Build Your Foundation Before You Build Wealth

The Ramsey Show

The episode features hosts Jade Warshaw and George Kamel providing financial guidance to callers facing various life transitions. Topics ran

Key takeaways

• Erica's wedding: Prioritize your own vision over in-law expectations if they are not funding the full cost of a destination event.
• Julie's solar debt: Avoid clicking on social media advertisements promising to cancel solar loans; seek professional legal advice instead.

Main topics

• Wedding budgeting and family dynamics
• Inherited debt management

Notable quotes

It's your job to create the wedding that you want.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a reminder that financial peace comes from prior

Transcript preview

Speaker 6 (0:04) Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Speaker 1 (0:12) Normal is broken. Common sense is weird. So we're here to help you transform your life, your money from the Ramsey Network and the Fairwinds Credit Union Studio. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me, George Campbell taking your calls. 888-825-5225 gets you on. Erica is on the line. She's up next in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hi, Erica. How can George and I help out today? Speaker 5 (0:35) Hi, Jade and George. I am calling because... My in-laws said that they set money aside for my boyfriend and his brother's wedding. However, they said that they're not going to pay for a destination wedding. So we're kind of caught in the middle of deciding, do we go destination or do we do what they want? Stay in town, but maybe get some help with it. Speaker 1 (0:55) I mean, do you need the money? Speaker 5 (0:59) No, but it would be nice. I mean, what would the financially smart thing to do be? I mean, I know George got his wedding paid for. I would love that to happen. I Speaker 2 (1:09) wish I could give that to you. Destination weddings are going to be more expensive, I imagine. Is that why they don't want to do it? Or are there other reasons? You know what? Speaker 5 (1:16) Actually, I think the destination wedding is going to be less expensive. Overall. Based on what we've priced out so far, yeah. It depends Speaker 1 (1:23) on how you're doing it. Are you fitting the bill? footing the bill for anyone flying out? Or is it just like the wedding is here? If you can make it great, if you can't, see you later. Speaker 5 (1:34) Great question. So if we pay for it, everyone else is going to foot the bill. It's going to be about $1,500 maximum per person to come out. However, if his parents said, hey, you know, we set this money aside, do what you want with it, we might be able to help the family members and the friends who maybe can't afford to pay for it all themselves. So Speaker 1 (1:52) what if you pitched an idea where you say, hey, guys, we also have some money saved, but we really want to do a destination wedding. What if our portion of the money goes, what if your portion of the money goes towards paying for like the venue and the food and those things, but our portion goes towards flying out like key family members to make sure that they can go or like subsidizing it to a certain extent? Speaker 5 (2:17) Yeah, so we did try to pitch that already, and we got some pushback. So the issue is his dad has nine siblings and his mom has six, so we can't pay for everyone to come. And so I think they want an in-town wedding so that way everyone can come. But we actually want a destination wedding so we can get to talk to everyone and see everyone and make sure that it's not just, you know, the day's over and, oh, my gosh, we didn't see anyone. Can you just do it Speaker 2 (2:42) locally and limit it, and you guys just do a little getaway kind of honeymoon situation? Speaker 5 (2:48) Would that be a compromise? Speaker 2 (2:49) Because then you get a free wedding, Speaker 5 (2:51) plus Speaker 2 (2:52) the solid expenses paid vacation. Speaker 5 (2:55) I would think that would be a compromise. The issue is if we do a local wedding, then the people who don't get invited might feel slighted. Speaker 2 (3:02) Who's not getting invited? Speaker 5 (3:03) Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:04) You're saying because now it's local, more people can come, but we're still limiting the invite list. Speaker 5 (3:10) I mean, the invite list is still nine siblings and all their kids and six siblings and all their kids, and then that's not even my family. Speaker 2 (3:16) Right. So what are his parents willing to cover financially? Is it a dollar amount? Speaker 5 (3:22) They wouldn't give me a dollar amount. They said that if they give us a dollar amount, our Mexico trip might turn into an Italy trip. So it's probably significant. Speaker 1 (3:29) See, that's strange. Oh, wow. I'd want them, I don't know why they're being kind of like... not telling you the details. I think if I were you, I would talk to your fiance and say, can you please press your parents to get some actual facts so we can plan? It's not because we're trying to tell them what to do or because we're ungrateful. We just need to understand clearly our options so we can make a plan. Can you please ask them for the dollar amount if we do it local? That's all we need. And then we can make a decision. And then I wanted to ask you, Erica, how much do you guys have saved? Speaker 5 (4:04) Yeah, that's a good question. So I only have about 7,000 saved, but I could probably do another seven before the wedding. Now, my fiance, he has about 85 to 90,000 saved. But, you know, that was actually supposed to be allotted for a house. Yeah, that's a lot of money. We could spend money on a wedding. But, you know. If it could be free, that would be fantastic, too, you know? So Speaker 1 (4:30) I think it sounds like it sounds like the biggest value is not that it's a destination. It sounds like the biggest value is we get to choose who comes and we get to choose what we spend on it because we'd rather have more money going to other things like a house or the honeymoon. Is that fair? Speaker 5 (4:49) Yeah, I do. I do still really want the destination. I think if we do the destination, it'll limit the guest list without us having to limit the guest list. Speaker 2 (4:57) But that's the reason you're doing it then is to sort of force the issue and go, well, they don't have to invite everyone because not everyone can come. So, Speaker 1 (5:03) yeah. So to George's point, guest list is number if we force rank these priorities, guest list is number one. Destination is number two. Not overspending is number three is what I'm hearing. Yeah. Okay. So I think that what you and your fiance need to do is do what you would like to do. And that's, it's your choice. If you want to do a destination wedding, do it and invite who you want. And the other, the adults are going to decide if they can make it or if they can't. The best thing that you can do is give them a save the date pretty far in advance and let them know, here's when it is. Here's what it's around, what it's going to cost and do what you want to do. It's your day. It's up to you. It's not your job. It's not your job to make sure everyone can attend. Let me say that. It's your job to create the wedding that you want. Speaker 5 (5:59) Yeah, and I really do want the destination wedding. The only other fear that I have is it kind of ticks the in-laws off when we said we wanted a destination wedding. That's all right. So do we need to worry about that? I mean, you'll Speaker 2 (6:12) have to live with that. I don't know how long they'll hang it over your head for, but you're in it for the long haul, so they're going to have to learn to like you. Speaker 1 (6:18) Yeah, and they will. They will. There's always some drama. I'm thinking back in my own mind about my own wedding. There's always some kind of drama. And over time, it goes away. And it just solidifies. All that does, Erica, honestly, is solidify what takes place when you get married, which is that bond going towards you and your husband. And you're kind of moving away from your mom and dad and your family and kind of doing things the way they want you to do them. And you're moving towards... you two being a unit and living your life the way you want to live your life. And that's, it's almost like the first foray into that lifestyle. Speaker 1 (6:55) Yeah. If you guys were in my shoes, Speaker 5 (6:57) what would you do? Speaker 2 (6:59) I would personally try to come up with a compromise where they feel honored. And that might be you guys do the destination wedding with a small group, but then at home, when you guys are back, there's a big celebration and you kind of make a little, your own wedding out of that. And that way all the people get to come, there's still a celebration. And who cares when the actual, you know, nuptials happened. That's the question. But then Speaker 5 (7:19) we both. pay for it. It's like we would pay for the destination, they would pay for the reception. Speaker 2 (7:23) Then you guys can talk about it. It might be you guys pay your own way to Mexico to have your destination wedding. That could cost you $15,000. And then they might cover $40,000 for an in-person wedding back home. Speaker 1 (7:35) And I would say use your money that you have and have the wedding that you would like to have. Give everybody a fair amount of notice. Price some things out. Speaker 1 (7:47) Let that be that on that. Speaker 2 (7:49) I think you're wanting the cake and you want to eat it too. In this case, it's the wedding cake. But it's I want to have my wedding my way, but also I want someone else to fund it even though they have their own thoughts. If it's someone else's budget, they're going to have some level of say. I wish they said carte blanche. Here's Speaker 5 (8:02) a Speaker 2 (8:02) check for 40 grand. Do what you want, Erica. That would have been the cool thing, right? Speaker 5 (8:06) Yeah, I think that's what Dave did, didn't he? I don't know. I'll have to check Speaker 2 (8:11) in with Dave on his plan. But here's what I did. Our wedding that we won, 50 people total, including bride, groom, bridal party. So we had to throw a second party just to have everyone we wanted to have. So that was a compromise. And Speaker 1 (8:22) see, I had a destination wedding, and we invited 75 people, and I think 70 came. And I never did anything else back home. That Speaker 2 (8:30) was Speaker 1 (8:30) that. That was that on that. Speaker 6 (9:02) If your business is making seven figures or more, you should be proud of that. But that growth probably brought a mess with it. Systems that don't talk to each other. It's impossible to track down your numbers because they're scattered everywhere. That's a visibility problem, and NetSuite has solved that problem for more than 44,000 businesses like yours. NetSuite brings financials, inventory, CRM, and more into one place. And their AI tool, NetSuite Next. builds AI into everything, automating busy work like forecasting demand and chasing down overdue accounts. It's not complicated to use. You just ask it questions like you're talking to a person. And you're not starting from scratch because NetSuite is built on leading practices from thousands of businesses preloaded and ready to go. Ramsey Solutions switched to NetSuite years ago. It helped us know our numbers, and we've never looked back. If your revenue is at least $7,000, figures, try NetSuite Next for free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. That's netsuite.com slash Ramsey, or click the link in the description. All Speaker 1 (10:26) right, back at the phone lines where we have Julie in West Palm Beach, Florida. Hi, Julie. What's up in your world? Speaker 5 (10:33) Hi. So I inherited a home and it has solar panels and it has a 25-year debt attached to the solar panels. And I've been on social media, on Facebook and such, and I keep getting advertisements for canceling your solar debt. Is that possible to do? Speaker 1 (10:59) So how much of the home, how much are you paying every month in these solar panels, just in the solar panel bill? $300. $300 a month. Oh my gosh. Okay. And are you telling me like when you contact the business, there's nothing there or are they still in business? What's going on with the business? Speaker 5 (11:19) The people that installed the solar panels are out of business. Speaker 1 (11:25) Okay. Speaker 5 (11:27) And the automatic payments are coming out, going to a whole nother business. Okay. Speaker 1 (11:33) So that's what I Speaker 5 (11:34) was Speaker 1 (11:34) going to do. Have you separated like the lender, like who actually holds the loan aside from the installer? Okay. And what are they saying? Speaker 5 (11:45) Well, I haven't spoken to them, but I'm getting these advertisements saying that if you had this installer, you can cancel your loan with this. And they're using the same company that I'm paying. So that's why I don't want to click on it and then get on a whole bunch of other lists. Speaker 2 (12:05) Yeah, my fear is they charge you a hefty fee and then it doesn't end up getting canceled and you're still on the hook. Speaker 5 (12:10) Right. Speaker 2 (12:11) And you're just out more money. Speaker 5 (12:13) Right. And I've gone through Financial Peace University and I'm 100 percent debt free. Thank you. And so I don't know. I'm like, wait a minute. Now I have a house. Yeah. How did Speaker 2 (12:27) that work in the contract? I'm sure that came up when you bought the house, the home. What was going to happen with the solar debt? Because it's in someone else's name. Speaker 5 (12:34) It's inherited. I inherited it from my father. Speaker 2 (12:37) Oh, from your father. So the debt is technically in his name still? But you legally owe it? Speaker 5 (12:44) Yes. Speaker 2 (12:45) Okay. Speaker 5 (12:46) Because he gave me the house in his will, and the house has the Speaker 2 (12:51) solar contract. What's Speaker 5 (12:52) the Speaker 2 (12:52) total left on the loan? Speaker 5 (12:56) Forty-something thousand. Speaker 2 (12:57) Ouch. That's Speaker 5 (12:59) a lot. Speaker 2 (12:59) Yeah. What's the interest rate on this? Speaker 5 (13:02) Three percent. Might have gone up by now. Speaker 2 (13:07) Yeah, I'm just wondering, if this was part of the contract you signed, I don't know that it's just going to go away. I don't know how the lender would just cancel the debt Speaker 7 (13:14) magically Speaker 2 (13:15) just because it was inherited. Speaker 5 (13:17) Right. Speaker 7 (13:19) Have Speaker 2 (13:19) you talked to an attorney about this? Speaker 5 (13:22) No. Should that be my next Speaker 2 (13:24) step? I might just be worth a consultation to see what your options are. Okay. Because if you can get out of this unscathed, that's awesome. But I don't want you to go down a rabbit hole of clicking advertisements and people promising you things that aren't true. Speaker 5 (13:39) Right, right. And I have learned not to do that because I learned in my financial beast university. So, okay, well, you answered my question, and I appreciate that so much, and I appreciate the Ramsey solutions. This is awesome. Speaker 2 (13:56) Absolutely. Yeah, I've been looking at all that fine print you signed to see what your options are when it comes to... getting out of this thing, if you owe it in full, if there's any remedy here, I would at least do that much homework before deciding, all right, I'm just going to attack this thing like any other debt. Speaker 1 (14:10) I feel like she doesn't have a lot of options just because she legally signed for that when she got the house. This is part of it. Yeah, this is kind of part of it. That's tough. Try to avoid solar at all costs. That's the takeaway here. Anything Speaker 2 (14:22) where someone shows up at my door, I'm usually like, this is probably not a good deal for me. Speaker 1 (14:27) I feel Speaker 2 (14:27) that. That's usually how it goes with solar. They're promising you, hey, that electric bill's high. Wouldn't you love to pay $300 a month to something else instead? I would not. No thank you. Woof. Speaker 1 (14:38) Woof. Let's go to Caleb in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hey, Caleb. How can George and I help? Hi, how are you guys? Doing all right. What's up in your world? Speaker 3 (14:47) I am in the process of closing on a new home, and I am going back and forth on whether I should get a FHA or a conventional loan. Do Speaker 2 (14:59) you qualify for the conventional loan? Speaker 3 (15:01) Yes. Speaker 2 (15:02) So what's the benefits for you going FHA? Just less money down? Speaker 3 (15:10) That would be one thing. And the purchase of the new home is contingent on the sale of my current home. Speaker 1 (15:17) And how does the FHA help you in that situation, the contingency? Speaker 3 (15:21) It doesn't. There is a deadline on it. It's basically the FHA. I would have the liquid cash right now to close that I need. Conventional, I will not have that liquid cash accessible. until my house is sold. Speaker 1 (15:39) That kind of sounds like a protection for you, in my opinion, because if your house doesn't close and you needed that money to put down on the new house, you're going to have two mortgages that you're paying. Can you handle that? Speaker 3 (15:52) Correct. Yes. Yes, I can. Speaker 1 (15:55) Without a renter? I'm going to just carry two mortgages? Yes. Okay, then that really shapes why do the FHA loan, if you've got the money, then I'd be thinking, okay, let me put more down so that there's equity built in at close versus going the FHA route and putting less down. Speaker 3 (16:16) What I'm saying right now, I probably won't have the 10 % to put down if I go the conventional until the house sells. Once the house sells, I mean, I could always be fine. Speaker 1 (16:27) Yes. Why are you afraid of, because having a contingency is a fair thing. Why are you afraid of waiting? Is it a build and you've got to get it? Like what's causing you to have to make that call right away and you can't wait? Speaker 3 (16:44) I mean, it's something new for me. It's a big move. It's out of my city and, I don't know, just an attachment to Speaker 2 (16:52) the house Speaker 3 (16:52) most Speaker 2 (16:53) likely. Have you seen it in person? Yes. Okay. This isn't like sight unseen. Well, the other problem with FHA, and I'm sure you've heard of this, is MIP, the mortgage insurance premium. It's about 1.75 % up front of the loan, and most people roll it into the loan because they can't afford it. And so that just becomes a bigger payment with less down. Correct. Because it's 3.5 % is required? Speaker 3 (17:20) Yes, I can afford that. Speaker 1 (17:23) Right, but you're going to be paying that long term. Speaker 3 (17:25) Over 30 years, and it's going to accrue to over $40,000 more. that I'm going to pay for the same exact home. Speaker 1 (17:32) I think you're in a rush. And I think the rush is, and I understand there's a time crunch if you're moving, but can you rent for a while? Because I think that that time crunch is causing you, Caleb, to look at options that honestly aren't ideal for you and that are going to cause you to pay more out of pocket in fees long term and have a worse loan long term. When we could go, okay, let's just put the current house on the market. Let's let it sell. Let's go move to the new location. Let's rent for a year, which is what we would suggest anyway. And then certainly in that amount of time, the current house is going to sell. You'll take the equity and then you'll be familiar with the new area and you'll buy a new house in the new area. Okay. Tell us the timeline so we can kind of help you a little bit more. Speaker 3 (18:17) My closing date is the 23rd of October or November. I'm sorry, November. So I have about two months. 23rd of November. Speaker 1 (18:25) And how long has the house been on the market? Speaker 3 (18:28) The house has been on the market for roughly three months. Not my house, the house that I'm buying. My home has been listed as of Friday last week and just updated today with... The photos from the photographer that came in. Speaker 1 (18:45) Okay. So your house, your current house just went on the market and you're in the Cincinnati area. We have a tool on the real estate hub where you can actually type in your city. So if you were to put Cincinnati, Ohio and the real estate hub, which we're doing right now, average median days on market for you is 40 days on market. So if your house, Caleb, is in good. You've had a realtor, one of our realtors look at it and they're saying, hey, yeah, you're good to go. I mean, I think that's a fair assumption to say, hey, this could take 40 to 50 days to sell. Speaker 3 (19:16) Okay. Speaker 1 (19:20) But the key here, I think the key for you is gathering all the information so that you can make the best choice instead of pushing yourself into a corner and saying, my only choice is. Yeah, Speaker 2 (19:30) this is the biggest financial decision of your life. And so you just want to do it slowly and not out of a desperate situation, but instead walk with confidence, with patience, with options. That's how you're going to make a good long term decision. Speaker 2 (20:17) If you're shopping online, and these days everybody does, data brokers are out there right now buying and selling your personal information. Your phone number, your home address, your email, without your knowledge or consent. 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Speaker 1 (21:32) Well, everyone needs insurance, you guys, but it can be hard trying to find pros who aren't just looking to make a buck off you and agents who actually know what they're talking about. Our Ramsey Trusted Insurance pros are vetted and coached to make sure they're market experts who have your best interest at heart. So go to ramseysolutions.com slash coverage to find the type of insurance that you're looking for and to connect with a Ramsey Trusted agent. Do that today. Let's go to Jennifer, who's in Los Angeles, California. Hi, Jennifer. How can George and I help out today? Oh, my God. I can't believe I'm talking to you guys. How are you? We're doing good. Happy to talk to you, too. Well, Speaker 5 (22:13) let's see. I deserve to be better, I think. 100%. 63. Speaker 5 (22:19) At 63. And so I plan on working probably another 10 to 11 years. I'm in sales. Okay. And I have $15,000 in an emergency fund. My 401k, sadly, with a company match, is at about $83,000. I forgot to tell the screener I have another $50,000 in another... Speaker 5 (22:45) 401k account that I had that I just kept there, let's say. So I have the 83 and the 50. And I'm just wondering at my age, how can I maximize this? Should I roll over my existing 401k with my current company into a Roth? Is that something that I should do? So really, those are my Speaker 1 (23:10) questions. Does your current employer offer a Roth option for 401k? Speaker 5 (23:15) I think they do. It looks like they do on the website. I mean, I can tell you the name of the company. I mean, if they Speaker 1 (23:22) offer that, I would 100 % go for that. And then if you have this old 401k, is the old 401k with a different company? Speaker 5 (23:31) Yeah, it's a different company, and it's a financial advisor, basically, a company that's been with my family, so it's with them. Speaker 2 (23:44) But it's not a 401k anymore, then, right? Did you roll it over to an IRA? Speaker 5 (23:48) Right, it's a Charles Schwab. Okay, so you've got an IRA Speaker 2 (23:51) with 50k, 83k, and you're an employer 401k, you want to retire in 10 years. That's the goal, 11 years. Yes. Making up for lost time. We're willing to work till 74. Is that right? It's Speaker 5 (24:04) crazy. I could probably work till 80, but you know. Okay. You sound great. You sound like you're Speaker 2 (24:08) in Speaker 1 (24:08) great health. Well, Speaker 2 (24:09) we Speaker 1 (24:09) want you to work only because you want to, not because you must. Yeah. Speaker 5 (24:14) Yeah. Well, I feel like I need, I must, because I never saved in all my life. Yeah. Are you single? Speaker 5 (24:21) No, I'm married, but I really don't want to talk about my husband because we do everything so separately. I'm just really concerned about this, this account for me. Speaker 2 (24:33) So in retirement, you're only going to have access to your own money. He said, don't touch my pot. You guys split every bill? Speaker 5 (24:39) Well, if my husband passes away, he is 11 years older than me, then I would have something. I would have our house. What Speaker 1 (24:47) does he have? Can you tell us what he has in retirement just so we know what passes to you and if it passes to you? Say that again. I'm sorry. Can you tell us what he has in his assets? Because if he does pass before you, we can have an idea of what would pass to you. Speaker 5 (25:04) Yes. I believe he has about $100,000 just that he does draw from monthly. He has a pension also that's separate. Do you know how much he gets for the pension? I think it's about $2,000, I want to say, plus social security. And Speaker 1 (25:23) do you know if it's structured in a way, you know, sometimes with school system, a pension can be structured in a way that you get more monthly, but when you die, it dies with you, or it can be structured in the way that you get less monthly, but when you die, it can pass to a spouse. Do you know how his is structured? Speaker 5 (25:40) No, yes, I do. No, it just goes with him monthly, and then when he passes, that's it. Speaker 1 (25:45) That's that. So just the $100,000 that he's drawing off in the pension? Speaker 5 (25:49) Yes. No, from a separate account to kind of help end me with the pension. Speaker 1 (25:59) $100,000 plus the $2,000 a month. And what's the third thing? Social security. Okay. And I think that's about $1,500, I believe. Is his social security more than yours will be? Speaker 5 (26:16) Mine will be close to $4,000. Okay, so you'll keep yours. I'll Speaker 1 (26:20) take Speaker 5 (26:20) it up to $70,000-something, yes. Speaker 2 (26:22) Okay, so we at least have that on the horizon, plus whatever you have saved. So what is your current income for the year, your gross income? Speaker 5 (26:30) It's about $130,000, give or take with a bonus commission. Speaker 2 (26:33) Awesome. And do you have any debt? Speaker 5 (26:37) No. Speaker 2 (26:38) No home mortgage? Speaker 5 (26:41) No, my husband pays for that. He does that. Speaker 2 (26:44) Okay, but if something happened to him, would you be on the hook for the mortgage? Speaker 5 (26:48) Yes, because the house would go to me. Is Speaker 1 (26:52) it close to being paid off? Speaker 5 (26:55) I think it's about $400. Speaker 2 (26:59) Okay. So no. What I'm trying to factor in is you need a whole lot less for retirement if we're not needing a mortgage payment factored in there. So that's why I'm trying to figure out all the variables instead of just saying, yeah, you should be good. But based on your current income, we recommend investing 15 % until the house is paid off, which would be $19,500 for you. And that's without a match. So every month that would be $1625 going out. So I'm going to add that. I have our investment calculator up here. I'm going to show you, and you can watch this back on YouTube or Spotify. You have $133,000 saved. We're adding $1625 a month over the next 11 years. And I'm going to go with a 10 % average rate of return. Speaker 8 (27:41) So Speaker 2 (27:42) when I hit calculate, it's showing me $785,000. Speaker 2 (27:49) How does that sound? Speaker 5 (27:50) 10 years or so. That sounds amazing. That's great. That's 11 Speaker 1 (27:53) years. Speaker 2 (27:54) If Speaker 1 (27:54) you're living just off of the interest that that's generating, I mean. 70 grand a year, that's not bad. Plus you've got your 4,000 social security. And what I would be talking to your spouse about, I understand, I may not agree with it, but I understand that you want to keep the money separate. That's your business. However, the conversation that I would be having with him is we're both going to be retiring and there's things that affect both of us that we both need to have a clear idea of and a clear plan for. And that's the house because that's going to affect. each of you, if you pass first, if he passes first. And so I would want to know, are you guys going to create a plan together to get this mortgage paid off? Does he have a plan to do that? Is his plan, do you want to downsize? Start talking at least about that because that does affect both of you. And for you, it affects you greatly. If that house comes to you and you're used to living in it and now you've got a mortgage, well now if you can't afford it, you've got to move, all of these things. And so you both deserve to have a really clear plan that makes you feel secure in retirement. Speaker 5 (28:57) Right, right. Okay. And George, right? Yes. So on the $1625, is that 15 % of my income? That's what you calculated. That's where you got that number? Speaker 2 (29:14) Exactly. Gross income. $130,000, 15 % of that is $19,500. Divide it monthly, you get $1625. And that's without any match. And I've got the calculator up on the screen now. We finally figured that out. And so that's if your income doesn't grow. So if it grows, if you get a match, this number will be even bigger. And to give you some perspective, So $785,000, if you, let's say you had a withdrawal rate of about 6 % to 8%, you're talking $45,000 to $60,000 a year is what you could withdraw from that. So about $4,000 a month. So now if you tack that on with Social Security, okay, that's about $8,000 a month. Now we can figure out, is that enough to sustain our life and lifestyle, the mortgage, healthcare, all of that at that age? Speaker 5 (29:59) Right. And if I said, oh, I want to retire in five years, of course, that number will be way less. Yeah. At that point, Speaker 2 (30:06) you have a very high likelihood of running out of money. And again, I don't know your lifestyle. I see you're in the Los Angeles area. I know you have the mortgage still. That's probably not going to get paid off in the next five years based on the current trajectory. And so that's where this conversation with your husband, even if you guys have separate finances, and I wish I could convince you guys to build this thing together because it feels. Crazy you're building two different rocket ships and you're both trying to land on the moon? Yeah. Let's just pool our efforts together. Yeah. If you're the beneficiary, you're a part of his financial plan, whether he likes it or not. Yeah. So I want to know, am I the beneficiary on all these accounts? Can we make sure I's are dotted, T's are crossed? Because one of us is going to croak one day. Not Speaker 1 (30:44) to mention, in a perfect world, there'd be life insurance on both of you so that if one of you passes away, there's a lump sum to carry. You know, at least cover... costs for, you know. Pay off the mortgage, funeral costs, all Speaker 2 (30:55) of that. Speaker 1 (30:55) Absolutely. So working together is the best bet. Speaker 6 (31:23) Let me tell you what I get asked all the time. When should I get term life insurance? How much do I need? Is it affordable? Those are the right questions to be asking. So let's take a quick review. The fact is term life isn't a baby step. So if anyone is dependent on your income, you need to have 10 to 12 times your income in life insurance now. And most people are surprised by how affordable term life really is. Even if you're not in perfect health. Look, I understand the hesitation since most insurance companies make it more of a hassle than it needs to be. Not at Zander Insurance. They're not an insurance company. They're a broker that works for you. That means they'll shop and compare the top term life companies to find the most competitive options on the coverage for your family. For almost 30 years, I've recommended Zander for straight answers. competitive rates, and coverage that actually protects your family. Call 800-356-4282 or go to Zander.com for a quick and easy quote. That's Zander.com. Speaker 1 (32:42)