From the Ramsey Network, this is the Ramsey Show. I am John Deloney, joined by George Camel. And we are taking your calls on money and life and work and relationships, mental health, whatever you got going on in your life. We're here to help. 888-25-5225 show is live. 888-25-5225 give us a buzz. Let's go out to Washington, DC and talk to Lucy in the sky with diamonds. Hey, Lucy, what's up?

Hi. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Of course.

What's going on?

I can hear you. Great.

Perfect. Hey. So me and my husband, we've been going through the baby steps now for about, gosh, six months. We're on baby step number three. We're doing a really cool job. We're so excited. We're about halfway through our emergency savings and building it up. And just today we've learned one of our vehicles, which is a 2011 Lexus, we've had it for six or seven years. It's been great. We bought it used. It's got a very expensive repair all of a sudden. And we are like, gosh, should we pay the $4,300 bill to fix it, or is it worth it at this point to try to sell it and then go buy another, you know, cheap car? We're just like, not sure where's the break point, you know? When should you keep repairing a used car versus switch to another used car?

Well, as a general rule, if the repair costs are more than the value of the car, you should probably replace the car. Now, that doesn't always ring true, because if the repair is a thousand, the car's worth a thousand. You might want to just do the thousand repairs because it's going to be hard to find a car that you can get for $2,000. So what is this car worth right now?

Well, like I said, it's a 2011 Lexus 250 hybrid. So it's a hybrid. And I think the last time we checked, it's worth about $8,000 or $9,000.

And that's if the repair was done.

Well, yeah, if we try to sell it as is right before this happened, yeah, we could sell right, you know, for eight to 9000 now that all these lights are on.

What they say is wrong with it. What's wrong with it?

Well, here's the interesting part. About one week ago, we replaced the brakes and the brake pads and rotors. We spent $1,000 just one week ago at the dealer to fix that. And less than a week later, all these lights are coming on. And so my husband said that the dealer said, hey, it's the brake rotor circuitry or something.

The rolling rotor. Just making it.

It's the blinker fluid. It's what that'll get you.

Have you. Have you gotten a second opinion on this?

Not yet.

Go get a second opinion from an unbiased non dealer.

And don't tell them what? Don't tell them anything about this first one. Just roll in and say, hey, we're getting some lights. What's this going to cost? Repair.

Okay.

And if you get one or two more opinions and it's still all around four grand, I would probably replace this. You guys have the money to do it, right?

Well, yeah, I don't have a full three. We're trying to get up to three to six months. Right now. We're at about one and a half.

But do you have the money? Do you have 40? Do you have four grand?

Yes, I do.

Okay. I would probably just make the repair versus going out and buying a new car.

Really?

That's what I would do. No question about it. Yeah.

And the car has 150,000 miles.

It's a Lexus. It is not even halfway home, honey. It's just getting going. You know? You don't like it. You don't like it. Oh, you do like it.

We love the car.

Yeah.

My husband is the one. He's the one that thinks, well, we should sell the car. We should have done this a year or two ago and switched it, you know, moved up. You know, he likes used cars, but just not when they get really high mileage. Like what y'all.

You know, high mileage is such a relative word, you know, depending on the make of the car and the type. And that Lexus can go 300,000 miles if you take care of it.

What about the hybrid and the battery? That's the other thing he's concerned about. He's like, hey, we're going to drop 4000 right now, and then in another year, we're going to replace a hybrid battery. And I don't know how he has.

A ball that can tell you the future, but that's amazing.

Tell him to get off the news apps. He has to stop watching the news apps. Both my cars are hybrid. Dude. It's a good car. It's a great car. If you were here, I would buy it from you at a comically discounted rate and go get it fixed and have an awesome car. It's a great vehicle.

I want to tell you, we bought it on Craigslist from private party, and it was exactly what you all said. We bought it six or seven years ago, and we've had no issues with it till now. So we're literally just like, get a.

Few opinions, take the most reputable mechanic who's giving you the best deal, get it done, and then later on, if you just hate it, you can go sell it for nine grand and use some more cash and upgrade.

And, George, I think there's clearly something sketchy here. Like, you don't have a. It doesn't work perfectly, and then somebody repairs something, and then everything lights up like a Christmas tree on the dashboard. Something's going on. So take it to somebody else and have them look at it. Right.

I always get, you know, two or three estimates. I trust issues.

I don't have that kind of time. Yeah, yeah, but I'll. I'll get one.

John just has a good dude in his life who would just be honest with him.

That is true. That's. Yeah, that's really important. Let's run out to Maggie in Charleston. Hey, Maggie, what's up?

Hey, guys. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Of course. Hey, we're up against the clock, so swan dive into it. What's going on?

Yep. So my company offers a sep IRA, and they pay additional 15% on top of my paycheck each month. Can I count baby step number four as complete, or should I be putting in additional money?

You're saying they put in 15% of their own money? It's not your income.

Correct.

Okay. So we would. We would consider this similar to a match where we need you to put in 15% of your income. And there's a few. There's a few reasons for that. It's the same reason why we don't count the match. When you put in 15% of your income, you start to build this amazing savings and investing muscle. And regardless of where you go and what job is next, and if you stay and if they change the rules and what they decide to do, you know how to live on 85% of your income. And so that's the key here. If you have too much money in retirement, please call us back and yell at us. I will be happy to take the blame for that.

I'll give you my personal address, and you can just. You can just. I'll take a regular check. You can just send it.

So should I do the ten additional 10% into a sep, since I can only do 25% max, or should I do 15% into a different type of IRA.

Yeah. I would do the max that you can through that because it's a tax advantaged account. And then you could open up your own IRA outside of your retirement account through your employer and continue there.

Okay. All right. That makes sense.

To finish out your 15%. Absolutely.

Hey, Maggie?

Yeah?

Are you like me? Have you already done the math on the things you'll buy since you didn't have the 15%?

A little bit, yeah.

Okay. So here's. Here's what can be frustrating. You're gonna get off this call and feel like you just lost something. And I want you to feel that and then know that that's not true.

Okay.

You know what I mean? Like, if my boss says, hey, today you're getting a raise, it's gonna be amazing. Well, in my head, it's gonna be $100,000. And if he comes in at ten grand, that's an amazing raise. But I feel like he took $90,000 from me.

Right.

So you've already spent that extra 15% and you're already holding that new car or guitar, whatever it is you're going to buy. And so feel that it's totally real, but it's not true.

And go use our investment calculator, Maggie, and go see what 30% going into that Sep Ira will do for you. You sound young. You've got a lot of life ahead. I hope you call back in the baby steps millionaire theme hour and tell us all about your story.

It's going to be amazing. Hey, Maggie. Thank you for the call. Triple 8825-5225 this is the Ramsey show. We'll be right back.

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This is the Ramsey show, and it's a memorial day. $10 flash sale. Not flash like some of our colleagues do around the office, but flash sale is that. I shouldn't have done that. James. Sorry. I can always see when James, the producer just puts his head down and is like, what am I doing with my life?

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Hey, doctor John, how are you?

Pardon? Dude, what are you up to?

I'm just sitting here. Okay. So I called in. I have a special needs sibling and our parents sort of set up like, kind of like their future, a little bit like my sibling's future, and. But they haven't really done anything as far as like getting them the help that they need or securing like a really like a future for them.

So what have they done? I'm confused.

They, um. So one of our parents, like our father has like no life insurance. He doesn't have, he, I think he has like 550 thousand in retirement. He keeps talking about buying a house. He's in his seventies, like 5 hours away. And it's.

So he's broke and has no way to help and help set up his child.

Right. Well, he's actually not like he has a really good pension and then he gets like Medicare, Medicaid, the senior one. But he, he just is totally disinterested in maybe helping us find a home.

Or when you say us, is this you and you and your sibling and my sibling.

Correct.

So you are now the full time caretaker?

Not yet, but I'm just kind of like preparing, I guess.

You kind of know this is coming because no one else cares as much as you do.

I think so. Maybe that's it.

All right, Grace. So I recently ended up with a whole bunch of stuff going on at the same time. Like a bunch of house stuff, a bunch of kids stuff, like setting up stuff with my wife, like attorney stuff, work stuff. Like, it all was just chaotic and it wasn't literally. I was walking through an airport and I said to myself, why don't you take your own advice, John? And I was like, that sounds like a good idea. And usually it's not a good idea, but this time it was. And here's what I did. I just sat down and I pulled out a yellow pad that I had in my backpack and I started writing down what I know to be true and the things I don't know about. And then the things I know to be untrue. Three different columns. Because I can hear it in you. You have a lot of frustration, a lot of anger, a lot of. I think so. And a lot of suppositions. And now you're starting to worry about imaginary futures that haven't even happened yet, aren't confirmed yet. You just don't know. Is that fair?

Oh, absolutely.

Okay. So the, the path through this chaos that you happen to be in right now, you're trying to solve problems that may or may not even be problems yet. And that helps you avoid the actual problems. So, for instance, you're already doing math problems in your head about, um, how you are going to pay and support your special needs brother. Why? Because you're a freaking amazing sister. And, um, you're avoiding the conversation. Sitting down with your dad saying, what is the status of your financial situation, period? Are you not going to help your son? Or are you see what I'm saying?

No, but we. So we have tried to, like, we've, like, literally cornered him. Like, we've had to corner him, okay? Like, he, he did a DNR, but only because we had a family friend who we literally, like, sat our dad in a corner and we were like, you need to get this done. Like, I don't know what to do in the event something happened. Like. And he refuses to outright talk about it.

Okay, so listen, every minute you bang your head against that wall, you're choosing misery. At this point. Listen, it'd be hard to hear. Your dad cashed out. He quit. He will not do the thing that he is supposed to do. It's just to honor and take care of his kids and be honest about his upcoming passing away as he gets older. And the realities of caring for a special needs kid, he is cashed out. He quit. So all the banging your head and hand wringing is you choosing to be miserable instead of, okay, what are we going to do now? And I know that sucks. I hate that for you. Where's your mom in this picture?

Um, sort of also checked out. I mean, she, um. It's kind of a complicated situation, so she has like, sort of a, like a trust set up for my sibling and then a rental, like a rental property. But she's always like, oh, I think I'm going to sell it. I'm going to have to sell it if this. And this happens and you can't rely on it, which I never did. But her life insurance, she has to. The way that she explained it, she has to pass away before the age of 82 in order for it to cash out. So she lives beyond 82. Like, she gets, like, nothing.

How old is she now?

She is in her sixties.

Okay, so what is she doing now between now and then? To actually build her own nest egg to where she's self insured?

I honestly, she, like, she doesn't like to talk about it either, so it's. I just, like, I, like you said, I feel like I'm just banging my head against the wall trying to get.

Answers out of anybody.

You are just trying to get.

Stop, stop.

Is your. Does your brother have Social Security?

No.

How come? Have you all filed for that yet?

That was never set up either.

Okay, then I want you to take responsibility for that. Do you have custody of him?

No.

Okay. I want you to pursue that with your parents. Let your parents know. I'm going to pursue custody with my sibling. Well, let me ask you this. Is he on a, does he need custody?

No, it's. It's more like a. I don't want to get, like, too specific, but it's like a learning disorder.

Okay, so does he have a job? Can he live by himself?

No. No.

Okay, but you think he's eligible for SSi at this point?

Correct.

Okay, then go sit down with. Make a phone call or two phone calls and sit down. Whether it's an attorney or whether it's a Social Security office, attorney's gonna be a faster route, but that's gonna cost money, and they're gonna explain things better because they're not a government agency. And you can walk through and get the path. What's my path forward here? And we can go down that road. And if you do this independent and there's no chance that mom and dad can come up and take some of that money, which happens with some regularity, then you have to be honest, not by your hand, but in your lap. You have to be honest about the situation. You have found yourself, and it's heartbreaking. I would hug you if you were sitting here and you said it was okay.

Thanks.

Because you're a sister who sees her special needs brother and you're going to be taking care of her. And both of your parents have cashed out and it sounds like they even have the means financially and they are choosing to walk away. And so you have to live in that picture. So what's that going to mean for how you earn and how you save and how your dream of a huge house might be a dream of an apartment and like all those things are going to change and you're going to have to live in that reality.

Yeah, I think I'm trying to still come to grips with that.

I know it's heartbreaking.

How are you doing financially?

I think this is just so stressful that I, I am trying to find an outlet in other ways, just like drawing and doing a couple other things. But I've managed to save roughly like 4000 in my money market account.

Amazing. Do you have any debt?

Yeah, I have a, between a student loan and I have a year left on my car. Roughly like 28,000.

What's your income?

45.

I would sell that car.

Yeah. So, Grace, here's what we're going to do.

Freedom and space and margin. Right now.

I'm going to hook you up with a few things. We're going to send you financial peace university. And I want you to go through those classes, online classes. I'm also going to set you up with a free financial coaching session with one of our financial coaches. And I'm going to pay for it. And I'm going to send you building a non anxious life. And I want you to read that book and begin to craft your world around it. You need, like George said, you need margin and you need peace. You gotta stop banging your head against the wall. We'll be right back.

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Budget.

That's chministries.org budget.

What up? What up? We are back. I'm John Deloney joined by George Campbell and we're taking your calls on your money and your work and your life and your relationships. Triple. 8825-5225 GK. So here's what sells in America. End of times. Here's what sells in America. Blood, guts. It's all coming down, right?

To be fair, that's the more exciting version. Then everything's fine. Nothing to see here.

Correct.

So movie would you rather watch?

That's true. That's it. That's right. And since our news is now movies, it's entertainment. It's not actual information anymore. Everybody's walking around. Everybody I talk to, everybody meet is walking around just waiting for the earth to swallow them up if the flat earth doesn't fold and smush them in the process. Right. Or Bigfoot doesn't come out. So we have this. James, a producer during the break, brought us this quiz. And this is a quiz about how many Americans are wrong about key economic trends. All right, so if you're listening to.

This, we're going to let everyone take the quiz.

Take the quiz.

Here we go.

Question number one. Is the US in a recession? Yes or no?

And this is not a feeling. This is actually. Is it based on the definition of a recession?

Number two, how has this S and P 500 index, the stock market, performed in 2024? Stocks are up. The market is down. The market is flat. It's unchanged. How does the current. Number three, how does the current unemployment rate compare with prior periods? The unemployment rate is now near a 50 year low. It's. The unemployment rate is near a 50 year high. The unemployment rate still hasn't recovered from the pandemic. And the last question, is inflation increasing or decreasing? Here's the answer to these questions. Number one, George, you give us the answers. Is the US in a recession?

The correct answer is no.

But George, I feel like it is.

Well, about 56% of those polled said that we are currently experiencing a recession. So it's based on just, I guess, their feelings about what a recession is.

As the GDP has been growing, says the article, fueled partly by strong consumer spending at rates that have exceeded economist expectations. The US economy is not in a recession. That's math. How has this S and P 500 index performed in 2024? Stocks are up. The stock market is just coming down. Or it's unchanged.

Correct answer is a. It is up for the year it has climbed 11%. And yet about half of people polled said the stock market is down. Again, based on, I guess, feelings and headlines and seeing red triangles pointing down.

Right. And their Facebook account that has the one guy in the trunk of his car. Like, I know what's really going on. Out there, America.

Or it's the guy been like, you need to buy gold. Sell all your stocks.

Sell them in.

Crash.

All going down.

Yeah. Nope. Stock market is up. In fact, the S and P 500, which represents the overall stock market, has hit multiple record highs already in 2024. Hmm.

You wash your mouth? That was soap. George. Cam. True. It's all coming down. All right, number three, how does the current unemployment rate compare with prior periods?

Correct answer. It's at a near 50 year low, which, if you're confused, that's a good thing. The jobless rate stood at 3.9% in April, which was a near 50 year low. And yet about half of those polled said it's near 50 year high. Getting very good. Who are they polling the.

The other half watching whatever aisle. Right? Exactly. Yes. News watchers, last question. Is inflation increasing or decreasing? Very truthful. Inflation has been gnarly the last few years. It's been tough. It's been tough all across the, all across the board here. Right. Is inflation rising, falling, or staying static?

Correct answer is b. It is falling. And in fact, it's been declining since reaching a peak of 9.1 in June of 22. Most recent CPI rating inflation was at 3.4%.

So about seven in ten responded believe 70% of people think inflation is still rising.

So here's the confusing part. The rate at which prices are changing is falling. So that doesn't necessarily mean that prices are going to be coming down. It just means they're not moving higher at the rate they were.

Okay, so things are still getting more expensive. Delineation, things are still getting more expensive. But instead of going to, every, every time you go to the supermarket, like every week, milk is going up a quarter every time. Now it's only going up a dime.

Yes, that's the concept there. So nothing to freak out about.

Well, here's the one. Let me ask one, one freak out question. The question about consumer spending. Where's that money coming from? Are we borrowing that? So are we kind of duct taping over a recession?

That's my big economic theory. Everyone's like, we need to stop. And the feds keeps messing this up. I'm like, you all keep messing this up, America. The Fed's like, hey, can we all, can we get everyone to stop spending? Let's increase the interest rates. And people go, nah, I'll buy a $60,000 truck at 13% APR, it's fine. So we've just gotten so used to spending with other people's money that we just go, eh, we'll worry about, this is a problem for future John.

This is, this is a problem for future George.

So we keep spending at record rates even though credit card, uh, debt is at an all time high of 1.1 plus trillion dollars with 22% APR average. It hurts my brain that we have not slowed down because we're so addicted to spending and borrowing other people's money.

And it's, it's as though the Fed has been trying to crash that stop spending. And we're like, nope. They're like, all right, we're going to raise the rates. And we're like, hold my beer. I'll spend more. And they're like, we're going to raise them even higher. Yeah, we'll still, we'll still keep and.

America's like, I'll take the challenge. See how much debt we can get into, baby.

I accept fans.

Goodness.

And it looks like the Fed now is like, whatever, dude.

Well, thanks for some good news there, John. It's not as bad news. Well, the good news, well, the bad news is people are relying on feelings instead of just facts about what's going on. And they're letting the news direct their emotions and their spending versus looking at facts going, you know what? How's my house doing?

How's my, that's, that's the question. If I could tell anybody one thing, ask, how is your house doing? How's your marriage doing? How's your kids doing? How are your finances doing? If everybody would go home and look in the mirror and ask that question and begin to solve that problem, ta da.

It's amazing how many people think the world's political problems are theirs to solve, and yet the stuff going on in their house, like, well, I can't fix my marriage, John.

Yeah.

Can't get out of debt.

I can't clean my house until my neighbor cleans up their yard.

But let me tell you my geopolitical opinions on Facebook, because I think this is gonna be the take that solves all of this.

Geez. All right, let's go out to Dallas, Texas, and talk to the mighty Paul. Hey, Paul. What's up, man?

Hey, how's it going?

We're figuring out life, dude. What's up?

I feel that. So I just finished my first year of college. I'm fully, fully dependent on my parents, live at home, don't have a car payment, don't have a car, dog insurance, anything like that. As far as debt's concerned, I got two FAFSA loans for 5.5 each pay for college and then 2700 for my parents with no interest as long as I pay it back after I graduate. So I'm working 22 and a half hours a week at $20 an hour. And I have an internship for 14 to 21 hours a week, unpaid. This is my first time now after the semester, money really felt real after signing off the check for college. And so I decided I wanted to make a budget, and this isn't my first time doing that. So given the position I'm in, I need about three to semester for this upcoming year. What percentage should I be putting into saving versus spending versus investing at this point in my life?

Robert, at this point in your life, you would be where we call baby step two. Do you have $1,000 in the bank?

No, I have about 600 right now. I get about 1300 a month.

Rewind. You're in, baby step one. You're trying to save up $1,000. Can you do that next paycheck?

Yeah.

Good. That will then put you in baby step two, where you pay off all of your consumer debt. So the key right now as a college student is to stop the bleeding, not go into any more debt, and end up graduating completely debt free with money in the bank. Which means, Paul, you didn't hear anything about investing in there or anything about saving. And so the key right now is to stop the bleeding. I don't want you investing 15% and being like, yeah, I funded an IRA. While you continue to rack up debt at 6% interest.

Right?

So, like, you hear what George said, don't save past $1,000 because you just. You're already 1112 in the hole.

Right?

You have a negative number going backwards.

And by the way, some of that money is owed to the government, and some of that's to your mommy and daddy. Those are two p. Two entities I do not want to owe money to.

Yeah.

As you create your budget, all of the margin needs to go to paying off debt and funding the next semester. And if you need to fund the next semester, I'd rather you not go into any more debt before you pay any off.

That also means you might have to take a break from school because you can't afford afford it. Not saying you have to, but pay cash. Pay cash.

You make 1800 bucks a month. Let's put that to good use while you have no bills.

This is the Ramsey show.

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Dot this is a paid advertisement in mls. Id 1591 nmlsconsumeraccess.org equal housing lender 1749 Mallory Lane Suite 100 Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 welcome back to the Ramsey show. I'm John deloney, joined by george Kimmel. George, there are two amazing people out in the audience out there.

That's true. And I claim them. They are my parents, Max and may campbell. You've heard about them, and they're visiting mostly to see their grandbaby, which is fair, but it's an honor to have them up front. My mom is a faithful watcher on the big screen, and she tells me she'll text me and go, you need to smile more. I'm like, mom, I'm taking a sad call. I don't. It looks weird if I smile, but I love them dearly. I owe my whole life to them, both literally and figuratively, with who I am today.

Literally.

Shout out to the parents for sitting around for 3 hours and watching your son do this. Who's more critical, me or your mom? Definitely my mom doesn't hurt my feelings as much. You are more hurtful. I will say that.

There's no comparison, James. You are infinitely harder on my psyche than my mom is. But George, your mom is beautiful. Your dad is devastatingly handsome.

Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. I get all my good looks from them.

That's fantastic. Hey, if you're listening to the show or you're listening to that last segment we did about the state of the economy, and you're just frustrated because everybody seems to be acting the fool. You can help by doing something as simple as subscribing, leaving a five star review, sharing the show with a friend. It just kicks the show up and the algorithms doesn't cost you any money, takes 10 seconds, and it puts the show in front of more people so that more people can go, yeah, you know what? I'm gonna take control of my house. I'm gonna stop complaining about my neighborhood and about some government people who could care less about me. They absolutely don't care about me. They care about their own power and their own drama. I'm gonna start taking control of my house. And the more that we can kick this show up in the different algorithms, the better off we're all gonna be. So subscribe, leave, review, share with a friend, all the Internet y things, and just know we're super grateful for you. Let's roll out to Nicole and go to Little Rock, Arkansas. Hey, Nicole.

Hi. Happy Friday.

And also with you.

Thank you. I am 27, and my best friend and I just started planning a trip last night to see our friends in Seattle, and the trip will be around $1,000. But while we were planning last night, she casually dropped in that she has $8,000 in credit card debt. And I'm having trouble because I don't want to insert myself into her finances. But also, I think going on this trip would be enabling her to send into debt. And my immediate reaction is to cancel the trip and maybe, like, fly our friend down instead. But my question is, should I sit her down and tell her that I don't think the trip is a good idea, or should I stay out of it and keep planning with this trip?

Whew. I have an instant gut response. George, what do you think?

My gut is? We can't control people. And you're. You're attempting to do that by canceling the trip. I assume she's not gonna go by herself, right?

Maybe not. I don't know.

But we can also maybe assume she's gonna go spend this money elsewhere and go into debt, and we also can't control that. So do I think you're a bad person if you go on this trip and you do it debt free and you live your life? No. How she chooses to live her life and how she chooses to pay is her business. You're not dragging her on this vacation, right, right.

I'm. I'm. I'm very similar. Here's my thoughts on it. Like, if. If you have a moral conviction about this trip, for instance, when we get there, we're going to, um, go find a bunch of, um, elderly folks and steal from them, or we're going to go get hammered and then do a bunch of drugs and, like, I don't want to participate in that. Right. If you have a moral conviction. I do not associate with people who borrow money. I don't go to dinners where people are borrowing, putting money on dinner, on credit card. I don't. I don't participate. Then cool. I really would be wary about walking around being the moral police with everybody. I have tons of friends. I'm the only friend in my little gang that doesn't use credit card points no matter how. And they make fun of me for my arguments. Or they say, actually, arguments are pretty good, but I'm still going to do it anyway. I am one of just a few friends that writes a check. I mean, that drives old cars and writes a check for them. Right. Until they invite me into that conversation. Then I just don't answer questions that I'm not asked.

If you feel like I'm watching my friend drown, then I think you have an obligation to say, hey, you just said you have eight grand in debt. Is this a smart trip for you? I'm not judging. I just want to make sure you're okay because I love you. Maybe that's the question, but I think you have to ask yourself, am I a person who never associates with somebody who borrows money? You're not gonna have a lot of friends, but you can roll that way if you wish. You get to pick your own values. They just always come with a cost. Or are you trying to be this person's mother? Right. What do you think it is?

I'm not sure.

What would your friend's reaction be? Let's say you addressed it in the most polite, sweet, friendly way possible, without condemning or shaming, what do you think her reaction would be?

I think she would be embarrassed. I think she knows.

She would get defensive, I'm guessing.

Yeah.

Which is going to cause a rift in your relationship with her. And it's going to make things awkward. It's going to make the trip awkward if you still go. Cause she's going to know in the back of her mind that you're judging everything she swipes that card for on that trip. And for that reason, I don't think this is going to be a fun trip.

Yeah. Or the other side. You sit down and you say, all right, here's the deal. I love you. I had a great last couple of months. You owe eight grand. I. I'm willing. We don't have to. I'm. I'm all excited to go on this trip. I'm willing to fly our friend down here. No one will ever know. We're going to fly him down. You and I are going to fly her down, and we're going to do the. The party here. I just want you to know that option is on the table in case she feels quietly pressured to do this.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

And by the way, if that's not. If this is a friend that can't hear that conversation, this is going to be a miserable trip anyway, because this friend and you are not that close. Like the other day, Will, he's a sound engineer in here. We went to dinner. He showed up with a ton of drugs. And I was like, will, like, that's a lot of drugs. And he was like, you're right. And so he just halved his drug intake for the night. I'm just kidding. Will's, like, the greatest guy ever. He doesn't do drugs. But you see what I'm saying? Like, a true friend can hear one of their other friends being concerned about.

Him, and they can tell the difference between love and criticism, and they can.

Tell the difference between love and judgment. And that's what I want you to be. Careful. You're not better than your friend. You don't have any debt. See the difference, right? Okay. We threw a lot at you. What are you gonna do now? I'm kind of invested in this, like, an episode. Yeah.

Where are they now?

I'm gonna sit on this, but I.

Think get her on a three way call. Let's go.

Call her. You're gonna call her right now? Let's call her.

That would be so cool.

You just playing. I don't. Do we have the ability to do that?

Yeah, we could do that.

All right.

So does she know she's gonna be on air? I'd be so nervous. I was there. Like, you put me on the Ramsay show without telling.

Right now. I'd like to do this in person. Like, I think it's a good idea to say, I just want to, like, give you this option, because I know now that you are in $8,000 in credit card debt, I don't know if I'll, like, actually say, I know that you're an $8,000.

Well, just say, hey, I know this trip is expensive. It's costing me $1,000. That feels like a lot. On top of, you know.

I know.

Like, you want to get out of this credit card debt. This is not going to help. What if we did the trip here and we flew our friend down?

Yeah.

And you just kind of posit it as a hypothetical, you know, a question instead of a statement. That might help.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good idea.

All right, well, hey, best of luck to you, everybody listening out there. When you join the baby steps path, or when you decide to start healing your marriage, or you decide to start losing weight, start an exercise program, whatever. Whatever thing you got going on in your life, it's real easy to begin to look around and start judging folks and to start throwing grenades at people like, I can't believe, man. Hey, that's an exhausting, unhelpful way to live. But when you walk into a room, George, or you walk into your office, you walk into the mall, you walk into wherever, and you're just judging everybody. They don't know you're doing it. You're just choosing to have a more miserable day. And on the other side, if you have some firm values and you love and care about somebody and you see a truck coming right at them, you have an obligation to push him out of the way. And if this is one of those situations where I, in good conscience, can't let you dig a deeper hole to run around and be silly on a vacation together, let's figure out another path. I think that your friend, the person you love, is worth that conversation.

I found that I never increased my judgment and also increase my joy. The two cannot coexist.

You should tweet that.

That's a good tweet. If I use Twitter, I would, John, but thank you. This is a hard conversation. It's not easy. It's a great reminder for those that do follow the baby steps. Tread lightly. I don't talk about money with my friends unless they want to ask me.

That's right.

That's it. And I talk about this stuff all day long. That's right.

Well, hey, thanks, America. We will be right back. This is the Ramsey show, live from Ramsey Network, this is the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Campbell. We are taking your calls on money, relationships, mental health, emotional health, your work, whatever you got going on. We have some ideas or some opinions, and some of them are better than others. If you want to be on the show, give me a buzz at triple 8825-5225 that's triple 8825-5225 let's roll out to Chicago and talk to Chris. Hey, Chris, what's up?

Hey, what's going on, guys?

Nothing much, man. What are you.

Talking.

You guys can help solve a little hot button debate in my house. My wife and I have been working. My wife and I have been working the baby steps for about the past year, and we're just about done. So her mother gifted her, was offering to pay off her student loan for the past couple years. We are about to pay off our last credit card, and I'm wondering if we should also pay off her student loan or let her mother keep paying it.

Has her mom paid it yet?

No. She's been making payments, some smaller, some larger.

Pay it off right now. No, pay it off?

Yeah. Okay.

You have the money to do it?

Not exactly, but we've been throwing pretty large chunks at our debt for a while, so it wouldn't take us more than, like, an extra month.

Okay, so one month from now, you've cleared your own debt versus mom pitching in. What was the agreement with mom pitching in? Was this just, like a gift? She said, hey, I'd love to help you guys out. This is a gift. Don't worry about it. What was the spirit of it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it was a gift. It was a gift before we were married, and then after we got married and started working the baby steps, you know what? She kind of was like, oh, we'll let my mom pay it. And we kept working at ours. But as we've gotten further into it, I just kind of feel like it's in her name. We should just take care of it.

And be done with it.

Yes. And there's going to be some drama in your house. I can tell by this question.

Why is it a hot button issue?

What does your wife want to, Chris? Tell me if I'm wrong, George. Because it's, mom made a commitment that may be harder to keep, or she wants to do it at her pace. And when they go knock it out, they're basically saying, we don't want your money. We don't need your money. And that can often leave people feeling untethered, like, what purpose do I have? Or what role do I have? Or, oh, you're just gonna go do it over my head, that kind of thing. Am I right, Chris?

Yeah.

My wife doesn't want to take away the gift. You know, she doesn't want to take away that charity.

Her mom's giving us what is left? What is the amount that her mom would have paid?

Like, we have, like, four grand, 4300 some odd on it.

Okay. And she was making, you know, the payment plus a little bit.

Yeah, like, $200. She gave us $500 this month. But, I mean, we've been chucking so much of debt, we're almost clear and free now, so it'd be pretty easy for us to.

I'm trying to figure out a way where you both win. You guys pay this off now, you save a bunch of interest, and you talk to mom and say, hey, thank you so much. Like, you were an integral part of us becoming debt free. Thank you for this beautiful gift. If you still want to continue and give the rest, we have other financial goals. Here's other ways you can do it.

Maybe put it to 529 for a future grandbaby. Yeah.

Or, hey, I'm going to. I'm going to cover a vacation to celebrate you guys becoming debt free. You know, it doesn't have to be this, like, wire transfer transactional thing. It can be a celebratory, fun thing. It can be a legacy thing where, hey, fund the 529 for the kids. That's plenty gift. Or don't worry about it. And I don't know, her personality, and she may not take it well, but that's not on you, how she reacts.

But the way George has teed this up, Chris, is. I think he's right on. Sit down and say because you were so generous with us, it allowed us to accelerate through all this other stuff, and we ended up way ahead of where we thought we were going to be at this time, and we were able to knock it all out.

Yeah, that's awesome.

But I think letting her know none of this happens without you on the front end, and you leave the ball.

In her court to decide what's next.

That's right. Then she gets to pick what's next.

She gets to choose her version of generosity.

I love that. I love that. All right, let's roll out to Josh in San Juan, Puerto Rico. What's up, Josh? Hello.

Hi.

Yes. What's up, man?

Okay, so I'm 35. I don't have any debt, and I'm looking at buying my first house out here in Puerto Rico. I just moved here on Monday for tech purposes. And the house that I'm looking at, I really like it. It's 675. So I'm just kind of wondering if I should basically put a large down on it, which is pretty much my entire savings, or if maybe the house is a little bit out of my budget. I'm not sure.

Now, when you put this down payment, let's say you left three months of expenses for your emergency fund, and the rest you put down, would the mortgage payment then be 25% of your take home payment?

It would be more than 25%.

Then the home is out of your budget. And this has nothing to do with what you have in savings or not. You just need to either adjust your expectations, find a cheaper home, or you continue. You rent, you continue to save until you can make that work where it's 25% of your take home pay on a 15 year. Otherwise, you're biting off more than you can chew.

Got it. There is. There is a va. So I have. I do have access to a VA home. Loan, which might be better, not a blessing.

I think you're right. Here's why.

Yeah.

The VA loan is just gonna allow you to put less down, which means more mortgage, which will still give you a massive payment. So let.

Let.

Let you get into this house. It's still gonna be a curse. Cause it's gonna be 50, 60% of your take home pay. And all of a sudden, this wonderful life you had tried to build in Puerto Rico is now kind of a nightmare because you're now just working to pay the bills again.

Got it? Got it. Yeah. Yeah, you're totally right. I kind of knew it was a little bit too much, but I just really liked the house.

I was kind of like, I bet.

It'S a beautiful house.

Yeah.

But right now, you might just need to go. I got to get a condo that's 350 grand.

Or just rent.

Or just rent for a year. Yeah, but do not deplete your whole sale.

Josh, are you from Puerto Rico?

I'm from Florida. I'm from Tampa area, but I just moved out here because I have an online company and I can essentially avoid taxes if I have a permanent residence here. And I moved my entity out here.

Okay. You, um. You're moving there for freedom, though, right?

Yes.

All right. I want you to practice that for a year. Rent a house, okay. Because you've. You've made this big, huge move. You watched. You clearly have watched a ton of Instagram reels about dudes, like, moving their businesses. That's awesome.

Yeah.

But I want you to actually live it because, okay. Many of us here in the states, I don't mind paying the taxes that I pay for my roads and police officers and fuck, I don't mind it. You know I'm saying.

Mm hmm.

Now, if it gets bananas, then, yeah, we'll. We'll have to. Let me say this way, I don't like it, and I don't know that anybody loves it, but I prefer living where I live more than the savings I would have to not pay them. Does that make sense? And so you have a good idea. It's going to save you some money, but it's going to cost you a lot, too. And so just play it slow, man. And if you love Puerto Rico, if that's your style, if that's your move, you don't miss your family, you don't miss your friends, you don't miss any of the mainland drama. Well, good for you, man. Then save up and buy a house.

What's your income, Josh?

So it can fluctuate depending on how business is doing. But yearly take home after taxes, it's anywhere from 200 on the low end, it can be 300. It could be 300 or so.

Incredible. Which tells me if you can live on way less than you make and shove away 75% of your take home pay, you're going to have an amazing house in no time with that amazing income. So this is just a patience game. You're 35, you're doing amazingly well, and everyone is jealous listening right now, but just move slow. Don't bite off more than you can chew, and never do anything for tax purposes. That shouldn't be your one strategy. That might be a byproduct because of your choice, but I don't let that steer my decisions.

And everybody. When you move to a new town, you move to a new territory. Wherever you're going, it never hurts to rent. You get the lay of the land, and then you figure out where you want to live, how you want to live, and then you go from there. We'll be right back. This is the Ramsey show.

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Welcome back to the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Campbell, taking your calls on money and life. Triple 8825-5225 let's go out to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and talk to Alexis. Hey, Alexis, what's up?

Hey, how are you?

We're so good. How are you?

I'm good. So I had a question about some random credit hit on my husband's credit. So we were at a truck dealership about to finance him a truck, and I came back and basically declined it and said that there.

Alexis, you're breaking up. Speak directly on your phone.

There you go. Okay, so the last we heard, so.

You'Re finance a truck. They declined it because of something on his credit report. Continue.

Yes. So basically, he's never financed anything. He's never had a credit card, anything. We never got a phone call, a letter in the mail, an email, nothing about $600 he owes that's on his credit. So I was curious, like, could that be.

Could it be what now?

Could it be a scam?

It not a scam, but it could be fraud. Either it's inaccurate and it's just a clerical error, or there was some fraud where someone used his name, his Social Security number, what have you, to create a credit account and racked up $600 and never paid it.

But here's. And Alexis, I haven't tried to finance anything other than a house for ages. And so I may be off here, but I remember coming out of college, one of my roommates, we all shared a house, was supposed to make the final payments on like a phone bill or on a cable bill or something, and that ended up on my credit. And it. It kept. It kept getting brought up for years. But here's the catch. Or maybe it was like we had a cable box. Remember those, back in the day? Or some. We didn't return the cable box and the cord, so they billed us for whatever. So it could be any number of things. But here's the bigger issue. It never prohibited me from being stupid with money and getting a credit card or buying a financing a car. This. There's something else going on for $600.

Okay.

Have you all pulled your credit report on your own and looked at it?

We have not.

Okay.

We were kind of just trying to.

Well, your first step is to get actual reports. So you can go to annualcreditreport.com and you can pull them for free from all three credit bureaus. So get all three, take a look at them, make sure there's no errors. If there are any errors, you need to contact the bureaucracy and dispute the error and say, hey, this is fake, whatever it is. Then you can place a fraud alert. You can freeze your credit. I frozen all of mine because I've had identity theft happened to me where it was a similar situation. I pulled it, I went, what is. What are these charges? And I got a debt collector calling me for debts I don't owe. And so there was actual fraud in that situation.

I mean, you said I could borrow that money, George.

It was 1700 bucks, John.

Yeah. You didn't say I had to pay it back, but.

So that. That's one thing I would do, is just get all the reports, then contact them if there's any errors, but also figure out what company this is, get in touch with them and see if he ever had an account with them. Like John said, it could have been legit, and it's just something he didn't realize existed. But honestly, my favorite thing about this is, I think this was the lord saying, don't finance a giant truck. Yeah, I'm going to make a way for this not to happen.

It's kind of like you called a marriage show, and you're like, all right, so I was trying to cheat on my husband, and the restaurant wouldn't let me pay for the food. Like, don't finance a car. Alexis, it's the Ramsey show. We're never going to tell you to finance a truck or a car. Go spend $5,000 of your own money and buy a piece of junk. Your husband will live, I promise. George and I are both still living and breathing, and our wives still love us. And we're only recently buying cars that can go more than 20 miles at a time. And even George's. I have had to push it before.

That is a legitimate story for another day.

That's right. Let's go out to Greenville, South Carolina, and talk to Laura. Hey, Laura, what's up?

Hey, how you doing? Today?

We are rocking on to the break of dawn. Laura, what's up?

Awesome. I'm glad to hear that. Well, I'm calling 25 years old, I live in Greenville, South Carolina, and about last year, I got into a really bad wreck. Was in the hospital for a few days. Long story short, I'm finally getting some settlement money, and I just want to be financially responsible with that amount of money that I'm receiving. And so just trying to figure out what I should invest in. What should I do?

Laura, we are cheering you on.

Thank you.

You got hurt bad and you came back from it, didn't you?

I did. I sure did.

How are you today? Are you back to 100%?

Yes, I'm great.

Doing well, working full time?

Part time.

Okay.

Yeah.

Are you in school?

No, I graduated a few years ago.

What are you doing for work?

College. So I work part time as a server, and then I have a small business on the side.

Is it a hobby or is it a business?

It's a business. I've been in business for about four years now.

How much do you make on that? On that business?

And I would say, depending on the year, anywhere between, like 20,000 to 30,000. It's a small e commerce business.

Okay, well, tell us about your financial situation. How much is the settlement and how much debt do you have?

So right now, the settlement is $20,700.

Okay.

And I'm $14,200 in debt, which is a car loan, and that's the only debt that I have.

Good.

I just finished paying my medical debt this morning, so that's a plus.

Wonderful. Okay, so you're going to pay off this car loan immediately, which is going to leave you with six grand. And we're going to call that part of your three to six month emergency fund. So you will not be doing any investing with this money, but what it will do is set you up with this incredible financial foundation so that, number one, you never go into debt again, and number two, you can start building for the future instead of paying for the past.

Correct. And that's exactly what I want to do.

So with your future income, you get the settlement money, pay off the car loan immediately, put the rest in a high yield savings account, and then begin to add to it until you have three to six months of expenses. That might be ten grand for you, 15 grand.

My next question is, my bank is offering a high yield savings account with 4.67%.

I'll tell you right now, you can do better. Now, the point of a savings account is not to make a bunch of money. The point is to keep it safe and keep it liquid. For my YouTube channel, we partnered with a great online bank called Laurel Road, and right now, their rates are 5.15%. So if you go to Laurel road.com, george, you can sign up for an account. They're great people. They're simple. They're not going to sell you a bunch of crappy products, and they'll take care of you. But the high yield savings account is the place to store it. But again, don't even worry about the interest rate, because that's going to fluctuate. It may go down as time goes on. The point is that you stack up this money and you don't touch it unless it's a true emergency.

And here, Laura, I want you to hear what George is saying, because it's important, all right? This money is not to make you rich. You're gonna have people in your life, they're like, you got $20,000, you're gonna have TikTok, knuckleheads, Instagram knuckleheads, all telling you you should be passive income. And this money, this $6,000 is going to protect you when you get a flat tire and you don't have to go backwards. When your, when your electric bill ends up being $150 more this summer than you were expecting, and it will be annoying. You won't have to go put money on a credit card that you don't have.

Right?

And you called. Can I. Can I challenge you on something?

Sure, go ahead.

I think you're worth more than $30,000 a year.

I believe that, too.

I think it's time to have a hard conversation with somebody in your local area about your e commerce business. And maybe that stays on the side, but I sure would love. The world needs you. Cause you're smart and you're thoughtful and you have overcome that. You. You're obviously got grit. The world needs you out there serving your. Your community in whatever that looks like. Right. As a salesperson, as, like, working in a restaurant, whatever it is. But, man, let's be done with this part time server gig. Let's go get.

What if you're making 60, 70 grand plus the 30 from your side business? Now we can really build some wealth and accomplish some goals that would be outstanding.

I would love to see you earn a 50, 60 grand by this time next year. Plus keeping your $30,000 side hustle. And now you're going to not only have $20,000, you are going to change your family tree. This is the Ramsey show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by my good friend, George Camel. Let's roll out to actually, you're on the camera. So we have a call coming in, and I was like, I don't know the answer to this question.

Find a friend.

No, a guy who does. We phoned a friend. And if you are too young for that reference, Google that phone. A friend.

Yeah.

And that's who wants to be a millionaire, wasn't it? Yes. Okay. You're showing your friend kid Coleman.

Great show. Thank you, guys. I'm happy to be here. I was at my desk taking care of very menial tasks, and I got the bat phone signal from James, the fearless leader, and he said, can you join us? I said, you don't have to ask me twice to hang out with George and doctor John.

This is as close as I get to being on SportsCenter. So thank you, Ken. It feels really good to be amongst you.

All right, let's go out to Louisville, Kentucky, and talk to Aron. What's up, Aaron?

Oh, not much. How are y'all doing?

We are doing great. How about you, brother?

I'm doing all right. Doing all right.

All right. So what's up, man?

So I'm 21 years old. I am twelve, six. In debt with credit cards, a personal loan, and a car payment. And I work a full time job, well, more than a full time job, about 65 to 70 hours a week most weeks. Pay is really irregular, so it just depends on when the job gets done, what I get paid, percentage of that, anyway. But I'm trying to figure out a way with my schedule, how I can find ways to bring in more money, because right now, my prediction for being out of debt is march of 26, and I don't like how far out that is.

All right, let's start with what are you doing now at 65 to 70 hours a week?

I do flooring for a living, so trades. I install, like, hardwoods, tiles, carpet, vinyl plank flooring.

And I know your pay is intermittent, and I understand how that works. You get paid when the job gets done. Do you have an idea what you're making per hour? Do you have any kind of an equation there?

Well, I'm estimated to make about $50,000 this year if everything goes well.

Okay, well, you're working way too many hours to be making 50,000 in a trade. What do you do in the floor? Are you actually laying it? Measuring it? What's your role?

I'm installing the flooring.

Yeah.

How many more trade jobs could you pick up? Forget how realistic it is in this moment. But what could you do? What other things are you qualified to do right now?

I mean, I've done framing a little bit in the past as far as building houses. A little bit of concrete work, but not. Not too much.

Okay. Well, the framing alone. So I had a guy on my show, guys, recently, he's got a big YouTube channel. He's a carpenter, and he teaches people how to do carpentry on YouTube. He's got a very, very large following. I had him on my show to talk about a video that he put out that went viral, and it was that there is this huge need for carpenters right now. Like, there. There's. There's no. There's not enough carpenters. So the reason I bring this up, Aaron, is because you should be making. And I don't know what the. What the market is in Louisville. You could probably tell me, is it anywhere between 30 to 40 an hour for a good carpenter?

I don't know. Honestly. I'm about an hour and something away from Louisville, technically.

All right, well, it doesn't matter, but. So here's my point. Right now, you're working 65 to 70 hours a week, and you're not bringing enough income. I want George to jump in on the.

I crunch the numbers and break it to you. You're making about 13 to 15 an hour, which is the equivalent of someone working full time, 40 hours a week, making 30 grand. 25 or 30 grand a year. That's not okay with your skillset.

No, no, because concrete work, carpentry work. You should be, and I could be wrong, but you should be in the $25 per hour on the low end. And so my point here is, Aaron, this is about you saying, I have more options than I think I have. And the way you find those options is you've got to start talking to people all the time. When you're in the car on the way to this gig, you're calling people. When you're on your way home, you're calling people, and you're letting everybody and anybody know you've got friends who have a Facebook page. Or if you've got a Facebook, you're saying, listen, I can do work. And pretty soon, we've got to replace the 65 to 70 hours that you're working for way below market value, as George has pointed out.

And, Aaron, I got a guy. He's 21, and he's a handyman now. And he quit everything else he was doing. And he charges $50 to $90 per hour, and he's fully booked. Because you can't find reliable handyman who do good work these days.

Exactly right.

So you could do that in your neighborhood and double your income tomorrow.

Here's an option I had at my. At my last job. I mean, in my last state where I lived back in Texas, a guy would just put stuff up at church, and he was a handyman like that. And he would say, I will be at your house November 1. I will work until all the jobs you need are done. And it would be everything from move a plug, hang a fan, fix this flooring. I need you to put carpet in the back. It was everything. And he could do it all. And you stay at your house for ten days. Eleven days. And he would charge you $50 to $90 an hour, and then he'd move on to the next gig. But you see what we're saying, aaron, so you're hearing this. We're telling you you're worth more than you're getting paid right now. And there's probably a ton of opportunity with, of course, some downside, but a ton of opportunity if you go out on your own. What are you feeling as we're telling you all this stuff?

Trying to think of ways I can pull some side jobs. And we're telling, you need to remember.

Full time core income. Yeah.

You got to replace your big kid job.

The solution is not more side jobs and more hours. It's less hours doing work otherwise pays more.

Dude, go work 60 hours a week at McDonald's because they're paying $20 an hour?

Yeah. I can handle doing fast food.

I know. So you're breaking your elbows and your knees and your neck and your back.

John, I feel. For $13 an hour, I feel something on Aaron. I don't know if you're feeling the same thing.

Go it.

Aaron, I just don't think that you think that you can go get this work. I think you think the best thing you got going for you right now. Or maybe you feel limited by something else in your life right now to where you go. I feel stuck in this flooring job. Is that right? I don't mind being wrong, and it's a great job.

It's not a lot of things I've done, it's the one I enjoy doing the most.

Yeah, but just suck.

Getting the pay for the hours is the hard part.

That's it.

But Aaron, the job sucks. You're making $13 an hour. That's not a good job.

You like the work? That's awesome.

Yeah.

But there is somebody else that will pay you way more for that work.

I agree. Are you in a really small area where you feel your options are limited?

Yeah.

What's holding you to that area?

Something.

What's stopping you from moving closer to the city?

Your church.

Yeah.

What does that mean?

Your church?

Yeah. What's that mean?

My.

So my church is way out in the middle of the county. It's about an hour and some change from the cities. And so I like being closer to my church for any kind of ministry how often. So I like being there and.

Love that.

Okay, real quick, because we only have a couple of minutes, we gotta. We gotta lock in on something. How many times a week are you at that church doing ministry? Besides going to church on Sundays.

Sundays, Wednesdays, Thursday nights, jail ministry, and then Tuesday nights, we have a young people's ministry.

Okay, here's the thing. I'm a pastor, son. So if you don't like what I'm about to say, I don't know what else to tell you. But I'm a pastor, son, and I live that life. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, visitation. That was my whole stinking life. You can do that when you're no longer broke, but you can't do that right now. Now you need to decide. And I don't know how you're doing all that. Working 65 to 70 hours a week. That's a recipe, doc, for breakdown.

Yeah. You're. You're. You're. You're burning the candle at every end, aren't you, Aaron?

Just about it should not take you two years to pay off twelve grand.

I work way too much.

Well, you've got too much going on, period.

Yeah. And you're broke.

And you're broke. I. You've probably heard this before, but if you fly on an airplane, they tell you, in the case of an emergency, when the oxygen masks drop out, as a parent, do not put your oxygen mask on your kid first. Put it on you first so that you have air and you can take care of the people around you that you're obligated to take care of right now. You're trying to take care of your boss for some reason. You're trying to take care of your entire church community, which is honorable. The person being left out of this equation is you. And if you go back to scripture, Jesus was always pulling away. He was tired. He said, I don't. I don't even where to lay my head. He was always pulling away to spend some time. Right.

Aaron, I think you need to drive a little further to go to church, be a little closer to some great work opportunities where you're making close to double what you're making right now. Great skill set, my friend. And George, twelve six, he could pay that off in it.

I want to. I want to say that. Gone in six months, not two years.

You know what? I love guys. I love trades guys, tradesmen and women who love it. He loves this.

I love that.

You just got to find somebody who will pay him what he's worth. Yeah. Hey, this is the Ramsey show. We'll be right back.

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What up?

What up?

What up? This is John with the Ramsey show. I'm joined by George Camel, and we've got a couple of work questions that have come in, career questions, questions about purpose and what the world am I doing? So we phoned a friend and we went over to where our offices are, and we asked the great and mighty Ken Coleman if you would join us. And he has joined us. And so we're going to roll out and take another question about work with our brother Justin here down the street in Nashville, Tennessee. What up, Justin?

Hello.

Hello.

How are you today?

Outstanding, brother. What's up?

Awesome. Well, I tell you what, I just kind of wanted to tell you a little about myself. So I'm 38 from right here in Nashville. I was employed with a company that did online marketing and SEO for eight and a half years is the kind of time I spent with them. But I was recently let go or fired this Wednesday. Oh yeah? Yeah. And I have a four year degree in communications bachelor's. I have $21,000 set aside in savings for a little rainy fund. I also have a mutual fund with fidelity investments, but it's only worth about 4000. I'm single without kids, I'm debt free and currently I have no health insurance. So that sucks. But I need to bounce back and would like to earn a living soon at a job where I have the potential to work my way up and earn at least $100,000 a year. I know that sounds like a dream right now, but I was actually just some kind of entry level to work my way up the ladder in the tech field like that. I know initially that's unreal, but I would like the opportunity to climb the ladder.

The company I did just work for merged recently, so that's not really a good sign. But I was making about forty two k a year and that's not a lot at all.

What were you doing?

SEO.

Online marketing.

Online marketing.

SEO.

And did I hear you say you want to get on a path to technology?

Yes, yes.

That would be what specifically?

Well, I tell you, it's funny, I've been thinking about it here recently and you know, there's a company named Oracle that's kind of like headquartering here now in Nashville.

I know everybody, small, little startup.

Yeah, there's this little group, little body of land. They call it America. It's like that. Oracle's what got 100,000 employees or something like that.

Yeah, they're moving their headquarters to Nashville. But specifically, are you thinking about programming cybersecurity? What interests you?

Well, I tell you what I was just doing with search engine optimization is interesting to me, but also I would like to learn programming as well. And whatever I could do to, how do I put this? I guess have a steady income there, be useful to the organization and have an ability to work my way up. But I want to know just, you know, currently speaking in my current condition, kind of what you would really recommend here.

Okay. So I would think of the short term first because getting qualified to do that kind of technical work. I've got an answer for you there, and I think we got a great resource for you. But let's look at short term. What I would tell you, and I know George and John will agree here, is we would like you to not have to dip into that $21,000 emergency fund because you're single. And so we don't have a wife or kids that are relying on you. That makes us a little easier. And so I also am a guy that believes in bouncing back pretty quickly and just bringing income in the door right now. I would recommend that because it keeps you from sitting around the house kind of going, this is what happened to me and what am I going to do next? And we're going to give you some steps on that. But short term, John, I hope that's not bad advice. I'd like to see him just get anything, even if it's uber or it's jumping in at a. At a. At a Walmart. $20 an hour.

Exactly.

Right.

To stay active. And also, quite frankly, let's not dip into the 21,000 unless we absolutely have to. So, Justin, that's. That's the first thing.

There's often a rumor, if you will. It just kind of makes its way in the. Into the mythology can, but that if you just go get another regular old job, that somehow that will hurt your ability to get a job down the road and like, like a. Jobs beneath you, or why did you have to go throw boxes at Walmart? Or why did you go do X, Y and Z? And I need you to know, as a guy who's hired a bunch of people, that would put you at the top of my list, because you would be a guy that I know would push through a lot of stuff, who would go get the job done, who wasn't scared of hard work. No job was beneath you. Like, you see what I'm saying? It would send a message to me about your character and who you actually are.

Were you laid off as a result of the merger or was just fired for discipline or anything else? Because John brings up a good point about what our narrative is going to be as we move forward. What happened?

Okay, well, determination. What I wanted to know, is it really killing my chances moving ahead? But, you know, I gotta tell you. So it was basically related to. Well, this is a messaging. They told me. They told me I'm not fitting in with how everybody else is fitting in at the moment and the merger and, you know, maybe it has something to do with a performance deal or something, but that was never communicated to me.

All right, so just. All right, so let me jump in here, all right? To Jon's point, you tell everybody else what they told you, and that is we have a merger. And you were.

You were.

You got. You were laid off because there's just too many things.

You didn't fit into that new plan.

Big deal. But to John's point, nobody cares, because the answer is, it was a corporate layoff. I was a victim of a corporate merger. In fact, I'd say something just like that because nobody even wants to dig into that. It's kind of one of the rings. They're just like, okay, a corporate merger. You got laid off. You're a victim.

My company got bought every day.

And, Justin, you are massively underpaid. I just looked up. And even here at Ramsey Solutions, we're hiring for a digital marketing specialist. And the range is from 56 to 83. Oh, and even outside there in Nashville, 50 to 60 is what I'm seeing for the range, for an entry level digital marketing specialist. So you got eight years of experience. You're clearly good at what you do. I would go, like Ken said, do the side jobs for now until you can find a full time SEO spot and then get the tech skills and eventually move into that realm.

So, Justin, we're going to recommend that you call Bethel Tech. All right? You got something to write with?

Yes.

Bethel Tech. Betheltech.net. now, let me just tell you one testimony, okay? First of all, give you. Give you a reference and then a testimony. So Ramsey Solutions hires Bethel Tech to train people in our organization to move from non tech jobs into tech jobs. So that's about as strong of an endorsement as you can get from. From the big man himself, Dave Ramsey, who doesn't cut checks lightly. Now, a real. Now, a real story, okay? We had a guy that we found out about that was listening to my show. He was a school teacher making about $46,000 a year. He took Bethel Tech's program, Justin. It's a nine month program. It's less than 15 grand for Ramsey show. And Ken Coleman listeners, anybody associated with our. With our network, okay? Nine months online program. He got placed in a job because they do job placement as well. And he was placed before he finished the nine month program, making $74,000 a year. And we just got an update that he's in line for a promotion two months from now where he'll make over six figures. And this is in programming. They also do cybersecurity, ux, ui, the whole nine yards.

So I want you to at least call them and say, I talked to Ken and John and George on the Ramsey show, and they sent me to you guys. Kick the tires. They'll tell you everything. And you can actually afford that because you got the money set aside. And I'd rather you spend the money investing in yourself, then living off that money.

George, I'm with that. And I think he's. Even for now, he needs to be getting paid more. And then long term trajectory of your career, jumping into tech, you're going to go to six figures and higher very quickly.

Justin, I want to leave you with one thing. Okay?

Okay.

You gave your heart and soul this company for almost a decade. They just looked you and I cut you, didn't they?

Yes.

That hurts, doesn't it?

Yes, it does.

All right. Don't. Don't blow by that. Okay?

Okay.

Grief is right. I hate. They did that to you. You gave. You gave everything you had, and they lied to you on the way out the door. They didn't. Even if it was a performance issue, they didn't tell you the truth. They were cowards about it. If you've had issues fitting in over the last few years, they were cowards about it. Nobody sat you down and loved you enough to be honest with you, and they just cut you loose. And you've been working hard for them, haven't you?

Yes.

All right, here's the temptation. The temptation is to go into the next job and only go halfway. Do not do that. You're not that kind of person. You're a person of character and integrity. If you have an old colleague that you could call and say, hey, what really happened? Will you be honest with me? Maybe. Maybe you've got that. But I want you to sit and be sad about it. And then we're going to get a job tomorrow, and we're going to head north. I'm proud of you, my brother. Hey, that's it for this hour of the Ramsey show. We'll be back soon. Don't go away. What up?

What up?

This is John, joined by my good friend, George Camel. And this is the Ramsey show, talking to you about your money and your life and your relationships and whatever you got going on. And this show is for you, and it's about you. If you want to be on, give us a buzz. 888-825-5225 it's 888-825-5225 we are taking you your calls right now, and we're going to. I don't know, tell you what we think, George.

That's about all we can do at.

The end of the day and then cost you anything. What else are you doing? Let's go out to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and talk to the great and wonderful Julie. Hey, Julie. What's up?

Hey. There's a couple of things that are up in the air. We got you a little background. I'm a widow, and I have three young daughters. And I have been blessed to find an amazing man that is getting ready to be added into our family as my husband and also an amazing father figure to my girls. The thing that is. Yes. So there's been many blessings that come out of it. However, the homes that we have, his home and my home, they're in different states, very close to each other, but they just do not suit our family's needs. I have been debt free since 2015. I own rental properties. They're all cash flowing debt free, and so is my home. He still has a mortgage, and the home is valued at 375,000. And he currently owes $123,000. Because neither of the homes work for our new family situation. He would like to, because we're getting to that age where we definitely know how to do everything from the roof to the foundation and everything in between. But we're getting tired, and he says, we don't want something that we have to fix on all the time because we do have the rental properties.

So he had started listening to some Dave Ramsey things because I'm trying to foster that into our marriage so that we can be financially successful together. But he said, well, Dave doesn't say that it's a bad thing to have a mortgage. And I said, it's not a bad thing to have a mortgage. But if we did some remodeling to this house here that is debt free, which would cost about $80,000, we would be debt free. And with the income that we have coming in annually, we're making on average, he's commission based. And obviously, I have tenants that come and go for whatever reason. So we're pulling about two hundred sixteen k a year.

So. Julie, this conversation is not about a mortgage at all.

Okay?

And you know that, right? Here's a. Here's the conversation. I won't be silly and coy. We don't have 5 hours to unpack it. This isn't about Dave Ramsey, and this isn't about partridge in a pear tree. This is about you sitting down and saying, we're about to be married, and we need to be on the same page about this.

Yeah.

I can't breathe. If I owe somebody money and life happens because it happened to me.

Yes.

I don't want to bring any debt into this marriage.

Yeah.

And that's the conversation you got to have.

Okay.

And then everything next solves to create a life of debt, freedom, every decision. And that might mean. Well, he's going to sell his place. I'm going to sell a rental property so that we can buy this new place in cash. There's going to be hard decisions on every side, but you guys have to be aligned on that.

How old are your daughters?

Yes. So they are eleven, nine and eight. And all about the age up in a month or two.

Okay. So I was gonna say if they were 1815 and 17, you can get through a couple of years, but you still got another ten years of.

I still got a lot of raising to do.

Yeah, you got a decade, so, yeah, you need to get a place that works for your family. Julie. I love a. Y'all are super blessed financially. You have been very wise and stewarded your money. Well, he's not. I mean, he's got 250 grand in equity in his place, so nobody's starving here. Right?

We're not. And would it be wise to sell my home and sell his home and find something in that budget range? But when I look at that, most of the homes that are within that, of that range, just because we are right now in the real estate world, are still things that need fixing, whether it be windows or an h vac system or. You know what I mean? They're light repairs.

So let's play it out where you don't keep. You know, you're not playing monopoly. We don't need to keep 17 properties to win the game. So let's say he sold his place. He has 250 in equity. You sold your place.

How?

What is it worth?

318.

Okay, so let's call it 300. That's 550. Do you have any money saved outside of the emergency fund, either of you?

We do. Those have drastically went down because he's been out of work since November. And I recently had a family member that passed from cancer. So our emergency fund currently right now, is collectively $13,000.

Why has he not worked since November?

He had an amputation.

Okay.

But thank God he does have insurance that's carrying him through that. So that was.

But he's. He's dwindling down his emergency fund.

Yes.

216 together.

Yes. He's been off since November. He's still hired through that company. It's just he's been off with that injury.

But they're still paying him?

Yes.

Full. Full salary or what?

No, it's through his. He has a policy that has kicked in.

Yeah.

And so he's not able to work, like doordash or any of that stuff because then those benefits would go away. And so when will he go back.

To work full time?

We are hoping. He had to have a revisit of the surgery. So what the doctors are telling us is it could be eight to ten weeks.

So is the remodel making the house Ada accessible?

Mine is. This is not his high steps. And that was another reason that I just didn't feel that home was suitable for us. Because God forbid if something happened again due to diabetes, because they could.

Could you sell your least favorite rental property on top of selling these two and then pay cash for the next one?

I could, and that's what I wanted to see. Is that a smart thing to do, to give up those assets that are completely debt free and cash flowing?

Or it's smarter than borrowing money, that's.

Which is going to add anxiety to your life. And it's one less thing to fool with and hassle with. And if you want more real estate later, save up and pay cash. You got no mortgage payment.

Yeah, that's what I did.

You make over 200 grand. So here's what I'm not scared about that scenario.

Yeah. Here's what I do know. How long ago did your first husband pass away?

He passed away. It's been five years now.

Five years. Okay. How long have you been together with this guy?

We're coming up on two.

Two years. Okay. However you think you've got it drawn up, you have some. When they pronounce you mister and misses, you're going to enter into an angsty season.

It's just why I don't want to make any money moves until it's official. Because at the end of the day, my children above all, that's my main scope.

Well, but listen, I don't want you to make any right after either, okay? Okay. I want you to slow down, get married, figure it out for six months or a year. Then you'll really know what you can and can't live with. But I want you all to have as much peace as possible with the knowns before you start buying a house and trying to move and do that and be married and blend a family and all of that stuff. It's just going to be messy. Go one step at a time.

If y'all don't have term life in place. Get it today. That's going to give you so much peace of mind.

What up? What up? Doctor John Deloney here. I have some good news and some bad news. So I'll start with the bad news. The money and marriage Getaway 2024. My favorite Ramsey event, just sold out. The good news? We're adding another weekend for this event. Don't miss this chance to get away to Nashville with your spouse so you can build a stronger marriage by strengthening your communication skills and getting on the same page. Listen, no more lame chocolate hearts or stressing over fancy dinner reservations because this money and marriage getaway is going to happen over the Valentine's Day holiday. This is your weekend to get away from the noise and the insanity of everyday life and focus on your marriage. Bird tickets start at $699. And if you want a platinum level ticket, get it quick, because last year they sold out in less than an hour. Go to ramsaysolutions.com events to get your tickets today. That's ramsaysolutions.com events. This is the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Camel. All right, today's question of the day comes from Will in Nashville. He says, I love smashing pumpkins and Paul Reed Smith guitars. Is there something wrong with me?

I think there's only one answer to that, John.

Absolutely.

Yes. Yes.

No, there's Will. He's the best guitarist I know. And I look up to him and he's out there running the board. It's good to see you, William.

That's John trolling. The actual question comes from Adam in Manitoba. He said, my wife and I moved to Canada a year ago. We didn't pay rent for the first six months and bring home seven grand a month. We made an agreement to separate our finances, and my responsibility was to save money for a new car. I didn't pay attention to my expenses and saved nothing. I lied to my wife about the amount I had saved and pretended everything was okay. After I started listening to your show, I've decided to tell her the truth. I feel like I have totally destroyed her trust in me and our future. How can I save my marriage and get trust back?

I usually tell people that your feelings don't tell you the truth. But in this case, Adam, your feelings are telling you the truth. You did destroy her trust in you and her trust in your future 100%. You did. George. This whole situation is a mess.

Well, it started with we made an agreement to separate our finances.

Started with we moved to Canada.

That's true. I wasn't gonna go there. I love my friends in Canada.

I know I do.

Sweet people.

All right, so we moved to Canada, and we didn't pay rent for the.

First six months, and they make seven grand a month. And they said, all right, you do you, I do me. Here's my job. I'm going to save up for the new car. You go do this. And then he didn't do any of it, which is one reason we tell people to combine finances, because it creates trust, accountability, and transparency and unity, you know, all the things that make a marriage great. But instead, he went, you know, I got it, I got it, I got it. And then didn't. And then had a shame spiral, and then could not tell her the truth, that he had $0 saved. Which also begs the question, where the crap did that money go, Adam? What did you spend it on?

Yeah.

Cause you're gonna also have to tell her that part.

Yes.

And that might be the hardest part of all.

It's when you realize you've painted a wall with a lie, and you start wallpapering over that lie with other lies, and all of a sudden, you are in a pretty thick, padded room here with nowhere to go. Here's your path forward. Adam, you tell her, we have to have a hard conversation, and I made some huge mistakes, and I need to be honest with you. And then you take a pause, and she's going to want to say, tell me right now what happened. Say, this is not the time for that. We're going to go. We're going to meet in 30 minutes at a restaurant. We're going to meet in 30 minutes in a park, in a neutral location, or somewhere in the living room where you have. Where you don't normally have hard conversations. We need to change the environment for this one, because this is a before and after conversation. Your marriage, if it survives, this will be different. And George's. George's question that he raised is key. If this happens to me, after I get over the initial shock, I'm going to ask, what happened to, what is it? $3,500 times six months?

Where is that money? And is it in food? Is it in gambling? Is it in guitars? Is like, what is that money? Where is it? Can you get any of it back? Is it gone? All those questions, you better have answers for those as you sit there. And here's another key. George, Adam is never going to use the word you. Every word, every sentence is going to start with, I did this. Here's what I did. And if you had just. We're not going to do any of that. I lied to you. I've been deceiving you for months, and I'm coming clean because you deserve better. Here's what I have done, and I'm going to lay it out. And there is no path forward other than the path of honesty or it's going to make this thing bigger and bigger and bigger.

And how do you rebuild that trust? Well, it's going to take time. It takes a moment to destroy it. But then it takes this pattern of being trustworthy, where you've proven, hey, you know what? I put a $1,000 away. We've combined the bank accounts. You have full transparency. You have a vote. I have a vote. That's what's going to create that over time. But she has to see that you're actually never going to do this again.

So I often tell couples, George, when this situation happens, any sort of trust violation, the other person who you're asking, hey, I've hurt you and I've lied to you and I've violated your trust. I need you to trust me again. They get to dictate for a season the parameters for what trust rebuilding is going to look like.

If XYZ happens, then on the other side of this will be more trust.

I see your phone every day. Here it is. I get. I want to track your phone. Here it is.

We're going to do an every dollar budget every day.

Every day. Here you go. Right? You will not carry a debit card for 60 days. Like, whatever. We're going to take the Internet out of the house. If you're struggling pornography, I don't care what it is, the other person gets to set the. What's going to make them feel safe? And then we're going to slowly work, work that thing back, and that's going to be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough, tough.

Well, you and Rachel have been diving into this issue of money and marriage. They're inextricably tied. And we've got another event coming up this fall that while there may be some heavy things that come out of that, it's a really, really fun weekend.

It's the funnest weekend of the year. And here's the. The bad news is the fall money marriage is sold out in October here in Nashville. It has sold out. The rad news is we added another money marriage retreat weekend, and this time we decided to hit it on the nose. And it's going to be Valentine's Day 2025.

Perfect.

We have rescued you, America, from having to think about what to get your spouse. Valentine's Day.

This is your ticket to freedom.

Come to Nashville. Money. Marriage is one of our most popular events. It's a weekend in Nashville. You and your spouse get away from license madness and you can focus on your marriage. Two and a half days. Me and Rachel, we have expert teachings about communication, sex, strengthening your emotional connection. Get on the same page with money. All the stuff that we don't talk about anymore in our culture, we just.

Get in a giant room and have fun and talk about it.

And to say we go, there. It goes. It goes.

There's stuff at this event that I'm like, I'm not sure I should be in the room. This is PG 13.

Yeah. George actually had to walk out. He felt uncomfortable. You get to ask me and Rachel real questions. If you come to Nashville and don't get your question answered, it's going to be because you didn't ask. Skit. Lots of time for you to connect with me and Rachel and George. I think you'll be there. Jade's there. Something like you can't. We've got all kind of people there and it's Nashville, so you never know who's going to show up in some of the sessions. And we throw a pretty wild, wild date night.

Our live events team puts on experiences that are way beyond the stage content. That's kind of the part you really remember. Remember we did that dance?

They threw a promise.

We're not as awkward as we used to be, but it was a super.

It was one of the most amazing under the sea proms in every cringe way possible, which made it so amazing. Tickets start at $699. Get yours. While early birds pricing is still happening. It's insane.

That's per couple.

Yeah.

So not per ticket, per cup, per couple. That's great.

And it's half the price of other marriage retreats. So it's a good deal. And you can save up to $350 right now. If you want a vip level ticket, they may be already sold out. If they haven't sold out, get them. Go right now, man, because they go so fast. February 13 through 15th, 2025. Go to ramsaysolutions.com events now. George, I have to ask you this question. I saw you and whitney snuck in last year at the back of the money marriage and y'all were taking feverish notes.

That is so true, John. I can't believe you saw us from all the way from the stage.

All the way from the stage. I was like, is that George or Whitney now?

I did make the mistake of having my wife walk out with our baby. Cause I thought this would be a great ending to my budgeting talk, and I forgot that babies can't hold up their heads. And so I tried to do the lion King thing. So I took the baby from whitney, I held the baby up, and her head just went straight back.

And it was a collective gas.

Yes. We're still recovering from that at the camel household.

I like how you gave a universal we there. When it's your daughter that had the whiplash.

It's Whitney's. No, Whitney had nothing to do with this, but it really was a great time. I told whitney, I was like, we just need to attend next. Like, I'll probably be there speaking about something, but I want you to be there the whole time with me, because the content is that rich, and you really can't find it anywhere else.

I'll also say this. Last year, there was a surprise where my wife and Rachel Cruz's husband joined us on stage.

Incredible.

And it got off the rails. My wife was disclosing some things that I was not prepared for her to say publicly. And same with Winston. And I think they're scheduled to be back and then some. So it's gonna be a fun.

I feel like this is just gonna be a tell all on Rachel and John.

Well, the thing is, is that Rachel and I are pretty open about what's going on anyway.

But then your spouses tell the truth.

My wife's really. Hold my beer. I'll tell you, she doesn't even drink. And she was like, I feel like.

Sheila's entire existence is actually. Here's what actually happened. Here's the other side of the story, John.

I remember talking about, like, yeah, that one time we had to decide, like, are we still gonna stay married? And she was like, we've had that conversation, like, five times. And I was like, okay, risk or something. We're gonna tell all of it now. That sounds cool. February 13 through 15th, 2025.

Budget for it. Make plans, mark it on the calendar, and buy your tickets, dudes. She's gonna love it.

This is the Ramsay show.

Hey, folks. The total money makeover 20th anniversary edition is now here. I believe the success of this book is all about the hero stories. People who felt overwhelmed and stuck until they found the least complicated money book they ever read and learned how to work the plan and actually build wealth. Go to ramsaysolutions.com store to get the total money makeover 20th anniversary edition. And become one of the new total money makeover heroes.

Welcome back. This is the Ramsey show. I'm John Deloney, joined by George Campbell.

Hey, guys. Selling the house the Ramsay Way makes home home ownership a blessing instead of a burden. We get a lot of calls about home ownership on the show. It can be stressful, and if you're not working with a pro, there's a good chance you're going to make a mistake. And that's why we have the Ramsey trusted program. It's the only way to find an agent you can trust who can keep you on track with what we teach here at Ramsey and get the best offer on your house or find the right house for you, whether you're on the buying side or the selling side. So we'll send you some of the top agents in your area that we trust. Our team vets them, you can review their stats, interview them, and you decide which one you want to work with. These Ramsey trusted agents have years of experience. They're pros. They don't do this part time on the weekends. They didn't just get their license. They are go getters. They're going to help you make wise decisions when it comes to pricing and marketing and making or choosing the right offer. So head to ramsaysolutions.com agent, and you can find a Ramsey trusted real estate agent for free.

That's ramsaysolutions.com agent.

All right, let's go out to a hobbit bar in Boston, Massachusetts, and talk to kat. Hey, Kat. What's up?

Hey. How you guys doing?

Good. Fantastic.

I'm sorry. You deserve better than that accent.

I have a question and a suggestion. Which would you like first?

Ooh.

I think suggestion is just more intriguing.

I need to know the suggestion. What is it?

Okay, I keep hearing you advertise the marriage and money events, and I really think you should host a single and mingling event. Maybe like an online speed.

Hey, we're already the balls already rolling on that one, cat.

Oh, really?

Do you want an invite?

Listen, I give the.

I do, and I give the producers permission to give my phone number out to, you know, anyone in my age range.

I'm gonna 100% assure you, cat, you do not want this week.

But how about this, cat? Reach out.

A lot of meth and banjos out there, huh?

Reach out to me. I'll give you a free ticket to that event when and if we launch it. How's that?

Awesome.

Thank you.

And here's it's gonna end with an actual wedding. I will officiate your wedding at the end. And so if you find love over that 72 hours, you're going to leave with a connected budget.

And John said I can be the ring bear and flower girl, so.

Correct.

That's kind of part of it.

It's going to be awesome. All right.

Awesome.

All right, Kat.

Okay. Very nitty gritty logistical question. I get paid every other week, 26 paychecks a year. What do you advise for budgeting purposes? I keep starting and kind of getting stuck. Do I just figure 24 checks and have the extra two is slush? Do I do 26 divided by twelve? And then my second question is, for yearly things, like once a year, I want to spend $1,000 on, you know, family photo. Do I just put money, you know.

Every month towards that for a family photo?

Yeah.

Is this like $300? What are we talking about?

My family's not that good looking.

No, no, no. Pick anything. I don't know, a $1,000 every two.

Years for tech upgrades for a guitar. Gotcha. Gotcha. I heard guitar.

That's what I'm John's word.

Perfect. I approve that expenditure.

John has never gotten his family together all at once, smiling. It's a very difficult thing to do with shoes on.

My wife is stunning, and my kids are beautiful. I tend to ruin photos, so that's good. Every year we get a photo taken in the photographer's like, you know what? I'm not even gonna charge you for this one. Cause your face. Right. All right, so here we go.

George, let's start with the irregular 26 paychecks versus 24, because this is a common conundrum people face that get paid bi weekly, meaning if you get one every two weeks is different than if you get paid twice a month, as you know. So here's what you need to focus on. You're going to get at least two paychecks a month, right?

Right.

So focus on the upcoming two week period. So let's say you get paid on the 10th and the 24th. Well, that 24th check has to float you until the next check that comes in on the 6th. And so what you need to do in your budget is look at all of your expenses and when they're going to actually debit from your account and make sure that you have enough money. Now, everydollar makes this easy with their paycheck planning tool, so I'm going to gift you the premium version that has that feature that's going to really help with that. But all you need to do is focus on an upcoming two week period to make sure that you can cover the remaining expenses until the next check. And like you mentioned, if you have three paychecks, look at the upcoming months expenses and whatever's left after covering those expenses, anything extra can go toward your next baby step goal.

Okay.

Now, if you can learn to just live off of the two checks a month, then the third one becomes, it feels like a bonus emotionally. And so learn to live on less than you make and throw that, as a, quote, bonus toward your financial goal.

Sounds good.

And as far as the sinking funds you mentioned, hey, I got a $300 family photo thing coming up this fall. You can set up a sinking fund and move, you know, we're going to move $30 a month for ten months to pay for the $300 expense. Some people like to do it that way. Some people just know it's coming up and they adjust other expenses so they know, hey, I got to put away $300. If it's more than you can stomach out of a single paycheck, I would set up a sinking fund that's going to make it easier for you and less stressful, and it's not going to throw you off when that expense comes.

All right, cat, that was Nerdville. I heard you go. Okay. And you lost.

Not satisfactory to cat?

No, it was great.

Where did you lose him?

No, I'm on board.

I just keep starting.

I've tried, I've tried. Not the premium version of that, but I've tried different apps and just.

You haven't tried every dollar?

I have, not the premium version. So thank you for that subscription.

Yes. Your bank transactions will come in, so you can just drag them to the right category. The paycheck planning tool is going to really help you figure out, do you have a risk of overspending because you have too many bills that are hitting before the next paycheck. So hang on the line and Kelly is going to pick up. We're going to gift you a year of every dollar premium to help with that. And you call us back if we have any questions. And best of luck on your journey to finding a mate.

Man, you took that sideways. George and Kat, one more thing. I think you know as well as we do this is less about which category the money goes in and that extra check, and it's more. You just have to bite the bullet and do this for 90 days, for three months. Just grit your teeth and budget for 90 days, and you're going to find it gets easier and easier as you walk that path. But if you keep getting on and then quitting. And then, oh, a thing came, and I just quit. It's always going to feel like you're just getting jerked around.

That's true.

All right, let's roll out to Buffalo, New York. As a Houston oiler fan, the Buffalo bills ruined my childhood, but I'm glad to talk to Ryan. What's up, Ryan?

Hey, doctor John. How you doing?

Good, man. What's up?

Well, I got a question. I'm 35. I just started the baby steps back in December. I've had the book for a long time, the total money makeover, and found it. So I'm doing the baby steps and everything. And so I'm going gazelle intense. I already paid off three deaths I already had, and I'm on my last one, my car. And so I'm legally separated. I got legally separated last year from my wife and I got a three year old daughter. And I was just wondering, I'm now I'm a Christian, and I'm trying to do the right thing. And I have a girlfriend who's also a Christian. We go to church together and everything. And I'm trying to figure out, you know, I'm. It's going to cost me another $2,000 to get the divorce done. You know, I kind of feel like I'm living in sin a little bit, so trying to see if it's, you know, I don't want to lose the gazelle intensity, you know, by paying for this divorce. So I'm trying to see, bro, you're.

Living in fantasy world, dude. I'm a Christian, too. Let's set that aside for a second. You're not dealing with reality. Your marriage is over. And did you pull the trigger? Did she?

She did, but it was mutual. It was, you know, I had mutual aspects to it. I'm not holding on to anything.

Do you mean you are because you haven't spent the $2,000 to end this, this marriage and you've already started dating somebody else.

Right.

So it's, it's not a matter of, like, I don't lose my gazelle intensity. Bro, you are in the jaws of the lion right now.

Right.

Okay. And, you know, you knew that.

Yeah.

Whether it's two grand or $200, I think there's a lot of emotions, right?

Yeah. What's it, what's the situation with your daughter?

I have via custody, half and half with her.

Okay.

How much money do you have in the bank.

Altogether? Liquid? Probably. Well, I got 1500. My emergency fund. I got 1400 set aside for actual four, doing the divorce. So I have money set aside for it.

It's just do it on Monday, pay.

The two grand and be done. And then move on with your last debt. Be done and then be done.

And by the way, since this was mutual, no complaining, no whining. This is what you signed up for. For whatever reason, this is what you signed up for. See it all the way through. Do it the right way, get the right paperwork, and then move on with your life. This is the Ramsey show. Today's scripture of the day is romans twelve nine. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. The great Bob Marley says, spin life with who makes you happy, not who you have to impress. So I spend time with you, George.

Make me happy 3 hours a day keeps the doctor away.

I don't feel like I have to impress you, because I can't.

Too bad, because I'm impressed.

Oh, I like. That was a good one. All right, let's go out to the 512 Austin, Texas, and talk to Jennifer. Hey, Jennifer. What's up?

Hi.

Thank you so much for taking my call. I really appreciate it.

You got it. Thanks for calling. What's going on?

Okay, so I have a question that is a moral and a financial dilemma.

All right, bring it on already.

I'm already getting emotional.

Do me a huge favor. Take a humongous deep breath and hold it for a count of three. Okay. One, two. All right, let it out. Drop your shoulders all the way.

Thank you. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Same team.

I just found all of you guys about three weeks ago, so I'm so, so, so very grateful.

Yes. We're glad you're with us. We'll send you the Kool aid in the mail. You can drink it when you later on.

I will. I'm drinking all the Kool Aid already. Okay. So my question is regarding what my responsibility is to my mother.

Okay.

I'm 60. I used to have a lot of success in my life. I was debt free for, like, 20 years. And then a lot of things happened, and my financial and health situation went downhill, so I just finished baby step one. So I don't have the funds to help my mom out right now, and it's killing me. My parents never made any financial plans whatsoever. They spent every penny and more than they ever had. My dad died in 2020. My mom had a little bit of life insurance, but that's gone. She has $2,400 in Social Security every month, but she won't live in a. I'm going to change her words, but I'm going to say a dumpy apartment. So they have nothing. There's no home, there's nothing. She just signed, or we signed a lease on her apartment that went up to 2000 a month. And she doesn't really seem to be too concerned about her financial situation. And I am spending all day, every day, so anxious and to the point where I think I'm going to have a heart attack.

Hey, Jennifer. Jennifer. Yes, you are. Stop. Do me a favor. Take both of your hands and I want you to clench them as tight as you can. Squeeze them real, real tight. Okay. Are you still squeezing them?

Yes.

Keep squeezing them. Now open them up. Listen to me carefully, okay? I'm not gonna hear any language about how you're not successful right now, okay? Because you did pretty good financially. But success is way bigger than a stupid number. And when you grow up in a house of chaos, often we look for a number to validate that we have some value because we should have got that from our mom and our dad and we didn't. And then whatever happened, you've been to hell and back. But whatever happened took that number away that you had outsourced your value to. And what I'm hearing on the phone right now is an absolute gangster of a 60 year old who has scratched and clawed her way back. Right? Right. Yes, yes. We're not hearing any more of this talk about I used to be successful nonsense. I know a lot of rich people that I wouldn't trade places with for anything.

And nobody talks to our friend Jennifer that way, by the way. Especially Jennifer.

Yeah, especially Jennifer. All right. Here is the fortunate and unfortunate predicament you find yourself in. Okay?

Okay.

And I'm gonna say this in a really stark way because I don't have a ton of time, but I. My goal here is not to poke my finger in your wound. My goal here is to set you free. Okay. You don't have any money, right? Ta da. Any wish, any desire to help is a fantasy because you've been on your own since you were nine, right?

Seven.

Seven.

Emotionally.

Yeah, that's right. And so you have no margin. You've got no room to move around. You're 60 years old, scratching a claw on your way back.

Yeah.

I think what you feel, that sense of guilt you've been carrying your mom's emotional regulation for her entire life and your entire life.

And my dad's.

And your dad's. And you see the train wreck financially, the math problem that's coming at your mom, 100 miles an hour, and you're trying to solve this one, too. And you can't. You've been doing it for 53 years. Can't solve this one. And the hardest thing in the. Do what?

I don't know what to do, and I don't know what my biblical obligation is.

I mean, what. What can you do?

She's choosing to reject reality.

She's rejecting you.

She doesn't care nearly as much as you do. And you know that if someone else cares more than you do, you can't help them. Like, if John's morbidly obese and he wants to shove his face with pizzas. And I really want John to be healthy. I can't do anything to fix John. He has to want to fix John.

Right? Right.

I can give him all the supplements in the world and all the workout programs, but if you did that for your mom, it wouldn't change a thing, and it wouldn't.

George would not have a faith based moral obligation to hit me in the face every time I was gonna. You know what I'm saying? Like, we can just keep going, going down the road with this metaphor. But your mom has looked at you. Listen, behavior is a language. Your mom has told you. I do not want your financial help. I don't need your financial help. I'm just fine. You do. You boo. I edit that part. Right.

It might get to the point where she goes, I can't pay my bills, and where she gets stressed out enough to. Where she decides to move out and find a cheaper apartment, or they kick her out. Or if she gets evicted because she stops paying rent because her rent is two grand a month, and she makes 2400 a month.

And so, Jennifer, here's where you can spend your energy wisely. Okay?

Okay.

Worrying solves nothing.

I know.

So, listen, every time you worry. Hold on. I know it's easy to say. I've been there, too. I'm a chief ruminator. I'm pretty good at it. I carry something in my bag. It's right here under the desk. And I carry it with me. 24 7365. And I do this for a living. Okay. When I start spinning out, I quickly write down what I'm worried about, and then I make a quick list of what I can control and what I can't. And often, the things I can't control, they break my heart. And I spend time being sad for. Okay. And then I get after the things I can't control. Here's what you can control. You know, there will come a day when your mom has to move in with you. You know that's coming.

Uh uh. No. Okay.

Or, or hold on. Or, you know, right now, my mom's never moving in with way worse off.

Than I am right now. She has no boundaries.

There you go. Hold on. There you go.

It will kill me.

You're free. You're free. Okay.

I'm sorry. Don't have a lot of guilt.

I know you got guilt. Here's, here's, here's what grief is. Grief is the gap between what I really wanted to happen and what actually has happened.

Okay.

I'm just sad. You're sad. It's okay. You should be. Shouldn't be this way. And here we are. So I want you to make that list of the things you can control in this situation. You can be kind to your mom when she starts talking about money. You can say, hey, mom, I don't want to talk about money. You've made it really clear you don't want to have this conversation with me, and that's fine. You can go through financial peace University because George and I are going to send it to you as our gift. You can get your budget in order, and George and I are going to send you a year of the premium version of every dollar. You can read my book, building a non anxious life that I'm going to send you for free to give you a roadmap to peace. And you can read George's book, breaking free from broke. So at 60, this never happens again. Okay, we're going to give you some resources. We're going to take care of you, and you call us any time. But by all accounts, faith based. Morally, psychologically, emotionally, you're a great daughter and you are free.

Take care of you. This is the Ramsay show.

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.