📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze answer your questions and discuss: "Are we actually ready to buy a home?" "What does generosity look like for us beyond the tithe?" "Where do we even begin investing?" "How is it considered ethical for people to own so many homes?" "My wife took out credit cards behind my back," "Would a wedding budget of $20,000 be unreasonable?" Support Our Sponsors: 🌱 Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp ◎ Get 10% off Byrna product bundles and more! 🏥 Learn more about Christian Healthcare Ministries 🏡 Get started today with Churchill Mortgage 🔒 Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe 🏦 Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle! 🥗 Save 15% on your first Field of Greens order with code RAMSEY ⛨ Find top Health Insurance Plans at Health Trust Financial 💸 To find out more about student loan refinancing, check out Laurel Road 💻 Visit NetSuite today to learn more 🗂️ Use promo code RAMSEY for 18% off at The Nokbox 💵 Learn more about Timothy Plan 🏛 Get started with YRefy or call 844-2-RAMSEY 🔐 Visit Zander Insurance for your free instant quote today! Next Steps 📱 Watch the full episode for free in the Ramsey Network app. 📞 Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET or click here! 🏖️ For help with investing, get connected with a SmartVestor Pro. 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 📈 Get tickets to Investing Essentials and learn to invest with confidence. 📖 Preorder Build a business You Love today. 🪑 Check out Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman! Listen to more from Ramsey Network 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 💰 George Kamel 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership Ramsey Solutions is a paid, non-client promoter of SmartVestor Pros. Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Are We Ready to Buy a Home?
Marie's in Sacramento. How are you, Marie?
Hi, I'm doing good. Thank you guys for taking my call.
Sure, what's up?
So me and my husband just finished up Baby Step 3D, and we are buying our first home. So we just put in an offer for a house that we really like. It was very reasonably priced. We have about 5% down that you guys recommend for the first home. And in negotiations, the sellers weren't willing to give up their appliances because And so that was going to be an extra $3,000 cost.
We have like the 5% down, a little bit extra for closing costs, and our emergency fund. And I'm not sure if that $3,000 should come from taking a little bit less down, our emergency fund, or if it's a sign that we're just not ready to buy a house yet.
Okay. So it's not an emergency.
Yeah.
So it doesn't come from the emergency fund. That's an easy one, right? Yes. And I don't know if I go so far as it's just not a sign to not buy the house. What's your household income?
About $150,000.
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Chapter 2: What Does Generosity Look Like Beyond the Tithe?
We don't know yet. They've not come back.
I know, but they're willing to put it on the line. They're willing. You know, if I'm the agent, I'm looking at these people and dope slapping them. I mean, you guys are nuts. You're going to lose the whole deal over 320 grand. A 320 grand over a used refrigerator. You've got to be kidding me.
um so that that's dumb on the seller's part honestly um that's an easy so then does that same logic go to maria like you'd be dumb to walk away from a deal because of just a three thousand dollar you know appliances no i i listen if you can't figure out a way to put appliances in it and put down five percent uh i'm gonna walk away and go to a different deal i'm gonna i'm gonna pick out a different house and i'll bet you money good money that these people give up their used refrigerator
When you, when you turn, yeah, you're a seller in the current real estate market in Sacramento, freaking California. And you walk away from a buyer standing there with money. Yeah.
This is probably not going to happen. It's what you're saying.
Stupid on steroids. Yeah. No, don't do it. Yeah. I'm negotiating this. I'm going to play hard and just go with street fighter and say no.
Or refund us $3,000.
Here's our deal. And it includes the appliances. Or we'll look for a house where we can get appliances because we're taking that as a sign from God. I'm kidding. It's not. It's a used refrigerator. God doesn't use used refrigerators as a sign. It's not in the Bible. But it's not. Second hesitations. But the – see what I'm saying? I mean, that's the thing. Yes, yeah. Yeah, that's –
So your prediction is Maria's going to come out okay, or Maria's, because you think they're going to say, just we're going to leave the appliances.
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Chapter 3: Where Do We Begin Investing?
Of course I charged that back to the company, but, um, that's an HR thing, but yeah, I may buy their dinner if they're lucky enough to land in the same restaurant I land in. But anyway, just something like that. Just catch people doing something right. And, um, and random acts of kindness. Just catch somebody where that, you know, where, uh, A few hundred dollars means a lot.
And I've been in those situations, and a lot of people out there have been. So you want to do that. But that's a smaller portion of dollars, but it's, like Rachel said, it's very hands-on. There's a lot of joy in it. Random acts of kindness, we call it that. And it's just God money floating around looking for a place to land.
And so then we, with the Ramsey Family Foundation, we do not give to like a bazillion different people $500 because that will drive you nuts doing the tax returns on it. So instead, we pick just a few and really, really help them. And they're always something that is close to our heart. And many times we know the people involved in the ministry. We know the character of the people involved.
And the last thing I'll add to that that Rachel didn't bring up is that I learned many years ago because I was giving a lot. And we've always been outrageously generous. It's part of our DNA. And it's the most fun you'll have with money. So you're going to love this. I love this question. But anyway, I treat large gifts like we're talking about as if I was doing an investment into a company.
If I'm going to buy into that company, I'm going to know what their strengths and weaknesses are. And I'm going to make sure that I'm not participating, I'm not enabling incompetence or bad behavior of some kind. To the extent I can tell, we don't do that. So for instance, we don't give to organizations, ministries that run debt. Well, duh.
Of course, Dave Ramsey's not going to pay a bank through a ministry. No. So if you're going to run debt, you're not going to be on our list of donations. We don't believe in debt. We don't borrow money. We teach people not. How dumb would it be for us to take our generosity and give it to a bank?
through your ministry because you wanted to have a building for your ministry instead of being a renter. No, be a renter. So, you know, that's one of the things, and that upsets people sometimes, but oh well. I don't know why. It's kind of obvious to me, but anyway. So we do stuff that is consistent with us, and we're looking for their operational excellence because if you're going to put
X number of dollars in there. You're investing God's money into God's kingdom. God expects some excellence there. Just like, you know, those that are faithful in little things will be given more to manage. And so it's not the diligent prosper, not the inept and incompetent.
Yeah. And then I would also say, Julia, and something I feel like we've learned from you guys is as you guys go down this path, I know you're on baby steps. You just guys just got to baby step seven.
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Chapter 4: How is It Considered Ethical to Own Many Homes?
Look at you. What's the house worth?
We bought it for $340, and we had to do stuff to it, but it should be worth close to $500.
So high school teachers, this is what happens when you teach this stuff in high school. This is your student. She's now 25, and she's got a half-million-dollar house that's $20,000 away from me and paid for. You're amazing. 24 years old. Way to go. Cool, Belle. I love it. You know how weird you are, right?
Yeah. How much do you guys make a year, Belle? Do what? How much do you guys make a year?
It really varies. Like, right now we're sitting at $200 to $280, depending on our situation that we're in. Good for you guys. That's awesome. We're in a really unique situation. Like, we're contractors for the state, and it just depends on, like, how busy we are.
Well, congratulations. Okay. A fast-forwarding past bragging on you. What's your question? How can we help?
Um, so I remember in the class that I took in high school, it was talking about mutual funds. And if you start earlier, it's better longterm than someone who starts later with a bigger initial investment. And I remember having a job. I was working at Wendy's at the time and I was like, okay, I'm going to start doing this when I'm 17. Um, and I asked the teacher, where do I, how do I do this?
What do I, what mutual funds do I look into? Um, she was just like, I don't know. I'm like, you don't do this and you're a teacher. You're making 50,000 a year. Why don't you do this? Cause she said, yeah, unfortunately she didn't have any research resources for me. And I'm still in that place that I was when I was 17.
And I still don't know what to do with, we're going to have a lot of extra money once the house is paid off.
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Chapter 5: What Should I Do If My Partner Secretly Takes on Debt?
She was very upset by that, and it came as far as she was actually arrested on felony charges for deceptive practice for a bad check written by her mother, and luckily found not guilty. And that's where the changing point in our lives were.
How long ago was all that?
My debt, her debt. How long ago was that?
What was that, sir? How long ago was that check thing?
The check was made when she was 18, still in college. I mean, when did this charge come?
Charge came in 2021. Four years ago. Yeah. Okay, so this is four years in the past, and apparently we've gotten mom off the stealing pattern. Mom's not stealing her identity anymore, at least as far as we know, right? No, we're completely locked down with our identities. Good. Okay. So all of that's in the past. She didn't do anything wrong there. She was a victim there.
Then that changes gears when she runs up debt in contrast to what you guys have talked about. And so Rachel's right. It could be an addictive behavior. It could be coming out of pain. It could be coming out of you just controlled everything, and she didn't have a vote, and this was her only way to have a vote.
so she just ran off and did whatever the flip she wanted to do because you tell her everything to do and she doesn't you know she's saying her little girl's saying you're not the boss of me i'll show you and sometimes people react that way too so because i think you told her what to do i don't think you got agreement there's a difference would you agree with that bobby
I absolutely agree in a half-and-half scenario. I know I can have that kind of tendency.
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