Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Dr. John Dolan here with my good friend and world famous co-host, Mr. Anthony O'Neal. Anthony, how are we doing?

Hey, man, I really appreciate that intro, man. I mean, I didn't pay for that.

You were a local talent.

You are not your worldwide, John, and you are amazing right now. Keep going.

I'm following in your footsteps, my good man. You blazed a trail. But we are here to take your calls on life and money. Give us a shot at eight to five. Five to five. That's triple eight. Eight to five. Five to 25. You got anything planned coming up?

No, man. Right now it's just a beautiful time. Enjoying the day, enjoying tomorrow. Look for a play, some golf tomorrow. You know, the last one in the last weekend before we can actually get into some cold weather. And so I don't play golf with anything less than 50 degree weather.

So, man, I love sitting next to a good fair weather friend fan. Good fair weather sports person, man. All right, let's get to the phones. Let's go to Jonathan in Pensacola, Florida. Jonathan, good afternoon. How are we? How are we doing?

Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my call. Yeah, you bet. How can we help? I'm a 21 year old business admin student that is nearing the conclusion of my academic career and preparing to launch into full time work life. Over the past two decades, my parents have helped me to build substantial savings account into which I placed every paycheck earned since I was 15 years old. I have no debt and have not earned a credit card to date.

I plan to. After finishing college, I am willing and able to pay cash for the vehicle. My parents advised me to reach out to you to inquire if financing a small portion of the vehicle purchase dollar amount and paying it off soon thereafter would be the best way to start building a credit score. Your advice is most appreciated.

Oh man, I appreciate it. Something very sharp, young man. Let's just say that educated your grammar is ten times better than mine.

Twenty times better than mine. Jonathan, you're an impressive guy. You say you have a lot. How much money do you have saved up right now, Jonathan? I have an excess of 20000 dollars in my savings account. Goodness gracious. OK, 20000. You're going to graduate debt free. Yeah. What kind of car are you thinking about?

Yes. I'm thinking of buying a Toyota Corolla and my family is on the rise, and it's a very wise decision from what I've seen, it's very Toyota products are very, very reliable products.

What year are you thinking about buying? Used by the time I would be buying the vehicle, it would be at least to one or two years old and want to get used so I don't get hit with depreciation. LITZMAN Wise man.

So let me ask you this question, because your question is a fair question. And I want you to think about this answer. If you have cash, why do you need a credit score? Good question. My parents were talking about it because I have plans of their own eventually. I'm currently 21 years old, but I would like to get an apartment and like to buy a house when I'm older. And I know that you need a credit score for both of those things.

That's the reason for my question is it would be wise to take out a small loans for I could pay cash and just pay that off. That way you can start building a credit score at my very young age.

So let me help you out, Jonathan. When I was your age man at 21, 22 years old, violence's by 18, 19, I had a new mind set at 21. I thought the same thing that I have to have a credit score, one to be a young man to to be successful. Three, so I can get an apartment or a mortgage. And what I did, just like you, I said, hey, let me get a 500 on the credit card so I can be a young man so I can get my credit score up so I can get an apartment easy so I can get a mortgage eventually.

And that was a wrong decision for myself. And so with you calling into the show, I just want to help you up on some game a little bit. You do not need a credit score to be successful. No. One, you do not need a credit score to get an apartment number two, and you do not need a credit score to get a mortgage. Now, let me be honest with you. On the flip side, with you not having a credit score, will you have to put down maybe a little bit more money on your apartment?

Yes. Instead of you paying the first month's rent, you're going to pay first month and last month rent. And some people may require extra deposit, but that's fine because you put money in a bank account when you go grow up and you are ready to get a mortgage. There are some things called a manual underwriting or nontraditional credit scores or no credit score lending. And what these banks would do is they will pull up your previous apartment and ask you to proof, ask you for proof, showing that you've paid your apartment on time so that you pay this on time.

And so to answer your question. To be fair, Richard, your question, no Avago pay cash for the car and is therefore for getting one or two years, I would do like a three to four year old car. And that's what I just recently did, bought a four year old vehicle and saved me a lot of money. And then from there, here's how you're going to win, Jonathan, because I think you're going to be a homeowner within the next three to five years.

I am OK with you financing a home when it comes to a 15 year fixed rate and putting 10 to 20 percent down. I want you to keep this same mindset that you have right now with saving your money and living below your means. And as long as you come up with 10 to 20 percent down, you will find a bank that will finance you and give you a home mortgage and you will have to look around to find some apartment complexes.

But, John, this is the same mindset that a lot of people have, you know, especially in this age bracket, that I have to have a credit score to be successful enough to get into an apartment. I know now there will be some that will tell them, no, we will we cannot rent to you. And that's OK. Right. But there are several apartment complexes. When they see you have no debt, you got 20000 on an account they will rent to him.

That's right. And Jonathan, you are already setting the stage for what's going to be an uncommon life. Yeah, right. You are a planner. You are thinking things through. You've got cash in the bank. As a 21 year old, you going to graduate debt free as a 21 year old.

So you your way. You're already weird. Yes. Right. And so you're joining a gang of weird people living weird. And I don't want you to subscribe to traditional living when it comes to being a slave to the FICO score, getting in line behind everybody else, doing the same thing.

Now, man, you're different, Jonathan. And hey, here's a deal. Your parents love you. They love you. They are trying to do the best they can by you. And so we don't need to hate on them. We don't need to say mom and dad, you're an idiot. Now, they're not. They're trying to the best they can. And you called into the show and you got some different wisdom. You're way ahead of the game, man.

And tell your mom and dad to watch this show, watch this segment with Dr. D myself, and then also to just go do some research. But I want to encourage you, brother, nearly 48 percent of the people in the world today can't afford a 400 dollar emergency. This young man got twenty thousand dollars sitting.

Nako, I can guarantee you there are millions and millions and millions of grown adults with families that don't have twenty thousand dollars in a checking account.

Oh, Jonathan, you're ahead of the game, my man. Yes. I want to jump to the screen screen and just hug you, bro. I'm so plump right now, young man, with this kind of money.

Oh, get yourself a great. He's already gone on the Corolla, man.

That's what I'm saying. Jonathan, you got to start it off right today. Listen, America, get a Corolla, put some money in the bank. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Yes, folks, mortgage rates are really low, and while that's great news, watch out for mortgage lenders with a slick pitch claiming they have the lowest rates.

Those deals often come with bad advice and hidden fees instead. I want you to call Churchill Mortgage to buy a new home or refinance because they think, like I do call today, triple A loan, 200 or Churchill Mortgage Dotcom.

This is a paid advertisement in MLS ID one five nine one in MLS Consumer Access Dog, equal housing lender 1749 Mallory Lane Sweet 100 Brentwood, Tennessee three seven zero two seven. This is the Dave Ramsey Show, I'm John Boloney, joined by my co-host and good friend, Anthony O'Neal. We are taking your calls about life money, triple eight to five, five to 25. That's eight 8255. Let's go to Jenny in Seattle, Washington. Jenny, how are we doing this afternoon?

Hi, guys, it's good to meet you in person. I'm a long time listener, first time caller, and I have kind of an emotional versus financial question for you. My mom passed away in September from cancer. And I think, you know, it's it's been really hard to lose her. I'm an only child and we've always been very close. And I've always I'm also a single parent myself and have been my son's whole life. So she was a very strong role for both of us.

And so that's that's been really tough, especially this year. She did leave me enough financially to pay off the remainder of my debt. I was in that baby step and have maybe about two years left on my own plan and then I'm debt free and have some liquidity I didn't have previously. And it's leading me to consider quitting my job. I, I love the job that I do. I'm an accounting manager, but it's very high stress and demanding.

And I've only been able to take about one week off after my mom's debts and heading into my busy season. It's just it's overwhelming. She also left me her house in addition to some liquid assets and trying to just unwind her house and decide what to do with it and get it in order and just find time to process grief. I'm finding myself considering quitting and I'm a certified management accountant. If I were to go get my master's degree, I could get my CPA certified public accountant license and move into public accounting, which is also very demanding, but built to better allow time off in the private industry I'm in and I just don't want to make poor financial choices.

I doing what I do for a living. I generally know the best choices and listening to the show, but I'm very emotional even in my decisions right now and just wanted to call in sick. You guys really cover both of those ends of the spectrum.

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your trust and for your call. Yeah. Let's start with the money part here. Yeah.

Break it down for me a little bit more. Jenny, how much are you getting within the inheritance.

Yeah, so liquid is about five hundred and fifty thousand three hundred of that is in an inherited IRA, so I'll have to drain that over the next ten years with the correct. Yes. And then the rest is just brokerage and cash accounts. Also with me here house, it's got no mortgage on it and it's worth a little under five hundred k. I went ahead and had an appraisal done to protect from capital gains in the future if I do have to sell it.

But I emotionally I'd like to keep it. I just haven't thought through what makes sense with that yet.

So you look at loss of an inheritance right now between. Yeah, yep.

House and she also is left behind. She she wrote knitting pattern books for a living and so she's left behind her digital assets and the business and that they will continue to sell at a lower volume than what when she was alive of course. But that will be a continued income stream in the future. Yeah.

And so right now, from a financial perspective, you're in a good, healthy place. You set your debt free, correct? Yep. Yeah. And you do already have a fully funded emergency fund. I do. OK, great. And then you're already living in the house that you want to live in for the next few years. Yeah, now I have two houses all of a sudden, and I love it, it's hard to know what to do there.

Here's something I want to hear, something I'm going to recommend.

That is, I believe this is really going to be up to you. I think right now you have a great heart. I want John to talk into the emotional side, because I think the practical side, when it comes to the finances you have now, here's something that I would recommend from a financial practical perspective, since that's your mom's house and you want to keep that from an emotional standpoint, rent it, you know, maybe fix it up, make it look real nice.

You're sitting on five hundred thousand dollars, fix it up and rent it out. Let it generate you and your family some income. Then what I would do is I would jump on a phone with one of our smart investors and tell them, hey, I got 550000, I was 300. This is going to be coming from a mutual fund and I just want to make sure I got to pull it out. But what can I reinvest that into to make me some more money?

We don't have enough time to really dissect that here on the phone call, but I would definitely recommend that you do that. But I mean, honestly, take a little bit of that and maybe treat you and your family out somewhere. But I would definitely jump on a phone and figure out of this five fifty what can I do with 450000 and had to turn that into a million down the road and then five hundred thousand dollars in a house. You know, I'm going to see here.

How can I fix that up a little bit, get it rentable and then rent that out and allow that to generate some extra income for my family. Not but before we do this, we do have to make sure we had a healthy place emotionally. Right.

So, Jenny, you said something that stuck out to me, and I think it's going to be the foundation by which you make all of the decisions. And that is you got a week off. Yeah. And then you had to get right back into it. And the guy who raised me on crisis response was also somebody that I went to as a personal mentor, and when I had a personal tragedy, I was also in in the hunt for another job.

And he gave me some wisdom that as I've continued to live by, which is now that you've had this tragedy, you will make no major decisions for six months to a year.

Yep, until your well, because any and all decisions you're going to make are going to be emotion based, decisions are going to be running from not to write, you found yourself flush with cash.

You found yourself in a unique situation that you didn't foresee, but you also haven't dealt with the grief of your mom. And so before you go quit your job, man, you may have just let me be the great thing to do. You've got cash to go get yourself a master's degree to to move yourself into a different situation that be awesome. But until you fully have that lined out, until you've actually processed your mom's grief and it's not going to go away in six months.

Right. That's going to be a ongoing thing. Right.

Until you've got a platform for you and your your child as a single mom, too. You've got those things lined out I would recommend don't jump, jump, don't jump ship, because I don't want you to find yourself a month from now or two months from now. The smoke is clearing from the crazy season. Right. And you've spent some money and you're a semester into a graduate program and then you're going to be thinking, what did I do?

Right.

And so do this.

Do you have a group of folks that you can talk to? You do have a friend. Do you have a couple of folks that you are in regular connection with out there in Seattle?

I do, yeah. How have they supported you through this?

This time of hearing me literally hearing me go get out and that kind of thing and support? I my company is big enough for multistate and have about 400 employees that there's leave options in place. But now you're totally there is no backup for my role. So I have this intense sense of responsibility. I really cling to the areas I own at work, and it's all deadline driven and tax filing and audits and year end. And I just I there's literally no person trained to cover that.

If I'm out for more than a week. And I knew in my current role this year has been there eight years. I've worked my way up to this. I've had the same boss for that period and he's been good and he's newly in a CFO role. And it's obviously been very challenging here for all businesses. So I have this intense sense of not being able to let go because there's nobody to unload it on. So I feel as if those leave policies don't apply to me.

But listen, listen, listen, the person you're unloading it on is you. The person you're unloading it on is your is your kid. Yeah.

The person you're unloading it on is those men and women who love you and care for you. They're in Seattle. And so for the next few, the next few months, the next few seasons, your work does not get your first your fruits you do.

Your work doesn't get your heart and soul, your child does. And that's going to mean talking to your boss and having a if he's a he's he's a new leader, he's a new CFO, it's time for him to step up and he's going to find out what leadership is all about because his rock star, his anchor, is going to come to him and say, I'm not well, I need to process my mom. I need 60 days. I need 30 days.

And I know it's in the year. I know it's busy and I know it's not. It's an inopportune time. And you're going to find out if this is the company you're going to work for a long time or is this is a company that you don't want to be a part of. But it's right now it's time for you to to turn the dial back and look in the mirror and say, Jenny's worth investing in, my family's worth investing in.

And I need to grieve that wonderful, wonderful mom who raised me and cared for me and my son. What a blessing. Spent some time on you. Take that leave policy and let the rest go. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is the Dave Ramsey Show, I'm John Delany, joined here by my co-host and good friend Anthony O'Neal. Let's go to Rebecca out in Buffalo, New York. Rebecca, how's it going?

Hey, I'm great. How are you? Outstanding. How can we help today?

OK, well, I had a question about boundaries. I listen to your show quite a bit and I hear you talk a lot about setting boundaries, especially with family and especially around the holidays. But I was just wondering if you could maybe address how to be on the flipside of that when somebody sets a boundary that makes the rest of the family kind of uncomfortable and awkward.

Hey, this is the first time I've ever been asked the other side of the boundary question. I love this. Rebecca Anthony is going to be good. All right. Go for it, Rebecca.

Well, my sister is kind of going through, like, a bit of a, I don't know, midlife crisis or something. And she's she's made it very clear to the rest of the family that she is not willing to talk to any of us about anything that's going on in her life. And we're not allowed to ask her any personal questions at all.

Okay. And so I'm kind of writing maybe too strong of a word, but I'm not really looking forward to like that are on the table, you know, all of us all together, and none of us are allowed to have a kind of conversation with her. You know, we got to constantly filter, like, is this too personal? Is she going to get mad if I ask this? What about this? You know, so what what about just not asking her questions?

That just seems rude. Well, it would be, except that she told you, don't ask me any questions about my life. And is it going to be annoying? Yes. And is it fair for you to say, hey, we get that? You asked us not to do this. This is new for us. And so we're going to ask you to remind us. Right, because we're going to forget we're going to stumble over this because we love you and care about you.

But we want to respect that. You've said don't ask us any questions. And so we're going to try if we forget, if we lean over during dinner and we just ask this one question and then just give us a hand signal, say, I really don't to talk about that, give us some grace. And I think you deserve that. Right. But at the end of the day, it sounds like she's made Thanksgiving a little bit easier.

And she said this part's off limits and it's annoying and it's frustrating, but it kind of is what it is. What do you think, Anthony?

But, Rebecca, I want to ask this question to what does she say is off limits specifically? Did she say her life or this part of my life?

Oh, well, I mean, like we can talk about like our childhood, like, you know, childhood memories and stuff like that, but it just like we're all concerned about her and what she's going through.

Is she dating someone they all don't like or she working at a job you don't like or what's what do you think?

We aren't we don't know. She's she's still she's still married, but she's not with her husband. She moved to a different state. And I'm not sure what date she has a job that I don't know anything about. I don't even know what she's doing right now.

So here's the thing. Here's a great gift you can give her. Yeah. And I hope everybody hears this often when we love people and they're going through pain the way we love to lean into that pain. And this is this is coming from a good place most of the time. Not always, but most of the time. Is we want to give them our wisdom, our experience and our advice, and one of the greatest gifts you can give to somebody who's hurting is your presence and just your sitting next to them until they invite you in to, hey, what should I do here?

Because my guess is your sister struggling with shame. Your sister struggling with. You heard her fancy sister, Rebecca's got a great marriage and everything's working out awesome, and mom and dad don't like fill in the blank.

And so instead of leaning into, hey, I really want to know what's going on so I could help you. She has said in a roundabout way, the way you can help me sit by me at Thanksgiving and let's not get into that kind of stuff. I just want to be with you guys. The fact that she's showing up, I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. They're the easier thing probably would have been to not come at all.

And so she's coming in. The greatest gift you can give her is distraction, laughter and warmth and presence. And my guess is, if you give her that, those things equate to safety. And when suddenly she doesn't feel judged by you, she feels safe. Then she's going to slowly say, hey, here's my situation. Right. And so the challenge for you is going to not be to bang your head and your arms and legs and elbows.

And he's up against that boundary that she's put up. And instead of 100 percent respect it and just give her joy and peace, and once she invites you in, then you can slowly give your opinions and thoughts and insights.

What do you think, Anthony? I'm a play the devil's advocate on this for Rebecca. OK? And I'm and I'm saying this because I'm just I'm just saying, like, hey, I'm putting myself into your sister's shoes. Yeah. One of the key things that I. I Thanksgiving is coming up, and so I'm not looking forward to going to my family's house only because of one question, what's that one question everyone's going to ask me, John, why are you still single?

That's right. You know, I'm saying it to me. My my respectful answer to them is it's none of your business. So what if what if Anthony you know, I'm saying what if you preemptively sent the note out to everybody and said this year. I don't want to talk about being single. I love you guys. We're just going to talk about other things. Yeah, and that's my thing. Like, yo, let's just have a conversation, bro.

Congrats on the book. Or I mean, I see you doing this like talk about something that is like what you said and inviting.

That doesn't make me feel shameful because sometimes my family members, I know they have the right intentions and that they love me. But sometimes when I hear when you're single, well, maybe you need to do a bit. That's right.

And you don't want to come around you because you want to give me your opinion, but you don't live my life.

So we're saying the same thing. Yes, we're saying the same thing.

And so what I'm saying to you is, Rebecca, when she comes, hug your sister, you know, embrace your sister, talk about your family, talk about, you know, how good God has been to the whole family.

You know, if she if her hair is different, compliment her hair. Girl, what are you doing in the gym? You look good. Give me that ingredient.

You know, make her feel accepted. Make her feel welcomed.

And then I agree with John. More than likely she won't bring it up this time because she's fearful of if she does bring something up, then everybody's going to have an opinion because that happens to me every single Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mama, my sister, my brother, my my brother in law, even now, my nephews.

Uncle Anthony, you ain't married.

You know, you're not upset.

So I don't want it to come up. So your sister, whatever her whatever's going on in her world, she doesn't want to come up. You know why? Because I want to enjoy my family. And I don't want to feel like the odd one. I don't want to feel like the one that is unhealthy in this situation because of this current part of my life. So I would I'm not the expert. This is John's area of expertise.

You experience it, right? Yeah. You're a practical perspective. Like, you know, hey, sometimes we just want to go and just laugh and just eat all that turkey, eat all the ham, you know, and just be unhealthy for is in a good way.

Right. So, Rebecca, can you do you have other brothers and sisters? Yes, there's a brother between the two of us. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to take the lead on this one. Yeah. And I want you to reach out to your brother and say, our sister has asked us not to talk about certain things. We have one goal, and that is to laugh like we have never laughed before.

Yes. Come up with funny stories, write them down. We're going to proactively think of funny things from our childhood. We're going to proactively prank dad. We're going to proactively create an environment where she feels safe. She feels totally welcome. And here's the thing. She may be involved in things you don't agree with. You don't like. You're worried about her. If you create an environment of safety, she'll invite you in.

So she will eventually may not be that day. You probably won't be. Yeah. Yeah, probably won't be.

But it will circle back. And and if it even if it never does, she has drawn a boundary.

And I love the fact, Rebecca, you just made my heart feel good because all across the country I've heard this over and over and over. People are for the first time, Anthony drawn boundaries. Yeah, I'm worried about covid. I'm not comment.

Or if you don't wear a mask, I don't want you at my table or all these different boundaries are being drawn for the first time this year.

And if your input if you're I mean, if you're if your default setting is to run up and shove that boundary and see if it's going to hold, you're just going to bring tension to Thanksgiving. We need no more tension. Yeah, no more tension. If somebody puts up a boundary, even if you don't agree with it or believe in it, honor them, seek peace, seek laughter, seek safety over Thanksgiving. Rebecca, good for you.

Your good sister. I love it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, good folks, it's the most wonderful time of the year, believe it or not, Christmas is just around the corner. I can't even believe that Anthony Christmas is just around the corner. You heard it here first. You heard it here first as though it's going to pop up on the calendar at a strange day. No matter what this year has brought you, Christmas is still coming.

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Let's go to Amanda in Lexington, Texas. Amanda, how are we doing?

I'm good. How are you? Good deal. How can we help today?

Yeah, my husband and I had an income increase this year, which has allowed us to do a lot of our financial goals, including baby steps for who this goes.

Well, so hold on, Amanda. This has been the worst year ever in the history of the universe. Planet ever. Yes, but you got extra income. What happened?

My husband completed his master's degree and stepped into position as of nurse practitioner and a boy.

Way to go. And you who've been putting him through grad school and full time, you get to breathe a little bit now. Well, sort of, but I have the force baby this year, so. Oh, man, you guys, y'all have been into it.

So how much how much was your year increase? So we've had from about 60 to about 98.

OK, so so we have a ninety eight thousand dollar household income in the year of 2020, correct? Yes. Yes. OK, so you've already maxed out your baby number before, which is investing 15 percent of your gross income into a 401k or into a growth stock mutual fund invested into IRA?

Correct, yes. OK, but this is where we kind of had the question because we're in a house right now that we own almost five years. And it's we said it's not dire that we moved, but that is a goal hopefully in the next two years. But then also we have four daughters, and I think my husband is starting to feel the crunch of savings for them. And that's probably not the only crunch he's feeling right now.

That's a lot of women in that house. Yes, but he's a great girl. That is good for him. Yeah. So just trying to figure out, like, how to balance whether we stay for the next downpayment or even put, like, extra towards our current mortgage or whether to start account, you know, for weddings and school and things like that for the goal of wanting to try to do both.

We're looking and a man I love this question because I think it's it's a fair question to ask. And this is the probably the most normal question we get when people get a significant pay raise, they immediately start to look at how do I use this income? And I think on one hand, it's a fair question. On the other hand, it's for me I'm not asking myself how do I use this? I actually give myself two years in that significant pay raise before I make an actual huge financial moves.

So prime example, when I came here to join the speaker's team, my income went up significantly. But I lived for literally about three years. Yeah, about three years on my youth pastor salary before coming here. That's how I was able to do the things financially I'm able to do now. So what I'm going to recommend to you, though, is this. How much money do you have in a savings account right now?

Between 18 and 20 thousand, 18 to 20000. If something were to happen right now with your husband, is that the minimum of three months of investments? Oh, yeah. OK, great. Sounds like it's a little bit more so great than we are already investing. Are you already investing into your your daughter's college fund? No, we haven't started that yet. OK. I would do that immediately. OK, I will go ahead and start opening up the.

How old are your daughters?

My oldest is about to turn seven. OK, seven and then what what's the next one after that one five five OK too. And then too much. Too much.

OK, so what I would do is I would probably open up two 529 is talk to a smart Vesterbro because a 75 year old are close. So I would probably have to that we can possibly invest into. But then a good thing about the 529 is they can go down to your kids, to other kids. OK, so before I look into purchasing another home, I want to go ahead and start thinking about legacy, thinking about my kid's college future in this way.

Once you start funding that, then I will start looking at OK, in the next two years, husband, let's go ahead and start looking into a home.

So once you start funding this 529 college plan, I don't have a problem. You are going ahead and start setting aside some extra money to put down towards a home. So here's the good thing. Start looking at the equity in your home right now because you're going to sell that to upgrade and then also start looking at how much money can you put down if you all can be there within the next year and a half, two years? That is great.

But what I want you to do is make sure that you create some cushion, because immediately when we get that extra money, John, we immediately want to spend that, OK, now we got the margin that we'll get a bigger house, no less. Let's make sure that when we get the bigger house, we still have that same margin. Because here's the thing, America. Hear me clearly when it comes to building wealth. It's not your income, it's margin.

How much margin do you have to survive to live and to press on? You can make a million dollars and be broke. You can make 100000 dollars and be wealthy.

And do me a huge favor. Amanda, one seven five two in two months, is that right? Yep.

Mm hmm. Yes. I'm going to tell you to do something that I never do, I I'm the super frugal one, right? My brand new truck is in 06, right. I'm I'm annoying when it comes to being frugal.

OK, but take a little bit of that money and you and your husband do something special.

You haven't slept in close to a decade now. Agreed. You got a two month old. You don't even know what day it is. You don't it's and it's OK, but for real for Christmas, hire somebody to come over and be with those kids and do something fun and lovely for one another. That's a lot. You guys aren't able to celebrate this moment because I know that when someone's when a spouse is in grad school and working full time, not only are they working hard, but the person who's holding the house down is working hard, too.

And by the way, you're growing a human and making sure the other three were still alive during that time. So do something fun for each other. Yeah, but, Anthony, I love what you're saying here.

We just sprint to to collapse that margin, right, collapse that margin, I love a story that Davis told us privately and I'm sure he's told it on the air, too, which is it was the margin that in 08 and 09 when when things fell apart, he was able to go knock on doors and buy land and buy homes with pennies on the dollar because he had the margin. And that's in others didn't, right? Absolutely. And that's the thing that has really helped me out with the move that I just did.

I had the margin to go buy a home that in a gentrified area that one day within the next year or a year and a half will become a rental property for mine. Because I had the margin, I took time I rented until I was 32, 33 years old.

Right. Because I wanted to have margin to really go build true wealth.

I want to think producer James Childs, an associate producer, the one and only Kelly Daniel, Day one and only Kelly did. Thank you for joining us for this hour. This has been the Dave Ramsey Show.

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