No Amount of Debt Is Too Big for a Comeback

27:34Ten more grand. Should he charge ten more grand? Let's get it to 60 grand. What's going to make you miserable? Something's going to have to make you so uncomfortable with these things that you're like, no more. That's what we can. That is what we find on the show. I agree. You're not there. You're not there yet. You called us. So what is the reason for calling us? I feel pretty close. What's the reason for calling? So my question is dealing with the clear card debt. I feel like I've got three, well, maybe four. We just told you. We've got to stop using them first, and then we pay it down. Roll this over in your mind, Chris.

28:08Roll this over in your mind. You cannot solve a problem while simultaneously creating it. So as long as you have these credit cards, you're creating the problem, so you'll never solve it. It's infinite. It's the cat chasing its tail, dog chasing its tail. so you have to stop the crazy cycle and the way you stop the crazy cycle is you say i'm not going to keep contributing to this problem i'm not going to keep adding to the pile i'm going to stop it turn off the faucet then you can clean up the mess yes absolutely and so what ken and i were at that point and that's kind of why i'm calling then you gotta cut those bad boys up snap them up yeah put them through the little dude i'll cut them up right now yes there we go because you guys got an impulse problem yeah and you just said that those are your words you got them right now we got we got about a minute and a half you got them on you yeah you got it you want to take cards let's go in town yeah do it do it and you're gonna be in the fetal position later today you're gonna maybe sob in the shower because you're gonna realize oh my gosh i this this was a security blanket all right so you got some scissors do we need on okay this tell everybody what's happening right now.

29:22Describe what's happening. We've got to make this exciting. Oh, should I use names? Okay, which one have we got here? Hold it up. Tell us what it's called. Chase Visa. Chase Visa. Hold it near the phone so we can hear it. Okay, hold on. Chase, this is a Chase Visa. Let's see if you can hear that. Yeah. You catch it? We heard the cut. We heard it. We heard the exhale. Are you sure you weren't giving yourself a haircut? That sounded like barber scissors. We got to go. We got about 45 seconds. What's next? Options for getting at the credit card. I don't want to do something stupid, but I mean, with these, they're charging 30%.

30:07Cut it. Stop talking and cut it. What are you cutting? Cut it. I'll cut another one. Come on, man. You got it. Which one are you cutting? Tell us quick. Hold on. City card. City card. Go. Yes, out of here. We won't wait for the sound. Just tell us when it's cut. Oh, yes. There it is. It's gone. Do you see? That's great. How many more you got? Several. Wait till I get to the MX in the drawer. Keep doing it. Keep going. Keep going. Well, you know what? We're a cash business, and we got a lot of people that need to hear these advertisements coming up, so we got to take care of business. You, my friend, need to keep cutting.

30:48Keep cutting, don't. Good job. Good job, Chris. Love it. Did you hear that every time he cut one? He went, he went, oh. Yeah. Yeah, it's painful. It's visceral. You feel it. That is so fantastic. Keep cutting, Chris. Yes. All right, we'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show.

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32:35Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, and Jade Warshaw is alongside 888-825-5225. That's the phone number to jump in. We'd love to hear from you. Taking your money calls, your income-related calls today. Matthew is joining us in Houston, Texas. Matthew, how can we help? Hey, guys. How are you today? Good. How are you? I'm good, thank you. So I'm 25 years old, career salesman. At the beginning of this year, I landed a new job, which I've been, you know, my income has grown drastically. And I'm closing on a house at the end of the month. And I just wanted to know, you know, at my age, I want to start investing early.

33:17I also want to be debt free. Is there a balance to investing, you know, post-tax dollars and paying off the home? Or should all of my excess cash just be going to the principal? And, you know, I I start investing once that's paid off because, you know, at my age, the value of the compound interest. If I start now, I feel could really pay off down the road. So I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a good question to have. And I think it's a question that a lot of people have. So you just closed on this home. Let's make sure you're in the position to begin investing.

33:52Do you have three to six months of expenses saved? I do. Okay, great. And then at that point, you would be considered baby step four, which is you're investing 15 % of your gross income every single month. Are you doing that? I haven't started. Well, I contribute to my company's 401k plan. But other than that, I haven't started, which is pre-tax, but I haven't started investing any post-tax money yet. Okay, good. So what I would say is whatever you're doing now, if you have access to a match through that employer account, I would invest up to that match. And you said it's an after-tax? It's a pre-tax with my employers.

34:36So they match 3%. I'm contributing 6 % right now. Okay, so I would do up to the match and then I would go over to a Roth IRA and I would go ahead and max something like that out. And then if you still have money left in your 15 % of contributions, then you could go back out and get as close to maxing out that 401k as possible. the goal here is again for you to be investing 15 of your gross income and most people do it on a monthly basis because you know you can kind of set it and forget it with your employer and so that's what i would do and then beyond the 15 any money that you have extra i would put it towards the paying off of the house um and so that's the way we teach at 25 years old you're not married yet you don't have any kids yet so you can kind of forget for for now about baby step uh five because you don't have any kids there's no 529 that you need to really add to and so then for you the next step is baby step six you're putting extra money towards the house and you get to decide uh how intentional you're going to be about that right you don't have to go crazy like you did with the other baby steps but you're a single guy you could probably you know make a lot of headway on that what do you owe on the house uh so around 450 460 okay i haven't even made my first mortgage payment Yeah.

35:52You said you closed here. You haven't even closed yet, right? Or you just closed? I haven't closed yet. Right. Okay. Yeah. And so that's what I would advise you to do. That's what I did. And that's what I do. Yeah. I'm going to agree with you. I mean, I, I, I love Jay's advice, follow it. Uh, but I just want to commend you. I love this. I love this mindset that you've got, man. You haven't even made the first payment yet. You're calling and going, uh, what do I do first? You know? And, but we want you to be set up for the long term and you're going to have no problem getting rid of the house payment.

36:23And the reason I suggested you going to the Roth right after the 3 % is we want that 3 % match. I mean, obviously that's free money, but then I love the Roth option for you because on down the line, you're going to want money that you have access to that you don't have to pay taxes on and that you don't have that required minimum distribution. And so that's why we would say that and then come back and you can fill up that 401k when you're done. What do you expect to make in the next 12 months? I'd say around$400 ,000 Wow, my son See, I've been wanting to ask that I had to wait, I didn't want to interrupt But I was going, I had a sense that he was Killing it?

36:59He had jumped into a Well, when he told us the amount on the house I was like, wait a second Yeah, yeah, yeah So here's the only reason I asked that Again, this is all an exclamation point to what Jade said I can't add anything to what she said on that With that kind of income, you're going to be fine you're going to be more than fine so you'll just follow the baby steps and with that kind of income man it is going to be ridiculous okay have you gotten your hands on an investment calculator i so i was just going to mention i took a look at the amortization schedule on the loan and that really just kind of ticked me off you know um so i want to let it tick you off but go You know what I mean?

37:41Get your investment strategy because with that kind of income and what Jade's talking about with the investment calculator, it's one of our favorite things to do. Are you running some numbers for him? I'm going to run a few numbers for him. Because he's so upset about his loan, his mortgage, his amortization payment. We need to get his mind focused on this part of the advice. Okay, so then let's play a game. How much do you already have in retirement investments? Do you have any? oh only maybe six or seven thousand dollars okay i'll put seven thousand in there all right and then let's say you contribute uh let's see sixty thousand a year so let's say five thousand a month all right and then we'll get you at ten ten percent rate of return because you make a lot of money dude if you don't do anything else from now until forever like from now until 65 oh actually hold on hold on yeah i was gonna say i accidentally put in the wrong retirement age but it's actually worth noting i put in 48 like if you were to retire at 48 you'd have 5.3 million i thought i put in i thought i put in 65 let's put in 65 and see what it says if you go till 65 i'm shook tell him the number now and i don't remind him what he's putting in every every every year no this is monthly if you if you put in five thousand a month because you make four hundred thousand yeah that's 60 that's 60 000 a year at a 10 annual rate of return you already have seven thousand there if you do this from age 25 you said you're 25 right yeah i'm 25 until age 65 you sitting down are you sitting down because i'm standing up 31 million dollars 31 million $31 million.

39:29That's crazy. I had to put my pinky like on Austin Powers. Yeah. So now you feel a little bit better? I do. I feel a lot better. But that's really why I called you guys. Because I know that if I start now, by the time I'm 65, it's going to make a huge difference. And oh, by the way, that doesn't mean you aren't paying your house off. You're still paying the house off. Yeah, we didn't even talk about that. And we didn't even talk about the fact that this is you starting. Like, this is not you at your full potential. You're still going up in the world. You're still on an upward trajectory. Man, I thought something was wrong with my calculator.

40:08No, that's 15 % of your income. And oh, by the way, after you budget all that, you are now making extra payments on the house. Oh, yeah. And you'll pay the house off before you know it. So this isn't an either or. It's both and. That's the point of the exercise. Matthew, I'm happy that I know you. I'm happy I got to talk on the phone to you. Hey, check back in with us. Keep letting us know how this goes, because so many people need to hear this. If you can get these things firing on all cylinders, even if you're not making four hundred thousand a year, if you're making two hundred thousand a year, what is possible when you get a hold of your finances so early is so amazing.

40:43And for anybody listening, if you've never played with an investment calculator, I suggest we have a great one. Ramsey solutions dot com. You can check it out or you can just Google Ramsey investment calculator and it'll pop up. but start playing with those numbers to see what your life can be and i mean that's motivating at the very least yeah absolutely thanks for the call i love the breakdown jay that's always fun when we get into the numbers because you know in his mind he's like i gotta pay that house i gotta pay that house it's like no it's both and it's both and it's not either or and uh fun to run those numbers and boy that's a staggering number that is a staggering number and let me just and not many people make his money no they don't i want to at least call it out early in life at 25 yeah he'll be making 400k no this he's in a he's in the top one that's top one percent one person 100 so i just want to at least call that out but let's also ken let's explain why we care so much about paying off the primary mortgage because at the end of the day yes we want you to have the compound interest but at the end of the day there is going to be a time where you do not work and you don't want to be making payments on a mortgage your mortgage is the biggest line item in your budget.

41:49You want that done and paid for by the time you're, you know, that age so that you can just live. Yeah, I totally, totally agree. There's a young man that's living like no one else. I promise you he's going to be living like no one else and also giving like no one else at a young age, by the way. Great stuff. Good hour, Jade Warshaw. All right. Does it for this hour. There'll be more Ramsey show. I promise.

42:23Thank you.

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44:02Welcome to the Ramsey Show, where we coach you to win in your life, specifically winning in your money or with your money, winning in your work and winning in your relationships. The phone number for you to get coached up today is 888-825-5225. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is with me, and we're here for you. 888-825-5225. We'll start it off in the Motor City, Detroit, Michigan. Sarah is on the line. Sarah, how can we help? Hello? Hi. How are you? Hi. Good. How are you doing? Good. What can we help with? Well, first of all, thank you for taking my call. I love you guys. You guys are absolutely amazing and helped me so far.

44:43the challenge I'm facing now is I have$300 ,000 worth of debt, and I just, I can't see a way out. I'm working three jobs, and it just, it just doesn't seem to work. Wow. Well, break it down for Jade here. So start off with your income through the three different jobs. Give us a range, and then walk her through your debt. My salary position, I bring in 80. I'm sorry, my salary is 80. I gross, I'm sorry, I bring in 80 and then I net 55 when you take out tax insurance. And then I have a second job that I gross 40, but then I'm an independent contractor, so I have to take out taxes and stuff. So I net about 30 to 35 ,000.

45:24Good. And then I have another part-time job that brings in about 600 bucks a month. Okay. Okay. So 72 on the 85. So you're somewhere in that 92, 93 range with those numbers. Is that right? Net? Yeah. I mean, that sounds amazing, but that's, yeah. Yeah, but you can do something with that. Yeah. Dr. Jade is in today, so it's going to be okay. I'm going to pretend like you didn't say that. The debt doctor, no? Oh, okay, okay, I'll take that. You didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know where you were going. Come on. Sarah, now that I know where he's going. You can do surgery on this. I can help you.

46:00There you go. So you're bringing in almost$8 ,000 a month, which ain't too shabby, but you've got$300 ,000 of debt. So walk us through this debt. It's all student loans. Okay. Private? Federal? I have$12 ,000 with private. I will have those hopefully paid off by December. Good. The rest, the$300 ,000 is all government. What was it for? I'm just curious. I went to law school. And are we practicing law? Yes. And that's the number one amount of money you gave us? What kind of law are you doing? Yeah, I do estate planning, probate stuff. Gosh, it feels like we've got a path to be making a whole lot more than that.

46:42Am I right? Or are you feeling like you're capped out and why? No, you hit the nail on the head. I've been looking on Indeed and stuff, and that's actually the average pay for where I live. And it's pretty, it's hard to deal with because I do feel that I should earn more, but it's about average. uh do you is there anything keeping you tied to the detroit area uh family yeah okay okay all right one other silly question jayden and i'll get out of the way um i i am curious with with what you've done so far is there a pivot or some type of additional legal work that you could do that would add to your income based on your current qualification or specialization so i got my real estate license about a year and a half ago.

47:31So that's my second job. Yeah, I'm talking just the legal field right now. Well, the reason why I got a different type of job is I'm really burnt out practicing law. So I'm trying to expand on other things. So that's why I got my real estate license to help bring in more money. But that's extremely part time. But I really want to try to pivot out of practicing. I get it. But I'm going to and again, I'm about to hand it to you, Jade. No problem. But you got$300 ,000 in law school debt. I don't think you get to burn out yet. And I think that the greatest opportunity for you to make money is through your law, your legal work.

48:10You just don't have time to sell houses. That's a full-time deal. So it's either or. It's like you go all in on selling homes. And if you do that, then there's no limit to what you can make. But I'm just going to make that point. You know, you've got to bring in some more income here because$300 ,000 is doable. I'm going to hand it over to Jade. Jade, walk her through the process here. Okay. So the loans, did you consolidate them or are they singular? They're single. Okay, good. That's good. That's good. Okay. So as trite as this may sound, all we're doing is listing them from smallest to largest, and we're paying minimum payments on all of them.

48:53Hopefully, I don't know, are you enrolled in any of the assistance plans? Are you in save plan or anything like that? The income-driven payment, I've been on that for about 13 years. Okay. And is it going to run out or do you still have time to be on it? I mean, honestly, I try to re-enroll and it takes months and months to get an answer. So I don't know. I'm kind of in limbo right now. Okay. What's your current payment for the lot of them? I don't pay anything. Okay, good. So here's what we do. the fact that your minimum payments are zero is a good thing for you right now because that means you can put the full strength of your income on the smallest debt and knock it out fast I wish there was a way to tell you that there was an easy button here there's just not and if you've listened to our show for any bit of time you know my husband and I had 280 okay and at the time we weren't making what to combined what you're making now and so there's there's a part of this that you have to just, you know, ride that income until the debt is gone.

49:55You know, once you have maxed out your money for your time, and I don't know that you have yet, Ken, I agree with Ken, I think that you can do more to max out your time and get better money for it. But once you do hit that point, there is a point where you just go, okay, this is what I'm making. And this is how long it's going to take. And as I've said many times before, you got to ride that horse to the Old Town Road. That's what you got to do. And then when it's done, it's done. That song is going to be in my head now all day. And I'm having you to thank for that. I'm kind of like, yeah, and I'm kind of like torn because I actually make more money selling real estate in half the amount of time versus my salary position.

50:34Of course, I get that paycheck every two weeks. Well, what's that transition look like? Because that's what I'm getting at. Like if you get after it and you can double triple your income this is a game changer key key word is consistently if you can do that consistently then that's a great sign yeah it's almost like what would have to be true for you to change your schedule uh stock some money up or something to be able to then go all right i'm dropping one of these jobs my gosh you got more jobs you know than you then you know what to do with right now so we got to create some margin time wise which means we got to have some margin money-wise, right, Jade?

51:10You tracking with me? I'm tracking with you. What would it take for her to get to a place to where she can now go all in on real estate, and that's going to take a little bit of time to build that pipeline up? Yeah. I mean, we're always looking for you to be able to replace whatever your income was at its best, right? And if you can do that consistently with real estate, I say more power to you. The weird thing about real estate, though, is of its nature, it tends to be up and down. What's the market like in Detroit area? It's slow. I get consistent at least March 2 listings and closings, but it's a roller coaster.

51:48Yeah. See, so you got to, to Jade's point, you got to factor that in. The market determines what's going on in some degree. You don't just, you know, hang a shingle and everybody wants to buy a house from you. I'm going to tell you, when you have this kind of debt, there is something to be said for being able to count on. I know what's coming in, and I know what I'm doing with it. There's just kind of that assembly line that you can just, I'm cranking it out. I'm paying off the debt, and this is temporary, and when the time comes, you'll do what you love. Yeah, I agree. Real time. Because of the market where it's at, I'm going to go with Jade's, decide what you can do, and lock in on it.

52:24And then if something changes, then the timeline changes. But get that mindset for the climb. It's going to take me a while to climb this mountain, but I will get there. Appreciate the call. you got this. Stay encouraged. This is The Ramsey Show.

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54:27Welcome back to the Ramsey Show America. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. The phone number for you to jump in, we'd love to coach up today, is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Amy joins us now in Vancouver. Amy, how can we help today? Hi. My question is about a shared asset I have with my other adult siblings. Um, so the asset is actually in Texas and it was given to all of us by my parents. And, um, it was, it's definitely been a blessing and, um, it's getting to the point where there wasn't really a long-term plan put in place. So it's starting to feel less like a blessing and more of a point of conflict.

55:14Um, so me and all my siblings have lived there. is a house. And all me and all my siblings have our names are on it. And we have all lived there at some point while paying rent, except my brother is now he's been in the house for about six years and he hasn't paid rent. And he's currently on leave with the military. And I tried to reach out to make a plan before he left, and he didn't respond to anything. So I'm wondering how to navigate this asset and keep it a blessing while preserving our relationship. How many siblings total? There's four of us. And how did he get this deal? How did he just start living in when everybody else has lived in it and paid rent?

56:10I'm presuming you guys have rented it to other people as well. Is that true? I think we've rented it to one other family. How did he get away with living rent-free for six years? So it was kind of like on your integrity. There was an account set up, and you put a certain amount in that account every month. And he decided he didn't want to use that same account. He wanted to do his own thing, which we're like, that's fine. You know, you can pay rent how you would like. What is the rent? What is it? It's$250 a month. Oh, man. Oh, my gosh. This is a joke. And so he's not been paying it. No. Not once.

56:50What do the other siblings think about this? So, like, we don't know how to resolve it. The communication's not great. They kind of want to be like, well, yeah, we'd like to talk about it. kind of written it off as like oh like we're just never going to see money from that it's just never gonna nothing's going to change how how do you arrive at the 250 is that like an arbitrary amount or is that maintenance what is that so that was set up like over a decade ago like a long time ago um mate and it was it was but the purpose of like oh this is affordable so we can live in it and save money so we can, you know, kind of get ahead.

57:34It doesn't include like utilities or anything like that. So all four of you are on the deed? Yes. What's it worth, the asset? Probably$200 ,000 on the bottom side of both sides. And there's no debt on it, right? No, no. So do the other three siblings, I'm sorry, there's four of you. So the other two plus you, are they all wanting to get out of this as well.

58:05Are you there? I'm sorry. I couldn't hear the end of that question. Okay. I'm here. I'm asking, do the other siblings, are they in agreement with you about they want to get out, or are you the only one thinking, going, how do I get out of this? No, the other siblings were all in agreement. Okay. Okay, well, that helps. Majority rules. So I don't know. So I want to say something, but I'll first say, I don't know. I've never experienced this before. So I would be seeking counsel, actual legal counsel on this, on what your options are when you've got four people on a deed, three want to get out. I just don't know enough legal on that, but I would say this.

58:51However this goes down, it's time for three of you to stop letting him bully you. This guy's a bully And I know it's your brother I'm just telling you like it is He's not returning your calls He's just acting like a school ground Like on the playground bully I'm not going to talk to you I'm giving you the silent treatment I'm creating all this tension And I'm not playing ball I'm just creating all this And I'm daring you He's daring you guys to do something And I think he's doing it because he knows you're not willing to do anything about it And I think that's the only little thing I wanted to put in there because I think however you resolve this, Jade, I'll get out of the way if you've got a point on this.

59:36But I think whatever needs to happen, he needs to realize the gig is up. Yeah, I think. You've long outstaged your welcome. You've taken advantage of us. It's over. Yeah. So just for clarity for me, so you guys, the plan was when you live in the house, you put the$250 in the account and that's split amongst the other three siblings, right? No. So that amount goes just towards repairs. Like, oh, if something like breaks, you have money in the account to pay for it. And so while he's been living in the house, if something broke, what happened? I'm not sure. Well, there are things broken and they're just not fixed.

1:00:14So he just didn't take care of the place while he was there either. Right. Oh, wow. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, the majority rules here, if you have to get a judge to force this, I don't think it would be that difficult to do it. we could talk about the idea of him buying you guys out, but I don't think that's going to happen. It's just not going to happen. So yeah, you might have to sit down. All of you guys sit down and try to make it light. But for me, the fact that you're calling, it's no longer light. So you can try to keep that a light conversation. But I think the longer you let this go on, the worse it gets.

1:00:46So to Ken's point, yeah, I think you guys get together. Somebody talk to a judge and say, how do we force this? Because we're ready to sell it. We've kept it this long. He's not paying rent. And the truth is, I kind of like the fact that he doesn't owe each of you. Because, I mean, if you guys are splitting this money, truly he'd owe each of you$6 ,000. But he doesn't since he's not even taking care of the place. Although, who knows if that will affect the resale value. But I'd get out of it immediately. I would too. Because if you look at this split, let's say they sell it for$200 ,000. It's less than$50 ,000 each.

1:01:17It's just not enough money to be dealing with all this garbage. So, Amy, I'm with you. I think your instincts are right. Let's get out of this thing. No messing around. It's not worth spending a bunch with a lawyer to the judge thing. Whatever. I think Jade's right. Let's clean, efficient, force his hand. We're selling this thing, and we avoid all the tension. And then Thanksgiving and Christmas takes care of itself. But, yeah, I'd get out quick. I really would. That's an unfortunate situation. I mean, when you get – and see, that's – okay. So I'm sitting here, and I didn't ask. Okay. I've already pulled on hold.

1:01:50But, like, I didn't ask. I guess I should have. if mom and dad are still alive, I got the picture they aren't around. I got the feeling they're not around. But I just, and for that reason, I just, I sat there and I went, note to self, if Stacey and I want to bless our three kids, I need to bless them individually, not try to do a, hey, we're going to do this asset and work the three of you into it. I just sat there and I went, note to self. Cash money. And individually. Yes. You're not in it together. Yeah. I'm blessing you this way. I'm blessing you this way, this way. And it's not this like joint thing where there's just, it's just what, I don't see what the value is in that.

1:02:28It was probably the family home is my guess. And I think in, they probably had the option to sell it early on, but they weren't ready to part with it yet. And so it probably just became, listen, I am adding all sorts of story to this that I don't know are true. So I'm sorry if that's not true. But you agree, right? To give four kids a house. All right, you guys, here you go. Yeah. even if there's not a problem it just feels like it's easy for a problem to exist because you have four different people have four different views of life yeah money it's like when you get a gift card to a restaurant you don't really like you're happy for the gift card but now you're forced to eat at applebee's oh geez you just went there just a shot across the bow i'm just saying eating good in the neighborhood i mean there's a lot of people that like an applebee's hey note to self team no Applebee's gift cards for Jade.

1:03:21That would not go over well. Yeah, it's happened. Where would one get you a gift card to? I'm with you. Asking for a friend. Visa gift card. Cash. No, no, no. I want to know. I'm putting you on the spot. 20 seconds. If I'm going to get you, Stacey and I are going to get you and Sam a gift card to a restaurant, where do you want? Where do you want to go? It has to be national so people know it. Okay. Come on. I don't know. Jay Alexander's? Do you guys have that? Yeah, do you guys? You live here too. I'm not going to lie. Do you guys have that? Can't call me that. Are you aware? You live in Middle Tennessee as well?

1:03:55I wanted to say Red Lobster. I don't mind that at all. I love a good lobster. All right, quick break. This is The Ramsey Show.

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1:05:28you're listening to the ramsey show i'm jade warshaw next to me is ken coleman let's go selling author of many books but most recently find the work you're wired to do home of the get clear career assessment which is very very great very fun very fun tool and it's always good to be with you. By the way, you're a best-selling author too. Yeah, money's not a math problem. Pick it up. You can find them all at ramsysolutions.com slash store. Get into it. Get involved. I want to get involved with these phone lines. And by the way, if you want to get involved with us, call us. The number is 888-825-5225 and we will pick up your call.

1:06:05Let's pick up Alicia's call. Alyssa actually is how we're going to pronounce that. Green Bay, Wisconsin. What's going on. Alyssa? Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. Did I say it right? It's Alyssa. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. So I have another insurance question for you. Wow. It's the day of insurances. Wow. All right. Hit us with it. So mine's about life insurance. So my husband and I were actually in disagreement on how much we should have. Okay. So, and we're actually on the same page about most everything else when it comes to finances, but this one, um, you know, so I'll just lay it out.

1:06:44Um, what does he think? Yeah. How much? Okay. So we both right now have 500 ,000 on each of us and he is completely fine with that. Okay. Um, and I used to be, but then I've been listening to you guys a lot more and now I know that it should be 10 to 12 times our annual income. That's right. Um, and so we're just not at enough and he is like not about it. Well, this makes him wrong and this makes you right. Well, yeah, I agree with Ken and let's talk deeply about it. The purpose of insurance is to, if something, God forbid, were to happen to either of you, anybody that's dependent on your income, they will be set up, right?

1:07:26And it's not just for the moment, it's ongoing. And so what's your income and what's his income? So mine's right at about$100 and his is about$130. Okay. So yours is at$100, his is at$130. So if something, God forbid, were to happen to you, he's got five-year salary, basically. But you're saying, hey, I'd love for this to be even better. I'd love for you to be that. If we do what I'm saying, which is you'd have, you know, over a million dollars of coverage. $2.5 is what I'm recommending. I'm bumping it up. Okay. Yeah. Because you got them at$2.30 combined income. Yeah. But I'm saying individual policies.

1:08:04Right. I know, but my total is going to be 2.5 between the two of them. Yes, exactly. That's all I'm saying. Exactly. But if something were to happen to you, like for you to be able to provide 10, basically 10 years of your salary to him, what a great gift. Yeah. I mean, that allows, and vice versa. So what's the difference? Like he's probably thinking about quarterly payments or monthly payments. What does this look like? Have you priced out the numbers with Xander? Yeah, actually I did. And so basically, like he thinks it's a waste of money. And honestly, we probably would have none if it weren't for it were in the military.

1:08:41So we have to take that 500 each. And so thank goodness. But and no, and he does have a point, like he says, you know, like if one of us were to pass the other one, you know, with that 500, like could easily pay off everything. And then we each make enough to like, you know, live our with our daily expenses. So I get it. but I was telling him cause I heard you say actually not that long ago. Um, and it kind of made me like really look into this and like be like, wow, I never thought about this before. Cause we'd always had that same mindset as like he's had now, but you said, um, you know, the intent is that if they pass, it's not just to like, Oh, here, pay off your debt.

1:09:22And, and like not a retirement plan. It's like, Hey, invest this. And then the interest should pretty much make up for the income that you're losing. And I was like, Oh my goodness, that makes so much sense. So I really want to do it. Yeah. Um, but he is like, he, he just doesn't, he thinks it's a waste of money. And, and of course, like he jokes when I mentioned it and he's like, you know what, I'm not going to die until we're way older anyway. So it doesn't even matter. And I'm like, well, I love your confidence. That makes me a little uncomfortable. I think he's uncomfortable. I think the whole, like you said, it's the 500.

1:09:58It's part of work. It's required. So in many ways for him, that was a no-brainer. But when it's time to actually turn on the lights in his brain and start thinking about it, it's an uncomfortable conversation. You're talking about what happens when you kick the bucket, and that's not exciting. I'd flip this on him. I think he's a real cavalier about this. I think he's too cavalier about it, to be completely honest. but okay play it his way go all right i did the numbers i did the ran the numbers got some quotes from xander let me show you the quotes and since you're okay if i die just living with the 500 turns out i'm okay with that too but tell you where i'm not okay if you die early sparky mcgee there you go i don't think 500 is enough for my safety gland and i got some numbers i ran and I'm pretty much telling you that we need to do this.

1:10:53I'm not asking your permission. I'm just getting you to buy in from my peace of mind, and I'd lay the real numbers out, which, by the way, I'm just curious, what would the total increase be year over year with the numbers you got from Zander? I'm just curious. I want to know, too. Yeah, and actually, I was really impressed. So I did a quote on just mine for another$500 because that would put me at$1 million. Perfect. And that's only going to be like$17 a month. What? So I go back to Sparky. I'm sorry I'm calling your husband Sparky. But he's kind of irritated me a little bit, and I'm trying to be nice.

1:11:29I'd go back to him and go, hey, listen, I know you're good with the 500K. If I kick the bucket early, I'm not. I just bumped it up to what this guy Dave Ramsey's been teaching for decades, and it's$17 a month. I mean, come on. That's one drive-thru. That's one time through the drive-thru for the month. Yeah, that's two Starbucks, you know. Come on. So I would just present it. $500 ,000 more. I'd present it that way and say, I'm doing this. Yeah. Yes, Ken. Oh, by the way. Well, we do have to agree on everything. Like, that is something that we. Oh, I know. I know. I'm having some fun with this.

1:12:04I'm not. I know. But we're also talking about. Real things. $17 a month. I don't think this is a knockdown drag out is my point. Is he being stingy? Are you guys still in debt? Is that why he's being kind of tight with the purse strings? okay yes we are we do have debt but it is not out of control okay um is he super tight yes um and and the thing is is like i it's not that i don't understand it and i value it and everything um but i just think that like he thinks it's unnecessary so we are not about unnecessary spending um and i would get him like no we're completely covered like it like he is like oh know like you know if the 500 ,000 that would take care of everything and we both make enough income that like all of our you know monthly expenses are good there's just no reason for it.

1:12:54Let's go back to the basics of this we need to and this is what you tell him and hey play the call like the whole this this is oh this is documented. Oh I can't wait sorry sorry man for calling you Sparky. So here's the thing let's go back to the basics on this because when we uh what we teach here right? The baby steps on getting out of debt. The whole entire purpose is, is to change your family tree. It's all legacy built at the end of the day. It provides peace now, but it's also providing peace for the, for the future and for the people that come after you. And such a huge part of that is insurance until you can self-insurance because in self-insure, because we're building wealth, not just for us, but to be able to pass down.

1:13:35And until you can self-insure depending on insurance companies to help you with that is such a huge part of the wealth building process for you because again i hope you guys live until be as old as methuselah i don't care live as long as you want but if for some reason you don't this is here it's kind of just that fail safe that kicks in and to spend uh sparky marky mark biff whatever your name is to spend the extra$17, bud. It's$204 a year. It's$204 to make sure your family has half a million more. By the way, for your peace of mind, I keep playing that card. I was having fun with it, but I'm not joking around.

1:14:17He's tight. Play to that. Go, you're tight because you're fearful about money and stuff, and I appreciate that. There you go, Ken. But guess where I'm tight? I'm nervous about this. And it's$204 a month. So you know what? Yes, we got to be in agreement. I'd say, Sparky, it's time to have a new budget meeting. It's like calling Congress back for a special session. We're having a special mid-month budget meeting. And I am going to find$17 a month to make sure that I'm not stressed out when you die early because you drink too much Diet Coke. Or whatever. Sorry, Diet Coke drinkers. You mean, sorry, Sparky.

1:14:56Sparky. We love you, Sparky. We want the best for you, bud. We do love you. help your wife out, dude. Come on. This is The Ramsey Show.

1:15:39Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Alongside Jade Warsaw, I'm Ken Coleman. Phone number is 888-825-5225 to get coached up. The Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by our friends at YReFi. YReFi? Refinance is defaulted private student loans that other places won't touch and gives you a low fixed rate. Loan built just for you. Sharice Kay. She took advantage of this and lowered her payment from$2 ,000 to$680 a month with Y-Refi. So you need to go to YRefi.com slash Ramsey today if that's you. And you can learn more there. That's the letter Y, R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. It may not be available in all states.

1:16:21Alrighty. Today's question comes from Andy in Delaware. My fiance had a lot of debt related to a prior divorce. She's currently living with her parents and her parents used a little cash and 10 credit cards to pay off her debt. So now she owes them close to$75 ,000. I know legally most of this is not in my fiance's name, but morally we owe it together when we get married. I didn't agree with how her mom put this debt on credit cards and it doesn't sound like they are paying much more than the minimums right now. My plan is to take out a personal loan after we get married to pay off her parents in full.

1:16:59So I have control over the debt completely. This would drop down the interest significantly. We could then attack it with both of our incomes to pay it off as quickly as we can. Would this work or is there a better plan? Okay, so just to clarify, there was a divorce. She had debt. Her parents said, we'll take care of it, but we're doing it with credit cards. And you're like, no, when we get married, we're gonna take out a personal loan to clear it. I don't necessarily like that method. I like that you're saying, hey, after we get married, then we'll tackle it together. That is right. So green check on that.

1:17:32I would not do the loan. The truth is you're only on the hook for the$75 ,000. You're not necessarily on the hook for any interest that is accrued because of their method of paying for this. That part is on them because they chose that route. They chose that card with that interest rate. Unless there's a conversation that I don't know about. In my mind, I'd be like, I owe you$75 ,000. Ken? I couldn't agree more. It's a lot easier. They've already assumed this debt for her. This is not something that she put on them. They did this. I would pay the parents directly. And I agree with Jade. I wouldn't worry about the interest.

1:18:12That's their problem. I think they'll be thrilled that you guys are serious about paying it off. And I think it's a lot easier to pay them off. Now, I would only say the caveat to that is you both need to agree, you and your fiancé, that we aren't skipping this. We're going to treat this like it is a private loan, like our credit would be affected, like they'd come after us with collections, all of the things that people that loan money put in place as some sense of accountability. And I think that's the key, or else this could create tension. And I don't think that's the case here. I think this is like we want to get this out.

1:18:46I love the urgency, love the character and the integrity here, but I agree with Jade 100%. Pay the parents directly. Here's the problem I do foresee is that he's already noticing, hey, her mom put this on credit cards, and this is him speculating. It doesn't seem like she's making payments. Or he says something there where— They're paying the minimum. Yeah, they're paying minimums. So I do foresee a problem of down the line them saying, well, we did this, but the balance has grown. So I do think you need to have some sort of really, really clear conversation about how interest is handled and how that part is not pertaining to you.

1:19:21And records, records, records. Records, records. I would treat every payment that's sent to the parents, however you choose to do it, I would have that in a journal, a financial record. Your bank would easily give you that. I would do that so that it is tracked. Yes. If you have the conversation that Jade is recommending, and I agree. because, again, they could do something dumb with all that$75 ,000 and not pay off the credit card. But at that point, it ain't my problem. And let it be known, when Ken and I talk about you having this conversation, we really mean your wife, not you. You need to stay far from this conversation and let her speak for both of you because otherwise this could get grisly.

1:20:01Let's go to Detroit, Michigan, where Nick awaits. Nick, how can we help? Hey, Ken and Jade. Thank you for taking my call. So I had a question about having dual employment. The reason being was we have three boys, seven, six, and three. So we're in that messy middle. And I wanted to give my wife the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom. She was a nurse to begin with. And then once we had our third child, I just said, you know, might as well stay at home. We can survive with my income. So now that she took advantage of her, or she took advantage by herself going through her master's to get nurse practitioner, and she just completed the program.

1:20:48And you told her to stay home? Yeah. Hold on, hold on. I did. Okay, so can you go ahead? Yeah, keep going. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, keep going. Get to our question. Yep. Okay. So I work for a fire department and I make about$110 ,000. And then I also have a family business where I make about$100 ,000 as well. Obviously, the fire is pension and then the family business is just straight salary. There is a simple IRA that I can contribute to. My question is, now that she has her nurse practitioner license and we have no student that am I crazy to leave my fire department employment and give up my pension opportunity and allow her income to supplement my loss and obviously strive to make more of the family business or do I just grind it out with both employments if I can manage it?

1:21:57All right, so how much is she going to make as a nurse practitioner? I would hope about$140 ,000. Okay, so$140 ,000. And the family business where you're making$100 ,000 right now, do you own that or are you working for another family member? For my dad. Okay, and is that what you want to do long term? Let's go 15, 20 years from now. Do you want to be a fireman and be in the business or do you just want to be running that business or not in there at all? No, and so that's the unique part is that in about five years, I had the opportunity to leave the fire department under a full pension, or I'm able to be, I can pull out from the pension.

1:22:36I know, but I'm not focusing on that. I'm asking, do you want to be long-term owner or involved in the family business, yes or no? Yes, yes. I mean, that's the dream. That's what you want, right? Yes. Okay, so what would benefit you leaving the fire department right now? Forget the pension. I know you're all hung up on the pension. I don't really care about the pension. I'm not minimizing the pension, but we don't make decisions based on pensions. Okay, so my question is, if you leave the fire department, that's a certain block of hours every week, and you just focused on the business, would that allow you to do more and get paid more in the family business?

1:23:14Yeah, there would have to be a discussion, but yeah, absolutely. I'd have the discussion. Dad, if I walk away from the fire department and I start full time and I'm all my energy in here, what's that look like? This is very simple. Stop thinking about the fire pension. Because if you walk away from the pension to make your life better in the now and the next, nobody cares about the pension. Jade? I want to know where does the stay-at-home mom who was going to be a nurse practitioner fit into all this? Because that was the thing that made me be like, wait, what, what, what? It sounds like she's back in, right?

1:23:45To work? Yeah, no, and that was the goal. I mean, she just wanted, that was her personal goal was to become a nurse practitioner. And for being a stay-at-home mom, it gave her the opportunity to just focus on school and nothing else. So she's excited to get back in, and does she have a gig? She's currently seeking. Okay, cool. Okay, okay. Yeah, I walk away from the fireman position. You're only in it because of this pension. It's the only evidence you've given us as to why you'd keep doing it. And I just don't think you need to keep doing it. Now, you can if you want to. But if I'm trying to grow in one area, which is for you as a family business, every second I'm spending in the fire station is taking away from that long-term goal.

1:24:28And if your wife makes$110, she's replacing the fireman salary. Yeah, why not? Bingo. This is a no-brainer if it plays out the way that you want it to play out. maybe wait until she gets the gig I'm afraid to pull the trigger well don't pull the trigger until she starts making the money and she's in yeah man you got this that's interesting I was confused in the very beginning but I also jumped the gun so that's why I was confused you got a little fired up there you thought that was going a different direction I did don't tell me what I can do is that what I heard

1:25:07I digress She's a strong woman. Hear her roar, folks. Good hour. This is The Ramsey Show.

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1:26:21Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today.

1:26:31Welcome to the Ramsey Show, where we help you win in your life, America, specifically winning in your money, winning in your work, and winning in your relationships. The phone number for us to coach you up is 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. The dynamo next to me is the one, the only. Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. and she'll take lead on the money calls and help you manage the money. And I want to help you make more money, so it's a good combo. Let's get right to it. We're going to go to Denver, Colorado. Peter is there. Peter, how can we help today? Hi, guys. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. So I'm calling in because my wife and I are in baby step two and trying to get out of debt.

1:27:16and about a year and a half ago I got my wife a horse lease started because she loved being with horses and working with them. She was at the time volunteering at a horse center for people with disabilities so she got to basically just shovel poop and be around horses but didn't get to ride ever and I saw how much joy that was bringing her so I got her this horse lease. What's that mean? Can you explain that more to me? Yeah, I've never heard of that. Yeah. So basically we pay$350 a month and she can go out to this property and ride the horse whenever she wants. Her, myself and the kids actually.

1:27:59So it's been a lot of fun. But I'm wondering if we're being irresponsible since we're in baby step two. Is it, can I ask more? I'm just going to dig deeper on the horse lease real quick. So is it, there's several horses on the property and she can ride any horse or does she kind of get assigned a horse that's like, that's her horse? Tell me more about it. Is it personal? Is it? Yeah. So we just have the one horse that we have access to. And how long is, how long have you been doing this? About a year and a half. Year and a half. And the idea of her giving this up is met with what kind of reaction?

1:28:38Not great. uh a lot of gears and um she feels like it just helps her a lot emotionally um yeah how and wow how long would you have to give it up i mean how long is you guys's journey are we talking so i don't so we have like 21 000 in debt i've got 3 000 on the last credit card um um, 5 ,000, maybe it's over 21. So 5 ,000 on my truck. Um, and then, uh, I just got a personal loan for 15 ,000 to cover last year's taxes. Um, cause that was the first year we'd ever had to pay taxes. Okay. So you're at 23 now. Yeah. Okay. So is that it or is there more? That's it. Okay. And what's the income? Sorry, Ken.

1:29:35No, go ahead. Make about$120 ,000. Oh. Okay. So this is going to be gone in a year? You're going to live on$100 ,000, and you're going to knock this out in one year or less? Yeah. Shooting for like nine months. Yeah. Good for you. Can she work or does she work outside the home? So she homeschools our three boys and stays at home. That's not what I asked. Can she work? Yeah, she does sometimes. Doing what? I'm a trim carpenter, and so when we're done with houses, the general contractor that I work for will hire her to go in and do the post-construction cleanup. And what kind of money does she make, and how long does it take her to make this money?

1:30:21It's very sporadic because it's just when we finish houses. So it could be like three right in a row or like the next one we'll have is maybe two months away. How much time does she take when she cleans? One to two, one day usually. One day. And so she's able to do this with the kids. Yeah, usually we just have my father-in-law babysat. All right. I'm gathering information over here. I mean, I'd simplify it. I'd simplify it like this and some people might hate this answer. technically if you're in baby step two you cut out things like this yeah now you guys aren't you're not burning like some people are in debt and you could be if you choose not to go hard on this but you're going to be out of debt so quickly what i'd say is if you want to spend 350 dollars and keep this horse lease up with this horse that you've probably established a relationship with just earn the 350 dollars a month earn it back i was go out and get a job first of all i am shocked right now but i love it you know because i thought you were gonna go hard on this one it's an amount of money that's that is truly not going to make or break them to that extent yes but i'm with you i want to make sure the audience hears this i want to make sure that peter hears this i love this idea because that's what i was gonna say go on it mama needs to go make the 350 yeah or there is no horse yeah if because you got to cover the horse but i do have one question on that.

1:31:46Peter, let's say it takes you nine months and all this is clear. Is that the number you gave us? That's what we're shooting for, yes. What's the name of the horse? Jesse. Is Jesse going to be available for lease nine months from now? It's certainly not guaranteed. Is Jesse old? Well, that doesn't make any difference because if Jesse dies, we can't lease him anyway. I know, but I'm just saying maybe she wants to live out Jesse's last nine months. I'm going to throw a wrinkle into of this, Peter and Jade. I'm going to throw something out and let you two discuss it. Okay. You ready? Yeah, I'm ready.

1:32:20I like your idea, but I think the better idea is to go talk to Jesse's owner and tell Jesse's owner what the story is and say nine months from now, we're going to be debt-free and this is super important to my wife. I need to know that we can jump back into the contract and lease Jesse nine months from now and I would take the 350 and I would help mama get motivated to knock this debt out and say, we're going to stop riding Jesse for nine months. Okay. But I'm just throwing it. I'm throwing a hard alternative out there. Peter, Jay discuss. So Peter, are you saying that if you were to cancel the lease, are you worried about Jesse not being available and that somebody else would take the lease spot?

1:33:05Is that what you're concerned about? Essentially? Yes. Yeah. She could just lease you're out to somebody else which is why i have the conversation with jesse's owner yeah well but if i'm the owner if i'm if i'm jesse's owner i'm like you want me to hold the horse but how can she not lease him out to like 50 people how many times can you ride jesse in one month i mean that's he's got to be available so we're um there's usually only one by the way i should point out to people who just jumped in the horse jesse is a horse we're talking about riding a horse yes i should have probably made that clear yes i'll refer to him as the horse from now on so it's not to confuse everybody all right but how many times can you ride the horse in a month she the owner goes out like once a month right twice a week okay twice oh that's a lot twice a week for 350 and i don't want to get too deeply into your business but i did want to ask because you kind of alluded to it does your wife struggle with like some anything mentally because you said it helps her mental health um i don't think it's so much like a mental health problem so much as just like she she's with the boys constantly she homeschools yeah totally and that's kind of like her no need yes our children drive us crazy we are she needs a little time with nature come on okay i i listen i think ken's idea can't hurt it can't hurt you to go by and say hey we've got a nine month window we've been working with you guys for a year and a half we love it can we need to temporarily suspend this and then we'll be back you know give him the date in time.

1:34:35If he says, yeah, say yeah. But if not, yeah, tell mom and be like, hey, mom, if you want to keep this going, you just got to fund it because we decided that our priority is paying off the debt. And so we decided that that's the priority with our current income. And I want to stand by that. And if you want to do something more, clean some houses, mama got stuff, clean some toilets. Well, it doesn't have to be toilets. That's the last thing I'm going to, that's the last job I'm taking. I'm trying to make a point. She really wants to ride the horse. You got to pay for it. This is The Ramsey Show.

1:35:16Hey folks, our 4th of July sale is happening right now from July 3rd through the 6th. When you buy a sale book at full price, you'll get a second one half off. Grab the Total Money Makeover, Breaking Free from Broke, or even Smart Money, Smart Kids, all written to help you win with money. This Independence Day, celebrate your freedom with tools that help you ditch debt and money stress so you can build the future you want. Visit RamseySolutions.com slash store to get started.

1:36:09You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I don't know about you, Ken, but I feel like the last couple of calls we've gotten have had something to do with protections. Yes. Making sure that an inheritance is safe, making sure that the money and the net worth that we've amassed is safe, making sure that my identity is safe. It all has to do with insurance. And everybody wants to have the right insurances. After all, insurance is there to mitigate risk, right? Whether it's health insurance, home insurance, renter's insurance, all of these things are out there to protect you in case a cost comes up that you yourself cannot cover, your insurance is there to kind of fill that gap for you.

1:36:45And it can be very confusing to navigate all of the insurances and doing, you know, going through, I don't know, Ken, that is something that if we start talking about insurance, my eyes glaze over and I want someone to handle it for me. Yes, I would concur. And so our Ramsey Trusted Pros, they shop the market and they compare all the insurance quotes so that you don't have to and so that I don't have to. And your pro will compare the quotes. They'll look at the discounts and they will bundle the deals for you at no extra cost, which is great. When my husband and I moved here, Ken, we were in a new house.

1:37:20We had to have the housing insurance for that. We needed to get the umbrella coverage and all that. And they shopped all the quotes. They rolled it into one nice neat bow and we got more coverage for less money. Like that. I love that. So Ramsey Trusted Pros will make sure you have all the coverage you need and nothing that you don't. So there's not going to be any fluff here. Ramsey Trusted Pros, they're interviewed, they're vetted, and they're coached to make sure that they're market experts. And here's the best part. They truly do have your best interest at heart. I've experienced that, Ken.

1:37:51I know that you have experienced that. So the question you need to be asking yourself is, do you have the right coverage based on your individual needs? OK, and so to do that, go to Ramsey Solutions dot com slash coverage. Again, that's Ramsey Solutions dot com slash coverage. And let me just add, because I hear it in the wind. Insurance, guys, is not a baby step. OK, it's not something that you wait until you're after, you know, After you've paid off your debt or after you've saved up your savings to do, insurance is something that you do the moment that you've learned about it. And so if you've been listening to the show for a couple of segments or even just this one segment and you're like, oh, you know what?

1:38:32I don't have life insurance. That is your signal that you need to act on that today. Not once you've paid your debt off. If you don't have health insurance, check out Health Trust. That's the partnership that we have. You need health insurance today. If you're a renter and you don't have renter's insurance, this is your sign from, oh, this is your sign. You need renter's insurance. You are out here with no coverage. Anything can happen. If you don't know, if you have the bare minimum of auto, you need to do our insurance checkup and make sure that you are covered. Because if you get in an accident and your coverage isn't what you thought it would be, you're about to be up a creek without a paddle.

1:39:12So please, please, please prioritize this in your every dollar budget. It is so, so very important to get the coverage you need today. Our Ramsey Trusted Pros will help you do that. All right, let's go to the phone lines. Tyler in Buffalo, New York is here. What's going on, Tyler? Hi, how are we doing today? Doing good. How can we help? Hi. So I'm looking into possibly starting up a home inspector's business come this winter here. And I was just curious on what the right steps would be to do that. All right. So home inspection. uh why'd you pick that problem or that solution what what drew you to that i guess the big part that came out of it is um the flexibleness um because i have a job right now that's kind of um it's seasonal it pays very well when the season's on but then winter time you don't have um hardly anything going on okay all right and what's the homes inspection business like in the brutal winters of Buffalo?

1:40:14I'm guessing you Buffalo folks, I mean, you just know how to handle that kind of snow. I mean, you guys were in the news last year during the football season, crazy snow. Is it a normal rhythm and there is not a big drop-off in the wintertime in Buffalo as it relates to home inspection? Nothing too crazy. At that time right there, I actually live south of Buffalo and there's a lot of new boats going on. Okay, good. There's a lot of possibility for it. Um, you have a background and some expertise, some skill set that lends itself to doing that well? Um, I did plumbing for about five years. I've shadowed an electrician.

1:40:50I've worked with carpenters. You know, I, when it comes to the nuts and bolts of it, I, I, you got it. Trust me, you had me at plumbing. I mean, I was like, okay, you've got the skill set for that. You enjoy the work. Uh, it can be a pretty good business. I mean, you can build this thing and to where it could replace your seasonal income. So I'm not seeing any red flags on this. How much is it going to cost for you to get qualified to do that? Is it a certification? Yes. The bits I've looked into, you know, you can go online and file through a course, and then that right there is roughly probably about$2 ,500.

1:41:26$2 ,500 do you have the cash for that? Yes. All right. I like that. So no red flag there. and is the market saturated? Is the market moderate as it relates to people out there that are your competitors or is there hardly anybody doing it? In my micro area, there's two. And honestly, the quality of the work they do, it's not very well. And it was something I actually seen an issue when I was working in the trade still. Okay, so you've heard this from viable sources, that these guys or gals aren't doing a good job. Yes, and even seen it myself. Are they covered up in business, or what's their business like, the flow of business?

1:42:14They seem to stay fairly steady, but at the same time, the exact grid of it, I'm unsure. What's your gumption level as it relates to talking to realtors, bankers, mortgage pros? Are you a guy that will get out and connect and shake people's hand, look them in the eye and go, I'm the newest home inspector on the block and I come from the trades and I'm telling you my competition, they ain't so good, I'm fantastic, give me a shot. Are you willing to do that? Absolutely. All right, Jade, I ran him through my questions. I turned the balance of my time over to you. You used the word gumption. I love that word, gumption.

1:42:50I love that. Because this is a, the reason I asked that question, Tyler, is because this is a business where you, sir, are the product. That's right. And. Jade and I are in that same business. Jade's the product, I'm the product. So you got to have that gumption necessary to put yourself out there. And the realtors that you want to work with are going to be the type who are doing high volume because they're going to be able to give you a lot of work. And if they are high volume realtors, they know how to talk. They know how to command a room. They know how to, you know, their BS level is very low.

1:43:21Right. So it's like this guy, you know, but if you come in there and you're like, listen, we need to work together. Here's why. I love that. So my question that I, the only question I wrote down, which I kind of feel like that's what we're into now is how do you get clients? Like, what's the strategy for you to go in there? Because it's not like you're trying to railroad anybody or, you know, you're not intentionally trying to like steal anybody's clients, but at the same time you want the work. Does that make sense? So it's like, how do you see yourself getting in there and kind of pulling the boat close to the dock and getting those clients?

1:43:53See, that's one thing I'm kind of unsure of. I don't know really where to start with it. I wasn't sure if it's something you get in with banks or, you know, you contact realtors or if it's just a matter of, you know, just talking to everybody you can to get your name out there. Okay, well, it's the list that I ran through earlier, but I would start with your mortgage companies in the area. They're the ones that when a house is going for refinance or the actual initial financing, they are the ones that are getting the home inspector out. I know when I've refied, the company I refied with, they're the one that chose the, they have their guys and they got their gals.

1:44:28Okay. So for certain mortgage, I would check on the realtor side. I'm going to say, I don't know. I think that's more of a mortgage play. Okay. Because again, the mortgage company are the ones, the banks, they're the ones that need to know what the house situation is. Now, realtors do it as well. I'm not saying realtors don't, but I'm saying realtors and mortgage companies, when they do refinancing, they'll have a... I'm sorry. I've confused the whole situation. You're talking about home inspection. I apologize. I got in my head home appraisal. Sorry. Mortgage companies are appraisers. That's right.

1:45:05Okay. Home inspection is realtor. You're right. That's okay. My brain just got all cobwebbing. That's all right, Ken. I got the broom out. you're all swept clean appraisals so home appraisers that's different than the home inspector so realtors realtors realtors all day and hey listen can we tell them tyler if i were you i'd start with the with the website ramsey solutions.com find the find our those pros that's it the realtor pros right there start calling them and go i called the ramsey show I'm a big Ramsey listener and you are a trusted pro. Can we talk? Can I help you? So that's where I would go.

1:45:44Look at this guy. Come on, Kim. I had to get the cobwebs out of the way first. It's what he does. It's what he does.

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1:46:50This is the Ramsey Show. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. The phone number is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Phoenix, Arizona. Jonathan is there. Jonathan, how can we help? Hey, thanks for taking my call. Sure. Not quite sure where to start. To be brief, I'm 24 with two kids of my own. My son has two kids from a past relationship. And I am the only one that works at the moment. And it just seems like I'm always drowning. I come from a family that has never really been financially stable. So I don't even know where to start to begin to get out of this like drowning feeling. Yeah, man, I'm so sorry.

1:47:42But can I just tell you real quick before we go into this? I sense in you a guy who wants to change his family tree. I sense in you a guy who is busting his tail and trying to do right by those little ones. And I wanted to encourage you because I think you've got I think you've got a lot of character. And I love the fact that you're calling and asking for help. It's a big deal to go. I need help. And I want to, I just felt like you needed to hear that. You're not a failure and you are going to be able to figure this out. We're going to help today. You got me? Yeah. All right. Thank you. A couple of quick things here.

1:48:13I'm going to turn you over to Jade. All right. So we're going to try to do as much as we can in a quick amount of time. Number one, what are you doing and what is your income? I work in the HVAC industry and my yearly income is around 60 to 80 on a good year. okay that's not bad so we've got somewhere between 60 to 80 000 gross and um are all four if i heard you right you've got two kids and your and your girlfriend or fiance has is she is your fiance or no yes okay i thought i heard that okay she's got are you got all four kids staying with you guys all the time yes okay so she's she's at home taking care of the kids yeah gotcha okay um and what kind of debt do you have uh we're in about 23 000 in a minivan now wait a second when you say when you say we did you both sign on to that deal yes yeah we did all right uh and it's 23 000 on a minivan yeah okay what other debt do you have and then i have about let's say 1600 in collections and credit cards and then she has around I'd say 600 to 1 ,000 in collections and credit cards.

1:49:32That's it? Yeah. You got any money in the bank at all? No, I did, but we had to go through it. It hit some unfortunate times, so yeah, it's cleared out. What do you mean by unfortunate times? Give me 20 seconds on that. I lost my job, my last job, where it was great money, good work. I was able to save up around$4 ,000 to$5 ,000, and then once I got laid off from that company, we had to use that to keep our bills going. Was that HVAC work as well or something different? Yeah. No, it was HVAC. You don't have to tell us, but was this something you did? Yeah, unfortunately. Did you learn from it?

1:50:13Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So what that tells me, though, is that you have more income potential in that industry because you were clearly working for somebody else making more. What were you making when you were with them? About$96 ,000 a year. So what would need to be true for you to get back to that?

1:50:38Honestly, find a different company. But it's possible, yes or no? Yes. Okay, I just want to leave that there. Yeah, let's get to it. I like that. I always like to kind of ask all the questions. I'm kind of like the general doctor and then she's a specialist. And so she kind of sits over there and she's like rubbing her chin. You filled out the paperwork for me, Ken. Yeah, that's what I am. Let's be honest. I'm the intake nurse. That's not true. No, but I think this is doable, Jade. I do too. I like what you just said about the opportunity to make more. And if I'm you, I'm getting on that today.

1:51:11Ken, what's the first step? Where do you go about that? It's a budget. No, I'm talking about for him to find the job. Oh, sorry. I apologize. You see where I was at? You had already clocked out. Well, no, because they've not done it. They have no idea where their money's coming and going. That's right. That's the issue. Here's what I would say. Jonathan, because you're in the trades of HVAC, you don't have to stay at this current company for 10 years. I mean, you go to the best situation that you can go to. So I would be really, because you're stable now, now I'd be looking, and you learned your lesson from the last one.

1:51:46HVAC can make really really good money and so you're looking everywhere all the time until the next opportunity comes and the minute it shows up walk right to it love that um so that's homework number one is we're looking for that homework number two is you do need a budget we're going to make sure you get set up with an every dollar budget it's the best way to budget because you're going to see all the things that you're spending money on and you're going to be able to pinpoint okay where's an area of concern where's an area I can cut back on um maybe there's more at our disposal than we realize, but it's just been going out to things, I don't know, DoorDash, Instacart, whatever.

1:52:20So we're going to give you the budget. I also wanted to know, what's your living situation? Are you renting? Do you have a house together? Tell us about that. We're renting. Okay. And what do you pay every month for rent? Just under two grand, so 1980. Okay. That's a, that's a squeeze. I'm not going to lie. And I know you've got the kiddos, but you know, you, you need to find something that's more along the like $1 ,400,$1 ,300 area so that it's not squeezing you so much because you told me you make five to$6 ,000 a month. And so assuming, you know, it's somewhere right in the middle. Yeah. $1 ,400 is really your max.

1:52:57So I'd be thinking through what that could mean because unless you see a pathway quickly to earn more money, this rent is going to continue to squeeze you. The van, What's the van worth? You owe 23. What's it worth? It's about 21. Okay. I'd be looking at getting out of that and into something a little less expensive. Take a couple months and save up the difference so you're not upside down and get out of that van. Or go over to the credit union and say, hey, the van's worth 23 or I owe 23. It's worth 21. Can I get a$2 ,000 loan and can we add like seven or eight to it so that I can get something else?

1:53:36Jonathan, listen real quick to what she just said. Okay. This is doable. You bust it, go to a credit union or something, get a different loan, whatever we got to do. Pay this thing off because you're going to save yourself a lot of money. What's the car payment on that? You guys don't want to know. Yeah, we do. We do want to know. I know. That's why I'm asking. $741. $783 a month. So, Jade, tell him how to get rid of that car because that is a$700 raise instantly. This is the how-to. The how-to is the first place I want you to try to go to is a credit union because they're going to care about the fact that you're a human being.

1:54:13But wherever you end up going to get this loan, I want you to get this loan. OK, so what you're doing here is you have to pay twenty three thousand dollars to get clear on this, but it's only worth twenty one. Right. And so you need to clear that two thousand dollar difference. That's what you're going to get the loan for so that when it comes time to pay this off, you actually get the title. right? That's, that's, or the, you can give the person the title who buys it. That's what we're talking about. Um, but then you're without a car, right? And so the idea is don't just get the loan for 2000, get it for a little bit more, maybe 7 ,000, start looking online tonight and see what can I get that'll get us from point A to point B.

1:54:51This is temporary. This is not forever. This might be for a year and a half until you can get, you know, later on, add some more money with it and trade up. Okay. But look for an$8 ,000 car and now you're in for$10 ,000 instead of$23 ,000. You see what I did there? And now instead of paying$7.83 a month, if you can get in with a credit union with a better interest rate, maybe you're only paying$300 a month. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. So that's what we want to do with the car. With these credit cards and collections, let's settle them. Okay. And whenever you settle them, you're calling them up and saying, Hey, I know it says I owe you$2 ,000.

1:55:25Today I can give you$700, take it or leave it. That kind of thing. and you get it in writing first, and they're going to settle with you. If it's already gone to collections, they will settle, but you're going to have to be like white on rice. Like you're going to have to be on them calling all the time because if you dealt with Betty before and Betty didn't do it, call back and talk to Shirley. And if Shirley won't do it, talk back, call back and talk to Heather. Somebody's going to do it for you, but you have to do your due diligence and stay on top of this. The only good news that comes out of this collection stuff is that you're going to end up paying it for a lot less, but it's going to be at your expense as far as the effort goes.

1:56:00Yeah. Jonathan, you can do this. Hang on the line. We're going to get you in every dollar. Please just start plugging the numbers into this thing. It's so intuitive. It's so simple. And it's a game changer because you will now know where your money is going. Yeah. And that is half the battle. What Jay just did for you is a huge victory to get out of that car payment and on the path to building prosperity for those kiddos. You can do this, Jonathan. We're here to help. This is The Ramsey Show.

1:57:00Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. 888-825-5225 is the number. Our scripture today comes from Hebrews 4, verse 16. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. I feel like that should be the verse for all budget meetings. Yeah, you're probably right. Let us approach this budget meeting with grace and confidence so we'll receive mercy. That's pretty good. And our quote of the day from Mark Twain. A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. Classic. The man was deep.

1:57:43Wow. He would have owned Twitter if it was a thing back then. That's got a lot of depth to it. Good stuff there. All right. Paul is joining us now in Edmonton, Alberta. Paul, you are on the Ramsey Show. How can we help? Thank you so much for taking my call. How are you two today? We're good. How can we help you? So I recently got a raise at my job. I doubled my salary. I just need you to quickly Google my currency. I make$37 ,000 U.S. a year. It's not a today purchase, but down the line, the reason I called was, is it worthy and a worthy investment to purchase some farmland and then lease it to farmers as like a, I don't want to say passive income, but like as another source of income.

1:58:32All right, before we answer that, I'm guessing you've done enough research to answer this question. So give me an example of some acreage and how much you could lease it for to a farmer in this scenario. What kind of real revenue are we talking about have you run the numbers um I just know I just only heard about like this kind of format through some of my friends like they worked with farmers in the past and then like I had another friend that leased uh their farmland to like uh farmers so it's like kind of been a like a short thing that kind of I got introduced to so I wouldn't have that number to go right so you get my point in asking this question before we get to the financial side of this, there's just the good old fashioned common sense.

1:59:19And so it's like somebody saying, should I buy a business? Well, we want to look at your financial situation and we're going to dive into that. But we want to also go, what's the business and does it have viability and have you done a business study? And so in this situation, this will not be hard for you, but you need to go become an expert in the numbers. In other words, it's got to be this amount of acreage and then based on that, and it's got to have this kind of soil quality. and then based on that. And you've got to be able to buy it. Well, you know, we're going to get to that part. But I'm just saying, like, even if financially you can do it, which you're going to coach him on, I just wanted him to know, is this an actual smart investment even if you're in position to do so, which I don't think you are.

1:59:59But that's my little quick warning. I want Jay to jump in on your financial situation. And I'm getting in King Coleman territory here. I don't sense that it's necessarily something you'd be passionate about. It sounds like something you just heard some folks doing. That's a good point. And it's like, oh, maybe that can work for me. And I think that could also be a bit of a, at least an, I'll call it an orange flag. And can we also say real quick, there's no such thing as passive income. No, no. It doesn't exist. That's a lie. Yeah, for sure. So back onto the other side, if we do, let's say, let's just pretend for, for.

2:00:33So I can't say what I was going to say. Let's just pretend that you had vetted this out and you had some numbers. OK. And you said, yeah, I've looked into this. I can make X amount of dollars. Then my next question to you would have been, OK, what's it cost to buy these acres of land? And then if you would have said, well, Jade, it's going to cost me four hundred thousand dollars to get the land that because I need at least this many acres. And I would have said, OK, how are you going to pay for it? And so I think that's where we get into the numbers nitty gritty of this, which is you're making$37 ,000 a year.

2:01:02I would never tell you to invest in$400 ,000 and go into debt for it. I would say the first line of your investing needs to be you investing 15 % of your income. And that's steady. And that's like your kind of country road of investing. And then on down the road, if there's other things that you're interested, like real estate or land, that sort of thing, I would say, listen, the idea is to pay cash for it. And that's really, really, really the best way to purchase land in real estate is in cash. So I like that you're thinking about more ways to earn money. I like that you're kind of creative in what that could be.

2:01:35It's not just, I don't know, kind of the typical route, which is cool. But I think that you have a lot of work to do and a lot of study on this. It was never something that I was going to put like a, like be in debt for. it was always going to be something that it would be a cash transaction, but that would be like 10 years. Like it's not like something. I love that. I don't have that money today. I don't have that money today. I love the question. It would just be something that like, you know, given with the recent bump in income and then like, I've been already investing on the side and whatnot.

2:02:08Okay, good. Yeah. Paul, I was just telling Jade this during the show breaks today. I'm, I'm kicking around an idea. Friend brought me an investment opportunity. I've never invested in something like this before. And I am doing a lot of due diligence. I've had some really smart guys that have done things like this before that are my friends. And I'm going, take a look at this. What questions do I need to be asking? So the advice I'm giving you, I'm actually taking. And I would never want to make any kind of investment. Yeah. This is what we teach, by the way, in mutual funds. We want you to sit with a smart investor pro, multiple people.

2:02:41Who do you connect with? Chemistry. Do they have a heart of a teacher? Do you understand what you're doing so that you can make your decision? They're not telling you what to do. You are telling them what you'd like them to do with your money. And so this thing on farmland, my advice is just do your homework and know it inside and out. Know what the risks are. Know what the upside is. And so that when the time comes and you've got cash, you're ready. And you can do it. So really appreciate the call, young man. I love the forward thinking. Let's get in one more quick call. Andrew is joining us in Indianapolis, Indiana.

2:03:15Andrew, how can we help? hey thanks for taking my call you bet we got about three minutes so make it fast all right i'll make it quick i just wanted your guys opinion on giving say friends or family financial advice i was approached by my mother-in-law gave her some advice she's kind of thinking about taking it the more i talked to her well the key is she approached you my answer is don't give it unless they ask for it well and she did yeah good for you it seems like a no it seems like a no brainer based off what i've learned from you guys and i absolutely appreciate that. But part of me is going, well, if she does it and doesn't do it right and it doesn't work out, then she comes back to me and says, hey, you told me to do this.

2:03:55Listen, that's our job every day, Ken and I. Yeah, but it's interesting that you say that because the advice that we give on here, if somebody does it the way we tell them to, then we're not worried about something. So what was the advice that you gave her? Well, she's got a, she's paid a car payment and miraculously somehow. I'm not sure how. She timed it just right. She's got a lot of equity in said car, but also has about the same amount of credit card debt. And she doesn't really drive much. And the numbers are there to make it work to sell this car, pay off the credit card debt, buy a four or$5 ,000 car to do the minimal driving that she does, and then pile up that money to maybe buy a better car or work on her mortgage.

2:04:39The only way that doesn't work out is if the$4 ,000 to$5 ,000 car she buys is a lemon. So this is where you as a son-in-law can get massive son-in-law points and go, hey, I will do the legwork or help you get a mechanic who will be willing to see said cars. And don't buy any$4 ,000 to$5 ,000 car that the person won't let you take it to the mechanic. And you just walk her through that and guard. I just don't see how that turns out bad. Do you? No, I don't. I really don't. And it's really up to how they work out the advice and if they take it to the letter and to the T. Yeah, and that's where we're struggling.

2:05:15She keeps sending me links for cars that are like$8 ,000 or$9 ,000. I say you can't afford that. You need to lower your budget. I mean, the hard part for where you're sitting is, again, if they've asked for advice, you offer the advice. And then after that, there comes a time where you do kind of have to go, okay, now my hands are off of it. If you choose to do it, great. If you don't, if you need help, I'm here to help you. But what I'm not going to do, and I'm going to say this very carefully because we're on air, you cannot, for people asking for advice, you cannot be what I call an ask hole.

2:05:47Boy, I'm glad you slowed that down. Because an ask hole, not you, is there a person who asks the same thing over and over and over to avoid actually doing? Okay. And that's annoying. And so if you feel like it's getting to the point where this person is being an ask hole. See, did you see how I stepped in there? Then you go, okay, I've given you the advice. It's up to you what you do next. I like that. I think that needs to be your next little product. I think it needs to be some type of a money bumper sticker that you sell, Jade, in your store. A t-shirt. I think a lot of people would like to wear that.

2:06:25I'm afraid to say it because I know I'll mess it up and the FCC will not be happy. We hit that K pretty hard. Oh, we did. Hey, thanks for the call, Andrew. Thank you, Jade, for always being awesome. Thank you, Kelly, and the team for keeping us on the air. Thank you, America. This is your show. This is The Ramsey Show.

2:06:59We'll be right back.