Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions and broadcasting from the car rental studio, this is The Dave Ramsey Show. It's where America hangs out to have a conversation about life and money. I'm joined by Anthony O'Neal, taking you through this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show, Triple eight eight two five five two two five, triple eight eight two five five two two five. So excited to have you with us. If you're wondering, should I call? You know, I'm a little nervous.

I don't know. Trust me, you're in good hands. Everybody else is out there trying to get after it. Get ahead as well. If a phone call is what's standing between you and Breakthru, give us a chance. Trust us. Hey, Anthony, we're going to help you out. We're going to walk you through it. There is a clear path and we're excited to do it. You're doing well?

I'm doing very well, man. I'm excited about some things coming up, man. So we're doing all right. All right. Well, let's talk about that. So what's the latest thing?

I see the latest couple episodes on YouTube, five things you need to do in your 20s and 30s. I wish that you had done that episode for me. Well, there wasn't a thing called YouTube. Unfortunately, it was. I show my age it really in my twenties and thirties.

So, I mean, you got some killer stuff that you're doing. Yeah, I mean, I'm really excited about that. You know, if you have any millennials or if you're in your millennial age bracket of 20s, text twenty things two, three three seven, eight, nine twenty things two, three, three, seven, eight, nine. And I just really go through twenty things that everyone in your twenties and thirties need to be doing. But I definitely tell you man, I'm really excited about next week.

Next Wednesday I'm going to be joining Gary V to teach young people, not just young people, actually all people on with this whole pandemic things, how you can make money from home and how you could be a steward of it, how you can launch a business. So we've partnered with Teachable and they're going to bring me on and be Gary Vinn another person to keynote speaker since I'm excited about you. Should be. I really am.

So he's a blast. The energy between the two of you is going to be combustible.

He's right. He's first. I'm second. OK, try and get a better energy than Gary V.. And here's the thing.

He curses. I don't. All right. So I'm coming here. Correct. So if they want to go and be a part of that, I would love for Dave Ramsey tribe to come be a part of that. How can they do that?

They can go to teachable dotcom, then forget Anthony. OK, teachable dotcom for slash Anthony. So that way they can get a discount off of the price.

So much going on. Over to Anthony Neal Dotcom. There's a student loan payoff calculator. This is huge. He's helping you not to live with your student loans for twenty years. Of course, his number one best selling book, The Debt Free Degree, Step by step guide to getting your kid through college without student loans.

If you have a young person in your life, grandparent, parent, uncle, aunt, make sure they're checking Anthony out on YouTube. Just search Anthony O'Neal. He's got a great tribe over there. Add tremendous, tremendous community and feedback there.

So you want your kids hanging out in a good place online. Trust me, as a dad, I'm telling you. Anthony O'Neal, dotcom. All right. To the phones. We go triple eight eight to five five two two five eight eight to five five two two five. Randy joins us in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Randy, how can we help?

Hi, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. Here's here's the thing. My wife and I are our debt free outside of our house, and we're doing pretty well. But the plan was in spring time to buy a new camper. And we were looking to spend, you know, sixteen to twenty thousand dollars. And right now we have our full year like emergency fund. We keep the 10 grand in our savings. And I have another seven earmarked for camper plus.

I just sold my other four too. So right now I got nineteen thousand dollars to my name and just our savings. And I'm looking at I found a lot of my friends are real estate and it's state auction that's going on exactly what I'm looking for. And if I could bid on it and get it for anything less than 16 grand, 70000 smoke and feeling it, I think it's probably worth pointing out any day of the week. What would I be wrong to dip into my face?

And, you know, yes, yes.

You do have to finish asking the question.

Yes, you're asking me you're asking can and I is it wise to put my family at jeopardy so I can have a real nice camper that you probably will use every blue moon and especially after the pandemic?

Randy, we we we have all learned that a crisis can happen without us even seeing. I mean, and so I'm not going to tell you to use some of your emergency fund, actually all of it, to go buy a camper. I'm actually going to tell you something you probably don't like, Randy. I'm going to say I think you need get your emergency fund up a little bit more because it sounds like 10000 dollars is right at about how much is your mortgage payment.

OK, so you're looking at about 24 that if you have any kids or three, you have three kids, OK? And so I'm saying I want you to get your emergency fund up to about 20000 and then after that, going ahead and start setting aside money to buy the camper, if that's what you want to do. I know you're saying you can find a great deal, but let me say this much. You can find a great deal next year as well.

Yeah, this is tough. I think Anthony's absolutely spot on here. You know what this is? And I've been there before. You have to. Yeah. He's not there. He knows he's not there.

Right. He just called for confirmation on that because he saw the screaming deal. Yeah. This particular auction we all see, it's got the one that's perfect. Yes. And he's going, oh, if I don't get it now. Right, you nailed it.

I'm not going to get it later. And the answer is he can get it later and he needs to get it later.

And here's the truth. You might get a better deal later. I think patience is key to building true wealth and to building true success. Yeah, oftentimes we see people rush into something because that look like a good deal today when that dream eventually turned into a nightmare. Yeah. And if you walk into it, you shouldn't have to call us and ask us if you're doing the right thing, because if you just follow what we teach, you are already going to know this is the right thing or the wrong thing.

Yeah.

And look, they've been disciplined. They've been disciplined. You have no debt. Yeah. Except their home. He's not delaying it that much longer.

But I do I was wondering the same thing when he said that 10000 Mercy Fund. I think that's a little low. And just given the times that we're in, why not just that a little bit, especially with multiple kids. I got three kids. Let me tell you something. These kids are like walking emergences, OK? I mean, you know, it's like it's like we're in that middle school, high school.

I got a sixth grader, a seventh grader and a ninth grader. You know what I'm talking about? You deal with young people all the time. I am one phone call away from an emergency every second of the day. You know what they're going to do. I thought that was good advice. Did you just call your kids walking emergencies? I'm calling every kid a walking emergency.

I don't think if there's any parent that disagrees with that, then I don't know what kind of kids you got. They may be robots, but I'm telling you, when you have kids, you are dancing with the emergency every day. Is it fair? I think every parent watching right now is going, oh, he's he's right.

Well, people out there in the lobby are shaking. That is like, yeah, you're right. Parents in my right, you got kids. It's like you're doing a tango with emergency every day. So that was really good. I think that's that's right. Hey, listen, here's the deal, man. Randy, there will be other campers. There will be some great camping trips when you don't have to worry about any emergencies. Really good stuff there.

Thanks for the call. All right. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Don't go anywhere. More of your calls coming up. People all over the country are discovering a faith based and budget friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian healthcare ministries, Christian health care ministries, or CHP, is a nonprofit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with health care expenses. And they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. CFC is right for you by visiting S.H. Ministries c h.

M is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by Anthony O'Neal this hour. As we take you through your life questions, what do you need? Some advice? I need some money advice and some career advice and some relationship advice and some advice on those kiddos. Hey, we're here for you this hour. Triple eight eight to five five two two five eight eight to five five two two five. We don't just want to take your calls.

We also want to get your feedback.

We really, really enjoy the input from the listeners of the Dave Ramsey Show. And we have launched a brand new show survey that we really value your feedback on. If you'd like to give us your feedback, check it out at Dave Ramsey dot com survey. That's Dave Ramsey, dot com slash survey. It only takes a few minutes and there's a hundred dollars Amazon gift card up for grabs. Anthony, you and I are not qualified for it. So I know how much you love the Amazon gift card.

Yeah, we will. We a survey. Oh, you already did. Yeah, I several. All right. We'll see what happens with it.

I complain about you, so that's good. So text the word survey two three three seven eight nine. Text the word survey to three three seven eight nine or visit Dave Ramsey dot com slash survey. That's Dave Ramsey, dot com slash survey. Again, tech survey to three three seven eight nine. Or visit Dave Ramsey, dot com slash survey triple eight eight to five, five to twenty five is the number. Let's go to Kansas City, Missouri.

Rob is there. Rob, how can we help?

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. Sure. I found Dave in January of this year and I've been listening ever since I really drove in last month to re-evaluating my being financially wise. I sold my beloved car and I'm trying to crush my debt. So I'm stuck in phase two for right now and or stage two for right now. And my question is about the debt snowball. So I have two small credit accounts that have zero interest for a certain period of time.

And then I have a large credit card that of course, does not. I'm trying to understand why I shouldn't just calculate how many how much I need to pay in order to get the zero interest paid off on time and still make payments towards my larger credit card, thus reducing that balance as opposed to just paying them off right away because of the smaller of the three debts. I mean, that's a great question.

You know, how much debt are you in right now? So I almost got my debt and half last month by selling my car, OK? And that was a tough one. But, you know, I'm trying to follow the program as closely as I can. Yeah. Right now I have a twenty two thousand dollar credit card, A, which is not interest free. I have a fifty five hundred dollar credit card, which is for windows that I put in my home and an eight hundred and fifty dollar credit card that is zero percent interest.

It's for a refrigerator that I bought.

OK, so cool. So you're your a fifty fifty five hundred then a 22000 dollar balance on the credit card.

Yes. OK, cool. What's so gross income right now.

So my gross income is eighty four thousand.

OK and what do you see monthly. You mean after, I guess, pay out everything, what do I have left? No, you know what? Your net pay. So right now, my my net pay is roughly forty two hundred dollars a month. OK. All right, so listen, here's the thing. We don't have a math problem here, and I get it, you want to attack the higher interest rate, the highest interest rate from what it sounds like is on a 22000 dollar one, right?

Yes, correct. Get correct. So with your income right now, what's your rent and your mortgage right now? My mortgage is twelve hundred dollars a month, OK? Twelve hundred dollars a month. All right. So bet and you don't have any car notes, nothing else. You just have twelve hundred dollars a mortgage, your normal bills, plus these three different credit cards. Let me tell you why you will win here. Because with your income, if you really get on a strict budget, the 850 dollars should have already been paid off yesterday with your income.

Then the fifty five hundred dollars should be paid off within the next month, month and a half. Now you're at the highest interest rate, one of twenty two thousand dollars. You could put all of your resources, all of your energy onto that one thing.

My thing is why would you want to start at the very top and have these two small things lingering around? And you can go ahead and knock out now and put all of your resources onto this one twenty two thousand dollar credit card.

But I got to ask this question. What did you put on here for twenty two thousand dollars?

All kinds of things. So I used to have the mindset that as long as I had enough money to pay all my bills and have a few hundred dollars left every month, then I was financially responsible. Dave's kind of made me re-evaluate that thinking. And while I haven't been affected by the pandemic, I don't want to be one of those folks that are in the future. So I'm trying to change my thinking.

Well, so were you one of the guys that you say, you know, we'll put everything on his credit card and then just pay it off enormously or something like that?

Yeah, yeah. And as long as it's still in my budget and I still have money left over, I thought I was be doing the right thing, which I obviously wasn't.

Rob, what's the payment that you make on the 850?

Well, so last month it was seventeen hundred dollars and I paid eight fifty. And that's kind of where the struggle comes in today. I have enough to pay off the 850, but I'm wondering why I shouldn't joke about the minimum payments down and start going after that. Well, because it's all about momentum because.

Because Dave's baby steps are about momentum. The reason Dave teaches the debt snowball and that he teaches the debt snowball is because it's momentum. And I understand you're trying to say, well, I got this higher interest rate on this bigger thing, but guess what? You can pay off the 850 today. So whatever you were paying into that, you were really taking big chunks of it. So you're basically paying 850.

Am I correct? Yes, so hold. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, hold on, hold on, hold on. Yeah, I'm trying to argue. Listen. So now if you've been paying eight fifty on that smallest one, which got it to 850 now that 850 goes to the 5500, and that's what Anthony's talking about, that's how you quickly blow through the 5500, then the amount of money you've been paying on the 5500 plus the 50.

It's just snowball. And now I know you're new and I'm encouraging you. I'm not correcting you. I just want you to hear that. What do you think he's telling you is about momentum? It's going to take you so much longer to attack the 22. Go ahead and get the others out of the way. You've got some juice, you got momentum, you've got compound debt payments, if you will, and that's why. So just do it the way that we teach it.

There's no shortcut here.

There's no there's zero. And there frustrates me a little bit when people try to find a shortcut, because if you really step back and look at it, all right, they say to take the next three months. So for three months, I'm going to pay this twenty two thousand dollars plus these minimum payments over here, or you can flip it. All right. Next three months, I'm a pay off the minimum on all of them. I'm a pay off this one in this one over the next month and a half.

Then next month and a half, I'm just focused on this big one. Why carry this debt out when you can knock out more and now you get the momentum. You see you have clear vision of where you're going and so a man. But can you hear him say it, though? He said it. I started off with the twenty two thousand on the credit card because I just thought I'd get it and pay it off every month. And they ended up being 22000.

Yeah.

Just stacks up and then, you know. And by the way, that's very interesting. You bring that up because I think there's a psychological thing to that too. Yeah. It's not just his math. His math brain is going WOYZECK. I've got a higher interest rate on the 22. So essentially I've got this negative effect. It's a greater negative effect on the higher interest rate, on the larger debt. That's how I get the logic right. I get this.

However, momentum is huge to dig and out of this pile.

That's what Dave figured out on his own journey. And now millions of people have as well. But you bring up a very good point that there's also a lot of guilt attached to that 22, because he's just now caught on to Dave's message and he's going when you asked him, it's like a reminder, you know, wow.

It was a lot of stuff, Anthony. I mean, I did this and I went out and did this. And and so part of it is just a lot of guilt. I want to knock out that guilt. It's like, oh, it's such a big, nasty monster. I want to attack it. And you'll get there.

You will. But here's thing to Ken. When we get ourself into the mess, we need to listen to someone else on how to get out of it, because if we got into it, it means we don't have the proper mindset to get out of it. So we got to take the wisdom and the wisdom here is Dave's baby steps that snowball, not the dead avalanche.

But don't underestimate momentum. This journey's hard. It is can't account for the changes in the things coming at us. And so that momentum is what keeps us on the debt free journey. Hey, stay with us. Keep on with us. More Dave Ramsey show coming right up. Well, we all have enough on our plates, right? The last thing we need is to not get a good night's sleep. Think about how effective you're going to be during the day if you can't even think clearly because you didn't actually arrest.

That's one of the reasons I've been recommending Tufte and Neidl. My family has their mattresses and they start as low as 350 dollars plus. You can try it out 100 nights risk free, go to 10 dotcom to pick yours out. They ship it to your door for free. That's 10 dotcom.

It's hope on talk radio, it is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman Ramsey, personality and host of The Ken Coleman Show, a part of the Ramsey network. He is Anthony O'Neal Ramsey, personality and host of the radio show, a huge hit on YouTube. This guy, what you're doing on YouTube and you're blowing it up over there. I'm just trying to get the secret now. I'm trying to get like you, man. I'm on YouTube.

You don't want on satellite radio all over the country. Yeah, well, you know, I'm just trying to get like you can, but everybody wants to win on YouTube, so you're setting the pace. We're having fun as a part of Ramsey Solutions. We're about Hope and Anthony and all the review process. We share one common mission, and that is to help you get where you want to be. And so that's what we're doing. This our triple eight eight to five five two two five.

That's eight eight two five five two to five. How about we go to Ana in Savannah? That is Savannah, Georgia. Ana, how can we help? Hi, Ken and Anthony, thank you so much for taking my call today. Sure. What's up, baby?

My question is actually going be these orders we set out five times last year to put before we start the baby steps to put money from Christmas and birthdays and family members. But prior to that, we had set up savings accounts for them and that we have about three thousand dollars and one in seventeen hundred in the order that we had allocated for college. This is separate from our 1000 dollar emergency fund. Do we move this money into their 529 plans or do we use it on our debt snowball?

We kind of feel icky about using it on our debt snowball since the debt is on us.

How much debt are you currently in right now? And we're in about one hundred thousand dollars of debt.

OK, what is that? Student loans. Cars? What are we looking at?

We have about 80000 dollars in student loans and 20000 in cars, kind student loans of 20 K cars.

OK, and we're sure paid off our credit cards actually yesterday.

Oh, congratulations. How that feel. Thank you. Oh, it was a thrill.

I'm curious, Anthony's write down some numbers. He's about rolling through this. I'm curious on the cars, how much are those cars worth? Break that down for us separately. We have a truck that is only about 7000 on it's not worth much, may be only worth about two. OK, and then we have another vehicle that cost about 13000. We on it. And it's probably we just got that. And like you're going to have to do is I'm not really sure what the value of that would be right now.

Gotcha.

And what's your gross with your family income right now yearly?

Well, my husband just took a new position, and so our income is just recently increased to 160. OK.

Wow, fantastic. 160 K here, 20 K cars, 80 K A student loans. And then we have about forty seven hundred dollars in savings right now.

OK, we have we have an additional 1000 for the American emergency fund.

OK, so here's my philosophy when it comes to talking to parents about their kid's future. And I want to say this, Anna, before I go to anything practical, I love your heart for young people. I love your heart for your kids. I can tell that you love your kids and you're thinking about their future. And so I just want to say that to you. But let me help you understand one other thing. The best way to help your kids future is to secure your present, OK?

And so when I say that I want you to attack this debt, I want you to take this 4500 dollars and go ahead and start paying off your debt, because we know one thing for sure, that you and your husband are going to stay together forever and you and your husband are going to live this life together. We don't know if your kids are going to go to college. We don't know what they're going to do. They may go to college and they may say, you know, mom and dad, I don't want to finish.

And so what I want you to do is secure your foundation. And then when it comes to the point to where you and your husband have to sit down and talk to your kids about their college future, then we can have that conversation and say, OK, you know what, son, daughter, we can help you out over here. But now you have to take on some sweat equity as well for your future. And so I don't want you to feel guilty about using this money to pay off your debt because what you're doing is you're securing your foundation to really stand on something stronger when your kids get older so you can really help them out better.

Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you.

And you guys are making great progress. I want to I want to move on. Yeah. Let's celebrate the fact that they paid some credit cards off yesterday. They are that much closer. So way to go. And that's great stuff. Now, let me say this.

You can't do not testify 29, though, because that is an investment. That's correct. That's right. Yes. I do not want you to testify. 29, the money you put inside there, don't pull it out because you will pay penalties and taxes. That's too much money. But just focus on getting out of debt set number to get you fully funded emergency fund and then what? Your income. You should be able to do that in the next two, three years and then you have enough time to really start setting some money aside.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely right. All right. Let's go now to Kristen, who joins us in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Kristen, how can we help? Hi, thanks for taking my call. I have a business question. I own a business that is a place of gathering, which unfortunately is not something to be in right now. Right. I opened at the beginning of 2019, was profitable when everything shut down. So it was going really well.

Unfortunately, I'm in an area that is still very restricted on opening. And so it's looking pretty grim as far as reopening the space of crunch numbers. Feels like it's going to be about two years even once we get open to get back to where I was and, you know, floating a business for another two years would be nearly impossible for me. I have a loan on the business to found Dave after we open the business. And I, I just don't really know what to do.

How much? I don't know how to attack this hotel. Yeah.

Is it that you don't know how to attack the loan or you don't know how to attack trying to keep it alive. What's the specific thing. You're not sure about how to attack. Yeah, so I guess how to attack the loan, I want to figure out, I think we are going to get out of the business most likely. So that's my thing to figure out. But, you know, if you don't include the business, my husband and I live on each set.

Five. Oh, wow.

But yes. How much is the loan? How much is the loan on the business?

One and I.

OK, um, so what's the plan to shut down officially closed the doors. What's that look like. Do you have a timeline you're getting.

And I'm trying to figure out the lease right now and if if we can get out of it, I have somebody looking at that, trying to figure that out right now, because that's kind of the big question mark, because if I can't, you know, the amount of expense is just going to continue and that might have to take me down. Unfortunately, a different road is the loan.

Is the loan in any way tied to your personal finances, personal guarantees here on this, or is it all set up in the company name? The loan is not undermining them. OK, that's good news. What's the what's the plan? Are you going to file bankruptcy on the business?

I don't want now. No, I don't want to. Good. Good. Yeah, I don't I don't I just see that as a massive failure and I don't see that as an option. So I'm going to. Are you floating it three hours a week?

Yeah. Are you and your husband are you guys floating it now, the payments for the company the least. Yeah. We actually we divided I have a business partner, we have and we're doing another kind of cult like a spinoff of the business, but that it's not covering all of the expenses. So we're about to run out as essentially I'm trying it is bringing in a decent income, but it's not it's not enough. And we don't need a retail space to do it.

Got it established that it does.

All right. Here's the deal. We're running into a commercial break. This has got a lot of complexity to it. But here's what I want you to do. I want you to sit down with the bank, and you're not the only one going through this and tell them the situation that to you would take you about two years to get profitable, but in a much quicker time, maybe show them a plan on how you could pick it up, see if they'll do something on those loan payments and some type of forbearance, a situation without penalty.

I think you've got to look at all options right now. I really do. And I would also say this side business, this extra income, I fight. I keep fighting on that just to be able to take care of this loan, then you could shut it down. Do you have to pay the loan regardless? I keep fighting on. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is the Dave Ramsey Show where America hangs out to have a conversation about life, money and career and relationships.

I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by my colleague Anthony O'Neal this hour as we take you through your situation, triple eight eight two five five two two five. That's triple eight eight two five five two two five. Let's go to Portland, Oregon, where McKenzie joins us. McKenzie, how can we help?

Hi. Can I get you anything? So my question today is for Ken. How do I reach out to people in the parks in proximity of the job I'm looking for if I don't necessarily know them?

OK, and tell me the job that you want.

So I've been working in the banking industry for three years now. I'm only 21 and I want to get into the mortgage industry, so I want to become a mortgage loan officer. OK, great. Can't really do that until your mortgage loan officer assistant. So yeah, I want to reach out to realtors and. OK, great. So great.

And you're in the banking industry, so you know how to find those folks, don't you?

Yes. OK, so just because you don't know those people doesn't mean that there's not a way. And I appreciate that you call to figure it out, but let's talk about the people you do know and you just talk about the branch that you're in or the actual company. So let's think about all the different branches. Let's just start there and just let your mind run through all these different branches of the bank you work for and how many people you actually know.

If you call them up and said, hey, do you know any mortgage pros? You know real estate professionals who know mortgage, you know, assistance and things of that nature because you know the job you want. And so you're trying to get in the proximity of the mortgage professionals who would essentially be hiring you and that assistant role. And so the way to get to know those folks is find out who you know that knows those folks and you're already in banking and and so and then so, you know, bankers know this, real estate professionals.

And so who do you know that's in real estate? How many different real estate professionals do you know in your area? McKinsey. I only know two, but I don't know them like super well, doesn't matter how well do you know them? If I said to them, if I if I ran into them today and I said, hey, tell me about McKensie, what would they say? They were talking about. There we go. So if you ran into him and said hi, would they stop and talk to you or would they just look at you like you were an alien?

Now, the helicopter. OK, so if you reach out to him and say, hey, listen, I just need five minutes of your time, when can I hop on a quick phone call with you? Or if you e-mailed and said, hey, I'm looking to transition from banking to the mortgage industry and I need a couple connections, do you know any of these type of people that work in this space? If you do, would you connect me to them?

How would they respond to that? I'm sure they'll be happy to do so. OK, so that's it. That is the proximity principle. It says in order to do what Mackenzie wants to do, she's got to be around people that are doing it and in places where it is happening. Anthony, I think what's going on here for Mackenzie Mackenzie don't feel alone here because we all do. There's a little bit of fear of of kind of getting rejected.

It gets back to the you know, we were little kids and we go, do you like me? Check the box. Yes or no. We pass the note in class and we're all nervous.

Is is she going to check? Yes. Or is she going to check? No. There's that fear of rejection. I know that you've dealt with that a lot.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Not just rejection, but am I worthy of their time, you know? And so I definitely want to recommend her this to do exactly what Khancoban just torchy. And not to be bold, because here's another thing that I've learned. When you go up to those people, when they see that you really want this, that even makes them want to help you out even more. Absolutely. But if you go to Malibu, like, hey, do you have to go?

Like, I don't because you don't have the energy nor the time it seems like. So go up to him like, hey, Kim. Mr. Ken, how are you doing? My name is such and such and I really want to I love what you're doing and I really want to learn more about it, because one day I want to do that. Yeah. What do I need to do?

Mackenzie, what Anthony just told you is a winning recipe. It's hunger and humility coming together. And when people see somebody with a humble hunger, they go, I want to help that person because because now I'm investing in them and I feel like my investment is going to come back to me.

Yes, that's what you're talking about. I love that. Great advice. Triple 8255, two to five. Let's go to Boston, Massachusetts, where Alana joins us. Alana, how can we help?

Can Anthony, I'm so honored to be talking to you. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I'm calling my mom babysat for five and six, so I am contributing fifteen percent into retirement. I don't have children. And so I'm skipping babies at five and I'm planning on trying to pay down my home that I that I have. I was just trying to get an understanding of trying to prioritize things in this step. So, you know, things like trying to pay off the house early, but maybe also saving for a new roof, maybe some, you know, projects for the house, a deck, a pool, maybe thinking fire and saving for Christmas saving for, you know, some other things.

You know, do you do them all sort of. At the same time, you know what? I try to save for a roof as soon as I can and then try to pay a little bit more on the house. I'm just trying to figure that out.

Yes, that's a great question. And right now, baby, four or five and six, you do this all all that one time. So here's the thing. You're never going to stop investing fifteen percent of your income, OK? Now you can slow down on paying off your mortgage, OK? But you're not going to slow down or you're not going to invest 10 percent compared to fifteen percent. Now you're going to keep investing fifteen percent. But if you're doubling up on your mortgage right now and let's say you do need a new roof eventually.

Yeah. Just make your regular mortgage payment and start making the sinking fund to go towards your roof. So let me ask you the question. What are the top three things you need to be doing right now? Got it.

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't, you know, change my my contributions. So I don't totally understand that. I think the top three things are, you know, maybe adding a pool on the roof and probably three years and, you know, maybe just some thinking finds a new car eventually again, you know, probably just some Christmas fun, things like that.

OK, so I love I love the Christmas finds. I love the holiday funds. You start that because, you know, a lot of people think Christmas shows up on them and it just surprises them. So I love the way she's thinking about, you know what? I know Christmas is coming and I want to buy some gifts. That's great. Now, let me also tell you this on Milana. I'm going to flip pool and roof. Here's why.

Because your roof is going to help to value your house. Your pool is not. All right. So I want to go ahead and put that roof as in number one, because not only would have the value the house, but it will help you. So if it rains, if anything happens, nothing's going to come through the roof and you won't have any issues. So I would deaf. Yeah, I would definitely get that.

And then if you need a new car, I'm a get the car before I get the pool.

So the pool may be the last thing on my list because roof is going to cover you add value. A car is going to help you get to and from, you know, you're working at destination's in a pool is not really a need and it's is something real nice to have.

Yeah, it's the truth. You're really preachin here because here's the we all kind of look at the pool and I got really neat the pool.

I mean. Oh I need that. Could you I mean, I'm working hard. I need that Saturday afternoon floating around with the with the lemonade and one side here and the kids are flopping and splashing around. Well, she doesn't have any kids, so she'll probably get in that pool.

Can't once a month or once every other month.

Yeah, I'm. I mean, I'm agreeing with you, I'm just telling you, I'm feeling the pain that you just drunk, OK, because there is something about that, you know, because they've worked really hard and they're working on four or five and six.

And she's got a plan, by the way. Yes, but I love that you asked her to go give me one, two and three. She said pulls number one.

But, you know, because you think about it, boss, that she's in the Boston area. Yeah. You know what winter times like in Boston. Yes, sir.

So the pool feels like a need when you live in the Northeast, you know, because like summer is I don't even know if they get a three month summer in the Northeast, you know, but I know that the winter the boss will make you feel like your roof is the issue.

Yes, she already knows that that roof is going to need some repair and that that can become a real financial problem. You want to talk about sucking up an emergency fund in one fell swoop. A roof problem will do that.

Now, suck up all of your emergency fund and then some. Yeah, that's true. So I like I like it. Get the roof fixed and then enjoy the pool. Well, you told you told him, right? Because now now when they get to the pool, they're really relaxing.

Yeah. And you're really going, like you said, in that area, she's only going to enjoy the pool maybe three months max out of that season. Yeah. So spending 100000 dollars on a pool. Good stuff. All right. He is Anthony Neal. I'm Ken Coleman. We want to thank our producer, James Childs. We want to thank Kelly Daniel. And we want to thank you, America. You are a great audience and you are why we do the show.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show.

Dave here. We just launched a brand new survey and we'd love your feedback. You'll be entered to win a one hundred dollar Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary. Take the survey at Dave Ramsey dotcom slash survey or text survey to thirty three 789. Feel like you're in a rut and living life, just going through the motions, build confidence in yourself and learn to trust the God who created you, check out the Christy Wright Show, where Christy inspires you to break through your limitations and create the life you're proud to live.

Hey, all, I'm Christy, right? You know, it's so easy to feel stuck. You live life just going through the motions, doing dishes, doing laundry, carpool lines and a whole list of commitments that bring you no joy. Why do we live like that? That's why I want you to check out the Christy Wright Show. Each episode will help you build confidence in yourself and the God that created. You hear more from the Ramsey network, including the Christy Wright Show wherever you listen to podcast.

Hey, it's James, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but check the episode notes for links to products and services you've heard about during this episode. Thanks for listening.