Cleaning Up A 20 Year Financial Mess Takes Time

Thank you for joining us, America. We're so glad you are here. open phones at triple eight, eight, two, five, five, two, two, five. Brennan is with us in Tampa. Hi, Brennan.

How are you? Good day, how are you doing better than I deserve? What's up?

I'm currently living in Florida. I purchased and gets the second house in Florida and Over the past two years we've been living in Florida and grown to love the state and we want to make it a full-time Thing. however, all of my family and a lot of good friends are still back in, Colorado And we like to go back there for the summers, since I can work really from anywhere. my wife stays home with our three boys and The further complicate things I bought. I'm selling the current house.

We we bought two years ago in Florida to upgrade to a larger home and I need to know What best? Steps I need to take or or get your opinion on what I should do moving forward With selling these homes and how you would you still have a house in Colorado?

Okay, and what do you guys make? What do you make? your wife stays home with the boys? I make 210 a year. way to go, man.

You're killing it. How old are you?

36 okay.

The house in the car in Colorado is the old girlfriend you cut loose because you got married.

Okay, does that make sense?

It it does. yeah, you guys, she's already Dave, she's pretty, she still got. he's still got one toe in the old pond.

Right and that that's what's going on here, because there's nothing about this. it makes financial sense.

Right, yeah, so you know, there's nothing about it makes financial sense. It's just cut it. loose man cut it. It's the last thing that says I'm living in Florida and use that money to pay cash for the other house. It'll pay.

it'll pay off the other house, won't it?

That's how he opened, right? But then, later on, we've grown to love this and are going to make it our home. So the decision is now made. but it was like you. they're both there.

Yeah, he still loves his old girlfriend, Dave. Well, Colorado's awesome. it is nothing wrong with Colorado and his family's back there, so that's reasonable. That's nothing. Yeah, but it's causing you to make a bad financial decision.

That's why we're poking fun at you.

Yeah, that kind of stuff. because I'm guessing that house isn't that I might be wrong, but yeah. so yeah, I'm just gonna have a great life there in Florida and Plan my visits back home to see the family and and do those in an enjoyable way and work there. a couple years, He, a couple of weeks here. I've got a good, some good friends that are in their 40s That they do that with Jackson Hole.

when they first got married they spent two years in Jackson Hole and then they live here now and But they go back a lot for the summer. They just love it. And in the summers are particularly beautiful. So yeah, that that's the same kind of thing. You can do that and but you just you don't need to own something to do that.

the only way you would own something there's if everything else is paid off and you have the money for a second home and It's a toy. So it'd be like a ski home or something in Colorado, that kind of thing, a mountain home, right? And, or it's like a lake house, you know, a beach house. it's those kind. it's fall in that category, but not the Not that I'm still hanging on to where I used to live home and I'm mortgaging in the meantime.

in the meantime. Yeah, Jason's in Greenville. Hi Jason. What's up?

Jason.

How can we help?

Teachers and we are three years away from state retirement here in South Carolina And it will be 48 when we, you know, can retire from teaching with a pension. I'm just wondering if I should.

We really mean we're foster parents, we Jason.

Chefing at the summer camp ain't gonna cut it for half a day, half of the century? Okay, not gonna work. So what are you gonna do with your life? if you can answer that question? Then sure that you you're.

that's gonna be your encore career after teaching. It doesn't have to be a 40 hour a week grind. It might be you open a business, It might be you do this or that, but it's something you put your hand to the plow.

Is that right? Hello?

This guy's got phone problems, whatever you do, don't go in the phone business, Yeah.

Don't do it. this Is the Ramsey show?

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How are you?

My question is my wife and I are in the process of building a home and have a construction loan, and I'm kind of newer to listening to your show. So now I'm trying to Do things, probably in reverse order, because things are already underway. I have a 457 account from a prior employer and that I it's about a hundred thousand that I'm able to cash out, And I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to cash that out in order to try to shoot for getting it as a 15-year mortgage when That time comes at the end of the construction loan. How old are you?

It has nothing to do with you reinvesting into the other. it's possible that you were. the 457s take several different forms. So it's possible. what you're saying is true, but unlikely.

So I'm questioning that you're definitely going to get your taxes on it, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and so what's your household income?

they just pass out like a 15%. we hate the rich tax there.

You don't have enough deductions to get it down to 50, I mean.

Yeah, yeah, so I mean that's the consideration is Um, I don't know what you're gonna have from, California. I, I, I've just got a couple of friends that left there after this last piece of legislation because they said no more, No more. You're not taking my stuff, no more. So they're out and their income earners higher than you. but you know their whole reason was that The thing was a graduated thing and it was aimed only at wealthy people.

and the wealthy people are gonna stay. so it's kind of interesting. they're not gonna get it, but it's what always happens with this, but the Anyway, all that to say, if you're going to do it, You need to know exactly what that picture is. and it's not internet advice that you need, It's tax advice. and then you say okay, if it's 40%, federal 38, okay, which I'm pretty sure that's right.

and there's no, no 10%, which is fine in your situation. and Then, In addition to that, California is going to hit you for X. Let's call that 10.. Well, now we're at almost 50%. So you're 100,000 is gonna be 50,000.

Get destroyed by a state and federal government system, so I don't know. look at it and Find out exactly. if you don't have a good tax person, You can go to Ramsey solutions, comm and click on the endorsed local providers. That's what we call them ELPs for taxes. They're Ramsey trusted.

We've probably got a thousand of them or something around the nation that are all top-notch. Sit down with one of those people, run the numbers out so that you're making the decision, But however, you make it with full disclosure to your own brain, right? And because I got a feeling you're smart guy. Usually dumb people don't make 450.. Okay, so I think you'll be able to figure out Oh, I'm not doing that, or ooh.

Yeah, that's cool. I'm still gonna do it. Okay, and you can move that and get comfortable with. but what you don't want to do is just say I googled it And then tax time comes and I'm screwed because I didn't really understand. you don't want to do that.

That's a good way. I mean when you're when you're building, the decorator forgets that there's a thing called a budget, the spouse forgets that there's a thing called a decorator and Then you get into this stuff, right? Not, I wouldn't know anybody that that's ever happened to, but um.

No, we've. we've actually learned to do it, but we the first time we did it, it was not good, so but the Yeah.

What he said is he came late to this party, this Ramsey party, and he's liking what he's hearing, But he's already committed on the balls. don't go ahead, and I you know I set this whole deal up on a 30 and I like what you're saying about doing a 15. So I'd rather do that. That's what I heard, not actually believe it. Yeah, I believe so.

that's going to take me ten years to walk through and get the direction changed or?

If so, you probably got a mess, right? Or did I do something that's gonna that? if I really focus on the new information that I have, It might set me back a year, but I'm gonna keep going. Okay. Yeah, then then you got to decide how big the damage is, okay, so if you, if you, let me give you an example you signed up for a closing and The payment is on a 30-year and the payment is 55% of your take-home pay.

Well, you're screwed, right? Okay. So what you need to do is close the house and put a for sale sign in the yard Mm-hmm, because that's you're not gonna get out of that one alive. Okay, okay, But I took out a 30 instead of a 15 and I've actually got some margin and I can pay it like it's a 15. But I never thought of that before hearing you.

You're not screwed, right? that? that's a different thing. Okay. So you just got to.

you got to assess how much damage you've done to yourself, now that you've got new information to measure it by, and then you can decide how Dramatic you have to be about the undoing, the unwinding of all this interesting thing. Talk about getting into debt and getting out of debt as an example.

Larry Burkett used to teach this stuff. He was a guy that I used to hear one a million years ago and got to be friends with him. It was a Christian teacher on what the Bible says about money on the Christian radio and he was an icon in that space and taught me a lot, a lot. and He used to say that when they were coaching with folks, They would see people. if it takes you three years to get into the debt, Expect it to take you a year and a half to get out With if you turn the ship and be very intense, so if you've been making this mess for a decade, Don't be surprised.

it takes you five years to get out of the mess you took you. that's a good. that's a good algorithm. I like you know, and even if you get very focused invariant because when you were making the mess, you were you were kind of. You know, you're just kind of wandering and and when you're cleaning up the mess, You're very focused and intense.

so you can cut the time down, but don't expect to clean up a decade-long mess in 26 minutes. Okay, you know, that's you're not. you're expected to take a little while you dug yourself a freaking hole here, you know, so that that's his. Larry would have never said that that way.

He was a gentleman. he was not on mainstream talk radio.

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Dr. John Delaney Ramsey personality, is my co-host. Thank you for joining us America. open phones at triple-8, 8 to 5. 2 to 5.

Brandon is up. Hey Brandon, in Atlanta. How are you?

Yes, sir, what's up?

So here's my thing. My monthly income is 27, 14 a month, or insurance. And I look my my For the year, I just opened the business in March and at the end of the year, 2023 Revenue was 72 K. Mm-hmm.

So my debt is thirty one thousand dollars in student loans and thirty thirty three thousand dollars in a Ford f-150.

We're re-upping it for the 20th anniversary. It's coming out again in April. But yeah, man, that's very cool. I'm proud of you. You're doing good work and you you read something and you believed it.

now you're gonna act on it. You're why we're here. We're proud for you. How can we help other than that?

baby step three, right, exactly. Yeah.

Um, So should I be pulling out income from that and pay myself? what I'm doing now is I leave it in and The business like. I don't touch that money, but I don't know if I should be paying myself and then, you know, I pay yourself.

Right today.

I Believe it will grow. I'm gonna make sure it grows, is just it doesn't cost you anything to grow it.

No, if you don't really, you don't put any money into it this year and grow it from 70 to 110 and net 80 on that. There's nothing to be afraid of. I Hear you. I'm more afraid of your truck payment than I am all this other junk.

Hey, he agreed on National Radio.

So I'm gonna give you the question first, yes, ma'am, It's a waste of money to sell my rental, lent rental property, even though I might lose about 200 to 20, 250,000 from capital gains and fees and all that comes with selling the house.

Can I ask you a couple questions? That's a lot of capital gains. That tells me that you're going to have a profit of over a million dollars on this property. Oh.

how long have you owned it, bought it?

30 years, okay, and it was 120,000.. Have you depreciated it on your taxes?

They've been writing the house off During the time you've been renting it, and so you have a basis of close to zero. So your taxes will be around 15% of 800,000, minus the expenses to sell it. So I mean you probably have a hundred, Maybe a hundred thousand in taxes.

24. I Was just Looking up like how much the capital gains are, and then because my father from from a foreign country, and I saw that it was 30% of Capital gains and in my part would be 20%.

No, okay, it's 15% of your gain and your gain is probably all of it, Because they probably depreciated your basis down to zero. So it's gonna be about gonna be about 15% of 800 minus sales expenses. so before you make this decision, sit down with a tax professional and let them actually do the Calculations, not some goober on the radio like me. I think I'm pretty close. But you need to know real numbers before you make a decision on something this big from a professional.

so sit down with a good tax pro. let them calculate it out for you and You're gonna find it's gonna be right around a hundred, but make sure it is. This is the Ramsey show.

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Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey. Personality. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thanks for joining us.

Kimberly is next. Kimberly is in Boston, Mass. Hi, Kimberly. How are you? I'm good.

How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Why not?

Well, I had to get a lawyer to end up getting custody of my children from my ex.

it takes 90 days for it to work. The first month you suck at this because you've never done it. the first time you drove your car around the block, You weren't good at it. Okay. But now you drive a car without thinking, put on your makeup, eat a Big Mac and change lanes, right?

Okay, that's what you'll get to later. But right now you're brand new at this. and one of the things that happens when you're brand new in your first month of budgeting Is you leave things out that you shouldn't have left out. You just didn't know. you forgot about them.

Okay, kids activities at school. We didn't budget for it because we forgot. they do that. Well, of course they do that, but when it comes up, it's kind of obvious. But when we were sitting down on a piece of paper or sitting down with the every dollar app, we didn't think of it.

Okay? Lawyers, a different category, but subscriptions. I forgot about them. and Then when, I you know, when I did my budget the first month and I looked down, it robbed the money out of my food Budget. and so now I'm crashing over here.

And well, you won't forget about them. the next month You're either gonna cancel them or put them in the budget, right? Yep, kids activities, we're either gonna not let them go or we're gonna put them in the budget, right? Yes, What's another one? But but some of these things that you have fewer and fewer surprises The longer you do this because you get better at it, and all the other surprises are now in the budget.

Okay, after 90 days, so after 90 days, you'll be a budgeting pro. It takes three months. first month is really bad, Second month is a little better. and the last month you, you've got it dialed in. now, lawyer stuff, That is a legitimate, you know, that's like the transmission falling out of your car.

That is an emergency. You couldn't see coming and you don't have any money, right? Correct. Okay. All right, so that's a different thing.

and and that's not really a surprise, because we knew the X was a jerk. That's why he's called the X. But but overall, the lawyer bill is a surprise. Yeah, okay. So there's some things like that.

But but um Okay, let me give you an example. a car breaking down Is not a surprise, you know. a $200 alternator going out on the car, a $400 alternator going out on the car. It's not a surprise. It absolutely is going to happen.

It's just a matter of when. the only thing that surprises the timing. We know the tires on your car are gonna wear out. We know Christmas is in December. They don't move it.

It's not a surprise, but it still sneaks up on people. So that's the kind of stuff. I think you're okay. Number one recommit to Beans and rice, rice and beans. no eating out, no, going out to eat, no vacations.

We're gonna put a bunch of stuff on Craigslist and sell it, try to create some money. we may look at some extra income from doing some kind of side job and We're gonna be really, really, really, really really focused on this and get the every dollar app out and get the budget going, because it's got A lot of categories that will remind you of things. You might otherwise have forgotten if you were just using a yellow pad to do this. Yep. Okay, but you also give yourself a little grace.

It does take three months to get good at it. No one does it the first month perfectly. There's no one that nerdy. if they were that nerdy, they were already doing it.

Concern I have across the board, and that is you make your first budget or your second budget and then, if you've committed to live In a debt-free life and then a three thousand dollar expense pops up. That's pretty high. So let's say $600 expense pops up. Okay.

You're gonna have to go into those other categories if you're gonna stay committed and You're gonna okay. We've got to figure out how to do groceries for 75 bucks instead of 125. Yeah, we're gonna have to figure out how to turn the air conditioner down. We're gonna have to or up.

It's, it's a reality. No, I shouldn't say if, when The wind changes, adjust your sails, because there's gonna be stuff that's unexpected. come at you and then you go Okay, how we gonna handle this? So, like to John's point Kimberly. one of the things Sharon and I did that we've had to teach other people to do, but it Came natural to us.

We went. we were bankrupt. No one would loan us money. So we didn't have an option. We don't borrow money, but we also can't borrow money.

At that time, right was so. so we had to figure it out without debt. So we had to figure out. I got to put something, you know on Craigslist to sell it. I got to go work a side gig and I need some money by Friday.

Oh, We had to figure out increase the income and Sell something and decrease some of the categories temporarily till we can get around the corner of this. We didn't have a choice. And so what our encouragement is is to take Overdraft, which is a form of debt, off the table. Disconnect your, disconnect, overdraft and quit work. never, ever, ever.

Let something come out of your account that causes overdraft again, ever again. Pretend like you're running a company for someone else, and if you ran it this poorly, they would fire you.

Okay, and it just creates a sense of fire and urgency. Yeah, there's this absolute, You know, Absoluteness. that's not a word to this idea that this there's this. You don't have an option and when you kind of when you burn the boats and you can't leave, you've got a deal With what's in front of you'll innovate and figure it out. Exactly.

You got to innovate. you got to adjust the sales. You're better at this than you think you are, and what you're facing did the distress and the frustration and It. it was kind of knocking the confidence out of you. like this may not work.

I may not be able to do this. You can do it. You can do it. What's your feeling? the emotion you're feeling and the actual?

Experience you're having is very normal. The trick is don't agree to live in it, make it make adjustments. So you don't live that way, okay? Okay, you can do this. I'm proud.

yeah, you got. have you guys been through financial peace University? we have not. yet I know you need to go through. I'll give it to you.

You got to go through it. Yeah, I'll give it to you and I'll give you the every dollar app with connecting to the budget, to the upgrade, the premium. So you got the whole kit. if you'll go do this stuff and I teach that, I teach you it'll work Kimberly a hundred percent. But it never works instantly.

We don't sell microwaves. We're in the crock-pot business. It takes a minute. You got to cook it, baby. You can do it.

You can do it. This is the Ramsey show.

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey solutions, it's the Ramsey show where we help people build wealth, Do work that they love and create actual, Amazing relationships, I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, dr. John Deloney, number one best-selling author, host of the dr. John Deloney show on the Ramsey Network, one of the more popular YouTube and podcasts in America. today He's my co-host. open phones at triple, eight, eight, two, five, five, two, two, five.

Jennifer is with us in San Antonio, Texas. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the Ramsey show.

I'm calling because So I had a bankruptcy in 2021 and you know, I'm debt-free. and well, I'm debt-free after you know, paying the KGB. I mean IRS, and And then I was one of the very few that had their public service, But I, you know, For the federal government, and I was what a very few that had their loans forgiven. I've worked for the federal government for 13 years and I feel like a lot of shame. I, I feel ashamed about the bankruptcy, but then I also feel a lot of shame about public service Forgiveness.

in a way cuz, like I mean, I took advantage of the program that was available to me and I like, I'm proud of serving the government so long, but I guess I feel a little. I don't know. I tell people not to like count on it all the time and that there's, you know, All the data shows that very few people are ever gonna have it happen to them and don't want them to count on it. You know, I just happen to be in that window where it worked for me, And so it's like I won the lottery, but I'm like a shame that I wanted a little bit. and yeah, so Jennifer.

He's been there.

I can talk about it, but Dave can talk to him, a lived experience which is much more valuable. So what caused your bankruptcy?

There's a lot of people in the world that are giving you a lot of advice and running their mouth and telling you should be Doing this, and Dave and I are not going to do that. We're sitting here with you. Okay? Okay, you don't have to. I can.

I can hear you trying to outrun the shame in a circle right on the phone with us. You don't have to do that.

So my, my actions, my actions, were shameful. your actions were not shameful.

He's all. but every month. I see that you're putting Everything you can, yeah, into pain, you know, but I think this might be our only.

to answer your question was I, I said, okay, How, what steps do I have to take to be a different person that causes this to never happen again? If I take those steps, then the things in my rearview mirror, It's just one of the many stupid things I've done in my life that I don't have to do again.

Yes, okay. It's true. I know that to me, I know, but listen.

Here's what you're gonna do. I want you to keep a journal with you of the things you feel when you feel like you're taking advantage of folks and you Feel like you should have want you to write that down, and I want you to hold it at arm's length and ask yourself Is this true? Okay, and I want you to be objective about it, because if you can't be objective, take it to your counselor Mm-hmm and say is this true? because the answer is going to be no. But when you have a feeling and you begin to believe that feeling, then your body's off to the races.

But the depression taking you away from work, I'm not blaming you for that one kiddo, That one's in your rearview mirror. to though. The beautiful thing about life is, the rearview mirror is smaller than the windshield. That's called grace. walk in that kiddo.

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I'm very, very excited for it, But I just moved back up north. I live in Louisiana for a while and I just got a job up here. I'm aside, just do sales, and she is talking about moving to Louisiana, that's where her family lives and Obviously, you know, I'm not gonna. this is weird.

She's pregnant. So who am I, your ex-wife or girlfriend?

We still talk every day, we're on, you know, we're on good terms and all that sort of good stuff. Which is what? uh, you know, which is what I want, you know, if we are gonna be separated, I'd still want to. you know, be you know, so what's your question? all that good jazz?

So I just had a lot of questions. as far as moving down to Tennessee, because they did. she did ask me, or she was interested in me doing that, so I can be closer to them, and I just had a lot of questions about. you know, budgeting with the baby and Doing just like this, you know trying to find a house down there. and how would you, how would you, how would you go through?

That? I don't. I don't have very much. that I have like $500 on my credit card. that and that's pretty much it.

So I've been. that's getting paid off. So, luckily, I'm about to be out of debt, which is a very good feeling. But how long have you known about this?

It sounds like there's a lot of YOLO, and well, we just argued. dude, you're, you got to be past that. now you brought. You're bringing a human into the world. Yeah, I would get with a relationship counselor ASAP, because y'all gonna have to learn to talk, to Communicate to you think you think being together and raising those kids hard.

you're gonna try to do it in separate houses. It's gonna be a chaos. It's hard, hard, hard, hard, and The fact that you haven't already moved. I don't even know what we're talking about here. My daughter has been gone for four days, five days, and I'm having trouble breathing.

I don't. I can't wrap my head around your thought process.

You broke up. You're gonna move your butt down here by this child and you're gonna work to learn how to near it with her.

You can't you know? breaking up with someone that you have a baby with is a big deal. Well, we're arguing. Oh, well, give me a break. I've been married 43 years.

We're arguing is an ongoing.

At least give it a shot For the sake of this kid. all the data suggests y'all have to be working together for this kid to be to have a shot.

The longer time you should take making the decision. You've done that the opposite on all of these fronts. That's what's killing me here. So you can impulse a pack of gum. If you're gonna buy a car, you need to slow down and take your time.

It's a lot of money. Okay, if you're gonna choose, you can. you can impulse walking across the room and talking to a girl. You don't impulse breaking up with a girl who's got your child inside of her. or think it this way because of some arguments.

That's good news for the baby and good news for you. It means you're a good man. so work through these Slowing down on big decisions. And so, you know, before you decide to move to Tennessee and chase her, You probably ought to go meet with her and a good relationship counselor Talk about what it looks like if you made the move.

We'll get you hooked up with that. There we go, and then y'all could talk from different states, even if you need to, yeah.

I've got a set of relational boundaries and rules involved with this ex-girlfriend And how we're gonna work on the child, what are, what are the financial implications? how much are you gonna child support? What are those kinds of things? all of this ought to be. you ought to have all that figured out before you move, And it might take you a month to figure that out and you got a month.

So slow.

down on big decisions, Get more information and more information and more information. You've got all your information stacked up and you go slowly. We call that wisdom. It's the opposite of impulsing.

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Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones in the lobby of Ramsey. solutions on the debt-free stage. Nathan and Danielle are with us.

Hey guys, how are you? We're great, Dave. Good to be with you guys, you too. So, where do you live? Arlington Heights, Illinois?

Chicagoland. All right. Welcome to Nashville. and how much debt have you paid off? We've paid off about a hundred and thirty thousand dollars in debt.

Very good, And how long did that take? six years, six years, and your range of income during that time? We started at about forty thousand. We were bumped up to, was it? a hundred and thirty, one hundred and thirty, two, Two and then actually about a week and a half.

that's gonna jump to about 160.. Okay, that's pretty impressive, you guys. I mean 40 to 60 is pretty cool, 40 to 160. So what happened to your careers? What do y'all do for a living?

a lot of extra man? Yeah.

Uber, Lyft was part of that for about six months, but Started out. we graduated. I graduated from Grad school. We'd gotten married six months prior to that. What's your degree?

Originally, I had a degree in athletic training, which similar to physical therapy for people that don't know, but more in college setting, high school Setting things like that At some point a couple of years into that. I was thinking about the career, thinking about you know We're gonna have kids one day and and I was doing a lot of traveling on weekends with, like football teams and things like that and, and wanted to, Was thinking about the the time we'll potentially lose with kids when we had them. and so I started looking into a career change Fast forward. we cash flowed a. I got my MBA online, graduated in The end of 2020 and then, maybe nine months later, so, I made a career change into third-party risk.

I was working and which is what I do now, so Okay, cool. And what do you do, Daniel? I am a paralegal in a class-action law firm. Wow, good for y'all. Okay, great careers, quite a quite a trek.

How long you been married? seven years, seven years. So one year into the marriage, you start this process and you go on this journey on his career track, Which leads you into much, much higher incomes over time. What kind of debt was the 130? Guilty as charged on that one.

That would be all my student loans and a little bit of medical debt. I hadn't charged you.

The paralegal, huh? Yeah. Okay. All right. I'll go with that, cool.

So what happened after a year of marriage? that you said we're gonna get out and we're gonna do this. Ramsey stuff. How'd you meet us? so, about five to six months into our marriage, my grandma ended up passing away and she left me a amount of money that was equivalent to pay off my first two federal student loans.

and we had read the total money, makeover, and We're like we can do this. Let's go. Let's get gazelle intense and let's pay this off. and we did. And we had read the book my spring break of my last year of grad school.

We, it was a wedding gift, actually, and we just kind of set it on the shelves again. We're a bunch of poor college students like, well, you know, living on, I don't know. It was maybe less than $1,500 a month, if that, you know, maybe 1,200. So, you know. then read it over spring break, and was you know, thinking towards, you know, We'll finally get, you know, real jobs, real income, and I was like, hey, like this seems, Seems like something that's pretty feasible, you know.

Yeah, Okay, got after it, then knocked it out, and here we are, six years later, in a making serious bank and no payments in the world.

and you know, fortunately we Sometimes kicking and screaming, sometimes less so, but you know, fortunately we were able to stick to the plan. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the other thing too is about four years into our marriage, Tried, starting a family and unfortunately just we went through the wilderness of infertility, and infertility is not for I wouldn't wish it on anybody. So, Having to struggle with that cash flowed, those treatments and then going through three rounds of unsuccessful fertility treatments that that really tried and Tested us, but we remain faithful. We remain.

we said God, you've got this, you've got us, We're gonna keep trusting you and we just kept pushing forward.

after we had that news. I was sitting on my kitchen floor sobbing, Asking God why, and then I told him you know what, Lord, I'm done. I'm gonna be done. I'm giving this to you Let's focus on other things. Let's keep paying off the debt.

two and a half months later, find out we're pregnant, Of course. Yep. Wow. I love it. Wow.

That's so cool. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks, proud for y'all. What a wonderful five years.

Yeah, and what a very hard five years. Yeah, Yeah, wow, very cool. Congratulations. All right. What advice do you have to somebody who's facing what y'all were facing?

Don't you ever give up. don't ever give up. keep pushing forward. Seek counsel when you need it. seek help from your church leaders when you need it.

Don't be afraid to reach out for help. I think about to the. you know, we certainly weren't perfect at it. We had, you know, Month a month here, there, periodically where it's like, you know, maybe the budget got blown up by something or or maybe we just, you know, You know, had a lapse in judgment. Maybe, you know, spent $100 here or something like that, and I was like, yeah, you know, looking back on it, That was a mistake.

and but you know, don't let those things You know, don't let those things get you down. Don't let them take you out of it. So just get back on track and keep pushing back on the wagon. back on the wagon. Absolutely.

I like it. I like it. Congratulations, you two. Thank you. And the little one's name is what Eliana, Eliana.

So is Eliana gonna be in the debt-free screen? Well, we've got the every dollar Subscription for you guys for a one-year. We've got two of them, actually two one-year subscriptions, one for you and one for you to give Away, so we'll get that to you. Oh, she's precious.

It's Nathan and Danielle and Eliana from the Chicagoland area. 130,000 in student loans paid off in six years, making 40 to 160 count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream three.

One of the things that we see. I mean if you get out of debt in six months, You know You don't have this, but if you get out of debt and it takes you three years, or four years, or five years, or In this case, six years, You can almost be guaranteed that during your debt-free journey. You're also going to have a life event or six. There's always going to be something. You know, In their case, they were dealing with infertility and having a baby.

I had a debt-free screamer on yesterday, had two children during the time. They were getting out of debt. That's big life events. It's not like this. stuff happens in a vacuum, Because if you could just sit and do nothing, but this in a monastery, you know I mean, and no, there was no get a job.

life doesn't stop, there isn't. yeah, There's all this other stuff coming at you too, which does require you to have that tenacity, that perseverance. You know, it's, it's, it's. um, man, It's. it's wonderful that you can walk through all of that at the same time, that that's, that's the proof text, That's when you know, you got it.

This is the Ramsey show.

All right, let's cut to the chase. it's easy to get discouraged about crazy house prices and interest rates, But when you have the right real estate agent to help you buy and sell the right way, You'll have confidence to make smart decisions. Ramsey trusted agents aren't just experts who guide you through buying or selling. There's someone you can trust to have your back from the first call to closing day. find a Ramsey trusted agent near you at Ramsey Solutions dot-com slash agent.

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Well, let's face it, taxes are confusing and they piss me off. I don't like paying them. I don't want to do it. I don't like this time of year, Huh, and then you get all these people in the tax business around you. You guys are not around me, but I got rid of them a long time ago.

But they're trying to sell you. but you know, Use our software, we can sell you 14 credit cards and a cash advance on your refund. Oh my god, They're just debt debt sellers. They're credit card people that got a little tax thing, waving in front of you like you're a bass and you bite on everything. That's shiny.

So don't do that. Go to Ramsey solutions, dot-com, slash tax. use Ramsey smart tax If you've got a simple return. if you've got a complicated return, hit the tax, EL peas, and they'll help you with it.

Dave's tax tip of the day. a tax refund is not a bonus, a bonus as a fund. this is a refund. a Refund means it's already happened once and we're re funding. it means you already had the money once and You gave it to the IRS.

you gave them too much More than you needed to give them in order to cover your taxes, and then they send it back to you. So in essence, you have given them too much money and they send it back to you, though. So you have a savings account with the federal government that pays zero interest, and they send it back to you and you feel Oh, well, it makes me at least I know I don't owe $3,000. you're giving up $250 a month too much, and it makes you feel good, doesn't make me feel good. It makes me feel stupid when I do stuff like that.

So how do you fix this? You go into your w-2 and you change and get the right amount taken out, Going to payroll and have them take the right amount out. now What's the right amount if nothing's changed in your taxes and you've gotten the same refund for the past four years? Just take that refund amount and take that the correct amount out of your check. $3,000 a year is $250 a month.

simple $6,000 a year is $500 a month. 4,800 $400 a month, whatever it is, have that right amount. if something has changed, You may want to have one of the taxi LPs run your taxes or get the Ramsey smart tax software. run your taxes, figure out what your actual tax bill is and Divide that into your paychecks and tell them to take that much out. Then you will be having the proper amount taken out.

You will not owe more than you have paid in, but you will not have paid in too much. The numbers that it's like 70 something percent of Americans get a refund. I.

I sold one of my properties for the down payment and my partner chipped in $5,000, which wiped out her savings. She keeps asking me to sell the rest of my investments so we won't have a mortgage. I have a feeling she wants this so she doesn't need to go to work. I feel stuck and resentful because of the inequality of our financial contributions.

Well.

Max, it starts with When you have a partner.

Instead of a wife, right.

are both of you going to bring what you're supposed to bring To the partnership? then, if somebody's not doing that, then a business partnership You would have. you would have this exact kind of discussion about that, but before you go to a business partnership.

y'all have a child together and suddenly.

this gives me the GAS, Dave max. y'all need to go see a.

That's what we were dancing around and being sarcastic, and we know that all the crap This poor lady is feeling. but dude, you really are being a complete. but Because you are completely Worshipping the wrong things here. You're completely putting the wrong things in the wrong order. and When a woman, a lady, has your child Married or not, and You are so superior with your three million dollars that you look down your nose and she paid off her $5,000..

I'm like, dude, it's just nasty. Yes, nasty. So Sorry, you wrote in oh.

My gosh, But you know, hey, you know, I. the truth is, the secret to happiness is long-term, high-quality relationships, it's not stuff.

Hello.

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey solutions, it's the Ramsey show where we help people Build wealth, do work that they love and create actual, amazing Relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey. your host. Dr. John Deloney, host of the dr John Deloney show, number one best-selling author and Ramsey personality, is my co-host today.

Open phones at triple 8, 8, 2, 5, 5, 2, 2, 5. that's triple 8, 8, 2, 5, 5, 2, 2, 5. Matt is with us in Minneapolis. Hi, Matt. Welcome to the Ramsey show.

We are baby step millionaires And are currently in the process of gonna build a new home. good for you. Our existing home our oldest son is interested in buying It's worth about 365,000. he can only afford about 250.

Wondering your opinion. if You know, writing up a contract and covering all the D's, as you say, like in a partnership, Percentage of ownership, it comes out. He don't. 65% Would retain about 35% ownership. Is that a bad idea?

But we do have two other children.

The middle child has already bought his. he bought a house. What is your total? What is your total net worth? man?

One point, two, eight, actually, I was gonna try to call yesterday.

Okay, so if you make it to 70 years old and this money continues to grow, And some of its in real estate and personal homes and those kind of thing But it grows in value, right, and if you continue to invest and if you continue to add to it on top of that, It's even more. But you should have five to ten million dollars at your death, that's a reason. That's why I was asking you all those questions. All right, So what I would do here if you're going to do this? I would never do a partnership ever, Because you and your son will be just fine, but this puts a different pressure on your daughter-in-law.

That's not fair to her.

You've interfered in their marriage. You didn't mean to, because you're sweet and you love your grandbabies, But you would don't do that. What I would do instead is if you want to sell him the house for 250 and it's worth 350. he just got 100,000 less at your death.

he can paint it purple. He can go on vacation. It's none of your freaking business. He owns the house.

And all you advanced him was 100,000 of his future inheritance.

Because it's okay. if a 24 year old can't do a $350,000 house, it's perfectly okay in society. Yeah, so no is a possible answer.

But if you want to do it, that's the way to do it, and I would even say a third option is.

Okay, if you can't do it, don't do it. It's a stupid house.

could we do all kinds of wacky stuff around the Ramsey's? but we always just say hey, that's what we're thinking about doing. how's everybody feel about that? and sometimes you just put The awkward crap in the middle of the table. It.

Isn't the best best way to do it. It's the only way. Yeah, it's only unless somebody on the other end is Bent on hurting you or they don't have the capacity to hear what you're saying. You got to put on the table.

Don't do it anymore.

This is the Ramsey show.

So, whether it's a spontaneous date night or an epic Disney cruise budget for some fun, Download every dollar for free today.

Interest rates started going up and the market started slowing down dramatically about 15 or 18 months ago and We did a live stream where I was very emphatically said the real estate market is not going to crash, values are not going to tank. and Here's how I know that. and I went through several data points on the air And we had several hundred thousand of you watch that live stream And we covered some of that on the air here to let you know that the real estate market values were not going to tank, Because a whole bunch of people were really upset that interest rates had gone up. They felt that they, that the system had cheated them and they were not going to be able to buy a home. They were frozen out of the home market and they would sit on the sidelines and wait on the real estate market to crash And go down in value.

and I explained to you why it was not going to go down in value. And it was a very simple proposition, Except I went into great detail. I'm not going to do right now, but basically it works like this When there is a shortage of an item. It's called supply-demand curve in economics if you had a decent economics class in the seventh grade you learned this Okay, the supply-demand curve works like this when there is an over supply of an item versus the demand More, more. if you got a glut in the market.

if the more. if you can get them anywhere easily, There's not a shortage. prices go down.

When there's a shortage of an item or a service in the market, a scarcity prices versus demand Prices go up. That's basic economics. Okay, so Items that are scarce Go up More often than not. items that are easily available, readily available, Widely available. There's too many of them produced Go down in value.

That makes sense. everybody kind of knows that. that's kind of common sense, if you think about it, so here's the deal.

The there is less inventory of homes for sale versus the number of buyers Today than there has been in 25 years.

There's a shortage of housing versus the demand.

Zero chance Prices are going to go down on houses. during that time. I said that 18 months ago Told everybody that, Dave, that that video is not gonna age. Well, after the crash You're gonna have to come back and tell people you were wrong. Well, instead I'm here going nan in and then I freaking know what I'm talking about.

Okay, there's a difference. All right. I know a little about that stuff. I've got a degree in real estate. I've been buying real estate since before any of you were born, So hardly any of you.

so spring is upon us. It's predicted to be another busy time for real estate. This is some stuff. We just picked up out of the press. average interest rates for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages are at six point 1.6% right now, down from seven, and some change just a few weeks ago.

So interest rates are trending down. Total housing inventory at the end of January was up 2% and up 3% from a year ago. Unsold inventory still sits at a three-month supply And there is a tremendous number of new listings coming. So we're starting to see some supply come back into the market. That's what we're seeing.

But we're also seeing buyers come back into the market that were sidelined, waiting on interest rates to go down or waiting on the crash.

You were wrong. They went up to an all-time high of 379,000. that's the median home price in America. in February, homes went from being listed to going under contract in 17 days.

And they were at 27 days, so they're selling faster. the market is heating back up and The slight move in interest rate down the grass getting green in some of the markets. We're seeing the real estate market heat back up. We're seeing multiple offers in big markets like Nashville again and.

Let me tell you I got my real estate license in 1978. the number of years During that, between 1978 and now, that you put a home on the market, and you've got multiple offers. Well, it's been a very rare time, But prior to 2020 we were seeing some of it, And then, of course, after Fauci's pandemic, we saw people go crazy and.

They came out of their homes, they were Quarantined and came out looking for new houses like a Baptist looking for a casserole. They were everywhere, man, they're run around like crazy and drove prices ridiculously up in 20 and Out of control. I mean like, like 89 offers on a weekend, that kind of stuff. Alright, that y'all remember that that's just a 20 measure. like to eat two and a half years ago, okay?

And then it chilled, it just stopped and the market has Gone, is continued to move, but it's very slow. the volume has been very slow, but still Demand has exceeded Supply and we've seen prices go up. and now that the markets heating back up a little bit now, We've yet again got even more demand than supply and we're seeing multiple offers again. So if you are thinking about selling a house, This is an excellent time to sell a house. as a guy who's trying to buy one.

Please sell your. If you're thinking about buying a house today, you're out of debt. You have your down payment. You're ready to go and The only thing you're waiting on is you're waiting on the real estate prices to come down or the interest rates to come down. Don't wait, Go, buy a house right now if You're ready because the prices aren't going to come down, and if the interest rates come down, you can just refinance.

So you marry the house, you date the rate? That's how that works. The rate is temporary. The house is dead gum. So here's the thing Median house price all-time high in history right now.

Interesting, and you thought 2020 was crazy and you thought 2021 was crazy. All right. I'm telling you I'm not predicting it to go nuts again, But the idea that some of you are still sitting around waiting on this market to correct is hilariously stupid. you're that wrong. and If it's not gonna age, well, hey, I've aged pretty well in general.

There's a couple things I've missed it on, but I pretty much call it on a lot of these things. I told you Bitcoin was a scam. I told you from the start, even when all of you people that join Bitcoin, like some people join Mary Kay Y'all were driving me nuts, yelling and screaming at me like like I'd insulted your Jesus or something. It's crazy, and it was a dadgum scam, and we knew it was a scam from the start. We knew it was a horrible idea, and yet you walked around, acting like you're sophisticated and do rooms.

Let me tell you guys this is what's happening with real estate. I promise you you can look up this particular YouTube five years from now and you're gonna go. Yeah, that'll fart was right again. That's what you're gonna do. It's exactly what you're gonna do.

So prices are gonna go up, rates are gonna go up and down, up and down, up and down. They always have and they always will. The only rate that you cannot adjust is mine. My interest rate on my mortgage is zero because I don't have a mortgage. That's the only one you can control.

So get the house, get the house paid off. go to Ramsey solutions. calm. Get you a Ramsey trusted agent to buy a house or to sell a house right now and quit believing all this fear-mongering Bullcrap, it's out there, It's hot. Listen.

The market is slow, But demand still exceeds supply and it is still driven us to an all-time high median price on house. Those are facts. that's called data. if you don't agree with that, you're what's known as wrong seriously. So, if you're gonna buy a house or sell a house best times right now, I told you the same thing 18 months ago, and I was right then too.

This is the Ramsey show.

Yep. Just 10 minutes. You've got this. pick up financial peace, kids at Ramsey solutions comm slash store. That's Ramsey solutions comm slash store.

Got divorced nine years ago. The agreement, the divorce agreement or settlement, was I would keep all the assets. I own a small business and have owned it for 35 years a paid-for house paid for business property, and In return I would give my wife a half a billion dollars paid for $3,500 a month, and I've been doing that for quite a few years. I've got it down to $130,000 now and Every month, obviously that $3,500, you know, bothers me to pay her and I talked. I go back and forth about just paying it all off.

I called her, offered her.

Pay it off in full with a little bit of a discount. she didn't accept that, so I said, okay, I'll just keep paying you. and You know, I'm to the point in my life. I'm 61 years old. How long ago did was that?