Get Your Finances In Order Now So You Can Enjoy Your Life Later

29:00If you have some money left over, we can talk about you paying some of it after you clear that with your attorney. But just trying to carry it because he won't? Nah, don't think so. I'm going to let this come down on his head, too. And just let the weight build up on the whole thing. I think it'll be good for both of you. I'm sorry. Sorry you're going through this. What a nasty situation. Frank's in Houston. Hey, Frank, what's up? Hey, Dave, thank you for taking my call today. Sure, what's up? Well, my wife and I had a question for you because we've been working off on paying off our debt. And currently, our mortgage is at a little over$32 ,000.

29:48I do have a little credit card debt. I have a personal debt of$6 ,000, and for my business, it's about$1 ,400. So I try to keep it as low as I can. And I had a really amazing year last year, and I'm so grateful that we've gotten to this point, whether we can ask this question, whether I should just pay everything off. Why wouldn't you? With my emergency fund and everything, I have about$87 ,000 in liquid cash. Okay. So if you wrote a check today, you'd have$40 ,000, right? Yes. Why wouldn't you do that? And I'd be done. Of course you'd do that. I was going to wait until my birthday. I thought that would be a good time to do it.

30:37Well, it's called an early birthday present. Happy birthday, Frank. You are too old to wait until your birthday. You need to do it now and say happy birthday. Just wrap up all the receipts and open them again at your birthday and go whoopee. That is so funny. Let's walk out in the backyard. Go buy a nice dinner on your birthday. Yeah. Right. Go out in the backyard and burn your mortgage on your birthday.

31:27When you've saved up and paid cash for a reliable used car, you want that thing to last. And the best way to keep it running for the long haul is to take care of it with people you trust. That's why I'm proud to welcome Christian Brothers Automotive as the official auto repair partner of The Ramsey Show. At Christian Brothers, they treat you like family. You'll get digital vehicle inspections so you can see exactly what your technician sees, a complimentary shuttle to keep you moving, and every repair is backed by their nationwide Nice Difference warranty. They've even been ranked number one by J.D.

32:08Power for customer satisfaction among aftermarket full-service maintenance and repair providers, six years in a row. Visit jdpower.com slash awards for the details. So if you want your paid-for car to keep going and going, trust Christian Brothers Automotive. Visit cbac.com slash Ramsey to find your local shop and get an exclusive Ramsey discount of 10 % off your visit. 10 % off, up to a$250 value. See store for details.

32:57You know, Dave, we hear a lot of success stories. We get a lot of, you know, problem calls on the show. That's why we're here to help if, you know, people have a problem. But we'll also get success stories. And I feel like in the lobby, we always get fun tidbits of people who are like, hey, we're on Baby Step 7. Or we just paid off our house in October. So, you know, you get these like little tidbits of success. We go out at the commercial breaks and take pictures and talk to people. That's what she's talking about. Yes. And we just had one. A sweet, kind young lady was talking about that she was going to go to film school and take out all these loans and then kind of binge some of our stuff.

33:31Her teacher said, don't do it. The teacher is a hero in the story. Yes. And said, hey, yeah, there's a different way. And she said, oh, my gosh. Watch these Dave Ramsey things. And so she said, you know, three weeks before, I decided not to go. And I want to be a financial advisor. and I totally changed the course. And it was just, we were just talking on the break after we met her. It's just like, it's one of those decisions in life that everyone gets to make. You know, we all, whether you're on the car or not. She was minutes away. Yeah, from like doing something different. From a decade long problem.

34:00Yep. And her teacher, way to go teacher. Hello. Don't you know, teachers change people's lives. That's right. Yep. Said, don't do that. Go watch these videos. And then she went down the rabbit hole on the Ramsey videos because there's like 80 million of them. of them out there okay and so you if you go down that hole you may never get out alice i'm just saying the chesser cat is in there okay yeah but when you're standing on a car lot about to sign up for loan you know whatever it is you get it you get a you get a moment in your life you're like what which road am i going to take and uh and i love hearing those those stories so well it's beautiful you know and and i you know one more time we get to say salute to teachers Yes, yes, and amen.

34:40Teachers, one little conversation like that took a decade off that girl's life. I mean, it's pretty incredible. Yep. Awesome. Good stuff. Good stuff. All right. Derek is in Tampa. Hi, Derek. How are you? Living and giving like no one else. Love it, brother. Thank you for taking the call, guys. Love it. How can we help? My wife and I are baby steps millionaires. We are invested in the four mutual funds, growth, growth, and income, aggressive growth, and international. And every year on December 29th, I rebalance those investments so that they're even to start the new year off. Okay. Am I doing that right?

35:17There's nothing wrong with that. Should I do it more often? No, no. I think once a year is more than enough. You're a detailed dude for sure. um and um but it doesn't harm anything um i don't rebalance mine unless i look up and they're way out of balance like if i looked up and saw you know 70 was in one thing or something then i was going whoa that's a little heavy over there i need to reset that but 27 down to 25 no i don't i don't do that i don't fool with that i just don't want food but But I'm not as detailed a person as you are. I'm more a big picture person. I'm a data engineer, so yes, I am.

36:03Yeah, yeah. And so it gives you peace to do that. It would cause me an ulcer to have to do that. And the next year when I look at the numbers, I can see the numbers move the next year, and it's kind of more exciting for me. That's kind of fun. Yeah, that part from a math nerd, I like that part. I like saying, oh, look at that. And now it's out of balance again. Do you see a consistent trend, Eric? Because you're deep in it. I mean, like the fact that you've been looking at it every year, do you see the do you see certain ones imbalance over, you know, different ones each year? Let me give it. Let me give a guess for you.

36:37International. The international has come up short for the last eight years. And it just started taking off in the small cap is kind of. Yes. Yeah. What you're saying is correct. Yep. It's one. Yeah. I see them have been tied together. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So interesting. Very good. Very good. Okay. And that's, we almost redid our suggestion after 25 years, about five or six years ago, I went in, I went down the rabbit hole with our SmartVestor Pro, who's a friend of mine, and he and I are math riddle nuts. And so we pulled up a whole bunch of hypotheticals of what if you went 20 years, because the international has underperformed the other four categories substantially over a long period of time.

37:19It's the worst of the four. Okay. And you've experienced that. That's why it was easy to guess. And so but but I was thinking about just pulling it out. But what we figured out was that it's offsetting because it runs at the inverse of some of the others. And so when we ran the hypotheticals without it, we didn't make as much money, which was weird because of stupid things underperforming. But it kind of was almost like a math riddle, like I said. So but anyway, we ended up leaving it in because the hypotheticals that we ran out, ran it out two or three different ways over two or three different age groups.

37:52and so forth, and it just didn't make – it made more sense to leave it. So, yeah, but you rebalance it does help offset the fact that the stupid thing has had a really lousy decade. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Very cool, man. How old are you? 53, and my wife's 32. Yeah, and what's your net worth? 1.3 – let me give you a second. 1.3 in our retirement, and I've got a tricky answer for you there. Our house is worth about$6 ,000, but we're almost done with an addition that$150 ,000 we're paying for in cash. Okay. All right. And so you've got about$2 million net worth of$52 ,000. Did you inherit any money?

38:34No. All right. Way to go, guy. Way to go, man. Thank you. What do you tell people? How did you do that? What was the trick? Did you make a pile of money, or are you just smart? How did you do it? We don't go into debt. People think we're crazy, but we do not go into debt. We moved from a three-bedroom house to a two-bedroom house and been here eight years saving to do this, and people think we're crazy. But we don't go into debt, and we see the benefits from it tremendously. Yeah. And what's your household income? My wife retired 130. Okay. She was a special needs teacher. And she retired at 50.

39:12She retired 48. She's doing some side jobs just to kind of, you know. Because you don't have to work if you've got$2 million. Yeah, I got it. Okay. Proud of y 'all, man. Well done, Derek. Way to go, Derek. Thank you, guys. Thanks for letting us interview you, too. Wow. Very cool. So if you don't know what rebalancing is, guys, we teach people to put a fourth of your income in growth, a fourth in growth and income, a fourth in international, which we were talking about was being the one that was sucking wind, and a fourth in aggressive growth when you're doing your 401K. if one of them grows substantially more than another during the year in his case he does it once a year um sometimes people reset it to a fourth at the end of the year so you might get to the end of the year and one of them has 32 percent and one of them has 18 percent you know because one of them didn't grow much and the other one took off right and so what he's doing is he's smoothing it out each year and going back to 25 moving them around inside the 401k doesn't cost anything to do it.

40:13And then it restarts and then his contributions are still at a fourth. And then he gets to look at it again at the end of the year because he's a data guy and he likes watching it happen and so forth. And, you know, that's a cool thing. So that's what rebalancing is, resetting it to a fourth each, 25 % each, because that's our portfolio mix that Rachel and I use both. Rachel and Winston, Dave and Sharon. It's what we've suggested here for 30 years. It's what all of my retirement is set up on. But mine is not sitting at 25, 25, 25, because I don't rebalance as often as he does. Again, I don't, because I'm just not that into the details.

40:49I don't care. It's just a big old pile of money. It's all I'm worried about. Right. And so I'm that guy. But, uh, but it's kind of cool that he's doing that. And especially if you like all the nerdy math stuff, which I actually do. So I probably would enjoy doing it. Right. Because I enjoy that part. I like to see the trends and the patterns, you know, I think we're talking about over time, over a decade, and seeing, okay, which ones are continuing to not perform as much or as well as others. So it's good. Yeah, so that's what we teach folks to do. And what that does is each mutual fund has 90 to 200 stocks in it.

41:25So if you've got a growth fund that has 90 to 200, a growth in income that has 90 to 200, an international that has 90 to 200, and an aggressive growth that has 90 to 200. So you've then got somewhere between 400 and 800 stocks, roughly, except for the overlap, that you're invested across. And that's a lot of safety. Because the chances of all of those as a group going down over an extended period of time is really close to zero. Okay? That's called diversification. When you spread it around, it's diversification. It's a big financial word. Sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher. Okay? But all that means is spread your money around.

42:05Money's like manure. It's better if it's spread. It grows things. Okay? And so spread it around. Don't put it all in one thing. When you put it all in one thing, you increase your risk. And so if you buy Apple stock with a million dollars or you put it in 800 different stocks with a million dollars, the safety factor is way different. Even though Apple is pretty stinking cool and incredible and stable. But still, your risk level is way up when you're in one or two stocks.

42:46The calendar might have flipped, but the way to win with money hasn't changed. Living on a budget, staying out of debt, and building wealth intentionally. Now, here's the deal. Most banks make their money when you don't do that. They're fine if you stay broke and frustrated. And that's why I recommend Fairwinds Credit Union. They actually want you to win with money. Their smart bundle gives you a no-fee checking account, a high-yield savings account, and the new Ramsey Be Weird debit card that says, Dead as normal, be weird, right on the front. It's not just a card, it's a statement. Because every time you use it, it says, You control your money.

43:29Your money doesn't control you. So this year, stick to your plan, don't chase gimmicks or points, and partner with a credit union that helps you make progress in the baby steps. Visit fairwinds.org slash Ramsey to take control of your money and stay weird. Fairwinds is federally insured by the NCUA.

44:06Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, and my daughter is my co-host today. Stacey's with us in Baton Rouge. Hi, Stacey. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing great. First-time caller, but I'm a second-generation Ramsey family, and I'm so thankful that you took my call. Well, thank you. A financial peace baby. All right. How can we help? I'll never forget cutting my parents' credit cards at eight years old. There you go. What a memory. That's awesome. How can we help? Well, we are doing pretty well. We're at our 30s, and we made the decision whenever I got pregnant with my third baby to put my career on hold and be a full-time mom and kind of take care of our little side hustles and do that whole thing, which has been really incredible.

45:03We've done that for about a year. Neat. But before I did that, I was volunteering and providing services for our local parish. And since I've done that, that has picked up significantly. So I'm just curious, and I can go into more detail, but should I be tithing less because I'm giving more in other ways?

45:28the overall answer is it doesn't matter because giving is giving and there's there's not a an angry god standing up there with a calculator that's saying i can't bless you because you missed this by four dollars okay so okay this is the the whole point of the tithe is to create a giving heart and a rhythm of giving in your life, not to create a burdensome rule. Okay. That's the whole point. Okay. So once we've said that, then the answer could be whatever you want to do, right? The technical, the technical mathematical answer is no, because the tithe is based on a scripture in Deuteronomy and a scripture in Malachi and a scripture in two or three other places, and then it's reinforced by Jesus in the New Testament.

46:22For those of us that are evangelical Christians, and you said perish, so you're probably Catholic, right? Yes, sir. Okay. And so, you know, you're reading through the scriptures and saying, okay, what's God's love letter to me, my dad's love letter, saying that it's a good way for me to live. My heavenly father is crazy about me. He wants me to win. He wants to turn me into a generous person. okay and so that's the overarching thing we want to do now having said that then the technical nitsy thing that i would go on because i'm a math nerd not a pharisee okay is just that the tithe says to tithe on your net increase which would be the money that you make so if you run a business your profits, not your gross.

47:12Okay. If you're, if you're a wage earner, it would be your wages. And you can argue about whether net increases before or after taxes. There's lots of good teachings on either side of that. I tithe before taxes, just so when I get to heaven, if I'm wrong, I'm on the good side. Right. So, I mean, it's that, it's that kind of, but it's just funny to me it's not i'm not i'm not i i always give more than a tithe anyway financially okay and i don't reduce it by the amount of volunteer hours you know i'm gonna charge god 20 an hour for this volunteer out of my tithe you know i don't i don't do that um and it's okay if you do but um but i instead what i would do is just say hey i'm putting a lot over here and so i'm gonna put a little less over here and god's not mad about this he's just trying to teach us to he's trying to teach us to be generous children so originally whenever i started so first of all i love your take because i do think that by doing what i've been doing the service i'm providing i'm attending church more because it's an in mass service um so i'm closer literally and figuratively to god than I've ever been.

48:27You're getting more out of it than you're giving, yeah. Certainly. And they originally offered to pay me. They pay the other people who do this. And I just said no because I had a job. Well, so do I offer to now get paid? It's up to you. It doesn't matter. Okay? Whatever you want to do. You can't out-give God. So if you want to give more money or you want to give more time or both, it's okay. And don't feel guilty if you decide, hey, this is kind of turning into a part-time job. And so if everyone around me in the same position gets paid and they've offered it and I take a paycheck from them, that's great.

49:11Or if I don't take a paycheck and I reduce my tithe by that much since I've been offered a paycheck. That's a whole other wrinkle in the discussion. You can add that. But you can tell there's no guilt trip on our end. Yeah, I would just trust the spirit, Stacey. Honestly, I know that's such a fickle answer sometimes. But like, what does your gut say? Like what inside feels right? And I think that there's a level of that that's OK. That's the Holy Spirit talking to you. And you and your husband talk. If you think God's telling you to do it, for sure do it. Don't do what Dave said. Yeah, if you feel kind of convicted one way or the other, you know, you may have a different story than someone else in your exact situation over here because they are leaning somewhere else of how they're feeling.

49:48Right. So I don't know. Yeah, it's not a it's not a legalistic thing by any means. But I think whatever makes you, whatever feels right to you. And again, I think it's the selflessness versus the selfishness is one of the gifts in giving. And so there is something about that selflessness that's beautiful. And that happens when you're giving your time or your money. Yes, all of it. So the giving and the serving, you're creating that in you already. Yeah, I think you're a neat lady. Very cool. Proud of you. Very good stuff. I think you're pretty neat too. Well, very good stuff. Very good stuff. There's just no way you can mess up generosity, okay?

50:24So I, you know, we use tithing as a baseline, and then certainly for many, many years have gone way beyond the tithing. Well, and that's baby step seven, live and give like no one else. Give outrageously. And as you're already finding, the most fun you're ever going to have with money is giving. Yeah, absolutely. And my husband is an engineer, and he's kind of sickle, and I think maybe that's why I like to get the black and white. He wanted a rule. He wants a formula. He wants a formula. His rule was that we do the math, of course, and take what they would be paying us, withdraw that, carry the one, and, you know, that's how much we're going to give.

51:06Because we're giving less regardless because we're making less, right? I'm not working. Well, you're only giving on your income. Yeah, you only give on your income. Right. And then he could just multiply his little formula times two and he'd be okay.

51:20it's all right it doesn't matter that's the point and so but the technical answer is the tithe evangelicals particularly teach stacy uh and depending on which parish i land in which priest i'm talking to i don't know which well time is 10th you can't you can't i know but but catholic i mean like our friend pat lincione is a raving catholic he's one of my favorites and um He says, I'm an evangelical Catholic. So, which, you know, what he means is he believes the Bible. Okay. That's what he means. And so we love Pat. And so it's a wonderful, we've had great discussions around these kinds of things in those settings.

51:59And the whole point of it is taking care of your local church, taking, and hopefully they are the ones taking care of the city, the town you are. It's an extension. The widows and the orphans. It is. It's an extension. And the priests, which is the pastors or literally the priests. Yeah, but make sure your pastors are being taken care of and the widows and the orphans, the single moms are being taken care of in your church, and you ought to be tithing in your local church. That's an evangelical teaching that's been around way longer than I have.

52:51We all want peace. Peace with our money, our homes, our schedules. But having peace online is important too. Most of the time when you sign up for a coupon, enter a giveaway, or click yes to another email list, your personal info, like your name, your phone number, your address, gets collected and sold by data brokers. And before you know it, Your inbox is overflowing, your phone's full of spam calls, and your data's floating around who knows where. That is why I love what Delete Me does. Their team of privacy experts finds your personal info on those creepy data broker sites, gets it removed, and keeps it off.

53:31It is simple, it's safe, and it gives you more peace of mind. That means fewer spam calls, fewer scams, and way less digital chaos. You have worked so hard to find peace with your money. Now it's time to find peace with your digital life. Start protecting your privacy and your peace today. Go to joindelateme.com slash Ramsey for 20 % off an annual plan. That's joindelateme.com slash Ramsey.

54:23Well, buying or selling a home is a big deal, but it's starting to happen. Man, these interest rates are down. They're getting down next to 5 % on the 15-year fixed, and the market's starting to move. The grass is going to get green in your neighborhood, and here we go, baby. Game on. It's going to happen. Ramsey Trusted program is the only way to find a top agent you can trust that we have gone through. We've checked them out. They're high octane, high protein, and we do not put Ramsey Trusted on an agent unless they are a big-time real estate agent. So find a local Ramsey Trusted real estate pro for free at RamseyTrusted, at RamseySolutions.com, slash agent, or click the link in the show notes.

55:07Jolene is with us in Toronto. Hi, Jolene. How are you? hi Dave thank you so much for taking my call sure what's up okay so I am single I have no dependents no heirs I'm completely debt-free and by October 2028 I will have owned my home outright I've spent my entire adult life intentionally saving and working to be 100 debt-free I am a planner so I think about when I want to downsize and I'm pretty much stuck between two options. I could buy a condo with cash and I'm struggling with HOA fees, which could equate to $18 ,000 to$30 ,000 a year and likely rising, or I could rent and knowingly deplete my savings over time.

55:57So since I don't have anyone to leave money to and I plan to spend my money during my lifetime, how do I think about the choice between owning a condo with a really high HOA fee versus renting and spending down my assets.

56:13Very interesting. Okay. It's a high HOA fee. Why is it mandatory that the condo have a high HOA fee? Why are we stuck with that as the only option? It's not the only option. Why don't we get a condo that doesn't have a high HOA fee? I'm sorry? i think about when preservation no longer matters how do i optimize yeah i understand but i'm just saying um anytime i have two options and neither one of them are fun it means i don't have enough options is what i mean yeah and so that's why i asked about why don't we find a condo with a low hoa fee uh because hoa fees if assume let's assume for a second, it's not always true, it's not true often enough, that the HOA is managed accurately, then the HOA fee should be covering actual costs of operating the condo, which would be roof replacement, parking lot management, you know, maintenance issues, taxes, insurance on the exterior shelves.

57:26You carry your own insurance on the interior shelves, I assume, in Canada, like we do in the States, and so on. Taxes would be additional. Yeah. Taxes are additional. An addition. Okay. But, you know, so the only way an HOA fee would skyrocket is mismanagement or maintenance skyrocketed. Or one of the costs associated with operating the condo skyrocketed, right? Right. Or a luxury condo that has time limits. If you rented a condo in that exact same thing and the HOA fee was accurate, your rent would cover the HOA fee. So you're paying the HOA fee either way. Correct. I guess the question comes down to philosophically, would I own outright if I could pay for it outright, or do I revert back to renting?

58:11Yes, I would own outright. And the reason is this. You're stabilizing the largest line item in your budget into old age. But then my largest asset is trapped into a home. Yes, so what? You're living in it. I die with all my assets trapped into a home instead of depleting my savings. You want to rent and travel and spend it all? Yeah. Okay. I have no heirs. It's not evil to do that. The problem is you don't sound that old. How old are you? 49. Yeah, I didn't think you were that old. Okay. So, I mean, we're talking about a 40-year plan. We're talking about a 40-year plan here. You know how much rent's going to go up in 40 years?

58:59Yeah. That scares the crap out of me. It's the unknown, I think, that is a little nerve-wracking. For your home, right? Unknown for your shelter, for your place of protection and where you're going to be. You know what you mean? There's something about having no risk in that that gives peace that if you want to go travel and do other things, it may not be as big and luxurious because, to your point, a lot of your money's tied up in the home. But at least there's like, but at least there's the stability of knowing that if you, you know, get hurt, something happens to you that your place is paid for.

59:33Do you know what I mean? Your home. What would the condo cost? If I were to downsize, I would pay it for a cash. So it would basically be the cost of my home. What would it be equal to? How much money would the condo cost? $600 ,000 to$800 ,000 maybe. And how much do you have in your nest egg total? I have 850 in investments locked. I have my home, which is about 800. Okay. And I have liquid of about 400. So my total net is around 2 million. Okay. What I would do is buy the condo for cash and ride that for 20 years and then remake this decision. That's a good idea. If you run out of your money and you're like, you still want to travel, what do I want to do?

1:00:17Because you're not even going to spend your income that this is creating. I don't, just talking to you, you're not going to spend$200 ,000 a year on travel. She might. Are you? Jolene sounds fun. No, I haven't traveled. No. I mean, what are you going to spend$200 ,000? Jolene wants to go away and travel. What are you going to do to consume$200 ,000 a year? Because you've never done that in your life. I think that's the philosophical question of at what point do I stop saving and start living? Now. How much do you make now, Jolene? I make between$200 ,000 and$300 ,000 a year. And are you going to retire anytime soon, or are you just going to?

1:00:54I'm so concerned about not having revenue that I don't want to retire. I'm trying to calculate what my house is. So I would buy a$600 ,000 condo. I would pay cash for it, and you'll be sitting on a million to a million and a half dollars making$300K. You can do anything you want for the next 20 years, and you can work as much of that or as little of that as you want. You can slow down a little bit and go travel or go whatever it is. But philosophically, let's say a million and a half is going to create somewhere around$150 ,000 a year income without touching the nest egg, without consuming it.

1:01:35The goose is going to lay, without touching the goose, the goose is going to lay 150 ,000 nest eggs. Okay? So I should stop saving when my$850 ,000 investment becomes$1.2 or something? Whatever. You just run your number out, whatever you want it to be. But the point is that you're going to have a hard time consuming all of this money, even if you pay cash for a condo. Because the money is going to be making money almost as fast as you're spending it. So that said, do we care if it's$30 ,000 a year in HOA fees or rent then? Do I need to own? Yes, I would own because it stabilizes because rent goes up every year and it destabilizes this whole freaking plan.

1:02:20You're 49. Think about what rent was when you were nine. I know. I know. And that's what you're talking about here. So when you're 90, that's what we're talking about. And you don't want to be paying rent at 90. I know. This plan sucks. I'm trying to. renting long term is not a good idea because it destabilizes because it goes up every year more than the cost of operating the condo does and the condo goes up in value too and you can always liquidate it and decide to consume the whole deal in your last 25 years if you have if you have the luxury of knowing when that is i think that's a great plan i don't think you need to make a decision right now for the next 40 years of your life cut that in half and 20 and it's so funny because i'm like she's kind of in one way i'm like oh she's a little scarcity minded because she's like, oh, I just I don't want any revenue to stop.

1:03:06So I'm going to just work, work, work, work, work. But then in a way, it's a little bit of this like, oh, yeah, I'll just pay for rent. And it doesn't matter on the other end of the equation. You know, I don't know. I was trying to like place to splurge. Yes, that's it. I think that I would agree with that. Have the home, have the peace that that nothing can be taken away from you. It is there. It is there. And yeah, when you turn 60, if you hate it and you're going on cruises, once a month. I predict you will sell the condo before 60 for one or two or three reasons. You know, a downsize. About the time I think I'm going to live in a house till I die.

1:03:42I live too long. So there you go.

1:04:32This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. forward into 2026. Therapy can help you identify the heavy stuff, set it down, and move forward with clarity so you can focus on who you want to become in the new year. If you're thinking about therapy, check out my friends at BetterHelp. With over 30 ,000 therapists, BetterHelp is one of the leading online therapy providers in the world, trusted by millions. They have an average rating of 4.9 stars out of 5. And it's easy to fit into your busy schedule because it's totally online. To get started, just answer a few easy questions and BetterHelp will connect you with a licensed therapist who will fit your needs.

1:05:09And if it's not the right fit, you can change at any time for no extra cost. You can't feel lighter without leaving behind what's been weighing you down. Go to BetterHelp.com slash Ramsey to get 10 % off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Ramsey.

1:05:39Today's question of the day is brought to you by Why Refi? When it feels like your private student loans have buried your future, Why Refi can help you dig out with low fixed rate refinancing and a clear path forward. Go to WhyRefi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. Not in all states. Today's question comes from Aiden in Alabama. My fiance and I have been practicing budgeting as we prepare for marriage. We're both debt free except for my house. And once we combine finances, we'll have extra money left each month. She likes shopping. I like to spend money on golf trips and don't buy many clothes.

1:06:18Would it make sense to set up a separate fund money or separate fund money accounts from our joint account with a set amount deposited each month for us to spend however we want? I worry that when I take a solo trip, I might feel guilty about spending money on things that I enjoy that she doesn't really care about. Yes. Welcome to marriage, Aiden. Yeah, absolutely. That's going to happen. Yes, you're going to spend things that she doesn't care about. She's going to spend money on things that you don't care about. But that's why together you decide, hey, here's how much money a month we're going to spend that we each get to spend.

1:06:57And you get to do it guilt-free. There's no worry because it's a set amount. Now, if you go over that amount, then, yeah, there's going to be some frustration of, hey, we said this amount and you're going over it. But that's a whole other discussion. He's saying set up a separate account for fund money only to deposit the money from the budget, the joint budget and the joint account into a fund money account. You could do that or you could just open up a sinking fund. Just do a sinking fund in every dollar. Well, but it's separate fund money accounts. So she has a fund money account. It is ours.

1:07:30It's fine. Nothing wrong with it. Separate checking. It feels like different checking accounts. Do it all on my account. No, no, no, no. And it's in the budget. And in the budget. Okay, if you get$200 for your fund money and Winston gets$200 for his fund money, where do you put that money? It's all in our checking. Okay. Yeah. But how do you keep up with it's his or her? Every dollar. Okay. A sinking fund. No, not a sinking fund. Just when the transaction comes in and I get my nails done, I drag it into the Rachel line item. Yeah, but what if you don't spend the whole$200 in a month? Well, that's a bigger discussion of what would you do in any category?

1:08:00He's saving up for a golf trip. In any category. Well, in that case, yeah, then you'd do a sinking fund. Okay. Yeah, and just put money aside. That's what I'm saying. That's the same thing. I mean, the only question is how do you do the accounting to separate it and keep it separate so that he doesn't feel like he's spending her money or she doesn't feel like he's spending her money? So you do it with a sinking fund if it goes over the portion of a month. Or you could have a separate account just for the trip. Just for the fund money. Yeah. That's okay. I don't know why it feels legalistic. I don't know.

1:08:30I feel legalistic. That feels like separate accounts to me. Okay. All right. I don't care. I don't do it. And you don't do it. As long as everybody has access to it and you can see. Oh, 100%. In all of that. 100%. Yeah. But like different line items. Because even in different savings, like high yield savings, you can have different line items within it. Yeah. Within the actual account. Yeah. Yeah. So I wonder if you could do it that way too. But yeah, I think sinking fund in every dollar is a better plan. Yeah. Actually, because you don't get into the spirit of it that's bothering you. Well, yeah, this is my money over here.

1:09:03Yeah. This is my money. And so it is. Well, it has been allocated to you. It's been allocated, but it starts to feel. Well, let me give you an example, okay, that fixes it. Okay, so like when we first started doing this, you were a little kid, and your mother would play the Southern Belle martyr and spend all of the clothing money on the kids. and of course i'm buying clothing money at two for work right period so she ends up with no clothing yeah so i ended up to get her to stop doing that we were using envelopes with cash yeah yeah yeah we had a kid's clothing envelope and a sharon's clothing envelope and she had to spend the sharon money on sharon yeah no excuse because she would spend it all on y 'all and i'll just wear the drapes you know i'll make something out of the drapes scarlet o 'hara right to hashtag i'll take take the drapes down and it'll be okay and you know like there's no reason to be a martyr we have the money that's maria on sound the music she took the drapes down yeah from the captain and they did they did and they did it in sound and yeah but both places yeah yeah that's where sound of music got it but uh anyway yeah it's still the uh man that the so i hear you the important thing in this whole discussion aiden is that you're not even married and you're already both concentrating on this, that means you're going to win.

1:10:25Yeah, and there's a little bit of me. I kind of like the exposure. I think it's good practice for yourself to spend money on yourself and let your spouse see it. Because one of the things that I might feel guilty spending money on things that you should enjoy, and I'm like, you have to learn about that in marriage. Like there's a part when you kind of just hide that over here so I don't have to feel guilty. That's where I'm like, run into that. Like go straight into that emotion. Let her see what you're spending. Let her be like, I think that was probably kind of stupid and silly or whatever she's going to say to you.

1:10:52Hopefully she doesn't say that. I don't understand you spend that much money to put a very small white ball in a very small hole. I don't understand. Golf, I don't understand that. I don't understand purses that cost more than a car. So, yeah. These are great discussions to have in marriage. I think it's good to kind of face it head on. You need another gun? Yes, I do. Oh, my gosh. as a newly wed couple. I think there's like a level of exposure there that's good to live in. And she may feel silly about buying something that you don't think, but I think that's good discussion to have. Like talk about those things versus avoiding it and putting it in separate accounts.

1:11:30So you don't have to feel. Okay. That's what was tickling your spirit. I see it now. I don't know. He was hiding it over there. He was ducking the emotion. Yes. I like everything in the lights. Bring it in the lights. Yes, yes, yes. That's good. But the great news in the overall thing is Aiden, You guys are going to win because the number of people that are smart enough to do what you guys are doing right now and actually have these discussions before marriage. Boom, boom, boom. You're going to be huge. Y 'all are going to be amazing. You have a great marriage. You're going to be very wealthy.

1:11:57These are indicators that are just incredible for you. Way to go. Jillian's in Charlotte. Hey, Jillian, what's up? Hi, Dave and Rachel. Hi. I have a question about paying for college. Cool. I have the answers to all your questions, so do you want to ask me or do you want to start? What are you asking? First, I need to know the question about how to pay for college now or in the future. How to navigate the next four years of my life. Gotcha. How old are your kiddos and how many? We have three children. Our daughter graduated from UT in 23, so one down, two to go. and she is married so she's off of our payroll good okay so we got two to deal with and they are 17 and 18 okay how did you pay for college for the first one um out of my nose and around my elbow and you know yeah um well and out of state julian right out of state yeah yeah so do you have you don't have you don't have the money for these other two.

1:13:12Is that what you're saying? Right. But I have seven grand in a 529, but we didn't have that or use any for her college. Got it. And she came out, you know, her degree cost about$208 ,000 and she had $18 ,000 in debt, which she's almost got that knocked out. What's her degree in? She went to UT. She went out of state. That's not$118 ,000. Just four-year tuition? Yeah. It'd be$20 ,000 a year. It's$52 ,000 a year. For what? It's$52 ,000 per year at UT, out of state. University of Tennessee is$52 ,000 a year out of state. They don't want you people, apparently. They do. They want her money. Because it's$12 ,000 a year for in-state.

1:14:06Did she do nursing? Did she do... They are really good to their end state. Tennessee is very good to the Tennessee. Yeah, okay. All right, let's move on. We're going to run out of time. Let's move on. We've got a 17 - and an 18-year-old. They're going in state because you don't have the money. And they're going to a community college for the first two years because you don't have the money. No, one of them is finishing his first year at the community college, and he's going to Appalachian State. How much is Appalachian State? Appalachian, I mean, all in, housing, room, board, tuition, fees, and books is about$28.

1:14:49Okay, so here's the thing. The thing that causes people to not be able to pay for college is not college. It's college choice. You choose a college that fits your budget. The kid works, you take scholarships, you stay in-state, and you choose a college that fits your budget, and that's how you pay for college.

1:15:31After the holidays, a lot of people start feeling budget pressure. and it's a wake-up call to get intentional. So listen, don't fall for buy now, pay later cell phone plans that drag you back into debt. Boost Mobile keeps it simple with no contracts and no nonsense. Keep the phone you already own and pay just$25 a month forever for unlimited data, talk, and text. That's real long-term value and real peace of mind. So budget like you mean it and go to BoostMobile.com slash Ramsey today to make the switch. That's BoostMobile.com slash Ramsey. Restrictions apply. See BoostMobile.com slash Ramsey for details.

1:16:38Okay, time to circle back. We have a best, not best-selling, that's not right. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I just said it during the break. I said, let's don't. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not talking about that. Okay. Y 'all are right in a family discussion here. But no, we have a documentary, Rachel, called The Public Knows About. Yes, okay. And that I can talk about since I own it. And, yeah, it's called Borrowed Future, and it's award-winning, and you can watch it for free. And it's talking about the student loan debacle and what's going on. As we did in-depth, detailed research on this ridiculous student loan crisis, and it is ridiculous.

1:17:21There's$1.8 trillion in student loan debt now. And Congress talks about it being bad, and everybody talks about it being bad, but they keep doing it. if it's so bad you have to forgive it but you keep making the loans that's intellectually dishonest okay and so anyway all of that is in that documentary and you can watch it but the thing that the core thing comes down to our last caller okay how do you pay for college if you list out five things that impact whether you can pay for college the thing that takes up 70 percent 75 percent of the space and the other four take up the 25 percent of the space is college choice because nothing in our society has a wider spectrum of cost than colleges okay so an example being that in-state tuition for the university of tennessee See, I said$12 ,000.

1:18:22We looked it up during the break. It's$13 ,000. I missed it. Okay. And out-of-state tuition is not$52 ,000. Out-of-state tuition is$32 ,000. But with room and board. But with room and board all in, it was about$50 ,000. And the girl went to school four years, and she had$200 ,000 out of pocket. So that's what the mom said. So the mom's numbers were right, but it was all in with room and board and everything else. Right. And that's pretty hefty on those numbers. But anyway, so you have to ask yourself, what am I getting for what I'm spending? Okay, so what do you get when you go to a college? You get the college experience, whoop-dee-doop-dee.

1:19:05You get to say you went to that school, which there's no correlation between what school you go to and what success you have. No piece of research ever has ever said a certain school is more successful than another none A lot of people believe it, but it's not true There's no data to back it up Okay So if you want to go to a super expensive fancy fancy school that has a big name on it And you have the money it's fine I'm not mad at you But don't tell me that you have a higher probability being successful because there's no data to back up your statement So What are you getting? if you get basically the same knowledge base.

1:19:43So I've been to the University of North Carolina. I graduated from the University of Tennessee. Both are fine academic institutions. If you graduate from either one of them, we will hire you at Ramsey. Okay? If you went to Alabama, you'll have to kind of squeeze through. Yeah, there you go. That's funny. There's an Alabama lady sitting there. And Bobby's back there. Yeah, that's questionable about that stuff. Florida for sure. But anyway, so you see what I'm saying? So the point is, if you could pay$13 ,000 or you can pay$32 ,000 for the same thing, why would you do that? And they're literally 300 miles, 200 miles apart.

1:20:29The only thing that – she's closer to the University of Tennessee than we are in Nashville, where she's calling from, but she had to go across the state line and ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, tripled the cost.

1:20:47Why would you do that if you're short on money? Now, if you have the money, that's fine. Like, I've got a friend who sent his kid to Alabama, but he went to Alabama, and he's got plenty of money. And by the way, Alabama has actually really good out-of-state tuition. They like out-of-state people. So I can make a real funny comment about that, but I'm not. But anyway, just keep moving. But the point is where you go to school, you only do that if you have the freaking money. In most states now, you can go to a community college free or almost free for the first two years. so don't spend 76 000 in student loan debt a year to go to vanderbilt that's stupid

1:21:48now if you again if your mama's rich and she gonna write you a check i'm okay if you get a scholarship grant whatever yes i'm okay if you want to go to vanderbilt if you want to go i don't care But don't go in debt to that and tell me you got a bargain. You did not get a bargain. So how in the world can children go to school? You go to a school in a place they can afford. And you make wise choices based on the value that you're getting for what you're spending. And that is huge. And folks, Rachel, you said this in the documentary, and I'll never forget it because I thought it was really wise. You said it's more of a parenting problem than it is a student loan problem.

1:22:30Yeah, well, because the 18-year-olds, their frontal cortex of their brain isn't even fully formed, you know? So I'm like, they're still kids. I mean, yes, they're 18, but they're nuts. Somebody's got to look at them and say, no, this is stupid. They don't know. And I do think the repercussions of what happens in your life, because we sit in these chairs, you know, every day taking calls from people that have$38 ,000,$100 ,000 of student loans. And, you know, they're working their way out. $104 ,000 in a parent-plus loan because mom and dad borrowed the money to facilitate the stupidity. That was in the first hour.

1:23:00Yeah. So it's just, it is, the 18-year-old doesn't know, doesn't understand the full consequences and repercussions of this decision that they're making at 18. And that's what's so frustrating about it, right? I'm like, if you're 30. They can't buy beer, but they can borrow 100 grand. Yes. Seriously. And if they go and try to get a mortgage or something, I'm like, no, no one would give them that much money ever. The banks wouldn't give them that much money. The government wasn't so stupid that it guaranteed it. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing. So it is. So, I mean, this is the deal. So moms and dads.

1:23:31And I think people are weight. Listen, here's the deal. You go$12 ,000 a year. You live at home for the first two years, and you go to community college, and then you need$12 ,000 a year. That's$24 ,000 you got a degree from an in-state tuition like the University of Tennessee or University of North Carolina. Okay? Two years in a community college transfer. Plan your curriculum out to where all the credits transfer and all of it meshes up and works in the syllabus. It's not rocket surgery. If you can't do that, you probably can't graduate from college anyway. So you need to do this. Lay out the plan, execute the freaking plan, and if you lived at home the entire time, you could do it for$24 ,000.

1:24:05You can make that driving Uber while you're in school. You can make that delivering pizza, mowing grass while you're in school. Go to Home Depot and buy a leaf blower. Rich people are afraid of leaves. They will hire you to blow their leaves. You can do this. You can go to school working if you keep your stinking costs down. Retail. Work retail. You can keep your costs down. and get through. You can't work while you're in school. Everybody listening to me right now worked while they were in school, except the three people that said that just now. You know? Seriously. Everybody worked. I worked while I was in school like an animal because I had to have money.

1:24:45I didn't have any money. We were so broke we couldn't pay attention. I went out on the first date with my wife. I had$1.17 in my checking account. I mean, come on, people. this this is this is college what do you think this is the Taj Mahal yeah but what's happened is it's it's I know the the debt has been so normalized that you live off of it you don't have to work right because it's all paid for it's all right there so it is a you thinking colleges have a lazy river no they don't yes they do one does you can float down the river no yes it does with an inner tube just like you're at the park like you're at Six Flags promise you I don't think so.

1:25:24Yeah. We have been to some campuses and some stuff, and you're like, wow. You guys have lost your minds. It's all financed by state-funded. And so, guys, choose a school you can afford. And get your kid knowledge. The degree is worthless. And if you're a parent with a senior in high school, just replay. Knowledge is what matters. Replay this clip if they're a senior in high school because school choice, it's coming around the corner for these seniors. If they haven't already done early acceptance, so. Yeah, well, you don't have to go just because you got accepted. That's true. I know somebody like that.

1:26:40Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. Tom is in Seattle. Hey, Tom, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Dave, I just need your opinion, if you two would be so kind to give it, on an upcoming rather sizable purchase I have planned. Okay. My 11-month-old pup needs an operation that's going to run about$7 ,000. bucks. And so my wife and I have mutually decided to cancel our vacation this year and we're going to, we're going to get her taken care of. Um, all my friends and neighbors that I've, I've told about this, just look at me and shake their heads as if they don't agree.

1:27:35You know, what, what do you think? Am I missing something? I, I cannot see not doing this. okay um i'd say a couple things tom do you guys have the 7 000 yes okay okay and is the surgery is there a guarantee at the end of this there's there's no guarantee but the guarantee without it she will go lame fairly quickly is your is it a is it a bulldog no okay no she's a chihuahua mix Okay, I was going to say, our George Camel just spent a sizable amount, more than I think what you're about to spend on his, and his ended up in a wheelchair. His dog really did. Yeah, he's in a wheelchair right now. Yeah.

1:28:21Okay. And we've been picking on George about it. But good-naturedly, we love George, in doubt. But he's fun about it. But so, okay, first thing is the Ramses are unbelievable dog lovers, okay? So my opinion is skewed. I mean, laughingly, I could say if it was a cat, no way, right? I'm kidding, but no. So that's a joke, okay? But, yeah, I love my little dog. I walk three miles with her in the morning. And, you know, the thing I run into with people on this question, and I've had this question over 30 years several times or something like it is, the first thing is, are we doing this for the animal and is it going to be in pain?

1:29:14Is this selfish on the human's part? So, for instance, I know a lady that put her dog through four years of chemo. That was unfair to the dog, in my opinion. Okay. She was doing that because she didn't want to lose the dog. But the poor dog suffered. Okay. And, you know, that's harsh as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't do that to a dog. I love it. But I cry every single time like a 10-year-old girl when we put a dog down. When we put ours down, you cried. I did. I came over and visited yours the day before Nala went to heaven. Yeah. And all dogs do go to heaven. There's no question. So it's a theological fact.

1:29:59But so, you know, that's not the question. The thing is, number one is the dog. Are you doing this for you or for the dog? Because I could fall into the category if I'm not real careful. I don't want to lose my dog. You know, I mean, I love them. And so I'll do anything. But that's not fair to the dog because these are dogs. They're not humans. And so it's a different measure. As far as I'm concerned, you ask our opinion. So anyway, but is$7 ,000 completely unreasonable on a one-year-old dog if it fixes it mostly? And the dog is not going to be in pain because you are selfish as a human to keep it around.

1:30:38If a dog walks with a limp and hurts the rest of its life because you did this and you didn't have the courage to make a call, that's not fair to the dog. But if the dog is healthy after this and you get 10 good years with the pup, you know, or whatever after this, because of this, the pup has a great life after that. and you got the$7 ,000, no, I don't think you're crazy then. If you got the$7 ,000, you're going to put on a credit card? Nope, sorry, you couldn't afford the dog. Nope, I've got the money, and, yeah, we're going to do it. Yeah, you see what I'm saying, though? But, yeah, I mean, I understand that because it depends on where your neighbor grew up, right?

1:31:17My wife grew up on the farm, and let me tell you, 100 % chance that dog ain't going to make it, okay? She's got, she's not, does not have this. They have, yeah. Yeah, she's more, she does not dog crazy like I am, right? So this$7 ,000, nope, nope, not happening. Hey, y 'all spent a crazy amount on Maggie's hips, your golden retriever. I did, but I did it in spite of your mother. I mean, you know, yeah. And I got, and that dog had 10, 12 good years. You know, we did spend some money on that dog. I was a golden retriever, had bad hips, okay? And as a pup, we had to do the hips. And so it was expensive, and it was a pain in the butt.

1:31:57But the dog was great. It was one of the best dogs I ever had. So anyway, all that to say, yeah, but— You're not crazy. Just don't make sure the dog isn't suffering. But if you grew up—as long as you're not being a selfish, immature person and you're doing this and herming the animal. You know what I'm saying? No. Nope. Yeah. And so this is for all the people that are going to hate me after this. So just get in line. All you cat people, get in line. Right behind the dog people that get in line, behind the credit card people that get in line. It's a long line around the block. Yeah, there is a spectrum of what people's threshold is for an animal, a pet, right, financially.

1:32:34Yeah. And your mother's is much lower because animals come and go on the farm. And George, I think, is even past you, Dave. I think our George Campbell. Yeah, George is over our line. Yeah, he's over my line. George will do anything for those dogs. Yeah. So it's where you fall, personal value, where you want to put your money, just make sure you have the money. And don't and be a kind person that doesn't cause an animal to hurt for your selfish because you're selfishly weak and can't go through the pain of doing the right thing. Right. You know, it's just that's a lack of courage on the human's part.

1:33:11And that's unfair to the animal. That's inhumane as far as I'm concerned. But and I see people do that because they're just like, oh, well, you can't get rid of whatever. and it's um we get we get because we all get so attached to with them oh my gosh i like my dog more than i like a lot of people i mean you know it's really i do we do get attached to them so dave big dog small dog i like them all i really do i like dogs and jade jade lost jade lost hers a few weeks ago i know she'd had him for 12 years or something big old rottweiler there and they had to put him down they're part of the family he just couldn't he couldn't get up one morning Yeah.

1:33:46It's awful. And yeah, it's just. Dad's dog now is a little. What is Bella? She's a bear dog. No, she's not a bear dog. She's a. It's legendary. Yeah. This breed keeps away bears. And I think the legend is true because I've not seen a bear since I got her. So I'm pretty sure. Yeah. She's 12 pounds. Just know. We all hear. Bella. Bella. Bella. Where's Bella? We're like, Dad, she's in the other room. Just go get her. Go get her. They gave me a hard time. Bella. The whole family. The whole family, on vacation. This was on vacation. All vacation, just, ah, ah. No, that's not true. It's not true, but yeah, it's funny.

1:34:23We love our dogs, though. We are dog people. But you're not crazy. You're not crazy. All three Ramsey kids have a dog, and we have a dog, and we love our dogs, and all three of us cry when we put them down, and that's the way it is, and it's part of, you're not, unless something really bad happens to you, you're going to outlive them, regardless. So you better get that as part of the program.

1:34:47Thank you.

1:35:22Listen up, guys, because I've got a big question for you. Where will you be with your money at the end of 2026? Will you be better off, worse, or exactly the same? Believe it or not, you get to choose. Look, I know there's a lot going on that can make you feel powerless over your money, but I want you to hear me. You're more in control than you think. You can turn your finances around. So let me help you out. Start your year off with me and Dave Ramsey at our free Every Dollar live stream event on January 8th. We're cutting through all the lies and all the chaos out there that's keeping you stuck.

1:35:57So you have the clarity you need to finally get ahead. And you could even win$2 ,000 just for signing up. Listen, another year is gonna pass anyway. So decide that this is the year you're gonna take back control of your life and your money. Go sign up for the free live stream at everydollar.com slash live stream.

1:36:37Noelle is in San Antonio. Hi, Noelle. How are you? Hello, I'm doing good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Yes, I currently have a card note that's$1 ,200. And I'm looking to, at first I wanted to get a single family home. But now that I've been doing research and looking into getting wealth, I was thinking on a multi-family home. I was just wondering if I'm at a good point in my life to get it right now, or should I wait on it? You should wait. You should get your debts paid off. Either get rid of the car or pay the car off. That car payment is out of control. Is it$1 ,200 a month, Noel, or the whole note is$1 ,200?

1:37:29No, it's$1 ,200 a month. A month. How old are you? Yeah, I'm 24. How much do you make a year? Uh, 60, but I just got a job offering, um, and, um, they said I could be up in there in the, in the 80s. Yeah. And what do you owe on this car, sir? I owe 80. 80? Yeah. Okay. Um, let me, let me as kindly as I possibly can say that's insanity. Yes, it is. Trust me. I did not want to get this vehicle. I got. Yes, you did. You got the vehicle and you're 24 and you were sober and you signed the note. So, yes, you did want to get it, but, yes, you do need to get rid of it. Yes. Now? I tried calling them, trying to see if I could trade it in, maybe for something older, because my parents basically forced me to get it because they said I should get something reliable since I have two kids.

1:38:24And before this vehicle, I was having a lot of car problems. You have a lot of excuses is what you have. You're a 24-year-old man. Your parents don't force you to do anything. Yeah, there's some struggling. There's definitely putting the blame of the car on other people, Noelle. Just so you hear us. I mean, my parents forced me. I had to. These are pretty extreme statements that you didn't have to do any of this and you could get a reliable car for$10 ,000. Yeah. For your two kids. So you need to sell this car. Yeah. You don't need to trade it in on something slightly older. You need a$10 ,000 car.

1:39:01How did you get the financing for this, though? If you make$60 ,000, how did they finance you an$80 ,000 car? Well, first I had traded in an Equinox I had. Was it negative value rolled over? Yes. Oh, okay. And then my grandma helped me co-signed also. Oh. They loaned her the money. Yeah. Your poor grandmother. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. You got to get out of this car. Oh, man, I'm so scared for her right now. No, I really am. This is not going to go well, sir. What do you think this car is actually worth? I called today saying what it's worth, and they said it's about$40 ,000. And you were how far upside down on the Equinox?

1:39:52I think it was$30 ,000, I believe. Okay, and so this has already lost$10 ,000, and you bought it how long ago? uh i'd say like eight months ago oh my gosh honey yeah no you don't need to be talking about buying any kind of house you have an extreme car crisis on your hands and your grandmother is at risk i'm very afraid for her right now and i really really really want you guys to take six jobs and start paying extra on this car pretend like you have forty thousand dollars in credit card debt and you have a$40 ,000 car debt. Yeah. Yeah, the finance manager at this dealership should be put in jail.

1:40:33So horrible. So horrible. They took an old lady and put her on as a cosigner. Yeah, they did. With a guy making 60 grand. Along with this guy making 60 grand. So stupid. This is, it's not illegal, but it's legalized fraud. This is ridiculous. At who knows what interest rate. Yeah. Well, it's 1 ,200 bucks. Yeah. Oh, my God. And he makes 60 grand. so honey yeah so noelle i would be acting like i make like 40 and if you get this extra 80 which is amazing get this car paid off in a year like like you have some upside on this but this needs to be your number one focus yeah clear the car do not act like you make 80 if you get the car for god's sakes honey take care of your grandmother by clearing the car because it's gonna land back in her lap because it's gonna go sideways if you don't straighten it up and so far your track record on cars is pretty lousy so and don't go back over to that dealership for anything ever just drive by and wave at them and go on kelly blue book and just see a private sale and just i'm just curious if it's a little bit more right you can have if there's any any more even a couple of thousand dollars there's any way you could sell it for 50 and get a hoopty tell your parents to jump in a creek and start paying off the other 40 or 30 so your grandmother doesn't get screwed over here.

1:41:57Because this thing's going down in value every stinking day you own it and it's adding to the problem. So you need to get rid of it. But you're going to have to cover the difference somewhere and I don't know how. Your poor grandmother.

1:42:12Oh, I'm so pissed right now at the dealer at the mom and dad i'm sad for the grandmother and i'm sad for noel and yet they all were adults and all made decisions wow see grandmas attention grandmothers 100 of the time you co-sign you're stupid

1:42:40100 oh he's a good little boy he'll pay it honey he's dumber than a rock he can't pay the bill not you noel no i'm serious in general this is you cannot pay the freaking bill i don't care how sweet he is i don't care if he's out of your dna he cannot pay the bill that's why they called you old lady don't co-sign for your grandkids you're not a blessing you're a curse you helped him get trapped don't do that grandparents and parents quit telling people to buy crap they can't afford because your grandbabies are riding in it unless you're riding a freaking check shut up Oh, my gosh. You people. This is ridiculous.

1:43:28You're killing me. These poor people, man. And then you go in there and this car finance guy is smoking crack. Who makes this loan? Who makes this loan but a crackhead? Nobody. Oh, my God. You loaned$80 ,000 to an old lady and a kid that don't make enough to pay the bill. You crackhead. You ought to be put in jail. This is ridiculous. Oh, my gosh. See, this is what happens. This is the problem. You guys get victimized by these stinking car companies, by these student loans. You get victimized by Citibank because Samuel L. Jackson, who has a little red wagon carrying his money around, because he made it all trying to sell you Citibank.

1:44:16What's in your wallet? It ain't Samuel Jackson's money, I can tell you that. So you guys got to quit doing this stuff, man. You got to quit lining up like sheep to the slaughter. You just walk in there and go, I'll take a$150 ,000 student loan. And yeah, I got to get my cash back, Samuel. Thank you. And that guy that lives in the Citibank lobby, he don't live in the Citibank lobby, people. That's an actor. Hello. He lives in a mansion that he paid for by being an actor on Citibank commercials with your money. Hello. Quit believing this crap, y 'all. you're getting screwed by all these people the borrower is slave to the lender quit lining up tell me i was forced to buy you weren't forced to do squat you're like a grown person and stuff act like it quit this people noel i'm not just yelling at you honey i'm yelling at you i'm yelling at everybody that's like you that's out there listening and they're all going good god i want i want you to be free honey i'm glad you called here and we'll help you we'll put you on hold i'm gonna put you with one of our coaches for free since i picked on you so hard and but honey my god do some math jeez this is just how in the world somebody find that finance manager and put him in jail please before he acts again i'm just glad you haven't picked on jennifer gardner oh i need to i can do hair extensions but then i have to get you yeah okay Sweet Jennifer Gardner.

1:46:21All 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 slash agent.

1:47:04Are you staying on track with the baby steps? so you can take a quick quiz to check your progress and receive a personalized plan just for you. Click the show notes and hit the link that says, Are You On Track with the Baby Steps? Free quiz. Get you on track. Show you what you're doing. We'll help you develop a personalized plan right quick. Ashley is with us in Columbus, Ohio, on the other end of the spectrum. One of our Baby Steps millionaires. Congratulations, Ashley. What's your net worth? 1.16 million, Dave. 1.16. Okay, cool. Break that down for me a little bit. What's the categories, like 401k and so forth, and how much?

1:47:44Yes. So in our house equity, we have$420 ,000 in investments, which include retirement, our 529 plan. We have$570 ,000. Personal assets slash collectibles, we have$120 ,000, and then we have about$50 ,000 in cash. Good. Well done. How old are you? I'm 30. and my husband's 29. Wow, you're young millionaires. How much of this did you inherit? So we were blessed that my husband's parents had a 529 plan for him that was not used up. We inherited$100 ,000. That's now a school fund for our daughter, and we got that this past winter time. So we were just over the millionaire mark before we inherited that, but we are blessed that we are able to have that from his parents.

1:48:32Absolutely. That's great. But the point being mathematically you did not become a millionaire because of inherited money correct so how did you do it by 30 um we're very boring so we i thankfully found you relatively young um i was wait a minute that's not boring

1:48:54so i found you when i was graduating i realized i had a bunch of student loan debt and i was trying to find a plan of how to pay that off. I found y 'all and I've just followed your plan ever since. So we're very boring. We invest. We are big savers, actually, both of us. We kind of break the norm. Do you have any fun? Yes, we do. What do you do that's fun? We travel a lot. We buy things that we want when we want them. What's the coolest place you've traveled to? The coolest place we've traveled to. I would say we did a joint trip both to Paris and then to Ireland. That doesn't sound like boring.

1:49:33Yeah, that's fun. No! We got to do Paris when I was pregnant with our first, and then we got to go to Ireland to pick up a great gift for one of my husband's employees, which was such a blessing and a really fun time. Wow, very cool, very cool. So, man, So you have had fun. You've had a life. But by boring, I think you just mean you're intentional. Correct. Well, nothing flashy. You're just investing. I don't know. Paris is pretty flashy. No, no, no. I'm saying like from a wealth building perspective, they're not like, oh, we're going to go do all this like crypto, all this. It's just like we just invest.

1:50:10And that's, you know, the main thing, which is great. Yeah. We live below our means. That's something that we've always done. I never used credit cards growing up. Neither did my husband. What's been your income through this period of time? So our lowest or worst income, I was making about$37 ,000, and my husband was making about$30 ,000. We weren't married at the time, so we were separate. And then our best income year was probably this past year, before I become a stay-at-home mom, at$325 ,000. Oh, nice. And you became millionaires on that by age 30. Yeah. Wow. Correct. Very, very cool. Very cool.

1:50:46What are your careers? My husband's in aviation management, and I'm a geologist who's working to become a stay-at-home mom in the next couple months. That's cool. What do you do as a geologist? I play in the dirt, that's what I like to say. Yeah, that's cool. How many kids do you have? We have one baby girl and a baby boy on the way. Hey, good for you. So great, Ashley. That's awesome. Congratulations. So proud for y 'all. Very, very, very well done. So if we got a 20-something out there listening, what would you tell them? I would say my husband's advice, and he's very adamant about this, is to live below your means.

1:51:21And don't try to be fancy or clever. Be boring. Do the slow things. Invest. Save for your future. Don't try to outsmart the system. There is no outsmarting it. Do the boring things, as I said before. And then my advice would be, I was very thankful that I found you young. I worked seven days a week to pay off my loans and save money. I always thought of it when I was in debt as that I had negative money and that really motivated me to be responsible and work as hard as I could when I was young. Now that I have babies, you know, I want to be home with them and there's more excuses to not work hard.

1:51:57And thankfully we're in a position where we don't have to, I don't have to work seven days a week, but I worked hard young so that I can now reap the reward a little bit older and spend time with my family. You lived like no one else and now you can live and give like no one else. Exactly. It's almost like a plan. I like it. It's awesome, Ashley. Well done. Very well done, Ashley. Excellent, excellent. What kind of car do you drive? I drive a Lexus SUV, and my husband drives a BMW SUV. What year? My husband's, I believe, is a 2021. Mine's a 2005. Oh, you drive a junker. Okay. We're working on upgrading.

1:52:37That will be when baby number two comes. Yeah, you need to. That car sucks. I don't mind what I drive, though. I know. I can tell. It doesn't bother you a bit. It's a great car. Lexuses will run forever. Yeah, apparently. This one has. It's a 20-year-old vehicle. It's a 300 ,000 miles on it. It's a 21-year-old vehicle. It's a fine vehicle. Good for you, Ashley. Good for you. So proud of you. It's excellent. The number of times that somebody's driving a Toyota when they're millionaires, the first one to two million is just scary to me. I don't know what it is about Toyotas, but they're everywhere.

1:53:07And, of course, Lexus is a Toyota, in case you didn't know, folks. But, okay, very cool. Congratulations, Ashley. You're the great American hero, man. Baby Steps Millionaire. Started doing our stuff when they were baby children. I mean, 20 years old, right? And just, like, game on and clean up the student loan mess that they had and work like a crazy person. And make great income. Now she doesn't have to ask the question, can I afford to stay at home? The question doesn't come up. Such a gift, yep. and so they can easily live on his income. They've already got a$1 million net worth by age 30, which, by the way, you can do just a quick predictions.

1:53:44It's fairly easy to say. If they stay just generally on track, it's probably$20 or$25 million when they're 65. That's about where that'll land. So not too shabby. Well done. It's called changing the old family tree right there. So mom and dad left$100 ,000. Well, and they both grew up. But not Ashley. Nope. They both grew up with, they both said, we both never had credit cards. You know what I mean? So the household environment that you're raising your family in, that matters. More is caught than taught, Rachel Cruz says. Yes. They're watching. Yeah, they're going to do what you do. And so financial peace babies do matter.

1:54:24Yeah, it's a big deal. And so she grew up learning this stuff, obviously. And it's a benefit of having for me of having been doing this now for 35 plus years is that I am getting to see second and even third generation of people that have been following this stuff. And the results are astronomical with compound interest and with wisdom parlayed over that many decades. How would you start to see happen? And so, I mean, if you think about Rachel was born in April, we filed bankruptcy. in September, and she's sitting here. You know, I mean, that's the same thing, you know, in a way. And so it's the principles.

1:55:08This is what the principles that we're teaching, God's ways of handling money, do. Because Scripture is God's love letter to you. It's your dad that loves you. He's saying, do it this way. And 100 % of the time, by the way, he's right. And if you disagree with him, 100 % of the time you're known as what's wrong. Okay? So you're just off. This is not going to work. All right. And so even if you're not a person of faith, it doesn't matter. This stuff is just the freaking truth. It works. Okay. Every stinking time. And then when you parlay it out over an extended period of time, you get Ashley. And those things are working hard and being diligent, staying away from debt.

1:55:48Every time debt is mentioned in Scripture, it's in a negative fashion. Exactly. Saving. Yep. Being generous. Always. looking at what you're spending, knowing what you have and managing it well. It's all of it. I mean, it's common sense, right? That's why the gods and grandmas tagline is so true. Yeah, it is. But in a world that, again, she kept saying boring, boring, boring. And I understand what she's saying, because when you go and scroll, you know, where a lot of people are finding their financial advice on social and YouTube and all of it, there's exciting things over here that you can do this and Airbnb and you can do, I mean, it's just, it is like, oh, it's a lot of distraction.

1:56:22And so to just invest and pay off your house in today's terms, that is considered boring. But that's the thing that is tried and true. It's the tortoise. It is just it always it works. It works. Decade after decade.

1:56:52you

1:57:23When you're stuck in a cycle with your money, try, fail, try again.

1:57:46Our scripture of the day, Psalm 111.10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. L. David Marquette said, One of the things that limits our learning is our belief that we already know something. That's fun. Jennifer's on Hartford, Connecticut. Hi, Jennifer. How are you? Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I'm married and I have two children and our family has started the baby step. And we just finished Baby Step 2. The reason I'm calling is because we lost a family member, unfortunately, and that person left us$500 ,000.

1:58:37Wow. Okay, and the person told us verbally that they wanted it to go to our children, and so we are going to honor that. So my question is, should I take... They should have left it to your children. Well, didn't, and we're going to honor that, so they'll get it anyway. They'll get it anyway. So my question is, do I use some of that money to move us through the baby steps because the kids will end up getting everything we own anyway, or do I just keep that separate and say, no, I don't touch that? I would. I would walk it right through the baby steps because that's the way your kids end up getting the most bang for their buck out of the 500K.

1:59:25Assuming you leave it all to them anyway. Yeah. Yeah, because you're past baby step two, Jennifer, right? So it would be baby step three. What would be a fully funded emergency fund for you guys? How much out of the 500 would that be? I would say$20 ,000 out of the 500. And what do you owe on your home? $240 ,000. Okay. And so you've still got$250 ,000 roughly,$240 ,000 left, give or take. And that's to be invested. And, of course, then the home's going to go up in value, which is an investment. And kids are going to be just fine with that. I absolutely would do that. Now, it is incumbent upon you then, because you took a leap forward, regardless of how you took the leap forward, where the money came from.

2:00:13Let's just say you've got a bonus check for that. I still tell you exactly the same thing is my point, to make sure you guys permanently stay out of debt and that you permanently invest for the rest of your lives what would have been a house payment plus more money so that, you know, this becomes millions and millions and millions of dollars in the future. Okay, so you would apply it to the baby steps? Yes, because that's going to be the best deal for your kids. as long as with with the asterisk that you guys are continue to be responsible and continue to invest for all of this to move forward right oh absolutely yeah absolutely we're following the baby steps and i just didn't know um morally is what i'm saying yeah i mean i hear what you're saying morally if the kids are going to get it anyway how can we maximize the money for the kids Correct.

2:01:08The baby steps. How old are your kids, Jennifer? Nine and 13. Okay. Yeah. Now, the other thing is this, okay? I'll just sidebar for a second. I mean, you're fresh in the middle of all this, and you've got all the emotion around and everything. Who passed away? A grandparent. Okay. All right. And so let me tell you what the grandparent did not mean. Okay. They did not mean that one of your children has all kinds of problems later and they're addicted to heroin. And so you hand them a million dollars, which would cause them to overdose and die. That is not what the grandmother meant. And so you're not morally obligated to violate common sense.

2:01:55And with this inheritance process. So I'm just going to extrapolate this way out into the future somewhere. Okay. You're talking about like in 40 years. I'm saying if your 9-year-old is 49 and they're misbehaving and you're going to fund that with his grandmother's money because Granny said 50 years ago that that was a good idea. No, that's not what she meant. Right. She wanted to be a blessing is what she meant. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and being a blessing is not giving money to someone that's misbehaving. So I'm not going to become a control freak over it. I'm not saying that. But I don't want this verbal obligation to go crazy and turn you into some kind of codependent thing 40 years from now either.

2:02:39And I've seen that happen. I don't think that's going to happen, but you're trying to be – you're being very careful to do what Granny said, and that's a good thing. But let's just understand Granny's heart was to be a blessing. It wasn't to the thing. So good question. We appreciate you calling. Very good. Rachel, that goes back to the thing that we've taught for years, and it's good to remind everybody. that money doesn't fix things, it magnifies things. So it magnifies the good and it magnifies the bad. So today that money is a lot of money and it magnifies good because they're working a good plan.

2:03:19She's got a good heart. She's trying to be honorable to her grandmother and so on. And all of that's good. So that good is being magnified by this. and my point is is that sometimes you get out there a few years there's some bad things going on decades later is what you're saying decades later and if you throw money at bad situations it magnifies that too yes so whatever you do money's not good money's not bad it magnifies what's already there in every one of us the bad things in every one of us the good things in every one of us and so if you're a giver and you're generous you get money you become a philanthropist you know if you've got a temper problem and you get money you become a complete rageaholic and a bully, right?

2:03:58If you've got, and so money magnifies, it makes you more of what you already are. It blows that up, yeah. It makes you more of what you already are. That's right. And so, and that's going to be true of granny's money 40 years from today. Yeah. And it's true of granny's money today. And so, what a good question by Jennifer. And it's a, I mean, I would almost put the word dangerous tool in the world. Like you have to be very, very careful with it. I mean, we were just talking about scripture less. there's as many warnings about wealth. Yes. You know what I mean? You've got to be careful with this stuff because it'll mess with you.

2:04:32So the working on the character of who you are is as big of a deal as the money that you're making in your investments. Yeah, it's interesting that the things that can bring you the greatest blessings also have the power. That's right. It's a double-edged sword, right? I mean, you put anything in there. Money, sex, power. Fame, anything. Yes, it's a double-edged sword. Yeah. You've got to be careful. It's going to make you more of what you already are, and you're going to have a problem with it and a blessing from it. So you just got to decide how you're going to walk from that point forward. So, Jennifer, that's a beautiful question, and you're really wise to ask it.

2:05:04You ask it in a very good way, and it's very, very, very, very dialed in. So in the book, The Legacy Journey, which is probably my worst-selling book or one of them, but it's one of my favorites. That was more than enough. It's one of my favorites. More than enough, by far the worst, yeah. It wasn't even close to enough. But the Legacy Journey, we talk a lot about wealth and through the lens of Scripture. It's the only book I did that's uniquely Christian. If you're not a Christian and you read it, you're going, who is this guy? But yeah, because it's all Scripture and it's all laid out. Exactly the warnings on wealth are all in there.

2:05:41And we talk about, is it okay to be wealthy from a spiritual standpoint? And part of that is is that those of us that are people of faith that are believers we understand we don't own it We're just managing it And so I just manage more than somebody else manages that's all wealth is and so but if you if you actually Feel if you take the heart position of I own it Then that's where wealth really can start to screw with you from a spiritual perspective Start to mess you up And so but certainly we know that rich people are all not going to hell that is not a scriptural thing that's a toxic version it's people trying to teach theology on tiktok never get your theology from tiktok that's a bad idea matter of fact you probably shouldn't get anything from tiktok including us but we're there and so um yeah so i mean that but if you want to learn more about that kind of stuff and look at the lens of that is it okay because sometimes people are worried about becoming wealthy uh like they did something wrong because there's a portion of our culture that wants to yell at you the socialists and so forth that you did something wrong.

2:06:45And you didn't do anything wrong. You just helped a lot of people. That's the only way you get money. That's the only way it works. So good show, Rachel. Well done. That puts us our other Ramsey show in the books. Well done, Booth people. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.

2:07:14Thank you.