67 With Nothing Saved For Retirement

Brought to you by CHM, a budget-friendly, faith-based alternative to health insurance. chministries.org/budget I am 67 years old and went through a divorce here not too long ago and pretty much wiped me out. And so I don't have any savings for retirement. I'm a sole proprietor, contractor. I stay busy, fortunately, thank God, and I'm just trying to figure out what's the best way to move forward and catch up for some lost time. Got my son through college without any debt, and basically started over. I have $23,000 in debt, a car, medical, and a personal loan. Okay. Okay. Did you, during the divorce, um... Did you obtain any assets or like a home or anything? Well, I do have my home and it is paid off. That's good. How much is it worth? Sure. I would say probably $150,000 to $160,000. Okay. Gotcha. And you said you're a sole proprietor. What do you do for work and how much do you bring home on a given month? Well, I do construction, new construction, remodeling, and obviously it varies depending on, but I would say on average, I would say $4,000 to $6,000 a month. Okay. And do you currently have a budget? Because, I mean, for a single guy, $6,000 a month isn't bad, especially with a paid-for home. I just wonder if we need to reallocate that money and make sure it's going to good places. Um, I honestly really don't have a budget made up. Um, some of that money goes to like liability insurance and, uh, um, for the business, for the business. Okay. Are you keeping the money separate? So are you keeping your personal money separate from the business money? No, I am not. Every year, it's the same story. Your health care premiums are going up, yet you can't even control your choice of doctors. That's where Christian Health Care Ministries comes in. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry where members share each other's medical bills. Their program starts at just $115 a month. And y'all, listen to this. CHM is not raising their prices this year. So visit chministries.org slash budget and use promo code Ramsey for 50% credit towards your first month's membership or click the link in the description. Okay, so we definitely need to start doing that. That'd probably be my first course of business is just going down to the bank and opening up a doing business as account and just keep that money. So that way you actually know what you're earning from the business because if you don't, Jim, You're going to be thinking that you make $4,000 to $6,000, but after expenses, maybe it's closer to $3,000. We won't know until you separate that money. And then from there, my second course of business would be to do a budget. Once you've separated that money and you can say, okay, after all my expenses, here's what's left in the business. I'm going to transfer that over, pay myself. Now I'm making the budget based off of that money. So we'll give you every dollar to get you started on that. And knowing that number is going to be key because that's, that's where your margin is going to come from. Do you have any money saved anywhere? I do. Thank you. I've got the thousand dollars. Okay, good. So anything else? You know, just my equipment and I have a musical instrument, stuff like that. Okay. You wouldn't mention it if it wasn't a lot. How much do you think you have in musical equipment that you could liquidate? I probably have somewhere around eight to 10,000, I would say. I might do that. I'd probably do that immediately because that knocks out half of your debt if you can get 10,000 for that. Because the first step here, you've got the baby step one, which makes me think you're familiar with our steps. The next step is, yeah, to look to clear out this debt. And I would liquidate the musical instruments as quickly as I can. And then in the meantime, with whatever margin you're finding in your budget, really getting after this $23,000 of debt. Tell us about your vehicle. It's my work van. Okay. Is it paid off or does it have a note? Oh, yeah. It's paid off. Okay. And that's the only car you've got? Only vehicle? Okay. Yeah. I mean, Jim, just because of your age and situation, I think as aggressively that you can do this, the faster you could do this, the more upside you're going to have on the end of saving for retirement. So let's just pretend you did. You know, sell some stuff and that can be anything and everything, right? Maybe, and you get $10,000, that's $13,000. And if you could find an extra $2,000, which maybe mean working, you know, more jobs, finding that income, because your income is going to be key here, is to be throwing that. And if you found $2,000 a month, you're out of debt and everything in five months. And then save up in emergency funding. I mean, by this time next year. You could be in a totally different spot financially. And then the thing from there is to start investing. And that's where 15% of your income will go. And... And yeah, and it probably won't be to the, just because of the time. I mean, there's just a limit of. time and income to a certain point. Absolutely. That you're going to have to realize, okay, with social security, anything coming in that I will have at some point in my life, how much do I need to live off of every month and getting to that number with your investments that you can live off of that. And again, it may be another five-ish to six years, which I hate. I mean, these are always tough calls, especially when someone has gotten to that point of, For sure, retirement age, but then up to the point of physical work is tough, and the older you get, that is much harder, and so the reality of all of that, Jim, really is going to depend, I think, of you of clearing this debt, getting some cash in the bank that's there just for expenses, and it can be three months. You don't have to do the full six months because your house is paid for. Thank goodness. It's just you. Yeah, get at least three months, but do all of that very, Very, very quickly. And then start throwing some money in investments. And And that would be my goal. But it's a, and it's possible, Jim. that's Like we hear stories all the time of people doing this. why I'm so So, but I do think for other people listening and watching, you know, it's a cautionary tale of realizing, excited like, you know, life is going to happen. It's going to keep moving. And so where you are today, and this includes Jim, to be the decisions you make today, they affect your future. here. Sure. And so you can either... choose to ignore it and, you know, not think much about it until it's too late or to say, no, I'm going to do something different. And it's not too late for you, Jim, right? Like you're not at the end of your story. Um, but it just means it has to go that much more aggressively to see some movement. I think we hear, I think we hear that a lot. There's people who call in and they've kind of been around the water cooler. They hear the information. They've listened to Ramsey for for a long time or maybe you just watch the show out of... Just entertainment. And you get a kick out of seeing what other people are going through. But if you're not actually applying this in your own life, that time is ticking. That's right. And with Jim, it totally, it's a look on the other side when you don't. Make that move and just life happening. You know, the divorce is, that is just life happening that maybe you didn't see around the corner and all of these things, they really have the ability to affect our lives. But financially, if we do the things that, if you do the things that we teach, you're prepared for those things and you can kind of handle those storms when they come. And I mean, gosh, if you need, if you, if you never had a reason to get started, this is the reason. I mean, it's like the caller that we took prior to. Yeah, that's right. You know, gosh, lock in. If you don't change the habits, yeah. And for those of you that are new, we do teach on the seven baby steps. It's what Jim mentioned. Baby step one is getting $1,000. And then baby step two is paying off your debt. But when you go down the line. Four is invest in retirement. Baby step four, baby step five is fund your kid's college. And so the fact that he paid for his kid's college is wonderful. That's such a feat to put your kid through. But we always say invest in your retirement first. Like your kids may or may not go to college. They have ways to pay for it, make decisions with their higher education to do what they need to do. At some point, you're going to retire. At some point, you won't be able to work. You're not going to be able to work. And so taking care of yourself first and that baby step four of 15% of your income, that is not selfish or wrong. That's wisdom. And then out of that, if there's more to fund kids college. But Jim, call us back if you need us. But I think honestly, in 12 months, if you do this, You get out of this debt quickly, you get some savings and you start investing. All of that could happen in the next nine to 12 months for you, I really do believe. And then you'll start to see some progress for sure. Christian Healthcare Ministries can save your family hundreds of dollars on healthcare every month. Learn more at chministries.org slash budget.