No Matter Your Income, You Have To Know Where Your Money Is Going

Summary

The Ramsey Show – Episode Summary

Episode Title: No Matter Your Income, You Have To Know Where Your Money Is Going
Date: August 22, 2025
Hosts: Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze (Ramsey Personalities)
Podcast Theme:
This episode emphasizes the critical importance of tracking and managing your money—regardless of income, life stage, or past financial mistakes. Through real caller questions and candid advice, Dave and Rachel walk listeners through practical strategies for debt payoff, budgeting, big purchases, career changes, and long-term wealth building, always reinforcing Ramsey’s core principles of intentional money management.

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Key Insights & Discussion Points

1. Handling Valuable Collections: Appraising & Selling Inheritances

[00:44 – 03:59]

• Caller April sought advice on appraising and selling an extensive coin collection inherited from her mother-in-law with advanced Alzheimer’s.
• Advice:
  • Seek out local coin dealers rather than pawn shops; ask for appraisals and potential buyers.
  • Consider referrals from jewelry stores, pawn shops, or hobbyist groups.
  • Be cautious with shipping valuable collections; local resources preferred.
• Quote:

  "You're looking for a coin dealer, someone who buys and sells coins, not just a pawn shop." — Dave Ramsey [01:43]

• Light Moment:
  • Rachel admits she didn’t know what a wheat penny was; Dave jokes about their minimal value.

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2. Getting on the Same Page with Your Spouse — Teamwork & Communication

[04:48 – 09:35]

• Caller Mary expressed anxiety about finances and asked if she should take on an extra job to help pay off family debt.
• Discussion:
  • Importance of teamwork and open communication in marriage about money.
  • Recognize and appreciate spouse’s strengths; collaborate on the plan.
  • Weigh values: aggressive debt payoff via extra work vs. more gradual approach to maintain family balance.
• Quote:

  "The faster you do it, Mary, the faster you're out. But you guys are going to have to pick which route you want to take." — Rachel Cruze [07:03]

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3. Is It Okay to Buy a Luxury Car? Fear, Math, and Permission

[09:55 – 14:52]

• Caller Helen: Her high-income, financially-secure husband struggles emotionally to pull the trigger on a $90k luxury car.
• Advice:
  • If the math objectively proves not a financial burden, enjoy the fruits of hard work.
  • Emotions and upbringing can create irrational roadblocks to spending, even when it’s responsible.
• Quotes:

  "If you take $90,000 and burn it in the middle of the floor, does it affect your life? For you, I don’t think it does." — Dave Ramsey [11:08]
  "The issue is, what’s going on within you? Because that stress and anxiety, that's not freedom either. So you have to find that balance." — Rachel Cruze [13:58]

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4. Pay Off Debt Quickly: Emergency Funds vs. Loans and the "Cost of Car Payments"

[15:51 – 19:51]

• Caller Tyson debated whether to use his emergency fund to pay off a truck loan or keep paying it down slowly.
• Key Takeaways:
  • Pay off car debt immediately if you have the cash, then rebuild the emergency fund.
  • Stop buying vehicles on payments—car payments are “the mantra of the middle class.”
• Memorable Banter:
  • Dave and Rachel joke about their own cars — “Don’t mess up my truck!”
• Quote:

  "The key to building wealth is not having stupid truck payments." — Dave Ramsey [17:20]

  • Rachel: If you invested $700/mo (typical car payment) from ages 25-65, you’d have $4.4 million. [19:05]

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5. 529 College Accounts: Usage, Scholarships, and New Roll-Over Rules

[23:25 – 26:26]

• Caller Colin: Wondered how to best utilize his college 529 savings since scholarships cover much of his costs.
• Advice:
  • 529 funds can be used for qualified educational expenses including living costs.
  • You can withdraw the scholarship equivalent amount penalty-free.
  • New rules may allow limited rollover (~$35k) to a Roth IRA after 15 years; check specific requirements.
• Note: Emphasis on maintaining detailed documentation for any audit.

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6. Career Stagnation and Transition — "What am I wired to do?"

[27:13 – 30:59]

• Caller Matt: Feels stuck earning $40k/yr as a FedEx driver, exhausted and unsure how to break through.
• Guidance:
  • Understand your strengths and passions; explore side businesses or training.
  • Use assessment tools (recommended: Ken Coleman’s book & online tool).
• Quote:

  "You’re doing things in the right order—take care of your family, then figure out your next step." — Dave Ramsey [28:31]

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7. Should My Dad Maintain a Credit Card in My Name?

[33:01 – 34:47]

• Question: A father opened a credit card in his adult son’s name to “build credit,” but keeps the card himself.
• Advice:
  • Immediate closure is recommended—it’s a boundary violation and not necessary.
• Quote:

  "Chop up the card and close the account like a grown man. Your dad doesn't need to have a financial string attached to you." — Dave Ramsey [34:32]

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8. Balancing Retirement Saving vs. Down Payment for a House

[35:02 – 41:53]

• Caller Larf: Married, out of debt, saving for a house in high-cost Northern Virginia area.
• Key Points:
  • After establishing emergency fund, consider pausing retirement savings to speed home down-payment.
  • Aim for 20% down to avoid private mortgage insurance—but 5% is a minimum for first-timers.
  • Don’t delay retirement saving more than 3-4 years.
• Quotes:

  "Put as much as you can toward the down payment… but don’t delay retirement saving more than three, maybe four years." — Dave Ramsey [36:58]
  "The lower your down payment, the more PMI you’ll pay—which is just insurance for the lender that you pay." — Rachel Cruze [41:02]

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9. Leaping to Self-Employment: Side Hustle to Main Business

[44:20 – 51:17]

• Caller Joe: Wants to transition from a $93k/year mechanic job to full-time mobile mechanic self-employment.
• Advice:
  • Demonstrate consistent, substantial side business income (ideally ~60-70% of day-job income for 6+ months) before quitting.
  • Build emergency savings to cushion the leap.
  • “Don’t take a leap of faith—prove the business first.”
• Quote:

  "I want more proof that this business will scale before you bet the farm." — Dave Ramsey [45:08]

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10. Can You Save Too Much? Where’s the Margin?

[54:50 – 63:20]

• Caller Denise: Feels financial "tightness" despite high income, big family, and aggressive saving.
• Diagnosis:
  • Main issue is lack of a detailed, collaborative budget (using the EveryDollar app recommended).
  • Saving isn't the problem; disorganization is.
• Quote:

  "If you don’t make these dollars behave, they won’t. You have the money to be ok, but you…the main thing is, where the freak is your money going?" — Dave Ramsey [61:08]

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11. Minimal Functional Purchases for Small Businesses

[65:49 – 72:23]

• Caller Adam: Regrets $61k new work truck bought to avoid taxes after selling a business.
• Guidance:
  • Use “minimal functional” as the principle for business equipment—avoid “luxury” purchases that don’t yield return.
  • Run business with reliable but modest equipment; upgrade gradually.
• Quote:

  "All we're trying to do is get the job done… minimal functional." — Dave Ramsey [69:38]

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12. Is it Greed to Keep Chasing Income at the Cost of Family?

[85:33 – 93:42]

• Caller Brady: Earns much more ($200k) by traveling for work, but is questioned by family about priorities and time away.
• Discussion:
  • Greed is a heart issue, not a number or work ethic.
  • If there’s a clear, time-bound plan and family is on board, it’s strategic—not greedy.
• Quotes:

  "Greed is not an amount of money. It is a state of your heart and why you’re chasing the money." — Dave Ramsey [88:45]
  "People who ask if they’re greedy are never greedy people." — Dave Ramsey [92:08]

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13. Roth Conversions in Retirement — Tax Implications

[96:15 – 104:25]

• Caller John: Retired with $4 million in IRAs, wonders if he should convert funds to Roth.
• Guidance:
  • RMDs (required minimum distributions) create tax headaches; Roths avoid this.
  • Favor converting to Roth (potentially in stages) to avoid huge taxes for children inheritance post SECURE Act.
  • Expect substantial taxes either way; better now than a larger hit later.
• Quote:

  "Pay me now, or pay a lot more later is the equation." — Dave Ramsey [101:19]

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14. Debt-Free Scream and Success Story

[105:45 – 114:23]

• Caller Brian: Paid off $44k debt in 2 years by “binging Ramsey on Spotify,” working multiple hustles, and embracing frugality.
• Big Takeaways:
  • The turning point came at one year, when he could see real results.
  • Sacrifices—driving a beater, skipping out with friends—were worth the freedom gained.
• Quote:

  "It started out fear-based, and it ended joy-based." — Dave Ramsey [111:44]

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15. Tracking Every Dollar: Young Adult Budgeting & Managing the "Guitar Habit"

[116:11 – 122:38]

• Caller Ethan: 23, makes decent money but struggles to save; spends impulsively (esp. on buying/selling guitars).
• Advice:
  • Track all spending via detailed budget (EveryDollar).
  • Identify and curb expenses in hobbies that are not profitable; treat side hustles like a true business.
  • Pull credit report to tackle old debts sold to collections.

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16. Inheritance, Work, and Self-Worth

[122:38 – 124:46]

• Caller Eric: Inherits $4.1M, doesn’t work due to ADHD, unsure how much home to buy.
• Advice:
  • For personal dignity and mental health, don’t let inheritance remove your drive or sense of purpose.
  • Invest wisely (consult a pro), buy a reasonable home (suggestion: <$1 million), but pursue work and therapy for long-term well-being.
• Quote:

  “This money allows you to not deal with your career issues… It’s become a curse rather than a blessing. For your own sake, earn a living.” — Dave Ramsey [124:22]

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Highlights & Memorable Quotes

• “No matter your income, you have to know where your money’s going.”
• “Car payments are basically signing up and saying, ‘Yeah, I want to be in the middle class.’”
• “Live like no one else now, so later you can live and give like no one else.”
• “Greed is a matter of heart, not net worth.”

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Notable Callers & Segments

| Time | Segment/Topic | Quote/Takeaway | |------------|-------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------| | 00:44 | Appraising family coin collections | “You’re looking for a coin dealer…” | | 07:03 | Spousal teamwork & budgeting | “Give yourself credit, that’s huge.” | | 13:58 | Emotional blocks around spending money | “That stress and anxiety, that’s not freedom either.” | | 17:20 | Rapid debt payoff advice | “The key is not having stupid truck payments.”| | 35:02 | Balancing house savings vs. retirement | “Put as much as you can towards the down payment.” |

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Overarching Message

Regardless of your income or situation, wealth-building and financial peace start by knowing exactly where every dollar goes. This episode weaves together stories from all walks of life—a young single, families with kids, retirees, business owners, six-figure incomes, people with windfalls and with nothing—all to illustrate that intentional, collaborative, values-driven money choices make the difference.

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Key Action Steps from the Show

• Track every dollar you make and spend—no exceptions.
• Use budget tools like EveryDollar to take control.
• Get on the same financial page with your spouse—marriage is a team sport.
• Aggressively attack debt (especially car payments and high-interest loans).
• Plan big purchases by weighing both the math and your emotions.
• Prepare for the future: down payments, Roth conversions, and education savings need strategic thinking.
• Choose your work for what it enables: income, family time, dignity—not just the dollar amount.
• Enjoy the fruits of your labor—responsibly, and without guilt—once you’ve laid the foundation.

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Closing Quote

"If you don't make these dollars behave, they're not going to behave." — Dave Ramsey [61:08]

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For those seeking hope and financial clarity, this episode hammers home Ramsey’s essential truth: No matter how much you make, if you don’t assign and track every dollar, your money will slip away from you. Make a plan, stick to it, and freedom follows.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. From the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions. It's the Ramsey show where we help people build wealth, do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Cruze Ramsey personality number one best selling author, host of the Rachel Cruz show. My daughter is my co host today. Phone number here is 888-825-5225. April is in Michigan. Hi April, how are you?

[Caller]

I'm doing excellent. Thank you so much for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up?

[Caller]

We have an interesting situation. My mother in law is in the end stages of advanced Alzheimer's disease. She's 89 years old and continues to have a decline. She was amazing with money. She's got a great nest egg. Well, live beyond, you know, her money will live out with her by lots of years. She has a huge coin collection and we are trying to figure out how we can best get that appraised by somebody that's reliable. She has Morgan silver dollars, Liberty heads. She has gold coins from the 1800s. Some are uncirculated and in mint condition and others are. I mean she has a literal bag of silver dollars that are probably just worth their weight. So the only places around us that would look at the coins are pawn shops. And I know that that's not a great place to start. So I'm just looking for advice on how we find a reliable appraiser.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't know. All I did, I had a box of coins that an elderly family member had given us. They probably weren't as good as what you've got. There were some in there that were valuable. I just, I called around to some jewelry stores and asked who was a coin dealer. I'm looking for a coin dealer, somebody that buys and sells coins. And I actually said, okay, if you appraise these for me, would you be interested in some of them? Maybe. And the guy did it and it really was inexpensive and I ended up with a huge bag of wheat pennies that we just took to the bank. And then the other stuff, we just sold it to him. And there wasn't anything in there that was outstanding. I think a couple of these things you're describing might be outstanding. I don't know. But you're looking for a coin dealer, A local coin dealer.

[Rachel Cruze]

Local or even, I mean the Internet. I bet you could find somebody good. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

The only problem is you don't. You gotta really be able. You're gonna have to ship them to them and that can be heavy and expensive. And so if they're out of town. And so again, I just. We're in the Nashville area and we found a guy here in Nashville that was a coin dealer and, you know, start poking around. I can't remember. I think it was a jewelry store or a friend of mine that owned a pawn shop that told me who the coin dealer was. I might have just found it on Google. I don't remember. It was about. It was probably eight years ago or something like that that I did that. So that's how I did it. It really wasn't some kind of insightful thing. I just scratched around and found somebody. But that you want somebody that's in the coin world, a coin collector. If you could find somebody that just is running a local social media page on coin collection even and just start poking around on that, they would know someone to appraise it. Or maybe you could just find somebody that's doing it as a hobby to appraise it and pay them for doing that. And if you felt good about their knowledge base. The thing we didn't want to do is we didn't want to just roll it all and send it to the bank and then find out there was one of those stinking wheat pennies that was worth 10,000 dol or something. And so we had him go through them and he said, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

[Rachel Cruze]

I don't know what a wheat penny is.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, it's a penny that has wheat on it in the early 1900s.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, so more valuable?

[Dave Ramsey]

No.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, not much.

[Dave Ramsey]

It might be. It might be worth a penny and a half.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

But it's not worth screwing with. But most of the time I gotcha.

[Rachel Cruze]

Most of the time I gotcha.

[Dave Ramsey]

The ones that we had weren't. And so. Yeah, anyway, that's how we did it. Hunt and I just check out. I'd run around and coin dealers, coin collectors, you know, people that do any kind of art appraising, maybe someone that does art, they may know someone in the coin world because all of these will fall in the collectibles category as far as a hobby or something goes. Same kind of thing. So. Hey, good question. Thanks for calling in. Mary is in New Jersey. Hi, Mary, how are you?

[Caller]

I'm doing well. How are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Caller]

So I'm calling because I want to know if I should take on a new job just to an additional job.

On top of the job.

I have rather. I have a great job. My husband and I, we have student debt about. I think his is 95 minus 75. We don't really have credit card debt, and we have a card that we're making payments on, but we're going to attack that so that we don't have that anymore. I've been watching a lot of your shows, and it's really convicted me and my heart on how I needed to just be more supportive of my husband as he's. He's amazing, and he's so wonderful, and I just want to be a better teammate with him to attack these debts. We're also fairly parents, and this is the first time in my life where I don't have multiple jobs, and I'm spending. You know, I work late, but I'm spending time with my daughter as much as I can. And I just. I want to. I want to be a team with my husband. So we can.

[Rachel Cruze]

So is he already on board, Mary?

[Caller]

Oh, yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, yeah. Okay. So you're the one kind of catching up, I guess, in this sense.

[Caller]

Yes.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And how long has. Have you guys been talking about this?

[Caller]

I. So he's been. So. He read one of the Dave Ramsey books a long. A long time ago, and that's actually how we're out of credit card debt. I have anxiety, and for the longest time, like, talking about the finances would kind of make me spin out. I'm in a better place now. I'm getting help for it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good for you.

[Caller]

And, like, for the first time, I was able two days ago to, like, open this massive spreadsheet that he made and look at it without freaking out and say, like, okay, babe, explain this to me. Tell me how this works.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's huge.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, and honestly, Mary, I mean, that's. That's the way to be a great teammate. Do you know what I'm saying? And it's not that you have to go along with every single thing. If you have opinions, too. I think it's healthy to say those, and you guys work through it together as two adults. But I think getting to a place, which I think we all have in our lives and in our marriages, where you look at your spouse and you're like, okay, what you've been doing is better than my plan, and there's a level of humility there to say, all right, I'm on board. I want to. I want to. I want to do this with you, and just that attitude shift, Mary. I mean, give yourself credit, because, I mean, that's. That's huge. That's what a lot of people wish their spouse even came Close to to be able to say I want to be a team and I want to do this together. And then the way you guys tactically execute it is going to be up to you all. And so, so yeah, you know, if you think I may need an extra job, I need to maybe bring in some extra money. You guys map that out and just say, okay, what if you did take on an extra job? How long and how many hours would you have to work for you guys to be debt free in X amount of time? Or if you didn't take an job as a new mom and you just worked yours but you know, you guys tightened up the budget other way so it probably take you a little bit longer but maybe y' all are okay with that for the season as new parents. Right? So it gets down to a values conversation between the both of you at that point to decide how fast do we want to do this, how aggressive do we want to do it. And the faster you do it, Mary, the faster you're out. And so you guys are going to have to pick kind of which which route you want to take. And you guys do that together. But I'm excited for you guys. I think it's awesome. And I'm sure your husband's jumping up and down inside that he got that he got you on board. Trying to organize your important documents shouldn't feel like another full time job with Knockbox. It isn't Knockbox, that's N o K as in next of kin. Box is a simple physical system that helps you get your life in order so your family isn't left sorting through a mess after you're gone. It's got everything you need to organize your will, passwords, account info, insurance policies and more all in one place. No guesswork, no complicated apps, just peace of mind in a box, y'.

[Caller]

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[Rachel Cruze]

This is one of the most loving and practical gifts you can leave behind. So go to knockbox.com Ramsey today. That's N O K box.com Ramsey.

[Dave Ramsey]

Helen's in New York. Hi Helen, how are you?

[Caller]

Good.

How are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Caller]

So my husband wants to buy a seven passenger family type luxury car that will cost about $90,000 and I am fine with him buying the car, but when it comes down to actually purchasing it, each time he stops and says, oh, there's better stuff we could do with our money. We shouldn't spend this on a car, but we have no debt, our house is paid off. He makes over $400,000 a year. I don't want him to buy a cheaper car like a Chevy or a Ford and then not be happy and have the regret that I should have spent the money on the more expensive car that I really want.

[Dave Ramsey]

How old is he?

[Caller]

He is in the 60, 62.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And $400,000 a year income, no debt. Houses paid for included. How much is in you guys nest egg. What's your net worth?

[Caller]

Over 4 million.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. The way that my wife and I make these decisions, Helen, is we ask ourselves, if we take that amount of money, $90,000, and we burn it in the middle of the floor, does it affect our life? And the answer in your equation is other than you would cry, it would not affect your life.

[Caller]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

You could throw $90,000 out the window of the house and watch the neighbors scramble and it would not affect your life. You wouldn't even know what happened because you have $4 million plus a paid for house, plus a $400,000 income.

[Caller]

That's.

[Dave Ramsey]

This is a very reasonable purchase given your numbers. And I just. That way I know I'm not being irresponsible. If you flinch when you do it, not from the emotions, but from the mathematics. And I'll give you an example, okay? If you told me it was 400k, well, that's one year's income. That's 10% of your net worth. That's too much. Okay. And so that math. Math. The math on that says, I would feel it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Helen, how did he grow up? What was his upbringing?

[Caller]

So we both grew up with parents that probably struggled a little while we were growing up, but then did better. We have never had credit card debt. We've never made, like, crazy car purchases. This is not a crazy college.

[Rachel Cruze]

Right.

[Caller]

We paid off our loan.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

What car?

[Rachel Cruze]

To me, it's not a math problem. He knows math. He's a smart guy. He's making $400,000. I mean, like, he's. He's smart. It's not a math problem. This is all an emotional problem. There's fear driving this.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

There's stress. There's a level of control. I mean, like, you know what I mean, like all of that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, as a desire to be responsible. And my point is, it's not irresponsible.

[Rachel Cruze]

I don't think it's a desire. I think he has been responsible.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I mean that he's afraid he's being irresponsible.

[Rachel Cruze]

Right. Which comes out of fear. The motivator is irrational. You know what I mean?

[Dave Ramsey]

What car is it?

[Caller]

It's a BMW. And I just don't want him to buy a cheaper car.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, I don't care about that. I do want him to buy a cheaper car if he can't afford it. But in this case, he can afford the Beamer. Go get it. Yeah, I definitely would buy this car. You can tell him I said so.

[Caller]

I don't want him in two years to say, oh, I should have bought it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, you know what?

[Caller]

When we bought.

We're getting rid of and we're buying it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. That's not the reason he should buy it. Yeah, I disagree. The reason he should buy it is the amount of money is irrelevant because you guys have done such a good job and you should enjoy your life.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Because he could buy the Ford and then in two years regret it and go buy the Beamer and nothing would. I mean, like, that's fine, right? Like, that's not the thing. The issue I would have with him is what is going on within you. That's the fascinating thing about money is we always say, you know, take control of your money, do a budget. You be the one to control your money. And we do that because so many people, they're not in control, and it's like they have no clue where it's going. And on one end we see that, and then on the other end, people take the extreme of take control, and it's such control that it almost becomes an idol. This level of, like, I don't want to let go and that stress and anxiety, that's not freedom either. Right. So you have to find that balance. And it's hard because we see. We see this a lot, I feel like, of people that have worked the plan and paid off their house and they. They don't want to go on vacation because they're so fearful, oh, God, am I going to mess this up? Is this okay? And that's in much bondage, right? I mean, from an emotional sense, live.

[Dave Ramsey]

Like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. So make sure your generosity is where it should be. Make sure your investing is where it should be. Make sure if you're going to consume or blow some money on something that it's an amount of money that does not affect your life. And it's a small enough ratio, small enough percentage of that. And so you don't have to think about it. And you're there. You've worked your tail off. You guys have worked your tails off for 40 years. You've earned the right to do this not because of their hard work, but because of the results of your hard work. If you worked your whole life really, if you worked really hard and saved no money and had no money, then you haven't earned the right to buy the Beamer, but you have the pile of money as a result of your hard work. And so you should enjoy the fruits of your labor at this point. That's how we ought to do it. Good question. Tyson's in Boise, Idaho. Hey Tyson, what's up?

[Caller]

Hey guys, thanks for taking my call today.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure.

[Caller]

First time calling in.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, we're honored.

[Caller]

Couple things. So I've always kind of lived. My wife and I have lived. Dave Ramsey adjacent is kind of like my affectionate way of saying that means.

[Dave Ramsey]

You were right part of the time.

[Caller]

We have six months of savings like emergency fund. We have. We put 18 to 19% of our annual income into retirement. That includes 401k and maxing out Roths for each of us each year. We have a small amount, about five grand each in our twins. The five years old twins college accounts. So we're doing some stuff. My one question is we have $19,000 worth of truck debt. The truck isn't upside down. It's a nice Toyota Tundra. Just looking for some advice. Should we borrow from ourselves and our Roth?

[Dave Ramsey]

No.

[Caller]

Or should we just. Or should we just continue down the path of paying this thing off in six to eight months?

[Rachel Cruze]

Don't you have money saved in an emergency fund?

[Caller]

We do and I don't. I guess there's trepidation on. Should we pull the money out of our six month fund just to pay that down?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Caller]

Seems like a dumb question.

[Dave Ramsey]

You should pay. You should pay your truck off today or you should sell it. One of the two.

[Caller]

Okay, one of the.

[Dave Ramsey]

One of the two I paid off today. And then, then I would take the six months and rebuild my emergency fund.

[Caller]

That's easy enough. And then we're working to pay off our house after that. So we're. Man, we're super close.

[Dave Ramsey]

Exactly. Yeah. It's pretty simple. And don't buy another truck, dude, unless you have the money and you write the check. No more debt. The key to building wealth is not having stupid truck payments. And I like, I drove my truck today. I like a good truck. There's nothing wrong with that.

[Rachel Cruze]

But parked it kind of sideways.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, it's because that way nobody can hit the door on the new Raptor.

[Rachel Cruze]

My Tesla is literally parked right next to you at the Charger station.

[Dave Ramsey]

I thought his parking style you people that charge cars can hit other people's doors. I know about you people. So I park it where you can't get to my raptor and mess it up. So don't mess up. Don't mess up my truck. Well, you're the one picking on my parking style. But the anyway, the James knows it's intentional. It's not because I don't know how to park. Okay, so keep you people off my truck. But anyway, I want you to get a truck, Tyson. I want your truck to get you. And truck payments are when you folks, when you sign a car payment agreement and you say, I want a car payment, right under that, it says, I am committed to being in the middle class the rest of my life. Car payments are the mantra. The. The motto of the middle class. You're always gonna have a car payment. You might as well have a big one. Just get what you want. Life's too short. Gotta have an airbag on the passenger side. That's not my mother in law. We got. Everybody's got a saying about a car. They always, you know, it's not safe. My little babies are all gonna die because the car is four years old. Oh, up. Car payments are basically signing up and saying, yeah, I want to be in the middle class.

[Rachel Cruze]

What are you taking from age 25 to 65? If you didn't have a 700 car payment every month, you just invested it, you'd have 4.4 million at 65.

[Dave Ramsey]

Hope you like the car.

[Rachel Cruze]

There you go. There's your $4 million car.

[Dave Ramsey]

Broke your middle class thing and turned you into upper class. You be upper class now it.

[George Campbell]

Dave, we got a lot of calls on this show where life happens. One day someone's healthy, they're working, providing for their family, and then a curveball hits.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know, we hear it all the time. A car accident, a cancer diagnosis, a heart attack, and suddenly everything changes. Yeah.

[George Campbell]

And that's why you've always said that having term life insurance from Zander is essential because it protects your family if the worst happens.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's right. You need 10 to 12 times your income in coverage. No gimmicks, no whole life junk. Just straightforward term life protection. But there's another piece that people often overlook, and that's long term disability insurance. Yeah.

[George Campbell]

It's important to understand the difference between them. Life insurance steps in when you die. Disability insurance steps in while you're alive, but can't work. So it replaces a large part of your income so the bills still get paid while you get back on your feet now.

[Dave Ramsey]

If your employer gives you free disability insurance, great. Take it. If it's discounted there at a better price, take it. But if not, Zander can help you find the right plan. Whether you're single or married, it's not optional. If you're going to be out of work for a while, then you need to make sure the money's still showing up.

[George Campbell]

And that's why Zander is our go to. They make it super simple to get the right coverage at the best price. No pressure, no upselling.

[Dave Ramsey]

I've trusted Jeff Zander and Zander insurance for over 25 years and so has my family.

[George Campbell]

So don't wait. It's fast, it's easy, and it could make all the difference. Go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282.

[Dave Ramsey]

Protect yourself, protect your income, Protect your family. You ever wanted to see the person calling on the show instead of just hearing them? You ever want to see the show done live? We do it on the Glass every day, Monday through Friday from 1 to 4, and you can stop by Ramsey Solutions anytime. We have free coffee and wonderful homemade cookies. Wonderful audience today and we've always got beautiful people, 50 to 200 folks out here hanging out with us. And so if you ever want to do that, we'd love to have you come by. Oh, and by the way, we're taking the Ramsey show on the road. We're going to do a little tour this fall so you can experience the live Q and A. You can be part of the live Q and A. You could do raw confessions, crowd debates, a local debt free scream. It's all happening live and we're gonna do two of them in the fall. It's the first time we've ever done this and we launched it about three or four days ago and it's almost sold out. There's just a handful of tickets. So this probably don't even need to do this ad. But we're gonna tell you about it and you can finish off the last few tickets if you want. Rachel, Ken and George will be doing the show in Chicago on September 30th. And tickets are a whole $39 and there's only about three or four hundred seats a night. So that's why it just disappeared and evaporated in just a couple days. You can't get in. And so you may be able to get tickets to either one of these by the time you hear this. So check. But I they're going really, they're just about gone. Jade, John and George will take the stage in Orlando couple days later, October 2nd. So you can't feel this kind of hope through the headphones. You got to be there. Click the link in the show notes and get signed up or go to ramseysolutions.com events again. September 30th in Chicago. October 2nd in Orlando. Colin is in Michigan. Hey Colin, how are you?

[Caller]

Hey, Good, Dave, how are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Caller]

Hey, I got a quick question for you. So I'm a junior in college and I have about $85,000 in my 2500 and 29 account. I was wondering if I should be using that just for tuition and material costs or if I could be using it for my living expenses as well.

[Dave Ramsey]

I think you can use it for your living expenses as well as far as the on campus housing and that kind of thing. You need to check that because I'm not positive doing that off the top of my head. Have you gotten any scholarships?

[Caller]

Yes. So that. Yes. So my scholarships cover about 50% of the cost. The only other cost I pay is about three and a half thousand dollars in tuition every semester.

[Dave Ramsey]

You can, you can remove the value of your scholarships from your 529 without penalty.

[Caller]

Oh, okay. Really?

[Dave Ramsey]

And then you could use that for living expenses for sure.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Or anything you want to use it for, for that matter. But yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

How much per semester are you getting in scholarships, Colin?

[Caller]

About $3,500.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay. I'm just thinking because you have how much in the 529?

[Dave Ramsey]

85.

[Rachel Cruze]

85 or 83.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So you've gotten $7,000 a year for two or three years, right?

[Caller]

Yep, that's correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. So I mean you pull probably 25 out of it without any trouble at all. You just got to be able, in the case of an audit, you've got to be able to document the amount of the value of the scholarship. Okay.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so sometimes scholarships are not an actual dollar amount, they're just a thing that they're giving you and you need to put a value on that thing if you get something like that, like if you got free housing or something, that kind of a thing. So. But yeah, you can pull that much out. So I know that can be done. As far as the remaining money, can it actually be used for living expenses? I'm not 100% sure, but I feel like there's something I'm reading that you.

[Caller]

Can use it for qualified room and board, including on campus housing and off.

[Dave Ramsey]

Campus rent, qualified okay. Qualified home.

[Rachel Cruze]

And Colin, you can roll over 35,000 of it when the account's been open for 15 years into your RO. IRA that.

[Caller]

Yes, I did know that.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay. Yeah, so that passed. Which is great. So. Yeah. So if you. Which you'll be close to that ish. With the 24,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

There's a bunch of stipulations on that. That's under Biden's Secure act and it's not great.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh really? I've heard people starting to do. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's very difficult. You can do.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, I would do it then. I would clean it there.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'd clean it out.

[Rachel Cruze]

He's not going to be able to clean it out. He's got 83,020 something in scholarships. $50,000. He's not going to live on $50,000 in two years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Probably not. Yeah, I would. Look, the other thing you can do is you actually can. You can hold it. It can be used for your kids someday.

[Rachel Cruze]

How great is that?

[Dave Ramsey]

It can be used for your spouse someday. It could be used for.

[Rachel Cruze]

Would you keep it in or would you try to roll it to a.

[Dave Ramsey]

Rod once you realize how hard it is to roll? I might keep it for a while.

[Rachel Cruze]

And just wait for.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, I mean, during the 15 years. You got to wait anyway.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

A lot of your life's going to happen then you could decide more intelligently. But you don't have to decide that today.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You have to leave it in there for that period of time, so. Or be penalized.

[Rachel Cruze]

Unless his parents opened it when he was 2 and it's 19. It's been open for. It could be open for 15 years. Correct. Isn't it when you start the 529?

[Dave Ramsey]

Don't know.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't know. I had it under the impression after you finished school that the 15 years started and so you were up until you could do it. I don't know, but I.

[Rachel Cruze]

Some options, Colin. But at least use it for living expenses.

[Dave Ramsey]

The main thing I would do is I get the scholarship money out and I'd use it for the living expenses. And then let's see what's left. What's left hopefully will be negligible and it won't matter. And that would be good. You've done a great job, by the way. Debt free school. Way to go, Colin. Yeah. All right. Matt's in Greenville, South Carolina. Hey, Matt.

[Caller]

Hey. How's it going?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Caller]

Well, Dave, I guess I'm just struggling with a career problem because I got married in 2014 and ever since then I've only been making 40,000 a year. And the different jobs I've had up through this point and I'm trying to figure out a way to grow in a career and it just seems like all I'm doing is working and exhausting myself, coming home tired and I'm just. And I feel just so spent. Like I just don't know what to do anymore.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you do?

[Caller]

I'm a package delivery driver.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Yeah, that's hard work. So you're putting in 40 hours and you're working for like UPS or you're working for Amazon or whatever.

[Caller]

FedEx.

[Dave Ramsey]

FedEx, the other one. Okay, left one out, sorry. Okay, so what are you making, like 60 or 70?

[Caller]

No, I'm making 40.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, you said 40. Really? I thought FedEx drivers did better than that.

[Caller]

Okay, I wish.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. Well, it comes down to a couple of things. Obviously what you've done is you took a job because you're a responsible person so that you could pay your bills to eat and feed your family, right?

[Caller]

Yes, absolutely.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's your first big deal. Get people to do that sometimes is hard. And then the second, once you've got that covered, then the second thing to do is, okay, ask the question that you're asking. So you're doing all the things in the right order and the question is, okay, now how do I move careers into something that I can make 140,000? What's that look like? And then you start asking yourself, okay, what are those careers? What are the things I'm good at? What are my natural bents? What might, what training might I need to get that I haven't had to move into that area, you know, but there's probably something you've dreamed about doing, maybe opening your own business. I mean, I don't know, but I know guys running pressure washing companies that are making 100k.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And obviously that's not rocket science, right?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You don't have to go back and get the pressure washing degree. Right? So, no, you run down to Home Depot, buy one and knock on somebody's door and here we go. And so, you know, so I. But you've. But you've got to lean into it and you got to be aggressive and ambitious and all those kinds of things. And you have all of that because you're asking this question. That's what that tells me. If you weren't asking us questions where we'd really have a problem.

[Rachel Cruze]

Is there anything, Matt, in Your head that you've always thought about or kind of dream about an ideal career.

[Dave Ramsey]

If I could do this and make $150,000 a year, what would it be?

[Caller]

Well, honestly, to tell you the truth, I would love to teach people how to get out of debt because I mean, my wife and I have been debt free and we have an emergency fund. We've been following you for the last 10 years and we've just been struggling to save for our house. But I mean, we in the fact that there, that we've been only made this much money and we've been able to get this far, I mean, tells me that, you know, I can do this and I could teach other people.

[Rachel Cruze]

So helping people is a big thing. Yeah. Well, Ken Coleman talks about find the work you're wired to do. And there's elements of people where there's like kind of this natural thing that comes out of them. Right. So for you, it's helping people and it may be in the avenue of money. It could be something else that you realize, oh my gosh, I'm really good at that. But if you hang on the line, Matt, we'll send you Ken's book. And there's an assessment at the, at the end of the book, which you can take. It's a code and you can log in. And it's an incredible assessment that asks you all these questions and it kind of pares down some things just to get the juices flowing, if you will. Right. Just to kind of give you some ideas.

[Dave Ramsey]

It'll help, give you some guidance in what direction you could go. And if you want to learn to be a Ramsey coach, we have a Ramsey Coach certified qualification program. You can check that out online too. Some of those coaches make good money. Some of them don't do much coaching. So there's always that option too. If you want to win with money, you got to make good choices. And that includes where you shop for groceries, which is why I'm excited about Aldi. You'll find everything you need at Aldi from the same high quality meat and seafood you find behind the butcher counter to fresh organic fruits and vegetables delivered to stores daily. Aldi proves low prices don't mean low quality. No gimmicks, no membership fees, just real savings. Listen, a family of four can save nearly $4,000 a year shopping at Aldi. That's real money back in your pocket. So stop paying more and start shopping at Aldi for the lowest prices of any national grocery chain. Find a store near you today at Aldi us. That's a L D I dot US Savings based on regional analysis of Aldi versus select competitors. Prices may vary by location, product availability and the market. Our question of the day is sponsored by Y Refi. You didn't take out private student loans hoping to default. But life happens. Why? Refi won't shame you. They'll help you explore a real plan to get back on track. Head to yrefi.com Ramsey find out more. That's the letter Y, r e f y.com Ramsey not in all states.

[Rachel Cruze]

Today's question comes from Cameron in Kansas. My wife and I are on baby steps 4, 5 and 6. We were both raised by hardcore Ramsey followers, except my dad, who became a little Ramsey ish once he hit baby step seven. He opened up a credit card in my name when I went to college so I could easily buy a house one day. The card lives in his basement and is only used once a month for the family television subscription bill, which is paid off every month. I've never seen the card. My wife and I don't care about having good credit. Should I ask my dad to cancel the card so my credit score disappears? Or just leave it alone since it's not hurting anything? Oh, I would get rid of this.

[Dave Ramsey]

Gross.

[Rachel Cruze]

I would get rid of it. Cameron.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, I'm not worried about the credit thing. It's your violation of your boundaries. You're like an adult and stuff. My card lives in my dad's basement. That's whacked. Yeah. How about you chop up the card and close the account like a grown man? And your dad doesn't interfere in a grown man's life. If he wants to do something with his life, he can go do something with his life. But he shouldn't be doing this with his grown son. I would no more do something like that to one of my children than fly to the moon. Even if I was right, you know? And in this case, he's both things. A boundary violator and not wrong. So, yeah, no, yeah, you should definitely call him and go, dude, we're not doing this anymore. Chop, chop, chop. Close, close, close. Pay for your.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, that's a good point. With all this stuff, it's like, whatever, but it's. It is the boundary violation that your dad has a financial string attached to you, basically. Who? That he's kind of in charge of. It's weird. Weird.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Yeah. It's way out of control. All right. In Virginia it is. Is it larf? Is that right?

[Caller]

Yes, sir. Hi, Dave.

[Dave Ramsey]

Hey, what's up?

[Caller]

Hey, thanks for taking my call today.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure.

[Caller]

My wife and I are both 26 years old. We're completely out of debt, and we're currently on baby step number four.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good.

[Caller]

My question for you is, we're trying to figure out how aggressive we need to be with purchasing our first home. So we currently rent here in Northern Virginia just outside of D.C. and our rent is pretty expensive, but we have good jobs out here, so we stick around. But I know that you say during Steps, baby Step 1, 2, and 3, you need to be like a gazelle with some fire underneath you. And we've definitely done that. But now that we're on baby step number four, we're not quite sure how much of our income to put towards our first home.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, obviously, the more you put towards it, the more the down payment is and the smaller the debt is. So as much as we can do and still accomplish some of these other things, we call this baby step 3B. You may have heard us talk about that. When you're between baby step three, where you finished your get out of debt plan, accept your house, you're now saving for a house, and you've got your emergency fund in place. So that's after baby step three, in other words. But before we start baby step four, some people put everything they can scrape together towards the down payment to build up a big one very quick and delay starting baby step 4 or 15% of your income going into retirement for two or three years to pile up a big old pile of cash for a down payment. That's the one end of the extreme. The other end of the extreme is to put all 15% away into retirement and do as much down payment as you can do above that. Anywhere in between is okay. Sometimes people do 10% for retirement and then load their down payment fund as quick as they can. Anywhere in there is all we want to do. I do not want to delay starting retirement more than about three, maybe four years.

[Rachel Cruze]

And the lowest amount of a down payment we recommend is 5%. But if you can do more, obviously that's better. So what's your household income?

[Caller]

So our household income gross is about $160,000 a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good. Very good. Okay.

[Caller]

So we currently are putting about $1,000 a month into a high yield savings account to save up for our down payment. Ideally, we would like to about $100,000 so we can do about 20% on our first home is what our goal is.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're not gonna get there at a thousand dollars a month, right?

[Caller]

Which is, you know, we're trying to figure out, you know, should we cut out certain things in our life to help us get there sooner?

[Dave Ramsey]

Have you started the retirement savings?

[Caller]

We are, we have. About 15% of our income is going towards retirement.

[Rachel Cruze]

How much is that per month? Do you know what that would be cash wise, if you put it back in your paycheck?

[Caller]

I'm not sure.

I would imagine it's somewhere around two to two and a half thousand.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I would look at stopping my retirement temporarily and throwing all of that in the down payment because that starts to be $36,000 a year. That puts you in a house in three years at your $100,000 goal. And then you start your retirement. Okay, you're not gonna get there at $12,000 a year.

[Rachel Cruze]

And you guys are 24, is that what you said?

[Caller]

26.

[Rachel Cruze]

26.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so you'll be 29.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Buying a house with $100,000 down. Start your retirement, then you'll be multimillionaires.

[Caller]

That sounds lovely.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. But I just don't, I don't think the 12 is. That sounds like a 10 year plan. That's not a plan, right?

[Caller]

Yeah, I mean that's kind of where our head is at too. When we really looked at it, we're not sure how long it's going to take us to get there with. Especially with housing only going up.

[Dave Ramsey]

Exactly, exactly. So, Yeah, I think 36 months of saving and delaying your retirement. I just said three to four years and doing 100% of your game plan on the debt snowball, I mean, on the down payment fund, instead of be funding retirement temporarily, is what I would do because I'd be wanting to get into a house and I think you are too. So. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense with the math in your situation. Now sometimes folks can do both and still get there and get to their good strong down payment. And that's a 20% down is what he's aiming at. And that by the way, if you put down 20% on a Fannie Mae, a standard conventional mortgage, which is the least expensive mortgage of the conforming mortgages. And if you put down 20%, you avoid PMI private mortgage insurance, which is about $75 a month per hundred thousand borrowed. And so it's, you know, it's 300 bucks a month for a $400,000 mortgage. If you don't put down 20%, that's a lot. Again, that's 3,600 bucks a year. That starts to be almost 1% of your mortgage amount that you're paying out insurance and all private mortgage insurance is folks, it's insurance that the mortgage company requires you to buy for them in the event they have to foreclose on you and they lose money on the house because you didn't put it on a big payment, down payment, then this insurance covers the difference. And they don't require that. If you put down 20% because they've got the margin, they know with that loan to value ratio that they're safe. And if they did have to foreclose, they're not going to lose money. But when you're north of 80% on the loan to value, if you don't put down at least 20% then, then they're going to require that and it's expensive and it's useless. It's basically foreclosure insurance for the mortgage company. But you have to pay for it. That's why it's aggravating. And so yeah, I love to see people put down 5% because of that. But again, first time home buyers, Rachel's right, we, we don't yell at you for putting down 5%, but you're paying a premium when you do that.

[Rachel Cruze]

Right? Well and I mean it's kind of that like tension of the market's not going down. Right. And so if you have to wait another three, four, five years to save the 20%, could you get in earlier from a cheaper, you know, standpoint of like it's, it's kind of a little bit of that game you kind of have to play.

[Dave Ramsey]

But by the way, just as a side note, if you did take out a mortgage that has MIP mortgage insurance premium on FHA or pmi, when you do get it paid down to that ratio, you can request they stop it. You have the right to stop paying for the insurance once it gets down to there. If you're doing it based on the fact that the value has gone up and Now I've got 20% equity, not just paid it down to 80%. You may have to pay for an appraisal, but a 4 or $500 appraisal is nothing compared to the cost of PMI.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's a good point.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so, you know, that's not a big deal. Now don't just go get any appraisal. You've got to get one that's approved by your mortgage company because they're the ones have to accept it in order to drop the PMI so you can get out of this. It's not forever but you just kind of got to be thoughtful about how you're doing it and not just assume you're going to have it forever because you don't want it forever. It's too stinking expensive. These days, business as usual is anything but. Tariffs make trade policy a moving target. Supply chains are squeezed and cash flow is probably tighter than ever. So if your business can't adapt in real time, you're in a world of hurt. That's why you need NetSuite by Oracle, trusted by more than 42,000 businesses, including Ramsey Solutions. You need to see what's happening, what's stuck and what's costing you and how to fix it. And NetSuite is the number one cloud based business management suite because it helps your business make the right decisions fast. It brings accounting, financial management, inventory and HR into one place so you're not left shuffling a dozen different spreadsheets. That gives you the visibility you need to make quick decisions based on actionable data. And NetSuite AI automates everyday tasks so your team can focus on strategy. It's one system for full control and no guesswork to tame the chaos. And right now, if you're leading a business doing more than a million dollars in annual revenue, download NetSuite's free ebook Navigating Global Trade. Three insights for [e-mail] Ramsey that's NetSuite.com Ramsey from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show. Welcome back. Rachel Cruze, Ramsey personality, is my co host today, number one best selling author and my daughter Joe is with us in North Carolina. Hi Joe, how are you?

[Caller]

Good. How are you guys doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Caller]

So I'm looking to transition from my full time job to doing my side business business full time. And I'm just wondering how to set myself up financially when I'm ready to make that move.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, the best way to do it is to raise the income of the side business to where it's within reach of your day job.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

In other words, we always say pull the boat up really close to the dock before you so you can step into the boat instead of having to leap and hope you hit the boat. So, meaning, so what is your income on your side business now?

[Caller]

Right now it's only about 1,000amonth in weekends.

[Dave Ramsey]

Working weekends only?

[Caller]

Yeah, it's basically just Saturdays.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you do?

[Caller]

Mobile mechanic.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh good. Okay, cool. And so you got the truck and the tools and so forth?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, that's neat. And what do you make on your day job.

[Caller]

Around 93 a year, depending on overtime before everything.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so jumping from 93 to 12 is not a plan. That's too scary. And there's two reasons it's too scary. Number one, if you had a big old savings account, you'd burn through it to cover the difference. Number two, you don't have proof that this business will scale. All you've got is $1,000 a month worth of proof. And I want more proof than that before I bet the farm on it, so to speak. So what can we do to add more hours and more income to the mobile business to get it to, gosh, let's get it to 60,000 from 12,000.

[Caller]

Yeah. Basically a time issue. Yeah, because like I have work coming in, but I can't even get to it all because I just don't have the time for. You know why? Just because they only want to do.

[Dave Ramsey]

It during work hours.

[Caller]

A lot of the times. But I don't have time during the week after my full time job. And so like that's why I push Saturday. Just because my schedule for the day, you know, I'm out of the house early and then home later.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so you're working more than 40.

[Caller]

At your day job a lot of the times. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because if you're working 40, you do have time.

[Rachel Cruze]

Can you pull back on your main job, Adam, and start supplementing some of those hours maybe like twice, like two nights a week?

[Caller]

Yeah, I might be able to. It's just, it's not predictable. So getting this, getting everything scheduled, like if I had a job scheduled, then that day at work, something happens and I'm unable to make it, you know.

[Rachel Cruze]

For your full time job, you mean.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you do? What do you do during the day?

[Caller]

I'm a diesel mechanic.

[Dave Ramsey]

So why would you have to stay after.

[Caller]

What was that?

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you mean if something happens during the day? Well, what happened during the day?

[Caller]

Like if I'm on a job and it doesn't go as planned, you know, and then it ends up turning into a later. Takes longer than it should, you know what I mean?

[Rachel Cruze]

And you have to stay there to finish that job. You can't just like you can't.

[Dave Ramsey]

You can't roll it to the next morning.

[Caller]

No. And then there's also emergencies, emergency call outs as well. That happened.

[Dave Ramsey]

How much of that job going over what is supposed to an emergency do you really have?

[Caller]

It depends on.

[Dave Ramsey]

I know, but how much do you.

[Caller]

Really have for time?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, how often does that really happen or how often are you just electing to stay late?

[Caller]

No, no, I don't elect. Like, I would. Like 40 hours is fine for me. Like, I don't. That's the other. That's why I'm trying to do the side business, because I don't need all the, you know, I'm. Money's good, but it's not like I don't need all the hours and stuff like that. Like, we're in a pretty good spot where we don't need all that extra income. I want to say, you know, it's bad, but.

[Dave Ramsey]

So how much. How much mobile business are you turning away?

[Caller]

It probably ends up being one or two jobs a week just because I tell them I'm out a couple weeks.

[Dave Ramsey]

Which is how much. How much is a job worth on Average?

[Caller]

Be like 3 to 500, depending. Some are more, but yeah, roughly around there.

[Rachel Cruze]

So 1,000 bucks a week, possibly. You're turning away so close to $4,000 is what you could be doing on a minimum.

[Caller]

Yeah, yeah, because I kind of did the math.

[Dave Ramsey]

I want you to start taking those jobs and booking them, even if you. And just tell them if something blows up at work, I may have to push you a day, but I'm gonna. If. I'm gonna be there Tuesday. But if I get blown up Tuesday, I'm gonna move it to Wednesday and we'll get to you. Okay, I want you to start. I want you to pick up some stuff, a couple of those jobs a night, a couple during the weeknights, and get this up to $3,000. Anyway, have you got any savings?

[Caller]

Yeah, I have. Me and my wife have about 120 in 401ks, and then we got about another 20 just in regular savings.

[Dave Ramsey]

You haven't got enough to do this. Okay, that's what I was wondering.

[Caller]

I was wondering if I should open another savings account and kind of put a bunch of money in there to.

[Dave Ramsey]

Have that you're not going to be able to get. I'd like for somebody making 94 to get their income to 60 to 70 before they make the leap. And you're not going to be able to do that in the situation you're in. But maybe we can get you up. Maybe we can get you up to 36 or 40 or something and have a good, healthy savings account. Those would be the two things I would do. I would not make this leap with any amount of savings in the bank when I only have $1,000 income. Yeah, exactly, because you have not proven the business idea is scalable you think it is, but you have not proven it. And you're counting. Their family's counting on you to prove.

[Rachel Cruze]

It for what, six months consistently that it's coming in, and then make the jump.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, if you can get another $2,000 a week, that gets you to 36,000 by beefing up your Saturday a little bit tighter, working more hours. You're gonna burn some. You're gonna burn some candle oil here. Okay? You're gonna burn the candle at both ends in order to get this thing going. That's the price you're gonna pay to do this. Otherwise, you're gonna take a leap of faith, which is called stupidity.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, and again, it's this. The whole working too, and trying to get this going again. It's for six months. So you think about that. And by February, work like a crazy man. Six months, do it. And then. And then make the lease.

[Dave Ramsey]

Your kids are whining, your wife's whining because they never see you. And, honey, that's the price we pay to get this other business up and running enough that we can trust it for me to walk out of this other one. Yeah, and I think you can do it. I think what you're doing is marketable in a world.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, my gosh. Convenience.

[Dave Ramsey]

Convenience and luxury items. Convenience items and luxury items. And you're Both are at a premium, and they're the types of businesses that are doing the best. And so I think you're in the right place.

[Rachel Cruze]

The mobile grooming of dogs, the mechanics that come to your house. I know, exactly. That's what I'm saying. I'm like, the convenience world out there is just growing and growing, and people are really.

[Dave Ramsey]

I am not betting your family's future on that when you've only made $12,000 year. I would not do that. That's bad business acumen. So we want more social proof, more proof in the marketplace that we can actually turn this into money. And if you could get it up to 36,000 and hold it there for six months and be about to collapse because all you do is work all the time, I'd be ready to try it. Especially if you had some savings and if your wife has a good income. We failed to ask about.

[Caller]

Trip Planner by Expedia.

[Dave Ramsey]

You were made to outdo your holiday.

[Caller]

Your hammocking, and your pooling. We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel.

[Rachel Cruze]

Hey, you guys. More than a hundred million Americans carry medical debt. And that is so scary. And it shows that Traditional coverage often leaves people to face big bills alone. Families need more than just coverage.

[Dave Ramsey]

They need community.

[Rachel Cruze]

So what if your health care costs less and you are actually supported by other believers in the process? That's why I love Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a budget friendly, faith based alternative to health insurance that's been serving believers since 1981 and they've paid over $12 billion in medical bills, y'.

[Dave Ramsey]

All.

[Rachel Cruze]

That is faith in action. So let me say it again. CHM is not insurance. It's a nationwide health cost sharing ministry. It's Christians helping other Christians with their medical bills. With chm, you get to choose your providers. There are no networks, no surprise bills, and no insurance headaches. Whether you're just starting out as a family or you're looking for something that fits your budget better, CHM is where your faith and finances agree. Programs start at just $98 a month, so go to chministries.org budget to learn more and take the leap of faith. Today, that's chministries.org budget.

[Dave Ramsey]

Denise is with us in Memphis. Hi, Denise. How are you doing?

[Caller]

Okay, good.

[Dave Ramsey]

How can we help?

[Caller]

I'm trying to figure out, is there ever a point where you're actually saving too much?

[Dave Ramsey]

No. Well, the Bible may have been messing with you. I'm messing with you. That's fun. Okay, so why do you think you're saving too much?

[Caller]

Well, we have seven kids and it just seems like things are super, super tight and my husband's very anxious about money.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, well, are the kids eating?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, what is super tight?

[Caller]

It's just sometimes we dip down into the savings and then we dip back out and it's just order.

[Dave Ramsey]

To do what?

[Caller]

In order to just do general living.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's general living like?

[Caller]

Well, insurance, groceries.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you're saving so much that you're not budgeting properly for groceries?

[Caller]

Well, no, we're budgeting for groceries.

I'm just saying properly.

Seems like there's.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you're budgeting properly, you would never dip into savings for groceries unless you were overspending on groceries.

[Caller]

Yeah, it just, it just. It just. We don't have any. It feels like we don't have any breathing room.

[Rachel Cruze]

Any margin in your budget?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, it feels like.

[Rachel Cruze]

How much, how much do you guys make a year?

[Caller]

150,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, well, that's enough to feed seven kids. Yeah. Okay, so you shouldn't have a problem. Where do you think the overspending is occurring?

[Caller]

Well, we're doing like 10 and a half percent into the 400, 1K, 3500 in the HSA, and then we're doing an additional 15K in the Roth. I honestly think that insurance and groceries is just eating our lunch lately.

[Rachel Cruze]

How much are you spending on groceries?

[Caller]

So it's okay. Groceries plus what we paid at the school, I would say about 1,500amonth.

[Rachel Cruze]

Are they in private, paid to the school?

[Caller]

No, no, no, no. Just like it just cost us $100 every week for all five kids to.

Eat at school for lunch.

Yeah. Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. And that. That would be. But that's not killing you on 100, so. Okay. Do you have a house debt? No. You don't owe anything on your home?

[Caller]

No, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you don't owe any of the debt?

[Caller]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller]

And we have a lot in savings. We kind of did everything opposite of everyone. We paid everything off first, and then we had kids. And so we have a sizable retirement fund. And it just feels very strange to still be in a situation where my husband's getting upset about money when we're supposed to be doing that. Well, on paper, that makes sense.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Are you guys funding. You're giving out dollar amounts for your savings?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

Is that. What percentage wise, is that coming out?

[Dave Ramsey]

She said 10 and a half plus 15,000 or 15%. Yeah.

[Caller]

For the Roth. No, 15,000 for the Roth, plus the 3,500 for the HSA. A year.

[Dave Ramsey]

A year. Yeah, that'd be right. Okay. That's $18,000 out of 150.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's not. That's not causing you a problem. That's not causing you a problem. You know what? You know what? You guys are not doing a detailed every dollar budget that the two of you sit down and agree to before the month begins. You're throwing money and savings and hoping you can live with what's left over. And when chaos hits, you dip back into the savings. Yeah.

[Caller]

And usually by the next month, where savings is pretty much where it was before. But it's just my. My husband's very stressed.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I heard that three times. But you know why he's stressed? Because he doesn't have a plan. Not because of the money. So if you will start the month before the month begins, get the every dollar budget, download it. We'll give you the premium upgrade for free. And the two of you, both of you sit down and go, okay, here's what insurance costs that comes out of this. Here's what lights cost. Here's what water costs. Here's what the school lunches cost. Here's what the grocery store costs. And then we save money. I think you're going to find you have enough to do all of it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Because you guys are bringing home what. What's hitting your account, denise, every month, 9,000 ish.

[Caller]

10, 8641.

[Dave Ramsey]

Something's wrong. What is coming out of that check that's only a hundred thousand dollars.

[Caller]

There's a little bit of savings for a trip that him and my daughter want to do.

[Dave Ramsey]

He, you know, obviously, coming out of his check.

[Caller]

No, no, no. Afterwards, his check just insurance cost. And then the ten and a half percent for Roth and the 3,500 for.

The HSA, that's $18,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

We're 50 down.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, it's like 120 after taxes. So. Yeah, I mean, it should be around 10.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, like 100,000 after taxes. Yeah. And so, yeah, you got something coming out of your check that's screwing up, too. Are you guys getting a large tax refund?

[Caller]

We do, and I throw that into the emergency fund or into the.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but that's not what. No, we don't need a tax refund. That's a savings account with the IRS that pays no interest and they give it to you once a year. Santa Claus does not live in Washington, D.C. you know, to adjust your W2s and get the proper amount coming home so that there's no tax refund that will help your cash flow because you're not bringing home enough. There's something wrong with your coming home figure.

[Caller]

I honestly feel like if we weren't. If we, like, took home the amount that we get in the tax refund every year, I feel like it would be pretty much spot on.

[Dave Ramsey]

You have a feeling, but you don't know because y' all don't live on a budget. You guys have got to do a written, detailed plan. You're chaotic, and he's saving money on one side and you're over here trying to keep the family held together with duct tape and baling wire on the other side because you don't have a freaking plan. You need a plan. Before the month begins, every dollar needs to be addressed. And I want to know why I make 150,000 and I'm only getting home with 100 because the numbers you're giving me don't add up to that. So you guys gotta get into this stuff and learn where your freaking money's going. Then make the proper amount, come home and quit hoping that an IRS tax refund bails you out of your lack of organization. And planning skills. So you have to manage this like it matters. If you don't make these dollars behave, they are not going to behave. And your husband is going to remain stressed out and you're going to remain feeling like, well, we should be able to do this. But it's all that savings and it's not all that savings. The savings is not the math problem. You've given us the numbers. It's not there. So I know where the money's going. It's going to chaos and disorganization. That's where it's going. If you guys will give every dollar an assignment every month for the rest of your life like your life depended on it, and the two of you agree to it, you're going to have all of this angst removed from your position. The anxiety you're feeling and the anxiety he's feeling, but you're not gonna get rid of it by just tossing these numbers up in the air and trying to juggle them. You're throwing them around like you're a circus act. And you've got us. You've got to set them down, make them everyone behave. I can hear it. I've done this for 30 years. I can hear it in the process you're using, even discussing it with me. So you can do this. You have the money to be okay, but you this the and I've given you the antidote. Now the only question is whether you're gonna do it or not. So go to every dollar. We're going to give you the every dollar. Help them download that Kelly and get it the premium version and we'll pay for it. Give it to her as a gift. Because, honey, you can do this. It's very doable. It's very doable. And please don't ever say we can't be responsible because we have a large family.

[Rachel Cruze]

I don't think she did.

[Dave Ramsey]

She didn't. She didn't.

[Rachel Cruze]

I was gonna say I don't think she did.

[Dave Ramsey]

She didn't. But I get that all the time. I hear Dave, you can't do the Dave Ramsey plan. If you have a large family. And then we have people, eight kids stand up here and do a debt free screen. So they do it all the time. As a matter of fact, it's the only way you can be responsible with a large family is to be responsible and work a plan. It's the only. You don't have an option. It's like when you have seven kids, you don't have an option of one of Them being a brat, they have to behave. So large families, the kids, they don't have none of them are confused that they're the center of the world. But if you got one or two, one of them can get confused about that. So, you know, it goes with the territory. It's a wonderful part of having a large family, but you have to be organized. You know the thing large families can do, they can take pictures quickly. They're organized. They line up. Boop, boop, boop, boop. They line up and little ducks. And then we take a picture real quick. If you're tired of living paycheck to paycheck and feeling like you can't get ahead like a rat and a wheel, join one of our free everydollar trainings. There are new trainings every week this month, and they're all hosted by one of the Ramsey personalities. Rachel, when's your next one?

[Rachel Cruze]

It is Monday.

[Dave Ramsey]

There we go.

[Rachel Cruze]

Monday at noon.

[Dave Ramsey]

Gonna show you how to stick to a budget. And most people are finding between 5 and $10,000 worth of margin using everydollar. So that jump starts your get out of debt plan. You really start building wealth. And you can ask questions during the live Q and A. Sign up for free. Did I mention it's [e-mail] webinar? Is the Q and A interesting, Rachel?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. We get to a couple of live questions, and it's usually about someone's situation or something in every dollar that they're like, okay, well, how do I do this or that? And yeah. So it's very helpful.

[Dave Ramsey]

How's that function? Yeah. Okay. Cool. All right. Adam is with us in Springfield. Hi, Adam. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[Caller]

Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure.

[Caller]

I have a couple part question. I grew up in a landscape. Family owned. I took over part of my dad's business and my family grew. I sold it, and now I'm starting from scratch. And so we're about $5,000 of monthly income.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good.

[Caller]

We take home.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good.

[Caller]

My wife and I, we. When I was young, my father helped me buy a farm, and my wife and I sold it to buy a home and incurred a lot of capital gains tax. Our company was running a lot of old trucks, so to get around the tax, we did 179 and bought a new work truck to replace those before we sold the business. Now we're $61,000 in debt for that truck. And I know it's stupid. It's crazy. I didn't. No excuses. We're selling that home and buying another property. Borrowing 295,000. We have 180,000 that we have coming back to us from that home we're selling. And I don't know what steps we should do because.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. What price range truck do you need to operate the business? It's not the one you have.

[Caller]

I don't. I don't know exactly. So I. We ran all cash trucks for our first couple of years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

They're like five to $10,000 trucks.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

And we still have a couple of those old trucks sitting around.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh.

[Caller]

And they were posted. But I've stopped. I've started listening to your stuff just in the past week. And my father used to listen to you years ago when I was a kid. But I started listening to you recently, and I started thinking, I wonder if I should sell that new truck and just pay the repair fees on these old trucks and use them.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yep. Yep. So in business, whatever equipment we need, whether it's me with a microphone or you with a weed eater, whatever equipment we need to operate the business is a valid investment to cause the business to run. And the valid investment is I need the minimum reasonable amount to do the job. And I'll give you an example. We do a lot of stuff with technology, where you're doing stuff with trucks, trailers and mowers. Right. But with technology, there's always something that's 10 times more expensive, that's fancy, kind of like a truck. Okay. And so we have a saying around Ramsey. We're always looking for MF Minimal, functional. What's the minimal thing we can buy that's functional and gets the job done? Because the only reason to buy a computer is if it makes me more than it costs, not because somebody's going to think I have a fancy computer. The only reason for you to buy a truck is that the truck gets this work done. What's the cheapest truck that will get the work done? Because anything past that is a luxury item. And you ought to take your luxury items home. You shouldn't have those at work.

[Caller]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

So, yes, I would definitely sell this truck. I'd beef those two old ones up, get them going, and then you're probably going to need to buy a little bit better truck later on for cash to get rid of one of those junkers, because they're going to start to be unreliable, which means they're not getting the job done. You can't miss a job because of stupid breakdown.

[Caller]

Yeah, that's what happened. We had three trucks and we had like one and a half in the shop at a time. We spent 30,000 on repairs last year. And that's where I thought, oh, a new truck will make sense with a five year warranty on a thousand.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. No, it doesn't. But moving up out of a $5,000 truck into a 15,000 might make sense because of reliability issues only. But again, all we're trying to do here, we're not trying to impress anybody. We're not trying to have a nice truck. All we're trying to do is get the job done. And so when the old ones are too junky to get the job done, then they're too old to get the job done. When the new one's like six times too fancy to get the job done, then it was ridiculous. And you've already determined that. And so really you're kind of. It's almost like you need to sell all of them and buy two $15,000 ones. All I'm trying to do is run the business and keep my overhead down.

[Caller]

Yeah, I understand that.

[Dave Ramsey]

There's nothing else motivated.

[Rachel Cruze]

How many trucks do you need, Adam, for where you guys are right now.

[Dave Ramsey]

If they're all running?

[Caller]

So right now, Right now, only one. You only need one operator.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know what I would take? You said you had three junkers. Two.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And they'll bring five or six grand apiece. Right. If they're repaired.

[Caller]

They'Re pretty old. I think one's probably 4,500, the other one's gonna be like 3,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, alright, so you get 8,000 bucks there, you sell the truck you're in, put a little money with it from the sale of the house and get about a $15,000 truck and let's go get our work done. But systematically. Look at that thing. And before it wears out, start saving up the money to buy its replacement. Or before you buy the number two truck because the business is growing, save up and buy a used truck. But you don't. We're not trying to make a luxury statement. We're not trying to impress anybody with our truck. I don't even know what my landscaper drives. I couldn't care less. All I want to know is the yard get cut, you know, I mean, come on. So you know, that's all that matters is did you do the job? And now if you didn't show up, then I started caring what you drive because something broke, I guess. But anyway, minimal functional. Minimal functional. That get the job done. And that's how you run business. Everything else is just those of us that are entrepreneurs overspending and using our business as an excuse. And so that's a really, really good question, especially from a new listener. Adam, thank you very much. And I think you kind of got a good plan here and it sounds like you're going to do very well. You got your head dialed in and you had good training from your dad on the business side of things, it sounds like. And so yeah, that's good. I think you're going to go in a great direction there. Judson's in Michigan. Hey Judson, what's up?

[Caller]

Hey Dave, it's great to talk with you. I've actually kind of. I feel like I've grown up on your stuff. My parents have been longtime listeners out of Southern California. We moved to Michigan in 98. I am actually in the midst of selling my home and moving to the great state of Tennessee where you reside. So.

[Dave Ramsey]

Great.

[Caller]

That being said, that being said, I don't actually have a place for me to move my family to. My wife's a horse trainer so I am stuck in this situation where I'm trying to figure out land value.

[Dave Ramsey]

You have a place to move your family to, you don't have a place to move the horses to.

[Caller]

Yes, both. Right. Well, I mean I can end up in a rental situation.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, you could end up in a family home and the horses are somewhere else.

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but horse trainers get confused about what family is. Horses aren't family, they're a business.

[Caller]

That's true.

[Rachel Cruze]

You and George Campbell with the horses.

[Dave Ramsey]

I just said in order. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry, Right quick. What's your question?

[Caller]

If I want to stay married, I will keep the horses.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I didn't say get rid of them. I just don't know. I don't know if you have to own the land that they're sitting on.

[Caller]

I'd like to.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I know you'd like.

[Caller]

We're managers of a decent sized property. Right now we're looking to move to Tennessee and I'm not seeing prices match value. So it puts me in the situation where my dad is willing to co sign with me on.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that part where you're a longtime listener, you and your dad and you want to co sign. Not a chance, dude. Not a chance. You're buying something you can't afford cuz you're trying to do something you shouldn't be doing. You guys have got to think through this a little more clearly. Sarah, Raleigh. Hey, Michael. How are you?

[Caller]

You? I'm doing well. Dave, how are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Caller]

So me and my wife are on baby step two. We started out with around 101,000 in debt, and we are down to about 50.

[Dave Ramsey]

Way to go.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

How long did that take?

[Caller]

We.

We. We had about 49,000 cash savings that we dumped at half of it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, so it took 10 minutes.

[Caller]

Okay, we are. Yeah. So. But it was actually a little less than 49. Probably about 40. It was like 46 or so.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's the. What is the remaining debt on?

[Caller]

So the remaining debt is 46,000 in student loans, and then we have 4,000 on personal loan.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, good. All right. And what's your household income, Sir?

[Caller]

It's about 150,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good, good. Excellent.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, nice.

[Caller]

And that's part of my question, because I work full time. My wife stays at home with our kids. I'm in engineering. I started a side business to help assist with the debt. The problem with that is in working as much as I. I'm around 120 without the side business, and I'm able to throw most of this money from the side business at the debt to try to pay it off quicker. The problem with that is there's days where I don't even hardly get to see my son, and it's like an emotional thing for me, and I'm wondering how to navigate that. The sacrifice and not seeing him, you know? How old is he working? He's five. So he just started school, so. You know, a lot of times when I get off work, I go straight and I just cut grass. I just cut grass like crazy. Just keep paying.

[Rachel Cruze]

How much are you making on that on the side hustle?

[Dave Ramsey]

30. You said 120 and 30.

[Caller]

Yeah, yeah, 30.

[Dave Ramsey]

The 150 is the total.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, it's total. I'm sorry. I gotcha. I gotcha.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So the. But how long have you been doing this?

[Caller]

This is our first year doing it. It just kind of skyrocketed.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I mean, how long have you. Because what you told me a while ago was you just pulled the money out of savings and threw it at the debt, and you really haven't paid off any debt much except that.

[Caller]

Yeah, well, I've been. I've been doing this about three weeks, but it's been. Because this is new, because. Okay, our son just started school, so I was at home with him, but now that he's in school, I don't even hardly see him, due to working in the evenings as well, basically. All right, so I was home with him during the day.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Well, you have 40. You have $50,000 in debt. You're making $30,000 a year extra to throw at it, right?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. What do you owe on your car?

[Caller]

Nothing. We have no car payments.

[Rachel Cruze]

Student loans and personal.

[Dave Ramsey]

I know, but I'm just checking. What are they worth?

[Caller]

About 50,000 in cars. We own a Jeep Wrangler and a Tundra, but they're paid for.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller]

And the Tundras for work. We paid the Jeep off with the lump sum.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. What's the Tundra worth?

[Caller]

Probably about 12,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

So the other car, the Jeep is worth $38,000.

[Caller]

No. Yeah. I'm sorry. I got the math wrong. It's worth about Kelly blue book, like 25.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller]

To 28. Somewhere around there.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right, well, what I'm fishing for is, is there a way to short circuit and do this sooner than a year? Number one, you know, Raleigh, North Carolina, you can live on a lot less than $120,000 a year. So your budget's not tightened down enough yet. You need to quit eating out, quit going on vacation, live on nothing. Beans and rice. Rice and beans. You've only been doing this three whole weeks, so it's not like you've really stretched out there yet. Okay. So. Yeah, but I think you crank your budget on down. Tight, tight, tight, tight. Because the more you crank it down, the faster you get out of debt. Agreed. So I'd love to see a situation where you could see your way to being done in a year without selling the cars. If I can't, I'm probably selling her car. So I can be done in a year so I can see my son. Because I want to be done in a year. You can do anything for a year. Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

I was going to say Michael. I feel like you guys could throw three to 4,000 at this. Get it 40, and then. And then all your stuff on top of it. You guys could do this in a year.

[Caller]

Yeah, I'm. That's what I'm projecting. And, yeah, I'm still going hard at it. It's just.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're not still doing anything. You've been doing it a whole three weeks.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know, it's not. It's not like you've been doing this for two years. Okay. I mean, you've been. It's a whole three weeks. Now. The thing is, anytime you're going to win at something, you're going to pay a price to winning at it. What you are doing is you are investing some time now, so that you have the rest of your whole life to have all the time in the world. So today, what I do with my kids or my grandkids is anything I want, anywhere in the world I want. Because I can both afford the time and the money. Because decades ago, I paid a price.

[Rachel Cruze]

But when I was five.

[Dave Ramsey]

When you were five.

[Rachel Cruze]

I buy that.

[Dave Ramsey]

When you were five, I was probably gone. Your mother was about a single mom, and you lived through it. You had something to tell your counselor later.

[Rachel Cruze]

Abandonment was not one of the issues.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, when I'm home, I'm home, too, by the way. I turn off stupid television. Okay, don't tell me. I'm spending quality time with the family. And Netflix is on. That's the definition of not quality time with the family. So, anyway, it's three whole weeks. You're going to be fine. I think it's worth the price you're paying. And I think when you look back on it, at the end of a decade, at the end of two decades, at the end of three decades, you're going to say it's the best year of investment I ever made in my son was for me to get my family back to square where we could eat again and get away from this garbage and this mess so we could breathe. And now we're able to do anything. We're living like no one else so that later we can live like no one else. We work like no one else so that later we can work like no one else. We drive a piece of crap so that later on I can drive anything I want to drive.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Because, Michael, if you had called us three weeks ago before you guys paid off the car, I'd probably tell you just to sell the car.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I think I might.

[Rachel Cruze]

And put the extra money towards this debt. So I would. Yeah, drive a crappy car so that you can be home.

[Dave Ramsey]

I would let you. I'd keep the trunder. You're using it to pull the lawn mowers. I'd let her drive a crappy car right now.

[Rachel Cruze]

And you guys save after that. And you guys can upgrade in car, but it's kind of.

[Dave Ramsey]

But I'm going to take everything out of this budget in the name of. Every time I take a dollar out, it's a dollar sooner. I get to not be doing this.

[Rachel Cruze]

Think about how much you make an hour. And if you can save that, that's one less hour you have to work. Right. And you kind of multiply that in your head. That'll make you cut life.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm cutting this, I'm cutting that, I'm cutting this, I'm cutting that. And I don't really care what other people think. But you're, you know. Yes, you're a good dad. You love your kid, you want to see your kid. That's a good thing. You should. That means you're a good daddy. And we need good daddies in America today. There's not enough of them. So thank you for being that guy. But, you know, for a short period of time, you can turn the heat up for the good of your family's long play. And you ask how to deal with the emotions. That's how I dealt with the emotions. When we started Ramsey, I came into work at 7:00am, I got home at 11. I never saw a kid for two years. I mean, I was there on birthdays, I was there some on some weekends and all Sundays. I did take Sundays off. But I worked like a maniac to get this thing up and running. And today this thing allows our whole family generationally to do whatever we want to do.

[Rachel Cruze]

And I'm not a child psychologist too, but I'm like, you don't really remember five years old. You know what I mean? I think it's harder to be away when you have.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, it's harder on him than as a kid.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's right. That's true. That's true.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I relate to his feelings. I'm glad you have those feelings. It means you're a good man. But don't treat it like it's. Don't let the drama of those feelings override the actual facts of the situation, which are that as a great man, a great husband, a great dad, you are pouring on the coals to get your family on a solid foundation so you don't have to deal with it ever again.

[Rachel Cruze]

And if your wife is able to do something too, to bring in some income, right? I mean, like all of you guys as a team together, how can we pay this off as fast as possible.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now that he started school? Maybe there's something she can do. That's not a bad plan at all. Anything we can do like this to shorten the time of the pain and then the pain becomes more and more and more worth it because then you never have to do it again as long as you stay on these principles and don't go take out another truck payment or something, you know, that's it. You spend hours researching before making a major purchase like a home or car. But it's also a good idea to put in the work, searching for the right insurance coverage to protect your biggest assets, I recommend using Ramsey trusted pros. Whether you're looking for car, home or any other type of insurance, Ramsey trusted providers have been coached and vetted to serve you like we would find what you [e-mail] insurance. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality number one best selling author. My daughter is my co host. Today Brady is in mobile. Hi Brady, how are you?

[Caller]

Good. How are you guys doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Caller]

Awesome. Thank you all for taking the call. I'm huge fan and have been for a few years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Thank you.

[Caller]

So I have a two part question but if we can, I'll ask the first part and then if you feel we have time, maybe we can get to the second part. Okay, so I'll set the stage. So my wife and I when we got married we started traveling in the oil field working and started out making $20 an hour or whatever and you know, have moved to this job, moved to that job all over the country about eight times. We're 27 now. When we started when we were about 19 and in that, you know, comes moving and keeping and we have kids, we have two children. So we've been keeping them away from, you know, other family as well and not on purpose but just the nature of the job, traveling with work. So I have in laws that are sometimes seem a little bitter about that. But the first overall question I guess is at what point? Because I can stay home and make 50, 60, maybe 70,000 a year doing what I do. But if I travel like I am now, I'm making about 200,000 right now. So you know, obviously significant difference. And the question is where is that fine line with, with greed.

[Rachel Cruze]

Of just chasing money to chase money, just make more money to make more money. So what you're saying.

[Caller]

Yes, ma'. Am. Yeah. And I'm wondering where that, where that switches because you know, like the caller before I have, you know, I'm feel like I'm as good a father as any or I definitely try to be. And right now I'm going from home about four days a week and they're actually, we just told them last year and so they're staying at home and I'm traveling back and forth, you know, every three or four days.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, that's a hard lifestyle to sustain for a long period of time with a family in general. Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

How old are the kiddos?

[Caller]

Four and six months.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And your wife is at home and you are traveling and that affects the in laws.

[Caller]

How so? And I apologize. I got a little confusing there. So for up until December of last year, we were traveling and we were on the road and we just moved back home. Oh, nine months ago.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so for the last nine months, the in laws, if they want to see the kids, just get up and come over there, correct?

[Caller]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so they've been able to do that.

[Caller]

I hope they have.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, cool. And if you were traveling, you were in another city, you were there for weeks on end, were you not? Before. Before December.

[Caller]

Yes, sir.

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

So if you're in XYZ City with the family. Yeah. If you're in XYZ City for four or five weeks with the family, the in laws could come there.

[Caller]

Right? I agree.

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I think the in laws are the. They have their own issues.

[Rachel Cruze]

I don't think his question was about the in laws.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, he did. They have accused him of being greedy. I think that's between the lines.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, is that what it is?

[Caller]

Not verbally, but, you know, it's one of those things you can't.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, we don't get to feel it's not convenient for us to come see the kids when we want to, the way we want to. Because of the way you work. So we're going to run down the way you work.

[Caller]

Yeah, exactly. Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's what I heard.

[Rachel Cruze]

He's reading between the lines.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Yeah. So the thing you got to go back to is this. There is. Rachel and I did a book on parenting, and one of the things we said to teach kids is contentment, because godliness with contentment is great gain. And a lot of people get really confused about the subject of contentment. They think ambition and contentment are on the same line. And ambition is on one end and contentment is on the other. I beg to differ. I'm highly ambitious and I'm very content. They're not on the same spectrum. They're not one end of the line or the other end. They're different lines. And so you can be a good dad, you can be a great dad and be working your tail end off. As a matter of fact, generally great dads do that. And so. So, you know, greed is not an amount of money. It is a state of your heart and why you're chasing the money. If you're saying for a couple of years, I'm going to burn the oil so that I don't have to the rest of my life burn the oil, that's a good metaphor for you. But I'M going to turn up the heat. No, we don't want to do that either over there. But whatever it is, we're going to work really hard for a couple years so that we can make different choices later. That's paying a price to win. That's going in the weight room and lifting weights so during the football game, I can actually knock someone over. Okay, I'm paying a price here to win. There's an amount of work that has to be done to lay a foundation, to go somewhere if that's what you're doing. That's ambition. That is not greed. Greed is unbridled ambition for the wrong reasons. Where you think more money is going to make you happy. You think more money is the end all. You think money is a God that you're worshiping. Instead, you can say, I want some more money. Not because I want more money, but because of what it does for me and my family. I want to change my family tree. I don't want these kids to have to worry about food or shoes. So I'm going college or college or the first car or whatever it is. I mean, we're going to get in a position that, that we can make choices and money don't cause us to. I used to work for a guy who said, I want to make enough money that I can read the menu left to right instead of starting with the price right on the right side. Most people read the menu from the price over and then decide what they're going to get. He goes, I'm going to read what I want to read and then order, and then I'll figure out what it costs because it's not going to make a deal. So that's what you're. That's what you're all about there, Brady. And, and the other thing I found in coaching people all these years, people that ask a question like you asked about greed are never greedy people. Greedy people would never ask the question because it doesn't occur to them that their worldview is skewed and screwed up. Instead, you're actually weighing out my values. I'm spending a lot of time. I'm gone four days. I got littles. And this is bothering me. Well, a guy that asks that question does not. Is not a greedy person by definition. Okay?

[Caller]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so greed is not going to be your issue now. Do you want to adjust some of your goals and your values and say, okay, I'm going to work on my career to where in the next 18, 24 months I can be home and make 100 instead of being on the road and making 200 or instead of coming home and making 50. I don't know what that looks like or how you do that, but I'm going to start to have that goal where I can come home and make.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. I was going to say being gone three to four days a week, that's hard with little ones.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so unless you see an end to it very quickly, if you say, I'm going to do it for one more year and then I'm going to take. And then I'm. By then I'm going to have a landing pad where I can come back home and I'm going to cut my income in half, but I'm going to be home.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. And you guys are still so young, Brady, that there's. There's an off ramp. Like, maybe you guys take a season and you're off the road and then the kids hit middle school and you're like, you know what? I'm. I'm gonna shift back on and turn it back up and do this new thing for two to three years, and then you're done. Like, you know what I mean? Like, sometimes we make decisions. That feels like forever, and it's not. It's not at all. I mean, I've done that with my career. I pulled back some after the third kid. And you know what I mean? Like, you can make adjustments as life. As life comes, and I don't know, there's a level of that flexibility that I don't want you to feel like you're stuck and you make a decision. You're not stuck.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

And so if.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you're not greedy. No 100 chance you're not greedy. Okay, so just because somebody's a travel agent for guild trips, that doesn't mean you're greedy. Okay, so you're. You're. But I would have a plan.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Have a plan about it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, this is not where it starts to bother you and bother me is if it's in perpetuation, if it's forever and ever. Let's have a plan where we're not doing this our whole life. We're doing this for a period of time to never have to do it again. That kind of thing. You work your butt off for your money, but your money's never going to return the favor if all you do is hope for the best. If you're ready to learn how to make your money work for you, check out the SmartVestor program. SmartVestor can help you Find advisors who specialize in retirement planning, charitable giving, advanced investing strategies and more. Whatever your goals, your pro will take the time to explain your options so you never have to invest in in anything you don't understand. Head to ramseysolutions.com smartvestor to get connected.

[Caller]

Ramsey Solutions is a paid non client.

[Dave Ramsey]

Promoter of participating pros.

[Caller]

Learn [e-mail] SmartVestor.

[Dave Ramsey]

Buying or selling a home in the middle of all the drama that is the real estate market right now requires that you don't participate in the drama, but instead you understand that facts are your friends. So the facts are that we are now sitting at a 5.8% interest rate for a 15 year fixed. That's a fact. It's down a little bit. It's a fact that house prices have stayed almost identical for the last three months. The median household, the median house price in America today is about 440,000 and that's what it has been for that period of time. It's not moved much at all. That's a fact. The fact is that we have over a million houses on the market right now, the largest in largest inventory since 2019 in the last few months. And yet demand is still higher than inventory, which is causing prices to hold and continue to go up in many areas. John is in California. Hey John, how are you?

[Caller]

I'm great, Dave. How are you guys doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than we deserve. How can we help?

[Caller]

Well, I give you a little background. My wife and I are both retired and we're struggling and trying to decide what we would like to do with what we've accumulated over our lifetime. And specifically your viewpoint in regards to IRA conversions to Roth. Just to give you a few numbers, we got about half a million dollars in liquid mutual funds and bank account and we've got about $4 million in IRA accounts. One million of that is already in a Roth and 3 million is in a traditional IRA. And I've been looking at a bunch of numbers and reading a bunch of things and what I'm trying to decide on is is it better for us to try to do some conversions between now and when we reach R d at age 73, which is about seven years from now or just our additional IRA grow. And my concern is that if I just let it grow during our lifetime, you know, the RMDs are going to be six digit numbers.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yep.

[Caller]

This is not money we need to live on. We live with in our means on just fixed income and have been able to, you know, accumulate a lot and not spend anything. And so now I just don't want to make a mistake with what we've been blessed to accumulate. So I'm curious what your viewpoints are about paying. You know what I calculated to be about 1.2 or 3 million over the next five or six years. Doing step conversions to Roth or just letting you know our three adult children inherit multi millions in a traditional IRA someday?

[Dave Ramsey]

Honestly, the answer to your question I stumbled into backwards. I did not. I was not smart enough to do it on purpose, but I accidentally did a brilliant thing, to be very clear. And the brilliant thing was that early on I converted everything to Roth. You and I are the same age. I'm getting ready to be 65, okay? And everything is in Roth. And the reason that ends up, I did it just because I wanted the tax free growth. That's right. That's the only reason I did it. And so I started converting stuff many years ago. And anytime anything popped up that was not, that was traditional, I immediately made it into a Roth. Now the result is exactly what you're facing and you've analyzed this very well. You've done a good job. You have two problems with the traditional that are mammoth. Problem number one is the RMDs. The required minimum distribution is what that stands for. For those of you that don't know John does. And that means at 73, they require you to begin to distribute traditional because they are bent on getting their taxes. And so they make you take that, that has never been taxed yet, and that is not tax free and begin to distribute it. And as you said, with $3 million, it's going to be over $100,000. And so that $100,000 comes out, it's 100% taxable. And so it's going to be reduced by 37% or whatever, whatever the number is. 30, 30%, whatever it ends up being depending on what your other incomes are. But the. Yeah, that's problem number one is you're forced into RMDs. You do not have RMDs, as John knows on Roth. And so I don't have any required minimum distributions facing me when I hit 73. The second problem is that the traditional IRA or traditional 401k, when it becomes an inherited IRA, naming your child as the beneficiary, it goes to them or your wife. And then later your child is a secondary beneficiary. However that works out when they get that money under the Biden Secure act, they are now required to liquidate that fund and Pay taxes on all of it over a 10 year period of time. So 300,000. So 300,000 a year on 3 million. Oh, by the way, it's not going to be 3 million, it's going to be 9 million. Because you're going to live a while. Okay. And you're not touching it.

[Caller]

I'm on the same page.

[Dave Ramsey]

So those are the two, those are the two problems. And so that makes me, it's pay me now, pay me a lot more later is the equation. And so I'm going to start working out of this pretty quickly. I'm going to use a substantial part of that 500k in mutual funds and after tax investments over there and I'm going to use that and move as much of the 3 million as I can this year.

[Caller]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then I'm going to as much as I, you know, and then I'm going to use the 3 million. What's left? I'm going to pay taxes out of it as I do it each year and it's going to be a lesser amount when the smoke clears because of the stinking taxes. And then it's going to grow completely tax free from then on, not be subject to RMDs. You're back in control of your nest egg. The stinking government's not got their meat hooks in you and they don't get to hook your kid in the next generation when you leave it to them. So you leave in a Roth IRA tax free, they can cash it out that day, the day you die and they pay no taxes on it. And so because here's the thing, you're sitting on $4 million, there's 3 million in this thing. And if it's in good mutual funds and you're, by the time you hit RMDs, it's going to be 6 million, it will have doubled. And seven years later when you're 80 and if you're in good health, your probability of living to 80 from 65 is very high statistically. Okay, so then that 6 million is going to be 12 million. And if it's all sitting there, hasn't paid taxes on yet, except for the RMD portion, it's going to be substantial taxes. So yeah, in terms of dollars. So it sucks right now, but it's going to triple suck later. I would do it.

[Caller]

Yeah, you're, you're, you're telling me what I was hoping you were going to tell me. My wife is, isn't on the same page because she doesn't get excited about Paying, you know.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, you know, you won't pay taxes on 12 million or three.

[Caller]

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know, it's just a matter when you're going to do it. Somebody's going to do it someday. And if you guys don't use this money and it's invested at an average of 10%, it's going to double every seven years.

[Caller]

And so you're gonna get hammered like the last caller. Changing the family tree and the next generation.

[Dave Ramsey]

You already have changed your family tree, by the way. You guys have done great. I assume you started with nothing.

[Caller]

Yeah, we're everyday millionaires. Longtime listeners. First time caller for you. But my wife's a retired teacher and I'm a retired cpa, so I love it. We've been doing this.

[Dave Ramsey]

Two of the top five categories of people who become millionaires, teachers and counselors. Yeah, I didn't hear it.

[Caller]

Anything.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, you did it. You did it.

[Caller]

You did.

[Dave Ramsey]

You guys are incredible. You've done a good analysis on it, John. You did have your facts straight. You know what you're talking about. You're just trying to think it through. And if I woke up in your shoes, I would use the majority of that 500 today and that would move about 2 million of the four of the three out. And then the other million that's laying there, I'm gonna chunk it out over about three years and just take the hit, take the pain and then be done with it.

[Rachel Cruze]

And is there a. Is there a limit for how much you can convert per year?

[Dave Ramsey]

Nope.

[Rachel Cruze]

You just gotta. You can do it all, but the.

[Dave Ramsey]

Taxes are taxes and you're. He's got so much. He's gonna have bracket creep anyway. He's gonna max it out every year anyway, so there's no way to avoid his bracket creeps. There's no way to stage it, actually. That makes sense. So I'm just going to rip the band aid off and it sucks, but.

[Caller]

Welcome to Tax Wall Foreign.

[George Campbell]

Hey, George Camel here. So you're thinking about buying or selling your home? It's exciting, but there's a lot to think about and all those decisions can feel overwhelming. Well, here's the good news. You don't have to tackle the process alone. Ramsey's Real Estate Home base is the place to find all of your free tools and resources for help to get prepared to buy or sell your home with confidence. You'll find calculators, start to finish guides, a podcast, and even an in depth video course hosted by yours truly. What's not to love? So if you're ready to take the next steps toward your home goals, go to ramseysolutions.com realestate that's ramseysolutions.com realestate.

[Caller]

In.

[Dave Ramsey]

The lobby of Ramsey Solutions you can watch this show be broadcast every day. We're on the glass from 1 to 4 Central. Also in the lobby is the debt free stage. Brian is on it. Hey Brian, how are you?

[Caller]

I'm good, Dave.

[Dave Ramsey]

How are you? Better than I deserve, sir. Where do you live?

[Caller]

I live in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

[Dave Ramsey]

Cool. Welcome to Nashville. And how much debt have you paid off, sir?

[Caller]

About $44,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Cool. How long did that take?

[Caller]

Two years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good for you and your range of income during that two years.

[Caller]

It went from 80,000 to approximately 139,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wow. What do you do for a living?

[Caller]

I am a program analyst as a federal contractor assisting dhs.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wow. Okay, cool. In Martinsburg, West Virginia? Yeah.

[Caller]

It's about an hour and a half west of D.C. so.

[Rachel Cruze]

Nice.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, gotcha. All right. Very cool. It's a pretty area too.

[Caller]

It's very nice, love.

[Dave Ramsey]

Very cool. So what kind of Debt was the 44k?

[Caller]

About 30,000 with student loans and then about 14,000. Was credit cards good for you?

[Dave Ramsey]

How old are you?

[Caller]

I am going to be 37 on Saturday.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good for you. Happy birthday.

[Caller]

Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Alright. Neat, neat, neat. Well, way to go man.

[Caller]

Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

So what gets you started on this whole Ramsey thing two years ago?

[Caller]

Well, about three years ago I closed on a house. I basically drained my savings account. Kind of wanted to keep up with the Joneses. Was not up with the Ramsey stuff at that point. And that really acted as a forcing function because as soon as I closed on the house, I was renting it out to someone. They ended up not paying the rent. Being late on. Yeah, being late on the rent very consistently. So when they finally moved out after a couple months, it was the real deal. It was do or die. I didn't have any margin for error, so I needed a solution. I knew that you were the guy when it came to personal finance. So I started googling you and I just started breathing Ramsey. Waking up, listening to it, hitting the shower, listening to Ramsey show, doing laundry, listening to Ramsey, you know, in the car. Just living it and just making that a cornerstone of my life.

[Dave Ramsey]

Very cool. Very cool. That's neat. So you got everything you needed to know just off of. Of YouTube binging.

[Caller]

Well, Spotify binging, but yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Excuse me, Wrong ad.

[Caller]

Yeah, same thing.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, binging Nevertheless. Yeah. So no book or no FPU class? Just. Just straight up Spotify.

[Caller]

Just, just straight up. Straight up Spotify.

[Dave Ramsey]

I like it. Good for you.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's awesome. Okay, what was the biggest thing that helped you through that journey? Would you say that you did? That you were like, if you went out of debt, this is what you got to do?

[Caller]

Right? Well, really it was just about finding a plan and limiting the extraneous expenses. Like, you know, maybe you got to stay in from the restaurant more nights per week. You know, maybe you got to go with a beater, Beater car. Like I got like a 20 year old Hyundai Elantra that I still roll with. You know, it's got 139,000 miles on it, but I have no intent to trade it in because it still works for me, you know, so just like being mindful of just the day to day, those small decisions and just limiting those, you know, pennies that you're throwing into the ether if you're not aware of it and thinking about it.

[Dave Ramsey]

So it's amazing how much that all adds up.

[Caller]

Absolutely. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, it adds up to 44,000 in two years. I mean.

[Caller]

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I mean, the student loans. I probably started out with 35,000 in student loans. When I graduated college, I only paid off maybe like 5,000 of that before I hit the Ramsey plan. So, like when I got Gazelle Intense, like there was nothing that was going to stop me. I was throwing like 2,000amonth at my credit cards and my student loans. And that was just like what I did. That was like the biggest thing in my life going on at that moment. And I'm so glad it's all behind me because it was so worth it. Just buckling down like that.

[Dave Ramsey]

You had an oh, crap moment and you went all in. Exactly how long, how many months were you in before you kind of started going, okay, I'm no longer afraid. I'm now getting excited. This is gonna work?

[Caller]

Yeah, I would say it was probably like after that year mark, after I was a year into it and I saw, you know, I saw my student loans probably hit because, you know, two years ago it was probably at like $30,000. When I saw them hit like 14,000 maybe like a year ago, I was like, okay, I can see the end in sight. And like, this is actually gonna work.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

You know.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

And I'm gonna be free.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. The math was telling you before that, but the emotions kicked in when you hit about the halfway point.

[Caller]

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

That might Be sense.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, so great. What was the hardest part of the two years for you?

[Caller]

The hardest part of those two years? I would just say, like, just resisting the temptation to live. Like, you know, everyone else.

Yeah.

Just like, you know, friends want to pull you out, like, hey, come on out with us. Or, you know, hey, you want to go on this vacation? Or, you know, just different things or, you know, different. You know, there's always, like, ads online that are tempting you to buy stuff you don't need, subscriptions you don't need. So just saying no to all that and saying no to, like, some of the flashy stuff in 21st century America was.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Caller]

You know, it was just tough to, like, you know, stay the course and. And stay tough. But it got easier over time. You know, as you get that practice under your belt, you know, it just becomes, like, momentum more normal. Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

You're used to it. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's almost now when somebody looks at it and rolls their eyes or looks at you and smirks, you kind of smirk to yourself and go, you have no idea.

[Caller]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

I got this.

[Caller]

Exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

I got this. I'm done. You truly had an I've had it moment. You really did.

[Caller]

Absolutely.

[Dave Ramsey]

And it started out fear based, and it ended joy based. That's cool.

[Caller]

Absolutely. I couldn't be more thankful. I mean, you guys have changed my life.

[Dave Ramsey]

Seriously. You changed your life. We just watched. Proud of you, man. Proud of you. Congratulations. Thank you.

[Rachel Cruze]

Were there people in your life cheering you on during it? Do people know what you were doing, or did you kind of keep it on the down low?

[Caller]

I was kind of selective about who I told. You know, I would tell people at church, you know, they were cheering me on. You know, big Ramsey fans told my family, my immediate family, mom and dad, they were definitely cheering me on and stuff. You know, not a whole lot of skepticism out there from the people that I knew. But, you know, I did recognize that this was my kind of deal. This was my thing to focus on. So I wasn't really that chatty about who I shared it with. I just kind of buckled down, and it was just kind of like, full steam ahead. Like, this has to be my focus because I was just so sick and tired of doing things the old way. Like, you know, the quality of life that I have right now, just, what, two months after paying off all my debt, like, it's immeasurable, better than it was before I paid off all my debt.

[Dave Ramsey]

Amen.

[Rachel Cruze]

You know, so good, because financially, and would you say, emotionally, do you feel like you've shifted feeling like, oh my gosh, I don't owe anyone anything.

[Caller]

It's a huge weight off my back. I mean, I feel like I can, I mean, I don't want to say do anything, but like the options in my life are so much greater. Like, you know, I was working. Let's, let's see. I was working like two side hustles and I was renting out a room in my tiny townhouse while I was paying down this debt. Now I just live with my new cat. Kind of bought him as a gift.

[Rachel Cruze]

After I got out of this debt free cat.

[Caller]

Yeah, exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

Roommate exchange.

[Caller]

Yeah, exactly. I was able to drop one of my freelance clients. I do some writing on the side, you know. So now I've got like just the one freelance client live with my cat, you know, just live by my house, by myself in my little townhouse and like, it's all worked out so.

[Rachel Cruze]

Awesome.

[Caller]

Yeah, it's, it's great. It's just like, like so much less stress, so much less to worry about. And you know, the Ramsey way just like really helped me focus on like what's important and how to live a more fulfilling life.

[Dave Ramsey]

So. Praise God, man. I'm proud of you.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Awesome. Thank you. Very, very well done. Very well done. And I'm sure your parents are proud of you since they were cheering you on and watched you do this whole thing. Very cool.

[Caller]

Definitely. My dad's an accountant, so he's definitely proud.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, he got it dialed in immediately. Yeah, I like it.

[Caller]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Brian from West Virginia. $44,000 paid off in two years, making 80 all the way up to 139. Busting it to get out. Count it down. Let's hear a debt free scream.

[Caller]

Three, two, one.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm debt free. Yeah, yeah. Now you know, Rachel, when a young single guy like that does this stuff, it is, in a sense it's harder for them cuz there's no one to hold them accountable. In another sense, it's easier for them because they don't have to talk somebody else into it. They just go do it.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's right. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so you got, you got a little bit of advantage, a little bit of disadvantage when you're going at it. But he dialed it in, went for it, went straight down the line. Boom, boom, boom.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, it's just. No crap. He's just like just going to do it. Two years be done. Just, just matter of fact, just do it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Matter of fact, love it. That's how it Works so great. Well done, sir. Well done. Our scripture of the day, James 1, 2 and 3. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Benjamin Franklin said, the Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. Ethan is in Texas. Hey, Ethan, what's up?

[Caller]

How you doing, Dave?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. How can I help?

[Caller]

So I'm 23 and I'm working as a security officer in the oil field, making about 874 a week after tax. And I just, I struggle with a few things, primarily saving money because I'm just not used to it. This is the most I've ever made and it's more than I could make in town. I actually work pretty far outside of town, have to drive and, you know, most I can make back there is 15, 16 an hour. But I'm not really content with where I'm at. You know, I've gone pretty much as high as I can. They want me to be a supervisor now, but it comes with a $10 an hour pay cut and.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, that's a great promotion.

[Caller]

Yeah. Our site supervisors, they make the same as everybody else and it's different for every site. So while I'm at, I get paid 874, but if I go be a supervisor, they cut it dramatically. But I'm making pretty good money, you know, for someone my age, I think. And I, I just struggle with saving it, you know, I have some debt from when I was 18. I didn't know about interest rates. Got some credit cards with 30% interest and I've been paying those off following your snowball method.

[Dave Ramsey]

How much is your car payment?

[Caller]

My car payment? I actually own my car. It's old Lincoln my grandfather gave me. But it, I have to make a lot of repairs on it, you know, just this month. I've probably spent 2,000 buying parts.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Did you say you had housing, furnished?

[Caller]

Yes. My uncle has been gracious enough to let me come up here and live with him. So I have pretty much zero bills besides gas, car insurance and my phone.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. So the problem is you're not telling your money what to go, where to go. Instead you're wondering where it went.

[Caller]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. So being able to control. Because it's probably what, around 3 grand ish a month?

[Caller]

Yeah, just about 3,000 is what you're.

[Rachel Cruze]

Bringing home before, after tax.

[Caller]

After taxes, yes, after tax and after I pay everything, it's 3096.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Caller]

After I pay everything I have to.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay. When you say pay everything you have to, meaning your phone, insurance, all of that.

[Caller]

Yeah. Fuel. Everything that I need to.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Caller]

You know, exist.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. So the remaining Ethan is again, you just need a pretty detailed budget to know exactly where that money's going to go and what, what it's going to do. How much credit card debt do you have left to pay off?

[Caller]

I, that's another issue is I've paid it off everything I can find, but a lot of it's been sold off to collection agencies and I end up not finding out about it until they finally send me a court order suing me because I never get any calls or letters or anything about it. So I think it's around 4,000 total. I have three left I know of, but there's a lot that I just don't know who holds the debt.

[Rachel Cruze]

Have you, have you pulled your credit report? Do you know what's outstanding?

[Caller]

No, I haven't.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, so I would do that.

[Dave Ramsey]

That'll give you some insight into who currently owns it and how to get in touch with, with them and begin to get balances on those things and settle them. You could probably settle them for what you originally owed real easily.

[Caller]

Yeah, I've done that several times with the ones I've had.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good.

[Caller]

I think I sold one of those 3,000 down to I think 800. So that's working out for me.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So you know how to do that. That's good. Okay, so basically, unless you're giving a lot of money away, you're spending a lot of money on food, I mean, on fun.

[Caller]

Yeah, I, I have a habit to buy and sell guitars. You know, I, I buy them a lot, you know, a thousand dollars here. Usually I make a profit, but sometimes they sit around for months at a time and I end up letting them go for a loss. Some I make profit on, some I don't. And then. Yeah, food as well.

[Dave Ramsey]

I think we found the hole in the bucket.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

How many guitars do you currently have right now that you're wanting to sell?

[Caller]

Right, Right now that I'm selling, I have six.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay. So that'll, that'll help.

[Dave Ramsey]

Did you say guitars or cars?

[Rachel Cruze]

Guitars.

[Caller]

Guitars.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, music.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller]

Yeah, I'm a player, so. Bye. Bye. Sell. Fix them up and flip them. It's just, they're hard to get rid of sometimes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's the hole in the bucket. Okay. Because you're, you're losing more money than you're making on that. And that's eating up what would have been savings because you're not paying attention to it. You're paying attention to the guitar, but not the business of flipping. So if you're gonna buy and sell more than one a year, you're gonna start treating it like it's a business and being very detailed about what you pay for it versus what you spend on it versus what you sell it for. And you need to make a profit every time, okay? And otherwise, you gotta quit screwing with this because it's just become an expensive hobby. And, you know, guitars are fine. There's nothing wrong with them. Not evil, but they're not an investment. So it's just. It's a small business idea right now. You with me? Are you there?

[Caller]

Yes, I am.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Yeah. I mean, you've identified where the money's going because you got $3,000 a month you can't account for. And we just found it. I think it's leaning against the wall.

[Caller]

Yeah, it's definitely, definitely been an issue that I've noticed.

[Dave Ramsey]

I think we put you on every dollar, get you on the budget. We'll give it to you, and you start spending every dollar on the app before the month begins. Here's how much I'm gonna have for gasoline. Here's what my phone costs. Here's what I'm gonna have for food. Here's what I'm gonna have for fun and entertainment. Here's what I'm gonna spend on guitars. Here's what I'm gonna put in savings and execute that.

[Rachel Cruze]

And then the more you pull out of that budget to throw out this debt to get it paid off, when you see it, when you finally pull your credit report. No, that extra margin goes toward the debt. It doesn't go to guitars. It goes and sell those guitars. That'll bring in some cash. That'll be. Pay off some of this debt too.

[Dave Ramsey]

You probably got $4,000 worth of guitars laying there to sell, so. Yeah, yeah, keep it. Keep something cool. Keep one or two that's cool to play. I'm good with that. I ain't got an issue with that. That's not killing you. But this exercise of not being intentional and treating it like a business and paying close attention to every dol. That's what's eating your lunch. Eric is with us in Chicago. Hi, Eric. How are you?

[Caller]

Hi, Dave. Thanks for having me on.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up?

[Caller]

So my father passed away this year, and he left my mother and I with substantial amount of money. So he left us with 12 million. I received 4.1 million in cash and the rest went to my mother.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wow.

[Caller]

Currently, currently that money, my money, 4.1 million, is sitting in a money market account which is making 4.59% interest. So I'm making about 14 to 16k a month off of interest with that. And my question is, I want to buy a house and I don't know how much I should spend on a house.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you make a year?

[Caller]

Well, right now I'm not working.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why?

[Caller]

I have a hard time with work. It's hard for me to keep a job. I have adhd, so. And I, I felt like I haven't found my calling either. So it's, it's just hard for me. I'm still trying to figure that out. Believe it or not, I'm 38.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Yeah.

[Caller]

So I have that. So right now, you know, it's just the income I'm getting is just from the money market and then, you know, so I want to buy that house.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I don't know how to deal with this. Money allows you to not deal with your ADHD and your career issues. As a result, this money has become a curse, not a blessing. You have got to deal with those things for your own sake and for your own dignity. Becoming a trust fund baby and saying it's because I couldn't work because of ADHD is not going to be good for your mental health long term.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I would prefer you pretend like this money doesn't exist and go earn a living, sir. For your sake.

[Caller]

I think you'll feel better about know how I shouldn't. The thing is, I also want to know how I should invest this money.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because this money drove right past that, didn't you? You don't have any intention of doing what I just said, do you?

[Caller]

No, I do. I just want to invest it as well so I can make money off.

[Dave Ramsey]

Of it also, you know, I think that's good. I think that part's good. And I think buying a house is good and paying cash for a house. So you're, you're in Chicago. I would spend less than a million dollars. I'd probably spend 700,000 on a property and move in cash and move in it. And I would sit down with a smartvestor pro and I would invest the rest in some good mutual funds and I wouldn't touch it. And I would go see a therapist and a doctor. If you need some medication. If you're depending on what's going on with your adhd, I Don't know. But get yourself to where you can work and hold a job and build a career, you will like you better. You'll be more fun. That puts us our the Ramsey show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to finish up.

[George Campbell]

Next, we are headed out to Chicago and Orlando for the Ramsey Show Live. Yep, you heard me right. We are taking this show to you. This is gonna be everything you love about the Ramsey show, except you get to be a part of it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Part of what, George?

[George Campbell]

The Ramsey show live. Okay, that's what I'm telling them about.

[Dave Ramsey]

Ramsey show live in here.

[George Campbell]

Nope, we're doing it on the road. You're going to Chicago with me and Rachel Cruz. September 30th. Are you free?

[Caller]

The Windy City.

[George Campbell]

I like it that time of year.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know what else I like, George? I like the deep dish.

[George Campbell]

Okay, maybe we'll have some deep dish. You mind if I finish the promo?

[Dave Ramsey]

Is that okay with you? Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. Appreciate that.

[George Campbell]

Questions and answers, real conversations, and I'm sure a few surprises here and there.

[Rachel Cruze]

George, are you in here talking about TRS life?

[George Campbell]

I am, Jade. I'm trying to talk about it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Nice.

[Dave Ramsey]

So that means it's actually happening, right?

[George Campbell]

It's happening. If I could tell the people, I think it could actually come to fruition.

[Dave Ramsey]

Listen, just tell me when and where. You don't know. Okay.

[George Campbell]

We're going to Orlando. You're gonna join Dr. John Deloney and I. October 2nd.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, great. I'm gonna go pack now.

[Dave Ramsey]

Thanks.

[George Campbell]

Please, please do that. Go pack.

[Rachel Cruze]

Hey, George, speaking of packing, is this like sweater weather or is it not that cold yet in Chicago?

[George Campbell]

What is happening? Can I please just get to how they buy the tickets?

[Rachel Cruze]

Geez, I thought it was a good question.

[George Campbell]

Okay, this is not an arena tour. This is a one night only event. Events in Chicago and Orlando. General admission is only 39 bucks. Plus there's a VIP experience if you're bougie like that. But here's the thing. There's only 300 seats available, so get your tickets now at ramseysolutions.com events.

[Dave Ramsey]

Hey, how come you get to go to both cities?

[George Campbell]

I. I just go where they tell me, man. Hey, have you been there the entire time?

[Rachel Cruze]

Maybe.

[George Campbell]

Okay, and also, are you reading a children's book?

[Caller]

I'm expanding my mind, George.

[George Campbell]

That's how we got those PhDs.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, it's probably where you got that jacket.

[George Campbell]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

See you on the road. John.