Money Isn't A Math Problem, It's A YOU Problem!

foreign live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions broadcasting from the PODS moving and storage Studios it's the Ramsey show where we help people build wealth do work that they actually love and create real and amazing relationships Rachel Cruz number one best-selling author co-host of the super popular smart money happy hour with George Campbell it is my co-host today number one best-selling off how many times I mean you got a lot of accolades oh she's my daughter too I don't know about that yeah but you can keep them going yeah just keep how many number ones there's a lot of number one bestsellers yeah open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five we're going to talk about your life and you right in front of you Jason starts us off in Austin Texas hi Jason how are you hello Dave Rachel how you doing better than we deserve what's up in your world um well I thought really behind the eight ball I was wondering if I could um put away for retirement and pay the payoff debt at the same time um I've been doing the baby steps and I have currently now more than 300 to 128 000 worth of student loan debt I have a car alone of 33 000 and um you went from 300 000 in student loans down to 100 and a quarter yes way to go man yeah I was working really hard how long did that take you um it took me about three years wow three years what do you make so when I was in I said I'm a physician so when I was in residency I was making about 70. my wife also worked so she was making about 72 so we were living in kind of it was an awful one income what's your household income now So currently it's 290. oh man you're awesome way to go you go knock this out in no time aren't you I have nothing in retirement so I'm wondering oh you're okay how old are you Jason um 35. oh man you're good yeah listen you're gonna be debt-free in a year and a half yeah yeah let's just let's just be real care you make 300 000 a year you're 37 years old and you have no debt can we retire Rich answer yes okay hello think about it really okay okay yeah I don't so keep doing the baby steps just don't yes yeah don't yeah keep doing the plan you're doing great I think you're probably getting a little fatigue Jason I mean after three years of it yeah I mean after three years you're just like oh my gosh is this and so and you're and you're hitting the the big ones now and so worse than that some doctor friend of yours start giving you Financial advice everybody's buying houses right now yeah I know every doctor you know let me just tell you broke doctors are like broke people in the music business it's like most of them they because they okay they're really good at their craft and they think that makes them good at money and they suck at money most of the time there's some doctors do a really good job but MDS that are horrible with money and arrogant about it are like a they're like a stereotype in our world yeah and what's hard Jason is because don't take advice from them yeah because well and I think you know because a lot of them can err on the side of having a larger income and so what can happen with a larger income just like you've experienced you talk about The Stave is like it can just mask your mistakes and your bad habits because you just throw more money at it and it's fine until something starts to happen and you start to realize wow the thing I have built is a house of cards and I actually don't have great money habits so for you Jason I think it's just this powerful imagery of hey if I actually do this stuff and I clear the debt and I do everything the right way what you're going to do when you build wealth is actually true wealth like it's going to be on a really strong Foundation because of the choices you're making today and so very good again everyone else looks like they're doing it you you guys are going to be great Jason I promise you will be fine yeah I'm with Rachel I'm gonna put some gas in your tank because your Tank's empty but your car is awesome I mean you just you need to because you've been doing really good you've been I mean for God's sakes everybody around you should be taking your advice not the other way around okay you need to stick put the pedal down and finish the race man the tape is in sight Sprint for the Finish Line Jason right there and after you guys again looking at just the numbers I'm like and once you guys pay off this debt to to your point Dave like that you're gonna be able to build wealth and you guys are going to be you're gonna do your 15 retirement you guys are going to be buying a house you're paid like before you know it you're gonna have money to be like okay now what do we do with this extra money your network we're gonna be able to invest even more in other things right I mean like you're gonna be fine yeah follow these steps you'll be a millionaire plus when you're 40. easy easy based on where you are right now easy probably two million but if you just follow the steps just do what we teach into I mean just don't oh man you're just doing so good I'm so proud of you all right Clayton's in Kansas City hey Clayton what's up hi there how are you today better than I deserve how can we help awesome hey um so my main question is uh should we start paying off my wife's student loans right now or should we wait until after she graduates uh there's a couple factors and a couple of plans we have um so we've got a ten thousand dollar emergency account her student loans currently are for 4 000 but we will have to take out student loans for the next semester coming up here in October for another four thousand she goes to a pretty cheap online school um the first thing you do stop borrowing that's step one yes sir yeah so you got the money to pay cash make sure you still got the money to pay cash at the end of our discussion okay finish school with no more debt yeah yeah so uh so the issue is that she lost her job a while ago and we're getting ready to have a baby in October it's a wonderful one of my questions is should we drain our emergency account to pay for these two semesters and then what do you mean how is she gonna go to school Clayton and have a baby yep uh so she's doing a fully online school okay so how how is she going to keep up with the work I mean like um I'll just be real I mean as someone that's had three kids is it possible sure anything's possible is it the smartest thing to do to go a semester into school while you're in the middle of having your first baby I would if I were her I would pause take a semester off yeah take it have the baby you guys save up some cash make sure she's good you're I mean you guys are gonna be like zombies for about like two months uh with a newborn so there's no reason to rush all of this is I if I if I were her I would just pause for that next semester and you guys have your family enjoy that season what do you make uh I made 4 433 a month what does she studying uh starting to be an elementary school teacher at graduate level um finishing her bachelor's okay so she's finishing up her undergrad okay yeah all right so it is uh it's an online school and I guess the way it works is you it's self-paced yeah what is uh uh how old are you two uh I'm 24 and she is 23. okay Rachel's right if I were in your shoes I would take a semester off you guys you can work an extra job if you need to and she takes care of the baby and let's enjoy this and not try to run past this in a dead Sprint uh just just take you know and then you got plenty of time to get back finish the degree save up and pay the four thousand dollars but don't pay off debt and then turn around go back in debt and then pay off debt and then turn around go back in debt that's a dog chasing his tail that's useless don't do that this is the Ramsay show [Music] thank you [Music] hey if you're in over your head with student loans and tired of getting calls from collection agencies if private student loan debt is taking away your financial piece and you don't see any way out you need why refi they're not a debt settlement company and they're not connected to a bank why refi refinances defaulted private student loans that other places won't touch and gives you a custom loan built for you based on your ability to pay so when you refinance your private student loan debt with why refi you'll have a payment you can afford with a low fixed interest rate you couldn't get anywhere else to help you stick to your budget and work the debt snowball and you can save thousands of dollars to learn more about this custom refinancing option and a lump sum payoff option you could qualify for after 24 months call 8442 Ramsey or go to yrefi.com Ramsay [Music] foreign [Music] personality is my co-host today Jade warshaw one of our other Ramsay personalities is doing a budgeting webinar August the 9th for most of you that's tomorrow and it's at 12 30 Eastern time it's completely free if you want to learn how to do a good budget particularly if you have a an irregular unpredictable income we can help you with that too all of this is built into the world's best budgeting app called every dollar and you can get on every dollar for free download the app but if you really want to learn how to use it for free Jade will help you uh with a few of her closest friends tomorrow go to everydollar.com budgeting and get signed up uh and spoiler alert uh in a couple of days we're gonna be uh well like tomorrow we're gonna start telling you Rachel Cruz is doing one of these webinars a little bit later in the month right August 15th yeah and these are fun we've we're excited to do these because budgeting is like it's it's the glue that holds so much of this together and it's such a crucial piece and it's a piece that a lot of people sometimes can skip over or have these ideas of what it is but all the emotions around money so many of those negative emotions can be solved through having a plan and actually being in control so we're excited dive in with you guys and there's gonna be q a portions so we're gonna get to hang out yeah it's all for free so Jade's is uh it's actually a budgeting seminar is actually a free marriage seminar yeah married yeah it's gonna it's gonna bring up some stuff okay yeah hey question of the day uh is brought to you by neighborly your hub for Home Services they're the place to find Reliable help for your home from trusted locally owned businesses like Glass Doctor Mr Handyman and shelf Genie visit neighborly.com to find home experts that are available to serve you great company so today today's question comes from Clayton in Texas I'd like to move it to a nicer neighborhood however with the housing prices High and the interest rates High I'm not sure it's the best time the only debt I have is my house 145 000 left on my loan at 2.65 rate I'm confident I can sell my house for 300 000 if not more at the downfall is I'm giving up a low interest rate for a more expensive house and a higher rate thank you for your time yeah I mean this is a this is a very standard question a lot of people are asking like hey I want to upgrade but then as they do the math and they look at the interest rate and over the life of a loan you know we say paid off faster than 15 years but a 15-year loan I mean you're going to be paying a substantial more money towards your interest and so for a lot of people that's making them hesitant but you guys I mean My My Philosophy always with buying a home is buy it when you're ready it's a great investment we want everyone to own a home we want you to have a primary residence when you're ready it's a great part of your financial picture and so you know you have to really be able to kind of take the noise and everything going on that you hear at the news and everything and and kind of mute all of that and say okay where are we financially and as long as your payment is within that 25 of your take-home pay uh you're on a 15-year fixed rate and and if all of that math still works for you and you have a good down payment then you can move forward with it but you have to know mathematically yeah we're going to be paying more in interest but I mean Dave that's that's what I mean a lot of people are they're they're pausing a home buying because they're like gosh I have a good right now in my current home and if we move it's it's going to Triple basically into a higher interest rate well as long as you're at 25 of your take-home pay on a 15-year fix there's two things going on when you do that one is uh you're going to get out of debt faster than 15 years okay two is we know you can afford it yep that you're buying a house that is reasonable your move up is reasonable if it fits those two things Clayton you should go ahead and do it now okay because here here's the thing you you said some incorrect things here okay however with housing prices being high no honey housing prices just are they're not high they're high compared to yesterday they're low compared to tomorrow they're not coming back down when you say they're high it's almost as if you think they might come back down they're not coming down okay in 60 years 70 years house prices have gone down one time temporarily in 2008 and they shot back up one time if you're going to sit around and wait on one time in 60 or 70 years to happen you're never getting a house they're not coming down you're buying a house the way it is now and when you're ready that's right as far as the interest rates go I don't know if they'll come back down if they do refinance if they don't pay off the stupid loan because you know what my interest rate is on my loan zero because I don't have a loan so there's a good way to get a zero percent pay the stinking thing off pay it off and then you don't worry about the interest rates you're not keeping this thing around like as a pet you're getting rid of the mortgage so you you know number one house prices are not coming back down if you're going to buy this is best time to buy in the next 20 years right now price wise if interest rates are oh I'm worried about interest rates interest rates are not high they're not high historically they are higher than they were 0.65 right they're higher than they were but over the course of history right they're really not high and so if they did come back down then just refinance think about what when you were selling houses in the 80s now Selling Houses in the 80s or 17 15 yeah yeah and they came down to 14 and people came out of their houses like they did after covid trying to you couldn't they're stampeding to buy houses and rates were 14. and then they went down to 10 and then they went down to nine and somebody called me up and said I don't want to buy a house at nine I was on the radio then and I'm like why it's nine as compared to 17. I thought it was awesome yeah and I said you'll never see six and little did I know how dumb I was of course you saw six on the way down to three but yeah but the the three percent two percent interest rate range was artificially created by the government trying to recover from 2008. the market did not drive us down there the market has hovered around six for decades a couple of decades now in and out of the six percent range so historically it's only compared to a year ago or two years ago that they're high so this is the time to buy a house it is the time for sure to sell a house yeah there's still more buyers than there are houses yep it's still a seller's market so get with a good real estate agent go to ramsesolutions.com click on uh ELP for Ramsey trusted endorsed local provider for real estate agent that knows what the flip they're doing it has experience that sells a bunch of houses and if you're ready to move you're out of debt you're buying it 25 of your take-home pay Rachel's exactly right it's not based on all the noise that you're hearing from your friends or in the marketplace it's when you're ready it's like I was with this wine expert the other day who's one of the most renowned Wine Guys in the world and um he said I said what is that good wine and he said do you like it that's the definition of good wine do you like it when you are ready you know and so you know do you like it are you ready are you in good shape are you ready to make the move Bia is with us in Seattle hi Bo welcome to the Ramsey show is it Bia yes I did say it right because right how can I help yes hello Dave hello Rachel God bless both of you and thank you for taking my call sure um I want to know if I should fail an investment property that I own do you like it I do like it okay why are you selling it because I am in debt right now my combined debt with Carlo I just got a new unsecured loan so all of my debt combined is a hundred and fourteen thousand two hundred and ninety seven dollars and sixty five what the crap did you buy Bia it's a mixture of credit cards personal loans car loans and charges you've been spending like you're in Congress for how long I did since I left the military I retired about 10 years ago I have paid off some debt um but I still have that debt left so it's a combination of one unsecured Signature Loan and three other separate credit cards is my total debt thanks for your service when are you going to when are you going to stop overspending I am in the midst of changing right now which is one of the reasons why I called yeah good okay because if you sell the rental property and pay off all the debt and you keep overspending you'll be right back here in 10 years changed you yeah because Skyler's gonna pick up we're heading into a break but uh we want to I want to put you through Financial Peace University because this is our our nine lesson course that will walk you through not just the head knowledge of what to do but actually the behavior change is what we're kind of keying on right if you sell this and just throw the money at it you haven't changed you can get right back in the same issues you have to change you and so this has Community as coaching it has so many elements to come under you and help you through this new Journey if you will stay on a budget and live on less than you make yes you should sell the rental and get rid of the debt but only if you're going to stay on a budget and live almost in your man [Music] hey guys being free to make your own medical decisions is a big deal these days Christian Healthcare Ministries gives members the freedom to choose the doctors and providers they want without the frustration of worrying about networks and with no waiting period to join it's a membership-based non-profit Ministry where hundreds of thousands of Christians share funds to pay for and pray for each other's medical bills for over 40 years chm has helped families living across all 50 states so cfchm could be right for your family check out more today at chministries.org budget foreign [Music] [Music] personality number one best-selling author my daughter is my co-host today be sure and check her and George out the smart money happy hour has a once a week podcast drop it drops on Thursday right yes every Thursday every Thursday if you want to figure out what these two are drinking I mean uh what their advice is you can find out cocktail and Cocktails so you get both yeah I just I'm a little I saw on social media I don't see much on social media but I was thumbing through my insta what do you call that the gram no you're right it's the insta the green the Graham and there's a little kid 10 years old yeah drinking the mocktail that you all taught him to make money happier I think you're causing juvenile delinquency that's what I'm thinking it's probably there's no alcohol it was probably muddled strawberries no it was the one it was like a float it had like ice cream or something I mean we yeah we had yeah yeah listen you need something I think you're causing problems pop culture and money and hey we get we get messages all the time that six-year-old seven-year-olds love the show and even like 80 year olds love them teaching them to drink we got no we're not drink it's not a show about drinking people I'm just kidding I do have a drink of the day and it's because it's happy hour sometimes I have alcohol so check it out it's always fun and funny because George and Rachel are if anything they're fun if anything they're always fun so be sure to check it out I think somebody wishes we talked about money a little bit more and a little less fun sometimes but we have a lot of it's kind of in the title smart money happy hour there's that yeah okay so I'm just just holding you accountable to that that's all open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five Madison is in Des Moines Iowa hi Madison how are you hey good thanks for having me guys sure what's up um so my question is I have a camper that I'm running out and making good money on um but we're living in a dumpy house and we got a lot of debt that we need to tackle so should I sell that camper and make uh get like fifteen thousand dollars back plus get rid of that loan debt and put that on my current debt or should I move my family into the camper and um kind of use that as our uh use it as a way to decrease our expenses okay I'm a little bit unclear how you rent out campers for money what's going on to explain that to me yeah oh yeah there's some great uh websites that you can go it's kind of like an Airbnb oh so it's like a camper Uber okay that's right yeah so I just drop it off to people and they rent it for a weekend or something my God what will they come up with next okay I didn't know yeah I'm just learning something okay so what is it how much do you make on that I'm just curious I'm gonna tell you to sell it anyway but how much do you make on it I've been making about a grand a week which has been nice extra cash for us what's it worth the camper is worth 43 000. how much you owe I owe 25 000 25 000. every week you're making a thousand dollars every week that it's rented I would say oh well no kidding how many weeks is it rented uh most weeks I probably at least three weeks uh a month and is that is that year round though Madison is that just because of the summer just because of the summer okay I have been looking into uh so you're not making fifty two thousand dollars a year a thousand dollars a week you're making twenty thousand dollars a year yes okay all right that's helpful because I was about to just have a coronary over here about to go on a camper business but anyway the um no yeah sell it I listen you're not in a position to be in the camper investment Airbnb business you're broke yeah yeah that's what you already knew I just said how much debt do you guys have Madison total combined with me and my husband we have about 140 000 in what um uh we have a business that we started and that's been doing really well but to the startup cost for that was uh we have about 15 000 left on that we have a vehicle I have student loans um how much you owe on the vehicle the vehicle about 40 000.40 on the student loans 45 000. okay and how much you guys make a year uh about 144 000 and then the and then you owe 20 on the camper 25 on the camera that gets us to 140. okay hey yeah yeah yeah and your household income is what 144 000. and you're in a dumpy house yeah we are renting because uh we moved back from Florida weren't sure what to do with the business but we really need to have a place that we have the business at home because it's so uh inconvenient right now uh the house is is not in the best shape not in the best neighborhood you don't have two years tax returns on the business though do you I don't have uh my tax returns the CPA that I hired no I mean you haven't had the business two years have you I have it's in the third year right now okay did you make enough in the two years on your tax returns when you do get them done to take them to the mortgage company and get a mortgage for a house yes okay so if you sold the camper and you tore Into the Dead and knocked out the debt and then saved up a down payment and you sold a car you could be debt free um in less than a year and start talking about buying a house yes we're at now yeah that sounds pretty good okay yeah Madison if I were you guys I would just sell like sell whatever you can sell the camper sell the car like all that stuff you can re-buy later sell both cats but it's like just get rid of stuff and I mean obviously the student loan in the business loan those are still going to be around but knock those two out and yeah and I think you guys are gonna be in a totally different position I think it's a good just mental exercise for you guys just to get you've been carrying around all this stuff that's equated to carrying around debts and just getting rid of some of it I think it's going to bring you a lot of Peace it's kind of a minimalism move for you guys yeah and and yeah and and your the thing is you're just entrepreneurial and you see something shiny and you jump on it yeah that's how the camper thing happened and then oh and then I could go over and do this and I can do that and I can do this and then all of a sudden your life got real cluttered yeah that's exactly right well the camper we bought because we moved into it and we were living in it for a while and then we have three kids that didn't work um so we decided the adventure was over but now we're in the house and that's not working either so well let's let's have a one year to 18 month plan to be 100 debt free with an emergency fund and a down payment because you're making really good money and get real focused with a budget to do all this and then sell everything in sight sell so much stuff the kids think they're next and really get in gear here and let's get this stuff done Rachel's exactly right that's what I would do because I can see what the thing is that that with the the cluttered approach the chaotic approach that you've used to money so far has kind of made you feel like you can you're never going to get there and we can see the numbers where you're really going to get there very fast if you take these dramatic moves yeah absolutely and and I think it's just gonna it's gonna bring you guys a level of peace and control that you just haven't had Madison I mean but of 140 80k is a camper in a car are right that's what I'm saying so I'm like it's amazing just like removing some of that you know and then you put your life on top of Medicine with three kids and you guys are working you're starting a business I mean you guys have a lot of moving pieces in your life anyways and so just simplifying and getting stuff out I think is going to feel really cleansing to you guys in more ways than just the financial I think it's really going to be helpful and then and then working a plan and being intense on that plan seeing progress and goals you guys are really goal oriented so you're going to start to feel that traction and yeah I think you guys are going to kill it I mean yeah I think you're gonna do great yeah that's very good you really got the potential if you just but you're gonna have to make some pretty dramatic shifts here in the short term to get your long-term goals but I mean visualize three years from now you're living in a nice home with a 15-year fixed where the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay your business is continuing to grow and you've got no debt other than that I can breathe that in and that feels like a better life and that's not that's worth that's worth no camper no car yes and that's not how to reach Madison that dream for three years like that's that's reality that's a completely doable yep absolutely mathematically with Matthew gave us it's doable but you guys got to line up and get after it you got to bust it and if you do that then this will this will work for you good stuff good stuff hey thank you for calling in man I love people I just learned something every day on this show today's like make money rent out a camper well I'm thinking should I 42 000 camper and you're getting a thousand dollars a week in 42 months you paid for the thing I mean it's 42 weeks amazing world we live in for the things but it doesn't stay right I mean you rent out everything it took me a minute to get to the bottom of the business proforma but yeah okay anyway this is the Ramsey Show [Music] [Applause] [Music] well you've all played the telephone game the first person Whispers a message to the second person who Whispers it to the third and so on around the table until the original message has completely changed multiply that confusion by a hundred if you run a business with different software systems that don't talk to each other that's why there's netsuite by Oracle in the early days of Ramsey we were using different systems for all of our business units we needed one single source for accurate data netsuite was the software we used to optimize and take us to the next level netsuite gave us the visibility into all of our numbers so that we could communicate across departments and plan ahead better and as we grew it scaled with us next week worked for Ramsey and it will make a difference for your business too join the more than 34 thousand customers who trust netsuite to help make them smarter and make better decisions and level up their operations to learn more get a free product tour at netsuite.com Ramsay that's netsuite.com Ramsey foreign [Music] personality is my co-host today I'm Dave Ramsey your host thanks for listening to the Ramsay show we appreciate you if you'd like to know more about what's going on and how you fit into this Jake go to ramseysolutions.com and click the get started button we'll help you figure out the best next step in your journey and I help you along the way in the whole process so thanks for hanging out with us Josh is in Shreveport Louisiana hey Josh welcome to the Ramsey Show hey guys thanks for taking my call sure what's up so my question is my wife and I are working through the baby steps right now and uh around the first of the year we should be starting baby steps four five and six excellent I'm a high income earner uh and so my question is can we take I know we're supposed to do 15 towards retirement what if we only did 10 and took the other five percent and helped get our mortgage out of the way as well don't how much what do you make what's your high income about 500 000. good for you what do you do I'm a physician way to go man way to go well obviously Josh you're a grown person you're allowed to do whatever you want to do um you're just asking if we would do that I think yes sir okay so you certainly can do that and will you end up broke if you do that no no you have a paid for house and a little less in retirement and then you'll uh probably correct and start doing more Investments when you don't have a house payment I assume right yes sir that's correct uh we're um right now we have 600 000 in retirement already yep um not bad you know we'll yes sir we're we're working at it how much is the house how much do you have left on the house well about five hundred thousand okay all right well here's the thing it the it's a pretty simple thing it's just if you uh uh do 10 instead of fifteen percent the house is gonna be paid off a little faster and you're going to have a little less in retirement if you do it our way you have a little more in retirement and it's going to take a little bit longer to pay off the house but um you know neither one of these are going to break the bank I I would tell you that I've I'm you know you're going to be okay there's neither one of these are in the stupid column like you're please don't do that you're going to destroy your life none of that is in this discussion okay so this is just nuanced stuff so you do you you need to do whatever you feel is best for you I'm very comfortable that you're going to get both things done anyway and and um it's not and honestly I think you'd be surprised if you actually put a spreadsheet on this that it's not going to make that much difference at the end of the story say a 15-year uh timeline time Horizon how much difference is your net worth going to be one way or the other it's not going to be much you're not really gaining hardly anything so I'm going to stick with our plan because I've seen it work so many times I'm really not going to stray from it but I'll just say again a uh but because I don't want to put out there that oh well if you're high income earner this stuff doesn't apply to you yes it does yeah yes it does and um you know and if you had a hundred thousand dollar mortgage and you made a hundred thousand dollars a year instead of making a half million with a half million dollar mortgage I would tell you exactly the same thing so the nut it's still just ratios and so uh you know you're going to be in debt X number of years longer my way maybe two years more something like that than you would your way so it's a two-year differentiation that we're discussing we're not even arguing about but but no it doesn't change it you're income doesn't change the principles so um the other thing is this yeah yeah that's what I would do I I would do I would stay right with the baby steps yeah but but but it's not again I you're going to get to the end you're gonna be fine as long as you stay on either one of those tracks and you don't go off into the La La Land and start buying Bitcoin or some stupid butt stuff or something then you're gonna be just fine you know you're gonna be fine good good call thank you for joining us all right Christian is in Pittsburgh hey Christian what's up hi so I was calling call um I'm currently working a career that I'm pretty much burned out in and I don't know how much longer I can do it um so I was wondering if I should try and stick it out to save up the money to go back to school or if it would be worth it to take a loan out in this case what do you do I'm a nurse a critical care nurse okay how long have you been doing it uh two and a half years and what do you want to do Aviation yeah commercial pilot what got you into nursing so when I was 14 I joined the fire department and that turned into working on the ambulance and then that kind of um turn into nursing and doing critical care and Aviation X really has always been something I've wanted to do but nursing was just an easier path at the time how much does it cost to to go through that schooling to get your pilot's license it depends on the program that I do anywhere from 50 to 100 000. what are you making what state um my fiance and I combined household is 120 000 a year you're not combined you're not married what do you make wow I make uh 60 000. we both make sixty thousand that's weird you're working Critical Care 40 hours and you're only making 60 Grand in Pittsburgh yep Pittsburgh has a lot of nursing schools so they have very low it's a you know supply and demand there's a huge supply of nurses not a ton of demand because they can get new grads they come in Yeah we actually just did a salary episode for the smart money happy hour George and I did and we just taped it yesterday and yeah we the nursing yeah it was right around that's the national average actually it's right around there uh which is which was lower than what I was incredible hair that's not that's that's low for critical care uh okay um no I'm not gonna tell you to go into debt for anything ever I haven't in 35 years and we're not going to start today with you okay now past that uh then what do we do to live a proper life and Live Your Dream right um so you need 50 Grand and you need to adjust where you're working because it's not nursing that's driving you nuts it's the location and the people and the particular stress of critical care that's driving you nuts okay you didn't suddenly lose your heart for healing you've had a heart for healing for a decade or more yeah you're not burnt out on healing are there other positions Christian that you're aware of in the nursing field that you're like okay I could I could do that for three more years or for two more years while I say yeah there are the problem is that I don't meet the experience requirements for that yet so like being a flight nurse working on the helicopter was also a dream of mine but they require five years experience I'm only at three so I need to do it for two more years who's they um that particular hospital that's not an industry standard um three to five years of the industry standard for flight nursing of experience critical care experience you got three so that's good yeah so I just wonder yeah and you came out of the fire department so you should know somebody yeah the problem is all the services near me um due to their unions require five years um so it would have to move and currently my fiance is under a contract with her job that we can't move because she took a sign on business it's kind of where I'm yeah so I'm gonna make some kind of an adjustment because the adjustment that you're talking about making is stupid don't do it okay you're going to go into debt to become a pilot and it's going to take you forever to start making a living doing that because you're you're but get you're going to start at the beginning again I mean entry level and entry level Pilots don't make spit in today's world okay I mean you're getting ready to take a pay cut and go in debt for the opportunity no thank you now do you want to go be a pilot sure that's fine I got no issue with that if that's what the game you want to play but um I I really think you have a heart for healing and I don't know that you'll be a nurse 10 years from now but I think you easily got three or four more years left in you you may just need to adjust where you are and how you're doing it and do you pick up a travel nursing gig and double your income uh temporarily and be gone a little bit from the fiance and try to make some money and you know refresh your spirit and refresh your wallet to get ready to go work on this but but dude you're going to spend 50 60 80 grand to go be a pilot and then you're going to make less than you make now well that doesn't make any sense at all okay and so we've got to have a better plan than that that has some common sense around it yes do what you love but don't do what you love in a way that's stupid that's always a bad plan and people justify a lot of stupidity because it's my passion and that's dumb don't do that and you're not going to you're not going to because you're thinking about it we appreciate you calling this is the Ramsey Show foreign hey it's Rachel Cruz if you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsay baby steps go to ramseysolutions.com and click the get started button we'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation that's ramseysolutions.com and click get started [Music] if you're like most people your home is your most valuable asset and when you want to make improvements it can feel like everything costs too much or takes too long but something as simple as custom window coverings from blinds.com can completely change your space and add value to your home we've recommended blinds.com for over a decade so you know you can trust them from blinds drapes and shutters to motorized Shades they make it easy and affordable to upgrade your entire home and their team is ready to help with everything from design consultation to measuring and installation plus there are never any misleading quotes or hidden fees ever everything's backed by their 100 percent satisfaction guarantee and shipping is always free see why blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings visit blinds.com to save up to 40 off everything site-wide go to blinds.com for more information [Music] [Music] live from the headquarters of Ramsay Solutions broadcasting from the PODS moving and storage Studios it's the Ramsey show where we help people build wealth do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five Rachel Cruz Ramsay personality number one best-selling author and co-host of the smart money Happy Hour podcast on the Ramsay networks be sure and check it out is my co-host today also my daughter open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five Jason is in Boise hi Jason welcome to the Ramsey hi Rachel hi Dave how are you better than we deserve sir how can we help good I was wondering if you could settle kind of a disagreement my wife and I um I think gazelle intends for about five years now but I have a mortgage still in a home equity line of credit we need to pay off and I want to attack the home equity line of credit because of it it's freaking out because of the interest like it's not a fixed interest rate and my mortgage is a fixed interest rate at like 2.75 and we've got that paid down about down about thirty thousand dollars right what do you owe on the home equity line 180. good Lord yeah I know yeah it was uh it was a we bought a home about what's your household income uh about ninety thousand uh you need to refinance and get you a new First Mortgage okay that was my next question this is what the goats I want to pay off the home mortgage refinance and then get it locked in yeah I hate to lose the two percent but it's only on 30k of 210 so mathematically it doesn't come out to be much so and you get rid of the massive mess on the other side put it on a 15-year fixed and then that becomes a maybe step six and you can chill and start working your baby steps four five six because I assume you have your emergency fund done we do and we also my next I was wondering if you we own a business a small business and I was wondering if we should sell it and then be totally debt free I if we sold it it's not your primary source of income yes it is it is how much do you sell it for yeah um we were asking 330 for it so it's already up percent what's that it's already up for sale no it's not yet no we're not asking anything yet okay not at not asking that but that doing the math to be debt free and after paying a capital gains tax and then a broker I was wondering um I would not sell it just to pay off the house I mean if this is are you done with this business I'm ready to move on another chapter of your life that's a whole different discussion than the mortgage discussion and well we have been talking about we've been running this business for almost five years now and I just thought well if we rent for five years or done built up the brand and then we sold it then we can be why not run it for 50 years and make money on it yeah that's what my wife said you were going to say well I mean no I'm just asking if you don't if you hate it and you want to sell it because you hate going down there every day that's a career question okay but there's not a thing that says you have to sell a business when it's built up we're not selling this one it's going to the kids okay yeah because we do we have to put a lot of hard work into it you enjoy it Jason do you guys you guys we absolutely do it's just sometimes it is a little tough with uh the the inflation and stuff everybody's going through it and I know that but and we have been dealing with since we're the small business we're dealing with kids not wanting to work and so we're working it most the time but we do enjoy beating that was part of opening the business was to be together all the time and not be apart from each other okay yeah I I think you need to assess that separately from the debt issue okay do we want to be running this business or do we need to make some changes so that we want to keep running the business or do we want to sell the business any of those are fine there's no wrong answer there I would not tell you you need to sell that to get rid of their stupid home equity loan no that's not a statement you're going to get here um I'm sorry your wife won the argument but you need to get a new Mortgage and pay off the home equity loan okay okay call Churchill Mortgage they'll help you get that refinanced and um the two percent is horrible to get rid of but again it's a very small amount of your loan and the big amount of your loan is an angry monster loan and it's gonna eat you don't let it do that and he could feel it couldn't he oh yeah yeah like this thing's bad his wife can feel it I wouldn't yeah yeah make it consistent know what you're getting predictable and you guys just put in baby step six yeah that's great there is a there's a good part of money that's um you should attempt to approach boring you want to be have a boring automatic kind of thing going on with your money and so if your money is super exciting all the time uh that probably means you're taking a lot of risk and there's a lot of chaos going on and so generally speaking the people and and I don't mind the excitement I'm an entrepreneurial type but from a just from a process standpoint you should you should be pretty calm the data tells us that the calm steady people are the ones that have more money yeah they're the ones that end up millionaires the consent it's the consistency the tortoise not the hair yeah and so if there's any time you approach chaos or versus order order is better you know and it's just like you know this because the other is just flailing and it's desperation and there's this there's a lot anxiety around it and all this and you don't want to get there you don't want to get there Travis is in Phoenix hi Travis how are you good how are you doing this afternoon better than I deserve what's up uh we're gonna get some advice on how to pay off two new vehicle notes that my wife and I just did in March good Lord uh why did you do that because we make good money and we like to we don't make good enough money pay cash for those cars I should have but I did not you have the cash we do have about 350 in the bank right now write a check and pay off your cars that was my question we have a CD come and do in two weeks that could pay those off and I wasn't sure if we should just cash out the CD I've never met anybody that got rich borrowing on their cars and investing in CDs okay definitely makes sense so that was my question you know instead of putting money into savings every month we Bank about five to six thousand a month I was wondering if we should save a couple months pay off one save a couple months pay off the other or just lump it with the CD in two weeks you shouldn't have done this unless you wrote a check to buy them quit buying things unless you pay for them that's what rich people do they pay for things you make a lot of money but it's new to you have this big piles of cash is fairly new to you within the last eight or nine years yeah yeah this is not like something you've done for 25 years and so you're still trying to get used to these number of zeros that are in your life emotionally and some so sometimes it feels like well maybe I need to do that and I wonder what's sophisticated and don't be sophisticated just pay for crap and if you if you do that you'll always have your power your most powerful wealth building tool at your disposal which is your income Thank God Travis I mean you guys are doing an incredible job got a lot of money so it's like just use it yeah borrowed to buy two new cars and I'm broke that was even been worse but at least you got the money in the bank and you can just write a check and you're free and you can go all those dumb I should have done that now I got rid of the dumb now I just got the cars okay gonna feel good Travis a little less dumb okay there you go this is the Ramsey Show [Music] foreign [Music] hey if you're in over your head with student loans and tired of getting calls from collection agencies if private student loan debt is taking away your financial piece and you don't see any way out you need why refi they're not a debt settlement company and they're not connected to a bank why refi refinances defaulted private student loans that other places won't touch and gives you a custom loan built for you based on your ability to pay so when you refinance your private student loan debt with why refi you'll have a payment you can afford with a low fixed interest rate you couldn't get anywhere else to help you stick to your budget and work the debt snowball and you can save thousands of dollars to learn more about this custom refinancing option and a lump sum payoff option you could qualify for after 24 months call 8442 Ramsey or go to yrefi.com Ramsay [Music] [Applause] well there's some cool stuff going on around Ramsey right now tomorrow for most of you that will be August the 9th on Wednesday Jade warshaw will be doing a free webinar on budgeting if you want to sign up for Jade teaching you how to use the every dollar app and a whole budgeting seminar is completely free just go to everydollar.com budgeting budgeting that'll get you signed up Rachel is going to be doing one of those teaching about how to do an irregular income or how to do budgeting in of any kind and go through the whole process of walking the baby steps with the new Financial roadmap that's part of the every dollar uh app and that is at if you want to sign up for hers that's going to be the 15th of August yeah these are these are really great too because there's a lot of q a it's a lot of interactive and if you feel like you're alone in the stress of budgeting or even the idea of oh my gosh how do I even start this I just I feel overwhelmed with my money that's how majority of people feel so you are normal and this is a place in a space that we're creating for you guys just to come in and ask her questions and talk through hey how do you take this emotional thing that is really difficult and actually put something into practice that you can have and honestly even with the app like every dollar you use every day to help you in control of your money first time he drove a car it was awkward first time you do a budget it's awkward I don't care if you've got a PhD in finance learning to do a budget is awkward it feels weird it's a new skill and it takes a little bit so Rachel's webinar on the 15th will be at everydollar.com slash webinar if you want to sign up for that so slash budgeting for Jades on the 9th slash webinar for Rachel on the 15th and we'll be having one with George sometime after that we'll let you know of course so the the three Ramsay personalities that deal with money other than me are going to be doing these uh every dollar budgeting webinars for a couple of weeks here to try to get you guys started going into the fall kids are going back to school it's time to get your crap together now people time to get lined up and we'll show you how it feels good can I say that as a mom with the kids going back to school like like one time we're working out we're eating better now kids are on a schedule life is like you just get back in a routine after the summer fog and so like this is the time to do it like things are shaping up in your life and you know the schedules it's a real thing so make money part of that too in this and this part of the year because it's a great it's the second New Year we call it all the time absolutely all right Paul is in Springfield hey Paul welcome to the Ramsey Show hey how you guys doing today better than we deserve what's up um so I'd be honestly listening to a lot of your podcasts about Building Wealth and um this is something I've been working on for I'd say almost 10 years now I'm 31. good for you I'm sorry thank you um I started investing heavily into real estate because that's what my father did and I saw the value in that of passive income for retirement um I started a new job a couple years ago and started making life-changing money just a lot more money so I started getting um a financial advisor to make sure I don't spend the money stupidly or just to start investing in spreading my investments a little bit more broadly and you know obviously I want to keep investing in things and keep growing this wealth smartly but I was just kind of looking for what your advice of you what you think may be the next best steps would be well I think you're going to be fine uh if you'll uh behave in a couple of areas the reason I think you're going to be fine is the reason most people don't succeed with money is they just don't bother to pay attention and you've been paying close attention for a decade which is very important and so I'm guessing that you probably made some really good strides so this wonderful money you're making how much do you make um well last year I made 540 000. um this year I'm already I'm 100 commission based job um so right now I'm at I think 300 000 so I'll probably I'm guessing I'm gonna make close to five again this year um I have so in total I'm sorry I thought you said 140 000 and then you said 500 000 which is it no and so I made I'm gonna make about another 150 000 I think this year so I think I'll be at 500 000 again for the year I think I'll be making 500k again this year so last year you made 500 000 this year you're on like five hundred thousand dollars probably yes that's fine I'm just trying to get a journal I couldn't I misunderstood what you said earlier okay good wonderful congratulations that's just a Fab you're right that's that's sick money it's wonderful I love it for you you're obviously doing something you're obviously doing some good so here's what here's a couple of rules I've discovered in 30 years of working with wealthy people okay number one almost no one statistically becomes a millionaire from an inheritance so that's all just mythology and bullcrap okay and we've done the largest study of millionaires ever done in North America 10 167 of them 89 of them did not become millionaires because of inherited money so you're not that unusual as you become a millionaire number two millionaires do not do super fancy weird extremely risky things and keep their money they usually lose everything if they do so the millionaires that we have studied are fair really boring they put money in things they understand and like for me I buy growth stock type Mutual Funds growth growth and income aggressive growth International that kind of thing and I buy real estate that I pay cash for like you I grew up in a real estate family mom and dad were in the business and so I've Loved real estate I got my real estate license when I turned 18 years old I love real estate I've got buku's a real estate several hundred million dollars worth but I pay cash for it and I don't have any debt and all cash flows like a bandit and I don't have any of it that causes me super stress because of that so um you know but that's that's how I live and my life is great because of that so I would tell you to invest in things you understand and you're comfortable with obviously real estate is that people who like real estate people who like real estate often take on a whole lot more debt than I think they should right so yeah like I I haven't been buying for cash per se and if I do buy for cash it's because it's a it's a foreclosure you know I'm gonna renovate it and the goal is obviously to buy it at the right price point it always is over invest and then and then refinance it putting 20 down and using the the passive income of the rents to pay myself back or I have enough equity let me stop you for a second there is no passive income from rents if you've been dealing with renters you've figured out it ain't passive well yeah it depends on how good you are at screening no it's not passive I've been doing it for 40 years dealing with renters commercial or residential is not passive that's Tick Tock mythology okay the term no the real world is it's active you're active you have to real estate has the highest hassle factor of just about any investment you do but it has one of the higher returns so anyway you called to ask what what I think you should do I think you should use this fabulous income to clear off all this stupid debt you've got on this real estate and you're going to have a much higher trajectory in your wealth growth long term short term it's going to slow you down but long term when you have no debt on this portfolio and the piece that goes with that and this cash flow that's going to go with it you're going to buy a lot more real estate and pay cash for it that's how I've got several hundred million dollars worth I don't have any rents that go to anything except buying more stuff I don't have any no payments yeah but but you you hit on this earlier and I think it's true when you get into the real estate game majority of people they have to go to the bank right like they like when they're playing this game and the majority of them arched in the business 10 years later yeah because they think it's passive it's not yeah and they think there's no risk in the debt and there's a lot of risk in that debt yes and so it's worth going slow the you know the the phrase you coined of moving at the speed of cash and everything you do including real estate but that is a slower Pace than again what you're going to see on your Tick Tock or Instagram reels of people doing real estate so when I when I was in my 20s I started buying real estate and I was in a Real Estate Investors club that followed all the crap like we do on Tick Tock now while there's nothing down real estate or stay in leverage crap okay and the guys that were in that club there were several people that had millions of dollars of net worth in that club a hundred percent of them now 30 years later are broke and out of the business oh or they paid off their debts and they have paid for Real Estate there's three of them that I know of are still standing and they all paid it off and became debt free the rest of them that tried to continue to play The Leverage game they got hammered in one of the downturns or another and they're gone they're out of business this is the Ramsay show [Music] foreign [Music] here I'm a huge fan of both meditation and prayer and good mental health includes slowing down gaining control of your thoughts and plugging into something bigger than you and Halo makes it easy to start a daily practice of meditation prayer and finding peace Hollow is the number one Bible app in the world and you can tailor content towards your faith tradition from scripture readings and prayers to meditation and journaling hallow makes it easy to practice prayer meditate and build a deeper more meaningful spiritual life and ReDiscover true peace go to hollow.com Ramsay today to get three months of hallow for free that's hollow.com Ramsay thank you [Music] Rachel Cruz Ramsay personality is my co-host today well Rachel all these years of hard work have paid off I finally made it what happened I'm on the Babylon B podcast you're doing it it's dropped today the guys were here the other day and we taped it and so I have arrived well they love you on all the memes well I love they love me because I get them clicks is what they love me for we had a great lunch together they're smart guys they are funny as crud and um we've been following the bee since it started back in the day yeah and uh uh and they've used me for is it a satire podcast no you don't need me doing humor um it would be weird but yeah no I mean not that you know we we had fun though they're really good guys they're really smart guys and so it's official I have arrived well done yeah I'll I'll be getting emails from all my old friends that are huge Babylon B podcast fans don't love it hey Dave you really did it man you broke through so there you go I wonder what my podcast would be that I'd be like I've made it I have a list there was a little bit of sarcasm in there but not much I was hinting a little bit I know but it's um but that plays into their brand there we go the first the first time I was on the Today show I got off and went to the Green Room this was a thousand years ago and this lady was in The Green Room crying because she had just done her appearance and she had for 21 years it was her goal to be on the Today Show and I just kind of walked in and did it and I didn't know it was supposed to be a goal for 21 years and so I'm like that's weird this is your 21-year goal for a three-minute hit on The Today Show some people work hard towards things I get it I get it but it was just like this is your Pinnacle really but yeah okay I mean I thought you'd say that about my Pinnacle I gotta think of mine yeah what was yours I'll come back to it mine could have been Sally Jesse Raphael you'll remember her with the red glasses yeah that could have been a breakthrough or the time I argued by the time I argued with Oprah that might have been when I peaked yeah that was back when I peaked Joe hey Dr John deloney has a brand new book coming out he has not peaked he is a Skyrocket shooting to the Moon baby I'm just saying and this book is selling like crazy man what a success thank you guys we appreciate your response to this it is a fabulous book it's called a building a non-anxious life the six daily choices that you make to get anxiety lowered because anxiety is telling you something else is wrong so you fix the six things that are wrong the anxiety goes down ta-da just like that and so uh very tough to do but really good book it actually pubs uh October 3rd but it's in pre-sale right now and a whole bunch of you have taken advantage of the deal where we're selling the book for twenty dollars and throwing in seventy five dollars worth of goodies we're bribing you to buy it early because it helps us with the marketing because all the sales up until Pub day count the first week towards the bestseller list so thank you it helps us and uh we appreciate that we appreciate you guys stepping up and getting this instant access to his newest talk smoke fire and freedom you also get the ebook the audio book all of this and the book itself for seventy five dollars we'll ship it all to you except the talk the what not for 75 I'm sorry it's 75 worth of stuff for 20 bucks yes twenty dollars that's the deal serious deal really I mean you can't even the paper cost has gone up 40 this year people hello so anyway and we still got the book at 20 bucks so ramseysolutions.com you can pre-order the new book ah man anxiety you got to get rid of building a non-anxious it's Tyler Tyler's with us Tyler's in Tampa Florida hi Tyler welcome to the Ramsay show hi Dave thank you for taking my call it's an honor to speak with you you too what's up so I have a question um my wife and I have been paying off debt for about the last year and a half now we've been able to pay off about 60 000 out of a hundred and um I actually didn't know about uh the baby steps until about six months ago so at the beginning we were kind of Davis um I guess you could say and now we're trying to get a little more uh gazelle intense with it um we've been doing pretty well with following a budget and um I just am struggling with certain expenses um related to like family events I don't get together with my family very often we have a wedding coming up that we're going to uh and then I just found out from my sister that um for her 40th birthday she wants us to fly out to California and um spend a weekend with her at a resort and uh it's gonna it's gonna cost us a little over a thousand dollars for me to go do that um I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not that's a good way to go we have I have just my student loans left to pay off about 40 000 um I was really hoping to knock that out we've been able to increase our income um so I've been hoping to be able to do that in the next few months and I'm just not sure whether or not that's a good idea you know I thought I'd get your advice yeah I mean Tyler the I mean the reality is we always say the the deeper you sacrifice the more money that's on the debt obviously the faster it's going to be paid off but life is going to be intertwined throughout that and that's when you and your wife have to kind of make the call yourselves and to say okay what are things going on that we feel like we want to be a part of uh with our family what are things that we feel like gosh we do but then we also are like we could do something else at a later date because we want this mess cleaned up so again it goes back to because when we get the we get this type of call the time of like yeah we have a you know my brother is getting married across the country what do we do um so I mean again it's one of those things that you guys have to decide is this going to this is going to slow us down in our debt payoff but is it worth it for what we're doing with our family so I mean the problem Tyler is this every time you let one of these things in you not only lose the money towards your get out of that plan but you lose 10x the emotional momentum because your lack of commitment to the process your lack of intensity to the idea of getting out of debt is chipped away at and finally it just doesn't matter and you stay in debt and you're a freaking normal broke American that goes to his sister's 40th birthday on a freaking airplane and that's what happens yeah and uh you know all of a sudden you just look up and you just got fat financially and and it's one hamburger at a time you know and so it's not the thousand dollars it's the lack of you guys being dialed in and going game on I got one plan for a short period of time I'm gonna take no prisoners nothing's going on this complete emotional sellout and focus to winning the Super Bowl is the only way you win the Super Bowl no one half butts their way into the Super Bowl and that's what you got to get that's what the what you got to decide it's the emotional problem the math really isn't the problem it's this is but it's this amen and then well and then yeah and then when then we're going I'm kind of tired I think I'll go out to eat well why call the wambulance get your butt in gear and get out of debt you know and that's that's the kind of thing that's the internal self-talk that has to change you've got to get this commitment up and that's the problem and it's not I'm not mad at your sister and but you you know broke people that are forty thousand dollars in debt on stupid but student loans shouldn't be getting on an airplane to go to somebody's birthday party think about it man that's just a dumb statement he is I know but I feel Tyler and like I get it but I'm telling you this is this is what yes I'm saying Tyler that's how you talk to yourself that's how you talk to yourself you got to go I'm too stinking broke to go up there because I'm in student loan debt and I can't do this right now but that's the truth right but it's not me yelling at Tyler I'm just saying this is the way you have to you have to shift your brain into this gear where you're just going enough I'm not living this way anymore but and the hard thing is though is that life now 40th birthday it's more flippant than like a wedding or a funeral like there are life events that occur listen if you have to be there get your butt in your car and drive up there then don't talk to me about buying an airplane ticket when you're broke with the Kmart used tent that we bought at Walmart or at a garage sale and we're peddling our bicycle over there that's your get out of yeah no Chase man no and Tyler that that I'm not yelling at you I'm yelling for you okay I want you to get this in your head and this is how you're talking to yourself and don't talk to your wife this way either talk to yourself this way we're getting out of debt we got to pay a price to win nobody wins without paying a price it's a competitive home buying Market but there's a way you can get an edge Churchill Mortgage works with you to understand your budget and your goals and the Churchill Mortgage home buyer Edge offers you fast pre-approval and a secured interest rate plus Churchill has bumped up their seller guarantee to ten thousand dollars giving your offer the best chance of being accepted and helping you win in today's market go to churchillmortgage.com today to learn more [Music] thank you Rachel Cruz Ramsay personality number one best-selling author and co-host of the smart money happy hour with George Campbell the my co-host today open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five so guys the thing that you're always going to hear from us is there's very few times on this show that we're actually going to be fussing at you we'll be fussing with you and if we call you stupid or call what you're doing stupid rather we won't call you stupid we might call what you did stupid but it's because we know what stupid looks like we've done it I've done it more than even Rachel Rachel grew up in a household where I'd quit doing stupid by the time she was born and came along I had gone broke but I know what stupid looks like and we have figured out that personal finance is 80 Behavior it's only 20 percent head knowledge and you've got to study and think about this money stuff through the lens of behavior modification it's not a math problem so how do I modify my behavior well I have to commit to and my friend James Clear in this Mammoth book that he did called Atomic habits I have to change my identity I am no longer a person who makes stupid but immature impulsive financial decisions and then looks in the mirror and wonders why I'm broke I'm no longer that guy I instead am very careful and very slow and one of the things we'll help you do here occasionally and you don't even know we're doing it but it were very intentional about it is we want you to have a new identity when you get off the call and that guy doesn't think of himself as a broke person with forty thousand dollars in student loan debt but when you have no money and forty thousand dollars in student loan debt you need to identify yourself as a broke person because you are a broke person broke people don't do some things that people that aren't broke can do and there and you quit doing those things so that you aren't broke people anymore and so if you are a doctor and you make 250 000 a year and you owe a hundred and ten thousand dollars on your BMW and 450 000 on your medical school student loan debt you are a broke but doctor you need to re-identify and go this is who I am and I want to change that identity because then you quit doing rich people stuff while you're broke because when you do Broast God so you just have to stop you have to stop and uh you know it that's when I went bankrupt and lost everything because of my stupidity I had to reset and go guess what the stuff you believed about money borrowing all you can getting your credit card points doing anything you want to do because I make good money and everybody's got a different different definition about what good money is right I had to re-identify and go no you're stupid you need to stop being stupid and I think what's hard is we've lived in a world in a culture where you know because of the Avenue of debt you accumulate not just stuff and but even if you have a good income like you're saying the doctor whoever I'm making good money I have the stuff and it's like the part of the debts of the uh what I own minus what I owe doesn't come as an equation it's just you stay at that top you know sphere emotionally instead of looking at the reality of the numbers so how do you modify Behavior you first identify reality of where I am and I'm going to reset my identity and I don't want to be that person anymore yeah so I'm going to quit being that you know I'm gonna do the things I'm going to take the steps I'm going to make the sacrifices so that I don't do that and I've used the example on this on the air many times here uh and the point that the people in the booth are sick of it but during covid we were working the leadership team trying to keep this place open and I figured out later that how I deal with high stress scenarios is I eat a lot I ate every donut in a 50 mile radius I got donuts I was already overweight and when I get to covet I went into donut mode and I got so freaking fat it was ridiculous I looked in the mirror this round head looked like a basketball it was crazy and I'm like this has gotta you know you're you're a donut eating fat boy you need to stop this and that's how you stop it you know you look at it and you go this is the reality you have to stop doing this or you're gonna explode like the kid on Willy Wonka I mean it's just awful you know you have to stop it you have to stop it and so you know no more donuts and the other day we had the grandkid birthday with the donuts and papa Dave made made a big deal about he was going to steal one of the kids Donuts but he didn't touch a donut do it no more Donuts I'm completely cold turkey on the freaking donuts and uh you know I dropped 40 42 pounds because I needed to hello you know I mean and that's the thing everybody has something like that it's a behavior change it wasn't that I intellectually and analyzed caloric intake good Lord no I had to stop it you know and that this is what we all have to do I'm no different than anybody else and that is my point and so guys this is how money works it's not a math problem it's a you problem yep and when you get that man you got the Ramsay thing down and then you're gonna go in and this is how we've talked and cajoled and motivated and listened and praised and lifted more people through their debt Journeys into millionaire status than any other entity on the planet the Ramsey Solutions grew past millions of people have completely changed their lives financially because of us on the radio doing what we're doing right now us on the podcast doing us on the stage right now just telling you how to go be a hero you're the solution go be the hero it's up to you yes and so to the caller earlier it's up to him like right like if you continue to just be that in and out scenario like you're saying that's what that's the result you're gonna get but you decide that you have to make those choices it's up to you and if you choose hey I'm actually gonna go scorched Earth I'm done because the reality is I am broke I can't go do these fun things that I want to do I don't have the money you're making that choice to later then actually have the money yes to do anything you want yes you live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else you'll never be in a position again that you have to choose between your groceries and the broke single mom in front of you whose third credit card was denied and you want to buy her groceries but you can't because you can't even barely buy yours and you don't ever want to be like that again you always want to be the guy the gal in line behind it goes hey I got that and this why because I paid a price I gave up the resort 40th birthday party and I paid a price to do the thing so that I can do anything then and that's how this works there's not a there's not a middle ground well I sort of kind it doesn't work you're either going to be just sloppy and disorganized and in this country you can have a really good life with a fair amount of stress and be deeply in debt and have a your standard of living is ridiculous and you make 120 000 a year you're broke but you have an incredible life you travel you can buy cars you can do a lot of stuff that on the surface looks like you've got it all going on and you can live a stinking life of rich people in any other country for sure and be broke as broke and make it all the way through to retirement and go gosh I hope the government which is well known for its ability to handle money will take care of me and and or you can decide I'm going to be autonomous and I don't really care what you think about what I drive I don't really care what you think about my vacation I don't really care what you think about anything I'm as for me and my house we're going to get our crap together you can make that decision and when you do it changes everything it changes everything not just financially though as I'm like the underneath the surface you guys when you live the first example of that I'm like that is full of stress and anxiety and pain and tension there's so much just like you can't even breathe yeah you got everything but you're barely hanging on by a string one thing that goes wrong the entire house Falls versus the ladder and saying you know what I'm actually going to build a life yes all based on me and not all the other facts you know the other industry standards it's Botox Financial it's fake you know it's fake it's a facade it's more like filler Financial Botox just plastic surgery Financial whatever right it's like going to Universal and they got this beautiful house only when you walk through the back door there's nothing there it's just a facade for the camera and people live their lives that way this is the Ramsey Show [Music] hey it's Rachel Cruz co-host on the Ramsay show if you want to do your debt free scream live on the show visit ramseysolutions.com set free screen we'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story that's ramsesolutions.com debt free screen [Music] [Music] live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions broadcasting from the PODS moving and storage Studios it's the Ramsay show where we help people build wealth do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships Rachel Cruz Ramsey personality number one best-selling author and co-host for the smart money happy hour uh podcast on the Ramsay Network be sure and check it out she's my co-host today open phones here at triple eight eight two five five two two five Fox news reporting Americans are increasingly turning to their credit cards to cover everyday expenses with debt surpassing one trillion dollars for the first time at the end of June according to the New York Federal Reserve report published today in the three-month period from April to June total credit card debt surged to 1.03 trillion dollars an increase of 45 billion or 4.6 percent from the previous quarter it marks the highest level ever on record in the FED dating back all the way to 2003. the rise in credit card usage and debt is particularly concerning because interest rates are astronomically high right now all horse crap credit card interest rates have always been astronomical High I've been doing this show for 35 years they've been 18 to 28 percent the whole time I've been on the air no one thinks any of that's low that's dumber than a rock all right the average credit card annual percentage rate or APR hit a record of 20.33 now according to bank rate and that goes back to 1985. the previous record was 19 in July of 91. say there's my arrest my point I came on the air in 1994 or 1992 I'm sorry and so yeah the interest rates have always been at the screw you level on credit cards okay let's just be straight if people are carrying debt to compensate for steeper prices they could end up paying more items in the long run for instance if you no kidding if you owe five thousand dollars and you pay 28 on it it's going to be a lot of money we don't need an article to figure that one out one trillion dollars in credit card debt is staggering well yeah that's true guys guys this is the dumbest thing I've seen I don't know when long does it take people to figure out that these pieces of plastic called credit cards are not there for you how long does it take to figure out that oh here's Bank of America Let's do an on-air plastic surgery right now we're just going to start chopping up carts Bank of America that's two good things to get rid of credit card and Bank of America both stupid here's another Platinum Bank of America we'll get rid of that one too chase chase this okay here's Home Depot they take cash by the way you don't need this Countrywide they're broke okay oh my God there's another Bank of America we must collect Bank of America old cards around here these people uh just time to stop it is time for a blastectomy America a trillion dollars in credit card debt I'm getting airline miles no you're not you're in debt you're in debt a trillion dollars when you do it with the student loans we call it an epic pandemic crisis when we do it with credit cards it's on the third page of Fox's website it's a trillion dollars of you buying crap you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you don't even really like maybe you should stop that I don't know we've been doing this for 30 years how do you feel like we're not getting anywhere in progress It's not really showing up Dave not really sure we're not really moving the needle on America because what I think has happened is I think it's two things I think the the credit card the game is a very real thing and people say well if I'm gonna buy gas might as well put it on my credit card so I can get cash back if I'm going to be buying this anyways might as well put it on the credit card to get the airline miles but it's kind of a Dr Phil thing so how's that working it's living in that cycle and then there's a there's a real truth that people are using those to pay for for food and to pay no no no no no no no no no no yes they have the money for food they're using these because they don't want to cut off Netflix they're using these because they want to go on vacation and they're broke that's why they're using them it's the same reason they've always been using them 100 you don't you cannot make an economic case that people are actually have to have a credit card for survival today that's just not true it's not they in their brains they keep saying mathematical when you look at when you look at their budget and you look at what's going on and what they make and what I mean everything in it it is it what's hard is I'm like the math it is tight it is hard but what happens is is the standard of living that we're all expected to live causes these things to have to be a necessity in order to live that standard of living and so to cut to cut that well that means the average American's living as stupid as their own Congress is living well that they just keep spending and spending and spending like there's no tomorrow like there's no Reckoning for this level of debt you keep running up you got a trillion dollars yeah 1.7 trillion in student loan debt you got to now have a trillion in credit card debt and then you can't figure out why the average American can't seem to get ahead well I think I figured it out there's giving it all the stinking Banks that's why they got no money you work your butt off your whole life and you give all your money into a stupid Bank and that's why you got no money it's not a real hard formula no and I think that and I think the perspective has to be and the mindset shift has to be that if you are someone listening and you're like yeah I know but we're paycheck to like we're we're not like doing extravagant stuff we're just making the it we're just living life and and so the no debt philosophy even with credit cards even with credit cards is to say okay what like have a pretend scenario pretend budget where you said we cannot borrow anything we have to use the money that hits our accounts yeah then you that's how you build your life you're right but what happens is is we build our life around and then you refuse to change it to adjust for the variables and that's what's hard with the student loan payments coming back in October there's gonna be a rather huge expense in the budget act like we're surprised student loans came back hey Christmas is always in December they don't move it and the student loans are coming in October we've been telling you this so I'm just saying there's a there's going to be a a level of pain that a lot of people are going to start to feel even more in the next few months you know what these are these are plastic denial yeah yeah I'm in denial that I have to deal with my crap yes and so I'm gonna put it on a credit card and act like nothing changed well stuff changed Bubba yep and these people this is not sophisticated this is straight up stupid these companies are screwing you and you're signing up for the trip you're asking for it and you're getting hammered at 18 to 28 and you wonder why you make a hundred thousand dollars a year and have no money because you signed up for a stupid trip on the stupid cruise and it's called the plastic Cruise it's out of control you guys they have lulled you to sleep they've made you believe you have to have one of these stupid things to exist don't leave home without it well guess what Daniel Boone left home without it he made it okay okay all right you can make it without these stupid things get you a debit card pay cash for it get control of your life get some autonomy from these Banks they own your butt and you gave them the deed don't give them the deed to your butt they own you this is the Ramsay show [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] thank you for joining us America we appreciate you being here this is the Ramsey Show I'm your host Dave Ramsey Rachel Cruz is my co-host today hey if you want to help us out we would appreciate it you are our marketing budget yep you uh if you'll follow the show click follow click subscribe whether you're youtubing or you're podcasting or if you're listening on talk radio tell people where you listen spread the word your local talk radio station there's 680 stations carrying the show out there right now if you're watching on TBN tell people that wherever you're catching us just let share about it I'll leave a five star review click a follow click a subscribe every time you do that it helps us a bunch and we know you're doing it and we know there's a bunch of new people because you're doing that thank you the other day we hit number 12 in the world on Apple podcast there's 4.2 million podcasts on Apple and we're number 12. because of you guys and that's important because they put them up there in two rows of six so we barely make the corner number 13 you don't see it you see number 12 over there and it helps us because people will listen that way that never listened before and they just never know what they're going to get when they listen here so I'll probably get hope get some hope and some instruction and some aspiration and some motivation and all that kind of stuff so check it out hey speaking of hope uh Dr John deloney has a new book out called building a non-anxious life he's one of our Ramsay personalities here he's got a great podcast and he's on the this show quite often as a co-host as well the book is uh twenty dollars on how to get rid of your anxiety really is what it amounts to how do you build a life that doesn't eliminate anxiety but lowers it greatly and uh well you kind of get your arms around it literally so it's twenty dollars the book comes out October the 3rd we're in pre-sale right now so you can get the book for 20 bucks and because it's in pre-sale if you buy it now we will give you an extra 75 dollars in bonus items including the e-book and the audiobook including one of his talks uh that he did recently that is very good so be sure you check this out get it all at ramseysolutions.com store Dr John deloney's new book building a non-anxious life Alex is next Alex is in Boston hey Alex what's up hi David Rachel thanks for taking my call our pleasure how can we help great well Dave I've heard you uh well let me start I'm 38 my fiance is 32 we're getting married in two months from now congratulations thank you so much uh and I've heard you give kind of a rundown uh with some callers on their uh assessing their finances and their ability to afford a home which we'd like to do hopefully in the next say 12 to 18 months or so right good plan great so I guess I have been unknowingly uh kind of working your steps for a while now I've lived kind of like a grad student for the last 10 years since taking my first job and uh kind of slowly getting my fiance on board with living below means and less online ordering and kind of getting a handle on our finances um and so yeah I I'd like to kind of just get your thoughts on our Readiness within that time frame okay so I mean really it's gonna depend on where you guys are you know debt wise savings wise um and what houses are in the area that you guys can afford so when you guys get married and everything is combined how much debt will you guys have so we have no debt no student loan debt uh we would have some potential debt if uh if my wife was too uh not work at her job then her car payment would become her own um but that's our only yeah no that's not how that works do they furnish her a car or do they give her a car allowance they give her a car allowance okay she has car debt because if you lose the job you're in cardet the car isn't her name the debt isn't her name she's got card debt you got the car allowance whether you have a car payment or not yeah yeah and so yeah that's that's straight up that's a straight up liability dude that's got to be cleared how much does she owe on her car 34 000. holy moly okay what do you guys make uh we're both making pretty equal money right just below a hundred and fifty thousand dollars each okay good that's good okay so you can clear this off real fast yes and will that be it Alex no credit card debt personal loans anything no that's they're only good okay awesome and then how much were you guys having savings just in liquid cash if you combine I don't keep a lot of cash on hand I have about 25 000 in cash okay I've been saving um in ETS and retirement accounts how much in non-retirement do you have uh 355 000. well done sir good job well done so when you get married when you come home from the honeymoon ride check pay off her car if she doesn't already have the money to do it before then okay that's step one step two is allocate an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses uh out of something just say earmark that that fund right give me the twenty five thousand dollars that can be our 25 000 that can be whatever your emergency fund is yeah and then everything else I would throw at your down payment so you've got a healthy down payment non-retirement all goes at the down payment really yeah okay and you're you're almost gonna have a house paid off I mean what price range home would you buy well we live in a very high cost of living area yes you do really the only neighborhoods that you would want to buy in here and kind of the entry level homes there are 750 and above yeah that's probably right I don't disagree with that yeah and you got so you're gonna have what 300 Grand to put down give or take well she has money too oh how much has she got so probably I have I'd say a net worth with retirement and and brokerage of around 625k yeah um and she has combined worth of around 350. okay but we're using only non-retirement we would not use retirement for how much non-retirement cash can she get a hold of she has 80k okay and you got 300. and some change and we got to clear up a car loan and we gotta have an emergency fund and so you can put down you know 400k give or take on a 700 000 house you make 300 you're gonna pay off your house really fast that's cool I guess I from I'm from the Midwest where you know houses cost two hundred thousand dollars and the idea yeah but you don't live there the idea of just crawling to a bank and you know in A bank's 500 Grand or something is just kind of a lot to undertake well I mean if you buy 700 and you put down 400 you only have a 350 and you make 300. so you're gonna knock that out in what three years or four years and you'll have it free and clear and your young rich people then with paid for everything oh my gosh your net worth will be over a million dollars easy what's causing you to be hesitant Alex uh you don't want to go all in on a house yeah yeah I've been you know saving slowly investing every check are you renting now yes okay well if you want to rent you can rent it's a bad long-term Play Because 100 of the time rents go up yeah and so it's a bad language I know but I mean short term if you guys want to rest a little bit and pile up a big old publication pay cash for the house and you want to take two or three years and do that I'm okay if you want to go that way y'all are in a better situation than that so go ahead and get the equity and yeah start looking at home ownership because you guys are in that position fair enough I don't borrow money um and and so if I were in your shoes we'd be just continuing we would knock the car out we build the emergency fund we take the 300 and the 80 and put them together and we'd say all right we're going to chunk everything on here a couple hundred a year we're gonna live on 100 make 300 and uh you know pretty quick I'm gonna pay cash for a house because I don't borrow money for anything ever and that's how Sharon and I would have to do it because that's the only way we do it if you want to be that guy that's completely freakish and wonderful I love it that's going to get you richer even faster yeah actually but it's hard to talk people into doing that so I didn't think I was I didn't go there yeah but you know you called out you know you called Alex to ask about you know are we in a position to buy a house and the answer is yes I mean yeah you guys are in an incredible position you've done the hard work yeah so now the back half of owning the home is gonna be like oh yeah we'll just pay it off in a really short period of time and then you guys have your income and it's just yours at that point I mean it's pretty incredible Boston single family residents in a good neighborhood is a better investment than a UTF okay you're gonna make more money on it so it's not a bad investment this is the Ramsey Show [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign personality is my co-host today if you're in the Nashville area come and visit us we're just south in Franklin Tennessee our lobby is open and we do the show live on the glass from one to four central time every day Monday through Friday three hours of broadcast and uh usually there's 50 to 200 folks hanging out and watching the show it's completely free and it's as is the wonderful coffee and the homemade chocolate chip cookies the other thing that happens here in the lobby is we have this little stage called the debt free stage and on that stage right now is Maggie and Patrick hey guys how are you good how are you welcome welcome good to have you where do you guys live Annapolis Maryland all right and you're all the way to Nashville to do a debt-free scream how much are you paid off 91 000 320 now can you say that 91 322 I love it all right and how long did this take 13 months wow and your range of income during that time um we started right around 1 35 and then um 1 45. cool what do you all do for a living I'm a math coach in elementary school work with teachers find fun ways to teach math all day long it's a good time that's awesome that's a good gig yeah um I'm home with the kids and then I also own a photography business and that was kind of a big part of the story as well as to how we got our income shovel up and um used my business to really get started good what kind of debt was the 91 000 mostly student loans mostly students we had small we had small credit card debts um we had to purchase like a new water softener system for our house when that went out we had to get a brand new HVAC system so we had lots of small little things and they do they just pile up on you and we just wanted to do something about it and give it how long you guys been married uh it'll be 10 years in September if you're kind of going along pretty normal and then something happened what changed the story um so I I remember having so we had um our second child and just feeling like you know why do we have like no extra money to like enjoy life go out to dinner or it just felt like we were always just so like tight with money um and I heard about you I think at the time I thought we only had like fifty thousand dollars in debt because all I was thinking about was my student loans um and so I was talking to some friends and they're like have you heard of Dave Ramsey this was probably like seven years ago um and I looked you up on Google and I immediately was like oh my gosh we have to do this and I kind of like shoved it down his throat and he was like whoa whoa you know like slow down um so needless to say we didn't really get started right away I think we kind of like sat on it for a while and like um then in 2020 we really decided to to start doing it covet was a wake up um you I think so um I think it was just yeah I think we had more time to like actually talk about like what do we want for our future and um you know like a lot of people say you're not going out to eat anyway so it was kind of a you know the right time to get started um so we started in 2020 and then so Dave I actually called uh about a year ago I called into the show um we were contemplating on whether or not we should sell our car to really like get some momentum and I explained to you uh that you know we had been chipping away but um we even though we got started in 2020 at the end of that year we had our third child and he was just he had a lot of health issues when he was a baby um so that following year 2021 I mean we completely like fell off the wagon we were like you know Dave who we were just like back to like normal life not budgeting just really just surviving um because like I said it was just a really tough year yeah um and when I called and asked you about it you were just very encouraging you know you were so kind and compassionate and you said you know you've been through the ringer but now it's time for you guys to like get back on and you've got this and that was just really like what I what we needed to hear um in order to to get this done so step back into the saddle and finish yep yep and it feels surreal to be there yeah yeah because 13 years ago I mean yeah for for a solid Year you guys were doing it so what was the hardest part of the past year because you guys were in and out of the plan a little bit but doing it consistently for for a solid year yep what was the thing that was like oh my gosh this is this is difficult just the the small little achievements that we were making um I think she called I think you actually said we had 80 something thousand dollars a debt at that point I think you said there's no need to sell your car we only owed 10 grand on it it'll eventually go away um we did sell the car then we were down to 70 and then I had student loans we were just paying off just the small amounts at a time I think we were done with Home Depot and we were done with the you know the airline tickets like the previous caller said about an hour ago um so we were we were down to like two big chunks of money and we just kind of you know we went back and forth um with uh with the housing market at where it's it where it is right now we need a bigger house and we want to switch the kids into a different School District so we did so we bit the bullet and we sold our house and we paid off Maggie's student loans we paid off my student loans it was a really hard decision we really did think about it like so many we went back and forth so much like do we just stay here and take another year to finish paying all this off or do we just sell and the Annapolis Market is still really hot we listed on Friday and then we were under contract on Sunday for 50 000 over asking wow so we're like okay this was obviously the right decision I mean it is hard and moving is painful just it's just stressful but we're in the school district that we want to be in now and we just signed for a um a two-year lease to pay to save up more because for you guys sure and then you can use that time to get ready to purchase again yeah in the right district and in the meantime you're clear yeah well done thank you does it feel as good as we were imagining fantastic I know that she started this and just along the way every time you know she got out her little app and she swiped up and we said okay that's gone that's gone that's gone and then we did her huge sorry her huge student loan payment that was like forty eight thousand dollars but that was gone and we still have you know a big chunk of money to put down our future house but we do we really want the bigger house and we just need a little bit more to save up and we know we can do it and we want to do it the right way I mean in a lot of ways it's kind of like we're starting over you know um we made a huge mess we cleaned it up and you know we are we're starting this new Journey um with so much more knowledge and um and now we have like goals you know and we just never used to talk about it we never could really Envision you know what what the future was going to look like and now it's like all we do we can actually like dream and we can set goals and Achieve them and um it's called hope yeah yeah so good okay tell me about your photography business because you said that was a big part of getting some of this debt paid off yeah so I was pretty much just like staying at home with the kids and I worked like a little like part-time two-day a week job and it just wasn't bringing in any money and I had always done photography like as a hobby and so I'm like well you know maybe I'll start like a Facebook page or I'll make like a little website and see where it goes um and it completely exploded it turns out I'm not bad at it so I do weddings I have a studio where I do like newborns and everything so yeah it's been it's been so amazing and just way more successful than I ever could have imagined that's so fun yeah that's so great and then added to the to the journey of of having helping pay off the debt yeah yeah right yeah thank you thank you so much you're completely free was it worth it oh my gosh absolutely absolutely absolutely and people I think you know when we talk about it with you know our friends I think people just can't really understand like wow you would sell your house to get out of debt and it's like when you want something that bad you know you'll you'll make it happen um the inner peace is just oh by the way you're making a move you need to make anyway yeah exactly exactly there's nothing unintelligent about this at all it's very wise it's very wise all the way around way to go you guys so great you guys congratulations hey we got the live and give box for you the baby steps millionaires book Total Money Makeover book and the financial peace membership you guys are impressive way to go Heroes thank you I'm proud of you 91 000 paid off in 13 months including the sale of the car and the house 135 to 145 income Maggie and Patrick from Annapolis Maryland count it down let's hear a debt free scream three two one I told you you could do it this is the Ramsay show [Music] [Music] our scripture of the day Philippians 4 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Mary Kay Ash said aerodynamically the Bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly but the bumblebee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway Rachel Cruz Ramsay personality is my co-host today open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five Brad is in Lexington hey Brad welcome to the Ramsay show hey how's it going better than we deserve brother how can we help so uh I am a 32 year old pharmacist and I have 50 000 in the checking account uh 21 000 in a money market account and 27 000 in a Roth R.A in Vanguard Total market mutual fund um so I had a large amount of cash saved up and about a year ago I found some land and a prime location to put a pharmacy so I bought it cash um and I was ready to go I was approved for the construction loan and then about seven months ago I got diagnosed with cancer and I'm sorry that's okay and how you doing it now I'm I'm intermission now good good but it wiped out a lot of my savings so what I said earlier is all I've got um I've got 187 thousand dollars in student loans for my doctorate degree and I'm approved for a five hundred thousand dollar construction loan for the pharmacy and I have a three hundred thousand dollar line of credit to fund it until it's profitable I was just wanting to get an honest opinion of my financial situation see what you guys think I should do foreign Brad well you've you've been through you've been through a lot and how much um you said you bought the lands before the diagnosis how much was how much is the land okay fifty thousand dollars for it okay and then I did about 70 000 of work to the land okay um well I don't borrow money and I don't teach people to borrow money and every time you borrow money you increase risk you have 187 000 in debt and you're talking about going another 300 000 in debt you're gonna end up a million dollars in the hole running a pharmacy that does not sound like a probability of success to me that sounds like an accident looking for a place to happen uh it sounds like a dream that could end up being more of a nightmare and I'm not a dream killer but I love killing nightmares yeah so um so I want you I want you to live this dream in some way but I would beg you to do it in a way that involves a lot less risk than what you've got today what you're describing how much are you how much are you making now Brad 170 000. 170 okay I would I would uh sell the land and I would pay off the debt the student loan debt and then I would begin to save and uh think about how I'm going to open a pharmacy for the least amount that doesn't involve a building in other words what you described to me is about 70 percent real estate and about 30 percent business you could go find a closed Walgreens and rent it from that landlord and with no real estate cost move in it and start a pharmacy for a bazillion dollars less than you're talking about but you're doing more of a real estate deal that here than you are a pharmacy deal yeah well the issue was the place that I found is a dream location I have yeah it's also a Nightmare location yeah because the risk here I mean the cash flow binder putting yourself in from day one means you have to move a lot of pharmaceuticals man that's a lot of little pills I have to pay that bill I mean wow uh I I I from a business perspective I think you're asking for trouble but again I love helping people live their dreams if I were in your shoes I would want to own my own thing too I've always run an owned my own business just about my whole life and so I I'm I'm right there with you on that but the it's not the what it's the how that's bothering me so no I would not do the deal the way you've outlined it I think you're asking for trouble yeah I think you're going to get in a bind and you're going to be stressed out and it's going to take you a decade to get your way through this and I don't want that for you I think you can sell this land and real quickly pay be 100 debt free making 170 then you can start piling up cash and I would find a building that is not a dream location that I can rent and and rent let someone else bear the real estate costs and I'd start my business in a rented building for a tenth of what you're talking about spending yeah and Brad there's always when people use language and you kind of used it in this call of like it's the dream location it's the only thing when there starts to be no options and it's like well this is the only thing I can do it pins you in a corner to make you feel like this is the only thing I can do whether the math makes sense or not it's the only option and that's not it's not true and so you have to expand your options because options are going to be able you're going to be able to lower the emotion of the dream location to see okay what actually is making sense here and so don't pin yourself in such a small narrow path of this one thing even though I get it right I mean like there's dream locations everywhere like we all know that and here's the thing let's do this let's let's take it a step further okay because here's what we did at Ramsey all right we start small and then we move up with cash and we move up with cash and we we you know we're in a 500 000 square foot office building right here I mean that's paid for um we certainly didn't start there we started in a rented basement 800 square feet month-to-month rental we started on a card table in my living room okay so what you could do is this you could do go my way you could say all right we're going to be debt free and I'm going to save up 50 to 100 grand and I'm going to open in an existing location of some kind where I can rent the building and all I need is the pharmacy setup I need the shelving I need the stock the inventory um I need the licensing I need to do that stuff it may not be as good a location but we're going to get started so we're going to risk 50 to 100 000 of cash not a borrowed money get that thing working and making serious money again and get back up to your income and then save up and pay cash for the deal that you're trying to do here or a deal like you're trying to do here and if you want to do the dream four hundred thousand dollars worth of real estate and a hundred thousand dollars worth of setup half a million dollars going in you do that all in cash after you got already got one up and running because you will learn so much in your first one that you pay cash for that will inform doing the second one wiser and I don't know if we can stop you or not but if we can stop you with one phone call we would stop you for your own good I it doesn't affect us but I'm begging you don't do that deal it is so full of holes it's so full of risk that you don't see and um I want you to have a wonderful life I want you to own your own business but I do not want it to own you and you are getting ready to be Shackled hands and feet when you sign up for all this stuff and it doesn't feel like it's a risk for you because all you can see is the upside because all of us that want to own our own business are optimists we're all glass half full people and that's how our brains work so I'm happy for your cancer remission yes I'm happy that you're getting the other side of that I'm thrilled for you thrilled that you got a wonderful career making really good money now clean up your student loan mess build a basis of life on a foundation where everything's you know more grown up and it's less fantasy yeah and I think it's a good rule of thumb too for people starting anything start small you start small because your your mistakes are going to be smaller your learnings are gonna like you're going to be able to it's not these big fatal mistakes if you are starting something at the Pinnacle which is a little bit Brad it's kind of what you're saying it's like I'm taking out 300 000 I'm going to do a construction loan build my own I mean you're doing the big thing and for some reason if it doesn't start work you know if it's not working or there's mistakes to be made those are magnified because of the scale at which you're choosing to do it so starting small on anything is is I'll just tell you I have built from the ground up hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate hundreds of millions in homes in commercial buildings in the buildings that we're in on this campus 100 of the buildings we built if we were doing them over we'd do them different yeah and they were end up being expensive I mean like you know what I mean like there's just so much 100 you have unseen expenses that catch you off guard 100 of business does not work the way you think it's going to a hundred out of a hundred times you just count on it and that that's what goes with this territory hey man thanks for the call hope it goes well for you that puts us out of the Ramsay 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 [Music] thank you [Music] hey it's Rachel Cruz if you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsay baby steps go to ramseysolutions.com and click the get started button we'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation that's ramseysolutions.com and click get started [Music]

Channel: The Ramsey Show

Views: 66,601

Keywords: dave ramsay live, dave ramsey, dave ramsey channel, dave ramsey live, dave ramsey live show, dave ramsey live stream, dave ramsey podcast, dave ramsey radio show, dave ramsey show, dave ramsey show full show, dave ramsey show live, ramsey, ramsey solutions, the dave ramsey show, the dave ramsey show live, the ramsey show full episodes, the ramsey show

Id: xO3Vj5SFRPo

Length: 125min 40sec (7540 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 08 2023