Financial Victories Don't Happen Without Sacrifices

brought to you by the every dollar app start budgeting for free today normal is broken common sense is weird so we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey network and the Fairwinds Credit Union studio this is the Ramsey show Merry Christmas to you we're so glad you're here open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five I'm Dave Ramsey your host solo today at least for part of the time so here's how it goes Simon's gonna kick us off in Phoenix hi Simon what's up hey Dave how's it going I appreciate you taking the call sure how can I help I am a 26 me and my wife are both working full-time we she's a paralegal I work in personal insurance and I'm a she's a paralegal I work in personal insurance but on the side we run a small that's turned into a little bit bigger than small tarot fleet of about six cheaper vehicles they range from twenty seventeen twenty nineteen and we've kind of you know use some of your methods over the years it's been about three years since you've done it we've you know paid for them gotten them paid off very quickly and we're debt-free on all those and it's pretty much just straight cash taking in cash at this point but I want to expand it more quickly so that maybe can turn into a full-time thing for either her or for me and I'm just curious on maybe what would be the next step from you know somebody else's perspective to jump into that without taking out a major loan since vehicle prices are pretty extremely high right now especially for newer ones but especially for cheaper ones at the moment because for older ones that don't seem to be as cheap at the moment without you know drowning myself in in debt from that when we're teaching small business people on trade leadership lessons I tell those guys and gals to grow organically with the cash that the business creates that's what we've done at Ramsey for thirty five years three hundred million dollar company this year we've never bought a dime every bit of everything we have we reinvested profits to grow the business that was slower than I would have liked it sometimes I was frustrated at times because I think I've got something in front of me that feels like an opportunity and I don't have the money to do it right now and that limitation has kept me from doing some pretty stupid things where I got out over my ski so I tell our guys all the time when we're coaching small businesses to try to land on the cover of slow company magazine not fast company magazine patients patients build something that's sustainable and because the one thing we know about the space you're in it's a brand new space it's a disruptive space and it's going to iterate there's gonna be a lot five years from now it will not look anything like it looks right now agreed absolutely and so if you had a five year loan you're anticipating nothing changing and being able to make that loan as an asinine you're not gonna get there okay because you're in a very disruptive space so I how much so your only cost once you pay cash for the car the capital asset then you're taking obviously the customers providing their own gasoline correct correct and so you're providing insurance and repairs and repairs and loss in value and so forth right correct so those are your expenses so how long have you been running these cars about three and a half years what are you netting what's your net profit after your expenses this year was our best year I would say was about after all the expenses it was about thirty two thousand so buy some cars with it you have a job yeah yeah and and it was and I guess actually net would be a little bit lower this year that's what I asked was net yeah cash in the bank would be that's net about eight right now after after we pay the insurance and you've got gross revenue minus expenses equals net yeah which would in a cash based business would be the cash in the bank dude and by the way that's all taxable you got to pay taxes on that so here we are at the end of the year you're not gonna you're gonna get hammered so some of that 30 something thousand is not 30,000 probably more like 25 or 22 what was it yeah minus taxes by some cars yeah yeah absolutely the I guess the only other what's your average price of your car to sell today they range from probably with all the depreciation no I mean if you went and bought a car today to put into this what would you pay for it 14 okay so you can buy one car okay yeah or two if you are to if you roll up your sleeves and don't go 14 right go by to you probably buy two ten thousand dollar cars yeah yeah and that's gonna and you got a fleet of six and so that's going to increase your revenues by 20% that's pretty strong growth curve correct absolutely have you discovered have you discovered you have some models of cars do better in terms of appeal to the potential renter sure can't leave sure many vans do you have you discovered that some cars breakdown more than others sure I stick to only Honda and Toyota because of that okay so you've kind of got your pattern laid out here your bit you know you're you're tweaking your business model you know as you should iterating as you go along and I'm just gonna beg you to not get out over your skis man I know it's tempting you feel like you're making a lot of money but you're really not I mean you make 20 grand correct it's not life-changing money and you're putting up with a lot of crap for 20 grand yeah I mean this is Airbnb in a car you talk about air freshener dude you need some after these I'm unbelievable so I mean so I don't even want to think about the stuff you find in these vehicles and so I know I mean yeah this is a lot of work for 20 grand I don't know that we want to scale this but you can scale and have some fun with it but pay cash as you go and then the worst case is the thing iterates out from under you it becomes illegal in your city or the driverless cars come in and take over your city and put you out of business or whatever it is something else iterates and disrupts because welcome to our world and that's what business people understand is risk and that there is a there's a thing called the myth of continuity and this idea that things are going to continue the way they always have is mythology 100% chance of change it's in the weather forecast every night there's going to be change there's going to be change there's going to be change and when you're running a small business and you go along with the myth of continuity so you go borrow 35 or $40,000 and put six of these things on the road only to find out you're completely out of business and have car debt oh wow that's a problem you know so you can't predict all the outside variables all you can do is build a solid foundation so when COVID hits you survive so when Waymo hits you survive so when it becomes illegal to do tarot in your town that you survive and all of those things are in play by the way because guess who doesn't like you some of the big boys Hertz, Avis, hello they got a little money they're messing with your city council right now I promise you guess what who else doesn't like you? Taxi cabs they don't like Uber either but they haven't been able to run them out of business yet but they were trying so there's always an ongoing war there's an outside force that you're not considering when you just look at your simple cash flow and you haven't considered all these risk factors in there so build something sustainable be on the cover of slow company magazine I don't mind you growing it but grow it grow only with cash and that'll be a governor a limiting factor on your growth curve to keep you reasonable and keep you from getting your butt in trouble man The last thing you need this holiday season is more stuff collecting dust or tech that keeps you glued to screens and up too late you need better sleep and that's what you'll get with Casper their mattresses are made for deep uninterrupted rest that keep you cool and comfortable so you wake up feeling ready not wrecked because rest is not a luxury it's an investment and the ROI is your well-being so go to Casper.com slash Ramsey and use promo code Ramsey for 25% off mattresses and 10% off everything else you get free shipping too that's Casper.com slash Ramsey promo code Ramsey exclusions apply not because you aren't disciplined it's because you're emotionally overwhelmed when frustration or fear build up you probably tell yourself well I'll start again next month it's not managing your money it's emotional survival you're stuck because you're ignoring the emotions that keep you from making progress in her new book what no one tells you about money Jade Washall gives you clear guided processes that help you diagnose the emotions that are fueling your daily money decisions gives you actual ways to break these cycles and change everything this book is absolutely incredible it is the best of the best and it's on pre-sale right now comes out early January and you can pre-order it cheap for $24.99 and you get over $100 in free bonus items we're going to basically bribe you to pre-sale and buy it early it helps us with the marketing the more we can pre-sale so it's the enhanced audio book comes with it if you buy it early early access to the e-book instant access to an exclusive video your financial checkup with Jade exclusive three-week online book club and live Q&A with Jade pre-order right now at RamseySolutions.com slash store click the link in the show notes Ricky's in Sacramento hi Ricky welcome to the Ramsey show please have me on thank you so much sure what's up I have a question about me and my boyfriend we've been together for about two years our financial system is completely fine we have all the bills we but we've never had a true conversation about money in our future and I want to know how I can bring this up to him without starting to argue me or having him shut down on me about finances because it seems like every time I do bring it up and I do want to start talking about finances is I want to do this by myself please let me do it by myself I want to work with him on this but I don't know how to bring that into a conversation are you all talking about marriage um yeah so in a ball he said we're not really should got to the fifth year that he would propose to me but with our financial situation is going I don't I'm not sure if that's actually going to happen mm-hmm okay well the number one cause of divorce in America is money fights and money problems money stress disagree okay and so if you're going to get married you have to solve for that not being there to increase the probability of your marriage being a success right yeah and so that's how I'm going to talk to him about it and say listen the number one thing that breaks people up is money issues we need to get on the same page with money and if we're on the same page doesn't matter where they what the what the page is as long as we're on the same page I mean you can have debt you can have a income issue I can have debt I can have an income issue but you know we've got to be an agreement about how money's being handled and that we're working our way out of debt and into wealth to have a high probability a high chance of our marriage being awesome yeah I understand that completely and that's how I would say it say that say that to him yeah absolutely I would definitely yeah and and so and if he says I just want to do my own thing he's telling you he doesn't want to get married and I should just accept that at that point and kind of go with my own financial situation well just decide whether you want to live with somebody the rest of your life and and be you know sharing the mustard or whatever it is you do which by the way the probability of you building wealth is very low when you do that married people have married people have married people have 13 times the net worth of unmarried people shacking up I got you I got you well I will have a conversation with him and we'll try to bring this up and everything yeah that's what you got to get I mean you just got to talk it through and say listen this if we're if we're not gonna if we're really gonna have a future it's like 30 years from now we're sitting on the front porch with the rocking chairs and so forth right 40 years from now whatever it is if we're really gonna have a future we're gonna start talking about what that looks like and what the best path is to get there and be an agreement on that and money flows through every bit of that and and irresponsible spending does not flow through that and big piles of debt does not flow through that that doesn't you know and you know just buying whatever I want to buy being immature and having a little fit I work so hard I deserve you deserve you know deserve anything shut up whining when you have the money to buy it you deserve it and that's because you worked for it other than until you do don't talk to me about what you deserve crud you deserve calluses on your hand and sweat on your brow until you get the money to buy something that's how it works and that's what all of us face it's how we all live and so yeah anyway so Ricky you just got to talk that through and you guys have to be in agreement about our goals and what our desired future is and where we're going from here and man it makes a big difference when you do it's very very cool Alex is I was Ricky I'm sure Alex is with us in Salt Lake City hey Alex how are you I'm doing well thanks for taking my call big fan thank you how can I help so in approximately three to four months from now the two savings accounts that I have been saving I will line up with what I owe on my mortgage that will be paid off my question is the three approximately three hundred dollars a week that I was paying towards my mortgage what should I do with that your mortgage payment is only $1,200 no no it's 1550 but of course that's the that includes taxes and insurance okay so you'll be rid of the 1550 and your question is what what should you do with that the three yeah what should I do with the the three hundred dollars a week which I'm estimating do I stack that on top of my 401k contributions do I put it into a Acorns account no I don't put on where my money is really no yeah I have so I've been saving in Acorns two accounts later and the one that's now for many years that Acorns account is worth you see 62,000 of today and I've made nineteen point eight thousand the later account is worth twenty point five thousand that's a Roth IRA account this year is the first time I've maxed out seven thousand towards the Roth IRA you're talking about cashing out the Roth to pay off your mortgage no no I'm talking about the first one where so your mortgage is only sixty thousand bucks no no the other account is a savings account my mortgage right now is I owe ninety seven thousand oh I see and what's the interest rate on your mortgage three point three E seven five you're not making any more than that on savings no no I'm not no the savings is just a rainy day fund you know right now I have ten grand so when you pay off the mortgage using the Acorns and the savings do you have an emergency fund left I've nothing left we don't do that because I wouldn't do that I would have an emergency fund and above that I would pay off my mortgage so the first thing is you need to grow an emergency fund or keep an emergency fund so what would I do if I were in your shoes I'd put sixty thousand dollars on the mortgage out of the Acorns and close the account today and I would take the mortgage down the other savings count down to three to six months of expenses and put it on the mortgage and then I'd tear into that mortgage as hard as I could tear into it then to answer your question what do you do with the fifteen hundred are you single I'm single I have one kid who's twenty eight do you have any other debt of any kind no what do you make I make a hundred and six thousand a year and then I run out my basement as a mother-in-law and I make nine fifty a month okay good for you well done okay so Alex what what there's three things when you get all this done and the mortgage is gone and you have your emergency fund in place and then we're putting fifteen percent of our income into retirement into good Roth IRAs and Roth 401ks with a match if you have one at work and that kind of thing once you're doing all of those things then there's three things you can do with money and you ought to always do all three things we've already covered the first one which is investing it the second thing is generosity giving it as a matter of a percentage of your income steadily giving not just one time I gave ten dollars it's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about a steady rhythm of giving third thing is a steady rhythm of enjoyment of your money you are a saver my friend you enjoy saving you get a high from saving you need to also learn to give and you need to learn to enjoy some of this money that's why it's so hard to get and then you need to have all three things going at all times and that's what I would tell you to do once you have the house paid off and have a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses in your savings account this episode is sponsored by better help all right the holidays are here and the holidays are full of traditions some of these traditions we love some of these traditions we just tolerate in addition to the traditions this time of year can also bring a lot of noise pressure and even loneliness maybe this is your cue this year to slow down and ask yourself what really matters to you and what you're here to slow down and ask yourself what really matters to me right now and moving forward therapy gives you space to do just that to think to breathe and to make room for peace and if you're thinking about therapy I want you to check out my friends at better help they've got more than 30,000 licensed therapists and they've helped over five million people worldwide with an average rating of 4.9 out of five stars better help is totally online so it fits around your schedule even during the chaotic holiday times you just get online and answer a few questions and better help will match you with someone who fits your needs and if the therapist isn't the right fit you can switch therapist at any time for no extra cost this month start a new tradition by taking care of you visit better help dot com slash Ramsey to get 10% off your first month that's better help HELP dot com slash Ramsey and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and The amount of peace you're solving for peace, this is what it is. And when you do that and you do common sense things and you don't try to make it all complicated, it's an enjoyable life. It really is. So I hear you. I hear what you're saying, what you're doing. And I get it. And I think there's like the math nerds out there and they love this stuff. But I'm telling you, people that win with money long term, it's them. That they're the reason they win. It's not this system that you kind of rig here or there. Yeah, to verify that, Rachel. Brandon, you're obviously brilliant. I mean, the questions, the way you form, the way you even form your sentences, you actually know what you're talking about, which is rare. Sometimes I get people asking these questions that you're asking and they don't know what they're actually saying. They just heard it on TikTok, but you actually know what you're talking about. And that's kind of work against you if you're not real careful. You're going to analyze your way into paralysis of the analysis if you're not careful. So do that. So I'll give you another example of what Rachel's talking about, Brandon, and the data. Because what we keep following is the data of what actually works, not the theory of a think tank math. It's not math think tank. Right. OK, so here's the data. The people that end up with a million dollars in their 401k did not pick on average, did not pick the best possible mutual funds. They picked a sub par mutual fund. There were plenty of funds that outperformed what they picked. Now, they didn't pick the bottom 20 percent, but they didn't pick necessarily the top 20 percent of funds out there. They were somewhere around that 80 percentile. And so I'm looking at that going, you missed it. You missed it because I'm a math nerd like him. Right. And what we what the data says, and this is is that what they find is that what they did do is exactly what you're talking about. They weren't that great at picking the right fund. But what they did do was they never missed a month. Consistency. Yeah. For ever. No matter what they put money in their 401k, every stinking month, prom dress, transmission goes out, kids sick, dogs got cancer. Every month they put money in. Every month. Markets up, markets down. They didn't underperform in was consistency. Yeah. They overindexed on consistency and they underindexed on fund choice. And that's an example of what you're talking about. They really weren't that mathematically savvy or are mutual fund savvy. They just were consistent versus the amount of people that don't do anything. And they have theories of what they may want to do, but they know. Or they try this little thing and then they try this other little thing and then they try this and they're always scheming and scamming, trying to cut a half. Yeah. And it's the same thing about paying off the house. We get that call all the time of people have, you know, $80,000 left on their mortgage and they got 90,000 sitting in some fund over here and they're like, yeah, but I could be making X amount. And the amount of people we've had at live events, people here, I mean, that were around that we asked the question, those of you that paid off your house, raise your hand and we'll have it. We'll have an auditorium of 2000 people. And at some of these events, it's like, it's yeah, there, I mean, there's a lot of them and we say, okay, keep your hand up if you regretted it. Who regretted paying off their house? None. None. Zero. Never. So again, that's not in a formula, but I'm telling you, like when you solve for peace, as Dr. John Deloni says with your money, that is worth it. That's worth the small percentage point here or there because you have peace and you sleep good at night and you have a happy family and a wonderful new marriage and little babies and it's great. And it's great. And it's okay to wait a year after marriage to buy a house too, by the way. Yeah. Everywhere you turn this time of year, someone's telling you to swipe a card now and pay later, but that mindset always leads straight to debt and post holiday stress. Fairwinds credit union takes a different approach. They're here to help you win with money. Fairwinds doesn't push credit cards. They help you build savings and stay debt free just like we teach with the baby steps. And to do that, Fairwinds created the smart bundle with Ramsey fans in mind. It's more than a bank account. It's a tool to help you live with intention. The smart bundle includes a no fee checking account, a high yield savings account and the exclusive Ramsey be weird debit card, which says debt is normal. Be weird. Right on the front. So every time you swipe at this Christmas season, it's a reminder that you're choosing a different path to spend no more than you actually have to avoid that January budget hangover and to be free from debt traps. Go to fairwinds.org slash Ramsey to open your smart bundle and get your Ramsey be weird debit card today. That's fairwinds.org slash Ramsey insured by the NCUA. Thank you. Christmas deals are here. Prices won't last long. If you want to get the stuff by Christmas, you better jump in. $13 for bestselling hard covers. $13 for career assessments. $12 for questions for humans. Dex 799 for audio books and ebooks. Go to ramsey solutions.com slash store. Or if you're watching on YouTube or podcast, click the link in the description. Talia is with us in Orlando. Hey, Talia, what's up? Hi, I hope you guys are doing well. Better than we deserve. Merry Christmas to you. Likewise, likewise. I'm calling because me and my fiance are in a transit, a very big transitional period in our lives right now where our gift of having no rent living with family is coming to a close very soon. He just got another job that'll have an increase in pay. But we also are still working on Baby Step 2, which also just got a little knock up because of the good old IRS. So I'm just curious on how we should plan to move forward with gazelle intensity because now we're on the same page and I'm just not quite sure how to how to navigate this, this tricky in between stage. When's the wedding? Um, to be determined. We haven't set a date yet actually. There's not, there's not a we until we're married. Okay, fair enough for sure. You don't pay his dad. He doesn't pay yours. Yes, sir, I agree. You can get in all kinds of trouble with that and you don't want to get there. It'll be a relational nightmare too. How much that do you guys have each of you? What's the point in delaying if you're living together anyway? Why don't you just get married? I'd like to. I guess it's just, I don't feel we have the money for it right now. Yeah, it doesn't cost $50. You're right about that too. I suppose I'm just a part of a Latin family. And so I always wanted to do it big and. Yeah, but you're broke and you don't have a place to live. So that's not really an option. You're not wrong. You are. You're being very agreeable. She's like, yes, sir. Yes. I want you to have a big party after you get out of debt and celebrate your marriage that happened two years ago. That's fair. And I think that's definitely worth a. A consideration. Because here's the thing. When two horses, when two horses lean into the harness together, you can pull a lot more weight than two individuals are pulling. Because of synergy and this agreed thing. We combine our incomes. We combine our efforts. We combine our spirits. We combine everything. And you can only do that without a huge risk when you're married. And so we strongly recommend and the data backs this up, by the way. So, yeah, to go ahead and get married, lots and lots of couples in lots of generations just get married and didn't have a big party and didn't have a, you know, seventy eight thousand dollar wedding. And so. But the advantage, the marriage advantage on the other side is huge, huge from a financial, a family aspect, emotional. I mean, all of it. So if we did that, what is your income? What's his income? Um, his income is about forty thousand. It should be closer to fifty since he just got his new job. Great. And I'm currently at fifty four. Okay. So you got a hundred and four. That's great. How old are y'all? Um, I'm thirty and he's thirty three. Excellent. Cool. All right. And how much debt do you have? Um, I've been doing everything combined in my head. That's fine combined. We're going to pretend we're going to pretend you get married this weekend. Merry Christmas. Okay. And so now. Winston is anniversary's on Friday. So it's a great, it's a great time to get married. I'll say that. I'll say that Christmas. Anyway, the, um, Rachel, send your gift to get married Friday. So the, uh, anyway, the debt is how much combined? One 12 combined. And now that we're getting the zeal and tense, we're hoping to knock more of it out. But we're currently sitting at completed thirty nine K. Already. Good. Okay. And what was the IRS hiccup? Um, the hiccup was filing 2024 late. Um, in addition to being in the process of paying off 2023, because he was an independent contractor, is that in the one 12? Yes, sir. Okay. Cool. All right. And what do you, uh, uh, what are you anticipating rent being? Have you been out and looked for the cheapest thing possible? A garage apartment out back of a rich old lady's house and you clean her gutters and mower grass and it costs almost nothing to live there. Yeah. Haven't had too much luck with that yet, but the ballpark we're seeing is about two K in our area. Yeah. If we're looking for a bare minimum. Yeah. And I think you can get off of that. You may need, you may need to move out of town a little bit further to get off of that, but it's doable. Okay. Yes, sir. Orlando is expensive though. It's a wonderful town, but it's high. Okay. And, um, so yeah, but you know, the thing is this, whatever we're paying in rent is taking away from these other goals. Mathematically, we know that. Okay. So we want to pay as little in rent as possible so that we get out of the debt so we can have the emergency funds that we can buy a house. And the least, least we pay in rent, the better, but yeah. So what I'm going to do is rent something that is, um, right on the edge of uncomfortable. Okay. Like, nope, like not really proud to have friends over. Okay. Not scared to have friends over, but not proud. Okay. Understood. Not necessarily shooting up and down the street. I want Dodge City. Okay. But the, uh, but I do, I'm not trying to impress anybody with what I'm renting for God's sakes. I hear you. The lights will turn on, but maybe the AC doesn't work all the time. Well, I don't want the AC to work. You're in Florida. For God's sakes, AC needs to work, but no, I'm talking about, it just doesn't need to be super fancy with the skylight, the jacuzzi and the pickleball courts. Okay. So we don't need any of that crap. What we need to do is get out of that and a place to live and, and celebrate our new marriage and so our first year of marriage. And so that, that's what I would do if I woke up in your shoes and I think you're going to be just fine. If you do that and get on a beans and rice, rice and beans budget, you could be debt free in two and a half to three years. I agree. Now tell me this, cause I need first, last and security to find one of these cheaper places, assuming it's actually not somebody's, uh, back, back door. Um, uh, extra bedroom. So do we pause on the step to, to say for that? Yes. Okay. And, but, but, but, but before I say for it, I would go find the actual place, not going, not going theory of what I think is going to happen. Cause if you might find an actual place that doesn't have both first and last. Okay. There are, there are out there. There are people that want to rip places right now. Okay. And there's a saying in the real estate business, if someone comes to look at your piece of real estate in December, they're a serious candidate. Okay. Tire kickers are not out looking at open houses on December. Yes, my odds are good. Hopefully we'll, we'll, we'll, they're going to treat you like you're a serious customer because you are. Yes. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Okay. So you're going to be able to, you're going to be able to talk him into pop it. You're going to be able to talk him into getting married. Yeah. I think so. No, no, no, he, he, we've been together for, for eight years already. So. Oh yeah. And it's holding everything up. Yeah. It's time to paint or get off the ladder. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Yes, sir. You're awesome. You're fun to talk to. She's like, listen, I'm Latin. I want a big party. I'm a hillbilly. I want a big party. I don't, I don't disagree with that. Whatever. It's not an ethnic thing. That's a party thing. So I love it. Good for you. She's fun. She's fun. They're going to do great. And yeah, it's just time to get real serious about all this stuff. Hang on. We're going to give you every dollar and sign you up for that as our wedding gift. Yeah. And for people listening to kind of circle back on one of those points, even though I don't wish this upon you, I don't think it's going to happen in your situation, but we do see couples and they, they combine it. And then it's the ex-fiance. We get the call about, you know, two years without being married, without being married. You know, and then there's an ex-fiance in the picture two years later for something and they've used all their hard earned money to clean up his IRS debt. You know what I mean? So there is something very true about the separation until you're married, because you have no legal protection at all. And so there's, yeah, there's big on that. So those of you listening, I don't think, Tallya, I think you guys will, I think you've been together eight years, all the things. That's wonderful. And I think it'll happen for you guys, but for people listening, even if you are engaged, there are such a thing as an ex-fiance. And you spend a lot of your hard earned money paying off his smallest debt, because his happened to be the smallest in the debt snowball when you combine them. And your money goes to, you know, his debt and then you break up and you're like, man, that was 12K that could have been going to mine, you know. So and if you get married on Friday, you'll get married on Rachel Cruz and Winston's anniversary. That's right, December 19th. That's a big deal. You can you can just say that. I'm telling you, though, a winter wedding, it's underrated. Everyone wants the summer and the spring, a holiday wedding. It's so fun. Everyone's in good moods and everything is is decorated. And the the wedding gifts kind of got combined with the Christmas gifts. No, I don't think so. We left y'all on credit. We left the family on Christmas when I was on honeymoon. No, I was talking about the wedding gifts. Oh, your wedding gift to us. No, no, no, no. Say you paid for my wedding. So thank you for that. You're welcome. Thank you. Hey, guys, you know those too good to pass up holiday promos? Well, they can be great. But with every spin of the digital wheel, the newsletter sign up, the coupon code, you're giving away your data. You think that info just stays with the store? I doubt it. It goes into the corners of cyberspace where data brokers grab it, repackage it and sell it to spammer scammers and generally bad people. The FTC just reported consumers lost over $12.5 billion to fraud last year. And that's not just a number. That's your money, your time and your privacy. And that's why I recommend Delete Me, your digital cleanup crew. The Delete Me privacy pros dig through hundreds of these data broker sites. They scrub your info and they keep it gone, which means fewer weird robo calls, fewer spam texts, and it's the gift that keeps on giving because it's an annual subscription and Ramsey listeners can get 20% off those annual plans at join delete me dot com slash Ramsey with code Ramsey at checkout. Do it today. That's joined delete me dot com slash Ramsey code Ramsey. Ramsey question of the day is brought to you by why refi? If you've been turned down by other lenders because your private student loans are in default, why refi is for you? They help borrowers restart with dignity and clear direction. Check out why refi dot com slash Ramsey. That's the letter Y R E F Y dot com slash Ramsey, not in all states. Today's question comes from Kristen in Ohio. How should I deal with the issue of Christmas gifts for teachers? I have four children who have multiple teachers for physical education and music, plus their cafeteria workers, teachers, support staff. I mean, all of it. So I understand and appreciate that they are hardworking professionals, but we're still on baby step three. Is it okay to skip this until we're in better financial terms for our family? Yeah, I mean, I would say for a year or so, I mean, I still think appreciation is wonderful and I still think honestly, a lot of people in that position. I'm like, yes, nice teacher gifts. That is one thing I prioritize on the other side of baby step three because I very, very much appreciate our teachers. Oh, I love them. Yeah, I love I'm going to appreciate them. I've never given any of my gifts. Well, you haven't. Mom did grow it up. Did she really? Yes. Yes. I had no idea. Yes, I'm generous. I like giving gifts, but that's just wasn't on my list. I mean, I like giving the garbage man a bunch of money. I like doing that. I like a big tip at the Christmas time because they got to haul off all the garbage. Yes, they got to haul off all the stuff. We interact with the teachers. No, I do that. That one I did. I love giving teachers nice gifts because. Yes, I like the teachers. I love them. I'm happy with them. Yeah, that's interesting. OK, so I guess I'm so old is like an apple. No, I just think you were teaching FPU classes at the holiday and mom was taking care of the school. I think that was. I see it. OK. Yeah, I would not. That would not be a huge guilt trip thing for me. Yes, but for sure. You have the opportunity to it's great. And honestly, people in this position, yes, do they love a nice gift? Absolutely. But also just a note and some cookies that you made. I mean, at least the recognition, honestly, that they letter. Yes, clearly stating what you have appreciated about them more than 20 made and then something homemade or something. You know, definitely make some cookies. Definitely. Yes. That's it, though. I mean, that's I'm having like a flashback childhood memory. Do you I remember this? You probably don't. I remember the third grade, Mrs. White, remember Mrs. White, her Christmas gift was your book, financial piece. I think we gave your book. That was that was your mother. I wouldn't have done that. Christmas gift. I definitely didn't. True story. That's so much ego. I couldn't do that. Here's my book. Yeah, that no one has yet read. No one knows who we are and no one cares about. You're marketing. If you need something to light the fire in the fireplace tonight, you can use this paper. Yeah, I don't know. That's gross. I do. At least your mother was proud of it. Oh, my God. Laura is in Jacksonville, Florida. Help us, Laura. What's up? Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Um, so my question is my husband and I received our escrow analysis today and we are going to be short $2,400. So we either can pay that upfront or have it rolled into our payment. And I'm wondering what is the best thing to do? First and foremost, do a full audit on the thing because most of those are calculated poorly. So what happened with ours was our we just got our mortgage literally last November, so we only had it for a year. They underestimated our property taxes, number one. And then number two, we forgot to file for our Florida homestead exemption. So we paid property taxes on a full value of our home. OK. All right. So you filed for that now? Have the property taxes come down? Yes. So we have the homestead exemption in place for 2026, but they don't print the tax bill until October. Yeah. But the women. So, you know, they can calculate it exactly. I called them this morning and they told me they couldn't. They have a valuation on the house. There's a tax rate on the valuation. A sixth grader can calculate it. I calculated it. I had it already. I have it on a spreadsheet right in front of me. And they told me that unless I could provide them with an updated tax bill, they would buy the current tax bill. Oh, you're talking about the idiots at the mortgage company, not the tax people. Correct. Oh, yeah. OK. All right. Now that makes sense. OK. So. So my husband and I are in baby stuff, too. But in January, I get three paychecks plus a bonus. So I have we have the money to pay the shortage. Yeah. The problem is it's going to be an overage after you pay the shortage. It is going to be. Yes. And that was one of the things I talked to my husband about was what do we do? Do we pay the shortage up front? No, I wouldn't pay it up front. It's like pre paying it and putting it in a savings account of the mortgage company and they're going to give it back to you with no interest. So I'm going to pay it as slowly as possible because it's still wrong. It is. Yes. I saw like they they calculated our new payment without the shortage. Our payment is going to go up one hundred and fifty dollars no matter what because what their estimate on the property taxes was versus what our actual property tax bill they received. Yeah, I think my answer is I want to talk to your supervisor. I want to give me give me to someone who knows how to think and not answer without thinking because your answer is not acceptable to me. You want me to overpay escrow now. And so now there's going to be an overage and you people are going to owe me. So I don't like saving money at no interest with the mortgage company that because you can't do math. So let me talk to your supervisor. I'm going to become a problem for them. Got it. God, they're dumb. Oh, so aggravating. Most escrow accounts are screwed up. That's what's so aggravating. But but because it's really not hard. It is one-twelfth of the actual tax and one-twelfth of the actual insurance bill. And we should have both of those in front of us. And that's what the thing ought to be running on. Now, are you in the hole from last year? Did they come up short last year? Yes. So the mortgage company estimated our property taxes to be thirty five hundred and it's a new built home. So they hadn't they said they didn't have anything to go off of. They estimated it to be thirty five hundred dollars. Our actual property tax bill without the home set in place with fifty three hundred dollars. You did pay that. We did. And that doesn't get refunded. It just doesn't get charged next year. Well, they you're not going to get that money back. That money's gone, right? Yeah, correct. So we would be paying the shortage. Yeah, that created that created the shortage. And I don't mind paying that shortage because that's an actual shortage. What I don't want is an adjusted payment going forward based on wrong numbers. Yes. And that's where part of my problem is. Yeah, that's the one where I'm going to talk to the supervisor. The actual shortage. Let's pretend your payment was recalculated for January accurately. From January on. OK. Whatever shortage there is up to that point. Yeah, just pay that. OK. But don't wrap it into the payment. You're saying don't wrap it into the payment. And then have the proper payment going forward. That's the one I'm talking to the supervisor because I want the payment properly calculated. I have the tax bill in front of me. I have the insurance bill in front of me. Here's actually what escrow should be. And when you properly calculate that, that's the payment I want in January. And until you can tell me that's going to be the payment, I'm going to continue to ask for whoever's on the phone supervisor until I get to the president of the freaking mortgage company. Find somebody over there that can add because it's real simple because I'm not trying to create a shortage and I'm not trying to live off of you. I'm going to write a check for the existing shortage, but I don't want to create an overage next year because you guys didn't do the math right. You didn't do it right last time either. Yeah, because even in a new build, you can calculate property taxes closer than 50, closer than 50 percent off. Unbelievable. Wow. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, that no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, so. It is not a bad idea to jump online if you have a mortgage once a year and check and make sure they're having the right amount. You know, right amount in your house payment for one 12th of your insurance and one 12th of your taxes, because truthfully, this is what you deal with at the other end. It's the lowest common denominator answer in the phone over there. And, you know, apparently they studied something other than math in college. Or now they probably didn't make that anyway. In eighth grade, our wherever it was that they missed the lesson. But yeah, it's not hard, but it seems to be hard. Yeah. Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio, Rachel Cruz Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, and my daughter is my co-host today. Lloyd is in Seattle. Hi, Lloyd. How are you? Hi, I'm well. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I make about two hundred thousand dollars a year and my family and I are living paycheck to paycheck. We're on baby step two. And I'm just wondering if there's anything I can do to help jump start our process of paying off our debt. Where do you think all that money is going? It's all payments, it's all consumer debt. And it's all of an overwhelming. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, if you know what I mean. So OK, so how much debt do you have not counting your house? About a hundred thousand dollars. OK. And what's that on? Two car payments. How much is the car? How much do you own the first car? Two twenty thousand. Where you own the second car? Thirty thousand. OK. And what's the other fifty? Well, it's credit cards and personal loans. OK, so fifty thousand and credit cards and personal loans. Was that all lifestyle Lloyd or something happened that you guys had to take out a loan for? It is a lifestyle. We purchased a house last year and we got a little and over our heads with with the renovations and decided it was better to follow through on it than to live in a half finished house. OK, so it's finished now. Close to it. I've got one more bath and I got to finish. It's about halfway through the remodel. OK. And how much is your house payment? Forty five hundred a month. What's your take home pay? I make about eight thousand per month without bonuses, but with bonuses it can be upwards of fourteen thousand per month. OK, it's a big swing. Let's see. Four. Well, I mean to get to two hundred you have to be at fourteen. Yeah, well, I'm on track to make two hundred this year before taxes and that's with the bonuses. My bonuses are quarterly and they're based on how how I do it work, obviously. Yeah, because if it's a month, you got a large chunk of your income that comes quarterly. Well, yes, that makes cash flow management tough. It does. Yeah, that's why it feels like it's paycheck to paycheck. You're not, you know, you're trying to live more like on one hundred and thirty and then 70s bonus. Yeah. I mean, if I make my bonus, we feel more than comfortable making all our payments. But if I don't make bonus, then it's it's we're in the red. Yeah. Yeah. If you could get down to living and making your payments on your base and then when bonus comes in, it clears debt. That would work. Yeah, my plan was to get rid of one of our cars because I have a company vehicle I drive, but I'm actually they're pulling my company vehicle and giving me a gas card and a stipend instead. So now I have to start using my personal vehicle again to commute. So going down to one family vehicle is kind of out of the question at this point. Yeah, that makes sense. OK. And how much are you putting in your 401k? None. Hmm. How much of a refund tax refund did you get? Well, last year, I think it was about seven thousand this year. I'm hoping it'll be about the same. We had a kid last year, we're going to have another kid this year. And we also bought a house last year, so that also helps us a little bit on our. So you're so you're over withholding? Correct. About six hundred bucks, maybe six hundred bucks a month. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. When I was filling in my paperwork, it's all it's all a bit confusing. And when my wife stopped working with our first kid, I was trying to figure out how to make it so we didn't end up owing. So I actually I think I put I think I have them withholding the next just three hundred per paycheck just to make sure I don't end up owing at the end of the year. And that ended up actually being a save interest free savings account with the IRS and they give it back to you in April. Because that's about what you're over withholding is a three hundred a paycheck. OK. Yeah, that's seven thousand a year, by the way. Right. Yeah, that's what turns out. So I mean, you're over withholding and then you get it all back with no interest. So no, I think we'll stop that. And that'll that'll help some. I mean, half of this is your cars. Like what you're saying, Lloyd, I just wonder if. Yeah, I mean, that's really what I wanted to do. We were on track. I mean, we're under water on both vehicles. We have to pay off at least four to five thousand on either vehicle to be able to sell them without selling private sale, which is obviously difficult. I'd like to be able to just go take it and have a dealership take off my hands. Yeah, but difficult is what you've got right now. That's your whole life is difficult. This is true. This is true. So we need to do some things that are difficult, like never going out to eat again and never going on vacation. And I don't know what the deal is with that bathroom, but it needs to be either finished in the next 30 days or you need to pull off of it and start getting these bills paid. Because you guys, you guys have got to tighten up. You all have been kind of living a little sloppy. Yeah, 50 grand and. Yeah, you know, more than a little sloppy, that's for sure. Yeah. Well, but I mean, even if you're just a little sloppy with your income, with these debts, you are paycheck to paycheck. Yeah, because your forty five hundred dollar house payment is outrageously high on your base. If you don't like, if you don't know, if you don't make bonus, this house is insane. Yeah. But if you make bonus, you're fine. I mean, forty five hundred as a percentage of 14,000 a month is OK, but not of eight thousand. That's over 50 percent of your take home pay then. We can't do that. Do you guys have good monthly planning, Lloyd, that with the bonus? Like I'm just wondering to put you guys like from a budget standpoint, that there's an account for the bonuses come in and you're able to use most of that for debt. But it's also there as a cushion. It's like the highs and lows is what we call it, a fund that that's able to kind of sustain some of this monthly. The monthly expenses, like I'm just trying to get as consistent for you guys as possible. And sometimes having an extra account where there's money in there that you guys have already planned out for the year. You don't even mean that you can kind of pull from just to and again, low lifestyle. And it's not for going out to eat and all of it. But I'm just trying to think from a I just I don't know, I could imagine month to month and feeling like this. And then you're waiting on that bonus check. And I just wonder if you can just spread it out a little bit more to give you more advantage. Here's the theory that I want to leave you with the thesis. I'm better than theory. The thesis I want to leave you with. The more radical you get in your reaction to this situation, the faster you're going to be out of it. Because the deeper can we agree that I need to get rid of the car somehow? I think we can agree with that. But they can move way down in car. That'd be a radical move. I don't want you to be to one car. But, you know, so OK, I borrowed five thousand from the credit union. I borrowed twelve thousand from the credit union. And instead of thirty thousand, I got a seven thousand dollar car and a five thousand dollar hole from the last car that I'm paying out of. I'd rather have twelve than thirty. And that's that's moving that's moving out of that thirty. Whatever. Let's just work our way down this thing and say, all right, what radical things can we do to shock this family system temporarily and get this math moving in our direction so we can see a light at the end of the tunnel? Because it feels like we're kind of stuck like a rat in a wheel by the mediocrity, the mediocre handling of things. And so what I want to do is get extreme over here, extreme over here, extreme over here as a one or a two year plan so that I get rid of all of this. And then we've got the renovations of the house in the rearview mirror and we've got no payments. We have an emergency fund. Then we can do a lot of stuff with this quarterly bonus stuff coming in and out. And you've got a lot of wiggle room and you could start your 401k and start building some wealth. But you feel really stuck right now. And so what I'm going to do is throw dynamite in the middle of this thing, blow it up. Let's create some chaos and shock the system of the family. And we always laugh and say, sell so much stuff, the kids think they're next. And we're not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless we're working there. And we're not going on vacation. And we're going to be on a written plan and it's beans and rice and rice and beans. And we're going to make an adventure out of this. And we're going to put a piece of plywood across that bathroom for right now. And we're going to use the rest of the house. It's forty five hundred dollars. Screw it. And we're going to get this car sold and move down. And we're going to be radical. Then you'll be OK. Hey, George Camel here. So you're thinking about buying or selling your home. It's exciting, but there's a lot to think about. And all those decisions can feel overwhelming. Well, here's the good news. You don't have to tackle the process alone. Ramsey's real estate home base is the place to find all of your free tools and resources for help to get prepared to buy or sell your home with confidence. You'll find calculators, start to finish guides, a podcast and even an in-depth video course hosted by yours truly. What's not to love? So if you're ready to take the next steps toward your home goals, go to Ramsey Solutions dot com slash real estate. That's Ramsey Solutions dot com slash real estate. Changing it up a little boys and girls. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author. Is it my right? To my left is Dr. Les Parrot, number one bestselling author. And to my far left, iconic number one bestselling author, Dr. Gary Chapman, who wrote the absolute perennial bestseller, the five love languages that most of you have learned and heard and used in your marriages. And if you didn't, you should have. Some 20 million of those have sold. And my friend Les and Dr. Chapman have teamed up to do a brand new book called the love language that matters most. Welcome gentlemen. Good to have you all. Thanks. Good to have you. Thank you. So what is the love language that matters most? It's yours. Yeah. Thank you, Les. I'm going to tell my wife that tonight. Right now that's the one that matters. Well, the love language is the one that matters most. It's the one that matters most. It's the one that matters most. Right now that's the one that matters. Well, the love language that matters most is the love language of your partner, of your spouse or your child or whoever it is that you're in front of that you want to express love. And for the longest time, Gary's incredible book. By the way, isn't that amazing? 20 million copies. That's why I wanted to help him. I want to come alongside. Yeah, he needed a lift. And but you know, so many times we read that book and we go, OK, they're now love me that way. Right? Now you know how to love me. And this is kind of turning the tables and helping us. Yeah, like you missed the point. Yeah. I remember I took the DISC. Remember that thing a thousand years ago? Like 40 years ago, I came home, showed it to my wife and she read it and she goes, yeah, that's what's wrong with you. It's the same thing, right? Same thing. Oh, I love it. This is great, guys. And of course, Les, you're the master of assessments. You put together some of the best assessments out there, Symbus and several others that have gone worldwide bestselling, assessing different things. And you guys have done an assessment to go with this. We have a premium assessment. This is one of Gary's biggest dreams for the longest time, right, Gary? Yeah, absolutely. We, you know, we have had a free assessment for determining the five level. I like to call it a quiz. It took about 10 seconds. A quiz. And 155 million people have taken the free quiz. And I told my publisher we should have been charging a dollar a piece. Yeah, for real. Minimum. But this one, we're dealing with things we don't deal with in the original book. Two things primarily. One is how personality interfaces with the love languages. And I mentioned dialects in the original book, but I didn't give any of the dialects. But in this premium assessment, you find out which dialect or dialects within the language are most important to you. And the same thing true with your personality. And so if the husband and wife both take the premium assessment, which we're hoping that's the ideal, man, they're going to have valuable information on how to more effectively communicate love to the person. Because you can sometimes try to speak the other person's love language and still not fill up their love tank because you don't quite hit the dialect. The nuances of, for instance, gift giving. Exactly. As you know, there's a lot of different ways you can do that. That's right. Our service. There's a lot of different ways that can manifest. And that's what you mean by dialect. That's right. Yeah, let's dive into that. Because, Les, you were sharing with me earlier, you and Leslie. Obviously, Leslie's on this book as well. Her love language, primary love language, is words of affirmation. Yet you were giving her the wrong dialect. Explain that. Yeah, I had really bad passion. Is that really a word of affirmation? Man, encouraging her. So I became a walking Hallmark card. I was just like, you can do it. And man, yeah, you'd be great at that and anything that would come up. And it turns out that was putting all kinds of pressure on her to do things. She didn't even want to do. And what we learned in the research was her real dialect within words of affirmation is compliments. So if I could say, oh my goodness, I saw you interacting with our son, John, and that was amazing piece of parenting that you did. That fills up her love tank. It's not the encouragement. It's not more catching something. In her case, catching or doing something right rather than trying to empower. Yeah, exactly. And for some people, though, their love language is words of affirmation. And they want encouragement. That is their dialect. It's just like, I don't know if you've ever noticed this, David, if you go to Boston, they don't sound like you do up there. You know, they have a different dialect. Yeah, I think. So we have different dialects in our love language. Yeah, I've noticed that people hanging around together sound alike, too. Those people have an accent. That's right. So I got two of the best marriage minds and researchers on the planet sitting beside me. We know that money is the number one reason for divorce, or at least something is manifesting itself as money issues as the number one reason for divorce. How can couples use this book to change the way they communicate about money? Great question, Gary. Well, I think that one of the things is if they feel loved significantly, if that love tank is full, they'll be able to talk about money much more freely than they could talk about it if they don't feel loved by the person. Not threatened. That's right. It creates a totally different atmosphere. Safe. To discuss financial issues. That makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah, that emotional safety is what allows you to talk about the finances without spinning out of control, right? Because you know you're accepted. If you're loved, then you can process it and communicate. It really does come down to communication. If you've not read the five love languages, you need two folks. It's a standard. I mean, you do 20 million of anything. It's a standard, right? And it sets you up then to understand the other person. And that's the whole purpose of this book is to redirect it and go not intake but out go. Yeah, and that's another way of saying empathy, right? If we can put ourselves in the other person's shoes and accurately meet their needs, actually fill up their love tank. You know, the love tank is such a great metaphor because it's so easy to just ask your partner, hey, how full is your love tank right now? Scale one to ten. It's just an easy thing to do and they'll tell you. Ask Sharon tonight. When was the last time you asked her? But it's been a while, Dave, hasn't it? No, let me tell you. My wife is an introvert and so when I know that her tank in general is when she's had too many people. Yeah. And she needs some space. And that refills her tank in general. It's not a love language, but that's an introvert extrovert. No, but you know, that brings up something pretty cool that we did in this book and with the assessment. That is to identify not just your love language, but bring your personality like are you an introvert or an extrovert. So words of affirmation. If you're an extrovert, you want to be affirmed in front of other people. And if it's gifts, bring them in front of other people. Make it a big celebration. If you're an introvert, oh, please don't embarrass me. Right? I've got to ask a follow-up with you two in the room. Okay, so we've got a lot of people that are in Baby Step Two, which for us, you're taking your smallest debts to your largest debts and it is gazelle intense. Dave says rice and beans, beans and rice, you know the drill. If one of their spouses love language is gifts and we're telling you, you're not doing any gifts until you get out of this thing. What advice would you give to that other spouse who they, you know, they're trying to be disciplined, gazelle intense to get out of this. But yet that love tank may be a little empty because they can't give gifts. What do they do, Gary? I would say the gifts do not have to involve money. Okay. I remember a man, he said, I was taking a walk. I knew her language as gifts. I saw a bird feather. I picked it up and brushed it off. And when I got home, I said, honey, when I was walking, I found this bird feather and I want to give it to you because it reminded me that you are the wind beneath my wings. And she said, oh, that is so sweet. It is so corny. Might be all you can do. It works, right? Marriage saved by a bird feather, I'm just saying. That is great. That would, yeah, it is symbolic that the thought, the old saying around Christmas time, we always say the thought that counts, right? And it truly is. It's, there was a guy we did a thousand years ago, you guys probably remember the book, writing letters to your family, treasure, something I think it was called. And each year, and he sold a box and you put these letters in a box each year. But there is nothing more than affirmation and just other things in the letters. But it was, again, it was a type of gift giving that didn't cost a lot of money, but it elicits a lot of tears of joy. Well, and for some people, that is their dialect when it comes to gifts. They don't want something extravagant. I don't want an iPhone. I don't want a big, fancy dinner. I just want something sentimental. Write me a poem. Give me a card. Dr. Gary Chapman, honored to have you in our studio. Proud to say I now know you. I've admired you for years and love the work you do. Fabulous stuff, the five love languages. The new book with Gary Chapman and Les and Leslie Parrott comes out, The Love Language That Matters Most, along with the Premium Assessment. Be out after the first of the year. Be sure you're looking for it. Absolutely incredible stuff. Thanks gentlemen, good to be with you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. I'm good. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my question is whether my husband and I should pull some money from our emergency fund in order to buy a gun. 35 years are doing this. That's the first time I've heard that question. Yeah, the circumstances are... How would a gun be an emergency? Yeah. I don't necessarily think it is, but my husband does. So we had a weird situation that happened just a couple of days ago where it was like 11 o'clock at night and some guy started banging on our door and we talked to him through the ring camera and he was saying that somebody stole his phone and that it was GPS pinging to our address and that it was probably 45 minutes to an hour before he actually left, like he was looking around our property and then he was sitting in his car just like sitting in front of our house waiting. It was very strange. Why did it take the police that long to get there if you had a property invasion going on? I'm not really sure. They said that he also called them about the phone and I guess they decided it wasn't an emergency. He didn't seem like he was trying to break into the house. He was just looking around on our yard. So you're going to shoot him? Well, my husband I think is concerned that if he did come back and did decide like he was just not going to go into the police, he's just going to break into our house. You're going to tell the cops to come? Yeah, well. Listen, let me just tell you. Let me stop. Okay, I carry a gun. I'm a gun guy, okay? But there's no case like that that I'm going to shoot somebody. We just escalated from a lost cell phone to somebody dead on your front porch. Right. No, this is not okay. That's not the way to solve the problem. The only reason you would shoot someone is if they're inside your home about to harm your family. Not banging on your door, not scaring you, not all of that. You don't go out in the front yard and wave your gun around because he's sitting in your driveway. You call the cops six times and say get your butt over here. One of us is in danger and I'm not sure which one it is. But you got to jack the police up and let them do their job. But you don't wander out in the front yard. You'll get shot. Yeah, I think he's just concerned that if something worse were to happen and somebody were to break into our house, he's like, if we don't have it now, we're not going to be able to, we're not going to want to wait until something worse happens, I guess is where he's coming from. But I'm with you. I really. What is your household in? So annual is about 85,000. But our monthly income during the winter, a lot of it's pretty heavily. So during the winter we make about $4,000 to $5,000 a month. Okay. All right. Because I don't like his attitude about handling a firearm, I'm not going to tell you to buy a gun because I think you're going to get yourself in a lifetime of hurt if you handle these situations with a firearm. You don't use a firearm unless someone is about to die. Okay. That's, you just don't. I mean, it's not, that's not what that's for. And he's, this guy on the ring doorbell thing is not even close to that. This is, people like that, when they get shot, that's when you go to jail. That's not, or you spend a million dollars trying to not go to jail. And because you weren't even defending yourself, you just got spooked or you thought you were a BA or something. And so don't, don't do that. Now I will tell you that there's a product out there that I would put in your budget to address this concern. Okay. But it's not a firearm. It's a non-lethal firearm called a Berna. Oh, okay. BY RNA. And it'll cost you about 500 bucks. And it shoots a projectile that can either be pepper spray or a hard projectile that if you shoot someone with it, they will wish they had been shot, they'll go down, but they're not going to die. It's non-lethal. But if your husband pulls a Glock and empties a Glock into the guy's windshield because he freaks out, he's going to jail. Right. So that ain't cool. And you can buy a Glock for about 500 bucks, okay? Yeah. But so either one will do the job and you can do that in your budget. It's not an emergency though. But the fact that you all are reacting to this situation emotionally and actually calling this an emergency means you need to rethink how you're going to defend your home. Yeah. And I got to tell you, again, I have a gun on my person most of the time, but the chances of me pulling it out are zero. I will run away. I'm not going to shoot somebody. Yeah. I'm going to go, but it's just too, there's just too much involved. And it's not the answer. And you know, the only time is if one of my grandkids or my kids or somebody was in danger, my wife was in danger. Yeah. But that's not, that's the only, the only way. And it would not be that I was scared at somebody knocking at my front door. I'm going to be on 911 talking to dispatch until somebody rolls up on this boy and puts him down. He doesn't be one around my front yard scaring my wife and me. This guy needs to go down. And you know, you guys did not communicate with law enforcement accurately and urgently enough to get some reaction. People don't need to be squirreling around my dad gum house. I don't care if he's drunk. I don't care if he's got the wrong address or whatever with a cell phone. Doesn't matter. All that stuff doesn't matter. You can't bust up on somebody's house like that without consequences. And so put, but put law enforcement on that for God's sakes. No, buying a firearm for self protection is not an emergency. What is an emergency is changing your situation so that if you need to spend some money on changing your situation so that you don't have this emergency, like you don't live there anymore, you move or something like that. If you've got a place that's unsafe, then I would do that. But I'm not going to, you know, build Fort Knox over here and stick, you know, AR barrels out of every window to protect my house. No, we're not doing that. That's just not a good use of your life. You should be doing something other than that with your life. So and I'm about as gun about as much a gun guy as anybody you'll ever talk to. So don't misunderstand. I'm not anti two A. I'm anti shooting people. Hello. That's a bad idea. Maxi is with us. Maxi is in Knoxville. Hi Maxi. How are you? Hi Dave. Thank you. What's up? I'm doing well. Good. How can we help? My yes, my husband and I owe about a year ago in here to just over a million dollars in assets, including a home. And after paying off the home and the debts that that family member left behind, we have approximately $288,000 left in investments and including our personal cash. So we've rolled that into a an S and P 500 account, which stands about 222,000, $220,000 in personal debt. And we're wondering if we should go ahead and pay off that debt. My husband wants to jump jump the gun and do it, wipe it out. And that personal debt includes student loans, cars and some home repairs. Or if we go a little bit of a slower approach and do a snowball method with our debts and do it that way. What's your household income? $220,000. And you kept the other house and it's paid for? Yes. My husband and I were renting an apartment before. So you're moving into the paid for house? Yes, we paid it off. Okay. And that was the family home or whatever that you inherited? Yes. Okay. I got you. I got the picture now. Okay. So here's the problem. Informatically, you should pay off all the debt today. Okay. And then from this point forward, take all the payments and live on a written budget and start investing aggressively. Because you don't have a house payment, you don't have $127,000 worth of bullcrap payments and you put all the bullcrap payments and the whole house payment or rent payment into one lump and that starts going back into that S&P or back into some good mutual funds with a smart investor pro and you'll be back to $200,000 in a heartbeat. If you change the way you've handled money to this point, if you keep handling money the way you handle to this point in four years, you're going to be back in debt again. Because every time I want something, I go get it. No way. You've got to stop that. No more buying crap unless you have the money ever. And if you can't pinky swear and spit shake and write that down in blood and both of you agree to it and we're going to be on a written budget the rest of our lives, then you're going to screw this up by going back into debt by not changing you. So change your habits. If you're both convinced you can do that, then I'd pay off the debt. It's one of the best times of the year, but it's also the time of year when people let their money get totally out of control. Everywhere you look, it's just buy, buy, buy. So you start swiping the credit card and suddenly it's January and you've got a mess on your hands. Don't let that happen. Tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went. With our budgeting app, every dollar. Every dollar not only helps you stay on budget and in control of your spending this holiday season. It also helps you find extra margin in your budget, thousands of dollars of it and every day will coach you to build better money habits and attack your goals faster than ever. So while most people will be starting in January with the taste of regret in their mouth, you'll already be winning. Start every dollar for free by downloading the app today. Our scripture of the day, 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7, humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. James Clear says worrying about the future is like watching a leaf fall and trying to predict where it will land. Stop trying to guess where the wind will blow and get to work. Amen. One of our favorite things is hearing people share their stories of how they're winning and we just heard this from Claire and Winston. This is me and my husband's third month budgeting with the every dollar app and I'm amazed at how much money we found. We went from feeling like we were living paycheck to paycheck to finding $3,500 extra margin each month to put toward our debt. We each had four credit cards and have been able to pay them all off never going back. Man, that's great you guys. Hey, folks, you can do this too. You can take control of your money. You can change your family tree. You can live like no one else. Go download our every dollar budgeting app for free in the App Store or Google Play. Jen is in Jamaica. Hi Jen, how are you? I'm good, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm a 13 year teacher and I've saved up about $200,000 and I'm trying to figure out how to best invest this. I don't have any retirement because I'm an international teacher. There are no 401ks. So it's just intimidating to try to figure out where do I put all of that money but I know I need to. You a US citizen? I am, yes. You're filing taxes in the US? No, because I live overseas and I'm claimed as a resident overseas. I don't have to pay US taxes. Okay. Roth IRA is based on earned income and I suspect that would mean even if you're a citizen an earned income that is reported to the IRS. So I don't know but I don't think you're going to qualify for that. I'd have to double that. I don't think I do either, yeah. I would have to double check that. So I mean you're left in with just buying mutual funds and as a US citizen abroad you can do that without any trouble. I just don't know how to get started with that. Yeah, okay. What I would do is sit you with a financial advisor or get you on the phone with a financial advisor or Ramsey, a smart investor pro on ramseysolutions.com. They don't work for me but they're people that we have vetted that are in the investing community and the main thing we make sure they do is that they have the heart of a teacher meaning they're going to teach you what your options are. I do not know what their licensing rules are regarding an international investment but as I remember it, since you're a US citizen they probably can do the investment for you. So what I would do is just pick Nashville where I live because I know I don't have one in Kingston, Jamaica. I'm 100% sure. So pick Nashville and get in touch with them and ask them if there's something they can do to help you get started investing. If they can, that's your best route. Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. Oh, I was just going to ask the other thing that I was going to, because we are international and we move a lot, we don't currently have a home and I've liked that because I don't, we used to but we got rid of it. I'm just trying to decide is that something that, would you think that that's okay and that we're just putting things into the actual fund? I think that's fine. What I would do is just make sure you have a, what's your in-game target and how are you going to have a real estate in the in-game? Okay. Are you planning to retire in the States? Yes. Okay. Yeah. So at some point we've got to have a home fund. So let's call it the Magic 65 or 70 years old or whatever. We buy a home for cash and we still have a nest egg beyond that to live on for the rest of our lives for retirement because your home is your largest item in retirement in your budget and to not have it paid for destabilizes your retirement. Thank you. So I would just have a target of saying when we call this foreign teaching quits and come to the States to retire, you know, we need to have a big pile of money and a mutual fund to buy a house and another big pile of money in some mutual funds to live off of. And that, so this is our overall, so in other words you're paying yourself, you're investing 15% of your income or more for your retirement and then you're also paying yourself a house payment into another fund. Oh, that makes sense, yeah. So that that fund is going to be enough to buy you a house later. So hopefully the SmartVista Pros can help you as a fallback rather than just having it sitting and savings, there's a thing called, I hate the phrase but I'm going to use it, okay? So the average of the stock market is the S&P 500. Have you heard that? Yes. The S&P 500 index funds do what the market does, no better, no worse. And you can just reach over to Fidelity or Vanguard or American or somebody and buy that, you could just jump online and buy that. And you'd have 200 grand in there and it would be going up what the stock market does, no better, no worse. Now I have some parked in that that I'm using to save to buy some real estate later. But I also have regular retirement investments and the four types of mutual funds I talk about called growth, growth in income, aggressive growth in international that I buy through my SmartVista Pro, all right? But if you want to do a dumbed down version that's much better than doing nothing, that would be just put it all in an S&P 500. And you can do that online and you won't have any trouble doing that. But that's your worst case scenario. And just to, you know, the market is averaged between 10 and 12 a year depending on what you're reading, who you believe. I see 11.8 is the average that the S&P has done for 70 years and see that's a lot better than a 3% high yield savings. Right, right. This calendar year today at this moment the S&P for this calendar year is up 17%. That's not normal. That's unusually good. But instead of three you could have made 17. And so that's a $35,000 error with $200,000, okay? So that's what I mean. At least do that. If the other thing, if you call the other people and they go, nope, can't help you, they're not licensed, we can't do it, you can't do it the way you are, you don't have a U.S. address, I can't help you, all that, then just jump online and buy an S&P. Okay, yeah. At least it'll grow. And the good news is it doesn't usually generate much income tax on the growth until you sell it. And when you do sell it, it's actually a capital gains rate rather than personal income rate. So it's a great investment tool if you don't have anything else available, kind of a thing. Or if you've maxed out all retirement. But you don't have much available because of your situation. Very interesting. Good question. Thanks for calling us. Merry Christmas to you. Cindy's in Charleston, South Carolina. Hey, Cindy, what's up? Hey, good afternoon. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure, what's happening? I am in need of your wise counsel about retiring at age 62 instead of waiting for a few more years. Okay. So how large is your nest egg? We have 1.5 million in investments and I have 135,000 in my TSP, which is the government equivalent of 401K. I'm familiar. And then we have 45,000 in high yield savings accounts. And no debt? No debt, no, sir. House paid off? House has paid off. It's worth about 335,000. Another part of this equation is that when I do retire, we would like to move closer to our grandchildren. So that may involve spending a little bit of our nest egg for that move. What do you make? 150,000. What does he make? My husband is already medically retired. So he's got disability. He is drawing social... Yes, sir. Yes. All right. Well, here's a good rule of thumb. I was just talking to the other lady about mutual funds. If you've got your stuff invested in that 1.2 and it averages what the market has averaged, 11.8. Okay? Yes. So let's call it 12 for easy math right now. And you leave 4% in there every year and took off 8%. The nest egg on average will grow at the rate of inflation. So if you can live off of 8% of that nest egg or a little less, you can make it pretty fine. If you want to work a few more years, you can obviously double it again and have more than pretty fine. Either way, it's fine with me. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember there's ultimately only one way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.