This Is What's Stopping You From Becoming Rich

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. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225.. Multiple number one bestselling author and Ramsey personality, Rachel Cruz, my daughter, is my co-host today. Open phones here.

you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hi. So three years ago, me and my wife was buying a life insurance policy from our father-in-law.

money. So that's our situation.

we've been married for about three years, yeah. Okay. All right. So you're in your mid-20s, I assume? Yeah, me and my wife are both 27,, so we got married around 24..

have to give you full disclosure here, okay? I have been trashing whole life policies and people who sell them for 30 years as being one of the biggest possible rip-offs in the financial world. So if you say Dave Ramsey to your father-in-law, his face is going to.

melt off. I know, I was afraid of bringing that up to him. I would not suggest you do.

that. Uncle Dave would suggest you don't do that to yourself with your father-in-law. I don't think there's anything to be gained by that. So, basically, you have a guy in your life that loves you and that believes in these products. You have a guy on the radio that loves you and says these products are crap.

Oh, my gosh.

They don't know how to vote. They pick the wrong party and they're just dumb about it. And I love them anyway. I love them anyway.

We have family members that have credit cards and that.

And I don't create at Thanksgiving a political argument with people who aren't going to change their minds that I love. Or a financial argument. I don't give financial advice to people who don't ask for it. And that includes everyone, family included. People who ask, I will tell you.

So for Victor, talk through the different ways, why you don't like whole life insurance as an investment.

I just, well, he knows. He already knows why I don't like it, don't you?

I know that you mentioned that, like the return over like 30 years is minimal.

Yeah, it is. And when you die, when you die, then you're going to have to pay for it. The money that you have in there is gone. They only pay the face amount. And there is no such thing as a whole life policy that is tax free.

Oh, a hundred percent. A hundred percent.

And anything— I want you to be kind to your father-in-law.

Yeah. Even, yeah. I think the biggest thing is going to be, it could be, I mean, I know your father-in-law, but if this is what he does for a living, it's a shot to the ego. I mean, like— Yeah. It is.

She's really got to be in this.

Yeah. And just really dive in. And you guys have to say, okay, what's best for us? And find the facts, because the facts is what's going to prove it to you, Victor. And you both have to be on that same page and say, okay, this is what we're doing.

But your wife has to be able to just look at her dad and smile.

Which will be hard.

And smile and say, I love you, and we're going a different direction.

Yeah. You know? Dave, I love you.

And we're going a different direction.

But I'm going a different direction.

All right. That's the thing. You're announcing something on the air? No.

No, but it's, yeah, this is where the, yeah, the relational factor of it, is just, it can be messy. Yeah. But it's also a great practice, Victor, for you and your wife.

You've got to learn to do this anyway.

That's right.

Over other things. Yes. Because, you know, they're, otherwise, you know, they're going to interfere when you get ready to name your first child. They're going to interfere when you get ready to buy your first house.

They all do it out of love.

And no, they do it out of love. They do it out of love. Don't pet me. I don't interfere in your, I don't interfere in your kid's name.

No, you don't. That's what we did.

That would be, Mimi, that does that.

We don't tell our kids' names until they were born. And we hand the baby.

Because you get a Mimi eye roll.

We hand the baby to the grandparent and we say.

Don't name him Moonbeam.

Today's question comes from Bethany in Texas. I've been married to a lovely man for 15 years who loves me and adores my son. He is the best dad I could have given to my son. The problem is the finances. I make $180,000 as a nurse practitioner, while he makes $30,000..

I read that you don't respect him.

Well, and the fact, Bethany, I feel like he's not hearing you, right? I'm like, unless you're not saying anything to him, which would be unhealthy too, but I'm like, there's something there that you don't feel heard. You feel like you're on an island by yourself and you're isolated and all the responsibilities on you. And that's not a marriage. A marriage is a team.

Jay is with us. Jay is in San Diego. Hi, Jay. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

All right. Thanks for having me.

Sure. What's up?

So my wife and I are currently saving up to buy a house, and her grandma, who she's very close to, just offered to give us a gift of $30,000 to put towards the down payment. My question is, is it ethically okay to take this gift, knowing that she has siblings, cousins, and her parents who have not been given that same offer of a gift?

It's ethically okay, because it's not your money. It's her money. She gets to decide what she wants to do with her money. But what you're pointing out is, is it may piss them off.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

Yeah.

And kind of justifiably. so. I mean, because there's no intention, as far as you know, for granny to, like, give everybody the same amount. Right?

Yeah. Not that we know of. I think she may, but don't know for sure.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I don't think you have an ethics problem, but you might have a relationship problem when all this comes up to light. Mm-hmm. Because people's feelings will be hurt, really not by you, but by her grandmother.

Yeah.

But, I mean, maybe your wife needs to talk to her grandmother and say, hey, what about when so-and-so finds out and they're angry about this?

Yeah. So her grandma mentioned that she would ideally like to keep it private.

I just don't know if...

Yeah.

But in my head, it's a gift. I'm like, yeah, to Jay, and, I mean, I think you guys just have to be aware that if or when this comes out...

Oh, it's going to come out.

It's going to be awkward.

It's going to come out when granny's estate is cleared.

Mm-hmm.

So, you know, just be prepared that somebody's going to have their feelings hurt later.

But does that stop him from taking the gift?

No, I don't think so, as long as you're willing to, you know, be ready for your wife's sister to be angry at her dead grandmother someday, right?

How many grandkids are there?

There are seven total.

Okay.

Has she... I wonder if she's done...

She wants to keep it private.

I know. I wonder if she's done other private money gifts.

We don't know. Because it's private. You know, man, so...

On the surface that she had helped out people with paying for college, that was supposed to be private for some of the cousins, but that came to light.

And they did not get help then. Okay. So, granny is not exactly worried about everything being even, which is granny's prerogative. That's okay. I don't mind that a bit.

Right. Right. Check, yes.

Check yes.

As George Strait would want you to do.

There you go. Check yes or no. Check yes. I mean, you know, mutual funds averaging 11.8% rate of return. Check yes.

Or them.

Or your personal behavior.

Yeah, it's you.

It's not your lack of knowledge of some sophisticated financial product. It's not that you don't know the secrets of the rich. It's your freaking dysfunctional family that put the fun in dysfunctional. And now you're living out of that. And that screws up your wealth building more than anything else.

Well, I mean, it's the perspective you have to have in putting money in its proper place in your life. And when you realize that money is a tool, as I say on my show, to create a life you love, money is the tool for it, right? But it's your life. Your life surrounds it. Or it surrounds your life.

That might have just happened.

Yeah. It flows through life. It's the thing, the currency we have to have to live our life. It's not just the numbers. And so when you realize that, you realize, wow, it does touch every area of our life.

Yeah, that's exactly right. And Larry Burkett used to say that money problems are not the problem. They're the symptom of something else that's going on in your life. And so, including when I went broke, it was not because there was some colossal conspiracy against Dave. It's because Dave signed up for a first-class ticket on the stupid ship and went on the entire cruise.

And said, yes.

Yes. You know, that's it. We were there, baby. And so, but it was the behaviors that put me there, that left me open to, and the character flaws, for that matter. Yeah.

And, which Jade Warshall just wrote a book on this, but your mindset too, right? You believed a certain way of dealing with money. You believe certain principles were going to get you rich. You believe this way. And so, also shifting your mindset and learning new ways to handle your money.

Yeah. It's, and that's one of the reasons I get so, come down so hard on these people that are hope stealers out there, running around going, well, you just can't. America. today, it's, there's systemic this and systemic that. Well, there is.

Hey, I just was with a girl. She's 15 years old, 15 years old. Yep. Opened up a Roth IRA when she was like 10 years old. Cause she started working in her dad's company and she started doing all this.

And so when she goes into some leftist communist college economics class who says you can't do this stuff, she's going to hold up her little Roth IRA and go, you know, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Or scrolling TikTok. And we played a TikTok video here last week of a guy and he's like the middle class. You have to make $120,000 to be middle class.

Oh, what a moron.

And he walks through all the numbers, you know, and some of you are like. But, you know, he had like, well, and you only have $625 left. I don't know. I don't know. And we were like, oh my gosh, what if you invested that?

And when you teach other people that they can't, that puts you in the evil bucket. The hope stealers are evil. When you steal people's hope, that's what you're doing. Now, I've been accused of being a dream killer because people call up with bizarre crap and I tell them not to do it. That's not a dream killer.

That's right. That's right.

And you're not. You're not. You don't have to drive that car. You don't have to wear that shirt. You don't have to carry that purse.

Oh, my gosh.

Fix that. Oh, my gosh. Or she lost 250 pounds. You can't carry them. I know, but you can't carry them into it.

That's right.

Everybody's got to be working together. It's hard. These are things we know.

And, again, that's not a hope-stealer comment. To me, that's the challenge. If you find yourself in a situation, and you are married, and you guys are going completely separate pages, let this be a challenge to say, hey, get on the same page. Not just to build wealth, but your quality of your relationships. Again, money's just a tool.

If you don't get the elements of behavior going, there is not a product, there's not a mutual fund, there's not a technique, there's not a TikTok video that's going to help you. If you don't get the elements of behavior, your spiritual walk, your emotional and psychological health, your ability to set boundaries with toxic people in and around you, including your family, your quality of your marriage, the unity, the fact that we're in lockstep and both working towards a high-definition vision, dream that we want to live together, you cannot avoid that stuff. As a matter of fact, if you do all of that stuff and do some of the math wrong, you'll still be okay. But you can't do the math all right and do all that wrong and make it. It won't work.

Good afternoon, yourself.

Better than I deserve. How can we help?

So, just to piggyback off what you were saying a few moments ago about behavior being 80%, in my own particular situation, I'm up to baby step number six. Great. And about my own particular behavior towards baby step number six, I'm at a bit of a, let's say, a question mark, if you will, in the sense that I step backward. My wife and I were homeowners and no debt at all. We have a substantial portfolio.

Acceptable alternative is a big phrase. Yeah, it's acceptable. I mean, you're investing. You're not consuming. You're doing that.

I have $299 left on it, $299,000..

So if somebody came up and said, I'll loan you $30 million at 2%, would you do that?

Yeah, I would not do that.

And the reason it takes your breath away a little bit is only when I expand it that far did you feel that debt equals risk. Right now, it's so manageable and so small in your world, as a ratio in your world, that you're not sensing that there's any risk associated with it. Yes. And another way to prove that would be to go the other direction. If you paid off your mortgage today, and you had the opportunity to go get another mortgage a year from now at 2%, would you take a paid-for house and go borrow money at 2%?

Yes. No, I'm with you. I understand. My theory, I think, goes towards as well that maybe over the course of time, if I continue this long-term, maybe I'll generate a better return. You will.

But the tightness between your shoulder blades, because you have a mortgage on the home where your children live, and your dog lives, and your cat lives, and your wife lives, is not measurable in math. And so when you pay off a mortgage, people breathe deeper. They have a different feeling about the grass in the backyard when they walk through it without their shoes on. And those are quantifiable only over a large amount of money and a large amount of time. You don't sense it, though, because I'm guessing you have a portfolio, probably, Vincent, of $10 million or more.

Yeah, and in the same example, but lowered some. So not for Vincent, but other people listening. We have some friends, and they make great money. They do totally fine, and they've always had car payments. But it's such a small part of their overall world.

That guy is a sophisticated guy you're talking about. Oh, yeah.

Oh, very smart. He's not a serious money. Yeah, they're great. They're great. It's not that big of a deal.

Well, interest rates come down, get you a new mortgage. if you don't like being debt-free.

That's right.

I'd pay it off tomorrow. That's what I would do. Hey, it's a good discussion, though. Thank you for calling in. John's with us.

Hi, Dave. I wanted to ask you what you would do if you were me. So I'm 42 years old, and I've realized that I've been an idiot with my money. For the first half of my life, I spent my money on stuff that was ridiculous. I didn't invest it.

What smacked you? I'm curious. What was the wake-up call?

Not having any money at all. I don't own any property.

But why did it suddenly be a thing? You said, a few months ago, life smacked me. Did a certain thing happen?

Well, basically, all I know to say is that I just didn't have any money.

You just got disgusted. Okay. That's fine. That's a good answer.

I've been with myself.

Okay. So what's your question? How can we help you?

So I make around $80,000 a year. I've got about $12,000 worth of debt. And I'm basically caught between two paths. I know it won't take me long to pay this debt off. But I'm trying to decide if I should then focus on saving for a house and paying for it in cash, not taking on any debt.

Where are you living now?

…paying for it in cash. I'm sorry?

Where are you living now?

I live in Bluffton, Indiana.

You're renting an apartment? You live in your friend's basement? Where do you live? I mean, what kind of living situation?

I rent an apartment.

Okay. All right. All right. And what price range home would you buy? And out of $80,000, how quick can you pay cash for one?

Well, if I really buckle down and have been saving hard, which is what I have been doing, I could probably save $50,000 a year. So I'm thinking, in four years, I could probably pay cash for $100,000 to maybe a $150,000 house.

Four years times 50 is $200,000..

Yeah. Well, what I was going to say was I could save an additional 50 for, like, an emergency fund for expenses on the house that may come up, you know, down the road, a hot water heater goes out or whatever.

I love it. Do it.

The second option. I thought, I know the trucking business has been doing this for 15 years. The other option I thought about doing was buying my own semi-truck, paying for that in cash, because, being an owner-operator, provided I had the right emergency fund in place, I can make serious money very, very quickly.

Yeah. I think I probably would do both, pay cash for a house and pay cash for a truck. It's just a matter of which one to do first.

Hi, I'm good. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up?

Well, I'm so grateful to actually get to speak to both of you, especially another working mom. I'm concerned with whether or not I would be harming my family's financial future if I take an extended maternity leave with my second child.

What do you do, Nicole?

I'm an attorney.

What do you make?

Net take-home for both of us.

No, I said, what do you make?

I think my net take-home is $120,000..

What about your husband?

His is about maybe $60,000, I think. No, it was $70,000 last year. His net was $70,000..

What's he do?

He owns some car washes.

Okay. So you're going to cut your income by 60%, 65%?

Yes.

Okay.

And then we would still have $86,000 of my student loan left. It's our only debt besides our mortgage that we still have left to pay on, but we've been paying on it. And so it's going to set us back. We'll be able to make the minimum payments and maybe a little bit more with distributions, but maybe inconsistently. And I guess I'm just concerned because we started a family later in life.

I kind of want to, like, relieve you from that, Nicole. I don't think it's harm long-term. I mean, I think, yeah, your goals are going to shift if your family goals shift, and that's a reality.

To offset the student loans that are there because of law school. Right, right. So let's use the law degree to clean up the law degree mess.

But does it have to – does your life have to look like it?

Maybe not in a traditional attorney setting, what Rachel's saying. And Rachel says she pulled back. She pulled back. She's not – but she's not out of the saddle either. You know, her social footprint has grown.

In an office, yeah, correct, yeah.

In the office. And so, you know, but we just shifted around how – what we're doing with her brand and how we're doing that for a season here, while the little one is there. And so –.

For you, that's what I would present to you. What does that shift look like, right? Because there is a – you know, there's a level of responsibility that you guys have financially, right, that you have to fulfill. You have to make these payments. And getting out of debt, as you know, lifts so many burdens, right?

And harm is not the right word. Rachel's right. That's an overstated word. A mom guilt word in this, because you guys can't win, okay? You get mom guilt if you're at home because you feel like you should be at work.

Yeah, and Nicole, and everyone's obviously created so differently. But considering what you've done, and as you listed all that, Dave, I was thinking like you might look up in six months and be like, oh my gosh, I'm crazy. I'm not happy because I need some output. So you may find that in you how you're wired. you're going to want to do something as well.

You're going to be okay. You're going to do good. You're asking the right questions.

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Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. What percentage of Americans have at least $1,000 in their savings account?

Yeah, it's going to be great. We're really going to talk through what it looks like to change, right, and that change is uncomfortable, but what are the actual tactical things you can do to break the cycle, and, yeah, and one of those is budgeting, and EveryDollar is a huge, our budgeting app, it's a huge tool. It's a huge proponent in your life and your financial life to walk with you and for you to have that's so convenient on your phone to really do this. I mean, there really is something about being proactive with your money, and the budget is really the best way to do that, and EveryDollar is that. So we're going to kind of talk through a bunch of ideas, including that one, and it's going to be a good night.

Dalton is with us. Dalton is in Knoxville. Hey, Dalton, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hey, thank you all for taking my call.

Sure. What's up?

Hey, my wife is scheduled to graduate from psych nurse practitioner school a year from now, in January. Right now we're about $40,000 in debt from our student loans, but that's all that we have. Everything else is paid off. And after she graduates, she's working part-time for a company that she plans to go full-time for, and they have a program where, if you work with them for two years, they'll pay $50,000 off of your student debt. And so my question was, should we wait two years and let them pay off the $50,000 and we just make sure it stays below $50,000,?

She graduates in January. When do they give you the $40,000?? Two years later?

Maybe $50,000 two years later.

You don't have $50,000 in debt. You said they pay off up to $50,000, so it's $40,000..

Yeah, well, we have $40,000 right now. I think after she graduates, after we do the math, it's going to be about $70,000, $75,000..

Okay, so you called me up about getting out of debt while you're going further into debt.

I guess I did.

What do you make?

I make about $40,000 a year.

Is she working?

She's working part-time. She'll make around maybe $10,000 this year, and we've got two kids.

What are they going to pay her as a psych nurse?

Starting off $118,000..

Wow. That's awesome.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay,

Yeah.

So the question really doesn't even come up until a year from now.

Yeah.

Here's what I would do. I would immediately, when she goes to work, save up the $50,000 and put it in a separate account and let it sit there.

All right.

Because you guys are used to living on $40,000 or $50,000 with her $10,000 part-time, and you're getting ready to go to $150,000 when she comes out. So you ought to be able to save $50,000 really fast. Does that make sense?

Yeah. It makes complete sense.

Yeah. So I want you to do the same thing as getting out of debt and just pretend like you don't have that savings account over there. And then, if she does stay two years, obviously they're going to write a check, pay it off, and you've got an extra $50,000 laying around. Yeah.

Yeah, because usually, Dalton, in these situations, what we hear is you have to be in the job for seven plus years or like this crazy extended amount of time for this kind of benefit. We hear that a lot, and that's what I would not advise. If it's a long period of time, I'm just on my own. I'm going to pay it off, so I have autonomy over my life. Two years is really encouraging.

Let's say you don't go $75,000, but you end up $57,000 in debt when she graduates. Well, I would say, obviously, pay the $7,000 off immediately and then put the $50,000 aside and then let them pay off that $50,000 within the two years. And I really want to have as much detail and as much in writing from these folks that this is going to occur. also. I don't want some vague promise that a recruiter made and it's never been written down anywhere.

That's a great point. Such a great point.

Juliet is with us in Greenville, South Carolina. Juliet, I'm going to bring you up after this coming break, because I just looked down and saw the clock, and I don't want to answer your question in 15 seconds. That probably wouldn't be a thing. So let's distinguish, because, Rachel, you made the point on his call. The seven-year plan, the 10-year plan to get somebody to pay your debt off, no.

Well, I wanted to ask your opinion. Me and my husband, last year, had about $250,000, and we invested in a CV at a credit union, and it has matured. And we're wondering if we should go back to the same thing, invested in a CV, and are to look elsewhere. And we really don't want to take a risk. With the money, so we're both 80 years old, and we didn't feel like we wanted to take a risk in the stock market, but we wanted your opinion of what you thought we should do.

I would go right back and renew that CV.

You would? Yeah. Okay.

It doesn't pay very much. It's not a very good long-term investment, but it gives you a lot of peace. And you told me three times you didn't want risk. And I heard you. And I heard you.

You're probably exactly right.

And the last thing I want to cause is a sweet 80-year-old person to be awake at night.

Okay. Now let me ask you the second question. Do you think that any of these investment companies, would their CDs pay more than the credit union?

They might, but it's not enough to fool with. Okay. In other words, what are you getting on this CD? What are they offering you when you renew it?

Well, I think she said 5.5..

That's not bad at all.

Okay.

If you got six, but you were dealing with people you didn't know and trust, like your credit union, again, this is about sleeping well at night. And I wouldn't go jumping around and get a half a percent more and lose sleep.

Right.

Because you're very comfortable with this credit union. And the NCUA does have a $250,000 guarantee on this. So you're covered on your guarantee. And if the credit union failed, in other words, like an FDIC, but with a credit union, it's not FDIC, it's called the NCUA. But anyway, yeah, you're fine there.

Okay. That's what I wanted your opinion.

But I'll say it again for the sake of our listeners. That's not because it's the 5.5% is a great long-term investment, because it's really not. It's because I want you to be able to sleep. And 5.5% is a good CD. And we're talking about your comfort here, not about a 20-year investment horizon.

That's right. Okay. So if Juliet called, she's 80 years old, and she says, Dave, we got $250,000.. We just cashed out the CD. What's the best?

Well, with some of my investments at 63, it would also be more true at 80.. I'm already realizing that some of the investing I'm doing is not for me, because I'll never touch it. Yeah. It's really for the next generation. Yeah.

Yes. Okay. So here's what's funny. I was telling you during the break, Winston and I sat with our SmartVestor Pro this morning. We do it once a year and kind of look at all the investments.

When you don't need the money to live or to do the things you want to do.

Yeah, to pass that on. And when you give dignity to your kids' parents out there with little ones and teach them to work and be able for them to live out the principles on their own, regardless of what their parents are doing. And then they teach it to their kids, right? It's just this big, big legacy snowball effect that just keeps turning over and over. When everyone does their part in each generation, it just keeps it going down the line.

Well, and if you blink, you start to do this. If you blink, it'll be 20 years. Because that Roth IRA you did as a teenager is 20 years old. And that money that you were working, and I felt a tax return. I paid the taxes on it.

It was an $800 initial investment. Isn't that funny? He pulled it up. It was $800..

That was what your earned income was that year. And that's what you're allowed to report. And I put that into a Roth. And then the next year, I think it was probably $1,500 or something or whatever. I mean, several years in a row.

It's great. It's great.

Lindsey is in Illinois. Hi, Lindsey. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hello. So my question for you is if I should keep the house that I have or if I should sell it and buy a less expensive home.

How much is your house payment?

It is $525 a month.

How are you going to get less expensive than $525 a month?

Well, that doesn't include my homeowner's insurance or my real estate taxes. Yeah.

Okay.

How much do you make, Lindsey?

I make $40,000..

$40,000..

Is there something wrong with the house? you're in?

No. It's just very big. And I have a hard time paying the real estate taxes.

How much are your real estate taxes?

$3,500..

That's $300 a month, which makes you have an $800 house payment making $40,000.. You ought to be able to do that on a budget. Sounds like you've got debt in other places that are causing the strain or you're not budgeting, one of the two. Your real estate, is not your problem. This is the Ramsey Show.

I know you work hard for your money. And the key to keeping more of it in your pocket is by making a plan for your spending with a budget. And EveryDollar is the budgeting app that I use personally, because it's perfect for looking every dollar you make in its little president face and telling it exactly where you want it to go. Just like you told that guy in traffic exactly where you wanted him to go. And even better, EveryDollar walks you through the entire budgeting journey, so you always know your next right step.

Rachel Cruz, Ramsey, personality. Number one, best-selling author. Author of several books, including the latest kids book. I'm glad for what I have. And it blew up and we've sold out of them.

Amazon's still sold out. So come to RamseySolutions.com to get a copy. And just to do a shout-out, I know this is a show all over the world, but I'm doing a book signing at the Books a Million in Mount Juliet. on Saturday. You are?

An old-fashioned book signing.

I am, I know, at 11 o'clock, Central Time.

We used to do those before the Fauci pandemic.

I love a book signing. I love hanging out with people. That's cool. I know, the Mount Juliet Books. a Million reached out and we were like, yeah, let's do some local book signing.

Books. a Million is a great company too. I've done a bunch with them over the years.

Yeah, so anyone in the Nashville area, come out on Saturday.

And the Mount Juliet, that's a fairly new store out there.

Yeah, it's a nice area out there now. Beautiful. Or not? now. It always is Mount Juliet.

Well, I mean, it's all kind of blown up and there's a bunch of new stuff. Yes, yes. Rachel is in Sacramento. Hi, Rachel. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hey, guys. Happy Wednesday.

Happy Wednesday. How can we help?

So my husband and I own a house that faces a pretty busy road, and we've been discussing what the next plan of this part of our life is. And there's been a project on this road to widen it.

There's road construction in California?

I know, right?

The steak flower is an orange cone.

It's got to be beautiful, Dave. It's got to be beautiful. In any case, we're concerned, or I am concerned. I'm more concerned than my husband about eventually getting an eminent domain situation where we would have to sell it. We kind of want to make this our home home, and so we put a lot of sweat equity and have some good equity in it.

Because your quality of life, Rachel, changes drastically, right, when this happens. Would you say? I mean, do you feel that? Yeah. I'm like that.

Are they for sure going to take something, or are you just thinking, have they already announced a lane widening that is going to take some of your yard, or you're just thinking that pretty soon they're going to?

So they have announced and are actively working on the street. we live on to widen it, but they take it like block by block. So we are the next block. But they haven't announced that, and they have, there's a process. So this wouldn't be like right now.

Yeah, but your buyer would know all of this.

So they might know all of this. It hasn't been announced that our block is actively being worked on, and they have to get a whole bunch of permits and grants and things. So it'll be a few years. But that's why I'd like to sell before this is in front of us.

Yeah, go ahead and sell it. What's wrong with selling it now?

We are adjacent to the area we'd like to be in, but those houses are selling for like $700,000, and we only have about 200K in equity. So we would either have to be really stretched. $440,000, $460,000..

Okay. All right.

Okay.

So, I mean, there's some other options on the table here somewhere.

I mean, you guys. could, Rachel, go rent somewhere for a year or two, save, and then go to where you guys want to be.

What's your household income?

We have about $92,000, yeah, $92,000 annual. right now. I just got another job, though.

Okay. Well, I guess you guys talk through. What we tell folks to do is never take out a mortgage more than a 15-year where the payment's more than a fourth of your take-home pay. If you can make a move to another neighborhood that fits that, that gets all of this uncertainty out of your life, then, yes, I would do that. No, I would not use this as an excuse to overbuy and put yourself in a pinch on the other side and go, oh, well, we had to.

Hi, Dave. How are you today? I'm good.

Good. How can we help?

So, I am 18 years old. I'm a freshman at a small university in upstate New York going for astrophysics. And what I'm calling about today is, unfortunately, a couple months ago, my father passed away.

Oh, no. What happened?

He had a heart attack while he was mowing the lawn.

How old was he?

Sorry, say that again?

How old was he, Jacob?

He turned 60 in July.

I'm so sorry.

Oh, my gosh. I'm so sorry. Oh.

Wow.

Thank you.

Oh, that's tragic.

So, yeah. So, the reason that I'm calling is because he also left me a pretty substantial amount of money through his life insurance policy, which was $334,000 in cash. And so, my question is what I should be doing with that. I do, you know, have a thought in, you know, the back of my head right now. Obviously, paying cash for college would make sense, I would think.

How were you paying for the degree before his passing?

Well, my mom had about $35,000 saved up in a college fund. It was a little bit more before the pandemic, and then it went down a little bit. But that's what she had saved up. So, she was…. So, we were going to take out student loans, you know, as you do, and just pay them off, you know, like any normal person would.

Okay.

That was the original plan.

Wow. So, here's….

And….

This sounds like, when you've gone through a tragedy, and when you're 18 years old, this sounds like it's a lot of money.

That's what I'm really worried about. Yeah.

You have to, like, raise your right hand and pretend like that money's not there. Swear off of it. Okay? The only… With the only exception being just paying college tuition. And I want you to drain down the college fund before you even touch this for those purposes.

Yeah, that would be amazing. Yeah.

That's what the numbers will do. But the big problem is not the money. The big problem is you keeping your hands off of it.

And that's in a mutual fund.

Yep, that's in a good mutual fund. So, jump on RamseySolutions.com and click on SmartVestor and sit down with a SmartVestor Pro.

I'm great. How are y'all?

Better than we deserve. How can we help?

So, I've got a lot of upcoming changes this year expected in my finances. I'm 25 years old. I just got a move up in my career to where I'm expected to double or triple my expected salary this year. I was going from around $40,000 to $60,000.. I'm expecting to make somewhere around $150,000 to $200,000 myself this year.

Wow! What do you do?

I've been a welder for the past several years, but I just became qualified and lined up some jobs to become a welding inspector, which is going to come with a lot more money.

Wow! Good for you. Good job, Chase.

But I'm also getting married this September. My wife, or my fiancée, she's a nurse. We've lived together for a while now. Not only am I going to increase my own income, but her income is going to join with mine, as well as the debts combined. Everything is just going to dramatically change this year.

Congratulations! What a great year!

Yes, sir. Thank you.

How old are you?

25..

Good for you.

That's great, Chase. How much does she make a year?

I'd say close to $70,000, $75,000..

That's amazing. You guys will be up to almost $300,000 together.

Yes, ma'am. I'm hoping so.

He's going to make $200,000..

He's going to make $150,000, right?

Somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000.. It's kind of hard to gauge.

I jumped to $250,000..

So still a quarter of a million dollars at 25 years old. Way to go.

Yes, that's amazing. So is the house in her name?

It is.

How much do you owe on that?

I want to say about $160,000..

How much does she owe on her car?

Maybe $10,000 left.

And student loans?