Dave Ramsey tells Arkansas mom, 51, with no savings she can retire comfortably. How it works
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Finding yourself divorced at 51 after being a lifelong stay-at-home mom would leave almost anyone feeling overwhelmed. And that’s before you figure out how to take financial control of your life.
The same thing happened to Trisha, who came to The Ramsey Show in 2022 (1) after 22 years, when she took her $130,000 annual income and left behind the new car she bought for herself a month ago, which came with a monthly payment of $596.
Now that he’s had a few years to recover, he’s trying to find a path forward. Not only does he have to support himself, he also fears retirement. She told hosts Ramsey and Jade Warshaw: “I’ve spent my whole life raising kids, homeschooling. I basically have no retirement.”
But Ramsey says he can keep going even if he starts saving late.
“A lot of 51-year-olds who were making $50,000 a year, $75,000 a year with your extra income, became millionaires by the time they were 65 or 70,” Ramsey said. he said.
Here’s what to do if you find yourself trying to make up for lost time when it comes to retirement savings.
Despite Trisha’s fear about her future, Ramsey was at ease and said: “Your math will get better. You’ll get there.”
Trisha told her landlords that to save her money, she refinanced her car loan, started a second job and saved $38,000 in a money market fund and $3,000 in another account.
With a fairly solid foundation, Ramsey proposed the 7 Baby Steps program (2), which details his approach to building wealth.
These steps are:
1. Saving a $1,000 starter emergency fund
2. Payment of all debt (except mortgage)
3. Saving three to six months of living expenses in an emergency fund
4. Investing 15% of your household income
5. Saving money for college for your kids
6. Paying off your house early
7. Building and giving wealth
Ramsey took the necessary steps by advising Trisha to first pay off the remaining balance of around $25,000 on the car.
“Write a check today and pay off the car,” he said. While he acknowledged that this would be “very scary,” he also noted that he would still have $16,000 left in savings, which is a good start for an emergency fund.
If you’re just starting to build your emergency fund like Trisha, don’t let your money sit gathering dust. An ideal emergency fund usually combines high liquidity so you can access your money when you need it and a solid interest rate to continue growing your savings.
But traditional savings accounts generally have low interest rates. This makes it imperative to find the right high-yield alternative to increase your saving power.
A high-yield account to get started Wealth Front Cash AccountIt can be a great place to grow your emergency funds, offering both competitive interest rates and easy access to your cash when you need it.
The Wealthfront Cash Account can provide a base variable APY of 3.30%, but new clients can get a 0.65% increase in the first three months. total APY 3.95% It is provided by the program banks based on your money that you have not invested. That’s more than nine times the national deposit savings rate, according to the FDIC’s November report.
With no minimum balance or account fees, as well as 24/7 withdrawals and free domestic bank transfers, you can ensure your money is always accessible. Plus, Wealthfront Cash Account Balances up to $8 million are insured by the FDIC through program banks.
Since Trisha had already started an emergency fund, her kids were through college, and she was renting her home rather than owning it, Ramsey concluded that the only big thing she needed to do was start investing with 15% of her income.
Trisha earns $52,400 and has a second job that earned $14,000 last year. Also eligible for an employer match under your 401(k). Crunching the numbers, Ramsey was confident that if he invested 15 percent of his income between ages 51 and 70, he’d make $600,000 to $800,000, even if he didn’t get another raise.
He left her with an important piece of advice: “You have to stay process-focused, math-focused, and let the facts speak to you,” he said. “You can fight this. You can achieve this.”
Always keeping track of where your money is going isn’t just a quick fix for someone in Trisha’s situation. This is the beginning of a lifelong commitment to financial literacy.
But managing all your inputs and outputs yourself can be a huge waste of time, especially if you work two jobs.
You can also allow Rocket Money Work behind the scenes to keep your finances on track.
With the app’s world-class Net Worth feature, you can link all your accounts—banking, investments, retirement, properties, vehicles, and even manually added items like jewelry—and it shows your assets and liabilities in real-time, without the need for a spreadsheet.
With free tools like subscription tracking, billing reminders, credit scores, and budgeting basics, as well as premium features like automatic savings and customizable dashboards, Rocket Money Makes it easier to see the big financial picturetrack your investments and enable you to focus on building your wealth.
Trisha’s fear of retirement is not unique. While 59% of Americans have a retirement account such as a 401(k) or IRA, only half of them believe their savings will be enough to live comfortably, according to a Gallup poll (3).
The balances do not inspire much confidence either. Vanguard’s 2025 How America Is Saving Report shows that the average retirement account balance for Vanguard participants is $148,153, but the average balance, a better reflection of typical savers, is $38,176. Even for those closest to retirement, the average balance was $95,642 (4).
That number may sound huge, but under the common “4% rule,” you would have less than $4,000 a year in retirement income.
The takeaway for someone like Trisha is clear: Getting serious about consistent investing now can be the difference between barely scraping by and retiring safely later.
If you’re behind on saving for retirement or starting almost from scratch like Trisha, there are concrete steps you can take to catch up.
Determine your pension number: A general rule of thumb is to aim to save 10 times your final salary for retirement.
For example, if you plan to retire making $60,000 a year, you need to save about $600,000. Use a calculator like the one from Investor.gov to see how long it will take by entering your current age, expected contributions, and time horizon.
Maximize capture contributions: Workers age 50 and older can contribute an additional $8,000 to a 401(k) in 2025, above the standard limit of $24,500. IRA owners can add an additional $1,100 to the $7,500 annual limit (5).
These provisions are specifically designed for late starters.
Delay retirement if possible: Working a few extra years can significantly increase your nest egg by giving your investments more time to grow, reducing the number of years you have to draw down your savings.
Invest for growth: A diversified ETF portfolio can be the key to building wealth for decades to come. While bonds offer safety, stocks can provide the long-term growth you need if you’re starting late.
However, building your retirement fund doesn’t always mean moving all your money into one large investment account. You can even start small by saving spare money from your daily purchases. It all adds up over time, especially if you start early.
For example, saving just $3 every day adds up to over $1,000 a year—and that’s before you accumulate money in the market.
With acornWith it, you can automatically invest spare funds from your daily purchases into a diversified portfolio of ETFs managed by experts from leading investment firms such as Vanguard and BlackRock.
Here’s how it works: When you link your debit and credit cards, Acorns automatically rounds up each transaction to the nearest dollar and calculates the difference. A smart investment portfolio for you. So, your $3.25 morning coffee automatically becomes a 75-cent investment in your future.
If the collections are not enough, you can also set up a recurring deposit. Even better, you can Get $20 bonus investment when you establish monthly contributions.
Once you’ve built a fundamentally sound investment portfolio, it’s time to start thinking about diversification to protect yourself. One common strategy is to balance your stocks and bonds with market-resistant alternative assets, such as real estate or private equity.
For most people, investing in real estate automatically means getting a mortgage and “good” debt. However, investors also have other options.
For example, real estate crowdfunding platforms reached Make it easy to get started in this asset class.
Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived helps you buy shares of premium residential real estate and vacation rentals across the country.
Once you choose a property, you can: Start investing with as little as $100. You will also have access to their secondary markets, which are now being rolled out in phases; This will give you greater flexibility to buy, sell or hold shares in private rental and vacation rental properties.
If you want to choose a different course, you can consider investing in this course: Special Credit Fund Arrived in its place.
Arrrived’s Private Loan Fund allows you to invest in short-term loans used to finance real estate projects such as renovations, property rehabilitation and even new home construction projects.
All loans are secured by houses as collateral; Therefore, even if borrowers default, the underlying property can be sold to keep the fund healthy.
Historically, Incoming Private Credit Fund 8.1% in annual dividends to paid investorsdistributed monthly. Dividend stocks aren’t even close to that; The long-term average return on the S&P 500 is approximately 1.8% (6).
Starting at 51 may seem scary, but as Trisha’s example shows, it’s not too late.
With focused saving, smart investing, and consistent discipline, you can still build a meaningful retirement fund and take back control of your financial future.
