When You Feel Overwhelmed, Control the Controllables

Summary

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The Ramsey Show – Episode Summary

Episode Title: When You Feel Overwhelmed, Control the Controllables
Air Date: September 12, 2025
Host(s): Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze

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Overview

This episode, recorded on September 11, 2025, focuses on the importance of recognizing what is outside of our control—whether in the world or our personal finances—while emphasizing actionable steps to handle what we can control. The hosts take live calls from listeners about a variety of topics, including paying off debt, marriage and money, saving for large expenses, and navigating big life transitions. The episode is interspersed with heartfelt reflections on the significance of 9/11 and the recent tragic loss of a friend, layered with advice about resilience, financial planning, and intentional living.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reflecting on 9/11 and Dealing With Evil ([00:04]–[07:08])

• Dave and Rachel open with reflections on the September 11th anniversary, recalling the massive impact on the nation and drawing parallels to recent tragic events.
  • Dave shares the challenges of broadcasting during national crises:

    "We spent all our time...teaching you to control the things you can control. Yeah, you can't control that, but you can control how you react."
    —Dave Ramsey [06:00]

  • Emphasizes worldview: evil exists in the world, and there will be things you cannot control, but how you react is always up to you.
  • Calls listeners to “control the controllables” in their own lives, both financially and emotionally.

2. Controlling Personal Finances – Listener Calls

a. Bob Borquez's 25-Year Retirement Tribute ([10:33])

• Celebrating Bob Borquez’s 25 years with Ramsey, highlighting the importance of key people in lifelong success.
• "You don’t build something of this magnitude without thoroughbreds, and Bob’s a full-blown...won the Kentucky Derby level."
  —Dave Ramsey [12:16]

b. Prioritizing Debt Payoff – Mark’s Plan ([12:36])

• Mark (28, $100K earnings, mortgage + HELOC + car loan) asks about debt payoff order.
• Rachel and Dave:
  • Pay off consumer debt first (car, then HELOC), mortgage last.
  • Use the baby steps—attack smallest debts first for momentum.
  • "I made so many bad [financial decisions] that it gave me a PhD in dumb…"
    —Dave Ramsey [07:43]

c. Graduating Baby Step 4 – Melissa's Military Family ([16:20])

• Melissa’s spouse is retiring from the military; she asks about reallocating retirement savings after years of renting.
• Dave:
  • No “graduating” baby step 4. After debt and emergency fund, always invest 15% for retirement, save up a down payment, and then go back to retirement investing after home purchase.
  • "You never graduate from [having fun, investing, generosity]."
    —Dave Ramsey [19:11]

d. Managing a Windfall from Family Business Sale – Mary in Virginia ([22:16])

• Mary anticipates $500K over the next 5 years, husband heading to med school on military funding.
• Dave's plan:
  • Use lump sum to pay off home once they know if they're staying put.
  • Invest the remainder (mutual funds, low-turnover funds) and pull income as needed—don’t touch principal.
  • "Leave the goose that lays the golden egg alone."
    —Dave Ramsey [28:09]

e. Overwhelmed and in Debt – Jim, 26, in Texas ([34:29])

• Jim is $500K in debt (mortgage, cars, $80K credit cards, IRS bill), has not involved his wife in finances.
• Ramsey’s blunt blueprint:
  • Full transparency, joint planning—no more “daddy/daughter” dynamic.
  • List debts, cut up cards, attack smallest balances, new habits as a couple.
  • "You’re like a daddy spoiling his only daughter. Instead, you’re gonna say, honey, let’s sit down like grownups..."
    —Dave Ramsey [38:35]
  • "Surrender. You got plenty of time. You make a lot of money—you guys could be multimillionaires."
    —Rachel Cruze [42:46]

f. Running a Small Business & Tax Planning – Cheryl in Atlanta ([45:05])

• Cheryl, owner of a cleaning service, did not save for taxes, wants to qualify for a home.
• Advice:
  • Separate personal and business finances; pay quarterly estimates.
  • Only write off actual expenses, not “ghost” expenses.
  • "You might have been paying some on your taxes, but what I just described to you is the way to do it."
    —Dave Ramsey [50:51]

g. Career Change After Debt-Free – Dalton in South Carolina ([55:28])

• Dalton, 25, Ford dealership technician, considering career change to aviation mechanic.
• Dave’s decision matrix:
  • Only change if it’s to make more, not less, money.
  • Willing to move houses/cities for better opportunities.
  • "Make your dream a dream, not a nightmare. Lay it out—up and to the right."
    —Dave Ramsey [61:17]

h. Managing Out-of-State Rental after Job Relocation – Darren ([62:10])

• Paid off $215K in 22 months, owns a home in another city after relocation.
• Dave: Sell the property rather than being a long-distance landlord.
  • "Long distance landlording is not really a good plan… That’s how people change Harley oil in your living room."
    —Dave Ramsey [63:23]

i. Quick Sale of a Bad Motorcycle Purchase – Trey ([66:49])

• Trey, 23, upside-down on a motorcycle after wreck, wants to know if he should drain his emergency fund to sell the bike.
• Dave: Yes, cut your losses and learn from it.
  • "The sooner we cut bait, the sooner this fish is gone, man."
    —Dave Ramsey [69:54]
  • "If I do something dumb again, it needs to be a new dumb thing."
    —Dave Ramsey [72:25]

j. Joint Accounts and Building Trust in Marriage – Mia in Georgia ([75:48])

• Mia wants to combine finances after 13 years of separate accounts; husband resists due to trust.
• Solution:
  • Build a joint budget for full transparency; both parties approve all spending.
  • Joint finances foster unity and are a key factor in wealth-building and marital health.
  • "When you work together, very detailed together, with a cooperative spouse—that’s how you become millionaires.”
    —Dave Ramsey [79:59]
  • “I long to do this marriage in a deeper, more beautiful, unified way. And this is a symbol of that.”
    —Rachel Cruze [82:30]

k. Is It Okay to Cut Back on Saving to Travel? – Donovan in San Jose ([86:42])

• Donovan & wife invest 43% of $175K income, wife wants to travel to Europe.
• Both investing and enjoying your life are important; find a balance.
  • “You need to constantly, with a rhythm, be enjoying your money, investing your money, and being generous with your money.”
    —Dave Ramsey [92:00]
  • Rachel: “Don't make this pattern—make sure the contentment is being talked about, too.”
    —Rachel Cruze [92:52]

l. How to Pay for Wedding While Digging Out of Debt – Jimmy in Arizona ([107:35])

• Jimmy (30) & girlfriend (28) have $87K in debt (mostly to parents), good jobs, live together, want to marry but worry about affordability.
• Dave recommends:
  • Simple courthouse wedding now, big party/reception later; pause debt snowball for a modest ring.
  • Open communication with parents; let them host the wedding if they choose.
  • “Go get married… and have the party later after you clean up some of this debt.”
    —Dave Ramsey [112:11]

m. Planning for Elder Care and Debt – Heather, 82 ([117:40])

• Widow, no debts except $16K for windows (no interest due for 16 months), living comfortably on pension and Social Security.
• Advice:
  • Pay off interest-free debt soon to avoid back-charged interest.
  • For nursing care, in-home care is often preferable; assess costs and prepare for possibilities.
  • "If you have to have two [caregivers], that's still going to be cheaper than a nursing home.”
    —Dave Ramsey [122:22]

n. Saving for a Home vs. Replacing an Old Car – Emma in Washington ([101:38])

• Emma (homeschooling mom, 4th child on way) has an old van with transmission issues and an $11K emergency fund (no separate down payment).
• Advice:
  • Emergency fund comes first; neither buy a home nor a new car until there's cash beyond the safety net.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I made so many bad [financial decisions] that it gave me a PhD in dumb… I know exactly what stupid looks like.” —Dave Ramsey [07:43]
• “You’re not a victim of circumstances, and you’re not a victim of systemic evil… much of what happens in your destiny is up to you.” —Dave Ramsey [06:43]
• “Surrender… You got plenty of time. You make a lot of money—you guys could be multimillionaires.” —Rachel Cruze to Jim, on getting out of debt [42:46]
• “Leave the goose that lays the golden egg alone.” —Dave Ramsey [28:09]
• “When we surveyed 10,167 millionaires… 89% said they became millionaires because of working together with a spouse.” —Dave Ramsey [79:59]
• “Make your dream a dream, not a nightmare. Lay it out—up and to the right.” —Dave Ramsey [61:17]
• “I want to be real careful. If we take another leg off the goose, the goose is cooked.” —Dave Ramsey [30:01]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment Description | Timestamp | |-----------------------------------------------------|-------------------| | Opening reflections on 9/11/evil in the world | [00:04]–[07:08] | | Tribute to team member Bob Borquez | [10:33] | | Mark’s debt snowball question | [12:36] | | Melissa’s baby step 4/retirement question | [16:20] | | Mary’s windfall/family business – med school | [22:16] | | Jim: Overwhelmed with debt; involving spouse | [34:29] | | Cheryl: Business taxes & keeping records | [45:05] | | Dalton: Debt-free, career change after dealership | [55:28] | | Darren: Out-of-state rental after job move | [62:10] | | Trey: Upside-down motorcycle; selling quickly | [66:49] | | Mia: Joint accounts & marital trust | [75:48] | | Donovan: Investing vs. travel; balance in marriage | [86:42] | | Jimmy: Paying for wedding while still in debt | [107:35] | | Heather: Elder care planning & no-interest debt | [117:40] | | Emma: Van replacement or home savings? | [101:38] |

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Tone & Style

• Direct, candid, and often humorous.
• Blunt and clear advice, mixed with empathy: “That’s dumber than a rock… But I’ve done dumber.”
• Encouragement: “You’ve got plenty of time, you can do this.”
• Faith-based worldview: reminders of prayer, perspective, and stewardship.

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Core Takeaways

• Life throws curveballs: Control how you respond; take care of your family, mind your business and financial house, and let go of what you can’t manage.
• Financial success is built on small, consistent choices (the ‘controllables’): Budget, eliminate debt, involve your partner, and live below your means.
• Communication and partnership in finances are critical for both marital unity and wealth building.
• Don’t sacrifice your future for present comforts or pleasurable purchases—focus on the bigger picture and pace your progress.
• Learn from mistakes—yours and others’—and don’t repeat them.

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This comprehensive summary covers the heart of Dave and Rachel’s advice, the episode’s narrative flow, and concrete action steps for a variety of financial and life scenarios discussed by callers.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Normal is broke and common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio, this is the Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruze, number one best selling author, Ramsey personality, host of the Rachel Cruze, my daughter, she's my co host today. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Before we go to the phones, we're just going to take a second and get off format a little bit off format because some of you will hear all of this in another day or so. Some of you that listen on podcasts and things, you might hear it two weeks from now. But acknowledging that we do do this show live from 1 to 4 Central Time every day on, on the glass in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. And people, nice people are out there right now watching us do it, which means they really need to get a hobby. But there they are.

[Rachel Cruze]

I love y'. All.

[Dave Ramsey]

We love you. We love you. But I mean, come on, really. And so, but the anyway, you're here and thank you for hanging out with us. We got free coffee and free cookies. So that makes it all worthwhile. So anyway, because of that and the show is on 680 talk radio stations. Many of those are live. And so just to let you guys that are listening two weeks from now understand what's going on, so at the moment we're recording this, it is September 11th. And so which I noticed the other day, I noticed a minute ago, it's called Patriots Day. I missed that somehow that it had been named. But the acknowledgment of the terror attacks on the towers, bringing the towers down and the Pentagon. And the Pentagon and 3,000 plus almost 4,000 people losing their lives, including first responders in very short period of time. Largest death toll on American soil since Pearl Harbor. And I was actually on the air then when that occurred. This show's been on the air for 30 plus years. We were obviously in a different location with a microphone that was not this nice. But because we were, I guess it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Would be later that day because they were at 9:30am we were in the.

[Dave Ramsey]

Office in staff meeting and the 8:30am our time.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's right, that's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And 8:35 is when we sat and watched the second one live on television and going to the towers. And then we've got to decide with a show like this, what are we going to do in the middle of something like that, because we're basically useless. We're not a news organization. And so we got in touch with our friends at ABC because they were. They're in charge of the satellite that we run this thing on for talk radio. And we got their permission to just put their news feed on our network. And we did that for two days and just shut our show down. Because me commenting on that would have been taking about five minutes. And then I wouldn't have anything intelligent to say because I didn't know anything. Nobody knew anything. I was just a regular dude on a microphone in Nashville, Tennessee. And so I didn't need to try to play into that. So we stepped aside and let them cover it for a couple days. And then I got back on on Friday. The stock market reopened on Tuesday following.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, it was. Tuesday was the day it happened.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I bet it was a week later.

[Rachel Cruze]

Week later.

[Dave Ramsey]

I got back on the air by Thursday, I guess Thursday or Friday and said, hey, the stock market's going to open next week, you guys. Chill. So then I had something.

[Rachel Cruze]

I think I realized that it closed for almost a full week.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, it was. Well, for two reasons. One was the fear didn't want the markets to go bananas. And two, Wall street is literally. The dust was. Had not settled on it. It's under the shadow of the Twin Towers, or was under the shadow of the Twin Towers. It didn't actually get physically damaged, but it was within a few blocks or so there. That's what we were dealing with. So anyway, all of that. And here we sit in the middle of this. And this is the day after the assassination of our friend Charlie Kirk. And so all of that is just a moment to be reflective and go, evil is real. I was on a panel after 91 1, and I was reminded of it yesterday when Charlie was assassinated. That and it was like, talk radio, ABC guy. I won't name them. There were people that you would know their names. And Wolf Blitzer from CNN was conducting the panel. We were at a talk radio convention, which. A talk radio convention, guys, is somewhat like going to a Star wars bar. So kind of some weird characters there. So anyway, we're lined up on this thing and they're all doing politics and talking about this or that or whatever. And Wolf said, well, Dave, you haven't had much to say. One of the other hosts was like a Deloney type character doing relationship stuff. And she said, well, I think we now have to consider that evil is real. And I said, well, ma', am, I'm from Tennessee. We already knew it was, and we were just reminded again yesterday. 91 1. We remember evil is real. There is a conspiracy, and it's called Satan. Evil is real. And then you're reminded when you witness things like that at a distance. And like we witnessed yesterday with Charlie's assassination, evil is real. Don't know who evil got to do its work for sure yet. But we do know evil's real. And so. And that's a worldview, period. And in today's moment, with everyone so fired up, to say the least one way or the other, that just me saying that's going to be confident, controversial, and like, I really care what you think about that, but it's okay. I'll deal with it. But so it's. It's very real. It's a real thing. And there are things outside of our control. The weird thing is we spend all of the things, all our time on this show teaching you to control the things you can control. Yeah, you can't control that. I can't control that, but I can control how I react. I can control how I treat other people in the meantime. I can control how I treat my family. I can control much of what happens in my destiny is up to me. And so we try to keep people back on that rather than, you're not a victim of circumstances and you're not a victim of a systemic evil that is loose in the land and is very real. Regardless of who the players are, who the individual players in the flesh are, there's definitely a systemic thing going on. And so we can step back and look at that and go, jesus, come quickly.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, you know, lord, have mercy.

[Dave Ramsey]

Have mercy on us, Lord, and protect, you know, your children. But wow, wow, what a crazy thing. So you do have choices, and we're going to go back to reminding you of that in just a few minutes because we spend our entire lives reminding of that you have choices and you have made some bad ones. Some of you, like, I have made bad ones. I made so many bad ones that it gave me a PhD in dumb and qualifies me uniquely to be the cause of the show to happen every day. And so I'm not telling you, you anything you've done, I've done dumber with more zeros on the end. So I know exactly what stupid looks like. I'm uniquely qualified to call it out. So we'll get back to doing that in just a few minutes here, but we want to take a second and pause and just remember, nine One, one. And the families that were affected there, decades later, decades now. Wow. It's crazy, isn't it? Also remember where I was sitting when I, when I heard that the SEAL team had gotten Osama bin Laden. Know exactly where I was sitting.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

And that was kind of joyful. Moment one. One less evil thing moving around out there. A good thing. Good thing.

[Rachel Cruze]

Heavy.

[Jim]

Dave.

[Dr. John Deloney]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

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

[Dr. John Deloney]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

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

[Dr. John Deloney]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

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

[Dr. John Deloney]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

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

[Dr. John Deloney]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

Protect yourself, protect your income, protect your family. 60, 66. All right, guys, so we're going to continue to walk down memory lane and then we're going to get to your calls. 25 years ago, joining the Ramsey team is a guy named Bob Borquez. He's sitting in the booth right now because he's multi talented. He can do almost anything. His main job in the old days was to call and get new radio stations. To carry what was then called the Money Game, later called the Dave Ramsey show, and now called the Ramsey Show. He has put well over 700 radio stations on the air with us. We currently have 680. You can't keep them. They go away sometimes. And so over that 25 years. So the Ramsey show, success, the network and talk radio land was on the shoulders of a guy named Bob Borquez. He's 25 years with us, 66 years old, and he's retiring this month. So you guys out there.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's so sad, Bob.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, Bob, it's not even going to be. I don't know how we'll operate without you. I mean, it's like we don't know what to do. But yeah, so he's just the best guy. He's an absolute Ramsey, star of the show around here for all these years. And you don't build something of this scale, of this magnitude without having a whole bunch of thoroughbred around you. And Bob's a full blown. Won the Kentucky Derby level. Thoroughbred for sure.

[Rachel Cruze]

Wonderful husband, wonderful dad.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes, he is.

[Rachel Cruze]

Strong believer, loves Jesus. He's just incredible. Bob, we're gonna miss you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Good man. And been an honor to work with you all these years. Thank you. Thank you, Dave. Thank you for hiring me and giving me a chance. I've loved working with you under your leadership and being with this Ramsey family, it's been such a blessing. Now you're a good man. Mark is in Memphis. Mark, how are you?

[Jim]

I'm doing great, Mr. David. How you doing, sir?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve, sir. How can we help, man?

[Jim]

I got a quick question for you. I got a pretty good financial plan. At least I believe it's a good financial plan set up. But I want to run it by you. I trust your judgment better than mine. Currently, I make $80,000 of guaranteed, I would say guaranteed income. I can explain that in a second. Total debt, I have $137,000. That is $111,000 of a mortgage, $16,000 of a home equity line of credit, and $9,500 on a car payment. I have no credit cards, no other debt besides those three items. My current plan is to pay off the home equity line first just because that's where most of my money has been going, being more interest. The second attack was the car payment and the last was the mortgage. And the current plan I have set up, everything should be paid off by the time I'm. I think it's 37. I'm currently 28 years old and going back to the income, say the $80,000 of current income, of a guaranteed income, I also bring home another $20,000 or so in bonuses.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you're making 100k and you've got $25,000 in debt plus your mortgage.

[Jim]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, I would, I would flip the heloc, Mark, in the car. I would pay the car off first. And if I were you, I mean, I would, I would be aggressive. I would do this. I would look at the consumer debt first and not the mortgage. So I would separate it out. I would look at that $9,000 and see how fast we can get that car paid off. And the HELOC would be next. And then from there, there's probably some other financial goals you may want to hit before even, you know, getting to that mortgage. But that, that's what. And I think you could do that. I think it'll be, I think you'll do it faster than nine years. Personally, Mark, I think, I think you'll be able to attack this stuff quick. But especially the car. I would go ahead and get that out because how much is your payment per month on the car?

[Jim]

The car payment is 460, 465amonth.

[Dave Ramsey]

See, what you should, at a minimum, you ought to be done in a year. That's $2,000 a month. Not counting the house.

[Jim]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

$2,000 a month. You're done. And so that tells us with 460 plus 2,000amonth on the car, that's, you know, 2,500 on 9,000. That tells us in three months and some change, the car's gone. And then we knock the other, the other out in the next nine months. And so when you do it that quickly, Mark, the interest rate on either one of these things doesn't matter because you're not going to have it very long.

[Jim]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

So we always tell you to pay what Rachel's doing the smallest off first. If you're 100% debt free other than your house, in one year, you've not done anything dumb either way. But I think you'll have better results. And we've proven it by paying off the smallest first. And we teach a thing called the baby steps. And in baby step two, you pay off your debts smallest to largest, paying minimum payments on everything but the little one and attack the little one with a vengeance, and then move on up. And then, yeah, I think your house will be paid off that quick because you got a very modest mortgage. Been very wise in that regard. And you make really Good money. So congratulations. Hey, I'm going to send you a copy of the book, the Total Money Makeover. It gives you all the details on the baby steps, exactly why, when and how to work them. And dude, work them in exactly that order. It's proven to build millionaires. It absolutely works. Melissa's in North Carolina. Hi, Melissa, how are you?

[Caller]

Thank you, I'm all right. How about you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. How can I help you?

[Caller]

I guess my main question is can you ever graduate from baby step number four? And to go into that, my spouse is military and so we have never bought a house because we didn't want to trap ourselves into having a mortgage and also a rent or a second mortgage. So we were mainly just really aggressive with retirement. And then also we had a child about two years ago and we were aggressive with a 529 plan. So we feel pretty good about where that's at. And so when, that's when my spouse retires next year. Should we really scale down on the, you know, the retirement savings? So right now we've got about 225k in all the different retirement accounts, mainly tsp.

[Dave Ramsey]

Way to go, Melissa.

[Caller]

Oh, well, way to go.

[Dave Ramsey]

It feels pretty good, doesn't it?

[Caller]

Started early.

[Dave Ramsey]

And thanks. Tell your husband thanks for his service. So I would just use a different phrase, phrasing than graduate. So you may have heard us talk about when you finish baby step three, you've got three to six months of expenses saved and you are out of debt. Except your home. If you don't have a home, that's the point that people will start saving for a down payment on a home. Typically you're not in that situation. And we call that baby step 3B. And when they're doing the save for the down payment thing in 3B, some people put money into their baby step 4 and some don't. Okay. While they're saving for a down payment. And so what's happened is you didn't buy a house as a strategic move yet and that was a wise move. I agree with your strategy. Now when he gets out of the military, you are going to buy a house. And so really what that's going to do is it's going to put you back to baby step 3B and you might temporarily put retirement and kids college on hold, but not because you graduated, but because you're, you're kind of going shifting a different, you're stopping to get your down payments.

[Rachel Cruze]

Did you say he's retiring, Melissa? Next year?

[Caller]

Yes. So he'll Have a pension. So that's another reason why, when I do the calculations up in the numbers of the way, 225 will, you know, increase, you know, in theory, over the next 30 years. Because we're 36, so. Yeah, so. So that's why I wondered.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, you don't. You never stop saving permanently. Okay, so, no, I disagree with. We got a good military pension and 225 is enough. No, I would always be doing three things with money once I'm out of debt. I would always be having fun with it, investing it, and being generous. You never graduate from those three things.

[Caller]

Okay, got it.

[Rachel Cruze]

We are saving.

[Caller]

Scale back. We can scale back the 15.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

Or stop it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Or stop it while you save. A down payment.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yep.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And if you're two years out, you could stop it now and save, you know, save like crazy right now for a down payment. Has he got his new career picked out?

[Caller]

Not yet. He also has, you know, education, benefits.

[Dave Ramsey]

I know, but he needs to get it picked out. Two years is going to be here in about 20 seconds.

[Caller]

Oh, absolutely. But career wise, yes. He wants to work with computers and, like, network security.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, that's great. Yeah. Phenomenal. Okay. Yeah. So move on from the military, and that's the next.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's an exciting step when you. When you do retire from that. You guys get to be settled in at a city, you get to buy a home, you get to plant roots. I mean, yeah, it's a fun next season for you guys. The next chapter.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you've earned it, serving your country for 20 years. Thank you.

[Jim]

Sam.

[Dave Ramsey]

Life is unpredictable. That's why I teach the importance of things like having an emergency fund, buying term life insurance, and getting a will from my friends at Mama Bear legal forums. Because if you don't plan ahead for when you're gone, it can cause a big mess. And that's the last thing your family needs, especially when they're grieving your loss at the same time. But a will spells out exactly what you want to happen after you've passed away. No guesswork, no courtrooms, and no fights. Just peace and clarity. It's your way of saying, I love you and I took care of this so you don't have to. And thanks to Mama Bear, getting your will done is fast, easy, and affordable. In just 20 minutes, you can give your family the peace of mind they'll need during one of the most challenging times of their lives. And unlike a lot of other online will companies, the price you see at the beginning is the price you [e-mail] so take care of it today. Go to mamabearlegalforms.com use the promo code Ramsey to save 20%. That's 20% off with code Ramsey@mama bear legalforms.com Mary is with us in Virginia. Hi, Mary, how are you?

[Caller]

Fine, Good. How are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. How can we help?

[Caller]

Thanks for taking my call. Yeah. If I'm calling, trying to get your advice on what we should do, my husband and I, with a large sum of money that we're going to be getting over the next five years or so.

[Dave Ramsey]

Dave's Bahama Fund.

[Caller]

That does sound nice.

[Dave Ramsey]

Dave's Virgin Island Fund. Yeah. So what's a large. What's a large sum?

[Caller]

How much we should be getting after taxes? About half a million.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're selling a business.

[Caller]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Way to go. That's awesome. How fun. How long have you run the business?

[Caller]

We're excited. Well, so actually it's a family business that I just have share in and we've decided to move on as a family. So that's my share.

[Dave Ramsey]

How many. How many generations?

[Caller]

Three.

[Dave Ramsey]

And what. What kind of business? Just curious.

[Caller]

It's a hospitality. Well, it's actually like a restaurant and a gift shop. But it's still going to be with my family. It's just being sold is kind of complicated.

[Dave Ramsey]

One family member's buying out the rest.

[Caller]

Pretty much, more or less.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Wow. Well, that's cool. I'm sorry, I just. I love family business stories and I study it and I've coached a lot of family businesses our. Our team does through Andre leadership. So I was just curious about the details. Well, wonderful. Half million bucks. And you want to know what to.

[Caller]

Do with it, Right? We have a little bit of a not so straightforward future the next five years. My husband is actually leaving the military and he's going back to school. He wants to be a doctor. He's wanted that for a long time. I'm a physical therapist and I'm also. I'm working part time and also taking care of our kids. So we're just trying to figure out the wisest way to spend this money without as much financial security.

[Dave Ramsey]

He wants to be an MD for.

[Caller]

The next five years. Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

And how much is the military going to pay for that? How much of that are they going free?

[Caller]

We will pay nothing.

[Dave Ramsey]

All the way through med school.

[Caller]

All the way through.

[Rachel Cruze]

Wow. That's amazing.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, thank you for your service. That's awesome. Okay, so you don't need that, but you May need money to eat with while he's not working and going through that.

[Caller]

Right. And we have, so our monthly expenses are about 6,000. And based on like his different paths from the military, we have about, about $4,000 coming in every month, whether I work or not. So we have about $2,000 deficit a month. And then we, on top of that, we have 125,000 in cash, like high yield savings, and then 180 in liquid investments like the stock market, and then 350 in retirement.

[Dave Ramsey]

Do you have any debt?

[Rachel Cruze]

Good job.

[Caller]

No debt? No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Even on the house?

[Caller]

No, we do. Oh, sorry. We do owe about 230 on our mortgage.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller]

Towards about 450. We may or may not be moving, depending on. He's actually applying to med schools now, so we're not sure exactly where we'll be. We're hoping to stay in the area.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

Do you want to continue working, Mary, part time? Is that something that you enjoy or would you step back from that even?

[Caller]

No, I do enjoy it and I want to keep my skills up. I'm a physical therapist by trade, so I, I, I don't know that I want to be responsible for the whole load of. I want to have a backstop. Should I not want to work or we would like to have more kids and things like that.

[Rachel Cruze]

Sure, absolutely.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. So you have a mortgage balance of what, again?

[Rachel Cruze]

230.

[Caller]

230.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And you have 300 in liquid and in high yield and you're getting another 500, so you got 800 to work with.

[Jim]

Right, Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller]

Yeah. Well, it's just the only thing is with the payouts, it depends on how they decide to pay them out. It's going to be over the next five years. We just don't know if it's going to be one large lump sum up front or slow weeks over.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, it could be 100 each year or something.

[Caller]

Correct. Gotcha.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. It's going to be more than $2,000 a month though.

[Caller]

Right. For sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

So. All right. So. Well, as soon as, you know if you're staying in the area, if you are, pay off the house that day, whether you've got this money or not. Because you got enough money in the bank now to do that and you should have already done that.

[Caller]

Yeah. And we thought about it. We just with our future so uncertain.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, as soon as you, as soon as, you know, since, you know when he's going to med school, then you know if you're going to stay in that house. Right. That's going to be in what, the next year?

[Jim]

Right, Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Then pay off the house if you're staying. Okay.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now, now your expenses just went down. Hello.

[Caller]

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And then we're going to take the rest of it from the sale of the restaurant and the portion that we also didn't use. Because you have 300, you only need 230 to pay off. And by the time you get to it, you probably only need 210,000 to pay off the house. So we're going to put the rest of it with. Get with a smartvestor pro, someone that we endorse. We don't do investments. But if I were in your shoes, I would put this in good growth stock mutual funds. I would look for some low turnover funds, which that means they don't sell the stocks inside them very often. They're fairly conservative funds. They're not very exciting. But you also don't have a lot of taxes on them. And you know, if they earn 10% and you had $600,000 to work with, that'd be 60,000 a year, that'd be 5,000amonth. You're not going to have all of that initially, but eventually that's where you'll get to.

[Caller]

And so you would recommend the stock market, even if we're not playing, like if we do need to take some of that out.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why would you need to take some of it out?

[Caller]

Well, just for monthly expenses if I'm not working.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We just covered monthly expenses.

[Caller]

Sorry.

[Dave Ramsey]

I want you to begin taking out the income off of it. If you invest 600 and it makes 60 a year, they'll send you a check for $5,000 a month out of that right now.

[Caller]

I understand. Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And we're not going to touch it, but we're going to leave the goose that's laying the golden eggs alone.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

The initial investment, that's the portion that goes in there. And so, yeah, the day, you know where if you're going to stay in town or not, you pay off the house if you move, buy of equal dollar amount as you have now or less and do the same plan.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Don't use moving as an excuse to move up in house while he's in med school.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, you can move again after he gets out of med school.

[Caller]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you might very well move again after he gets out of med school anyway.

[Rachel Cruze]

And more depending upon his income versus this.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, well, based on his income. But you also might move cities after you leave med school.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Great offer with a great hospital in a city you'd ra live in than where the med school is.

[Rachel Cruze]

How long will that take? Mary, do you know the program that he wants to do and everything? Is it five, six years?

[Caller]

It really depends. No. So med school is like the. Yeah. Next one more. Five more years, essentially, and then he's got three years at least after that of residency. So the pay there is less than six figures? Typically.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

But again, you got more than enough.

[Caller]

For us to live on.

[Rachel Cruze]

Sure.

[Caller]

With the other incomes that we have.

[Dave Ramsey]

You've done such a wonderful job. If you use this nest egg you called about, plus your normal operating procedure, which you guys are very careful, and you're very good planners. You've done an excellent job. If you do all of that, this is very, very doable with no debt at all and living completely debt free the entire time. And your wealth will continue to grow. And then when he comes out of residency, it's going to go zoom, zoom.

[Caller]

Okay? And Dave, you just said a Mazda. Zoom, zoom. I know you're a car guy. If I do need a new car with growing family, would you support, like, using some of this money to buy.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, we just want to be real careful because if we take the leg off the goose and then we take another leg off, the goose is cooked.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

So don't be messing. Don't be messing with that principle. Okay? But, yes, bad thing.

[Rachel Cruze]

But get a car.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, get a car. I mean, you're making. Listen, you told me you need $2,000 a month. We just gave you $5,000 a month. So save up and buy a car. I mean, you got plenty of money coming in off of this. But no, I would not support using the goose. Leave the principal alone.

[Rachel Cruze]

You wouldn't use any of the half a million dollars to get a car.

[Dave Ramsey]

You don't need to. You got the money. Crap. Right now they got the money. If they pay off. If they have 300k in the bank in these two accounts and they pay off 230, they got 90. What kind of cars this woman need? Yes.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, so they'll be a $90 suburban. We don't know.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, maybe not. Maybe not. Your husband's in med school. Maybe not. Maybe we're driving a cheaper Suburban.

[Rachel Cruze]

I know, an older one or a minivan.

[Dave Ramsey]

There we go. Yeah, yeah, that's important. But yeah, yeah, I don't be.

[Rachel Cruze]

No, I hear you.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's good work. Develop a game plan and then work the system and then don't get all antsy and jump the system. That, that's where, that's the whole issue here. You guys have been doing a really good job of that. I'll say it again, I don't think you're gonna mess this up, but just I know I've got about 35 other million people listening who might mess it up. So we just kind of want to make sure that while we're talking to Mary, we know there's people e dropping. There we go.

[Jim]

It's.

[Dave Ramsey]

Hold on, folks. Don't panic. Buying a home in today's market doesn't have to be complicated, but it does take more than hope and a quick Internet search to get the right home. One that will be a blessing and not a burden. You need a trusted mortgage partner who will listen and serve you, not push more debt. You need the professionals at Churchill Mortgage. I've personally recommended Churchill for over 30 years and they're the only mortgage company that's Ramsey trusted. Churchill stands out because they operate the Ramsey way with transparency, integrity, and a commitment to doing what's right for the customer, not what's profitable for themselves. Churchill aligns with Ramsey's values by focusing on education, responsible mortgage lending, and helping people make smart long term decisions that enable them to build lasting wealth. Go to ChurchillMortgage.com today to begin a better mortgage experience. ChurchillMortgage.com this is a paid advertisement in MLS ID 1591 in mlsconsumeraccess.org equal housing lender. If you're tired of living paycheck to paycheck and feeling like you can't get ahead, join one of our free everydollar trainings. New trainings every week this month and they're all hosted by one of the Ramsey personalities, either Rachel or Jade or George. We're going to show you how to stick to a budget. Find thousands of dollars of margin using every dollar. Since I started doing this with a yellow pad, long before there was a sophisticated piece of software to show you exactly, an app to show you exactly how to work our system, including the budget. Just doing a budget. I've always heard people, when I sit down with them doing coaching, one on one, they would say, dave, I feel like I just got a raise. When you make your money, behave and be efficient, you always have that feeling. So you're gonna find thousands of dollars worth of margin when George or Rachel or Jade walk you through this and you can ask questions during the live Q and A. And you're gonna learn how to get out of debt. Why? So you can become wealthy? Cause your most powerful wealth building tool is your income. Sign up for [e-mail] webinar Jim is in Texas. He Jim, how are you? Good.

[Jim]

Thank you for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up?

[Jim]

I need some advice on how I can break it to my wife that we are broke and that we are $500,000 in debt.

[Rachel Cruze]

Wow.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why does she not know this?

[Jim]

I take care of all of our finances. She has a credit card that she swipes and doesn't have to worry about anything.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes, she should.

[Jim]

It's just something that I've taken advantage of and, you know, gotten us even deeper with not including her in this spending ordeal.

[Dave Ramsey]

Mm. How long y' all been married?

[Jim]

We've been together since we were 16, and we're. I'm 26 and she is 25.

[Dave Ramsey]

You got married when you were 16?

[Jim]

10 years. No, we've been dating since 16, and we got married in 2022.

[Dave Ramsey]

She'd been married three years.

[Jim]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're out by half a million dollars in debt in three years?

[Jim]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

What the crap did you buy?

[Jim]

Well, I went from an income of 25,000 in 2022 to an income of 160. 150,000. 23. And then year to date for 25, I'm at 195,000. Just myself.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. That doesn't explain how you want a half million dollars in debt.

[Rachel Cruze]

Your income, your house to Jim is. That includes your house.

[Jim]

It does.

[Dave Ramsey]

How much do you owe on your home?

[Jim]

330,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. She knows that.

[Jim]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, and what is the other hundred and seventy thousand dollars in debt?

[Jim]

We have two vehicle loans, and majority of the other debt is credit cards.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so the two vehicle loans amount to what?

[Jim]

My vehicle is 50,000 and hers is 35.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And she's aware of those?

[Jim]

She is.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And so which.

[Jim]

Those are just reoccurring payments.

[Dave Ramsey]

I know, I know, but she's not. It's not like she. The way you describe this is like there's a half million dollars in debt my wife doesn't know about. Yes, she does.

[Rachel Cruze]

It's about 80,000. A credit card debt that she may not understand is floating out there, but.

[Dave Ramsey]

She'S been running it. Running her credit card around like she's in Congress, so she probably has a clue about that too.

[Rachel Cruze]

She may not think it's 80. She may think 15 to 20.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, you guys are. You guys are. You said 26 years old.

[Jim]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so let's re. Let's Leave. Reframe this a little bit then. Okay. What you're really asking is how do I get my wife to get on a plan? Because our current plan sucks.

[Jim]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Not how do I tell her about a half million dollars in debt? She doesn't know because that's not true. She does know about it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right, so what I would do is say this. Say, hon, I gave this a shot. I'm a new husband. I didn't know what I was doing. But I am getting very afraid with our current trajectory that even though we make a lot of money, that we're going to be broke. And we are really broke right now, making $190,000 a year. We have car payments, we have house payments. We have credit cards that are out of control. And I are going to have to work together to get on a different system than the one we've been using. Because the one we've been using, which is me just letting you do anything you want to do and me not telling anybody anything. Those are two really bad ideas, and we're going to stop doing that.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Yeah. I'm waving the white flag, and I'm not doing this anymore. I can't. And I'm sorry I haven't told you about the credit card. Like, this is everything.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't think you were deceiving someone. I think you're concerned that you've never told her no, and now you get the opportunity for her to be an adult and tell herself no.

[Jim]

Correct? Yes.

[Rachel Cruze]

How do you think that's gonna go?

[Jim]

She's easy going. I think it'll go okay. It's just handing the ball over to someone else.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, we're not handing the ball over to somebody else. The two of you are gonna sit down together like two grownups instead of daddy and daughter.

[Jim]

Okay?

[Dave Ramsey]

You're like a daddy spoiling his only daughter. Instead you're gonna say, honey, we're gonna sit down like two adults now, and here's how much money's coming in, and here's what we owe on the house, and here's what we have to pay on these stupid cars. And we make $190,000 a year, and we're broke because we're out of control. We don't have a system, and we buy everything in sight. So we together need to figure out how we, as two grownups, are going to exist on freaking 200 grand a year at 26 years old.

[Jim]

Well, that's just my income.

[Rachel Cruze]

What does she make hers? What does she make?

[Jim]

55,000 a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, then let's try it again. 100 or $245,000 a year. We make a quarter of a million dollars a year and we are broke. So because our system sucks so bad.

[Jim]

Start on X and out some of this debt.

[Dave Ramsey]

I recommend that the two of you sit down and have a come to Jesus meeting tonight and say, here's what our total income is per month. Here's what we have to spend on the house. Here's what we have to spend on these cars. We have this much in credit card debt and we have to buy some food and lights. Let's figure this out. And all of a sudden you guys are going to go, holy crap, we're out of control. Both of you are going to have that moment. You've already had the moment. You're just trying to figure out how to navigate the fact that you're not doing it by yourself anymore. Dude, that was a bad idea to start with, and we're stopping that right now because we get two benefits. One is you get another brain involved to help you. The other thing, the benefit you get, you don't have to carry all the stress by yourself. And the other benefit is she suddenly, as a grownup, is going to buy into a future plan. A plan that takes us to a solid future versus. I just do whatever I want to do.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. And the good thing is, Jim, you guys are going to see as you start mapping this out, it's going to be. Yeah, it's going to be fast. I mean, after taxes. After taxes. And you guys say you lived on 90,000. You know, that frees up. It's like, oh, my gosh.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, debt free in a year.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. $110,000 put towards this debt.

[Jim]

You could be completely file for 20.

[Rachel Cruze]

What? What'd you say?

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, put that on the list.

[Jim]

Filed my taxes.

[Rachel Cruze]

What do you owe that. What do you. What do you owe there? What will the tax bill be?

[Jim]

I just spoke with the tax lady today. I paid 25,000 in 2023. So I'm reckoning you've not set any.

[Dave Ramsey]

Money aside for your taxes. Are you 1099 or something?

[Jim]

I am 1099.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And you've not done any quarterly estimates?

[Jim]

I have not.

[Dave Ramsey]

Your tax lady sucks. How in the world are you making that kind of money and not doing quarterly estimates?

[Jim]

What she did. And I moved on to another tax lady.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, she wanted to do quarterly estimates?

[Jim]

No, she didn't give me any advice. Nowhere to go. Just kind of send me what your income Is. And I'll tell you what you owe.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Yeah. Go to Ramsey Solutions.com and you can find one of the endorsed local providers for taxes around people to help. You need to be doing quarterly estimates, but now you got another 25,000 or 40,000 or whatever it is. It's on this list of things you've got to address. But dude, you got to start.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, yeah. You guys can start knocking this out. Jim. So what I would do is sit down tonight. You guys need to list out all of your debt. I would include the IRS bill in that and that'll be first. Then list out every credit card and what you guys owe on it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Cut them up.

[Rachel Cruze]

Both car loans, cut them up, be done with it and you start working your way. The smallest debt first. Well, the IRS is going to be paid, so get that paid.

[Dave Ramsey]

This is not you telling your wife what to do. No, this is you saying, honey, join me in being a grown up and living on less than we make and.

[Rachel Cruze]

That you're not gonna do this by yourself anymore. Jim, tell her that every month we're gonna sit down and re look at this plan.

[Dave Ramsey]

I need some help. I need to help.

[Rachel Cruze]

We need to do this together. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

This is our future together. And we don't have one right now because the way we've been doing this is straight up stupid and it's gotta stop. And that's okay. Hey, just wave the white flag like Rachel said.

[Rachel Cruze]

And you guys are young.

[Dave Ramsey]

Surrender. You. You got plenty of time.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

You make a lot of money.

[Rachel Cruze]

You guys could be multi millionaires.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're going to be okay if you start this.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you get in control of this and just, you know, quit kicking the can down the road.

[Rachel Cruze]

Hey, you guys. More than a hundred million Americans carry medical debt. And that is so scary. And it shows that traditional coverage often leaves people to face big bills alone. Families need more than just coverage. They need community. So what if your healthcare costs less and you are actually supported by other believers in the process? Process. That's why I love Christian healthcare ministries. CHM is a budget friendly, faith based alternative to health insurance that's been serving believers since 1981 and they've paid over $12 billion in medical bills, y'.

[Dave Ramsey]

All.

[Rachel Cruze]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwinds Credit union studio. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality number one best selling author and my daughter is my co host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Cheryl is with us in Atlanta. Hey Cheryl, how are you?

[Caller]

I'm doing okay.

[Jim]

Good.

[Dave Ramsey]

How can I help?

[Caller]

Okay, I have cleaning service in Atlanta. I make about 3,13,000amonth. I started the Dave Ramsey plan and paid off over half my debt in the past six months. However, the first two years when I thought I had won the lottery with all the extra money and then I got in some bad behaviors with spending. So I incurred about like 50, $45,000 in debt, but I'm down to 20,000. I've been crushing it this year. I've every, I got the every dollar and I've been budgeting. We don't eat out. We eat cheap. I've cut spending.

[Dave Ramsey]

Way to go.

[Caller]

Yeah, thanks. But. So I have not been saving for my taxes. So this year instead of writing off so many expenses, I want to claim more because I would like a house one day, but I have not saved up for maybe 16,000 in taxes. So how can I save this up and still pay my operating costs as well as my own bills? I want to catch this before April.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good. You're getting ahead of it a little bit. Okay, so your taxes for the last year are paid, but not, not for 24.

[Caller]

Yeah, I've been writing off. I only, I only. I wrote the income was like 156 and the tax person got it down to like maybe I made on paper 14,000. So I tried to get.

[Dave Ramsey]

Stop, Stop. You are under the illusion that there are mysterious ghost columns that are not actual expenses that can be written off. Those don't exist. If you only made 14,000 for tax purposes, that means you only made 14,000.

[Caller]

Yeah, like writing off like.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, honey, that means you won't make a freaking profit. Your business is barely open.

[Caller]

Okay?

[Dave Ramsey]

Those are actual expenses that you write off. There's no other thing except depreciation schedules. And you don't have any of those in a business your size. So you're really not making any money. You've Gotten confused. Okay, let's stop a second. Let's just have a basic business primer here for a second. All right. Business works like this. Gross revenues are the total intake that you bring in from the customer. Your total revenue.

[Caller]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

That is apparently about 13,000amonth. Does that sound right?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Then you have the business expenses that it takes to actually operate the business in order to make the 13,000 come in the door. Those expenses are called expenses. They're subtracted from the 13,000. What is left is called profit. That is taxable.

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Period.

[Caller]

Okay. Yes, sir. I was just going off of like the last year. This year I've been doing my own PNLs, and I'm much more. I was having other people do it because.

[Dave Ramsey]

So wait a minute. If you. If you're doing your own PNLs, you shouldn't be getting a different answer.

[Caller]

Yeah, right. P and L is a P and L. Yeah. This year has been more. I've started painting as well as cleaning. So the price point has gone up.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you've had more revenue come in.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. And even a few more expenses, but the net is more profit. Maybe. Okay, so there. That. That's lesson number one. Now, when you make have a separate checking account for your business, the only money that goes into that checking account is money you earn from your services, the revenue from the business. The only thing you write out of that account is expenses to run the business. Nothing else. You don't buy groceries out of that account. You don't go out to eat out of that account. You don't go buy a car out of that account because you can't write that crap off. That's bull. Okay? You only put actual business expenses, rent, payroll. If you're paying somebody else.

[Rachel Cruze]

Cleaning supplies.

[Dave Ramsey]

Cleaning supplies. Apparently you're in the cleaning business. Paint. If you're buying pa, Whatever those actual expenses are, then what's left? Income minus expenses. That is the P and L. It also happens to be your checkbook register. And what's left in there is called cash basis accounting, and that is your actual profit. When you take some of that profit home out of that account, you should set aside a fourth of it for taxes. Every single time you pull money out of the business, you should set aside a fourth of it over into a separate savings account for taxes. Because you're supposed to pay quarterly estimates on your profits. And if you do not, they hit you with a large butt penalty, which you're getting hammered right now. The way you're doing this, that's why I'm so leaning on you, okay? Because you're getting killed by this tiny lack of sophistication. Okay? So you've got to separate the business and then business expenses and business income. What's left is profit. When I bring profit home, that is what will help me buy a house. And you can't make that number up in order to buy better, more quickly. Buy a house because there's no made up expenses that you're not taking. You have to take all your expenses. There's no reason to pay a bunch of taxes and not claim your property expenses to hide from the government that you're not profitable. So you pay more taxes. So you get a mortgage you can't afford.

[Caller]

Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I've changed. I have seen so many behaviors. I've been on it this past six months. I realize that that's what's going to be happening.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so I'm sorry, I don't be mean or anything, but you ain't on it.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

What you've described to me is chaotic. You might have been paying some on your taxes, but you're. What. What I. What I just described to you is the way to do.

[Rachel Cruze]

Is that how you do it, Cheryl? The way he just talked about it though. Do you have everything separated at out?

[Caller]

Yes, I do now. I wasn't before.

[Rachel Cruze]

I wasn't before. But you are now.

[Caller]

Person just kind of saying, yes, I am now.

[Rachel Cruze]

So how much are you taking out of your business account? How much are you paying yourself per month profit?

[Caller]

It's around. It's around 4 or 5,000. After all the cost, labor and everything.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's great.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's what you qualify for a house with.

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

There's no way to hide and pretend like you make more money than you actually make.

[Caller]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Not responsibly. Okay. And make sure you're paying your quarterly. Now we got $4,000 a month. That's $48,000 a year. We need 16,000 by April 15th. Yeah, 48,000 a year. We only got a half a year left, so that's 24,000 and you need 16,000. Have you got any other income your family eats on?

[Caller]

No, no. I am sole provider. It's me and my side. Well, there's a whole other story about my.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're the only. This income is all you have to eat on?

[Caller]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Because you're not going to make but $24,000 if you stay at 4,000amonth between now and April 15, right?

[Caller]

That's why we're painting.

[Rachel Cruze]

How much are you making per month on that?

[Caller]

I have them together right now, but the price point for a space that I would get cleaned, like 120. Do I need to start a separate painting business?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, no, you can. It can all go as long as all the expenses for it come out of there. And so you're right. The answer to the equation is you need to make more money between now and April or you're not going to have 16,008. Yeah, with the numbers you're giving, like.

[Caller]

When they give you that bill, do you have to pay it like right then or.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. No, honey, you were already supposed to have paid it. You're already late because you're supposed to talk about the 16,000. It's a quarterly estimate that she hadn't paid. She should have been paying $4,000 a quarter.

[Rachel Cruze]

I don't think she was doing quarterly estimates. I think she was doing.

[Dave Ramsey]

She has to.

[Rachel Cruze]

No, I know she has to, but she's not. I know.

[Dave Ramsey]

So she's already late. The quarterly estimates aren't paid. It's unpaid quarterly estimates. So you're already late, so you're already gonna get penalized. So I'd start doing my. Get with your CPA and start doing quarterly estimates now. That's a good start. Well, that's just for 25. Geez, you got 24. Still foreign.

[Rachel Cruze]

Y'.

[Caller]

All.

[Rachel Cruze]

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[Dave Ramsey]

Based on regional analysis of Aldi versus select competitor. Prices may vary by location, product availability and the market. Guys, if you're enjoying the show and you think it's helpful, we would appreciate it if you'd help us out. Click the subscribe button or the follow button, the share button. Share the show or. Or cut out the link and send it to somebody or you're listening on talk radio. Tell people the station you're listening to. Help us. In other words, spread the word oh, and those five star reviews, they move the needle on the algorithm too. What happens is these different platforms that broadcast the show, whether it's podcast or YouTube or whatever it is, wherever you're finding video or audio, Spotify, everything out there, Apple, anything, they all use an algorithm that if there's activity around the show, they push the show forward and present it to other people. People. And so it helps us a ton if you guys actually do that activity thing. So help us. We appreciate that very, very much. We know a bunch of you are. Because there's bazillions and millions and millions of new ones every month. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Dalton is with us in South Carolina. Hi, Dalton. How are you?

[Jim]

I'm doing good, Dave. How about yourself?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. How can we help?

[Jim]

Okay, so my question is, I'm wondering if I'm crazy for thinking about doing a career change right after complet Baby step two. Okay, so a little bit of. A little bit of background. I'm 25 years old and I work at my local Ford dealership here in my town. And I'm at the highest possible salary that this company will allow me to get. And I don't know whether it's the job or the place, but I'm just. I am very irritated with this company. And so.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, it's the place. You said it.

[Jim]

Right. But my question is, I just paid off, finished paying off my last $4,700.

[Dave Ramsey]

From baby step two. Doesn't have anything to do with it. What do you make?

[Jim]

I make 87. $87,000 a year before taxes.

[Dave Ramsey]

How old are you?

[Jim]

I'm 25.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you. You do sell cars?

[Jim]

I'm a. I'm. No, I'm a service technician.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. Well, I mean, is there. Have you investigated working for someone else? Will they pay more?

[Jim]

I have. I've gone to a couple of other places, but the issue with that is all of the other dealerships are 45 minutes plus from my house.

[Dave Ramsey]

Do you own your back?

[Jim]

Well, the only piece that's the only amount of debt that I have is my mortgage.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you own the house. Okay, mortgage. Are you married?

[Jim]

I am not.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And so what would you make at the other place that you investigated?

[Jim]

It depends on which dealership I go to. I've gotten the same amount or two or 3,000 more over where I'm at now.

[Dave Ramsey]

Per month or year?

[Jim]

Year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. How bad do you want to be away from these people? Sell your house and move.

[Jim]

Is. I guess I'm Just I guess I let myself get too comfortable. And that's.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I said, how bad do you want to be away from these people? I just ask you, I mean, do you want to be a bad. And what do you want to be bad enough away from them to drive 45 minutes or sell your house and move closer to the 45 minute change and make a tiny bit more money, do the same thing you already love doing, but for people that you like?

[Rachel Cruze]

And is that the career change you're talking about? Dalton is moving companies or are you wanting to switch careers completely? Completely.

[Jim]

I'm wanting to switch careers completely.

[Rachel Cruze]

What do you want to do? This, what do you want to do?

[Jim]

I'm looking to go, I'm looking to go from automotive to aviation mechanic. Yes.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, so what, or, or, or a.

[Jim]

Pilot, depending on which, which ways. I'm leaning more towards technicians.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, so what do you have to have? Is anything required of you to change? Is there schooling? Is there classes? What do you, what do you have to do?

[Jim]

I would have to go back to school to get an airframe, airframe power plant certification.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, so how much does that cost?

[Jim]

When I looked at the tuition, I would have to move up to Greenville to do it. So that was, that was going to be, I think, between 20 and $25,000. And I have the ability to cash flow it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, and what does it, what does an aircraft mechanically.

[Jim]

Down here in Columbia get? Depends on where I can get a job at. Down here in Columbia, it's right around 65 to right where I'm at now to about 90. But if I go to, say, Charlotte or go to Atlanta, it can get up into 150, 160 range.

[Rachel Cruze]

Great.

[Jim]

So it's all depending on where I can go.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, no, no. Where you choose to go.

[Jim]

Right, where I choose to go.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Okay. No, I would not go spend $25,000 in two years of my life to make $25,000 a year less. That's dumber than a rock. Of course you wouldn't do that.

[Jim]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Come on, man. I mean, that doesn't make sense. But would I go spend that and go move into a different career and change cities and make 150. Make 50, $60,000 more than I have now, and sky's the limit and you learn a whole new craft. And now you're certified in two different types of service, which is not only vehicles and cars, but it also air aircraft. Absolutely, I'd go do that.

[Jim]

And that's, that's what my. That's what my plan is.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, Life is a grand adventure. Put your house on the market, move to Greenville. Let's go, man. Get your certification, then move your butt to Charlotte or Atlanta or whatever it is you need to do and go make some bucks. And. But no, I'm not going to retreat. And that's why I say it's not a baby step two thing. In baby step anything, if you can go make more money money tomorrow and you want to do it, go do it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Go do it. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You don't have to wait to go make more money. But usually when somebody asks this question, it's because they want to make less money. And no, I'm not going to endorse that. Not because I'm all about money, but because you can usually make more money doing something you're good at and you love than you can doing something you hate with people that are toxic. So generally speaking, and this idea that in order to be happy, I have to make less money. That's a bass ackward. No, in order to be happy, I need to make more money. Hello. That's just crazy, y'. All. So it's like I need to work for a non profit because it's holy. No, it's not. It's not any more holy than a prophet. That's. That's just silliness. A prophet, A for profit.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, I thought you meant like a prophet.

[Dave Ramsey]

The prophet. I don't know, whichever prophet. But any kind of prophet. Some kind of prophet. God help me with profit. All right, there we go. That's what I'm doing. Dalton. Yeah. I would go live your dream, but. Dude, make your dream a dream, not a night nightmare. Lay it out where it's, you know, up and to the right.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Up and to the right, baby. Up and to the right. Go be somebody. Do it, man. I like it. And the cool thing is, you got this house you can sell. Probably gonna get some money out of that, and that's what's gonna help him catch up.

[Rachel Cruze]

And you're only 24, so I'm like, you go do this for a few years, maybe when you're 30. We just met someone that's gonna be a pilot. She's gonna. She wants to fly for Delta. We just met her in the lobby.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yep.

[Rachel Cruze]

Young girl, you know, and you get to maybe make a decision of 10 years to go do that. Right?

[Dave Ramsey]

So.

[Rachel Cruze]

So just keep on dreaming. But yes. Don't be. Don't make the math go backwards to pay money to make the math go back.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I Think I might feel really good about a pilot flying the plane that knew how to work on it?

[Rachel Cruze]

No. Now, that gives me a lot of peace.

[Dave Ramsey]

It does, actually. I mean, it's like, yeah, something happens, you can run out there on the wing and fix it.

[Rachel Cruze]

That would be. That would be ideal. Don't know if that's reality, but it's good, Dalton. It's good.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, well, Darren's with us. Hi, Darren in Madison, Wisconsin. You.

[Jim]

How are.

[Dave Ramsey]

How are you?

[Caller]

Good. How are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. How can we help?

[Caller]

So me and my husband are in baby step two. So far, we have paid off about $215,000. Yay.

[Rachel Cruze]

Good job.

[Caller]

Yeah. In the last 22 months.

[Dave Ramsey]

Way to go.

[Caller]

Yeah. And we are going to be able to pay off the remaining of my husband's student loans by the end of this year, which is about 92,000 left.

[Dave Ramsey]

Amazing.

[Caller]

And me and my husband sat down and we're like, okay, what's next? And we currently own a home, but we're not living in it because my husband's company has moved us to a new location and they pay for all of our housing expenses. So we have a lot of extra money to throw around. And we're like.

[Dave Ramsey]

By new location, do you mean different city, different states?

[Caller]

About every six months.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And you kept one of the homes back in the other place and by default have become a landlord. Not by strategy. Yeah, yeah, I'd sell that.

[Caller]

Okay. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Long distance landlording is not really a good plan. I mean, if you're sitting in Madison, Wisconsin, and said, where's this house located?

[Caller]

Just over the border in the Twin Cities. So it's not a long drive and we have family there.

[Dave Ramsey]

But, I mean, if you were sitting here, medicine, Wisconsin, with a situation you've got and said, we're gonna buy a rental house, you probably wouldn't have bought it over there. Okay, you got it by default. That's what I mean. You backed into this instead of walked into it. And so it generally ends up being a bad decision. So I'm generally gonna sell it. I own a bunch of rental property. I love rental property. Don't have any long distance rental property. That's how people change. Harley oil in your living room. I used to think home security was just about having an alarm go off when someone breaks in. But by that point, the damage has already been done. That's why I trust Simplisafe. They've completely changed the game with a smarter, proactive approach. Their active guard outdoor protection doesn't wait for the worst, it helps stop crime before it starts. SimpliSafe's smart AI powered cameras can spot a person creeping around on your property and alert their professional monitoring agents in real time. Then the agents can step in immediately, talking to the intruder through two way audio, flashing a spotlight, sounding a siren, and even calling the police. That's not just a system, that's real security. And listen, there are no contracts or hidden fees you can cancel anytime. They've been ranked best home security by U.S. news & World Report five years in a row and they back it with a 60 day money back guarantee. Plus right now you'll get 50% off a new system with professional monitoring. Go to simplisafedirect.com that's simply safedirect.com there's no safe like Simplisafe. Don't just set goals in 2026. Learn how to actually reach them. Our unbelievable, immutably popular 2026 Ramsey Gold Planner is here. Yeah, you're ready for 2026. It's packed with monthly content from Rachel and Jade and Deloney to help you start your month on track and keep up with your money, your faith, your relationships. Follow through on your goals. This thing is massive. We let the creatives loose and told them to have fun and boy did they. It is beautiful. We sell out every year. Don't wait. They're $49.97. But when you see it, you'll understand why it's the most expensive, expensive thing. We make it just about. I mean, it's crazy in terms of our cost on it. It's fabulous. So if you're watching on YouTube or podcast, you can click the link in the description and you can go to ramseysolutions.com store and get your Ramsey Gold planner for 2026 before they're gone. I know, it's hard to believe, isn't it? Trey is in Florida. Hi, Trey, how are you?

[Jim]

I'm great. How are you doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Jim]

Not too much. Hey, so I got a question for you. I probably back in, let's say January, I bought a motorcycle for $15,000 and in May I got in a motorcycle wreck and broke my wrist and ankle. And I recovered and doing well.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good, I'm glad you've been through that.

[Jim]

No, no problem. I mean, it's what you, what you get into when you hop on a bike, I guess.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Jim]

But I'm kind of now realizing it wasn't a very smart decision and I'm kind of in the Hole with it. So originally it was 15,007 54. And I've made six payments or possibly more, but I'm right at 15,000 payoff. The bike's worth about 11,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

They tear up the bike.

[Jim]

So the bike. All that happened was the quick shifter and the body panels need to be replaced. So all that has been done and it's back to. To.

[Dave Ramsey]

So the bike's in excellent condition now it's back to excellent condition. And it's lost four. It's lost a third of its value in six months.

[Caller]

Correct.

[Jim]

So I'm trying to figure out what the best route is. I'm.

[Dave Ramsey]

What kind of crap is this? Sides, what kind of bike is this?

[Jim]

It's a crotch rocket. So the ZX6R 2023, that's horrible.

[Caller]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Man. Are you sure? That's what who said? That's what the bike's right worth?

[Jim]

Just like when you get it from a dealer, that's. That's about the price average of what you look online and find it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Find that from a dealership, though if you did a. An individual sale, you could probably get 2,000 more for it because dealerships are going to buy it at cost. So it could go up a little bit. But.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so you're. You're 2 to $4,000 in the hole, depending on how we calculate this. Right?

[Caller]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Who do you owe the money to?

[Jim]

It's going to be Roadrunner Financial soloing company.

[Dave Ramsey]

The motorcycle finance company where you bought it.

[Jim]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Okay. And how old are you?

[Jim]

23.

[Dave Ramsey]

I assume you have no money.

[Jim]

No, I mean, I do have an emergency fund.

[Dave Ramsey]

How much?

[Jim]

4,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, so a bike.

[Jim]

Correct. I just.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's the question?

[Jim]

I guess I. I guess I'm just like. Is it okay to just drain the entire savings day?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Jim]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes. You want to know what's draining? You know what? It's draining your savings. A stupid bike interest sitting in the garage going down in value like a rocket.

[Jim]

Absolutely.

[Dave Ramsey]

No pun intended.

[Jim]

Absolutely. I agree.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. I mean, the sooner we cut bait, the sooner this fish is gone, man. Yeah, right. A check be done. I mean, like by Friday, man. You have a new goal. And then. And then go replenish your savings because you don't have a stupid motorcycle payment and a stupid motorcycle going down in value like a rocket. Right?

[Jim]

I guess that'll be the plan.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. I mean, you got two things. Two reasons motivating you to drain your savings because you put your savings right back. Because this thing's doing more damage to you than Being down to broke and then, you know, be work. Be planning on working, like all the OT and all the side hustles and everything else you can. Next three weeks, put your money back really super fast, which will keep you from having another mistake, which is having some kind of an event with no money.

[Rachel Cruze]

It's going to be another 4,000, so be done.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then, Trey, what I would do is this one of the things when something costs me money, money. And I've done a lot of stupid things, a lot of dumber things than this. Okay, this is not super dumb. It's just dumb. But I mean, I've done super dumb. So anytime I do that, and I have to learn a painful lesson. So you got like three painful lessons here at once. I want to write them down. I want to know what they are so I don't have to do them again. If I do something dumb again, it needs to be something a new dumb thing that I've never done before. I don't want to do the same dumb things over. So I try to out figure. Figure out from an autopsy standpoint what happened here. Okay? And I'll walk you through it. Here's the way I would do this. If I were in your shoes, I would say, okay, mistake number one. I was impulsive and bought this thing while I had motorcycle fever. I should have calmed down, taken a cold shower and waited overnight, or waited two weeks and not bought this bike at all. And if I was thinking with more wisdom and less passion and less immaturity, I wouldn't have bought the bike. And that's what I would say to myself if I looked up, because I've done that very similar thing. I bought a truck one time. It was a similar situation. I just drove up on the lot, I liked the truck, and I just bought it. And about three months later, I hated that stupid truck, and I lost, like two grand on it. I mean, it was just same thing, right? But it's impulsive as hell. I'm just ridiculous. All right, so then second thing is, I need to understand that things that have motors and wheels go down in value, and I can't finance them because they go down in value and you get stuck in them. Okay? And there's a third one, but I don't remember what it is now. What in the world? Well, anyway. Anyway, just figure out what your lessons are from this so you don't do them again. The biggest thing you did was you were just impulsive and you didn't give any more thought to this than Buying a bag of Fritos. I mean, you just said hot Cheetos. Let's get something right. I mean, this thing's a crotch rocket. Here we go. Boom. This is cool. I'm be a cool guy if I had this cool bike and I bought a cool bike.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, he did get in a wreck and got hurt.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then you laid it down.

[Rachel Cruze]

Let's be it.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you laid it down.

[Rachel Cruze]

Let's find some safer hobbies. I don't know. I'm not a fan.

[Dave Ramsey]

That was mother. Rachel. Mother. Find a safer hobby.

[Rachel Cruze]

Every nurse will tell you, stay away from them. Yeah, it's, that's, that's the motherly comment for you, Trey.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, for sure, for sure. But anyway, that, that figure out what in the world is going on. And I, I think it's always good for us to look back and go, okay, if I'm writing a check for stupid tax because I'm paying some tax for being stupid, what, what, what do I do so I never have to write that check again? And you can really go back and go, man, I learned a valuable lesson when I was 23 years old. And you could be telling your 23 year old this year.

[Rachel Cruze]

I'm assuming it was brand new. I mean, I don't know how much they cost. That's it for the fact that it went down so quickly.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's the third thing.

[Rachel Cruze]

Don't buy brand new.

[Dave Ramsey]

You bought a bike without realizing that it was a absolutely crummy bike in terms of how fast it's going to go down in value. I mean, ridiculous. I mean, there's a lot of horrible car deals you can do. But when you lose 30% of the value of something in six months, that's in the sucks column. Like the super sucks column. I mean, it's over there, right? This is nutto. And so you go, okay, you look that kind of thing up before you buy it and you go, okay, I think that might change my mind.

[Rachel Cruze]

I'll buy a six month old bike for 11,000 and let someone else take.

[Dave Ramsey]

The one year old bike at this rate for 5,000.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, my gosh.

[Rachel Cruze]

Let someone else take the hit.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And pay cash for it. And then if you lay it down and you're upside down, at least it's in the garage and you know you can deal with it. Right. It's a different situation. So all of those things are there. But hey, learn. In other words, learn your lesson. That's not picking on you, Trey. I'm just kind of setting up that decision making framework and that wisdom building thing. Because the old saying is, the reporter went up to the old guy on the porch who was known for being wise, and he was in his 90s, and they said, uncle Zed, how did you become so wise? He said, I got experience. He said, where'd you get experience from not being wise? And that, that's what I, you know, I always want to learn every time, so that by the time I get older, I do fewer and fewer and fewer dumb things. And so it accelerates my wealth building.

[Rachel Cruze]

There you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Go, Sam. Mia is in Georgia. Hi, Mia. How are you?

[Caller]

Hey, Dave. I'm good. How are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. How can we help?

[Caller]

Yes. So my husband and I have been married for 13 years, and I got a hold of your book, Total Money Maker over, and the part about joint, you know, having a joint account. We have never had a joint account since we've been married. And I finally was able to sit down with my husband and, you know, tell him the reasons for it, because even at that time, our marriage was getting. It was pretty difficult, pretty challenging, and we just weren't in unity, you know, with our finances. But when I. When I sat down with him, he said, that's fine. We can have a joint account, but we should still keep our separate accounts. He's afraid that if we put it all into one account, something, you know, like fraudulent material, fraudulent or, you know, scammer could happen. Bull crap, then something would happen to.

[Dave Ramsey]

Absolute bull crap. That's ridiculous. He doesn't really believe that.

[Caller]

I hope not. But I know it's a trust issue.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. That's what it is.

[Caller]

Yes. Yeah. And. And I. I know I haven't been always responsible with my money, but I don't think I've done anything that's, like, completely irresponsible. That's gotten both of us in trouble. But, you know, for. For me, I told him I was like. It would give us at least a vision, you know, for what we want to do, set some goals. Perhaps you could see. I could see the total picture. I honestly didn't even know where money was going because we never. I could never see it. You know, it was never in one place. So I don't know how I could convince him that we need. We need to do this to be in unity, to. You know, I think.

[Dave Ramsey]

I think you're very articulate in your voicing this fabulously.

[Rachel Cruze]

Personally, Mia, what would be the concerns he has about you? You said I haven't been perfect at it. But nothing like crazy. But what would be the things that he may not trust you with? Is it that you spend more than him? That you're more of a free spirit? Like what you are the. What are the, the things that he would feel like maybe you're not as, quote, unquote, responsible as he has? I'm not saying that's true, but I am wondering, right, what he would say.

[Caller]

Well, I mean, these were his words. He said to me, I don't want to intermingle my money with you because of my spending. And most of my spending comes from, like, eating out, you know, I tend to do that more than he does. He cooks at home, you know, But I don't go on shopping sprees. I don't. You know, I might spend a little bit more.

[Dave Ramsey]

Let's stop a second then. Then there's an easy fix for that. Okay? So the way that we teach and you can tell him this, that solves that, is we together put together a budget every month where every one of the dollars that are coming into this house from both of us have a name and are allocated to something going back out. That would include me going out to eat, and that would include hitting our goals. And that would include achieving some things that we want to do together. It would include some of the things he is now doing with money that he frankly, probably doesn't want to report to you on. And he needs to. He's not bringing that up, but that's there. He's doing a few little things here or there while he's shaming you that he doesn't want everybody to know about. Nothing illegal and nothing crazy, but just little stuff, okay? Like he's spending more at the Coke machine than he wants to tell everybody he does as an example or something like that. I don't know, he's buying some little thing, a little part for his gun or something, I don't know, whatever it is. Right. But aside from that, now every dollar has a name and we have full transparency, full disclosure. Oh, and honey, nothing's going to happen with any of this money that you didn't pre approve. And by the way, nothing's going to happen with any of this money that I didn't pre approve because it's all going to be written down. And then we're going to do what was written down. And so unless you approve me being irresponsible with money, there won't be any irresponsibility with money. Right. You see how that works mechanically?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

The second thing then Is to pan back and say, why does this matter ultimately? Okay, because when we surveyed, the actual data tells us that. When we surveyed 10,167 millionaires and did detailed research on them, we found that 89% of them, that's nine out of 10, all of them just about said that one of the reasons they were able to become millionaires is because of working together, very detailed together with a cooperative spouse house. When we survey the general public, we find that less than 40% of them work together and they have no money. So the data says that it's a wealth building tool and you increase your probability of wealth building substantially, like over double chance.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's like one of the pros of getting married in a dual income household is you, you guys have more in the pot to say we have more money to do things, things with like invest and give and spend and all of it. And Mia, the other thing is that we find, and I'm sure it's said in the book Total Money Makeover, but even for you guys, like you said at one point, like our marriage wasn't in a great spot, you know, this, this activity, if you will, exercise, yes, exercise is, is something that's very unifying because it's very vulnerable. And I will give it to him that for 13 years of doing something, something and changing it, it may not just be a one time talk. And then he's like, absolutely right. Like this may kind of be an ongoing discussion for a bit. And there is a level of, of deep vulnerability and trust there. Right. You're kind of like exposing this part of yourself that you know that you have it. And that's how a lot of married couples live. It's like they have this autonomy of themselves. You know, it's separate. But yet we have chosen to be married, which means we have chosen to do life with someone. Someone. And I want to do life with you and in a deeper way because our money exposes our values and it exposes what we are scared about. It exposes, you know, triggers that happen with something and then you get to have a conversation with your spouse about that so that you actually get to talk and get to know them. Like there's a, you know, there's a deep unraveling that happens. And, and money is a, is a filter at which that occurs. And so for you guys to be in the same lane and to work together, not only financially do you guys get ahead, but also relationally. And I would say that to him too, Mia, and say I just long.

[Dave Ramsey]

It'll help you heal them.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. I long to. To do this marriage in a deeper, more beautiful, unified way. And this is a symbol of that. Right. Because you're taking the thing that you want to hold the tightest, and you're opening your hand to your spouse and saying, okay, we're. We're going to do this together. And I don't know. And there will still be conflict. You know, I mean, there's still things that come up, and that's fine, but it actually gives you the opportunity to solve it. Our friend Les Parrott always says that conflict is the road to intimacy. And so there is something about understanding that that grows a marriage, too. So I would. If that's your desire, I would communicate that part of your heart as well.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, absolutely. And I'll go along with you, Rachel. We've had almost 10 million families now go through Financial Peace University since I started doing it 30 years ago. And the number of times is amazing to me that people come up to me over the years and so said, hey, your financial class saved our marriage. I mean, it's. And then I actually, when I started hearing that enough, I was kind of confused because I'm like, you went to the wrong class. The sex class was down the hall. I mean, what the. I mean, that's just weird. And they're like, no, no, really? You forced us to work, to talk about life, because we had to. To do the stupid budget you were making us do. And. And when we talked about life, it did more good than the marriage counselor we were going to, because it forced us to align our dreams and our values. It forced us to have conflict. It forced us to do those things and work through those things just to get to this goal of being debt free. And in the process, lots of little wrinkles were ironed out of our marriage, or we were on the rocks and about to walk off. And this saved us. And it wasn't that I saved them. I didn't.

[Rachel Cruze]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

It really wasn't even that the budget saved them. It was the fact that they sat down together and for the first time, aligned their futures.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

And paid. And what price we're gonna have to pay to get to that future.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's interesting. It is the most hate. One of the subjects that we get the most hate on is this. Or at least I do.

[Dave Ramsey]

You do. I get hate on a lot of things, but. Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, yeah. Yeah. But it is something that is so. It is fascinating because. And people will message me or comment about this, like, well, we just kept fighting so we just decided to do separate accounts and now we just don't fight anymore. And I'm like, those are the, that's the exact fight in marriage you need to be having.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, I mean, yeah, let's bury all of that because that has a high rate of resurrection.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, we're going to call that zombie feelings. When they come back up.

[Rachel Cruze]

They will come. They will come.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, it's just gonna blow up someday. Know what happened? It's like a geyser.

[Rachel Cruze]

I know. Push through the hard.

[Dave Ramsey]

That. That, that's complete emotional moron. We're just going to, we're just going to ignore this. Pretend like it's not there and like it's never going to come back. You've got to be kidding me.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's a lot of people.

[Dr. John Deloney]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality number one best selling author and my daughter is my co host. Today Donovan is in San Jose, California. Hey Donovan, what's up?

[Jim]

Hey guys. Thank you so much for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. How can we help?

[Jim]

So my wife and I currently invest about 43% of our income and she wants to take a trip to Europe next year. So I was wondering if that is something that we should look at doing, reducing our investment rate in order to take that trip.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Are you guys out of debt?

[Jim]

We are out of debt. We are debt free.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good. And what's your household income, sir?

[Jim]

So this year we should net about 175.

[Dave Ramsey]

And what's your net worth?

[Jim]

It's around 89,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

89,000?

[Jim]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

With $175,000 income and a 40% investment rate.

[Jim]

Yes. So my wife and I, we basically finished our education as of last year and we paid our way all through school.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, okay.

[Jim]

Yeah. So this is like our first year of actually making a real income.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you're both now making good money for the first time ever, and you get to live your dream of investing, and she gets to live her dream of traveling, and that's in conflict. Now it makes sense.

[Jim]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And what do you guys do for a living?

[Jim]

So I identify as a janitor, and my wife is a ABA therapist.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, you just finished your education, and I'm sorry, did I misunderstand you? I identify as a janitor. Is that what you said?

[Jim]

So, basically, I have profit sharing with a company directly under the owners. So my official title would be coo. But honestly, I have to do a lot of different things.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, welcome to being the CEO. But I mean, what do you make? What do you make a year, Mr. Janitor?

[Jim]

So I make about 80,000 a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. That's funny. Okay. I identify. Oh, my Lord. All right. That's cute. All right. What's the trip to Europe cost?

[Jim]

So we actually went to Europe for our honeymoon, which was generously gifted to us by the business owners, but when they paid for it, it was around $25,000. And how much we budget towards this trip would probably look around 18 to 20 from what I've been looking. Looking at.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. All right. Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

Do you guys have any money saved?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, he's got $99,000 net worth. And you.

[Rachel Cruze]

Net worth, but I don't even know what that means. Is that in retirement? Like, is that cash? What. What is that?

[Jim]

Yeah, so about 16,000 is in a Roth IRA. About 6,000 is in my wife's 401k. I have 35,000 in a cash brokerage account. And then we have about $25,000 in high yield savings account.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And how old are you? You guys?

[Jim]

So I'm 31 and my wife is 28.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, cool. Well, Donovan, I love this. This is a great approach to the question. Thank you. And it just took us a minute to find out where you guys really are, because there's so many assumptions I could make. When I see on my screen, my wife wants to go to Europe, and I want to say 40%. I was getting ready to call you Scrooge McDuck or something, but. But I don't think. I don't think you are. I think you're just getting started. And you have. You're a serious guy who wants to hit some numbers, and your wife is serious about enjoying some of this hard work. And so those are fair. Both of them are fair things to do with money. Both arguments are. And so I don't think I would slap my fist on the table and declare either one of these answers to be stupid. Okay? The thing that throws it off a little is it's 40% of your income is going into retirement. So we do tell people, systematically, throughout the scope of your life, whether this year or next year, I would go to Europe because systematically throughout the scope of your life, you need to constantly, with a rhythm, be enjoying your money, investing your money and being generous with your money. If you consistently with a rhythm, do all three of those things, all the data that we have and all the experience we have of decades of doing this tells us that you're going to not only become wealthy, but also be very relationally healthy. Healthy and have a high likelihood of physical health too, by the way. Weirdly enough, all of those things go together when you're doing all three of those things. So to say no, always save money and live in a cave, collect lent and only come out on triple coupon Thursday. No, we don't believe that. We think you live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else. It feels like to me you guys have paid a price of sacrifice to get the education under your belt and to get to this point to get started. Your reward on the price is saving and investing because that gives you a high. Her reward is the travel and the fun. And both are legitimate.

[Rachel Cruze]

And you can do both, Donovan. That's the great thing because of your income. Because where you guys are, are. Yeah, you guys would be able to, to save cash flow, trip to Europe and be saving altogether. So.

[Dave Ramsey]

But you know, I'm probably going to negotiate, you know, as we're discussing this, some trade offs here. Okay. If we do Europe this year, we really, to be responsible, only need to spend X. If we were to wait 18 months, we could spend Y.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes. And I have a, just a slight, you know, not painting a broad stroke with this, but the fact that you guys just went to Europe anyway, anyway, and she wants to go back. Like I bet she does. I bet it's, it's wonderful. That's great. But also we can't be in a habit or a pattern of doing this all the time.

[Dave Ramsey]

We do Europe every two years because.

[Rachel Cruze]

It'S just gonna continue to, you know, and if you have the money for it, you can. But I just, I wanna make sure the pattern is set and the contentment and all of that is being talked about too, that it's not just this assumption that this is what we're gonna do all the time.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sad thing is we're not giving you a really good answer. Cause both answers are okay, but probably some hybrid of the two, a little rhythm, a little on and a little off is a better thing. And say, okay, if we do this, then we're not gonna do another big trip for three years and we're gonna pile up and get this net worth going and get some results so that we can do trips for forever. Because I mean, if you keep doing the net worth thing, the trips are infinite later. Yeah, but, but if you don't, if you don't, if you constantly are eating up the money, constantly. So again, it needs to not be a pattern like Rachel says, and there needs to be a trade off and go, okay, we spend X now or y 18 months from now. But in either case, we're probably not going to do, you know, once every five years until we hit a million dollar net worth. We're probably not going to do a bunch of big, huge trips. That's a big trip. That's, that's an expensive. Well.

[Rachel Cruze]

And I'll say there's a group of girls that went to Europe that we work with and they just got back and they did not. They spent half of that and they were able to do a great fun trip. You know what I mean? So there's different degrees at which you can do a trip too. So yeah, throwing that out there too.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wouldn't argue that. Wouldn't argue that. You know. Yeah. So it. Yes and yes. Yeah, Sorry. I wish I could be more precise. Usually I'm devilishly precise, but on this one I'm going to be philosophical a little bit and let you kind of learn the rhythm idea between these three things of generosity and fun and investing, generosity and fun and investing, and then ratios of those things that allow them all to occur reasonably.

[Jim]

Sa. Hey, what's up? Dr. John Deloney here. The new dates have dropped for the money and marriage getaway over Valentine's day weekend in 2026. This is your chance to hit pause on everything in your life and reconnect with your spouse over a long weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. Me and my friend Rachel Cruz will be digging into topics like sex, money, communication and more. This weekend is happening on February 12th through the 14th and early bird prices start at $749 per couple, but the prices going up soon. Get your tickets [e-mail] events.

[Dave Ramsey]

Ramsey Show. Question of the day is brought to you by why Refi? You may think no one can help with your defaulted private student loans, but why Refi is different. They work with borrowers that are in tough spots without judgment. Check them out. Yrefi.com Ramsey that's the letter y r e f y.com Ramsey not in all states.

[Rachel Cruze]

Today's question comes from Kathy in Arizona. I've been a health care worker for many years and became close to a patient while she was in the hospital. Hospital. That was 23 years ago and we've stayed friends since. She's now 92 years old and a widow. She has a son and a daughter who don't live by currently or don't live nearby. She has been estranged from her daughter estranged from her daughter for almost 15 years. Her son calls periodically to check in on her. She recently revised her will to remove her daughter and put me second in line. If something were to happen to her son first, should I be worried that her daughter could come after me legally? She has not told either of her children about the will details. I want to help her, but I feel like I'm getting in the middle of family drama. What are your thoughts?

[Dave Ramsey]

You feel like you're getting in the middle of family drama because you are in the middle of family. That's why it feels that.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes. So no, legally, no. She can't come after you if there's a will in public place.

[Dave Ramsey]

You haven't done anything wrong.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, she, she can't.

[Dave Ramsey]

You haven't done anything wrong.

[Rachel Cruze]

But I would encourage her to talk to her kids about this.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I, I would go further than that because.

[Rachel Cruze]

Would you say no to it?

[Dave Ramsey]

I would say I don't want this. Unless you have told both of your children, which would involve her talking to her daughter that she hadn't talked to in 15 years. So she's not going to do it. But I, but just because, because let me just tell you, I would tell you there's 100% chance that you're going to be involved in drama. Did you do anything legally or ethically or morally wrong? No, none of those things. But that doesn't mean you're not going to end up defending yourself or the daughter's going to come in and file suit and say mom wasn't competent and this nurse took advantage of her and tried to call you out on medical ethics or something like that. None of that is true based on what you've told us, Kathy. And it doesn't, I mean, Also, it's been 23 years. So, you know, but, you know, this is. It's a. It's a sweet gesture by a lady who doesn't do conflict. This lady's a sweet. She doesn't want to deal with her daughter, but she doesn't want to leave her daughter anything, so she wants to take one last poke at her from the grave, you know, and it's just like, nah, I really don't want to be in that. I'm sorry. If, you know, 100% chance there's going to be. Be drama. The only question is how much? Yeah, I mean, just.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, here's a really shallow question. Does it matter the amount is there amount that's worth the drama?

[Dave Ramsey]

That's. I guess that's an individual choice. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if there's $20 million, you know, there's. Let me tell you, I would tell you this. Here's an interesting answer to that. I'm just making this up because it's a fun question. I appreciate. Appreciate it. The more money there is, the more drama there's gonna be.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's probably true. Sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. If she's leaving her $62 in her snow globes, the daughter's gonna go, good luck with that, mom. You know, crispy, extra crispy where you're going.

[Rachel Cruze]

If it's 20 million, she's gonna be coming.

[Dave Ramsey]

If it's 20 million, the daughter's gonna be going medical ethics and dreaming up anything else she can dream up. And this nurse has hypnotized her 23 years ago and stolen my mother away. And, you know, I mean, you're gonna hear all. You're gonna hear all that, but the more money, the more drama. Yeah, for sure. I think that's true. Drama's already here. Drama has announced itself. It's got an engraved invitation to the party. The only question is how much it's gonna show out. And I would say in ratio to the amount of money. So I think that's right. But now how much did I want to get in the involved. How shallow am I in that regard? That's a good question because, I mean, you know, honestly, I don't want a lot of drama in ratio to the money, so. And so if it's 67 in four snow globes, I don't be involved at all.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, for sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so it's not worth it at all. And. But, you know, if the only time you would think about it is if there was more money.

[Rachel Cruze]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't guess that's shallow. I guess it's practical.

[Rachel Cruze]

Why Just I'm gonna have to put.

[Dave Ramsey]

Up with some crap. Is it worth it?

[Rachel Cruze]

Right, right.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's the question.

[Rachel Cruze]

Again, we don't know it all but I mean I, the story, you know, there could be a story that it, that she's, I mean who knows, some multi millionaire, sweet, kind woman and this nurse has befriended her, been kind to her, has kids of her own and this. And that's how this 92 year old wants to leave her legacy.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't think it's a problem. I don't think you've done anything morally or ethically or legally wrong. But that doesn't mean you won't defend. Have to defend.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. You're going to be in some drama. Yeah. But I, I would encourage her to talk to the family about it.

[Dave Ramsey]

In America you can sue anyone for anything. You can just make it up.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

If he, it's not true, you can just say a bunch of stuff and put it in the pleading and file a lawsuit. Happens all the time, boys and girls.

[Rachel Cruze]

Good luck. Kathy, let us know.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wow, what a mess. Emma's in Washington. Hi Emma, what's up?

[Caller]

Hi there. We just found out that I'm pregnant about a week ago with our fourth child.

[Rachel Cruze]

Congratulations.

[Caller]

We currently have a 2003 Honda Odyssey and my husband has a commuter car. So the Odyssey will obviously fit us, but it's pretty old and it started to have some transmission issues if you want, months ago. And we are looking at buying a house. We don't own a house yet. We're really saving hard so we can buy a house. My question is, should we try to replace the minivan with a more reliable minivan, a newer one or just go hard at saving for a house and kind of deal with minivan breaking after the fact?

[Rachel Cruze]

I mean it's what a 22 year old van. I would probably replace the van if I, if I'm new, if I have, I mean I have three kids and if I was expecting another one, there's a level of stability if you can cash flow it and I mean I wouldn't go get a brand new one but you could go find you know, a 2015 for you know, $14,000 or something. I would probably do that. Especially if you guys have ongoing issues. I just wouldn't want car maintenance issues all the time with four little kids.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

If you're, if you have the ability.

[Caller]

Challenge though my, because my husband, he's a private school teacher, he makes about $63,000 a year. So 14k for a car is way out.

[Rachel Cruze]

Haven't y' all been saving for a house?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Rachel Cruze]

So how much do you have in that account?

[Caller]

We have $11,000 right now.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay. Okay.

[Caller]

So we're still about 18 months out before we can really even look for a house.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes. And that's if you don't take any of this cash to replace the van. If you got. If you got it fixed, how. How much longer do you think it could hold? Hold on to?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, just 23 years old.

[Caller]

Yeah. I'm 28, so it's almost as old as me. Yeah. I don't know. I think we probably have a year and a half, two years left. We don't go on super long drives or anything like that. And I homeschool. We stay home most of the time, but it's just iffy.

[Rachel Cruze]

Mm.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you bought the house and kept the van, you have to keep a fully funded emergency fund for when the van breaks.

[Caller]

Is that three months or six months?

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm probably going with six.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because you're gonna have to. You said the transmission slipping, and that's going to be an expensive repair at some point. It's probably cheaper than buying another van, but it's still going to be an expensive repair. So you cannot get down to the nub and use up all your cash to buy the house and have no money, and then the van breaks three weeks later. That's for sure. We're not doing that.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Emma, is the 11,000 the only money y' all have saved, or do you have a separate account for emergencies? For an emergency. Emergency.

[Caller]

No, that's our emergency fund.

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, it is.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, so you don't have any down payment fund?

[Caller]

Not yet, no. That's the struggle.

[Dave Ramsey]

There's no struggle. There's no struggle. We're having a hypothetical. It's not going to occur. You're not buying either one.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

You don't clean out your emergency fund and upgrade the car, and you don't clean out your emergency fund and buy a house.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

You don't have $11,000. That changes the story. Yeah. Sorry. No, I mean, I. I want the. I want the family protected by the emergency fund first. Then we talk about moving up in car and cash.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. And we talk about down payments, income. You know, it. It. It will be a few years for you guys to purchase that. And that's okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

I wouldn't rush to do either one. Yeah. We've all done dumb things with money. I've done them with zeros on the end. One of the biggest mistakes I see people make with money is not having a plan for it. You got to have a plan. You got to be intentional. And you need to get a budget. You have to tell your money where to go so you're not wondering where it went. Our budgeting app Every Dollar helps you do just that. It's the easiest and fastest way to make a monthly plan. For every dollar you've got coming in and going out, now's the best time to get started before the ridiculous holiday spending season gets here and sucks you in because you didn't have a plan. Don't let that happen. You're done making that mistake. Go download every Day dollar for free in the app store or Google Play today. Everyone needs insurance. But it can be hard trying to figure out to find a pros that is to help you figure out what to do. I mean some of these pros are just looking to make a buck and then there's a good ones that actually know their stuff. And put your interest at heart with a Ramsey trusted insurance pro, you'll never have to deal with a sleazy or slimy insurance person. They're all interviewed, vetted, coached to make sure they're market experts and have your best interests at heart. Go to Ramsey Solutions.com coverage and find the type of insurance you're looking for. Looking for. Connect with a Ramsey trusted agent and you can click the link in the description if you want. Jimmy is with us. Jimmy is in Arizona. Hi Jimmy, how are you?

[Jim]

I'm good. I would ask how you're doing, but I assume it's better than you deserve.

[Dave Ramsey]

Some things are natural. What's up man?

[Jim]

So my question is that my girlfriend and I are doing married people stuff, but we aren't married and we do want to get married committed to each other, but we are on baby step two now. My question is how do I afford things like a ring or a wedding and things like that if all my money is supposed to be going towards my debt?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, how much debt have you got?

[Jim]

Well, we've got 87,000 currently down from.

[Dave Ramsey]

Let's stop the we thing a minute. How much debt do you have?

[Jim]

Personally, I am in $61,000 of debt.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And so she has about 20 something.

[Jim]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. 26. Yeah. Okay. And you're 61 is what is personal loan to who?

[Jim]

My parents.

[Dave Ramsey]

Your parents?

[Jim]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Jim]

They're. They're fairly affluent, so they offer to help me out and I'm paying them back with some interest.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Help you out with what? What were you doing with like paying.

[Jim]

Off My debt and moving on to the next stage of my life and trying to.

[Rachel Cruze]

So they paid your debt and now you owe them?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, yeah. So you didn't really pay off your debt, you just moved it to your parents?

[Jim]

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. And so what was your debt on?

[Jim]

It was. It was originally just a bunch of crap, like things that I didn't need, tents around my house, which maybe I needed, but things.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Do you own a home?

[Jim]

Yes, I do.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Is your girlfriend's name on the deed?

[Jim]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

What is your home worth?

[Jim]

About 400,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Very cool. How old are you?

[Jim]

I am 30.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, okay. All right. And what do you owe on your home?

[Jim]

I owe 230,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, well, that's nice. Okay. And what do you make makes her.

[Jim]

I make 130 a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And so she makes What?

[Jim]

She makes 70 a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, cool. All right. And she's around the same age?

[Jim]

Yeah, she's 28.

[Dave Ramsey]

So when you're married, you have a $200,000 household income, a $400,000 house, and $87,000 worth of debt. If you got married tomorrow, that would be the together picture?

[Jim]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. And you're living together is what you indicated. Right. Okay.

[Jim]

How long it's been? Almost a year now.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. What is the dream for the wedding?

[Jim]

Well, she's okay with going to the courthouse tonight, and I got like over 20 aunts and uncles and like over 30 cousins, and I would like as many of them as I can afford to be there, but.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right.

[Jim]

I'm not sure how to afford that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And what is your personal take home pay a month?

[Jim]

My personal take home pay after taxes is $8,300.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, good, good. You're doing really well, sir. Thank you.

[Jim]

Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right. You don't have. Do you have any cash or any money that's not in retirement?

[Jim]

No, just my emergency fund.

[Dave Ramsey]

How much is in your emergency fund?

[Jim]

Oh, sorry. Well, it's a thousand dollars that you suggested.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. It was the starter emergency fund. Okay.

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you have $1,000 and that's your entire money you have available?

[Caller]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. I'm asking a lot of questions because once I get the whole picture, I can say clearly what I would do, knowing what I know now if I woke up in your shoes. Okay. For sure. I'm going to call the preacher and go get married at the courthouse or in his office tomorrow for sure. Or in a month. Okay. Somewhere in the next month. And then have a big party later after we clean up some of his debt. Because you got a great income to clean up some of the debt and you, you can have a big, big reception, you know, even if it's 12 months from now. Okay. Easily. And have the uncles and aunts and that kind of stuff because you know that that's. Yeah, that's what I would do for sure. Then the only question I've got is how much to spend on a ring and do I stop everything for a paycheck or two and get a three or four thousand dollar ring? And I probably would. And that would do that this month and I'd get married, you know, the end, end of the month or the end of next month or whatever, something like that. Because then that allows you to combine all of your efforts safely and correctly and you'll be able to clear the debt faster. And as you said, you're already playing house, so.

[Rachel Cruze]

And you love her, you're going to get married to her, right?

[Jim]

Absolutely.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. So just go do it.

[Dave Ramsey]

There was nothing in any of your sentence structure. There was any hesitancy and that's what I was going on.

[Jim]

Yeah, no, sir.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

We're not doing this so that we can combine money. We're doing it because you love each other, you know, you're going to get married. So go ahead and do it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, Just got it. She's got some stuff out of order.

[Jim]

And so let's get like you said, you know, in a different color a while ago that I saw. You know, there's more buy in when we are married too, right? Is that she doesn't got to worry about me going anywhere. I don't got to worry about her going anywhere. And I want her to have that stability, you know what I mean? As soon as I possibly can. So I'm with you guys on that one.

[Dave Ramsey]

How's her relationship with your affluent mom and dad?

[Jim]

It's great. They love her.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

Are mom and dad gonna be pissed that you guys go to the courthouse, not have a big wedding?

[Jim]

Well, I did float the idea to my mom and she was a little like, oh, why would you do that? Yeah, but I'm not, I'm not too concerned.

[Dave Ramsey]

Your mom wants to have the party too. But mom, we are going to have the party.

[Rachel Cruze]

We're just paying for the affluent mom pay for the party.

[Dave Ramsey]

I was just, that's where I was going. Why don't they pay for the wedding? They're all the wedding reception and do it, you know, even if you did it at Christmas, and it was a few months after the actual quote, unquote, marriage. But I mean, we know several young couples that are like in their 19, 20 year old types that go literally to the courthouse, go sit with a preacher and get married, and then they walk down the aisle with the white dress and the whole thing four months later. I've seen that happen a bunch of times because that's how the schedule worked out for the stupid venue. But they are legally, morally married and all that a long time before we all went to the wedding, you know, and a couple of us that are close enough friends actually knew that. But.

[Jim]

My concern with that is that, you know, I've asked my parents for so much help, and they've helped me out so much.

[Rachel Cruze]

Really helped.

[Dave Ramsey]

Asking them to help you. I'm saying, hey, if y' all want to throw a party, we'll do it now. If you want me to throw the party, we're going to do it in a year.

[Rachel Cruze]

But they didn't really help you, Jimmy. I mean, in a sense, you there, you're paying interest to your parents. So, like, it's not like they went and paid your debt off. If they did that, I would be like, yeah, that's really generous. They just became your bank. They're not helping you. You're paying them interest. They're making money off you.

[Jim]

Yeah, yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

Kind of weird. I do know people that their parents have paid off their debt so that they don't pay interest and it's a better deal for the kid. But, yeah, I don't know.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, so I, I, I'm, I, you know your parents better than me, but I'm kind of thinking when you make this announcement that we're going to get married and we're going to have the party over here, if you all want to have earlier and you want to finance it, we'll do it earlier for the uncles and aunts and we'll do that big party in December because we're getting married in a month. And I'm gonna go, dad, I'm gonna go get a ring. Mom, take her over there, y'. All. Announce it to them, tell them what your plans are, and then watch and see if. How generous they become towards the 61,000 and towards the party. Yeah, I'm not begging for that. I'm just laying it out. And I'm not even gonna ask.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, not even.

[Dave Ramsey]

I just want to. That's why I asked what they thought of her, because that's going to affect their participation, their voluntary Transportation without you even asking.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Your mama might reach across the table and tap her on the hand and go, honey, we got this. You never know. You never know. So.

[Rachel Cruze]

And I hope that for you. Sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that'd be great.

[Rachel Cruze]

Go have a great party.

[Dave Ramsey]

That'd be great. Have it. It's a cool question, Jimmy. Thanks for. It's obvious you've been listening to us, the way you use of the words to back at us. So thank you for that. Our scripture of the day, Matthew 5, 14 and 15. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people. Light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. Oh, guys, come on. They give me Charlie Kirk quote. Oh, man. If you believe in something, you need to have the courage to fight for those ideas, not run away from them or try and silence them. Wow. Oh, makes me cry. All right. Heather's in Illinois. Hey, Heather, what's up?

[Caller]

Yes, Dave, I need to know your thoughts on a couple things. I'm 82 year old widow and I have approximately. Well, first of all, I do own my own home and my car. I have about $236,000 that earns about 4.4%. I also have about 10,000 in an emergency fund, but I have no debts except $16,000 on some windows that I bought. And it's. My payment is not due for 16 months and there's no interest on them. And I need to know, shall I just wait till the time is up and pay that amount or do I. Should I start paying on it now? Because my other concern is if I should have to go into a nursing home. And I don't know what your thoughts are on that as far as how much money I need to have set aside.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, what are you living on per month?

[Caller]

About 3,500.

[Dave Ramsey]

So pretty much your Social Security is covering you?

[Caller]

Social Security and pension. Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, what is your pension total? What's the total of those two? Is that 3,500?

[Caller]

Well, he total of both of them together is 3,526amonth.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so you're able to live on that without touching the 232?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Or even the interest on the 232?

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're letting it grow.

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. The deal with the interest free windows is if you do not get it paid off exactly on time, they're gonna back charge you through the entire contract a huge interest rate. And so as A matter of safety because those things are a bear trap. Those, those systems, they, they put those together with the intent that you don't pay it on time. They're a bear trap. And so I want you to, I want you to go ahead and click clear it for no other reason except that I don't want the bear trap to get you.

[Jim]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And that way it doesn't give you any, you know, there's no dispute because it's so far away. And you get very clear complete documentation from them that says paid in full, nothing else due, so they don't come back later and say you still owed $10. So we're going to charge you interest on the whole thing all the way back through because that's the kind of thing these shysters do.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I want to make sure that doesn't happen. And let's get very clear documentation, paid in full. And go ahead and pay it. You don't have to do it. Where is sometime in the next month or two? Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Where is the 232 sitting, Heather? Is it just in a high yield, High yield savings?

[Caller]

Well, I've got about 206,000 in money market and 30,000 in large cap stocks.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So you can just put it, you can just write a check out of that money market and pay the bill. So call them and get a, or have them send you an email or something that gives you an exact payoff by an exact date. Send that in and then helm them until they give you some kind of documentation states paid in full because I don't want the bear trap anywhere near you. Okay. So that's a minor thing that's done. Now we've got 216,000 because we just spent 16. All right. And now what do we do with nursing home? So what is your home worth?

[Caller]

Oh, about 160 probably.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. And so there, there's two options really with that you could go with. And I'm going to recommend you go ahead and spend some of your time getting prepared for one or both of them. All right. Option number one is your best option that I like in terms of quality is I'm going to start investing, investigating full time care in your home.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's a better quality of life for you. You get to stay in the house and you got one on one care. It's almost like you're, it's hard for someone like you, but it's almost emotionally because you're, but you're basically hiring a butler with a nursing degree.

[Jim]

Sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And I want them, I want them to just move in there and take care of Heather. And if you have to have two of them and do two shifts because things get bad because you need someone night and day, that's still going to be cheaper than a nursing home.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And it's going to be nicer for you than a nursing home. Now if you need more care, you need to investigate some of the nursing homes in the area, get in the car and go look at them, shop does, come, go shopping.

[Rachel Cruze]

Because on average, what would it have.

[Dave Ramsey]

Them price it out in your area. There's probably three or four within a 20 or 25 mile radius of you there. And let's go. That one's the, this, this one's the expensive one. But look at what the stuff they've got. This is the medium and this is the other medium. And this is the one I don't want to go to. And you're going to find all three there. And the expensive, the medium and the one you don't want to go to. And, and you know, go ahead and get that figured out and then that'll tell you what you've got because your 200,000 is making you only about $8,000 a year. And so if you're going to start, if you start burning through that money, we've got to figure out how long it's going to last.

[Caller]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so the nursing home is going to be. Okay, let's just make up numbers. If you did it, if you did the in house care and it was 10,000amonth for people working in your home and that took care of everything. Well, I mean, we know what that is. It's 20 months.

[Jim]

Sure, sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. I will tell you the interesting stat. It's a little bit depressing because the way we're talking about it, but the average nursing home stay is only 2.3 years.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I guess that's because by the time you get there, you don't live long. Not because they kill people, but you know what I'm saying? So I mean, we're just at the end times, right? So. Because I'm looking at that stuff too. I'm 65 and so I'm talking. My wife and I are talking about this stuff too. What are we gonna do in this case or that case? If something happens to one of us, is the other one gonna just take care of them in the home? Yeah, that's what we're gonna do. We're just gonna hire help in the home instead of going to a nursing home.

[Rachel Cruze]

Your children will help, too.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, I know I'm not. But you're not moving in. You have a life and stuff. But I'll just hire. I'll hire Sharon a butler. I mean, I'll do it. I'm happ. And so all that. So anyway, you just kind of got to. You develop a plan and you look at what it costs, and then you see what your burn rate on the money is. And then that tells you that you got 200,000 plus the value of this house to get through that. And if you outlive all of that in a nursing home, you're going to end up in a Medicaid nursing home, which is a welfare nursing home. And it's a different level than the other stuff we're talking about. So, you know, that's gonna be your last resort, not your first choice. And so. But I'm an advocate for building out a system if it's possible, for medically possible and financially possible to stay in the home, if you can write the checks to cause that to happen, if.

[Rachel Cruze]

You can do it. Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And some of you that have built large net worths that are listening, that's your best shot, really. It's your best option.

[Rachel Cruze]

But especially if the home's paid for everything, like there's not all expenses.

[Dave Ramsey]

But for people like Sharon and me or Heather or people that worked our whole lives, the idea of having, you know, Downton Abbey in the house, you know, that have the help in the house, so to speak, is weird for us. We don't think. We're not butler type people. So we've kind of got to get our emotions around that if we're going to do.

[Rachel Cruze]

I mean, they are medically trained professionals.

[Dave Ramsey]

But I'm just saying, you know, we're going to ring a little bell here. I mean, it's just a little strange for people like me. That puts us. How are the Ramsey show in the books? We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of peace, Christ Jesus.

[Jim]

Sam.