Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollars Car Rental Studios. It's the Dave Ramsey Show where debt is dumb. Cash is king and a paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice, my co-host today here on the air, Rachel Cruze, number one, best selling author, Ramsey personality, my daughter, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube star, YouTube.

Oh, yeah.

There we go. And there you go.

Because she's the nice version of the family and people like her on YouTube because she's not nasty.

No, I don't know if that's it. I'm polite sometimes. So you weren't nice. I mean, we have a different approach of how we. Take we give the advice sometimes people love you, though, that's why they're listening right now. That's right. You make good radio. Well, it's compelling.

Yeah, it's true. You're compelled to listen.

All right. We're going to talk to you guys about your life and your money. We're here to do that. And we obviously have a good time doing it. We hope you are eight eight two five five two two five.

The advice is free. Some say it's worth what you pay for it.

Adam’s in Philadelphia. Hey, Adam, what's up? I'm going to love you, Dave, and then I deserve how can we help? So I think my wife and I just recently bought a house that might be too much for us, so it's about time to discover it's too much after you've already bought it.

Yeah, well, I to report it to my two months later discovered, you know, not not the greatest time in which he's done it before.

And that happens a lot, though, Adam. OK, so so what's the what's the math? What's happening?

So, I mean, it's not well, too much on these different issues, but so based on our monthly income, what I understand is. We want our borders to give out roughly 25 percent on a 15 year war, about thirty point five on a 30 year fixed mortgage, that we fill out that. So I'm not sure if, like, I may be jumping to conclusions that when you downsize for it, maybe I should follow my gut and we should downsize.

Now, there's two levels to making two levels of panic are there's two levels of something of motion that cause you to move on this level.

One is panic, which you can't exist today and you can exist today. OK, then there's another level that says out there, four or five years, are you still not prospering because of this thing, but you've been able to exist?

OK, you're not in the first one. You're not in a panic, but you've got you do have a little bit too much.

And you've accurately identified that you signed up for more than we would tell you to sign up for. So what is your household income and what do you do for a living?

So before taxes were about one 150, 120 based on bonuses and my wife and I are both teachers. OK, so you're probably not going to see a skyrocket in your income. We're not going to project it's going to double in four years, right? Now we're about we're both charter school teachers as well. So she's performance based, but I'm pretty much the inflation rate and we really don't see much of the climb. Yeah, OK. All right, and how much debt do you have other than the home?

24000. OK. All right, not too bad. Yeah, I feel like, you know, for you, Adam, you kind of are on that on that cusp and and what's what's hard again, it's like, OK, look out five years. Yeah. You're you guys are both teachers, like you said. So it's not like you're going to make commission and you're going to be able to, like, just blow your income out of the water kind of thing.

So. So you have to take that into account and then do the math and figure, OK, how quickly or how much are we willing to sacrifice to get out of this? Twenty four thousand dollars of debt. How long will it take us to get an emergency fund like kind of guy to map out like the next couple of years mathematically of what your money is going to look like and then see where you guys are and be like, OK, if we had a 25 percent take home pay mortgage, how much would that be?

Would we that extra money, is it worth it at that point to sell and buy another house and go through that whole process? So it's kind of one of those I mean, if it was 50 percent of your take home pay, it's like a no brainer for me. You've got to go down. Yeah, that 30 percent. I mean, it's it's right there at the at that, you know, kind of that edge. So I think it's something you and your wife need to talk about and say, OK, is it worth it of what we're going to save if we did get a lower mortgage in a different house?

Or are we going to be in this and we're going have to sacrifice other parts of our lives to get out of this debt faster? Agreed.

Let me give you a strategy that goes exactly with what she's saying. Let's try this, OK?

Let's say we're going to tutor extra after school and create some sort of income. We're going to get on beans and rice, rice and beans budget and clear up the twenty four thousand, which is stuff you already knew we were going to say. Right.

And as soon as that's cleared up or while that's cleared up, let's run the math out and say if we were to pay this mortgage that we currently have at the current interest rate at a fifteen year rate rather than a 30, that creates a payment of X.

What does our income need to become so that that X is 25 percent of it and let's say that within three to five years, somewhere in that range, if you don't get your income to that level, then you probably are having a house that's slowing down your progress, because the problem with having a house payment is not that you can't pay it in your case because you can pay it.

The problem is it weighs down everything else. So when you get rid of my next car, you didn't have any wiggle room in your budget to save up to pay for the car when you get ready to go, Christmas are going on vacation. You're having a budget really, really, really tight because all your money is being sucked up by a house payment. And in your case, it's not all of it. It's just too much of it. And I think you can make it.

You're just going to make very careful choices. And I think your income is going to reach that twenty five reach the point that you're paying a 15 year on this mortgage and it's 25 percent of your income. I think you'll probably reach that in three to five years.

And so you'll be fine. It's not ideal. It's not what we would have signed you up for. But it's not bad enough to force the sale of the house artificially right now. OK, that's encouraging. Yes, we'll get to work right now and make sure we're doing the right thing.

Yeah, absolutely. And then, Adam, I will add the other side of the coin to that. We do talk to people and that they decide on their own. Even with all that math there, you know, it's not worth it. We're sell get a smaller house and just, you know, have have extra money to go crazy on the debt and lifestyle and all that. We just have more wiggle room and it's worth it for them to do it.

So, again, it's not like either or answer. And so it's kind of it is up to what you guys what you guys want to do, because we've heard both sides of the story. Right. I'll give you an example of that.

That's not it's not Adam's situation.

But when you were a tiny child, a couple that was in our church and they had three kids that were older than you all, and we considered them good parents. So we were kind of looking as parents of babies. We're kind of looking at this couple like kind of like to have parts of their parenting. I like what they're doing.

They right before we met them, they had moved down in a house like 30 percent down.

I mean, weigh down like a substantial change in neighborhood and house and everything, because they felt very, very, very strongly in their house.

And I'm not impugning this on everyone that that the lady wanted to be at home full time with her kids.

And the only way she could be a full time at home mom with the kids was not in the house they had. So they said, we're making a choice here. She can either be home or we can have this house. Oh, yeah. And they said we want her home. And they moved them home. And they did end up raising great kids, for that matter. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. In an uncertain world, being a good steward of your money is more important than ever.

While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian health care ministries, or S.A.M., has provided a budget friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting C.H. Ministries Duggie Budget that. S.H. Ministries. Duggie Budget.

Thanks for joining us, America, Rachel Pru's Ramsey personalities, my co-host today here on the air, open phones, a triple eight eight to five five two two five. Heather's with us from Topeka. Hi, Heather. How are you?

I'm doing good. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? OK, so I'm an incoming freshman at a public university and I'm trying to figure out how to find funds. Well, not necessarily find funds, but manage my money through college so that I can graduate debt free.

Good for you. That's a great question, Heather. How much money do you have saved right now?

Well, my parents have been saving. They've been very, very, very gracious. And I am so lucky to have them. I have quite a few different funds. I have CDs, mutual funds, EFA and a savings and checking account total that is up to fifty nine thousand dollars. I will be coming up this coming up soon because my car is starting to die and I'm trying to figure out how to cash flow. What's wrong with your car?

Well, so it's an older Carstone, thousand miles on it. I mean, you're cut, you're cutting out. It's got how many miles of. Hundred and eighty thousand. Typically, that's not a lot, but we took it to the. Like to a walk, to a shop, and they said it cost fifteen hundred dollars to fix it. So what's it worth? It's it's not worth that much. OK, so you wouldn't fix it?

I don't. Yes. So we're not fixing it. So how much the school cost? Well, with all of the scholarships, I think the first semester will cost 5000. But that's not going to like I have to go to school for seven to eight years to be where I want to become.

What are you going to become either a surgical nurse or a nurse anesthetist?

Hmm. So I have to get my four year bachelor's degree and then go back to school for either anesthesia or just other certifications. Mm hmm. OK. Have you mapped out what all of that is going to cost?

No, I just thought, well, I didn't even really get how much it's going to cost this semester. I think the balance this semester will be 5000, but it'll go to the car, you know, are you able to live at home and go to school?

I can, but I'm in the honors program. They want me to live on campus with the honors student.

Yeah, I want you to tell you, but you don't owe me money. So it's not really an option. You want to be a nurse, Anestis, you don't want live in the honors dorm, yes, one one's a high calling. The other one's not. So because they want to pay for it and if you can live there for free, that's fine, but I don't think that's what they're offering, is it? No, it's only a 500 dollars question.

Yeah. But it cost you how much to live in that dorm. Ms. Well, total costs, the dorm, I'm not sure the dorm is probably with the food meal plan is probably close to 10000.

Yeah, and so and you can save ten thousand dollars by living at home. Yes, yeah, done, ding, ding, OK, we just move that money, all right, and so you're going to show your junkie car and you're going to get you a little better junkie car, but not much better, but not much better.

Two thousand dollar car mean in case your dad and mom aren't walking you with it, walking with you on this. Let me tell you what kind of two thousand dollar car to buy ugly.

But very reliable mechanically. OK, so, yeah, that's the problem with mine. It's not mechanically sound. Yeah, one of my buddies picked me up the other day to drop me off at the shop in Big Red, Big Red as a 1994 Granada land Auckland yacht, OK.

Twenty two thousand actual miles.

It had been sitting in his grandmother's garage. It is pink. It's not really red because it's faded. It is the ugliest freaking car I have ever seen and it is so reliable.

And it was 500 bucks and only 22000 miles on it now. But you got to give a car like that a name. But you know what that name is?

That name is Nurse Anastacio School. You know what a nurse and Estes's makes. I'll tell you what, they make a lot. A lot, 300, 400 grand, some of them.

OK, so I want you to go get that school and drive anything you want.

Lighter because you drove Big Red. OK, and I want you to live at home so you get that degree because you got a great career path. But here's here's a rule.

When you're setting goals and Rachel and I talk about this all the time, we talk about here in our business all the time.

Begin with the end in mind, Stephen Covey said in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. What that means is you need to go ahead and lay out exactly what we're going to we're going to live at home and we're going to do this and it's going to cost us this. I think you can get through undergrad there for less money than you have.

OK, if you live at home, matter of fact, I'm positive you can, that you can get through undergrad in an in-state school, in-state public university in Oklahoma or in Kansas.

I'm sorry.

And you can get through for less than 60000 bucks and buy 2000 big rent.

Yeah. And I would say, Heather, you know, like my big red just get you a little black Honda Civic. Call it a day. Do what you gotta do. Dave, let's talk about the other cars. You can find a cheap car. That's just.

Yeah, but don't concentrate. All right. I know people that want a little Mazda six to six, but and the stupid things got 190000 miles on the 64. That sexy when you're sitting on the side of the road broken down. Right.

I think, Heather, I don't want to take you literally if it is bigger. It's great. But I'm just saying you can find a great 2000 dollar car. That's a black Honda Civic, 500 dollars come true. So that's what you got to do. Get you an old car is fine. And then you need a map out very specifically what what the school is going to cost you for four years. Look at your essay. Look at the growth.

Look exactly what's going to happen. Map out how much money, if you need some each semester, how much you need, and then how many hours you have to work to fulfill that. And then you're looking on to to medical to medical school.

Much easier to work a bazillion hours an undergrad than it is in grad school.

Yes. Live. Live like the classic college student. Just no, not even now. Don't live like you're not playing beer pong. You're working.

Don't you know, classic classic college student is like broke and you are working like that's like you ain't really ramen noodles.

That's what I did in college. Yeah. You're broke. You got money. So like, that's how you need to live because I'm a good dad.

That's right. That's why you had ramen noodles in college. They built character turned complaining about it at all.

I'm not complaining. I'm just telling you whether you have to work and you're really broke and it's fine. Like that's the time to do it. You don't want to be broke and eating ramen noodles at 32 years old with two kids.

You don't want to do that because when you're 400000 dollars in debt. That's right. Because you wanted to be a nursing assistant. And so don't you know, you can do this. You're a bright young lady. This is very possible. All we did was take you through the first couple of steps of making decisions that caused you to hit your goal. Once you have your goal, you say this is the goal. I want to graduate here. I graduate in six years, six point five years.

And here's a program I can do that in.

And that's about really what it'll take you. And if and here's a program and here's a less expensive program and I got to get qualified for that and I got to get scholarships and I got to drive a cheap car and I got to live at home. And what has to be true for me to be with my sixteen with my fifty nine thousand dollars worth of stuff, what has to be true? How much money do I have to make? How much money Mom and Dad chip in?

In addition, mom and dad have been generous already so that we hit this goal.

And if you come out of school, so nursing this, this is 100 percent that free touchdown baby touchdown. I mean, the financial goal, the financial milestones you will be able to hit will blow your freaking mind before you'll spend the next decade cleaning up the mess because you didn't have a plan.

So you are too smart to do it the wrong way. You're going to do it the right way. You called here. Thank you for the bravery to do that. I applaud you. You're a rock star. Develop a detailed plan of what has to happen and what your price is you're going to pay to get there and you it'll be worth it. You can do this. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debris stage, Alex is with us.

Hey, Alex, how are you? Hey, Dave. Hey, Rachel. How are you? Welcome. Where do you live? I'm from Hartford, Connecticut. Cool. Well, welcome to Nashville.

Thank you. And all the way here to do your debt free scream. How much have you paid off? About one hundred ninety three thousand nine hundred dollars.

Good night. How long did this take? 19 months. OK, this is our story. And what's your range of income?

I started about 100000, worked its way up to about one hundred and sixty. And then, you know, covid shifted that a little bit since then. OK, cool. What do you do for a living?

I'm a software engineer for data analytics with the health care company. And you are kicking butt. Yeah, well done. Very well done.

So 194 in, what, 19 months student loans knew. What was it? It was my house.

You paid off your house? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Weird girl. I am for sure. How old are you? I'm 27. Oh, my God. Yes. Wow. Yeah, you are awesome. Because the. What? You did it. I didn't pay any of it. What's this. What's this house worth.

It's probably about 270, 280 now. Good Lord.

It's amazing. Yeah. You can't be sold.

You got to be like old air.

It feels great. It feels great. What made you, Alex, want to do this? Because at twenty seven a lot of people just kind of settle in with the mortgage and just say, you know, it's just the you know what.

Fifteen years. Yeah. Why did you decide to kill it.

Well I well my story started before then, probably about ten years ago. I graduated college, didn't know anything about money, but happened to listen to podcasts, got books from family and was able to pay off about 30000 loans pretty quick. And I love learning. So I kept listening to the podcast. I kept reading your books and it just was more and more ingrained in me over all that time. So I bought my house about two years now ago and I thought, well, I'll probably do it quicker than 15 years, but I wasn't going to go super Gazal.

Then it became a game. If I throw this bonus at my house, if I get an extra room to live with me and I bring that in, if I get an extra side hustle, I think at one point I had up to six side hustles. Wow. I was doing a lot. I liked staying busy. What kind of.

So what was the most lucrative shot.

US probably having roommates for sure. OK, anywhere between two and four at a time. But I had a couple of catering jobs. I turned all of my passions into hobbies. So I love fitness. I became a personal trainer and a bunch of other little side miscellaneous things, but it became a game the more I could throw. I saw my spreadsheet nerd through all this extra money, how many months it would take off of my mortgage being able to pay off the house and eventually, you know, down to ten years, down to eight, down to five.

And it was nineteen months. And I said, you know, I got to do it. So I did it. Knock it out.

Yeah. Amazing. And your family's with you. So what, what have they been saying about this.

Wow.

Not much they can say but yeah they're very, they're very impressed and they helped me along the way. Parents became debt free last year, so that was helpful along my journey. Yeah. Friends from Connecticut following the plan just became debt free. So we're kind of doing that together. Yeah, everyone's very happy and whirlwind.

Everything you touch gets knocked over. Well done. Something like that. Well done. Well done. Wow.

So what was the hardest part? Are you. Yeah. Because you're what. Twenty seven in the seven. So it's OK as a twenty seven year old.

I mean you're working like crazy. Yeah. Making sacrifices obviously not doing anything crazy extravagant with your bonuses that you're getting none of that. So like how does that work. Because some 20 year olds are watching or listening and they're thinking, oh man, I don't know, is it worth it?

She didn't have a very good life. Well, I was still a little bit in poor college student mode, maybe a step above that. But I was able to save a lot and I didn't really need to spend money. I knew what my needs were versus wants and just prioritized. I wanted to get my house paid off. It seemed like a great goal. So that was my priority. I stuck to it.

Have you always been like goal driven, like since you were little kid even? Probably, yeah. Yeah. So like at least in her head. Yes. Entertainment for you is knocking stuff over. Yeah. I mean knocking goals.

OK, set a goal that's entertainment over more entertaining going out to a club or going on a trip entertaining for you.

Knocking something down. Get knocked it out. Oh yeah. Raising something up. I'm hit that and then you hit it.

Yeah. You just you're you're belltower. That's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. You applied and you applied it to this subject matter. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Exactly.

And obviously to your career as well because you were making an outstanding. Yeah. For sure. I'm so just touched down girl. Where to go? Right, Alex? So what was what was the hardest parts, as you know? You know, I think of the 20 year olds watching right now, and I think it is impossible. I don't even know how like, how did she do that? Like, what would you say is like, oh, yeah, this was the tough part of it.

But obviously it's not all unicorns and Skittles.

I mean, well, maybe it is unicorns and Skittles. So I'm a very disciplined person. And so it really wasn't that difficult for me. I knew what my goals were and I stuck to it. You know, some days last summer I probably worked 16 to 18 hours at three or four jobs a day. You were tired? I was tired. I would come home and I'd have roommates all over, which they were all great people. But, you know, sometimes you just need to relax and rewind.

But I knew what my goal was, though as tough as that might have been, I was able to get through it.

Amazing. Absolutely incredible, Alex. Absolutely incredible. I'm blown away.

The bumper sticker on her refrigerator door says, no whining. She knocks it out. You're incredible. Absolutely incredible. Very, very, very well done. OK, so.

We have somebody out there that has a. Mortgage or has a large student loan debt that's in your age group and we've all read news reports that say some people think in any age group, but always in your 20s, you're more susceptible to it that I'm stuck and I can't get ahead. So what what do you tell them from your life experience? You literally paid off one hundred and ninety four thousand dollars in 19 months. So what do you tell them?

The key to getting out of debt is because it can be done.

You're you're standing here as proof.

Yeah. One of my favorite sayings, it, you know, started when I was big and fitness came into my financial life. Is sacrifice today for a better tomorrow? So you'll make your life better with the things that you do today. You say multiple different versions of that same quote throughout your show, live like no one else show later.

You think you have like no one else.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it feels great when you're there, so just pursue. Yeah.

So basically it's a short term sacrifice and you can, you can, you can do almost anything for 19 months. Yeah. You really can. If it's only 19 months.

If you did that for 19 years, we would call you a workaholic and you'd be out of balance psychologically and everything else. But for 19 months is paying a price to win the Super Bowl.

And now I have so much freedom because of that.

You can do anything you want, do the rest of your life. You're going to be a multi, multi, multi millionaire before you're even 40. Ezekial, the the math the math is unbelievable. Yeah.

I mean, you take 150 grand a year coming in and you have zero payments in the world, no house payment even, and you start investing just a decent share that somehow you have an incredible life and of consumption and generosity.

But just investing a decent share of that, it turns into serious. So how did it feel the moment you paid that last mortgage payment? It was great.

I was in the office and it was two days before Connecticut shut down for covid. Whoa. And so I was able to do a little I'm debt free scream with my family because no one was in the office. I was alone, but it was great.

It's great. That felt amazing.

Well, and then covered it. And you got no payments. Exactly. I didn't have to worry. I wasn't really worried about jobs in particular. Then it was pretty stable, but I still had that in my pocket.

You had to worry about it. You're so impressive. What a hero. Thank you. Well done. You're inspiring to our viewers, our listeners, everything else. Absolutely. Absolutely incredible.

All right.

We've got a copy of Chris Hoggins book for you every millionaires, because there's no question that's the next chapter in your story. Yeah. So very, very well done, Alex from Bloomfield, Connecticut, 27 years old, 194 thousand paid off in nineteen months.

That's her house and everything. She is a hundred percent debt free. She's officially weird. Count it down. Let's hear a debt free scream three to one.

I'm debt free.

Yeah. Wow. Absolutely incredible, amazing, so impressive. Wow, this is the day, Ramzi. Our scripture, the day first, Samuel, 16 seven, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature because I have rejected him, for the Lord sees not as a man. This man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Herman Melville said it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

Oh, that's good. Very good. All right.

Up next is going to be Jacob. And Jacob is in Washington, D.C..

Hey, Jacob, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show today. Hey, Rachel, thanks again for taking my call. Rachel, congratulations on the upcoming publication. I'm looking forward to preordering today as well. So I'll just jump right in. I am just starting. I just finished reading your books. Dave and I took a bonus pay from work and use that. Traditionally, I would just throw that in savings and let it sit, but actually use that to pay off my credit card debt.

So just pay off about thirty five thousand dollars in credit card debt. And I'm looking to start chipping away at student loans, which is right around for me. So thank you. My question is actually. I'm driven to go Gizelle, but I'm a little hesitant, kind of multifactorial, one obviously the state of, you know, the world right now, but also my company might be going through a restructuring. So I'm very highly motivated to go.

And Gizelle, after paying off credit card debt and a little bit, has intense. I would love to have a little bit of advice from you.

OK, well, what are you I wouldn't not I would either go, Gizella. I would just push, pause and pile up cash. OK, you're either not doing the plan or you're doing the plan with Gizelle. That makes sense.

And pushing pause is a reasonable and a smart thing to do, depending on the level of uncertainty that you've got. All jobs are uncertain.

Some people are under the illusion that they're not, but they're all uncertain. Everyone is on straight commission, trol, not going to work for six weeks, you'll quit getting a check. Everybody gets paid when you work, period, and so, you know, everyone has a level of uncertainty whether they perceive it or not. Now yours is added because of a restructure and some covid implications. So what would you put percentages, percentage of probability that you're going to lose your job before you get 50 K paid off?

I would probably say less than 10 percent now, however, with a potential second wave that would exponentially increase within the next six months. OK, so what do you make a year around 140 and how quick do you pay off 50 K?

Is that your only that's your only remaining debt? I have a mortgage as well. OK. Don't talk about your baby. Step to Gizelle. Intense. OK, so 50 K makes you debt free. And she cleared the credit card debt, I understand correctly. Correct. How fast are you going to do that? I would like to do it as soon as possible. Give me a date. A number of months to the end of the year, I would like to have my student loans up so you can pay off 50000 in six months, making 140, correct?

Pretty aggressive. That's like zero life. I'm not even I'm not even sure that you can do that mathematically, but let's just say you did.

OK, so then what happens during that six months? You have almost no probability of being laid off, correct?

Correct, but should be 100 percent debt free and then after that six months, your probability being laid off would be what? I would say close to 30 to 50 percent in the ballpark, depending on how they're restructuring.

And what do you do? Well, what is your career field? I work in medical fields. Oh, good. That's wonderful. OK, so if you've been successful doing that, you can do a lot of different stuff, right? Correct, yeah. Including other medical sales.

Very, very transferable skill, big time. Yeah, and I think you said Jacob of a second wave hits, that's their probability of you losing your job.

But we don't wanna meet you, Tom.

A second win of a covert or the restructure of the restructuring. Oh, my bad. Sorry, I'm in covid brain. I was in the second life.

That's I guess I guess it could be either. You guys are both correct. Sorry. Yeah. So the restructure is going to have two waves of of occurring and your probability being laid off in the second wave comes up. Here's what I do.

Let me ask you this. Are you going to get more news during the six months that's going to give you an indicator up or down?

Yes, absolutely. That's usually how the rumor mill or whatever increases and you get either more secure or more scared, right?

Correct, yeah.

Why don't we crank it and play it and keep our ear to the ground. Let's listen to what what the what the tea leaves are saying.

Sounds like a plan. I just needed that external guidance. I appreciate that. Absolutely.

Yeah. I'm just thinking through all I'm doing, asking you questions, that kind of thing. So if overall your your worry is 10 percent period, the answer is no. You go, Garcelle, intense because everybody's got a 10 percent worry.

Some of them just don't know it, you know, but the month to month by reassessing, I think it's great. Yeah. So staying busy for a month and then if they're like, oh no, I really need a pause right here because in two months it can get bad. Sure.

Positon, if you if you get news in September that there's a 60 percent chance in January you're going to lose your job, push, pause, pile up cash.

But that's new news that you don't have the day. Right. Right.

And you just work that through. You're exactly right. Right. So I'll just do the month to month reassessment. And so, yeah, what you're doing is just setting up a war room to do a battle plan and you're fighting your way through this and you're going, OK, and how how far can we extend that without getting ourself in trouble?

And but at the point that you can see a true probability, not a worry of a layoff at that point, push, pause and pile up cash, wherever that is, and just constantly be watching that. And that's north of fifty percent probability. You go, OK, there's a better than half chance I'm going lose my job. Boom, push, pause. I'm kind of generally worried, no, go for it. Yeah, that that's good.

That's a good principle to run on. James is also in Washington, D.C.. Hi, James. How are you?

I'm on nerve center stuff I used to better than I deserve. How can we help?

I got a good problem. I guess my in-laws very generously offered my wife and I two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to help with a down payment on our home. Obviously the amount exceeds the yearly gifts, so they want to structure it as a family loan and they're telling us that it's one that we all have to pay back. So I just want to kind of get your guys feeling on how it could potentially impact our relationship. If we say yes, then we'll definitely owe them a lot of money.

And you they may be offended. My wife is fully on board with taking the money. Well, it's her dad.

Yeah, that makes sense. Now she's got a much more comfortable with it.

I would do it. I would want it all in writing. And it sounds like this, OK, that it's going to be forgiven at the maximum maximum allowable annual gift rate. And in the event of death, it is included in the estate and there will be zero call on the note. In effect, that's not that it's an advance on your inheritance.

Then you. That makes sense, you don't have payments to your in-laws under no circumstances do they have any grounds to ever call the note, nor would any other heirs have the grounds to call on the note upon death, that loan is forgiven.

And can can or might be applied to the estate balance, in other words, you might cut might lower the amount you inherit versus your brother in law.

OK, you see what I'm saying?

Or maybe they haven't done that for the 17 year old yet or whatever. I don't know. But yeah, but 100 percent forgiven at death or applied to the estate and and it's forgiven at the maximum allowable, which is four times the annual, by the way. OK, so he he you know, father in law can give you mother in law, can give you father in law, can give your wife and father in law, mother in law can give your wife.

That's four four times. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the maximum forgivable. And that's the way I would set it up in that way. It's not that and it doesn't get weird. That's a good question. Nice gift, Rachael. Good job. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial piece, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of peace.

Christ Jesus. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show, one of the top four most popular podcasts last year to get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration from the Ramsey network subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts. Money isn't the only thing we talk about around here, get life changing advice on your career from my good friend and career expert Ken Coleman on the Ken Coleman show.

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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.