Live from Nashville, Tennessee, this is the Ramsey show. I'm you did this. And then she feels like I'm getting parented, which makes her want to spend more money. Right. Here's the magic word that you're going to hate. You got to be vulnerable and tell her what you actually feel.Okay?And you have had that trained out of you appropriately, so. But you have to do that in this situation because she's not responding to your charts and graphs. She will respond to your heart.That's beautiful.Is that fair?Yeah. I appreciate that a lot. Thank you.So what does underneath the charts and the graphs and the money and the I want to drive nicer cars and finally be able to buy a house in San Diego, California. Underneath all that, practice with me. What's your heart on this deal? What scares you?Honestly? Like, yeah. To do it to you. I feel like I'm 27 and I'm just now educating myself on all this. And five years from now, I just want to be able to provide and be the man that, you know, I didn't have growing up as a father figure, just like my wife.Now she hears those words, it's going to change her entire attitude toward this plan. And if you couple that with, hey, I want to make this fun, I dont want to make this feel like boot camp. What would make this fun for you? What are some things we can do to celebrate the wins? Maybe shes in charge of the visual graphs and things we can fill out and the color charts. And we celebrate every thousand bucks we pay off. Remind yourselves of the why, of why you both agreed that this was the right path. And think about where youre going to be five years from now and how grateful youll be for the choices you made day to day.Do you get, do you get worked up? Do you have like a, when you get fired up, do you get pretty worked up?I never stress out. You mean by that?No, no, no. I mean, I'll just say it this way because we're getting up against the clock.Oh. Like, passionate.I don't yell and I don't scream. That's just not how I roll. But George will tell you. My wife will tell you when I get fired up about something. You can feel the nuclear reactor in my chest. You can feel it.Yeah.And the words in my house that changed everything was when I told my wife, I just want. I want us to find peace in this home. I want this to be a place that both of us can't wait to get back to after a trip, after work, after whatever. What must be true for us to want to come back here. And for me, for my wife, both of us. Thankfully, it was not owing anybody anything. I'm not bringing any extra baggage through the front door every day when I get there. And so it might be. I want to get out of debt. Cool. Why, dude? Because I want to come home and laugh. I want to come home and hug. I want to come home and decide, are we making out tonight? Are we going to the movies tonight? Like, are we doing both? Like, we get to decide that. Not coming home with a, as a ball of stress. Talk to your wife from your heart, not from your spreadsheet, and say the magic words. I was wrong. I love you.I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that people have started buying life insurance to protect their families at levels not seen since the 1980s. The bad news is many of them are still buying crappy cash value type plans. I don't care what you call them. Whole life, universal, variable, adjustable, flexible. They're nothing but a waste of your money. Don't be confused and let someone sell you a plan that sounds better than it really is. Look, term life is the only way to go. Rates are back to all time lows, and the process to apply is easier than ever. With many companies no longer requiring exams, you need to protect your family and use your money. For much smarter things than investing in a ripoff cash value insurance policy. Go to zander.com or call 803 564282 and just compare pricing. You'll see why. These are the only plans I recommend. Take care of your family and do it in a smarter way.Welcome back to the Ramsay show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Camel. And I want you to stop what you're doing because I'm about to ruin the image in the style that you're used to. I remember that song. Hey, listen, don't miss your chance to join us on the live like no one else cruise. The cruise, a seven day cruise. There's going to be Kool Aid everywhere because this is Ramsey people, like in the cult people. It's going to be the greatest cruise of all time. Seven day cruise with all the stops throughout the Caribbean. The ultimate debt free celebration. You're going to be on board with me, George, all the personalities, Dave, lots of special guests, fancy comedians, musicians. It's just going to be rad. We're going to be going all over the place. We're taking over the entire ship. The whole ship. We want to Turks and Caicos, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas. Come on, pretty mama.Wow.There was a lot going on there.We're not going to key Largo or Montego.That's the next cruise. Hopefully.Hopefully.When is it happening, John?It's going to happen March 22 through 29th, 2025, which means you got time.To plan, time to budget.Well, here's what's awesome.Time to get your deposited.Is this or bearish. I'm becoming more careful about how I can buy back time. And you and your wife will be buying back an hour of hours a year, one way, every day.Right.And over the course of a week, you're buying back 5 hours. So ask yourself, what would it, what would we charge? What would we pay for half a day together every week? That turns into you just bought a full day of time together, not including sleeping time. But we bought 10 hours every two weeks just in commute time.Gotcha.I mean, I would do this tomorrow.Well, here's the strawberry on the top. So the house that we're selling probably could use about $90,000 of work, but we can currently sell it at 300 as is. No problem. Tomorrow, this will be a new construction home. Brand new house.Sell it tomorrow. Put. Call the realtor today. Go to ramsaysolutions.com. agent slash agent. Get yourself a smart vest or pro. I am sorry, a real estate pro. And get that thing on the market in the morning.Awesome.Congratulations, man. You're going to, you're going to have to get a chicken coop. You're going to have to get overalls, a straw hat, the whole thing.Maybe a bunker. Could be cool.Yes. You have to get a bunch of deep freezers and ask people if they've heard about meat prices. You're gonna be the whole out. Like, you're gonna be one of my neighbors now. I can't wait. Dude. Congratulations. Hey, you've done it right. And you worked really, really hard for this moment. For this moment when you and your wife say, hey, let's buy back some time. Let's buy back a different kind of life. We're on it. We'll be right back. This show is sponsored by Betterhelp. This is Deloney, and I'm always railing against social media, especially in the summer, because everyone uploads the highlight reels of their perfect bodies and perfect vacations and perfect kids. And I know they're not real. And I also know that I'm blessed beyond my wildest dreams. But I still find myself wishing my life was like other people's. And based on the data, I know this is happening to you, too. Comparison is wired into us. But comparison can also become the thief of joyous because we can feel like were not enough and begin acting and thinking in ways we would never think otherwise. When all gets to be too much, think about contacting betterhelp.Betterhelp is 100% online therapy staffed with licensed therapists. Its convenient, flexible, and suited to fit your schedule. By the way, therapy isnt just for those whove experienced major trauma. Its for all of us who are ready to get out of the comparison spin cycle and find our own peace and joy in the life were creating. Stop comparing and start focusing with betterhelp. Visit betterhelp.com deloney today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp help.com deloney, 825-5225 this is the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Campbell. Taking your calls on money, life, relationships, your mental and emotional health, your work, all of it. Let's go out to Chi town, Chicago, Illinois, and talk to Ryan. What's up, Ryan?How you doing, gentlemen?I'm good, man. What's up?I got a couple questions. Getting married in a month.All right.To buy a house, hopefully this week. I'm just wondering if we're making the right moves here.That's a lot.You're making two of the biggest life decisions and throwing the biggest party of your life with all of the headache and chaos and joy all at once. Why is, why is the house so urgent?We are currently staying with a friend, per se. I sold my house about a year ago. So we've been living with them ever since.Why can't you rent a place last week?I can, but I moved in with them, and we did their bathrooms. I do construction for a living.Okay.They're remodeling.So tell me about. You all have a house already picked out?Yes, we have one picked out. It said 450 is what I'm hoping I can get it for.Okay. How much money you got?I have about 400. She has about 120.Whoa.So we paying cash for this thing?I don't know that we want to pay all cash. You do, but that's where we would want to put 50% to 70% down.Why wouldn't you pay cash for this?I don't know.Yeah, I would.Why did you save up $400,000? What was the goal of that money?Well, I sold my house. I bought low, and I sold high, so I did very low when I sold.Amazing. And you guys have no debt? Currently.No debt. Cars are paid off.What do you do for a living?I do bathroom and kitchen.Okay. Okay. Can I. What does she do for a living?She works in the salon for.Okay.Actually just opened her own salon.Okay. Can I. Can I paint a picture of a world for you? You're a bathroom Reno guy. You're pretty good at it, right?Yeah.She does hair. She's pretty good at it, right?Yeah.You guys are both in fields that are very important, and they can also be very feast and famine. Feast or famine, right. If there's an economic downturn, people put off redoing their bathrooms. If the economy's doing great, everybody wants their bathroom redone. And when their economy's great, everybody wants their hair done and colored and all that. And then when it turn. Takes a turn. Imagine navigating this new marriage, and it sounds like you all been together for a long time. Imagine navigating this new marriage where both of you all are in trades and you're both really good, but y'all will never have any sort of payments, any sort of debt. No one will ever own you guys. So if there's a downturn, it just is annoying.Right?You have 400 grand saved up. She's got 100 and something saved up. Y'all could pay cash for this house and still have 75 to 100 grand in cash in the high yield savings account. Bro, I wouldn't think twice about this.Think about it this way, Ryan. If you were sitting in a paid.For, that's for sure. I just don't know that we want. I mean.Well, I think it hurts to let.Go of that money to do with the money.Okay, let me. Let me put it this way. If you hate having a paid for house come Christmas, you hate not having a house payment. Like you and your wife, like Mandy. Our new marriage is great. Our jobs are going great. But you know what would make this house even better? A house payment. Then you can go take out a heloc on your house, right? And you can say, john and George are idiots. They're wrong. We love. I don't mind those getting together and make. Getting together every, every month to make a house payment.So, Ryan, think about that. It helps to flip the situation to.Go for cash for everything. So.So why go into debt now when you can avoid it entirely and still have money left over?I'm jealous of you right now. That's what I'm saying. Well, like, you've won. You're going to enter into a new marriage as a tradesman man. And you know what else is going to allow you to do? You know those customers that you have to take those Reno jobs because they're big jobs, but, you know, right when you meet them and they walk you through what they want done, you're like, oh, this is going to be awful. You get to pass.Absolutely.So, Ryan, think about this. You're sitting in a paid for $450,000 home. Would you have a discussion with your wife when you go, hey, you think we should take out a loan at six, 7% interest to do some fun investing with that money? You would go, no, that's way too risky. It's not worth the spread. We like our rehab.That needs to be done at the house.But you're a rehab guy.Absolutely.And you have.You're gonna have 75 grand to play with between emergency fund and whatever, you know, renovation money, plus your future income, where you don't have a mortgage payment. So you're gonna be able to cash flow literally anything in life. And if one day she wants to shut the salon down to stay home with the kids, she gets to do that without a fight, and we just go, cool. We're gonna be fine.And nothing helps a marriage like bathroom and kitchen renovations. That was a lie. I just made that up. That'll be hard. Yeah.That weight time is pretty hard.Yeah. But so help me and George out. We're jawing at you. Help me help us out. I don't understand the. Your reluctance or your hesitancy.Just the security of having a good chunk of change.That's it. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna suggest you consider exchanging that chunk of change, the security you feel there with having a home that no one can take from you. You are feeling the security with the zeros and ones on a bank statement that you log into. I want you to imagine the security of walking into a home and saying, this is mine, and no one can take it from us. And you're going to have the nicest bathrooms in Chicago because that's what you do.It's true.I'm just. At the end of the day, brother, all I can do is tell you what I would do in my house, George. You?Yeah. I mean, I've. I've done it, Ryan, and I don't regret it. John and I both paid off houses and we go, all right, we're happy here. Not going to go take out a loan to invest. Don't miss the chunk of change if we want to build back up some savings. You're going to do that so quickly. How much will you and your wife be making when you're married?Combined with probably 100 and 3141, hundred.And 40 no payments. In Chicago, you could start throwing away a whole lot into investments in savings per year. Right? With no payments in the world, we can build back up some security. But this time it's different because we're not paying a lender, we're not paying interest, we're paying ourselves. We're building for our future instead of building someone else. A big building in downtown Chicago. So just. It's a different mindset and it's a big paradigm shift compared to what culture will tell you. And I promise you, if you scroll Instagram, there's going to be some dude being like, riot. I could ten x your money, bro. Just give it to me. We'll leverage it all. It's going to be great. And guess what? You're not going to sleep well at night. And nothing is worth that.I don't like that route.You've had a taste of peace, so we're saying, why dip your toes in these waters when you're already doing so well? And there's no need to because I wouldn't yell at you if you took out a mortgage, but if you had a bunch of cash and you still avoided paying cash, I'd go, all right, that's pretty dumb.Or if nothing else, brother, you're going to put that. Let's say you decided to take out a $200,000 mortgage. You put half down, you're going to put that money in a high yield savings account at 5% but you're going to be paying 7% on the mortgage, right? I mean, I'm just telling you right now, there's millions of people listening to this, and they've got their face in their hands, wishing they could trade places with you.Wishing they had a half million dollars in cash. Mind blowing.A $400,000 house you won in the trades.Start your marriage off with peace. If you hate having less money fights, you can start some for fun. How's that? That's my promise to you.Congratulations, man. When do you get married?Next month.I love it. We're gonna send you financial peace university as a wedding gift from John and I. And you don't even have to send us cake in the mail or anything.We're also gonna send you one year of every dollar. The best budgeting app on the planet. So you and your wife can budget your debt free life, and y'all can decide how fun it is to spend money. And like George said, if y'all just want to start some fights, y'all can do that, too. This is the Ramsay show. We'll be right back.Hey, guys, it's Rachel Cruz. When it comes to teaching kids about money, moms tell me all the time just how overwhelming it can feel to get started. That's why I'm so excited to tell you about financial peace, kids. This toolkit was designed to make learning to save, earn, spend, and give money fun for both you and your kids. The best part, it only takes ten minutes a day. Yep, just ten minutes. You've got this pick up. Financial peace, kids@ramsaysolutions.com.Store.That's ramsaysolutions.com store.Welcome back to the Ramsey show. Triple 8825-5225 we've been talking about it throughout this show. Selling a house the Ramsay Way makes home ownership awesome. It makes it a gift, a blessing. It makes it a a chaotic interaction, a chaotic time in your life. It makes it peaceful instead of right. The Ramsey trusted program is the only way to find an agent you can trust to keep you on track with what we teach here at Ramsey and help you get the best offer on your house or find the right home for you. We send you some of the top agents in your area. These are folks that we trust. You review their stats, you interview them, and you decide which one you want to work with. Ramsey trusted agents have years of experience and will help you make wise decisions when it comes to pricing, marketing, and making or choosing the right offer. George and I both used Ramsey trusted real estate agents for our families, for our homes. This isn't just us trying to sell you something. This is what we use in our day to day lives. Find a Ramsey trusted real estate agent for free.Doesn't cost you anything at ramsey solutions.com. agent. All right, let's go out to Jacksonville, Florida, and talk to Christian. Hey, Christian. What up? How we doing? Hey.Doing good.How are you?Excellent. Excellent. What's up?Yeah.So, right now, I'm 19 years old, and me and my wife, we just bought our first house earlier this year in February.Your 19?Yes, sir.What's the secret? Every 19 year old wants to know.Work hard. I guess. I started when I was 14, so.But you're married to. I was still trying to find someone to go to a chinese buffet with me when I was 19.That may have been your problem, John. That's probably not the most romantic.As I said it, I thought that was the issue. Okay, so you're married, 19. You're a homeowner now. All right. You're way ahead of me and George, but how can we help?Well, in two years from now, I have the opportunity. The company I work for is wanting to open a new branch. They're going to give me a branch ownership role, and so I'll be a branch owner in Orlando. So I'll be moving about two and a half, 3 hours away from where I currently live. And I'm wondering if we should sell that house that we just bought in February or if it's smart for us to rent it out and purchase another home in Orlando.Love it. Okay, here's my answer, and I'll give you the backstory behind it. I would sell the home and take all the equity you have and roll it into that next home. And the reason is, if you lived in Jacksonville and you and your wife sat down and said, hey, what do we want to do with our financial future? You wouldn't go, hey, what if we bought some rental property in Orlando? That could be fun. You wouldn't do that. And so the only reason you're hanging on to it is, you know, to try to kind of become, like, a real estate mogul, but now you got a headache 3 hours away to deal with when there's an issue. And so we don't like the long distance landlord. 3 hours is too much. All the. All of Dave Ramsey's real estate, hundreds of properties, he can drive around in about an hour and hit them all. And so that way, he has his eyes on them. You have your eyes on him. And so for that reason. And because real estate really, when you talk about investments, should be done with cash to reduce your risk.And so here's your plan. Pay off your current home, and if you roll that equity in the next one, pay off that home. Then when you have enough cash, you can decide with wisdom where you want to buy an investment property.And can I pass on one more thing to you, Christian?Yeah.All right.So what kind of work do you do?I do sales for roofing company.Okay, excellent. So I'm going to give you some old man wisdom. Is that cool?That's all right.All right. It hasn't happened to you yet, but you will have an employer that sits you down and says something like, I see something in you, and I'm planning on doing this. So in three years or two years or in six years, I'm going to do this, and then we're going to do this, and then this is how this is going to impact you.Right.And over my quarter century of work, I have gotten excited about other people's plans for me. I have spent imaginary money and had it not work out. And so what I want you to work on for the next two years is not already thinking, like, are we going to sell this? We're going to move this. I want you to work on being an amazing new husband. I want you to be the best salesman in Jacksonville. Most integrous, the hardest working. A guy that can leave work at work and show up and be present with his wife, but also when it's time to go to work. Man, nobody outworks Christianity. And then in two years, who knows? We'll have a new president. We'll have a new planet in two years. So let's deal in two years with what happens in two years, and let's work on. You've been running since you were 14. You've got dreams. You're a very special kind of young man. I want you to practice living in the present, where your feet are as well. Is that cool?Yeah.Congratulations, my brother. You are way ahead of the pack.That's impressive.All right, let's go out to Seattle, Washington, home of Pearl Jam, and talk to Gillian, where we are. All right. What's up, Gillian?Hey, guys. It's great to be with you. Thanks.It is great to be with you.I wanted to start off with some awesome news. My husband and I just spent the last two years putting me through school completely debt free. So I just graduated last month. I worked full time the entire first year of the program. Brutal, like 13 hours days. But we paid off about $20,000 of payments to the school, just straight in cash. So I start my new job next week.Hey, hold on, Gillian.Yeah. Yeah.The things you're saying can't be true because we hear them all the time. You can't go to school debt free.And which trust fund did you pay for this?You can't pay things with cash and you can't work and go to college at the same time.Well, so I will say I got. I was very fortunate, very blessed. I had a great job with the university before starting school.Way to go.Partial tuition exemption.I was being a goofball. I was just being a moron. I'm proud of you.Those are all decisions you made.Congratulations. Yeah, it's awesome.Yeah. Thank you.Okay, so how do we help out?My new job. I start my new job next week. During that time in school, we also saved up about $30,000 so that we could pay for the last eight months when I got to kind the work study part of my program where I had to be working full time within the context of being a student. We've got about $10,000 of that left because we have penny pinched to the max for the last eight months and we've got about $7,000 in car debt. I think I know that the plan would be to pay off the car debt with that leftover money, but I'll admit that 10,000 makes me feel very safe. And it's exactly the amount of our fully like funded emergency fund. Should we pay off that car? It's a 0% loan. Or should we keep our expanded emergency fund?You're telling me school is paid for so you have no upcoming expenses?That's right. This is our only debt left. What is 0% car loan?What's the car payment?It's about 428 a month.Okay, so let's say you that you did pay off the car today. That leaves you with 3000 and it frees up 428 and you have your income. So how quickly could we get back to 10,000? Knowing all of that, how many months?I think aggressively. Maybe eight or nine months.Okay, so eight months from now, we're back to where we are and we're going to be fine with 3000. How many emergencies have you had in the last year that were over $3,000?Thankfully zero.And you got a paid off car that's reliable and working. And if there was a car repair to be made, you could cover that. You guys have health insurance?We will, when I start my new job, we. I'm going to be honest. We haven't had much for the last year. We've been kind of living bare bones.So once we have all those insurance.In place, an army vet, so he has the va.Okay, good. So when you really think about it, a lot of this is like, but what if. And I'm going, but what if you had no payments? And how quickly could we build this back up? And what would that freedom feel like today?Yeah.You knew we were going to say this, Gillian.I know, I know. I was hoping you'd agree with me.You're just too impressive. You're too impressive to give us the 0% loan argument. Gilliande, you're too smart. You're too successful. You guys are too. I mean, too much money.I did think that we'd be able to start paying the car more aggressively than 428 a month.Then save. Save that aggressively.Evens out.Save that aggressively. Yeah, you're. Hey, look, you're, like, by this afternoon, you can be totally free.Yeah.Totally unchained from anyone, anything, any bank, any lender. You and your husband, totally free. And you got $3,000. Actually, you don't. You have $2,800. Because I want you all to go to a fancy restaurant tonight and celebrate. Congratulations. We're so proud of. So proud of you.That's enough to get apps and certs. I regret that immediately.I feel like you just spoke millennial, and I don't know what that means.I'm gonna go away for a little bit, John.That's probably good for everybody. This is the Ramsay show. We'll be back soon. Live from Nashville, Tennessee, this is the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Campbell. We're taking your calls on money, building wealth, the work that you do, your relationships, your mental, emotional health. Pretty much anything and everything. And if we don't have an answer for you, we will probably make one up. Give us a call at 888-25-5225 triple 8825-5225 let's go out to Helena and talk to Kerry. Hey, Kerry, what's up?Hello.What's going on?So my question. My husband and I had been pretty financially sound for quite a few years due to some health issues with our kiddos and some family tragedies recently, our debt has kind of spiraled out of control. And I guess now we're kind of at rock bottom and looking for, you know, any way to get out at this point.What happened, Kerry? Rock bottom is a pretty. That's a. That's a pretty. It's a left turn here. What happened?Yeah.Take a breath. Take a breath for me. Take a breath. I can hear you. Take a breath.We sold our house about a year ago and moved into my mom's basement. Our goal at the time was to take as much that we could make off of our house to start settling debt. My younger brother also lived with us, and about a month ago, he chose to end his life, and we found him.I'm sorry, Carrie. What was his name?Zach.Zach. He's a younger brother. Older brother.Younger. He was 22.I'm sorry, can I tell you something?Yeah.You're not supposed to find your 22 year mortgage, and then one is her private student loans that she had refinanced. So the mortgage is about 70,000 and the private student loans are about 140,000. So I was wondering, my question is, is it okay to go out of order with the baby steps and pay off the mortgage first and then the private student loan, or would you stay in order?I'd stick with paying off the student loans.Okay.Oh, I'd be tempted to do it the other way. How?What's your income?Um, together we make about. Well, we take home about one hundred fifty k a year.Okay. So if you guys got real focus, could you knock out these student loans in two and a half years? What are we talking as far as timeline?Yeah, I'd say about three years, if we were going to do the student loans first, and then half these student.Loans, they're made up of a bunch of loans, I assume?No.So it was refinanced to one giant loan.Oh, gosh. What is the payment on? $140,000 student loan.It's about 15, 1528 a month.What's your mortgage payment a month?1562. So it's within $40 of each other.Who?All right, George, to go with me on this, he pays the mortgage off and you guys get like, this is out of order. This is not the Ramsey steps. But you get bananas about that mortgage. And you decide, we're gonna have this done in twelve months.Okay?We're gonna work maniacally. But more importantly for you guys, we're not. We're just not gonna spend. We're gonna be silly. Then we have a house that no one can take away. This is the one. And I'm going against everything I always say, george. So tell me if I'm wrong. This would be the one time that it feels like I might gamble on some student loan forgiveness. Because I'm gonna have this house. I'm gonna keep this house no matter what. I'm gonna pay this house off. And maybe the other thing comes through. Probably not.I'll go with you on this, John. It's mainly because there's no real debt snowball to do here. You're not freeing up payments along the way.The house? Yeah.And so you'll knock that out in half the time. Free up the same amount of money. Start throwing that at the student loan debt. I think this plan works. And with your intensity, it's gonna be a wash either way. So go for it. You have my permission. It's all you need.Did we just agree?We just agreed to agree.We just agreed. Hey, thanks for joining us right here on the Ramsey show. We will be back in no time. Don't borrow money. We love y'all.Hey, folks. Dave here. You want to hear even more life changing content from Ramsey? Download the Ramsey Network app so you can catch all your favorite shows all in one place. Like the Ramsey show, smart money, happy hour, and the doctor John Deloney show. You'll get real talk about life, relationships, money, and your career. Plus, the app lets you browse by topic, like debt, business, or selling your home. Get the content you want whenever and wherever you want to listen. Download the Ramsey Network app today.

you did this. And then she feels like I'm getting parented, which makes her want to spend more money. Right. Here's the magic word that you're going to hate. You got to be vulnerable and tell her what you actually feel.

Okay?

And you have had that trained out of you appropriately, so. But you have to do that in this situation because she's not responding to your charts and graphs. She will respond to your heart.

That's beautiful.

Is that fair?

Yeah. I appreciate that a lot. Thank you.

So what does underneath the charts and the graphs and the money and the I want to drive nicer cars and finally be able to buy a house in San Diego, California. Underneath all that, practice with me. What's your heart on this deal? What scares you?

Honestly? Like, yeah. To do it to you. I feel like I'm 27 and I'm just now educating myself on all this. And five years from now, I just want to be able to provide and be the man that, you know, I didn't have growing up as a father figure, just like my wife.

Now she hears those words, it's going to change her entire attitude toward this plan. And if you couple that with, hey, I want to make this fun, I dont want to make this feel like boot camp. What would make this fun for you? What are some things we can do to celebrate the wins? Maybe shes in charge of the visual graphs and things we can fill out and the color charts. And we celebrate every thousand bucks we pay off. Remind yourselves of the why, of why you both agreed that this was the right path. And think about where youre going to be five years from now and how grateful youll be for the choices you made day to day.

Do you get, do you get worked up? Do you have like a, when you get fired up, do you get pretty worked up?

I never stress out. You mean by that?

No, no, no. I mean, I'll just say it this way because we're getting up against the clock.

Oh. Like, passionate.

I don't yell and I don't scream. That's just not how I roll. But George will tell you. My wife will tell you when I get fired up about something. You can feel the nuclear reactor in my chest. You can feel it.

Yeah.

And the words in my house that changed everything was when I told my wife, I just want. I want us to find peace in this home. I want this to be a place that both of us can't wait to get back to after a trip, after work, after whatever. What must be true for us to want to come back here. And for me, for my wife, both of us. Thankfully, it was not owing anybody anything. I'm not bringing any extra baggage through the front door every day when I get there. And so it might be. I want to get out of debt. Cool. Why, dude? Because I want to come home and laugh. I want to come home and hug. I want to come home and decide, are we making out tonight? Are we going to the movies tonight? Like, are we doing both? Like, we get to decide that. Not coming home with a, as a ball of stress. Talk to your wife from your heart, not from your spreadsheet, and say the magic words. I was wrong. I love you.

I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that people have started buying life insurance to protect their families at levels not seen since the 1980s. The bad news is many of them are still buying crappy cash value type plans. I don't care what you call them. Whole life, universal, variable, adjustable, flexible. They're nothing but a waste of your money. Don't be confused and let someone sell you a plan that sounds better than it really is. Look, term life is the only way to go. Rates are back to all time lows, and the process to apply is easier than ever. With many companies no longer requiring exams, you need to protect your family and use your money. For much smarter things than investing in a ripoff cash value insurance policy. Go to zander.com or call 803 564282 and just compare pricing. You'll see why. These are the only plans I recommend. Take care of your family and do it in a smarter way.

Welcome back to the Ramsay show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Camel. And I want you to stop what you're doing because I'm about to ruin the image in the style that you're used to. I remember that song. Hey, listen, don't miss your chance to join us on the live like no one else cruise. The cruise, a seven day cruise. There's going to be Kool Aid everywhere because this is Ramsey people, like in the cult people. It's going to be the greatest cruise of all time. Seven day cruise with all the stops throughout the Caribbean. The ultimate debt free celebration. You're going to be on board with me, George, all the personalities, Dave, lots of special guests, fancy comedians, musicians. It's just going to be rad. We're going to be going all over the place. We're taking over the entire ship. The whole ship. We want to Turks and Caicos, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas. Come on, pretty mama.

Wow.

There was a lot going on there.

We're not going to key Largo or Montego.

That's the next cruise. Hopefully.

Hopefully.

When is it happening, John?

It's going to happen March 22 through 29th, 2025, which means you got time.

To plan, time to budget.

Well, here's what's awesome.

Time to get your deposited.

Is this or bearish. I'm becoming more careful about how I can buy back time. And you and your wife will be buying back an hour of hours a year, one way, every day.Right.And over the course of a week, you're buying back 5 hours. So ask yourself, what would it, what would we charge? What would we pay for half a day together every week? That turns into you just bought a full day of time together, not including sleeping time. But we bought 10 hours every two weeks just in commute time.Gotcha.I mean, I would do this tomorrow.Well, here's the strawberry on the top. So the house that we're selling probably could use about $90,000 of work, but we can currently sell it at 300 as is. No problem. Tomorrow, this will be a new construction home. Brand new house.Sell it tomorrow. Put. Call the realtor today. Go to ramsaysolutions.com. agent slash agent. Get yourself a smart vest or pro. I am sorry, a real estate pro. And get that thing on the market in the morning.Awesome.Congratulations, man. You're going to, you're going to have to get a chicken coop. You're going to have to get overalls, a straw hat, the whole thing.Maybe a bunker. Could be cool.Yes. You have to get a bunch of deep freezers and ask people if they've heard about meat prices. You're gonna be the whole out. Like, you're gonna be one of my neighbors now. I can't wait. Dude. Congratulations. Hey, you've done it right. And you worked really, really hard for this moment. For this moment when you and your wife say, hey, let's buy back some time. Let's buy back a different kind of life. We're on it. We'll be right back. This show is sponsored by Betterhelp. This is Deloney, and I'm always railing against social media, especially in the summer, because everyone uploads the highlight reels of their perfect bodies and perfect vacations and perfect kids. And I know they're not real. And I also know that I'm blessed beyond my wildest dreams. But I still find myself wishing my life was like other people's. And based on the data, I know this is happening to you, too. Comparison is wired into us. But comparison can also become the thief of joyous because we can feel like were not enough and begin acting and thinking in ways we would never think otherwise. When all gets to be too much, think about contacting betterhelp.Betterhelp is 100% online therapy staffed with licensed therapists. Its convenient, flexible, and suited to fit your schedule. By the way, therapy isnt just for those whove experienced major trauma. Its for all of us who are ready to get out of the comparison spin cycle and find our own peace and joy in the life were creating. Stop comparing and start focusing with betterhelp. Visit betterhelp.com deloney today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp help.com deloney, 825-5225 this is the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Campbell. Taking your calls on money, life, relationships, your mental and emotional health, your work, all of it. Let's go out to Chi town, Chicago, Illinois, and talk to Ryan. What's up, Ryan?How you doing, gentlemen?I'm good, man. What's up?I got a couple questions. Getting married in a month.All right.To buy a house, hopefully this week. I'm just wondering if we're making the right moves here.That's a lot.You're making two of the biggest life decisions and throwing the biggest party of your life with all of the headache and chaos and joy all at once. Why is, why is the house so urgent?We are currently staying with a friend, per se. I sold my house about a year ago. So we've been living with them ever since.Why can't you rent a place last week?I can, but I moved in with them, and we did their bathrooms. I do construction for a living.Okay.They're remodeling.So tell me about. You all have a house already picked out?Yes, we have one picked out. It said 450 is what I'm hoping I can get it for.Okay. How much money you got?I have about 400. She has about 120.Whoa.So we paying cash for this thing?I don't know that we want to pay all cash. You do, but that's where we would want to put 50% to 70% down.Why wouldn't you pay cash for this?I don't know.Yeah, I would.Why did you save up $400,000? What was the goal of that money?Well, I sold my house. I bought low, and I sold high, so I did very low when I sold.Amazing. And you guys have no debt? Currently.No debt. Cars are paid off.What do you do for a living?I do bathroom and kitchen.Okay. Okay. Can I. What does she do for a living?She works in the salon for.Okay.Actually just opened her own salon.Okay. Can I. Can I paint a picture of a world for you? You're a bathroom Reno guy. You're pretty good at it, right?Yeah.She does hair. She's pretty good at it, right?Yeah.You guys are both in fields that are very important, and they can also be very feast and famine. Feast or famine, right. If there's an economic downturn, people put off redoing their bathrooms. If the economy's doing great, everybody wants their bathroom redone. And when their economy's great, everybody wants their hair done and colored and all that. And then when it turn. Takes a turn. Imagine navigating this new marriage, and it sounds like you all been together for a long time. Imagine navigating this new marriage where both of you all are in trades and you're both really good, but y'all will never have any sort of payments, any sort of debt. No one will ever own you guys. So if there's a downturn, it just is annoying.Right?You have 400 grand saved up. She's got 100 and something saved up. Y'all could pay cash for this house and still have 75 to 100 grand in cash in the high yield savings account. Bro, I wouldn't think twice about this.Think about it this way, Ryan. If you were sitting in a paid.For, that's for sure. I just don't know that we want. I mean.Well, I think it hurts to let.Go of that money to do with the money.Okay, let me. Let me put it this way. If you hate having a paid for house come Christmas, you hate not having a house payment. Like you and your wife, like Mandy. Our new marriage is great. Our jobs are going great. But you know what would make this house even better? A house payment. Then you can go take out a heloc on your house, right? And you can say, john and George are idiots. They're wrong. We love. I don't mind those getting together and make. Getting together every, every month to make a house payment.So, Ryan, think about that. It helps to flip the situation to.Go for cash for everything. So.So why go into debt now when you can avoid it entirely and still have money left over?I'm jealous of you right now. That's what I'm saying. Well, like, you've won. You're going to enter into a new marriage as a tradesman man. And you know what else is going to allow you to do? You know those customers that you have to take those Reno jobs because they're big jobs, but, you know, right when you meet them and they walk you through what they want done, you're like, oh, this is going to be awful. You get to pass.Absolutely.So, Ryan, think about this. You're sitting in a paid for $450,000 home. Would you have a discussion with your wife when you go, hey, you think we should take out a loan at six, 7% interest to do some fun investing with that money? You would go, no, that's way too risky. It's not worth the spread. We like our rehab.That needs to be done at the house.But you're a rehab guy.Absolutely.And you have.You're gonna have 75 grand to play with between emergency fund and whatever, you know, renovation money, plus your future income, where you don't have a mortgage payment. So you're gonna be able to cash flow literally anything in life. And if one day she wants to shut the salon down to stay home with the kids, she gets to do that without a fight, and we just go, cool. We're gonna be fine.And nothing helps a marriage like bathroom and kitchen renovations. That was a lie. I just made that up. That'll be hard. Yeah.That weight time is pretty hard.Yeah. But so help me and George out. We're jawing at you. Help me help us out. I don't understand the. Your reluctance or your hesitancy.Just the security of having a good chunk of change.That's it. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna suggest you consider exchanging that chunk of change, the security you feel there with having a home that no one can take from you. You are feeling the security with the zeros and ones on a bank statement that you log into. I want you to imagine the security of walking into a home and saying, this is mine, and no one can take it from us. And you're going to have the nicest bathrooms in Chicago because that's what you do.It's true.I'm just. At the end of the day, brother, all I can do is tell you what I would do in my house, George. You?Yeah. I mean, I've. I've done it, Ryan, and I don't regret it. John and I both paid off houses and we go, all right, we're happy here. Not going to go take out a loan to invest. Don't miss the chunk of change if we want to build back up some savings. You're going to do that so quickly. How much will you and your wife be making when you're married?Combined with probably 100 and 3141, hundred.And 40 no payments. In Chicago, you could start throwing away a whole lot into investments in savings per year. Right? With no payments in the world, we can build back up some security. But this time it's different because we're not paying a lender, we're not paying interest, we're paying ourselves. We're building for our future instead of building someone else. A big building in downtown Chicago. So just. It's a different mindset and it's a big paradigm shift compared to what culture will tell you. And I promise you, if you scroll Instagram, there's going to be some dude being like, riot. I could ten x your money, bro. Just give it to me. We'll leverage it all. It's going to be great. And guess what? You're not going to sleep well at night. And nothing is worth that.I don't like that route.You've had a taste of peace, so we're saying, why dip your toes in these waters when you're already doing so well? And there's no need to because I wouldn't yell at you if you took out a mortgage, but if you had a bunch of cash and you still avoided paying cash, I'd go, all right, that's pretty dumb.Or if nothing else, brother, you're going to put that. Let's say you decided to take out a $200,000 mortgage. You put half down, you're going to put that money in a high yield savings account at 5% but you're going to be paying 7% on the mortgage, right? I mean, I'm just telling you right now, there's millions of people listening to this, and they've got their face in their hands, wishing they could trade places with you.Wishing they had a half million dollars in cash. Mind blowing.A $400,000 house you won in the trades.Start your marriage off with peace. If you hate having less money fights, you can start some for fun. How's that? That's my promise to you.Congratulations, man. When do you get married?Next month.I love it. We're gonna send you financial peace university as a wedding gift from John and I. And you don't even have to send us cake in the mail or anything.We're also gonna send you one year of every dollar. The best budgeting app on the planet. So you and your wife can budget your debt free life, and y'all can decide how fun it is to spend money. And like George said, if y'all just want to start some fights, y'all can do that, too. This is the Ramsay show. We'll be right back.Hey, guys, it's Rachel Cruz. When it comes to teaching kids about money, moms tell me all the time just how overwhelming it can feel to get started. That's why I'm so excited to tell you about financial peace, kids. This toolkit was designed to make learning to save, earn, spend, and give money fun for both you and your kids. The best part, it only takes ten minutes a day. Yep, just ten minutes. You've got this pick up. Financial peace, kids@ramsaysolutions.com.Store.That's ramsaysolutions.com store.Welcome back to the Ramsey show. Triple 8825-5225 we've been talking about it throughout this show. Selling a house the Ramsay Way makes home ownership awesome. It makes it a gift, a blessing. It makes it a a chaotic interaction, a chaotic time in your life. It makes it peaceful instead of right. The Ramsey trusted program is the only way to find an agent you can trust to keep you on track with what we teach here at Ramsey and help you get the best offer on your house or find the right home for you. We send you some of the top agents in your area. These are folks that we trust. You review their stats, you interview them, and you decide which one you want to work with. Ramsey trusted agents have years of experience and will help you make wise decisions when it comes to pricing, marketing, and making or choosing the right offer. George and I both used Ramsey trusted real estate agents for our families, for our homes. This isn't just us trying to sell you something. This is what we use in our day to day lives. Find a Ramsey trusted real estate agent for free.Doesn't cost you anything at ramsey solutions.com. agent. All right, let's go out to Jacksonville, Florida, and talk to Christian. Hey, Christian. What up? How we doing? Hey.Doing good.How are you?Excellent. Excellent. What's up?Yeah.So, right now, I'm 19 years old, and me and my wife, we just bought our first house earlier this year in February.Your 19?Yes, sir.What's the secret? Every 19 year old wants to know.Work hard. I guess. I started when I was 14, so.But you're married to. I was still trying to find someone to go to a chinese buffet with me when I was 19.That may have been your problem, John. That's probably not the most romantic.As I said it, I thought that was the issue. Okay, so you're married, 19. You're a homeowner now. All right. You're way ahead of me and George, but how can we help?Well, in two years from now, I have the opportunity. The company I work for is wanting to open a new branch. They're going to give me a branch ownership role, and so I'll be a branch owner in Orlando. So I'll be moving about two and a half, 3 hours away from where I currently live. And I'm wondering if we should sell that house that we just bought in February or if it's smart for us to rent it out and purchase another home in Orlando.Love it. Okay, here's my answer, and I'll give you the backstory behind it. I would sell the home and take all the equity you have and roll it into that next home. And the reason is, if you lived in Jacksonville and you and your wife sat down and said, hey, what do we want to do with our financial future? You wouldn't go, hey, what if we bought some rental property in Orlando? That could be fun. You wouldn't do that. And so the only reason you're hanging on to it is, you know, to try to kind of become, like, a real estate mogul, but now you got a headache 3 hours away to deal with when there's an issue. And so we don't like the long distance landlord. 3 hours is too much. All the. All of Dave Ramsey's real estate, hundreds of properties, he can drive around in about an hour and hit them all. And so that way, he has his eyes on them. You have your eyes on him. And so for that reason. And because real estate really, when you talk about investments, should be done with cash to reduce your risk.And so here's your plan. Pay off your current home, and if you roll that equity in the next one, pay off that home. Then when you have enough cash, you can decide with wisdom where you want to buy an investment property.And can I pass on one more thing to you, Christian?Yeah.All right.So what kind of work do you do?I do sales for roofing company.Okay, excellent. So I'm going to give you some old man wisdom. Is that cool?That's all right.All right. It hasn't happened to you yet, but you will have an employer that sits you down and says something like, I see something in you, and I'm planning on doing this. So in three years or two years or in six years, I'm going to do this, and then we're going to do this, and then this is how this is going to impact you.Right.And over my quarter century of work, I have gotten excited about other people's plans for me. I have spent imaginary money and had it not work out. And so what I want you to work on for the next two years is not already thinking, like, are we going to sell this? We're going to move this. I want you to work on being an amazing new husband. I want you to be the best salesman in Jacksonville. Most integrous, the hardest working. A guy that can leave work at work and show up and be present with his wife, but also when it's time to go to work. Man, nobody outworks Christianity. And then in two years, who knows? We'll have a new president. We'll have a new planet in two years. So let's deal in two years with what happens in two years, and let's work on. You've been running since you were 14. You've got dreams. You're a very special kind of young man. I want you to practice living in the present, where your feet are as well. Is that cool?Yeah.Congratulations, my brother. You are way ahead of the pack.That's impressive.All right, let's go out to Seattle, Washington, home of Pearl Jam, and talk to Gillian, where we are. All right. What's up, Gillian?Hey, guys. It's great to be with you. Thanks.It is great to be with you.I wanted to start off with some awesome news. My husband and I just spent the last two years putting me through school completely debt free. So I just graduated last month. I worked full time the entire first year of the program. Brutal, like 13 hours days. But we paid off about $20,000 of payments to the school, just straight in cash. So I start my new job next week.Hey, hold on, Gillian.Yeah. Yeah.The things you're saying can't be true because we hear them all the time. You can't go to school debt free.And which trust fund did you pay for this?You can't pay things with cash and you can't work and go to college at the same time.Well, so I will say I got. I was very fortunate, very blessed. I had a great job with the university before starting school.Way to go.Partial tuition exemption.I was being a goofball. I was just being a moron. I'm proud of you.Those are all decisions you made.Congratulations. Yeah, it's awesome.Yeah. Thank you.Okay, so how do we help out?My new job. I start my new job next week. During that time in school, we also saved up about $30,000 so that we could pay for the last eight months when I got to kind the work study part of my program where I had to be working full time within the context of being a student. We've got about $10,000 of that left because we have penny pinched to the max for the last eight months and we've got about $7,000 in car debt. I think I know that the plan would be to pay off the car debt with that leftover money, but I'll admit that 10,000 makes me feel very safe. And it's exactly the amount of our fully like funded emergency fund. Should we pay off that car? It's a 0% loan. Or should we keep our expanded emergency fund?You're telling me school is paid for so you have no upcoming expenses?That's right. This is our only debt left. What is 0% car loan?What's the car payment?It's about 428 a month.Okay, so let's say you that you did pay off the car today. That leaves you with 3000 and it frees up 428 and you have your income. So how quickly could we get back to 10,000? Knowing all of that, how many months?I think aggressively. Maybe eight or nine months.Okay, so eight months from now, we're back to where we are and we're going to be fine with 3000. How many emergencies have you had in the last year that were over $3,000?Thankfully zero.And you got a paid off car that's reliable and working. And if there was a car repair to be made, you could cover that. You guys have health insurance?We will, when I start my new job, we. I'm going to be honest. We haven't had much for the last year. We've been kind of living bare bones.So once we have all those insurance.In place, an army vet, so he has the va.Okay, good. So when you really think about it, a lot of this is like, but what if. And I'm going, but what if you had no payments? And how quickly could we build this back up? And what would that freedom feel like today?Yeah.You knew we were going to say this, Gillian.I know, I know. I was hoping you'd agree with me.You're just too impressive. You're too impressive to give us the 0% loan argument. Gilliande, you're too smart. You're too successful. You guys are too. I mean, too much money.I did think that we'd be able to start paying the car more aggressively than 428 a month.Then save. Save that aggressively.Evens out.Save that aggressively. Yeah, you're. Hey, look, you're, like, by this afternoon, you can be totally free.Yeah.Totally unchained from anyone, anything, any bank, any lender. You and your husband, totally free. And you got $3,000. Actually, you don't. You have $2,800. Because I want you all to go to a fancy restaurant tonight and celebrate. Congratulations. We're so proud of. So proud of you.That's enough to get apps and certs. I regret that immediately.I feel like you just spoke millennial, and I don't know what that means.I'm gonna go away for a little bit, John.That's probably good for everybody. This is the Ramsay show. We'll be back soon. Live from Nashville, Tennessee, this is the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Campbell. We're taking your calls on money, building wealth, the work that you do, your relationships, your mental, emotional health. Pretty much anything and everything. And if we don't have an answer for you, we will probably make one up. Give us a call at 888-25-5225 triple 8825-5225 let's go out to Helena and talk to Kerry. Hey, Kerry, what's up?Hello.What's going on?So my question. My husband and I had been pretty financially sound for quite a few years due to some health issues with our kiddos and some family tragedies recently, our debt has kind of spiraled out of control. And I guess now we're kind of at rock bottom and looking for, you know, any way to get out at this point.What happened, Kerry? Rock bottom is a pretty. That's a. That's a pretty. It's a left turn here. What happened?Yeah.Take a breath. Take a breath for me. Take a breath. I can hear you. Take a breath.We sold our house about a year ago and moved into my mom's basement. Our goal at the time was to take as much that we could make off of our house to start settling debt. My younger brother also lived with us, and about a month ago, he chose to end his life, and we found him.I'm sorry, Carrie. What was his name?Zach.Zach. He's a younger brother. Older brother.Younger. He was 22.I'm sorry, can I tell you something?Yeah.You're not supposed to find your 22 year mortgage, and then one is her private student loans that she had refinanced. So the mortgage is about 70,000 and the private student loans are about 140,000. So I was wondering, my question is, is it okay to go out of order with the baby steps and pay off the mortgage first and then the private student loan, or would you stay in order?I'd stick with paying off the student loans.Okay.Oh, I'd be tempted to do it the other way. How?What's your income?Um, together we make about. Well, we take home about one hundred fifty k a year.Okay. So if you guys got real focus, could you knock out these student loans in two and a half years? What are we talking as far as timeline?Yeah, I'd say about three years, if we were going to do the student loans first, and then half these student.Loans, they're made up of a bunch of loans, I assume?No.So it was refinanced to one giant loan.Oh, gosh. What is the payment on? $140,000 student loan.It's about 15, 1528 a month.What's your mortgage payment a month?1562. So it's within $40 of each other.Who?All right, George, to go with me on this, he pays the mortgage off and you guys get like, this is out of order. This is not the Ramsey steps. But you get bananas about that mortgage. And you decide, we're gonna have this done in twelve months.Okay?We're gonna work maniacally. But more importantly for you guys, we're not. We're just not gonna spend. We're gonna be silly. Then we have a house that no one can take away. This is the one. And I'm going against everything I always say, george. So tell me if I'm wrong. This would be the one time that it feels like I might gamble on some student loan forgiveness. Because I'm gonna have this house. I'm gonna keep this house no matter what. I'm gonna pay this house off. And maybe the other thing comes through. Probably not.I'll go with you on this, John. It's mainly because there's no real debt snowball to do here. You're not freeing up payments along the way.The house? Yeah.And so you'll knock that out in half the time. Free up the same amount of money. Start throwing that at the student loan debt. I think this plan works. And with your intensity, it's gonna be a wash either way. So go for it. You have my permission. It's all you need.Did we just agree?We just agreed to agree.We just agreed. Hey, thanks for joining us right here on the Ramsey show. We will be back in no time. Don't borrow money. We love y'all.Hey, folks. Dave here. You want to hear even more life changing content from Ramsey? Download the Ramsey Network app so you can catch all your favorite shows all in one place. Like the Ramsey show, smart money, happy hour, and the doctor John Deloney show. You'll get real talk about life, relationships, money, and your career. Plus, the app lets you browse by topic, like debt, business, or selling your home. Get the content you want whenever and wherever you want to listen. Download the Ramsey Network app today.

or bearish. I'm becoming more careful about how I can buy back time. And you and your wife will be buying back an hour of hours a year, one way, every day.

Right.

And over the course of a week, you're buying back 5 hours. So ask yourself, what would it, what would we charge? What would we pay for half a day together every week? That turns into you just bought a full day of time together, not including sleeping time. But we bought 10 hours every two weeks just in commute time.

Gotcha.

I mean, I would do this tomorrow.

Well, here's the strawberry on the top. So the house that we're selling probably could use about $90,000 of work, but we can currently sell it at 300 as is. No problem. Tomorrow, this will be a new construction home. Brand new house.

Sell it tomorrow. Put. Call the realtor today. Go to ramsaysolutions.com. agent slash agent. Get yourself a smart vest or pro. I am sorry, a real estate pro. And get that thing on the market in the morning.

Awesome.

Congratulations, man. You're going to, you're going to have to get a chicken coop. You're going to have to get overalls, a straw hat, the whole thing.

Maybe a bunker. Could be cool.

Yes. You have to get a bunch of deep freezers and ask people if they've heard about meat prices. You're gonna be the whole out. Like, you're gonna be one of my neighbors now. I can't wait. Dude. Congratulations. Hey, you've done it right. And you worked really, really hard for this moment. For this moment when you and your wife say, hey, let's buy back some time. Let's buy back a different kind of life. We're on it. We'll be right back. This show is sponsored by Betterhelp. This is Deloney, and I'm always railing against social media, especially in the summer, because everyone uploads the highlight reels of their perfect bodies and perfect vacations and perfect kids. And I know they're not real. And I also know that I'm blessed beyond my wildest dreams. But I still find myself wishing my life was like other people's. And based on the data, I know this is happening to you, too. Comparison is wired into us. But comparison can also become the thief of joyous because we can feel like were not enough and begin acting and thinking in ways we would never think otherwise. When all gets to be too much, think about contacting betterhelp.

Betterhelp is 100% online therapy staffed with licensed therapists. Its convenient, flexible, and suited to fit your schedule. By the way, therapy isnt just for those whove experienced major trauma. Its for all of us who are ready to get out of the comparison spin cycle and find our own peace and joy in the life were creating. Stop comparing and start focusing with betterhelp. Visit betterhelp.com deloney today to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp help.com deloney, 825-5225 this is the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Campbell. Taking your calls on money, life, relationships, your mental and emotional health, your work, all of it. Let's go out to Chi town, Chicago, Illinois, and talk to Ryan. What's up, Ryan?

How you doing, gentlemen?

I'm good, man. What's up?

I got a couple questions. Getting married in a month.

All right.

To buy a house, hopefully this week. I'm just wondering if we're making the right moves here.

That's a lot.

You're making two of the biggest life decisions and throwing the biggest party of your life with all of the headache and chaos and joy all at once. Why is, why is the house so urgent?

We are currently staying with a friend, per se. I sold my house about a year ago. So we've been living with them ever since.

Why can't you rent a place last week?

I can, but I moved in with them, and we did their bathrooms. I do construction for a living.

Okay.

They're remodeling.

So tell me about. You all have a house already picked out?

Yes, we have one picked out. It said 450 is what I'm hoping I can get it for.

Okay. How much money you got?

I have about 400. She has about 120.

Whoa.

So we paying cash for this thing?

I don't know that we want to pay all cash. You do, but that's where we would want to put 50% to 70% down.

Why wouldn't you pay cash for this?

I don't know.

Yeah, I would.

Why did you save up $400,000? What was the goal of that money?

Well, I sold my house. I bought low, and I sold high, so I did very low when I sold.

Amazing. And you guys have no debt? Currently.

No debt. Cars are paid off.

What do you do for a living?

I do bathroom and kitchen.

Okay. Okay. Can I. What does she do for a living?

She works in the salon for.

Okay.

Actually just opened her own salon.

Okay. Can I. Can I paint a picture of a world for you? You're a bathroom Reno guy. You're pretty good at it, right?

Yeah.

She does hair. She's pretty good at it, right?

Yeah.

You guys are both in fields that are very important, and they can also be very feast and famine. Feast or famine, right. If there's an economic downturn, people put off redoing their bathrooms. If the economy's doing great, everybody wants their bathroom redone. And when their economy's great, everybody wants their hair done and colored and all that. And then when it turn. Takes a turn. Imagine navigating this new marriage, and it sounds like you all been together for a long time. Imagine navigating this new marriage where both of you all are in trades and you're both really good, but y'all will never have any sort of payments, any sort of debt. No one will ever own you guys. So if there's a downturn, it just is annoying.

Right?

You have 400 grand saved up. She's got 100 and something saved up. Y'all could pay cash for this house and still have 75 to 100 grand in cash in the high yield savings account. Bro, I wouldn't think twice about this.

Think about it this way, Ryan. If you were sitting in a paid.

For, that's for sure. I just don't know that we want. I mean.

Well, I think it hurts to let.

Go of that money to do with the money.

Okay, let me. Let me put it this way. If you hate having a paid for house come Christmas, you hate not having a house payment. Like you and your wife, like Mandy. Our new marriage is great. Our jobs are going great. But you know what would make this house even better? A house payment. Then you can go take out a heloc on your house, right? And you can say, john and George are idiots. They're wrong. We love. I don't mind those getting together and make. Getting together every, every month to make a house payment.

So, Ryan, think about that. It helps to flip the situation to.

Go for cash for everything. So.

So why go into debt now when you can avoid it entirely and still have money left over?

I'm jealous of you right now. That's what I'm saying. Well, like, you've won. You're going to enter into a new marriage as a tradesman man. And you know what else is going to allow you to do? You know those customers that you have to take those Reno jobs because they're big jobs, but, you know, right when you meet them and they walk you through what they want done, you're like, oh, this is going to be awful. You get to pass.

Absolutely.

So, Ryan, think about this. You're sitting in a paid for $450,000 home. Would you have a discussion with your wife when you go, hey, you think we should take out a loan at six, 7% interest to do some fun investing with that money? You would go, no, that's way too risky. It's not worth the spread. We like our rehab.

That needs to be done at the house.

But you're a rehab guy.

Absolutely.

And you have.

You're gonna have 75 grand to play with between emergency fund and whatever, you know, renovation money, plus your future income, where you don't have a mortgage payment. So you're gonna be able to cash flow literally anything in life. And if one day she wants to shut the salon down to stay home with the kids, she gets to do that without a fight, and we just go, cool. We're gonna be fine.

And nothing helps a marriage like bathroom and kitchen renovations. That was a lie. I just made that up. That'll be hard. Yeah.

That weight time is pretty hard.

Yeah. But so help me and George out. We're jawing at you. Help me help us out. I don't understand the. Your reluctance or your hesitancy.

Just the security of having a good chunk of change.

That's it. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna suggest you consider exchanging that chunk of change, the security you feel there with having a home that no one can take from you. You are feeling the security with the zeros and ones on a bank statement that you log into. I want you to imagine the security of walking into a home and saying, this is mine, and no one can take it from us. And you're going to have the nicest bathrooms in Chicago because that's what you do.

It's true.

I'm just. At the end of the day, brother, all I can do is tell you what I would do in my house, George. You?

Yeah. I mean, I've. I've done it, Ryan, and I don't regret it. John and I both paid off houses and we go, all right, we're happy here. Not going to go take out a loan to invest. Don't miss the chunk of change if we want to build back up some savings. You're going to do that so quickly. How much will you and your wife be making when you're married?

Combined with probably 100 and 3141, hundred.

And 40 no payments. In Chicago, you could start throwing away a whole lot into investments in savings per year. Right? With no payments in the world, we can build back up some security. But this time it's different because we're not paying a lender, we're not paying interest, we're paying ourselves. We're building for our future instead of building someone else. A big building in downtown Chicago. So just. It's a different mindset and it's a big paradigm shift compared to what culture will tell you. And I promise you, if you scroll Instagram, there's going to be some dude being like, riot. I could ten x your money, bro. Just give it to me. We'll leverage it all. It's going to be great. And guess what? You're not going to sleep well at night. And nothing is worth that.

I don't like that route.

You've had a taste of peace, so we're saying, why dip your toes in these waters when you're already doing so well? And there's no need to because I wouldn't yell at you if you took out a mortgage, but if you had a bunch of cash and you still avoided paying cash, I'd go, all right, that's pretty dumb.

Or if nothing else, brother, you're going to put that. Let's say you decided to take out a $200,000 mortgage. You put half down, you're going to put that money in a high yield savings account at 5% but you're going to be paying 7% on the mortgage, right? I mean, I'm just telling you right now, there's millions of people listening to this, and they've got their face in their hands, wishing they could trade places with you.

Wishing they had a half million dollars in cash. Mind blowing.

A $400,000 house you won in the trades.

Start your marriage off with peace. If you hate having less money fights, you can start some for fun. How's that? That's my promise to you.

Congratulations, man. When do you get married?

Next month.

I love it. We're gonna send you financial peace university as a wedding gift from John and I. And you don't even have to send us cake in the mail or anything.

We're also gonna send you one year of every dollar. The best budgeting app on the planet. So you and your wife can budget your debt free life, and y'all can decide how fun it is to spend money. And like George said, if y'all just want to start some fights, y'all can do that, too. This is the Ramsay show. We'll be right back.

Hey, guys, it's Rachel Cruz. When it comes to teaching kids about money, moms tell me all the time just how overwhelming it can feel to get started. That's why I'm so excited to tell you about financial peace, kids. This toolkit was designed to make learning to save, earn, spend, and give money fun for both you and your kids. The best part, it only takes ten minutes a day. Yep, just ten minutes. You've got this pick up. Financial peace, kids@ramsaysolutions.com.

Store.

That's ramsaysolutions.com store.

Welcome back to the Ramsey show. Triple 8825-5225 we've been talking about it throughout this show. Selling a house the Ramsay Way makes home ownership awesome. It makes it a gift, a blessing. It makes it a a chaotic interaction, a chaotic time in your life. It makes it peaceful instead of right. The Ramsey trusted program is the only way to find an agent you can trust to keep you on track with what we teach here at Ramsey and help you get the best offer on your house or find the right home for you. We send you some of the top agents in your area. These are folks that we trust. You review their stats, you interview them, and you decide which one you want to work with. Ramsey trusted agents have years of experience and will help you make wise decisions when it comes to pricing, marketing, and making or choosing the right offer. George and I both used Ramsey trusted real estate agents for our families, for our homes. This isn't just us trying to sell you something. This is what we use in our day to day lives. Find a Ramsey trusted real estate agent for free.

Doesn't cost you anything at ramsey solutions.com. agent. All right, let's go out to Jacksonville, Florida, and talk to Christian. Hey, Christian. What up? How we doing? Hey.

Doing good.

How are you?

Excellent. Excellent. What's up?

Yeah.

So, right now, I'm 19 years old, and me and my wife, we just bought our first house earlier this year in February.

Your 19?

Yes, sir.

What's the secret? Every 19 year old wants to know.

Work hard. I guess. I started when I was 14, so.

But you're married to. I was still trying to find someone to go to a chinese buffet with me when I was 19.

That may have been your problem, John. That's probably not the most romantic.

As I said it, I thought that was the issue. Okay, so you're married, 19. You're a homeowner now. All right. You're way ahead of me and George, but how can we help?

Well, in two years from now, I have the opportunity. The company I work for is wanting to open a new branch. They're going to give me a branch ownership role, and so I'll be a branch owner in Orlando. So I'll be moving about two and a half, 3 hours away from where I currently live. And I'm wondering if we should sell that house that we just bought in February or if it's smart for us to rent it out and purchase another home in Orlando.

Love it. Okay, here's my answer, and I'll give you the backstory behind it. I would sell the home and take all the equity you have and roll it into that next home. And the reason is, if you lived in Jacksonville and you and your wife sat down and said, hey, what do we want to do with our financial future? You wouldn't go, hey, what if we bought some rental property in Orlando? That could be fun. You wouldn't do that. And so the only reason you're hanging on to it is, you know, to try to kind of become, like, a real estate mogul, but now you got a headache 3 hours away to deal with when there's an issue. And so we don't like the long distance landlord. 3 hours is too much. All the. All of Dave Ramsey's real estate, hundreds of properties, he can drive around in about an hour and hit them all. And so that way, he has his eyes on them. You have your eyes on him. And so for that reason. And because real estate really, when you talk about investments, should be done with cash to reduce your risk.

And so here's your plan. Pay off your current home, and if you roll that equity in the next one, pay off that home. Then when you have enough cash, you can decide with wisdom where you want to buy an investment property.

And can I pass on one more thing to you, Christian?

Yeah.

All right.

So what kind of work do you do?

I do sales for roofing company.

Okay, excellent. So I'm going to give you some old man wisdom. Is that cool?

That's all right.

All right. It hasn't happened to you yet, but you will have an employer that sits you down and says something like, I see something in you, and I'm planning on doing this. So in three years or two years or in six years, I'm going to do this, and then we're going to do this, and then this is how this is going to impact you.

Right.

And over my quarter century of work, I have gotten excited about other people's plans for me. I have spent imaginary money and had it not work out. And so what I want you to work on for the next two years is not already thinking, like, are we going to sell this? We're going to move this. I want you to work on being an amazing new husband. I want you to be the best salesman in Jacksonville. Most integrous, the hardest working. A guy that can leave work at work and show up and be present with his wife, but also when it's time to go to work. Man, nobody outworks Christianity. And then in two years, who knows? We'll have a new president. We'll have a new planet in two years. So let's deal in two years with what happens in two years, and let's work on. You've been running since you were 14. You've got dreams. You're a very special kind of young man. I want you to practice living in the present, where your feet are as well. Is that cool?

Yeah.

Congratulations, my brother. You are way ahead of the pack.

That's impressive.

All right, let's go out to Seattle, Washington, home of Pearl Jam, and talk to Gillian, where we are. All right. What's up, Gillian?

Hey, guys. It's great to be with you. Thanks.

It is great to be with you.

I wanted to start off with some awesome news. My husband and I just spent the last two years putting me through school completely debt free. So I just graduated last month. I worked full time the entire first year of the program. Brutal, like 13 hours days. But we paid off about $20,000 of payments to the school, just straight in cash. So I start my new job next week.

Hey, hold on, Gillian.

Yeah. Yeah.

The things you're saying can't be true because we hear them all the time. You can't go to school debt free.

And which trust fund did you pay for this?

You can't pay things with cash and you can't work and go to college at the same time.

Well, so I will say I got. I was very fortunate, very blessed. I had a great job with the university before starting school.

Way to go.

Partial tuition exemption.

I was being a goofball. I was just being a moron. I'm proud of you.

Those are all decisions you made.

Congratulations. Yeah, it's awesome.

Yeah. Thank you.

Okay, so how do we help out?

My new job. I start my new job next week. During that time in school, we also saved up about $30,000 so that we could pay for the last eight months when I got to kind the work study part of my program where I had to be working full time within the context of being a student. We've got about $10,000 of that left because we have penny pinched to the max for the last eight months and we've got about $7,000 in car debt. I think I know that the plan would be to pay off the car debt with that leftover money, but I'll admit that 10,000 makes me feel very safe. And it's exactly the amount of our fully like funded emergency fund. Should we pay off that car? It's a 0% loan. Or should we keep our expanded emergency fund?

You're telling me school is paid for so you have no upcoming expenses?

That's right. This is our only debt left. What is 0% car loan?

What's the car payment?

It's about 428 a month.

Okay, so let's say you that you did pay off the car today. That leaves you with 3000 and it frees up 428 and you have your income. So how quickly could we get back to 10,000? Knowing all of that, how many months?

I think aggressively. Maybe eight or nine months.

Okay, so eight months from now, we're back to where we are and we're going to be fine with 3000. How many emergencies have you had in the last year that were over $3,000?

Thankfully zero.

And you got a paid off car that's reliable and working. And if there was a car repair to be made, you could cover that. You guys have health insurance?

We will, when I start my new job, we. I'm going to be honest. We haven't had much for the last year. We've been kind of living bare bones.

So once we have all those insurance.

In place, an army vet, so he has the va.

Okay, good. So when you really think about it, a lot of this is like, but what if. And I'm going, but what if you had no payments? And how quickly could we build this back up? And what would that freedom feel like today?

Yeah.

You knew we were going to say this, Gillian.

I know, I know. I was hoping you'd agree with me.

You're just too impressive. You're too impressive to give us the 0% loan argument. Gilliande, you're too smart. You're too successful. You guys are too. I mean, too much money.

I did think that we'd be able to start paying the car more aggressively than 428 a month.

Then save. Save that aggressively.

Evens out.

Save that aggressively. Yeah, you're. Hey, look, you're, like, by this afternoon, you can be totally free.

Yeah.

Totally unchained from anyone, anything, any bank, any lender. You and your husband, totally free. And you got $3,000. Actually, you don't. You have $2,800. Because I want you all to go to a fancy restaurant tonight and celebrate. Congratulations. We're so proud of. So proud of you.

That's enough to get apps and certs. I regret that immediately.

I feel like you just spoke millennial, and I don't know what that means.

I'm gonna go away for a little bit, John.

That's probably good for everybody. This is the Ramsay show. We'll be back soon. Live from Nashville, Tennessee, this is the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Campbell. We're taking your calls on money, building wealth, the work that you do, your relationships, your mental, emotional health. Pretty much anything and everything. And if we don't have an answer for you, we will probably make one up. Give us a call at 888-25-5225 triple 8825-5225 let's go out to Helena and talk to Kerry. Hey, Kerry, what's up?

Hello.

What's going on?

So my question. My husband and I had been pretty financially sound for quite a few years due to some health issues with our kiddos and some family tragedies recently, our debt has kind of spiraled out of control. And I guess now we're kind of at rock bottom and looking for, you know, any way to get out at this point.

What happened, Kerry? Rock bottom is a pretty. That's a. That's a pretty. It's a left turn here. What happened?

Yeah.

Take a breath. Take a breath for me. Take a breath. I can hear you. Take a breath.

We sold our house about a year ago and moved into my mom's basement. Our goal at the time was to take as much that we could make off of our house to start settling debt. My younger brother also lived with us, and about a month ago, he chose to end his life, and we found him.

I'm sorry, Carrie. What was his name?

Zach.

Zach. He's a younger brother. Older brother.

Younger. He was 22.

I'm sorry, can I tell you something?

Yeah.

You're not supposed to find your 22 year mortgage, and then one is her private student loans that she had refinanced. So the mortgage is about 70,000 and the private student loans are about 140,000. So I was wondering, my question is, is it okay to go out of order with the baby steps and pay off the mortgage first and then the private student loan, or would you stay in order?I'd stick with paying off the student loans.Okay.Oh, I'd be tempted to do it the other way. How?What's your income?Um, together we make about. Well, we take home about one hundred fifty k a year.Okay. So if you guys got real focus, could you knock out these student loans in two and a half years? What are we talking as far as timeline?Yeah, I'd say about three years, if we were going to do the student loans first, and then half these student.Loans, they're made up of a bunch of loans, I assume?No.So it was refinanced to one giant loan.Oh, gosh. What is the payment on? $140,000 student loan.It's about 15, 1528 a month.What's your mortgage payment a month?1562. So it's within $40 of each other.Who?All right, George, to go with me on this, he pays the mortgage off and you guys get like, this is out of order. This is not the Ramsey steps. But you get bananas about that mortgage. And you decide, we're gonna have this done in twelve months.Okay?We're gonna work maniacally. But more importantly for you guys, we're not. We're just not gonna spend. We're gonna be silly. Then we have a house that no one can take away. This is the one. And I'm going against everything I always say, george. So tell me if I'm wrong. This would be the one time that it feels like I might gamble on some student loan forgiveness. Because I'm gonna have this house. I'm gonna keep this house no matter what. I'm gonna pay this house off. And maybe the other thing comes through. Probably not.I'll go with you on this, John. It's mainly because there's no real debt snowball to do here. You're not freeing up payments along the way.The house? Yeah.And so you'll knock that out in half the time. Free up the same amount of money. Start throwing that at the student loan debt. I think this plan works. And with your intensity, it's gonna be a wash either way. So go for it. You have my permission. It's all you need.Did we just agree?We just agreed to agree.We just agreed. Hey, thanks for joining us right here on the Ramsey show. We will be back in no time. Don't borrow money. We love y'all.Hey, folks. Dave here. You want to hear even more life changing content from Ramsey? Download the Ramsey Network app so you can catch all your favorite shows all in one place. Like the Ramsey show, smart money, happy hour, and the doctor John Deloney show. You'll get real talk about life, relationships, money, and your career. Plus, the app lets you browse by topic, like debt, business, or selling your home. Get the content you want whenever and wherever you want to listen. Download the Ramsey Network app today.

mortgage, and then one is her private student loans that she had refinanced. So the mortgage is about 70,000 and the private student loans are about 140,000. So I was wondering, my question is, is it okay to go out of order with the baby steps and pay off the mortgage first and then the private student loan, or would you stay in order?

I'd stick with paying off the student loans.

Okay.

Oh, I'd be tempted to do it the other way. How?

What's your income?

Um, together we make about. Well, we take home about one hundred fifty k a year.

Okay. So if you guys got real focus, could you knock out these student loans in two and a half years? What are we talking as far as timeline?

Yeah, I'd say about three years, if we were going to do the student loans first, and then half these student.

Loans, they're made up of a bunch of loans, I assume?

No.

So it was refinanced to one giant loan.

Oh, gosh. What is the payment on? $140,000 student loan.

It's about 15, 1528 a month.

What's your mortgage payment a month?

1562. So it's within $40 of each other.

Who?

All right, George, to go with me on this, he pays the mortgage off and you guys get like, this is out of order. This is not the Ramsey steps. But you get bananas about that mortgage. And you decide, we're gonna have this done in twelve months.

Okay?

We're gonna work maniacally. But more importantly for you guys, we're not. We're just not gonna spend. We're gonna be silly. Then we have a house that no one can take away. This is the one. And I'm going against everything I always say, george. So tell me if I'm wrong. This would be the one time that it feels like I might gamble on some student loan forgiveness. Because I'm gonna have this house. I'm gonna keep this house no matter what. I'm gonna pay this house off. And maybe the other thing comes through. Probably not.

I'll go with you on this, John. It's mainly because there's no real debt snowball to do here. You're not freeing up payments along the way.

The house? Yeah.

And so you'll knock that out in half the time. Free up the same amount of money. Start throwing that at the student loan debt. I think this plan works. And with your intensity, it's gonna be a wash either way. So go for it. You have my permission. It's all you need.

Did we just agree?

We just agreed to agree.

We just agreed. Hey, thanks for joining us right here on the Ramsey show. We will be back in no time. Don't borrow money. We love y'all.

Hey, folks. Dave here. You want to hear even more life changing content from Ramsey? Download the Ramsey Network app so you can catch all your favorite shows all in one place. Like the Ramsey show, smart money, happy hour, and the doctor John Deloney show. You'll get real talk about life, relationships, money, and your career. Plus, the app lets you browse by topic, like debt, business, or selling your home. Get the content you want whenever and wherever you want to listen. Download the Ramsey Network app today.