Don't Let People's Opinions Influence Your Financial Decisions

Summary

The Ramsey Show Podcast Summary

Episode: Don't Let People's Opinions Influence Your Financial Decisions
Date: May 8, 2026
Hosts: Rachel Cruze & Dr. John Delony (part of the Ramsey Network; Dave Ramsey joins for key segments)
Main Theme:
This episode of The Ramsey Show empowers listeners to take control of their finances by building wealth on purpose, regardless of past mistakes. The hosts answer real-life questions from listeners dealing with financial confusion, relationship crises, student debt, major life transitions, and more—all while reinforcing the principle that “normal is broke” and partnership, communication, sacrifice, and smart decision-making pave the path to lasting financial peace.

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1. Main Theme & Purpose

The central message: Don’t let external pressures, social norms, or even your own emotional baggage dictate your major financial decisions.

• The show features callers in crisis, couples managing joint money messes, and individuals facing financial, relational, and career crossroads.
• Repeatedly, hosts stress that clarity, open communication, and shared decision-making—especially in marriages—are more important than outside opinions.
• Sacrifice and temporary discomfort are essential ingredients for both financial and personal growth.

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2. Key Calls & Discussions

A. Marriage, Lies & Financial Crisis: “Grace in Boston”

[00:30–20:25]

• Background: Grace’s family sold their home, received a large windfall but are now almost $1 million in personal and business debt—mostly accumulated secretly by her husband.
• Husband took out $650K in loans without her knowledge over three years.
• Legacy of miscommunication and lack of transparency.
• Grace’s own choices (like spending inheritance, lack of early confrontation) also contributed.
• Highlights:
  • Rachel & John urge her to accept shared responsibility: “You have to sit down at the table, both of you, no threats ... We have created a mess. The only way forward is if we get on this.” (Dave, [14:10])
  • The marriage has to be rebuilt from scratch due to “financial infidelity.”
  • Practical advice: Keep finances separate for now, protect Grace’s remaining assets, and get professional help.
  • Memorable Quote:

    “The moment your husband took out a $50,000 loan from his wife, you stopped being his wife. You became his banker.”
    —Dave Ramsey, [05:59]

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B. Parental Guilt vs. Accepting Help: “Summer in Baltimore”

[22:46–31:26]

• Situation: Summer is a self-reliant college student. Her parents (who are in debt) offer to pay half her tuition—she worries about accepting.
• Rachel and John emphasize: You are not responsible for your parents’ financial choices. Accepting help is not unethical unless it violates your personal values.
• Dr. John:

  “If it’s not against your values to accept help from someone in debt...be grateful for the gift.”
  ([28:01])

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C. Should I Go into Debt for a Car?: “Becca in Louisville”

[33:11–40:27]

• Becca just got debt free, then her car caught fire (while pregnant). Family urges her to borrow for a ‘safer’ car.
• Hosts push back: Use your savings, buy the best car you can afford in cash; it’s okay to drive a beater temporarily for the sake of financial freedom.
• Quote:

  “There are safe $5,000 cars out there, Becca. You don’t have to go into debt for ‘safety’.”
  —Rachel Cruze, [35:52]

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D. Career/Passion vs. Lucrative Degree: “Devin in Pittsburgh”

[54:42–60:51]

• Devin has an English Literature degree but wants a better-paying career; dreams of running an adventure camp.
• Dave reframes: It's not your degree holding you back but the willingness to work and get creative; leverage your writing skills while pursuing your dream.
• Quote:

  “There’s no path forward without disruption.”
  —Dave Ramsey, [57:49]

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E. The Comfort Crisis — Embracing Sacrifice for Growth

[65:48–75:15]
Guest: Michael Easter (author of The Comfort Crisis)

• Discussion on why modern comfort makes us weak and how purposeful hardship is essential for true growth—financially, relationally, and personally.
• Michael: “If something’s going to improve your life, it’s going to be uncomfortable in the short term. But … you get long-term rewards by embracing that.” ([68:59])
• “When you look at what gives human beings fulfillment, it’s never the easy thing. It’s the things that we had to struggle through.” ([72:15])
• Dave credits Michael’s “2%” concept: Choosing discomfort (taking the stairs, having tough conversations) unlocks life transformation, not just in health but also in marriage and money.
• Memorable Segment: The hosts and Michael encourage listeners that being “the 2%” who choose discomfort—sacrificing spending for saving, or choosing transparency over secrecy—radically changes your financial future and personal character.

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3. Additional Advice & Notable Calls

• Merging Money in Marriage:
  Newlywed Lindsay asks if she should allow her husband to pay off her student loans ([78:45–86:44]).

  • Dave and Rachel urge: Marriage means full partnership, including finances. Shared accounts and debt repayment builds stronger unity.
  • “This is not your debt anymore. This is y’alls debt.” (Dr. John, [82:19])

• Real Estate Questions:
  Callers with high home equity but little cash are advised not to let pride or “house rich, cash poor” mentalities trap them ([87:24–95:02]); selling, downsizing, and investing the proceeds gives freedom, not shame.

• Bonus Windfalls & Military Families:
  Multiple listeners with sudden windfalls (military bonuses, settlements) are cautioned to use them for debt payoff, building a real emergency fund, and then investing—not simply lifestyle inflation ([108:12–116:49]).

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4. Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• “Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we’re here to help you transform your life.” —Rachel Cruze ([00:30])
• “You’re running two concurrent businesses inside your house. You’re both spending out of control.” —Dave Ramsey ([06:41])
• “If it’s not against your values to accept help … be grateful for the gift and go on about your life.” —Dr. John Delony ([28:01])
• “You have to sit down at the table … We have created a mess. The only way forward is if we get on this.” —Dave Ramsey ([14:10])
• “If something’s going to improve your life, it’s going to be uncomfortable in the short term. But … you get long-term rewards by embracing that.” —Michael Easter ([68:59])
• “There’s no path forward without disruption.” —Dave Ramsey ([57:49])
• “You are not responsible for someone else’s situation.” —Rachel Cruze ([25:44])
• “Make decisions together. All the good stuff in marriage comes from working as a team.” —Rachel Cruze ([83:53])
• “Don’t let anybody else’s opinions or your own guilt keep you from making wise financial decisions.” —Overarching theme

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5. Important Segments & Timestamps

| Time | Segment Summary | |------------|---------------------------------------------------| | 00:30–20:25| Grace’s marital and financial transparency crisis | | 22:46–31:26| Summer: Should I accept help from indebted parents| | 33:11–40:27| Becca: Debt-free, but car disaster | | 54:42–60:51| Devin: Finding purpose after a “bad degree” | | 65:48–75:15| Guest Michael Easter, “Comfort Crisis” lesson | | 78:45–86:44| Lindsay: Should spouse pay off my student loans? | | 87:24–95:02| Rick: High home equity, low cash, what now? | |108:12–116:49| Jessica: Where to save/deploy military bonuses |

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6. Key Takeaways

• Communicate and take shared responsibility in marriage: Secret debt, avoidance, or separate financial “lives” create disaster.
• Embrace discomfort and sacrifice: True life change happens when you do the ‘hard things’—living below your means, shutting down lifestyle inflation, admitting to mistakes, and fighting through temporary pain for long-term gain.
• Ignore the crowd: Don’t buy things, take on debt, or make life decisions just because others expect it or “everyone’s doing it.”
• Clarity and values matter: Know your values around money and stick to them, even with family.
• Every decision is a chance to move toward or away from the life you want.

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7. Final Note

Throughout, the tone is honest, firm, empathetic, and sometimes gently confrontational. The Ramsey team wants listeners to really own their situation, refuse to blame others, and live out the courage to do things differently—being “the 2%” who disrupt the cycle of debt and chaos.

For more, go to ramseysolutions.com to try the “Ask Ramsey” AI tool and explore resources mentioned.

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Listen to this episode for:

• Practical frameworks for untangling joint financial messes in marriage
• Emotional coaching on handling guilt, shame, and tough choices
• A motivational push to embrace life’s “comfort crisis” for exponential growth
• Real, actionable advice to get out of debt, build wealth, and create a unified financial household

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Podcast summary by AI, reflecting the lively, candid, and empowering dialogue of The Ramsey Show team

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[Rachel Cruz]

Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsey show and I'm Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with Dr. John Deloney. So give us a call at 888-255-225. Talk about your life and your money and your relationships. We are here for you. The phone lines are open. All right, kicking us off this hour is Grace in Boston. Hey Grace. Welcome to the show.

[Caller Grace]

Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

[Rachel Cruz]

Absolutely. How can we help today?

[Caller Grace]

So basically this is kind of real mess. I'm drowning. So I'm drowning in a lack of transparency over the course of the past three years. We sold our house three years ago in 2023 when I was expecting our fifth child. Bottom line is we had to move because we had real difficulty in Massachusetts finding a an education that wasn't completely cr. We were pretty conservative and just found the state incredibly difficult to navigate. So we moved closer to the kids school. But in the process we never had a contingency and we just sold our house without having a place to move into. Long story short, we moved into my childhood home which was sitting empty luckily. And we sold our house and made $700,000 off of it in 2023. And I moved half of that to a kind of secondary house that we purchased. And so we were left with 325 of which we spent. My husband borrowed 50,000 from me in 2024. In 2024 I also borrowed about 75,000 from my family, my mother. And then in 2025 last year I asked for an early inheritance and received an early inheritance because my husband said that we were going to, we were looking for a house. We were actively for the past two years looking for a house. So unfortunately when we sold our house, there was a delay on the other party's end for closing. So it went from 30 days to 90 days. And in that time the interest rate really went up. So we kind of got our intention to buy a house really got thwarted. And in that time period, I don't know if my husband was making any money. We seem to have gone through considerable amount. Amount of money kind of just waiting to buy a house. And so I needed a little bit more money to put down as a down payment. Asked for 240,000. That was last June, and since then have gone through it.

[Rachel Cruz]

But it didn't go through to a down payment, correct?

[Caller Grace]

No, it didn't.

[Rachel Cruz]

Went to now

[Caller Grace]

just since June, so about 11 months ago, just daily living. So, as I said, we're in a very expensive state, Massachusetts. I was paying for a ton of health care costs, so one of my children is sick. I was paying for just, you know, different medications out of pocket. In January, I kind of woke up and said, do we not have health care? And my husband said, you're using the wrong pharmacy. And then in February, I said, do we not have health care? And he said, yeah, I don't. I don't know if we do. So I immediately went on MassHealth and since February, I have told my husband to leave until he can find a job. So he owns his own company. Was telling me for the past three years, since we sold our house, he was making $30,000 a month, and we were in good shape, and he was managing everything. And then I pushed and pushed and pushed since December to find out some transparency around some issues and kind of threatened to hire a financial planner, which was not into. And I then set a lawyer for some transparency. And he said he'd show me the loans. He showed me the loans. And then finally, two months later, I found out just last week that he's. He took out 650,000 in loans.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh, my gosh.

[Caller Grace]

450,000 are personal. 200,000 are business. All since 2021, none of which I've known about.

[Rachel Cruz]

So obviously, where did that 450 go?

[Caller Grace]

I have no idea. I.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So he said that he's made a

[Caller Grace]

dent and he's managing the debt. And I said, can I see the whole profile? How much you actually took out? And that's when he said. He showed me it was 650 he's paid in the past few years. 200,000 towards that.

[Rachel Cruz]

You guys are almost a million dollars in just consumer debt from loans.

[Caller Grace]

True.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. So.

[Caller Grace]

But this is all new to me. This is all extremely new.

[Dave Ramsey]

I know, Grace. This is all new to you. And your husband borrowed more than half a million dollars, lied to you about it, and all that's true. Okay, 100%.

[Rachel Cruz]

And you borrowed 240,000. Well, I guess from. You got it from the inheritance.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I Mean.

[Caller Grace]

Yeah. Not to pay back.

[Dave Ramsey]

Here's what I want to point out. Like, you have. Your mess is very much financial, no question. But your mess is much deeper than owing a million dollars. Right.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Mean.

[Caller Grace]

It's the lack of communication.

[Dave Ramsey]

Meaning, like, the moment your husband took out a $50,000 loan from his wife, you stopped being his wife. You became his banker.

[Caller Grace]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you became his. His. Like, the whole dynamic here is such a mess.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Right.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Can I just.

[Caller Grace]

Can I just add one thing? You're right. When we. When he asked for me that $50,000, it was literally one week after we moved all of our stuff into a rental. While we were waiting, he said, let's just rent a place until we can find a place.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

And.

[Rachel Cruz]

But the language you use was, he borrowed 50,000 from me.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And you're.

[Caller Grace]

Yeah, he borrowed it. He said, I'll pay you right back.

[Rachel Cruz]

I'm just saying.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's what I'm saying. Like, I would. I can't ever imagine asking my wife to borrow money because it's all ours, right? And if. If. If she's gonna say, hey, we're so broke, I need to go ask for an early inheritance, like, Old Testament style. I. I would. We have to sit down. We. We would talk about that, and we would make plans for what we're going to do next. And we're not perfect, don't get me wrong. But that's what I'm saying. Like, you're running two concurrent businesses inside your house. You're both spending out of control, and you're both getting money from different places. Sometimes telling the other person, sometimes not. His. His hole he's dug is way deeper than the one you dug, but you are both digging your own holes, right? So, like, you've got a huge mess. How can we help?

[Caller Grace]

Right, so. Well, I mean, I'm fortunate to have the house that I grew up in, and that's where we're living.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, but why did the rental go?

[Rachel Cruz]

Do you say, there's something about a rental?

[Dave Ramsey]

You rented and you bought another house? Like, what are you all.

[Caller Grace]

Yeah, correct. He told me, we haven't found a house. This was back in 2024. We haven't had found a house yet, so let's just rent a place.

[Dave Ramsey]

But you were already in a home, right?

[Rachel Cruz]

You were in your childhood home, right?

[Caller Grace]

Yeah, but he just, you know, I didn't. I didn't know the financial mess we were in. And he said, I know you don't want to live there, so, you know, it's okay.

[Rachel Cruz]

So you're not in your childhood home right now. You're in a rental.

[Caller Grace]

We are back. That was 2024. Now it's 2025, 26. We're in my childhood home.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Yeah, you're okay.

[Caller Grace]

Your rental.

[Rachel Cruz]

And you had $250,000 that you took from. And then where. Where is. You said we went to buy another property with that 250. Where did that go?

[Caller Grace]

No, we. We. I just. We lived on it the past 10 months.

[Rachel Cruz]

You know, Grace, we're. We have to head into a break. I want to keep you on the line.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Rachel Cruz]

Because I do want to kind of untangle some of this to really help you, because I. We want to be able to give you. Go ahead. A plan. So stay on the line. And we will. Yeah, we'll come back after this break to break down a little bit more of the financials to get you guys on a path. And then definitely the relational side, which John can speak into, because I think that that is. There's a gaping hole there, and both need to be fixed and talked about and addressed. So we want to. Buying a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make. But too many people base the decision on opinions or what the market is doing that week.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Rachel Cruz]

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[Dave Ramsey]

Id 1591nmlscumerexcess.org Eagle Housing lender.

[Rachel Cruz]

All right, we are back. And we're gonna go back to Grace, and she's in Boston. And to recap the call, if I can, there's a lot of details. So, Grace, if I don't get this correct, I just want to make sure you're married. You guys, back in 2023 sold a house, but didn't have a house. And so there's been a big mix up within taking money from loans, inheritance. A lot of things have happened even medically this past year. And all in all, close to a million dollars in just consumer debt loans and was kind of where we ended, I guess, to a degree. Does that all sound pretty correct? Okay, it does.

[Caller Grace]

I just want to add a couple of things. Factually, he had been divorced three times when I met him. He had also been bankrupt twice prior to meeting him. And when I met him, he had four boys from two prior marriages. So they're a grown up. They don't. He doesn't pay alimony or child support at this point in time to that extent. But we've been married for 16 years, so we have our own five children.

[Dave Ramsey]

So. Grace, let me. Can I talk to you directly? But you know that like I'm on your, I'm on your team. Is that cool?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Of course.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. What you just told me gave me even more fuel to the fire I was feeling during the break. You married a guy that has been a financial disaster.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

He's really struggled. He also had kids from multiple marriage like you. You knew who you were signing up to do life with and yet you have continued. And by the way, he's not on the phone, so I can only talk to you. You have continually said, well, whatever, I trust you. You said this. And so I want you to also hold some of the response. A huge half of the responsibility here in that I didn't ask questions. I, I started spending money. I burned through a quarter million dollars in three or four months, paying medical expenses without even asking the question, do we have health insurance? That's not his fault. No, no, no, right?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No, no.

[Dave Ramsey]

11 months or 11, like whatever. 11 months. That's still a lot of money to just rip through. Right. And not to sit down with my 16 year spouse and say, hey, we have this big thing coming up with our kid. We need to navigate this thing together.

[Caller Grace]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so it's. There has to be a. Not only do you.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Or.

[Dave Ramsey]

And now you're threatening him to hire a lawyer. I want to see transparency. I think the only way you guys can even have a prayer to make it through the financial mess, much less the relational mess, is that you sit down at the table, both of you, no threats, no, none of that stuff. And both of you say both of us have contributed to. Contributed to this. I for a year had a free house to live in, my childhood home. And I complained about it, didn't want to live here. And then he went and rented something. We had no money. And then we did this and we bought this other house, but we're not going to live there because that's our special rental. All. But everything just has to stop. Everything has to stop and say, we have created a mess. The only way forward is if we get on this. Either we divorce because of the financial infidelity, or we have to say we have to live differently starting today. Do you get what I'm saying? And if you don't, if you don't feel any shred of ownership over the position you're in, there's no path forward for you because you're just going to walk in and blame and blame, and blame and blame. And he's going to either shut down like he's been doing the last 15 years, or he's going to head off on a separate path. And so both of you have to sit down and say, we have created a mess. We haven't asked the right questions. We have lied to each other. Or he had to say, I lied to you, whatever. And we have to get to this baseline of the marriage we had is over. Do we want to build a new one? And here is all of the excavated foundation from the old marriage. We're starting at dirt. Do we want to rebuild a new thing together? You know what I'm saying?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's that level.

[Rachel Cruz]

And I would say on your end, Grace, I mean, tell me what you think of this. Of. Yes, he. Grace. You know, I do. I'm with John. Like, there was a level of responsibility that. Yeah, you didn't take. But also, he did hide half a million dollars. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh.

[Rachel Cruz]

I mean. Yeah. Even more so. The trust is broken on both ends. Probably more. Maybe more so on your end. And so learning a path forward to rebuild that trust. Because the goal will be you guys working together. And if that takes a journey, and probably it's gonna take a lot of therapy and all of that. Right. To rebuild that trust, that's okay. That's gonna take time. But the goal, by the end of this, when you guys sit down and say and do everything, you know what John was just saying, the end goal is that we are a household and financially and big decisions and everything that falls in that bucket, we are doing this together. We don't make decisions about money without each other. And I would say even more of a microscope because of his past, financially, of how he's act, I mean, of how he's handled money. He's Filed bankruptcy twice. So. So even more. Even more scrutiny that every purchase we are going to. We're going to be on a. On a communication level that is probably more strict than the average couple out there.

[Dave Ramsey]

Rachel and I have sat with Dave and Sharon. And Sharon, that was. That 30 years ago was their bankruptcy. And still to this day, Dave and they have resources till the end of time, and they still talk about major purchases together because that core seed was planted 30 years ago of. I didn't know how bad this was. And so from here on out, we agree that we're going to talk through these things together.

[Rachel Cruz]

So that's the goal for you guys from a marriage perspective. Grace, from our position, like, what we see is what we want for you all. But financially, how to dig out of this. What are you guys making right now? A year? Like, are you working? Is he working? What's going on with income?

[Caller Grace]

Well, see, this is the thing just to back up. I did not just fall off of a turnip truck. I asked questions. I hired financial advisors. I tried to do a Sunday night meeting with him every week, and he'd fall asleep. He would say he's too tired. Now's not the time. This has been going on for not just three years, but 10 years. So we sold two houses before that just to kind of make ends meet. So it's. It's been a pattern where he skirts the communication issues. So in terms of me taking ownership of my stuff. Yes, I do. And I think that I agree with you, but it's hard to talk to someone who is constantly stating things that are untrue. Like he makes 30,000amonth, which maybe that

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

was true during COVID Maybe.

[Dave Ramsey]

Maybe not right now. Yeah.

[Caller Grace]

Yeah. So I don't know, because I asked him, could I get some bank traffic Transparency. Can I just see what your. The stream of income is? And he always says, it's complicated. Or, I'm working on the numbers.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, let's. Let's take it out of money. Let's say that he has a history of cheating on his. On his past wives. And then y' all get together, and every week you want to sit down and talk to him and say, I want to re. Establish trust. Can I see your phone? And he says, absolutely not. And all of a sudden, he.

[Caller Grace]

You.

[Dave Ramsey]

You see hotel receipts, show up at the house, and you're like, I didn't stay there. Who was there? And he goes, it's complicated. Would you stand for that?

[Caller Grace]

No.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

So what I want you to see is, like, when I Say responsibility. Absolutely. You've been trying for 10 years, panning back. We've been doing the same thing. We've been trying to run the Same play for 10 years, and it's never worked. Right. That's where the ownership is. I don't want to say this is your fault and you're. I want you to just take ownership. Okay? I've put up with this for 10 years. I'm done putting up with it.

[Caller Grace]

Yeah. And then when it comes to the financial advisor, I've hired a guy, I've hired a woman. And neither person is right. They're always.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. And that's going to be his. So, Grace, real quick. Yeah. We have about a minute and a half, so I want to. Just real quick. No, you're good. How much are you guys making right now? Do you know what he's making? What are you making?

[Caller Grace]

No idea. No idea what he's making. He said 30,000. He said 20,000. Now it's 10,000. It ranges.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller Grace]

You're now potentially sued. His company is falling apart right now, so he's getting sued.

[Rachel Cruz]

So what is under your name from a debt perspective? Because right now, in my head, you guys are two separate entities. And we kind of were like, that doesn't need to be the case. It does need to be the case right now because of everything.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're not safe.

[Rachel Cruz]

But what are you.

[Caller Grace]

I don't have any debt. I don't have any.

[Rachel Cruz]

But your mom, right, you. You borrowed $75,000 from her at one point.

[Caller Grace]

Yeah, no, I don't have any debt right now. I just have this Cape Cod asset right now that I'm trying to keep. It was going to be foreclosed on because he wasn't making the payment. I took ownership of it three months ago.

[Rachel Cruz]

Is your name on the deed now?

[Caller Grace]

It is.

[Rachel Cruz]

It is now. And how are you. Is it paid for?

[Caller Grace]

No, I mean, the.

[Rachel Cruz]

How are you paying. How are you going to pay the mortgage every month?

[Caller Grace]

I just am tapping into that early inheritance, and I have maybe four or five.

[Rachel Cruz]

Are you planning on going and making an income?

[Caller Grace]

I make very little money, and I have. I teach on the side, and then

[Rachel Cruz]

I have some, so. So really. So my advice for you of what I feel like what we can say right now is. Yes. Keeping everything separate right now. And you have to take care of you, Grace. So, yeah, you are probably gonna have to go make an income because this 250 and the way it's been the pattern in the past, it's gonna be gone in Three months if you're not careful. And so you need to start getting job. You need to be doing a budget and you need to be taking care of food, shelter, utilities, transportation. And then the whole mess of the marriage and his finances is gonna have to be untangled, and that's gonna take a while and probably some professional to step in and help.

[Commercial Announcer]

Statistics show that half of Americans don't have enough life insurance or they don't have any at all. I don't understand this, John. Why don't people want to take care of their family? They think they're going to die or something.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, I used to be one of those guys. I didn't even think about it. And one of my buddies said, hey, the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids. And I immediately went and got term life insurance.

[Commercial Announcer]

That's a gut punch.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

And.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, you're telling me. And for decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse, they've lost somebody important to them.

[Commercial Announcer]

Me, too.

[Dave Ramsey]

They don't know what to do next.

[Commercial Announcer]

Me, too. I mean, you're going to have a crisis here and, you know, you got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow, she's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's exactly.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Dave Ramsey]

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[Rachel Cruz]

Well, it's May, and the Ramsey cash giveaway is officially here, so you can enter every day from May 1st through the 31st. There's one grand prize winner who will get $10,000 plus there will be one $500 winner every single week in the month of May. And you can enter daily to increase your chances of winning. Plus, be sure to check out our sale that is going on right now and kick off your summer with some assessments and books and all the things for just $12. So go to ramseysolutions.com giveaway now to enter. No purchase necessary to win. All right, let's go to Summer in Baltimore. Hi, Summer, welcome to the show.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Hi. How are you guys?

[Rachel Cruz]

Hi. We're doing great. How can we help?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Good. So I was wondering, should I accept financial help from my parents for tuition knowing that they're in debt? I am so grateful that they want to help me. I just, I feel so guilty knowing that accepting that money, knowing that they're in debt. I'm not sure exactly how much debt that they're in, but I know that they have consumers, a house and car loans and things like that.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. How old are you, Summer?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I'm 23.

[Rachel Cruz]

You're 23. So is this your first time entering college? Are you getting a master's? Like, what are you going after degree wise?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So I already got my two year degree and I cash flowed that I finished my third year. Cash flowed it. So I only have about a year and a half left.

[Rachel Cruz]

You.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I've paid. Yeah, I've only, I've paid my tuition so far throughout, but I think the burnout is starting to hit me and they're noticing, so they're getting a little bit more adamant about helping me with school.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh my gosh. Well done, Summer. So you've like literally, like worked your way through.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah, yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

That's amazing. And so then you've had conversations with them that it's just kind of tough and they're like, hey, let us help. And what are they saying they want to help with? Are they wanting to pay for everything outright for the next year and a half or one semester?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Or they are wanting to help with half each semester.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

I said for me. Rachel, hop in here for me. Summer, man, I think every friend I have outside of this ecosystem that I,

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

where I work

[Dave Ramsey]

has some sort of consumer debt.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Whether it's a mortgage that I've got one friend, I take that back, one friend who's a banker and he just thinks just it's dumb to have personal debt. But beyond that, every friend I have, and it's a values judgment.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

They all make great money. They just choose to live their life differently than I do. And so for me, the question would be less about. We have a different value when it comes to having a car to loan versus not. And the question I would ask myself as a kid is, are my parents harming them or are they doing something that I know is going to be detrimental to them or do they, do they have a lot of money? They have pretty good money. And Also, they make car payments every month.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah. So that's where I kind of feel like I get into a rock and a hard place because I know that they're not fully set up for retirement. And that's what gives me a lot of anxiety, accepting that kind of money, knowing that they could be putting that towards their own retirement. But they. They choose not to. They.

[Rachel Cruz]

But they haven't chosen to. But they haven't chosen to in the past, though, right?

[Dave Ramsey]

They're not going to.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

That wasn't decided because of, you're in college and they want to help with that and they stopped their retirement to help you. They were never going to do it in the first place, probably.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No. No, they weren't. Yeah, they still don't.

[Rachel Cruz]

I think your heart is great, and I would probably feel the same way if I'm like, golly. So I think trusting your gut is what you need. But I also don't want to put guilt. John, you can probably talk more about this than me as the psychologist, but, like, don't put someone else's situation on you. You have not made these decisions for them. They have made them as your parents. They have offered to help. And I don't know, there's a part of me that I'm like, they're making these decisions. I don't think this would change their decision making one way or the other. So it's not like you are adding to this, you know, I don't know, you're stopping some motivation of like, going in the right direction. But again, I know you don't want to keep digging them deeper in it. There's a part of me that would accept it. Is that bad?

[Dave Ramsey]

John is a psychologist. I would, I, I mean, I, I would, I would take somebody's help. I think the man. I've mentioned this several times the last few days on the show, a friend of mine, Becky Kennedy, who's a psychologist in New York, she goes by Dr. Becky. She reframed guilt for me. So I'll ask you this question. Is it against your values to accept help? Do you hear me, Summer?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

You know, you get out there. Is it against your values? Help.

[Dave Ramsey]

Is it. Is it against your personal values to accept help, period?

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, it sounded like there was more. There was.

[Dave Ramsey]

Question mark.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

She's.

[Rachel Cruz]

I think you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, Just. Just yes or no.

[Rachel Cruz]

Help with what? Yeah,

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I guess not.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Is it against your personal values to pay cash for college?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Is it against your personal values to ever accept money from somebody who is in debt?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. So if those are your values, then the thing you're feeling is concern and, and, and frustration with your parents and you're choosing to take their issues and try to carry them on your own. And if you as a 23 year old are already doing the math and you're like, they're probably gonna be living with me one day, that might be your reality.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And also maybe not. Maybe they don't tell you everything. Maybe you don't know they have a pension or what, like who knows what their full situation is. But if you're not doing anything that violates your own values, and by the way, if it's against your values to ever take a dime from somebody who doesn't, who, who is in debt, then don't take their money because that would be a violation of your values. You'd feel guilty because I violated my core values. If it's not, then I would be grateful for the gift and go on about my life. If your gut says if I take money from them, it's going to come with a bunch of strings. They're going to start asking me what my grades are and why. And you just, you've been doing it on your own. You want to grind it out for 18 more months and be finished, then stay on the path or they expect

[Rachel Cruz]

to be paid back at some point.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. They're going to call you and say, hey, where's our money?

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. Borrowing money versus it. Being a true gift would be a.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

And no, not at all.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And so, and if you want to sit down and have the conversation as a 23 year old, I can tell you it's probably not going to go well. But if you say, hey, I would love this gift. I'm concerned about Yalls financial situation.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. I'm curious, Summer, how do you know that they're in a bad spot? I mean, I know you mentioned car loans because maybe in passing they talked about it, but how do you know that they're not contributing to retirement or you know, these kind of things that you've thrown out. Have they told you or you guys have talked about it?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I'm nosy. So I ask, I ask if they have a Roth IRA separate than their 401ks and they don't really know what it is, things like that. I know that they have 401ks with their, with at least my dad does with his work and I've seen it. But again, it's not, it's concerning to me for their retirement. I get, I get worried for them. Because they've worked so hard, too, so.

[Rachel Cruz]

No, absolutely. And I think one of the best things, you know, and it sounds like you guys have a good relationship, that you can at least have somewhat of these conversations. And not that you're gonna try to change them, because that does no good of really pretending like you can come in and swoop in and save the day on their financial journey. But I think it would be, you know, fine to continue. As much as they wanna open up and talk. Maybe not open up about their numbers, but just talk about the idea of money, the philosophy around money, you know, those kinds of things. And, you know, and bring it up in conversation of, like, man, debt just seems to bother me. I don't know why. I don't know where that comes from. Like, what do y' all think about? You know what I mean? Just have, like, just more casual conversation with your parents. Cause it sounds like you guys can have those. I feel like I have that with my parents. Like, whether it's theology or politics or whatever, you know, we'll throw ideas out about stuff and kind of, you know, just. And talk about. Have different opinions sometimes, but it's always an interesting conversation. So I would be curious, you know, what. What things you can bring up or talk about in a casual setting that you can maybe share some of your experience of. I mean, obviously you listened to this show to a degree to call in of. Like, yeah, I've been listening to this thing, or I've seen this and I thought that was fascinating or, like, compound interest. I had no idea. Oh, my gosh. Like, look at this calculator on ramseysolutions.com. like, whatever. I don't know what it is, but I am curious that there can just be conversations where you get to share some of the value systems at which you've placed money, which might be different than them. And actually, again, not in a weird teaching way, but. But open up and talk about it, and they may actually learn something or

[Dave Ramsey]

just something as simple as, I'm nervous to take this money. I'd rather see y' all invested for your retirement and see what they say to that.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. Yeah. So, Summer, you're awesome. We appreciate the call.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

If something goes sideways or crazy, call back on a day. John's here, and he can. He can help untangle that. Thanks for the call, Summer.

[Dave Ramsey]

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[Rachel Cruz]

All right, let's go to Becca in Louisville. Louisville. Louisville. Hey, Becca.

[Dave Ramsey]

Louisville.

[Rachel Cruz]

Welcome to the show.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Hello. How are y' all doing today?

[Rachel Cruz]

Hi, we're doing great. How can we help?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So my husband and I just got out of debt two and a half weeks ago.

[Rachel Cruz]

Congratulations, Becca.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yesterday. Thank you.

[Rachel Cruz]

Well done.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

My car caught on fire yesterday.

[Dave Ramsey]

Of course it did, cuz why not?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I was wondering if we should go into debt for a new car.

[Dave Ramsey]

Of course. Yeah, for sure. Do that.

[Rachel Cruz]

Stop.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Becca.

[Rachel Cruz]

Becca. Oh no. Okay, so what happened to the car? What caused it to catch on fire?

[Dave Ramsey]

You shouldn't drink gasoline and smoke at the same time.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So actually I was at my OB appointment because I'm also almost seven months pregnant with our first baby.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh my gosh. Well, congratulations.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Inside and they were in the. And they're talking about a car on fire outside. I thought nothing of it. Turns out it was my car. We think it was a battery short or something like that. But I mean, there's no way to really know for sure when your car catches on fire, why it was on fire. But oh my gosh, everyone was okay. And that's good.

[Rachel Cruz]

So that's terrible. Okay, did insurance like jump in at any point? Like, are you, are you getting any money for this car?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So we don't think so. We only had liability on the car because it wasn't worth very much and we didn't owe anything on it. Okay, so we're probably not to get anything from it, but we do have about $5,000 to spend on a car.

[Rachel Cruz]

Well, beautiful. Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

And the reason that I'm calling really, is I feel like I may be being emotional about getting into debt. My mom and my sister, they're both also Dave Ramsey fans, and they're also debt free. And I was just thinking, like, they were saying, well, Becca, you know, you're about to have a baby. You want to make sure you have a reliable car and that. That it's safe for you and your baby, and you don't want this to happen again and within the next few years. So maybe.

[Rachel Cruz]

I mean, I agree.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Put down payment down on a car and get something nicer. So I'm just wondering if I'm just being too emotional and I should go into a little bit of this.

[Rachel Cruz]

No, no. You know us too well. We're not gonna. We will never steer you that way. And I agree with them. I don't want this to happen again, AKA I don't want your car to catch on fire. So, like, we can agree upon that.

[Dave Ramsey]

And they're trying to love you.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Well, yes, this is their best intention. I'm just wondering if I'm being a little bit too emotional, because I literally just cut out.

[Dave Ramsey]

Listen, as a guy who's had a wife who's been seven months pregnant twice, I don't think there's such thing as too emotional.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, okay. You're right on track.

[Dave Ramsey]

You are. You're perfect just as you are.

[Rachel Cruz]

And your motherly instincts of like, oh, my gosh, I want to. I want everything to be safe. But let me tell you, there's safe $5,000 cars out there. Becca, just so you know, like. Like when we were kids. Well, not even me. I grew up in the late 80s, early 90s. Even with my parents in the 70s, I'm like, no, everybody, just like. So there's a range on what safety means. And for some people, safety is a brand new car. Some people, you know, reliability on X, Y, and Z is what. Like, that can mean a lot of things for a lot of people. But I could tell you that there are Honda Civics out there that are as safe as they come, right? Camrys or a Camry or, like, you know, you can find a safe car. Now, do you want to drive a $5,000 car your whole life? No, of course not. So my.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I mean, I wouldn't care.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I drove a $4,500 Prius with two kids in it, and I'm a big Tall guy.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I was in Texas, and it was. It was a season of shame for me. But that car was awesome, and it was cheap and it got incredible gas mileage, and it's still on the road

[Rachel Cruz]

today, still out there somewhere.

[Dave Ramsey]

I totaled it and they guy repaired it and resold it. So, like. Like, all I have to say is. Let me. Let me phrase it this way. Had your car not caught on fire, were you gonna go buy a brand new car anyway?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Consider this your first big post. Baby Step 2 Challenge by the universe.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I know that's hard.

[Rachel Cruz]

Do you have other. Do you have other cash available besides this 5000 just for medical stuff or, like, I don't know, I'm thinking through the baby and all of that.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I mean, technically, yes.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I mean.

[Rachel Cruz]

Well, good.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

That's a good thing. Like that I would want some level of emergency fund, especially if you're going into.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Exactly.

[Rachel Cruz]

Labor and delivery, which is great. I'm not telling you to spend money. I just want to make sure that this $5,000 isn't the only thing keeping your head above water financially. How much is in the other account? Just as an emergency fund, I mean,

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

we have probably another 1500.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I'd probably buy a $3,500 car.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. How much. How much did you guys make a month? Like, what were you put. Or let me ask this, Becca. How much extra per month were you throwing at debt three, four months ago that you now have in margin because you're debt free?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So my husband's. He's a firefighter. His salary is what was paying for, like, our living expenses.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

And then all the extra money will. Not extra money, but the money that I make with my job, which is only around anywhere between 1,000 to 2,000amonth because I do contract work.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

We're going towards a debt.

[Rachel Cruz]

Perfect.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

But I mean, that's not going to be coming in for the first few weeks after I have a baby. Made me, like, kind of freak out 100%.

[Rachel Cruz]

But will you have $2,000 in May and June?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Most likely closer to 15? Probably, but yes.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Is there a possibility for two months? And I know his partners will get on him. Could you drop him off at the fire station?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Well, I. I would do that, but he dragged a manual car, and I can't do that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Oh, well played, husband. Well played.

[Rachel Cruz]

I'm gonna get this.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

But we. I mean, we have. We have a. We also have a farm, so I have a farm van. I can Drive for now. But there's nowhere to put a baby in that car, if that makes sense.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. But for two months.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I need a car right now. This is a. I need a car for when I have a baby.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, perfect. That's great. Well, so what I would say, probably, Becca, honestly, is I would drive that farm van until you have the baby and then that. And then hopefully you'll have three to four thousand dollars saved before the baby comes extra than what you have right now. And so let's just say it's. Let's say it's three grand, and then you have five grand for the car. I would probably wait and buy an $8,000 car or even, you know, I would, you know, buy an $8,000 car. Car in three months.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Once the baby comes home, everything's good and everybody's rocking and rolling.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Then y' all go get an eight thousand dollar car.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

And take that van up to the fire station when those guys are sitting in their recliners. And by the way, I. I'm making jokes, inside jokes to my friends who are firefighters, but have those guys clean that van out for you and make it awesome.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Sounds great. Yep.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep. So that, that's what I would say. I would not buy anything right now, and I would save, you know, $1,500, $2,000 in May and June, and then go get an $8,000 car. And $8,000 you can get. You can get cars for.

[Dave Ramsey]

You can do great with 8,000 bucks.

[Rachel Cruz]

So that's awesome. Well, Becca, I'm proud of you. So stick to your guns. Don't fall back in. You can do this. And I promise you and your baby, you guys will be safe. All right, let's go to Sarah in Dallas. Hi, Sarah. How can we help?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Hi. I just. I wanted some objective advice on whether or not I should spend 6,000 do to get a certification that will advance me in my career passionately, but I won't be actually making any more money.

[Dave Ramsey]

What does that mean?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So I am a teacher and I love obviously working with the kids, but the content that I'm teaching right now is. Feels kind of like beating my head against a brick wall. And I want to. I already have my master's. I want to go back to school to get 18 grad hours in English. That way I can teach college level English.

[Dave Ramsey]

Are you able to teach college level English? My mom was an English professor and she just retired. That's one of the single hardest jobs to get right now on a college campus.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yes. So I would be teaching dual credit, which would be on my same campus.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, great.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yes, I know I would be able to roll into that position in at least two, the next two years, probably.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's the stipend for that? Or is it just the same?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

It would be basically the same.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. I, honestly, if you have cash and it's 6,000 bucks and it's going to move you to a position that's going to allow you to teach what you want to teach and give you 10 years of like work satisfaction doing a thing that you love. I, I don't have a problem with it.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. Do you have six grand, Sarah?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yes, we, I, I would have it, we would never borrow it. We would be able to work it into the budget. I guess my main question is because I have, I have three kids. Kids and 11 year old twins and a four year old. And so when I'm looking at the next five, six years, I'm looking at braces and cars and well, y', all,

[Dave Ramsey]

y' all work it out at your, at your house. Like, I, I have a bunch of guitars that if I added them all together would be more than 6,000 bucks. But I do that because I love it and we could afford it. Right.

[Rachel Cruz]

And so you see it as a passion.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, it brings me joy and what

[Rachel Cruz]

you do and I think you guys will be able to cash flow, the braid, everything else. Right. You just, you work in life as it comes and this is the next step in life for you. And if you have it and you guys can do it, then. Yeah, because you see it more as a passion, not as a, oh, I'm going to get something that's going to advance my degree and make more. Because that's not the case.

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[Rachel Cruz]

Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. I'm Rachel Cruz with Dr. John DeLoney and we are hosting this hour of the show. So give us a call at 888-255-2225 and we'll be answering your questions about life and money. All right, let's go to Dominic in Pittsburgh. Hi, Dominic. Welcome to the show.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Hey, guys. So I'm graduating college this spring from West Virginia University. And I just got like a week ago, I just got a job offer for $85,000 for an engineering job.

[Rachel Cruz]

Nice.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

In Newport News. Newport News, Virginia. So it's for like a naval shipyard. So I've never actually been to the area before. And I'm trying to figure out if that's enough money to move there and actually start building a life without putting myself in a bad financial situation.

[Dave Ramsey]

$85,000.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

As a single 22 year old.

[Caller Grace]

Yes.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep. I think you're good.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Unless you're trying to like go back and forth to the moon, you should be good, brother. How much debt do you have?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Okay, well, I actually have no student debt and I have a paid off car.

[Rachel Cruz]

Nice.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you just need to know that like half of America just drove their car into oncoming traffic because they're trying to support families of three kids on $85,000.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, the median. Just to give you a perspective, the median household income is 62,000 in America.

[Dave Ramsey]

Household, that's, that's two spouses.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah. I've been doing a lot of research because I'm kind of, I'm kind of, I'm just nervous about moving to an area that I've never been to. Especially because, I mean, I've, I've lived like I'm going to college in West Virginia.

[Rachel Cruz]

So what part of Virginia are you moving to?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

So it's close to Virginia Beach. It's like the southern coast. It's like Norfolk and Virginia beach area.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

So by the trident, like 8, I would get a one bedroom apartment and

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

as I was looking at one bedroom apartments and looks like they would be about 15 to $1600 a month.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's about right.

[Rachel Cruz]

About right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And don't furnish it with a bunch of stuff. Listen, right now in a really nice house on our back patio, My wife, me and my wife and my son. My daughter was still asleep. We had breakfast this morning on a box with a. With like a sheet over it. Okay.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

And I mean, if it works, it works.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's what I'm telling you. Like, we need to. I need to buy some outdoor furniture that's totally on me and my wife's been after me to do it forever. But I want you to know, like, we had a great family breakfast this morning over a box with a sheet over it. So you're going to get yourself into trouble if you get the nicest apartment or you go try to buy a house in a town you don't know anything about and then you try to furnish the whole thing like all bananas. Don't do that. Go in as low and slow as you can. And also ask your incoming firm if they have a real estate office. A lot of those folks are. Do they have places where they can say, hey, this is a great neighborhood, this is a good apartment complex, etc. Like, every place I've ever moved, they always set me up with somebody who could help me navigate that system. And so, yeah, go rent something.

[Rachel Cruz]

An 85. Dominic, you're good to go. I would take tons of cash. And you'll continue to. Yep, move up. It's amazing. All right, let's go to Cheryl in Fort Lauderdale. Hi, Cheryl, welcome to the show.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Hi. Thanks for taking my call.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

We've been pushing along baby step two, and I am literally down to just. I paid off credit cards, I paid off the heloc, I paid off one car payment.

[Rachel Cruz]

Good for you, sheriff.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

And now we have one more car to go. Thank you. I realized part of all this I was supposed to pause on contributing to my kids college funds. And I looked into it to see if I could pause it. And I can pause it. And technically I can even take that money out. In the state of Florida, they have this sort of prepaid college plan that you can pay into that I did when my kids were young and I paid in $31,000 at this point to both kids. And I owe 38,000 on my car. So my question is, do I pull that money out and put it towards this debt and have my car paid off in the next two or three months and then start over, or do I save some of that or do I just pause it and leave the money where it is?

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. How much, how much do you make a year or household income? Are you married?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yes. Make about 220 a year.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh, 220. Okay, that's great.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I would not.

[Rachel Cruz]

I would not unplug the investment there. And I would, Yeah, I would, I would just continue down that. You got $38,000 of car debt. And so how much, how much extra can we throw at this? Or do we sell, do we sell the car? You know, just to be done with it? So.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I, I have. I would have some major gastrointestinal issues pulling out an investment that's building one way to pay for a depreciating asset the other way way.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Cuz the moment you put. You pay 30th. That 30,000 bucks on it, in one year, that car is going to be worth less than that.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Whereas that money would have been worth more than that.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah. And my oldest will be off to college in six years, so I just, I wouldn't have a ton of.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. Retirement in college and stuff is one. I mean, if you had like a random stock or something and you wanted to sell it just to be debt free, but the kids, college and retirement, all of that, if you've already plugged things into those. Yeah, I would just cash flow. The payment of this, y' all make 220.

[Dave Ramsey]

How quickly can y' all just buckle down and get this thing knocked out?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

We're trying to. We still kind of struggle with the budget thing. I have two boys in travel baseball, so we're just trying to understand what's monetarily necessary every month and where can we really.

[Rachel Cruz]

What could you sell the car for? Cheryl, I'm just curious. Are you underwater on it?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No, I could probably get 45 for it.

[Rachel Cruz]

I would probably just sell it and be done.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sell it and be done.

[Rachel Cruz]

Go get a used, use something.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because here, listen,

[Rachel Cruz]

save a couple thousand between, you know, the next two months.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Right?

[Dave Ramsey]

So here's what I've heard you say is your priorities. Travel, baseball, and whatever some coach tells you y' all need to fork over, followed by buy a depreciating asset car. Then hopefully kids education. All of that seems backwards.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

I would put in. I just tell you, my house, kids education is first. Whatever. Depreciating asset me and my wife are driving around town comes second. And then extracurricular activities will come after that. And that's just a values judgment.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruz]

So yeah, you make enough money, Cheryl, to just.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, y' all are rich.

[Rachel Cruz]

Just do well, pay this off. Okay, so you have that option. But if you're, if you're itching that badly to get out of this car payment, then sell it. I would sell it in a Heartbeat more than. Yeah. Dip it into your kids college.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay. Okay.

[Rachel Cruz]

Which I know you probably don't want to hear that.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Well, no, that's good. I mean, just everything I keep hearing, I thought maybe I was supposed to stop because it's just all it does is it locks in the. For a tuition rate at what it was.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. And the prepaid tuition we're not big fans of anyways, but if that's the program that everything's already in, I don't know if you can shift or what that looks like. So that's probably a different.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you can roll it to a 529 or something.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. If you're able to do that. The prepaid tuition thing kind of locks you in and it's not. Not the best option. But. But yeah, there's There's a. I don't know, I'm like, there's the. It's the value system conversation. John, like what you were saying. But also, you know, our cars have such a grip on us. Like they really, really do. And it's not a bad thing. And again, I think you guys can.

[Dave Ramsey]

That grip is not as tight as travel sports, though. Yeah, Good God almighty.

[Rachel Cruz]

We'll get John on that rant in a little bit. Cheryl, y'. All, Hey, y' all are killing it. You really are doing awesome for not being great at the quote unquote budget thing. You've paid off another car. You paid off credit cards, a heloc. I mean, you've done it. You guys have done a great job. And you're at the end, you're probably just exhausted.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Good

[Dave Ramsey]

college for a car.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, I might get rid of the car. I'd save up three to four grand, go get a $15,000 car. That's what I would do. But you guys are awesome. Cheryl.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Foreign.

[Dave Ramsey]

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. All right, may is Mental health awareness month. And according to the National Institute of Mental Health, more than one in five US adults experience mental illness every year. And nearly half of those folks never get any help. These people are not just statistics. They're you, they're me. They're our friends, they're our neighbors. And listen, we're living in a world full of non stop noise. All the screens, the comparison, all these notifications that are always going off. Our bodies are on high alert all the time and we're communicating with everyone and everyone's trying to communicate with us, yet we're not connecting with anyone. And we all feel anxious, lonely, and more overwhelmed than ever. This stress Shows up in our relationship, shows up in our sleep. It shows up in our health. It shows up right in the middle of our chest. We were never meant to have this much information and this much communication, and especially we were never meant to carry all of this alone. Talking to someone can help, and that's where better help comes in. Betterhelp is an online therapy platform that matches you with a licensed therapist based on your goals and preferences. Their therapists are fully licensed in the United States, and they follow a strict code of conduct. You can message your therapist and schedule sessions right in the platform. And if it's not the right fit, you can switch anytime at no additional cost. Cut through the noise and don't do life alone. Go to betterhelp.comramsey to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp h lp.comramsey.

[Rachel Cruz]

All right, we have Devin in Pittsburgh up next. Hi, Devin. Welcome to the show.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Hey, Rachel and John, right?

[Rachel Cruz]

Hello. Hello. How can we help today?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

So I guess I'm coming a little too late to the realization that I might have not chosen the best college degree for making money. And now I want to make money. So. So I'm trying to figure out what the best course of action going forward is to, you know, long term raise our family income.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's your degree in?

[Caller Grace]

English literature.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I love to read.

[Dave Ramsey]

So do you know, you know what my bachelor degree is in?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Sorry?

[Dave Ramsey]

Do you know what my bachelor's degree is in?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I do not.

[Dave Ramsey]

Humanities.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Oh, that's a great. That was my second option.

[Dave Ramsey]

There you go. You went one step further than I did. Like, your degree is more specific than my. I mean, on the hierarchy. My degree was less than yours, and so I would not blame your current situation on your degree. I would blame it on. I don't blame anything, but I would say, yeah, what are you choosing to do and how hard are you willing to work for it?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

That's fair, I guess. I don't have a clear direction of where to go next.

[Dave Ramsey]

There you go. That's. That's, that's a more honest question. So you got a degree. You've proven to some future employer you can work hard for four years and get a thing and. Great. And so the big question is, what do you want to do besides read books and write?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

You know, it's a great question. If I really let myself dream. That sounds crazy. So, I mean, I'm a YouTuber, brother.

[Dave Ramsey]

It gets no crazier than what I'm doing.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I would love to be like a. An outdoor like adventure. Do an outdoor adventure camp for young boys.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Why is that crazy?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I care about men's ministry. I spent five summers doing Catholic summer camp in Colorado.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why in the world is that crazy?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I don't know where to get the money from the start. I guess you go, you.

[Dave Ramsey]

You take a job making less than you think you're worth at working a camp this summer. Summer. And there's openings at camps all over the country. And while you're doing it, me and Rachel, our mutual friend Michael Easter is here in the studio, and he has one of the most successful stub sacks on the planet because he's an extraordinary writer and a great researcher and thinker. And so you go work at this camp and you open a substack and you write about it all summer.

[Rachel Cruz]

You start to learn about, you know, men specifically, the struggles, all of that. And yeah, start making. To start making a side gig out of it.

[Dave Ramsey]

All of this is how hard you want to work, right?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Exactly. I'm. I'm willing pretty much right now. I'm, you know, driving for Amazon, got the Every Dollar app, and doing side hustles and. And married. We have a kid. We're expecting a kid in September.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's awesome. So go find a boys ranch to work at. Go find a summer camp to work at and get after it. There's no path forward without disruption.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. And there. And there might be a season too, Devin. I'll just say, as a wife, when I had a baby once.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, here we go.

[Rachel Cruz]

You know, there may be a season of, like, I'm gonna go take an office job for a hot second, get our some stability under us, then we get to make a move towards the thing that I want to do. Or in the summers, we do this, and then we have to do something else over here. Right. Like, I mean, you guys are young. Did you just graduate? Are you guys 22, 23.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

3, 25 and 24.

[Rachel Cruz]

25 and 24. Okay. So there may be, you know, a season from a financial standpoint that you, you know, do something you may not love, but at least hopefully it's in the realm at which, you know, you can either do something on the side that you're enjoying, but what are. What are you good at? What would you say?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I'm a really gifted writer.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. So maybe there a job within that. Right. Copy editing, ghost writing, you know what I mean? Like, plugging in what you're good at, too. And not just your passion, but I think working towards what, where those things can intersect could Create a, a great

[Dave Ramsey]

life or spec riding. And, and those jobs with AI are getting increasingly hard to make a living. But man, if you're good at substack, I, I pay money, money for only a few sub stacks, but I do pay money for them because they're good and I value the. What I'm getting. Right. So, yeah, but that's just rep after rep after rep after rep. Yep.

[Rachel Cruz]

So there may be a journey ahead. And we dearly miss Ken Coleman, our friend. But I'm still getting Shout Out, Shout out his book. Find the work you're wired to do. And we still have copies.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, stay on the line. We'll hook you up with one.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep. So Christian will pick up. But yeah, take that assessment because that, I mean, I do think, think generating ideas is really big. And you may be in a season where again, and I'm kind of, I don't know, I heard this message, I was like, you know, it's kind of good of like work on what you're good at, your talent, and then that provides a great living for your, for your family. And if that crosses with your passion, quote unquote, like that too. Yeah, but. But this whole idea of just, just chasing your passion and doing whatever you want, you know, may not be a season where you're able to support your family and that's okay. But like, find what you're good at and make some great money doing it. And then I do think your life, I mean, you are in just one small chapter of your life right now, Devin, and it will continue. And the opportunities and doors. I mean, you said this the other day on the show where you were, what was it, eight years ago? It was like three different houses.

[Dave Ramsey]

My first graduate school class was at the age of 26, so a year after his. That was my first master's degree class. Right. And so, yeah, you got a whole adventure ahead of you. But I do, I do remember this. I do remember pacing around the house at 25 thinking I was failing everybody. And so I get that sense in his chest, like, like, yes, I can't. I'm not gonna make it.

[Rachel Cruz]

I'm not doing enough right, or.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, yeah, but man, I take action. And you said you, you worked for five, five summers with young people and you developed a passion. Reach out to those contacts and see what's available.

[Rachel Cruz]

For sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

Volunteer at your local church. Like, there's so many opportunities that are going to take you a lot of time, a lot of energy. And that's hard with the newborn, but man, get After.

[Rachel Cruz]

And what's wild, too, is we love young life in our house. That's where Winston I met and. But they have, you know, property stuff, site families that live on these camp properties.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's what I'm saying, like, all year.

[Rachel Cruz]

And that's, like, where they live. And that's their job, is to take care of.

[Dave Ramsey]

I have buddies texting me all the time. Hey, do you know anybody who wants to move to New Mexico or to southern Missouri and work on this camp

[Rachel Cruz]

adventure for you guys with a baby?

[Dave Ramsey]

And, like, there's no rent.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, no rent. And you get paid to do it. Like, I don't know, maybe it's something fun like that too. Devin, thanks for the call. All right, let's go to Holly in Milwaukee. Hi, Holly. Welcome to the show.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Hi. So I am currently in the middle of leaving my HR job to potentially go part time, and I'm struggling with whether we made the right financial decision.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, why did you choose to go part time?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I was burnt out. I was head of HR in a company out in the Pewaukee area, and with three young kids. I have a five, three and two year old.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh, wow. Yeah. So you want to be home more? Is that your hope?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah. And actually, I've been in talks with the kids school about potentially doing two days a week there. So I had a summer off with the kids. Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. That's great. Great. Well, are you guys able to survive financially on you working part time and your husband working full time?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I think so. We ran through the numbers. This is kind of one of the most irresponsible things I think I've ever done, not having something for sure lined up before leaving a job.

[Rachel Cruz]

But are you guys able to take care of your necessities in May and June?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yes. Yeah. So we have close to $40,000 in our savings right now.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

28,000 of that is dedicated to our emerg fund, and I would say our monthly spending and what we need and everything with a little cushion is about $5,000 a month.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. What does your husband bring in?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

He. He's based on commission, but roughly about 6,000 net.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. So you guys can. You guys can keep your head above water. You're not having to dip into the savings with just his. Right, right. Yeah.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

Holly, you're not overly irresponsible. You're so. You're. That was so kind of you to, like, so, like, not kind of. That was so heavy to say. You guys have $40,000. Do you all have a lot of debt?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

We have a $13,000 van loan.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

That we're aggressively trying to pay off. And then we have 97,000 left on our house, which should be paid off before we're 40.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Holly, I want you to change your narrative from I'm leaving this job to want wa. To. I want to spend more time with my really young kids. Kids.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because you're talking about this like you're failing, like you're, you're, you. You're making an affirmative choice.

[Rachel Cruz]

You're a hard driver, Holly.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. You're going to a thing. That's amazing. That's awesome.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I. I just. I don't want to let my husband down, sister.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're not.

[Rachel Cruz]

But you're not. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're not.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. So many working moms. I know. There is this like, it's the guilt factory. Well, that. And they. And they carry that. They have provided for the family financially. And now when that's gone, they're like, it's not even an identity thing. It's like, I feel bad that I'm not contributing. Where you're good, Holly. Enjoy the summer with your children. You are fine. You guys live on that 5000. Don't go over. Go get a part time job at the kids school. Pay off this van. Once you get a job, you guys need to pay this off with the money you have saved and ride into the sunset. You're doing great, Holly.

[Dave Ramsey]

Doing great.

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[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, so I think a perk about working at Ramsey Solutions is we'll be sitting, sitting in the studio doing a show on the glass, and we'll see guests walk in to do other shows because the Ramsey Network has multiple shows that have guests on and not always lined up for this show. And we had a guest walk through and John and I were like, oh, my gosh, is that who we think it is? So we just.

[Dave Ramsey]

One of my favorite people in the whole world.

[Rachel Cruz]

He's supposed to be on with George Camel or he is going to be on George's show. But we grabbed him to do a segment here because John and I both love him so much. But Michael Easter is here. Hi, Michael. Welcome. Welcome to the show. So I was introduced to you because of your book the Comfort Crisis that I read. And this was probably. When did that come out? What year was that?

[Michael Easter]

20. It's about five years ago now.

[Rachel Cruz]

Five years ago. Okay. So I bet it was probably four years ago when I read it because it had been out for a while and I love to read. And I kept seeing it float around all these lists. So I'm reading the Comfort Crisis and we were on vacation, so let me frame this.

[Dave Ramsey]

She was in Cabo.

[Rachel Cruz]

I was by a pool, an infinity

[Dave Ramsey]

pool that was overlooking the ocean.

[Michael Easter]

There was a resort.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes, overlooking the ocean.

[Rachel Cruz]

But the whole premise of the book, which I want to get into, because I think it does tie into people sacrificing and getting out of debt and, like, what it does. But the whole thing is like, we are too comfortable in our world today from like, not only a physical standpoint, but an emotional environmental, all of it. Like, we have created such comfort around us so we don't grow. You don't push yourself when you're comfortable. Right. You have to be, you know, you know, not being comfortable. So I'm reading this book and I'm thinking about my friend John Deloney. And I was like, john, with love. Love this book. So I put the book out where I am and I just take a quick picture and I send it to John. I text it to him. I'm like, john, you have to read this book. This is straight up your alley.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I was like, A, I read it like a year ago. And B, just look at the photo you just sent me. And it's like an infinity pool, the ocean.

[Rachel Cruz]

And it says the Comfort Crisis.

[Dave Ramsey]

Perfectly manicured toes and the Comfort Christ. So great.

[Rachel Cruz]

Basically, don't be comfortable.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

But you're.

[Dave Ramsey]

Your book the Comfort Crisis and then Scarcity Brain, your follow up, has burned through this company. It's become like a thing that we all talk about in all of our meetings all of the time because it was so impactful for all of us.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. So give us the Premise real quick because I do want to tie this into the financial side, but give us a premise of the comfort crisis for the audience. They kind of get this idea or.

[Michael Easter]

Yeah, quick rundown is the world has become more comfortable over time in every way. Right. We have to walk less. We're not as hungry anymore because we got food everywhere. We've just engineered discomfort out of our, our lives, which is good in the grand scheme of time and space. It's nice to be comfortable, but at the same time we've lost these things that keep us healthy, happy and that teach us something about how to be a better human. So tying that to the financial element when you're trying to save money, that is hard. When you are on Amazon and you put that thing in your cart and you go to. It's going to be so great. And then you hear your voice in your head or Dave's voice and you go, oh, I shouldn't buy this. Right. Not clicking buy is really hard. So I think that all growth happens through doing things that are hard.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yes.

[Michael Easter]

If something's going to improve your life, it's going to be uncomfortable in the short term. But the point is, is that you get these long term rewards by embracing that.

[Rachel Cruz]

I love that. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And every business talks about how do we make a transaction less and less with less and less friction. Right. I just went and bought lunch and now I just wave my phone over a box. And by the way, based on a substack you wrote the other day and we'll talk about that in a minute, I didn't even make eye contact with the guy. He was looking somewhere else. And so there. We've extracted human interaction out of all these things. And so he, he stuck this thing out. I waved my phone over it. We had a robot to robot interaction. No personal connection. But it was all so frictionless and it, it didn't feel like a real exchange, but it actually took 11 bucks or whatever out of my account. That's real money. That's real sweat equity I put into that thing.

[Michael Easter]

Yeah. And I will say the faster you can do something something, the more likely you are to do it. So this is why there's one click buys on Amazon now. This is why companies are especially online like removing steps to make the actual purchase. So we've really increased the speed of all these things that I think can be poor decisions. But it's like you just make it. So what happened?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, or my first mortgage, I had to sit down with a lender and we went through a Stack of papers. Now it's. You can get online and we'll approve you right now.

[Rachel Cruz]

Um, yeah. So from the purchasing consumer standpoint, it's taken out any level of discomfort. So you are more likely to spend and not save because the saving create, you know, pushes patience and delayed gratification, which you were just saying is so difficult. So speak to the families, because there's a lot of listeners that they're trying to get out of that consumer debt. They're deep in credit card debt, student loan debt, car debt. I mean, it's just all of this. And they've gotten to a point where they're like, I'm so sick of this. I'm done. I'm gonna get out. And we teach that when you get out of debt, you have to sacrifice your lifestyle. All. All of what you were spent. No vacations, you're not going out to eat. Like you are limiting everything and throwing anything you can at that debt. And it is so hard for people. They call in and they'll say, how do I stay motivated? Because this is so difficult. So speak. Just some encouragement that this idea of sacrifice and what you're putting yourself through for a greater good to get to this point, you know, where you have autonomy over your money, you don't owe anyone anything. Like what that sacrifice is actually doing to the character of who they are and what's happening inside of them.

[Michael Easter]

Yeah. I'll tell you something story for an example, and then I'll pull out big picture. When I was a professor at NYU or unlv, I had a student who crazy in debt. Just like, she's married, she had kids. So much debt, it was totally ruined in their life. Causing a lot of marital problems, causing problems with what they could do with their kids, what programs they could get them into. She started following Ramsey stuff. She's like, it was the hardest thing we've ever done, but she got out on the other side of that. And then she could put herself through college, which means she could earn a higher income. And she's like, that was so hard in the meantime. But now that we went through that, I look back on that and I go, that's one of the most rewarding things we've ever done for our kids, because that taught them a lot for our marriage, because it brought us together and also personal fulfillment. So to pull back, when you look at what gives human beings fulfillment, it's never the easy thing. It's the things that we had to struggle through. Good example, if I asked any parent what's been the most rewarding thing in your life. Like, what's most important to you? Most people are going to say their kids. Yeah, it is my kids, full stop. Then you ask, well, is that always easy?

[Rachel Cruz]

What's the most challenging thing? The kids.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. What's the hardest thing?

[Rachel Cruz]

Yes. That you've ever done.

[Michael Easter]

Yeah, exactly. Now, you can apply that to. To any situation.

[Rachel Cruz]

Health, marriage, finances, whatever.

[Michael Easter]

Realize that almost think of that as that hardship as, like, that is a signal that something important is happening that is then going to improve your life later. So you can actually get to a point where you feel that and you go, ah, something good is about to happen. Takes a while to get that mindset shift. It's always going to be hard in the short term, but once you've gone through a few reps, I think you start to see that as something like that. Aha. Here's the opportunity. Yes, it's going to suck, but I'm ready for it.

[Caller Grace]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Let me, let me. For the listeners out here who are new to Michael Easter, and you know this, you and I are personal friends off air, but your voice has rang through my mind so often the last five years that it has reframed how I teach marriage. It's reframed how I help people who are struggling with their kids, like, trying to manage their kids. And it all started from. From an idea you had or an article you read about the 2%. Right. And that's based on the 2% of people at the airport who will use the stairs instead of the escalator. And at 2:00am when we're. Rachel and I are on a live event somewhere and we're schlepping through the. It's like, take the stairs, Deloney. And I'm like, I will. But here's where that has expanded my whole life. When my wife and I have a conflict. Conflict, it's easy for me, honestly, to get some flowers, to pretend that conflict didn't happen, and then to go about our regular routine. And it has developed. It has given me a new language. That is the tension is the doorway. If my wife and I have a discomfort, I'm going to take the stairs. Let's have this conversation. Let's get to the root of this thing so that we can get to where we want to go. And Michael, I got to tell you, it has transformed my marriage. It's transformed how I parent my kids. It's transformed everything.

[Rachel Cruz]

The 2%. Real quickly, how did that. How did you come up with that?

[Michael Easter]

Honestly, it comes from A study came from a study. And that always just sat with me because I feel like it's a metaphor. Right? 100% of people know that taking the stairs is going to be better for their long term health and well being. Yet 98% of people go, no, I'm just going to do this really easy thing that's going to feel so much better. But those 2% of people, that can become a metaphor a lot of these other.

[Dave Ramsey]

It sure has for me and I want everybody to know know. Michael has a brand new podcast, a 2% podcast that I, I personally subscribe to and I pay money for his substack. It's that good. And I like to hit my friends up for free stuff. I don't. Not for this one because it's worth every penny. The 2% substack by Michael Easter. Go check it out.

[Rachel Cruz]

Michael, thanks for being here and just the encouragement to the audience be the 2% that the sacrifice changes you.

[Michael Easter]

I appreciate it.

[Rachel Cruz]

So yeah, thanks for jumping in minute.

[Michael Easter]

Of course.

[Rachel Cruz]

Appreciate it.

[Michael Easter]

Thanks for having me.

[Rachel Cruz]

As a mom. I plan for everything. I plan the budget, budgets, snacks, lunches, backup outfits in the car for the unexpected. I mean everything. Because moms handle a million details every day. So don't skip one of the biggest ones. What happens to your family if you're not there tomorrow? You guys, a lot of people put off making a will because it can feel a little scary. But here's what we all need to realize. Planning for the future isn't fear. It's life, love. And creating a will turned out to be one of the most loving, protective things I could ever do for my family and Mama Bear. Legal forms makes it so easy. No lawyers, no stress. Just an online process that you can finish in about 20 minutes. And now my husband and I both sleep better because we have taken care of the stuff that really matters. And it isn't scary, it's wise. It's what moms do. So if you've been putting off making a will, I totally get it. But don't wait anymore because you're a mom first, which means you're always planning. So go to mamabearlegalforms.com and use promo code RAMSEY to save 20% mamabearlegalforms.Com code RAMSEY.

[Dave Ramsey]

Dude, being around Michael Easter makes my life better.

[Rachel Cruz]

You like him?

[Dave Ramsey]

He's just a good human, great human being.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm glad he swung by for sure.

[Rachel Cruz]

So I know Thankful, Thankful who you've hopped in. Well, you guys, we wish that we could get to every call on this show. But if you have a money question, we have an answer for you. You don't have to call in on the show. We love YouTube because it's always fun talking to you guys. But if you have a question, you can head over to Ask Ramsey. So this is our free AI tool that's built and trained on proven Ramsey principles. So AI, you put all the stuff in it of what you want to spit out. So they've put all Ramsey stuff. So shows over the past couple of years, transcripts from live events and books and articles like anything and everything. Ramsey is in this. And it's crazy how accurate it is and how wild. I know people have like a love hate relationship with AI, but it is crazy how quickly it starts to, like, learn you and know you and like, it is wild. So we've had multiple people put their specific situations in and keep coming back to it and it remembers you and

[Dave Ramsey]

it's not going to just tell you how wonderful and great you are and try to hug you like some other AI products.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, like, please be nice to me. No, but it really is amazing. So check out Ask Ramsey again. You can ask your question. You can go to ramseysolutions.com and you'll see Ask Ramsey there on the website. Or if you are listening on podcast, podcast or YouTube, you can click the link in the description. All right, let's head to Lindsay, who is in Charleston. Hi, Lindsay, welcome to the show.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Hi. Thanks for taking my call.

[Rachel Cruz]

Absolutely. How can we help?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So I'm calling today because I recently got married in December and my husband has actually offered to pay off my student loans. And my question is, should I let my husband pay my student loans off?

[Dave Ramsey]

Absolutely not. I'm just kidding.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yes. Well, let's talk bigger picture here. What's causing you to hesitate? Are you still seeing this as his money, your debts? And you guys haven't really combined money. Not even tactically, but even emotionally. Like, this is our household and our household has this amount of debt. Our household brings in this income. Our household has this much savings as a household. How do we tackle our money? It's still more pretty divided emotionally for you, right?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah, a little bit. So I owe about $28,000 left. And I think my hesitancy kind of comes in because I don't find that it's his responsibility to pay on my debt. This is the only debt that we have, I guess, together. But it's really. I look at it more like it's my debt because I was the One that chose to go to college. Two degrees.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yes.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

And so I kind of. I'm like, is this really his responsibility if I've been the one paying in all these years?

[Rachel Cruz]

So you have 28,000 in debt. How much does he have saved?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So he has. I mean, we have a net worth of 700,000. And he.

[Rachel Cruz]

How much is liquid? Like, how much. I mean, how much cash do you guys have?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I'm actually not entirely sure how much exact cash we have.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so let me ask you a weird question.

[Rachel Cruz]

Well, how do you know he can pay it off if you don't know how much money you guys have? Did he just say, I'll pay it off for you?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Well, I do have, like, an understanding of how much he makes in his net worth, but money isn't really, I guess, an issue in that regard. He can definitely pay it off, and there's. There's no problem. It's more of like, I just don't know if he. If I should allow him to do that if I feel like it's my responsibility.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right, let's say that he had. When he was a kid, he fell off a slide, lied, and hurt his knee. And then next year, he's playing pickup basketball, and his knee blows out all the way. Are you going to look at him and say, well, you brought that bum knee into our marriage, so that's yours?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

No. So when you get married, both of you take on all of each other. And so it's Yalls combined income. It's Yalls debt, It's Yalls money. And like, the research bears this out. Not. It's not just Ramsay running our mouths. Like, the psychological and economic research says that couples that share a single checking account, not even a checking account, and you each have your own on the side, because that was part of the test. A single checking account forces y' all to say, who are we? Who are we going to be? Who do we want to be? And how much do we have? Have? And so just that one act of sharing a checking account forces couples to come to the table and talk about values, talk about dreams, talk about visions, and then talk about how to get those dreams and values and visions out in the real world. And it just is a shape shifter for couples. And so this is not your debt anymore. This is Yalls debt, and it's not his money anymore. It's Yalls money now. And so sitting down and having a bigger conversation about who are we going to be with our money? Money is where is. I mean, this should have been your, your premarital counseling should have covered that. But you're already married, so that's the next immediate step you'll need to take.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay, that makes sense.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. And Lindsay, we know we have found the fastest way to build wealth. The fastest way from point A to point B is to be completely debt free, have an emergency fund that you can tap into when things happen, be invested into retirement and other things. Have a paid off home and you just start living your life. And when you have kids, you invest for their college, all of that. But. But then no debt and investing aspect and no debt. I mean even like no mortgage, like everything is paid off right to the ultimate. That's our baby steps. That's our baby step six. Okay. Is paid off house. So that's part of the Ramsey plan. But we find people that can build that, build wealth quick, quickly with their net worth. They're all in. And so if you guys together say, hey, we want part of our legacy to build wealth not just for us and just to be rich. Right. But to when we have a family, to be able to change our family tree, to be able to bless others and be generous. Like, we want to use money as a tool in that way. And we're going to work towards, you know, being good managers of that. The fastest way is to get out of debt. And if that's our goal as a, as a household again, as a customer couple. Okay, fastest way to get out of debt. Let's get out of debt like tomorrow. Because you can so check it off. Right. Like, I mean, there's a, there's a path of least resistance here. And it's not you taking advantage of or all that. And I hear you saying, like, I just want to take ownership of what I've decided. But I think John just. Yeah. Painted a really great picture that when you marry, I mean, it's. It's all of you. Right. And we're in this now together.

[Dave Ramsey]

Can I say you this is this and the way I'm going to ask. It's going to sound mean and I'm not meaning to be mean. Okay. Same team, right? Are we good?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Is it your ego that doesn't want him to pick this up for you? Or is he not very forthcoming with finances and that's kind of his domain and you feel small talking about money around him?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No, he is very open about like how much he brings in and everything. I think it's more of me. It's like a personal thing.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

That I'm just Like, I don't know. I guess I look at it a little differently of, like, you know, I brought on this debt well before I even met him. I went to school, whatever. And so I'm like, is this, like, should he be held responsible? But I do understand he married all of you. Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

For better or worse.

[Rachel Cruz]

And you can tell him, like, oh, I have some guilt doing this. You know, talk through it or tell

[Dave Ramsey]

them I've been holding back a part of myself from you.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I've been trying to hide this part that I'm embarrassed about or ashamed about, whatever. And we're married. I'm going to put all of me on the table here.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And do y' all share a single checking account?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No, we don't.

[Dave Ramsey]

You should.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. I think this could be a good meeting of the minds tonight. Right? I mean, sit down together, genuinely, and just say, hey, what do we want this part of our marriage to be? Because you'll have those conversations. What do we. We want this part of our marriage with holidays to look like, with family and where we split time. What do we want, you know, our marriage to look like when we want to go on a vacation with just the girls or just the. Like. I mean, you'll have these conversations in marriage. How do we want our marriage to be? And money is part of that. And the quicker you guys can get on the same page, Lindsay, honestly, it's going to create a level of unity with you. All that is. That's so beautiful. And the earlier you are in this marriage and to create a great pattern starting now is really big. So we are. We are so big on. Couples are one. You share everything. You're together. You are transparent. You talk about big decisions when it comes to money. You're on the same team. You guys are on the same team running a household. And when you look at it that way, not only do you build wealth faster, but there's a better relational sense.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I'll. I'll never understand couples who share DNA and make humans, but won't share their. Their income. Like, that's always bizarro world to me. It's like, we can. We could create humans together, but this is my money, and that's your money. Like, this is bizarro world. Put it all on the table.

[Rachel Cruz]

Do you think he would. Well, do you want that, Lindsey? Would you want that level of. Of unity and working together, or are you kind of like.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I think I'm open to it for sure.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. How do you think he would respond to it?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I think he is more. He definitely the one that's all for it. I'm more of the hesitant one.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I'm just. Yeah, it's, it's an ego thing I need to get over.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, no, I mean, you don't have to. Don't just get over it. Push through and understand that about yourself and bring him to the table with it. And it's a beautiful learning and we. Yeah. Yeah. You guys are gonna do great. Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. I'm Rachel Cruz here with Dr. John DeLoney and we are answering your questions at 8888255 225. All right, let's go to Orlando and we have Rick on the line. Hi, Rick, welcome to the show.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Hi. Thank you.

[Rachel Cruz]

Absolutely. How can we help today?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Well, I have a question because I did the calculations for the net worth and it turns out that I have more than a million dollars of net worth.

[Rachel Cruz]

However, congratulations.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah. However, really all of that net worth is. Is in my home, my primary home. And so last year I got into some. No, I didn't get into, but, you know, my business went south. Business went south. It wasn't making money. I was keeping it afloat by. With some personally guaranteed loans and it just wasn't making any money. So I decided to close it down. Down and moved to another town where I got a salary job in the same. In the same industry. So when I left my home, I rented it. I rented it out. And the current rent there pays for the mortgage of the home plus. Plus it pays for the rent of the new home in my new town right now and some expenses of the original home. So it's being rented out. But I also have a large amount of debt.

[Caller Grace]

Debt.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

And the debt, I can't keep up with the debt. It's. I can't make really all the monthly payments each month. So my question is, should I sell my primary home where all my equity is, in order to pay off the debt to. In order to pay off all the debt and then I'll have some proceeds left over for.

[Rachel Cruz]

My answer's a little bit different because you're currently not living in that home. You're living somewhere else. Are you going to be going back to that primary home at any point and sell because you own two homes, Is that what you're saying?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

And I own one home and I'm renting in the.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh, you're renting.

[Michael Easter]

Where?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Where, where I moved to.

[Rachel Cruz]

Will you be living where you are now probably for the foreseeable future.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yes, for the foreseeable future.

[Rachel Cruz]

So regardless of debt or not, I would say don't be a long distance landlord. So I would be, I would, I would sell your primary home anyways and depending on your financial situation, take the proceeds and buy something in the new south city or use it for a down payment or what that looks like and then go about your way. But you're, you know, your situation's a little different because I would still sell the home. But how you use the proceeds of the home now may not be a, for a down payment. It may be to clear up this consumer debt. So how much debt total are the loans?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Okay, the, the loans in the debt total is 300,000.

[Rachel Cruz]

300,000. And was that business debt? Is that what you said you got? You, you took out the loans for your business that you closed?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah, but I also had some backed IRS tax debt.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I have 105, 105 tax debt to the IRS which represents about four years. But I'm in a payment plan for that. It's not like I'm delay pointing or anything. I'm in a payment plan and paying it monthly. And there's 150, 154K in, in personal loans for the business and credit cards because. Credit cards too, so.

[Rachel Cruz]

Gotcha. And the credit cards is what, probably 50 grand?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah, at least.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, so that's the 300. That's how it's broken up.

[Dave Ramsey]

How much equity?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

The three. The 300 also includes two car loans and two car leases.

[Rachel Cruz]

Four cars. All right. Who's driving all these cars?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Myself, my wife, my two children who are now in once finished one. They're both in car college.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. How much car debt is there?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

57K.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, we break that which per which car?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

That's the four cars combined together. It's two loans.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Of purchase cars and two leases.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. All right. And how much equity is in the home?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Well, the home is estimated at a value of 1.6 million, but I think it may go higher than, than that. Maybe, I Hope close to 2 million. The mortgage balance on it is 230.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Why do you think it's going to go for 2 million? Because the comps in the area, the how houses are going, the comps in

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

the area that I've seen right now are about 1.6. But the, the features inside the house, it's, it's newly remodeled recently in the past few years and it's high end upgrades of, you know, all the fixtures inside okay.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Bathrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, floors, area 1.7. Okay. Just for the sake. Okay.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

All right.

[Rachel Cruz]

And so. So, yeah, I mean, so yeah. Hopefully you would clear. Golly, you know, 1.4 ish. 1.3 possibly. So if you did clear out the debt, you'd have a million dollars. What could a million dollars buy real estate wise where you are are now?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I've been looking in pretty nice home. Very nice.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. How much do you have in retirement and investments?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Okay. In retirement, myself, my 401k is 10,000 and I have some investments. I have about 60,000 in the stock market and using it for trading stock options on and off. Mostly my wife is doing that.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Does she have any retirement?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

She had 30,000. No, not right now. Nothing in 401k? It's all in the stock market.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. But she has an additional 30 invested somewhere. Okay.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yes.

[Rachel Cruz]

And how old are you guys?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I'm 62.

[Rachel Cruz]

62. Okay.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

I mean, what I, I mean I would not make the mistake. Which is kind of what you made with the, the primary home that like. And you said that opening this call that so much of your net worth is tied up in real estate, which is not going to be great. I mean having a paid for house in retirement's awesome, but if you don't have any money to eat with, then it kind of negates the purpose. So I would then that home.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah, that home is. The mortgage is paid off in six years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, well, yeah, but you don't have any money, brother. You'll be 68 years old with $10,000 in retirement and a $2 million house.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Right?

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep. So I would, I would diversify a lot more than you have, Rick. So I would sell it regardless. Again, because you guys aren't living there anymore. I would see this as a gift that you, that you all have done so well paying down on the home and it's gone up in value, which is amazing. And I would use it to clear my debt and I would make a contract with myself and my wife and my family that we do not go into debt anymore. We don't play that game, so we're done with debt. And then I would look and I would probably sit down with a financial advisor and just say, hey, when we run out the numbers and when we want to retire, how much, how much would we need? What, what does this look like right now? Because I mean, if you got a million bucks sitting in the floor, I would not go spend it on a mil. Now that I know your retirement situation, I Wouldn't go buy a million dollar house, brother.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'd buy a $350,000 condo and put 650 in retirement. That's what I would do.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Like, huh?

[Dave Ramsey]

You're going to have to pay.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

That was one of my questions I was going to ask you also about what to do with the proceeds.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep. So the goal would be be to have enough in retirement that you guys feel good with. And granted you're still going to be working some, so you'll still be contributing but also have paid for real estate. Can we get, can we get that both done with this million dollars? Because that, that's life changing.

[Caller Grace]

Right?

[Dave Ramsey]

Can we get a small house for 400,000, get it completely paid off?

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you can get a nice small house for 400,000. We're going to get paid off. Be all done, put 600 grand in the market.

[Rachel Cruz]

But what this does, Rick, is it shifts your expectation of lifestyle. You're leaving. And a $1.62 million home.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that.

[Rachel Cruz]

Two nice cars, two lease cars, and you're choosing a more simple lifestyle for peace and the ability to retire with dignity. So screw what everyone else thinks, you know what I mean? Like from the looks of things, go

[Dave Ramsey]

to ramseysolutions.com and check out our smartvestors in your area and they'll help you with the investment side of what to do with that extra money after you sell your house.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, but there's going to be a level of humility that it's going to take to do this, Rick. But honestly, it's going to create more peace in your life. Hey, guys, Rachel Cruz here and I love summer. There is more fun on the calendar, more time with your people and way more chances to make more memories. But you know what else? There's more of spending. Oh, between the extra groceries and gas and camp fees and family trips, it all starts to add up so fast. And before you know it, money stress starts to steal the fun out of everything. And that is why I love the EveryDollar budget app because it helps you plan your money, track your spending and find more margin in your budget so that you can put extra cash towards the goals that matter most. Enjoy your summer without the money stress. Download the EveryDollar app in the App Store or Google Play and start for free. Today, The Ramsey show question of the day is brought to you by Y Refi. If your private student loans are in default and you're not sure what to do next, why Refi can help you explore refinancing with a Low fixed rate and a payment plan based on what you can actually afford. Go to yrefi.com Ramsey that's the letter y r e f y.com Ramsey may not be available in all states.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right, today's question comes from Maggie in M I S S I S S I P P I. I am a 50 year old single woman earning 53000 a year. I have $25000 in credit card debt, car debt and a personal loan from my father. I realize now I was very irresponsible and I've shredded the cards. I have my $1,000 emergency fund and I want to tackle the debts. But after all my bills are paid, I have 150 bucks a week left to eat and pay for gas. The minimum monthly debt payments are more than that amount. Should I pay the bills or buy food to be able to eat?

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh, Maggie, Yes. Yep. So a couple of things so you always will want to eat first. So when you're in a dire financial situation where this is literally paycheck to paycheck before the creditors are paid, before the credit cards are paid are paid, you pay food, shelter, so your rent or mortgage, utilities and transportation, making sure you have gas in your car and all that is good. So that's what we call your four walls. Because without that then you start putting the priority of your own self and survival right above MasterCard. So you. Yeah, so you need to make a list, Maggie, and list out everything and see before after food, shelter, utilities, transportation, then what is left is where the minimum payments come in and where what the magic is going to be for you in this is making $53,000 a year is going to be extra work because income at that point is your problem. And so it will be working weekends and nights and it's not going to be fun. But if you can bring in an extra 2 to 3,000, whether it's waiting tables, you know, bartending, I don't know what it is. Dog sitting, I don't know what that looks like like, but I would make it a goal. Which means, yeah, you're going to be working 60, 70 hours a week.

[Dave Ramsey]

80 hours a week can be a lot.

[Rachel Cruz]

But only for a short period of time. Because if you think about this and if you can do it and you can get three grand, you know, a month to be able to throw at this debt, I mean in eight, eight, nine months you're done, you're completely done. Then you get to quit everything and go back and live on your salary, salary. Because when you don't have payments, you actually have margin at that point. So it's kind of this like season of sacrifice. That is, is what I see. That's, that's how, that's the path I see out for her.

[Dave Ramsey]

And the way I've had to navigate these tough seasons of my life is to make a commitment. In her case, she's 50. It's a, it's, I'm pretty dramatic as you know Rachel, but I like some sort of commitment ceremony. If I had to do it again today, I'd probably write a letter. But some sort of commitment to 52 year old me. I'm gonna do this stuff right now for future me and for whatever reason when I'm doing it for somebody else, it makes it easier than doing it for myself sometimes. And so I'm gonna work like crazy. I'm gonna not do stuff, whatever in service to 52 year old me. And it might be writing a letter to 52 year old you talking about the sacrifices you made at 50 where you would work full your full time job. You eat a ham sandwich that you made or peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the way to stocking shelves at a grocery store until 11 at night, get up the next morning, go again and you're just going to know for nine months. I'm going to be really, really tired but I'm going to knock this thing out.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep, hope that helps Maggie. But yeah, I think it's a tough situation. Prioritizing is really big when it, when everything is that condensed money wise with your expenses. So priority, remember food, shelter, utilities, transportation. All right, let's go to Rebecca and she's in Portland, Oregon. Hi Rebecca, welcome to the show.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Hi. Thanks for taking my call.

[Rachel Cruz]

Absolutely. How can we help today?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So my husband and I have been working on the baby steps. We're on Baby step two. We had almost all of our debt paid off except the house. We had $2,500 left on our truck and then our paid off car needed work that cost more than the car was, was worse. So we, and we, my husband commutes 40 minutes daily to and from work and so we needed a commuter car. And so with 6,800 in savings we spent 5,500 on a car that immediately needed $2,800 of work because of a tire problem caused by the dealership. And so now we financed the work through the shop. It was 0% interest for 24 months. So I just, we dec do that instead of put it on one of our credit cards that are paid off. And so now we have $5,300 in debt. My grandmother set up a stock account for me when I was a baby. It's grown to about 38,000. And so I'm just curious, would you guys recommend cashing it all out, Taking out what we need for the debt, letting it sit until retirement or what. What I should do. We also have. My husband has two shoulder surgeries coming up in the next year, and we do have an HSA with about 4,000 in it, but that's not going to cover the surgeries fully. But we do get financial aid through the hospital as well. We're kind of like a lower income household. So.

[Rachel Cruz]

Sorry, how much debt did you say the dealership was? I know it was 0% interest for 24 months, but. 20.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah, 2800 through the 2800 through the repair shop.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, gotcha, gotcha. And then you still have. Did you say 25,000?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

2500.

[Rachel Cruz]

2500. Okay, perfect. Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Did you get your $5,500 car? Did you have it inspected?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Well, yeah, that's what we took it in initially for. And yeah, I mean, we had already purchased it by the time that we had the tire problem.

[Dave Ramsey]

So usually the inspection comes before the purchase, right?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yes. Yeah, we. Yeah, we've had good luck with cars and we're hoping we would have the same luck and we didn't.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah, no, that's okay. So you guys have $5,300 total of debt and you have 38,000 in the stock. What kind of stock is. Is it.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

It's just individual stocks. It's like Disney Home Depot, that type of thing.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Is it in like a mutual fund or it's a ton or it's like 10 individual stocks?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

It's individual shares.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Yeah, gotcha. Okay, well, the short answer is yes, I would cash those out to pay this off.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruz]

And yeah, you'll probably be paying, depending on how it was all looped to you from your grandmother. If she had it in your. Your name.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah, she moved it to my name when I was 18.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, gotcha. So, yeah, there may be some taxes implications in that, but just, you know, be aware of that. But I would. Yep. Use some of that. And then I honestly would not stay in single stocks like that. I probably would end up cashing everything out and just moving it to an index fund.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

Like an S&P 500 or something. You can open up a brokerage account and just do it through that. And you can do that on your own. If you want wanted through Fidelity or Vanguard? You know, there's some easy companies that make it pretty easy just because I don't like the single stock mentality anyways. So that's probably what I would do. And then when you have that. Yeah. To be able to take some of that to pay off the 5300, and then you guys prepping for which I'm thankful you know, about the medical ahead of time. So with everything you said, you guys have the HSA 4000, and then you have some kind of covered. How much out of pocket will you have to pay?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I'm not sure yet. We haven't gotten an estimate from the hospital yet, but we do know that he needs both.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Yep. So do you have any idea. Have they given you any range?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No.

[Rachel Cruz]

No. Okay, So I would find that out because it's going to help you guys to plan and to know how much you guys need to set aside per month. How much are you guys making a year?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

We make about 68,000 a year. That was last year. I recently. I just got my certification for my job, and we're kind of like. So I'm. And I'm also up for promotion. So we're kind of looking for additional ways to earn, and there should be a couple of good raises coming up soon.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'll tell you, my one concern about doing this is you guys have been working hard to get out of debt, and I know you felt squeezed, but you haven't fully metabolized. We do not go into debt. Right.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so my fear is y' all going to cash this out and it's going to kind of become just a kind of a just in case account. And so y' all are gonna have to make a firm commitment that if we do cash this stock out and we pay this debt off, we're never going into debt again. And this is not going to become just kind of a slush fund.

[Commercial Announcer]

Hey, guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now, you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsay, ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple, and free to use. Go to ramseysolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's ramseysolutions.com.

[Rachel Cruz]

If you're working the baby steps, the fastest and best way to do it is by using Everydollar. So this is more than just a budgeting app. It is the plan that is built right in so you can track your progress, get personalized recommendations and coaching for your situation. That's going to help you free up more money and work the plan faster. I mean, it's like having one of us walk with you every single day and showing you the next right step and holding you accountable. So start every dollar for free by downloading it in the App store or Google Play. All right, let's head over to Jessica, and she's in Savannah, Georgia. Hi, Jessica. Welcome to the show.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Hi, guys. Thanks for having me.

[Rachel Cruz]

Absolutely. How can we help?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So I am coming into a little bit of a bonus here. My husband and I are both military, and I am just wondering what your guys's recommendations are for where I should put towards. So we both have a car loan, and then we have our house loan, and I'm just wondering if we should put it into that and pay those things off and then where we should put the extra money after those are paid off.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, great. How much is the bonus going to be?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So the bonus after taxes is probably going to be about $30,000.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

And then I'll probably have another $15,000 bonus towards October.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh, nice.

[Dave Ramsey]

Are these military bonuses?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah, but it's special. Don't tell anyone.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I won't.

[Dave Ramsey]

I hope you get five of them. I hope you get. I hope you. Y' all get 50 of them. It's a madness out there.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Just keep the bonuses rolling. It's my tax dollars. Keep them rolling.

[Rachel Cruz]

Keep them going.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Absolutely.

[Rachel Cruz]

Jessica, how much is the. How much are the cars or how much debt do you guys have on them?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

My car is about 20,000, and then his is about 25,000.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, how much do you all make? Make a year?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

A little over 200,000. Probably 2,10ish.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, can I make a guess?

[Rachel Cruz]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Is either one of these cars either a Jeep of some sort or a Dodge Charger?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Oh, absolutely not.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, right, dude. Bucking the trends.

[Rachel Cruz]

Military.

[Dave Ramsey]

All my military buddies, all of them either have a Charger or. Or a Mustang of some sort or a Jeep product of some sor.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Know, I do. I do have to embarrassingly admit that my husband does have a Tacoma, which is, if you know, very common as well.

[Dave Ramsey]

Hey, you know what, though? It's a Toyota product. It will drive till the end of time. I support that.

[Rachel Cruz]

We. We love a Toyota truck around here. Yes, yes, yes, for sure. Okay, so the 30,000 would take care of, obviously, the 20,000. And then take the other car loan down to 15. And then you said you're going to be getting 15 in October. I would love for you guys to start. Yeah. So all that to say. Yes, I would throw the bon at the cars. You'll have $15,000 left on the truck or whichever car that is. And I. And yeah, and I would still be working to pay that off. And then the money you get in October, hopefully that car will be, you know, you'll owe, I don't know, 7,000, 8,000 on it. Right. If you throw some money at it.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I should say. I should also say we do have about, like. I just, you know, we were talking about money last night. I was like, oh, my God, we got to find out where we should put this. But we do have about $50,000 in cash right now, too.

[Dave Ramsey]

O grief. Lead with that next time, Jessica. Jesus.

[Rachel Cruz]

They're in the lead, Jessica. 50 grand.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I'm sorry. I just, like, I think it's because we're young enough where I just feel like I don't know exactly where I should put the money into. Like, do I pay off the house that much? Although we might move in, you know, a couple, two years or so. You know, do I put it into, like a TSP? What do we do? But we're already contributing, like, 27%, and I think he's at, like, 25% going into TSP.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, let me help you. Just.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

I feel like we just accumulate money and don't know where to put it.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep. No, no. And that's common. Okay, so the Ramsey baby steps, when you walk through them, baby step one is $1,000 emergency fund check. Baby step two is get completely out of debt, all your consumer debt, which means you're going to be selling stuff, working extra, sacrificing any money you have saved. Jessica. Anything that's out there, you throw at your consumer debt to get out of baby step two. And so you guys are at that step, which means you can be done tonight. You can pay both cars off tonight.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

So you're done for sure.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. And you'll have $5,000 left of that 50,000. And then when your $30,000 hits that bonus, you're gonna have 35,000. So then you get to move on to Baby Step 3, which is a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. So you guys are in pretty, you know, stable jobs. Any kids? You guys have kids?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

No kids.

[Rachel Cruz]

No kids yet. How much would it take to run your household per month? Would you Say, how much money do

[Dave Ramsey]

you guys need with no car payments?

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

6,000.

[Rachel Cruz]

6,000. Okay, so I, I mean, I probably would put you guys at a three month. We say three to six months, but you guys don't have kids, stable jobs. If you wanted to do a three month, you know, you could, which would mean you would need. Okay, 18,000. Okay, so when you, yeah, when you look at all of that, then what's left? Then we need to decide, okay, we have some money left, what do we want to do with that? So the question is. Yeah, do you throw it at the house? Baby step four is 15% of your income into retirement. So I actually would lower some of your, what you guys are putting away down to 15% and throw the rest at the house.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruz]

And as you pay it off, it's okay. Because even if you guys sell it and move that you're building an equity at that point as you're paying it down, so you're not losing that money. Right. You're just putting it into an asset and, and paying it down. Do you guys think you really will move though in the next two years? Yes, you will. Okay. So there, I mean, you could keep it in like an index fund or something right now or even just a high yield savings account. Because I am thinking when you guys move, if you had some money saved for a down payment and contingent upon the sale of, of your house that you have now would work as well. Yep. So that, that's probably what I would do, honestly, is I would put the remainder. I would have two, two separate high yield savings. Okay. One that has the 18,000 in it for your emergency fund and then open up another and just put some of that cash in there and then look up in two years and just say, okay, when we sell our home in two years, how much equity is going to be in there plus how much dink we can be selling, saving. And altogether, what will that look like to maybe buy something? But the military families, I know if you guys are jumping rent, if you're jumping around, you're probably going to want to rent somewhere. It's a good point.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Sure, sure. I think the other thing is that like I said, every couple of months we just all of a sudden feel like we have so much money. So we pay some in the house, some in the cars and whatever not. So if the cars are paid off and then all of a sudden we have like another thousand dollars a month that we're not spending, what would you suggest putting that into? Like how much do you really Put into your house all up front.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, if, if, if it was me, I, when I bought my house, I hope I don't move for 10 years. And so I'm going to put. I'm going to be more aggressive paying it off. Like my friends in the military, they get moved every two to three years. One of two things happens. They either barely break even because there hasn't been enough time for the house to appreciate and they still got to pay realtor fees to exit or. And you know, you've got friends like you like this, they have this trailing mortgage in like three or four different states and they're trying to rent them out to other military families. And it just becomes a nightmare. Right. And so for you, since you know you're going to be moving in two years, I would, I wouldn't. This is just the Delonies. I wouldn't buy a house until I knew I'm going to be somewhere five to 10 years.

[Rachel Cruz]

I would agree with that, Jessica.

[Dave Ramsey]

Otherwise I would rent and I would rent a nice place because y' all are doing really well. And I would put all that cash in a high yield savings account for the day. We can walk in and pay cash. Cash for the house we're going to live in for five or ten years.

[Rachel Cruz]

For sure. Yeah. When do you think? Because the difference on I'm and I'm with John, I'd be renting. So any money you get from equity, I would put into a high yield savings account. The only question I have is our kind of, our threshold of investing, which means like putting it like an index fund or something, versus high yield savings is about that four to five year mark. So if you're not going to be buying it anything, because you guys are going to be moving around and renting for. If you're not going to be buying anything for the next five years, I almost would just open up an index fund and start throwing cash in there. And because that you're going to get great returns on that and you're going to be able to write out the market because you don't need it for five years or more, honestly, that's probably what I would do. And then unless you guys think, no, we're probably going to step out of the military in two to three years, you know, and buy something then.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that information so much. The index fund is different than the, like Vanguard fidelity S&P 500. Correct?

[Rachel Cruz]

No, it's all the same there. Yep.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yep.

[Rachel Cruz]

So just look into that. Yes. Yeah. You May open up like a brokerage account, and inside of that, put an index fund.

[Dave Ramsey]

Here's the main thing we're doing differently than what y' all are doing. Y' all get a big check, and y' all try to spread it out all over the. The place. We want you to knock things out one at a time so you actually make progress.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Foreign.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Rachel Cruz]

Our scripture of the day comes from 2nd Corinthians 9, 8. And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Dolly Parton said, love her. A peacock that rests on his tail feathers is just another turkey. Did you see she came out with a video?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, you.

[Rachel Cruz]

A big Dolly van. She had to cancel Vegas and that. She's having some health stuff. But her doctors, you know, she's. She's going to be great. And she's going to be looking younger than ever. I mean, she's just hilarious.

[Dave Ramsey]

I love over here on 12 south, like, right in the middle of, like, where all these shops and restaurants are. My kids and I walked by there a thousand times. That's her place. I had no idea There.

[Rachel Cruz]

And she lives in. She has.

[Dave Ramsey]

Where she stores her bus and all.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Yeah. Because her house, y', all, she. She lives like a mile from me. Wow. And then she's been there for. Since, like the 90s forever.

[Dave Ramsey]

She's just awesome.

[Rachel Cruz]

We love Dolly.

[Dave Ramsey]

She's the best.

[Rachel Cruz]

She is. She's a gem.

[Dave Ramsey]

She's the best.

[Rachel Cruz]

She's on my bucket list to meet. I want to meet her.

[Dave Ramsey]

I just want her to be president.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh, she should be president. Dolly. I'm gonna write her in next election.

[Dave Ramsey]

She's probably too young, but.

[Rachel Cruz]

All right, we're gonna go to the phones, and we have Richard in Tennessee up next. Hi, Richard. Welcome to the show.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Hey, thanks for having me.

[Rachel Cruz]

Absolutely, absolutely. How can we help?

[Dave Ramsey]

What's up, man?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

So I've recently became disabled, and I'm not able to provide, like, I've been doing for my family and I'm going to be getting a pretty large settlement, about $75,000 minimum. I'm just wondering what can I do to turn that into some type of profit?

[Dave Ramsey]

What happened, brother?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I was involved in a car accident that left me paralyzed.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh my God.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I have a hit head injury and I have seizures pretty bad from it now. Yeah, I was a truck driver before that, so.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Obviously I'm not allowed to drive, so I can't do that anymore.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, 75 seems awfully low for, for, for an injury that takes, permanently takes away your line of work.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah, that's. The lawyer really feels that he's going to get a lot more. Yeah, it's just he said we're going to cover your medical bills at least and those are all paid. So now I know for a fact I'm going to get at least 75,000.

[Rachel Cruz]

What's he saying? He said you may, we may be getting more. What does that mean? Like, if he had a ballpark, what was he? I know you're probably being conservative with the 75, but what could it be?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

I'm trying to be conservative with it, but I mean, he said that he's pushing them and he's trying to push closer to 200,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I, I, I, for whatever it's worth, man, because this injury takes away your livelihood, which is trust driving. I would push pretty hard to expand that as far as possible for future earnings. But that's not why you're calling, so. But man, I hate this. For you, for you and your family.

[Rachel Cruz]

Sorry. Richard, are you able to do any level of other work or will you be out of the workforce for the foreseeable future?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Right now it's kind of too early to tell. Okay. The doctors not really saying anything positive or negative, so I think they're kind of questioning it too.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Is it, is it classified as a TBI traumatic brain injury?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah, it is.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Yeah. The path back from those is so difficult to navigate. Right. Because. Yeah. I'm glad the doctors are just keeping it neutral because nobody knows. Right.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yeah. Does your wife work?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah. No, she doesn't. She's having to be a full time caregiver for me because I have to be monitored 24, 7.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Are you, do you guys have kids?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

We have one kid.

[Rachel Cruz]

You have one. Okay. How old?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

She is five.

[Rachel Cruz]

She's five. Okay. And so she'll probably be in school next year. I'm assuming kindergarten.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

Starting the fall. Okay. Because I'm just trying to Think how to make this money work for you guys. But also that it doesn't just disappear in expenses when there could be pairing with some level of worker income coming in. You know what I mean?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, there's two, I want to say this. There's two. One of my oldest, closest friends on the planet. Planet is a long time TBI survivor. And there is a program, I know it's a federal program. I think it's federal program and possibly a state program too where she might actually receive compensation for your care. And so I would look at that and I'd also look at your Social Security benefits, SSI benefits.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Okay, Yeah, I did get, I'm on ssdi.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And what does that pay? Bring in every month?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

16.78amonth.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Yeah, it's not, it's not going to keep food on your table, but it's something. But check in, have her look into the program that she can qualify as. Basically she'll get paid as a full time caretaker of you. And that's a pretty remarkable program as well. It's not, it's not going to make anybody rich, but it will keep your house over here.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

How are you guys paying for things now? Your bills and, and everything?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

So right now we're on just full government assistance pretty much.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. So do you guys have any debt housing?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

We have 8,000 in debt.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, what is that? What kind of debt?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

That's from a car that I had to turn back in after my accident.

[Rachel Cruz]

Oh, geez.

[Dave Ramsey]

They didn't just take it.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

They were kind of like threatening and I just said, you know, there's really nothing we can do, so just come get it. I got a voluntary repo on my credit report.

[Rachel Cruz]

Shoot. Okay, so for now that. How, when will you get the settlement? Do you know?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

End of this year.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay, so you guys have the rest of this calendar year to survive?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah, we do.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. And government assistance, what's coming in a month with that?

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Just the 1678. And then the health insurance is locally coming covered now and then the food stamps for the kid. So after we pay all of our bills, we're left with about 300. And that's after putting some in savings.

[Rachel Cruz]

How much are you putting in savings? About 15, which comes out of the, of the 1600. Okay, so it's like 200 bucks or something. Something.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. And when you say you have $300 left, is that after food, rent is paid? Everything.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Everything.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. Okay. And you're putting some inside so you, you're, you could put $500 a month in savings right now is kind of what you're looking at. If 300 is your margin.

[Caller Devin / Various Male Callers]

Yeah, we could.

[Rachel Cruz]

Okay. You know what I mean? Honestly, Richard, I would probably, I would, I would stick to that regimen as much as you can until, until you get this payment. And I'm praying by the end of the year you'll have some answers with your health possibly freeing up your wife to a degree to be able to go and provide and work if you can't. Because the goal would be to be bringing in some level of income and that this settlement is put aside and that you guys can use it if you need to on a big purchase, like if you have to replace a car, but that it's invested and it is making money. So in that case, yes, I would put that settlement, I would take some out and put an emergency fund to the side in a high yield savings account. And then beyond that, again, trying not to live off of this, because the goal would be to invest it and just let it, let it grow. And so you can do that just like in an index fund or something. But between now and the end of the year, my goal would be to be putting some money in savings and start building that up. Because if you guys can do that, that's, that's pretty remarkable. I mean, if you're able to put, you know, 500 bucks away, I mean, you'll have three, $4,000 by the end of the year, which is.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, y' all are living lean for sure. And I hope that it's 10x your settlement than what you think it's going

[Rachel Cruz]

to be for sure. Which I feel like it should, should be.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Question to your attorney about future earnings.

[Rachel Cruz]

Yep. And just, yeah, ask about that. But yeah, when you're in a position, which I feel like we've had a couple of. Not just like this call, but the idea that it's like, it is just, it is touch and go, month to month on bills and cash flow. Remember you guys, food, shelter, utilities, transportation, before even debt is paid, take care of that. And then beyond that, make a list of priorities, of things that you, you have to have. Right. And if you have kids, young kids, but you're both working daycare, it's going to be right there, close to that needs line insurance. Like there are some things that have to be covered. But the idea is that you, you have a plan and it's written out and you're able to follow it. Because that logic side is so important when emotions and the scariness of reality can wash over you, and you can make bad decisions if you. If you focus on that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And you're. There's not a way to take $75,000 and turn it into. Invest off of it and make that into a livable income per year forever. The best thing you can do is to take that money and like Rachel said, get an emergency fund, but put the rest of it in. And you're. You're thinking way down the road with that money.

[Caller Summer / Various Female Callers]

Yep.

[Rachel Cruz]

Absolutely.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sorry, brother.

[Rachel Cruz]

I know. I'm so sorry. Richard. Call us back if you need more help. For sure. We're here for. For you. Thanks to everyone in the booth, John. Always a fun show. And thanks to everyone listening. And remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of peace, Christ Jesus.