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The Ramsey Show

A Bigger Paycheck Won't Fix Bad Money Habits

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>> Brought to you by the every dollar app, start budgeting for free today. [MUSIC] >> Normalist broken common sense is weird, so we're here to help you transform your lives

from the Ramsey Network and the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio. I'm Dave Ramsey, this is the Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best selling offer, and my daughter is my coach today. Richard is in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hi, Richard, how are you?

>> I'm doing well, Dave, how are you doing well today?

>> Better than I deserve, what's up? >> Hey, so my wife and I are on baby step four, we're trying to save up to buy a house now. We currently have 80,000 and my parents are willing to put in 50, so told down pain of 130.

The problem is in the Fort Worth area,

property taxes are very, very high and any home with a value of under 270 is going to have major foundation issues. And when we have found a home that we do like and we want to put an offer in, every time we've been outbed by quite a bit. So do we continue looking or do we just take our money,

give up on the getting the house and just put that money towards retirement? >> Wow, yeah, and that's putting half down. >> Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. I like your idea. Well, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I sorry you hadn't been able to find a house yet,

but I suspect you will if you continue on the journey. How something is never a perfect process. It's, um, it's not like going to the grocery store and just walk down it. You know, Costco and get five gallons of peanut butter and the thinking about it. You, you know, you do have to hunt.

Um, and yes, there are some foundation issues in the Fort Worth area. It's the nature of the soil you have there. But, uh, to say that all homes in that price range in Fort Worth have foundation issues is not a true statement. That's a little bit overdrawn attached to say the least. >> Well, um, we've been looking at homes for six months and I can count on one hand

to the amount of homes we've seen without foundation issues.

>> Well, can't, well, Richard, what if you guys limited it down to a 20% down payment and got a larger home?

Or not larger, sorry, but the more of not, not that it size has to not that it's larger in size, but in quality, you know, I'm just, and in value. Richard, um, the idea that all homes in Fort Worth have all but five have foundation issues. Honestly, I'm going to call you out again. That's bull crap.

Okay, that's not true. That's just not true. You may not have found them. I don't know what you're looking at or what your deal is, but that's just not true. Otherwise, the entire city of Fort Worth would have fallen in by now and no one would live there. And instead, it's quite a prosperous area that does very well.

It's a wonderful town. And so, um, but yeah, but you're not wrong in the fact that there's probably a lot that do. It is a foundation to issue in the Fort Worth Dallas area in general. It's a soil thing, sand content. And so, versus Tennessee, where we got rock and clay, you want a basement here.

You've got to get dynamite involved. So, um, because we grow rocks like people grow trees, but, um, so I mean, it's something all the time.

But the other question is this, what to what extent is the foundation damaged?

Is this a structural problem, or did you walk in and see a hairline crack and go into drama mode?

Because I've never poured any concrete, and I've been in the real estate business most of my life,

that it didn't crack eventually. A hundred percent of concrete will shift and crack. There's just no such thing, okay? Because soil moves, earth moves, life. Yeah, expands and contracts with moisture and freezing and temperature.

Oh, that's so, are you overdoing that? Well, that, yes, I would ask all those questions for sure. And then I also would say, okay, well, maybe your expectations of what you get for, for a $260,000 house is maybe not up to your part. And so, maybe you either lower your expectations of what you're going to get,

or maybe you say, hey, you know what? Let's use this instead of a 50 percent dump payment.

Let's do a 30 percent, right?

I mean, like, yeah, assuming you have the income to support the 100 percent. Yes. So, I'm like, there is a reality to what you can buy with this amount of money and what you're seeing, sure. But I agree with you, to just make Blake and full statements about all houses somewhere. Yep, can we're in the same blue as how are you, Cameron?

Good, how are you? Better than I deserve, what's up? I need to know if I should use some of my investment money to pay down some Zoom loans and a car loan.

How much you have in investments?

About 30,000 that I can pull out and then I have a couple different accounts

so I can take some penalties on the car and not see that. Is this 30,000 in non-retirement accounts?

Yes, the other accounts are retirement accounts with the penalties?

Yes, okay, and how much debt do you have? I have 3,000 Zoom loans, my wife has 18,000 and then we have an 18,000 card payment. So you can't clear everything. Pretty close to it. I have some saved up to savings.

Oh, how much is that? About 5,000. Okay, she got 35, but I thought I heard 18 and 3 and what was the other number? 18, 8,500 and 3.

So I get that, yeah, about 40,000 and that.

So you don't enough money. Okay, all right, I thought I heard that, right? Okay, but you're close, all right, so you've not been listening to us a long time. I take it. No, just sorry to couple of weeks ago.

Okay, cool, well, welcome. We appreciate you being here. We're weird because America runs around going into debt all the time. And what we discovered several decades ago when I went broken lost everything was that the shortest distance between where you are and wealth is not savings.

It is clearing off all debt and staying out of debt. Because you're most powerful wealth building tool is your income. And when you don't have any debt, you can use your income for generosity and for wealth building. And you will become wealthy much faster than those investments will make you wealthy. So, so all of that to say, we're all about getting people out of debt.

So that they can become wealthy faster. Yeah, which is going to lead us to the answer. Yeah, which is going to lead us to the answer to your question is yes, we would clean out the savings and the investments. And we would pay off your debts smallest to large. Just so I pay off the, you said a little credit card and I'd cut it up, no more using it.

And I pay off the car and never buy another car the rest of your life unless you pay cash for it.

Okay, ever again, because car payments will make you broken, keep you broke. And then we're going to clean off the largest debt, most of it, but not quite all of it, which was the student loan if I heard my numbers right. Yeah, okay, and see now you don't have a car payment, now you don't have a credit card. And now you're on a written budget and you're going to knock out that last little bit of debt.

Without all those payments, if you just took all those payments and invested them for the next 15 or 20 years, just that will make you a millionaire. And we're going to take you much further. I guess I have another question.

Okay, does it matter what our income to our debt ratio really is, I guess?

Because no, me and my life are both engineers and they quite a bit of money, but nope. I don't know if it makes sense to you all this out or just keep you longer. How much do you guys make a year? I'm just curious, combined income. With my bonus, we make about 200,000.

Okay, I'm going to send you a copy of the book, Baby Steps Millionaires. We did the largest study of millionaires ever done, and oddly enough, the number one career track of the typical millionaire is engineer. Because you guys know how to work a system, and I'm going to teach you a system. And if you'll follow it, just like you follow engineering principles, it will work.

And so no, it doesn't make any difference. You can't outer and stupidity, so I don't care what you make. You still got to run the principles. Hang on, we'll send you a copy of the book. As a dad of young kids, I'm starting to think a lot more about the world of growing up in,

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Jane is in New York City, high-drain, how are you? I'm fine, thanks, Dave. What's up?

I'm 52 years old, and in married 20 years, I have two college-aged kids.

And up until last year, I took care of Jane to build from my and my husband's join account. We had no debt, no loans, no car payments. And we had about $120,000 saved up for, it was to buy a house. So last year, when you would have an argument, sometimes my husband would say, maybe I should just take over the finances, and I did a brush that off like that's a weird thing to say,

because we never had separate accounts or anything, and he had access to everything.

So in May, he tells me that he wants to spend $11,000 on day trading, and so I reluctantly said, okay, in the past he lost money day trading as well, but I just figured that he would just get it out of his system, and if he got anything, that would be great, but it was just $11,000. So it turns out that I gave him all the finances, because it was excuse me, too stressful for me. And through the summer, he just depleted the entire savings.

So $50,000, $45,000, $30,000, whenever I would ask him about it, he would just say, I moved it to another account, and I'm not answering any questions about it. And during that time, our landlord also told us that we need to move. And so I was like, we need that money to get a house. And my mom also gave us $50,000 when she found out we needed to move.

So he says, no, we're going to stay here another year, and I'm going to day trade, and I can double

this money. And so it was extremely stressful. Finally, in April after asking him, all winter,

what are we going to do? What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Could I had no access to anything anymore? I had no, I couldn't see anything. If I asked him to show me what he's doing, he said, I don't want you looking over my shoulder. So why have you tolerated this? I did. What could I have done? Well, I mean, what do you do if your husband's doing cocaine? I don't know what I would do, call the police. Yeah, I mean, just telling me,

he's either going to go into rehab or I'm going to divorce you. Yeah, well, because I'm not going to stand here while you ruin the whole freaking family with your moronic day trading. Well, he lost it all. I'm sure he did. 97% of day traders lose everything. Yeah, we still need to move. And I still have $130,000 in savings. Yeah, my mom, my mom for my mom. He has no access to that money. I also have that

separate and he can't touch that money. Yeah, that's what I would, well, that's the first thing I

would do, Jane, to start separating everything. You know, like you did with that account that he cannot have access anymore because the trust is completely broken and how he's handled that. And how he's handled you in the process, giving you no voice in it, giving completely brushing you off, putting you to the side. That's a complete marriage breakdown. And that's, that's the red flag that I see is that your marriage, that's on the rocks, right, when your husband treats you like

that. And it's way more than the money problem at that point. That's a husband and wife issue. So have you guys reached out to have any level of change or something or see just completely,

basically ignoring you through all of this? He's ignoring me. I asked the pastor for counseling.

And he said that he doesn't believe in counseling. He went to the first counseling session. And he said to the pastor, I don't believe in any of this. I'm not going to say anything. And he refused to talk. Yeah. That's a hard, that's a hard place to go forward, right? I mean, again, beyond the money situation. Yeah, if you just change this extreme misbehavior to a different kind of extreme misbehavior, it indicates to you what's going on. And then how you're going to have to handle it.

And that's going to be under the direction of your pastor under the direction of a counselor, not under my direction. But it's going to end up in an ultimatum, because you're not going to live like this. I can hear it in your voice. You're not going to put up with this a lot longer. Yeah, she almost didn't put up with you when you were like, they're at the beginning. She, you got fire Jane, you got some fire in you, which is good. Well, I told him I said, I'll pay all the debt off.

And whatever's left, I'll give her down payment for the house that you have to stop trading.

And give me control of all the money. Yeah, I said, give me control of all the money and you can't

Touch it and tell trust is getting and he said no.

"By behavior is a language. He's saying I don't want to be married to you." That's what he's saying.

Okay. So you need to sit down with your pastor, honey, and your pastor and you need to talk

about whether or not you're going to stay married in an abusive relationship. Because you're being abused. And it's not fair to you. You know, the way you've been treated is wrong. And it says, if he's doing cocaine and he says, "Oh, I'm not going to go to a counselor. I don't need help. I'm not addicted. I don't have a problem. You have a problem. Well, you got two other people sitting here going on the other side of this. And in three and a half minutes, we determine that you don't

have a problem. He does. You're only problem is him." And so he's either going to engage in change or you're not going to be there because I can tell listening to you. You're not going to put up with it

much longer. And the problem is if you don't sit down and address this directly with a counselor

with some help, you're going to go, I've done this for almost 40 years now and I sat with couples.

And I don't know, I do not understand this and people are going to get criticized for saying this. But

women in particular put up with crap longer and longer and longer and longer and all of a sudden a switch flips and you're done and no amount of nothing will get you back. We can't real you back in. You're just done. Like the thing tipped over and Humpty Dumpty is over. You can't put the boy back together again. And I don't want you to reach that point accidentally. If you're going to reach that point, I want you to do it intentionally. And with some help, honey, with some

help. And I was going to circle back though. I mean, her heart just shattered on the phone. I mean, that's a scary reality and I don't want to be flipping about it, Jane. I'm not flipping. No, I know you're not. I'm just saying in general because we can, I feel we can say something on the side of the desk and then we move on to the next call about mutual funds, right? And here, she is picking up this reality. That maybe has not been said out loud before to her. I mean,

there's a reality that's going to play out for her. That's very real and very hard, Jane. And so I think reminding yourself of you're not the crazy one. You're not in the wrong. What you're asking him to do is not over the top or bizarre. Like you, you are the sane one in this. And if he can not participate in sanity and continue to live in insanity, you, you can't live your life like that. And so we, we are here for you. I just, I don't know. I just felt for her just then. Yeah, I just feel

it. Amen. That's that's so difficult, Jane. And 28 years. I mean, you just feel like you're, yeah, your life just kind of just shatters. And because of his behavior and if he's changed or something's happened, I don't know if you could get to the bottom of it of what's going on. But if

he refuses to change, you cannot change him. You can't make people do stuff. No. And that's why

so many addictions, addicts and in divorce. I wonder if day trading, not to put taterators in that level, but it's in some level of life. Definitely. You know what I mean? It's the same hit. I was like a game gambling or what that is. Like there's a double main hit that I find. Yeah. And, you know, it's like pulling on a lot of machine and walking up the crap stable. It's the same stuff. It's setting up the same cycle. It's feedback loop. And Easter talks about it and his book scarcity

loop. And the scarcity loop talks about exactly how this is going on. What's going on? But because when a guy is so wrapped up in that or a person is so wrapped up in that that they can't look at their spouse of 28 years and listen. Right. That's what makes me mad for her. Yes. Oh. Yeah. And but she can't and she can't make him do anything she can do is make him wish he had done it. That's something she can do. And it's just and protect herself. I was going to say Jane that that's

my number one step for you is I'm so glad you have that other account and I would be taking

my name off things and I mean. It's different but it does always help me to go to the extreme

and say, okay, if he's doing cocaine and we had the exact same set of herbage. Yeah. It's your right. Right. What would you do? Right. Exactly. Whatever. It's still a misbehavior. Okay. Still I'm screwing around and messing up my whole life and messing up my wife's life and my kid's life. Okay. So call it what you want to call it. But if you're doing cocaine and you're set with a pastor and he goes, I'm not going to talk. I don't believe in counseling.

And I'm not going to give you any more money for drugs. Then I'm not going to talk to you and I'm going to shut you out. It's like, well, that's all language of an addict. Yeah. (Music)

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Shopify handles the rest. Start your free trial at Shopify.com/Ramsi. Shopify.com/Ramsi. (Music) Nancy's in Los Angeles. Hi Nancy. How are you? I'm Katie. Thank you for teaching my call. I really appreciate your advice. Sure. Yeah, my C.M. says he's 71 years old and I'm 56. I'm getting married in the Catholic Church in October. He wants to pre-nap and I don't.

He's retired. He has 2 million saved and a house paid off. The houses were $700,000.

I'm still working. I have 600,000 dollars saved. Either of us have debt. He was in San Francisco, I'm in Los Angeles. I just want to walk to the altar with him and marry our lives together.

I would like your advice because I want to build a life with him and I think for me to leave my home,

my security, my job and the visitor and his home could clean up if, you know, he doesn't feel like a marriage to me. What's your home? What's your home worth? No, I'm in an apartment. I live in Los Angeles. Okay. All right. So you don't, you just mean you just leave your, yeah, okay, you're not leaving a home that you own. Just so you have $600,000 saved and you make what at your job. $6,000, $6,000 a year. Okay. And he's retired. He's not working.

Hey, he's 71 and you're 56. I'm a new one. I'm 56. Okay. Okay. What would make you comfortable

in the pre-nap other than all or nothing? You're assuming he wants all or nothing, right?

Um, yeah, he's just nervous because he's 71 and wants to, and I said, listen, I want to go Catholic as forever. You know, when you get married in the church, you don't prepare for divorce. And I don't, I don't want to prepare for divorce because that creating that situation and that kind of fear walking down the aisle together. And um, he's worried about his investments in losing half of what he's, you know, because we can't go back to work, right? Um, so um, you know,

we both love each other fiercely. And um, yeah, we don't recommend pre-nap, except where there's extreme differences in net worth. And this isn't extreme difference in net worth. And so I don't know why it represents, I understand Catholicism and I understand marriages forever and I don't, I don't have a problem with that. Um, and I understand that you are somewhat vulnerable if you leave your job and then he decided he wanted to put you out and keep his 2.7 and you had your 600

years to start over at 58 years old, 2 years from now. That's not fair to you. But the pre-nap could say that you got 500,000. But just not half of 2.7. And also I'm leaving Los Angeles, my home, my family, my work, my my whole career. You're leaving a $60,000 job and an apartment in Los Angeles. So financially, you're not leaving anything. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I say one more time,

You're muffled on that.

up there where he's at. Okay, that's fine. So you're giving up a $60,000 job to move in with a multi-millionaire and be married to him. And if you get a divorce, you would want something to start your life over with to offset that $60,000. And I just said, you know, the pre-nap could say a half a million dollars of his money goes to you. At that point, you'd have 1.1 million and looking

for a job, I think you could survive. I'm not suggesting that that's going to happen in this

situation statistically. It's much more likely that he dies than you get divorced.

Agreed? I never see it's getting divorced. I don't see you get divorced either,

but I'm just saying, so what happens to his money when he dies in your mind? Is he have grown kids? Oh, neither of us have children. Yeah, this is, this is, this is the, the pre-nap is just for. I know, I'm asking you what have the discussions been, what happens to his money when he dies? We haven't discussed that, but that will be something else. That's much more likely to happen than divorce. I'd really want to know that.

Right. Right. I'm sure I would go to whichever of the spouses alive at the time. I'm not sure. He wants to pre-nap. Right. So, let me just tell you, I'm going to, I'm just going to, we're just being called and calculated not romantic, okay? Because you called and ask about our lives. So, we'll let Rachel, we'll let Rachel do the romance, okay? But I'm too old for that. But the

the deal is, he's 71 year 56. I'm going to give you a 90% probability he dies before you or before

you got divorced. In that case, there's a 90% chance you should be a lot more worried

about what happens to this money on death and you haven't even discussed that. Right. I mean, we discussed a wedding class and I guess that's where that would take effect. Yeah, but living trust can have a different beneficiary. Does all the money come to you at death? If it does, that changes the discussion on the pre-nup a little bit. But I don't, to answer your question overall, I don't think it's un-catholic. I don't think it's lacking in commitment

when there's an extreme difference in asset base to get a pre-nup. If you were 22 year olds that were broke and he wanted a pre-nup for his collection of Pokemon cards, I would tell you not marry him because he's not committed to the thing. But you're not too broke 22 year olds.

The guy has three million dollars almost. You got almost a million dollars and you're too

grown-ups to say the least. And so, yeah, it would be normal to get a pre-nup in your situation. Yeah, I don't think what he's asking for is completely unreasonable. But it would also be normal to offset your question that in the event of a divorce, you did get something substantial of his

to offset what you gave up in Los Angeles. That's right. Absolutely. Yeah, and I think in it,

it feels like 20, 30 years ago, the automatic knee jerk reaction to a pre-nup is, oh gosh, I'm preparing for divorce. I'm preparing for divorce. And as we've just talked about this the right, as time's going on, they're becoming more and more common. And probably out of some wisdom, maybe not all by any means. But in some situations, the wisdom in it of planning for him because if I'm in his seat and I've built this and I'm not able to go back to work. And something happens

and half my net worth has gone and the thought of me having to go figure out how to continue to live my life. You know what I mean? Like, that makes sense to me. Like that on his end, too. But you're a need your reaction, Nancy, of that. I hear that a lot. And I think that's fair. I felt that for a while. Yeah, Nancy. But I don't think it's necessarily means that. When we came on the air 30 years ago, we told people don't get to pre-nup. If you can't combine your stuff, they're not worth marrying,

forget it. And we were just hardcore about it. Like the more we went along, more we found in coaching people that the problems that happened that a pre-nup does away with are more to do when there's an extreme difference in that word. So like, I had a lady for real call up one time. Her fiancee wanted to pre-nup to protect his sports car. And I'm like, he loves the car or he loves you. Don't marry him. He's a twerp. And so he doesn't need a pre-nup. He needs a dog. And so, um, you know,

that's different, right? But that's, but you know, if you got 10 million bucks and the other

Person's got zero, the other thing that pre-nup does is it keeps the weirdnes...

family. Because extended family's like, oh, heesh, she married a multi-millionaire. And here comes,

you know, cousin George, cousin Eddie rolls up in the RV, right? And, you know, he wants to talk to the new hubby about his new plan. Yeah. What's open to you about a whole piece of plan. Yeah. I want to open a piece of place with hubby's money. And, and you're like, all that stuff goes away because you just go, I can't do anything. I got to, I don't, I don't know, I'm pre-nup. And it helps you deal with extended family that's nuts. And him too, for that matter,

he keeps him from thinking you're a gold digger. And, you know, so, where there's an extreme difference, I, we are good with his suggestion. But I do think you make a valid point that in the event of a

divorce, the very unlikely event that you get something.

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equal housing lender 1749, Mallory Lane, Sweet 100, Brent Wenton, to see 37027. Grant is in Miami. Hi, Grant. How are you?

Hey, Dave, how are you? How are you? You guys? What are you north of that?

Hey, now I float louder now. But I am 24 years old. I'm making about $150,000 a year. I have a high yield savings account so that I'll put about 40,000 in it. But, you know, maxed on my phone. Okay. I'm maxing out my rough IRA as well. Move down here about 18 months ago from Arizona. So buying a boat has been in our mind today. Think that we're going to pull the trigger on it. So take it about 16 out of that 40,000 in my

high yield savings account and purchase boats. Guess I'm just calling right trying to figure out if you need someone to tell me it's a good idea. Just kind of thoughts in opinions. I believe it's okay. Well, I am this or are you building that high yield savings account right back up? Again, I'm maxing across the RLMK and my rough IRAs. I don't think you're dead free except your home. No credit cards. I'm renting right now. No credit cards. No student loans. Nothing. Don't

say something to my money every month is my rent. No car payment. Okay. She have no debt. You have no debt. Are you there? Okay. You're saying that I'll out. You have no debt. Okay. And you make up 140. Yeah. Okay. And you're 28 years old and you have 40,000 and you want to use 16 of that to buy a boat. 24 years old. Oh, I'm sorry. And you want to 16 of that to buy a boat. Okay. Well, the rule of thumb that I use and that we've taught for years and it works pretty well.

Most people grant make the mistake of spending money. Lots of money. Two high a percentage of their net worth. Two high a percentage of their life on things that go down and value and then wonder why they're broke. Now, I love boats. I've got two master crafts. I was playing on them all weekend throwing the grandkids around on tubes mercilessly. Okay. So I'm a boat guy. I like guy. I'm with you. All right. And but boats and cars and motorcycles and lawnmowers and c-dos. Anything with an

engine or wheels or a battery goes down and value. And if we have too much of our life tied up in

things that go down and value, we're always going to be broken wonder why we call that middle class.

Because middle class has a car sitting out front of the house, it cost all much as much as the stupid house. And then wonder why they're broke. Okay. That's where that comes from.

Rich people don't put money in things that go down and value. That's how they got rich. So all that

to say, the rule we came up with was no more than half your annual income in things that have

Wheels, batteries, or motors.

So the 2008 Ford owner will more than 10 less than 15. Okay. And you're going to spend more on a

boat than you spend on your cars worth. You have 30,000 tie-up. You make 140. It meets the guideline. You're not putting too much into the boat. The boat is fine. But that that speech goes with it

that you have to use that mentality. Not just go, I think it's okay to buy a boat. Because that's

what people say and you're not going to borrow money and it's not going to be more than half your annual income and stuff that has wheels and motors. So you're fine to buy the boat. What kind of boat are you looking at for 16 grand? It's a fantastic deal. It's a 180 hurricane. It's ocean boats here at Lake Boatman. Yeah, it is. Yes, it's on some Arizona. So it's a whole new ballpark for me, right? Yeah. So I'm so watered by a great deal, going for 2018, I said 16 and they agreed to it.

You know, put my heart out there. It's my first time boat owner to sing the legend. It's, you know,

it's going to be my first time. So they agreed to 16. So you're trying this boat with a four-runner? No sir. Oh, okay. I live on the arena. Oh, okay. I'll have a slip here. And another thing which I'm worried about. I don't like monthly expenses. I don't. You're getting right to have one. Yep. In terms of the boat slip, right, which is going to be 450 bucks a month. Yeah. Which freaks me out. Yeah. I call my girlfriend and she's like me and you're making 150. Like

you and I don't spend anything. So everybody, I'd rather look at money in my account and look at a car or look at anything. Well, you're getting ready to have way more to add up in the boat than you have in the car and using the car every day and you're using the boat occasionally. And so let me tell you let me tell you what not to do with the boat because let me tell you what not to do. Let me tell you what not to do. This will make you throw up. Don't ever figure out how many hours you're spending on the boat

and divide that into what it costs you because it'll make you throw up. It'll be thousands of dollars

an hour. Yeah. That's what you're going to add up spending. But that's part of owning a boat.

Yeah. I got the mastercraft this weekend. I looked down. It's got a hundred more hours on it. Yeah. But he said, well, yeah. And his is a 16,000. And he said he works from home in the place, you know, he made it on his boat. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, you know, there's a whole lot of stuff in there that's given me pause. Okay. I'm 24 and it's the best deal on the planet. Both of those things scare me. Okay. But I think still I think you ought to go by the boat. I think you ought to have

this very fine. I think you're fine. You got to do it. It's not going to break you. I think you've overthought it to. He's not under 60,000. Go enjoy it. Yes. Yes. You're fine, Grant. You're fine. Go enjoy it. And I think you're probably a guy that asks this many questions about something like this. This is probably going to be okay. It's the ones that go, I just took out a $480 boat payment for the $450 slip and I drive a $4 car. That's the ones that kill me. Okay. So yeah. And we get those all the time too.

So Grant, I think this is in the guidelines of wisdom. But in the middle of all that, we have to give

you all of our speeches. Yep. Well done, Grant. Well done. David's in San Antonio. Hey David. What's up? Hey. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I have kind of a, I have a kind of a unique situation.

I'm 74 years old. Never married. No kids lived in the same house for 45 years. No debt.

Absolutely. No debt. A couple hundred thousand in savings and a couple of luxury cars and whatnot. But my neighbor, who owns the lot next to me, says Dave, you know, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but we want to buy your house. And you can live in the house for the rest of your life. But we're willing to come up with a cash sum and give it to you. And I say, well, let me think about it whatever. Went to my family members and then I realized you're the ace in the hole. Okay.

You know, so I don't know what to do. You know, I know when I die, I'm going to be separated from the house and you know, my neighbors are good neighbor, you know. You could sell it to them with a life estate, which is what he's proposing. I probably wouldn't do that. You're, you're still probably, you could live 20 years easy and 20 years from now things change a lot. So what I would do is say, tell the neighbor that for now, I'm going to put in my will instructions for the house

to be sold to you for market value by the executor of the estate and that then the proceeds will be distributed to my kids. I don't have any kids. I thought you said you went to your family members. You said, well, you're leaving your money to my brother and you don't have

A will.

Yeah. And in the will, you could leave instructions. The executor of the will is the one that executes the terms of the will. And when you name that person, it could be your brother. You can say, I want this money. I want this house to be sold to the next door neighbor for market value by having a household on and you have like today at that time. No, at the time. Yeah, at the time he can buy it at the time for market value. I'm not going to sell it today because I

think they want they want to lock in the price. That's right. I know thank you. Well, could could he look like as a gift to like a good leave it to the neighbor at that price? You could do anything you want it's your will. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, you could say put a put a number on today. I want to sell for this many hundred thousand whatever it's worth today. And I still went. Yeah, but I don't want to sell because I went. I went to house in my name still and all that. Yeah.

And I can change my will later. Yeah. If something weird happens. Yeah. If the neighbor decides to

go off, you know, go crazy over there or, you know, they die. What happens if the neighbor dies first.

You know, I don't need the house and they're in their kids' name and I've got a life of state. So there's too much that can happen over those years to a non-family member situation to do a life of state. I wouldn't do a life of state. But I would do a will immediately. Yeah. Go to mombarelegalforms.com. David, and you can just do a state specific will there. It's pretty simple. But your family will your brother will thank you. Every will thank you.

You leave a mess behind if you don't have a will. Well done, though, David. Depth free and all. If you're planning a summer trip, you're probably spending a lot of time getting everything ready because responsible people prepare for things that matter. And travel has a way of reminding

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Welcome back to the Ramsey show in the Fairwins Credit Union studio. I'm Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz Ramsey Personality. My daughter is my co-host today. Mary is in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Hi, Mary. How are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

So, I am really good with money. I would like to thank I work for a nonprofit and make enough money to get by and I am fully out of debt and I'm very careful with how I spend my money. However, I've been having some health problems and a doctor sent me to get an MRI and did not explain to me how expensive it would be. I have a bill for 3,128 dollars and 56 cents. It is very far. I'll try my budget obviously and I have been trying really hard for years to save up enough

money to get a decent use car and this would set me back a lot and this is not the first medical

bill to set me back. This is just the biggest one. So, I've been told to either some people are saying to get on a payment plan but I hate being in debt and even if I get on one it's going to drag out for a very long time. How much do you have on savings for me? I have a little over $13,000 right now on

savings. Okay. Why did insurance not cover your MRI that your doctor requested?

Surprisingly, that is the bill after insurance covered quite a bit and I have the decent insurance policies. No, you don't and you don't have a decent doctor either because an MRI in the open market if you just walk in with cash for $350. And not $3,000 after insurance paid, MRIs are not $10,000.

So, I'm really curious why you're insurance company and this MRI place have s...

There should be no one near this level of bill. Was it only an MRI is that all that was done?

Yes, there is one MRI that was done without die and one that was done with die.

They were both done at the same time in the same day and I was in an out and 40 minutes. Yeah, it's super strange. Yeah, it says typical ranges is often a hundred to a thousand dollars out of pocket depending on your job. We advertise for companies that are local radio stations is 350 bucks. Usually without insurance cash pay is 400 to two, two, two, two, two, two, two hundred. I'm sorry,

2,500. But 3,000 after insurance. Yeah. No, some things were all okay. So, the first thing I want to do

is I want to call my doctor's office and be nice until I don't be nice. We're going to start with nice, but we may not end with nice because they need to call this MRI place and they need to get your insurance strength out because they don't need to send you over there and get your head taken off and get you ripped off. Acting like they don't care because they don't care. Stinking medical people and so, man, just makes me mad. So, after you finish wearing everybody in this story out,

I want you to wear 'em out. I want you to give them $3,000 worth of hell. Okay, starting with nice, but ending up with $3,000 worth of hell. The doctor, the insurance company, the MRI place,

and everybody else because this is absurd. Okay, Dan, if you have to come out of pocket with more

than 500 bucks, I'm changing doctors and I'm probably changing insurance. And I'm never going to go

back in that MRI place again and I'm going to post online how bad a rip off they are. I'm serious. If I'm going to, if I'm going to get screwed, I'm going to have some fun with it. Well, and also, the insurance billing all of it is notorious of, you don't really care. Yes, screwing up something. Yeah, so, I mean, and I hate to say it, I hate that we have to be such advocates for ourselves and this stuff, but call and call and have them check and they're going to send you to this person.

You got to, I mean, it's going to be a pain Mary, but a lot of, I mean, we find it all the time that there are so many errors and stuff. It takes you three hours and you save $3,000, you made $1,000 an hour. Yeah. So, where am I out, girl? Well, have you though, Mary, have you called? Yes. And what, yeah, I've called every office. I've called the doctor. I've called the MRI place and I've called my insurance and they all said that it was processed correctly. It was coded correctly. If they

retoded it, it would be insurance fraud. My next question is, do I agree? Do I show up in person with printed documentation and asked them to explain it to me? I'm not sure what to do next. Yeah. Um, uh, just depends on how much you want to fight it. Um, but I'm going to tell you you're ripping you off. For a cash MRI, they're charging you 10x what they should. Yeah. Okay. And if you got two of them in 40 minutes, we can count that as one. We can count it

as two in which case 700 bucks. So, I'm going to call and tell the office administrator, Y'all are screwing me and I'm getting ready to go to town on social media and where you people out. I'm going to make a hobby out of you. Have you heard of Instagram? Have you heard of next door? Yeah, but threatening, I'm not sure. I'm not going to share it. Oh, it will. Yes, it will. Well, I don't think it will, Mary. So, I'm going to have some fun with it.

Well, if I got to run a 3,000 check, I'm having some fun with it. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm almost on the energy. I'm not going to do it right to check. So, Mary, Mary, I'm talking Mary. But no, you don't put it on Mary. Right to check. Right to check. Right to check. Right to check. But I would, yeah. I mean, I definitely stick up for yourself and and it's just a thing going forward. Like, what am I going to pay out of pocket? What is this? Let me go shop around and see what

I can find. Right? I mean, it's part of that, that's part of, I mean, that's how I feel with health.

I mean, you got to advocate for yourself. But there is a point that the price is the price. Mother, they're scaring you or not. It is what it is. And so, yeah. So, you may have to just pay it, Mary. But I'm, I'm going to let my doctor's office know, too. I no longer trust you, people. Well, that and if this is going to be an ongoing thing with your medical issues, then yes,

I would for sure become more informed with third party other places that can do this type of thing.

Yeah. Ask around, right? Just so that you have more information next time something like this comes up. Because it is scary. If someone's like, you need to go do this in this. But an MRI, ordered by your primary physician, should be covered by your insurance policy. I mean, if you have decent insurance, you're buying a back alley or something. But I mean,

It's, but I mean, if you've got decent insurance, MRI, order by your primary,...

Now, I might fall under the ductible. Right. That's possible. But even then, and still, they

overcharge. So, this is a cash MRI purchase. What's the price? You know, what you could just call

up anonymously. And just go, hey, I'm shopping around for MRIs. Call that place and go, what do you charge if I walk in off the street for cash? And then, call and tell them, you're going to hand that recording over to your attorney. Yeah. Oh, my God. These people. It's just a rip off. It's an absolute rip off. Steven is in Charlotte, but I'm not going to get this Steven goes

and head up on the commercial. I'm just trying to move on. God, because it pisses me off.

I know it does, but one of us, we don't got that. We used to have the healing arts. And now we have

the medical industry. The what? We used to have the healing arts. And now we have the medical industry.

And I'm the freaking widget. I don't want to be your widget. And not everybody, not all medical, not that everyone is a lot. No, no, no, no, no. But the system is set up. There's a hard, it's a tough. It's set up that way. The insurance companies are, it's a, yeah. Now, the insurer, that's the,

yeah, I'll get on your conspiracy theory thing on this. Yes, next segment, stick around.

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buying. I've trusted health trust financial for over 20 years because they help Ramsey fans make smart health care decisions. Go to healthtrustfinancial.com today and talk to a real person without pressure or confusion. That's healthtrustfinancial.com A sum that no one has your back and that'll be a good start for you. Assuming the opposite sets you up for unexpected bills and ripoffs. So we have sat down with people to do coaching

for the last 30 or 40 years that have a list of medical bills as long as you're arm and they're considering bankruptcy. As we do a full audit on the medical bills, we often find the same charge three and four and even five times and then we remove all of those and then we go in and we find Tylenol at $64 a pill in a hospital bill. We actually see these numbers. There are a few people out there that have a neat side hustle that all they do is audit

people's medical bills for them and make a portion of what they save them because they discover the overcharges and the duplicate charges. So don't just assume that these people have their act together. Some of it is with malice but most of it is just unbridled incompetence. The people doing the billing are dumber than are raw. No I'm telling you there's no excuse for this level of incompetence. There's no excuse and it's industry wide. I agree. You don't put a medical bill automatically

To assume a strong.

are a great guy. There's a few great guys are not 100% but there's so many bad people. There's so many bad that don't know what they're doing or that have malice that you cannot just assume it's all

they sent the bill. I just have to pay it. No you don't. First and foremost you got to audit it.

Before you get to that point you don't ever enter a procedure without understanding what your out-of-pocket liability is after insurance is paid. And if you're going to be covering an MRI 350 is the going right. Walk up and tell them I'm cash out of pocket and they'll do 350 are go to a different MRI center. There's MRI centers on every corner. They're like Baptist churches. They're everywhere. So they're not hard to find. And don't automatically assume that if your

dentist tells you you need $25,000 for the work that's gospel. It's not a biblical reference. It's a dentist. Not all dentists are bad but go get a second opinion. Go get a third opinion. Go get asked the question what can I do? This is not $25,000 where I can still chew food.

And you know figure out you have to learn about this stuff when you're in it or it will bankrupt you.

The number one cause of personal bankruptcy is medical. Number one cause. And it's all related back to this stuff where you don't check out what you're doing. And the doctor's office half butt pays attention. They just send you over to the same old

place they've always sent you to. Nobody looks at it until you look up in 3,000 of your 13,000

you had to say for a car's gone. That's a locked percentage was. And it should have been 350 bucks. If anybody in the whole story had paid attention at a time or cared enough to take care of this poor woman it's her it's your job to care for her. And when you don't you deserve to lose the business and I'm going to another doctor and I'm definitely never going back in that MRS Center and I'm about to possibly change insurance over this because you're gonna stink and do what the

contract says. And when I come out of there with a bill that's 10x higher than I could have paid in cash and that's after insurance something's wrong. Yeah. So 100% chance something's wrong.

And but here's the thing folks, the lesson you take from that call is you've got to preset all of this

before the procedure. So you know what's going on. The only exception is when there's an emergency

and you don't have a choice. Yeah, that's a hard thing too. Sometimes something happens automatically and you just got to do what you got to do to it. Yeah. And then you still got to go back through and audit it because you cannot assume competency because they're not. It's the I mean, if any of those accounting people work for me on fire. No, okay. And I know, I just yes, I hear you. When I triple build people out of emergency to our nurse, I have friends in that industry and

there is a level of and I wouldn't say incompetence but complication if they enter this it goes to this pro. I mean, it's a it's a lot of stuff moving parts and did they all get it right on time? No and sometimes it's such a confusing process and then you go send it to the insurance companies who we at all. I mean, it's just might be confusing to you and me, but it's like their job. It is. It's their job. But we're so they need to learn to do their job. That's competency.

Yeah, but when it gets sent to a different department, they use different companies to become a thing. That department needs to become. I just like not saying the nurse did it. I don't know who did it. But whoever ended up sending me this bill, this triple bill, somebody's an idiot somewhere in the chain. There's an idiot chain. Okay, we got it. All right, Tammy is in Houston speaking of medical. She's got a medical situation. What's going on, Tammy? I would say if you're a blood pressure too hard,

you know, you know, you know, you can't help protect your tail. Can you imagine how bad it would

be if it was actually my bill? Okay, here it is. How can I pay for brain surgery if I'm broke?

Whoa, that's a little step. So do you have insurance? Yes, I have a little HMO plan. It's terrible, but we got it. Okay. And what type of brain surgery, bless your heart? I'm on an epileptic and I have taken 17 different medications and I've had four different brain surgeries and now they're just going to go and cut out the part of my brain that's just real mad. Stop. Wow, my gosh. I have, well, to talk about what we were just talking about on this last call,

Have you, do you know what you're going to have to insurance and everything?

is going to cost? My out of pocket marks is $17,000. 17,000. And then anything else

or it's covered past that? I think so. If it's actually out of pocket marks, it should be $100.

It should be $100% out of pocket marks. So you got $17,000. That's not a bad HMO, that's a great one. Oh, good. If it's covered, if you have a stop loss at 17k, that's pretty stinkin' cool. Okay, so you got deductible plus 80, 20 to a certain point and then, wow, that's good. All right, so how old are you, huh? I'm 42. Wow. When do you think you're going to have this procedure? Um, it's one of those, it seems possible. I could say last year in 2025, I probably had 200

teachers. Hmm. Do you have any of you actually win the surgery might be scheduled?

Then the memory can figure it out. Some of my husband lost his job about a year and a half ago. And our big grand Z emergency fund lasted us a whole year when my husband and our 14 years

we've been being awesome. But we're just broke. Has he found another job?

He wanted to own his own business and he wanted to own that and there's he didn't earn enough. Then he went and got another job in sales. But he was taken over for a guy that was retired. And so for six months, the guy got it and then after that, all the accounts were cold. So he's churring and he's like, working three different jobs that it just is taking a while. Yeah. Well, it sounds like you don't have a 17,000 dollar problem. It sounds like you have a career crisis on your husband's side.

Yeah, so when he solves that, the 17,000 is going to naturally be solved, right? Well, so do we. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You start. You have the surgery whenever and you get him the 17. This quick as you can. They'll take, you know, they'll bill you and then you pay the bill when you can. I'm not going to tell you not to get the surgery. But yeah, but he needs he's got not only because of your surgery, but because of your family. I mean, this over a year or now he's not had gainful employment.

He needs gainful employment, meaning he gets paid, not a pipe dream. Yeah, and then the goal would be maybe throw 2,000 at this a month and get paid off in less than a year when it all happens. Exactly. Oh, sorry, Tammy. Oh, no. They're praying for you. You're getting ready to hit the road this summer. You want to feel confident. Your car is ready to go. But when you don't fully understand what's going on under the hood, it's easier to

either ignore something important or spend money you didn't need to because let's be honest.

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So I am about $70,000 in debt and I just don't know how to get out of it. What kind of debt is it? I What kind of that? Code code debt and medical debt. How much is credit card? I have it. I have it burping down amics of 4,300 and capital 1 is 6,800. And then I owe my car 25,000. I have some of the debt enrolled in a debt consolidation program.

It's been enrolled for about a year and a half, but I'm just something anythi...

Yeah, so that's on hold. That's not anywhere.

Uh-huh. What's the medical debt? How much?

So I'll have the whole total, but I have 1,800, 3,700, 500, 600, 4,000, 2200 and 3600. Oh, well, okay. How much do you make a year? How's the anything? I make about $2200 a month. I found myself in the situation because I lost my job. January 2024. There's a my own stupidity. I stole from my employer. So, you know, I've fired. I was arrested. And everything's just gone downhill since then. Oh, okay.

What were you doing? That's over your job. I was working for a furniture store. Doing what? In the Tory management. Oh, okay. I was making about $53,000 then.

And then everything's fine. All my bills are paid. I had no debt. I was able to...

What's the nature of your medical? I had to go into anesthesia twice within a year just because I was choking. I have, I don't even know the conditions called something I can't pronounce, but I had to go into anesthesia and in order to not be choking anymore. And they did a surgery, obviously, while you were under, but you're saying the bill was mostly the anesthesia.

Okay. Yeah. I gotcha. What are you doing now for work? I work for grocery store. Okay. And how many hours a week are you working?

It's 40 hours. Okay. Full of time.

Were you convicted of a felony? It was dismissed. It was dismissed. Yes. Because I did a pre-show intervention program.

Okay, so it's expired. Okay. It's expired. It's all right. So that's not holding you back. Because it's not on your record yet.

You're all, no, correct. That's not on the record. That's okay. And you know, that took about, that took an entire year. Yeah, but yeah, please. So you're six months kind of out of all of that fog, really. Yeah. Yeah. And I have a license to spill real estate and I'm looking for brokerage, but it's hard. I'm a new agent.

And so it's just hard. I can't make any money in it.

So that's why I'm still at the grocery store.

And I've got only $300 in savings. I've got nothing. You know, when I'll just happen, I drain my 401(k) and any of the savings. What is your, what is your car worth? The car worth is the toilet. It's probably worth 37 or 38. And you owe 25. I owe 25 on you. I end that bill with all this other stuff going on.

I make it work. Yeah. That car needs to be selling. Yeah, sell that car. Sell the car. Yeah. The buy a car for cash with the difference. For sure. You buy $8,000 car. Yeah. Because how much is your payment at $1.443? Yeah. So that frees that up. That's why it was seven something because it was the least. And then the least came to or to an end. I think just a past April. Okay, Matthew. You make $20,000 a year, $30,000 a year.

You don't need to $25,000. Yeah. That. It's killing you. So you need to sell it and get an $8,000 car that you pay cash with the car. And then in the rest of your, the rest of your situation is all career-oriented. And so it's a matter of lining yourself up with some kind of a career, whether it's real estate or whether it's something else. I don't care where your income goes up. Because you're worth twice what you're being paid in the marketplace. You have proven that

in the past. And you know, you, you, you made a mistake. You paid for it. You went through all the hell associated with it. You lost your job. Right. And now you get a restart. And you start with that's going to be part of your story in the past. But it doesn't, as a past for a friend of mine

says, you're not defined by the worst thing you ever did. You're not defined by the worst thing

you ever did. Thank goodness none of us are. It's a part of my story. I have a scar. I have a mark. It hurt. I feel guilt. I feel some shame from it. But it's not who I am.

You see the difference.

spiritually in your review mirror. And then go, okay, I'm 18 years old again. And the world says,

I can be anything. I want to be. So now what do I want to be, Lord? And what's my next step? And yeah,

and that could be real estate. I don't care. But you know, there's no, you don't have to live in the prison of working for half of what you're worth in the marketplace, because of a past mistake. That's a self-made prison. And I was working seven days a week. I was valing cars. I was making a good money with that. But I didn't know you weren't. You were valing cars.

That's not a good mirror. That was a second. No, the side of the head. Yeah, it's a side.

It's making some money to keep the woof away. But it's not, that's not, you don't want to be that 10 years from today. So 10 years from today. Who do you want to be? Now, let's start taking the steps to be that. And we'll work the side hustles or whatever to get there. But if we work side hustle valing cars, while we're trying to get the real estate thing going, because the real estate thinks the thing, fine. But the real estate thing was just a thing. And it's not the thing. Yeah,

you know, what is it you want to be when you grow up? You know, kind of thing, right?

So we're going to send you a copy of finding the work you're wired to do. It's got an assessment and I don't want you to take that. I want you to sit and do some time and prayer about what you're supposed to be 10 years from now and get the car sold.

Great first step. Seriously selling the car. I'm like, that's from a financial perspective.

It's going to relieve you so much. But also, yeah, for sure. But, and I think, you know, there is a freshness still 18 months after all of this for you, Steven. That's very, very real, very honest. But I do think the more confidence and the more wins you have in the marketplace, the more that you're going to find this level of dignity back to who you are. And, and yeah, if you can find that intersection with your work of what you're passionate about, what you're

naturally good at and gifted at, like all of that combined, this could be seen as a completely fresh start, which is beautiful. That's the beautiful part about redemption. Yeah.

Is it in grace? Is that you get that second chance? So we, yeah, we're cheering for you for that.

Yeah, I got a friend of mine who was in the bottle for about 15 years and he just got his 15-year calling the other day. If you don't know what that is, if you're in 12-step, I'll call it Exynonymous or any kind of a program and you've got a coin for so many days, so many months, whatever. And he just got his 50s, he's been dry for 15 years and, you know, he's extremely successful today. But he was truly at the bottom and just virtually homeless, virtually lost his family,

everything completely turned this all around and changed everything, changed everything. And now he's again, but he, you know, he is not defined by what he used to do or used to be. He's defined, not defined by it. You're not defined by that unless you choose to be defined. I'm not defined by the fact that I was stupid when deeply into debt and found bankruptcy when I was 28 years old. I learned from it. It hurts. I don't want to do it again. I don't recommend

to anybody, but it's not who I am. It's just part of my story. Let me tell you what I get asked all the time. When should I get term life insurance? How much do I need? Is it affordable? Those are the right questions to be asking. So let's take a quick review. The fact is term life isn't a baby step. So if anyone is

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for your situation. Much like you were calling in here on the show. You're going to hear the same

kind of stuff. It's going to push you to the same kinds of things for you to win. It's not there to sell

you anything. We're not going to sell you on debt. We're not going to sell you on three easy payments. We're going to sell you on the opposite, and that's getting out of debt and into wealth. Every dollar, download it for free in the app store or Google Play. Carries in Austin, Texas,

high-carry, how are you? I am Gray, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Thank you so much for taking my coffee. I'm sorry, I'm so emotional. I'm seeking guidance with my new situation as a widow. I'm wondering, can I buy a home elsewhere where I want to be, not where I'm at, and raise in homeschool or seven-year-old daughter as we have been, and then work maybe one to week or something to keep my skills up at my job, and then have my retirement secured with what I have. Okay, I'm so sorry. Oh, thank you. Was it sudden? Yes, okay. He was diagnosed on Thursday and

passed away Friday. Good, miss. Oh my gosh, Carry. How old? I'm completely unexpected. He had just turned 53. Oh, my gosh. So sorry. How long ago was this? It was in a mid-May. I just feel the day. Oh, Carry. Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay, so what's your, what is the financial situation now? Did did you have life insurance? But we had a, we had a life insurance policy, so there's 350,000 there. Okay. We had saved up, we have about 30,000 in the bank. Okay. We had, um, and then I have his

pension coming in and social security, social security, very minimal. I have a seven-year-old daughter. We have a seven-year-old together, but we also have a daughter, um, 19 from his previous, from his previous marriage. Um, so between her, my seven-year-old and my, we have about 700 in social security, and his pension will be about 4,300 a month. Okay. Everything before taxes are there. And you're living in a home, you don't want. I do not want to. I mean, I, we, the situation is that he had just retired.

I went back to work. I'd been homeschooling my daughter for three years. I went back to work full time doing contract work on the road, and he, you know, as retired took over homeschooling, and we were on, outdoing contracts in, in the hope of finding a new place to settle down, because I promised that I would live in Texas for 10 years, and then at that point. Okay.

So we're retired, then we would go where I want to go. Where do you want to go?

And I'm not sure. I honestly don't know. Possibly you tell where I have a lot of very close and supportive family, but I don't know. Okay. Okay. Well, that'll be the first step, right? Is it kind of the home you own a home here in? That's my, one of my biggest problems. We owned the home. We, we paid off years ago, but I did not have my name on it. He bought it before the year

before we got married. We paid it off together over five years, and then we'd never put it in a

way. We didn't have a will or anything. And so now, by Texas state law, the home goes 50, 50 to our daughters. And I own nothing of it, and only have the right to live there. And I can't do anything about it, unless I want to have it completely drugged through court. Oh, I'd completely drugged through court. Yeah. What's the home worth? $240. Yeah. I'm $240,000 worth of drag at through

court. Yeah. Is there a spousal, there's no spousal protection?

An attorney told me that I would have, I would have to pay every single year to have for 11 years

For my seven year old to have representation for her to make sure anything ha...

interest, and it can't be sold until she turns 18. Yeah, I think you need a new attorney. I don't, I don't know Texas law, but I'm that that answer given the circumstances is weird. So it doesn't mean that it's not true. It might be true. Again, I'm not an attorney, and I don't know Texas law. Texas has some unusual real estate laws. So, but but I do want to, um, most, but this point, oh, we're going to go ahead. At this point, what, you're going to go ahead? No.

Well, I know. It seems insane. I basically could be told I have the right to live there for life.

Yeah, I don't want a attorney told you. I'm telling you, I'm going to get another attorney. Okay. And then, um, with the money that I have from the life insurance,

where, what do I do with that? Where do I, can I put that towards another house?

Am I better, better off to invest it for my retirement? I don't have a retirement account now. Okay. Are you able to live on $5,000 a month? I could live on it. Okay. So you have that coming in. His pension is social. Okay. And, uh, your, uh, if you sell the house half of it today, half of it goes to the 19-year-old,

and there they have goes with you with your seven-year-old, right?

Right. But so you're staying there for a while? No, no harm, no file. Even though you don't want to, I'm going to sit there for a minute. Do you, can she take the 120 and put it towards the house for, but you can't, because it's the seven-year-old? They child owns the month. Yeah. Yeah. There's a what she's been told. I'm, again, I'm getting, I'm, I, I, I want some other legal advice on this. I'm not, I'm not accepting research on a little bit.

And that seems to be the truth. Yeah. I, I will, I will see that. It may be, it may be. Okay. So let's assume that it is, assume you're stuck with that solution. Okay.

Then what I would do is just, normally when someone passes away, what we tell the remaining spouse

is try to make no major decisions for a year. Yes. If you came on, you anything like that?

Yeah. If you came on, because it takes a little while, especially with something that's sudden, Thursday to Friday diagnosis to death. Wow. You know, it just comes at you so hard. It takes a little while to just be able to breathe. Yeah. Yeah. And we can hear it in your voice. And I don't blame you. And so what I would do is live on $5,000 a month. I would park the 350 and something very like a high yield saving, something very innocuous, and just sit there a little

bit and cry. That's all I would do. And give yourself some time to breathe. Now, when you can breathe a little better, six months minimum, probably closer to a year, we can make a decision about whether we keep the house or sell the house, based on the information we gather between now and then. But in the meantime, just sit there. It's not costing anything. And a little bit up, you know, utilities or whatever, it's not a big deal. And it might be half of it be your

daughters. And so you do want to take care of it. Let's just sit there and get where we can breathe. And then we talk about, okay, if we sell the house and move to Utah, next spring, when the grass gets green in Texas, what are we going to do? Are we going to take the 350 and put it

down? Are we going to invest it? And what am I going to do for my career? What were you doing?

Contract? What kind of work? Well, that's my interest. Okay. So if you worked one or two days a week carry doing that, what extra, how much could you make? One day a week, I figured I could make about 1,200 a month. Yeah. In Texas, Texas does not be well at all. Okay. But you don't even have to decide that today, either. Okay. But you know, so long-term, we've got some career choice that we want to where we want to live, what we're going to do with that particular house and what we're going to

do with 350. All right. But it's pretty easy to say, you know, if things go the way it feels like right now, you're probably going to be in Utah. You may or may not have control of some of the equity of this house. You are a cautionary tale for everyone to have a will. But I'd probably go 50, 50 with the money. Put some on a house. Keep some investments for retirement. Forgot to ask how old she is, but she's got a 7-year-old. She's got the ability to make some money.

Yeah, I don't know. We just take your time. Take your time. I'm sure you're facing. Oh, sorry. Oh. Ladies and gentlemen, mamabearlegophorms.com. You can have your will done in just a few minutes.

Everyone needs a will.

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show and the Fair Wends Credit Union Studio.

I'm Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz. Ramsey personality. My daughter is my co-host today. Matthew is

in Greenville, South Carolina. Hey, Matthew, what's up? It didn't work. It's going back to school and going into debt for a job that will bring any more fulfillment if I have a financially pal viable path already in front of me. No. And down. Hands down. I wouldn't go back to school and go in debt. I might go back to school. What is it you're wanting to study? Nursing eventually be in their practitioner. Okay.

Won't you just pay for it?

And if it's kind of expensive? Yeah, no, but this pay you could do it. What do you make now? Right now, so I have a degree in environmental science that I've been working for non-profit for the last several years. So filling in was, as it was, it was certainly not lucrative. So I'm kind of starting over environmental science as a non, as things that aren't as fulfilling, but are for profit that pay double what you've been paid. Yes, sir.

That's why I had already transitioned. I'm currently working in medicine. I'm using any

M.T. certification. Oh, good. Your college. Will they pay for your nursing degree? No, they're not entirely. I would still especially with a master's program on top. I'd probably be looking at 30 or so and debt. Oh, it's not much. Okay. Good. So that means you come up with 30 cash. You got this where we're going to get 30 cash. And you think that would be worth it even if I can stay the course and be making a similar amount without that debt in a similar amount of time with

my current company. So the pay doesn't change when you become a nurse. So be paying what you're in pay, but you you think you would enjoy the nursing side way more long term. Right. What do you make now? About 45. You make a lot more than that as a nurse. Yes, sir. So the pay does change. So this is an entry level position with the company. And I do see a path to increase that significantly over the next 45 years. Like, darling, looking at about four to five in school to become a nurse

practitioner. Okay. And after that, let me let me tell you something. Okay. So number one. I'm a huge believer in education that adds opportunity. That's real in the marketplace. Being a nurse is an excellent field as opportunity is everywhere. Being a nurse practitioner is right next to being an MD. You can do a lot of stuff as a nurse practitioner that's in the hundred to hundred and fifty thousand dollar range. A lot. Okay. We work with them every day. It's a great field. Love the idea of

going there. What I pay cash for it is the only way I would do it. Can I get scholarships from a

hospital or a medical organization that wants me to work for them? And we'll furnish all the pay

for this because there's always an nursing shortage. Always. And so hospital corpse always are looking

for nurses and always willing to help people become nurses, especially if you commit to work for them for a while. And so I'm going to investigate those kinds of things if that's where you want to end up. I'm not making a decision purely on what you can make. I'm making the decision based on what you want to do with your life and I'm making the decision based on what kind of opportunities you have and again nursing and nurse practitioner are excellent opportunities in the marketplace and have been

for decades. Yeah. Thank you for that. But pay cash. I made my initial schooling decision based around what I was passionate about and where I wanted to end up. And I ended up in a position that was not financially viable. But I understand that the return on investment for something like nursing is very different. Yeah, that's true. But again, it's not going to be, we're not going to tell you to go into debt to do it. And I would not go into debt to do it. I'm going to find a way to work around that. And

as an adult, going to work as an EMT inside a hospital situation of some kind, that'll put you on the roles and they'll start writing checks for scholarships. I'll start writing checks for tuition. And when you pay, you know, and you work your way through, you know, if it takes you, if it takes you a year longer, so what? Yeah, a big deal. But you know,

You're not a traditional student where you just get to quit life and go sign ...

24/7 on going to school. You're not 18 years old. So this is adult time now. So the way we do this

is going to be different while you earn your way all the way through it. And or who you're working

with or who you're working for. And also back to your other career, keep in mind, the career field wasn't the problem. It's just you chose to work in an underpaid situation in your field. And because of the meat, because you're looking for some kind of a meaning in the non-profit world. And that may or may not be there. I don't know what you're doing. We didn't get that far into it. But that's the thing. So yeah, yeah, we're big on education. And the other thing is this, too,

when it comes to your nursing degree, nobody cares where you go to school.

Never one time as a nurse come into draw my blood and I say, "Wait, wait, wait. Where's your degree

from?" Never once. Never once that I talked, you know, have we had a nurse practitioner, so we've had them as concierge. Never once that I don't know where the guy went to school. I have not heard where he went to school. My current doc, I do not know where he went to school.

And he's my primary. I don't do you know where he was when to school?

I don't have a doctor. Okay. Good. You probably don't need one. Terrible. I do want to do. I don't know where your OB went to school.

Sweet doctor Martin. No, I do not. I do not. I probably could. I should know.

He's a very strictly friendly friend. He delivered half the rams. He spoke about him. But we don't, we don't, none of us know where you went to school. We love him. And the camels. I remember from a lot of the say that. But yeah. Yeah. That's right. Oh, he drove George Campbell's too. There they go. He's, he's, he's all of them. He's around a bunch of us. But none of us know where you went to school. We just like you. So this idea that where you go to

school matters is a lie. So what you want is the least expensive school that has a reasonably good level of knowledge that they're going to transfer to you. We don't want you to be dumb when you graduate, but we also this idea that you came from some famous school and that is some kind of an ingredient

in success is the biggest lie that has ever been told about higher education. And so nothing.

The only time I've ever seen that was I graduated from the University of Tennessee and I was interviewing for a job. And I went in for a job interview and I went to middle Tennessee State University for one year before I went to UT and the guy had on a MTSU and a middle Tennessee ring. And I was so dumb in the interview. I went, oh, you went to MTSU. I used to go there too and tell I upgrade and went to UT. I didn't get the job. The upgrade. Yeah, I insulted his school so I didn't

get the job. But yeah, that's when it mattered where I went to school. I don't think nobody ever cared where I went to school. All they cared was could I help him? Do you think though a small percentage of the country when you're looking in certain industries, small, small, small, or brilliant, snobbish, country club, you know, 1% of the job. But I just think of like hedge fund, like all those like you didn't even like, like, you're getting small, small. If you're going to get hired by a bunch

of guys that went to MIT, you probably should have gone to Harvard or MIT. Right. Right. But otherwise, that's for majority in the realm of all that. Here with the rest of us live, nobody gives a rip. Yeah. I'm not against vacations. I'm against being broke. If you've paid off everything but the house, you've earned the right to celebrate. Come do that on the live like no one else cruise. Hang out with me and the Ramsey personalities for seven days in the Western Caribbean. Join the world's largest

debt-free scream. Here, exclusive Ramsey teachings and more. The best cabins are filling up lock-in yours with a $600 deposit at RamseySolutions.com/events or click the link in the show notes. [Music] Buying or selling a home is a high stakes proposition. We had a caller the other day. His mother-in-law had sold their house for $330,000. The appraisal came in at $375,000.

And apparently the real estate agent had made the mistake of pricing it too low and they'd

Already sold the house as under contract.

Yeah, you need a pro in your corner. A mistake in the real estate business has zeroes on it. That's huge. You need somebody that knows what the flip they're doing that does a lot of transactions, high protein, high octane baby. Ramsey trusted, we vet real estate agents to have the right level of experience to guide you step by step and avoid these expensive mistakes, connecting with a Ramsey trusted, vetted real estate agents pretty easy. And it's free. Just go to RamseySolutions.com/age

and or click the link in the description. Zoe is in Seattle. Hi, Zoe. How are you?

I'm dead. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I just want to question about what I'm in college student and I was wondering what my moral obligation is to pay back my mom for a college debt so far in kind of law and in school and also like how to tell her I don't need her help anymore. I don't want her help with money anymore. Seven cents. So did you before you went to school and before she started paying for it?

Did you agree to pay it? Did you have an agreement with her?

I did not. Testing clearly. I did not. She, the single mom and so she never really,

it was on never in her mind to save for me growing up and she prior, her prior from you going to school was just kind of like saying I'll take care of it and then this last year my first year of college she seemed to be a very black male situation and it was very much

putting alone in my face and saying I'm doing this. I'm paying this so you have to do this and I

kind of just want to tell her to get out of all of that and help her pay it back. Yeah. Well, okay, you ask if you have a moral obligation to repay someone that did something without your agreement. If you shook hands and you looked at your mom as a mom if you do this, I promised to pay you back then you would have a moral obligation. If there was no discussion where you promised to pay her and she said I'll take care of it and she sent you to school

and then later on she decides she wants you to pay her back. You know you do not have a moral obligation. Okay. Does that logical to you? Yeah that makes sense. I guess it's just when there's money targeting like tied to someone at that time makes it difficult. Yeah it's different when your mom's a travel agent for guilt trips. Yeah. Yeah and you might so you know like depending on with the relationship and all that you may be out of school in a few years working and deciding

I'm going to just write her the check eventually and just so that there's nothing there just from a relationship standpoint. But at that point someone that can't relationally have the IQ to be able to be with you right and to be your mom and it's still holding that over your head. Even if you paid it then it probably still wouldn't make her happy. You know what I mean like shit that's an odd. Yeah it's a strange thing to do to your kid.

To hang stuff on your kid's neck. So where are you in school?

I'm going to my second year of college so I'm still very much in it. Yeah and so how are you going?

How are you going to finish? I'm going to work my way through it honestly. I chose to do an in-state school that was cheaper in general and my first year was more just because of housing and all that and for my loan but this next year I'm playing on autoing out loans and paying for it myself which is also kind of the problem because she even though she doesn't want this loan she's still a guilt choice. Maybe about it she still has like this weird want to like push through with me

and move me and touching my name alone for the next few years and I'm like very against it. Yeah so you're working and you make enough to eat and go to school. Yes I do. Good for you. What are you doing? Right now I'm going to school for marketing but I'm just a server but in Seattle I make I get a lot of money to live on and my school's cheap enough right and afford it. Yeah boy you're

well done so there's not many of you. So there's a loan taken out host name is loan in.

It isn't her hers. Okay that's her problem. And just for just for the first year she didn't pull like

all four years or something. No it was just the first year and this next three years she did a lot cheaper because of the housing and it's the poorer system around here so it's cheaper in general

So I'm just playing on paying in cash.

to take care of it so the loan is on you and I'll pay for the rest of school and I love you thanks. It's very nice you have for me having a conversation with her because it's officially right now

she's wanting me to sign alone for the next year like how does that conversation go with?

Yeah don't do it mom don't do not go borrow any more money mom because I'm not paying any of it and you don't need the load I got it mom I'll take the last three years thank you. Okay. Please don't take out any more loans because you're going to have to pay the mom. Yeah yeah is there any weird legal thing that that her mom could still parent plus loan she could take the loan out and parent plus and use it herself. Right

fraud definitely. Yeah but but then she's got to pay it herself so it's all on her but don't let her don't let her use the excuse of using the loan in any way and blaming it back on you just emotionally don't do that it's not a legal problem 100% you're not liable for a parent plus under any circumstance. And weirdly Zoe this may say I felt like I'm sounding like you and

little paranoid would you say would you text the mom after the conversation recapping mom just again

thank you so much for what you've done I have the next three years going forward and the first

year parent pluses on you is on me. Yes I don't know I'm sorry she mentioned an email and then I wouldn't do a text a sin of an email and then bring a copy the email off and keep it in the file. I don't know I may do that Zoe. It's not a legal thing but it might come up later and go out mom I told you look here when I told you here's when I told you because her memory is weird. Yeah exactly that's a good point right yeah that's not paranoia that's a good point because

she changed the deal once she'll change it again. Right yeah for sure. Yeah so I send it a little one page email again honoring thank you for the help the first year and just to remind her you told

me that you know you you had college covered so that first year is on you I will take care of the next

three years please do not take out any more loans for me I've got this covered thank you for what you've done for me I love you and just sent leave it at that some very simple don't try to preach a sermon at her about how she's supposed to do something to leave all that out. I know it's in your head but don't say it. Yeah and and Zoe if you need a one on one you know in person conversation you can have that too but I would just put something in. Yeah I just right have it in

writing because you want to pull it out of the file later and say mom look here I clearly told you Zoe what kind of school are you going to I'm just curious um I'm going to you probably have not heard of it it's central Washington University okay between yeah is it just a four year before year school yeah yeah and you're getting a degree on marketing marketing and entrepreneurship oh you're amazing good for you Zoe you're going to do so good so great you are you're scrappy

scrappy if I have another second idea of a question really quick real quick um about should I transfer because I could do make more money living where I went to high school versus where I got to school college with that is a bit of a smart for me to transfer to do online school and make more money that way or no. I think I'd stay the course where I am right now you've got

it lined out and you can pull it off right now if the only way you can pull it off would be online

I might but I I like what you're doing right now I'd stick with that for today if something gets

crosswise later you can always switch over but um and keep in mind that you know you get to make

sure anytime you're moving stuff back and forth at all the credits transfer and you don't have to start something over again and some schools match better with others than not so you want to be sure you check all that out if you're going to make a move I personally would not probably stay the course just because you've got this so dialed in I don't want to mess with it All right let's cut to the chase it's easy to get discouraged about crazy house prices and

interest rates but when you have the right real estate agent to help you buy and sell the right way you'll have confidence to make smart decisions Ramsey trusted agents aren't just experts who guide you through buying or selling their people you can trust to have your back from the first call to closing day find a Ramsey trusted agent near you at ramseysolutions dot com slash agent that's Ramsey Solutions dot com slash agent today's question of the day is brought to you by why

Refie one financial mistake doesn't have to define the rest of your life if y...

and gone into fault on your private student loans why refie can help you explore low fixed rate

refinancing options and affordable payment plans go to yrephide.com slash Ramsey that's the letter y r e f y dot com slash Ramsey might not be in all stage today's question comes from Cassie and Idaho. I'm on baby step two and putting all extra money each month to my student loan debt after learning about sinking funds I started setting aside some money to save for future expenses such as gifts, car, and home repairs, property taxes, professional memberships etc. My sinking fund is growing about

two thousand dollars each month and this is separate from my starter emergency fund should I continue building the sinking funds or should I be throwing that extra money including my sinking fund savings

towards the debt yeah on baby step two there shouldn't be many sinking funds I mean they're I think

it's smart to know if you have a car that's going to need a lot of repairs throughout your process

of paying out debt putting some money aside to build for that so that if it comes you know you're able to but but that's also what your emergency fund is therefore so now I would not be doing that many sinking funds at this stage now once you get past baby step three that's when you have a little bit more of that luxury to do that kind of thing but but unless you see something looming in the future that you absolutely have to do then I would be putting it every money all the rest

towards debt yeah a hundred percent no for those of you don't know a sinking fund is just simply a savings account within your budget and so you're saving money for some miniature saving is going to save the money for now so you're not saving money for a future car purchase while you're getting out of debt no you're not saving money for a trip while you're getting out of debt no because

you're getting out of debt you pour everything on the debt wide open scorched earth so you should

not have a lot of miniature savings accounts hardly any to Rachel's point while you're getting out of debt and again for those of you don't know a sinking fund comes from actually it's a business term when you're doing retained earnings or you got a piece of real estate as an example for instance if you purchase a piece of real estate and you say well the roof has five years of

life left on this commercial building and so you start setting aside you know 20 percent of the

cost of a roof per year so that five years from now you have enough to pay for the roof it's a systematic savings program for repairs and replacements and a commercial building setting that's where the phrase comes from or if you're in a business that uses equipment and you have a 10 trucks on the

road that do a heat and error HVAC repair well you systematically need to replace those trucks as they age

and so you would have a systematic thing in your business budget called a sinking fund that goes into retained earnings to do that that's where it came from and we just pulled the terminology over and put it into every dollar and now we've got consumers with sinking funds for Christmas which for somebody in the real estate business is probably a little bit humorous but anyway but that's really what it is it's a miniature savings account for a future event that's all it means

and means you save up for it and pay for it and you don't go into debt for it in the future but right now while you're getting out of debt maybe step two you really shouldn't need a bunch of them all right Nathan is in Jefferson City, Missouri. Hi Nathan how are you oh not too bad are you guys better than I deserve how can we help hey so I got a question on on a truck I don't know if I should buy a new one or if I should just fix mine okay how much well what I was going to ask

how much is it to fix the truck but what kind of truck is it how old is it? It's a 21 years old 2005 Dodge Cummins I I have $22,500 into this truck right now and it's going to cost me at least 7,7500 to get it fixed how much is it worth almost $30,000 I can't what's wrong with it the transmission used for now and what are you using it for? I was using it to drive back and forth the word but I mean now I'm just having to ride with people because I work on the road you work on the road yes I

unload our on the road okay so you're traveling with business and how are you how are you making your traveling with that you're riding with other people on the traveling or the company's production you're traveling I'm riding with other people in their own vehicles it's not like I mean

I'm just riding with other people you work would you have been doing that any...

been driving this old truck on the road? I would have been driving my own truck okay so you guys travel

and do welding is that what you said? Yes sir okay and normally what you would have done is just drive everybody drives their own car to the job site but it's all over the place right? Yes sir okay what do you make? 1,900 will you say 99? 100? 29? 20,900 oh week oh week yes sir okay so you're making 150 a year yes sir good job good for you that welding thing's working out for you brother all right so is the truck paid for? Yes sir I paid it all three years ago good for you okay well a $10,000 truck

oh you don't do a $7,500 repair too okay I would rather just sell the truck and buy a $10,000

truck okay that I don't have to pay if you want to do that do you have any money? Yeah I mean I got money saved up I guess how much?

I don't know right now like $10,000 okay good and what would the truck sell for as is? a couple of people have told me like $75,000 oh really okay so if you took the the $10,000 you saved up do you have any debt? Good for you are you single? I got a girlfriend and I have two kids where's all your money going? Well I don't really know honestly I've tried I put a new motor in it a couple months ago that was 9,000 I paid cash for it I have a farm

of my barn cows you own the farms is it isn't it will like my mom passed it into mine now but yeah and you're buying cows on it? Yes sir who's taking care of the cows with you on the road? My dad okay interesting all right so you're putting how much and beef do you own what's that? I'll be fourth. In Missouri I mean I cow calf pair would be like 4500 yeah how many of them you got? I have 10 okay so that's like $50,000 where the cattle right now?

Yes sir okay and do you pay that for it or that's what's worth?

That's what it's worth I did not pay close to that most of them was what my mom had got and you know okay answer to your question is I would take some of your money and sell the truck and put that $7,500 with some of your money maybe maybe seven grand and buy about a 10 or 15,000 or

a truck it's 10 times better than the one you got that's the answer to your question but the second

thing is you're making too much money to not know where it's going and I don't want you to wake up 10 years from now and go I made 150,000 for 10 years that's $1,500,000 and I have no idea where it went

that's in a no way to live so you need to know where this freaking money's going starting today

ready set go so that's the grown-up part and start investing Nathan if you don't have a Roth IRA start some stuff now yeah that's gonna set you up well I'm gonna send you a copy of the book the total money makeover which is how we teach the stuff here the baby steps we work you through every bit of this pay cash for the truck you need an emergency find a three to six months of expenses you need to start investing 15% of your money into a good retirement plan and you need

to keep buying cows it sounds like you're good at it and you're you're making great money that baby set 4b buy some cows wash them cows there you go hey guys George camel here you ever feel like you make good money and still have nothing to show for it you run into target for one thing and somehow walk out $87 later with toothpaste and emotional support candles just me okay well that's the problem most people don't pay attention

to how they spend their money so it does whatever it wants and that's why we created every dollar it's a budgeting app that helps you create a simple plan for your money every dollar simple it's

Clear and it helps track where your money's actually going plus you get daily...

and reminders along the way it's like having a money coach in your pocket your money's been

freelancing long enough it's time to give every dollar a full-time job go download every dollar

for free on the app store or google play our scripture that a first Corinthians two nine

no i has seen no air has heard and no human mind has conceived the things that God has prepared for those who love him if you don't paddle your own canoe you don't move that'll work fun stuff hey we wish we could get to every calling question here on the show we simply can't there's no possible way the line state jam most of the time you can go and get an absolute ramsy answer by using the tool ask ramsy it's our ai tool that's built in train only on ramsy data and ramsy input so you're

going to get a pure ramsy answer nothing from red it kuh nothing from tiktok yeah now it's all ramsy

you get the answer the same way we'd answer it right here it's almost a sarcastic as I am

it's the boomer almost as nice as Rachel is so ask your question today at ramsy solutions dot com or click the link in the description or on the podcast on youtube and it'll set you up with the ai tool ask ramsy my prayer for the future of ask ramsy is that you get to put in which response you get to click which response yeah if it's an app one day you get to be like I need a day for response

I don't reach to tell me this or I don't know what George is never yes whatever it is just to get

your own little flavor see I I always think they should have changed Siri for men into their end or their wives voice for the wives have all the answers of every one of the wives voice is like

it's because then the men will listen right i'm just saying hypothetically all right

Susan's in Flint Michigan hey Susan what's up how are you guys today better than we deserve what's up in your room good glad to hear it well the question I have we we lost my dad back in January so unfortunately there's been a little bit of a shift and you know being come mom has coming in now we want to everybody agrees we want to keep her you know in the home that they've lived in for you know 60 plus some years and in order to do that they put mom on an extremely strict budget

dad kind of spoiler maybe spent money they didn't have to spend and she would just asking that so this is what the siblings that are managing are planned this is kind of what they're up against but they've done a complete you turn and you know basically she's given a hundred dollars a week to live on for everything and she's now in a situation where she needs to buy the pens and she needs to buy ensure drinks so I just I have a different difference in opinion

she lives in a home that that she could take a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of equity out of and I wonder if they should be considering a reverse mortgage for her no reverse mortgage is okay they're horrendous I you know I'm just putting on the I'm the other hand a hundred dollars a week I didn't say on the other hand I you asked me if you should do a reverse mortgage I said no yeah would no reverse mortgage that's so the house for I did a

reverse mortgage yeah um oh gosh they're a nightmare see they're an absolute nightmare that the four closure rate for the reverse mortgages is six times the normal for closure rate okay and I haven't and and also if I haven't really researched it yeah does she not have any other assets well they they lived their life they they traveled a lot and dad had even gone to the bank with the idea that he was getting to the point where he might need to take some some equity out of their

home to finish off their life so the answer is she has no other assets she has about thirty

one thousand dollars but out of that they're having to take fifteen hundred a month to pay her bills what's her what's her she doesn't have social security coming in yeah yep she's got a total of fourteen hundred fifty coming in and I've not run through her entire budget my sister manages her bills but I guess she's that with the amount of money that's getting her given her

In my sister who cares for her that's a total of two fifty a week and how old...

my mom is soon to be eighty six um in fact they're at the hospital again she's she's not in the greatest help and she's got the answer to mantra um the thought of pulling her out of her house right

now I wouldn't um you'll do that I think I think your sister I think your sister probably

doing a pretty good job yeah she she works hard it's challenging not always easy for her when

you have six others and sisters that you know that judge everything that you do but um yeah they're managing yeah I you know your parents didn't leave much but they used it all up right to the end um but with sadly I'm so sorry about your dad and sadly with what you're telling me about your mom this is probably not a long-term proposition would you agree with it I would agree with that you know I'm sorry to say that out loud but um no no it's just

you're out with me you know it might it might be a year or two but it's not it's probably not five statistic yeah and my father's with that being said why not get a little bit of money out of her her house so then you know and I'm she doesn't want to spend money on herself she wants

because there's a lot of us kids a lot of green kids she wants to be able to see them when they come over

um and a lot of times that might be ordering a meal out because you're not so the six children don't have any money you and your parents okay I'm I'm glad I'm glad you went there dude because that would be a part two of my question most of us are just average people um we pay a couple of us chip in pay for house cleaning every month because it's a pretty decent size house so that my sister can devote her time to mom but long story short I do have a brother out there that's a

multimillionaire and he has done he's done a lot in the sense that he gives generous Christmas death and he would be there in a minute yes I would just make her proposal to everybody that we try to put together you know a thousand dollar a month budget between six of us or six hundred dollar a month budget between six of us and add that add to that hundred dollars and it doesn't need a lot but just a little bit to be able to get through because it doesn't sound like we're that far

off and I just hate to I'm not going to tell you to get a reverse mortgage there's no circumstance I'm going to use it it's a piece of crap if you were going to do something I'd go get a little

home equity loan you know for fifty thousand bucks or something but I think you're going to regret

doing that when you're just a few hundred bucks a month off and so you know ten thousand dollars a year changes this that's eight hundred bucks a month this that changes this right dramatic if everyone pitched in a hundred bucks or something yeah and that's probably what I would do and everybody doesn't have to put in the same amount and some maybe can't put in anything but just so guys I think if we could put together five hundred or thousand dollars a month mama be great and let's just

you know that's all agree on what portion of that you can put in and what portion you can put in and maybe the multimillionaire brother pick up the balance I don't know I would if I was in that situation but it's not it's not a long sadly it's not a long-term proposition right right it's a sad thing to say out loud sure sure but it's yeah doing a mathematical statistical analysis and sadly we step on people's feelings when we do that but you know but that's because a thousand

bucks a month out of her thirty one thousand that she has last low over two and a half years you know so you could take on I could do that take some more money on that money's gone oh then we step in yep you know yeah um she doesn't really need I mean of course if she has a medical event or something

then do we get a step in and cover the third thirty one thousand so yeah either way it's six

one and a half dozen other but I'm probably gonna use that up and or some of it maybe take it down to ten maybe make twenty one thousand the next twenty one months let's see where we are if you twenty one months but um and not aimed at you Susan because I you've had the right tone about every bit of this as we're talking about it but aimed at everybody else because I'm at the stage of where we've got older parents and siblings taking care of older parents and so forth and my wife and I have

a rule and I recommend it to all of you the brother or the sister that's on site doing everything you guys shut up and help them support them don't bitch at them stand by them that's not aimed to choose Susan you weren't doing that but everybody you know the one that's over the doing the stinkin work taking care of somebody take care of them that puts us out of the ramsy show in the

books will be back with you before you know it in the meantime remember there's ultimately

One way to financial peace and that's to walk daily with the prince of peace ...

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