor probably does because they make a lot of money. off of annuities. Not saying that he's a bad guy, but yeah, no, annuity, yes. Yeah.

Not a great product. I mean, there's variable and fixed. Variable, there's certain times that maybe, but that's after everything is maxed out and you have no other options for retirement because you have so much in everything else and maybe you want to do a little thing over here. But no, the short answer is, no, I wouldn't.

I think you have it in a good spot. Are they in mutual funds within the 401K? Well, I don't think, I think I got to pay taxes and all that stuff, I'm sure. I think it's in a, I got a mutual fund in a bank. I've got a couple of different styles, I guess, and the ones are just through work. It's a 401k regular work, 401k where they match and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah, well, I would, yeah, just to look in, because retirement is coming up for you to make sure that whatever thing is invested in feels like a good spread. you know, we kind of always talk about four different types of mutual funds so that you have enough diversification. So there's growth, growth and income, international and aggressive growth. So those are kind of the four buckets that you can look at within the mutual fund space,

which is great. But no, I would just keep them in mutual funds. You'll get a better rate of return, lower fees, and it is. It's just a better way to invest your money than being stuck in an annuity. Okay. I shouldn't look in the, rolling over into a Roth or anything like that. How some people do that? Okay. Well, so for the IRA, yeah, so for the IRA. How much is in the IRA versus the 401K?

The IRA has $117,000 in it. $117? Do you have cash available to pay the taxes? Oh, yeah. Yeah, if I have $60,000 in my savings account, which is dumb, I know. No, no, no, it's not dumb. That's, like, good emergency funds. Bill, I've never met somebody doing so good who thinks he's doing so bad.

Well, I'm by myself and I'm pretty scared about. retiring. You're doing wonderful. You're doing really good, Bill. Yes, yes. Well, I would look to see, yeah, I mean, the Roth conversion, there is a tipping point of if you have too much and depending on tax bracket, everything that it may not be worth it, but for a lot of time it is worth it to start rolling over, even if it's a little bit each year. So I would still keep some cash on hand. That's your emergency fund. And you may need less than 60. I don't know, but you could use some of that. I would contact a smart vester pro, Bill. They're advisors, yeah, that we recommend,

and they probably will not be pitching annuities and all that. So they'll be able, just to look at your situation and really help from a strategic perspective with your money, where you are, to help kind of guide the next step. So I really would. So check out a smart vester pro, one that's in your area because they will be able to have, they have a heart of a teacher.

They'll be able to sit with you and really look at it. this and dig into the numbers. But I'd say no to annuity. And yes, probably start rolling over to a Roth and me cash flowing some of the taxes. Yeah. And Bill, thanks for the call. And Christian will help you find that information on the website where you can find some smart investor pros in your area, not a fan of your financial advisor because they're selling you a bad product. And remember on this, you want to understand everything so that you're not feeling alone and scared. And the right financial advisor, you're going to go, oh, I know exactly what I should do and when I should do it, why I should do it, how and I'm calling the shots. And so that's why we want you. That's your homework assignment.

Have a couple conversations and move to somebody that you feel really, really good with, that they're teaching you, not selling you. Lucas is up next in Bangor, Maine. I think that's how you say that. Lucas, how can we help? Hi, guys. So me and my wife are both 22, and we have $65,000 in savings right now, and then a three to six month emergency fund of $10,000. thousand. We've been kind of saving for a house as we're in an apartment right now, and we were curious on what's a good point to kind of stop aggressively saving because I'm not actually contributing to any retirement right now. Yeah, that's a great question. So our rule of thumb when it comes to home buying, which you've done all the steps, which is to get out of debt,

have a fully funded emergency fund, which you've done, and then save for first time homebuyer, is we save a 5% down payment. You go as low as 5.20 is ideal, but I know that's a lot for people. But just to go ahead and get in. So looking at that, to get a 5% down payment, when you look at the house and how much it's going to cost, we want your payment to be no more than 25% of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed rate. Okay?

So when you plug out of it in, you can actually do this on Ramsey Solutions.com, the mortgage calculator. You can put some of these numbers in and figure out, okay, here's the number for our home of what we can afford right now with our income and what we have saved. How much do you guys make a year? We made $115,000 last year. $115? Yes. Okay, good for you guys. That's great. Yeah, so after taxes, your take-home pay, you guys are bringing in what, probably $9,000 a month ish? It was more like, I have a lot of overtime, so it varies every month. It's usually about five to six thousand, like six thousand a month. Did you guys get a big tax return? Are you going to? We ended up getting about $1,700 back because my wife was a part-time student.

It feels like a lot going to taxes, 115 and you're only, huh. Okay, well, That is what it is. So yeah, so I would be looking at what you're bringing home a month and you guys just look to see, okay, how much is a fourth of that take-home pay? That's what our mortgage payment has to be on a 15 year. So, but again, that mortgage calculator can help figure that out. And it may take a little bit of time, more time to save. I wouldn't go longer than probably two more years, Lucas, of not saving in retirement to be aggressive with this down payment, saving for the down payment. So if the house that you guys really want is more than what you can do, right now or in the next two years. It's okay to keep saving and be funding retirement. So it may slow down your savings, but you guys are 22. It's great to get in the market. Like when you are ready to get in, it's good to get in, but I don't want you to feel rushed to get in because you guys have some time. Yeah. And here's the thing. I hear this and it's so fun to listen, you know, to young couples think about this. There is such cultural pressure to get a house as soon as you possibly can because if not you're some sort of loser. Yeah. Is that still, do you feel that's still

out there? I certainly believe millennials felt that. Yes. I think it's less. I don't know. I could be wrong. I feel like it's less with GENZE just because the market is so expensive versus 10 years ago. I can't even consider it. Yeah, it feels so big. But to that end, even if you can't do it, so you're not expecting to do it, it still feels like you're behind. Yes. Yes. And so I just want to point it because we have so this is awesome we have so many young people coming in in the show listen it's it i it is a it is not easy to get a house right now you are not cuckoo you aren't a snowflake i feel that pain okay but what i'm trying to tell you is is you aren't behind in the life category because of circumstances outside of your control right and so yes it stinks that you will have to

wait longer and save more yeah it does stink i get it but my point is if you can just hang on And hopefully the market conditions change. Yes. And I'm running, I just pulled up the calculator on my phone. Oh, good. Sorry. No, I knew you were, this is good. I know, yes.

So, but the down payment. Oh, I put $12,000. He had $65, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean, home value, I did this quick, but $300 to $350-ish, they should be able to do. So a great starter home. Lucas, there you go.

But yeah, but you guys look in your area, figure it out, and just take your time, no rush. Lucas, no rush. Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now, you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help.

It's fast, simple, and free to use. Go to Ramsey Solutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's Ramsey Solutions.com. All right. Every once in a while, we'd love to get a Baby Steps millionaire on the line so that you can hear their story and make the connection to how possible it actually is. This is not a myth. These folks are not unicorns. They're real.

And Stephanie's up next in Phoenix, Arizona. Stephanie, how are you? We're doing great. Thanks for spending time with us. We really appreciate it. Oh, thank you. And, hey, nothing to be nervous about. We're just going to ask you simple questions, and you already got the answer. So, like, you're going to get an A-plus already.

Yay! Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so tell us your net worth. I'm approximately $1.6 million. $1.6 million. And what's the mix? It's my TSP and IRA, so my retirement. I just paid off my house right around the new year. Nice. And my various checking and savings account.

Okay, gotcha. Very good. And what is your income? Currently, it's about 110. Okay, what do you do? I'm federal law enforcement. Nice. Now, how much of the $1.6 million did you inherit?

None. Zero. And we always like to ask, but I'm always afraid to ask a lady's age. But because it's for the show, I feel like I should get away with it. How old are you, Stephanie? 47. 47. My goodness, you're young.

Wonderful. You're so young. Two and a half years from retirement, so I'm very excited. How many years? Two and a half. Wow. What are you going to do after that federal retirement? I have not figured out what I want to be when I grow up, but I'm sure it'll come to me.

Well, I've got a nice little fun gift for you. It's called Find the Work You're Wired to Do. It's my gift to you today. It has to get clear assessment in it. It'll be really fun for you. Oh, thank you. Yeah, because you've got more to do and more money to make. But you're in great shape.

Okay, I assume you got your degree in some type of, what, law enforcement? I was a young kid that had no idea what they wanted to do. So I had gone to school for my plan to become a lawyer. So I went for pre-law and I got a degree in government. Okay. And there's absolutely nothing with that because my current job does not require a degree. Yeah. Isn't that something?

What was your GPA? I think it was around a 3.1. Oh, show off. It's just been so long. Rachel, I never sniffed a 3.1. I know. I don't even know what mine was, honestly. Really?

You strike me as a 3.4 person. I'm more average than that. I'm going to go 3.3.2. I might be a Stephanie. I might be a 3.1. Okay. All right. Very good. Okay. And Rachel, do you want to ask any questions here? I'm just rolling through our list. Yeah, no. I love it. Stephanie, what do you feel like was one of the things that helped you the most to build wealth?

To become a net worth millionaire. I think I really did look out. I got a really good pain job right out of, college and it was um completely unexpected but as a you know 24 year old i started a job that um i was making decent money about 40,000 and it offered a um a way to start my retirement account for a so I think that's really what it was and I've always been a person that's really I love seeing my savings grow so that was always kind of a goal for me to to see the savings. get larger and larger. Yes.

Yeah, that's a motivator, the progress. Seeing that progress constantly was so good for you. What would you say to people who say $110,000 is not enough to make a living, much less be able to become a net worth a million? To pay off your house. Yeah. You know, it's not easy because you have to say no. And you have to make decisions and you have to hold off on some things that you want.

and maybe you can't get it this month or even in six months, but maybe in a year if you just kind of wait for it. And so, yeah, I think it's absolutely possible to live on $110,000 and actually be able to put stuff aside. You just can't go and buy everything you want at the moment. You have to just hold off. Yes, living blamese. That right there is fascinating. And, I mean, you will find one viral TikTok a month or a week or a day on. somebody screaming and freaking out saying you can't make a living and cannot live comfortably

on $100,000. And I think the answer you gave is so real. It's just delayed gratification and discipline is what I'm hearing. Yeah. I mean, it's not that I don't want nice things or that I don't get nice things. It's just sometimes I have to take that second to talk to myself and go, okay, do I need that right now? I want it, but I don't even need it. I don't even want it like right now.

I can hold off on it so I can, I don't have to put it on a card or anything. I can pay cash for that. You know, it's crazy too. I find as time goes on, especially six months or a year later, you don't even want the thing anymore. Like it's, you know what I mean? It's kind of just a memory and you're like, oh, that was a moment in time. But to that point, we live in such a world where you want it right now and you just get it.

There is no suffering and saying no to yourself, right? That's become uncommon. And so the fact that you've pushed through and that you're smart about your decisions about what you're spending and I do think there's something about that motivation of seeing money grow in savings is that's real, right?

I mean, and I... Absolutely. Yeah, and it's the, in my opinion, it's the right way to lean versus I would rather that excite me than all this new crap I can just buy and spend all my money on. Do you know what I mean, which feels easier almost?

Yeah. Yeah. And so keeping all of that in check is so big. Well, and I got to thank Ramsey so much. I started listening to the Ramsey show in 2018, and I really had no plan to pay off my house very early, but that really kind of gave me the kick in the butt to really push for it and start focusing on it and knocking it out. But that's like that mindset. Yes. So I had the savings mindset to begin with, but actually paying off the house was

not something I was initially thinking, oh, that'll happen quickly. And you did it in eight years from then, from that point. And are you, what is the house worth? Currently the house is, according to online, it's worth about 320. Yeah. And I bought it way back in 2007. And you're 47, and you're about ready to, what do you get, two and a half years, you're going to have a really great retirement program I'm hoping from the government? Yes. Yes. I do, I am blessed that way, yes. Fantastic.

And then again, you're going to find another way to serve because you've got so much transferable skill and experience. And that's why, by the way, I do want you to take the assessment. It's my gift to you. And as you start to read your results, it's going to give you a written purpose statement that is essentially a dream job description in the sense of I'm good at it. I enjoy it and it creates results I care about because here's the deal. Let's say that you just find something you really enjoy and you work until, let's say, 60, 10 more years of income on top of all of this. Stephanie, my goodness.

Yeah, so much. So I'm proud of you. I feel like that's too young to not do something. It is. Yes, it is. Now, have some fun. Slow down. You know, I get a lot of people come after me when I say things like retirement is overrated.

And, you know, they're missing the point, but I'm also bruntly. bringing it on myself by making such a generalization. What I am saying is, listen, if you want to retire and be super active and volunteer and play shuffleboard half the day, go get a massage, that's fine. I'm not saying relax. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to relax and have fun, but I'm still going to do something. And I think whether that's five hours, 10 hours, 15 hours, or 40 hours, this idea of making a contribution and it mirrors work, whether or not it has a paycheck attached to it or not is not the point. So yes, Stephanie, I say yes and amen to what you're saying there. And again, you're a young lady and you have a lot of time left. So it's going to be really

fun for you to be able to retire and kind of go into this next chapter like, ah, you know, like really relaxed. And that allows you to make some really fun decisions because you have no fear. Well done, Stephanie. Way to go. You're amazing. You're amazing. There she is, folks. Stephanie, you didn't sound nervous at all. Add all, and you did a great job. Thanks for sharing your story with us. There it is. 47-year-old lady making $110,000 a year. We're going to retire in two and a half years and a federal law enforcement job. All right, no glitz, no glam. Not a huge amount of money. It's crazy. She's worth $1.6 and growing with a paid-for house. Folks, you think sometimes that we're just saying stuff to hear ourselves talk, Stephanie is absolutely living proof. If you've been working the plan, paying off debt saving, and changing your family tree, I'm proud of you.

And if you're in Baby Step 4 or beyond, it's time to celebrate. The Live Like No One Else Cruise is back March 14 through 21, 2027. Join the Ramsey personalities and me as we sail to Half Moon Key, Cozumel, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman on the ultimate debt-free vacation. Cabins will sell out just like last time. and yours with a $600 deposit at ramsysolutions.com slash events. Our scripture of the day comes from Isaiah 43, verse 2. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. Our quote today, from Simone Biles, I'd rather regret the risk that didn't work out than the chances I didn't take at all. How about that? The Olympics. Yeah.

Do you watch the Winter Olympics? You know, I was out of town this week, so I haven't started, but I love it. I love it. Really? Yeah. More so than the Summer Olympics? Oh. I'm a summer guy.

I'm picking Summer Olympics. Yeah. Okay. I'm going downhill skiing, though. Downhill? You like the downhill skiing. And of course, the ice skating. I feel like that's...

I like the curling. Ah. It reminds me of Bocci ball, but it's on ice. Yes. That's a good... It's a good... It's a very soothing. sport to watch. And very hard, apparently.

Yeah. So it looks easy. I want to be the guy with a little brush. And then you think with a broom, I think you would be very efficient. I think I'd be great with the brush. I think I'd be great. Yeah, I got to try that. It's got to see if there's a local curling. There is. There is? Yes. Yes. And it's like a new thing. And you do dinner. It's like a whole experience. Really? And then you go curling. This is a new thing. Let me tell you what else is new. As we're wrapping up to show, remember that you can always ask your question at ramsysolutions.com and get it answered the way we would answer it on the show.

This is the Ask Ramsey feature at Ramsey Solutions.com. It's our own AI. It's free. So there you go. You can't get in on the phone to talk to us. No problem. Ask Ramsey's there. Check out the link in the show notes. Justin is up in Huntsville, Alabama. Justin, how can we help? Hey, how are you doing? Well, we're doing well and Rachel's got a topped off cup of tea. So, I mean, things are good here in the studio. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm a little bit nervous. Well, that's why I told you about Rachel's tea. She's calm, so you'll be calm. So relaxing. Oh, yeah. What's your question? I've moved down here recently, and I'm at a job. I've been here since December. I've made a bundle. I'm 22 years old, and I've made a bundle of poor decisions financially. And I'm only about 15,000 in debt, but I currently work a job at an electrical distributor, and I make right around

$16 an hour. It's like $16.25 or something. It's very low. I left a handyman business to move out here, and so I got an opportunity. I feel like I've been stressing financially, so I've found an opportunity to work at a construction job, making 18 an hour, which I think could probably go up more. He's saying he likes his employees to be 20 to 25 an hour. Love that. But I'm struggling because I have an income problem and I want to get that resolved. But my boss where I work now has been paying for my gas because I don't make enough to pay for my gas with the debt that I'm in. Okay. And I don't, like, I don't, he bought parts for my truck, too, that I put on the truck. And he doesn't know about this job offer, obviously. And I don't

know if it's morally or ethically right for me to take it. I just like I owe him. Well, if you feel like you owe him, then why don't you take this better paying job and then pay him that money back? And he probably won't take it. This is a good man who knows that he can only pay you 16 an hour. Now, when you go to him, you can say, hey, man, I've got this other opportunity and I need it. And I'm so grateful for what you've done for me, but I know you can't pay me what they can pay me, and I've got to take that job. I'm so grateful to you. If he gets mad about it, then you know that the gift wasn't a gift. It was just some type of manipulation and whatever, whatever. But if he's a good guy, and I suspect that he is, he's going to like, hey, man, I totally understand. Or, hey, I can get you to that,

but it's going to be six months from now. You know, it'll create a conversation. But let's just remove the moral, ethical. There's nothing immoral, nothing unethical about you taking a better paying job that also has a ladder to even much better pay. There's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. And so one of the stipulations, it's on a 1099, which I'm not used to, and I don't know that I'm ready for that. I literally have less than a dollar to my name in my bank account. Let me address that issue. Okay. You're talking about the new job would be 1099. Yes, sir. Okay, great.

Here's what you would do. You would go talk to a legitimate tax pro, and if you go to Ramsey Solutions.com and just search tax pro, okay, you can find local tax pros in your area and go sit down with somebody or do your own research and go, based on somebody who's making 18 an hour or 20 an hour, what's the tax rate, blah, blah, blah, blah, this is not difficult. And then what you do is, is when you get a check, it's 1099, so you're going to get the entire amount, And so you take out a percentage of each check. You can do this.

It's just you have the mindset that if I get paid $2,000, $2,000 is not mine. It's $2,000 less. Let's take 20%. It's just an easy number. That money is the federal governments. They're going to ask me for it. And I need to have it in savings. It's that simple.

I just worry. I've never budgeted before. And I'm listing out all my stuff on Google Shee. and I just, I stressed with it. All I'm hearing is reasons why you're going to fail. And I don't know if you want me to just say, hey, man, you know what? You're right, Justin. Most people would be able to do what I said, but I think you're a complete buffoon.

And you are incapable of doing this. You have convinced me that this advice will not work for you. But I'm not going to say that. Rachel, talk to him about budgeting. I was going to say you're 22. You're learning adult skills, right? I mean, they don't teach, they should be teaching this more. But they don't.

And so you're thrown into the real world. You're making money for the first time in your life. You made some mistakes. Now you're scared to death that you don't even want to move. It's almost paralyzed you to do anything because you don't want to keep making worse mistakes, but you don't know how to move forward. So, yeah, you just need a- Okay, a couple of steps.

So you need some goals, Justin. So my first one would be for you, which will get you. If you hold on the line, Christian will pick up and we'll get you a year of every dollar. It's our budgeting app. that actually plugs in all of your entire financial picture. So you'll do the onboarding. It takes like 15 minutes, plug in all your info into every dollar.

And then it has a set budget for you. It already gives you some categories. Some categories you won't need, so you can just delete them. Then there's going to be some you may need that's not on there. So you just add them. It's a very easy app.

Attach it to your bank account. So you can connect your bank account to it. And every time you swipe your card or use Apple Pay or whatever it is, a transaction is going to drop in and you drag and drop it. and you start to actually plan out and say, here's how much I'm spending on food before the month begins.

You plan food, clothes, gas, insurance, and you go down the line. And you say, this is how much it takes to live a life, right? And you're going to do all of that minus what you make a month. And so that's the goal is to live within that income. And you're going to be able to do that very proactively. It's going to take about three months to really get it right. So you'll start in February. I would start get it and start planning out March.

I think my key for you would be next week, I want you to have a budget done for March. So you're looking ahead. Okay. You're going to have your March budget. It's going to be terrible. You're going to think, oh my gosh, I didn't know I spent this much year. I forgot about this bill over here. I forgot about that subscription. It's coming in. You're going to be readjusting some stuff. April's going to get a little bit better. By May, it's really going to start working. Okay. So that's one goal. The second goal is I want you to get $1,000 quickly. Justin, in the next 30 days, I want you to get $1,000. So I don't care if you do grocery. delivery. I don't care if you're doing part-time somewhere. I don't care if you're selling stuff. I don't know what it is. But I want you to get $1,000 as fast as possible. And if you're doing those things, if you're planning your monthly income, you know where it's going, and you are seeing money in your account grow for the first time ever, even if it's $100 bucks here and there, right? You're just watching it go up. And then after that, it's like, okay, that's progress. You've made two huge progressions in your financial life. You have a plan for your money and you have your first savings. And then you're going to start tackling this $15,000.

What kind of debt is it? It's mostly personal loans and I have probably $9,000 in a personal loan that I used to pay for my truck. And then about another $1,500. credit card debt. Okay. So then you're going to work to pay off that $1,500 first, okay? And if it's multiple cards, split those debts up. If it's $500 in this card, $1,000 on this, make them separate so you can attack small goals at a time. Cut up the credit card, be done with debt. I'm telling you, at 22, if you just don't have debt for the rest of your life and you save and then you start investing later, Justin, you're going to be fine. You're going to be fine, but you have to do these things. And we know you can. So we're cheering for you.

We're glad you called in. Go, Justin, go. And hey, to everybody else, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.