Focus Creates Financial Momentum

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broken common since it's weird, so we're here to help you transform your life and your money from the Ramsey network here in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. This is the Ramsey Show I'm Jade Warsh on next to me. My buddy Rachel Cruz taking calls all for the next couple of hours or so. And just remember, the show doesn't happen without you guys. So call in the numbers, triple eight eight two five five two two five will get you on the line. And we'll answer your your question personally, which is my favorite way to do it. Let's go to Kent, who's called in. He's in St. Louis, Missouri. Hey Kent, welcome to the show. Hey, good afternoon. Well, good afternoon. How can we help today? Um, got two questions. Can I afford to go RV in full time? And what should I do with my assets? RVing full time. So is this like I quit my job and we're just, like across the country? Yeah, I'm really, I'm really retired. Okay. How old are you, Kent? 53. 53. Okay. So a young retiree. Um, what, what, what, what kind of assets do you have? Do you own a home? Do you have, well, what's the, what's the status there? Uh, about 75,000 and Charles swab account, um, give or take 30,000. I haven't checked it lately. Uh, 120 acres of recreational property with a home built on it. It's all paid for nice. Worst what, what would that be worth? Uh, one, probably one to 1.2. Okay. That's awesome. And, uh, what are you wanting to spend on this RV or do you already own it? Uh, I already own it. Okay. So no debt totally free and clear, uh, about a $1.9 million net worth or is it higher with other things we don't know about? Uh, yeah, there's, um, I inherited, uh, 80 acres from my dad, uh, brings in about 10,000 a year. What was that? How much? I inherited 80 acres of, uh, ran for my dad, 14,000 per year or rental owner. Okay. 14k per year. Are you going to have to sell anything, Kent to live this RV life? Or are you going to keep everything and just live off your investments? I, I guess that's part, part of the question. I'm not enough of an investment right now. It's a swab. But, um, the house is way too big for me. Uh, built my dream house. I was like 30. It's way too big. Uh, the properties takes a lot of my time. And there's no end to it, you know, like I used to be, um, six or a half maintenance, you know, um, I'm curious about the nest egg, the 750,000 that you have in Charles Schwab. What's the, you know, what's the interest that you've been compounding? What's that look like? Is it 10% is a, yeah, it's generally 10%. Okay. And how much have you been pulling off of it? Uh, 30,000 a month. Okay. So what's the idea? You'll sell the property in the home and downsize to something that you can kind of get to when you guys are kind of have like a home base, but maybe just downsize. Is that the idea? Yeah. I really would like to live someplace where I don't have to have no yard. Or have a base of some sort, you know, what would you spend on that of the 1.2 million? I, I don't know. Um, I've, I've been looking at like the Arkansas and Arizona, just, you know, like a couple acres in a, a small couple acres and we've known some lawns there. Right. I think you have a little bit more research to do. And I think it's the fun kind of research. But I think that if you sit down with your wife, it's your wife, too, right? Oh, you're single. Okay. Well, if you sit down with yourself and you look out and go, what is it that I want to, what is it that I want to get? And what do I want to spend on it? Yeah. So, so your, your, your question when you called in was, can I afford to live the RV life? And I mean, I'm going to say, yeah, I think, I think you can for sure. Um, but what I wouldn't do is sell your home and sell the property and put 1.1 million in an account and then slowly start draining it and then can't at 52 looks up at 62. If you lost a decade in the RV life and you're like, Oh crap, I got to go, I want to settle down somewhere. And the main house fund has been drained slowly over the last 10 years because you haven't had a plan, right? So, so I would just be aware that eventually the reality is you're probably going to settle into a home eventually, right? So for the short term, if the RV life is what you want to do, yeah, if that's what you want to do, go do it. Um, but just knowing the back of your head, you're going to have to buy something and considering you're retired and you got 750 right now, um, I would be looking for cash to pay, pay for your next property and cash. So I'd make that a goal. So whatever that you have to do to accomplish that, then I think, yeah, I think you can afford it. Yeah, I like that. So much of what we teach around here is live like no one else so that later, you can live like no one else. And I think that, uh, I think he's a good example of that he's been good with money to the tune of $750,000 stocked away. And then, you know, having a paid off home and these other things that he's, uh, received as an inheritance just feels like a cherry on top. Yep. And then, you know, Rachel, I'm not the RV type, but for folks who love that, they love it. Listen, I told a, I told a young couple a few weeks ago on the show, I was still getting hate for it that they wanted to move out of their house and live in an RV and rent their house. And I'm like, you know, we don't have the baby. No, all these people like Rachel, RV living with the baby is amazing. And I'm like, you know what? That's your cup of tea. Go for it. Go for it. But I'm with you, Jade. I think that would be tough. But for Kent, single guy, just go see the world, see America. I guess you could just, you guys stay landlocked. But for you guys to know, well, thanks for the call. I appreciate it. Let's go to, uh, well, let's not go to Amy. Well, let's say before a little bit more time, Amy, let's go to a social question because I like these. So if you want to drop a question in another way, number one, you could do ask Ramsey, you could call into the show or you could just drop a question on one of our socials. We've got a great Ramsey baby steps community on Facebook. And there's a lot of good support there as well. So Ben from the Ramsey baby steps community says, if I have to use my emergency fund, am I supposed to pause contributing to baby steps four, five, and six until I get it back to the full amount. And I think that's a really good question. I think I wouldn't pause for because you're going to go into your HR. Yeah, that's a big key to do. I would just keep funding retirement. But maybe you're not putting as much on the house and you're replenishing the emergency fund. Yeah. Because the chances of you like draining it completely, like if you had to drain it completely, maybe I'd pause all of that to get it built back. But most of the time you're dipping in, you know, a couple of thousand or something like that. And it's like, hey, keep retirement plugged. And I agree with you, Rachel. And then just sock everything else in there and get it built back up. The problem is nobody likes going into your emergency fund. They don't even want to touch it. Yeah. For sure. You can cash flow it. I recommend that all day long. Okay. Let's take it. You want to take another one? Yeah. We got Luke from Facebook. He said, how do you prioritize adding to sinking funds versus applying extra towards the principle in your mortgage? I have sinking funds for new gutters, fence staining, a new car, car repairs. And I just want to be proactive. Yeah. So all those things are, you know, realities of life that you're going to have to fund. So if you know, they're coming, the sinking funds is going to be a priority because you're going to have to make those purchases. And then anything on top of that for the mortgage, now if you keep a sinking fund around so long, you never end up using it. You look up in two years, like we've never touched it. Maybe you put some of that toward the house and started again if you want it. But, but a part of it is just maintaining life. So yeah, not everything is going to go to the mortgage. You have to keep up with life and make sure cash flowing it along the way. If you're looking for extra cash in your budget to knock out the baby steps faster, start with your bills that are on auto pay like your phone plan. If you haven't looked at your phone bill in a while, you're probably paying 100 bucks or more every month when you could be paying just 25. That's why I want you to switch to boost mobile. You get unlimited wireless for $25 a month and that price is locked in forever with no contracts and no hidden fees. How much would that save you every month? How much faster could you get through your next baby step? Plus with boost mobile, you get to keep your phone and your number. So nothing else has to change except how much you're paying. Switching to boost mobile is a no-brainer because it's one of the easiest ways to free up money in your budget. Go to boostmobile.com/ramsie and make the switch today. That's boostmobile.com/ramsie or click the link in the description. $25 for every room. requires customers to remain active on boost mobile and limited plan. All right, let's go back to the phone lines. We've got Holly, who's in Charleston, South Carolina, up next. Hey, Holly. You're on the line. Hey, Rachel. First of all, thanks for getting me through all my drops to work. We love y'all so much. You've really helped my family. Oh, thank you. All right, so I've got, yeah, I've got a 14-year-old daughter who I'm so proud of. She's got her first job at a grocery store. She's back in groceries. Working about 10 hours a week. And we also have a family friend who gets her $100 each week, which is amazing. But she has all this money in a Van Moe account. And she really, she's a very independent child, always has been. And she really just likes the, like, control that she has over that. And that she can do all this on her phone. And that mom's not having to approve every purchase and that sort of thing. And I've been fine with that aspect because she has been responsible with her spending. But as this money grows, I'm growing more concerned about just, if that's really the right way of where the right spot of where she should store this money for now. How old is she again? She's 14. 14. Okay. You know, I would say for the next year or so, I think it's five. But by the time she's 15, 16, I honestly, I probably would, would create a fair wins account for her. And she, there's an app with it. And so you're able to move money back and forth between checking and a high-yield savings account so she can actually start keeping some money in the high yield because, I mean, if it's 3%, like she'll probably see some good, you know, some, some growth in that, which is great versus it just sitting in Venmo or traditional savings account. So I would probably do that. And then with her Venmo account, it can, it can attach to the fair wins accounts that checking account, right? So she can do stuff back and forth where if she Venmo someone, it'll come out of that account. And so I probably would upgrade her to a checking savings situation. I mean, she's 14 now, so I'm like, I'm, it's not, nothing's on fire, but probably 15. Yeah. Or so I probably would do that. How much is in there? I'm just curious. Right now, she's got over 2,000. Okay. Oh gosh. Wow. And that 100 bucks a week is going to keep coming in. Maybe you do it sooner. Yeah. I might do it sooner, just because the 3% is just, it's just free money. Yeah. That would be, yeah, collecting something. And I'm thinking a car fund, that's kind of where my brain goes is how quickly can we start saving for a car? I don't know what you guys will do if you'll match her or what the plan is for that. But that's the next big purchase. Is that what she's saving towards? Exactly. That's definitely on our mind as an oven or and I definitely want her to contribute. So and she's aware of that and kind of has that in her mind as well, which is, I think, was it? Yeah. 2,000 plus is sitting there. Okay. Well, yeah. I would look into Fairwinds, honestly, if you go to Fairwinds.org/RAMZ, you can look at the Smart Bundle because it's a no monthly fee checking and you can get up to 10 high-yield savings. So she could even open up different savings accounts if she wants, I mean, she probably doesn't need to at 14, but a lot of it could be like the car fund and then something else. But having a debit card when she's out and again, you can connect Venmo to that checking account. So she can still use that platform. Because I know that's where a lot of teenagers use money, which is great. But I probably would establish her a little bit more just because of the amount. I mean, I was thinking it was like, I don't know, a couple of hundred bucks or something. I know. She was shocked with you with the 2,000. And the neighbor who's giving a hundred bucks a month, that's- I know. Give me that neighbor. Very nice. Very nice. Well, thanks for the call. That's a good one. Let's go on to Amy, who's in Stanford, Connecticut. Hey, Amy, you're up next. Hi. I'm so happy to talk to you, too. Absolutely. So my question is regarding my mortgage, but for just a real quick background, I didn't have any consumer debt until September of 2025 when I bought a used car. I did put down half the amount of cash, financed the rest, I financed it for five years, but I'm on track to have it paid off by next September. So I picked up a part-time job, I hate having this car payment. And I just- What's left on it? $9,000. OK. Yeah. So my question is, once I do pay off this car, does it make sense for me to tackle my mortgage if I don't plan on staying in my house for the long term? What's the long term? Is that like ten years or like two years? Like five. Um, I probably would still be putting money towards it. Are you investing- You're going to be investing as well for retirement, right? Because if you're following the baby steps, yeah. Yeah. I do have retirement, I do have, you know, three to six months savings account. I have all of that. And the car is my only consumer debt. OK. So you have three to six months. Let me just jump back for a quick second. Because we might be to this- we're probably to this closer than you think. How much do you have in savings right now? I have, um, I have 20,000 in like a high yield savings and I have six in the savings account that's attached to my checking. OK. So 26,000 saved. I'll be honest with you. If I were in your shoes, Amy, I'd reach into that pot and I'd pay off the $9,000 car today. Number one, you're going to save yourself in interest and you're going to save yourself in mental load by just getting this off your plate. No more debt. You have peace. Now that puts you square in the middle of baby steps four, five and six, where your question becomes far more relevant because now there's actually money today that you're going to be thinking about, OK, how do I want to take this margin? What would be my plan for paying extra on the mortgage? Do you see what I'm saying? Yes. So, yeah. If you were to look at your margin and kind of the landscape of how your year flows, what do you think you would put extra towards the mortgage? Would it be one payment a year? Would it be like, what are you kind of thinking? Well, right now I'm double and tripling my car payment, so I would probably say I, you know, the other thing is that I'm feeling broke. I actually picked up a part-time job today because I'm throwing all this money on the car every month, but I feel like I don't have money for a lot actually. Well, you wouldn't be doing that if you reached over today and paid it off and left yourself with $17,000 and then you could stack that up. I'm not sure what three months to six months of expenses is for you. What is it? I would say the six months is probably right where I am, and that is because I'm every year when I have my investment oil furnace service. They tell me I need a new one. They've been telling me that for eight years, but I know eventually it's going to poop out on me. Okay. And what will that cost? That's probably going to be about $18,000. Okay. So, how old did you say you were? I'm 53. Okay. So, what I would do is I'd save up, I mean, right now you've definitely got the three months. So, if you want to get it to six months to make sure the furnace is covered, I think that's a really good plan. And then, and this is after you've paid off the $9,000, by the way, and then all of that extra money is going to be margin. So, if you think about it, I think that you're probably going to be done stacking up the savings before September of next year. And then all that margin is going to be in your pocket. So, even if the furnace did go out, you'd have all that extra margin plus your emergency fund. But that being said, back to your original question, I would, whatever that rhythm that you would decide is fair to put towards the mortgage, I'd continue to do that because five years is a long time, and it can make a big dent. It's like a forced savings account. And so, when you move, that equity is going back in your pocket, and so it's a great idea to do so. I do have quite a bit of equity in the house now, and that's kind of why I have the question about paying more to get to lower the mortgage balance. Yeah, I would do it. I mean, I'm not saying, again, and this is for anybody not just in your shoes, but there's no set rhythm that we say, hey, you got to pay an extra payment every month, or you have to do $500 a month, we don't dictate what that is. It's just kind of whatever works with your current goals, with your current margin, because in 4, 5, and 6, it's all about intentionality. Yeah, and it's kind of forcing that goal. We call it the force savings account, because sometimes they mean what happens is people get to that point, and they're like, okay, I have X amount of margin a month, and instead of putting it towards the house, they're like, well, I'll just save it, and then they save it somewhere, and then something comes up. They need a new car. They're going to go on a trip or whatever, right? And that money that was earmarked for something long-term ends up covering something short-term. Because if it's forced in the equity, it's just getting paid down while your house is going up. And then, if there's other things you need to be saving for, it forces you to be proactive on those things, where it's not just like just like fall back, if you will, and getting it paid. Now, if you said you were moving, you know, next April, I'd be like, no, that's fine, just stack up some cash and put it toward the down payment, but five years is a long time. A lot can change. A lot can change. So, it may be faster you're out, or you'll look in five years, and who knows what the world's going to be like, and you may be like, I may be good here with almost a paid off house, but you're doing great, Amy. But pay off that card tonight, and stack up that emergency fund again, and do it in that order. I think it's going to give you a lot more peace, a lot more control, and not feel as broke. If your business is making seven figures or more, you should be proud of that. But that growth probably brought a mess with it, systems that don't talk to each other. It's impossible to track down your numbers because they're scattered everywhere. That's a visibility problem and NetSuite has solved that problem for more than 44,000 businesses like yours. NetSuite brings financials, inventory, CRM, and more into one place. And their AI tool, NetSuite Next builds AI into everything, automating busy work like forecasting demand and chasing down overdue accounts. It's not complicated to use, you just ask it questions like you're talking to a person. And you're not starting from scratch because NetSuite is built on leading practices from thousands of businesses pre-loaded and ready to go. Ramsey solution switched to NetSuite years ago. It helped us know our numbers and we've never looked back. If your revenue is at least seven figures, try NetSuite Next for free at NetSuite.com/ramsey. Or click the link in the description. Well hey guys, if you're new to the Ramsey show, you'll hear us talk about the baby steps a lot. They're seven of them. And that's because the framework that we use to answer every question is filtered through those seven baby steps. If you want to know more about that, click the link below that's in the show notes and learn about the baby steps. All right, Sergio is in Atlanta, Georgia. Hey Sergio, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you doing? Doing all right. How can we help? I live in Atlanta. I have a lot of my family that lives in Colombia. And lately, I've been feeling a bit taken advantage of by them because I helped them a lot, particularly my grandmother, but a lot of other family down there. And we've gone to a point now lately where they've just been asking for more and more and more money. And it used to be that my mom helped them a lot, but this year she developed breast cancer and now cannot really help them that much. And I'm trying to take it on the world. I've always sent money to my grandmother. I paid for her kitchen to be redone, you know, to go, to go. And they do help me because I do own a home down there. So my uncle will go and check on the home, check in real time, like once a month, make sure everything's fine when I'm down there. But like I get probably five, six text messages a day of people asking for money. Wow. How much money do they want? Wow. It's always like a different amount, like sometimes it's, you know, it's Colombia. So do you have to go the wrong way? Sure. Oh, how much money are you sending them a month? I had to say like a thousand years ago around there. What's your financial situation? Well, that's the thing. I'm pretty well off for my age, I'm 28, I make anywhere between 250 to 300 thousand dollars a year. But like it's not, I guess it's my more a quandary of like, am I going to die without that extra thousand? No. But at the same time, I do feel like I, it getting to a point that they're expecting of me. It's the spirit of the way. Yeah. Well, and you can't be the savior, right? Like you're not going to fix every problem of every person you know down there either. Right? Yeah. And like that's the thing is like, I, I guess like I do try to help as much as I can. Like I said, like if it's something needed, I don't even really ask questions, like, is it a mystery? Right. Is it a poverty situation? Or I mean, you mentioned redoing your mom's kitchen. That feels pretty like not dire. So are we talking about, hey, like I have cousins that need to eat or are we talking about kind of like the vanity? I need my kitchen redone. I'm just pleased stuff like that, like I mean, one cousin reached out to me last week asking for money to go on a date and just on the third, I guess, like, you know, that's different. And I just like, I guess for me, I'm just like, that is so crazy. Like we're not calling you and asking me for money for medicine and or something for grandma or whatever. Right. Of course. Yeah. But it's getting to a point. It's not that. And like, is it even being used because I've found this out recently, I send about $500 in my grandma every month just to take care of her, her health, everything like that. And I found out recently that a lot of them have now convinced her to share that money with them. Oh, boy. And which was never the intention. So I don't know if I'm like, I don't want to take them like, I still want to help my grandmother, of course. So you know these people. You know these people, Sergio, so I'd be, I'd kind of make like a list on paper of like, here's the gold diggers and here's the people who really could use some financial help in a real way because they need to keep lights and food and all that stuff. And then the gold diggers, they're out. And I'd let them know I'd say, hey guys, there's people in our family who I'd like to help and they really need it. And I need you guys to stop texting me for money for dates and, you know, vanity purchases. And then the people who actually need help, I'd identify where the level of need is. And if I'm going to help, I'm going to pay the bill directly. Like send me the light bill and this is what I'm committing to, no more, no less. And then they can begin to build their lifestyle aside from that and then the amount never changes. So if you say, Grandma, I'm helping you, I'm paying your, I'm just making this up. I'm paying your $300 utility bill and that's it. That's my contribution that everything else is built around that. And that way, you have some stability, but they also kind of know the buck stops here. And there's something for them to be grateful for your meeting a need. Does that make sense? And you know, that's what the money is going towards. If you want to do it. Yeah. That's smart. It's smart. Especially the part in, you know, having them like send me directly what they need if it is something because that's the other thing is that I do feel like sometimes they tell me it's for one thing and it's not. And like obviously, like I, I'm a sucker for a solid story, cleveringly, especially for my family. And like, I feel like a lot of the time they're in telling me half truth and that's the thing like I hate it because I want to help them. I love them to death and I'm definitely a much better situation financially than any of them because of what I live and my job and everything like that. So I have a sense of responsibility, but at the same time, I don't want to be too bad. Yeah. Well, and I think if you have some boundaries around it, that's always helpful. So yeah, if you had, again, we're making this up to or three family members that you're like, you know what, I consistently am going to give them X amount for these things, like what Jade's saying. Graham, all this, my mom, this, my brother, whose child is sick needs that, like whatever, right? Like, there's a few people and if this is the case, we're going to give consistently. And then if you and your wife, are you married, did you say, yes, okay, so and then you and your wife need to decide, are we comfortable with those amounts? Going on at least for a year, and then we can pick back up and kind of reevaluate. And then anything beyond that. So say there's like, I don't know, 900 bucks that's going to individuals. And then maybe you throw in, I don't know, 200 bucks a month, just to kind of keep on the side. Did it be like someone's going to ask for something? And if someone asks for something that you have it, you have it, and if you feel good about it. But then if other people text and like, hey, I need money for a date, you could be like, I'm so sorry, we've hit our limit for the month. Yes. And that's what it is. That's okay. Yeah. So you can kind of have your plans giving with the family that you know consistently needs it. And then if you wanted to have a little bit of extra on the side. So if someone asks, and you see it's a real need, you have it, but it's also not an endless supply unless you and your wife agree, hey, we'll do more. But it kind of, it kind of gives you a boundary, even within yourself, which I think is good, sometimes it does feel endless, and it sometimes can feel like, yeah, I have to be the one to save everybody. Yes. And that's not fair to him either, because it's not possible. But like what he's saying, I think when the needs that are actually needs and the recognition he has, the self-awareness of I am doing well, and I want to give back, but you want to do it in a responsible, almost kind of planned, right, endeavor versus it's just being so spontaneous. It just feels out of control, and it feels like, oh my gosh, I'm like going from one text to the next. Right. Right. That's difficult. That's hard. Yeah. I think, I think if you do what Rachel and I are laying out, I think it's going to give you some peace, and I think it's going to set a fair expectation for them going forward. Okay. Thank you for that call. Let's go to Abel, who's in Sacramento, California. Hey, Abel. Hey, how are you guys so excited to talk to you? Yeah. How can we help? Okay, so my question is I recently just finished Financial Peace University, and in the last 12 weeks from learning about you guys, I paid off $50,000 worth of debt. Oh my gosh. Well done. Yes. Yes. Yes. Love it. My question is, I have my jeep for sale right now. I had it originally for about $14,000, $15,000. It was shot while it was on sale on the street. Somebody shot it. Oh gosh. It was right by. Oh wow. Yes. So what's got bullet holes in it? It has a singular bullet hole in the dash. Well, the insurance paid for it. I actually, yes, I've got it fixed. I got the rear window and everything fixed. Okay. Good. Get to your question because I have just about a minute left. Exactly. Okay. So I owe $9,600 on it. Would it be smart to. So pay that off by selling it, lowering the price to just get rid of it. Or should I keep it since we're doing so well paying off that should we just pay it off. I think I could probably get it done in the next three months. Oh, yeah. I think in the next three months, I probably won't go through the hassle of, yeah, trying to sell it. Yeah, because what would you really get that's any cheaper than $9,000 at this point? Well, that's another portion, part of the 50,000 was I sold my 4Runner, brand new 4Runner and bought a $2,000 beater, so I'll have that right now. Is this the last debt? Is this your final debt? I have this and a $20,000 401K loan that we are paying off. Okay. Well, I honestly probably sell the beater for 2 grand, put it towards the 9 now it's down to 7 and you can pay it off in two months and keep moving on, but gosh, I'm well done. You guys, I mean, in 12 weeks, I think is what he said, and he did, I mean, fantastic. Can I hear the words open enrollment, I'm immediately stressed out, and the same goes when I hear deductible and premium. You probably feel this way too. Choosing the best, most affordable healthcare for your family can be overwhelming. Will my premiums go up? Is the doctor I want even in my network? Can I even afford this? Well, the good news is there's a different option, Christian healthcare ministries. CHM isn't insurance. It's a health cost sharing ministry where members share each other's eligible medical bills. So, instead of premiums, you make a monthly contribution with programs starting at just $115 a month and here's something you don't hear often. They're not raising their prices this year. Guys, this is huge and you also get to choose your own healthcare provider. No network limits. And unlike traditional insurance, you can join at any time. There's no enrollment window. And best of all, you don't have to choose between your health and saving money. With CHM, you can have both. It's why Ramsey has trusted them for over 15 years. Visit CHministries.org/budget and use promo code Ramsey to get a 50% credit towards your first month of membership. Well, the truth is we wish we could get to every question here on the show, but we just don't have that kind of time. So, if you've tried calling into the Ramsey show and you didn't get through, head on over to Ask Ramsey. It's our free AI tool that's built and trained on Ramsey principles. You'll get an answer the same way that we would answer it here on the show. So, ask your question today at RamseySolutions.com or you can just click that link in the description. If you're listening on podcast or YouTube, let's go to Kim, who's in San Antonio, Texas. Hey, Kim. How you doing? Hi. Great. Thank you. Thanks for taking my call. My question is I did everything right. I'm 67 years old. I bought long-term care insurance when I turned 57 and every year, and especially last three, the policies have gone up 30% and neither myself or my husband are utilizing them. Is there any solution for me at my age to review a long-term care plan? Well, the question I also have that goes along with that. I'm just curious. What's you guys' nest egg? I wonder if there's a self-insurance point that you've reached. Well, our nest egg is adequate that we have for us. I'm actually still working at my age in a very high income and my husband is self-employed. So I almost feel like they're increasing it because they can. The explanation that gave me when I called them was other people are utilizing the plan. Therefore, you have to pay more and it's a national plan. Who did you get it through, Kim? Mutual of Omaha. Okay. And how much are you paying per year? So the premium started at 131. It went to 161. I just opened the mail today and now both of our premiums are 197 and 202 respectively. A month? A month. And what do you guys bring in income-wise? About 300,000 annually. Okay. So this is a small part of your world and what's your nest egg? The nest egg is just under a million and then the rest is in property. And how much is, I'm just curious, how much is property? Property probably falls in that same around a million also, but then that's our personal and then our rentals. So here's my take on this and you might not like it. But there's part of this where I go, nobody likes insurance, nobody likes paying for it, nobody likes paying the premium, but they're sure happy that it's there when they need it. And this is kind of the way I look at that. I mean, you could go to them and look at ways to shorten the benefit period or increase the elimination period or make some certain adjustments, but it would decrease the value of your insurance. And the good news is you can afford to have this insurance at its fullest. And there is just part of insurance that the premiums go up. Health insurance went up. Right. Property insurance goes up. So that's the nature of it and I hate to say that, but there's also a blessing here where it's like you guys can afford it, Kim, and it's not changing anything about your life other than you just going, gosh, it was cheaper three years ago. Yeah, because the sat show that about 70% of Americans need some form of it by the time they're 65 or older. And here's the other thing Kim to be looking at is that on average, it's like two to three years that people actually need the money for that care because usually you're going into a nursing home or there's something and it's just very expensive, but it's not usually four long period of time, it could be, but it's not usually. So Kim, if you guys do get to a place financially in the next couple of years and like what Jade's saying, it's almost like a, you can, you become self-insured, right? On a lot of things, you know, that's why we say even with life insurance, there's a point that if you're so well off, you don't need it that necessarily happens to you. Your family's going to be taking care of just from the nest site that you've built. So you could look and be like, okay, for three years of care on average, this is what it'll cost. We're good just keeping that aside and not worrying about it, but for as low as it is per month to your point, Jade, that it's not a huge portion, it can cover a lot, right? If or when you need it. So yeah, it's not the fun part of it, but it's also the smart thing to have that in place, but again, if you get to a point that you're self-insured, that's great too. And what you called out is smart, you know, the average staying in a nursing home, I think you said it's two to three years, but if you're looking at long-term care and you're seeing a five-year policy, and that's too expensive, yeah, do the three-year. And if you have it now, and it's getting too expensive at five years, three years is really a great amount, and you can talk to our friends at Xander to find the right long-term care policy for you. Yeah, and I would shop them to, Kim, go to Xander.com and see what they have because they will shop. They're an insurance broker. They'll shop different rates, and so I would be curious if you could find something cheaper. It would be great. Nothing wrong with that. Let's go to Adam, who's in Los Angeles, California, hey, Adam, welcome to the show. Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. For sure. How can we help? Yeah, well, I'm calling because I have a couple of whole life insurance policies. One of my grandmother took out from me when I was a child, and one that another salesman told me on it about 10 years ago. And I was just looking at, recently I was in the need for a new car, and I realized I had some cash value in those, and I was debating whether I take a loan on the policies or just cash them out and be done with them. I heard previously, Dave Ramsey talked about how a whole life insurance is like a really bad TV show for nine seasons, but if you can make it to season 10, it gets really good. Now, I made a season 10, so I feel like you all have a problem with that. I don't know if Dave said that. I think he'd say it's a nightmare of a show if you're watching it. And don't keep sinking costs into it, it's like prime time sunk cost fallacy on this. So how much cash value do you have in the two policies? I think it's a little over $40,000. Okay. I love the idea of getting that cash out. I mean, I'm sure there's going to be some fees associated, but what I would do, Adam, is make sure I have some term life in place before I get rid of these. Do you have a term life policy? I do. I just got that set up recently. Oh, good. Yeah. So I have that. Since that's in place, I probably would. I'd go close out. I mean, you'll have some surrender charges. There'll be some things that you pay, but it's such a crappy product. And I promise you, if your grandfather opened up a mutual funds for you, right, and put that money in instead of it sitting in a whole life policy, you would be 10 to 20 times better off. And that's the frustrating part as they sell you on this whole cash value side, but they're crappy investments. Your investments can be doing so much better out on their own. That's why we always give the role of thumb, keep your insurance and your investments separate. So your, I was going to say, whole life policy, your term life, no, no, life insurance. Your life insurance policy needs to be term life and having that separate, which will be inexpensive. You are young. like it's not gonna be a lot of money. - That's right. - So getting that in place if someone's depended upon your income, you need that life insurance. And then go and look at your investing. And your investing should be completely separate because the rate of return, I know the market's been down a little bit recently, but it's still on average about 11.1, I think we saw today, 11.1% for the year. - So compared to one to three percent that you might be getting with the whole life. - Yes, so it's terrible investments there. And so expensive too, you're gonna pay a fraction of term life than what you would for whole life. So it's just a bad financial product all around. So as soon as you can get out, get out. And I know some have, depending on what it is, have different timelines that, for some people if they wait six months to the certain point, they can get out with less fees or whatever, but just get out as soon as possible. And do what you have to do because it's not great. - Yeah, and to go back to that earlier point, a lot of times with whole life, people have been sucked into it for so long. It's kind of like, well, I just got to keep paying. And you feel, you kind of feel that pull to keep going, even though you know it's not good. And I think that's the hardest part is guys, if you're going down a financial path, any path, okay, it doesn't even have to be whole life, but you're recognizing this is not really working, but you kind of feel like, well, I've sunk money into it, whether it's a business, whether it's a whole life policy, whether it's an RV, whatever it is, it's going down in value, or it's not producing what it should be. There is no shame in just going, you want to know it? I got to wash my hands of this around here, we call that stupid tax, and we've all paid it. I know I've paid mine in spades, but there's something to be said for going, hey, the road I've been going down, it's just, it's not lucrative, it's not helping me, it's not serving me however you want to state that. And just stop the bleeding and go in another direction. - Yes. - That's better for you. There's nothing wrong with that at all. - Like, don't give up, don't, you know, keep stay the course, no, no, stop, give up sometimes, give up stupid stuff, quit doing stupid stuff. - And go in a different direction. - Sometimes it costs you to get out of the stupid thing, and that's where the stupid tax comes in, but then you're like, walk away, be done, and start fresh. It's not worth staying in the pain as painful as it is, not worth it. - Yeah, and when you do that, you can start working the plan that we teach, and you'll get on the right path, and then you'll start to see, oh gosh, there really is a difference. When I start doing the right movements, when I start with term life, I'm paying a lot less and I have way more coverage. That actually feels good to do the right things with my money. (upbeat music) - If you've ever thought, I don't even know where to start with life insurance. You're not alone. And that's exactly why I recommend Zander Insurance, because the insurance world will throw everything at you, confusing words and add-ons like writers, whole life crap called an investment, return of premium, and it's all total junk. And most of that confusion you feel is by design. When you're confused, you make bad decisions, expensive decisions. But Zander doesn't play that game. They cut through the noise and help you get simple, affordable term life insurance that actually does what it's supposed to do. Protect your family. They shop the top term life companies to compare your options on the coverage that your family needs. No more, no less. No pressure and no upsells. Just clear answers and the protection you need. If you've been putting off getting term life because it feels overwhelming, stop worrying and get it handled the right way. Call 800-356-4282 or go to zander.com. That's zander.com. [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome back to the Ransy Show here in the Fair Once Credit Union studio. We're going to go back to the phone lines where we have Kayla, who's embolling green, Kentucky. Hey, Kayla, how can we help out today? Hey, thanks so much for taking my call. Absolutely. So I'm reaching out because I've walked up some credit card debt and I was hoping to receive some guidance on how to break the cycle and how to pay that off in a timely manner, I guess, would be the right way. How much do you have? 14,000. How many cards does that total? Three. Three. OK. Are they all pretty evenly split? Would you say around four-ish per card? No. One has about eight. Another one is around 4,500. And one has a thousand on it. OK, perfect. That's great. And this is the only debt that you have? No, there's more. What else you got? I'm medical debt. Some has rolled over to collections. And then a vehicle payment school loan. How much is the medical debt? That's probably altogether. It's about 13,000. 13, OK. And the car? Eight. OK. And student loans. About probably eight or 9,000. OK. What caused you to choose the credit cards? Are they-- when you break them up, do they have the smallest debt balances? Yes, smallest debt balances. And then the monthly payments are pretty steep plus the interest on them. OK. So 18, 20%. I think some are a little bit higher. Probably around 24%. No. Oh, gosh. So I would encourage you-- I mean, I know you quoted medical for 13,000. They're probably broken up. Student loans are probably broken up. I would encourage you to list them smallest who are just by balance. And I know it can be tempting to look at interest rate or look at what the payment is per month. But the debt snowball, which is the best method to pay off debt, is listing them by balance smallest to largest. And what happens is, now you're going, OK, I do the 201 first. And then I do the $600 one. Then I do the $800 one. And then the $1200, right? And you just feel that momentum of being able to check things off the list. I know Rachel, I'm the type. When I have it to do list and I write everything down, once I start working and I'm able to check things off, it bolsters my motivation. Yeah, absolutely. And so start that way. How much money are you bringing in every month? For just me, it's about 70,000 a year. My husband's fully employed too. I mean, we probably bring in a little over 120,000 a year before taxes are taken. OK. So how much is hitting your account each month? Probably around 9,000? Even once again, I could probably take close to that maybe a little less. OK. Are you guys in every dollar? I'm just curious. I try to get at one point, but not actively, you know? It's been sometimes that I've tried it. OK, that's my next suggestion to you. So the first thing is let's do the snowball correctly if you're not already in two. The next-- you've got to have a good budget and not only a good budget, but a tool that's going to help you prioritize your goals. And in this case, your goal is let me pay off the smallest debt. If it happens to be a credit card in every dollar, it's going to help you do that. So you'll plug in you and your husbands income based on what you make every single month, what those paychecks look like. And if you look at your paycheck and realize that, oh gosh, we've been also investing out of this check, let's cancel the investing. Have you been? That's only many that comes out of not to exert to like contribute to my kids' savings accounts that we have set up for them. OK. So I might pause that because right now the number one goal and we go back to this conversation over and over, the biggest downfall that people have is they start focusing on multiple things at once because they all feel kind of important. And it's like, ah, I should be doing this. And I should be doing that. But the truth is you've got to prioritize them. And the one that's number one gets all your focus. So in this case, the tiniest debt gets all the focus of all of your margins. Yes. If it's one of the medical bills, Kayla, and it's $483. And that's the smallest paid off and say, OK, we're done with that, we're done with that because as these payments start to come up that it's not going to the debt anymore because the debts paid off, that's more momentum going to that next smallest debt, that next smallest debt. And when you list them out in every dollar, you may have 12, 13 debts total, right? Of all these individual debts. And it may feel a little overwhelming at first, but seeing it all in one place and then prioritizing that smallest one. And you may, depending on how aggressive you guys get, especially at the beginning, you should be able to knock out maybe two or three next month, right? And you just get rid of them. And then you're like, OK, the next one, the next one. And now your final student loans or whatever it is, it may-- that may be more of a steeper climb and take you a little bit longer. But these ankle-biter stuff, that's just all around, that I feel like is probably really happening in some of this that you've listed out. Gosh, it would feel so good just to be wiping those clean. And that's the momentum of the debt snowball. And so, yeah, Kayla, I think that will get you every dollar. If you hold on the line, we will set you up for a couple of months and for free in order for you to get that. Because I do think being so intentional with your income and then being able to see the debt snowball visibly and being able to attack it and pay it off, it's going to be so helpful. And again, that $1,000 credit card, that may be the fourth on the list, you know, the third. So you may be getting to that quicker than you think. But yeah, there's something powerful about knocking those out. So we've given you kind of three-to-do actions, Kayla. The first one we said, do the snowball correctly. Number two, we said, do your budget in every dollar. Number three, we said, let's stop with the kid's savings and anything that's not the number one goal. But the next thing I'd bring up is you guys have a really great income, but there's always room to bring in more. If you can side hustle or pick up over time or anything that's going to help you go faster, it's going to-- the equation here is money going in and money going out, right? We want as much money coming in as possible and as little money going out on expenses as possible so that margin grows to put towards the debt. So side hustling is a big one. And I think the fifth thing on your list that I cannot stress enough, it probably needs to be number one, is you just have to stop borrowing money. So if you have not cut up these credit cards, that's like Numero Uno. Yeah, you need to do that immediately. OK, man, I asked one more question. Sure. So we have a savings account too. And there's about $4,000 sitting in it right now. We kind of use that as like an emergency phone. We have two small kids also. Would you leave it alone or would you put it to debt? Here's the thing, nothing is scarier than me telling you to go to $1,000 when I know you have two small kids. But I'm going to tell you to do it because that is going to remember on Looney Toons where Wally Coyote would like the dynamite underneath them and but it lights the dynamite underneath you to I have to do this. I only have $1,000 saved. I got two kids. The urgency, come on. Like I better bust but and get this done because the faster I pay off this debt, the quicker I'm going to be able to get back into a place that feels more secure with three to six months of expenses. Yes and if you can make $2,000 to $3,000 extra month side hustles, you could be out of this in two and a half, three years. Oh yeah. If you really, really get to it Kayla and it's going to be a sacrifice for those two to three years, it can it goes fast but it's also can be a grind. But when you look up and actually map it out, it's like, okay, we can we can do this. We can get out because if you don't Kayla, you'll stay in the cycle forever and ever and to get out of the cycle, you have to break that momentum and change it into something good. So it's going to feel different but for you, change is what you're looking for. (upbeat music) You know what I love most about Thanksgiving? It's not just the sweater weather and the pumpkin everything. It's that I get to spend quality time with my family without the constant interruption of spam calls and emails and you probably feel this too. Because when you fill out a form online, your info like your name, phone number, even your home address gets sold to data brokers. And the next thing you know, someone named Olivia is calling about a personal loan inquiry that you never inquired about. So tip number one, don't answer the call that only leads to more spam. Second tip, let delete me handle it for you. They cut back on spam and scams by removing your personal info from hundreds of data broker websites. And it's not just one time. They stay on top of it and keep removing it which is why I'm so grateful. And hey, listen, I like to shop. So protecting my privacy and family time is priceless. And you can have that too. Go to joindeleteme.com/ramsees to get 20% off all plans or click the link in the description. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right, we have Daniel up next, who's in Houston, Texas. Hey, Daniel, how can we help today? Thank you, Daniel. I'm calling because I've just recently totaled out my car. And I'm trying to decide if I should finance the car or how should I go about? Because it was my only mode of transportation to work. Well, didn't insurance give you some money for the car that you totaled? They haven't done it yet. But they're going to. I'm still in the process of it. But right now I'm in a rental and I have to turn that in Monday. I'm supposed to turn that in Monday. Have you called the insurance company to find out the timeline before your payout? No amount, I haven't. I would-- yeah, because the insurance may give you-- I do still owe on the car. So I think all the money that they're going to pay is going to go towards the car. How much do you owe on the car still? I still owe $6,000 on the car. And they're supposed to be giving me $4,800. I think it was. OK. So the average payoff is usually between two to four weeks. So I'm not sure where you are on that spectrum. But if the car is worth $6,000 and you're getting $4,800, there'll be a deficit there. My question to you then would be, do you have any money saved anywhere? No amount, I don't. OK. Starting to save. And then I'll total the car. And then would you do with the savings that you were starting to save? So let's set out the two front tires on my car. So I had like $200 put up that I just started saving. Got you. And then I used-- because I was out of town whenever the accident happened. OK. So no money saved. What do you bring it in every month? I just started a new job in September and I bring home about $6,000 a month. OK. Is it just you? Yes, ma'am. So what my goal would be is to think, OK, how quickly, with the margin that I have, it's just me. How quickly can I save up $3,000 to $5,000? And in the meantime, I'm probably going to do what you've been doing, which is catching the bus, catching the Uber, calling my buddy. But I certainly would not go into debt because you've just had a loss of totaling this vehicle. And you're upside down a bit on it there. The last thing I want to do is go into further debt and make a bad situation worse, you know? Yeah, this is kind of the moment, Daniel, that the easy button, for sure, would be go sign a car loan and go about your way. And then you'd owe 20 grand or whatever you take the loan out for. So in the moment, that sounds like the easiest, less painful approach. But the part is what becomes painful is not only being deeper in debt beyond just the car that was totaled, but you now have a mindset and an avenue that when things get hard, it's what you do. That's why we kind of have this hardcore black and white stance of no matter what, we're not going into debt. So what do I have to do if this is not-- if it's not an option, I'm not going into debt. How am I going to get to work for the next 60 days so that I can live on nothing, save $3,000, $4,000 in the next two months, and then go by a really crappy car and then start working my way out of this $2,000 of the car that was totaled. So it really is this mindset and having to get creative, which, again, is so weird. That's not normal. Normal would be like looking at your situation and saying, oh, my gosh, well, just get alone. You got to get alone. Yeah, so you can either choose to keep renting. I don't know how expensive it would be, probably a lot, if you're going to be renting that for a month. But seeing-- Yeah, it's going to be about $93 a day. I've already looked into it. OK, OK, so yeah, so that's not an option. Do you have a friend or your parents? Does somebody-- can you borrow a vehicle? What are some of the options? And I think that'd be part of my homework that I'm going to give you. We won't spend the airtime doing that. But write down a couple of options that you have and then start tracking them down. What we can help you do right here is make sure that your margin is going towards the right thing. So of the $5,000 to $6,000 that you bring home a month, how much margin do you think that you have after your basic expenses are covered? I'll probably have quite a bit. I've got basically I just covered. So I only have about $20,000 total in debt and that's where mortgage and car and cost the car and as far as utilities and everything. OK, and how much margin-- again, back to my first question-- after all of your expenses, basic expenses are covered, how much margin, which is leftover money, is left after you've done that out of your $5,000 to $6,000 take home? So weekly, I usually spend about probably $700, $800 of that on bills and food and stuff. So here's what I want you to do, because this is going to help you. Instead of thinking of things in a weekly perspective, I'd love for you to think of them monthly because that way your whole picture is enveloped into one. Most of us are kind of on a monthly schedule when it comes to our bills, right? You pay your mortgage every month, your cell phone every month, that kind of thing. So when you load everything into every dollar, which will make sure to give you, if you don't already have it, you're going to put in your month's worth of income. And then you're going to go line by line and put all the things that you spend money on throughout the month. And then you're going to be able to see at the top. Do I have money left over? Am I in the red? And you're going to be able to figure out what's going on. My guess is you're going to have lots of money left over, and that's called your margin. And that's the money that we're going to use to put towards this next vehicle. And that's how this works. The first thing I do is you need a mode of transportation. So I'd get your mode of transportation first. And then I'd-- work on paying off that $2,000 deficit or whatever have you on that total vehicle. Thanks for the question. Let's go to Michael who's in Virginia Beach Virginia. Hey Michael how can we help? Hey thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. I just want to give the whole energy team a quick thank you and a quick little background. 2019 bought myself and my wife a month apart brand new vehicles over $130,000 worth. April 2020 I bought a brand new boat just being the typical American using debt to live life and then fast forward to all gifts of 2020 I broke my back and pretty much every bone of my body and without a work for four months and was blessed to have 60% pay but without the over time I was used to it was really like a 90% pay cut just you know with all the debt payments really felt so strapped and found you guys throughout my entire rehab listen to you all every day and you know fast forward to the day happy happy to say you know we'll both be a baby step-millionaires here probably the next two years. Oh my gosh Michael well done went from we were able to stay up all over the day with an 18 months and I'm just going along there with since then. Wow good for you guys well done that's amazing that is amazing incredible things for sharing that. Really appreciate you. Yes you did the work today. Yeah thank you. My question for today I have a 10-year-old son and a year-old daughter. When they were born we just opened them up right there old saving the counts of their local credit union and then about three or four years ago when CDs and the money market interest rates got pretty high we put them both in like a CD a 12 month CD with all their money but we just they get from like birthdays and Christmas and whatever money we do the you know give some spend from safe some and so my 10-year-old has roughly fifty three hundred dollars in his account and my eight-year-old about forty eight hundred dollars and my my ultimate goal for this money is for them to you know hopefully use it for a down payment on the house in the future you know 10 years from now but would that be in at least 10 years locked up I'd like that you've given in the market and the CD you know every 12 months they've been used to whatever the current interest rate and I just got a letter in the mail the other day from the credit union saying that it was getting ready to you know renew here in a few weeks and then just rate would be provided there on that exact day I think it's on the 27th of this month and just kind of like that you have getting in the market so I don't know if I should shift that money to an upma or I haven't really done a whole lot of research on the Trump account so I don't just kind of get want to give you all the opinion on what you recommend to do is this above and beyond 529 are you guys funding 529s currently yes we are following 529 this is above and beyond that well you're thinking in such long term so let me back up just a little bit you know for the 10-year-old do you know what you're gonna do for their first car so that's kind of what I was thinking is like maybe to buy their first car or just get them started in life yeah funny going back to my background we still have both of those brand new vehicles that we purchased in 29th plan well so I would say yeah yeah yeah so we're around against the clock so I would say yeah I think from for the kids perspective them having this money to use for a car I think could be a great option or if you wanted to invest it you could do a nutma it would be under their name so I would make sure that you still have control over it past when they turn 18 this is an ad from better help have you ever had a thought that just replays over and over in your mind you know what I'm talking about that thought just takes over everything maybe it's a worry that wakes you up every morning at 2 a.m. or you can't stop thinking about that awkward interaction you had with the family member last week or maybe it's some painful or embarrassing things that happened to you years ago that you just can't seem to shake we've all been there I've been there there's so much stuff taking up space in your brain and you wish you could just turn all of the stories off talking to a better help therapist can help it's a great place to process just about anything that's weighing you down better help therapists are trained licensed professionals who can help you get to the root of those looping thoughts and now better help is in network with more than a hundred health plans many members pay 15 bucks per session some pay zero so even if you're not eligible you can still get 10% off your first month so start better help today and stop the endless replaying of all of those damaging thoughts check out your options at betterhelp.com/ramsy or just click the link in the description again that's better help h-e-l-p dot com/ramsy all right back to the phone lines we have Aubrey in Chicago Illinois hey Aubrey how can we help today I have my question is about credit cards my dad for my 18th birthday got me as an authorized user on his credit card and personally I don't really want a credit card I've never really wanted to deal with credit and I want to stay out of debt as much as I can and so I also wanting to start my own business and just plan for the future my question is if I if I am on as an authorized user what are like the implications of being on there instead of a primary user and then if I should get off of the credit card how would I go about talking to my dad about that so to answer your second question yes I would because how old are you now I still 18 this is only a few months ago oh you're 18 okay and where like from a relationship perspective are you and college is you helping pay for it what where are you guys at just from a financial and just relational perspective financially I do live at home I'm not going to college at the moment so he I don't pay rent or anything like that but he's not supplying me money for college or anything like that I do have a semi-rocky relationship with my dad at the moment okay and I do feel like he would be hurt or offended if I asked to be removed does that make sense why because you'd be in his mind are you saying oh you're bad with money I don't want to be tied to you or is it how would he view that I think you would view it more as a like I don't want to be I don't want him supporting me if that makes sense like he doesn't want he would think that I would not want his help and I just like I'm throwing it away so what if you explained the best way that you could receive help from him and that way we're talking at it talking to him about it from a plane that he can receive it because if he's viewing hey this whole authorized credit thing this is a way that I can help her that that means you're you're you can see that that's what he's attempting to do and so if you come to him and say hey dad I'm so appreciative that you're trying to help me with my money the thing is I'm not really a credit person something that you could really do for me that would really help me would be XYZ okay yeah fair enough so what do you tell us what that conversation what what what would you ask for from him I would probably ask because I am starting I'm starting a coffee cart and just as a little side hustle small business and one of the things is that I'm really trying to like do a lot of the things by hand and probably it would be building up materials like the cart itself and working with that and just like creating part of my business cool yeah that's great yeah yeah yeah no I think that's a I think that's a great way to you know to keep them involved because you don't want to fracture the relationship but you also don't want to live your life where any moment you offend somebody means you can't live out your values so stepping into the idea of hey I don't want my name tied to debt because with the art yeah it doesn't hold the same weight as if you're a primary user but you can still help build credit I mean like yes that's probably what he's thinking is that you're gonna be tied to this credit card and the positive you know or quote unquote what people would say the positive is if that parent does well then it's gonna help the child get a good credit score but the thing is if they don't it doesn't stop harming you and so so over the long term yeah like what you're saying the risk isn't worth it and and I think telling him to I think it's okay to say hey you know from where I'm at from a financial perspective I don't think I'm even gonna need a credit score because I'm gonna live you know a debt-free life but thank you so much like there's a there's a gratitude piece that he's looking out for you but it's just in a different way but I love Jade's idea too of hey here's how you can help me because he probably still does and some capacity I think a big part of financial conversations are speaking in a way that the other person can receive it and understand it and I think that's a better way to kind of meet minds there yeah all right thanks for the call Aubrey next up we have hope who's in Detroit Michigan hey hey I almost called you Detroit hope how you doing hope are you there all right how can we hope today oh my gosh I can't believe I'm on the phone with you guys it's happening so I know like can't believe it. Well, this story is also happening, which I also can't believe. We are being gifted a large amount of money, and we're trying to figure out what the heck to do with it. Wow. How much? 170,000 dollars. Wow. Where is this coming from? A relative. Okay. Not to sound morbid. Hope it was it from a, you know, like an inheritance, is the relative still with you, but they're choosing to give money early or like what's the context? Yeah. So it's early inheritance while they're still alive so that they can watch us enjoy it. Okay. That's wonderful. I mean, I love it too. Yeah. So what are your options? I mean, if you're talking to us, what do you think you ought to spend it on? Tell us about your financial outlook here. So we don't have too much at no car loans, no credit card debt. We have a mortgage with about $206,000 left on it. Okay. And we have a student loan with about $16,000 left on it. We are putting away, I think, plenty of money into retirement. We are meeting the company's match and then some. Okay. 15% is ideal. So we are doing that. Yep. And then the company matches up to, we are putting in 8% because that's what they match. Okay. So I mean, if I'm looking at this, just based off of what you've said, the 170, I 100% would knock out the student loan. Yeah, for sure. That knocks us down to 154 to spend and there's no other debts, right? No other debts, no. And we don't necessarily need to, we're not wanting to do it where it goes into retirement, something super long term. We're also don't need it to be something that we spend right away. We're okay with doing something with the money that's either now or in the near-ish future, not necessarily retirement based. Yeah. Well, I'd want to put some of it on the mortgage. Yes. For sure. Like a decent chunk because that is- My husband's adjustment was put in a high yield savings account and then wait a couple of years and then do it because then it will get us closer. While we're still paying down the mortgage bill, get us closer to actually paying it off. Well, it's all like, it's all the same. I mean, you'll be getting 3% sitting there, you know, and you'll be paying down probably, do you have a 3% interest rate on the mortgage? Yeah, I think it's three, almost four, three, point ten five. I actually think there's more risk in throwing it in a high yield and I say that when I think about you just having a $154,000 sitting there, next thing you know, like the Bahamas look real nice, you know what I'm saying? And not to say that you can't enjoy this money in any way, but there is something to be said for, you know, sitting down and saying, here's the three things we want to do with this money. We want to pay off the debt. We want to put X amount of portion on the house and we want to take a trip. If that's what you've said, then going ahead and making those decisions with the money will protect that decision versus keeping it sitting in a chunk because then it's like, hey, you know what, it might be nice to upgrade the cars too. You start to kind of spin out of what you can do with the money and it might not have as big an impact on your actual financial future as you want it to do if you do that. Right, right. Yeah, that's kind of where I landed is that it's going to end up being the thing that we keep thinking about and yeah, keep dreaming about and I'm more along noise of can we dump it into the mortgage and and make it easier to possibly retire sooner or end up freeing up our mortgage money sooner. Yeah. 100%. So Rachel, what would you do like I was going to say, I think it's fine to put some aside in a high yield. Maybe I probably would throw 100 at the mortgage. So take 56, put it in the high yield and let it be there and you guys, you know, be thinking I don't want it. I don't want it to be wasted because I feel like, you know, this inheritance has been for you guys to enjoy. So think through what is something we want to do. Do we want to go on a trip? You know, I'm okay with you spending some of it. Absolutely. And you guys may look at it and be like, Hey, you know, we're going to spend next amount. We'll keep 15 grand still in that account. And then you may look up in two years. Mike, we haven't touched it and it's grown to XYZ. Let's just throw the rest of the mortgage, right? But I would probably put a hundred on the mortgage if I were you guys if you've listened to this show for five minutes, you have heard us say everybody needs a will. But you keep finding reasons to wait because the decisions can be hard. Like who gets your stuff? Who takes care of your kids? But here's the problem. Avoiding the questions don't make them go away. It just means the people you love will have to guess at the worst possible time. And that's why mama bear legal forms is worth the 20 minutes it takes to complete your will online. It's built by real attorneys and tailored to your state. So you know it'll hold up and the step-by-step process means you don't need a law degree to get this right. In fact, it's the exact process I used with my own family. Mama and Papa Camel recently visited me here at the Ramsey headquarters and I helped them update their will and even arrange for a notary to meet them in the lobby to knock it out and get it done. So if you don't have a will, don't wait. Go to mommabearlegalforms.com and use promo code Ramsey for 20% off. That's mommabearlegalforms.com promo code Ramsey for 20% off. All right, back to the phone lines we go. And by the way, if you're ever interested in having your question answered, you can give us a call. The numbers triple eight eight two five five two two five. We'd be so happy to receive your call because you guys are what make this show happen. Let's go to Haley who's in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hi, Haley, you're up next. Hi, thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. How can Rachel and I help today? Okay, so I have a I have a fun one for you about in 2020. My son who's 14 years old, his father passed away and I started receiving survivor benefits for him. I was married at the time or I am married right now and I was married in 2020. So during the pandemic, of course, like those benefits just helped pay bills and household things, you know, and up until about three years ago, we used that money. Three years ago, my husband decided that he no longer wanted to share budgeting. So he would have his money. I had my money. Oh, born. I decided, yeah, and so and he would just give me a flat amount of money each month and just say, make this work. And at that point, I decided that I would start putting my son's money into his own personal account that he would have access to as he got older. So about two years ago, I did give my husband a loan from that account. I told him, hey, this is someone's those money that I'll loan you and you can pay me back or you can pay him back over time. And he agreed, and that's that's happened. This is your husband up until my husband, yes. We got a problem, say we. Right, I know. So he paid for about six months and then realized that that money wasn't in my account and that it was in my son's own personal account. So he was upset that it wasn't going towards our bills. Um, and now we need the money floor. Sorry, not to jump in. He, um, nothing. I mean, he, he just feels entitled to it. He feels that he has, um, overpaid for, I meant for like our household. What in the world? It's, it's very hard to, I want to meet you where you're at, but this is so, um, messed up for lack of a better word that it's hard to apply normal principles to it because it's so, so wacky. Yep. Um, why is it, can we, can we try to start at the baseline of why is you guys's marriage relationship like this? It almost feels like you guys don't like each other. Um, no, like most of the time we're actually really good friends. Um, he didn't like that I would comment, you know, oh, you went golfing today or, oh, like he didn't, he didn't like that I would comment about how he would spend money. And so he just decided that he wanted to be, have separate accounts. So that I would have, no say over what he spent money on. Okay. So instead of gauging in healthy conflict and a marriage and working towards something, he just basically just, uh, ejected from the situation and said, never mind, you're not worth pushing into our conversation. So we're, I'm going to just do my own thing over here. Yeah. And I, over the years, I've asked multiple times, hey, can we budget together? I mean, I have the every dollar app, you know, like I, I want to do this together. I want to have shared goals and dreams and things that we accomplish together, but okay. So So where are you guys at today, Haley? What's the status? - So we are in divorce mediation right now. - Okay, it's already gone there. Okay, that makes a little more sense. 'Cause I'm like, are you still together? You're still working through this? - Okay. - So now it's just a question of the survivor benefits that your son claimed his account with that money. Now what's happening? Because my screen says that the husband wants them, is that what I'm understanding? - Yes, he feels entitled to $700 a month retroactively for three years, because that's at what point we stop sharing the finances. - Okay. - For your son's-- - Of my son. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Cause-- - And how old is the son now? - He's 14 now. - Okay. That's an interesting question. I'd want to talk to my attorney about it. - I'm gonna say, I don't know what his legal rights are to money, it's in a minor's name, but I do wonder from the insurance beneficiary, right? Like you're-- - Yeah, so I'm a representative payee. - Okay. - Yes, so my understanding of how that works is-- - It legally belongs to the son. - Right, yeah, you covered his household expenses, extra-curricular clothing, whatever, and then anything that's excess you put into a separate account for the future use. Which is what that account is. So the fact that your husband wants $700 out of the account, you can tell him to go jump in a creek. - Yeah, I mean, if he had said, "Hey, that is so gross." - That is so gross. - I mean, if he was gonna try to say-- - Did he try to say-- - I would count, yeah. - Sorry. - No, I was just gonna say, if he was gonna try to say, hey, I'm one of his guardians, I wanna be part of the payees that help him decide how this money spent. That's one thing, but if he's saying, I want this money to spend on myself because I'm entitled to it 'cause I was married to you, that's the gross and completely, yeah, he can't do that. So I don't think you have to worry about that. - And are you sharing custody with your son with the ex-husband? - No. - So he's not even taking care of him. - Yeah, he won't be able to get it. - No, no, he is not financially responsible for him. - Okay, I think gross. - Yeah, what about-- - I'm so glad that you're not gonna be tied to him for life 'cause he's nasty, I don't like that. The ik is what we call it. - We do share his son, so we will have-- - Oh, sorry. - Okay, yeah, you're a little bit attached to him. - That's all right, we'll say what it needs to be said you don't have to. - Yeah, and Haley, make sure you do have good representation 'cause it sounds like he's so fractured in his thinking that he doesn't make sense. And there's no caring for, which I know in divorce, like that kind of goes out the window, sadly, for a lot of people, but he didn't even care for you well in the marriage, right? That he wanted to eject from the finances, which says a lot, usually with people of, I wanna do my own thing, you do yours. So I would make sure yeah, you do have good representation going in to protect, not even just that account, but just in general as you guys figure this out. So I'm so sorry, that is, yeah, a lot of tragic things, the death of your son's father, a divorce, it's hard, that's really, really difficult, so I'm very sorry. - Just looking into a little bit of it, just to give you a little bit of peace on it, he would not be able to claim the benefits as his own, but what he might try to do is say that he could be one of the representatives to help decide how that money is spent. He might try to say that, I don't know if he would or not, but that's the one thing that I talked to my lawyer about is say, hey, I mean, obviously we lived in the home together and we were married, but this is not the biological father. Can he try to step in and say, since he's a minor, I want to try to direct how that money is spent, he might try to do that. And so that's the part that I try to kind of guard against, because you don't want him to have that say, I would think that you'd want to control that, right, Haley? - Oh yeah, absolutely. - Yeah, so, oh my goodness, thank you for the call, that is-- - Yeah, that's a call, I'm so sorry. - That's a tough one, so difficult. - Well, and it just is another reminder, not necessarily with the son and his account, but just the way that marriage was functioning, that there's so, and we do say create separate accounts. If you have to part ways financially, if trust is broken in a situation, if there is addiction involved, like if there's something that you have to protect yourself, absolutely, absolutely. Now, we obviously got just Haley's side of the story, so we usually end up siding with-- - Sure, of course. - 100%-- - We're not getting the X's, but we don't, I don't really want it right now, after what he wants to do with the son's account, but remembering that so much of what money is, it's a language of how you handle it and how you see it, how you value it within your marriage. And if your marriage is not at the top of the list, that our goal is that we are together, we're locking arms, we're conquering the world, and all these other problems underneath that can pop up or insecurities or control is, like these things that come out of me trying to safeguard myself, right? And that could be categories of sex, in laws, spirituality, money, I mean, you know, so much. - Yeah, there's these big buckets of life, and the moment you stop seeing yourself as a team, and I'm not saying you have to become the same person, you're both an individual. - But when you're out for yourself-- - But when you're out just for yourself, you start to single out yourself in something, when an event didn't happen, and it's just out of what you want, you start to see the marriage start to fracture, and so it's just something to be aware of, is the healthier the marriage, obviously, these other parts end up being healthy because it's functioning out of a whole marriage, but when the marriage starts to fracture, you feel it in these other parts of your marriage. - That's right. (upbeat music) - Welcome back to the Ramsey Show here in the Farewell's Credit Union Studio. I'm Jade next to me, Rachel Cruz, and we're just continuing to take calls from you guys. You've called in, you want help, and we're here to help you. We got Ian, who's in Baltimore, Massachusetts. Hey, Ian, how can Rachel and I help today? - Well, actually, I'm from Baltimore, Maryland, but I'm-- - Oh gosh. - Me and my fiancee just fine-- - That is correct. - Yeah, well, me and my fiancee just financed a $28,000 use card at 11.19% APR interest, and the car payment is $696 a month. And yeah, that's why I want to make sure if we made a good deal or not. - I'm gonna go with no. Do you feel like you made a good deal? - Yes and no. - Okay, tell me more. - Okay, well, yes, because I sold my other car that I had, and now we just solely have this car. So it's us two years in this car. I mean, it's newer than the car that I had before. So I feel like if we're gonna have it for the long run till it dies, then that was good. - Tell me a little bit-- - How old are you, Ian? - 37. - 37, okay. What's Ian, tell me a little bit more. What's your philosophy on debt I'm just curious? Is it good, is it bad? Is it good to leverage sometimes? How do you feel about debt? - I don't like debt. If I don't have to have it, I don't want to have debt. And I try to figure out the best way I can eliminate the debt in the quickest amount of time. - Okay, that's good. Well, here's the hard part specifically with car payments, is it is you going into debt paying interest on something that is going down in value. And so the tough part is, is if you look at a life and you said, you know what, what if we just invested a car payment every single month, right? And so Ian, let's just say you did this until you're 37, let's say you did it for the next 30 years. And instead of paying for this car payment at $696, you invested it. Well, the calculation comes out to $1.9 million. So it's almost a $2 million decision to live a life of paying someone else that, or paying you. And so what it comes down to, it's not the math of the APR and all of that. It is a mindset that I'm gonna choose to live my life where I, where I, no one owns anything that I have because I am paying for everything up front. Even something like a car, which I know is very difficult for a lot of people. But when you have this mindset of I'm only gonna pay cash for cars from here on out because it's all we can afford, it changes your mindset and it changes then long-term mathematically, you know, your future. And so what I would say to you is, yeah, I don't think it was a good idea that you took out a $30,000 car loan. I would have encouraged you to find any cash you had, even if it was $4,000, $5,000 and go buy a really crappy car for a little bit, save on the side in about three to four months, sell that, put some more money towards it and move up to an $8,000 car. And you kind of just start working your way up slowly. And that's really the, from a long-term mathematical perspective that what we would recommend people doing. - And if you even run it out, 'cause Rachel ran that out over the course of a period of time, but even if you just looked at the term of the loan itself, right, so you're 37, it's probably a six-year term. So if you paid it out as it's saying, but if you took that money and invested it at 11%, that $6.96 is $70,000 over the course of that loan, and it's kind of funny because the 11% is the same as the interest rate that you're currently paying. So that is a crazy juxtaposition when you think about the different ways that that money can look. So back to your question, I think we say it's a bad thing and how quickly can you get out of this becomes the next question? - Correct, and yeah, what do you think? How quickly can I get out of getting a car paid off within before a secure time period? - Is it your only debt? - The only other debt I have is from Best Buy about $2,000 because I had to use that to get me a new iPhone and a new smartwatch, but I have that interest rate for 12 months. - Okay, hold up, I'm gonna take you to task on this, Ian, because you told me that you don't like debt, but here you are utilizing it for an Apple Watch. Which is, I mean, I think you can agree with this, that is not something that is a necessity, facts or fiction. - That is true, that's true. - Yeah, so what I want it before we even talk about how to pay off this debt, I would love for you to have kind of an identity moment with yourself or you decide who you wanna be because it's not gonna matter what Rachel and I tell you if you're gonna continue to borrow money because you can't solve a problem while simultaneously creating it. We can show you how to get out of the, you know, pay off the car, but it's not a long-term solution 'cause you're still a person who enjoys borrowing money. - I understand, I agree. - So that's new rule, number two is, yeah, we can look at your margin and say, how can we pay off this Best Buy credit card first? And then we can use that same margin to turn around and pay off this $28,000 loan. - And you're playing the math game a lot, and with the interest rate and justifying some of it, right? That it's a zero percent interest rate for 12 of them all over there. But that's what the industry wants. Like you kinda have fallen for normal and that is normal. People are looking at, well, how can I scheme this and get that and, you know, 90 days same as cash here, right? Like it's all the marketing that they throw at you. But when you think about it and these banks, it's like, yeah, their building is probably nicer than your house. And nicer than mine, like it, they're huge, right? Like they are obviously really good at what they do. And their main course of income for banks and revenue and profit is interest that Americans pay like that by borrowing money. So do we have to kind of stop the insanity? Be like, well, I have fallen for what is so normal out there and what normal is Ian is paycheck to paycheck. It is what it is. The car dies. We just go and get another car loan and you start back in that cycle and once it's paid off, you upgrade and you get something else and something breaks, we don't have it, we charge it on the credit card. Like that is what normal is. And so since you called this show, I'll tell you our advice is so counter to normal. Like we are extreme on, you don't do any debt. We're extreme on, you have an emergency fund that you only touch for emergencies. You fund 15% of your income into retirement. Like these things that are not what people, I think what people would long for 'cause it gets you out of the paycheck to paycheck cycle, but it's really hard to rewire your brain into a weird way of thinking. But if you don't, Ian, you're gonna be stuck in normal. We'll talk to you in six years and we'll be back into another car payment. Now what you could do, Ian, before this thing gets out of hand is you could sell it while it still may be worth 28 to $26,000 because we are finding that used cars can hold their value a little bit longer. Now you have a sucky interest rate on this, but before it gets too far gone, I look out there and see, can I sell it for 28,000? And if that's the case, I'd get out of this immediately and then stack up some savings and buy like a $5,000 car to get you around. And then the way that-- - Save that 700 a month. - Yes. And the way this works is whenever we tell folks to do this, the goal is not for you to drive a $5,000 car for life. The $5,000 is the starter car. And then how quickly can I add another $2,000 to that? So then I sell that one. Now I have a $7,000 car. And then I add a few thousand of that. And you do it six months at a time, you're at a time until you can steer step into something that you're like, okay, this suits my lifestyle. I'm driving a $15,000 vehicle. That's good enough for me. - And Ian, we believe in you. I really do think you can make this shift. It's if you want to, but I really do think, you don't have to be stuck in normal. You can do something different. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Good news, everything is 100% off if you don't buy it. Bad news, it's the biggest spending season of the year, and your money's being pulled in a hundred directions. Like there's a bill do, and matching tattoos with Nana would be by one, get one, tempting. But money doesn't make decisions, you do. So decide ahead of time with a focus plan for your money before it's even spent. My wife and I use the every dollar app to do exactly that. It plans every dollar coming in and going out. It shows you where margins hiding too. That's extra money to put toward your biggest goals, one at a time, and hit them faster. Whether it's paying off debt, saving for a trip, or getting tatted up with Nana, get focused with every dollar this holiday season, and start for free. Download every dollar in the app store, or Google Play today. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - All right, your Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Ask Ramsey, your free AI money tool that provides personalized money answers based on Ramsey principles. So visit RamseySolutions.com/askramsey to ask your question after you've tried calling us that is. - That's right, all right. Today's question comes from Karissa in Ohio. My husband recently passed away, and the statements from his IRA contain a disclaimer saying, not FDIC or bank insured may lose value. I pay $59 a year for a financial advisor to manage them, but that risk scares me. Should I cash them out and put the money in CDs at my bank? So, I mean, no, I would not. So any type of investment is not gonna be FDIC insured. That's only for a bank. So any time you do any kind of investing, it kind of is at your own risk, if you will, but you're going to find Karissa that you're gonna be making much more money of it being out in the market. And so what you can do is talk to your financial advisor, and if you wanted, I wouldn't really recommend it, but if you needed some like piece of mind, you could go in lower risk funds if you wanted to. But overall, I would say, I would leave it as is, let the money grow because that's really how you're going to be able to use this money. If you stick it in a CD, it's not even gonna really probably keep up with inflation over the long haul. So I would say where it is that's kind of part of the risk, but that's okay. Now you want your banks to be, you know, where your checking account is, and if you have a savings account to be a FDIC insured, in case fraud or something happens with the bank, but yeah, your money out in the market, it's out there. And that's okay because it should be making some money for you. - Absolutely, great. Let's go to Mike, who's in Chicago, Illinois. Hey, Mike, how can we help out today? - Hi, so I'm just a little bit lost in direction, unless I had gone to college for four years, for a degree in Bible, exposition, and exegesis, and it's kind of on this path of being in full-time ministry, and kind of got off of that because of a few different things. And now I'm just sort of wandering around from like $18 an hour jobs and things like that, and 40 now, and trying to figure out what I need to do. I have no savings, no real anything. I'm married to somebody, but what's hers is hers, and so she has over 100K in assets, and she mortgages the house and all the things like that. And I'm just trying to figure out a move for kind of a degree I paid for that has basically been useless. - Yeah, well, you're 40 years old, right? - Yes. - Okay, so you're 20 years out of college, I think the dream is dead, that you're probably gonna use that. Unless you're like, yeah, I wanna go into pastoral ministry, or you see an avenue, but the idea to try to form your life around a college's degree, that may not happen. You may just go get a job, Mike. I mean, do you want to do something in that field? - Well, so I went to college, I started when I was 25 and got out when I was 29. - Okay, I love it later. - I love it later. - Okay. - I was doing that full time, and that was my life. - What changed? - Well, I met her, and at the time she was somebody that did not, she was not a believer, as they say, and so I had to remove myself from all of that, kind of the trajectory. I was odd, it was, it was going to be my life, and it was gonna be everything. That's an interesting, that's, this is an interesting story. - For us, from her perspective, or the, which you were involved in, told you that you can't. - Yeah, which one was it? - They told me, when I was involved in, said that I could not be involved any longer, I was on a trajectory to be teaching in a Christian school, and I was involved in different ministries, that is making it about $3,500. month traveling doing full-time ministry. But since your wife wasn't a believer, they said you couldn't hold that position. Well, she's my girlfriend at the time. She's my wife now and she is a believer now. So would you go back or did that put a bad taste in your mouth? Well, I'm currently interviewing at a Christian school in our city. I'm in the third phase of that. I'm hoping for to get back into, but outside of that, it has seemed like there's been limited options, like everything I've done post being in ministry has been 18 dollars an hour, 20 dollars an hour, things like that. So if you have a desire to go back into ministry, and that's what truly what you want to do, you have the degree for it, and you don't have any kind of bitterness or whatever against what happened earlier, then I would just put further into that. Yeah, because I'm everywhere, everywhere. What's wrong with that? I guess there's nothing wrong with it, but I guess in my perspective, it's like, if this, what I'm trying to go back to does it work out, what am I able to do outside of that that will put me on a trajectory that. Well, I'm just wondering why are you assuming it wouldn't work out? If I went and got a degree in psychology and looked for degrees in that field, there are degrees, there are jobs out there in that field. So why are you making the assumption that you won't find a job in your degree field? Why is that? I live in a smaller area and trying to even outside of that area of ministry trying to sell a degree in Bible exposition and exegesis is a very hard sell for a lot of people. You don't want to just be a pastor. What is it you're trying to do? I'm just trying to make a life and I don't know how to do so. Yeah, Mike. So what I would say is I think you have more, I think there's some bigger questions you have to ask as you're pushing yourself into this niche degree. I think it's closing in on you and you're not able to look at the big picture. So I would do some exploration, Mike, on you. We can give you King Coleman's book, find the work you're wired to do. There's an assessment on the back and I would, I mean, honestly, if I'm 40 years old, I got my degree 10 years ago and you've been working 18 hour, you know, 18, 18 hour jobs. I think it's time for-- Shake it up. I hate to say it, Mike. And I'm going to-- Hit it, Rachel. I'm like, we got to grow up. We got to grow up. Your wife's kicking butt and taking names, making a hundred grand and she's probably like, dude, what are you doing? Get on the ball. It's been 10 years. We've got to-- Yes. So I do. I want this motivation for you to go do something great with your life and I pray it is where you go at your degree because it sounds like you're wanting something in that. Great. Go apply to 16 different Christian schools and let's figure out. Be the basketball coach. I don't know. Let's start doing something or if it's not what you're wanting to do, and you actually step back and be like, I feel like I have to do it because it's how I got my degree. I wouldn't base it on that. I would look to say, okay, what else is out there? Yeah. Be a financial planner. Maybe you're a CPA. I don't know. I mean, you'd go back to school for some of that stuff, but maybe that is-- Go so real estate. Go so real estate. I don't know. Go dream about what you want to be, Mike, but you got to have some energy around it. And when you go into these interviews, you got to have that energy because they're going to-- I don't know. It's put pinned to paper time. Like there's a lot of-- I feel like I can imagine him kind of just staring out the window like, what would I like to do? But now is the time to get really tactical and go, okay, within ministry, here are the jobs that interest me. And then do some research around that. What can I apply for? Actually do the applications. Actually find people in proximity that you can talk with and kind of get your name in the door. And then my next list would be, if ministry doesn't work out, what are the top three things that I'd like to do? Again, using King Coleman's assessment to inform that list. And then I'm doing my research on those. And then I'm starting to find out who do I know who's in proximity to those. And then I'm starting-- Right. And then with all of those lists, now I'm putting a timeline on it. And I'm going, okay, from what is it? November, where are we at? November 18th until the end of November, I'm working on the ministry thing. And then first week of December, I'm going to start calling the names on my list of the other-- Right? Yes. It puts real pinned to paper, real timelines, real goals. And then the next part is, let's bring your wife into it so that there's some accountability. And she sees-- Yeah. Here's what it is that you're doing. I can help you. I'm going to ask around at work to see what I know. Right? And just be thoughts. Yes. And I would say too. They're-- and I don't think you have this mic, but there can be a level of entitlement of a-- I'm 40, I have a degree in this. I should be getting exposition. Sometimes you've got to work your way up still. Right? Like there's going to-- You know, you may just want to get your foot in the door in an organization that you love and are impressed by. And it may not be the exact position you want, but long term, you can see growth there. And that's a possibility too, Mike. So we're pushing you because we know you can do it. Yes, absolutely. Our smart guy. And it's like, you just got to-- you got to have some of that motivation, and you got to get out there, put yourself out there, and apply for 16 different positions in this world. You know? Yes. And see what happens. I finally get to announce that my brand new book "Building the Marriage You Want" is available for pre-order. 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That means you can get $13 on bestselling hard covers, things like Rachel Cruz's kids books for just $13. $22 career assessments, $12 questions for human decks, $7.99 audio books. Come on in ebooks more, all of it's on sale. So take advantage. Tis the season to spend some money on somebody else. Go to ramsysolutions.com/store or if you're watching on YouTube or podcast, click the link in the description. I know those were cute weren't they. So happy. I love it. Let's head out to Audrey who's in Denver, Colorado. Hey Audrey, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much. I appreciate you taking my call. Okay, so my question is I have a daughter who is a senior in high school. I'm a single mom full-time single mom have been for a long time. And following Dave's principles have really brought me to a place that's been transformative in life and I'm so grateful for that. But as we approach her college years, I was really hopeful she would stay in state. I have enough money saved up for her to do that and to pay for that. And she let me know today that she would really like to go out of state as a dream to go to big SEC school. And ultimately I guess I'm wondering I need some outside perspective. I'm I being prudent if I were to say no to that because of the additional costs and whatever or is that selfish. It's certainly not selfish. No, not at all. Can you even afford the out of state SEC school? Probably it would exceed what I have already saved but I've been really fortunate in my career. I could probably swing it, yes. What's the opportunity cost? Like what is it by doing that, what does it not allow you to do or does it not really change much for you? It wouldn't really change much. Okay. Except that I wouldn't have my daughter around. So it's more proximity than financial. It is. It's you know, as a single mom, my family values are such that I would really like her to be around for all of the things that we do. It's it's weird for me to think this person who has been really kind of almost a companion of sorts for so many years would be gone in that way. You know, we don't we wouldn't have the opportunity for the little things of birthdays and family dinners and smaller holidays that everybody's around for mom. You got mom. Oh, you're given all the mom vibes right now. So this is not about college nor is it about money. It's about this natural progression of life. Yeah. And I I'm getting choked up just listening to you talk about it because if I were in your shoes and I will be you know in 10 years or 12 years. I'm going to be weeping like a big old baby because all you're saying is completely true. It's going to change. Yes, it is going to change and I recognize that, right? I understand the natural progression of life. My whole family is here. We've all stayed around each other and close to each other. So it's a really bizarre concept for me to imagine my daughter not being a part of that. That's what we've always talked about, but she likes the idea of a big football school. And I think maybe living out this dream of being some sort of like L. Woods or something. At an SEC school, you get to Mississippi and Georgia and Tennessee. I don't know how much L. That's so funny. It's more northeast. I can tell you from an SEC girl. But no, I hear you though, but like going off on our own, you mean? No, going off on our own, going to a more conservative state than where we're at. It's funny, Audrey. This is the trend. Talking to people, the amount of even applicants for the University of Tennessee from the Chicago area, from outweigh. It is crazy. The kids that are flooding Southern colleges. It is. It's become the thing. It's an experience. So I would say I, because I, I mean, I've always said in my head, I don't want my kids to be a plane right away in college. Like, I'm going to be able to get to them if I can. I don't need them super close, but I need to be able to get into a car. Right. And I just say that kind of flippin' out when rubber meets the road. What does that actually look like? Because I do think, Audrey, you know, you're, you know, your heart as a mom is so true and so good. But also, you can only control that for four more years because the truth is when she is 21, if she still wants to move to a Southern state, she's going to. So prolonging the inevitable if that is going to happen. I don't know what, what good that does, right? So it sounds like again, you're making the decision more out of you and what you're wanting, not what she's wanting. Now, there is a financial aspect to this that's very real, right? Like, my parents, so they were like, and it's not, my parents love me, but I don't think they were crushed that we were all going off to college. They dropped us off and they were like, say, yeah, see, yeah. But it was more just the common sense of tuition that we're not going to pay twice as much. So you have to stay doing in state school because of just the cost, right? That's the other part of me too. That's where my value is right. I can't necessarily justify. And that's, I think that's fair. I think that's totally fair, Audrey, but you didn't lead out at all with that part. So I don't know if that's the number one driver for you. Don't get me wrong. You're the parent. Let's, let's like bare bones it. You're the parent. It's your money. You get to decide how it's spent. So let's just put those facts out there. You get to say, hey, Samantha, I don't know what her name is. This is the school. We're going to an in state school because that's what I saved for. You are allowed to lay down that law and feel no, you know, nothing, no type of way about it. However, if you know deep in your heart that the only reason you're doing this is because it's going to satisfy what you want for her proximity wise, that might bother me a little bit later on. If I were you, knowing that I had the ability to do the thing that she really wanted to do, and I didn't do it simply because it made me uncomfortable from a, not from a safety or from a, but just from a relation like I'm, I just like having her close that I'm not going to lie. I feel like maybe you ought to let her go. But here's what I honestly think is going to happen. If you were to let her go to the SEC school, my guess is she might go for a year and be like, I miss my mom and want to come back closer. If you guys' relationship is the way you say it is, that might be part of it. Or she might go, I love being on my own and you might see her flourish in such a way that she's becoming an adult. You've done what you, you know what I mean? Like you train up your kids. Well, I think it's the quote by Andy Andrews, but he says, you know, you're not just trying to raise good kids, you're trying to raise kids to become good adults. And in that transition of childhood that I am, I am part of you and you're every day and you're my responsibility, you know, when they fly and be free and that, yeah, that's, that's really sad. It's a very like grieving state for, and for a lot of people. I mean, I, I have friends and their kids went to, you know, their last one left and yeah, the house is quiet and it's sad. Like it's like, oh my gosh, you know. So Rachel, you wake up tomorrow and your Audrey, what are you doing? I'm just, I want to know. If I hadn't laid down a strict rule ahead of time, which I wish she had communicated to the daughter ahead of time and said, hey, you're only going to an in-state school. It's what I've saved for. Uh-huh. If that was the expectation all along, I would not feel bad saying no. But if there had been no conversation about college and the daughter's like, this is really where I want to go. And she can afford it. Oh my gosh. I don't know. Audrey, this is a tough one. It's a tough one. Because I have to lonely, I was still only sitting here because there is a part of, you're kind of inevitably have to let them go. Yes. Right? Like you, the dream of them all living close may happen, which would be amazing, but it may not. And you have to give your kids the free will to make decisions. Uh-huh. But the college education piece of what they're actually going to be getting, it's no different. It's no. No. No. Now the difference. Now the experience will be different. But it's not like, hey, she's going to be more successful in her career field if she goes to XY school. No. That's not the discussion for sure. I would start talking to her because she just came with Audrey with this news today. And she may change your mind. Yeah, there's two weeks. Yes. So I would start that dialogue now. Be talking through it with her. But at the end of the day, Audrey, you are the parent. So right around, you get to make that call. Medicare is confusing for everyone. Doesn't matter whether you're a teacher, rocket scientist, or one of the politicians who came up with it. This stuff is complicated. And nobody should have to untangle it by themselves. And that's why we created a webinar with our Ramsey trusted partner, chapter co founder, Ari Parker and myself answer your toughest questions about Medicare so you can tackle the process confidently and get the right plan. So go to ramseysolutions.com/chapter to learn more. That's ramseysolutions.com/chapter. All right, our Ramsey show scripture and quote of the day, Romans 13, 7, give to everyone what you owe them. If you owe them taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue, if respect, then respect, if honor, then honor. Love that one. Earl Wilson said today, there are three kinds of people, the haves, the have-nots, and the have-not paid for what they have. Wow. That's intense. And he's correct. And he is correct, isn't he? Let's go to Peter, who's an Atlanta GA. What's going on, Peter? Hey, guys, how's it going? Great show today. I was hoping to get some help here, really hoping for people to maybe tear their teeth apart a little bit, but also consider kind of gauge where I'm at, you know, where versus where I should be. I'm just using a life where there's a lot of expenses, a lot of pressure from the family and all this kind of stuff. It's all kind of coming at me at once. And I want to say, hey, are these big expenses, big purchases, big things? If I had a position to do that. Okay, what big things are you talking about? Yeah, so you know, two kids and wife wants a bigger house. So we're, I'm looking at a contract right now to sign for a, you know, a number I would ever imagine these three on a house. How much? A $663,000. Wow. Okay. That's a nice, is it a first time home buy? No, no, already already own house. Okay. Okay. So there's the house, the two kids, wife wants a bigger house. What else? My 140,000 mile Nissan is like, it's a little too old and I need something bigger. That's at one. And just a generic lifestyle career, but I think we hit some financial milestones that are impressive. And you know, they say playing with the lead is more difficult. So yeah, you just want to be wise with the spending. That makes sense. No, I hear that. Okay. So where you're at financially, walk us through that. Like, how much do you make a year? Do you guys have consumer debt? How much you have saved retirement? Like, what are those big numbers? Yeah. So income is around $400, $450,000 a year. Okay. Mom, say a little mom. No, huge consumer debt, probably, I have to pay $40,000, which is $80,000, that's in a in a car note. And $80,000 is in a car note? No, no, 80% of that. Oh, 80%. Okay. Okay, so $40,000 total. Totally, exactly. And it's always like actual, like, do you suggest net worth? I want to know net worth and liquid cash. Okay, so like liquid cash, probably $1.3 million, plus or minus, and as far as net worth goes, I estimate $1.7. Okay, so you only have $400,000 inequity in the home. That's $400,000 equity in my home. Yeah, I think it actually, like, $320, but yeah. Okay, perfect. So, the money, all that is liquid, it's not invested? Well, it's, how much cash do you have? That's all my liquid. A cash, about $500,000 in a brokerage account. Okay, okay. So, technically, you could take your equity, put a 50% down payment on the new house. Yeah, I could buy in cash. You could buy in cash, okay. And then new car. I mean, yeah, I mean, these percentages are not, they're not crazy, Peter, I mean, in my head. No, I think you're, how long have you been making this income? A while? Yeah, we're a younger family, but in this income, I get about five years, something like that. I think you've been really smart in the things that he's listing. I think they sound reasonable with your income and with the money that you've saved. What I would say, Peter, I think what would help you maybe? This is at least how I feel sometimes with our financial picture. Because I have that question, too, sometimes of like a gosh. Like, we can do it, but is it, I don't know, is this irresponsible or wasteful or something? You know what I mean? You kind of have that gut check. So, I always think, okay, have I done the things that we value? In our household, we value a debt-free life. So, we want to be out of debt completely. So, that would be my first start for you. If that is a value you choose, you and your wife, pay off all the consumer debt. And be like, okay, we are completely autonomous. You know, we have autonomy over our money. We have a good emergency funds of a good solid six months that if something were to happen this job, which that emergency fund is going to be big at six months. But I probably would with your income, because if something were to happen, it's a big deal. Yes, it's a big deal. So, I would get a big emergency fund on the side. I would fund 15% of my income into retirement. And as George always, like he always says, it's kind of eating your vegetables. It's like, okay, I'm going to do it. It's going to go into this black hole of retirement. I'll see it when I retire. But I'm going to do that. I'm going to be a giver. I'm going to be giving generously. And then looking at your kids' college, making sure those 529s have some good money, you know, in it for it to grow if you have little kids. And then really that next point is the house. And it's like, okay, I'm going to tackle that. I'm going to tackle that. And if you can pay cash for it, I would 100%. Really? Yes. And it's not going to, you're not going to feel it entirely because you've got the $400,000 in equity. And then if we reach over and pull the other 160 from the 500 that you have saved, I think that you're going to recoup that so quickly because I just. You won't have a mortgage payment. And you're going to invest at a higher rate and save at a higher rate. Yeah, that's a crazy thought. And that's pretty much thinking. And I appreciate the guidance on it. It's just, you know, you're. Yeah. You have a lot of cash. I think that's great. But our monthly burn is like $9,000 a month, right? And so it's relative to the burn, not to the assets. It's like, wow, this is a really big jump in our lifestyle here. Looking at this $80,000 truck that everyone's pushing me to buy. Well, you don't have to buy an $80,000 truck. So let's back up slightly. Let's back up slightly because. And it's worth noting. So with the house purchase, the reason that I'm fine to jump to. And don't get me wrong. You don't have to spend $663,000. I'm not saying you do. If the house that you're in, you're like, hey, this is fine. It's big enough for our family. It's big enough for our growing family. That's a conversation you have with your wife. Do I think within the parameters of your income that a $663,000 house is reasonable to the moon and back? I think that that's reasonable. And because you have the cash position that you have and the invested position that you have and the equity position that you have, I think it's a 100% in my mind that's a shoe win. It's an asset. It's something that's going up in value. It's another form of investing for you. Now, if we talk about the truck, that's a completely different conversation because to your point, it's $80,000. It's a lot. It is going down in value, not as quickly as they once did, but it is going down in value. Do you have the room to afford it 100% again? I will tell you, Peter, I do think that that's a no-brainer. I think you're a really conservative guy. I am too, by the way. Rachel and I sat and talked about new vehicles the other day. And here's the truth. Flat out. It's hard when you make that money. It's just hard to stomach spending that much money on a vehicle. It took me forever to buy the vehicle that I have. I searched, and searched, and searched, and I finally did it. And then I was like, "Why did I wait so long to do this?" So I think there's just part of it that you're very frugal, you're very thoughtful, and I think that's really good. And where it's got you where it is, which is great. So that's another part of the value system. You do want to keep. The gut check is real and good. So I applaud you on that. But you also have to live in reality of where you guys are. And what Jade is saying is right. You guys are in a different reality, and then where you ever were, maybe you have how you guys grew up, and it's almost hard for your emotions to catch up with the numbers, right? And so what I would caution you, Peter, is I don't like the truck because you're like, gosh, everyone's pressuring me. If you don't want it, don't get it. So yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm like, pump the brakes on that, just because the gut check doesn't feel right. Because it feels like- I apologize, but the nuance here and this is the big double on the shoulder moment. It's like, well, hey, we had a very high liquid year. This is going to be a business purchase. Every dollar you spend on a trucker can get a 37% discount because this year specifically, I mean, over a million dollars. Okay. And, you know, and you know, I'm 31 and a lot of life. I think you can buy it. I think you're fine. I think you think you're fine. Yes. All of it, I think is fine. I think the car is fine. I think the house is fine. Can I tell you this? Please buy your wife a new couch with the new house. Okay, Peter? Like, just, you're okay. I love it. This was a great show. Thanks to everyone involved. Remember, there's ultimately only way, one way to financial peace. And that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.