Stop Overthinking and Start Taking Action

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ramsey Show – "Stop Overthinking and Start Taking Action"

Episode Details

• Title: Stop Overthinking and Start Taking Action
• Host/Author: Ramsey Network (Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman)
• Release Date: May 8, 2025
• Description: The Ramsey Show empowers listeners to build wealth and regain control of their lives, regardless of past financial missteps. Hosted by Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman, the show addresses listeners' top financial and personal growth challenges through expert advice and actionable strategies.

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Introduction to the Episode

In this episode, Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman focus on helping listeners overcome paralysis by analysis in their financial and personal decisions. The central theme revolves around taking decisive action rather than overthinking, particularly in contexts involving budgeting, debt management, and major life decisions.

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Caller Discussions

1. Daniel from Pensacola, Florida – Utilizing Sinking Funds

Timestamp: [00:42]

Issue:
Daniel seeks clarification on the proper use of sinking funds. He explains a situation where he and his wife allocate funds monthly for specific purposes, such as Christmas, but occasionally face disagreements on reallocating these funds for unexpected expenses.

Discussion:

• Jade Warshaw highlights the importance of mutual agreement on budget allocations.
• Ken Coleman emphasizes the need for discipline and sticking to agreed financial plans.
• The hosts advise that flexibility in budgeting should only occur when both partners consent to reallocate funds for more pressing needs.

Notable Quote:
Ken Coleman at [04:00]: "This is a marriage conversation. That's what this is."

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2. Jen from Calgary, Alberta – Managing In-Law Contributions and Relationship Strain

Timestamp: [10:34]

Issue:
Jen is struggling with the financial and relational dynamics after her in-laws built a $200,000 granny flat attached to her home. The arrangement is causing tension as her in-laws continue to invest in the property without a clear return on investment, impacting Jen and her husband's ability to manage their finances.

Discussion:

• Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman discuss setting clear financial boundaries and the importance of aligning on budget priorities.
• They advise Jen and her husband to evaluate the property’s financial impact and consider selling or renting to alleviate financial strain.
• Emphasis is placed on maintaining healthy relationships by addressing financial disagreements openly and respectfully.

Notable Quote:
Ken Coleman at [16:12]: "It's a multiple conversation piece, potentially, where you go, babe, we said we were going to do this, and now you're changing it up on me."

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3. Mark from Indianapolis, Indiana – Debt Management and Family Planning

Timestamp: [22:07]

Issue:
Mark is burdened with $26,000 in debt and a $14,000 car loan while earning $52,000 annually. He and his girlfriend of seven years are contemplating having a baby within the next year but are uncertain about how to manage their debt alongside potential new financial responsibilities.

Discussion:

• Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman stress the importance of eliminating debt before expanding the family to ensure financial stability.
• They recommend focusing on budgeting, increasing income, and adhering to the Debt Snowball method to tackle existing debts.
• Emphasis is placed on the necessity of mutual agreement and preparation before making significant life changes like having a child.

Notable Quote:
Ken Coleman at [23:58]: "You need to get serious though, man. Get out of debt. Like this is priority number one is clear."

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4. Eric from Los Angeles, California – Deciding on Wedding Timing Amid Parental Pressure

Timestamp: [34:20]

Issue:
Eric and his fiancée, both 21, are facing pressure from his fiancée’s father to expedite their wedding plans. The fiancée is transferring from community college to a four-year university, and her father threatens to cut off her education if she doesn't attend her target school, adding stress to their relationship and financial planning.

Discussion:

• Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman advise against rushing significant life decisions like marriage under financial strain.
• They suggest prioritizing debt repayment and ensuring stable income before committing to marriage.
• The discussion highlights setting personal boundaries with family members to maintain financial and emotional well-being.

Notable Quote:
Ken Coleman at [38:58]: "To avoid an uncomfortable situation... You need to get your income up and change your lifestyle."

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5. Jay from Atlanta, Georgia – Inheritance Allocation Between Debt Repayment and Education Funds

Timestamp: [44:40]

Issue:
Jay and his wife are contemplating whether to use a $70,000 inheritance from Jay’s grandmother to pay down their mortgage or to allocate it towards their children’s college education funds. They already have substantial savings in their children's education accounts but are unsure if the inheritance should be directed elsewhere.

Discussion:

• Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman recommend honoring the grandmother's wishes by contributing the inheritance to the education funds.
• They analyze the potential growth of existing education funds and suggest using the inheritance to enhance these savings.
• Emphasis is placed on balancing debt repayment with long-term investment in children's education for future financial security.

Notable Quote:
Ken Coleman at [48:44]: "I would take the 70,000 because it's really darn close to what you're going to contribute over... you're honoring grandma's request."

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6. Declan from West Virginia – Addressing Feelings of Financial Lag Due to Social Media Comparisons

Timestamp: [56:01]

Issue:
Declan feels financially behind despite having a stable income and manageable expenses. He attributes this feeling to constantly comparing himself to others on social media, where he perceives others to be more successful.

Discussion:

• Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman discuss the psychological impact of social media on financial perceptions.
• They encourage focusing on personal financial goals rather than comparing oneself to others.
• Strategies proposed include setting clear financial objectives and understanding that social media often portrays a skewed version of reality.

Notable Quote:
Jade Warshaw at [58:38]: "Your race is your race to run. Somebody's going to be making 10,000. Somebody's going to be making five."

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7. Sia from Seattle, Washington – RV Purchase vs. Debt Repayment

Timestamp: [77:56]

Issue:
Sia is considering purchasing an RV to continue living with her parents after their home was flooded. She and her husband have $2,500 in savings and $40,000 in debt. They have been paying off debt while living in an RV and are contemplating whether to buy another RV or continue clearing their debt.

Discussion:

• Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman advise against purchasing an RV during a period of significant debt.
• They recommend focusing on debt repayment and exploring affordable housing options instead of incurring additional costs.
• The hosts emphasize the importance of financial stability before making large purchases that can exacerbate debt.

Notable Quote:
Ken Coleman at [81:12]: "You should not stop paying down your debt to buy an RV. You have no idea what the RV is going to cost."

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Key Takeaways and Conclusions

• Prioritize Debt Repayment: Across multiple callers, the importance of addressing and eliminating debt before making significant financial commitments is emphasized.

• Effective Budgeting: The hosts advocate for detailed, realistic, and flexible budgeting as a cornerstone for financial stability and wealth building.

• Avoid Overthinking: The central theme of the episode underscores the necessity of taking decisive action rather than getting bogged down by indecision and overanalysis.

• Healthy Financial Boundaries: Establishing clear financial boundaries in personal relationships, including with in-laws, is crucial for maintaining both financial health and relational harmony.

• Personal Financial Goals Over Social Comparisons: Listeners are encouraged to focus on their unique financial journeys and goals instead of comparing themselves to others, especially through the often misleading lens of social media.

Overall, "Stop Overthinking and Start Taking Action" serves as a comprehensive guide for listeners grappling with financial indecision, providing actionable advice to foster proactive and disciplined financial management.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

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

[Jade Warshaw]

From the Ramsey Network, it's the Ramsey Show. I am your host, Jade Warshaw. Next to me, one of my favorite guys out there, Ken Colby.

[Ken Coleman]

Come on, now. Starting off like that, I mean, running.

[Jade Warshaw]

It back put me in a good mood. Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, thank you.

[Jade Warshaw]

This is great.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes.

[Jade Warshaw]

We're taking calls together about your life and your money. I'm gonna hit you up on the money side and ke, he's gonna help you with the professional growth.

[Ken Coleman]

Income. Income.

[Jade Warshaw]

Income. All of it. Oh, you just want to do. We're just saying income today.

[Ken Coleman]

All right. No, no. It's always the professional growth stuff. But I want people making more money.

[Jade Warshaw]

I know that's right. Mo money. Let's go to Daniel. He probably wants to make a little more money, too. Daniel in Pensacola, Florida. What's up, Daniel?

[Dave Ramsey]

What's going on? How you guys doing?

[Jade Warshaw]

We're good. How can we help?

[Dave Ramsey]

Alrighty. So I just got a quick question. I'm wondering whether or not me and my wife are using the sinking funds. Almost like a. Like debt. I know that sounds funny, but I want to make sure we're not using this wrong. We kind of disagree on this, and I. It doesn't come up often, but when it does, it's this. This whole thing on using the sinking funds in a way I think is not the correct way. So to give an example, let's say we have a plan fund for Christmas. And just to make it easy, I could say a hundred a month. We started in January, and we're going to plan on having the 1200 by the end of the year. But something comes up in June, oh, hey, I want to buy this thing. And I say, well, let's say before. Let's. You know, let's plan ahead for that. We don't have the money right now. And then the response is, well, no, we have the money. There's $600 in the Christmas. Let's just use the Christmas fund. We'll pay it, and then we'll pay that back before the year's over. And then it just feels like, well, if we do that, then the margins are going to be lower for the rest of the year. Meaning we can't.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, yeah, that's a problem.

[Dave Ramsey]

We want to. So in my mind, I say, hey, if we go that route, that's okay, but that's a loss. That's a loss. So now we're going to have less at the end of the year for Christmas rather than Paying it all back.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I wonder if it's right or wrong, how. How we go about doing that. So I want to know what is the correct answer there?

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean, I could. I could definitely see that being a frustration if Sam and I say, hey, we're pooling this money and this money is going to be used for a. And we do that all year long. And then at the very end, Sam is like, hey, actually, I'd rather use this for xyz. And if I don't agree with that, then, yeah, I feel like, hey, you're going back on what we agreed on, and that's a problem. I do think it might feel a little differently if both of you agreed, hey, I know we put this money aside for Christmas or we put it aside for a car, but both of us agree something else has come up that's more important, and we both agree that this money should be spent in this way. I don't have a problem with that because it's your money you get to decide. But it does sound like there's a little bit of an issue on doing what you say you're gonna do. And with money, there's a big part of that that when you kind of draw a line in the sand and say, here's what I'm going to do, standing by, that is. Is. Is a sign of discipline. And in this case, it kind of sounds like that it more is a discipline thing and you guys not being on the same page.

[Dave Ramsey]

So, okay, I guess the question then, where is kind of like, where does it still. Because my logic that I try to explain that, well, we're kind of using our sinking funds, like debt. So let's just say we use $300 out of a $600 that's currently saved up. And. And her logic is, well, we'll pay that back in the next couple of months rather than saving the.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's not debt. But I see how you're viewing it that way. You feel like you're robbing Peter to pay Paul.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm robbing myself later to pay myself now, it feels like. And so I'm like, what? Yeah, that's what I was kind of asking.

[Ken Coleman]

If it's not okay. This is a marriage conversation. That's what this is. I mean, Jade's right. It'd be one thing if you both are on the same page and decide to do it, but you're giving us a scenario where you're not on the same page. And you guys have said, all right, we're going to save money. And we're. I feel like we're thinking about this too hard, Daniel. This isn't a sinking fund, and you can call it that, but this is just intentional savings. And Christmas comes once a year, and it's an expensive month. And so we're saving money so that we aren't tempted to go into credit. Right. And do all the things that everybody else in America does. I get it. She doesn't get it. And so you got to help her get it. And this is a multiple conversation piece, potentially, where you go, babe, we said we were going to do this, and now you're changing it up on me. And it's not something big that we're in agreement on. It's just something shiny that you want. And you're just going like, I want it now. We'll pay for it later. And that's what Congress has done. That's why we're barreling towards $35 trillion in debt. I'm not joking.

[Jade Warshaw]

You're right. You're right.

[Ken Coleman]

It's 100% what's going on in Congress. They just pass a spending bill and they go, well, we'll figure it out later. And so I think this is a marriage conversation. To say, this is frustrating for me, number one. It's confusing for me, number two, and we need to get on the same page here because Christmas gifts, I think, are a priority.

[Jade Warshaw]

I think they are. And I love the idea that they're even thinking ahead and doing that sinking fund. Yeah. This is a. Okay. So, Ken and Daniel, when I talk about budgeting, which is really what this is a subset of, I talk about budgeting being detailed, realistic, and flexible. The flexible part of it says, hey, I'm a have a line item on my budget that says, I don't know, we're gonna spend 200 on entertainment for this month. Right. And then something comes up that you both deem as important. I don't know, you forgot to plan for grandma's birthday and you both love Grandma, so you both decide, hey, let's pull money out of that entertainment category that we were going to use to go to the movies or take the kids to the zoo and let's use that for grandma's birthday party, that's an example of the budget being flexible. Because, yeah, you can look at a line item and say, I thought I was going to use that money for. But now we are deciding we are going to use it for this. That is okay. I don't want anybody to think that that's like lightning's going to hit them. But kin to your point and to my earlier point, I do believe that when you are dealing with a bigger amount of money that you've both agreed ahead of time is for this. Unless you both agree that it's not going to be used for that. You got it. You got to call a truce. Like, nobody gets to spend it until we both agree what it's going to be spent on.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. Because to your point on flexibility, Christmas isn't flex.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, it's coming.

[Ken Coleman]

It's the same day every year.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

And I just think the way you've teed this up, Daniel, is. Is this right? Is this wrong? I mean, we've told you functionally how to use it.

[Jade Warshaw]

What does she want to spend it on? We didn't ask Daniel. Oh, Daniel went for a ride.

[Ken Coleman]

He's like, in a wind tunnel.

[Jade Warshaw]

He went to the drive through. Are you there?

[Ken Coleman]

So what did she want to spend it on? Was the question from Jade.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, so this. It was a little while. So to get rid of. So we wanted to stop the eating out and the Starbucks fund, because we didn't. We were in a transition period of moving out. We were living in a camper, didn't have a lot of our stuff. I'm in the Navy, and a lot of this stuff got moved to the next state that I'm moving to. So to avoid the Starbucks, like, hey, let's get a. Let's go to Target. Let's get an espresso machine, and we can skip the Starbucks and we can get your coffee every morning and we're good to go.

[Jade Warshaw]

So this was an attempt to save.

[Dave Ramsey]

More money in my mindset was, let's just save some more money. And it's like, well, we have a bunch of money in the. In the. In the bank right now waiting since, you know, and for other various sinking funds, not just Chris's other things. And I was like, well, that's all been set aside.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, I see. I see.

[Ken Coleman]

I would have said my answer would have been, all right, let's take what we've been spending on Starbucks and restaurants, and let's put it away for a couple months until we come up with the cost of the. Whatever, the Fancy coffee machine, 100%.

[Jade Warshaw]

And honestly hearing what she wanted to spend it on, if she was like, hey, I saw this new purse, or, hey, we. We need. We want a new grill for the patio, that feels a lot different than her also looking for ways to save money. And it sounded like this espresso machine was a way for you guys to see.

[Ken Coleman]

But also go get a $50 coffee pot and just let it drip.

[Jade Warshaw]

I know that's right, let it drip.

[Ken Coleman]

Statistics show that half of Americans don't.

[Dave Ramsey]

Have enough life insurance or they don't.

[Jade Warshaw]

Have any at all.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't understand this, John.

[Ken Coleman]

Why don't people want to take care of their family?

[Dave Ramsey]

They think they're going to die or something.

[Ken Coleman]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

That's a gut punch.

[Ken Coleman]

And. Oh, you're telling me. And for decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse, they've lost somebody important to them, they don't know what to do next.

[Dave Ramsey]

Me too.

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean you're gonna have a crisis.

[Dave Ramsey]

Here and you know, you got two.

[Jade Warshaw]

Options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow.

[Dave Ramsey]

She's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not.

[Ken Coleman]

Mess this up or she's concerned how.

[Dave Ramsey]

She'S going to eat tomorrow. That's exactly. These are the two options. And take care of your dadgum family, man.

[Ken Coleman]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

That's exactly what it's supposed to be. It's saying I love you to your family. Term life insurance, Jeff Zander and the.

[Ken Coleman]

Team at Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable.

[Dave Ramsey]

I've used them personally for 25 years. They're the only people I trust.

[Ken Coleman]

Go to Xander.com or call 800-356-4282.

[Jade Warshaw]

Back to the phone lines we go. We got Jen in Calgary, Alberta. What's up Jen?

[Dave Ramsey]

Hi there. We have ourselves in a bit of a pickle and I'd like to hear if you guys have some advice.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, ma' am.

[Dave Ramsey]

So what has happened is that my in laws have built a granny flat like a suite attached to our house and they've been living here for about two years now. And we find that my husband and I are not. It's just not what we imagined it would be. We're not really enjoying the dynamic and just the arrangement anymore and we don't know how to separate financially and just it's been a relational toll taking a toll on our relationship with my in laws and yeah, we're really not sure what to do.

[Jade Warshaw]

The in laws paid for the suite to be built onto your house?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes. Ooh, yes, they did. Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

What. How much money did they sink into that?

[Dave Ramsey]

It was $200,000.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, my word. That's not a suite. That's like a full blown house they put on there.

[Jade Warshaw]

And how much did it raise the property value? From what to what.

[Dave Ramsey]

The pro. Like maybe a hundred thousand.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, gosh. So it didn't even break even yet?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, like, yeah, it didn't. It's. And now it's kind of created this unique house that it doesn't really raise the property value because it's not.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's not normal.

[Ken Coleman]

Was it licensed? I mean, I don't know what it is in Canada, but you have to get a permit for that in the United States. So did that change any of the titling at all, or is it all still in your name?

[Dave Ramsey]

The title and everything is in our name. Our taxes have increased, but that's all that. Everything is in our name. My husband and I's name.

[Ken Coleman]

And you've been paying the taxes on the addition?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes. Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

So they just paid cash for the 200,000?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yep, yep.

[Ken Coleman]

What's happened? Give us, without getting into all the nitty gritty, give us a good summary of what is going on relationally where you guys are like, wow, this was a bad idea.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, things financially get a little bit twisted. Like, my husband and I, we don't make a lot of money, and so we're building up. It's an acreage property. And so it takes a long time for us to build it up and restore it and make it look nice, but they want it to, like, look nice. So they want to invest more and more money into the property to, like, make it look good and, like, buy a tractor and stuff. And we just don't feel comfortable allowing them to keep pouring money into it. And we don't have the money to like, split things half and half.

[Jade Warshaw]

How much have they done aside from the 200k, how much other money have they invested doing the things you're talking about?

[Dave Ramsey]

They haven't because we just keep putting the brakes on with like landscaping and stuff. Oh, oh.

[Ken Coleman]

So they're suggesting all of this and you keep going, not right now.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Or has your husband had a conversation with his dad and his mom to go, hey, this isn't working relationally?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes. And we've had, like, another issue was just the boundaries. Like, they're literally attached to our house. So, like, our boundaries, like, people Would come into the house multiple times a day, and it just felt like there wasn't really a boundary of, like, our life and their life.

[Ken Coleman]

Sure. But again, let me go back to the conversation. What came out of the conversation? Hopefully it was confrontational. Doesn't have to be ugly, but hopefully your husband confronted this. What was their reaction? Where do we stand today?

[Dave Ramsey]

Like, we have asked. We have told them that we're not happy with that dynamic, and we've asked them to, like, because they do have a different. They don't live here 100% of the time. They have an apartment in, like, a different city by some other family members. So then we'd, like, ask them to not come as much and that. Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

How did they react? I still can't. I can't get a direct answer from you. How did they react? What did they say?

[Dave Ramsey]

They were very hurt and they were very confused. They felt like they didn't understand.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why? Because it was, like, our idea in the first place.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

So then they feel like. Like they're so confused.

[Jade Warshaw]

Had you lived with them before? Like, had you lived with them capacity before the bright idea came to do this whole flat and add on to the house? Or that was just like, hey, we like you guys, when we go out to dinner, let's live together. And did it go from 0 to 100 like that?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, there had been some instances, like, over the summer, like, we would. We had spent, like, a couple of months in their house, and unfortunately, like, I. It always. Yeah, it would kind of got to the point where we're like, okay, it's time to go home.

[Ken Coleman]

Was this your idea or your husband's idea?

[Dave Ramsey]

I'd say it was more my idea because I lived. My grandparents lived beside us, and as a kid, I loved it.

[Ken Coleman]

Sure. All right, Another question, because we got to try to help you here, and I still don't know. Okay, we know they were hurt and confused. Where does it stand today? Was there any kind of conclusion or tactical conversation about what's next after you've hurt them and confused them? Where do we stand today?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. What's your idea for them to fix this? What's the idea?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, we did talk about physically moving the building, and they could, like, put it on a different lot and so.

[Jade Warshaw]

Detaching it from your house and them putting it on their own lot? Who?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes. Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

Are they. Are they open? Are they open to this?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, they kind of, but it's. They feel like it's going to cost way more money, and then they're going to have to like build a foundation and buy a lot. And it's just.

[Ken Coleman]

So what was, so what was their response from a solution or is there no conversation on an idea or two? I heard your idea. What was their idea? Did they say, sorry, you're stuck with this?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, not really. Like, I feel like we're still trying to keep having conversations. They didn't. Yeah, they didn't like the moving idea because it was going to be a lot of work and they feel like they don't. Okay, want to deal with that?

[Jade Warshaw]

So tell me, tell me this.

[Dave Ramsey]

We're just at a standstill.

[Jade Warshaw]

Tell me this, when you bought that, how long did you live in the house before you added your parents, before the parents added their deal to it?

[Dave Ramsey]

Maybe two years.

[Jade Warshaw]

So two years. Let's, let's, let's look at this math like as mathematically as possible. So two years. If you can remember back, how much equity did you have in the house at the two year point? Do you remember?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, it was like a bank repossession. And so we've been fixing it up.

[Jade Warshaw]

Just direct, try to direct answer it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Maybe like 50,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Maybe 50,000. So let's pretend that that 50,000 was yours before they were ever part of this. So that 50,000 is yours.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now if I'd say more than 50, then with the like land and stuff.

[Jade Warshaw]

Sorry, okay, what would you say?

[Dave Ramsey]

I would say like when two years ago the property would have been worth 200,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Worth that. But what would your equity be in it? I don't know what you purchased it for.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, well, we purchased it for 80 and we have it all paid off.

[Jade Warshaw]

So what I'm asking is what profit? If you had sold the house two years ago, in the first two years, what profit would you have taken home? Because I'm trying to divide this up so that you guys can talk about this in a fair way.

[Dave Ramsey]

Right? Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

So that's your homework. Your homework would be to go back and say at the two year point, before you guys ever got involved, here's, here's what we, here's the equity we had in the property. Let's pretend it's 50,000 just for the sake of this idea. Then parents get involved, they spend 200,000, they do the thing, and now you've been living like this for a given amount of time, and that given amount of time, how much then has the property appreciated further? Let's say it's appreciated another hundred thousand dollars. Right. So now it's like, hey, there's a hundred thousand dollars of appreciation that really has to be split if we get rid of this property. That's really what has to be split between the two of us. And the parents are going to have to realize they made a bad investment. That has. That has zero to do with you guys. They just made a bad investment. They put too much into the property because the. The market is not giving it back. And so that's not on you. That's on the market, and that's on their choice.

[Ken Coleman]

So then, Ken, I gotta jump in.

[Jade Warshaw]

Tell me.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, I love the math thing, and I think that's the homework. I'm gonna jump in and say this is a continuation of some very uncomfortable conversations to which you and your husband have to own the fact that you invited them in here and did they spend too much on the addition? In my opinion, yes. I think Jade's right. But you blindsided him. And. And so, yeah, you did. I think you guys are gonna have to solve this relationally over time or you're gonna have to make the tough decision. Sell the house.

[Jade Warshaw]

You're both gonna take the hidden financial walk away. Yep.

[Ken Coleman]

That's the either or. And I wanted to just give you that. What I think are your practical choices.

[Jade Warshaw]

Ken is right. You're gonna sell this house, that hundred thousand dollars, you're gonna end up splitting down the middle. You're gonna lose out, and they're gonna lose out. This was a bad choice. As moms, we have enough stuff that we're juggling without pacing through a huge grocery store for hours and paying premiums for name brands. That's why you need to try Aldi. Aldi makes shopping for groceries more affordable, saving your family nearly $4,000 a year and way easier. They take the guesswork out of shopping with better choices like their exclusive Aldi brands, so you can save money and time and focus on what really matters. So stop paying more and start shopping smarter at Aldi, where you'll save with the lowest prices of any national grocery store. Find a store near you today at Aldi Us. That's Aldi Us. If you're tired of living paycheck to paycheck and wondering, where the heck is my money going? The first step is you need to get on a budget. Okay? So our team is hosting a free budgeting training this month, otherwise known as a webinar. And you'll learn step by step tricks on how to stick to the budget and honestly, how to use every dollar, which is really the only budgeting app I use. It's the best budgeting app out there. You'll get to have your biggest budgeting questions answered because it is a Q and A format, which is great. You can go on there and ask exactly what you've been burning to know. Just remember, spots are limited. You can sign up for [e-mail] webinar. These are great. If you haven't got into one, you need to get into one. All right, back to the phone lines. We got Mark in Indianapolis, Indiana. Mark, what's going on?

[Dave Ramsey]

Hello. How are you doing?

[Jade Warshaw]

Doing good. How can we help?

[Dave Ramsey]

So I have racked up a little bit of debt since I've been 18. I'm currently in about $26,000 worth of debt. My income's at 52,000. Possibly. My girlfriend of about seven years are possibly considering a baby in the next year, although she has a car loan on top of all my debt that has about $14,000 on it. I'm just looking for the best advice on how to take. Take all this.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, I'm going to jump in real quick on the baby issue. I would not be green lighting a baby while we're in debt. And it seems like there's a lot up in the air with you, too. So that's the first thing that I heard. That to me, is a red flag.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

You thinking of getting married before you have the baby or just in the current situation, having a baby?

[Dave Ramsey]

We were thinking just the current situation. Although marriage, that would be one thing. We've been together for a while. We've talked about it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Listen, I like the idea of getting married before you have a baby. That's. You didn't ask me my opinion on that, but there it is. Let's.

[Ken Coleman]

Is it her idea or your idea? Is this one of those, hey, Mark, I'd like to have a baby? And you're like, oh, okay. Or were you the one that brought it up? Or was this equal excitement?

[Dave Ramsey]

She brought it up, but I will say it is more of an equal excitement thing.

[Ken Coleman]

What are you waiting on?

[Dave Ramsey]

I.

[Ken Coleman]

What are you waiting on? Why haven't you asked this girl to marry you?

[Dave Ramsey]

I. We've. We've had our issues in the past, but we worked. We worked it out.

[Ken Coleman]

So how long you been with this girl?

[Jade Warshaw]

He's seven years.

[Dave Ramsey]

About seven years.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. I didn't pick up on that, man.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's time, dude.

[Ken Coleman]

Put a ring on it, man.

[Jade Warshaw]

Get some grits or get out the South. That's what they say. You gotta.

[Ken Coleman]

I've never heard that. And that became My newest favorite phrase, get some grits or get out of the South.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, man, it's the same as like paint or get off the ladder.

[Ken Coleman]

How have I not heard that before?

[Jade Warshaw]

I think, you know, if she's talking about a baby, she's got, you know, forever in mind, you know, so. And that's a good indicator, you know, that she does. And she's probably thinking that if you say yes, you probably have forever in mind too. And if you have forever in mind, you may as well put a ring on it.

[Ken Coleman]

You need to get serious though, man. Get out of debt. Like this is priority number one is clear. All that junk. And by the way, that's not an insurmountable number for you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

Do you agree?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I definitely agree. I just finished. I listened to the total money makeover earlier this morning at work, actually.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good.

[Dave Ramsey]

I was able to.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so then, you know, the first step here, I mean, you, you mentioned the, the 26,000 of debt, the 52,000 of income. Do you have any money saved anywhere?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, that's the thing. I don't have any money saved. I was looking to start the baby step. One good. Save the thousand dollars.

[Jade Warshaw]

Mm.

[Dave Ramsey]

Although I got an email today.

[Ken Coleman]

From.

[Dave Ramsey]

One of, from Chrysler Capital, wanted me to call them, so I did, and they're offering me a payout for one of my. For an old auto loan that I have.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, what. Tell us more about that. What's, what's the loan for? And what are they offering.

[Dave Ramsey]

The loan for that? That is it's owed about $13,000 left on it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Huh. And what are they offering?

[Dave Ramsey]

And they're offering a 500, 600 payout, but it has to be paid by the 30th of this month.

[Ken Coleman]

500 total?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, 560 total.

[Jade Warshaw]

For your $13,000 car? For your car that you owe 13,000 on? Yeah, like a trade in value?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, the car was worth almost 10,000, but the engine went bad, so I told them to just take it back. This was a couple years ago.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, so they've possession of the car.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

And you've got something in writing that says if you give them $500 before the end of this month is over, they're going to wipe that debt clean.

[Dave Ramsey]

I actually asked them to mail me a piece of paper stating that before I gave them any money, because I don't want to send the money then.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, not be true. That's what I want to make sure of, is that you have it in writing. But I would tell you, young man, you can go make $500 between now and the end of May. And I would absolutely take 100. Deal. I mean that would be a massive deal. So the money.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Clear that debt. Get it in writing.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I, I put a, I made out a budget and I can, with this budget, I can pay it on the 22nd.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good. So yeah, do that then. We're still working on baby step one. And honestly when people do baby step one, it's not just kind of waiting on the income to come. This is you getting down and dirty. You're getting into your house and you're selling stuff and you're picking up a side hustle. Most people get their baby step one in 30 days or less. So the clock is ticking on that. That's really a, a challenge, so to speak, in order to get that done. And then once you've cleared this car situation out for a lot less money, you know, 500 bucks, you can't beat that then. Yeah, it's working. That debt snowball and you read it in the book, it's listing them from smallest to largest. After that car situation is cleaned up, what's your next smallest debt?

[Dave Ramsey]

My next smallest debt would be my CDL school that I just, I just got.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's that amount?

[Dave Ramsey]

If I can pay it off in six months, they say $6,000. If not, it'll be 250amonth until it's at like $10,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, well what do you make a month now? What do you take home every month?

[Dave Ramsey]

About 3,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. And of that, have you done your every dollar budget?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, not yet.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so that's your homework today. You get off the phone, Christian will pick up. Make sure you get the every dollar budget. I want you to those numbers in, plug in your income, plug in everything that you think that you're going to spend money on this month. And I mean, and then look for ways to cut back if you realize, hey, I've got a couple subscription subscriptions in there or hey, looks like I do, you know, stop by 711 and pick up snacks. I want you to cut that stuff back. And once you cut that stuff back, now we see how much margin you have. And when you see that margin, that's going to inform how quickly you can pay back the cdl because yeah, yeah, I don't want you, I don't want it to take any more than six months. But you having a clear plan. Ken Coleman says it all the time. You aim at nothing, you fail every time. Did I say it right?

[Ken Coleman]

That's exactly Right.

[Jade Warshaw]

And so let's give you something very clear to aim at. You know, you've got to pay this thing off in six months. What does it take to make that happen? And how can you make that happen faster? So doing a budget is going to get you, you know, help you to see what that actually is. Does that make sense?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right. Well, I think you've got a plan of action, my friend.

[Ken Coleman]

But happen to this.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, he's got to happen to it.

[Ken Coleman]

Like I, I want to hear a little more gumption out of you because you, you got a woman who you've been with for seven years and she's tar. She's talking babies, and she's got debt, and you've got debt. It's not in any way something you guys can't take care of. But this is the moment here where you got to step up and be a man. And I'm going to define what a man is in a non politically correct way. A man. A man understands his duty and he accepts the duty whether or not he likes it or not.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's fact.

[Ken Coleman]

And you got to take care of your own debt. And you've got to model this for this gal so that if you guys spend life together beyond the seven years, and I hope you get married, but I'm not going to push that on anybody.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[Ken Coleman]

By the way, while I'm praying, preaching, the data is clear and you guys can go Google this. Everybody likes to talk about fact checking in this political environment today. Fact check me on this.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay?

[Ken Coleman]

The data shows that you are healthier emotionally, mentally, physically when married. And you have the opportunity to make more money when married. So you build wealth faster. Opinion. Yeah. So there's lots of data. I'm going high level here because I don't want to sound like the old guy saying, get off my lawn.

[Jade Warshaw]

I'll add more data to that.

[Ken Coleman]

Step up right now.

[Jade Warshaw]

More data to that. You're right. Not only do they earn more, they build wealth faster. And the data says that they are happier when they do the measure markers of what happiness means. People who are married and share their finances are happier. So there you have it.

[Ken Coleman]

By the way, I looked up the cost of a Slurpee because you just made me think about it when you 7 11. Back in the day, I could get a large Slurpee for 99 cents. Now a large is $2.50 for all that sugary frozenness.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right, Dave, you have some strong opinions, possibly. Yeah, I think so. Okay. Because you really Prefer credit unions over big banks?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, credit unions, for one thing, are nonprofit, which means that the members, the customers own the credit union.

[Ken Coleman]

So any profits that the credit union.

[Dave Ramsey]

Makes goes back into customer pricing.

[Jade Warshaw]

So you get better interest rate on savings, cheaper checking and so on, that kind of thing.

[Dave Ramsey]

And. But that's what's more important than that though, is the fact that the customer is the owner, changes the spirit on the credit union. So I find very few credit unions that aren't very customer centric.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well. And I think we have found one that is incredible and that's fair winds. They are an incredible credit union that is really out with the heart to help the customer.

[Dave Ramsey]

They're the right kind of people with.

[Ken Coleman]

The right kind of values and they've.

[Dave Ramsey]

Done a really, really good job with customer service and the deals that they're offering. The Ramsey Tribe is incredible.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that the things that we teach, they so line up with. And you're right, their customer service is unbelievable. Winston and I just signed up and we got an account. Yeah. And I'm not kidding, it took less than five minutes. Minutes. It was so user friendly. Like the step by step approach was unbelievable. And then the next day my phone rings and it says Fairwinds on my phone. So I answered it and talked to someone there and they said, yeah, they give calls to every new customer. And so again, they just really care about your experience. And I, I so, so appreciate that. Plus, anything that you can do at a traditional branch, you can do with [e-mail] or on their app. And you'll have free access to over 33,000 ATMs.

[Dave Ramsey]

Hey, you guys know how much I hate banks in general. And so for me to do this is a big deal. Talk to our friends at Fairwinds and check out the combined checking and savings bundle that they created just for the Ramsey Tribe.

[Ken Coleman]

You guys, it's incredible.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, you guys, it's so easy to join Fairwinds no matter where you live. So go to Fairwinds.org Ramsey.

[Ken Coleman]

Fairwinds is federally insured by NCUA.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So we talk about a thing called the Baby steps here a lot. The Baby Steps is the plan that we find helps people get to financial peace and wealth building and really the, the best, fastest, most peaceful way. So if you hear us talk about the seven baby steps, that's what we're talking about. And if you're wondering, hey, hey, am I in the baby steps? If I am on the baby steps, where am I in these seven steps? You can take a quiz to check your progress. And not just that, but we'll give you a personalized plan that's just for you. So if you want to do that, if you're interested, you can simply head into the show notes and you can click on the link that's titled are you on track with the baby steps? And you can complete that quiz if you are interested. All right, saying less. Let's go to Eric in Los Angeles, California. What's up, Eric?

[Dave Ramsey]

Hello, guys, can you guys hear me?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, we can. What's up?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, so I'm in a bit of a predicament. So essentially I'm looking to see if whether I should get married sooner than later than I thought.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, I like.

[Jade Warshaw]

Kim loves these questions.

[Ken Coleman]

I love these questions. Okay, you got to give us the case. You got to lay this out for us because you're getting a great female point of view and maybe a decent male point of view. We'll see. Give us the reasons why you would get married sooner rather than later. Give us sooner first.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sooner, because. Okay, so sooner is kind of like an unfortunate thing. So me and my. Well, I'm engaged already. So me and my fiance are kind of in a predicament where she's in the process of transferring schools from community college to a four year university. And she's applied to various safety schools and like a target school, which is like one of her dream schools. And we're waiting. We've heard back from safety schools that she can get into, but the dream school she's still waiting on. And our issue is she lives in a home where her father is very against school. Like, he has a very traditional mindset and he's essentially telling her, threatened her that if she doesn't go to her target school or if she doesn't get in, she can't go to school anymore. More.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's interesting.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, how old is she?

[Dave Ramsey]

We're both 21.

[Jade Warshaw]

And he's paying for school. He's the. He's the money bags.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, she's. She's been doing it all on herself.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, well, he has no say in that. Literally, he has no say. I'm not sure I get the reason for the threat, but that doesn't make us have to move up the wedding date yet. I haven't heard any evidence for that. So that's one reason. Right. That's the primary reason to move it up. All right, what was the actual date of the wedding that we were planning on before this phone call?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, the date we were still on, like figuring it out because, well, I finished school in this. Not this May, but next year. May. So she'll have a little more time to finish school like a year later. So around that time.

[Jade Warshaw]

So may of. So. So summer of next year is what you were initially Planning for summer 2026.

[Dave Ramsey]

Summer of next year or the end of.

[Ken Coleman]

Is this grad school for her if she's already in school? I'm trying to catch up here. Is she. Is this about a grad school situation?

[Dave Ramsey]

Undergrad.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, she's never gone. She's 21. But she's never gone to college.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, she's. She's in community college right now.

[Jade Warshaw]

She's.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, so we're talking about. That's right. You did say that. Moving from community college to college. Okay. And so if you stick with the date that you guys have, the pros of that are very obvious. You just laid them out. What are the cons to moving up the wedding? Because I'm assuming you think the pro is get her out of the house with dad and she doesn't feel that threat is deeply. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I get that. But what would be the cons, the negatives to moving the wedding up?

[Dave Ramsey]

So I have debt about. Since I took upon at university and since I'll be like, it'll be my last year in school, I don't know if I'll be able to like, provide for like, like an apartment.

[Jade Warshaw]

Because you're both living at home now.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. Yeah, okay, I get it. I. Unless I'm missing something. Jade, no. And Eric, your. Your wife to me is going to have to put her big girl pants on and tell dad, you don't get to make that decision number one. And if it gets so uncomfortable that she doesn't feel. And I would understand this too, not being in the house with him. She's got to come up with some arrangements. But we don't want to rush everything and put you guys in a desperate situation in order to avoid an uncomfortable situation. That's how I'm seeing this. And it's all hurt and I understand why it's uncomfortable and I feel bad for her, but she needs to fix that. She either says, dad, go pound sand in a very respectful way and then he gets over it, or if it's going to be so uncomfortable, then she goes and lives with a girlfriend or two or three, and we wait and clear up our debt, we make the transition to education and all that. I just think, Jade, that I'm going to say, I already Said it. I think it is a bad idea to, to put yourself in a desperate situation.

[Jade Warshaw]

You're right.

[Ken Coleman]

To avoid an uncomfortable situation.

[Jade Warshaw]

You are so, so right. And I think that there's a level of drama and how we're speaking about this, which I think can add to the pandemonium, so to speak. So you, y' all were using the word threat like it's a very, he's threatening and he's, and I'm like, when I hear the word threat, I'm, my mind goes to, is somebody in danger? Is something going to happen when really.

[Ken Coleman]

I need to get below this desk?

[Jade Warshaw]

Is that what needs to happen when really is just, just, you know, a middle aged man saying, here's what I want you to do. Right. Is, is it just that it's a good point.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, I mean, okay, so I forgot to mention. So they have a business, a family business.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And he wants to her like, like, let's say she doesn't get into the school that she wants to. He's like, he wants her to just pack, pack up her bags and go work for him for the rest of her life. Because right now she, she puts in like easily like over 100 hours working there.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, yeah, that's what's going on.

[Jade Warshaw]

He just has a plan. And that's not her plan.

[Ken Coleman]

You nailed that. Has she told him that she doesn't want to work for him and any, under any certain circumstances?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And he, well, last time he mentioned to her like he didn't talk to her for days.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wow.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, but that's his problem.

[Jade Warshaw]

Truly.

[Ken Coleman]

It doesn't change my advice.

[Jade Warshaw]

Let me tell you, let me give you a. I try to give real time and real examples from real life. So when I was in school, I was dating a guy. And you know, my dad, he didn't dislike the guy, but at the same time he didn't like how much time I was spending with the guy. But I'm like, I'm in college, I'm grown. And so during summer break was really when it kind of started creating some tension. So do you want to know what I did? I moved out and I, I, I. Great. Rented. This is bad. I mean, it's not great. But my friend had an apartment, it didn't have an extra room. So I said, how much would it cost me if I brought my futon? Just slept in the living room on the futon. And it cost me like 300 bucks a month. I mean this was.

[Ken Coleman]

I don't mind that. I don't mind that.

[Jade Warshaw]

And I did that until it was time to get married.

[Ken Coleman]

Good for you. I think that's great. That's exactly the advice that I'm giving. I 100% love that example.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

You were like, all right, Pops, if you're going to have a problem with the dude, I'm going to remove myself.

[Jade Warshaw]

And it's not even that he had a problem, because I'm married to Sam now. It's not even that he had. Yeah, I mean, I just was framing.

[Ken Coleman]

It up in the way he had a problem.

[Jade Warshaw]

I was just spending a lot of time with Sam.

[Ken Coleman]

He was just having a daddy problem. Dad was having, like, having his own issue.

[Jade Warshaw]

His own issue.

[Ken Coleman]

It's not your issue.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's not my. You know, I was flying the coupe. You know what I mean?

[Ken Coleman]

That's what's going on here. By the way, dad, you said it has a plan for her life.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

And she has to remind him that the last two words in that sentence are her and life.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

And that's tough. And by the way, you have to stay out of that, Eric. She's got to handle that. But I would not rush the wedding. Please don't rush the wedding. You yourself said I can't afford.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

To do what we need to do. And boy, oh, boy, I'm gonna say this. Jade, weigh in on this. The first year of marriage, in my opinion, okay. Is the hardest year of Wild, Wild West. Because you get into it going, oh, this is great. We come off the honeymoon and we've been in love. And then you got two individual people coming from two different environments.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

And you're smashing them together like a Smash Burger, bro. And it's tough. Tough. And I would not want any first year couple to have any financial stress if they could keep from it.

[Jade Warshaw]

I think that that is admirable. Yes, 100%. If you can avoid it, do it. Don't add to it. And a word for the dads. You know, dads, they love their daughters, and sometimes they don't know how to show it in the most sensitive ways. And sometimes they result to control a little bit, too.

[Ken Coleman]

Hold on. Ouch. I'm just saying, those are my toes being stepped on.

[Jade Warshaw]

They don't mean any harm. They just don't know how. I'm sad that I'm losing you. And they start holding on too tight.

[Ken Coleman]

We don't do well being. We love being a girl, dad, but we don't know how to handle it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, it's tough, man.

[Ken Coleman]

It's hard.

[Jade Warshaw]

I don't envy You, Kim.

[Ken Coleman]

That's my princess, man.

[Jade Warshaw]

This is the Ramsey Show.

[Ken Coleman]

Hey, when you're gazelle intense, you sell so much stuff the kids think they're next. But when you've gotten rid of all.

[Dave Ramsey]

You can save money by switching your cell phone plan to Boost mobile.

[Ken Coleman]

It's just $25 a month for unlimited talk, text and data forever. Boost is a major nationwide network that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Offers reliable 5G service. And here's my favorite part, transparent pricing. There's no hidden fees, no contracts and.

[Ken Coleman]

There'S a 30 day money back guarantee which means no risk. Go to boostmobile.com Ramsey to switch today.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's boostmobile.com Ramsey.

[Jade Warshaw]

You're listening to the Ramsey Network and this is the Ramsey show where we take calls about your life and your money. If you didn't know, we take these calls live. And if you want to get on the show, you can call 888-825-5225 and we'll get you on. I'm your host today, Jade Warshaw. Your other host for the day is Ken Coleman. And if you don't know, Ken Coleman and I, we keep it real. We have a good time together. So let's take it straight to the phone lines. Ken, where we have Jay in Atlanta, Georgia. What's up, Jay?

[Dave Ramsey]

So my wife and I are debt free other than our home. And recently my grandmother passed and left us a small inheritance is about, after taxes, roughly $70,000. Her, her wish, her wishes were that she wanted to leave her legacy with it going towards our children's education. I have a sixth grader and a third grader. We've been funding their college funds since the beginning. My sixth grader has roughly $75,000 in his. My third grader, she has roughly 60,000 in hers.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wow, good job.

[Dave Ramsey]

And the question is though, would we be better off? I mean, I want to honor my grandmother's wishes, but will we be better off paying down her house? That's the last debt we have. That's kind of where we're at in the baby steps trying to get the house paid off.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. So did your grandmother. She clearly didn't know that you had college covered when she said this in the will. Is the guess right?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, I don't know if I have college covered. I guess that's my, the secondary question, like when is it enough? You know, like when do you have enough in their college funds? We're continuing to contribute to their college fund every month as part of our budget.

[Jade Warshaw]

Have you played it out to see what it will be when they reach 18.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, yeah. I can't remember exactly what it was, but just, I mean, on the rough numbers right now, right, if it doubles every seven years, it's 150, and, you know, probably 150 for each of them, maybe potentially more, I think, because we'll continue to contribute. But I. So if that's enough, then if we're already. If we're already in the. And again, I know education costs could change. I get all the other.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, there's charts out there. There's charts out there where you can play it out and see. So let's. Let's put some real meat on this skeleton. So let's pretend you said you're in Georgia. So let's pretend that they go to a state school, which is what we would recommend here, going to an in state school, assuming you still live in the state of Georgia. And so now it's like, okay, they're in sixth and third grade. Right. It's hard to know who they're going to be coming up. But let's just conservatively say, even if they chose, like, the most popular state school in Georgia, what would that. What does it cost today? And let's use a chart to find out what it would cost in the next six years, you know, to find out what this is or the next 10 years to find out what this is going to be. Right. And so that's how you would play that out. And then you go back and look at the account and find the out. Would there be enough? So that's the game that I would play when I get off this phone.

[Ken Coleman]

I have a fun curveball.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's that?

[Ken Coleman]

Can I jump? Is it okay?

[Jade Warshaw]

What if they don't go to college at all?

[Ken Coleman]

No.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh.

[Ken Coleman]

What is the amount total that you're putting away each month for both kids?

[Dave Ramsey]

It's. We're splitting it $500 a month is what we're doing. $500 a month split between the two.

[Jade Warshaw]

Of them is in our budget.

[Ken Coleman]

So. So we got. So how many more years for your oldest. Oldest child would we be contributing? How old again?

[Dave Ramsey]

He's. He's in sixth grade. So six more years for him, and then it'd be nine more years for mine, for my daughter.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, so we're talking. What I would do is I'm trying to back into this, and I'm not a mathematician, but Basically you're doing $6,000 a year is what you're putting away for both kids, correct?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

So you've got how many Years left. Six more years for your son.

[Dave Ramsey]

Correct.

[Ken Coleman]

So that's okay. And then the third grader, what, nine years?

[Jade Warshaw]

Ten years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Nine. But I'm splitting that between it to the 500. Split between the two of them.

[Ken Coleman]

I know. Okay, but here's my point. If it were me, now I'm just throwing a curve ball out here. I do not mind either one of you pushing back on this. I would take the 70,000 because it's really darn close to what you're going to contribute over. The difference is not that much as to what they're going to contribute at this current rate. Rate, if I'm not mistaken. So I would take the 70,000 from grandma and I would use that. I would go ahead and put that in each one of the kids funds and then I would start using the money you've been putting in out of your budget and I would just start start moving down the baby steps from there. That's what I would do. Because I think it's going to come.

[Dave Ramsey]

Out a month extra to the house.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, yeah. Because I think, I think that then you're honoring grandma's request and you're creating. It's still cat, it's still cash flow. It's still the same. I mean, it's six and one half dozen another. But you're honoring grandma by taking that 60,000. But go ahead and put it in now. So go and put the 70 in now.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

And you're going to get the greater investment return on that. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. From day one. Let's say you put the 70 in now, then you guys start taking that 500amonth and you start using it towards paying off the house. That's what I would do. And that way I'm honoring grandmother. I'm getting the benefit of that investment by getting that 70 in now and early as opposed to 6,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, you're right.

[Ken Coleman]

That's what I would do.

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm not opposed to that.

[Dave Ramsey]

It makes sense. My question and is you're afraid you're going to leave yourself short. Is it enough still? I guess. I guess that goes back to the calculator question.

[Ken Coleman]

It does. But I would also say I'm channeling Dave right now. If Dave Ramsey, when he'd go, what you have is going to be enough.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Because you set the budget, my friend, and what you have is the budget.

[Ken Coleman]

And the kids go, this is what we have. And so if each of them have 150, I feel pretty confident they're going to be Able to get educated.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes, thank you very much.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, that's a good question.

[Ken Coleman]

They don't have an unlimited number. They don't go, well, Dad, I want to go to Harvard and it's 80 grand a year. You can go tough cookies.

[Jade Warshaw]

Or you tell them to figure out where, where is it coming from? Which.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, the hope is if they went to grad school, then there'd be enough, you know, to carry on to a, you know, a graduate degree afterwards or something if you could continue to fund it more.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, then again, you can choose to keep doing the 6,000. Thousand.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, you can. And then you're doing both. You're doing what Grandma said and you're adding extra to it. But it does lead into another question, Jay and Ken, that I think is worth talking about, which is when it comes to school, college, grad school, higher ed, whatever, you know, going to get training, I think the biggest piece of this responsibility is not financial. I think the biggest piece is that communicative part of it where we're saying, here's the expectation, here's what mom and dad are going to do, but here's the what child, what you do. And we're having that conversation early and we're having it often. So they're not going to wake up one day at 16 or 17 scrambling, trying to figure out or learning, hey, I have a college fund, right. It's, we're talking about this probably from the time you hit freshman year of, hey, college is coming in four years. Your mother and I are saving. We don't know what school you're going to end up with. But just know if there's a deficit, you're going to be on the line for it.

[Ken Coleman]

That's right.

[Jade Warshaw]

And even if there's not, you're applying for scholarships. I expect, you know, depending, there's going to be some work aspects on your end. And so really clearly setting that guideline, I think, is the most important part.

[Ken Coleman]

I think so. And so just a quick review here. I would, I put the 35 in each kid's account today. 35 here, 35 there.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

And I talk with the, the smart, your smartvestor pro, the, the person you're using and go, let's play this out. Let's do our best calculator, guess or amortize this, whatever you want to call it. And now we can look back and go, okay, based new 35 and 35 in each kid's account. What's that going to end up being? And I believe it's going to take one of the kids to 120 and I think the other one 90 something or somewhere in that range.

[Jade Warshaw]

So I mean it's $72,000 for the 10 year spread for the 6 year old and the 9 year old if they keep putting in what they've been putting in.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. So you got options. But I would honor grandma's request. I wouldn't take her money and put it towards the mortgage. I feel gross about that.

[Jade Warshaw]

I agree. Especially it would be one thing if you already fully had education covered, but with your what you've said you want to pay, you don't have it covered. So I would put it towards. I agree with Ken.

[Ken Coleman]

Let's get that mass sum in there right now. Let that start building.

[Jade Warshaw]

I know that's right. And yeah, you're right, Ken. Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

Wow. Somebody write it down. Ken is right. I need to call my wife and daughter immediately and tell them, hang on, I'll be wrong later. Rachel, do you ever get these sketchy text messages that are like, hey, you need to update your address and verify so we can get you the package you didn't order?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, I have, George. Sketchy and never trust Crystal.

[Ken Coleman]

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

[Jade Warshaw]

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

[Ken Coleman]

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

[Jade Warshaw]

So much.

[Ken Coleman]

But Delete Me will delete your data, hence the name.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's gone.

[Ken Coleman]

They'll wipe it out for you so you can sleep easy.

[Jade Warshaw]

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

[Ken Coleman]

Get this. So far they've reviewed 27,000 listings on my behalf, removed me from 240 data broker sites and saved me 77 hours of time. It's incredible.

[Jade Warshaw]

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

[Ken Coleman]

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

[Jade Warshaw]

Again, that's joins the late me.com Ramsey. Make sure to check it out, you guys.

[Ken Coleman]

Listen, guys, I've heard just about every.

[Dave Ramsey]

Excuse for why folks think they can't get ahead with money. So let's go ahead and settle this right now. Now you get the final say on what happens with your money. That's why you have to start telling.

[Ken Coleman]

Your money where to go so you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Can stop wondering where it went.

[Ken Coleman]

So if you're going to start winning.

[Dave Ramsey]

With money, you have to get on a budget. The easiest way to get started and.

[Ken Coleman]

Stick to it is with the EveryDollar budget app.

[Dave Ramsey]

It'll help you make a plan for every single dollar coming in and every single dollar going out every single month. And guess what? It's free. So no excuses. Download every dollar in the App Store.

[Ken Coleman]

Or Google Play today.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right, today's question of the day is brought to you by Y Refi. If you've got defaulted private student loans and no one else will work with you, then try why Refi? They help you explore refinancing options with a low fixed rate and a payment plan based on your ability to pay. So go to yrefi.com Ramsey that's the letter Y, R, F, R, E, F, Y. Let me say that again. That's the letter Y, r, e, f y.com Ramsey may not be available in all states.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, today's question. Jade comes from Declan in West Virginia. I'd like to say that I think Declan's a cool name, and I kind of would like this on Declan.

[Jade Warshaw]

Very strong.

[Ken Coleman]

I think I could pull that off.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, it's. No, I think not.

[Ken Coleman]

Sure.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, you can't pull it off. Sorry. Kelly agrees. Kelly's, like, not happening.

[Ken Coleman]

No, no, I think you're right. That's why I said it. I knew it was gonna be funny. And I want to admit that I don't mind being the butt of a good joke.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

And I don't think I could pull that one off. But back to Declan's question. I see so much, much on social media these days regarding how well everyone is doing, and I wonder if I'm doing okay. Oh, I pay 1100amonth for rent. I have 900 in monthly expenses, including student loan, personal loan, cell phone, gym membership, and utilities. I don't spend much on food. No joke. Maybe about 750amonth. I rarely buy anything for myself after taxes. I bring home twenty five hundred dollars every two weeks. So he's got five thousand a month. He's he's bringing home. Why do I feel so behind? Well, I think the first and the biggest reason is because you're spending too much time focusing on other people's big wins. And so when I'm watching everybody else show off their car, their house, their shoes, whatever, whatever, as you describe, then I know from science, and we know this from neuroscience science, that whatever we focus on, that's all we see, man. And so all you see is everybody else is crushing it. And I'm over here in West Virginia just trying to make it through a month. And I think that's why you feel behind in the grand scheme of things. I don't think you're terribly behind.

[Jade Warshaw]

I don't either.

[Ken Coleman]

It sounds like you're young. And my partner here in crime, Jade, there's another reason why he feels like he's not getting ahead too well. You can see it in the corner question.

[Jade Warshaw]

You can Let. Let me. Before I do, though, I. This popped in my mind, and I'm just going to say it. You know, there's the scripture that I. I think of where it's like, hey, you were running a good race. Like, what stopped you from, you know, going forward? And it talks about giving careful thought to the path of your feet. And it's so easy with money. You're running your race, and it's easy to look over into somebody else's lane and be like, ooh, what are they doing? And it's distracting. And you're supposed to look at your path and your fear feet and not get distracted. So I just want to remind you that your race is your race to run. Somebody's going to be making 10,000. Somebody's going to be making five. Somebody's going to be making 40,000amonth. Right. But your race is your race, and there's no shame in that game. You're not racing them. You're trying to get your best time.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

And it's you against you. So just reminding of that now. He says, I don't spend much on food. Maybe 750amonth. I rarely buy anything for myself after taxes, I bring in 2,500 every two weeks. You know, I, I think that he's. If, if you feel that you want to increase your income, that is your prerogative. And if you feel that that is what's hindering you from going faster, you would be correct in. In that assumption. And I think that there's room for you to improve on that, but not because of what other people are doing, because of what it is that you want to do.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, we can't see in this question is, what are his monthly payments? We do know there's.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, we.

[Ken Coleman]

And so if you were to take those monthly payments, and I could take a guess, just looking at that situation, he may have somewhere between three and five hundred dollars a month. Might be more with the car payment. Does he have a car?

[Jade Warshaw]

Student loan, personal loan, cell phone? He doesn't mention a car.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, good. So my guess is you could give yourself anywhere from a 3 to $5,000 raise. Not knowing the actual specifics here. That combined with I want to bust it to one work. But again, Jade makes the best point here. What's the life that you want? What's the future life you want? Not the life that everybody else has.

[Jade Warshaw]

He also doesn't say how old he is.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Which. There's another piece of that.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, I've got to point this out. And this is going to sound so Old Man Kelly, our young millennial or Gen Z producer.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, dang, I feel like crushed chopped meat over here.

[Ken Coleman]

No, no, but listen, so. So here's what. I saw something. I saw this recently.

[Jade Warshaw]

She's the young one.

[Ken Coleman]

I saw that these influencers that are showing all this stuff where they're traveling around the world and they're staying at these nice hotels. It's all a ruse, bro. There's four or five of them splitting the cost, and then they shoot their video.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

I didn't know this.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's never real. What you see on social media is so not real.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

So you never know what's behind the scenes.

[Ken Coleman]

That really burned my biscuits. I'll be honest. Because I was like, they're lying to a bunch of young people. People. And they're all splitting the cost, and none of them own anything, and they can't afford to stay in the hotel. I don't know, drive the car. And they're like. They're like, renting a private plane, and, like, six of them are shooting videos. So I'm just pointing this out. Like the stuff you see on Tick Tock and Instagram. I. I hate to be a conspiracy theorist. Where's Rachel Cruz when you need her? I. I think it's. I think I. I wouldn't believe anything I see out there.

[Jade Warshaw]

Ken, you don't even need to go to extremes. Like, you're talking. I mean, you're talking about, like, nice resorts and private planes. I just see families at Disney, and I'm like, how? How? God, how?

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, well, credit cards.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes. And so that's my point is. Yeah, you 100% cannot compare yourself. Now, let's have this quick conversation, Ken, because I think it's worth having.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, great.

[Jade Warshaw]

I was talking, I was talking to a guy about this this morning. Let's talk about comparison with money. Because I think there's two types of comparison. One is good and one is bad. One is comparison for inspiration and for ideas. Ideas?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

You're looking at other people and going, oh, they're doing something that I'd like.

[Ken Coleman]

To do or be a debt free scream for an example. On the show, you watch the debt free screams because you go, that I want to be where they are.

[Jade Warshaw]

I look at Beyonce, I go, she's my same age and she's amazing. I want to be fabulous, too.

[Ken Coleman]

You are fabulous.

[Jade Warshaw]

You know what I'm saying? Like, but that's what I'm saying. You're looking for inspiration. You're looking, it's not making you feel bad or less than it's making you feel great.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes, of course.

[Jade Warshaw]

Anything's possible. Then there's the comparison. That's the bad side. That's, hey, everybody's doing this. Why can't I? Am I bad compared to this? Is this better? And I'm not meeting the bar. And so really knowing how to shift that from the negative comparison to the positive comparison. And I think, Ken, the way that you shift that is by asking the right questions. And now I'm going into your lane because you're the question asker. But when you're looking at what other people are doing and you're just internalizing it, really good saying, oh, oh, how did they get that? Should I be doing that? No, take it outside and go, hey.

[Ken Coleman]

You know, well, here you go. How did you get that financially in 30 years? Let's start there.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

What do I want to bless my family with financially?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

Where do I want to live?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

All the things. You start asking those questions, that becomes very personal to your point. And now this young man, Declan with the cool name goes, all right, right. This is the vision for my life. And I'm going to have to do this, this, this and this.

[Jade Warshaw]

And you can ask those people, you can ask the people that you see doing the thing. If you have proximity to them, there's nothing that's stopping you from saying, hey, you know, that job you had, did that require what education did that require?

[Ken Coleman]

Right.

[Jade Warshaw]

You know, I, I, I see that you're, you know, winning in this way. Are you using someone to help you with your investments? Who do you use ask questions. Because then you're being curious. You're not being, you know, you're not being. Having a bad comparison.

[Ken Coleman]

And I think you're making a really good point. You gotta want it for you and for good reasons, not just because you go, well, it sure would be nice to have a private jet, right? Or whatever you're seeing on social.

[Jade Warshaw]

Exactly.

[Ken Coleman]

And you make a very good point. I went kind of the influencer route. And what we see, but just everyday people are out there putting their best foot forward. And what you don't know is, is they're dragging along a 1200 DOL car payment behind that new, nice car. And I mean, look, you and I park next to each other in the parking lot. I think people would be astounded to know what we drive. We drive nice cars.

[Jade Warshaw]

They're just old.

[Ken Coleman]

They're. Well, they're older. Older, yes, but they're nice.

[Jade Warshaw]

I think so.

[Ken Coleman]

And we paid cash. You know why? Because I'm. I'm. I. I got. I got three kids on the payroll.

[Jade Warshaw]

I know. That's right. And I got them coming up. They're coming up.

[Ken Coleman]

You're just getting ready. Your expenses are low.

[Jade Warshaw]

I know, I know.

[Ken Coleman]

Until that boy of yours eats a carton of eggs in two days.

[Jade Warshaw]

Listen, they're getting there, let me tell you. So, Zia's daycare. I never say her name online, but I know that was a slip.

[Ken Coleman]

You saw what I did. I stayed away from that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Pretend like you didn't hear that. So, my daughter's daycare. She stops daycare and goes to kindergarten. And let me tell you something, that's a cool 1400 back in my pocket.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, man, I can't wait. Man, these weekend trips.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's up now? Now maybe I can go to Disney.

[Ken Coleman]

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[Jade Warshaw]

So if you're serious about investing with.

[Ken Coleman]

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[Dave Ramsey]

Over and the energy in every room has been unreal.

[Ken Coleman]

Each stop has been packed with real.

[Dave Ramsey]

Talk, big laughs and life changing moments. Now it's your turn.

[Ken Coleman]

Come hang out with me and Dr. John DeLoney in a city near you.

[Dave Ramsey]

For a night that could change your money, your relationships and your future. This is your last chance to join us in Phoenix, Fort Worth or Kansas.

[Ken Coleman]

City the week of May 5th.

[Dave Ramsey]

Grab your tickets today at ramseysolutions.com tour.

[Jade Warshaw]

If you are listening to this message, it means that you are a listener of the Ramsey show and we're so glad that you are and we're hoping that you're enjoying, you know, the advice that we give and the messages that we teach. And if that is the case, I hope that you share it with somebody. I hope you tell them, hey, there's this really cool financial podcast or this really cool, you know, YouTube show that I listen to and you'll love it and share it with the people, people that you love and that you think could use this advice and make sure you share it in a positive way. Not your finances look a mess. You could probably use this show. Make sure you share it in a nice way.

[Ken Coleman]

The top ropes there.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, you don't want to do that. So just slide it into their DMS or you know, hit the little paper airplane button or you know, copy the link and paste it into one of your text messages. We would really, really appreciate that. It's helpful, helpful for us and it helps spread the word to a lot of people who could probably use the, the help.

[Ken Coleman]

So for anybody over the age of 50, slide into their DMS just means send them a direct message on social media. We got to explain things.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's correct, Kim. You're right.

[Ken Coleman]

I'm looking out for my people out there.

[Jade Warshaw]

Thank you. We need that. SIA is in Seattle, Washington. Sia, how can we help?

[Dave Ramsey]

Hi, I'm glad that you're taking my call. I, I own two houses. One of them I just bought recently at $1.2 million. I put down just 25% down and I mortgaged 900,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now my first house, that is $850,000 worth, 150,000 remaining on the mortgage. The rate on the first house is 2.7%. That makes monthly payment of $2,000. Now the question is, is it better to sell the first house and pay the equity toward the second house so that I can have lesser or smaller mortgage payment monthly? Or should I rent out the first house and pay the rent difference toward the mortgage of the second house? Because the mortgage. The rent difference is about $2,000 month. Because it could. It could rent out about 4,000. So if I.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, keep going.

[Dave Ramsey]

If I make $2,000 from. From the rent difference, that rent difference can go toward the mortgage of the second house and the rest I can pay through my income. Which one is a better investment pathway forward?

[Jade Warshaw]

Let me. Yeah, let me ask a couple of questions. Is this your only debt? These houses? Houses.

[Dave Ramsey]

This is my. One of this. Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

This is the only debts out there. And what's your income?

[Dave Ramsey]

I make around 350,000 a year.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, 350,000. Seattle, Washington. These two houses right now, which one are you currently living in?

[Dave Ramsey]

I live in the new one that I just bought.

[Jade Warshaw]

The 1.2 million dollar one.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. The previous one is being painted. Getting ready for rent. For. For rent, but I'm just not sure. Should I rent it or should I sell it?

[Ken Coleman]

How much do you owe on that first house, the one that you're getting ready to rent? I only.

[Dave Ramsey]

I owe 150,000 on it.

[Ken Coleman]

What's it worth?

[Dave Ramsey]

Market is worth 850,000.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

And then you've got a 900,000 mortgage on the one you just bought. So you're more. Let's kind of like frame up how we're viewing this because you're viewing it more on the monthly payment. The reaction rents. I'm viewing it more on total debt. Ken, how are you viewing it?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, the same way. I mean, to really burst your bubble. That rental opportunity is not as exciting as you think it is.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, I agree.

[Ken Coleman]

And it's also not going to be as effective as you think it is. Let's take the $2,000 a month that you're saying you're going to get in profit. Well, that's not what you're actually going to net. When you talk about expenses of taking care of the home, you're the landlord on that day deal. You still own it. You're going to have expenses. You're not going to see $2,000 a month.

[Jade Warshaw]

I feel like there's easier ways to make that money.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. And so you're going, well, I'll take that and then I'll put it on my new mortgage. I just don't think you're going to make the progress that you want. And so, yeah, I'm seeing it the same way you are, Jade. I go, all of a sudden you've made yourself a landlord and you've taken on a really, really high mortgage. Now you make good money, you make great money. So you shouldn't be in a burden there. But what's the point of keeping the first house when you could sell it and put a huge chunk and almost completely cover or get yourself really close to being able to pay that new house down pretty quickly? And that would be the play for me.

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean, you could do, you could do either. So right now you've got the $850,000 house, you only owe 150 on it, correct?

[Dave Ramsey]

I only owe 150.

[Jade Warshaw]

So if you sold the $1.2 million house, you could.

[Ken Coleman]

But he just bought that. That's not a smart move. He just moved into that one.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's true. That is true.

[Ken Coleman]

I mean, that's where you want to live. That's your primary. That's what you guys are excited about is your primary home going forward long.

[Dave Ramsey]

Term, considering the inflation and the rate going up. I was just thinking if keeping the house, the first house, if I keep it next year this time is going to be worth a hundred thousand more.

[Ken Coleman]

I understand, but we weren't discussing that. I'm saying the house you just bought, $1.2 million house, is that your long term play? That's where you all want to be, long term?

[Dave Ramsey]

That's right, yes.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so then if that's the case, then you sell house number two, you clear, I don't know how much you think you'll clear. 700,000 off of this. 6, 685.

[Dave Ramsey]

650.

[Jade Warshaw]

650. Okay. And you take that, you throw it at your $900,000 mortgage and then you know your cash flow and the rest to pay this thing off. That's what I would do. But I have a sense that you're, you got into these houses for a reason. Was it just, was it to make money in real estate or did you say, we lived in one house, now we bought another house and now I just happen to have these two houses.

[Dave Ramsey]

Just wanted to move to a better neighborhood. Neighborhood that was a better school.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so you didn't set out to be a landlord.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I didn't, but it turned out that way. So I was just thinking if, if it's a good Investment, maybe to keep it for retirement age.

[Jade Warshaw]

I wouldn't. So then you have to ask yourself the question you have, and this is kind of a Dave Ramsey question you have to ask yourself today, if I lived in this 1.2 million dollar house and I only owed 350,000 on it, would I turn around and say I'd like to have a rental, let me go over here and buy the same exact house, house number two, and spend 850,000 on it because I want to be a landlord. Would you do that?

[Dave Ramsey]

Probably not, because I would buy a cheaper rental at that point.

[Jade Warshaw]

Exactly. So that's kind of a way to flip it around and say, is this really the decision that I want to be in long term or did I just end up here? And is it something that I honestly want to get out of? And I think it sounds like something you want to get out of.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. And I'll use your own logic. I'll use your own logic really quick. See, you know, you said the very first home you had that you're planning to rent, you said, if I hold on to that another year from now, it's going to be worth another hundred thousand. And I'd say, well, the same is probably true for the new, fancier, nicer area house you just got. So of course that's why I would put my money, I, I would divest of that house, I'd sell it and I would do what Jay told you to do. And now we're on a track to pay that really nice house or much nicer house off.

[Jade Warshaw]

And it's what you want to be in.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I could pay that off a lot faster.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. With that income, especially now.

[Ken Coleman]

Again, that's what we would do. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

I really appreciate it. Thank you very much for taking my call.

[Jade Warshaw]

You bet. That's a great call, Sia. I like that one. All right, let's take a, let's take a social question, Ken.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, I love the social question.

[Jade Warshaw]

And this guy's name is Kristen. Kenneth.

[Ken Coleman]

This is a good man. I can tell you. He's a distinguished gentleman. I can just tell you. I can just tell you that he.

[Jade Warshaw]

Says, I have a sum of money coming in that would either pay off both of my credit cards or my 401k loan. Which would you recommend that I pay off?

[Ken Coleman]

Well, we're going to go with the, the debt snowball. So which one of those is. So we lay them all out. What's the 401k loan? What are the credit card loans? And I'm doing It for mom momentum. I'm gonna. I'm gonna play the snowball the way that we teach it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Interesting. I'd go the 401k loan first. There's a couple of things that I'd put top on that list.

[Ken Coleman]

That's fair. I have a caveat on that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, tell me your caveat.

[Ken Coleman]

If it's a onerous loan and it's really costing a lot of money and he can wipe it, then I get that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. 401k loans scare me. Because here's the thing, and to your point, if it's a big loan, if you lose your job, that thing becomes a paid like due in full within 12 months of you losing your job.

[Ken Coleman]

I'd like to know the terms of that deal.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

But I'm always going to go the snowball for momentum purposes is where I'm always going to default.

[Jade Warshaw]

I like it, Sam. Buying or selling a home is a really big deal, guys. And you do want an expert in your corner, someone who is fighting for you to find the best deal for the right price. And luckily, the Ramsey trusted program is the only way to find a top agent that you can trust. They're going to help you make your home a blessing and not a burden. And I'm telling you, it's easy to just complete prepare these different agent profiles. It's easy to interview them and ultimately choose the one that's going to work for you. Which is what I like about it because at the end of the day, you're the one making the choice. We're not just assigning someone to you. You're still interviewing them and you're still getting to choose. We've just vetted them to make sure they're worth choosing. So find a local Ramsey trusted real estate pro for free@ramsey solutions.com agent or click the link in the description if you are listening on YouTube or podcast. Cast. All right, love that. Let's go to Rachel in Dallas, Texas. Rachel, what's up?

[Dave Ramsey]

Hi y' all. Thank you for taking my call.

[Jade Warshaw]

You bet. How can we help?

[Dave Ramsey]

So my question is, should I pull out of my savings or stop paying towards my debt in order to buy an RV for me, my husband, my one year old and our two dogs to live in?

[Ken Coleman]

Why do we want to live in an RV?

[Jade Warshaw]

RV?

[Dave Ramsey]

So my parents, our home flooded in 2023.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh no.

[Dave Ramsey]

My husband and I, we had a two month. Well, we had a baby baby and we needed a place to go. So my parents had just finished building their house and while they were building their house. They lived in an rv, and so they had an RV for us to live in, so we moved into there. Now my parents are both retired and they're wanting extra money, and so I just feel like us moving out of this $40,000 RV would be very beneficial to them. Now, while we're living in this rv, we've been able to save and pay off some of our debt.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so we want to continue doing that. We're not really ready to go and rent again. So we've discussed with my parents maybe us buying our own RV and giving their spouse, letting them be able to sell theirs. Y.

[Ken Coleman]

The cost of the RV be that you guys are thinking about buying?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, so I'm not really sure. We have $2,500 in savings, which isn't a lot, and we still have $40,000 in debt. We. We're paying off our debt, so our savings isn't going up much. So I'm just kind of stuck on. Do I ask my parents for us to continue staying there? I'll be honest, my dogs are kind of tearing up their rv, so if I could get us out of Deb there sooner than later, that would be my.

[Ken Coleman]

Why aren't you ready to rent? That was the statement you made. We're not ready to rent.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Is it the cost?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. We're just really proud of our progress on paying off our debt.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Ken Coleman]

But we are too.

[Jade Warshaw]

You got to run the numbers on both sides to see if this is going to work. So you said you've got. And you've got to consider the time frame too. So you said you've got $40,000 of debt. How much do you have to put onto that debt to clear it in the timeframe that you're thinking? And what is the timeframe that you're thinking?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, at the rate we're going, so some of it's school loans, so we're kind of leaving that out.

[Jade Warshaw]

Don't leave that out. That's. That's the one you want to get. Listen, Sallie Mae stops for no one, so you don't leave that out. That's part of the debt snowball.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes. As far as my timeline, I'm kind of leaving that out. We have my husband's.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, And I'm telling you straight up, don't leave it out. Rachel.

[Dave Ramsey]

Leave it out.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, ma' am. Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

And you know what? You know what?

[Dave Ramsey]

It's. It's still accruing. He still has two years left of school, so.

[Jade Warshaw]

And you're still taking debt for it. So you're still actively going into debt.

[Dave Ramsey]

There's still loans coming from it. I think there's three loans on it.

[Ken Coleman]

All right, Rachel, I've, I've been very, very patient. We're having the wrong conversation. So I'm going to answ the question that you asked. Okay. No, you should not stop paying down your debt to buy an RV. You have no idea what the RV is going to cost. You only have $2,500 in savings. You're more than $40,000 in debt and you're presenting to us as though you can't even afford to pay rent. Which isn't true. Which is where I want to focus our conversation. The bottom line is, is your dogs are tearing up your parents rv. You guys have outstage your welcome. They need the money. Money. So what I want to ask is what does your husband and you, what's your bring home income? Both of you? Because I want to come up with, with Jade, how much you can actually afford in rent. Because that's what you need to be doing is going and renting and then taking your time and going as fast as you can go on paying off the debt. But buying an rv, you don't have the money.

[Jade Warshaw]

Were you going to sell something to get this or what was your thought?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, we were going to finance it.

[Ken Coleman]

I know what you were going to do. No, because I. Because you don't have any money. So therefore you were going to justify getting an rv, which if you really want to get our blood pressure high is when people ask us about buying RVs because it's a complete and total waste of money. So let's go to tell Jade what your take home income is so that she can help you figure this rent out.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, so I bring home 70,000 and my husband brings home about, I don't know, he makes, he makes $11 an hour. And this is a newer job because he had to change jobs so he could be close to connections daycare.

[Jade Warshaw]

Tell me every month, tell me every month how much money you guys see in your paychecks? That's an easier question.

[Dave Ramsey]

So he gets paid every other week, his or her about $700. So he brings home about 1400. And I bring home, well, I have our insurance and I have, you know, 401k. I bring home 1800 every two weeks. So what is that? 32?

[Jade Warshaw]

Uhhuh. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

So you guys have 5000 bucks a month and you've got 25% of that that you can spend on Rent. So you've got 1250 bucks that you can spend every single month on rent. So that's your starting spot. Now you go. I almost said look in the paper or look in the yellow pages. I don't know what hit me. But you go and you find.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, let's explain what that is to some people.

[Jade Warshaw]

People don't know how old I really am.

[Ken Coleman]

I know.

[Jade Warshaw]

You go and find a. An apartment or something, a rental, a townhouse that you guys can stay in that'll take your dogs, and that's 1250. That is the barrier. Because if you go beyond that, it's going to be really tough, Rachel, for you guys to make headway on your. Your debt is your husband.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes. So there's your number. 1250 years, your max ratio.

[Jade Warshaw]

Maximum.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay. Now I want to know if Hubs is working another job or two or open to working another job or two, because $11 an hour. He's capable of bringing in more money, and he needs to be, especially when we're paying off debt. What's the story?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, so we moved to a smaller town when we moved in with my parents. And so we were looking for a job for him. That's to my son's daycare because I have to travel over 60 miles for work.

[Ken Coleman]

I got a great idea. Why don't we move closer to your job now?

[Jade Warshaw]

You don't have to be.

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, and by the way, it's probably closer to civilization, I'm gathering, which means there's better jobs.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

When will he be eligible? It sounded like he was still in school because he's accruing loans. Is that right?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

He's doing online for what?

[Jade Warshaw]

So when will he make more?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, his degree is in marine biology.

[Ken Coleman]

So in Texas is George Costanza.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right, all right. So is there a pathway that he's going to make that money to get.

[Ken Coleman]

Him near the marine biology?

[Jade Warshaw]

Does he know the pathway for that?

[Dave Ramsey]

He has no pathway. No.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

He doesn't know the pathway.

[Ken Coleman]

He needs to pause on school. You all need to move and get to a better place where you're not driving as far as you're driving with a little one. That's adding a lot of stress to your life. It's going to be a better job market for him because it's near civilization or in the middle of civilization. And he needs to be making $20 or more an hour, period. End of story. I don't care what he's doing. And yes, he needs to press pause on pursuing a degree because you Guys can't afford it, and you're taking a loan out without a path to doing marine biology work. Now, I'm not saying he. I'm not in any way crapping on the dream or trying to be tough guy or get off my lawn guy, but right now, where there is no path, we shouldn't be doing something. And so let's press pause. The marine biology degree will always be there, but you all need to get your income up and change your lifestyle.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, sorry, I know that's not fun to hear here.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's not. But, Ken, I think you're exactly right. There's a lot going on, and if they can just focus in one direction, a clear direction, where there is a path forward to your point, you need to go that direction. And so 1250 bucks a month in a rental, that gets you closer to your job and allows him to find work as he pauses education for the time being until he finds a clear path forward.

[Ken Coleman]

Hey, what are you still doing here? You know the rest of the show's.

[Jade Warshaw]

Happening on the Ramsey Network app, right?

[Ken Coleman]

So you got to jump over there to continue watching.

[Jade Warshaw]

You can download it for free.

[Ken Coleman]

Just go to your app, App store, type in Ramsey Network. It's completely free, and I'll drop a link in the show notes to make it easy for you. So if you're watching on the app, you're in luck.

[Jade Warshaw]

But if you're watching anywhere else, this.

[Ken Coleman]

Show is over for you. So jump onto the app and let the fun continue. All right, go on now. Don't make it weird.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

I got nowhere to go, so you need to go.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, bye.

[Ken Coleman]

Bye now. All right, this is. It's getting weird over there, guys.

[Jade Warshaw]

What do we do?