Normal in America Sucks - Don't Be Normal!

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. Our phone number here is 888-825-5225.. That's 888-825-5225.. George Camel, Ramsey, personality, host of The George Camel Show on YouTube, and co-host of Smart Money, Happy Hour, and author of the brand-new book that launches today, Breaking Free from Broke.

I like to do things the hard way, apparently, Dave, and it's always worth it in the end, but it can be a grind to get there. This one review sums it up, which is so beautiful. Self-deprecating, honest, data-driven, and pop culture filled. I'll take that. That's exactly what I aim to do.

It is. It does have all that. I mean, data-driven automatically sounds boring to me when you say that, but when you put it in there with George's snark and his pop culture references, suddenly it comes alive.

Bring it to life. The audio book, I read it myself. A lot of people are asking, and the team did an amazing job with sound design and effects. You even hear Dave pop in at random points with some quotes, and so we just tried to bring it to life. I love audio books, and I think if you love audio books, you're going to enjoy this, but the hardcover, if you pre-ordered, came with all of that for free, so you got the email this morning, which is very exciting.

Well, and doing a book is a task. There's a lot of work involved. We've been fooling with this for a year.

Over a year, yeah.

And getting one out into the wild, you can throw them out there, or you can do them properly, and we do them properly here at Ramsey, and this is your first one, so you had a baby this year, and you birthed a book.

I literally submitted the final as we were in the delivery room, Dave. Oh, my gosh. It was a real nail-biter. Yeah.

But I mean, your first book is not unlike your first kid in a lot of ways. I mean, it's a lot of, it's a little scary, it's super exciting. It's all of those things at once, and congratulations, I'm very proud of you.

Thank you. Well, I like to say that I'm a turtle on a fence post. We have an amazing team here at Ramsey. You've built an amazing platform with amazing fans, and I just hope this book can carry the torch. You called it financial peace for the next generation and the forward, and I feel like that's what we're doing here.

Now, those of you that have friends that are sick of Dave and his boomerisms, well, that's fine. Now you've got George.

Millennialisms.

Saying the same thing in a lot better, a lot more culturally relevant ways, because he actually cares.

Yeah, Dave's like, I haven't seen a movie since 2003..

I'm just like, get off my lawn, that's it. With undeniable research and data, George exposes the most common money myths and excuses head on. Credit card schemes, investment traps, mortgage myths, all of this you hear promoted nowadays on Instagram, on TikTok, YouTube, bad stuff out there floating around on some of these platforms and really nasty results if you actually infect yourself with it. And you're going to get the knowledge and the confidence to break free from a system and some people that believe lies, so that you don't end up broke because there are real villains out there in this story.

Oh, absolutely. And you've been fighting those villains for years, Dave. But now, back in the day, it was radio, you had to have a book. Now everyone with an Instagram account can just be spewing this crap out there to get clicks and views and get them to buy their insurance product. And so I just want to help people clear the noise and go, it's so simple to build wealth.

Yeah, I mean, common sense can show up in any generation or generations, and it has really over the years. And so now it's shown up, definitely for the millennial, the Gen Z, and whoever else wants to read Breaking Free from Broke, The Ultimate Guide to More Money and Less Stress. Yeah, pick it up, guys. It's very, very well done. Very proud of it.

You scan the QR code, it takes you right to the page. You enter your email and you've got an account set up. And I wanted this to be so practical and applicable that you read the book and you put it down and then go actually follow the plan. You actually create the budget for 90 days, which is how long it takes on average for folks to get the budget dialed in. And that's really the crux of this money plan.

The endorsements we got for it are pretty phenomenal. Damon John from Shark Tank, our friend Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, Graham Stephan, one of the biggest YouTubers out there today, our friends, The Minimalists, and, of course, Rachel Cruz. She has to endorse it, though, because-.

She had to.

You sit next to her and you would have bopped her on the head, right?

She was happy to, but I also forced her. Some of them didn't even make it to the back cover. We had John Maxwell. We had Seth Godin. We had Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty.

Yeah. Very cool. So launch day. around Ramsey. We don't always take a segment for books, but we always do on launch day.

Means a lot.

We're going to do that for sure today and have, just to make sure you guys all know about this, Breaking Free from Broke, the ultimate guide to more money and less stress. You can get it anywhere. great books are sold, including RamseySolutions.com or Amazon, or your bookstore, Barnes and Noble, books. a million. All of them have got it.

That's worth it alone.

That is a greater gift than the cost of the book.

Exactly.

That's a bargain. That's a serious bargain.

But still read the book. It's worth the read.

Yeah. Yeah. Breaking Free from Broke, the ultimate guide to more money and less stress, George Campbell's brand new book out today. This is the Ramsey Show.

This is a paid advertisement. An MLS ID 1591,. an MLS consumeraccess.org, Equal Housing Lender, 1749 Mallory Lane, Suite 100, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027..

George Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host. today. Dake is with us in Savannah, Georgia. Hi, Dake. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up?

I wanted to ask your opinion here. I'm getting ready to build my first home. And I'm not sure if you're familiar with like the Barndominium style, but that's what it's going to be.

Yep. Sure.

It's on some family land. My dad's going to deed out like five acres. We own like 400.. But I was wanting to know, what's your opinion on barring against the land and what the value of the home would be? I'm going to be doing, I would say, 85% of the work myself.

Speed up the process. What do you mean?

Getting the home built.

Oh, you mean hiring people to do it faster than you would have done it by yourself?

Yes.

Okay.

All right. So, what I would like to do...

Are you married?

I am not. I actually was in a relationship. She was great, but she was...

Well, I was asking. I was not asking about you. I was just wondering about the dynamic of the barn dominium. Okay. Okay.

So... This is just for you, though.

That's good.

I'm an apprentice electrician. So, right now, probably 35 a year. But that'll... I mean, yeah, that's based off of percentages. What I would top out as a journeyman.

What do you make next year? When do you finish your apprenticeship?

I will be done about a year from now. Okay.

What do you make after that?

I could travel on the road. I could make anywhere between $90,000 to $200,000..

Is that what you're gonna do? Travel on the road? Yes. Yes. Okay.

24..

Okay. I have a barn with a... An event barn on our farm. that's very nice, with a nice, really nice one-bedroom studio apartment built into it, a barn dominium, if you will, which basically is a very large doghouse. If I get thrown out, I can run over there, okay?

I understand that.

So, what are you going to do with it then?

I would like to turn it into a shop, you know, if I had to.

Okay. So, if you bought a home somewhere else and moved in with your future wife 10 years from now, you would just keep this as a barn?

I would use it as an office space. I don't plan on going anywhere, Dave. I'm pretty hell-bent on it being a home base for me for the rest of my life. It's on our family property. I love the area.

I'm just presupposing that you might marry someone that doesn't agree with that, and they might want to live somewhere other than a barn.

Yeah, this could end up being just very expensive office space one day, and so we just don't want you to step into something that's going to be hard to step out of. If you could pay cash for it, and if you're going to be making 90, continue to live on less than you make, you could be able to cash flow this whole thing in a few years.

Or pay the 80 off in a very, very short period of time and be debt-free. Yeah, like two years or something.

These projects usually are more of a headache than you realize.

Yeah, it takes a lot more. Tanner's in Minneapolis. Hi, Tanner. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up?

Yeah, so I have an opportunity on the table where I can advance my career by taking a new position, and it will include a title change that is better than the one I currently have and a raise. And I'm just wondering how do you think I should go about approaching my current company and current boss about the opportunity I have on the table and not destroying my relationship with this company and the people that I work with?

What is your goal? Are you quitting?

Yeah, yeah. I'd be leaving and moving to a new company, yep.

Okay, so how do you maintain relationships when you quit? Is that your question?

Yeah, I don't want to ruin it, because then, down the line, if I reconnect with them, I don't want them to be like, oh, this guy left me. I hate him now.

What do you mean? reconnect? Like you'd need a job there again?

No, but if they move to a new company and we're still in the same network and then I?

want to reach out to them. Okay, I got you. Okay, you're just saying I want to do this with class. Okay, number one, you can't control someone else's response. All you can do is have your side of the equation with class.

And then you go trash the employer.

You people suck, and then, everywhere you go, you talk negatively about your time here. Then guess what? Then we're not going to be friends. Hello. Well, no, kidding, right?

No, no, you nailed it right on the head, I guess.

Do you have this job offer? You have the contract?

Yeah, we're actually negotiating salaries right now.

Okay. I've seen it happen where it backfires. You tell your employer, I'm out, the other job didn't land yet, and then you're in a real pickle. And so just be careful as you approach that.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I already have, we're just in salary negotiations. I've already signed a letter of intent to work there. It's just now we're nailing down just the X's and O's and everything.

So a lot of ethics questions, Tanner, particularly business ethics questions, can be solved by the simple golden rule that Jesus said, treat other people like you'd want to be treated. Pretend like you had someone working for you. How would you want them to leave? I mean, with a smile?

Yeah, I would want them to, yeah, smile and then approach me and say, hey, I have this opportunity, don't want to leave you high and dry.

Yeah, it's a lot of gratitude for the time we had together. And, gosh, if I can ever help you or serve you in the future and be your friend, I want to do that. And thank you for all the good that we got to do together and the work we did, and lots of gratitude and all that kind of stuff. So if you do all that, then that'll help you. I always just reverse the moccasins and walk in the other guys for a few minutes, and that helps me know what to do.

Love that. And Dave, you were on an episode on my YouTube channel of millionaires and cars getting coffee, and it has blown up. It's the number one video on our channel.

Oh, y'all posted it?

We posted it. You thought that was just for us?

I was a little worried about that. To start with, I was worried that I was riding in a Tesla.

That was the best part. We talked about how you've been skydiving. You've done some risky things, and yet you were most freaked out about just riding around.

this. I was afraid I was going to burn up. I mean, those things. catch on fire.

I need to get you a shirt that says, I survived George's Tesla.

I survived a Tesla ride. That was fun.

But you took us very kindly over to your barn.

That was fun.

And you gave us a little tour and you made me some coffee. And we had a great chat about building wealth and how you're spending your money this year. And so, if you want to go, check it out, it's on my YouTube channel.

I had to get the coffeemaker working.

That was the toughest part.

Fancy coffeemakers are hard to run, man.

Back in my day, you just had the old bun glass coffee pot.

The Mr. Coffee.

The Mr. Coffee. There we go. Simpler times.

Yeah. All right. Keisha is with us in Atlanta. Hi, Keisha. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up?

So my husband and I got married about four months ago.

Congratulations.

Thank you. We're both very excited about it.

Like what? What's your question?

Sure. So we own two homes. I own a home. He owns a home. And he has a tenant currently, but his home needs some work.

Okay. The couples that we see that have the best quality marriage and the highest probability of building wealth combine everything. There's no yours and mine at all. It's all we. You become French.

Got it.

Got it. So it's we now own two houses.

Yeah.

There's no more yours and mine. It's all we and our.

Yeah. So we've, we've created a joint account. We have a joint account that we get open. We also have our separate accounts that our income gets put into.

No reason. It's a suggestion. They should all go in the same account.

Gotcha. Gotcha.

It forces you, it forces you to combine your dreams. And when you combine your dreams and you combine your fears, you start to have this. Now, George, you and Whitney have been married how long?

Five plus years now.

So you guys went through this because you were both young professionals with your own everything before you got married, right?

We, we have it so simple that it's.

How did you combine it, though?

I had my checking account and I made that. a joint checking account, added her to it. She closed hers. And now we have a joint checking and a joint savings.

That's it.

That's it.

And so you can do the same with, you have a business checking. That's why.

You keep your business. You have a business operating account, but when you take money out of the business called profit or income, and it quote, comes home, then it goes into the joint account and it's part of our income. Does that make sense?

Yeah, that makes sense. And I guess, you know, any expensive, personal expenses like hair, nails, whatever, it just comes out of that account.

The two of you together talk about your budget before the month begins. We lay out what we are going to spend our money on. And since he's newly married, he's very smart and he's going to include hair and nails in our budget.

Yeah. And all that makes sense. And I think one of our both biggest fears is that we both have children of our own. My son, his father, passed away years ago. And so his care has always been top of mind for me.

How old is your son?

He's now 19 in college. And so he's still being financially cared for throughout.

But your new husband married into that. Yeah. He knew that you had this on your heart, that you wanted to continue to give your 19-year-old some support until he launches into manhood, right?

Correct. Yeah.

And so we can do that. Yeah. You know, if Sharon and I had that situation, you know, I know when I'm marrying into that, that this lady has this son and part of her life, and for her to not support him is not going to be okay. Right. For a while.

Right. Exactly. And vice versa for his daughter.

Exactly.

So just streamline this. You got one checking, one savings. Now we can make as many line items in the budget as we want. And there's just full transparency and accountability for those items. Yeah.

We have agreed to take care of his daughter and your son. Because it's something that we are concerned about. And if he's not concerned about that, about the 19-year-old, and you're not concerned about his daughter, y'all shouldn't have gotten married.

Yeah. Definitely. No, I don't think that's the issue.

I think it's the game. I don't think it is either. That's what I mean. No. Yeah.

I like that.

That's old school. But you know what? The current data confirms that that is the best route, relationally, and as a probability for wealth building.

It's amazing what happens when you have shared goals, shared dreams, shared vision, shared bank accounts.

Shared fears.

Shared fears. And you put it all out there. What most people do, Dave, is they brush it under the rug. They keep separate accounts because it will avoid conflict. Which really just means I'm going to have resentment later.

And financial infidelity. It also means I basically have a secret.

Exactly.

You know, I have a part of my life that is not….

That I'm not willing to share.

That is not open to my spouse. Ooh, danger, danger, danger, danger.

That's what most culture tells you, Dave. You've got to have five bank accounts and he's got to have his and hers. No, have one budget. And she can have a line item for hair care and nails. And he can have a line item for fun money there.

That culture that's giving that bad advice is the one where 52% of marriages end in divorce. And they're the ones that stand slack-jawed and look at me with their mouth open and go, you've been married 42 years?

What's the secret to a successful marriage?

Yeah, well, there it is, buddy. You know? Yeah. So, yeah, what the culture, you know…. That's like, you know, saying the culture believes nutrition.

You know, I want to give Keisha a gift. Can we give her Financial Peace University and our EveryDollar budgeting app to help them get on this plan together?

I think we can. We did it. That's our light wedding gift.

I like that. There we go. We didn't get invited to the wedding, but you'll get a gift anyways, Keisha. So hang on the line. Austin will pick up.

Georgia, if she had only known, she would have invited you.

I'm sure. I've gotten invited before. It's very kind, but I'm not traveling to Boise. Sorry. Maybe next time.

This is the Ramsey Show.

Today's question comes from Jenny in Alabama. I'm new to the baby steps and really want to get on board, but my husband is reluctant to do them. A couple of years ago, we ran a restaurant and made really good money. Lifestyle creeps set in, and we now have almost $58,000 in debt on a car, four-wheelers, credit card, and home equity loan. We currently only have one income, which is mine, bringing in around $3,600 a month.

Can't.

You didn't sign up for the solo trip. You're married. You started acting like it. And I think we both need to own the decisions we've made, and you need to have a hard conversation with him. And I don't know what he's doing.

But I think the core issue here is that you can't be the only adult in the relationship.

He sounds like a kid that got too many toys. And he's just happy with his toys. Well, this is normal. We're just going to have fun. Well, the fun is over.

The math quit working here, boys and girls. $3,600..

She admitted, lifestyle creeps set in. And that's most people. They think, well, Dave, if I just made more money, we wouldn't have any problems.

But it's also back when he worked. Apparently he's not working. Did I get that right?

So we currently only have one income. Which is mine.

So why is he not working? What happened? There's that.

Drag a spouse into it?

That you can get a... You can, you know, go, do this by yourself and hope they come along.

We've never seen a debt-free screen where they went, well, Dave, really, I did this on my own because they didn't want to do it. Every single time. it said, we got on this plan together.

Being on the same page. They say that all the time.

It's like trying to run a marathon with chains on. Yeah.

How can I go get a four-year degree without... You could probably, you know, but it's hard. It's dadgum, near impossible.

It'll destroy the relationship, or what's left of it. That's for sure.

To go appeal.

A lot of resentment.

Williams in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, William. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi. Thank you for taking my call.

Sure. What's up?

Okay. So here, in probably the next month or two, I will be going into the Navy and hopefully receiving a sum of money that I am not accustomed to. And I was wondering if I should save all of the money I make in the Navy, since I'll be living with little to no expenses, or if it would be better invested somewhere else.

So how much money are we talking here?

About $75,000.. Wow.

Good for you. And thank you for your service.

Thank you.

So how much money do you currently have?

Currently, I have in savings around $6,000..

Okay. And what does this look like over the next few years? Is there an end of the contract or what's next for you after this?

Well, it is a career that the Navy can carry me through until retirement, but I can also leave the Navy and make a lot of money working other places for what I'm going in for.

Okay. The reason I ask is because if you have a long time horizon, investing this money is wise. But if you're going to need this money in two, three, four years, it's going to be better off sitting in a high-yield savings account, ready to work for you when you need it. So if you don't have any future goals like that, it could be okay to invest a portion of that.

And I would label the investment or wherever you put the money, the savings account, I would give it a name. Okay. This is my house fund. I'm saving it to pay cash for a house. Or this is my...

Okay.

So I would give it an inspirational name that causes you to stay. You know, I can't use that. That's my money for my house. I can't use that. That's my money for my whatever.

Spend a hundred percent on spending.

And a lot of your buddies are going to be doing some. really... Your new friends are going to be doing some really stupid things with money. So you don't want to emulate them. But you ought to very intentionally have this much for fun, this much for generosity, the rest of it, the big bulk of it, going into saving or investment, and give that saving or investment a name.

It helps you avoid paralysis analysis too. When you have exactly... You've kind of divvied it out already. Predecided what you're going to do with money.

Which means they're really wise to ask this question the way you did before the money starts coming in. Because this is your first big paycheck that you're going to ever have. Way to go, William. Keep it up, man. This is the Ramsey Show.

That could be a strategy.

But you never know. Drop it out on an airplane. On somebody's head. There you go. Breaking Free from Broke.

You need the combo, so it doesn't get too boring.

There we go. Chris is with us. Chris is in Spokane, Washington. Hey, Chris. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hi guys. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up?

So I made the mistake of getting into a house with my ex-fiance. And I just don't know where to go from there.

Wow. You're a case study in why we tell people not to buy stuff with people they're not married to yet. Oh, I'm so sorry, Chris. Yeah. Oh man, you got a heartbreak and you got a pain in the butt, both, huh?

Yeah.

How long ago was the breakup?

About three months ago.

Who's living in the house?

I moved out recently and she's staying in the house right now.

Have we discussed when we are going to sell our house?

We have discussed it and we've actually talked to her realtor about putting it on the market. But she would only walk away with about two grand, which I was okay with. But she wasn't up for just getting rid of or just getting back the two grand.

Sorry.

Right. Don't care. That's what I told her.

Don't care what you want. You broke up. We are selling this house.

Okay, I was kind of going that route to see if I could hire somebody to get her on board.

to do that. No, I think you call her and go, sit down and say, look, I really want to do this the easy way. There's an easy way and a hard way. But we have to get rid of this house. This house is, we are not together in the future and we are not owning a house together in the future.

Right. And it's been pretty nasty already. Yeah.

I would sit down and say that this is the last chance. Okay? And then if she doesn't, if she says okay, I'll put it on the market. and then she doesn't, send her a letter. certified mail return receipt requested.

Right.

Because, dude, this is not going to go well if this drags out five years. You understand that, right?

Yes. And that's why I wanted.

to call. Yeah. Who's paying the mortgage?

We're splitting it. And you don't live there?

No. This is a problem.

Right. And that's why I needed to talk to somebody, because I have so many people in my life giving me different types of advice and I listen to your guys' show quite a bit and I figured I'd call.

and get some more advice. How old are you guys?

I'm 30 and she's 27..

And you were in the house together for seven years or seven months. How long were you dating before all that?

Five years.

Oh yeah. It doesn't make any sense at all. I agree.

I'm with you. Right. Are you going to walk away with $2,000 as well, or is it not an even split? Yeah.

It'd be about $2,000, some change each, which I'm okay with doing that, but she didn't seem to be okay with that. Yeah. She doesn't.

have to be okay with it. This is a stupid tax that we all have to pay.

What is her suggestion?

Well, see, we did want to list it and then she said no, because she would only be walking away with the $2,000.. So she wants to keep it and then try to put it on the market for after two years, because then we wouldn't have to pay income tax.

As you pay equity into a house, there's not an income.

tax if you make $4,000..

Right.

The income tax is $400..

Yeah, that's what's going through her head.

That's dumb. Show her how math works, and maybe that will help speed this up. Oh, God. Because we're not going to ride this out for two years as you continue to pay a mortgage and build equity.

maybe. We did not buy a rental property together for us to run together that you live in. No, you broke the marriage up, and so we're selling the house. Ready, set, go. If we lose $2,000 a piece, we're selling the house.

Right.

This is not an investment that we maximize.

Yeah, that was another thing I told her. It's going to cost us to sell this house too.

Yeah. You're both going to have to pay a stupid tax here, and that sucks.

Yeah, this is a... Wow. I'm sorry, Chris. Sorry, you're facing this. Being passive.

escalates, you stay calm.

Just go, look, one thing. We're talking about the house. One thing. All we've got to do is get rid of the house, and then you've got rid of me. Until you get rid of the house, you're not going to get rid of me and it's going to get ugly.

George.

Campbell, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us. America. We're so glad you are here. Please share this show, subscribe to the show, follow the show, like the show, leave the show a five-star review.

Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for having me on today.

Sure. What's up?

So I'm currently a college student. I just graduated with my undergraduate degree, and I'm now working toward an MBA. And I'll graduate here in about a year from now, so in this upcoming December. And I was just wondering if I should continue to rent in this area or move back home with my parents, who live in New Jersey.

Now or when you graduate with the MBA?

No, when I graduate, yeah. Because the timing with the leases and stuff for the apartment that I'm currently in, I'll have to renew sometime this spring if I decide to stay.

Where's your job going to be?

It's going to be either in New York City or Dirty City. So very, very close commute from where I currently live in. How old are you?

Then why would you move?

I'm 22..

Okay. I'm sorry. Why would you move?

The rent here is very expensive. The nice thing is, I spend currently $2,000 a month in rent.

What will you be making?

I'm not too sure with that.

Okay. That's pretty reasonable.

Yeah. But I don't know if it's a good decision to tie up so much of my income into rent, just for the sake of not commuting four hours a day or three hours a day.

Yes.

Okay.

And that's just part of life. I mean, in New York City, $2,000 isn't bad, dude. I mean, that's not bad at all.

Yeah. Well, it's like $4,000, but I split the rent with my brother.

I had roommates up until I was married. There's nothing wrong with that.

Yeah. And you have a reasonable life as far as commute goes and those kinds of things. Ultimately, you may end up making the decision that $100,000 or $90,000 is not enough to live in the city. It may or may not be. You can decide that later.

I like that advice. I moved out at 20, and I needed some problems, Dave, and those look like bills. Because when I lived at home, I would spend every paycheck I made because I didn't have any bills. So I was enjoying life.

There you go. Sarah's in Salt Lake City. Hey, Sarah, what's up?

Hi. How are you guys?

Better than we deserve. What's up? How can we help?

So question first, and then I have some more background information. But my husband, who's 28,, and myself, who's 27,. we bought a $476,000 two-bed, two-bath condo in 2022, and we're now looking to start a family. So hopefully we'll be growing out of it sooner than we expected. My question is, how should we tackle the mortgage in our particular situation?

Do you have any other debt?

Yes. We have no personal debt, but we have two mortgages, the condo, and then another mortgage for an investment property that we have renters in.

Okay.

About $1,600..

And how much is the rent on the investment property?

$1,650..

You should sell the investment property. You are losing money.

That's shocking.

Why is it shocking? A $50 cash flow is not a cash flow on a rental property. You should know that.

Well, yeah, I understand that, but it's more of a...

You're losing money.

Because in the future it will hopefully make us money.

Okay. The people that do that on real estate are the people that go broke doing real estate.

Okay.

You have created a destabilizing, high-risk situation in your life with that investment property. I own several hundred million dollars worth of real estate. I love real estate. I have a degree in real estate. I've been doing real estate since 1978..

One emergency away.

One $4,500 heating and air unit, and you're baked. That's what I would do. I'd get rid of that. As far as the current property that you're in, if you want to get rid of the mortgage on it, that's fine. Start paying the mortgage down out of your income.

And I Googled it, Dave. Babies can live in condos, turns out. So you'll be okay.

You mean Google said that?

Google said it. It told me.

Wow. And if Google said it, then...

You don't need a whole lot of room to just put a crib in there, a little bassinet. The baby will be okay. It won't know the difference for the first five years of its life.

Says the father of a four-month-old.

There you go. I speak from experience now, Dave. As a new dad.

Yes, you do. They don't take up much room. They're so tiny. They're fairly small.

My dogs take up more room than they do.

Your dogs take up a lot of room. Sprawling on the bed. They take up emotional bandwidth, too.

Living in my hand, rent-free, Dave. And very expensive to boot.

Sarah, all real estate is not good. Only real estate that is paid for and is not causing problems financially is good. And your property is not a good property. You're in a bad situation with it. I can't stress that enough.

Ooh, I like that.

There's a difference. There's a difference. I don't believe in killing people's dreams. But if I can kill your nightmare, I will. And I've owned that piece of property that she owns, just like that.

I bet during this show we'll take a call from someone on the other side who's been there. Who said, Dave, I have to get rid of this property. We're underwater on this thing. We had an emergency. And so we just don't want that for you.

Everything was fine until we got laid off.

Until it didn't work out on paper.

This is the Ramsey Show.

Thank you. It's been a fun morning. It's mostly Instagram. I'm checking on. Everyone's posting about their book, showing up in the mails.

That's cool. Very cool. Rebecca is with us in St. Louis. Hi, Rebecca.

Hi, good. Thanks so much for having me. Sure.

What's up?

Well, my husband and I, we are big savers. We are trying to figure out if we can afford an RV. We have been camping for a while and we want to upgrade to an RV.

Okay.

We do.

Okay. How much do you have in cash?

About almost $200,000, about $175,000.. Okay. That would leave us enough for more than six months in emergency fund.

What's the balance on your personal mortgage?

$125,000..

Okay.

I'm $40,000 and my husband is $41,000..

The way we answer questions on this show is what would I do if I were in your shoes?

Right.

What does it take to pay off the rentals?

About $450,000..

And what are they worth?

They're worth about $1.2 million.

Okay.

Right. We thought about doing that. We just are having trouble spending the money. We work so hard to save it, it's like a mental block, almost, even to pay off a mortgage or to buy the RV. Does that make sense?

Yeah. But here's the thing. When you take out a mortgage, you've already spent the money. When you pay it off, you're just admitting it.

That's true. That's true.

So, I mean, you already spent the money. You bought the house.

Right. Right.

And here's the way. Okay. One of the pieces of information that I found in the last 30 years is that wealthy people, which you are, do a good job. And I'm just going to challenge you to do this to thinking, okay, what process here gives me the best life, 10 years from today, not 10 minutes from today?

Right. Right.

And wealthy people think 10 years from now, what's going to be the best? And so, that's how I'm trying to look at this. I do think you can, quote, unquote, afford an RV. When you buy it in the order would be just a matter of wisdom.

A mortgage. Yeah.

Today. Okay. And then I would probably rearrange these rentals to where they end up. The ones I end up keeping are debt free and I try to clear some money towards the RV.

Okay.

Okay. I've got boats. I mean, all these toys are just toys that go down in value and you need…. You know, it needs to pass the burn test. If I put that much money in the middle of the floor and burned it, does it ruin my life?

Okay.

What's the goal with the RV for you guys? Just occasional travel or…?

Yeah, we love it. We've been camping. We have a camper. now that we're just looking to go farther. It's kind of hard.

I'll tell you what we've done a couple of times, and we did it on a little different subject. We thought we wanted a condo as a second property in such and such a city. I won't name the city. Okay. And so what we did was we rented one there for six months and we went three times in the six months and we figured out we didn't want a condo in that city.

Right.

And so what you could do here is write a check. What we might do if we were in your shoes is write a check and pay off the house today. And then, for the next two years, we're going to commit to budget out of our $290,000 some RV rental fees. And I'm going to rent an RV and put it on the road and see if it's as much fun as we thought it was going to be in our mind. And, you know, am I really going to use it enough to justify this?

Right, right.

But we wouldn't use it enough to justify owning it. And I don't want it as an investment. I'd rather have my investment somewhere else. So that's an example. I would rather rent, for the few times that I go skiing once a year, maybe or twice a year or something.

And aggressively pay down the rentals or sell one. And then, once everything's debt-free, if you still want to buy the RV, go for it.

Write a check.

You'll feel better about it then.

Yeah, I'd pay down those rentals by either selling some of them or aggressively paying them down. I'm with George on that. as a third step. It's a good question. The answer is yes, you can afford one, and you should not buy it right now.