Living Without Debt Leads to Financial Freedom

brought to you by the every dollar app start budgeting for free today normal is broke and common sense is weird so we're here to help you transform your life here from the ramsey network in the fairwinds credit union studio this is the ramsey show and we are taking your calls at 888-825-5225 i'm rachel cruz hosting this hour dr john deloney on a kind of a special uh a special day we have our money and marriage getaway starting tonight and so we have probably about 100 people out there uh for the event and so we are so so excited but we're here to take your calls on this show so again give us a call all right up first up we have adam in oklahoma city hi adam welcome to the show hey guys thank you for taking my call um i've got a what i think is a good problem to have um my wife uh just started her job she just finished her medical journey and she's about to uh get her first paycheck tomorrow uh she's a doctor oh wow so uh we have done a decent job we've taken the medical school loans down from 200 000 to 138 um and her after tax income monthly is going to be roughly forty thousand dollars a month um i've been pretty militant uh about uh we need to pay off this 138 000 but i also own a business and my expected income is approximately 250 000 my question is uh would it be okay to postpone paying off the loans um by december january into january february possibly march um to um after talking to my tax guy he says that i can uh defer potentially sixty thousand of the income in uh 401k and whatnot from my my business and so i'm wondering if postponing that a couple months and getting the 401k stuff on the books for this year would be wise you know it's funny adam about your situation because of what you guys are making i don't think it's going to matter either way in 20 30 years so for me it's not a dollars and cents answer because if you yeah if you paid out if you paid off the loans in january versus 30 days later is it going to make a big difference probably not it really comes down to a values conversation and there's something to we see we see this on the show more and more recently of are you going to do what you said you're going to do and if you guys said nope we are people that are we're going to pay off the debt that's been our journey and the moment you start getting a little bit side-eyed or a little bit distracted again and i'm saying this with the umbrella like it's really not going to matter for you guys you make three quarters of a million dollars you're going to be fine yeah but i think the practice and the discipline here is are we going to be people who say and do what we say we're going to do and so there's something to that discipline that i think is is pretty noble um but again this is not a make or break question for your life so i don't think it really matters but again i i like the disciplined answer to say we're going to be people who do something that we said we're going to do and that that's a sticking point because that will lead into other parts of your life and your marriage down the road sure yeah i listen i listen to the show quite a bit and i am just uh i've been one track mind but then this tax guy threw a through a loophole they always will there'll always be something and he's let's say this he's right he's right you could you could invest you know take the full your full max out of your 401 and then move like you could do that there's no question about that and it would reduce your overall tax burden especially this year next year i don't maybe some but anyway you he's right but i think rachel's point is so good that in two years your wife is going to have a colleague who wants to start a small little med tech business and all he needs is fifty thousand dollars and all y'all y'all can just run down and buy it's a guarantee right it's always going to be a thing and i like what rachel said man the thing that and i'm a sucker for these things right um and for me john's not add at all no i'm about anything in life it's like wait what go there do that the way i have achieved peace is not by trying to win on every single transaction it is do i keep my promises to myself and do i hold on to the values that i put out i'm more i'm more concerned about you having this been laser focused y'all got out of med school with only 200 grand you got down to 138 that in and of itself is impressive yeah absolutely you've been running this thing for a while um are you gonna be who you say you are that's right that's i'm kind of i never never in my life did i think we would have this type of income and i'm just it honestly sort of terrifies me to uh mess it up and so i feel like every time i'm uh every time i have a question i run and seek advice yeah and also man i don't know dude how about this will you make me a promise yeah if y'all choose to just hit the gas on this thing y'all could based on her income and your income what would you do i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know what y'all can be debt free by january february yes if y'all are just ridiculous about it yes okay will you call me back in january if you decide to pay it all off and say i'm really mad that we don't owe anybody any money i will definitely call back uh call back early next tell me i can't sleep because i didn't reduce my taxable income by my contribution this one year on the front end of two incredible like an adventure me and my wife about to go on financially um i'm really really mad that i didn't reduce my right like and i will publicly say in front of america well i'm sorry adam like i'll own it okay my gut tells me that you are gonna have not only not owing anybody money that's awesome that's amazing right and then just thinking we're gonna have three quarters of a million dollars to give like wild to save and to like finally catch up on things like going out to eat and stuff like that right and but more than that you will have kept your promise to yourself a promise you made years ago and that to me man that's just worth its weight in gold yes absolutely awesome adam well thanks yeah thanks for the call i know and well done because you married well brother good for you married a doctor yeah i married a teacher well and the i married well too i married well too no but but i'm like there there's something to be said and we we're going to talk about it some this weekend and we're going to talk about it some this weekend and we're going to talk about um but i'm like at the end of all of this you know you're not going to probably be on your deathbed and be like wow i should have moved that growth stock mutual fund over to a brokerage account and done you know what i mean like you're not going to sit there and nitpick everything at the end of the scope of your life it's who you are it's your character right and again hear me say you guys like this is a this is a small decision in the grand scheme of things like either way he's going to be fine but it goes back to the bigger picture of what money represents in your life and what direction what control it has over you because there's always going to be an investing person over here a tax person here a real estate they're they're always going to just be these things on the outside and there's something about having the peace of being resolute in something of like hey we said we were going to do this just do it and then we're and we're going to be fine either way and it's in the bigger thing of just taking ownership and i'll say so here's a good example i had um a buddy who's in the media space reach out about two years ago coming out with a product and hey do you want to buy in and i got the pitch deck and it was actually pretty awesome yeah sure and there was a couple other things going on with me and my wife um financially that we were working through and i went back to what was the commitment we made not for financial return the commitment we made to each other after all the chaos was we're going to solve for peace and i passed and that product just got picked up by walmart and and i was like oh that would have been really nice right yeah and we've had peace yeah we continue to have peace you're okay and so i can smile and laugh and be really happy for my buddy this thing's working out and um i continued to be who i wanted to be and i'm going to be happy to be who i wanted to be and i'm going to be who i want to be and i'm going to be happy to be who i want to be and i'm going to be happy to be who i want to be to askchapter.org. askchapter.org slash Ramsey, askchapter.org slash Ramsey, or click the link in the description. Up next, we have Amanda in Bloomington, Indiana. Hi, Amanda. Welcome to the show. Hi there. Thank you guys so much for having me. Yes, thank you for calling in. I just wanted to ask, so how do my partner and I balance finances when his family needs assistance? We're on baby step two, and we just got started. We are currently living together, and I'm currently in my master's program in my last year. So we're in a position where my job allows me to have a place to live and pays for my school, but his family. His family oftentimes has to ask for money, and he makes the majority of the money. And so since we're not yet married, I usually don't think it's even my place to have an opinion. Yeah, it's not. I mean, if it's his money, his family, that's what he wants to do. But it is worth the conversation about the marriage you're about to enter into. If y'all are. Are you guys engaged? Are you getting married? Yeah, so we are trying to save up to get married. If we could get married tomorrow, we would. Oh, just go to the courthouse, Amanda. I married somebody in my yard. I married two people in my yard. Just. What? You can do it. Not your marriage. You didn't get married. No, I've officiated two weddings in my yard. In your yard. There you go. I was like, we'll be clear about that. Yeah. Yeah, so we want to get married pretty soon, but then it's even the conversation of his parents, and we are. We're a team, and we're very open with each other, but it could just be difficult to kind of even think about that because I want to support his family. So y'all, you said you're open right now about that kind of stuff. What are you saying to him now? Just basically kind of being like, okay, maybe let's budget for it. Let's put it into this and this because I don't want to. But even that, I just feel bad saying because it's his family. It's his family. And what is he? How does he respond to you when you say that? He's very good about it. He's like, yeah, maybe we can break it down. Maybe you can kind of tell me how much, but even that, I kind of feel bad about because we're not married. Can I say something that's going to sound really harsh, but I only have a few minutes with you, so I'm just going to like. I'm going to be overdramatic about it. Yeah. How much money do y'all owe? Like if you took all your debts and wrote them down, how much debt do y'all have? So it's almost $60,000. It's mostly. It's mostly my student loans from undergrad. And how much, like, I'll tell you, don't combine your income until you're married, and there's legal reasons for that, but like how much, if y'all looked at your combined incomes, what do y'all both bring in? I don't bring in a lot, and he brings in about $40,000. Okay. So I'm saying this with all the love of my heart. Y'all are frighteningly broke. Mm-hmm. Like you owe a significant. significantly more money than y'all even bring in the house. Mm-hmm. Y'all have a financial emergency. And so the greatest gift you could give to his family long-term, maybe on the weekly, like, hey, we need some more money for this or more money for that or whatever. The greatest gift y'all could give them, even if y'all have a picture of helping them and being of some sort of support to them down the road, is to get y'all's house in a place of safety. Mm-hmm. That would mean saying to mom and dad, hey, we don't have that money. Yeah. Because every dollar you put out of the house, y'all are having to borrow that dollar just to eat and keep the lights on, right? Yeah. My only hard thing is, I mean, it's her student loans. Yeah, I guess for now. Yeah, yeah, for now. And he's making the money. I'm assuming they're. Yeah, yeah. I mean. You have no vote right now, for sure. Yeah. I mean, this would be an after-marriage conversation, because in my head, if you guys and you guys have chosen, you know, the decisions that you've made up to this point, you're acting like you're married, but you're not from, like, a living situation. And the truth is, I mean, you don't. You're not making. I mean, you wouldn't. You couldn't, you know, sustain a life on your own, Amanda, right now. You're not bringing in any money. The only thing is. And so you're dependent upon him, right, to do that. And then if I'm him, I'm like, well, if he doesn't have a lot of debt, and he's making money, and he has margin. Yeah, that's fair. It's tough. You know what I mean? Like, it's tough. Yeah, but. Yeah. Amanda, I. Just for me, I'm. Because he. So the apartment, I guess, is, like, under me, so I'm able to live by myself. And so he's come in, and he doesn't, like, pay rent or anything. And so, like, I have, like, a meal plan and everything, and it does give me some of the income so that I would be able to, just as a student, but. To support yourself, you're saying. Yes. Yeah. I hear that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't. I don't think, Rachel, this is a conversation they can. That can wait until they're married. In terms of, are we going to continually. Right. Anytime mom and dad pick call. That's right. I agree with that. We're just going to, no matter what situation we're in, what our finances are, what's the state of our grocery budget or whatever, we're just going to give and give and give and give and give. I 100% agree. And Amanda, you've got to own signing up for that. If he says, yes, anytime my parents call, I will always give them money, no matter what. You have to know, okay, if I marry this guy, that's what I'm signing up for. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So. I would be apprehensive about that. I know. So that's. Yeah. It's the boundary conversation that, are you guys in agreement going forward of how you're going to handle money in that sense? But yeah, I mean, if I'm him, he's like, I don't have debt. I make 40 grand if I want to give my parents some money. I can do it everyone. Yeah, that's true. That's right. It's tough. But Amanda, that's when you need to feel chosen, I would think, in that relationship to say, if we're moving forward and getting married, and after we're married, we are one. And so that 60,000 becomes our debt. Ours, right. And we only make now 40,000, or if she gets a job, 80,000. And then at that point, then the choices in the household have to shift to, we now have to take care of this debt. And so Amanda. And is he willing to do that? The questions I would ask are, the day we get married, are you going to expect me to go get a job and pay off my student loans, even though we're married? Is that part of the arrangement? Are we going to split rent? You're going to Venmo me some money for rent and for the electric bill every month? Or are we going to have a single checking account that we do life out of? And if that's the case, and that's what we recommend, that's what I recommend, is we have to be very honest and clear about what we can and can't do when it comes to financial assistance and support for our families. Getting on the same page. That's good. All right, let's go to Marcus in Greenville. Hi, Marcus. Welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much for having me. Yes, how can we help? Oh, so I own a small business in construction, and I'm primarily a one-man operation. Between my business and personal finances, I have about $300K in debt, not including my mortgage. A lot of it is in equipment, financing, credit cards. My biggest struggle is that my business brings in revenue, but I never seem to have enough cash left over. I'm constantly trying to cover business expenses, equipment payments, and family living. Instead of paycheck to paycheck. Paycheck, it's like from job to job, I'm barely surviving. Sure. Yeah, you've probably over-leveraged yourself on the business side. And you do have everything separate on the books, right? When you say credit card debt, is that kind of on the business? I know it's all under you, but is it, from an accounting standpoint, is it on the business side, or is that credit card debt the household that you're having to dip into credit card debt to survive in your home? No, it's the business credit card. Okay, so most all the debt is related to the business. Business, and I got married about five months ago. We bought a house six months ago, and there's just so much that happened this much, and so much expenses that picked up. Okay, how much are you bringing in a year? So, for my business? No, for you. Like, what are you taking home for your household? I need to take home at least five grand. Okay, how much does she bring home? She's pregnant. She's, she got three months left, and she doesn't work. Okay. Does your business make enough money to pay all the bills, service all the debt, and to pay you $5,000 a month? Well, how things are going, not really, and that's where I'm just trying to see where do I even start? Yeah, the upside down-ness of the business is what is going to take you, is what's going to take you, is what's going to take you, is what's going to take you. And so, honestly, Marcus, it's probably going to end up selling some assets that you have just to get some debt offloaded, and you don't have those payments every single month, which means you may have to take different jobs, right? In the construction business, you may not be able to do the certain things you can, but where you can offload some of that for now, just for breathing room, for margin, that's where I would focus, and find a way that, you know, you may have to work a second job just to get your head above water for a season. We'll be right back. statistics show that half of americans don't have enough life insurance or they don't have any at all i don't understand this john why don't people want to take care of their family they think they're going to die or something well i used to be one of those guys i didn't even think about it and one of my buddies said hey the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids and i immediately went and got term life insurance that's a gut punch and oh you're telling me and for decades dave i've sat across people who've lost a spouse they've lost somebody important to them me too they don't know what to do next me too i mean you're gonna have a crisis here and you know you got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow she's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow that's exactly the two options and take care of your dadgum family man term life insurance can replace income pay off debts cover funeral expenses so your family can actually have the opportunity to just be sad yeah to just miss you that's exactly what it's supposed to be it's saying i love you to your family term life insurance jeff zander and the team at zander insurance makes it easy and affordable i've used them personally for 25 years they're the only people i trust go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282 if you're working the baby steps one of the best things that you can do to stay on track and just to have that daily check-in is to download our every dollar app you can do this for free in the app store or google play because it tracks your progress you get a personalized plan to really walk out this idea that i mean even if you have nothing you guys if you are paycheck to paycheck or if you are funding retirement and you feel like everything's yeah we're filling on top of things regardless of where you are financially knowing where your income's going from a budgeting aspect but then also an overall financial plan is so so important so again go start every dollar for free by downloading it in the app store or google play all right let's head to davenport and we have denise on the line hi denise welcome to the show hello thank you for taking the call yes absolutely how can we help so i'm currently 42 years old and i want to be debt free by 45 i'm currently in 135 000 worth of debt um i'm pretty confident that i can pay that off in the next three years however i'm a firm believer in paying tithes and though i don't necessarily pay it to the church i do set 10 of my income aside every month um to just help people in need um it just sits there until i come across someone that's in need um but i'm wondering because i know that that causes to be fixed worth of our money and i know that if i get out of debt faster that i can then allocate more to giving so i just i don't know if while i'm in this journey if i should continue that or if i should hold for now yeah it's a good question because from uh what looks like on the outside a common sense response would be like no do everything you can and put as much money as you can towards getting out of debt and then you can do other things later uh but what we have found denise over and over and i'll just say even in my own life there is something about even in the times that feel like you're stretched financially you feel like there may not be tons of room i mean all any any feeling of gosh i could push this off till fill in the blank i have a higher income till i get out of debt you know it could be a different answer for anyone and what we find over and over again is specifically with giving for whatever reason there is something tied to the posture of our hearts and when you live life with that open hand mentality even when it is tight when it is hard and it may be a different dollar amount you know i'm i don't i always hate to be legalistic about this part of money but i do i am a firm believer in it being really really important because it's more than just the idea of you're just giving you're giving you're giving you're giving you're giving money it starts to shape who you are denise throughout all of this and and i and i find that people say it all the time if i just had more money i would give if i just could do this i would give and and i do think there's a there's a heart issue there of this consistency of this being part of who you are regardless of your circumstances and so i'm a big believer in continuing to give even while you're getting out of debt even when you're on baby step one and you're trying to save a thousand dollars having a rhythm of outflow with your money it um yeah i think it's just an impactful thing on you of course but then also what you're doing out in the world and there's something about putting yourself out there that i think is is a really important part of living denise how long has giving been a part of your life um for all of my adult life really i it's really important to me and um i love helping others i feel great doing it um and to think when i think about stopping it kind of makes me sad like i'm like that's not i mean if i can't live off 90 right right so like also though again the faster i get out of this the more i can give um so i just didn't know like and my heart truly wants i want to continue to give um i just didn't know it while during doing this journey if i should continue to me the question is when you look in the mirror the day you pay your your last debt off and you owe nobody anything you're completely free will that be a person who cashed in a really important value the value of generosity or will you be able to maybe go another two months paying your debts off for three months or however long and the day you hit send on that last payment and you look yourself in the mirror you will be the person that you will have kept your promises to yourself when it comes to values you'll be a person you're proud of for multiple reasons not just because you're a person you're proud of you're a person you're proud of you're a person you cross the finish line right get what i'm saying yeah i mean if yeah yeah so if i if i pay off my debt but i stopped giving yeah i would probably feel awful or or then you'd feel this sense of i gotta give out of a sense of guilt right i gotta give to make up i've got to right and that changes the spirit of generosity right um i i i i didn't i went full bore and i spent several years after not owing anybody anything trying to reckon with who i was and what am i what values am i willing to sacrifice for whatever goal i put on the table and that will never happen again yeah right um it's one of those core values for me in my life yeah and especially for you denise because i feel like we're not trying to convince you to be a giver it is who you are so you're almost denying your identity of yourself in order to do this external great thing getting out of debt and then you're like i'm not going to do that i'm not going to obviously we're so pro that um but in the midst that don't sacrifice who you are it's naturally all woven within you and so no i would tell you not does shut that part of your life down let's pull this philosophically because i know people could say like okay cool i'm a super giver then so i'm going to give 90 away and try to you're right at some point you have to say what am i willing to sacrifice right and so maybe in not being legalistic but maybe for a season we get under five percent because we have a math problem i'm going to continue to give and or i'm going to make the other five percent up with my time instead of taking one more shift i'm going to go work the food bank right like i'm going to go put myself out there i'm going to continue being a person of generosity um and i'm not going to lock myself into this specific percentage um but that's that's who i am that's who she is yeah no absolutely yeah so there's um we had a question about this yesterday actually on the show too denise so i thank you for calling in and asking because i think it's an important one because of this it always goes beyond just the dollars and cents it it's not just the dollars and cents it's the dollars and cents it's the dollars and it hits on something that a lot of people don't touch on but the character of who we are the person that's getting out of debt the person that's saving the person's funding retirement the person's trying to help their kids do like the the character of who we are is very very crucial that we have a good pulse check on that person and so i would say denise trust your gut in it and and if you have to pay off debt four months later because of it at least you have stuck to who you are all right let's go to emma in baylor texas hi emma welcome to the show hi it's so great to talk to you and john thanks so much for calling in how can we help my question is my husband and i just found out we're having another baby congratulations thank you and we need a car that can fit another car seat um so we know we're in stork mode um we're still paying off debt um but i guess my question is how do we navigate doing both at the same time how many kids but this is gonna be our fourth your fourth yikes man we had to go to the minivan with three can you strap one on the roof well okay so emma what what what can you sell your current car for um our current car on kelly blue book the private sale is about 11 000 okay great a car that would fit your needs for your family a used one what would that range what's the range of that of that car i'm not sure i'm i mean if we went through a dealership i'm sure it'd be pretty expensive yeah i wonder if you did some research you might be pleasantly surprised to see what what a $15,000 car would be, right? And then you guys would have to throw $4,000 of it out of your stork mode. How much do you have in stork mode or in that savings account? Right now we have about $4,000, but our midwife is going to cost $6,000. Okay. And when are you due? May of next year. Okay. How much can you guys save a month? We're at about $1,500, $1,600 a month. Okay. That's great. Yeah. So, I mean, if I were you guys, I mean, yeah, you could probably, you could hit both goals. Get a new car, save for the midwife, and even have some extra on top of that. Yeah. So I would do both, but I would just. It's hard not to, it's hard that once you break that seal and you're like, okay, we're in baby step two, we're trying to get out of debt, and we have a fourth kid, we have a true need, we got to get another car. It's hard to say we cannot go over 15, right? Yes, you have to draw a hard line. Because then it becomes 20 and then it becomes 35. then you end up with a new Suburban, right? Yes. So be very diligent in what you guys can realistically have saved to put with that $11,000. But I think you'll be fine, and then you'll be able to save the $2,000 more for the Midwife. If you're frugal like me, you're looking for every extra dollar you can squeeze out of your budget. But when was the last time you looked at the bills you have on auto pay, like your phone plan? You might be paying $100 or more every month. And for what? Regulatory cost recovery charges? Telco recovery fees? What even are those? And the good news is, there's hope. You could be paying just $25 a month if you switch to Boost Mobile. That's right. With Boost Mobile, you get unlimited wireless for $25 a month to help you save money for other more important things. And that $25 price is locked in forever. No hidden fees, no surprise charges, like customer proprietary network information notification costs. Nope, not happening with Boost Mobile. 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All right, let's go to Matt in Denver, Colorado. Hi, Matt. Welcome to the show. Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. Yes, absolutely. How can we help? Well, so this is my first year doing the baby steps here. Welcome to the call, brother. We are on step two. Thank you. Thank you. I am excited about the future, but have a tough question today. So I own my own landscaping. I am the sole income earner in my house. Right now, business and personal debt, we're about $365,000 in debt. My big thing is like, it's hard to be optimistic saying that first part, but my big part is I do feel optimistic about the future. The business is doing pretty well, things like that. But here in Colorado, business gets slow in the winter. So I was just curious, how you guys think I should attack this debt without hurting myself in those winter months when things do slow down? I think you have to first out of the gate before anything else. You have to not concede the winter months. Like if I'm a football coach and you're the wide receiver and you come out and you're like, well, sorry, coach, I can't run those passes when they move this guy to cover me. He's just too good. I'm not going to put you on the field. I want you to come and say, hey, that guy's really good. We're going to have to do this and this and this and this. And we're going to try this play and I'm going to have to run this route this way, which is different than I normally do it. I will not concede the winter months. And so ask yourself, what could you do, especially for a few years, just to get the debt knocked way, way down or get it paid off? What could you do? Yeah, so that's been the problem. So the last few years, because I've been in business for seven years now. But I'd say the last three years, I've taken out loans to get through the winter. And it's just ended up that way where, you know, I, I felt like I had to, it was like my last chance, obviously not. Yeah, not the way to go about it. So I'm, I'm still paying one back from last winter, but the optimistic side, what you're saying, this is my first season where I've gotten a good contract for snow removal in the winter. So hopefully it snows, not like last year. But yeah, I've got 15 properties. It could potentially be good money. So I'm hoping to not take a loan. So that would be huge. I think let me tell you right now, I almost promise you you're going to take a loan and here's why, because you haven't taken it off the table because if it is, I've got this contract, but I'm not willing to just go just start dropping me and my crew off at neighborhoods and knocking on doors. Or if there's no, if the contract didn't come through, if it, if we have another winter, like we had last year where there was zero snow, um, I'm going to go throw boxes. I'm gonna go get two full-time jobs and just pause this thing. Cause here's what's gonna happen. You're going to come up with a contract and you're going to feel it, figure out a way to squeak by. And then the axle is going to fall off your wife's car. And since you haven't taken a loan off the table, you're just hoping that this year that I'm not going to use one, I can almost guarantee something's going to happen. And you're going to take a loan out. You have to scorched earth it. You're $365,000 in the hole, man. You have to say this ends now. I'll never do this again. So what must be true then? So, and that's, uh, so, and I am trying to take steps that way. So I do have right now, like I've been trying to gear for this, right? So I have 30,000 in my retained earnings account. Um, and then I do have 81 in my operations account, 81,000. And then I have 246,000, uh, in incoming projects coming up. Obviously not all that is coming to me. Um, you know, materials, labor, all that stuff. What's your draw? What's your, what is your projected draw from that amount from those contracts? What we, what will you take home? To you and your wife? Um, cause that number sounds big and cool, but after expenses and paying everybody off and it can be $5,000. I was going to say the goal, like if it was a perfect world, it'd be 20%. Um, but I think realistically, you know, some jobs take longer than, uh, you think. And, you know, so you're bringing home what? 50? No, you bring home 20. Um, so if it's 246,000, 20% of that would be 40 or 50. Right. So, and if you're being realistic, it's going to be less than that, right? Yeah. So that, so let's just say if I had 30, that would put me in probably, let's say 60,000 would be safe. Like in the retained earnings account after that's done. Yeah. Cause that was what you're going to add. Okay. Well, my question is your household, how much you, you've been lumping the debt. And I'm just curious what the $365,000, what, what, what is towards the business and what are you guys operating as a household? Totally. So business debt, is uh three hundred and twenty five thousand of that okay um and then yeah personal what's the forty thousand is it credit cards cars what is it um so yeah thirty four thousand is uh i have one credit card left so it started at sixty four at the beginning of this year just so you know okay you guys have been working it down yeah that's great yeah um so yeah twelve thousand on a credit card uh three thousand on another credit card um three thousand medical debt and uh and then fifteen thousand is my wife's car okay uh have you guys cut up the credit cards yes yep no credit cards left um yeah amazing we've got all that done are you guys doing a budget do you know pretty like strictly of okay here's what we need to operate the household and then anything extra that's coming in we're going to get that paid off yeah asap like do you guys have a plan mapped out for that yeah yeah so i have been using every dollar um which is a ton um what does your business make a year uh so this year we're going to do right around probably 1.3 million okay and i guess i mean that's tough man because you've got a good business how many guys you got working for you uh six right now yeah that's great yeah you got a good business and you just gotta get a good business you gotta get a good business you gotta get a good business i think you just gotta tighten some things up matt and i think part of it is a values thing of saying this is how we're going to operate this business going forward and we don't have an option for debt so either i have to lay people off because i can't make payroll or i like you know what i mean like it is going to be a pretty hard and fast role and then aggressively within the business where you can cut back and where that revenue can really float to to profit to in order to be aggressive with this three hundred and twenty five thousand dollars of of the business side of debt you keep taking out loans on depreciating assets all those mowers and tractors and trucks go down in value every day and you're going to be in a cycle until you just say never again i will not borrow a dollar ever again that's true so we got to figure out how to make this thing work you you you if your business is making seven figures or more you should be proud of that but that growth probably brought a mess with it systems that don't talk to each other it's impossible to track down your numbers because they're scattered everywhere that's a visibility problem and net suite has solved that problem for more than forty four thousand businesses like yours net suite brings financial security and financial security and financial security and financial security and financials inventory crm and more into one place and their ai tool net suite next builds ai into everything automating busy work like forecasting demand and chasing down overdue accounts it's not complicated to use you just ask it questions like you're talking to a person and you're not starting from scratch because net suite is built on leading practices from thousands of businesses pre-loaded and ready to go ramsay solutions switched to net suite years ago it helped us know our numbers and we've never looked back if your revenue is at least seven figures try net suite next for free at net suite dot com slash ramsay that's net suite dot com slash ramsay or click the link in the description welcome back to the ramsay show and the fair winds credit union studio up next we have steve in boston hi steve welcome to the show hey it's great to talk to you and john how are you thank you so much thanks for calling in we're doing great how can we help thanks well my wife and i met with a lawyer this morning for our will to update it and here's my my quick background we have 15 a year old 18 and 20 year old we have two million dollars in life insurance and probably about four half four hundred thousand in net worth between the house and the investments is all and if we both died today me and my wife she's 51 i'm 48 if we died today um you know that 2.4 million we we i'm looking for your advice and guidance and suggestions and best practices of what people typically do and why regarding when to let the trustee uh um i'm looking for your advice and guidance and suggestions and best practices of what people or give over the money completely to the to the young adults uh 21 phase it in 25 31 like what what can you teach me about that or guidance because my lawyer the estate planning lawyer he's like well you have to decide and i was frustrated with him and you're like no tell me what to do hey brother can i shout you out just for you and your wife sitting down and doing what i think is the most like the most important thing a couple can do for their children which is to make a plan for the worst good for you man i know it's not easy it's not fun but i just want to shout you out i'm proud of you dude thanks it's good and you're wrestling with good questions yeah they are good and and i think it's i mean this is one that's it's not black and white and i think it depends family dynamic by family dynamic kid by kid even for some people's situations um and the way you you view some of this you know the way we've set it up is yeah we had a certain age at which they are going to be given up and they're going to be given up and they're going to be given up and they're going a portion like if winston and i die um i think there's a there's a portion for college like if they're 18 because mine are younger than yours steven we had a portion at 21 25 and 30 and then we had some like addendums what's the like inside of that that if they were married for instance and they were wanting to buy a house they could tap in to more like we put in some situational kind of bullet points under some of the ages that we felt comfortable um and then we had some you know with the trustee and everyone making the decisions all together um and trusting everyone in that process is is a really big deal too like the person we have that's going to be distributing money i very much trust and i don't think there's any weirdness and they they're really good with money they're used to seeing big numbers and i and i trust the value system of their parenting and all of that that i would feel good if something came up and they're like yep that is a time that we would be okay giving more and i think that's a really big deal too so yeah we so all so that's a long answer steven but we have ours through blocks with specific life events that can alter and kind of open up some of these buckets earlier if they need to and and mine's very very similar the the one difference is probably i had some specific things um and what rachel just said is really important i'm fully i mean literally fully trusting this person who's my trustee right so i have a 16 year old and a 10 year old and the first rattle out of the bag if something happened to me my wife today is um one of them they're gonna they would go live with somebody we've already designated where they'd go live i want to make sure they get through that that family has the resources they need to take care of our kids and since that family has their own kids that they're gonna have to deal with that then we're gonna cover tuition and that might include a small junky car and this this guy i went to college with so he knows what i drove in school so i'm not worried about him buying my kids a bmw or something right so i'm not worried about him buying my kids a bmw right and then it staggers by by age with the same addendums that if my son comes home and he's 22 and he got married and they want to buy a house that i'm not going to make you wait till 30 right if if you you got a job you're doing you're doing those things so we were thinking we just changed it because we updated it but i've been listening to you since 2015 you guys have changed my life financially my wife and i i'm unreal i couldn't tell you i've read a bunch of your books and smart money for my kids and everything else really this year but um so we're going to talk if we died my 15 year old who's a sophomore in high school uh we are making the guardian of him our daughter who's 20 and my 18 year old 18 you know so they'd be living in the house as of like say we died tomorrow right and then you know she turns 21 does she know that oh she's she wouldn't have it any other way is what she told us yeah so and here's the challenge there you are and this isn't a bad thing i just want you to own this you are injecting conflict into their relationship well because like he doesn't want he doesn't want to go live with anyone else of course he's only 15 he's gonna be 16 and well in the spring and my 16 year old almost there i get it but and my 16 year old asked me the other day if he could drive to florida by himself to go fishing like 15 to 16 year olds what would you recommend as an alternate like because my brother who's the same as what you said rachel you trust this person he's looking he's used to seeing big numbers he's the trusting and executor right so okay that that makes me feel better then because what i what i would be concerned about the 20 year old was that is your 15 year old having to go to the 20 year old and saying can i have money for no no no no not at all this is just getting through two years of high school basically right my daughter would be like signing off on parent-teacher conferences right okay that sounds great if she's in for that then i'm i'm okay with that if you trust her and she's in for it and that's that's fantastic i just i just don't want to inject conflict into her life immediately that suddenly the 21 year old is now the bank who's holding two million dollars and this is through the eyes of a 15 year old and you won't let me go to the movies you won't buy a new car you won't and suddenly they go to work with each other so yeah if the 21 year old has to go to your brother and you have and i'm saying this loosely but if you have adult supervision over this that that makes me feel all kind of all kind of better you know i'm with you i'm with you i was thinking maybe because let's say like my 21 should be 21 in may like maybe she gets access to 100 grand 200 grand maybe she wants she was talking about she's going to graduate actually this coming summer from college and but she'd go through debt free she paid her own way it's awesome my second son too he's going debt free paying his way y'all get to decide all that stuff but like maybe maybe she gets a hundred thousand something two thousand two thousand and then at i was thinking at 25 or 31 they could have access to more because i don't want like if they if they blow the hundred two hundred thousand then maybe after 10 years of growth in a mutual fund at 31 they're like all right i'm not gonna screw this up again yeah totally 100 yes and i think all that's i think all that's fair and you're gonna not like this but your your attorney was right rachel and i aren't going to take these choices from you you and your wife have to look at each other and you'll have to come to an agreement and make this call on your own you guys are so cool i love you thanks a lot um and and again thank you for for thinking about the future like this it's awesome it's such a big deal you guys and you it's a it's an important subject when it comes to wills and if you've not done a will then getting a state-specific will is so important now if there's if there's a bigger estate situation getting you know an estate attorney involved it's very smart right and if there's a family trust you need to set up like i mean all of that but if if you need a basic will that gets your family covered you guys go to mama bear legal forms they have the ability and it's so quick it's like 20 minutes i got a mama bear will when i moved from texas to tennessee because i needed one right away oh my gosh so easy yes it's state but state specific inexpensive they walk you through the process everyone needs a will everyone you if you're being crushed under the weight of phone calls from debt collectors at all hours or getting nasty letters threatening a lawsuit it can feel like there's no way out but it's not too late there is real help out there with guardian litigation group guardian is an actual law firm not one of those debt relief programs that promises sunshine and unicorns and that matters because if a creditor comes after you you're going to have to pay for it and you're going to need someone who can do more than negotiate over the phone guardian assigns you a real attorney from day one so if a creditor sues you've already got someone standing beside you and guardian doesn't charge you any extra to represent you in court guardians attorneys have helped over 55 000 people settle more than 600 million dollars in debt and that is why i trust them and you can too so look there is a way out but the longer this drags on the fewer options you have you have to deal with it now while you still can so go to guardian lit.com slash ramsay that's guardian lit.com slash ramsay or click the link in the description attorney advertising results may vary and no specific outcome is guaranteed up next we have megan in boise i hi megan welcome to the show hello hi how are you good how are you doing great how can we help i am trying to see if i should keep or get rid of my whole life insurance okay what's going on so my husband passed away and i have three kids oh i'm so sorry megan i have that's okay i have health issues and i couldn't qualify for any term insurance so i just accepted what i was given basically um but i'm not going to be able to get rid of my whole life insurance so i'm going to just wondering if it's worth it or if my money is better better elsewhere um how how are you financially did he have life insurance when he passed no no and things have been really really really hard yeah like i just burned my emergency fund because we had an emergency so i feel like i'm starting over when did he pass away three years ago okay gosh megan i'm so sorry um so in your situation it's one of the rare instances that i would say and we would we would tell you to yeah keep your whole life policy um okay because you can't qualify for it and and that is like a little bitter coming out of my mouth because it's it's such not a great product but when it comes to life insurance you need life insurance and we find when people run into and it's usually medical reasons pre-existing conditions and they don't qualify for term it is one of the only times we say regardless you need life insurance but what i would do is i would go to zander insurance and have them help you shop a policy because whole life is so gross like that whole industry that they i just feel like they take advantage of people they have crappy products all of it zander actually will be able to help navigate to find you the best bang for your buck if that makes sense it's still going to be more expensive um and different things but it is still well worth it because especially i mean yours is like one of the more extreme situations right you're a single mom and you're not going to be able to afford it and you're not going to be able to afford it and you're not going to be able to afford it and you're not going to be able to afford it and you're not going to be able to afford it and you're not going to be able to afford it you do have health issues all of this and you want those three kids taken care of and so having something in place is better than having nothing but will you will you visit our friends at zander you you can at least go online or even call them um because i trust them so much in the in the life insurance space that they really take care of people and people that run into things like your situation too okay and my policy is only for 230 000 i couldn't even qualify for a lot okay oh yeah can i tell you this megan um yeah i know i know you feel like you burned your emergency fund you had an emergency come up and can i flip that around and say i'm so proud of you that in the fog of the last three years trying to pick up and figure out what is even up and navigate three kids navigate your own health challenges navigate the loss of your ride or die you still manage to scroll some money away in an emergency fund for this exact moment thank you i'm proud of you for that that's that's that's incredible that was three years ago you in the darkness thinking about future you otherwise what's what's the what's the deal you're you had to go take out a loan for 10 grand or 15 grand and now you're underwater you're not just you're not just on dry land you're underwater and because you did that so i know it feels scary it feels like all that that insecurity is back right and and that's right and good and you got to go rebuild that emergency fund because that's a math problem right it's not a feelings problem it's a math problem but man i'm proud of you for doing that for just this moment so good thank you thank you so good sorry i know that's okay thank you so much i appreciate it hey real quick before you go what was his name josh was he awesome he was the best yeah he was the best he really loved our kids yeah well shout out to josh man for being a good guy you're incredible megan though i mean all single moms in general whether you're walking through a death a divorce whatever it is and you know you're a single parent out there doing it and making the way um it that is i think that is one of the most incredible things that any person on the planet can do and you've stepped up like exactly what john was saying i'm like that is that's what you do and that's why it's there that's like it's the gift it's not the oh crap i have to use the emergency fund it's thank god i'm like that's what you do and that's why it's there that's like it's the gift it's not the i have to use the emergency fund because there is i have it to use yeah that there is one oh man yeah so that you know we talk about life insurance on the show i feel like will's and life insurance it's like the two like kind of want want topics but they are very important to your overall picture you guys and um you know you even hear megan's story and it's like man the importance of getting insurance in place and even you know getting term life for obviously if something were to happen but obviously to hers and we've heard this story for a long time and we've heard this story a lot go ahead and get something locked in yeah before even something within you health-wise right that where you can't qualify i hear that from young folks like well i don't i don't need any life insurance because i don't like now's the time to buy now's the time to do it get like a 15 year policy yeah and you got and it's locked in and it's there and so these are some really really important things but our friends at zander you can go to zander.com or 800-356-4282 give them a call you guys to for sure for term life for those of you that um and hopefully majority of people you know you can qualify and get get something in place um but life insurance in general it is a way to say i love you to my family and so megan even you doing that um i think is a way to love your kids in it and so um and for whatever it's worth that's not just a spiel like zander's got that's who i know it's the it's wrote my policy that's right so it's not us just trying to sell you something that's who i trust yeah event something happens and because they're an insurance broker you guys so they're shopping all different kinds of companies they're not just giving you a quote for one that's why i like them i like they're - They're on my team. - I need options. - They're on my team. - Yes, and I get to pick. of the best resources out there. All right, let's go to Jacob in New York City. Hi, Jacob. Welcome to the show. Hi, guys. Thank you so much for taking my call. You got it. So my question is, I'm starting, well, first off, my wife and I are expecting a baby in the next couple of days. Oh, my gosh. Congratulations. Thank you very much. So my question is, I'm starting PA school. That's physician assistant school in about two-ish months. And I have some money saved away in a brokerage. And my wife also has a little bit of a smaller brokerage. We have some money saved away, but not enough to pay for the whole school. And initially, before I started listening to you guys, I thought, oh, I'll obviously keep everything in my brokerage. It's all in S&P stuff, 10% a year. So I was like, I'll just keep those and take it all alone. But obviously, after listening to you guys, no loans is definitely the way to go. So I wanted to ask you guys, I have money, but not enough to pay for all of it. And obviously, with the baby coming and me not being able to work so much in PA school, I kind of wanted to know how to navigate. Should I sell all of my stuff in my brokerage, pay as much as I can? Should I keep some? Should I not? I would move everything in that brokerage, since you have a dedicated thing. Tell me if I'm wrong, Rachel. I'd move all of it now to a high-yield savings account, because you're talking about a two- or three-year plan, right? Yeah. Right. And you're not going to like this answer, but because I love you, I would tell you to reach out and defer your admission for one year and work real hard and save up the rest. And I know that answer is the worst, the worst answer. Well, I was going to ask, how are you guys, what were you thinking about just paying bills and life if you were going to be in school? Was it full-time? Yeah. So the school is full-time. While she's on maternity leave, what are y'all going to do? Right. So when she's on maternity leave, she's going to be on maternity leave. She'll obviously get paid her full salary. And then after work, she's planning to work, she'll probably make about like 50 a year or so. And then the job I'm doing now, I can kind of move into like a managerial role for like a couple hours a week of work and get 18K. So it'd be like 68 total for the year. So not like terrible. It would be tight. But my parents would also be helping us with $1,000 a month. For tuition or for electric bills? For like life, electric bills. And if you look at y'all's combined savings and then what the total tuition bill is going to be, how short are you? I think if we use all of our savings and that doesn't include retirement, I would say maybe like 40,000 short. Okay. Oh yeah. Yeah. You're kind of way off. I just don't think Andrew or Jacob, I just, I don't think you're in a, in a place right now to afford it. Yeah. It's a hard conversation. I'd defer it for a year. Yeah. And I don't think I would drain everything down to zero either. I would, with a baby, I would keep a, an emergency fund in place. And then anything above that is what I would count towards tuition. But I think you guys probably have another year of, of saving up for it. And they will defer your admission. Yeah. They will defer it. Oh, and it's not the fun answer. And that's part of the annoyance of moving at the speed of cash, but it's ultimately going to be way more peaceful to do it this way. Slow and steady and patience. But that's what we would do. If you've ever been really sick or been the caregiver to somebody who was, you know how broken the healthcare system can be. Man, nothing is easy. Finding the right doctor, sitting on hold for hours, or gosh, trying to understand co-pays and treatment plans and weird medical terms that no one really explains. And so much paperwork. But what if you had someone to do all of that for you? Someone to take the burden off your shoulders. 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Our question of the day is brought to you by Ask Ramsey, your free AI app. It's a free app money tool that provides personalized money answers based on Ramsey principles. Visit RamseySolutions.com slash Ask Ramsey. Today's question comes from Tyrone in Ohio. Tyrone writes, I'm planning to pay off my mortgage early. Good, good, good. I have an aggressive savings goal, but now I'm wondering if it's better to pay an additional amount on the principal every month rather than put the money in CDs or a high-yield savings account until I reach the balance needed to pay it off. Which way would fit your advice about paying off a home? Um, no, I would put it to the principal every month. Yeah. So it sounds like I used to do that where I would, I liked the feeling of sending a big chunk, a chunk. Right. Um, and like being able to put an extra thousand bucks every month doesn't feel like you're doing anything when it's a big number, but when you send 12,000 after a year, it feels like you did something right. Right. But that interest kept just cooking. Going. Yeah. From a mathematical perspective, as much as you can put on the, on the principal as quickly as possible, that's, that's going to be your best route. I didn't think about that though. The, uh, the, like the excitement of being like, Ooh, here's a big chunk. We're going to see this number drop. So one time versus like, I always looked and I remember telling my wife like, Hey, the first number is a two instead of a three now, or it's a one. And that's the only way I could feel like I was making any progress. Yes. Yes. Um, but yeah, just, just, just make it a regular habit to just kick that principal down. Yep. That's a good question though. Great question. All right. Let's go to Jeff in Savannah, Georgia. Hi Jeff. Welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for having me on. How are you guys? Yeah. Doing great. How can we help? Awesome. Uh, so my situation is I just sold a Pokemon card for $90,000 and, uh, never had this amount of money before. Um, so I'm a little bit, you know, people, people, this is go ahead. I sold a, I sold a Pokemon card, uh, that I collected, uh, in my youth for $90,000. I love America. Me too. You have a cartoon character on a piece of cardboard worth $90,000. It's crazy. Which one was it? Not that I would know. So, uh, so it was, uh, the, the character was Meowth, uh, who's pretty popular too. And, uh, it was from a, a short printed, uh, series called the legendary collection in which there were these like reverse hollow foils. Yeah. That, that are really popular. Just so you know, Jeff, there's a couple of, uh, nerds, I mean, a couple of dudes in the booth and they are just cheering. They're cheering you on, man. Oh, they are. They're pulling up Google images. They are so excited. So excited. I'm going to take a wild stab. You don't have a girlfriend, do you? I'm just kidding. Totally kidding. Totally kidding. Um, are, are, are you by yourself? Are you married? You dating somebody? What's that look like? Single. Wait, what did you say? I just cut out. I am currently single. Oh no. Wait, Jeff, say it one more time. Put your. I'm, I'm currently single. Okay. So we made you say it three times. Yeah. He's like, I'm single. Um, okay. Awesome. What do you make a year just in your job? Uh, about $60,000 a year. 50,000? Um, in the food and beverage. Yeah. Yeah. Food and beverage industry. Awesome. Okay. How old are you? Uh, 33. Okay. How much debt do you have? Uh, debt, I think I have like maybe two or $3,000 in outstanding credit card debt, but I did use some of this money to pay off my car. Oh, good for you. It's good for you. Yeah. Okay. Great. How much was that? How much did you pay off? Uh, $7,500. Good. Awesome. Yup. Yup. Um, any other, any other debt or is that it? No, uh, no other debt. That's it. Okay. Okay. So are you down then to, to 83,000 ish? Yes. Okay. Perfect. Yes. And. Well, plus, you know, plus whatever savings I had maybe about $10,000 in savings before that sale. Great. Where are you living right now? Um, I'm in South Carolina. Coastal, coastal South Carolina. Okay. I mean, I'm sorry. Like, um, are you renting? Are you living with friends, parents? Oh, sorry. Uh, yeah, no, I, I rent, I rent. Okay. Yeah. Are you going to be in that area for a while? Do you think, or, cause I might, my next big step for you would be probably saving for a down payment on a home and going ahead and getting into the market and starting that process. But I didn't know if you're, if you're still. No, I, I, you know, that's a great question. I don't know if I want to stay in this area. Okay. For like the length of time that, uh, you know, uh, buying a home. Okay. A home would demand, um, but real estate is like the first thing on my mind. would love to stop throwing money down the drain renting but I just don't know if even now is a good time to be thinking about that like I just I I was you know so far away from the thought process a month ago um and now I'm kind of like I feel like I have a million options but you know you don't know what you don't know for sure that's kind of why I'm calling into the show how have you been in South Carolina um so I just moved back to the area uh about this time last year previously I was living up in Atlanta Georgia what brought you back uh it actually was a girl that brought me back to uh the coast here man I feel like I'm just kicking you while you're down sorry you are you are it's all good man uh and here's why I'm asking um sometimes people say like I don't know if this is going to be my forever place and then you blink and you've been there seven years sure right yeah and so um there's something about and it's it's very countercultural but there's something about saying I'm gonna put down some roots and I'm gonna not going to bounce around and bounce around and try to find home somewhere I'm going to plant some roots and make this home and then if a job calls me away if if another relationship calls me away great I'm gonna I'll follow that but um there's something powerful about that and I gotta say this man I'm so happy for you I appreciate it everybody is into their own weird things I don't care who you are and good for you for collecting whatever would you say meow pokemon yeah yeah it's a meow yeah yeah it's a meow yeah and good for you for not being somebody who's like no no no this is going to be like my retirement you saw a good deal you took your chips off the table the whole thing I'm just proud of you it's awesome I'm really happy for you that's cool so yeah so Jeff if I were you honestly I would I would open up an account probably with fairwinds because you can have 10 different high yield savings accounts with them I would open up one labeled emergency funds and put I don't know how much you need for a three-month emergency fund 15 grand I don't know 20 grand in there put it in there sure and then have another account and then I would open up another account and then I would open up another account and then I would open up another account and then I would open up another account and it's just kind of your hey this is probably going to be my down payment account and you'll probably have I don't know 73 in there or so and I would start putting money away and building that up and at the same time Jeff you need to be investing in retirement are you doing any of that not so far okay so you need to open up a Roth IRA and I don't know with where you're working you said food and beverage I don't know if you're with a restaurant I don't know what you know benefits are. and everything in your situation but if you if there is some type of 401k or anything plug into that but for sure a Roth IRA you can put up to $7,500 and we say to invest 15% of your income into retirement which is where you're going to be and that's about $7,500 of your of your income which is perfect so I would fully fund my Roth IRA from here on out every single year okay make that a goal and then any extra money beyond that I would throw into that high yield savings to bump up that $7,500. and and I mean honestly getting into real estate I think it's it's it's definitely one of those things it's better now than later but only now if you're ready and I don't know if you know you're ready from a destination standpoint to settle roots like what John's talking about and you probably aren't ready fully with a big down payment enough to find something I don't know what the market is where you are but there's also something to be said for like your life just changed right you basically got two years worth of income in a check yeah. and so there's something about getting your debts cleared off getting a Roth fully funded for the year and then just putting that money in high yield savings account and leave it alone for six months and just become emotionally unattached because you're gonna feel like I gotta I gotta I gotta and every friend every co-worker every grandparents gonna have trader friend yeah yeah is gonna have an opinion on what you need to do with this man I'd love to see you just let the smoke clear on the emotions that's a big swing it's awesome it's cool you scratch the lottery ticket um called Pikachu. what is it meow whatever it is and dude you you won $90,000 that's amazing just exhale for a minute yeah you use your clinical words like just attach from it over a season yes yes you'll have cash if an opportunity shows up and that's cool yep absolutely and how and if you don't do that you end up spending it how quickly you'll burn through 80 grand oh man could be so fast so fast so you gotta yeah be be slow with it too Jeff which I think is important but man the baseball cards the Pokemon cards I love it it's a real thing it is a real out there and everybody's into their thing I'm not gonna make fun of nobody I'm brother my parents and their addicts still have my brother from elementary school which would have been oh one his old Pokemon cards he needs to get him out you just said that like it was a thousand years ago I was doing the math in my head I'm like how old I love a good sale I also love the holidays but if you're like me sometimes those two don't mix well because six promo codes and a commercial later it's so easy to convince yourself that you need just one more scented candle or a waffle maker shaped like a Christmas tree and some flannel pajamas the temptation to spend more than you budgeted for is real that's why I love having a you the most right now? Like fear like this grows like a cloud, right? And then the cloud gets bigger and heavier and it lays on you. And sometimes when things get scary, like just ducking and hiding out, that's actually the right thing to do for a season, for a minute, right? The thing that I think you're longing for is on the other side of this. And that means the only way through this fear is through this fear. And I would tell you, and this isn't a statement of your character or strength, you can't do this by yourself. And I think the thing you need right now, remember this line, facts are your friends now. You need to know what this number is because right now you're fighting this invisible dragon. You don't know how big this dragon is, how scary this dragon is. You might get that number and that dragon's real and is breathing on your neck and it's a big, scary dragon. But at least. At least you'll have a target now. But right now you just have a big cloud and you don't know where it's coming from. It just feels like it's everywhere. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And so standing up and owning and saying, okay, I don't know where to go next. I don't know what to do next, but I'm going to go find out this number and we'll give you some ideas on where to go. But I'm going to start walking through this thing and I'm going to find the right person to walk with me. I'm going to get some real numbers and then I'm going to know what does my career look like? What does my job look like? But you'll have a target to aim towards. And so when you've called. I'm even trying to get out of trucking because I don't want to be doing it anymore. At 48, I'm sitting here, don't want to do it anymore. And I'm starting to learn like AI, so maybe I can actually step out of it. Yeah. And that's a problem for tomorrow. Because that right now is a distraction from that you're trying to like, can I work around this cloud even further? We're just going to go right through it. I haven't paid my taxes in 12 years and I know I'm going to have a big bill that I owe and I'm going to have to sit down with somebody. I'm going to have to face the music at some point. I'm going to be in charge of walking through that and I'm going to get the right professionals around me. I'm going to send you three months for free with our friends at BetterHelp. I want you to contact them and they'll be in contact with you within 24, 48 hours to have a licensed therapist talking to you. Okay. And they're going to take care of the cost on that. And tell me about this calling a tax pro. So you call a tax pro and you said the situation. And they said, we won't talk to you unless you give us $600 per year. You're behind. Well, they were, they talked to me for a little bit as far as what my situation is, but they, to help me, they want $600 a year to be able to get each year straightened out and filed to see where I'm at. Oh, so they can't even figure out where you're at until they file. And you haven't filed. It's not like you filed your taxes and didn't pay them. You just, you never even filed. No. And I want to learn how to do it. I want to do it all too, but. Again, write that stuff down. The stuff that you want to do. They're now in another state that I don't even live in anymore. Sure. But listen, the stuff that you don't, that I don't know if I even want to be in trucking anymore. I may want to learn AI. I want to learn how to do my own taxes. I want you to start writing that stuff down because those are distractions from I've got to get some real answers and find out how big this dragon is. Right. I have all my transcripts for the last 14 years, but I don't, or 12 years, but I don't have to talk. I'm talking to them and it's harder to think of having to come up with another $600. Yeah. Amber, do you, do you have any money saved anywhere, anything in retirement or anything? No, no. Okay. Um, so what I would do is you can either contact them again, contact someone else and, or you can contact the IRS directly. Um, and if you have your pay stubs and everything, I'm wondering if there's a. A filing, you know, application that you can walk through with them. Um, it's probably going to be a headache getting them on the phone and doing it, but going directly to the source. I said, honestly, right now, that's what I would do. Probably going to the, it would be the right, the right move and seeing what those next steps are with them when it comes to filing. And, and then what they're probably going to do. Um, cause you're past the 10 year mark. They're going to probably put you on a payment plan. Um, and it will be, it will probably be a long road to get out of this, but, but it may not be to John's point though. I mean, depending on what you made, you know, every year and, you know, I don't even know if you can look back and do. Your employers may have paid a big chunk of this tax. Um, yeah. On your, like, who knows? Yeah. So you need to get that number. Um, and that's going to help you navigate. Yeah. And sometimes the IRS does things, you know, if it's a two, 10 year old at that 10 year mark, if there's something there, yes. And then above, like, it's going to, it's going to take some, um, strength on your end, Amber, and it's going to take some energy to fight this and to get the, get what you need, but it's going to be worth it because some of this fighting could save you tens of thousands of dollars at the end of the day. And just knowing yourself that, um, and I don't want this to sound like it's beating you up by any means, but you know, it's like, okay. I owed this and I didn't pay. And so now I'm having to pay. Right. So now looking forward, it's going to be a lot of my paycheck is going to things that should have already been paid and are not paid. Right. It's almost like this reconciliation of like, this is what it is. The bill came due. Yep. And I'm going to do the next right thing. That's right. And that might involve a settlement. It might involve a payment plan. It might involve any number of, might involve you getting a second job or a third job, but all I want you to hear me and Rachel, we believe in you. Yes. And we're empowering you in moments when you don't feel like you have any power left. We're telling you. Pick up the phone and make that phone call. And if you have to write out a script for what you're going to say and just read it directly, I have not paid my taxes since 2012 and I'm ready to get right with it. Like write that stuff down and just begin to take full ownership. But hang on the line. We'll hook you up with a professional therapist. I think they'll, they'll be really helpful to walk with you. We'll see you next time. All right. Let's go to Jacob in Dallas, Texas. Hi, Jacob. Welcome to the show. Hi, how are you guys? We're doing great. How can we help? Awesome. So just to get to it, our mortgage is over 50% of our household income. And when we first bought the house, it was only about 30% of our income. But four months ago, we had our first baby. And my wife. Is now a stay-at-home mom. And so now we're just on my income. And so now that mortgage feels a lot less of a blessing. And I'm honestly just trying to weigh my options. I, my two options that I have in my head are either try to get my wife to do some kind of work to get our income up, or we try to sell the house. Your framing of the first thing is not a good frame. It's not a good frame. I just got to get her to make some more money. Like, uh, that's, that's a tough one. So, um, here's the thing in Rachel hopping here, y'all made a values decision and the values decision was made before the math on that values decision said, is this possible or not? And so you made a values decision, which is, um, your wife wants to be a stay-at-home mom. You, you want to support her being a stay-at-home mom, but y'all still have this math problem, right? Yes, sir. And so it may be that y'all traded, um, it, you traded. Uh, her full-time job for her being a part, uh, having a part-time job because you have a math problem, or it may be that this value that you have of her being a stay-at-home mom is going to cost you this big fancy house y'all have been. And every values that every, every value that anybody anchors into always has a cost to it, a consequence to it. And it's frustrating. It's annoying, but it's just reality. Right. And so I wouldn't, I wouldn't over get over existential about it. Like we made a call. This is important to us. This matters. And here's what it's going to cost us. No, I'm, I'm, I'm oversimplifying it. Right. And I'm under dramatizing it for the first time ever. Um, selling your house is a huge deal, especially with a little kid. And it's probably a place y'all love and all that, but I don't know. You have a math problem in front of you, right? Sure. How much, how much do you guys make a month, Jacob, after taxes, but before, like, if anything's getting out for retirement or health insurance or anything, do you know what that number is? Yeah. So we currently bring in about 5,000 a month. Okay. And does that. Does that, again, does that number include, um, if you, you know, funding 401ks and health insurance and all that? Right now we're honestly not doing any investing. Okay. Okay. Okay. So 5,000 is pretty much it after taxes. Yes, ma'am. Okay. And how much is the mortgage? It's $2,686 per month. And what do you do for a living? I work as an estimator for a construction company. - Okay, do you see growth potential in your role? There is, to be honest, it's a smaller company. There's only four employees and we're still young. So there's some difficulties with that that come with that being a smaller company. However, there's also a great opportunity to grow with the company as the company grows as well. Yeah. But in the immediate, there's nothing. Can you take your skill set to another company? It's certainly possible. Yes, sir. And do you see how we're beginning to bounce? Well, I have a value that I want to be a part of this small startup and we have a value that we don't have a stay-at-home mom and we have a value that want to be homeowners. And you'll just have a math problem that says we can't do all those things. So what priority are we going to put in front of what? You get what I'm saying? Yes, sir. Yeah, I do. Yeah. So either there's going to, I mean, you can't do a side hustle for basic living expenses, right? Like I would tell you to do a side hustle to get out of debt and all these other things, but I wouldn't tell you to go get a side hustle for you to be able to pay a mortgage. Now, if your wife does want to do something on the side, you guys need to have that conversation. But it's kind of what John's saying. It is that something has to give in the situation. Either you're going to have to make more money, Jacob, and ideally in your salary, like your normal life, right? Your career. Yeah, exactly. She's going to have to bring in some and or you may not be able to afford this house anymore with one income. And that's a really hard reality. And I always, this is a big decision because moving is expensive. You're going through closing costs, all of it. You're trying to, I mean, it's a long process. Even to sell a home right now is tough. I mean, houses are sitting on the market longer than they have in a while. So even if you got it sold, right? And that's an if right now, it may not sell very quickly. So yeah, tonight, I think that's a conversation you guys are going to have to have. There's a couple of options on the table and it's like, which one are we going to pursue? And because I'll tell you, you know, the hard thing with this is $2,500 a month, you know, for food and everything. Like it starts to, or I guess it's really like $2,300 a month. It starts to get tight. Do you guys have debt, consumer debt? No, man. The only debt that we have is the house. Okay, great. Great. How much do you still owe on it? That's the problem is we owe about $351,000 on it. And the house is only worth about $360,000. We only bought it a couple of years ago. Okay. Yeah. So it's been pretty flat. Yeah. So here's how I'd have this. I'd have this conversation tonight is like lay out the values that y'all both talked about and kind of just stumbled into. Do you feel like y'all stumbled into it, Jacob? Did you guys talk about this when you, when she wanted to stay home? Did y'all look at your budget and talk through it? Or was it, was there conversation around that? I'm just curious. Honestly, we, yeah, we always wanted her to be a stay-at-home mom. So I'm fully on board and I support her in that. And so honestly, it was kind of our dumb decision to just like, cause we knew it was coming at some point, but we just assumed with no debt that we would be able to like, well, it'll be tight, but it's worth it for her to stay at home. And I still stand behind that, but we are, certainly realizing the reality of what it looks like to have over 50% of your income just immediately go out the door at the first of every month. So. Yep. For sure. Yeah. It's not sustainable long-term. And I've seen husbands and I don't want to over-gender this, but I've seen husbands approach this numbers first. Right. And I think it would be cool for y'all to sit down and say, Hey, it's really important that you're a stay-at-home mom. We've talked about that since we met. It's really important that we're homeowners. It's really important that I'm a part of this startup with these guys. I trust them. They're good. And the growth potential here is really great. But right now there's, there's nothing. And we have, instead of future potential earnings, we have a math problem today. And then to say, here's a couple of options. I'd love to hear what your options are, but we have some hard choices to make. Right. And that, that is, I'm going, I'm going, we're connected in this. It's you and me versus this problem. It's not, you got to go get yourself a job. I got to talk you into getting, getting some more money. Or she's got to talk you into quitting your job. It's you. It's us two versus this problem. I don't know. I don't see a world where you don't have to sell your house ultimately. Yeah. That's probably, probably what'll end up happening. I think the value of, for you guys from a family standpoint is going to be stronger than a house, which is great. And you get to, and you get to make that call. But being a stay-at-home mom and not having any money to do anything, it's not fun either. Right. So like there, there's a give and take there. I finally get to announce that my brand new book, building the marriage you want is available for pre-order. If you and your spouse have been feeling like roommates lately, like maybe this thing called our marriage has just run its course. Like this is just the way marriage is. I get it. This book is me sitting at the table with you and you and your spouse, helping you both take the next right step towards the marriage you both want. Marriage is still worth it. Order now for $24.99 and get over a hundred dollars in pre-order bonus items at ramsaysolutions.com slash store. Everybody needs insurance, but it can be really hard finding pros who aren't just looking to make money and agents that really know their stuff. So Ramsey trusted insurance pros, they are vetted and coached to make sure that their market experts who have your best interest at heart, go to ramsaysolutions.com slash coverage. To find the type of insurance that you're looking for and connect with a Ramsey trusted agents. All right, let's go to James in LA. Hey James, welcome to the show. Hi. So to jump right in, I am $22,240 in debt. And it is majorly because I have a mental disorder known as bipolar one. It causes me to be going to manic episodes where I'm very grandiose and impulsive and I spend money. All of my money is spent on a mental disorder. And I spend money on stupid things. The credit is being handled through a consolidation. I have a payment plan that's very low interest and that's fine. My major question is, and so my question is for the protocols that I have in place to try and keep myself from spending myself further into oblivion on my next episode. What happens, what I have now is when I feel that I'm going to be sick, I send almost all of my money cash to my parents to, or safekeeping. But my major question is my parents aren't going to be around for forever. And are there any protocols or ideas that you guys have that I can protect myself from myself when I'm sick? Yeah, that's a great, great question, man. So give me some context on what your psychopharmacology routine, dude, I'm talking like a nerd. Give me some, what does your treatment program look like right now? Are you taking care of yourself? Are you taking your meds? Are you going to see somebody? Are you developing? Yeah, I have a great doctor relationship for many years. I'm on a great medication plan. Excellent. Can I stop right there? Can I just tell you, I'm proud of you for that? Thank you. That's a big deal. Especially when you're out of a low season and it's the folks I've sat with over the years with, with bipolar one, it's tough when you feel quote unquote good, feeling quote unquote normal, right? Which I hate to use that word in this situation, but you know what I'm talking about? And then you're like, okay, cool. I don't need to take my meds anymore. I'm proud of you. That's awesome. The next layer beneath the pharmacology route, the medication is, do you have somebody that you're working with on a behavioral treatment plan? And what that looks like is not waiting until you find yourself running up to the edge of either side of this teeter totter, but coming up with a plan that you work day in and day out that becomes a part of your life so that you're not constantly in a state of reaction. Yeah. So I, I also work with therapists and I have like mood tracking and everything so that I can kind of like see things coming before they happen. Dude, I'm proud of you, man. That's so good. So good. Um, so I, I, I like the idea of stepping all the way back and not waiting for an emergency. And what I mean by that is, um, not waiting until like, even on your, on your tracking, you get to the very end here and then you take all of your money and you change all your pass codes and give them to your parents. Right. What would it look like to hire somebody that managed your money for you to give you a stipend every month? And that just became the routine. I would love that. I don't think I could afford that. Okay. I think it may be, especially with online programs, I think it may be infinitely more inexpensive than you think. Okay. But what you're looking for is not a solution to an acute problem. You're looking at a new lifestyle. And so for instance, this would be always, the way you enter into the world, like the way you're going to navigate the world, because you've got a, you've got a, a, a, like a set of challenges that most of us don't have. And so. Because you have these challenges, you're going to have a different operating strategy. So, like, for instance, for me, I have no access to credit cards because I don't trust myself. Me either. Right? And so – and I don't have a clinical reason why I don't, but I start – I will just spin myself stupid. And I don't even have – I don't have a reason like you do. I just have poor impulse control. And so I've taken that off the table, so now that means I've got to go through other avenues. And because I share an account with my wife, I can't just go spin that into a black hole, right? Because I've got an accountability partner. What you're looking for is you're going to need a professional accountability partner because you're smart enough to look down the road and say, my parents aren't going to be here forever, and so I'm going to begin to set up a life here. And if you can't afford something, do you have a – someone I would call a trustee, if you will, to borrow some legal language. But do you have a friend? Do you have a mentor? Or that you would trust to say, hey, I'm going to have my check deposited in this account, and you're going to be on it with me, right? And begin to create a life management plan instead of a problem management plan. That's a good way of putting it. And that would be I'm going to put a freeze on my credit. And so I have to go through some hurdles to even click on a buy now, pay later program, right? I'm going to put some – I'm going to take the internet out of my house. I'm going to do what I have to do to keep myself safe. And if you look at this not as a spending issue but as a safety issue, it's easier to get a little bit more radical about your solutions. James, I'm curious. How many times a year would you say you kind of have like an episode? Well, like this year was one, but it was one very long episode, like months. What does the underwater season look like for you? It feels like I'm in a – if you ever get caught in a wave and you're like – Sure. Pinned against the bottom of the ocean and you can see what's happening, but you can't do anything about it. How long does that last? How long does a depressive episode last? Depressive episodes can be a month to six months. Manic episodes can be two weeks to three months. A three-month manic episode. Yeah. I have a subcondition known as rapid cycling where I bounce back and forth. So I kind of count it all as one because it's all just one. Okay. I was going to say that. I don't normally – I don't normally hear of an extended manic episode that lasts 90 days. It's like six weeks and then a two-week break and then six more weeks and then a two – so, yeah. Okay. So there's a significant amount of time. This is a way of life for you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is unavoidable. Yeah. And so when we're looking at any sort of disability, any sort of challenge, we're just going to own that challenge and then we're going to make the necessary steps. And we're not going to look to our left or our right and say, what are our friends doing? What's our neighbors doing? What's my uncle Bill recommend? They don't get a vote. I'm going to do the things that I need to do now and forever. They're going to keep myself safe. And for you, that's just going to be a really strict behavioral management plan where you bring somebody else in on the regular, right? Whether that's – whether you hire that out, whether you get an online assistant or you have an uncle that you trust or a mentor that you trust and say, here's how – I'm inviting you into this. Would you be a part of this for me? And maybe we're going to look it up every year. We're going to change it. But we're going to make a plan long term. And kudos to you, James, because you've done that with your health already, right? You've reached out to people. Yeah. people and said i need a plan yeah you're unbelievable james this is incredible and this is just like another part of life that you're using what you've already done in these other parts to set up something for you to win which is very self-aware it's noble dude how old are you uh i'll be 29 okay okay um what tell me about this debt consolidation program um so i after my last episode i was i was all of a sudden 25 000 in debt it's through a company called christian credit counselors that my parents helped find how much do you make a year uh about 55 000 okay and i'm paying 570 a month yeah if they're you you may want to look into their terms and conditions i don't know how much it would cost you to get out because usually these these debt consolidation companies they'll consolidate debt sometimes they'll run your credits down the drain where they go and then negotiate the bills like there's there's all different they're not like a consolidation because i'm actually still paying my debtors directly they just negotiated on my behalf okay so they they went the 28 were down to six percent interest but what did that but have you done the math on paying them 575 a month plus paying your payments or does that 575 include your payments that includes that's everything and there's a 74 dollar a month fee okay everything else goes direct to the creditor okay and will you be able do they have something in place that if you wanted to be more aggressive you could pay more to the creditors every month no penalties okay perfect well it may be cheaper to stick in the plan stay there than bailing because sometimes there's going to be penalties and fees to get out i don't know you may want to just run some numbers there um ideally you wouldn't you could have done that you know yourself and not been in this because i'm not a huge fan of these companies but if you're in it i would still be as aggressive as possible to get out but james yeah i commend you for so proud of you dude yep doing all the great steps moving forward you listen guys i've heard just about every excuse for why folks think they can't get ahead with money so let's go ahead and settle this right now you get the final say on what happens with your money that's why you have to start telling your money where to go so you can stop wondering where it went so if you're going to start winning with money you have to get on a budget and the easiest way to get started and stick to it is with the every dollar budget app it'll help you make a plan for every single dollar coming in and every single dollar going out every single month and guess what it's free so no excuses download every dollar in the app store or google play today you next up we have nick in phoenix arizona hi nick welcome to the show hey how are you guys hi we're doing great how are you doing well thanks first of all i wanted to say thank you to you guys and also everyone that works behind the scenes uh really appreciate what you guys do i've been a listener for almost six years now and um really everything that i've learned or i think i know has come from this show and john another shout out to you man thank you so much you've helped me on the mental side of things uh more than you will ever know so thank you for all that you guys do thank you brother appreciate you man nick you're so kind well how can we help today okay uh so i want to know if i should be freaking out or not the answer is probably yes okay well great that's exactly why i'm here so um my wife and i are expecting our first child in uh the next two to three weeks congratulations thank you we are uh 32 and 33 um and right now i just want to uh i mean i could provide all the numbers if that makes the most sense to uh you know directionally have this conversation but um just want to know if there's anything more i could be doing better with managing debt and bringing a new one into the world and more or less just what can i be doing more oh is your question about money or is your question about oh my gosh i'm about to be a first-time dad in three weeks or both i think it's i think it's more around the money aspect because yeah that that that raises the flags with everything else right okay so nick how much debt do you guys have okay so total debt that we have right now is roughly 350 000 um 329 of that is my mortgage debt i would say our house is probably worse uh probably about 520 um and then man i did a bonehead decision and i'm so happy i i love dave but he would just spit me up and shoot me out right now um we did have to buy a new car just because our other ones wore down no you didn't all the way no you didn't we're gonna chew you up and you did not have to say take ownership i chose to go buy a new car i chose to uh we we actually had a total lost vehicle um and uh it was not only time but bringing a new one in the world we needed something safer reliable no no no no you're absolutely no i had two kids in prius nick rewind rewind rewind say it again i made some choices i made choices i made some choices there you go there you go so um out of the debt that is all that we have currently and we are being very aggressive on the new uh car payment um i expect to have it done in i don't know maybe less than a year and a half um but our income right now uh between the two of us is about 210 000 for the household um our 401k is sitting about 210 000. um i have a roth ira that has about 65 grand in it a brokerage with uh just under 15 emergency fund of 15 um a baby fund of a thousand dollars and a hsa currently of twelve hundred dollars okay and how much is the car how much is the car loan it's like 30 no you're not supposed to ask that how much is it the car loan that we have outstanding right now is about 25 grand 25 okay i had 20 written down you make 210 why in the world is it gonna take you 18 months yeah why and a year and a half just just with all the investing and uh you said you've been listening to the show for six years you know the baby steps i know i know when i stepped out of the line that's why i've been on the phone for so long and you keep stepping like you you didn't even have to call us you know you know what to do i know reach into that brokerage account and keep your emergency fund because you're having a baby in three weeks i won't make you like go down to zero keep the emergency fund i would i'd get the brokerage out and pay pay off pay off 15 000 of the 20 you'll have 10 000 left and then when mom and baby come home that car needs to be paid off by christmas nick what are you doing man i'm sorry okay thank you there you go you know you can't start crying nick you started no no no i'm playing all right so hey um for uh is your wife gonna is she gonna continue to work or is she gonna stay at home um i mean the goal one day would be for her to stay at home but as of right now with the the schedule the flexibility she's gonna continue to work because i think she would go crazy if she did not okay you think a lot of things what does she said that's that's in line the household the line okay all right so good well nick you're in a great spot okay you're doing great you guys make a great income investing like you're doing you're doing it all right you're just doing it a little out of order right now so just pause nick's plan pay off the debt and then get back on board that's all you gotta do okay and the the last the last part of this was uh i think there were some other callers that uh shared some some very great experiences um and you know they're they're shining some light over here as far as the last box that i don't think i have checked is life insurance for us today i know it's always yeah today i know it's always firm um and i i think that you know in general we're relatively healthy individuals doesn't matter doesn't matter my whole career has been is showing up to to homes to let kids or their loved ones know that their healthy parent friend relative is no longer with us today term life insurance with xander get on the phone today okay thank you so much and by the way exactly what right now as two healthy 30 year olds this is the great this is a great time oh i let her have the baby and all that and then she needs to go get it yeah but like as two 31 year olds who are healthy this is a great time to buy yes it's gonna be cheap nick you guys can get a lot of money seriously in life insurance a lot for it's very inexpensive and if she's and remember it's 10 to 12 times your annual income for what you guys need right okay so so be be remembering to get the right amount too um okay nick can i can i challenge you on something please okay now i know you know the show is nerve-wracking and you've been listening for a long time and getting on the air with us i know all that but there is an urgency to your voice and i want you to consider this what if you solved not for brokerage accounts and not for okay i move this here and triple stamp and a double stamp what if you and your wife solve for peace you'll make almost a quarter million dollars you'll have great equity in your home you've got a great retirement already underway what if the focus became we've done a bunch of good hard work we're going to go ahead and have no payments because we don't want one person on the planet telling me us what we want to do with our life and we're going to bring this baby home into peace not into the what about this and i'm a kid you get what i'm saying no absolutely and thank you for saying that like i said we we haven't had a ton of direction we've learned everything through this specific show i get it i i stepped out of line with the baby steps here um but it's a lot of work and it's a lot of work and it's a lot out of line like that that's what like a like a dad who used to be in the military that has kids he's like you're out of line like that's not our football coach like you're fine you're fine you're good you're good you take some of the pressure off yourself just follow the plan it's worked for millions of people man no i and and that's that's what i hope i'm getting across the phone it's worked for us so um i really really just appreciate you guys what you guys do and uh really what your guys's show brings to um the audience because it's so critical and it's so and uh i just wanted to really thank you thank you but nick but nick our shows doesn't mean much if people listen to it and they don't go do the stuff so go do the stuff right absolutely nicks thanks for calling and hey congrats you guys are gonna have a great new season of life it's so fun so fun and and i think some of your angst is like i'm like we're out we're out of balance we're out of whack everything's out of whack you're three weeks out just get back yeah get back in order and it's and you you guys are gonna be fine you've done some great things funding retirement i mean 210 you said they're 401k it's great you guys are on you're doing a fabulous job you are fine um but yeah it's the it's the consistency of something and and if you get off track how to get on just get back on and just keep going and i know it's boring and exciting but i do know also i grew up on road trips in an astro van without seat belts on the floorboard playing with barbies and we figured it out all i'm saying is you don't need a brand new car to have safety for your children you do want safety in car seats i get i get it but don't let that be an excuse to make a dumb financial move you you you've heard from me and the ramsey personalities for years but nothing beats actually getting together in person that's why we created the live like no one else cruise for seven days we're vacationing with you and 2500 ramsey people in the western caribbean with live shows us new content us and more if you're on baby step four or beyond come spend the week with us next march choose your cabin at ramsey solutions.com events or click the link in the show notes you you you , our scripture today comes from the thessalonians 5 16 through 18. rejoice always pray continually give thanks in all circumstances for this is god's will for you in christ jesus stephen covey said i'm not a product of my circumstances i'm a product of my decisions oh very good all right let's go to jesse in roswell hi jesse welcome to the show Thank you so much. Good afternoon. I have a question for y'all, surprisingly, right? That's why I'm calling in. Let me explain the situation. All right. So I bought in 2021 or early 2022, my wife and I bought one acre of land and we put a single light on it. Now everything is paid for, house, land, everything. But my question was, would you build a traditional home there, even though 70 to 75% of the surrounding homes are trailers, or would you look for land somewhere else to build on? I'd probably look for land, yeah, that has residential housing around, just because of the value of the property is probably not going to rise at the rate it would in a residential area. That's what I was thinking. That's what the holdup was. Awesome. Yeah. How much is the land worth? I know it, I'm not sure exactly what it's worth by itself. I know it was like 43 grand for the land itself and then development, electricity, septic, well, all of that. Yeah. Are y'all thinking about, are y'all thinking about, are y'all in a place to go build something? In the next year or two, yes, sir. That's exciting. Yeah, very cool, man. Yeah. So, yeah, you may want to, for cash flow purposes, a lot of people that end up building, you know, their current place, sometimes they'll sell it and go rent for a year while they build just to keep some cash flow going. But there's some options there for you guys of what you want to do during that process. How hard is it going to be to sell this place? I don't think it's going to be hard. Okay. Pretty high demand. Are y'all going to stay in the same community or are you going to leave community, leave state? Where are y'all going? I would say same community, you know, five, ten minutes away. Okay. It's a nicer neighborhood. Yeah. That's what I would do. Awesome. Yeah, good for you, man. Great. Thanks, Jesse, for the call. Let's go to Kevin in Salt Lake City. Hi, Kevin. Welcome to the show. hi how's it going doing great how can we help all right so i i don't have a lot of the input might need but so i'm trying to help my girlfriend out she's got bad credit from her from her uh ex-husband she is her ex-husband's brother you somehow used her credit to get a car and then he fraudulently stole your girlfriend's identity or she gave him with with no she didn't know about but her ex-husband did okay he he put her credit on her yeah on to get a car okay and then they weren't she wasn't able to um they didn't were able to pay it off or i don't know exactly like so what how long ago is this now this was like i think it was like i'm not sure but maybe 15 years ago it's been a long time it's been a long time but uh but now pretty much she's her credit's been so destroyed that now and she's from that one instance that's not from that one instance 15 years ago that's two cycles ago i i'm not sure if that was we're both telling you that that you're not getting the full story okay but yeah i'm she i'm not sure if it was 15 years it was a long time and she like literally has told me that she cannot get into an apartment or anything like that because her credit's really horrible um and so i'm just trying to figure out okay so what i would do kevin if i was her if you stop using debt i'll tell you how much debt does she have how does she owe honestly i'm really not sure because she doesn't have a car because she owns her car um she there well there's debt somewhere happening because in order to have a score and a bad score is meaning that she's not paying debt on time she's not diversified enough within her debt to get the score because the score is all about debt right so something is happening because if she pays off all of her debts and she's completely debt free and she doesn't own a home her credit score will go to non-determined like undetermined within six to nine months and then she'll be able to get an apartment if she has first month's rent and last month's rent and a security deposit majority of places will still rent that to you so her bad credit is something is happening in the present that's keeping it bad and that's what i'm trying to figure out my guess is she hasn't paid bills for a long long time yeah she will i think probably a little bit that too probably probably uh probably kevin i don't think you know a lot of information about it yeah right i mean i really appreciate you wanting to help her no no no no no i'm just saying like um i think there's a lot of information about it a lot for you if you're wanting to help her and she's wanting the help you're gonna have to uncover a lot of information to get to the bottom of it and that would start with you saying hey um you asked for my help um go pull your credit report yeah all three of them yeah it's free to do that and let's see how what the situation is yeah how long have y'all been together i'd be two years now okay and it's and you're able to tell us with all honesty this is a woman who pays all her bills she's always on time she takes care of everything um and we just can't figure out why her credit is so low as far as i know i know i know i know some of it i know i think she has been late on some of her phone bill it's just because um after her ex and then split yeah brother that was 15 years ago yeah but like you said i'm not sure it was 15 years ago but i i'm not sure it was 15 years ago but i'm not sure it was 15 years ago i'm just guessing because okay so i would say i think i think you're being very kind of wanting to help your girlfriend right like i think that's a very fair um yeah so what you need to do with her is you guys need to sit down tonight you can go to transunion experience you can go to these websites free credit report.com and get all three of them and there you go thanks john simplifying and print it off and you guys look through it line by line because it's going to show exactly what's going on and my curiosity would be would you be able to show me what's going on would she be open to that i don't know she she might be but because i have asked her kevin i think there's a lot going on i'm not i'm not the psychologist no i'm not a psychologist either i'm just i'm just a woman i'm getting a little you sound like you're getting taken to the cleaners and i'm just a woman good grief rachel no and i'm saying i'm getting my spidey senses as women we if we feel and see and we know it feels like if she's coming to you and has over the last two years hey i can't do this there i got screwed on this i'm not going to do this so i need 300 bucks i got hosed on this so i need you to co-sign for an apartment this one thing happened to me 15 years ago and so now i can't so i need you to give me a thousand dollars if that's been the routine of the last two years then something deeper is going on here you're basically an atm machine and there's always are you giving her money uh no does she have kids never have i have i have once but let's only help her out with food for her kids because she was out of work okay so what is she asking you to do she need to co-sign an apartment no no she she hasn't asked me to do anything i've offered but i've also i've offered if it's it's needed but she she's like no i she's like thank you but no okay so she hasn't asked me for any of that do you see her as as your wife in the future i would like that yes okay okay um i just think as your relationship progressive if it's and you may say you're not a relationship progressive but you're not a relationship progressive no you may be like no we're just having fun and it is what it is i'm not trying to pinpoint you into a relationship but yeah i'm just saying these are good conversations to start to have if the relationship is progressing because money is a big part of this and it doesn't sound like you you know her on that level at all from like even from even a number standpoint yeah it's because i kind of don't um i don't like prying into her life you've been dating for two years what do y'all talk about yeah we we talked about this a little bit like a little bit later before that's fair that's fair well kevin so i think i think the most realistic step right now for you to help her is y'all need to pull the credit reports i think that's going to show you a lot um of what's going on start talking about alignment together yep for sure but thanks thanks for the call though yeah um thanks to everyone in the booth thanks to our great audience as we kick off a money and marriage weekend here in nashville tennessee we are excited and remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the prince of peace christ jesus