Building Wealth Is Hard but Being Broke Is Harder

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ramsey Show – Building Wealth Is Hard but Being Broke Is Harder

Release Date: February 18, 2025
Host: Dave Ramsey
Co-Host: Jade Washall

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Introduction

In this episode of The Ramsey Show, Dave Ramsey and co-host Jade Washall delve into the complexities of building wealth amidst financial struggles. The central theme revolves around overcoming debt, maintaining financial transparency in relationships, and making informed investment decisions to secure a stable financial future.

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1. Overcoming Debt and Relationship Strains

Caller: Jade Warshaw shares a personal struggle involving significant credit card debt accumulated by her 68-year-old wife over five years due to gambling. Despite being retired, Jade's family income allows them some flexibility, but trust has been severely impacted.

• Jade Washall [00:58]: "I'm a 75-year-old senior with a 68-year-old wife. I found out I was $53,000 in debt on credit cards..."

Dave Ramsey emphasizes the importance of rebuilding trust and establishing financial boundaries:

• Dave Ramsey [05:03]: "You’re trying to borrow money to get out of debt, and that's impossible. You have to pay in order to get out of debt."

He outlines a strategic plan:

• Reestablish Trust: Jade and her wife must confront the gambling issue transparently.
• Financial Control: Jade should take over all financial responsibilities for the next few years.
• Debt Repayment: Utilize existing IRAs and allocate resources to eliminate the debt without further borrowing.

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2. Building Financial Transparency in Marriage

The discussion shifts to maintaining financial transparency to prevent secrets and deceit in marriages. Jade and Dave explore practical steps to ensure both partners are on the same financial page.

• Dave Ramsey [10:11]: "If you have agreement before the month begins of where every dollar is going, one of you is the nerd and you did all the details, and the other one looked at it and changed a few things and then agreed to it. There is no room in that because we've agreed to where every dollar is going."

Key Strategies Discussed:

• Shared Access: Both partners should have access to all financial accounts and passwords.
• Regular Communication: Consistent discussions about finances to align goals and expenditures.
• Unified Budgeting: Using tools like the EveryDollar budgeting app to track and agree on spending.

A notable quote reinforcing transparency:

• Caller [14:11]: "Nobody has anything to hide."

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3. Investment Decisions: Crypto vs. Debt Repayment

Caller: Arabella from Springfield, Missouri, seeks advice on whether to sell her $60,000 crypto portfolio to pay off $51,000 in debt or hold out for potential gains.

• Arabella: "We are about to close on a house, and we have no credit card debt, but we have 14,000 student loans and 37 in an auto loan."

Dave Ramsey advises against speculative investments like crypto, emphasizing the importance of stability and debt elimination:

• Dave Ramsey [22:38]: "You don't have a good clear stream of communication where everybody... This is an extreme, high-risk investment. It's the roll of the dice."

He categorizes crypto as speculation rather than investment, cautioning against relying on volatile assets to secure financial health.

Recommendation:

• Sell Crypto Assets: Use proceeds to eliminate existing debts.
• Avoid Market Timing: Focus on proven financial strategies over unpredictable investments.

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4. Success Story: Eliminating $125,000 Debt in 28 Months

A standout segment features a couple from Kansas City, Missouri, who successfully paid off $125,000 in debt over 28 months using Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps and Snowball Method.

• Caller Zach & Terry [66:00]: "We paid $125,060.77 in debt over 28 months."

Key Elements of Their Success:

• Intense Work Ethic: Averaging 55 to 70-hour weeks.
• Total Commitment: Prioritized debt elimination over personal comfort.
• Support System: Encouragement from family and friends played a crucial role.

A motivational exchange highlights their dedication:

• Caller [72:17]: "It's all worth it because we don't owe anybody anymore."
• Dave Ramsey [72:37]: "Nobody can argue with your success because it's your success."

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5. Handling Legal and Family Disputes Over Estate

Caller: Randy from Dallas, Texas, discusses a distressing situation where his aunt was wrongfully placed in a nursing home by his sister-in-law to gain control over her assets worth approximately $375,000.

• Randy [76:35]: "They figured they could cash her out and she'd be gone."

Dave Ramsey provides actionable steps:

• Seek Specialized Legal Counsel: Engage an attorney specializing in elder law and guardianship.
• Court Intervention: Present evidence to a judge to revoke unauthorized guardianship.
• Protect Assets: Utilize legal tools like quit claim deeds to transfer property titles.

Challenges Highlighted:

• Family Conflicts: Navigating internal family disputes can complicate legal processes.
• Legal Costs: High expense of specialized legal assistance.

Notable advice:

• Dave Ramsey [79:03]: "Bring her up, put her on the stand. You know, let's make an assessment right here in front of everybody."

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6. Listener Engagement and Final Thoughts

The episode concludes with further calls addressing various financial dilemmas, reinforcing the importance of disciplined budgeting, strategic debt repayment, and maintaining financial integrity within personal relationships.

Closing Messages:

• Dave Ramsey: Encourages listeners to adopt a proactive approach to finances, emphasizing that financial freedom is attainable with commitment and the right strategies.
• Motivation: Highlighting the significance of having a strong "why" to stay motivated through financial challenges.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Jade Washall [00:58]: "I'm a 75-year-old senior with a 68-year-old wife. I found out I was $53,000 in debt on credit cards..."
• Dave Ramsey [05:03]: "You’re trying to borrow money to get out of debt, and that's impossible. You have to pay in order to get out of debt."
• Dave Ramsey [10:11]: "If you have agreement before the month begins of where every dollar is going... there is no room in that because we've agreed to where every dollar is going."
• Dave Ramsey [22:38]: "You don't have a good clear stream of communication where everybody... This is an extreme, high-risk investment. It's the roll of the dice."
• Caller Zach [66:17]: "$125,060.77 paid off in 28 months."
• Dave Ramsey [72:37]: "Nobody can argue with your success because it's your success."
• Dave Ramsey [79:03]: "Bring her up, put her on the stand. You know, let's make an assessment right here in front of everybody."

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Conclusion

This episode of The Ramsey Show offers valuable insights into managing debt, fostering financial transparency in marriages, making prudent investment choices, and navigating complex family financial disputes. Through real-life caller stories and expert advice, Dave Ramsey and Jade Washall provide listeners with actionable strategies to build wealth and achieve financial freedom despite significant challenges.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey show. Where we help people build wealth, do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey. Ramsey. Your host, Jade Washall, Ramsey, personality number one best selling author is my co host. Today you jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. We'll talk about you right in front of you. The phone number is 888-255-2225. The call is free and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. Tommy starts off this hour in Reno, Nevada. Hi Tommy. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[Jade Warshaw]

Good morning and thank you for taking the call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up in your world?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, I'm a 75 year old senior with a 68 year old wife. And I found a month and a half ago that I was $53,000 in debt on credit cards. I thought I was debt free for quite a while now and come to find out that there was money being put against the credit cards from casinos, mostly for the last five years. Anyway, right now I'm lined up to borrow $80,000 at the credit union at 6.625% 30 year amortization. But it's a balloon payment. And the reason I went with that is because I can pay different amounts at different times because I make 30 to $50,000 extra approximately every year over my. Our retirement, our retirement income is 57, 35amonth.

[Caller]

Who, who racked up the credit card bills? Your wife?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, ma'am.

[Caller]

And you didn't know about it?

[Jade Warshaw]

Smart enough to, to keep my nose in the books. And I trusted her 100%.

[Dave Ramsey]

How long you guys been married?

[Jade Warshaw]

13 years. It's my second marriage.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And so approximately half the time you've been married, she's been lying to you?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because she has a gambling problem?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, well, you described to me how you're going to try to fix and get out of this. What about stopping the problem? What are we doing about our gambling problem?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, she, she left me because she knew I'd be really upset and she went to her mother. So she says she's getting, getting counseling every week. But I'm not sure it's for the gambling problem.

[Caller]

What do you think it's for?

[Jade Warshaw]

She's going to a Christian counselor and I'm not sure she's admitting that she has a gambling problem yet.

[Caller]

Well, it's good that she's in counseling. I'm sure if it's a great counselor, they can get to the core of what's going on.

[Jade Warshaw]

Right.

[Caller]

But she has not had contact with you?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, we have contact every day now.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

And we plan to get together again. She's just been kind of dragging her feet as to when.

[Caller]

Well, the good news is she's looking for help. And then it's up to you and her to decide together what the boundaries are going forward and what the marriage needs to look like going forward.

[Jade Warshaw]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now, these cards, I assume they're in both of your names.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, they are.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And you got. You guys have. You don't. You don't have any money saved in retirement.

[Jade Warshaw]

One card is just in her name. That was kind of hidden. And the others are in both our names.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Do you have any money saved in your nest egg?

[Jade Warshaw]

Not very much. I have a $10,000 IRA and I have a 5,000 in checking right now. And my wife has a little ira and she, she won't tell me how much is in it, but I don't think it's more than 50.

[Dave Ramsey]

50,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

50,000? Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Didn't you say that was how much is on the credit cards?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, about 53.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. I think I see a plan evolving here.

[Jade Warshaw]

May have been drawing out of that without telling me, too. I mean, there's some dishonesty here.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, well, yeah, obviously a lot. Okay.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. And I don't. I don't have access to her IRA.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

Which I should.

[Caller]

The 5,000, 735 you're getting every month, is that Social Security? What is that?

[Jade Warshaw]

It's our two social securities. And I'm a retired teacher.

[Caller]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why would you borrow 30,000 more than you need? You said, you know, 80.

[Jade Warshaw]

I finished. We've been full time RVers for quite a while, but I finished a one bedroom house last summer and we moved, finally moved into it. And I'm trying to finish it off completely. And I need about another 30,000 to put the final touches on it.

[Caller]

Hmm. I would not borrow this money. Essentially what you're doing is you're trying to borrow money to get out of debt, and that's impossible. You have to pay in order to get out of debt. You have to use your money and pay off the bill.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Okay, so what I'm going to do in this situation is how do you eat an elephant? A bite at a time. Priority number one is establishing what's going to happen with your relationship. And for your relationship to be brought back together, trust has to be reestablished because there's been a lot of deception. And so there's a path forward. With you and the counselors, where everybody comes clean. She comes clean as being a gambling addict, which she obviously is, and gets help for that. And a part of a normal restoration plan in this situation would be that she does not control money again for the next three or four years, that you control all of it. And if you're together, okay, now, obviously, if you divorce, then that's a whole other thing. If you divorce as a part, if you come back together, we're gonna find out what's in this IRA, and we're gonna use it. Her $50,000 IRA, or whatever's left in it, is gonna go towards this $50,000. And then we're gonna cash flow through the credit card debt, like Jade said, whatever that doesn't cover. And then we're gonna pay out of pocket to finish up the repairs on the house, because you've almost got the house done, and you weren't planning to borrow money before all this blew up. You just said, oh, I'll just add that while I'm cleaning up this other mess. And now you've got a huge, massive debt, 80,000 bucks, that you don't need that around your neck at 75 years old. So the first thing is establish if we can reestablish trust and what the boundaries are going to be in our relationship. If it goes the other way and you end up divorcing, then you're still going to go the same route, and that is, I'm going to find out how much is in this ira, and we're going to use all of her assets to clean up her mess. Whatever's left, you'll have to negotiate on the balance of the credit card debt. But anything she owns in this divorce settlement negotiation, if I'm in your seat, she's going to use to clean up the deception and the lies and the gambling addiction. I'm not using my money and I'm not borrowing money to pay off your stuff. You're paying off every bit of this, especially the card that. Cards that have my name on them. And that's your divorce negotiation. But you got to decide first which direction you're going to go. And obviously she's got a say in that. And so getting with the counselor and establishing some boundaries. But addicts don't get to handle money for the next three to five years. Someone's coming off of alcohol, off of cocaine, off of sports betting, off of off of casino gambling, off of pornography. When they're coming off of this stuff, they are, you know, addicts all are Manipulative, they all lie and so they can't be allowed to handle the family money. And she's that. This is the Ramsey Show. People tell me about their experiences with big banks all the time. Bad service fees that nickel and dime them to death and predatory lending that tries to catch them in never ending cycles of debt. So if you're ready for a bank that puts people over profits, check out Fair Winds Credit Union. I recommend Fairwinds because they share our Ramsey values of helping people get out of debt and live generously. If you go to fairwinds.org Ramsey you'll see the combined checking and savings account bundle they created just for Ramsey fans. This account bundle is designed to help you take control of your finances and stay out of debt. And Fairwinds also has a great mobile app that's safe and secure so you can manage your transactions with peace of mind. Fairwinds has been helping people avoid big bank traps for 75 years. So go to Fairwinds.org Ramsey to learn more. It's easy to join no matter where you live. That's F A I R W I n D s dot org Ramsey.

[Jade Warshaw]

Jade.

[Dave Ramsey]

Walshaw Ramsey personality my co host today. Open phones at triple eight two five five two two five I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. So it is normal, Jade, in the, in most marriages for one of the people to be more. We call them the nerd laughingly around here to be more detail oriented, money oriented. They the one that likes spreadsheets, right? The sicko. That's me. Right. And it's normal for the other one to, we call them the free spirit to you know, just whatever you want to do honey. And that's a normal process. However I will tell you that when the person that is handling the money, unquote, quote unquote does not have a good clear stream of communication where everybody where in my case Sharon knows exactly what's going on because I'm the one doing the budget. Which one of you do it? Sam or you?

[Caller]

I do it.

[Dave Ramsey]

You do it.

[Caller]

I set it up. Tell him about it.

[Dave Ramsey]

He's like, because Rachel doesn't touch it. I mean it's Winston. I mean Winston lays it out and so either way it doesn't matter who it is that the other person is involved enough in the budget to a have input on where our money's going and baby have agreement that this is where our money's going. And so if you have agreement before the month begins of where every dollar is going, one of you is the nerd and you did all the details, and the other one looked at it and changed a few things and then agreed to it. There is no room in that because we've agreed to where every dollar is going. It's why we call the budgeting app Every Dollar. We've agreed where every dollar is going. Now, again, if you're the free spirit, the. I don't care. Whatever you want to do. Honey, I'm not asking you to become a nerd, but I am demanding that you do be an adult and not ask the other person to be the only adult in the family. Well, my husband don't give me any money. My wife won't give me any money. What are you, a child? I mean, you don't get a vote in the house.

[Caller]

Yeah. It's your responsibility to get a vote.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's your responsibility to have a vote. You go. No, I mean, we decided what we were going to do with our money. The nerd will execute the plan. The nerd will probably develop 90% of the plan. Right. But you're in agreement. The neat thing about that is it creates a real clear, combining, unified marriage, where we're unified, we're agreeing on our dreams, we're agreeing on our fears. Because these are two grownups both speaking into where the money that we work so hard for goes. Where's it go? Two grownups. When you do that, you don't. I don't get the call that says my wife was hiding credit card debt. It's almost impossible to do.

[Caller]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Then. Because you know where the money's going. That's right. Even if you're the free spirit and not the nerd. Right. It's almost impossible to do. So you alleviate that. Or my husband, you know, went and bought a bass boat without my permission, all that kind of. That stuff doesn't happen.

[Caller]

Yeah. So this is perfect. Dave. This weekend we had the Money in Marriage event, and I was talking about creating transparency in your marriage. And I was saying there's a couple of things that you can do, just practical things that will make it, like you said, nearly impossible to hide money. And one of those things is sharing passwords. Right. Everybody should have access to the bank account. Everybody can log in. Everybody can see what's going on, turn on the spending notification. Like those are practical things that you can do. And there's. It alleviates any illusion of you're hiding something. I told him, I said, in our house, it's. You would have to work very, very hard to hide something from me. Or vice versa because it's all out in the open. Nobody has anything to hide.

[Dave Ramsey]

I know every one of Sharon's passwords to everything. She knows every one of my passwords to everything. There's no chance I'm doing porn on my computer because she can open it up anytime she wants and look at.

[Caller]

And get in there. And it's not to say that you're simple spy. It's not even anything about spying on your spouse or creeping on your spouse.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you're doing crap you don't that you're ashamed of, you try to hide it, then you hide it. If you're not doing things you don't that you're ashamed of, then you don't have anything to hide.

[Caller]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

So it's a pretty simple thing, right? And so, you know, it's a little difficult. I ran into a guy that they 300,000 in debt on credit cards. His wife just found out and it's all sports betting, which is probably the fastest growing addictive problem that we're running into in the money world right now.

[Caller]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Out of control sports betting. So the dirty little secret of FanDuel, right? The dirty little secret of all these ads. You know why they're buying ads on the Super Bowl? Because they can afford to. They're making so much money off of you guys because you can buy a, you can bet on, you know, whether they're going to dance backwards or forwards after a touchdown. You can bet on anything, right? And they are betting on everything. And it's out of control. Some of you are losing your entire futures to betting on watching someone else earn a living. And it's stupid. But that doesn't happen if husband and wife are both on the same page. You don't have an ability to pay the bill on that without it showing up. And so it's like it just doesn't work. And here's the thing, there's this huge. Not only is it a preventive medicine for things like misbehavior in a marriage, but more importantly it combines you guys and when the preacher said and now you are one. When you are unified and have an agreed future that we are both pulling towards, the probability of you hitting it goes up like 10x.

[Caller]

Yeah, that's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're probably going to be wealthy. And the inverse of that is the number of times we talked to millionaires. We studied 10,000 of them and said how many of you did this in spite of your spouse being an idiot? In spite of Your spouse being out of control in spite of your spouse. My husband's an out of control spender. My wife's a princess. How many of you did that in spite of the fact that you had a child attached to your hip? You know, almost none. They almost all said in the 80 percentile, which is statistically mind blowing. Said the. One of the reasons we're here is we're both adults and we both agreed that we wanted to be here. And that's how you become a millionaire. The chances of you marrying some and then becoming a millionaire are almost zero. So be careful.

[Caller]

Yeah. I saw a guy on the people.

[Dave Ramsey]

Dating, oh, Lord, be careful.

[Caller]

I saw a guy on the Internet talking about the most important decisions, and I agreed with him on this. The most. One of the most important decisions you'll make is who you marry.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yep.

[Caller]

If not the most, there's one with.

[Dave Ramsey]

Charlie Munger on that.

[Caller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's so true. And so again, if you're looking for those ways to be proactive, sharing passwords, passcodes, I'm talking about banks, investment savings, your will, your spouse should know where the will is. Even your electronics, they should be able to have the passcode to your phone, your computer, they should be able to log into your social media and slide in your DM so they can see who else has been sliding in your DMs. Like, this is the transparency you want. Combining bank accounts, we have every dollar, spousal accounts now so that you guys can all have the profile, all see what's going on. And finally, Dave, this one's controversial, but the little location app that's on your phone where you can turn on your location. I didn't know you could do that, but my best friend called me up. She said, jade, share your location with me. And I said, what are you talking about? She said, there's a little button you can add me and I can see where you're at. And at first I was like, why would you want to do that? She goes, you know, you go for runs, you know, early in the morning. I just want to know, make sure you're all right. And I thought, that's great. And so she showed me how to do it. And I said, sam, show me your location. He was happy to do it. And it's not like I'm on my phone looking, where is Sam going? But if you're a person who's not hiding anything and you want the best thing for your marriage, transparency, that's the key that shows, hey, I have Nothing to buy.

[Dave Ramsey]

If we did that, I might not be able to find Sharon, but I could find her phone, lol. Which I am tasked with looking for pretty regularly. So.

[Caller]

That's funny.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's true. That's all people problems right there. I can't find my phone.

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, man.

[Caller]

But Dave, you know the people we say, what's the passcode? And. And they're like, I'll, I'll type it in for you. Yeah, and they want to type it in for you. They don't want to give that. That's a red flag right there, I'm telling you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's your. If that's your husband or your wife, it's a problem.

[Caller]

That's a problem.

[Dave Ramsey]

So here's the thing. All the data that we have from 40 years of doing what we do says not only can you avoid people's misbehavior in a marriage, addiction being one of them, affairs being another. Little difficult to have. A budget line item says, honey, you know, it doesn't work.

[Caller]

Right, Right, Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

That doesn't work. Side. Side, honey, that doesn't work right. So you can't have a budget line item that has that, that one, that one won't. That one won't pass, that won't fly. So you know all. Not only do you avoid all that, but you also are almost guaranteeing your ability to build wealth because you're working together and you're aiming and you're agreeing on our fears, we're agreeing on what we're going to do. And it gets rid of I told you so too, which is a neat thing to get out of a marriage. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Jade Warshaw]

This show is sponsored by Better Help. You've probably heard people talk about different kinds of flags and friendships and romantic relationships. Red flags, green flags, beige flags. Listen, it can be helpful to look for patterns or unsafe behaviors in potential relationships. But all those labels can distract from what's really important. Your values and whether you and your potential partner are willing to wake up every day and choose to honor each other's values. And look, I know it can be tough sometimes to even know what's important to you in a relationship. Therapy can help you figure out what your values actually are and decide your boundaries and your non negotiables. And if you're thinking about starting therapy, try BetterHelp. BetterHelp is 100% online therapy that works with your schedule. To get started, just fill out a short online survey to get matched with a licensed therapist. If it's not the right Fit. You can switch therapists at any time for no extra cost. So whether you're dating, married, building a friendship, or working on yourself, do it with help from BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com ramseyradio to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H E L P.com ramseyradio.

[Dave Ramsey]

Thank you for joining us, America. Jade Washaw Ramsey personality is my co host today. Arabella is with us in Springfield, Missouri. Hi, Arabella. How are you?

[Jade Warshaw]

I'm good. How are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Jade Warshaw]

So I have my husband and I have a crypto portfolio that is at about 60,000 right now. And we are about to close on a house, and we have no credit card debt, but we have 14,000 student loans and 37 in an auto loan. And we don't know if we should sell our crypto right now and just pay off all of our debt and, you know, start this process with a home with a mortgage debt free, or try to wait out the bull run that is projected to happen with crypto in about April. And so, you know, at whatever price, it'll be around then.

[Caller]

I wouldn't try to time the market with it. I mean, you guys are in debt today and you're closing on the house really quickly. And so I would liquidate this crypto and I would pay off this debt. I would do that instantly.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, but do you have any advice on, like, what if it were to go to the projected amounts that the coins we hold are going to go to?

[Dave Ramsey]

You know what the other projected amount is? Right. The other projected amount is zero that they go to. Do you have a recent memory about crypto?

[Jade Warshaw]

So we are not invested in meme coins, which is, I mean, you are invested in crypto.

[Dave Ramsey]

Do you have a recent memory, like in the last 36 months of what that category of investing has done? It's one of the most volatile, high risk investments on the planet. And it's not technically an investment. It's actually called speculation.

[Jade Warshaw]

We were up $30,000 more than we are right now, just right before the tariffs.

[Dave Ramsey]

Interesting. And so what happens when Trump burps again? You're screwed. Okay, okay, so, okay, listen, stop a second. You're acting like this is some kind of steady, predictable investment because it has a long track record. The only track record that crypto has is extreme volatility. That's the facts.

[Jade Warshaw]

So we've been writing it out for five years.

[Dave Ramsey]

You are not listening.

[Caller]

Arabella. Do you know what you sound like?

[Dave Ramsey]

You sound like somebody's in denial.

[Caller]

Someone who's in denial and somebody who's.

[Dave Ramsey]

Like much I do very little cocaine.

[Caller]

Someone's at the crap table. Who's at the craps table. I'm just going to let it ride. I'm hot.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm hot right now.

[Caller]

That's what you sound like. Because it is, it's basically a form of gambling. Cause you don't know what's going to happen. And just because you had a great week two weeks ago, you don't know.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's not investment, it's speculation. It's the roll of the dice. You're in Vegas and your car payments on the line. So the answer to your question is what Jade said. Cash it out today and pay it off. Another way to help you analyze this from a decision making paradigm is to do a sunk cost analysis. Pretend in your mind before you called us and asked this question, pretend in your mind if you said, okay, I have no credit card debt and no car debt. Should I go borrow on my car and on a credit card to buy $60,000 worth of crypto?

[Jade Warshaw]

Absolutely not. Well, it's the same thing, okay?

[Dave Ramsey]

If you don't sell it today, you borrowed it again tomorrow. It's the same thing. It says if you borrowed it. You understand that?

[Jade Warshaw]

I have one more question then. So we, the reason we invest in crypto in the first place is obviously we are Christian and we do not gamble and don't think gambling is okay. But we felt like God showed us these three specific coins that were invested.

[Caller]

Like a crystal ball.

[Jade Warshaw]

And we have just been waiting for the right time for him to show us when to sell. Which is why we've been holding for five years through two bull runs.

[Caller]

Arabella, I'm upset with this. I'm upset that you're telling us this.

[Dave Ramsey]

Really bad theology barabella. Really bad, okay? Because there are, there are no instances in the Bible 0, where speculation, which is what this is, it's not gambling, but it's speculation. The difference in investing and in speculation is speculation is you're buying something you hope is going to go up, that has no track record. That's speculation. You're looking for a short term gain investing is a long term gain. Investing over a long period of time is scriptural. Playing short term games with money that you don't have because you're broke, you have a car payment, you're broke people and you're borrowed on your car and on your credit card effectively to play a short term game. Please don't Blame that on the Holy Spirit. It might have been a spirit, but it wasn't the Holy One. That's nuts. Okay. So sorry. Now I've insulted you completely, but, oh, well, just. That's for the rest of the audience's edification. That's all I can say because I don't think I'm going to help you at all. Oh, my gosh.

[Caller]

Yeah. Clear the air. Okay, let's go.

[Dave Ramsey]

And Matthew gets to follow that in Chicago. Hey, Matthew. How are you?

[Jade Warshaw]

Hey, Mr. Ramsey.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's up?

[Jade Warshaw]

Not much in the parking lot. I'm a barber. I'm waiting to go into work after this. But I called you today because last June, I was looking for a car, a vehicle I couldn't get approved for. A car? For credit. I'm 23 years old. I've been through debt like, twice, like, $10,000 worth. And I read your book, the Snowball Method. I got on, like, a 10,000 debt twice, and then I saved my money a little bit for a down payment for a vehicle. I have a son. I have a fiance. I live with my fiance's mom at her house.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's your question?

[Jade Warshaw]

My question is I got a loan for my grandpa for, like, $35,000 for a Jeep Grand Cherokee response cosigned for me, but he didn't want it. He didn't want the title in his name, so he just paid it off. So I made an arrangement with him to pay him, and he wanted 5% interest. Okay, sounds good. Whatever. I pay $687 a month to him with interest, without the principles, like 602.

[Dave Ramsey]

And it turns out. It turns out this is not all it was cracked up to be. You're not having fun, are you, buddy?

[Jade Warshaw]

Pardon me?

[Dave Ramsey]

This is not fun, is it?

[Jade Warshaw]

It's. It's. I'm.

[Dave Ramsey]

No.

[Jade Warshaw]

I could have watched you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why'd you call us?

[Jade Warshaw]

Because I'm throwing. I feel like I'm throwing money. I realize, okay, this is not assets liability. Make a decent amount of money where it's like, I'm good at saving, but then I. I save more. I want to get my own house, my own property with my wife.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good for you. I work, get rid of the $35,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Car, then I know. And that.

[Dave Ramsey]

You already knew that. That's before you called, didn't you?

[Jade Warshaw]

I did.

[Dave Ramsey]

You just want somebody else to say it instead of your own brain.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, and my family's against me because I said, like, okay, I might as well go to Carmax, sell it. All right. I'd take $8,000 loss. That's fine. I will. I will pay my grandpa back in a few months. Then I'm out of that debt. Right?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yep.

[Jade Warshaw]

And then, whatever. I'll carpool my wife or I'll buy a beater.

[Caller]

Why are they against you? Why do you feel that your family. And by family, is it just fiance is against you?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, no, no. My. My. My father.

[Dave Ramsey]

Is he. Is he paying the payments?

[Jade Warshaw]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

And he doesn't get a vote.

[Jade Warshaw]

Right? Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're like a grown man and stuff.

[Jade Warshaw]

I know.

[Dave Ramsey]

You get to decide this.

[Caller]

Does your family want you to move.

[Dave Ramsey]

Out or are they convinced he's in his fiance's mothers?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, no, no, it's nothing. Nothing. No, it's not my fiance.

[Dave Ramsey]

Your. Your family believes that they're going to be in debt their whole lives. They've lost hope. I haven't lost hope in you. I think you can make it because I think you've got a good brain. I want you to learn to trust your own brain. Your brain is telling you before you call that this is a stupid situation and to get out of it.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I agree with your brain. I think you got a good brain. You can trust it. Not your dad's. Yours. Your dad's not a bad guy. He just doesn't have any money. And you should never take advice from financial advice from broke people, man. It's like taking diet advice from fat people. It's a dumb idea. This is the Ramsey Show. Statistics show that half of Americans don't have enough life insurance or they don't have any at all. I don't understand this, John. Why don't people want to take care of their family? They think they're not going to die or something.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, I used to be one of those guys. I didn't even think about it. And one of my buddies said, hey, the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids. And I immediately went and got got term life insurance.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's a gut punch.

[Jade Warshaw]

For decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse. They've lost somebody important to them.

[Dave Ramsey]

Me too.

[Jade Warshaw]

They don't know what to do next.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're gonna have a crisis here. You know, you got two options. While you're sitting and talking to a young widow, she's concerned about how she's gonna invest all this money properly and not mess this up, or she's concerned how she's gonna eat tomorrow. That's exactly. These are the two options. It's Saying I love you to your family. Term life insurance Jeff Zander and the team at Zander insurance makes it easy and affordable. I've used them personally for 25 years. They're trust. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Jade Washall, Ramsey personality is my co host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We started pre sale on my brand new book. It comes out April 15th and we started selling it yesterday. Thousands of you have already bought it. Thank you very much. We appreciate the endorsement of you Going ahead. The book is called build a business you love. It is the system, the entree leadership system that we have developed. We know from counseling 10,000 businesses plus over the last many years plus what we've done at Ramsey, growing it from a card table in my living room. That business goes through five stages and there are six things that drive the business through those five stages and that is essentially the baby steps for small business. That's the way it works. This is what you're going to experience in small business just like you do with the total money makeover with baby steps. So that's what this book is about. It's the detailed unpacking of the five stages and the six drivers. Build a business you love mastering the five stages of business. It'll come out April 15th and it's on sale today at ramseysolutions.com in the store. If you pre order you get $350 in free bonus items.

[Caller]

Nice.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sal is in Philadelphia. Hi Sal, how are you?

[Jade Warshaw]

Hey guys. Thanks for taking my call. Appreciate it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up?

[Jade Warshaw]

So I'm 21 years old. I have a baby on the way.

[Dave Ramsey]

Congratulations. When's it due?

[Jade Warshaw]

July 14th.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good for you.

[Jade Warshaw]

I have. Thank you. I have my own business in pet care. I'm a dog trainer and I am $300,000 in debt from what my question is. So my question is do I focus on expanding the business, hiring and trying to be able to make the business self running so I could be as present of a dad as possible or focus on paying off debts.

[Caller]

Is the debt business debt? Is it from you building this business? Is that where it came from?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes. Yes, that's where it came from. Most of it.

[Caller]

How did explain why does it take.

[Dave Ramsey]

$300,000 to train a dog?

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Jade Warshaw]

So we started mobile. So I started the business when I was 19 doing it mobile, kept cost low, did it out of my truck and then as we expanded we Decided that we needed a facility. So we rented and then like, kind of renovated a 4,000 square foot facility. That was in April of last year. So we. I took a home equity line of credit loan from my. From my dad, which I know now from listening to you guys is a. No, no. Just give me.

[Caller]

Give me a quick synopsis. If I bring my dog to you and say I'm dropping my dog off, train him, what does it cost me? What do you cost for a service? I'm just curious.

[Jade Warshaw]

Our lowest package is 3375. And our most expensive package is 8000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And these are house pets. They're not service animals or anything.

[Jade Warshaw]

Some. Some are service dogs. Some are protection dogs. We work with a large range.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're doing protection dogs for eight grand? That's low. Okay. All right. So you. You spent money renovating someone else's building that you rent?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. So getting. We did, like, walking kennels we had to put in.

[Dave Ramsey]

But you don't own the building?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, it's a rental.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so where's the three? You spent $300,000 on someone else's building?

[Jade Warshaw]

So the home, every line of credit, the total of it was 20. I'm sorry, was 225,000. And then we used some of that to do employee salaries. When we first moved in, we had some. A lot of that for renovations and then also into marketing. Then we have $30,000 for a. A van that we use.

[Dave Ramsey]

Are you profitable?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah. So last year we did $300,000 in sales. 40,000 of that was profit for our first year.

[Caller]

Wow. What's all the overhead coming?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, so our total overhead per month is 17,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And. And so what's your question, Hunter?

[Jade Warshaw]

So do I focus on expanding the business?

[Dave Ramsey]

No.

[Jade Warshaw]

Hiring? Trying. No. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

You need to make some money with all this money you've spent.

[Jade Warshaw]

Mm.

[Dave Ramsey]

Like you need to double your revenues with your existing facilities and your stupid $30,000 van that you did not need. Okay. You. You.

[Jade Warshaw]

You.

[Dave Ramsey]

You have never seen anything you wanted that you didn't go buy it. Stop it. You're gonna run yourself out of business so fast, it's unbelievable. You need to learn to organically grow the business. Ramsey Invest, Ramsey Investments. Ramsey Solutions has grown from a card table in my living room to a 300 million dollar business. And we've never borrowed a dime. 100% of our growth has been funded by profits. A little bit and a little bit and a little bit and a little bit and a little bit and a little bit. And so now you've invested leasehold improvements in someone else's building. How? What's the length of the lease?

[Jade Warshaw]

You have five years.

[Dave Ramsey]

At the end of five years, all that money's gone. If that guy wants you out, you've got to amortize all of that cost in 5 years on 40k profit. You can't even come close.

[Caller]

Did you know that? Did you realize that or you just didn't care? I'm just curious.

[Jade Warshaw]

Realize which part?

[Caller]

The part that you're leasing and that you don't own the building. So when your lease is up, there's no guarantee that you get to stay there with all the renovations you've made.

[Jade Warshaw]

So what I figured while going through the process of it, like, I believe that the total cost of renovations alone that we did was between like 50 and 65,000. But the goal was to then extend our lease once that five years was up.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's a goal. That's a wish, That's a hope. It's not how you run a business. Okay, so what you, as a young entrepreneur, what I would have you to do is I want you to concentrate on getting revenues up without spending any more money. Stop, quote, expanding. No work.

[Caller]

How many employees do you have?

[Jade Warshaw]

It's just me. I work completely by myself.

[Dave Ramsey]

I thought you said you spent some of this on salaries. Where the heck did the 200 grand go? All I got is 30 in improvements or 40 in improvements and a $30,000 van. Where'd the rest of it go?

[Caller]

You paid yourself out of the loan?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, no, no. I didn't pay myself out of the loan. We had employees. We had up to three at one point. But then in October, we got pretty slow, so I let everyone go. Went down to just me working.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then you have a $40,000 a year job that you own. So your job is to make it an $80,000 a year job that you own and then $100,000 a year job that you own. You need to find out the most profitable areas of your business and grow those areas. And yes, you need to do it. As far as you being at home with the baby, fathers, since time has begun, have gotten up and gone to work, and babies have survived, and you're going to work. My son, you have $300,000 in debt. You've made a mess, and you need a shovel. And you is the shovel.

[Caller]

How much is the lease every month?

[Jade Warshaw]

Lease is 4200.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's why you brought in 300k. And you're only. And you're only making 12% margin on a service oriented business, because you've used it all up, your margins ought to be double, triple what they are. In a service business, you don't have any cost of goods sold except dog food, for God's sakes.

[Caller]

He needs your book, Dave.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so, yeah, I'm going to send you a copy of the Entree Leadership book and jump in on the Entree Leadership podcast and start listening to it that I do on small business and so forth, because we've coached people exactly like you for 20 years and I love small business people. But the disease that you have is the idea that if I spend more, I'm always going to make more. And that is a disease that doesn't work in business. Spending does not equal income. And so you've bought everything fresh and shiny and new and now you need to go make some money. And you probably ought to dump the $30,000 van and get rid of it and get some of the money back towards your dad. Anything you can get rid of and still operate the business and get money back towards your dad. I want you to concentrate on making money, not spending money. And quit telling yourself you just need one more marketing plan or you need one more purchased for this to go break through. In business, if you are not the secret sauce, you're screwed. The other stuff around the dog training is, is window dressing. Your ability to look at an animal and teach it to behave is the secret sauce. And your ability to teach other people to do that, that work for you is the secret sauce. It is not whether you have a van and it's not whether you have a rental property with a kennel in it. It's your ability to do your job. And so if you'll go do that and make a bunch of money, you're going to be a great dad financially and you're going to be fine. But you got a lot of work to do. And it's not unusual for a young dad to be working. It's not a bad thing. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Jade Warshaw]

Have you gotten one of those texts recently claiming to be the USPS with some sketchy link to update your address? It's annoying and a little terrifying and you probably think to yourself, I should do something about this.

[Dave Ramsey]

But where do you even start?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, as your nerdy friend who does the research for you, I found the solution.

[Caller]

They're called Deleteme.

[Dave Ramsey]

And here's the reason they come in the clutch.

[Jade Warshaw]

The Internet is packed with data brokers.

[Caller]

Which are these shady companies whose sole.

[Jade Warshaw]

Purpose is to collect your personal info and sell it for a profit. Enter Deleteme.

[Dave Ramsey]

Delete Me swoops in, finds your info.

[Jade Warshaw]

On these sites and removes it on your behalf.

[Caller]

They even send you a report with all the details. And so far, for me personally, they.

[Jade Warshaw]

Have reviewed 27,000 listings, removed my info from 240 data brokers, and saved me 66 hours in the process. I trust Deleteme to help protect my family and I trust them to help you too. You're going to get fewer spam texts, fewer phishing emails, and fewer creepy robocalls. And Delete Me also makes a great.

[Dave Ramsey]

Gift for other people in your life.

[Caller]

That you care about.

[Jade Warshaw]

Individual plans start at just $9 a month. So take an easy step to protect yourself and and your loved ones today.

[Caller]

And as a Ramsey fan, you'll get.

[Dave Ramsey]

An extra 20% off any of their [e-mail] Ramsey that's joindeleteme.com Ramsey live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey show where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Jade Wash all Ramsey personality number one best selling author is my co host today. Thank you for joining us and for hanging out. It's a free call at Triple 882-55-5225. That's Triple 882-55-225. Mark is in Portland, Oregon. Hey, Mark. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Something's not working, guys. Let me try again. Put everything on hold. And three. There we go. Mark, are you there?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, sir, I'm here.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good. How can I help?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, in 2012, my dad passed away suddenly from cancer.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm sorry.

[Jade Warshaw]

And he didn't have a very concise will put together. He had, you know, directives. When he died, he was taking care of his mother who was suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's. Six months after he died, she died. And that left everything that was supposed to go to kids and grandkids and cousins kind of up in the air. And then eventually everything was in my aunt's name.

[Dave Ramsey]

How so?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah, so how now the, the good. How did it end up in her name?

[Caller]

Probate. She was the deciding that.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, no probate. No probate. Somehow we skated by probate. Nobody was arguing about anything. My aunt happened to be the last surviving child and it just, it just went everything into my aunt's name because my dad's will was not in good shape, but my, my grandmother's was. But she died after my dad. So nothing went to him. So I am in a position now to where, like, I'm the only person who has a steady job out of my siblings. And I'm trying to get my siblings and my cousins together because my. My aunt's husband is also dead. It was just my aunt, and she's kind of going into a little bit of a mental decline. My siblings are. Are. Okay. Everybody knows who's supposed to get what from the end. My cousins. Yeah, from. From the aunt, because she's okay with everybody getting what they was supposed to get in the beginning. Oh, the cousins. Nobody's arguing about anything that they're supposed to get.

[Dave Ramsey]

She's not put it down in a.

[Caller]

Will, and there's no judge involved.

[Jade Warshaw]

Correct. So what we've got. This. This is. This is the. The biggest struggle is my aunt's two children. The only bicker is over her own personal effects that she had. And her husband had the properties. Nothing to anything my grandmother had. They're fighting over those things, and it's making it difficult for any of the rest of us to get a regular will set up.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, well.

[Caller]

What'S the value of all this? All of this, if you had to guess.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so I. I'm gonna be. I'm collecting rent on two homes. There's no mortgages. Everything's paid for. There's no mortgages. I'm collecting rent on two together. They're about 375.

[Dave Ramsey]

Those are to become yours.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. If I were in your shoes, have you sat down in person and talked to your aunt and asked her to do a will?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, I have.

[Dave Ramsey]

And what did she say?

[Jade Warshaw]

She is reluctant to go along with it unless her two kids agree on what is supposed to be divided. That was my aunt's and her husband's.

[Caller]

Do either of her kids. Have you said she's got mental decline? Do either of them have, like, power of attorney or is that on track to start at any point?

[Dave Ramsey]

Are the two. The two houses that you have, are they in your name or your aunt's name?

[Jade Warshaw]

Everything's in the aunt's name.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're going to manage those. Okay. If your aunt does not leave them to you or deed them to you prior to your death, you're going to lose them because you do not have any standing in this family anymore. She has confiscated all the assets into her name. Her assets, if there is no will, will go to her children. You're going to lose these houses, and I.

[Jade Warshaw]

That. That's my struggle.

[Dave Ramsey]

You are. I mean, there's no question. If you don't get this done, this is a $400,000 problem for you and your brother and your sister. So if I'm you and your brother and your sister, I'm gonna grab my cousins and put them in a headlock and go. All right, you twerps, we need to get this straightened out because I'm not letting you take these houses. Y'all need to get over there with your mama and get this written down that.

[Jade Warshaw]

That's what we're struggling to do. Do you have, like, any suggestions and, like, how to speak to them in such a manner? Because headlock. Headlocks won't work. They're a bunch of hillbillies. So, yeah, we all are, actually.

[Dave Ramsey]

But, you know, I mean, I just sit down with them and go, okay, do you think it's fair that I lose these properties because you won't sit down with your mom and get this other stuff worked out? I don't think that's fair. Okay, and the other thing you could do is you could go to your aunt and ask her to quit, claim, deed the properties to you.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, so if that was to occur, would there be, like, some sort of, like, net gain tax?

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. She'll have a. She'll have a gift tax on them. Well, she could actually. But she could avoid it by doing a unified estate tax planning document. But that. That's. It's easier to just do a will, but I can. You know, there's a thing. Write this down. Unified estate tax. Okay. If the estate tax is still in place and Trump, the GOP is currently looking at doing away with it on the federal level. But if that's still in place, you can use up some of her estate tax exemptions by. Against her gift tax. So she would not have gift tax if she files that document. But I've got a feeling this bunch of people doesn't file documents. They just kind of make up whatever they want to do and think it works.

[Jade Warshaw]

And that's how it's been.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's their problem, though. They have the gift tax, not you. So I'm going to go over there and say, auntie, here's two quick claim deeds. I need you to sign these. So the properties are in my name, okay? That's the easiest, cleanest thing you can do here. And your brothers and sisters do the same thing, because I'm afraid, because otherwise this is going to go to your kids, and that's not fair. I need you to sign them right now. I'm not getting up from this table until you sign these because they were supposed to go to my dad and they're supposed to go to me, and you know that. And I need you to sign these and put these properties in my name. That's a. That's a one page document, a quit claim deed. Go see an attorney, have that drawn up for each property and then have a notary notarize them and then you file them at the courthouse and the property is then in your name. It's over. Now, she technically would have be due gift tax on that, and she can avoid that within 12 months of her signing that over to you if she files under the Unified Estate Tax Credit Program. But I got a feeling this lady's not doing any of that.

[Jade Warshaw]

She doesn't. This is a lady. She's never even. Never had a job.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I know. I can tell.

[Jade Warshaw]

I mean, she's raised. She's raised kids. I mean, that's work, too. I mean.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I don't mean that. She's not got any level of financial sophistication.

[Jade Warshaw]

Not at all.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, and so I'm like, yeah. And so you got it. You got to roll over there and you're. Otherwise you're going to lose $400,000. That. That's the problem here, folks, in America, Everybody needs a will. Hello. Everybody needs a will if you need it. If you got a simple estate, go to Mama Bear legal forms dot com. It's very inexpensive. You can have it done by more. If you got a complicated estate, sit down with an estate planning attorney. But everybody needs a will. It's not fair to the people. You look at what his dad and his grandmother have done to him by screwing around and not writing this stuff down. That's wrong, y'all. You need to take care of your family better than that.

[Caller]

Hey, guys, I'm Jade Warshaw and I want to talk to you for a quick second about student loan refinancing. If your payment and your interest rate are burying you and you feel like you can't dig out, refinancing, your student loan debt might make sense. That's because a lower rate could free up more money in your budget and a shorter term could help you pay down your debt faster. So reach out to the student loan refinancing experts today@l Laurelroad.com Ramsey. There you'll find helpful resources like a student loan rate table, a refinancing calculator, and other tools. Plus, you can get an initial rate in just a few minutes. Laurel Road offers low competitive rates starting under 5% and you can get your interest rate even lower if you sign up for autopay. But if your situation is more complex, sign up for a free 30 minute consultation with one of their student loan refinancing experts to get your tough questions answered. Listen, not everybody should refinance their student loan, so make sure you run the numbers, but for some people it is the right move. Learn more@l Laurelroad.com Ramsey to find out more about their student loan refinancing. That's LaurelRoad.com Ramsey Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank National Association. All credit products are subject to credit approval.

[Jade Warshaw]

Hey guys, Dr. John DeLoney here. Finding time to intentionally connect with your spouse can be hard. That's why I'm excited to announce that Money in Marriage Getaway is back. Hang out with me and Rachel Cruz November 6th through 8th in Nashville, Tennessee. You'll learn practical tools to better communicate, deepen your intimacy and more. Plus, we'll dig into your questions with live Q&As early bird tickets start at $749. But hurry. Prices are going up soon and this will sell out. Get [e-mail] events.

[Dave Ramsey]

Jade Washaw Ramsey personality is my co host. When we start talking about the word investing, most people's eyes roll back in their head going, and now I don't understand. Now you've gotten complicated. This is weird. I don't like math. I don't want to talk about investing, you bunch of nerd people. And I don't have a master's degree in finance. And I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. If you're unsure where to start or you're afraid to make a mistake, our Investing Essentials virtual event is going to teach you everything you need to know about how to get started and how to maximize your investments. It's happening March 4th and 5th, two nights, two hours each night. It's George Camel and Dave Ramsey me March 4th and 5th. Tickets are $199. That's what they start at. Plus we're going to go into detail. Nerdville. For those of you super nerds that want to go into the detail, I'm going to open up my playbook. I've only done it one other time, and that was about this time last year. I did one of these events where I go into all of the real estate, own several hundred million dollars worth of real estate. I love real estate and all of the proper analysis and the nerd analysis that we do when we're doing a real estate deal and how to properly unlock all of that and look at it. And it's two hours each night. One night will be almost all real estate.

[Caller]

It's live too, correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's live. Me and George live investing essentials March 4th and 5th. And get your [e-mail] events or click the link in the show notes and get signed up. There's usually a couple hundred thousand people on something like this watching us. So. And by the way, we're going to take questions live by email at the same time so we stop in the middle of it. It's not just a straight teaching. George and I'll have conversations. We're going to answer your questions live some of them. Obviously we can't answer 100,000 of them, but. But we're going to weave in what is a regularly occurring question and make sure it shows up in there. And we really dig into this stuff. So it's not only going to have the basics, which we've been teaching for years, but it's going to have stuff you've never seen me teach before. And George is really, really good at the nerd stuff. So we're going to dig deep into this stuff. Our question of the day is brought to you by why Refi? If you're struggling with defaulted private student loans, why Refi offers a great solution to get you back on track for a low fixed rate or more flexibility. Go to y refi.com Ramsey today. That's the letter y r e f y.com Ramsey might not be in all states.

[Caller]

All right, today's question comes from Bobby in California. He says, should I purchase a home? I'm 48 years old and I have the cash to buy one outright. But my concern is I would be paying HOA fees, property taxes and insurance which equal what I'm paying in rent now. I'm happy with my current apartment. Should I just keep my money in a high yield savings and have less worries that way, or should I bite the bullet and buy a home as an investment for my future? I love this question. So first off, I mean, no matter what, no matter what you do, if you buy a home, whether it's on payments or you pay it off or you buy outright in cash, you're always going to be on the hook. If you have an HOA for the fees and the property taxes and the insurance, like that's, that's just part of the deal. As far as should you buy the house or should you just remain where you are? I mean, you're 48 years old, you've got the money, there's no time like the present. And for me, I kind of break down home ownership into two areas. Number one, it's like we say all the time, it's the biggest line item on most people's budget, right. And so we want to create stability there. When you're renting, it's fluctuating, it's going up and down. You have to deal with lease agreements, all of that stuff. But when you purchase a house, it's yours, you can lock in, especially when you're buying it outright in cash. Right. And then the second purpose is it does help us build wealth. And so those are really, for me, the two primary purposes. And I think that you should do that. Otherwise, when you're renting in perpetuity, you really are at that point starting to throw money down the drain because there's no end to the process. You're not doing it as a means to buy time so that you can buy.

[Dave Ramsey]

So perfect.

[Caller]

That's my answer.

[Dave Ramsey]

So, Bobby, if you're 48, think back to when you were 28 in 2005, what was that? What was that house worth then? What is so for then, don't you wish you owned that now? That's the same thing you're going to have when you're 68 from 48. It's the same 20 year period of time. And so houses go up in value over time. Unless you buy in an area that is a neighborhood in decline of some kind. In general, good, reasonably purchased, reasonable neighborhood single family homes over a 20 year period of time are a gold mine. They go up in value, period. The other thing we can be 100% sure of, during the next 20 years, your rent is going to go up every year or Almost every year, 100% of the time your rent is going to go up. It does not go up when you own the house. The only thing that does go up is HOA fees and insurance and taxes. But that's not going to keep up with rent escalation.

[Caller]

I think he more so has an issue. You know, you see that big nest egg in your account and he likes the way it looks in his account as opposed to.

[Dave Ramsey]

But if that's, that's got to be invested at 10 to 12% to even keep up with what that house is going to grow to. And it's probably not.

[Caller]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I'm going to go buy that house 100% of the time in this situation, because 20 years from today, not because two years from today, but because 20 years from the day, it's going to go way up in value. And 20 years from the day your rent is going to have gone up in value. And as Jade says, you're stabilizing the largest line item in your budget. She's exactly right. Brenda is in Greenville, South Carolina. Hi, Brenda. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[Jade Warshaw]

Hey, how are you doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than we deserve. What's up?

[Jade Warshaw]

I do have a question. I'm 55 and I'm still ranting. I raised my four grandkids, I have for the past 21 years, and I just feel like I'm just too old to get out of debt.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, you're ancient. I can't believe old people like you ask questions. How'd you even dial the phone? As old as you are?

[Caller]

If you're old.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you're old, woman, I'm 64. Who you think you're calling?

[Caller]

That's what I said. If you're old, there's no hope for Dave.

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, I guess I just feel like I'm just, you know, I think about paying, you know, until I start listening to you guys, I think about paying a house and you know, usually it takes 30 years and. No, it doesn't by the end. No, no. And listening to you, you know, I, you know, I've learned a lot, I feel like. And so what is it?

[Dave Ramsey]

Have you got debt now?

[Jade Warshaw]

I do.

[Dave Ramsey]

How much?

[Jade Warshaw]

I do, I guess about. Well, okay, so I did something stupid. You even have a insta, what is it? YouTube or whatever video of it that my son showed me or my grandson that says you pay 800amonth for a car. But anyway, that's me.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so how much do you owe on your car?

[Jade Warshaw]

31, 000.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you make?

[Jade Warshaw]

Sales. Straight down the street for 20,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Gotcha. What do you, what do you, what do you make?

[Jade Warshaw]

I make 43,000 a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. And how much other debt have you got? Hun?

[Jade Warshaw]

Have rent. $2,100 a month.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Rent a house.

[Jade Warshaw]

Right, Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's your monthly. Okay. It's not debt. Do you have any other debt?

[Caller]

Credit cards.

[Jade Warshaw]

Just a few credit cards. I have two personal loans.

[Dave Ramsey]

So the, the big issue is you just bought a car that's way more than you can afford, right?

[Jade Warshaw]

Exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's not fun. You're not having fun, honey?

[Jade Warshaw]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sell a stupid car?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes. Do you want it?

[Dave Ramsey]

Sell it.

[Caller]

Do you have any Cash.

[Jade Warshaw]

Buy it.

[Caller]

Somebody will buy it if you price it right. Do you have any money to cover that? It's upside down. Because it's upside down. $9,000. Right.

[Jade Warshaw]

It's a. Well, you can get. Yeah, exactly. About that. Right.

[Caller]

Do you have any cash stored away anywhere? Any non retirement money?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, I know the only thing I have through my employee is a 401k and you can't get that out unless you're.

[Dave Ramsey]

You can't. So where's the car loan? Who's got the car loan?

[Jade Warshaw]

I have it through Santander.

[Dave Ramsey]

Through what?

[Caller]

Oh, Santander Bank.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, it's subprime. Oh God, it's even worse.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay, it is.

[Dave Ramsey]

Do you have a credit union?

[Jade Warshaw]

I do and I tried to go through them and they asked me to pay on it another six months to a year because I was so upside down in it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, What I want you to do is I want you to go down there and I want you to get them to loan you the money for the hole you're in. Loan you $8,000.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then you sell the car and get you a thousand dollar car.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then you got no car payment. And then you plow through that $8,000. Then you got no credit card debt, no car payment. Now we can start talking about saving up and buying a house.

[Jade Warshaw]

Okay. I'm working now and I work at doordash on the weekends and sometimes at night.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're not afraid of work. You just hadn't. You just bought something you couldn't afford. That's all.

[Jade Warshaw]

Exactly.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. You're okay. We're going to show you how to do all that. I'm going to put you into Financial Peace University and show you how to handle money. Because you're not too old, honey.

[Caller]

Definitely. Surely not.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you're still sucking wind. You got a shot, folks. So yeah, we'll put you into Financial Peace University and every dollar we'll pay for all of it, honey. Because I've been where you are. Where I'm scared and don't know what to do with people. Help me. So we're going to help you. You hang on. This is the Ramsey Show. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get 10 different answers. Economic growth or a recession. Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us work or it will replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 40,000 businesses have future proofed themselves with Netsuite by Oracle. The number one cloud enterprise resource planning system. Ramsey Solutions uses NetSuite and you should too. Whether your company's earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities with one unified business management suite. There's only one source of truth for the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. NetSuite's real time insights and forecasting help you see into the future with actionable data. And when you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you can spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next. And speaking of what's Next, download the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at netsuite.com Ramsey it's free at netsuite.com Ramsey running a business is freaking hard. It's easy to get caught up in the daily challenges and fears that keep you stuck. That's why I want you to reserve your copy of our new book, Build a Business you Love where we share the proven system that helped us break through those challenges and build Ramsey Solutions. From a card table in my living room to a $250 million company in the process. When you pre order today, you're going to get more than $350 in bonuses for free, including an enhanced audiobook experience, early access to the build a business you love ebook, and instant access to our hiring playbook so you can start transforming your business right now. Build a business you love. The essential guide for every business owner like you that wants to grow yourself, lead your team and scale your business. To reserve your copy, go to ramseysolutions.com store ramseysolutions.com store Jade Washall, Ramsey personality, is my co host. If you don't know, we do this show three hours a day, Monday through Friday on the glass in the lobby of Ramch Solutions. And you're welcome to come by anytime. Homemade chocolate chip cookies and coffee are on us. And sometimes there's two people out watching the show live and sometimes there's 200. So just come by if you're making plans. South of Nashville in Franklin, Tennessee. Beautiful little town. That's where we are, right off the interstate. Very easy to come by. In that lobby is a little stage we built called the debt free Scream stage. And that's what happens there almost all the time that someone's on it. And that includes David or Davin and Terry who are here with us. Hey guys, how are you?

[Caller]

We're good, we're good.

[Dave Ramsey]

Where do you guys live? Kansas City, Missouri. All right, very Cool. Sorry about your chiefs.

[Caller]

We're sorry too, man.

[Dave Ramsey]

Too soon. Too soon? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Well, congratulations. You're debt free. How much have you paid off?

[Caller]

$125,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Very cool. How long did that.

[Caller]

Okay, say all of it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Say it again.

[Caller]

$125,060.77.

[Dave Ramsey]

There we go.

[Caller]

Zach.

[Dave Ramsey]

Likely. All right. And how long did this take? 28 months. Good for you and your range of income during that. Two years and four months. So we started at 89,000 and we went down to 52,000 for a little bit, and then we ended at 107.

[Caller]

Wow.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do y'all do for a living? I work in a factory.

[Caller]

I'm in social work field.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Wow. Good for you guys. So what kind of debt was the 125? It's a little bit of everything. Credit cards, student loans, a car. Well, two cars, actually. Y'all were normal? Yeah, we were. Yeah. Normal sucks.

[Caller]

Yeah, it's no medical bills and collections.

[Dave Ramsey]

And now you're weird. Good for you, man.

[Caller]

What got your attention? What caused you to go on this journey a little more than two years ago?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, we decided to get married. And once we decided to get married, I think for me, just as a husband, I was like, oh, okay, I guess I need to start paying attention to this. And so we sat down to start paying, and she had $7,000 in savings, and she put it on the debt. And then that was enough for me to see, and I was locked in and we were running from there. It was all your debt? No, it was both of our debt.

[Caller]

I was in a lot of student loan debt.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. Your degree for social work? Yeah.

[Caller]

Yes. I mean, you guys were living on nothing. How did you. Tell us more about how you did this? Because on 89 and at some point you went to 50. How did this happen?

[Dave Ramsey]

It was a lot of. A lot of work, a lot of overtime. Yeah, that was really what. It was about 55 to 70 hour weeks.

[Caller]

So she didn't see you?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, there was weeks that I was nights and she was days, and we'd pass each other on the way out the apartment.

[Caller]

So we're on the phone and we're driving down the highway and like, hey, I see you.

[Dave Ramsey]

I love you. See you on Thursday. So two years of that. Yeah, that's hard. Was it worth it?

[Caller]

So worth it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Definitely worth it. You got the rest of your life with no debt, right? No debt. Because you're not going back.

[Caller]

Oh, never ever. Yeah. Lots of sacrifices for sure. The Number one question folks ask me is, how do you stay motivated? And so I want to ask you the same questions. How do you stay motivated to almost two and a half years? What does that look like?

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, you're burning the candle, man. You're getting it. I think it was a lot of talks about our future just whenever we have kids, the legacy that we want to leave, and just having reasons that were bigger than, you know, to keep going, than reasons to quit.

[Caller]

So I think that was it for me. I think it was just a lot of prayer. There was times that we were. I mean, we're so tired of doing this. When are we going to be debt free? When are we going to be out? And then just dreaming. We're running around and looking at houses and, oh, one day we're gonna get there. So different things to just try to keep us motivated. But for sure, what was the dream as far as, like, getting our own house is what I meant by that. Like, we were wanting to have our own house, and we want to just set up financial freedom for the bloodline. Really? Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good for you. Change your family tree for sure. That's a big why. Yes, sir. If you have a big enough why, you can plow through some hard stuff. Because it's not forever. It's for two years. Two years sounds like a long time. But when you look back, you're like, ah, no, I mean, we're done. Yeah, Mic drop. We're out of here.

[Caller]

Oh, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good for you. Good for you guys. Well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Go to work, a lot of work, and then just be willing to sacrifice. We missed out on family events and things like that, but, I mean, at the end of the day, it's all worth it because we don't owe anybody anymore. People question your sanity.

[Caller]

Oh, my goodness, yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

People thought we were crazy. We're. Oh, that's good for you, but I'm not gonna do that.

[Caller]

People saying we need credit cards, and we didn't agree on credit cards for, like, the first. I would say, year and a half.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

About year of our marriage, I wanted credit cards for the points, and I tell people now that wasn't a good enough reason. I cut all my credit cards up about a year and a half, and we hit the ground rolling. So has it happened yet? That moment where the same folks who are saying, why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? Asking, how are. How did you do this? How did you do it?

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, yeah, I think recently, more so now. Yeah.

[Caller]

I actually went live on Facebook not too long ago because I posted Our Journey, and then people are like, how did you do it? So I was like, I'll just go live and answer you guys questions. But, yeah, everyone's wondering how we did that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's good. Good for you. Well, a man with an experience is not at the mercy of a man with an opinion. Right. So that's where you are. Congratulations. Very good stuff.

[Caller]

Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Nobody can argue with your success because it's your success. Right. That's where you are, and. Right. If you want to go over there and live that way, you can go over there and live that way. But as for me and my house. Right.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

What we're doing now, how did you run into the Ramsey stuff about the same time you get married?

[Caller]

So for me, in 2016, the church I was attending at the time, they had, like, this financial class, and they were telling us about the baby steps and the snowball method. And so I actually started paying off debt. Then slowly, I wasn't. And attacking it like we did. And then so I had paid, like, two student loans off, I believe, before we got married. And so that's how I got started.

[Dave Ramsey]

And my. My dad, he told me about the show, so I was in the car with him, and he was playing the show, and he talked about the Ramsey show, and obviously I didn't listen at the time. And so then my mom gave me the total money makeover book, and, yeah, it didn't really click to me until we decided that we were getting married. And I was like, oh, I guess I need to take this serious. Time to man up now. Yeah.

[Caller]

Life events do that. Oh, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good for y'all. Well done. I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you.

[Caller]

Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

I bet you got it. I bet you had to have some cheerleaders. Who was your best cheerleaders? Friends, family, parents, grandparents, siblings. Yeah, they're all good.

[Caller]

I would actually say our parents.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Both of our parents. Yeah. I mean, your dad's the one told you listen to radio. Yeah.

[Caller]

Our family and friends, for sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

We had a good support system.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Good. Now, that's necessary because you're going to have the haters, too, so you got to have the Angels and the Devils both right there. Yeah. Good stuff. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you very much. Proud of you. Thank you. Very, very well done. Thanks for making the trip from Kansas City. Hope you enjoy your time here in Nashville. Oh, we did owe anybody, so. All right. Davin and Terry, Kansas City, Missouri. 125,000 paid off in 28 months, making 89 to 52 to 107. Count it down. Let's hear a debt free scream. Three, two, one.

[Caller]

We're debt free. Yeah, I felt that one.

[Dave Ramsey]

That was good. They did it. They did it, right. Well done, you two. Jade, you know, it occurs to me watching those two that, I mean, they're young. I didn't ask them how old they are, but they're young and that. And really, you probably even fall into the same category my daughter does, for sure. Y'all have all grown up with a magic wand in your hand. And if you want something, you push a button, it's at the doorstep and you get it. There's an app for it. There's something that. An easy button. It's a magic wand. Everything's easy. And it's not all easy, but, I mean, it's ridiculous how quickly we can access information or things or even solutions to problems. That's right. That are valid in a digital world. That's all good. The problem is none of that does what those people just did. You know what? They got grit. And grit is not a digital thing. There's nothing easy about what they just did. I mean, they passed each other on the highway and sent a text. I love you. I'll see you Thursday. Did you hear what they said?

[Caller]

I heard it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Newlyweds, you know. Well, what about life balance? Well, they didn't give a crap. They wanted out of debt. That was their life balance. The life balance is they wanted to be out of balance. So they're in balance the rest of their life.

[Caller]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know what they can do now? Anything you, by God, want. When you don't have any payments, you're set up to do whatever you want to do. Now, don't talk to me about balance. Those people got grit, man.

[Caller]

They're getting it.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, those people are heroes right there.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And if you want to teach someone something that you love, your kids, your grandkids, teach them grit, teach them the ability to roll up their sleeves and do what those two got. I don't know where they got that. Grandparents, parents. But those two are studs right there, man. They're amazing. Absolutely incredible. This is the Ramsay Show.

[Caller]

Hey, guys. Rachel Cruze here. All right.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm about to say what everyone already knows, but budgeting is a good thing.

[Caller]

To do now, actually starting. Well, that's where people freeze up.

[Dave Ramsey]

And, you guys, it doesn't have to.

[Caller]

Be that way with the EveryDollar budgeting app. Getting started is super easy and so.

[Jade Warshaw]

Is sticking to it.

[Caller]

You can set up your first budget.

[Dave Ramsey]

In less time than it takes to.

[Caller]

Go through the Chick Fil A drive thru.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's fast.

[Caller]

And the best part, with unlimited budget categories, you can customize it to fit your life.

[Dave Ramsey]

Grocery runs, coffee runs, or planning your next family trip. Whatever you have going on.

[Caller]

Everydollar helps you see exactly what's happening with your money.

[Dave Ramsey]

You'll know what's coming in, what's going out and what's left over for some fun.

[Caller]

Because let's be real, you need some.

[Dave Ramsey]

Fun in your budget.

[Caller]

Everydollar keeps budgeting simple and stress free.

[Dave Ramsey]

Just the way you want it.

[Caller]

So go download the app for free and get started today. Again, go download EveryDollar today.

[Dave Ramsey]

Jade Washall, Ramsey personality is my co host today. This is the last segment for all of you unless you're on the Ramsey network app and then you can get the rest of the show on the Ramsey network app. You can get the whole show on the Ramsey network app and it's completely free, video or audio, however you choose to view it and a lot of other features including you can email us. From the app you get all kinds of searchable tools. It's a great app for managing this show and it's completely free and there's not a paywall and there's not going to be a paywall. So go check it out. Ramsey network app, download it and start using it and you'll get the entire show every day and be able to watch it there. Randy's in Dallas, Texas. Hi Randy. Welcome to the Ramsey show.

[Jade Warshaw]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up?

[Jade Warshaw]

My question is that my aunt. Well, my sister in law had my aunt picked up and she's about 90 years old.

[Dave Ramsey]

What?

[Jade Warshaw]

Had her picked up, not picked up by the police. Had her picked up and sent into a nursing home.

[Dave Ramsey]

Who picked her up?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, that's what we tried to find out. The police said that they didn't do it. So they convinced her. They put her in a car.

[Dave Ramsey]

Who?

[Caller]

The facility. The nursing home picked her up?

[Jade Warshaw]

Correct. They brought the little van over, loaded her up, told her they're going to the bank. They signed some paperwork. They signed some paperwork which is transferring her account or adding their names to her account so they have access.

[Dave Ramsey]

The nursing home bus.

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes. And then the bus went one way and my sister went the other way.

[Dave Ramsey]

Your sister in law was in the van?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, she drove behind him.

[Caller]

So she said it. You're saying she set it up?

[Jade Warshaw]

She set it up.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. How is she kin then? I'm a little bit confused. Sister in law? Her aunt. Your aunt?

[Jade Warshaw]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

So this is your brother's wife, right?

[Jade Warshaw]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Brother's wife put his aunt against her will or against the family's will into a nursing home. Why?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, she has property, so they figured that once they gain access to her, you know, her counts and what she has it figured they could cash her out and she'd be gone. They're. They're banking on the fact that she may pass away.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, she will pass away. Everybody does. But the. So what is all. What is all this property worth?

[Jade Warshaw]

Oh, maybe half a mil.

[Dave Ramsey]

So when you call your brother and say you're a crook, what are you doing? What does your brother say?

[Jade Warshaw]

He acts all confused, says, I don't know what you're talking about. She needed to go. She's mentally disturbed. She doesn't know where she's at.

[Caller]

Did she need to go aside from the property, was it time for her to go?

[Jade Warshaw]

No, actually she's pretty independent for 90 years old. She still drives, she still pays her bills.

[Dave Ramsey]

Not anymore.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, I can't get her out.

[Dave Ramsey]

Do what?

[Jade Warshaw]

I can't get her out. We're barred access. We're barred access from.

[Dave Ramsey]

From seeing her by the nursing home?

[Jade Warshaw]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Have you hired an attorney yet?

[Jade Warshaw]

Yes, we have. And it's very costly. And they told me, they told me to sit down because they wanted to let me know what this would cost and how long this would take.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, and what they say, we go to court.

[Jade Warshaw]

This is not his specialty. He's.

[Dave Ramsey]

So why don't you get someone whose specialty it is? Is it man Hold.

[Caller]

Is it some sort of a restraining old order what has to happen for you?

[Dave Ramsey]

No, he has to go to the court and the court has to appoint a guardian at litem for this lady and take all the power away from the thieves that is his brother and sister in law. The judge will do that in 30 seconds once he understands what's going on. You just got to get in front of the judge.

[Jade Warshaw]

We get in front of the judge and lo and behold, the lady or the attorney who's overseeing her in the nursing home, who's her appointed, her guard or her attorney. They, they. The attorney that's working what we thought was working for her best interest. They're both working together. So they go in front of the judge.

[Dave Ramsey]

The one you hired is working with the other attorney.

[Jade Warshaw]

No, no, no. So she has an attorney. So apparently they had pointed her an attorney, not allowing me to sit here and say I've got an attorney. So you can bring your attorney if you'd like to. Here's the hearing.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, that's not how it works, dude. You can file suit on behalf of your aunt as a guardian at litem and have a judge review this situation because you think a scam is going on and a judge will look at it, you need a new attorney. I think your attorney's an idiot.

[Jade Warshaw]

Now we asked to have guardianship and she said we'll take a look at that. So we have presented the information for that and they went first, brought all these people in, brought a lady in that said, well, she's, she has Alzheimer's. This is what's going on. So when we question her, she's been doing this less than a year and she's. Well, it's really not my specialty. So when we asked the judge, it's not even her specialty. She doesn't even know whether she can assess the lady mental state. No, I call, he goes, I'll take that into account, but let's continue on.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wait a minute, let's just stop. You've been at this story for a while and the I'm not sure we know how to help you. Everything I've told you to do, it sounds like you already are doing. So you're in court, you got a judge looking at it. That's where I was taking you immediately. You were already there before I got to you. So how can we help you?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, the problem is that every time we turn a corner it seems like we run into a dead end. And the thing is, is that the judge, the person that we thought we hired, not my attorney, but the person we thought we hired to help, is basically building a case against us.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why did you hire them?

[Jade Warshaw]

Well, we didn't hire them. They were, they. We, well, we hired them to help and then basically they weren't really helping.

[Caller]

So you need a new attorney. Like what Dave said, the guy, whoever you're working, you need to start fresh. That's the advice.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean I, you know, I don't know how we're supposed to help you. This is a convoluted mess. But you know what you've got to do is you've got to get good counsel on your side and start making a solid case before the judge. That what has occurred is that your brother and your sister in law have stolen a half million dollars from a 90 year old lady and put it in a nursing home against her will and that the judge needs to see that. And then you've got to present evidence that's what exactly occurred. And he will undo all that if he believes that, or she, the judge, whatever it is.

[Caller]

And if the lady is lucid like he said she is, bring her up.

[Dave Ramsey]

Bring her up, put her on the stand. You know, let's make an assessment right here in front of everybody.

[Caller]

God.

[Dave Ramsey]

But anyway, we're not experts in any of this. The only thing we're experts in, stirring up trouble. And it sounds like you're already doing that. So that's the thing to do. How far do you want to take this? How much do you want to invest in this? And you know, and then relationally, how are you going to treat the crooks that are in your family from this point forward?

[Caller]

Wow.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because that's the devastating part is that you've lost a brother in this process because you can't have any dealings with someone that acts that way. And he's not confused. I don't care how he acts, he's not confused. As Dr. John Deloney says, behavior is a language and he has spoken very loudly and you can try to blame it on his wife if you want, but he's a wuss. So it's his fault if his wife's running over him. So you know, that's just ridiculous. So. And they put everything in their names. Now possibly a 90 year old lady does need some care.

[Caller]

Right? Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Possible. But you know, and no one else was looking after her.

[Caller]

It's almost like the question is, is the issue that auntie went into nursing home or is the issue the property? Because if the issue is the property, then he maybe needs to focus on that as opposed to getting her out of the nursing home because that might be the right spot for her.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. I don't know who her heirs are, but whoever they are, if he's one of the heirs should be upset about the theft that has occurred. So there's that part of it. But it is also possible that in a situation like that that someone is in declining mental state and someone did care enough to get them some care when no one else did. And then you go, well, my sister in law threw my aunt in a nursing home. Well, I mean, no, maybe she needed the care.

[Caller]

That's true.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't know that about this case. I can't tell one way or the other. I'm going on. Only thing I've got to go on is what Randy's saying, which is that's not what's going on here. But you do have that separate piece, you're saying, which is the theft of a half million dollars. And so that's not caring for someone, right? That's not taking care of them. So that's sad. Yeah, it's a sad mess. It's horrible. Some people's children. Wow. That puts us out with the Ramsey show in the books.