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“Normal is broken, common sense is weird.”

So we're here to help you transform your life from the Ramsey Network and the Fair Wins Credit in your studio. This is the Ramsey Show. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz.

Number one bestselling author, co-host, to the smart money happy hour on Ramsey Networks. My daughter, she's my co-host today. Erica is in South Bend, Indiana. Hi, Erica.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel. Hey, what's up? Okay, so my question is,

I was just wondering what some steps were that you and Sharon,

to when you were young and working hard,

that your children did not resent you or your business once they were older. Hmm. I did resent him. I'm just kidding.

[LAUGHTER] That's a good question, though. Are you working a lot right now? You and your husband? Yes, so I must stay at home,

and my husband is working a lot right now just trying to get us out of debt. We own two businesses, and they're both in the food industry. So there's a lot of--

Yeah, a lot of hours. Yeah. With that, how long have you guys been going at this pace, has it been a while? I would say three to four years.

Okay, so you're in the thick of it, you're feeling it. And you probably feel like a single mom a lot of the time. Yeah.

So how much debt do you have left?

“How long how much longer is this journey going to be?”

We business debt. We are at 486, and then our personal house. We're at 470,000. That's all there is.

Yes. Okay, both of those are baby steps six. Neither one of those require hours to be 80 hours a week. If you're 80 hour a week is to get your business up and running, that's a different equation.

What is it? If you're not working 80 hours a week to pay off $400,000 in debt? No, it's not so much a money from a money standpoint for us, as it's just finding good employees that can work. Yeah.

Welcome to business. Yeah. Yeah. In the food industry, it's really nice. It's a lot of money.

It's a lot of money. It's hard.

I was so dumb when I first started the business.

I thought if you hired people, they would work.

“But you have to hire people that are willing to work first and not just anybody.”

And that's the, so welcome to running your business. So the deal here is he gets away from these hours when he learns to run the business instead of the business running him. Meaning that he's got to get above cooking and get above food production and get above waiting tables and get above general management.

And start to put some people in the seats that can actually do that. I'll send you a copy of my latest best seller called building a business you love. And he's at the treadmill stage, which is where everyone starts. You feel like you're on a treadmill. You feel like you're stuck.

Run, run, run, run. But the way you get off the treadmill is hiring quality people that are delegateable. Meaning they're humans that you can delegate to because you can train them because they have two brain cells and they have character and they work ethic. And there's not that many of them, they're hard to find.

But you can find them. Okay. And you must find them otherwise he will, what he's doing right now is not sustainable. You can't do that for ten years. Yeah.

You run out of steam. Okay. That wasn't your question, but that's the answer. Now then back to the other thing is if we're solving for the day that dad is not working 80 hours, then we just talk to the kids about that.

We own our own business. And for right now until we get the people in and get them trained, I've got to be there. And we had that period of time here when I was opening this business. Yeah.

How old are your kids, Erica? We have a few year old and another one on the way. Well, they're not presenting anything. You're exhausted. You might be presenting something.

They're not presenting anything. They just want their diaper changed. Yeah, they're still young. Yeah. This does not need to go on until they're 12.

Not because of the kids, but because the business won't work. Your husband will run out of steam. It's not sustainable. He's got to build the business out in such a way that by the time the kids are of age, that they might actually resent it, that he's already home.

But in general to answer your question is, we communicate that this is a price to be paid on a temporary basis to win.

And for a two-year-old, Erica, I mean, I would say when he's home, he's home. Like, he needs to put his phone down.

“He needs to play and gauge with the two-year-old, you know?”

And with you guys in your marriage, like, I know during, and it's not at the length that it is for you over years and years and years. But I know even for busy work seasons. You're exhausted in your spouse, almost get your leftovers because you've just been giving all day. And so for you guys in your marriage, that's almost where I would put my focus in my energy for some foremost.

Because if you guys are connected, if you guys are in sync and you guys are unified on the plan, then the household feels all of that, right? And so I think because Mom and Dad were such a great team, and Mom was, can I say, "Baddy, I don't know if we're allowed to cuss on the air."

But she was an amazing mom, amazing mom.

And just took care of stuff. You know what I mean? And in that season, when we were little, and then as we got to be more middle school, I mean, Dad's your job still required long hours and travel. I was going periodically.

Both tours, yeah, but there were periods of that. A book tour. But it would be... We've gone 30 days, not even home. Yeah, but that's communicated at that age, right?

And we were older with all of that.

But I think that the presentness of having a solid marriage, the kids pick up on that, and everyone pulling their weight, whatever that looks like. And then for the kids, when you're just present in your home, and I'm guilty of this too, coming home and checking my phone and all of it, right? So it's just like putting that away and being in him being present with your two-year-old

is going to be big. And then you guys need to figure out a schedule at some level that's doable when you have this next baby. Baby number two.

“And so to feel supported in that, I think is an important conversation.”

Yeah. They're not... If he'll just turn on a daddy a few minutes a day at that age, they're not going to be resentful. They're not going to have any memory of it. But by the time they get a age that they age out, you, the two of you need a plan.

You need to see a light at the end of the tunnel with this business is maturing to the point that I'm going to have some team members that I can delegate to, that I don't have to fin it do everything. And that's called training, hiring the right quality people getting the right people on the bus or on people off the bus as Jim Collins says. And then it's not micromanaging to teach them to finish your sentences.

That's called training. I want this cooked this way, I want the customer spoken to in this way. I want eye contact in a smile. And when you finish, if you work at Chick-fil-A, it's my pleasure. And whatever it is, you train, train, train, train, train for the result you want. And the people they can't make the training, they don't get to stay.

And so that's, you know, you, as a leader, learning to hire and learning to fire. And start to build out your team with high quality individuals. And I've done that for 40 years and I've got a thousand of them in this building and I'm proud of every single one of them. I know that because if I wasn't proud of one of them, they wouldn't be in this building. [MUSIC PLAYING]

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That's joinsleetme.com/ramsy. So Rachel, you haven't heard the story yet, but the other day I had lunch with that, about twice a year, I get with one of my whole high school buddies. There were three of us that ran around together, did everything together in high school. And when I went off to college.

Probably glad there weren't. Do I phones with cameras during those days? Thank God there is no record of the things that we did. Yes, that's true. Beyond belief.

But anyway, one of the three passed away cancer last year. And the other one, I met with and have a hamburger with at least twice a year. He lives right here in the neighborhood, brought him in the area and hanging out with him. And the other day, I was down there having a hamburger with him. And he said, I said, what have you been doing?

He's single again. And I said, what have you been doing? I just went on six cruises in the last. He goes, I'm addicted to cruising. You got to go on the ramsy cruise.

Is he coming? He signed up.

Well, we're going to go on the ramsy cruise.

Look at there. So there we go. Which I'm going to have to have him sign an NDA. But we gave him a good deal on the room. But we're going to have him sign an NDA because we can't have any exposure on the ramsy cruise.

But if you don't know what this is, if you're dead free, the live like no one else cruise is a high end, very nice. This is not Walmart on the seas. This is the good cruise lines. If you know what I mean, wink, wink.

And this is the best, the best. The live like no one else cruise. Hang out with all of us. All the ramsy personalities will be there. And other celebs of miscellaneous not to be mentioned yet.

But we're going to do new sessions on there. Everybody's going to be speaking every night. We're doing all kinds of get together and hang out with you guys. New sessions this year on building wealth, live episodes of our shows. The world's largest debt free screen.

We did it last time. We're going to do it again. And last year, we did it. It'll be two years between the two cruises. We did it last March, year go March.

And this one will be next March. And it was really fun. It was great. It was a great week.

“It was a little bit worried about being trapped on a ship with 3,000 ramsy fans, right?”

That could be a long week for me. You know, that could, that could have gone sideways. But honestly, I had a blast. Yeah, it was great. Sure.

Now we just sit down and have dinner. We talked to people. It was just, we had the best time. We really did. It was a lot of fun.

So you can secure your cabinet. They're not quite sold out. Getting close with a $600 deposit and join us. And my high school buddy. And we're all be there.

And click the link in the show. We'll be next for many odd. On a cruise. That's what you need. If you might be a redneck, if you're cruising with so-and-so-and-day, right?

I'm not going to throw the gun on the bus, but yeah, there we go. So click the link in the show notes. Go to ramsysolutions.com/events. Book your cabin. It will be next March.

It will be sold out. You will be really fun-moving. Now, you do not come if you're in debt. This is only for baby step four and beyond. We're not hypocrites.

We tell you when you're in baby step. One, two, three. You're not going on vacation. This is a vacation. But if you've hit baby step four and beyond and you save up the money and you want to go on this night, this is Holland America.

I mean, this is a good line. It's Caribbean cruise.

It's going to be amazing.

And if you've saved up your money and you want to hang out with us for the week, it's an incredible week. You're going to learn a lot too because the sessions are incredible. They were teaching. So that was the funniest part. It really is a vacation.

You get to go to all these islands. And so we have all these sessions booked out with things. You know, we teach from stage and a couple of things. And I'm like, yeah, you know, the room might be like half full. I don't know.

I'm almost people. I'm sure. Out on the pool deck or at the aisle. I don't know. You just assume people are vacation.

Every session is packed. Pact. It's like a master do devotional for in the mornings and you couldn't get in. Yeah. I mean, it was like everyone wants everything, which was so fun.

There's a lot of fun. All right. Samantha is in Toronto, Canada. Hi, Samantha. How are you?

Hi, good. Thank you. How are you guys? Better than we deserve. What's up?

So my husband has been doing his dream business. For almost four years now. And I just want to know because he hasn't really brought in any income from it.

“How long is enough for me to support him in this overall?”

I mean, you have a business as you ran for four years that doesn't make money. That's not a dream business. That's a nightmare. Yes. In my perspective, it hasn't.

No, in his perspective. I mean, it's a business. It's not a hobby. We're supposed to make money. Yes.

So what kind of business? He's doing a couple of sports training. He's part of the gym ownership.

Even his partners didn't do some investments in it.

But nothing, not yet. They have projections. But I'm part of looking at projections of what could be. He's thinking of this business as our way out in the future. But it's hard to see the future when right now.

For years, we've been kind of struggling, right? For sure. Are you working, Samantha? Yes. So for the past.

I've got the duration of our marriage. I've been the financial supporter. And I was okay doing that. But once we had our first son, three years, two and a half years ago. I found him.

We're working. Yes. In a completely different perspective, I don't know how to go. What's back right away? And we've had many conversations of why is the burden on me when and then he's going to

become up to compromises. But it still feels like it's, and I'm having our second. And then now my worries that. We're back in our situation. We're aware of what they're for us.

And I'm going, I'm so at work. I'm doing, we make some compromises of our living situations. We keep a cost down. We're at my parents. So we're not really paying, you know, for events.

Okay.

So here's what needs to happen, right?

He needs to sit down with his partners and proper business acumen would dictate that we see a pattern of growth in the revenue and in the profits. To get us to where we can eat out of this thing in a short period of time. So we need to see some directional move in the numbers that give us hope. He needs to do that, not you.

And he doesn't need to do it for you and he's doing it because it's good business. Okay. The byproduct is it's good for you because you get some hope too. No, she's saying that they've been doing that. No, they've been doing projections.

But projections that aren't hit. Okay. And so that's not if we have a business unit at Ramsey that sets projections and they don't hit them. Then we assess, okay, how much longer do we go with not hitting projections? And then we close it.

If it doesn't hit projections. You know, if you don't have a reason to believe other than just I hope I wish.

“But in business, you need to see some things move.”

They need to see some, I need to see some trend lines in my sales. I need to see some of my fear is that they've been, they've been, propping themselves up, thinking all these things in the night. But I want it. And it's not been real.

But here's the difference. Here's the difference. You need to set a deadline. Yeah. With you Samantha.

And he needs to come back and say, all right. We're going to go until this date. And at this date, we're going to see some profit. And we're going to see some trend lines towards that date between down there. The killing you guys is this sense that there's no end to this.

And you got a second baby on the way.

Well, that's what I just heard. Does he not have any, I know, but he's the dude upon me. I mean, I don't want to offend your husband Samantha. But I'm like, good. Go, go.

Moch lawns. Like, go do something to bring in and come for your wife and your baby. And you're soon to be, baby. Like, that's wild to me. Yeah.

For four years, not making anything. Does he have any of that in him?

“Like, is he mad about any angry and he wants to change this and that?”

Or is he just like, I love it. It's been great. I don't know. We'll see where goes. We're hoping the next thing's going to hit.

So the compromise that we had, because he wants to work around his schedule. But the gym is, yes, he has to be pretty flexible. Is that he went back to school. And in here, Canada, the majority of the grants. Like, we only had to take a loan.

We only had to pick up with our income. They're going to have to school to do what? Um, he went back to school just to gain some grants so that you can just, for being a, That's not an income. The boy needs a job.

Yeah. Boy needs a job. He needs to write. He needs to go make some money. And they need to set a deadline.

But which this gym and this member, this, this dream is profitable. Otherwise, it's not, it's not going to stay open. I'm not going to go. And I would challenge him. Be like, hey, yeah, we have six months or whatever you guys decide.

And I want to. Six months comes to mind. And I want to see a few big changes in the business.

“Like, what are two drastically different things you're going to do to be?”

If I own the gym, you're going to have to do something that makes me want to keep it open six more months. Or I'm going to fire all of you. And we're going to close the thing. I'm sorry, Samantha.

I'm sorry. That's tough. That's a, he needs to do that. And it's being exasperated by the fact that you are carrying a child. And you're living with your parents.

And you're living with your parents. And you're living with your parents. I mean, all of it. It's a lot. And you, you have the right.

This needs to be a change to you. Yes, to feel urgency. It needs an end date. It needs an end date. If it's not profitable.

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The land of the free, the home of the brave, the best representation of the free enterprise system and the history of mankind is called America. And already two times this hour, the side hustle and the small business

has risen to the point that they give us a question or two. This hour. So a couple things to remember if you're starting a side business or you started a business, got a side hustle that's growing into a business. Here's some book recommendations for you, you ready?

Write these down. The premier book in the last 30 years, probably that most of us love and we love the man too, is our friend, Jim Collins wrote the book Good To Great. You need to read that book.

“You need to pick up the book by Michael Gerber.”

It's called the E-Mith, Entrepreneurial Myth, E-Dash Myth. And in that book, my friend Michael says that you will either learn to work on your business or you will forever work in your business, which you just own your job then. But if you learn to work on it,

then you can take a vacation, and it keeps running while you're not there. That's the proper growth of business, and that applies to both of our calls this hour. Our latest book, Build a Business You Love,

is wonderful in this regard. It'll help you with laying these things out. It'll help you recognize the stages of business as you go along. And my friend, Dr. Henry Cloudy wrote the book boundaries. He's also wrote a fabulous book called "Necessary Endings."

And everyone should pick that book up, because how do you know when to end something, a relationship, a marriage, a career, a job, a business, a business unit, employment of a team member needs to end.

Or I don't want to work for this toxic ball anymore, needs to end. How do you know?

“Well, there's actual steps that you should go through”

with a decision making framework and Henry walks you through one of the core thing thesis in that is if you lose hope that it's going to get better. So a horrible example would be your married to an alcoholic and fourth time through rehab,

and now they fell off the wagon again. Well, I'll lose hope that that one's going to get better and this marriage has come to an end. That's an example. But if you think it's going to be better,

then you know, a real reason is pattern indicators, not wishes, not words, but actual behaviors and things happening in the revenue if it's business, whatever it is. Give me a reason to have hope and then we'll continue.

Necessary endings by Henry Cloud, that's the fourth book. So some good books to help you guys along, where I get some of the thoughts where Ramsay personalities get some of the thoughts we throw at you on side-hustle businesses, small businesses are

on trade leadership materials. We coach about 10,000 small businesses if you're interested in that. You can find all of that at RamsaySolutions.com. All right.

Jeans in Montgomery, Alabama. Hi, Jane, how are you? How are you doing today, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up?

First of all, I want to say thank you guys

for all the work you guys have done. I've been just started following you guys about a month ago. I've got my $1,000 saved. I'm going to babysep to brain.

I've listed all of my debts. Great. Thank you. Thank you guys seriously. Back in 2024, I didn't mess up my taxes.

I'm 10, 99, I'm a truck driver. And that year, I just filed my taxes and I owe them.

But I just started the debt snowballing. I listed all my debts from largest to smallest. And I'm struggling to attack this $21,000. And I've been doing all the other ones. I've paid off so far.

I've paid off three credit cards so far. And I like this momentum. But listening to the show the other day,

you told one of the other callers to attack the IRS first.

But I'm staring at that mountain. And I don't know if you guys could kind of get me some direction or should I just continue going from smallest to largest. How much debt total? The total debt that I have left over right now is $80,356.

“And 21,000 of it is the IRS and what's the rest of it?”

The rest of it, $41,000 is the student loans. $10,000 is on my wife's car. And then I got 5,000 on my daughter's car. And I think we're still the one. And I got 8,000 left on one more credit card.

Okay. And so you're going to be pretty quick. How much have you paid off so far and in what period of time? So I've been following you guys for the last three months. And in the last three months, I've paid off $33,66. Good for you, Jean.

Three months?

Yeah, I'm a truck driver.

Well, are you going to be on a maintain that pace? I hope so in the name of Jesus, I really appreciate you. My wife is mad at me. I want to be honest with you. Because you're going so hard.

Yeah, well, because I'm gone. Because I'm on the road. Yeah, I haven't been home in like two or three weeks. And she's on board with me on this vision and goal. And she sees what I'm trying to do.

But she does want me to come home. Yeah, I don't blame her. I make sense. You don't have to pace it out so you can make it, but that's a great start. So if you, if you were to maintain that pace or even close to it,

you will be through the IRS and the other smaller debts. Very, very quickly agreed. Absolutely.

“So this is only a question of, is it going to be two months or is it going to be one month?”

Or is it going to be three months or is it going to be one month? That's the only real question, right? We did 10,000 months. He did 10,000. He did 10,000.

10 and eight and five and five and five. So there'd be four or four to five months. Yeah. Or you can do it now. Either one.

So the only question is just, you know, that. So the trade-off between the momentum that you're feeling, which is very positive. And I would blame you for wanting to maintain that, is that the stupid IRS has unlimited power. They can just decide to screw up your life. They don't have to go to court.

They can just start garnishing things. They can start keeping tax returns. They can, and they will. They can take your money out of your bank account. They don't have to go to court.

Everybody else has to sue you when the lawsuit and then go to court. So they've got unlimited power, which is scariest credit, because they're also not real smart. Most of time. So dumb and powerful is not a good mix.

“And that's what you're dealing with most of the time.”

Not always, but most of the time.

And I mean, I get audited by these people, like it's the copy. It may be too much work to do it, but also we always say if there is a larger amount. Oh, you could go down to your credit union and get a personal loan for 21,000 pay off. Get rid of him. Pay off the IRS and put the 21,000 back in your debt snowball so that you pay off your daughter's car.

Credit card. The, your wife's car, right? And then you deal with that personal loan of 21,000 to the credit union versus the IRS. You said do that. The second reason we move them to the front of the line is that they are not bankruptible.

The third, and you're not going to bankrupt anyway. The third reason we move them to the front of the line is that the interest rate and the penalty is very, very, very high. So all of those reasons causes to interrupt the debt snowball. The only time, by the way, that we interrupt the debt snowball and move it to the front. But I don't care.

It's not the end of the world. That's the reasons we move it. If you want to, if you understand those things and you want to leave it there, or you want to go get that credit union loan, and then you knock it out in four months instead of this month, that's okay with me. But you're just, you're taking some extra risk when you do that.

And, you know, when I'm coaching people that are struggling and, and they got six, you know, they got Chase Mastercard, Sue and them. They got a city bank, Sue and them, and they got Lexus Motor Credit, Sue and a Monterey Poe. And they got the IRS. I'll take all of those other three versus the IRS every time and what they can do to you.

The other one. And what they will do to you. So I, but I don't think any of them are suing you. I don't think that's where you are. You're under control.

You're knocking this out. You've got momentum. So I'm not scared for you now, but this comes from years of coaching people that were really, really

And I just always want to get the IRS out as fast as I can.

But listen to, you need to set a date. You're not gone by September one. You got to move them back up. You got to move in the front. So set yourself a deadline.

“I'm going to knock them out by this date or I'm going to move them to the front of the line.”

Yep. One of the two. And then knock them out. And then go back to your desk. No ball.

Yeah. And I appreciate your, your enthusiasm. I mean, that's incredible. 10,000, 30,000 and three months. Yeah.

That's bone unbelievable.

Maybe your wife and you say for three more months, I'm going to do this pace. And then you're going to dial it back a little bit. Because you guys got, you got some. You know, we ought to have his wife. Talk to the gym owner's wife.

It should be like my husband's working on. My husband was gone working and makes it money. So you want someone like scene. I wish he would leave and go make some money. My gosh.

Scene well done. Okay, guys. Let me ask you something. What would it take for you to switch your bank? Because if you're still earning next to nothing on your savings,

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and the Ramsey Bee Weird Devacard. Go to FairWins.org/Ramsie to learn more and make the switch today. That's FairWins.org/Ramsie. Ensured by the NCUA. Stacy's in Indianapolis.

How's Stacy? How are you? Hi, baby. How are you? Great. What's up? Row. My daughter is 29. She's married. She's a nurse.

This works part-time because I have a two and a half year old granddaughter. Her husband makes this $57 an hour. I'm just able divorced and I used to work an insurance. So, I know you don't like this, but I bought whole life insurance. I want to cash in her whole life policy that I've had for 29 years.

And just so you know, they each have their own life insurance policies outside of their work. She feels entitled to have that cash value.

“She thinks it's hers. I disagree. I think the money's mine.”

I could use the money. What do you think? Well, you're the owner of the policy and you paid every dollar for the policy, correct? Yes. I've been paying $26 a month for 29 years. And how much is the cash value when you cash it out? $6800.

It could cost you totally got screwed. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Okay, I said I worked with my career with the insurance before I had to go on disability. Yeah. Okay. So, how many kids do you have that have these policies?

Two. All right. So, we're cashing them both in, right? Well, at the moment, I'm cashing the other one in because Long story short, my other daughter. I'm just not sure what her life's taking her. So, I'm just kind of holding her on right now.

I don't care. How old is your other daughter? She's four years older. So, I just go ahead and cash out when I see her. Yeah, you better cash on both in. They both suck beyond belief. You've gotten screwed. Don't keep them. And it's not your obligation to take care of the one that has

are act together or the one that doesn't have are act together. These are 31 year old grown women. And you paid for this policy. It is not their money. Okay. In either case, are you to take care of them?

Well, thank you. I just wanted to kind of have somebody else come here. Yeah, that's not only moral. That's also what the law says. They're not the owner of the asset you are. Okay. You're, that's why they call you the owner.

What age did you open at the policy for your daughter?

One year old. She said she was one 29. Okay. And you did $26 a month. A month? Okay. I was just going to say.

“You should have if you just had that in an S&P.”

Just for any people for listening. It should be $58,000. Is what you want. If you put out real investment instead of a rip off whole life policy. Instead of $6,800, you'd have $60,000.

And it says she would have put in $8,736. So she put in more than what the investment. That's, yeah. Yeah, I had a negative rate of return. This is why you don't buy a whole life life insurance.

And why you don't buy it on your kids for sure. So bad. So bad. Oh, life sucks. Have we been unclear about that on this show?

That is a good question though. That her daughter assumed it's hers because her name was attached to the account. You know, probably, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Stacey's gone, but probably what has happened is that Stacey has told

these kids their whole lives that she's invested this money for them.

You're sure. And I, oh, that's my policy and you made an investment for me. Thank you. And you got this money because I've set this money aside. I'm in my name.

Yeah. It's in my name, but it's for you. And that's probably what she said all along. Yeah. And so now they're going, yeah, but you told me mom, it was mine.

I know. I, yeah. That makes sense. That's probably not some advice. Probably not some advice.

She probably just message it wrong. But, um, you know, but technically speaking, you own the money. And by the way, you laid the whole thing out on how she makes money. Her husband makes $57 and you're disabled.

And all that. None of that matters to the discussion. It's either her money or your money regardless of who is deserving or who's hurting or who is more healthy financially. Like the other daughter.

I don't, I'm not sure she's going to turn out. Yeah. Well, she's 34.

“We're, I think we're pretty sure, you know.”

And so, um,

second, she's going to have to have an encore to get this straightened out.

She's going to have 34's young. I don't know. But you can have an encore 34. Yeah. And so, and you need one apparently if your mom still don't know if you're going to make it.

Yeah, so the, the victim language in it. Exactly. It doesn't matter. It takes a look maybe the attitude that the daughter's having to. I don't know.

But yeah, just some thoughts. They see. But yeah, the, was your money you put it in? Under your name. Take care of your money.

But, you know, you know, I might, I might take back my answer. If you promised her this money her whole life. Then probably you ought to just keep your promise. And give it to her. Moreally legally it's your money.

Except that if you said, this is your money. This is your money. You know, if I had a mutual fund, I opened up for you. And I said, this is your college fund. We're going to use it for college.

And it's your money. It's your money. We're saving for your college. Which I did, by the way. There's a uniform transfer to mind is acting up.

I was in your name. I went to college. I ended up, we ended up paying for college out of our pocket. And then when you're graduated, we gave you your luck. To start your life off as an adult.

And so, but that was in my name. It was my money. Yep. And. But I had, I had allocated that emotionally and relationally here.

And we didn't know it though. I, I, I, I thought you got a college fund. I thought you're paying for college. So there's a little bit of it. And I was using it for college.

Yes. Yeah. That's true. Yeah.

“So how it's communicated is important to.”

Did you make a promise? Yes. Did you promise your kid this was their money? And if you didn't got to keep that promise. Yeah.

And that's the expectation. So she would be disappointed. I would, I would take my answer back. If that's the case. But if not, of course.

Yeah. And, you know, who, who is making money? Who's not is not relevant to the discussion? Mm-hm. Jossones in Houston.

Hi, Jossone. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than we deserve.

What's up? Well, particularly, I have two four or one case that's like has $2600 minimum. I have about $7,000 in credit card debt that I kind of just wrecked up. Being financially irresponsible. But I want to know if I should take those out.

So just kind of put towards that debt. I'm on baby step one and like just trying to get my like together. I'm 26. I live rent free right now. What do you make?

Yeah, just about $3,000 a month. Okay. I'd pick up my hours and attack the credit card debt and leave this alone. And I'd roll it to a 401k. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I mean, I'd roll it to an IRA. I'm sorry. It doesn't matter much mathematically because it's such a small amount.

But percentage wise, it's suicidal. Here's why. Okay. Okay. You cash out the 401k as you get a 10% penalty plus your tax rate.

Let's call you in the 20% tax bracket. I don't think you are, but you might be. That means that 10% plus 20% taxes, that's 30%.

So they're going to take almost half the money. If you take it out, instead of rolling it to an IRA.

“So I think as a matter of starting to make good financial decisions more than just the math.”

I would go ahead and roll it to an IRA and force myself to pay off the credit cards with hard work. Yep. And just keep it in there. And don't touch it. And let it grow.

And at retirement, maybe 100, 200k in there. I don't know what it'll grow to.

But that'll always be a little bit of a safety net too for retirement, which is great.

Yeah. And you just add to it as you go along. I've had some IRAs that were so small at different times. And I move them around, put them all together later, put them in a pile. And it has ended up turning into some serious money over time.

But the big thing here is I just want your brain to get used to not looking for shortcuts at high cost. And this is a shortcut at a high cost, even though it's 2600. So you're probably going to lose a thousand bucks of that in taxes and penalties. And so you're still going to get out $1,000. There's not change your life one way or the other.

It's not the dumbest thing you've ever done by any stretch or will ever do. So it's really not that much money. But if you add our zero to it, it starts to be $10,000. If you add two zeros to it, it'd be $100,000. Yeah, and what changes your life in this jocelyn is your income going up.

Making $3,000 a month.

“I would look to see, where can I get an extra $2,000?”

What does that look like from an income perspective? Because that's going to get you through the $7,000 in debt so much faster. And then your emergency fund is beyond. So it's kind of your-- that's your ticket out, not the old 401k. Hey, I want to talk to you for a second about love.

And not love, like in Titanic or something, I mean responsible love. The kind of love that moves you to take care of the people closest to you.

And one of the most important ways to show that kind of love is by having term life insurance.

If you have anyone depending on you, a spouse, kids, anyone, you need term life insurance. Term life insurance gives your family real protection if the unthinkable happens so they can spend their time grieving and not worrying about how the bills are going to get paid. Zander is a broker who works for you, shopping the top companies to find the right coverage options for your needs and your budget. In many cases, there are options available with no medical exam and instant approval.

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Louise is in Tampa, Florida. Hi Louise, how are you? Hi, I'm doing good, are you guys? Better than we deserve, what's up? So I had a question about the name of my fiance of a credit card.

And I am always making sure that if we use it, we paid off before his statement.

He was telling me that why don't we let, why don't we carry a balance to build credit?

“And I don't know if that's how that works.”

I kind of wanted to ask you guys, does that make sense? How old are you guys? We're 27 of them for us. And when are you getting married? We were through money so I can't say it.

Just because we're on one of our stuff. I'm sorry, you have to have money to get married? Right. Well, I mean, yeah, we can just go get it done. And I say, I like the wedding I would like, you know?

Yeah, okay. We've been saving for a while now.

So far we have 20.

“And then we also have another 20 that are six months of living.”

So what kind of wedding are you going to have?

Well, I don't know, everybody. What it's expensive a lot. But I want to make sure that if I want something, I can have it. Oh, I don't want that much money in the world. Yeah, I know.

That much money doesn't exist. I want it. I want it. I can have it. That's not a, that's a four year old.

No, you don't get to do that. You set a budget on your wedding. You're a grown woman. And you get married. And you do it for 20,000.

And you start planning at this weekend. Okay, back to your question. Um, now. So your fiance is correct. That if you were to run a balance on your credit card and pay it on time,

it will cause your credit score to increase. Cause your credit score is based on. It's, it's called, it's, by an organization called Fair Isaac, and it's called your FICO score. And it's based on how you interact with debt.

How much debt you have, the type of debt you have. And whether you pay your debt on time or not. New types of debt. New types of debt. That gives you, if you have too much debt or too little debt,

that gives you your credit score. So your credit score technically speaking. If you analyze how it's, how the algorithm works is in your, I love debt score. And the higher your credit score, the more you love debt.

Yeah. So if your, if your goal as a married couple is to get in debt and stay in debt deeply the rest of your life, the credit score will serve you well. But if your goal is to build wealth,

then you would avoid this at all cost. Because you don't want to play kissy face with the bank to build a score, this shows how much you've been playing kissy face with the bank. Instead, I want money. I want to build a net worth.

I want to become wealthy. And the credit score is not an indicator of your financial health or wealth. It's simply mathematically speaking, an indicator of how much you've been playing kissy face with the bank.

That's how it's determined. And so what he's saying is, hey, let's owe the bank more money and pay it off a little at a time so that we can make other banks happy. Wrong, bad plan.

You follow my logic? No, yes, of course. That was what I was telling him. It felt like if he wanted to be more in debt than what's the point of doing all your steps, I'll say.

Exactly. You wouldn't do any of our steps if you're going to that.

“If you want to stay in debt, you need to go do a different plan.”

Our plan won't work. And Louise, this isn't important. And this is an important subject for you guys to get aligned on when it comes to your marriage.

Money fights and money problems are one of the always in the top three reasons for divorce.

And so this is a big tension point. It may not feel huge. It's big enough for you to call to be like, hey, this doesn't feel right. But if your value system is different with money, not that you guys have to be the same person, but that you're moving in the same

direction financially because you're a team. And you're like, this is how we're running our household. If or when we have kids, like, I mean, it, it continues on. And when you start in such a different place, it's a, it's a red flag for me. I would, I would want to be in the same place.

And you may decide, Louise, get enough this call. You could totally decide, like, I'm okay with debt, right? Like, I'm, we're not trying to push you, right? But you, you need to be on the same page. Clearly, a life of peace and building wealth is avoiding debt.

And that is what we do. And then your credit score means, my credit score has been zero for 35 years.

Rachel has never, I'm, I'm, I'm determined.

Yes. Never had a credit score. In her life. But then you have to pay cash for cars. Unity mean, like, you're saving up her vacations.

Like, you are choosing a life without debt. But you also are choosing a life of living below your means of delay gratification, but of a lot of peace and control and autonomy over your money. Which gives you a large pile of money, by the way, because you're not giving it all to some stupid bank. Yep.

So there we go.

“That's how, well, that's where wealth comes from.”

Yep. The other, quite thing I'm going to throw in and you didn't even ask about this. But for God's sake, cut up that credit card and close the account tonight. If you're not going to get married, the two of you don't need to be on a credit card together. Yeah, keep super dangerous for you.

Super dangerous for him. The credit card balance runs way up, and one of you runs off the other one's stuck holding the street, but think, and now you're going to get sued.

Yeah.

And I know no one ever leaves.

But crap, you're not married. Okay. They leave all the time. So get off that card. Do not be doing stuff financially and legally with somebody you're not married to.

Danger, danger, danger, danger, danger. My daughter. Don't do that. Please. Especially since there's not a date set, right?

It's kind of this endless feeling of the abyss of like we're going to figure it out. And then that, and then when you live in that, which people do for years and years, you know, we talk people they have engagements for four years. They live that they start playing house. You start combing, gling finances.

You get down the road. It just, it starts to, it starts to be a problem. So I would keep everything separate. Which point.

Until you guys get married.

And if he is the one, like, you guys set a date. Can you get off the ladder? If he is the one. And that could be into some, right?

“You know, it's not like you have to do it tomorrow.”

But, but put a date on the calendar that you guys work towards. Just for some certainty in the relationship. But if you, if you, if you, if you have the money you get married. Set the date. I don't get married.

You're not, this is not good for y'all. It's not good. We don't care. We make no money when you get married. It doesn't help us at all.

We are not in the wedding business. Too bad. We need to get in the wedding business. I need to do something. It's not.

It's all fun. As I tell people to get married these days. I need to. It's your pre. Oh, God.

The same priest. You won't be a priest. It's a, what is it? What is it when you? Your decision?

Yeah. You want to make a decision. I'm going to start. I'm going to start doing weddings. Yes.

That way I can make some money off all this. At least can get her. Then I can have a conflict of interest. Then she can get the fiance. And they can call them the next hour.

And we'll get the wedding. You know what? You can keep it wrong. Why you up here and stand on the debt free stage with your little bokeh? We're there again.

Thank you. We're good. Thank 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. You're not a mechanic. And you shouldn't have to be.

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That's cbac.com/Ramsy. 10% off up to your $250 value. See store for details. Jeff is in Birmingham. Hey Jeff, what's up?

Hey Dave, how are you? Thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help?

I'm facing kind of a crisis I never intended.

Do some illness and do some other things.

“I went into a government-sponsored finance program with a largest service service in the country.”

And that was in 2023. Then I've gone back and forth several times. Trying to get back on to where I just paid my payment. And I've been told numerous different things. And I was told, hey, you can do back-end payment.

And so I paid trial payments. And then they send me the paperwork. The paperwork's not right. I send it back. And the longer the short is, I've gotten down now to where the last trial payment I paid,

I paid on the last day of November. The screenshot of the email they sent, you know, confirming the payment. And then they came back and said that I failed the trial payment plan because of the payment being late. I filed a respa and a notice of error.

Because I wanted to get off of this, you know, cycle that's been going on almost three years now.

And so I have a document in front of me that says, if I don't pay them forty three thousand dollars, they're going to focus on my house, which I have over fifty percent equity in. And I was looking for some kind of suggestion. I've done everything I can do up until it was point. So forty three thousand dollars is the amount you're in a rear is right now.

Correct. Net of everything. And that number is probably correct. But what you're saying is that you had a, a four-bearance plan, which is a plan to pay payments greater than the normal payment to catch up. And apparently that's going sideways several times to get forty three thousand dollars behind.

What's your normal monthly payment supposed to be? $1,200. So you're at least forty thirty eight months off in only three years. How's that possible? Well, it takes them instead of the thirty days that they take.

No, no, I mean, think about it. From twenty three to twenty six is only thirty six months.

“That's as if you have to pay the payment the whole time.”

Well, so that's the other thing. They're holding, I think, six or eight payments in escrow somewhere that they don't even account for through my trial payments. But then, you know, there's, there's three, you know, they get three appraisals. I mean, they just rack up fees like it's, you know, going out of style. Yeah.

And they're charging a huge late face as well. Yeah. And have they tacked on legal costs in that forty three as well? I, it doesn't list you as a line item, but I can't even get them to give me a line item. I can't get to forty three thousand.

That's what my problem is. You and me both. And when I start doing the math and every time I ask them about it, oh, you know, I don't know. There's one that they sent me after they told me they would just put the back payments in the rears of my,

of the mortgage I had, which I was never laid on.

And then they sent me a loan for forty years that was going to raise my payment system to us. Yeah. Well, that would be, that would probably be correct actually. But yeah. Well, it would be.

And so I call them and I said, this is not what we ever discussed. And the person that's also had no idea, but. Are you talking to FHA or to the loan servicer? I've talked to both.

“No, I mean, who, when you made that phone call, who was it, too?”

So I said, when I talked to FHA, they said, well, you can, you know, if you filed an appeal in a notice of error with, you know, with the mortgage servicer. Yeah. Let them answer and then we can work back to it. They basically, the loan servicer's the ones at the start, whether they, the payment was late. I just, you know, and I explained to the FHA person.

I said, I don't understand how you can send me an email that I have a screenshot. And it's in my inbox.

In the correct month that it was due and tell me that my payment was late.

Yeah. Okay. So the net net is, is that you probably have, in reality, six payments for seven payments, so some amount laying in escrow. So seven, eight thousand dollars. And you have $43,000 owed in a rear.

So somewhere around $36,000 would get you caught up. Obviously you don't have that. And, um, and obviously we're dealing with bureaucrats at the FHA and incompetence at the, um, at the servicer. Who's the servicer?

I created mortgage. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah.

In competence at the servicer.

“And that would be normal because they're massive.”

And, and they massively don't give a rip. What a name to freedom. Yeah. So they're getting the opposite. I don't have a 2.5% interest rate.

So every 10 they try to do anything else. Well, you know, if they're going to go up a lot. So what is your income? So I think that's the other thing. And the reason I went on forbearance originally is from Long COVID.

And then I had, I almost, I had to go into the hospital and I almost died. And it took me a little while to heal. Well, they told me, well, you can't pay payments while you're on forbearance. Because it'll take it into, you know, it'll take it automatically into foreclosure. So every time I try to get back into kicking, you know, into paying for my mortgage.

It's just seven months, eight months process. Yeah. I have to give me some kind of answer. And it's not perfect. It goes right back into the league.

Yeah. What do you make? Do you know? What do you make? Well, so currently, I don't have a job.

But I have the, I mean, I do contract work. I do other things. But prior to getting sick, my income was 2/3. Okay. What, what will you be making in the coming?

Months. Enough to pay a $200 payment? 10 to 16,000 a month.

Okay. All right.

And then I have, you know, I have money that, I mean, I have assets.

I've just had them tied up from, you know, a divorce that is five years ago. So what assets do you have? What assets do you have? So, I mean, I have an accountant has a $400,000. But I can't touch it until my ex-sensitate work, which that's like the last thing.

And she's just trying to keep struggling to feed on it. Wait a minute. Well, what is the $400,000? It is a, it's, it's a, it was a investment account that we had, you know, when we were married. Okay.

But it's fine. So, let me, let me, let me put it to you this way.

I can't make freedom mortgage be competent or the FHA not be bureaucratic idiots.

And you can't either.

“And so the best thing you can do is write them a $43,000 check.”

You owe them anyway. No, you owe, yeah you do. You make $10,000 a month. I don't currently make $10,000. You said you're going to in the coming months.

I asked you. Yes, correct. Yes, no, I will. Okay. Then go make $43,000.

They're not going to foreclose in 20 minutes. It'll take them six months to a year to get around to it. Can you notice that they don't, that they're slow? Yeah. The one thing that can certainly is they say, man, let us say that if you don't make it by X-D, then we're going to do it.

What's the day? That's the night with tomorrow. Okay.

“Then they're going to start foreclosure.”

Right? Okay. Yeah. And in Alabama, that takes at least a month. But I don't think, but it probably takes six months because they're probably going to sit on their thumbs because what they do.

They're thumb-sitters. Really? I mean, you probably have time to cash flow this in the meantime. Call your ex. Going to the judge and saying, I'm going to smack my ex into the next week.

Whoa. I'm going to have the judge, smack her into next week and get her to sign the dad gum paper. Hold up 400 grand. I'm getting ready to lose a house because of it. So those are variables you can control.

You're asking for some way to make your stupid butt mortgage company and your inept FHA behave. They can't.

“The things you can control, you need to go controlling, get $43,000 out of that $400,000 account”

or go get $43,000 out of some work you do in the next 90 days before the actual foreclosure date occurs and pay this thing current. That's what I would do if I were in your shoes. If you don't do one of those two things, you need to put your house on the market right now. And sell it for you losing.

But you need to go get some money and get stupid freedom out of your life. That's what this comes down to because you have tried for three freaking years to negotiate with morons and it doesn't work. Hey, guys, healthcare is one of the biggest stress points in your budget. It's confusing and most of the time it feels completely out of your control.

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Where they say that's it. I've had it.

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Better than we deserve. How can we help? My husband's extended family likes to meet for their birthdays for dinner. And cards are exchanged with money at each gathering, and we're a bunch of grown adults, and I feel like it's just a little unnecessary. And I just want to know how I can be the bad guy to get kind of put a stop to it. Oh, I wouldn't do that.

Oh, wouldn't do that at all. Well, how much? I would have him do it, and I wouldn't do it.

Well, you can't always make me bad guy though, you know.

I don't know. That's the wrong way. I'm going to wish for the West. It's his family. He's got to deal with them, not you. Well, I might already be that with a family. So why would you want to increase it? At this point?

Why do you get invited to the party? Not a great question. I wish they would otherwise. I'll cut you give money. That's why. Yeah. You bought your way.

How much is it? I'm just curious. I'm usually, and I would also say my husband's a very generous man. He's not one. He'll be like, it's fine. It's fine. Whatever.

And so usually we put like, you know, 60, 80 bucks in each card. Good, God. Thank you. That's weird. Thank you. Oh, my gosh.

Jesus. Okay. How many, okay. I just, I'm trying to picture. How many people are at the table? How many brothers and sisters spouses parents? You've been only child.

“And I think so they view their family like it comes in the hands.”

Oh, it's not even like siblings. No. Oh, no, no, no, no. How many people are at this dinner? Uncle, grandpa. So usually it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, not including us.

Okay. Not counting grandkids. There's eight of us. I can see all eight of us sitting in a table. And the chances of us giving each other money is precisely zero. That's a reason of getting a birthday card. Aren't we lucky to get a text?

Yeah. Yeah. But so it's been a tradition forever and ever. But these are all 30, 40 year old, 50 year old, 50 year old, 50 year old, 60 and 70 year old. Yeah.

And there's a birthday tomorrow. That's what I'm calling right now. Too late. You're in on that one. You can't fix that one.

Oh, on that one. Yeah. But like, how do I bring up like, you don't? I don't mind getting together. You don't.

Your husband has to. And if he won't, it's not going to happen. But he just doesn't want to upset his mommy. No, it's not even his mom.

“I think his mom would be completely fine with us doing it.”

Who is? People who go to flow. They don't want to cause any risk. Exactly. I wouldn't cause a risk.

I wouldn't cause a thing. I would not make it about them. I would not make it. His job, though, is to fix his family, not yours. Really.

That's bad, Mojo. You do not want to get in that relationally. But he should sit down and say, hey, guys, we're working on some financial goals. And we'll be happy to pay our part of the dinner and come to dinner with everybody and celebrate.

And we'll send you a nice text and buy a nice card. But we're not going to give grown adults any cash, any more, because we're working on some other stuff. We love y'all, though. I hope it works out for you. And he just needs to raise his hand and say that.

I did do that inappropriately. Actually, I had my wife's participation. And she may have actually done it. She should have done it. Her family.

They all, there's 90 million of them.

And they all gave each other Christmas gifts. And she's got like five brothers and sisters, there's 13 grand kids. There's people everywhere all over this house. And we go down there. And you buy all these adults that you see twice a year.

And I love them. They're good people.

And it's just our, or whatever. Try to guess what University of Tennessee paraphernalia they need this year. Or whatever it is, right?

And we finally, when we went broke, I told Sharon, I said,

uh, the little kids under 12 get a gift. Everybody else gets a nod. Or we'll draw names. And they, and so she said, oh, that's a good idea. Well, draw names.

And I said, okay.

“And I don't remember what she brought it up.”

It Thanksgiving or I did. But she raised her hand. And she said, hey, guys, we're broke. We're drawing names this year. Because we can't do everybody's gifts.

And we'll buy the kids under 12. The babies, uh, little little baby gifts or whatever. And because it's Christmas. And we drew names. So it's a similar discussion.

And by the way, that went real well. Everybody else went, oh, yeah, we kind of thought the same thing. But we wouldn't want to be the first one to bring it up. Yeah.

And if anything, Evan, and I know you're not a major fan of the family.

But if he wanted to give some like thoughtful gift or something, you could already mean, like you can do something for 20 bucks. So like, hey, I saw this, you know, Uncle, you know, Uncle Rick. And I thought of you. And that's his birthday gift versus giving a check of 75 dollars.

We're 20, but it's 320. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. But let me say this, Evan. You're correct. This is absurd.

“But if it, if it ends, it almost wouldn't be a hill, though,”

that I would just push and push and push because it happens six times a year. And it may be a thing. You just, if you don't want to address it, you got to just live with it. And it's a role the eyes kind of thing. But he should, because it is kind of, I don't disagree.

It's weird. It's just a bunch of 60 year olds giving each other 80 bucks. That's just weird. Okay. But yeah.

But if you want to do it, it's okay. I just don't, I think it's weird. But yeah, and I just raised my hand and go, we have some other goals. We're not doing it. But your husband has to do it.

Otherwise, you're just going to come off all stinky. You don't want to be stinky, Evan. Yeah. No.

You always let, when you have a conflict with the other side,

you let the other side handle the other side. Mm-hmm. That's, you know, because otherwise you end up being the stinky one. And it's just, it's not a plan. Not a plan.

Linda is in Knoxville. High Linda, how are you? Good. Thank you for taking my call, David Rachel. Sure.

My question is about five 29 accounts that has been growing since my daughter who's about six years out of getting her master's. Do not have to use much of it. And it has been growing and growing. She's single with no children.

Why did we not use much of it? She got a wonderful scholarship. You can pull that much out without any connections. The value of that scholarship can be withdrawn with no taxes or pay. Is she too late?

No. You might have to go back and you might have to file an amended return. And well, you wouldn't have to file unless you got audited. But you know, you might have to go back and do that. But talk to your tax advisor about how to do it.

But you can pull the amount, the value, market value of the scholarship out at any time with no taxes or penalties. This is worth the call. Wow. Okay.

Well, since you didn't pay nothing for it, it definitely was worth it. Well, no. And more high school curriculum has a lot to do with why Offer of my children are very financially stable. Wow.

So what was her scholarship worth? Do you think? What was the tuition worth? Um. Uh.

This can't have semester. So 100,000. How much is in the 529? Uh, 330. Awesome.

Well, you can get a bunch of it out. And then would you take the rest out and pay taxes on it? You don't have 10% penalty plus taxes on the growth on everything else. Or you can move it to a sibling or a child. Yeah.

She's, she is one who's earning the least out of her siblings. And so they're fine. And she is really wanting to look at getting the house. And that's kind of what makes my heart hurt. You're going to get, you know, you're going to get 100,000 out for the house.

Easy. If you pull the other 200 out, you're going to get a 10% penalty on the growth only. I don't know how much y'all put in. And on and taxes as well. If you're planning a summer trip, you're probably spending a lot of time getting everything

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That other than I deserve, what's up?

I was married for almost four or three years.

I divorced my husband. I moved out into an apartment. He moved in. He's in the house now and we can't get rid of it because he will not get out of the house. He's been there for like two and a half, almost three years.

I don't know how he tells me he can't pay the rent and next taxes and everything. And then move to somewhere else and pay that too. So I'm kind of confused.

“And how do I get him out of the house that clean up the house?”

Okay, so it's not selling because it's junky. Well, that outside the yard is pretty messy and stuff. But I just, and they do show it. One lady did offer 250, but she's a flipper. She wanted to buy a cheap and flip it.

You know, and what's it worth? It wasn't given us probably about 360. Okay. All right. 43 years then?

Yeah. I should have left a lot sooner, but I didn't. Sort of those things. Wow. What is your income?

Um. I have, every month is 22.97. How old are you? 71. Okay.

Who? How much you guys owe on the house? Um, about 152,000. Okay. What does he make?

“Well, he's retired from, I won't tell you where.”

He's retired and he, I get 40% of his pension. He gets 60%. Your 2200 is 40%. No, my, it's like 16.54 is my 40%. Where's the rest coming from?

Just security. Hmm. So I barely get by. I have about 120 left for gas and food. Which didn't know.

Yeah. And I've got 68 100 in credit cards, which I should say. He doesn't really have money. He's correct in that he doesn't have the money to pay rent. And the house payment, right?

Right. And neither do you. Right. We're kind of stuck. I don't know what to do. In the plan in the divorce, he was going to sell the house and you guys are going to split the equity. Yeah, or else he was going to buy me out, but he can't refinance. Yeah, he says he can't. I don't know, but he can't. I don't think he can. I don't think he can. I don't think he has the income. That's his only income. Yeah, it was.

And, um, well, I mean, so if you got your wish and he moved out, then your house going to get foreclosed on it. No, that's lower the price and that's where somebody would buy it. But I'd like to, I like it cleaned out so I can, you know, paint a few things and make it look a little nicer. It doesn't look real good right now. Okay, so it's on the, it's on the market at 360. Right now it's 360. 360. Okay.

Um, yeah, he started for 40, which is crazy. Okay. Well, I mean,

the problem is you lied a fuse that six months to a year long before the house gets foreclosed on when he moves out.

And so you go over there, paint it, you clean up the yard, and if it doesn't sell every single month, you're going to be dropping the price. Because you're going to have to get rid of it. You may wish you took the 250. Yeah, I'm kind of thinking that I should have.

When he moves out, now the clock starts ticking, the sand start going through the hourglass, the pressure is on.

You follow me.

“And I just want to be careful what you sign up for, that you know what you're signing, what trip you're taking here.”

What would I do? Obviously, he is, um, not going to help by cleaning up the artery. I would have already for his own sake. He should have done that because he would get more money in his pocket. He's disabled too. He has had six back surgeries. I don't know what he can lift her.

Yeah, so he's not, he's not doing anything. Okay. And for good reason now, we're not going to accuse him of, okay. You can't, you can't afford to hire people to do it.

No, you don't. No. So you have children?

I'm growing children. Yeah, where are they? Uh, once here in my town, but they both have back problems.

“Once in Roseburg, and once in here, Salem.”

Hmm. Hmm. And so obviously, they're not able to help, and they were probably affected by the divorce in terms of their motivation to help. Yeah, definitely. What's he paying in mortgage payments every month?

Um, about what I'm paying.

Um, I pay an 1122, and he's paying probably about 13, 12 or 13.

I'm just wondering. Rent-wise, if there's anything cheaper. I don't know if him moving out, and you going over there, 71 with a paint brush on a trash can is going to make this deal worse. I'm working off that I'm thrilled with the bomb that we set a fuse a little bit on because- Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know the house. I don't know the deal.

So who's, um, do you know the realtor? Do you trust the real estate agent? I do. Well, we bought the house from the same guy.

“Okay. And what does the real estate agent say you should do?”

He says, uh, just keep waiting for the right people to come by, which I don't agree with because we can't keep waiting. I was going to pay all my credit cards off when this house sold. Now I'm, so that credit card bills. Come on. How much do you credit card debt do you have? Uh, 6800.

Yeah, that's not bothering me much. We'll get there. That's not a panic. You're eating everything's okay. I don't, it's not ideal, but none of this is ideal. Yeah. And no retirement accounts or anything. It's just the pension, right?

Just wondering if there's any other. There's no money, any money. Well, not that I know of. I don't, he's, he's not the truthfulest person in the world, but I don't know what he's got really, but I doubt if he has much more. Mm-hmm.

So sad, and I'm sorry. So what I would do would be to try to work with your ex to allow some access and begin to get some things cleaned up. That you would do if he moved out while leaving him there and dropping the price. And if that doesn't work, then you're going to have to ask a judge to have him move. If he doesn't voluntarily want to move because he's going to stop.

What? Because I, I did call him one day. I was going to talk to him about the house. He hung up on me. He wouldn't even talk to me. Okay. Well, then you're left with a judge, I guess. Yeah. So either we sell the price, either we drop the price or end or you move out. And if he won't do that voluntarily, the judge will have to tell him to do that because he's in.

I assume there's a divorce decree saying the house has to be sold. And the house is not actively being marketed. It's not a marketable condition. And so you can force that, but and be aware, you may be playing some cards here that likes a fuse on this bomb that you lose the house. I mean, it's possible if the real estate market is locked down for some reason. There's a jump and interest rates and nobody wants to buy anything even the flippers are out of the market.

And that price drops on down. Yeah, you may be wishing you'd taken the 250. I'm kind of wishing you'd taken the 250 right now. But I don't think he wanted to take it either. Yeah. Well, if it's at 350, I mean, and there's probably other flippers in the area for to mean hopefully you can get it. But the thing is, is if you don't get somebody to make a transition transaction quickly, that real estate, that can go months. And that's the that's the part that scares me where I'm like, I don't feel like you have that financial margin to go that long.

Don't have to move with any of the 43 years worth of emotions.

But if there's any anger or I'm revenge, I'm hitting back or I'm trying to make this guy finally behave one time.

Yeah, no, I don't think like that.

“You need to make this move because it's the right.”

I think she wants a hundred thousand. A hundred thousand dollars of equity to pay off credit card debt and live. Exactly. With a little more comfortably. [Music]

[Music] Welcome back to the Ramsey Show and the Fair Wins Credit Union Studio. Hey, Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality. My daughter is my co-host today. Brock is in Manhattan, Kansas. Hey, Brock, what's up? Hey, guys, how you guys doing?

Better than we deserve, how can we help? Uh, so I got married a few months ago and a few weeks ago we found out my wife is also pregnant. Yay! Yeah, I know we're very, very excited. And we have a little bit of a debt problem. She had a car payment that she paid off all her own and then after we got married, I helped pay off the credit card.

“Which wasn't too much. It was about $2,000.”

But she also has about $177,000 in student loan debt. And I was wondering how we should attack that. Is she a doctor or a lawyer? Uh, I wish I could say either one, but she is either she is a at home day care. Or she's a freelance, a lady basically.

A freelance wife? What was her degree in, Nanny?

She actually never finished college. I know.

Oh, no. She got a degree in, what? She didn't finish. Oh. Oh, was it a private school? Private? It was a D1 state school.

Oh, so out of state probably. Yeah, and it's the bad situation. Oh, man. Yeah, it's probably not the word dumb might be the word. Um, wow. How close did she come to finishing?

Uh, she had a little bit last year. It wasn't the time, but it was, it was enough where it was like we can't afford to keep going. The degree is in one. What was she studying? She was, she started out in a, like education. She wanted to be a teacher.

She decided that she changed her mind and wanted to be, uh, she was doing business marketing. Well, I'm doing now, but thankfully the army pays for mine. So we don't have to worry about it. What do you make? Uh, I make about 54,000 a year and she makes about 36. Okay.

And then I also have about, uh, I do have some savings, thankfully.

Uh, 35,470 dollars and a mutual fund that just basically mimics the S&P.

And then I also have just under 30,000 and a money market. Okay, and you have how much owed on her car still? Uh, none. That's all paid off. And the credit card's paid off as well. So the only debt left is 175,000. Yes, sir.

How old are you guys? I'm 20 and she's 23. And you graduated from college as well? Uh, I am about 65% through mine. I'm doing it online, the volume of the army. You're in the army.

Yes, sir. I thought you were in marketing.

“Uh, no, that's, that's what I'm getting my degree in.”

Oh. And is your school been paid for? Yes, sir. 4,000 is your army service, your military service. Yes, sir.

And she makes 36,000 as a nanny. Okay. And you have 70,000, you have 30 and 35,000, 60, 5000 laying around. Okay. All right.

So yeah, what I would do is, um, I would continue to stack cash until the baby comes. And when the baby comes and everyone's healthy, um, I have bad news. Your wife is not going to be a stay at home mom. She's going to be working.

She has $175,000 worth of debt she signed up for. And so she's going to be working for a while. So we need to get used to that idea. And because when you have your first baby, particularly, there's a tremendous draw to want to be home with a child.

in the market place. And so you guys need the 85,000.

So let's pretend that you stack another $10,000 for the cash. That's $75,000. And when the baby comes home and it's healthy from the hospital. And mommy's healthy and mommy goes back to work. We write a check for $75,000 on put on the student loan.

And you have $1,000 in your account. And you attack the 100,000 with a vengeance. And you guys work extra. You do everything you can.

“Right, um, when are you going to re-up with a military?”

I wasn't planning on it, but when will you leave the military?

I have two and a half years left. Okay, with a degree. With a degree, I will leave with a degree. Yeah, okay. And then I will also make more as I stay.

I would hope you're income will go up substantially. It's going to be a three or four year. Yeah, you're going to be a while to get through this 100,000 to still remaining after the baby comes. But you guys are going to get used to working a lot both of you to clean up this month.

Well, and it's a good thing that she is.

And what she does, because she can be watching her baby along with another baby or two. I'm assuming the people that she's netting for a good with that. Yeah, that's right. There's probably there's some flexibility. Because if not, she's going to be paying for child care.

And it's going to be eaten into that. It's not it's not going to be. I just saw it and face palm because I feel so bad for this baby in this young married couple. I was terrible that they're that they have been screwed by student loans and by the whole. Why the Congress is put out by continuing to issue student loans.

Congress is screwed Americans with a student loan.

“They're just there screwed and you're sitting there and and who loans somebody?”

175,000 dollars. To get an almost degree in 18 year old. Yeah, only the US Congress would do that. Only there's only one organization that's screwed up. And it's the US Congress.

And they can hold. There's a student loan crisis. It's awful. We should forgive the student loans. Biden said, well, yeah, but you keep making them. You bunch of bozos. So why do we need to forgive them if you're going to keep making them? You keep making these loans over and over and over and over and some poor young girl goes across the state line. And goes to another state to get a degree and oh, wait, she didn't.

Did you know that 54% of the people that start four year degrees finish them?

“That by definition means half don't. And you get where she is.”

And she married young man serving his country. Thank you serve for serving your country. And now they've got a beautiful baby on the way. What an awesome start to life. But they got this cloud hanging over their head full of knives. The Congress set up. And we Americans have allowed this because we keep electing the morons that keep this stuff on the books. They're called congressmen and congress women.

They're morons because they keep doing this over and over and over and over again. And then they talk about it like a politician. That's awful. This sort of say, well, you caused it. You can't talk about it being awful. And you sit there and cause it. And moms and dads, you ought to have your butt kicked up around your neck and wear it like a collar if you let your kid do this. You really should mean what kind of parent says, oh, honey, go live your dream. So get it degree and left handed puppetry and go 100,000, 100,000, $75,000 in debt. You parents ought to be smacked in the next week for your lack of backbone to stand up to your own teenager.

No, you're not doing that. That's stupid. That's a parental answer. Welcome to a Ramsey Family Meeting. [ Music ] Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. Every day on this show, we help people work through real money problems and figure out what to do next. Well, you can get that same kind of help anytime with Ask Ramsey. Ask your money question and get answers built on Ramsey principles we use on the show.

Whether you're making a decision or just want something explained, Ask Ramsey is here to help.

That's RamseySolutions.com.

[ Music ] If you're private student loans are into fault, when you fall and so far behind the loan is considered unpaid. That's what default means. Why ReFi might be able to help? They help borrowers in tough situations, explore low, fixed rate, refinancing options that fits your budget. Go to yreFi.com/Ramsey. That's the letter. Why are EFY.com/Ramsey might not be in all states? The question comes from Sam and North Dakota. My wife and I are 29 with no debt and are currently saving for our kids college.

“When the rainy day comes and you have to dig into your three to six months emergency fund, do you pause investing in saving for college to focus on replenishing your emergency fund?”

I would say depends on how much you have to dip into it. Hopefully you don't have to go through all the paperwork to pause all that. If it's a significant amount, yes, you probably would. But in a perfect world, you would just cash flow some extra money and get it filled back up in the next month or two. You would depend. It kind of feels like this is a hypothetical. Yes.

Because if you have a situation where I'll say you got $15,000 in your emergency fund and you take 12 out, you're probably going to stop everything. And you wouldn't even have to ask the question.

“But most of the time, what has happened in reality with people were coaching and even Sharon's house and Rachel and Winston's house is, you know, you have a little bit of an emergency or some kind of hit.”

And you cash flow the emergency without even touching the emergency fund a lot of times. If not, your emergency fund takes a little hit a three or four thousand five thousand dollar hit or something like that and you just cash flow the replenishing like you were saying. I mean, major hit, most people don't even ask, they kind of know, I got to get that rebuilt. Yeah, like if you lose a job, for instance, I mean, everything kind of goes on pause until we get the income back, you know, so that would that would just happen naturally.

Exactly. Yeah, you get when you're the 401k certainly would have been stopped, but yeah, you stop your 529 and you stop the other spouses 401k that kind of stuff you stop all investing while we, you know, get straightened around and, but again, that you you're diminishing your expenses or your money going out. Right in order to not have to touch the emergency fund in that case.

“Elizabeth is with us that is in Salt Lake City. Hi, Elizabeth, how are you?”

How are you doing? Better than I deserve, what's up? So I fear that my husband and I have gotten ourselves into a bad situation. We just moved into a new house before selling our old house.

And then we also have some rental properties that are not currently rented. So we are basically drowning in mortgage debt and the house that we're in now.

And we're almost considering listing this house too and just seeing which one sells first just to get one sold. And so I just wanted to see, I guess what you would do in our situation. So the other two were on the market. So one is not on the market. We're trying to get it rented. It's a duplet. It has a, it's house with a base. Okay, so that I'm broke. You don't need a two place. Okay.

We just don't know that we could sell it. We could make probably a shower in a month on it. We just don't, I guess we haven't listed it, but we don't know that we could sell it and make enough money, but I mean. I want you to sell it anyway. It's not, it's not an asset. It's a liability because it's not renting for enough to screw with. If you think you got $12,000 gross cash flow, you know what that means? That means annually, you're probably losing money when you incorporate. Of vacancy and repairs and legal fees for evictions and so on. Yeah, you're not making money.

Okay. That duplets has zero fun in it. So with that, and then just keep our other one. That is to get them both listed aggressively. So I don't sell my new house. Okay. The house that we moved out of. We have had it listed for four months and we've had almost no interest dropped the price. We've dropped it 25,000 drop it again. Okay, just keep dropping it until when you lose your butt on this, learn your lesson.

Yeah. You should never have done this deal.

Yeah. Okay.

And I hope you don't have to sell the house. You may have to sell your house though.

“How much, how much shorter you guys and monthals of it?”

Well, I don't really know. I have been to construct. She has a key other construction company. So he, some months makes, no money, some months will make 50 grand. But we have, we have about a hundred thousand dollars in our savings. And we are feeling like for the next few months. If we keep all these properties, we're going to be taking out of our savings and then we have to credit card debt too. Yeah. How much credit card debt? 30,000. Yeah. My hope is is that you can get these two properties sold really fast without having to dip into the hundred too much.

And then you can write a check when that's done and get rid of the credit card debt. And you guys need to, you, you guys need to quit living hand to mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Construction businesses.

I grew up in the real estate and construction business. And too many people in our world think we can out earn our bad decisions and chaos.

And I tried for a long time and I couldn't do it. And I don't think you guys can either. The problem with dropping the price on the house we moved out of is that right now, if we, if we sold at the price of that now, we would make about 175,000. His dad loaned us the down payment for this house, which was 150,000. So the deal was that he would loan us that until we sold the house. And then we would use that money to pay him back. So would it be worth it? And to just keep dropping the price?

Yeah. To write his dad a check out of your 100,000. Okay. You've become, all right. Dad, it's that or sell the house, you're in. I mean, I don't care.

But you, you called me and said you're drowning. I'm trying to keep you from drowning.

Yeah.

“And you have to get very precise, very clear and sharpen your machete to keep from drowning.”

And quit trying to hold on to all these different things with, I'm going to hold onto this and the problem with this. And I got to hold and it makes a thousand dollars. And it's a stupid duplex in my daddy and law. And you know, you just, you're going to have to go something's going to give here. We better decide what it is or it's going to decide for us. Yeah. I think that one of the bigger problems is my husband really wants to.

We have a few other rental properties that don't, I mean, maybe a few hundred a month. But he wants to have eventually a bunch of rental properties that I think. Yeah, you guys are going to make this. You guys are going to lose everything. Elizabeth, I wish I could just wave a wand and just create peace in your life. You guys are just running and running and running and it's not worth the stress. He has, he has brought off on this idea that if you buy real estate, it'll make you rich real estate will cause you to go bankrupt.

If you're highly leveraged in it and you have no money, I know I did it. I'm an expert on that. I have a PhD in that. And so, you know, just, you guys have, what's the 30,000 credit card that was that just to keep something else.

“Is that lifestyle or was that a specific?”

Bruno, that's my husband. For his, for his business, he will like run up his credit card for a job that he's doing and then when he gets paid. Yeah, you're living, you're all living backwards. If you guys don't get your business organized and you don't sell off all this rental property and you're probably not going to. You're going to go broke.

You're going to lose everything. It's going to come crashing down around your head. I've done this for 30 years. You have all the symptoms of somebody who's going to be bankrupt in 36 months. You're not going to make it. If you don't get your freaking business act together and get your business act human going, where you actually know what you're making and quit running a dad gum construction company.

This size out of your hip pocket with a credit card. That's just completely primitive. You're going to have to add to your sophistication level to stay open and you're going to have to quit borrowing money up here. I balls on all these real estate deals and acting like there's no tomorrow. And have to go to dad.

Do you want to do that? Properties are cash flowing a hundred bucks. Translation, they're losing money every year. You're losing money on all of that. And then you bought a house without having the other one sold and your handcuffed to your father and law.

You've done like a whole laundry list of everything that's going to cause people to go broke. And if you guys don't rush and undo that laundry list, you're going to go broke. Yes, I hope I'm scaring you. I hope I'm terrifying you enough that you go in and put for sales signs on everything. And you hire a freaking accountant and get somebody under the straightness construction company up and make sure it's actually making a profit.

I'm not even sure it is. We may just be swapping dollars the way we do things over there. You guys kind of stop as slow as with your scare me to death.

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. Okay, well, that's the problem. Most people don't pay attention to how they spend their money. So it does whatever it wants.

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[Music] Adam is in Green Bay. Hey, Adam, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, dude, it's your take on the call. Sure. What's up? Well, I thought maybe I could get Dave Ramsey to tell me it's okay to buy a new vehicle.

Nope. That's the short answer, huh?

Are you having that worth of a million dollars a greater?

Not exactly.

“Well, it's either yes or no. There's not exactly. I mean, it's a math thing.”

It's a no. Okay, all right. I know, all right. Then if you're buying a new car, you're losing too much in value. You could do whatever you want to do. But that's I don't find millionaires that ask this question. People that become millionaires don't ask this question. They don't say how close to the edge of being dumb. Can I get and still become wealthy? They don't ask it that way. They go, I want to stay way away from the edge.

I'm going to drive an old used car and build up money because cars go down and value like a rock. That's where Chevy gets that. Yep. What's your what's the car? Yeah. Well, I want to hear the numbers. Yeah. Well, we kind of have our facts out on a Toyota Sienna. For wearing Wisconsin, so I will drive as nice. This one can tell.

It should be really handy for us. Got a couple small kids who want to be able to have a little bit of extra room for. Tolding people around. That's the one we kind of settled on and the trouble is I would be very happy. My wife and I talked about it would be very happy to buy a used model for a few years old.

Maybe even a little bit older. It has reasonable miles for a big drop down and cost.

But the problem is with this one.

And you look at ones that are two or three years old and it's still going through the same prices of new one. You got to get to 100,000 miles or better. You know, six, seven, eight years old before you really see the prices coming down. In our case, we'd be like cash, you know, so we're not financing it. And even with paying the cash, we still have our emergency funds to stock.

You know, about one, 80. And this is what, 80,000 out of car. 55. 55. And brand new they're going for what close to that.

Yeah, well, that would be there would be a brand new price. You know, tax, I don't know, that would probably be a little bit more, but 50, 70, 80, some of that will. And what other car do you guys have? Yeah, well, my wife has got into a car accident, so I'm kind of under the gun. And I have a Tesla model line that's also paid off.

Okay. And worth what? Uh, I'll go a 30. Okay, I'm just trying to get out of that. I got a 20, 24, 20 to see in a, I'll sell you for $43,000, because I can buy it right now for 42.

Uh, you didn't bring it to me. I don't care if it's near you or not for $10,000, you can figure it out. Yeah, yeah. I just looked it up online.

It took me about a half a second while I was talking to you.

Okay. In other words, your whole price scenarios absolutely BS. You've completely convinced yourself that the new one is the same price. It's not. Here's another one for $45 and another one for $45.

$20, 24. Oh, I should have, I should have, yeah, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have specified.

“Uh, I think if you feel, filter out the, if you're looking at the old dry and with the total,”

the ability to tell, um, I think that's going to change a little bit. So what are you toeing? Uh, we have a pop up camper. Um, maybe trailer. Okay, and what's your other car?

Tesla.

Oh, yeah, you said that. I'm sorry, I missed that while I was looking up the Toyota. Okay. Um, and, um, I didn't do whatever you want, but the thing that, the, the overarching.

“Decision making paradigm is what you have to fight against.”

Um, and, and number one thing that you've violated is, I mean, I haven't looked up. I honestly just typed in 20, 24 Toyota's in just to see what they're doing. And they're all in the 45, 41, 42, 43. There's like seven up on the first page. It came up 30 seconds later and I haven't even, I haven't even searched yet.

Yeah, so I don't know about the toeing part of their all wheel drive part. And, and she totaled her car. Yeah, her car is what? Uh, even the Nissan world. And we were kind of, we were already.

The funny thing is we were leaving the dealership. Some talking about getting the new vehicle once you got rented. Okay. So, so problem number one is, and, and we all do this. So I'm not going to pick on you too harshly.

Um, I'm not going to mess with you because you're asking the question in a proper tone and I appreciate that. Thank you. I'll be nice. But, um, so when I do the thing that you're doing, um, I, it's just I'm rationalizing and I'm trying to figure out a way to get what I want. And you can probably afford it and it's not going to bankrupt you. Okay. So you do whatever you want to do, but I'm not going to tell you to do it because, um, you know, because you can buy this car. $10,000 cheaper than new.

“For sure, a hundred percent chance you can and you just hadn't found it yet. You haven't looked yet.”

You just had the energy and the urgency to replace. And, you know, and, you know, we're moving up for God's sake from a rogue, which is a completely different vehicle. It's in a different class. The CN is a bazillion times a better car than the rogue. Right?

Yeah. I'm really glad you're going to be there. You know, we love a mini van. Yeah. It's a great car. Maybe there's another class, so many van that's just saying they'll give you the same stuff. You know, the Honda Odyssey or something, right? What's the one you got?

Mm-hmm. That would you go out of the same thing? Yeah. And so that's the quick. It's the Queen jewel.

It's probably more. I don't know. Probably similar. I got no idea. But, um, it's a good car, though, and I don't know about towing it.

I don't know about all-wheel drive and both those things are okay. But the second thing is this, you've got to adopt everyone, including you at him, including me. The mindset of saying, okay, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, because the rich people keep doing rich people stuff and poor people keep doing poor people stuff.

And middle class people keep taking out car payments on new cars that they can't really afford to pull a pop-up camper.

“But he's not taking out pants, but that's what middle class people do.”

And you're going to lose $10,000 when you drive it across the, when you go across the curb and it goes that was the sound of $10,000. That's what that sounded like. That's exactly what it sounded like. And so you've got to get out of that mindset that that's okay until you have enough money to waste that much money.

Now, I waste that much money.

I buy new cars, but I've got several hundred million dollars in that worth.

And so I can afford the blump-blump sound. It's not that big a deal. And $600 million. So, you know, you just, that, it's okay. But I want you to get there. I want you to be where you have whatever you just threw out like insane numbers.

Okay. It's just talking. The point is, the point is that you build well by not buying things that go down in value. You're as a little larger. You have a unique situation.

I do, but I can tell you about doing this stuff. And also you make a great end. I mean, like, yes, but for the, but for people that we talked to that are, that are doing this that are baby subs millionaires people we talked to are different. They're not different. We're not better than them. Not that we're better.

You just said, you are sitting in a 600 million dollar building.

That, that's a normal. That's okay. We're normalizing life. Everyone. The average person who made six to four thousand dollars.

Can I finish? The 100% but they don't have to sit in a 600 million dollar building. The average income in America is $64,000. The baby subs millionaires that we talk to do very simple things. They live on less than they make.

They invest into their Roth IRAs and their 401ks. They don't send $1,200 car payments to car companies. They pay themselves. And they don't buy new cars. All of that.

Yes. So all that to say, yes, you do not have. That's how they became millionaire. It is. That is how they became millionaire. Success.

It's. I'm dead.

Okay. The average person isn't going to go and build a 600 million.

No, that's not the point.

I don't want to be a hypocrite. I don't buy new cars when I do. And without complaining, I can afford to. A million dollars. Yes.

If you've been that worth a million dollars, you can buy a car.

I can afford it. I want you to be able to afford it. I want you to be able to afford it. I want you to be able to afford it. And so yeah, Adam, we were harder on each other than we were you.

That's great.

“You should not feel uncertain about investing and you don't have to.”

That's why we created investing essentials. A two night virtual event where George Camo and I walk you through my playbook for investing and wealth planning. You can notify everything from 401k's and mutual funds to passing on wealth. So you can invest with confidence. Take it start at $199.

Get yours today at ramsysolutions.com/events or click the link in the show notes. Our scripture today is a 43 18 and 19 forget the former things. Do not dwell on the past. See I'm doing a new thing. Now it's brings up.

Do you not perceive it? I'm making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

Albert Einstein said a person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

I like the Henry Ford quote, two he says those of us who make mistakes have those who never make mistakes work for us. Buying or selling your home is a high stakes proposition because one bad deal could really screw up everything.

“That's why ramsy trusted connects you with vetted real estate agents who are trusted by ramsy because they're high octane high protein.”

To find one for free a ramsy trusted agent that is go to ramsysolutions.com/agent or click the link in the description. If you're listening on YouTube or podcast. There's some backstory and history that's worth going into to make sure that we settle that last little interchange exchange. So number one.

The bottom line is is that wealthy people that we have studied 10,000 millionaires in our research do not buy new cars.

Then after they get their first one to five million dollars they're driving the typical is out he was looking at a toy out is honestly a two year old toy out. When I'm interviewing a millionaires I ask them all the time what they're driving and they drive a 10 or they drive a two year old car and I told them to upgrade their car because they're still being too big a type. They've gone too far but that's the millionaires people who want to drive new cars typically land and stay in the middle class.

“And then with high car payments that's what our data says so we're not going to tell you to buy a new car until you have a million dollars and you can afford to take the loss.”

Then let's talk about me saying I've got a sitting in a 600 million dollar building or whatever and Rachel not liking that because it's not relatable. Other people don't understand and they just blow me off because they don't listen to that so the history is this I've got several brand new cars that I bought and I don't want to be a hypocrite the first time on the Dave Ramsey show it was called back in those days because it was. Because it was me no I'm not that it's not the place back in the day when the dinosaurs were on the earth I was driving a was that I can't remember this number on the thing at the little Mercedes it was a little it was a little bloom Mercedes coupe and it had 230,000 miles on it I bought it for $7,000 it overheated on the way to a live event in Chattanooga I was driving from Nashville to Chattanooga the vice president of live ventures in the car with me we're on the side of the road and I'm pouring water over.

The water heater trying to get to cool off and get water back in to get to the live event and the car is worth probably at that point $3,000 I'd driven it in the ground and he's like this is ridiculous you're a millionaire you need to buy a good car and I said I can't buy and I can't drive a good car and be on the radio telling people to drive. So they can get out of debt and he goes yeah, you can you need to be the proof that it works on the other side absolutely and I love like growing house later with great I was so worried that Twitter was going to attack me.

And then consistent and I was a hypocrite and I bought a two year old Jaguar which was a very nice car at the time and upgraded considerably from like $3,000 to $20,000 in those days or whatever it was and but I went through this great angst that it was okay for me to buy something nice when I had the freaking money. And so I had to just buy instead I'm going to be the poster child that goes you can go do this if you go do this and so.

“That's why I still don't want to come on the air and say I buy a new car I bought several new cars and I can afford to lose that money.”

So you're justifying saying here's what I have so that I can afford it but I wasn't talking down.

No, no, I don't think you were talking down at all. I was just saying you don't have to justify I think majority people that listen they know. Well, no, some of them don't and you'll read it in the comments later after this argument, but you read the comments and I don't but every now and then I will. James is in Chicago. Hey James, how are you? Hey guys, I'm good. How are you? Better than we deserve for sure. What's up?

So my mother and I've got a house that recently went under contract to sell for 335 and then. How a couple of weeks later, you know, prays for 360. They haven't closed on the house and they want for another 2 or 3 weeks. Is there any recourse for to close that gap at all? Okay, somebody missed it. The real estate agent. I believe so and and, you know, I hear all your commercials about the trusted real estate agents and I think it that was certainly the case.

My man, it was a normal agent. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, I'm saying. You think the agent screwed up in the original pricing and talked convinced your mother and lot of seller house to cheap.

“I believe so. Do you think the appraisal is actually accurate?”

Yes, I do because the house is I would surprise when she said we should list a 335. And then she went and sold it before it even listed. It was just kind of a, you know, friend of a friend situation. I better by job dollar. Yeah, so it's 35,000 dollars under priced or about 10%. And there's already somebody this ball. It's close to the contract, supposed to close any minute. You're right, you're.

Yeah. Well, I'm

the first thing that pops into my head, James, and I'm just going off the cuff is well, she sold her house to cheap. That's sad because she's given her word. She signed a contract.

And I don't want her to get sued for specific performance under this contract. And then the second thing that pops into my head is I want to kick the incompetent real estate agents, but But I don't Ethically, I can't tell her to break that contract. Right.

I wish she had done a better job and listened to you. I wish she'd done a better job at selecting her agent. And I bet I'm going to hear of that this lady is in. Needs this money bad, doesn't she? Something like that. Gosh.

It would help if she had it.

Well, it always would help.

Is there anything else going on in the deal is the contract contingent upon a, whatever, whatever, whatever, like a, like the sale of the home inspection as the home inspection report come back? The home inspection came back clear. There's there's nothing pending there.

“The only thing I can think of is if they're alone fall through last minute.”

Yeah, I mean, there's. Sorry, I'm trying to think three weeks until closing. Yeah. So I don't know if they're alone is approved. They've no idea, but if there's, if that fall through, we can re-list.

And then, you know, we saw that problem. Exactly. Exactly. You know, and then. And get a new real estate agent. Certainly.

Um, yeah, I mean, unless there's something sideways in the contract deal that she can use to ethically get out like I knew a guy who had his house on the market. Um, and the raid on inspection came back and found Raid on and they wanted him to spend $500 to fix the Raid on and he said no contracts over and client canceled the whole thing. Because he wanted out the deal and he used that to get out of the deal, but he had a legal ethical out. Because he refused to fix the Raid on and he had the right to do that in the contract.

So, um, you know, that, that's the kind of thing that I like if they came back with something in the home inspection, you say mom, I'm not going to do that. That's part of the home inspection process and then they would go, well, you know, okay, we'll take it anyway. No, we're not going to fix it and we're not based on this home inspection we're not selling the house. You could just mean there there'd be a way to walk out of it. Then legally and ethically, but I don't think there is here.

To be sure.

Just to see. I know. But I would just help.

“That's what you always say, the agents are important. I know. And I would feel bad for that family on the other end, who's in contract for something that you kind of go back on your word, just from like a, I mean, it's worth it.”

It's worth it. It's worth it.

Then what I'm saying, like the new price is what the house is worth. I get it. But that's still feels wrong. If you gave your word, you sold the house.

“Yeah, and people walk away from contracts like they walk away from everything in this society today too much. You should honor your word.”

And so I hate it. I don't like it. I've signed up for things I wish that didn't sign up for, but And also to it's it, you know, the to sell a house today is harder than it was a few years ago. So she may have even even if it was at 360 had to negotiate down.

Some anyways, right? So you may not have gotten the full 60 anyways. You would never know.

Yep. Sorry.

“So you should get a high octane, high protein, Ramsey trusted real estate agent, or you shouldn't get one at all.”

This is what you get. You make a mistake. It's a $30,000 mistake. It's huge. I put this hour of the Ramsey show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. And the meantime remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace. And that's to walk daily on them with the principal piece Christ Jesus.