Live Life With Less Financial Stress

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio, this is The Ramsey Show. And I'm Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with Dr. John Deloney. And we're answering your questions about life and money. So give us a call at 888-825-5225. All right, starting us off this hour, we have Lynn in Jersey City, New Jersey. Hi, Lynn. Welcome to the show. Hi, Rachel. Hi, how are you doing? Good. So you guys are kind of the tiebreaker between me and my husband. Yes. Just to give you some background, we are on Baby Step. Six, five, and six. And we have a house that we're aggressively working to pay, y'all. But we have a lot of equity. So we're almost at a cap of hitting, you know, above 500 for capital gains taxes. So my husband doesn't want to pay it off, but I want to pay it off because it gives me peace. And we don't know what to do. He's saying, you know, if we paid off, we're going to pay taxes on the gains since we are planning to upgrade soon. How soon? I don't know. I don't know what to do. Maybe like in two years. Okay. But there's going to be an element of paying taxes on the equity regardless of whether you pay it off or not. So we're under the 500 threshold right now. But if we continue paying it off the way we have intended to. The equity goes, hits that 500. Correct. So it'll be above that. Yep. In two years. In two years. And when are you guys going to move? I know Joe just asked that. We're looking around. In two years. Yeah. Our family keeps growing. We owe about 250 on it and it's worth 750. Around 750 or 700. Yep. So how quickly could you pay it off? When I work this Excel, it looks about three years and a half realistically. But you're going to hit that mark in two years? Correct. Or a little bit less, actually, if I continue paying it the way we're doing it now. You're doing it now. Yeah, I mean, it's just my husband's like, save the money. You know, we have a 2.5 interest. Let's put it into a business idea. I really don't know what to do. That to me sounds like what the real issue is, is he wants to use that money for something else. Yeah. And I feel guilty sometimes not supporting him, but it gives me peace of mind, you know, just paying off my house. What's his business idea? What does he wanting to use the money for? He has an idea of creating. He's creating like video games, essentially. Okay. Has he done any work on this prior? It's still just in the idea phase. He has. No, he has. He's using protocols, essentially, and we're waiting to kind of start marketing it, and he wants the money for marketing. Okay. But, you know, I'm a woman, and I love the security of having my house paid off. I'm a man, and I like the security of having my house paid off. I mean, it's not a gendered thing. I think the real conversation is not about the tax advantages or we're going to have to pay tax on that, to me, isn't the issue. The issue is, because here's the thing, I won't go down that road, I can make you a math case, but this isn't a math question. It's a, you want peace in the middle of your chest, you want peace in your household, and so, and you also have a husband who wants to be a video game designer, and so having to pay it off house lets you know that you're going to have to pay it off. That's the real issue here. Making it about, instead of sending, paying taxes on $250,000, you want to give that $250,000 to the bank, or like, you want to shell it around, that's fine, and even if there was a tax advantage, in my house, we call it the sole tax. I'll pay. I'll pay. I'll pay the difference, so that no one can take my house from me, right, so you can make those kind of cases all day long, but it sounds like that's a proxy war for what's really going on, and that is, your husband wants to take that money and do something else with it. And it's like, am I selfish? He's been on board with the Dave Ramsey since we got married, and it's helped us tremendously, right, and it's, am I selfish for not giving him the opportunity, even though we have financial standing to do that? I don't know. No, because I feel like this is a value system at which you guys have been operating under for over a decade, is what you just said, and so to go off course, to me, would be like, we're deviating from the thing that we're so used to doing, which we're, you know, going down these steps, and the moment that that step starts to deviate, and again, when we talk about paying off the house, we're not going to do that. We do say it is being intentional, right, like we are not like, oh gosh, the house is on fire, we have to pay it off in a second, you know, we don't want the house on fire, but it's probably a bad analogy for this situation, but, and some people are naturally more urgent, like John, I feel like you're urgent. Yeah, I got maniacal about it. It happens under an umbrella of no risk, and knowing that we can cash flow it at any time, and nothing is going to happen to us financially, to me, that feels like a safer bet, if he wants to slow step himself into this new career path, or, and even, you know, even, Lynn, if you did want to slow it down, maybe six months, and him, try something over here, I would, I could see that being more of a case than let's not pay it off for something that, you know, we're not going to do. And that may or may not happen two years from now, you know, at the beginning of this call. Yeah, there's a lot of might happens in a few years, right? And so if we come to what we're dealing with right this, right, right today, what I call you selfish, that's probably, that sounds like dramatic Deloney language, right? And I have a penchant for the dramatic. So I wouldn't call you selfish, but if he's saying, hey, instead of paying the house off hyper aggressively in two and a half years, can we pay it off in three and a half years? And instead of tripling the payment or quadrupling the payment every month, can we just double it for a year while I try to get this business off the ground? And he provides both of you with a ironclad plan for how we're going to spend these marketing dollars, because marketing dollars can get sideways real quick, right? And you say, okay, cool. That's different than him saying, I want to go back to paying the minimum payment, and we're going to pay this off in 20 years, because I got a dream. And so to me, coming up with a compromise, we're still aggressively paying our house off, just not Deloney level maniacal paying it off. We're still getting it done in three years. And who knows if we'll move in three years? We'd like to. It sounds like it would be great, but who knows what the world will look like in three years. But as of right now, we still have a three-year plan to pay the house off. That's pretty awesome. And you're going to cash flow whatever dreams he has. If y'all agree on that together, I don't see a problem with that. It sounds reasonable to me that you. Rachel said six months or a year. Okay, I'll give, and we'll push this aggressive timeline back. I will say, though, Lynn, my pause, too, because we've gotten this call too many times on this show, is people starting a business, and it doesn't make money, and it doesn't make money. And they look up, and they call, like, my husband's trying to start this business for the past five years. There's a dollar amount. Yeah, yeah. Like, you guys need, like, a yes. There is a marketing budget for John Deloney. Yes, and that's it. And that's it. And so we are moving at the speed of cash. And all of it. So that's my only word of caution with starting something. I think it's great, amazing. I came from an entrepreneur household. Like, it's wonderful. But you have to be smart about it and not get so emotional. And sometimes people are so emotional about their business idea that they forget the numbers. So just y'all need a plan that you both agree on together that makes you feel good about paying the house off and him getting to start something. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to do that. Hey, George Camel here. A few years ago, someone stole my identity. And let me tell you, that is not a quick fix. It takes hours on the phone, piles of paperwork, and a whole lot of stress trying to untangle the mess. 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Identity Theft Protection all right next up we have tracy in dallas texas hi tracy welcome to the show hi thank you for having me absolutely hi i'm in baby step two right now we have one credit card of a little over 8 000 left to pay on and then we have our solar panels which are about 47 000 left to pay on and my husband who has a green injury from the military gets really really anxious about the credit card so he wants those to be paid off as soon as soon as possible but as soon as we get to the solar panels he wants to put pause on that slow down and start building our emergency fund which would be his baby step three and um he wants to do it in like a 1500 to the solar panel and like 500 to the emergency fund and i just wanted to get your thoughts on that okay um how much do you guys make a year um we make a taxable income i make about 54 000 a year and he makes he's part-time at 18 000 a year because of his brain injury does he get any um yes he has 6 300 a month with pension and disability and does that include the in the 18 000 no that's a separate that's because that's non-taxable on top of okay on top of that is what he brings home yeah okay i gotcha uh how much is left on the house um 460 okay so you guys won't be moving anytime soon because usually those loans they'll lump in with the sale of the home but you guys are probably there for a while the loan is separate from the home we we didn't do a key lock or anything it's just it's like a private loan right okay you have a this is not why you called but that's a lot of house on your income isn't it it is a lot of house on our income but the payments that we make are 25 percent of what we bring in so okay you have a lot of house on your income but the payments that we make are 25 percent of what we bring in so okay okay okay i mean yeah tracy i mean there's um i mean i was thinking if there was an element of moving this to baby step six which is what we talk about sometimes with he locks if it's more than half of your annual income and so i mean you guys are kind of at that line if you did want to push it but it is a completely separate loan versus it being a key lock right so it doesn't really fall necessarily in that category and it's this i hate these things because you're you're stuck with it it's not like a forty seven thousand dollar car that you can sell off um right so is there a dollar amount that because i i i want to honor the fact that he's experienced the worst and he's living with challenges right and so um it's not even like me being worried about something i worry about everything this is a different thing is there a number that he has in his head that would give him a little more room to breathe um he wants the three months uh um baby step three three months of savings and what what what is that for y'all um that is going to be about twenty five thousand so could you take three months and take a hundred percent of his disability check and put that in an account and call it no because we need uh our margin every month after all of the bills we have uh only about twenty three hundred a month to place towards the um our debt okay yeah i mean i would be okay if y'all bump it up a little bit but i would get because i mean how much is your how much is the payment every month on the solar panels uh right now the solar panel payment is only 275 okay it's not terrible um i was thinking of what that would free up to quickly throw at the emergency fund to get it built up more uh his he would like to do of our available i'm just going to say 2000 it's it's easier to figure of our available 2000 excess he wants to do three quarters of that to the solar panel and a quarter of that to building the emergency fund when we get to the solar panels yeah i and i get that impulse too the challenge with that is you end up doing you end up going two different directions at the same time so you just get both places way slower and people get to the solar panel and they quit right and so you'll look up and you'll have barely dented you you'll still have a four in front right you'll have 40 000 on those loans and you'll have i'm making up a number five thousand bucks and neither of y'all will be happy that's right yeah i mean honestly if you wanted to bump it up a little tracy just to give him some peace of mind from what he's been through but i would i would i would knock it out i'd act like it's a student loan and it's like you just got to get it out or maybe up to maybe say hey look we're gonna we're gonna let's do one month let's do one month uh emergency fund and then we're gonna go back to baby step two all right next up we have john in san francisco hi john welcome to the show hi there thanks for your time how you doing jason my bad i'm so sorry no worries how you guys doing we're doing great how can we help so i had a question regarding how much i can spend on a car i've been getting some conflicted advice okay what's going on uh so just to give you guys some background i'm 24 i just moved out i have 20 000 in a high old savings account serving as my emergency fund and i have a hundred thousand in a brokerage account okay and i'm kind of concerned with buying an expensive car i've been pretty cheap up until this point and i do want to buy a car um some people are telling me that because of what i've saved up that would allow me to afford maybe more car than i would be comfortable with um so i kind of wanted your guys's opinion on how much i can spend on it yeah how much do you make a year jason i make after bonuses a little under 90. under 90. okay um what do you what would what would be comfortable for you just jason not us to our opinions or any friend or family's opinion what could you spend on a car and feel like okay that feels that feels good well i don't know i haven't really given it too much thought i've been kind of trying to ask around because i don't know what that is for me um i don't really want to complete my emergency fund or sell any assets to afford it um so it'd be something that i kind of start saving up for now and maybe pause some investing so you wouldn't take it out of your brokerage account well i don't know that's kind of yeah i don't know if that's something i should do do you need a new car right now uh i don't my car is over 20 years old who cares do you need a new car right now no okay so i mean do you want a new car i'm not hearing you want one it sounds like you're doing pretty well and everyone's barking at you trying to tell you what you should be doing with your life because you haven't even thought about it for yourself yeah that is like the one purchase that i was in the past when i was um saving up and investing that would be like i kind of in the back of my mind like i'd be able to if i stayed at home for a couple more months put something more to a car and then i kind of got into saving more money and investing more jason do you have do you have any debt no debt no debt okay well our rule of thumb is that your car or anything with motors and wheels combined in a household should be no more than half of your annual take-home pay paid in with cash okay so for you that would be around the 45 000 mark but i don't think you need or nor do you want or nor do you care i know john doesn't want you to get a new car so just he doesn't he doesn't like new cars he's like i just know uh i feel like you've won jason you've won you're winning but you could go upgrade your car you could you could do a lot of things but you don't you don't a want to that's the most important thing here b you don't need to and any so many young people who are find themselves successful yes people start all their broke friends start telling them what they should be doing and what they're saying is if we had money we'd make even more irresponsible choices yes and jason a step up in car is not like a step in adulthood no so it doesn't it's not a marker for anything it's just if the ac goes out and keeps breaking down you're like i need it i need a new car that's one thing you sound like a guy that a used like i'll go up a used alexis for 20 grand with some high miles on it would change your life but you don't need a new car brother you Most people think making a will is some huge legal project they'll get around to someday. 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We'll see you next time. I mean, thousands of dollars is what we see in Hidden Margin when you actually lay out the numbers and you walk through the every dollar process. It frees up money, shows you where you can cut, shows you places that your money's going that you may not even realize it, and actually free up thousands of dollars. So if you want to check it out, start every dollar for free in the App Store or Google Play today. All right, let's go to Adam in Greensboro. Hey, Adam, welcome to the show. Hey, nice to be on. Thanks so much for calling. How can we help? So I'm in the process or maybe in the process of taking a loan out against my home. My home's currently paid for, but I have high interest debt on a vehicle, some credit cards, and an investment property. I was wondering if you would recommend or should I consider getting a refi to pay down the high interest debt? No, I would not go borrow. Never, ever, ever, ever. Never, ever, ever. Borrow on my home to pay off something that's going down in value, and then you've put, yeah, a level of risk on your home. You just created a whole issue there, Adam. Okay, so what's the deal with the car? How much do you owe on the car? So I owe $35 on the car. I have another $25 in credit, and I owe $95 on a mobile home park. How much equity do you have in the mobile home park? The mobile home park appraised for $270 two years ago, I owe $95 on it. Why don't you sell that and clear yourself and be free? Then you have a paid-for house, you have no debt, you have a paid-for car, and you're a free man. Okay, but I would be losing my monthly income on the mobile home park. You would rather have debt-free than monthly income on renters. Right now, because you're broke. I mean, you're thinking about it. You're thinking about putting your house on the block. A paid-for house you want to put on the block in exchange for a depreciating asset that's your car and your credit card debt. Right. Adam, how much do you make a year? $4,000 a month, so about $60 a year. I'm married as well. My wife makes about $2,300 a month. So combined, we're bringing in about $6,300 a month. And then the mobile home park. So the cash flow is $1,800 a month. Okay, yeah. So here's the deal, Adam. First and foremost, if you went and did this and just wiped everything clean, the problem with your money isn't the high interest. The problem with your money isn't the credit card companies. The problem with your money is you guys. You guys have a car that's almost half of your annual take-home pay. You probably have too much car. You probably can't afford that $35,000 car with what you bring in. You guys have $25,000. $25,000 in credit card debt. And then this mobile home park that you, yeah, for $95,000. The habits around the consumer side of your money, Adam, is not great. Would you agree? Yeah. So wiping it clean doesn't change you. And so that's why part of the process of getting out of debt is selling stuff, working extra, cutting back lifestyle. Because what that does is that, that changes you, Adam. It's a reminder every single day of the sacrifice because of decisions of digging yourself in a hole. And I say that not to shame you, but there's a part of behavior change that has to occur with your money or you're going to go right back into this whole mess. Now, tell me if I'm wrong here. My mindset was right now we're paying $2,700 a month for all the credit, all the car loans and the mobile homes. If I refinance a house, my payment is going to be $1,500 versus $2,700. And the mobile home park will cash flow $3,000 a month instead of the $1,800. But listen. But I'll still be going backwards is what y'all are saying. Yeah. And not only are you going backwards, I just want to paint you a different picture, brother. And because you've thought this out and you've written it down a thousand times. times on the back of napkins on excel spreadsheets i just want to give you an alternative vision of your life dude complete and total peace in your house you and your wife walking through the front door y'all don't owe anybody anything y'all don't have the fanciest cars in the world and that's super okay you don't owe anybody anything y'all can do whatever you want whenever you want within the limited means y'all have and if she wants to work more if she wants to work less if y'all want to have kids you can kind of do whatever you want and you don't have to always be hoping that this deal hits and that this one guy pays his rent because he didn't pay last month and this other guy you know what i mean like you could uber and make 1800 bucks on the side for the headache you have with this mobile home park all right i've got good tenants in it but i know that doesn't last um okay uh the thing here here's what i'm going to promise you you have to decide in your house as for me and my home we're not going to borrow money and then we're going to figure out life with that principle in mind if it's always on the table and it's always well this is going to cash flow this we're going to move over here we're going to slap it up flip it reverse it over here that's that's a chaos that happens every day you need every card to land on your poker hand or the whole domino like the whole set of dominoes falls over it's just a wild way to live man and after doing this adam for so long and being able to see the result of so many people who have built wealth that have actually stayed wealthy they did it i'd say not not the get rich quick way it was the slow methodical yes and one of the number one things is you get out of debt because when you don't have debt your income is your most power most powerful wealth building tool you're able to take your income and instead of it going to car payments and credit cards or paying on the house and all of this you guys get to keep that and start investing you guys get to start making money for you all and not for everybody else but if you keep playing the debt game and moving debt around which is what this would be you you put your house at risk for a 35 000 you know truck or whatever it is and all this other stuff and it's it's not a smart move to take equity out of an asset to be paying for all this stuff so okay what i would do is in the future if i sold the trailer park mobile home park i would have 170 cash or recommend them putting 70 000 towards the debt and then having 100 000 in the bank and then everything paid for the only other thing i would add is i this is just me talking to my my my brother adam here i i would sell that car too it's too much car for y'all yeah i agree uh the one thing that complicated this we just got married and we have a newborn at the house uh he's got a baby and he's got a i've i've pinched pennies my whole life and i've got a 2005 honda civic with 200 000 miles on it that's just that's like we have a family car but maybe we bought too much car yeah what kind of car is it what's the 35 000 it's a 24 nissan rogue yeah yeah well just from the income perspective it doesn't right you're right on that borderline adam um so again if you sold the the mobile home park and and why everything clean i would i would put a hundred thousand dollars in i'd probably put it in a brokerage account and i'd leave it in there and let it grow and then maybe if you do enjoy the the rental business if you will of having other properties you could probably take some of that money and in greensboro um yeah here in a few years cash flow a home fix it up and rent it and you guys have you know two paid four properties at that point that's that's taking some rental income if you want to um but that's that's what i would do and you guys have a newborn your wife may even want to stay home full-time she may not even want to work i don't know just think about coming home to a house with a newborn that's your house in your car you got a hundred you have a hundred grand in the bank yes make an interest like all day like that's peace that you can't even imagine and you guys are young adam and if you guys want to get back into some of this stuff you can just take your time and and walk your way in it slowly and not use debt as the mechanism at which you buy all this stuff with you hey guys george here i love the movies angel makes because they always deliver great entertainment and i want to tell you about their newest movie coming out august 14th the brink of war it's a historical drama about the 1986 summit in iceland when president reagan and soviet leader gorbachev faced each other in the height of the cold war with the fate of the world on the line it's got jeff daniels in it jared harris jk simmons and the cast alone tells you this is a serious film and it's the kind of movie that's perfect for a date 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refi.com slash ramsay may not be available in all states all right today's question comes from a a ron from aaron in wisconsin here's the question my wife and i recently married and we are working on our budget she has a ten thousand dollar car loan oh i smell trouble already seventy thousand dollars in student loans and only 500 bucks in her bank in her bank account oh no i was expecting her debt to be half the actual number the only debt i have is my house i have an eight eighty five thousand dollars in a brokerage account and 125 000 in savings that i had earmarked to put toward our house oh brother aaron together we earn about nine grand a month how should we approach the debt should i have my wife use her income to pay off the debt and not contribute to our monthly living expenses or should i offer to pay a lump sum of cash to her debt i actually think you should find go watch um back to the future one get your hands on a delorean go back in time and unmarry yourselves because this is you're gonna be calling my show in a couple of years saying our marriage is falling apart and i'm gonna be like yeah we talked earlier aaron and that's the truth dude dude you kind of suck yeah kind of you're the worst the only oh my gosh and i get it i get people are getting married later i get people have built up their thing but you're getting married and you're like do i choose to put part of my savings but you married her you're sharing a bet like oh my oh my gosh and i have cash earmarked for our next house you're gonna make her pay for some of the house too aaron gosh yeah i i think you knew what you were walking into aaron if it made you that mad you shouldn't have married her yeah he says i was expecting her debt to be half the only way i'll have some grace and compassion for you brother is if she lied to your face that's fair and then y'all got to deal with that because that is that's a big deal if she promised you it's 35 grand then when y'all got married you started looking at each other's bills but y'all have an income and this is going to make people uncomfortable y'all have a hundred twenty five thousand dollars in savings earmarked for what y'all decide is your next big move as a new couple as a family unit as two people who created this secret world called marriage right y'all have eighty five thousand dollars in a brokerage account and until you get that through your head brother y'all gonna be y'all gonna be roommates y'all gonna be running parallel lives and you're gonna go one way and she's gonna go another and it will always be tip for tat at that point always i made this she made that will she spend i mean it will be i need you to venmo me for taco bell because i paid last time yes oh man now i will say if she sucks with money and she doesn't care and she spends it like right it's so much more it's not the numbers that bother me it's the attitudes behind it so if she is terrible and you feel like i can't trust her in that that's one thing that's not what i'm hearing no but it feels like you're sitting on top of this mountain aaron aaron and you're staring you're casting down like looking down your nose and you're like i'm not gonna do that i'm not gonna do that i cannot believe but me over here this lesser person who got a student loan no actually i actually think your other your plan is actually pretty good i think um she should have to just work the debt off and you can just pay her part of the light bill for a couple come on man you're married what if you like play out play out if we if we because we have strong opinions on this side and people get mad at us all the time but it is what it is what if our opinions were that strong on the other side of the table and we're like oh my god i'm not gonna do that i'm like you're right aaron you make her you you yeah she she still has to pay her end of the deal though like she still has to pay half the bills and she's gonna be such she's gonna she may not make it she may have to borrow money from you aaron like like if you go down that road that play it out how ridiculous it is it's crazy play it out and you're married people like you're about to share victor yeah what are you gonna do you're gonna victor she has to pay her light what if she has to pay interest you're gonna turn her lamp off like on her like you're gonna like she's not gonna do it you're not allowed to use her nightstand plastic plates over her plug because so she can't charge her phone like what are you gonna actually do dude like when y'all go out to eat like i'm going on a date tonight oh you can't afford your plate sorry good luck have fun with the free bread yeah we'll go to olive garden so you can have the breadsticks and i'm gonna get a glass of wine yeah you can't afford it i'm sorry for the tip come on man like if play it out play it out it doesn't y'all need to have one checking account y'all get in it sit at a table and by the way i i'm i'm now i'm being y'all aren't working on y'all's budget you handed her a budget and said this is how we're gonna live and i get to have a right to say that because you're shameful with money don't be that guy sit down and ask what kind of world do we want to co-create together what do we want to build together where do we want to end up in five years 10 years 20 years and have that discussion and then live in reality and y'all both get there and by the way here's what really pisses me off about this dude you could clear up your life and you're gonna live in reality and you're gonna live in reality you could clear your household y'all could clear your household debt right this second and you'd still have 85 grand in one account and what 45 000 another account you know what that would make you way ahead of the game still and your wife would have her education her car would be y'all would be y'alls and we'd be good to go and you start from there yep like if if this was we don't have any money and we're broke what do we do i get that you have a lot of money man so anyway no and and i think part of what we see with conflict and money in marriage because we do that the money marriage uh we can get away we have a few tickets left october 22nd through 24th it's the best marriage event on planet earth and it sells out every time it will sell out but if you i think there's still a few tickets left get online and get them yeah go to ramsay solutions.com and check check out those tickets and come spend the weekend but but one of the attitudes that we kind of see that can start to really i mean i think create a lot of resentment and erodes intimacy in a marriage is that superiority complex yes with money that someone well i make more and because i make more i get to make i have more voting rights if you will or i didn't take out it's her debt and so she needs to deal with it over here i didn't do that or he right whatever it is there's this feeling of i'm better with money and automatically it puts the other spouse in a position of i guess i'm not great at it i'm gonna let them just do it and i'll just and i'll just take the take the crumbs off the table of of what's left um not even from a financial perspective but an emotional like okay i'll just sit here and let you tell me what to do right and and over time you guys that is a that's a bad deal like when you get married there is a level of sacrifice a level of humility and selflessness and serving each other and you're on the same team but when that starts to imbalance especially with money it gets weird there gets to be a weird power dynamic the wife either is taking care of the husband and she ends up being some weird mom yeah like he ends up being like the fifth kid or the third kid or he is so dominant over her and she she has no voice because she hasn't made an income and she you know what i mean like it's it gets weird really fast i mean i feel like we that comes up yeah it comes up every from almost everybody universally it's some shape form or fashion because sometimes it's not money sometimes it's the kitchen's not exactly the way i want it and that makes me better and or the garage is not the the cars aren't parked perfectly in the garage and so because i would park them perfectly that makes me better anytime you feel like i am better than right you're that's a recipe for disaster for your marriage right both of you are going to have things you're better at than the other like skills and that's like you make it that's a team right yes it's a good thing and that's a that's a great thing but yeah aaron dude like just cutting you straight man today before the day is over her the last thing i want to say is that i want you to take her out to dinner and celebrate the fact that y'all are dead free and y'all dream about what you want your life to look like because by the way what people think the freedom they think they're getting from being controlling like this it's a prison with a lock on the inside as cs lewis calls it your life will be miserable too trying to control another person and how they breathe and how they spend money and how they're ashamed your life will be miserable too trying to control another person and how they breathe and how they spend money and how they're ashamed your life will suck too suck too free your whole household man including free your whole household man including free your whole household man including yourself this show is sponsored by better help hey it's deloney listen better help just released their annual state of stigma report it's annual state of stigma report it's annual state of stigma report it's full of tons of data about why so many full of tons of data about why so many full of tons of data about why so many people avoid getting help for their people avoid getting help for their people avoid getting help for their mental and emotional health challenges mental and emotional health challenges mental and emotional health challenges here is one data point that really stood here is one data point that really stood here is one data point that really stood out to me more than three out of four out to me more than three out of four out to me more than three out of four americans reported anxiety or depression americans reported anxiety or depression americans reported anxiety or depression symptoms in the previous two weeks if symptoms in the previous two weeks if symptoms in the previous two weeks if that's you and you're carrying stress that's you and you're carrying stress that's you and you're carrying stress anxiety or depression or symptoms of anxiety or depression or symptoms of anxiety or depression or symptoms of these things just talking to someone can these things just talking to someone can these things just talking to someone can help you more than you realize i help you more than you realize i help you more than you realize i recommend better help better help is an recommend better help better help is an 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at any time for you can switch therapists at any time for no extra cost don't let stigma stand in no extra cost don't let stigma stand in no extra cost don't let stigma stand in the way of support visit betterhelp.com the way of support visit betterhelp.com the way of support visit betterhelp.com ramsay and get 10 off that's better help hel p.com slash Ramsey help hel p.com slash Ramsey help hel p.com slash Ramsey welcome back to the Ramsey show in the welcome back to the Ramsey show in the welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwinds credit union studio I am Fairwinds credit union studio I am Fairwinds credit union studio I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with dr. Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with dr. John Deloney so give us a call at John Deloney so give us a call at John Deloney so give us a call at triple eight eight two five five two triple eight eight two five five two triple eight two five two two five and we'll talk about your life and your two five and we'll talk about your life and your two five and we'll talk about your life and your money my oldest is 11 and she money my oldest is 11 and she money my oldest is 11 and she saw John the other day in the in the office she saw John the other day in the in the office she saw John the other day in the in the office she was like mom can I call him John was like mom can I call him John was like mom can I call him John baloney and I was like sure I think he baloney and I was like sure I think he baloney and I was like sure I think he can take it I that would be the least can take it I that would be the least can take it I that would be the least offensive thing I was called growing up offensive thing I was called growing up offensive thing I was called growing up so yes I accept I was like I'm with dr. so yes I accept I was like I'm with dr. John baloney I mean Deloney I asked my John baloney I mean Deloney I asked my John baloney I mean Deloney I asked my kids if people call him baloney was kids if people call him baloney was kids if people call him baloney was that like a goat it's not really a that like a goat it's not really a that like a goat it's not really a cafe it's not like a lunch meat that we eat cafe it's not like a lunch meat that we eat cafe it's not like a lunch meat that we eat as much anymore than we did in like as much anymore than we did in like as much anymore than we did in like the 80s and 90s it was a staple in my the 80s and 90s it was a staple in my home growing up yeah but also I got the home growing up yeah but also I got the home growing up yeah but also I got the impression they didn't have the language impression they didn't have the language impression they didn't have the language for this either my 16 year old or my for this either my 16 year old or my for this either my 16 year old or my 10-year-old they have the language for 10-year-old they have the language for 10-year-old they have the language for this but I don't think kids are mean to this but I don't think kids are mean to this but I don't think kids are mean to each other like they used to be no each other like they used to be no each other like they used to be no there's not like a channel bullying yeah there's not like a channel bullying yeah there's not like a channel bullying yeah yeah they post mean stuff about each yeah yeah they post mean stuff about each yeah yeah they post mean stuff about each other yeah it's not gonna be like other yeah it's not gonna be like other yeah it's not gonna be like your name rhymes with him we're brutal to your name rhymes with him we're brutal to your name rhymes with him we're brutal to each other totally bring it back bring each other totally bring it back bring each other totally bring it back bring it back bring back the 90s all right it back bring back the 90s all right it back bring back the 90s all right let's go to Jennifer in Dallas Texas hi let's go to Jennifer in Dallas Texas hi let's go to Jennifer in Dallas Texas hi Jennifer welcome to the show hi thank Jennifer welcome to the show hi thank Jennifer welcome to the show hi thank you so much for taking my call I really you so much for taking my call I really appreciate it absolutely how can we help appreciate it absolutely how can we help appreciate it absolutely how can we help okay so my mom was served with papers okay so my mom was served with papers okay so my mom was served with papers she's being sued she's 82 she's being she's being sued she's 82 she's being she's being sued she's 82 she's being sued by a creditor it's only $1,500 oh sued by a creditor it's only $1,500 oh sued by a creditor it's only $1,500 oh my gosh and now but she doesn't have the my gosh and now but she doesn't have the my gosh and now but she doesn't have the money she was on Social Security and money she was on Social Security and money she was on Social Security and yesterday she told me that she had yesterday she told me that she had yesterday she told me that she had thirty thousand dollars in debt when my thirty thousand dollars in debt when my thirty thousand dollars in debt when my dad died in 2020 so she didn't pay any dad died in 2020 so she didn't pay any dad died in 2020 so she didn't pay any of that so oh wow okay I guess my first of that so oh wow okay I guess my first of that so oh wow okay I guess my first question is what do we do about this I question is what do we do about this I question is what do we do about this I think I heard your dad I was listening think I heard your dad I was listening think I heard your dad I was listening to some old episodes and say that to some old episodes and say that to some old episodes and say that someone could call the actual creditor someone could call the actual creditor someone could call the actual creditor even after the lawsuit was filed and even after the lawsuit was filed and even after the lawsuit was filed and tried to negotiate a lower payment with tried to negotiate a lower payment with tried to negotiate a lower payment with something like an agreed order just tell something like an agreed order just tell something like an agreed order just tell them hey my mom's 82 she's a widow she them hey my mom's 82 she's a widow she them hey my mom's 82 she's a widow she has nothing I'll send you three hundred has nothing I'll send you three hundred has nothing I'll send you three hundred dollars in a money order and God help dollars in a money order and God help dollars in a money order and God help you don't don't give them your because you don't don't give them your because you don't don't give them your because they're gonna want they're gonna say they're gonna want they're gonna say they're gonna want they're gonna say withdraw from your account and make sure withdraw from your account and make sure withdraw from your account and make sure you get the offer in writing is they're you get the offer in writing is they're you get the offer in writing is they're not expecting to get a penny of this and not expecting to get a penny of this and not expecting to get a penny of this and so okay you giving them money on a five so okay you giving them money on a five so okay you giving them money on a five or ten year old debt of an 82 year old or ten year old debt of an 82 year old or ten year old debt of an 82 year old widow they're gonna be happy to get what widow they're gonna be happy to get what widow they're gonna be happy to get what they get do you know what the thirty they get do you know what the thirty they get do you know what the thirty thousand dollars is the additional debt thousand dollars is the additional debt thousand dollars is the additional debt that you just found out about what kind that you just found out about what kind that you just found out about what kind of debt it is I don't know I just heard of debt it is I don't know I just heard of debt it is I don't know I just heard about that yesterday I'm assuming it's about that yesterday I'm assuming it's about that yesterday I'm assuming it's credit card okay it's she been getting credit card okay it's she been getting credit card okay it's she been getting any notice from any creditors for that any notice from any creditors for that any notice from any creditors for that type of debt or just the 1,500 oh okay type of debt or just the 1,500 oh okay type of debt or just the 1,500 oh okay I would just like the first thing that I would just like the first thing that I would just like the first thing that has happened and yeah yeah no don't has happened and yeah yeah no don't has happened and yeah yeah no don't stress Jennifer you're fine it's fine stress Jennifer you're fine it's fine stress Jennifer you're fine it's fine tell me this the $30,000 how long has tell me this the $30,000 how long has tell me this the $30,000 how long has she not been paying on it since did you she not been paying on it since did you she not been paying on it since did you say 2020 since 2020 I don't I don't know say 2020 since 2020 I don't I don't know say 2020 since 2020 I don't I don't know about yeah let me ask you another a about yeah let me ask you another a about yeah let me ask you another a probably not okay okay so you think probably not okay okay so you think probably not okay okay so you think that that's legit probably is there a that that's legit probably is there a that that's legit probably is there a chance those credit cards were solely in chance those credit cards were solely in chance those credit cards were solely in your dad's name I have no idea okay I your dad's name I have no idea okay I your dad's name I have no idea okay I don't I didn't know anything about don't I didn't know anything about don't I didn't know anything about $30,000 until yesterday she just said $30,000 until yesterday she just said $30,000 until yesterday she just said I've been circling papers for this one I've been circling papers for this one I've been circling papers for this one credit card and I don't have the 1500 credit card and I don't have the 1500 credit card and I don't have the 1500 and also I don't know what's gonna happen and also I don't know what's gonna happen and also I don't know what's gonna happen with this other debt so yeah so if with this other debt so yeah so if with this other debt so yeah so if I were you Jennifer I would just let it I were you Jennifer I would just let it I were you Jennifer I would just let it sit I mean honestly you don't know where sit I mean honestly you don't know where sit I mean honestly you don't know where the paperwork is she doesn't know this the paperwork is she doesn't know this the paperwork is she doesn't know this 1500 I would call the creditor and say 1500 I would call the creditor and say 1500 I would call the creditor and say hey you know she's got 300 bucks to give hey you know she's got 300 bucks to give hey you know she's got 300 bucks to give you what will you settle because you what will you settle because you what will you settle because they'll usually settle pennies on the they'll usually settle pennies on the they'll usually settle pennies on the dollar especially if it's very old debt dollar especially if it's very old debt dollar especially if it's very old debt because it's been what's happened is because it's been what's happened is because it's been what's happened is that the creditors have bought bad debt that the creditors have bought bad debt that the creditors have bought bad debt from credit card come right and it just from credit card come right and it just from credit card come right and it just gets getting past and past and past and gets getting past and past and past and so to even find the company is a miracle so to even find the company is a miracle so to even find the company is a miracle honestly so I would call them yep I would honestly so I would call them yep I would honestly so I would call them yep I would get it in writing have them email get it in writing have them email get it in writing have them email you or by letter but they could email a you or by letter but they could email a you or by letter but they could email a proof of settlement and then you guys proof of settlement and then you guys proof of settlement and then you guys send them send them a check and then send them send them a check and then send them send them a check and then probably what I would assume will happen probably what I would assume will happen probably what I would assume will happen is that 30,000 and in some world is is that 30,000 and in some world is is that 30,000 and in some world is gonna start possibly bubbling up and I gonna start possibly bubbling up and I gonna start possibly bubbling up and I would just do what you've done with that would just do what you've done with that would just do what you've done with that she can't pay it so let it go bad and she can't pay it so let it go bad and she can't pay it so let it go bad and the longer they don't get paid honestly the longer they don't get paid honestly the longer they don't get paid honestly probably the more likely they are to to probably the more likely they are to to probably the more likely they are to to settle so I would not stress about this settle so I would not stress about this settle so I would not stress about this Jennifer it's they're just yeah it's Jennifer it's they're just yeah it's someone in a cubicle that has a script someone in a cubicle that has a script someone in a cubicle that has a script that's calling with a headphone and that's calling with a headphone and that's calling with a headphone and they're gonna be leaving the company they're gonna be leaving the company they're gonna be leaving the company that the turnover in those companies is that the turnover in those companies is that the turnover in those companies is like every six weeks I mean like it's like every six weeks I mean like it's like every six weeks I mean like it's just it's not as scary as what it feels just it's not as scary as what it feels just it's not as scary as what it feels like so okay so good they say that like like so good they say that like they take a box full of files like this yes and they just go through them and just and they just go through them and just and they just go through them and just call yes yes okay so get a dollar call yes yes okay so get a dollar call yes yes okay so get a dollar main okay get a dollar amount get it in main okay get a dollar amount get it in main okay get a dollar amount get it in writing and don't give him your account writing and don't give him your account writing and don't give him your account right that's it so her main concern was right that's it so her main concern was right that's it so her main concern was but she felt that since this is all but she felt that since this is all but she felt that since this is all already in a legal process that she already in a legal process that she already in a legal process that she could not call the creditor but i'm could not call the creditor but i'm could not call the creditor but i'm assuming that she can call the creditor assuming that she can call the creditor assuming that she can call the creditor yes 100 yes 100 yes 100 probably not the original creditor probably not the original creditor probably not the original creditor probably not visa or mastercard or probably not visa or mastercard or probably not visa or mastercard or whatever no it's not the original whatever no it's not the original whatever no it's not the original creditor it is it was originally uh creditor it is it was originally uh creditor it is it was originally uh credit one and now it's with some sort credit one and now it's with some sort credit one and now it's with some sort of sure yeah you know of sure yeah you know of sure yeah you know whatever i it probably wouldn't hurt for whatever i it probably wouldn't hurt for whatever i it probably wouldn't hurt for you to call them you to call them you to call them i'll call them but i'll call them but i'll call them but okay yeah so i can call them even though okay yeah so i can call them even though okay yeah so i can call them even though a lawsuit has already been filed is that a lawsuit has already been filed is that a lawsuit has already been filed is that correct i don't i yes i don't even know if that lawsuit's for real sometimes these they have these scary letters that they just will send out and their blanket did she get a court date she well they she did not get a court date but it does say that the law firm um requested a remote hearing it looks like court papers she even said she said something for this professional okay here's the thing you need you just need real information so get on the phone okay and just say my 82 year old widowed mother just got this thing okay what do we need to do and you say i don't have 1500 she didn't have she surely didn't have 1500 i'll send you 300 bucks right now and we'll call this thing okay yeah jennifer how are you financially i'm just curious um well i got a letter like this two years ago and i ended up filing bankruptcy because i got so scared oh no and it was before i found you guys oh yep so i'm i'm you're climbing out of a home this is like bringing you back to your days like just pay it go away sure sure sure well um yeah can i give you an exercise i want you to do i would love that okay i want you to write jennifer from two and a half years ago a letter and i want you to imagine her being scared and terrified you remember it's still it's still in you right now and i want you to write a letter and say in a couple of years this same situation is going to show up for mom and i'm gonna do what i should have done then this time i get to run it back and this time i'm gonna fight okay and set old jennifer free and give new jennifer new power for moving through the day and get this piddly fifty hundred dollar nonsense off your mom's back hey guys george camel here there are a lot of things you probably shouldn't ignore your check engine light that weird smell in your fridge the smoke detector that's been beeping for six days and maybe most importantly your phone bill the things we ignore have a funny way of costing us the most and your phone carrier is counting on you ignoring that overpriced bill month after month so they can keep charging you more and more but that's not the case with boost mobile you don't need to keep overpaying when you can pay just 25 bucks a month for boost mobile's unlimited plan and the best part is you can bring your phone keep your number and pay just 25 bucks a month forever that price will not go up it is inflation proof there's no contracts there's no hidden fees there's no catch and since most smartphones have an e-sim these days you can switch from the comfort of your home just like i did so it's okay to notice when you're paying more than you should but you shouldn't keep doing that stop overpaying for your phone service go to boostmobile.com ramsey and make the switch today that's boostmobile.com ramsey 25 forever requires customers to remain active on boost mobile unlimited plan next up we have tara in richmond virginia hi tara welcome to the show thanks for having me absolutely how can we help well um my hubby and i are in our early 50s and we have two special needs sons well we have six boys but we have two special needs sons 29 and 17. and we've been pretty smart with our money over the past almost 35 years we've been married so we want to set up a trust for the two of them to make it so that our house becomes like their house and they don't have to change we don't have to change things we don't have to move them we don't have to do anything like like that if if my husband and i if anything happens to us uh we're not looking forward to that but we're sure we're trying to make sure no you need to do that for them yes have you guys looked into special special needs trusts no we haven't that's kind of why i called kind of yeah well you know how do we start this what should we look out for my dad just got a trust for his his investments and it cost him twelve thousand dollars in legal fees so that was like did he pay too much you know i i have probably every question that you can imagine yes i will take whatever you can give me so i will say this trusts in general it kind of depends on the situation and your estate but when you have a special needs child that is the one time that i see it as a requirement you need to do this because it will make the transition of taking care of them so smooth now i don't know how much specifically it's going to cost in legal fees you will have to hire an attorney i would ask around if there's anybody in your community if there's anybody in your community i would ask around if there's anybody in your community um that you know of that you trust to sit down and kind of build this out and you guys will get to pick um make all the decisions that what you want going forward if you know when you all pass away um and it will have to kind of reconcile with the other children right um oh definitely yeah what's your thing that the older kids would would manage and actually be the exact yes that's right yeah so they could be the ones i guess totally yeah do they know that yes okay yes they do okay yes so that so this is they are um two years older than the uh we have a 30 year old who is in japan and um is pretty financially in great shape and then we have a 28 year 29 year old who is um special needs is autistic and then we have three more and then we have the youngest who is 17 that we adopted from the foster care system and he is um he's a lot of work he has a very rare genetic abnormality so we're going to have to he's going to need care for sure for the rest of his life the 29 the 29 year old is um is functional he does many things for himself and he's very sweet and well loved by people but we there is no way he could manage his future yes yeah so so in that process tara you guys will look at assets you'll see what names need to be placed on which assets um the executor of the trust different people making different medical decisions i mean you you kind of paint everything out there and uh yeah the good thing about a lot of this is it skips a lot of you know the legal side um when you have especially for for a special needs child in place that is one time that we say it is worth every penny to sit down with a good attorney and map this out um because they don't need to be making any decisions um or you know making any calls at that point and you know and then i think probably even your 17 year old's case wouldn't be able to so all of that played out and protected and that trust is so so important so yeah but i would sit down with a good attorney and state by state has different um laws and how you how you would structure it too and so um yep i'd sit down and take care of that for sure and 12 grand it might be pennies depending on how much money you're putting in it depends on how much money you're spending on the size of your dad's estate so that i wouldn't be scared of that number or it might be a ton of money and he overspent by a lot so every situation is different so and this the trust that he had drawn up for his situation is different than the one y'all gonna be doing so just just like rachel said find somebody you trust and no pun intended and um yeah i get that taken care of get it going for sure and i would do that as soon as possible to tara for them all right next let's go to john in little rock hi john welcome to the show hey how are y'all hi we're doing great how can we help yes so me and my wife we bought an older home it was built in the 60s and underneath in the crawl space there is a lot of water damage and mold and everything underneath the house is going to have to be replaced and redone the estimate is about a hundred thousand to fix all the flooring and the duct work for the hvac system and we only owe 89 000 on the house and so that's kind of devastating news we also just found out we're about to have a baby so that's also kind of put a little stress around the situation um so we're just wondering basically do we need to just try to sell the house as is and go rent somewhere or we don't think it makes sense to go get a loan for that much on a house that is going to be less than the price to repair it well the house wouldn't be what you owe on it is but how much is the house worth the value um with land and everything would be about 170 something thousand i would say i i don't i personally and i could be wrong you need to check with professional in your area but i don't think you could sell the house for more than you owe on it because an inspector is going to find all the stuff that you're gonna have to disclose it because you know it now so you have to disclose it when you list it for sale and if you sell it as is and the whole property in and of itself is worth 175 grand you're you're not going to get you know i mean you're not going to get 89 000 after the sale of that got you okay you know what i'm saying right Have you had another person come out and give you a second estimate? We have. It's still going to be pretty expensive. They quoted it like $70,000. Okay. How much do you guys make a year, John? We make, after taxes, like $100,000, $105,000 a year. Okay. I wonder if you could pull this apart in stages. That's what I was thinking. What could you do right now? A little bit of work, take a few months, do some more. How long have you guys lived in the house? It's been about, let's say, four years now. Okay. So, yeah, is there a possibility you can – and, dude, I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm way over my skis here. But is there a possibility you could get the mold remediated and then do the flooring but not put – Fancy floors down on top of the new subfloors and then come in six months later and redo all the HVAC stuff? Is there a way you could do this in stages where you can cash flow this thing? But it takes you a year and a half versus doing it all at once. I know it's a pain in the butt. It'd be awesome to write a check and go away for a month and have it all done. But it may be cost prohibitive to do that. That's true. The only thing is he said that they would have to fix the duct work because the duct work is also very old. Mm-hmm. And he said to get to the other part of the house, they would have to have that repaired too. So it just seems like every way we look at this, it's going to be a huge expense. Yeah. And it's a tough – Yeah, but it's basically what you're saying is, in a way, it's kind of – it's like it's worth $70,000, right? If it's worth $170,000 and it needs $100,000, they're not going to – when you just do quick math, that $70,000, you owe $85,000. So I think about it even in the sense of a car, right? When people are like, I have to put more into my car than what it's worth. But then you do want it fixed to get a higher value. But you know what I mean? It's kind of like sunk cost perspective. Right. And it's the home. I mean, honestly, John, I probably would slowly probably cash flow this. Do you guys have consumer debt? The only debt we have is the home, and then we do have a truck. Okay. Shoot. This is the part of home ownership that is so hard because it costs – I mean, it's the stuff that comes up, you guys, all the time. I mean, if I were you, John, I probably wouldn't just wipe my hands. I think I would slowly start doing some repairs. I sit down with the GC and say, I've only got to go in steps. Yes, go in steps. And what steps could I make to maybe break even so that if we wanted out, we could eject at a certain point to give yourself an out if you want. I hate this for you, brother. Sorry, John. I hate it, man. I hate it, man. When I wrote my first book and launched the radio show, things looked a lot different. I was out selling books out of the trunk of my car. If you wanted to build a business, you had to figure out distribution, inventory, payments, and a hundred other things on your own. Today, there's Shopify. There are still plenty of challenges that come with building a business. But Shopify helps you build your online store, manage your business, and start selling without knowing how to code. Their world-class checkout makes it easy for customers to buy from you and Shopify's AI assistant, Sidekick, can help answer questions and guide you as you grow. Millions of businesses trust Shopify because it brings everything together on one platform. So you can spend less time figuring out the technology and more time serving your customers. All you need is the idea. Shopify handles the rest. Start your free trial today at Shopify.com slash Ramsey. Shopify.com slash Ramsey. That's Shopify.com slash Ramsey. Well, the 2027 Ramsey Goal Planner is here and it is more practical than ever before. We heard some feedback and we said, you know what? We're going to give the people what they want. So, you know what? You're going to get brand new content from Jade, John, and myself. And it's going to give you clear action steps, some guidance to get you the momentum that you've been wanting this year. But here's the thing. We sell out every single year. So don't wait to grab your planner. So it is $49.97. You can get yours at RamseySolutions.com slash store. Or if you're watching on YouTube or podcast, click the link in the description. All right. We're going to. Well, it's for sale right now though, right? It just says, grab your planner. Grab your copy for $49.97. I think it's. I think if you order it now, it's the cheapest it will ever be. Okay. There was a deal of that. I don't know if that's it. Okay. Two different graphics. I don't know. I'm just. I'm reading my ad. I'm giving. I've just given. I'm like Ron Burgundy. You give me a script and I read it. I don't know. But sometimes. Do what? We got a live tournament. It is on sale. You're trying to. Here's the deal. I don't know. Rachel Cruz is a part owner of Ramsey Goal Planner. Oh, my gosh. She's trying to get more money out of you guys. This thing is on sale right now. And last year, it sold out. John Bologna. Stop that. when it was on sale. Yeah, man. Listen. Listen, I don't know. I just am told, okay, we got a new graphic app. It's $35 if you buy it right this second. You've got to go now because I think tomorrow, this may be the copy for tomorrow. It literally might be it. RamseySolutions.com slash store. All right. Let's go to South Bend, Indiana. We got Sam on the line. Hi, Sam. Welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Thanks for calling in. How can we help? So, I just kind of want some help trying to get kind of a roadmap for how to get out of debt because I'm about $65,000 in debt, and I only make $60,000 a year. I have a one-and-a-half-year-old at home, and my wife is six months pregnant, so I'm just trying to clean this up so that my kids don't have to suffer through any of that. I love it, man. I love your heart, brother. Yep. The kids turned everything around. I feel like once you have kids, you're like, oh, crap. We got to clean this up. We got to get our stuff together. We got to be different now. Oh, man. What's the debt, man? So, about $18,000 of it is credit cards. They're split up into two different accounts. They've already been sold off to third parties, and it's been a while. So, I actually went into a debt consolidation program originally, and then the law firm that I was working with just liquidated and was done with it. So, they kind of handed it back to me, and I want to try to get the ball rolling because I really am starting to look around and realize that things start to fall apart around me, and I need to, you know. Okay. So, what else besides. So, you have $18,000 that's already gone to collections in two different credit cards. What else you got? Then I owe about $17,500 on a car I just financed a few months back. I just bought a second car for my wife and I just actually over the weekend. That was about $3,500. I paid cash. Oh, good. I owe about $10,000 on an AC unit for my house. It blew up the first year that I moved in. And then. I got my wife's car that we originally had as our only vehicle repossessed, and they still want about $15,000 for that. And they took it. That's all right. That's done? That's already done. They already auctioned it off, and that's what they want afterwards. That's the difference? Oh, man. Dude, what has happened up until now? Because this isn't just a matter of you being in debt. This is a matter of you. You just didn't pay bills. Yeah. So, what truly happened was around the time that everything started to slow down with COVID. I was working at a factory job, and I started to get into some credit card debt when they cut my hours. And eventually, I kind of just got tired of it and went and started doing my own thing. So, I'm self-employed now. I have been for about three years, but I clean houses for a living, and it was rough trying to get everything on track at first. And then, I guess I just kept knocking my wife up, and now I don't have any help. And I have to have the ability to get out and really even get more clientele, because I just don't have the time of the day as one person. How much money do you make? I make about $5,000 a month on average, and it just fluctuates in the wintertime, because I have some clients that go away. Mm-hmm. Okay. And you've been in that business three years, you said? Three years now, yep. Okay. So, yeah, three years now. Okay. And you have predictable downtimes, you said, with certain clients? Yeah. Yeah. From about January to April, I lose probably about between $1,000 and $1,500 a month. Okay. Between just clients that come and go. Okay. So, what do you do in that gap to earn money? Honestly, I've just been trying my best to kind of stack up money aside, so that when that time comes around, and stack up things around the house, so that I don't run out of things. I have kind of stockpiles, and I also have been very fortunate enough to, when Christmas rolls around, and especially with the birth of my child, that people have been extremely generous, giving me bonuses. I don't like to bank on that for the holidays, but it's been extremely helpful. Sure. How much cash do you have set aside? I have $1,000. I'm done with babysitting. one but uh that's that's all i have after the car what's the the car the 17 000 car if you sold it today do you know what you would get from it uh i want to say probably about 13 14 something like that okay so you're a little underwater in that a little bit yeah just from the depreciation but yeah because i'm just trying to think through some math here because for me my goal for you sam would be to get out of debt as quickly as possible okay so that's gonna mean working nights and weekends your wife is is gonna probably feel like a single mom for a hot second because you are working so much uh you guys i mean i'm sure you don't have a ton of expenses to cut but where you can cut we're not eating out we're not going on amazon like we're doing nothing we're not spending money except for keeping the lights on keeping the roof over our head like the absolute needs the necessities um and then the other thing is selling stuff right and so you're doing all of this at once to get out of debt as quickly as possible so i'm just looking at your numbers and i'm thinking okay 18 000 in bad debt you know i mean you you possibly could settle maybe let's just say generously you know half you know what if that went down to to 9 000 okay you can't do much about the about the repoed car you can't do much about the car you can't do much about the car you can't do much about the hvac um and then the car let's just say you took a three thousand dollar hit and if you could get a small loan from a credit union for six grand go get you a three thousand dollar car and then have that right that loan goes from seventeen thousand to six thousand right you kind of you start to kind of play with the numbers of what the what the ideal situation would be to get out of debt as fast as possible and and there's a chance that your debt's looking more like 38 39 and you're not going to be able to get out of debt as fast as possible versus 65 at that point i i was hoping especially since it's been the third party some of the some of the debt and they seem willing to kind of work with you to just get anything they will but you're gonna have to you're gonna have to save up a lump sum to settle with them yeah yeah yeah i right now um i like i said i bought the car in cash and it took me about five months to do it but i saved about eight hundred dollars a month so that i could you know buy that so i saved up four grand within that five months i think that you know that's the place that i'm at right now this is gonna sound nutty because i know i'm talking to a guy who's so tired because he's got a newborn and a pregnant wife and you're you're hustling your own you're a one-man shop on your on your side on your business but you can't afford you simply cannot afford to when when a big chunk of your clientele goes on vacation during the the cold winter for you just to hang out at home you got to go find other work and you've got a grind and grind and grind and after you get done cleaning all day you come home and have dinner with your family and then you go stock shelves at walmart until midnight and this is going to be the next 18 24 months and you're going to feel like you're going to collapse but on behalf of your family you can do it i believe in you but it's going to take that level of negotiating with with certain folks selling stuff cutting expenses to the bone for 24 months and bro you're gonna you've dug yourself a big hole so to fill this hole up you're going to be tired shoveling there's just there's you can scroll all day you can google hacks all day there's not any hacks around you've got to cut expenses and make more money that's just don't that's the only things you can do right here and the wild thing is too sam if you can get this credit card debt where they can settle and you do this car and you find three grand extra a month right i mean a lot of this is gone it goes away in a year year and a half i mean it's pretty wild what the what the math starts to do but it's going to take some drastic changes it's going to be a drastic year and a half for you guys to get this to play out the way that you're wanting it to but a year and a half of it and it's behind you and then you've learned gosh such a way of life of what you're not going to go back to like that's the legacy changer there for your kids that you're looking for having healthy money habits where you actually control your money and your money's not controlling you hey what's up guys it's jade back to school season is here and that means you've already got enough on your plate between dropping the kids off at school to taking them to practice or maybe you've got a kid driving off to college either way you rely on your vehicles to keep life moving that's why i trust christian brothers automotive because the last thing you need is car trouble and one thing i really like about christian brothers is their digital vehicle inspection they show you exactly 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subject in life that can be so important to so complicated so um yep we're thankful for you guys for listening and watching so leave a comment we love hearing from you and share the show when you can all right let's head to kansas city and we have andrew on the line hi andrew welcome to the show hey how are y'all hi we're doing great how can we help good i have to start off by saying since you rachel started it i think that baloney is way better than the name that john's high school football coach called him back in the day listen andrew andrew is deep i don't even know what the i don't know what the yeah it's it's far more socially acceptable to say john baloney out loud but i'm gonna start calling her rachel bruise or rachel snooze oh i like that one rachel snooze i like that what a snoozer oh my gosh what's up brother we are in we are in baby step three my wife and i and my wife is certainly the free spirit and i am definitely the outspoken cheapskate and every time we talk about money the tension is pretty high and we overall just tend to avoid the conversation altogether how can we tell if we're actually pretty close on our goals or and i just need to loosen up or if our household spending genuinely needs to be reined in i want money to be a conversation we can approach without fighting or dreading the the finance talk okay before we get to that because rachel's wrote a she's the expert here but i want to ask you a question okay ask that last question again i want money to be a conversation we can approach without fighting or dreading the talk okay let's take the the actual topic of money off the table and let me ask you a question are you a person your wife can sit down and have a conversation with and you don't try to fix her you hear her you say thanks for sharing that even if you think it was dumb or boring or whatever are you a safe person that she can just talk with the answer to the question before yesterday would have been no okay uh we we go in seasons of that but just yesterday we kind of had to sit down redefine the marriage relationship conversation love it we're both of a share of hearts and that was one of the things that she really wanted to talk about uh and i totally understand and i admit that yes i'm a problem solver along with many other uh many other men yeah and that's something that i need to work on and so even yesterday uh after that conversation they went really well and then even this morning i was able to practice that but we're getting there so historically no but starting last night the answer is yes perfect so what i want you to work on in your home and it sounds like y'all are on it and you use the magic word this is just practice and for the the wives out there listening often a husband tries to fix a problem not because they think you're stupid but because their whole life they've been told the only way to fix a problem is to fix a problem and that's what i'm going to talk about in a minute and i'm going to talk about in a minute and i'm going to talk about the value you have in the world is utility is the solution to a problem it took me being married forever before i realized yes my wife likes that i can change the oil in the car and yes that she likes things i can do around the house but she likes me and that was hard for me to metabolize because i thought i was only worth my answers and so y'all practicing just talking listening remembering she's your friend that you're her friend right you get what i'm saying so y'all are on the right path you're on the right path you're on the right path you're on the right path that will make not only money conversations but any conversations you have one of curiosity and not judgment instead of that's a stupid thing dude tell me more about that that's different than how i see it and one of those is an invitation and one of those is a slam door right all right so we'll talk about the money thing here go for it rachel well i was gonna just i mean when you said we continue to fight about money and then you're like but we're on baby step three so i'm like this is the the problem isn't the system that you guys have put in place it's the attitude and the posture around the subject that's caused the strife right or something's come up and gets triggered in her or you and it's like you guys just can that can't come eye to eye but i think it's probably more what john's saying is the approach at which you take those conversations and and a helpful thing that i feel like um has been good that winston i and we do this with more than just money but we see the thing that we're talking about are the tension points where we're so different we're coming at it in such different perspectives different backgrounds how we grew up with my all of it right that all plays in and we see that subject matter is kind of the third party in the triangle and it's out there and winston and i are on the same team like it's us locking arms against that thing out there that the spouse is your wife isn't the enemy you're not the enemy to her it's this thing out there and what is this thing out there creating in me or creating in her or him you know in my case um this strife that we just seem to have this conflict all the time and when you can start to pinpoint that that um that's huge and i think we found too with married couples we were talking about money and marriage but we talk about the subjects a lot over that weekend um but having empathy with your spouse actually seeing their your differences and her massive free spirit as a strength andrew like she gives you a gift in your life you would be probably a semi-boring person that doesn't leave the house much if it your wife right who brings the fun and the levity and the enjoyment right and then you are a godsend to her because if she's like me details are not my ideal i don't really enjoy looking at every single little thing and every interest rate and if we put it in this thing and we change here and we do that i mean i'm like it's great i trust you like it's fine go go and do like i i don't enjoy that but because of that it actually gives me a subconscious safety net of knowing i have a husband who's taking very good care of our family in that way does that make sense like there's a beauty in the in the and i think that's you know so yeah we can we can dive into the numbers if you want but i do think um there's a level of of respect and care to give each other in these conversations that's going to help tremendously where she'll have the freedom and probably maybe even say hey okay because this has been going so well and i feel this freedom that i don't get slapped on the wrist or feel like i'm getting you know judged yes that okay maybe i don't need i may not need to spend so we want to cut back like there's more of a a um willingness on both parties and to do some level of change when you know that the other person is for you and there's there's a beautiful love and respect you know situation happening does that make sense 100 it does absolutely what's what's the number you're worried is too extreme um i would say there's a few examples um but things like uh birthdays birthday gifts we she has a large family um and so you know when it comes time for celebrating a few birthdays you know maybe sometimes there's a month where there may be three or four birthdays and we want to spend or she wants to spend 25 or 30 or 40 for per person or you know going out to eat a big one for her would be clothes and so i'm not necessarily opposed to spending money because i i kind of train myself hey you know let loose every once in a while go get your i like coffee so go get your self a coffee or a specialty coffee or something like that um but you know where the where the line is because i realized that we're still in baby step three we had an emergency fund then we had a baby in april so we we depleted about half of it to pay off the medical bills and so now we're kind of building that back up and so because we're in a mid to late 20s or i guess i'm 26 so so mid 20s um i'm just kind of worried like i just want to get into a house like i just want to i just want to get into a house and her maybe goals are like well i want to get i want to get a different car um and i i really don't care about a house right now maybe you know maybe in five years absolutely but you know in 2026 or 2027 no so so let's have let's have that conversation where do we want to be in five years yes who do we want to be in 10 years and those dreaming conversations where they're like the the old corporate whiteboard there's no bad ideas like what's your picture of five years from now we have one or two or three years from now we have one or two or three little kids running around here where do you want to be what do you want that to look like and then you begin to reverse engineer action steps based out of this shared vision of what y'all want to be and there's gonna be there's always going to be pinch points i'll actually want a new car before i want a house on a house before a new car well one of those is a depreciating asset and one of those is like this but getting beneath the house is i want the security for my family i want a home sure right and so getting to those real issues underneath the fight points yes man it changes and her to have a level of of freedom with income that you guys are out of debt you're building that emergency funds but i do also want to enjoy my life yeah so there has to be a both and welcome back to the ramsey show in the fairwinds credit union studio i am rachel cruise hosting it this hour with dr john deloney and we're answering your calls so give us a call 888-825-5225 looks like the phone lines are all taken at this moment but just keep trying and hopefully we can get you in this hour all right let's go to casey in lexington kentucky hi casey welcome to the show hi thanks for taking my call absolutely how can we help um little backstory me and my wife we are in our early 40s maybe step six um question is she is planning on going back to school and we do have the money saved up for her to go back to school but her work is willing to reimburse her but only if she takes out student loans what yes so she takes what kind of industry is she in she is in health care i i've heard of all sorts of reimbursement plans of all types but i've never heard of that it has to go has to be a student loan that is i don't understand that has she asked more details of of why the process is that way um not necessarily no but um but we for sure do have to take out student loans that is the answer what will the degree be getting her um like payment wise yes and advancement and i'm assuming her career track correct yes uh approximately a thirty thousand dollar jump okay per year good for her and how much is the schooling uh twenty five thousand okay and it is two and a half years and it's two and a half years doing that okay good for y'all she must be awesome that's really cool um and let me throw one other wrench in there before rachel answers i would want to know if i go in and put my tuition on a payment plan and tell the university because they'll put you on a three or six month plan instead of writing a check on day one i've just never i've been on higher ed for mo for almost all of my adult life i've never heard of this i've i've heard of blanket reimbursement and unless there's some tax advantage that the business has by paying down their employees student loans or something i don't know i just never ever heard of this okay which in any time i've never ever ever heard of something a i could be totally wrong but b i would want to dig in a little bit further and see if if i'm not hearing stuff right okay because if there's paperwork that has to be done of okay i i i um and not from a loan perspective but i'm wondering yeah like a payment plan here and then the school writes her the check and reimburse like it's all yeah and we'll but i i don't and sometimes if it's attached to a loan they sometimes have a weird um the repayment plan and or you have to stay with that company for x amount of time right like there's there's so there's some strings attached always what is what are the strings on this one it is three years she has to be on for three years does that include is that after she finishes her schooling yes okay so five and a half years and she currently works there now yes sure sure oh bro i wouldn't do there's no chance and not i know and and you know my feelings on on debt i don't i'm on the ramsay show for god's sakes but i would gladly pay 25 000 bucks that i have for a degree that will reimburse itself they'll pay for itself in in less than one year for four and a half years of freedom for me and my wife because she's one bad boss she's one bad transfer she's one bad the hospital sells to another host i mean any number of that she wants to you know be home i mean i don't know i don't know what it is but it's like yeah dude the freedom for my family again you hear me say this all the time i saw for peace and i saw for freedom i'll pay that 25 grand all day long especially in a health care position that's going to ROI in one year or less, shoot. I wouldn't even think twice about that. I thought I knew the answer, but she wanted me to call her. I'll tell you, I could preach to you about student loans or something. You would actually have me kind of bound up, to be honest with you. I'd have principle versus principle in my own spirit if she has the ability, a company's going to pay for her to go to grad school and maybe they're going to ask her for two years or for one year, but they have to take student loans. That would be principle versus principle for me, but this one is a no-brainer. You all have worked your butts off for just this moment where she can get the advancement. It's awesome and she doesn't have to sign a check. She doesn't have to sign a commitment to anybody like that. Yes. I would have options. That's the beauty in life. When you have autonomy over your decision making, that's a game changer. We're not stuck in just a crappy situation if it ever turned that way. You don't have to pay it all up front. You probably pay five grand per semester as you go through. It's the same conversation, I feel like, that we have to talk people off the ledge of student loan forgiveness if they're on the front end of it. I could wait 10 years and this could be for you. It's this long time. That's why we're even like, no, you never know what's going to change. 10 years is a long time. To work and to pay off what you've had where it feels like a free situation 10 years from now, or in her case kind of a free situation, but that's five years, right? And your fingers are crossed that that's one, two, three, potentially three presidents away. Yeah, that's right. God knows what they'll, you know what I mean? What's going to happen? Don't get our conspiracy theory. Chad GPT will be our president in three presidents from now. Like, who knows what the plan will be? What the world is going to be, right? So it's when you can make decisions for your home and a vacuum, you guys, that is worth it every time. All right, let's go to Doug in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Doug. Welcome to the show. Hi, how are you guys? Hi, we're doing great. How can we help? So got a question. We have some stocks that were given to us here recently, and I guess over time they've done pretty good. There are three energy stocks, but we're looking to make the most out of it for the next 15 years until we get close to our retirement age here. What should we do? Should we sell these stocks and put them in the mutual funds that we found that are getting close to 10% or should we just let them ride? Are they three individual stocks? Three individual energy stocks. Okay. So, yeah, I'm not a fan. I'd sell those before the day's over, dude. Of individuals, yeah. I mean, because all your eggs are in one basket versus a mutual fund, you're going to have 90 to 200 stocks. Or even if you just did an index fund for the S&P 500, right, it's across all 500 companies. There's just something about that diversification that gives you such safety. And you're right. And the market's done well. I mean, when you look over, I think we did the math with Dave on the show last week. It was like up 100% over the last four years, five years, when you look at all of it combined. Like, it's just, it's wild what the market's doing. And to put all that risk on just three companies doing well, I wouldn't take that bet, Doug. So, yeah, I would sell them, move them to either great mutual funds or even I mean, you could just do an index fund too, open up a brokerage account with Vanguard or Fidelity or how much are they worth? I'd say right now, probably take out out of our total stock, take out the kids' college stuff. We have about $350. Okay. So, you know what? That's enough that I would sit down with a SmartVestor Pro. If you go to Ramsey Solutions.com, you can find one in your area and actually look for a long-term game plan for that amount, right? If it was like 10, 15 grand, which I knew it probably wasn't going to be, you could do something simple. But I probably would sit down because they're going to be able to look at different funds, the best ones to put you into and even, you know, things like you know, tax loss harvesting. Like, there's some elements at that amount of money that I would want on my side and a financial advisor can help you with that. So, check out a SmartVestor Pro, Doug. Yep, and I would get those moved. Hey, guys. Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now, you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple and free to use. Go to RamseySolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's RamseySolutions.com Up next, we have Kelly in Denver, Colorado. Hi, Kelly. Welcome to the show. Hi there. Thank you so much for taking my call. Yes, absolutely. How can we help? So, I am going through a divorce. Sorry. It's okay. Thank you. So, right now, I'm keeping the house, but I'm also paying, will be paying $4,400 a month in spousal maintenance. What is that? Alimony. Oh, okay. So, to my In order to keep the house? Because you decided to keep it? So, it's the equity, the split. Okay. Yeah, that was part of the negotiations. And the main reason I wanted to keep the house, is my daughter, I have a 10-year-old daughter. It's her neighborhood. She has a best friend across the street. Great school system. And just, you know, really trying to keep that stability for her during this whole process. Unfortunately, I feel very underwater every not, maybe not very, but $500 to $1,000 underwater every month. Yeah. And so, I'm wondering if I should try to keep hanging on in order to give my daughter that stability. I do have a pretty good emergency fund. Or if I'm just, you know, if this is just a pipe dream and I'm sacrificing this. Let's get some numbers real quick, because I think there's a deeper, probably, element to this that I want John to speak on. Okay, besides the $4,400 that you're paying a month, how much is the mortgage? The mortgage with taxes and insurance is $3,800. $3,800. $3,800. Okay. And how much do you make a month? Well, so my gross is $175,000 a year. But I'm only taking home around $5,700 after the spousal maintenance and then after health insurance. That's not taken directly out of your check, though, right? I put it into a fund. Okay, but how much income hits your bank account, just income, without anything being, like, after taxes, what hits Kelly's checking account? I hit $5,600 a month. But you make $175,000. Plus the $4,400. So you make about $9,000 or $10,000 a month. Correct, yeah. Okay. Okay, are you counting that in the $175,000? No, she makes $175,000. And she gets $4,600 plus the $5,500 she just said. So she gets about $10,000 a month. Yeah. So, yeah, so that would leave you, because I would want you bringing in about $12,000. Great. Do you see your income going up at all? I work for the federal government, so we're not expecting to get raises this year. But in the next couple years, I would expect, I would expect to get some raises. And the other thing is, right now, she's in an after-school program, you know, daycare. So in another year or two, she wouldn't need the after-school when she hits 12. Yeah. So in my head, I think, oh, I can hang on, I can do this. I know. And when I run the numbers. I know. So I know, Kelly. I'll put this in the top three or four worst conversations I have with people, OK? And because we only have a few minutes, I'm going to be pretty direct, but I know what I'm saying carries a lot of weight, OK? One of the most, not one of, the most common thing I hear amidst a divorce when there's kids involved, one kid, five kids, whatever, is this statement. some sort of this statement, I want them to have stability whatever stability they can possibly have right and i get that sentiment and i i i i would be the exact same way in the situation my two kids but the reality is everything they know she knows your daughter is is gone it's not stable and trading moms what she needs more than anything on the planet right now is a sturdy mom who has peace in her chest and not the after-school program she's 10 she's got a best friend like i can't tell you the name of my best friend when i was 10 right like so all and by the way i've got a 10 year old right now i got a 10 year old daughter and she's got best friends i get it right um but the most important thing she needs right now is a mom who's anchored um after the world y'all knew doesn't exist anymore and so instead of saying what do i have to sacrifice including financially emotionally psychologically spiritually so that she can have some illusion of things are just going on as they used to be i want to i want you to first ask yourself what do i need as the adult in this house to be well and whole and that everything in her life is going to be a derivative of everything in her life is going to be a derivative of you solving for that and so it sounds like if there's a condo or an apartment in that area that you can live in for two years and make that sacrifice that maybe that's the deal but man it seems pretty untenable to just have that much of your income out the door every month before you can even go to the grocery store right yeah yeah i know it's it's been um i mean it's it's ways on my mind pretty much all the time i know it's terrible yeah and i here's what i want i want a 10 year old daughter who's really mad at her mom who's upset throws 10 year old tantrums like they're supposed to who accuse it says all the things right now and then i want that same 10 year old girl snuggled up next to her mom over christmas break on a couch that is yours in a place that is yours at a place where you can breathe yeah you know what i mean yeah no the whole thing is you know not what you picture in life no i hate it i hate it i hate it i hate it for you it breaks my heart for you breaks my heart for that little girl i hate it i know kelly and you're you're such a great mom yeah i mean honestly doing what you can in such an out of control situation to try to create what you believe is the best and i think when we do that sometimes you i don't tend to consequences or these other things that start to to drag and and weigh on us and um yeah and and you know and i'll say it from the from the math side a thousand bucks a month underwater like that's that's a lot you know and your emergency fund um if it starts to have a small leak and there's nothing replenishing it that's eventually going to run out you know and so you kind of get to this point where the reality is going to hit at some point and i would rather you do if there is a decision to be made which i think there is do it at a place of strength where it's your decision to make and you're not being forced out by a bank or you know what i mean like down the road if something dramatic does happen do you do you have how much is in your emergency fund um i have 50 000 50 000 okay and how much equity is in this house if you sell it what would you walk away with so that's that's part of the problem it's underwater right now with the market um so it's i don't have equity in the house um i would just be walking away i mean i would how did they appraise the house at being underwater and you still have to pay him 4 400 a month well the 4 400 is is because of your income correct the income and it's it's there's a whole uh um he was not working so you know i guess his role is reward reverse not quite a stay-at-home dad but yeah but not working either so if you sell the house does this alimony go down um it wouldn't go down for at least the next two years um because it's kind of a locked-in right okay well you might be in the if that's the case you're not i don't know if you're gonna find rent in denver for you may not yeah you may not have a choice but to stay in it to stay in the house to see until the equity is built which will be probably another four years kelly so i would find a way to cut expenses and hold on and try not to dip into that emergency fund too much until the market semi-recovers and you have some equity in the home you spend hours researching before making a major purchase like a home or car but it's also a good idea to put in the work searching for the right insurance coverage to protect your biggest assets i recommend using ramsey trusted pros whether you're looking for car home or any other type of insurance ramsey trusted providers have been coached and vetted to serve you like we would find what you need at ramsey solutions.com insurance one of the biggest mistakes that people make is thinking that they can skip having a will because they're too young they're too healthy they just don't need one maybe they don't own a lot of stuff so they're like that's not a big deal but a will helps protect your family it gives clear instructions and can keep your loved ones from having to guess what you wanted during a difficult time like if you could imagine someone passed away and you're like oh my god i'm passing away and then trying to figure out what to do with all their stuff and i will gives guided instructions you guys it gives a clear path so i talked about this yesterday with jade but i want to say it again on this hour today imagine you're 21 you live in an apartment and you're you're thinking like i would have thought at 21 i don't need a will i don't have anything i have a guitar and like an old couch right but imagine something happens to you and you pass away and your mom can't go in your apartment and you're like oh my god i don't help pack up your clothes your dad can't come in with one of his friends and help move your couch out because they're not allowed in the apartment because the apartment has to turn it over because they're just different adults now give your family the benefit of just being able to grieve you and not also having to fight for you after you pass oh every single buddy who's an adult needs a will period end of story so go create one you guys and go to mama bear legal forms.com if you're not sure where to start you can text quiz to 33789 and we'll help you figure out what option is best for your situation but mama bear legal forms.com they're amazing that's where i went that's where i went state specific wills like they are awesome so make sure to check them out all right let's go to theresa in tulsa hi welcome to the show thank you guys so much thank you for your time and your wisdom sharing with everybody absolutely thank you how can we help today um well i'm kind of starting late in life here to understand all this stuff uh my husband is in his mid 70s and i'm in my late 60s um but i've been trying i got all your dad's books and i've been reading them but i have a question um about the emergency fund it says uh best place to put in a simple money market i don't understand where to go or what to do if that's at the bank or if i have it in a no penalty cd but i just have to change it uh it'll tilt to december because it was better percent uh interest at the moment but it's not liquid so i got to get back to liquid yes i understand that so i'm just trying to understand what it is i don't understand all of this stuff yeah let's see if you guys can help us out you're awesome theresa i for obviously i first applaud you for not not many people in their in their 60s want to check out your book change the way they've been doing stuff and so there's awesome yeah that's amazing well i'm very scared i do believe it's all gods and i want to be a good steward and you know leave it where it needs to be you know do what i'm supposed to so you called the right place we're gonna we're gonna help you get unscared is that cool we're gonna make it real simple for you yep so i think one thing to remember and for everyone listening this is kind of a good teaching point for everyone is that your emergency fund is not an investment you want to see it more like insurance right so the percentage of what you make yes on it it doesn't really matter as much because if we were going for high interest we'd be putting it you know in the market right and so um so that's one thing to remember also for cds yeah they're not they're not ideal um for an investment or an emergency fund because you usually have to let them mature before you take some money out you said that it's a no penalty one but easy access to the emergency fund is is you don't want it too accessible where it's sitting in your checking account and you might spend it right accidentally And so keeping it in its own separate account. So that is where in the book, yes, he probably did write about a money market account. And the funny thing is, the things that have become more popular in the last couple of years, it's very similar to a money market account is called a high yield savings account. And so you're parking money in this. And, and again, I know it's not an investment. So I'm kind of like speaking out of, you know, both sides here, but it's it's better to have your money in something that's just growing a little versus a traditional savings account. So with a money market account, or a high yield savings, you can put your money somewhere, I mean, you may earn 3%, probably around what you're making in your CD, honestly, but you're able to transfer money account to account within that very easy to get to. Even some money market accounts, you can write checks out of it, or a debit card comes with it, you have a limit usually on your transaction. So you don't want to use it as a checking account. But if you needed to get to it quickly, you could. So Teresa, if you hang online, Christian's going to pick up. And he's going to help you get to Fairwinds Credit Union. They're an amazing partner of ours. I have I've opened up accounts with them. Because you can have up to 10 high yield savings accounts with them. And so that is where I would put your emergency fund Teresa is with Fairwinds. And it's very easy to set up. If you go to their website, Christian can help you get to that it's fairwinds.org and go to slash Ramsey and set that up. But I would take money out of that CD and I would put it just in a high yield savings account. And again, your fully funded emergency fund is three to six months of expenses. And so that's the number you're shooting for there. And so I'll say this, Teresa and Rachel, you can tell me, John, this is this is dumb, is my home's emergency fund, like the, if something happens, and I need money today. I have no idea what the interest rate is. Because I know me in that. And that if it had, I've got money in a high yield savings account, right? And I've got college savings, I got that stuff. But as for that account, I know if it had an interest rate attached to it that I knew and watched, and is it 2.93, I would spend waking hours going, well, is it? And I have to remind myself, that's not the point of that money. That point of that money is every day of my life, we're having a good time. So in my house, I have my checking account in a bank. And we opened another account. And it's under that same heading under me and my wife's heading. And it's there. And I can't, I can't use my debit card out of it. I've got to stop and open my laptop and move it from one account to another, which takes like five seconds to do. But for me, I don't even for that, especially that initial 1000 bucks, but for my three to six month emergency, dude, I'm, I just can't get my head in that stuff. It gets too complicated for me. I don't want to mess with it. I just want that safety. You get what I'm saying? No, our house is paid for. Everything's paid for. Everything's in savings and in checking right now. I did check with a high yield savings at my bank. And they said you have to you can only start it with 60,000. That's wild. That sounds like they're trying to take advantage. I don't know. Yeah, that makes me feel so confused. Everybody tells me something different. And I don't have the internet. So we're computer illiterate. Even better. That's why I was like, you know, that's why you're so awesome, Teresa. She has no I'm trying and I do depend on my kids once in a while, but I try to do it. I still try to do it. Oh, that's so okay. Well, I'll say this then for you, Teresa. I love parents, but they are an online. Yes, they have partners. Around different credit unions in your area that you can go and get cash from. But I would say this. If that if that's not your cup of tea, then I would find a brick and mortar. That's not a seat. That's insane. What bank quoted you? I would go down the street in there in Tulsa and find a credit union. Yes, if there's a credit union in Tulsa that has a high yield savings or a money market. That's great, too. If you just want to do it in person. I totally, totally understand. And I want you to walk in there and say, I just want a high yield savings account and I want to put 25,000 bucks in it. Which is three to six months for me and my husband or whatever that number is. And if they start trying to sell you other stuff, just say, I just I just want this. And if they try to sell you more stuff again, say thank you for your time and walk out. You're in the driver's seat, sister. You have a paid for house. You've got cash. You're you are the boss here. Okay. Okay. You are in a position of major strength here. How much do you guys have saved, Teresa, overall for retirement? Well, actually, none. Well, I mean, we do now. I mean, just in the last few years, we inherited some money and but most of it is in savings. And of course, the CDs. Okay. Yeah. Well, getting getting that. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Overall. Well, in the CDs, there's roughly 77,000. That's including that's including the emergency fund. Okay, that's great. Well, and I would say any type of investment. Investing to check out our check out smart investor pros, you can go to Ramsey's. Well, you know, the internet, ask your kids, look up Ramsey solutions.com and find someone in your area for investing for the future trees. That's your next step. Hey, guys, George Campbell here. You ever feel like you make good money and still have nothing to show for it? You run into Target for one thing and somehow walk out $87 later with toothpaste and emotional support candles? Just me? Okay. Well, that's the problem. Most people don't pay attention to how they spend their money. So it does whatever it wants. And that's why we created EveryDollar. It's a budgeting app that helps you create a simple plan for your money. EveryDollar is simple, it's clear, and it helps track where your money is actually going. Plus, you get daily lessons, to-dos, and reminders along the way. It's like having a money coach in your pocket. Your money's been freelancing long enough. It's time to give EveryDollar a free hand. It's a full-time job. Go download EveryDollar for free on the App Store or Google Play. Our scripture of the day comes from Philippians 1.9. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insights. Maya Angelou said, do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better. Oh, I like that. All right, let's go to Gina in Los Angeles. Hi, Gina. Welcome to the show. Well, hi. Thanks so much for taking my call today. Yes, absolutely. How can we help? Well, I am getting very close to retirement age. My husband's already retired, and we're looking at our savings and investments and wondering whether we should leave. Do you have a certain amount of money in an annuity we already have? No, I wouldn't. Yeah, no, I wouldn't. You can get much better rates of return, less fees, everything. I mean, the only annuity that I would, I wouldn't personally do one, but some people are so freaked out by the market, they kind of want that guarantee, would be a variable annuity. That would be the only one if you were to do it, but I wouldn't, Gina. So you guys have one currently, you said? Yes. Okay, how much is in that? It's $190,000 with a protected income of about $258,000. $250,000, okay. And what other money do you guys have saved? Oh, we've got the rest of our money is in IRAs, 401ks, and high interest savings. So that's about another, I don't know, about $1.2 million. Okay. Okay. And what, the annuity, I'm just curious, your thought process when you guys opened it, was it just to diversify and have just another element, or were you nervous about the market, or what caused you guys to get it in the first place? Yeah, it was kind of to do something else. The market was a little bit nutty a couple of years ago when we did this, and we are working with a financial advisor in a private company who suggested it would be a safe place. Okay. And we could start drawing against it as soon as next year. Mm-hmm. So that would be an additional safe, guaranteed monthly income. Okay. Yeah, I mean, you guys are fine everywhere else. I just wouldn't, I mean, I'm just going to tell you, again, what I would do, and I wouldn't. I would probably just open up an index fund, take that money out of the annuity, and put it in. And just know that there's some great commissions. I'm not saying your financial advisor's wrong in this, but there's a lot of high interest savings. Yeah, there's high fees. There's commission, a lot of commissions on annuities. And again, it kind of taps into more of that fear mentality. You know, we had a lady call in. She was like in her early 90s, John. This was a few months ago, and she just was scared to death. And I was hosting with Dave, and I remember he was like, you know what, just do your annuity. You're fine. You just need to sleep good at night. You know, you're fine. But in your 60s, that's 30, that's a good 30 years, you know, hopefully 20 years of great growth that the market has. has been doing. I mean, you can look at it historically, and yeah, there are some ups and downs but overall um yeah i i wouldn't i don't see a need for it if you'd had that money in the market the last five years it would have gone a hundred percent that's what we were saying earlier yeah it would have gone crazy in a great way so i think you can just make more i think your money can make more than it's an annuity personally all right let's go to elsa in houston texas hi elsa welcome to the show hi um my question is that i um i need to figure out if i need to sell my house or maybe get a cheaper car about a year and a half ago my ex-husband had to lower child support and then it took time for that to go through the court system finally that happened um i only found out about him lowering the child support after i signed the agreement for this house after i sold my other house that was cheaper and more reasonable um so i'm trying to figure out how to keep from going under basically okay um how much do you make a year um 50 53 000 a year myself okay and how much is uh your mortgage payment a month 1850 1850 okay and how much is the child support uh i got a lump sum so i kind of budgeted for about 1850 1850 a month and that'll last for the next couple of years when basically my daughter graduates yeah that was gonna be my first question is how much longer is this gonna be a part of your life because if you bought a house on even on a 15-year note and your kid's older than three this money runs out right yeah exactly i have a pretty good 401k but i have credit card debt because of going back to back to court 1850 1850 all the attorney fees so yeah so i'm kind of stuck i'm not sure what to do yeah i mean the house is it's a lot for your income yeah even with the child support thousand dollars it probably is um how much is the house worth uh probably 220 000 i it's a brand new house okay and how much um equity would it go yeah would it go for is there anything or how long have you been in it i've only been in it for a little over a year it's a brand new neighborhood and it's not finished yet so i'm not sure it would sell right now um for any more than what i owe on it okay okay um are you underwater every month with your with just your life yes and it's very stressful and i do have also a car payment and i'm kind of trying to decide if i need to you know sell that and get a new car um how much yeah how much uh do you own the car uh around 34 34 000 oh gosh and it's like five 500 yeah okay yeah yes okay so just as a point of reference we recommend that your car or cars in a household but for you a single car with your single income is no more than half of your annual take-home pay so that would sit you around the 25 000 car at the most at the high end okay um are you underwater on the car a little bit yeah okay and what other debt do you have um just the credit cards basically how much is that that's around 20 000 some of that is mostly zero percent okay um so gosh i mean elsa honestly i would probably talk to a real estate agent um we have some we have some great trusted pros in your area and i i would go to ramsey solutions.com and find someone you can look at different profiles and talk to a couple one that you're comfortable with tell them your situation and i'm just wondering if you can get out of this house just unscathed and and try to find um you know even even renting rent rent it like elsa i'm telling you from the bottom of my heart i don't think you're gonna do it but i'm just telling you because i love you you need a season of a two bedroom apartment you , and because you you owe so much money in depreciating asset in your car and credit cards you know i'm saying like this is like i'm just trying to imagine the stress you've been through with divorce with being a single mom with now suddenly like underneath you they cut the child support like you need peace more than anything else more than a fancy car more than a fancy house yeah man and then elsa i would go down to a credit union and see if they can give you um a loan for maybe six grand and whatever your the difference is on the car maybe two or three grand throw it at that and then go and i would just get a crappy car and um and let that be done like it's amazing when you start to kind of see and these are big changes i know i can just say this like in a sweeping two minute segment with you but if you can find rent for 1200 bucks and you have close to four thousand left over and you have no car payments because you have that beater car you start working to get this this credit cards cleaned up right and you throw an extra you know two thousand at that it's done in two months like you you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel with with a plan but it's going to be a pretty intense plan after a pretty intense life situation that you've walked through with this divorce so it's it's going to be a lot and i know i just probably like threw a bunch over the fence of what to do to get out but honestly that i that's that's what i would do because what john's saying you can't keep at this clip you're going to continue to go deeper and deeper in the hole so i'd find good people on your team people that are going to root for you find a great real estate agent to give you the real numbers the real comps and look at a real situation of what you could do to get out of the house a real private sale yes number for your car yes all of it i mean um yep oh i'm so sorry elsa we're cheering for you though call us back if you need us remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the prince of peace christ jesus