How Far Are You Willing To Go To Win?

25:01Dave Ramsey:Slow your butt down and both of you be involved. And the two of you need to be looking at your monthly budget, and the two of you need to be leaning into getting this cleaned up. All of your verbiage has been, I'm the only adult in this conversation, and I'm dragging this little boy along with me. That's your verbiage. That's what it feels like. Yeah. And that's got to stop because you're not going to win financially doing that. All of our data points of all the millionaires we've studied, all the people that are successful in their marriage, all the people that are successful with their money are teams.

25:36Dave Ramsey:They work together. They respect each other and they make deals with each other and they keep their word. And they don't cop out with incompetence or direct conflict against the goals that we have agreed to. But you guys are not on the same page. and so right boy child is going to have to man up and you're going to have to get used to other people speaking into this other than just you the two of you together got to look at this and go this is a freaking mess and together we're going to clean this freaking mess up and then if you take that set of principles and apply them to this mess then it's going to sound like well let's look at 14 different ways we can get rid of this stupid butt car because we got screwed you let it happen both of you you by sending him over there him by being asleep at the wheel in a coma and a car dealer's finance office which is a good place to get screwed and and you know both of you together watch this happen and then the car dealer just that you know if you ask an alligator if it's hungry it's going to say yeah and so guess what that's what they're going to do so that that's you know now you've got to figure out how to get how am i going to get out of this the two of you got to sit down and go yeah okay we're going to go to 14 dealers we're going to analyze this car We're going to get this car sold.

26:51And we're going to get a freaking hoopty, a$2 ,000 car.

26:56Dave Ramsey:And we're going to roll up our sleeves. Everybody's taking extra jobs. We're not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless we're working there. We're not going on vacation. All that money you piled over there to buy your fishing boat is going to go to clean this dadgum mess up. Whatever it is, you've got to scrape all this money in the middle of the table, clean out the nickels out of the corner of the couch, and get the mess cleaned up as a team. but until you team up you're not gonna win you're not it's gonna happen over and over because it sabotages the progress that you make that's why one person people ask us all the time how can i do this without with my spouse's approval or involvement you can't yeah it's tough yeah that's where it is and so i'm sorry i'm sorry you guys are in the middle of this mess but that's your answer how to fix it and this relational dysfunction yes and that'll fix the overall thing because resentment's going to start to build if it hasn't already maria so honestly like that's um for him to come to the table and have a seat at the table and actually have an opinion and you listening to it responsibility and responsibility all of it his involvement and vice versa with you i'm like that's that's part of it but i'd be pissed too so i think I don't blame you.

28:10I get it.

28:11Dave Ramsey:That part of it's true. I'll go with you on that. Dave is in Fort Lauderdale. Hey, Dave, what's up? Hey, how are you doing? I've got an issue with the bank. I went to apply for a cash-out mortgage because I had a mild surgery, and I wanted to pay that off. Did you not have insurance? I have Medicare. Okay, so how much is your out-of-pocket with Medicare on the surgery? My out-of-pocket was about$7 ,000,$8 ,000. Okay, and you don't have any money. No, it's not that I don't have any money, but I didn't want to have to use my monthly expense because everything that I own, I pay for every month. I don't have a car payment.

29:06I have a car, but I don't have a car. How much money do you have? I have my assets of about$165 ,000.

29:16Dave Ramsey:Okay. Just pay off your medical debt. You don't have that in cash, though, Dave, do you? No. Okay, what do you have in cash? What's it in? Assets. I think a house and car and stuff. Dave, how much money do you have in the bank, cash, available to you? In the bank right now, about two. And monthly expense, I have a total left over, to get to the end of the month, about$1 ,500. $1 ,500. Okay, do you have any money that you can get your hands on that's in investments? Or anything you can sell?

29:52No, not right now, no.

29:53Dave Ramsey:Okay, what's the$165 ,000 in? It's the place that I own. The home that you own and your paid-for car? Yep. Okay. So you have$1 ,500. How old are you? In my 70s. Okay. How old are you exactly? 77. Thank you. And how is your health now that you've had the surgery? It's great. Good. I'm glad. Okay. And what is your monthly income? It's about$2 ,600. wheels. Okay. All right. The first thing I'm going to do is go revisit that inventory and see if there's anything other than the house and the car that I can sell to pay this debt down. The second thing I'm going to do is I'm going to call the medical people and say, I don't have any money.

30:47Dave Ramsey:This is a Medicare deal. I don't have any cash. What kind of a deal can you offer me on this? And see if you can get a discount. And if you can, I'd scrape together the money at barely out of your monthly, which your monthly is really tight. I agree with that. But I do my best not to borrow on the cash out. I don't want you to go back in debt at 77. You finally got out.

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32:46Dave Ramsey:Sarah is with us in Fort Collins, Colorado. Hi, Sarah. How are you? I'm good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I wanted to ask, how do I get comfortable investing for the future when the future itself just feels so uncertain? What do you mean? um and i know this is a bad like comparison or example but um you know there's just so much negativity on social media and um and i see so many things that like socialism is making such a push and and climate change is is you know risking our future it sometimes feels pointless to have this big chunk of money in the future when it just feels like I'm just really anxious about it and so uncertain about what the future uh 36 okay cool all right Sarah as a fellow conspiracy theorist fan I would tell you though I'd get off I'd get off social media I'm not kidding you for six months you need to go you need to go on a fast don't engage it and it is amazing the news sites too anything i mean i'm telling you and that's not putting your head in the sand right if you need to know something you need to know something but to sit there and worry about something you cannot control it's it it does no good it really it really doesn't and we were not even i don't think created to hold everything that we see on social media right whether it's different murder trials going on to to things happening across the globe like i'm like it's just it's it's a lot and so dr deloney talks about john he said your body was not that your body was designed to learn about danger within your circumference not someone that got murdered in japan but if someone got murdered in japan we all heard about it 20 minutes ago you know i mean it's amazing because of the inputs and it's and it's fast and it's frequent and it's everything so every possible negative thing or potential negative thing or hyped up drama negative thing is going to be pushed out.

35:03Dave Ramsey:And of course, those of us in that business and around those people all the time, we know that if it bleeds, it leads. We know that these people basically, a lot of these sites are basically fear porn. Well, it's clickbait. They have to get their clicks. And so it is going to be... They're driving fear. And it's going to be extreme on both sides of the... Even if you look politically, on both sides of the spectrum. It's extreme. And when you honestly, I mean, really, Sarah, when you talk to everyday people, most people are in the middle on all different types of, like it is more hopeful, genuinely.

35:40It is more hopeful.

35:41Dave Ramsey:Regardless of where you stand on climate change, we can all agree that in 2006, the inconvenient truth that Al Gore put out was absolutely bogus because he claimed that Miami would be underwater by now, and obviously it's not. right so i mean so in both in both extremes yeah that's you know regardless of what you believe about climate change you just have to observe actual facts so anyway uh yeah the reason i asked how old you are is because about the time i was your age or so a guy came out with a book called 88 reasons jesus is coming back in 1988 oh man people are obsessed with the rapture i feel like the end of the world it's the christian conspiracy theory market okay it's the 90s So the Bible's real clear that we're not going to know the date of the time, but this guy did.

36:27Dave Ramsey:Okay. And he was sitting on his houseboat waiting on the exact date that Jesus was supposed to return. I guess he's still sitting there. I don't know. Because it still didn't happen. So, you know, and so. But your point is you can't. Dale Carnegie used to say 80 % of what we worry about never occurs. And the other 20 % we don't have any control over. And so I'm going to go ahead with my life. I know there's some things out there that are actual facts. I know there's a whole bunch of it that's dramified. and upsold and Miami's not going to be underwater. I'm pretty sure, pretty sure in my lifetime, we can still go down there and swim off the beach.

37:04Dave Ramsey:And so, um, you know, that kind of stuff, right? So I'm pretty sure we're going to be okay. I'm pretty sure socialists aren't going to take over, uh, because as soon as people figure out what that is, they don't want it. Um, it sucks and there's no track record on it. So I'm really not worried about it. People got good common sense. And, and, and again, you, I mean, we're, we're. And even if it did, probably not in your lifetime. Well, let me tell you this, Sarah, we're watching, Tom Hanks has a World War II documentary. It's like, oh my God, we're in the middle of it. Winston and I are watching like a few episodes tonight.

37:32It's so good.

37:33Dave Ramsey:It's good. Could you imagine telling the greatest generation that like, we're, like, think about living then. That's more like into the world. Like, you, you watch that. Yeah, you're looking out your back window for Japanese airplanes. That, that feels into the world to me, you know? And so you can go into different parts of history and you would think what this specific generation is going through. They taught us to hide under desks in the 60s in case there was an atomic bomb, as if a desk would protect you from an atomic bomb. I've always thought that was the dumbest, but that's as dumb as wearing a mask during COVID.

38:05Dave Ramsey:Okay, okay. I mean, it's just as dumb. And so, you know, God almighty, there's no chance. So anyway, the thing's fun. Anyway, Sarah, the answer is it's human hope versus human anxiety. And so what are you placing your hope in? What do you really believe? And I really believe that God has not got that as our plan. I suspect before this thing comes to an end that I'll be on my houseboat waiting on Jesus to come back. Yeah. Well, just, yeah. I this is a flippant answer but it's also the only one I've got but the real thing is going to plan my life around all the negative things bringing the world to an end yes and the sources at which we're getting this information have a reason on why they are having certain headlines they're leaning a certain way they know their audience and they feed their audience what they want to hear I mean it's just it's a game the media it is I'm like it's just this massive game and so It's called provocateur.

39:06Just choose not to engage. I mean, for real, do a six-month social media fast. I don't have a supply of water.

39:15Dave Ramsey:I don't have a supply of food. I do have a supply of bullets for the zombies. Okay. Oh, my gosh. But other than that. Jeez. This is the most. The zombie apocalypse. I'm ready. I've got to clip this whole segment out. But not because. I just don't know what the zombies are going to look like yet. Well, I did think about stashing some, I don't know. Y2K. Y2K? Remember Y2K? You had water for Y2K? We had bottled water. Yes, you did. I was joking with one of my buddies. He said, I've got more water than you. And I said, do you have a gun? And he said, no. I said, good. I got your water. Why do we have to keep going back?

39:48Why do we have to keep going back to that?

39:51Dave Ramsey:Because it's how it works. I'm not worried about it. It's fun. Enjoy the ride. Sarah, there's not a perfect answer. It's human. There's always going to be things that are awesome and always going to be things that are troubling. And the good news is, if you think about it overall, here's the actual truth. Today, if you are alive in the United States of America, you are alive at the best possible time in the history of the world. your standard of living, your medical care, your quality of life, your hours worked, the way your children are treated is better than at any point in human history in any physical location.

40:37Dave Ramsey:These are the good times. We live in the middle of them. The stock market is setting records. People are becoming millionaires faster than some of them learn to spell millionaire These are the good times if you want to start a business right now You can just start a business When I started this business almost 40 years ago, the internet wasn't even there Much less apps much less I AI much less anything else I can just I can just have an idea and deliver it to you folks by morning And i'm a boomer for god's sakes What could you millennials do? This is the best time to be alive, but you know what will kill you?

41:21Dave Ramsey:Hope deferred, stolen, put off. That's deferred. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. But when desire comes, it is the tree of life. And so when we have this sense of hope, it drives our belief system, and it causes us to do things that cause our dreams to come true. When we've lost our hope and we're frozen and our hope is stolen by these fear porn sites or by bad inputs from Tic Tac or whatever, then we act on that lack of hope which guarantees that our nightmares come true. And we miss the wave of existing in the greatest time, in the greatest location, the United States of America, in the history of the world.

42:15Wow.

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43:39Dave Ramsey:Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz. Ramsey personality is my co-host. This hour, we're going to devote to one of my favorite topics. And most people, one of their favorites to talk about around the water fountain over the kitchen table. With one of our favorite people. With one of our favorite people. He's back. Real estate. Brian Buffini, America's real estate coach. He and his team coach more real estate agents than any other company in America at Buffini & Company. Brian's been a friend for many years. He speaks at our Entree Leadership Conferences.

44:15Dave Ramsey:I've spoken at his conferences. And he was on here a few months ago. And about all we were sure of was we were going to do that again. Welcome back, Brian. Glad to be back. Love being here with you guys. It's good to have you, sir. So I want to talk real estate this hour together. And towards the end of the hour, guys, we're going to open up the phones and clear off the phone lines. to take some questions from some of you. Brian's one of the leading experts on real estate. So this whole thing of you and I and this doing a segment on real estate kind of happened when we were having a discussion over the golf course one day.

44:50Dave Ramsey:And you said, well, there's inventory shortages. And I went, well, yeah, there's been inventory shortages for 20 or 25 years. And anytime there's a shortage of something, the price goes up, no duh. And you said, well, there's some things the president could do. And I went, oh, don't tell me that. I don't want to depend on Washington to do anything. Well, one thing we could do, you said, is we could keep the large institutions from buying tens of thousands of homes and taking them off the market and turning them into rental houses. That's one problem. One thing we could do is a lot of the boomers would like to sell and move down, but they've got over a half a million dollars in equity, anything over a half a million dollars in equity.

45:27Dave Ramsey:And that's a 30-year-old wall. That's how old that number is. should have been updated and hasn't been indexed for inflation or anything else. We could remove the capital gains tax on home personal residences and a bunch of people put their house up for sale because they could get that money out tax-free, move down, and that would help add to the inventory. And that was a couple of things we talked about. I talked about them on the air right after that, and lo and behold, the president put out a – I'm not saying it came from us, but he did call us right after that and I want us to talk about it to get the bill through.

46:01Dave Ramsey:Um, and that did actually happen the road to housing act. And then when it did come through, he didn't want to sign it because they filled it full of pork, uh, as they always do. Uh, and so, um, that's what happens when you're in DC, but so that the road to housing act, I want to start with that. Um, I'm going to take part of the credit with Brian Buffini for having, uh, at least a sparked an idea in Washington because what it was supposed to do, the primary thing was to keep these institutional buyers from buying the houses, getting them off the market. Yep. And it did some of that for sure. It was definitely watered down, right?

46:35It wasn't a nothing burger, but it wasn't the bill we were hoping for. They have eased some, they've eased the restraints for local communities to be able to help build more homes. That's a big deal. That is a big deal. California didn't listen. Thanks, bud. You know, it's 72 degrees there today. I got bad taxes and I can't build a house, but it's 72. That's what I'm hanging on to. But I'll just say, now I will say that they didn't get the cap gains thing done. No. They did get a restriction on the big companies. And what's happening, these companies who bought for two years, they bought 25 % of all homes in America.

47:10They are now trying to divest themselves. So what they're doing is leasing out these homes. And now they've come out with incentive programs. Okay, we'll lease you the house. And we'll give you a credit towards buying it if you buy it. Because they're trying to get out of it. So for someone trying to create a down payment, the market rate, because rents have come down. So typically when they do a lease option, there's a premium on the lease. They charge more for the lease on the home, and then you get a credit for a down payment. Well, you kind of paid extra for that. Now what's happened is because the rents have come down across the board, they're being forced to rent these new homes, but they're giving credits to people who say, if you sign a one-year lease or an 18-monthly-year lease, we'll give you$10 ,000 towards the down payment, and then you buy it from us.

47:51Dave Ramsey:But the economics are forcing that, not this bill. No, no, that's not the bill. Because the bill didn't cause them to divest. No. It just stopped them from buying a fourth of the houses on your street. So now because they're these big Blackstones and whatever else, they're like, I can't buy more. Well, I'm going to get rid of what I have. So they're going to slowly get rid of what they have. The second thing is. That's an unintended consequence. I didn't see that coming. No, it's good. And the next thing that's happening is the midterms are coming. All real estate is local and all politics are too.

48:19So now they're actually talking about actually doing an executive order in the next couple of weeks on the capital gains thing that didn't get put through the first time.

48:27Dave Ramsey:Really? So - Can you do an executive order on taxes? Ah, you know, so the way you do it is you put it into the reconciliation bill. You don't make it a permanent change to the tax laws. You follow? Oh, not as always. So it's not a permanent thing. So what it could do now, the downside, it could create a shock of people going, I'm going to get my money. So - Yeah, right quick. $250 per person,$500 ,000 for a couple, put in - Today. Yeah, that's today. That started in 1997. They're talking about moving it to a million, okay? Now, if it was indexed for inflation, it'd be$620 ,000 each. But if it's a million, how motivated do you think then boomers would be to downsize?

49:01Here's the thing. So now you're going, I have a rental property. I have a vacation home. I'm in a big house that I don't need anymore.

49:07Dave Ramsey:Not just personal residence, everything. Everything. And so now it's like, here's what I'm doing. I'm going to put it down. I was only going to get a$500 ,000 drop. Now I'm going to get a million dollar drop. And here's the gift. And here's the hope for the folks out there. No, if it's a rental house, it's a million dollars versus nothing. Yeah. Yeah. And so now what you're looking at is a potential of getting that discount. Again, it'll go year by year. So it's a reconciliation bill. I think it'll soften prices because I'm like, hey, I'll take 50 grand off my price if I can be assured of the 950.

49:38But I don't have to pay the taxes on that. Yep. You know, so they're looking at doing that in the next reconciliation bill. I just got a call on that today.

49:45Dave Ramsey:Okay. If that actually happens, even if it's temporary, if you put a million dollars on the houses that I own that are rentals and I've got a million dollars worth of gain, I'll sell them. Yeah. Well, that's what they're trying to do because they know they've got a big problem on their hands. Yes. And young people can't buy homes. They're feeling disconsolate. You were on, what was it, June of this year with us? Yeah. We were on, okay, so it's been a few months. Has anything big shifted even in the last 90 days? It's gotten worse. Has it? Well, you're a lot of sunshine. Yeah, there you go. Yep, here's the heart.

50:22Piped a little Irish sunshine in here. Hey, I'm from a land whose number one export is alcohol, okay? That's the reason. Okay, what are a couple of those points? And we'll probably dig into them more in the segments, but I'm just curious. So what we're seeing is this increase in under 30s living at home. Yeah, going back. It's gone from 39 % up to 49 % of people under 30, you know? In 90 days? No, no, no. So that's in the last six years, but that's gone up three points this summer. So kids are coming out of college who normally would graduate and get a job and stay at the college town. They all moved home.

50:53Yep. So this year we've seen a higher percentage of these college kids who got graduated came back home and didn't go. Well, and this is not speaking for all Gen Z by any means, but there was a clip going around viral of this girl. She was probably 24 and she is just having a cow in her car about how she is not getting a$150 ,000 offer for these jobs and on and on and on and on and on. People are reacting like, you're basically two years out of college. No, you're not going to be making that. So all but to say, they have this belief of still, some of them, of what they should be making slash what my life should look like.

51:24And then reality hits. And it's like, no, you're making 65, 50. A buddy of mine sent his son over for an interview at the company. Now, I don't interview people. But comes along, the kid goes, I want in my contract an offer for an executive position within two years. And that's what his professor told him. And I said, I got room in the mail room.

51:46I don't know where to start yet

51:47Dave Ramsey:You know what a mop looks like? Wow It's hard, yep Not making the incomes they think And then they try to get in the housing market, they can't Rentals are up, yep Brian Buffini is with us, we're talking real estate I think it's going to be a sociology lesson When we're done This is The Ramsey Show

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53:43Dave Ramsey:Like so many things in life, there's a lot of things you can't control, and the world of real estate is one of them. So how do you function in this environment? Well, we're talking with Brian Buffini today, one of the nation's leading experts and leading coaches on real estate issues. I will tell you this. You control the controllables. Anytime you're facing something that feels out of control, First thing is facts are your friends, not feelings. So this sense that you've been boxed out or it's unfair or all these little childish things that we all feel when we feel disenfranchised. Yeah, well, that's feelings.

54:21Dave Ramsey:Okay, so you have to back up from that and go, okay, but what are the facts? And what are the things I can actually control? Well, the facts are that the typical entry home, if you take out California and New York, is about$199 ,000 right now. That's the typical starter home in America. And the typical starter home in America is not fancy and has never been fancy. Even when my first home was purchased, when my parents purchased their first home, they weren't fancy. and so one of the controllables is you adjust your expectations yes for your first home i will because you're not going to buy a 4 000 square foot with a jacuzzi and a skylight you're broke okay yes but for real though so brian what are you seeing the typical i i have not seen that two hundred thousand dollar that's a zillow number which i don't trust zillow that much but it's a what would you say for the average star family because i mean i would i mean i look up homes So the average home in America is about$428.

55:24I think it's good to take out the two coasts, right? I mean, because I live in San Diego. It changes the math. It does. I agree. I agree. So I think you're looking at the latest numbers. And Zillow, again, they're not friends of Brian Maffini. So they position numbers because they have certain programs going, right? So you're probably looking at your typical starter home is about$290. It might be about$100 ,000 more. The dynamic that we're seeing is this. there's more inventory than we've seen in the last seven years. Okay? There's more houses for sale, which means prices are starting to soften.

55:57Prices are starting to flatten. This is the time, and you guys were talking earlier on about the lady listening to social media. If you're a buyer and you're listening to social media, there is no hope. Give up. Everybody's giving up. That's the thing to do. Rent is your friend. The math's not mathing. And that's not true. Now is the time to be making sure you're doing the Ramsey program. You're saving the money. You're eating spaghetti. Okay? You're doing it. Because if you really want a house, you've got to sacrifice. Get out of debt.

56:20Dave Ramsey:Don't buy a car. Have your emergency fund. Don't buy a car payment. Just so you know, every first-time buyer buys a car. They buy a car before they buy a hoot. Why can't I get a house? I have a$1 ,200 car payment. Right. And that is why. That is the typical thing. So you've got to keep grinding. The second thing, there is dynamics out there. I was talking to you guys offline. 23 % of all mortgages in the United States are assumable. Now, they're specifically, they're FHA and VA. And you were on the radio a few months ago talking about this. No, I screwed that up about two weeks ago. I said they're not assumable, and I got hammered for it because I was wrong.

56:52Well, you were right and you were wrong. You were right when it comes to conventional. Conventional loans are not assumable.

56:58Dave Ramsey:None of them are. They used to none of them be assumable with rates, but you can take an FHA or a VA and they'll keep the rates. So here's the thing. If you're a military person, you go to the listing and say, find me as someone who's in the military selling their home, and you can take over. The average loan on an FHA, VA is 3.2%. FHA, which is the number one first-time buyer home. So let's say someone's a first-time buyer. They bought a home. They fixed it up. It's worth more. It's gone up in value. They're going on to buy a conventional house. They're going to get a conventional loan. The FHA loan that's on their house is assumable.

57:29You've got to qualify so you have good credit or you've got the down payment. You're clean. You're good. You've got no stupid car payment. You can go get an assumable loan on a VA or an FHA loan.

57:41Dave Ramsey:And you're not paying the current 5.6 % on a 15-year fixed. You're getting a 3%. Right. And 90 % of them are getting a 6.8, Dave. Most of them are getting 30 years. I mean, your plan is better. It's right. It's the only way to save money. But the typical buyer - Right, is out there doing that, yeah. It's 6.8. And I think for the first-time homebuyers, we're just running numbers in the break. If you make 100 grand, which is a little bit up than what the average or what the median household income is, your starter home is going to be around that 270, 300, which is, you know that's around what you're saying even that that's correct right that should be your first but it's going to take longer yeah to save and if that 270 300 000 house is not in the neighborhood you want good school district right if you have kids like all of it it's gonna it's going to take you longer and i feel like that's one of the most frustrating it might take you longer to drive to work yeah because you might move three counties out or two counties out my first home was on Texas Street in San Diego.

58:41And we were three weeks married, moved into the new home. And Beverly goes, what are those fireworks I hear in the distance? They weren't fireworks. It's just, yeah, they're celebrating here in inner city San Diego. But you know what? We fixed it up. We made it worth more. We sold that house and I got it to another neighborhood that didn't have fireworks, right? Yes, yes. So, you know, you got to start somewhere. You got to fight, the perspective. Bite, scratch, and claw. You got to fight. I'll just say this. The average homeowner has 46 times the net worth of the average renter. Young people are deciding to stay renters.

59:17That's a way to stay broke. Fight, bite, scratch, and claw. I was showing you guys, people like, here's this little graph for those of you who can see it. Look at this thing. The green is the amount of years in the last 75 years that real estate went up. Okay. And here's the red. And the red, four of them, five of them were the great recession. So it's gone down six years in 75. That's a pretty good investment. So it's not going anywhere. Now, the beautiful thing for people, it's only going to go up gradually the next few years, and the incomes are going up at a higher rate. Even more, which is great, yes.

59:47So get fight, bite, scratch and claw.

59:48Dave Ramsey:So currently, the current inflation rate of real estate nationwide is around 1%. Yep. Yep. And the current wage growth is around three and a half. Three and a half. Okay. Give it four years. So if you say wages don't match real estate prices, that's going in the right direction. Yes, which is great. That's going to help the issue. Yes, that's a very helpful thing. But it's not going to change if you have unrealistic expectations to get an executive position in the first two years in your contract. And get an executive house. Yes. If you want a 5 ,000 square foot home in a premium neighborhood, you can't afford that if you make$80 ,000 a year.

1:00:25Right, right. Right. And I think that that's the hard part is when the rubber meets the road and you're looking at your income, you're working hard, right? You're paying for daycare. I mean, like we get these callers in and they are trying so hard to do well. And when the facts come out, yes, your feelings are going to fall. It's going to be frustrating. We're like, man, this is less than what we were expecting, right? And so there's that reality that you have to live in for a bit. And then once you kind of get over that hump, right, of what you're saying, you fight hard. get in the market and then you could look up in four years and be in a totally different place with your income your job your house everything i told him i was a house painter right my dad was a house painter and my first house i told my wife it was five star accommodations because you could see five stars through the hole in the roof yeah and so we fixed it up we made it better right right and then we sold it and we made the next one better and we made the next one better and the next thing you know you wake up one day and you've got millions of dollars in equity in real estate And that's the American dream.

1:01:23But to get there, what you're saying is the plan. Like if you still have student loan payments, you still have two car payments and credit card debt, it is going to feel almost impossible to try to be a homeowner today. You don't. You get that stuff cleaned up.

1:01:34Dave Ramsey:That's right. And that's what we say. You shouldn't buy a home if you're in that mess. That's right. You should clean the mess up first because the home's not going to be a blessing. It's going to be a curse. So you get out of debt. You build your full of emergency fund. You save for a good down payment. You adjust your expectations of location. And generally, that means you're going to go a little bit further out. And the further out you go, the more house you can buy in most markets. One out of every 10 homes in America is sold to my clients. We tell every member we have in the real estate business to get every first-time buyer, buy them a copy of Total Money Makeover.

1:02:09I was walking my son through the building today, and I go, I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of copies of that book I've sold. Because, and why am I here today, apart from our friendship, is it's the best stuff out there to get people on the path. And in the modern world, Dave is old school and chew your credit cards up. Let me tell you that old school works today, tomorrow, 50 years from now. Get out of debt, get the student loans gone, drive the old car, buy something to park it in front of.

1:02:36Dave Ramsey:Yep. Now, when you do that, okay, so if you're sitting there and you clear your debt and then you get ready to buy a house and you go look at what you can afford and you don't like it. Now, you've got two choices. Remain a renter or buy that home that's not fancy that I don't like and get started. Ten years from now, which will be the best route for your wealth building and your family? Buy the house that you don't like. For sure. That's what you're saying. I used to send out a postcard to neighborhoods and says, your landlord says hi and thanks again for paying his mortgage.

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1:05:25Dave Ramsey:Brian Buffini is our guest, America's number one real estate coach to real estate agents, but also a real estate expert, good friend of ours. And we're talking real estate this hour. Now, we're going to take some of your questions in the next segment if you want to call in 888-825-5225 and ask Brian a question. So here's some of the ones that have already come in, Brian. Should I wait for rates to come down before I buy? I heard in the previous section you were talking about the guy who knew when Jesus was coming back and he was sitting on his boat. Yeah. That's like the buyer waiting for rates to come down.

1:06:04okay so you know if if you know when rates are coming down you give me a call you let me know i don't think anything's going to change for a long time because of the amount of debt the country has the rates are built off the treasury bills the treasury bills are who the government is borrowing money from countries institutions i have t-bills and they've guaranteed to pay me a certain amount. The 10-year treasury is what sets the market. And so you take the 10-year treasury, you add 2%, and you'll get a 30-year mortgage. So like right now, it's 4.6. And so you're going to go and get a mortgage.

1:06:41A 30-year mortgage would be 6.8, and a 15 is 5.7. So if you wait, I'll say this. I have never had anybody in my real estate career say this, ever. I'm glad I waited. What the typical thing is, man, I could have bought that house down in Cool Springs for 300 grand and a packet of peanuts. And now it's worth a million, you know? And I didn't. And that's all you ever hear. You hear stories of regret. Never have I heard anybody happy they waited.

1:07:08Dave Ramsey:Is renting forever a viable option? And can I still build wealth without buying a home? I'll jump in on this with you. Okay. So, of course it is. You know, living in your car is an option too. So you can rent. It's just when the number says the number one source of wealth in the United States is a private residence, and that the average homeowner has 46 times the net worth of a renter. The numbers are in your favor. Can you go do it on the market? Can you invest in stocks? For sure you can. You can do all that stuff. It's just a lot harder and not as stable. When we did the largest study of millionaires in America ever done, 89 % of them did it on their own without inheritance, nine out of 10.

1:07:55Dave Ramsey:We found over and over and over again, two things. One is they'd loaded up their 401k and it had built up to a substantial amount. And the second one is they bought a home, paid it off. Yep. And so we're talking to a guy with a gal with a million and a half dollar net worth. They got a$600 ,000 paid for house and, um, you know, they got seven, 800 ,000, 900 ,000 in their 401k. And that's, that's the typical millionaire in America today. The first place you're, the place you get your first one to five million is investing in your 401k steadily and getting a home and getting it paid off. So they, and a hundred percent of the time those houses have gone up.

1:08:33Dave Ramsey:Yeah. And a hundred percent of the time the next door neighbor renting his rent went up. Yeah. Sure. So the math works against you when you're a renter. You have no control. Yeah. Now that doesn't mean you don't need to rent until you get yourself out of debt and get your emergency fund and get rid of your student loan and all that. You do all of that for rent, but renting for 30 years is a dumb idea. Really mathematically dumb. And rent less than you can afford. What should I actually prioritize when buying my first home? A yard versus square footage versus older versus newer? Home itself versus the neighborhood?

1:09:07Well, again, it's boring. I wish I had something sexy. Location, location, location. I always bought the worst home on the best street. So I buy as much location as I can afford, and then I go put in the sweat equity to make it better. To do the upgrades and everything, yep. Fight it. You know, like I understand the home builders. They do a great job and it's sexy and they got muffins in the oven and you come through and you drink juice and they got this and they got the designers and whatever else. You want to buy the ugly duckling in the best neighborhood you can afford and fight bite and scratch and claw to get it improved.

1:09:40Because that is, I mean, that's the common sense. I feel like I don't know a ton about all this, but that is the you never want to buy top of the neighborhood. You always want to buy in the low. I mean, that is the common sense rule. So do not forget that if you are looking. Yep. I used to have people say, well, I want to have, you know, I want to buy a house on the ocean and I got a budget for the mountain. You know what I mean? And I said, well, here's my advice. No, I want, I have to have 5 ,000 square feet. Well, I would say, just keep driving south until you can afford something because it's Mexico down there.

1:10:13Okay. So just keep driving south. You'll be able to afford something soon. From California.

1:10:19Dave Ramsey:So good. That's great. Should I buy or sell by owner to save on commission fees? Oh. Oh, we love this one. Just toss that one up to the real estate coach. Both of us could chew on this one. I'll gnaw on the leg. Yeah. Well, I'll start with this. The average number for sale by owners for 30 years was 12%, and 50 % of those were inter-family transfers. Last year, with all the technology and all the Zillow and all the demand, the average for sale by owner was 4 % of all sales, and 80 % of those were inter-family transfers. What's an inter-family transfer? You call a lawyer, not a realtor. And the second dynamic is the average real estate agent gets 14 % higher sales price than a for sale by owner.

1:11:05And they cost six.

1:11:07Dave Ramsey:Yeah. The average real estate commission in America is six. and they get an average of 14 % more for the house, so you didn't save the commission. No. Here's the thing. I can change the oil on my Mercedes too, but it would cost me more in spilling on the driveway and getting it on my clothes than it would be getting it done in a jiffy loop. So, yeah, it's better. Let's add to that question too because I had this call the other day I'll tell you about, but how should someone analyze when – If they've got three different realtors or four different realtors that they're interviewing, real estate agents, how should they analyze which one to pick?

1:11:47Well, I always start with a referral, right? That's my base. It's like someone who's a trusted source, right? You have Ramsey Trusted is the name of your system. You've got to find a referral, someone who's trusted. The next thing is what's their experience? Okay. How many homes you saw last year? This will stagger you.

1:12:04Dave Ramsey:This is mind-blowing. Okay. 64 % of all real estate agents have not sold a home this year. Now, you know, that is not who you want to be working with. And, you know, this used to be an 80-20 business. It's become a 85-15. It's heading to a 90-10 business. We had 1.6 million members of the National Association of Realtors two years ago. And by January of next year, by January of 28, it'll be 1 million. So 600 ,000 people are out. And that's because people got in. Oh, real estate. I love houses. I love people. This looks great. It's so easy. I'm a frustrated decorator. Okay, good luck with that.

1:12:43Real estate is hard. It's a hell of a lot of work. If it's an up at dawn, down at dusk siege, you have to fight through everything.

1:12:49Dave Ramsey:You work when others don't. Yeah, evenings and weekends. And you sell 50 to 300 houses a year, and then you're qualified to list my house. What does a top agent, like if you are interviewing, what's a number that they would say, this is how many houses I sold this year that you're like, oh, that's a, okay, that feels like a good. It depends on the average sales price. So if I'm in California, if someone's selling 20 homes a year, their average sales price is$2.5 million, right? But I'd say, you know, for me, I think they got to be above the 25 transaction threshold across the board. You guys have an even higher threshold for Ramsey Trusted, which is fantastic.

1:13:20Bottom line is they got to be a pro. They got to come with references and they got to tell you, here's who I work with and here's what I've done. And you get a real pro. Like, when you get a real pro, you get to sit in the back of the car and they drive you to the airport. and it's done for you. And there's no legal afterbite. There's no disclosure problems. When you sell the house, the house is actually sold. You sell the house by yourself. It's not permanently sold. They can come back after you. If you don't cross the T's and dot the I's, it's a big deal. All the title insurance, everything.

1:13:47Yep. That's good. I love it. I love it. How about this question? Okay. How often should I check my homeowner's insurance, the coverage amount? How often would you recheck that? Well, I mean, Dave will go berserk on this because he's right. I mean, it's just all the time. You know, right now, California, for example, yesterday, they have what's called a California Fair Plan, which is like a subsidized government freaking insurance policy, and they just went up 29 % one day. Oh, my gosh. Okay? So you got to be shopping all the time. You got to be looking. Same thing. You got to look. I would say every 90 days now.

1:14:22Dave Ramsey:So if you live on the coasts. The idea of the California Socialized Homeowners Insurance Program just went up 29%. Right. Because that's what it is. Yes, sir. Yeah. Those of us who grew up in Europe and have experienced socialism don't understand why y 'all Americans are playing footsie with that stuff. Wow. Ron Buffini is with us, number one real estate coach and real estate expert. We're going to take your calls and a few more of our questions in this last segment of this hour coming up.

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1:16:34Dave Ramsey:Brian Buffini is with us as well this hour as we're talking real estate. Before we jump to the phones, I want to throw in one other thing right quick. We've noticed and we've talked about on the air here several times in the past two years. We've begun noticing, and we didn't make the connection initially, the percentage of folks that are living together not married versus married. And if you didn't know, more people live together in America not married than live together married. And that number has been that way for about almost 10 years now. That number crossed about a decade ago. But what we're seeing is that that's hampering the data is in now from that because it's been going on long enough.

1:17:22Dave Ramsey:That's hampering people's ability to build wealth. And we're also seeing in Brian's numbers that it's affecting or I can't tell if it's cause or effect, really, in these numbers. But it's also showing up in these housing numbers. So the percentage of people buying a home that are married is down. Dramatically. But the percentage of people that are married is down. Right. Yep. And so the people that have a double income to buy a home together is down because two singles buying a home together doesn't count like a married couple for the mortgage company. And it's different issues and different underwriting issues.

1:18:00It's more problematic. Yeah.

1:18:02Dave Ramsey:Because they're getting themselves into a mess. The mortgage company knows that. Their data on it is bad. I mean, look at it. In 1960, people under the age of 30, married couples, home ownership rate was 52%. And now again, less people married, all that kind of stuff. But 2025, the number is 12%. So we've gone from 52 % to 12%. And so that's both ends. But in 1960, like 90 % of the people living together were married. Yep, yep. Or more. Yeah, for sure. And so it was the 70s that that shifted. And what's funny is women homeowners are up. So women are like, listen, I'm not buying crypto and sports betting.

1:18:47I'm saving for the future.

1:18:49Dave Ramsey:I'm not marrying a crypto, bro. I'm buying a house. Yeah. I mean, so they're getting in the market. At two and a half times the rate of single men. Two and a half times the rate. Yeah. Gosh. Yeah. And I do wonder from 1960, you know, from even women, like women couldn't probably support themselves the way they like they couldn't even have a checking account so right so no you could have a checking account but it wasn't no i thought you had to be signed right it was 1973 when i that that's just the era but my mother had a checking account okay in the 60s i remember that didn't it have to be assigned by a man no no absolutely chat gbt everything on the internet's not true abraham lincoln said that All right.

1:19:31Dave Ramsey:Josh is in Washington, D.C. Hey, Josh, how are you? Hey, team. How's it going? Great, man. What's your real estate question for Brian? So I'll start off by saying my wife and I have a pretty good situation, but we want to tackle this the right way and consider all factors, make sure we aren't missing anything. Good for you. So we are currently in a rent-to-purchase option agreement dated back in 2024. We got an appraisal in 2024 on the house. That's the set price on the house. We're set to buy it in December, 2027. We'll have about 25 to 30 % down. Ideally with a good amount of cash left over emergency fund.

1:20:16And then just left over decent amount of cash left over. You're awesome. Way to go.

1:20:23Dave Ramsey:Freaking unicorn. Excellent. But with this house, the thing is, is if we do buy it, we're going to want to put some money into it. Now, we don't really know if we're going to be there that long. It's a really nice home with good bones, but we haven't really been able to kind of make it our own home because we don't own it yet. Right, that's wise. So given that, you know, we won't be there forever, we're worried, well, quote-unquote, worried that if we put some money into it, we pay the mortgage, that, you know, when we go to sell it, we might either not make our money back, given the fact that, you know, most of the payments up front are going to be interest-bearing.

1:21:09Dave Ramsey:That's fine. So the question is, what renovation will carry its own weight? Yes. That's what you're looking for. You spend money that multiplies itself. So if you could spend$100 and it raises the value of$1 ,000, we got the right thing. If we spend$10 ,000 on a pool, nobody else has a pool, the pool is now a liability. You devalued the house rather than increase the value of the house because no one else on the street has one. Agreed? Yep. Is a pool a devaluer? Well, it could in that situation. So I would say the pool is the lowest resale upgrade you can make to a house. Average cost of pool in the United States last year is$72 ,000.

1:21:49Average resale value is$7 ,000. So here's the deal. If you're going to put money into a house, here's how it works, right? Paint. Now, not just because I'm a painter's son, but paint is$20 in a can,$2 ,000 on the walls, right? So paint is good. Kitchens and bathrooms. Women buy houses. Men are just tagging along. My father, the day I got married, said to me, son, I got to tell you some marriage advice. He goes, when your mother and I got married, we made an agreement. I would make all the important decisions and she would make all the non-important decisions. And I want you to know in 47 years, I haven't had an important decision to make.

1:22:25So women buy houses, dude. So you buy kitchen and bathrooms. You paint. How long would you say we would have to live in the house to see some value back given our structure? Typically, you'll get your money back in two years. Typically, you get your money back in two years. And the upgrades also add to the speed of the sale. And the speed of the sale, what people don't understand about real estate, the faster you sell a home, the higher the price you get. So kitchens, bathrooms. Would you say we should go ahead and buy the home or should we? Yes. Oh, my gosh. Yes, buy it. Should we purchase a house that's a little bigger?

1:23:00Dave Ramsey:No, you buy that house and get your foot in the door, dude. Absolutely. But the renovations to, quote, unquote, make it your own, don't make it your own. Fix it up to sell it as if you were an investor. Now, what would an investor do? They're not going to do renovations that don't add more value than the renovation costs. So you ask yourself when we're getting ready to change something, is that something we like or is that something that's going to add more value than the cost? And you can actually talk to a good real estate agent and they can come by and tell you. Another example typically is because so much is digital now and it is dependent upon pictures and looks is your curb appeal.

1:23:45Dave Ramsey:And your photographer. I know that sounds silly. A good photographer. Landscaping is a big deal. Yes. I mean, if you've got nasty butt landscaping in front of this thing, please expect that to show up in the picture right and that's a few dollars and a lot of sweat yep and you can get that right yep and that makes it your own paint the outside landscaping and the garage door those are the all those all return higher than 100 i've heard this about the garage door average garage door but is four times the resale value that so how funny is that why do women wear makeup so okay you know what i'm saying some barns need paint okay so come on you know lord have mercy on my soul no so right i mean does it make a more appealing for sure so men's the problem yeah i've worn makeup i put it on my head so it doesn't shine i hope that helps josh i don't know if we help i think that helps i mean that's it that's that's exactly what you do so think about the things like that but you know you want a unique um audio system through a home that is where no one else in the neighborhood has a unique audio system you're doing that for you and you're going to lose money on that you're not going to get the money back out that you spend i mean if you're in a a two hundred thousand dollar home and you want to put in a 60 inch $14 ,000 Sub-Zero refrigerator, you're not going to get your money back on that one.

1:25:18Dave Ramsey:I take it with you. Because most of the people in that neighborhood haven't seen a Sub-Zero. And so that's what you're thinking about there. And so what we're trying to say is don't overbuild the neighborhood. Don't do something that's so unique that it doesn't play. Brian Buffini, thank you, brother. Thank you, Brian. I love talking to your folks. So fun. We give a lot of hope to people. I love being part of the best dad-daughter comedy show in America. So it's my favorite. Well, it's like eating dinner with all of us because we always pull out Google. And I will say, 1974, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act was signed.

1:25:55And women on their own could get a checking account.

1:25:57Dave Ramsey:But guess what? But guess what? That wasn't necessary for them to do it. It just required for them to do it. And so my mother did have a checking account in her name in the 60s. Because your dad signed for it. No, he didn't. He didn't have to. I told you. It's the best game in town being here. Welcome to our dinner team. That's not factual. I am woman, hear me roar.

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1:27:45Dave Ramsey:Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Andrew is with us in Tyler, Texas. Hey, Andrew, how are you? Hello, sir. I'm doing well. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Hey, I'm just wondering, I have like a money anxiety problem. So I'm wondering how I can change my mindset with money so I can like not be so stressed and anxious about every purchase I make, big or small. What are you afraid of? I don't know. No, I think it's just like every purchase I make, it could be going out to lunch with friends or bigger purchases of furniture.

1:28:38Dave Ramsey:Okay, so you're buying a$3 ,000 piece of furniture, and you have anxiety about that. And again, I want you to think about this, because you probably do know the answer. What is it that you're afraid of when you're buying this? I think I know, but I'll wait for you to figure it out. i think it's just like the the big number i think it's the the purchase and it's like am i gonna be able to make that money back which i know is a silly thing to think because i have it's not silly at all no it's just classic scarcity mentality it's a scarcity it's a scarcity mentality yeah and that means that you're a saver it also probably tells me that you're probably a very analytical person, am I right?

1:29:23Dave Ramsey:Yes, sir. You tend to overanalyze versus underanalyze all of these things. Yes, sir. Yeah, that's pretty typical. Okay. And so all that is is you get emotional satisfaction and joy from saving and stacking cash more than you do from spending it. uh yeah but i do i mean i like to spend money on things i like to spend money on no you don't you just told me you had anxiety about it well when i i mean i i enjoy like giving gifts to people that i care i didn't say you weren't generous i said you get more peace from stacking cash than from purchases. Yeah, that's true. And that's okay. All right, now that we know that, we now know that the fear is caused because we're depleting the stack of cash to buy the couch.

1:30:23Dave Ramsey:And I wonder if I'm ever going to get my cash back. Okay? Yeah. So when you're facing something like that, I mean, I wish Dr. John Deloney was here to coach you through anxiety, and we'll send you a copy of his book, Redefining Anxiety. which is a wonderful read and you'll enjoy it. But he says that anxiety is not a negative thing. It's like the smoke alarm in the house. And the smoke alarm in the house goes off. Well, we don't ignore it and stand there in the flames and burn to the ground, right? But we also look around and go, oh, wait a minute, the battery is low. So when the alarm goes off, we have to decide then, okay, A, we're not going to ignore it.

1:31:09Dave Ramsey:So the anxiety is a good warning sign. It's your body telling you that you're worried about something. That's not a bad thing. Then you say, all right, what's going on? Facts are our friends. So what are the facts? The facts are I have$3 ,000 to my name, and I just spent that all on a gas grill. So I am by definition stupid. If that's the facts, then you should have anxiety, right? If you have$85 ,000 in your account and you spend$3 ,000 on a gas grill, the facts are your life didn't change except now you can cook a steak. Calm down. Those are the facts. And so if you stop a minute and think about what's the source of this smoke alarm going off and say, okay, then what are the facts and am I okay?

1:32:00And it's attached to something, either what was wired into your brain as a kid of how you grew up, something that happened. I don't know. Maybe you had your first job and you really were broke and you're like, I never want to go back there again. And your body remembers that. Right. Or whatever it is, if you can kind of pinpoint that, I think is, yeah, is powerful.

1:32:21Dave Ramsey:If you can go back and find that in the past and see where it is. And so, you know, for instance, I bought and sold and flipped real estate, nothing down real estate in my 20s and went broke and lost everything. And so if I have a new plan, a bright idea, it scares the P. Wadden out of my wife. And it should. except that for the last 35 years all my bright ideas have exceeded my dumb ideas but prior to that i had one big dumb idea that took us down and we lost everything so her reaction should be even today 35 years later yeah that's right her body remembers that terror of our lights and water being cut off of us being broke not having the money hardly to feed our own kids rachel was a baby, all of that.

1:33:16Dave Ramsey:Her body remembers that. And I, as her spouse have to understand that and go, okay, if this is going too fast, we need to slow down and she needs to get more information. So she understands what we're dealing with, or we don't need to go forward because, um, and we just slow down a little bit. So slow down a little bit, gather your facts, ask where the anxiety is coming from. Is it from a real thing or is it from a thing that happened earlier and it's just reactivating. Yeah. And this is always an interesting on the scale of money controlling you. And once on one end of the spectrum, money does become an idol, a God to people and they use it to feel better about themselves, right?

1:33:58Whether from an income perspective or what they drive or the house or the part of tech, like it becomes this, but they're spending on one end of the spectrum and it becomes this, this idol. It has them, It has their identity, everything. And then Andrew's a perfect example is on the other end, it has you just as much. Like you have no freedom. You have no ability to have peace because there's a level of control.

1:34:21Dave Ramsey:When I buy lunch, I have anxiety. Yeah. To have a level of control, it has you as much as it does the other people, right? And that's where the extremes on the spender and saver and where you put money on the spectrum of the importance in your life is so important to have that balance in both of those spectrums. because on either side, it's unhealthy. It becomes a thing that you literally think about 24-7, and it shouldn't be. It shouldn't have a grip on you like that. No, no, either way. Either side, that's right, that's right. Neither one, it's almost as if it's not two ends of a spectrum. It's two points on a triangle, and the other point is peace and health.

1:34:57Right, yeah, that's fair.

1:34:58Dave Ramsey:There's one you could go to that other place and go to peace and health and proper view of it and those kinds of things. Yeah, so I don't want money to have that grip on you, Andrew. Right. So for the good of you, it's almost a spiritual exercise too. On the shallow end, you've got a great saying I've seen you use, especially on Instagram, it works really well, is if I buy something, if I'm shallow and I'm worried about myself trying to be something, right, with what I own or whatever. If you buy something and no one ever sees it. Yes. Would you buy it anyway? And the answer is yes, then you're buying it for the right reasons.

1:35:32Dave Ramsey:If you're buying it to show off, then you're just being shallow. Inflate, inflate. And yes, you're just being shallow. And I've done that. I bought stuff to do that. I don't hardly ever do it anymore. But I remember doing that distinctly in my past. And by the way, that's a symptom also that leads to being broke. It leads to get rich quick and it leads to being broke that end of the spectrum, not Andrew's, the other side. Yep.

1:36:13We'll be right back.

1:36:36Dave Ramsey: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.

1:37:15Dave Ramsey:If you're working the baby steps, the best and fastest way to do it is using every dollar. And that's the best and fastest way to become wealthy using the baby steps. It's more than just a budgeting app. It's our Ramsey plan built right in. You track your progress. You get personalized recommendations and coaching for your situation that will help you free up more money and work the plan even faster. It's like having one of us walk with you every day, showing you the next right step and holding you accountable. Start every dollar for free by downloading it in the App Store or Google Play. Jamie is in Orlando.

1:37:49Dave Ramsey:Hi, Jamie. How are you? Hi, everyone. I'm kind of nervous. It's okay. How can we help? Hello? Hello. How can we help? Oh, no. Jamie, are you there? Jamie? Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. All right. Can you guys hear me? Oh, there she is. Are you there? Can you hear us? Yes. I lost you guys for a second. Perfect. I'm so nervous. That's okay. We are good. What's up? I just want to know if we're rushing into buying a new construction home by selling the condo we regret buying, even if we barely make anything from that sale. Okay. So you regret, you're in a condo now, you regret buying it. So you want to move to something and the one you're looking at is a new construction build.

1:38:37Dave Ramsey:And you've already signed up for it. We haven't. We're just looking at the new home. You're in a condo. How long have you been in this condo? Two years and a half. Two and a half years? Is that what you said? Yes. Yes. So what's the rush?

1:38:55So we have a huge HOA fee. The condo needed more repairs than what we expected. and then we thought we would be able to make a good rental out of it, but because of the HOA and the mortgage, we wouldn't be able to get anything from it. And then my husband and I are thinking of having a kid within the next year, so we might need more space for it.

1:39:21Dave Ramsey:Okay. You don't buy a house for a kid you don't have. Okay. But if you want to move, that's a different subject. Perfect. How much, if you sold the condo, do you have any equity in it? No, she said they're going to break even. Would you even lose money after commissions and fees and everything after selling? So what we're trying to get at least is like$2 ,000 after paying commission fees and everything else. Okay. Do you have any other money saved that would go to the down payment of the new home? Yes. So we have$57 ,000 in savings. Okay. and then we are currently investing in, like, 401K and everything else.

1:40:05Dave Ramsey:Sure. So what's your household income? Household income is$12 ,300. Per month? Yes. Is that what hits your account, or is that before taxes? What hits our account monthly. Okay. Okay. Okay. So you're making about$180 ,000 a year, and what price range is this new construction? $480 ,000. Okay, and why new construction? Because we were kind of done with all the repairs that this condo needed, so we were like, oh, maybe a new construction is going to have or require less repairs.

1:40:47Dave Ramsey:Well, so would a 2-year-old or a 5-year-old home as well require less repairs. um so the problem with new construction is you're paying a premium usually that's retail and you probably can get more bang for your buck in used housing in most cases not in every case but i want you to look into that so um yeah new construction just feels shiny after you've dealt with a ratty condo and i understand how you get there but i'm not sure that's your best route But if you want to sell a condo and break even on it and get out and you've got$60 ,000 to go buy something with and you're making$180 ,000, sure, sure.

1:41:30Dave Ramsey:Go make the move. Don't keep the condo, though. The condo is not a rental. You have properly assessed that. And don't be under the assumption that a new build is going to have nothing wrong, depending on the builder grade and everything. I mean, you never know. So just go in not naive to that. Well, the builder may cover the things that are wrong, but there's always something wrong. I mean, if you build a home, there's always a punch list. And then there's a punch list 30 days later. And then there's another one 30 days later. And that's just part of building a new home. Expect that. Do not expect this to every single thing on there, every button to work exactly right.

1:42:07Dave Ramsey:It doesn't. Just go ahead and have your expectations proper. And then you'll be easier to work with. Alex is in Columbus, Ohio. Hi, Alex. How are you? Hey, how's it going, sir? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm looking to make a career change, and I'm not sure if it is the right move at this point or if I should stick it out of my current job, and I'm kind of basing it off of my current income and current savings. Okay. How long have you been in your current job? I just hit two years a few months ago. What's wrong with it? Kind of getting sick of it. It's sales. I am trying to get out of sales, start a different career, and kind of spread my wings.

1:42:56Dave Ramsey:I still live at home, so I'm looking to branch out elsewhere. This past year, or year to date, I'm at about$100 ,000. I should end at$100 ,000. Why do you live at home? Save money. Rent's expensive. Okay. How old are you, Alex? I'm 24 years old. You need to go get your own place and be a man. I got you. Yesterday. Yesterday. You make$100 ,000 a year. Your mommy doesn't need to fold your underwear. It's time. I do all my own laundry, clean and clean. It's just being in Columbus, I don't see the point in rent. I do. I do. It's called personal development. And, by the way, you're not eligible for dating when you live in your mother's basement either.

1:43:47Dave Ramsey:So, yeah, go get you a place. Now, why do you hate sales? I'm just, I did what I needed to do. I made my way. What do you want to do, Andrew, or Alex? What do you want to do? I'm looking at analyst roles. I'm looking to go into something that has a little bit more of a career development and growth. And that's kind of really the main point of it. Sales, I kind of figured it out. What are you selling? I'm in logistic sales. Okay. All right. Have you found some opportunities as an analyst anywhere that would hire you? Like, have you looked? Yeah. Yeah, I'm currently looking. Okay. I haven't really found or landed on anything.

1:44:31What's your degree in? International business and Spanish.

1:44:36Dave Ramsey:All right. You've probably been trained to do some analysts then. Good. Okay. If you can get a job making what you're making now and move in a different direction that looks like it fits your personality style better, that's okay with me. I don't mind that a bit. But making more, not less. Gotcha. Okay. We don't take a pay cut and call that happiness. Okay. Don't take a pay cut, what you're saying. Yeah, exactly. It's not happiness. No, it's not. It's not the definition of happiness. It could be if your job is fulfilling. It's not. You need to look for something that you can go apply yourself to and make a living serving others.

1:45:11Dave Ramsey:And that is worth. So here's the thing. I do want you to pause on the sales thing just a second, though. OK, because the narrative that you're using there, I want you to go get the analyst job because I think that's going to be good for you. And I think you've come to that conclusion. However, I will tell you that more CEOs come out of sales than any other position. Yep, you are correct. Very few of them come out of analyst. Yep. And so just, you know, so as far as, as far as, well, I mean, as far as career development, I feel like I've capped out. No, you haven't. Yeah, it's a good skill. If you know how to sell, you can work through any organization and be the best there is in there because you learn people skills and you learn up, you learn to level up and sales is a great career field.

1:45:59Dave Ramsey:But if it's not for you, that's okay. I'm not mad about that. But I don't want you to use the narrative that I was topped out at sales because you weren't. You weren't. Or you're not good at sales. Unless there's some weird pay structure in the company. Well, you might be topped out in that pay structure. But if you can sell, the doors will open in organizations all the way through for you. Yes. But I think you're going to probably, listening to you, talking to you, I think you're going to get good stuff from being an analyst. And I think you ought to go do that. I agree with your analysis. by the analyst.

1:47:06Hey 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.

1:47:45Download the EveryDollar app in the App Store or Google Play and start for free today.

1:48:07Dave Ramsey:Ramsey Show Question of the Day is sponsored by YReFi. If you've fallen behind on your private student loan payments, every month can feel like you're standing still. Because you are. YReFi helps borrowers explore refinancing options that can help you start making progress again. Go to YReFi.com slash Ramsey. that's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey, may not be available in all states. Today's question comes from Brent in Utah. He said, I have$300 ,000 in savings and no debt. I want to invest the money in mutual funds, but I'm not sure if I should dump it in all at once or little by little each month.

1:48:48What's the best play in this scenario? It's a good question. Well, I would say if there's nothing, the reason I wouldn't is if there's something you're needing to buy and use part of that$300 ,000 for, if you need some of that money, maybe hold some of that for that purchase. If there's, you know, if it makes you more comfortable, because you're scared or something, you know, we talked to some people and it's like, okay, maybe you do 6040. But for me, no, if you really do have$300 ,000 just sitting in savings, and you want to invest it, I would, I'd do it tomorrow. So there's no big advantage of little by little, if anything, get in the market as it's doing well.

1:49:29But also don't look at the market either because I bet when you put it in, something's going to happen and it's going to go down. And so you got to just forget about it because it's long-term investing at that point.

1:49:42Dave Ramsey:Yeah. If you can feel comfortable that this is a long-term investment and if it goes down tomorrow, you're not going to cry because it's a long-term investment. We're riding the roller coaster down. We're going to ride it back up. mathematically the answer is put it all in today there's no mathematical advantage okay the s &p 500 the stock market is up 16 as of this moment since the beginning of the year however somewhere back in march the president decided to bomb iran and the stock if you'd put the stock market in the day before you'd put 300 000 in the day before you decide to do that you might of woke up the next morning and your 300 was worth your 300 is worth 270 and you'd had a minor cow okay however if you didn't pull it out and now you're sitting there and you had put it in at the first of the year it would be up 16 of 300 000 which would be about 50 grand you would have made since the first of the year but if you'd have freaked out because the president bombed I ran and the market dropped, you know, after you put the money in in January and he did that in March.

1:50:54Took it out. You would have lost.

1:50:55Dave Ramsey:Then you would have freaked out and you would have lost money on the stock market. I'll never invest again because you have the worst possible timing on the planet because you bought while it was high and when you freaked out when it was low and got out. And of course you lost money then. So the answer is, but if you leave it in, keep your stinking hands off of it. you're much better off to put it in there and forget it. Set it and forget it. And you make serious money. All right, Stephen is in Anchorage, Alaska. Hey, Stephen, how are you? Good, how are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up?

1:51:34Dave Ramsey:Yeah, so I had a question about long-term investment. What do you think about buying vacant land versus buying stocks or rentals? I'm not sure if I want to be a landlord. Well, vacant land can fall in a whole bunch of different categories, okay? You could buy farmland. You could buy a hunting preserve. You could buy the corner of a busy intersection where they're looking to put a McDonald's someday, a commercial piece of property, right? You could buy land where warehouses could be developed. You could buy land where apartments could be developed. So, you know, there's a million kinds of different vacant land.

1:52:18Dave Ramsey:So the answer is I don't know because I don't know what kind of vacant land you're thinking about. So there's certainly a lot of vacant land in Arkansas, in Alaska, in Arkansas too, but much more in Alaska. And so, as a matter of fact, I was up there fishing last week, and I learned that the federal government reserved land in Alaska, you could put six Texas's in it there's that much of it it's like 166 million acres in Alaska that is owned by the federal government it's crazy so you know I don't know about vacant land in Alaska but I guess if you're in downtown Anchorage have you done some research Stephen what type of land are we talking about yeah so I'm actually in on the Kenai Peninsula not quite Anchorage but you know, just like little plots to develop for, you know, like, you know, housing, like one or two acres or like maybe like a five acre lot, you know, that has electricity on it or I could put electricity.

1:53:20For residential homes? Is that what you're thinking?

1:53:23Dave Ramsey:Yeah. Okay. Then that would depend on how active the new home market is in that immediate area. Okay. Okay. So, in other words, if half a mile away there's a big subdivision going in and you've got some lot price baseline that you can look at, that's fine. If there's no home building going on in the area but you think you're just going to walk out there in the middle of a field and somebody's going to build a house because you want them to, no, you can't build it and they'll come. That's called a field of dreams. So, no, we don't do that. But, I mean, you need to have some trend lines in the growth pattern of that area that tells you that people are actually going to want to buy this, and it's not just your gut feeling.

1:54:09Yeah. You know, in the last—I've been there about three years now, and this year has been—as soon as the plot goes for sale, it's sold.

1:54:19Dave Ramsey:That's good. I like that. Super hot market. Okay. There's going to be a big pipeline potentially coming in. Yeah, that's good. I like that. And this will be with cash, Stephen? Yeah, yeah, correct. And you're out of debt? Yeah, own my own house. I think I have my retirement all done. Great job. Yeah, excellent, excellent. So when I buy a piece of commercial dirt like that, I'm looking at the growth heading that direction or is already on that direction, and that's what I'm asking you to look at. In that case, you're speculating on land. You're buying it not for a 15-year investment. You're buying it for a two - to five-year investment.

1:55:01And it could be a great one in that case if it's happening.

1:55:03Dave Ramsey:You might make a lot of money on it. You might double your money on something like that. But it's going to be – that's the beauty of real estate. But it is going to be based on – the higher the success rate of this is going to be based on your analysis, your correct analysis of what's going on in the neighborhood and what's really happening, what direction we're really going there. So, Rachel's husband and I have done many, many real estate deals together. He owns a real estate company. He runs all of my real estate. And we looked at a piece of ground that could be developed into about seven lots or eight lots.

1:55:39Dave Ramsey:And that was about 10 or 15 years ago. And it had a bunch of trash dumped on it. And we determined by the time we cleaned it up to get it ready to run a road into and paid for the land, that we would not be able to recoup at current lot prices anytime soon. Since then, you know, all these years later, the value of that property went up dramatically, and someone else bought it, cleaned it up, and sold it and made money on it. But we didn't have the, we had a two to a five-year mindset. That person had more of a 10-year or 15-year mindset, and now there's homes built in there. Some of our best friends live in one of those.

1:56:21You know the house. You know the property I'm talking about.

1:56:23Dave Ramsey:100%. And there's some nice, big, beautiful homes in it. I mean, it's great. It turned out to be a good piece of property. That's right. But at the time. Well, and you're speculating. Yeah, totally. At the time, it didn't make sense in the short term. The only way it made sense was with a 10-year or 15-year horizon. And we didn't want to tie the money up that long on a project like that. So we backed away. Someone else picked it up, had a longer time horizon, and made money with it. So that's what you're looking at. You're trying to analyze just exactly like we did there. and it's okay to walk away from a deal that doesn't fit your objectives and let someone else make the money and look back 15 years later and go, well, that worked out, you know, because it did work out.

1:57:01Dave Ramsey:The property was fine. It wasn't tainted. It was just a mess. And so, anyway, that's what you're doing. You're trying to analyze. And the beautiful thing about real estate is such an imperfect world that that's where the money's made. Your judgment's better than somebody else and you jump on it.

1:57:22Thank you.

1:57:52you

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1:58:43Dave Ramsey:Our Scripture of the Day, Hebrews 13, 7. Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Ronald Reagan said money can't buy you happiness, but it will certainly get you a better class of memories. There you go, Rachel. There you go. John is with us in Des Moines. Hi, John. How are you? Doing good. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So my question today is, I'm 19 years old. I'm a business owner. First year, I have about$11 ,000 in debt right now. My question is just how do I get ahead? What is your income in your business?

1:59:30Right now, I'm projected to make about$45 ,000 this year.

1:59:34Dave Ramsey:Doing what? Long care and landscaping. Okay. Your first year? Yeah. I just started in April. Okay. Oh, so not even a full year. So I assume it's growing rapidly? Um, not as well as I want to, but yeah, it's going pretty good. Pretty decent. What's the$11 ,000 in K? Um, I have about$10 ,000 on a car and a little less than$1 ,000 on credit cards. Okay. Well, the simple answer to your question is what you already knew before you called, and that is there's two ends of the equation, the income side and the outgo side. and the difference is margin, the money you've got to play with to get out of debt.

2:00:20Dave Ramsey:And so as your income goes up and your spending goes down, you have more and more money to become debt-free. Agreed? Yes, sir. So anything you can do to cut your spending, I don't think you're probably overspending. I don't hear that in anything you're telling me. But I think you've got a new business that's not making much money yet. And so I'm going to make sure if I'm you that I'm spending a certain percentage of my week every single week getting new customers, not just mowing grass. Okay. If you don't budget a certain percentage of your time every week to do the essential parts of the business, the business will dry up.

2:01:02Okay.

2:01:02Dave Ramsey:And that means you've got to say, okay, every Friday morning, every Thursday morning, every Wednesday morning for four hours, I'm going to work on getting new customers or whatever it is instead of mowing that day. And I don't care. I don't know what it is. But, you know, you've got to budget time out to figure out where are your customers coming from, talking to your existing customers about referrals, picking up the two houses on either side of the last house you mowed the grass for or the business on either side of the last business you did, the landscaping for. Yeah, if there's a good neighborhood.

2:01:32Most neighborhoods these days have some kind of Facebook group or group me or something, right? And if you can ask a homeowner if you've been satisfied, do you mind just leaving a recommendation? Because people are always looking for things. So that's a good way just to get your name out if there's a neighborhood. Yeah.

2:01:47Dave Ramsey:It turns out the guy that does our landscaping in our home ended up doing the homes on each side of us because he had ours and they asked us who did it. Right. I understand that. But the one thing is, so my girl and my son moved down to Atlanta, and I'm trying to relocate down there. And I don't know if I should just continue growing or should I try to save my own house. That's a completely different thing than you asked about. Yeah, we didn't know that. Right, yeah. Yeah, so no. I mean, if you're going to move, you need to go build your business down there. Right. I just don't know how to get ahead to be able to do that.

2:02:28Dave Ramsey:I only have about$3 ,500 in cash and about$1 ,500 of that is the businesses right now. Yeah, but I mean, when the season's over, you should have some cash piled up. You can load up the lawnmowers and go. Right. Yeah, I would stack cash right now, John, in order to make that move to be closer to your son. And then you need to have some aggressive goals to get this debt paid off, the$1 ,000 credit card. And be working all winter to have accounts to start the spring with. Yep. if you're going to open up down there. But it's actually possible to do that. But that's a very aggressive thing. But, no, I wouldn't go build a business someplace I'm going to leave in two years.

2:03:10Dave Ramsey:Okay. That's a lot of work for nothing. Because your customer list is not worth anything in this business. Nobody will buy it because they can just go get your customers. They don't need to ask you. And so, no, that's not – you're not building anything that's marketable there. So, no, I was – Maybe working two jobs for a bit, too. I'd stack cash until the end of the season, whatever that is in Des Moines, and then I'd be on my way and get married and let's start a life, me and the wife and the baby, and I'm going to work all winter at every job I can possibly stack up while I'm trying to get customers to restart my business.

2:03:47Dave Ramsey:You may start your landscaping business in Atlanta as a side hustle after you get a good job there and then grow it again there. But that's an okay thing. But no, I would not grow a business where you already are before you leave. Hey, one of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking they can skip having a will because they're too young, too healthy, or don't own anything. If you're 18, your will helps protect, or older, your will helps protect your family. It gives clear instructions and can keep your loved ones from having to guess what you wanted. And it'll keep them from fighting with each other, too.

2:04:21Dave Ramsey:If you're ready to create one, go to MamaBearLegal.com. If you're not sure where to start, whether to use an attorney or Mama Bear, either one's fine. Text QUIZ to 33789, and we'll help you figure out which option fits your situation. Don is in Atlanta. Hey, Don, what's up? Hello, you got me? Yes, sir. How can we help? Hi, so I just talked with my dad recently, and he is a listener of you as well. And I was talking to him about a student loan debt that my wife has of$30 ,000. And he thought about it for a second and said, hey, what if I just gave you$30 ,000, and whenever it comes around to the will of my sister's, you'll just have$30 ,000 less on there.

2:05:13and he's going to put that note in the will. Do you recommend that? Because I just get money from a family member.

2:05:20Dave Ramsey:I figured I'd run it by. Is he going to bother you after this, or is this one and done? Or is this a control mechanism? No, this is one and done. He's always been very helpful. Okay. All right. Yes, I would accept that gift. I think that's a wonderful offer and a great idea of his. I think it's a great plan. the downside is is that you you said your fiancee wife your wife okay i'm sorry my life i'm sorry i didn't i didn't right now you did say wife i goofed okay all right so you and your wife have to uh get on a budget and never go in debt again or this will grow back in the form of a car payment or credit card debt or something else because it sounds like your dad is the one dreamed this up and this is the first time you've ever heard of ramsey today no he said his dad's a listener His dad is, not Don.

2:06:13Well, he introduced me when I was younger, and actually at the beginning of this year, our employer gave us the app, the EveryDollar app. So I signed up on that, and we started running the rent.

2:06:26Dave Ramsey:We're six months into it now. Good, good. Yeah, Don, so I would say, yeah, when you think about it from a math perspective, just like your inheritance, if it's invested on his end, is going to be growing. And so I would take it now from that, right? If all the emotional check boxes or boxes are checked, that it's okay. And it feels like, oh yeah, this isn't going to be hanging over our head or he's not going to use this against us or feel like he can have a say in our life because he did this. Then yeah, I mean, I think that's a very. I think it's very smart. The trick is for you and your wife then to follow through with the newfound freedom and cause yourself to build wealth.

2:07:07Dave Ramsey:Yes, sir. Yeah. You know, working the baby steps, working your EveryDollar app. And so you were ahead of me. I misjudged that. I apologize, Don, because you're already been on EveryDollar. Your employer furnished it. Sounds like the smart dollar people are in there helping. Yeah, and make it a goal to be like, hey, let's invest. What it would take us to pay this off, let's have a goal to have that$30 ,000 invested of your own money, right? So you're using your paycheck to build your future. Exactly. As a result, rather than going, oh, we can go buy something now. That's right. That's right. You know, it's kind of a nod to him.

2:07:40Yeah. OK, we'll put 30 ,000 in the market now.

2:07:43Dave Ramsey:And he's going to be glad he did this. Yes. And you're going to be glad you did it. And everybody's happy. And we got Sally Mae out of the spare bedroom. And again, that line can be tricky because when we talk about giving money to family, we never say to loan it. But the giving, if it messes up a relationship, if it gets odd, right, like you got to you have to have some hard boundaries. But this is one instance where it's like the whole change your family tree. If you can get your kids out of debt and they're not entitled, you know, they're hardworking, they have dignity, and then they can start building with themselves faster.

2:08:12That's part of that generational knowledge, which is so big that they can fiscally do.

2:08:17Dave Ramsey:That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.

2:08:35Thank you.