Transcript of Most Americans Go From ... | Happy Scribe (2024)

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

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Hi, nice to be here. Thank you. Good to have you.

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How can we help?

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Yes, so I'm 50 years old. I'm currently in Baby Steps 5 and 6. I met a wonderful woman a year and a half ago. We're now engaged. Yes. She's in Baby Step 2, and she's the one who got me into you. She's in Baby Steps 2. She has She has 16,000 in credit card debt and 65,000 in equity line debt. She's going to be moving in with me in a month. And her house is worth 600,000. She owes 300,000 Her mortgage is only $1,700 at 2%, and we're looking at running it out. We can get about $3,000 a month. But my question is, Can we sell it, have $200,000 out of it, and be debt-free, or rent it out? Can we rent it out for up to three years and not have capital gains? She wants to handle her debt. If we don't sell the house, she wants to handle her debt. She doesn't need to help. We're engaged. We'll probably be engaged for about a year. I know after that, then I'm going to be more hoping to contribute to her debt. But up to the time we're married, she's standing firm with wanting to handle this herself.

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So when are you guys getting married?

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We're looking at next spring, summer.

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Okay, so a year. About a year. You said a year from now. About a year. Yeah. So I wouldn't do anything combining anything until that happens. So if she wants to sell her house, rent her house, whatever that is, take care of her debt. I mean, I still see this as two completely separate finances until you guys get married. And then at that point is when I would, yeah, I would probably just sell her house at that point and take that equity. And for you guys, yeah, to pay off her debt, to have some savings. I mean, do you have any savings, Josh?

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Yes, we both have about $280,000 in 401(k)s. So what is that? 560 combined? Yeah. Yeah. And then she's not contributing contributing right now, I'm contributing with my job. We have that. But I have about 90,000. I have 40,000 in my high-yield savings, and I have about 50,000 between my checking and my Robin hood account that I could do money with. I have about $50,000 I could do money with. But she- Let me ask you something.

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I'm thinking- Yes, sir. Why are you waiting a year to get married if she's moving in?

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That's what we feel is the best for us right now at this point.

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That's not an answer. Why? Why do you feel that's best for you?

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Because we just got engaged a month ago, and we didn't want to get married right away, but she is moving in in about a month.

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Okay. Well, what I was going to suggest is just get married. It solves the whole thing. But if you're not going to get married, keep everything completely separate, like Rachel said, until you're married. She should not sell her house until she's married. Okay. Because she might need a place to go.

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Yes, I understand. That's my biggest concern.

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I really would- And I really would- I don't even- I don't even think I would rent it because then you still don't have a… No, I might not even rent it. I might let it sit there. But If you want to rent it for one year, I guess you can. And you're right, you can rent it three of the last five. She can rent it three of the last five and it's still considered personal residence, and there's no capital gains on up to a half million dollars married filing jointly. So if she sells it after you're married, she can make up to a half million dollars on the property and have rented it for one year. That would be fine if you want to do that.

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Can we rent it up to three years? Yes, three of the last five. Okay.

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Three of the last five. Let It's weird. You could actually rent it and then move a renter out and live in it two years and then rent it two more years. So three of the last five. You can do it that way, but I wouldn't. Obviously, I wouldn't do that. That's just strange. But that's how the law says. So the regulation on it. Yeah, just do not combine anything and do not make any of these permanent moves. She's right, run everything completely separate while you're roommates. But honestly, you're 50 freaking You're 17 years old. You're setting up and playing house. You might as well get married. It's my opinion, but you didn't ask my opinion, and you've already thought this through, unquote. But I mean, you're making all these moves as if you're married But you're putting off the marriage. That's not logical. It's really not. If you're 22 or something, I might say, Well, okay, whatever, but have a little longer engagement. But you're 50. It's not your first ride on the cabbage truck, dude. I mean, seriously. I'm just thinking, what would I do if I were in your shoes? If I'm willing to move in together, I'd be willing to get married.

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That's what I would be doing. There's a lot of benefits to that whole discussion, in addition to the financial and legal implications. But if you're unsure about the quality of the engagement leading to a marriage, you shouldn't be doing all the things you're doing.

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Which is more of the reason for her to keep the house and keeping everything separate.

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Yeah, that's a mess. Okay, good question, man. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We appreciate you hanging out with us, America. This is your show. Listen, all of you, whether you're 22 or 52, we have seen disasters masters in people's lives when they combine their finances and are not married.

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Putting their names on each other's debts, and then she gets stuck with the ex-fiance's car.

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It's just all of it. Worse than that, he drives off and it's got your name on it. That was the breakup. We've had that one. Then doesn't pay the payment on time. That's it, yeah. Or gets repowed. And guess who got repowed? The ex-fiance that got ditched. Are we? Worst thing is bought a house together and we're not married. Oh, man. The list of stupid things that that violates is long. You really get yourself in a mess. Our car is really bad. Bank accounts are really bad. Sharing the mustard is bad. But going on, man, buying a house. Oh, please don't do this. Please. This is the Ramsey Show.

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Number one best-selling author, Ramsey personality, Rachel Cruz, is my co-host. One of the books that she had a number one, was a children's book, I'm Glad for What I Have, About Contentment. It's a sister piece, is coming out next week on the 16th. It's called I'm Glad for Where I am with fabulous illustrations by Lauren Gallegos. She's incredible. The internal illustrations are absolutely amazing. She just does a great job. Gallegos, yes. Quick short book all about gratitude. First one was about contentment, right?

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Yes, that's right. Gratitude, Contentment, and Generosity are the three big subjects focusing. So this book is the Gratitude one. It's amazing teaching kids these bigger principles of life. It really can be that It really can be simple in a sense that going back to the basics, and that's what this book does, of the foundational piece of gratitude is the stuff that money can't buy, and that, for a little one, is their home, it's their family, and getting to that foundation level of it is what I wanted to do with this book. And so it's sweet. The animals go on a little adventure, and they find gratitude for their families in their home. And it's short, Parents, You are Welcome, and it rimes. And yeah, Lauren Gallegos did It's amazing with the illustrations. It's beautiful. It launches on Tuesday. I'll be traveling around. I'll go to Phoenix and LA and Dallas and Atlanta for some book signings. You can go to rachelcruise. Com and get the schedule for all of that. Actually, I think Lauren, I think might be, maybe speaking too soon, might be joining me in the LA signing. You'll get the illustrator and the author at the bookstore.

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It'll be fun.

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I bet you might get a cool signature from an illustrator.

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I think you I think you will.

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That's very good. Very cool. Good stuff. If you have an adult that has learned contentment, gratitude, these things are absolutely Absolutely. It's amazing what it does for their lives. It's very difficult to overspend when you have gratitude and contentment. Yeah, that's right. Most overspending has something to do with something opposite of those things. What you're doing is putting foundation in there. Also, coming up the first week of May, the book Find the Work You're Wired to Do by Ken Coleman will be out, and it includes his Get Clear Assessment. You'll get a code for the assessment, which you can just get online at ramsey solutions. Com. Almost 100,000 people have taken the assessment already, and it's all about getting clear in your work and finding the right things you need to do, going the right direction with that. It answers the four questions, big questions about life and work, who you are, why you're wired that way, what you want to do professionally, and how to get there. The book walks you through how to read and how to implement the assessment. A little different type of book for us at Ramsey. But both of those coming out, Rachel's next week and Ken in about two weeks at the first of May.

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You can pre-order both of them and get all kinds of pre-order specials at ramseysolutions. Com. Kylie's in Augusta Hi, Kylie. Welcome to The Ramsey Show.

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Hello. Thank you for having me. Sure.

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What's up?

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I have a question for you. I am 35 years old. My husband will be 40 in August, and we are active duty military family. He is the active spouse. I stay at home with our kids, but I was active duty for five years and left to stay at home and raise our kids. He is looking at retiring. We want to retire or at least stabilize. By the time my oldest is in high school, and he is in sixth grade right now. Within the next five years, we're looking at leaving all of this behind. I'm panicking because we have quite a country lifestyle.

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Will he have his 20-year mark at that point?

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Yes, he will be past his 20-year mark. He'll be, I believe, I got 24.

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Okay. You didn't quite get to 20, did you?

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No, I did not.

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Well, thanks to both of you for your service. You're both going to have military retirement. Obviously, his is going to be substantial in those situations. When you say retire, what do you mean? He's going to do nothing?

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Well, I would like for him to do nothing, and I would like to take up the role. We have a substantial gap between our two children. Our oldest is 12, our youngest is two. He just turned two. I would like for him to stay at home and enjoy his retirement that he's worked these last 24 years for and take up that mantle of filling in the gap of where... We're going to lose a lot of military allowances. His pension is going to cover a whole bunch, but we're going to have to think about buying, not think about, we're going to have to purchase a house. We have no debt. Our kids' college funds paid for. One, our oldest has the post-911 GI Bill, so he's covered for college. Then I, we're putting my SGRI, not my SGRI, not my life insurance, but my TSP account has about 35,000 roughly now. We'll use that. We're just going to leave That alone until my youngest goes to college.

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How old will your husband be when he retires?

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Probably 43 to 45.

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You'll have a six-year-old at home?

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We'll have a six-year-old, yes.

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At that point, yeah. Okay. You're not going to like me, but I'm going to tell you what I think anyway, okay? Because I like you and I appreciate the service you've given to our country. A guy that comes out of the military in a highly structured, very mission-driven organization and comes home with a six-year-old, he's going to be a very unhappy person. He's going to need a task. He's going to get an emotional whiplash.

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The dream is, another issue with this is that I am a horse person. We're looking to get basically a hobby farm, if you will. We just want acreage, and he wants chickens, goats, the whole shebang. I just need a couple of horses to train and sell and train and sell just to stay happy. Right now, we have zero debt. Our kids' college fund is paid for. I just need to bolster some money so that we can buy a house with cash, not go into any debt.

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Where are you going to get the money to pay cash for a house in four years? I'm confused.

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My husband makes about $11,000 a month. We have no debt.

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How much are you saving a month?

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How much are we saving a month? How much are we saving a month? We are saving about… Let's see. It says here on his little budget notes that we are in the green monthly balance about $2,300.

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That's $30,000 a year for four years is $120,000. No hobby farm for $120,000.

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No, no. And he's got about $700,000 in a TSP account.

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Yeah, but you can't access that.

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No. So he will be able to pull some of that out when he- Very little.

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Until he's 59 and a half. It's tiny. Okay.

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That's not going to happen with cash then. Oh, goodness.

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You're doing exactly what you should be doing. We're just doing it live on the air in front of everybody. But what you need to be doing is to lay out exactly where we want to go, your desired future, as my friend Henry Cloud calls it, and then what must be true that's not true today. Okay, so here's the budget for the hobby farm. Here's what our income It looks like now. Here's how we can throw money at it. What can we adjust? In a house. What has to be true? We got to get a house in the meantime. What does our careers look like on the other end? Prior to me being blunt with you, you had planned to go play with horses, and he was going to babysit a six-year-old. That might work. Some guys can do that. But I got to tell you, you're asking him to make a dramatic change in his daily activities in the neuroplasticity of his brain is really going to have to go into overdrive to make that turn. The whiplash is going to be pretty incredible.

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Maybe there's a season of it, Kyly, that he takes six months and he's home and all of it. But the long-term plan of that may not be what he wants either.

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Let's look at that. Again, I think you're doing the right things. You just got to continue to dial out the details of how we're going to get there. What's the battle plan, to use a metaphor from your world? Hey, Guys, whether you're starting on a card table like I did or well on your way to becoming a multimillion dollar company, NetSuite can help your team communicate and plan ahead better like they do for Ramsey. Let me tell you, NetSuite really helped us get our systems together. And more than 37,000 other companies also use NetSuite to know their numbers and their business better. So check out NetSuite today and find out how they can help you become the business you want to be 5 or 30 years from now. Right now, you can download NetSuite's free KPI checklist designed to give you consistently excellent performance at netsuite. Com/ramsey. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. Hey, if you guys want to help us out, we can use some help. You want to help us? Here's what you do. Click the Share button on your computer. If you have a particular platform, you're listening or watching us as a share button, do that, or just cut the link out and send it to somebody and share it.

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Say, folks, listen to this show or watch this show. Subscribe, click that button, follow, whatever it is, and where you're regularly getting the feed. That changes the algorithms on these shows a bunch and allows them to be put in front of folks. It's caused our listenership, our viewership, to go way up in the past two years. Pretty amazing. Those five-star reviews, they actually help, too. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Those of you that have something nice to say, we appreciate you among the rest. Levi is with us in Phoenix. Hi, Levi. How are you?

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Hey, very good. Thank you all for your time.

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Sure. What's up?

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Well, I have a student loan question. I have 400,000 student loan debt. It's broken up into 14 disbursem*nts with different principles and interest rates. But I also have 35,000 sitting in savings, wondering how I should allocate that best.

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What's your degree in?

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Pharmacy.

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Okay. So you make a 150?

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No, 130 before tax.

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You paid 400 grand for a pharmacy degree?

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Well, not yet.

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What do you mean not yet?

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That he's in debt, too.

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That's why I'm calling you, sir.

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Nope, I hadn't paid for it It's actually very accurate. Good for you. Wow. Well, it's going to be a little while. It's going to take a bit. I mean, if you lived on $35,000 a year and put 100 on it, you got four years, right? That'd be great. Now, are you single?

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I am.

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Okay. Can you pick up some weekends at the hospital and stuff?

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Well, in retail, yeah, we can pick up extra Shifts.

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Shifts. What income can you add if you go crazy for a short period of time? Like a couple of thousand a month.

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It's good.

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Another 25 a year. Yeah. Okay. See, that's a big deal. That is. What I'm going to do if I'm in your shoes is I'm going to live like no one else so that later I can live and give like no one else. I'm going to get on beans and rice. I'm going to work all the time, and I'm going to throw all but $1,000 of this 35 I'm going to list these 14 loans, smallest to largest, and start attacking, paying minimums on everything, and start attacking the little one with a vengeance, and I'm going to take all the OT I can get. Because if we had $25,000 to the equation, you might do this in three years.

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Next.

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But that's living on nothing and no life. Understood. But you're clear in three years, otherwise, you got a 10-year program, right?

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Yes.

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I'd rather sprint for three years than limp for 10.

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Right. The budget is... I have my budget very tight, plenty to put everything extra towards it every day. I was wondering about that extra lump.

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I'll take it down to $1,000. That's maybe step one. Everything that is not retirement and no money going into retirement and no eating out and no vacations. We're just in attack mode here, dude. I mean, this is war. I can hear that in your voice. I think you're dialed in. I think you're ready to go. Your only question was about, do I really clean out that 35,000? Yeah, I really would clean out 34 of it. Again, that helps us move the needle. I think you can do this in three years, but it's going to be three years of hell.

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We've talked to people that have done this exact equation, and they'll be on the debt-free stage, and you look at the numbers, you're like, holy crap. Then the income goes up. There's always a boost of income, even with just your salaried position. As a pharmacist, you'll get increases as these years go on, too. But it's amazing when you talk to people and they were like, The number one thing in a situation like this, it will be work, where you just say, I'm going to get my income up, and I'm going to work all the overtime I can.

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The beautiful thing about working all the time is you don't have time to spend any money.

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It's not forever. Our last step for you, remember, she worked two jobs, and she put in her notice the day she paid off the debt. She's like, I'm I'm done with that other job because I don't need anymore.

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We had one yesterday. The lady had two babies at home, and when they hit submit on the payoff of the mortgage, they're 28 years old.

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Pay off the mortgage. Oh, my God.

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The next thing she hit was send on the resignation email. That day, two pieces of paper went out the computer that night. That's awesome. Two digital pieces of paper went out. She wasn't mean about it. She was thankful for her job at the bank, but quit the bank job and went home.

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Yeah, I love it.

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Josh is in Columbus, Ohio. Hi, Josh. How are you?

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I'm good. How are you?

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Better than I deserve. What's up?

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I actually just inherited about 340,000 for my grandparents, which is amazing. Wow. Yes. I've been trying to do some research, and I just don't know what the best course of action with that money is.

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Do you have any debt?

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Yes, I have student loan debt. How much? Fifty thousand.

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Sixty? Fifty. Fifty. Okay.

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Yes, I'm married. My wife, she's basically out of debt herself. She's paid off almost all of her loans. That's pretty much it.

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Basically, almost. How much does she have left?

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I think she has 7,000.

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Okay. How much do you all owe on your cars?

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I owe 7,000 on my truck.

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What does she owe?

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She owns her car.

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How long have you all been married?

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Twelve years. We've been together twelve years, so we've been married, too.

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What's your household income?

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A hundred and twenty a year. Cool.

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Good for you. Okay.

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Kids? No kids. No kids. Okay. Any money saved just in a high yield or anything?

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Yeah. I put that inheritance into a money market, and then I also have 7,000 cash and about 11,500 in a Morgan Stanley trading account.

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Very cool. Good for you. All right. What we teach folks, Josh, is the number one key to building wealth. Your number one most powerful wealth building tool is your income. When you give that away in debt, it kills your ability to build wealth. Your grandparents probably avoided debt. It's one of the ways they had this money. They were very conservative and careful and intentional, and that's all you need to be. Do you own a home?

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No, that's something I want to do.

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I think that's a good idea. The first thing we tell folks to do is get $1,000 saved. That's maybe step one. You've already done that. Two is pay off all of your debt. Immediately, we're going to pay off all the student loans and the car debt immediately.

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Right.

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Okay. Then you need an emergency fund between the Morgan Stanley, the 7,000, and the 3,50 minus 57, is you pull out some emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses. In your world, that's probably a $25,000 emergency fund set to the side, never to be touched, except for an emergency in a money market account. It's not for purchasing things. It's for emergencies. Then whatever's left, you could use as a down payment on your home or pay cash for a home in Columbus, Ohio.

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I do home remodeling, so I want to buy something low and build equity in it myself.

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Don't make your wife live in something while you rehab it. Bad husband.

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You'll probably have around 280 left, Josh. I mean, you guys, it's a good Head Start. If you can find a house, 300, that's awesome.

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If you can get something like that and build some equity into it while you live in that apartment, go ahead and do the rehab and end up with no more than... And have it paid for. Oh, my gosh. You got a huge leapfrog into the future.

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The only warning sign is that this inheritance wipes out all of your bad decisions that you guys have made with student loans and car payments. So don't go back into debts because you don't feel the pain of sacrificing it, of getting out. So just be aware of that.

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I saw some recent financial statistics, and there was some pretty troubling news. When families were asked how long it would be before they faced financial hardship, if a spouse died, nearly one-third said they'd be in trouble immediately. Another 44% said they'd be financially drained within six months. People, it does not have to be this way. Term life insurance plans are just plain cheap, and companies have made it even easier by not requiring exams in many cases. There really is no excuse to leave your family in this situation by not having life insurance. This is why I talk about Xander Insurance every day. They're committed to protecting families with the only products that I recommend, and their team keeps the entire process simple and affordable. Go to zander. Com for quick online pricing or call 800-356-42-82. This has to be a priority. If your family is in this situation, you need to get this done. Thank you for joining us, America. Derek is in Delaware. Hi, Derek. Welcome to The Ramsey Show.

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Hi, how are you?

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Better than I deserve. What's up?

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I have a question for you. In January of this year, my car that I just paid off last October was rear-ended by a drunk driver in total. I'm a new to our truck driver. I'm gone 10 months out of the year, and I'm currently in the process of building up my trucking company. In about five years, I'm hoping to have 6-7 trucks and drivers running for me. Right now, I don't have a car. My question is, while I'm gone for the next couple of years for 10 months of the year, should I rent a car when I'm home for those two months a year, or should I buy a car and have a finance just sitting in my driveway for 10 months of the year?

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Okay. I'm a little confused. Why are you off two months a year?

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I just like trucking.

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It's what I'm passionate about. That doesn't mean… I said, Why are you home two months a year?

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I go home for Christmas and birthdays.

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And you take an entire month off?

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Yeah, a month off at a time.

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Okay. So that's just the way you're running two months of vacation?

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Yes.

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While you're doing this. Interesting. Okay. They're not contiguous months, meaning they're not connected. They're two odd months separated, right?

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I take off the entire month of September, and I take off- The entire month of December.

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December, 20th.

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Yeah.

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Until about the middle of January.

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How much did you get for the insurance payment if it was totaled?

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I got 18,000.

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Why don't you just go buy a car with that? Why do you have to finance it?

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Because the car I want is about 40 grand.

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Why do you want a car that's going to 40 grand that's going to sit there 10 months a year. No, I would not do that. You don't need a $40,000 car to sit in a garage.

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Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:32:55]

It going down in value and you're paying insurance on 40 grand and you're paying taxes and title on 40 grand to sit there. No. If you want a car just to sit around versus renting something, you buy a cheap car to do that. Just something to get around while you're at home. But if you want to drive a $40,000 car two months a year, you should rent it. Got you.

[00:33:21]

You should go to whatever. Yeah, but is that a smart financial move long term? Wouldn't you rather just have a $10,000 car?

[00:33:28]

I might rather have a A $5,000 car.

[00:33:30]

Or a five.

[00:33:31]

I mean, like- No, I would not have a $40,000 car sitting in the garage collecting dust in your situation.

[00:33:37]

I only plan on being in OCR for about five or six years because- Well, I know, but after five or six years, buy a car.

[00:33:43]

If you want a $40,000 car when you're off the road, when you're not over the road anymore, then that's fine because you're home driving a $40,000 car. If you pay cash for it and you're making $80, yeah.

[00:33:53]

I know, but two months of renting per day? I'm like, That just gets expensive.

[00:33:57]

It can, yeah. I would just buy one. The cheapest way to do it. It would be buy a 5,000 to $7,000 car that just is for transportation during this period of your life while you are only needing it two months a year. That's the best financial move. The other doesn't make sense at all. You just told me you have this goal of getting all these trucks, and every dollar you type in a stupid car keeps you from going towards the goal of that truck. If I'm I don't care what I drive because I'm trying to build a company. Now, after I get the company built, maybe I'll get me something nice, right? Because I'll be making bank at that point. But you got 10, 15 trucks running around, then you're making some money. You can drive your $40,000 car then if you want. That's not a problem. But no, I would definitely not put a car. I wouldn't buy a car for cash that was 40K and leave it in the garage in your situation. Because in one year, it's going to be worth 30. In two years, it's going to be worth 20 while it sat there.

[00:35:00]

They go down in value like a rock. That's where Chevy got that, like a rock. Steve is in Cape Cod. Hi, Steve. How are you?

[00:35:10]

Hey, how are you?

[00:35:11]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[00:35:15]

Me and my wife are 60 years old. I'm still working. She's retired. We owe $135,000 on our house on our mortgage at two and a half %. We got about six more years left. We need to do some work on the house in addition to that stuff. We have 140,000 in the bank.

[00:35:37]

How much is your mortgage balance again? 135.

[00:35:40]

135.

[00:35:41]

What's your household income? 200. What work are you wanting to do to the house?

[00:35:49]

It's only 1,300 square feet. We need to make it bigger and better.

[00:35:53]

How many people live there?

[00:35:56]

Us two and two of our kids.

[00:35:59]

How old are How old are your kids?

[00:36:02]

Hopefully, they're leaving soon. But one of them is going to be here for another two years, and one of them is supposed to be leaving.

[00:36:07]

How old are your kids?

[00:36:10]

25 and 20.

[00:36:11]

Yeah, they need to leave. That'll solve that.

[00:36:16]

No, I know. But there's some renovation you want to do.

[00:36:19]

Okay, you want to do some renovations for the two of you? That's fine. How long have you lived in this 1,300-square-foot house?

[00:36:25]

Since 2017.

[00:36:28]

Okay, what will it cost to How much are the renovations?

[00:36:31]

140 grand.

[00:36:33]

Okay. All right. You make 200. All right. Your house payment's how much now?

[00:36:40]

It's 2,500 a month. We took out a 10-year note for two and a half, about three and a half, four years ago.

[00:36:48]

Okay.

[00:36:49]

You have 140 in savings, right? Yes.

[00:36:53]

Steve, you called here with one game plan, and our goal is going to be to change your game plan for your good. Okay. Okay. Give it to the kids. If I woke up in your shoes, you don't need to do this renovation for these kids. You know that. You're doing the renovation for you and your wife. But you've lived there now. Exactly. You've already lived there for about eight years, and you've survived so far. I do want you to do the renovation, but it's definitely not an emergency because the kids are leaving and you've put up with it for eight years. You can put up with it for a minute more. I'm going to take the 140. I'm going to pay off your mortgage today. You're 100% debt-free then. I'm going to sit down with the wife. I'm going to get on a tight budget. With no mortgage payment, I'm going to try to save 70 a year for two years and do the renovation with cash two years from now after the kids are gone.

[00:37:44]

Okay.

[00:37:46]

You got zero debt all of that time. Zero debt's a cool place, dude. You never lived there in your whole life, have you?

[00:37:56]

Yeah, we're going to retire down here, that's for sure.

[00:37:58]

Yeah.

[00:38:00]

What do you all have in retirement, Steve?

[00:38:02]

I'm sorry. I just got him. Oh, no, you're good. Go ahead. What? Steve, how much you got in retirement?

[00:38:06]

I got about 600 in a 401k. I got two pensions, and I got some profit share, and that's worth about four or five hundreds. Good.

[00:38:17]

You said you're 62? I'm 60. Sixty. What's his house worth today? It's probably a million. Yeah. You're worth a couple of million dollars right now. Good for you. Way to go. Home run. Home run. You deserve a nicer… You've earned a nicer house. That's what they keep saying. Yeah. I think you need to get a better house, but I would do it with cash in the next two years, and I pay off my house today.

[00:38:45]

Yeah, it's a different order than renovation and then paying off the mortgage in eight years.

[00:38:50]

I will say this, since you're over 59 and a half, you could use some of that retirement to do the renovation. I wouldn't have any problem with that at all as soon as the kids are But I don't want you doing any renovation that causes them to stay. That's not good for them. They need to grow up. It's good for them. An eagle that doesn't leave the nest is eventually called a turkey. I know. It's really good for grownups to be grownups. It's a neat thing when it happens. It's not hardcore, it's not being mean. It's actually the kindest thing you can do is to help the people that you love be what God designed them to be and have the of standing on their own, too. It's a good thing. It's a powerful thing. Recommend it highly, and I think you're going to enjoy it, and they are, too. As soon as they're gone, I'd pull enough out of retirement to do my renovation, even if you hadn't saved it up yet. But I'd pay off your mortgage today. That's a good question. Very good question. What a great guy. $2 million net worth.

[00:39:53]

He did it.

[00:39:54]

And Cape Cod. In Cape Cod.

[00:39:55]

So just dreamy. Yeah, there you go. Hey, 1,300 square feet in Cape It's a million bucks right there. You just see those little things rolling over on the slot machine right then. That just happened right. Those little dollar signs right there. This is The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour on the Ramsey Networks, number one best-selling author, and children's book author. A new book coming out next week. I'm glad for where I am. She's my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Alexis is in Orlando. Hi, Alexis. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[00:40:56]

Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

[00:40:58]

Sure. What's up?

[00:41:00]

I'd love to move out of my parents house. I was just wondering what I can do to increase my income.

[00:41:09]

Okay, so how much are you making now?

[00:41:11]

After taxes, about 28,000.

[00:41:15]

What do you do?

[00:41:17]

I'm in the wedding industry.

[00:41:19]

What does that mean? What do you do?

[00:41:22]

I'm planning weddings and also managing a venue. Part-time? No, it's about 40 hours a week.

[00:41:33]

Event planners make more than 28k. What's wrong?

[00:41:38]

When I'm making it hourly, it's 15 an hour.

[00:41:44]

I think you're underpaid.

[00:41:46]

Not a lot of stuff going on over at the old Wedding Chapel, is there?

[00:41:50]

Unfortunately, no.

[00:41:52]

I was going to say it's probably really busy. Yeah, I think you're… How old are you?

[00:41:56]

I'm 29.

[00:41:58]

What did you do this?

[00:42:01]

I was a teacher for eight years.

[00:42:05]

What'd you make doing that?

[00:42:08]

Pretty much the same, sometimes less. Okay.

[00:42:13]

What would make your voice change and be full of excitement if we were talking about you doing it? That pays 100,000 a year.

[00:42:27]

That would be nice.

[00:42:29]

I think I'm being a mom. Well, I like what I do.

[00:42:38]

Doesn't pay 100,000 a year.

[00:42:40]

Yeah. I like what I do, right? I like the planning, prepping, and organizing that comes with my job. I think that's in teaching, but it's the void of being in front of a person or a student all day long. So I'm not sure that I've found that niche of what can provide enough income.

[00:43:04]

Because your skill sets, Alex, I mean, I have a friend, and she works in the healthcare industry, but she does the planning for all their events internally for a healthcare company, right? So I'm like, There are random sectors out there that have positions that have this skill set.

[00:43:21]

But they work. I mean, they work a lot.

[00:43:23]

Yeah, but it could be 40 hours a week, too. I mean, you could literally be working the same amount. I just feel like you're being underpaid.

[00:43:30]

Well, there's nobody coming in the wedding chapel.

[00:43:31]

No, there is. No, there are, right? You said it's busy. She said it's boring. No, it's busy, right?

[00:43:37]

Wait, which one? Okay, I misunderstood. I'm like, There's less people getting married in the church, but there are definitely people getting married.

[00:43:45]

How many hours a week are you sitting there with nothing happening?

[00:43:50]

Never.

[00:43:52]

Then you're dramatically underpaid. Yeah. Because an event planner ought to make double what you're making.

[00:43:58]

I mean, target's paying 20 an hour. Do you know what I mean? I'm like, I… Yeah. I would be looking for another position, and I really think, Alexis, that, yeah, I would look around for some type of event coordinator position, even in corporate America. Again, it may not be what you want to do forever, but at least for a couple of years to make some income to get out of your parents house.

[00:44:23]

If you want to just take and start back fresh and go all the way at the beginning, I'm going to give you Ken Coleman's Get Clear Career Assessment. I want you to take it. It'll take you about 20 minutes to take it and then read the results carefully and see if that doesn't, something in there doesn't tickle your funny bone and cause you to want to go do X or Y or Z. You may have to go get a certification. You may have to go… But it may be a completely different industry. I have a sense you just fell into this job.

[00:44:53]

It was like I needed to fall out of teaching, I don't think.

[00:44:57]

You're running from something versus running to something. I think if you have a good game plan to say, Hey, here's some other options out there for me, I think would, yeah, give you a lot of freedom.

[00:45:10]

Start being very goal-oriented towards something rather than just sitting in neutral and letting all these things happen to you. So you say, Okay, what do I want to be? What does Alexis want to be doing when she's 39 that makes a substantial income and is fulfilling professionally, and I feel good about me. I make good money. I'm enjoying the daily work, those kinds of things. Now, you never do anything that every day is easy. There are some days that suck in anything you do. I've been doing this radio show for over 32 years, and almost every day, I love being on the air. But I said almost. Some days, I don't feel like being here.

[00:45:57]

I think we know. I think we know those days. Everyone's like, Dave's extra feisty today.

[00:46:03]

I'm like, I don't know if I'm. No, that just meant I had too much coffee. That wasn't because I was miserable. I'm not miserable. I'm not. If I'm miserable doing something, I don't keep doing it very long. I change. That's the entrepreneurial side. Anyway, that's what you need to do. That's what I would say, Alexis, is you need to aim at something and then pull the trigger. Don't go ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, I'll say this, Alexis, that the next step may not be the absolute perfect dream job scenario.

[00:46:36]

It may just be, Hey, I'm getting in that right direction. It's paying me 20 grand more, which is significantly different, and that's a stepping stone. There's a progression there that has to occur.

[00:46:47]

That gets you out of your parents house, which was your question. You've got an income problem, but it's associated with your career not having a clear direction. The get clear Career assessment will help you with that. I will pay for it and give it to you for free. Hang on the line. The team will pick it up and get you signed up. It's going to work, going to work, going to work. There is an energy that occurs. It gives people energy. I think it comes from a sense of hope or a sense of destiny. When you spend some time contemplating, thinking on the back porch with a cup of coffee, or whatever it is you do, tea, whatever it is you do for that. Your mother would be tea, me, it would be coffee or something else. But thinking about, what do I want my life to look like? What do I want my career to be? What do I want to do? Then you start clearly defining that in high definition in HD. Then Then you start living in that future state, and you start identifying with the person that you're becoming. Then you start taking the steps.

[00:48:09]

That's what goal setting does. It energizes you because all goals are our little miniature vision pieces with work clothes on. You start taking the work clothes, you take the work clothes, and you go put the work boots on and the work gloves, and you go to work towards getting your goals. And all of a sudden, even the energy in your voice changes. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour, is my co-host today. Today's question comes from Margaret in Iowa.

[00:48:47]

She says, My husband has passed away recently and had credit card debt in his name only. Am I responsible to pay that debt? The credit card company says his estate is responsible for the debt, and They're coming after me for the funds. All his properties came to me as we were joint owners of everything. Am I responsible for paying that debt? If not, how do I respond to the credit card company?

[00:49:11]

They are correct, Margaret. His estate, which includes all the stuff that was in his name that now you own, yeah, that was responsible for his credit card debt. So yes, you have to pay the debt, not because you're liable for the debt, but because you took the stuff out of the estate, and that was liable for the debt. So when someone passes away what they own in their name, assets, stands good for any debt that they have liabilities. When you're married, if it's in both of your names, then if you want to keep the stuff that had his name on it, then you have to pay the debt that had his name on it because his estate stands good for his debts. But to take that to a different type scenario, we've had the call over the years many times. My mother, my father, passed away living in an apartment with $50,000 worth of student loan or credit card debt. And a car loan. On the car that the loan was more than the car was worth. They had absolutely no money. Am I responsible as the child for that debt? No, you're not. No, you're not.

[00:50:31]

But you call them up, tell them to come get the car, and the other people, the credit card is just not going to get paid because they died with a negative net worth. But you can't take a $60,000 boat out of the garage that was in mom's name or dad's name and keep it and then not pay the $50,000 for the credit card debt that was in his name. That's in a sense what Margaret, the position she's in. What that person, when they died, own, stands good for what they owe.

[00:51:07]

We've also had a couple calls in, and she has an illness and cancer, but she has student loan debt, and we got that call of, Hey, should we be paying down the student loan debt? No. Yeah, but in that scenario, student loan debt- Student loan debt is forgiven at death. It's forgiven at death. Is that the only debt? That's the only one that is.

[00:51:27]

For given. It's also forgiven if you're permanently disabled and get SSI, so get your disability approved permanent. In that case, that's one of the few times you're going to hear me tell you not to pay down student loans.

[00:51:43]

Yeah, totally. But if this was not credit card debt, but it was student loan debt, then it would be- Then she would not owe it.

[00:51:49]

She would not owe it. It would be forgiven on death. The estate does not stand good for student loan debt. Yes. Federally insured student loan debt.

[00:51:59]

Right. Not private.

[00:51:59]

Not private debt. But yeah, that's the rule on that process. So thanks a bunch. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jennifer's in Minneapolis. Hi, Jennifer. How are you?

[00:52:14]

Hi, doing well. How are you?

[00:52:15]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[00:52:18]

So I have a question. My husband and I both live… My husband works at a boarding school. So we live there on campus, rent-free, expenses-free. I'm a sales rep. Our combined income is about $150,000. We have no debt. Our cars are paid for. We just bought our last car in cash and contributing a couple of hundred dollars a month for each child to education. I did stay at home with my kids for 10 years, so we're a little bit behind in our 401k. I only have about 300,000 in it. But I'm I'm wondering, should we be focusing on buying a house to rent out? One thing I'm worried about is just down the line when my husband, he's a soccer coach there at the boarding school. Down the line, should We won't have a house if something happens to his job. That's just a little bit of a concern.

[00:53:21]

I would have a mutual fund that is nicknamed the House Fund that's not in your retirement. I'd just be throwing money in it like it was a house payment.

[00:53:32]

Yeah, okay.

[00:53:33]

And so that someday when you need a house, you've got a big pile of money.

[00:53:37]

Yeah, okay.

[00:53:40]

Yeah, versus going and buying something now, Jennifer, and you guys aren't living in it, but you're renting it to somebody else and all of that.

[00:53:46]

No, that's just an investment that's hard to manage in your situation. Yeah, I would not do that in your situation. I would just get a low turnover mutual fund. You can talk to one of the smart investor pros at ramsey solutions. Com and sit with them and open up an account. I would put 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,000 bucks a month into it and just see how big a pile of money we can have. You might look up and be a half million dollars in there in a few years, and he changes careers, and boom, you pay cash for a house. That It's going to happen. That's the same thing we tell folks, Rachel, that are a little different scenario, but not much, where the pastor is living in a parsonage. You can get to retirement as a pastor in a parsonage, and you're homeless because you retire and the next pastor is going to be living in the parsonage, and so you've got to go get a house. I talked to a young couple out here the other day. They said their mom and dad are on the mission field for 20 years, and you've got to prepare to come off the mission field.

[00:54:43]

It's biblical to prepare to do that, to get ready. Same thing if you've been living, this usually for a shorter period of time, but a lot of young couples or even singles living on base in military, where, again, housing is furnished, but when you quit that job or that portion of that job, then housing is not furnished. Then you get into this whole thing. Jennifer, you're very wise to think about that. I wouldn't fret about it, but I'd put in place a basic game plan and say, I'm going to start paying myself a house payment and see how quick that turns into a million dollars. It does turn into a million dollars pretty quick, by the way. It's pretty incredible. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jessica is in Sacramento. Hi, Jessica. Hi. Hey, what's up?

[00:55:33]

I have a question. I have a job offer that's being given to me, and I don't know if I should take it. Right now, we originally started out with $390,000 in student loan debt.

[00:55:49]

Good Lord. What's your degree in?

[00:55:52]

I have a doctor of pharmacy degree. That's all my debt, and my husband doesn't have any.

[00:55:59]

What are you making? $135?

[00:56:02]

No. Well, right now, I make around $180.

[00:56:06]

Oh, good.

[00:56:08]

Then my new job would basically bring me up to over $200,000. Excuse me, I probably make more around like, I don't know, 1:60. My husband brings in some. Our total net of our house is around 220. Okay. Right now, my student loan is at 185,000.

[00:56:30]

We've had three kids. What's wrong with a new job? Why would you not take more money? What's wrong with it?

[00:56:36]

Well, so I have three kids, and I'm really bummed. I wish when I was younger, someone would have told me I just would have wanted to be a mom. I really want to be home with my kids. This new job, which is being more stressful. My job right now, I'm really good at it. It creates no stress at work.

[00:56:57]

What stress?

[00:56:57]

When I'm home. Well, I've become a pharmacist practitioner, so I would be running my own clinic. Right now, I'm an oncology pharmacist, so I do all the chemos, and that's fine. It's all IV chemos. Basically, there'd be a big learning curve. I'd be switching to oral chemo, which is just two different ball games, which is fine. I would just then be doing that. Why is that stressful?

[00:57:20]

Just because you're learning something new? You got a PhD.

[00:57:23]

Learning doesn't bother you. She's going to be running a clinic, though. You're going to be the one in charge of it.

[00:57:28]

Yeah, I'm going to be running up My own clinic, which right now I don't run my own clinic.

[00:57:33]

I work in the, I see my own patient.

[00:57:34]

Is that what you're talking about is stressful?

[00:57:38]

Yeah, just outside of learning, because I do have three small children, when I get home, the time to learn is low because I do work full-time as well as I'm taking share of- It doesn't sound like you want to take it.

[00:57:51]

I don't think you want to take it.

[00:57:52]

I don't know what to do because then I could pay off my loan.

[00:57:56]

You can't quit and go home and be with the kids. You made a decision to go $300,000 in debt.

[00:57:59]

She knows that. I would stay with the job you have.

[00:58:01]

So you have to stay with something. I would stay with what you have. You got to take that off the table. But if you want to do the other thing or this thing, either one. But under all this is you really just want to quit, and you really can't. Let's just decide which big girl thing we're going to do. This is the Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thanks for hanging out with us, America. Hey, this is the last day to get the early bird pricing on the Dave Ramsey's essential investing event that I'm doing May 21 and 22. It's a two-night virtual event where I'm talking to you about not only the basics of investing, but we're going to open our playbook on how I do real estate, how I do my other investing, as well as my mainstream stuff like 401ks and mutual funds. Tickets are $1.99. If you buy today, you save $50. That's cool. Ramseysolutions. Com/events. All right, Lana is with us on the debt-free stage. Hey, Lana, how are you? Good. How are you? It's a pleasure to be here. Honor to have you. Where do you live?

[00:59:12]

Los Angeles, California. Welcome to Nashville. How much debt have you paid, Lana?

[00:59:18]

$173,000. Wow.

[00:59:19]

How long did that take?

[00:59:21]

Eighteen months.

[00:59:21]

Good for you. And your range of income during that time?

[00:59:24]

134,000 to 223,000.

[00:59:27]

Wow. Look at you. Wow. Way to go. You're dropping basically about $10,000 a month, average. That is correct. Routy. What debt was this? All student loans. Wow. What's your degree in?

[00:59:39]

I'm a PA, physician assistant.

[00:59:41]

Is that what you do? Yes. Great career field. Thank you. Expensive to pay for, though. Very expensive. Yes. Way to go. It's a good choice. What in the world happened 18 months ago that made you decide to do this Ramsey stuff?

[00:59:55]

When I graduated PA school back in late 2019, I had such a huge debt, 173k. I had moved back home from Connecticut, actually, to Los Angeles, where my family's from. I realized that I needed to pay off my loans, and that meant having to move back with my parents' house again. That was a hard change, but I knew it had to be done. Then I realized that at that time, with COVID happening, the government was giving us a 0% interest. I needed to take advantage of that.

[01:00:27]

That leapfrog get forward, yeah.

[01:00:28]

Yeah, it definitely helped a I worked hard. I picked up one job. It was tough because during COVID, we didn't have enough volume. I work in the emergency room, so I was getting let go on some days to go home because we didn't have enough volume. But eventually, I picked up side jobs. I worked in the urgent care. Eventually, when the volume returned, I was able to get two full-time jobs, work in the emergency room, averaging about 22 chips a month. That helped me pay down my loans quickly. My gosh. I think my main goal to get out of debt as soon as possible so then I could start buying assets and hopefully have some passive income down the road. Good for you. That's amazing. On an average week, how many hours were you working? That's tough. I would say it varies because it I'd say between 60 to 70 hours a week. Oh my gosh. I'm just absolutely doing it. It's very tough because work in the ER, I was expected to work not just day shifts, but days and nights. I was averaging about 22 shifts a month. An average full-time ER provider would work 12 shifts a month.

[01:01:31]

I was working 22. I had to flip-flop my sleep schedule from days to nights. That was tough. For sure. But it was worth it at the end because I'm here.

[01:01:40]

Yes. Now you can do whatever you want, right? Exactly. How does it feel to be free?

[01:01:45]

It feels amazing. I remember when I was listening to your show back then when I was going on my runs, and I was like, Wow, one day I'm going to be on the show.

[01:01:53]

There you go. Here you are. Yes, here I am.

[01:01:55]

Look at this. Thank you. It's amazing.

[01:01:57]

What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is 173,000 paid off in 18 months?

[01:02:02]

I think for me, it was mainly staying focused and disciplined. I'm a very disciplined person. What really helped is, I think for me, for my age and generation is to stay off social media. Sometimes people my age, once they have a nice degree, they feel like the lifestyle inflation creeps up, you want to get the new Tesla. But for me, I just was staying off social media, was focused on paying off my debts and just living below my means, really. That's the key. It's being weird because all my friends nice Teslas when they graduated. I was still with my beat-up car, and I still drive a seat beat-up car today. That still works. Okay, was there anybody that was in your life that was cheering you on, or were most people looking at you like, You're crazy, Lana? I think I do have a close friend who cheered me on because she became debt-free, and she's like, You're going to get there, too, one day. But it was hard, socially, to not be able to hang out friends as much because my schedule was so flip-floppity. But at the end, it was worth it. Now I'm able to hang out my friends again who are welcoming back to me.

[01:03:02]

Yes. So even on this show today, we've had two or three calls of people with pharmacy degrees, and I mean, some big student loan debt that we've had called in just today. And the conversation is this encouragement, actually using your story for an For me, it's a good example of if you condense this down with a short period of time and you sprint, and you do it, you're done, versus it stretching out 10 years. So what encouragement do you have for people that are listening that probably could have six figures of student loan debt, and they're thinking, I could do it in five or six or seven, eight years, what would you tell them? I would tell them just to stay disciplined, don't get distracted with keeping up the Joneses. It's possible because if you're in that field If you make good income, you're able to pay it off quickly, too. But you just have to not let the livestock inflation get to you. It's okay to sacrifice for a few years because once you're done, a few years go by really quickly and you're out of it, and then you're able to enjoy life again.

[01:04:00]

But I think a lot of times people are afraid to make these sacrifices for the short term. But I think to me, it's so worthwhile because now I get to move on to the next step in my life. That's right. That's awesome.

[01:04:11]

You're a hero. You're amazing. Thank you so much.Well done.Thank Well done. You're a force of nature, girl. Thank you. I like it.Thank you.I like it a lot. Well done. You knocked this out, and there's no stopping you. You can do whatever you want to do. You set your mind to it, and it makes a difference. It is an irony that when we had a pandemic, that the volume to the emergency room was down. I guess because no one was doing anything that could cause them to get hurt.

[01:04:40]

That is true. At the beginning, I think people were so afraid of leaving the house.

[01:04:45]

Yeah, I know.

[01:04:46]

But I mean- Yeah, it's just funny.

[01:04:49]

But I mean, if you're hurt bad enough to go to the hospital, that's weird. That's weird if you think about it, but that's exactly what happened. We knew that stuff like Elective surgeries, like plastic surgery, that stuff was just gone, completely gone. But emergency room, I did not ever hear that the ER went down in volume. That's so interesting. Right. Yeah. Way to go. You navigate your way through it. You're not someone that, Oh, well, next thing. Let's figure out how to solve that. Let's solve for that. Let's solve for that. Whatever is put in front of you, you find a way to jump the hurdle. Way to go. Thank you. Very proud of you. Very proud of you. Very cool. Thank you so much. Good for you. You did great. Again, Rachel said it a different way. I'm going to say it one more way. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

[01:05:37]

Staying disciplined.

[01:05:38]

Yeah, that's it. That's it. That's it. I will say that one thing you mentioned, I just was seeing some data the other day. There is a direct correlation between the amount of debt that someone has, consumer debt that they have, and how much time they spend on the internet. The more time you spend on the internet, the higher your debt is across the board. Because you're constantly looking at a highlight reel of someone else's life that's not real to compare yourself to. Because people don't put ugly stuff on. They put up the only time that everything's perfect. It's I got… Rachel used to say, No one puts a used Honda on there. Look what my husband got me, #blest. Nobody does that. They put the new Lexus on or the new whatever. Tesla. That's your point. Tesla, yeah, that's it. But those are all fake moments. Facebook friends are fake friends. That's why we say we help you with actual amazing relationships on this show, because they're not virtual. Virtual means not true. That's so insightful on your part. I turned that off and it helped me to stay focused because we're like a fish.

[01:06:52]

The shiny lure going in front of us when we got the dead gum Instagram feed going. Exactly. It's crazy. Look at you. Way to go. Very, very I'm proud of you. Good work. All right, Lana from Los Angeles, 173,000 paid off in 18 months, making 134,223. We've got a couple of years of every dollar subscription for you. We'll hand that to you in a few minutes. Count it down. Let's hear a great debt-free scream.

[01:07:17]

Three, two, one. I'm debt-free.

[01:07:22]

Yeah. That's how you do it if you're Lana.

[01:07:29]

I So good. Yes. Rutter to tears.

[01:07:32]

Just free. Slam dunk.

[01:07:33]

Absolutely free. That's it.

[01:07:35]

I've been waiting on that. I've been waiting on that. I've been working for that. Look at her. Way to go, kiddo.

[01:07:41]

So good.

[01:07:42]

This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, guys.

[01:07:48]

Are you ready for The Secret to help you reach those money goals that you've been dreaming about?

[01:07:53]

It's simple. You got to get on a budget.

[01:07:55]

With our budgeting app, Every Dollar, you'll get intentional with your money and build the habits that will make those dreams a reality. And we'll be with you every step of the way. From your first budget to that retirement home on the beach, download every dollar for free on the App Store or Google Play. Remember, today, download every dollar for free.

[01:08:15]

On the App Store or Google Play today.

[01:08:19]

Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Megan is in Omaha, Nebraska. Hi, Megan. How are you?

[01:08:32]

I'm good. Thank you guys so much for having me on.

[01:08:34]

Sure. What's up?

[01:08:36]

Yes. My husband and I were married in September. He is financially disciplined and manages money very well. I'm learning quickly and currently in Baby Step 2. I have about 46,000 in debt, 40,000 in student loans. He has no debt and 90,000 in savings. He has worked really hard to save this money, and I feel uncomfortable using his savings to pay for my mistakes. We have discussed putting 20,000 of the savings to put towards my student loans, and the remainder would be paid off in 13 months. I wanted your thoughts on if we should use the savings to pay off the entirety of the student loans, or is it okay to do the partial payment of 20,000, and then pay the remainder off in 13 months?

[01:09:18]

Pay it off today, Megan.

[01:09:21]

Pay it off today?

[01:09:23]

Pay it off today. Open a nice bottle of wine, and you guys cheers and say, We, as a couple, As a married couple, our money and our debt is paid off. Now we get to start working towards a future that we want, and we are going to start building wealth, and we are going to do this all together because we are married and we are one.

[01:09:44]

For richer for poorer, in sickness and health, unto thee all my worldly goods I pledge. That's the old marriage, Faust.

[01:09:52]

Thank you. We had a feeling you would say that, but I think we just needed that extra push.

[01:09:56]

We're fairly predictive. Let me tell you another way to think about it that It drives me emotionally because we get this type of question a lot and a lot of actual pushback from the troll land on the internet that, How you should never combine your money. Yes, you should always combine your money because of several reasons. Number one, the data says that you have a much higher probability of staying married, having a good marriage, and building wealth than if you don't combine it. Tons of data, lots of research, including the 10,000 people that we studied. Number one. Number two, from a relational standpoint, when you can agree on what you're doing with our money, when we are combined in our goals, we agree on our money. We're really agreeing on our dreams We're agreeing on our fears. We're agreeing on the path that we're going to use to get to the future that we want to do. All of that agreement is called unity, and it spells excellent marriage is what it does. A high-quality relationship when you've got that unity with anyone else, but particularly with a spouse. In business, we want the teams to be in agreement, aligned towards an agreed unified future.

[01:11:18]

When we get that in business, we get synergy and productivity and all kinds of things. Same thing occurs in a marriage. All of that being said, here's a new one I can try on you. Let me see how this works. If If you got a check in the mail today from a rich uncle that died, and it was $96,000, you would pay off the loan today, wouldn't you?

[01:11:47]

Yes, I would.

[01:11:48]

Okay. What we're saying out loud that we're trying to encourage you guys to change your vernacular on, change your verbiage on, is you're saying that that's not your money. It is your money. You're now married. He's saying that's not his debt, and it is his debt because you're now married. If he gets sick and has the flu, you're going to make him chicken soup in sickness and in health. We're going to be living our lives together. If you would use your money to pay off your debt, then you should use your money to pay off your debt.

[01:12:34]

I would just challenge you guys. Honestly, Megan, not just the tactical stuff of going online and paying off the debt today, which I think you should. I think it should be gone tonight, and it's what a celebration. But when you actually do have that mindset shift, and instead of his account, your account, his savings, my debt, and it's this still two-lane idea, there's something about just going all in, all in in it and saying, This is us together. And you start really looking at your money as us. It doesn't have someone's name on it. It is our money when it hits that account. It just changes something. There's something in it that is so empowering and so exciting because you can get to your goals so much faster, so much faster.

[01:13:22]

That's exactly right. Leona is in Michigan. Hi, Leona. How are you?

[01:13:27]

Hi, I'm good. How are you?

[01:13:28]

Better than I deserve. What's Can you give us a little bit of your background, please?

[01:13:31]

Okay. I'm wondering what the best way to buy land is. We got an opportunity to buy some land. It's a boat, a little over seven acres for 15,000. But we have a vehicle loan out right now. We owe $8,446.99 on that. Anyways, we would like to pay off one debt before we have two debts. I'm just wondering if we should use the money that we have saved up for that land, if we should put that towards the van and use that van as collateral for the land.

[01:14:11]

No. You should pay off the van a day, and you just save up and pay cash for the land.

[01:14:20]

Okay, so do you think we should- No debt. Pass on the land opportunity?

[01:14:25]

Yes, you should pass on it. It's not an opportunity, it's a trap. You don't have the money. Okay. You don't have the money to buy it. No debt. If you get out of the debt business, you're going to have money for the first time in your life. But as long as you're playing hide the pea under some shell, trying to move it around so that it makes the debt all fun again, you're going to continue to be broke. This is what broke people do. They constantly have payments, and they constantly figured out a way they thought it was smart, but they constantly have no money. If I'm you, and because I love you, I want you to break that off of your life. I want those chains to never come back into your life ever again. Stop it. Get out of the debt business completely for the good of Leona. How old are you?

[01:15:14]

Twenty-five Yeah.

[01:15:15]

When you're 35, you will love this discussion if you go do what I tell you to do because you're going to have so stinking much money. Otherwise, you're going to be 35 and you'll have a new set of payments because you had a new plan.

[01:15:28]

And no money still. How How much you guys make a year, Leona?

[01:15:32]

A little over 56,000.

[01:15:34]

56, okay. What's the money saved that you have? You mentioned that.

[01:15:40]

We have seven grants saved in our van, we owe 8,446.99. Okay.

[01:15:48]

I would keep a thousand, pay it off. You'll have a little over 1,800 left on the van.

[01:15:54]

Not the van. I'll take over time, put some stuff on Craigslist, sell some much stuff the kids think they're next. Name the dog, eBay, and put the cat on Craigslist.

[01:16:02]

Then get an emergency fund, have money saved in the bank with no debt, and then be looking at options. If you guys want to move later on down the road, you can. But there's just not the money to do that with the land issue and everything today.

[01:16:15]

When you buy something that's a dream with debt, you turn it into a nightmare because it takes control of your life. It takes control of your largest wealth-building tool, which is your income. When you don't have any choice pieces anymore because you're wearing this stuff around your neck all the time, it takes the fun out. It sounds fun. It sounds like a way to get something I want when I'm not ready to get it yet. But the net result is hell. I mean, you just get stuck in this forever mud hole. That's what most Americans do. They go from car payment to car payment. They've got a stupid student loan that's been around so long. They think it's a freaking pet. Then they run from MasterCard. Who named that anyway? You have a master in your life, master card to American distress, to a visa to the land of debt. I mean, come on, seriously. Think about this, people. If you break that cycle off of you, it changes your whole thing. We're known for getting people out of debt, but we only want to be getting people out of debt so that they can increase their generosity and increase their investing and become wealthy so they can increase their generosity and increase their investing, so they can become more wealthy, so they can increase their generosity and increase their quality of life.

[01:17:32]

Instead of that, when you're in the debt cycle, you're making everybody else rich. You're making the banks rich. I mean, everyone else wins, but you in it.

[01:17:38]

Who's got the tallest buildings in the skyline? Life insurance companies and banks. You think Santa Claus built those? You did. They screwed you. They got furniture nicer than yours, and you paid for it. This is the Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, number one best-selling author and number one author in the children's category. My co-host, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. The book she has coming out next week is I'm Glad for What I For Where I Am. I'm glad for Where I am. The other one was, I'm glad for what I have. The first was a best seller. So great kids' books. Be sure and check them out. She's going to be out touring around America in the next week or so. She'll be looking in Atlanta and Phoenix and Dallas and Los Angeles, and you'll see book signings there with Rachel and story time and come out and bring the kiddo. She'll sign the book. You'll hear this book read by her. It's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of cool stuff going on.

[01:18:57]

Also, let you guys know it is financial literacy Literacy Month, National Literacy Month. We're celebrating teachers right now. The teachers of America love our kids well, and so we want to just stop, whether they teach our high school curriculum, the Foundations of Personal Finance, or whether you are a teacher of another subject. We want to salute you. One teacher is going to win a $5,000 vacation, plus two other teachers are going to win a $3,000 vacation each to wherever you choose. Completely free, no purchase necessary. This This is the Teacher Appreciation Giveaway, sponsored by Ramsey Education. For more information, go to ramseysolutions. Com/teacher and enter for a free chance to go on a vacation.

[01:19:41]

Love our teachers. I did a shout out on Instagram about something, and I had so many direct messages from teachers because my kids are in public school. I was like, There's just still so many great teachers who love our kids, who are wonderful people, and they do a lot. They work so, so hard. All you teachers are thankful.

[01:19:57]

There's so few of them that I know they're out there, but there's so few of them that mail it in. Yes. They bring everything. We've had the best teachers. They bring their whole self to the deal.

[01:20:08]

Yes, they're amazing. They really are. We're so thankful. Thankful for all you teachers out there.

[01:20:12]

April is in Austin, Texas. April, how can we help today?

[01:20:17]

Hi. I'm calling in because my husband passed away in a car accident that we were both in about a year ago.

[01:20:26]

Oh, my, honey.

[01:20:28]

How horrible. We were Yeah, we were T-boned. I woke up in the ICU finding out he had passed.

[01:20:34]

Oh my gosh. How long were you in ICU?

[01:20:38]

About a little over a week. I had two emergency surgeries. I was air-flated there.

[01:20:44]

How are you doing now?

[01:20:46]

I am healed as it like I'm back to where I was before the accident, but I'm still just learning how to do this. We've just been married for two months.

[01:20:56]

Oh my gosh, April. I'm so sorry.

[01:21:00]

You're physically healed, but you still got a broken heart. Oh, my gosh. How old was he?

[01:21:07]

He was one week after his 31st birthday.

[01:21:11]

Gosh, I'm so sorry.

[01:21:14]

How can we help today, hon?

[01:21:17]

Well, I got, because of all this, a life insurance policy. He worked for Apple and had one. I want to make sure that I'm doing the right things with it. We were both like... We had bought our home together. We had worked hard to save the money for it. We were actually working to pay off the debt through the baby's debt. We were basically almost debt-free. I have paid off all the residual little debt, but I just want to make sure. I'm 27, and so I just want to make sure that I'm doing the right thing.

[01:21:58]

You said this was a A year ago?

[01:22:01]

Yeah, that happened on February 25th of last year. It's just been about a year.

[01:22:05]

Yeah, a little over a year then. Okay. Yeah. What do you make?

[01:22:13]

I make 70 $94,000 a year.

[01:22:17]

How much is owed on the mortgage?

[01:22:19]

The mortgage currently is at 210,000. Okay.

[01:22:26]

How much life insurance did you get?

[01:22:29]

A million dollars. Okay.

[01:22:30]

Any other debt? April, now you said you guys were working to pay off debt. Is there any consumer debt left?

[01:22:40]

No. I paid off. There was $5,000. Then we had just gotten a new car for me, and that is now paid off, which was our goal, too. We wanted to pay it off in full.

[01:22:57]

I take it you planned to stay in the house? Yes.

[01:23:00]

We were settled here. I have a community here, so I don't want to move.

[01:23:07]

I wasn't trying to run you off, but sometimes the memories are in every room and people decide not to stay, right?

[01:23:14]

Yeah.

[01:23:15]

But that part is okay, and you're working through that part, and you're enjoying the benefits of the house right now still.

[01:23:23]

Yeah. We picked out the house when it was just a lot. We built it and picked out everything in it, so it has a lot of special things in it for us. Okay.

[01:23:36]

Wow. Well, you've illustrated the importance of life insurance for sure. You'll be a proponent of that for the rest of your life. Anybody that'll listen, you'll tell them about it. If I woke up in your shoes, I can't imagine waking up in your shoes, but I would go ahead and pay off the house.

[01:23:59]

Okay. That was something I was wondering.

[01:24:04]

Then I want to just systematically do three things with money the rest of my life, and that is invest it, enjoy it, and give it. If I'm in your shoes, I'm probably thinking of something that was close to his heart that I could do in his memory. I mean, if he had a real thing for starving children or foster care or sex trafficking or water or whatever, I don't know. Maybe you all have talked about that. It doesn't have to be a ton of money. It's just whatever you decide. But I'm probably going to do something that's representative of that because I think that feels right. That starts the generosity muscle. For the rest of your life, you're going to be generous because you're set. You don't have any trouble now. Then I'm going to have a chunk invested. I'll sit down with the SmartVestor Pro and start learning about investments. Click that on ramsey solutions. Com. Click on SmartVestor Pro, and they'll help you start to learn about some mutual funds I'd place the majority of this money in investments, and I would have some I would just enjoy and not feel guilty about that at all.

[01:25:24]

That's what he would want. It's what is normal and healthy, and It's awkward, but everything's a little awkward right now.

[01:25:34]

Yeah.

[01:25:35]

And so whatever it is you want to do, if you got a sister you're close to and you two want to go on a nice cruise for a week and you pay for hers and yours, that's fine. Go do that. I'm making something up. You do whatever you want to do, but enjoy a segment of it. Give a percentage after the house has paid off. I'm going to put this percentage to enjoyment. I'm going to put this percentage in investments, and I'm going to put this percentage towards generosity. Then that'll set you free to start taking action on each of those three buckets. Start your investments, start your generosity, and plan some enjoyment. And you need some enjoyment. It'll be good for you.

[01:26:15]

I'm so sorry, April.

[01:26:16]

Wow, what a devastating thing. This is the Ramsey Show.

[01:26:22]

Hey, friends, it's Ken Coleman, and I've got some big news.

[01:26:25]

The GetClear Career Assessment is now paired with my new book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do.

[01:26:31]

Every book comes with access to the assessment so you can discover who you are and how you're wired. Then I'm going to show you how to use your results to get specific in your job search and find the work you enjoy. Pre-order Find the Work You're Wired to Do at Ramsey Solutions ramsysolutions. Com/store.

[01:26:46]

Get the audiobook and the e-book free.

[01:26:49]

Go to ramseysolutions. Com/store. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Guys, we are so Super pumped about the upcoming Total Money Makeover Weekend here on campus at the Ramsey Events Center. It's May 10th and 11th, Friday afternoon evening, all day, Saturday. It's Rachel Cruz speaking, Jade Warshaw speaking, George Campbell, me, Dr. John Deloney on Relationships and Emotional Health, Ken Coleman on How to Make More Money. We're going to walk you guys through a total money makeover like you've never seen before. You're going to leave here equipped, inspired, fired up, and bring that person that thinks you're crazy. When you leave with them, they'll be crazy. We'll teach them how to be crazy. We teach crazy right here. We know how to do it. We want you to come. This is the ultimate motivator. Bring your friend who thinks you're nuts, because by the end of the day, we'll have them completely convinced. It's what we do. We could show you how to win and give you a step-by-step plan. You're going to leave here jazz, wired up and fired up and ready to go, man. Do Do not wait to get your tickets. Our platinum plus tickets are sold out.

[01:28:04]

You can still get platinum or VIP, but there's just a couple of those left, and the general admission is also going fast. So ease anxiety, learn to invest, Learn to become wealthy, learn how to get out of debt, and learn how to work with your spouse and your kids. Oh, it's everything. A total money makeover weekend here. Come to ramsey solutions. Com/events. Come join us just south of Franklin, Tennessee. We would love to have you for that weekend. It's going to be really exciting. We have a blast doing these. I was going over some of the materials this morning. You guys are going to be blessed. We're just so glad you're coming. Thanks for hanging out with us. All right, Nicholas is in West Palm Beach. Hi, Nicholas. How are you?

[01:28:48]

Hi, I'm good. How are you?

[01:28:49]

Better than I deserve. How can I help?

[01:28:53]

I'm 29. I'm looking to start my own business, and obviously, I have things to have. I have hiccups every single year to get into that point. I'm wondering if there's anything that I can invest my money in to be able to reach my goal faster.

[01:29:08]

What are you trying to start, Nicholas?

[01:29:12]

I'm currently an assistant I'm here for race horses, and I'm trying to be my own trainer in a couple of years from now.

[01:29:22]

Okay. Would you not go to other people's farms and barns to do the training?

[01:29:30]

Currently, I work for somebody. Basically, he provides the horses.

[01:29:35]

No, I'm asking if you were a full-time trainer, all you need to do is have a way to get to the barn to do the training. What does you need to do to start a business?

[01:29:46]

You need to have money in the bank, but also you need to build up the clientele to be able to get there.

[01:29:51]

Yeah, but why do you need to have money in the bank?

[01:29:53]

Because sometimes when you build the owners, even though you build them for a 30-day cycle, sometimes it takes them 45 days, 50 days, even 60 days.

[01:30:02]

Yeah, but that's all. There's nothing you really have to buy to start this business.

[01:30:07]

You do have to buy equipment.

[01:30:09]

Not a ton.

[01:30:09]

Satin, stuff like that. Not a ton. Not a ton. Not a ton. If you don't have all of the horses, no.

[01:30:15]

Yeah. Most of the owners have the equipment, too.

[01:30:19]

No, the equipment is provided by the trainer. The feed and everything is provided by the trainer.

[01:30:23]

Yeah. Okay. You don't need much money as my point.

[01:30:27]

How much do you think, Nicholas, will you need, realistically? Exactly.

[01:30:31]

Somebody had told me 50,000, but that was before the market got crazy. You got to be kidding me. That's what somebody had said.

[01:30:40]

Well, somebody's an idiot. What are you- That's ridiculous.

[01:30:43]

Okay, Dave, you're not a horse expert.

[01:30:45]

No, I'm a business expert.

[01:30:47]

I know. But listen, Nicholas, have you, Nicholas, priced this out? Have you said, Okay, here's, realistically, if I had eight clients or whatever, here's probably what I'm going to need. Have you just run some numbers, realistically? Yes, I have.

[01:31:01]

I would say that the average race for us per day would cost us. I have to check the cheapest way possible. Probably it costs $80 a day to maintain.

[01:31:10]

You don't maintain them. The owner maintains them.

[01:31:16]

But the owner has to pay me back.

[01:31:18]

The owner maintains them. He has to pay you the training fee, but he's maintaining the horse.

[01:31:26]

Correct.

[01:31:27]

So it doesn't cost… What does it cost you? You got to go over there in your cowboy boots and sweat and get your work done.

[01:31:34]

You also have to put up the payroll and the bill.

[01:31:39]

I understand. You don't have any payroll. You're it. Well, for now, yes. Yeah, well, That's it. That's all it takes. What it takes you to start a business is 5,000 bucks max, maximum. I started this business on a card table in my living room. I didn't have spit. I didn't have anything except just nobody could tell me no. That's all I had. I wouldn't be denied. Yes, but- You do not create all these false barriers in your head to go do your dream. You are already a trainer. The first thing you need to do is start getting some clients that you didn't steal from your employer, and that you start doing five on the side, two on the side, three on the side, and you go over there and you work. And whatever money you make, you set over in a little account. So if you need to buy a few a piece of tack here and there, you can pick up a saddle, you can pick up a piece of equipment or whatever. But it's not a lot of money, man. The secret sauce in this business is you. It's not you needed some $40,000 piece of equipment.

[01:32:41]

You're the horse trainer. You're the man. You're You're the it. You're the sauce on the Big Mac, dude.

[01:32:48]

Yeah. If anything, the biggest jump is going to be from an income stream standpoint and be sure you can pay your bills personally to make sure you're jumping from that.

[01:32:57]

If you can pick up a couple of clients on the side that you didn't steal from your current employer, or they may be clients your current employer did not want, and he would allow you to work them on the side, and you start a little side hustle, and you get your clientele built up, you get your reputation built up, you're going to be a whole lot wiser on what you actually need to purchase. But you don't have to have money set aside for payroll. You're it. You keep working the full-time job. You go get the horse bill. Listen, when you're little, here's what you do. You walk up to the owner and you go, I'm little. What? I'm not your bank. You got to pay me today. You got to pay me on the barrelhead, man. I need to be paid in money at the end of the week because I'm little. I'm not your bank. That's okay. There's nothing wrong with being little. Nothing wrong with that. That's how I started. I didn't have terms. We didn't bill anybody. If you wanted to get counseling from me when I started, you paid before we sat down.

[01:33:56]

Then I would do counseling because there's no way I'm going to bill you and hope broke people pay their bill. No, we're not doing that. How do you charge broke people for doing counseling? Up front. That's how you do it. When you're little, this is how you think.

[01:34:14]

It takes a level of humility, but honestly, and you're probably great. It takes some swagger, too. Yeah, and you're awesome, Nicholas. It's like you're the best horse trainer ever, right? It's that level of confidence that you go in and say, Hire me. I'm amazing. That's it.

[01:34:29]

I'm I'm a small business, so I'm not your bank. Pay me, and I'm going to give you a great deal, and then you're going to be glad you've had me around, and I'm going to be training your grandkids' horses because we're going to be friends the rest of your life. I'm going to do such a good job. You can't get rid of me. This is who you are, Nicholas, and go be that. But don't sit around and go, I need somebody told me I need $50,000 to be a horse. No, no, no, no, no, a horse trainer himself, which may be shocking, is that there really may be these costs that you do know, Nicholas, so do it in cash.

[01:35:08]

Don't get out ahead of yourself either. Plan accordingly and be putting money aside to make sure that when you jump over to your full-time gig that you're able to support yourself. But also, realistically, if there is equipment and there's saddles and different things that you're using, don't smark.

[01:35:23]

You're not a horse. No, I mean, for 50 grand, you can buy the horse. I mean, come on. You don't need the equipment. You just get the horse. I mean, it's just, no. You never know. Yeah. You can do it, Nicholas. You can do it. You bootstrap it, dude. You're organic cash flow. You make money, put it back in. Make money, put it back in. Move at the speed of cash. Make money, put it back in. That's what I started doing 35 years ago, and here I sit, being this guy. This is the Ramsey Show. Folks, you do not need a financial degree to build your investing plan with confidence. At our new virtual event, Dave Ramsey's Investing Essentials, you'll learn the best strategies for your 401k and mutual funds. I'll even open up my personal playbook on investing in real estate. You can do this, and you don't have to do it alone. This two-night virtual event happens May 21st and 22nd. Last day for early bird tickets is April 11th. Save 50 bucks if you buy now at ramseysolutions. Com/events. Thanks for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author.

[01:36:34]

My daughter is my co-host. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, one of our favorite things is to look out and see folks watching the show. We do the show here on the glass from 1:00 to four Central Time every day. Come by, have some homemade cookies when you walk in, the place smells like mama's kitchen. You can have you some coffee, all of it's on us, and watch the show and hang out. Also in the lobby, there is the debt-free scream, so we get to talk to people their debt-free screams every day. That's one of our favorite things as well. But our most favorite thing of all is one of our own Ramsey team members is on the debt-free stage doing their debt-free scream. Natalie Fleener and her husband Hunter are on the stage, and Natalie's on the Entree leadership team as a marketer. Been here what? About six years, Natalie? Yes, six years. Six years. Way to go, guys. Fun. Well, I knew you'd been here working in the Entree team for a while, and the Entree team's killing it. We got Summit coming up, and it's completely sold out. We can't seem to do enough to keep the people just beating the doors down to come to Summit.

[01:37:38]

So you marketers are doing a good job. Way to go. Thanks.

[01:37:40]

We have a fun time.

[01:37:41]

Good stuff. Hunter, what do you do? I am a general dentist Just. Okay, excellent. Okay, so what debt did you two guys have and how much?

[01:37:51]

Well, we had a mixture. We had some credit cards, we had a car loan, we had student loans for my undergrad and his undergrad, and then we had the big honker.

[01:38:02]

The big dentist loan. I think she talked about your loan. I don't think she called you big. There we go. All right. What was the grand total of all this mess?

[01:38:16]

$382,161. Wow. Amazing.

[01:38:19]

How long did it take you to pay it off? Six years. Six years since you've been here? That's right. Very cool. We're not going to ask your all's income because you got about 50 of your team members standing around, and that's completely awkward and unfair. We're not going to do that. You came here six years ago. What's the rest of the Ramsey story? Is that about the time you got out of dental school, or how did this whole story unfold where six years later, you got almost $400,000 gone? Yeah. I graduated in 2017 and then moved back here. I was in Memphis for school. Then I guess we just got out and we were looking at the loans and they were just... It seemed like a mountain. Then, of course, we- How long you all been married?

[01:39:05]

Four years at that point.

[01:39:07]

Okay, at that point. So 10 years of marriage now. So four years in, graduate dental school, and you look at this mountain, you go, I just finished a really hard thing. Now I got another hard thing.

[01:39:18]

It was crazy because we were making the minimum payments or even trying to. We couldn't make the minimum payments, but we were watching the balance go up because interest builds so quickly on an amount that large. I just don't think that was something we were really expecting. It just felt like a mountain, honestly. I started looking for work, and I am a unicorn. I grew up here in Nashville, and Just knowing the reputation that Ramsey had of being a great place to work. I used to listen to the Ramsey show with my dad when we would drive around town. He's a realtor, and so I was just familiar. I started researching the company, watching other people's debt-free screams, and I was super inspired by that and wanted that for ourselves. I applied thinking I wasn't going to get it because of how much debt we had.

[01:40:09]

We don't turn people down for employment because they have debt. We would have no workers.

[01:40:18]

Anyway, as part of my onboarding, we started FPU, and that just gave us a super clear plan and plan of attack to just get on top of it. That was what got us started, and we've been going ever since. Golly, because six years is long. We talk to people on this show. We had one earlier last hour. It's 18 months, and people are at all different links. So six years, that's the marathon status right there.

[01:40:40]

400k is a lot, though.

[01:40:42]

Yeah, I know. But I'm saying, did you guys, six years ago, did Map it out to think, Okay, in 2024, did you have 2025 in your head? Did you guys have a goal that you were seeing out there and you knew it was going to be six years, or were you just one month, one quarter at a time?

[01:40:58]

Yeah, we were just taking it one month at a time, almost. Just getting on the budget first and just trying to stick with it. We have two beautiful daughters where we had to halt our debt snowball to save up and pay for them.

[01:41:12]

And then COVID happened. Yeah.

[01:41:13]

So had a pay cut there for me. It's just been trying to stick with it and trying to keep the blinders on.

[01:41:22]

The mountains and valleys through six years. Because it is a long time. It is, yeah.

[01:41:26]

Hard to keep going, but just having perseverance.

[01:41:28]

Yeah. And what was a real game changer for us was actually when they paused the interest on student loans for three years and when the media was reporting, The payments are paused. I was like, No, the interest is paused. Pay right now. That's what we were doing. It helped us a lot because everything was going straight to the principal. So good. Then you had, yes, two kids. Two kids. Two girls during that. They're five and two. What was the hardest part? Because there are so many parents that listen to the show and they have young kids They're thinking, How do I even do this journey? Because I'm juggling work and kids and all of it. It's a full life that you have. What encouragement or what things really helped you in that journey?

[01:42:09]

I think really just one, staying with the budget, even though, yes, when you say you have kids, it's like, How can we afford it? You got to plan it out. When you get that plan and you stick to it, it really does work, even though it is a long... We had six years, so it's hard. There were times where I was getting frustrated, but I think we had to separate it when we got to my big school loans and we paid off this amount of money. Then we did a little celebration and then just set goals to achieve. Then it was like, literally, we paid the last payment, and was like, That's it. We're done. It's almost surreal. It is. Is that all? Is that all? Yeah. Once you finally get there because you've been holding your breath so long, it feels like. Yes. Yeah. Way to go. Good job, guys. Natalie, you're working in the middle of the Entree Leadership Team, which is not all financial principles all day long. It's all small business, but you're in the whole team here as part of Ramsey, and so this stuff's all around you. Lots of peer pressure.

[01:43:08]

Does that make it easier or harder?

[01:43:11]

I don't know if I would call it pressure as much as encouragement, honestly. I mean, I would keep people updated of how we were doing on our debt payoff. We have our Walk the Talk at staff meeting, and it's just everybody's cheering you on. It doesn't feel like pressure. It just feels like you have 70, 80 people every single day routing you on to your goal.

[01:43:33]

Yeah, good. I was hoping that was the answer, but you never know. You never know with some of these people. I'm just saying.

[01:43:42]

Okay, so after six years, you guys, do you have something fun that you're going to do? Is there a celebration, exclamation point at the end of this? Well, we paid off in February, and so it was fun for me. It was a work trip.

[01:43:54]

I had a CE course, and I went out to Arizona. I learned a lot, but We almost use that as a debt-free- A trip.

[01:44:02]

Trip.

[01:44:03]

It was right after we paid it. We literally paid it off that week, and then I went to that trip, so I was like, You're coming.

[01:44:08]

Then, of course, we're going to the beach this summer. That was so great. Good.

[01:44:12]

Very good.

[01:44:13]

Good for you guys.

[01:44:14]

Guys, it's amazing. What do you tell people the key is to getting out of debt? I mean, you got it.

[01:44:22]

The budget is always the answer, right? Mm-hmm. I'm going to give a little bit more. I think six years of going through this, there's a lot that you have to say no to. I think it's really helpful to think about the things that you can say yes to. You can say yes to having people over in your home. It doesn't have to be this huge party all the time. You can say yes to hospitality. You can say yes to just opening up your lives to people. Then you have community around you, and it doesn't feel like, Oh, gosh, I'm saying no to everything. This isn't even fun. Then I'd probably say the other thing, too, is learn to love outside because it's free. Yeah. There you go.

[01:45:03]

Go to a park.

[01:45:04]

That's right. That's right. Oh, so good, especially with kids. Yes, good. So good.

[01:45:09]

Way to go, you guys. All right, bring the pretty girls up. What are their names and ages again? Two and five, did you say? Yes.

[01:45:14]

Eliana is five. And Joanna is two. Yes. They're so cute. Oh, my gosh.

[01:45:21]

Well, those two kids have parents that are heroes. You guys have changed your family tree. We're so proud of you. Way to go. Good work. 382,000 paid off in six years. Natalie and Hunter, count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

[01:45:38]

We're debt-free. The whole department out there, 100 people cheering them on.

[01:45:50]

Way to go, guys. I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Romans 12:12, Rejoice and hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. The great Les Brown said, When life knocks you down, try to land on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up. That's good. He was a great one. I had the honor of sharing a stage with him many years ago out in LA, and he's a something else. He's the one, If you're sick and tired of being sick and tired, people change their lives when they finally say, I've had He's that guy. If you get a chance to look up some YouTube on Les Brown, you'll have a good moment. I can tell you that. All right, Faye is with us. Faye is in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, Faye. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[01:46:43]

Hi, I'm so excited.

[01:46:46]

Well, it's an honor to have you. How can we help?

[01:46:48]

Yes. I've been asking my husband, saying, Hey, we need to just bite the bullet and pay off our car for two vehicles. He pretty much says, The only way that we're going to do that is I call Dave Ramsey, and he tells us to do it.

[01:47:04]

Well, I mean, that's a fairly predictable outcome, don't you think?

[01:47:07]

I know.

[01:47:09]

Exactly. It's like asking Dave Ramsey if the sun's going to come up.

[01:47:14]

Exactly.

[01:47:15]

How much do you owe on your cars?

[01:47:21]

We both owe about $7,000, so $14,000 total.

[01:47:25]

How much money do you have?

[01:47:28]

About $45,000.

[01:47:30]

Oh, my gosh. Just in your savings account.

[01:47:32]

Pay it off.

[01:47:32]

Why would you not pay? Why have you not already paid them off? Why do you need me to tell you to do that? Why haven't you done it already?

[01:47:40]

Because we've done so much in the past year. We've built land, built a house, and had a baby. So all these things came at us, and now I'm like, Okay, we have money. Let's just pay it off. Stop paying this stupid interest.

[01:47:54]

Yeah. Okay. So he got his wish, you got your wish, Pay off your cars. Dave Ramsey just said that. Okay, so we got that behind us. But here's the thing. Paying off the cars and doing 17 other things that aren't smart is not going to be your answer either, okay?

[01:48:15]

Right.

[01:48:16]

Paying off the cars is not a single magic bullet by itself. It's one of the things you do that is on the list of wisdom. Yes. All these things coming at you. I heard chaos, I heard out of control feeling, and the $40,000 is giving you some comfort with all these things coming at you. What that means is you guys need to be doing a better plan overall with your money, too. Probably getting on the every dollar budget. Why don't we give you that so that you can get the premium version so you can hook it to your bank. Are you already using every dollar?

[01:48:49]

I'm not, no. We just combined our money recently.

[01:48:53]

Great. See, that's a wise thing to do. That's on the list of wise things. So check, check. Paid off the car. Combined our money. We're going to give you every dollar so the two of you can build a budget tonight to celebrate your new freedom from debt. Do you have any other debt?

[01:49:09]

Only our mortgage. That's our only other debt.

[01:49:11]

Okay. So when you're celebrating and doing your every dollar budget tonight, you all can light a candle and have a plastic surgery party and chop up all credit cards and only use debit cards from this point forward, okay?

[01:49:21]

That's what we do anyway.

[01:49:23]

Good. One more wise thing on the check box, right? If you check enough of the wise boxes and don't check the stupid It works. As you come out ahead of this money thing. It works. You guys are well on your way. But what I'm trying to get you to do is not just endorse a single item of the advice that we give, but instead, endorse the whole thing because that's what takes you to wealth, and that's what brings you to peace and unity in your marriage and those kinds of things. But it sounds like you're starting to- We're close. One at the time doing a whole bunch of it. It sounds like you're doing really good. We'll give you that thing you were asking for, which is Rachel and Dave both said, one, two, three, Pay off the cars. All right, there we go. Just got that covered. That's thorough. Denise is with us in Orlando. Hi, Denise. How are you?

[01:50:14]

Hi, Dave. I'm doing well, thank you. Good. How can we help? I would ask you how you were doing, but I know what you'd say. Oh, I'm predictable. But I don't think I don't care.

[01:50:22]

I'm predictable. How can we help?

[01:50:26]

I'm calling today because I have just turned 62 years old, and I have pretty much nothing for retirement. I have almost half a million dollars in mortgage debt because I have two rental properties and then a house that I live in. I've been counting on them to sell them eventually and use that money to invest and retire. I'm calling you to see if I should go ahead and and sell them now, one or both of them. And along with that, if I do sell them, if I should do a regular conventional sale or sell it to one of these investors that I keep getting calls and text and mail from. Okay.

[01:51:18]

I'll answer the last question first. No, you're going to sell it retail. Those guys are wholesalers. Okay. Meaning they're going to buy it at a discount so they can flip it and make money. Okay. And you might as well make that money. You've been the one holding on to it all these years. What do you make a year?

[01:51:36]

Well, I'm just getting ready to do my taxes. In my W-2, say I make 70,000 a year. But when I did my taxes in 2022, my income was relatively the same, and my taxable income ended up being around 18,000.

[01:51:52]

Okay. All right. Yeah, I'm not talking about deductions of taxes. I'm talking about what your income really is. You really make $70,000 a year? Yes. Okay. Did you say 6,2 or 5,2 years old?

[01:52:05]

62.

[01:52:07]

62. Okay, all right. Your personal residence has how much owed on it?

[01:52:16]

274,000.

[01:52:16]

What's it worth?

[01:52:19]

About 400 something at this point. I've had it for about two and a half years. Okay.

[01:52:26]

The rental number one, what is owed How many is?

[01:52:31]

A hundred and twenty-nine thousand, and I'm rounding.

[01:52:34]

And what's it worth?

[01:52:36]

It's worth, just talked to a realtor, it could be 320 something to 369. Okay.

[01:52:45]

And what's rental number 2 mortgage?

[01:52:49]

93,000.

[01:52:50]

And what's it worth?

[01:52:52]

Around 350,000. Okay.

[01:52:55]

All right. And so how long have you owned these?

[01:53:00]

Rental number one, I've owned since 1981. I bought it when I was 21 years old. Rental number two, I've had since 2015.

[01:53:14]

Okay. All right. Well, I mean, rentals are an investment. You could sell rental number, whichever one you don't want, I don't care, and use it to pay off the other one and pay a chunk towards getting your mortgage paid off. Okay. You'd have one property free and clear, and that's a nice investment to have a $350,000 rental property. That's as valid an investment as mutual funds. I own both. Really, real estate has a lot more hassle to it. As you know, you're a landlord. It's not passive at all. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard, passive income on TikTok, but it's not passive You're landlording, it's an active behavior, right? But you've been doing it since you're freaking 21 years old. So obviously, you know how to landlord and you know how to maximize these investments unless you got them way under-rented or something. But I think if you were a weak landlord, you'd have been out of it a long time ago.

[01:54:20]

This is true.

[01:54:21]

Yeah. So you know what you're doing. So do you prefer? It's almost as if you felt like you need to sell these because they weren't sophisticated and the mutual funds were, and I'm trying to call that out. If you like these, keep them.

[01:54:35]

I think part of it is that I've been a Ramzoni for many, many years, and I've heard your story about how you've had mortgages called in, and that's how you broke the first time. I think I'm concerned about something like that happening. I have renters in both properties right now that have been good and always on time with their rent and everything, but I'm concerned about that going south.

[01:55:07]

No, it's not going to go south, not you. I would sell one of them and pay off the other one and a bunch of your house if I were in your shoes. And then I'm going to use your income to finish up paying off the mortgage and start to build a nest egg on the side. You'll have a piece of real estate and a nest egg. I think that's fine. Unless you just want to get rid of them, it's fine with me. That puts us hour of the Ramsey Show in the Books. We'll be back with you you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. If you're a leader, your personal growth matters for your organization because whatever you lead can only grow as much as you do. I know from experience. I've been CEO of Ramsey Solutions for over 30 years, and now I'm sharing that leadership and business coaching experience with you on the Entree Leadership podcast. I'm taking your calls and helping you figure out how to overcome challenges within your organization. One episode could change your business.

[01:56:27]

Check it out on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or on the Ramsey Network app.