Your Financial Spiral Will End When A Proven Financial Plan Begins
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This is the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about their money, about their profession, and about their relationships. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Alongside the fabulous Jade Warshaw, I am Ken Coleman, and we're here to help you. Jade's going to help you save money, and I want to help you make some money as we work together to coach you up today. We started off with Taylor.

In New Orleans, as I like to say, Nolens. Taylor, how can we help? Hey, good afternoon. Thank you all for having me on. You bet. As I said, my name's Taylor. Married. I have three children. I have a five-year-old, three, and a one-year-old.

My wife and I would like to get some help and some advice from y'all in regards to our budgeting. I wouldn't so much say that we have a money problem, but I would say that we have a problem agreeing on what to do with our money. And I think Dave said it before. I think one of us could be considered more of a spender, whereas the other could be considered more of a saver. Let me guess, you're the saver. That's my guess as well.

Right. Trying to find a happy medium so that we can both be happy, enjoy life while also saving. And more importantly, I just possibly don't want to work forever. Sure. Now, let's get right to the problem. Where are we not on the same page? It'd be with regard to spending, specifically credit card spending per month. How much?

So individually, I spend probably on average around $2,500, $3,000 a month on my credit card. And she's been closer to $5,000 plus per month. Well, wait a minute. Hold the phone. How much do you actually bring in in actual money every month? Because that... For sure. Are you all running all of your expenses on a credit card? Is that what you're doing?

Not everything. For instance, we pay our credit card off each month, our house notes taken out of our checking account, and our house note is really our only reoccurring debt, fortunately. What's your take-home plan?

And that's kind of a hard question. So I work on commission and through a job change a few years ago, it's been hard for me to get my wife. My wife asked me the same question. What's a good month and what's a bad month? It stays the same. Yeah. Sure. A lower month would probably be around around.

$6,500 to $7,500 take home. And then a higher month could be closer to, you know, it could be $20,000 plus. It kind of just depends. So what, tell me, what's the purpose of the credit cards in all this? Because for me, that just creates, there's already the unknown with the fluctuating income and then adding the credit cards with no real fixation.

feeling like no real boundaries around it. It feels like it's just adding more chaos to the equation. So why do you and your wife, and let me also add, you make a fine income. So what's the purpose of the credit cards and what is it serving?

It's a really good question. I've considered getting rid of them. I don't really have a good answer as to why we have them. I have had a credit card since I guess I got out of college, and I've fortunately always been able to manage it, at least as far as I can tell. I haven't racked up a bunch of debt, so I've just...

I've just kept the credit card. And when my wife and I got married, got her one too. Is it a credit building thing for you? Or is it a, we can just spend on here and not really have to think about it until it's time to kind of tally it up sort of thing. If you had to point to one reason, what do you think it is, even if it's not you, your wife's reasoning behind it? Right. Initially for me, it was credit building. I just kind of,

Got used to budgeting, comfortable budgeting with what I knew I was going to spend on my credit card. And I guess I'll point out,

A while back, like years ago, when I originally had this conversation with my wife, she was paying some bills automatically on her card. And then I was paying some bills automatically on my card. We've since changed everything to be auto draft from my card, the majority of it. So a lot of some of my charges are necessities like bill credit. So, OK, so so the majority of your twenty five hundred is your household bills and then a little bit of spending for you.

Am I to understand that the $5,000 she's spending per month is just kids' clothes and all the fun things? Is that what it is? Because you opened up this call, and it felt like to me, Jay, correct me if I'm wrong, I was feeling like...

The way you were saying this, you're a very kind man, and I think you're a gentleman. But it felt like my wife is blowing a bunch of money on her credit card, and I'm taking care of serious stuff. I got some audience folks that are shaking their head in the lobby. So is that what's going on? What is she spending the $5,000 on?

For sure. Y'all, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. I would consider, the way I say it, is I think she's buying a lot of things. I hope that this call excites both of us and her to look at more long-term experiences and investments. Is she listening to this call?

Well, here's the problem. She knows that I'm on. Yes. Oh, she does. Oh, this is great. And there's no there's no boundaries. Right. And by boundaries, I mean, there's no budget. There's no plan set ahead of the month that says, here's what we're spending our money on. And here's what we're doing with the excess after we've spent our money on the things that we want to. Now, here's the do you see what I'm saying? And so I for sure.

I would say for you guys, I mean, I'm always going to tell people to cut up their credit cards, but for you guys, it's like a no brainer. I feel like in many ways, it's just creating more chaos around the subject of money. And it's creating a free for all because I don't know what the limit is on these credit cards, but clearly it allows you to go out of bounds for,

when she feels like going out of bounds. And the great thing about cold, hard cash, Ken, when it's gone, it's gone. Like there's no more. However, I think Jade's right. But Taylor, I feel like the bigger issue is the fact that you guys don't have a very clear spending plan every month and whether you're paying cash for the five grand, as Jade is suggesting,

Or you put it on a credit card. The stressor for you is how much money you both are spending, whether she's spending most of it or not. This is a we thing. I'm assuming you guys are not separate accounts. You guys are joint banking account and you guys are together on this. Is that true or false?

That is true. We were separate when we got married, and I thought it worked fine. We've since made it joint after our first child. That's good.

But she's working a little bit less now that we have three children. So she's not going to be able to max out her. Sure. Let's let's cut in more. Let me cut to the chase because we got about a minute left. And here's what I'm thinking. Absolutely. I want to get Jade's take on this. After listening to all this, you're stressed out about how much she's spending.

And that means you guys got to get on the same page with a real budget, like Jade said. But more importantly, I think this is a marriage conversation about what you're valuing. And we don't have a lot of time to discuss this. But to me, the big question that I have for you is, and I want you to give it to me in 10 seconds or less. All right. Just spit it out. How much money out of the $5,000 that she's spending do you want to earmark to something else, which is what's created stress for this call?

That's what I thought. That's the starting point, Jade. I want to give you the jump in here, but I think that's where he's got to get to with her. Yeah, and the way to do that right now, you're doing the budget the way I used to do a budget, which is I plan for all the things I know I have to pay for, house, car, you know, phones, things like that, but everything else is up for grabs, treat yourself money.

you need to take that treat yourself money and plan every dollar of that money as well. And yes, it can include some of the fun things your wife wants to do, but it also needs to include the really important things like planning for the future that you want to do. You guys got to get together and talk this out. Share your feelings around this stuff and then come together with a plan.

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Hi there. I am a 56-year-old woman that had decided to quit my job in DFW and come to my 92-year-old mom and be able to honor her and take care of her while living on our family farm. And I have now, as of the end of May, started

Sold my house and emptied my retirement and savings and paid as much into credit card debt as I can, but I still have another $64,000 to pay. And I have an immune system issue that causes intense and immense pain. So during the time that I'm not taking care of my mom,

I am having to more or less lay down and be in bed, and I'm trying to figure out how I can...

get the $64,000 of credit card debt paid in behind me. It's very important for both my mom and I to be right with God. Okay. All right. So a couple of quick questions here for Jade and I. When you said you emptied your retirement, does that mean it's all gone? Like there's none of it left? And do you have any income? Okay. Do you have any income coming in at all?

And how much is that every month, Ann?

That is $2,300 approximately. And Anne, how much did you have in retirement? How much have you gone through? I mean, we know there's the credit card debt, but how much retirement have you gone through? I went through all of the retirement because I had a disease that nobody understood while I was coming up paralyzed for years. And I ended up emptying a lot of it then.

trying to get different people to tell me that it ended up being toxic mold and toxic chemical poisoning causing...

causing my immune system and my body to fight back. And so I was in hyperbaric treatments and everything. The company I was with put me in a lot of those after they realized what was really going on with me. And so now I am the youngest child. The other two are estranged. And

My mom lives out on our family farm where my grandfather and grandmother built it in the 30s. And she does not want to move. Can you tell me how much the farm is worth?

It's a right now I can sell it on the market for half a million. Half a million. Okay. And can you tell me, can you go back? Thank you for telling me all the backstory that does help. Can you tell me how much of your retirement you went through, how much you've spent on this move, taking care of your mom, trying to get the diagnosis? How much has it cost you so far?

I have no idea. The move itself was $11,000, $12,000 from Dallas. Right. The reason I'm asking, I'm trying to get a clear peg on this, Ann, because I want to make sure we help you in this call. That's why I'm trying to stick to all the facts. Sure.

You said that you went through all your retirement. I'm trying to get a peg on how much that was so that I can make a fair call on this. Okay. My guess on what I had just in retirement right before I came down, came to my mom's was about 50, 60,000. 50 or 60. Yeah. Yeah. 60,000 max. I've already used the other part. And how many years have you been taking care of her? How long has this been going on?

This is only a year. Okay. I came out here in April of 2024. What are her responsibilities out of the $2,300 that she's getting? I'm assuming this is her Social Security, correct? That's correct. All right. So out of that $2,300, is there a surplus after you take care of whatever bills are there for her plus you, groceries? I'm thinking everything. Do you have any surplus at all?

I, in her social security, I try to keep our separate and, um, and I, and her social security, we have about 800 for groceries a month. And because of our limited, um, eating, we don't eat that much. So we usually have three or 400 a mat of minimum leftover. Do you have a payment coming in as well? Did I hear that?

No, I do not. Okay, so you guys are both living off her $2,300. Well, not until this month, but that's correct. Why, Ann, are you not eligible for any assistance, any government, any disabled, anything? Absolutely.

At the time I was working, I was making approximately $100,000. And so I felt as though, and I'm a pretty tough person except for my physical issues. So I was, so no, I didn't go and try to make any extra money on my disability.

Okay. And there's none available to you or is it there is, but you're just not taking it. There could be something available. I just know it takes about two years to get. So I would rather try to make more money faster some other way. Okay. I'm all for that, but here's what I heard. And that's where my brain's been going while you've been sharing this stuff. Um, because you told me that when you're not taking care of mom, um,

You're so physically either exhausted or in pain, you're having to lay down. So realistically, could you do something from home to where at least you're sitting on the couch with a laptop or something like that? That's my question. Yes. For a period of time, I should be able to do that. How long? How?

I would say from five to ten hours. Okay. Oh, okay. They would be a little different. This is me. My friends are afraid I'm going to kill myself because I just am a worker bee kind of person and work and manage. And I've run businesses before.

And I've been in several different kinds of HVAC, plumbing. You're saying that because you're such a hard worker. That's why they're saying that? Because you'll just do everything. They think if I go get a job that I'm never going to be able to rest.

and recuperate from stress. All right, sweetheart. So here's the deal, though. I don't think it's go get a job in that situation. I'm saying, thankfully, it's 2025, and there are a lot of remote work-from-home type jobs where even if it's just customer service online, okay, just as a cut, I'm just making this up. I mean, this isn't truly made up, but I mean, a customer service rep where you're sitting down

And they give you a script, and you're very intelligent, and you're very capable. And if you could do that seven to eight hours a day, and you're making 15 to 20 bucks an hour, I'm just throwing this out there, that's a game changer for you. And now it's going to take a while to pay off $63,000, $64,000 in credit cards. However...

If you can put, you know, a thousand dollars a month and start knocking that out and maybe your physical situation. I mean, you can do this. Your mother's 92. What's her health situation? Her health is huge and awesome. And she she hasn't really gone to the doctor in over 40 years. I love that. She's like a freak of nature.

She is. I mean, you know, she turned 92 today. Now every once in a while she'll say she's 102. And I'll go, you don't have to put that many out. But she has always been, I grew up with no processed sugar, no processed flour, no TV. Well, here's the deal, Ann. Our time is running out.

I understand. And so, Jade, I want to give you the final word here. I mean, she can make money, needs to start making money right now. Yeah, you're only 56 years old. You've got a lot of working years, a lot of working years ahead of you. And I also want to know about this farm. Are you set to inherit this farm? I know you said the other kids are estranged. Tell me what the deal is with that.

Well, we got 40 seconds. Yeah, tell me in 10 seconds. We have a trust and it's me. Okay, great. So here's what I want. Like, in an ideal world, I hope your mom does live till she's 102. But I really want you to get yourself out of this survival state and into a more like...

homeostasis state of being with your life. Because when the come time, time comes that you inherit this money, I don't want you to be in this mode of like survival because then that money is going to go like that. You're going to sell that farm and it's not going to be the blessing you want it to be. So spend these next 10 years getting yourself an order like Ken Coleman just told you. And I think that that money and that farm will end up being a great blessing to you.

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And you just don't want to wing that. And so a great, great link there for all of you. RamseySolutions.com slash market. Or again, the link is in the show notes. However, you are participating in the show. All right, let's go to Caleb, who joins us now in Orlando, Florida. Caleb, how can we help? Hey, guys. Thank you. I think it's clicking my call. You bet.

So just a quick question. Me and my wife, we just finished the

The Financial Coach Master Training. We use every dollar. We're very familiar with the show. Our issue isn't so much that we, I guess, don't manage our money properly. It's more of an issue of the income versus the outcome. And we've minimized the outcome as much as possible. We only have $17,000 worth of student loan debt. That's the only debt that we have.

we currently have. We got rid of our credit cards. Just really trying to get ahead. We feel like we just simply need to make more money, but that's becoming very difficult. I recently tore my ECL. We recently welcomed our first child. She came five weeks early. She's only a month old.

So just trying to get ahead, like in this crazy market and just kind of looking for some advice about that. All right. Well then let's take your word for it that this is an income issue. And so let's look at what your combined income is or was. If your wife is, is she deciding at this point to stay home? Is she going to go back? Give me the financial picture prior to baby. What was the income?

Is she planning to go back?

So, yes, if she has to. The goal is she's currently putting in for remote positions, but it took us six months to find the jobs at Florida. We went six months when we moved here without a job at all. It took us that long to find anything. Okay, so was $60,000 the combined income or just yours? Yes, that's the combined. So how much was hers of the $60,000?

closer to the 20, 25 of that. Okay, so if we don't want her to go back to work, we've got to replace 25. Let's be aggressive in your numbers. So we've got to replace 25. And that gets you to 60. And the 60, you're saying you cut it to the nub and 60 was barely getting you guys by. Yeah, how much margin did you have in your budget when you're paying off debt? How much is extra going towards the debt? So right now, we're paying the minimum payment on the student loans.

which we would like to be attacking that more. But with the monthly income versus the monthly outcome between our rent, car insurance, stuff like that, it's just, I mean, we're very-

On the same. We didn't have any like we were very, very lucky to not have any like credit card debt or anything like that. We've always like managed to pay that off. And then we got the credit card. So what'd you do to your leg? What'd you say that was? I tore my ACL. Yeah. Yeah. OK. I heard something else. I was like, I'm not sure I've heard that one. Well, listen, have you had surgery on it?

I have not yet, no. Okay. That's brutal. My oldest son went through it, so I watched him go through it. I know it's tough. However, on the other side of the surgery, after about a week, week and a half or so, you can work. And I assume you knew what we were going to say. But, bro, you're only making $35,000. I'm not knocking you. But the answer to your question is more money. Okay.

If you guys have taken financial coach training with us, then you know the ins and outs. You got a pretty low amount of debt. $17,000 is peanuts compared to what most people are carrying in debt. You said you've cut your expenses to the absolute bone. So this is an income issue. And an able-bodied guy, and I know you got an ACL, but you're still able-bodied. You're going to be fine. You got to get a job and you're looking north of 60. That's what you're looking for.

Because that's going to give you some margin. You know, and you know, you guys were 60 together. So north of 60 gives you a little bit of margin. So the question is, what can you do? Can you do a trade?

Yeah, we used to do car detailing and I also have a construction background. It's just been incredibly difficult to find connections in this area. Like I said, it took us six months just to get a job at Publix. Like the market in Orlando is ridiculous. And I'm hearing that from... What do you mean it's ridiculous? Hard to find a job?

Yeah, like we put in, and this is no joke, like we were putting in hundreds of applications a week. Yeah, I got news for you, Caleb. You're not going to like the sound of this at all. But sending hundreds of applications out and with no connection to anything, you might as well be trying to spit in the wind in a convertible going 90 miles an hour. That's how effective that is. It's like playing the lottery.

I'm going to put out hundreds of applications. Listen, I've coached this before. And Kayla, I'm not beating up on you. I'm just telling you, people think rightly so. Well, I sent all these applications. I heard nothing back because that's the only exchange. But you've got to get out in your car and drive up to construction sites. What did you do in construction? What was the actual skill set that you had?

Mainly sheetrock. Bro, don't tell me you can't hang sheetrock all over Orlando, greater Orlando. If I came down to Orlando today...

See, I can catch a flight probably in about an hour. It means I'd get in around 5. I could drive around construction sites with you and get out and say, get over here, Caleb. And I'm going to walk in and I'm all slick and I look like a city slicker. I got white tennis shoes on. I could still walk into there and go, hey, who's in charge of this operation? I am. Some dude would tell me I'm the contractor. Okay.

How's your sheetrock crew? You got a good sheetrock crew? You got any losers on there that are all drugged up and they miss three days a week? How about my guy, Caleb? This guy's responsible. He's got a baby at home. He's got a bum knee, but he's going to be full speed in about three weeks. Guy can hang sheetrock with his eyes closed. You got any work for Caleb?

Well, I do or I don't, but I got a buddy who does. I'm telling you, Caleb, you got to get in the truck and start driving around to construction sites. And you got to tell your story. And you will get work. Okay.

None of this, I've sent out applications and it took me six months to get a job at Publix. Yeah, because you were playing the lottery. You're actually lucky you got a job at Publix. That is true. You got to get some boots on the ground. I know I'm a little fired up on this, Jade, but like this is an income issue. And if you can hang sheetrock, then you can hammer a nail.

and you can do about six other things. Or even the detail, the car detail. I feel like you've got a couple of skills and a couple of businesses that are just sitting in your pocket. You said that you detail cars. You said that you did the FPU or I'm sorry, the, the, the coaching. I'm like, put this stuff to use. You got to go out and make it, make it talk. I love that you did the coaching thing, but you just signed up for a straight commission job that you got to go beat the pathway for. And as much as I love that, I think you'd be better off hanging sheet rock, uh,

detailing cars while you're not at Publix. You got to replace your wife's income. Bottom line. Like 25 grand, dude. Now. And so you got to go do it. Caleb, listen, I am for you and I'm not mad at all, but I'm going to tell you something with a baby. It's time for you to get out there and hustle, bro. You got people relying on you and you are letting life happen to you and you need to happen to it. In fact, are you working today at Publix? No.

No, sir. Get in the truck right now or the car and drive around five different places that are building right now and stick your nose out there and give somebody your cell phone. And for all those applications you sent out, you ought to be making as many trips around. So if you've done 100 applications, make 100 trips in the next 30 days to construction sites and watch what happens. You've got to get after it now.

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All right, time for our Ramsey Show question of the day, which is brought to you by YRefi. Defaulted private student loans can feel like a wall you'll never be able to climb, but YRefi may be able to help you get over it. They'll work with you to explore a payment plan.

tailored to your situation, you can go to YRefi.com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y. R-E-F-Y.com slash Ramsey. It may not be available in all states. All right. Today's question comes from Randy in Delaware. He says, I've been seeing a lady for over a year and she has borrowed over $1,700 from me that she has not paid back.

I'm a single father with over $20,000 in debt. My wife passed away and I'm living on just my salary. I have a nine-year-old son and my daughter is 24. I am serious about this lady, but it bothers me that she has not fulfilled her promise to pay back

my $1,700 after nine months. How do I approach her about this concern? Randy. Listen. Oh man, Randy. Sometimes I read these questions ahead of time and sometimes I don't because I just want to feel the impact in the moment. What are you feeling right now? I'm feeling impacted. Yeah, how? Well, it's two parts to this, Randy. There's two parts to this. A,

You lent her the money. And whenever you loan money, there's always a risk, right? There's a risk that the person's not going to repay it. That's the biggest risk. And then the secondary risk is that because they don't repay it, or even if they do, it will affect the relationship in some adverse way, right? Those are the two biggies of why we say don't loan money. And you hit the nail on the head on both of them. Number one, she's kind of being a scrub and not paying the money back.

And how are you supposed to feel good about this relationship? Because now it has the ability to create like a little bit of bitterness. You take her out on a, Randy takes, let's call her, you know, Sheila. Randy takes Sheila out on a date. Let's call her Sally. Randy takes Sally out on a date. He's not going to feel good about picking up her steak dinner. He's already bothered. He's already bothered. Okay. I'm going to talk to Randy like I would be talking to Randy if he showed up here and we had a cup of coffee.

I would look at Randy and I'd say, Randy, I'm going to tell you what the problem is. You are serious about this woman, Sally, aren't you? And he'd go, yeah, I'm serious about it. I go, yeah. And she knows it, doesn't she? And he would go, she knows it. She's not paying the 1700 back ever because Sally, is that her name? Sally. Sally. Sally Sheila. Sally Ride. Sally is banking on.

closing the deal. Is this what you think? I know. I know what's going on. He has made her feel like she's the one. He told us in a simple email that he is serious about her. She knows he's serious. She thinks the 1700 is already their money and he's going to forgive it because he's going to put a ring on it. I don't know. Sally could be a Rolling Stone. Sally could be a Rolling Stone that's like, hey, I'm just here for a little while.

All right. Let me flip this for a second. I might get in trouble for this with you, but I'm going to do it. Okay. Get in trouble. If you and Sam were dating, okay, this is not you and Sam real life, but this is you and Sam. Okay. This is male, female. Got you. Got you. And Sam loaned you $1,700 and you had not paid it back. Same deal. Nine months. Mm-hmm.

You're a human being. This isn't a Jade or Sally. This is a human being and a woman who feels like her man is serious about her. Are you going to be in a hurry? Is any woman going to be in a hurry to pay the $1,700 back? I think if I really was like... If you think that you guys are going to be an item and get married? If I was on, like, if I was dating Sam, that means I'm like, I've got respect.

And not that I would ever do this, but if I had borrowed money, I feel like it's a great opportunity for me to show what type of person I am. If you think he's going to pop the question, you're going to pay that back? If you think you're going to be two instead of one? Come on. This is a human question. I'll tell you, it's hard for me to put myself in that position because I can't even imagine being in that position. I'm going to tell you what's going on.

This woman feels like he's in love with her. And because he's in love with her, she doesn't have to pay the money back because it's their money. There's a guy in the lobby with his thumb up in the air. He knows I'm spitting truth right now. But then why would they even like... That's why he should have never lent her the money. But why would they even come up with those terms if they were on that level? At that point, it's just like... There's no terms. Well, he's clearly saying like she was supposed to pay it off within a...

within a term because it's been past nine months. No, it wasn't a term. He's saying here, it's been nine months. Where's my money, honey? Yeah. But the problem is she said to him in a moment of weakness, I need $1,700, baby. But my point is this. My point is- And he gave it to her and now she's never going to pay it back. Ken, you don't go 2015 Rihanna talking about pay me what you owe me. Don't act like you forgot to the woman you love and want to marry. You don't.

You don't do that. I know. That's what, well, but that's the point I'm making. He needs to reconcile the fact he's never getting this money back. So he needs to close the deal. Close the deal. And then get rid of the resentment. Or it's going to end badly is what I'm getting at. My point is, is I'm not throwing shade at Sally Sheila or whatever you called her. I'm saying, I think this is a pretty typical human behavior when you're in a pretty close relationship.

He's the last person she's thinking about paying back. Oh, here's my other point. You don't borrow money. I know. Yeah. He's already done it. So I'm saying to him, pal.

You need to marry this woman. I think I'm just going out here on a limb. Because he's not getting the money back. Okay. I'm the exact opposite. I think she's a Rolling Stone. I think that he's vulnerable because he's gone through a lot and found a nice looking lady. And she might have taken a little bit of advantage, but she has no aim to stick around. Okay. Would you also agree she probably has other debts? Yes.

Yeah. That are much bigger than what she owes this poor schmuck. That's what I'm saying. He's never getting the money back. Okay. That's all I'm saying. He's not getting it back. He's not getting it. He ain't getting it. Audience, hands up if you agree with me in the lobby. Look at this. This is real time. Wow, you guys are really giving this lady a lot of credit. I'm giving her zero credit. I'm just saying she's not, she's never paying it back. That's what they agree with me. No, she's not. Like, I agree. She's never paying it back. But I also don't think they're getting married. Raise your hand if you think they're going to actually end up getting married.

Okay. See, there you go. There you go. So. Well, now in this case, he, uh, well, now this changes everything. So I wouldn't even go on that far down the road. I was telling him to cut his losses. But now if like they cut their relationship losses, he needs to do that sooner rather than later. But I think he's smitten.

Yeah. Well, she's shown a piece of, I feel like she's, if what you're saying is true, I feel like she's shown a piece of herself because there's a little integrity there because they're not married yet. He hasn't even proposed yet. It'd be one thing if it was his fiance. He doesn't even

proposed. If you borrow money, you should pay it back, whether it be to a credit card company, your grandma, whoever it is, if you borrow money, pay it. But relationship 101 here. You shouldn't even borrow money or lend money to your fiance. You would agree with that? I would agree with that. I am a...

Like, I have a hard line on that. I think that if you would like to give someone money and you have the money to give, you should give it. In his case, it doesn't even sound like he didn't. He clearly did not have the money to give. That's why he made it alone. And I think that's when you get into hot water is if you don't have it to give, sometimes you can't give it.

Yeah. And that's just hard when people you love are asking. If Stacey and I were dating and she asked me for money, I'd say, honey, you got to marry me because it's all yours at that point anyway. Until then, I'm not loaning you a nickel. I mean, I'm just telling you. I'll tell you what Sam Warshaw did do. What did he do? This is terrible. This is a bad... Oh, this is great. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Don't do this. This is... He...

Okay, my car, I was driving a Jeep Liberty and the AC and the heat on it was bad. And so when winter came, my heat wasn't working. And he got in my car and was like, you've been driving around like this? And I'm like, yeah. He's like, I'm going to get you a car. And I thought he was being a hero. He co-signed a car for me. This is pre you guys getting out of debt. This is pre us getting, no, we weren't even married. We weren't even married. Oh, you were dating. Yeah.

He co-signed a car for me. We were just about to get engaged. This is all part of your story. Yeah. This is all part of you seeing the light, paying off half a million. That's why I'm saying like you might be right that he was smitten because I think that a guy like love goggles will make you do anything. That's what Sam did with you. Yeah. But it's a good thing I married.

That's a fact. Married him. Otherwise, he would be up the creek. Here's the problem with our guy. What's this guy's name? Randy. Randy. Listen, here's the problem. Every guy wants to be the knight on the horse. Exactly. Knight in shining armor. And it's one of our kryptonite problems. And this girl bat her eyes at him. And she cried.

and he swooned and gave her $1,700 and he might as well lit it on fire. All right. Not getting that money back. Just don't do it ever. It muddies any relationship, whether it's romantic or any kind of relationship. Don't give friends or family a loan. Most phone plans are like bad roommates. Unpredictable, always asking for money, hard to get rid of, and they never do the dishes. But

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This is the Ramsey Show, where America comes to have a conversation about their money, their profession, and their relationships. All three of those areas are very tied together. One's not working. They tend to affect the others. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. The phone number is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225 is the number. Let's go to Lisa in Detroit. Lisa, how can we help?

Hey, I'm calling in because my husband, he entered into a debt consolidation program. He has about $30,000 in debt. We are not in the program together. And I was wondering if there's any alternative or way out of this. To give a quick breakdown, again, he has $30,000. I'm not included. I have about $13,000 in debt. I'm on a fixed income secondary to a disability. I'm in end-stage renal failure. We have five kids, no savings.

And I don't know where to go from here. Gosh, I'm so sorry. Send me anywhere you can help. Okay. I'm sorry you're going through what you're going through. It sounds like unbearably tough. Five kids. Is there a reason that yours wasn't included? Can you give me just some more insight as to how you guys are thinking through this? Because that was my first question. Why just his and not yours? Not that it was a good choice. I'm just wondering.

Yeah, first of all, I didn't know about his debt. We don't have our credit. We don't have a joint account. He has his own credit cards. I have all mine. And he maxed all his out without my knowledge. So he tried to fix the problem and went into this program. And I feel like it's made everything worse because...

His credit just keeps decreasing and decreasing, and I feel like we're going to be stuck for the next 10 years now. Okay. Okay. So there's the marriage side of it where there was a lack of trust and trust was broken there. So right now you're still keeping the money separate. What's...

It's hard for me to talk about this one thing and not talk about your marriage, Lisa. So what's the deal with the marriage? Are you guys, do you forgive him? Have you guys fixed this? Are you going to counseling? Are you leaving him? Like what's, tell me what's up. Well, he has one chance left on this death that he has occurred as secondary to gambling. Okay.

Okay.

But we do still have a nine and a 12-year-old. Okay. And a 17-year-old that's younger. Okay. So you've done the right thing in keeping the money separate because of the gambling. I think that was the right move. So let's think about...

Knowing what we know, which is like you said, he's on this is the last chance. And if this doesn't work out, you're going to, you know, peace out. So let's first talk about this 13,000, right? Because the money is separate as of now because of the gambling. What are what are you earning? And let's talk about what it would mean to pay that money off.

Okay, right now I earn about $4,700 a month. Okay. That's take home from Social Security. And that's my total debt is the $13,000. I have no other income. I don't have any retirement. I don't have any savings. And do you have margin out of that $4,700? No. After all your bills are paid?

Well, I pay the mortgage, which is pretty high. It's about $3,200 a month. And he pays all the utilities. And how much does he make? He makes bring home about $500 a week. Okay, so he only makes $2,000 a month? Right. Wow. Okay, so there's the issue. Is he working 40 hours a week? 40 plus, yes. What's he do?

He works at a steel factory. The thing is, is that he borrowed out of his retirement without me knowing. So there's $200 a week that comes out for his retirement loan. How much was the total loan? The total loan for the retirement total, he's done it over a few different times. No, how much did he take out total? $2,000.

So $25,000 out of that. Okay, $25,000. So what I think, and you guys have to sit about this, but I kind of think, Lisa, you're in charge of the money from now on. Not just your money, but all of the money. Because if he even takes the $2,000, he's a recovering addict.

Right. So it's not wise for him to have even the money that he's earning in his possession to make decisions with. That's what I would say. So going from there, I think, I mean, that's a decision you guys have to make tonight. Is that something that's possible? He's sitting right there, isn't he? Yeah, he is. He's sitting right here. Can he hear us? Yeah.

I took it off speakerphone.

I agree with Jade. I couldn't agree more, actually, that he needs to relinquish all control of money because he's broken so much trust. And the only way to build it is to take his hands off of it and behave and get healthy and let you manage the money. Are you guys? But I would just say this from an income standpoint. What did you say about your professional status?

Oh, bless your heart. So you can't do much, correct? Okay. Now I have, I feel like I'm coming in with a wrecking ball and I apologize, but I really am saying this because I want you to find some peace in the time that you have.

A big issue guys right now. So there's the gambling, right? And there's the issues going on between you guys relationally. But financially, the biggest issue, like the biggest elephant in the room is your mortgage. Yeah, it's too much. It's half of your income. It's half of your combined income.

And we just bought the house and I had the money to put down. I had to save up the money, but I put a lot of it towards renovations, which wasn't smart when we first moved in. Instead of putting it on credit, I spent like a new deck. I paid $20,000 cash for it. I made some really bad decisions. How long ago is just bought? What does that mean? A year, one year.

So, yeah, that honestly, I'm just being I'm being your your best friend right here. Just telling you the truth that is.

Is not going to change like the weight that you're feeling from this is not going to change because that's your mortgage. And unless you can find a giant chunk to put on this thing and, you know, try to recast it so that the payment works this it's it's not going to work for you because you won't have margin to pay off the debt, whether it's the 13000 or the 30000.

And so there's two major pieces of this financial equation. One, the house. I think you need to consider selling it and downsizing into something that you can't afford. And then this other piece is, what's your husband's name? You can make up a name if you want. Jonathan. Jonathan has got to earn more money. He's got to double his income at the very least this year.

because he's like barely bringing anything in. And so those are, financially speaking, those are the two big dogs that you need to contend with. Secondarily, yeah, both of you need to be in counseling. Obviously he needs to be in counseling and therapy for the gambling addiction, but you do too, Lisa, because this is really affecting you. Plus you've got this end stage renal failure that is definitely taking a toll on the decisions you're making.

And since he's there, you can tell him I said this, he has got to get his income up. Part of the deal of paying you back and earning trust is he needs to earn some more money to dig this mess out.

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Okay, so my question is, I have a debt with Chrysler Capital. I leased a truck in 2016. I turned it in 2020. I was way over in the mileage. They would not sell me the truck, which I was counting on them doing because it had over 100,000 miles on it. So I turned the truck in.

They told me I owed them $91,255. So I started the debt snowball in March of 2022. I had $125,000 in debt. And year to date, I paid off all my credit cards, and now I have $49,568. So I paid off about $60,000, $70,000. Okay. So I called Chrysler Capital, and I wanted to make a one-time payment.

payment and, you know, pay it off, say, look, if this went to debt collection, you're going to get $0.10 on the dollar. That's, you know, if it's $49,000, debt collection is going to give you $5,000. I said, right now, I will give you $7,208. And that, if I gave them that, I would have paid the full sticker price for the truck, plus

$12,156, all my lease payments paid on time, plus $79,011, which would be over $65,000. I think that's really, really fair. So they came back and they said, well, we could do $20,000. I said, don't you get it? I want this over and done with.

The reason I want to open done with this being closed in October, I have to get a full knee replacement and I'll be out of work for three months. So I'm trying to wrap this up. So she said, well, hold on. She said, well, we can do 15,000. I said, you're not listening. I don't have 15,000. Well, you could send us $7,208 and make payments. I said, I'm not doing that.

I said, I'll call you back in a week. I'll call him back in the next week. I said, so what are we doing? She goes, best I can do is $15,000 and you can make payments. I said, so send me something in writing. And they absolutely refused to send me anything in writing as a payoff that my debt's been reduced to $15,000. If I call them up and ask what my balance is, it's still $49,568. Can you go down there to the place where you bought it and have this conversation in person? No.

No. Well, I'm dealing with Chrysler Capital, so they're in Texas. Okay. I live in Indiana. I'm a native New Yorker. I grew up in New York, and I moved to Indiana during COVID because my friend was working as a CNA. That's an essential job, and I didn't have any work. So I started here as a CNA.

Which is a temporary first time. How many? I didn't pass the state. How many times have you gone? That's okay. How many times have you gone back and forth to get this thing in writing? I called. The 15,000. Yeah. She says, I can't do it. I'm sorry. You have, she's on this. And supposedly she's a financial manager. I only talked to her. Right, right, right. And she can't get you something in writing? No.

She she says, no, you have to pay it off first and then we'll then I'll get it approved. I said, so you have nothing. I said, you're you're saying me you need all the money. I said, don't you understand? I've been paying you six hundred dollars a week since April of twenty twenty four. Yeah. What's the problem? And so when she when when you ask her, hey, why can't you just email me, you know?

Right. What does she say? She says she can't do it. Yeah. She doesn't want to work with you. I mean, you figured that out. She does not. So can you request somebody else when you call in? Can you say, I want to speak to a different agent or I want to speak to somebody else on the phone? Well, you know, she is a financial manager, so I don't know the next step up. I don't know who I have to ask. I would tell her, I'd be like, give me the next person on the line because you and I can't work together anymore. We've hit an impasse. Right.

Right. Yeah, I could do that. That's what I would do. We don't have any tips or tricks on this one. This is just pure belligerence. Yeah. They get tired of dealing with you. You know, sometimes when you call in, you can tell by the person that picks up like this person is not going to help me today. You know, you can just tell they just don't have the get it factor. And it might.

It could be that she's made this personal for some reason and she just is not going to help you. And so it could mean, let me let somebody else handle it. Cause he, and reminder, Hey, all these calls are recorded. I'm recording these calls to tell her, tell her I'm recording every single call because when this goes down, I'm going to have my proof of everything that you've said. And just remind me as be as much of a bully to her as she's trying to be to you and then demand to speak to somebody else.

Right. Right. And this is going to be this. You're going to have to pull teeth to get this done. Yeah, I'm going to have to stay on her. You might have to use some of that New York charm of yours, if you know what I'm saying. I got plenty of that. I can tell. Do you have a cousin Vinny by any chance?

Oh, well, just so you know, I grew up with all Italians. So that's as far as I'm going to go. I knew it. I had a feeling, Eric. I would be talking about some of these cousins of yours that are not great citizens, if you know what I'm saying. Yeah. She doesn't want to know how you broke your knee. I got a deal you can't refuse. You know, Eric?

Right. Yeah. Man, listen, I wish we had seven tips and, you know, this is not a term. But here's my question, so I should keep paying them. Well, you're on the hook for the lease. You're on the hook for the lease. So paying it down is only going to...

there's two sides of this. And here's the thing. As long as you continue to make the payment, they're like, okay, this guy's making the payment. They don't care. They just want you to pay the thing off. I've never had any experience with this kind of thing. So I don't have the foggiest idea of what his options are. I've not either. I mean, once, once something enters collections and it's like, Hey, it's no longer with Chrysler capital. It's with somebody else. That's when they know they're not getting their money. Right.

The fact that these are still the people that you took the original loan with, that might be why they're giving you so much. They're not incentivized, Eric, to get out of this deal because you're not delinquent. Right. And I'm not telling you to intentionally miss payments or something like that, but I am telling you that...

default is usually that's the point where it's like, we're not getting money from this guy. They sell that debt off. And then at that point, anything that they get is whipped cream. So I just don't think you're at that point. I think that's why they're struggling to make a deal with you. Yeah, I agree. So they told me when I said that to her, I said, I know how this works. Is it just going to collection? She said to me, and I think she was being honest. She said,

Well, no, it's not going to collections. We're going to handle everything in-house. So they do have a legal department. And at one point, I did get a lawyer to try to...

you know, to get the debt reduced. And my nuts, my not so broke brother-in-law used to be a lawyer. So, um, but on what bounds would that be? I mean, was there anything that was wrong that took place or did you just beat the heck out of this truck? No, I, I, I was, my game plan was to buy the truck, finance the truck when the, um,

When the lease was up. Okay, the lease is up. I want to buy the truck. You know, I'll give you a down payment and I'll make payments. You know, I, that, that was my game plan. Oh no, it's got more than a hundred thousand miles. So the same people that leased me the truck won't sell it to me after I made all my payments on time. Right. But was it in the, I'm asking, was it in the car? Like you signed a lease contract.

In the lease contract, there's nothing in there that says if it's over the mileage, they're not going to sell it to you. Nothing. I have a copy of the contract. Okay. Well, then, yeah, maybe you get your brother-in-law who's the lawyer to help you with this. No. He's retired. Well, but he's got nothing else to do. I'll be honest. I've never heard someone be on the hook for this much money after a lease gone bad.

Well, I went way over in the mileage. I mean, if you read the contract, it is, you know, it's legit. You know, they really have, they really can enforce it if they want. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You're not in good position. That's why I'm saying, but you were saying it wasn't in the contract. I'm like, something's in that contract that they're holding you to. Yeah, I think, again, I don't know.

We've given you our best advice. You got to try to get somebody else on the phone and see if you can get them to work with you. She's not going to play ball. By the way, she's not incentivized to do so. And if you truly think it's an illegalality, then get with a lawyer and see if they can look at it. Yeah. Yeah. I'd get that retired cousin. Vinny. Vinny. Get him on the phone. Vito. Yeah. All of them. Dude, if your name is Vito, you're a boss. I know. I wish my name was Vito. It'd be a much bigger deal.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. My friends, listen, I know it feels like the world is falling apart. And I know that we're all under huge pressure to perform and to look like we're keeping it all together at the same time. Here's the statistic that blew my mind. 76% of people globally agree that mental health care can help resolve personal problems, yet 6 out of 10 people still believe that society discourages people for asking for help. Here's the truth.

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Talk it out with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash D'Loni to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash D'Loni. Hey, so many of you have shared the show through whether it be podcasts, YouTube, it's

You're just sharing, sharing, sharing. We're so grateful for that. And that's how the show grows. It's just the algorithms and all of the things, the likes, the subscribes, the shares. So thank you for all of it. But we're very excited about it because we have made it easier now. Here in the month of June, we have launched the Ramsey 101 playlist on YouTube. So our YouTube channel is very, very popular. And the playlist...

is the basics. Think about, you know, your math 101. We're talking basic stuff on a college level course, if you will. And our playlist on YouTube is what are the baby steps, how to pay off debt with the debt snowball, how to build an emergency fund. As three really practical examples, we're talking just 101, how to win with our process. And

And that is on YouTube. And you can share it by clicking the link at the top of the show notes to open the Ramsey 101 playlist on YouTube. You can text it. You can DM it. You can send it in a group chat.

And you can just say something like, hey, thought this might help. Ramsey 101 playlist, super easy for people. One click and they're in. And it's very, very helpful. If you're listening on radio, by the way, you've got the playlist featured at the top of our YouTube channel. So here's our question for you, the audience today. Who's the one person you're going to share the playlist with? Think about it.

It was a person who's not familiar with it, with our content, with our show, but they're struggling financially. Jade, who are you thinking? Who you got? We'll put you on the spot. I'm really thinking through this, and I don't know very many people that don't know about Rams. I'm always telling people about what we do around here. You don't have a friend down in South Florida? They all know. Those folks really know. All right. I'm trying to think who it could be. What about you? Classmate on Facebook? No.

No, I'm not on Facebook. I'm not going to retro back to high school for this one. Who would I share it with? I'll tell you what, I'm going to share it with a couple of my son's buddies that are in college. That's a great idea. Because they're new into this. They're beginning to slowly, you know, get some independence financially. They're working hard.

he's a, he's a rising sophomore, maybe some of his buddies. That's a great idea. I don't have their cell numbers, but I have to get them from him. But yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah. Somebody young, somebody young. When we get this information to somebody in their teens and early twenties, and if they get it, it's a game changer. So absolutely. That's my choice. Uh, let's go to Jose in Austin. Jose, how can we help today?

Hi, thank you for taking my call. I'm 24. I have two kids. I make about $70,000 a year, and my girlfriend makes about $40,000 a year. We're currently renting at the moment, and it's pretty cheap. It's like $1,000 a month. It's a three-bedroom, two-bath. It's actually like one of our friends, but we've had some complications with the house.

There was, like, mold growing, and the owners took care of it. And then my girlfriend wants to buy a house now that she has a job. She was a stay-at-home mom for the first two years with the kids, and I was the only one working. And now she got a job, and she's making about $40,000 a year. And now she's, like, persistent on getting a house, and she's kind of, like, kind of forced me to get a house. And then...

I'm kind of between getting house and between not. I've been listening to Dave Ramsey for about three to four months now. It was actually one of my coworkers who told me about it.

And I have about $17,000 on a car loan. I got it a year and a half ago. And I was thinking about selling it. But if I sell it, I'm only going to get like $15,000. And she needs a car to get to work. So it's kind of like boilers for me to sell it. She doesn't have a car at all?

She has a car now, which is a $17,000. I have a truck paid off already, but she has her car and it's $17,000 left. So that's about 400 bucks a month. And I've been trying to pay it off. And I also have like appliances and other stuff that we got whenever we first moved into the house. How much is that?

It's about, so I just paid off $800 last week, which is for our washer and dryers. I have like $600 left on my refrigerator and a microwave. Any other debt? And then $1,000 on Amazon, like a store card. Because we were pretty dumb and did Christmas shopping on there and bought a lot of stuff. What else?

And then all combined together, we have like $6,000 total in credit cards. Okay. So can I ask a couple questions just to clarify for me? The two kids, that's you guys' kids together, right? Both of them? Yes, ma'am. Both of our kids. And that's another thing about child care. We pay about $1,300 a month in child care. Okay. That's not bad. That's actually really good because how old are the kids? It's three and one. That's excellent. Usually it's double that. Okay.

And how long have you guys been together? We have been together for four years now. Four years. We were like just like boyfriend and girlfriend. And then once we had kids, we decided we've been together. OK, so if you don't let me let's take this layer by layer because there's a couple of layers I want to attack. One, I want to deal with the housing issue because you can't stay in a place where you said there's mold. Right.

Yeah, no, but they got a fix. It did get fixed. So it's not it's no longer an issue. OK, great. It's not an issue anymore, but she's still complaining. She's like, oh, this place is way too small. And it might be, but you're not ready to buy a house. So let's talk about that and then I'll go back to the other issues. You're not ready to buy a house for many reasons. A, you still have debt. B, do you have any money saved?

I have an emergency fund of $2,000. Okay, that's, that's, I'm glad that you have that. But that's not nearly enough to put as a down payment on a house. So the proper time and way to buy a house is you pay off all your debt first, you save up three to six months, so you've got that cushion, then you start saving up your down payment, and you save up your down payment until that house payment is

is in a comfortable spot, right? And we would recommend no more than 25% of your take home. So it's not eating your lunch every single month, right? So you guys have a while until you get to that point. That doesn't mean that you can't move out of this tiny apartment and get a bigger apartment, but you're definitely not ready to buy a house. Now let's talk about the big elephant in the room, which is why are you with this girl for four years and have two kids together and thinking about buying a house, but not marrying her? Yeah, I know. What's up with that, dude? Yeah.

I don't know. And honestly, it's on me. Yeah. Tell me more. So we did split up. We did split up for a while. We were split for like a year. Why? Yeah.

There are some things that happened in between and it's probably my fault. Okay, so it's on you? Not fully on me, but we weren't just getting along and, you know, we wouldn't say nice things to each other. So we were like, okay, you know what, I just feel like it's bad to grow up like the kids in this household.

Okay. We're constantly arguing, so I think it's best if we just go both ways. Okay. And then you got back together. And then we got back together because I guess we really loved each other. And we're like, you know what? We don't deserve to give this to our kids. You know, we decided to bring them into this life. Yeah. Did you do some counseling? Yes, we did. We're still doing counseling at the moment. I got it. Okay. To that end, I just want to jump in. Jade's got you on the money stuff, but I just am sensing something here. And I'm just going to ask you a question man-to-man here. Okay. Okay.

Are you taking the lead on financial stuff in the home? I know you're not married and it's not ideal, but you guys are doing a lot together. You need to have separate finances. That's what we teach here. But regardless of all that, does she follow your lead? Can you put a stop to making some unnecessary purchases at this time until you clean it up the way that Jade's led you? Or do you feel like you've got no sway? Yeah.

So that's the thing. Like, I'm hoping that she can hear this call. I'm hoping that it's out there so she can hear it. Cause she thinks that like, whatever you guys say, it's feeling like nonsense. And I've told her, like, no, like, I feel like we need to pay off. We can't pay off all of our debt, at least pay most of it because it takes up like a lot of our income at the end of the month. And,

And then I also was like, I want to have like 10 to $12,000 saved up after I don't. Yeah. Do you know why she thinks it's nonsense? Can you speak to that? Do you feel like you can or not?

Because if we know what the why is, then we can help combat that. I don't know. I really don't know why. I feel like she's very young. She's 21. I feel like she's a little bit immature at times and she doesn't see things my way. Listen, you're both young and you're both immature. Both the two of you together. You got to stop participating. So she doesn't have to agree with us.

That's not part of the deal. This is y'all's relationship, and there's a lot of muddy lines here, and I would say one of the things that needs to get clear pretty quickly is you go, I'm no longer participating in any debt, period. Yes. So that's what we're actually doing. We're not doing anything on credit. Everything's on cash. I've been listening to his audio books as well. Keep doing it. Keep going. And keep your money separate until you're married. Don't put anything in her name in your name. ♪

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Yeah. So the first step is you've got to get a budget to figure out where the money is coming and going. That's the deal. So we've got some free budgeting trainings this month. You can sign up for free at every dollar dot com slash webinar, every dollar dot com slash webinar. Now, this is free.

And you're going to learn step by step how to make a budget and then stick to it using EveryDollar. Sign up for free at EveryDollar.com slash webinar. All right, John is up in Denver, Colorado. John, how can we help?

Hey guys, my wife has joint ownership of a property worth about $20 million. Whoa. And yeah, I wasn't sure if maybe it's time to cash that out and start putting it to work for us as a family. And how would I, if I should even have that conversation with her? Well, you gotta tread lightly. So it's her and it's your wife and who else? Who else are the joints? It's my wife, her two sisters and her mother. Okay.

Okay. And what's the deal? Like, what do you know about it? Is it in a trust? And what's the timeframe? Exactly. It was in a trust for a while. The youngest sister just turned 18. So now it's, it can be sold. So, I mean, I just see it sitting there and it's like, maybe we should just take it now. Well, you know, I mean, I'm not expecting it to go down to nothing, but you know, that's enough to change our lives if we just cashed out right now. What's your wife saying?

She thinks that this property is going to be such a headache. She honestly almost wants nothing to do with it. And I'm just thinking, you know, for how much it's worth, it's worth dealing with. What's on it? Is it just land? It's just land. So you guys sell this. You make $5 million. Everybody makes $5 million. That's the deal, right?

Right. There's some capital gains, but yeah. Sure. Who's the one that doesn't want to pull that lever in the mix? I think they're all, my wife and all of their sisters are kind of just whatever about it. Why are they whatever about it? Because they have a weird dynamic about money and their family. And they honestly, I just don't think they want to deal with the potential of making their mother angry.

Why would selling it make their mother angry? Tell me, you're like... I feel like we're missing something. I know, this is like an onion. Tell us. Get right to it. I'm sitting here listening and listening and listening and I'm going, I don't think I've got the full story. So your wife's family is very wealthy. Is this it? Through this real estate and that's pretty much it.

Okay, so this is the one big nest egg. And what is... Explain the part about the mom being mad about them selling this now that they're of age. Explain that. Since she owns a share of it also, she is just... She sees it as almost like her legacy and doesn't want to see it go away. And she's always been really bad with money. She's gone through bankruptcy before. She's considered doing it a second time recently. And part of the issue... Part of the issue is that...

They are concerned that she will do some find some way to put this as leverage for, you know, collateral for another loan or something. All right. So let me. So, OK, so you're saying the share, if you sell this land, what would she stand to make her share?

Her share would be $5 million. Okay. All right. So your wife and the sibling, they're all worried what she would do with the $5 million?

No, they're worried that she might find some way because my wife and her siblings, they've never actually sat down and talked to the lawyers or read the will or anything. So they're worried that she might have some way to like weasel it into her name. And so that's why they're almost all just like, I don't know. How do you even know? How do you even know? How do you even know that this is theirs? We've been told by the mother-in-law. Oh, listen, I think that.

Here's what I think. And Ken, please weigh in. I think that and I'm not saying anything. Please understand, if I were in your shoes, I'd be having a lot of questions, too, because $5 million is not a little bit of money. It's a lot.

So I kind of think that you're sitting to the side, your eyes are getting big because you're seeing, oh, there's some potential here. But truly, there's no facts around the situation. It's odd to me that there's this major piece of possible money and no one's moving towards it. No one's reading the will. No one seems to care. I almost wonder if it

what's really going on. And so I feel like your homework is sit down with your wife and have the conversation say, hey, what the heck's going on with this $20 million property? Are we selling it? Are we going to read the will? Like, what's going on? Like, can you talk to your wife like that? Just candidly?

Yeah, and I have, and she's just said to me, you know, I don't expect to get anything from my mother when she passes. I don't expect to get anything from this. I just assume that this is going to be a non-factor in my life, so I just want nothing to do with it. But it's not even a thing of... How did it come up? How did it come up to where you called us and told us all of this stuff? Like, how did... This seems like something just popped up recently. Because the mother-in-law...

She talked to my wife recently, who then talked to me. She talked to my wife about potentially selling it and to pay off her debt. And, of course, my wife would get her share. And I wasn't around when this conversation happened where I would have been telling my wife, yeah, you should probably do this or really consider it. So when my wife finally told me, I was like, well, why didn't you say, yeah, let's do this? And she was just like, oh, I don't know. Okay. How many other siblings are involved? Two. Two. Okay. Okay.

I, first of all, we get these calls a lot. The details are different, but the scenario is the same. You're the brother-in-law. And by the way, it's funny. You, I mean, excuse me, you're the son-in-law and you keep going, the mother-in-law. You don't go, you never once on this call said that I heard my mother-in-law or whatever her name is. It's like the mother-in-law. So it feels like your wife's response sounds like a person who is

exhausted in the relationship with her mother, that there are probably some emotional boundaries that are there. And she's almost completely apathetic because she just, the idea of even dealing with mom on this doesn't even feel like it is worth it. Am I about right on this? Yeah, that sounds pretty accurate. Because in a normal situation, you'd be jumping. She would be like, yeah, mom, I'm thrilled to get my, my cut.

It sounds like she's resigned herself to say, even though I guess it's your father-in-law who left this land.

It was their grandmother, the father-in-law. I was not really in the picture. Okay, so it sounds like when the grandmother passed, left this land, even though it sounds like your wife is already entitled to her percentage of it, it sounds like your wife has just resigned to saying, hey, I'm not fighting this battle. Doesn't even want to look into it. I'm happier with just waiting until my mom passes, and then it'll just go directly to me, and then I don't have to fight her about this. That's what it sounds like.

Yeah, that's pretty accurate. And by the way, okay, so based on that, your position as her husband and the or one of the son-in-laws or whatever the situation is, you don't get a vote. You get to give an opinion to your wife. It's family business. But other than giving an opinion to your wife, there's nothing you can do. So, you know, should you encourage her? Sure. Sure.

Be great for you guys financially. But she's got to then corral the other siblings, I guess, or go to her mom and go, Mom, I think it's a great idea. I'm for it. But then who knows what the other siblings are going to say? Yeah, because at what point? The question is, how much are you willing to force the sale of this and possibly for your wife? That's the question. And possibly really mess with relationships. That's an interesting question. Do you have a good relationship with your mother-in-law?

It's okay. What does that mean? That's not an answer. We exchange pleasantries and we're friendly with each other. We talk. It's on a have-to basis. Have you ever had a fight or anything? No. Well, okay. My point is you're a grown man. And if you want to call your mother-in-law up. No, Ken. No, hold on a second. You didn't even let me finish before you disagree. If you want to call your mother-in-law up and go, hey, my wife said that you said this. Oh, no.

She asked me for input on this. What is the situation? Just listen. That's a normal conversation. He can totally do that. No, he can't do that. Why? Without the wife knowing? No, she would need to be okay with it. I didn't say behind her back. Oh.

Just say, hey, babe, you care if I bring the subject up and see where your mom's really at on this deal? Of course you've got to get buy-in from the wife. I don't know. I think this is a bad idea, Ken. No, it's not. It's called being an adult. And that's if your wife's okay with it, just to see where it sits. This aggression shall not stand. Look at the audience. They're saying thumbs down, Ken. Well, I have a good relationship with my mother-in-law. I could absolutely do that with my wife's approval. With the wife's approval. Did you guys not catch that?

I mean, even still, it's some dangerous territory. You know what? I reserve the right to be wrong, but you all are wrong. Buying and selling a home is a big deal, and you want an expert in your corner fighting for you to get the right deal at the right price. That's why we only recommend Ramsey Trusted Real Estate Agents. They're hand-picked pros who know their stuff, listen to your needs, and have your back.

back from the first call all the way to closing day. To find a Ramsey trusted agent near you, visit RamseySolutions.com slash agent. RamseySolutions.com slash agent. This is the Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about their money, their profession, and their relationships. All of those are intertwined.

And if one of them's off, it can make a mess. And we want to help you avoid a mess or get out of the mess. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. Phone number is 888-825-5225. Eric is up in Cincinnati. I'm super phonetical today, apparently. Eric, how can we help? Yes. Right now, me and my wife are in baby step two. And I'm

Wanting to know how long I should work a part-time job because we have a two-year-old toddler at home and my wife is also pregnant right now. Uh-oh. Wow. Do the end of August. Okay. So we have a little bit of a nest egg saved up and I'm wanting to get a part-time job to keep tackling the debt snowball. Perfect. Wanting to know how long I should do that. You should do it until you don't need to do it anymore. Yeah.

It's a part-time job, number one. So let me be more specific. Obviously, when baby comes, you're going to hopefully tell those folks, look, my wife is due at such and such time. And as a result, that's going to affect my ability, but I need this job, want this job. So given this, whatever you're

I got to be careful on this because the maternity leave for dudes is something that is a thing now. And I've never understood it. I get in hot water because people think I'm a caveman, but whatever that is on your day job and the same thing, tell them you got to communicate to them. But my point is, you know, to the extent that the wife will let you out of the house because you got a marriage first, that's the deal. I'd be working as much as I could to pay off this debt, you know? And so if the baby weren't in the picture,

The new one coming along, how long would you have anticipated needing to work this part-time job to get out of debt? That one would still be uncertain. We have about a little less than $89K in debt. And based on the map on the Every Dollar Act is what I really love using, it would be about three years for us to get out of that $89K debt. What's your income? What are you making with the part-time job right now?

Part-time job isn't solidified. I've got the interview Wednesday around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. What are you making now? My day job is about $26 an hour, doing 40 hours a week minimum. And what is that? And then my wife's day. Hey, do that math for me right quick and tell me what that is a month for you. I bring in about $2,300 a month after taxes and insurance. And what would the part-time job pay? $1,175 an hour. Doing what?

It's literally just a drive-thru convenience place that's literally two minutes from my house. Okay. I understand why you did that. It's a super close job. I get it, but you need to be making more. I think you can, too. $11 an hour is not a good exchange for this extra time to be away from Mama and the two little ones. Yeah. What do you know how to do? Is there something you can do on the side for people and set your price? You seem like a guy who knows how to do things.

Yeah, so my daytime job at the moment is a security technician and potentially I'm worth talking to another company that if God opens all the doors, I would turn into a programmer for security gamers and access control. Great.

I'm just telling you to spend any extra time away above and beyond because that's putting a strain on your wife. It's putting a strain on you. However, we're okay with this extra strain. That's why I immediately started off with you got to do this part-time job to bring in extra income as long as it takes because if mama's going to stay home –

even for the maternity leave, you need that extra income. And this is going to get you out of debt earlier while the kids are little. See, the two-year-old doesn't understand time.

So it's going to hurt your heart. Let's just be real. It's going to hurt your heart to be away from them. But you're doing it for a season. And I think a lot shorter season in three years. That's where Jade's going with this deal. She's trying to figure out your money thing. So let's keep going with Jade, but let's acknowledge that it doesn't make any sense to

For you to be doing a part-time job and making $11 an hour when you're worth 26 an hour at the baseline. Then you're going to, you will loathe being away from your family for $11. You're already not going to want to do it, but for that money, you are going to hate it. Great statement. You know? So, um, here's my thoughts on this. Um,

First off, you are in baby step two. You do have a baby on the way. So I do want to highlight this teaching because I think it's important. Any money that you do stack up during this time, you're kind of holding it and keeping it in a fund, a baby fund, just to make sure everything goes right with the pregnancy, everything goes right with the delivery. So just remember that we still want you grinding it, but just keep that money to the side. And then once the baby's born, then you throw it on whatever your smallest debt is. And yeah, I think that

to Ken's point, now's the time to really figure out what can you kind of crank up today that you can start making

making money, even if it's knocking on the doors in the neighborhood, that's really nice. That's around you and starting to it's summertime, start mowing lawn, like anything that you can set the schedule because that's the other thing that's going to give you peace when you have a little baby, having that control of saying, I get to set my schedule. I get to set my rate. That'll keep you doing these side hustles a little bit longer because you've got a really a three year, two and a half year train in front of you. And so, um,

So setting it up that way, I think, is going to help you long term. Yeah, I totally agree. Head down for a season and you guys can get there. All right. Let's talk about this. Yeah, I want to chop this up. Yeah. So let's talk about...

young couples babies on the way similar to this scenario and they're in baby step two there's a lot of new people joining us all the time there's the intensity we preach gazelle intensity if you haven't heard us talk about that before just a quick kind of metaphor you ever seen one of those nature shows you see a gazelle in the serengeti of the savannah trying to get away from that lion right it is everything they got to get away

And this situation comes in here. I want your thoughts on this because I know my thought is just do whatever. Yeah. As long as the wife is not yelling at you and come home, help me. You know, she needs help as well.

what's the level of intensity like in that scenario from your point of view, not as just a money expert as a woman. I think it's a, it's a mental shift because, and I'm going to speak on this from a little bit of a different perspective. I think what happens is we go babies on the way. Family's my first priority. Yeah.

And yes, family is your first priority, whether it be your marriage part of the family, then your kids part of the family. Right. It's usually one and two. Right. But then we really forget. And our mind immediately goes to the way I show that something is a priority is I spend time with it.

When really there's this whole part of it that's like, hey, what are the different ways that you value a priority? If you say your family's a priority, there are more than one ways to show that. Time is just one of the many. Another way that I show that my family's a priority is I take care of my body. I eat healthy. I make sure I'm going to be here for the long haul, right? Another way I take care of my family and make sure that they're the priority is I go out and work and make sure the lights stay on and that there's food on the table and that tuition is paid, right? So,

Instead of laser focusing in on this one small aspect of what makes a priority a priority, which is time, we have to look at the seasonal component and say, well, in some seasons, time could be a priority. In other seasons, going out and grinding that axe and making some money, that's the priority. And that's how I prioritize my family. And so depending on what your financial situation is, that really does speak to how you bullet point

how to make that a priority. But you got it with the relational component is you got a wife at home with a couple of babies. You got to smooth that one out. You got to smooth it out. You might, but have that conversation with her and then she'll start to say, oh, okay, I see. Yeah. He does prioritize us. And that's a vision casting. I love that you laid that out. Just cast a vision, short season. We're going to do this. Here's what life is going to look like on the other side. Get some buy-in. Don't have to be a caveman about it.

You spend hours researching before making a major purchase like a home or car, but it's also a good idea to put in the work searching for the right insurance coverage. To protect your biggest assets, I recommend using Ramsey Trusted Pros. Whether you're looking for car, home, or any other type of insurance, Ramsey Trusted providers have been coached and vetted to serve you like we would. Find what you need at RamseySolutions.com slash

All right, Springfield, Missouri is where we're going next. Aiden is joining us there. How can we help? Hi, my name is Aiden Thompson, and I need some advice on how I can control my money better and finance it better with my fiancé because we are struggling to figure out ways to pay our bills the correct way.

Okay. Our bills, does that mean you guys are sharing finances before getting married? In theory, yes. We have separate accounts and everything, but we're trying to, in theory, control them as one set of separate people. So you're living together? Yes. Is this a rent or a home mortgage? This is a rent. We live in an apartment. Okay. What do you guys make?

I make probably about $800 a month, and she probably makes about $400 a month. Okay, well, there's your problem. $1,200 a month? That is, I mean, you barely can live in a cardboard box for that. How old are you? I'm 22. 22. What do you do for a living? Well, I have three jobs. I work at two restaurants, and then I just got a third job today. Okay, time out. I'm firing you. You are not doing much work at all.

$800 a month is what you're bringing in with three jobs? Roughly. I just got my third job today. How many hours are you working? I'm working at one of my jobs about 30 hours, and then I'm about to quit my second job. Okay. So can you tell us what they are so that we can let them know about themselves live on the air? Because anybody that's not paying to work 30 hours and you're not even... Are you waiting tables?

Basically, yes, but I just bring out the food. Okay, listen, dude. Oh, gosh. How old are you again? 22. Okay. You need to go get a job at a grocery store or Walmart or somewhere else where you're making way more than you're making now. Amazon Flex. Yeah. Anything else. Like, you bringing out food, I don't know if you've done the math on that, $800 divided by 30 hours ain't much. All right? Mm-hmm. Okay.

That's crazy to me. So you call, and I appreciate that you call, but you need some income. And so you're shooting for $15 an hour, $12 an hour, $20 an hour. I mean, anything more than what you're making right now. And what is she doing for $400 a month? She is an at-home CNA nurse. How many hours is she working? Three?

She works about probably four to five because she only has one client right now. Okay, what is she doing with the rest of her time? She does like door dashing and all to make up the extra money that we can't. And how much does she make from that? Because you said she makes 400 bucks. Is that total? She's not what I'm aware of. Probably. She's not working, Aiden. Can she, instead of trying to build up her own book of business, can she go work for a company that will...

do work for hire for her like care doctor like she probably um she can we've talked about trying to get her a better paying job because she loves what she does but this job that i've tried talking her about isn't working her what she's not actually doing it that's yeah that's the problem she might love the idea of doing that work which is great she's just got to actually go out and be able to do that work because what you're describing is just a couple of hours a whole for the whole week

So either she needs to get with a company that will send her out on jobs or she needs to get very, very serious about getting on all the sites that would book her as, you know, individually to come out and be a care nurse. Yeah. Are you stumped right now? I'm just doing some math over here. I didn't want you to think I left you hanging. I'm just doing math. He's making 26 bucks a day. Yeah. 26 bucks. Yeah.

You can do that. You can triple that today just by mowing lawns. It's summertime. Just by going out and be like, can I, do you see what I'm saying? I just want you to, I don't want you to fall into just this pattern of, well, this is what I got. And,

And that one's not enough. I'll just go get another one just like it and just keep stacking up these bum jobs. I want you to go, this is not good enough for me. Like I'm a hard worker. I'm a smart guy. Like I deserve more than this. And look for the opportunity. And if you can't find it, start creating it for yourself. Get in the car and go to construction sites and say, I'd be willing to be a laborer.

That means you're carrying bricks around. You're carrying drywall, I mean, excuse me, plywood and throwing it up to these guys. I did this as a 19-year-old. You can make more money as a laborer on a construction site than you can carrying out food. Do you understand what I'm saying, Aiden? I need to hear something from you.

Yeah, I completely understand what you're saying. Is there a reason why you've not gone after these things? Did Jade hit the nerve here where you just think, well, I live in a small town, there's not a lot there, I got what I got, and it's just not getting me through? What's going on in your mind around making more money? Okay.

Well, I have a side business on my own, but I've applied to other companies because I did work for a mowing company at the beginning of the summer, but they let me go because I got injured and they didn't want to keep me for however long I was going to be gone from my injury. What were you making when you were mowing lawns for them?

I was making $16 an hour. Boom. So you're healthy. Go back to them. And if they won't take you, go somebody else. But this idea of you don't need a side hustle. You don't need a side business. You're broke and you got a woman that has said yes to marry you. When's the wedding? Next year, June 28th. Great. Who's paying for it?

So we actually have a free venue and we're not going to cater any food so that we're going to keep it on the cheaper end and more kind of like a potluck kind of thing. Okay. Love the potluck idea. How much is your rent, by the way? Our rent is $1,000. So you guys are existing off of $200. It must be going on credit cards. Well, actually, we don't have any credit cards. So how are you eating and putting gas in your car?

So I donate plasma every two days a week. So that normally is for my gas. And then for food, we have to normally go to food banks. Can I ask you, why are you make you're a 22 year old smart, bright guy? Why are you putting yourself on a struggle slice? Why are you doing that? Why are you choosing that? Going down and donating plasma? That's like that's pursuit of happiness. Next level broke. You don't have to be there.

You are fit. You are young. You are smart. You have the world as your oyster. What's the answer to that? She asked you a direct question. What's the answer? What's really going on that that's your option? I mean, I shouldn't be in theory punishing myself for these low labor jobs and I should probably go out and find these higher paying jobs that are going to help me get through life. Yeah. Yeah. And you can.

You know, I just, what I want you to hear from me is I think there's something in your own mind that's making you feel like maybe you're not able to accomplish. But I think you can. I did not hear anything, Aiden, that would make me think, well, he's got a good reason for kind of having to, you know, reach lower. I only hear reasons that you should be reaching higher. And I just think that...

It's your own mind that's kind of getting in the way of that. Yeah. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I want to give you guys a pre-wedding gift. It's called Find the Work You're Wired to Do, and it's got about an 18 to 20-minute assessment in it. If I give it to you, will you promise me you'll take it? Yes, sir. All right, now here's what it's going to do. It's going to spit out for you how you're wired. In other words, what you're really good at doing, what you enjoy doing, and the results that motivate you because all work creates result. Do you agree with that, yes or no?

Yes, sir. All right. So if you could spend most of your day using the talent that you have to do something you love to produce a result that matter, that'd be a pretty good day, wouldn't it? Yeah. Do you also agree that that's your best chance of making income? Yeah, I truly believe that. All right. I'm going to give this to you as awareness to hopefully shake you out of this cycle of I'm just down on my luck and life got me behind the eight ball. Guys, I think Jade nailed it.

You're worth more than this. It's time to start acting like it. And it's going to change everything for you guys. You guys are subsisting on less than the poverty level.

And there's no reason for it other than sheer belief and the effort that comes with it. So hang on the line. We're going to give you the book. Find the work you're wired to do. Please take the assessment and then read the book. It's about a 45-minute read. I'm going to coach you to move forward. Please do it for your future. I'm telling you, you can do this, but you got to start acting on this today. ♪♪♪

so

All right, if you are tackling debt or if you're trying to build wealth, you know what you can forget about? You get so locked in on everything you're doing there, you forget about basic protection. In other words, insurance. Having the right coverage can impact how long it takes to actually get out of debt or build the wealth that you want to build. Think of insurance as a shield around your loved ones and your wallet, your bank account, right? If disaster strikes, and we know it does.

So we want you to take the coverage checkup. This is a free online resource, and it's going to create a personalized insurance action plan based on where you are right now in your financial situation. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash checkup. RamseySolutions.com slash checkup.

This only takes a few minutes and again, could save you money or it could actually protect you from financial disaster. That's why we want you to do it. I can give them a quick rundown of the different insurances. Go on. Why not? Why not? So I think this is important, Ken, because like you said, it can kind of, you know, fall under the radar. And a lot of us think erroneously when you start working the baby steps, you kind of get the idea that, oh, I'll do this when I'm out of debt.

And that's just not true. You know, insurance is not a baby step. It's something that you do as soon as you find out you don't wait till you get out of debt. So obviously, if you're a homeowner, you have homeowners insurance. But if you're a renter, Ken, you need to have renters insurance. Because if something happens to that place, it catches fire or whatever, you're out in the cold, somebody breaks in. If you don't have renters insurance, you're on the hook for that. Okay. So obviously, there's that then of course, you got to have

auto insurance, but you need to make sure that you have the right type. And so doing that coverage insurance is really important. You got to have collision, comprehensive, liability, all that stuff. All right. Umbrella insurance. A lot of people forget about this. When your net worth hits a certain amount, right? When you're over 500,000 net worth, you need to have umbrella insurance. And we say get 1 million in coverage. That's what you're looking for. You need to have that. Health insurance.

Come on. Right. If you don't have it through your job, if that's not a luxury that you have and you're self-employed, you still need to make sure that you reach out and get that. And we have health trust and some other options here. But make sure that you're covered. You have the right amount because we know bankruptcy. Usually it's a result of medical bills. OK, so make sure you're covered. Health insurance is important.

Of course, we talk about long-term disability. A lot of people forget about that. I'm not going to lie, Ken, long-term disability, if you don't get it through your job, it's going to cost you a pretty penny. It can be a little expensive, but just think about it. There is a very good chance that at some point throughout your working career, something will happen and you're not able to work for a while. So think through these things. What would happen if you stepped off the curve today and broke your leg?

And if your mind goes blank or you realize there's nothing in place, I personally would be in a fetal position. Well, yeah. Crying. Listen, I mean, but think about that. It only takes, it don't take much for you to be, you know, at a capacity. So there's that, um, long-term care. We don't talk about this one a whole lot, but this is about when you get older, right? When you're old and you're no longer working and someone needs to take care of you. Don't leave that for your kids.

I mean, think about the call. We got a call today, Ken. The woman sold everything she had to come take care of her 92-year-old grandmother and ended up in so much debt because there was no money there to take care of grandma. So that's something you can do today. We talk about getting this in place when you turn age 60.

Make sure you're getting the right amount. If you have a high net worth, you probably don't need it because your nest egg can fund it. But these are the things that you need to be thinking about and thinking ahead. And then, of course, we talk about term life insurance.

You can get that through Xander. I don't think I need to go over that. If you listen to Ramsey, even for a hot minute, you know that we suggest that. And if you can get some ID theft protection, you can also get that through Xander. That's for your identity basically being stolen on the interwebs, right? And you can get that for super cheap. It's just peace of mind. So these are the things you need to be keeping in mind. Life happens. You never know how life is going to happen, but insurance is a shield against that. That's right. So again, we want you to go to ramseysolutions.com slash checkup. This is free, little quick...

Five-minute coverage checkup. You can click on the link in the description if you're listening on YouTube or podcast, ramsaysolutions.com slash checkup. Jay, that was great. It's kind of like George's Talk Nerdy segment. A little bit. You just nerded out there, and it's fantastic. People benefited from that. Let's go to Scott in San Diego. Scott, how can we help today?

Hey guys, thanks for taking my call. I appreciate that. So, I am almost 73 in a month or so, debt-free, but I'm paying $650 a month for $350,000 worth of term life insurance, and I'm wondering, is that a good investment, or should I cancel and invest that money somewhere else? Why is it so expensive?

Well, once I turned 70, I had a 30-year term all the way up to 70. And then once I hit 70 each year, last year I was paying $550. This year it's up to $660, I think it is. And it's only for $350 of coverage? Yeah. What's your net worth? Yeah.

Well, my house is paid off $800,000. I've got a little over $100,000 in IRA. My wife's got about $20,000 in another IRA there. I've got about $48,000 passive income coming in from retirement. And then I'm still working, actually. What's your income? Total for about $150,000.

$25,000 a year. Yeah. Okay. Well, so, I mean, Jade, we talk about this all the time. Somebody your age, I mean, if you had a higher net worth, I think it'd be a no-brainer. I mean, I think at this point, here's the question. If you were to die tomorrow because the $350,000 is on you, would your wife need that $350,000?

You know, that's the question. That's what I'm calling it. I don't know. I don't think she does. Well, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, of course, yeah, no, she wouldn't. But, you know, by the same token, Kim, I wouldn't want her to have to sell the house or think she had to sell the house. Exactly. And all of my, you know, my kids, they're doing well. So how long is this new term? How much is this? How long is this new term for?

It just started this in May, and it'll go a year, and then it'll go up again next year again. Oh, so it's on a 12-month rollover, essentially. Yeah, it's a 12-month. Because of your age. Exactly. Okay, so I'm thinking through this. I don't have a hard opinion on this, and I know Jade's got an opinion on this. I'm walking through this with you, Scott. So let's take the 650 right now, okay? And over 12 months...

Okay. We know that that is close to $8,000, right? Quick math. 100%. So if you were to take the $8,000 and invest that, you know, and you invested that for, I mean, let's play this out. How many years, let's say you were going to keep the insurance for her. How many more years would you in your mind want to pay for it?

Well, as it keeps going up, I'm thinking, and really, Kim, you tell me if this is goofy, but I'm thinking, okay, hey, let my kids start paying for it. Because, you know, listen, when we leave, you know, obviously our kids are going to get their inheritance. It's like, hey, if you guys want this life insurance, you can pay it. No, I don't like that. I don't like that. No, no, no. Your kids...

I think that's creative and innovative, but I'm glad you're laughing about it. I think that's a bad idea. If my parents came to me and said, you've got to pay my life insurance to get the inheritance, I'd go, okay, Pop, we'll talk later. What else are you putting aside monthly into your investments? Yeah, since you're still working, what are you investing? You know, we're not really – I've got an IRA that I've put in $100 a month. I haven't really put a lot of money into that over the last few years. So you're not investing 15%?

I'm not. No. But let me ask you this, because because last year I called a financial guy. Kim, you mentioned to get I heard you talking about getting a professional to help us. I called him somebody I knew and I said, look, I wanted to take all my money out of my IRA and put it by Costco stock. My daughter works for Costco. I know Costco. This is a terrible idea.

Well, okay. Yeah, you say that, but let me tell you, if I would have done it last year, 40% it was up last year. So I know it sounds because everybody's like, oh no, you got to diversify. You got to do this. Well, Costco is not going anywhere. People got to eat. You don't know that. A smart investor diversifies their investments. That's number one. And I want you to walk away with that because that is 100% true. If you put all of your eggs in one basket and that basket catches fire,

then you're on fire. Give him real quick math on what you punched up. Yeah. Hey, don't just take this money and invest it because you're going to be left with less and you're going to have to do it over a longer term. I think for now, you need to really get on a budget. Make sure you're investing 15% of your income because the more that you can invest now, the quicker you can get out of this crazy expensive coverage. You need to start doing the right thing now.

These days, the Internet is chock full of so-called investing advice from random goobs with zero qualifications. Listen, folks, you deserve guidance from someone who knows what the flip they're talking about. That's why I recommend the SmartVestor program. SmartVestors can help you find a professional financial advisor who can teach you to make your own decisions.

best decisions with your own money. Get connected at ramseysolutions.com slash smartvestor. Again, ramseysolutions.com slash smartvestor. Ramsey Solutions is a paid, non-client promoter of participating pros. Learn more at ramseysolutions.com slash smartvestor.

All right. Our scripture of the day comes from Romans 15, 2. Our goal must be to empower others to do what is right and good for them and to bring them to spiritual maturity. Our quote of the day from Harry Kemp, the poor man is not he who is without a scent, but he who is without a dream. That was for our Aiden, our caller. Remember him? Speaking of a scent, I don't want to spend more than 30 seconds on this, but I got to get your hot take.

on the fact that they're removing the pennies from the American money system. It just makes sense.

Oh, gee. See, it even took me a second. That's like, did James write that for you? Nope. That's right up his alley. He loves a pun. He loves a good pun. He really does. Listen, I'm going to miss the old penny. It's going to be a while before we don't see them in circulation. My only quick question is, and I literally know nothing about it. You were the person who told me about it earlier today. Does that mean that if I walk into a place and I've got

3,000 pennies, they won't give me money for it? No, it means they're... I don't have the article in front of me, but they're taking them out of circulation. And I think they're going to start not creating them. So meaning... No more minting. And does that also mean that it will remove the nomination of a penny? Yeah. So things won't be 99 cents anymore. It'll have to change that because think about it. First, they stop making them and then they slowly pull them from circulation. Right.

And if that's going to, I mean, I don't know what the articles are saying, but that's going to take a while because. You know what I hope they never take away? What? The quarter. I love a quarter. I got an emotional connection. I just realized just now to a quarter. Yeah. Remember the half dollar? When I was a kid, there was 50 cent pieces. Those were a big deal. My grandfather gave me one once. And when he gave it to me, he did this number.

Flipped it to me. Oh, flipped it? That's a serious piece of metal. It's thick. If you get hit in the cranium with that, you get hit in the dome with a half penny or a half dollar. The $2 bill, remember that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Very special. My husband keeps one in his wallet. Oh, I'll ask him next time I see him. Yeah. Let's go to Thomas in Portland, Maine. Thomas, how can we help?

Hey, how's it going, guys? Good. How are you today? I'm doing all right. Doing all right. Well, my question for you guys is that I recently got told that I'm going to be getting an inheritance upwards of $70,000 or more. And to be honest, I don't know. I want to make the right choices with it, and I just want to put it somewhere that

where it can just grow, and I can just ignore it, and it can just become something amazing. Well, great. I have a few ideas that I want to spend some of the money. I would like to do something nice for myself. Who'd you get the inheritance from? My grandmother. Okay. She had recently passed away in October of last year. So sorry for that. How much are you thinking on spending? The amount that I was looking to spend would be about...

probably about $20,000 of it. Okay, so spend $20,000 and invest $50,000. All right, well, you got the queen here to tell you what to do with that $50,000. What do you got for him, Jade? I got questions. Nothing but questions, Thomas. Tell me, do you have debt?

I mean, I somewhat, I have a personal debt with my brother for like $2,000, which is part of why I was going to take that $20,000 anyways and give $2,000 of that to my brother. Good move. Other than that, no. No car note, no student loans, no nothing.

No, no. I own my car at the moment. Cool. It's one of those $2,000 beaters that, you know, gets me to point A to point B and it's made me happy. But that's the other part of where I wanted to use that money for. Yeah. Good man. Upgrade. Upgrade a car. This is a good plan. I like that. What about do you have any money saved? Not not the 70,000, just your own money saved? Yeah.

No, I had a terrible mishap where I moved and then unfortunately due to having to move and to be honest, the people were very nice to me, but I had to move again after a month of living at this one place and they basically drained me of everything that I had saved. So I was like, oh, what's your income?

Uh, I make, uh, I'm, I get paid bi-weekly and I get paid about 1250 every two weeks. So about 2,500 a month. What do you do? Uh, I'm a, I'm a, uh, support provider for people with mental disabilities, down syndrome, autism, things like that. I go to, I go and I stay in the home. I live there for three days and I basically do whatever he needs. Does that mean you, uh, what's your living situation as far as rent?

So I do have my own apartment because I do rent my own place. I pay $1,200 a month for it. It's a nice two-bedroom place that's five minutes from the local grocery store and close enough to where I don't have to spend too much time driving and spend money on gas. Okay, so I'm going to bust your bubble just a little bit, but not too, too much. $70,000 is a nice chunk of change, but I don't think it's going to be the lump sum...

I don't think it's going to set you free in the way that maybe you think, because I'm just going through this. I'm like, okay, you got, let me say this. You're going to have to be very careful because you got to pay your brother the 2000. That's, that's nothing. But that leaves you with 68. How much were you planning to spend to upgrade your car?

I was trying what I was trying to do is to spend about like fifteen thousand on it. And I was hoping because I have no credit. I have zero credit. I mean, you have to buy. We're talking about buying. We're talking about buying it outright in cash, not financing it.

Okay. Pretty much I was looking to spend about $20,000 to $25,000 if that. I'd say spend $20,000. That leaves you with $48,000. Now, you don't have any money saved to your name. So I think that you need to use some of this and keep it liquid as a three to six month emergency fund. And

I, if I were you, I'd probably do it on the six month side since it's just you. And truthfully, your income's on the lower side right now. So I would save up six months. So for you, what's that look like? What's six months of expenses for you? About $12,000, $13,000? Yeah, roughly. Okay, so we'll take that out. Now, you know...

You're at 36. You could take that money. And then if you wanted to, what I would probably do is I'd maybe keep it in a high yield if you wanted to, because the next thing around the corner for you is once you start getting your income up, you could think about buying a house that's probably more than a five year horizon. So maybe I would go ahead and invest this money. Just drop it into a brokerage account and keep it there and let it grow so it can be your down payment on a house. I like that idea for you.

Okay. And because, again, I don't know all the details about all of that. So, I mean, going forward, putting it into a brokerage account, I mean, where does it go? I mean, how does that entirely work? Okay, that's a good question. So you would invest that money the way we teach to invest any money, whether it's your 401k, you know, money for retirement or money for, like I said, that's non-retirement that you can pull out at any time with no penalty other than taxes. Okay.

It's across four different types of mutual funds. So they're growth funds, growth and income funds, aggressive growth funds, and international funds. And all a fund is is just a big old group of a bunch of different companies that meet that criteria that a bunch of people are funding and investing in.

So that's all it is. So if you have, I said, growth in income. So these are like big companies like Walmart. They're making big bucks all the time. They've been around for a long time. They're paying dividends. And there's not a whole lot of surprises going on.

Then you have the international ones, which are good to have because if things aren't going so good stateside, usually things are doing better internationally. So that helps balance that out. And you've got the aggressive growth funds. Those are usually smaller startups or usually tech companies, things that really can have a really high upside.

but also have a little bit more risk and they can have a downside. So when you're investing in all of these, they're kind of balancing each other out. And we do find, obviously, there's days that the stock market is really high. There's days that it's low or there's weeks that it's doing well or not doing well. But we find that over the long haul, if you're a long haul investor, five years or more, you are going to see the upside of that. So that's what I'm talking about.

That's what I would do. I think this is really great money that you have. Yeah, I'm only going to just add to this, Thomas. I want you to go to RamseySolutions.com as soon as we're wrapping up here. And I want you to just search SmartVestor Pro. It's going to bring you to a page where you can put in your zip code. And it's going to give you a list of SmartVestor financial professionals that we have vetted.

They're independent, but they are professionals, and they'll walk you through in several means, meet with several to find the one you really like, and they'll help you invest the rest of that money the way that Jade has coached you. ♪

Hey, you guys. I was shocked to learn that 88% of you out there are sharing the Ramsey Show. I mean, that is so incredible. Thank you so much. And I want to tell you that we're making it even easier to share. So this June, we have pulled together the brand new Ramsey 101 YouTube playlist, a

a quick start collection of how to get started walking the Ramsey Plan. Now, this playlist is perfect for that one person in your life who needs help winning with money and just doesn't know where to start. So here's what's inside. What the baby steps are and why they actually work, how the debt snowball helps you pay off debt fast, and how to build wealth and invest for the future, and so much more.

So here's what you need to do. Click the link at the top of the show notes. It'll take you straight to the YouTube playlist. Copy it. Text it. Send it in a group chat. Just say, hey, I thought this might help. Because one playlist shared at the right time could be the turning point. One share. One playlist.

One step could change everything for that one person in your life. So click the link, share The Ramsey Show, and let's help someone out there start winning with money.