The Ramsey Show - The Payment Mentality Is Keeping You Broke
Episode Date: April 14, 2026❓ Have a money question? Ask Ramsey is here to help. 📈 �...��Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan. Rachel Cruze and George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: “We are running a $5,000 deficit in our budget every month after losing $1.6 million to business fraud. What should we do?” “Our bank closed all our accounts two months ago and still hasn’t paid us back our money. What should we do?” “We are $90,000 in debt and living paycheck-to-paycheck.” “I have spent over $200,000 on lawyers for my divorce. I’m now out of money—how do I keep financing this?” “We just inherited $2.5 million. How do we manage this?” 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. 🧠 Use Ramsey SmartTax to file your taxes! 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 🏠 Get organized and prepared to buy or sell a home 💻 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! 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% (up to $250) 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 or call 1-800-356-4282 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
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Normal is broke and 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.
And I am Rachel Cruz hosting at this hour with my good friend and co-host the smart money happy hour, George Camel.
And we are taking your calls live at AAA 825-5-225.
So give us a call.
All right, kicking us off this hour in Austin, Texas, we have Tracy on the line.
Hi, Tracy.
Hi, how are you?
Hi, we're doing great. Thanks for calling in.
Yeah, absolutely.
How can we help today?
So, long story short, we've had some financial losses that were out of our control.
You know, our income has gone down.
Our costs have gone up.
We've blown through all of our savings, trying to, you know, say,
afloat, went to credit cards to, you know, for all of our business expenses, our household
expenses, all of those things. And we're still behind borrowing from family, all of the things.
Right now, we are running at about a $5,000 deficit a month, even, you know, all things considered.
I'm just trying to figure out, you know, do we, at what point do you give up and file bankruptcy?
see, you know, do we keep trying to dig out of this?
Like, what is the smartest path forward with everything that's happened?
What do you guys make?
What are you bringing in a month?
We, it's variable.
So it's about 12 to 17, but 250 a year on average.
Okay, and you are, so you guys make $250,000 a month.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, a year.
Yes.
And you're still behind $5,000 a month.
What do you guys spending your money on?
Well, a lot of it is going toward credit cards.
So about $4,300 a month is credit cards and fees.
Unfortunately, a bunch of our cards are, you know, 12 to 30 percent interest.
So I've reached out to them for their hardship programs and tried to get the interest down so that we're able to tackle more of the debt.
What part of this wasn't in your control?
You were saying something about how it's not it.
It wasn't in your control.
Yeah, yeah.
One of our companies that we run, someone had embezzled money from us, and it took away about 70 or 80% of our income.
How much money are we talking?
They embezzled about $1.6 million.
Oh, my gosh.
Total, yeah.
Are they in jail?
No, no.
It happened in a big city, and they have bigger fish to fry.
What do you mean?
You didn't press charges?
It's all...
I don't know how much I can say.
They're working on it.
So do you have an attorney?
Yes, yes.
We've got an attorney that's working on it for us.
You acted like you're like, well, it's water under the bridge.
We're moving on.
Big city.
What can you do?
No, we had investors, and it was our investors' money that was in, it was a whole situation.
Okay.
So it wasn't your money to begin with.
You didn't go into debt $1.6 million.
No, no, no.
But we managed that fund, and when the fund disappeared, our income.
disappeared. So we, you know, we've taken on additional jobs. We've cut business expenses that we
didn't need, you know, sold assets that weren't performing, you know, so we're, you know,
selling everything that, you know, like, what's the thing? I sell so much the kids think they're
next. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so what other debt do you guys have, Tracy? I'm just trying to figure out
where $15,000 a month is going. How much is your mortgage? The mortgage is $5,500.
We did take out some of our equity to try to pay down our assets, or our debt.
So the home is worth about 700 and we owe about $5.50 on the mortgage.
So was that a he lock you took out or a home equity loan?
We just financed. Yeah, we just financed.
And then we've got about $3,000 to $5,000 a month that's going out and expenses for the businesses that we run.
out of our home. So we've got, you know, the $4,300 in debt service, you know, $13,000 to $14,000 in
monthly expenses, kids in college, you know, all of those things, you know, tuition rent,
and then our business expenses. So it comes out to about $20,000 a month. Okay, is your business
expenses, Tracy, not with inside the business? Why is that coming out of your income? Your
personal budget. Yeah. Well, it's, it's kind of all in one.
lump now, like, because we're just trying to keep everything current. So, like, I'm not even
taking a paycheck from our business. Do you have a business checking account and you have a
personal checking account and you're paying business expenses from the business checking?
Yes, everything is coming to business checking. I'm not taking a paycheck from the three to five
thousand on business expenses is coming out of a business account that has nothing to do with the
12,000 you're bringing home every month, correct? Sure. Yeah. Okay. I mean, yeah, and I would
separate it out. Okay. So then you got kids in college.
Yes. Are they working?
No, have a good number.
Speak directly in your phone, Tracy. We're having a hard time hearing you.
Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry. We've got scholarships and grants, so there's not a lot that's coming out.
It's about $1,700 a month leftover in tuitions and fees, but they are applying for scholarships like it is their full-time job.
And what's the total amount of debt you guys carry outside of your mortgage?
So the total debt, we have some unpaid taxes.
So it's hovering at about $270,000.
Goodness gracious.
Wait, does that include the business?
Yeah, those are business.
Separate that out.
What is just for the credit cards?
Just credit card is 152.
We owe family 30.
And then we owe 88 and back taxes.
we had an employee that said she was filing them and she did not.
So we've had some things pile up.
So we're just trying to doggie paddle through and figure it out.
Well, the key's going to be just debt snowballing this,
listing it all out, smallest the largest balance and attacking the smallest one with the vengeance
and just keeping up with minimum payments on the rest.
But the income needs to go up and expenses need to continue to go down even just to work the snowball.
Yeah, I mean, Tracy, the way to do it, and it's going to be harsh,
but you guys have to make a list of everything.
and when the money runs out, the money runs out and we stop.
We do not continue to borrow on credit cards.
We don't continue to borrow from family.
Whatever that $5,000 is below the line.
Food, shelter, utilities, transportation, you get your four walls, you pay your insurance.
Everything else below is a want.
Like, kids in college, sorry kids, mom and dad are broke.
That's a luxury.
We're on the brink of bankruptcy.
We can't keep paying your rent.
Like, we're done.
Mathematically, we can't keep up our lifestyle.
And I think there has, you and your husband, you guys have to come to a really hard reality of that we can't keep doing this.
And I know that's why you're calling us.
But like that that has to seep so far down that the sacrifice is so deep.
Like, you know, do you guys have anything owed on the cars at all or are those paid off?
Sorry, you broke up again, Tracy.
Oh, sorry.
No, cars are paid for.
We drive old cars.
They even tried to sell them and see if we could.
Well, here's the, another issue is this mortgage is huge compared to what your take-home pay is now, which is 12 grand. It's almost half your take-home pay just in this new mortgage. So you might need to look into selling the house and downsizing if you can't solve this within six months. Yeah, because you asked about, you know, when do you just file bankruptcy? Well, you sell everything, including the house to avoid a bankruptcy, you know, even cash. I don't want you to do too right now because we don't have enough time to dig into the numbers of like a 401-k. You do all of that to avoid a bankruptcy. But the IRS.
And the IRS goes to the top.
That's the first thing in your debt snowball right now is those back taxes.
And Tracy, I heard a lot of, well, this person, well, is there.
At some point, we got to look in the mirror and go, I'm responsible.
I'm the one in charge here.
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It sure did in me.
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Up next we have Sally in Los Angeles.
Hi, Sally.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, thanks for having me.
Yes, absolutely. How can we help?
Big picture. I recently sold my house and I was able to get about 300,000 kind of tax-free because I didn't have to qualify to do any capital gains on it because I lived at it in the past couple years and whatnot.
And now I'm sitting on this little nest egg of mine and I've invested like the first.
50,000 into stock.
And there's obviously some fluctuations on a day-to-day basis based on, you know,
what the president of the United States sometimes also tweets, things change and whatnot.
What do you mean, Sally?
What are you mean?
What if he's supposed to?
I just like, I'm like, I want to move, but I feel like I'm almost playing like hop-scots here
where I'm like, no, no, can I go now?
And I'm like, right now it's just sitting there.
And I'm like, I'm throw they have it.
But I also just don't want to.
be irresponsible.
Are you needing this money anytime soon, or were you looking at this just to put away
for years down the road?
I'm looking to put it away.
I think that is the best solution for me.
My husband and I were doing fine.
Pretty much he's covering all the current expenses.
We have toddler.
We're doing it.
And I don't, we don't have any debt or anything along those lines.
I don't feel like I can purchase anything with what I have in our current area.
It's a high cost of living area.
So that's not really an option either.
It can be put away for a moment.
But I'd also like to maximize some of my earning possibilities for it as well.
For sure.
So do you guys own a home?
Well, he owns a home that we don't currently live in.
He's renting it out.
I also was renting out my old house before I sold it.
Honestly, I sold it because I was like, I hate being a landlord.
This is not the business for me.
Sure.
So much anxiety.
Yeah.
So we have homes.
We have, you know, so we have the deductions from, like, being homeowners.
We also have deductions from being parents.
And so in this specific area, it's quite expensive.
So it's like, I don't know if my little nugget would really make much of a dent.
Well, I think eventually you guys need to talk about home ownership.
So whether that's you guys moving back into maybe the home that he owns,
that are you guys are married?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, home ownership needs to be a long-term goal for you guys.
And I know that you're in an expensive area, but for your, you know, financial future ongoing,
home ownership will be the cheapest route because rent will just continue to go up, right?
So letting that be.
I totally agree.
Yes.
So letting that be a goal, which this money could be used for.
And I understand you're saying not right now, which is totally fine.
So we always say investing, you want to give it around.
a four-year kind of benchmark. So to give it four years to do the up and down. And in that time,
there'll be an election, like, right, all of that, right? So you think about the time frame
that kind of feels good to ride out the highs and lows if you're going to use this money down the
road. So if you're going to use it less than four to five years, I would not invest it. But if you
think you're going to keep it in somewhere for four to five years, then yes. Investing still,
for me, would be the answer because we're not looking at what you're saying, a 30.
day span, right? If you looked at the last 30 days, yeah, it looks insane. But that's not always
the case. In fact, last year, the market was what? 20. Over 20%? 20% last year. Which is just crazy.
Exactly. I don't want to even do like a high interest, like, savings account. I'm like, I just feel
like that's like money left on the table. That's right. That's right. Yes. So that's why the investing
has a long term, you have to have a long term mindset. And so right now, actually, which George,
you talk about this in your book, Breaking Free from Broke,
when you buy low, which is what it is, you know, right now with the volatility, you're actually going to get to buy more shares, if you will. So as everything goes up, you kind of have more eggs in your basket, if you will, when the market does go up. Because over the course of, you know, the trajectory of what the stock market has done since its inception, like it does go up. The American economy overall goes up. So that just means you actually are going to be making more down the road if you buy now low. But that's kind of an investor's mindset, George. Yeah, I always like to say time.
in the market beats timing the market. And right now, Sally, it's stressful because you're trying to
time the market. And only God knows what's going to happen, right? And so it's just easier to not
look at it and just know, I'm going to lock this money away and just let it ride and keep adding
to it. And then four or five years from now, you're going to look up. And there could be five,
six hundred grand in there. And now that's a serious down payment, even with the prices in LA five years from now.
And so I would make it a goal and say, you know what? Instead of going, well, we can't buy a house,
just go, we're going to buy a house, and we're going to save up $500,000 of the down payment to do that.
Yeah, I like it.
So what is it invested in?
Because you said I'm invested in stocks, and that scared me.
Do you mean single stocks or like an index fund?
No, index.
And honestly, I don't feel like the most fluid was having this conversation on that topic.
I right now just have like, I took 50,000 of that 300 and it's in like VOO.
Sure.
And then the rest is just like sitting there.
Yeah.
You can invest the rest.
in there and let it ride and keep adding to it every single month, make it a goal. Hey, we're going to
add $3,000 a month to this. That's $36 grand a year, growing for us with compound growth.
And you can do some projections and see that five, six, seven years from now, it's probably
going to be closer to 700 grand if you do it this way. And then when you have enough to where
you can go, all right, we can take out a mortgage. It's going to be 25% or less of our take
home pay, 15-year fixed. Let's go ahead and pull the trigger and get this house.
And I get it, Sally. I mean, and when I think about investing personally, I really, I
really, I look maybe once a year at what's going on because I would give myself a panic attack
every time I looked at the market, to your point, specifically right now.
And usually you only look when it's down. Nobody looks when it's up and doing great.
That's right. And that doesn't hit the news either, right? It was not like flashing all over
everywhere of how amazing the last two years were. Yeah. I mean, the last two years have been
insane. And then this year not so great, but that's what we're seeing in the news. And so,
and I get at Winston and I actually had some money in a high yield savings that we actually talked to
about this and we pulled some of it and invested it literally sadly i think like 32 days it was like
right before everything hit the fan and winston i were like oh that doesn't feel good to see it go down
like we and i was like this is why i don't this is why i do not look because most of the stuff you know
i'm like just the vending machine ate your money yes that's how it felt but then i know i go back to
my brain of what i just talked to you through of what i know and i'm like we're not needing
this money for you know a couple of years so like just let it ride and let it do its thing so
So that is what you would have to do.
And it would be the smartest thing.
I would still do what we did again because I know what's happening.
And if you can, Sally, I would auto invest it.
And that way it's out of sight out of mind.
I don't want to see the money.
I want to just leave and go straight to that investment account.
I don't want to touch it.
And the reason you can be so blinded by it, if you will,
is because what you're investing in has a good track record, right?
What we talk about with index funds or even mutual funds is,
is you are buying, you know, 90 to 200 stock in a mutual fund.
And even with some of the index funds, you know, it's the S&P 500 in general.
Top 500 companies based on market cap.
And so that's why you can kind of not have to look at it and feel like you have to manage it
because it's just doing what the economy is going to do, right?
It just kind of rides that wave versus stressing about Apple or Tesla or whatever, right,
if you're trying to manage single stocks and all of it.
So that's kind of the beauty of that diversification method.
that index funds or mutual funds gives you is because there's a lot of kind of safety in it.
Because if it all hits right down and it all kind of falls out, then the American economy is done.
We got bigger fish to fry.
Every company in America goes bankrupt.
We're like, all right, this is the end.
That's when hoarder, Rachel.
What's helpful for me, Sally, is when you're looking at the line graph of like returns on whatever investment you have, I never look at it less than a three year.
because if you look at it a one week, a one month, you're freaking out, even one year.
But when you look three years, five years, ten years, the further back you go, the more up
into the right it goes.
And so that's just a good perspective to have that you are investing for the long term.
It doesn't matter if you, on paper, lost $20,000 because you didn't, you didn't sell.
You hung on to it.
Yeah.
So keep up the ride.
I think I need to just have talked to get out of my way because I've never, I don't come
from money.
I've never, I'm thrilled that I'm here.
today now having this opportunity and I'm like, oh, don't mess it up.
Yes, yes. You're doing great. You're doing better than you think.
You know, in that caution, that's a good spirit to have. I mean, honestly, it's a really
research. Yes, research and understanding. You have to feel good about it.
But George and I, that's what we do personally. So we would not tell you something that we
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Next season is upon us so to get a free checklist and guide that will help you file go to ramsysolutions
dot com slash taxes. All right let's head to greenville and we have john on the line hi john
welcome to the show.
Hey how you guys doing today?
Hi we're doing great. How can we help today?
Yes. So me and my wife are newlyweds. Got married last year and having a little bit of a disagreement on whether we should take a vacation this year. She's wanting to take a vacation. And I'm thinking that we should probably use this time to get a little bit more financially ahead to invest for retirement and save up for our house. And just wanted to call to get a fresh perspective.
Okay. So, John, you're the money responsible guy and your wife is fun.
Rachel relates to her.
That's what it sounds like.
You're already losing the battle, John.
She's ready to spend and have fun,
and you're like, we need to think about retirement,
which is good and responsible.
She says, I'm not trying to paint my wife in a bad life.
Oh, no, I'm joking.
She just wants a vacation.
No, I'm going to be probably more on your wife's team in the call.
That's why I'm joking.
Do you guys have debt?
We do not have debt.
Do you have savings right now for like your emergency fund?
Yes, we do. We have about 23 grand in a savings account and then about 45,000 in a brokerage.
Wow. Okay. And are you investing 15% of the household income right now into retirement accounts?
Yes, we have about 54,000 in retirement.
And how old are you guys?
Just turned 24.
Go on the freaking vacation, man.
John.
What do you mean you got to catch up? You're ahead of like 99, 9,000.
point nine percent of America. How much do you guys make a year?
$1.15.
Okay. How much is this vacation going to cost?
I don't know. Probably about $3,000.
Okay. If I told you, hey, John, when you retire, you could either have $9.85 million or $9.9 million.
Would you say, yeah, I'm willing to take the $9.85. That's fine.
Uh, yeah, I would probably be okay with that.
Yeah.
That's what we're talking about here.
You guys are going to be multi, multi, multi, multi millionaires if you keep living this way,
but you're going to have a miserable marriage if you keep living the way you're wanting to live,
which is, well, that money is an opportunity cost.
And you're talking to the nerd of all nerds.
I was going to say, so I'm telling you to go on the trip.
Yeah.
If you guys seriously had some, hey, we got a lot of debt that we're walking to this marriage with.
We got to clean this up.
I'd understand.
You went on the honeymoon.
Let's take a pause on vacation.
until we got our mess cleaned up.
But there's no mess here.
You guys are doing everything by the book.
You've got plenty of money.
You're not going to stop investing to save up for the trip, right?
No, no.
I think I just get nervous because we've been really trying to save up for a down payment for a house.
And everything is just so expensive.
So it just makes me nervous.
Or I'm just, I get my own head of what could happen or anything like that.
Well, do the math.
The three grand in vacation is going to cost you maybe a half a month in your house down payment fund.
right?
Yes.
I mean, the next paycheck, you could fund this vacation.
Okay.
Right?
That makes me feel a little bit better.
Yeah, it's not going to delay your home ownership goals.
So don't let the fear of, well, never be a homeowner, I mean I'm not going to go on a
trip for the next six years because we've got to get a house.
We've got to get a house.
You're so young.
You're doing so great.
You guys will own a home before you're 30, and you're going to do it the right way,
and it's going to be super peaceful and be a blessing in your life.
but if you don't also learn how to let go and live,
you are going to be miserable in that house.
I was afraid you were going to say that.
Tell your wife she won the argument,
not that it's a competition, but...
You know what, I think, John...
It's three on one, John.
Me and George and your wife...
And as punishment, she gets $500 in fun money.
Yes.
He kind of let me down.
You've got to upgrade the hotel room now.
Upgrade the hotel room, and she gets more fun money
than you feel comfortable with.
Yeah, that's the consequences, John.
you know. Okay. Okay. That's what I have to do. No, it's a good... We're hanging, we're playing around.
I appreciate the caution and wanting it, but let me encourage you that our friend Arthur Brooks
talks about five things you can do with money. And he said four of them actually can bring you
happiness and one does not. The one that does not bring you happiness is just buying stuff.
But one of the things that can buy you happiness out of the four is buying experiences with people you
love.
He said that's one of the best ways to spend money.
Yes.
And you go and have an experience with people you love, that actually incurs a level of
happiness in your life.
So we are, yep, that's a George and I's marriage advice to you.
Enjoy.
And have the goals, but you guys have them.
You are on track.
You are good.
Nothing's going off the rails.
And, yeah.
And I'll be honest.
I'm kind of living vicariously through them because I wish I went on more trips
when we were newlyweds.
Oh, yeah, now that you're a dad of two?
Yeah, we got one great trip in 2019, and then COVID happened.
Yes.
And then we had a baby.
And now you're like, well, we got at least two good trips in.
It's so true.
So you're going to look back and go, man, we got kids now.
It's much harder to travel.
So when you're newlyweds, I'm like, and you're doing this great.
And it's three grand.
I'm like, go.
Go and enjoy.
Six figures, debt free, emergency fund, retirement's kicking.
Let's go, buddy.
Yes, so great.
Well done, John.
You guys have done a fabulous job.
We can beat up on you because you're doing so.
good. I know. I was like, your wife seems like the fun. He's like, I don't want to paint her in a bad light.
I'm like, not here, John. Trust me. She's in the best light. We like those people. We like her.
All right. Let's go to Brandon in Columbus. Hi, Brandon. Welcome to the show.
Hey there. How are you guys? Hi, we're doing good. How can we help?
So I'm self-employed to make about $50,000 a year. I have about $66,000 in a high-yield savings.
and then aside from a mortgage, I have about 50, $48,000 in debt between a truck, a garage, and then a loan to finish the garage.
I'm trying to determine if it's best to kind of deplete that safety net and pay off some debt or if there's something else I should be doing with it.
You say you make $50,000 a year?
Yep.
And your truck is $48,000.
You have a loan on it for $48,000?
It's 28.
Oh, I'm sorry.
That's okay.
And then I have a garage that I run the business out of.
It's $17,000.
And then alone to finish the garage, like the drywall and all that good stuff, it was $6,700 is what's left on me.
I gotcha.
I gotcha.
Okay.
So, yeah, to answer your question quickly, yes, I would.
I would take it down to $1,000, which is going to make you sick.
You're going to be like, oh, my gosh.
Just know that it's a false safe.
Because if you lost your job today, guess who doesn't care?
Every lender you owe is still going to demand that payment.
And so you're going to feel a whole lot better and more peaceful,
taking your account from 66 down to whatever, 10 or 15 grand,
that you'll rebuild real quickly without those payments in your life.
Okay.
That's the simple answer.
Are you going to do it, though?
That's the biggest question on America's mind right now.
Well, I think I've asked for advice from people I know and nobody could, hey, do whatever
you want to do.
And so I'm like, I've got to reach out to somebody else and, you know, third party and see what they say.
Yeah, because the great thing is you'll have around 14,000 still left over in that high-yield account.
You won't take it all the way down to zero or to 1,000.
So you'd still be able to cover any emergency that came your way in the, you know, few months until you build it back up.
And then you'll be truly free.
Are you married, Brandon?
A girlfriend living with.
We have a child together.
Okay.
All right.
Yep.
So that's, yeah, that's what I would do, though, is I would go ahead and pay off all the
consumer debt and then practice, you know, paying for things that you can afford, right?
That we're not going to continue to go into debt because if you count this 14,000 as an
emergency fund, you may want to bulk it up a little bit. Then the beautiful thing is you get to
move on to investing into retirement, right, and start really looking towards the future with
this money instead of having to pay for things in the past, which is what debt basically is.
Right. This is your never go into debt, again, insurance plan, once you become debt-free
with the emergency fund. So next time you have a project, it's not, well, I got to take out a loan for that.
I got to take out a loan for the truck. You just learned to go, I'm going to save them and pay cash.
I'm a guy who doesn't owe money, owe money to other people. And well done on saving $66,000, though,
for real, because I mean, by tomorrow, you could be completely debt free, which is incredible. For a lot of
people, you know, they are having to work extra, you know, cut the expenses and it's a year-long process to get out of that debt.
I might use some of that remaining savings for a wedding ring.
Never too late.
You know what?
You'll have a kid together.
If she's the one, do it.
Seal the deal, Brandon.
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All right, let's go to Sean in Indianapolis.
Hi, Sean. Welcome to the show.
Hey, Rachel and George. Good afternoon. Thanks for my call.
Absolutely. How can we help today?
So, yeah, we are in the wonderful world of navigating home auto and umbrella insurance policy renewals.
And our insurance agent recommended a product that is somewhat new to us and was hoping to see if you have a position on, is it something wise to purchase?
Specifically, it is a standalone wind and hail insurance policy for the home.
And that being a separate policy beyond just the homeowners with your roof and all of it.
Okay.
So what is that cover that's different?
Then if hail damage your roof, yeah, if hail damaged your roof, you would have insurance to help replace the roof, even if you, even if you didn't have wind and hail.
The way that it's described is that it would be specific to wind and hail, and it would essentially bridge the deductible on the homeowner's policy.
So something, again, relatively new, and we weren't able to find a whole lot of additional information
and was seeing if you had familiarity with that type of a product and is it a wise purchase.
How much is it? Extra.
It's low. I mean, it's less than $230 bucks per the year.
For the year.
But it's essentially just covering the deductible?
Is that you're saying? It's covering that gap?
It does. Exactly.
Okay. Because your homeowner's policy does cover it, but you're saying this other
policy is basically a deductible insurance policy?
I like the way you said that, George, right?
And it's insurance on insurance, right?
So it bridges the gap of an increasing deductible on that type of peril,
you know, wind or hill damage.
Oh, interesting.
So how much does it actually cover?
What's the dollar amount?
Up to 12,000, which would be the deductible on the homeowners policy for such a peril.
And it costs how much a month?
Or a year.
Well, for the year it's $2.30, so call it, you know, like maybe $20 a month.
Okay. I'm just trying to figure out the break-even on this thing.
I mean, you're, you know, for the year, in 10 years, you've paid $2,300 for this thing.
And so if something happened in those 10 years and you needed to use more than $2,000, you're like, all, all.
So do you guys have them? Is this like easy money for you guys to cover this thing at this point in your financial life?
Oh, most definitely. It's not a burden at all.
And in the same stretch, if you had to cover a $10,000 deductible,
you'd be able to do that with no problem.
We could.
That's where I go,
I might hang on to my money and just,
if that happens,
I pay it out of the emergency fund
and move on with my life.
Yeah.
Yeah, because there's going to be things like this.
It almost feels like an extended warranty feel
to a degree of just...
It's a little bit gimmicky.
Yes.
And they were like, hmm,
what else can we come up with
just to make a little more money?
Yes, to kind of just tack on
to keep going.
Do you know what you mean?
And it's like an easy sell,
especially in the fear, you know, idea of, oh my gosh, in the middle of a hail or windstorm.
If this was an imminent threat and you didn't have an emergency fund, I might go, hey, this might be a good way to float the gap.
For $200, it's like buying you some piece until you have that money.
So at this point, you can run some calculations.
It doesn't seem like a no-brain or buy to me, though.
I would have some pause and go, I don't know if it's worth it.
And at the same breath, you could burn $230 bucks on the kitchen table and I think about it.
That's right.
Yeah, I think it's less about the money for you guys, Sean.
It's probably more of the principle.
So I would say if you did it, just be aware in the future of other things because
there's all, I mean, companies are constantly looking at how they can make money off
of people.
It's kind of nickel and dimeing people.
But to them, they're just making so much.
And if people actually really do use it.
So just, yeah, be where I'd probably pass.
I mean, we don't, I don't think we would probably just.
Well, and figure out your number because some of these policies, they'll say it's one percent
deductible on wind and hail.
So if your home is 300 grand, you might pay three grand out of pocket.
Well, then it wasn't worth paying $2.30 every single year for 10, 20 years. But if it's more than that and your house is worth a million bucks, well, now it's bigger numbers. And so that's where the things I would start to weigh, you know, before you make the decision. But it's a non-fatal decision either way.
All right. Let's go to Kim in Richland, Virginia. Hi, Kim. Welcome to the show.
Hi, thank you. Hi, absolutely. How can we help?
I was wanting to get your assistance in potentially getting some money back from my bank.
My bank is a large bank, and they have closed multiple accounts of mine back in early February.
I can tell you, give you the background of that if you like.
They've had my accounts closed and are holding my money since February the 2nd.
I've pursued numerous routes with them, numerous bank managers, numerous levels within the bank.
I've also filed a claim with the OCC and the CFPB and still have had no success in getting any of my money back.
How much money are we talking?
I am not totally sure.
I'm thinking it's around $5,000.
The reason being I literally filed, it's multiple accounts for people in my family, and we had all just filed our return.
So a little bit of tax return money coming back in, maybe $1,000 a piece, so it could be anywhere between, say, 3 and 6,000.
depending on if those credits had come back.
And why did they close them?
I don't have used to the accounts now.
Essentially, I was on 12 different accounts because I had opened accounts with all of my children
checkings and savings when they were sort of 15 and initially started working
and hadn't been tidy with my finances and taken myself off when they turned 18, 19, 20.
So I have four kids, eight accounts there and four accounts with my husband and myself.
but I was central to all of them.
My youngest child deposited a check that he thought was a refund check.
The person that issued the refund check then called the next day and said,
oh, that was a mistake.
Can you wire us the money back?
And he knew instantly that was fraudulent.
He called the big bank and said, hey, I deposited this check.
They just called me.
I think it's a fraud.
I just wanted to let you know.
I haven't spent the money.
And they said, that's fine.
We'll take care of it.
and the next day they closed his account, which I was on, and every account that was associated with me.
Because of the fraud.
Correct.
That's nice.
So it wasn't great, and they didn't let me know.
I basically, my banking app disappeared, and I called the bank number and asked, and they said, oh, we closed all your accounts.
And I said, without email, phone call, mail?
Yeah.
And they said, yes, that's our policy is to close your banking.
app, and then you have to call us and we'll tell you that we've closed your account.
Okay, what did they say about the money? I mean, it's FDIC insured, so it's not going to disappear.
They have to give you this money back legally.
Yes, I think it's just delay after delay.
Are they going to mail you a check or something?
Supposedly, they're going to mail a cashier's check, but every time that I speak with them,
they say they're still in their, quote, closed process.
How long ago was this?
February the 2nd.
So it's over two months now.
I might send a certified letter to the bank's legal and compliance department.
That's more sure to get their attention versus customer service or like a branch manager who they don't have much power.
I'm speaking with somebody in the that is trying to resolve through the, they've combined the OCC and CFPB and they are telling me they are with the bank, but that they don't have any power to force the bank to do anything within its own system.
So do you think the letter would have more power than.
I mean, I'm just going to be the squeaky wheel. I'm going to hit it at 17 different angles until
someone does something. You know what I mean? That's my style. I mean, you can also go to your state's,
your state has a banking regulator, like a department of financial institutions, and so you could
kind of double up the pressure there. Okay. But again, just be squeaky. Do you need a,
do you need the checking account, Kim? You had four with your husband, you said. So do you guys
need that to live off of? I mean, I'm assuming five grand spread out of all of those accounts.
you don't.
Thankfully we did have some in reserve at a credit union, and so we've pulled out of that
to cover what was in those accounts, and of course we're still currently getting income.
So I am thankful that we had that set up.
I do listen to you guys.
That's what I've tried to follow up.
You get some diversification in your banking.
What's that?
That's crazy.
Is it Bank of America?
Who is it?
It is Bank of America.
Yeah.
She knew it.
Ding, ding, ding.
Corporate just horrible.
It is crazy.
It is. It's horrible. It's horrible. It's horrible. It's why I don't do business with these huge banks. I love a credit union for that because they treat you like a person. And we have a great relationship with Fairwin's credit union. Kim, if you want to diversify now and have a secondary backup, Fairwin's awesome. And good people that really do care. Someone will actually pick up and help you, especially you tell them Rachel and George sent me. Yes, Kim, I'm so sorry. Yeah, I think the squeaky wheel approaches it. Because honestly, in a bank like that, you're just a number. It's just you're just going to be floating around.
out there, like, they're not worried about five grand, you know, so the more consistent you are,
you know, you're 60 days out, but I mean, I would, I mean, daily probably just be calling,
sending letters doing what I can to get that and then never bank with them again.
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Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio.
I'm Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with George Camel.
And the lines are open at AAA 825.
5-2-2-5. Up first, we have Matthew in Charlotte, North Carolina. We were just there last week.
Hey, Matthew, welcome to the show.
Hey, how are you?
Hi, we're doing great. How can we help?
Just trying to figure out how to stop living and check to check. My wife works, I work.
You know, we have a house, cars, kids, and we just can't seem to.
get ahead. We're just treading water constantly.
How much debt do you guys have?
You know, if we're not including the house,
and it's just the cars in probably around close to 90.
How much they're on the cars? What's the balances of those?
My wife just got a new car because her previous car had a bunch of electrical problems.
and we were kind of upside down on that one
and so they rolled that one over into the new car
and so that one's fresh
that one's at like 62 grand
oh my gosh
what kind of vehicle is this
it's a Nissan Pathfinder
oh boy
nothing fancy
how much underwater it
I mean I'm drowning right now
is it worth 40 grand
yeah the car
Yeah.
Brand new?
Is it brand new?
Yeah.
Okay, so you said nothing, you said nothing fancy, Matthew.
You guys just bought a brand new SUV pathfinder.
So it's pretty nice.
Pretty nice.
Okay, so we're just going to, let's just keep the reality where it is.
So you guys got a brand new car.
And electrical problems do not necessitate going out and buying a brand new car.
That was an emotional decision.
We don't have the, we didn't have the money to get it, the electrical
problems fixed and it was out of warranty.
I understand.
I'm saying there was other cars in the sea.
A $5,000 car.
So, okay, yeah, yeah.
I'm not trying to beat you up.
I'm just trying to get to the route here,
which is we need to own up to the things that we did
and not go, well, we had to,
because that's usually the sign
you're going to stay in the cycle.
Yeah, and majority of this debt of the 90
is that one car.
So what is the other car?
What payments do you have on it?
I also had to get it recently.
I got a used car.
because my car was i had fifteen hundred dollars left on it to owe and it required like
eight thousand dollars in work so what's the balance of this car that you have uh 20 what do you
guys make a year um my wife makes about 45 and i brought home
96.
Okay, good.
So you guys are clearing 140 grand a year.
Yeah.
And not including my raise, my last raise that I'll be getting, which is a $14 increase.
So I'll be...
That's big.
It's like $30,000 a year.
You're seeing it's going up by $14 an hour?
Yeah.
I'll be roughly about $50 an hour.
Okay.
So what's the other debt?
You got 20 on one, 62 on the other.
That's 82.
Is there another eight laying around?
Yeah, between credit cards.
About that, yeah.
Okay.
Well, the main thing I would do is get out of the 62K debt.
That about solves the problem, doesn't it?
Right, but then wouldn't it tank our credit?
Like, how would I go about that?
I just tell the bank, hey, we can't afford it when they take it.
Here's what you need to do.
You need to come up with the difference that you're underwater on.
Which is going to be a lot because you guys rolled negative equity into it.
So how much?
So you might need to save up 20 grand to go sell this thing.
But then you need maybe another five or six more to go get a used car for now in cash.
Right.
But that gets you.
What's the payment on that thing?
About 1,200.
Would 1,200 bucks freed up change your life right now?
I would like to say it would, but I don't think it would.
How much underwater are you guys every month on your bills?
Electric bill is about $1,000.
We don't have heat or air conditioning.
You know, we steal from Peter to pay Paul constantly.
Well, you're making what?
You're taking home $9,000 a month?
Between the two of us, yeah, probably.
Okay.
So you get paid bi-weekly, I get paid weekly.
What you guys need to do tonight is have a come to Jesus conversation
and make a budget for the first time in your marriage, where you lay out, hey, here's the next
paychecks coming in, here's all the bills that are going out, we need to make sure that we're
not spending more than we make. And you might at least see the reality.
And we're going to cut up the credit cards. Like, we're going to give ourselves no options
of going any further into debt at all.
Yeah, mine are in the freezer right now in a bunch of water.
Send them to hell. Forget the freezer.
Burn them. Burn them. Burn them.
They have not been a blessing in your life.
Do you guys have any savings, Matthew?
No.
No. Okay.
No.
Okay.
What's your wife?
How is money between you guys in the relationship when you, like the fact you're calling us, does she, is she begging you to change?
Are you begging her to change?
Like, where are you guys at?
I mean, it's, I would like to say it's more her.
Constantly, like, she doesn't really get stuff for herself.
I don't get stuff for myself.
It's more or less like kidney shoes.
You got 82 grand in vehicles.
I'd say that's getting something for yourself.
Right.
I mean, I see that as, you know,
I need a safe vehicle for my wife and kids.
Not when you can't afford it, Matthew.
Can we be honest?
A 2018 Pathfinder would have been just fine.
Right, but then we have to worry about warranty
and, you know, if something happens,
we don't have money to fix it.
Not if you save $1,200 a month,
you get to save up an emergency fund.
fund and I have six grand in about, I don't know, a couple months.
You create your own warranty program.
Yes, you are it.
Called Bank of Matthew.
Yep, yep.
So do you see what we're trying to get out of here?
If you keep thinking like this, you're going to stay in the cycle.
We're trying to break you out of this thing by making some really deep sacrifices.
Yeah.
So you never say, well, I had to.
Because if that's the case, we can't help you.
So there's a, there is a change in perspective you guys have to have to say we are in charge of
our money and our decisions.
Like, we're going to choose what our.
money's going to do. We are in charge. We're not just going to let things happen and, well, we have to
do this. We got to do that. Oh, gosh, we're stuck in this corner. There has to be a perspective
change. And when that happens, then you actually get to look in the mirror, if you will, and say,
all right, who's going to change our lives? We are. This is us. So now we have to, if we don't want to
be where we are today with money, then we have to do everything opposite that we've been doing.
We've not been saving. We have to be saving. We've been relying on debt. We can't rely on
debt. We haven't been living on a budget. We don't really know where our money's going. We have to be on a
budget. Like I literally, Matthew, do the opposite of everything you guys have been doing. And so if you
hang on the line, Christian's going to pick up. We're going to give you every dollar for a year.
You guys need to sit down tonight and do a written budget. Where does nine grand go every single,
every single month? Like where line item by line item? Where is this going? And then your next goal is to
save up $1,000 first and foremost. That's your starter emergency fund.
And then you guys need to start working your way out of debt.
But there has to be a level of ownership and you guys have to agree that we can't keep doing this.
And so if you can't keep doing this, let's do the opposite of everything we've been doing.
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Up next on the line, we have Chris in Tampa, Florida.
Hi, Chris.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, how you doing?
Hi, we're doing great. How can we help today?
Well, I'm going through a now three-year divorce and having a hard time financing the rest of the divorce.
We've used up quite a bit of assets during that time.
You and your ex-wife?
Yes. Why is it dragged out for three years?
Soon to be.
she had a
she had a stakeholder
in her company that she worked for
they have private shares
it's a private company
and so we had to do
long discovery process
because they were unwilling to give the information
so I had to hire a forensic accountant
the accountant
had to do a lot of digging
and you know
it just cost
me probably 200,000 now over those three years.
Did you have that money?
I did. Now I'm out. So I've been signing up for credit cards to pay for the attorneys
and the accountant.
How much credit card debt are you in?
About 30,000 now. And counting because we're still
not we're still litigating i mean where where's the end in sight here we were supposed to be done
in february but the stock price changes every march so let's play this out what if this is another
two years and now you're 200 thousand dollars in debt was it worth this yeah because every year
and this is what i tried to talk to my ex-wife about was every year the stock price goes up and we
own about 300,000 shares in the company, which if it fluctuates a dollar, that's close to
another half million a year, just if it's a dollar, a share increase. So we're looking at
$1.7 million difference from 2025 to $26. But at this point, we're gambling, because if you
lose this thing and your $200 grand in debt, now you're screwed. Yeah, I'm
kind of getting richer and poor at the same time.
So it's a weird prediction.
Can you move this to mediation?
We mediate it three times now.
And so I'm confused what the holdup is.
Why is this not?
What else do you have to have for it to be final?
For her to, I guess, give up and face reality.
You know, we've tried to mediate and we're so far off on the numbers that basically
needs to go to trial.
and the trial date just keeps on getting pushed off the docket and move forward because of non-cooperation on their side.
We wanted to get it done.
Sent in offers.
No counter offers were put in.
So it's just drawn out.
I think she's just drawing that out so that she bleeds me, basically, is what's...
It's worked.
Now you're going to crippling dead at some point.
You're going to have to give up and wave the white flag.
while making lawyers really rich.
You have funded some really a nice lifestyle for some lawyers.
Oh, for sure.
I'm sure they're building pools in their backyard.
I mean, at some point, we just need to make this a peace treaty and cut our losses.
Or take what you can get.
Come to a compromise.
Yeah, I don't know how to do that.
Is it all or nothing for you?
Like, what is a, let's say, what's a decent scenario that you get some of these shares?
Well, the company has a clause that clearly states how the shares get split in the case of the divorce.
And they write a check for whatever the court determined.
So it's actually the company, it's very simple.
It's a simple process.
So then what's from the legal perspective, why is it drug out?
If it's that simple of what you're saying, I don't understand why all the lawyers don't see that.
Well, yeah, it was discovery.
Discovery was the longest part of the process and the forensic accounting part.
And then so, but it costs money.
You know, that cost money.
I knew that it was going to be a, we had separate assets.
And I hear it all the time with you guys.
We lost you, Chris.
Chris?
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay, well, you said discovery was the longest.
guess is it over?
Because you said you guys kind of found everything,
but then the stocks changed over in March.
So now we're in April.
So what's your final?
Because you don't want to live five more years like this, Chris.
No, we're looking at possibly,
so my lawyer has told me that we have a meeting in May,
and then we determine what the next trial date is.
And that's supposedly going to be September.
And they're going to keep working on this thing that whole time.
Yes.
So this could go a whole other year before there's some resolution, which means you're another
$100 grand in debt easily.
Yes, but I don't know how to get out of that.
I mean, you're stuck in the process.
What's your network today?
Yeah, how much do you have, Chris?
I mean, house, your assets, where are you at financially?
I still have two properties in the Carolinos that are, I.
own outright. One burned down. My wife filed for divorce in February of 23, and then the house burned
down a week later up in the Carolina. Okay, how much are those worth? Probably 50,000 and then the other
properties about 15, 16,000. What's your total net worth? Wait, a property? Is it just land?
I had a house. It had a house and I burned down. It got set on fire.
So the land is only worth $15 grand?
50 grand for that land.
And then the land across the street is about $16,000.
Okay.
What's your income?
Those two properties.
I had my own company, and it fluctuates.
Like last month, I made like $30,000.
This month, I'll probably make like $5,000.
So overall, probably about $100,000.
I work on medical equipment.
Okay.
Man, I personally, I know this is like your sunk cost fallacy.
I would cut my losses and go, you can rebuild a great life and build wealth from scratch.
You're a smart guy.
You'll get there.
I also know that you could burn another 150 grand on the off chance.
You can make half million a year.
I just don't think the risk is worth it and the stress.
It's going to take years off your life to keep this battle up emotionally and mentally on top of financially.
Of what it is, yeah.
And I would sell those properties.
I wouldn't be a long deal.
Well, I was going to say landlord.
I don't think there's any occupancy in this situation.
So I'd go ahead and just get rid of those properties.
Sell that and funded if you're going to keep fighting this.
Yeah, yeah.
And that's 66 grand that you'll have to help at least pay off some of this credit card debt.
And I think, Chris, you have to make a decision to say, okay, you know, whatever that breaking point is for you, we're never going to tell you to continue to go into debt.
So yourself, if you're choosing to kind of play that game, you at least, please, you at least need a point in your mind to say, if we get to X point on the calendar and nothing has moved or there's no set, there's nothing.
Like even if a trial date, you know, keeps moving out.
Like you can't just live in the cycle forever and ever like George said.
This is the same part of your brain like a gambling addict where they just go, well, I just got to double down.
This time's going to be different.
going to get it this time. Yes. I just don't think it's worth it when you're a smart guy making
great money. Well, and it's a little confusing if it's so clear in the bylaws of the company of what
happens to the shares in the case of a divorce, how that's not... It would have happened by now.
Yeah, and maybe I'm being naive, right? And again, I know every divorce is very different. Every state is
different, whatever, but how it's just not spelled out like that. And then that's part of all the
assets that are, you know, divvied up and everything. So my fear is that you've been in a three-year
roller coaster that there's no clarity. It's not a battle for custody of your children. It's just
about I could have had a gigantic pile of money and I won't have that. Yeah. That sucks. I would
grieve that and move on. Absolutely. Oh, sorry, Chris. Hope that's helpful. It's probably not the
advice you wanted, but sometimes it is just to cut the ties, just to get everything settled and be done
and move on.
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John in New York City. Hi, John. Welcome to the show. Hi, Rachel. Hi, hi, George. Thanks for having me.
Absolutely. How can we help today? So I work for a very, very small family business.
and we don't have a 401k retirement plan.
So the owner is offering me something called deferred equity.
So this would be a small percentage every year that I'm there.
But I don't get paid unless the business is sold.
And if I leave, I get nothing.
Is that too much risk for me to take on,
or is it a wise retirement choice?
No, I would not bank on my retirement for that.
I would be doing some other things with investing.
But would that just be an added, I don't know, benefit, if you will?
Do you have to make contributions to it, or are they just going to give this to you regardless?
They're going to give me one and a quarter percent retroactive to when I started.
So when would you even get that payout?
You'd have to be still employed there when they sell it in order to make anything.
Correct.
And so I guess the idea is I would get first dibs on the business.
if that, you know, when that day comes and I could use that deferred equity as a down payment
on the business.
Or if I choose not to do that and someone else buys it, then I would get paid out.
Are they planning on selling the business?
Is that part of the long-term plan?
Eventually.
Is that 30 years from now or three?
Because there's a big difference.
Well, exactly.
I have no idea.
It could be, I think realistically, maybe around 10 years, but who knows?
Well, I mean, if it costs you nothing, take it.
I still would prefer a retirement plan that's actually yours instead of basically a promise.
Yeah.
Is there an option of he would give you like a traditional 401k situation or this, or is it that this is the retirement package?
No, that's it.
This is basically a way to keep, I'm essentially running the business right now.
And by providing this benefit forward to, it's a retention plan.
forward to, it's a retention plan.
Okay, what do you make?
I gross a little over 80, and I get health insurance and a company vehicle.
Okay. And what kind of industry is this?
I'm not going to say exactly what it is, but it's very niche, and it will, I can guarantee
it will always be around.
Do you want to take it over one day?
I could. I would, I think if the circumstances,
were right I would like to. It's something my family's been involved in for nearly 100 years,
so I could carry that on. I'm 35. Okay. You got any debt? Just the house. Awesome. Are you investing
currently? Very, very little. Just whatever fraction I have on my Roth IRA. Is it because money's too
tight? It's too tight right now. Hmm. Well, that worries me. Because you,
you need to build wealth on your own, and if this equity doesn't happen, you're going to retire
broke.
Yeah.
So that's where I go.
We have another fish to fry, which is why can't I invest 15% of my income?
Why can't I fully fund a Roth IRA?
I would at least be doing, that's the bare minimum, is you funding a Roth IRA every
single year without fail in order to sit yourself up.
In order to do that, I need to make more money, which is something that I plan on negotiating because
I know that it's there.
you make six figures doing this elsewhere?
Yes, but I don't know.
I would probably have to relocate to do it.
I might be willing to do that.
Are you single?
No, I'm married.
Okay.
What is your wife do?
Is she working?
She works part-time for college.
Okay.
Do you guys have kids?
Not yet, but we're planning on it.
Okay.
She needs to go full-time.
She needs to be working, and you guys need to be funding 15% of your income into retirement.
answer, right? Oh, I agree. Yeah. So I think you both need to sit down and say, okay, what do we want our
lives to look like and run some numbers? You can use like even just the Ramsey investment calculator
to say, hey, right now if we fund 15% of our income into retirement, where are we going to go?
Because if you make a hundred grand household, you could fund two Roth IRAs, you and your spouse.
And if you can't do that, it tells me that you have your expenses are too high or the cost of living
is too high, in which case you should go move. Because if you move somewhere where the cost of living's
lower and you can make six figures, it's a no-brainer. I would not hang on to these golden handcuffs of
a promise of equity at 1% per year that you might use as a down payment to buy the business one day
if you can even afford it. There's just way too many variables there for me to be comfortable with.
And if they're giving that to you as a benefit and you're loving the job and you and your wife sit down
and she works more and you guys kind of figure out, okay, here's what we can do for the next couple of years,
then yeah, take the benefit they're giving you.
It's no harm to you.
It's just going to be an extra thing you have in your back pocket,
but I would not at all have the confidence that it's actually going to play out.
I would work on negotiating that to say,
hey, I'm going to vest three years in.
I can take that equity out.
You can pay me that if I do leave.
Absolutely.
All right, let's head to Zoe in Des Moines.
Hi, Zoe.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, how are you?
Hi, we're doing great.
How can we help?
Yeah, I was wondering if I,
should sell the car that I have currently.
So there's like just under $12,000 left on it.
And the payment is like $2.75 a month.
And if I take what I have over $1,000 in my savings and just leave that $1,000 emergency fund.
And then what I got back in a tax refund, I could knock it down.
The loan would be about $6,500 instead.
So I'm just trying to decide if I should get rid of this one, get a different car and have no payment, or if I knock it all the way down to $6,500 and pay it off before the end of the year, if that's okay.
Yeah. How much do you make a year?
Like 40.
Okay.
What's the car worth?
16.
Oh, so you would make money on it.
Yeah.
Yep.
And you could, how quickly could you pay it off with the $6,500 take you?
You said to the end of the year?
Definitely by the end of the year, yeah.
Okay.
Do you like the car?
I do.
Yeah.
But I don't like the debt.
Sure.
Well, I mean, use that as fuel.
If you don't like the debt, let's aggressively just pay the debt off.
But the car is not inherently the issue here.
It is a lot of car.
I mean, it's worth 16K and make 40.
That's a pretty big, you know, ratio.
But it's not on fire.
We wouldn't tell you, hey, you got to.
And if the car was worth $30,000, I would say, yeah, this needs to be sold tomorrow.
Yeah.
But you could, if you want to, you know, you take your debt down to $6,500, you sell it for $16, leaves you with $9,500 to go buy a new to you car.
You could do that, but it's a lot of effort to then just have a different car that you might like less.
Yeah.
Okay.
So I would aggressively just pay it off.
I probably would too.
Just from the hassle standpoint when you look at the numbers.
I mean, you could try to earn an extra grand and have this paid off, you know, and well, I guess which would be close to the end of the year.
That's sad.
We're already there.
I know.
In my head, it's still February.
April. I know. That's what I was thinking, too. Yeah. So I think it's, it is either way, Zoe, I think it's fine. I think it would probably be a personal choice at this point. If you do keep it, be zeal intents, pay it off as soon as you can. But if you're like so tired of it, which it kind of sounds like you are. And you're just like, I don't care about the hassle. I will sell this thing. I will go down to, you know, a different car and just be done with it in 30 days and have no payments. And you'd be happy. You could do that too.
But it's $2.75 a month. So all things considered, it's not a maker break in your budget likely, but I mean, it's still eating your lunch at $40K after taxes. You're like, whew, I could do a whole lot more with that $300 if I didn't have it. So I would use it to fuel it to get rid of it faster, but no harm, no foul if you want to sell it.
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Today's question comes from Patrick in Michigan.
Do you think it's a good idea for my 19-year-old daughter to buy a small home while she goes to college?
I would be a co-signer and she would rent out the extra rooms and manage it.
She would use the rental income to pay the mortgage,
but I could potentially be her backup.
Does this sound like a solid housing plan for her?
Oof.
I don't think so.
Just shivered.
It sounds like you saw a TikTok that sounded really cool
where it was like, it's easy.
Buy an investment property.
Your daughter lives in it,
and you can rent out the rooms.
It's a money-making scheme.
I don't want to combine these things.
These are good things,
buying an investment property,
but you're doing it in a bad way
by co-signing and forcing yourself to buy in that area.
Who knows if it's going to be a good area?
And it's usually a college town, right, is where you're buying.
And so the majority of the renters in that area are probably going to be college students.
So no, I mean, I would ask the question, would I buy an investment property in this area,
regardless if I had a child there or not.
And I wouldn't co-sign.
If you want to do it, just buy it outright yourself.
That's right.
And let her manage it for a fee or something.
You know what I mean?
Like if you wanted to like have something.
But he probably, I don't know if Patrick has a primary home with a mortgage on it,
but I would not go get another mortgage.
So if you can buy it in cash and you're just excited about this prospect of owning some property out there for whatever amount of time, you can go for it.
But I would not do it the way you're describing here.
All right.
Let's head to Logan in – is that Lafayette?
Yeah.
Lafayette.
It's Lafayette, isn't it?
Hey, Logan.
Welcome to the show.
Hi.
Hey, thank you, guys, for taking my call.
Absolutely.
Welcome.
How can we help?
So I'm kind of in a little bit of a pickle right now to where I'm trying to stick to the baby steps and make meaningful progress towards paying off my debt.
But I just feel like, you know, that $1,000 I save, like I will push it up to about $3,000.
And then I kind of feel bad for having that much money, know it to be used somewhere else.
And I just pay off my bet to get back down to $1,000 emergency funds.
I think it's just I need like a clear goal in mind ball paying off my debt.
And that's where I'm asking you guys is how can I stick to that baby step number two?
Well, that kind of is your goal.
Is each individual debt that you're paying off is what you're looking at.
And that's going to be your goal is the next smallest debt.
Is there something that's happening in your life that you're going to need more in that emergency fund?
Or is it just the idea of having $1,000?
that makes you nervous or what causes you to keep bumping it up?
Well, because I moved out with my girlfriend in August of this past year.
I used to live in a different state and then we got jobs over here in Indiana.
So that's where we've been for like the last eight months.
But my girlfriend was actually in a pretty bad car accident in October and she did not have health insurance.
So she just has a mountain pile of debt to that she's trying to pay off.
So that's why I was thinking that I probably will need a little bit more just in case that she's unable to pay something off or pay her bills, then maybe I can step in help that way.
How much debt do you have?
Right now, I actually just, I paid off my credit cards.
It was about five grand worth of credit cards about two months ago.
So I just got the auto loan, which I did about a $2,500 payment today.
Nice.
It should be around 19.8, I believe.
So about 20 grand left on the car?
Yes.
What do you make a year?
I make about 41,000.
Hoof.
Man, that's a lot of car for your life.
Yeah.
What's the car worth?
I'm going to be honest.
I got it at a pretty bad interest rate, too,
but the car is worth probably around 11 to 13, give or take, traded.
Did you roll over negative equity?
Oh, I did not.
I'm wondering private party value if you can get closer to that 20 and you just save up five or six grand over the next couple months and just sell it and get a different car.
That was my plan too, but I think the main issue with that is me and my girlfriend, we all, we work different shifts.
And you share one car?
I don't, I mean, we probably could, but I feel like it would be more of a hassle just because I go to work at 1230 and she goes to work at 430.
so it's going to be kind of hard to...
But do you all currently share one car?
We do not know.
She has her own car.
Okay, wait, so what's the problem about working different shifts?
You're not going to be using her car.
I'm saying get a different car.
You save up $6,000 or whatever the difference you're underwater in
and then save up enough to get a different car, a cheap car.
And then you'll have a different car with no payment.
And then you can stack up that emergency fund really quick.
Yeah, so basically instead of paying off
$20,000, then just save up 10, cut your timeline in half, save up 10, pay off the negative equity,
and then go get yourself a $4,000 car.
Let's say you sell yours for $15,000, you owe 20, right?
So use part of your 10 to cover that, that's five, and then you'll have five left to get a new-to-you car.
So you just cut your whole timeline in half, basically, of getting out of debt.
So instead of just making extra pay-s to my car, just save up to $10,000 in cash and just
Do it that way?
Yep.
Yep.
That's what I would do.
How quickly could you do that if you got real aggressive?
Working multiple jobs, overtime, if you can, all of that.
Probably by the end of the year, you ever take.
Okay.
That's not a bad timeline.
And now it's, hey, I can survive on a thousand-buck emergency fund until the end of the year.
Yeah.
And if something comes up, you just stop the baby steps and stack up cash really quick.
Yeah, instead of all of 20-27 still paying off this car.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, it just, it strengths down that timeline.
and then after that car, you have the new car, the old ones sold and all of that,
then you start saving up an emergency fund.
And at this point, truthfully, you're not in a place to support your girlfriend.
Yeah, you don't have the money.
You're broke.
So that's not a reality where you can cover her rent for her for any amount of time.
How old are you guys?
She's 20 and I'm 21.
Okay.
Do you have health insurance?
Do you have health insurance?
My dad pays for it.
She has her own.
Okay.
Okay.
So, Logan, I think what you're doing in your thought process of taking care of her is very honorable.
But I would keep finances as separate as possible because there is no legal marriage here.
There's nothing that protects you in any of this because there's a, yeah, I mean, I hope not.
But there's a good chance that, you know, you guys six months down the road aren't together anymore.
And if you, you know, went into debt or started giving, you know, all this money to her, yeah, you know, that's 10, 12 grand that you don't have going to someone that's a day.
You're not married to.
And so it sounds really harsh.
And again, if you're in a position to help pay for her and you want to, and even if she leaves or you leave and it's, you know, you look back years from now and you're like, oh, wow.
And you feel good about it still, then that's one thing.
But we just have talked to some people.
they pay on people's student loans and they're, you know, they're co-mingling lives. And so
what happens is you end up commingling money naturally because you basically are acting like you're
married, but you're not. And so I would just, I would just give you a word of caution. You guys may
need to set up some pretty hard boundaries when it comes to money. And if she can't pay rent
for foreseeable amount of time, she needs to go find somewhere she can't afford it or go live with
family while she heals. But you can't foot the bill for her. Yeah, that makes sense. But it's also
a fact that I've had a hard time saving over the years as well to where I've actually never had
probably more than like four grand cash at one time as well throughout my working life for the last
four years. Yeah. And would you say that's due to having a little bit of debt? Yeah,
just doing stupid decisions when I was 18, 19 years old and translating to now, yeah. So let that
fear be the fuel to get out of debt faster with that thousand bucks going, hey, I'm not safe.
I want to be at a place where I got 20 grand saved up to protect me. And that's where you'll be
if you follow the plan. Yeah, and Logan, you're on the right track. And being 21 and starting
this is amazing. There's people 41 that are starting this. I wish I knew it when I was his age.
I mean, you are ahead decades. If you do this stuff, Logan, stay out of debt, live below your
means, have this emergency fund, get out of debt, bump it up to a fully funded emergency
funds start investing and retirement, literally walking the baby steps, you will retire a multi-millionaire.
Welcome back to The Ramsey Show and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio.
I am Rachel Cruz with George Camel, and we are taking your questions at AAA 8255-225.
All right, in Armadillo, Texas, we have Katrina on the line.
Amarola.
But it was so, I'm like, is there an Armadillo, Texas?
Because there needs to be.
There are Armadillo.
I literally was thinking Texas.
Katrina, can you confirm?
My gosh, Amarillo.
I'll never live that down, Katrina.
Deadgummit.
I know.
Oh, my gosh, Katrina.
She's so relatable.
No.
I love it.
Katrina, welcome to the show.
How can we help?
So I'm just kind of been chasing my tail.
Like an armadillo.
Or a cat, like Katrina, cat.
Oh, there we go.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks you for helping that out.
You're fine.
You're fine.
So I've been chasing Mattel for a while, a series of bad luck with my family.
Dave, he talks about Murphy's law.
Well, Murphy moved into my home and has affected me, my grown daughter, her good friend,
and my husband, and it's been heck.
Like we were trying to balance out the bills.
and basically we're on payment plans for everything and we have, according to our budget in every dollar,
it looks like it's going to be okay, but it's never okay because we're paying payment plans on everything,
which is more expensive.
For example, I just paid the last month of $678 water bill.
So there's unexpected things that come up?
Are you behind on utilities?
Is that what you're saying?
Yes.
On everything.
On everything.
Okay.
So what's happened in life, Katrina, when you said Murphy moved in?
Well, I worked for a place that was grant funded, and my grant was ending.
And fortunately, it took me a while, but I've got another job, and it's good.
My daughter worked for the same place.
Okay.
How old is she?
She's 22.
she, before this, she had her own place.
Okay.
So she's living with you now because she can't afford her own place?
Yes.
Because of this new job doesn't pay what she was making?
Yeah, it's not even a living wage.
And that's the same place you're working?
Was working.
Okay.
We both worked at the same place.
And what was it?
What were you guys doing?
I was helping with healthcare navigation,
and she was helping with phoning people homes and worked for HUD.
Work for HUD. Okay. What are you making now?
I am making about $4,500, I think, a month.
Is that your household income?
No, just mine. My husband makes about $2,400 bring home.
What does he do?
She works for the state. He works for workforce development. He's been there for 20-something years.
And he makes 30 grand?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That doesn't make sense.
Yeah.
And he had a raise and then they had a cut and that was another thing that messed us up.
They gave him promotion and gave him a raise and then demoted across the board because of funding demoted everybody.
What does he do?
What's his role?
He's workforce development specialist, so he helps people find jobs.
Okay, so your take-home pay is $6,900, and what's the total balance of all the consumer debts that you guys owe?
Consumer debts.
Everything but the mortgage.
Okay, that would be plus like $200,000 per take.
That does not include the mortgage?
No, that does include the mortgage.
It's going to be about $150,000, I think.
$100.
And then my mortgage,
and my mortgage about $144,
that it's less now,
because I've paid it.
Okay, so you have $150,000 in debt
aside from the mortgage.
Mm-hmm.
Break down some of those debts for us.
About $70 is,
his student loans, of course.
Whose are those?
They're my, they're evil.
How long have you had them?
since 2012.
Okay.
We have some credit cards, and then we have about $30,000, no, sorry, $20,000 left on a car.
We paid one car off.
Okay.
And what's on the credit cards?
It was basic living expenses.
I mean, you got 70 in student loans and 20 on a car loan.
That's 90 out of the 150.
So where's the other 60?
Is that all credit cards?
I think, no, it's not $60,000.
I didn't math correctly.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
Closer to 15.
Sorry.
Okay.
It's all good.
That definitely helps.
150 grand was a worst number.
So, all right.
So you got just about $105,000.
And most of it is those pesky student loans.
And then we got this car loan.
So if you laid out your debt's smallest, the largest.
I'm guessing one of these little credit cards is the first one that needs to go.
Yes, it would be.
Okay.
And right now you're saying when you do the budget, there is money left over on paper.
Yes.
How much is left if nothing crazy happened in a month?
About $400.
And what payment plans are you guys on?
You said utilities.
Just utilities and, of course, my mortgage.
Okay, yeah.
Okay, so, but you're able to pay your mortgage every month, correct?
Now I'm paying
29 days behind
Okay, so I think our first goal is to get caught up
So we want to get out of this payment plan
With the utilities and we want to be caught up to the mortgage
Okay, Katrina?
And paying your four walls before any debt payments kept in.
Yes, so food, shelter,
which utilities and house is this.
So this is your A1 before anyone gets paid.
Okay, credit cards could go.
The car payment would be the next priority
after the four walls
because you've got to get from A to B
to get to work.
But outside of that, if the student loans
and credit cards can't get paid one month,
I'd rather those go default
than your utilities and your housing.
Yeah.
They haven't been getting paid.
Who's not been getting paid?
No, I said those have not been getting paid.
The student loan or the credit cards?
No.
We just stopped.
So you have $7,000.
How much is your daughter bringing in a month?
Whatever $11 an hour is.
Okay, so she needs to go be working.
About $24,000 a year or so.
Yeah.
somewhere else too.
You know what I mean?
Be looking for a job.
And you mentioned a friend.
Is there a friend living with you all?
Yes.
Yes.
Just a family friend that was a roommate with her.
And is she working?
He lost his job.
He lost his job too.
But he just now recently found a good one.
They need to be paying rent.
They were.
And then they, he, I don't make her do it, but he does.
And he was paying and then he had to stop because he lost his job.
that he's got a good one now.
Like we're at the starting level, everything's okay now.
We just need to get out of this chasing my tail.
Yeah.
Okay, so the $7,000 a month, Katrina, that you guys have,
you guys have to pay the mortgage on that
and making sure that the car is paid for and your utilities.
That's all you guys have to do.
And you're going to be eating rice and beans, beans and rice.
I mean, the whole bit, right?
There's like the food budget is nothing.
Like, we are going to eat, but it's like that slow.
we're doing nothing else but catching up.
And that needs to be your goal probably for the next couple of paycheck cycles.
On top of your husband getting a better job.
That solves a whole lot of problems if he can double his income by doing some work that
pays him what he's worth.
Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here.
Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what
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Kyle in Lansing, Michigan, is up next.
Kyle, welcome to the show.
Hey, Rachel, thanks for taking my call.
Absolutely. How can we help today?
Well, a few months ago, we lost my mom to an unexpected heart attack.
Oh, my gosh. I'm so sorry.
How old was she?
79.
I'm so sorry.
Lost my dad five years ago to cancer.
And I recently came into a sizable amount of money.
and I just want some opinions on how to not lose it.
Okay.
What does a sizable amount of money mean?
It's a touch over $2.5 million.
Okay.
Was this from mom's estate or what?
It is.
Okay.
Wow.
So your parents did well, obviously.
They did well.
Yes.
Did you know about all this?
Is this a prize to you?
Yes and no.
I have two siblings.
We always knew they were comfortable.
but just not to this scale, I guess.
Yeah.
You didn't know just how comfortable.
Right, right.
Wow.
Oh, my gosh.
Wow.
What kind of, how is this $2.5 million divvied out?
Is this in cash?
Is it in an asset?
For the most part.
Most of it, it's all, like Edward Jones.
Okay.
There's about a half a million in IRA.
We've got to get out in 10 years.
and the rest is in cash.
Wow. Okay. What do you make?
Between my wife and I, we're about 200.
Fantastic.
And how old are you guys?
I'm 45. My wife's 47.
Okay. And how are you guys financially?
We're pretty good.
Yeah, we just built a new house, just under $500,000 in that,
which we borrowed the money for my mom to build.
and since has been forgiven.
Oh, wow.
We still have our old house that we're getting ready to sell, you know,
painting and put new carpet in and sprucing it up.
And that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000.
Okay.
So the payment to her, that $500, it just went away when she passed.
That doesn't take out of your $2.5.
Well, it's part of the $2.5.
Oh, okay.
So would it be $2 million left or was it supposed to be $3, but now it's $2.5?
No, there's just a little over 2 million left.
Okay.
After the house.
After the house.
Gotcha.
Gotcha.
Two million and you guys have no debts whatsoever.
Nothing.
No.
But then when you sell this house, it goes back up to 2.3 in a sense, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
With everything.
Okay.
That's great.
And, yeah, cash on hand for you guys.
Where are you guys at?
Well, we just moved about 70,000 over into a money market because it was sitting
kind of stagnant into just a savings account and our financial advisor asked us to move that
because that's not doing anything there.
Is that your emergency fund or is that for earmark for something else?
No, it's just money, just extra money.
You say.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
And how much do you guys have in retirement for you?
I actually have a pension to work.
My wife is about, she's a little over $200,000 in a Roth.
and I've got about, I don't know, 55,000 in a row, I guess.
Okay.
All right, that's great.
So you guys are in what we call Baby Step 7.
You've got no debts whatsoever, house is paid for,
which puts you in a really unique place,
because you have a lot of options now.
And there's only three things you can do with money,
and that's to give it, save it, spend it.
And we would recommend doing all three with reasonable ratios.
Okay.
So I would be giving a portion of this money,
money. That's up to you guys. It's a matter of the heart. I would be enjoying some of it. What's the thing you guys really want to do? The thing you want to upgrade. Maybe it's a car. Maybe it's a thing in the house. And then invest the rest of it and build generational wealth so you can be able to do this for your kids one day. Which, by the way, do you have kids? Yeah, we have one six-year-old. And that's, I'm, I've always been a kind of a saver, I guess. You know, my parents, you know, they beat it in India when you're a kid, save, safe, save. You know, we've got a new house. We don't need to do anything else.
there. We've got good vehicles. I mean, neither one of us have any desire to buy new vehicles.
Right. Yeah. And I want to make sure that this opportunity is there for my daughter,
you know, when I'm gone. Yeah. So I just don't want this to trickle away in the next, you know,
30 years or 40 years. I have a good feeling it won't just based on how you're talking to me.
You're probably going to be handing over $10 million to your daughter at this right. Yeah, for sure.
I hope you're right. Because, I mean, the money, if you just let it sit without adding anything,
to it would double every seven years.
Okay.
Yep.
So by the time, you know, if you think about that.
2 million to 4 million to 8 million to 16 million.
Do you see where we're going with this?
Yep, yep, yep.
And so I, yeah, and so since you are a natural saver, Kyle, you know, I would sit down
with your financial advisor and kind of you guys map out.
But part of this, too, is, you know, create good memories, too, with your daughter.
You know, there's, you know, go on a great trip every year with some of.
of this, you know, and like have some experience and live life well. Make sure, you know,
she's paying for college. This can be part of, golly, her wedding funds, you know, even paying for
her first starter home or something. You know what I mean? I'm like, where she never would have
debt. Like, like there's some big things that you guys can do with this money that's really
wonderful. And you have the time for it, for her specifically, considering she's six. But,
but enjoy some of this too. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be just stuff. I wouldn't just be like,
oh, go buy a bunch of stuff. You can. You guys can afford it. But find some
experiences that you guys can do together as a family.
We actually just got back from a Disney, three-day Disney cruise.
Oh, great.
So that was a lot of fun.
That is fun.
Yeah.
So like make memories together too.
You know, I think your mom, you know, you just kind of think through, okay, what would
my parents want for my nuclear family?
And I think they would want peace for you guys and financially, you know, being debt-free
and doing what you guys have done.
You've created that.
You know, create some great memories is what I would say as well.
but I think this money, yeah, as you play it out mathematically,
it's going to be plenty for you all in retirement.
And, yeah, and to be passing on something to her as well.
All right.
Have you funded college?
She has about, my mom started to fight 29 for her,
and she's got about $28 or $29,000 in there.
Oh, that's awesome.
That's great.
I was going to say you could do something called superfunding.
It's already kind of superfunded at $6 to have $30,000 is awesome.
But you might want to put another $10 or $20,000.
there and then never touch it again and just let it ride and she'll be just fine.
That was part of our last meeting with our financial advisor and he advised us to not just dump
a bunch in. He said, just trickle a little bit and, you know, a couple thousand or a few
thousand dollars a year. Yeah, because you guys could just pay out of pocket too if she ends up
going, you know, you wouldn't get this, obviously the pay taxes on.
Yeah, super funding is basically instead of funding a few grand a year, you just put in 10 grand now
and then never add to it. Okay. Because mathematically, that'll be the best way if you can
lump summit now, and then you want to have to add as much over time in total contributions.
So that's one thing you can do, but that's such a tiny portion of this.
That's what I was going to say, yeah, it's a drop in.
And so I would be investing most of this so that you can create generational wealth.
And I would at least be maxing out, you know, all of your tax advantage retirement accounts first.
And then once you run out of options there, move to non-retirement in a taxable brokerage account.
And so you've got a lot of options on the table.
And I would work with your financial advisor if you trust them to walk you through the best
method to invest those dollars.
But man, you've got a great problem to have, and what a wonderful legacy that your parents
life work, Kyle?
She does.
She does.
Okay, yep.
And you obviously are working.
Yep.
Yep.
I was going to say, yeah, I probably wouldn't change much unless, you know, one of you
wanted to stay home and be a stay-at-home parent.
You know, if something like that, like there's a big lifestyle shift you guys could
do if you wanted if that's, like, a value that you guys have.
That's one beautiful gift of this money that could happen.
but I definitely wouldn't change, you know, at least for you or somebody to still be producing an income,
you guys kind of living off of that for your primary source.
Just to, there's kind of a groundingness there.
And then you kind of have this other fund over here that's growing.
But when you want to do something big, it's available to you, you know, to be able to take out some money and enjoy it when the time comes.
That's wild.
Man, what a beautiful.
grand. If they just put $2 million in there and the market does 10% this year, it just replaced their
income. That's pretty wild. I know. That's when if you hate your jobs, you know, you can go
do something for less money and you're good. Like, you know what I mean? That's a freedom fund right there.
But to have like that, still that purpose. There's something in that that that's beautiful. So,
wow, what an amazing testimony, you guys of, God, that does. That's how to do it right. And money doesn't
change the family tree out of this idea of like, oh my gosh, we're suddenly rich. It just, it gives opportunities to do
amazing things for others and your family.
When people hear my story of paying off debt, they say things like, dang, that must have been
so hard.
I can never do that.
And I tell them, sure you can.
It's a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain.
But do you know what's really hard?
Working your whole life and never having anything to show for it, never having the long-term
gain, just feeling broke and stressed and maxed all the time.
And sadly, that's the hard that most people choose.
Listen, you're capable of transforming your situation and living a life of freedom, but you need
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Well, George, you know, we wish that we could get to every call and every question.
In a perfect world.
But it's hard.
We live in a fallen world.
We can't get to all of them.
24 hours in a day.
You know, we call some cities Armadillo and Saddamarillo.
You know, sometimes that happens.
So we're not perfect.
We're fallible creatures.
We are.
But here's the thing is most of our advice is consistent.
Right?
what we talk about on this show is what it is.
And for those of you listening and have been listening forever and ever, amen,
you could probably answer the questions just as well as me and George.
Or that you think you could.
Or you think you could.
No, but, you know, that is a great thing because we are able to use technology because of that,
because of so much content that is out there to feed an AI system, if you will.
A language learning model, as they say.
And we, oh, thank you.
And we created Ask Ramsey.
So it is our own version of Ramsey AI.
And you can actually go in, ask your question like you were calling the show, talking to one of us,
and you will get to the answer that we would say on this show, because this has been fed, if you will, by, I mean, hundreds of these episodes.
Yes, of everything, you guys.
So if you have a question about your life and your specific situation, head over to ramsysolutions.com and ask your question in the Ask Ramsey Box.
It's right there for you.
or if you're watching on YouTube or listening on podcasts,
we'll put a link down below.
But, you know, technology, you love it and you hate it.
And this is a...
This is a love it.
Because you're able to spread the information
and help people, you know,
if you're not able to get through.
Right now, all of our lines are booked up.
And even, like, the DMs.
I go in my Instagram DMs.
I'm like, it's three paragraphs or 17 numbers.
I'm like, I'm like, go use Ask Ramsey.
It will walk you through all of it.
Because it will, like, take all your numbers
and do what you need.
It really is amazing.
So, again, check it out at ramsysysysolutions.
com. All right. We have another person calling from Charlotte, George. We were just there last week. That was a great event, by the way. We had a great time. Thank you to everyone who came out. Yes. We're going to be in Anaheim next week. George and I are.
Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's already here. I think it's sold out. Denver. There's a crew that's going to be there tomorrow, John Deloney, Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman. And then Ken Coleman, Jade Warshaw and myself are going to be in Phoenix next week. So I think there's still some tickets to that one. I think all the other shows are sold out.
Oh, sweet. Jump on it.
go to ramsysolutions.com for tickets.
Ramsey Show Live.
A plug for that, because I see Charlotte on our board, and we had such a fun time.
And then people go, when are you coming to Charlotte?
And we're like, dude, we were just there.
We were just there.
I know, I know.
But we are excited to talk to Philip.
So, hey, Philip.
Welcome to the show.
Hi, George and Rachel.
How are you guys doing?
We're doing great.
How can we help?
So me and my wife currently live in a mobile home out here near Charlotte.
and my in-laws are currently that we're about to receive an inheritance.
So it was $100,000.
Wow.
And they set us down the other night and told us they wanted to pay off our mobile home.
I was just calling it to get an answer to whether there will be any kind of gift tax or can they just, you know, put that money in their account and pay it all.
So you're getting this inheritance while they're still alive?
Is that the idea?
Well, my wife's grandmother, she's very sick.
He's not expecting to make it.
So the inheritance is going to your wife's parents,
and then they want to gift it because they don't need it?
Yes, yes.
Got it.
So is the $100,000, Philip, going to pay off the mobile home,
or they want to, in addition, pay off the mobile home?
Yeah, it will.
Our mobile home payoff is like $31,100 somewhere around there.
Okay.
That was completely separate.
Yes.
So are they using the $100,000 for that, though?
They are.
Yes.
They are.
Okay.
So you guys would be left with about $70,000 in cash with a paid-off mobile home.
So yes, they can do that.
Yeah, each individual parent can give each individual child $18,000 a year without a beat.
19 now.
Big upgrade.
Is it 19?
They upped it to 19.
This time?
Okay.
For 2026.
So that's 19.
I had 18 in my head.
That's the annual gift tax exclusion.
And so if the in-laws are married, you guys are married, that's potentially 76 grand in gift exclusions, which just means they don't have to file the gift tax form that goes against their lifetime, you know, state exemption.
And so that you can do up to that much.
Now, you guys will not owe anything in taxes.
It's them that have to deal with, hey, if they give over that $76,000 threshold, they'll have to file a form.
That's all.
Okay.
Okay.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
So just make sure they're aware.
Mm-hmm.
And if they have, you know, a tax pro they work with, just say, hey, just so you guys know, if you do the full $100,000 this year, you might need to file a form for that extra, you know, 24-ish grand.
Okay.
Yeah.
Phil, are you guys, do you guys have plans to move out of that home at all?
No, none.
We're not.
We're staying.
We're here for the long haul.
What long haul?
Until it's worth nothing?
For the foreseeable future.
Because that's the part that worries me is that mobile homes going down in value.
Yeah, make sure you guys are saving on the side, Philip, that one day, you know, if you guys, yeah, from a value standpoint, from the value of the mobile home, it will start going down.
So making sure that you guys have some money save that if you need to upgrade and or go buy a house or something, you know, that you guys have, you're not building any equity right now, if you will.
And that's where a lot of people build a lot of their wealth from a home perspective.
is in their equity in their home. So just be thinking about that on just the side that maybe you put,
I don't know, maybe this other 70,000 away for, who knows, you know, maybe a down payment down the road.
So just be thinking about that. I'm so sorry for the loss, but I'm thankful that, yeah, you guys can put this money to good use.
All right. Let's head to Colton in Asheville. Hi, Colton. Welcome to the show.
Hey, thanks for taking my call. So I've got a question about,
my retirement account. Basically, my financial advisors wanting me to do something, this doesn't
make any sense to me. I was hoping I could get your advice. I worked for a company for two
and a half years, and during that time, I went through Financial Peace University, and I realized
that instead of putting my retirement into a pre-tax account, I should do the after-tax
403B. So I've got two accounts there.
I don't work there anymore, but they are changing from Transamerica retirement
solutions to some other company. And so they called me and said,
like they wanted me to keep my money with Transamerica, like Transamerica called me.
And so they want me to pull it out of that account and then put it into a Roth IRA with them.
And I thought that sounded a little sketchy.
So I called my advisor and he said, don't do that.
But let's pull it out and put it into a normal IRA here at Edward Jones.
But I'm most likely going to be going back to work with that company, like in the next few weeks.
and it'll be a long-term position.
So I don't know if it even makes any sense to take it away from that company
or just let them change to their new retirement solution company
and keep it with them and start investing back into it.
Well, I would just hang on tight until we know what's going to happen in the next few weeks.
If you go back to that job, you just reopen that 4-3B and keep investing.
But it's not bad advice to say once you leave a job, you should do a direct role.
roll over to an IRA because you don't have control over that anymore. The employer doesn't want to
manage this old fund. It's like keeping your stuff of your ex's house. And it can be getting dinged
with fees at the same time. And the IRA gives you basically unlimited options to invest where your
employer plan might have 10 to 15 funds to choose from. Yeah. So, Colt, we do always suggest, yeah,
when you leave a company, you roll over your 401K or 403B to a traditional IRA. That's great.
If it's traditional 401K money or 43B money. That's true. If it was rough, yes, that would be different.
But since you may be going back there, yeah, instead of dealing with all that hassle, just wait it out.
If you don't go back, I would roll it over.
You can do it through your advisor.
You can do that on your own.
There's a lot of options here.
But they're not giving you bad advice.
And an example is my wife worked at Ramsey for nine years.
Well, when she left, we rolled over her money.
She had some in traditional, some in Roth.
We rolled over the Roth side to a Roth IRA, rolled over the traditional side to a traditional IRA.
And it was direct rollover.
So we didn't see the money.
It was not in our bank account.
We moved it directly to avoid any taxes.
Yep.
So good. Well, yep, hope that helps Colton. And yeah, good luck with all the transitions. I hope you kind of get settled and feel good about where you end up.
All right, let's cut to the chase. It's easy to get discouraged about crazy house prices and interest rates. But when you have the right real estate agent to help you buy and sell the right way, you'll have confidence to make smart decisions. Ramsey trusted agents aren't just experts who guide you through buying or selling. They're people you can trust to have your back.
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Our scripture of the day comes from 1-Peter 4-8.
Above all, love each other deeply,
because love covers a multitude of sins.
Tina Faye said,
there are no mistakes, only opportunities.
Thank you, Tina Faye.
What an original, you know.
Who knew? She's a poet and a comedian.
We love Dina Faye and Amy Poehler.
All right.
Let's head to Phoenix, where we're going to be next week.
Hi, Emily.
Welcome to the show.
Hi.
How are you guys doing?
We're doing great.
What are you doing next Tuesday night, Emily?
Hi.
Probably working.
Okay, well, we'll have Christian pick up at the end of the call.
And if you are open, I think, yeah, we can snag you two seats to our Ramsey Show live.
It's at the Mesa Arts Center.
April 21st.
7 p.m. We can even have you at VIP at 5 if you're free. Oh my goodness. That'd be amazing.
Okay. Okay. Stay on the line. Christian will pick up. We'll get you some tickets.
Rachel makes dreams come true. Hey, Emily, I did this two weeks ago. John Deloney and I were hosting
and a guy called in from Charlotte. And I said, we're going to be there next week in Charlotte. And he's like,
really? So I got him to tickets. Met him in the signing line. He said, I'm the guy you gave the tickets to.
So Emily, I hope I meet you next week. Outrageous generosity. Yes. George won't be there,
but Jade War, Sean King Coleman won't be.
But all right.
Emily, how can we help today?
Okay.
So right now, I'm a massage therapist.
I make about $58,000 annually, but I'm currently $65,000 in debt.
Right now, the last six months we've been staying at my mother-in-law's house,
just save the money and get caught up.
But I just recently found out that there's the house who's an older house,
so it's covered in, like, mold.
So we're trying to get out as soon as possible.
But my main concern, so in 2018, I went in with my family and we bought a multi-generational house.
But then, of course, things ended up badly.
So we all, like, two people are living there currently, but the other we all left.
But my main concern is because I brought it up to get refinanced.
possibly them buying me out, but they're just not budging at all.
Or even to like if we could sell the home and each put it the three ways.
But yeah, they're just not budging at all.
So I'm just kind of, I don't know what I can do.
Is that the $65,000 in debt?
Is the home situation or is that above?
Yeah, that's a different thing.
That's my own.
Some is in 43, I think is in credit cards, a $9,000 personal loan.
And then also I believe it's $13,000 for my car loan.
Okay.
Was there an agreement when you guys bought this home of how this all worked?
Yeah, we didn't sign it on paper, but essentially we're supposed to get the home and then the next person, like, those three different families.
And then the next person we're going to use the equity for another home, and then that one would build equity and get another.
So essentially we thought we were going to have three different homes, but it didn't end up panning out that way.
So you guys are just riding on vibes right now?
Yes.
And it's just, well, we don't want to do that.
and we didn't sign anything.
Yes, exactly.
And, like, they won't much.
Like, it's like I'm trying to get out of it and just.
How much do you own of this home?
What percentage?
150,000 left.
The home currently is 425,000.
Mm-hmm.
And what's the plan for the people that are living there now?
What are they saying?
You're just saying,
mainly my mother, she just doesn't,
she thinks it should be a forever home that all the,
because I have four sisters,
So it's like all of us.
He ain't living forever in a mold covered home.
I'll tell you that much.
I mean, it's going to crush her health.
Does she not understand that?
Like my mother-in-law is the one.
The mother-in-law has the mold.
Yeah.
The other home is different.
Okay.
Gotcha.
Okay.
And you're married, Emily.
How much do you guys bring home a month, you and your husband combined?
I believe he makes 50 as well.
But right now, our finances are separate.
He's trying to pay off his stuff while we're at his mother.
and then I'm trying to pay off my stuff.
Okay.
How much, what kind of debt does he have?
He also has a car loan himself, and then he also has, I believe, $9,000 in credit card.
Okay.
Why are you guys doing it separately?
That's always been that.
I don't think we've ever combined money.
How long have you guys been married?
We've been married, 23, but we've been together for 13 years.
Okay.
Well, what I would probably do, if I were you guys, I'm trying to think your cars, loans, everything, what did you rack up $43,000 of credit card debt with?
Well, I have two small children, and it was just like one thing after another.
He didn't lose his job for like two years, so he was just trying to...
So he lost his job for two years.
Your ex-husband or your current husband?
Oh, my current husband.
And you help float his financial life.
Yes.
But we're not combining finances, only when he needs help.
Yeah.
Okay.
So what I would do, Emily, is this is a bigger question.
It's more of a shift in the relationship.
But what we find couples who work together and say, hey, this is our household income.
Here are our household bills.
Your debt is my debt.
Like we're in this financial life together.
They win faster.
They get out of debt faster.
They build wealth faster.
When you're trying to do your own thing, it's going to take you both longer.
But when you have synergy, not only from a mathematical perspective, but also a teamwork perspective, it does.
It just goes so much faster.
So that's a really big conversation because you guys have done your own thing for about 15 years with money.
But what I would do, I would.
I would really, yeah, I would push you guys to combine and work together.
and you guys list out your debts together, you know, like his $9,000 in credit card debt,
your $9,000 personal loan together, you guys like make a plan and say, hey, what if we lived on
$60,000 and we had $45,000, you know, this year to pay off debt?
You know, what could we knock out?
And you start together doing a plan.
And you guys could be out of debt in two, two and a half years if you really, really focused on this.
But you couldn't do that separately.
You would be slowly doing it because you're paying some bills over here.
He's paying some.
It's all disjointed right now.
Yes.
So I would, yeah, I would have a relationship conversation and combine your money.
Got it.
And what is your share of the house that you co-own?
How much would you actually get if they bought you out?
I'm just a $43,000 for credit card.
I own a third of the mortgage and the deed.
So yeah, so you own a third of the house. If they were to buy you out, how much would you net?
I just wanted the 43 is what I just asked for. I'm not sure.
You just want the 43 even though you own more of it.
Exactly. I just want to get out of what I mean.
The one thing you can do is to get a real estate attorney and you can do something called a partition action where a court can order and force the sale of the home.
But you need to kind of get some details down. What's the home actually worth? Get the home appraised.
and then what's your share, how much are you wanting,
and then present a formal written buyout offer?
Because right now, nothing has been written down.
It's all just messy, dysfunctional family dynamics.
And it'll continue to get messier as time goes on, honestly, Emily.
So organization is your best friend right now.
That includes getting on the same page with your husband, combining the finances,
attacking your debts as one.
That will help all of this.
Got it.
Well, thank you so much.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
Absolutely, Emily.
Thanks for the call.
Yes, thank you.
Yeah, that's, yeah, hold on the line too, Emily, if you're still there, and we can see if we can get you tickets to Phoenix and bring your husband.
This is a perfect way to get on the same.
You know what?
Yes.
Ask your question.
Hey, our finances are separate.
Yeah.
Here's why.
And have the jury weigh in.
Yeah, and have him there too.
We can all talk it out in the Ramsey Show live.
That's why we love this event.
But Emily, you're so kind.
Can Jain and Rachel can solve pretty much any quandary?
So kind.
I believe in you guys.
You know, but this is the, this is the warning call of.
when people commingle from a family perspective, real estate.
They have this dream that, hey, let's buy a piece of land.
We'll plot it out and everyone can build a home.
Well, when one person...
We'll have seven homes one day.
And when one person wants to move out of state
because the spouse, you know, got a job
and they got to sell a home to a stranger,
it messes up the whole thing or this.
You know, we're all going to go in on a home together
and you can have this equity.
I'll have this and it's going to be great.
Will it though?
It does.
Yeah, it rarely works, you guys.
I can count on zero fingers,
how many calls we've got.
And we're like, this was the biggest blessing in my life that I co-owned it with my mother-in-law,
my sister.
I know.
And now three of them won out.
One of them doesn't.
It's a nightmare.
I mean, it's a tangled nightmare.
And so, yep, just a warning, you guys for all of that.
But George, great show.
Thank you.
Thanks to everyone in the booth.
And thank you, everyone, for listening.
And remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace.
And that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.
