πΒ Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan Rachel Cruze & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: "I feel guilty using child support money" "Should I pay off higher interest debt first?" "Can we afford our dream vacation?" "I just found out my boyfriend is $70k in debt" "My brother opened a 529 for my son". Support Our Sponsors: π± Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp β Get 10% off Byrna product bundles and more! π₯ Learn more about Christian Healthcare Ministries π‘ Get started today with Churchill Mortgage π Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe π¦ Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle! π₯ Save 15% on your first Field of Greens order with code RAMSEY β¨ Find top Health Insurance Plans at Health Trust Financial πΈ To find out more about student loan refinancing, check out Laurel Road π» Visit NetSuite today to learn more ποΈ Use promo code RAMSEY for 18% off at The Nokbox π΅ Learn more about Timothy Plan π Get started with YRefy or call 844-2-RAMSEY π Visit Zander Insurance for your free instant quote today! Next Steps π±Β Watch the full episode for free in the Ramsey Network app. π Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET or click here! β€οΈ Get away with your spouse in Nashville. π Preorder Build a Business You Love Now at Ramsey Solutions π΅ Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! πͺ Invest with confidence! Get tickets to Investing Essentials ποΈ Get Tickets to the Money & Relationships Tour πͺ Check out Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman! ο»Ώ Listen to more from Ramsey Network ποΈ The Ramsey Show Β π§ The Dr. John Delony Show πΈ Smart Money Happy Hour π‘ The Rachel Cruze Show πΈ The Ramsey Show Highlights π° George Kamel πͺ Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman π EntreLeadership Learn more about your ad choices.Β https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: How can I choose the right health insurance plan?
Hi, happy to be on it. Love Smart Money Happy Hour. Thank you. Got your two favorite hosts then. You planned it right. It really is. My question is, should we get a high deductible, high premium health insurance plan or a traditional health insurance plan? My husband and I are on baby steps four, five, six, and we just had our third baby in November.
Oh, congratulations. So exciting. Thank you. Are you guys relatively healthy people, would you say? For the most part, yes.
Our two older kids have both had to have tubes in their ears twice. So that's not fun expense to have to pay. But other than that, we're mostly healthy.
OK, OK. Yeah, because I feel like for me, George, that's kind of how we've decided it overall of like health of the family.
Yeah.
I mean, that's kind of the way we've we've dictated it. I mean, I don't know.
Yeah, there's kind of like a spectrum, almost a bell curve. If you think about it and you go right is if there's a ton of health issues in the family, the high deductible health plan could be good. Because you'll hit your out-of-pocket max and it's going to be 100% covered. And if there's very little health issues in the family, it could also be good.
And if you're somewhere in between, you might want to go with a traditional plan. Now, I have chosen to go with a high deductible health plan. I love the low premium. You guys are in Baby Steps 456. You can take on a little more risk from the insurance company by having that higher deductible.
And I love the fact that you get the health savings account with many of these high deductible health plans. And that's a really cool... Health savings tool, but also kind of a life hack retirement option as well, because you can invest inside of that and it's triple tax advantage. So I'm just a big fan of the high deductible health plan.
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Chapter 2: Should I withdraw my annuity early or wait?
Have you guys priced out both, Marissa?
Yes, we have. And the reason why we're going through all this is because with the third kid, we decided I wasn't going back to work. And so we're going from everyone being on my health insurance plan to now all of us being on my husband's.
Got it. And what would be the out-of-pocket max on his plan now for the whole family?
$16,000.
Okay. And how much do you have in the emergency fund? We currently have $17,000, but with me not going back to work, we're about to up it to $25,000.
Yeah, I think that'll give you some peace. And again, you can price it out. You can even talk to, you know, Healthcare Insurance Pro through RamseySolutions.com to help you kind of navigate some of this and you can crunch the numbers. I personally wouldn't burn too many brain calories over it.
You can kind of look at what you guys have spent on healthcare in the past, what the premiums are, what the deductibles are, the out-of-pocket max. Those are really the main things you want to look at to decide. But the main thing is you got good coverage. You know what the in-network care is and you're not going outside of that. And do I have good care with the network S that I've chosen?
And so when it comes to the Ramsey plan, I go, what's the cheapest option I can pay for that still covers my family? Because really you want for the big catastrophic stuff.
That's right.
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Chapter 3: Is it okay to use child support money for household expenses?
Would it be valuable for me to just pull that out now, roll that into my mutual funds, or should I wait for a year and then pull it out when I hit that 59 and a half?
What is the 10% penalty amount to? What's the dollar amount?
I have about $27,000 in there, so it's about $2,700.
Okay, and what would you pay to keep it going for the next year until you can cash it out without penalty?
It's nothing. I'm not putting anything into it or anything at all. It's just sitting there.
Then, I mean, I'm doing the math on this going, all right, I could pony up $2,700 or just leave it for a year. That's not a long amount of time at this stage of the game. So it might just be worth waiting. Okay. Yeah, is it a variable?
What type of annuity is it, Holly?
Like a variable or a fixed? I got to be honest. I believe so. It's been sitting there. It's not earning anything at all.
Totally, yeah.
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Chapter 4: How can we decide between paying off our mortgage or buying a new car?
I mean, it's why they push whole life in annuities instead of telling you, hey, just go invest in your 401k. They got to make their money. And so I don't like these quote unquote wealth strategists and advisors that are really just insurance salespeople. Me and George. Sorry, Rachel.
Really just coming in hot today.
Coming in hot with high deductible health care plans and annuities. It's a hot show.
It's a crazy show out there. This is The Ramsey Show.
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Welcome back. Going to the phones. We have Sarah in Riverside, California. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the show. Hi, thank you for having me. Absolutely. How can we help?
So I have some guilt and pride around using child support money. So I was in an abusive relationship, and by the grace of God, I was able to leave when my son was about three weeks old. I met my now husband when my son was six months old, and he's now 12. Um, my husband and I had sat and talked and said, we don't want any money. We don't want anything. We want nothing to do with him.
Well, the judge made the decision that it's not our choice and it's not our money. Um, it's for our son. So we were just putting all that money in an account. Um, we had some debt and, um, in 2021 I lost my job and we needed four walls. So we dipped into that account. And as of January of 2025, we are officially done with Baby Step 2. We are completely debt free. Oh, congratulations. Thank you.
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Chapter 5: What are the risks of opening credit cards in your child's name?
you know thing or something and you're like oh my gosh she was supposed to use it for a down payment on a house or you know what I mean like a mag like I feel like like a like a lot of this magnitude and weight from a dollar standpoint I feel like we could go at it a different way because I could see you know the more money it is the more weight it feels right so um yeah so with this four thousand yeah I I want you I want you to release it for you Sarah again it's not about the dollars at that point to me it's it's that emotional attachment that's still there to him and
And I want that. I want that release from you, you know, so whatever that looks like.
I would have a goal for this money instead of letting it just sit there. It's only going to make, you know, reopen the wound. So I would put it in a 529 plan for college. I would put it toward in a savings account for a car fund one day because that day is going to come and these things cost money. And this is it's part of the deal.
And, you know, there's a shared burden because that person was a parent and this is what the court ordered. And so it's hard to just say, release the guilt, Sarah, you're doing great. But that's the truth of it. It's that hard and it's that simple to just go, all right, it happened. That was the past. And I'm going to make a better future for my kid now. And it sounds like you guys are thriving.
And this child is so lucky to have you two.
Yeah, he's definitely blessed. My husband is literally a godsend, and he took him on like his own. And like I said, nobody knows. There's a couple people like family knows, but he doesn't know.
And my husband stepped up in more ways than I could ever even pray for. Well, and give yourself to so much credit, Sarah, because we talked to so many people on this show and women specifically that are in a situation and they don't feel like there's a way out. And whether from its financial type abuse where a husband's withholding and not allowing.
Controlling.
Yes, to physical, emotional. I mean, you can fill in the gaps.
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