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Josh is in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey Josh, what's up?

a lot of details. Basically, I wasn't performing the job up to snuff.

Yeah.

go get six part-time jobs today.

Today. I want you delivering pizzas, cutting grass, walking dogs, picking up dog poop, cleaning toilets. I don't care. I want you two working hard today. Which is something neither one of you have been doing a lot of lately.

And I have a bunch of mental health disabilities.

And since he passed away, I've been going through trauma therapy and I got diagnosed with PTSD today.

And I'm kind of broken a little bit because I've been having panic attacks. And that's the reason I lost my job is because my mental health has deteriorated to so much I couldn't understand what they wanted.

And I was doing really, really well. And then my mental health just fell apart. Mourning an abusive parent is another beast entirely.

All right. There's a couple things here. Number one.

But that's the security blanket we had, so that she left her job. And then my dad died and just it all blew up.

So the thing is, you have to pursue a path of healing for long term. Part of extreme trauma. I'm not the therapist. That would be Deloney. He's not here today.

But part of dealing with trauma is he talks about it all the time. Facts are your friends. And the thing that we do know from the financial side of the equation is that panic attacks are made worse when you have no income and you're broke and you have no sense of purpose. So the dignity that hard work gives you, even if it's mindless work, can actually help with dealing with depression, anxiety and panic attacks. That's what Deloney tells us.

And that's also, from a very practical standpoint, what we've seen, because being afraid about money while you're afraid about and dealing with all the other trauma issues at the same time makes it worse. Does that make any sense?

We, like I said, are bill our overhead way more.

I don't want you panicking over it. And I'm not trying to throw you into a tizzy here. But you shouldn't. You know, you're pretty chill about something you shouldn't be chill about. And oh, by the way, so is your wife.

OK, let me let me rewind just a second. OK, my husband is dealing with mental health issues. His dad passed away last April, several months ago. That has made his mental health issues and trauma and PTSD and panic attacks come to the forefront. He's really not functioning well at work.

So what am I going to do? I'm going to quit my job because I don't like it.

And and ridiculous. Yeah. Do what?

It's not a good financial plan. It's not a career plan. So you guys need to go back to work at some level, whatever level you can function. And she needs to yesterday.

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George Camel Ramsey Personality is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225..

It's a free call. And some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. Dave is in Orlando. Hi, Dave. How are you?

I'm widowed, unfortunately. Two years ago my wife passed away. I'm sorry. I have no children. So when I go, everything is basically going to get liquidated.

And given away as donations and things like that. My house is paid off. It's worth about $410, $420.. And I want to get your opinion on, in my situation, if you think I could get a reverse mortgage to go out and have some fun with that money.

Okay. They have higher interest, higher fees, and a higher foreclosure rate than any other type of mortgage.

And, of course, there is an end to it. They'll only go to about 60, 65%, George?

Do you have any major health problems?

I don't know a guy like that, but anyway.

Yeah, you and I are about the same age. Anyway, so what would I do in your situation? The problem is if you put this property in danger by having debt on it of any kind, or you sell it to cash out of it, then you're very vulnerable in the largest, most expensive item on your budget, which is housing. Housing goes up every year. if you haven't done something to lock in the cost.

By owning the $400,000 property, you've locked in all your costs. So you've got a very stable retirement situation.

No, I would not touch it, because you're going to need a place to live for 20 years. And if you want to mortgage it the last two years that you're alive, if you happen to know what that is, if you want to mortgage it and go, blow the money somewhere, that's fine. But you've pretty much got to blow a million six between now and the time you die if you don't want to leave anything.

And with your other income, that's coming in too. And you can do anything you want to do with $200,000 probably.

In your ancient years.

That'd be your mathematical goal.

And you can stay in that condo the rest of your life. And literally into your last days. And so you can hire a medical butler.

We can do whatever we want to do. And I'll just fill it up with help.

You see what I'm saying? You've got choices. You've got options. You self-insure and you just bring in—but people like us that have—like that Dave and this Dave that have gutted it from the ground up, we don't think about bringing in help. We're not those kind of people.

But you need to think about it. It's a good idea.

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They say that memory is activated by smell. primarily. If you smell a certain smell, it'll take you back. The other thing that causes you to lock a memory in is deep emotion. If you're extremely angry or afraid, you have a clear lock on that memory.

I have a clear lock on that from 35 years ago. I remember exactly where I was and which Kroger. I could take you there right now, and I could show you the aisle. Wow. Like five aisles across.

I was the second one in.

Because that was the moment when I reached the point that I said, This isn't working. I'm standing there paying for food, and as I'm writing the check, because in those days you wrote a check, as I'm writing a check, I didn't know if there was money in the account, and I didn't know if there was money in the account if I was actually using money that should be used to pay the light bill. In other words, am I trading this bag of groceries for my electricity getting cut off?

It wasn't a panic attack. Today, you might call it that. I don't know. I just became overwhelmed with this feeling of how stupid I was and how this level of terror, this constant knot in my stomach about if I can't even cover basics of life because I'm buying another basic of life, food.

And that's the last time I had that feeling.

So you know what you've got to spend on the grocery. and there's not all this chaos and stress and fear associated with every single money transaction, because it's simply a boring plan. Every dollar has an assignment before the month begins and it gets rid of that, I don't know, grocery store terror attack, whatever you call that. I don't know what you call that.

It didn't matter. I can't even buy a bag of freaking groceries without being overcome with fear, because I don't know what else I'm screwing up while I'm buying food for my family. That's so basic, right? That's so dumb. And so I went home, got a yellow pad out.

Okay, this is what we've got coming in this month. This is what we're going to spend. Every dollar had an assignment. We're a Christian, so we're going to tie our church. That's the first thing.

We're going to do our generosity. Then we're going to do this. Then we're going to do this. We're buying food. We're going to buy lights.

We're not doing all this other crap. We're not going out to eat until we've covered these basic walls. And we started living that way.

And we've not had a single month of our lives that we don't have a plan for every dollar of our – because it just gives me such peace. And that chaos is gone. That's why we named our app EveryDollar that we built.

They said, hey, if you're coming – if you're around, come by. So I stopped in there doing a financial peace class. And I went and sat – I was sitting in a small group. There was about 15, 20 people sitting around. And I'm just sitting there listening to them, and they're some pretty funny stuff.

I mean, but this one old guy sitting there in overalls, and he's like, yeah, I've done figured out why we got no retirement. We've been eating it. We got to eat every freaking night. It's $1,200 last month. He goes, that budget's revealing.

That's amazing. It was a genius. You know, he's like, I know why we got no retirement. We've been eating it. It's exactly – that's a typical American right there.

But anyway, they were – the guy was just – he's like, this thing's revealing.

But the budget gets rid of every bit of this because it's like, you don't get to say I messed up the money because we did it together. If it's messed up, baby, you was in it too. That's right. We're both in this. We decided this crap together, and that's why this EveryDollar app is so freaking successful.

You guys go download this thing as fast as you can. You get it at the App Store for free and Google Play and all that, and you can go to EveryDollar.com if you want and do it on your desktop. I don't care. And if you want the upgrade version, it's a couple of bucks. It's not much, and you can connect to your bank, and it's got all the paycheck planning features and the baby step features in it and all that stuff.

But tens of millions of people are doing this now. It is the world's best budgeting app, and it was born because this redneck hillbilly, standing in line at Kroger 35 years ago, going, you're an idiot, talking to myself. I'm not living like this anymore. I don't want to be this scared anymore. I don't want to be this incompetent anymore.

I don't want this taste on the back of my tongue that tastes like regret. I don't want that anymore. And that's how this app was born. It's not like, well, we decided we're going to do a budgeting app. No, this is like, bull crap, this stuff stops now.

We need to do this. This stops now. And if you're there, we got the tool, baby. This will do it for you.

Y'all are different.

If opposites attract, you need to get on the same plan together. Everydollar.com. This is the Ramsey Show.

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George Camel, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us. Maya is with us in Atlanta, Georgia. Hey, Maya, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

He's been married before. He is open to being married again, and my hesitation is because we're both believers and because I know that I have $46,000 in debt, it was not my plan to come into a marriage with this amount of debt, right? So I'm starting the baby steps now, so when we do get married, it's not a baggage that I'm bringing into the marriage. So my question is, as a woman who has a boyfriend, right, how do I present this conversation to him of, hey, let's A, right, let's do it right, and get married after he comes back from deployment and he has a daughter and I've met his daughter first,

or do we think of another option? Because I don't want to shack, right? I don't want to play house at all.

I would not use that. I agree with you. I would not move in together. And so then, based on that, we just got to figure out when we're going to get married, and it sounds like sooner rather than later. A good friend of mine's daughter got married a couple of years ago to a Green Beret, and four weeks after they were married, he was gone for seven months and can't even talk about where he was.

Mm-hmm. Totally. Top secret missions, right? And so because the Green Beret SEAL teams and those kinds of folks go places, and most people don't know they're there. So, matter of fact, that's the whole goal is, nobody knows.

they were there. They're in and out, and mysterious things happened, and then they come home. And so that kind of stuff. So that's what you're marrying, and you're going to have some of that. So she married, got married literally, and I think they had a month together, and then he was gone for seven or eight months.

And that was about four or five years ago, and they've got three kids now.

And he still goes out on missions, and a very young couple. But anyway, that's what you're signing up for, it sounds like. And so I'm saying they didn't wait until his deployment was over. They got married, and then he went on deployment. He took off and did a mission.

And he was gone for seven, eight, nine months, whatever it was. And so it's kind of like your guy. So all of that to say, if I'm in your all shoes, and you're both ready to get married, get married.

I don't want you to feel like this is some shame and baggage you're bringing into this. Because guess what? He gets, Maya. That's way better than some student loan debt that we're going to knock out real quick.

We've talked about this. Let's go get married. That's not me.

When do you want to do that?

And after that, we will live together. And that's how I'm willing to do it. That's what you told us. your values are. You said we're, you know, I'm a believer.

I'm a person of faith, meaning you want to follow what the book says and you think that God has a plan for your life. and it's not shacking up. It's what you said. And just tell him that. That's not forward.

It's answering his question. You're not forward. You're just responding.

And that's an okay answer. It's not prudish. It's just it's who you are. And you're allowed to be you, by the way.

I don't even know how it works.

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Nyree is with us in Atlanta. Hi, Nyree, how are you?

I recently filed bankruptcy in May, but I realized after watching your show, and I have your book, The Total Money Makeover, I decided to dismiss the bankruptcy case, because after I added up my debt, and then I looked at the fees that the lawyer was going to charge me over five years, I was like, no, like. ... So, I'm extremely excited, but I'm nervous at the same time, and I just wanted you guys to tell me, am I making the right decision?

And then voluntarily dismissed your 13th. Okay. So, you're still behind on your mortgage.

Okay. Well, here's our rules. No one gets paid anything out of your income until you have food from the grocery store purchased for your family. Your lights and your water are paid. The gas for your car to get to work is paid, and we catch up your mortgage.

Don't pay any credit card bills. You got a title pawn on your car?

Yeah. They're not going to screw around.

And credit cards don't get a dime. But you pay your car payment. You pay your lights, water, and we get your mortgage current before we do anything. Once your mortgage is...

And how old are your babies?

All right. You got family in the area?

So that's, like, you know, some things that I'm trying to do.

Enough to be able to afford daycare or after-school care or whatever it is. So that you can go make another 55..

I want you to get a full-time job and get back to work. You know, you don't have a choice. You're a single mom that's broken and behind on her house. Mm-hmm. So sitting at home collecting the military is not cutting it for you.

It's not working for you. So we have to change the recipe if we want a different kind of cake here, right? And so, yeah, you need a full-time job to go with your military disability. And it needs to be a substantial good career for you that you look back 20 years later and you've made a lot of money and you've helped a lot of people and you've done a lot of good work. And I want you plugged into something like that.

I'm not mad at Chick-fil-A. We've been friends with those folks for a very long time at the company level, on a personal level, and I eat their chicken sandwiches all the time. So I'm not mad at all about Chick-fil-A. But I think you need more than that.

And I want you to jump online and take that and pretend like that you were 18 years old or 19 or 20 years old and you didn't have any kids. And you said, OK, what am I going to do with my life? What's my career going to be? What's my future look like? Because you've been reacting to life rather than happening to life.

And it's gotten you into a mess. And so I want you to get on the other side of this and start dreaming again about what a prosperous, wealthy Nairie would look like and how she would get there. And that involves a, you know, it may be some steps to get to a different career a big time. Maybe you've always wanted to be an ex, whatever ex is. And you maybe need to go take a class or two or get a certification to be one of those.

I don't know what that thing is. But I want you to have some direction for you. You've lived your life for others so far. And it's not even serving them well. So I want you to...

Open phones at 888-825-5225.. Just to clarify for everybody listening, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a payment plan that takes 60 months to go through. You pay 100% of your student loans, 100% of any secured debt, like a car loan or title loan, as an example, your mortgage. Everything gets paid 100% except unsecured debt, which can be paid a percentage of. So the credit cards, personal loans could be 70% of what's owed, 40% of what's owed, depending on how the formula worked out over 5 years.

Usually, folks can do a better plan themselves and get out of debt a lot faster by increasing their income.

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I do okay financially.

When I think about what's more important to me as far as priority and having peace of mind when I have kids, I keep going back to the mortgage before my student loans, which I know is opposite of what you typically teach. And then, being a teacher, I'm also in a master's program right now and will be for the next year and a half or so. So I'm able to defer them for a bit. So I just didn't know your take on that.

I wouldn't worry too much about all of that and what the mortgage is going to be one day. I would focus on knocking out all of your consumer debt right now. And the mortgage will get paid when it gets paid and it's also going to appreciate. as long as you have that home. It's going to go up in value.

And the student loans I would not kick down the road. Do you have the money to pay down these debts in the next year? You make $165..

Okay. Well, I think you can knock out these student loans, free up the payments, get a fully funded emergency fund, and start investing and then begin paying off the mortgage.

Finish. And it's very.

Half. my family is like this. They're working on their third master's degree and they're going, well, one day, when I'm settled, I'll, no, one day it's not going to happen. Just, if you want to be in a relationship, start a relationship. If you want to get married, get married.

The debt will solve itself as you begin your life.

Knock the student loan out. Do it by October. Sit down. When you get off the phone, sit down and lay it out. Lay it out on your little spreadsheet, because you're a spreadsheet guy, I can tell.

And $56,000, you've already done 50 since March. I can do it in my head. You're done in October, OK? Just do it again. All you did was you were gazelle, intense.

Don't let your foot up off the gas. List, those student loans out, smallest to largest. Work your debt. snowball. Attack, attack, attack, attack, attack, drop a freaking atom bomb on that thing and be done with it.

Quit screwing around with water. No. No, get rid of it. This is what you got to do. Done.

Done.

Very cool, man. I'm so proud of you. All right. Stud, here's what we do. When you move money out of your business that's an LLC and you take the money home, you need to withhold 25% on yourself because it's going to be your taxes.

So, if you take 100 grand out and move it home, move 25 grand into another little savings account over here to the side that you never touch because you need to be filing quarterly estimates on a small business, or you're going to get penalized. Okay. And you're supposed to be filing quarterly estimates on your profits, and if you don't do it in the first year, you don't get penalized, but in year two, three and so on after that you'll get penalized. So, go ahead and get with an accounting person, get with a tax person and get your quarterly estimates set up. They're not hard.

It's a one-page form. It's what I took in minus. my expenses is my profits times my tax rate, and you've withheld on yourself and you got that 25,000 out of that 100 sitting over here in the account and you'll have the money to pay your quarterly estimates. otherwise you're going to get behind with the KGB and you don't want those people calling? I mean the IRS.

you don't want them calling on you. Okay. Okay. So that's then. how much can you take home?

I mean you can take home anything that doesn't leave the business and threatened. If you're paying all of your expenses, whatever's left is profit. you can take it all home and use it on your baby steps, and I would. Way to go Stud.

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How do I protect myself and our children? I haven't been able to trust him in our marriage, and I know I won't be able to in the divorce proceedings either. I'm willing to do the work, but I just need to be pointed in the right direction so I don't waste time and money getting myself together. Ugh, Leslie, I'm so sorry. That is awful, and especially scary for stay-at-home moms, who are very vulnerable in these situations because they haven't had the income for this long.

So, you know, step one is kind of get a lay of the land as much as you can about what's actually going on in the finances.

He's probably been like, honey, I got this, don't worry about it, and left her out of it on purpose.

So, yeah, what you need to do is go get an attorney today and talk to a divorce attorney today, and they will tell you what the laws in Nebraska will demand that he does. He doesn't have the choice of leaving you with nothing. The law doesn't allow it. So, you need an attorney to tell you how life works and how the law works, because apparently neither one of you, you or him, know that. That will give you some peace, because you'll know, hey, we're going to sell the house and there's $500,000 worth of equity and I'm going to get $250,000 out of that.

Oh, he's got $150,000 in his 401K. I get $75,000 of that. Oh, he's got this. We've got that. I get half of that.

So, you're okay on the short term. Now, long term, it sounds like you need a new career.

And so, what are we going to be when we grow up? What's the next chapter of our life? What's the new version of Leslie Goes to Nebraska? look like?

and what are you going to do with your life?

And you're going to have a great life. And you're not going to, you're going to realize, when you're super happy and prosperous four years from today, how miserable it was living with this sap. So, good riddance is what it sounds like. I'm sorry you're going through this. But that's the way the story's going to end.

if you will embrace two things. One is get some legal counsel. And two is start developing you a career path as soon as you possibly can. And so, you know, what's the next thing. for Leslie?

This chapter is coming to a sad ending, but it is ending. And what do we do from here? What's our next thing? Ouch. No fun at all.

No. Doug is in San Jose. Hey, Doug, what's up?

And we're broke.

One of the houses I owe $700 on and one I owe $600 on.

That's probably where I'm starting. Is that the only debt you've got?

If you'll do it. Okay. Go through the class. Sit down. Start writing out a plan.

So what do you build with your construction business? What kind of buildings do you do?

Yes. All we need to do is apply that exact same skill set to your monthly budget. We're going to lay out a plan for where our money is going to go in detail and we're going to execute the plan. And the two of you, you and your wife, need to agree to that plan before the month begins, just like you and the customer agree to the budget and the schedule of the job. when you get the new job, when you're bidding a job.

And so building a, building a, you know, doing construction work in detail. Now some people do it out of their hip pocket, right? But you're doing it professionally. and if you'll apply that exact same mentality to your monthly budget, tell your money what to do before the month begins and then go, do it. You and your wife, then you don't accidentally end up with credit card debt or accidentally go, oh God, we got to clean up this mess with a HELOC.

Because the HELOC was to cover a mess, wasn't it?

Remember, today, download EveryDollar for free on the App Store or Google Play today.

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It's pretty incredible.

It's almost sold out. It's March 22-29, but you can still get a cabin if you go ahead and get it right now. Don't screw around with this, because you're about to miss it.

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Again, it's on one of the top Holland America ships. It's almost new. It's a fabulous, fabulous product.

We're excited. It's going to be the first time we've ever actually done one of these, and it's going to be big. It's going to be ready. It's going to be amazing. All right.

Tyler is in Cincinnati. Hey, Tyler.

What you put in from this day forward should be Roth.

I'm going to move $100 a year out of that $400.. And when you move $100, it's going to cost you about $25 out-of- pocket, give or take. Gotcha. Or maybe even $30.. So, just take that $30 out of your pocket, move the whole $100 over into the Roth.

And that is the equivalent of having invested another $30..

We've both been maxing out our Roth IRAs and 401Ks. So, we've been. We have 529 set up for the three kids. We'll have it set up for the fourth one in September. In retirement right now, we have about 1.3 in savings.

And with that context, does it change anything with that plan? And if we reach a salary point where we cannot contribute to the Roth 401K, is there a way to begin that 401K back up and still contribute to the Roth?

traditional on a 401K. The only reason you would reach a salary point you couldn't do a 401K would be if your company had a problem with highly compensated people. And it was out of balance and they had to back down how much you could put in.

But if you're going to follow the baby steps, which is what we suggest, you would only be putting 15% away until you got the mortgage paid off. And I think you're putting more than 15% away.

And the traditional does. It gets you into a pinch. So, like, dude, when you get out to my age, and I've got, you know, a bazillion dollars in my stinking retirement, and because I've been doing it a long time and I've maxed it for a long time, there's a lot of money in there. So I would be, I've moved it all to Roth years ago and paid it out of my pocket, the difference. Like I discussed with you, if you haven't done that, the, you know, like I had a guy call in the other day and it was $8 million.

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. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author of the book, Breaking Home, Breaking Free from Broke, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.. Wolfgang's in San Antonio. Hi, Wolfgang.

How are you?

You know, the people that build wealth and the people that are successful at anything. long ago quit taking a poll from the public,

you know, and that's you. You quit taking a poll. It's just, but it's just, you know, you're just kind of wondering, am I goofball or something? No, you're not a goofball. I think what you're doing is very wise.

Now, if you said, I never go out to eat under any circumstances and I make $100,000 a year because I'm just a complete freaking tightwad, I'd probably tell you to loosen up a little bit, but that's not, you know, that's not what you're saying. You're just saying they go out to eat every freaking day, and most days you bring your lunch. Whoopee. Who cares?

You know, you're not being driven by other people's desire for you. You're being driven by your desire for you. You're making adult choices, and, you know, you're always going to have to tell somebody no the rest of your life. You don't ever have enough money to not say no.

And, you know, there was a whole lot more requests than there were hours in the day, and so I had to learn to go, okay, I have to choose what's best for the things I'm working on, you know, in the business or my family. You know, and so I'm going to choose to be home this weekend because my teenage daughter has a prom over speaking for your event over here in some other state, which I could have easily done. And so I had to tell someone that I was going to tell the right people. no. You know, I'm not going to tell my daughter, no.

So, consequently, I was there for every prom, because you need to be there to threaten the young man that is taking your daughter out. And so- And it worked. It worked. It worked perfectly. So, you know, but I'm saying you're always going to have to, in my case, I had to learn to say no and not feel guilty because I'm saying yes to the right people.

Okay? You don't get to, you don't get a vote over my kids. You don't get a vote over, you know, something that, you know, I've got the opportunity to work on something inside this business or I've got the opportunity to help you with your business. Oh, I think we'll be working on this one. This is what I do.

You know? And so- And that doesn't mean I'm bad. It's just I have to learn to say no to something so I can say yes to something else. And that's all you're learning is, there's always a trade-off. But you're never, you never reach enough.

income or time management or delegation or whatever, that you have enough time or enough money that you never say no to anyone. That's never going to happen for any of you. So the art of saying no to others and to yourself in order to achieve a greater yes is an art form. So it's a good.

And I'm like him. I'm a people pleaser. So the one thing I want to do is just go, yes, absolutely. I'm in. And when I was getting out of debt, or whenever I had a goal, I had to say no to a lot, but you'll find that the right friends stick around through that.

How right. The line from Wizard of Oz. Right.

Patty's job description was no, Dave can't come. You know, because we had to learn to say no. And it wasn't because we were stuck up. It's because if you don't say no to something, you can't say yes to the right stuff. And in your case, Wolfgang, you're saying yes to my long-term financial goals by saying no to avocado toast with my buddies.

That's right.

That's not it. It's enough, enough time, enough. burn on her energy, enough. burn on her time. And you go, our buddies, get together and do a potluck, like we did when we were poor.

The old supper.

and it's way cheaper than going out to eat. And you've got a lot better quality atmosphere. Everything's better.

George Camel Ramsey, personality number one, best-selling author of the book Breaking Free from Broke, is my co-host today. Selling a house in this weird real estate market, buying a house in this weird real estate market is weird. It's hard. It's different. And it adds a level of uncertainty to the whole process that really shouldn't be there, but is there.

And if you want to get rid of that, get with a pro. Now, the problem with the real estate business is it's fairly easy to get in. You got to pass a little test. It's not much, and it's fairly easy to get out. So when times get tough, all the people that aren't, that are kind of half-butt doing the business, they bail, and as soon as it gets, becomes jumping again, they jump right back in.

and so what you want to do when you're selling your largest asset or buying your largest asset, hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars, whatever your case is, you definitely want a pro. You want somebody. that's, you know, they're not Aunt Sally, who got her license three weeks ago because she thought it'd be fun. You know, that's not a good idea right there. You want, you really want to get somebody that sells, you know, 30 to 300 houses a year and they know what they're doing.

Well, that's what the Ramsey trusted real estate agents are. They're people that we have vetted for their level of performance. We coach them. They understand the Ramsey advice and systems, and so you're going to have an experience unlike you will get anywhere else, and you're going to get the house sold, or the house bought, or whatever it is you're trying to do, because the Ramsey trusted real estate agents are freaking amazing. They're the best, and so if you want to know who the Ramsey trusted real estate agent is in your area, you can find out for free.

Just go to RamseySolutions.com slash agent. RamseySolutions.com slash agent. Monica is in New Orleans. Hi Monica, how are you?

So I scheduled a phone consultation with a Vanguard representative because I couldn't tell.

Where'd you go? I wanted to.

So?

So I wanted clarity on that. Well, while I had the Vanguard representative on the phone and he's going through and explaining which types of mutual funds are which, he kept impressing on me that I needed to maintain like 15 to 20% in bonds. And I said, well, bonds aren't really what I'm looking for. He said, well, you have to have a certain percentage of bonds and he seemed rather insistent on it. I said, no, I want 25% in each of these four types of mutual funds.

And I was just wondering why did he find it so important that I have some percentage of?

Okay, so if you go pull up the bond market volatility and lay that beside a growth and income stock mutual fund volatility, you'll see they're about the same. If you like. looked at a chart of the volatility, the price is going up and down. Okay, the market volatility. And so that they're not less.

And here's the other problem. Bond prices are dictated by the interest rate environment. And they work on an inverse of interest rate. Meaning. if interest rates go down, bond prices go up.

If interest rates go up, bond prices and values go down. So this guy's an idiot. Interest rates have been increasing. In an increasing interest rate environment, if you buy bonds, you're going to lose your butt.

But what he's going on is the overarching theory that you need some bonds in your portfolio to have a lower risk profile. And the problem is that the theory is absolute hogwash. And he's just a kid on the phone that they trained to read a script. Right. Yeah.

Okay. It's just sad. But that's where it's coming from. And again, you know, I'll say here's how bad the theory is. Okay, the financial planning world also adopts a process that I don't agree with, or a theory I don't agree with, called asset allocation.

Let's just talk about even worse. Okay, let's get nerdier. Asset allocation, and you probably heard this one, Monica is, the older you get, the more conservative your portfolio needs to be. And so, by the time you're 65, you need to have moved out of growth stock mutual funds into bonds and money market instruments. Right.

Have you heard that one? Yes. That's the asset allocation theory. Here's the problem with the theory. I'm 63..

If I move the millions of dollars that I have in my mutual funds into bonds and money market type instruments, high yield savings, that kind of thing, and I live 25 or 30 more years.

it's going to destroy my wealth. Because they're not even going to keep up with inflation for 30 freaking years. And so if you're gonna die in two years, yeah, you would move it away. But if you're 65 years old and healthy, your high likelihood, you're gonna live into your 80s or 90s. And so the asset allocation theory is absolute hogwash.

But the problem is the financial planning community, not all of them, but, by and large, are a bunch of freaking lemmings. They follow each other over a cliff and they don't stop and do independent thought. So, like you're running into this, studying for your CFP right? Oh, absolutely. George is studying for a certified financial planning designation and the asset allocation is preached like it's biblical truth.

Well, and the?

The market did.

just put her in some Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae bonds. mortgage bonds right, they're safe. they're mortgage-backed securities. they're very safe. it's not going anywhere.

Bullcrap! As soon as mortgage rates go up, the stinking value of that portfolio goes down like a tank. I mean it makes an aggressive gross stock mutual fund look like a wuss. It's amazing how bad it is. And but we were taught that this is somehow low-risk.

It's not low-risk. Especially in a rising interest rate environment. Oh my god!

that's four hundred thousand dollars a year, and you didn't even touch the principle. So you're not going to use it. So it's not like you have to worry about it goes up or down, or goes up or down. You're not using it anyway. You're living off a paltry percentage of the money it's throwing off.

So it's yeah, the whole. the whole thing just pisses me off because it. somebody decided that was a thing to do, and then they all adopted it, and then they act like anyone who goes against. that is, is blaspheming. That's Dave the blasphemer.

Dave the blasphemer. Well, that's me, boys and girls, and you know what that has cost that and I. it's not real blasphemy, by the way, but it's just financial nerd blasphemy. Not biblical blasphemy. It's financial nerd blasphemy from the certified financial Pharisees.

There we go. Yeah, not all of them are that way, but some of you people in that world stop it.

It's way too easy to put off making a will and believe me, I've heard every excuse in the book, but not having the time is one excuse. we can kick to the curb right now, because these days most folks can make a legally binding will on their laptop between loads of laundry. If you're wondering if you can make your will online or if you need a lawyer, we have a quiz to help you figure that out in less than five minutes. Just go to ramsysolutions.com slash wills quiz. ramsysolutions.com slash wills quiz.

George Camel, Ramsey, Personality co-host of the Smart Money. Happy Hour with Rachel Cruz. He's my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.. Stephen is with us in Seattle.

Hey.

and is it smarter to pay it off or to just pay it every month? since, compared to compared to inflation, you know I'm making money just by paying it every month? it would seem that's advice I was given. What do?

Okay, $100 a month. $100 a month. We have surveyed 10,167 millionaires. 89% of them became millionaires starting from nothing. The number of them that became a millionaire because they failed to pay off a medical debt and instead invested the money and made 10%, made $1,500, was precisely zero.

Millionaires don't believe crap like this. They get out of debt, stay out of debt, stay away from debt, build an investment portfolio, and that's how they become wealthy. and so this is like you know well. you should get all the airline miles you could get, or you should. you're gonna get rich on 1% back from Discover Card, which means, by the way, you spend $100,000 on your Discover Card, you get $1,000 back.

Now, under what circumstances do you trade $100,000 for $1,000 and that make you wealthy? None. Okay, I'll help you with that. and so this is the same kind of stuff. So quit playing some kind of intellectual games with tiny little amounts of money.

that's not gonna make you wealthy. If you call me up and you said I got a million five hundred thousand interest free, I guess we could talk about that. It'd be worth at least talking about. I wouldn't do it, but I you can at least have a discussion about it. It's just not even worth.

Hey Jackson, what's up?

In this situation. I admittedly did not take your advice. I purchased a home with somebody before we were married. We are common law. We do have a prenup and we've been together for quite some time.

So there's no, I don't think we're at the risk of breaking up. if that makes sense. We're at the stage of getting, you know, proposed married, that sort of thing. But my partner has a line of credit and I am super against debt. I'm into following the baby steps.

I've created a bit of a investment portfolio myself and I've gotten rid of all my my debts, my credit card debts and that sort of thing. I don't have any student loans. But I'm just wondering how do I approach or, or how do I I guess I have approached. How do I get through to my partner that getting rid of this line of credit and the fallback it isn't needed in our situation. We don't.

we don't need an emergency line of credit.

There is. There's a small balance. It would be between $6,000 and $8,000, which I'm certainly you know... What did that go to?

Sorry? What was that for? I think most of it is personal.

And it sounds like you guys aren't aligned on your financial values, which is scary because you're in this situation now and locked into this. So you said there's no risk. I think there is risk here. This adds a real rift in the relationship, because I don't know that you can change her mind. It may take.

Right. Instead of looking in the mirror and going, I have to tell myself no. And that's an.

So you have no debt.

We're able to travel. We're able to have nice automobiles, own our own home, pay it off, have complete stability, and become millionaires or multimillionaires. My goal is to do that. That's my dream. Now, what is the shortest route and what principles does the actual data tell us that gets us there?

Now, if she says oh yeah, that'd be cool, let's do that. Okay. Then if we're gonna become wealthy, how do we do that? And it's not by overspending $8,000 and putting it on a emergent. I mean putting it on a home equity line of credit that's supposedly there for emergencies, and that purse was definitely not an emergency.

So that's not how we get there. And so what we need to do is we need to align and say this is what you know? what are the processes. It's like if you sit down with your personal trainer, you hire a personal trainer, and you're overweight. You say okay, what's the goal?

What must be true? What's the goal? Okay, I don't want a keg anymore. I'd rather have a six-pack. And so I'm gonna get rid of the belly.

How are we gonna do that? You have to do these things. I don't want to do those things. I don't care. That's how you get rid of the belly.

You know, and this is you know. then you got to decide if you're gonna align your behaviors with actual truth. that takes you to your goals. And Henry Cloud says you once you identify a desired future and that's, any couple could sit down and say we're gonna have a dream date. This is our desired future and we're gonna be in agreement on our desired future.

Then the next thing you have to say is what has to be true. that is not true now.

Well, we, you know we. obviously, the things we've done so far have not gotten us to that desired future, so we need to do some things differently than we did.

No, freaking donuts. You know, I mean. Calorie deficit. You know. back up from the, to do some push backs from the table, as well as push-ups, you know.

and so there's some things. That's Dave's workout plan. Both of these things have to happen. and so calorie, you can't outrun a Big Mac. and so you know your caloric intake is an issue.

and so what has to be true if you want to get to that desired future? And any couple can do that on any subject. We want to raise kids that are good kids. Well, I didn't. Sharon and I decided we didn't want to raise kids that were good kids.

We wanted to raise kids that became great adults. It's a different goal. Different strategy. Different goal.

I'm trying to raise kids who have some poise, some confidence, that can articulate and have a conversation with an adult and look you in the eye and shake your hand, and you know not be intimidated by everything around the block. That's different goal. This is the Ramsey Show.

Our scripture of the day, Isaiah 30 and 21.. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying this is the way. Walk in it. Warren Buffett said you only have to do a very few things right in your life, so long as you don't do too many things wrong.

So simple but so wise. It's very true. Chelsea's with us in Baltimore. Hi Chelsea, how are you? Hey I'm.

While they live there?

Yes. So why would you rent someone else's house?

Yeah, no, don't do that. What is the benefit here? Are they cutting you a crazy deal?

So, basically, it's a. it's a family property and you know, me and my husband would like to purchase it from them at some point. So what does family property mean?

The property was given to them by his grandfather and it was meant to be for us or for him. So will it go to you guys? Will it be inherited by your husband?

They are also in a little bit of a sticky situation with some other debt and stuff too, so I don't know if that would end up coming to us or not. They're in a sticky situation with what? With some other debt.

Alright, so is this property an unusual property and is it?

Okay,

You're also trying to honor grandfather's idea that your husband would end up with the property, and yet you've still got to turn around and buy the property instead of just end up with it. that wasn't grandfather's idea. He left it to his son. he didn't make him buy it. now his son is trying to not do that with his own son.

Am I missing something?

No. Yeah, I mean so. we're trying to honor grandfather, we're trying to help your parents, you're trying to help the in-laws, who have been irresponsible by paying them rent, and and you're going to be in a miserable living situation all to try to keep everybody happy, but you and your husband. No. Don't go, do this.

I mean it.

A lot of the numbers have been thrown out.

I think he's going to be.

So we actually just talked to a lender and they said it could be appropriate for about $400,000.. Okay. How much money do you guys have saved?

That's the other thing, because we don't have, because we just got married like a year ago. How old are you two?

The weak cannot help the weak. only the strong can help the strong. You are too weak to help them. You are not in a good. you're not in a good enough financial.

Listen, you do whatever you want to do. You called and asked my opinion. My opinion is I would run from this like my hair was on fire, because these people are irresponsible. They're going to end up with judgment liens on this house and they're going to be unable to give you the house or transfer it to you, because they're not going to pay their bills and they're going to get their butts sued because they're going to continue in their pattern of irresponsibility. and you, sweet little 21 year olds, are trying to help these grown adults who are doing a piss, poor job of running their lives and they're going to screw over their own kids accidentally in the process.

Go have a life. Go have a life. And if one day you inherit this.

Quit doing this and you're going to end up in the basement of people paying them rent. they're going to screw you over accidentally because they don't know what the crap they're doing. They can't find their butt with both hands and they're going to cause you guys to be drugged down with them. Please don't do this. Please.

They don't mean to, but they're screw-ups and they're doing this to their own kids. It aggravates the crud out of me. People, don't screw over your own kids with your irresponsibility. Don't do it. And please don't do this.

They're going to end up with this property clouded on the title, with something because of the way they're acting. And then you're not going to be able to get the property that you signed up, that you thought you were getting in a rent to own crappy deal. Please, just go, rent you something and let these grown-ups muddle through their mess. And maybe the property will come out the other side of it. Maybe it won't.

You're not in a position to buy it. If you call me up and you were 32 and you had three thousand thirty or forty or fifty thousand bucks laying around and you want to put a down payment and go buy the house, we can talk about that. But you're not in that position. You're not in a strong enough position to be of help to them. And you're gonna go do it anyway.

Even though I'm gonna tell you a thousand times not to do it. I can tell. There's no stopping you.

You'll be a caller on the show again. Laura's in Philadelphia. Hey, Laura, what's up? Hello, how are you guys? Better than we deserve.

I'm a little short on time because I'm renting. How can I help you?

So here are my questions. I know. I'll be happy to be done. I'm currently married again and we don't have any debt. We do have three homes.

Two are rentals. One, that is, one of the rentals, does not have a mortgage. It has a HELOC. Here's my question. I want to know if what we should use each of these $75,000 towards if we should pay down mortgages, the HELOC, or should we save it and purchase a third rental?

I would pay down mortgages and HELOC. Okay. What's left on your primary?

Okay, so my primary we owe $243,000, but that's our lowest interest rate. Well, I don't care about the interest rate. What's your household income? Oh, I'm sorry. Our household, it is $1,800 net per week.

Okay.

And what's the balance on the HELOC?

HELOC is $40,000.. I'll definitely clear that then with the $75,000 when it comes in. But let's get about the business of getting your house paid off. And when the house and the rentals are clear, you'll have tremendous cash flow to buy your.

We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.

Hey guys, I'm Rachel. And I'm George. And you've probably heard our voices before on the Ramsey Show. And do we have a surprise for you. Yep, we have our very own show, Smart Money, Happy Hour, where we talk about pop culture, current events, and, of course, money.

George, it's a great show, and what else do we talk about? So?

Sure. We also talk about toxic money traits and girl math. And if you don't know what those are, you have to listen to the podcast. Yeah,