Rebuilding Finances After a Major Loss

to you by the Every dollar app. Start budgeting for free today Normal as broken common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life From the Ramsy Network in the Fairwinds Credit Union stududio. This is the Ramsy Show. Rachel Cruz, number one bestselling author, co host of the Smart Money Happy Hour and Ramsy personality and my daughter is our co host today Open phones at Aple eight eight two five, five, two two, five. Jennifer's in New York City. Hi, Jennifer, how are you? Hi, how are you? Great. How can we help? I am feeling very overwhelmed right now. I have a daughter going into her senior year of high school anotherother one going into her tenth grade of high school And I over the last year or two, have been trying to tackle our bills while also saving College. So right now, I am I don't know what I should be tackling first. I have eight thousand dollars. that I owe to the IRS twenty five thousand dollars in credit card debt. And I am putting away about two hundred dollars a month. for their college And how much do have sa for their college? U almost nothing because I just started. So I opened up five twenty nine plans about a year ago. Okay two hundred dollars a month for one year is two thousand four hundred dollars Yes, but And where is your senior in high school planning to go to college We're looking at SUNY schools becausecause we're trying to stick to twenty thousand a year You're looking at what schools ity at SNy state of New York School. Oh, o, okay Yeah Yeah Yeah, in state too' affordable. So Yeah, in state tuition., for sure How much you make a year, Jennifer you may Sure. My husband and I both work full time and we both also have second jobs And our combined income is about two hundred sixty seven thousand a year So you're just kind of getting started on this paying attention to money thing Rough Well, we've been yeah, well not I mean, you make a quarter of a million dollars a year and you're broke. so explain that. Why We have a lot of expensives. We've been sending our kids to private school And instead of college Yeah. well, the idea was that they were going to get college scholarships from the school that they're attending. Will that happen at any level I mean, I think so, yeah But in case it doesn't, right now we're still focusing on study schools. U But even still we'd like to use the scholarships towards that. So we do live in New York. So I know two hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars sounds like an extreme amount of money. New York is probably one of the most expensive places to live. so everything is just a lot more elevated in cost. Yes, we do live a very comfortable life We are not holding back. We eat out frequently I have started changing those habits recently, but I fear it's too late. And I just don't know. It is too late for a senior in college Be you're not at your current pattern, you're not going to have money for the first year's tuition Okay, what do I do? Well, I mean, you don't. I mean, you told me you're going to save two thousand dollars and it's twenty thousand dollars that you need, right We're going to try to cash fllow any level of it, Jennifer. Like if it's ten per semester Was what you is that what was that part of the plan thinking through that? or I I mean, in a perfect world I find a way to pay a the bills, right? the credit cards and the IRS within the next twelve months, Okay, so what y'all have to I'm sorry, Jennify I apologize for interrupting, but what you're going to have to do is y'all are going to have to decide what's important Is it important for your daughter to go to college? And if it is, then you're going to have to stop doing a whole lot of the stupid butt stuff you've been doing. Today Yes, for sure. You don't have a choice The arithmetic tells you that Okay. And so you're not eating out, you're not going out to eat. You're going to be on beans and rice. You're going to be living like you make fifty thousand dollars a year, so you can put your kid into school or she's not going These are your two options for a community college for the first or a community college or she get scholarships or or the scholarship S But you're not going to have the money otherwise. I'm gonna I'm calling because I want to try and half the money. Yeah. Well, what I'm saying is is that all the stuff you're telling me that, you know, the excuses you made about where two hundred sixty thousand dollars wentin. So Jennifer,, but I would say the baby steps, you're new to this. So the order of importance for anyone starting this really regardless of kids and circumstances, it really is getting yourself in a place where you're debt free You and your husband have a fully funded emergency fund of thirty to six months of expenses And then you guys start at that point then investing in retirement and kids college. So that is the baby steps. if you want to look at the plan So that would mean that If you follow that plan, there's probably going to be some different courses of action in the next two years with notot only your expenses, but maybe her school choice for the first two years. you know, if that's what you guys stick to But if you and your husband sit down and decide, no, College is more important and we want to cash fllow that first beforeay if you want to do the babyeps out of order, you won't be doing the baby steps, right? We'll be doing your own plan. But the fastest way that we have seen for people to get control of their money is for you guys as a household to be stable and to get the spending under control, to get the debt paid off because you're feeling like you're trying to do eighteen things at once and you just don't get a lot of traction when you do that. But when you focus in on one thing at a time, again, it's not ideal timeline wise with your stage of life with kids. I totally hear that it is the fastest way from point A to point B to actually have some control over your money long term and building those habits, but that would mean College may look a little different for your daughter, the senior for maybe the first year or two of her college. I you and your husband need to sit down and say, we're going to clear the IRS, We're going to clear the credit cards Now now crash and paus and pause college. And pause the two hundred And she goes and don't put anything in college And then she's not you're not going to have the private school tuition when she leaves that. So you've got that freed up in your budget to put towards college Once she goes, and you put her in community college and she applies for seventy three thousand scholarships Okay, We had a lady that was a personality for a while named Christina Ellis And she had a number one best selling book called How I Got A half a million dollars in Free Money for College And she went on and got her master's degree in business from Vanderbilt all paid for single mom's daughter, single mom came and said, I don't have the money. The only way you're going is if you go get scholarships and she sat, she had to sit and apply for scholarships two hours a day, like it was her part time job, but it worked. She got hundreds of thousands of dollars. And you can look the book up on Amazon U how I got a half million dollars in scholarships? And Christinine is still there teaching people this stuff She since she's incredible. and the um So that's one thing. The second thing is choose a college And sit down the three of you right now, your senior, your husband and you and say, We cannot afford for you to go anywhere except here first year And a community college for free or almost free is not a bad thing. All those credits will transfer. You get a lot of your basics out of the way if you're going for a four year degree and the kid is not You know, no one knows where you went to school. All they knows where you graduated from And even then they don't really know that They don't care. And that's going to be a hit to to the ego in a sense of going from private school in Manhattan. Y to a community college, but it's long term It's the smart decision, Jennifer for her long term as well so that you don't rack up student loans. Yeah. But your family's going to have to change your priorities S'all are way out of whack As a dad of young kids, I'm starting to think a lot more about the world they're growing up in and how I'll help them make sense of it as they get older. And that's why I like World Watch, a video news service for pre teens and teens. Because one thing I know for sure, if you don't teach your kids how to understand the world, somebody else will. And these days, that could be TikTok, YouTube, Instagram influencers or whoever happens to show up in their social media feed WorldWatch's ten minute videos help young people understand what's happening in the world through a Christian worldview without all the outrage, negativity, and noise that is everywhere these days. The reporting is factual, engaging, and designed specifically for pre teens and teens. And WorldWatch creates opportunities for something every family needs more of Meaningful Conversations. Instead of just reacting to headlines, kids learn how to think about what's happening in the world and parents get a chance to keep those conversations going at home Because when my kids are old enough, I want them informed, not overwhelmed. And right now, you can get a thirty day free trial. Just go to worldwatch d. news slash Ramsey or use promo code Ramsey to get started. That's worldwatch d. news slash Ramsey Jamie's in Saint Louis. Hi, Jamie. How are you I'm doing good. Thank you. Good. Sorry, I'm kind of nervous. I really didn't think I'd get on the show. Well, surprise. here you are. You'll be okay. We've never lost a patient. What's up? I want what day be mean to you, Jamie? Well, I just recently finished listening to the Total Money makeakeover and been listening to George's book And it's really got me motivated to to make changes. Good. And I just kind of want to keep that motivation going. We've already like eliminated two hundred dollars worth of subscriptions we've had. G. We do live on one income And I'm just You know, it's giving us higher aspirations for the future, but I'm just wondering how we keep those that motivation going and keeping that larger goal from kind of demotivating us in our current situation feeedback loop The psychologists tell us that if we if we can if we can see and feel Fraction towards our goals. We can keep going When you don't feel like you're getting anywhere When you feel like the only light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train, everyone quits So you can you can go through a long journey as long as you can measure your progress and sense it with a feedback loop And so that's one of the reasons we want to do something like a debt snowball where we list our debts smallest to largest and we attack the smallest one with a vengeance Because when we knock that one out, it gives us positive feedback Oh, this might work. And then you knock another one out, your hope level continues to increase. And as your hope level increases, your're sacrifices you're willing to sacrifice deeper becausecause it's starting to work You know, and things are starting to move in the right direction Absolutely. Jamie, what is your situation? You keep saying that. How much debt do you guys have So we're married and we have four kids And we live on about fifty five thousand dollars a year. Okay And we're currently about twenty three thousand dollars in debt Okay Well that's tough but doable But two things tell me immediately when I hear those that situation One is a detailed budget in every dollar, you're going to feel like you got to raise. ' you've got a large enough family that there's a level of chaos That's just normal. I mean, you would be weird if you didn't. If they're all regimented little Stepford children or something, you'd have a weird bunch of kids, right? there's a chaos level when you got four kids. And so u, It goes with the territory. and so you guys have to force some order and some organization to the money side of the equation. And that's also going to add some order to the rest of the thing while you're doing it. You can't keep from doing that And then the second thing that comes to mind is fifty five thousand low. What's your career and what's your aspirations there? We need to get your income up, man I am a floor installer Uh. How old are you? Carently work for ty. Okay when you're forty four, what are you going be U probablyably the same thing Probably not a good plan Yeah. Nothing wrong with being a floor installer but maybe you need to own a floor installing contontracting company And they work work for you. Or you're the leader of the division of the company who is doing it. You know what I mean? Like what yeah, what are the the climbing the ladder, so to speak of How do you want to keep advancing? is going to be big Jamie and and again you, I'm sixty five, Your knees are going to be hurting when you get there Yeah. no, I totally agree. Yeah Well, Jamie, for you guys, I'm just curious the debt that you have What was it twenty five thousand, twenty two thousand U what is the smallest debt there? It's primarily just one. it's the work they. The what? The work van that I had. A work van. I misunderstood you. okay So you u So you do do you run your own company? U No, it's just it's a private company. It it's just me and another guy. So So I mean, there is growth now Wen, I mean, you and the other guy do installing together and youre you're independent contractors. you own your company I don't, he's the owner. I'm his employee. Why do you have Why do you have a? Why do you have the Vandette Oh because I ob I sorry will it was just a bad decision kind of. Okay. I just did it so that I could try to make more money Okay, Okaykay because I would have my own vehicle And I would also hope with making more progress within the company There's two of you. Yeah So okay. so Rule number one is we don't buy vehicles on debt. rule number two is we don't buy vehicles period for someone else's company We buy them for our own company. So I want you to take this van and start doing some side hustle work doesn't compete with your current boss but that allows you to make some extra money here and there you utilizing the skills that you have. and let's take this van and start talking about how someday you're going to be self employed. and make a whole lot more than you make now U, but let's start moving that direction because this fan is a big, big debt with your income and with four kids If you know that van payment, you probably wouldn't even been calling But the good news is you're learning, you're growing. You've already gone through a couple of audio books, you're calling us on the air, asking, you're open, you're not being belligerent and prideful about this. You're saying, I want to learn, I want to learn. And you're the kind of guy we help all the time. And we love helping you We're glad you're here Proud of you for taking those steps. Those are big steps. thirty four years old, four kids Van payment, you go, I got to learn something new. This isn't working Good for you Good for you 'cause you do. If you keep doing the same thing over and over, you keep getting the same results And, you know, it's pretty predictable. So You know, So what we got to do is we got to think about how your career unfolds over the next ten years. and how this van fits into that and how we get the van paid off And u And and and I do think u budget, honestly, Jamie and your situation, and for you and your wife to be on the same page and you guys have a plan going forward of where the income is going, because that will be tight with with four kids to be on that. And so I think it's even more important, right for you guys to be looking at every single dollar and you've already cut two hundred dollars of subscriptions, which is amazing. And so know just continuing to look at that lifestyle and just say, okay, where can we pull back to throw extra money at this van? If you if you didn't have the van payment to your point, I'm like that margin change everything. Yeah, the margin helps so much when you look at the monthly numbers. But well done, Jamie. And you and your wife get on the same page. you guys do this together. Jamie, if you've made mistakes with money, that makes you over twelve years old Every walking person has made mistakes with money. I have a PhD in D UMB. I've done things that make what dumb things you've ever done look horrendously smart. I mean, I have done some stupid stuff in my life. The trick we all have to learn is to not do the same dumb thing You know, figure out what's dumb, never do that one again. Figure out what's dumb N never do that one again. Figure out what's dumb, neverever do that one again And if you keep doing that when you get to be ms, they call you wise doing so many dumb things that there's not much left to do but some smart things And you really do get a whole pile of that behind you. And so if you've made a mistake, there's no reason to shame yourself about it. You know just go, hey, I made a mistake. I didn't know. It was a dumb thing Doing a dumb thing doesn't make you dumb. Doing a dumb thing three times in a row makes you dumb And you know what I think, Jamie, because you started the call with just like, gosh, it could feel discouraging as we start climbing this mountain,, how do you not be discouraged Just knowing the seasonal life you guys are and I'm just assuming because of your age and the four kids, you guys got little kids at home and it's just there's a lot happening And you're in the day to day so much that grind or that's how I feel as a mom sometimes.'m like, it' just one day at a time one day at a time. And for you and your wife to go out, Winston and I do this once a year, We call it our dream date. It sounds kind of cheesy, but we just say we put money off the t. We've done this for years and we just look ahead. We usually do like a ten year look ahead. And we say out loud, how old our kids are going to be in ten years, How old we're going to be And what do we want to do within those ten years? When we get to that age, what kind of House do we want to live in? Where do we want to live? Where are our kids gonna be in school? What kind of bucket lift trips maybe we've checked off big financial goals? L just dream. like getet out of the day to day, get out of the overwhelming numbers. and you guys together just start this like refreshed lookingoo at the future together and just dream and have fun Okay guys, let me ask you something. What would it take for you to switch your bank? Because if you're still earning next to nothing on your savings, you need to check out Fairwin's credit union. And I know what you're thinking, it might sound like a hassle. Moving your direct deposit, updating bills, getting a new debit card feels like a lot. But here's what most people don't realize, staying where you are could be costing you hundreds of dollars every year Joall, the average savings account pays less than half a percent. So let's say, for example, you got twenty thousand dollars saved. You might earn around seventy dollars a year, but with a fair winds high yield savings account earning three percent APY or more, that same money could earn you over six hundred dollars. And that's real money that you can use towards the baby steps Don't let temporary comfort keep you stuck Check out the smart bundle from Fairwinds Credit Union. You get a high yield savings accounts, a no fee checking account, and the Ramseay B weird debit card. Go to fairwinds. org slash Ramseay to learn more and make the switch today. That's fairwinds. org slash Ramsey, inssured by the NCUA David is in Phoenix. Hi, David. How are you? I'm doing well. I love you guys. Thank you. You too. How can we help? Um, I I spent the first two decades of my adult life pretty income driven in terms of my lifestyle. I'm married, I've got four for kids, but we never really saved or invested too much. And I was also kind of in living for me mode and some knuckle hery and personal sin led to us needing to sell our house and use the equity that we had built to pay off some of the consequences of my actions. And here in the last you know two years or so, the Lord has really given me a second chance in a lot of ways.. It really is. And so you know now for the last, I don't know, eighteen months or so, we've been renting, so we're not homeowners anymore But I've got a small business that is doing increasingly well. My income is doing well and we're you know, our mindset is now very much shifted and we're trying to very much aggressively save and invest and sock away for retirement. But certainly with an eye towards some of what we're socking away right now being the nest egg to help us enter the homeownership market again. However I guess my question is, you know, we've talked about kind of a plan here of in the next eighteen to twenty four months, maybe purchasing a home again, but we would be using Um most of the investment in savings that we have set aside as the down payment probably for something like that. We're fairly comfortable in our renting situation And so I guess my question is with as aggressively as I'm able to sock money away right now Um, Does it maybe make sense for us to postpone that decision for a few years and not purchase a home in the next know, one and a half to two years, but maybe six or seven years down the road Um I'd love your thoughts. Congratulations on the turn you've made Thank you obbviously a complete one hundred eighty in your whole life and I can just tell from the quick version of your story. and Very, very cool Rnt is patience And, um And then the question is what are we being patient for and your question, the way you posed it is the right way of looking at it, I think, and that is You know, is it worth it to delay until we can do this with even more down stroke Um, And at some point that becomes a personal choice, okay A first time home buyer, we tell folks, you know, when you're out of debt Are you guys, David, out of debt we're getting close. owe my parents ten thousand, which that should be knocked out here in the next couple of months. Okay. And what are you making in the small business? Well, it's hard to put my finger on it because it's only been around for eighteen months and it continues to grow. In twenty twenty five U The gross revenue was about three hundred twenty and my overhead was about eight percent. What is it today U year to date, it's about gross revenue is about three hundred in over six months of the year. hoc curve then. good. Okay, I six to five percent. Yeah, okay And so you're you know, good for you, congratulations Obviously the Lord is blessing the new direction of your life. That's cool Um Well, with again, but with a new home buyer Well, you know, we just say put five percent down whatever or more, as much as you can put down as a better. anything that's not in retirement savings is your down payment, throw it at it and fifteen year fixed where the payment' no more than a fourth of your take home pay You've got a couple of moving targets here One is you've got the moving target of Phoenix real estate, which has a tendency to shoot up Um We've had a couple times in my memory of Phoenix having a bit of a bubble it got really, really hot there. No pun intended. And u the and it may again and you know, I wouldn't want to be on the other side of that. I'd want to be riding that up if that were happening. So that's variable number one. Variable number two is you've got this hockey stick business that's going up into the right in the right direction and you're going to be able to do a completely different house two years from now what you could do today if that thing continues to grow that at that rate and do so reasonably. So you might choose a completely different house. So I'm going to try to balance those two things against each other. How fast is the market increasing? fast is my business growing and then and so how long am I going to have patience with this good situation with rent and stack cash. on I'll give you a guess. I would not be outside a three year window to buy If I were in your shoes Now I pay cash or I can't buy. so I couldn't do any of this, but I'm talking about the things that we recommend here on the air, fifteen year fix' the only debt that we don't yell at people for Okay is a house. It's the only one and a fifteen year fix where the payments's no more than a fourth of year take home pay and you put as much as you can put down. So just past the entry level, first time home buuyer is someone probably in your situation where I'd love to see you have at least twenty percent down because you could avoid private mortgage insurance, which is about seventy five dollars per month per hundred thousand borrowed. It's a lot. That's one of our goals for sure. It's a lot. And so avoiding that and then beyond that Everything we're doing is, okay, we're either increasing the price of the house because we've got more and more and more money, or we're decreasing the debt on the house. that we buy because we've got more and more and more money or some of each. How old are you guys, David? I'm forty one. Okay. so yeah, you guys, I didn't know Yeah, I was going to say if you' getting close to that point of retirement. then investing was going to be important, but you guys have plenty of time. So that's great. I wouldound more mature than a forty one year old. I don't know why David you're older. It's the mileage in the story. I've been through a refining fire. Yeah. there you go. There you go. But yeah, I was I had two to three years in my head to rent and then to buy. So I would not recommend a five year play in your situation with the variables you gave me And if and it feels like one year feels a little desperate Okay Does that make any sense Yeah, I mean, we've got we've probably got about two hundred set aside right now in investments and aEP. Well, you're not used yourself. We're not using your No, no, I would be not touching that. So primarily the brokerage accounts is How much is in the brokerage account? U between the I've probably got about one hundred and thirty in there right now. Okay. So if you took twenty four months and added to that That's not a bad plan. That's what it feels like to me. But long, you know, but renting in the interim is just patience. you know, it's just we've got to get a couple of these changes have to haveave time to cook up in your life. Your life is completely changed And every segment of your life is changed, every compartment department of your life is changed. So holistically, your life, you are a life that is changed, you know. And so awesome. That's power And I want some time for those seeds to germinate and sprout and take advantage of them if I'm in your shoes. So yeah, have some settling. Yeah What I don't want people to do is wait too long because you're lacking in hope or go too fast because you're somehow desperate and you're like freaked out about real estate. And so those aren't neither one of those are good motivators So instead just a wise a wise You know, I'm the tortoise, I'm plotdting And I'm plotting while I'm plotting on how I'm going to pull this off. And I think you're going to be just fine, David I think the house is going to be a natural next move in the next twenty four months or so. And you're going to make a good decision. Uh, I think you gott a you know You're like me, you got a lot of your bad decisions in your rearview mirror. And that's a good thing They put you in a good place. 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Right now, CHM is offering new members a fifty percent credit towards their first month of membership. Go to cHministries dot org slash budget and use promo code Ramsey. That's cHministries dot org slash budget and use promo code Ramssey Thinking about our last call or getting back into the real estate market after a life change situation. you for sure, in any situation, if you're in the real estate market, want to have a pro in your corner. Someone that's high octane, high protein and knows what the flip they're doing. didnn't just get their license three weeks ago and their at your church or wherever you met them. No, no, no, no, no, We nothing wrong than being in the church, but they need to actually be selling a lot of houses or they don't need to be listing yours. Okaykay We do not endorse real estate agents unless they're high octane high protein, high volume producers and they get it done and they do it the Ramsay way. That's why we call them Ramsy trusted because we vet them and we obviously don't let everyone into that. recommendation program. If you want to find a Ramseay trusted real estate agent that has your best interest at heart and you and they work, you know, you can find them for free. Go to Ramsyssoolutions d. com slash agent or click the link in the description Rose is in Austin. Hi, Rose. How are you I'm doing good. Thankk you for taking my call. Sure, what's up So I'm almost done with baby step three and I'm looking for any tips on how to move from gazazelle intensity So're taking my foot off the braree You mean, just move to intentionality From intensity. Yeah, I'm just I'm just a little concerned on going back backwards if I you know, takeick my foot off the brake So fear is the number one thing you would You may foot off the accelerator No, okay. I sure understood what we're talking about. Okay. We're gonna try to break a little bit. Yeah, we need to break a little. What was your situation, Rose before you started doing all of this, the gazellantin' paying off debt and everything Yeah, so I actually have been able to move out on my own, get my own place before I was living with roommates, so on and so forth I've paid off about twenty three thousand dollars worth of consumer debt. and now I'm Finishing up that emergency fund. I do currently work seven days a week between my primary job and my side household. So I'm concerned on if I take away that side hustle, if I don't have any margin in my budget You know, What does the math what does the math tell you? if you take away the side hustle, what does your budget look like I can do it, but it's going be a little tight Okay Do you have to take away all of the side hustle? Can you take away half of it I could. My side hustle is waitressing. so I work nights and weekends. Yeah. So you could work Not as many nights and not as many weekends. And and then give yourself a comfortable margin until your budget gets to where you're really comfortable with it. So you don't have to go from zero to hero. You can just go from or he wrote a zero you can just go from you know, gazelt and doll it back and go, okay, instead of a full on sprint, we're going to go to a jog. Okay And then if that works, you can slow down, drop the side hustle altogether if you want. I mean, But you if you if you want some emotional proof that this is okay They just back off your number of shifts. Yeah, and do you see your primary job grows going up at all that income over time? Like I just wonder in two years, if that margin is filled with just your your career versus the side hustle Yeah, definitely. I'm currently the company I'm with, I do see a career with them. So since I've been with them, I've seen growth in my income. So I don't see that being an issue. Okay. Yeah, because that would be ideal, right? That you work in your forty hour week job and that sustained your lifestyle. You don't have to have that second job But maybe for a season still while you're transitioning baby steps and just for your comfort level. Yeahah. I mean, I think that's what Dave said earlier was great. just if you're going if you're going super, super fast down the interstate like, you know, one hundred and thirty miles an hour or something, those white lines are coming at you really, really fast And then if you slow down to the speed limit Fe feels like you're crawling And so that's kind of what that's kind of the emotion that you're feeling When you do this because you've been busting it. I mean, you've been going eighty hours a week And just just to go down to sixty is going to feel like you like you quit emmotionally And that's a, you know, that's different than the math So Dr. Deloneoney always talks about, John always talks about when we're dealing with something like this where there's a fear facts are your friends. And so let the math alm your soul. Yeah. and Rose, your money habits are different today than they were when you started this You're not same. You're not the same person. And so I would start leaning in and trusting the roose that has created great habits that has found herself on her own. She's budgeting, she's paid off debt. L she knows what to do. She knows how to live on less than she makes. I mean, all of that. That's who you've become And being confident in that part of you, I think is important too. and you have to have the numbers work, right? So yes, I would say for a season, if you still need some margin, keep part of that side hustle going just to give you some comfort there. But ideally you can phase that out as your main career goes up David's in Indianapolis. Hi, David. how are you I'm doing well. Thanks for taking my call, Dave. Sure, what's up So my question, my wife and I, we've been together for six years And we've over those six years always been comfortably financially, but we've talked a lot about budgeting pretty much once every six months or so. We have a discussion on we should sit down and really budget But we never get to the actual budget part that allows us to track moving forward. We of look in the rear view and say, OK, we're doing all right. and then talk about we should try to cut back here, try to cut back there. But it never actually rubber never meets the road, so to speak, where we have a budget that we execute against moving forward. So I wanted to get Get your thoughts on any practical tips to kind of implement that and move forward in a way that makes it effective for us You know, you're battling one of the hardest things that I think Americans battle And that is Doing nothing. are handling money poorly You could still have a pretty dead gum good life. And you know, it's it's almost like you need to have a crisis to wake your butt up, you know Because everything's just kind of going okay. Yeah, that's there's nothing nothing to kick you off the t where we're at. Yeah. And so when I'm facing something like that, I just try to look in the mirror and sit down Sareough, sit down and go, okay There's not a crisis here, but we're going to create one We're going to emotionally decide that were pissed about this. We're not living like this anymore You know, you don't have to have a heart attack to decide it's a good idea to get in shape You could just look in the mirror and go Hey, no more donuts, Bubba You know That might be me talking to me, by the way. but u You know,pisode, you know, I mean that, right that Yeah that Okaykay. so I yes Yes and amen. Dave gets pissed I was thinking on the other end is to instead of because for a lot of people, yes, they have this like crisis moment and their past catches up with them and they have to change immediately or it's going to continue what it's been doing, right? Your past hasn't necessarily caught up with you, right? You don't have great money habits, but it is what it is. So I would say let the motivator be your future and you and your wife sit down and be like, the money we are letting out of our hands without because we're not being intentional, we're losing our future selves The sixty year old version of us is gonna be so pissed at the. again, Wait a minute. Shoot, Dake Man manan. Maybe I am more luck you than I wan to admit. No, okay. So yeah, the future, we want to be able to do X, Y and Z in the future. Like this is where we want to be and let the future be the motivator of your goals, right? So you guys have to look ahead and say, what do we want our life to look like in five years in three years and ten years Regret is a nasty And all of that. Yes. And David, seriously, the every dollar budget is going to be Every for you guys. I literally just tracked my transactions this morning. and Winston and I we talked about our July budget, but it takes us five minutes now when we talk about it because we've been doing it for sixteen years So what I would say to you guys is what we used to do is literally put it in your calendar on your phones or set one of those reminders on your iPhones and just say eight thirty tonight We're having a twenty minute discussion about the budget and do that two or three times a week. Seriously. Do it a while. Do it a lot at the beginning. So you guys get in the rhythm of just looking and talking and looking and talking. And sticking to it. Yes. but you have to you have to change that habit. And then as it goes on, you don't have to do that as much obviously. That's your household income So base is around two, fifteen and then usually around another. So would ask would I would just ask the question to myself. I would say If I'm I had somebody working for me that made two fifteen and they handled money, La way. This guy does what I fireem Please don't ask God to bless you If you're going to be mediocre in the handling of your money, he wants excellence So be excellent Treat this like it's your job And you guys are not dumb people. So sit down and put it all in the budget, y'all all talk about it and then by God stick to it. And then you're going to go through about ninety days of back and forth to get it all figured out and get the rough edges out. And you're doing all the winning. Yes, and you do all of this for the goal One of the biggest myths about money is that if you're winning with money, you're never supposed to spend any. That's not true. Some of the best money you'll spend is making memories with the people you love That's why I was excited to find out about Young Washington from Angel. This movie tells the story of George Washington before he became a general or president. It's about failure, perseverance, and leadership. And it's the kind of movie that's worth seeing on the big screen. And here's the best part. Angel has made it part of a bigger and better deal. inststead of just buying tickets at the box office You can get a premium Angel Gild membership for just fifteen dollars a month You'll get two tickets to Young Washington, access to Angel's familyily friendly streaming library, and free tickets to upcoming Angel Theatrical releases every month. The truth is the two tickets to Young Washington pay for the first month on their own. Celebrate America's two hundred fiftieth with a great movie this july fourth and a great deal. Sign up at angel dot com slash Ramsey. That's angel dot com slash Ramsey Welcome back to the Ramsay showh in the Fair Winds Credit Union studio. Adam is in Syracuse, New York. Hi Adam, what's up Hey, David Richchard, how are you guys doing better than we deserve. What's up? How can we help So a little bit of background I'm twenty six. My fiance's twenty seven About two years ago, we bought a house from my grandfather Got a pretty good discount on it Two years has passed, now we have about two hundred thousand dollars. and equity in the house we're planning on getting married soon. We've been thinking about just eloping and then we have a wedding date already set for november fifth of twenty twenty seven I have fifty five thousand dollars worth of debt currently. She doesn't have any debt right now. And we're thinking that If we get married soon, that We just Shell the house pay off my debt and then either rent for a little while or buy a lower priced house And I'm just trying to I feel like I'm more on the fence of actually doing the renting And I feel like she's just not She's a little more on the other side of it. What do you make and what does she make So I just got a pay increase of about twenty thousand. I'll be making seventy thousand now he makes. mid eighties, probably about eighty six Okay. So you, you have How much debt fifty thousand? fifty five. fifty five thousand. What's it What's it on, Adam So twenty six on a car loan and then thirty on student ms Okay The proper way to answer this is pretending that you all get married this weekend. And then this is what I would do. But I would not do anything else together until you're married. You quit paying people's bills that are your roommates And I don't care if it's your fiance or not. It's still your freaking roommate because you don't have any legal ties whatsoever And one of you just walks off or one of you, something happens to one of you or something like that and those things happen in life. Yeah, there's no repercussions, there's protection. So you're you're very, very vulnerable So yeah, if you want to do a celebration in November of twenty seventh That's fine, but I'd be married by the end of the weekend. Happy fourth of July. Woooo irew Okay so birthday and Adams That's right. anniversary. On the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary we got married. and so Yeah, and whose cars the twenty six thousand? it's my truck. Yeah. I'd sell your truck. I wouldn't sell your house Okay. to give a little more background on the house, the house was built in nineteen eighteen. You don't like the houseind We love the area and the property that we have, but we're not huge fans of the house itself. So if you were going to move anyways, that's one discussion. I would not move because of the debt, but if you guys don't like the house, And you want to do something living wise differently regardless of the debt then that's a totally different discussion. Yeah, but in that case, I would sell the house and buy a different house. and still sell the truck. And I'd still live on one of your incomes for the next year after you get married and just pay off pay off the debt or sell the truck and then live off one of your incomes. If want to keep the truck you need to pay off inside of a year and a half and the other debt too and keep the house. And then when that's done, then we'll talk about selling the house and moving to a different house with the equity. But selling the house to get out of debt is We rarely recommend that. No, almost never. Only in extreme situations where somebody's really going to be broke. But there doesn't need to be an our house and an hour hour anything becausecause you're not married, it's very, very dangerous Do this, folks So yeah, you do what you want to do, but if I were you I'd be married by the end the weekend and haveave a wonderful anniversary that we can always remember was the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of the United States of America. And there we go. Heha And you know you can make jokes about fireworks on your honeymoon the rest of your life, right? So anyway, the yeah, have some fun with it. But yeah, becausecause dude, y'all have been Everything but married for a very long time talkal like an old married guy I mean, you don't even sound like, you know, So you really do need to getet the stuff in the right order so that you don't get somebody doesn't get burned here Christina is in Cincinnati. Hi, Christina, how are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you all? Better than we deserve. What's up Praise Lord for that. So my husband and I are working baby stepps four through six And we were just curious on balancing and working the steps at the same time. So We have a plan built a plan bill as we work all three, but we were just curious if we should be prioritizing working one more aggressively than the other Before is set It's fifteen percent before you move on fifteen percent of your household income going into retirement but that one was set And then the only vacillation is between things that we want to do in the household because we're at intentional rather than intensity stage or do we need to save up and move up in car? Do we need be saving up for a vacation. those are kinds of competing things, right? And then you know, age and Aspirations of the kids for college You know, it's a completely different discussion about mayabbe step five if you have two people in high school versus two two year olds or two three year olds or something, right So he old are your kids? We have just one daughter and she's one. Okay Well there's no panic about baby Step five. and so if you in that situation wanted to just do something that was representative of having touched that base meaning we're going to put hundred dollars a month or two hundred dollars a month or something in a five twenty nine cents just to get started on it It's not really enough, but it'll get us started and then we're going to concentrate on knocking out the house That's what a lot of people do in your situation. Yeah. orr you look up and when the kids seven eight and be like, okay, what what's tuition looking like now? and what how aggressively you know, do we need to be saving for this? then, but yeah, I wouldn't be concerned. but I would open one and start putting a little bit of money just just to say Just say I did I'm on baby step five. Yeah. and you to be putting a lot in there and then attack the house. That's what most people do. What are y'all trying to do? What do are you thinking Christa? Well, so we do invest currently in a five hundred and twenty nine. We opened it pretty much after she was born, like the next month. And I think I'm in a unique situation where we're planning for life, but I actually work at a university. And one of the benefits that we receive is that dependents can attend for free Now I have to be employed at the time of attendance. So that's why we're kind of planning for life But I think that's kind of what we're trying to balance and then I know you guys talked about the fifteen percent for baby setep four, but with Roth IRAs, we're actually coming in closer to nineteen percent of our house loes. I wouldn't do that Okay, so we should kind of readjust that to fifteen percent to apply either to five or six. Until your house is paid off, ye Okay Perfect. Yeah, and I wouldn't, um I think you said it, Christina, but I agree with you on planning more of life happening because I don't want you feel like you have to be stuck in a job for eighteen years, right? If you just for your kid to get free tuition, right? Christina in five or six years, it may look different. So when youmost made They fired me when they were seventeen I actually gotten that call. Oh man. Wow. Good good job, you guys. Yeah. You're doing getting a young family and doing this. You're gonna be great. You're gonna to be in such good shape You really are doing great. Well done Let me tell you what I get asked all the time. When Should I get? Term life insurance. How much do I need? Is it affordable? Those are the right questions to be asking. So let's take a quick review. The fact is term life isn't a baby step. So if anyone is dependent on your income, you need to have ten to twelve times your income in life insurance now and most people are surprised by how affordable term life really is Even if you're not in perfect health. Look, I understand the hesitation since most insurance companies make it more of a hassle than it needs to be, notot Xander insurance. They're not an insurance company. They're broker that works for you. That means they'll shop and compare the top term life companies to find the most competitive options on the coverage for your family For almost thirty years. I've recommended Xander for straight answers, competitive rates and coverage that actually protects your family. Call eight hundred three five six four thousand two eighty two or go to Zander dot com for a quick and easy quote. That's Zander dot com If your private student loans are in default, that means you've fallen so far behind that the loan is considered unpaid. Why ReI might be able to help Yy Refi helps borrowers in tough situations explore low fixed rate refinancing options that fit their budget. Go to Yrefi d. com slash Ramsy. That's the letter Y R EFY dot com slash Ramseay might not be in all states. Today's question comes from Brett in Kansas. My wife and I are currently paying off eighty thousand dollars of debt. At what point can we start to budget for a little bit of fun? We have been working nonstop to pay this off and want to add some fun money to the budget Oh, it's a great question. and eighty thousand dollars, that's a long trek, right? depending on what you guys make. could be a couple of years. And so You know, one thing that we have found that helps a lot of families when's when there's a lot of debt, a massive amount of debt is After certain debts are paid and you guys look up and say, okay, after we climb this mountain or after we do this when it comes to the numbers, Just to have like a breather, to find something that you not expensive and not you know that's going to cost you guys a lot, but like what's one thing we can do to enjoy ourselves that we can look forward to. And sometimes that's like something for free, right that you just plan and you're going make this thing special But I would say to be able to piece it out, when you look at the whole thing, I feel like it can be very overwhelming When you find these milestones within the eighty thousand dollars journey, that's helpful. But also the math is the math. And the deeper you sacrifice, the more money that goes to this debt, the faster you are going to pay it off. So if you go take a trip or something or may you pay off a debt, it's not going to work. not going work. I can never tell when someone asks the question this way whether they are just whining Wang, get over yourself or whether they really have been going like a hundred hours a week And they really haven't even bought a jar of mustard. I mean, you know like what what part of theream are they on? Right R If you're on the whining side and you're just, oh, grow up, shut up, fun is not defined by spending. You know If you're on the other side, yeah, don't do what Rachel said, Set yourself a milestone and go, Okaykay, we're going to go buy chick fililet with coupons and that's our big woohoo when we when we knock out that particular debt Okay because we've not been out to eat and we're going but we're going to go do that. But you know, what's interesting is is that we define fun as with money. When can we do something fun When you do something fun doesn't necessarily require money But it's like the only way we can have fun is if we have money spending going on Well, that's not true. We all know that's shallow and not accurate So don't define fun as necessarily spending So let's go throw the Frisbee in the park. That's fun. The one we've already got. you don't go buy one The Frisbee, okay And whatever. I don't care, but you know, is you know, but we define fun as I want to go on a cruise You know And no, you can't do that. You're broken eighty thousand dollars in debt. If that's what you're talking about, no But if you're talking about, I'm going toes where you have to get creative because I do know, you know, how fun is going to the movies, it's going to the zoo with the kid. likeike all of this costs money to go and do experiences or to go do something for a lot of things. But what you're saying is exactly right. findind Find the joy in life. L when you can do that, contentment starts to build and that gets magnified as you build wealth too, which is an amazing characteristic to have. So Yeah, what are the things that you can do is a game night, you know, as a family, is it going on s like, go go do something Go live your life and have a great life. It doesn't have to cost a lot. Yeah. I mean think about families that never that lived in a time when you could not purchase fun I mean, you were stuck with family monopoly You had to play mononopoly with your family That was the only thing you could do, becauseuse I mean, jigsaw puzzles. you were stuck with that. Remember COVID? when you were stuck in there with your family and you couldn't do anything? Be people found wayays to spend money then anyway. online shopping stacks of wine bottles outside their doorway. But yeah. But anyway, yeah Be careful how you define fun. It's a good point. Yeah. Eve is in Memphis. Hi Eve. how are you? fine, thank you for taking my call. Sure, What's up So there the background? My husband and I have been in education for years and I mean our own education and have followed unpredictable work, moving internationally and really genuinely not having a savings margin for a lot of our life And so we don't really have a habit for that and and I'm We're wanting to get on the same page for that. But I grew up watching my dad go bankrupt twice from day trading on borrowed house equity makes me scary, rare of risk. and my husband had the oppited background of you know, growing up pretty humbly and family saving and very boring savings accounts and bonds. And I feel like now we've going in the off direction. he's drawn to crypto and IPO's, and he feels like he's older and he's had to wait so long to have the margin to invest that he wants a fast return And he is reasonable that like We're both scientists. We like to see this full picture and get a full understanding and I feel like I'm lost with trying to figure out everything. And with his hours, he doesn't have time to sit down with people Yeah, so, you know, I think I think it's a good idea with his hours that he sits down with you and he sits down with people Be he's getting ready to make some huge mistakes Yeah, I just feel like when I do the research myself, he listens, but like I'm not confident enough to explain it back to him clearly. He wants it like and I think So you let's pretend for a second. Let's pretend that we actually because you sit down across the table from both of you and say Hey, u your parents had it wrong. They never invested. They only saved You have to invest. And by the way, Eve's parents, obviously had it wrong They they traded into bankruptcy twice with the home equity And and both of those things are influencing these decisions in a toxic way And then you add to that. he's decided he's going to be desperate and rash whichich one I'm desperate and rash because it's coming at me. I don't I'm late. I'm late to the game. I'm late to the game. so I have to play catch up. I'm going to swing for the fence I'm going to try to hit home runs only. you're going to strike out As soon as I get that desperate The way your husband is sounding, I get stupid And it sounds like he's getting stupid Crypto stupid It's a stupid swing for the fence Okay, dayay trading, stupid. It's a swing for the fence. but also not investing and instead just saving Like his parents does. It's stupid. So Rachel, your book We've got to send it to them. known yourself, know your money 'cause their family of origins are really impacting this. Yeah, of the fear and the motivation of what's going on But then you got to get Beyond that Eve and I would want to know from him like what What what what is that motivation? Like I know I understand that he feelspert. Well, that he feels like He doesn't have enough time, but if you guys ran out numbers in an S and P five hundred to see where you guys would be because how old are you all So I'm forty, He's forty eight. Okay. so I'm just curious to say like yeah, in the next twenty years if you did, the saafe Route get pretty much guaranteed What's your we going to have So income and like net take home right now is about eleven thousand a month. Okay. And so what if we put away two thousand dollars a month That's what I kind of want to do. and I think where I think he's Like we could we need to rer some numbers of budgets. We've got some money getting freed up now We have a kid who was in private school who's going to a public high school. you know so we have margin. I can see the margin coming. We've agreed we're going to save up the emergency fund first. E if you put two thousand dollars a month in just an S and P five hundred, which is an investment in the stock market, but it's not a day trade and it's not crypto average annual rate of return of the stock market in the United States since it began is eleven point eight percent. If it averaged eleven percent And you put two thousand dollars away from age forty to age sixty seven, you'd have four million dollars we have That's what you should be doing to consider about as well. So I think, you know, we haven't been saying for for college. Yeah. I think we kind of need a to look, we need a succinct succinct relatively succinct way to see what are the investment strategies? What are the ways to to do this and what point we should think about And that requires sitting down with someone that knows something that you all don't know Yeah, check out smmart invvestor at Ramsylutions. com and sit down with with a financial planner who gets excited. about watching your money grow, right? They're not anti that kind of thing. They're pro all of that. And look at the big picture and it's wisdom. And I feel like that's what's scaring me about his decisions is it feels immature, it does not feel wise This show is sponsored by Better Help. Summer is here and listen, everything changes this time of year. The kids are out of school, the routines go out the window, you're traveling more, you're for sure sleeping less. And if you're not careful, you and your family can end up running on fumes. Here's the truth. If you don't slow down this summer and take care of yourself, all that stress is not just going to disappear. It's going to show up in your body and your work in your relationships, your patients. It's going to show up everywhere This is why I'm a big fan of Better Help BetterHelp is an online therapy platform that matches you with a licensed therapist based on your goals and preferences. All of their therapists follow a strict code of conduct and you can message your therapist or schedule sessions right in the BetterHelp app. If it's not the right fit, you can switch therapist at any time for no extra cost. Listen, you don't have to carry everything all by yourself this summer. betteretterhelp d. com slash Ramsay to get ten percent off Better Help HGLP dot com slash Ramsy Bill is in Austin, Texas. Hey Bill, what's up Hey, Miss. Ramsay Miss Cru. I appreciate you guys taking call. Sure. How can we help? So I'm trying to get on the same page with my girlfriend here. And we're trying to start saving money. I want to obviously start planning for our future. I think we just can't get on the same page every time I bring up finances it often turns into a confrontation So I'm just trying to figure out the best way to go about it and show her what we're looking at financially because we've really never sat down together and looked at it as a whole I just want to see what you guys how long have you all been based on my finances U We've been dating for two and a half years Okay, how old are you guys? I'm twenty six and she's twenty eight. Okay. Okay And so when you start talking about you know, someday when we're married, we're going combine finances and this is what it looks like, it turns into a confrontation. What does that mean So basically, like I obviously want to start planning for our future and stuff like that. and I've told her that and she doesn't want to obviously take any steps. to start planning for our future because we're not married. Now, I know obviously you've said not to you know, get on into houses and cars and stuff together until you're married, and I've already made that mistake. But wait, wa, wait. You you've already made that mistake. You bought a house together Yeahes, so I worked for a homeber. I don't care. You bought a house together.nt Make sure I understand what you're saying Yes, sir. And you both cars together I own my And then I'm on yeah, I'm on hers as well. Yeah. And so And you're shocked that this woman doesn't want to talk to you about money anymore until you marry her. Of course she doesn't. Well yeah, I just now She's tired of when all you I know I just want to feel like it's going to be you b a house. I think that marriage slips a switch, you know, and then it's like all right, well now we have to You're buying a house That's not like a little small step Like this isn't like we shared coupons at Costco bought a freaking house, man. Okay so And then you bought a car for her and it's in your name and she feels insecure about you talking about the future without a ring on her finger. Well, no kidding, dude This is you Yeah. I've been thinking about, you know, yeah, I know I' talking about obviously marriage and stuff it just scares me because I'm like I mean bought a house I we've been basically married, but how do youca how do you kind of scared about marriage after you bought a house together Because the house is not a life. it So I know. Yeah, I just don't want to feel like that' a mortgage company. G gonna to flip the switch in her, you know, in her Yeah in her mind that wow, okay, now we're married now we need to save money. It's like, why aren't we saving money right now? Okay, so is the saving the money, the tension point that you're wanting to put money away and she just wants to spend Is that one of the j ones Yeah, it's tention point on that. She owes money back to the IRS. so I'm trying to tell her, hey, you know, this this can really screw us You know, in the long run, if they start garnishing her wages and everything like that. So like we got to get on top of that. She's making minimum payments, but like we need to start you know, taking it more serious And okay, you know, I'm trying to all right I'm I'm going to quit I'm going to quit beating on you. What would I do if I were in your shoes twowo of you need to schedule a meeting with a marriage counselor this week And I want you to begin pre marriage counseling. and decide if you're going to get married And if you can align enough on your finances in order to spend your life together And then you either need to pull the plug on this thing and sell the house in the car and go on your merry way. or you need to get married as soon as you can get aligned. And I'm talking a month from now. You're going need to make a decision. because you're trying to handle all of this while she feels like she's dangling on the end of a hook like a worm over a bass And she's tired of it because yeah. She's tired of it And she doesn't know how to. You're not in a seat to tell her what to do about anything You're just the boyfriend. So you guys cannot, you know, you can't go. If it's your wife, the two of you can sit down and go, Hey, we're the two of us' going to attack this IRS thing because this is going to screw us. So your statement would be correct then They were trying to make a statement from a position of The power that you don't position a seat that you're not sitting in. Yeah Yeah. understand. I know, you want everybody to be on the same track. I pay for the house and everything. I pay for everything, you know, for the house. I pay for the house, I pay for my car, water, treashure, you know, everything that comes to the house, I pay for auto insurance What does she make for everything? What does she make? So She makes three thousandars per month and then she makes commission depending on sales that she makes. So in your premarriage counseling, if you're going to go do what I tell you to do, you guys need to sit down and do a mock budget that says if we were married, we would put all of our money on the table and here's what we would do with our money. We would pay the house payment, we pay the car payment, we pay the IRS We would eat our money would be shared and we would make decisions together that are wise and going forward. But you're starting to regret, you're starting to resent her for not carrying her half of the load. and yet you signed this deal up Yes. You made this mess And Bill, I would also leave with a lot of humility too. Yeah. I feel like, you know, you're pointing at her. you're going to screw this up. If you don't if you're just doing minimum payments It felt a little I understand what you're saying. You have an urgency, but the urgency can come off as very shameful and down putting and you have itt figured out and she doesn't. Do you know what I mean like the emotional intelligence of I think a healthy marriage is both sitting down and like, okay, what what's your desire?ere's my desire. Here's what'm thin. Here's the story that I've made up in my head, Bill is that you think I suuck with money and and I have to get this right for you to marry me, to make me worthy of marriage. Am I not worthy? No? I don no, like there can be so many things attached to this And you guys got you got to walk through all of that U I would beforefore you get married, I would go to a pre marriage counselor today And I would get these get to the get to the down to get to the ro at all. Yeah. And let's see if we can get aligned and then very, very quickly get married or let's start taking this thing apart. becausecause if I'm her My car is attached to this guy. Y My home is attached to this guy I make three thousand a month And here he is oe the IRS. Here he is telling me what I need to be doing Now after he signed me up for all this, he still he still resents me because he has to pay for everything. Yep. And do I and if I don't know, there would be a lot, I think there that she may not even realize. I don't know. Um And she feels she feels hung out to dry You know, and no, she don't want to talk about the future with you because the present with you sucks Of course not I mean, it's not good. it's all good in to.. But Bill Bill is try I hear you, Bill. like because and because we have some people that they're so hardcore with I mean obviously not our principes because he went and bought a house and was some but like people are so I mean, their motivation is good of like, I want to save money. I want to be responsible and I want these things, but you end up comoming off very unattractive, very controlling, kind of shameful. When you do it out of order, particularly. Yeah, yeah. So there has to be a lot of humility in this. and you guys need to get on the same page. And she's going to be different than you too, Bill when it comes to money. She might be a spender Always and you may be the saor, alwaysways. And that is the dynamic, which is beautiful. In in marriage, you need each other. So that's a good thing. She doesn't need to turn into you, but she does need to be a responsible adult too. So I hear I hear that side of it Oh, man. Bill. ing on she's the one if she's the one. The only shot you've got at this is not continuing like it is And it's not just go get married this weekend either because you've got a mess. you don't know what you're getting into. So you guys need to get some good coaching, some good counseling from a good marriage counselor and settle in and get married very quickly as soon as you can make a decision twenty need to make a decision seven she's dangling on the end of hook and she's tired of it I promise you, that's what's going on I promise you And you know, that's the way it is. Open phones at tri eight, eight, two, five, five, two, two, five practical ways to save time and mental energy, especially during the summer when life gets busy. Between vacations, camps, deliveries, travel plans, online shopping, and trying to keep everyone organized, my mental load can get pretty full. That's one of the reasons why I love Delete Me. 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Wow I mean, no car payment No master Card No American distress, no discovered bondage No fleeced vehicles, no student loan that's been around so long you think it's a pet What do it feel like to have no house payment? No payment What could you do if you were out of debt anything you want How fast you'd become wealthy I mean, Baby Steps millionaires get there fast. If you follow the Baby Steps, it's the fastest way to get out of debt and become wealthy and outrageously generous. If you live like no one else later, you can live and give like no one else. If you want to learn how to do that, the everyvery dollar app will teach you everything you need to do and it'll put you on a budget to help you do it You are in control of your life and your budget So why don't you do something with it You track your progress, you get personalized recommendations, you get coaching for your situation, you do it the ramsy way on every dollar. You can start it for free. in the app store, or Google playl Pages in Denver, Hi Page. How are you? I'm doing all right. Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure, How can we help So my husband was recently, his position was eliminated after several years with a Christian organization and So we are he's actively looking for a job, but we have some medical debt. I have a child that has a chronic illness. so we have monthly bills for his care. And so I have a little less than three thousand dollars in medical debt right now. We have four months reserve. We do not have any debt except our home But how much is the four months reserve? How much money is that U I have about fifteen thousand Okay rightight now and then how long ago was your husband laid off He was He was let know in April. his kind of contract ended this last month and now he's been given two and a half month severance so he's known about this for months upon months upon months. What type of What work was he doing in the ministry U Christian education So he's been actively looking and applying for jobs. So hopefully and there are a few things that he's got on the horizon But we have these medical bills so I'm trying to figure out how to pay those off the best. I understand like the snowball method and I was going to No that doesn't work. None of that works. Right now everything. Okay. Right now everything's on hold till he gets a job. Right. Are you working outside the home I do, I just I work with the same organization and so I I'm looking for some other options. I think it's possible that my position feels a little precarious right now as well. That's probable Right. So U So yeah, we're just trying to figure out, I've called the medical, I've called billing for all of it. It doesn't matter. It's only three thousand dollars. Right You could write a you could write a check today but I'm not going to Right, That's my question. What do I do? how do we move on from here? We wait, we wait and we go get income Both of us go get income now No, is he a was he teaching or was he in administration He was in administration Does he have a The ability to start doing online teaching is a side hustle starting tonight, ready set go Sure.. Yeah. I mean, I think sign up. Stf Start being professor to some online classes tonight You can sign up for those immediately. income will start coming immediately. I want him to load up on that while he's looking And turn the television off or throw a brick through it. No wasting time right now ure Okay. No wasting time Inome. I want some interim income until he lands the next gig because until then we're in limbo and Limbo is scary as Kud isn't it Paage Indeed. So what's what yeah, because he was laid off in April, right? And he said they all had two months of severance. No. Okay. So so you're ending yeah, so you're calling at the end of or the beginning of July when the severances He No, he was paid out. So he was paid out through his contract, which was the end of June. So now we are starting the two and half month. Okay. That's good. Okay. So you have July and August of severance. which the way I look at that is if he lands something this week That's two and a half months signing bonus to the next gig. Yeah. R G R. It's flush money, it's gravy money, it's extra money and we write a check, pay off the. And but so what you what you're dealing with and it's a fair thing that you're dealing with though, is my child has an illness And right. I've got this financial stress and We've all or, you know, he's lost his income. I'm probably going to. So you've got a lot of angst in the air. And what I'm trying to do is get the get something controlled. the faster some kind of money starts coming in Okay. Even if it's not the permanent solution The lower your anxiety goes Okay. Yes And we have we've met our out of pocket deductible for the year So and that is part of his severance, he'll be they're going to cover coobra for us through the end of the year. So We like we're not going to incur any more medical bills. Well, you're probably going to get a health package at the next place and he's probably going to land that in the next thirty days. And he's working hard to do. so it's just a tricky time. Yeah, it's just scaryil tricky, rightal Wal in the Grand Canyon on a freaking tight rope. I mean, this is scary. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think you're going to be okay. I don't hear anything that panics me, but I can relate to your anxiety and I think your anxiety is valid Right. But I don't I don't want it to be my activator And so what we're going to do is we're going to protect the fifteen thousand. Yeah, but the answer is we don't pay the three thousand. pay the three thousand a today, protect the fifteen thousand, protect the severance, cut everything out of your budget, go to beans and rice, rice and beans. you're not going out to eat We're not going celebrate the severance check You know unless it's with water and cereal, right? I mean, so we're going we're going to we're going the storm is here. We're putting plywood on the windows and when the storm passes, we'll take the plywood down. That's what we're doing. And we feel like we've kind of we've been taking those steps. I think it's just a matter of do I call these medical nes and say I can't do it. justust let it run They're useless they don't care I'm finding, it's been really frisating. Yeah, you're notal you're talking to intelligent life So we just let it sit until something lands and then pay it off They'll use the fact that you called and try to turn on your honor and turn on everything else to get you to go ahead and pay it They'll sh they'll shame you. Mon't they one hundred percent.. that's what they do. Yeah. We've had I mean, already, somebody say, well, we won't make another appointment until you pay this bill. And I've said, but I am paying like I have making we've been making. Well, I won't make another appointment with you anyway. I'm tired of you people. I think we'll go somewhere else I I can handle that. It's just a we just feel like we've been in this stricky place. and so I've do I just My medical professional actually said that Was that a collector or the actual administrator in the office? It was no, it was a billing department. Yeah, that's bull. They don't have control of the appointments That was complete BS. So it sounds like we are just the best thing is to hold tight. Exactly Re Exactly. And I'm just trying to give you some information to that make that normalizes where you are to where it doesn't feel quite so sketchy The billing department doesn't make appointments. they're full of crap. They were just trying to collect a bill and they make up stories and they shame and they do whatever else just heck with that And yeah he gets a job, but he's got a game on. I mean, get part time income, short term income, long term income, income, income, income, income. bothoth of you L your hair's on fire Because the faster you stack cash, the lower your stress goes and the better he interviews When you walk in to interview and you're scared to death for your house being foreclosed on, you don't interview as well as when you walk in with cash stacked in the bedroom. You walk different and you talk different. yourour octave is different in your voice. everythingvery changes You have zero swagger when you're desperate. And you don't want to do that. You don't because you're not attractive higher point scares people when you're scared So you guys, that's why I'm telling you, go get some income And it it'll help him close the deal on the permanent grade and it'll probably get an upgrade his in his job Wow. Sorry you guys are facing that. We're on your team though We're here to help you. If you need us again, you call any time When I started, I had great ideas and I knew how to serve people, but I didn't have systems in place yet. At that time I saw books out of the trunk of my car. It was a lot harder to start a business back then. Shopify makes it easier. Shopify is the business platform powering millions of businesses and about ten percent of all e commerce in the United States. If you've got a product or even just an idea, Shopify makes it simple to get moving. You can build a storefront, write product descriptions and even improve your product photos all in one place. You don't need ten different systems taped together. Shopify handles everything you need to make sales from payments to marketing and analytics. Plus that purple shop pay button is one of the best converting checkouts on the planet for fewer abandoned carts And if you get stuck, Shopify offers twenty for seven support. So if you've been sitting on the sidelines, it's time to turn those ideas into Sign up for your one dollar per month trial at shopify dot com slash Ramsey. That's shopify dot com slash Ramsy. shhopify dot com slash Ramsy Welcome back to the Ramsay showhow in the Fair Winds Credit Union stududio. I'm Dave Ramsseay, your host, Rachel Cruz, Ramsay personality. My daughter is my co host today Johnans is calling us from Australia, Hey Yhans, what's up Hello there D, not not much yourself Better than I deserve, sir. How can we help That's great. Dave, I have a basic question here for you. I am I'm a carpent apprentice and I have a me and my wife have a yearly income of seenty one thousand dollars and one and a half thousand dollars. We are struggling to make ends meet at this stage. We've been over the last twelve months we've been tipping into our savings just d. just to try and stay afloat Um And one of my concerns is involving car insurance that I have for my youth and if I invested prematurely Okay. Um So do you have debt Well, yesterday morning, when I called first, I thought no. and then after thinking about it, said, I do I I have a step pay account with Cornwealth, which is a small credit card It has about four hundred dollars on it. I mainly use it for fuel U the only reason I opened it up is to pay an electricity bill. Um And then I have a personal loan for my dad of three thousand dollars And then I got a month to month phone plan paying my wife's phone Yeah, that's not. that's utilities. Okay All right. And so seventy one thousand, seventy two thousand dollars coming in U so six thousand dollars a month And how much is your rent or your mortgage We are renting it's four, forty weeks. So eight thousandeen hundred bucks a month, does that sound right That's correct. Okay. And what I don't know the tax rates and so forth in Australia. Out of seventy two thousand dollars a year, how much do you get taxed So that's the net income the tax that Oh that's a net of tax largely under them That's nich. Oh good. Okay All right, so we've got six thousand dollars a month to operate from. We've got about two thousand going out in rent Uil it leaves us four thousand to do everything else with. Does that sound correct Okay. whereere would you say it's going Is there one big expense or is it a bunch of little things for the majority is a bunch of little things. the biggest expenses here is obviously groceries, which which countounting up the average groceries we've spent the last few months on a month to month basis is about seventeen hundred bucks U that because we got two kids as well as as three ps. So nappies and babyws and stuff like that can get quite pricey here. U And then for work, because I have to travel out of town quite often, I've been spending a minimum of one hundred and fifty dollars a week on field And then utilities are the other big one It's about six hundred dollars every three months. For power and about two hundred dollars every three months for water. So that's eight hundred dollars. So what has what has changed dramatically in the last year that put the pinch on So we were living in Stanthorpe, a small country town and we moved about thirteen months ago, we moved to a bigger city, which for my job, which increased the rent and Well just about everything else to be honest. Yeah. cost of living is higher there than it is out in the country. Yeah, that makes sense. Does your income go up for the move? It did, but my wife isn't currently working She's a stay at home mom She's got a bunch of undiagnosed medical issues that were trying to sort out Are she working in the other place U no, sir. So so that didn't change. Well, she receives a like a state income like anning payments. R. So with my with my pay going up, her pay from the state went down dramatically. So did you you ended up netting less by moving or netting more between her going down, you going up We ended up neting slightly less whiley moving. so and and your call and your call saw went up our costs of living went not dramatical yes Can you move back Can you go back to where you were? You were better off before the move. was I was definitely. unfortunately, that's not really an option for us at this stage becausecause of your job. Yes, yes, sir because of my job I'm doing aifts I'm doing it sorry. I'm doing a carpenter apprenticeship, which is a fourull year based job. How far into the four hours are you U I mean just over a year now, so Okay. Three more years of that. And then what does life look like after that Um well, life life after that I'll obvious be qualified and I want to get a few more building certificates behind my name so I can eventually G up like eventually move on to my career. Okay. inc for three years, does your income jump After I finished my apprenticeship Y it jumped about estimation about twenty five to thirty a year, Nit. Okay. So you almost, it's like you guys have three years of this way of life. Yes Yes. Yeah which I Yeah. no, no, you're good. you're good you're good. whichich is a good thing because at least you have an end date that you're like, okay Hang the seventeen hundred, if hang we cut that to thirteen hundred. Like right if you can just find these small cuts and it's gonna strain It's concering you it' not going gonna be fun. Yeah mayaybe even rent something cheaper than what you are I mean, I don't know. anything you can do to get closer to balance. Nothing you're describing your current situation is a difficult situation to prosper in, but it is an okay situation to hang out in until we finish the apprenticeship It's like saying, you know in the states, we'd say you're in college for three years more And when you get out of college, well then you go then your income goes up. now we go into prosperity mode. But right now you're just paying a price to go win with this apprenticeship But I think I'm going to look around and go you know, um, Finish up her diagnosis so that you can figure out What she's struggling with And then what opportunities she's got to create some kind of income that might be better than the state income? That's probably not hard to do. than what she's making onnce she's got some health her health back Um and and then anything you're allowed to do whileile in the apprenticeship as a side hustle I'd be picking up. An anything I can do to cut my expenses like rent and other things, I'm going do that. But if you don't do much if you don't have much progress as long as you don't go backwards. Yes, the dipping into savings is where I would it make it a goal to don't do thatight from an income expenses And it's just for three years, right? For three years. this is what this has to look like. And then, oh my gosh It opens up. thirty grand changes her life It sure does You spend hours researching before making a major purchase like a home or car, but it's also a good idea to put in the work searching for the right insurance coverage. To protect your biggest assets, I recommend using Ramsy Trusted Pros. Whether you're looking for car, home or any other type of insurance, Ramsay trrusted providers have been coached and vetted to serve you like we would Find what you need at Ramsysutions. com sl insurance Nick is with us in New York. Hi, Nick. how are you Hi guys, thanks in advance for your help. Sure. What's up? Okay, so here's my problem. My wife She's been to a number of different dentists. so it's been an evolving problem, not evolving. she's been getting the same diagnosis for a number of years, but we haven't really known what to do about it. They' basically we've seen a few dentists that have all said the same thing. She needs to have like a total mouth reconstruction. And it's phenomenally expensive. We don't have dental insurance. it's out of pocket The quotes are from like seventy thousand to one hundred fifty thousand dollars that we would either I mean, I don't know what to do about it. I don't know. I mean, Technically, I could take money out of my retirement and pay for it. We do have quite a big emergency fund that could probably pay for it, but that leaves us like wiped out then My sort of preference is to to figure out a way to pay it incrementally, like twenty thousand year or something like that. But I don't know I just don't know how to go about it I'm not really sure what you know my inclination would be to get a bunch of credit cards how much is in your emergency fund? Whike's eighty grand. Okay I think how urgent is the surgery? What is the I mean, this obviously a tremendously painful thing It's going to be awful. No, I mean, currently she's in pain, right Well yeah, I mean like basically her bite has collapsed. so her teeth hit each other and the enamel wears away. so she gets a lot of cavities Her teeth are all loose from sort of hitting each other incorrectly.. So it's not fun. And she can't bear the idea of spending all this money on the out of pocket on I want her to get it done because I want her to be happy and healthy I also what is your household amount of money? It's she doesn't work and I'm a freelancer and it varies. It varies from about one hundred and forty to two hundred thousand dollars a year I mean, theoretically we could tighten the belt and probably pay for it this year But that would be really. C could you pay for C you cash flow some of it and take some out of the emergency fund? Yeah Yeah, Well I could pay for the whole thing out of the emergency topend that the emergency fund to zero, which I understand is the point of the emergency fund, but c or cash flow some of it and take it down to twenty thousand, right? cash flow the rest of the surgery.' When I run into something like this, The biggest problem is that I I feel like I don't know What's going on and I've got to figure out enough of what's going on to make a wise decision Okay. so far you've gotten this wide variety of Um, Solutions from seventy to one hundred fifty thousand, right Right. And so that alone get if I'm in your shoes That throws up red flags for me and I says, Okaykay, I've got to understand What the difference in seventy and hundred fifty thousand is. Why is that there? Is it because the dentist is, you know, one of them is a Bentley salesman and one of them's a Chevrolet salesman Why is that? Because that's true in dentistry. There's a wide variety of the way people approach things The techniques that they use, the machinery that they have, that the equipment that they have, how much they think of themselves How much practice management has gone into jacking you up and it's all over the place and the world clients are and their clients are. Yeah. exactly. So I'm going to, I mean, on something like this, You know, it could be that you that she goes to Kansas City to get the work done Inead of what I was advocating. trying to find Yeah. That's a good point Caper dentist in a smaller market. you And it's not cheaper in quality But it's just someone that has a more commalon s approach toel than New York City. You know what I mean? Beause this is a big enough thing that it's worth a few plane tickets and a few hotel stays U If you sa once you saved one hundred do look at that Nick for as an option, did you price out other areas of the country? I have. I mean, I have I haven't taken it to like going to going to Des Moines yet. But But like I have, you know, like I've looked in a bunch of different places and one of the cheaper ones we found is in Florida near Miami. That's the seventy thousand dollars. Okay. then I want to know why it's cheaper. and I want to learn enough about this do this. So, you know, like one of my buddies, About two years ago I was diagnosed with cancer And the good news is he's doing great, but he didn't know anything about cancer and now he's a good gum cancer expert You know, because he's just studied it because he had to to stay alive, you know and to understand the treatment options and the protocols and the prognosis. And when someone says stage two or three, what do they really mean? And we hear all that stuff, but you suddenly matters when it's you, like you know, the definition of major surgery is surgery on me. You know, that's that right? so this is This is all of a sudden it matters. So I'm going to learn a lot more. And and I'm going to do that because I want to gather enough information to make an intelligent decision and also to not get screwed over by an industry that doesn't mind overcharging Right And the dentry the dental industry has a component to it Not everyone, but there are members of it that don't mind overcharging Right. And so I'm going to learn about all of that. and And hey, you know what? I'm going put you on hold. I have been endorsing a dental operation in Dallas, Texas, just outside Dallas Texas and Granberry, Granberry dental for Almost twenty years on a local on a local Dallas radio station endorsement And I know those guys and I'm going put you on hold and we're going to connect you with them and just let them let them teach you and let them put in a bid God help us if that's what we want to call it, right. Yeah. Or at least they'll give you advice as like a I do trust those guys. I've known them a long time And if I had to do something like that, thatd be that'd be one of the people I would talk to. Anyway. so okay just made a national ad out of a local, but anyway hang on and we'll get you set up with that. So I want to learn because until I understand enough of the basic components of this I am cynical and I worry about getting screwed Me too. Once you get that once you get that settled, you write the check out of the emergency fck use the emergency fund. And you get your wife's health back. Okay. Yeah. And then you guys build it back and just fill it back. Yeah Yeah, because eighty thousand dollars may much toooo much anyay. So you guys can always go to three to four months. You know what I mean? It won't take you forever to build it back. And but even if you use seventy of the eighty If that ends up being where you are and you're down to ten and you rebuild and your wife's got her health back and this whole thing is in the rearview mirror. It's worth it. That's how I would do it Okay. All right, that's very helpful. But I'm not doing it except in the context of all the other stuff we said for the last five minutes Okay. Yeah. In other words, I know what's going on And so u because u Yeah I don't have any doubt this lady has issues, okay? because multiple people look at it. But I have had customers over the years that said, you know, the doctor told me if I didn't have this twenty thousand dollars dental surgery that I wasn't going to have my teeth. And then they go to three other doctors and they go, no, You're fine Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. And she's obviously gotten multiple opinions over the course of time that like That's first thing is you start to get enough Yeah other people looking at it to call BS on the others, you know. So but u And Yeah, that's true in anything. whether you know, if I'm dealing with a legal matter, I'm not going to just accept One lawyer of that says you're screwed No, I think I'm not Yeah. think you're a lawyer. But but that's a part of of life of big decision making anyways. Gathering information Multiple options. When you're shopping for a house have multiple ones that you that you're looking at C shopping, go drive multiple before youy you know what I mean? Like that that's a wisdom play anyways and especially something this high dollar with health attached to it Yeah, you definitely want to make sure that someone's not just out prricing you because they're in Manhattan and they can. 'Cause if they can, they're doing it, you know, but if you can find something else worth it. Well, I hope I hope it goes well. N t it save you twenty grand. Yeah. and I hope that yeah, her health and all of that, I hope it stsone becauseuse that has to be Not a fun thing Oh, I can't live with on a daily basis. I have the pain tolerance of a, nothing.'ve I've been a little girl here. A little baby girl. Yeah Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on the show we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now you can get that same kind of help anyim with ask Ramsey Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsy principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, ask Ramsy is here to help It's fast, simple and free to use. Go to Ramsysolutions d. com and try ask Ramsay today. That's Ramsysolutions d. com Well, you can't control the market, but you can control how you invest and if you invest with confidence twowo years ago, we did for the first time, something we've never done. I opened my personal investing playbook and went through some of my real estate purchases, how I decide that I went through how I decide about any investment, the ones I've decideed to stay away from and why. And George Campbell and I put that together and did that as a virtual two night event called Investing Essentials We've only done it two times. We're going to do it againgain It's The third time Sptember first and second My playaybook and George Campll. That's simple And we're going to go into taxes, navigating whs and and building a lasting legacy as well basic on the estate planning stuff Ticket start at one hundred and ninety nine dollars. Get yours today at Ramsyslutions dot comot slash events, or click the link in the show notes if you're listening on podcast or YouTube Hi Kim is in Dallas. Hi Kim, how are you Hey day, how are you, I'm good. Good. What's up quick question. I'm in a program to purchase a home It's no down payment, no closing costs, no payI Oh the catch is there is a lien on the home for five years And each year year're in the house, it goes down. But Completely debt free. I have about six, seven months of savings D I focus more on building up my retirement or getting a convventional loan or going continuing the route that I'm on Is this some kind of a government first time home buyer program or what? No, it's a legitimate program. No, I't Is it a government first time homeber It's a private company It's private company I guess you can call it private. I don't know, it feels. feeleels like a government first time home buyer program No, it's I don't want to say the name, but it's They help a lot of people get into homes. It's a nationwide program Yeah, and it's u Yeah, it's an actual program. but it's been pretty successful from what I've been seeining Okay Well, it doesn't, It feels very risky. It feels risky. Just say the name. It's Maka N ICA N ACA, okay, not familiar with them. Okay All right. Lans on homes and nothing down. Nothing down, no PMI. this scares me. okay And it scares me because if something happens during the five years, you could really end up seriously trapped here U And and the other thing that I don't know the program. so I don't know details. Neighborhood resistance Corporation of America. It's a nonprofit help own ar Yeah. Yeah. But anything that sounds too good to be true usually is is my experience And this sounds a little wacky Agreed I really don't agree because I know someone is in one of their homes. so It's highly unusual, wouldn't you say Well a point but they used to have the PMI and then they removed PMI and put the did the lien requirement And what it is, it's a twenty five thousand dollars lien and each year you're in it it reduces by five thousandars. So you have to be there at least five years. What price range? I'm looking at probably about the two hundred and fifty in my area And they're taking a two they're only taking a ten percent lean Well, that's just me in other areas you could be A million, it just depends on where you're at Well, I I don't I'm not going to say anything disparaging about them because I don't know anything about them. And I dont I don't know enough to tell you to do it or to not do it my tendency in general is to say, I'm going to buy if I don't have any money, I probably shouldn't be buying a home becausecause that's going to put you into a pinch because home ownership on a monthly basis is more expensive than renting. Like your air conditioner breaks and you don't have a landlord to fix it, you be the landlord. Your roof goes out And you got to put a a roof on the thing. You know, the h hot water here blows. The stove goes out and welcome to owning a house. The more stuff you own, the more repairmen you have to know And so if you're moving to this, you don't have any money and No, I would not be investing while I'm doing a nothing down home deal. Absolutely not. I'd be stacking cash as high as I could stack a big emergency fund to make sure I had a massive emergency fund and Um In general, and again, I don't know enough about this to tell you not to do it. It sounds like you're going to do it no matter what I say So I don't know exactly why you're calling. but They um But in general, I'm going to say, get a fifteen year fixed rate, conventional Fannie May loan Put down a down payment, five percent, ten percent on your first time. You don't have to save twenty percent to buy. And if you don't have the money to start working towards that, you probably don't have the money to own a house yet. And it's time to do something with your career. That's where I would be more nervous. From what I can tell, it' it sounds like it takes months and months and months of documentationsuff to even apply to be part of it. So I think they do their their work on the front ends to make sure that whoever's applying, you know So there's probably a legitimate case for it C, but Getting into the home isn't what I'm as worried about for you. it's more maintaining it and not letting your home you know, keep you broke Like that's what we don't, either. You want your home to be a blessing and not a curse. And so So I would Habitat for humumanity has a program that's not dissimilar. Yeah. Okay. And and it's a known a much more known entity. And that's kind of what is. And so it sounds like it's model somewhat after that. Yeah. And habitat for humanity puts people into homes that can't otherwise find a way to get into them. And but they have had a problem. The dirty little secret is and it's not their fault But people get into the homes and then still don't go and save money. And they've had a problem with people get into a home and they go byy a big screen For the wall And then they go buy something else for the house and they go buy something else for the house and they've got payments all around them then that they wouldn't have had had they not bought the home. Right. And so they've had some issues with people actually losing their habitat for humanity home because they didn't have good healthy financial habits when they went in. But haabitat does a good job They're a good organization. So's if it's modeled after that, I was thinking that's what she was going to say. and then I could have ye least more intelligently done so because we've done all kinds of stuff with habitat helping them. Well, and I just want to yeah, and it sounds like too, there's always there's a time limit to this. Whenever you get boxed into a time limit, that's like student loan forgiveness, right If you go work for ten, you know, it's all these These things that are long term of what you're committing to You have to keep that in mind because I don't know what it looks like if Kim you have to sell three years and get out of the program. what does that mean? You know, So I would know all of that information as well.oundounds like it Pro radi Forgiven. You know, five thousand a year for five years on the twenty five thousand is what it sounded like if that's the way it really works and then then at least you know what you're up against and You hope the house goes up in value that much. Right, right. And you hope you don't have a bunch of repairs that you can't afford to do But get that emergency fund in place You gott to have the emergency plan in place and no, you don't need to be thinking about investing until this deal is settled. Get a six month emergency f. pile pile, pile money up and have a nice fat, juicy pile of money. to offset the fact that you've not anticipated what all this entails and what you're going getting yourself into. so if it was a u government. Here's the weird thing, Rachel Five years like that, if you don't have that lean. That five years goes by So fast If you do have that lean seventy three thousand things happened during that five years. It's just's like It's like a a cr stress. It slows down the calendar. Yeah. You know, it goes real fast ifs if it's free. and there's no no constraints and no leans, but but man, when you're trapped in there, it just doesn't. It doesn't feel that way Wow. I hope it works out for you Kim though. It do. We want everyone to be a homeowner. but again, we want it to be a blessing, not a curse. So having some cash For when things go wrong' going be really important in your situation Dave Ramseay here for more than thirty years, I've been talking to folks on the air and I can tell you that most people are broke, not because they don't make enough money, but because they don't have a plan. You need to give every dollar you earn a job because when you do that, something changes. You stop guessing, you stop worrying, you stop stressing. Our every dollar budgeting app will show you How to find extra cash, pay off debt, and finally start winning with money. But most people won't do it living paycheck to paycheck. Keep hoping things will change without making a change. It's time to say enough is enough. It's time to take control of your money. It's time to start your every dollar budget for free today. Go download it in the App Store or Google Play Our sccripture the today, Philippians three seventeen, joining Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters And just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do Margaret Thatcher said, don't follow the crowd, Let the crowd follow you Karen is in Cleveland, Ohio. Hi, Karen. how are you Good. How are you doing? Thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up I recently found I'm sixty five years old and I recently found out that my husband lost all of our retirement and all of our money and I ultimately ended up getting a dissolution and because he gave me the house I have no doubt U basically, but I have a three hundred thousand dollars house I had to get a job and have a little bit of alimony, a little bit of social security I have about seventy thousand dollars from money that my mom left me. and I'm just wondering how to move forward. Do I sell the house and invest the money Wow Oh, Karen, I'm so sorry. Yeah Well you said you you said you're how old ty five. How long were you married Fifteen years, he's fifty nine. What did he do with the money? He retired at fifty four and took a lump sum And then because he dabbled in the market, he decided to do that full time And I managed the daily budget and he managed the retirement money. And what I did not know is that he moved his retirement money into his trading account And last year he went all in on something. and Oh my God. lost about five hundred thousand Whoa And so he leftgh and then he came back. And when I found out we were The rest of it, I told him to get a job and He left again. Oh, Karen So what do you make at your career . tired a while back many years ago. So I've got because I'm sixty five, I don' want to start a career again. so I'm a receptionist and I'm bringing in about twenty five well about sixteen hundred I mean, yeah, sixteen hundredars a month.. Other than your broken heart, how's your health It's okay, so funmer. I mean My plan is to maybe work for another ten years. I'll have to. the house paid for, Karen? It is. It's paid. He had me take my social seecurity early, so I don't get as much there And my four hundred one K is gone So that was part of what he lost. M Well, we lived off of it for a while while he was investing Because I was older and I was fifty nine and a half So you could take it without penalty, yeah Yeah So you get seventy grand and three hundred grand and a twenty five thousand dollars year job. Okay. Yeah. I How we got here doesn't change the answer. although it just It adds to the emotion of everything for sure But I'm still going to say I'm going to set twenty. thousand of the seventy aside is your emergency fund. I'm going to sit down with a Smartvestor Pro and invest the fifty Um, And do you sell the three hundred What's What's the history on the house The history. I mean, do you how long you owned it or Yeah, we've owned it fourteen years. It's in pretty good shape. Okay All right. Um I mean, if you if you If we're only doing math And all we're trying to do just maximize everything regardless of the emotion or regardless of just quality of life. you know, you go buy one hundred fifty thousand dollars condo and you take another one hundred and fifty of that house and you put it in good mutual funds. Now you got two hundred twenty at sixty five now at' seventy that two hundred twenty will be a half million if you don't add anything to it So yeah, I'm probably doing that. G get a condo or something. And then the second thing I'm going to do is I'm gonna reset your narrative in your head of I'm sixty five. I don't have time for another career. Yeah, you do You got plenty of time. In the world we live in today, things things spin up so fast and make so much money so quickly I would not take somebody as bright as I'm talking to and make them Only a receptionist because I'm sixty five for the next ten years and I make nothing Instead, I'd try to figure out a way go make some money And I think I think you got shops, girl. I think there's some stuff you can do What was your former career? U I was a medical lab technician making about fifty thousand. Okay. which is pretty intense of a job and hard to start over and Okay. He's supposed to be giving me a thousand dollars alimony but that's not going to change your life , I don't know if it's going to be besides that he's not dependable either. Yeah, he's not dependable. He's not you can't You can't proredject where you're going to end up with that so if I rent, mean the alma. I wouldn't rent. I my rent, I'd go buy something. fifty hundred. cash for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars condo Yeah and the condo fees Yeah, but You know, you got one hundred fifty thousand freed up when you do that and invest that'll be of the fifty. That's, you know, then you got two hundred and that'll be That will grow to a half million dollars by the time you're seventy five And so back time' seventy two, seventy two. So and you'll be adding to it during that time. And so you could retire in a very good shape. U, you know, in your early seventies, but the the variable is if we could triple your income Right And that changes that changes the math on this it up dramatically U and increases the probability of a good outcome And the bad news is you're by yourself. The great news is you're by yourself You don't have to convince anybody to do this, but you And you, you know, all the baggage is in the rearview mirror Um That's why they call them an X Wow. I'm so sorry I know Karen, that's horrible horrible thing to go through So Yeah, gang, we talk about this all the time combining your finances and having full transparency and full decision making as a paired thing. Both of us know everything that's going on. bothoth of us know And so that gives us checks and balances. when we do that Yeah. And I can hear And my other year, people are like, this is why you don't combine, you know, yada, yad, yada. But here's That's exactly why you do buing. Because you got you're looking over his shoulder the first time your day trades, you shut the whole thing down. Yeah. Well,'re inv if you're looking at the details of what you're saying, but he took her, they had money combined and he took her for hundred one. Yeah, But they weren't combined in their operating of their household. Okay, one hundred percent. That's what I'm saying is I can hear someone say, oh my gosh, that scares me. I want to keep my stuff over here to protect it to make sure that he doesn't touch it But what I'm saying is then we shouldn't have to That's it. Yeah. That too. Yes. hundred. If you can't sit down together and both of you talk about everything in going on with your money, you shouldn't get married in the first place. And'm not talking about her. I'm just talking about in general Yes. Yes. And it's easy in a marriage just to let one person, you do this, I do this And its kind that's kind of what she said, I did the monthly budget. he did the investing. and you both have to be doing both as well. George just did fresh research and it was amazing. It used to be a lower number, He found that if a person day trades For consecutively for twenty four months ninety seven percent lose money. I believe it That's all of you That's stupid. And all eggs in one basket. He put everything in one thingy time I drive down that road, a kid throws a rock at my car. You know, I'm not driving down that road anymore I mean, ninety seven percent. That's not even a Statistic. That's just a fact No So just day trading is stupid is what that means And so as soon as somebody says that All of your bells whistles and alarms need to be going off and going no no, no no, new, no, no No, the Capital H no. We're not doing this. No Wow,' a shark age. I'm I'm sorry, Karen. I'm sorry, you went through this. I'm not we're not preaching at you. No lening that just to be aware of. These are the reasons situations like yours are while we get so hyped up against some of the things that happened to you. Yeah That's what it amounts to Wow Caren, call us back if you need us though. We'reing you anyway we came down on Wow, absolutely That puts us hour of the Ramsay showhow 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 prrince of peace Christ Jesus. 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