Pilot With $3M Net Worth Seeks $650K Loan for Catamaran — Ramsey Suggests Selling House to Pay

An airline pilot with a net worth of about $3M (£2.3M) rang a national personal finance programme hoping for the go-ahead to borrow against a $650,000 (£488,000) catamaran. Dave Ramsey gave him a different answer. Sell the house.

The caller, identified only as Bob from Houston, told The Ramsey Show that he and his wife were newly married, debt-free, and what he called 'baby step millionaires', a household that has followed Ramsey's step-by-step money method all the way to a seven-figure net worth.

The couple want to sell their home, buy a sailing catamaran, and live aboard it full time. Bob's question was technical. Could Ramsey's rule for houses, keeping a mortgage to 25% of take-home pay over 15 years, be stretched to cover a boat, even one he admitted was a depreciating asset?

Ramsey did not entertain the loan. 'No, boat's a toy and no I would pay cash for it,' he said, telling Bob he already had the money to buy it outright. The couple had the means. What Ramsey wanted to nail down was where the money would come from.

Why Ramsey Refused to Back a Marine Loan

Bob had mapped out a workaround. Marine lenders, he said, will not advance more than $100,000 (£75,000) to a buyer who does not own a home, so he planned to keep the house for about six months to qualify for the financing, then sell it anyway once the lender was satisfied he no longer owned property.

That was the point Ramsey pressed. Why not sell the house first and pay cash for the catamaran? Timing, Bob answered. The couple wanted the boat by November, but had a child in school until the following June, which would leave them holding the home and the vessel at once for about six months.

Cruze noted Bob's logic had a basis, since he had treated the catamaran as the family's main home. Ramsey rejected the comparison. It was a boat, he said, not a residence to be mortgaged. His fix was to wait half a year, sell up, and rent for the overlap rather than borrow. 'I'd rather do that than borrow money,' Ramsey said, raising a short stay in a rented apartment, or even 'the penthouse at the Four Seasons,' as an alternative to a loan.

The $3M Net Worth Behind the Catamaran Dream

The obstacle was liquidity. Bob said the couple had about $250,000 (£188,000) saved to put down, but when Ramsey pressed him on assets held outside retirement, he conceded the rest of their money was tied up in an IRA and a 401(k). He agreed he could not reach it to fund the boat without selling the house. At 52, Bob is below the age of 59½, the threshold the Internal Revenue Service sets before retirement savings can be withdrawn without an extra 10% charge on top of income tax.

That left the family home as the only asset large enough to cover the purchase outright, which is why Ramsey kept returning to it.

The household income is high. Bob told the hosts it comes to about $600,000 (£450,000) a year, and he plans to keep flying, joining the boat twice a month while his wife works remotely. The couple plan to winter in Florida and the Bahamas, then move north as it warms.

The price sits within the market. New cruising catamarans generally start between $500,000 (£375,000) and $800,000 (£600,000) in 2026, brokerage listings show, before fit-out. Bob said his boat needed about six months of work, including solar panels and a water maker, before it was ready to live on.

Co-host Rachel Cruze added a word of caution about the long run. Catamaran life might suit them now, she said, but by around 65 they may want a home and roots again, near grandchildren and family. Bob agreed the couple were planning for that, and were already stocking away cash for it.

Ramsey did not tell Bob to abandon the plan. He told him to go and live it, then sell the house, pay cash, and skip the loan. 'You make $600,000 a year,' he said. 'I think you can figure this out.'