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Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
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 amazing relationships. I'm George Campbell, joined by the one and only Jade Warshaw, and we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. I know y'all are DMing us all your questions, and I say, call The Ramsey Show. Okay, I can't sit here all day in the DMs.
This is where we answer the world's questions. So call us up and we will help you. Zachary has chosen to do so to kick us off. He's in Madison, Wisconsin. What's going on, Zachary?
Hey, how's it going? Good, how are you? Good, good. I was just calling to get some input. I'm currently a travel nurse and Uh, we don't have like a retirement plan for travel nurses and my wife, she doesn't have a retirement plan and we don't have any debt right now. We have about 200,000 in savings.
Um, and we don't have much of retirement and we were looking to buy a house, but we didn't know whether to just put all of our monies that we have in savings into our retirements or to try and buy a house. We are right now. We have a Roth IRA. I have about, $50,000 in that and then she has like maybe $20,000 in hers.
Okay. How old are you two?
29 and she's 28.
Great. Well, the good news is you guys got plenty of time to build wealth. And the fact that you have this amazing foundation, no debt and 200 grand tells me that you're onto something here. So your luck is not lost. And those Roth IRAs are retirement plans. So you do have those options at the very least right now while you're doing this travel nursing.
I imagine you're going to eventually be in a more stable situation with work.
Yeah, hopefully this year.
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Chapter 2: How do George and Jade advise on retirement savings?
That's known as house poor. Exactly. And so that's what happens when people make these decisions before they should, because they got a little starry-eyed while zillowing. Yes. And they went, well, woe is me. The housing market's crazy. Let's just buy our dream home now.
Yeah.
And the dream home becomes a nightmare.
Don't do that.
That's... I can't breathe thinking about a million dollar mortgage.
With 160,000 income. For sure. Yeah. 60% of your money out the door, that's called living to work.
That's middle class fancy right there.
That's living to work, not working to live. 100%.
Looks good to the outside world, but you can't even breathe inside of that box. That's costing you way too much to live in. I wouldn't leave my house. I'm like, I pay too much of my money to ever leave.
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Chapter 3: What should I consider before buying a house?
Okay.
What's the truck worth?
The truck is worth $30,000.
And what do you owe on that?
About $30,000.
Let's get rid of that truck.
This poses an interesting conundrum here.
You got another car? We have a Jeep Wrangler that is paid off.
We're getting rid of the truck. What's the truck payment?
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Chapter 4: How can I manage my finances during a divorce?
You shouldn't. Not yet. You're right. I just want to make sure you weren't, because if you were, you'd pause that, and that would free up some money as well. Okay, yeah. Man, I think this truck is going to free you up of that $575. You can then start throwing in the savings.
Yeah. And think how quickly you could. I mean, the 10,000 aside, because there is a world where you just keep that 10K sitting there until the baby is born. You don't do anything. And that's probably the best choice here.
But even with that 575 cleared up, think how quickly, you know, once baby is born and once everything's, you know, back up and running, think how quickly you could pay out this credit card, close the gap on that motorcycle. There's just... It's so much money.
And even if they did this today, six months without that payment is $3,500.
Exactly.
And so that's at least as much as you could save just by getting rid of the payment, making no other sacrifices.
Right. Okay. So it would be smart then to, once that is all out of the way, what you guys just talked about, to chip away at the bike and tell it's down to what it's worth and just sell it. and break even as far as
Yeah. And the other option you could do is go out, take a smaller loan against the difference with a credit union to get out from under this sooner.
Yeah.
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Chapter 5: How can I effectively use my tax return?
Thank you so much for having me.
Sure. How can we help today?
So I have a small problem that seems like compared to some of the other college, but, um, I am getting, I run a small auto glass business here in Vermont. Um, it is new, it's about seven months old and I'm looking to, I got a little bit of money back in taxes or I'm getting money back about $2,000 worth. Um, the problem is, is I do have some credit card debt.
Um, I have about $2,800 in credit card debt. Um, And so I'm assuming what you're going to tell me is to just pay the credit card debt, but I do have an opportunity to invest the money into the business for the calibration systems that I need to do or need to use in the industry. So I just don't know if I should just pay off the debt immediately or if I should invest it into the business.
Chapter 6: What should I prioritize: paying off debt or investing in my business?
Well, you're right. You may not like our answer, but do you have $800 in savings as well, cash in the bank?
I don't.
Okay. Okay.
I've pretty much thrown every bit of money I have into the business at this point.
Well, to me, that's the more glaring problem is that you are on thin ice already, my friend, as far as this business and your cash flow and your personal financial world. And so before you put another dime into this business, we've got to become debt-free and then cash flow once we're debt-free, once we have an emergency fund to then grow this business.
How long can you get by without the calibration systems?
Well, that's the thing.
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Chapter 7: How do I manage my finances as a new business owner?
So right now I'm subbing the calibrations out to other shops. I'm not essentially losing money, but it's money I could be making. Right now I'm getting by. The issue isn't getting by, it's just making more profit, seeing the potential to make more profit.
Are you working full-time at this business?
I am, yes.
Okay. Are you able to take on a side hustle while it gets off the ground to bring in some more income right now? What is this bringing in for you, net?
That's the thing.
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Chapter 8: What steps can I take to prepare for retirement?
To be completely honest, I haven't even tracked it. I know I'm making enough to pay the bills, and that's it.
Okay. Is this just you? It is, yes. Okay.
Okay. You said seven months old. Are you putting aside, since you're not really taking inventory, are you putting aside for quarterlies and for taxes?
Yeah. So the taxes are handled. I actually just had a huge scare with the state. I mean, they thought it was $26,000. Yikes. We were able to resolve that luckily. But yeah, so right now the tax isn't the issue.
OK, good. Listen, I'm with George. I would start getting a handle on what you are making because you got to understand if your business is doing well and what it's doing, because then you might look at the numbers and go, I should be able to pay for this out of the business and not my tax return. You know, but I do think that you should pay out this credit card debt first.
Okay, even though the credit card debt is more personal versus the business?
Everything's personal, man. Guess who signed those business documents? David. Gotcha, okay. So yeah, there's really no such thing as business. It's all in your name, and therefore you owe it all. And so I want you to have as little risk as possible, run this business debt-free.
I love that you're wanting to cash flow these systems, but you'll get there once we have more financial footing and foundation underneath us.
Mm-hmm, good. Gotcha, okay, thank you so much.
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