Don't Let People's Opinions Influence Your Financial Decisions

13:20Dr. John Delony:And both of you say, both of us have contributed to this. I, for a year, had a free house to live in, my childhood home, and I complained about it. I didn't want to live here. and then he went and rented something. We had no money and then we did this and we bought this other house, but we're not going to live there because that's our special rental. Everything just has to stop. Everything has to stop and say, we have created a mess. The only way forward is if we get on this, either we divorce because of the financial infidelity or we have to say, we have to live differently starting today. Do you get what I'm saying?

13:55Dr. John Delony:And if you don't feel any shred of ownership over the position you're in, there's no path forward for you because you're just going to walk in and blame and blame and blame and blame. And he's going to either shut down like he's been doing the last 15 years, or he's going to head off on a separate path. And so both of you have to sit down and say, we have created a mess. We haven't asked the right questions. We have lied to each other. Or he had to say, I lied to you, whatever. And we have to get to this baseline of the marriage we had is over. Do we want to build a new one? And here is all of the excavated foundation from the old marriage.

14:28Dr. John Delony:We're starting at dirt. Do we want to rebuild a new thing together? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's that level.

14:36Rachel Cruze:And I would say on your end, Grace, I mean, tell me what you think of this. Yes, he, Grace, you know, I do, I'm with John, like there was a level of responsibility that, yeah, you didn't take, but also he did hide.

14:49Dr. John Delony:Half a million dollars.

14:50Rachel Cruze:Yeah. Oh, I mean, yeah, even more. So the trust is broken on both ends. probably, maybe more so on your end. And so learning a path forward to rebuild that trust, because the goal will be you guys working together. And if that takes a journey, and probably it's going to take a lot of therapy and all of that, right, to rebuild that trust, that's okay. That's going to take time. But the goal by the end of this, when you guys sit down and say and do everything, you know, what John was just saying, the end goal is that we are a household and financially and big decisions and everything that falls in that bucket, we are doing this together.

15:28Rachel Cruze:We don't make decisions about money without each other. And I would say even more of a microscope because of his past financially of how he's acted, I mean, of how he's handled money. He's filed bankruptcy twice. So, so even more, even more scrutiny that every purchase we are going to, we're going to be on a, on a communication level that is probably more strict than the average couple out there.

15:51Dr. John Delony:Rachel and I have sat with Dave and Sharon and Sharon, that was that 30 years ago was their bankruptcy. And still to this day, Dave and Sharon, they have resources till the end of time and they still talk about major purchases together because that core seed was planted 30 years ago of, I didn't know how bad this was. And so from here on out, we agree that we're going to talk through these things together.

16:14Rachel Cruze:So that's the goal for you guys from a marriage perspective, grace from our position, like what we see is what we want for you all. But financially, how to dig out of this. What are you guys making right now a year? Are you working? Is he working? What's going on with income?

16:32Dr. John Delony:Well, see, this is the thing. Just to back up, I did not just fall off of a turnip truck. I asked questions. I hired financial advisors. I tried to do a Sunday night meeting with him every week and he'd fall asleep. He would say he's too tired. Now's not the time. This has been going on for not just three years, but 10 years. So we sold two houses before that just to kind of make ends meet. So it's been a pattern where he's skirts the communication issues. So in terms of me taking ownership of my stuff, yes, I do. And I think that I agree with you, but it's hard to talk to someone who is constantly stating things that are untrue, Like he makes$30 ,000 a month, which maybe that was true during COVID.

17:15Dr. John Delony:Yeah, maybe or maybe not, right? Yeah. Yeah, so I don't know because I ask him, can I get some bank transparency? Can I just see what the stream of income is? And he always says it's complicated or I'm working on the numbers. Okay, let's take it out of money. Let's say that he has a history of cheating on his past wives, and then y 'all get together. and every week you want to sit down and talk to him and say, I want to reestablish trust. Can I see your phone? And he says, absolutely not. And all of a sudden he, you see hotel receipts show up at the house and you're like, I didn't stay there. Who's there?

17:50Dr. John Delony:And he goes, it's complicated. Would you stand for that? No, no. So what I want you to see is like, when I say responsibility, absolutely. You've been trying for 10 years, panning back. We've been doing the same thing. We've been trying to run the same play for 10 years and it's never worked. Right. That's where the ownership is. I don't want to say this is your fault and you're, I want you to just take ownership. Okay. I've put up with this for 10 years. I'm done putting up with it. Yeah. And then when it comes to the financial advisor, I've hired a guy, I've hired a woman and neither person is right.

18:25Dr. John Delony:They're always. Yeah. And that's going to be his issue.

18:27Rachel Cruze:So Grace, real quick, we have, we have, we have about a minute and a half. So I want to just real quick. No, you're good. How much are you guys making right now? Do you know what he's making? What are you making? No idea.

18:36Dr. John Delony:No idea what he's making. He said$30 ,000. He said$20 ,000. Now it's$10 ,000. It ranges. Okay, you're not safe. He's potentially sued. His company is falling apart right now. So he's getting sued.

18:47Rachel Cruze:So what is under your name from a debt perspective? Because right now, in my head, you guys are two separate entities, and we kind of were like, that doesn't need to be the case. It does need to be the case right now because of everything.

18:56Dr. John Delony:You're not safe.

18:56Rachel Cruze:But what are you... I don't have any debt.

18:59Dr. John Delony:I don't have any.

19:00Rachel Cruze:But you're mom, right? You borrowed$75 ,000 from her at one point?

19:05Dr. John Delony:You know, I don't have any debt right now. I just have this Cape Cod asset right now that I'm trying to keep. It was going to be foreclosed on because he wasn't making the payment. I took ownership of it three months ago.

19:15Rachel Cruze:Is your name on the deed? Now it is. It is now. And how are you, is it paid for? No. I mean, how are you going to pay the mortgage every month? I just am tapping into that early inheritance and I have maybe four or five months left. planning on going and making an income?

19:34Dr. John Delony:Um, I, I make very little money and I have, uh, I teach on the side and then I have some sort of, uh, so really, so my, my advice for you of what, I feel

19:44Rachel Cruze:like what we can say right now is yes, keeping everything separate right now. Um, and you have to take care of you, Grace. So yeah, you are probably gonna have to go make an income because this 250 and the way it's been the pattern in the past, it's going to be gone in three months if you're not careful. And so you need to start getting a job. You need to be doing a budget and you need to be taking care of food, shelter, utilities, transportation, and then the whole mess of the marriage and his finances is going to have to be untangled, and that's going to take a while and probably some professionals to step in and help.

20:25Dr. John Delony:statistics show that half of americans don't have enough life insurance or they don't have any at all i don't understand this john why don't people want to take care of their family they think they're going to die or something well i used to be one of those guys i didn't even think about it And one of my buddies said, hey, the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids. And I immediately went and got term life insurance. That's a gut punch. And you're telling me for decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse. They've lost somebody important to them.

20:56Dr. John Delony:Me too. They don't know what to do next. Me too. I mean, you're going to have a crisis here. And, you know, you got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow. She's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up. or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow. That's exactly right. These are the two options. And take care of your dadgum family, man. Term life insurance can replace income, pay off debts, cover funeral expenses, so your family can actually have the opportunity to just be sad. Yeah. To just miss you. That's exactly what it's supposed to be.

21:25Dr. John Delony:It's saying I love you to your family. Term life insurance. Jeff Zander and the team at Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable. I've used them personally for 25 years. They're the only people I trust. Go to Xander.com or call 800-356-4282.

22:03Rachel Cruze:Well, it's May and the Ramsey cash giveaway is officially here. So you can enter every day from May 1st through the 31st. there's one grand prize winner who will get$10 ,000. Plus there will be one$500 winner every single week in the month of May. And you can enter daily to increase your chances of winning. Plus be sure to check out our sale that is going on right now and kick off your summer with some assessments and books and all the things for just$12. So go to RamseySolutions.com slash giveaway now to enter. No purchase necessary to win. All right, let's go to Summer in Baltimore. Hi, Summer.

22:44Rachel Cruze:Welcome to the show. Hi, how are you guys? Hi, we're doing great. How can we help? Good.

22:50Dr. John Delony:So I was wondering, should I accept financial help from my parents for tuition, knowing that they're in debt. I am so grateful that they want to help me. I just, I feel so guilty knowing that, accepting that money, knowing that they're in debt. I'm not sure exactly how much debt that they're in, but I know that they have consumer, the house and car loans and things like that.

23:17Rachel Cruze:Okay. How old are you, Summer? I'm 23. You're 23. So is this your first time entering college? Are you getting a master's? Like what are you going after degree wise?

23:28Dr. John Delony:So I already got my two year degree and I cash flowed that. I finished my third year cash flowed it. So I only have about a year and a half left. Good for you. I've paid. Yeah, I've only I've paid my tuition so far throughout. But I think the burnout is starting to hit me and they're noticing.

23:46Rachel Cruze:So they're getting a little bit more adamant about helping me with school. Oh, my gosh. Well done, Summer. So you've like literally like worked your way through. true yeah yeah that's amazing and so then you've had conversations with them that it's just kind of tough and they're like hey let us help and what are they saying they want to help with are they wanting to pay for everything outright for the next year and a half or one semester or they're wanting to help with half each semester okay okay i so for me and rachel hop in here

24:16Dr. John Delony:For me, Summer, man, I think every friend I have outside of this ecosystem where I work has some sort of consumer debt. Yeah. Whether it's a mortgage. I've got one friend. I take that back. One friend who's a banker, and he just thinks it's dumb to have personal debt. But beyond that, every friend I have, and it's a values judgment, right? They all make great money. They just choose to live their life differently than I do. And so for me, the question would be less about we have a different value when it comes to having a car to loan versus not. And the question I would ask myself as a kid is, are my parents harming them?

24:58Dr. John Delony:Are they doing something that I know is going to be detrimental to them? Or do they have a lot of money? They have pretty good money. And also they make car payments every month. Yeah. Yeah, so that's where I kind of feel like I get into a rock and a hard place because I know that they're not fully set up for retirement. And that's what gives me a lot of anxiety, accepting that kind of money, knowing that they could be putting that towards their own retirement, but they choose not to.

25:30Rachel Cruze:But they haven't chosen to in the past, though, right? Yeah, they're not going to. Yeah, that wasn't decided because you're in college and they want to help with that, and they stopped their retirement to help you. they were never going to do it in the first place probably. No, no, they weren't. Yeah. They filled out. I think your heart is great. And I would probably feel the same way if I'm like, golly. So I think trusting your gut is what you need. But I also don't want to put guilt. John, you can probably talk more about this than me as the psychologist. But like, don't put someone else's situation on you.

26:02Rachel Cruze:You've not made these decisions for them. They have made them. As your parents, they have offered to help. and I don't know, there's a part of me that I'm like, they're making these decisions. I don't think this would change their decision-making one way or the other. So it's not like you are adding to this, you know, I don't know, you're stopping some motivation of like going in the right direction. But again, I know you don't want to keep digging them deeper in it. There's a part of me that would accept it. Is that bad, John? No, I mean, I would.

26:36Dr. John Delony:I would take somebody's help. I think the – man, I've mentioned this several times the last few days on the show. A friend of mine, Becky Kennedy, who's a psychologist in New York. She goes by Dr. Becky. She reframed guilt for me, so I'll ask you this question. Is it against your values to accept help?

27:00Dr. John Delony:Do you hear me, Summer? No, you could out there. Is it against your values to accept help? Is it against your personal values to accept help?

27:08Rachel Cruze:Period. Yeah, it sounded like there was more. There wasn't more. Question mark. I think you could have it.

27:12Dr. John Delony:Yeah, just yes or no.

27:13Rachel Cruze:Help with what? Help with what? Yeah. I guess not.

27:18Dr. John Delony:Okay. Is it against your personal values to pay cash for college?

27:26No.

27:27Dr. John Delony:Okay. Is it against your personal values to ever accept money from somebody who is in debt?

27:36Dr. John Delony:No. Okay. So if those are your values, then the thing you're feeling is concern and frustration with your parents, and you're choosing to take their issues and try to carry them on your own. And if you as a 23-year-old are already doing the math and you're like, they're probably going to be living with me one day, that might be your reality, right? And also, maybe not. Maybe they don't tell you everything. Maybe you don't know they have a pension or what, like who knows what their full situation is. But if you're not doing anything that violates your own values, and by the way, if it's against your values to ever take a dime from somebody who is in debt, then don't take their money because that would be a violation of your values.

28:20Dr. John Delony:You'd feel guilty because I violated my core values. If it's not, then I would be grateful for the gift and go on about my life. If your gut says, if I take money from them, it's going to come with a bunch of strings. They're going to start asking me what my grades are and why. And you've been doing it on your own. You want to grind it out for 18 more months and be finished. Then just stay on the path.

28:42Rachel Cruze:Or they expect to be paid back at some point. Yeah, they're going to call you and say, hey, where's our money? Yeah, borrowing money versus it being a true gift would be a no-go.

28:53Dr. John Delony:Yeah. And so, and if you want to sit down and have the conversation as a 23-year-old, I can tell you it's probably not going to go well. But if you say, hey, I would love this gift. I'm concerned about y 'all's financial situation. Yeah.

29:06Rachel Cruze:Yeah, I'm curious, Summer, how do you know that they're in a bad spot? I mean, I know you mentioned car loans because maybe in passing they talked about it. But how do you know that they're not contributing to retirement or, you know, these kind of things that you've thrown out? Have they told you or you guys have talked about it?

29:20Dr. John Delony:I'm nosy, so I ask. I ask if they have a Roth IRA separate than their 401ks and they don't really know what it is, things like that. Gotcha. I know that they have 401ks with their, at least my dad does with his work. And I've seen it. But again, it's not, it's concerning to me for their retirement.

29:42Rachel Cruze:I get worried for them because they've worked so hard too. No, absolutely. And I think one of the best things, you know, and it sounds like you guys have a good relationship that you can at least have somewhat of these conversations. And not that you're going to try to change them because that does no good of really pretending like you can come in and swoop in and save the day on their financial journey. But I think it would be, you know, fine to continue as much as they want to open up and talk. Maybe not open up about their numbers, but just talk about the idea of money, the philosophy around money, you know, those kinds of things.

30:13Rachel Cruze:and, you know, and bringing up in conversation of like, man, debt just seems to bother me. I don't know why. I don't know where that comes from. Like, what do y 'all think about, you know what I mean? And just have like, just more, you know, a casual conversation with your parents. Cause it sounds like you guys can have those. I feel like I have that with my parents, like whether it's theology or politics or whatever, you know, we'll, we'll throw ideas out about stuff and kind of, you know, just, and talk about it, have different opinions sometimes, but, but it's always an interesting conversation.

30:38Rachel Cruze:So I would be curious, you know, what what things you can bring up or talk about in a casual setting that you can maybe share some of your experience of. I mean, obviously you listen to this show to a degree to call in of like, yeah, I've been listening to this thing or I've seen this and I thought that was fascinating or like compound interest. I had no idea. Oh, my gosh. Like, look at this calculator on Ramsey Solutions.com. Like, like whatever. I don't know what it is, but I am curious if there can just be conversations where you get to share some of the value systems at which you've placed money, which might be different than them.

31:09Rachel Cruze:And actually, again, not in a weird teaching way, but open up and talk about it and they may actually learn something.

31:14Dr. John Delony:Or just something as simple as, I'm nervous to take this money. I'd rather see y 'all invested for your retirement and see what they say to that. Yeah, yeah.

31:22Rachel Cruze:So Summer, you're awesome. We appreciate the call. Yeah, if something goes sideways or crazy, call back on a day John's here and he can help untangle that. Thanks for the call, Summer.

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33:11Rachel Cruze:All right, let's go to Becca in Louisville. Louisville. Louisville. Hey, Becca. Hello. Welcome to the show. Hello. How are y 'all doing today? Hi, we're doing great. How can we help?

33:24Dr. John Delony:So my husband and I just got out of debt two and a half weeks ago. Congratulations. Nice, Becca. I caught on fire yesterday. Thank you. Well done. My car caught on fire yesterday. Of course it did. Because why not? I was wondering if we should go into debt to our new car. Of course. Yeah. For sure do that. No, Becca.

33:44Rachel Cruze:Becca. Oh, no. Okay, so what happened to the car? What caused it to catch on fire?

33:49Dr. John Delony:You shouldn't drink gasoline and smoke at the same time. So actually, I was at my OB appointment because I'm also almost seven months pregnant with our first baby. Oh, my gosh.

33:59Rachel Cruze:Why not? Well, congratulations.

34:01Dr. John Delony:I went inside, and they were talking about a car on fire outside. I thought nothing of it. Turns out it was my car. We think it was a battery short or something like that. But, I mean, there's no way to really know for sure when your car catches on fire why it was on fire.

34:17Rachel Cruze:But everyone was okay, and that's good. That's terrible. Okay, did insurance, like, jump in at any point? Like, are you getting any money for this car?

34:27Dr. John Delony:So, we don't think so. We only had liability on the car because it wasn't worth very much, and we didn't owe anything on it.

34:33Rachel Cruze:Okay.

34:34Dr. John Delony:So we're probably not going to get anything from it, but we do have about$5 ,000 to spend on a car. Well, beautiful. Okay. And the reason that I'm calling really is I feel like I may be being emotional about getting into debt. My mom and my sister, they're both also Dave Ramsey fans, and they're also debt-free. And I was just thinking, like they were saying, well, Becca, you know, you're about to have a baby. You want to make sure you have a reliable car and that it's safe for you and your baby. And you don't want this to happen again within the next few years. So maybe you should put a big down payment down on a car and get something nicer.

35:15Dr. John Delony:So I'm just wondering if I'm just being too emotional. And I should go into a little bit of this.

35:19Rachel Cruze:No, no. You know us too well. We're not going to. We will never steer you that way. And I agree with them. I don't want this to happen again, a.k.a. I don't want your car to catch on fire. So, like, we can agree upon that.

35:30Dr. John Delony:And they're trying to love you well. Yes. This is their... They have the best intentions. Yes, they're trying. For sure.

35:35Rachel Cruze:I'm just wondering if I'm being a little bit too emotional because I literally just got out of bed.

35:40Dr. John Delony:Listen, as a guy who's had a wife who's been seven months pregnant twice, I don't think there's such thing as too emotional.

35:47Rachel Cruze:Yeah.

35:47Dr. John Delony:Okay?

35:48Rachel Cruze:You're right on track, Becca.

35:50Dr. John Delony:You are perfect just as you are.

35:52Rachel Cruze:And your motherly instincts of like, oh my gosh, I want everything to be safe. But let me tell you, there's safe$5 ,000 cars out there, Becca, just so you know. Like when we were kids, well, not even me. I grew up in the late 80s, early 90s. Even when my parents, in the 70s, I'm like, no, everybody just. So there's a range on what safety means. And for some people, safety is a brand new car. Some people, reliability on X, Y, and Z. That can mean a lot of things for a lot of people. But I can tell you that there are Honda Civics out there that are as safe as they come. right or Camry or a Camry or like you know you're you will find you can find a safe car now do you want to drive a$5 ,000 car your whole life no of course not so my I mean I wouldn't care so I drove a$4 ,500 Prius with two kids in it and I'm a big tall guy yeah and I was in Texas and

36:48Dr. John Delony:it was it was a season of shame for me but that car was awesome and it was cheap and it got incredible gas mileage and it's still on the road today it's still out there somewhere i totaled it and the guy repaired it and resold it so like like all i have to say is let me let me phrase it this way had your car not caught on fire were you gonna go buy a brand new car anyway no okay consider this your first big post baby step to challenge by the universe

37:22Rachel Cruze:okay okay yep and i know that's hard you have other do you have other cash available besides this 5 000 just for like medical stuff or like i don't know i'm thinking through the baby and all of that i mean technically yes okay i mean well that's not for yeah that's a good thing like that i i would want some level of emergency fund especially if you're going into exactly labor and labor which is great i'm not telling you to spend money i just want to make sure that this$5 ,000 isn't the only thing keeping your head above water financially. How much is in the other account just as an emergency fund?

37:54Dr. John Delony:I mean, we have probably another$1 ,500.

37:57Rachel Cruze:Okay, okay.

37:59Dr. John Delony:So I'd probably buy a$3 ,500 card, to be honest with you.

38:01Rachel Cruze:Yeah, how much did you guys make a month? Like, what were you put, or let me ask this, Becca. How much extra per month were you throwing at debt three, four months ago that you now have in margin because you're debt-free?

38:15Dr. John Delony:so my husband's he's a firefighter his salary is what was paying for like our living expenses okay and then all the extra money well not extra money but the money that i make with my job which is only around anywhere between a thousand to two thousand a month because i do contract work okay we're going towards the debt perfect but i mean that's not going to be coming in for the first

38:38Rachel Cruze:few weeks after i have a baby no absolutely made me like kind of freak out hundred percent but will Do you have$2 ,000 in May and June?

38:46Dr. John Delony:Most likely.

38:47Rachel Cruze:Closer to$15, probably, but yes.

38:49Dr. John Delony:Okay. Is there a possibility for two months? And I know his partners will get on him. Could you drop him off at the fire station? Well, I would do that, but he drives a manual car and I can't do that. Okay. Well played, husband. Well played.

39:06Rachel Cruze:I'm going to get the stick shows.

39:07Dr. John Delony:I mean, we also have a farm, so I have a farm van I can drive for now,

39:12Rachel Cruze:but there's nowhere to put a baby in that car, if that makes sense.

39:14Dr. John Delony:Sure. Totally.

39:15Rachel Cruze:But for two months. I need a car right now. This is a, I need a car for when I have a baby. Okay. That's great. Well, so what I would say probably, Becca, honestly, is I would drive that farm van until you have the baby and then that, and then hopefully you'll have three to$4 ,000 saved before the baby comes extra than what you have right now. And so let's just say it's, let's say it's three grand and then you have five grand for the car, I would probably wait and buy an$8 ,000 car or even, you know, I would, you know, buy an$8 ,000 car in three months. Yeah.

39:52Dr. John Delony:Once the baby comes home, everything's good and everybody's rocking and rolling. Yeah. Then y 'all go get an$8 ,000 car.

39:57Rachel Cruze:Yep.

39:58Dr. John Delony:And take that van up to the fire station when those guys are sitting in their recliners. And by the way, I'm making jokes, inside jokes to my friends who are firefighters, but have those guys clean that van out for you and make it awesome.

40:09Rachel Cruze:Sounds great. Yep. Yep. So that's what I would say. I would not buy anything right now, and I would save$1 ,500,$2 ,000 in May and June, and then go get an$8 ,000 car. And$8 ,000, you can get cars free.

40:24Dr. John Delony:You can do great with$8 ,000. Yes.

40:27Rachel Cruze:So that's awesome. Well, Becca, I'm proud of you. So stick to your guns. Don't fall back in. You can do this. And I promise you and your baby, you guys will be safe. All right, let's go to Sarah in Dallas. Hi, Sarah. How can we help?

40:40Dr. John Delony:Hi.

40:40Rachel Cruze:I just wanted some objective advice on whether or not I should spend$6 ,000 to get a certification that will advance me in my career passionately, but I won't be actually making any more money.

40:55Dr. John Delony:What does that mean? So I am a teacher, and I love obviously working with the kids, but the content that I'm teaching right now feels kind of like beating my head against a brick wall.

41:07Rachel Cruze:and I want to, I already have my master's. I want to go back to school to get 18 grad hours in English. That way I can teach college level English.

41:18Dr. John Delony:Are you able to teach college level English? My mom was an English professor and she just retired. That's one of the single hardest jobs to get right now on a college campus. Yes. So I would be teaching dual credit, which would be on my same high school campus. Okay, great. Yes. I know I would be able to roll into that position in at least two, the next two years. What's the stipend for that? Or is it just the same? It would, it would be basically the same. Okay. I honestly, if you have cash and it's 6 ,000 bucks and it's going to move you to a position that's going to allow you to teach what you want to teach and give you 10 years of like work satisfaction, doing a thing that you love, I don't have a problem with it.

42:01Rachel Cruze:Yeah. Do you have six grand, Sarah? Yes. We, um, I would have it.

42:07Dr. John Delony:We would never borrow it. We would be able to work it into the budget. I guess my main question is because I have three kids and 11-year-old twins and a four-year-old. And so when I'm looking at the next five, six years, I'm looking at braces and cars. Well, y 'all work it out at your house. Like, I have a bunch of guitars that if I added them all together would be more than$6 ,000. But I do that because I love it and we can afford it. And so it brings me joy. Of a passion. Yeah, it brings me joy.

42:36Rachel Cruze:In what you do. And I think you guys will be able to cash flow everything else, right? You work in life as it comes, and this is the next step in life for you. And if you have it and you guys can do it, then, yeah, because you see it more as a passion, not as a, oh, I'm going to get something that's going to advance my degree and make more because that's not the case.

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44:17Rachel Cruze:Welcome back to The Ramsey Show and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm Rachel Cruz with Dr. John Deloney, and we are hosting this hour of the show. So give us a call at 888-825-5225, and we'll be answering your questions about life and money. All right, let's go to Dominic in Pittsburgh. Hi, Dominic. Welcome to the show.

44:38Dr. John Delony:Hey, guys. So I'm graduating college this spring from West Virginia University, and I just got, like a week ago, I just got a job offer for$85 ,000 for an engineering job. Nice. In Newport News, Virginia. So it's for like a naval shipyard. So I've never actually been to the area before, and I'm trying to figure out if that's enough money to move there and actually start building a life without putting myself in a bad financial situation. $85 ,000? Yeah. As a single 22-year-old? Yes.

45:16Rachel Cruze:Yep, I think you're good.

45:18Dr. John Delony:Yeah, unless you're trying to go back and forth to the moon, you should be good, brother. How much debt do you have? Okay. Well, I actually have no student debt, and I have a paid-off car. Nice.

45:32Dr. John Delony:You just need to know that half of America just drove their car into oncoming traffic because they're trying to support families of three kids on$85 ,000.

45:40Rachel Cruze:Yeah, the median, just to give you a perspective, the median household income is$62 ,000 in America right now. Household.

45:47Dr. John Delony:That's two spouses. Okay. Right. Yeah. Honestly, I've been doing a lot of research because I'm kind of I'm kind of I'm just nervous about moving to an area that I've never been to, especially because, I mean, I've I've lived like I'm going to college in West Virginia. So what part of Virginia are you moving to? So it's close to Virginia Beach. It's like the southern coast. It's like Norfolk and Virginia Beach area. Yeah. So I'm by the Trident. Like I would get a one bedroom apartment and I was looking at one bedroom apartments. and it looks like they would be about$1 ,500 to$1 ,600 a month. That's about right.

46:25Dr. John Delony:And don't furnish it with a bunch of stuff. Listen, right now, in a really nice house on our back patio, my wife, me and my wife and my son, my daughter was still asleep, we had breakfast this morning on a box with a sheet over it. Okay? I mean, if it works, it works. That's what I'm telling you. I need to buy some outdoor furniture. That's totally on me, and my wife's been after me to do it forever. But I want you to know, like, we had a great family breakfast this morning over a box with a sheet over it. So you're going to get yourself into trouble if you get the nicest apartment or you try to buy a house in a town you don't know anything about.

46:58Dr. John Delony:And then you try to furnish the whole thing, like all bananas. Don't do that. Go in as low and slow as you can. And also ask your incoming firm if they have a real estate office. A lot of those folks, or do they have places where they can say, hey, this is a great neighborhood, this is a good apartment complex, etc. et cetera. Like every place I've ever moved, they always set me up with somebody who could help me navigate that system. And so ask that question.

47:23Rachel Cruze:An 85, Dominic, you're good to go. I will take it and you'll continue to move up. It's amazing. All right, let's go to Cheryl in Fort Lauderdale. Hi, Cheryl. Welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Yeah, absolutely.

47:36Dr. John Delony:We've been pushing a long baby step too. And I am literally down to just, I paid off credit cards. I paid off the HELOC. I paid off fund car payment. Good for you, Cheryl. And now we have one more car to go. Thank you. I realized part of all this, I was supposed to pause on contributing to my kids' college funds. And I looked into it to see if I could pause it. And I can pause it. And technically, I can even take that money out. In the state of Florida, they have this sort of prepaid college plan that you can pay into that I did when my kids were young. and I've paid in$31 ,000 at this point to both kids and I owe$38 ,000 on my car.

48:16So my question is, do I pull that money out

48:20Dr. John Delony:and put it towards this debt and have my car paid off in the next two or three months and then start over? Or do I save some of that? Or do I just pause it and leave the money where it is?

48:31Rachel Cruze:Yeah, how much do you make a year? Or household anytime? Are you married? Yes. We make about$220 a year. Oh,$220. Okay, that's great. No.

48:43Dr. John Delony:I would not.

48:43Rachel Cruze:I would not unplug the investment there, and I would just continue down. You've got$38 ,000 a car debt, and so how much extra can we throw at this, or do we sell the car just to be done with it? Mm-hmm. So, yeah.

49:01Dr. John Delony:I would have some major gastrointestinal issues. pulling out an investment that's building one way to pay for a depreciating asset the other way. Okay. Because the moment you pay that$30 ,000 on it in one year, that car's going to be worth less than that. Right. Whereas that money would have been worth more than that. Yeah, and my oldest will be off to college in six years. I wouldn't. Yeah, retirement in college and stuff is one.

49:29Rachel Cruze:I mean, if you had like a random stock or something and you wanted to sell it just to be debt-free. But the kids' college and retirement, all of that, if you've already plugged things into those, yeah, I would just cash flow the payment of this.

49:46Dr. John Delony:Y 'all make$220? How quickly can y 'all just buckle down and get this thing knocked out? We're trying to. We still kind of struggle with the budget thing. I have two boys in travel baseball, So we're just trying to understand what's monetarily necessary every month and where can we really...

50:04Rachel Cruze:What could you sell the car for, Cheryl? I'm just curious. Are you underwater on it? No, I could probably get$45 ,000 for it. I would probably just sell it and be done.

50:16Dr. John Delony:Sell it and be done. Go get a used something. For$10 ,000.

50:22Rachel Cruze:Or save a couple thousand between the next two months.

50:26Dr. John Delony:Right. So here's what I've heard you say is your priorities. Travel baseball and whatever some coach tells you, y 'all need to fork over, followed by a depreciating asset car, then hopefully kids' education. All of that seems backwards. Yeah. I would put in – I just tell you, my house, kids' education is first. Whatever depreciating asset me and my wife are driving around town comes second. and then extracurricular activities will come after that. And that's just a values judgment. Okay.

51:01Rachel Cruze:So y 'all make enough money, Cheryl, to just pay this off. Just pay this off. Okay. So you have that option. But if you're itching that badly to get out of this car payment, then sell it. I would sell it in a heartbeat more than, yeah, dip it into your kid's college. Okay. Okay. Which I know you probably don't want to hear that.

51:26Dr. John Delony:Well, no, that's good. I mean, just everything I keep hearing, I thought maybe I was supposed to stop because it's just, all it does is it locks in the Florida tuition rate at what it was.

51:35Rachel Cruze:Yeah, and the prepaid tuition, we're not big fans of anyways, but if that's the program that everything's already in, I don't know if you can shift or what that looks like. So it's probably a different conversation. I don't know if you can roll it to a 529 or something. Yeah, if you're able to do that. The prepaid tuition thing kind of locks you in and it's not the best option. But, yeah, there's a – I don't know. I'm like it's the value system conversation, John, like what you were saying. But also, you know, our cars have such a grip on us. Like they really, really do. And it's not a bad thing.

52:05Rachel Cruze:And, again, I think you guys can –

52:06Dr. John Delony:That grip is not as tight as travel sports though. No.

52:10Rachel Cruze:Yeah.

52:10Dr. John Delony:Good God almighty.

52:12Rachel Cruze:We'll get John on that rant in a little bit. Cheryl, hey, y 'all are killing it. You really are doing awesome for not being great at the quote-unquote budget thing. You've paid off another car. You paid off credit cards, a HELOC. I mean, you guys have done a great job. And you're at the end. You're probably just exhausted. Don't cash out kids college for a car. Yeah, I might get rid of the car. I'd save up three to four grand. Go get a$15 ,000 car. That's what I would do. But you guys are awesome, Cheryl.

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54:41Rachel Cruze:all right we have devin in pittsburgh up next hi devin welcome to the show

54:48Dr. John Delony:hey rachel and john right hello hello how can we help today So I guess I'm coming a little too late to the realization that I might have not chosen the best college degree for making money, and now I want to make money. So I'm trying to figure out what the best course of action going forward is to, you know, long-term raise our family income. What's your degree in? English literature. I love to read. So do you know what my bachelor degree is in? Sorry? Do you know what my bachelor's degree is in? I do not. Humanities. Oh, that's great. That was my second option. There you go. You went one step further than I did.

55:34Dr. John Delony:Like, your degree is more specific than mine. I mean, on the hierarchy, my degree was less than yours. And so I would not blame your current situation on your degree. I would blame it on, I don't want to blame anything, but I would say. Yeah, what are you choosing to do? and how hard are you willing to work for it? That's fair. I guess I don't have a clear direction of where to go next. There you go. That's a more honest question. So you got a degree, you've proven to some future employer, you can work hard for four years and get a thing, and great. And so the big question is, what do you want to do?

56:10Dr. John Delony:Besides read books and write.

56:14Dr. John Delony:You know, it's a great question. If I really let myself dream, it sounds crazy. So, I mean— I'm a YouTuber, brother. It gets no crazier than what I'm doing. I would love to be like an outdoor, like adventure—do an outdoor adventure camp for young boys. Okay. Why is that crazy? I care about men's ministry. I spent five summers doing Catholic summer camp in Colorado. Why in the world is that crazy? I don't know where to get the money from to start, I guess. You take a job making less than you think you're worth at working a camp this summer. And there's openings at camps all over the country. And while you're doing it, me and Rachel, our mutual friend Michael Easter is here in the studio.

57:06Dr. John Delony:and he has one of the most successful sub stacks on the planet because he's an extraordinary writer and a great researcher and thinker. And so you go work at this camp and you open a sub stack and you write about it all summer.

57:16Rachel Cruze:You start to learn about, you know, men specifically, the struggles, all of that. And yeah, start making a, start making a side gig out of it.

57:24Dr. John Delony:All of this is how hard you want to work. Right, exactly. I'm willing pretty much. Right now I'm, you know, driving for Amazon, got the EveryDollar app and doing side hustles and married. We have a kid. We're expecting a kid in September. That's awesome. So go find a boys' ranch to work at. Go find a summer camp to work at and get after it. There's no path forward without disruption.

57:50Rachel Cruze:Yeah, and there might be a season too. Devin, I'll just say as a wife when I had a baby once.

57:56Dr. John Delony:Oh, here we go. I'm just kidding.

57:58Rachel Cruze:That, you know, there may be a season of like, I'm going to go take an office job for a hot second, get some stability under us. then we get to make a move towards the thing that I want to do. Or in the summers, we do this, and then we have to do something else over here, right? Like, I mean, you guys are young. Did you just graduate? Are you guys 22, 23?

58:17Dr. John Delony:25 and 24.

58:18Rachel Cruze:25 and 24. Okay. So there may be, you know, a season from a financial standpoint that you, you know, do something you may not love, but at least hopefully it's in the realm at which, you know, you can either do something on the side that you're enjoying. But what are you good at? What would you say?

58:40Dr. John Delony:I'm a really gifted writer.

58:43Rachel Cruze:Yeah, so maybe a job within that, right? Copy editing, ghost writing, you know what I mean? Like plugging in what you're good at, too, and not just your passion, but I think working towards where those things can intersect could create a great life.

59:01Dr. John Delony:Or spec writing. And those jobs with AI are getting increasingly hard to make a living. But man, if you're good at Substack, I pay money for only a few Substacks. But I do pay money for them because they're good. And I value what I'm getting, right? But that's just rep after rep after rep after rep.

59:20Rachel Cruze:Yep. So there may be a journey ahead. And we dearly miss Ken Coleman, our friend. But I'm still getting shout out. Shout out his book, Find the Work You're Wired to Do. And we still have copies. Yeah.

59:31Dr. John Delony:Yeah, stay on the line. We'll hook you up with one.

59:33Rachel Cruze:Yep, so Christian will pick up. But yeah, take that assessment because I do think generating ideas is really big. And you may be in a season where, again, and I'm kind of, I don't know, I heard this message. I was like, you know, it's kind of good. Work on what you're good at, your talent. And then that provides a great living for your family. And if that crosses with your passion, quote unquote, that's great too. Yeah, but this whole idea of just chasing your passion and doing whatever you want, may not be a season where you're able to support your family, and that's okay. But find what you're good at and make some great money doing it.

1:00:07Rachel Cruze:And then I do think your life, I mean, you are in just one small chapter of your life right now, Devin, and it will continue, and the opportunities and doors. I mean, you said this the other day on the show, where you were, what was it, eight years ago? It was like three different houses, two jobs.

1:00:19Dr. John Delony:My first graduate school class was at the age of 26, so a year after his. That was my first master's degree class, right? And so, yeah, you got a whole adventure ahead of you. But I do remember this. I do remember pacing around the house at 25 thinking I was failing everybody. And so I get that sense in his chest. Like, I'm not going to make it.

1:00:37Rachel Cruze:I'm not doing enough. Or, yeah, yeah.

1:00:39Dr. John Delony:But, man, take action. And you said you worked for five summers with young people and you developed a passion. Reach out to those contacts and see what's available. For sure. Or volunteer at your local church. Like, there's so many opportunities that are going to take you a lot of time, a lot of energy. And that's hard with a newborn. But, man, get after it.

1:00:57Rachel Cruze:And what's wild, too, is we love Young Life in our house. That's where Winston and I met. But they have property site families that live on these camp properties. That's what I'm saying.

1:01:07Dr. John Delony:All year.

1:01:07Rachel Cruze:And that's where they live, and that's their job is to take care of these camps.

1:01:10Dr. John Delony:I have buddies texting me all the time, hey, do you know anybody who wants to move to New Mexico or to southern Missouri and work on this camp or this ranch?

1:01:15Rachel Cruze:So maybe it was a fun adventure for you guys with a baby. And there's no rent? Yeah, no rent. And you get paid to do it. I don't know. Maybe it's something fun like that, too, Devin. Thanks for the call. All right, let's go to Holly in Milwaukee. Hi, Holly. Welcome to the show. Hi.

1:01:29Dr. John Delony:So I am currently in the middle of leaving my HR job to potentially go part-time. And I'm struggling with whether we made the right financial decision.

1:01:40Rachel Cruze:Okay. Why did you choose to go part-time?

1:01:43Dr. John Delony:I was burnt out. I was a head of HR in a company out in the Pewaukee area.

1:01:50Rachel Cruze:And with three young kids, I have a five, three and two year old. Oh, wow. Yeah. So you want to be home more? Is that your hope? Yeah, and actually I've been in talks with the kids' school about potentially doing two days a week there. Oh, good. So I have to summer off with the kids. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Well, are you guys able to survive financially on you working part-time and your husband working full-time? I think so. We've been through the numbers.

1:02:15Dr. John Delony:This is kind of one of the most irresponsible things I think I've ever done, not having something for sure lined up before leaving a job. Um, but, uh, are you guys able to take care of your necessities in May and June? Yes. Yeah. So we have, um, close to$40 ,000 in our savings right now. Okay. Um, 28 ,000 of that is dedicated to our emergency fund. And I would say our monthly spending and what we need and everything, um, with a little

1:02:42Rachel Cruze:cushion is about$5 ,000 a month. Okay. What does your husband bring in? Um, he, he's based on commission, um, but roughly about 6 ,000 net. Okay, so you guys can keep your head above water. You're not having to dip into the savings with just his, right? Right. Yeah. Holly, you're not overly irresponsible. That was so kind of you. Not kind. That was so heavy to say. You guys have$40 ,000 saved. Do y 'all have a lot of debt? We have a$13 ,000 van loan that we're aggressively trying to pay off. And then we have$97 ,000 left on our house, which should be paid off before we're 40. Yeah.

1:03:21Dr. John Delony:Holly, I want you to change your narrative from I'm leaving this job to want one to I want to spend more time with my really young kids. OK. Yeah. Because you're talking about this like you're failing, like you're you're you're making an affirmative choice.

1:03:38Rachel Cruze:You're a hard driver, Holly. Yeah, you're going to a thing. That's amazing. That's awesome. I just I don't want to let my husband down. Oh, sister, you're not. You're not. Yeah.

1:03:48Dr. John Delony:You're not.

1:03:49Rachel Cruze:Yeah, so many working moms I know, there is this like— It's the guilt factory. And they carry that they have provided for the family financially. And now when that's gone, they're like—it's not even an identity thing. It's like, I feel bad that I'm not contributing. You're good, Holly. Enjoy the summer with your children. You are fine. You guys live on that$5 ,000. Don't go over. Go get a part-time job at the kids' school. Pay off this van. Once you get a job, you guys need to pay this off with the money you have saved. And ride into the sunset. You're doing great, Holly.

1:04:16Dr. John Delony:Doing great.

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1:05:24Dr. John Delony:If your revenue is at least seven figures, go to netsuite.com slash Ramsey for a free product tour. That's netsuite.com slash Ramsey.

1:05:48Rachel Cruze:Okay, so I think a perk about working at Ramsey Solutions is we'll be sitting in the studio doing a show on the glass, and we'll see guests walk in to do other shows, because the Ramsey Network has multiple shows that have guests on and not always lined up for this show, and we had a guest walk through. And John and I were like, oh my gosh, is that who we think it is? It is. So we just grabbed him from the green room. One of my favorite people in the whole world. He's supposed to be on with George Camel, or he is going to be on George's show, But we grabbed him to do a segment here because John and I both love him so much.

1:06:17Rachel Cruze:But Michael Easter is here. Hi, Michael. Welcome. Welcome to the show. So I was introduced to you because of your book, The Comfort Crisis, that I read. And this was probably, when did that come out? What year was that?

1:06:29Dr. John Delony:20, it's about five years ago now.

1:06:31Rachel Cruze:Five years ago. Okay. So I bet it was probably four years ago when I read it because it had been out for a while and I love to read. And I kept seeing it float around all these lists. So I'm reading The Comfort Crisis and we were on vacation.

1:06:43Dr. John Delony:Let me frame this. She was in Cabo.

1:06:45Rachel Cruze:I was by a pool.

1:06:46Dr. John Delony:An infinity pool that was overlooking the ocean. There was a resort involved. Yes. Overlooking the ocean.

1:06:52Rachel Cruze:But the whole premise of the book, which I want to get into, because I think it does tie into people sacrificing and getting out of debt and what it does. But the whole thing is we are too comfortable in our world today from not only a physical standpoint, but an emotional, environmental, all of it. We have created such comfort around us. So we don't grow. You don't push yourself when you're comfortable. You have to be not being comfortable. So I'm reading this book and I'm thinking about my friend John Deloney. And I was like, John would love this book. So I put the book out where I am and I just take a quick picture and I send it to John.

1:07:23Rachel Cruze:I text it to him. I'm like, John, you have to read this book. This is straight up your alley.

1:07:28Dr. John Delony:And I was like, A, I read it like a year ago. And B, just look at the photo you just sent me. And it's like an infinity pool, the ocean.

1:07:37Rachel Cruze:And it says the comfort crisis.

1:07:38Dr. John Delony:Perfectly manicured toes and the comfort crisis. So great. basically don't be comfortable but your your book uh the comfort crisis and then scarcity brain your follow-up has burned through this company it's become like a thing that we all talk about in all of our meetings all the time because it was so impactful for all of us yeah so give us

1:07:55Rachel Cruze:the premise real quick because i do want to tie this into the the financial side but give us a premise of the comfort crisis for the audience they kind of get this idea or sure yeah quick

1:08:05Dr. John Delony:rundown is the world has become more comfortable over time in every way right we have to walk less We're not as hungry anymore because we've got food everywhere. We've just engineered discomfort out of our lives, which is good in the grand scheme of time and space. It's nice to be comfortable. But at the same time, we've lost these things that keep us healthy, happy, and that teach us something about how to be a better human. So tying that to the financial element, when you're trying to save money, that is hard. When you are on Amazon and you put that thing in your car and you go to buy, it's going to be so great.

1:08:38Dr. John Delony:and then you hear your voice in your head or Dave's voice and you go, oh, I shouldn't buy this. Right. Not clicking buy is really hard. So I think that all growth happens through doing things that are hard. Yes. Something's going to improve your life. It's going to be uncomfortable in the short term. But the point is, is that you get these long-term rewards by embracing that. I love that. In every business talks about how do we make a transaction less and less with less and less friction, right? I just went and bought lunch and now I just waved my phone over a box. And by the way, based on a sub stack you wrote the other day, and we'll talk about that in a minute, I didn't even make eye contact with the guy.

1:09:19Dr. John Delony:He was looking somewhere else. And so we've extracted human interaction out of all of these things. And so he stuck this thing out. I waved my phone over it. We had a robot to robot interaction, no personal connection, but it was all so frictionless and it didn't feel like a real exchange, but it actually took 11 bucks or whatever out of my account. That's real money. That's real sweat equity I put into that thing. Yeah, and I will say the faster you can do something, the more likely you are to do it. So this is why there's one click buys on Amazon now. This is why companies are, especially online, like removing steps to make the actual purchase.

1:09:56Dr. John Delony:So we've really increased the speed of all these things that I think can be poor decisions, but it's like, you just make it so quick. What happened?

1:10:04Rachel Cruze:Yeah.

1:10:05Dr. John Delony:Or my first mortgage, I had to sit down with a lender and we went through a stack of papers. Now it's, you can get online and we'll approve you right now. It's like an E-sign. Yeah.

1:10:14Rachel Cruze:Yeah. So from the purchasing consumer standpoint, it's taken out any level of discomfort. So you are more likely to spend and not save because the saving pushes patients and delay gratification, which you were just saying is so difficult. So speak to the families because there's a lot of listeners that they're trying to get out of that consumer debt. They're deep in credit card debt, student loan debt, car debt. I mean, it's just all of this. And they've gotten to a point where they're like, I'm so sick of this. I'm done. I'm going to get out. And we teach that when you get out of debt, you have to sacrifice your lifestyle.

1:10:42All of what you are spending, no vacations, you're not going out to eat.

1:10:46Rachel Cruze:Like you are limiting everything and throwing anything you can at that debt. And it is so hard for people. They call in and they'll say, how do I stay motivated? Because this is so difficult. So speak just some encouragement that this idea of sacrifice and what you're putting yourself through for a greater good to get to this point where you have autonomy over your money. You don't owe anyone anything. like what that sacrifice is actually doing to the character of who they are and what's happening inside of them.

1:11:08Dr. John Delony:Yeah, I'll tell you a story for an example, and then I'll pull out a big picture. When I was a professor at NYU or UNLV, I had a student who, crazy in debt, just like she's married, she had kids, so much debt. It was totally ruined in their life, causing a lot of marital problems, causing problems with what they could do with their kids, what programs they could get them into. She started following Ramsey stuff. She's like, it was the hardest thing we've ever done. But she got out on the other side of that, and then she could put herself through college, which means she could earn a higher income.

1:11:41Dr. John Delony:And she's like, that was so hard in the meantime. But now that we went through that, I look back on that, and I go, that's one of the most rewarding things we've ever done for our kids, because that taught them a lot, for our marriage, because it brought us together, and also personal fulfillment. So to pull back, when you look at what gives human beings fulfillment, it's never the easy thing. It's the things that we had to struggle through. Good example. If I asked any parent, what's been the most rewarding thing in your life? Like, what's most important to you? Most people are going to say they're kids.

1:12:17Dr. John Delony:Yeah. It is my kids. Full stop. Then you ask, well, is that always easy?

1:12:22Rachel Cruze:What's the most challenging thing? The kids.

1:12:24Dr. John Delony:Yeah, what's the hardest thing? Yeah, it's the hardest thing you've ever done.

1:12:27Rachel Cruze:Yeah.

1:12:27Dr. John Delony:Exactly. Now you can apply that to any situation in life.

1:12:33Rachel Cruze:Health, marriage, yeah.

1:12:34Dr. John Delony:Finance, whatever. Realize that. Almost think of that as that hardship. That is a signal that something important is happening that is then going to improve your life later. So you can actually get to a point where you feel that and you go, ah, something good is about to happen. Takes a while to get that mindset shift. It's always going to be hard in the short term, But once you've gone through a few reps, I think you start to see that as something like, aha, here's the opportunity. Yes, it's going to suck, but I'm ready for it. Yeah. Let me, for the listeners out here who are new to Michael Easter, and you know this, you and I are personal friends off air, but your voice has rang through my mind so often the last five years that it has reframed how I teach marriage.

1:13:22Dr. John Delony:It's reframed how I help people who are struggling with their kids, like trying to manage their kids. And it all started from an idea you had or an article you read about the 2%, right? And that's based on the 2 % of people at the airport who will use the stairs instead of the escalator. And at 2 a.m., when we're – Rachel and I are on a live event somewhere and we're schlepping through the – it's like, take the stairs, Deloney. And I'm like, I will. But here's where that has expanded my whole life. when my wife and I have a conflict, it's easy for me, honestly, to get some flowers, to pretend that conflict didn't happen, and then to go about our regular routine.

1:14:02Dr. John Delony:And it has developed, it has given me a new language that is the tension is the doorway. If my wife and I have a discomfort, I'm going to take the stairs. Let's have this conversation. Let's get to the root of this thing so that we can get to where we want to go. And Michael, I got to tell you, it has transformed my marriage. It's transformed how I parent my kids. It's transformed everything.

1:14:21Rachel Cruze:How did you, the 2%, real quickly, how did that, how'd you come up with that?

1:14:24Dr. John Delony:Honestly, it comes from a study. The research, yep. It came from a study and that always just sat with me because I feel like it's a metaphor, right? 100 % of people know that taking the stairs is going to be better for their long-term health and well-being. Yet 98 % of people go, no, I'm just going to do this really easy thing. That's going to feel so much better. But those 2 % of people, like that can become a metaphor. It sure has for me. And I want everybody to know, Michael has a brand new podcast, a 2 % podcast that I personally subscribe to. And I pay money for his sub stack. It's that good.

1:14:58Dr. John Delony:And I like to hit my friends up for free stuff. I don't. Not for this one because it's worth every penny. The 2 % sub stack by Michael Eister. Go check it out.

1:15:06Rachel Cruze:Michael, thanks for being here. And just the encouragement to the audience. Be the 2%. Go do something hard. Changes you in a good way. So, yeah. Thanks for jumping in last minute. Of course. Appreciate it.

1:15:16Dr. John Delony:Thanks for having me.

1:15:38Rachel Cruze:As a mom, I plan for everything. I plan the budgets, snacks, lunches, backup outfits in the car for the unexpected. I mean everything. Because moms handle a million details every day. So don't skip one of the biggest ones. What happens to your family if you're not there tomorrow? You guys, a lot of people put off making a will because it can feel a little scary. But here's what we all need to realize. Planning for the future isn't fear. It's love. And creating a will turned out to be one of the most loving, protective things I could ever do for my family. And Mama Bear Legal Forms makes it so easy.

1:16:19Rachel Cruze:No lawyers, no stress, just an online process that you can finish in about 20 minutes. And now my husband and I both sleep better because we have taken care of the stuff that really matters. And it isn't scary. It's wise. It's what moms do. So if you've been putting off making a will, I totally get it. But don't wait anymore because you're a mom first, which means you're always planning. So go to MamaBearLegalForms.com and use promo code RAMSEY to save 20%. MamaBearLegalForms.com, code RAMSEY.

1:17:11Dr. John Delony:Dude, being around Michael Easter makes my life better.

1:17:14Rachel Cruze:You like him. He's just a great human being.

1:17:17Dr. John Delony:I'm glad he swung by.

1:17:18Rachel Cruze:For sure. So thankful. Thankful you've hopped in. Well, you guys, we wish that we could get to every call on this show. But if you have a money question, we have an answer for you. You don't have to call in on the show. We love you, too, because it's always fun talking to you guys. But if you have a question, you can head over to Ask Ramsey. So this is our free AI tool that's built and trained on proven Ramsey principles. So AI, you put all the stuff in it of what you want to spit out. So they've put all Ramsey stuff. So shows over the past couple of years, transcripts from live events and books and articles, like anything and everything Ramsey is in this.

1:17:56Rachel Cruze:And it's crazy how accurate it is and how wild. I know people have like a love-hate relationship with AI. but it is crazy how quickly it starts to like learn you and know you and like it is wild so we've had multiple people put their specific situations in and keep coming back to it and

1:18:12Dr. John Delony:it remembers you and it's not going to just tell you how wonderful and great you are and try to

1:18:16Rachel Cruze:hug you like some other uh ai product yeah i feel like please be nice to me um no but it really is amazing so check out ask ramsey again you can ask your question you go to ramsey solutions.com and you'll see Ask Ramsey there on the website. Or if you are listening on podcast or YouTube, you can click the link in the description. All right, let's head to Lindsay, who is in Charleston. Hi, Lindsay, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely, how can we help? So I'm calling today because I recently got married in December and my husband has actually offered to pay off my student loans.

1:18:53Rachel Cruze:Nice.

1:18:53Dr. John Delony:And my question is, should I let my husband pay my student loans off? Absolutely not. I'm just kidding. Yes.

1:19:02Rachel Cruze:Well, let's talk bigger picture here. What's causing you to hesitate? Are you still seeing this as his money, your debts, and you guys haven't really combined money, not even tactically, but even emotionally? Like this is our household and our household has this amount of debt. Our household brings in this income. Our household has this much savings. As a household, how do we tackle our money? it's still more pretty divided emotionally for you, right? Yeah, a little bit. So I owe about$20 ,000 left. And I think my hesitancy kind of comes in because I don't find that it's his responsibility to pay on my debt.

1:19:40Rachel Cruze:This is the only debt that we have, I guess, together. But it's really, I look at it more like it's my debt, because I was the one that chose to go to college to get two degrees. And so I kind of am like, is this really his responsibility if I've been the one paying in all these years. So you have 28 ,000 in debt. How much does he have saved? So he has, I mean, we have a net worth of 700 ,000. And how much is liquid? Like how much, how much cash do you guys have? I'm actually not entirely sure how much exact cash we have. Okay.

1:20:15Dr. John Delony:So let me ask you a weird question.

1:20:17Rachel Cruze:Well, how do you know he can pay it off if you don't know how much money you guys have? Did he just say, I'll pay it off for you? Well, I do have an understanding of how much he makes and his net worth, but money isn't really, I guess, an issue in that regard. He can definitely pay it off, and there's no problem. It's more of like I just don't know if I should allow him to do that, if I feel like it's my responsibility.

1:20:41Dr. John Delony:All right. Let's say that he had, when he was a kid, he fell off a slide and hurt his knee. and then next year he's playing pickup basketball and his knee blows out all the way. Are you going to look at him and say, well, you brought that bum knee into our marriage, so that's yours? No. No. So when you get married, both of you take on all of each other. And so it's y 'all's combined income. It's y 'all's debt. It's y 'all's money. And And like the research bears this out. It's not just Ramsey running our mouths. Like the psychological and economic research says that couples that share a single checking account, not even a checking account, and you each have your own on the side because that was part of the test.

1:21:30Dr. John Delony:A single checking account forces y 'all to say, who are we? Who are we going to be? Who do we want to be? And how much do we have? And so just that one act of sharing a check-in account forces couples to come to the table and talk about values, talk about dreams, talk about visions, and then talk about how to get those dreams and values and visions out in the real world. And it just is a shapeshifter for couples. And so this is not your debt anymore. This is y 'all's debt. And it's not his money anymore. It's y 'all's money now. And so sitting down and having a bigger conversation about who are we going to be with our money is where is.

1:22:11Dr. John Delony:I mean, this should have been your your premarital counseling should have covered that, but you're already married. So that's the next immediate step you'll need to take. OK, that makes sense.

1:22:21Rachel Cruze:Yeah. And Lindsay, we know we have found the fastest way to build wealth. The fastest way from point A to point B is to be completely debt free. have an emergency fund that you can tap into when things happen be investing into retirement and other things have a paid off home and you just start living your life and when you have kids you invest for their college all of that but but then no debt and investing aspect and no debt I mean even like no mortgage like everything is paid off right to the ultimate that's our baby steps that's our baby step six okay is paid off house so that's part of the ramsey plan But we find people that can build that build wealth quickly with their net worth.

1:23:02Rachel Cruze:They're all in. And so if you guys together say, hey, we want part of our legacy to build wealth, not just for us and just to be rich. Right. But to when we have a family, to be able to change our family tree, to be able to bless others and be generous. Like we want to use money as a tool in that way. And we're going to work towards being good managers of that. The fastest way is to get out of debt. And if that's our goal as a household, again, as a couple, okay, fastest way to get out of debt. Let's get out of debt, like, tomorrow, because you can. So check it off, right? Like, I mean, there's a path of least resistance here, and it's not you taking advantage of or all that.

1:23:42Rachel Cruze:And I hear you saying, like, I just want to take ownership of what I've decided. But I think John just, yeah, painted a really great picture that when you marry him, it's all of you, right? And we're in this now together.

1:23:53Dr. John Delony:Can I ask you this? Is this, and the way I'm going to ask it's going to sound mean and I'm not meaning to be mean, okay? Same team, right? Are we good? Yes. Okay. Is it your ego that doesn't want him to pick this up for you? Or is he not very forthcoming with finances and that's kind of his domain and you feel small talking about money around him?

1:24:14Rachel Cruze:no he is very open about like how much he brings in and everything um i think it's more of me it's like a personal thing okay um that i'm just like i don't know i guess i look at it a little differently of like you know i brought on this debt well before i even met him i went to school

1:24:31Dr. John Delony:whatever and so i'm like is this like should he be held responsible but i do understand And he married all of you for better or worse.

1:24:41Rachel Cruze:And you can tell him like, oh, I have some guilt doing this.

1:24:45Dr. John Delony:You don't talk through it or tell him I've been holding back a part of myself from you.

1:24:49Rachel Cruze:Yeah.

1:24:49Dr. John Delony:And I've been trying to hide this part that I'm embarrassed about or ashamed about whatever. And we're married. I'm going to put all of me on the table here. Yeah. And do you all share a single checking account?

1:25:02Rachel Cruze:No, we don't.

1:25:05Dr. John Delony:You should.

1:25:08Rachel Cruze:Yeah, I think this could be a good meeting of the minds tonight, right? I mean, sit down together genuinely and just say, hey, what do we want this part of our marriage to be? Because you'll have those conversations. What do we want this part of our marriage with holidays to look like with family and where we split time? What do we want our marriage to look like when we want to go on a vacation with just the girls? I mean, you'll have these conversations in marriage. How do we want our marriage to be? And money is part of that. And the quicker you guys can get on the same page, Lindsay, honestly, it's going to create a level of unity with you all that's so beautiful.

1:25:40Rachel Cruze:And the earlier you are in this marriage and to create a great pattern starting now is really big. So we are so big on couples are one. You share everything. You're together. You are transparent. You talk about big decisions when it comes to money. You're on the same team. You guys are on the same team running a household. And when you look at it that way, not only do you build wealth faster, but there's a better relational sense.

1:26:06Dr. John Delony:And I'll never understand couples who share DNA and make humans but won't share their income. Like that's always bizarro world to me. It's like we can create humans together, but this is my money and that's your money. Like that's just bizarro world. Put it all on the table.

1:26:23Rachel Cruze:Do you think he would – well, do you want that, Lindsay? Would you want that level of unity and working together? or are you kind of like, eh? I think I'm open to it for sure. Okay. How do you think he would respond to it? I think he is more, he's definitely the one that's all for it. I'm more of the hesitant one. Okay. I'm just, yeah, it's an ego thing. I need to get over it. Yeah, no, I mean, you don't have to, don't just get over it. Push through and understand that about yourself and bring him to the table with it. And it's a beautiful learning. And we, yeah, yeah, you guys are gonna do great.

1:27:06Rachel Cruze:Welcome back to the Ramsey Show and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm Rachel Cruz here with Dr. John Deloney, and we are answering your questions at 888-825-5225. All right, let's go to Orlando, and we have Rick on the line. Hi, Rick. Welcome to the show.

1:27:24Dr. John Delony:Hi, thank you.

1:27:25Rachel Cruze:Absolutely. How can we help today?

1:27:27Dr. John Delony:Well, I have a question because I did the calculations for the net worth, and it turns out that I have more than a million dollars of net worth. Oh, congratulations. Yeah. However, really all of that net worth is in my home, my primary home. And so last year I got into some – no, I didn't get into, but my business went south. Business went south. I wasn't making money. I was keeping it afloat with some personally guaranteed loans, and it just wasn't making any money. So I decided to close it down and move to another town where I got a salary job in the same industry. So when I left my home, I rented it.

1:28:15Dr. John Delony:I rented it out, and the current rent there pays for the mortgage of the home, Plus it pays for the rent of the new home in my new town right now and some expenses of the original home. So it's being rented out, but I also have a large amount of debt. And the debt, I can't keep up with the debt. I can't make really all the monthly payments each month. So my question is, should I sell my primary home where all my equity is in order to pay off the debt, in order to pay off all the debt?

1:28:50Rachel Cruze:and then I'll have some proceeds left over for possibly a new home. Well, my answer is a little bit different because you're currently not living in that home. You're living somewhere else. Are you going to be going back to that primary home at any point? Because you own two homes. Is that what you're saying?

1:29:08Dr. John Delony:I own one home and I'm renting in the second city where I moved to.

1:29:12Rachel Cruze:Will you be living where you are now probably for the foreseeable future?

1:29:17Dr. John Delony:Yes, for the foreseeable future.

1:29:19Rachel Cruze:So regardless of debt or not, I would say don't be a long-distance landlord. So I would sell your primary home anyways, and depending on your financial situation, take the proceeds and buy something in the new city or use it for a down payment or what that looks like, and then go about your way. But your situation is a little different because I would still sell the home, but how you use the proceeds of the home now may not be for a down payment. It may be to clear up this consumer debt. So how much debt total are the loans?

1:29:50Dr. John Delony:okay the loans in the debt total is 300 ,000 300 ,000 and was that business debt is that what

1:29:57Rachel Cruze:you said you got you you took out the loans for your business that you closed yeah but I also had

1:30:03Dr. John Delony:some back uh IRS tax debt okay I have 105 105 tax debt to the IRS which represents about four years but I'm in a payment plan for that it's not like I'm delineating or anything I'm in a payment plan and paying it monthly. And then there's$154K in personal loans for the business and credit cards because they're credit cards too.

1:30:26Rachel Cruze:Gotcha. And the credit card is what, probably$50 ,000?

1:30:29Dr. John Delony:Yeah, at least. Okay, so that's the$300 ,000.

1:30:32Rachel Cruze:That's how it's broken up.

1:30:33Dr. John Delony:How much equity on this house do you have? The$300 ,000 also includes two car loans and two car leases.

1:30:42Rachel Cruze:Four cars. All right. Who's driving all these cars?

1:30:46Dr. John Delony:Myself, my wife, my two children. They're both in college.

1:30:51Rachel Cruze:Okay. How much car debt is there?

1:30:56Dr. John Delony:57K.

1:30:57Rachel Cruze:Okay. Will you break that? Which car?

1:31:01Dr. John Delony:That's the four cars combined together.

1:31:03Rachel Cruze:It's two loans of purchased cars and two leases.

1:31:08Dr. John Delony:Okay.

1:31:10Rachel Cruze:All right. And how much equity is in the home?

1:31:13Dr. John Delony:Well, the home is estimated at a value of$1.6 million, but I think it may go higher than that. Maybe, I hope, close to$2 million. The mortgage balance on it is$230. Okay.

1:31:27Rachel Cruze:Why do you think it's going to go for$2 million? Because of comps in the area? How houses are going?

1:31:34Dr. John Delony:The comps in the area that I've seen right now are about$1.6 million, but the features inside the house, It's newly remodeled recently in the past few years, and it's high-end upgrades of, you know, all the fixtures inside.

1:31:48Rachel Cruze:Okay, okay.

1:31:49Dr. John Delony:Bathrooms, kitchens, floors, walls, everything.

1:31:52Rachel Cruze:So we'll say worst-case scenario, 1.7, okay, just for the sake. Okay. All right. And so, yeah, I mean, so, yeah, hopefully you would clear, golly, you know, 1.4-ish, 1.3 possibly. Possibly. So if you did clear out the debt, you'd have a million dollars. What could a million dollars buy real estate wise where you are now?

1:32:20Dr. John Delony:I've been looking in a pretty nice home. Okay.

1:32:23Rachel Cruze:How much do you have in retirement and investments? Okay.

1:32:27Dr. John Delony:In retirement myself, my 401k is$10 ,000. And I have some investments. I have about$60 ,000 in the stock market, and I'm using it for trading stock options on and off. Mostly my wife is doing that. Okay.

1:32:48Rachel Cruze:Does she have any retirement?

1:32:51Dr. John Delony:She had$30 ,000. No, not right now. Nothing in 401k. It's all in the stock market.

1:32:57Rachel Cruze:Okay, but she has an additional$30 ,000 invested somewhere. Okay.

1:33:00Dr. John Delony:Yes.

1:33:01Rachel Cruze:And how old are you guys?

1:33:03Dr. John Delony:I'm 62.

1:33:04Rachel Cruze:62. Okay.

1:33:06Dr. John Delony:Yeah.

1:33:08Rachel Cruze:I mean, I would not make the mistake, which is kind of what you made with the primary home, and you said that opening this call that so much of your net worth is tied up in real estate, which is not going to be great. I mean, having a paid-for house in retirement is awesome, but if you don't have any money to eat with, then it kind of negates the purpose. So I would then—

1:33:29Dr. John Delony:That home is the mortgage is paid off in six years.

1:33:34Rachel Cruze:Okay. Well,

1:33:35Dr. John Delony:but you don't have any money, brother. You'll be 68 years old with$10 ,000 in retirement and a$2 million house. Right.

1:33:42Rachel Cruze:Yep. So I would, I would diversify a lot more than you have Rick. So I would sell it regardless again, because you guys aren't living there anymore. I would see this as a gift that you, that you all have done so well paying down on the home and it's gone up in value, which is amazing. and I would use it to clear my debt and I would make a contract with myself and my wife and my family that we do not go into debt anymore. We don't play that game. So we're done with debt. And then I would look and I would probably sit down with a financial advisor and just say, hey, when we run out the numbers and when we want to retire, how much would we need?

1:34:16Rachel Cruze:What does this look like right now? Because I mean, if you got a million bucks sitting in the floor, I would not go spend it on a million. Now that I know your retirement situation, I wouldn't go buy a million dollar house.

1:34:24Dr. John Delony:Brother, I'd buy a$350 ,000 condo and put$650 in retirement. That's what I would do.

1:34:32Dr. John Delony:You're going to have to just decide. That was one of my questions I was going to ask you also about what to do with the proceeds.

1:34:38Rachel Cruze:Yeah. So the goal would be to have enough in retirement that you guys feel good with. And granted, you're still going to be working some, so you'll still be contributing, but also have paid for real estate. Can we get that both done with this million dollars? Because that's life-changing right there.

1:34:54Dr. John Delony:Or can we get a small house for$400 ,000, get it completely paid off. Yeah. And you can get a nice small house for$400 ,000. We're going to get paid off, be all done, put$600 ,000 in the market. But what this does, Rick,

1:35:03Rachel Cruze:is it shifts your expectation of lifestyle. You're leaving a$1.6 million,$2 million home

1:35:09Dr. John Delony:with two nice cars, two lease cars,

1:35:11Rachel Cruze:and you're choosing a more simple lifestyle for peace and the ability to retire with dignity. So screw what everyone else thinks. You know what I mean? Like from the looks of things.

1:35:23Dr. John Delony:Go to RamseySolutions.com and check out our smart vestors in your area and they'll help you with the investment side of what to do with that extra money after you sell your house.

1:35:30Rachel Cruze:Yeah, but there's going to be a level of humility that it's going to take to do this, Rick. But honestly, it's going to create more peace in your life.

1:35:53Rachel Cruze:hey guys Rachel Cruz here and I love summer there is more fun on the calendar more time with your people and way more chances to make memories. But you know what else there's more of? Spending. Oh, between the extra groceries and gas and camp fees and family trips, it all starts to add up so fast. And before you know it, money stress starts to steal the fun out of everything. And that is why I love the EveryDollar Budget app, because it helps you plan your money, track your spending, and find more margin in your budget so that you can put extra cash towards the goals that matter most. Enjoy your summer without the money stress.

1:36:33Rachel Cruze:Download the EveryDollar app in the App Store or Google Play and start for free today.

1:36:57Rachel Cruze:The Ramsey Show Question of the Day is brought to you by Why Refi. If your private student loans are in default and you're not sure what to do next, Y-Refi can help you explore refinancing with a low fixed rate and a payment plan based on what you can actually afford. Go to Y-Refi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. May not be available in all states.

1:37:21Dr. John Delony:All right. Today's question comes from Maggie in M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I. I am a 50-year-old single woman earning$53 ,000 a year. I have$25 ,000 in credit card debt, car debt, and a personal loan from my father. I realize now I was very irresponsible and I've shredded the cards. I have my$1 ,000 emergency fund and I want to tackle the debts, but after all my bills are paid, I have$150 a week left to eat and pay for gas. The minimum monthly debt payments are more than that amount. Should I pay the bills or buy food to be able to eat?

1:38:02Rachel Cruze:oh maggie um yep so a couple of things so you always will want to eat first so when you're in a dire financial situation where this is literally paycheck to paycheck before the creditors are paid before the credit cards are paid you pay food shelter so your rent or mortgage utilities and transportation making sure you have gas in your car and all that is good so that's what we call your four walls because without that, then you start putting the priority of your own self and survival right above MasterCard. So yes, you need to make a list, Maggie, and list out everything and see after food, shelter, utilities, transportation, then what is left is where the minimum payments come in.

1:38:47Rachel Cruze:And what the magic is going to be for you in this is making$53 ,000 a year is going to be extra work because income at that point is your problem. And so it will be working weekends and nights and it's not going to be fun. But if you can bring in an extra two to 3000, whether it's waiting tables, you know, bartending, I don't know what it is, dog sitting, I don't know what that looks like, but I would make it a goal. Um, which means, yeah, you're going to be working 60, 70 hours a week.

1:39:19Dr. John Delony:80 hours a week.

1:39:20Rachel Cruze:It's going to be a lot, but only for a short period of time. Because if you think about this, and if you can do it, and you can get three grand, you know, a month to be able to throw at this debt, I mean, in eight, nine months, you're done. You're completely done. Then you get to quit everything and go back and live on your salary. Because when you don't have payments, you actually have margin at that point. So it's kind of this like season of sacrifice. That is what I see. That's the path I see out for her.

1:39:50Dr. John Delony:And the way I've had to navigate these tough seasons of my life is to make a commitment. In her case, she's 50. I'm pretty dramatic, as you know, Rachel. But I like some sort of commitment ceremony. If I had to do it again today, I'd probably write a letter. But some sort of commitment to 52-year-old me. I'm going to do this stuff right now for future me. and for whatever reason, when I'm doing it for somebody else, it makes it easier than doing it for myself sometimes. And so I'm going to work like crazy. I'm going to not do stuff, whatever, in service to 52-year-old me. And it might be writing a letter to 52-year-old you talking about the sacrifices you made at 50, where you would work your full-time job, you would eat a ham sandwich that you made or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the way to stocking shelves at a grocery store until 11 at night, get up the next morning, go again.

1:40:42Dr. John Delony:And you're just going to know for nine months I'm going to be really, really tired, but I'm going to knock this thing out.

1:40:47Rachel Cruze:Yeah. I hope that helps Maggie. But yeah, I think it's a tough situation. Prioritizing is really big when everything is that condensed money-wise with your expenses. So priority, remember, food, shelter, utilities, transportation. All right, let's go to Rebecca, and she's in Portland, Oregon. Hi, Rebecca. Welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help today?

1:41:12Dr. John Delony:So my husband and I have been working on the baby steps. We're on baby steps too. We had almost all of our debt paid off except the house. We had$2 ,500 left on our truck. And then our paid off car needed work that cost more than the car was worth. So we, and we, my husband commutes 40 minutes daily to and from work. And so we needed a commuter car. And so So with$6 ,800 in savings, we spent$5 ,500 on a car that immediately needed$2 ,800 of work because of a tire problem caused by the dealership. And so now we finance the work through the shop. It was 0 % interest for 24 months. So we decided to do that instead of put it on one of our credit cards that are paid off.

1:42:05Dr. John Delony:Um, and so now we have$5 ,300 in debt. My grandmother set up a stock account for me when I was a baby, uh, it's grown to about 38 ,000. Um, and so I'm just curious, would you guys recommend cashing it all out, taking out what we need for the debt, um, letting it sit until retirement or what, what I should do. We also have, my husband has two shoulder surgeries coming up in the next year. And we do have an HSA with about$4 ,000 in it. But that's not going to cover the surgeries fully. But we do get financial aid through the hospital as well.

1:42:47Rachel Cruze:We're kind of like a lower income household. Sorry, how much debt did you say the dealership was? I know it was zero percent interest for 24 months, but$2 ,800? $2 ,800 through the repair shop. Okay, gotcha, gotcha. And then you still have, did you say$25 ,000? $2 ,500. $2 ,500. Okay, perfect.

1:43:11Dr. John Delony:Did you get your$5 ,500 car? Did you have it inspected? Well, yeah, that's what we took it in initially for. And, yeah, I mean, we had already purchased it by the time that we had the tire problem. So usually the inspection comes before the purchase, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We've had good luck with cars, and we're hoping we would have the same luck, and we didn't.

1:43:40Rachel Cruze:Yeah. No, that's okay. So you guys have$5 ,300 total of debt, and you have$38 ,000 in the stock. What kind of stock is it? It's just individual stocks. It's like Disney, Home Depot, that type of thing. Okay, is it in like a mutual fund or it's like 10 individual stocks? It's individual shares, yeah. Okay, gotcha. Okay, well, the short answer is yes, I would cash those out to pay this off. Okay. And, yeah, you'll probably be paying, depending on how it was all looped to you from your grandmother, if she had it in your name? Yeah, she moved it to my name when I was 18. Okay, gotcha. So yeah, there may be some taxes implications in that, but just, you know, be aware of that.

1:44:27Rachel Cruze:But I would, yep, use some of that. And then I honestly would not stay in single stocks like that. I probably would end up cashing everything out and just moving it to an index fund. Yeah. Like an S &P 500 or something. You can open up a brokerage account and just do it through that. And you can do that on your own if you wanted through Fidelity or Vanguard. You know, there's some easy companies that make it pretty easy. just because I don't like the single stock mentality anyways. So that's probably what I would do. And then when you have that, yeah, to be able to take some of that to pay off the 5 ,300.

1:44:59Rachel Cruze:And then you guys prepping for, which I'm thankful you know about the medical ahead of time. So with everything, you said you guys have the HSA 4 ,000, and then you have some covered. How much out of pocket will you have to pay?

1:45:15Dr. John Delony:I'm not sure yet. But we haven't gotten an estimate from the hospital yet. Okay.

1:45:19Rachel Cruze:So we do know that he needs both. Okay. Yep. So do you have any idea? Have they given you any range? No. No. Okay. So I would find that out because it's going to help you guys to plan and to know how much you guys need to set aside per month. How much are you guys making a year?

1:45:36Dr. John Delony:We make about$68 ,000 a year. That was last year. I recently just got my certification for my job, and I'm also up for promotion, so we're kind of looking for additional ways to earn, and there should be a couple of good raises coming up soon. I'll tell you my one concern about doing this is you guys have been working hard to get out of debt. And I know you felt squeezed, but you haven't fully metabolized. We do not go into debt, right? Yeah. And so my fear is you're going to cash this out and it's going to kind of become a just in case account. And so you're going to have to make a firm commitment that if we do cash the stock out and we pay this debt off, we're never going into debt again.

1:46:25Dr. John Delony:and this is not going to become just kind of a slush fund.

1:46:44Dr. John Delony:Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this 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 anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple, and free to use. Go to RamseySolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's RamseySolutions.com.

1:47:35Rachel Cruze:if you're working the baby steps the fastest and best way to do it is by using every dollar so this is more than just a budgeting app it is the plan that is built right in so you can track your progress get personalized recommendations and coaching for your situation that's going to help you free up more money and work the plan up faster. I mean, it's like having one of us walk with you every single day and showing you the next right step and holding you accountable. So start every dollar for free by downloading it in the App Store or Google Play. All right, let's head over to Jessica and she's in Savannah, Georgia.

1:48:10Rachel Cruze:Hi, Jessica. Welcome to the show. Hi, guys. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can we help?

1:48:16Dr. John Delony:so i am coming into a little bit of a bonus here my husband and i are both military and i am just wondering what your guys's recommendations are for where i should put that towards um so we both have a car loan and then we have our house loan um and i'm just wondering if we should put it into that and pay those things off and then where we should put the extra money after those are paid off okay great how much is the bonus going to be so the bonus after taxes is It's probably going to be about$30 ,000. Okay. And then I'll probably have another$15 ,000 bonus towards October. Oh, nice. Are these military bonuses?

1:48:53Dr. John Delony:Yeah, but it's special. Don't tell anyone. I won't. I hope you get five of them. I hope you get 50 of them. It's a madness out there. Thank you. Just keep the bonuses rolling. It's my tax dollars. Keep them rolling.

1:49:07Rachel Cruze:Keep them going. Absolutely. Jessica, how much are the cars? or how much debt do you guys have on them? My car is about$20 ,000 and then his is about$25 ,000. Okay, how much do y 'all make a year?

1:49:22Dr. John Delony:A little over$200 ,000, probably.

1:49:25Rachel Cruze:Okay. $210-ish.

1:49:26Dr. John Delony:Can I make a guess? Yes. Is either one of these cars either a Jeep of some sort or a Dodge Charger? Oh, absolutely not. Yeah, right, dude. Bucking the trends. Bucking the trends. Is that a military thing? All my military buddies, all of them, either have a Charger or a Mustang of some sort or a Jeep product of some sort. You know, I do have to embarrassingly admit that my husband does have a Tacoma, which is, if you know, very common as well. Hey, you know what, though? It's a Toyota product. It will drive until the end of time. I support that.

1:50:03Rachel Cruze:We love a Toyota truck around here.

1:50:05Dr. John Delony:Yes, yes, yes.

1:50:05Rachel Cruze:For sure. okay um so the 30 000 would take care of obviously the 20 000 and take the other car loan down to 15 and then you said you're going to be getting 15 in october i would love for you guys to start yeah so i all that to say yes i would throw the bonus at the cars you'll have 15 000 left on the truck or whichever car that is um and i and yeah and i would still be working to pay that off and then the money you get in October, hopefully that car will be, you know, you'll owe, I don't know, $7 ,000,$8 ,000 on it, right, if you throw some money at it.

1:50:44Dr. John Delony:I guess I should say, I should also say we do have about, like, I just, you know, we were talking about money last night, and I was like, oh, my God, we've got to find out where we should put this. But we do have about$50 ,000 in cash right now, too. Oh. Good grief. Lead with that next time, Jessica.

1:50:58Rachel Cruze:She's bearing the lead, Jessica. $50 ,000? I'm so sorry.

1:51:02Dr. John Delony:I just, like, I think it's because we're young enough where I just feel like I don't know exactly where I should put the money into. Like, do I pay off the house that much? Although we might move in, you know, a couple, two years or so. You know, do I put it into, like, a TSP? What do we do? But we're already contributing, like, 27%, and I think he's got, like, 25 % going into TSP. Okay, let me help you, Jessica. So I feel like we just accumulate money and don't know where to put it. Yep.

1:51:28Rachel Cruze:No, no, no. And that's common. Okay. So the Ramsey baby steps, when you walk through them, baby step one is a thousand dollar emergency fund. Check. Baby step two is get completely out of debt, all your consumer debt, which means you're going to be selling stuff, working extra, sacrificing any money you have saved. Jessica, anything that's out there, you throw at your consumer debt to get out of baby step two. And so you guys are at that step, which means you can be done tonight. You can pay both cars off tonight. So you're done. For sure. Yeah, and you'll have$5 ,000 left of that$50 ,000. And then when your$30 ,000 hits that bonus, you're going to have$35 ,000.

1:52:07Rachel Cruze:So then you get to move on to Baby Step 3, which is a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. So you guys are in pretty stable jobs. Any kids? You guys have kids? No kids. No kids, yeah. How much would it take to run your household per month, would you say? How much money do you guys need?

1:52:25Dr. John Delony:With no car payments.

1:52:29Rachel Cruze:6 ,000. 6 ,000. Okay. So I, I mean, I probably would put you guys at a three month. We say three to six months, but you guys don't have kids, stable jobs. If you wanted to do a three month, you know, you could, which would mean you would need 18 ,000. Okay. So when you, yeah, when you look at all of that, then what's left, then we need to decide, okay, we have some money left. What do we want to do with that? So the question is, yeah, do you throw it at the house? maybe step four is 15 % of your income into retirement. So I actually would lower some of your, what you guys are putting away down to 15 % and throw the rest at the house.

1:53:10Okay.

1:53:10Rachel Cruze:And as you pay it off, it's okay because even if you guys sell and move that you're building an equity at that point as you're paying it down. So you're not losing that money, right? You're just putting it into an asset and, and paying it down. Do you guys think you really will move though in the next two years? Yes. You will. Okay. So, I mean, you could keep it in like an index fund or something right now or even just a high-yield savings account. Because I am thinking when you guys move, if you had some money saved for a down payment and contingent upon the sale of your house that you have now would work as well.

1:53:48Rachel Cruze:Yep. So, that's probably what I would do, honestly, is I would put the remainder. I would have two separate high-yield savings. Okay. one that has the$18 ,000 in it for your emergency fund, and then open up another and just put some of that cash in there, and then look up in two years and just say, okay, when we sell our home in two years, how much equity is going to be in there, plus how much do you think we can be saving? And all together, what would that look like to maybe buy something? But the military families, I know, if you're jumping around, you're probably going to want to rent somewhere.

1:54:22Rachel Cruze:It's a good point.

1:54:24Dr. John Delony:sure sure i think the other thing is that like i said every couple of months we just all of a sudden feel like we have so much money so we pay some in the house some in the cars and whatever not so if the cars are paid off and then all of a sudden we have like another thousand dollars a month that we're not spending yep what would you suggest putting that into like how much do you really put into your house all up front well if if it was me when i bought my house i hope i don't move for 10 years. And so I'm going to put, I'm going to be more aggressive paying it off. Like my friends in the military, they get moved every two to three years.

1:54:57Dr. John Delony:One of two things happens. They either barely break even because there hasn't been enough time for the house to appreciate and they still got to pay realtor fees to exit. Or, and you know, you've got friends like this, they have this trailing mortgage in like three or four different states and they're trying to rent them out to other military families. And it just becomes a nightmare, right? And so for you, since you know you're going to be moving in two years, I wouldn't, this is just the Deloney's, I wouldn't buy a house until I knew I'm going to be somewhere five to 10 years.

1:55:28Rachel Cruze:I would agree with that, Jessica.

1:55:29Dr. John Delony:Otherwise, I would rent and I would rent a nice place because y 'all are doing really well. And I would put all that cash in a high yield savings account for the day we can walk in and pay cash for the house we're going to live in for five or 10 years.

1:55:41Rachel Cruze:For sure. Yeah. When do you think, because the difference on, and I'm with John, I'd be renting. So any money you get from equity, I would put into a high yield savings account. The only question I have is our kind of our threshold of investing, which means like putting it like an index fund or something versus high yield savings is about that four to five year mark. So if you're not going to be buying anything because you guys are going to be moving around and renting for, if you're not going to be buying anything for the next five years, I almost would just open up an index fund and start throwing cash in there.

1:56:14Rachel Cruze:because you're going to get great returns on that and you're going to be able to write out the market because you don't need it for five years or more. Honestly, that's probably what I would do. And then, unless you guys think, no, we're probably going to step out of the military in two to three years and buy something then.

1:56:33Dr. John Delony:Okay, okay, yeah. Well, I appreciate that information so much. The index fund is different than the Vanguard Fidelity S &P 500, correct?

1:56:41Rachel Cruze:No, all in there. Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah. So just look into that. Yes. Yeah. You may open up like a brokerage account and inside of that put an index fund.

1:56:49Dr. John Delony:And here's the main thing we're doing differently than what y 'all are doing. Y 'all get a big check and y 'all try to spread it out all over the place. We want you to knock things out one at a time so you actually make progress.

1:57:13Thank you.

1:57:25Dr. John Delony:All right, let's cut to the chase. It's easy to get discouraged about crazy house prices and interest rates. But when you have the right real estate agent to help you buy and sell the right way, you'll have confidence to make smart decisions. Ramsey Trusted Agents aren't just experts who guide you through buying or selling. They're people you can trust to have your back from the first call to closing day. Find a Ramsey Trusted Agent near you at RamseySolutions.com slash agent. That's RamseySolutions.com.

1:58:10Rachel Cruze:Our scripture of the day comes from 2 Corinthians 9.8. And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, Having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Dolly Parton said, love her, a peacock that rests on his tail feathers is just another turkey. Did you see she came out with a video?

1:58:35Dr. John Delony:No, what did I say? Are you a big Dolly Vant?

1:58:36Rachel Cruze:She had to cancel Vegas and that she's having some health stuff, but her doctors, you know, she's going to be great and she's going to be looking younger than ever. I mean, she's just hilarious.

1:58:46Dr. John Delony:You know over here on 12 South, like right in the middle of where all these shops and restaurants are, my kids and I have walked by there a thousand times. That's her place. I had no idea.

1:58:58Rachel Cruze:There, and she lives in...

1:58:59Dr. John Delony:Well, that's where she stores her bus and all.

1:59:01Rachel Cruze:Okay, yeah, because her house, she lives like a mile from me.

1:59:05Dr. John Delony:Wow.

1:59:05Rachel Cruze:And she's been there since like the 90s.

1:59:08Dr. John Delony:Forever. She's just awesome. We love Dolly around here.

1:59:10Rachel Cruze:She's the best. She is. She's a gem.

1:59:13Dr. John Delony:She's the best.

1:59:13Rachel Cruze:She's on my bucket list to meet. I want to meet her.

1:59:15Dr. John Delony:I just want her to be president.

1:59:17Rachel Cruze:Oh, she should be president. Dolly, I'm going to write her on next election.

1:59:21Dr. John Delony:She's probably too young, but.

1:59:24Rachel Cruze:All right, we're going to go to the phones. And we have Richard in Tennessee up next. Hi, Richard. Welcome to the show.

1:59:31Dr. John Delony:Hey, thanks for having me. Absolutely.

1:59:34Rachel Cruze:Absolutely. How can we help?

1:59:35Dr. John Delony:What's up, man? So I've recently became disabled and I'm not able to provide like I've been doing for my family. And I'm going to be getting a pretty large settlement, about$75 ,000 minimum. I'm just wondering what can I do to turn that into some type of profit? What happened, brother? I was involved in a car accident that left me paralyzed. Oh, my gosh. I have a head injury, and I have seizures pretty bad from it now. Yeah. I was a truck driver before that, so obviously I'm not allowed to drive, so can't do that anymore.

2:00:09Rachel Cruze:Yeah.

2:00:10Dr. John Delony:75 seems awfully low for an injury that permanently takes away your line of work. Yeah. The lawyer really feels that he's going to get a lot more. Yeah. He said, we're going to cover your medical bills at least. And those are all paid. So now I know for a fact I'm going to get at least$75 ,000. What's he saying?

2:00:33Rachel Cruze:He said we may be getting more. What does that mean? Like if he had a ballpark, what was he? I know you're probably being conservative with the 75, but what could it be?

2:00:42Dr. John Delony:I'm trying to be conservative with it, but, I mean, he said that he's pushing them, and he's trying to push closer to$200 ,000. Yeah, for whatever it's worth, man, because this injury takes away your livelihood, which is truck driving, I would push pretty hard to expand that as far as possible for future earnings, but that's not why you're calling. But, man, I hate this for you and your family.

2:01:04Rachel Cruze:I'm so sorry. Richard are you able to do Any level of other work Or will you be out of the workforce For the foreseeable future

2:01:13Dr. John Delony:Right now it's kind of too early to tell Okay But doctors Not really saying anything positive or negative So I think they're kind of questioning it too Okay Is it classified as a TBI? Traumatic brain injury? Yeah it is Okay I'm so sorry The path back from those Is so difficult to navigate right Because Yeah Yeah, I'm glad the doctors are just keeping it neutral because nobody knows, right?

2:01:35Rachel Cruze:Yeah. Does your wife work? Yeah.

2:01:38Dr. John Delony:No, she doesn't. She's having to be a full-time caregiver for me because I have to be monitored 24-7.

2:01:44Rachel Cruze:Okay. Are you – do you guys have kids?

2:01:47Dr. John Delony:We have one kid.

2:01:48Rachel Cruze:You have one. Okay. How old? She's five. She's five. Okay. And so she'll probably be in school next year, I'm assuming, kindergarten?

2:01:58Dr. John Delony:Yeah.

2:01:59Rachel Cruze:Starting in the fall. Okay. because I'm just trying to think how to make this money work for you guys, but also that it doesn't just disappear in expenses when there could be pairing with some level of work or income coming in. You know what I mean?

2:02:16Dr. John Delony:Well, there's two. I want to say this. There's two. One of my oldest, closest friends on the planet is a longtime TBI survivor, and there is a program. I know it's a federal program. I think it's a federal program and possibly a state program too, where she might actually receive compensation for your care. And so I would look at that and I would also look at your Social Security benefits, SSI benefits. Okay, yeah. I'm on SSDI. Okay. And what does that pay bring in every month? $16.78 a month. Okay. Yeah, it's not going to keep food on your table, but it's something. But check in, have her look into the program that she can qualify as.

2:02:58Dr. John Delony:Basically, she'll get paid as a full-time caretaker of you. And that's a pretty remarkable program as well. It's not going to make anybody rich, but it will keep your house over your head.

2:03:07Rachel Cruze:Yeah. How are you guys paying for things now, your bills and everything?

2:03:13Dr. John Delony:So right now we're on just pool of government assistance pretty much.

2:03:17Rachel Cruze:Okay.

2:03:18Dr. John Delony:Do you guys have any debt? We have$8 ,000 in debt.

2:03:22Rachel Cruze:Okay, what is that? What kind of debt?

2:03:25Dr. John Delony:That's from a car that I had to turn back in after my accident.

2:03:28Rachel Cruze:Oh, geez.

2:03:29Dr. John Delony:They didn't just take it? They were kind of like threatening, and I just said, you know, there's really nothing we can do, so just come get it. I got a voluntary repo on my credit report.

2:03:41Rachel Cruze:Shoot, okay. So for now, when will you get the settlement? Do you know?

2:03:50Dr. John Delony:End of this year.

2:03:51Rachel Cruze:Okay, so you guys have the rest of this calendar year to survive.

2:03:55Dr. John Delony:Yeah, we do.

2:03:56Rachel Cruze:Okay. And government assistance, what's coming in a month with that?

2:04:01Dr. John Delony:Just the 1678, and then the health insurance is locally covered now. And then the food stamps for the kid. Oh, man. So after we pay all of our bills, we're left with about 300, and that's after putting them in savings.

2:04:20Rachel Cruze:How much are you putting in savings?

2:04:22Dr. John Delony:About 15%.

2:04:24Rachel Cruze:Which comes out of the$1 ,600? Okay, so it's like$200 or something. Yeah. Okay. And when you say you have$300 left, is that after food, rent is paid, everything?

2:04:40Dr. John Delony:Everything.

2:04:40Rachel Cruze:Okay, okay. And you're putting some in savings. So you could put$500 a month in savings right now is kind of what you're looking at. If$300 is your margin. yeah we could okay um you know what i mean honestly richard i would probably i would i would stick to that regimen as much as you can until you get this payment and i'm praying by the end of the year you'll have some answers with your health um possibly freeing up your wife to a degree to be able to go and and provide and work if you can't um because the goal would be to be bringing in some level of income and that this settlement is put aside and that you guys can use it if you need to on a big purchase, like if you have to replace a car, but that it's invested and it is making money.

2:05:29Rachel Cruze:So in that case, yes, I would put that settlement. I would take some out and put an emergency fund to the side and a high yield savings account. And then beyond that, again, And trying not to live off of this because the goal would be to invest it and just let it grow. And so you can do that just like in an index fund or something. But between now and the end of the year, my goal would be to be putting some money in savings and start building that up. Because if you guys can do that, that's pretty remarkable. I mean, if you're able to put$500 away, I mean, you'll have$3 ,000,$4 ,000 by the end of the year, which is fantastic.

2:06:13Dr. John Delony:Y 'all are living lean for sure. And I hope that it's 10x your settlement than what you think it's going to be.

2:06:19Rachel Cruze:For sure. Which I feel like it should be. Yeah, ask the question to your attorney about future earnings. Yeah, and just ask about that. But yeah, when you're in a position, which I feel like we've had a couple of, not just like this call, but the idea that it's like it is just touch and go month to month on bills and cash flow. So remember, you guys, food, shelter, utilities, transportation, before even debt is paid, take care of that. And then beyond that, make a list of priorities of things that you have to have, right? And if you have kids, young kids, but you're both working daycare, it's going to be right there close to that needs line, insurance.

2:06:57Rachel Cruze:Like there are some things that have to be covered. But the idea is that you have a plan and it's written out and you're able to follow it because that logic side is so important when emotions and the scariness of reality can wash over you. And you can make bad decisions if you focus on that.

2:07:15Dr. John Delony:Yeah. And there's not a way to take$75 ,000 and turn it into, invest off of it and make that into a livable income per year forever. The best thing you can do is to take that money and like Rachel said, get an emergency fund, but put the rest of it in. You're thinking way down the road with that money.

2:07:32Rachel Cruze:Yep. Absolutely.

2:07:33Dr. John Delony:Sorry, brother.

2:07:33Rachel Cruze:I know. I'm so sorry, Richard. Call us back if you need more help, for sure. We're here for you. Thanks to everyone in the booth, John. Always a fun show. And thanks to everyone listening. And remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.