Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the car rental studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money. I'm John Boloney here with my good friend and co-host Anthony O'Niel, best selling author, YouTube sensation all around.

Good man, genius.

We're taking your calls about your life, your relationships, your money, your college decisions, all of it. Absolutely.

And I want to give a shout out to our YouTube family, man. You know, every single opportunity that I get a chance to log on and do the show, I always log on and check out our YouTube world. So I want to say thank you to Cheryl. She's writing me right now on YouTube. Steve and Katie, thank you so much for rocking with this. If you ever just sitting at your office or sitting at home, you just want to listen to us.

Yule, log on to YouTube dotcom force. That's the Dave Ramsey Show and check us out because we're always honor I know Mygind do a lot on there. Not other personalities. You know, just pray for us.

Give us a call at Triplette 8500 225. That's eight eight two five five 225. Let's go to Amy in Fort Worth, Texas. Amy, how are you doing?

Hi, guys. I'm great. How are you? Outstanding. How can we help?

OK, so I've been doing the same thing. Baby, step on my mom, baby. Step to but and I've been talking to my family about this. And so all of a sudden my mom came past and said, what do I do for my future? Her and my dad are immigrants and thankfully they've been blessed. My dad's been blessed with a really good job. Means he can make them. He came on a really bad year at 250.

Oh, good.

Boston it yet. And and yes. And they had their houses completely paid for. I'm guessing they're well they are on baby step seven. I'm not exactly sure how much they have on their savings. And I'm going to say about 10K, that's about it. But I think they probably assets that they sold everything to be about five hundred came OK. And they have no 401k, no investments, no nothing. No right. They have no you know, they don't know any of that and how to invest.

And so she said you since you've been doing the Dave Ramsey thing, she's like, can you help me? And I'm like, sure that I need Dave Ramsey information. Are you guys? And the name of that is I just don't know what to wear to really start because me and my husband are currently on baby step to cool.

I mean, great question. And I love your heart for your parents and I love your heart for making sure that you stay on track to do what you're doing. Have you and your parents taking Financial Peace University?

No, we haven't. I honestly just started in February and I started listening to YouTube channel. OK, cool, great.

So just what we're going to do, because there's a lot you know, this is a journey. This is a process when it comes to you getting out of debt and for your parents how to start investing. And so when we get off to college, which is down the line, we're going to bless you with Ramsey. Plus for free, we're going to give us this do this. Oh, we have done this before. We don't give you you and your husband, one person give you one for your mom and for her dad, I mean for her husband so that they can take this thing together, together as a family, because I think it's important they don't have any debt.

But at the same time, they need to learn how to properly invest. And so right now, what they need to do is since they don't have now, does he is he working and does his job has a 401k? That's the question you need to ask him to. He needs to go ahead and contact one of our smart venture pros. You'll learn more about this in Financial Peace University. That way they can help them start investing, because if he's making anywhere between 80 to 250, this means that he has some type of commission or some type of thing going from there.

And I want to help him take advantage of, you know, the four one KS that match if they have it in some compound interest. But you said something. He said they may have around ten thousand dollars. I like I kind of want to up that a little bit with their lifestyle in your season when it comes to savings before they really start investing, I'm thinking maybe about 20000 they should have in their savings account, maybe even 25, 30, depending on what that is.

But I want them to have a for six months. I don't want them to do be OK with three months. I need to have at least a good four, six months and then jump into the smart best approach. But the main thing right now is I just want to bless you, your your family and then your parents with a free one year trial of our Ramsey Plus. And I'm sounding like Kelly. We'll get that for you and Amy, depending on their immigration status, right, certain things are going to be eligible.

They're going to be eligible for certain things and not eligible for certain things. Right.

But yeah, exactly. Their residence. Yes. But they were immigrants whenever they got here at 15 and now they're residence and staff.

And this is just this is purely an education, right? Oh, that's fantastic.

OK, Jacqui. And it's just in one of their issues where they would spend it all, but they were smart enough to buy locally and when they were younger. And so they own the million and they just don't know what to and also will or a trust. I don't know. They're like, should we do a will or a trust?

Because everyone should have a wedding where everyone should have the answers to your questions, right?

Yes. OK. OK, well, and that will need to be in place right. Tomorrow. Yep. You know, because we don't know what we don't know what's going on.

Nothing says like a fun Saturday morning. Like everybody get together and let's make a will. Right. Right. But good for you. Good for your family.

It was a joke. Anthony didn't even laugh.

I thought that was a funny Saturday morning. We'll joke.

No, I didn't find that funny about that man.

See, Kelly thought it was good. All right. All right, let's go. Let's see if we get one more. Let's go to. You know what, Anthony, what instead of going to one more call before we go to the break here, I was about to say that what does happened all is going to go to another calls, can take another call.

You had a segment on a show the other day.

And I think it was just you talking you were talking about belief. Yeah. You're talking about the importance of believing in yourself. Yeah. And for those of you who don't know what Ramsey solutions, these are, these voices just get piped into the building. And wherever you find yourself, sometimes you'll just hear Anthony talking or hear Chris Hogan or hear Dave.

And I actually texted Anthony on the back end of this deal and just said, I don't know when you recorded this. I don't know what was in your heart mind.

But it spoke to me just sitting here doing some writing on my own here at the building.

Yeah. You're talking about believing in yourself, the importance of not giving up on yourself. I think you support give this give this audience of Primeur. You know, I think when I was at the lowest moment of my life, I didn't believe in me, I believe in others, and I believed that I needed to impress them to be successful. And to this day, I'll be honest, I think sometimes I because I don't come from wealth, because I don't come from a rich background.

And to be honest, because I don't come from a proper English speaking background, America knows is if you listen to me and follow me to my shows, my grammar is not 100 percent Polish. And so I'm often called out about that. I'm often called down and reminded that, you know, I don't have this and that, but I had to quickly teach myself and remind myself that I'm fearfully, wonderfully made and that I'm here for a purpose and that no matter what, if I don't believe in myself, I'm always going to be struggling in certain areas.

So before they can believe in me, before you can believe in me, I got to believe in myself. Why do I believe in myself? I'm getting better while I'm getting better. I'm believing in myself. No one else should believe in Anthony O'Neal more than Anthony O'Neal believes in him, flaws and all. So that's what sparked it. Well. Who believe it, that this is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, folks, it's Ken Coleman, I love my burst sonic toothbrush.

Studies show that smiling improves your physical and emotional health and makes you more likable. The soft charcoal bristles powerfully remove plaque and will make your teeth whiter, your smile brighter, and your impressions better and better. Smart and affordable replacement head subscription is just six dollars every 90 days. Visit burst oral care dotcom and use the code can grab a burst brush for as low as forty nine ninety nine. That's burst oral care dotcom. This is the Dave Ramsey Show, I'm John Deloney with my good friend Anthony O'Niel.

We are taking your calls at eight eight two five five two two five eight eight two five five two two five. Let's go to Ian in Phoenix, Arizona. Ian, how are we doing this afternoon? Pretty good. How are you guys? Outstanding. How can we help?

All right. So I'm a part time college student and I work full time and I've started getting some money together, which I've invested about two thirds of it in cash for Mernissi. But up I was just wondering, what should I say that to do? Obviously, when I'm my first house, a sizable down payment and what should I really be, which I really am saving towards, do you think?

Yeah. So are you paying cash for for the remaining part of your college and. Yeah. So that'll be partially my parents and if I need more I can pay cash, but not most of it's covered by them. OK, cool.

So you will be able to graduate college with 100 percent debt free with some money in your savings.

Absolutely, yeah.

And you're asking yourself what should you do with that savings or what should you be doing right now with the money that you have right now?

I like what you're doing right now, man. I like I like the fact that you're saving. It will go ahead and get up to like a fully fund it. You're in the Arizona area. And so what I would say is look at the what is the average rent going around the area in Phoenix and or when you graduate, if you know where you're going to go, I would look at what is that average three to six months like for rent, for expenses, for the lifestyle that you want.

Put that into a savings account, go ahead and get ahead of the game and they may just start investing into a growth stock. Mutual fund is covered by a Roth IRA because you're nineteen. So let's just do the math. If you just put a hundred dollars in there, as of right now for the next 40 years, you'll be what how would he be then 25? They're now 59, 59 years old. You had the minimum of like one point two million dollars, but that's just off of 100 hundred dollars.

So if you just start putting away this, say, five percent of your income into a Roth IRA just right now until you get an actual stable job and you're investing the full 15 percent, I mean, you're going to set itself up to retire at about three to five million dollars just from the Roth IRA perspective, not from your 401k when you get into that, not from your house that you're going to gain from the equity of your house. And so right now, you're in a position to where you can make the right investment moves.

Here's the number one investment you can make. Check this out in any way to put it in your head. Make sure that you graduate 100 percent debt free, get to education, that's number one. And number two, going ahead and open up a Roth IRA. Get on the phone with one of our smart Vista pros and tell them, hey, I want to go ahead and start investing. Here's what I can do right now comfortably while I'm in school, have a fully funded emergency fund, OK?

And then once you get a job, you're going to up your whatever you have right now to 15 percent, whatever your income is. And I mean, honestly, by the time you turn 40, you're going to be a millionaire. You're going to have a house, you're going to be an everyday millionaire. And that's the slogan, take our good friend Chris Hogan has named. And I'm telling you right now, bro man 19. I wish I was thinking like you in nineteen at nineteen and I was sleeping in the back of my car.

I was rushed, you know, I'm saying I was watching myself at the Boys and Girls Club in a YMCA. You know, I was asking people for some money so I can eat. I was that guy. You could be the guy that everybody wants to be. You could be the young, smart, wise guy that is building wealth. That is change in the future. And I'll tell you right now, you're single right now. I can hear it in your voice.

You may can be single. Most low single ladies are coming for you. Yebra, but thanks for calling in.

I got it. I got to cook. Yeah.

So I have the ability to fully fund my Roth IRA for the year. I can I can max that out. Max. My contribution for that God is that smart to do that right now. I got thirty five thousand dollars in investment investments in cash. OK, so would it be smart to invest that max out my IRA because then I can't open. Not here. Here's the answer. Yes, yes.

If you have a I want you to get ahead of the game by having a fully funded emergency fund. OK, so if you can have a fully funded emergency fund and you can guarantee guarantee that you can finish college.

One hundred percent debt free, max out the max out the Roth IRA right now. OK, so you maxed out early. Yes. And when I get my when I get a salary based job with a larger company, you know, I can start saving money essentially for the job for the house or something. Absolutely.

I would do that because right now there's no rest for you to go into a homey. You know, I'm saying I want to take advantage of of the compound interest in the time that's on your side. Once you get a good, solid job, you know where you're going to be situated at. Yeah, take two or three years and just live below your means and save it for a nice down payment to get into a good home. But you'll be in a hole before you turn 24, 25 years old.

Now we live in.

You're good. Yes, I like this guy.

I'll tell you what, I don't know these 19 year olds. I was not that 19 year old man.

I don't know that 19 year old neither. I wasn't thinking like that. You know, I was sitting here just trying to impress my friends, trying to find me a lady. I wasn't trying to think about no money.

I didn't even have enough brain power to impress me. At 19, I was trying to get myself to class. Good for you. And you just made me renewed my faith. And tomorrow, let's go to Aaron in Roanoke, Virginia. Aaron, how are we doing?

I'm struggling if I'm being honest. All right. How can we help?

Well, I'm warning you all's perspective on my situation. I am concerned that I may be up to the point where bankruptcy is about my only option. I've read multiple of Dave's books on coordinating and FPU class. I have learned his stuff inside out, upside down and backwards. But my situation is basically this. I'm staring down about sixty thousand dollars debt and I'm making about thirty a year roughly.

Why are you making 30 a year. I'm an associate pastor. Mm hmm. And my church is not able to pay me very well. I just recently got my EMT and started working for a rescue squad. But that also doesn't pay very substantial either. And the other battle that I have is my church requires a certain time commitment so I can add on extra work, but only up to a certain extent.

Hmm. So. I'm a to be respectful here because I want to be respectful to to call them because I am an ordained pastor as well and still preach it to this day. But God also wants us to be wise. He also wants us to be good stewards, and he also says our number one ministry is our home. Bankruptcy is not your only option. I think that's the easy way out for you. I think the hard option is do I stop pastoring right now to take care of my first ministry, which is my home?

And that's the question that you got to ask yourself, if your church is saying we're only going to pay you 30000 dollars a year and you have to be here for all these times where you can't get an extra part time job to have a life, then I'm questioning that position because I've pastored for a few churches and they've never been that strict.

And so I would sit back and pray, you know, I don't want to tell you how to live your life spiritually, but I would sit back and ask God for clarity and for wisdom on how to approach this, because no disrespect, six thousand dollars is a lot of debt. But we get calls on here for people in 100000, 200000 dollars in debt, making 50000 dollars a year, and they aggressively go after it and they pay it off.

And bankruptcy was never in their option. And so I think for you, the greater question is what can you do to generate more income? And I'm trying to be sensitive with your pastor, your calling, because I know how sensitive that can be. But if I was in your shoes, I'm having a conversation with my senior pastor explaining to him the situation and then I get it. I don't want to put no more pressure on a church, but I need a little bit of freedom to go out here and make at least another 25 to 30 thousand dollars so I can get my first ministry, my home in order, because I if the home is not in order, I can't come here to the church and serve the church.

That's hypocritical. So that's a question you got to ask yourself, man. And I'm fully with your bank. No bankruptcy. You're going to get another job. Oh, and that was hard earned. But thanks for the call, brother. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Do you have student loans, I need you to tune in right now and listen, I've been telling you to refinance your loans with Splash Financial. Here's what I don't understand.

Many of you who have been prequalified to refinance your student loans to better rates have not finished your dadgum applications. So this is simple. Finish it. You could save thousands and you pay nothing to refinance. Go back to splash financial dotcom slash Ramsey. That's how they'll know you're one of my listeners. Splash Financial Dotcom Ramsey. This is the Dave Ramsey Show, I'm John Boloney with my good friend Anthony O'Neal. We are taking your calls about your life, your money, triple eight two five five two two five.

That's triple eight, eight to five, 52, 25.

Let's go to Monica in San Diego, California. Monica. How are we doing?

You're doing good. How about you guys doing well? How can we help?

I'm calling because we living in San Diego. Home prices are pretty crazy in really crazy time. And I'm just really wondering, we are desperate and I'm just wondering if it makes sense to buy a house. Now, I can do a three and a half percent down, but I can take a loan or there's value in taking the time and saving for the 20 percent down. Oh, absolutely.

There's a lot of value in doing that. And we will here's here's the Three-step stuff. All right. Let me just make sure you so you understand all of our listeners, we will always say pay cash if you can if you can save up cash, pay cash if you can. Number two, we want you to aim for 20 percent, which goes into number three with no less than 10 percent.

OK, and so in San Diego, California, your home for me. I lived right out. I lived in San Diego County in Oceanside, California. So I know exactly where you are. And so I recommend how long. Well, let me ask you this question. How long would it take you to save up at least 10 to 20 percent there in California.

Yeah, so 10 percent probably by the next six months, 20 percent in the 12 months.

Yeah. So I mean, so a difference of 12 months, 20 percent a light because it helps you avoid the PMI. And then how much house is that in California?

So that would be up to 700 K and about a whole range of seven, five to seven. Yeah, and that's a beautiful house, you know, and that San Diego area, right? About 600, 650. You definitely get into a beautiful situation.

So if I was you, I was pretty ousted another year, honestly, I would say to another year, if you were talking about a year, year and a half, two years to come up with to 10 percent, then I will be OK with you doing 10 percent. But you're saying a year to get 20 percent. Absolutely. I'm sitting down for a whole year. This way you're going to avoid PMI. You're not going to pay the private mortgage insurance and be wasting it, just throwing away money.

You can get to a 15 year fixed rate loan. It had that paid off in 15 years. So that's why I recommend Monica. Can I ask one quick follow up? Another item that I was thinking is that it makes sense to put a pause in pretty aggressive for when case both me and my husband could contribute about 15 percent. Does it make sense to put that on hold to save up the 20 percent quicker, just in case, you know, the market's going up?

Does it make sense to kind of accelerate that? I feel like there's a lot of pressure to do it now. And I'm wondering if I'm being too conservative or if I'm making sense.

How old are you and your husband? We're thirty three. Oh, yeah, I mean, you're talking about pausing it, because if you're putting 15 percent in right now, you paused investing into your foil. Why can't you Roth IRAs right now to get the 20 percent you say that might even help you get to 20 percent within the next six months and. Correct. Exactly. So that's fine. I don't have a problem with you doing that at all.

We call that baby step three to where you go ahead and start saving your 10 to 20 percent down before you investing. So if you do want to pause, that's fine. If you were older, I would say I would recommend that you try to do both at the same time, at least contribute something in there. I would definitely recommend that, you know, but if you want to pause and get to your down payment quicker, that's totally fine.

And honestly, at your age, I would probably be able probably do that. All right, Monica, thank you so much.

I appreciate the advice. Hey, Monica, before you hang up. Make it make a firm conviction that you're not going to let other people speak into the way you spend money unless it's people of wisdom who have a good track record, who know what they're talking about. That's good.

OK, I'm totally with you. It's actually I wanted to know that I wasn't crazy. Has been have been steadfast. And I was you know, we missed something. So it was just great to have that.

If you do it right, you're going to stick out like a sore thumb around your friends, your family, your community, and know that we've got your back here. There are millions of people who have chosen to be weird and they're financially reaping the results of that. But more important, the finances. They're living peaceful lives. The relationships are better. They're able to sleep at night and not worry about money, problem after money, problem after money problems.

You're going to be weird. Your friends, your family, everybody's gonna have an opinion. You and your husband rally around each other, make a plan and stick to it. Very cool.

All right. Let's go to let's go to AJ in Phoenix. AJ, how are we doing?

I'm good. How are you? Outstanding. How can we help? Yeah.

So my wife and I, we have about thirty one thousand in debt and we're we're getting ready to move in with her parents, you know, to kind of tackle that debt that they have. They put us on like a one year time frame. So I guess our question is we'd like to save for a house as well. Should we tackle both of those at the same time or just build that first now and then? No, AJ, no.

How do you mean?

Twenty seven. How did your wife, 26. How much of your makir? About 90 combined, 90 combined, and you live in Phoenix, Arizona, you have thirty one thousand dollars in debt, correct?

Correct. Well, we won't be looking in the Phoenix area where we're going to be looking to live. Going to be a lot cheaper. A lot cheaper, OK?

Yeah. And I hear your beautiful wife is in the background, right? Yes. I must say something that you all would not like. Put the phone near her. OK, don't go home.

Don't go. I've already have peace of mind and figure out making ninety thousand dollars in combined income and to change that just for one year, I get it, you all will go there. But I question the fact if you have stress, I question, in fact, if your parents would be all in your business. And for me, I want a peace of mind with my wife.

And so I'd rather stay I would rather be in debt for another six months than I have to deal with my parents for, you know, a whole year.

And so I'm saying get on a strategic budget move, maybe somewhere cheaper. So that way you can start saving money. But if you get on a strategic but budget, live below your means, making ninety thousand dollars, you guys, you can be out of debt within the next 12 to 18 months. And to me, I'll take that journey rather than going home and having to explain everything to my mom. And, you know, and they probably have the right mindset, you know, they probably genuinely want to help you all out.

But the last thing you want to do is be 27, 29 years old and now explain yourself to your parents. And that can cause drama. That can cause issues. So what I am saying is, yes, should you move should you lower your lifestyle so you can more attack your debt more aggressively? Absolutely. But I do believe going home at your age with this kind of income, it could bring on more stress to the marriage and it could be wrong.

I mean, do you think, A.J., I, I am a hundred percent behind Anthony, and here's why. Your in-laws, they did, right? They told you they they did what we tell them. They set boundaries. And, you know, the person has got a problem with the boundaries is you, A.J., I can hear your voice.

You're like they already said, we only get a year or so, should we say for this year that, listen, you and your wife are going to find the cheapest, safest one bedroom apartment and only two square feet. It only has a half bath.

You're gonna have to bathe outside with a hose. Oh, man, I'm just kidding.

Only that that's weird. But listen, you all make a lot of money. You got a lifestyle problem. Yeah.

You've got a well, I don't know, man. You've got that problem. Kind of a whiny problem, A.J. You owe what you and your wife to get super aggressive, get super focused, tell your in-laws, you know what? We're going to give you the greatest Christmas present ever. We're not moving in. We're going to get in a cheap one bedroom apartment and we are going to scrap and claw and get this knocked out in eight months or nine months and then move where you're going to move and you're going to find out about yourself, about your marriage.

You're going to find out what you're capable of. You're going to stop whining.

Yeah. And then you're going to go get it. James, would you go home with your mommy at your age right now?

No, I don't see this. So I'm just saying, you know, I mean, I just I couldn't do it. I'm I'm single and I know I sleep in it.

I'll sleep in a hotel. Hey, you didn't think you were getting that on this call. Do not go home, get with your wife, make a budget, be aggressive, be wild and crazy, fix your marriage, quit whining and go solve your problems. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

Today, Scripture of the Day is Hebrews 10, 24 through 25, and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Steve Jobs says management is about persuading people to do things they do not want to do, while leadership is about inspiring people to do the things they thought they they never thought they could.

Steve Jobs, about persuading people to do things they don't want to do versus inspiring people to do things they never thought they could. Anthony, who is a leader in your life, who inspired you to do something that you never thought you could?

It's a good question. I had to think about it, man, because there's there's not really too much I never thought I could do.

You know, but I would definitely say honesty and people are saying, oh, of course he'll say that. But I mean, honestly, Dave, because coming from where I come from, I never saw the things that I've been blessed, privileged enough to see being here and connected to Dave. Yeah. And so seeing him do it, I'm all right. If God worked through Dave, he can work through me, OK? Dave became a multimillionaire from bankrupt.

I can become a multimillionaire from being homeless. And so, you know, I. I would definitely say, Dave, you know, for right now, so for everybody listening, these are anxious times.

We know that we've got pandemics and fires and hurricanes and elections and all the things.

One of the cornerstones of getting through anxiety is gratitude. That's good. So I want everybody to listen to this podcast, listening on the radio, listening while you're driving down the road, listening while you're mowing the lawn. I want you to think of somebody in your life who has encouraged you to do something, to be something, to see a picture of yourself that you never imagined. And I want you to call him.

I want you to email them, write him a handwritten letter and just let them know leadership is about inspiring people to do things they never thought they could.

Every single one of us, Anthony, myself, everyone listening, has had people in our life who invested us in ways that we never could have imagined for ourselves, which is to reach out to them, be grateful for them. All right.

Let's go to Alicia in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Alicia, how are we doing?

Good. How are you guys? Outstanding. How can we help?

I am so happy to be talking to you because I really want to be intentional. I am 34 and my husband is 35. And when I turn 35 next year, I will be getting a settlement that I know I've been waiting to get for many, many years now. And it's about eighty five thousand dollars. What's the settlement? So I'm just just a thing that happened many, many years ago when I was younger. And so my mom put it, put it away for us and let it grow and didn't let us touch it until we turned 35.

And so with that right around the corner, then I just want to be intentional with it. We do our home and we are about to be debt free. We only, oh, about five thousand dollars left on our baby, step two. So knowing that that will happen probably by December. So from January till August, I'm hoping to be debt free. And then I turn 35 in August and this check is going to come in the mail or the settlement will come in the mail.

And I'm wondering, do I put it all towards the house or do I do something else with it? How much to own a house?

So we owe one hundred and forty five thousand, OK? All right. And what's your annual income right now? Roughly about 70 is that combined income 70 K. Yes, OK. All right. Sounds good. So here's what I'm going to recommend. We had a caller like this, me, Dave, a couple of days ago. And what I want to advise you to do is jump on a phone with a smart Vesterbro because there's a lot of different routes that you can go.

And we don't have enough time to really break down all of your numbers on this show and also as well want you to be wise and be intentional with this income that you're blessed to to walk into. I definitely do believe that you should be if when you get to 85000, you need to immediately fund your three to six months of emergencies immediately to fund the rest of that. Then from there, you all are going to go ahead and start investing into your 401k, start investing into your Roth IRA, and then you're going to jump on a phone with a smart Vesterbro, which is a financial adviser.

And you go ahead and max out your Roth IRAs, which is invest into a growth stock mutual fund. But there could be some other things that you can do, maybe open up the S&P, maybe open up an index fund. I don't know. I don't know what all the options are available for you and the Colorado Springs and with you all situations. So I would definitely say as soon as you get the money, I'ma tell you what I would do.

So I'm not going to do this is what I would do if it was me. Your shoes. I'm tithing. I'm giving 10 percent to my local church. I am funding my fully funded emergency fund. I'm going to jump on a phone with a smart Vesterbro and tell them, hey, I want to open up a Roth IRA. Can you tell me what's the best way to do that and how to invest? I have 50000. I have this amount of money left.

And then also, Leesha, maybe set aside some something you can enjoy yourself if you've been saving up for a new car, if maybe if you and your family want to go on a nice vacation, may I set aside, you know, ten thousand dollars to to do something enjoyable with it because, hey, you're about to be debt free.

You've been working to plan.

So that's what I would do from the very beginning.

Yeah, I think the plan is always going to pay off my house early and I would feel guilty using it for any other purpose. But I don't know. I just wanted to get your opinion on it because it is a big responsibility. Yeah.

And Alicia, can I can I pitch in here when you get whenever I hear the word settlement, there's two things that come to mind. One is financial.

One is you're holding the check and usually not always, but usually a settlement comes out of some sort of pain.

And if it's something that happened in your childhood, if it's something that comes out of a separation, something out of some sort of loss.

And so I want you to be prepared, whether it's with your husband, whether it's with somebody that you love and care about. When that check comes in the mail and you open it, you may experience things you haven't felt in years and years and years.

And be ready for that, and that's not a weird thing, doesn't mean you're broken, that doesn't mean something's wrong, but be prepared for that. And sometimes folks have plans for this settlement money, whatever that may be. My granddad passed away and they go to the funeral and they grieve it and then they get this check and then all of a sudden it's beautiful. But what their plans were going to be was something about it all changes, right?

It's about making meaning. And what did this money mean to my granddad and me? Or sometimes it comes out of a divorce settlement or an abuse settlement or whatever they may be.

So be ready for some sort of emotional response to this money, too. OK, so when I'm telling you to be graceful with yourself, right. Have a good plan, have people with you, but be graceful with yourself. To Alicia, why do you.

I appreciate that. And that's real good.

I appreciate that too. John, you help me out too. Why do you say that you will feel guilty not paying off the house.

Because Dick. Go ahead, I'm sorry. Because because it does come from a painful event. OK. OK. All right.

And then which I agree and I do agree that that painful event happened, but it wouldn't make that person proud if he paid off the house.

Yeah, OK. OK, and if you if you strongly feel that way, then I say you need to do that feeling.

I say still fund your fully funded emergency fund, because I think that country is ready to catch up on that stuff to try to make yourself useful to yourself.

And then that individual will be pleased with the decision that you made. Because in now you've you you've been a good steward. You've prepare yourself. So if an emergency does happen, it just turns into an inconvenience, you know, and then from there, you still need to fund your future because you you remember we're talking about your future. You want to make the individual proud. And so the individual will be proud knowing that those funds went to your present, building a solid and then it helped you out with your future.

And then once you take care of those two things, they are by all means, go pay the rest of this house, go pay as much of it down as you possibly can. But I don't want you to feel to to to to convicted if you can't put all of it towards a house in Aleesha.

One last thing. I write him a thank you letter, OK, write him a thank you letter and read it out loud to somebody that you love. It will be a excellent passing of that torch. Thank you so much to everybody. I want to thank James Childs. I don't think Kelly Daniel, the two world class producers, Bob Robertson, my good friend, Anthony O'Neil. This has been the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener from The Dave Ramsey Show.

This episode is over. But if you heard about an event, product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes or head to Dave Ramsey, dot com. Thanks for listening. I feel like you're in a rut and living life.

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