Stop Letting Emotions Drive Your Money Decisions

21:32Rachel Cruze:One of our favorite things to do is when people share their stories on how they're winning, we love to share with you guys because there's people walking this journey just like you. And so we actually got a quote in about our EveryDollar app. It was a review and it said, love this app. It makes it super easy to budget with my husband, which the money marriage piece, yes, is so hard. And so, yes, doing a budget together when you're married is so helpful. When you have actually a tool that helps you do it, that's what we love. And that's why we love every dollar. And she goes on, she says, and we've implemented this practice since our wedding day.

22:08Rachel Cruze:And we've had zero money fights because there's full transparency and we're on the same page. So it's amazing. So amazing. And it does. I wouldn't say it's like you'll have no fights with your spouse about money by any means, but it does limit the stress and the questions you have, especially if you're married. It is. It's so transparent. And you're working together with each other on it, which is so, so important. That's, again, why EveryDollar is awesome. And you each can have the login information. So if you change something on one app, it changes on the other app, on your spouse's app, on their phone, and all of it.

22:42Rachel Cruze:It is awesome. We love it. So go download Every Dollar, the budgeting app, for free in the App Store or Google Play. All right, let's go to Birmingham, and we have Samantha on the line. Hi, Samantha. Hey, how are you? Hi, we're doing great. How can we help? I have a question. I wanted to know what I can do to help my husband stop financially helping his parents. Oh, boy. Ooh, we got to help your husband help his parents. Okay, so what's going on? So my husband is a contractor in Birmingham, and we have a small business, and he makes good money. But his parents tend to kind of fall back where they need to whenever they know that he'll kind of just make up the back end.

23:43Like how much? How much is he giving them every month?

23:49Rachel Cruze:A lot of money, like$8 ,000 a month. Holy smokes. Your husband is giving his parents$8 ,000 a month? Just about. For how long? How long has that been going on? This has been going on for probably three months. Three months. How much do y 'all bring in a month, Samantha? We are$10.99, so I don't really know how much we bring in a month. We filed$240 ,000 last year. Why don't you know how much comes in a month? Do you guys have a personal budget that you guys plan your household from? Or when you look at your checking account? Or it varies because one month he probably won't make$10 ,000 and then the next month he'll make$50 ,000.

24:39Okay.

24:40Rachel Cruze:Okay. Wow. Okay, so I probably won't concentrate on this call just because from a time perspective on his parent situation. That's their thing. who's really in the wrong because he's not agreed with his wife on where their money's going is your husband. So what are those conversations like? What happened? Three months ago he said, hey, mom and dad are falling behind. Can we help? And you're like, yep, absolutely. And he just keeps doing it. Was it even talked about? Did he ask you? Like, what happened? He asked me, and I'm okay with helping him out. Sure. You know, every so often. But my thing is, when it's consistently an issue and you're consistently doing it and you don't, they don't make up the issue.

25:28They don't have to work if they don't want to is my problem. Okay, so your problem. They spend all the money knowing that my husband is going to make up for it. So it's entitlement that you have an issue with. My question is, you said it's okay one time. Has he continued to come back to you these other months and asked and you've just gone along with it or have you said no and he's done it anyway? oh I've said no multiple times

25:52Rachel Cruze:okay and$8 ,000 is a massive gap did something happen in their life did one of them lose a job or what's happened in the last three months where they've needed this money they both work well what's changed in 2026 because you weren't doing this in 2025 so what changed three months ago what happened in February that caused them to call you I think it's the fact that they just spend all their money right but every bit of their money but what changed did you guys that i know what has happened okay how long have you guys been married um eight years and how long has the business been doing well um probably about two years okay something either they got wind of the fact that the business was doing well something changed that suddenly this has become kind of just like a vending machine for them.

26:49But the good news is, to Rachel's point, that's neither here nor there. You get to stop this behavior. And either something's going on with your parents that your husband is not letting you know that you're just unaware of, or it's just as simple as saying, I don't want to do this anymore. And you setting up that boundary with your husband of saying, I've said no to this. I've said no to this on multiple occasions. You've continued to do this anyway, you're completely disrespecting me and I'm not going to, I'm not going to have that. Right. So that conversation needs to happen immediately. Otherwise it's going to be you guys against each other.

27:26Rachel Cruze:Cause at this point, that's a marriage issue between you and your husband, that he doesn't listen to you, that he doesn't respect what you're talking about. And that there's no, it doesn't sound like there's a back and forth. Cause I'm not saying every husband has to be like, okay, whatever to his wife, do whatever you want. And same with the wife, that she doesn't need to look at her husband and do like whatever you want. No, there can be some back and forth here. But it's the stonewalled. No, I'm just going to do this with our money and the action of it without any level of your buy in because yeah, it's eight grand a month happening.

27:58Rachel Cruze:And so and the problem is that he needs to understand is that throwing money at a situation that isn't changing to your point is not helping them. It's not because this This will continue to be a pattern for the rest of their lives if they had anything to do with it is what it sounds like. And again, I'm not against helping family, right? Like if they had a medical issue or there was a job loss and you could financially fill in the gap and you wanted to, that's great. There's been no job loss. How old are they? In fact, it's 50s, mid-50s. Yeah, that's crazy. And they have jobs, you said. So if I'm you, I'm sitting down with my husband tonight, and I'm saying, here's my— The thing is, I'm a stay-at-home mom, so I stay with our children.

28:45Uh-huh.

28:45Rachel Cruze:So my husband is the only person that brings in the money. It doesn't matter, Samantha. It's your household. You're both married. You both are— That's what I'm saying. Does he hold that over you? I'm tired of—I'm tired of—no, no. Okay, good. We have agreed, you know, that we've done it too many times recently. But I feel like it's going to happen again whenever it, they're just going to keep on and keep on and keep on and asking him. And I feel like it's just going to continue to go on even after we talked about it and said no. And that's my question. I wanted to know why when we pushed you on that, why you brought up the fact that you're a stay-at-home mom.

29:24I want to understand that a little bit more. Do you feel like you don't have the right to say? Or do you feel like he has the right to make the choice? He doesn't. He pretty much asked me because I pretty much, he includes me on everything except for this. Okay. And I don't feel like, I don't want to say I'm not included. Well, I am included. It sounds like he tells you what he's going to do. And that's the inclusion. It's been behind my back.

29:55Rachel Cruze:he's been behind my back the last two times oh he hasn't even told you when he's doing it you just found out right all right you got a husband so you got a husband you know samantha you have a breakdown in your marriage of communication of trust um of of any level of unity and he's done this he just eroded trust right um which in my opinion is even worse than being like i'm gonna to do this and it's out in the open. Absolutely. It's the secrecy and it's the behind your back. So Samantha, yeah, this is a marriage issue at this point. And I would raise some red flags. And you may feel like, oh, it may not be that big of a deal.

30:32Rachel Cruze:Gosh, am I being too much? No. This is a big deal. It's a very big deal. He just spent$16 ,000 without you knowing. And so to me, that's a communication and marriage breakdown. And you guys may need to go pull in a therapist, a marriage therapist, just to talk about not just the money portion again, but how we got here in our marriage, that he didn't feel the ability to come to you and or he didn't. And we need to tackle those issues.

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32:33Rachel Cruze:all right we have sue in grand rapids up next hi sue welcome to the show oh thank you so much i'm so excited i'm glad you called question we are trying really hard Our daughter's in Grand Rapids. We're in Saginaw. I mean, we're like two and a half hours away, and we wanted to move there, and prices for homes are high everywhere, but especially there. So we've got our home on the Ramsey plan. Our home is paid off. Our cars are paid off. We just have our monthly expenses. My husband has us debt-free in a miracle way because he just now retired at 67. I've been on disability since 2000. I'm sorry?

33:17Rachel Cruze:I said amazing. I know. He's amazing. Well, my dad, when he passed away, helped a little bit because we got a little inheritance. But now we're looking. We're going to buy there, God willing, and sell here after we've purchased over there. And we're not, I mean, you know, it's like when you don't know how much you're going to get for the one you're selling, which I know I'm 99.9 % positive, we're not going to get as much. for this one as we are over there. If we took our house here, over there, it would be about three times as much. Sure, sure. So, I know. So, the question is, we just got outbid again last night, financially maybe not, but they wanted us, the other buyers were willing to skip the inspection.

34:09And we bid, we overbid what they were asking for, but I'm sure these people did too. and they had a cash offer. Yep, yep. So, yeah, I mean, if we sold ours right now and if we got what we want for it, you know, we'd be doing cash offer too. Sure. What's the difference in the numbers? What are you selling for versus what you want to buy for? Exactly. And it's, yeah, we want to buy low and sell high in a perfect world. Yes, but tell us numbers. Tell us what you want to buy. Tell us the current property that you have, what you want to sell it for, and then what you think you want to buy for. What we have now, I'm in a perfect world.

34:48Well, in the perfect world, we get it done. But in a reasonable world, we get$275, maybe$250, but I'm hoping for$275. Perfect. And the ones there we've been looking for, I mean, obviously, you want to go$250 and have more for moving costs and things. But what we've been looking at is between$260 and$320. contingency and this one we were bidding like 20 let's see so 290 300 we were bidding like 30 ,000 more than they were asking it was it the was it there but there was a contingency on it right contingent on sale of your home or no no okay oh no we can't even do that now because i mean we just can't there's nothing available like that so i think you just need some patience

35:39Rachel Cruze:I think you're frustrated. I think you have had your hopes up. You want to be close to the grandbabies, and you guys are ready to pull the trigger. You're ready to make the move. And one or two deals have slipped out under, and you're just getting frustrated. So I would tell you, just breathe. Have some patience. You are entering into a good market. It's actually more of a buyer's market right now than a seller's. The fact you're getting outbid, I know happens, but that is happening less and less. if anything, some houses are actually up for negotiation. And so, and, you know, and we see, we have a real estate dashboard that you could even kind of check out.

36:18Rachel Cruze:But, but it's great because it does show not only like the mortgage rates and everything happening, but how many days on the market and all of it. But there's, there's something about having the patience in this, because if you don't, and you feel a little desperate, you might do something, which I'm glad you didn't. Something stupid of like waive the inspection, right? And then you go buy a house, sight unseen almost, and no inspection. And you guys get into it and it becomes horrible. So I really do believe the deal is going to come for you. I really do. I think you guys have been wise with your money.

36:50Rachel Cruze:You have showed patience in the past and what you guys have done to build up, I mean, paying off a home and everything. So what you could do just to take the urgency down, if you wanted, just an idea, go ahead and sell your home and go rent somewhere for a year over close to them and just know it's short term and then and then actually take your time he said we're not going to move twice i get that yeah okay well then you guys just you just need to have a little bit of patience because you know what you want there are houses i'm sure for what you're looking for in that area and actually the in the midwest area the average list price is$309 ,300 right now.

37:32Rachel Cruze:So you guys are right where you are, which is perfect. So there should be some great options. And maybe it's a little bit of a different neighborhood than you were thinking originally or 10 minutes one way than what you wanted or I don't know. But Grand Rapids, I promise you there will be homes that you're going to be able to buy. Oh, both. But I would. So May should be a better month. Do what? So May should be a better month, you're thinking? Well, just from a real estate perspective, things are moving more. They move more spring and summer real estate wise. Yeah, just overall. So I would say keep your eyes open.

38:04Rachel Cruze:And so I would just say patience. I think you guys, you're in a good spot. You're fine. Just stay within your budget. Offer what you can. And if the deal doesn't happen, move on to the next. There's no perfect home. But you're fun, though. I appreciate you as such a great mom. So good. All right. Let's head to Heidi in Knoxville, Tennessee. Hi, Heidi. Welcome to the show. Hey, guys. Hope you're having a fun show today. Yes, we are. Thanks for calling in. How can we help? Hey, so I'm hoping you can help me settle a dispute between me and my 19-year-old son. Oh, we love a debate. So we had recently mentioned to him about possibly getting a credit card now that he's an adult.

38:47And he's been a Ramsey listener for a while. And he said, no, I don't want any part of that. And so we started kind of having a fun spar back and forth. And he's like, guys, you use a credit card. You should get rid of your credit card, too. Hilarious. Smart guy. Hilarious. I love it. So what do you want us to say? You want us to tell him that you're right? No. Okay, good. He challenged me to call you guys because I was like, look, we pay off every month. We have a budget that we follow. So if there's not enough money for something, we don't spend it. I don't understand what the big deal is. And I've listened to the show for a couple weeks now trying to figure it out.

39:27And I must be missing something.

39:30Rachel Cruze:Why do you need, why do you think you need one? Or why does he need one? Because you just advised him to get one.

39:38I think it was mainly because I just thought, well, in case something happens, he doesn't have a lot of money. We don't want to have to spot the money. What if he did save up an emergency fund? Would you feel differently? Yeah, if I knew you had that in place, that would be fine. I was more just confused why he thought that we shouldn't have one, even though we don't use it per se as a credit card. Do you have an emergency fund? Yes. How much? How many months of expenses? We have three months of expenses in the emergencies fund and then another two and a half months just in our regular savings account.

40:20Excellent. So it's fair to say that if emergencies came, you would have the money to cash flow it.

40:27Rachel Cruze:Yes, that's true. So, I mean, yeah. So, I mean, a credit card, honestly, Heidi, the way we look at it is not only is there data to back up that you end up spending up to 13 percent more when you're using someone else's money. And that's what you're doing, even though you, quote unquote, pay it off every month. But subconsciously, you don't realize it, but you are spending more. If you were just spending your money, Heidi, with the debit card, I guarantee you, you would be spending less. So not only that, but also what we find over and over again is life happens. And when a credit card is your backup plan, you fall right into the cycle that they suck you into of credit card debt.

41:10Rachel Cruze:And people call in our show all the time and they got$10 ,000,$15 ,000 in credit card debt. Well, we've been trying to pay it off. We try to pay it off every month, but then this happened and this happened. We didn't have enough money. and there they are at 23%, 26 % interest catching your slack of not being diligent and saving up and actually you being your emergency fund. And so, and I know you said you guys have one, which is great, but when it comes to just the credit card industry, they have done a great job marketing the idea that you need a credit card. But when you spend your own money and there's no bank in your life and you have complete autonomy over your life and your money, and there's no bill, You're not paying for the past anymore.

41:49Rachel Cruze:When you pay in the present, you use a debit card or cash, you move on with your life. And financially, there's a freedom there versus being tied to a credit card.

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43:39Rachel Cruze:Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with my good friend Ramsey personality, Jade Warshaw. And we're hanging out, taking your calls, having a good time. So if you have a question, call us at 888-825-5225. All right, let's go to Christy in Baltimore. Hi, Christy. Welcome to the show. Hi, Rachel. Hi, Jade. How are you doing? We're doing great. How can we help? Okay, so we started a small business, my husband and I, about one year ago. And it is a faith-based business. I make candles. And obviously, we are in the red. We filed our taxes for last year, and we were in the red about$78 ,000.

44:27Oh, wow. Yeah, which, of course, comes out of our income. So we've been having a little debate about whether we should, you know, part of this business that I wanted to start was, you know, to give back to God and to our church. So even though we're in the red, I want to still give money to our church out of our revenue, not necessarily our profit. Okay.

44:56Rachel Cruze:So, and by give money, do you mean like a tithe for your family or you're doing this as a donation of what you make to go back to the church? Just that's part of your business model. Right. As part of our business model. Okay. Because we do tithe to our church already on a weekly basis. So this would be above that, but coming out of the business. Are you guys able to absorb losing$78 ,000? Well, it's$7 ,000 to$8 ,000, not$7 ,000. Oh, my gosh. I thought you said$78 ,000. And I was about to say, Christy, Christy, we got to re-examine some stuff here. Yeah, we got the real problem. Oh, my gosh. That helps a little bit.

45:32Rachel Cruze:Okay, that helps a little bit. Yeah. Well, can you—okay, then my question is, can you absorb—I mean, let's say it's 10—let's say you give the church 2 ,000. So that means you're—if you're already in the whole 8 ,000, that would cause you to be in the whole 10 ,000 at that point. Mm-hmm. Can y 'all absorb$10 ,000 loss for a hobby that you love? I think we can. Um, and this is like another part of this piece. Um, I want to quit my job, not for the business, but to focus on our family and, you know, be a stay at home mom. We have a nine year old, um, and really the only debt we have is our home. Okay.

46:13So, um, we, you know, we don't have any credit card debt. We own our cars. Our student loans are paid off. We, I've been on Ramsey solutions since like 2007.

46:22Rachel Cruze:Yeah. That's awesome. Okay. Okay, how much do you make a year in the job you have now? Okay, so my bring home is about$54 ,000, so we would be losing that. And my husband's is like$95 ,000 bring home. Okay, perfect. Have you guys done a budget on the$95 ,000 that if that is your new household budget that you guys would be okay financially? My husband has said that we will be. Okay, have you looked at the numbers? I have not. We're also going to our financial planner today. Oh, great. Okay, well, they may be able to answer some questions too. Yeah, so I want you to be comfortable. I want you guys to do a mock budget and just say, okay, because there's two issues here.

47:06Rachel Cruze:Candle business, candle ministry, we're going to call it because you've lost money. And then stay at home mom. Okay, so stay at home. I would do a mock budget of what he brings home every month and look at your realistic expenses and just say, yeah, we can totally do this. And you might be able to, Chrissy. You guys have no debt. You should be able to. So I would, yeah. I think so, too. Yeah, make sure you feel good about that. And then the giving on the candle business. Yeah, it sounds like right now that's all the candle business does is take whatever money there is and donate it. Right? Because there's no profit.

47:41Well, a large bunch of our money actually goes to our 403Bs, our 401Ks, our IRAs, and our daughter's savings. so we save a lot um and we he wants to pay our house off in like nine years and we're already in it for six so i think technically with our our cash like that our our reserve like we have our um our six month savings and with our daughters like we could pay it off next year so but then that would leave us with like nothing right no debt but no emergency fund either and it's like starting from scratch, but with no debt and my husband working and me not. So that's like, it's just this whole thing.

48:23Like what, it's a lot of possibilities we have. Well, I wouldn't use your emergency funds to do this because you need that in case of an emergency. So I would just, I don't think anything's on fire in terms of you feeling like you have to go at light speed to pay off the mortgage because you said, Oh, you're welcome. because he I mean I'm like if I stop working we can do it in 15 right it doesn't have to be done in nine like we could still manage to make that work and still be ahead of the game don't get me wrong this thing in his head I'm right and I'm right in the middle of you two I like the idea of being very intentional about paying off the mortgage and when I mean very intentional I mean maybe not letting it go 15 years because the hope is that you can do it You know, and an 11.

49:11Yeah. Nine to 11. Right. But at the same point, I would not go to the extent of saying we're going to drain all of our emergency funds and, you know, stop investing in the 401k and stop. I would not do that because that's a drastic take that none of us here would ever suggest you to do. I think you do it as the baby steps teach it, which is during this season, you continue investing 15 % and you continue with the kids, you know, college funds and you continue then on top of that, putting extra towards your mortgage as, as you have it. And as the candle making business produces it, right? The ministry.

49:49Yeah, the ministry. And so but don't unplug those other things to make this happen, because if if the research you've done on the budget is true, you should be able to live on the ninety five thousand. And that includes doing the things that we've said. That includes you continuing to invest, continuing to put aside for college and continuing to put extra on the mortgage. If you can't do those three things, then that means we need to reevaluate the budget and figure out where that money is. and if it's truly possible like we thought it was. Right. Okay. And so even with, you know, being in the red on the business, you think like we could still, I mean, it might not look like$2 ,000,

50:29Rachel Cruze:but even if it's like$500 or$1 ,000, I just want to give something. I would give above on the income that you actually make. Yeah. This is a hobby, Christy. That's kind of how you have to look at it like your husband plays golf and spends$8 ,000 a year on golf. That's right. I mean, that's kind of where it's at. So I feel like it would be bad accounting to continue to go in the red just for your good heart. It mathematically doesn't really make sense, right? And we're all about generosity and all of it, but God also gave us reason and logic that we have to plug our brains into, and that's not wrong.

51:01Rachel Cruze:So if you guys want to be more generous on your actual income, income that you are making to your household, then absolutely, you guys can decide to do that. You may have to cut things in order to make that happen. But no, I think continuing to go in the red for something feels irresponsible to me. I agree with that. Okay. But your heart is good. Thank you. So I want your heart, I want that to still be satisfied, right? The giving part of it is still beautiful and great. I would just look at it in a different bucket for it to make logical sense. Okay. Yep. That makes sense. Yeah. And logic is a gift from God too, you guys.

51:37Rachel Cruze:Remember that. Like sometimes we go generosity and we can go high emotion with all of it, which is good too. But also God's given us reason and logic and that's a good thing to plug in. And so from a logical perspective, as we do math, that doesn't make sense to continue to give. But Christy, yeah, and I hope you get to stay home, Christy. And you guys have put yourself in a position where you get to make that decision, which is beautiful. Like that's what we're talking about, you guys, to get your money under control so you have choices and options in life. and when you look up and you're like, hey, I want to be home for a season, you get to because you did the hard work of getting out of debt.

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53:49Rachel Cruze:Up next, we have Jessica in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Hi, Jessica. Welcome to the show. Hi. Thanks for letting me on. Yes, absolutely. How can we help? So I have a fairly new business. We've been open about three years and unfortunately had to get the big expense of replacing our entire roof and then also had some other structural things along with that. The estimate that we were originally given was about$75 ,000 for all of that, which we saved over time so as not to take out any more loans. We did in that time, as they discovered more problems, approved for an additional 14 ,000 on top of that. But then we just received the final total and there was an additional 25 ,000 beyond all of that that they had done without any documentation or consent.

54:44They never mentioned to us that anything else was going to happen. And when I asked about it, they just said, well, little things added up over time. um and so 25 000 is not a little thing um and obviously with us not taking out a loan and doing this all out of cash that is even harder to you know have all that set aside um they did offer to reduce that total by about 10 000 which would remain or it would leave us with a remaining 15 000 overage beyond all of what we had approved so my question is do we just take that deal and kind of count it as the cost of doing business? Or should we push back a bit more and say, you know, we didn't approve for this.

55:27You didn't ask our permission. And if you had asked, we wouldn't have given it because we don't have that money readily available. Is the work already done? I also don't want to be a jerk. The work's already done. Oh, boy. I think it's beautiful work. And that's what makes it hard is I don't want to be that business owner that then ends up getting a bad name because I'm fighting on paying for the work that was done. But they did work without approval.

55:49Rachel Cruze:Yeah, no change orders or anything. I mean, they just like. No change orders, nothing. No verbal discussion. That's bad business on the end. Very bad. Yeah, very bad. Which is crazy because they are very reputable. We chose them knowing that they were the most expensive because we had a lot of trust in them. And we really enjoyed all of our time until we got that final bill. And they just don't have a great explanation other than things add up. And when you looked at the itemized bill, you saw the money go towards certain things that you know were implemented? Basically, that overage all came in some of the extra structural work.

56:27And there wasn't like broken down this much for such and such materials of it. It was just for this portion of the work. That's where the overage was. But the guy said he looked over it thoroughly and he doesn't think that there are any mistakes. And I don't think that it's a trust. Like, I don't think that they're scamming us or anything. I think that they just truly.

56:47Rachel Cruze:It's just bad communication. And they went ahead and started making decisions on your behalf without you choosing to. So, yeah, I don't know if there's much you can. I don't think there's much you can do at this point. That's kind of what I was afraid of. I don't think so because the work is done. And unless you're going to say and unless you're going to make them go through and like itemize that and push on it and have the ability to to speak into it from that viewpoint. Do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, I think. But at the same point, I hate to tell you that because to spend an extra twenty five thousand over what you thought, because you said they're going to you said first they added fourteen thousand and then they added another twenty five.

57:28But then they refunded ten. So you're twenty nine over what you thought. No. So it was basically$40 ,000 over the original estimate is where we ended up. Okay. There were$14 ,000 of that we did approve. They actually talked to us and said, okay, this is the change we need to make. We did like in the back, it had to be full thickness replaced. Okay. And so they talked about that. We approved to go that extra$14 ,000 beyond the$75 ,000. So you approved that? Yes. But then the final bill was$114 ,000. And so that means like$25 ,000 of overage that we never talked about. But then they came back and they said, we'll give you$10 ,000 back, right?

58:10Yes, they said$10 ,000 back. So that leaves us with about$15 ,000 of the overage that wasn't approved. And if we need to make it happen, we can continue. We cut our salaries back to try to do all of this in cash, and we can continue doing that. I mean I can tell you I can and Rachel you're probably better suited for this but anytime I've done a project in my house it's always been a little bit more than yeah it's usually over budget over time I mean that's kind of the classic always is and so we always plan for that and maybe I mean that's just the way it is now that's like projects like renovations but typically if I'm having something serviced or replaced what they tell you it is usually is what it is yeah yeah um yeah we were just kind of shocked by uh yeah and to the tune of 15 at this point i feel like they were fair enough to say okay you approved the 14 and then they said oh we're sorry we comped the 10 back there's part of me that i don't know if i would keep i mean you could push on it a little bit more but i just don't know how much you're going to get out of this yeah i mean you

59:16Rachel Cruze:could push and just say hey this is the amount we've agreed upon we did not sign off on the change orders of no and again they may have gotten in it and the structural stuff to your point they probably they may not be spamming you but they're like no we have to do this and so it's just the it's the communication it's a communication aspect of it um that's really frustrating really really frustrating and and you got a top of the line company and they if the and i you know I know those kind of companies and they will get, they will have the best of the best of the best. And that's what you pay for.

59:48Rachel Cruze:That's right. And you get what you pay for in a good way, but you also sometimes could be overpaying for something that you probably could have gone maybe middle of the road and been, it's fine. You know what I mean? But that's hard. So yeah, Jessica, I'm sorry. The teaching I guess would be when you do things like this, really you have to be on them. Yes. And you have to be on that communication with them. So yeah, Jessica, I wish we had a better answer for you, but Oh, I'm sorry. All right, let's go to Hunter in Sioux Falls. Hi, Hunter. Welcome to the show. Yes, thank you for having me. Absolutely.

1:00:18Rachel Cruze:How can we help? Yes, so I am just starting to debt snowball, my wife and I. And I, sorry, I bumped into a financial planner, didn't get his name or who he worked for. But he recommended that I amend my W-4 so that my, sorry, I'm out of breath. What are you doing over there? I'm actually at work, and I was trying to stay busy while waiting to come on the line. Oh, no worries. No worries. So they said to adjust your W-4 taxes to what? Because currently I have maximum deductions taken out, and we do receive about a$6 ,000 to$8 ,000 a year tax return. Oh, yeah. I should amend it so that it's a lot less, so I get more money weekly to put towards the debt level.

1:01:06That's right.

1:01:06Rachel Cruze:Correct. I would agree with him. Yes. Okay. And I know the tax forms changed in 2020. How do I go about doing that? It's actually easier than ever. There's literally a line item on there where you can change the amount of withholding. You can just write it in. And so what you can do is think about if not much has changed on your taxes, you can say, okay, what was my typical tax return or tax refund? And then you can go through and divide it by 12. And that's a really good way to get an estimate of what that is monthly and just adjust it up or down. And the lines, I mean, I'd have to pull it up on my computer, but the line item is literally on there for you to change it and put in the withholding that you'd like it to be.

1:01:52So you can change it from what it was to what you'd now like it to be.

1:01:55Rachel Cruze:I mean, you could get close to$600 back, Hunter, each a month, which is amazing. And by the way, that's what we would tell anybody to do who's getting a large refund, especially if you're on baby step two. That money, I mean, we say it on here all the time, Rachel, your income is your biggest wealth building tool. You need your income, especially if you have the target of trying to pay off debt. If you're trying to save money quickly, as much money that you can have in your pocket at your disposal to throw at that target. Gosh, yes. Get your hands on that money. Yep. So we are with your financial advisor, Hunter.

1:02:26Rachel Cruze:So, yep. Go in and do that. And we actually have a great blog on RamseySolutions.com all about taxes and adjustments and withholdings, all of that to get this right. so we'll put it in the show notes for all you guys watching on YouTube and listening on podcasts but yeah Jade that's one of our when you're starting baby step two and you're starting to pay off your debt there's a couple of go-tos that we've learned over the years to check insurance check your insurance rates you could be spending more than you need to so you can get some cash back be looking at your expenses and what you're spending every month and one of them is your taxes put money back in your pocket so it's not sitting over in Washington all year and then you get an$8 ,000 check that you can use.

1:03:05Rachel Cruze:You could be using that to get ahead financially. So yep, Hunter, make those adjustments and get as close to zero as you can. And yeah, and tax season doesn't have to be a big pendulum swing one way or the other.

1:03:34Thank you. Dave, we got a lot of calls on this show where life happens. One day someone's healthy, they're working, providing for their family, and then a curveball hits. You know, we hear it all the time. A car accident, a cancer diagnosis, a heart attack, and suddenly everything changes. Yeah, and that's why you've always said that having term life insurance from Xander is essential because it protects your family if the worst happens. Yeah, that's right. You need 10 to 12 times your income in coverage. No gimmicks, no whole life junk, just straightforward term life protection. But there's another piece that people often overlook, and that's long-term disability insurance.

1:04:17Yeah, it's important to understand the difference between them. Life insurance steps in when you die. Disability insurance steps in while you're alive but can't work. So it replaces a large part of your income so the bills still get paid while you get back on your feet. Now, if your employer gives you free disability insurance, great, take it. If it's discounted there at a better price, take it. But if not, Xander can help you find the right plan. Whether you're single or married, it's not optional. If you're going to be out of work for a while, then you need to make sure the money's still showing up.

1:04:48And that's why Xander is our go-to. They make it super simple to get the right coverage at the best price, no pressure, no upselling. I've trusted Jeff Zander and Zander Insurance for over 25 years, and so has my family. So don't wait. It's fast, it's easy, and it could make all the difference. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Protect yourself, protect your income, protect your family.

1:05:29Rachel Cruze:All right, let's head to Kansas City, and John is on the line. Hi, John. Welcome to the show. Hi there. How are you? I'm in a situation where last summer I received$175 ,000, just a lump sum. This summer I'll be receiving another$183 ,500. And the next year from January on to the 12-month period, I'll get paid$130 ,000 over that 12-month period. So I was just curious. I've spent about 75 to 80 grand between taxes and other expenses from that payment I got last summer. So I had two main questions. And the first one was how to invest some of the money that I have right now. I already have up at 40 grand in a 401k and have money going into a Roth IRA and a life insurance policy.

1:06:22and like I said, the question I had was how could I invest that money and also would I be able to comfortably and feasibly afford a$50 ,000 vehicle?

1:06:31Rachel Cruze:Wow. Where's all this money coming from, John? Is it work or is it like a trust or something? Athletics. Athletics. Yeah, I'm in sport. Oh, wow. So it'll keep coming. You'll keep earning like this? Honest, yeah, I should have mentioned that. It will go down. It won't be as much. I won't be, it will probably level out to be anywhere from 70 to 100 ,000 per year on average after this pay. Now, do you do anything else to earn money or it's just that? I do not. You know, with the money I have or I'm receiving, I thought about maybe a business or a house or just, you know, brainstorming things. Yeah.

1:07:12Rachel Cruze:Okay. So I added up the numbers you gave. And if my math is correct, I could be off. but it's close to half a million,$488 ,000. How much of that went to taxes? And like what's left of everything? Like I know you have a payment coming next year, you said. Yeah, and so I've only received so far the$175 ,000 last year. Okay. And I believe I've spent about$75 ,000 to$80 ,000 between expenses and taxes. Okay, so you have about$100 ,000 of that. Well, I should mention I put$40 ,000 into a 401k, so that's not necessarily liquid. Oh, okay, gotcha. And what about just your month-to-month expenses, like just your eating and your rent, and how are you paying for that?

1:07:54That's through these payments for right now. And that's my monthly. It totals up to be about$2 ,000 to$2 ,500. And then the other thing I wanted to mention was I do want to give some to charity and tithe. So that will be like around 10 % of all of this will go towards charity. Okay. So then I'd probably – I mean, I would do this like any other budget. I would sit down and I would, because you're getting this every single year. So for this year, you made$175 ,000 a year.

1:08:23Rachel Cruze:Is it guaranteed because you get hurt or something and that you won't get the$183 ,000 next year? Or is it guaranteed? So that$183 ,500 will be actually like the beginning of June this year. And that's guaranteed. Also, the next payment, the one in January, the$130 ,000 across 12 months that I will start receiving in January is guaranteed. and I could, it'll be up to discussion, but I could potentially even start receiving more money next year. Okay. And then even after that, we'll likely, it'll definitely start. Gotcha, because I, the thing with payments, and I feel like this would be the same if someone is in sales, right?

1:08:58Rachel Cruze:And they have a massive, a$200 ,000 commission coming in, not to get ahead of herself and making sure that you actually have the, don't spend the money before it comes, right? So don't go out and buy a bunch of stuff and then wait for that money to hit. So you want to be cash flowing it well. So when Jade said, yes, setting up like a regular budget is exactly right. So you'll just know ahead of time, okay, in June, this big payment is coming in. So I need to know what I want to do with this. So yes, to answer your question, yes, you can totally afford a$50 ,000 car. Yeah. What about how are taxes being taken out?

1:09:32Are you responsible for that? Or are they doing that? Because I don't want you to get hit with a massive tax bill after spending all this.

1:09:38Rachel Cruze:Yeah, because you said you paid$75 ,000 in taxes already, right? Well, no, I didn't. I paid$20 ,000 up front in taxes, and we filed for a tax extension this year. So I just paid that up front, but I hired a financial advisor, and he has a CPA that helps me with taxes and things like that. So I pretty much paid that to file my taxes. Okay, so just overseeing that, making sure that's done properly. And then, yeah, I'd go through and I'd budget it out and I'd try to make this feel a little bit more normal instead of feeling like I've got this, you know, windfall of money and I can just do a bunch of stuff with it.

1:10:12I take it and I say, OK, if I'm not going to get money for the next 12 months, what is that every month? Is it around 15 or 16 ,000? And then plan it out like a normal budget, whatever your rent or mortgages, whatever you're going to pay for. And then you can budget amounts every month. I'm putting aside this much for my car or I'm putting this much aside for, you know, what have you. Just a typical budget. So you feel the normalcy of that and the kind of like the nature of how that feels month to month versus kind of trying to make every decision in one fell swoop. Yes. Does that make sense? Yeah.

1:10:45I think you can. Yeah. I think you can afford the$50 ,000 car, but there's part of me. How long have you been earning like this? How long has this been going on? This has been, so last summer was like the first big payment I received like that. And then, like I said, I'll get one in about four or five weeks at the beginning of June here. And then it will be, and then, like I said, the next, in January, I'll start receiving that. But it'll kind of level out from there to like more of like a normal salary of like$70 ,000 to$100 ,000. So if you take the$50 ,000 out of the$183 ,000, then yeah, you're just taking the$130 ,000 and you're budgeting your 12 months based off of that.

1:11:21And I would do it that way. There's part of me that would love – how old are you? 24. There's part – I'm just going to say this and you don't have to do this. This is just me being your buddy. There's part of me that I would take this money now and budget it that way and I would save up. I would teach myself to save up the$50 ,000. out of your budgeted money every single month and start exercising that muscle of delayed gratification because there's something to that at a young age. And especially when you're receiving money in big clumps like this, resisting the urge to dump it all on big purchases right away.

1:12:01Does that make sense? Yeah. I'm very like, and that's one of the reasons I'm calling is I'm pretty conscious about, I don't really buy luxury items for myself. This is kind of like the first saying I've been prompted to like really buy like for myself, so to speak. That's like a luxury item. But my question on that is like, how would you go about kind of saving on the on the money I'm receiving? Is there like a way that are you talking about investing in stocks or like? Good question. So we'll set you up with every dollar, which is the budgeting tool that we use. It's more than just a budget. And it's going to not only help you manage the money, but it's going to teach you our way of thinking and our guided plan here at Ramsey, which is the baby steps.

1:12:39So here we focus on doing a couple of things really well, but doing them in order and focusing on one at a time so you can actually achieve it. So you're a person, it doesn't sound like you have any debt, right? So that jumps you automatically to what we would call baby step three, which is making sure you always have, in your case, I'd have six months of expenses. We say three to six months that's just parked in a high yield savings account it's not invested high yield savings account it's liquid if you need to get to it but it's also set aside from your normal spending money and then from there you do baby step four which is you're investing 15 of your gross which you've already started that john so well done so yep just make sure it's 15 yep and then no more no less at this point and then if you wanted to you're a young guy you don't have children yet so You can skip baby step five for now.

1:13:27But then baby step six is if you have a house, you're thinking about paying off the house. Or if you haven't, you can start putting a down payment for a house, that sort of thing. And then after that, after you've paid off your house, then you can start investing more. But that's kind of our guided plan on how we think about moving through building wealth and making progress with your money. So it sounds like you're doing a lot of those things. You just needed like the tune up of it. Yep, that's right. Sure.

1:13:52Rachel Cruze:Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, and then you had the giving aspect to throw in there too. And I think that that'll be in every dollar. And I would tell you, John, that when you give out of this, I probably would recommend having two or three places you give to because sometimes if it's one big donation, especially if it's a smaller nonprofit or something, and you end up being the one propping them up for a while, because this is not money that's going to be continual throughout the rest of your life, you know what I mean? Just be wise about the giving. but yeah I think you can do it all so you just said give to a couple different companies and what was the reason for that I would because if you give this if you give 18, 20, 30 ,000 to one that's a huge windfall on them and if they expect any level of that going forward you don't want to be the largest donation right so just something to think about because it's just going to be a lot of money at once so yep so John absolutely I think you can be giving invest 15 % of your income, you can go enjoy some of it.

1:14:55Rachel Cruze:And I think you can afford that car if you want it. And then be thinking about real estate too and putting a big down payment on a home. I think those buckets, it's a lot of buckets, but I think you can fill them over the next 12 months with all the work you've done.

1:15:34Rachel Cruze:buying or selling your home is a big deal. And with all the clickbait headlines out there and conflicting data, it's really hard to know what's actually happening in the housing market. And so we're here to make the latest trends easy to understand. So last month, the average 15-year fixed rate mortgage rate ticked up a bit to 5.56%, but it's still under 6 % people. So we're happy about that. Now, if you are financially ready, a small rate increase like that should not hold you back. So go ahead and jump in the market if you are financially ready. Now, median home prices went up to$415 ,000 last month, which is pretty typical for the spring market.

1:16:14Rachel Cruze:And with more homes available and more buyers entering the market, it's a great time to buy or sell. So if you want to learn more about the housing market trends and get free tools to help you when you buy or sell your home and to do it with confidence, go to RamseySolutions.com slash market, or you can click the link in the show notes if you are listening on podcasts or watching on YouTube. All right, let's head to, is it Ea in Buffalo? Did I pronounce that correct? It's Ia. Ia, I'm sorry. Yes. Well, thank you for calling, Aya. How can we help? So I have a question. I am about to run into about maybe$2 million a lump sum.

1:16:54But I have bad money management. I give away my money. I spend my money. I am currently right now living in poverty. I am a nurse in my town, so I have had tons of money. I go and buy high-end cars. I've bought houses, sold houses, given houses away, diamonds. Oh, boy. I passed out my 401k about a couple years ago. Oh, Maya, what's going on? I make really, really silly financial decisions. I've been Chapter 7 bankrupt three times. Oh, how old are you? So I'm trying to 44. Okay, and you ready to break that cycle? You know it exists. You've identified it beautifully. And I am extremely fearful. Like when I get this money, do I like go and pay cash for another house?

1:17:45Like, do I finance the house? I just don't know what to do. And I don't want to fall into my old pattern. Like speaking, going out of town when people don't even know. Do you know, have you identified the source of what that's coming from? Have you identified what causes you to, because it sounds like you're a bit of a rescuer. It sounds like you come to people's rescue who don't, you know, urinate. it sounds like you're a bit of an enabler. Have you identified why that is? Yes. And where that comes from? I've always been into, you know, shopping and things. My grandmother was very wealthy. So we shopped.

1:18:20We did well. My brother was murdered in 2013. And I started to pad my life emotionally with materialistic things. But I couldn't fill the void. So it just took me into overdrive. So, like, we talking about me waking up at 6 o 'clock in the morning and catching a flight to Texas just to eat, just to come back home. Like crazy things that you couldn't even think of. Have you figured out how to remedy that in a healthier way or how to kind of heal through that? Well, I have a grandson now, so I think I've healed it. I think I've not healed the homicide, but I've navigated through it. So now I'm not as ditchy to go and spend money.

1:19:04In addition to, I'm hurt now. So all of this great lifestyle went down the drain. I can't work right now because I'm hurt. But this is where this$2 million is going to come from. How long are you unable to work? Like, what's the status of that? So I've been out of work already for about 18 months. Oh, man.

1:19:27Rachel Cruze:And the$2 million, did you get hurt on the job? And you're getting a settlement? I did not get hurt on a job. I had a fall, but I am getting a settlement. Okay. For about almost$2 million. So I need to refund my 401k. I need to buy another property. I need to buy a car. Like I need things to do, but I also want to open up a business. I want to open up a home care business. Okay, let's pause. Let's pause. Let's pause. Because you're already starting to go back into that mindset, which is the moment I have money, I got to spend it on something. And that's not true. So I want to open up the conversation with a really basic principle that we teach here.

1:20:10And it's so basic that we teach it to kids, which is when you have money, there's three things you do with it. You give some, you save some, and you spend some. And you have to do all three. And you have to do them in the correct proportions. And if you can walk away with that little piece and filter everything through that, Aya, that's going to help you. because you've got to save some. And that's the part that's missing from your equation. So those three things. And then the second part, which I'll call it the second part, but it's probably the most important thing that needs to underpin all of this, which is you've got to decide.

1:20:48And I don't know what your relationship with debt has been, but you've got to decide no matter what, I don't borrow money. Okay.

1:20:56Rachel Cruze:At all. Ever. I'm done. Not for business, not for other people, not for cards. We don't borrow money. I say it. I don't borrow money. I don't borrow money. Ever. Keep that. Keep that so close to your heart. Keep that so close to your heart, okay? Yeah. Because this$2 million can change. This will change your life. This will set you up for a life without financial stress that you've been in. You know what I mean? In these cycles. And so we'll tell you kind of what we would do. But first, I would also say, so Jade's big, big point. Did you hear? Give, save, spend, no debt. I'm going to tell you, you need to find someone.

1:21:38Rachel Cruze:I don't know if it's someone, a good friend, a family member, someone in your church, but someone who is good with money. Someone who has built some wealth slowly over time. And you look at them and they're the kind of person that you're like, I trust them. how they live their life and the way they view money, but they've done well. I need, I want them in my life. And I'm not kidding. Before you make any big purchase, I want you to call that person before you do anything. Did anybody come to mind? Did anyone come to mind when she said that? Yeah. Two people. Okay. Yes. And they need to know everything.

1:22:13Rachel Cruze:I'm serious. The deep, I hate the word accountability because it feels so like I'm going to tell you yes or no. I don't know. It's like a friend or true friend. A true friend who can be your financial friend, who's going to know all the numbers. You need someone in your life that is with you in this. And not because you're not capable of doing it on your own. I think you can build that muscle and you can. But for anyone out there who's single and doing this stuff, and especially if you're coming in to$2 million and you're so self-aware enough to know, like, I'm not great at this, have someone who's good to bounce ideas off of, okay?

1:22:42Rachel Cruze:So those are important. Now, what are we going to do with this$2 million? Let's talk real quick. What is your car situation? You threw out about a car. What are you currently driving and do you have debt on it? I'm not driving anything at the moment. I can't drive. I have issues. You can't drive. I have to have surgery, so I can't drive. Oh, because of your health. Okay. How soon do you think it'll be until a car becomes part of your life again and driving becomes part of your life again? Probably about eight or nine months. Maybe about eight months. Okay. So let's just hold off on that. What about other debt?

1:23:14Do you have debt that needs to be paid off? Do you have any debt? Absolutely. Tell us. I have car debt. Tell us all of it. I have probably about a$25 ,000 Navy Federal credit card that I need to pay off. You know, just capital ones, discovered, but everything is high limit. $20 ,000,$10 ,000,$30 ,000. Everything is high limit and everything was maxed out. Okay, so how many, if you had to calculate how much debt you have in credit cards, what's the total?

1:23:42Rachel Cruze:Right now, about$73 ,000. Okay, okay. So we're going to cut those up tonight, Aya, okay? We're done with credit cards, okay? Because AIA is a person that doesn't borrow money. We don't go into debt, right? I do not borrow money. That's right. So that means no credit cards. Cut them up. Okay. Get your debit card out. That's what you're going to spend money on. It's on your debit card. No more credit cards. They've been horrible to you. You see what it's done? They've been horrible to me. Yes. Three bankruptcies later. Not a blessing. Not a blessing. Okay. Now, what about the 401k? Was it a 401k loan or did you just take the early withdrawal?

1:24:15Like, what did you do? No, I did an early withdrawal. I ran into like a little health issue bank, so I was able to cash it out. Not too many penalties. And I lived off of it for a little while. Okay, so that's not debt. I did go back to work, but after that, I had my accident. And so now I've been out ever since. Tell us more debt. Is there more besides the$73 ,000? No.

1:24:38Rachel Cruze:$73 ,000 should. What's your housing situation? I live somewhere where I don't love, so I'm absolutely looking to buy. But you own a home? Do you own a home? No. You're renting. You're renting. Okay. We're going to take some of this money and we're going to buy a modest, modest, not a$2 million, not a$2 million home, a modest home to get us started in an area that we like. So those would be some big purchases, but you need to go over those numbers with a friend. Please have someone in your life that's walking through this with you and cut up the credit cards tonight. Let that be one of the posts in the ground for you.

1:25:27Rachel Cruze:Welcome back to The Ramsey Show and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. I'm Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with Jade Warshaw, and we are taking your questions. All right, let's go to Maria in Lafayette. Hi, Maria. Welcome to the show. Hi. Hi, welcome. How can we help today? So I'm calling because I inherited a decent amount of property from my great grandmother. Her son, my grandfather, passed in 2014. So it went to me, my two siblings, my uncle, and my biological father. Oh, wow. Is it split between five people? Yeah. Okay. The question is, everybody's telling me I need to take this to court and fight for ownership over certain people's pieces because some people intentionally damage the property to lower its property value to try to make it easier to buy me out.

1:26:26Some people have stolen from the estate in a total that's up to like$80 ,000. So everybody's like, you need to take them to court and get their portions. That way you'll own most of it. What's it all worth? When it sells, you can get a fair price. Well, here's the thing. They got it appraised and with all the damage they did to the home it appraised for$40 ,000 but it's a brick home in good condition on 20 acres of property with a tractor shed a pond two livestock barns all fenced in field and all that together is worth$40 ,000 and a bridge going over it are you saying all that together or just the home on the property is worth$40 ,000 they want all of that for$40 ,000 Who's they?

1:27:14My uncle that is currently living in the home. No, no, no. I'm saying market value. Like if you took it to a buyer. He got it appraised. The house with the three acres immediately around it is$40 ,000 because they damage the home so much. And they all smoke mess. Oh, boy. So the entire house needs to be gutted because those vapors fall in the wall. Yes, Maria.

1:27:37Rachel Cruze:That's not a good spot. so and they're also very aggressive towards me because their mother when she passed she left me everything because she's been no contact with them because of drugs theft everything else so i got everything from her so they're already very aggressive for sure how much does this matter to you this forty thousand dollar shack meth shack you know honestly me and my husband are in medical debt. So I'm trying to wonder if it's worth it to fight to get a fair price to try to get us out of debt so we can move on with our lives. How much debt did you say? Surgery. In total, without our mortgage, we're about, with my student loans.

1:28:27All of it, all of it except the house is what I want to know. All of it except the house, it's probably like$36 ,000.

1:28:37Rachel Cruze:Okay. And how much do you guys make a year? We make right about$120 ,000 a year. Okay. And how much, you said that his mom left you everything. Has she passed away? Did you get an inheritance then too or not yet? She's just going to leave you. She passed. She didn't leave me any money, but she left me farmland. So Louisiana's a 99-year lease. I inherited that lease, so it's still valid with the people who are with it, which is fine because that's just passive income. Okay, gotcha. But also where they're at right now, none of them are paying the taxes, so I'm having to pay all the taxes on everything, so I don't get liens against me.

1:29:21And since they're living in it, it's a whole legal process to evict them to even try to sell on the market. And they don't want to do that. Like, I have to make a poor decision either way. It's just a hard decision. I'm just trying to decide how hard it should be. What's the process if you say, if you said to a judge, I want no parts of this? Take me off. Take me off. Have you checked into that? I have. and to just walk away from it for zero dollars i could just sign it over to them and i almost would

1:29:56Rachel Cruze:well maria listen if it's 40 because i bet the house you're right they're gonna have to gut it or or it's gonna be done i mean yeah but it's also another 20 acres of land how much is that worth have you have you appraised that the 20 acres that it's on yeah like i was told by the appraiser She didn't do an official appraising of that, but she said for all of the property, it'd be close to$120 ,000 just because of location and everything, not including the house. Okay. And there's, so each of you, when it's all said and done, it just, in a perfect world, if everyone sold it and you guys cashed out five ways, you each would get around$30 ,000-ish.

1:30:39Rachel Cruze:Yes. Okay. Okay. So the question is, from a, from a, and they don't have the money to buy you out. They don't have 30 grand. No. No. And are they the ones, are they the ones. My bio father hasn't worked since I think 2014. The other four, are they all kind of off the rails, all four of them? Yeah, like the uncle stays on drugs. Okay, yes. Who's the executor? Who's the executor? The executor was a family friend who, as soon as this was done and, like, everything. So the succession is done. He wants nothing to do with anything. Yeah, I bet. Sure, I bet. He won't even answer because he was like, all of y 'all are nuts and I'm not dealing.

1:31:29Okay, so that answers my question, which is you're in this with a bunch of just, like, derelicts, right? and you have to decide how much like there's there's mental energy and just um there's a lot of personal toll an emotional toll of this that you have to decide if you want to even engage and

1:31:48Rachel Cruze:if you went the litigation route how much will attorneys be and all that that will cut into your 30 grade you ready to be like yes so you got to just think through from a from exactly what jade's from a mental investment standpoint and emotional and a financial at the very end of it all, what's worth it? And I wish a judge could step in. And have you gone that route at all? Have you looked into any legal proceedings? Oh, yeah. I sat down with a lawyer and spoke with a judge that she knows and my auctions are sign over and walk away and then send them all a notice to say hey you owe me 700 in property taxes because in this state when you owe property taxes one person gets a notice and they're expected to inform the other people okay so you could do that or okay so i didn't get a loan what was option they said i could walk they said i could walk away and just try to get what I spent in property taxes since I covered all their share back.

1:32:52Okay. What's option B? I can file what's called, I forget exactly what it's called, but it's basically a motion where you have to make a choice. Buy me out or we sell and this is done. Yes. Just do that.

1:33:09Rachel Cruze:Yeah. Push forward on that one and just see what happens. That one is expensive because they would argue it and it would be. Well, they have no money. They can't argue it. They can't hire lawyers. They don't have any money. They can argue with you personally, but they can't do anything legally. How much does it cost to do that right quick? I was told to be prepared to drop at least$5 ,000 outright. And then if they argue it, possibly more from there. Okay. Well, do you, yeah, if you have five grand available, which you guys are in debt, you may not. I don't know. I don't know, Jade. Part of me would just walk away.

1:33:47I think I might walk away. I don't know when to hold him and when to fold him and when to walk away.

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1:35:05Rachel Cruze:Today's Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Why Refi. If you've lost control of your private student loan payments, your financial progress has stalled out. But Y-Refi helps borrowers explore refinancing options with payments built around their real-life situations. So to learn more at yrefi.com slash Ramsey, make sure to go. It's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. May not be available in all states. Okay, today's question comes from Natalie in Georgia. She says, I'm currently on Baby Step 6 and earn over$100 ,000 per year. I invest 10 % of my income in a Roth IRA. My monthly expenses are around 6 ,500.

1:35:47I live with my partner in a home that he owns and we have no plans to get married. I pay him$2 ,500 a month, which is significantly less than what I would pay living on my own. We keep all of our finances completely separate. I don't wanna buy a home, so what would you recommend I do instead to continue building wealth and long-term security? I want to make sure I'm following the spirit of the baby steps while also being realistic about my situation. Okay. So just to recap, she makes a good income. She's investing for herself. Her money is separate from the live-in boyfriend, but it's his house.

1:36:26So, Rachel, there's a lot to unpack here. I'm first going to answer this question based on her way of living. Okay. Okay. which is if I were you, you're not married to this guy. This is his house. Your money's totally separate. Then yes, I would just keep investing and building wealth. And if there is no, essentially you'd be on baby step seven. So you'd be investing well beyond 15 % and continuing to build your wealth for yourself without his input or name attached to any of it. Right. Absolutely.

1:37:00Rachel Cruze:And yes. Yep. I would do that. And then I probably, I don't know, I just thought of this as you were talking, Jade. My fear is because you're not married, there's no legal tie-in, right? Like even if your name obviously wasn't on the home, but you guys were married and you split, it's seen as a marital property. So you would get some level of equity. You're getting nothing right now. And if he decides to walk away in four months, from a housing perspective, you've built nothing on that side of the equation. Unless you made some sort of a document that you both sign. and make some sort of a agreement that could hold up in court.

1:37:38Rachel Cruze:Yeah. That if they break up, they have to sell the home. Yeah. And like, yeah, there could be that, right? Because I think there is. There are documents for that. Depending on the state. So I would honestly, I would, my only, yeah, you're doing good with everything else. My fear is the housing element of this for you. So either, yes, you need a formal, that's right, a formal document that will hold it up in courts to say if this long-term relationship, what do they call it? It's marriage. There's a term for it. Yeah, I'll look it up. I'm blanking. That if, yeah, if we separate, if we break up, still like what we've been building together actually can be seen as like common law marriage type thing.

1:38:15Rachel Cruze:That's a possibility. And or if that's not going to work in your state specifically in Georgia, then maybe on the side you're just putting the money away. And it earmarked for the future and earmarked as a possible down payment on a home if you guys break up. So you can be in a good position from a real estate perspective long term. So that would be the only thing I'm concerned about in this. The biggest risk you have is from a real estate perspective that you're just paying rents. You're building no kind of equity in your life. It's called a cohabitation agreement. And that's what you can do.

1:38:50But the bigger part of this, and this is worth saying, but home ownership is such a big part of wealth building. And if you don't have that cohabitation agreement, then your portion of that wealth building effort goes away. And then if I were her, I would be looking for other ways to diversify my investing. To be able to get to it if you needed it. Yeah, absolutely. But now let's talk about this from a Jade and Rachel perspective, which I think we should. And this is not anything on judgment. This is just you call it the show. Yeah, this show and we're the hosts. I question the commitment that's really here because if Sam Warshaw, that's my husband, if Sam Warshaw said to me, I love you, Jade, you are the love of my life.

1:39:35However, I'm never going to marry you. I don't want to marry you. And furthermore, I don't want my finances to even touch your finances. That gives me cause for pause, I'm just gonna say. And it causes me to go down into shutdown mode. and more so I have many questions. Why? You don't trust me? Is there something about me? Did I do something? Is there something about you?

1:39:59Rachel Cruze:Yeah, that's right. That's right. Absolutely. I know. And that's part of the world today, Jay, that I'm like, I just kind of like do this. What's the dog where they like turn to the side a little bit? Yeah, because, and not that everyone has to like get married and have kids by any stretch of the imagination. But when you are choosing to basically be married without the commitment, that's where I'm like, what's going on? It just begs questions. What is that? Yes. So, yep. I'm with you, Jade. I think that's fair. That's the friends talking. friends talking. If we were having a glass of wine, that's probably where we'd be like, gosh, Natalie, what's up with Jared?

1:40:38Rachel Cruze:Jared kind of sucks. Why doesn't anyone get married to you? What's going on? Jared. Oh, all right. What a guy. Let's go to Memphis and we have Brittany on the line. Hi, Brittany. Welcome to the show. Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on. Absolutely. How can we help? So my question, I'm 47 years old and about two months ago, six weeks ago, I bought a new car and then recently have decided I wanted to start my debt snowball. And now I'm like, well, what do I do with the car? Yes. Okay. How much is it? How much did you borrow on? 90 90 000 i'm gonna spit my coffee out she almost choked oh my gosh all right yeah how much do you make a year um i make about 150 i bring home about 9 500 a month how much is the car payment

1:41:401300 girlfriend let me tell you oh gosh okay um have you looked at at all um selling it like

1:41:49Rachel Cruze:what could you get it's a two month you'll have some depreciation for sure but if you turned around and did it yeah plus i was upside down oh got it that's part of it i think it was only about by like$5 ,000 and I did put money down. How much could you get out of it for? You mean this car now, how much would I end up probably owing after selling it? Yes. Yep. So I would probably, I'm going to say I haven't looked really in depth, but I'm saying probably 15 to 20 ,000. Upside down. Yes. Okay. Wow. I would still get out of it because to your point, if you're walking the baby steps now and you realize this is too much car for you, which it is, and obviously it's on debt, I would definitely make that transaction.

1:42:37I just wonder, though, do you have any cash laying around to put towards this? Well, I have about$15 ,000 in the bank. Okay, good. What other debt do you have? I have$46 ,000 in student loans, and that's it. I don't have any credit card debt. Okay, perfect. Did you say$4 ,600 or$46 ,000?

1:43:00Rachel Cruze:46 ,000 okay just like I wish it was the first one I wish it was the first one well you make that's what I was laughing about because I wish it was yeah you make good money you have 15 ,000 in the bank which is awesome um so what I would do yeah I would throw a lot of that cash too which is going to hurt you're still going to take out a small loan but I mean I would you know I would look at um yeah I mean 5 ,000 maybe if you do a private sale you might hit it right on the head Yeah, you might. The$15 ,000. You may have to take out maybe a$10 ,000 loan from a credit union to get you like a$6 ,000,$7 ,000 car and a little bit of the difference.

1:43:35Rachel Cruze:But yes, I would because you'd have$10 ,000 and then you have to pay off. And I think you could pay off$10 ,000. If you put$2 ,000,$3 ,000 at it a month, you could get this paid off in three to four months, that, and you'd be done. Yeah, after bills and everything, I have about$4 ,500 left over every month. Beautiful. Love that. Okay, good, Brittany. Yes. Okay, so that's great. So that's what I would do I would get out of this Because that$1 ,300 Even over the course of Gosh A couple of months Is eating into it So I would As quickly as you can Sell this car Take a loan out For the difference And a little bit more To get you around In a$5 ,000,$6 ,000 car Yeah And then And then you're paying $6 ,000 a month On student loans Yes Amazing And then you're knocking it off So well done Brittany I'm sorry about the$90 ,000 But you can get rid of it It's going to be painful But you can do it

1:44:49Rachel Cruze:When I talk to people on The Ramsey Show, 90 % of the problems I hear come down to one thing, not having a plan. They're not living on a budget. They have no idea where their money's going. Money is just happening to them instead of them happening to their money. And guys, that is so normal, but it doesn't have to be normal for you. And that's why I want you to go download our EveryDollar budget app. EveryDollar not only helps you tell your money where to go with a budget, it also builds a plan to free up extra money so you can pay debt off faster and start building wealth. And the best part, your plan is completely personalized to your life.

1:45:27Rachel Cruze:It's the same advice that you would get if you called the show. And it's right in your pocket. So don't keep living normal. Go download the EveryDollar app, answer a few questions, and get your plan today.

1:45:54Rachel Cruze:We wish we could get to every call on the show, because we always leave the show with a couple of people still on the board that we haven't been able to get to. So if you have a money question, though, and you're like, listen, I may not want to call the show, don't worry, because we have a place for you to go. Go to our website and use Ask Ramsey. So Ask Ramsey is our free AI tool, and it's been built and trained, is what they call it. Yes. But you throw everything in this thing, and it shows over the past couple of years, all of our books, articles, everything in this. And you can ask it very specific, detailed questions, and it will give you an answer as if you had called the show.

1:46:31Rachel Cruze:It will be a Ramsey-approved answer and what to do. And it's fantastic. I just saw some numbers in a meeting this morning about it, and it's like going crazy. It's great. It's so great because we want y 'all to figure out what to do with your money. And if you need help, it's there for you. So go to RamseySolutions.com or click the link in the description. if you're listening on podcast or YouTube and check out Ask Ramsey. All right, let's go to Corey in Atlanta. Hi, Corey. Welcome to the show. Well, thanks so much for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? So I am debating on buying a new house.

1:47:11My dilemma is I am almost in baby step seven. That's a goal I've been working towards for a long time. and I'm a little scared to take out a larger mortgage and this one's almost gone. Oh, man. How much more of a mortgage would you be taking out? So we are down to$27 ,000 left on our current house and the new mortgage would probably be$350 ,000 to$375 ,000.

1:47:37Rachel Cruze:Oh, gosh. Yeah. And how much is your current house worth? About$550 ,000. Okay. So you'd be looking at like an$800 ,000-ish,$900 ,000. Yeah,$8.50,$8.75 range. Yeah, what's the motivation to move? Is it just size or is it a different area of where you guys are in the city? Yeah, the primary motivation is to be closer to work. For the last 23 years, I've worked about an hour from where I live. Oh, wow. And the move would cut probably 25 minutes off of it, conservatively. Yeah. Wow, yeah. How much do you make a year? We make about$300. bubble. Okay. And how old are you guys? We're 43. Yeah. I mean, if you, I mean, you know, if it's in the parameters, like this is just like the safest way, if it's in the parameters of what we talk about when it comes to mortgages, that the payments no more than 25 % of your take home pay, you do it in, you know, 15 year fixed rates and all of it, it's still, it would still be a green light from a Ramsey perspective.

1:48:47Rachel Cruze:It's so funny. I feel like this is one part, like the second, the home upgrade. Yeah. Like, uh, like if George was sitting in here, I think he'd be more good with it. Dave is still like, I'll never tell you to borrow money. Even more. I want, but I, um, but yeah. And I think that you guys have enough of the motivation because you've been doing this that I think you would pay this off pretty quickly, four to five years. I think you guys could get aggressive and say, you know what, we're going to get rid of this. I don't think you're going to like having a mortgage. I think you've made so much progress on the home now that if you got into it, you'd pull a John Deloney.

1:49:17Rachel Cruze:John always talks about this. He's like, I could not sleep until this mortgage was paid off because they got a small one when they came to Nashville. So I think that's going to be you guys. But if it's in the parameters, I'm okay with it. And I would say the same thing. If you hear any pause from me, it's only because you had pause. You're like, oh, we're so close. And I feel that for you. I feel the feeling of almost. We're starting back over a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if it's in your value system, then it's totally cool. And quality of life, all of that comes into play. And again, you're not being unreasonable or irresponsible.

1:49:52Rachel Cruze:Not at all. Yeah, every day when I'm driving home and I drive by the location where the house would be, and I see the GPS at 25 minutes to home, I'm like, oh, I just want to move. And then when I'm home, I'm like, oh, all this money is going to be flying out the window. Right, right. That's the best thing. It's fun. And it's just I've been debating this for a year and we finally found a house that actually like is everything that we want. So now it's like, all right, the rubber meets the road. Are we doing this or not? Yep. Yep. Yep. I think if it's in those parameters, which I think it would be for your income.

1:50:25Rachel Cruze:Yeah. I think you guys, yeah, would be able to do it. It's nerve wracking. Yeah. What are you, if you had to give yourself like a percentage, like what are your percentages? is are you like 80 % I really want to do this house and it's just 30%, you know, it's just 20 % that says no? Or are you like 50-50? Where do you think you are? Prior to seeing this one that we really liked, it was very low because we've looked at like 50 houses and I've looked at how expensive they are and I was like, I would never move for this amount of money. And then we found this house and I was finally the first one that was like, oh, maybe I would move for this house, you know?

1:51:02So I would say it's really like 50-50 right now. What about your wife?

1:51:11She's more fine than I am because the move will not change her commute at all. So she's like, if you really want to do it, we'll do it. If you want to stay, we'll stay. She's very supportive either way.

1:51:20Rachel Cruze:Okay. How long have you been in the job for? 20 years. Oh, okay. So you'll probably be there for a little bit longer. Continue. Yes. Continue there. Yeah. Yeah, I'd be okay with it. And again, I think you guys are going to be motivated to get rid of this. I think so too. And so, I mean, if you just said, what if we threw a hundred grand at this, you'd be done in three years, which is insane, on an$800 ,000 house. Like, you know what I mean? You could get stupid on it. Yeah, I mean, seriously, you guys could really do it. Not that you have to be that intense, but I'm just saying your natural motivator, Corey, I think will be more intense than the average person because you've kind of tasted this, like, level of freedom that it's right there.

1:52:01Rachel Cruze:It's right there. But from the quality perspective of getting almost 40 minutes back each way. That's a lot of time. That's a lot. That's a lot of time that you get back. I will say it's worth calling out. There's few things that are like Trump money and time is one of them. Yes. Absolutely. And I have a young daughter too. I don't have too many years left with her. I'd like to get those years as much quality time as possible. For sure. Yeah, we'll take your – it sounds like you guys – the fact you've looked at 50 houses makes me think that you guys have emotionally been there faster than what reality is catching up to.

1:52:42Rachel Cruze:So, yeah, if it's a house you love and it's within the price range, yep, I would say go for it. Do it. All right, let's go to Joshua in Illinois. Hi, welcome to the show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. So I have my fiancee, love of my wife, that we're going to be getting married at the end of the year. And she has about$60 ,000 in debt between student loan, credit card, and car loans. And myself, I have the money that I can just pay it off once we are officially married. but I'm just more wanting to know if it would be better for us to kind of like work it through like together as if it was the baby steps and kind of be a first thing in our marriage versus me just kind of paying it off.

1:53:29I mean I definitely would want to have that conversation of what is our philosophy going to be around money.

1:53:37Rachel Cruze:That's what I was going to say. Is she committed to living a debt-free life because you don't want to go and pay everything off and then she goes right back and her old habits and you guys are on separate pages. Yeah, no, she's doing the great, doing the baby steps, has the EveryDollar app. Oh, good. Right now in her current situation, she works in ministry and doesn't make much money. But once we are married, she'll be moving in with me and then looking for other work that will act like she has a master's degree in counseling. So once she'll be doing that work and her pay will significantly increase.

1:54:12How much do you get married? What was that, sorry? When do you get married? In October of this year.

1:54:20Rachel Cruze:Okay. And how much of the debt does she have? How much debt will she be bringing in? With what she's paying off now, I mean, it won't make a huge debt, probably still like, you know,$55 ,000, like$60 ,000. Okay. And how much money do you have cash-wise that you're bringing into the marriage? Oh, so between my investments and other accounts, about$300 ,000. Okay. Is some of that$300 ,000 tied up in retirement IRAs or 401ks? Yeah, about$150 ,000 of it is in 401k and Roth, and then the other one's in a TOD brokerage account. Okay, great. Yeah, well, the path to become wealthy the fastest is being out of debt, staying out of debt, saving and investing.

1:55:09Rachel Cruze:And the faster you guys can get on that plan together, I'm a green light. I just want to make sure your values are aligned. And it sounds like they are. So I don't really, yeah, no red flag for me on it, especially if you're both wanting to tackle, get out of debt. I'd say it's a gift that you've been so diligent, Joshua. And what a gift to start off your marriage debt free.

1:55:31Thank you.

1:55:44Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple, and free to use. Go to RamseySolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's RamseySolutions.com.

1:56:35Rachel Cruze:Our scripture of the day comes from Psalm 145.8. The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. Clara Booth Loose said, money can't buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you're being miserable. Okay, Clara, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I agree. I agree. We had this big discussion before we moved. We built a home and moved in in 2019. And I remember I had so many nights in our old kitchen. And so I was like, I just can't wait to, I can't wait to be in our new house, you know, because the drawers would all hit. You know, it was like this, like this.

1:57:15Rachel Cruze:And then like we had two babies at the time and food was all on the floor. I'm cleaning up the food. And Winston was like, babe, you know that like this exact situation is just going to be put in a different kitchen. Like there's still going to be food on the floor and all that. And I was like. The craziness continues. And I was like, I know, but at least I'll have pretty cabinets. Like what I can look at. I feel you. It doesn't change you. You go with you. You go with you. It doesn't make you happier. But yet. It is a little more comfortable. You may like the cabinets a little bit more in the middle of the mess.

1:57:42Rachel Cruze:Oh, man. All right. Let's go to Meryl in Asheville. Hi, Meryl. Welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for taking my call. I have a pretty straightforward question. I have an old 401k that one of my first employers created for me straight out of high school. And when I went to college, it just kind of sat dormant and ended up closing. And now I can't contribute to it anymore. but we're going through some different financial struggles. I'm now a stay-at-home mom, so I'm not contributing the same way. I do work part-time, but it's definitely not contributing as much as I used to be. We have a Roth IRA, which we could roll the 401k over into, or there's also the option of closing it, I guess, and using the money for we have some major car repairs that just came up.

1:58:32So, yeah, I'm just kind of curious what your thoughts are on what to do with the 401k or just leave it alone. It has a very good rate of return right now and it has been increasing. I just can't help it increase.

1:58:43Rachel Cruze:Yeah, so I would roll it over just to a traditional IRA. You can just open that up. If you rolled it over into the Roth, I think that the tax implication will be there. So you have to watch out for that. And no, I would not cash it out early because you'll be hit with penalties in all of it. So, yeah, just rolling it over to a traditional. And we would say for anyone who's leaving a job with a 401k, just roll it over to an IRA. Oh, really? Okay. Yep. So that's for anyone because you want to be able to have somewhat control over what's going on. And it's not just sitting in the old plan of an old company that you're working at.

1:59:18Yeah. And the reason behind not obviously not cashing it in is it's still retirement money. So if you take it out early, you're going to be hit with the penalties on that and the taxes, obviously, on that as well. So direct rollover.

1:59:33Rachel Cruze:Yep. Great question, though, Meryl. Yeah, that makes sense. Yep, that's one that a lot of people do have. And if you had the money to pay the taxes and you wanted to convert it to Roth, you could, but not. That's usually a baby step seven deal, though, right? Yeah, and I was going to say, and you probably don't have that considering you said we have car repairs and all of it. That's right. So that's, yeah. Thanks for calling, Meryl. Let's go to Rebecca in Orlando. Hi, Rebecca. Welcome to the show. Hi, yes. I appreciate you taking my call and for any assistance. So I have had some recent vet bills.

2:00:02I now need to get a biopsy for my cat that's going to cost$2 ,521.16. I've not had a working vehicle since December, so I started saving then, and I've put aside$4 ,877.42. cents. But with my other monthly bills and per the rate that I'm earning per hour, I'm afraid I'm going to have to dip into my car savings to pay for this medical expense for my cat. And, you know, I do need a working vehicle. So I'm trying to strategically and intelligently navigate how to go about not only getting a car, but paying for this, that bill and any future expenses for my cat. How have you been getting to work without the car?

2:00:48I've been using Rideshare, and sometimes I'm able to work remotely as well.

2:00:53Rachel Cruze:How much do you have saved for the car? $4 ,000? I'd save$4 ,877. Do you have a goal you're trying to get to before you buy something? I'd like to get a Toyota or a Honda because they're reliable, so I would prefer to have saved up between$8 ,000 to$10 ,000. Okay. How quickly will you get to the$8 ,000 to$10 ,000? Um, I had a goal of setting aside a thousand dollars per month, but it's been a bit tricky because I earn$18.54 per hour and then I get commission. But what's that look like every month? It varies. I work for a major telecommunications company and, um, commission, you know, On an average month, what do you make?

2:01:37I've been making for commission under 1500. So my most recent check, I got a raffle and I got about$2 ,220.39. I just mean on a typical average month, what would you say? If somebody just quickly said, hey, what do you make? What would you say? $1 ,500? Yeah, we'll go with that. I'm going to break some, and that's$1 ,500 a month, not a week, right? I'm paid by a weekly, so yes. Okay, so$3 ,000 a month.

2:02:12yes yes okay um i don't think you have the money to spend 2500 on your cat's biopsy and mathematically it's just not there you can't spend a month's earnings on your cat i wish you could because i love animals and we do we do you know but yeah this is not financially. Especially when you don't have a car. Yeah. And you've got a, it's a, it's a question of priority at that point. Do you fund the thing that causes you to be able to work, which causes you to be able to eat and pay your bills, which is your vehicle? Or do you see what I'm saying? And I'm not saying it's a tough, I'm not saying it's an easy decision to make by any means.

2:02:58I'm just saying that it is a necessary one that every once in a while we come to these points where we have to prioritize in order of absolute importance. And that, and this is with anything, by the way, there is always going to be other things that compete to be the top dog, right? No pun intended, top cat. But the point is you've got to, you've got to say, no, no, no, no, no. This is it. This is the number one thing. And number two is going to feel, it doesn't make number two feel any less important is what I'm saying.

2:03:30Rachel Cruze:That's right. Yeah. And I think what's, you know, and it's always funny what hosts get which uh calls because george camel yeah he probably would say the same thing yes but george would spend more on his pets than all of us all of us combined uh so yeah if he was on here he probably would have a little bit more uh yes uh lax you know whatever but um but yeah it is a it's a it's a hard decision but we have to be wise and this is where our emotions can easily trump our logic, right? That's right. And you could do that with a home purchase. People go into a home because like, oh, we love it. It's exactly what we want, but it's 50 % of their income is the monthly payment, not logical.

2:04:13Rachel Cruze:And so we do have to be very, very thoughtful about what's going on. And yeah, and like you said, Jade, we love animals and I would love for you to buy a car and then say, hey, let me save up and cashflow this expense coming up. Yeah, yeah. But that could be reasonable, too. Yeah, and maybe get a second opinion with the cat. Maybe there's something you can do or there's something that will buy you some time. But certainly, please don't go into debt about this. That's my number one thing that I want you to take away is don't hear Rachel and I say, we don't think it's wise for you to spend your cash on this.

2:04:52And then please don't go and say, well, I'll put it on a payment plan or I'll put it on a credit card. We don't want you to do that. Yeah.

2:04:58Rachel Cruze:And again, this is always an interesting discussion because we get all the people in the comments who think that we're not animal lovers. And we are. We love animals. We have a dog. I mean, yes, it is great. It is your livelihood on the line. That's right. So we have, yes, that's where we have to plug in. Like we have to be smart about this. Like there is a point of our emotions and attachment. Yes. Is overdrives like common sense. Right. and some people spend tens of thousands of dollars and the pet does not get better. And then they, you know what I mean? Absolutely, yes. And they may or may not have the money for it.

2:05:33Rachel Cruze:So like, so there is, we just have to be logical in this, Rebecca. So. And there is something to be said. I'm gonna poke this beer right quick, right before the show is over. I love it. You have to be able to afford the pets that you have. Yes. So if you're not in a season where you have a lot of margin, it may not be the season to have pets. I keep throwing George out, but George would say, sell the horse, you know? He would, he would. We don't have the money to keep up with certain things. He would. Like there's a point, which is sad, but they will always come back around. Well, Jade, great show.

2:06:06Rachel Cruze:Thanks to everyone in the booth. And remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.