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Chapter 1: How can I break free from living paycheck to paycheck?
Very traditional.
I like to wait, you know. I respect it. But I tell you what, it doesn't matter who wins today because we'll be here tomorrow. And the next day, we'll help you win with your money, no matter who's in the White House. So calm yourself. You got your money questions. I feel like if they're listening to the show today, they're doing pretty good. Right. You know what I mean?
Like mentally, you're doing pretty good if you're not glued to headlines and instead you're listening to us. That tells me something about how your life is going. How are you doing right now?
I'm doing great. You seem to be a self-admitted anxious person.
That's true. Are you anxious about it? The more anxious other people get, the calmer I get. Because I go, oh, gosh, I guess I'm not that anxious. Okay.
Yeah. That's kind of interesting. That's where I come in. All right. Well, we're calm. We're clear here today to help you win in those areas. Let's go. Cynthia is joining us in Tallahassee, Florida. Cynthia, how can we help today?
Hi, Cynthia. Sorry. Thanks for having me. I'm kind of nervous.
You're doing great.
Okay, I feel like I'm stuck. I am here in Florida, originally from Texas. I moved to Florida in 2013 to help my parents. They were aging, so I wanted to be closer to them. Subsequently, we got married. We bought a house in 2017. And then both of our houses, my parents' house and my house, got damaged by the Hurricane Michael in 2018. It took us three years.
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Chapter 2: Should I pull from my 401(k) to pay my ex-husband?
Chapter 3: Is it wise to sell my house and rent instead?
get rid of my house, bank the money, put it in CDs and then just rent and not have to think about, well, if another hurricane comes, at least I won't be responsible for that house or two houses again.
What's going on with the other house?
That's my parents' house. They're living in that house.
But you own it completely. That's theirs. Is there a mortgage on it?
No, they own it completely.
Oh, so you don't have two houses.
You keep saying... Right, their house, no. I think she means she's responsible for her parents. She's kind of their chief caregiver.
Yeah, and you would rent. Would it make sense for you to just move into the parents' house if you are the caregiver?
It would be difficult and more stressful.
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Chapter 4: What should I do if my family is being unfair in estate planning?
Okay. And did your husband have life insurance? Do you have any other assets?
He had a small amount of life insurance. I do have an emergency fund. I have about $50,000 in savings. Maybe about, I carry five in checking. Do you have any debt other than the mortgage? I have one credit card that has about $900 balance on it.
Remind us again, what will you stand to make on this house if you sell it? What will you clear?
I'm thinking around $200,000.
And you would just put that in a high-yield savings account?
Yeah, I would put it someplace where it would draw interest but be safe. I was thinking CDs haven't really gone that far with it.
Well, your high-yield savings account will have competitive rates while keeping it very safe. It's FDIC-insured, and so it's not going to disappear. You're not investing this money, and it'll just help it grow with sort of the pace of inflation. If you're talking about 4% right now is what the rates are at.
You know, Cynthia, I don't know, George, what you think about this. I don't like the fact that her rent's almost half of her take-home pay, but yet I understand she wants to kind of get out of this house. I wonder if buying a condo or something that's much— Get her payment lower.
Get your payment lower, less expensive, not have to worry about, you know, like a single-unit house and any kind of storm stuff, you know, be a part of something. Have you thought through that? Do you understand our concern about your rent being almost half of your take-home?
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Chapter 5: How can I make a smart car purchase without debt?
What would be ideal? Oh, I could be at $1,500 or less would be awesome.
Yeah, that's what I'd be aiming for. What's your mortgage payment now?
$166.
Okay. Okay.
Yeah, I would do some more homework. But either way, you know, you're going to be okay. But again, we don't just want too much of your world being eaten up by that rent to where you can't accomplish other financial goals. And then you have a new version of stress, which is financial stress. So I think we're going to have to do some homework.
I mean, it's a rock and a hard place here, and I hope it's just a season for you, and we can get you to smoother ground soon.
Yeah, so sorry, Cynthia, for all of the storms you've been through, but it seems like you've got a really great attitude, and that's what it takes to walk through these times of pain and come out on the other side. So thank you for sharing your story and time with us. Quick break. He's George Campbell. I'm Ken Coleman. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back America. Thrilled to have you with us.
How are you doing out there? How are you feeling? It's a big day today, I think, isn't it? A lot of emotions today. Something going on today? I don't know what's going on. I've got to check the calendar. It's National Something Day, isn't it? Something, what is it?
What do they call it? Election Day. Is it called National Election Day?
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Chapter 6: What financial strategies should I consider for retirement?
I would potentially make a little bit less doing that compared to what I'm doing now, as the leadership role is more of a base salary position with an annual bonus at the end of the year. And my current role is I'm more on the sales arm, and I'm doing really well with the sales part of my job. So going into leadership, I might make a little bit less upfront.
However, what I'm struggling with is if I moved into leadership over the course of my lifetime, right, my total lifetime earnings might be higher. So it put me down that career track where I can move into, you know, leadership and then potentially, you know, to an executive role and make more later on.
So I'm just trying to figure out what to do and to throw another curve ball into the mix is that I've only been in my current role with my company for about 11 months, out of the, you know, um, you know, 11, 12 years I've been at my current company. So they're trying to figure out which direction to go. And, uh, yeah. Well, which one do you want?
Well, I think I'd like to go into leadership more than anything. Um, but I would be potentially taking a pay cut.
So that's the, how much of a pay cut?
Um, potentially 80 to a hundred thousand dollars.
Whoa. And this is with your current company. They've offered you this role.
They haven't offered me the role in writing, so I applied for it. And what they told me is, you know, you're doing a good job. We can see you doing it, but we're not going to give it to you right now. So what they're going to do is there's an opportunity for me with another leader in the company who's going to be They're not going to be around. Let's put it that way.
I don't want to give out too much information, but they're not going to be around for seven, eight months. And what they're planning to do is let me take over for that person.
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