Don't Wait For Motivation - Take Action

Dave Ramsey (0:00)

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Normal is broken, common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your life. From the Ramsey Network and the FAIRWINDS Credit Union Studio, this is The Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Dr. John Delony, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author and host of the Dr. John Delony Show. Dr. John is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Christine is in Kansas City. Hi, Christine, how are you?

SPEAKER_2 (0:54)

Hi, Dave. First of all, I just wanted to say it's been 11 years since I went through FPU, and I would not be in this position asking me this question had it not been for that. So thank you.

Dave Ramsey (1:05)

Thank you. I'm glad you worked it. Good for you. Proud of you.

SPEAKER_2 (1:08)

Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. So my husband and I are in our early and mid-30s. We just had a baby and we are on baby step seven. Based on our situation, I'm wanting to know if it's okay for me to be able to stay home and raise our son. Because speaking to our financial advisor, he originally said we had a 2% chance of success.

Dave Ramsey (1:32)

Okay.

Sounds very dire for someone who has no mortgage. And, you know, like, so what do you make and what does your husband make?

SPEAKER_2 (1:43)

Well, combined total, we're at 227K. 60% of that is from me and 40% of that is from him. But half of his is taxable or is taxable and the other half is a medical retirement pension, so that's tax free.

So, yeah, if I could-

Dave Ramsey (2:02)

So he makes like, he likes, makes almost 100 and you make 100 and a quarter.

SPEAKER_2 (2:08)

He's a little bit less, I'm a little bit more, but yes. Okay.

John Delony (2:11)

What does success mean? What did your advisor say you were going to fail at?

SPEAKER_2 (2:16)

Well, originally he said that we were going to run out of money by the age of 69, and by the time I turned 69 and I'm an engineer and I was looking at that and I was like, that doesn't even make any sense from a money standpoint, but I just wanted to make sure that if I do take a step back from this, that it's not going to be something that I'm going to regret long-term.

Dave Ramsey (2:39)

Okay. What do you do for a living?

SPEAKER_2 (2:42)

So, I'm an engineer.

Dave Ramsey (2:43)

Oh, you said that. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_2 (2:46)

You're right.

Dave Ramsey (2:46)

All right.

Well, I don't like your financial advisor very much. I don't like your relationship with them.

John Delony (2:53)

You need a new one of those.

Dave Ramsey (2:54)

Because those guys get confused sometimes and you have to explain to them, you work for me, dude. Not the other way around. It's like some of these lawyers, they think I work for them. They're confused.

John Delony (3:05)

I wonder if he's doing the math on, you're not going to contribute as much to his wealth.

SPEAKER_2 (3:12)

I mean, honestly, we kind of questioned that at one point.

Dave Ramsey (3:15)

So, okay, let's set him aside. We'll come back to him in a minute. So the bottom line is that, can you raise a child if you're 100 percent debt free on $100,000 a year in Kansas City? Most likely.

And that's what your husband, and by the way, you're probably not going to go to zero. You have all kinds of opportunity for side gigs and very minimal side hustles. You could probably make 50 grand, right? But I mean, if you want to practice it, here's a way to practice it, to test the emotions of it. 100 percent run your household on his income for three months and put all of yours in the bank and act like you didn't make any money. And then you can say, oh, yeah, we can do this. Lay out your EveryDollar budget with only his income.

SPEAKER_2 (4:07)

Yeah. And I did run that. And I didn't run it.

Dave Ramsey (4:10)

Did you live it?

SPEAKER_2 (4:12)

Oh, well, I mean, not in China technically because I had the baby, but I've been on disability leave. And so it's kind of been, you know, a little bit different situation. So you had income coming in.

John Delony (4:28)

Do you want to quit your job?