You Get To Decide Your Next Financial Step

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21:29Ken Coleman:All right, we are on the line with Bianca. Bianca is going through a divorce, all the things, separating from the father of her kids. And she's getting$100 ,000 from the sale of the home. And so we're bringing her back because we've got to walk through this. She's got$18 ,000 in debt. And so, Jade, let's jump in here because last we talked to her, she's trying to find a place in that$1 ,600 a month range for rent. And so walk her through here. What would she do with this$100 ,000? How does she get on stable feet with this money? Yeah, so the$100 ,000, I would use that to walk the baby steps. So the first thing you're doing, you're paying off the$18 ,000 of debt.

22:11Okay, so that's going to leave you with a$78 ,000, around$80 ,000 left. And then from there on, you're going to estimate, you're going to do some research here. You're going to say, okay, what's it going to cost to rent in the area? I think you quoted around$1 ,600 a month. Then you're going to estimate food, transportation, all of these things. and you're gonna create a budget. Right now it's kind of a make-believe budget, but you're gonna go, okay, what's my cost of living? Is it somewhere around 3 ,000, maybe$4 ,000 a month? And then you're gonna take that and you're gonna multiply that by six and you're gonna put aside another 18 to$20 ,000 as a six month emergency fund.

22:44So we've already spent 40 ,000 of this money and now we've got 60 ,000 left. Now here's my challenge to you. I would not take this money, Ken, and siphon off$1 ,600 a month for rent until it's gone. I agree. That is not a plan. I would take this money. I would tuck it away in a high yield savings account under lock and key. This is where you need somebody to hold you accountable. You're not married right now, but you need a really good friend, somebody who you're willing to give access to your life in the way of, I know where this money is. I know what you've told me. Maybe I get an alert to my phone if you start spending this money, something like that, to where this money can just hide there until you're ready to purchase a house.

23:29Ken Coleman:Yeah, I agree. Right. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I just don't want to spend everything on rent. You're not going to spend any of it on rent. I have a plan for that, Bianca. So let me ask a quick question. When you say traveling hairdresser, does that just simply mean you go to the clients? Is that what that means? Forgive my ignorance. Yes. Yes. So in the vital industry, you go to the venue and do the hair there, or you travel to a salon that I have where I do daily rental. Okay. But I just want to have a room to do content because nowadays everything is content, you know? Okay. I thought I heard that.

24:04Ken Coleman:So that means you're doing some social media stuff, right? Yes. Okay, let me ask you a question. Are you making any income off of that content? So I do practice every weekend on somebody, and they tip me, like, I mean, for the month, I get like 100, 150 maybe. But is that making money on the content you're posting? That's what I'm asking. You said content. I'm getting somewhere with this. You said I want to make my content work. Well, content doesn't work unless it's generating revenue. So are you generating any revenue? No, I literally just started two weeks ago. You just started? I will be in.

24:44Okay. Can I just be a coach for a second for you? Uh-huh.

24:48Ken Coleman:Yes. There's an old phrase on some cheesy motivational poster somewhere that says, when you chase two rabbits, you lose both of them. And I just wonder, and I'm not saying that this is chasing two rabbits, but I wonder if you shouldn't be putting all of your energy into doing people's hair. And then we get to a point where, to your point, I'm not spending any of the money. Jade's got it under lock and key, and I keep it under lock and key, and I'm able to pay for my rent, buy my own job. I can pay for groceries through my own job. I don't need mom to support me. And I just wonder if that's not the best use of your time.

25:30Well, here is my work, my business.

25:33Ken Coleman:I understand, but you have to put time into all the social media stuff. So, again, you don't have to prove this to me. I'm just telling you, you don't have to prove anything to me. I'm not being cynical. I'm just wondering. Well, there's two sides of it. And I want to clarify this. I think this is going to help you, Bianca. If you are already doing someone's hair that day for money and it's easy for you to film it, it's not taking a lot of time on your day, yeah, it makes sense to post it online. From there, your revenue can be more so about advertising and getting people in the air. Because, you know, people use social media like Google now.

26:07so that's a great advertising venue i think to ken's point it would be a while before you're generating any sort of revenue from platforms if is that what you're going is that what you're for yeah yeah so the content is not for me to be like a content creator it's just to advertise myself yeah all right and again i'm only raising it myself out there got it and i love that bianca

26:29Ken Coleman:that's what i'm saying i didn't want you to hear cynicism from me more just focus utter focus right now so that we're bringing in as much money as possible because you're a single mama, mama bear that's got to take care of some very important people. And so that's just me saying, think about that right now. Every ounce of time you have for work needs to be generating money. That's all. How many hours a week are you working currently? Because what I'm trying to get out, I'm just going to be honest with you. You got four kids? Three. Three. Three boys. Three boys. And you're going to have a$1 ,600 rent.

27:03Because remember, the plan is to not touch this money. So my question for you is, how many hours are you working a week at this? Or where do you think it will start? And if it's at a part-time level, what will you do with the other time to bring in money? I'm just throwing some questions out there for you to be thinking about. So my goal is to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday and just do it full time right now. I'm just doing a couple of color clients to like be able to help me pay the bills and my mom too. But I just basically Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which are the busiest days to work because when, when I get to the point where my business will be successful, I can make up to like a thousand to a thousand 500 a week.

27:52But what will you do on the days that aren't Friday, Saturday and Sunday? What will you do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday? Well, my plan was to stay with my kids because it pays more. It costs more to have them in daycare or somebody watch them. And that's why my goal is Monday through Thursday, stay with them, and then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday work those days.

28:17Ken Coleman:Can mama not watch them while you're out working? My mom? Yeah, your mom. Yes, my mom works. I literally have nobody to watch them right now. That's why I chose to go. Yeah. Okay. So here's what I just want to caution you. I want you to do whatever you can not to siphon this money slowly. Okay. And because what can happen is you can have a distorted view of reality of how well you're doing. Because when the bills are paid and everything seems fine, it makes you feel like everything's good. But if your hair business is not bringing in the money that you really need to survive, you could look up and be in a world of pain in about a year or so from now.

29:03That's right. So just caution that. I think you're thinking through this. I want you to do a deeper level of thinking on the Monday through Thursday deal and see if there's anything you can find. Because don't automatically assume you can't find work that can pay for daycare. I don't want you to automatically make that assumption.

29:19Ken Coleman:Yeah. And to that point, I'm going to throw it out there. maybe the best move for you right now is to go work for an established salon that needs somebody cutting hair and you're not the one trying to find clients. You got enough to deal with right now as you're going through a very traumatic time. You need time to heal. So I would be considering if I could go make really good money or as much money as you possibly can, given your time limitations for a salon where they're generating customers for you or however that works. I'm over my skis here on this particular topic. I should be letting you talk about the business part.

29:51Ken Coleman:But I think if you could get somebody else to pay you is my point. I agree. Until you get established and then we find, okay, I'm going to start doing a couple, keep my hair color clients on, you know, maybe I do a Monday night, you know, the boys are in bed at eight. Maybe I do a couple, you know, I do one late night color. Yeah. And you begin to build that way. And I think this is the mindset you're going to have to have. But here, Jade, well, you need to do everything in your money. You only need to almost trick your mind that that$40 ,000 is someone else's and you just cannot touch it unless there's some crazy, insane emergency, which of course you've got to.

30:27Ken Coleman:But it's truly emergency money only. And I think if you do that, you will find a way. And there's no way, Bianca, that Jade and I would bet against a single mama. No way. Like there's zero chance. right I want you to hear that like there's no stopping you I wouldn't get in front of you if my life depended on it to take care of those three boys so I want you to hear that you got this we believe in you okay okay but get after it like your life depends on it all right

31:19Ken Coleman: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.

31:58Yeah, 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.

32:30And 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.

33:10Ken Coleman:Buying or selling a home is a big deal. You didn't need me to tell you that. It's just such a huge, huge deal. The emotion, the money that's involved here. And the reality is, is all these deferring headlines. There's clickbait on social media. Somebody always trying to tell you about the latest things. But we want you to know we're here minding the store. What are the real trends? What are home prices at right now? What are we seeing with the inventory? What is the rate on the average 15-year fixed rate? All of those things, we've got that for you so that you can trust the information. And you can get that, by the way, by going to RamseySolutions.com slash market.

33:51Ken Coleman:That's RamseySolutions.com slash market. Or we have the link in the show notes. All right, let's go to Nick in Wichita, Kansas. Nick, how can we help you today? Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call. It's an honor to be talking to you all. You too. What's going on? So basically, my wife and I bought this house about a year and a half ago with two incomes. We had planned for two incomes for quite some time, and the Lord blessed us with our first daughter. And so we kind of switched paths. So my wife is a stay-at-home mom because we'd like to expand our family a little bit further. But we know that now this house is a little bit more than we can chew.

34:32So we're looking for other options. And one thing that we're looking at is some land that we would like to buy and then build a house on. So I called the bank up and they said, hey, you should take out a HELOC to buy the land and then get a construction loan. And I said, HELOC, I don't know. What would they say?

34:52Ken Coleman:So that's why I'm kind of calling in today. So before we answer that part of it, what is too much to chew this house? How much are you, you know, you're running short on money? Give us that breakdown. Yeah, so currently with our mortgage and everything, unfortunately, we got a 30-year loan. And so it's 40 % of our take-home pay right now. Which is how much? Which is a lot more than 25%. Yes. Take-home pay is about$65 ,000. So take-home is$65 ,000. And what is the actual amount of the mortgage right now? So the mortgage is a little over$1 ,800, but we put extra on because we wanted to pay it off earlier than 30 years.

35:38Ken Coleman:Okay, now knowing what we know now, the$1 ,800 is too much, right? It's too much for you guys. So as we start thinking about what we're doing now, and you're thinking about a house with land, what is the number you need to be at? If you could wave the wand and change your mortgage payment to the right percentage, what would it be? A 25 at max? So 25 % would actually be about$1 ,500. The minimum payment right now is$1 ,800, but we actually pay more than that to make it not a 30-year loan. That's why it's at 40%. So it's actually about$2 ,400 instead. You said you take home$65 ,000. That's around$5 ,400 a month?

36:27Yes. Okay. And you said you're trying to get the more, 25 % is about$1 ,300. So I wouldn't, I just want to make sure we're on the same numbers because you're quoting different numbers than I have on my paper. So I just want to make sure you're off by about$300 on a lot of what you're saying, which is not a lot, but it is a lot. You see what I'm saying? So I just want to make sure I'm, it's fine that you're off. I just want to make sure we're tracking together. So you've been paying extra on the$1 ,800 mortgage. Paying the extra is what's put that at 40%. Yeah. Got it. Okay. Now we can move forward.

37:06Keep going. So the plan is somebody told you to take out a HELOC. It rose your hackles. Is that what they say?

37:14Ken Coleman:To buy the land. Yeah. But first of all, you know our answer to that. But beyond our principal answer on that, I just don't understand why. Well, I do. They're trying to sell you a product. Yeah, don't do it. But you should be able to do the lot and the house all together in one construction loan, and it needs to be within reason for you. So can you do that? Have you found a place where you could get the lot and build a house and come in where you need to come in at what your monthly mortgage is? Yes, yes, I think so. So the lot is about$65 ,000, and we put about$150 ,000 into a house on it. And so with the equity we have in our home now, that would bring us a mortgage of about$150, maybe a little bit less.

38:01So that would – our monthly payment would be about probably a little bit less than$1 ,500 a month. That's great.

38:08Ken Coleman:Okay. It's a much better situation. So the point is put the house on the market and do what you just said, but you don't need to get a HELOC to buy the land. Okay. You're just going to be displaced for a while. Well, they're just selling you the bank. That's their job. Yeah. Right. That's how they make money. But yeah, you don't need that. You just do it all in one lump sum. You've actually, have you built a home before? I've never built a home. Neither have I. So I'm a bit of a rookie on this. Me too. But I know you can do it all in one swoops. It sounds like you've researched it. So yeah, you're doing the right thing.

38:42Ken Coleman:I'm glad that you have equity that you can get out of the situation. Yeah, absolutely. Me too. Yeah, you're looking for a construction of permanent loan. Sometimes it's called like a one-close loan because you're not doing a separate loan on the land and then a separate loan. It's all together, and it's one-close. It's going to be easy for you to do it that way. Yeah, thanks for the call. You're a smart young man, and now you know what to do. Hey, walk away from these things as we have when we've made dumb decisions or maybe not dumb but risky, and then the risk comes home to roost. So learn from this.

39:13Ken Coleman:Let's go to Emily who joins us now in Philadelphia. Emily, how can we help you today? Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. So my husband and I were expecting our first baby in June. Congrats. Thank you. And we were wondering the best way to build wealth for our child, especially because we hope to have many children. So we wanted to make and we wanted to start now with that. And I want to know how to start this and update it as we have more children and our salary changes. Oh, I love that. You know, I feel like that's kind of been a sentiment lately, people calling in and thinking about the best way to build wealth for their kids.

39:49And truthfully, and I think, Ken, you would agree, I think the best way to set your children up for wealth is for you to set yourself up to build wealth. Because when you do that, not only are they learning valuable money principles in the home, right? They're observing what you do on a daily basis. So they're seeing you save money. They're seeing how you speak about money. They're sensing the feeling about money in the house, right? So when it's healthy, that's very good for them. Not to mention, as you're building wealth, then you can do those things for them that set them up to succeed, like pay for their college.

40:22You can help them with their first car payment, right? You can match the cost or different things like that. So I think that's the best place to start. And obviously as you're doing that, yeah, you're putting money in a 529 for them. Maybe you have the extra money that you're putting it aside in a mutual fund that you plan to gift them at their wedding, right? Those certain things. So let's talk about, given that, let's talk about your financial situation and where you guys are today. Okay. Yes. So that was also kind of part of it because we make about a total at the household like$200 ,000 per year.

40:57But I am not sure if I'll be returning after maternity leave. What will it change to then? $100 ,000.

41:06Ken Coleman:Oof. Now, how is that – because we don't have a ton of time with you, so we're going to roll through this real quick. How will that change your budget in the sense of will it be super tight or will you still have margin? It will be pretty tight, especially because we're looking to buy a house now. We're doing that based off of his income just in case. Good. Smart. So it will be pretty tight. So you want to optimize what we have. And you have no debt? No debt, no. Good. Do you have an emergency fund? Yeah, we have almost six-month emergency fund and about like$60 ,000 cash and$40 ,000 in a brokerage to put down for the house.

41:43Ken Coleman:Very good. And so I'm moving fast here just for Jade to give her the final coaching moment here. So will we still have margin to keep investing 15 % in Baby Step 4 with the reduction? You'll still be able to do that? Yes. And then it'll be tight. So now it's Baby Step 5, so we just aren't going to have a lot to put in there, Jade, is what I'm hearing. Yeah, you're just not - It's 529. That's the reality. So we got to figure out some income. Yeah, it's going to be tight because you're going to be investing 15%. You're buying a new house. I mean, that's what it is. But here's the thing. How old are you guys?

42:1826 and 27. 26 and 27. You are so similar to the couple that called in earlier that was going to have$17 million. If you guys avoid debt, you continue to do this. Your income continues to grow over time. you are going to retire with several millions of dollars, right? On the$100 ,000 income, on the$1 ,500 income, you're going to have plenty. You're going to have plenty to put that$1 ,500 into your investment savings.

42:59Ken Coleman:Let's talk about something nobody wants to think about until it wrecks their budget. Medical debt. Medical debt is one of the biggest financial landmines in America today. And that's why Health Trust Financial is the only health insurance provider Ramsey recommends. You guys, a lot of people have medical debt, even with health insurance, because you can pick the wrong plan, pay big monthly premiums, and still get slammed with huge out-of-pocket costs later. And if you're self-employed or you run a small business, you're paying 100 % of that bill. But Health Trust Financial shops multiple top-rated carriers with no extra costs or pressure to help you get the right plan while finding you big savings.

43:34Ken Coleman:And they don't just look at the cheapest one, they help you understand deductibles, networks, out-of-pocket costs, so you don't get surprised later. And most people who work with HealthTrust Financial save up to 50 % on their health insurance costs. That's real margin you can put towards working the baby steps instead of medical bills. So don't let one hospital visit sabotage your financial plan. Go to HealthTrustFinancial.com and protect your budget. That's HealthTrustFinancial.com.

44:06Ken Coleman:Welcome back to The Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I am Ken Coleman. We're so excited to have you with us today. The phone number to jump in, 888-825-5225, 888-825-5225. Mason joins us now in Richmond, Virginia. Mason, how can we help today? Hey, how's it going? Thank you guys so much for being here. I was looking for what advice you could give me where I think most financial advisors would say that my fiance and I are doing really well for our age. But man, I just find myself really stressed and anxious about money all the time. Well, give us some evidence that would say that these financial advisors are correct.

44:54So we've got about$50 ,000 in investments. We've got no debt. We've got new paid off vehicles. We've got probably about$50 ,000 in cash. I mean, I think on paper, we would be doing well, I concur. There's just something in me that's telling me, hey, you're never going to retire. Life's getting more expensive. It only gets more expensive.

45:18Ken Coleman:Well, I can tell you this. That's kind of just keeping me up at night. I get it. Totally understand. But this has nothing to do with paper. This has everything to do with your past. Okay. And what I mean by that is somewhere along the way in the environment you grew up in or some experiences that you have lived or been adjacent to, you have developed this narrative that you're actually calling us about today. Is that true? Or I don't mind if I'm wrong, but I doubt you just plucked this fear out of thin air. Where is it coming from? That's what I can't tell you. My fiance comes from a very well-off family, and I come from a pretty middle-class family, never struggled or anything.

46:01Ken Coleman:I really can't tell you where it's coming from. Oh, I know where it is. You just told me. You actually just answered it. Uh-huh. Yeah, you did. You married a woman who comes from a very wealthy family, which is very different, and you've got a little bit of fear of, I'm not going to be able to finish the way that I see her parents finish. Or maybe I'm not going to be able to acquire everything that they have acquired. and you are comparing your now to where they are. Excuse me. You're comparing your next to where they are now. And I think that's probably what's driving you crazy. I want to bring Jade in.

46:34Ken Coleman:What are you hearing? How old are you? I'm 24. She's 23. I think Ken is exactly right. Number one, you're very, I mean, you're just getting started. My husband and I got married at 23. And Ken is exactly right. You both came from families that did fine and did well and better than fine. and you do feel that pressure of, okay, we both have a lifestyle we are used to. We wanna get there right away. And you're right. You've got 50 ,000 invested, no debt, 50 ,000 in cash. You've done extremely, extremely, hear me well for 23 and 24 year olds. You are so far above the game. I don't know if you heard the first call that we took where it was some folks in a similar situation.

47:19And I was explaining to them the power of compounding interest. You are in such a magnificent situation because your margin is yours to invest. And you're not a millionaire today, but I'm telling you it ain't going to take long. Ken Coleman, it's not going to take long at all. And I don't know if you've sat down. Here's my advice to you. And I've said this many times before. Fear comes in two forms, rational and irrational. And what I find is the irrational forms tend to be extremely vague. So what you're saying, I'm just afraid I won't be able to retire. I'm just afraid I'm going to mess it up.

47:54I'm just afraid that we won't build wealth. Why? In what way? What's going to happen? So what I would challenge you to do is take that vague fear and put some, like, substantiate it a little and put some meat on the bones. Well, if you don't build wealth, why would that be? What would happen? You would lose your job. The stock market would crash. And play out your worst fears. And then you're going to look at it on paper and you're going to kind of laugh at it and go, okay, that's pretty silly.

48:18Ken Coleman:Right. So let's put you on the spot. Yeah. Because you're such a kind young man. And let's just put it out there. I want you to be as specific as you can on your greatest fear, the one that you lay awake at night. Be specific. What is it? Yeah, we'd love to move to California one day. And I own a home in Virginia. She'll be moving in here. And it's a lot cheaper in Virginia than California. And so I just feel, hey, maybe we're never going to be able to buy a home there. And I understand that. Okay, hold on. Now we're getting somewhere. That's good, but I want specifics. So let's be specific because we're actually going to use Jade's coaching here, but we're going to give her numbers.

48:57Ken Coleman:All right. So let's pick a number that's pretty realistic. What is that house going to cost in California? Roughly. Maybe$750 for a condo or townhome. $750. I think you need to up it, my guy. Let's go 1.4 Yeah, I like that Alright, 1.4, and how many years from now? That you would be moving to California? Any time frame I mean, we'd love to move out there soon And just rent and buy a home eventually Okay, let's go eventually And let's go You like 1.4 or do you want to do more than that? Let's start with 1.4 Because they can get a condo or a smaller townhouse 1.4 and you've got no debt and all that So your big fear, you're telling me your big fear is I'll never be able to amass the amount of money I need to to buy that house and not be house poor.

49:47Ken Coleman:Is that what I'm hearing? Right, correct. All right, great. Jay, take over. This is fun. Now listen to this. Okay, so here's what I'd do. I'd take the numbers and I'd work backwards. We talked about this earlier because this is vision, right? You're not there today. Although I didn't get your income. What's your income today? Combined, it'll be$130. $130. Okay, so what I would start with is I'd work backwards. I'd say, okay, I want a house that's 1.5 million or 1.4 million. And right now I make 130K. Out of that, what do you take home every month? It's about eight grand every month. Eight grand.

50:23And of that eight grand, how much is margin extra? About 2 ,500. 2 ,500. So I'd be looking at that and I'd say, okay, 2 ,500, that's my margin. I want something that's 1.4. I've got to figure out how much money I need to save or make in order to have something that's 25 % of my take home. That's the math to solve for. And when you solve for that math, you're going to start having answers. And it's going to give you something aspirational to work towards. Because here's the thing. It is 100 % not out of reach. It's just going to take some concerted effort to get there. Fair enough? Sure. And then what you can do, you can say, okay.

51:02Yeah, that makes sense. If I take that$2 ,500 and let's play this out. Let's say this is a five or six or seven year time horizon. What if I invested that money? How quickly could I get there if I invested it? And I would play that out. I would go on Ramsey Solutions. I'd use the calculator. I'd use the mortgage calculator. And I'd use the investment calculator. Do it real quick. That's exciting.

51:21Ken Coleman:Punch in$2 ,000 a month. Okay. Still gives them a little bit of margin for other things. And we'll do it on a, let's do it on a five year horizon. is do you want to do that 31 do we like that sounds great okay five years sounds great so do you have anything invested currently you said 50 right oh that's just in retirement accounts nothing else okay nothing okay i won't use the retirement uh okay so if you started investing that today you're gonna have 250 000 in the next five years and that's just with what you have now That's no side hustle. That's no cutting back. That's nothing else. So that's pretty sweet.

52:04Ken Coleman:So the point is, is we're not even putting you into this timeline that you've got to move to California in five years. What we're trying to do is address your fear that you're never going to have enough to live the life you want to live. My friend, you're in great shape. Wonderful. You need to take a deep breath. You need to take those fears to somebody else besides us. Talk through them. What's the source of it? No, I'm serious. Because it's okay, man. But it's so huge. Jay was right to just lay these fears out on paper, very specific, and just see how silly they are or how serious they are. Because sometimes they are justified.

52:37Ken Coleman:So you're in good shape, young man. Thank you so much for the call. You're way ahead of most people your age.

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54:14Ken Coleman:All right, let's go to Washington, D.C. next, where Angela awaits. Angela, how can we help? Hi, thanks for taking my call. So I kind of have a twofold question. My husband and I have great jobs, and we're in Baby Step 7, huge Dave Ramsey fans. My question is, like, I want to be a stay-at-home mom, but is walking away from this high-income job worth it? And if so, in the meantime, what do I save for? What else do I do to prepare for this? Okay. If that makes sense. Yeah, let's walk this thing back. So when would you leave? If you were to leave, how long from now? Well, I don't have a time frame.

55:02I was thinking September, but of course, like whenever God tells me to, you know, we've been praying into it and stuff like that. So what's your what's your reason?

55:10Ken Coleman:What's your reason for walking away? I know stay at home mom, but give me something specific. My girls, they're five and seven. You know, I don't care to bring them before and after care. I want to be there. I totally get it. I totally get it. The greatest reason in the world. That helps me, though, because my job here is torn. Yeah, well, here's what we want to do. We want to help you get to a place on this call or shortly thereafter where you can make a decision. It's not for us to tell you. That's why I asked that question. That's the greatest reason in the world. How much do you make? $300 ,000.

55:47Ken Coleman:Okay. And how much does your husband make? $178 ,000. Okay. And so you're in baby step seven. What do you guys have? What does your retirement portfolio look like? I'm looking for a number. So net worth right now is 3.1 million. Fantastic. Great job. So you're going to go down to 178 when you walk. And my guess is, smart as you've been, you guys are still going to have plenty of margin? Oh, yes. Yes. How much margin? Thank God. Yep. it's about$2 ,500 a month. Fantastic. I'm having a hard time finding any reason. You probably just feel the pressure of it. Well, that's what my next question was going to be, is this because you're afraid that, hmm, what if I want to come back and I might be throwing something away?

56:39Ken Coleman:Is it that or is it fear of what other people are going to say? I don't think it's fear of what anybody else is going to say because, you know, my husband and I always joke with him inside the house like we are the Joneses, right? Because our standard is different, right? We're content with what we have. So I don't care what anybody else has. I see it as a badge of honor to be able to do that with my kids. You should. So what's causing the cause? My husband and I grew up in poverty. My husband and I grew up in poverty, right? I never dreamed, and he never dreamed that we'd be making this much, right?

57:16Yeah. And so would it be foolish to step away and not have the wealth for a family? No, because it's your definition of success. It all has to do with your definition of success, your definition of importance, where you place your values of importance. It all has to do with that. And some people do. Their values are in their job and what they generate and their income and their productivity. and all that stuff in the workspace. And other people, their values are centered in other areas. And that is totally okay. Okay, I'm going to give you an example. Have you seen the movie The Devil Wears Prada?

57:57Ken Coleman:I have. No. Oh, man. I have kids five and seven. I don't watch TV. I get it. You got to watch it. But in the movie, she has this amazing job that, quote, a million girls would kill for. She's in proximity. She's making money. She's doing her thing. and she doesn't like what it's doing to her home life. She doesn't like what it's doing to her relationships around her. And so she sacrifices it and people think she's crazy for giving up this dream job. But for her, her values are placed in other places. That's all I wanted to tell you is it's totally okay. Success for you means you're there with your kiddos.

58:33Ken Coleman:And that's fabulous. Let's rewind to your real fear here, which is we grew up in poverty. So the fear under there is, will I... So the question, I'm making this up, But the question that comes with that reality is, will we have enough? That's a question that is constantly rotating in your head because of your background. Okay, great. So here's the deal. So we have to reframe the question. And so instead of allowing the question to be, will we have enough, now we know we'll have enough. Like your confidence when I asked you, what will your margin be? It was awesome. You know your numbers. You literally went like this.

59:12Ken Coleman:You went, oh,$2 ,500. Like, you're so— I was prepared. I mean, I got the numbers. But I'm praising you, and I'm pointing out to you your confidence when you weren't thinking about that question. You just, boom, we're fine. So now the new question is, what is enough? And so before you make this move, you write that out. What is enough? And it's like, what we have is enough. We are the Joneses, to use your phrase. what is enough is that I get to be mom to my five and seven year old that's enough

59:49yes it is it is that's where my importance is God has gotten that out of me the past year and a half

59:55Ken Coleman:so my point is you're making a great decision you're making a great decision and here's the deal those girls are going to be 15 and 17 in a whisper of a moment I'm telling you I'm on the other side of it. I'm ahead of you. Okay. I got, I, my middle one's going to college in three months. My youngest has got two more years. I don't even know how that happened. Okay. My point is, um, you'll never get this time back. You can always get back in and make more money. Right. Right. It's just, it's, it's just so much. Right. And it's like, what else haven't I thought out of to do it well, it's good. Have you allowed yourself to picture what a day is going to look like?

1:00:40Ken Coleman:Let's just assume that tomorrow, you know, you're out. You've checked. You're done. I'm decluttering my house. I'm decluttering my house, and I am going to exercise. Oh, I love that. Great. What are you going to do with the girls? What are you going to do on the first Monday when you aren't working, and it's summertime, and you realize, I don't have to go in today. What are you going to do with the girls? We're going to go on walks. We're going to go to the park because of how old they are. Like, we're going to go find something to get into. Or maybe we'll travel. I don't know. Go visit family.

1:01:10Sounds pretty right. I haven't really decided summers. I love that for you. I love that so much. You're going to cook meals. You're going to take care of yourself. Oh, man. My husband wants me to be a safe home mom. Like, everybody wants me to. Oh, my gosh.

1:01:25Ken Coleman:What are we waiting on? Why are we even waiting until September? She just needed permission. Yeah. The chain of 300 ,000. Well, listen. It sounds like golden handcuffs. Well, by the way, that's real. It is. By the way, that's why that phrase came about and why it has stuck in culture so long, because it really adequately describes the psychological situation when somebody is thinking about doing what you're doing. It almost feels stupid, doesn't it? Yes. Yes. Yeah, I get it. But what we got to do is. That's why it called in. I know. Well, I hope we helped because we have to reframe. The reason I asked you what the first Monday looks like with the girls when you're done is because that's what you have to reframe around.

1:02:08Ken Coleman:That's what you're deciding on. You're not deciding on being stupid and walking away from 300 ,000. You are deciding to make unbelievable memories that when it is all said and done, long after you stop working, you are dreaming and fantasizing on the past, the good old days. And when you go home, you are in the middle of the good old days. Man, come on, Ken. So that's, listen to that. That's joy. That's kind of what we wanted on this call. So, Angela, you didn't need our permission. I think that hopefully you see this now as not a dumb decision, but maybe the smartest decision you'll ever make.

1:02:54Ken Coleman:Yeah, that's powerful. Okay. Well, thanks for walking me through that. Yes, ma 'am. And help validating some things. I appreciate it very much. You're an awesome mama. And boy, you'll never, ever, ever, ever, ever regret making the move that your heart's telling you to make. That I'll stand by and I'll fight with anybody on that anytime. Listen to your heart. It's not just a great song by heart. Listen to your heart. I knew she was going to do it. Oh, it's such a blessing to be able to throw a bounce pass to somebody who can do something with it. There it is.

1:03:43Thank you.

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1:05:24Ken Coleman:All right, are you aware that we have Ask Ramsey? What is Ask Ramsey? You ask. I'll answer. Ask Ramsey is an AI tool that's built and trained on our proven Ramsey principles. And today we're going to break down the most asked questions from the week. And the big question that kind of wins the derby as the most asked question, Jade, is how do I determine the appropriate amount and type of life insurance that I need? Wow. Well, first off, I love people are thinking about this. And the Ramsey principles do make it simple. When you go on Ask Ramsey, it's going to get straight to the point. They're going to say term life only.

1:05:59That's all you need. That's what we would say here on the show. You need a term of about 15 to 20 years. That's what we would recommend on the show. They're going to say, hey, coverage amount needs to be 10 to 12 times your annual income, which is just what we would say here on The Ramsey Show. Now, the reason is it's very straightforward. Your life insurance, guys, it has one job. The job is to replace your income if something happens to you so that your family is taken care of, okay? If you should be beamed up sooner than you expect, okay? And the whole point is we want you to avoid really bad policies, things like whole life, universal life policies.

1:06:35And just remember, if you're a stay-at-home parent, you need coverage too. You need term life insurance even if you aren't debt-free. So that's the main thing here. Life insurance is not a baby step. You need to get it in place as soon as you learn about it, Ken.

1:06:49Ken Coleman:Absolutely. So remember, AskRamsay can help you determine how much term life insurance you need to get from Xander based on your specific situation. Of course, you've been with us anytime. We have been partnering with Xander for a very, very long time. They are fantastic. Xander Insurance absolutely can help you. What they do is they actually shop all the different insurance opportunities for you to get you the best rate. I've known Jeff Xander for probably 15, 20 years. Yeah. Great dude, great organization. So Xander.com is the website there. And go today. You won't believe, by the way, how affordable term life is.

1:07:31Ken Coleman:I don't think most people think that life insurance is as cheap as it is. Yeah, it's in the teens. Yeah. So very, very important. And you got to do it. I remember early on when we got this, this teaching, this was many, many, many years ago. And we were in our 20s, Stacey and I, just newlyweds. And I remember feeling so responsible going to bed that night that if something were happening to me, my bride, we didn't have kids, was going to be okay. Absolutely. And that's the key, the peace of mind to know that if something tragic happens and unexpected, that after all the grief and all of that kind of stuff that they're dealing with, they don't have to deal with the stress of not being able to take care of themselves.

1:08:13Ken Coleman:That's why this is such a huge deal. And that's why, by the way, Jade, people are asking that question. They're starting to see it. So very good stuff. Kathy is up next in Denver, Colorado. Kathy, how can we help today? Yeah, thank you for taking my call. What I'm calling about is my dad's finances. He's 80 and has Parkinson's and recently had a fall, so I ended up having him in a nursing home so he'd have access to therapy. So he has close to$600 ,000 in checking. wow yeah and um so i'm wondering if i'm overstepping my bounds to put it in a cd i've asked him several times and his theory is he's going to get out and he's fine and he's going to go back to running his business and everything's good so he says nope don't worry about it okay but it's you know it's only earning one accounts at 0.01 one's at 0.25 but you have power of attorney uh no um you know because i'm just a kid and i don't need it understood so so it sounds like i i have a feeling

1:09:41yes this money is of issue but I think there's a bigger issue here which is you've got to work on convincing him that you need more control in this situation as he's aging and hopefully as his health is declining at a very slow rate is was my hope here but you said he's 80 how long has he had Parkinson's? He's had Parkinson's for probably 25 years His mental state since this fall has deteriorated. And he, yeah, I'm the only child, so I don't have like anybody else to kind of bounce ideas off of. What about his home? His previous home? Yes, it's quite rural. And so I had originally thought I would try moving him home this summer when the weather wasn't going to be an issue.

1:10:37But last time I talked to him here this morning, he thought he was in a hotel.

1:10:44Ken Coleman:What is his retirement accounts like? What does he have there? I know he's got 600K in checking. What does the rest of it look like? Most all of it's in CDs. And honestly, I would have to go look all those up. I'm not 100 % sure. My names are on the checking accounts, so I can write checks. Can you just move the money and not, I mean, I'm not saying I would move it to a CD. I'd probably just put it in a high yield savings account. But can you move that? Your name is on the account. Honestly, I might just go ahead and do it. He's going to be none the wiser and it's for his benefit. I probably wouldn't go as far as to invest it because I feel like he would need to sign off on that.

1:11:28Ken Coleman:He has more than$600 ,000 is what I'm trying to understand, correct? Yes, yes. Yeah, he's probably got... What's his worth? I mean, if you had to guess. Oh, including land? Yeah. Probably 10 to 12 million. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I guess the reason I'm asking this is, Kathy, I love where your heart's at, and I'm so glad you called us. I don't think you have to do much here. Does he have an estate plan? No. Oh, now that to me is the priority. You getting in charge of you taking over his finances, I think that's going to happen pretty soon anyway. He's in such good shape that I think the bigger issue is, is like, you're the only child.

1:12:14Ken Coleman:What kind of a will does he have? There's no will. There's no will. He has to do that. Like, that is priority number one, not you managing his money. You're already managing his money in the sense that if he begins to lose all of his ability to function, you're already on the account so you can do all that. But the guy's got$10 to$12 million out there. You need to get a will while he's still coherent. Yes. Okay. Okay. That's priority number one. You know what's going to happen? Jade, tell her what happens if he passes and there's no will. There's no will. It's going to go through the courts. It's going to go through probate.

1:12:49It's just going to take forever. And you don't know how all of this is going to get divvied up. I mean, you're the only child, but I don't know what else is going on. I don't know if there's an ex-wife or this or that.

1:12:58Ken Coleman:What happens if he's got a stepbrother and everybody comes out of the woodwork? Yeah. This is scary to me. This is something I would be dealing with this weekend. Not this weekend. Like, you're hanging up the phone with us and you're going to see dad. Okay. Now, listen, you know how to talk to him, okay? but you've got to be asking him questions like, hey, dad, do you have an estate plan and things of this nature? And that's not going to be fun to talk to because he's thinking about getting out and last thing he told you, I'm coming back to run my business and all these things. You know what I might do?

1:13:32I might call up a lawyer and find somebody that will take this on and that will go with you to him. That's great. And kind of work, you know what I'm saying? So your dad doesn't have to go anywhere. You could almost start wrapping this up. So I would get with the lawyer. I'd say, here's the situation. We need to get this done. He's not going to come to you and try to knock out and let him get the gist of the situation in order to get that started. Okay. Okay. All righty.

1:14:02Ken Coleman:But I would say this. I'd start with a question with Dad. Hey, Dad, what's your plan? What is your plan? And maybe you've already had this conversation. Have you? um yeah to a certain degree and um yeah he he's gonna get out and everything's gonna be fine and he's i understand i meant like dad what is your plan upon you passing because that i don't think he thinks he's gonna that's gonna happen wow well now that's i don't know how he's figured that one out because you know nobody else has nobody else has gotten out of this deal alive that's true no No, no. Well, Kathy, I'm not sure. That's a tough one, but this has got to be the sweetest, kindest, most respectful nudge.

1:14:43Ken Coleman:Yeah. There's no one else to do it. And trust me, this is not going to be near as painful as what it will be if you don't get this handled. I can assure you of that.

1:15:27Ken Coleman:We've had a blast on the road taking the Ramsey Show out on the road to see all you fine folks. We have two down. We did Charlotte and Denver. Jade and I were out with John Deloney in Denver just last week, and we're about ready to head out next week to join Rachel Cruz. It'll be Rachel, Jade, and myself on April the 21st in Phoenix. And we have a few seats left. Not many, but a few. And it's your last chance to snag those. It is a live Q &A. So it's the show. And instead of phone calls, we've got people in the room standing up at mics asking us questions. We have a lot of fun. The energy in the room is absolutely amazing.

1:16:07Ken Coleman:So if you're listening to us or watching and you're in the Phoenix area, we'd love to see you April the 21st. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash events. RamseySolutions.com slash events and get your tickets. It's going to be fun. Are you going to be enjoying any Phoenix food or sights and sounds? Have you thought that far ahead? You know, if I could, I would try to get to a basketball game. I know. We already checked on that. Yeah. unfortunately sons will not be in town. Dadgummit. I know. We would have been there, Will. We absolutely would have been there. So anyway, it's not going to happen. Leslie is joining us in San Diego, California.

1:16:43Ken Coleman:Leslie, how can we help? Hi there. So I'm looking for financial advice. I've had a lot of major changes in my life over the last couple of years, and the most recent one has actually led me to a housing issue where I'm not sure if I can even afford housing. It's a sticker shock at this point. And I'm just, I have family and friends who are giving me advice and options and different things to do, and I'm just not sure what is really the best option for me. Okay. Maybe walk us through these options that you're getting all this advice on. So one is, all of this kind of plays into, I was doing the baby steps before all of this happened.

1:17:24Before all what happened? Take us back. So my mom passed last month. I'm sorry. And I was living with her, helping take care of her.

1:17:34Ken Coleman:Oh. So I was on baby step two paying off all of my debt because I, a couple years prior, I was in a car accident and I got a settlement. And my coworker was like, hey, our job pays for this. Do it. See what it says. And before you do anything with money. So I started the, you know, the dates are in the baby step final planning and everything. And I was on step two. And then my mom got sick. with cancer. Sorry. So I, it's funny, a week after she was diagnosed, I watched a video of your guys' and all of them had said, in the instance of cancer, drop everything in safe. So that's what I started to do because I wasn't sure what to do next and I was focusing on taking care of my mom.

1:18:23So she's now passed and I can't afford the place that I was renting with her. And frankly, I don't, I wasn't expecting the cost to be so close to what I'm paying now on my own for our studio compared to what we were renting.

1:18:40Ken Coleman:Sure. Okay. So I have been looking for different options. And, you know, there are different things. So I saved some money, about$13 ,000 in cash over the last couple of months to try and get an essay to figure out what I want to do. They're not blood-related, but they're family, and they have offered to help me buy a home that I would pay them back, which makes me nervous. Rightfully so. I don't want to ruin the relationship. Absolutely. Go with your gut. So take that off the list, shall we? Can we just delete that? Okay. Delete it. What's next? So I have been looking at housing, and I'm about$600,$800 short on just basic cost, whether it is rent or estimated utility cost.

1:19:32I do have a car loan, which is pretty high. I mean, it's not too bad at$21 ,000, but the monthly payment on it is about$600 a month, which is roughly what I'm short every month. Sure, yep, yep. Wow. Okay. I have, you know, like I said, I've saved up$13 ,000 so I can take a good chunk out of that and try and refinance it again. And that was a thought. And I, you know, continue to try and save between now and when I have to leave where I am. What about, when do you have to leave where you are? Two months to find a place. Okay, two months. What about, because you're getting back on your feet and I'm going to ask you in a minute what type of work you're doing.

1:20:12But have you considered someplace where you have a roommate? because you've just been in a roommate situation and you were able to, it was tenable for you. So what if we find another roommate situation temporarily while you're able to get career back up and going and all of these things, maybe pay off this car or sell off this car? It is crazy that a small 300-square-foot studio apartment is the same cost as a roommate.

1:20:43so then why don't we do a small so if what you're saying is i'd rather have a studio apartment than a roommate and it's the same price that's fine yeah so that originally i was like oh if it's cheaper i'll do a roommate and i mean i don't have anyone i can do it with but all you know there are ways to find people you know kind of a thing but the price is you know minimal like a hundred dollars difference maybe i mean do you have to stay in that area do you have to stay in the area that you're in because it sounds like your area is super expensive um so that that is leaving the area that i'm in okay so let's get real numbers in the same neighborhood that that

1:21:22Ken Coleman:number would be like three thousand okay but what's a one going 30 minutes in one direction or another gets me closer to what what are the prices what's the one bedroom studio going to cost you? A one-bedroom studio about 20 minutes from where I am now is between$1 ,695 and$2 ,100. Okay. What's keeping you in the area where you are now? My job. So I do work for a construction company and my radius has been 30 minutes from that job. Okay. I'm going back here because there was so much floating around. The$1 ,600, I'm taking the lowest number you just threw out at us,$1 ,695. Okay. That's your saying if you got a roommate for something bigger, it would be the same amount.

1:22:08Ken Coleman:Did I understand that right? Yeah. Okay. Is the$1 ,600 a month, is that putting you$600 behind? About, yeah. Okay. When I factor in utilities, yeah. So we got to get out of this car. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, because would the$600 in the car payment obviously make a massive difference for you, correct? Yeah, so I... But you'd still be scraping. $13 ,000 in my bank account. You what? I have$13 ,000 in my bank account. Uh-huh. Tell us... Okay. That I have been essentially hoarding while we figured out what was happening with my mom. Great. I want to get some real numbers from you before we run out of time.

1:22:50First off, I want to know, what are you earning from this job? Before taxes,$62 ,000 a year. Okay, what does that look like? What do you take home every month? Um, my net is about 3000. I am putting money into a 401k. Okay, there we go. We need to pause that. Uh, I think that we need to get you familiar with the baby steps and we're going to make sure you leave with every dollar and everything that's connected to it, which is our Ramsey plan. But what I'm getting, what I'm trying to get you down to is a foundational spot. We need all of your income at your disposal. If we were to do the following things, this is going to work for you.

1:23:26If we pause retirement, because it's kind of like what you said with the cancer deal, you kind of paused and you stacked up money until it was time. It's the same thing with investing. You're not in a place that you're ready to invest yet. So let's temporarily pause it, get that money back in your pocket. How much money would that be back in your pocket? Let's see. It's 6%, so about$200 each paycheck. Oh, well, we're at$400 already. And what I would do if I were in your shoes, that$21 ,000 car, I would look and see what it's worth. Hopefully you're not upside down. I would go on Kelly Blue Book tonight, see what it's worth, private sale, and I would sell it.

1:24:08And then I would use the$13 ,000 that you have. And I'd maybe use, I don't know, eight or 10, and I'd buy myself a car in cash. And now you've still got a little bit of money there that if you have other debt that you need to clear out, you can start using that for other debt. And I'd keep$1 ,000 saved. That's what I would do because now you've got the$600 back in your pocket every month, plus the$400 from investing. I just found you$1 ,000. Okay. Why are you not excited about this? That's a lot of money, girlfriend. I just broke you free. So my job matches my 401k. So that's why I've been hesitant.

1:24:45Yes, you'll be able to do that later. Remember, this is just temporarily. I want you to have the money that you need to get in a situation where you can find some stability, get your legs underneath you, and now you're not feeling like you're in crisis mode. And when that happens, you'll be able to find ways to build up your income, and eventually you'll be able to invest again, and that match will still be there waiting for you when you need it.

1:25:23Ken Coleman:Welcome back to the Ramsey Show in the Fairwinds Credit Union studio. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. So excited to have you with us today. 888-825-5225 is the phone number. We start off with Joshua in San Francisco. Joshua, how can we help today? Hi. I've got about$80 ,000 in tax debt and$50 ,000 in credit card debt. and I'm wondering if I should file bankruptcy and just kind of start over. What's your income? $70 ,000 and then combined with my wife, like around$100 ,000. Okay. And that's your total debt that you just gave us? Yes. Okay. What is your mortgage or your rent? Rent is$2 ,200.

1:26:20Okay.

1:26:21Ken Coleman:What's your take-home number every month?

1:26:28Take-home for me is probably like 4 ,400. And for my wife, her job's a little bit seasonal. She cleans Airbnbs, but it's probably around like 3 ,000 a month, at least on average.

1:26:46Ken Coleman:Okay. And what's making you think that bankruptcy is the only way out of this? Um, because it just seems like such an insurmountable number. And now the taxes are like racking up interest and penalties and the credit cards are, you know, I used to be able to do balance transfers and kind of keep it under control, but it's just gotten out of control. And so now, you know, it's just high interest. Uh, I can make the minimum payments, but It just seems like I'm never going to be able to pay it off. Sure. What do you do for a living? Maintenance tech for apartment buildings. Okay. And what does your wife do?

1:27:32Ken Coleman:She cleans Airbnbs. That's right. And does some caregiving. Okay. I'm going to start right here and go right to what I think is one of the key things we need to address today is what is the amount of income after taxes if Jade and I could just put it into your account today? Okay. what amount of money would allow you to start making progress and feel like you're actually getting momentum?

1:27:58You mean like how much money?

1:28:01Ken Coleman:Let's just assume I'm giving you extra income after taxes every month. I'm asking you, do you know how much money extra a month, if I gave it to you in payments, what would make a huge difference for you where you go, not only am I taking care of it, but I'm actually starting to knock this debt down. I'm making progress. I see momentum. What's that number? Additional income. I mean, if it's$130 ,000 total, I don't know. That's the problem. You see what I'm saying? That wasn't a trap question, but I don't think you're on a budget. Am I right? Correct. So the reason I ask you that is because that's part of the issue.

1:28:44Ken Coleman:Your wife needs to be working at minimum 40 hours. Seasonal work for people who are broke and are worrying about bankruptcy is not an option. There is no seasonal work. You work in every season. You're working 60 hours a week for a season, right? Mm-hmm. You said that like, that's interesting, but like you didn't believe me. I mean, we have a 14-year-old. I've encouraged her to get more of a regular job for many years. Why are we talking about the 14-year-old is self-sustaining? The 14-year-old can let themselves in from school. I've raised three kids. My youngest is 18 now. I'm not worried about the 14-year-old.

1:29:28Ken Coleman:That's an excuse. Why isn't she making more money? I'm just telling you where she's at. I get it. She's resentful of the fact even that she has to work at all. Well, that's a problem. but you called us for financial advice and you guys need more income. So let's shift. All right. I can't solve the marriage problem. I can't solve that issue. But I can tell you this. I can tell you$3 ,600 changes your life. Without question. $3 ,600 a month. So let's shift it to you. Okay. Because she's resentful for working and you're calling us. She's not on the phone. So with the skills you have, can you pick up overtime or go to a second job and what this basically means is roughly 2 ,500 bucks a month or even 2 ,000 bucks a month would make a big difference.

1:30:16Ken Coleman:Can you do that, Josh? I could, yeah. Well, that's our... I've worked two jobs many points in my life. Great. But still, like, so say I came up with an extra three grand a month to pay down this debt. That's even if I'm putting every dollar of that, that's 36 grand a year. It would still take me, what, five years, four or five years. It's going to take you between three and four years if you go intensely to pay this off. Right. So my question is. As an alternative to that, what if I just filed for bankruptcy? Got rid of as much of this debt as possible. What if I told you I spent seven and a half years paying off$460 ,000 of debt?

1:31:11And I didn't file for bankruptcy. I think that's awesome. I'm just kind of, I'm older now. Why are we different?

1:31:23How old are you? I'm 47.

1:31:27Ken Coleman:Bro, don't be bringing that to me. I'm 51. You're not old. here's here and here's why here's here's why when you file bankruptcy the control goes out of your hands yeah do you understand what it looks like i don't think you do go ahead jade paint the picture no not exactly they're going to decide they're going to make all the decisions depending on which chapter you file they're going to make all decisions they're either going to say hey we're going to put you on a payment plan which is honestly something you can do yourself they're going to look at your assets and they're going to say we're going to sell off these assets and these assets and we're going to put that towards the debt.

1:32:02That's something that you can decide to do for yourself. It's going to tank your credit. That's something that's already happened or going to happen anyway. Do you see what I'm saying? So why relinquish control when you have the opportunity here to go, okay, I can look at my assets. I can determine what I want to sell off, when I want to sell it off, how I want to sell it off. I can look and I can call the IRS and I can say, let's get on a payment plan. Here's how much I can put towards it. And that's what I want to retain for you is the dignity of being able to make your own choices and not them come in and have your stuff sold out from under you and all the choices made for you.

1:32:41That's what I'm trying to save you from. I've never experienced bankruptcy. Dave Ramsey has. And he would sit here and tell you, you can work your way through this. And I'm telling you from my experience of paying off debt, the next four to five years, they're not going to be fun. I can tell you that right now. It's not going to be something that's enjoyable. There will be enjoyable parts of life, but working two to three jobs is not going to be the enjoyable part. But what is going to feel good is knowing that you made some mistakes, you made a bit of a mess, but you're also the same person that can turn back around and clean it up.

1:33:12There's dignity in that. And there is something, there's a confidence that's built in that. And I can tell you on this side of it, if you allow yourself to walk through that, you're going to come out of this a completely changed person and guaranteed better for it. Guaranteed, Ken.

1:33:27Ken Coleman:Oh, there's no question. I think, Joshua, what we're hearing is a guy who feels like he's ready to give up. You called us going, I think this is my last shot. This is the Hail Mary. The clock's ticking down and I only have a 55-yard pass and I hope someone catches it and I think it's bankruptcy and we're telling you that's not the case. You've got to believe. I do tell you, you've got a marriage issue. You guys have got to get on the same page. I get that you don't want to do it, but I think you guys are in the have-to stage. You're past the want-to.

1:34:11All right, let's cut to the chase. It's easy to get discouraged about crazy house prices and interest rates. But when you have the right real estate agent to help you buy and sell the right way, you'll have confidence to make smart decisions. Ramsey Trusted Agents aren't just experts who guide you through buying or selling. They're people you can trust to have your back from the first call to closing day. Find a Ramsey Trusted Agent near you at RamseySolutions.com slash agent. That's RamseySolutions.com slash agent.

1:34:58Ken Coleman:If you're working the baby steps, the best and fastest way to do it is by using EveryDollar. It's more than just a budgeting app. The plan is built right in. You can track your progress, plus get personalized recommendations and coaching for your situation. It's like having one of us walk with you every day, showing you the next right step. You can start every dollar for free by downloading it in the App Store or Google Play. All right, let's get to Alex right here in our backyard in Nashville. Alex, how can we help today? Hey, guys. Me and my wife are recently married. We have a 10-month-old.

1:35:30We're about$35 ,000 in combined debt. I make about$84 ,000 a year before tax, and she recently started doing photography, and that's bringing in kind of a slow passive income. We have about$13 ,000 saved, and I'm about to receive a$10 ,000 bonus. So we're just trying to figure out how to navigate this debt. Okay. $10 ,000 bonus. I was just writing everything down. When do you get the bonus? I was supposed to get it this past paycheck, but I work for the government. So there's no telling. It could be next paycheck or three months from now. So I'm not super depending on that right away. but I was wondering what the best course of action would be to do with that.

1:36:19I also recently found out that I have a pension from an old job that I have that I didn't know about, and I have to decide what to do with that as well. There's about$13 ,000 in that, and when I called them a week ago, they said that I can leave it in that fund for up to five years after separation from that police department, and it'll grow at a guaranteed 5%, or I can transfer it to my new retirement or I can withdraw it and take a penalty. I would transfer it to retirement. I would not pull it out. If it's retirement funds, I'd keep that retirement fund at this point because the penalty will be what?

1:37:01Not just that you're taxed on an income tax, but will there be a 10 % penalty? I believe she said it was 20. Oh yeah. We're keeping that locked in. So yeah, I would do, if you're able to do a direct transfer rollover and just roll it over to an IRA, I would do that. So let's take that money off the table. So we've got the$13 ,000 saved. We've got a$10 ,000 bonus that's coming at some point. We don't really know exactly when. So that gives us, in theory,$23 ,000, but today just the$13 ,000. So are you familiar with the Baby Steps? I am. We're on Baby Step 2. Been on it for quite a while. We spent the last two years paying off about$80 ,000 worth of private student loans.

1:37:42Oh, wow. Very good. Very good. So this$35 ,000 is just the tail end. What kind of debt is it? 18 of it is a government student loan for me. Three of it is a government student loan for her. Three of it is a credit card that she had before our marriage. And am I missing any? uh yes oh sorry about 11 of it is a vehicle okay okay so yeah i'm gonna look at this and i'm gonna reverse engineer it and i'm gonna say how quickly do i want to pay off this 35 000 of debt and that's going to inform how hard we work going forward is that fair enough yeah so i don't know if you've gone into every dollar but in every dollar there's a really cool feature in there It's a financial roadmap feature where you can basically go in, plug in your numbers, and it'll say, based on what you're doing today, here's how quickly you can pay this debt off.

1:38:39So my question to you is, how much margin do you have to throw out this debt every single month? Well, we just recently sat down to do a complete overhaul of our finances. And I would say currently, like excluding her photography, maybe$500 a month. Okay,$500 a month. So you brought up the photography. I want to actually talk about the photography because I think that's part of you guys breaking this thing free. You didn't include it in your$84 ,000 of debt, which makes me think there's not a whole lot. I'm sorry, in your$35 ,000 of debt, which makes me think that there's not a whole bunch of money being made from that.

1:39:16How much is she bringing in every month? Well, she started it two months ago, and she initially was booked out every weekend for a month, and she did all their shoots for free. and now she's doing shoots for about$100 a shoot, and she's doing usually two a day, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yeah.

1:39:35Ken Coleman:I want to go back into the numbers here. You have a car loan for$11 ,000. What's the payment on that every month? It's about$500. I wanted to, when we got married, we talked about just selling it and getting something cash. Unfortunately, there's some damage to the vehicle. No, Alex, I don't know why we're not talking about the$13 ,000. You said you're walking the baby steps. Well, if you're in the baby steps, you shouldn't have$13 ,000. Yeah, 12 of that has to go. You should have$12 ,000 at your disposal today. And if it's me, I'm going to pay that car off. I know that's not the smallest debt that you have, or maybe it is.

1:40:12Ken Coleman:I can't remember what the number. He's got 3 ,000 credit cards and 3 ,000 student loans. I don't know if you're okay with that, but I'm going to pay that car off and get that$500 a month back. And that's going to take care of that credit card payment fast. I'm not sure why we aren't paying the car off. Well, the reason that we had so much saved is because originally we were living with my family, and we didn't know how much money we needed because we're first-time parents. So we'd saved it up, and then I just didn't know the best way to attack the car. No shame at all. I'm just saying, you know, I'm not cracking on you.

1:40:42Ken Coleman:I love that you've been responsible. I'm just saying that's$12 ,000 you have to tackle this stuff. You know, at this point, yeah, if you wanted to pay off the car first, fine. if you wanted to do typical debt snowball method, knock out the credit card for$3 ,000, knock out the student loan, and then come back and hit the car. That's fine. The point here is you've got$23 ,000 to pay off. And how quickly can you do that? If you throw$2 ,000 a month at that, you're done in six months, right? If you throw$1 ,000 a month at it, you're done in a calendar year, right? And if a wife goes to work, Jade, full-time and still does the photography part-time, we're only talking about a season.

1:41:17Ken Coleman:We're not telling her to shut the dream down. Right. Just go get a$30 ,000 job or something. And boy, we're out of this quick, real fast. Right. But you guys are going to have to, I think this is your first encounter with kind of like that sacrificial lifestyle and you're going to feel it. Well, you're either going to feel it in time. You're going to feel it in your wallet. You're going to feel it in the things that you wish you were doing with your money instead, the things that you wish you were doing with your time instead. Cause I can guarantee you this can, nobody likes a side hustle. No, nobody likes working extra hours and nobody likes doing it for 12 months.

1:41:52So we'll go ahead and get, that's a gimme. We'll tell you that that's the truth. But if you're asking us, hey, how do we do it? That's the method. You keep a thousand dollars saved as baby step one. You take anything else that you have saved and you apply it to your debt using the debt snowball method. That's smallest to largest by balance. You knock them out. And then from there on, now you're on to being able to take that money, save up three to six months of emergency funds. But baby step two is the kicker because that's where the sacrifice lies. Right. What are your thoughts? No, I mean, that's exactly what I was looking for.

1:42:27I guess I was just kind of looking for the green light to go ahead and just dump the 12 and keep the 1000 saved. And I really wanted clarification on the pension as well. And yeah, I guess I'll just move that over to my current retirement instead of throwing it at the desk. Yeah, because it's most of it will get sucked up anyway. If you do this, if you said There's a 20 % penalty. You'll be taxed on your income tax. Yeah, I would not touch that. Please just roll that over. And make sure your wife's on board with this.

1:42:51Ken Coleman:Yeah. What are you doing for a living now? Federal law enforcement. Yeah. Are you able to pick up, you know, part-time work, you know, in that? I am not. Okay. But the nice thing is I have guaranteed salary increases. So in October of this year, I'm going to get a$20 ,000 pay raise. In October of next year, it'll be the same. Great. Well, if your wife is willing to, just for a season, start making more money, and boy, you guys are going to be out of this. I'm going to tell you right now, we've heard too many stories, so I'm going to challenge you to be out of debt in 10 months. I think you totally have that in the bag.

1:43:28Ken Coleman:You know, that's going to require, again, sacrifice and stretching, you know, as far as more work. But I think you guys can do that. Yes, sir. I appreciate you guys. Yeah, appreciate you. Thanks for all you've done to serve our community and in our country. That's great. You know, this is very interesting. You said something that I wanted to bring back to you, to young couples that are out there listening and they're new to this. Yeah. You said this is your first time. You're talking to Alex, you know, and his wife. It's your first time reaching this thing where we've got to come together and sacrifice.

1:43:59Ken Coleman:And you and Sam have always been the model of that. Encourage young couples. Yeah. This is good for your marriage. whenever you can lock arms, whenever you can band together and gang up against the thing that's trying to horn in on your marriage, your life, your relationship, your dreams for each other. That is so solidifying. And what you get the opportunity to prove to each other is I can count on you and you can count on me. If Sam says he's going to do it, he does it. If Jade says she's going to do it, she does it. That is the best thing. It builds trust and security in your marriage and wealth.

1:44:45Ken Coleman:Hey, guys. Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Now, you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show. Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help. It's fast, simple, and free to use. Go to RamseySolutions.com and try Ask Ramsey today. That's RamseySolutions.com.

1:45:40Ken Coleman:All right, our Ramsey Show question of the day is brought to you by Y-Refi. Defaulted private student loans can leave you feeling stuck and overwhelmed, but Y-Refi helps you explore refinancing options with a low fixed rate and a payment based on what you can actually afford. Visit Y-Refi.com slash Ramsey. That's Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. It may not be available in all states. Okay, today's question comes from Brooke in Alabama. My husband and I are on baby step two with about$50 ,000 in debt. We are also in stork mode, meaning they have a baby on the way. I love that my husband has a generous heart, but we always go over budget with tithing and gift giving and never make progress paying off debt.

1:46:23I suggested that we buy smaller gifts for now so that we can be more generous in the future, but he won't consider doing this. Am I being stingy or is he being too generous for our means? Okay, so I want to start by differentiating between the tithing and the gift giving. So if you're a tither, that means that you're a Christian person and you have the belief of giving 10 % of your earnings to a local church. And it sounds like they have that belief. So I'm going to decouple that from the gift giving, because if that's a religious value or conviction that you have, that needs to be part of your budget.

1:47:04I would say whether you are in baby step two or not. So for most of us, myself included, even when we're in baby step two, tithe is at the top of the list. Giving is at the top of the list. We never stop tithing. I would not recommend you do that. Now, if the tithe, aside from the gift giving, if that is causing you to go over budget, that means there's something else that's wrong. Either there are other items in your budget that are overinflated or your income is an issue, right, Ken? I mean, that's what I would say. So that would be my first, I'd put my detective hat on and I'd say, okay, are we going over the budget simply if we tithe?

1:47:39If we stop the gift giving, are we still in the red? And if that's the case, we have further work to do. All right, let's talk about the gift giving side of it. In baby step two, I think that you need to be very choosy, parsimonious in your gift giving because generosity generally flows out of overflow and you don't really have that. So I would be very thoughtful about if I'm giving, when I'm giving and how much I can actually put towards it because you can't be putting yourself in the red being generous.

1:48:19Ken Coleman:Yeah. You know, yeah. You just can't give gifts right now. I mean, if we're not, are we talking about your kids? Are we talking about the birthday? Right. Exactly. Are we talking about Christmas? What are we talking about? But if we're talking about like, hey, you know, Larry, Larry's retiring. I'd like to get him a golf head cover. It's like, no man, you're broke. We're all chipping in for Janice. You know, she's getting... Janice. I can tell you who doesn't need a gift is Janice. She don't need it. She's got cats at home. She don't need anything. she's that is so she's like that's right there's there's like hundreds of thousands of janices that are listening to us right now we're gonna get flack for that janice we love you i'm also we love you janice yeah that's funny uh good stuff there let's go to kylie now in dallas texas kylie how can we help kylie hi hi how are you good how are you i'm doing well i'm calling um with a quick question regarding my husband and I, we actually have no debt, strong savings and invest constantly and consistently, but we feel very stuck.

1:49:24We're hesitant to make big decisions like buying a home or spending because we don't want to make the wrong move. So we just are looking for clarity on what we can actually afford and how to move forward confidently without overthinking everything.

1:49:39Ken Coleman:Great. All right. So let's take the thinking out. Let's just look at the numbers. How about that? Is that okay? Sure. Okay. So what is your combined income? Combined income is my husband makes$200 ,000 a year, and then he gets a quarterly bonus that ranges between$20 ,000 and$35 ,000. So let's split the difference there, right? Let's go$25 ,000 just for fun. It's not truly splitting, I know, for those of you who are keeping score. But let's say, so that's another$100 ,000. Correct. So$300 ,000, do you bring any income in? I do not currently. So$300 ,000, what do we have saved? We have around$250 ,000 in a high-yield savings account.

1:50:27Ken Coleman:Great. What do you have in your retirement accounts? We have$50 ,000 in a brokerage investment account and maxed out the Roth IRAs, and we also max matched the 401ks. So what's your total investment nest egg right now? What is it at? Including the 401k? Yeah. I'm not sure. I'd love to know minus the$50 ,000. So the$50 ,000 is the only non-retirement investing that you have? I believe so. Okay. Yeah. I was just trying to get a full picture. The bottom line is you have$250 ,000 in cash in a high-yield savings account, which is way above what your three to six months emergency fund would be, and you've got a great income.

1:51:19Ken Coleman:So what type of house, what's the price point for the house that if you had all the money right now, I don't want scared Kylie. I want Kylie who's dreaming because she can get any house she wants to get within, you know, obviously we're not talking about any house. That was poorly worded. What is the house you want to get? Yeah. Just give me the price range. For the school district that we would prefer to be in, the entry-level homes are probably around a million. Okay. Okay. And so when I look at that, our rule of thumb here is you don't want your monthly payment on that to be any more than 25 % of your take-home pay.

1:52:00And, of course, that's everything in. That's HOA, taxes, insurance. All of that is included in that price. So my question to you is, if we were to get on a mortgage calculator and plug those numbers in, you've got the two, and this is what I would do tonight with your husband. Technically at your disposal, I would take the$250 ,000 that's in the HYSA and I would knock it down to six months of expenses. What would you call six months of expenses? um currently without having any debt we're renting our rent is three thousand a month no car notes no anything so um i'll say six thousand a month okay uh okay so it's thirty six thousand we save that out does that feel good we'll round it up to 40 that makes me feel good okay so now we're playing with two hundred and ten thousand dollars so what i'd be looking at That is, what's you guys' take-home pay?

1:53:00His take-home is$6 ,000 after taxes, a paycheck. $6 ,000? That doesn't sound right on a three. You said this man makes$300 ,000 a year. Well, he gets quarterly bonuses. So just from the$200 ,000, it's a little over$5 ,000 a paycheck. So a little under$12 ,000 a month take-home. Okay. Okay. Okay, so what I would be doing is I would be looking for a mortgage of around$3 ,000, give or take. That would be my goal, that you're paying every single month. So then what I'm going to do is I would go into a mortgage calculator. I'm using the one on Ramsey Solutions. And I'd say, okay, what do I have to put down in order to get my mortgage into that placement?

1:53:44And then I'd work backwards from there. Right now, you got$210 you could throw in there. And if you wanted to get into this brokerage account, you could. That'd give you$260 ,000 if you wanted to. There's really no penalty in you doing that. And I'm looking at a 15-year fixed rate. If I do that, if I put$260 ,000 down on this million-dollar house, that gives me a monthly mortgage payment of$7 ,955 estimated. For you, that's too high. So then I go, okay, what if we doubled that? What if we saved up$250 ,000 more over the course of time? How quickly could I do that? Now I'm putting$500 ,000 down on this house.

1:54:20When I do that, suddenly my mortgage is down to$5 ,800, right? So that's the game I would play. And that's going to help you know how much money do we need to have saved up in order to do this in a way that feels good, it feels right. Right. Would you recommend in the meantime to just continue renting in the school district that we would want to be in? I would. Yeah, I would. I think that that's where you guys want to be. And all you're doing is when you're renting, you're just buying time, you're buying time and you're buying money to stack up for this down payment. And I think that's a great investment for you guys.

1:54:55You're going to be there in the next two to three years.

1:55:25Dave Ramsey here. Most people stay stuck with their money because they're not paying attention to it. Most people are living paycheck to paycheck, stressed out and broke. Don't be most people. You work way too hard to be broke and feel broke, and you deserve to have something to show for it. That's why we built the EveryDollarBudget app. It gives you a personalized plan for your money that shows you how to free up extra money every month and use it to beat debt and build lasting wealth. Plus, you get real coaches guiding you through your plan step by step. Look, most people hearing this will just keep hoping something changes, but not you.

1:56:05You're ready to make change happen, starting now. Go download EveryDollar in the App Store or Google Play and start for free today. Thank you.

1:56:45Ken Coleman:him. I promise you I've done that. I've done that a couple times in life. That always feels nice. Chris is up in Atlanta, Georgia. Chris, how can we help today? Hey, I was calling, had a question, wanted to get you guys' opinion on if the vehicle that me and my wife are looking to purchase is in line with our current financial picture. Okay, tell us about it and how much it costs. Alright, looking at two different trucks and one of them that I really like is$45 ,000. Okay. Okay. What's the other one? The other one's$35 ,000. Okay. And what else do we need to know here? So do you have any debt?

1:57:31No, sir. No debt, just a mortgage.

1:57:33Ken Coleman:And what do you have saved up for this vehicle? Well, currently in retirement savings, I have$272 ,000 in a traditional 401k through my employer. Me and my wife, we have$115 ,000 liquid cash in a savings account. And what is your combined income? Last year, my taxable income was$187 ,000. My wife makes$35 ,000. So after tax, bring home between$150 and$160. Right. So you've got more than enough to cover, it looks like, the truck, plus have a good three - to six-month emergency fund in cash, correct? Correct. Yes, sir. And really where the question comes from is we just bought my wife a new vehicle after having our first child.

1:58:23We did that with cash, and it was a$37 ,500 vehicle. we paid cash for that and we we have cash to pay we'd be paying cash for the truck as well it just felt like a lot of money you know within two months of each other yeah yeah i mean you've got it what would you of the 115 000 what would you consider your three to six months of emergency fund uh we you know probably 25 000 oh okay well it sounds like you've got the margin there did you have the money possibly earmarked for something else? Because usually when you're saving up, you know, a stack of money like that, you're doing it for a purpose.

1:59:05Otherwise, you'd be investing it, right? Correct. Yeah. And I mean, you know, for me, I've just always been, you know, when I, as soon as I get paid, I move everything over that I don't need for the month to a savings account. And you just said it right there. Your language there, that should set you free because you said, um, what you need, you keep in your account and what you don't need, you move over. So that, that means you don't need this money. It's not earmarked for anything else. And you're wanting to upgrade a vehicle. And what I'm looking at is the numbers of someone who can afford to do that.

1:59:40You don't have any debt. You've got the emergency fund of 25 ,000. You can spend another 45 ,000 and you've still got plenty of money left over. Uh, you've got a great income. It doesn't go against our rule of thumb here at Ramsey, as we say, vehicles shouldn't be more than half of your annual take-home pay. And that's because vehicles go down in value. And so we want to make sure that we're limiting that. So you're not going against that rule. I think this is just kind of a personal.

2:00:12Ken Coleman:Yeah. What's your emotion? Because you called us to get our take. What was your emotion about it? What did you think you should do? Yeah. It just felt like a lot of money. Well, it is. It is a lot of money. Whenever we bought our house, we put 20 % down, so we wrote a big check then. We paid cash for my wife's vehicle. We would pay cash for this one as well. Right. No, but does the 35— Our only debt. Right, but I'm leaning in here. Does the 35 feel way better to you than the 45, or is it very little difference? Well, the main reason I called, because the 45 is the truck that I want. The 35 was where my wife was going through.

2:00:49Ken Coleman:Right. No, I get it. But I'm asking again, is there a different feeling in your gut, in your head, however you want to measure it? Is there a different feeling about the 35 if I paid 35 for something versus 45? That's what I'm trying to understand. Right. On my behalf, no, sir. Great. I'm very comfortable with the 45. Right. It was worth it on my wife. Okay. And that's what I thought. I thought there was. And so that's where the relationship stuff comes in. So now to me, and again, I'm speaking from a guy who's been married almost 28 years. If, Jade, if Stacey and I are very separate on 10 grand, I'm going to choose 10 grand less to be in a better situation.

2:01:36Maybe. I would push it a little bit because... Of course. I would because expense, something being denoted expensive, all has to do with ratio.

2:01:48Ken Coleman:Correct. I don't, I, yes, but that you're discounting emotion. Mathematically, yes. Yeah. Now, and I would put that to her because obviously numbers and facts have the ability to affect emotions. I agree. And so if she doesn't have the right numerical facts. That's fair. Do you see what I'm saying? I think she does. So I would push that just a little bit. Yeah. Again, I'm not telling you not to do it. I'm just giving you my take. And I think that what I'm trying to get out of that, and I love that you push back on this, because what I'm saying is then you got to cast vision better. Yeah, that's true.

2:02:20Ken Coleman:You're not casting enough to where she feels safe. For some reason in her mind, she feels safe emotionally with$10 ,000 less. True or false? True. So we got to cover that. You got to fix that. Let me ask this because I didn't clarify this. Are these brand new vehicles or are these used vehicles? These are used vehicles. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I hear what Ken is saying. My thought is this is why you work so hard. You work so hard. I agree with that. And you stack up and you save and you scrimp and you do all these things so that the day finally comes where you look in the lot and you go, I like that one.

2:02:56That's the trucker one.

2:02:57Ken Coleman:I get it. I like that one. But when the wife is going, I don't think you need that one. This one's better. Yeah, but I say - He's got to deal with that. Yes, but at the same time, I'd be like, come on, woman, don't kill my vibe because this is why I did all this. Only you can say that because any dude that's got half a brain doesn't look at his wife and say, come on, woman, don't kill my vibe. I'm saying after he lays out the numbers. Yeah. Chris, how comfortable are you saying that? I'm going to replay this and let Jade say it for me. That's my point, which is, by the way, really smart. That's a pro move.

2:03:27Ken Coleman:Let Jade say it. I would rewind it. What's your wife's name if you want to say it? Oh, boy. Ashley. Ashley. This is you and me talking. Over lunch. You know, you guys have done so well. You got to live a little. This is what gives people gas in their tank when they get to take, you know, the spoils of the war and go out and do something with it and have a good time. And by the way, Ashley, you can get yourself a little something, too. That's what I think. I think you've earned it. I'm backing away from the mic, Ashley. I'm just saying. They've done so well. They're doing so well. I'm having fun.

2:04:05Ken Coleman:I agree with you, actually, that the$10 ,000, if I'm talking to Ashley, I'm going to go, let's walk through this. Let's walk through the$10 ,000 difference. Yeah, let's walk through it. You feel so comfortable with$35 ,000, so I want to walk through this with you. Let's walk through it and not minimize her feelings. Let's walk through it and let her get all of her words out. And instead of having a counterpoint to her words, ask a question in response. There you go, Ken. You're so diplomatic. I love it. Well, it's not diplomatic. It's just psychology 101. And I think she, for some reason, doesn't feel safe.

2:04:45Ken Coleman:She's going to get to watch this. And I actually think she should watch it because she'll see our heart. We're having a little fun with it. But yeah, I think it's fine for you to get the$45 ,000 truck. We spent all this time talking about these trucks. What are the two trucks? Yeah. uh let's say uh one of them is a 2022 uh ford f-150 king ranch and the other one is the same at 2019 uh and a little bit difference on the mileage as well right so the 2022 is the 45 thousand dollar one correct yeah there you know i haven't seen these newer king ranches but i had a friend who had a king ranch when they first came out that is a nice truck it's nice and i'm not a truck guy.

2:05:24Ken Coleman:If I showed up in a truck, people would be like, what happened to you? Oh, I'd be concerned. Everybody in the studio is like shaking their head like, yeah, that's the one. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good move. So, hey, I think her favorite dinner, her favorite restaurant, her favorite cocktail. Maybe a gift. Maybe a gift. And dude, woo her on this truck. That's not manipulate. That's woo. Wooing. That's a big difference. And I think if you woo, you're going to go woo-woo when you get that big old King Ranch truck. Thanks for calling, man. I appreciate it. And hey to the rest of you, thanks for being with us.

2:06:00Ken Coleman:Remember this, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.