A man who earns 150,000 Canadian dollars ($109,629) annually called “The Ramsey Show” to ask whether he and his wife can justify dropping $5,000 on a trip to Spain to attend a friend’s wedding.
The reaction of one of the show’s co-hosts offered a mix of humor and encouragement to the caller, a Canadian named Alex.
“Dude, my friend got married at Arby’s. Man, your friends get married in Spain. That’s awesome,” John Delony said.
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While personal finance experts Delaney and co-host Rachel Cruze told the caller to take the trip, the advice came with a caveat. They said the CA$5,000 to pay for it had to come from extra cash, not a $9,000 emergency fund the couple had saved.
On paper, Alex and his family look like they’ve won at life, but a peek under the hood revealed some common traps many people fall into.
The family is debt-free except for their mortgage. Although they have CA$9,000 in the bank for emergencies, their expenses are about CA$5,000 per month.
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Cruze and Delony pointed out the obvious: For a family with two young kids, that $9,000 could vanish in a single afternoon if a water heater blows or someone needs a trip to the emergency room. They suggested bumping up the emergency fund to have at least three months of expenses.
The conversation also tackled Alex’s pension fund, where he’s putting 20% of his income. While that may sound like plenty for retirement, the Ramsey team suggested that a pension shouldn’t be his only plan.
Their advice? Cut the pension contributions in half, and put at least 15% to put into a retirement account he controls to make sure he isn’t leaving his entire future in someone else’s hands.
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At the end of the day, a high salary is not a guarantee of wealth. Financial peace doesn’t come from the size of your paycheck. It comes from the size of the gap between your lifestyle and your income.
Whether your friends are getting married at Arby’s or in Barcelona, the goal remains the same: Make sure your foundation is solid before buying the plane tickets.
“There may be more security knowing, OK, we have some good money, you know, money saved,” Cruze said. “You’ve got to figure out how to get this emergency fund and the trip. If you can do both, that’s great.”
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