Make Decisions Based on Guidelines, Not Headlines

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ramsey Show – "Make Decisions Based on Guidelines, Not Headlines"

Release Date: March 11, 2025
Host: Ramsey Network
Description: The Ramsey Show empowers listeners to build wealth and regain control of their finances, regardless of past financial missteps. Hosted by Dave Ramsey and his team of experts, the show addresses the most pressing financial challenges faced by individuals and families.

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Introduction

The episode kicks off with Ken Coleman and George Camel setting the stage for an engaging session focused on making informed financial decisions based on established guidelines rather than reacting to fleeting headlines. The hosts emphasize their commitment to combining financial advice with humor to create an enjoyable and educational experience for listeners.

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Listener Call: Zachary from Omaha, Nebraska

Issue: Overseeing Household Finances Amidst Hidden Debt
Timestamp: [01:37] - [09:00]

Zachary seeks advice on managing newly discovered credit card debt affecting his family's financial plan. He explains that while both he and his wife earn a combined income of approximately $44,000 each annually, they've accumulated significant debt including a maxed-out McDonald's credit card, medical bills, and a 401k loan.

Key Points & Advice:

• Leadership & Empathy: George advises Zachary to lead by example, acknowledging his own past financial mismanagement to foster a collaborative approach with his wife.

  George Camel: "If you want to get her on board, it's going to start with you leading with empathy and creating a vision for what this is going to look like." [05:15]

• Budgeting Tools: The recommendation to utilize the "Every Dollar" budgeting app to gain transparency and accountability in tracking all transactions.

  George Camel: "Download that. You need to download it." [06:27]

• Practical Steps: Encouraging Zachary to cut up remaining credit cards, set up autopay through his debit account, and involve his wife in the budgeting process to reinforce teamwork.

Notable Quote:

Ken Coleman: "If you don't have it budgeted for Mickey D's, you know, burritos and hush. What do you call them? Hash browns." [07:00]

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Listener Call: Karen from San Antonio, Texas

Issue: High-Interest Personal Loans and Small Business Struggles
Timestamp: [10:44] - [26:03]

Karen, a 66-year-old widow, discusses her challenges with managing debt after taking out a personal loan at a staggering 48% interest rate to fund her struggling mobile dog grooming business. Additionally, she is living in an RV to reduce expenses but faces substantial debt including credit cards and an RV loan.

Key Points & Advice:

• Debt Analysis: George and Ken dissect the unsustainable nature of Karen's high-interest loans, highlighting the exorbitant costs that cripple her financial stability.

  George Camel: "This is the shell game. And number one, create a profitable business. And two, get out of debt." [16:09]

• Immediate Actions: The hosts stress the importance of selling the mobile grooming vehicle and the RV to eliminate debt and rebuild a solid financial foundation using Social Security and potential part-time income.

  Ken Coleman: "If you have the money sitting there, just hit the rewind button." [18:34]

• Alternative Income Streams: Suggesting that Karen consider working for another groomer to generate steady income while stabilizing her finances.

Notable Quote:

George Camel: "We're going to create some momentum for your money and for your marriage." [08:09]

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Question of the Day: Drew from Nebraska

Issue: Assessing Affordability for Home Purchase
Timestamp: [21:53] - [26:03]

Drew and his wife, expecting a baby, inquire whether they can afford to build a $650,000 home this summer with an $80,000 down payment, given their combined income of $250,000 annually and no existing debt.

Key Points & Advice:

• Mortgage Calculations: George uses the Ramsey mortgage calculator to demonstrate that the projected mortgage payment would exceed what they are comfortable paying for rent ($2,500/month), estimating it at approximately $6,200/month.

  George Camel: "If it's a $6,200 bucks, smarty pants." [24:32]

• Recommended Strategy: Advising patience, suggesting they either save a larger down payment, opt for a less expensive starter home, or postpone the purchase until their financial situation aligns better with their homeownership goals.

Notable Quote:

George Camel: "You can spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next." [46:13]

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Listener Call: John from Seattle, Washington

Issue: Difficulty Maintaining a Budget Despite High Income
Timestamp: [26:03] - [32:25]

John and his wife, with a combined income of $123,000 and minimal debt, struggle to adhere to their budget, particularly overspending on groceries, which exceeds $1,000 monthly despite using the Every Dollar Premium app.

Key Points & Advice:

• Spending Analysis: Identifying that excessive grocery spending is a primary issue, with bills sometimes reaching $1,200.

• Budgeting Tactics: Encouraging stricter grocery budgeting, possibly by reducing store variety or frequency to control expenses.

  George Camel: "Here's what we're gonna do. Set a limit, like $700 in groceries, and once you go over, you can't."

• Financial Peace University: Suggesting that John and his wife attend Financial Peace University to build better budgeting habits and financial discipline.

Notable Quote:

George Camel: "There's some gold. I guarantee you there's some golden girls in your community that love would love to have a roommate." [19:27]

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Listener Call: Dylan from Tulsa, Oklahoma

Issue: High-Cost Personal Loans for Discretionary Spending
Timestamp: [53:46] - [62:30]

Dylan admits to taking out multiple personal loans totaling $30,000 at exorbitant interest rates (up to 300%) to fund personal trips, including a recent $11,000 loan for a Fourth of July trip to Boston. Struggling with impulse control and emotional spending, Dylan seeks guidance on escaping the debt cycle.

Key Points & Advice:

• Debt Snowball Method: Encouraging Dylan to aggressively pay off his smallest debts first while halting any new debt accumulation.

  George Camel: "We need to cut our spending down to nothing and increase our income." [60:42]

• Emotional Health: Recognizing that Dylan may be using debt as a coping mechanism for underlying emotional issues, Ken recommends seeking professional therapy through BetterHelp to address the root causes of his financial behavior.

  Ken Coleman: "I think you've got to get some therapy. I really do." [58:36]

• Financial Peace Resources: Providing Dylan with resources like George's book "Breaking Free from Broke" and enrolling him in Financial Peace University to develop a sustainable financial plan.

Notable Quote:

Ken Coleman: "This is get out of jail here. This is get out of jail." [18:27]

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Listener Call: Kara from Casper, Wyoming

Issue: Deciding Between Buying a Starter Home Now or Saving for a Dream Home
Timestamp: [76:22] - [83:54]

Kara and her husband, ages 21 and 23, are debating whether to purchase a starter home valued at under $250,000 or wait five years to save for their dream home costing around $400,000. They have recently paid off $32,000 in debt and are close to securing a six-month emergency fund.

Key Points & Advice:

• Financial Readiness: Ken and George assess their ability to save for a down payment on a starter home within a year if they allocate $3,500 monthly towards savings.

  George Camel: "In a little over a year you guys will have 50,000 saved up." [78:27]

• Momentum Building: Recommending that purchasing a starter home can provide financial momentum and prevent the trap of endlessly chasing an ever-increasing dream home that may become unaffordable due to market appreciation.

  Ken Coleman: "This gives you momentum and helps you become a great investor right out of the gate." [81:50]

• Long-Term Strategy: Advising them to focus on the starter home to establish homeownership, build equity, and create a stable financial foundation before considering larger investments in the future.

Notable Quote:

Ken Coleman: "This is the smart play. It gives you momentum, okay? Let makes you become a great investor right out of the gate." [81:12]

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Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Ken Coleman and George Camel emphasize the importance of adhering to financial guidelines, fostering open communication within households, and making informed decisions based on solid financial principles rather than reacting impulsively to external factors like market headlines or personal impulses. The hosts consistently advocate for the Ramsey baby steps framework, encouraging listeners to tackle debt systematically, build emergency funds, and make strategic financial moves that align with long-term stability and wealth building.

Final Notable Quote:

Ken Coleman: "Follow our guidelines, you'll be okay." [40:35]

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Key Takeaways

1. Lead with Empathy: Effective financial management within relationships requires leadership rooted in empathy and collaboration.
2. Utilize Budgeting Tools: Transparent tracking of all expenses is crucial for maintaining financial discipline.
3. Aggressive Debt Management: Address high-interest debts promptly to prevent financial strain.
4. Address Emotional Spending: Recognize and seek help for emotional factors contributing to financial missteps.
5. Build Financial Momentum: Start with achievable financial goals, such as purchasing a starter home, to establish a foundation for future wealth building.

By adhering to these principles, listeners can navigate financial challenges with confidence and build a secure financial future.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Me and Dr. John Deloney are coming to a city near you on the Money and Relationships tour. It's happening soon, so don't wait. Get your [e-mail] tour.

[Ken Coleman]

This is the Ramsey show where America hangs out and have a conversation about your money, your profession and your relationships. The phone number to jump in is triple 882-55-5225. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my pal, the Natalie attired George Camel, ladies and gentlemen.

[George Camel]

Wow. All I could think of was your profession is Ken's obsession. I think that's a good tagline.

[Ken Coleman]

I like that. That's a great call. I want to help you make more money. I'm the work expert. If you're new to the Ramsey world, and that's what they say anyway. I don't like actually calling myself an expert, but I tell you what I can do. I'm going to help you figure out how to make more money in your work so that George can help you with the budget. What do you do with all debt investing? And that's the one, two punch today. And we also think we're kind of funny. We try, we try to make this show enjoyable when we're together. Going to give you the same advice, but we're going to have a little fun. So if you don't like that, I'm sorry, there's nothing you can do about it.

[George Camel]

That's Ken's way of saying kick rocks and pound sand if they don't like that.

[Ken Coleman]

Exactly. Right. Speaking of helping people, you ready to go?

[George Camel]

Let's go.

[Ken Coleman]

Let's go to Zachary in Omaha, Nebraska. Zachary, how can we help today?

[Caller]

Well, long story short, we just found the Ramsey show here about a week ago.

[Ken Coleman]

Wow. Congratulations. And get out of debt. Yeah.

[Caller]

And as we were sitting down and going through getting our debt listed smallest to biggest, to start the baby steps we had found, I had found some debt that life's been hiding from me over and over again. Credit cards mainly.

[George Camel]

Oh, how much?

[Caller]

And she is. Well, we have one maxed out credit card for about a thousand dollars. And the biggest disappointment is is it's actually maxed out on McDonald's because it was connected to her app and we had gotten rid of, paid this credit card off twice since June. Thought we had gotten rid of it. She told me she had closed it out.

[Ken Coleman]

And that's a whole lot of combo meals.

[George Camel]

Yeah. Was this. Was. There's a lot going on here. Was she sneakily going behind her back to McDonald's yeah. And not telling.

[Caller]

You say that really early in the morning and just stopping and getting breakfast burritos and stuff. It's easier to pay on the app. Skip the line, head to work. And it just got out of control.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, so you thought it was coming out of the debit account. I mean, excuse me, your debit card or your bank account. And it was actually on a credit card.

[George Camel]

So was this malicious? Did she know that it was not tied to the cards that you were aware of?

[Caller]

No card, but I thought it was closed out. But she just says that out of habit, being I was still connected. You know, there was that line of credit there. She has very big problem with spending. And recently because of this, we have. We sat down, we talked, and we have decided that I am going to take over the financial side with bills and stuff.

[George Camel]

Okay, great.

[Caller]

Normally she paid hers, I paid mine, and I am taking over. And then we've got a budget set where we can put money in savings. We can start hitting all this. And really we've got without mortgage, 16,000 now with. With that credit card, with our joint credit card, some medical bills and a 401k loan.

[Ken Coleman]

What's your combined income?

[Caller]

Combined income is about 1900, BI weekly, about. We each make about 44,000 a year.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, so. So what's your question for us?

[Caller]

I'm a math and numbers guy.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller]

How can I go about this to include her, to help. Help her with. With taking over the finances. I want to be able to include her and hopefully maybe show her the numbers and the best way to go about it, taking on all the finances, but yet help her so she can eventually, hopefully control money a lot better.

[George Camel]

Well, I think, number one, we have to realize that this is not a, you know, you're not the chaperone here. You are as guilty of making a lot of stupid decisions as we all are. So I think this needs to. You lead first by going, hey, I have not done a good job handling money. I haven't done a good job leading us in this area. I want to work together on this. Here's what that's going to look like. Do you agree? We're going to meet weekly for a budget meeting. We're going to track every transaction. There's going to be nothing hidden. Everything's got to be on the table if this is going to work. Are you in. Do you feel the unity and teamwork in that conversation versus a. Well, I'm taking over because clearly you can't be responsible for, you know, very different condescending tone on that second one.

[Caller]

Yes.

[George Camel]

And so if you want to get her on board, it's going to start with you leading with empathy and creating a vision for what this is going to look like. And then her agreeing, yes, I agree to that. Great. Now we can actually set some accountability based on what we agreed to in the past. Which means we have cut up all credit cards. Have all credit cards been cut up and closed?

[Caller]

Hers? Yes. Mine? No, not yet.

[George Camel]

And why is that?

[Caller]

Just haven't done it, I guess. It is definitely something I want to do. I want to get rid of it.

[George Camel]

If I. If I'm the wife and I see you still with your credit cards open, I'm going, whoa, whoa, whoa. Butter. Like, how. How are you going to be over here telling me how it's going to go, but you won't even cut up your own cards.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, Zachary, if I might. And I don't want you to feel attacked at all. I just am getting a sense that there's a real reason why you haven't done it for your own cards yet. What is it? Because when you paused, I've just done this enough. I got the 10,000 right now. What's going on? There's a reason right now.

[Caller]

The way I use my credit card, right or wrong, I mean, I have all my auto pays come off of it because they were living paycheck to paycheck.

[Ken Coleman]

There it is.

[Caller]

And my goal is to have money in the account so that we don't have to do that.

[Ken Coleman]

Gotcha. And okay, so. So let's own that. So let's own that. So when George asked you, you were like, I don't know. No, you know exactly why you haven't done it and you haven't fully submitted to the idea of a budget. And actually, every dollar being. That's why we call our budgeting app, Every dollar you haven't submitted, download that. You need to download it. In fact, you know what we'll do you want, let's. What can we give him?

[George Camel]

Let's give him every dollar premium for a whole year.

[Ken Coleman]

So we're gonna get you started.

[George Camel]

It'll connect to your bank account. Here's what you're gonna do. Cut up the cards and you can set up autopay on your debit card.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

So that's gonna be a little bit of homework for you to do. And she can sit there and you can walk her through it. So she has total awareness about here. Here's where all the bills are. Here's how I pay Them bring her into it. Instead of saying, hey, I'm gonna handle it, you step away, let her be.

[Ken Coleman]

A part of it, and in that process, say, hey, babe, here's the deal. In me leading us now and doing this like we're not using credit cards. So if we don't have it budgeted for Mickey D's, you know, burritos and hush. What do you call them? Hash browns.

[George Camel]

Hash browns.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. I almost said hush, puppy. I got seafood on the mind. But Long John Silver, there is no. There is no wiggle room on this. Do you understand? Like, I'm not trying to control you. Like, we're in this together. And so if we budget $50 a month for. For McDonald's, that's it. And I don't know how far that'll get you.

[George Camel]

Well, I feel like maybe we got to start eating at home and. And cooking together.

[Ken Coleman]

I knew you were going to say that. While we're in.

[George Camel]

I'm the fuddy duddy.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, no, I. I'm just trying to teach a little bit here. You come over the top of the.

[George Camel]

Sorry, I got. I got all fired up.

[Ken Coleman]

Go ahead, scream at them. You're not going to be inside of a restaurant until when?

[George Camel]

Well, Zachary, I just think if there's a commitment that we're both not going to eat out, it changes the game. And so then there becomes an inherent accountability. And so if you guys get on that budget every single week, sit down, track your transactions against your one checking account that is shared, that's going to create some momentum for your money and for your marriage. I think this communication is only going to help the marriage.

[Ken Coleman]

I think so, too. Zachary, love. Love that you just joined us a week ago. Hang on the line. We're going to get you taken care of with every dollar, and you guys can do this. Love that you two want to work on it. Sounds like there's some harmony here early on. And that's all it takes to work. All right, real quick, before we go to the break. If you're gonna cheat at McDonald's, what's the one item you get? Cause you're Mr. Budget. It's on the dollar menu for sure.

[George Camel]

I'm going value menu. Ken, I got you bring back the cheeseburger.

[Ken Coleman]

You just wanted back the snack wrap.

[George Camel]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

All right. I think it's fries for me. This is the Ramsay show.

[Dave Ramsey]

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[Ken Coleman]

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you with us, America. 888-8255. 225 is the phone number. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell is alongside. Karen is up next in San Antonio, Texas. Karen, how can we help today?

[Caller]

Hi, you guys. Sure appreciate you taking my call today. You bet. I guess the start that I'm a widow. I 66. I have a small business that's kind of struggling. Recently had heart surgery, et cetera, et cetera. No kids, no family. Two dogs. Two dogs live on Social Security and some from my business and credit cards. I managed to get into a situation. I borrowed money from a personal loan, an online personal loan company, nationally advertised, all that kind of good stuff. Went through the whole process because I wanted to pay off some, some debt, you know, to get rid of my credit cards and to invest in a, a vehicle for my mobile salon and managed to find out that the interest rate is somewhere around 48%.

[George Camel]

Oh my God.

[Caller]

And it's, and it's front loaded. I mean, I mean I heard the 48%, but I thought that's no, no big deal because I'm going to pay this off like very quickly. And so I didn't pay attention enough to hear that it's front loaded. So the amount of money that I.

[George Camel]

Borrowed, most of your payments are going to interest, essentially. Not touching.

[Caller]

Absolutely.

[George Camel]

How much was the loan for?

[Caller]

It's half and half is what it is. I ran a thing this morning. How much is going to principal?

[Ken Coleman]

How much was the loan for?

[Caller]

$29,000.

[Ken Coleman]

And how soon were you planning to pay that off? When you just stared 48% and went, Ah, no big deal. How quickly were you planning to pay that off? Those were your words.

[Caller]

Within a year. Within a year.

[Ken Coleman]

So you were okay with a 48% for a year? I've never heard anybody say that before.

[George Camel]

That's an extra 15 grand in interest alone.

[Caller]

Yeah, well, like I said, I, you know, I'm kind of ridiculously stupid at this particular point.

[George Camel]

No, I mean, I'm not here to bash you. I'm trying to understand the desperation that led you.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, that's what I'm. Is this for your business?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

What's your business?

[Caller]

It was. It's dog grooming.

[Ken Coleman]

Why did you need 20. Why did you need $29,000 for a dog grooming business that's struggling.

[Caller]

To go into the next phase and. Excuse me, didn't expect that it's going into a mobile situation. A mobile grooming situation with a very specified market that nobody's really tapping into at this point.

[George Camel]

And what is the market?

[Caller]

You know? Well, I don't really want to say it out loud.

[George Camel]

Oh, competition.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[George Camel]

You don't give away your shark tank idea here.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, so.

[George Camel]

But I hire mobile groomers, so I'm just curious because I pay these people and I understand how the business works.

[Ken Coleman]

And I've used a mobile groomer as well, so. But. Right, but this was a.

[Caller]

This is. The concept was a little bit different. It's a larger grooming situation where you have two people inside and then you. We're situated in a. In an area, a contracted area that we would be there for three or four days and we would.

[George Camel]

Okay, you kind of park up.

[Ken Coleman]

So we're the only reason we're digging.

[Caller]

Like a pop up.

[Ken Coleman]

Got it. But the only reason we're digging on this is we're trying to figure out how we help you get out of it. So the question is, was the 29,004 like a van or some type of.

[George Camel]

Vehicle or was it just the equipment.

[Ken Coleman]

Or was it just other stuff?

[Caller]

It was.

[George Camel]

You're breaking up on us, Karen.

[Caller]

I'm sorry. It was part for the vehicle and then the other part for the conversion of the vehicle to the unit that I was. I was trying to achieve.

[George Camel]

How much could you sell this thing for to someone else who does mobile grooming?

[Caller]

I believe in easy. 40, 40, 45,000.

[George Camel]

And what's your total debt that you owe everything but the mortgage on the.

[Caller]

The vehicle?

[Ken Coleman]

Just everything. All your.

[George Camel]

Because you said you had other debt and you took out this debt to try to pay off some other debt. So what is your total debt load right now?

[Caller]

Okay, total debt load with the thing that I took out before was, is about 31,000. Then I have eight. Eight grand on Amex and about 8,000 on Citibank. And that's. That's it as far as what I. Oh, and about. And 4. 444 thousand on the RV that I bought to live in.

[George Camel]

So you're living in an RV right now?

[Caller]

Yes, that's correct. I had a plan originally.

[George Camel]

We all have a plan until life punches us in the face.

[Ken Coleman]

So how, how, how if we, if we were to sell this, do. Can you sustain yourself on just regular pet grooming or do you have to be a mobile.

[Caller]

Well, it's part of, you know, to continue on with the mobile business. Just because of the culture of employees and such. I have a standalone. I mean, I have a stick and mortar business also, but I was going to keep it in a small.

[George Camel]

Is that profitable? Is the brick and mortar business profitable right now?

[Caller]

No.

[George Camel]

So here's what it sounds like. You're jumping from unprofitable to unprofitable to unprofitable, hoping to strike gold at some point. And instead you just keep digging a hole by maxing out these cards and jumping to another piece of debt to try to cover the other debt. And so we're trying to stop you from playing the shell game. And number one, create a profitable business. And two, get out of debt. And that might mean a clean slate where you get rid of this mobile grooming truck, you sell it, sell the rv, you rent for a while, get rid of all your debt, create a foundation and then start slow and with cash.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, I just, I. And to that end, Karen, we're trying to solve for you here. Could you make similar money just grooming for somebody else? Just somebody else who's got a business and they're looking for a solid person like you. You're not going to flake on them. You've got the skill set. Can you make the same amount of money working for somebody else as a groomer?

[Caller]

If I wanted. If I was able to work full time and work as hard as I used to. Yes, I, like I mentioned before, I'm 66 and I had.

[George Camel]

Well, what are you making from this? What is your yearly income from all of this after all of your expenses?

[Caller]

Oh, barely anything. Because everything I have goes.

[George Camel]

That's what I'm saying. You could go work a retail job and not break your Back doing this and get out of this completely.

[Ken Coleman]

And what about 20 hours? Hours? Like just work part time? They need groomers. You're a dream for somebody trying to find one. I know, but. What But Karen, listen. We want you to sell all this stuff and. And you got Social Security coming in. Work 20, 30 hours. Do whatever you can. But selling the RV and selling this van gets.

[Caller]

I don't have the van yet. That's why I borrowed the money to.

[George Camel]

Where's the money right now?

[Caller]

Well, I was afraid to spend it once I figured out what how much it was going to cost me. So I kept it and just let it pay itself.

[George Camel]

Wait, so money. Can you just go ahead and pay off the loan then?

[Caller]

I could, but it would take everything. Pretty much everything.

[George Camel]

Better than paying 15 grand in interest that you don't have.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes. Karen, this is get out of jail here. This is get out of jail.

[George Camel]

I thought the damage was done and you already bought the van and did the renovations. But if you have the money sitting there.

[Caller]

No, no, no. It's not even there yet.

[Ken Coleman]

Hit the rewind button.

[George Camel]

The bank gave you 31,000 interest.

[Ken Coleman]

That's it. Rewind this whole deal.

[George Camel]

31 grand.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm sorry for the sound effects.

[George Camel]

No, it's great actually. I like that.

[Ken Coleman]

Really. Karen, hit the rewind button and get out of this deal. Go work for a local groomer who is going to be thrilled to have a 66 year old experienced, non flaky Gen Z groomer. And they're going to pay you well and you get some breathing room. Am I right, George?

[George Camel]

Absolutely. And what's the RV worth? You owe 4,000 doll on it. What could you sell it for?

[Caller]

No, I owe 40,000.

[George Camel]

Oh my goodness.

[Caller]

And what I could. What I could sell it for is about between 35 and 40.

[Ken Coleman]

Do it.

[Caller]

It's a 24. Where the hell am I gonna live?

[George Camel]

Rent somewhere within a.

[Ken Coleman]

Over some old lady's garage. Because she needs some companionship and she wants somebody who can. I'm telling you, where there's a will, there's a way.

[George Camel]

What's your payment on the RV?

[Caller]

441.

[George Camel]

Okay. Take your 441 that you'll save by getting rid of that plus your Social Security plus your part time hours and you can afford rent somewhere you might need it, you know to.

[Ken Coleman]

There's some gold. I guarantee you there's some golden girls in your community that love would love to have a roommate. I mean you gotta look, you gotta find it, you gotta happen to life Karen. And we've been talking to a lady who life has been happening to her. Got to flip the script here. We told you exactly what to do. This is doable, but you got to do it. Change your life. This is the Ramsey Show.

[George Camel]

Rachel, do you ever get these sketchy text messages that are like, hey, you need to update your address and verify so we can get you the package you didn't order?

[Caller]

Yes, I have, George. Sketchy. And never trust them.

[George Camel]

And that's why we recommend Delete me. They help with that.

[Caller]

Yeah, they do. Delete Me actually goes in and removes your information from data broker websites. And it is an incredible service that everyone needs.

[George Camel]

And there's a lot of shady companies out there that solely exist to sell your personal data to bad guys. And that means your info, like your email address, your home address, your kids names, your name, everything is just out there for scammers and spammers to find.

[Caller]

That's right.

And then once they remove your information, then they're going to send you a detailed report telling you where they found your information, when they removed it, how many hours they've saved you. I mean, it is incredible. So detailed and it's beautiful.

[George Camel]

I love these reports so far. Get this. They've reviewed 27,000 listings on my behalf, removed me from 240 data broker sites and saved me 77 hours of time. It's incredible.

[Caller]

Absolutely amazing. And Winston and I now get fewer texts, weird emails, spam calls, all of it.

[George Camel]

I love it. So you gotta be sure to check them out. Ramsey fans get 20% off their annual plans. Just go to JoinDeleteMe.com Ramsey that comes out to less than nine bucks a month. Super affordable.

[Caller]

It's amazing. So again, that's joindeleteme.com Ramsey make sure to check it out, you guys.

[Ken Coleman]

Welcome back to the Ramsey show alongside George Camel. I'm Ken Coleman. The phone number to jump in is, $88255225. The Ramsey show question of the day is brought to you by why Refi? With why Refi, you can take control of your defaulted private student loans with a plan that works with your monthly budget. Visit yrefi.com Ramsey that's the letter y r e f y.com Ramsey it may not be available in all states.

[George Camel]

Today's question comes from Drew in Nebraska. He says, I'm trying to figure out if I can afford to buy a home. Together my wife and I make 250,000 a year and our jobs are secure. We're expecting a baby. This summer and really want to buy a home. The house we would like to build is around $650,000. We have 80,000 saved for a down payment. We have no debt and our emergency fund is done. We're comfortable paying about 2,500 bucks a month in rent. We would like to build this summer and potentially finish by the end of the year. Is this something we can afford? Well, Ken, this is a, this is like a common core math problem and I don't think he's going to like the answer.

[Ken Coleman]

I don't think so either.

[George Camel]

I got my mortgage calculator up here on the Ramsey website.

[Ken Coleman]

Love it when you talk nerdy. I know.

[George Camel]

And here's the deal. You're going to have PMI because right now you guys have about 12% down 80,000 into 650 tracking, which means you're going to have to pay PMI, which will likely be at least a few hundred bucks, maybe three, four hundred bucks or even more. And so you said we're comfortable paying 2500amonth in rent. That mortgage would be closer to $6,200. So that's, that's a lot. Now you guys make great money. Dealt 2,50,000, I mean that's, that's serious. And so if you want to look at 25% of take home pay, let's say they're bringing in, you know, 15 grand a month or so. Well, that's probably a three, $4,000 mortgage would be comfortable for them. Which just tells me it's a patience thing. We either save up more down payment or we need to lower the build of the house or look in a different area. Yeah, and so this isn't a no, you can't do this. This is a we gotta be patient here. And let me tell you, the baby lives in your room for the first six months. So you already bought some time there.

[Ken Coleman]

Not my room.

[George Camel]

Next up now Ken's out. He's out on that. It's going to the nursery immediately.

[Ken Coleman]

A fan of that parenting strategy. Just going to call that out. A baby needs to sleep in its own room.

[George Camel]

So there's one part of it, but really a baby, you can live where you are for the first year or two of the baby's life and survive. And so my take is have a little patience here and let's wait on this home purchase because number one, having a baby is a lot. Already on top of moving and building, there's a lot moving pieces there. And so I would encourage you guys to just stay put where you are. And continue saving. And I believe I have my computer plugged in if we want to take a look.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, you're going to show people what you're doing?

[George Camel]

I thought it'll be fun. I thought it'd be fun to show them if I can. I don't know that I'm capable.

[Ken Coleman]

You gotta select. This is like trying to get your phone to work in your living room on the TV to show everybody the family.

[George Camel]

There we go. All right, let's see if this works.

[Ken Coleman]

See if dad can figure it out.

[George Camel]

Is it working, James? Do you like that? Here it goes.

[Ken Coleman]

There it is. Oh.

[George Camel]

So I'll even zoom in for you. Ken, I know you have bad vision, you don't have your readers on, but that's what it's looking like.

[Ken Coleman]

6,200 bucks, smarty pants.

[George Camel]

And you can go in and play with the interest rate.

[Ken Coleman]

I can't see. It's too far, far away.

[George Camel]

There you go. So private mortgage insurance, the property taxes, home insurance, HOA due. So you can play around with the numbers on this real estate mortgage calculator to figure out, hey, how do we get this within 25% of our take home pay? Which by the way is after taxes but before other deductions. Yeah, so we're not talking about after the 401k, after the health premiums. Just take out your taxes, state and federal and then see what your take home pay would be and aim for a quarter of that. And again, it's just a parameter. If it's 26%, we're not going to yell at you. It's just a parameter to make sure that you can get through the other steps. But congrats on the, on the impending baby, by the way.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm going to fully commit to the readers now on the air since you, you outed me. So I'm going to go ahead.

[George Camel]

It's giving Clark Kent.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, you know, it makes it a little easier to read, folks, because I'm very mature. This week's average 15 year fixed mortgage rate dropped is 5.79%. I wanted to mention that now this is the lowest since October 2024. So if you're thinking about buying a home you love at a price you can afford and it becomes very possible when you work at the Ramsey trusted real estate agent. These are pros that are handpicked to guide you. Find a local pro for [e-mail] agents ramseysolutions.com agents or click the link in the description if you're Listening or on or on podcasts and watching on YouTube. The show notes is a treasure trove, as I like to say, of all the information. But you know, now's the time to move. If you feel like you're ready to move. You can't guarantee that these rates are going to keep dropping.

[George Camel]

Yeah, well, a lot of people have these golden handcuffs, Ken, because they refinanced or bought in 2020, 20, 21 and they're going, well, I got a 2 or 3% rate. I'm stuck. And I hate that for people.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, I do too. Let's go to Seattle, Washington, where John is waiting for us. John, how can we help?

[Caller]

Hi. I'm sorry this has to be kind of brief, but my wife's a big fan. She listens to you all the time. We have the every dollar premium we've been trying to budget every month for the last five months or so. I work in corporate America. I do marketing, digital marketing, and my wife is a part time homeschool hybrid teacher. She makes 18,000 a year, I make 105,000 a year. We have roughly $200,000 left on our house. We have no other debt, nothing at all. My wife and I struggle to be under budget with every dollar app every month. We're always spending more than we're taking in. I don't do any of the shopping. I'm just at work. She takes care of our one year old son and it's just very difficult to get under budget each month. So I don't know, I've tried to talk to her about this. She, she just has a trouble. She just has issues with spending too much.

[George Camel]

So is she paying every single bill in the household?

[Caller]

So she does the grocery shopping. I pay all the other bills. So our son goes to physical therapy.

[George Camel]

So as you look at the budget in the bank account, where would you say most of this money is disappearing?

[Caller]

To groceries by far.

[George Camel]

Okay, and are you saying that you feel like she's overspending on groceries?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller]

Oh yeah, like, yeah, like we're spending easily over a thousand dollars every month on groceries.

[George Camel]

And is there a reason? Have you asked her? Hey, what's going on with the groceries here? Can we change our grocery store? Are we wasting food? Like, how can we do better in this area?

[Caller]

I try. She tries to make everything in one stop. So we have Safeway out here, which is like I guess Kroger now for everybody else, but also going to Costco. She just likes to only go to one store and buy everything. So a lot of The Costco bills are 3 to $500. She does that sometimes twice a month plus going to Safeway. And then things can get up to, you know, 1200 bucks, easy on groceries.

[George Camel]

But even then. Are you guys taking home 9,000amonth? What's your take home pay?

[Caller]

With both of us, it's about 6,000.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Caller]

A month.

[George Camel]

That feels awfully low for you guys to be making gross, you know, close to 130.

[Caller]

Well, yeah, and again, our mortgage is not very high either. It's about $1,600 a month. There's, like I said, there's just lots of things that just seem like they sneak in there.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, but this is, this is more than groceries.

[George Camel]

Yeah. Even at a thousand bucks in groceries, you guys still have 5, $6,000 of random other bills. And so I think there's more to it.

[Ken Coleman]

I mean, what are you contributing to this? You sound like you're pristine the way you've set this up, but I gotta believe that you've got some, Some habits. Yes.

[Caller]

Not really. I don't buy anything on Amazon. I don't buy anything on Amazon. The only. I run a lot, so I buy running shoes like every other month. That's about it. I. They're about $150. And I do. I'm very athletic. I run against college kids in D3 schools, but I have a coach. That's $150 a month. That's all I really spe myself.

[George Camel]

Okay, so you have your fun money. You've got John's fun money, 150 bucks.

[Ken Coleman]

You got groceries run money. Sounds.

[George Camel]

But there's still a lot of money to be accounted for in here. And this is going to be a conversation with, with you and your wife sitting down with accountability saying, here's what we. Okay, if we need 700 in groceries for some reason, that's the limit. And once you go over that, it's over.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, you guys got to sit down. You called us for help, but bottom line, you said she's a big fan, so she's, she's open to all this stuff. You guys get to sit down and track spending for 60 days so that you just have a really good about what's going on. And we've tried.

[Caller]

We've. We've tried.

[George Camel]

And no, if you've actually tracked it against the budget, the budget will tell you very quickly where your money.

[Ken Coleman]

You're too busy running. What are you running from?

[Caller]

No, no, no, I run it from. I'm not running. I'm running for My fears. I guess she buys a lot of stuff on Amazon that she just, she thinks, oh, our son needs this and our son needs that. We did have a car that was a gas guzzler. We did get a new car and that was paid for by generosity from a family member. It's completely paid off.

[Ken Coleman]

You guys can do this, man. This is communication. I hate to keep simplifying this.

[George Camel]

And we're here on one side. I'm not. I think you're telling the truth, but I think she might be telling the truth. What if little junior does need all this stuff?

[Ken Coleman]

He's a year old. He doesn't need anything.

[George Camel]

I don't know what he needs. But you know dad's working, running.

[Ken Coleman]

I know. Yeah, a little, a little less running, a few more meetings, that's what we need.

[George Camel]

There we go.

[Ken Coleman]

This guy. Those running shoes aren't cheap.

[George Camel]

That's why I don't run, Ken. I said so much money.

[Ken Coleman]

This guy's so much into running. He's got a coach that's coaching him how to run.

[George Camel]

That's racing against elementary school kids. That's my version.

[Ken Coleman]

What are we doing, man? Tell you what, I'm not running. I'm sitting on this break. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know, one of the first things I discovered working in the financial world is how absolutely devastating it is when the breadwinner of a family dies and there's too little life insurance or none at all. Grieving families are suddenly left behind, scrambling to pay bills and trying to make ends meet. I also discovered that there are a lot of rip offs in the life insurance world, like that whole life crap posing as an investment opportunity. What you need is level term life insurance, usually 10 to 12 times your income, which is the smartest, most affordable way to protect your family. The key is finding an independent broker who represents ton of companies and works for you, not for the insurance company. This is exactly what my friend Jeff Zander and his team at Zander Insurance are all about. They shop the term life companies to find you the best options. And they've been around for over 95 years, so you know they'll be there when you need them. Zander is the real deal and that's why they've handled all my personal insurance for over 25 years. I trust them and you can too. Visit Zander.com for instant online quotes or for a more personal touch. Give them a call at 800-356-4282.

[Ken Coleman]

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell is alongside triple 882-55-5225 is the phone number. Isaiah is going to join us now in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Isaiah, how we help.

[Caller]

Gentlemen, thank you for your time today. I just started a new job about nine months ago. I work for a medical supply company. And, you know, obviously with everyone's paying attention to the news, these tariffs are kind of scaring us as a. As a business and a company. And so my question to you guys today is, you know, we're on baby step two. We're taking the course right now. So we're like, on our seventh or eighth week in the course, and we've been paying off debts and it's been feeling great. But with these tariffs, there's, you know, there's communications and stuff from our uppers or CEOs, and they've been very good with us. But at the same time, there's. There's no guarantee that our jobs are safe. So my question to you today is, do we continue to make these extra payments with a high concern in job security, or do we hold off on making those payments to kind of see how things go and just save that money? Or should we.

[Ken Coleman]

Tell me what's going on. Where are you guys getting your parts from? These medical supply parts, I'm assuming, is what you're talking about.

[Caller]

Yeah, yeah. So we.

[Ken Coleman]

A little.

[Caller]

A few years ago, they moved everything from China to Mexico. So obviously that has a big impact on our business to the point of significant, significant losses.

[Ken Coleman]

So. So hold on, hold on, hold on. I just got to ask a few questions. So you got. Your company is importing medical supplies from Mexico, correct?

[Caller]

Exactly.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. And all of them, or some of them, of your inventory that you're offering, how much of the business is affected by imports from Mexico?

[Caller]

Yeah, it's a complicated structure, but I would say probably, you know, we're set to lose, you know, 17, 18 of our business.

[Ken Coleman]

Why are you losing it? You guys are just going to stop. Stop buying and selling?

[Caller]

No. Yeah, exactly. We're just. We'll lose most of our profits. And that's. That's kind of my concern, is just how that helps.

[Ken Coleman]

That's why I'm digging in. So you're talking about your profit margin is definitely going to get hit, but you're not necessarily losing business.

[Caller]

No.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. And what is your leadership? Because here's the other part of this equation. It's how much of that cost are you guys going to pass along to your customers? You understand? That's why. That's why guys like me, free Traders, I don't like tariffs. Never going to like tariffs. So don't, don't at me or send me hate email. I'm not going to read it and I'm right. So we'll just leave it at that. Tariffs become taxes. It's, it's just that simple. So are your leadership, are they talking about, hey, we think we're going to actually lose accounts because we would have to offset our increased cost by importing these parts from Mexico and now they're more expensive due to the tariffs and we can't offset that by passing along to our customers. So therefore we feel like we're going to get really hit hard. What are they communicating? Because that will help George and I in answering your question. What's been communicated to you? Or are you just looking at the headlines?

[Caller]

No, they've been communicating and, you know, everything's on the table. We'll try to eat some of it, obviously. But we also, it's a medical field, so there's, there's set contracts and, and fees that are already okay, you know, locked in.

[Ken Coleman]

So you can't raise the price.

[George Camel]

So they locked in the price at, you know, a dollar a needle and now you guys are getting charged A$10. And so you're losing money on the contracts. Essentially.

[Caller]

Essentially.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. By the way, while I'm here, I'm just going to leave this here for all of you who want to be educated on things beyond just your personal money. This is why I don't like tariffs. You have fixed contracts and this creates a problem.

[George Camel]

So when there's the retaliation tariffs from Mexico that now affect U.S. businesses.

[Ken Coleman]

I know trade wars are never fun. Okay, I'll leave it at that. There's your geopolitics lesson for today. Okay, so George, does this, does this constitute a storm where we would say.

[George Camel]

Leadership is actually saying, here's what's going to happen and hey, phase one, here's what happens. Phase two, layoffs, here's who goes. And you know, even Ramsey did this during COVID our team communicated. Leadership said, here's what's going to go down if things take a shift.

[Ken Coleman]

Right.

[George Camel]

And then you kind of know the game plan. And so I think there's not enough information right now to go, I'm going to pause because this could be a year long, this could be three years. We don't really know how short term this is. And if it was a short term storm, I'd say let's pause and save up. But if this is going to be four years of who will they or won't?

[Ken Coleman]

I don't think it's going to be. I do think that. I do. I can't predict this, but I do think that the tariff situation is going to be settled at some point in the near future.

[George Camel]

And can you guys. You guys, you know, change suppliers next month and then this will be solved in 90 days?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, I would keep my ear to the ground. I'd keep my ear to the ground, Isaiah, on this, but how much debt.

[George Camel]

Do you guys have?

[Caller]

Yeah, so we have about 15 to 16,000 in consumer debt and then another 36 in student loans. And over the past five years, we paid off probably 70, 80 with no real intensity. But now that we're taking the course, we're trying to stick to the course. And do you know what we're told?

[George Camel]

Yeah. What's the 15, 16 kids outside of the student loans?

[Caller]

You know, one of them is a private student loan, one's medical, and then one is a refinance that my lovely self did a long time ago.

[George Camel]

Okay, so how quickly would you get out of debt? If you just stayed on the Ramsey plan, how quickly would you get out of debt?

[Caller]

At this point, you know, we're shooting for probably two, three years.

[George Camel]

Three more years to pay the rest of this debt off.

[Caller]

Something like that. It's kind of over.

[George Camel]

That feels like a long time based on. I mean, what's your household income right now?

[Caller]

I think it's like 120.

[George Camel]

So 120 grand and you have another, what, 40, 50. You have 51 grand left in debt?

[Caller]

Yep.

[George Camel]

So why can't out of that, 120, you take 25 and be done in two years or less? I feel like that's. That's even.

[Caller]

I said two, three years. Yeah.

[George Camel]

So I'm thinking we get really intense about this and try to knock this out very quickly. And if you do get wind that, hey, layoffs are imminent, they are happening, I would then pause and save up, but right now, I don't know that there's enough ammo to go. We're going to push pause on life and just stack up cash. I'd wait for a little more communication.

[Ken Coleman]

I concur.

[George Camel]

I just feel like everyone's on edge. And so leadership is preemptively communicating now. His is legit, where their business is affected directly and instantly.

[Ken Coleman]

You know what? I feel like we need to take a couple minutes here and talk about guidelines versus headlines. Ooh, can we do that?

[George Camel]

I like where this is going.

[Ken Coleman]

So here's what you're going to see in the headlines. You're going to see the stock market drops yesterday, almost 900 points. I haven't looked at it. Today you're seeing the tariff news, right. Trump's not backing down, Canada's bowing up, Mexico's bowing up. Are they going to negotiate what's going on? China's getting involved. You know, you're going to watch all these headlines now. I'm seeing stuff and I look at all the different news sites. By the way, I'm apolitical in my news gathering because I want to know what people are seeing. You're going to see headlines about is a recession going to happen. You got realities right now of stagflation is kind of hanging out for those of you who didn't pay attention in the sixth grade. Stagflation is where inflation goes up and the economy goes down into a recessionary state that is real. So you got all these things. So what if we're not careful, George? We get so focused on the headlines and we feel like, oh boy, I gotta be nimble. What am I gonna do? I gotta get in front of this storm when it's not actually a storm. And then I want to say we gotta be focusing on the guidelines, the stuff that we teach makes you recession proof.

[George Camel]

Yeah. You know, not owing people money, having an emergency fund. That's the goal, is getting to that financial piece, to where no matter what's going on in the headlines, your family's going to be okay.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

So in this case, would you tell our friend Isaiah, hey, I might be looking for a different job. I would be doing that in a similar field. Maybe have something lined up in case you got to.

[Ken Coleman]

That's what I was thinking. I wouldn't pause the baby steps, but I would say, all right, let me look at what if worst case scenario happens, which by the way, based on what I could pull out of that situation, again, this is the negative side of tariffs that nobody wants to talk about. If you're in love with one side of the the aisle, you just, well, he said, we're going to do it, let's all do it. Woohoo. It's like, whoa, hold on a second. This has real economic impact. And this is, this is an example. So in that situation, you cannot control what the White House does. So we say you control what you do in your house and so don't stop knocking out debt, but start looking for a fallback plan if for some reason you got laid off.

[George Camel]

And it's a good lesson in diversification. For business owners out there.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

You can't just rely on one supplier because if something happens to that supplier prices they shut down whatever it is. Covid, now you're, you're stuck. Your whole business relies on. So it's important to have backup plans.

[Ken Coleman]

And to tie a bow on all this because I trying to to inform you folks this is why if you're going to do tariffs, you've got to deregulate, you got to cut taxes for businesses because the whole goal of this is to not be reliant on foreign currency countries for imports. Let's make products in America. American made products. I'm all for that.

[George Camel]

And you heard small businesses. That's the backbone of the economy right there. So good.

[Ken Coleman]

There's your lesson from the headlines. Follow our guidelines, you'll be okay. This is the Ramsey Show.

[George Camel]

This show is sponsored by Better Help.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, so I was born and raised in Texas and I love the.

[George Camel]

Myth of the lone cowboy.

[Ken Coleman]

You know, the guy who doesn't need anyone or anything. It's a fun story and it's a lie. In our self obsessed society, we're obsessed.

[George Camel]

About our own diets, our own workout.

[Ken Coleman]

Routines, our own jobs, our own social media feeds, everything. It's easy to forget that no one can do life alone. And I don't care if you're an introvert, an extrovert or whatever you want to call yourself. We all have to have a community and a support system to do life with. It's time to shift the focus from doing it all by ourselves to knowing that we can only be well and.

[George Camel]

Whole when we ask for help. Therapy can be a great source of.

[Ken Coleman]

Help and support for any area of your life. And if you're thinking about starting therapy, try BetterHelp. BetterHelp is 100% online therapy, so it can fit with your schedule. To get started, just fill out a.

[George Camel]

Short online survey to get matched with a licensed therapist.

[Ken Coleman]

And if it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists at any time for no extra cost. This month, start to build your support system with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com DeLoney to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com DeLoney this is the Ramsey show where we help you win with your money, win in your profession, and win with your relationships. Triple 882-55-5225 is the phone number. I'm Ken Coleman, thrilled to be joined by my pal, the well groomed George Campbell.

[George Camel]

It's Hard but hygienic. But thank you.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, I would going to take people to that mental image, but you did. So I do find you to be very hygienic.

[George Camel]

Thank you.

[Ken Coleman]

You know, a little known behind the scenes fact here. Before we get to our first call, George brushes his teeth and mouthwashes.

[George Camel]

That's actually every show. Thank you. I stay fresh for America, so.

[Ken Coleman]

And the guy's got a real minty fresh breath coming at me when he, when he throws a comment. So I thought you all appreciate that.

[George Camel]

Excellence, Excellence, what it's all about.

[Ken Coleman]

That's right. Excellence in the ordinary. It's a, it's a Ramsey vowel. You. Nicole is joining us now in Sacramento, California. Nicole, how can we help?

[Caller]

Hi, thank you for taking my call. I was calling because I needed some advice on far as what I should do next. Little backstory. Last year my mom handed me a capital one card. No explanation, nothing about it. I threw the card in the closet. Didn't think about it. A few weeks ago you guys had on the caller asking about a friend wanting to be an office user on a card. And neither host at the time was a fan of that. My eyes media.

[George Camel]

You're breaking up on us.

[Ken Coleman]

Nicole, are you not in the closet with that credit card, are you?

[Caller]

No, no, no, I'm not.

I'm not.

I'm sorry about that. But I pulled my credit report to find that this account was on my credit report. I called the credit card company and asked them to rem an authorized user and they said that that would take about two days. But now I need to know what I need to do next because I want this off of my credit report.

[George Camel]

How long has it been since you've been removed?

[Caller]

Maybe about two to three weeks.

[George Camel]

Okay. Yeah, it'll take longer than that for it to fall off the report. It's going to be more like a month or two. And you can, you can also contact the credit card issuer, you can also go online and file a dispute with the credit bure saying hey, I'm no, I'm not a user on this account. Please remove it from my report. And so you can do a few things to just kind of check in on it and expedite it, but it should be falling off here shortly.

[Caller]

Oh, okay. Okay.

[George Camel]

Did you see anything else on your report? Was it just that one card?

[Caller]

It was just the one card. And I don't know if it even matters with it being a FICO score there because I have, I've never had a credit card. I have Never applied for any credit work whatsoever. So I. That's why I didn't understand the authorized user thing and why that was even done. And then to see that on my credit report. I psyched it.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

That would bother me to pressure someone. Did that behind my back. That's not cool. Have you talked to your. To your mother about this?

[Caller]

I have not had the converse. The conversation yet because that was an immediate headache, kind of, you know.

[George Camel]

Yeah, well, you called us, so I figure you're trying to avoid this conversation. Do you think it's not going to go well?

[Caller]

I just. Yeah, I guess.

[Ken Coleman]

Feels like it's a no.

[Caller]

I don't think it won't. It won't go well. It's like I just kind of am annoyed that I even have to try.

[George Camel]

To cool down before you call mom.

[Ken Coleman]

And maybe it's a boundary. You know what I love about this, Nicole, is that you have the discipline that. To get rid of it. And I feel what she's feeling. She's like, do I really want to have an unnecessary conversation because she shouldn't be having it in the first place.

[George Camel]

Well, what I would do, Nicole, is freeze all of your credit bureaus. Just freeze all the accounts so no one can do any of that anymore. And you can also check your credit report weekly for [e-mail] and so you can check back in on this. I might check every two weeks or so. You don't have to be, like, on top of it. But I wouldn't worry about it because you're not in debt and you're off the card, and so the risk is gone. It's just the annoyance of having this.

[Ken Coleman]

I think it's a text. I'm gonna go with a text on this, Nicole.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

I think I'm. I think I'm feeling you, and I'm going. I don't want to talk to mom about this, but maybe a text. Hey, mom, listen, I don't need a credit card. Don't ever want credit cards. Don't do credit cards. I went ahead and close it out, but just FYI, don't need one. Thanks. And just let it go, you know?

[Caller]

Yes, yes.

[Ken Coleman]

It's just. I get it. You're going. I don't want to burn the calories trying to explain to mom all this stuff. It's not that she's gonna be.

[Caller]

It was so out.

It was just so out of the blue.

[George Camel]

How old are you?

[Caller]

Just. I. I'm 30.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

That's a weird thing to do to Your grown adult child.

[Ken Coleman]

I could see.

[George Camel]

Was she worried about you?

[Ken Coleman]

I think she must have got a deal or something. Maybe she clicked on something. Really? Yeah.

[Caller]

There's no reason to be worried about me.

I've never had issues with money.

It's like I hang on to.

[George Camel]

I just want to get to the bottom of it.

[Ken Coleman]

I know, but. Must have clicked on a deal or something.

[George Camel]

It feels like you got to go through a few steps to get an authorized user. So it just feels like a weird thing.

[Ken Coleman]

It is a weird deal, but I. I think she had proper motivations. Just, you know, she didn't get how you do it. So anyway, let it go. That's my two cents. I'd let it go. I'd do a text and I wouldn't. I wouldn't do a phone call on those kind of things, you know, it's like trying to explain a way of living.

[George Camel]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

To somebody who doesn't live the way you live.

[George Camel]

That's a lot of brain calories.

[Ken Coleman]

It's a lot. It's a lot.

[George Camel]

As you would say, the juice ain't worth the squeeze.

[Ken Coleman]

That's what I would say. I would say that. And it's true. By the way, Samantha's up in Syracuse, New York. Samantha, how can we help?

[Caller]

Hi. I guess it's like a two part question. So my husband just finished building the.

[George Camel]

House for us with his bare hands.

[Caller]

We saved up a lot.

Pretty much, he did 90% of the work.

[Ken Coleman]

See, George and I, we cannot even process how manly he is and how talented.

[George Camel]

I couldn't draw a house, let alone build one. That's impressive.

[Ken Coleman]

I couldn't build a house with popsicle sticks. Couldn't do it.

[Caller]

Well, about like four years ago, I gave him this idea that I wanted to sell the house we had. His family had land. It didn't work out that way. We sold the house. We bought a piece of land near his family and had a really old trailer on it. We lived in that trailer for two years while we saved up. We saved up about 20 grand before we started building, but we also used 40 grand to buy the land.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. Hey, I just want to tell you we got two minutes. And I know you have part one in part two.

[Caller]

Yeah, sorry. So we have. That's all we had up until January for debt is our mortgage. And it was 190 grand. That's all we have.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller]

In January, I totaled my car.

[George Camel]

Oh, no.

[Caller]

Yeah, it sucked. I hit a deer. So it paid off my loan. I ended up getting two grand. I was, you know, I was on top of it. So that's not the end of the world. My husband hadn't had a vehicle loan in the five plus years or whatever. So he went out two weeks after I totaled my car and bought himself a $33,000 truck. So I'm just wondering where to go from now. I got about $6,500 in the bank for savings and I'm just wondering.

[George Camel]

And you don't have any car, You're a one car family right now?

[Caller]

Well, no, no, we have cars. They're just a matter of beaters at this point and his nice truck. So we kind of just bounced between his nice truck and the beater to get me to work right now.

[George Camel]

Okay, so you have two cars total?

[Caller]

We have three cars total. He has his old truck that didn't have a payment, that's in, it's in rough shape, but it does the job.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Caller]

Then we have a, an older car and then we have the newer truck right now. So we have three vehicles, two of which are paid off off.

[George Camel]

We've gone backwards here financially. So I would look into selling the truck. I don't know if you can convince them of that. And you don't need a new car. You need to buy cars you can afford in cash and keep it that way for the rest of your life. So this is going to be come to Jesus moment, but it's not going to be, well, you got a new car, so I get a new car too. It's going to be, hey, we need to figure out a plan to become completely debt free. And that means selling your truck and buying two cars in cash and selling the rest.

[Ken Coleman]

I agree this is a tough conversation because my guy went out and just got himself a new truck.

[George Camel]

A man in his truck will not soon be part of it.

[Ken Coleman]

So now he's got to say, what? Huh? And she's got to hold the line and he's got to agree or else this is going to be ugly. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Dave Ramsey]

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[Ken Coleman]

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Campbell joins me this hour. The phone number is 888-255-2225. Let's go to Dylan who's joining us in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dylan, how can we help today?

[Caller]

Yeah, so I have fallen into the personal loan trap.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh well, the good news is my co host today is George Campbell.

[George Camel]

Oh boy.

[Ken Coleman]

He wrote an entire book about this. Be aware of the traps.

[George Camel]

That's right. If you fall for the trends, you fall for the trap.

[Ken Coleman]

There it is, his signature quote. What's going on? Why are you falling for these traps?

[Caller]

Man, it's so easy. It seems like.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, so easy to do what?

[George Camel]

To go into debt?

[Caller]

No, to fall. I mean to fall for those people, for the predatory stuff like interest rates and stuff.

[George Camel]

Okay, but what did you actually, what happened? What'd you take out debt for?

[Caller]

So I got a trip, a couple like actually last year in July with my mom to Boston. It was, it was a fourth of July trip and I took out a loan for that.

[George Camel]

That sounds like it's on you. I don't think you fell. I think you jumped voluntarily.

[Ken Coleman]

How, how old are you, Dylan?

[Caller]

I am actually 40. I turned 40 in February.

[Ken Coleman]

So a 40 year old man decides to take his mom to Boston for July 4th. I mean, I get it because I like history, but I mean that's like, I mean like how are we taking out a loan for that? That's not like a big deal, like that big of a thing. You could have saved up for that, Am I right?

[Caller]

Right.

[George Camel]

How much did you take out?

[Caller]

11,000.

[George Camel]

Goodness gracious.

[Ken Coleman]

Would you Sit in the front row of the Boston Pops?

[Caller]

No.

[Ken Coleman]

What were you doing for 11,000 in Boston for July 4th?

[Caller]

So I used it for other stuff.

[Ken Coleman]

There we go. Here we go.

[George Camel]

Dylan, we got to be honest with each other if we're going to make this relationship work. Is that fair?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

I got you.

[George Camel]

Okay, so how much total debt do you have?

[Caller]

About 30,000.

[George Camel]

Okay. And what do you make a year?

[Caller]

I make 85 was my 85,000 was what I made last year.

[George Camel]

Okay, and what kind of Debt is the 30? You got 11 in the personal loan.

[Caller]

It's all personal loans.

[George Camel]

All personal loans. Why is that interest rate? Did you not. Yeah, but, like a credit card. Did you not have any credit cards? I'm just curious why you went personal loans all the way.

[Caller]

No, I don't have credit cards at all.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, he draws the line there.

[George Camel]

You draw the line. So what's the interest rate on all this debt?

[Caller]

It's quite a bit, actually. I looked. It was like one was like 300%.

[George Camel]

That's what I'm saying. These are not like personal loans from your credit union. These are like payday loans.

[Ken Coleman]

300%. I'm dizzy.

[George Camel]

Why did you darken the door of a payday lender?

[Caller]

That's. Yeah, I don't know, like, you.

[George Camel]

You actually drove to the payday lender and went, yep, this is it. This is where I'm going to get some money.

[Ken Coleman]

I think I know what it is. Dyl. Can I take a stab? Can I take a stab as what's going on? Because this is how you started the call. You kind of started the call kind of going, you're presenting as a guy who feels like he's unable to fight the temptation of these type of loans. That's the way you present it. Is that a fair analysis?

[Caller]

That is fair.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, great. So it feels like the reason, based on what evidence you've given us so far, is you just get this spontaneous hair, this idea of like, oh, I want to do this, or this would be fun, and you don't have the cash for it. Right. And so you just decide, wow, let's just go get some loans right now, and I'm going to go do this and figure it out later. Sounds like it's that simple. You can't control your impulses. Is that right or am I wrong?

[George Camel]

His dogs are barking, I'll tell you that much.

[Caller]

Yes, they are.

[Ken Coleman]

Dylan, did I just stump you there?

[Caller]

No, I said you're right.

[George Camel]

Okay. Okay, well, here's the deal. We can't Solve the current debt if we don't stop going into debt. And so can you make a truce with me and everyone listening right now that you are not going to touch another diamond debt? Yes, you're not going to go. You're never going to be in the parking lot of a payday lender ever again. Agreed?

[Caller]

Agreed.

[George Camel]

Okay. Because right now it's like the hot light is on at Krispy Kreme and you can't help yourself but stop in and get a few dozen and we have to stop. We got to get to the root of what's causing that. I don't know, what if it's something you're running from? If there's a vice in your life, but a guy making 85k in Oklahoma should have a pretty good life, don't you agree? Like if you told 15 year old Dylan, like, hey man, one day you're gonna be making $85,000 and yet here you are going into debt instead of being able to just save up and pay cash for things.

[Ken Coleman]

I think you're profoundly sad about your life. That's what I think.

[George Camel]

Is there truth to that?

[Caller]

Yes, there is truth to that.

[George Camel]

And you're using this sort of these loans as therapy to try to go. If I can just have this as a coping mechanism and buy more stuff and take more trips, I think that's, I'll distract myself.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. And Dylan, I, I just felt that and I was willing to take a risk there. And I don't say that to shame you, but I think you, you need some therapy. I really do. I think you've got to get to the bottom. See, anytime somebody does something like this, it's, it's only a manifestation of something else. It's the symptom, it's not the problem. And it just sounds like you just need something to medicate the sadness or an uneasiness, a lack of just satisfaction. And I think if you can reframe that with some help through a professional, I'd call better help. I really would. I mean, I'd start there and it's affordable, it's, it's convenient. And I'd start figuring out what's going on there. Because a phone call with George and I isn't going to snap you out of this, if I can be completely honest with you. Because the temptation is going to present itself tomorrow or the next week and quite frankly, you're not going to be hearing George and I's voice. You need to get to the bottom of this thing and begin to see oh, I've got some pain. And if I can get healing on that, all of a sudden, I'm not tempted by this medication in the form of these trips or whatever it is you're doing, where you go get quick money to get a quick high, the quick high of life. And I think that's what's going on. I hope that encourages you, but I think that's what you need to be dealing with right now. George, I want to give.

[George Camel]

Well, we can hit the financial piece and I'll, I'll, I'll send you some resources, including my book, Breaking Free from Broke. That'll walk you through all this and then give you some encouragement. We'll put you through financial Peace University. If you're willing to join a local class and go week after week for nine weeks with a group of people who also have made dumb money decisions. Would you do that?

[Caller]

Yes.

[George Camel]

Awesome. Okay, so after the call is done, we'll, we'll get you on with Christian and he'll hook you up with those resources. Let's talk about the debt for a second. What is your smallest current balance?

[Caller]

It is like $500.

[George Camel]

Okay. And I assume you got nothing in checking and savings right now?

[Caller]

I have a hundred dollars in. So I have a, I have a credit union as well with the company.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Caller]

And I had, I have $200 in there.

[George Camel]

But you're still, you're, you're living just down to the bone, down to the wire every single week. So the way to get out of this is we need to cut our spending down to nothing and increase our income. So can you work overtime? Can you take on side hustles in order to get your income up in the short term?

[Caller]

Yes, I've signed up for overtime.

[George Camel]

Great. So here's the deal. Once you have that 500 bucks, we're going to just throw everything we can at that next smallest debt. Because the problem with these payday loans is they grow like a cancer because of the interest. As you've seen, it's hard to get out of them. It's why it's a cycle that we see a lot of low income neighborhoods. It's why payday lenders sit there, because they're willing to take your 100 bucks and they're going to get 100 bucks out of you by the, by the time the month is over. And so you got to attack these things aggressively to get rid of them. And if you do that debt snowball method, you can get out of 30 grand making 85. It's going to take a lot of sacrifice. It's probably the next 18 months of your life is going to just look like work. Work, work, work, work. No time to spend, no time for trips. Okay, do you have anything you can sell? Have you bought any, any toys, items that you could sell to help get rid of this debt?

[Caller]

No.

[George Camel]

You owe nothing to your name.

[Caller]

Just a car, but it's paid off.

[George Camel]

Okay, good. Well, that's the plan, man. Hang on the line. Christian's gonna pick up. We'll send you a copy of my book, Breaking Free from Broke. We're gonna send you financial Peace University. Go through all nine lessons and get some professional help where you can get to the root of what's going on here. Here. Because I agree with Ken, if we don't get to the root of it, we're just going to stay in the cycle.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, I agree. And I got a weird feeling like the pup was agreeing with us. You know, I do feel like. Did you feel that? That was like the pup was in the background.

[George Camel]

Ken's onto something.

[Ken Coleman]

Amen. Amen. You know, I think the dog is feeling the anxiety as well. These dogs, they can feel things. It's just a hunch, folks. I don't know if that's true, but I felt like he was really chiming in when we were dropping in the hot stuff. So I don't know.

[Dave Ramsey]

Know.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, quick break. George and I are going to discuss the value of denim jackets and then we'll be right back. This is the Ramsey Show.

[George Camel]

Hey, guys, George Camel here. Do you ever feel like insurance companies only care about your money and not what you actually need? Well, there's a better way. When you go to Ramsey's Insurance resource hub, you'll start feeling confident that you're getting the right coverage that's truly best for you. You'll find helpful info on everything from life insurance, health insurance, identity theft, protection, and more. And when you're ready to get the coverage, you. You can connect with a Ramsey trusted insurance pro who will only get you what you need at the best price. Go to ramseysolutions.com insurance ramseysolutions.com insurance.

[Ken Coleman]

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. George Camel joins me. 888-255-225 is the number. Let's stay right here in our neck of the woods. Elijah joins us in Nashville. Elijah, how can we help?

[Caller]

Hey. So to explain what's been going on is I've been going to work every morning by a meter car that my parents let Me use with my sister. I live with my. I live with my parents. I work at the local post office, and I recently just got laid off because I wasn't able to keep up with the workflow.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, I'm so sorry. What do you mean you weren't able to keep up with the workflow?

[Caller]

I just wasn't fast enough. Like, I couldn't get the mail out the window fast enough as I was delivering.

[Ken Coleman]

Hold on, hold on, hold on a second. Because this will be material later. What do you mean? Or were you a mail delivery? Were you a mailman?

[Caller]

Yes, sir, I'm. Yes, I'm a mailman. Yes, sir, I'm a mailman.

[Ken Coleman]

And you just couldn't get mail delivered in the amount of time that they have allotted for you?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

Do you agree, do you agree with this?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

And what is the reason for why you couldn't get the mail out in time?

[Caller]

I'm just kind of a slow human being. I, It's. I tried my hardest. And they, they recognized. They were like, hey, we saw that you tried your hardest. We, you know, we're not, we're not firing you. We're just asking that you please resign.

[George Camel]

Because, well, they fired you. I mean, it's okay to admit that. I know it hurts. I've been fired before. It's the worst feeling in the world. But it wasn't a layoff in terms of, hey, business is struggling and we can't afford to keep you. It was, you can't do this job.

[Caller]

I guess you're right.

[George Camel]

And so it's okay to own that, but we got to figure out what's next for you.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, and I got to ask another follow up, George. And I'm not trying to pick. I'm trying to understand when you say I'm a slow individual. I mean, what's, what's really not very.

[Caller]

Intelligent and I'm not fast move. Like, I just. How do I say this?

[Ken Coleman]

So you have some, you have some, some mental challenges. Is that what I'm hearing?

[Caller]

That's probably what it is. I mean, I've, I've always been slower than my schoolmates. I've, I've had like, okay, they'd always tell me, oh, I went and did this on Friday night. And I was like, wait, you were out? I was doing homework, trying to figure out the lesson.

[Ken Coleman]

Gotcha. Okay.

[George Camel]

But it's not a diagnosed disability.

[Caller]

It's. It's not diagnosed or anything. I, I mean, I might be able to go get it checked out at some point, but okay. That's not my main concern right now.

[Ken Coleman]

I get it and I don't want to hover on that. But let me just say this really quickly. It is important as we go forward for you to dive into what's going on. You may just have some processing challenges, which is very, very, very, very. They're calling this neurodiverse now. So point is, at some point you want to get to the bottom of this so that you can realize your limitations and then we can get you into a better situation. But I know that's not the main reason you called, so. But, but it is probably relevant. So go ahead. What's, what's your question?

[Caller]

You're right. Yeah, I thank you for that. Calling that out actually made me think about it now. Okay. So they said they might be able to hire. Hiring back in a different position. That works better.

[Ken Coleman]

Great.

[Caller]

You know, because they, they loved working with me. They were like, you tried your hardest.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Caller]

We loved having you love that. Love to have you back.

[Ken Coleman]

Love that.

[Caller]

But yeah, but they knew that that position just wasn't sure for me. So the problem here I'm having now is I'm now that it's now that I'm unsure about my position. I do not have a personal vehicle for myself.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller]

I have $8,500 saved up and I have a check that's probably gonna be a thousand dollars coming this Friday from work. And then I do not know because I don't want to buy like a three thousand dollar car because I want. You can't find a three thousand dollar car on car gurus or on any of the more reputable car sites. I go to Facebook and all the $3,000 cars are like oh, just needs starter. Oh, just needs, you know, blank. It's like, okay, well, you know, well, you have money.

[George Camel]

The one number one rule is don't go into debt for it.

[Caller]

Yeah. So what I'm trying to do with the cash you have on hand first.

[George Camel]

Yeah. So, okay, let's say we buy a $7,000 car.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

What's wrong with that?

[Caller]

And that just, that's what makes me concerned is I don't know how the. I'm not sure that the seven hundred seven thousand dollar cars are good long term. Hold on a second.

[George Camel]

Well, long term is, is irrelevant right now. This is not the car you're going to be driving for the next 15 years.

[Ken Coleman]

That's right.

[George Camel]

But, but you know, my last car before the one I own now was a $6,000.09 Civic. And so by the time I got it, it was already 10 years old. And so it's okay to drive something that's older. And here's the deal. Get a pre purchase inspection from an independent mechanic that you trust. That'll cost you a hundred bucks, 150 bucks. And then, you know, you're not buying a lemon. You know exactly what you're getting into. And then buy it from a reputable dealer person. Don't get scammed in the. In the. You know, in the deal here. Make sure that all the pieces are lining up. Meet in a public place. If it's not with an independent dealer, but you can go to an independent dealer right now in the Nashville area and find cars for $7,000.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm looking at them right now. I'm in the $5,000 range. And here's a Honda CRV. It's a 2002. It's old, but it's only got 115,000 miles.

[George Camel]

Let me tell you something.

[Ken Coleman]

For a Honda, that's a great deal. And I. And it took me 30 seconds to pull this up. Up.

[George Camel]

But here's what you don't do. Don't go to the new dealership car lot and go, hey, can I get a $7,000 car? They're going to steer you into the nicest, newest cars and go, what? What can you afford for a payment, young man? Oh, we can make that work. 400 bucks a month. Sure. That's what you got to go in. Knowing exactly what you're doing. Go in with a check, say, I've got 7,000 bucks and I'm leaving here with a car. And if they tell you no, go to the next dealer. Hey, Christian, take some work.

[Ken Coleman]

Christian, I am emailing you that car right now because it just so happens he's local. And I don't want to say it over the buddy, but I'm going to at least give him a start Part. This car right here, I've got the link. I'm sending it to Christian, and. And he'll. He'll give it to you.

[George Camel]

So Ken loves nothing more, Elijah, than researching cars. So you came to the right place, but you're doing the right thing. The next piece is no interruption of income. So how can we get you a job ASAP this week to where you're not going with $0?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

So what can you do?

[Caller]

We accept. Hopefully they'll go take me back into training for the new position.

[George Camel]

And what if they don't?

[Caller]

If they don't. That's what. That's what I'm concerned about.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, but that's where I was at earlier.

[Caller]

All right, So a big buffer of money so that I can find a proper job.

[George Camel]

Right.

[Ken Coleman]

So we start thinking that for a long time. You need to start thinking and start looking. So what is a position based on your past experience or even what the. The mail service is telling you they're going to reassign you? What is the position? What kind of work is it? And do you feel that that's a good fit for you with some of your. It doesn't put you in a place of limitation. It puts you in a place of. Of ability. What is that role?

[Caller]

Something repetitive would probably work perfect, I think.

[Ken Coleman]

What have you done in the past that has been something you've done well and you've shined in? Do you have anything, anything you've done in the past?

[Caller]

Well, I'm. I'm 21, so the only jobs I've done up to this point was I was a librarian at my college and I was a. I worked at a McDonald's, not a McDonald's at a burger King.

[Ken Coleman]

Did you shine in those roles? In other words? You'd got the job done. It wasn't something where you were struggling and behind other people?

[Caller]

I guess. Yeah, the library job was great. Particularly easy. It was mostly just sitting there and.

[George Camel]

It'S a slower paced environment.

[Ken Coleman]

Here's the deal. You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking your big box stores, your targets, your Walmart, your grocery stores. Could you get into some type of. Again, very repetitive process. Heavy. It's not fast. It's not. You don't have to be fast. You just got to get the job done, done. Be thinking about those things because all of those places need people they can depend on. And Elijah, you got, you got character. This has been established that the poster, they, they said, man, you're a good guy. We want you back. We just need you in a different role that speaks to your character. So get your chin up, number one. Number two, get your eyes up. Start looking for some of those fallback opportunities and check out the link that Chris is going to give you. We just got you a car that you can pay cash for, my man, man. And it's still got plenty. A Honda 115, 000 miles on it. You can drive that to 20, 50 and minimal mechanic work.

[George Camel]

You drove a Honda Forever love a Honda. I wanted you to. You started said chin up, eyes up, hopes up. There's your third one.

[Ken Coleman]

Come on, bring it right there.

[George Camel]

That's an alley oop. That's as close as I'll get, folks.

[Ken Coleman]

They call that chemistry in the business. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Dave Ramsey]

Hey, guys, good news. Presale is on now for my new book, build a business you love. If you're a business owner, you know running a business is hard. That's why I wrote this book, to share what we learned over the last 30 years so business owners can grow your business faster with fewer mistakes. Pre order your copy today and you'll get access to over $350 in bonus items only at ramseysolutions.com store ramseysolutions.com store pre order today.

[Ken Coleman]

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Thrilled to have you with us. Hey, have you heard about Dave's new book, build a business that you love?

[George Camel]

I have.

[Ken Coleman]

Have you? Have you? Have you? Have you heard about it?

[George Camel]

Excited to read it.

[Ken Coleman]

You know what I like about it? He says it's the baby steps for building a business, for growing a business. He gives the kind of the signature six stages of the business. Fantastic new book. And, and this is timely because we've got a new set of data that's come out, George, that says 70% of Americans want to be self employed, but only 6% are.

[George Camel]

Wow.

[Ken Coleman]

And I think that big gap. Big gap. The reason is because it's very hard. It's intimidating. So whether you're somebody who wants to own your own business one day or you've launched or you've been at it and you just, you can't get to the next level. That's right. This is a great book for you. As I said, it's the baby steps for running a business. You can pre order it now for 29.99 and you get over 350 worth of free bonus items, including the entree leadership hiring playbook, the ebook, and the audiobook. And this book is again on pre order right now. You buy it right now and you get the best deal, plus all the good stuff. Ramseysolutions.com store ramseysolutions.com store and I gotta say, Dave, Dave always has his picture on the COVID of the books. That's kind of his thing.

[George Camel]

Yep. That's a good photo.

[Ken Coleman]

I think it's. It might be his best photo ever.

[George Camel]

He's got the smize going.

[Ken Coleman]

He's. Is that what it's called?

[George Camel]

I think. I don't know.

[Ken Coleman]

A smize?

[George Camel]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

What's that?

[George Camel]

I think it's what Tyra Banks invented. I think that's what Dave was aiming for here.

[Ken Coleman]

It's not a real smile.

[George Camel]

Yeah, we have the picture here, if you're watching.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, there it is. Yeah.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

It's not a teethy grin. It's just kind of a, you know, kind of a squinted smile.

[Ken Coleman]

I know what I'm saying, what I'm talking about. Feel pretty good about what I'm going to drop on you in this book.

[George Camel]

Exactly. A lot of confidence there. And he's earned it.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, he looks as cool as the other side of the pillow. I think he's got a shacket on. Which you and I. Let's just call. Let's just call.

[George Camel]

Dave stole that from us.

[Ken Coleman]

He did. He made fun of us when we first started wearing shackets. I think I dropped the word on.

[George Camel]

Him, which is a shirt, jacket, if anyone's confused out there.

[Ken Coleman]

And true story. And he made fun of me, you know, shacket. Three weeks later, what's he wearing?

[George Camel]

Shacket.

[Dave Ramsey]

A shaggy.

[Ken Coleman]

You know what happened? He made fun of us when we weren't around in front of Sharon, and Sharon validated it.

[George Camel]

Oh, I like Ken's jacket.

[Ken Coleman]

I think so. I think it's exactly what happened. So we'll never know. I'll ask him next time he's in. Kara's up next in Casper, Wyoming. You ever been to Casper?

[George Camel]

Have not. Would love to visit me too.

[Ken Coleman]

Kara, how can we help?

[Caller]

Hi.

Thanks for having me on.

[Ken Coleman]

You bet.

[Caller]

My. My husband and I are looking for a home to buy, but we were wondering if it's financially smarter for us to buy a starter home within the next year or just save up for five years and buy our dream forever home.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, well, why don't you describe for George the starter, what the cost is, how big it is, and then what you consider the dream home and how much that is to get a start. Give us, give us those descriptions.

[Caller]

Okay, so starter would be under 250,000. Maybe a three bedroom, two bathroom.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller]

Because we already have two kids, a three year old and a one year old.

[Ken Coleman]

Are you renting right now?

[Caller]

Our dream. We are renting.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller]

So our dream home would be around 400,000. And I guess in five years from now, it's appreciation value 480. So it might take us more like six years.

[Ken Coleman]

And you're sure that's your dream home?

[George Camel]

Yeah, when you said forever. And those are red flags to me because as a millennial, we have moved like four times since we've been married and every next home is the dream home.

[Caller]

Yeah. So I'm not sure, but I am sure that we would Be in there. I mean, I'm not sure of anything, but I would hope that.

[Ken Coleman]

There we go.

[George Camel]

That's the honesty I'm looking for.

[Ken Coleman]

That's what we wanted you to know. We just wanted you to, so. Because a part of answering this question is for you to get to the mindset of God going, it's what my dream is now. But in the grand scheme of things, a lot can change. How old are you and your husband?

[Caller]

So I'm 21 and my husband is 23.

[George Camel]

Oh, time is ticking, sweet girl.

[Ken Coleman]

You are truly, truly a child. And I don't mean that in a mean way. I mean, like, compared to me.

[George Camel]

Now, Ken has boots older than you. And I know that for a fact.

[Ken Coleman]

That's an absolute truth. By the way.

[George Camel]

Sadly, he takes care of them, but, yeah, sadly true.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller]

But I want to make the right choice.

[George Camel]

Yeah. So you got. Are you guys debt free?

[Caller]

We are. So we paid off $32,000 left of our debt last year, and then we're one month shy of saving up our six month emergency.

[Ken Coleman]

George.

[George Camel]

So you're on the cusp of now getting into that baby step 3B, which is saving up a down payment.

[Caller]

Yes.

[George Camel]

So even then we're not even this even starter home. It wouldn't be for another year or two.

[Caller]

Yeah, yeah.

[George Camel]

Oh, there was meditation there.

[Ken Coleman]

He didn't say that with confidence. Do you know why he's saying it's a year or two away way? Why we don't know how you're going to get up that down payment with your income. We don't. We don't know. You got to explain it to us. How are we going to sock that away?

[George Camel]

Okay, how much do you plan on putting down?

[Caller]

Well, if it's 250,000, hopefully 50.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Caller]

But I saw a lot of nice homes in the 230 range, too.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

How long would it take you to save up 50.

[George Camel]

So.

[Caller]

So my husband, he makes $110,000 gross, so it's $90,000 net. And our yearly bills, just like rent and electricity and gas, are around 30,000.

[George Camel]

All of your bills only add up to 30,000 a year.

[Caller]

So that's rent, electric and gas.

[George Camel]

So like all in groceries, insurance, really 38. So let's say four grand a month is your expenses and you're bringing home seven grand. So you got three grand spread that you could sock away maybe 3,500 if we get tight. Right. So that's 42 grand in a year you could save up. So in a little over a year you guys will have 50,000 saved up. And if you do it in a high yield savings account, that'll help speed it up a little bit. And so let's start talking. A year from now, we're going to start home shopping for a $250,000 house. Sound good?

[Caller]

Okay. Yeah. And is that smarter than waiting these. I'm guessing that's what I would do.

[George Camel]

Because you hit the nail on the head. It's a moving goalpost. That $400,000 home five years from now is going to be a $520,000 home. And so I would rather you get your foot in the door with a very reasonable mortgage payment. 25% of take home pay on a 15 year fixed. And then who knows, four years from now, if you keep doing 50 grand a year on that mortgage, you're going to knock it out in four years. Do you see the math on that?

[Caller]

That is our plan to put as much.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. Now you're set.

[George Camel]

And that's what my wife and I did. We rolled over the 100% equity in our, in our townhome that we had into our next home, which then gave us a very reasonable mortgage payment and then we paid that off fast. So do you see how this kind of snowballs and allows you to not jump into too much home and add stress to your life?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

And it gives you options. So the reason we like you getting the starter home is why George is what George just laid out. Because here's the deal. Five, seven years from now, the dream home might be an $800,000 house with a nice pool. And you can get it.

[George Camel]

And every home is a temporary home until the Lord takes us to our eternal home. Isn't that right, Ken?

[Ken Coleman]

Wow. Are you writing Christian greeting cards?

[George Camel]

I'm going to jot that down.

[Ken Coleman]

That's good. You should probably submit that to like Christian Hallmark or whatever that is. But Carrie, you with us on that? That's the smart play. It gives you momentum, okay? Let makes you become a great investor right out of the gate. You guys have no debt and that.

[George Camel]

Home'S going to appreciate. So that might be $350,000 home five years from now, and it's paid for.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

You tracking?

[Caller]

I've never moved before, so I was worrying. I was worried about. I don't know how much that cost.

[Ken Coleman]

But you've never been married before, right? Like this is a whole new deal. You're only 21, so you know, you.

[George Camel]

Guys are in incredible shape to even be doing this a year from now at Your age is. You are so far ahead of the curve, a lot of people aren't buying their home. I just saw the stat can. It's moving and moving and moving. Now people are entering home ownership into their 30s instead of their early 20s or mid 20s like it was back in the day. Because of home prices.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

And because of debt. It's holding them back from buying a house. So the fact that you guys are debt free, got the emergency fund, the down payment's going to be there. You're not biting off more than you can chew.

[Ken Coleman]

That's right.

[George Camel]

That will help you build wealth. Just moving slow and steady.

[Ken Coleman]

That's right. And for all the reasons that that current house in the 400 range is a dream home. For all those reasons, most likely. It doesn't matter. The kids, they're so little, they don't even know. They'll look back on this first home and think it was huge.

[George Camel]

Oh, yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Do you remember that going back to your original house and you're kind of like, this was like a matchbox.

[George Camel]

Oh, yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

How did we live in this? And I remember as a kid thinking, this place is huge.

[George Camel]

We had one little tiny bathroom. If you open the door, you'd hit the person on the toilet. That's how small this bathroom was that all four of us shared growing up.

[Ken Coleman]

I resonate with that. Yeah. We shared a bathroom with my mom and dad.

[George Camel]

But now the standard is, well, every kid's got to have their own bathroom. Bathroom boundaries.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

Privacy.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Camel]

We've lost our mind.

[Ken Coleman]

We've lost our ever loving mind. Wow. All right, well, good hour. Good times, man. Thanks to George Campbell.

[George Camel]

Sorry, got apocalyptic there, Ken. I just had to bring it. Bring us home.

[Ken Coleman]

It was just very heavenly. You were just writing some great stuff there. Thanks to James Childs and our fearless crew for keeping us on the air. Thank you, America, for listening. This is the Ramsey Show.

[George Camel]

Hey, you're still here. What are you doing? You do know that the rest of today's show is playing right now over on the Ramsey Network app, right? All you gotta do to finish the episode is search Ramsey Network in the app store, Google Play store, or just click the link in the show notes to download the app. For free. Yep, you heard me right. For free. Then right there on the home screen, you can watch the rest of today's show. Bada bing, bada boom. All right, I'm getting out of here. Enjoy. We'll see you on the app.