Comfort Is The Enemy Of Progress - Attack Your Debt Now!

29:10Okay. What's your question today? Just to make sure we can help you. Yeah. My question is, I know the baby steps, I know the debt snowball, the saving a thousand, but during a heart attack, they found that I have aortic aneurysm and a bicuspid heart valve, which is going to require surgery at some point. They don't know. It could be three months, could be three years. They don't know. It's imminent, though. So my question is, knowing that, should I start stacking money and get to a certain point and then get onto that snowballing? Because obviously there's going to be some recovery time with that and not knowing exactly when that point for the surgery is going to come.

29:52Yeah. Danny, you're in storm mode right now. You've had a catastrophic event with this heart attack and you've got some things coming up on the burner. and if I were in your shoes, I'd do two things. I would call up my insurance and I would have a conversation about the things that are getting ready to happen, what will be covered. I would want to know very clearly what's my out-of-pocket max for the year, what's my deductible. And that is the amount of money that I would aim to save up because you know the rate is going to fall. What's that number? my out-of-pocket uh individually is 9200 the deductible is 3 000 and that that's individual total is twice that so 84 18 4 18 400 family which and then so 9200 for you i'd save up ten thousand dollars and then the next number you need to know is you need to find out what's the recovery time so how much time am i going to miss from work what's that equal up to and that's your emergency fund that you want to save up.

30:55So calculate if it's going to be a three month recovery, calculate what that's going to be and save up that cash. And that's the best thing you can do. Knowledge is going to be power in this situation, my friend. And once you've got all that taken care of, you can push play on the steps. And man, we're hoping that the surgery goes well and that you recover swiftly, my friend. Thanks for the call.

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33:25Go start Every Dollar for free in the App Store or Google Play. Or go watch the live stream we did last night. It'll show you exactly how to do it. Yeah. Some great demos in there and kind of the principles behind it all. Yeah. Love it. All right. Jerry is in West Palm Beach up next. What's going on, Jerry? Hey, how you guys doing? Good. What's going on with you? I'm doing good. I was just calling because my question is that my wife and I, we potentially can be out of debt by the end of this year, but she currently wants to move to a new apartment because of an ongoing road trip issue. Oh. And the money that we would use to pay off debt would be used to purchase a new apartment.

34:03So I was calling to see if we should use that money to buy the apartment or to... Do you own the apartment you're in? No, we're currently renting. But that would break the lease? Well, the lease isn't there until November 31st. So we would outuse all the money that we would use to pay the debt out this year. It would have to be saved the entire year in order to pay for first, last, and security towards the end of the year. On a new apartment. How much is that total? You're not buying an apartment. You're renting a different one. Yeah, we're just renting. We're on baby step two. What is that number for first, last, and security?

34:37Well, we're not sure yet. here in Florida. We estimate that for a 2-1, it'd probably be around$2 ,100,$2 ,200 a month. So that's the first thing is finding out exactly what the numbers are to find out how it's going to affect your debt-free journey and getting real numbers around that versus guesstimates. I'm going to say something here that I can't do roaches. Yeah, I think that's a reasonable thing to be like, I don't want to live with a roach infestation. My big question is, why is the apartment not doing anything about it? Well, we have a pest control company that we use, but the efforts that they've been putting in haven't been working that well.

35:18No, we need like Ghostbusters in there. If it's an infestation in the entire apartment complex, somebody come into your thing spraying the little twinkery. I want Exterminator, Terminator, Ghostbusters, a Catholic priest waving something. I mean, I want everybody up in there. The bomb where they cover the whole building with fabric. Exorcists, get what you have to get up in there to get the roaches out. And if they don't handle it, I think you have the right to fight them to get out of this lease without paying any fees. Well, the lease actually said that we're in charge of pest control. So you pay for pest control?

35:48Yeah, we pay for pest control. And that's the problem. Do you see what I'm saying? If you're just – your pest control, what you pay for is just going for your unit. but if the whole building has an infestation problem you can spray till the cows come home in all your corners but they're going to keep coming down from the guy upstairs who you know where it all started so that that yeah i'd be up and out of there i'd sit with your wife and figure out what's it going to cost sometimes you know the baby steps george you know this sometimes it feels like two steps forward a little step back two steps forward a little step back and it's just like that.

36:20But in this case, roaches. Yeah. And it just can't happen. And the five grand, you're sort of just like pre paying, you know, the first month, last month, the deposit, hopefully you get back. And so there's a little bit of the sunk cost up front. But I think it's well worth it. And I would just try to make up for lost time. Once you guys are in that new apartment, let's work twice as hard to get out of debt by the end of the year, regardless. Oh, I agree. That's good advice. I appreciate it. I'd be getting I would also here's here's how much of a nerd I am I would be uploading the lease agreement to chat GPT to then act like my lawyer to tell me how to get out of this thing and see what they are responsible for and so maybe that'll help Jerry I don't know but man that's not a fun problem to deal with and I'm with your wife on this one I have threatened to move before does that work no um I think Sam knows because I've threatened to move over many things but and when we live in South Florida we have what's called palmetto bugs, which is really just called a giant roach that can fly.

37:20Oh, I hate those. And these people in the audience are like, girl, I know what you're talking about. A palmetto bug can be like the size of the palm. Like they're big and they, you can't get around it. Like you could spray all day, but they like water. So if you're by the glades or if you're by, if you have pipes in your house, they can come in your house. So basically everywhere we've ever lived, I've threatened to move. All right. You just convinced me to never move to Florida. Thank you, Jade. It's a reason not to. All right. Declan is in Pittsburgh. What's going on, Declan? Hey, guys. Thanks so much for taking my call.

37:52Sure. What's going on? I'm trying to decide if it makes the most sense to move out to California to live with my wife's grandmother and her special needs uncle, help take care of them, and save some money in the process to knock out some more debt. Is your wife going with you? Oh, yeah. Okay. I was like, is this a solo adventure for Declan? Okay, so you're considering moving from Pittsburgh all the way across the country to California to save some money. How can you save money moving to California? Help me understand that part. Exactly. It's kind of a Goldilocks situation. So my wife's grandmother has a really nice house that we'd be able to have our own section of the house.

38:39It's a large house. How large? Um, like five, five bedrooms, three full baths. Um, so we'd have two bedrooms and a whole living room to ourselves with the kids. Oh, you got kids. How many kids? Two kids, two and three month old, a two year old and three month old. What about the jobs? Help me understand the job situation. So I work full time. I'm a fully remote. Um, I make 80K a year and my wife is currently staying home. 80? Yeah, 80 ,000. Okay. And then you're going to have additional jobs on top of this to take care of? Yes. So my wife would be able to be the full-time caretaker for my uncle, or for her uncle, who's special needs.

39:24Okay. And he just he's just great. He just needs help with making food and little things like that. So it's easy for her to stay home and take care of him as well. So it's kind of a perfect situation there. Does grandma or the uncle have any income to speak of? Yes. Okay. I know grandma has, grandma's doing great. And she has rental income that from other properties. So yeah, she's, she's doing just fine. What about uncle? No, he's, he's fully disabled. So he doesn't work. Does grandma pay for uncle's needs? Yes, fully. Okay. But she doesn't want to have someone else. Instead of a caretaker that they'd hire, they were just like, yeah, let's have family do it and they can live for free.

40:08That's the trade-off. Exactly. Yeah. I don't know about this. Yeah, go ahead. Was this something that, was the request made or was this something that you guys had a hankering to do? Like, you know what? No, the request was made. Everyone, we would love to go spend more time with our family in California, but they are looking for someone because their current caretaker is B-B. And Uncle Danny, he's kind of someone who needs someone who he knows and is comfortable with. And so they're asked if anyone in the family, no one else wanted to do it except we said we would. Okay. So you want to do this?

40:51Yeah. Yeah. I think it would be great to have some extra income, spend a while in California with some family. Help me understand the extra income. So right now you're making$80 ,000 a month. What do you pay on rent and housing right now? We have mortgage. It's $1 ,200 a month. So$1 ,200 a month for, is that just the mortgage? Tell me living expenses, lighting, all that stuff, utilities. We're looking at basically at the end of the month we're breaking even. We're paying our minimums on debt, but we're not getting ahead. How much debt do you have? We have$45 ,000 in student loans. That's it? Yeah, that's it.

41:34And you're breaking even. Yeah. Yeah, so something needs to change. I don't know if the move is the next step. I personally wouldn't do it to try to save money. If you just want to do it for the adventure of it and you think you can make it work, go for it. I don't think you're going to pay off debt much faster because of California's taxes. Yeah, you're going to factor that in. It's actually funny. I did a lot of research into the taxes. In my bracket, we would be saving because we have a huge local income tax here, 2 % local income tax we would not be paying. Would you sell your house? If we sold our house, yeah.

42:11You would sell your house to do this. And what would you make on that? Probably about$20 ,000 in equity. $20 ,000 in equity. Well, then you've got fees. You've got moving costs with a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old. Dude, I've got kids your age. I wouldn't do any of this. I wouldn't do this either. I just wouldn't. I would pass for now, and I would try to make more money and cut expenses, but this feels like a Hail Mary. I wish you the best with the decision, Declan. It's a big one.

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43:43Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. I'm George Campbell, joined by bestselling author Jade Warshaw. Our latest book, What No One Tells You About Money, launched this week, and it feels like birthday month. We're just celebrating all week, all month long. It's a great book, so pick up a copy if you haven't already, RamseySolutions.com. Brian is in Bismarck, North Dakota. What's going on, Brian? Good afternoon. How are you guys? Great. How can we help? Hey, so my wife and I were just wondering if we are crazy for wanting to pay off our house before we have kids.

44:19Is it crazy? I mean, I wouldn't call you crazy. Wouldn't put you in the loony bin for it, but I also wouldn't recommend it. Well, yeah, what's the timeline on this, and how old are you? So my wife and I are both 22 years old, and we're hoping to pay off our mortgage in about 20 to 24 months. Yeah, I mean, if it lines up with your timeline, who cares? That's totally personal. And can I tell you the honest truth? It could take you 24 months to get pregnant, So I wouldn't just wait to start trying until then. Unless that was part of your plan all along and you're like, hey, we want to be married for a while before we have kids.

44:55I mean, what what it's a values conversation. So is this is this a sacrifice in you guys's eyes or are you just concerned with how other people are viewing it? It is sort of a sacrifice. We were holding off on like going on trips and upgrading on cars in order to do this. Um, but part of it is also, we want to make sure that my wife can be a stay at home mom without me having to worry. And on top of that, I would like to switch jobs to something a little bit more controllable with the schedule. Um, and that would cause me to take a step back and pay. Yeah. I mean, like I said, it's totally values.

45:38Uh, my husband and I, when we were, uh, first married, we figured out that we had a bunch debt. And the timeline on ours was, we knew it was a long horizon for us. It ended up taking seven and a half years to pay it off. The whole timeline in total was closer to nine years, to be honest. And our choice was to wait. I would never put that on anybody else because ours was very extreme. Yours is not. But at the same time, you want what you want. So if you say, this is the type of stability we want. This is what we want our life to look like. When kids come on the scene, that's totally your choice.

46:09Nobody else has to understand that. But just know from a principle standard on our side, that is not part of the deal. You don't have to say we're going to postpone our family until XYZ is true with money. Okay. There's no baby step for having kids. And I'll tell you, Brian, I lived your story. It just wasn't that intentional of like, we're not going to even try to have kids before we pay off the house. But my wife and I, we paid off our house in 26 months. and then when we did have a kid, she was able to stay home with less stress. So I think those steps will happen. I just don't think you need to use the house payoff as the excuse.

46:47But if you want to wait two years to have kids, do that and be paying off the mortgage early. But I don't think it needs to be this like we're not going to even try until the house is paid off. See what I'm saying? Right. Yeah, I get that. But I think you guys are going to get there regardless and we need more parents like you, more fiscally responsible parents in the world so i wish you the best with the house payoff and uh with with having kids all right thank you glad we could settle the debate not crazy not crazy listen i wouldn't change that for the world on my end but if we were like hey don't have kids until your baby step seven no we can't say that we can't say any of it to anybody population would decline we can't have that population decline mike is in houston texas what's going on mike What's your question?

47:36Great. Thanks for taking my call. My question is about accidental life insurance, accidental death, life insurance. I got a quote from somebody just kind of sent in the mail. The reason I'm questioning whether I need it or not is the premium is just so low that it almost seems like, why wouldn't I take it? I'm 60. My wife's 61. We make about$150 ,000 a year, have no debt. Net worth is about 1.8. House is paid for. It's about$400 ,000. The rest is in mutual funds, 401k, IRAs, things like that, and plus some savings. Do you have term life? I do. I'm sorry, yeah. And I also have a term life policy for my wife, a smaller amount because she never worked.

48:25It's about$100 ,000, and I have about$500 ,000 on myself. So again, And I'm wondering, do I need, again, it's just such a... What were the numbers on it? What were you trying to, what's the amount of money you're trying to obtain upon accidentally dying? Yeah, that's kind of how we all hope to go, not intentionally. Exactly. That's assuming if you die in an airplane, it's$400 ,000, but the premium is only$20 a month. So what would happen if you upped your policy from, I'm sorry, from 500 to 700? I'm sure it would be comparable, if not less. No, it's not, because I have looked at that. So again, in order to change my life insurance policies, upping it actually puts it into a different, you know, I'm kind of...

49:18Because of your age. Yeah. And so the term policy, even changing a little bit, makes it not affordable. Well, the truth is accidental death insurance is a gimmick insurance, and we never recommend that. And I don't do it because it's a good deal and it's a low amount. The truth is you don't need it. If something happened to you, she's going to have$500 ,000. If something happens to her, you've got$100 ,000 plus all of your retirement money. So you guys are at the point where you could consider yourself self-insured, right? Yeah, that's right. It's kind of in that balance right now. I feel like I could be, but I don't feel like enough to where I drop the life insurance.

49:58I would never tell you to drop it, but how long do you have left on the term policies? Ten, right? Oh, in ten years. Ten years from now, your wealth has doubled, if not tripled, right? Possibly, yeah. I mean, just based on stock market returns and your income. And if something happened to you, would your wife be able to live on the nest eggs that you have? You've got the paid for house. You'd have over$3 million sitting in your 401ks. Do you think she'd be able to live off that? She would. $300 ,000 a year? Yeah, she would. And that's where the angst was coming in. It's like just a small dollar amount.

50:38It's almost just a gamble. It's like gambling. You throw another quarter in there and see if it hits or not is why I was questioning it. But you almost I guess you had me when you said it's a gimmick. It is a gimmick. I mean, think about it like this. You could you could like let's go down this hole. You could play it like that. I would never recommend it. But it's kind of like what we say with things like crypto and single stocks. When you're when your stuff is done right, you've done the baby steps, you've got extra. Those things are considered gambling. It's like play money at that point. but in this case it just is i mean it's all none of it's necessary but it's just redundant yeah you don't need it because then it's like well what if you get the accidental death and you don't you don't get in a car accident and a hurricane doesn't land on right on your face like what you don't get the money at that point so it's at that point if i'm going to throw away that kind of money and i really am like give me the four hundred thousand dollars the better gamble would be to pay a little bit more on the term life and to do it like that but really you're once that policy's done you're gonna let it lapse anyway or you're gonna let it go anyway because you don't need it so it's really at this point we're really just looking at it logically and logically it doesn't make sense i would skip it and put that 20 bucks in a fun money line item and have some fun instead of freaking out but man how if your wife would be so mad if you died of natural causes after paying for this accidental life insurance for so long god just passed peacefully in his sleep.

52:01You're paying roulette. Dang it, Mike. $100 ,000 was on the line. I hope you live a long life, Mike. I'm going to put that out there.

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54:04Mary is in New York City up next. What's going on, Mary? Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. How are you? Sure. We're doing great. Good. I just have a question about how you would handle a situation when you disagree with your spouse about going into debt. Tell us the tea. What's going on? So it's regarding our vehicles. We both drive paid-off vehicles. I drive a 2022 Ford Expedition, which we bought, used, went into a little bit of debt, but paid it off very quickly. My husband drives a 2019 Toyota 4Runner and has wanted a truck for a long time and is kind of done waiting. We've prioritized other financial goals for a long time, and now he just thinks he wants to go into debt to get it.

55:01Why would you have to go into debt? What about, well, let me ask a couple questions. You guys still have debt or everything's gone now? Everything's gone. We have a fully funded emergency fund. We have three kids, two of which have 529. So we're saving for their college. We fully fund our Roth IRAs every month. And so you're financially responsible adults, is what I would say. What is on fire that he needs to sacrifice all that you've built? I mean, why can you guys not save up and pay cash for this truck? Yeah, I think we can. I think it would take some time to save up the difference between the trade-in value, and then we've got some other money set aside.

55:47How long would it take? I would say probably a year, maybe less than that, if we were working extra hard. Well, forget the trade-in. What if you sold at private party and got five grand more for the 4Runner, and then used that towards the truck on top of your savings? So I would actually do some math and go, okay, what truck are we getting? Is it a used truck? It is, and it's about$55 ,000. Okay. And what could he sell his forerunner for a private party? I would say probably about$30 ,000. Okay. So we have a$25 ,000 gap. How much could you guys put aside right now towards that savings goal every month?

56:27Every month, probably between$1 ,000 and$1 ,500. Okay. So this is going to take longer than a year based on that math. well we've got another we've got about 15 um we've set it aside for our kit for our oldest daughter's vehicle but that's about five or six years down the road so we could use that that's outside of our emergency fund so uh we were thinking we could also use some of that cash to to fund and then you'd restart the the car fund for her correct okay that's reasonable and then she'd also be working too that hey if we put this much away every month january or december of 2026 you can get the car i want to get to the bottom of him though uh because what when you tell me this um mary i'm thinking everybody wants a brand new car tomorrow right like i'm looking out in the audience do you want a car tomorrow do you want want we all want a brand new car tomorrow so like there's this adult part of us that says that's not the way the world works and I I personally consider it pretty pretty abnormal not in the Ramsey verse but out in the world pretty abnormal to say and not only do I want a new car a new to me car but I could save to get it in a year that's pretty spectacular and I think that he needs to be brought back into like brought back down to earth to say most people would love a brand new car and could not afford to save up because they've got other debt, other, other things to worry about.

57:58They could not save up for it for a year. So it's almost like he's lost perspective on what you've accomplished and what it allows you to do that is so much different than the average American. Does that make sense? Yeah, I agree 100%. I think that's why I'm calling because this is just sort of a fork in the road and I'm Kind of to the point where I'm like, okay, do we just do this? So he kind of backs off a little bit. Because here's the thing. Okay, his brain is ahead of his bank account. It's that simple. Yeah. And so you need to say, we worked our butts off to get out of debt. It is a value of both of us that we are not a family who goes into debt.

58:38We're done. That's an old us that is gone. That toddler raging inside of us, that instant gratification, that's the past. We're not doing that in the future. We're adults. We've been thinking about it a long time. let's save for a long time and so if he wants it faster work harder dude go make more money cut more expenses that's the conversation to have tonight i don't know if we can convince him you don't get between a man and a truck i would i would stand firm there are very okay this is we're getting into marriage stuff here so george there's very few things that with sam i put i like put my stake in and i'm like you know what and i'll tell him ahead of time this is something i don't think I'm going to budge on.

59:18Like we're going to have this conversation a lot of times. Like, Hey, I hope we have a comfy couch. Cause you'll be sleeping over there. Yes. Especially like if I know that I, if I know I'm right and I'm talking, I always think I'm right. But when I really think I'm right, I, there are certain things that you have to say, you know what? And I think this would be one of those, Mary, that I would say, this is something that is very important to me. And I don't see myself rolling over on this anytime soon and here's why and i'd be i'd be getting firm i'd be getting in my stance just saying yeah and i feel like i've done that um he thinks i'm a hypocrite because we went into debt to buy my vehicle um against his will three years ago but was it against his will no no um it was not it was back when you were both stupid right yes and now you're both smart like you got to remind him of this be like that was old us we've transformed since then we were both doing stupid stuff back then but then we got smart why would we go back yeah i get to do it once too you know it truly is just the toddler inside of us and it's going i want big twuck and you're like well you can have big twuck one year from now i want big twuck now and it's like okay we can all throw our tantrum but at some point he has to realize that he has a family he as a wife it's not just him making stupid decisions it affects other people in his life namely you right now yeah i agree so he's gonna have that truck and it's gonna be so much sweeter when he walks in there and writes a check and walks away and he actually owns that truck instead of being underwater on it or worrying about a payment after you guys work so hard to get out of debt now you're back in baby step two stressed out with three kids you guys have a lot of expenses coming up uh-huh he's got college and cars he's got fatigue sports he's got he's is this a midlife crisis mary is he just done he's like how old is he a little bit 37 uh you know i talk about this in the book i'm gonna go to this real quick because and i'm probably gonna let's go ahead and send them a copy i don't know if he'll read it maybe he'll do the audio version but um i talk about this it's this fatigue that sets in um and it makes you mad it makes you angry it's in the anger chapter when you're making a good income you've done so many things right, but you're still not at whatever you think the finish line should be.

1:01:38And there's just certain things that you think, I deserve that. I work hard. I did this. And you look at the list of accomplishments and you go, I deserve to have X, Y, Z. And in his mind, it's, I deserve to have this truck. And that is such a dangerous place to be that I deserve because it is just, we saw it with COVID when there was the revenge spending, we had to be locked up in our houses and we couldn't see our families and we had to wear a mask. And as a result, I'm going to buy all the lululemon that i'm going to italy yeah i'm going to italy and it is a it's a natural response so i'm not mad at your husband but i do want to stop him from doing something that i think he's actually going to regret because then next thing you know he's going to be the one calling the show talking about i bought a truck and next thing i know i lost i lost my job my wife's mad at me right so we're just trying to help him i'll send you a copy of the book what's your household income okay thank you what hey what's your household income mary before you go about 170 okay and what's your car worth

1:02:39probably 55 we we bought it for i think 60 back in 2023 when we had our third okay well here's here's what i want to throw out there our parameter around cars and things that go down in value boats motorcycles whatever is that it should add up to no more than half of your annual income so the truth is you guys are going to have way too much car considering your income and your financial world. And so here's my compromise. He can have the truck now if he goes out and gets a $25 ,000 car and sells his 4Runner. Could we find a sweet truck? Yeah, I've suggested that. How much better are they five years later?

1:03:15Is the technology really that much better? I don't know. I don't really care about trucks, but he does. Well, he just wants the newest, shiniest thing. I would say here's the compromise. We can use whatever cash we have now to get the truck that we can afford with that amount of money. And if we can't afford that, you want a nicer truck, we got to wait and we have to make more money. It's way too much of our world to have $110 ,000 tied up with things going down in value, even when we make$170 ,000.

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1:05:19Today's question of the day is brought to you by Y-Refi. When it feels like your private student loans have buried your future, Y-Refi can help you dig out with a low fixed rate refinancing and a clear path forward. Go to Y-Refi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. Not available in all states. Okay. Today's question comes from Jenna in Illinois. She says, my husband and I are in baby step two, but are also in stork mode as we'll have our first baby in a few months. That's exciting. My question is, how do you deal with the pregnancy cravings? This is not going where I thought it was.

1:05:54If I let myself, I would be building this baby on McDonald's French fries and Oreo cookies. So far, I've done my best to limit those cravings and not let them take over. But this is not easy. is it okay to splurge on a drive-through french fry order once a week the cravings really do get wild sometimes and the emotions the emotional swing is crazy should i work on letting the cravings pass or can i splurge a little until they go away later in my pregnancy oh my gosh i i love this this is real this is not what i was thinking yeah okay what's your take jade i fight me in the comments if you must you're all you know some of us pregnancy is one of those once in a lifetime, some of us twice in a lifetime, four times in a lifetime thing, go get some French fries for crying out loud.

1:06:41Please woman, go get the French fries. That's all I have to say on the matter. My sister told me this and she either told me this to make me feel better or maybe it is scientific. But if the baby asks for it, it's because you need it. There you go. You just need to have it. It's science. It's science. All I know is this. You need energy if you crave carbs or you need, it's telling your body something is what she told me. Pre-dad George would be like, no, you stick to the plan no matter what. And then I had to deal with a pregnant woman with cravings. I don't want to get in the middle of a pregnant woman and her craving.

1:07:17It is, yes, ma 'am, I am on it. Now, could you do things? What was Whitney's? You know what? I think she went the, I think she was salty. Salty. Like salty snacks. And then it switched to sweets with the, our latest. Can I tell you mine? If that Krispy Kreme light was on. The hot sign's on. You better bet Jade's in that drive-thru. You could not stop me. You still can't stop me. I do think limiting it is good because it can turn into a habit. And I would try to go, hey, what cravings can we accomplish through shopping at the grocery store versus eating out? Because that's where it triples or quadruples.

1:07:51Yeah. Because that's the markup. A potato's a potato. Alexa has those great ones in the air fryer. I was going to say, you can get, now it's McDonald's fries are top tier. Their Diet Coke is top tier if you know you know. It just hits different. You can't get a Diet Coke from the store and it hit the same. That's just the truth. That's true. Ask any woman. That's true. But are there, can we get Oreos from the store? Yes. And that's a grocery line item. So if those are your cravings and you can grocery shop for them, I would say fair game. How much is a McDonald's? You want to know what I would do to make you feel better?

1:08:22What's the math on it? How much is a McDonald's large fry? I would say, I don't know, three or four bucks probably? About three or four? This is like Price is Right. Two dollars? Four dollars for lunch, right? Yeah, I was going to say four bucks. Okay, so four bucks once a week. That's about, you know, you're talking 16 bucks a month. Uh-huh. That's not bad. 20 bucks a month after tax. I would cut something else out of the budget in order to make this the priority that it needs to be. Put a cravings line item and set it for that$20 amount. That's right. And then you kind of have the permission to spend without guilt and without getting in a fight.

1:08:54You could lower, hypothetically, you could lower your grocery budget by$16. Make it a meal. And just make a sub and just say, you know what? I will make this happen. Sacrifice in another area so that you don't lose your progress. Trade off. But there's not a lot you can do. And the thing with pregnancy cravings, they'll just switch. You're like, well, I just bought nine pounds of pickles and now you hate pickles? You can't stand the smell of pickles? That's my life. It does happen. What was Whitney's version? I don't remember if it was coffee. Oh. The smell of coffee? She's going to correct me.

1:09:27It's all a blur when you have a pregnant wife. It is. There's a lot going on, especially when you've got a toddler and she's pregnant. Oh, gosh. You're surviving. Yep, yep, yep. So no shade thrown at Jenna for wanting some fries once in a while. All right. Colton is in Huntsville up next. What's going on, Colton? Hey, how are you doing? Great. What's your question? So I retired from the military. I'm 38, moved up to Huntsville, Alabama to take a sales job after I tried some sales in Florida and figured I might be pretty good at this unique opportunity. And it's just door to door, cold calling all day, every day on churches, schools and businesses selling LED signs.

1:10:08Well, my first year I made about$100 ,000. So it was going pretty good. Well, now this year is my second full year and I've made about$502 ,000. Whoa. Oh, dude, you can sell some LED. Yeah, and my retirement's about$68 ,000 a year tax-free. I don't have anything else set up. I mean, I've got health care the rest of my life. Yeah, well, thank you for your service, by the way. And I'm glad you've transitioned into the workplace so effectively and spectacularly. Yeah, well, yeah, it's been good. I like people. Now, is this just a random good year, or is it you're like, I could do this every year?

1:10:53This is consistent. Well, it's a unique situation because I'm basically also in a roundabout way operating as a COO of the whole company because it's just a unique situation with the way the business is structured. So I grinded a lot harder than I did the first year this year. I probably won't stress myself out as much to hit this level because we're just not internally set up to handle this amount of work by myself because I have to go quote the job, sell the job, acquire the customer, see it get installed, close it all out. Can you hire help? You have enough money. Can you hire an assistant?

1:11:33That's been recommended. Now, I've done a very good job delegating and paying people on the side to close things out so that I can move on to other jobs and other things like that. But I haven't thought about that yet. But I wasn't set up. I didn't see it was going to happen this way. So I didn't have an LLC or anything set up. So he's just been – because I'm a 1099 straight commission. Have you set aside money for taxes? Well, I've saved about$430. of the 502 that I've made this year. Oh, my gosh. Because you don't need it. That's what's crazy about this. Yeah, so I've saved it just all out of fear of I didn't know what my taxes were going to be.

1:12:17Yeah, you might have a$150 ,000 tax bill, so I'd be on those quarterly estimated payments and not be shocked because you could get penalties and fees. So I just now hired an accountant and then a lawyer to set up an LLC so that this next year I start getting paid through the LLC, start itemizing. I've got a 401k that I'm going to set up. I owe about$280 on my house. It's worth probably$350. That's the only debt I have, no credit card debt. So what's your question? My thing is, I have this huge goal of not having a house payment. And I guess my question is, do I take$70 ,000 and max out and put into the contribution my 401k to avoid taxes on that or do I just eat what my taxes are going to be, see where my money's at, and pay the house off?

1:13:08If I were you, I would invest up to 15%, assuming you've got three to six months of expenses set aside. If you don't, take some cash, set it aside, earmark it as an emergency fund. If I were you, I'd do six months. I would then make sure you're investing 15%. Once you get that 401k set up, that's the magic number you want, 15 % of your gross income. Which that's$75 ,000 if you made$500 ,000. Yeah, like I could max contribute this year the way I've got set up is$70 ,000. And I didn't know if I should do that or just pay the taxes what I'm going to take the hit that I'm going to get hit with. How old are you?

1:13:47I'm 38. Okay. I mean, you're basically front-loading a new retirement fund right there with$70 ,000. That's amazing. Now, if you want to pay off the house...

1:14:01inflation. Yeah. But if you wanted to pay off the house today and you just still have money left over to pay all your taxes and then we'll, you know, then you're really set up to build some serious wealth. Because if you keep making this money and you just invest most of it, you're going to have about 10 or 20 million dollars at 60 years old. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's just kind of where I was at. Do I take that lump sum and go ahead and put it into a 401k to avoid paying taxes on it and get it invested? Or do I just takes a hit that I'm going to get hit on tax. Well, the good news is the house is going to get paid off.

1:14:34Yeah, it's going to get paid off fast regardless. I would get with your tax accountant and go, hey, what's my best tax saving strategy so I don't give the IRS more than I have to? And any money left over, pay the taxes with and whatever's left after that, throw it at the mortgage and you'll pay off the house next year. And Colton, good job. Well done, my guy.

1:15:02Thank you.

1:15:29Well, guys, we've been celebrating all week long. Jade Warshaw's new book, What No One Tells You About Money, is officially here. If you've ever known what to do with your money but still couldn't follow through, it's not a discipline problem. Your emotions are getting in the way. Frustration, fear, shame, anger, all of that shows up in how we handle money. And this book brings behavioral finance down to earth. And Jade and her husband have lived it. And she unpacks it masterfully in a way that will grip you. You'll read this book in like two days max. It helps you understand what's really happening, gives you a practical approach to master those emotions that are sabotaging your money.

1:16:02You can get your copy for$24.99 at RamseySolutions.com store. If you're on YouTube or podcast, just click the link in the description. Sarah is in Chicago. Up next, what's going on, Sarah? Hi, so I'm 23, and I graduated college in May of 25. And when I graduated, I had two full-time jobs, making over$8 ,000 a month after taxes. and lifestyle coup kind of hit me. So for my grad gift, I bought a used Porsche for$20 ,000 and then I moved to Chicago, which doubled my living expenses. And then unexpectedly last month, one of my jobs ended. It was a contract and so now I only have one job. And I realized I could barely cover my bills with that job and so I stopped investing for my 401k, which left me like a$200 buffer after.

1:16:51But then my student loan payment deferment period ended And so now I have a 500 monthly payment that just does not fit in my budget and I can't afford it. So now you're back in the red and like negative 300. What's the income? 4 ,000? What did it go down to? So now after tacos, I'm making like 4 ,900. And my basic budget is like 4 ,700. Okay. So what it sounds like happened and it happens to the best of us. You got excited because you were doing well. and I get it, but you kind of started doing things out of order. And so now what I think George and I are going to attempt to do is get you back on track and doing things in the proper order.

1:17:34We're going to right-size, as they call it in the corporate world. Right-sizing. You were investing. It wasn't quite time to invest yet. You were buying a car, but it was time to pay off the student loans. It was kind of all jumbled up. So first off, the student loans, is that the only debt you have or is there other debt? um besides the car loan just those two okay so the student loans you said about 500 bucks a month but what's the the full amount it's 46 ,000 okay and then the car what's the full amount of that 20 ,000 okay and there's nothing else no credit cards no medical nothing else no nothing else okay do you have any money saved I have a 60k total like 40 45 and investments in 20k or 15 in my emergency fund so$15 ,000 emergency fund I love that you said that so the way we would teach it and remember the point is to do this in the right order if I were to tell you oh great$15 ,000 saved in the in the in the face of debt it's not really your money right because you owe 46 ,000 to one place and 20 ,000 to another.

1:18:42So is it fair to say that that's not actually yours? Yes. Yes. So what I would suggest you do, but it's also fair to say, well, I need a little bit of a buffer, Jade. So that's the way the baby steps are set up. The first thing you need, you just need a thousand bucks. It's you. You just need a thousand bucks between you and the rest of the world so that if something comes up, you can deal with it without going into debt. So that's what I would do. I'd put a thousand dollars a side. And then that would leave you$14 ,000. And I would take that and I would throw it at this debt because the next step is for you to pay off your consumer debt.

1:19:17And so with that $14 ,000, you're going to come very, very close to knocking out the car. And then as you're paying off the debt, you're going to work to increase your income so you can do it even faster. And then after the debt's gone, now we can start to save up an emergency fund and it will actually be your money. It will actually be what it's intended to be, which is a safety net and a sense of security against all the things that might try to come at you versus what it is today, which is kind of just this nagging feeling that it's there, but it's not really yours. And there's the debt there.

1:19:48Let's, we're trying to solve for peace here. Yeah. How does that hit you? I've listened to your guys' show for a while. So I know that you guys, you typically talk about doing like the$1 ,000 emergency fund, but it really scares me. I was a foster kid who like eight set of the system so i don't have like there's nothing i can fall back on if let's say i lose my other jobs like i mean i can i can go back to being a server doing anything like i will never you know but it just really scares me to have nothing in savings you know like that really scares me like 1 000 is like that rent is 2200 i couldn't even pay my rent you know like that scares me here's the alternative though it scares me to have you sitting with 66 000 of debt and And it's going to take you forever to pay it off if you're the normal American.

1:20:34And so this is a scary move that makes you really – it lights a fire under you to get out of debt faster. Because right now you're kind of comfortable with the emergency fund. And comfort is the enemy of progress in this case. And so once you throw that at the debt, you're like, oh, game on. Like we're in this thing. So do you have a bunch of student loans? Are they broken up or is it one giant loan? It's a bunch. Okay. And some are – it's a bunch, yeah. So you could probably knock out the$14K. If you've got smaller debts that are smaller than$20K, you could probably knock out a few student loans right there, which frees up those payments, right?

1:21:09Yeah, it could. Which could get you at least to a break-even point. And then what is your rent every month? My rent is$2 ,200. There's a big problem. Are you living alone? I do. Okay. That's eating your lunch right now as far as your take-home pay to rent ratio. It's 45%. Is there a way to get a roommate? In my current living situation, I couldn't have a roommate, but I could, like, when this lease ends, I could move somewhere else. But my lease isn't until October, so that's not, like, helpful, you know, until October. Yeah. What about take picking up a second job? I'm super open. Like, I've been, like, interviewing and stuff, but it's, you know, right after the holidays, people are anything.

1:21:58But, you know, especially I work in tech, so it's just multiple interviews. It could take months. So it's just like nothing right now. But I'm open to like getting a serving job or something like that. I would do that. I do that immediately until the job that you really want does open up. It's going to do it's going to help out your budget, number one. But it's also going to help out your mental state because that feeling of, oh, my gosh, I'm just barely making it. I don't have a job. I'm not making the income. You don't want that to persist. And so bringing in income, getting your budget right side up is really going to help you.

1:22:27It's going to help you perform better in the interviews. It's going to, you know, all of that is going to be affected by that. I want to send you a copy of the book because the fear that you were talking about earlier about being a foster kid, I talk in the book about the fear of doing a certain action can actually keep us in a more scary place. And George said that. It's scarier to sit with$60 ,000 of debt. and it's almost like you're not able to see how scary that is because of this other fear that's operating over here that we can actually do something about and so I want to walk you through that because this is so common and it makes a lot of sense I have empathy for that and I want to validate like I that makes total sense that you would be you know have that scarcity mentality in that way but it doesn't mean that it's an excuse to say stay that way I think we can walk you through it because right now you're calling in the show so you're up against it regardless right so let's get you from against that wall and get you moving forward and not let that fear stop you from the progress that george and i both know that you can make are you living in the city sarah yes i live like downtown okay do you need a car right now um i'm in chicago no you don't need a car but i think i'm from like rural illinois so i'm just very used to having a car i don't know how to not have a car but i i mean i think chicago has great chance.

1:23:54Yeah, that's what I was going to say is, I mean, you could really get out of debt much faster. You take your 14 plus the Porsche's worth 20 at least. Yeah. That's pretty wild. That's half your debt gone right there. Because here's the napkin math. If you don't sell the car, but you take the 14, apply it to your debt, leaves you with 52 ,000. Now, if you apply 1 ,000 a month, you're done in 52 months. You apply 2 ,000 a month, you're done in 26 months, about two years. Right now, we don't even have a dollar to scratch together because of our budget. So that's where I'm just showing you the reality.

1:24:30If we stay the same, you are going to be in debt for a long time. If you decide to make some drastic changes, two years from now, you could be debt free. You make two grand a month take home from this other job where you sell the Porsche. Now we're making progress. That's the goal here. So hang on the line. We're going to send you Jade's new book, What No One Tells You About Money. We're rooting for you, Sarah. You got this.

1:24:54Thank you.

1:25:21Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. I'm George Camel here with Jade Warshaw taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Megan is in Virginia Beach. What's going on, Megan? How can we help today? Hey, thank you for having me. Absolutely. I need some advice, y 'all. And it really, it boils down to two things. The first is how to approach the conversation with my husband about the benefits of combining our finances. and the second is whether that's even appropriate. So to give you a little bit of context, my husband and I have been married for two years. I came into the marriage with a mortgage, about$280 ,000 in a mortgage, but otherwise no debt.

1:26:12And he came to the marriage with close to$300 ,000 in student loan debt and no assets. and you know this is something that obviously we knew we had talked about um and unfortunately he was unemployed for the first year of our marriage um and it has since regained employment he's doing well um but during this time our finances have been completely separate um you know he's did some of the things actually that you talk about um i think he's got some emotional baggage that's tied to that amount of student loan debt. And he's concerned that, you know, should we combine finances, there's a possibility that the creditors may come after combined assets or they may try to adjust his payment schedule based on our combined income.

1:27:05And I think that those are all valid results, but some of the conversations I've had with him are, well, I think there's major benefit to combining our incomes because just the visibility, right? We would be on the same page. We would be able to plan for things together like retirement. We wouldn't have to have the conversation about who's going to pay for dinner on Friday night? Who's picking up the time? You know, like stuff like that. And, you know, he's making a little bit of money now. He hasn't started paying the food in London yet. Oh, my gosh. It's a different story. What is he making?

1:27:41And what do you make? Yeah, so I make about$140 ,000 a year. And he makes about$130 ,000 right now. Okay, great. But he owns his own business. So after all of the overhead, I think last year he took home about$40 ,000. What? Oh, so his income is only$40 ,000. It's not$130 ,000. Yeah. When you say took home, like on his taxes. His revenues were$130 ,000, but his salary. for expenses. He really made$40 ,000 according to the IRS. Right, right. And so, you know, part of that is owning your own business. You know, he writes off a lot of things. What is his degree? What did he go to school for? I'm sorry?

1:28:24He's a lawyer. Lawyer? And what kind of business does he do? He's got his own law practice. Okay. How long has he been at it? About five years. And each year he's made$40 ,000 or less or more? Well, no, this year has been the best year. Hey, hey, let me ask you a question. Is he a good lawyer? He is. That's where I was going is that his earning potential is going to keep going. What's holding him back? Can he go work for someone else and make$50 ,000,$60 ,000,$70 ,000,$80 ,000 today? He can, but he won't. Why not? He can't work for other people. Why? He doesn't play nice with others? Kinda. He's tried.

1:29:19But truly... He's a really good lawyer. Truly, I need to understand that because if it's a real thing, it's a real thing, but if it's just a preference, then we have something that we actually need to talk about, right? yeah so i've structured this conversation by saying because i've brought this up before you know why don't you go to local law firm abc and yeah you're going to have some taxes that are going to come or your some payments that are expenses that are going to come out of your payroll but at the end of the day like we can budget and we can you know start to get on the same same page about these things it's not like feast or famine yeah building a business is different than just being good at the task that the business does, right?

1:30:07Yeah, and it's a good question.

1:30:16We're looking at just basic napkin math going, if you make$40K, you're not going to pay off$300K.

1:30:26Yeah, and that's kind of what I've been struggling with And in addition to the conversation of combining our finances. Here's the thing. You married this guy. I'm just going to I'm going to try to shoot you straight here. You married this guy. So so you are one. Today, you're one. The things that you're talking about. Yeah, you could benefit from a counselor. It seems like there's some things that you're frustrated with, unhappy with. And you've had the conversations and it seems like it's to no avail. You could use a third party mediating between that so that you guys can come to a way that you discuss this and it actually makes progress.

1:31:03Because right now it feels like you've just hit a wall and you feel like it doesn't matter what I say. He's not listening on the issue of him making$40 ,000 for the fifth year in his own law firm. That's not really a law firm. OK, now, as for the combining of money, I do believe you need to combine your money because at that point we're talking about goals and a shared lifestyle, shared values. and so I think that's important to do. Is it that he doesn't want to combine or is it that you don't want to combine because of the things you listed earlier? No actually I've been a complete uh I've wanted to combine just because you know I married I knew that he had the student loan debt but at the end of the day like you were saying the goals and the values are much more important to me than you know other things that we can work through that i knew about good um but he has been hesitant to combine the finances because um at some point he's going to have to start paying on student loan debt and there he's concerned that his payment is going to be larger because there's where the values are here's my thing i think that's bs i think this is all about pride and shame i think so too and he doesn't want to drag you into his mess because he made it and he's a big man and He's going to take care of it.

1:32:20I don't think this is about a restructured payment that he's worried about. Because if the goal is to pay the debt company off, then the payment amount doesn't matter anyway. Because you'd be paying well above whatever they'd assign to you anyway, right? Yeah, right. Yeah, and I've always been, I think it's also kind of a difference in how we approach debt. Because I've always been aggressive when it comes to repayment. Hence the no debt. Well, this goes back to the goals and values part, which is if you combine, these are the things that you talk about over your money meetings. You sit down with your spouse and you say, OK, you share here.

1:32:57Here's where here's what I'm feeling. And I said told somebody this earlier today. You sit down and you say, you know what? I've been feeling there's a disconnect with our money. I feel like this is an area that we really could work to be closer on and have more transparency and have more support for one another. I want to support you. I see the debt that is in your name and I want to help. I want us to be one on this and I would love if we could get on the same page. That's the first conversation and start to bring those walls down. That's why I said a mediator can help. And then we need to, once you get on the same page of, yeah, let's pay off the set.

1:33:33Now it's how intense, how intense are we going to get? The byproduct is the budget. So I'll tell you, it's a lot easier to pay down 300 ,000 with 180 ,000 income instead of 40. Right. And so you are the light at the end of this tunnel. You should convince them that this is our debt and we're going to pay it off together. And there's no shame here. Put it down. Let's get to work. Send her a copy of the book. Christian, please. Thank you.

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1:35:18Alex is up next in Chicago. What's going on, Alex? What's your question today? Hi, guys. I'm just trying to call in to see if I can make a career change and become like an entrepreneur in my life. Okay. Tell us more. What are you doing now? I'm a heavy equipment operator. I make pretty good money. I'd say I made six figures last year, which I guess just ended a couple weeks ago. And that was my first year making that much money. So I kind of got a lot of life coming at me right now. $100 ,000 or$200 ,000? Yeah,$100 ,000,$104 ,000. Okay. Way to go. And you said you had a lot of life coming at you?

1:35:58What does that mean? Yeah. So my daughter just turned one, actually, New Year's Day. My other daughter is going to be born in April, and I just closed on a house. Woo! Well, and I'm getting married in October of this year. Okay. Okay. So the question is, you're wanting to transition out of your job doing heavy equipment into possibly starting your own business. What would the business be? The same thing you're doing now, just on your own or something different? uh it'd probably be something pretty different honestly i was looking at getting into real estate and i was talking to one of my buddies and he was saying that uh home inspectors make really good money and that when he it was a specifically mobile home inspectors he was looking at purchasing one and he said that the only guy in the area was booked out for like a year um i was looking to transition into that so what's i'm trying to get to the core of what's driving this is what's driving this I don't like my current job and I'm just looking for something else that seems like it could be interesting is what's driving this I need to make more money and this seems like something that could make me more money because it's not I love mobile home inspecting so let me go do that right so what's driving this right well um I guess being a dream of mine as well as uh like last year like I said I made good money but I worked a lot of hours and I just want to be able to be more present in my daughter's lives.

1:37:30Okay. I see. So it's time is what you're trying to get back. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Okay. That's a good place to start. And I think that's noble. I love that. Do you have any debt? No debt? No, I'm debt-free. Debt-free. Getting ready to get married. I'm about to buy. Yeah, you got the mortgage. Is your soon-to-be wife, fiance, will she be working? Or is she going to stay home with the kids? So she's currently a stay-at-home mom, and she probably will be up until they go to school, I'd say, at least. Okay. So probably about five or six years, you know. Okay, so what do you guys need to live and to accomplish your financial goals?

1:38:12Could you live on – because here's the thing. Home inspectors, I just looked it up. The average salary is$55 ,000 to$62 ,000 a year. So I don't want you to jump into this and go, well, I'm going to be making more. I'll owe my time. I'll be an entrepreneur. it may be a grind and you might need to own your own home inspection business long-term to be making six figures. And you might, yeah, and you might have to be an ex like really, really good at it, which is brand new for you in that area. So there's, I feel like there's a huge curve there.

1:38:44So here's my question. I like to get the dock, you know, the boat close to the dock. So could you start to go through the, the training education process, pass the exams, get licensed if that's required and you know maybe a year from now we revisit this and see if you're still into it and you want to pursue it yeah i don't see why i wouldn't be able to you know start the process now but then go full time a year you know whatever the timeline is i'd actually take a step i would this is just me based on what i've heard you say i would take a step back i would i would do ken Coleman's find the work you're wired to do and figure out what it really is that you would be wired to do that you'd be really good at that you could go into business on your own or that you could pursue as a as a different path because this really does and there might be more to it that you didn't say but it kind of just sounds like oh here was an idea I'll just go with that just a random buddy offhand uh-huh and now it's like total career change yeah and before you sink time and money and effort, I would really explore your option.

1:39:50Nothing's on fire here. So you've got time to really narrow it down and go, you know, what do I want to do? What would I be good at? What would really light my fire? Because long-term, you're going to want something that you're passionate about doing. So you actually stick with it. The money is not going to be enough. The time thing won't even be enough to sustain you if it's not something that you really, really want to be doing. So that's what I would do if I were in your shoes. I would just drill down a little bit more on what that career needs to be. Okay. And I'd meet with some people who do home inspections for a living and get their take on the business and your area and what's going on where you can make good money.

1:40:29And what's the difference between working for a company versus yourself? I would get all of that laid out and then decide from there. So we're going to send you a copy of Ken Coleman's Find the Work You're Wired to Do. There's a Get Clear Career Assessment inside of that. So take that and use those results to then start to narrow down that next thing for you if the heavy equipment life isn't for you. Okay. And then when would I know when I'm prepared to make that leap into becoming an entrepreneur? It really is like George said earlier. So knowing that your wife is going to stay home, calculating what your mortgage is going to be.

1:41:04So there's a couple of principles I'd go by. Number one, your mortgage can't be any more than 25 % of your take home. So that's going to be so, so, so key because for a lot of people, that's the make or break. So working backwards and say, here's what we think the mortgage is going to be. Here's what we think it's going to take to operate our lifestyle and knowing exactly what that number is. So you say, okay, I need to be, I need to find a way that I'm doing the job I'm doing now while starting the new business. And slowly but surely that business is going to start making more and more money.

1:41:34So you're going to have a period where you're actually working more now. You're going to be juggling a lot. And then the goal is you go, okay, if I scale this home inspection stuff to full time, this is what I could realistically be making. If I was doing this 40 hours a week instead of eight. So that's when you know, okay, I'm very clear and you'll know it. You'll go, oh my gosh, I love this. I'm making good money doing it. If I left tomorrow, I know I've got enough leads in the pipeline and connections and work that I could leave this heavy equipment job and go do my own thing okay yeah i guess my my whole thing was like i'm only 22 so i'm pretty young so i got like a lot of time where like now i could you know make a jump i feel like before it's like i'm solidified no a lot of the guys but making a jump with a pregnant wife and a one-year-old and a new home is not the time you want to go eat pray love and pursue your dream right now you have a family to feed we can't risk a drop in income yeah and to your point you're 22 you have time you have time my friend do this the right way um because what's going to happen is when you start this here's what could happen you say i'm just going to make the leap i'm just going to jump you get into it you hate it and you're not making any money and you're like dang it why did i do that jump whereas the way we're talking it also allows you to get your feet wet and decide do i like this is this right for me you haven't let your big job go yet right and you can make the choice and and slowly decide versus i'm just going to jump with both feet and you know god will protect me you don't want to do it that way and uh alex we're also going to send you a copy of dave ramsey's latest book build a business you love and that'll help you on the entrepreneurship side to really get a clear picture of what this is going to take how do i grow this thing and not just let it be a little side project and side hustle and i'm confident You're 22.

1:43:24You're making$104 ,000. You're not scared of hard work. That's really the secret sauce of being an entrepreneur. People think, well, Jade, I want to be my own boss and work four hours a week. You're going to work more than everybody else. Yeah. That is not entrepreneurship. You got sold a course and a lie. Entrepreneurship is working 80 hours a week for six years just to get the thing off the ground to hope that you can sustain it. And then it's still work from there. Ask Dave Ramsey. He's been at it for 30 plus years. Nothing about it is easy. Nothing about it is passive. If anything, it's more work, but it's rewarding if that's what you're wired to do.

1:43:58So explore it. I wish you the best. And those books are going to be really helpful. Jay, too many people, I like that he's at least thinking about this at 22. Too many people call us at 42. They're going, hey, I hate what I've been doing for the last two decades and I'm burnt out. I'm fatigued. He's doing this from a place of strength right now. Absolutely. And so time is on his side. I think one of the most dangerous things people can do is get rushed. Because when you're rushed, you get sloppy. And when you get sloppy, you make mistakes. He's got time. And most of us do have time. We make it seem like, you know, we're backed against a corner, but we're not.

1:44:33There's options and there's time. And we can take our time and do it right, like the song says.

1:45:07When you're tired of feeling stuck with money, there's just one solution. To get different results, you have to do something different. No one accidentally wins with money. You have to have a game plan, and that begins with our Get Started assessment. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash start, answer some questions, and we'll show you what steps to take next. Don't stay stuck. Take control of your money starting today. Go with RamseySolutions.com slash start.

1:45:51Are you staying on track with the baby steps? You can take a quick quiz to check your progress and get a personalized plan made just for you. Simply head to the show notes of this episode and click on the link titled, Are You On Track With The Baby Steps? and complete the quiz. Nicole is in St. Paul, Minnesota up next. Nicole, how are you today? Good. How are you? Great. How can Jade and I help? I have a question. I am a stay-at-home mom. I have been for over four years now, and I have just been hearing some stories about stay-at-home moms being stay-at-home moms for 10-plus years, and then all of a sudden their husband's wanting a divorce, and they have nothing, no financial, no credit cards in their name, no retirement accounts in their name, and I was like, oh, that's me.

1:46:40I don't want to be that person just in case in however many years if something were to happen. And so I'm just wondering what steps I should be taking now to prepare myself financially. How does your marriage feel today? Like, how do you feel about your marriage? Is it in a good place? Do you feel like you guys have been in a tough place? We've been in a tough place for probably over a year now. Okay. So is that, am I right to say that that could affect how this conversation could go? and his openness to the conversation? Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure, honestly. I feel like I don't suspect that we would want to do that, like to get a divorce or anything.

1:47:31I mean, the conversation about you saying essentially, hey, you know, I've been thinking about our money and I've realized I kind of feel disconnected from it and I've been disconnected from it of my own volition. I haven't paid attention. I haven't, you know, I've kind of let you handle that. And I'm realizing that wasn't the right place for me to, that wasn't the right stance for me to have on this. It's, it's, it's our life. And I need to, it's almost like you putting the ball in your court and say, you know, I, I need to kind of step up here. Right. I think that's a good way to approach it.

1:48:05How do you think he would receive that? Is he open to full transparency? Your name on everything along with mine. Yes, honey, you are the beneficiary on my 401k. See right here. I'll show it to you. Like, is he open to that? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I used to take care of our finances of like the budgeting and planning and all that. But then just more responsibilities got on my plate. So I gave that to him. And I do feel like if I were to bring it up to him, I'm like, hey, let's talk about all this. He'd be like, yeah, let's do it. Let's get you on that. But I have a lot of hard time trusting that he'll follow through with that.

1:48:41And so I'm feeling like I will have to do it, if that makes sense. Well, I think that's okay. I mean, I will say when it comes to money, there does tend to be certain spouses will take the lead more so in certain areas. But as long as the transparency is there and both people want to participate in the areas they're best suited, I think that's okay. So if you have the conversation, he says, yes, 100%. Here's the password. You know, if you want to pop in there and just check it, that's cool. Yeah, I think that's great. Now, as far as the if the worst happened, right, nobody, nobody plans a divorce.

1:49:19So if the worst happened, would you be protected? The first step is, yes, I'm 50 50 on everything. We do things in both of our names, but there's a lot of it that will go into the hands of the courts. and in most states assets accumulated during marriage will be evenly divided 50 50 and you know if you're a stay-at-home mom there's going to be spousal support on top of child support so unless he's a deadbeat we've gotten these calls so i'm not saying it's out of the ordinary we get the calls we're like oh yeah he just doesn't pay and we can't find him find him no i hope that's not this guy i hope he's an honorable man of integrity and character and takes care of his family, even if in the event of a divorce.

1:49:59But, you know, knowing where the money is at, the accounts, the debts, the passwords, the insurance, making sure that your wills are in place. These are things you should do anyways, regardless of what's going on in your marriage. But I think that's wise. And being a joint owner on the accounts. Do you guys have a joint checking account? We do. Yeah, we just have one bank account. Both of our names are on it. All of savings accounts are there. Good. Okay. All that stuff is going to help. And I don't even like talking about it in a way because I'm not trying to predict that for you. But I think for the most part, when we do get those calls about deadbeats, there were red flags.

1:50:40Yeah. There were markers there that indicated that this person might end up being that type of person. And it doesn't sound like you have that. It sounds like you got spooked by something you heard. And it's kind of like, could you get in a car accident? Yeah, you could. But you're a safe driver. You wear your seatbelt. Do you see what I'm saying? And so what George and I are suggesting are all of those normal precautions that you should take that are going to keep you safe. But I can't say that there's a 1000 % guarantee that somebody couldn't turn out to be a deadbeat, if that makes sense. The good news is, the good news is you're a smart woman.

1:51:17If you needed to, you could land on your feet. And I believe that just by talking to you. Great. Is there, is there hope that we're going to resolve this? Like, can you guys go to marriage counseling or is this like, Hey, we just, this is a fork in the road and it, it could go either way. Um, I mean, we're doing marriage counseling currently. Um, and I think it's helping some, I think the big part is I think the trust of feeling like I can depend on him in these really major things. Yeah. Yeah, rebuilding trust is, I mean, that's paramount. The whole relationship is built on that. And when it's broken, I mean, it's crazy because it takes forever to build and you can break it in an instant.

1:51:56And then you've got to rebuild. And so I'm sorry you guys are going through this. It's not a paranoid hypothetical in your life. This is a real concern and you have a right to be worried. and then I would go do the things I can control. I would work on me. I'd work on my marriage. I would make sure that I have access to the accounts, that I'm a joint owner on anything I can be, that I'm legally protected as far as wills and life insurance and beneficiaries. All of that is wise. Can I ask a question about the kids? Yeah. How old are they? Four, two and a half, and two months. If it made you feel better, and I'm not saying you need to do this, I'm just putting myself in your shoes.

1:52:38If I had true worry about the future of my marriage, like truly like, man, I don't know if we're going to get out of this. There might be part of me that would start thinking, if I were to work, what would I be doing? If I had to pick up a job, just hypothetically, if I had to pick up a job, what would I do? What would that look like? Would I need a degree? Would I need money? Having that conversation with yourself could be a good thing. again, I'm stepping very lightly because I'm not trying to, I don't, there's a difference in trying to plan for a disaster that you know is imminent versus just putting some bad juju out there, I guess, for lack of a better word.

1:53:20Planning a new life and you're sort of already living it in a sense. Like I'm not trying to, you see what I'm saying, but only you know where you're at in that relationship. And if you were at the point where it started being, I just don't know. I don't know. So that would be the smart thing to do for you and your children and for him too, because you want everybody to land on their feet. So I'll just throw that out there. Nicole, we're wishing you the best. I hope that there's healing and restoration in this marriage and that this is a thing you never have to deal with and just a thing that you had to think about for a little while.

1:53:53But it is a real concern. And those calls are heartbreaking when she's like, I'm like, OK, what's your income? Well, you got a divorce. What's the child support, the alimony? Oh, he doesn't, he hasn't paid. The court's ordered it. He just doesn't. You have a deadbeat, somebody who hasn't been in the workforce for, you know, 15 years, like that sort of thing. It's tough. It's very tough. But I do think it's wise. And if you were working before kids, you know, keep those skills sharp. There's nothing wrong with that. And maybe the kids, the marriage is great. The kids go to school and you decide, I want to go back to work anyways.

1:54:23Right, right. Exactly. And so, man, that's, that's tough. We always say that, you know, marriage is grand, divorce is 50 grand. and that it turns marriage into a business transaction. And that's really sad, but then it becomes, okay, who gets what? What accounts go where? And it just kind of becomes this split, this chasm that you have to deal with. And I mean, you got young kids in the mix too, which just makes things way more complicated and it's heartbreaking. So the best thing to do is prevent a divorce and have a healthy, strong marriage, have the accountability and transparency. And that's why we recommend combining accounts.

1:54:59Then there's no surprises. You can't have financial infidelity when she gets transaction alerts on everything I do, which is what we do in my family. I'm like, what did you spend? Okay. I'd rather have that than I didn't know you did that. Oh, absolutely. I have every password, every single one. Sam Warshaw, watch your back, bro. Don't try it. He would never, he never would.

1:55:29Thank you.

1:56:09All right, let's cut to the chase. That's RamseySolutions.com.

1:56:28Our scripture of the day, Hebrews 13, 16. But do not forget to do good and to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased. Mark Twain said, do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. True words. Debra is in Dallas up next. What's going on, Debra? How can we help? Yes, I was wondering. I wanted a prenup. I've never been married before. My fiance has. And I just feel like I've worked hard. I've saved. And I just want to know, is that a good way to protect myself? So in the event that something happens, of course, I don't want a divorce, but, you know, things happen.

1:57:14So I'm just here to get some advice. What's your net worth? It's about$600 ,000. $600 ,000? Yes. How much of that is your home and how much of it, is it a business that you own? I don't own a home. I actually sold my home in the height of COVID and made like$130 ,000. I put that in my IRA. so$330 ,000 is IRA $120 ,000 is just my personal savings and then I recently did an investment in a real estate property where I'm going to make anywhere between$130 ,000 to$150 ,000 off of one flip and how much is the debt on that? The debt on that is$310 ,000 but of course I did a hard money loan so once that loan is paid off I pay that back and the profit from the sale of the home will go to me Again, it's estimated based off the appraisal of the home before I finished my flip, I would profit anywhere between$120 ,000 and$150 ,000.

1:58:14Ooh, that's a risky deal. Okay, that's a different call. Tell us about him. How long have you guys been dating and engaged for? We've been dating four years. We've been engaged almost a year. He was previously married for 20-plus years with two children. They are grown now. And he had to, of course, split his assets, his retirement, they had to sell their home. And, of course, his net worth isn't as high as mine. Does he have a lot of debt? He did not, but he was kind of just left with, you know, not a lot after the divorce. Okay. What do you make and what does he make? We both make the same thing.

1:58:59I'm about a hundred grand a year. Okay. Okay. Does your family have a bunch of money? Is your family quite wealthy? Are you standing to inherit a bunch? No. Okay. So what's, you think his net worth is maybe a few hundred grand? I don't even think it's that. Okay. Okay. So the general, I'll tell you the general parameters around prenups. It's not a never, and it's not an always. It's if there is a huge discrepancy in net worth and in income, then it could be wise. And it's really to protect against crazy family versus I don't trust this person and I think it's going south. Now in your case, you know, 600 ,000, you've done very well.

1:59:39I'm very proud of you, but the incomes are about the same. And it's not like you have 5 million and he's in crippling debt. And so I don't think the variance is so far that I'm like, oh, girl, you need to get a prenup yesterday. This is a, if you both feel like this is wise and you both feel like this is the move, you can do that. Well, he's against it. And why is that? I like to know the heart behind why he's against it. He just said that, you know, he's never asked me for anything and he feels like that a prenup is the doorway to saying, you know, we're going to be divorced. and I tried to explain to him that that's not the case, that while we're together as we grow financially, we'll both benefit from what we have and what we grow together.

2:00:25But in the event that something happens, I would like to maintain what I came into the relationship with, which would be my IRA, my personal savings, and the rehabbing business that I started with the homes. but he just says he doesn't he doesn't want to do it he thinks that a prenup is saying you know we're going to get divorced how old are you guys i am 45 and he's 53

2:00:56have you brought this before a counselor or it's just been the two of you talking about it it's just been the two of us we only had one conversation i kind of left it alone because i was like well i guess we're not getting married and he was like well i guess we're not and I kind of just left it alone because I thought it was getting a little heated. I mean, it wasn't a heated conversation, but I could tell it was not. You had an impasse. Yeah, so I haven't brought it up since, but I really, really wanted to. I'm trying to get underneath this to go, how much of this is maybe the shame and baggage and trauma from his divorce and now sort of triggering all of that of like, well, you think I'm going to go back to that, and he's sort of having to relive that.

2:01:36Is that part of it? I don't know. He said that he was young when he got married the first time. And I was like, that's my point. We're not young anymore. So, you know, I look at this as a protection instead of a bad thing, like a safety net instead of a bad thing. But he's just against it. And I don't know what to do. Did he have fully combined money with his previous wife? They didn't have combined money. He just took care of the household. He took care of everything, paid all the bills, and she was free to willy-nilly do whatever with her money. I'd love for you to explore that more with him because it feels like, and I don't know, this is just a few-minute call with you.

2:02:21We're strangers after four minutes. Uh-huh. It almost feels like I could see him thinking, you know what, I don't want to do that again. I want to be fully combined. I want there to be trust. I don't want to be this business where I'm over here and she's over there. And then if it goes our separate ways, I'm just left here. I can see his side of it. I'll be honest, just given the numbers, I would not suggest it for you. I wouldn't say, yeah, you need it. I can understand your emotion around it. Specifically, well, this is a second marriage. Is there a chance that this could happen? You know what I mean?

2:02:56I could see your side of it too. I think there's a lot of emotion here to work through. I would suggest working through it with a counselor, somebody who can see both sides and give you guys the language to express what's really going on at the heart of this. And I would say to both of you, if you were both on the line right now, I would just, I'm going to just say this because this is what I would do. Pray for an open heart, both of you. And say, let me be open to what they're saying. Because if either of you is coming into this very closed off, it's going to be hard. but if you can pray to be open-minded and have an open heart and really seek to see the other person's heart on this it's gonna it's gonna help this come together and I don't know where it's gonna land for you both but I think that that could not hurt it won't hurt the process okay so I think that was one conversation I would dig deeper and say hey I don't want to let this stop us from getting married I love you I want to spend the rest of my life with you I just want to get to a place where we can understand each other and maybe that means you do get a prenup maybe it means you don't get a prenup, but we have to align on this before moving forward.

2:03:59And time is of the essence. You know, I don't want this to drag on for three years of an engagement, will they, won't they, over this piece of paper. And it's also, you got to look at the laws. Maybe it's, hey, in Texas, only things that were acquired, you know, during the marriage get split. And so you might go, hey, even without the prenup, he's not going to touch my IRA from before we were married, for example. so I'd also get clear on what the laws are because it may be a moot point and we fought over nothing so I hope that helps thank you for the call alrighty bye guys oh man two calls in a row I think I'm going to go out on a limb here with social media you see a lot more of people's stories you can see other people's lives how it pans out there's a lot of people telling you a lot and it's up to us to synthesize that and say, like, how common is this?

2:04:53How real is this? Am I at risk? And I think we are just open up, opened up to way more. When you hear about the edge cases that are crazy, you don't hear about the ones where they just split it 50-50 and it was amicable and they walked away or whatever it is. And so that's the hard part. And I mean, the previous call, they were going through some struggles and she was a stay-at-home mom wondering, am I protected in the case of a divorce? And you got one that's on the post end of that of, hey, we found new love, but he's been divorced and I want the prenup to protect what I've built. And that's another part of marriage is, are you aligned on the financial values and goals of, all right, he's not doing well with money, but I've done really well.

2:05:29And therefore, I don't want to hitch my wagon. Well, that could be a red flag. Now, that's not their case. He's doing really well. He makes great money. He's not in crippling debt. He just had life happen. But the red flag, going back to that, it matters because you and I, we've taken tons of these calls. And there's always something. There's that thing that you noticed and you ignored. And in this case, she's been with this guy four to five years. You know, you can see it. What are the red flags there? And if they are, listen to them. If they're not there, assume goodwill and assume, hey, this is a good guy.

2:06:00Even if it doesn't work out, we'll work it out. Absolutely. Hey, that's the end of this hour. But remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.

2:06:13Covid-19