Different Outcomes Require Different Choices

0:00Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broken, common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fair Winds Credit Union Studio, this is the Ramsey Shop. I'm Dave Ramsey, J.W. The Ramsey Personal is my co-host today. Carlos is in New York City. Hi, Carlos, how are you? Hi, thank you for taking my call and God bless you all. You too, sir. How can we help? Yes, I'm 64 years old. I work as a security guard. And I don't have any savings. I got about $1,000 medical bills. I own like $20,000 in credit card.

1:02And I own about $12,000 in IRS. Oh. Yeah. Okay. And you're working 40 hours as a security guard? Oh, yeah. What do you earn? About 55 a year. Is it just you or do you have a family, Carlos? Anybody else in the house or wife? No. I'm recently divorced six years. So do you, did much of this happen because of the divorce or help us understand how you got here to 64 with really nothing to show financially? Well, if we were here. I'm very embarrassed with myself because I went through a lot of my life and I never, I was never teach about saving. And you know, it was, I was just, I didn't have the right, the right advice, you know.

2:09And, you know, and well, I appreciate that. I'm very, I'm very embarrassed of myself. Well, we're not here to shame you. We want to help you, we want to help you go forward. The only benefit of looking back is figuring out what not to do because it brought us here and it, because you know, the old saying, if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, you're going to keep getting what you've been getting, right? You don't want to expect the different results. So we got to have some pretty dramatic changes to get out of a pretty dramatically scary situation because this is a little scary for you. You're looking down the, you know, the, the, the tunnel and the only light coming at you is a train, right? Yeah, and I forgot to tell you, I just, I just had my physical and I was, oh my god, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Oh, no. Yeah. What's the, what are the doctors saying is, what's your prognosis is looking good with treatment or? Well, everything is normal now, but I have to go on to December 9th to see if, if surgery

3:14is the best or what they call like laser or something like that. Yeah. Okay. So you're going to be down from work for a little while and you've got health insurance and you probably got some sick time at work you can use. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to do at least at least an outpatient surgery here and maybe a major surgery to remove that. I'm sorry. Okay. So yeah, yeah, kind of stacking up on you. So I, oh, and I forgot to tell you, I'm sorry, Dave, I forgot to tell you that I had a car. Give me some good news, Carlos, for God's sakes. Yeah. I forgot to tell you that I have like a PIA, a crash, what they call it? Yeah. Yeah. What's in that? I have about, I have about 40,000 in there. Oh, that's good news. Okay. Good news. All right. So the overall thing, the overall thing is in order for you to have a quality life at 70, six years from now, we've got to clear up the debt and pile some money into that craft and into some other savings vehicles, right?

4:19And so if you really lean into it for six whole years and you're going to have to, you know, when you hit 70, you should be debt free and have piled another 100,000 or 200,000 dollars into that account. And you'd be sitting there with a couple of hundred thousand, 250, 150, whatever it is, somewhere in there and no payments. And you've got social security coming in at that point. And you can make it then. But you can't make it. Keep doing what you've been doing. How do you live, Carlos? Are you renting or are you in a place of your own? No, I'm in what they call like a furnished room. It's an apartment, but I rent a small room. Okay. My rent here is 300 a month. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We're going to put you on an every dollar budget and your first goal is put a thousand dollars away. Your next goal is to list these credit cards and these other debts smallest to largest. I want you to clear the IRS and get them out of your life. You do not want that hanging over your head.

5:19Get these credit cards cleaned out. And then when that's all gone and you got no debt, you got that little thousand dollar debt we got to get rid of. And when those are all clear and you don't have any payments, then you take that budget and you squeeze it like your life depends on it because it does. And you start throwing and chunking as much as you can set aside. And you know, that's seven, eight thousand dollars a year that you could do for say five years. So that's another 40 or 50 thousand dollars you would have set aside plus growth. So you'll probably be with that other hunt with that other 40 land there. You'll be between 150 and 200 when you get to 70. But and that's saving only 15% of your income. You probably could save more than that if you can. Once you've gotten the debt cleared because the more you save, the bigger your nest egg is going to be. And the more comfortable your sustainable your situation is going to be when you get there. Yeah, this is going to require a major shift in how you approach each day.

6:21Major shift. Yeah, but I think you can get there to you. I think you can get to 152. Yeah, yeah, 100% I mean, making 55,000. He's got 800 and rent his rent being low, even though it's just a room that he's renting his rent being low is really going to help him out. And it's just him. There's nobody else to speak of. So, you know, that's and just lean in and just, you know, but it's it's going to be as I and I'm going to use the embarrassment you called it. Yeah, as a motivation. Like I'll never be here again. So like Carlos, when I went bankrupt and lost everything, I was embarrassed. I was ashamed and I was really pissed off at myself and at everyone who was near the thing. So I'm still 40 years later mad at bankers. And I don't feel much better towards the lawyers. And so I've just generally, you know, just generally stay pissed off all the time. And that has driven me to get away from all this, you know, and to say I'm not going

7:22to be there, you know, if American Express calls my house, it's a wrong number. Because I don't want anything to do with that company. They're absolute hogwash. I don't want anything to do with that company. I don't want anything to do with some trust financial. I don't want anything to do with fifth third ever. Period under no circumstances. You know, and so you just that that in other words, as dramatically as I was heading the wrong direction, I dramatically headed the other direction. And that's kind of what I'm calling out here. And so sometimes the answer is some drama. Yes. Created drama. And it's to avoid the embarrassment, the shame, the anger, the source of the anger, whatever it is. And I'm just going to stay away from anyone that looks like they can do that to me again. Yep. Good boy. And yeah. Well, the good news is if he does that, he's got the 40,000. And I've just plugged in our calculator here. He's got the 40,000 already sitting in TIA CREF.

8:22If he continues to put 15% of his income in for the next eight years, I mean, that's going to be $200,000 for Carlos. So I was pretty close. Yeah. 150 to 200 was my guess. Good. And it shows up in the calculator. Hey, guys, it's Rachel Cruz. When it comes to life insurance, most people fall into one of two camps. The ones who make a plan to protect their family and the ones who hope everything will just work out. But hope isn't a financial plan. When you get married or have kids, your money decisions aren't just about you anymore. Your income helps keep the lights on, pay the mortgage, and put food on the table.

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10:31Hi, Susanna. How are you? Let me try one more time. Hey, Susanna. How are you? Doing well. Thank you. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? We're taking the time to speak with me. I'm just calling. I've been doing a day for Amsy budget for the last probably nine or 10 years since I got married. And every month we are short and every month we're pretty much paycheck to paycheck and we're big grown ups. I'm 52. My husband's 48. We have careers and we make decent money. But seemingly every month while going through the budget we do seem to have a difficult time and there's never any extra money. My husband did have a career change recently and so we took out a giant loan for him to have a career change and we have a vehicle and we just bought our first house and we just had an adoption for our son so there have been some really big expenses.

11:34It all looks great on paper when I write it all down and all the ticks and balances. But then when we try to see where did we go wrong it's just very hard to sort of get it right even after all these times and we've had some financial advisors help us, some look through things. I'm kind of doing it on my own, the budgeting. So I guess I'm just looking for a way that you could advise. I'm sure the steps are perfect and if I follow the steps then I would be within where I need to be but I'm just looking for a way to be more successful. I know that we do make decent money and when I go through my budget I'm just surprised that it's always so tight while we do have some large expenses. Well that's what you're facing is what a lot of folks face. When you have debt it turns a good income into paycheck to paycheck living. That's what it does because you've said okay there's these things I want a car, a house. I want to do the adoption, I want to do the business but you've done it all on payments

12:38and that's what's dwindling away. You're really really good income so that's why it feels like I'm working and working and have nothing to show for it. Because you keep buying stuff on debt. You have to stop that. Yeah. So what is your income? I mean you got to stop that. I mean I don't want to hear any excuses. You got to stop it. But how do you buy a home and when you're freaking broke you don't buy a car and you don't go in debt for an adoption and you don't go in debt to change your careers. Period. You save up the money to do those things or you don't do them. How could you ever send out save up 90,000 less than you make? 90,000 dollars for what? He's a pilot. Okay. Well maybe he doesn't get to be a pilot. There's an option. But now that we're here, how do you know? You can't say, James exactly right. You guys got to stop borrowing money and then wondering why you don't have any.

13:42The reason for this Susanna is because if we just jump straight into here's how you get out of it and you never figure out what the problem was. We'll go back and you'll repeat it again and the solution won't stick. Yeah. So the way you become a pilot is very, very slowly and you work there giving lessons on the weekend and you get your hours in for free as an instructor and that's how most people go through flight school or they go 90 grand in debt and then they get a job making not a lot, not a lot of money. But getting a pilot's don't make a lot. So what we can do, what we got to do to get this out of control, under control, this out of control situation, under control is to Dave's point. First things first, you've got to decide I'm not borrowing money. How much is your house payment? It's per month. It's 2500. Yeah. And what's your take on pay month? Mine personally or the household income, household income. Our household income is about 122. We rent out part of our home as an Airbnb. So your take home is about 8 grand.

14:42Does that sound right? No, it's more than I'm saying it. What our take home is 122. Oh, you're 122. So 10,000. So you're at a fourth of your take home. Give or take is your house payment. So that's not the problem. What do you owe on the car? We've we owe. It was a $45,000 car. Now we owe 12. So we've thrown a lot of money at that. And then for the loan, I, somebody helped us out so that we had a lower percentage. And we owe left of that about another one year. So we owe about 38,000, I would say. That's only adoption. No, that's on the list. We've paid the adoption on the, on the adoption. We paid 90. And the, but you're talking about the $90,000 on the pilot. Correct. You got that down to 38. 36, 36, 36,000. You're heading the right direction. Yeah, you've been working on this. You've been beating it down. You're heading the right direction. Yeah. You've got no money because you've got these big stinking expenditures that turned into that.

15:43And that's where your money's all going. So, I mean, it's not like doing a budget doesn't work. It's doing a budget while you're reducing debt. This dramatically is not going to leave you any margin. So yes, you do need to sit down every month. You and your husband look at the every dollar budget and plug that in and spend every dollar on paper. And that includes huge amounts of debt reduction, what you've been doing. And no eating out and no impulsing anything. Nothing. You don't get to buy anything. You're broke people. And you just attack these debts smallest to largest with every piece of margin. We can squeeze out of this budget. But the two of you need to be doing that together. So the thing that I want you to remove from your discussion in your head, if I were you, this is what I would do. When you called in, you said, we've been doing the day Ramsey thing for like six years. And the answer is no you haven't. Because you wouldn't have done any of the crap you told me you did if you're doing day

16:46Ramsey stuff. Because we don't tell you to do anything you were doing. And so you said, I'm sitting down to do a budget by myself. That's not what we teach. And then I get to the end of the month and I can't figure out what happened. That's not what we teach. So you're tempted a budget has been okay. And thank you for doing that. And I'm glad you're reducing your debt. But so far, the reason you're not getting anything out of this is you're doing it halfway. So the full way is you sit down with your husband before the month begins and say, this is where we're going to spend money. We're not going to spend money anywhere else. And we're certainly going to lay out a budget that's tight that every dollar has an assignment. So everything's gone. Everything comes in. Everything goes out. And we're going to be chunking on this debt and we're going to get our satisfaction from that. And we're not going to have anything left over and we're not going to have any luxuries. We did an adoption, a pilot's license and bought a house and and and and and we some we

17:47can pay in for that now. And so we're going and then we're going to stick to the budget. We're going to pinky swear and spit shake. This is the plan and pretend like it was your job to stick to the budget and then we're going to fire you if you didn't stick to your budget. Because that's what would happen if you worked somewhere. I've got 14 profit centers inside Ramsey. The vice president that runs an area has a budget. He misses budget three months in a row. He's probably working somewhere else unless there's real reasons that were beyond his control or she. So I mean, you need to lay out and plan where your freaking money is going and then make that happen. And that's if you work here, right? And that's if you work somewhere and this was your job. So treat it like it really. It's not a passing thing. It's not like, well, we're going to write it down. Hope it happens. No, we're going to write it down and that becomes the boss of you. It tells you what you must do. No, they must do it. There's 52 years old. Do I know when you're 48 and 52 years old, you must do it.

18:48Yes, you must. Or you're going to end up like Carlos who called in earlier at 64 with nothing saved for retirement. You have to stop buying anything for the rest of your life unless you pay cash for it. No rationalizations, no justification. No, it's the only way you can do it. That means you can't do it. If the only way I can do that is going to I can't do it because I don't borrow money. And that's me. If the only way I can do X or Y or Z is if I have to borrow money, I can't do it. I don't have enough money. And I guarantee you, there's every one in the world has to eventually go, I can't afford that. No matter who you are. I mean, even Bill Gates, there's some things he can't afford. Not much, but there's a few things he can't afford. Jeff Bezos, there's a couple of things he can't afford. Not many, but a couple. I can't, assuming he's paying cash, I can't afford that.

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21:53Thank you so much for the response. We're going to go into the nerd stuff on investing down in the details. Not only cover the basics to make sure everyone has a seat at the table, but then from there investing 201 to go with 101. I'm going to go open the real estate playbook and go, here's some properties I actually purchased. I bought them here's what the returns are. Here's how you do it. Then we're going to go into wealth planning. How to not destroy your family tree with your wealth. People always ask, how do I not mess up my kids? Well, I'll go ahead and spoil our alert. You don't mess up your kids with wealth. Your wealth reveals the fact that you already messed up your kids. That deal, we'll go ahead and tell you what the answer to that one. But anyway, we'll get there and we're going to cover stuff like doing your will and basic estate planning stuff, wealth planning, which includes estate planning. That's tonight and tomorrow night. It's a two night event. It's hours and hours and hours of this stuff for 199 bucks, a virtual event.

22:56You can watch it from your couch. RamseySolutions.com slash events and click the link in the show notes if you're listening or on the podcast. Dave Ramsey and George Campbell will be doing it. D is in St. Louis. Hi, D. How are you? I'm living in the dream. And by the way, so happy to be able to talk to you and Jade. And love you both for your ministry and the rest of the team. Thank you. I have a question that I'm dealing with. It's a struggle. My husband and I have gone through all of the baby steps. And so at this point, we are debt free other than our mortgage for our house, which we have have significantly paid off. Good for you. Well done. But I would also say that I have a relationship in the family and that would be my brother.

23:58And his wife, they have two kids, my nephew's. And we haven't spoken in a couple years. And I think mom and dad helped them out here and there just to keep access to the kids. And so I'm really struggling with whether I decide with my husband to come up with some sort of fund for the boys, for college or whatever. But also, I'm struggling because I don't want my brother and sister-in-law to have access to that money. Because I'm not sure that they'll be wise about how they use it or spend it. And I know. So what's your household in there? Me and my husband.

25:02Should we talk about salary in the late- I don't know. What do you make any year that your pay tax is on? That your household income? Yeah. Well, I make $350 a year. But with bonus, my target is $458 this year. And my husband brings home W2 about $68 to $70. Awesome. So you're going to have me in dollar a year income. That's wonderful. And you've done very well. Congratulations. And yet these are not your children. So you don't have any legal access to them. They're minors, I take it. Yes, they are. Okay. All right. The only thing I would do is finish paying off your house and pile up cash and become very wealthy. And then if at some point that they reach college age and you want to write a check and pay for their tuition, you just take it out of your account and write a check and pay for their tuition. Okay.

26:02But you wouldn't do that. Absolutely would do nothing with anybody's in the money. Not really. But your brother is not trustworthy. Yes. Wow, that's true. Yeah. I'm not putting any money in his name. He doesn't talk to me. No way. But if those boys go off to college and there's an act of love, you want to reach out to them, maybe through your parents and say, you know, old aunt Dee that you heard all the bad things about is going to pay for your tuition. Does this border? That'd be kind of fun. Well, it would be great. I just, I just like I struggle from it like from a moral perspective because it's not the boys in jail. Yeah, but you don't need to put any money in the boys name. You can just take care of them. There's nothing immoral about you giving the boys is paying their tuition for them. How old are the boys? You said they're minors, but how old are they?

27:03So the boys are in seven and nine grade now. Are you concerned for them that you feel like you need to do something prior to college age? No, I'm not concerned in that regard. I'm more focused on the fact that they don't have any background right? Like to wait. My parents when they raised us, they put us on the credit cards early in age and I would have to ask permission to spend 25 bucks, but that was to build like, you know, credit history kind of. You know, this is, this is not your circus and not your monkey. They're not your kids. I know. If the kids are not in physical harm, then you got no say it or not. You got no say in it. None. It's just part of the heartbreak of the astrangement. Yeah. I agree. But you see, there's nothing that you have the right to do or the ability to do to fix

28:10those kids' life, nothing unless you call child services because they're being abused. And they're not. And they're not. So, you need to be quite worried about whether these kids are raised with work ethic, whether they're raised with integrity, whether not your monkey, not your circus. You can pray for them, but that's all you can do. And you know, I feel like you can do things now that will allow you to cultivate a relationship with them when they're older. Like now, you can make sure that you send them a birthday card every year or holiday card. Like, right? There's ways that you can be part of their life so that when they are 18, you can kind of show up. And if you suddenly want to bring them to dinner or find a way to create a relationship with them, it's not we've never heard of D before. I'd like to buy you breakfast and hand them the receipt where you've already paid for their tuition. Don't give them a check. No, don't give them a check. Just give them a receipt where you've already paid for it. And that kind of stuff. I mean, that's the kind of stuff, but you're, they're going to have to reach adulthood before you're going to be allowed access because of this estrangement.

29:13And so, Jay's right, I mean, you can send them a note, send them a letter, send them things through your parents or whatever, but just letting them know that you're there and they care about them. But you don't get to control how they turn out. Not your monkey, not your circus. And you don't, you just don't get to. And so, even the influence that an aunt would have in a normal setting is limited. It's limited. Yeah. Our kids live on top of each other. They live three doors down and a quarter of a mile away from each other. So their kids are all growing up more like siblings than cousins, but that's the most. But even then, it's not Rachel's kid, it's the Nacis kid. Yeah. I mean, they don't, they don't reach over and tell them, you know, we make them all make them all behave, but that's, that, that, that, and that, and we're freaking on top of each other. Yeah, but you have more, you definitely have more of those liberties when there's a healthy relationship of a lot of siblings. Exactly. And she's just, I mean, even then, it's not, it's not, you don't get to get to parent them.

30:13No. I mean, I, we were at the soccer game last night, but I don't get to parent them. I can just, you know, kick the ball. That's one thing I'm allowed to do, you know what I mean? It's like, that's it. And so that, that's normal boundaries. Yeah. And, and you've got even worse boundaries here because of this is Strangement. Late, I think you might be trying to fix your broken heart through the kids. Yeah. And it's not going to work. The broken heart's just broken because of the a Strangement. And that's just sad. And someday, hopefully that'll be mended. And maybe you can do some nice things for the kids financially as you get there from your checking account.

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32:17All you need is the idea. Shopify handles the rest. Start your free trial at Shopify.com slash Ramsey. That's Shopify.com slash Ramsey. Shopify.com slash Ramsey. Rod is in Oklahoma City. Hey, Rod, how are you? I'm well. How are you guys today? Better than we deserve. What's up? Well, so to give you a little bit of background, my wife and I moved about a year ago back to the hometown market for a job. And we have had our house on the market since January. And we don't really know if we should continue to try to leave it on the market or maybe try to have a bigger investors mile like turn it to a rent house or an Airbnb kind of thing.

33:18And it takes up about a third of my salary. And so that could be a lot of money that to go towards the debt that we have or how much is on the market for? 215,000. What's your own with it? Nothing. It's four bedroom, two bathroom. It's a six year old house. We built it in 2020. And the interest rates were about 3.1. And so we paid $150,000 for I-140 on it. And excuse me, I'm at $225,000, not $215. Okay. Is it too expensive or is it neighborhood? Is it too far out? Is it too far out? I mean, is it on a piece of ground? It's the kind of condom that's right by university and it's right by hospital. And so I thought, you know, it's selling no time. I really don't think it's going to get any feedback. There was only been, we've had, we get about three showings a week.

34:20And I don't know, I really just don't know what the issue is. I mean, are you objective enough to stay, say if you stand in the street. Is this house ugly? No, sir. It's very beautiful house. I mean, it's kind of cookie cutter. It's like a lot of houses in the neighborhood, but- Have other things in the neighborhood so- No, sir. It's kind of the thing. There's a lot of other houses that for sale. And so I don't know if- What city should it be again? I don't know to be honest. So it's on the house, it's a vocal city. It's close enough. It's technically called Shawnee. Yeah, I know Shawnee. Is it freestanding or is it attached? No, it's freestanding. Is it a Ramsey trusted real estate agent? No, sir. Okay. Or not that I'm aware of. Have you seen a competitive market analysis, and when they listed it, did they show you the comparative sales in the area to give you a value? Yes. I can't- I know they showed me the report back when we priced it.

35:22And so they thought it would easily sell for 250, but I've worded it to 2.25 since then. Okay, and your monthly payment is how much? 1,200. Okay. So every year that it's this year, it costs you 15 grand in payments. Yes, sir. Okay. So if you lower it 30, it's not- that's not smart, because I'd rather sit there and wait. Okay. So assuming we've addressed anything that's wrong with it, okay? Because the first thing I think about from a real estate perspective is when I walk up to the front door, what am I seeing and what am I smelling and when I walk in the front door, what's the feel? And is this bad floor plan? Is the color's awful? You know, what's the- and a real estate agent with a little bit of experience should have the ability to kindly tell you, by the way, your carpet's ugly.

36:23You know, I mean, they need to be able to- Yeah. They need to say that to you. And honey, you need to change this living room carpet. This thing can go sale because people walk in and see this, they start itching. You know, I mean, whatever it is, I don't know. You said it's by university and hospital. Are they getting the ambulances screaming through there every, you know, 10 minutes? Is it- Is it the university traffic? Yeah, I mean, you need- Yeah, it's both. I mean, the university is not- it's not a huge university. So I really wouldn't think- it's connected to two major highways. So, I mean, not directly, but the neighborhood sits between what they kind of intersect. So I don't know, but when you were talking about the flooring and stuff, I mean, it's all new flooring, like we- we paid about all- Yeah, you just finished- It's not a house, it's not a house, isn't it? Yeah. But I mean, again, you said it's a highway in your background? Are you on a, you know, up against the freeway? Those are the sorts of things that I'm thinking of based on what you're saying. Yeah. Number one, the first thing I'm going to do is call a Ramsey trusted Rills that agent, or two,

37:24and have them come out and interview them and look at the house and tell you why this thing isn't selling. Get somebody out with feet on the ground that knows Shawnee, that knows what the market's doing. They go, look, here's six other ones just like it that have sold. There's no reason this hasn't sold. We need to put this on the market at 2.199, with a selling bonus to an agent. And let's get this thing moved. Something like that. I mean, I might, I would take it off the market, put it back on the market with someone else that starts a new listing- Yes. Number and put a slightly different price on it. 2.999 or 1.199 from your 25 number. And I'm also going to go through, do I need to put a coat of paint in this? Do we need to go in there and bake bread every morning? So this smells like mama's kitchen when they walk in. What is it we got to do to market this property? And then I'm going to wait and wait on my buyer. Because you know, 1,500 bucks a month, you can wait a long, long time before you give up 30 or 40 or 50 thousand dollars in price cut.

38:25And so you can decide stuff like that. And I did do one one time that, I don't know if I would recommend this to anybody, but it was kind of fun. I just dropped the price 2,000 dollars a month until it sold. I just put a new price in MLS every time and just kept. And I don't know if I recommend that. It was kind of weird, but it's like a reverse auction. And it was kind of fun just to mess with it, just see if we could wake somebody up. Somebody sitting around and we're going, oh, I don't know if I'm waiting. Gonna wait, gonna wait, gonna wait. And we finally just got to get off her on it and sold it. But I don't think that's the case here. I can't tell you don't know why it isn't selling and so we don't know why it isn't selling. Like for them, the neighborhood was fine, but for other people it's not a desirable neighborhood. There's something on what he's saying. Something on there. I don't know. And you know, I need a real estate agent to tell me what the, to get feedback from showing, if you're getting three showings a week, you should gotten off her.

39:27Yeah, for sure. That's, that's a lot. Media and days on market is 57 days. In the nation, right? Yeah, and he's been on since January. Yeah. All right, Aaron is in Houston. Hi, Aaron. How are you? Good. How are you better than I deserve? What's up? So I'm a college student and I'm expecting to graduate here this year. Congratulations. What you agree in? Let's go engineering. Hmm. Future millionaire. But after graduation, I'm looking at about $40,000. I'm going to be in debt from student loans. But I'm talking about, I'm looking at a draw up for that. I've been intern with, I'm expecting to return offer with about $100,000 annual salary plus 10k signing bonus. God, and that makes you smile. Wow. I mean, it does. You know, I work really hard to be. So if you live like a college student, you'll be debt free in like six months.

40:27Yeah, because that 10k signing bonus is about to knock out a quarter of it. And Aaron, you don't get to buy a car. I'm not, my parents had made that abundantly clear. No car. Do you get the student loan paid off? Even though you got the big fancy job, I'm proud of you, man. That's a great job. Congratulations. Yeah, can you not just go live on nothing and keep living like a college student and pay off $40 grand in less than a year? I mean, yes, you can. I'm going to answer that for you. Yeah, that's my next question. Do I put all this $10,000 for the box you have loans? Well, you got to cover your move. You're going to need some for deposits on utilities and deposit with the apartment. And, you know, you got to have some gas to put in the car to load your 14 things you own in the car. Do you have any other money or this is it? I have the babysit number one, we're having $1,000 in savings. I would get moved in without spending any money, the minimum money, and then I'm going to throw what's left down to $1,000 at the student loans.

41:35And then I'm going to start, I'm just going to live like I'm not making anything. I'm just going to live on nothing. You're used to living on nothing. Yeah, you're a college student. Do I move back to my parents? No, no. This version of nothing is still going to feel like an upgrade. Like you living on this version of nothing, just because you're earning a paycheck is still going to feel like an upgrade from being in college and being in a dorm and being on campus. But no eating out, no three ups, no buying a car, no buying a bunch of furniture, buy garage sale furniture. Yeah, they're rich and the town and buy some ladies' couchs that you're throwing out, but there's nothing wrong with it. And buy it for $18 and haul it away for it. And that's how you furnish the first apartment and then you go pay cash for this. I'm so proud of you, man. It's awesome.

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43:37$25 forever requires customers to remain active on Boost Mobile and Limited Plan. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. Jody is in Toronto, Canada. Hi Jody, how are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hi, Dave. I listen to you guys like every day while I'm working. There must be all the other farm that I work. I'm so excited to speak to you guys today. I'm so excited to speak to you too. I'm trying really hard. I've been listening to you guys, like, avidly since, like, the end of February, like, daily. And I'm so encouraged by, like, the whole team's wisdom. Like, you got this. You can do this. So I'm like, I've got motivation. But between my income and like what I have available after expenses,

44:44I'm having difficulty getting my baby one earth, baby step one emergency fund. And sending aside like sinking fund, sinking fund. Like, item lines like kids Christmas gifts. I have two boys. They're birthday gifts. Both birthday Christmas gift. Like all those little things, dental visits, like horror pairs, having those set aside. And working on my emergency fund. And I feel like it's a weird time of year to start this. Because like Christmas is in like three months time. So how do I get enough at this point for Christmas? Well, punting enough away from my emergency fund. And I have started my emergency fund. How much do you have? How much do you have so far? At the minute, I don't have anything as far as emergency fund. I ended up using it. Here's what I would do. I would prioritize the emergency fund before getting into a bunch of sinking funds.

45:45The number one thing you need is a thousand dollars a day. Because if you don't have it, something pops up, Jody, and you're going to be looking at credit cards. You're going to be looking at debt. You need a thousand dollars. Most people get it done in 30 days. This is scorched earth. So scorched earth means I'm not thinking about sinking funds. I'm not thinking about Christmas presents. I'm not thinking about anything extra. Except getting this thousand dollars saved. Matter of fact, I'm selling old Christmas presents to get it. Right? I'm selling off things. So that's, I mean, your hair is on fire on this. To get this thousand dollars. What's your income? I'm about 35,000 Canadian. What do you do? So I'm a farmhand at a local agriculture, agriculture is in farm. And your single mom? Well, no, I am married. Oh, I said what you're, I meant what your household income. I'm sorry. What does your house, I mean? Oh, sorry. My husband is roughly about the same. He has his own family farm, which is dad.

46:45So his income is roughly about the same. So you have 70, you have 70,000 dollars a year coming in. So $6,000 a month. Technically, but our expenses are separate from one another. Can you still pay child support for his children that he has with his family? Why are your expenses? That doesn't mean you have to have separated accounts. No, no, no, no, no. Like we don't even have a mortgage because it's included as far as like part of his salary with. Being a farmer here. And all that's fine. A lot of hydro expense. So that doesn't matter. The two of you still have seven, six thousand dollars a month coming in, don't you? I mean, you make 36 and he makes 36, right? Before expenses, you should have 6000. Yeah. Before taxes. We keep our like we keep our extended separate. I know. Okay. That's problem number one. You're trying to run us like a single mom.

47:45I mean, you're trying to run us like a single mom with a boyfriend. And it's not. Do y'all live together? Yeah. Yeah. So the property that he is being furnished as a part of being a farmhand on his family farm is free to you all. So you don't have housing cost? Exactly. Exactly. Even more. Okay. So you, why have you, why are you not combining your incomes? Um, just we're more comfortable this way. Well, it's not working. That's what you called us because you're not comfortable. It sounds like you're trying to do this on 35,000. And I don't know what happened to his 35. It was sounds to me like. Well, majority of it goes to his child support. How much? No, he doesn't have a $3,000 child support payment. No, a thousand a month. Okay. That's that's one thousand of three. So he's still got 2000. Where's his other 2000 going? Oh, there's the problem.

48:45Okay. Just found it. He's doing, he's doing, he's going to their playing farmer with his daddy. And he's not bringing money home to his own family. No, no, he is. He lives like that free. He's, he's good with his money. Here's the problem, Jody. The problem is. He's not good with his money. His kids are not knowing how they're going to get Christmas presents. He's not good with his money. He sucks with his money. And you guys need to put your money together and develop a game plan to develop that. That's where your struggles coming from, honey. It really is. You're saying that you're married, but you're doing this totally separate. And you're calling here because you're experiencing the symptoms of that. You sound like a $35,000 or your single mom to me. Yeah. Everything you described early in the call had that symptom. I thought you were making no money. That's why the very first question I asked you was what's your income. And you stated it as if you weren't married. And then I had to dig to figure out you were married.

49:46So we can tell from the way this is going down. You're kind of trying to pull this whole wagon by yourself, Keto. And that's not fair. So the two of you need to sit down and say, we're going to put our money together. We have the responsibility. Our first responsibility on this planet. Both of us as grownups are these two kids we made. And we have housing furnished. So we should have some money in this house, even with a $1,000 child support. There should be some money to be able to get a $1,000 saved and then begin to work your way out of debt. You can do this. But the problem is, is you're trying to, I don't know, everything is so dispersed that it has no power. And by the way, because you said it, you said, oh, when we asked you, why are you keeping your money set free? So well, we've always done that. Just because you've always done something doesn't mean you have to continue to do it. And just because you've always done something doesn't mean it worked. This is an opportunity for you guys to sit down and truly ask yourself the question, why?

50:49Why are we doing it this way? And challenge yourselves to answer the question with real answers. And I guarantee you, it's going to be a lack of trust in someone's area. Yep. And I think you can fix this in about 60 days. By the time Christmas gets here, you're going to have your $1,000 you're going to be reducing debt. Your budget's going to be working. And his child support will be paid and we're going to be able to buy a Christmas for our kids. And pay for their dental appointment. All of that can be done. The numbers are there with what you gave me. There's nothing here that's prohibitive. But you're trying to do it all by yourself. That's the problem. You're doing it on half your household income. That's what's going on. So you can't go there. Alright guys, so here's the thing. Let's just cycle back on this again. The largest study of millionaires ever done in North America. We talked to 10,167 of them. 89% of them said one of the top reasons they became wealthy was that they combined everything and worked together towards one goal.

51:59When you ask the public how many of you combine your finances, it's only about 40%. And worked towards one goal. And the public is broke. 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck with too much month left at the end of the money. Stop it. Music Most people spend years changing their money habits but never think twice about how their bank probably works against their values with nuisance fees and endless debt products. If you're being weird by sticking to the baby steps, you deserve a bank that helps with that. That's why Ramsay partnered with Fair Winds Credit Union.

53:00They built the smart bundle specifically for Ramsay listeners, not for everybody else. And it includes up to 10 high yield savings accounts so you can set up different funds for different needs and goals. And now they've introduced the live like no one else debit card. The original debt is normal, be weird debit card is still available too. And every time you reach into your wallet, your card is a daily reminder that you follow a different path. Listen, if you're living like no one else, your bank should back you up. Check out the Fair Winds smart bundle including the all new live like no one else debit card at fairwinds.org slash Ramsay. That's fairwinds.org slash Ramsay. Ensured by the NCUA. Today's question of the day is brought to you by WaiRefi.

54:16If you fall in behind on your private student loans, you don't need more shame. You actually just need a plan. WaiRefi helps borrowers explore refinancing options with a low fixed rate payment based on what you can actually afford. Go to WaiRefi.com slash Ramsay. It might not be in all states. All right. Today's question comes from Owen in Alaska. He says, what's the difference between an index fund, a brokerage fund, and a mutual fund? Is there a particular type that you recommend? Or can they all be used for different purposes? Wow. I think that's a really good question. It's a teaching question. It is. Do you want to teach Dave? I can teach, but I feel like this is your bag. I'll jump in and then you can help me. All right. All right. We'll start with a mutual fund. A mutual fund, if you'll visualize, is that Jade puts in some money, I put in some money, and Owen you put in some money. We have now mutually funded it.

55:16That's all it is. What the mutual fund buys with a mutual fund manager buys with the money that we give him or her to invest with tells us what type of mutual fund it is. If they buy bonds, it's a bond fund. If they buy with the money that we mutually fund stocks and companies that are growing, it's a growth stock mutual fund. If they buy companies like Gerber and Nestle and Unilever, which owns Dove, Soap and Ben and Jerry's ice cream, those are all foreign companies. They were started in the US in every case, but they are now owned by people that do not live in America. Those are international or foreign stocks. You'll call it an international stock mutual fund buying stock and companies internationally.

56:19That tells you the type of mutual fund. The typical growth stock mutual fund, for instance, will have 90 to 200 different stocks in it. As that group of companies goes up in value, that's where your return comes. One type of mutual fund is an index fund. The first one you asked about it one. An index fund is a mutual fund that buys stocks that follows an index. An index is a representation of a market. The most famous index is the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The most accurate index is the S&P 500 Standard and Poor rates the top 500 companies on the New York Stock Exchange, the big board we call it, and those 500 companies are represented in an index fund. That's the baseline of what the stock market is doing. What the S&P 500 is the best measure of what the stock market is doing.

57:21Is it up? Is it down? That tells you what the stock market is doing good or not. If you buy an index fund, you should do exactly what the market is doing. No better? No worse. You should exactly follow the market. I have some money in an index fund. I just looked at the ticker a minute ago and were right at 12% increase in value since the market was going to be a little bit more. This is the first of September. We are 8 months in. Still got 4 months to go. September, October, November, December. We will see what the total return is on the stock market and the S&P 500 index fund will be what the market does. If the market is down for the year, then it follows that. brokerage fund is opening an account with a broker, a financial advisor, and you can put mutual funds in it. You can put stock in it. You can put index funds in it. You can put anything in it and run it.

58:25When you buy a 401k or an IRA, typically, and especially if you follow what we teach, you will be buying a mutual fund or funds inside your 401k. Your 401k is not an investment. It is how your mutual fund is taxed. If it is in a Roth IRA, it grows tax-free. If it is not, you get taxed on it as it grows. Or when you sell it, one of the two. That is the basics there. The good news is the market has done very, very well. It is setting records this year and last year. The last five years, it has just been phenomenal, unusually good. It has not been down in a long time. It has permanently down for the year, for a long, long time. It is a great time to get in touch with Ramsey Smart Vestor Pro at RamseySolutions.com and find someone that can teach you the stuff. I just taught you and show you some actual funds.

59:27Then you look at the fund, you understand it and only then do you buy it. Do not buy it because Jade said to Dave said to or because a Smart Vestor Pro said to. What did I miss, Jade? Nothing other than the fact that you are going to be teaching all this at the investing essentials event. That is why I tossed it to you. Oh wow. That is true. I guess I am. I am teaching that tonight in more detail. It is not too late to get tickets. It is only $199. We are going to do two and a half hours of what I just did in two minutes. That was a start. That was a primer though. We just went to kindergarten. Tonight we are going to go into graduate school. I go a lot deeper into this. That gives you the basics and gets you going. You are brilliant to ask this question because you never invest in something you don't understand. You never do it just blindly because you heard about it somewhere else and you don't know what it is. That is how people lose all their money. Go slow and always have someone with a heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman that is helping guide you.

1:00:32That will be a big help. And right along the same track is Davis and Montgomery, Alabama. Hi Davis, how are you? Hey, I am doing pretty well. Nice to go to you all today. You too. What is up? I have some investments and I met with my guy the other day and we were talking about the percentage. I am earning probably, he said it is about 6% trying to get it to 7%. I hear you talk all the time about should be earning at least 10% in your retirement fund. What are you invested in? That is socks. That is what I thought about that when he showed me that percentage and I said, well should it be 10%? He said, well the market is going to get 10%. You would never get 10%. Why? I don't know. What are you invested in the market then? What are your bonds? Do you know? I don't know. I know it was like 6040. 6040? 6041. I couldn't tell you. I think you are in bonds. Yeah, it is probably 6040.

1:01:32I think he has got you two heavily in bonds and you are getting milked. You are getting destroyed. This guy doesn't know what he is doing. Get away from him. He is doing it for two reasons. One is his job. He failed. His job is for you to know what is going on. Right. Yeah. So you need to get a smart investor pro or somebody with a heart of a teacher. You need to know what is going on. Because you can't even tell me what you are putting money in. No, no. I can't. That is an epic fail on his part. He is a teacher. Not a salesman. And then he goes, well you could make that much if you were in the market. How old are you, Davis? I am 53. And why has he got you in bonds? That is dumb or is it crud? Well, I have reached out to one of the investor pros and they were telling me pretty much the same thing. They were saying you might be too heavily invested into something different. But I wanted to get your opinion on that because I hate you. Well, I don't know because you don't know. But that is what it sounds like. So here is the deal. Again, I just mentioned that. I just looked it up a second ago. Year to date, we are up 12.

1:02:34Since January, if you were just in an S&P, if you are beating the S&P, you would be above that. And a lot of my funds beat the S&P. Now I have got some money in the S&P. Last year, it was up a teen for the year. The year before is up 25 for the year and the year before is up 26 for the year. Meanwhile, this bozos got you in bonds. Oh, that is what I figured. It is 6%. I know. You are getting slaughtered. That is what I figured. But here is the thing. The thing you violated, you can't do anymore after today. Never again put a dime in anything unless you tell me how it works. And what it is and why you put it there. Not like my guy is not doing it. No, you are the guy. You got to take care of you. Oh yeah, Dave is wanting. We will take care of you. We will give you tickets to the investing essentials event tonight. You need it probably. And then get to it. Yeah, but as bad as anybody. And then watch the thing tonight and then get to a smart investor pro as soon as possible.

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1:05:49If you're working the baby steps the best and fastest way to get out of debt and into wealth is using the ramsy plan and it is built into every dollar. Every dollar is a budgeting app that has the plan built into it to track your progress, give you personalized recommendations and coaching for your particular situation. It's kind of like us having us in your back pocket on your phone and saying, don't do that, do that, do that, do that, don't do that. Start with every dollar for free by downloading it in the app store or Google Play. Mike's in Chicago. Hey, Mike. Welcome to the ramsy show. I do. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? You have a question. My wife and I are kind of in a disagreement. My son's 17-year-old. His car just can't broke down for timing, Jane. And he's in the shop. She wants to buy. I'm tend to buy a new car. Well, not a huge car, but basically a car payments and in a disagreement.

1:06:50So we're trying to brainstorm what the best path forward is. I think the problem happened about five years ago when you guys were not on the same page about borrowing money. Yes, we're still not on the same page. Yeah. So you guys are still. If you haven't been able to solve that in the last five years, are we going to solve that in five minutes? Yeah. What? What's her argument for wanting to continue on with debt and what of the conversations looked like? Well, the debt would be here. Say it again. You cut out. Yeah. Yeah. He's 17 years old. So the debt would be on him. Not really. He's not going to pay. A minor can't sign a contract. You're going to be on the debt. Oh, I didn't know that. So a minor cannot get a car payment. No. No. No. No. You go to the 18. Yeah, you're not an adult. You can't conduct business. But the bigger problem here is even if you were 18, it's problematic that she's teaching him to go into debt and that you have a completely opposite philosophy. It sounds like.

1:07:58Yes. So what happens next time the two of you want to buy a car? It's probably not giving in and getting a car to be honest. Well, there's part of the problem, I think. Okay. So I can't help you as long as you give in. Okay. Is this way battle backwards? Yeah. I mean, the deal is you know not to borrow money on a car. You know, it's not smart. You know, it's not going to lead this young man where he wants to be. It's a burden on him. It fixes a temporary problem of a broken down car and gives him a permanent problem called car payments. And it's really, really dumb. And you should not be abusing your own child with a car payment. Don't do this parents to your kid. Now, why, you know, if your wife is dependent, if your wife is or your husband is out there, it is bound and determined to do something that's going to bring harm to your child. I don't give in. Yeah, I'm like, why are you afraid? Why are you afraid of pushing the issue?

1:09:01Why are you... Like, no, I'm not doing this. Yeah, it's sometimes just maybe not worth the fight. Yeah. Okay. Well, then you're going to have a car payment because you're going to be a worse. So you can't be a worse man. You're going to stand up. And you know, it is worth the fight. It's your 17 year old son. You take him out in the middle of the traffic and go and dodge. Don't get hit by the 18 wheeler. You know, I'm going to walk him through the gauntlet and get the hell beat out of him because you can't tell your wife no. So no, this is worth the fight. Of course, it's worth the fight. So it, because it matters, because it's your child. This, you're bringing harm to your child by not standing up. So yeah, I got to tell you, me and the Hillbilly wife, we would be having a knocked down freaking drag out. It wouldn't go good. It wouldn't go good. We're not going to do things that bring harm to the children in my view. And not because I'm a bully and not because I'm a overbearing.

1:10:04But also if I try to do something that's going to bring harm to the children, she'd be all at me. She'd be all on my face like a raccoon. I mean, she'd be tearing up my hair. What little of it was left? I mean, come on. I'm right there with you. I would be fighting this battle all day long over and over and over and over and I'd be fighting it. So run down to, run down to Walmart and pick you up a backbone. They're on aisle four. That's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to stand up and go, no, we're not doing this. We're not going live like this. And the worm has turned. I've put up with this crap for 10 years and I'm not putting up with it anymore. No, we're not going to go in debt for a 17 year old to get a freaking car because it's time and belt went out. He goes and works six jobs and puts a time belt on the piece of crap car or he goes and gets him another piece of crap car for a thousand bucks and drives it. Yeah. That's why 17 year olds have done since time began and none of us died from it. I put two engines, three transmissions and changed the brakes on my car by the time I was 18.

1:11:07Because I kept blowing them up because I was such a hot rod idiot. And guess what? Every time I did that, my dad looked at me and goes, you're an idiot. Go fix it. Deal with it, boy. And then, and get taught me to turn the wrench and taught me to quit driving a car like that, blowing up everything. So I mean, you know, there's stuff, there's consequences to this stuff. So yeah, no, no, that don't work, Mike. That doesn't work, man. Sorry. All right. And sorry, not sorry. Anthony's in New York City. Anthony, what's up? Hey, what's going on, David? Jay, thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? So one of the call today, I discovered I'm 29 years old, by the way. I live in New York City, not even hand proper. Thank God. But I discovered you guys a couple months ago. And my whole life basically, my parents raised me to never have a single dime of debt of that to my name, right? They're cars. Can they call my office in it? Can I get my number? Yeah, why did go man? Did you say you're 21?

1:12:1029, 29. Okay, cool. Good. All right. So you were raised well. Good. Well, but to that point, I also stayed home a little longer than I should have under the assumption that I was saving every dollar I made, which as the young kid in New York City with a lot of friends, I did not. And honestly, didn't start saving until I really got my first decent job at the 25, started putting a little bit away, but still was kind of spending my income, not sucking all away and being smart. I was like, say, stocking it all the way. How much of where you supposed to be stocking away that you didn't like what was the standard? Realistically, I probably could have been at the time I was probably making, you know, from 25 to 28 years old, I was making 80,000, 85, 90,000 a year. And how much should you have been saving? I really, really probably could have saved 75 of it. And I did probably half of that. Listen, so how much money do you have now?

1:13:14So right now, my money spread all over the place. I mean, I was getting there. So I have about 120,000 in brokerage account that's tied between, you know, mutual funds in some general investing, but also a Roth that I was doing just because that company at the time did not have a 401k. What other money do you have? So I've got at my current job, which I started last year, which has more than doubled my income from where I was at. I've got about 30,000 in that 401k plus about 16,000 in stock. And then just a thousand dollars starter emergency funds. So what is it that you're trying to do? Are you trying to get a place of your own and move out? What's your goal? Yeah, yeah. So so the last bit of context is a year and a half ago, I was getting ready to get engaged. So I was engaged with very shopping, getting all excited. And then I got broken up with because wasn't making enough. I was at a bed and job. Anthony, what are you trying to do? How can we help you today? Hold on, hold on. So where I'm at now, moved out of my parents house. I'm renting, paying $2,300 bucks a month. And it's a great apartment. It's a great little one bedroom.

1:14:20But at the same time, now I'm shopping around for either an apartment or a small entry level house. Okay. And I've been following the baby steps. I've paid off all my debt in the last three, four months here. But any entry level, two bedroom condo in a decent area around here is between 450 and half a million bucks. You can't live in that area with the income that you have. You just have to decide. You're trying, you know, you can't live in Tokyo and Toronto and Los Angeles and San Jose either by the way. Here's something that keeps a lot of parents up at night. Kids are growing up with more access to information than ever before in history.

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1:16:51Summer is in Canada, which sounds like an oxy moron to me, but what's up? How are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you Dave? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So sorry, I'm getting nervous. I'm talking to me here today. So quick. Thank you. So I got laid off last year for my full time job. And then I started my small business. And then I also started a new part time job last year. And I also got made last year and I'm kind of stock knowing what to do next. My business grew from $6,000 last year to $20,000 this year. And I make about $22,000 from a top time job. My husband and I have been talking about buying a house because he's getting $100,000 inheritance soon.

1:17:54But I don't feel like I'm going to get a close fight for a good mortgage when I'm only making about $30,000 by myself. So I'm stuck that should I be closing everything down and moving into a full time job or should I just continue going? Because I have confidence that I can grow my business next year. And you and your husband, you're newly married husband. Why wouldn't you all combine finances together and buy the home together? Yes, yes, that is the thing that I've been listening to guys and I have been thing. I think it's a meat issue that I, the building that trust and also I'm nervous about how you don't trust the guy you just married? No, no, it's me. I mean, it's a meeting. It's a meeting. I've had trust issues in the past. Trust with who? My father. No, I mean, why do you have a trust issue? Who's your trust issue with now on this subject? It's me. Me. You trust me. You have trouble trusting yourself?

1:18:57Yes. I'm decent with money. I listen to the facts are that you're bringing in 20 at one thing and 22 at the other. That's 42. And your husband makes how much? He makes about 80 to 90 thousand dollars. The facts are that you have a hundred and twenty thousand dollar household income with a hundred thousand dollar inheritance to put down. Those are facts. Yes. Yes. Okay, there's nothing there's no distrust in any of that. That's just a fact. There's nothing to trust in. It's not an emotional thing at all. Right. Okay, now do you have the ability to shut both of those things down and go make 80 thousand dollars at a job? That is another thing that I started my own business because it was hard to get a new job. No, I'm asking, can you go get a job making 80 thousand dollars a year? Yes or no? Probably not. Okay. I don't have school. What did you use to make? What did you make at the job you lost?

1:19:5955,000. 55. Okay. Now you're making 42. I'm asking, paying all this, the bills off for my work, I mean, for my business, I'm thinking about that. Business has to operate on net profit on business, not gross. But yeah, I mean, it's the 20 of the gross revenue or the net profit net. I'm sorry, so gross income and then net profit would be 11,000 dollars. Oh, you're not making anything. Oh, yes. You need to go get a job. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, because you can bring 55 or 60 thousand dollars into the household and you're bringing 11 and then 22 at your part time. So you're bringing in 33 and you have the ability to bring in 55. And you've been working, and you've been working as business two years. Yes. Yeah, it's not growing fast. Okay. Okay. It needs to be needed. It didn't grow fast enough to survive.

1:21:02If you want to keep it as a side hustle, you can. It's a fine side hustle, but it's not even a great side hustle if you're only making a thousand bucks a month. I mean, it's okay. It depends on how much time it takes you to make that thousand bucks. What are you doing? What's the side? What's the business? I'm a living planner. You're not getting many gigs. It sounds like it's too much time for the amount of money that you earn on it. That's why I said it might not even be a great side hustle because a side hustle, you just want to get in and get out and get your get your money. You know what I'm saying? So yeah, I think the key issue here, if you're really talking about trying to buy a house, if you're looking about looking at employment, I agree with Dave. You need to go somewhere and get a job, probably doing whatever skill you were doing when you were making 55,000. And when it comes to the house, you guys, you need to combine your money. If you're standing here and looking at me saying, Jade, I know I have trust issues. That means you've admitted it's an issue, which means you know you need to do the opposite of what the issue is. If you know you have a trust issue, that means at this point, I need to do the opposite, which means I need to trust my husband and I need to try something different. Let me try combining my finances. It's the opposite of what I want to do, but I know what I want to do is an issue. You just said it. So let's do the opposite.

1:22:15Yeah, yeah, we'll combine our finances. Here's the thing. I think I hear when you got fired, it shook some of your confidence. Oh, yes. I was. I was going and I was telling you to go back in. You're kind of like getting creeped out right now. Let's tell you to go right back into the fire again. You're like, oh, God, don't do. Oh, let me keep the 11,000 right where I'm safe. And I want you to go be risky. Don't be safe. It's not that risky. By the way, you didn't die from it. They just fired you. And so that feels terrible for a lot of people. It is. It's like. It's hard. I've been fired. It's not. I'm not making fun. But I mean, you kind of got to keep it in perspective. It's like, you know, so what? What's next? I mean, I've been fired. Can you imagine the guy that fired me? What do you think I'm doing now? I mean, that's pretty interesting. You know what? So it's it's you just move on. You go the next thing and go, OK, but what's good for our life and our life is for me to get back out there in the game again. And that's great for our life. And then if you want to keep the wedding plan or thing going as a side gig and try to grow it and someday maybe it gets so big. It surpasses your full time gig and you quit. That's fine. But not for $11,000 after two years. No, definitely not. Good question. I appreciate you call. Thank you for joining us. Roberts and Toledo. Hey, Robert, welcome to the Ramsey show.

1:23:37Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I'm wondering I'm 21 and I'm wondering about employment retirement account. I would I've been told that whether or not I choose like a Roth, like a, which I think is like a post tax contribution or pre tax contribution. It's all about personal preference. No, it's not. It's about math and you should only do a Roth. OK, because the Roth grows tax free. And when you got a million dollars in that account someday because you called the show today, you're going to a million dollars without taxes. If you do it pre tax and you got a million dollars in there, you're going to have to pay taxes on the million dollars, which would be like $300,000. So this is not a matter of personal preference. One's dumb and one smart. OK, do do Roth. It's a $300,000 phone call you just made because as young as you are, you should have at least a million dollars in your return when you get there. You might have three million. In which case, this is a million dollar phone call.

1:24:42Yeah, if you have three million dollars in your traditional versus three million dollars in your Roth because you called this show today, I saved you a million dollars and your ears will thank you. Yeah, America will thank you because you're a productive citizen. You're not on the dull looking for universal income. You're not trying to be a socialist because you are capitalist and you went out there and produced something. You left the cave, killed something and drug it home. Good for you. Why do you go Robert? Why do you go? Yes, always do Roth. So the rule of thumb folks on your personal retirement accounts is take the match, even if it's traditional first up to the match, then do because a hundred percent rate returns better than tax free. If you can do Roth and take a match, do Roth and take a match. But if you can't then do traditional up to the match and then go do your Roth, whether it's an individual Roth or otherwise. So it's match beats Roth, beats traditional. That's the math and it's not a matter of personal preference.

1:25:46Isn't that interesting? He talked to somebody in HR. It's just a matter of personal preference. Oh, that's too bad. Yeah, you have to be careful who you're taking your advice from. Who's giving you the math coaching here? Someone who didn't know? The broke lady with $80,000 in debt and student loan debt in HR. Yeah. It's a matter of personal preference. I can't tell you anything because I'm an HR and we're not allowed to have opinions here. Corporate HR. You got to help you people. No, Robert, we just saved you a million dollars. And you know what? We didn't charge you a dime. It's pretty cool. This is the Ramsey show. As your business grows, everything becomes more complex. There was a time when Ramsey solutions had too many disconnected systems and not enough visibility across the business.

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1:27:56Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio, Jade Washer, Ramsey personality is my co host today. Cameron is an Athens, Georgia, high Cameron. How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me on. Sure. What's up? Well, me and my girlfriend are looking to get married in the near future. Okay. Congratulations. Thank you. We're looking. Excuse me. We are completely on board with combining finances like you recommend. I was wondering, is it okay for each of us to also have our own small savings account, not that either of us couldn't have access to the other. I want to say I want to buy her a nice piece of jewelry. And I want to save up for that rather than it coming out of our joint savings account, would that be okay? If I want to save up for an expensive truck part and don't want to take that out of our joint savings.

1:29:01Now we get to it. You led with the jewelry, but you're going with the right, right? This is this is a fun money. It's really a fun money conversation. I think because what you'd essentially be doing is saying, okay, like whatever my line item is for fun, I'm taking that. And I'm kind of putting it aside and stacking it up until I get the thing that I really want to buy, right? How expensive is a truck part? I don't have it. I know. Give me an example. You got something in your head that caused that to come up. What did give me an example? Is that a $2,000 item or $20,000 item? $700. How expensive is this jewelry we're going to surprise her with in our in our hypothetical discussion here? $1,000. Good. Okay. So at our house, what we would do is Dave has an account called Jim. Gas, entertainment and miscellaneous. Okay. And I'm generally walking around with more than that in my wallet. Okay.

1:30:03And so if I want to buy her a $1,000 item as a surprise out of my miscellaneous money and it builds up sometimes because I don't use it, it gets a little bigger and I stick a little bit in the gun safe. You know, and sometimes it gets a little smaller, but it's just Dave's money and it's just, but it's laying around and cash honestly in my case. In my case. And so, but it's not it's not a $20,000 item. It's I don't want to go through that in my pocket. But I mean, at any given moment, I've usually got a thousand bucks in there. And I have for years, it's kind of a redneck emergency fund. I have 10, 100s in your pocket, right? And so once we got up out of being, you know, once we've been working the system for several years, Cameron, that's kind of where we got to is we have one little line item called I paid my gas out of that my entertainment, my miscellaneous. And I don't have much of any of that truthfully that we aren't doing together that's on some other line item. So, you know, the Dave's personal entertainment is fairly low. I'm fairly boring. So.

1:31:03You know, you just build it'll build it's like you're a little personal your low personal miscellaneous account and let that build up and cover those things in cash. And again, if it gets to be three thousand bucks and you don't want that in your pocket, stick a little in an envelope and set in the gun safe. Okay. That makes perfect sense. Yeah. Good question. I appreciate sometimes if you look at the amount folks on something like this, it frees you up from putting together some big system for something. Because it's like, you know, I need $23. Okay. Well, don't open it. It's not that serious. Just keep it. Just keep it where you can get your hands on it and that kind of stuff. So. Yeah. That's a good question. And here's the thing. Listen to what he's doing. We're going to get married soon. They haven't yet said a date. They're getting ready to. He's getting ready to set the day. He's getting repopped the question. He's trying to figure out how to be a good husband. Yeah. What a good guy. What a good guy. I want to I want to be able to pay cash from my truck parts and that cause problems with the family. Oh, and get her some jewelry too. Do kiss in Knoxville. What's up, Duke? What's up? Very well. Better than we deserve. How can we help?

1:32:12I just had a quick question. I have money sitting in my 401k. That's more than baby step one. But I got a lot of that from school. What what's you see where I'm where I'm going? How much is in the 401k? It's not much. I've only had this job for six months. How much is in the 401k? 2800 maybe 2800. Yeah. It's not a lot. Okay. I got you. Okay. And how much is your debt? 64k roughly and that student loans. Yeah. And what's your income, sir? It's there's a bonus. It's not always the same. Okay. Roughly. What do you make? I mean, give me an idea. You make it 10 or 20, 80, 100? Yeah. I would just leave that whatever is in the 401k alone, that 2800 is not going to change your world today. It's invested. I'd leave it invested. But I would just work the baby steps from baby step one on up with your income. Is it just you or is there anybody else?

1:33:29I don't have a wife. I have a girlfriend. I believe it's getting pretty serious though here in the next couple months. Okay. What we teach is to stop your investing. So no more 401k for right now. And then instead, let's start the first thing you do squeeze out of your 60 grand. You don't go out to eat and you don't go to happy hour and you put a thousand dollars in a little. You can just put it in cash if you want to. And you're under word or I don't care. This month, you should be able to do that here and set it up. And just set that aside. And that's your baby step one. And then baby step two is we're going to start attacking these student loans. And that's going to take a hot minute. Yeah. And so if you go sell a bunch of devices and get above your 60, you may double your income if you have a great year in sales. That's the good thing is the 60s your base. But when food surprises me, you make 120 in that world, right? Yeah, I'm an associate. And so I don't the commission is just if I do my job and to set rate that that next step of getting paid off of doing good work doesn't really come until I have my own territory.

1:34:33Yeah, it is. They said 12 to 18 months. Perfect. Good. Good. We'll put your nose down and get you get to work, man. And earn that other territory. Because this is a good field. You're in. We work with a lot of medical device people making quarter million. So that's where you could be headed. Okay. That's why I was saying it's good field. But it was a mouse to is you're in the apprenticeship stage and you're in there to support the other salesperson. You're a deer she and you get in there and you learn the business you learn how to interact with the docs and the surgeons. You interact with the hospitals and learn how to do the skill that takes you to serious business that that the field. I mean, I don't know which device you're selling. But medical device field is an excellent sales field. But it's all people skills and it's working with the docs and sometimes they're tough to work with. And so, you know, in the nurses and whoever else is involved in deciding which company we're going to do the device with. But he has a major upside if he can keep working. But in the meantime, you could still pick up a side hustle.

1:35:37You could still pick up other things to do in the meantime. If it's just you, you don't have kids, you don't have a wife. I'd be working day and night. Yep, I would. I agree. And double your income that way. And while you're waiting on this, while you're waiting on your ship to come in. But yeah, stop your stop investing in retirement temporarily. That's what we teach while we get you out of debt. And here's the thing. If two years from now you're debt free and you're making sure and you're making $100,000, $200, you're on your way to being a multi-millionaire then Duke. So that's where you're headed. You can't think short term about this stuff. You have to think long term. Is the price I'm paying now going to be worth it five years from now? And the answer is yes.

1:36:38Hey guys, George Campbell here. Do you ever feel like insurance companies only care about your money and not what you actually need? Well, there's a better way. When you go to Ramsey's insurance resource hub, you'll start feeling confident that you're getting the right coverage that's truly best for you. You'll find helpful info on everything from life insurance, health insurance, identity theft protection and more. And when you're ready to get the coverage you need, you can connect with a Ramsey trusted insurance pro who will only get you what you need at the best price. Go to Ramsey Solutions dot com slash insurance Ramsey Solutions dot com slash insurance. Well, we wish we could get to every call on the show, but we can't. And so we took a bunch of years of answers on this show. All the stuff we've ever written in articles and books and dumped it into a data set called AI.

1:37:48And we have a thing called ask Ramsey that answers questions only from that data set. So you get no filth from tic tac you only get Ramsey answers. So if you want to know what Ramsey thinks, you're going to get an answer just like on this show completely free. It's trained on proven Ramsey principles. And you have to train AI because it is artificial after all. Ask your question today at Ramsey Solutions dot com. It's free or click the link in the description if you're listening on podcast. A hundred and fifty thousand people a month are asking Ramsey for free. That's kind of wild y'all. And it's going up every month. It used to be like ten thousand a month and it's blowing up. You guys are using it. So we're glad it's there to help you let people know that they can ask Ramsey Sarah is in Philadelphia. Hi Sarah. What's up? You're tied guys. Thank you so much for taking my call. Huge fan. Sure. How can we help? Yeah, so I have two questions to Albi. My first one is you must have super close. We decided to buy a house together about a year ago. We both had excellent credit. You know, good saving the house is holding my name because we didn't have credit. We're going to buy another house. It's hurt with her credit.

1:39:04But at the moment, we're having issues. She has a boyfriend. They're engaged after a couple of months. I didn't agree with this. So now I'm the back sister. And it's just like, where do we go from here? Do you don't agree with a boyfriend? What? We are engaged at the moment. You don't think it's up to like, isn't it? No, three months. They got engaged. I have reservations on him. Just about. You know, like your phone is awful. Can you speak more directly into your phone? It's all muffled. Yes. Can you hear me now? Yes. That's a little better. Okay. Sorry. Yes. She acts for my opinion on it. And I gave my opinion. She don't like it for nothing. They're awkward at home. Okay. But you know, nothing with the people at home. And I'm just considering is the time. You know, she doesn't want to really talk about anything. Should we should I read it out? Should I, you know, be considerate? Put into house. But the house is in your name. It's in your name. She's the roommate, right? She's just renting a room in your house. Yes. But we both went half on the deposit for buying the house. The down payment. How much? How much each?

1:40:12I would say each maybe like 30 K 30 K each. And what was you guys's agreement when she moves out? Does she just get the 30 or does she think that she is entitled to any other bit of equity that made a recruit? She didn't write anything down. Did you know it was verbal. So the agreement was we would still, you know, pay half of the other portion of one month down until we either throw the property or until one got a roommate. So you can't afford the property. You can't afford the mortgage if she moves out. I can. I just wouldn't want to because it will take up a chunk of money. I mean, you can't afford it. That would mean you can't afford it. Okay. Okay. Shall it. Okay. There's a bad plan. There's a bad plan. Okay. Now, let me say this. I think the way you do this does matter. If you, she says, Hey, what do you think about Ken? And you say, I don't like your boyfriend, Ken. And then you say, well, that's it. You're, you're kicked out of the house, right? That that doesn't go well.

1:41:16I think that there's a way that you can not do this throwing a hissy fit. Right. She's, I mean, she can marry whoever she wants to marry. She's a grown woman. I mean, that's not the point. The point is, okay, look, we're not getting along. And so it's not good for us to own this house together anymore. So let's get it sold. That's all you have to say. You don't talk about Ken. Okay. You don't do putting up for rent would be a better option. Well, it's not a better option. You still own it with somebody that you don't like and it's like mad at you. Well, I did it. I owned it by myself. She got on the beach. Right. But you can't, you can't afford it. But you own it because you did a deal, a handshake deal that said you own it together. And she gets her money back out. So you can't just put it up for rent and cut her out. Right. Yeah, you got to get, you got to undo this deal because you guys aren't getting along because you shouldn't have been in this deal in the first place because you guys might not have been getting along. Did Ken move into your house? I hope not. I hope not. No, he doesn't. He has a move then, but he's 30 years. He's always there. Okay, I see what's going on here. Yeah. That's what I was afraid of. Yeah, it's time to get the house sold.

1:42:29Let's just talk about, okay, guys, you guys are, it looks like you guys are moving on with your life. I'm going to move on with my life. And so real good time. Realtors coming over. We're going to put the house on the market. A sister, you're going to get half or whatever we get out of this. Yeah, closing because you put in half of it. And I'll be signing all the papers and you guys have a good life. And love you. We put so much into remodeling it. I listen. What I would do is if you said, it doesn't matter. You called us and said this situation sucks. So don't stay in it. Regardless of how you got here. And if you sell it and you make a profit, split the profit too. Split it. You guys split it down the middle. You split the rent. You split the down payment. If there's profit, split the profit. Yeah, that was your deal. Wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you did a dumb deal. And now you've got to undo the dumb deal. Buying a house with your sister when you are not aligned on how life works is a dumb idea. And so you got yourself into a barrel of fish hooks here. And the best thing to dump the barrel out and get out of it as fast as you can. That's going to be the best thing for your money. It's going to be the best thing for your peace of mind. And it's actually going to be the best thing for your relationship with your sister. I agree. Yeah. Because now she feels like she's like the houses in your name and her boyfriend's over there.

1:43:46And there's all this tension in the air. But when the house is sold and you know, they got to go do their own apartment and you do your own situation. And everybody will be okay. And all of a sudden, 10 years later, you might like can. Who knows? That's why I said don't do it with drama because if you just look at it and say to her, it looks like you guys are getting ready to go into a new phase of life. This is the perfect time. Let you go. Yeah, that way it doesn't mess with your relationship further. Yeah, instead of like I got to sell the house because I hate your boyfriend. Yeah. I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say that as you tell your friend, that's not the reason. Yeah, that's terrible. That's a bad idea. And we did it. And looks like you guys need to do your thing. And we're going to let you and I'm going to go do mine. And everybody's cool, that's all good. That's all good. And you know that you don't have to get into trying to fix her life, which is where you got into trouble. Yeah, as soon as you start telling her who she could date, that as a problem for her. And her I stop that. Weird. Okay. Yeah. I mean that's

1:44:46on uh... math using charlotte north care line i have a few what's up hey they have a going better than i deserve how can i help good deal so uh... well my my question mostly is what to do with all this extra money that i've kind of came across a long story short my wife and i are in uh... baby step four now recently and uh... that happened by the panoff suit loans uh... finished off paying a car and another good news uh... my wife actually just landed a great new job where she's getting like a thirty two percent increase on her face and uh... also within the next couple of weeks i'm getting a promotion to director that's a lot of that life is good on math use planet it is what what some bad news i felt a little bit behind in my retirement so uh... thirty five years old and i don't think you're buying of the year okay you're okay so what will you be making in your new position

1:45:49uh... about a hundred and ten and what will she be making it with her thirty two percent raise she is going to be up to about eighty five okay so we have a two hundred and two hundred we have a two hundred and something thousand dollar household income give or take i think we can prosper at thirty five and and and retire a multi-millionaire if you were to invest um... fifteen percent of that because you're debt free except the house right now is that what you told me yeah correct okay so that put you baby step four if you're to invest fifteen percent of that that be thirty thousand dollars about twenty five hundred dollars a month going in from age thirty five to age sixty five is going to be a bunch of money jade's going to put it in the calculator for us so you're you're just fine uh... so you want to do Roth for a one-k at your place and her place first get the match if you can uh... and so what match beats Roth beats traditional and if you need some help going to a smart vester pro at ramsie

1:46:50uh... jade put that in the calculator that'll be five point two million dollars if you never get a raise and you only invest fifteen percent from age thirty five to sixty five think you're going to be okay uh... davran's here for more than thirty years i've been talking to folks on the air and i can tell you that most people are broke not because they don't make enough money but because they don't have a plan you need to give every dollar you earn a job because when you do that something changes you stop guessing you stop worrying you stop stressing our every dollar budgeting app will show you how to find extra cash pay off debt and finally start winning with money but most people

1:47:52won't do it they'll keep living paycheck to paycheck keep hoping things will change without making a change it's time to say enough is enough it's time to take control of your money it's time to start your every dollar budget for free today go download it in the app store or google play saith is in portland or again hey saith how are you what's bad i don't better than i deserve what's up i think i can get out of that is that i got on uh... uh... one income with a married so well i can't work sees pretty much basically disabled so

1:48:54just trying to get some uh... ideas on how to attack this and then also get to a good retirement you know so much that do you have to i get uh... this about four thousand on what uh... twenty three thousand student loans two car loans what do you want to come down uh... you can't have them at truck and fifteen of my wife's car and then thirteen thousand credit card so you're kind of normal only normal sucks right yet gotcha and what's your income house what do you make uh... uh... sixty five thousand sixty five what do you do i make uh... bill health copters cool good for you

1:49:57uh... civilian side of the military but we do both actually but you're civilian okay and what's the nature of your wife's disability sir uh... well the past eight years her you're trying to forget exactly what it is but it's really hard for her to walk and standing for balance is really off so you got a other plan is also to move probably in the area because they have better care over there for neurologist the better opportunity for her dex get help what would your career be in a razon i'll probably think of a real space so you think you can land a job there before you'll go by i have i've been a little dry run and this couple that wanted to hire me but i'm just not down there they want to get down here no no no no no no no you you need a job offer before you walk away from

1:51:02the current job that you have because you're the only thing eating feeding your family yes that is the plan that's gonna come on down and then we'll hire you you come on down then they don't hire you you're screwed aside from landing the job what other things are you waiting on to make that move i'm well i need you see some money to get down there moving cost money so yeah has she applied for and received permanent disability she getting SSI i see it applies we're just waiting on the eight years no well we started it about a year ago because it started getting worse and worse the last like year and a half it just got it you know it's where she can that's trips over anything and when it's cold especially that's the other reason but you've got a doctor you've got a doctor's right up to be able to send to the Social Security

1:52:03Department to be able to get her own SSI and you've done that right yes and no because i've been neurologist here they you know leave all the time you know we get one and she gets an appointment and all of a sudden they're done they leave because i don't know what's up with the organ but they just have issues keeping neurologists so okay because that income that's that SSI income will probably be three or four thousand dollars a month it might be very helpful right and so it's very important that they you follow through and get that income coming in if she's not able to work that's a a legitimate thing to get and get going regardless of your location you need to push that on through and so if you have to chase a neurologist around the state and tackle them then let's do that and get these letters and get these forms filled out and get this done it's very important is she able to drive yes he's able to drive

1:53:04he can't like you know lift anything it just all you know her balance just goes right to make sure she's safe driving yeah i mean i'm just looking at these or does she does maybe she can but maybe she doesn't drive much because i'm just looking at these cars thinking gosh why you got 15,000 on a car destination in the driveway with this disability yeah that's she she can drive you know not problems like we got an x-ray honor and uh they said that she has like a right where the shiatic is in the l5 this is basically like a little there's a muscle and nerve tear and also like this little this got to be generation yeah i'm sorry though you guys have been through a lot man yeah yeah so yes what i would do though is i think you've kind of been sitting in the middle in limbo and so if i'm going to do anything if i'm in your shoes it's start being it's time to start taking some action so i think

1:54:06it's time to move to Arizona matter fact you're a year late so you need to call up go down there interview get a job and load it gets your friends to load you up and help you drive up down there so that it didn't cost you much out of pocket and just get your stuff down there and get your new job started and let's get her landed down there and get a neurologist there and get you know get her disability signed up decide whether or not she really needs to keep a 15,000 dollar car debt in the driveway or not uh in this situation i doubt she's not she's not driving around much um it doesn't sound like and uh then you begin to work as i'll at like she's like jade said every extra job every piece of overtime you can and you work like a maniac you get her income coming in from disability and between those two things added to your new job of 65,000 or more maybe it's more in Arizona then we start working these debts off but the problem is you've been kind of hovering around the edges of everything because of the pain she's been in

1:55:06and uh because that that uh medical problem has just got you all per uh um you know got you on hold you know and so we we have to get turned loose here and uh and you're just going to have bus loose so it sounds like you said the cold is a problem the care is a problem in that area and you've got a good lead there in Arizona if i'm you i'm going to wrap that up next couple weeks and be in Arizona and about like by the end of the month and having an apartment there get this one sold get to get out call the landlord get out of this lease or whatever it is let's get moving and get this done if i'm you that's what i'm doing Monica's in Atlanta hey Monica how are you? i'm good how are you better than i deserve what's up? good i'll give you a little story here um i'm married i'm 50 my husband 54 years old we have four kids two are in college and set to live good financial life good my question comes into play that we have a fourth child who is

1:56:06nine years old that we adopted with special needs uh who will not be able to provide for himself in the future he will live on ssi and medicaid um we did set up a third party trust and special needs trust for him just within the last month that lawyer advised us to look into whole life insurance because her thought process is that when we leave our son will need a large lump sum of money to live off of and then lawyers and the older son will most likely take care of him that lawyer should stick to practicing law that's horrible advice horrible and well do you want to know what the real answer is? that's where i'm calling you real answer because this is horrible advice and don't take any more financial advice from this lawyer they're moronic on financial things or their brother-in-law sells whole life one of the two now by term life and name the trust as the as the as a secondary beneficiary

1:57:07you're the beneficiary if he dies he's the beneficiary if you die and the secondary beneficiary if both of you die which is all we're concerned about is the trust and it goes in the trust and then you name that the trust goes into good mutual funds what's the child need to survive a month income wise right now he's nine no i mean i mean into his adulthood when you're not here anymore into the adult's it well help me to help me to caregiver help me five five thousand eight thousand a month okay eight thousand a month is seventy-thousand dollars a year that means there need to be a million dollars in there seven hundred a million dollars in there so go buy a million dollar term life policy until you can put a million dollars where the mutual funds in there it's your death but don't buy whole life for anything ever it's a horrible product way too expensive it does not accomplish your goals

1:58:16you shouldn't feel uncertain about investing and you don't have to at investing essentials our two-night virtual event George Camel and I will walk you through my playbook for investing in wealth planning we'll simplify everything from 401k's and mutual funds to passing on wealth it's happening now September 1st and 2nd tickets start at 199 grab yours today and lock in full replay access at ramsey solutions.com slice events or by clicking the link in the show notes our scripture today Psalm 77 14 you are the god who performs miracles you display your power among the peoples Peter Marshall said when we long for life without difficulties

1:59:18remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary wins and diamonds are made under pressure Lynn is in Dallas high Lynn welcome to the Ramsey show. Hi Dave thank you so much. Sure what's up well I have a question about a consolidation loan for debt and I'm really kind of embarrassed to even talk about this because I know that I was stupid in doing it I get it out of here and you know I've been here before and I know the Lord takes care of things but I mean just it overcame me because of a lot of trauma in the last four years and anyway I retired medical in October of last year I was working out of pathology and I retired because the job had gotten so much that I couldn't handle it I'm 77 and I just

2:00:22I just had never believed in retiring I've always done something inside of this was going but I got frauded four years ago and it took me a while to recover from that it was about 25 000 company representing themselves is Amazon and over five million dollars worth of ID insurance they ruled it as fraud and not ID theft and so none of it was covered and when I mutalled through all of that and got over it I had no credit card debt everything was cool and I ended up this year not having a lot and I was living off of the income from the medical which was last year on my taxes I made 45 000 when I retired in October I was dealing with some medical things that they couldn't put a finger on but I was healthy on my blood painals were good in February I was taken

2:01:30to the hospital by ambulance and they thought that I was having a stroke and I was gone I mean in my mind I couldn't think I didn't know where it was and they found out it was a UTI it took me it has taken me quite a while to get over this and it was brain fog and they said this was normal and I've been doing everything all of my numbers came back and everything's good but I've been little fuzzy and I have a phone professionally for years on the side I do high-end wedding dresses and men's suits and all kinds of things like that stuff that most alteration specialist won't even touch and so my business here has been growing your alteration business has been growing yes okay so how much are you making at the alteration business yeah right now because of the business I lost last year with the alterations and another side hustle I had that alone was 12 000 and of course I had such

2:02:35security for a long time and and I have another little thing coming in so what's the debt consolidation loan for okay the just recently I put 5 000 on a credit card to finish a website that I am doing to for holistic products organic holistic supplemental type things and it just went live the last couple of days but it's taken much longer to get through the setup of that business but so you've opened up another business yeah but all the right business and now you have an alternative medicine business yes that how much did you spend to do that 5 000 she said okay 5 000 and that's on the credit and you want to get a debt consolidation loan for 5 000 dollars no I have the the other I have a total of just under 20 000 in debt that's all

2:03:43that debt I have and you have no worries yes that's true I bring in about 2500 a month that's over the last three months because I had after the hospital trip in February it slowed me down I didn't lose the business that I could not do it I didn't lose clients over it yeah and the all of that has come back up I want you to work on one business not four you're 77 you've had all kinds of medical issues the last thing you need is trying to run four directions at one time and the second thing is never again for the rest of your life be so urgent to do something in business that you force yourself to borrow money slow down and got let God provide you the money to build the website for a business that you might not have even shut up but in you might have been just

2:04:45working on the operation side but I don't want to open anything else you've got too much going on now to do it all well and no debt consolidation is not your issue income is your issue and so anything we can do with either one of these businesses to get them moving without borrowing money like working like as much as you possibly have the energy to do on one or the other or both to create income and then just really dialing down your budget and just begin to pay these cards off and land pleased don't ever pick up one of them again just just see my face in your mind saying I don't want my friend to land in debt anymore it's not good for you it's making these medical problems worse the stress it goes with it you don't need with everything else it's going on you need to clear this and a debt consolidation loan doesn't get you out of it it just moves it around and the P is still under one of the shelves so cut the cards up list them smallest to

2:05:48largest call each of the card companies and ask for reduction and interest rates and then begin to work them off smallest to largest living on nothing and doing anything you can with either one of these businesses to get your income up to attack this with and that becomes your new focus and leaning into that and it sounds like you've been throwing off a lot so I sure hope that you can turn that around but borrowing your way out of debt does not work so no that consolidation it's it's mythology it makes you feel like you did something and you didn't yeah I also find that when you have individual debts psychologically I mean it's like we teach it's nice to have them list them smallest to largest you can see them go away you can see them go away you check off the boxes one at a time versus one giant debt that you have to kind of tear into and you know if you have if any time you do something regardless of if you're 17 or 77 and it causes you to feel shame

2:06:49that's an indicator to never do that again that's good and so I've done stuff that I look back and I go cally how dumb is Dave you know and I feel shame I feel convicted I feel condemned by the action well why would I then I'm never going to repeat that action and in this case it's credit card debt and and so you know if you're going to grow your business grow it more slowly and with cash you have enough to eat and and you have enough to pay your lights and this is what matters past that we're just trying to build an estate and trying to get things going and and so keep things in order here good question I'm sorry you're going through that it sounds like it's a lot sounds like it's a lot so I couldn't tell in her situation without and I don't know we didn't have time to get into it uh it sounded like she lost five million dollars 25,000 I thought is what she said to a company pretending to be Amazon yeah or something maybe that's all it was okay thank

2:07:52God 25,000 identity theft and fraud and everything else involved some kind of a con and so you've got to be very very careful there but the thing is just move slowly with these kinds of things and double and triple check them um and it keeps you from getting bit by one of these uh fraudsters there's a lot out there now good time to check out zanders I de-theft insurance too and make sure you have that in place in case there's some kind of an identity issue going on didn't sound like that was hers though that puts us out of the Ramsey show in the books we'll be back with you before you know it in the meantime remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace Christ Jesus