Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1229 ｜ How to Make Money in a Tough Economy

00:00:00.320 What is the truth about gerrymandering? What is going on between Texas and Illinois?

00:00:05.920 And how do young people navigate the financial difficulties of living in this economy today?

00:00:11.640 My dad is here to tell you all about it. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.

00:00:16.360 Go to GoodRanchers.com. Use code Alley at checkout. That's GoodRanchers.com, code Alley.

00:00:20.440 Well, hello, everybody. I know, again, you're probably preferred to see Alley, but she's on another assignment today, and she asked me to step in for her.

00:00:38.760 I'm Ron Simmons. I'm Alley's dad, as a lot of you know.

00:00:41.420 If you're first time watching, then come back when Alley's on. She'll be on tomorrow, so it'll be even better tomorrow.

00:00:47.580 But thank you all for taking the time to listen or watch this. Really appreciate that.

00:00:52.320 Before we get started, one thing I want to talk about was the Share the Arrows conference coming up in October.

00:00:59.720 If you haven't gotten your tickets, and thousands of you already have, then please get your tickets.

00:01:04.820 You know, I went last year, and of course, it's a women's conference, but I was kind of backstage helping out a little bit on some different things.

00:01:12.120 And when I walked in, though, in the back and saw all those ladies there and how they were praising Jesus and loving on each other, I tell you what, it was very moving to me, partly because Alley, you know, was kind of behind the idea of getting it going.

00:01:27.960 But also, just the families that were represented, and it gave me hope. It gave me hope that, you know, all is not lost.

00:01:35.140 And the people that were there that are celebrating life, they're celebrating their faith, it just was fantastic.

00:01:43.140 And it's going to be the same, if not even better, this year.

00:01:45.640 I know that Alley and Timothy and Bree and all of them have been working hard on this, and you're going to be really pleased with it.

00:01:52.900 So please, if you don't have your tickets, go online right now and get your ticket.

00:01:57.100 I know that you will not be disappointed.

00:01:58.940 And guys, let me tell you something, boys.

00:02:01.080 I know that's probably a big college football weekend, but you need to man up and make sure your wife can come to this.

00:02:07.460 I don't care if that means you miss your game or you've got to get a babysitter to help you while you're watching the game so the kids, you know, aren't crazy or anything like that.

00:02:16.260 But make sure that you honor your wife or your significant other by sending them, allowing them, helping them get to this conference.

00:02:25.620 You will not regret it for sure.

00:02:27.560 So anyway, that's in October, and I hope to see you around.

00:02:31.240 If you see me and I'm walking around carrying boxes or something, please stop and say hello.

00:02:35.780 Well, we've got several different things that we're going to talk about today.

00:02:38.920 But what I want to first talk about is this whole, I guess it's gone nationwide now, about redistricting and what they call gerrymandering.

00:02:48.160 And they kind of use those interchangeably.

00:02:51.040 Redistricting is really when usually after the census, which happens every 10 years, each state will take a look at their new population numbers

00:03:01.360 and determine how they're going to divide up the various areas for their congressional representation and their statehouse representation and what have you.

00:03:13.160 Because what happens, we are limited to 435 seats in the United States House of Representatives.

00:03:20.520 So those get jumbled around every 10 years.

00:03:24.360 If a state like Texas, for example, which is growing in population, will usually get more seats of the 435, a state like Illinois, who's losing population, will usually have less seats of the 435.

00:03:38.100 So that happens about every 10 years.

00:03:40.260 It happened just after the last census in 2020.

00:03:44.060 It happened in 2010 and what have you, or right after that.

00:03:47.180 However, there is occasion where there will be redistricting done what they call midterm or in the middle of the cycle.

00:03:57.620 And that's what's going on right now in Texas.

00:04:00.700 So when they redistrict or when they draw up congressional districts, which is really just geographical borderlines,

00:04:06.880 they have to try to get, I think it's 850,000 people within one U.S. congressperson's district.

00:04:13.920 And so to do that, it depends on generally, at least in Texas and in a lot of other states, which political party is in control.

00:04:23.300 Because they will try to have as many districts that they believe, they don't know for sure,

00:04:29.040 but they believe will vote for that party in the next elections over the next decade.

00:04:34.100 And what happened in Texas is that when they drew the lines after the 2020 census,

00:04:43.700 they drew a few districts actually incorrectly.

00:04:48.620 And that's what the White House is claiming.

00:04:50.740 That's what the Texas GOPs were claiming.

00:04:53.380 And actually, when I looked at the research, I think it's true.

00:04:56.740 The way the law works is it says that you cannot discriminate based on race.

00:05:06.300 You can discriminate based on political party.

00:05:08.820 There's no protection that if you're a Democrat, you're always going to have a Democrat as your congressperson.

00:05:14.820 Same way for Republicans.

00:05:16.000 But what you can't do is say, OK, we're going to, you know, just try to either move all of the African-Americans in one area

00:05:28.180 or all of the Hispanics in another area to make sure that we dilute their ability to vote for someone

00:05:37.260 and possibly elect someone that they believe would represent them the best.

00:05:42.500 Well, what happened in 2020 is the people that drew up what we call the maps or the districts in Texas,

00:05:50.100 they put a black minority and a Hispanic minority together.

00:05:57.460 And together, those actually represented more than 50 percent of a particular of the whole district.

00:06:07.500 And this was a whole big controversy about this.

00:06:11.100 In fact, there was a lawsuit and it really wasn't to do with Congress at the time.

00:06:14.340 It had to do with the local commissioner's race in Texas.

00:06:17.580 We have county commissioners, which are kind of like the council, the town council, but it's for the whole county.

00:06:23.260 And so they were the they were sued by some some Hispanic and some black voters that said, look, we have the majority.

00:06:32.980 We're majority. We are what's called a majority minority district.

00:06:36.500 So it's a majority of the people in the district were minorities that went through the court system.

00:06:42.480 And it got to the Fifth Circuit, which is an appeals court right under the Supreme Court.

00:06:46.980 It's actually based in Texas and Louisiana and a couple other states.

00:06:50.620 They said, wait a second. It's called the Petaway case.

00:06:53.640 They said, wait a second. You can't do that.

00:06:55.820 OK, you can't what they do called coalition.

00:06:58.980 You can't have a coalition minority.

00:07:00.920 So you can't claim that you have the majority of people in a district because some of them are black and some of them are Hispanic.

00:07:07.460 It doesn't work like that. That actually is against the law.

00:07:11.020 And so they, in fact, couldn't say they had a majority minority district, although they together they had 51 percent.

00:07:19.460 They would in order to claim that they would have had to have over 50 percent, either black or 50 percent minority.

00:07:24.860 So the Fifth Circuit said in these few districts, which there are five of them in Texas, those are illegally formed coalition districts.

00:07:33.380 So that's where the redistricting is going on.

00:07:36.160 They are changing those districts so that they will now comply with the the Voting Act.

00:07:43.620 And that's exactly what's happening.

00:07:46.620 Now, when we call gerrymandering, let's think about that.

00:07:49.960 You know, gerrymandering, this is interesting.

00:07:51.680 It's been around since 1812, and it was named after Governor Jerry in Massachusetts, which is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country, by the way.

00:08:03.040 Trump got 40 percent of the vote up there, and there's zero Republican congressmen, which is kind of crazy.

00:08:09.420 So and they drew this district in Massachusetts that was long and skinny.

00:08:13.800 Right. When you look at the geographical boundaries and it looked like a salamander.

00:08:17.460 So they took the last name of the governor and this.

00:08:21.680 Animal or whatever we call a salamander.

00:08:23.780 Bree, you think salamander is an insect or is it a rep?

00:08:27.100 What is a salamander?

00:08:28.540 It's a lizard, isn't it?

00:08:29.780 Is it a part of the lizard family?

00:08:31.600 I think so.

00:08:32.140 OK.

00:08:32.660 Bree probably knows that.

00:08:33.800 Anyway, the district looked like a salamander.

00:08:35.640 So they called it gerrymandering.

00:08:37.180 And that's what we've called it since then.

00:08:39.240 And gerrymandering is legal for political purposes.

00:08:41.940 It's not legal for race or for racial purposes.

00:08:46.360 So that's what's going on.

00:08:48.420 All right.

00:08:48.760 So here's what's happening in Texas.

00:08:51.620 The in order to have a quorum, in other words, in order to do business, you have to have two thirds of the House of Representatives.

00:09:00.460 And this is the statehouse because they're the ones that draw the lines.

00:09:03.680 You have to have two thirds of those to be in present at time.

00:09:07.640 And so that's 100 out of the 150 have to be present because 150 state representatives.

00:09:13.440 Well, at least 51, really about 55, have left the state or I shouldn't say all of them left the state.

00:09:21.880 They have they did not show up at the Capitol in Austin.

00:09:26.020 And so they haven't had a quorum.

00:09:28.360 It's been going on now for a couple of weeks, I think.

00:09:30.800 And they haven't had 100 people show up.

00:09:33.240 So under the rules of the Texas House, if they don't have a quorum, the speaker can put a call on the House, meaning that you are required to come down.

00:09:44.220 It is a legislative duty for you to be there.

00:09:47.160 And if you violate that duty, there are fines that the House imposes upon its members.

00:09:54.900 And they also put in some rules that says you can't use your campaign money to flee the state.

00:10:01.040 You can't you can't you can't be you can't be reimbursed for that camp for that for leaving the state.

00:10:07.840 And also, they just put a rule that if you want to come by and get your check for being a state rep, we're not going to send that electronically anymore.

00:10:14.720 You've got to come and pick it up at the Capitol.

00:10:17.280 Now, why would they do that?

00:10:18.640 Because once they get to the Capitol, then the local state police can require them through assistance to be on the House floor.

00:10:32.320 And so that's another rule that they've put in.

00:10:34.920 Now, Governor Abbott, and I think he's probably right on this.

00:10:38.300 The courts will see what they say.

00:10:39.800 But Governor Abbott has actually filed a petition with the Texas Supreme Court to require them to be back in as they are, even though they're out of state, to be able to get some type of jurisdiction, to have those states make sure that they send them home and to actually ask for a rest.

00:10:58.320 So we'll see what happens.

00:10:59.500 They had 95 people there the other day.

00:11:01.640 Eventually, what's going to happen, just so you know, eventually they will have at least 100 show up and these redistricting maps will be approved by the House and the Senate.

00:11:11.940 Now, they'll be challenged in court and they'll all come out because here's what happens.

00:11:16.920 These special sessions, which they're in right now, special legislative sessions, they last 30 days in Texas.

00:11:24.000 And that means that, you know, 30 days runs out.

00:11:28.920 All that means is that the governor will just call another special session.

00:11:33.200 All right.

00:11:33.380 So eventually they're going to have to come because here's what's not happening is also on the agenda is flood relief for all those poor victims, families and the businesses and all the things that happened in the flood of the Guadalupe River a few weeks ago, which all of you heard about actually a month or two ago now.

00:11:50.760 So they're the Democrats are keeping that from happening.

00:11:54.880 No question about it.

00:11:55.940 If they want.

00:11:57.340 Here's my message to you, Democrat friends.

00:11:59.460 And I have a lot of you are my friends.

00:12:01.060 We served together, served well together.

00:12:03.160 But if you want the maps not to pass, win more races.

00:12:09.160 That's the key.

00:12:10.060 This is an election system.

00:12:11.400 So win more races and then you can have control.

00:12:15.080 But until then, like you did, you controlled the Texas House for 100 years.

00:12:19.500 And if you want to go back and look at how you gerrymandered during that time, we can go back and go over that if you want to.

00:12:25.480 But I don't think you'll like the result of it.

00:12:27.380 So they're going to end up coming back in, whether it's this week, next week, next session, it's going to happen.

00:12:32.940 And all of these other states that keep complaining about, well, if you do that, then we're going to do that.

00:12:38.800 The funniest thing was, is that the governor of Massachusetts said, well, we're going to redistrict too.

00:12:44.960 Well, when you look at it, we're going to say, go ahead, because you know what?

00:12:49.320 Massachusetts doesn't have any Republican congressmen.

00:12:52.540 So how are you going to redistrict down to have less?

00:12:55.760 It just makes no sense.

00:12:56.860 In fact, there are 12 or 13, I think that's 10.

00:13:00.560 Here's the states that don't have any Republican congresspeople.

00:13:04.440 And the fact that Trump won somewhere between 38 and 48 percent of the vote.

00:13:12.800 So you'd think they would have some Republican congresspeople.

00:13:16.400 Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii.

00:13:23.080 Can you imagine that?

00:13:24.840 No Republican congressman from any of those, even though Trump won between 38 and 48 percent.

00:13:31.240 There's no Republicans.

00:13:32.160 And the other thing is, is that there are four more states that Trump won over 40 percent of the vote,

00:13:39.340 but they have less than 25 percent of their congresspeople are Republicans.

00:13:45.460 So if they really want to talk about gerrymandering, in fact, Illinois, that what's that governor's name up there?

00:13:52.540 Pritzker.

00:13:53.280 Pritzker, born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

00:13:57.100 He, that Illinois is probably the worst.

00:13:59.540 They only, 17 percent of their representatives are Republican, yet Trump won over 40 percent.

00:14:05.840 So it's just a, it's a joke.

00:14:08.000 It really is a joke.

00:14:09.580 And it's all going to come out okay.

00:14:11.400 Let me tell you something.

00:14:12.440 The White House did not go about doing this because they just said, we're going to take a gamble.

00:14:19.440 I promise you, they studied this, they analyzed it, and they know that no matter what happens, all right,

00:14:27.220 even if some of the other states decide they're going to do some redistricting, no matter what happens,

00:14:31.420 the Republicans will come out better because all of the other states, if they do do some gerrymandering,

00:14:37.500 it's probably going to end up helping, not hurting the Republicans in the long run.

00:14:41.000 So we'll see.

00:14:42.080 We'll keep playing.

00:14:42.800 I've still got several friends in the House.

00:14:44.260 In fact, I talked to one last night, and, you know, he said that, you know, it's going to eventually happen.

00:14:50.400 And some of the Democrats that are already there, in other words, they didn't run away, those are Democrats.

00:14:56.480 A lot of those are in what we call the Valley down in, around McAllen and Laredo and those.

00:15:03.100 And Trump won over 50% of the vote in many of those districts.

00:15:07.260 So that's one of the reasons they're there for sure.

00:15:10.320 So anyway, that's the deal on redistricting.

00:15:13.860 If you want more information on that, more questions, feel free to email me at ron at ronsimmons.com.

00:15:19.820 But I think it'll all get taken care of, and I doubt anybody will go to jail, all right?

00:15:25.540 I don't think that'll happen, but I do think they'll have them back in the House here in the next couple of weeks.

00:15:31.480 All right.

00:15:33.280 Just a little note, just to correct myself.

00:15:36.240 A salamander is not a lizard.

00:15:38.240 A salamander is an amphibian, like a frog.

00:15:40.840 Oh, so it can live in the water and out of the water.

00:15:43.400 Okay, thank you.

00:15:44.040 Somebody would have caught that and busted us on that.

00:15:47.340 So that's good.

00:15:48.180 We want the truth.

00:15:49.100 This show's about truth.

00:15:50.980 Exactly.

00:15:51.480 We're all about the truth.

00:15:52.560 All right.

00:15:57.860 Quick pause from that episode with my dad to tell you about our first sponsor for the day.

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00:17:00.800 All right.

00:17:05.820 So let's talk a little bit about the economy.

00:17:08.300 And in part of this, we're going to also answer some questions that came in from our great listeners.

00:17:15.780 The economy is actually doing very well.

00:17:18.440 I mean, the S&P 500, this is kind of how I base how business is going.

00:17:23.320 It's the stock market of the 500 largest companies.

00:17:26.700 And their stock prices go up or down based on how they're doing.

00:17:30.440 And that's a reflection of how the economy is doing.

00:17:32.720 But the stock market's up 8% for the year.

00:17:35.480 That's a very good return.

00:17:36.880 The average return for the S&P 500 per year over the last 40 or 50 years is somewhere around 10% per year.

00:17:45.280 Obviously, some years it's better than others.

00:17:47.160 Some is worse than others.

00:17:48.160 But 8% through, you know, the last week or so, I mean, through up through, I think, the first part of August is pretty good.

00:17:56.860 So you've got to be pleased with that.

00:17:58.260 If you have money in your 401K and other investments, those should be doing very well.

00:18:05.500 I will tell you one area.

00:18:07.400 And there's still a concern about the tariffs.

00:18:09.320 I get that.

00:18:10.600 I do believe that they are continuing to make progress on that.

00:18:15.940 I thought it would get all done by the end of the summer.

00:18:18.940 I'm not sure they'll have everything done by then.

00:18:21.220 But they've made some great progress.

00:18:22.740 You know, they just announced the European Union and some others here recently.

00:18:27.120 But one thing that I do think is a problem, and we're seeing this play out in real time, is interest rates.

00:18:35.200 The Federal Reserve, in my opinion, should lower interest rates.

00:18:39.760 I don't think there's any question that interest rates have remained stubbornly high, and it's only because of the Fed policy.

00:18:47.180 It's not because of any other reason other than that.

00:18:50.000 And I suppose they're afraid that if they lowered them, the economy might get too hot, and sometimes that creates more inflation.

00:18:56.660 But I think we're beyond that now.

00:18:58.360 I think it's actually hurting people now from being able to buy their first home.

00:19:02.620 I think it's hurting people from being able to expand their businesses and what have you because credit's too expensive.

00:19:08.480 And so I really encourage them to lower their interest rates.

00:19:11.860 You know, one thing I heard this weekend, I was reading some stuff about, is that the Federal Reserve, you know, is financed by banks that pay a fee.

00:19:23.740 And while it technically is an agency, it has very little oversight.

00:19:29.500 Congress can have oversight on it, and they should do more than they're doing right now.

00:19:34.080 But in the past, it just has had very little oversight.

00:19:36.840 For example, they are remodeling some buildings close to the Capitol that it's going to end up costing taxpayers, all right, $3 billion.

00:19:49.160 Can you imagine that?

00:19:50.640 $3 billion is what it's going to cost to remodel some old offices down close to the National Mall.

00:19:58.940 And because they're putting in things like glass atriums or rooftop garden.

00:20:04.060 I'm not sure why people that are taking care of, you know, what interest rates should be should have all of that coming out of taxpayers' money.

00:20:12.640 So if you don't like that and I don't, please contact your congressperson.

00:20:17.100 They can do something about it.

00:20:18.800 They can restrict that budget, and they can make sure, at least put enough political pressure on them,

00:20:24.920 that they do something about that because that's ridiculous in my opinion.

00:20:28.360 No way.

00:20:30.380 But there are some questions that came in, and so why don't we take a few of the questions.

00:20:36.040 I'll try to get through as many as we can.

00:20:37.560 I really appreciate you all participating in this.

00:20:40.120 We have, as you can see on the deal here, we have just a whole page full of questions.

00:20:44.300 And I may not get to all of them.

00:20:46.220 If I didn't get to yours and you still want the answer to that, again, feel free to email me.

00:20:50.560 I'm happy to do it.

00:20:52.420 All right.

00:20:52.940 So the first one is, I just graduated from college.

00:20:57.100 What are the main things I need to focus on financially to set myself up for success?

00:21:02.360 Well, the first thing is a job.

00:21:04.500 That's the first thing I would do is make sure that you have a job.

00:21:07.620 And while I do believe it's important that you're involved in something that you enjoy,

00:21:13.960 I think that it's more important that you're involved in something that can make the financial

00:21:22.300 where and have the financial means to satisfy how you want to live.

00:21:27.260 Now, if you're willing to sacrifice how you want to live in order to be able to do something you love

00:21:34.000 that pays less money, that's fine, too.

00:21:35.780 There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

00:21:37.380 Some of you, for example, might want to be schoolteachers.

00:21:40.120 That's what you're called to be.

00:21:41.120 My mom and dad were public schoolteachers.

00:21:43.280 Well, in order to do that, you're not going to be able to live in a $5 million house, right?

00:21:48.920 It's just not going to work that way.

00:21:50.000 And that's fine.

00:21:50.700 There's no reason for you to have to do that.

00:21:53.640 You're going to have to, though, adjust your lifestyle desires to fall in line with what your ability to earn is.

00:22:00.860 So make sure that when you're looking at the job that you are making sure that it covers how you want to live.

00:22:08.760 And if it doesn't, you're going to have to live under what you make in order until you can get to where you want to be financially.

00:22:16.700 So that's the second thing is you have to live on less than you make, all right?

00:22:21.020 Do not live on credit cards, all right?

00:22:23.840 Do not do that.

00:22:24.860 Make sure if you could start out, one way to start out right is I would have one credit card for sure.

00:22:30.020 I think you need that for emergency purposes.

00:22:31.760 Um, but I would make sure that I paid my credit card off every month.

00:22:36.680 It's just very, I, I, you know, Lisa and I didn't always do it.

00:22:39.960 And we got behind more than one time when we were young, married and man, that was a mistake.

00:22:44.880 So much pressure was put on the, our own relationship and then, uh, myself and Lisa individually, you know, cause you're constantly, all you're doing is thinking about money.

00:22:55.040 You know, the funny thing is people say that, well, people that are rich, all they do is think about money.

00:22:59.220 Well, that's really not the way it works.

00:23:01.900 People that don't have enough money, they spend all their time thinking about money because I don't have enough for this or I don't have enough for that.

00:23:09.000 So I would make sure to focus on the job, make sure you live on less than what you make, whatever that is.

00:23:14.660 And also make sure that again, always say the first thing you do is you got to think about giving.

00:23:21.540 All right.

00:23:22.440 Where are you going to give, whether it's to your church or to some type of charity, make sure that you're doing that.

00:23:28.440 We need to be a generous people.

00:23:29.920 Second thing you need to do is you need to save, all right?

00:23:32.720 You need to save at least 10% of what you take home and then you also, then you live on the rest of that.

00:23:38.180 But make sure you do those first two things first, in my opinion.

00:23:42.300 All right.

00:23:42.600 Should I rush to pay my mortgage if my rate is lower than what I can make investing?

00:23:47.680 Generally, the answer to that would be no, if you want to continue, because you can also, even if you're, the good thing about mortgage rates, if your mortgage rate's 4% and you can make 6%, that's obviously better.

00:23:58.640 But the 4% interest that you're taking is deductible.

00:24:01.800 So if you're in a 20% tax bracket, it's even less than that.

00:24:04.820 It's more like a 3% rate.

00:24:06.920 So I wouldn't worry about it.

00:24:08.600 Now, if you just have aversion to debt, which is like I do, you know, I try to get it paid off as fast as I can.

00:24:14.940 You're always better not having debt.

00:24:16.700 But if you can make investment returns that are better than what your mortgage interest rate is, then you should be better off over the long term.

00:24:26.200 And it's okay to do that.

00:24:27.500 Again, I recommend 15-year mortgages, not 30-year mortgages.

00:24:30.980 We're going to talk about that in a minute, too.

00:24:34.620 I want to invest money.

00:24:35.700 Should we do it on our own or hire someone to manage it?

00:24:38.440 It's according to where you are in life and how much money you're talking about.

00:24:42.120 If you have less than $250,000 to invest, my recommendation was that you put it in and you have a long term.

00:24:52.080 You have, you know, more than a five-year window.

00:24:54.400 I would put it in just an S&P 500 index fund, which you can get those through Suave, Fidelity, Vanguard, and you won't need somebody else to manage it.

00:25:03.920 If you're at a retirement state and this is your entire nest egg, yes, I would probably have an outside manager.

00:25:09.700 In fact, I have an outside manager and I was in the investment business for over 30 years.

00:25:14.060 So we, but I wanted to have that because I wanted to have a second set of eyes, look at everything.

00:25:19.580 And if something happened to me, investing wasn't one of Lisa's strong points.

00:25:24.040 So having somebody there that can help take care of her financially with our investments is a plus to do that.

00:25:32.740 Let's see here.

00:25:34.480 Advice for paying off student loans quickly.

00:25:36.980 We're going to come back to that later, okay?

00:25:38.740 But I am going to talk about that because we have some, we have some things we're going to watch too for that.

00:25:45.020 Let's see.

00:25:45.580 What's the best way to get ready for retirement by age 30?

00:25:48.140 Now, if you're talking about you want to retire at age 30, my recommendation is to have wealthy parents that are going to let you do that.

00:25:53.880 No, but it's seriously, if you're talking about how do I get ready?

00:25:58.360 Then what I would tell you is that by age 30, you need to have decided what you want to do in life.

00:26:03.860 When I looked, I looked at different decades.

00:26:07.640 In my 20s, I wanted to figure out what I wanted to do, okay?

00:26:11.900 Now, I was working the whole time, but I wanted to make sure I was in the right career.

00:26:14.800 In my 30s, I wanted to have picked that career and be working towards moving up the ladder, whatever that means.

00:26:20.740 Whether you're a business owner and you want to increase your business or you work in a corporation, you want to get promotion so you can make more money.

00:26:27.180 But in your 40s, you need to be able to determine, in a sense, how much money you're making by your productivity or by your value to the organization.

00:26:36.520 In your 50s, that needs to be able to grow exponentially so that in your 60s, if more people retire in their 60s, you'll be able to make those choices.

00:26:47.320 Where to start budgeting for a newlywed couple?

00:26:49.580 Well, first thing I would recommend, and I know a lot of you follow Dave Ramsey, and he's really great, but I would really recommend Crown Financial.

00:26:57.640 And we can put some stuff in the show notes about how to get in touch with them.

00:27:00.800 But they are a faith-based organization that really teaches great budgeting and stewardship.

00:27:05.640 The head of that organization, Chuck Bentley, is a good friend of mine.

00:27:09.240 Also, someone, actually, that helped Allie think about what career choice she would make.

00:27:15.200 And there's a great story behind that that maybe she'll tell you sometime.

00:27:19.580 And, again, focus on giving, saving, and spending.

00:27:22.880 How much you're going to give, who you're going to give it to, how much you're going to save, how you're going to invest that, and then spending.

00:27:29.740 And you always have to spend less than what you make.

00:27:32.300 I know that seems trite, but a lot of – if the consumer debt numbers are what people say they are, then a lot of people aren't doing that.

00:27:39.220 They are spending more than they're making.

00:27:41.340 And generally, it's not for food and clothes.

00:27:43.940 Generally, it's for something else.

00:27:46.400 Now, they may actually be putting their food and clothes on that, but that's because they spent money somewhere else that they probably shouldn't have.

00:27:52.080 Okay, y'all, this might come as a little surprise to you, but I am not really a conference person.

00:28:01.820 I'm not someone who has attended a bunch of Christian women's conferences.

00:28:06.080 It's not really my thing because, honestly, a lot of women's ministry just focuses on women's self-esteem, telling us how beautiful and perfect we are,

00:28:16.380 rather than giving us the hard-hitting truth that the Bible teaches.

00:28:21.280 But I want to be challenged.

00:28:23.020 I want apologetics.

00:28:24.160 I want deep theology.

00:28:25.200 I want to know how to apply biblical truth to motherhood, to health, to different realms of my life.

00:28:32.200 And that is why I created Share the Arrows.

00:28:35.020 For women who want truth, who want to be challenged, who want deep biblical teaching,

00:28:40.780 that is what you are going to get at this Christian women's conference, October 11th, outside of Dallas, Texas.

00:28:47.120 It's called Share the Arrows.

00:28:48.460 It's amazing.

00:28:49.500 Apologist Elisa Childers will be there.

00:28:52.040 Katie Faust, one of your favorite guests, will be speaking as well.

00:28:55.640 We've got Ginger Duggar Vuolo giving her testimony and a call of encouragement and boldness.

00:29:01.460 We've got a biblical health panel.

00:29:03.160 We've got a biblical motherhood panel.

00:29:05.520 Francesca Batticelli will be leading us in worship.

00:29:07.780 It's just going to be amazing.

00:29:08.940 Go to sharethearrows.com.

00:29:10.920 Get your ticket today.

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00:30:12.160 How do I prepare to afford my kids to go to private Christian school because it's so expensive?

00:30:22.440 Well, I guess that's a great question.

00:30:24.800 And it's something Lisa and I really struggled with when we were early on.

00:30:27.980 You know, when Justin, we were only 27 when Justin started school.

00:30:34.300 So we were very young, and we made the decision.

00:30:37.600 I wouldn't make a lot of money then, and we had had a second baby by then.

00:30:41.740 So Lisa, she may have been working part-time outside the home.

00:30:44.700 She was off and on with that.

00:30:47.520 But a lot of times it was single income.

00:30:50.320 We just decided that no matter what, that was a priority of ours, and we were going to do whatever we had to to do that.

00:30:57.040 If that meant we had to live in a smaller house, drive a less expensive car, or even if I had to get a second job, that's what we were going to do.

00:31:03.440 That was really important to us.

00:31:05.100 Now, since that time, a lot of states have approved this school choice initiative, which Texas just did,

00:31:12.260 which you might be able to get some assistance with your private school, even if it's a private Christian school.

00:31:17.580 So depending on what state you live in, make sure you check into that to see if you're eligible to receive any help with paying for the private Christian school.

00:31:24.900 But you just have to decide if it's a priority.

00:31:27.120 And if it's a priority, it's probably going to mean you have to sacrifice some other things.

00:31:30.560 And so I hope that you come to that same decision that Lisa and I did.

00:31:35.940 All right.

00:31:37.520 My sister's husband left her.

00:31:39.960 They're in massive debt, middle of a lease, and no savings.

00:31:44.120 How does she get herself in a good place financially?

00:31:48.620 Well, I don't know, again, the individual details of this, but the first thing she has to do is she has to make sure she has the best job that she can get.

00:31:57.060 And that doesn't mean that she's necessarily going to be her most fun job.

00:32:02.000 It may be a job where she can make the most money, even though it's not necessarily her passion, because her passion right now should be to get financially stable.

00:32:12.040 To get financially stable, you may have to do some things that you don't want to do.

00:32:16.020 Now, obviously, I'm talking about legally and morally.

00:32:18.880 OK, don't take that incorrectly.

00:32:20.640 The other thing that you have to do is I think you have to be willing to pick up the phone and call, call the landlord, explain the situation.

00:32:28.340 Maybe they'll help.

00:32:29.140 Maybe they won't.

00:32:30.160 OK, you may have to get some free legal advice.

00:32:33.100 There are free legal advice organizations all over the country that would tell you what happens if I break my lease.

00:32:39.500 OK, in this particular state, because you may have you may be forced to do that.

00:32:44.120 And then same way with credit card companies.

00:32:46.180 If you're in debt with credit card companies, there are programs out there and Crown Financial can help you with this as well.

00:32:51.760 To to to that will take a reduced payment and actually knock some off your bill if you set up a payment program.

00:33:00.600 So that's what I would do.

00:33:02.180 And the other thing to do is stop digging.

00:33:04.180 If you're in massive debt, don't get in any more debt.

00:33:08.080 It has to stop right now.

00:33:10.320 One hundred percent.

00:33:11.320 Hard stop.

00:33:12.840 Cannot continue to get in massive debt.

00:33:14.660 The best thing if you're worried about the hole getting too deep, quit digging.

00:33:17.940 And it's the same way financially.

00:33:20.340 And again, if you have any more questions, feel free to email me.

00:33:24.580 Is it OK to go down to one income and pause investing for my wife to be a stay at home mom?

00:33:30.980 Absolutely.

00:33:31.580 One hundred percent.

00:33:32.200 Now, the 22 year old Ron would have said, no way, Lisa, I do not want you to quit that teaching job because it's exactly what I told her.

00:33:40.940 And she said, I am staying home with our baby.

00:33:44.440 And that's the way it is.

00:33:45.680 And she was right, of course.

00:33:48.620 And so we just, you know, we had to reduce some things.

00:33:51.440 We had to sacrifice.

00:33:52.740 Certainly weren't making any investments at the time.

00:33:55.220 We may have been saving a little bit of money.

00:33:57.280 We didn't quit giving to the church.

00:33:58.620 That was important to us because I do think it's important to give to charity.

00:34:03.500 But absolutely, you'll never regret your wife staying home with the kids or if it's the dad.

00:34:10.120 However, you all do that.

00:34:10.980 OK, you'll never regret having a parent home with the kids, especially before they get started into school.

00:34:16.440 You'll never regret that.

00:34:17.380 So I applaud you for doing that.

00:34:21.840 What should our tithing goals be?

00:34:24.340 I know Bree has some interesting thoughts on this.

00:34:27.000 And should we pay off the debt before tithing?

00:34:30.580 Well, let me answer the second question.

00:34:32.020 The answer to that question is no.

00:34:35.120 You should give first.

00:34:37.880 All right.

00:34:38.400 And you certainly should pay off your debt, but you should give first.

00:34:42.760 Maybe you can't give as much as you normally do, but giving needs to be a habit.

00:34:46.760 And your kids need to see you giving.

00:34:48.500 They need to know that that's what you do because that's setting an example for what they will know to be right in the long run.

00:34:54.860 But Bree, what's your thought, though, just on the whole tithing scenario?

00:34:59.600 Yeah, I know that Israelites gave at least a tenth.

00:35:03.940 That's what tithe means, tenth.

00:35:05.660 But we are called to do more than that as God gives us resources.

00:35:13.460 So I think that tenth is like a good starting point for some people who don't have capacity to give more than that.

00:35:20.620 But I think that we as Christians should really be pushing ourselves to be as generous as possible.

00:35:25.440 And more often than not in America, that means more than 10%.

00:35:28.340 So I don't think that 10% is like a hard and fast rule.

00:35:32.100 I think it can be a minimum to push yourself.

00:35:35.360 But really, like early Christians didn't limit themselves in how much they were giving to their fellow brethren and sending people.

00:35:43.020 I feel very strongly that as Christians, we should always be either going or sending or sometimes both.

00:35:49.020 And so I think that just needs to be built into our financial structures as well.

00:35:54.060 I can't add much to that.

00:35:55.400 That's great.

00:35:55.820 I agree with that 100%.

00:35:57.320 But I will say that, you know, again, like you said, minimum 10%.

00:36:03.200 And then it doesn't have to all go to one place, of course.

00:36:06.600 All right.

00:36:07.040 No matter what your church happens to say, it doesn't have to be that way.

00:36:10.680 You give that as you feel God leading you.

00:36:13.340 I will tell you what my friend John Maxwell told me is he said, rather than give a little to a lot of places, is find three or four, pray about them, obviously, and then go deep into those.

00:36:25.620 And that probably does mean giving and doing as well.

00:36:30.880 Sometimes you might not be able to do, you know, you may not be able to do anything, but you should get in those things that you're super interested in that advance the kingdom, glorify God, and something that you have a passion for.

00:36:45.980 But rather to have a few of those and deep than many of those and go wide on that would be my opinion on that.

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00:38:07.240 Tips for first-time homebuyers.

00:38:09.380 Oh, I love this one.

00:38:13.160 Don't buy a home you can't furnish.

00:38:16.140 How many people buy more home than they can furnish?

00:38:19.160 That is so stupid.

00:38:20.240 Don't do that, okay?

00:38:21.320 And don't buy a home you can't maintain.

00:38:24.100 If you drive by these really nice neighborhoods and all that, and somebody's yard has gone to pot, that means they probably got too much home.

00:38:31.800 Because either they can't maintain it themselves, or they can't hire somebody to maintain it.

00:38:36.760 You always can move up in a house later, okay?

00:38:41.980 But make sure that you're buying a home that is easy for, not easy, but allows you to maintain it, allows you to furnish it.

00:38:50.800 It doesn't have to be the most expensive furnishings.

00:38:53.020 But don't overbuy in a house thinking that you'll always come out spinning like a rose.

00:38:57.600 It doesn't work like that, okay?

00:38:58.700 Lisa and I have had houses that we didn't make money off of when we sold them.

00:39:02.480 So, and, you know, the economy changes, things are out of your control, or maybe, you know, maybe we made some mad choices, bad choices and what have you.

00:39:10.740 But make sure that you can maintain a house and furnish a house before you buy it.

00:39:16.940 If you can't do those things, then buy less of a house.

00:39:20.700 No question about that.

00:39:22.000 Let's see here.

00:39:27.420 Can I be putting too much money into retirement?

00:39:30.600 I think that just depends.

00:39:32.660 A good example is what we talked about a few minutes ago.

00:39:34.920 If you would like for your kids to go to a Christian school, but you can't afford it because you're trying to save everything you possibly can,

00:39:42.040 then I don't think that's the right thing to do.

00:39:44.320 I think you have to make sure what your priorities are.

00:39:46.380 If you have the extra money, then no, you can never save too much because you don't know what's going to happen in the future.

00:39:52.540 You don't know what your needs are going to be.

00:39:54.040 Also, I believe we're called upon to leave an inheritance not only to our children, but our children's children.

00:39:59.780 And I believe that's biblical.

00:40:02.380 And so, therefore, we do need to be saving as much as we can for retirement, but not at a sacrifice of what we're supposed to be doing now for our current family.

00:40:11.260 How do I know if I'm helping someone financially or enabling them financially?

00:40:17.520 Man, Lisa and I have made a lot of mistakes on this one.

00:40:21.720 The only thing that I could say that might help you is if you help someone one time, all right, and let's say that they were in dire need,

00:40:30.200 they couldn't pay their rent, so you helped them.

00:40:31.780 And they came back, you know, a few months later and says, I need your help again on paying rent, then you're probably enabling.

00:40:38.880 Because if you especially haven't seen any changes occur in how they're doing things, you know,

00:40:43.860 they're still going out to eat three times a week or whatever it is they're doing, then you're probably enabling them.

00:40:49.120 I'd be very, very cautious about that.

00:40:51.900 Again, should be happy to sit down with them and help them maybe figure out the problem.

00:40:55.560 But I wouldn't spend my time simply just giving them money.

00:41:01.200 We've done that, and it's rarely worked out.

00:41:03.700 In fact, Lisa and I were talking about it this morning.

00:41:05.100 I think it's worked out one time in our life where they've actually done what they said they were going to do.

00:41:11.740 The best way to eliminate credit card debt is don't get into any more debt.

00:41:15.360 And secondly, if you can't, you know, pay it off under the current payment schedule to where you're paying more than the minimum,

00:41:22.260 then get with one of these credit companies that will help you do that.

00:41:25.780 And I think there are some valuable ones out there.

00:41:27.780 I'm sure that Dave Ramsey can recommend some.

00:41:30.180 I know Crown Financial can as well.

00:41:32.920 Okay, this is my last one on this one, but I think it's a pretty good one.

00:41:35.640 Okay, why get a 15-year mortgage, which is what I've promoted,

00:41:39.540 if I can get a 30-year mortgage and pay it off in 15 years?

00:41:43.480 Now, those seem to be the same thing.

00:41:44.820 Bree, would you agree that if you get a 15-year mortgage versus a 30-year,

00:41:48.840 but you're 30-year, you pay off in 15 years, it seems like you would be, okay, pay the same amount.

00:41:53.280 But I have the option on a 30-year, I'll actually have a less monthly payment.

00:41:57.460 So why wouldn't I do that and give myself some more options?

00:41:59.940 Well, here's why you wouldn't, Bree, is because the way it works is that, first of all,

00:42:05.020 the 15-year mortgage rate is going to be less.

00:42:07.540 Right now, the 30-year mortgage rate is somewhere around 6.5%,

00:42:11.220 and the 15-year somewhere between 5.75%.

00:42:14.860 So your interest rate is going to be less.

00:42:17.720 And therefore, you're going to be paying less interest per month on a 15-year mortgage.

00:42:22.940 The other reason it is, is that because you're paying a higher interest rate

00:42:28.280 and because less of your payment every month is principal versus interest.

00:42:33.620 You know, principal is when you're taking it to say you borrowed $300,000.

00:42:37.340 If you pay off $1,000 principal, now you own $299,000, right?

00:42:41.920 So your more interest is being charged every month on $300,000 at 6.5% than it is at 5.75%, all right?

00:42:52.400 And you're paying, and more of that is interest versus principal.

00:42:55.280 In fact, on a $300,000 loan in 15 years, let's say you paid them both off in 15 years

00:43:02.140 because you paid some extra principal on your $300,000,

00:43:04.660 you would have paid $140,000 in interest on a 30-year loan paid off in 15 years.

00:43:10.140 You would only have paid $103,000 interest on a 5.75% 15-year loan if you paid it off in 15 years.

00:43:18.600 So you're giving yourself some flexibility because your payment's not as high,

00:43:22.100 but it's costing you $37,000 to do that.

00:43:25.900 So I would not do that.

00:43:28.540 Now I know.

00:43:29.280 Now we know why.

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00:43:48.060 They are, like, the only beef sticks that don't make me feel bad after.

00:43:52.620 I don't know what it is with those other beef sticks, but they don't make me feel good.

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00:44:35.440 A couple other things financial related, and we're going to go to one of the sites to talk about, and this is all around, this ones are going to be around the student loan.

00:44:52.160 Let's talk about the student loan first if we can.

00:44:54.340 So as it turns out, the student loans that I've been paying $1,500 a month for for two years have a 17% interest rate.

00:45:04.680 So, what I thought I've been paying off for all this time, I'm actually, like, I owe more than what I started off with.

00:45:14.140 What the f***?

00:45:15.260 So, Jeff Bezos, this would be a really cool f***ing time to Venmo me, bro.

00:45:19.600 Like, I owe $90,000, and I didn't even spend that much on school.

00:45:25.660 Like, any rich person, please tap in.

00:45:28.580 Like, Kourtney Kardashian, like, you probably have eight houses.

00:45:31.860 I'm never going to be able to buy one because I went to college.

00:45:36.020 I just signed up to be an egg donor.

00:45:38.620 Guess what?

00:45:39.160 I got approved.

00:45:39.900 Who wants my f***ing kids?

00:45:41.520 I can't afford them, so start a bidding more.

00:45:44.680 Just f***ing take them.

00:45:45.940 What do you want?

00:45:46.340 My left arm, too?

00:45:47.620 Like, what the f*** are you supposed to do?

00:45:51.620 That is a lot to unpack.

00:45:53.160 I mean, first of all, it's a real scenario, so I want to make sure that people understand.

00:46:00.280 I don't make light of that at all.

00:46:03.220 People have gone into a lot of debt to go to college with the promise that things are going to be rosy afterwards.

00:46:10.140 You know, we had a scenario probably for, I don't know, 20, 30 years that everybody needs to go to college.

00:46:17.900 And the universities were behind a lot of this because they knew that it was money for them, right?

00:46:24.540 And the government would loan you money.

00:46:26.720 You could also get private student loans.

00:46:29.260 And so they promote everybody go to college, which that's not always the case.

00:46:33.800 And thank goodness there's been some change in that.

00:46:36.140 And, in fact, in some of the work I'm doing with a couple of think tanks, really trying to promote, you know, trade schools and skills that people can learn and make very, very good living without having to go into debt to go to college.

00:46:52.520 You know, when Lisa and I went to college, neither one of our parents had the money to send us to college.

00:46:57.340 And Lisa had a small student loan.

00:47:01.360 I mean, we're talking about a couple $3,000.

00:47:03.940 So we paid that off over time, of course.

00:47:06.640 And the way I went to college is I spread it out.

00:47:11.340 I squeezed four years of college into 10.

00:47:13.420 Now, Bree, that's some college for you.

00:47:15.160 Four years into 10.

00:47:16.400 You've got to be really smart to do that.

00:47:18.700 But, no, and one of the reasons we did it is I had to work, and so I was going part-time to college.

00:47:24.280 And maybe that's what people need to do as well.

00:47:27.340 But in this particular situation, and, again, I don't know this lady.

00:47:31.340 I mean, she does have almost a million TikTok followers.

00:47:34.000 So I don't know if her job is, you know, as a TikTok influence or not.

00:47:38.920 If so, she probably is making quite a bit of money if she's got almost a million of those.

00:47:43.920 But what it sounds like, and based on the research that I did, is that there are two types of loans.

00:47:50.160 You can have a federal loan from the federal government, essentially, or backed by the federal government.

00:47:55.040 You get it through a bank, but the government backs it up.

00:47:57.700 Or you can have a private loan.

00:47:59.560 And the private loans are what's caused all the problems.

00:48:02.040 And, yes, those interest rates can be as high as 17%.

00:48:05.200 And, honestly, I would agree with people that think, you know what, that's just usurious.

00:48:11.140 I mean, that's just ridiculous.

00:48:12.260 But 17% should be more than it's allowed.

00:48:16.800 It's kind of like the credit cards that have 25%.

00:48:18.740 I don't agree with that either.

00:48:20.520 I'm not exactly sure what the number should be somewhere.

00:48:23.200 In my mind, it should be somewhere around maximum of 10%.

00:48:26.040 But, again, and that's generally the reason those are so high is because they prey on people that can't borrow the money anywhere else.

00:48:35.100 Because maybe they have bad credit or they're brand, you know, for a young person, brand new credit, don't have anybody co-signing on their loan.

00:48:40.940 So that's a real issue.

00:48:43.800 And as far as this particular scenario, if you're in that scenario, what I would do, again, is there are firms out there that can help you work a deal with these companies to, you know, have a reduced payment to maybe lower the interest.

00:49:00.760 And I would try to find one of those companies to do that.

00:49:03.140 The other thing is, is there were some really big changes to the student loan program.

00:49:08.160 I mean, I wrote them down in the big, beautiful bill we talked about last time.

00:49:12.540 And I think they're positive changes.

00:49:15.120 And I don't know if you already have a student loan, if you can go refinance it or not under these scenarios.

00:49:20.840 But you should take a look at it and see.

00:49:22.620 Because if so, I would highly recommend that for sure.

00:49:26.040 Here's a couple of the changes that they made.

00:49:28.180 First of all, there's a limit on how much you can borrow.

00:49:31.800 And it didn't used to be that way.

00:49:33.400 You could, you know, borrow whatever they'd loan you, you could borrow it.

00:49:37.020 But now, for an undergraduate degree, the maximum you can borrow is $65,000 over your undergraduate career.

00:49:45.040 That's a really good deal.

00:49:46.920 All right?

00:49:47.200 Because first of all, it's going to make universities think about lowering their price.

00:49:51.560 And secondly, it's going to make sure that we go to colleges that we know that we can afford.

00:49:56.240 For a graduate degree, let's say I want to get my MBA, the most I could borrow is $100,000.

00:50:00.280 If I wanted to get a postgraduate, like a doctor's degree, it would be $200,000.

00:50:06.080 So that is a big change from what happened before.

00:50:09.100 And again, these are federal loans, okay, which would be the cheaper.

00:50:12.860 Their interest rates are around 6% versus the 17% that this lady talked about.

00:50:17.220 And in the past, there were, well, no, under the new bill, let's say that you go out and you get a job.

00:50:28.100 But if that job is not paying, or your major is not going to get you a job that pays more than what a high school graduate could make,

00:50:36.200 then you can't get a loan for that particular major.

00:50:38.620 I mean, some people say that, well, there's a lot of social workers and stuff that have a passion for that and need a degree,

00:50:47.340 but it doesn't pay that much money.

00:50:48.860 I get it.

00:50:49.800 But here's the thing to do.

00:50:51.280 Go to a community college to start with.

00:50:53.340 Those things are very inexpensive.

00:50:55.620 And you maybe have to spend your last two years in a four-year college,

00:50:58.600 but it'll be a lot less that you would have to borrow and probably would fall within the parameters that you would be allowed to borrow the money.

00:51:05.260 But I think that's pretty cool.

00:51:06.360 So why are we going to have you borrow the money if you can't make any more than you would if you're a high school graduate?

00:51:12.180 You might as well get in the workforce.

00:51:14.680 Here's how you have to pay the money back.

00:51:16.940 If the loan's under $25,000, you can pay it back over 10 years, okay?

00:51:23.260 If it's $25,000 to $50,000, you pay it back over 15 years.

00:51:27.400 $50,000 to $100,000, you pay it back over 20.

00:51:30.340 Over $100,000, you get 25 years to pay it back.

00:51:32.740 Now, but it looks like this.

00:51:38.120 Some of it depends on how much money you make.

00:51:40.080 If you make $30,000 or the loan's $30,000, the loan is $30,000 or less, you only pay 1% to 2% of your income.

00:51:48.220 That's all you have to pay.

00:51:49.640 And that grows up to 10% if you make over $100,000, which I think is pretty cool.

00:51:54.680 The other thing that they've done, which has never been done before, is they're also adding grants, which are actually gifts.

00:52:01.340 Grant is a gift.

00:52:02.420 You don't have to pay that back.

00:52:03.400 And loans to workforce training, meaning that if you wanted to go become a welder or you wanted to go be a heating and air conditioning or a plumber or something like that, you can actually now get one of these government-backed loans or grants to be able to pay for the schooling to do that.

00:52:23.080 And that's usually a, you know, one-year type program.

00:52:27.040 I think that's really cool.

00:52:28.320 So it's really giving people an opportunity that maybe they get out of high school, don't have the money to go to college, don't really even have the money to pay for a trade school, that they can do that as well.

00:52:38.320 So I think those are huge positives.

00:52:40.520 And I would just, you know, again, this lady, I don't know her personally.

00:52:45.220 It's really not about her.

00:52:46.420 It's really about the whole situation.

00:52:48.200 And I do believe that when we borrow money, we need to pay it back.

00:52:52.020 There's no question about that.

00:52:53.060 But there are different ways that you can go about maybe getting some relief to do that.

00:52:58.660 And I would look into all of those that you possibly can.

00:53:06.480 If you are tired of health insurance because who isn't, it might be time to opt out of health insurance altogether and try CrowdHealth.

00:53:14.120 My husband and I use CrowdHealth, and we have loved it so far.

00:53:17.440 It's an amazing deal.

00:53:19.300 For just $100 a month, you get access to expert bill negotiators.

00:53:24.660 You obviously get access to the crowd.

00:53:27.440 They are ready to help you in the event of a medical emergency.

00:53:33.220 And all you have to do is pay the first $15,000 of a medical emergency.

00:53:39.260 You know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars those can be.

00:53:42.760 And CrowdHealth will cover the rest.

00:53:45.100 It's really an amazing service that they have.

00:53:49.000 They don't have any doctor's networks.

00:53:51.680 You don't have to worry about crazy deductibles and premiums.

00:53:55.580 It is really so straightforward and a great way to take care of your family.

00:53:59.460 If you go to joincrowdhealth.com, code Allie, joincrowdhealth.com, code Allie, you can get your first three months for as low as $80 a month.

00:54:10.320 That's joincrowdhealth.com, code Allie.

00:54:12.720 The final thing is that we're going to talk about related to this is how much, you know, does it really take to live these days?

00:54:24.780 And there are a lot of people that are saying, hey, I don't have enough money to live.

00:54:28.160 Let's play that sot from this gentleman.

00:54:29.740 They tell us to stop eating out and rent $2,000 a month.

00:54:34.340 Oh, save for retirement.

00:54:35.900 And yet you can barely save for next week.

00:54:39.100 Go buy a house.

00:54:40.880 Every house is half a million dollars, brother.

00:54:43.540 I'm not asking for a handout, man.

00:54:46.100 We're asking for a freaking fair shot at life.

00:54:50.160 Our parents did not work harder than we work right now.

00:54:53.260 They were simply just given a better chance.

00:54:57.660 Their wages covered their lives, their bills, their hobbies, their passions.

00:55:02.060 Our wages barely cover our freaking bills for the month, dude.

00:55:08.260 No amount of budgeting can ever fix a system designed to keep us down.

00:55:12.500 We're doing the best that we can, and yet it feels like the outcome has already been decided.

00:55:17.040 Honestly, if TikTok would have been around in 1981 or 1982, I could have made that same video.

00:55:27.520 And it's nothing against this person.

00:55:29.520 I believe what he says is true from the standpoint of what he's going through right now and what a lot of people are going through.

00:55:36.680 It is just a fact that when you're getting started and when you're young, and again, I don't know what financial decisions he's made.

00:55:45.040 Let's say he's made all the right ones, and it's still a struggle.

00:55:47.860 Lisa and I believe we're pretty good stewards of our money, but it was a struggle, and it's going to be a struggle.

00:55:55.100 We had to make some decisions.

00:55:57.100 When we moved to Dallas, I got a huge raise from what I was making back in Arkansas to Dallas, but you know what I found out?

00:56:03.940 The same thing he did.

00:56:04.780 My $30,000 house in Arkansas back in 1980 was a $90,000 house immediately as soon as I moved to Dallas and not any better house.

00:56:16.180 So it's three times as much money.

00:56:17.660 So you can relate that however you want to.

00:56:20.280 And I was making maybe $30,000 a year, although I was making $20,000 when we left.

00:56:24.920 So I thought, okay, I've made all this extra money.

00:56:27.540 What we had to do, our sacrifice here was we had to move out further so that houses got less expensive.

00:56:34.060 And so that may be one of the things that you have to do.

00:56:37.400 There's no question about it because we do live in a market-based society, meaning if there are more people wanting to buy houses in an area than there are people wanting to sell them, the price is going to go up.

00:56:48.720 There's no question about that.

00:56:50.220 And wages do not ever seem to go up as much as the inflation does or the prices do on things that are in high demand.

00:56:59.060 Absolutely no question.

00:56:59.940 The other thing that I would say about this is that we may have to – I had a second job when I was young.

00:57:09.280 I would referee and umpire sporting events to make some extra money.

00:57:13.780 May have to do that.

00:57:15.460 But I do believe that we have to adjust our lifestyle so that we can live on what we currently make, and then we have to be looking at ways, how can we increase our income?

00:57:29.480 That was always important to me was – remember, my number one goal was to get my – to stop the generations of financial mediocrity in my family.

00:57:38.100 And so for me, I was constantly looking at how – what is it that I can do to make the most money that fits my values and is legal to do?

00:57:48.700 So it's a struggle.

00:57:51.360 There's no question about it, and I feel bad for young families.

00:57:54.600 There's no – we have those in our family, you know, in our extended family.

00:57:58.080 We have members that struggle and what have you.

00:58:01.140 But I do believe that if you, again, make sure that you're living in a place that allows us to afford and also that we are truly looking at what we do on a day-to-day basis.

00:58:14.640 We may have to have less car.

00:58:15.940 We may have to have less house.

00:58:17.460 We may have to have a second job.

00:58:19.380 We may have to say no to some vacation.

00:58:21.080 We don't – you know what?

00:58:21.860 We don't deserve a vacation.

00:58:23.740 We don't deserve, you know, for our kids to get designer clothes.

00:58:27.940 We don't deserve to get a new car every few years.

00:58:30.340 Those are things that we can have, and that's fine.

00:58:33.140 There's nothing wrong with that.

00:58:34.600 But until we have the income level that can match that, then we have to do something different.

00:58:41.440 And I hope that you will make those hard decisions to do that.

00:58:45.220 And it will be okay in the long run.

00:58:46.880 I promise you.

00:58:47.660 You put the effort in.

00:58:49.640 You get the training or the education you need to make the type of income that you want to make and you live below your means.

00:58:56.560 Your finances will turn around.

00:58:58.480 It happens – I've seen it happen time and time again over my lifetime.

00:59:03.660 All of our family – I mean, all of our friends that we knew when we were first getting started, they were all just like us.

00:59:09.080 We didn't have any rich friends.

00:59:10.800 They were all just getting started.

00:59:12.580 And for the most part, all of them have turned out to do very well financially.

00:59:17.460 And I wouldn't say they're certainly not, you know, Jeff Bezos type rich or anything like that.

00:59:22.960 But I would say that they've done their job of living below their means.

00:59:26.880 They've saved their money.

00:59:28.160 And they've been able to come out well on the other side.

00:59:30.460 And I believe this gentleman can do that.

00:59:32.540 And I know it's frustrating.

00:59:33.540 There's been plenty of times where, you know, Lisa and I were both at tears over, you know, we couldn't do this or we couldn't do that.

00:59:41.180 Or we, you know, we thought it was important to be able to, you know, help somebody that we couldn't help, things like that.

00:59:49.300 So – and that's frustrating.

00:59:50.960 But I know you can come out the other side of it.

00:59:52.960 There's no question about it.

00:59:54.260 So I hope that he'll do that.

00:59:56.040 And, again, if you have any more questions on that, please feel free to email me.

00:59:58.740 Last couple of things, and then we're going to finish up.

01:00:00.580 I kind of got on a little bit long today.

01:00:01.940 So I apologize to the team here for that.

01:00:06.800 Questions from the audience on this one are, what's the advice for being in toddler season?

01:00:12.800 Well, the only thing I'll tell you is it will pass.

01:00:16.280 It will pass.

01:00:17.940 Now, you can control some of that, okay?

01:00:20.400 According to how many toddlers you're having, right?

01:00:22.420 But it will pass eventually.

01:00:24.720 But the number one advice that I can give you on that is make sure that you're dating your spouse.

01:00:29.100 Guys, give your wife lots of lead way in that area.

01:00:33.320 I wasn't as good as that as I should have been for sure.

01:00:37.040 But I know from looking back on it what I should have done, and that is give your wife a lot of lead way.

01:00:42.660 But make sure you're dating your spouse.

01:00:44.100 And wives, I understand the kids wear you out every day.

01:00:47.220 I really do.

01:00:47.800 I've stayed with mine a limited amount of time by myself, and I've kept the grandkids some.

01:00:52.820 So it wears you out.

01:00:53.800 No question about it.

01:00:55.560 But you still need to remember that you have a husband.

01:00:59.840 And allow him to take you out on a date.

01:01:03.760 Allow him to treat you as the queen of the house that you are, okay?

01:01:09.200 And don't forget that he's a part of this as well.

01:01:13.780 And guys, we can help out.

01:01:15.900 We don't do things near as good as our wives do, but we can certainly help out.

01:01:19.180 And I'd encourage you to do that.

01:01:20.140 But make sure that y'all are going on a date at least once a month.

01:01:23.000 I mean, that's a minimum.

01:01:24.060 I hope you do it, you know, once every couple of weeks.

01:01:26.500 But make sure y'all are getting a babysitter going on a date at least once a month.

01:01:31.240 Secondly, how do I find a godly man?

01:01:35.120 That's a good question.

01:01:36.240 That's hard.

01:01:36.780 I would say, and this sounds a little bit oversimplified, but it's all about your network, okay?

01:01:44.260 Who are the people that are close to you that you can network with?

01:01:48.260 It's like a friend of mine tells me, he asks people all the time, who do you know that I should know?

01:01:53.340 And that can work in any scenario, whether that's job-related, relationship-related.

01:01:56.940 I just think you have to work your network and let them know what you're looking for.

01:02:02.260 Obviously, being part of a church, being part of a community with good values and whatever is something to do.

01:02:12.180 But mainly, it's working your own network, the people that know you best.

01:02:16.180 Just work that network the best you can.

01:02:20.640 If I feel compelled to confront my dad about his behavior, which I assume is not good behavior, whatever that is,

01:02:26.580 what's a respectful way to do that?

01:02:28.120 Well, you have to still remember that we're called to honor our parents.

01:02:32.540 It doesn't mean we can't have hard conversations or disagree with him, but we have to do it with honor.

01:02:37.240 And so I would recommend that you sit down with him, you know, set up a time, sit down with him,

01:02:42.460 just you and him, privately somewhere away from everybody else.

01:02:46.960 And you have to have the conversation, like I tell people a lot of times, you have to build it like a sandwich.

01:02:52.300 You have to have the soft and gooey stuff on the outside, like Brie's sourdough bread, which I'm sure is awesome.

01:02:59.420 Is that true, Brie?

01:03:00.840 I'm sure it is.

01:03:01.580 Yeah, I killed my sourdough starter, so not at the moment.

01:03:06.120 Not at the moment.

01:03:06.560 It's coming back, though, I know.

01:03:08.020 Okay, so and then you put the meat on the inside.

01:03:11.180 And so you start out with something that you like about your dad or you respect him for,

01:03:16.740 and then you say the things that are challenging.

01:03:19.380 You try to say those not in a condescending way, but, hey, help me understand.

01:03:24.340 Help me understand.

01:03:25.160 Maybe I'm misunderstanding about these particular actions that you're taking.

01:03:29.040 Maybe you're not, but that's the way to say it.

01:03:31.700 And then you finish it up with something good at the end as well.

01:03:34.600 But just make sure that when you do talk about the meat that you're direct.

01:03:38.640 Do not leave any innuendos asking him to read into that.

01:03:43.900 Because I tell you, most of us guys, we're not very good at reading innuendos.

01:03:47.700 Just be direct and then start with good and end with good.

01:03:51.780 And it may not get the initial result that you like, but over the long term, if your dad is a man of any type of honor,

01:03:59.580 he'll have respected you for doing that.

01:04:01.240 Now, let's see here.

01:04:05.680 What would you do if one of your kids came out as gay?

01:04:10.520 Well, first of all, you're going to love your kids no matter what.

01:04:13.340 And you probably already know that.

01:04:16.360 And you're going to tell them that.

01:04:17.820 But you also should tell them that we don't believe that's God's will.

01:04:21.940 It doesn't mean that they don't have that attraction, okay?

01:04:24.880 There's a difference between same-sex attraction and acting on it.

01:04:29.340 And there's a lot of good podcasts and books on that.

01:04:33.360 In fact, I would encourage you to listen to the Beckett Cook podcast.

01:04:37.220 This is a gentleman who has same-sex attraction but not acting on it.

01:04:44.220 And I believe that he's following the godly thing to do on that.

01:04:48.800 Also, some of you that have heard Rosaria Butterfield on Allie's podcast before.

01:04:54.900 Rosaria, I don't know exactly how to pronounce her name.

01:04:57.380 And she was at the Share the Arrows last year.

01:05:01.320 She's got some great books out on that, all right, because she struggled with this as well.

01:05:05.560 So I encourage you to reach out.

01:05:07.340 Also, find you a small group of friends that you can talk to about it, that you trust and can keep your confidence

01:05:13.640 and that you can really lay it all out on the line for.

01:05:18.380 And obviously, you're praying about this, asking for God's wisdom on how to handle that.

01:05:22.960 How did I meet Allie's mom?

01:05:26.820 Well, we can talk about that.

01:05:29.760 We met in a small community college or a junior college at the time, we called them.

01:05:35.960 And we had gone to different high schools, so I didn't know her before that.

01:05:39.340 But we had two classes together.

01:05:41.320 This is very interesting, so you need to write this down.

01:05:43.440 Well, we had biology together and psychology, and both of them worked at the end of the day.

01:05:50.120 So that's how we met.

01:05:51.420 And we started dating a few months into our freshman year and got married about a year and a half later.

01:05:57.700 And for me, it's been all good.

01:05:59.980 I don't know if Lisa was sitting here who should say that.

01:06:01.500 For me, it's been all good.

01:06:02.380 So anyway, last two things.

01:06:05.580 Wisdom from the wagon.

01:06:06.840 That's what we're calling these when I'm on now.

01:06:08.940 Wisdom from the wagon.

01:06:10.060 And it's about my book, Life Lessons from the Little Red Wagon, which if you haven't gotten, please do.

01:06:15.380 And then the wisdom coming out of that this time is one of the things that we do as a family.

01:06:21.880 You know, Allie's got her family.

01:06:24.260 My oldest son's got his family.

01:06:25.700 They don't live in the same area we do.

01:06:27.500 One of our sons, Daniel, with autism, lives with us, is every Sunday night we do a family Zoom call.

01:06:35.240 And it's after the kids, all the young ones go to bed, we do a family Zoom call.

01:06:40.180 And we just go over what's been going on in the week, what's coming up in the next week, and what can we be praying for each other about.

01:06:47.340 That has really, really been a good thing for us.

01:06:49.740 We've enjoyed doing that.

01:06:51.000 Does it mean we can make it happen every week?

01:06:52.960 No.

01:06:53.520 And to some people, not there every time?

01:06:55.480 That's right.

01:06:56.040 We don't get too, you know, strict on it, but it's just something that's really helped.

01:07:03.680 And it lets us know how we can be best praying for, you know, the people that we love the most.

01:07:10.160 And I would encourage you, if you don't, obviously, if your kids are little, you can get together with, you know, with your own family.

01:07:18.460 Or I would even encourage you to do it with your, if you've got brothers and sisters that are living in different parts of the country, maybe do that once a month.

01:07:24.640 If it's not every week, that's okay to do that.

01:07:26.580 But that's what, use technology for the benefit, not for all the bad things that happens on it.

01:07:30.900 And then finally, the last thing I want to do is read one thing that's something that's really been speaking to me the last several months.

01:07:38.440 And it's in James 3, verses 16 and 17.

01:07:42.220 And it says,

01:08:12.200 impartial and sincere.

01:08:13.960 That is what wisdom is all about.

01:08:16.360 And that's what I need to be striving for and what I'm committing to try to be better at.

01:08:22.160 And I hope that you'll take that and think about that as well.

01:08:25.280 Thanks for joining us.

01:08:26.100 We had a great time today.

01:08:27.280 And if you need me, please feel free to email me, ron at ronsimmons.com.

01:08:31.620 Don't forget to buy Allie's book, Toxic Empathy.

01:08:34.480 It is just flashing off the shelves.

01:08:36.520 Now, there's going to be one special feature.

01:08:39.280 You're going to see an image come up.

01:08:41.360 It's going to be an image of a belt I'm wearing today.

01:08:45.020 And the first person that tells me what golf club this represents will get three books.

01:08:51.900 You'll get Allie's book.

01:08:53.380 You'll get my book.

01:08:54.280 And my wife has a book that she wrote years ago about our son, Daniel, called I Would Have Said Yes.

01:09:01.320 We'll send you all of those autographed for the first person that can guess the symbol.

01:09:05.980 Whoever has the answer to this very difficult question.

01:09:10.400 Now, don't cheat.

01:09:11.380 Okay?

01:09:11.660 Don't Google it.

01:09:12.700 You've got to know it.

01:09:14.020 You can ask your dad.

01:09:15.080 Just Instagram message us at Relatable with ABS.

01:09:20.520 At Relatable with ABS.

01:09:22.780 Thanks a lot.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - August 11, 2025

Ep 1229 ｜ How to Make Money in a Tough Economy ｜ Ron Simmons

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