My Girlfriend’s Pregnant and I’m Scared

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ramsey Show – "My Girlfriend’s Pregnant and I’m Scared"

Date: January 29, 2026
Hosts: George Campbell & Jade Warshaw

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Overview

This episode of The Ramsey Show focuses on callers facing significant life and financial challenges—from unexpected pregnancies to career transitions, caregiving, and more. The central theme is empowering listeners to confront financial uncertainty with honesty, practical strategies, and a clear plan, regardless of past mistakes. Hosts George Campbell and Jade Warshaw deliver empathetic, direct advice, helping callers craft actionable steps for moving forward.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Unexpected Pregnancy and “Stork Mode” (00:46–08:41)

Caller: Thomas, 24, Oregon – College student; girlfriend is pregnant and both are scared.

• Situation: Thomas is in college with two years left. Girlfriend (21) is five weeks pregnant, not employed, three hours away, on government assistance, little family support nearby.
• Main Concerns: How to prepare financially/emotionally, whether to pause school, plans for living together, and the fear of being “stuck” rather than choosing family life.
• Key Advice:
  • Get a life plan before a money plan: Immediate focus is building a unified plan for the couple—living near each other, securing employment, confirming health insurance, seeking counseling.
  • Pausing school: Consider halting college to work full-time and save cash ahead of the baby’s arrival.
  • Move smart, not fast: “You’ve got a nine month runway… heavily consider pausing school, moving closer together and you getting to work full time plus a side job, her taking on a full time job.” (George, 08:11)
  • Premarital Counseling: Seek it through a local church to determine relationship compatibility.
  • Keep things quiet: Recommends not sharing the pregnancy widely until after the first trimester.

“Right now, you’re in stork mode, stocking up cash and figuring out the life plan. Then we'll figure out the financial plan.”
— George Campbell (08:11)

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2. Parental Estate and Life Insurance Strategies (10:34–16:16)

Caller: Sarah, Washington – Daughter managing wealthy parents’ estate.

• Situation: Mom’s advisors pushing high-premium life insurance for estate planning; $60M net worth.
• Concern: Are they being taken advantage of or is this normal at this wealth level?
• Key Advice:
  • Ultra-wealthy estate planning: Large life insurance policies and trusts can make sense to avoid huge estate taxes, but risk of over-insurance and commissions.
  • Third-party review: “Contact a third party advisor... and get their take. At least you have something to go with.” (George, 13:09)
  • Don’t assume malice: “Go into this with a spirit of curiosity vs. that people are trying to screw your mom.” (Jade, 14:02)

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3. Military Pay Cut & Adjusting Lifestyle (16:48–19:46)

Caller: Malcolm, North Carolina – Income drops from $180k to $31k due to joining the military.

• Situation: Wife must stay home; living on base will help; has savings; worried about burning through it to maintain old lifestyle.
• Key Advice:
  • Live on what you earn now. Adjust quickly to new income and preserve savings for emergencies only.
  • Don’t touch retirement. Use 3–6 month savings as intended—for emergencies, not covering a too-expensive lifestyle.
  • Embrace the change: “Whatever your life was before is no longer. This new chapter is going to look like you’re broke college students.” (George, 19:03)

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4. Caretaking, Debt, and Overwhelm (21:54–29:34)

Caller: Christian, Florida – Inherits power of attorney for father after major surgery; discovers massive debt.

• Situation: Dad has $90k in credit card debt, overdrawn account, mortgage on a condo that's underwater, limited income via worker’s comp.
• Key Advice:
  • Prioritize shelter and basics: “The focus is making sure the four walls are covered for him and the debt is a far, far away thing.” (George, 27:38)
  • Credit card advice: Defaulted unsecured debts will be written off if there’s nothing to collect; no need for bankruptcy.
  • Manage expectation: Emphasize that debts won’t pass to the caregiver (unless they’re a co-signer).

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5. Managing a Large Trust Inheritance (33:17–41:52)

Caller: Kayla, Texas – Receiving $200k, unsure what to do once debts/emergency fund covered.

• Situation: Unsure whether to pay down house (may move in 1–3 years), save, or invest.
• Key Advice:
  • Short horizon? Stay liquid: Keep funds in a high-yield savings if likely to move within a year.
  • Long horizon? Mortgage paydown is smart: Massive interest savings, forced savings.
  • Enjoyment is allowed: “There’s nothing wrong … maybe use some for enjoyment.” (George, 39:07)
  • Invest after the mortgage: Stick to baby steps—bulk investing comes after home is paid off.

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6. Escaping Financial Abuse & Crisis Management (44:13–52:23)

Caller: Emily, Nebraska – Stay-at-home mom, emotionally abandoned with four kids, husband not supporting or contacting.

• Situation: Receives VA disability ($2,600/mo), sparse business income, husband reroutes his income; $41k student loans, $22k credit card debt, $6k vehicle loan, $34k left on house.
• Key Advice:
  • Emergency triage: Don’t sell house yet; protect self and assets; freeze credit and change locks.
  • Legal action is priority: Make divorce/custody first focus, then deal with debts.
  • Budget carefully: Use “Every Dollar” or "You Need A Budget" to find any margin.
  • Don't pay off debts yet: Wait until court splits finances.

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7. Retirement Planning Mindset & Math (54:11–62:35)

Caller: Sarah, New Jersey – High income, $146k in 401k, but $130k student loan.

• Situation: Unsure of how much she needs for retirement, wants to do “everything” (max investment, pay off debt, buy house).
• Key Advice:
  • Clear the student loan first: Emphasize intensity; invest 15% after that.
  • 15% rule: “You’d be putting $2,625 into retirement every single month… over $3 million if you stayed on that.” (Jade, 58:54)
  • Do not invest outside retirement until house is paid off.

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8. Helping Adult Children Without Enabling (65:50–69:52)

Caller: Shannon, Florida – Should parents help married children financially after wedding if still in school?

• Key Advice:
  • It’s okay to help—but with boundaries: Set clear parameters (move-out date, minimal rent, maintain jobs).
  • Guard against codependency: “That word independent is the key here. If they are codependent… you’re enabling, that’s on you.” (George, 68:01)
  • Require some rent/expense sharing.

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9. Handling Inconsistent or Seasonal Income (85:45–93:24)

Caller: Riker, Utah – Soon-to-be married, variable income from ranching, fiancé is hairstylist.

• Key Advice:
  • Budget for worst-case: Base necessary expenses on the least-grossing months.
  • Peak/valley fund: Save excess during boom months to cover down months.
  • Encourage off-season side hustles: Explore what’s feasible in a rural area.
  • Stay debt-free: Praised for no debts and living within means.

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10. Underwater Mortgage & Career Change Dilemma (95:05–103:50)

Caller: John, Orlando – Considering pay cut and move for “dream” law enforcement job; $70k upside down on home.

• Key Advice:
  • You can always return to tech: The financial hit is recoverable with savings and future earning potential.
  • Don’t lock yourself to the mortgage: “In the grand scheme, the underwater mortgage is just a ‘stupid tax’… You will recover.” (George, 101:07)
  • Decide with heart and head: Financially doable but must weigh relationship and long-term happiness.

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11. Zero Credit Score by Choice (117:16–122:19)

Caller: Mindy, Texas – Senior in college, no credit score, wants advice about buying a home.

• Key Advice:
  • No need to build a credit score: Manual underwriting makes it possible to get a mortgage—provided there’s strong financial documentation.
  • Keep energy on stacking cash and building income, not chasing credit-building myths.
  • “You’re weird in a good way.”

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12. Living Paycheck-to-Paycheck Despite High Income (122:33–126:14)

Caller: Hunter, Arkansas – $117k/year but still feels stretched.

• Key Issues: Massive vehicle (truck, side-by-side) and student loan debt; biggest payment (truck) is 3x rent.
• Key Advice:
  • Sell big liabilities: The side-by-side or truck (totaling $70k) is killing margin.
  • Budget strictly: Use "Every Dollar" to find where money’s slipping away—likely on lifestyle and social spending.

“You’ve got $73,000 in toys going down in value.”
— George Campbell (124:31)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On unexpected pregnancy:
  “Right now you’re in stork mode, stocking up cash and figuring out the life plan. Then we'll figure out the financial plan.”
  — George Campbell (08:11)
• On estate planning for the ultra-wealthy:
  “Estate tax could be 40% ... There are things like an irrevocable life insurance trust...”
  — George Campbell (15:51)
• On loss of income:
  “It's going to look like you're broke college students.”
  — George Campbell (19:03)
• On not enabling adult children:
  “That word independent is the key here... If they are codependent... you’re enabling, that’s on you.”
  — George Campbell (68:01)
• On getting out of paycheck-to-paycheck trap:
  “You've got a knife in your back—that's what's going on. It's the truck and the side by side.”
  — George Campbell (125:08)
• On weird financial wins:
  “You’re weird in a good way.”
  — George Campbell (117:50)
• On building generational wealth from humble beginnings:
  “We knew we had great families and great values, but we wanted to change the money part. So we searched and searched, trying to find a path... Dave Ramsey really turned the switch for us.”
  — Kim (110:12)

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Section Timestamps

• Unexpected Pregnancy & Financial Planning: 00:46–08:41
• Estate Planning & Life Insurance for the Wealthy: 10:34–16:16
• Drastic Pay Cut / Military Transition: 16:48–19:46
• Handling Massive Caregiving Debt Crisis: 21:54–29:34
• Managing a Large Trust Inheritance: 33:17–41:52
• Divorce, Emotional/Financial Abuse: 44:13–52:23
• Retirement Planning & Student Loan Focus: 54:11–62:35
• Parental Help for Married Kids – Boundaries: 65:50–69:52
• Variable Income Budgeting: 85:45–93:24
• Underwater Mortgage & Career Change: 95:05–103:50
• “No Credit Score” Home Readiness: 117:16–122:19
• High Income, Paycheck-to-Paycheck: 122:33–126:14

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Tone and Language

The hosts maintain a blend of supportive, straight-shooting, and sometimes playful advice, delivering hard truths with empathy. They urge listeners to face reality, take responsibility, and build a solid foundation—no matter how daunting the circumstances—with a belief that “peace is possible” financially, emotionally, and relationally.

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For actionable help or to join the conversation, visit Ramsey Solutions or call the show weekdays.

Transcript

[Advertisement Host]

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today.

[George Campbell]

Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the Fairwinds Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel joined by best selling author Jayde Warshaw and we're taking Your calls at 888-5225. Don't be scared. Pick up the phone, type in those numbers and join the conversation. Thomas kicks us off in Oregon. What's up, Thomas? Are you with us?

[Caller]

Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me?

[George Campbell]

Yes.

[Caller]

Hi. My situation is rather complex. My. I'm a 24 year old from Oregon who's doing college, have two years left for a business administration degree. My. My girlfriend is five weeks pregnant. I found out about it three, three days ago. And to be honest, we're both rather scared. I have no outstanding debts. I don't know if she has any outstanding debts, but I don't believe so. However, she is not in the best financial situation just overall because of living expenses and other things.

[Advertisement Host]

Wow.

[George Campbell]

Well, that's scary, dude. You have a right to be rightfully spooked by all this. I'm going to go ahead and assume that you are the father.

[Caller]

Yes, I'm the father.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

How long have you been together?

[Caller]

We've been together around a year. We live. We don't live together, unfortunately. So this is even more scary because we need to find a way to live, find a way to move together. We decide to have the child.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, let's. Let's roll back once. One, one moment before we even think about that part. Was this somebody that you planned to be with or is this something that's like, oh, dang, now I definitely feel like I am stuck.

[Caller]

This is someone that I was considering marrying. Her and I both get along amazingly. We have never had a fight in the entire time we've ever been together.

[George Campbell]

I mean, it's been 12 months.

[Caller]

It's not like everything.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so it was somebody that you were thinking about a future with?

[Caller]

She is. She's the one that I was thinking about having a future with.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, that. That, that is good. Because that way, all of what I would hate is for you to just be thinking, oh, I got this girl pregnant. Now I'm stuck and now I have to move in. Now I have to get married and be forced into something that you never saw a future with that person. But it's good that you did see a future with her. Because now she's having your baby. Okay, so you've got two years left of college. What about her?

[Caller]

She is currently out of. She's not in college nor is employed. And that's. I think the biggest scary thing for me is she's gonna have to find a job. I have to grow up really fast now, and I've never worked a full time job because I've just been so focused on school all my life.

[George Campbell]

You're 24.

[Caller]

Really scary. Yes.

[George Campbell]

Did you take some gap years?

[Caller]

There was one gap year, but it was a lot of jumping around, unsure of what career I wanted to go into because of the fact that our world is changing so fast.

[George Campbell]

Okay, so why business administration?

[Caller]

I chose business because my psychology was that it would be like just so generalized and so useful wherever I go that I can use it. And I chose it because of that reason.

[George Campbell]

Okay, so what's on the other side of this? Let's say you do finish the degree. What kind of job are you looking for?

[Caller]

That's kind of the more difficult thing. I personally am really interested in architecture and I was also interested in psychology. However, I've had family members push back against that and say, no, you should be doing this or you should be doing that. Which is also why I've been so unsure.

[George Campbell]

Well, here's the truth. You might need to put a pause on education and just get to work doing anything.

[Caller]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

And the truth is you can probably make as much now as you would with a business administration degree. On the other side, the degree could help you long term, but in the short term, now we just got to stack cash and get ready for this new life of being a dad. And, you know, does she have insurance? Is she covered through her parents?

[Caller]

I believe so, yes.

[George Campbell]

That would be one piece of homework to figure out is the medical side and then childcare side. Yeah, she's unemployed. She's going to need to get to work until she can no longer work. And baby's about to be here to try to at least, you know, mitigate some of the financial damage here. And then is it. Is she gonna just stay home with the baby and then are you gonna be near her? How close are you guys right now? As far as distance?

[Caller]

Around three hours.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good hours. Oh, gosh. Okay, so now I understand a little bit more what you were speaking about. Is there, since she's kind of unattached in the way of school or work, is she able to come closer to where you are? Would she be willing to do that?

[Caller]

She's been Currently working towards that. She has been trying to find a way to move out where she currently lives.

[George Campbell]

Where does she live?

[Caller]

She was family financial part. She's living in a, in a home with other roommates is what she's looking at.

[George Campbell]

How is she affording it?

[Caller]

I think she, it's, I think it's very personal, but I think it's like something regarding, she has a case manager and that kind of thing.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so she's just getting government assistance?

[Caller]

Yes, she, she, I think so. She's given quite a bit of assistance.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Okay. How old is she?

[Caller]

She's 21.

[George Campbell]

She have family nearby that you guys could move closer to to have some help and would they be willing to help? Have you had that conversation?

[Caller]

Her family is not very inner life. My family unfortunately is six hours south of me.

[Jade Warshaw]

Got it. Okay. So thing number one on the list, I think is you guys need to get together and you need to create a plan for you guys living near each other, especially if you think the plan might be to get married. So that's thing one. Thing two is verifying the whole insurance business. Because if she's estranged from her parents, maybe she's not. And if she's getting government assistance, there's a lot there. And then the third thing I would do is once you figure out the living situation, I would start, I would find a local church and I would start premarital counseling just to see if you guys are a fit. Like if you could do a marriage together. If you could.

[Caller]

Compatible. Yes, I understand.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I, I, I would have a hard time saying get married immediately because I just, I'm not hearing in your voice and, and even in your vicinity that that was the plan per se. This, I don't know if I'm right or wrong on that, but I don't want to just say to you, go get married. Does that make sense? Yeah, given what you told us.

[George Campbell]

And then what is your financial picture? Do you have any savings right now? Do you have any debt?

[Caller]

I have, I have a large college fund that was set up by my family. I come from a rather privileged background. My, I believe my college fund is technically, it's owned by me. It's around like 50 to $70,000, maybe up to 90 at the most.

[George Campbell]

Okay, but what about other cash?

[Caller]

Other cash? Not a lot, unfortunately.

[George Campbell]

Okay, well you, hey, you've got a nine month Runway here. And so I would heavily consider pausing school, moving closer together and you getting to work full time plus a side job, her taking on a full time job. Until baby's close to being here. And then you just save up cash and then we'll figure out the debt later. But right now you're in stork mode, stocking up cash and figuring out the life plan. Then we'll figure out the financial plan.

[Jade Warshaw]

And don't do anything really crazy until the doctor says. A lot of times people don't even tell people that they're pregnant until like, what, around the 12 week mark?

[George Campbell]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

So keep this close, close to your belt for.

[Advertisement Host]

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

[George Campbell]

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

[Advertisement Host]

That's a gut punch.

[George Campbell]

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

[Advertisement Host]

Me, too.

[George Campbell]

They don't know what to do next.

[Advertisement Host]

Me, too. I mean, you're going to have a crisis here and, you know, you got two options. While you're sitting and talking to a young widow, she's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow. That's exactly these are the two options. Take care of your dadgum family, man.

[George Campbell]

Term life insurance can replace income, pay off debts, cover funeral expenses. So your family can actually have the opportunity to just be sad, to just miss you.

[Advertisement Host]

That's exactly what it's supposed to be. It's saying I love you to your family. Term life insurance, Jeff Zander and the team at Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable. I've used them personally for 25 years. They're the only people I trust. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.

[George Campbell]

Sarah is in Washington up next. Sarah, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[Jade Warshaw]

Hi.

[Caller or Guest]

Thanks for taking my call.

[George Campbell]

Absolutely. How can we help?

[Caller or Guest]

I'm in a bit of an unusual position where my parents did well in life and now at the end of their lives, my mom is facing some decisions with life insurance for an estate strategy plan.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller or Guest]

Her team wants her to buy $500,000 a year in Life insurance. And I'm trying to convince her that there are better products available.

[George Campbell]

Who encourages us?

[Caller or Guest]

Short, she has a financial planning team.

[George Campbell]

Okay. How big is her estate? What is their net worth?

[Caller or Guest]

Probably about 60 million.

[George Campbell]

Okay. Now there are, at this level, there are, you know, there's life insurance strategies that a lot of advisors use to protect the estate. So I don't want to just go in going, this is a ripoff. They're trying to screw her over. That may not be the case here. When we talk about life insurance, we're talking about, you know, whole life policies for the average everyday American when they're getting ripped off at 600 bucks a month. So when I, when you have a $60 million estate, there are situations where paying a half a million a year to protect, you know, for $20 million savings could be worth it. So have you got any intel from.

[Caller]

The advisor or from your parents policies?

[Caller or Guest]

She has a 1.5 million whole life policy that's 100k a year and then two $10 million policies that are each 100k a year. And they want her to buy an additional policy for an additional 300k a year.

[George Campbell]

Goodness gracious. It just seems, it feels like now they're just grabbing commissions. And so that's where I go. This is not as black and white as it may seem, but if you are getting red flags, I would have the conversation with them. Are they willing to hear you out?

[Caller or Guest]

Yes, but when they, for example, I'd like her to get rid of the whole life policy, their argument is that in seven years it pays for itself. So why would she not keep paying for a few more years until it's paying for herself? Paying for itself. I don't have a very good.

[George Campbell]

How does it pay for itself?

[Caller or Guest]

The paid up additions event essentially get reinvested and then the investment inside the whole life policy pays the premiums.

[George Campbell]

Yikes. Well, that plan can implode pretty quickly with how high these premiums are and how awful the returns are. And so I, if I'm in your shoes, I would contact a third party advisor on your own and get their take. And then at least you have some to go. Hey, I talked to an advisor. Here's what they said about this. Will you hear them out? And maybe they go, yep, I understand what they're doing, all good. Or they go, no, here's what I think is happening and here's the tweaks to make.

[Caller or Guest]

Okay, I've gone that route and that has given me some ammo to push back on her team. In a lot, a lot of ways it feels like they're operating on her fear that she's not going to take good care of her heirs, which clearly she's going to beyond anybody's wildest imaginations. It seems more like a. Oh, go ahead.

[Jade Warshaw]

I was going to say I would just look into. I'd be really interested in finding out what type of whole life policies those were. There are some instances where if it's like a variable life, it could be something that is available to her. I don't know if this many policies would be it, but that's what I'd be looking into if I were you. They can be utilized by ultra wealthy people, folks who have no debt and have really, really high net worths, especially if they've just maxed out all of their other opportunities. So I would really go into this with a spirit of curiosity versus these people are trying to screw my mom. You might be right. But it also could just be something that's gone outside of your purview of knowledge.

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah, it definitely is well outside of my knowledge base. And I just feel like I'm. One of the things I love about the Ramsey program is that the goal is to live like no one else. Now they're facing that. Hopefully Dave develops another segment where people can talk about these kinds of issues because we're hoping that lots and lots of people get to this place. Right. I know that's not the reality and it seems like a really weird problem to have, but it's not a. Yeah, I want to look out for my.

[George Campbell]

Mom and she's trying to steward this wealth as best as she can and using pros and experts to do it. But there are some people out there who can take advantage of people like this who have giant estates. They're, they're happily going to write giant checks which gives them big commissions. And so that's where I want to know, are these bad apples or are they just doing something that is just an extremely expensive way to transfer the inheritance? And that's, that's the big question mark because estate tax could be 40%. And so I understand that you don't want to pay 40% of 60 million when you pass away. I don't want to give the government any more than I already have.

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah, no, definitely.

[George Campbell]

And so there are things like an irrevocable life insurance trust or ILETS they're called, where, you know, the trust owns the life insurance policy. So the death benefit is not counted as part of your estate. So that's probably what they're trying to do is that when she passes, there's millions and millions protected from the government, which means less taxes to pay.

[Caller or Guest]

Too powerful. Okay, thank you very much.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, absolutely. And you can contact Smartvestor Pro on our website. Just jump on ramseysolutions.com and say, Hey, I need a consultation. My mom's working with this advisor. Here's the kinds of things they've been telling her. Can you help me understand this more, number one? And then help me understand is there a better way to do this? And are they taking her to the cleaners or not? And our SmartVestor pros are, they're gonna have the heart of a teacher explain it to you. And no bs they're gonna, they're gonna just tell it to you like it is. Thanks for the call. Malcolm is up next in North Carolina. Malcolm, what's going on?

[Caller]

Hey, how's it going?

[George Campbell]

Good, how are you?

[Caller]

I was calling in, I'm doing great. I was calling in about a question that I had regarding my income drastically decreasing. I recently joined the military which has required my wife almost to have to be a stay at home mom. She can no longer really do her job that she was doing before. So our income went from around I would say $180,000 ish, down to $31,000.

[Advertisement Host]

Oh gosh.

[Caller]

And yeah, why did you make that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Why did you guys make that series of choices?

[Caller]

I wanted to go into the military. My wife has always been very supportive of me and I recently sold a business so I kind of was a little lost so I didn't have anything to do kind of so kind of always join the military. So I took a leap and my wife joined it. We didn't necessarily think that. Well through it, I don't think, but I'm in it now.

[Jade Warshaw]

What was the, what's the end point? Was there like a point where you said, hey, our, our income is going to go down for a small period of time and then X, Y, Z is going to happen. Like what, what's the end point?

[Caller]

Once I finish my training, which is going to take about two years, I'll receive my reenlistment bonus which was my enlistment bonus which was about 45 ish thousand dollars, my income should jump to around 100,000 do in the military. And then I also, if I choose reenlist, I believe our reenlistment category is around 90,000. So we didn't mention it. I just didn't realize how long the training would last before I started making A better income. And because we don't really. We've been very fortunate financially. So we didn't necessarily. I didn't really think about like our lifestyle changing significantly and.

[George Campbell]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Are you going to be on base? Are you going to have base housing?

[Caller]

Yeah, so we're going to. They're going to be on base housing. She will be moving with me within the next month.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So that helps. You're not going to have that expense. I mean, the way that you live on $31,000 is that you live on $31,000. So you've got to get your head around what that means. And that's going to be a humongous Hugh.

[George Campbell]

Whatever your life was before is no longer. This new chapter is going to look like you're broke college students.

[Caller]

That's the interesting thing that we're having right now because we do have a decent amount in investments and savings, especially after selling business. So.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good.

[Caller]

My wife is kind of wanting to live the same lifestyle recently.

[Jade Warshaw]

The reason this pops through your savings.

[Caller]

So that's not an option, basically.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, here's the thing. Here's what I want to tell you before we go to break number one. If you have money in retirement, do not touch it, do not move it. That money is locked in. And if you have savings right now, how much savings do you have real quick?

[Caller]

So we do the regular three to six months. So currently we don't have that much.

[Jade Warshaw]

And that's what that's there for. That's only there for emergencies. That is not there to skim off of every single month to have the lifestyle you want. So you guys made a very clear choice. Sounds like you didn't think through it very well. But like you said, you're here now, so you've got to live that life and be thankful that you've got three to six months of expenses and a little money saved for retirement on down the line. We all want peace.

[George Campbell]

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[Jade Warshaw]

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[George Campbell]

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[Jade Warshaw]

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[George Campbell]

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[Jade Warshaw]

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[George Campbell]

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[Jade Warshaw]

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[Jade Warshaw]

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[George Campbell]

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[Jade Warshaw]

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[George Campbell]

Off an annual plan. That's JoinDeleteMe.com Ramsey. Christian is up next in Fort Lauderdale. What's going on, Christian?

[Caller]

Hi, George. Hi, Jay. Thank you for taking my call.

[George Campbell]

Absolutely. What's your question today?

[Caller]

So my dad was recently had a surgery that went bad. He had three strokes during surgery. I now have power of attorney over him, and I'm trying to sort out his finances. I just pulled a credit score, and I discovered that he's $90,000 in credit card debt and obviously not working. He's now just on workman's comp insurance. So he has limited income that he'll never be able to pay back the $90,000 in credit card debt. And I was calling to get some advice, man.

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm so sorry. That sounds horrible. What's his. What's his prognosis?

[Caller or Guest]

So he had three strokes.

[Caller]

He was blind about a week ago after the strokes, but he's currently able to see and talk, but not walk. It looks like he'll be in rehab for about three months minimum, and then we'll see. They've gotten much better in the past week, so we're. We're hopeful. But for now, he's going to be in the hospital for quite some time.

[George Campbell]

Wow. How old is he?

[Caller]

65.

[George Campbell]

Okay, does he have any other debts outside of the credit cards?

[Caller]

Well, I found about 86,000 in credit card debt and a $5,000 medical debt in collections along with a mortgage.

[George Campbell]

Okay, and is anyone living in that house right now?

[Caller]

No, it's an empty condo.

[George Campbell]

Okay. Is it paid? I mean, who's paying the mortgage right now?

[Caller]

So this just happened in the past week. I just took over his finances. So I will be paying the mortgage out of the money that he's making from workman's comp insurance.

[George Campbell]

Okay, that's enough to cover it?

[Caller]

Yeah, it's enough to cover the mortgage. And he's also late on HOA fees, so they're in the process of suing him. But I was able to make a payment plan with them that they have agreed to. Okay, and you're a lawsuit and not.

[Jade Warshaw]

And you're paying that payment plan out.

[Caller]

Of your money Currently, I Have not made a single payment yet, but I'm intending on paying it out of his money.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[George Campbell]

Does he have money? Savings, retirement?

[Caller or Guest]

No.

[Caller]

401K. But he has no money. His accounts currently overdrawn by $50, but he has $5,000 a month coming in from Workman's Comp Insurance. Wow.

[Jade Warshaw]

So what does he owe on the condo? What's it worth?

[Caller]

It's worth about 200 and he owes 204.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, boy. Yeah. And what's the plan? What do you foresee the. Is it just him? Is he married?

[Caller]

Not married.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Caller]

Single. He has a girlfriend overseas that he sends money to.

[George Campbell]

Oh, boy.

[Caller]

The extent of that.

[George Campbell]

Are you sure this is a real person? Christian? I've heard this story before.

[Caller]

Oh, well, unfortunately, or fortunately, yes, she actually is real.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's the plan when your dad gets out of rehabilitation? Is he. Do you foresee him going back to this. Let me put it like this. Do you foresee him living alone, or do you foresee a situation where you all have to take care of him out of your place?

[Caller]

No, I foresee him living alone. The Workman's Comp Insurance will stop, of course, once he's out of the hospital. And my hope was that he would get some form of settlement from Workman's right on the job, which led to this.

[Jade Warshaw]

And surely he won't be able to go, but, I mean, I'm just assuming you tell me, based on what you said, I can't see this guy going back to work in a couple of weeks.

[Caller]

I don't think so.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Okay. Right. So then there'd be some sort of payout.

[Caller]

Yeah, I would assume so. And then he'll start collecting Social Security at that time, I would believe.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Do you think. Do you know. Do you have any idea what his Social Security would be at this point if he started to draw it now?

[Caller]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. That'd be some homework that I'd look into if I were you to know. Is he Gonna go from 5000 to 2500? What's he going to go down to? And then figuring out, is he going to have the ability to stay in this condo situation and really think through what that means for him? What's your financial situation?

[Caller]

I'm single. I make great money. I run a company. I mean, I'm not a millionaire, but I make enough money to live on my own and my family.

[George Campbell]

And there's no world where he would move in with you, where you would become his caretaker.

[Caller]

I sure hope not.

[George Campbell]

Okay, so you would be Medicare and try to get him care otherwise.

[Caller]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

All right, so your homework is to figure out his full expenses and then figure out does he have enough money monthly to pay for that sustainably and if not, we need to make some really hard choices here and go, hey, you need to sell the condo, maybe at a loss because otherwise it's going to get foreclosed on.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

And he is. He's still sending money overseas as we speak.

[Caller]

No, I've cut all.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, good.

[Caller]

Expenses off 100%. He has enough money to make the payments that I've arranged for the HOA and pay the mortgage and the electric bill.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller]

And my intention is to stop paying all the credit cards except for American Express and the small local bank, because I think they'll be the first ones to come after him.

[Jade Warshaw]

Listen, they could try to sue him, but he has nothing and it's unsecured.

[George Campbell]

And so if he died with this, they just write it off. They're not coming after.

[Jade Warshaw]

Nothing's gonna happen. Yeah, literally. I mean, exactly what George said. They can't come after you. And honestly, even for him, he has nothing to give. The only thing would have been that condo, but he's getting ready to sell it and there's no money that can come from it. So in that way he's sort of.

[George Campbell]

And they can't take his retirement. So I think at this point it's just trying to minimize the future damage and make sure the four walls are covered for him. And the debt is a far, far away thing that we need to worry about.

[Caller]

You wouldn't. You wouldn't file bankruptcy. You would just stop paying everything and then let them come after him.

[George Campbell]

I would get current on everything you can. We don't want it in collections if we can avoid it. But the credit cards, you might make minimum payments to keep them off your back. If he can afford it out of his checks. But there's no way he's going to pay off 90k at this stage of life.

[Caller]

Right. All the credit cards are current. The mortgage and the HOA are behind that.

[George Campbell]

And that's what we need to flip it. We need the mortgage and HOA to be current. And the credit card companies can kick rocks and pound sand. Okay, so that's your focus for him, is making sure that we're current. We were not behind. We're keeping up with the four walls and we'll. Let's see what income we can get from where and how long this workman's Comps going to last and then what the next steps are. But it's going to be a day by day thing. Man, this is a really difficult thing that you've been thrown into. And you're a good man and a good son for handling it.

[Caller]

And should I try to settle these debts with the credit card companies in a year when they inevitably come after him?

[George Campbell]

Well, if you stop paying now, the longer you wait, the more they're willing to settle. And so one year may not be long enough for them to go, yeah, we'll take 20 grand instead of 90.

[Jade Warshaw]

Eventually they will though. But the truth is he has zero money to give them. So just let it play out, okay? It's going to be the same if you were to file bankruptcy, his credit is going to be completely decimated. It already is, I'm sure. And his days of, you know, getting a great income and buying a property, it doesn't seem like that's going to be happening. So for, for him, like George said, four walls, whatever transportation he might need is really going to be what he has.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

Unfortunately, this is just sad.

[George Campbell]

Decades of compounded, terrible financial decisions and then you have the health situation on top of all of that, which puts all this just straight to a halt. And so there's, there's nothing that you can do to undo the decades of bad decisions. All you can do is help him take the right next step and make sure that he's got food, shelter, utilities and transportation.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, what's, what's his rent and HOA and everything like that cost every month?

[Caller]

The mortgage is 1250. The HOA is supposed to be 450, but I've arranged to pay 700 because he's so far behind on that. And then he's also about a year behind on alimony to my mom, which is, you know, it is what it is. He doesn't have the money. Is there a understanding of that?

[Jade Warshaw]

But is there a living situation in his area that's less than $1700 a month that you could get him into?

[Caller]

No, no chance in South Florida. I don't think it would be possible.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, you're right.

[George Campbell]

Where are you? Are you in South Florida as well?

[Caller]

I'm in Fort Lauderdale. He's on the west coast of Florida.

[George Campbell]

Okay. I'm just wondering, I mean, at this point does he need to stay there? Can he move somewhere that is more affordable?

[Caller]

I think he's best to stay there. He does have family there. And I'm only three hours. One more question. If I have time five Seconds. Oh, okay. Well, I wanted to know if I start working on these credit cards if I'm going to be liable for the debt.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, none of these are your name.

[George Campbell]

So it's not going to pass to you to deal with. So don't. If they try to scare you into it, say you got to pay, they're lying. That's not how the law works. If the debt's in his name, he's got to pay. If you co signed or you're, you know, you're on that account, then they can come after you. But otherwise you're safe. Man. Best of luck.

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[George Campbell]

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[Caller]

Foreign.

[George Campbell]

Or selling your home is a big deal and you want an expert in your corner fighting for you to find the best deal for the right price. And the Ramsey Trusted program is the only way to find a top agent you can trust who will help make your home a blessing, not a burden. It's easy. You can compare agent profiles, interview them and choose the right one to work with. You can find a local Ramsey Trusted real estate pro for [e-mail] agent or click the link in the description. If you're on YouTube or podcast, Kayla is in Texas. Up next. Kayla, welcome to the show.

[Caller or Guest]

Hi, how are you guys today?

[George Campbell]

We're doing great. What's your question today?

[Caller or Guest]

I'm just looking for some guidance on how to what the smartest way is to utilize the remaining monies that my husband and I will have after paying off our debt and putting money into emergency funds. We're about to receive $200,000 from a trust from my grandparents. We owe about 30,000 on the car. So we are going to pay that off and then put about 30,000 into an emergency fund. And so we'll have about 140,000 left over. So we were wondering, should we put that all towards the house? Should we invest some of that? A quick little add on is we don't know that we want to stay in this house long term. So we're just trying to figure out the best way to move forward with that leftover money.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, well, you're speaking very wisely and you're filtering this through the baby steps, which is let's knock out the debt first. Let's make sure we have savings, and then we can explore the options from there. Are you guys currently investing?

[Caller or Guest]

Yes. When to our retirement football. My husband is. He puts about 7% in my earned in his employer matches at 3.5%. I'm currently not, but my employer does contribute 11% for me.

[George Campbell]

So you guys would be in baby step 456. You already have a home, you have a mortgage. What's left on that?

[Caller or Guest]

323.

[George Campbell]

20. All right. So is the trust available now and.

[Caller or Guest]

No, it's. We're doing, like, the final paperwork. The rest of the beneficiaries are signing, and then once all that paperwork is finished, then the money will be distributed. So that is expected in the next probably month to six weeks.

[George Campbell]

Okay. And it is a lump sum. There's no restrictions. Taxes, timelines, like $200,000 will show up in your account.

[Caller or Guest]

200,000. My uncle paid all of the taxes that were owed on it from, like, the capital gains and the interest. You know, taxes on the interest. That was all paid already. So the 200,000 that I'll be getting is what is mine.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wow. So tell us about a little bit about the home. You said that you're in this house, but you might not stay. Tell us about what your plans are regarding possibly moving and when that would be.

[Caller or Guest]

My husband. My husband's currently looking at other opportunities in other states that we can move closer to where my father is. And then two, like, the neighborhood just kind of going in a direction that we're not truly happy with.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, what's the timeline he might want.

[Caller or Guest]

To move anywhere from, I would say, one to three years. You know, it just depends on, like, if I had to get a job in, you know, six months or, you know, a year, we would move. There's also some kind of changes going on to maybe turn the neighborhood back around, but I don't know how long that would take to see.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller or Guest]

If it starts moving in the opposite direction.

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm also wondering, would you be trying to keep the same level of house? Would you be trying to move up in house if you were to move?

[Caller or Guest]

I would say probably the same level. I'm happy with this house. It was about 340 when we purchased it. So we're happy with it.

[George Campbell]

What's your household income?

[Caller or Guest]

About 150,000. So we bring home about 86,8700 after taxes and deductions with health care.

[George Campbell]

Fantastic.

[Jade Warshaw]

Real quick, you said you bought the house for 340 and now you owe 320.

[Caller or Guest]

Yes.

[Jade Warshaw]

And you're worried about the neighborhood going down?

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah, there's just.

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean if I were in your shoes, if you really are talking about a year horizon, I'd probably be inclined to just keep it in a high yield savings account until you want it. For a couple of reasons. Number one, if you piled it all into the house and just for some reason the house took a long time to sell or it for some reason went down in value, that might make you feel some type of way. Number two, moving is expensive and it's just nice to have cash on hand to make a move. If I were in your shoe, specifically if you were on a year horizon, I'd keep it in a high yield and wait for the right opportunity. And then when you move, place this house on the market and you've got your down payment that's readily available for you.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, that's the nice part. If it's a short time horizon, that 140 becomes your down payment without needing to sell the house first. And so that puts you in a better position as a buyer. But if you're talking three years, put it into the house, the money's not disappearing, it's just a forced savings plan and it stops you from using that money for other things that might not be as wise. And you know you want to be a good steward of this money and you guys becoming debt free mortgage and everything is a great goal to have. And so 140k chunked at that 320 man, the interest savings alone. If you calculate now how much more is going to principal versus interest, it would blow your mind.

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah, we did that. It was I think upwards to like the six figure mark. So we have no issue with putting it towards the house. We just weren't sure. Like with us potentially moving, like should we hold off just for a little bit and then say if we haven't moved by the end of the year, then just dump it all?

[George Campbell]

Yeah, I like that plan into the house and you can enjoy some of it too. There's nothing wrong going, hey, you're debt free with an emergency fund, maybe use some of it for enjoyment and you go on a fun trip.

[Caller or Guest]

I like to hear you say that because I'm, I'm Definitely a saver.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes. I think because you're paying off the debt, you're stocking up the emergency fund. It would be good to do something fun with some of this money as well.

[George Campbell]

Not a huge amount, but you can take a, you know, $5,000 awesome trip and still have 135 left. And you can give some of that and then you can save some of that. And that includes paying down the house. That kind of fits in that category. And so I like this plan overall. I would just kind of keep it loose and put it in a high yield savings account when you have it and just park it at, you know, three and a half percent. Right now we're not trying to make a bunch of money off of this. We're just sort of buying ourselves some time to make the next decision.

[Caller or Guest]

So would you guys think about it all, like investing any of it into a mutual fund or.

[Jade Warshaw]

I probably wouldn't because you are putting plenty of your paychecks aside. And remember, real estate is an investment too. So don't narrow your mind to think that just because it's not in the stock market, it's not. It's not being invested.

[George Campbell]

If you guys had the house paid off, I would say absolutely. That's kind of a baby. Step 7 item is to then invest outside of retirement. And so you guys will get there, no doubt. You'll just use your future income to get there. And this trust is going to help you get rid of that house payment even faster. Then you can invest that amount. So way to go. What a blessing. Awesome grandparents.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, that's awesome.

[George Campbell]

It is.

[Caller or Guest]

It's fan. Fantastic. And I have one more question, if I could.

[George Campbell]

Sure. We got a minute left.

[Caller or Guest]

Okay, so the, the emergency fund, does that count towards like the like maintenance of the house if something were to happen to it or is that just simply, you know, if one of us were to lose our job, they weren't recovered until the other person, you know, gets another job.

[Jade Warshaw]

If it's an emergency, that it can go towards household items that are emergencies. So if it's something that's urgent, if it's unexpected and if it's necessary, that's what an emergency is. So for instance, there's a storm and you didn't know it, it blew a tree onto your roof. Now you need roof dam, like roof repair. That would be an emergency.

[George Campbell]

Dishwasher randomly goes out. But if it's just maintenance, just set up a sinking fund outside of that and just set it aside. I wouldn't put it with the emergency fund, it gets too convolute. And so you can just set aside, you know, 100 bucks a month, 200 bucks a month, whatever. You know, some people's homes are need a lot more work and more maintenance.

[Jade Warshaw]

So buying new furniture, not an emergency. Yeah.

[George Campbell]

I would just put it in. In every dollar you can. Here's what I do. I have a line item, and you can mark it as a fund. And that way I can save 100 bucks a month. And at the end of the year, I have 1200 bucks earmarked for the maintenance and repairs on the house or the car or whatever it may be. And that helps me not get spooked when I'm like, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? It's a thousand dollars. You go, no, we have it.

[Jade Warshaw]

I treat the emergency fund like I treat the hsa. I never touch it.

[George Campbell]

You just don't want to touch it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Just don't touch it, man. I will cash flow whatever I can to not touch these monies.

[George Campbell]

Well, it's amazing. Once you're not broke anymore, you stop. You kind of stop having emergencies.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's true.

[George Campbell]

It just becomes inconveniences that you can cash flow.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Instead of, oh, my gosh, what are we gonna do?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

So it's expensive to be broke, that's for sure. This is the Ramsay show.

[Caller]

Foreign.

[George Campbell]

This show is sponsored by Better Help. As we head into the new year, I want you to take an inventory of all the stuff you're carrying, all those things you think you have to do, all the past hurts and pains, along with your past guilt and shame. When the world feels heavy, it's important to look in the mirror and consider setting down that old weight and not carrying it forward into 2026. Therapy can help you identify the heavy stuff, set it down, and move forward with clarity so you can focus on living the life you want to live in the new year. If you're thinking about therapy, I recommend BetterHelp. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is one of the leading online therapy providers in the world, trusted by millions, with an average rating of 4.9 stars out of 5. And it's easy to fit into your busy schedule because it's totally online to get started. Just answer a few easy questions, and BetterHelp will connect you with a licensed therapist who fits your needs. And if it's not the right fit, you can change therapists at any time for no extra cost. You can't feel lighter without leaving behind what's Been weighing you down. Go to betterhelp.com Ramsey to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H-E-L-P.com Ramsey Foreign. Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. I'm George Campbell joined by Jade Warshaw and we're taking Your calls at 888-825-5225. Emily is up next in Nebraska. What's going on, Emily?

[Jade Warshaw]

Hi.

[Caller or Guest]

Thanks for taking my call. So I am a stay at home mom and I'm trying to get out of an abusive marriage, an emotionally abusive marriage. My husband's basically abandoned this. I've got four small children. They're five years old and under. And I'm trying to figure out how to create some margin, hire a lawyer. And I'm just trying to figure out what's the next best move to file bankruptcy or take out a second mortgage on the house or something else. And I've got all my financial information written down if you want that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Is there any support near you? Family, friends, church?

[Caller or Guest]

My family all lives about three hours away and they're doing what they can to help me. I live in kind of a unique area where there's not like I can't just sell the house and go rent. There's nothing for rent near me and jobs are few and far between.

[Jade Warshaw]

Is your house in your name?

[Caller or Guest]

Yes, it's solely in my name. I bought it before we were married.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. How long have you been married?

[Caller or Guest]

Since 2018.

[George Campbell]

Okay, and what's your household income right now?

[Caller or Guest]

I am. I'm a disabled veteran and I'm receiving disability benefits of about $2,600 a month.

[George Campbell]

Okay, and then is his income covering any expenses for you guys or is he kind of cut off access?

[Caller or Guest]

He's. I think he's rerouting his paycheck someplace else. He's an over the road truck driver. He's an owner oper. I've done his taxes forever. He'll gross about 225,000 from last year. And I was only able to move over 29,000 to help pay household bills out of the last 13 months. I've paid for the entirety of the bills six months out of the year.

[Advertisement Host]

Wow.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So he just kind of up and left. Is that he?

[Caller or Guest]

Well, being over the road, he's gone a lot, but he's not called me since September. He's showed up at the house unannounced a couple of times for a few days at a time. And it's just Been like, just a crash? Yeah, like over Thanksgiving and Christmas. Otherwise, he usually parks at a friend's house a couple of hours away.

[Advertisement Host]

Oh, gosh.

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm sorry that you're going through this, so thank you. Tell us more about. So you've been covering the bills just out of your money?

[Caller or Guest]

Correct.

[Jade Warshaw]

And is there. Is there any margin? Sorry, say it again.

[Caller or Guest]

Oh, I received a lump sum back payment from the VA a year ago.

[Jade Warshaw]

How much was that?

[Caller or Guest]

42,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. And what did you. Has that allowed you to be current? What did that allow you to do?

[Caller or Guest]

I was able to. I put six months worth of bills and savings. You know, I had a cushion of six months.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Emergency fund.

[Caller or Guest]

And then I paid off some debt and I started a business in May. And that's actually been helping a lot.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so how much debt do you have Left?

[Caller or Guest]

I owe 34,000 on the house with about 58,000 in equity. I've got 41,000 in student loans, 22,000 in credit cards, and I owe 6,000 on my vehicle.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, and how much is in that emergency fund?

[Caller or Guest]

I've got enough to fund February.

[Jade Warshaw]

How much is that?

[Caller or Guest]

I'd have to. Look, I think it's down to 4,000 right now.

[George Campbell]

So you burn through the. The emergency fund. So you got 4,000 left to your name, essentially, yes, sir.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. $58,000. $58,000 of equity, 41,000. Okay. And tell me again, did I hear you say I wrote down a lot of numbers? Did I hear you say your income at this point, is it 2600amonth? Is that what I heard you say?

[Caller or Guest]

$2600 a month. And then my business, I just started it in May, so the numbers have been different about every month. But right now I'm grossing about $1,600.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good.

[Caller or Guest]

And netting about $1,000 to $1,200. And I'm hoping that it just continues to grow, especially as we get into the summer.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so fair enough. Like around $3,600 is what maybe you could count on per month.

[George Campbell]

Do you have your own bank account that is not at the same bank your husband has?

[Caller or Guest]

I do, yes.

[George Campbell]

Okay, good. Is that where you've been routing all of your money?

[Caller or Guest]

That's correct.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good. What do you pay? What's the mortgage every month? What do you pay?

[Caller or Guest]

$933.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good. Good. Okay, so tell us right now what's on fire besides your marriage, financially? What's the thing that you're like. Help me understand this.

[Caller or Guest]

Jaden and George, I don't know how to pay bills after February and I need to hire an attorney.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So I think that you can pay the bills after February. Tell us how much the deficit is. When you take your 3600, you pay the 900 in the mortgage, you pay your debts, you pay for food and transportation. Is there anything left?

[Caller or Guest]

I've got life insurance payments and then. Oh, geez, what else? Electricity and propane and normal stuff. So it's usually about. My budget's about 4,500 to 5,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Okay. And that's in every dollar.

[Caller or Guest]

I'm using. You need a budget at the moment.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. I want you to pop into every dollar because every dollar is going to help you find margin anywhere possible. You'll be able to tell it about your specific situation, and it's going to work overtime to find you money anywhere. So right now you're a thousand dollar deficit every single month. So that's why this is dwindling so quickly. I can see. But there's also a path to get your income up, right? With the business.

[Caller or Guest]

Yes. It's been very slow. I mean, it keeps changing, but I, I see it being capped at some point with the market becoming saturated.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So what I don't think you should do, and I don't think that you need to sell your house right. Right away. I think you're actually, you're paying a little less than 900 bucks a month. I think I heard you say you're in a good equity position with it. You don't owe a ton on it. I don't think you're gonna find anywhere cheaper to live for a family of five. Do you? Do you agree or disagree?

[Caller or Guest]

I completely agree.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. What I would do is change the locks once you file for divorce. I would change the lock so that he's not just coming up in there willy nilly.

[Caller or Guest]

Right.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. And then is there anybody in your community who can set you up with a good attorney or who could recommend a good attorney?

[Caller or Guest]

I've been shopping for three months now and we live so rural. I've been told that I live too far away.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's that mean?

[Caller or Guest]

The attorneys don't want to drive to the courthouse in my location if they had to.

[George Campbell]

Got it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Understood.

[George Campbell]

And are all the debts in your name solely or is anything joint or is anything in his name solely?

[Caller or Guest]

The ones that I named are either in my name or our joint. He's got his own mess. He's been opening up credit cards for the last two years and he's got.

[George Campbell]

Have you Frozen your credit yet? Because my fear is he's opening debts in your name.

[Caller or Guest]

I have frozen it and I check on it.

[George Campbell]

Okay, well, here's the truth. The faster we get through this process of divorce, the faster we can hope for some alimony and child support, which means you can breathe again. And that'll get you to fight another day and hopefully clean up some of these debts. Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I wouldn't try to pay anything off just yet. I wouldn't try to sell your house or anything like that just yet. Because once this goes to court, who knows how this is going to get split, including the house. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what the, the laws are in your area. He's been living there since 2018, so I'm not sure if any of that will be up for grabs. But yeah, change the locks, freeze the credit and file for divorce and figure out how to pay for it. Because you got to divorce this guy, right?

[George Campbell]

I can't imagine.

[Jade Warshaw]

Imagine.

[George Campbell]

I'm so sorry you're going through this, Emily. This fact that this guy's not even covering the expenses for his own children and just abandon the family just breaks my heart. And I know you'll get through it. You're a survivor and a warrior. But it's going to be a process to get to the other side of this and see some light.

[Caller]

Yeah.

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[George Campbell]

This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591 NML ConsumerExess.org Eagle Housing Lender. Sarah is up next in New Jersey. Sarah, what's going on?

[Caller or Guest]

Hi there. How are you doing?

[Jade Warshaw]

Great.

[George Campbell]

What's your question today?

[Caller or Guest]

So I am Trying to figure out how much I need for retirement. I see where I'm trending right now in terms of my retirement progress, but I feel like it's falling short of.

[Caller]

What I'll probably meet.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Caller or Guest]

So I'm struggling to figure out like what I should aim for. I know I watched a segment where someone was at 3.5 million. I don't know if that's accurate or where it should be and what I would need to adjust to get there.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, usually when we think about retiring, I'll tell you what's in my head. I'm thinking about my entire nest egg and I'm thinking based on my annualized rate of return, which is about 10%, can I live off of 10% of my income and can it feel like the lifestyle I have now or better? Does that make sense? Yes.

[George Campbell]

What do you currently have invested?

[Caller or Guest]

So I have, let me see, in terms of my 401k, I have about 146,000.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller or Guest]

And then I have a brokerage account with like a couple of EFTs, which is about $7,000. I have a separate Roth IRA which I just opened up that has $1,000. And then the other money that I have is just emergency emergency fund.

[George Campbell]

Okay. Do you have any debt?

[Caller or Guest]

I have student loan debt. So I have a student loan that it's in forbearance, but every other month I make a thousand dollar payment towards that.

[George Campbell]

Okay. What's left on the balance?

[Caller or Guest]

130,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

And what's your income?

[Caller or Guest]

It's 210.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good income. Is that just you?

[Caller or Guest]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

All right, so how much are you currently investing?

[Caller or Guest]

So currently I invest via my paycheck and so about 600 goes into my 401k every paycheck. And then my employer matches that.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's the match?

[Caller or Guest]

7%.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good.

[George Campbell]

Okay. So if you follow through, I have.

[Caller or Guest]

$300 that I was putting into, I was putting into Quapital, which is like a money saving apple is putting like $300 every paycheck. But I just recently moved that into the an EFT to start putting that into there.

[George Campbell]

Okay, and why are you investing outside of the retirement right now into those ETFs? I imagine is what you were saying.

[Caller or Guest]

You know, I don't know.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Just to feel like you're doing something.

[Caller]

That'S very honest and so.

[Caller or Guest]

And then also the other thing too is that does it make sense to max out the 401k? I think I've done it in the past. And the thing that I'm kind of most worried about is, you know, what are the taxes going to look like? And so if I can find some other place to do it where the taxes might not be as much and just, just try.

[Jade Warshaw]

So can we let, let, let George and I tell you what we would do, and as we're doing, telling you that, you tell us your objection so we can help you get past it. Would that be all right? So I'm looking at what you're doing, and I, I hear what you're saying. It sounds like you're just doing everything you can to feel like you're doing something. But I would argue that you're doing too much, and because of it, you're not making the progress that you want to make. The way I would do it, Sarah, is I would focus on clearing out these student loans first so you can have the fullness of your income and so that these things don't follow you into retirement. Because what a pain in the butt to still be paying off student loans when you're retiring, right? You're not even working anymore. You're not even using the education anymore at that point. So I would really focus on that. And that's going to require a mental shift. That's why I asked. Go ahead and tell us your. What your reservations are, but let me play out the plan first. So you pay off the student loans, then instead of thinking about it as I'm going to max out my 401k or I'm going to max out my Roth IRA, we just say, hey, let's just invest 15% of our income. Because if you did that, you'd be putting $2,625 into retirement every single month. That's a lot of money. And if you did that, let's just pretend I know that you've got the student loans to pay off, but just let's say you did that for 20 years at the rate that you have now. I mean, you're going to be over $3 million at that point. Okay, so if we can kind of reverse engineer that to make that happen, it's going to start with, yeah, we got to have the student loans paid off. We've got to have some form of cushion between you and life, some sort of emergency fund. That way we can invest and not worrying about having to pull it out for emergencies again. Right? And now we've created kind of the sustainability. I mean, think about it, making $210,000 a year with just you. How quickly could you pay off the student?

[Caller or Guest]

I do Have a toddler. I'm sorry that I was unmarried, but.

[Caller]

I do have a toddler.

[Jade Warshaw]

You have toddler.

[Caller or Guest]

It is only my income.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, great. You and your toddler. $210,000 a year. How quickly. If you really got intense, because I think mentally you are intense about being prepared for the future. How quickly could you pay off that debt?

[Caller or Guest]

I feel like I could probably pay it off in a few years.

[Jade Warshaw]

Ding, ding, ding.

[George Campbell]

Two years. So here's the math on 130 grand, 24 months. You're talking $5,400 a month, not 1,000 every other month. We are going hard in the paint at this debt. And here's what that does. 24 months from now. You're 50 years old, right?

[Caller]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

And you've paused investing for those two years, all investing, which scares you. But here's the truth now. You have freed up so much of your income and focus and energy now from 50 to 65. Let's say you invest that 26, 25. That's 15 of your income every month. Like, you're. You're gonna have $1.8 million sitting in there in that one account.

[Caller or Guest]

Okay?

[George Campbell]

And that's at 65. If you want to keep working, you know, you ride this out till 67, you got 2.2 million. And like Jade said, you continue this down the path, you'll have more and more. And so retirement is not an age. It's a financial number. And so we don't just get to retire because, well, we're 65. It's time a lot of people get there and go, I don't have enough to cover the expenses. And getting into retirement debt free is your best bet at reducing the amount you need in retirement.

[Caller or Guest]

The other. The only other thing, too, is that I've. I've also been looking to purchase a home because I've been renting and so trying to factor, you know, I don't want to delay purchasing a home because I'm finally in, I think, a good financial position to do that, but I don't know how that factors into, you know, kind of increasing what I'd be contributing to the student loans at this time.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, I do love the idea of having that line item on your budget set once you're in retirement. I would hate for you to be renting then. So at that point, the order of. The order of steps would be still focusing on getting the debt cleared out first, because, again, we don't want debt, especially that sort of debt, following us into retirement then next. Yeah, you still need some sort of emergency fund, some sort of cash. Cash position to keep you between, you know, a barrier between you and life. Then from there. Yeah. Now you could start to do both at the same time. You could start investing 15% and start putting aside for a down payment. And I would really. At your age, I would fight in the budget to do both simultaneously. Rather than put off investing any more years in order to save up for the down payment faster, I would try to do them at the same time.

[George Campbell]

So you're investing 15% into retirement, and then any money above that goes into a savings account for that down payment.

[Jade Warshaw]

Even though that might make it go a little slower than you want, you're going to want the years. You're going to want that time of compound interest growing for you and your retirement accounts.

[Caller or Guest]

Okay. I think it sounds solid.

[George Campbell]

You've got a lot of great goals. It's just. We just got to get focused on one thing at a time, and you'll clean this mess up fast. And making. If you keep making $210,000, I have no fear that your life is going to look very different a decade from now.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Is your income going up anytime soon?

[Caller or Guest]

I hope so.

[Caller]

Good.

[Jade Warshaw]

I would plan for it to go up. Right. Why would it go down? At this point, you're kind of at going into your highest earning potential years. So you're. A lot of people in their 50s earn their highest amount. So really, really good.

[George Campbell]

I'm proud of you, Sarah.

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah. And I think that's been unpacked. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[George Campbell]

So it's time to ratchet up those student loan payments, because here's the truth. 130 grand, you know, 6 or 7% interest, you're probably. If the balance is moving upward, even as you're making $1,000 payment every other month, you might be accruing over 1,000 in interest every other month.

[Jade Warshaw]

Absolutely.

[George Campbell]

So you really got to get ahead of it. And that means throwing huge chunks of money. And we get those calls where people go, hey, I owed 80, and now I owe 100 because it was in forbearance, and I didn't understand what it meant. I just thought they were helping me out. Now I have an even bigger mountain to climb.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. For some reason, student loans rest differently in people's minds. If you had $120,000 of debt and it was credit cards, cars, all these other things, you think, oh, my gosh, I have to get a hold of this. But for some reason, when it's just One block of student loans, people tend to push it aside and forget about it.

[George Campbell]

Well, society told us it's an investment in your future and yet you can't bankrupt on the the thing. It will just stick around until you decide to get rid of it.

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[George Campbell]

Today's question comes from Shannon in Florida. It's the Ramsey Show Question of the day brought to you by Y Refi. If your private student loans are in default, it's time for a plan. Y Refi helps you refinance defaulted private student loans into a lower fixed rate payment so you can get back on the baby steps and start making Progress. Go to yrefi.com Ramsey to learn more. That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y.com Ramsey may not be available in all states.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okie dokie. Today's question comes from Shannon in Florida. She says, what's your opinion on how much to help kids financially after they get married? My son and his fiance are getting married this summer. They're in their early 20s and have a young daughter. They are both in college pursuing degrees. Our plan is for them to live in our basement for free until they graduate and start working full time. I plan on continuing to pay for my son's college and provide help to his wife as well after they get married. I'm getting mixed opinions about whether I'm helping or hurting them by supporting them after they're married. Even if he's married, he's still my son. And I think it's my responsibility to help both of them get through college debt free if I'm able to. Friends and family say they need to be independent once they're married, even if that means going into debt to finish college and pay rent so they can live independently. What are your thoughts? So it sounds like they started a little earlier than most as far as having children. And because of that, it's kind of set a course of events into. Into action a little earlier than maybe planned. So I'm with you, Shannon, on the education part. I think that if it was your plan to pay for college, especially for your son, and he's still willing to go, I think it's great if you're still willing to pay for college. Now, did. Did I read you said that you were paying for hers, too? I think you're just supporting her. I'm fine with you paying for college. I think that's great. Now, the living in the basement until they graduate and start working full time. If you tell me they're 20 or 21 and they have no money and they have a kid, I think that is okay. There has to be clear guardrails and time frames on this. It can't just be, oh, live in the basement. And I'm supporting you financially until you're ready. And the part of you being ready is just kind of like this vague, ambiguous.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, they're probably not leaving at that point. If mom's still folding my laundry and covering all of the bills. So there is that. That word independent is the key here. If they are.

[Jade Warshaw]

What does that mean?

[George Campbell]

If they are codependent and now you're enabling the codependence, that's on you. And so we need to make sure that, number one, we're not artificially propping up their life. If this was a marathon, you don't want to be carrying them over the finish line. Now, if they're running and they're doing a great job and they've trained, it's okay to give them a little boost. And that's what you want to do here. As a parent, it's okay to help them financially after they get married. I think that's awesome. If you want to pay for the wedding and you want to help them with a down payment and gift them some money for that, that's great. But only if they're already employed and working hard and able to take care of the bills on their own.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I think they should be paying you. I think you need to sit down and have something very clear here as far as what are they going to pay you in rent? Because if they're just living for free, that's not going to help them. When it does come time for them to go into the world and try to get and try to lease a place, they're going to need to show some form of history of paying rent. And so that's good. Even if it's 500 bucks, come up with something so they have some skin in the game. Also set very clearly, how long is this agreement going to last if he's out of college in, you know, two years? Is that the cutoff point? Is it two years and six months? Like be very specific. What are the parameters while they're there? Must both of them have at least part time jobs? Must they be paying a certain amount of rent? Right. Make that so so clear so that there's no question. And when the time comes for them to, you know, leave the nest, they're not thinking that you're kicking them out. They're going, oh yeah, this is exactly what we decided. So whatever you set, make sure you're talking about about it early and often and make sure that you don't get caught up in this as the rescuer and their drama triangle. If you've never googled a drama triangle.

[George Campbell]

You should the triangulation.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

All right, good question. Shannon. Frank is in Boise. Up next on the line. What's going on? Frank?

[Caller]

Hi. I have a question ask you. I've been talking to a financial advisor here at Boise recommended from you guys and I had 3 401ks because my the contractor I work under, they keep changing companies so it changes to a new 401k and they're pretty small. So I think the three big total around $73,000. Okay, I want to know what to do. Should I roll them into the new 401k by this April, this month or should I roll them into a personal ira which the financial advisor recommends at And I brought them up, you know about the large cap, mid cap, small cap and international companies that they ran Ramsey recommends. But I'm 57 years old and they said they need to make a portfolio for me, for me because of my age, that they would do it differently or something like that.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, I'm guessing they're saying hey, you need to start including some bonds and Sort of tone down the aggressive investing as you get closer to retirement, which is normal in the financial planning world. You'll hear that a lot.

[Caller]

So that is okay. I don't need to be doing large cap, mid cap, small cap, or international companies. Exactly like that.

[George Campbell]

We still advise it. Dave Ramsey is a big fan of just keeping it 100 equities and letting it ride, because over the long haul, I mean, you could live to be 97. And so you're talking. You're still got 40 years of that money sitting there. And so they're just going to be a little bit of a drag when it comes to the bonds starting to enter the picture with much lower returns but also less volatility. And so it's a really personal decision for you. And you're, you know, you can talk with your advisor on what they recommend for your situation. We don't have all the facts on what your expenses are and what the nest egg is going to be. So they may have the reasons there. But either way, you want to do a direct rollover to the new 401k or to the IRA, and so you never should touch the money and you want to keep it in kind. So if it's traditional 401k, you want to move it to a traditional 401k or traditional Iraq instead of Roth, because that'll trigger a whole, you know, host of penalties and taxes there. So that's what I would do. There's nothing. If you have a strong 401k, you can just roll it all into there. My guess is the advisor is saying, hey, if you roll into the ira, he can help manage it. They don't have access to help manage your 401k. And so he's basically saying, hey, you're on your own in that regard.

[Jade Warshaw]

Do you feel like you need help?

[Caller]

He said there's more mutual funds in an IRA than versus a 401.

[George Campbell]

You might have 20 options with your work, 401k and IRA. The world is your oyster. You have access to everything. So there are some pros and cons there. And so you do your own due diligence there. You're still steering the ship when it comes to investing, and you do whatever you think is best for your situation. But there's nothing wrong with doing either, and so don't overthink it.

[Caller]

Gotcha. Okay. Then he says, a 1.5% of advisory fee. And I did that off of 73,000. That's about $95 a month. Is that correct?

[George Campbell]

Yes.

[Caller]

I'm doing something wrong.

[George Campbell]

That's normal in the financial planning world. There's something called AUM assets under management. And that's basically how they make their living, is managing these portfolios. And one to one and a half percent is normal in that world. And so you're talking 73,000 if it just sits there and you've got, you know, you're right, $1,095 a year divided by 12. And so, you know, that's, that's the price you pay for making sure that someone is managing it for you and you have access to them, advice all year long, all of that. And so you really want to make sure your advisor is looking at a holistic picture, not just a fund picker. And so I would be utilizing them for way more than just helping you do this rollover.

[Caller]

Okay, I got you. So which thing you recommended? I mean, if this guy, he's telling me, I do this, do this, and.

[Jade Warshaw]

If I were in your shoes, if I were in your shoes and I looked at my current 401k that's being offered and I really liked the funds and they were growing at a rate of return. That's what, you know, what it should be. You might say, okay, I'll just roll them over to the new company, 401K. But if you're looking at the options and you're going, hey, like, based on what I'm seeing, this is really not performing well. I need access to the full market, then that totally make sense to roll them over and let somebody help you pick some better funds.

[George Campbell]

And sometimes the 401k has fees as well, so you want to look at that and see what that's costing you inside of the account. So a lot of homework and research to do, and it never hurts to have the pro look it over. But again, you're in the driver's seat. And so if you're like, hey, no, I don't want to give it all to the IRA and have you manage it, that's your, that's your decision to make. But I'm proud of you for taking that step. Just don't let the money sit there. You want to move it and have it working for you. Invested and not just sitting. You asked and we listened, guys. The Live like no one else cruise is back by popular demand. This is your moment to celebrate your debt freedom with Dave Ramsey Ramsay. All of us Ramsay personalities in the Western Caribbean. You can share your story with Dave, swap jokes with me, sing karaoke with Jade. I hope that's Happening. Although I wouldn't want to sing next to you because that's, that's a lot of pressure.

[Jade Warshaw]

I know. But I always put on like my fake voice. The Love Boat.

[George Campbell]

There we go.

[Jade Warshaw]

I don't do my real voice.

[George Campbell]

You make others look good. Yeah, that's impressive. So here's who this cruise is for. It's not for everyone. If you're on Baby Step four or higher, meaning you have paid off your consumer debt, you've got the emergency fund. It's time to celebrate. You probably haven't marked the moment.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

And a cruise is a really awesome way to do that. It's, it's the Ramsey audience plus our team. It was incredible last time we did it. So join us March 14th through the 21st, 2027. So we're looking at almost a year out. Very exciting. You can save up to 300 bucks this week only when you book by February 1st. Cabins are limited so you can lock in your spot with a $600 deposit. That's all that is due now to just lock in your spot with a spot and then you can budget for the rest and join us for the cruise. You can click the link in the show notes to learn more or go to ramseysolutions.com events. Tom is in LA. Up next. What's going on, Tom?

[Caller]

Hey, how you guys doing?

[Advertisement Host]

Great.

[George Campbell]

What's your question?

[Caller]

Yeah, I was just calling in. I'm a PhD student over here and my wife recently lost her job back in like July. And I'm just wondering and looking to get some advice on how best to get through this stage of my career and my situation, whether that is pushing harder and just getting out as quickly as possible. Yeah. Or trying to work extra jobs.

[Jade Warshaw]

So what money is coming in with you doing your PhD?

[Caller]

So with being at UCLA, we have like a full stipend. It's about three grand. So in LA it covers about housing costs and a little bit of food. But beyond that, before I had worked a full time job as an engineer and it saved up enough money where I haven't had to cover anything. And so I have like this little nest egg that's just dwindling down. There's about 24,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[George Campbell]

And you've been basically using that to float the gap for the last six months.

[Jade Warshaw]

What did your wife do?

[Caller]

So she was a like it trainer over at ucla.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. And so it's been since July. Has she gotten any bites? What's, what's, what's up with that, do you think?

[Caller]

So she's gotten a few bites in the tech center. It's just been really quiet for the past few months. And then she recently started working with some family members on starting up moving a business that's they started over in Mexico over here. And so she's really hard on that. Not paid yet. And so they're just starting it. So I'm hoping that.

[George Campbell]

Will she be paid when this is moved or how does this work? Because I wouldn't. We're not doing volunteer work right now.

[Caller]

Yeah, I think once it gets moved, it would be paid. I'm just not sure about. I've been trying to get like a good timeline, but it's very ethereal at this point in time.

[George Campbell]

Has she looked at just other fields in the IT world that she would be qualified for?

[Caller]

Yeah, so she's been applying around. I think that she's just very much kind of also chasing a bit of a dream of this job and this kind of like entrepreneurial spirit. And I want to appreciate that and also love that because also I'm kind of doing that and I'm like, yeah.

[George Campbell]

There'S going to be seasons where it's Tom's turn and he's chasing this Ph.D. now I'm hoping this Ph.D. is going to turn into a big pay raise on the other side. What's the goal with the PhD?

[Caller]

So I'm studying bioengineering. So the goal is to hopefully, yes, have a big pay raise and be working for one of the big biotech firms like Neuralink stuff things along those lines.

[George Campbell]

We're talking about a high six figure salary once we're done with this. So when is the PhD done and how soon would you be working after that?

[Caller]

That. Yeah, so that's one of the decisions is I can hopefully be done by early fall next year if I really push hard. But the other idea is if I need to float is if I take some extra time and work like as a tutor and take an extra year but float expenses.

[Jade Warshaw]

So fall of 27 or tutor and then it's fall of 28. 2008. 28. Oh boy. So okay, yeah, let's go. Let's go back to the wife then. Because you were kind of on this path. I think you have to see it through at this point. I think for your wife, she's got to. It's one thing if you want to do a business venture, but you need to have solid, a solid business plan. Something that she can look at and then be able to say to you, here's what's going to happen and we should be profitable by this date. And when we're profitable, this is the salary I should be able to, to, to draw so that you guys can make a plan and kind of have a go, no go of hey, we thought that we were going to be profitable by this state. We're not. So now therefore we're not going to continue on with this. And if she can't provide that, then that means there is no meat on these bones. It's just an experiment. And you guys are not in a time of life just yet where she can totally experiment. Because you're going to look up and this 24,000 is going to be gone. What's your burn rate every month?

[Caller]

Burn rate is about 2,000amonth.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh yeah, you're going to look up and be like in two years this money is going to be gone. Which two years is not bad. I mean that's you being. You'll be graduated by then.

[George Campbell]

Do you guys have debt?

[Caller]

So we do have some debt. Just one car loan and then her student loans which are about. Together is about 20,000.

[George Campbell]

Okay, that's total with the car loan.

[Caller]

I think what's left on the car loan, it might be closer to 25 or 30, but definitely below 30 or above.

[George Campbell]

You guys have kids?

[Caller]

No kids.

[George Campbell]

Okay, so what has she been doing for six months? Because I'd rather her do something even if it's not in the IT field just to provide some income and some purpose and meaning every day to go out there and do something. Because it's easy to fall into a low grade depression just sitting around going, I was laid off, I can't find a job. And you start to question your, your identity and self worth.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, just to, just to earn the burn rate. Like she could experiment, but she gotta at least bring in the, the couple thousand.

[George Campbell]

And she's too qualified and talented just to be sitting on the sidelines for seven months now.

[Caller]

Yeah, that's what I try to, I've been trying to be encouraging as much as possible. I think it's just very disheartening for her the current situation of applying and getting rejected and just feeling that she isn't as talented as I know she is.

[George Campbell]

So that's your job. You are her biggest cheerleader and you are also her accountability partner going, hey, you apply for that job, you get that coffee, you know, meeting with that person who works in it and so you can help her and support her during this time. But it's time to have the honest conversation of hey, we are broke. Like we won't be in the future, but right now we are in a season where we both need side jobs at night delivering UberEats and DoorDash. That's the reality because we can't burn through the savings and then be going into debt every month. Living in la, it's an expensive life, as you know.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. A piece of homework you guys can do tonight that will feel proactive is if you can both sit down tonight and make a list of everyone you know that might know someone in her space that could be hiring. Right. That could put in a word for her. We'll make sure that she has Ken Coleman career materials so that she can really focus in and figure out how to do that the right way. But just reaching out to your network because chances are there's somebody that's in your network that holds the key to her next job.

[Caller]

Okay. Yeah, that'd be very good.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. And try to make a list of 10 names.

[George Campbell]

She has to create some inertia here because, you know, an object arrest stays at rest. And so it's hard to even have the self confidence to have the meeting or do the interview when you feel like, oh my gosh, here we go again. It's like dating. You're like, well, I've had 19 bad dates. Yeah, what's the point? Love isn't real. It's easy to fall into that hole if you're not careful. But, you know, this again, this is a season. You guys will have an amazing trajectory in the future. And right now you're gonna look back at this time and go, remember when we both had to do doordash on the side just to make ends meet? That was crazy.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes. This is a very short period of. Of time that most of us go through where it's just. You're just broke. You're broke cause you're young at that point.

[George Campbell]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Not. Not so much because you've made a bunch of of mistakes. You're just young and getting started.

[George Campbell]

But you stack on high cost of living on top of that. I mean, it's impressive that they've even made it work on what they're bringing in every month, even with the savings and the stipend.

[Jade Warshaw]

True, true.

[George Campbell]

That's still a tough life. So the reality is we got to live like we're broke college students, which means we can't eat out. We are getting the discount groceries and stretching it and meal prepping it is just rice, chicken, broccoli, stick, stack them, go. That's what we're eating every single day for a year. You'll survive. No one's died from doing that, as far as I know.

[Jade Warshaw]

It ain't pretty.

[Caller]

Foreign.

[George Campbell]

Welcome back to the Ramsey show and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm George Camel here with Jade Warshaw taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Riker is up next in Utah. Riker, what's going on?

[Caller]

Hi, how are you?

[George Campbell]

Great. How can Jade and I help?

[Caller]

So I'm wondering on how to build a budget with such an inconsistent income that me and my future wife are going to have once we combine finances.

[Jade Warshaw]

What do you do that's so inconsistent?

[Caller]

So my fiance is a hairstylist. And so it just depends on what clients she can get for her income. And then my family owns a fencing business and a ranching business. And during the summer, I can make upwards to $10,000 a month. But during the winter, during ranching, I'm making zero.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, and what about her? What's her swing of income? Good to bad?

[Caller]

Right now? Right now she just started three months ago and she's making about, from 1500amonth to about 2300amonth.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Okay. So maybe say 18 is a right there in the middle. Okay, so the way I would do this, when are you guys getting married, by the way? When does this actually start?

[Caller]

June 20th.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, good. So what I would do by then, by June, you're gonna kind of see what her averages are. Hopefully they continue to go up. But you really want to plan your budget worst based on your worst month. That's what I would do is I would say, okay, first off, how much does it take for us to even, like, what's our bare bones budget? What does it take for us to operate? Keeping the lights on, keeping food on the table, four walls, keeping our insurance, whatever that is. And then on our worst month, how far away from that amount are we? So you're kind of filling in the unknowns there. And then from there I would kind of stock up and say, okay, let's pretend we find out it takes $3,000 for our household to run and we bring in on our worst month, 3200. Well, that's great. That means there's a little bit of margin there, but it also means that you might want to keep an account, take that $200 and over time stock up an extra month's worth of savings that's kind of there to float you.

[George Campbell]

In the rough months. We call it kind of a peaks and valleys fund. So when you have a really great month, that's the pe. Well we don't need all of that to cover the expenses. So let's move it over to a savings account so that when you have that zero dollar month you can get by and not feel like oh my gosh, what are we doing?

[Jade Warshaw]

And it's not your emergency fund, so don't get it confused. It's, it's completely separate from an emergency fund.

[George Campbell]

The real question is what are you doing all winter long?

[Caller]

So I, I do ranch with my dad all winter. I work probably six hours a day all winter, but for free. I don't get paid. Yeah, I don't. So I don't get paid for the work. I own cows in our herd and I sell bulls and I sell beef. But instead of me getting paid hourly, I work off like feed and hay so I don't have to pay my dad back for hay and I just get the money from the animals instead of having to pay hand back for all the feeding and all the hay.

[Jade Warshaw]

So what are the zero, what are the zero sum months?

[George Campbell]

I don't do farm math so I need to help you understand this.

[Jade Warshaw]

Which months do you on paper earn? 0. And which months on paper do you earn the 10,000?

[Caller]

So I can, so in about, from April to November I can earn 10,000 and then in, we sell bulls in April and that's when I can make money off the ranch. But in between. So like, like mid December to when we start fencing in April, I'm not making any money, but I'm getting ranch money during the summer when I'm working full time as well.

[Jade Warshaw]

So really if you spread it out over 12 months, you're making six, six and a half thousand dollars a month. Yeah, so. So that's not bad. It's almost like a teacher. You just have to account for the summer months.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, for you it's the winter. January. Can you go do something part time or even full time from January through April that actually pays?

[Caller]

I could. We live in a really remote part of Utah. There's only 400 people in my town and the nearest town, like we have to drive an hour to go get groceries.

[George Campbell]

Not a lot of side hustles out there. Well, do any other places around you need help? I'm guessing those other people are a lot of farming. Is that a kind of a farming town?

[Caller]

Yeah. So I, yeah I could go and pick up a ranch hand job somewhere. Just right here locally.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, it seems like a little bit.

[Caller]

In the winter Months.

[Jade Warshaw]

It seems like in a town, I think you just have to put your thinking cap on and think outside the box. Because it feels like. Like in a town that small, there's gotta be needs that people have because there's. It's pretty remote. You can't get to the things you want. So I just spend some time brainstorming. What is it that during the summer months, or, I'm sorry, during the winter months, I would need help with that. It would be nice to have that service. And maybe it's a service that you can provide for the folks who live around you during those months. Make sense?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Is your fiance in the same town?

[Caller]

Yeah, we live together.

[George Campbell]

Okay, well, she's got enough hair appointments with a town of 400 to make this work.

[Caller]

So she drives an hour to go to work.

[George Campbell]

Goodness gracious. Every day? An hour each way?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Oh, gosh, yeah.

[Caller]

An hour. An hour each way. And she's working Monday through Saturday.

[George Campbell]

She just set the bar. Riker, sounds like you're driving an hour into town for your side hustle.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

You hop in with her and you go do something nearby. You drop her off and you go door dash.

[Jade Warshaw]

And you have quality time.

[George Campbell]

So that's the key if you want stable income to make this less stressful. Go create some stable income during those months. Otherwise you do the peaks and valleys side where you go, hey, I made 10 grand. We only need five. I'm going to sock away five over here, knowing we might need to float some expenses in the down months.

[Jade Warshaw]

You're doing good. I mean, you're making 80,000 a year, which is pretty sweet.

[Caller]

Yeah, yeah.

[George Campbell]

For small town rural living.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

I hope you have low expenses.

[Caller]

Yeah, we're only. We have to spend about 2,500amonth.

[George Campbell]

That's not bad.

[Caller]

So when I'm only 18 and when I'm able to, I'm hoping to get my cdl. And during the winter, I was gonna snowplow drive.

[George Campbell]

Hey, there we go.

[Jade Warshaw]

I love it. There you go. That's a great idea.

[George Campbell]

Can you start a Christmas tree farm, too? I've seen that in every Hallmark movie ever.

[Caller]

We probably could, to be honest with you.

[Jade Warshaw]

I like this.

[George Campbell]

I get creative. You guys are young. You can. You can sort of take those risks right now, quote unquote. Obviously, this all with cash. Are you guys completely debt free, both of you?

[Caller]

Yeah, we're completely debt free. We own our. Both of our vehicles and we're paying a thousand bucks a month in rent.

[George Campbell]

Way to go.

[Caller]

Literally. And then just food Is the only other.

[George Campbell]

This bodes well because that really, if you have inconsistent income, you really got to be debt free and have that emergency fund because life is already a little bit stressful when you don't know what's going to come in. And so I'm proud of you for, for being a really hard worker at 18. I think this bodes well for your future together and I wish you guys the best.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Knowing what I know about your income, if I were you, every time I got 10,000, I'd keep 6,000 and put the rest away. And that's kind of your winter month store until you can get something off the ground and roll in and just tell yourself that you make $6,000 a month instead of 10.

[George Campbell]

I learned a lot on that call. This was like Settlers of Catan. He was like, I'll trade you a hay for a brick, dad. I'm like, all right, hey, whatever kind of arrangement you guys have, you figure it out. Whoever got the longest road wins. That game hurts my brain. But hey, I'm not a farmer for obvious reasons. I wouldn't survive one hour out there. They'd find my body. You're three feet from the house.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, boy.

[George Campbell]

I needed my gluten free snacks.

[Advertisement Host]

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[George Campbell]

We're headed to Orlando up next. John joins us there. John, welcome to the show.

[Caller]

Hi. Thanks for having me.

[George Campbell]

Absolutely. What's going on with you?

[Caller]

Yeah, so I currently, yeah, as I said, I lived in or I live in Orlando and I have a pretty good job, but I have a potential career change and unique job opportunity that would take me out of state, but it would actually be a pay decrease. And another big problem is that I'm severely underwater on my mortgage.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, boy.

[George Campbell]

Oh, you're not behind on payments?

[Caller]

No, no, no.

[George Campbell]

Okay. So how are you underwater?

[Jade Warshaw]

Like upside down.

[Caller]

Upside down, yes.

[Caller or Guest]

Sorry.

[George Campbell]

You owe more than the houses we worth.

[Caller]

Yeah, by quite a bit.

[George Campbell]

How did we get here?

[Caller]

Yeah, houses. Yeah. So I bought this house about two years ago and the market was really high. And I moved to the whole home buying thing, so I probably overpaid for it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Caller]

And then, yeah, houses in my area just. They're really not selling well. They're. The prices have gone way down.

[Jade Warshaw]

Sure.

[Caller]

Since I've bought, so.

[George Campbell]

So you're underwater on paper right now. As if. If you sold today, you would take a big loss and you need to come up with a difference.

[Caller]

Yes. And that's the problem with this out of state job. Yeah.

[George Campbell]

How.

[Jade Warshaw]

Do you have any money? Like, do you personally have any money saved?

[Caller]

Yes, I have quite a bit of savings, but I just don't want to dig into it for this.

[George Campbell]

How much do you have?

[Caller]

Yeah, so I have stocks that I get from my company. I have about 110,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Caller]

And then just. And then like liquid cash, I have maybe like 12,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Okay. So the, the good news is if you did choose to get out of this because it's 70,000 underwater, is that correct?

[Caller]

That's what I'm expecting, about 70,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

The good news is if you had to bring the cash to the table to get out of this house. House, you could. However, my question is, why are you moving out of state for a pay decrease. Tell us more about the opportunity. That doesn't sound like an opportunity just yet.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Caller]

So to give more background, I'm a software developer currently and I do really like my job and it. The pay is good. So this job would actually be a completely different career change and it would actually be in federal law enforcement.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Caller]

Yeah. So something I've been thinking about doing since I was a kid and I finally got the opportunity to do it.

[George Campbell]

The.

[Caller]

The process takes a really long time, so. And very few people make it through the process. So I wasn't really thinking about this the whole time. I was just kind of going through the process.

[George Campbell]

What's the differences in pay? What do you make now and what would you make?

[Caller]

Yeah, so my total. So baseball right now is around 160,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Caller]

My total pay after stocks and everything ends up being about 210,000, maybe a little bit more.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wow.

[Caller]

Because I get 50,000 in stocks. Yeah. And then this new job would start out around like high 80,000. But it does go up after each year. But yeah, I would definitely, even long term, like the highest paid people in my. In the new role would make slightly less than I make currently and my like slow.

[Jade Warshaw]

Slightly less than the 160 or slightly less than the 210.

[Caller]

Slightly less than the 210. I think the Top people. Like once you make the GS13 or whatever, I think it ends up being around 190,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[George Campbell]

And you're single?

[Caller]

Yes, I am. I have a long term girlfriend, but no, not married.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's the, you said the percentage was low to even get into this. What, what's the percentage? Like what's the chances that you'll move and actually get into the program or get to take the next steps?

[Caller]

Yeah. So right now. So they, they're wanting to get me set up for training right now. So around 1% of people who apply actually get selected for like training. But I've actually made it all the way through to the that stage.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, okay. So you made it, you made it under the fence. So what has, what has to happen next? What's the timeline?

[Caller]

So I haven't fully labeled. So yeah, training would be about three or four months from now. They have to get me selected for a training class.

[George Campbell]

Would you have to quit your job to do the training?

[Caller]

I would, yes.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Okay.

[Caller]

And then the training. Oh, go ahead. Sorry.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, I'm just thinking through this. So it sounds like this is something you really want to do, right. You've kind of decided you are doing it.

[Caller]

I haven't made up my mind. It would be different if I wasn't happy in my current role. But I do really like my current job. But at the same time, yes, this is something I've wanted to do for a long time.

[George Campbell]

Well, the truth is you can always go back to software developing if this doesn't work out or if it's, you know, I had fun but I'm ready to go back. So it'll always be there, there. I'm not mad at the pay cut. If it's what you really want to do, you're going to have to just suck it up and go, these stocks are gone.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

I'm going to use this to, you know, get out of this underwater mortgage. You might owe some taxes and then you're going to move and that's going to cost money and so just know it's not an optim. A financially optimal move. But we know life is bigger than just spreadsheets.

[Jade Warshaw]

Sure.

[George Campbell]

Do you have any debt?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

No. It's not a mortgage.

[Caller]

Mortgage. Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. I mean I think unless you have another reason that you haven't told us about, if the reason for you strictly is a financial one and. But I kind of like my job. I think we've given you an out for both of those. It's just. Do you want to Go forward or not.

[Caller]

That's, that's true.

[George Campbell]

In the grand scheme of life, the underwater mortgage is, is like, okay, that was kind of a stupid tax, you know, something you couldn't super control now, you could have put more down and had more equity and got out the of of it unscathed. But here we are. And you're a smart guy, you make great money, you will recover.

[Caller]

Okay, thank you. So financially it's not the end of the world. It's just if it's more about my decision on what career I want to do.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. I mean, I could ask you this question. I mean there's, there's a chance that if you stuck in this house for a couple more years, maybe you'd see it go right side up. But will this federal law enforcement opportunity be available to, to you in two to three years? We don't know. Do you know?

[Caller]

Yeah. So there is an age limit. I'm 32 right now. And you, you have to enter training before you turn 37. So I mean, it's kind of closing, but not, it's not closed.

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean, you got five years. So if you, if you said to yourself, I know I can wait three years and I, I, I want to do that. You could wait three years and see if you can get right side up on this. If you know for sure that that opportunity would be available to you and you wouldn't be one of, you wouldn't be the 1% that doesn't make it to training. Right.

[George Campbell]

And would you just rent in this new area if you got the job?

[Caller]

Yeah, I would just probably be the plan starting out at the new job is to rent for a while. Training itself takes about six months. And then, yeah, your housing is taken care of during that time. But then I would probably rent.

[George Campbell]

Is the training paid?

[Caller]

Yes, it is.

[George Campbell]

Okay. And then the last question, I mean, it's not part of the financial discussion, but the relationship, is it going to survive long distance?

[Caller]

Probably. That's another, yeah, that's another big factor in my decision.

[George Campbell]

Okay, so you're, and you're okay, it seems.

[Caller]

Yes.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Caller]

I think that's, yeah, this is something I'll need to decide. So I'm looking at all the factors. So the financial factor and then also the relationship factor. And both of those, I think, are going to influence my decision.

[George Campbell]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[George Campbell]

I mean if she's the one that, that changes the scenario. But if you're like, hey, it's been fun, but this career means more to me right now than the relationship that's a choice you're making and you just gotta make peace with that.

[Caller]

Yeah, that makes sense, man.

[George Campbell]

A lot of big decisions, John, but I'm excited for you. It does feel like one of those once in a lifetime opportunities. Now, if he was in crippling debt, didn't have the stocks, he was gonna have to do a short sale and wreck his financial life, this would have been a different conversation.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's true.

[George Campbell]

I just wanna make that clear, that he's in a decent spot, all things considered, outside of being underwater on the mortgage. And that allows him to have this flexibility. And he's single, so no, you know, spouses or children are affected by this move.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's a crazy change, though. From software developer to federal law enforcement.

[George Campbell]

I gotta know what I mean. If it's. You gotta be at 8, there's age and only this many people get in. Is this like SEAL Team six?

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, man, he's gonna be knocking on some doors.

[George Campbell]

I didn't want to ask because I felt like he wouldn't tell me. Whatever it is, none of my business.

[Jade Warshaw]

Sin. I want to know more. It's like a series. It's like Jack Ryan.

[George Campbell]

He is Jack Ryan. He's not telling us. Welcome to 2026. Last year is officially in the rear view and you're fired up to finally make some changes with your money. New year, new goals, we love it. But let's be honest, old you said the exact same thing last January and the January before that. And before you know it, those money goals fizzle out faster than the fleeting flavor of LaCroix. So here's the truth. New year motivation only gets you so far. You need an actual plan. And the good news is you don't have to figure it out on your own. Everydollar builds a personalized plan based on your goals and your real life. And it actually coaches you to stick with it. Plus, the EveryDollar app will help you find extra money hiding in your budget. And trust me, there's always something hiding. The average person finds $3015 in the first 15 minutes. That's basically like giving yourself a raise and a much happier New year year. So don't let future you down. Make them proud. Go download the EveryDollar Budget app and start for free right now. If you're wondering where all your money went in 2025, that is normal. And normal. Normal is broke. But next year can be different. You can get a head start by downloading EveryDollar. EveryDollar builds you a personalized plan and coaches you to find extra money and then put it to work to beat debt and build wealth. Answer a few questions and you'll find thousands on average in just the first 15 minutes. And everydollar still has the same great budgeting features to help you tell your money where to go. So don't go another year feeling broken, stressed. Start everydollar for free in the App Store or Google Play. Mike and Kim are up next in Kansas. What's going on?

[Caller]

Hey, sir.

[Jade Warshaw]

How are you?

[George Campbell]

We're doing great. This is a fun segment. You guys are not just random folks. You are baby steps millionaires. Is that correct?

[Caller]

Yes, sir, we really are. And yeah, it's really exciting, actually, that both of us come from very humble beginnings and we found your plan many years ago. I'll let the wife explain that that kind of put us on this path. And yeah, we can't thank you enough. It's just great.

[George Campbell]

That's great. Well, hey, I did diddly squad over here while you guys did all the hard work. But we're honored to be a part of the story. And for the listeners, we like to do these segments to say, hey, it's possible for you. These are real people, normal people who just work their tails off over a period of time and invested consistently. And we want to hear how you did it. So let's break this down. What is your network worth as a family?

[Caller]

Well, we're north of 3.5. And to break that down, we got 2.7 and 401ks IRAs. We got about 100 liquid and brokerage accounts, savings account, and our home that we purchased last year with cash is valued at 700,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good job.

[George Campbell]

Amazing. How old are you guys?

[Caller]

I am 57 and mama is pretty close to that.

[George Campbell]

Fantastic.

[Jade Warshaw]

Is mama on the line? I think I hear her back there.

[Caller or Guest]

Hi, Kate. I'm here.

[Caller]

Yes. Hey.

[George Campbell]

Fantastic. Okay, what was your worst year of income and best year of income in your working careers?

[Caller]

Okay. 1987, my first year in the military, I made $8,694.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wow.

[George Campbell]

And best year so far this year.

[Caller]

Will probably north of 300. That's with six retirement checks coming in on top of my, my, my wages.

[Jade Warshaw]

Way to go. That's. That's a glow up if I've ever heard of one. Wow.

[George Campbell]

Yeah. Okay, so what are your careers?

[Caller]

So we are both, we are both retired military. And then we both went on to work for the military as civilians. My wife is retired, retired for good now. She's retired twice. And I'm working on my Second retirement. I could retire any day I have the time. I'm just. I'm enjoying my job. So keep doing the next three to five years. I'm gonna walk.

[George Campbell]

Maybe you'll hit a world record. You'll have three retirements. Just keep it going. It's like that movie where the cop has one more mission in him. He's like, come on, get out of retirement.

[Jade Warshaw]

Liam Neeson.

[George Campbell]

Yes.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, thank you for your service.

[George Campbell]

Yes. Incredible. What were your degrees in if you got them?

[Caller]

So I got a two year in general studies and then I'll let mama take over. And I have a four year degree in criminal justice.

[George Campbell]

Fantastic. And do you remember your GPA during that time?

[Caller or Guest]

I think mine was 3.6.

[Caller]

Yeah. And mine was about the same. She's being humble. She was about a 3.8.

[George Campbell]

I can tell she's the smarts here. And you're the bronze. That's awesome.

[Caller]

I'm the Sherpa. I'm the Sherpa of the relationship.

[Jade Warshaw]

So how'd you do this? What was. I mean, was this always on the radar, we want to save for retirement, or did you go through some valleys to finally make it to this being the goal? Tell us a little bit about the journey financially.

[Caller]

So, yeah, we, like I said earlier, we both come from very humble beginnings, and we knew that we had great families and great values, but we wanted to change the money part. So we searched and searched and, like, trying to find a path, like, how do we get there? How do we get there? And then from there. I deployed in 2008 for 15 months. And while I was gone, I'm going to let mama take the conversation over, though.

[Caller or Guest]

So we were stationed in Germany and he deployed to Iraq for 15 months. So it was just myself and my daughter. A friend of mine told me about Dave Ramsey and she gave me the book to read it. And when he would call on Sunday, I would ask him, are you. What are you watching on tv? Are you listening to any money people? And he was listening to another pretty well known financial voice at that time. And I told him about Dave Ramsey and how the podcasts were free. It was just so easy to listen and get engaged. And I'd mail him a book and. And sure enough, as soon as he heard Dave Ramsey, we both just fell in with both feet and dove into the program. It was exciting, it was new, it was invigorating. It was a way of money management that we were not familiar with. And it all made perfect sense and with team effort and just intentional about where every penny went. We were able to become debt free and, you know, then start obviously saving, saving money. So because of a good friend and because we both wanted a change for our future, Dave Ramsey really, really turned the switch for us.

[George Campbell]

Wow, that's awesome. So this was like 17ish years ago. You guys kind of got focused and went, all right, let's get out of debt. Let's start investing.

[Caller]

We did. We went all in. I buy your books by the bundle and I pass them out. When I got here, I passed them out them out to my team that I work with.

[George Campbell]

Oh, that's awesome.

[Caller]

And I said, hey, hey, guys, just read this book. All I ask is you read it and pay it forward when you're able to. One day. We've been to the seminars down in la. We.

[Caller or Guest]

For the cruise.

[Caller]

We were signed up for the previous cruise.

[George Campbell]

The first one.

[Caller]

Yes. But Covid put a damper on that.

[George Campbell]

Yes, it would have been great. It was great when we did it again last year.

[Caller]

Yes. Most recently, we co taught prior to leaving Germany that we got back from Germany last year. We. We co taught a financial peace class with our chaplain. And that was great.

[George Campbell]

That's fantastic. Did you guys inherit any of this 3.5 million?

[Caller]

Not a penny, sir. No, sir.

[George Campbell]

Fantastic. And then I got to know what kind of cars are real life millionaires driving. Can you tell us the year, make and model of your vehicles?

[Caller]

I am. The car I drive to work every day is a 2009 Honda Accord.

[George Campbell]

That is so perfect. That's so spot on.

[Jade Warshaw]

On. Wow, wow, wow.

[George Campbell]

Okay, and how about mama?

[Caller]

Mama's got a Honda Pilot in there. That's a 22 that we bought. Cash.

[George Campbell]

There we go.

[Caller]

We were there.

[George Campbell]

Good man. The wife always drives the nicer car. That is the rule.

[Caller]

That's the rule. Yes, sir. So. Yep. And yeah. We've only bought three car. We've been married 30, 31 years this August. We've only bought three brand new cars over those 30 years. Wow. So we. We just.

[Jade Warshaw]

Papa's due for an upgrade.

[Caller]

Well, to be transparent, I got an upgrade last summer. We bought a. I got a GMC Sierra with the Denali package, but it sits in the garage because I baby it and I've never had a vehicle.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, okay. Makes sense.

[George Campbell]

It's like too nice for you to drive. It's just a trophy at this point.

[Jade Warshaw]

On the shelf.

[Caller]

Exactly.

[George Campbell]

That's hilarious.

[Caller]

To the gas station. And then I that detail it in the. Back at. Back in your garage. But yes.

[George Campbell]

So do your do your neighbors or friends and family know your. Your status and net worth and wealth? Because it doesn't seem like you flaunt it. If I drove by your house, I wouldn't. Like, those guys are probably worth three and a half million.

[Caller]

Nope, they don't know. And I was telling my wife, I was telling Kim. I was like, this is funny because we don't have to worry about our family listening to this podcast because they don't follow you guys like we do.

[George Campbell]

That's amazing. And sad at the same time. I hope they do one day. That goes, hey, that's. That's Mike and Kim. They didn't change their names. I recognize those voices. Wow. Well, there's nothing to be ashamed of. That's the good news. If they're like, whoa, I didn't know. You go, hey, we'll show you the way. There was no magic tricks here. You guys worked really hard. You served your country well, you invested for the future. Was this just 15 years of solid investing?

[Caller]

Yes, sir. In 2002, the army came out with the TSP. And you're well familiar with that.

[George Campbell]

Oh, yeah.

[Caller]

I watched that for about a year, and then I went all in in January of 2003. And then I kept that while I was in active duty. When I retired, I rolled it into my civilian tsp, and now it's just one big one. Now that's growing. And my wife, she did. And this is what I tell people, like, it's never too late. My wife worked 11 years civil service. The last 10 was consecutive. She dumped. She maxed it out every year with catch up funds as well. And then she retired after 10 years. Years. And now that her TSP has grown to over a million dollars. Ten years of investing.

[George Campbell]

It's crazy what some intentionality does. And the alignment, that's the really inspiring part about you guys, right? I can tell you're in sync. I mean, you're passing the ball to Kim, she's passing it back to you. Alley oop. You guys, that. That speaks to a great marriage, which then turns into a strong financial future. So thank you for inspiring us and everybody listening. And it's still possible. 57 years old, 56 years old, worth 3.5 million $0 in inheritance. He's driving an 09 Accord. She's got the 22 Pilot, as it should be. I want to be them one day. Okay, picture this. You sit down to do your taxes, but instead of stressing out, you're actually ahead of the game and filing with an affordable software that makes your computer shoot confetti when you're done. Okay, not that last part, but Ramsey SmartTax does make filing easy and doesn't make your bank account cry. Ramsey SmartTax is 100% accurate software that's honest about its pricing and is backed by a company who's been in the business business for over 50 years. So go to ramseysolutions.com smarttax to take advantage of early bird pricing and stress free filing. That's ramseysolutions.com smarttax. Our scripture of the day. John 16:33. I have told you these things. Things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world. James Clear said, when you can't win by being better, you can win by being different. That's how I've got to where I am today. Jade.

[Jade Warshaw]

I knew you were gonna make that about you somehow.

[George Campbell]

Not the sharpest in the room, but I'm unique.

[Jade Warshaw]

You are unique. You're one of a kind. There's only one George Camel.

[George Campbell]

There you go.

[Caller]

Go.

[George Campbell]

All right, Mindy is in College Station, Texas. Up next. What's going on? Mindy.

[Caller or Guest]

Hey, how are you?

[George Campbell]

Great. How can Jade and I help today?

[Caller or Guest]

All right, so I have been debt free. I have no student loans. I am a senior in college and looking into moving out within the next year, buying a house, and I have no credit score. And one of my professors kind of got into my head. I'm wondering how to best build a credit score without going into the that.

[George Campbell]

Great question. And by the way, I'm so proud of you. You know how weird it is that you are debt free and graduating college with no credit score?

[Caller or Guest]

Absolutely.

[George Campbell]

It's a good thing.

[Jade Warshaw]

Way to go.

[Caller or Guest]

Yeah. So what's your current about it?

[Jade Warshaw]

What's your current living situation? Are you at your parents? Are you in the dorm? Where are you right now?

[Caller or Guest]

Yes, I'm living with my parents at home.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Are you paying them any type of rent or just totally?

[Caller or Guest]

No, I lucked out. I am living rent free, able to work only four hours a week at a practically minimum wage job while going through college.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, and what will your job be when you graduate?

[Caller or Guest]

I'm looking into government agricultural work.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, and what will that pay?

[Caller or Guest]

Somewhere around 70,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, cool.

[Caller or Guest]

A year.

[Jade Warshaw]

So you're not technically ready to buy a house. You're just thinking about what you will need to be ready to buy a house.

[George Campbell]

And is that the big reason for wanting a credit score? Wanting to build It Correct.

[Caller or Guest]

So I'm in a deed of trust state, which means that no court if I default on a mortgage. And some of the mortgage companies are a bit more harsh. So I am wanting to have a good credit score when I graduate from college.

[George Campbell]

Got it. But you're not going to be buying a house out of college.

[Caller or Guest]

No, not directly.

[George Campbell]

So you'll be renting for a while.

[Caller or Guest]

Absolutely.

[George Campbell]

Okay. And you can rent easily without a credit score if you're employed, pass a background check and you have enough money to cover a potentially higher security deposit, which you'll get back when you move out. They will rent to you. And so don't believe people who are like, well, you're going to need a credit score to rent an apartment store. Still, I've rented many an apartment without a credit score. They just want to know, can you pay? Are you a criminal? And if not, they go, well, since we don't have the credit score, you'll pay a higher deposit that way. There's a little more skin in the game on your part, so don't worry about that.

[Caller or Guest]

Good to know.

[Jade Warshaw]

So then let's talk about the idea. We know you won't need it to rent. Let's talk about shifting you from the whole mindset of, well, I might need a credit score for something. Jaden George. And we're going to just suggests that you don't need to build a credit score for any reason. Because right now, I mean, think about it, you have no debt. There must have been, there must be a reason that you decided to go through your life with no debt. And the only way to build a credit score would be you having to get into debt.

[Caller or Guest]

Okay.

[George Campbell]

And when you do get to that point of buying a house, which you know, and getting a mortgage, there's a process that I've been through called manual underwriting. You may have heard about it. And here's what I'll tell you the exact things that are required because I did in depth research for my book, which I'll send you, Mindy. There's a whole chapter on credit scores and how to live without one where it's super nerdy. And here's the exact step. So here's what you will need to get a credit. To get a mortgage without a credit score, you'll need verification of income for the past 12 to 24 months. So your tax returns, which you'll have been employed at that point for a few years, right?

[Caller or Guest]

Correct.

[George Campbell]

You'll have rental payment history, 12 months of documented on time payments. You'll have that. You need 12 month history of your savings and bank statements, which you'll have that and then one or more regular monthly expenses as an alternative trade line. So think utilities, cell phone bills, anything that you've had to pay monthly, that will count as well.

[Jade Warshaw]

And for anybody listening who's thinking of the same thing, if you are self employed, you'll probably have to show show your, your tax return history for the previous year or so.

[George Campbell]

There's a little more risk there with self employed folks to make sure their income will stay that way. So that's Mindy, that's all you need. And you can reach out to our friends at Churchill Mortgage as you get closer and they can help you in your area. Go. Here's exactly what you need. And the truth is, here's what they do. They do manual underwriting, which means no computer runs it. There's no credit score, there's no automated underwriting. And so a real person looks at all this information, commission to grant you the loan and essentially give you a quote, unquote, good credit score. Okay, so that's what happened to me. As long as you do a 15 year fixed rate mortgage with at least 10% down, that's the other thing is you got to do it the Ramsey way. Not going well. I'm going to put 3% down on a, you know, USDA loan. On a 30 year, you're going to have a harder time doing that. But if you're a strong borrower, meaning 15 year and 10% down, they go all right or 20%, even better. And so that's what I would be focusing on is just stacking cash since you're doing so good instead of worrying about do I need to open a credit card and start building my score and keep up with percent.

[Jade Warshaw]

Do not.

[George Campbell]

I would spend your energy elsewhere.

[Caller or Guest]

Sounds good. Thank you so much.

[George Campbell]

Yeah, thanks for the call. And hang on the line. Kelly's going to pick up. We'll get you a copy of my book Breaking Free from Broke, which breaks all of that down for you. Hunter is in Arkansas up next. Hunter, what's going on on.

[Caller]

Hey man, how y' all doing?

[George Campbell]

We're doing great. We're running a little short on time so get right to the question. Let's see if we can help you.

[Caller]

Yeah, man. So basically sum it all up. I'm just trying to do better at trying not to live paycheck to paycheck, you know, just gonna see maybe if you guys have some tips on that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Now the first thing you know Paycheck to paycheck is usually a symptom of a bigger problem. You're just feeling the effects of something bigger. It's usually a spending problem or an income problem. So tell us a little bit about your income.

[Caller]

Right. So this past year, I just cleared over 117,000. And my total bills for each month is roughly around 3,000amonth.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Caller]

And so, yeah, I roughly make, after taxes, 1400 a week. So it gives me a little bit of what's up with everything. To my bills account, I roughly have $550 to $600 a week after that to spend freely.

[George Campbell]

So you're bringing home 72, 73,000 or so, and your expenses are 36,000 a year. So you should have half your income sitting somewhere. But you're saying it's disappearing and you're not able to cover all the bills?

[Caller]

Well, no, it's not necessarily that I'm not covering bills. I got. The bills are taken care of. Like, I got a whole another account where it automatically directs the account. So those are all on auto pay. It's just more so the free spending money, as well as trying to cut into me, trying to save some of that as well.

[George Campbell]

Do you have any debt?

[Caller]

Yes. So I got a truck payment side beside payment student loans and rent.

[George Campbell]

Student loans.

[Jade Warshaw]

How much are the student loans?

[Caller]

The balance is right at 11,000, and the payment is $121. Okay.

[George Campbell]

What do you owe on the truck and what do you owe on the side by side?

[Caller]

The truck? Oh, 49,000. And the South Asada owe 23,000.

[George Campbell]

Goodness.

[Jade Warshaw]

There's your problem right there.

[George Campbell]

Ding, ding. We found a winner.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[George Campbell]

Did you got $73,000 in toys going down in value, and you make a little over a hundred thousand. It's just simply way too much. Which means I think one or both of these things should be sold to free up a whole lot of income. What's the payment on the side by side and the truck?

[Caller]

The truck is 1,130. And the south aside is 575.

[George Campbell]

And what's your rent? Every month.

[Caller]

We split it, so it's 475. So my part is 475.

[George Campbell]

Goodness. Your truck payment is like triple your rent.

[Caller]

Right.

[George Campbell]

Do you see the problem here? You're going, hey, I'm living a paycheck to paycheck. It's like, doctor, what's going on? I don't know why I'm in pain. And we're like, dude, you got a knife in your back that's what's going on. It's the truck and the side by side.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's that. And I mean, for a guy who's making, you know, I don't know. What did you tell me? 1400 bucks a week you're spending on something. Do you have a girlfriend?

[Caller]

Yeah, I do. Yes, I am.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right. Do you have a budget? No.

[Caller]

We try, right?

[George Campbell]

It's in my head. It's a mental budget.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, that's. I think that's your big problem. I mean, don't get me wrong, this truck and the side by side are a problem. You need to sell one of them probably instantly, and then do the work to pay off the other. But you got to get on a budget first and foremost. I think if you get on an every dollar budget, you're going to see where all this money is slipping through the cracks. My guess is it's on social life. I think you're at that. It's like you get off work, go get a drink with your boys, take your girl out, going out on the weekends, all of those things.

[George Campbell]

Little door dash here, Uber eats there.

[Jade Warshaw]

Kelly's going to pick up and make sure you get set up with every dollar so you can get back on track.

[George Campbell]

We're rooting for you, man. This is a solvable problem. All right, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace. Christ, Jes.