Surviving the Money Storm Starts with Tough Choices

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Surviving the Money Storm Starts with Tough Choices" – The Ramsey Show

Release Date: March 27, 2025
Host/Author: Ramsey Network
Description: The Ramsey Show empowers listeners to build wealth and regain control of their lives despite past financial mistakes. Hosted by Dave Ramsey and his team of experts, the show addresses the top financial challenges faced by individuals, offering actionable solutions and insights.

---

Introduction

The episode titled "Surviving the Money Storm Starts with Tough Choices" features a compilation of heartfelt calls and segments from the Ramsey Cruise over the past year. Hosted by Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman, the team dives deep into callers' financial dilemmas, providing tailored advice to help them navigate turbulent financial waters.

---

Caller Stories and Expert Advice

1. Joe from Anaheim, California: Loaning $12,000 to Girlfriend

Timestamp: [01:08]

Situation:
Joe seeks affirmation after his girlfriend, with whom he has lived for a year and a half, requested a $12,000 loan to pay off her credit card debt. Concerned about the strain this could place on their relationship, Joe wonders if he should proceed.

Notable Quotes:

• Joe: "It's not a little bit myself. Huh?" ([01:42])
• Jade Warshaw: "We’re anti-debt here." ([04:11])

Advice:
Jade and Ken advise Joe against loaning the money, emphasizing the emotional and relational toll it can take. They recommend maintaining financial boundaries to preserve the relationship's integrity. Additionally, they suggest discussing long-term commitments, such as marriage, to solidify financial responsibilities.

Key Takeaway:
Avoid mixing significant personal loans with romantic relationships to prevent financial strain and maintain healthy boundaries.

---

2. Zachary from Indianapolis, Indiana: House Fire and Financial Recovery

Timestamp: [10:45]

Situation:
Zachary shares the devastating news of a house fire that destroyed his downstairs master bedroom. With plans to sell the house and purchase a new one closer to his parents, he faces setbacks in his financial journey, including an $85,000 consumer debt and minimal savings.

Notable Quotes:

• James Childs: "You dodged a major crisis." ([12:57])
• Jade Warshaw: "Now is not the time for you guys to buy a house." ([15:22])

Advice:
The team emphasizes the importance of prioritizing debt repayment and rebuilding the emergency fund before making significant financial moves like purchasing a new home. They commend Zachary for starting his baby steps and advise focusing on stabilizing his financial situation post-disaster.

Key Takeaway:
In the aftermath of unexpected financial setbacks, prioritize debt repayment and emergency savings before pursuing new investments or property purchases.

---

3. Nicole from Memphis: Single Mom Nearing Retirement with Debt Challenges

Timestamp: [21:38]

Situation:
Nicole, a 46-year-old single mother, grapples with $85,000 in debt, a recent job loss, and struggling to support her family while nearing retirement age. Her diminished income and escalating expenses have pushed her towards addiction.

Notable Quotes:

• Jade Warshaw: "Get a full-time day job... Make barbering the thing that you do on the side." ([26:02])
• James Childs: "You've got to get more income, and you've got to get a community around you." ([29:11])

Advice:
Jade recommends that Nicole secure a stable, full-time job to increase her income, allowing her to manage debts effectively. Additionally, she stresses the importance of seeking community support and professional financial coaching to navigate her challenges.

Key Takeaway:
Stabilizing income through a reliable job and leveraging community support are crucial steps for individuals facing significant debt and personal challenges.

---

4. Susan from Dallas, Texas: Recent Divorce and Investment Strategy

Timestamp: [33:38]

Situation:
Susan, a 40-year-old recent divorcee, has received a substantial financial settlement, including a $1.1 million check, a $715,000 401(k), and a monthly income of $15,000 for seven years. She seeks guidance on managing her finances, investing, and purchasing a new home.

Notable Quotes:

• Jade Warshaw: "Start learning about investing... invest that money, you'll get a higher compound interest rate." ([36:30])
• James Childs: "You can get out of debt first before you invest." ([62:30])

Advice:
The experts advise Susan to invest her lump sum wisely, utilizing resources like SmartVestor Pro to build a diversified investment portfolio. They also recommend purchasing a home with cash to eliminate mortgage payments and focusing on long-term financial growth through disciplined budgeting and investing.

Key Takeaway:
Strategic investment and debt-free homeownership are pivotal for financial stability and growth following a significant financial settlement.

---

5. Tyler from Charlotte, North Carolina: Overwhelming Real Estate Debt

Timestamp: [44:16]

Situation:
Tyler is burdened with $2.5 million in debt from multiple real estate investments, including mortgages on numerous properties. Despite aggressive debt repayment, he seeks advice on whether to intensify his efforts or maintain his current strategy.

Notable Quotes:

• Jade Warshaw: "You need to be in the green and doing deals that end with a net profit." ([49:21])
• James Childs: "You can still come out of this thing on top." ([50:02])

Advice:
The team recommends Tyler reassessing his real estate investments, suggesting the sale of underperforming properties to eliminate debt and focus on profitable ventures. They stress the importance of maintaining positive cash flow and minimizing financial risk.

Key Takeaway:
Regularly evaluate investment performance and be prepared to divest from non-profitable ventures to manage and reduce debt effectively.

---

6. Kendall from Austin, Texas: Medical School Graduate Considering Retirement and Investments

Timestamp: [55:13]

Situation:
Kendall, a 29-year-old recent medical school graduate, faces $220,000 in student debt with a residency salary of $60,000. She is concerned about balancing debt repayment with retirement savings, aiming to retire at 62 without prior retirement savings.

Notable Quotes:

• Jade Warshaw: "If you're investing 10%... that’s $5 million." ([58:57])
• James Childs: "Trust the process. It works." ([60:07])

Advice:
The experts encourage Kendall to maximize her current salary by aggressively paying down debt while gradually building her retirement fund. They highlight the power of compound interest and long-term investing, reassuring her that starting early will significantly benefit her financial future.

Key Takeaway:
Balancing debt repayment with retirement savings, even on a limited income, can lead to substantial long-term wealth through disciplined investing and leveraging compound interest.

---

7. Joe from Columbia, South Carolina: Preparing for Job Loss and Mortgage Payoff

Timestamp: [73:58]

Situation:
Joe faces an impending job loss and contemplates paying off his $113,000 mortgage on a $400,000 home. With $190,000 in savings, he questions whether to eliminate his mortgage or retain some cash for emergencies.

Notable Quotes:

• Jade Warshaw: "Press pause... make sure we're putting the right pieces in to get that income." ([75:55])
• James Childs: "You've got a head start." ([76:33])

Advice:
The team advises Joe to assess his financial stability, considering his emergency savings and the impact of paying off the mortgage on his cash reserves. They recommend maintaining a substantial emergency fund even after paying off the home to ensure financial security during job transitions.

Key Takeaway:
Before making significant financial decisions like paying off a mortgage, ensure you have adequate emergency savings to cover unforeseen expenses, especially during periods of potential income instability.

---

8. Gabriel – Ramsey Network App Inquiry: Legitimacy of Money-Making Apps

Timestamp: [78:28]

Situation:
Gabriel inquires about the legitimacy of money-making apps like Bingo Winner and Mr. Beast's new app, as well as the efficacy of investment platforms like Acorns and Robinhood.

Notable Quotes:

• Jade Warshaw: "If you have time to play games on your phone, something's wrong." ([79:20])
• James Childs: "You should not be spending your time on it... no ROI on your time." ([80:19])

Advice:
The experts express skepticism about money-making apps, suggesting they often lack substantial returns and can be time-consuming distractions. Instead, they advocate for long-term, disciplined investing through reputable platforms and traditional financial instruments.

Key Takeaway:
Focus on proven investment strategies and avoid relying on gimmicky money-making apps that offer minimal returns and divert attention from meaningful financial growth.

---

9. Matthew from Detroit: Marriage Dynamics and Financial Decisions with Children

Timestamp: [81:52]

Situation:
Matthew is preparing for marriage and is conflicted about how his new wife influences his decisions regarding raising their children and household spending. He worries about maintaining financial control and family priorities.

Notable Quotes:

• James Childs: "You need to invest time and money into premarital counseling." ([83:20])
• Jade Warshaw: "You’re marrying into the family... get this all out before you lock in." ([86:23])

Advice:
The team strongly recommends premarital counseling to address potential conflicts and establish clear financial and familial boundaries. They emphasize the importance of open communication and aligning financial goals before making lifelong commitments.

Key Takeaway:
Premarital counseling is essential for couples to navigate financial and familial dynamics, ensuring mutual understanding and agreement on key financial decisions involving children and household management.

---

Conclusion

The episode underscores the importance of making tough financial decisions to navigate personal and unexpected financial crises effectively. Whether dealing with debt, investment strategies, or relationship dynamics, the Ramsey team emphasizes disciplined budgeting, informed investing, and proactive financial planning as cornerstones of financial stability and growth.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

1. Joe from Anaheim:
   "It's not a little bit myself. Huh?" ([01:42])

2. Jade Warshaw:
   "We’re anti-debt here." ([04:11])

3. James Childs:
   "You dodged a major crisis." ([12:57])

4. Jade Warshaw:
   "Now is not the time for you guys to buy a house." ([15:22])

5. Jade Warshaw:
   "Start learning about investing... invest that money, you'll get a higher compound interest rate." ([36:30])

6. Jade Warshaw:
   "If you have time to play games on your phone, something's wrong." ([79:20])

7. James Childs:
   "You should not be spending your time on it... no ROI on your time." ([80:19])

---

Final Thoughts:
This episode of The Ramsey Show serves as a comprehensive guide for listeners facing diverse financial challenges. By sharing real-life scenarios and expert advice, Jade Warshaw and Ken Coleman provide actionable solutions aimed at fostering financial resilience and empowering individuals to make informed and impactful financial decisions.

Transcript

[James Childs]

Hey, guys, it's James Childs, producer of the Ramsey Show. Hey. This week, Dave and the personalities are living it up on the Ramsey Cruise. So we've put together a compilation of some of our favorite calls and segments from the last year.

[Jade Warshaw]

Regular shows are back next week.

[James Childs]

Hope you enjoy.

[Jade Warshaw]

From Ramsey Network, it's the Ramsey show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love and create. Create amazing relationships. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is the magnificent Kenneth Coleman.

[James Childs]

Wow. Magnificent and Kenneth in the same sentence. It's going to be a day.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's going to be a good day. We're taking calls all afternoon long. Your life, your money. Hit us with all the questions that you have, and we will hit you with an answer, a solution, a way forward, or we'll just spitball creative ideas with you. Whatever it takes. The phone lines are open. Triple 882-55225. Let's get in involved. All right, let's go straight to the phone lines. We got Joe. He's in Anaheim, California. What's going on, Joe?

[Joe]

Hey, how you guys doing?

[Jade Warshaw]

Doing great. How are you?

[Joe]

Doing good. Doing good. I've been watching you guys for a while, and I got a quick question. I'm just looking for a little bit of affirmation here. Okay. I have a girlfriend of about a year and a half, and we do live together, and she asked me, actually, last night if I could loan her money to pay off a debt that she has on a credit card. So she's about 12,000. About $12,000 in debt. It's not a little bit myself. Huh?

[Jade Warshaw]

That's not a little bit. That's a lot.

[Joe]

Well, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not a little bit, but yeah, she had asked me that, and I gave her. I told her I would call you guys. I kind of know the answer.

[James Childs]

I'll get back to you on that, babe.

[Jade Warshaw]

Let's put it on Jade and Kenneth to see.

[James Childs]

Sure, sure.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So it's $12,000. Did you say it's for a credit card?

[Joe]

Yeah, yeah. For a credit card. Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

And just to clarify, this is a loan. So when you say the word loan, that makes me sound. That makes it sound like somebody's got to pay it back.

[Joe]

Got to pay it back. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. She had gotten to it. Yeah. She had gone to a little situation, I guess, with her last partner. He ended up using it without her permission, and, yeah, that's how she ended up being in that situation.

[Jade Warshaw]

Can I ask you this? How do you feel? How would you feel being in a position where your girlfriend owes you $12,000.

[Joe]

That'S the thing, too, because like I said, I've been looking to you guys for a while, and I remember one thing Ramsay says is, you know, you know, dinner tastes a little different, you know, when you're sitting across to somebody that owes you. And I know I wouldn't be the one owing anyone, but, like, just the fact that, you know, that that kind of tension would be there, I wouldn't necessarily feel too comfortable with.

[James Childs]

Yeah, Joe, how's that going to feel when she starts missing payments that she owes you? That's got to be weird. Hey, we're going to Red Lobster tonight. How's that payment plan coming along?

[Jade Warshaw]

But she still got her nails done and still got her hair done.

[James Childs]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Joe, listen, I appreciate that you told your girlfriend you were going to call us, but what was your gut reaction when she hit you with this idea?

[Joe]

My gut reaction was, I'll be honest. I was like, okay, like, am I in a position to do so? Like, yes. Like, yes. And can I. Can I help her like that? Yes. But I just think, like, like, just like. Like character wise. I really feel like, you know, you know, you know, attacking debt is, you know, a character builder, too. And I, you know, I definitely want us to grow in that regard. I want her to take her finances serious, too.

[James Childs]

Joe, Joe, Joe, listen to me. Joe. Jade and I are on Team Joe, okay? Why don't you stop spinning and just tell us, how did you feel when she hit you with that? Did you want to do it, yes or no?

[Joe]

I got you. I got you. No, no.

[Jade Warshaw]

There we go. There we go.

[James Childs]

I'm with you, Joe.

[Jade Warshaw]

And there's nothing wrong with that.

[James Childs]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

You're not a bad guy. She, you know, I do have more questions, just because I want to know, and I want the people to also get a clear picture of this. You know, first off, we're not big on loaning money here, you know, to a friend, to a family member, somebody loaning money to you. Debt in general is just. We're. We're anti debt here. So now if you called and said, hey, she's asking me if I can give her this money, that might be a different conversation. And you're like, I have it to give, and if I don't ever receive it back, it's no big deal. Like, that might be a totally different conversation, but the aspect of loaning it, you're right, it does. It does put a different taste in your mouth. And it's going to make the whole relationship. The power shifts, right? You become the. The lender, and she becomes. Not the lender.

[James Childs]

I gotta ask a question, Joe, because Jade's here, and I love getting the female perspective on this. Are you worried about her reaction if you tell her? Because I think you called us to get us to go, well, this guy. This guy and this gal said this. And are you worried about what her reaction is going to be if you tell her? No. A little bit.

[Joe]

She. She can be. Yeah, no, no, she can be definitely emotional. You know, when it comes down to things like that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Emotional like crying or emotional like, I'm gonna hit you with this cast iron pan.

[Joe]

Maybe a sandal. I don't know about the cast iron, but you'd probably do something like that.

[James Childs]

I love it.

[Joe]

Yeah, but I think that's important. Yeah, yeah, no, no, it definitely is. I know, like, she's not the type to, like, swear up if you tell her no, but I. I just wanted to. Yeah, I just want to get, like, affirmation on that, just to say, like, you know, like, hey, you know, I mean, me being the position I'm in is because I've listened to these.

[James Childs]

Yeah.

[Joe]

You know, I've listened to these people, and, you know, I really want to. You know, I'll call, like, I'll call them, and maybe they can give you some more clarity, too, on my standpoint.

[Jade Warshaw]

Are you gonna marry her?

[James Childs]

That's my question.

[Joe]

Yeah, that's. That's definitely. That's definitely the plan for sure.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[James Childs]

Does she know that?

[Joe]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

Does she know that?

[Joe]

I. I wouldn't say that's that. I mean, well, we've talked about it, but as far as, like, a time frame on when we're going to get married, that hasn't been.

[James Childs]

All right, so here's the deal. So since you called us and I know where this is going, you need to give her a legit, legitimate explanation as to why we think what we think and if you agree with us. So the reason that we want to keep this separate is you two are not married. Now, if you go down the courthouse tonight, and I'm not trying to get you to do that, but all of a sudden, this debt becomes your debt. But right now, it's her debt. And the relationship needs boundaries. And this is because you believe in a healthy relationship. And so you need to explain to her that that is your debt, not my debt. And the minute that I give you money, it changes our relationship. And I don't want that because I'm looking long term. I missed anything on that.

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean, I. I agree exactly with Ken. There's a protection for both of you, legal speaking, you know, when you become married. And so if nothing else, this is a great time to start that conversation of what? You know, the. Define the relationship. Now's the great time to start talking about that. And I think it will reassure her to say, you know, if the time comes and you agree that we should be married, as I believe that we should be married, then I am happy to take on your debt. It would never be alone. It would be us working together. And, you know, I look forward to that day, but unfortunately, we're not there today.

[James Childs]

I have a question for you, Jade. And she's. She. This is for you, Joe, but it's to Jade. I overthink everything. So the giant asterisk here is, I overanalyze everything.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay?

[James Childs]

My brain right now is going, if he says that, which you and I are on the same page, does she put pressure on him to, To. To. To get married? And does this fast forward a marriage proposal? I'm a little nervous about that.

[Jade Warshaw]

I hope not.

[James Childs]

Do you see? What would you say he needs himself with?

[Jade Warshaw]

I hope not. If you sense that. If you sense that now, all of a sudden she's trying to, you know, rush you, then I think that could be a bit of a red flag.

[James Childs]

That's good. Now that's what I want him looking out for.

[Jade Warshaw]

Now let me then ask you this question. How long have you been dating? Because if you've been taking her for a ride for five years, then she might.

[Joe]

It's been a year. It's been a year and a half.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, I. I mean, in my mind, now is a good time to start talking about it. If she does say, well, you know, Joe, I've been trying to get married for the past, you know, six months, and you're the one stalling. Like, if she starts saying stuff like that, then you have to be open to the things that she's saying as well. At the end of the day, if you both want to be in a married relationship, make steps towards that. And then to Ken's point, that's when things become one. French We. We. That's what Dave Ramsey would say. This is the Ramsey Show.

[James Childs]

As an investor and a person of faith, when your mutual funds and ETFs put your money into the dark side, you might feel a disturbance. Well, good news, Timothy Plan offers investments for people who want to be intentional about where their money goes as the pioneering force in biblically responsible investing, Timothy Plan, entered the investment space to offer clean alternatives to secular funds that invest in stuff you'd never willingly expose your family to. And for more than 30 years, Timothy Plan has offered mutual funds and ETFs that won't contradict your values or sabotage your faith. So if you're serious about investing with a clear conscience, Timothy Plan could be just what you're searching for. Contact your financial advisor today to see if Timothy Plan is right for you, or visit timothyplan.com for more information. Investing includes risk, including possible loss of principal. Before investing, carefully consider a fund's investment objective, risks, charges and expenses contained in the Prospectus. [e-mail] Read carefully before investing. Mutual funds distributed by Timothy Partners Limited and ETFs distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me. The phone number is, I.S.R.I.E. 882-55-2225. Triple 882-55-2255. Let's go to Indianapolis, Indiana, where Zachary joins us. Zachary, how can we help today?

[Zachary]

Hi, how are you guys?

[James Childs]

We're doing great. What's going on?

[Zachary]

So I'll cut to the chase. Monday, I lost my house in the house fire.

[James Childs]

What?

[Zachary]

For at least four months? Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, my God.

[James Childs]

What do you mean at least for four months? What? It was. It total.

[Zachary]

It was. It was contained to one room, thankfully. But we had a lot of stuff in that room that. The room is completely gone. They have to completely gut it and reconstruct it, I guess.

[James Childs]

Okay. Nobody was hurt?

[Zachary]

No, the dog was inside, but thankfully they got him out.

[James Childs]

Okay. Okay. So pup is okay. And when you say it's only one room, is that downstairs? Upstairs. What was in the room?

[Zachary]

It was our downstairs master bedroom. No, we were actually supposed to sell the house four days prior. Well, four days after the fire had happened.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, my gosh.

[Zachary]

But that's not happening anymore.

[Joe]

Right.

[Zachary]

So thankfully, like, a lot of my stuff was packed up and ready to go, but, like, my wife's entire wardrobe, everything, like our bed, our newborn son's bed, and everything is.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, my God. Where were you guys when this happened?

[Zachary]

I was an hour away at work and my wife was at work.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, my gosh. And that.

[Zachary]

Your newborn son, he was at grandparents.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, my gosh. Thank goodness.

[James Childs]

But the rest of the house is okay?

[Zachary]

Yes. My stepdad was driving by when it started to smoke really bad, so he caught it.

[James Childs]

What happened? What caused the fire? Do they know?

[Zachary]

It was one of the outlets by our bed. They're not exactly sure, but they think maybe a wire came loose and, like, touch the insulation or something. Or a mouse chewed on it.

[James Childs]

Oh, my.

[Jade Warshaw]

That is crazy. Well, I'm so glad everybody's okay.

[James Childs]

Well, a couple of things to be grateful for. Obviously, you guys weren't there. Your wife was not there. Your baby son, the dog is okay. My goodness.

[Jade Warshaw]

And your father's driving by.

[James Childs]

Yeah. And I love that. And again, grateful that it's just the room, and four months from now, you've got a rebuilt master. Now, I know all of the other things that come with that are awful, but. But all things being equal, this is. You dodged a major, major crisis.

[Zachary]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Definitely.

[James Childs]

All right, so how can we help today?

[Zachary]

So we were planning on selling the house because my wife bought it before me and her were ever together. And it is a nightmare of a house. Foundation issues, electrical issues.

[James Childs]

Yeah.

[Zachary]

So we were really wanting to get out of it. We were buying a new house closer to my parents, and it's a lot nicer house.

[Jade Warshaw]

But did you already make the offer?

[Zachary]

Yeah, but we were doing a contingency buy.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, good.

[Zachary]

I'm gonna lose that house now that we have to wait another four months.

[James Childs]

Yeah.

[Zachary]

We have just started the baby steps. We've got about $85,000 in consumer debt.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Zachary]

We don't have much savings, especially after the fire now and then.

[Jade Warshaw]

What have you. What have you been doing?

[Zachary]

Yeah, we. We just started it. So we had the emergency fund, but now with the fire and stuff, we.

[Jade Warshaw]

The thousand dollar emergency fund or.

[Zachary]

Yeah, yeah, thousand dollars.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So here's what I think. So where are you staying right now?

[Zachary]

Right now we're at my parents.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, you're at your parents. You've blown through most of your thousand dollars. What do you have left?

[Zachary]

Right now we've got. I want to say. Well, she actually made an extra car payment, so we're waiting for that to come back, but we'll have about 13 in our account. But we have bills and everything. And I do a ton of driving for work, so I have to leave at least five to 600 in there for gas.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So.

[James Childs]

Okay, is insurance gonna cover the total rebuild or is there gonna be more cash you're gonna have to cover?

[Zachary]

Yeah, they're gonna cover it, but they are kind of dragging their feet, so.

[Jade Warshaw]

Right.

[James Childs]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

I think you're a little new to the baby steps, and so I kind of want to reset and get everything on. On so that you and I are at least on the same footing kind of going forward. I hate that this happened to your house, and I hate that you guys had a plan and this just threw wrenches all up in that plan. However, in one way, like Ken said, you dodged several bullets here, and I'm going to add another bullet to the list that I believe that you. That you dodged. Now, looking at your financial situation, fire aside, now is not the time for you guys to buy a house.

[Zachary]

Yeah, I agree. You know, I originally wanted to rent, but we live in a small town and leaving the town is not an option for us because of my wife's work. And that's where our babysitting situation. Situation is located. And they. There is no places to rent that wouldn't be the same amount as what our mortgage was going to be.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Zachary]

That has the space for two kids, us and a dog that allows dogs. There was one place that was available and we applied and we got denied because of our credit. And then, and then it went off the market like a week later.

[Joe]

So.

[Jade Warshaw]

So, okay, so to address that, unless you were going to. Unless by selling this house, let's pretend the fire didn't happen for a minute. Unless you were going to have this, this huge amount of equity that was going to allow you to get into the next house and pay off, you know, this debt or something like that, that would have been the only way it would have worked out. And if you had called us prior to that, I would have said, you just got to keep looking, look for the right rental, because something will come on the market. That's what I would have said to you in that situation. But where you're at now is, okay, insurance is going to cover the rebuild of the master bedroom. You know, you guys are in a place that, you know, hopefully you're not spending a whole lot staying with family, but you are going to spend some. But you still got, you know, you're still working, so the income is coming in there. We've got to prioritize this debt. And yeah, that's got to be the number one thing. Because technically, Zachary, when you go to buy a house, you want all of your debt paid off, then you want to have saved up three to six months of expenses. That's not talking about a down payment. That's just you having money. You know, when you move into this house, and then it's like, okay, I need a down payment. So you guys were quite far from being there when you sold the house. What was it going to bring?

[Zachary]

We were going to get about 15,000 in equity. And then my sister was also going to give a gift for a down payment as well to help us with that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, and when you got that gift from your sister, what percentage wise was that going to be towards your next down payment?

[Zachary]

We were going to be using an FHA loan, but it was going to be roughly 12 to 15.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, yeah. I, I think in many ways this was a blessing in disguise because I think you guys are about to get in way too deep. You always want to make sure that you're putting at least 5% down on a house. You want to make sure it's no more than 25% of your take home pay. These are the things you want to make sure of. And going forward, now is just not the time. And hopefully what I would do, what I would do for you guys if the house that you're in is a nightmare, obviously there's electrical things that need to be fixed. Obviously there's other things. Those are things that you might have to shell out some money to fix in the meantime. Because the solution. And can we see it all the time. My car broke down. I'm just going to trade that in and trade up and get a new car with payments because we don't have the $2,000 to fix it. So we get a $20,000 car. Right. And the worst, I said this to Dave on Friday. The worst thing is, and I'm not saying that this is you, but you buy $500,000 house, but the AC breaks and you don't have $5,000 to fix it. Right. Happens all the time. So push, push pause on home buying. It's not the time. Yeah, rebuild. Get your life back on track. Get the things fixed in the home. That's going to make it a safe place for you to live.

[James Childs]

That's right. And hey, let's look at the positive on this. I think Jade's right, and I think I'm going to give you just a little bit of a, I think hopefully a little mindset hack here. You know, you should get a new master bedroom, you know, in the sense of, you know, did you lose some stuff? Yes. That stinks. She lost her wardrobe. That's awful. All those things are just awful. But baby safe, dog safe. You're safe. You know what? You had a really old master bedroom. Now you get a new master bedroom. And I, I like Jade's pressing pause right here and just kind of going, you know what? Life just threw us a curveball. But what. Let's hit the curve.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Childs]

You Know, like, I know I, you know, I'm stuck in this baseball metaphor. But stay with me. You know, curveballs are meant to strike people out.

[Jade Warshaw]

Come on.

[James Childs]

But let me tell you something really good. Hitters know how to hit a curve. And if you hang a curve, these people put it out of the park. They smash it. And I think right now, I think through the coaching you just got from coach Jade over here, I think you guys can take this list curveball that life threw at you, and you absolutely hit a grand slam and come out of this thing way better off. So please listen to what she said. I think she's absolutely right, and I think you guys got a second chance. Not fun. Not fun how you got it, but nonetheless a second chance. So there you go. All right. Don't move. She's Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman. We're here for you. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Dave Ramsey]

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

[James Childs]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

That's a gut punch.

[James Childs]

For decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse, they've lost somebody important to them.

[Dave Ramsey]

Me, too.

[James Childs]

They don't know what to do next.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're going to have a crisis here. You know, you got two options. While you're sitting and talking to a young widow, she's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up. Or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow.

[James Childs]

That's exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

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

[James Childs]

The Ramsey show continues. Thrilled to have you with us. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is alongside. The phone number is 3882-55225. Let's go to Nicole, who joins us in Memphis. Nicole, how can we help today?

[Nicole]

Hey, I was just trying to See if you guys could help me do the mess that I'm in. I don't know if I'm cursed or what, but I'm in a lot of debt and I'm a single mom and I. I'm be close to retirement age shortly, and I just. I don't know what to do.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. How old are you?

[Nicole]

I'm 46.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. And what's going on? Tell us some more details.

[Nicole]

Okay, so last year my goal was to own a home. And I know about debt to income ratio. And my highest debt would have been my car Note, which was 772. Long story short with that, I end up making a bad deal, end up at 615 still, but no gap insurance. Since then, the job that I had, I have now lost. I have a new job, but it's $3,800 less.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's a lot.

[Nicole]

It is.

[Jade Warshaw]

Per month.

[Nicole]

Yes. And I'm struggling right now. I'm close to addiction. I'm about to leave. I'm close to. About to lose my car.

[Jade Warshaw]

So tell me, tell me what you're making now.

[Nicole]

I'm. I'm averaging about 12 to 1400amonth. Barely making it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, man. Yeah. Okay. 12 to 1400. Tell us what your rent is.

[Nicole]

My rent right now is 980, but it's behind. And I'm close to addiction. So It's. It's about 2700 plus or 350ft for their attorney fees. It's crazy.

[James Childs]

What do you do for a living?

[Nicole]

I'm a barber.

[Jade Warshaw]

And before that, when you were making the 3,800 more, what were you doing?

[Nicole]

I was still a barber. I was working at another barber shop, and I was let go.

[Jade Warshaw]

What was the difference? Is it just the way that they do it and they weren't. The old place was sending more clients your way. Tell us.

[Nicole]

I had. Yeah, I had more clients. I was still on the low end. I was still on the low end, but I was still making. I was making weekly pay. This is only every two weeks, and I'm averaging about 500 every two weeks or a little over.

[Jade Warshaw]

And is it just a salary you get or is it based on the number of heads you do?

[Nicole]

Is. So it's basically 50. 50% commission or $12 an hour, whichever. The greater of the two.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So, yeah. Okay. The problem, the glaring issue here is the income. And this can't go on because my, My thought here is if it's 50 commission or your. Your base pay, then that means you're not making the commission, which means there's not enough people coming through, which means essentially. Essentially, you're kind of standing there, like, waiting for something to do. Right. Are you spending a lot of your day kind of standing around waiting? Right.

[Nicole]

So what I did was what I was doing the first. When I first started there, I was like, this makes no sense. I can do lift rides, right?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Nicole]

To make up the short. But now my car is breaking down, and it' enough.

[Jade Warshaw]

Lift.

[Nicole]

Lift rides sometimes are not as great as it was when I started.

[Jade Warshaw]

Right.

[Nicole]

So it. So it's. It's. It's not. It's. It's not coming in. I tried to get an. Been applying for other jobs.

[Jade Warshaw]

Like, what?

[Nicole]

Nothing is coming through. Like, I am great at customer service and things like that. I love barbering.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Nicole]

I really do love it. But I was trying to get an additional job, like work at Amazon at night, and it's hard to work at Amazon at night. See, six years ago, I lost one of my kids, and my other children were there. And so what's happening is I have to kind of be at home with my younger daughter because she's feeling the repercussions of all of that. She's got a lot of mental issues, you know, going on, trauma stuff we've got. We've gone through. So I can't really leave her.

[Jade Warshaw]

Here's what I.

[Nicole]

And it's hard. And that's the other reason why I've also lost jobs, because I have to stop and go to school, and it's heartbreaking. I really wish that I could get a job that was financially stable where I could be at my child's disposal. You know, I just put one through college. I just dropped her off at mtsu, and thank God she had a lot of scholarships. But I still have to pay a small amount for the next three months.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right. Well, let's. Let's look at this. Let's look at this. Okay, you love barbering, but right now, barbering is not making you money. And for sure, for certain, I feel like you could go on. What do you do? Are you a braider? Do you do sewings? What do you do?

[Nicole]

No, I don't. I don't do that part anymore. I can do women's hair, but I love. I love cutting me into.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, okay, okay. So here's the thing. I think barbering goes on the shelf for now because it's not making you money. Maybe you do it on the side, and that's your side hustle, but it's not your main core income right now. I want you to get a full time day job, go over to Target, go over to Walmart, go over to Wendy's, go over to Chick Fil A, anything today because you got to make a little bit more than what you're making now. And then make barbering the thing that you do on the side on the weekends, early in the morning. If night times don't work for you, that, that's the only way. Here's the thing. The good news is you were earning a salary that was making your life run and making your household run. So you know you can do it. It's just a matter of filling in the puzzle to make sure we're putting the right pieces in to get that income. Let's talk about the car. So the car is not running. That's the only vehicle, correct?

[Nicole]

Yeah, it's running, but it needs work.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. How, what, what year is it and what's it worth and what do you owe on it?

[Nicole]

It's a 2022 Volkswagen Tiguan. About 29, 000 since it went up. I was at 26, but since I refinanced, it's back up to 29.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, and what's it worth? Nothing.

[Nicole]

Probably not right now.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, I want you to go, your homework is to go on Kelly blue book and see what is it worth. Private sale. You're probably going to be upside down in it, possibly substantially, because I don't know what all you've done with this thing, but we may need to get out of this vehicle because it's costing you what, 600amonth?

[Nicole]

It's. It's costing me 615amonth. Yes, ma'am.

[Jade Warshaw]

Gosh. Okay, so, yeah, we're gonna have to sell this car eventually. And probably what you're going to end up doing. Kenna, if you have a minute, if you look this thing up, maybe you can give me a ballpark on it. But by the time we get off this call, maybe we can give you a ballpark on it. But if I were you to get out of that 30,000, what other debt do you have?

[Nicole]

I have a eight thousand dollar signature loan.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Nicole]

I have some student loans which I gotta try to figure out how to get back because I was in a settlement and for some reason.

[Jade Warshaw]

Just tell me, just tell me how much they are for the sake of the call.

[Nicole]

It's like $6,000 $60,000. 60,000 back on. Yes, it's 60K.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. And they're federal.

[Nicole]

It's not supposed to be on there.

[Jade Warshaw]

They're federal.

[Nicole]

They're federal loans. Yeah, it was. It was one in a settlement that they were supposed to take that off.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh. Because the institution is not. Is no longer with us.

[Nicole]

It's not. They've come back, but it's gone through a lot of stuff. They've been in the news and everything.

[Jade Warshaw]

How much of the 60k is that settlement?

[Nicole]

All of it.

[Jade Warshaw]

All of it. Okay. So you're gonna have to do some due diligence on that and figure out what's going on with that, because 60,000 is not a lot that you want to lollygag with. Okay. What else? Is there anything besides that?

[Nicole]

No, just a 400 credit card that I. That I was paying.

[James Childs]

So this is an income issue. And by the way, we're running short on time. Let's get her a session with one of our financial coaches as our gift because there's a lot to. To layer through here. But, Nicole, you. You have got to come up with a situation with your daughter, Friends and family. This is. It takes a village. I'm not betting against a single mama. I know you can find a way to get some care for your daughter.

[Tyler]

I know.

[James Childs]

I know it is, sweetheart, and. But I'm telling you, I'm not betting against you, but you've got to get some help with your daughter. She's been through a lot. You've got to get some people around you who can be with her.

[Nicole]

We're in therapy, but it's not a lot. I mean, it's not a lot of help. I just.

[James Childs]

I know, but listen, I'm talking about people around you in your community. You have got to say, I need some help because you've got an income issue. And the more you work, if you were to get back up to 3, $800 a month, Jade, she can work.

[Jade Warshaw]

Her way out of this 100%.

[James Childs]

And so, Nicole, all I'm saying is we're going to get you with one of our. Our financial coaches who's going to spend more time with you. But listen, you've got to get more income, and you've got to get a community around you who say. You say, look, I need help with my daughter who's still going through this trauma over here. I need some support because I'm Mama Bear and I got to go make some money. And the more money I make with our financial coach and. And we're going to give you all the resources, by the way. So, Christian, if she needs total money makeover, every dollar, give her everything. Give her her everything we got. Christian's going to take great care of.

[Jade Warshaw]

Listen, if you don't, I don't know if you go to church or not. I want you stepping foot inside of a church this Sunday. I don't care what you believe. You need people around you who want to help you and love on you and they will do just that.

[James Childs]

Yeah, we're going to walk with you, Nicole. You're not on your own, but go get some income and watch this thing turn around, hang on the line. We're going to take care of you. This is the Ramsey Show. I hate to admit this, but I don't always eat right. I know I need to eat more fruits and veggies, but sometimes I just have to pound some chips because they taste so good. That's why I love my field of greens. It helps me eat healthy when I don't have much time. And each fruit and vegetable in field of greens was doctor selected for a specific health benefit. Heart, lungs, kidney, metabolism, even healthy weight. And folks, I ain't getting any younger. It's super easy to mix with water. And here is the great part of it. I thought it might taste like grass, but it tastes great. And only field of greens makes this promise. Your doctor will notice your improved health or your money back. So go to fieldofgreens.com Ramsey for 20% off your first order. That's fieldofgreens.com Ramsey to save 20% on your first order.

[Jade Warshaw]

Foreign.

[James Childs]

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Thrilled that you're with us. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is with me as well. 888-825-5225. Taking your money questions and your work related or income questions. To that end, the get clear assessment, a tool that I was privileged to create a few years ago, it's helped hundreds of thousands of people and just wrote a new book called find the work you're wired to do came out a little earlier this year and includes the Get Clear assessment. So what does the assessment do? Well, it answers four really big questions. Who am I? What's my unique wiring? And we're talking about in the context of work, why am I wired that way? What do I want to do professionally and how do I get there? And that's what, what these two tools combined do for you. You're going to spend about a third of your life at work. And I just believe with everything in my being that you shouldn't spend it just doing something that you're okay at or that you're good at but you don't enjoy that doesn't produce a result that motivates you. So you can get the book, find the work you're wired to do, and it comes with the assessment, the get clear assessment. You can get it at ramseysolutions.com store ramseysolutions.com store or you can click the link in the description of the show. If you're listening via YouTube and podcast. All right, to Susan is where we're going to go. She is in Dallas, Texas. Susan, how can we help?

[Nicole]

Hi. I just went through a divorce or finalized it recently. It took a while and I've been a stay at home mom during my entire marriage for the past 14 years. Anyway, I got what I consider a pretty good amount of money and I'm just curious. I don't really know what to do with it. I let my ex husband handle every single bit of finances. I never knew how much money we had or anything.

[James Childs]

So how much are you getting?

[Nicole]

Well, there's a couple components to it. I got a check for 1.1 million.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Nicole]

I got a 401k for 715,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Nicole]

And then $15,000 per month for the next seven years.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. How old are you?

[Nicole]

I'm 40.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so you've got a guaranteed income for the next seven years. That's nice. Okay. Okay, great. So tell me your question.

[Nicole]

Okay, so my question is I'm completely debt free. I also don't own a home because I just got divorced.

[Jade Warshaw]

So you need a place to live, Right?

[Nicole]

I'm renting right now, which is $3,600 a month, which I feel like is really expensive.

[Jade Warshaw]

It is.

[Nicole]

It's also all bills paid. So my question I guess is I've got like $95,000 in a high yield savings account. I started a Roth ira. I'm like, totally. I know nothing about finance. So I've just been trying to learn just in the last month or so. Anyway, my question basically is a, Can I live like with, can I live off of part of this money, like off of the monthly income, or do I need to get a significant job?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, the good news is, the good news is, is you do have a monthly income for the next seven years. So you've got some time to reinvent yourself and figure out what you want to do with life. And if I were you, obviously you don't need $15,000 per month. Figure out what do I need? What's a, what's a fair budget for me? Maybe it's $7,000 a month and then you take the rest and you're in. You invest it every single month. Right. So, okay, that's thing one, you've been bought. Time to figure out a career path for you. And I'm going to toss it to Ken in a moment for that. But let's talk about the rest of the income that, that you have. So let's say just for in, just to keep it simple, let's say you invest half of what you're getting every single month for the next seven years. So around seven and a half thousand dollars or seven and a half thousand dollars and then you've got 1.1 million. That's a check, right?

[Nicole]

Yes, yes. And I didn't know what to do with that, so I just put it in a money market account because I didn't even know how to deposit that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Great. I, I think that's a good place to start. What I want my homework for you is I want you to start learning about investing. I want you to start understanding. Okay, I know husband, ex husband used to do it, but it's now time for you to start learning because the time is going to come where you're going to need to invest this and you're going to want to understand it. You don't want to just hand a check for, for $1.1 million over to anybody and say, here, you handle this. You're going to want to say, okay, I get it. And a great place to start is here. You know, here at Ramsey we do teach that investing is a better place for you to build long term wealth than a money market account or a high yield savings account simply because of rate of return. Right. If you invest that money, you'll get a higher compound interest rate of return on that, so it'll grow faster. And so I would tell you to get hooked up with a smartvestor pro. They're gonna have the heart of a teacher and they're gonna be able to teach you about this. And that's the key thing. Tell them, I don't want to invest anything yet. I just want to learn. Right. And they're gonna ultimately have you invested in a way that's four different types. We're spreading it out. It's not going to be high risk, it's not going to be just in a set of stocks. But I want you to understand that. So when the time comes, we are investing that check. But in the meantime, we're getting with a smartvestor pro to teach us. And then as far as the 715,000401K. Yeah, leave it, let it grow. You're probably, probably going to have to do a direct transfer rollover into an IRA. And so the SmartVestor Pro is going to help you do that. And then for you now it's all about career and what you're going to do with your life because you're super young.

[James Childs]

I got a couple questions on the money first. So the 715,000. How old are you?

[Nicole]

I'm 40.

[James Childs]

Oh, my gosh.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's going to be so much money.

[James Childs]

So the 715, that. That is in the 401k. And that then that's your. That is going to be a lot of money. What is that going to be in 30 years?

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Did you tell me you're 40 now?

[James Childs]

Yeah. She's 40.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so let's just say you retire. I don't know, let's say 65. Does that sound good?

[Nicole]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Let's say you add nothing to it. That right, there is going to be $8 million.

[Nicole]

Holy cow.

[Jade Warshaw]

Just not touching it.

[James Childs]

The reason I went to that, Susan, is because on this work thing, this may or may not be a thing. Now, how old are the kids?

[Nicole]

They're 14 and 11. My other thing is. Can I buy a house?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[James Childs]

I was going to say that I was working.

[Nicole]

How much money do I use?

[James Childs]

I would take the 1.1. The 1.1 check is, is what you need to do. Plus you already have 95,000 in another savings account. So I was going to ask you, what is a modest house in a nice area? What is a house price, you know, your area for you and the kiddos? What does that look like? What's the, what's the money on that?

[Nicole]

I mean, right now there's like nothing to buy. I've been looking. I mean, there's a nice home for 500,000. That.

[James Childs]

Okay.

[Nicole]

So let's just use that.

[James Childs]

Let's just use as an example. Okay? So if I'm you, and then I'm going to pay cash for the house, because right now you're paying $3,600 a month in rent.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

So you take just a little bit less than half of the 1.1, and you've got it paid for a house. Now that monthly budget which I'm using is the 15,000 you're getting in the settlement. Now that 3,600 was coming out of the 15K. It's not anymore.

[Jade Warshaw]

Right.

[James Childs]

And your utilities and things like are going to be nothing you got the two kiddos in school. So, so I would come up with the every dollar budget and, and, and budget off of the 15 and I would do the. The some type of an investment strategy based on what a smartvestor pro tells you because Jade already proved to you you don't have to put another penny. And I'm not saying not to, but I'm guessing, I'm guessing their investment strategy is going to be you're going to diversify some stuff because right now you are more than fine, Susan. Like you're going to be very, very wealthy and based on just the 401k and what it does over time. So for me, if I were you, I, I would take my time. You just came out of this divorce, you've just settled. I'm fine with you renting for a little bit longer. You're saying the market right now is not a lot on the market. Let's see what happens after this presidential election. The point is grieve, stay cool. The 3600, while it's a little expensive, it's not even phasing you. I would take my time. I'd buy a nice house, cash. And now you still have over half a million dollars to invest.

[Jade Warshaw]

And when you invest it, you're probably going to look for something that's non retirement, something that you can get to sooner, that's in some sort of a bridge account so that you can access it, you know, before you're.

[James Childs]

I agree with you and that's. That should be the advice.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, right.

[Nicole]

Yeah, yeah.

[James Childs]

But for seven years. My goodness. But here's the deal. You're gonna have some margin in that monthly as well. That's $180,000 a year for the next seven years.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. You're good.

[James Childs]

So from a standpoint of work. Hang on the line. We'll give you the, the book find the work you're wired to do in the get clear assessment. But that is a relaxed. Like what would I do.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

If I didn't have to work. Which by the way, you don't have to.

[Jade Warshaw]

You don't have to. I was just talking purpose.

[James Childs]

Yeah. So sorry. We're running out of time. Susan. Hang on the line. We'll get that to you. But thank you for the call. You're going to be in good shape. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Ed]

When you go through a job loss or job change and lose your employer sponsored health insurance, there's no better time to try Christian health care ministries. That's right. There's another option besides COBRA to take care of your family during that time. Because if you didn't know, the cost of COBRA has gone up a lot in the past few years. And CHM is an affordable, biblically based alternative to health insurance. So do your own research. But CHM is a great option that's potentially a third of the price of cobra. It's a health cost sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And the support you get from CHM goes beyond helping you pay for medical bills. Members become part of a family that prays for them when they have a medical event. Try getting that with cobra. So if you're going through a job loss, life change, or just want to explore other options to save on health care, CHM might be perfect for you. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month, so find out [e-mail] budget that's chministries.org budget.

[Jade Warshaw]

From the Ramsey Network. It's the Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is one of my favorite guys out there, Ken Coleman.

[James Childs]

Hello, everybody.

[Jade Warshaw]

Hosting the show together. Hey, we're talking about your life, your money. We'll throw in careers. Ken is the resident career guide. I will help you with the money. You might have some relationship issues. You can toss those in as well. The number is 888-825-5225. Call us up. We'll get you on the line. Let's dig right in. We've got Tyler. He's in Charlotte, North Carolina. What's going on, Tyler?

[Tyler]

Hey, how are y'all?

[Jade Warshaw]

We're doing good. How can we help today?

[Tyler]

So I have a, about two and a half million in debt between mortgages, short term, different car loans, stuff like that. I'm aggressively paying off kind of all the, all the debt except for the mortgages currently.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Tyler]

And I'm just trying to see. And I should have that done in about a year to a year and a half based on the way I have it set up. And I'm just trying to see if I should make bigger changes and try to attack everything a little bit more aggressively and get it paid off sooner.

[James Childs]

Yeah, let's roll it back.

[Tyler]

Continue the way I'm going.

[Jade Warshaw]

Let's roll back and see where this lies. Because when you first tell me I have two and a half million dollars of debt, my, my, my pulse quickens. But then when you mentioned real estate, I thought, okay, that makes this A little different. So tell me about the real estate. Can you just go by property? By property, and I'll ask you about each one. So the first property you have, is it a rental? I'm guessing, yeah.

[Tyler]

So first one is a duplex. It's worth about 260, 000. I have about 158, 000 on it, so, yeah, about 1,300. Income is about 2,150.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so let's go to the next one.

[Tyler]

Single family, 270,000. Asset value, debt, about 159. Payment, 1,000. Income, 1750.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Tyler]

And the next one worth about 310. Debt, 200,000. Payments, 1481. Income, 2,200.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Is there more?

[Tyler]

Yeah, another single family. That one we're actually actively trying to sell, we have on Airbnb. Currently is worth about 540. Debt, 460. Payment 3600, and income about the same. I think after everything said and done, we're probably losing about 500amonth on that one.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Anything after that? Number five.

[Tyler]

Yeah, we have. We have a duplex. Value 360,000. Debt, 205. Payment about 1460. Income, 2,800.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Anything else you want to keep going on?

[Tyler]

Yeah, it's quite a few more.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, gosh.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Well, instead of going through these, here. Here's what I would do if I were in your situation. I don't like that you're carrying $202.5 million of debt. And I. I love that you love real estate, and I love that you want to get into real estate. Here. We would teach a way to do that that's in cash, and it would be you paying off your debt first and saving up to buy cash. You're. You've gone far beyond that. And it is true that some of these may be good investments for you, but not at the tune of you being in two and a half million dollars of debt. So what I would do if I were in your shoes is I'd list them all out, and I'd say, which ones can I sell off in order to clear this debt out? And are there a few that in the end that I'll be able to keep that? Do you know, create some income for me? Because how many do you have total?

[Tyler]

It's 18 units total, but we have mortgages.

[Jade Warshaw]

How many mortgages?

[Tyler]

Nine mortgages, counting the personal property, one that's paid off.

[Jade Warshaw]

So, yeah, what I would do is try to get right side up on this and figure out which ones can I sell that are going to bring the right amount of profit in order for me to clear out this debt. Have you sat down to kind of figure that out yet?

[Tyler]

Well, the problem with. With doing. I mean, I've thought about that in the past, but being that pretty much every one of these are. Make a pretty good income after. After the debt, when I factor in selling them off to pay off the other ones, it reduces the income pretty substantially.

[Jade Warshaw]

Is this your only income?

[James Childs]

It's not as much income as you think. Your margins per house are actually not impressive. And I'm not saying that to be unkind. I'm saying that because I agree with Jade. And I think the best play here is to actually get rid of the duplexes. I sell the duplexes today. Those are just bad investments, in my opinion. But the point is, I think Jade's right. You can still come out of this thing on top. You got enough equity in these homes just as you were listing through these, that if you sell X amount. So I would take. I'm making this up. Let's say you got eight properties. I'd take the best four. I'd start there and go, what are the absolute best four properties? If you're looking long term, Tyler, And I think you probably know some of these are better than others. True or false. Okay, so once you pay those off, as Jay told you, now it's straight profit. But on some of these you were listing, you're like, well, my mortgage is a thousand. I'm making 1750. That's $750 gross times 12. That's about 10 grand. A little over 10 grand. And that's actually gross. That's after your expenses and taking care of things. All I'm saying is, is that you're going to be better off with Jade's plan because now you're actually making a sizable chunk and you don't owe any debt and you have no risk. I'd get out of this now.

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean, the truth. The truth, what Ken is saying is right on. And I don't say this to be condescending in any way, but the truth is revenue minus expenses equals profit. And you're in debt. You're in the red because you owe two and a half million. It would be very different if you're carrying all these properties and you're like, jade, I've got. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'd be a proponent to this, but if you're like, hey, I'm carrying all this Debt. But because of the way it's cash flowing, I'm in the green to two and a half million. But you're in the red.

[James Childs]

Right.

[Jade Warshaw]

So these are not good investments for you. What signals a good and healthy business is profit. And so what you're saying, you're cash flowing, it's not actually profit. It is ex. It is. What really should be happening is you need to be filtering back then in that end to pay off the debt. And so for that reason. Yeah, what Ken said, what I said before is your way out of this. I want you in the green and I want you doing deals that. That end with a net profit. And that's not what's taking place here.

[James Childs]

Could four of these pay off the other four? Just gut check real quick.

[Tyler]

Well, I have. So there's two. If I take my personal property out of here, that reduces it down to about 1.75 million in mortgages. And then the value would be somewhere around 2.7 million.

[James Childs]

Yeah.

[Tyler]

See, we have a million dollars in man.

[James Childs]

Okay, so let me paint a different picture for you. You. Let's just real numbers. Okay. Let's say that you now have a million dollars. A million dollars. And. And now you're paying off your personal home. No debt in your life at all. And now you got real cash flow plus cash. Why is that not the better play in your mind? Zero risk.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. And your place is paid.

[James Childs]

Yeah. Like.

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

Is that not a better vision if you don't agree?

[Tyler]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

You just have to. What? You're acting like this is impossible.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, the thing is we crumbled. We just crumbled. Your empire. Like, I sense that, you know, you have. You've acquired this over time.

[James Childs]

Yeah, but those four are going to spit off how much? That's what I'm trying to get you to. Let's say you were left with four houses, you got cash plus they're spitting off, you know, the four left are going to spit off. What, how much per month?

[Tyler]

I would have to see which ones to run those numbers here. But if I. Yeah, I mean, just off the top of my head, we're probably looking at like, if I just say three, they equal up close to that. It'd probably be somewhere around, I don't know, 6,000 or so.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[James Childs]

But that's real money now. That's 72 grand in the clear. Not paying any debt. You'll have some expenses on that.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. The truth is, Ken is right. If there's anything good about any of these investments, you should be able to sell off some of them, pocket some cash, get your residence paid for and keep some of the properties. That, that's, that's, that's what should be happening here. If for some reason you can't sell these to clear the debt, then something really is wrong. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Dave Ramsey]

What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get 10 different answers. Economic growth or a recession? Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us work or it will replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 40,000 businesses have future proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud enterprise resource planning system. Ramsey Solutions uses NetSuite and you should too. Whether your company's earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities with one unified business management suite. There's only one source of truth for the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. NetSuite's real time insights and forecasting help you see into the future with actionable data. And when you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you can spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next. And speaking of what's Next, download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com Ramsey it's free at netsuite.com Ramsey if you're a small business owner and you feel burned out, then you've got to join us at Entrez leadership summit this 5-18-21. This leadership conference will refuel you with fresh vision and connect you to like minded leaders so you can take your business to the next level. But you better hurry because we're running out of seats. We've got less than 200 seats left. If you want to join us in Denver, Colorado, go to ramseysolutions.comsummit right now. Or if you're listening on YouTube or podcast, just click the link in the description.

[James Childs]

All right, who needs some help out there? You're just going, I'm, I'm not where I want to be. I'm not where I want to be with my money. I'm not where I want to be in my relationships. I'm not where I want to be in my professional journey. If that's you, no shame in your game, number one. And number two, we'd love to help. We being Jade Warshaw, my colleague, co host and friend and I'm Ken Coleman or Ramsey Personalities and we're here for you. This is a, this is a listener viewer show. We are here for you. We take your questions. 888-8255-2258-8825-5225. Let's go to Detroit now. Kendall is there. Kendall, how can we help?

[Nicole]

Hi, nice to talk with you today.

[James Childs]

You too. What's going on?

[Nicole]

So I just graduated medical school about a half a year ago.

[James Childs]

Hey, cool, Congrats.

[Nicole]

Thank you. So I have about three and a half years left. Obviously. Residency salary is about 60,000. I have about 220 in student debt, but no other debt in my life. So my plan is like, you know, I can't pay off my debt while I'm a resident. I don't make enough. But when I graduate, I was going to live off of like 40,000, pay off my debt in two years. But my question is, I don't have like any money saved for retirement and I'll be 33 when I start making six figures. So should I prioritize paying off my debt or should I start saving more for retirement?

[James Childs]

Well, Jay's going to help you on that, but I'm just real curious, what do you think that starting salary is and what do you think the range is? Maybe in the first couple years?

[Nicole]

270 to 300, most likely.

[James Childs]

Jade, you can do something with that, can't you, Coach?

[Jade Warshaw]

Listen, I'm excited for you.

[Nicole]

Thank you.

[Jade Warshaw]

You know, you should be. I'm, I'm excited for you. You know, you've got this big milestone, you know, coming up. You've got three and a half years left of med school. So that's, that's cool. So luckily you came out of this with only 20,000 of student loans. Can I just quickly ask 220?

[James Childs]

Yeah, 220, I caught that one.

[Jade Warshaw]

Listen, I'm glad I asked because I was like, how in the world did you do that? All right, so you've got 220 of student loans, owns nothing else, right?

[Nicole]

Yes, nothing else.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. And we've got a couple more years of 60,000 salary. 60 to 80 or just 60?

[Nicole]

Yeah, like 60 to 70 probably.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, yeah, I'm with you. They're not going to become due until after you graduate. Right. And then you've got. Well, are they going to be, does it, does your residency count for that or is it separate?

[Nicole]

So they're on, I'm on an income based repayment plan and also the safe plan. So. Okay, like typically they gain $1,000 a month of interest, but those two plans allow me to pay 233, and the government pays the rest of the interest, so they're not going to grow in residency. And I only have to pay 233amonth, but when I graduate, that will change.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. Okay, got it. You know, I would try to pay as much as you can with the salary that you have. I mean, that's all that you can do. But what I really want to address is the fact that you said that you're only 33 years old, and you'll be 33 when it's time to retire or when it's time to start saving for retirement. You don't want to be behind. And I. Whenever I hear that, I kind of just want to let people know, like, I've been there. And, you know, when my husband and I were paying off our student loan debt, which was about 280,000, you know, we didn't finish that until we were around your age, 33, pregnant with my. My son, and we hadn't started investing at all. And I kind of want you to understand that you're going to be okay. So let's just pretend. I. I love doing the investment calculator. So let's. Let's just play around here. How. How old are you? Can I ask? Yeah.

[Nicole]

I'm 29 right now.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, my goodness. You're 29. So let's just say I'm going to plug this, and we have a really cool investment calculator. And I'm just going to say let's pretend you're 29 years old now. Let's pretend that you plan to retire at age 62. Let's just say that. And you have zero in retirement now. Right. And let's just say because you're. Let's say because you're saving for a home, you're not investing the whole 15 that we would advise when the time comes. So let's say you're investing 10. So twenty seven hundred dollars a month. Fair. Are you tracking with me?

[Nicole]

Yep.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so we're doing 2700. I'm plugging that in. And let's just be very conservative and say an 8% annualized rate of return. Let's calculate that and see what that'll be. So when the time comes, you'll have over $5 million.

[Nicole]

Oh, okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

$5 million.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[Nicole]

That's a lot.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. I think you're going to be all right. I think you're going to be just fine. So that's. That's what I want you to leave here with, is all. Right. I've got time. I'm working. You know, I'm doing the MD thing. I'm paying as much as I can. Once I hit this salary, I'll be able to knock out whatever remains. I'll save up three to six months of expenses in baby step three. And by then, like I said, you might be wanting to save for a down payment, too. And that's baby step 3B. And that comes before you start investing. So you've got time. And you might start to do Baby Step 3B and Baby Step 4, which is investing 15 at the same time. Whatever you choose there, you're gonna be fine. $5 million. That makes me sleep a lot better at night.

[James Childs]

And those numbers. And by the way, Kendall, those numbers are gonna be way bigger than that. She was just going real conservative here.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's if you never make any more money. Yeah. You're gonna pay off your starting salary, what, two years?

[James Childs]

You pay off your debt, then you got your emergency fund. After that, you save for a house. Let's just say you don't start investing until 36. Again, not an issue because of the amount of money that your 15 represents. And the compound interest is insane. Okay? So you don't have to worry about that. That's the point. I know. That's the whole thing that you called about. You're not too late. You aren't going to be destitute. You're going to be very, very wealthy.

[Jade Warshaw]

Is it just you, Kendall?

[Nicole]

Right now it's just me. I'm still. I'm still figuring that out.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

Yeah, but. So that's a great point, Jade. That doesn't take into account a double income. Oh, by the way, you know what else? It doesn't take into account all the money you're going to make on a house, because you're going to put a really big chunk down and you're going to pay it off, and so you're.

[Jade Warshaw]

Going to have a paper household when you retire as well.

[James Childs]

I. I gotta tell you, Kendall, I'll be shocked if you don't do what we tell you to do. If you're not in the 10 million range by the time you're 65, be shocked.

[Nicole]

That's incredible.

[James Childs]

I'm not making that up. Security. Yeah, I don't think that's a stretch.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, I don't think that's a stretch.

[James Childs]

You know, so. So you've got this. You got it.

[Nicole]

Thank you.

[Joe]

Yeah.

[Nicole]

I really appreciate it.

[Ed]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

Hey, do you have any of our products? You got any books or Anything that you kind of lean on, I don't.

[Nicole]

My sister went through your program and she normally just like talks to me about all of this kind of stuff, but I don't have any.

[James Childs]

I want to give you something, Jade. Let's give her something to kind of cement this so that she can see the process for sure. Total money makeover.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, total money makeover. And hey, I want you to head to everydollar.com/jade, and I want you to pick up every dollar premium and it'll give you 15 off. And what I love about every dollar premium is you can. Kind of the same way that I plugged in your numbers and gave you that snapshot of what your investing future could look like. We've got a financial road map planner on there that you can plug in all sorts of numbers to figure out where you want to be and where you're going to meet certain milestones. So you can plug in numbers to figure out how long it would take you to save three days, six months of expenses, or how long it would take you to save up for a home, those sorts of things. So we'll make sure you have that. And I think she's all set.

[James Childs]

Kendall, you're a rock star. Okay, Jade, we got about a minute here. We got new people coming in all the time, so I think it's really good to revisit what is a really sensible question.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[James Childs]

And that is I've got all this debt and if it takes me six years or five years or four years to pay it off, I'm so far behind the eight ball in investing. Why do we teach that the way we do that? We clear debt first before we invest. Explain. Explain that to newcomers who might still be going. Ah, really?

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean, there's a lot of reasons, a lot of good reasons. The first reason is your income is your biggest wealth building tool. Like, that's a Dave Ramsey classic quote right there. You need your income available in order to be able to invest it. And for most of us, we're living paycheck to paycheck. Like, we don't have any money left at the end of the month. But after we've paid our bills, our car note, we've got groceries, we paid the kids daycare, most of us don't. We don't feel like we have that breathing room because we have so many debts and bills. So the first step is to clear that out so you get your money back in your budget and then you save up three to six months because if you don't save first and you start investing right away. If an emergency comes, you start pulling from your retirement or you start using credit cards and you go back into debt. So you pay off the debt, you build up the savings, and then and only then, we start investing. And that, that's the way it works. If you start doing it out of order, you start messing yourself up, Ken.

[James Childs]

And you just proved it. Once you start that investing, compound interest becomes your best pal. And so it can work. You're not too late. Trust the process. It works. We're so glad you've joined us. She's Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Ed]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, credit unions, for one thing, are nonprofit, which means that the members, the customers own the credit union. So any profits that the credit union makes goes back into customer pricing. So you get better interest rate on savings, cheaper checking and so on, that kind of thing. And 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.

[Ed]

Yes, well, and I think we have found one that is incredible, and that's Fairwinds. They are an incredible credit union that is really out with the heart to help the customer.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know, that's why we're partnering with them, because they've got a scope to be able to handle the Ramsey audience, and they're the right kind of people with the right kind of values, and they've done a really, really good job with customer service and the deals that they're offering. The Ramsey Tribe is incredible.

[Ed]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Jade Warshaw]

And you're right.

[Ed]

Their customer service is unbelievable. Winston and I just signed up and we got an account.

[James Childs]

Yeah.

[Ed]

And I'm not kidding, it took. It took less than five 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 fair wins 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. So again, you guys, I know it can be a pain to switch banks or to open up new accounts, but Fairwinds, again, they make it so easy. 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]

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. You guys, it's incredible.

[Ed]

Yeah, you guys, it's so easy to join Fairwinds no matter where you live. So go to Fairwinds.org Ramsey to learn more. That's F A I R W I n d s.org Ramsey Listen, I know.

[James Childs]

A lot of you would rather watch.

[Jade Warshaw]

Paint dry in slow motion than file.

[James Childs]

Your taxes, but thankfully you don't have to dread filing when you've got Ramsey Smart Tax. It comes packed with everything you need to file online before the big deadline. That means all major federal forms and deductions are covered with no hidden fees. Plus, with Ramsey SmartTax you can save up to 70% compared to other tax software out there. It's a no brainer. Just go to ramseysolutions.com smarttax and see how simple tax filing can be. That's ramseysolutions.com smarttax foreign welcome back to the Ramsey show where we talk to you about you, your money, your work, your relationships is our goal. We want you to win in all three. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is with me. And the phone number to jump in is, triple 882-55-5225 time. Excuse me. Try not to say too many things at once when you're live on the air.

[Jade Warshaw]

Sometimes it's tough. Sometimes.

[James Childs]

Every once in a while I get on a roll a little too fast. It is time for today's question of the day brought to you by why Refi? Now, we do not recommend refinancing on everything, but for distressed private student loans, there is why Refi we trust why Refi? Because they help you with a low fixed interest rate you couldn't get anywhere else. And it's going to help you stick to your budget and get out of debt. Learn [e-mail] Ramsey that's the letter y r e f y.com Ramsey may not be available in all states.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right, today's question comes from Ken in Mississippi.

[James Childs]

My man.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right. He says, I had a work performance evaluation after being at my current company for six months. I got nothing but atta boys and received no criticism for the job I'm doing. Then they offered me a 50 cent raise per hour. I just wanted to know how you guys felt about that. After a performance review of nothing but great feedback. Am I being selfish or should I just accept it for what it is and hope for better compensation next time?

[James Childs]

Well, Ken, you are being selfish. But selfish in this particular interpretation, Jade, is not bad.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, you got to look out for yourself.

[James Childs]

That. Thank you. Thank you for picking that up. Of course, that word selfish gets a really negative thing. But when it comes to your money, nobody's looking for compensation. You are. You are your agent. You are your manager.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[James Childs]

This is your livelihood. So all of feels.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

Around this scenario are what I would call absolutely normal. Dare I say healthy.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's good.

[James Childs]

In other words, he gets a good review. He's sitting there and he's getting all positive.

[Jade Warshaw]

Attaboy.

[James Childs]

And then they go, I love how you. I love how you dramatize it. Even in the question, it was like, I think she was in a few dramas in plays when she was in school. And so in this situation, Jade, it's a. It's a. It's a shot to the chest. 50 cents.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

I'm going to tell you something. If you don't feel something when you get a 50 cent raise, it's a little insult. Then something's wrong with you.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

And so I would say, Ken, you are being what I would call properly selfish in recognizing real feelings that should feel that way. Because I'm objective, I have no skin in this. And I would feel that way if I put myself in your shoes. So now let's get to the. The second part of this. Should you accept it? I don't know. Because here's what I would be asking. And so I'm going to play your agent. Okay. I'm gonna be your agent, and then I'm gonna give it to my assistant agent over. If Jade and I are agenting for you, I'm gonna say I want to find out, is that a normal raise? The average in the United States, and this is not a law. If you look at the numbers, annual raises usually fall between 3 and 4%. Again, no one's beholden to that number. 50 cent raise is really, really low.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[James Childs]

So the question becomes, Ken, why Is it only 50 cents? Is the company struggling?

[Jade Warshaw]

Good question.

[James Childs]

You gotta ask that.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's a good question.

[James Childs]

And if the company's struggling, we all gotta tighten the belt in our personal budgets. And so I'd want to know why only 50 cents and dig into that. And. And then you have to decide from There. Okay, that's the now answer. But I want to look at next because I don't want to keep feeling this way.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's right.

[James Childs]

Because you keep showing up year after year and you feel this way.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's not good for you.

[James Childs]

It's not good for you. Thoughts?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, that's the thing. That's a good question, Ken. If you ask and say, hey, what's going on? You know, I've done. I, I've done some research. I know the standard. His company doing. All right. And let's say he says, well, you know, no, we're not. Then. Then it's like, okay, well, am I up for the ride of so sticking out. Let me get out until the last.

[James Childs]

Part of his question. Should I hope for better compensation next time?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, brother, it's getting lower. It's only going lower from here.

[James Childs]

Probably I don't like hope when it comes to compensation.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

Do you?

[Jade Warshaw]

I love hope. Hope. And I think in this case there's probably a lot more fish in the sea that have fatter pockets when it's time for.

[James Childs]

Look at you in the mixed metaphors. That was strong.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Fatter. Fatter gills.

[James Childs]

We gotta find some fish with fatter gills. That's good.

[Jade Warshaw]

Truly, though, I. I'm with you.

[James Childs]

I don't want hope in that. I want to put my hope in me and, and the Lord and action. I'm not gonna put hope in. Well, it was 50 cents this year.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, Ken, talk about motivation.

[James Childs]

I hope they bump it to a buck 25 next year.

[Jade Warshaw]

Talk about the role that, that, that sort of thing plays in the, in the motivation of the worker.

[James Childs]

Okay, so it, if you feel d. If you feel as though you've been devalued, it's a slippery slope to where you devalue yourself.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's good.

[James Childs]

That's what happens.

[Jade Warshaw]

So you're saying he's going to start. He would start doing things to throw himself. Yeah.

[James Childs]

Well, you start questioning, I'm only worth 50 cents.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's good.

[James Childs]

That's. That's tough stuff. That is tough, but that's the real, real. So anyway, sorry about that, Ken. I would be looking for greener pastures if it were me.

[Jade Warshaw]

I agree.

[James Childs]

But you know, again. And by the way, anybody in that situation, can I just say this very quickly? Get the get clear assessment in the book. Find the work you're wired to do. It's one purchase price. Get the book and I'm going to tell you something. Lay it over. Take the results of the assessment. Read the book. It's 45 minute read for this reason, Jade. It'll help people go, where could I go? Yes, where are my possibilities? I'm not stuck. I'm. This is not the only thing I can do. Gosh, that's a, that's a really important theme for me is for people to see I got options. Even when you can't see them, I promise you, you have got options.

[Jade Warshaw]

So that book is really going to infuse you with the confidence to know 100. It's not just that. That's not my only. Yeah, I love it.

[James Childs]

It's about self awareness. And by the way, on the other side of self awareness is confident confidence. You cannot be confident if you aren't aware.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's true.

[James Childs]

So there you go. Just a quick. That's why, that's why I put that resource out. It's fabulous little resource. So there you go. All right. To the phones we go. Ed is up in Columbia, South Carolina. Ed, how can we help?

[Joe]

Hey, Ken and Jay, thanks for taking my call.

[James Childs]

Sure. What's up?

[Joe]

I just have a question about paying off a mortgage. And until I wouldn't have made this call, I knew the answer. And listening to your show and listening to Dave, but I was notified that my, my job is being downsized October 1st.

[James Childs]

Oh, man, I'm sorry about that.

[Joe]

Thank you. And the thing about it is, I still want to pay off the house, but I'm concerned that I should leave the cash.

[James Childs]

Yeah.

[Joe]

In case we need.

[James Childs]

Give Jay the numbers real quick. Walk her through the numbers.

[Joe]

Okay. Would you want me to walk you through the mortgage?

[James Childs]

How much is the payoff?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Joe]

Okay. Our payoff is 113,000. The house is worth 400,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Joe]

And my wife and I in the last two years have saved 190,000 in our savings.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[James Childs]

What of that is your emergency fund?

[Joe]

It's not.

[Zachary]

I don't, I don't.

[Joe]

Well, if I was going to take the emergency fund out of that, it would be 50,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. So it's 100. You got 140 up for grabs.

[James Childs]

Yep.

[Jade Warshaw]

And that leaves you with 50k there. Typically what we would say in a time like this where you're kind of in a crisis mode, I would tell you not to do anything major like jump into sums of money. How quickly do you think you can find new work? And is your wife also working? Those are my two questions.

[Joe]

My wife is working. I, I actually I, I work two side hustles. I listen to Dave a lot. So I started working two side hustles. To. To save. To pay off the house.

[Jade Warshaw]

So will you be able to. If you keep those two side hustles, your wife works and you get laid off. Is that enough to cover the bills and cover your life if you pay off the mortgage?

[Joe]

100. We're debt. We're debt. We're debt free. Our cars are. We don't know anything but the mortgage.

[Jade Warshaw]

And yeah, I do it.

[James Childs]

I think so, too.

[Jade Warshaw]

I do it. You've still got $50,000. You're still able to make your bills even without this job. And now you're lowering your expenses by not having a mortgage. It's just taxes and insurance. Yeah.

[James Childs]

You getting a severance of any type?

[Joe]

No, they didn't. They don't do that.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right.

[James Childs]

But you know what? You got a head start. You got.

[Joe]

You're right.

[James Childs]

That's right, baby. Listen, I. I got. I'd be looking for a job as soon as you hang up the phone.

[Jade Warshaw]

100.

[Joe]

I already have. I already have been. And. And I'm fortunate. I'm. I'm a professional salesperson, but I also have a lot of experience in retail.

[James Childs]

Great.

[Jade Warshaw]

Hey, you guys are awesome.

[Joe]

To you guys, I'll be at Walmart or Target or Costco.

[James Childs]

Come on. You know, pay the house off.

[Jade Warshaw]

Jade says, yeah, you guys are awesome. You've done an excellent, excellent job in this. This is the fruit of your labor. Good job.

[Joe]

And download kept me off the ledge. And I pre. I wouldn't be in this situation if I didn't listen to your show.

[James Childs]

So good. You like country music?

[Joe]

I do.

[James Childs]

You ever heard of an old guy named Johnny Paycheck?

[Joe]

I know who he is. Yeah.

[James Childs]

Download his song. When we hang up. It's called take this job and shove it.

[Jade Warshaw]

You can take this job and shove.

[James Childs]

It because he's paid his house off.

[Jade Warshaw]

I know, right?

[James Childs]

I might be like, hey, you guys, let me go. Guess what I did.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

I paid my house off. There you go.

[Joe]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

Come on, man. That's real financial peace. That's why we do what we do. Ed, you're the poster child. We're happy for you. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Dave Ramsey]

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

[Jade Warshaw]

Foreign.

[James Childs]

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined in studio with or by Rather Jade Warshaw. Triple 8825-525888-88255-225. All right, let's see. We've got our Ramsey network app question, and this is from Gabriel. He asks, can you really win money with apps like bingo winner and Mr. Beast's new app, or is it a scam? Also, I was wondering if Acorns and Robin Hood.

[Jade Warshaw]

What's happening?

[James Childs]

I'm sorry. Are good investment options. I, I, I, I, I'm 50 years old. I don't know what Bingo Winner is, and I barely know who Mr. Beast is. So I'm unqualified to even answer this question because I don't even know what that means. Means I, I'm gonna win money with their apps. I don't have the foggiest idea. Anybody in there? Anybody?

[Jade Warshaw]

The last.

[James Childs]

Kelly, do you know what they're talking? I have no idea.

[Jade Warshaw]

The last game I played was Words with Friends, and there was no, like, option to win money. So I'm guessing it's one of these apps. Yeah, like a candy crunch.

[James Childs]

The only app that I play in is a fantasy football, and that has nothing to do with any of this. That's just me.

[Jade Warshaw]

Can I give a, can I give a hot take?

[James Childs]

Yes, please bail me out, because I don't know how to answer this question.

[Jade Warshaw]

All right, this is good. This is controversial, and I own that.

[James Childs]

Oh, boy. I am here for this.

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm gonna get here for this. I feel like if you have time to play games on your phone, something's wrong. If you're out working and crushing it and taking care of your family, you don't have time to play games on your phone.

[James Childs]

I have zero problems with this. This is not controversial to me.

[Jade Warshaw]

And, and to put money into my.

[James Childs]

Phone, I have no game apps on my phone. So I, I, I feel like I'm in Jade's good, good stead right now.

[Jade Warshaw]

And I'm like, I just, I can't understand that. I can't watch, watch a show. Like watch a show with your spouse or, or read a book, but conversation. Have a conversation. But to spend money on a game inside your phone, that's called Bingo Winner.

[James Childs]

Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and say that. I don't know if it's a scam, but you should not be Spending your time on it. There's no ROI on your time. And I'll bet there's not much ROI on the money.

[Jade Warshaw]

No.

[James Childs]

And then I was wondering if Acorns and Robin Hood are good investment options. Robinhood is an investment platform.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

We are very clear at Ramsey Solutions what our investment strategy is. I'll hand it to my colleague to give a very quick, give us 60 second investment strategy. That would be our answer to any of, of this.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. I don't like these apps because they really, they enforce, they're, they're really more about trading in. The idea of I'm putting a little bit here, but I can move it at any time. And that's not our strategy. We are long term investors. We are people who dollar cost average. We are people who set it and forget it and keep it there for a long period of time. And so that's why I don't like these apps because they don't promote that. So I would Invest with my 401k through my job or I'd be a part of a brokerage and have my Roth ira.

[James Childs]

I, I gotta confess, I just put the old readers on graphic.

[Jade Warshaw]

Look at the graphic on that.

[James Childs]

I just typed in bingo winner app and boy, talk about getting me in trouble.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

Anything that looks like that is designed to suck the brain right out of your head. It's. Yeah, it is my ruling on that.

[Jade Warshaw]

It looks like it's designed to keep you addicted, whatever it is.

[James Childs]

So let me tell you what I know. Successful millionaires aren't spending a lot of time on bingo win.

[Jade Warshaw]

There you go.

[James Childs]

Now I've got a ruling. Okay. Now we can move on.

[Jade Warshaw]

Move on.

[James Childs]

Goodness.

[Jade Warshaw]

Wow. That was something, wasn't it?

[James Childs]

I'm never getting that time back. Neither are you. Matthew is up in Austin, Texas. Matthew, how can we help?

[Joe]

How y'all doing?

[James Childs]

Well, we're better now.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. We're glad you're here.

[James Childs]

We're thrilled about your question. What is it?

[Joe]

You sound like you always got it together, son. Just need your help. Thinking I'm supposed to get married here in a couple of weeks.

[James Childs]

Congrats.

[Joe]

Thanks there. But yikes. Kind of. And it has mainly to do with kids. I've got kids. And how my new wife interacts. I guess the question being how much does my new wife have say so into how I raise my kids, spend money on my kids and that type of thing. Because it's really, I'm really kind of struggling with it.

[James Childs]

All right, real quick question because I, I, my colleague is loaded Up. Ready to go. I want to know this. How long have you two been dating?

[Joe]

Two years.

[James Childs]

Two years. And in the two years, has there been moments of tension? Tension based on her maybe stepping into some situations that the kids weren't really cool with or you weren't cool with, or there have been some comments. I'm just giving you what I mean when I say moments. Have there been several moments of tension that lead to this concern?

[Joe]

There's enough.

[James Childs]

I knew the answer. Yeah, my friend.

[Joe]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

I would just say this. I, this needs to be settled in premarital counseling, stat.

[Jade Warshaw]

How old are the kids?

[James Childs]

Immediately?

[Joe]

They're not young. And so I got two in college. I have one that's a teenager.

[James Childs]

Well, the two in college, that's a non factor. She doesn't get to say anything about that.

[Jade Warshaw]

And how old's the teenager?

[Joe]

She's 16. But for example, like, when the subject comes up and I don't like saying this, and I know it's probably wrong, but I say I'm a dad first. If you make me choose, is that a wrong thing to say?

[James Childs]

Yes.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. Because you're, you're treating it like she's expendable. And technically. Now, I know this is different and, and I, I, I am going to step lightly on this, but typically when you get married, it's the marriage first.

[James Childs]

That's why I said what I said.

[Jade Warshaw]

And then it's the kids. Now, also, traditionally, the, the person you're married to is the person you've had children with. So it, it's easier to make that statement. And I want to, I want to hang out there. It is easier to make that statement when that's the case. Case in your case. I don't think it makes it any less true, but I think it makes it more difficult to stand on that.

[James Childs]

Can agree. I agree. I'm, I'm going to default to. You called us because you've got some real fear. And I'm glad you called us, if for no other reason. And then I'm telling you as a guy who went through premarital counseling and I've been married 26 years, long enough to know that had Stacy and I not been on the same page about the major things.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[James Childs]

I don't know that we're here.

[Jade Warshaw]

Same. Same.

[James Childs]

Do you know? And so I'm just saying that, Matthew, you need to invest time and money into premarital counseling to sit with a professional therapist and get this stuff out on the table. Like, you've got to say, she has created this tension here, I feel like she stepped over here. She needs to be able to say, I didn't like it when you said, I'm a dad first. Like, we got to get this all out before we lock in.

[Jade Warshaw]

And then there's the kids side of this, too.

[James Childs]

There is the kid side of it, but they got to solve it between the two of them first. You got to know what life is going to look like day one. Now we manage those decisions after that.

[Joe]

He's nice to my kids. That's not it. But we're kind of different when things come up. Like. Well, I go. She said, well, if they're 22, they're going to be on their own, like, back. Well, yeah, but I sure hope so. But what if something happens and they need to move back in? You know, that kind of thing again? Those. Those things come up or do. Are you. Are you going to pay for their master's degrees, too, instead of us going to Hawaii for vacation? Those. It's. I'm like, wait a minute.

[Jade Warshaw]

So, yeah, she's got to realize that there's a whole life here and there's other people she's marrying. She's marrying the. The. Into the family, not just you. And that's the case with anybody. You marry into the family. You marry into the situation, whatever it is. So I think that you guys. Ken is right. There's a lot that must be discussed before this happens.

[James Childs]

And Matthew, look. Oh, wow. Okay. You know what, is this a big. Is this a big fancy wedding when we got a lot of people coming and a lot of money being spent?

[Joe]

No, but I can't. I can't move it. It's not moving.

[Jade Warshaw]

So you know what?

[James Childs]

I appreciate Matthew. He's going. Going. Listen, Ken, I know where you're going, pal. I don't want to walk down that path.

[Jade Warshaw]

I would.

[James Childs]

I would. I press pause.

[Jade Warshaw]

I would. Because what I don't want. I would never want you to feel like you don't have a choice or like once the wheels and are in motion, you can't, you know, put a wood stick in it and grind it to a hole. You can. You have choices still. You have a lot less choices once you say, I do.

[James Childs]

I agree. I. I'd get a session in at least and talk about. About these majors. I really would, before the wedding. But can I also say that if she says, hey, are you going to pay for their master's degree or are we going to go to Hawaii? The answer is, where is my grass skirt? That's what the answer is the kids can pay for their master's degree. Go with Mama to Hawaii, man.

[Jade Warshaw]

Aloha.

[James Childs]

Come on.

[Jade Warshaw]

I thought you were going in a different direction with that kid.

[James Childs]

Kids need to pay for their own masters.

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm glad you did. I'm glad you did.

[James Childs]

This is the Ramsay Show.