How to Escape Living Paycheck to Paycheck

Summary

Detailed Summary of "How to Escape Living Paycheck to Paycheck"

The Ramsey Show episode titled "How to Escape Living Paycheck to Paycheck," released on December 11, 2024, features host Dave Ramsey alongside co-host George Camel as they address various listener inquiries. These questions range from managing trusts and investments to handling debt and making informed financial decisions. Throughout the episode, Dave Ramsey provides actionable advice aimed at helping listeners break free from financial constraints and build wealth.

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1. Maximizing a Special Needs Trust

Caller: Tony from Chicago
Timestamp: [00:51] – [04:05]

Issue: Tony manages a special needs trust for his 67-year-old mother with multiple sclerosis. The trust holds about $170,000, all in cash, and he's considering investing it but is wary of bond risks.

Dave Ramsey's Advice:

• Avoid Bonds: Ramsey strongly advises against investing in bonds for a special needs trust due to their inherent risks.
• Diversify Investments: He recommends splitting the trust funds between high-yield savings accounts and growth-oriented mutual funds, such as those tracking the S&P 500.
• Consult a Professional: Suggests partnering with a SmartVestor Pro to select low-volatility, income-generating funds suitable for long-term growth.

Notable Quote:

"I certainly wouldn't put all of it there. I'd be looking for a mix between high yield savings for a big chunk of this and then the other chunk... [02:44]"
— Dave Ramsey

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2. Repairing vs. Replacing a Vehicle

Caller: Bryce from Dallas
Timestamp: [05:43] – [07:37]

Issue: Bryce faces a decision between spending $15,000 to replace an engine in his 2018 Ford F150 or purchasing a new truck, which would require a $25,000 down payment and result in a $40,000 vehicle price with a 1.9% APR over 60 months.

Dave Ramsey's Advice:

• Avoid New Purchases When Broke: Ramsey advises against buying a new truck when finances are tight.
• Opt for Used Vehicles: Recommends purchasing a reliable used truck outright to avoid long-term debt and car payments.
• Invest the Savings: Suggests investing the money that would have gone into car payments into mutual funds to build wealth.

Notable Quote:

"You don't go buy a brand new truck when you're broke. No." [05:54]
— Dave Ramsey

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3. High Income but High Expenses

Caller: Bill from San Diego
Timestamp: [10:26] – [16:55]

Issue: Bill and his wife earn a combined $500,000-$600,000 annually but spend approximately $30,000 per month. Their expenses include $12,000 monthly mortgage payments on two properties, $9,000 in charitable donations, and additional costs for groceries, utilities, and a leased SUV.

Dave Ramsey's Advice:

• Eliminate Unnecessary Expenses: Highlights the inefficiency of leasing vehicles when they could be purchased outright.
• Detailed Budgeting: Emphasizes the importance of creating a comprehensive budget where every dollar is assigned a purpose.
• Reevaluate Charitable Contributions: Suggests adjusting their charitable giving to ensure it aligns with their financial goals without hindering wealth accumulation.

Notable Quote:

"You're giving away $100,000 a year that you could be investing..." [12:42]
— Dave Ramsey

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4. Managing Credit Card Debt During Divorce

Caller: Abby from Des Moines
Timestamp: [21:25] – [29:09]

Issue: Abby and her husband separated three months ago and stopped paying credit cards two months into the separation. They owe $42,000 in credit card debt and have additional subcontractor debts from her husband's failed construction business.

Dave Ramsey's Advice:

• Prioritize Stability: Focus first on securing stable housing and basic needs before addressing debts.
• Deferred Debt Payments: Recommend pausing credit card payments until their living situation stabilizes post-divorce.
• Legal Guidance: Advise consulting with a lawyer to determine fair debt distribution during the divorce proceedings.

Notable Quote:

"You need to get some, you need to... stabilize your situation first..." [24:15]
— Dave Ramsey

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5. Compound Interest Across Multiple Accounts

Caller: Jamal from Washington DC
Timestamp: [34:08] – [41:29]

Issue: Jamal wonders if compound interest operates the same way across multiple investment accounts as it does in a single account.

Dave Ramsey's Advice:

• Uniform Compound Interest: Confirms that compound interest functions identically whether funds are in multiple accounts or a single one, provided the investment rates are consistent.
• Rule of 72: Introduces the Rule of 72 as a tool to estimate how long it takes for an investment to double based on its interest rate.

Notable Quote:

"It's exactly the same as if it was one lump." [39:34]
— Dave Ramsey

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6. Universal vs. Term Life Insurance

Caller: Christopher from Richmond, Virginia
Timestamp: [43:22] – [51:17]

Issue: Christopher questions the legitimacy of universal life insurance policies, believing that the cash value does not reduce upon death.

Dave Ramsey's Advice:

• Avoid Universal Life Insurance: Ramsey explains that universal life policies often lead to the cash value being depleted due to rising insurance costs over time.
• Prefer Term Life Insurance: Recommends opting for term life insurance, which provides straightforward coverage without the hidden costs associated with universal policies.

Notable Quote:

"Universal B charges you for $120,000, the face value plus the cash value... [44:04]"
— Dave Ramsey

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7. Affording a Home Post-Divorce

Caller: Jill from Dallas
Timestamp: [83:03] – [73:29]

Issue: Jill, recently divorced, seeks advice on how much house she can afford. She has $1.2 million in mutual funds, $750 in a 401(k), and a monthly income of $18,500 from alimony and child support.

Dave Ramsey's Advice:

• Moderate Home Purchase: Suggests purchasing a home within a comfortable budget, approximately $700,000, ensuring the mortgage is manageable without straining her finances.
• Investment Over Housing: Emphasizes paying cash for the house to avoid long-term debt, allowing her to retain flexibility and invest remaining funds.

Notable Quote:

"If you pay cash for a $700,000 house... [72:39]"
— Dave Ramsey

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8. Overcoming Financial Instability and Housing Issues

Caller: Elliot from Denver
Timestamp: [82:51] – [86:00]

Issue: Elliot, recently moved out due to academic and work challenges, is struggling with high living costs in Denver without parental financial support.

Dave Ramsey's Advice:

• Secure Affordable Housing: Recommends finding a roommate to share living expenses in less expensive areas.
• Return to Reliable Employment: Encourages returning to a previously stable job, such as a ramp agent, to ensure a steady income.
• Utilize Survival Motivation: Highlights the necessity of working to avoid homelessness, using it as a motivator to maintain responsibility and financial stability.

Notable Quote:

"You need to get into an apartment with a roommate and crank your hours up... [78:43]"
— Dave Ramsey

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9. Handling Annuities After a Beneficiary's Death

Caller: Diane from Phoenix
Timestamp: [81:53] – [83:39]

Issue: Diane is the executor of her late mother's estate, which includes an annuity. The beneficiary (her sister) is being pressured to choose between a lump sum and monthly payments, contrary to standard entitlements.

Dave Ramsey's Advice:

• Right to Lump Sum: Clarifies that beneficiaries are entitled to a lump sum distribution upon the policyholder's death, countering any misleading claims by the insurance company.
• Avoid Structured Payments: Advises against accepting structured payment options that may not be in the beneficiary’s best interest.

Notable Quote:

"They do not have a choice. They're trying to con you... [82:34]"
— Dave Ramsey

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Key Takeaways:

• Budgeting is Essential: Every financial decision should be rooted in a detailed and intentional budget.
• Avoid Unnecessary Debt: Prioritize financial freedom by eliminating debts that hinder wealth building, such as car payments and high-interest loans.
• Invest Wisely: Favor straightforward investment vehicles like mutual funds and term life insurance over complex and high-cost products like universal life insurance and structured annuities.
• Prioritize Financial Stability: Secure basic needs, such as housing and health insurance, before tackling debts or expanding investments.
• Leverage Compound Interest: Understand and utilize compound interest by maintaining consistent investment strategies across accounts.
• Make Informed Decisions Post-Divorce: Carefully evaluate housing and financial planning to ensure long-term stability after major life changes.

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Notable Quotes:

1. Dave Ramsey:
   "You don't go buy a brand new truck when you're broke. No."
   Timestamp: [05:54]

2. Dave Ramsey:
   "If you're doing zero investing and you're giving 20%, you may need to adjust that..."
   Timestamp: [12:42]

3. Dave Ramsey:
   "If you pay cash for a $700,000 house... [72:39]"
   Timestamp: [72:39]

4. Dave Ramsey:
   "They do not have a choice. They're trying to con you... [82:34]"
   Timestamp: [82:34]

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the essential discussions and advice offered during the episode, providing listeners with valuable insights into managing finances effectively to escape the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle. Whether addressing specific financial dilemmas or offering overarching financial principles, Dave Ramsey's guidance remains consistent in promoting financial discipline, strategic investing, and informed decision-making.

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, your host, George Camel, number one bestselling author, host of the George Camel show on YouTube is Ramsey Personality is my co host today. The phone Number here is, triple 882-55-5225. Tony is in Chicago. Hi, Tony. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[George Camel]

Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up?

[George Camel]

Hey. So I manage a special needs trust for my mother who's 67. And currently the money in that account is about 170,000 and it's all sitting in cash. And I got a call from the bank today asking if I, you know, they kind of encouraged me to invest it in different ways. And I recently saw a video of you talking about the risks of bonds and I wanted to call and ask your opinion on how I should best go about this.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I would not do any bonds for sure. Your mom is in a special needs trust. What's her, what's her issue?

[George Camel]

She has multiple sclerosis, has had it for 30 years and is in a nursing home.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, wow. Okay. And the 170 is all the money she has in the world.

[George Camel]

Plus about 10,000 in checking account, but yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, that's it. All right. And how much are you using? Is there a burn rate on it? Are you using it for her career?

[George Camel]

I have not touched a sense of it in the few years it's been active. Well, since I established it.

[Dave Ramsey]

How is she being cared for?

[George Camel]

Medicare, Medicaid.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, all right, cool. All right. So to the extent we can leave it alone, we can invest it in something that has a longer time horizon to be safe. So just like a good growth stock mutual fund, if you leave that alone five years, you're pretty safe. Okay, so I certainly wouldn't put all of it there. I'd be looking for a mix between high yield savings for a big chunk of this and then the other chunk. I might do something as simple as an S&P 500 or sit down with a smartvestor pro and just pick out some very, very calm growth and income type funds. But all of those funds would be, you know, in the last year they would have paid 20%, but the last year the market was up 30, which is crazy. That's not normal. But in an average they would probably pay out 10 where the market's paying out 12, where a high yield savings is paying out 4. So, you know, I'm going To invest some of it, not all. I'm going to invest some of it, not all of it. To the extent I'm comfortable, I can leave my hands off of it.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Caller]

What does the next one to two years look like as far as short term costs?

[George Camel]

I really don't know how to answer that question. I don't foresee any major costs. But you know, like for example, she just had a bunch of dental work done that wasn't covered. But we were able to pay that without having to dip into this special needs trust. So things like that. Maybe, but otherwise I'm not sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Yeah. I mean if it was me, I'd probably put in like 100 in some mutual funds with a smart vestor Pro that have a very low volatility, very calm funds. Okay. And then I'm gonna put the other like 70 into just high yield savings. But that will at least change your income. Instead of making $4,000 on that hundred, you might make $12,000 on that hundred. Mm, that kind of thing.

[George Camel]

I understand. Okay, outstanding.

[Dave Ramsey]

But, but you want to be able to, you know, you want to be able to access it when she needs it because that's the primary thing it's for. So yeah, click on. At Ramsey Solutions, just click on SmartVestor Pro and find one near you that you like and sit down with them and they can teach you some things you can do. Bryce is in Dallas. Hey Bryce, what's up?

[George Camel]

Hey guys. Thank you so much for answering my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. How can we help?

[George Camel]

Well, I run into a recent situation. Let me get, let me just get into it. But basically I've driven a 2018 Ford F150 for about seven years. We ran into an engine issue to where the second cylinder within the engine busted. After taking it to two mechanics, I got the same verdict that it's going to cost about $15,000. It's going to require a whole brand new engine replacement. And so just considering my options, these two top things have been entering my mind. Either one, I pay the $15,000 to go ahead and get the engine replaced. This is an F150 that has about 127,000 miles on it. Or I, I can go toward getting a new vehicle. And the one that I'm currently. Let me maybe I have a lot of numbers that I've just been working through, but let me just give some details. But it's the exact same vehicle, exact same model. The only difference is it's a brand new year. Considering the down payment that I would make and the vehicle trade in value that I got from a dealership comes out to about $25,000 going in. The vehicle price quoted at is about $40,000. And the current APR rate is 1.9% over 60 months. So ballpark, that's $15,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

You want to go buy a brand new truck? Is that what you said?

[George Camel]

Yeah, I'm considering either buying a brand new truck versus getting broke.

[Dave Ramsey]

You don't go buy a brand new truck when you're broke. No.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. This. This. This 2018, if it was running, is worth what?

[George Camel]

2018. I mean, if it was worth running. I mean, it's. If it was running, it's 10,000, 11,000. Ballpark.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So that's what you get. You got a $20,000 or $10,000 truck. You got notes on this truck. Right.

[George Camel]

Fully paid off.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so you want to use this as an excuse to do something stupid and go in debt and buy a truck you can't afford? No.

[Caller]

How much money do you have saved up?

[George Camel]

About 20,000 saved up.

[Caller]

And what's your income?

[George Camel]

95,000 a year.

[Caller]

Okay. And that 20,000 you have saved, does that include your emergency fund, or is this just your car Savings fund is 20 grand.

[George Camel]

That's emergency fund. 20,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Buying a new car is not an emergency. Honey, by definition, it's a. Bryce wants a new truck is what this is.

[George Camel]

That is true.

[Dave Ramsey]

There's no emergency here. All right, so let's backtrack a little bit. If you get a different car, you need to get about a $10,000 car that you can pay cash for. Okay?

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's the wise thing to do in your situation, because car payments are a mathematical ball and chain that will 100% cause you to not build wealth and stay middle class the rest of your life. If you invest into a good mutual fund what you were getting ready to put into that truck, you'll be wealthy.

[George Camel]

Okay?

[Dave Ramsey]

That's what I want you to do. And I'm not against truck. I got a nice truck. I drove a nice truck to work today. All right?

[George Camel]

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Yeah, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's not the point. Now, let's backtrack on one other thing, too. $15,000 for a new engine in that truck is as a nine. Somebody's running you up a flag. So you need to look at a couple of other things. Number one, I want you to hit two more good mechanics, and I want you to consider two possibilities to fix the truck before you make the decision to get rid of it. Number One possibility is buy a salvage engine from a junkyard on a truck that was totaled. But the engine's perfect and the engine has 10,000, 15,000 miles on it. And you can buy that for pennies of what you're talking about or do something like a factory rebuilt motor, not a brand new motor like a Jasper brand as an example. They rebuild them and it's half of what you're talking about. So you do not need a brand new engine in a 2018. That's asinine fix. That's a bad repair. So you need a used engine or a rebuilt engine in a 2018. Then you decide if you're gonna keep it or not. No new trucks. Bryce, if you want to be rich, this is the Ramsey Show. You know, I love when I get to talk about this. Each year during the holidays, as in years past, this December, Zander is donating 25% of all ID theft protection sales to Team Rubicon, an amazing veteran led disaster relief organization that brings assistance across the country after major disasters and storms. These guys do incredible work on the ground helping those in immediate need and have a huge impact in helping people get on the road to recovery. Zander has contributed over a half a million dollars to worthy causes like this every December. Listen, ID theft is a reality and being protected has just become a necessity, even for our kids. Their plan bundles together all the protections you need while being the best value out there. It's the only plan I've ever recommended and you can give it as a gift. Visit Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. There's no better way to protect yourself, your family, while helping others in serious need. That's Zander.com or 80035642 82. George Camel, Ramsey personality, is my co host today. Bill is with us in San Diego. Hi, Bill. How are you, Bill? Hello, Bill. Hey, how are you? How can we help?

[George Camel]

I am good. How are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Good. How can we help today, sir?

[George Camel]

All right, so my wife and I combined, we make about five to six hundred thousand dollars a year, but we still somehow are unable to save as much as I believe we should save. So, you know, so that's my problem. I mean, our monthly expenses are about $30,000 a month and you know, then add taxes to that. So we pretty much even out every year. And I believe when you make five to six hundred thousand dollars a year, we should be able to save one.

[Dave Ramsey]

I would agree. I think the $30,000 a month expense is your clue.

[Caller]

How much of that is debt payments?

[George Camel]

Well, it's on two properties. One is primary residence and one is an investment property. And the debt payments on the mortgage are added to about $12,000 a month.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Why do you need $18,000 a month to run your household?

[George Camel]

Well, about eight to $9,000 go to charity for a good cause. And then the rest, like I would say about $10,000 is for groceries, utilities, for the car payment, and a little bit for, you know, towards.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why do you have car payments when you make $600,000 a year?

[George Camel]

Say that again.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why would you have a car payment when you make $600,000 a year?

[George Camel]

Well, we. One of the car is paid off or the other one, it's a lease. So we make about $750 a month for that one. We have a bigger family, five people. So, you know, it's a relatively bigger suv.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, which you could have written a check and purchased and should have instead of leasing and renting your car for $700 a month. Okay, so, yeah, you're giving away $100,000 a year in that $30,000 a month budget. You said eight to $10,000. So there's $100,000 of it. Goes, right?

[George Camel]

Yeah, easy. Yeah. Could be more than that. 100, 220. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Mm. Okay. And you know. And you've got a car payment.

[George Camel]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

In which we would not have. And what do you guys do for a living?

[George Camel]

I own a business and my wife works with a company. She makes about hundred thousand and the rest of my income. And I own a service business. Service based business.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. The way you're discussing this, the language you're using is very general. It's not precise about the numbers, which tells me you're kind of just throwing this over there and just shocked that it disappeared. So if I woke up in your shoes, you've got a level of disgust, says this is not okay, is what you're saying. We make this kind of money, we shouldn't have no money. We shouldn't have a car payment when we make 600 grand, we should have just bought the car. Then what I would do is simply do a detailed budget with your spouse and come into agreement of what we want to give, what we want to save and what we want to spend and what we want to spend it on. And every month, before the month begins, every dollar has an assignment. Exactly. But it kind of feels like, Bill, I went through a period of time in my life where I thought I could out earn my stupidity, my Lack of organization, my lack of detail. And you can't. If you had a person working in your business that was managing a section of your business as poorly as you are managing your finances, you would fire them for incompetence. And so you gotta kind of treat it that way from an emotional standpoint and do a detailed budget.

[Caller]

And it's funny, Dave, as people make more, especially people who are good at making money, like Bill's good at making money, you're good at making money. You think you can just solve the problem by, well, I'll just make more money. As long as we don't overdraft, we're doing okay. But when you do that budget, you realize if this was a business, you go, we are wasting a lot of money in this business. We could be doing a lot better if we cut the spending, get out of this debt. We might need to sell this investment property. It's not a blessing right now. Might need to downshift some of our giving a little bit until we get back on track. So that's the kinds of things, the levers you'd be pulling if this was a business. You need to treat your household the same way.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Every. You know, you need to detail it out and then stick to it. And both of you, you and your wife have an agreement. You're both looking at it. You're not bringing it in, slapping it down on the table and declaring, I have done a budget. You people will live on it. That won't work. Now you get your wife involved in the disgust. It's not okay that we make this much money and we have no money. It's not okay that we make this much money. We don't invest. So generosity is awesome. Investing is amazing. Enjoying money, yes, you should all three things. But very, very, very, very, very, very intentional. And right now, you're not intentional. You're kind of throwing a bale of dollars over the fence and then coming back to see what's left later and after the family devours it. And so it may be you downshift your giving. Your giving is pretty heavy. I'm not against generosity in any form. I tell folks to do it all the time. But if you're doing zero investing and you're giving 20%, you may need to adjust that, at least temporarily. But I think you got some lifestyle issues, and I think you guys just kind of walk around, do whatever you want because you make enough money. And I think if you'll just actually pay attention and say, no, we're not doing that, no, that's crazy. That, that's a. That's a. We're spending what on that? Yeah, yeah. And you start actually telling the money what to do, you'll very naturally tighten this up a little bit. Dane is in Houston, Texas. Hi, Dane, how are you?

[George Camel]

Hey. I'm doing good, Mr. Ramsey. How about yourself?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[George Camel]

All right. So me and my wife, I'm the only one that works out of the family. We got two kids. Only debt we have is our house. We owe about $141,000 on it. And we were going to continue paying towards the house and paying it off sooner, but we were wondering, should we sell the house and move farther inland away from Galveston Bay so our insurance ain't so expensive? My flood Insurance is about 3000 a homeowners with fires about 2000 and around 1500. Should we sell the house what that we have a 2.7% interest on and move farther in for a more expensive house with a higher interest rate or stay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, in a sense, you have a high interest rate now because you have a hurricane tax. That's true in a sense because of the location of the property.

[George Camel]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know, it's causing you pain. I can use which cause you ask the question. I mean, the only thing wrong with moving is that you're not going to get the same rate next time. Well, whoopity doopity. When rates come down, you can refinance. We marry the house, we date the rate. So rates are temporary.

[George Camel]

Yes, sir.

[Caller]

And if you're going to pay this thing off in the next few years, if it's at 140 and you go, we're going to aggressively get this thing down to zero in the next five years, the interest rate's not going to matter that much, Right?

[George Camel]

Yeah. We planned on paying the house off that we're in now within the next five to 10 years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And if you bought one the similar price range, you could do the same thing, but you didn't have all the insurance cost.

[George Camel]

Right.

[Caller]

So I wouldn't go just upgrade in house and get a way more expensive house and get a way bigger mortgage just to get out of this tax and insurance.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's not necessary. Yeah. Buy a similar price range. If your payment goes up a little, so what? But I'd buy a similar price range and make the move. Here's the way, the best way to handle this sometimes is look out 10 years, 20 years and say, where do I want to be? Okay. If you, if you have this house paid for 20 years from now. What is that insurance cost going to do? It's going to go up every year.

[George Camel]

Yes sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Or it's even going to be worse. It's going to be like Florida. It's going to be hard to get at. All right? Right. And this and the house is going to go on up in value. There's no question about that. But you live in this constant. You're in a storm zone is what it amounts to. So 10 years from now, if you move inland and you pay it off, you're going to have more normal taxes, more normal insurance and you're going to see appreciation just as well. So where do you want to live 10 years from today with a paid for house? That'll answer your question. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey. I'm excited to talk about a new sponsor, Burna. You all probably know I'm a gun guy, but I'm big on safety, so I'm also a Burna guy. Burna is the UN gun, a less lethal option that protects you in more ways than one. A Burna is effective self defense when you need it. It also helps protect your assets from lawsuits if you have no choice but to use force. Because a Burna pistol immobilizes attackers without fatal harm. I have several Burna pistols and I love them. In fact, I had a Burna before they started advertising with us. They're easy to use with no recoil and no noise reduction needed. They're legal in all 50 states with no permits required. And because they're not firearms, they can be shipped right to your door. And you can train with a Burna right in your backyard. Plus our listeners can get the Ramsey burna bundle for 10% off which includes a Burna pistol, CO2 cartridges and ammo. And other Burna products like safety alarms, defense sprays and body armor are also 10% off. For Ramsey fans, see why Burna has more than 15,000 five star reviews. Just go to Burna.com Dave to learn more. That's by George Camel. Ramsey personality is my co host. Abby is in Des Moines, Iowa. Hi Abby. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[George Camel]

Hi, happy to be here.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good to have you. How can we help?

[George Camel]

Well, I need help with this credit card situation that's a part of a bigger problem. But my husband and I separated about three months ago. Two months ago we stopped paying credit cards and I just found out that before they go into collections that we might want to start paying them again. We just owe so much. We just have been overwhelmed and have not had good advice. So that's what I called you.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're currently still separated?

[George Camel]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why?

[George Camel]

Well, we were working together in his construction business and let's just say like everything came crashing down. His anger and my not feeling safe from like past trauma all happened at once. I moved out to my cousin's house and when I came back home, he had moved back to his home state. And we're talking, we're having weekly finance meetings and I believe God will restore our marriage, but we've got a lot to work through. A big part of it.

[Dave Ramsey]

He shut his construction business down and moved away.

[George Camel]

Well, we were at the end of a really long project from not having.

[Dave Ramsey]

He shut his construction business down and moved away.

[George Camel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And how are you working?

[George Camel]

I am now, yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you make?

[George Camel]

Well, I'm working three part time jobs now. Just got offered a full time job. So right now I'm making like maybe 2,000amonth and I'll be making like five, five or six years in January.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good, good for you.

[George Camel]

Okay, thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

And. And so you're going to get your own place. You're currently living with your cousin, but you're going to are. Is that right?

[George Camel]

I'm kind of couch surfing.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but I mean, if you're making five grand a month, you're not anymore, right?

[George Camel]

Well, the thing is my credit just went from like 750 to 500, so I don't even think I can get a place.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, I think you can.

[George Camel]

Like a rental. You think so?

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're making five grand a month. Yeah. And you need to, you need to, you don't need to be homeless and divorcing and broken. We need to get some, you know, get a stabilized situation where you're safe and you have a home of some sort. A little one bedroom studio apartment. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, but get some stability and then you've got five grand minus rent, minus electricity, minus food to work with towards your debt. And now we've got a. Now we've got a thing we can project into the future. Does that make sense?

[George Camel]

Mm.

[Dave Ramsey]

Couch surfing doesn't project into the future. No, no, that's what I'm saying.

[Caller]

So how much credit card debt do you have?

[George Camel]

Let me look at my spreadsheets.

[Caller]

And is your name on all the cards along with him?

[George Camel]

Yep. 42,000.

[Caller]

42,000. And what's the plan for you guys to pay this off since you're separated right now? Have you talked about that? Is it equal payments or What?

[George Camel]

Yeah, we're talking about it and the talks has been like 50, 50. But the other major debt is owing subcontractors. And so that's where we've struggled. Like who do we pay first or how do we even like make a plan?

[Dave Ramsey]

So when he closed his in his construction company, he was not profitable.

[George Camel]

Well.

[Dave Ramsey]

If he didn't pay his subcontractors, honey, he wasn't making a profit.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Unless he has a pile of cash somewhere.

[George Camel]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, if he has no money and he still has bills outstanding, that means he lost money on the deal, right?

[George Camel]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

Did he just blow the money and never paid the crew?

[Dave Ramsey]

How much do you. How much does he owe? Subs?

[George Camel]

He owes Rob 30,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right, so here's what you need to do. Do you have a car payment also?

[George Camel]

I do, but my car just. I owe five. It's worth five. The repair is seven. And where I'm considering moving, I can get everywhere around on a bike because it's warm enough all year. So I'm like, I might sell it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wait a minute. Where would you move this worm if you have a $5,000 a month job starting next month?

[George Camel]

So that's where I would be moving to the job.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why would you consider. You are doing it. You don't have to consider moving. You're going.

[George Camel]

Okay, thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I mean, you take the $5,000 job. Where is it?

[George Camel]

North Carolina.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[George Camel]

Coastal.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why would you not do this?

[George Camel]

I am. I just. This weekend I visited, I just got the offer. Talking more details this week. I've just been.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, okay.

[George Camel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's not really considering. I mean, you're couch surfing, working three part time jobs. You have another option to move to North Carolina and have a $5,000 a month job. Yeah. You're going, you're broke. So you got to get your life back. You got to get control. You have. You have control of no variables right now. So this has got to be. The anxiety, the stress must be horrendous for you, honey.

[George Camel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so here's what we're going to do. We're not going to worry about the subs and we're not going to worry about the credit cards. Right now. You need to get moved and you need to get into an apartment, A little one bedroom studio of some kind. Something basic. And you need to figure out your transportation. When you've got food, shelter, clothing, transportation and utilities covered, then we can talk about how to settle these credit cards. But you don't need to start making payments on them. You're broken and homeless and divorcing. We've got to fix some of those things before we worry about stupid credit card. Okay, so just put those on the back shelf right now. They're not going anywhere. They'll definitely take money when you call them back six months from now or four months from now. Then you decide what's going. You and your husband start talking and decide what's going to happen with the marriage. If there is a divorce, you'll have to split these bills up some way or another, I don't know what. And the divorce decree. The divorce judge will approve your all's plan or tell you what the real plan is if he doesn't like yours. And then you can go in and start working your way through this debt and you can probably settle it for pennies on the dollar. At that point, you're going to be six months behind. But you don't need to be paying these bills while he sits at his cousin's house doing nothing and while you're couch surfing. No, no, I wouldn't pay any of these bills until it's in an agreement of us getting back together or in an agreement of the divorce. How the divorce is going to go.

[Caller]

Down kind of in a storm mode and there's a lot of unknowns.

[Dave Ramsey]

Until you have an agreement one way or the other on this, you don't pay it because you're going to be the only one paying it. He's not.

[Caller]

Yeah, you're not going to make much progress trying to do this on your own in the midst of this storm.

[Dave Ramsey]

Exactly.

[Caller]

So just pause until you got the next step.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's exactly how it works. Well, folks, we just launched a brand new tour. Dave Ramsey, that's me, and Dr. John DeLoney are hitting the road, coming to a city near you. It's the Money and Relationships Tour. We're putting a new twist on these events. Before the event starts, you're going to tell us the subjects you want us to talk about and we're going to talk about those subjects that night. We're going to custom build each one of these. Louisville, Kentucky, April 21. Durham, April 23. Atlanta, 25. Phoenix, May 5, Fort Worth, May 7, and Kansas City, May 9. You're going to laugh, you're going to learn, you're going to cry, you're going to change your life. Come to one of these events. They're going to be a lot of fun. It is the Money and Relationships Tour. Dr. John DeLoney and me, Dave Ramsey. RamseySolutions.com tour. Check it out. Or if you're on YouTube or a podcast, click the link in the show notes and make sure you get out there. These are, these are going to be really, really fun. They're selling like crazy. By the way, tickets are not super expensive. If you want something for a stocking stuffer for Christmas, just order this and print off the ticket and stick it in the stocking and that'll be a nice thing. Hey honey, look what we're doing.

[Caller]

And it's a gift that keeps on giving because then you go, oh my gosh, I forgot we bought tickets to the event six months later, let's go.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, yeah. And they're selling really, really fast. So if you want to go, you probably need to go and get your tickets or you'll get that other thing called fomo. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Caller]

Okay, here's the hard truth. Your investment dollars could be winding up in the pockets of companies that hold.

[George Camel]

Positions you don't agree with.

[Caller]

People are unknowingly putting money into tech giants and household brands that don't match up with their core values.

[Dave Ramsey]

But here's good news.

[Caller]

Timothy Plan is at the forefront of biblically responsible investing. That means Timothy Plan uses a strategy that lets investors chase competitive returns while staying rock solid in their beliefs.

[George Camel]

So if you're ready to invest with.

[Caller]

A clean conscience, it's time to check out Timothy Plan. Request [e-mail] to learn more or contact your financial advisor today to see if.

[George Camel]

Timothy Plan is right for you.

[Caller]

Timothyplan.com investing includes risk, including possible loss of principal.

[Dave Ramsey]

Before investing, carefully consider a fund's investment objective, risk chart, charges and expenses contained in the prospectus or summary Prospectus, available at timothyplan.com Read carefully before investing. Mutual funds distributed by Timothy Partners Limited and ETFs distributed by Foresight Fund Services, LLC. George Camel, Ramsey personality, is my co host today. Today's Ramsey show question of the Day is sponsored by why Refi? When you're trapped in a maze of defaulted private student loan debt, it's hard to find your way out. But why Refi can offer you a lifeline with custom refinancing based on your ability to pay and a lump sum payoff option that you could qualify for at a discount after 24 months. Go to wirefi.com/ramsey. That's the letter Y, R E F Y.com/ramsey might not be in all states.

[Caller]

Today's question comes from Carl in Wisconsin. My wife and I are looking for guidance on how to best allocate our investment funds. I'm 50 and self employed. She's 35, currently a stay at home mom and has an IRA that was rolled over from a previous employer. We're wondering if it makes sense to max out both of our IRAs or if we should just focus on my IRA and invest the rest in a non retirement account. Could you give us some advice on the best strategy to balance our retirement planning in other investment goals? A lot more details I'd love to know here, but let's. I guess we can assume they're in baby step four, they don't have debt and they have an emergency fund. Fair assumption here.

[Dave Ramsey]

Fair assumption.

[Caller]

Okay, so he's. They both have access to the ira. I would love for them to be investing on the roth side. And 15% of your gross household income is what you want to be investing. So if it's 100 grand household, we would be investing $15,000 total. So she's got an IRA, you've got an IRA. He's saying, well, should we just focus on mine and do the rest in a non retirement? I would rather you take advantage of those retirement accounts, which means maxing out both IRAs if you can before moving to a non retirement taxable account and.

[Dave Ramsey]

Then focus on getting your house paid off so that by the time you hit retirement and she hasn't, you know, you're 50, so you got nine and a half years. 59 and a half. Right. Start withdrawals without any penalties. By the time you get there nine and a half years from now, you have a paid for house. And somewhere along the line you might look up and do some non retirement. But right now you need to be putting 15% in Roths. That's simple and good growth stock mutual funds. I agree, George.

[Caller]

So people say Dave, you know, well, Dave is at 15% of my income and 15% of her income. How do you go about splitting what goes where?

[Dave Ramsey]

Absolutely.

[Caller]

Is it just, you know, we both do 15%.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

And that becomes 15% of her household.

[Dave Ramsey]

Percent of the whole household.

[Caller]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you add everybody's income up times 15% and somewhere that number has to go. So in your case it's like she, in her, in this case she's stay at home mom. So it's one household, one income and.

[Caller]

She can do a spousal Roth ira.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So fully fund two individual Roths. But if you're working and you got a Roth 401k to whatever you got to do to get to 15%, if you can't get to 15% and you've maxed out everything. Then you would do some non retirement because it's your only other option. But do we not take advantage of a Roth and do some non retirement option because this age differentiation. No, no, absolutely not. Wouldn't do that. Jamal is with us in Washington DC. Hey, Jamal, what's up?

[George Camel]

Hey. Hi, Dave. How you doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve, man. How can I help?

[George Camel]

I'm new to the country. I'm 25, married with my wife. She's 22, very young. I came two years and a half ago from Italy. And between things that happened throughout, like our engagement, this isn't that. And like my lawyer payment for the green card, we racked up around $10,000 in debt. She has her student loan that will not kick in until like 2026, which is like around 30,000. I'm very hard working and I hate debt. I just picked up your book. I'm already on page 40. So I just wanted to know how to get out of the situation to start like pumping more cash flow into our pockets and make sure that everything goes well from now on.

[Dave Ramsey]

Is she also from Italy?

[George Camel]

No, she's an American citizen. She's born here in D.C. okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

I think I would just begin a marriage conversation about what our dream is. What's our dream?

[George Camel]

We had that. We had that. And she has. She came from money. And her ideas, like, people have debt. She never got like very educated on money, so it was always given to her. So like, people have, dad, it's normal, that will be fine. And I just hate that idea. I don't want to owe anybody anything. I didn't owe anything.

[Dave Ramsey]

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. That's not a dream. People always have debt and I'll always have debt. That's not a dream. That's a. That's a hopeless person. That's not a dreaming person.

[George Camel]

Exactly. I hate debt. And I try all.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's not the point. Why is it you hate debt? You hate debt because you don't want to steal your life because you want to be able to build wealth so you can be outrageously generous and have a wonderful life. Yes, that's the dream. Not, we're always going to have a car payment. That's not a dream.

[George Camel]

That's a surrender to my dream, honestly, to give my kids what I didn't have.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but you led the conversation with your young wife, your young self by saying, I hate debt. That was your dream. That's not a dream either. I hate debt because it steals my dream. Now what is your dream? I want to be a multimillionaire and I want to be outrageously generous and I want to be able to change our family tree. I came to this country, the country of opportunity, for that reason. I want to go big. That's my dream. Not, I hate debt. You see the difference?

[George Camel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

She says debt's always going to be here. You say, I hate debt. And this is what you discussed. When you're trying to have a dream that's not a dream. Neither one of those are a dream.

[Caller]

And you're not going to get very far with just saying I hate debt. And so it's like Dave said.

[Dave Ramsey]

The point is, it's not persuasive.

[Caller]

You need to cast a vision. And that's what Dave's saying you need to do for your own marriage. Sit down with her, maybe a dream date, and go, here's where we want to be. We want to be debt free millionaires. I'm an immigrant. I want a different future for our kids. Is that what you want?

[Dave Ramsey]

You know, we're 20. When I'm 35, I want to be worth $2 million, have no debt and be able to give money away and change our family tree and send our kids to school with zero debt. Because you're sitting here with looking at $30,000 worth of debt because your family didn't have a big dream. They had a crummy vision. I don't want to live like that. I want to live big and get her on board with that. Then you say, okay, how do we get to be. What's the best way and a multimillionaire? Oh, we get out of debt. Oh, we increase our income. Oh, we watch our spending. Oh, we're generous in our current world. All of that. That's how it works. Jordan is in Salem, Oregon. Hi, Jordan. How are you?

[George Camel]

Hi, I'm well. Thank you. Thank you for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. How can we help?

[George Camel]

I was wondering if compound interest still works the same across multiple accounts as it does in one account.

[Dave Ramsey]

Exactly the same.

[Caller]

If they're invested the same, then yes.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you're earning here, you can do the math. If you're earning 10% and you have $100,000, 10% would be $10,000. Does that sound right?

[George Camel]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you had a single account that was only $10,000 and you had 10 of those, 10% on $10,000 would be $1,000. Does that sound right?

[George Camel]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

If there were 10 of those, that'd be $10,000. Right.

[George Camel]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's exactly the same as if it was one lump.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

You see how I did that?

[George Camel]

I do. I like. I like to hear that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Caller]

Some people call him a genius. I call him my boss.

[George Camel]

I saw that video where if you have $100,000, it starts to grow exponentially. So then I was like, oh, we're really close to that, but it's all spread out. So does that still apply to us?

[Dave Ramsey]

Absolutely. Now, George. George's point earlier makes a lot of difference. That's assuming they're all invested at exactly the same rate. So if it's spread out on a bunch of different mutual funds and some of them are underperforming, then that's. That's a problem. But that's not a compound interest equation problem. That's an investing problem.

[Caller]

An allocation issue.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So if I've got 10 different mutual funds and they all earn, they all grow at a 10% rate. That's the same as having one mutual fund that grows at a 10% rate, to George's point earlier.

[Caller]

But if you add it all up in one nest egg and everything's invested equally, it's going to grow at the same rate.

[Dave Ramsey]

Exactly. Exact same rate.

[Caller]

So, yes, if you got 100,000 total across a bunch of accounts, you got 100,000 growing for you. That's awesome.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Very good. For you.

[George Camel]

Good question.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're going to be great. And by the way, Rule of 72 tells us if you divide an interest rate into the number 72, it tells you how many years it takes for it to double for a lump sum. So $100,000 at 10%, 10 into 72 would be 7.2 years to double. So if you got 100,000 bucks and you're invested at 10%, in seven years, you'll have 200,000. In 14 years, you'll have 400,000. In 21 years, you'll have 800,000. In 28 year. 28 years. I'm doing this quickly. It'll. You'll have, what, 1.6?

[Caller]

1.6.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

I told you. He's a genius.

[Dave Ramsey]

30 years from now. So that's how you can start to run the numbers out in your head pretty quick and go, yes, this is all worth doing, boys and girls.

[Caller]

And very little of that money was the money you put in. Compound growth did the heavy lifting.

[Dave Ramsey]

90% of what's in your account at retirement, if you start now, boys and girls will be growth, not money you put in. This is the Ramsey Show.

[Caller]

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[Dave Ramsey]

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show. We help people build wealth, do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships. George Camel, Ramsey personality number one best selling author of Breaking Free from Broke, host of the George Camel show on YouTube, the Ramsey Networks and of course Ramsey personality. He's my co host. Today Christopher is in Richmond, Virginia. Hi Christopher, how are you?

[George Camel]

Hello Mr. Ramsey. Thanks for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure, what's up?

[George Camel]

I. I've heard you yell at quite a few people about whole life policies. I have a universal life policy and when I started hearing how terrible the whole life's where I looked into it and I don't think it has all the same bad things to what their whole life does. Like the cash value doesn't go away when I die.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes it does.

[George Camel]

With the policy.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes it does.

[George Camel]

I called, I called the company and asked and they said no, it does not.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes it does.

[Caller]

Well, they sometimes will claim they can set it up in such a way in a very, very few ways.

[Dave Ramsey]

Do you have a universal B or a what?

[George Camel]

I don't know if it's A or.

[Dave Ramsey]

B, they assured me universal B works like this. You pay, let's say you bought $100,000 policy and you build up a $20,000 cash value, okay? Universal B charges you for $120,000, the face value plus the cash value worth of insurance. So you're purchasing extra insurance that makes it look like you get the cash value upon death, but you don't. You're just buying more insurance. And B, it's all that you're doing the equivalent of the cash value amount. The cash value amount in 100% of universal policies disappears at death 100% of the time.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

The other thing was that holders, it's how they're structured.

[George Camel]

What the other thing you said was at home is 20 times as expensive. And I just did some comp shopping and my universal policy is about the same exact amount it would cost me to get term right now. I've had it for a while, but.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, there's one of two possibilities that there. One is you did your comp shopping with the same stupid company that sold you the universal and they generally have very expensive term. If you go to Zander insurance and comp shop, you'll probably find it to be a lot less because they're shopping among a bunch of different companies that specialize in term and it's much, much cheaper. The other possibility is universal life works like this. The premium go that the portion of your premium that you're paying monthly that buys your life insurance goes up every year. Your premium stays the same. But let's say that, let's just make up a number. Let's say Your premium is $100 and the first time, the first year you bought it, you were 26 and you're. And of the hundred dollars, $10 went to insurance cost and $90 went to the investment. Later on, as you get older, the amount going towards insurance goes up. Okay? Because every year you're older, you're more likely to die. And so what can happen with a universal policy that can't. That's worse than whole life even is the lines can cross and actually the insurance cost becomes more than the premium and they'll start using part of your cash value to cover the insurance cost because you're upside down in the policy. And then that thing, it'll actually disappear. It'll actually deteriorate, kill itself. It turns in on itself mathematically. So what's happening is that you were doing more investing in the old days and now almost all of your premium is simply buying insurance. Now in the term insurance world. Christopher There's a thing, there's term life insurance which means the length of the term. So you can buy a one year term, a five year term, a ten year term, a fifteen, a twenty, a thirty year term term. And if it's level term, the premium stays level throughout that period of time, which is an average of all the years before. Pure insurance, technically speaking would be annually renewable once a year. The insurance premium goes up because you get older and every year you're older, you're more likely to die percentage wise. Does that make sense? So an art is what that's called an annual renewable term. And the cost of insurance goes up every single year. It's not level when you buy an art. And that's what's built into the universal policy is an art. And so the universal go, the cost of insurance, more of your premium is going to insurance every single year, thereby less is going to the investment. And that may, if you've had it for many years now, you're just buying insurance, you're not putting anything into investment or worse, you're not even covering the cost of the insurance and they're using up some of your investment to cover the difference because you've, you've crossed the lines on it. And if that's the case, then that would also explain why you find term insurance to be about the same cost. Because really all you've got now honey, is term insurance. Because the art is raised in price every year and caught up with the actual premium that you've been paying. Whoo, I'm dizzy.

[Caller]

It's exhausting. And here's the thing. I've never heard of someone who isn't selling insurance, say that whole life or universal is good. It's only coming from the salespeople. And so the people that get swindled by this, usually from a friend who explained to them the wealthy do this, they invest through their insurance policy and you can borrow against your own money tax free. And they explain all these crazy loophole, quote, quote, quote, unquote advantages.

[Dave Ramsey]

So in the financial planning realm, fee based financial planners, investment advisors like our smartvestor pros, anywhere you go to for financial planning help, the only people that tell you to buy cash value insurance are people that sell it. No one else tells you to do it. No one in the entire the rest of the financial world looks at it and goes buy inexpensive term insurance, 10, 15, 20 year level term and do your investing anywhere else. Don't put it in this crap. Because what ends up happening, see let's go back and revisit the barrel of fish hooks. I just unpacked a minute because frustrating is crud. When you were 26 and you bought that $100 premium I was talking about a minute ago and I made that number up. Okay, you bought that because you wanted some insurance and because you wanted some investments. And the irony is that the rising cost of insurance through the years eats up all of your premium. So that the very reason you bought it instead of buying term was to have an investment. And it doesn't occur.

[Caller]

The longer you hang onto it, the higher chance it will implode on itself.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, it eats itself out. And so the very reason that you did it is systematically, annually disappearing. That's the irony of how bad this is. It just sucks.

[Caller]

And with universal, there's flexible premiums. But here's the thing. If it's not enough to cover the insurance, they take it from your cash value.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

So you're not winning. They always win.

[Dave Ramsey]

And again, the insurance is going to go up every single year because it's the equivalent of an art built in. Now, the truth is, on a 15 year fixed level payment, right, you're paying more in the early days than you would for an art because all the 15 year is, is the average of the art, but less because arts have low persistence. Very few people keep them and they drop them because they go up every year and they get, oh God, I gotta get out of this thing. But they keep the 15 so it's cheaper for the insurance company to run the 15, so they give you a break. So it's less than the average of 15 arts and it's simpler to manage.

[Caller]

There's no investments in cash value to.

[Dave Ramsey]

Deal with, but you're still paying it. You're still paying for the coverage. This is the Ramsey Show. You want to leave happy memories for your loved ones when you pass away. Not a mess. Your family will be grieving, so don't make them spend days trying to access your computer or sift through drawers full of junk. That's why you need a knockbox. Knockbox is a complete home organization system and estate planning tool that helps you organize all of your accounts, personal history, wills, estate planning documents, and all other info in one place. Inside each kit are 15 categories covering everything from life insurance policies and funeral plans to your dog's vet and the code for your storage unit across town. And the best thing about your Knockbox is the checklists that tell you everything to add to each folder so your loved ones won't have to guess where things are. So if you have a household, you need a knockbox. And you can get organized in time for the holidays by visiting knockbox.com Ramsey that's n o K box. Hey guys, it's Rachel Cruz. And guess what? It's my favorite time of year. The lights, the music, the decorations. I mean, I love it all. And as a natural spender like myself, it's really easy to overspend.

[George Camel]

And I want to do all the things and give my family the kind.

[Dave Ramsey]

Of holidays they'll always remember. And at the same time, I don't want to look back at my bank.

[George Camel]

Account in January and think, oh, what did I do?

[Dave Ramsey]

So that's why I use the EveryDollar budgeting app. It helps me plan for all of my spending and that's what a budget is.

[George Camel]

Then once I have my plan in.

[Dave Ramsey]

Place, I don't have to worry about overspending. I am free to spend guilt free and have fun doing it. Plus, with EveryDollar, you can customize your budget however you want.

[George Camel]

So whether it's buying gifts, hosting dinners.

[Dave Ramsey]

Or even turning your living room into a winter wonderland, every dollar helps you.

[George Camel]

Plan for it all.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you guys go out and create some great holiday memories with your family without the stress of overspending. Download the EveryDollar app for free today. Go download it today. Well, Christmas is right around the corner. And if you're shopping for yourself or you're looking for the perfect gift to help someone get their money in order, now's the time to shop and get up to 30% off on our best selling products. The total money makeover is 30% off. Building a non anxious life is 30% off. And Georgia's number one bestseller, Breaking Free from Broke is even on sale. So check it out. Including the classic questions for humans card decks from Dr. John DeLoney for couples, friends and parents. 12 bucks. [e-mail] store or click the link in the description on YouTube or podcast. Nicole is with us in Denver. Hi, Nicole. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[George Camel]

Hi, good afternoon. And I wanted to ask you about prenups. I'm very recently engaged and I'm walking into this marriage with about a $400,000 Schwab investment account.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. How old are you?

[George Camel]

30.

[Dave Ramsey]

How long y'all been dating?

[George Camel]

Three years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[George Camel]

My fiance and I are in very different financial situations. He doesn't have much of a savings account. And the reason I have this investment account, my father passed away, left me quite a bit of money and my Mother has helped grow this account to a significant amount. So by adding, I don't know, by adding to it and investing and things like that. Well, my money that she has invested. Very smart lady. But you don't know what I should do with that account or if I should bring it to the marriage or not.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. When I first started doing this show 35 years ago, I told someone that if you need a prenup, you don't need to get married. If you can't trust them with $400,000, you don't need to trust them with your life.

[George Camel]

Right. And I don't want to come into this marriage feeling as though I'm harboring any resentment or being perceived as non committal or anything like that. The reason I ask you, two reasons. I feel like this account is not mine. I think it would be set up for me in case of an emergency. I have a significant health condition that may run.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why is it not yours? You told me it was yours.

[George Camel]

It is, but because my mother has grown it so significantly.

[Dave Ramsey]

Are you going to stay married to your mother? Are you going to marry him?

[George Camel]

No, I'm marrying him.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, then maybe it's time to be married to him and not your mother. And you and him manage your health condition and your future and your money for the good of you and him and the next 40 years of your life, 50 years of your life. We're managing that together. It's very sweet that mom has been helpful, but her days of controlling your life at 30 years old. You're a grown woman are over.

[George Camel]

Sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

So now that changes it. So I would want to share every bit of my life. If you're going to get married, you got to go all in.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And that's what you asked. That's my opinion. And that's my opinion. I would tell you to do that. The only time I tell someone to get a prenup is if there is an extreme amount of wealth on one side. And 400k is not extreme. But if you had $15 million and he had not a nickel, then I tell you to get a prenup then. Because. Not because of him, but because of his crazy relatives. The crazy relatives come out of the woodwork when you marry a rich woman, you know, and it's like. And so you control them with a prenup. You go, I can't do anything about it. I mean, it's not. I don't have any access to it prenups. And it just shuts down the crazy relatives and sends them back to the cave they came out of. And so that's the only reason I do that is it gives you some relationship management stuff. And I'm trying to keep someone from getting just conned completely. But I don't think you're being conned. You've got three years in this relationship. You're 30 years old. You're not a baby child. And you're not been. You know, we go, you know, I met him in Las Vegas two weeks ago and well, that's a whole different story. Right? That's not you. You're very precise, you're very wise, you're very even, you're very careful.

[Caller]

Does he know about this account?

[George Camel]

He does. He doesn't know the exact amount that's in it. And I was also thinking maybe we would reserve this account for our children in the event that we did get a divorce.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, let's talk about it. Sure, let's talk about it. Let's say, hey, if we, if something ever happened, I'm going to claim that I brought this money into the marriage. If you divorce me and I'm going to try to keep it. I'm going to make sure you don't get it. But you don't need a prenup to do that. In most states. In most states, it was assets you owned when you came in. But I think there's something to be said here for it makes you think about, okay, are there parts of the way he handles money that you don't respect? Well, see, that's a red flag. That's something to be handled in a pre marriage.

[George Camel]

I see your point. Not at all. Just, we have different finances, so I don't know how to combine or. Or not combine things. I want to be smart, but.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, when you say different, you don't mean he's irresponsible and you're responsible.

[George Camel]

No. He has quite a bit of student loans left. He just entered the workforce after being in the military and getting his doctorate degree. So he hasn't been working.

[Dave Ramsey]

Cool. A doctorate in what?

[George Camel]

He's a chiropractor.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. So he's getting ready to start making some money. And he's got $200,000 in stinking student loans.

[George Camel]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I would not want to use the 400 to pay those in the next 30 seconds. But four or five years from now, I might use some of it to knock the rest of that out. If you haven't knocked it out. But I think you guys need to roll up your sleeves and knock it out and then leave the 400 alone. That'd be a plan.

[George Camel]

That's a good plan.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but I. Hopefully you can do that now. But if he's saying, oh, well, I'm going to be in debt for the next 30 years just because that's the way it is. If you're a chiropractor, that's a different discussion. That's not a prenup discussion. That's a I don't get married discussion. Yeah.

[Caller]

If your financial responsibility gets him to be lazy or entitled, that's a whole different discussion.

[Dave Ramsey]

He doesn't sound like lazy. Entitled. He goes for him. He went and got his dad gun, doctorate.

[Caller]

He's been working his tail off. So I hope I'd go into this with arms wide open right now. Unless you have reason not to be.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yep, yep. Eyes wide open. And arms wide open. Yeah.

[Caller]

Just like Creed said.

[Dave Ramsey]

All in. All in. All in. All in. Leave it all on the field. All right. Danielle's in Columbus, Ohio. Hi, Danielle. How are you?

[George Camel]

Hello, Dave. So I am just stepping into the Ramsey way. I'm about to start my budgeting, and I now have a stable income of 42,000, which includes my housing and my food for at least half the year. I have side hustles, which I haven't calculated is going to be at least 15,000. I have 16,000 in credit card debt, seven in my car, and 35,000 in school loans. My question is, now that I have this new job, previous, I was on Medicaid insurance, and they're offering me health insurance, but I really don't want to do it. It just seems too expensive. I'm 31 years old. I'm healthy. I just.

[Dave Ramsey]

You don't qualify for Medicaid, honey, if you're working, Medicaid is welfare.

[George Camel]

Yeah, I know. So that's what I was before, but now you can't.

[Dave Ramsey]

You can't get it now.

[George Camel]

Exactly. So.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you have to have health insurance.

[George Camel]

I have to?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. You'll go bankrupt.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

You have your appendix out, and you know you're going to get a $62,000 bill that'll bankrupt you.

[Caller]

So, I mean, it's just like car insurance. Just because you haven't had a wreck doesn't mean someone else is going to hit you. You can be a great driver. And so you need health insurance now and always. And do you know how much it's going to be? Is it $600 a month?

[George Camel]

Yeah, something like that. It's. We have. They're offering us United Health Care.

[Caller]

I mean, you can shop around with our friends at Health Trust Financial and see what the marketplace insurance would be versus the employers and see what's the better deal for you. But it's a non negotiable and it just has to go in your budget. And if other things have to be sacrificed because of that, then that's what you'll have to do.

[Dave Ramsey]

For now, if they have four or five different plans under United and they probably do just take the cheap one and the higher deductible and all that kind of stuff, that's all fine. But because I'm not worried about a $5,000 or $4,000 deductible, I'm worried about a $62,000 problem. The number one cause of bankruptcy in America is medical bills, okay? So you have to guard against it.

[Caller]

So look for that hdhp, that's a high deductible health plan. That'll come with an hsa, which is a great way to save for those health expenses. And that'll be your best bet. Keep the premium low, but it'll transfer a little bit more risk to you with the deductible.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yep. This is the Ramsey Show. Hey guys, Dave Ramsey here. I'm coming to a city near you with Dr. John DeLoney on the Money and Relationships Tour. This is a brand new event where you, the audience will get to vote live from your seats and choose the things you want me and John to talk about. You'll be picking from over 20 topics that impact your life like saving for the future, leaving a legacy, money, stress in marriage, and so much more. We're getting real and digging in deep on the things that are important to you. And you never know what might happen when me and John get candid. It's an event unlike anything we've ever done before and it's going to be a whole lot of fun. We'll be kicking it off in Louisville on April 21, 2025 and then stopping in Durham, Atlanta, Kansas City, Fort Worth and Phoenix in April and May. Prices are the lowest they'll ever be right now, so don't wait. Grab your [e-mail] tour. That's ramseysolutions.com tour coming up December 18th, one of your favorite shows, our annual giving show where we take calls from folks who are proud of some giving that they did and want to tell us the story or they are proud of some receiving that they did tell us. Then they're going to tell us stories that make our eyes leak. December 18, our annual giving show. Don't miss it. Also coming up at the end of this segment, we will jump the show over to the Ramsey Network app for the remaining portion of the today's show in the Ramsey Network app is a free download. You can do that there anytime you want and you'll get the entire show there plus audio, video of everything. And you can search the show, you can send us emails in there. You can search the show by subject so you don't listen to 26 hours to find out what we say about whole life life insurance or whatever it is that we're harping on that day. So check it out. And if you're on radio, of course, stay tuned. Wherever we are on radio, we're still there on radio and Thomas is in New York City. Hi, Thomas, how are you?

[George Camel]

Hello, gentlemen.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm great.

[George Camel]

Thank you so much for taking the call. Sure. I have a quick question. I don't know if I have to get into a lot of detail. I'll answer questions. My mother's financial advisor has been trying to persuade her to buy something called structured notes. And I've looked into it, but I wanted to get your opinion on how that if that's a good investment product versus, you know, buying a five or ten year structured note or just taking that same amount of money and putting it into a, you know, a mutual fund that tracks the s and P500 or something along those lines, is that something you're familiar with and do you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Have an opinion on it?

[George Camel]

So thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Don't do it. Don't do it.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And I'm real. How old is your mother?

[George Camel]

My mother is 81.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. Here's the thing. A structured note is a bond propped up with a derivative. Okay. And the here's the way bonds work. If you buy a bond and the interest rate on the face of the bond, you buy a $10,000 bond and it pays 3%. Okay. When interest rates go up above 3% to 6%, the $10,000 bond becomes worth less. Does that make sense?

[George Camel]

I see. Yes, it does.

[Dave Ramsey]

And when the interest rates go down, the $10,000 bond becomes worth more than $10,000. So in an interest in a rising or high interest rate environment, you have a good chance of losing money on bonds. They are not safer. The financial world has, I'll be kind, has mistakenly said that bonds are safer than equities. And in general they're not. Particularly in an interest rate environment that's as volatile as the one we're in right now. We don't know what interest rates are going to do in the next 12 months. With a change in administration, with a change in move in the economy, I hope they come down. Which would make her bonds, in this case worth more. But the derivative portion of this is a high risk play. And why in the world he's putting her in a volatile instrument at 81 years old with a high risk play? It just sounds weird to me. I think that's irresponsible.

[Caller]

Well, my best guess, it's high costs and fees that go to the financial advisor.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Caller]

That's why I would choose that product if I was this guy. I go, well, I'm gonna make more money off this one than putting her in a simple mutual fund.

[George Camel]

Right. That's my understanding that there is a high fee involved with that, with that particular product.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, probably. I mean, we're not positive. We don't know that. We don't know which product he's got in front of her. But how long has he been taking care of her in quotes?

[George Camel]

God, a long time. Third or 20 some odd years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And what is she invested in now? Do we know?

[George Camel]

Well, she has a 401k that she. And I don't know what that is exactly. And she's just mutual funds and I don't know exactly what the mutual funds are. She's got mutual funds that she purchased through ubs and she's got mutual funds that she has in her 401k. She's got a combined net worth in about $400,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I think I would just stay right where she is.

[George Camel]

Just say where she is. Just stay with the mutual funds.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. I might not stay with the financial advisor, but I'd stay right where she is. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. I. Yeah, I know.

[George Camel]

I was thinking about that myself. Okay, thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Thank you, Thomas. We appreciate you calling. Open phones at Triple 882-55225. Jill's in Dallas. Hi, Jill, how are you?

[George Camel]

Hi, I'm good. How are you guys?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[George Camel]

Okay, I just have a question because I'm new to managing money. I was married for 15 years and recently finalized the divorce. I'd love your opinion. I don't know how much house I can afford or what would be wise to spend on a home.

[Dave Ramsey]

Are you out of debt?

[George Camel]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good. Okay. How old are you?

[George Camel]

I'm 40.

[Dave Ramsey]

How long were you married?

[George Camel]

15 years.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm sorry, it's a hard time of year with a broken heart.

[George Camel]

Well, it's it's all good. I just. It was a long time coming.

[Dave Ramsey]

But yeah, you're surviving, but it's not all good. But. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. You've been through this.

[George Camel]

Thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right. The. I mean, we teach folks to get their home paid off as fast as possible. And in that vein, we have a standardized guideline that we use which is super conservative for house payment.

[George Camel]

Okay, well, I have cash is what I'm wondering. So I have 1.2 million in mutual funds.

[Caller]

Buried the lead there, Jill.

[Dave Ramsey]

Wow. Okay, you have 1.2 million in mutual funds and what else?

[George Camel]

750 and a 401K.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[George Camel]

And my monthly income, what else? Well, my monthly income for the next seven years will be 18,500.

[Dave Ramsey]

Was there a family property that sold.

[George Camel]

When we got divorced? I got money instead of property.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, good. Yeah, you did.

[Caller]

And you'll be making over 200 grand a year.

[George Camel]

Yes.

[Caller]

And you'll pay cash for this house?

[Dave Ramsey]

Assuming he pays the bill. This is alimony and child support.

[George Camel]

Alimony is. Yes, is the 18 5, but I do have the 1.2 and the 750.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And is he in good shape financially? Can we count on this? 18 5?

[George Camel]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Are you going to develop a career or what's your plan?

[George Camel]

Well, 17 of that is alimony. I make a tiny bit just a part time job. I have two kids.

[Dave Ramsey]

How old are your kids?

[George Camel]

They are 14 and 11.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. So what are you going to do with the next 10 years of your life?

[George Camel]

I really don't know. I'm a teacher by trade and in Oklahoma. That doesn't make any money, so.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Well, it doesn't mean you don't get the alimony if you went into this classroom, right?

[George Camel]

Right. No.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right. Just as a part of your healing, I want you to have the dignity of making some money somewhere down the line. You don't need it, but it's going to be good for you to feel that you are sustaining yourself in addition to all this money. Okay.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now, how much of the 1.2 are you thinking about spending on a house?

[George Camel]

Well, I don't know. I don't know what's wise.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I ask you, you've been thinking about it. This isn't your first rodeo.

[George Camel]

I mean, some days I think like 300,000 would be really modest and it'd be enough space for us, but then there's. I get kind of starry eyed and there's pretty homes for 800,000, so I don't really know. I just My thing is I don't want to put myself in a predicament down the road that I think, oh my gosh, I bought too much house. I shouldn't have done that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, too much house would be a payment you can't afford. And that's not a problem.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

The house is going to go up in value and if you ever want to sell it, usually you can sell a house if it's a decent house. Right. You're not stuck in it. So if you pay cash for a $700,000 house and you wake up a few years later with regret, you could sell it.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then you still have 500,000 left over plus 700,000 in a 401k plus $18,000 a month. Right. It feels to me that's very safe to be in the 700 range.

[George Camel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's very safe.

[George Camel]

Okay. Thank you. I value your opinion a lot.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, I mean, you need to work that math out and feel very safe about it. Not just, just because Dave said so.

[Caller]

And work with a good agent. Jump on Ramsaysolutions.com agent and start shopping around and see what you can get for that amount. And if you're happy with it, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Get a, get a real estate. One of our Ramsey trusted real estate agents there, that'll help you. They'll do a good job of helping you work through the decision making on this as well. This is the Ramsey show, folks. The Ramsey Christmas cash giveaway is here and you could win big. We're giving away $500 prizes each week and one grand prize of $5,000 in our daily for your chance to win at ramseysolutions.com giveaway. It's that easy. Plus, our 50 Days of Christmas deals is on right now. Get up to 30% off bestsellers and life changing gifts that won't break the holiday budget. Ramsaysolutions.com store if you like this show, help us out by sharing it, following us, subscribing, whatever the format is your listing allows you to do. Oh, and also you could leave a nice 5 star review. I mean, come on, be generous. We need your help. It helps spread the word, by the way, when you do all of those things and you guys are spreading and we really, really appreciate you telling people telling people about us, especially when you tell people nice things about us. Thank you. Elliot is in Denver. Hi, Elliot. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

[George Camel]

Hello. So I'm in a bit of a predicament with my kind of housing. After the end of the year, I've been going to school or going to college on and off the last like 18 months or so for meteorology. But in between there I worked as a aircraft ramp agent. So like a baggage handler at the airport here in Denver for six months at an airline that had high turnover. So I actually worked my way up all the way to where I was a supervisor. But I liked the work. But I liked the work environment or not. The things that I would do with the job, working with the planes and stuff. But I didn't like the kind of business corporate environment of it. And so I decided to go back to school. And that didn't quite work out as well as it. As I thought it would. And so now I am no longer getting any financial support for school from my parents, which was previously the. They were paying for my school and now I'm being kind of told that I am expected to move out of their house at the. At or around the end of the year. And I don't really know what to do right now. I have like, Wait a minute.

[Dave Ramsey]

Things didn't work out at school? What does that mean?

[George Camel]

I wasn't able to pass a math class that I was taking.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why?

[George Camel]

And because I wasn't good at kind of managing time with the. Mainly like, the homework assignments and.

[Dave Ramsey]

Do you have a learning disability?

[George Camel]

No, I have like, adhd, but I don't. I'm not sure if that's a learning disability or not.

[Dave Ramsey]

But that wouldn't keep you from passing a math class.

[George Camel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why did you not do your lessons?

[George Camel]

It's kind of getting distracted by things that I should realize when you're looking back now I shouldn't have.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you're so vague. Stuff like I have no idea crap you're talking about. Are you telling me you've been drinking and smoking dope and partying and you're flunked out of school, so your parents are throwing you out?

[George Camel]

I've never been. I've never been that kid. It's just, you know, finding hard, hard motivationally sometimes to just like, do work that. But I just. I have decided that, like, I'm not going back to school.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And you're moving out. So how can we help you?

[Caller]

So was there. Was there an agreement with your parents where they said, here's the deal, we're going to pay for school and you're going to go to class and pass, and that will allow you to live here and we will pay for school. If not, here's what happens.

[Dave Ramsey]

If not. And now we're at the if not.

[Caller]

Sounds like you agreed to this.

[Dave Ramsey]

Now. Now you're moving. How can we help you?

[George Camel]

So I just am not sure, like, in terms of, like, with work, like, getting a job here is. I'm able to do that, but none of the jobs that I see that I can get would really pay for the. Because the cost of living in Denver is so high.

[Caller]

That sounds like you can't afford to live in Denver.

[Dave Ramsey]

What were you making on the ramp job?

[George Camel]

I was making 2250 an hour.

[Dave Ramsey]

You can get a roommate in an apartment in Denver, out on the, out on the edges of Denver, towards the airport, which is not anywhere near Denver. But yeah, yeah, move out of town, get an apartment with a roommate and.

[Caller]

Making three or four grand a month. Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then crank your. And then crank your hours up and work your butt off. You can make it okay, but you need to. You need. Can you get back on over there?

[George Camel]

I think I could try. Or another similar operation like that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, jump in for sure. Because that's a, That's a known quantity. I'm not saying you need to be doing that when you're 35, but for right now, that'll get some money coming in and let you get stabilized and get yourself established as an adult, working on their own, paying their own bills, which is what your parents are demanding. And then you can reset and say, okay, while I'm doing this, what do I want to study? And how can I study it and start taking some night classes to go be something else? But I would get my feet on the ground over there at the ramp, start throwing some bags, making some money, and I'd be working like 60, 80 hours a week because I'd be scared. I'd be hungry.

[Caller]

And you're going to have to deal with this underlying problem of time management and responsibility.

[Dave Ramsey]

Being hungry is a motivator. You don't have to worry about being motivated. Being homeless is a motivator. You want to pay rent. You want to pay having the lights cut off and it gets cold in that apartment because you didn't go to work. That's a motivator. You will suddenly be motivated.

[Caller]

You don't need to look for motivation at that point.

[Dave Ramsey]

It'll be. It'll be finding you. It's called survival, dude. It's called sustainability. And, you know, you don't have the option of not being motivated when you need to eat and keep the lights on and not be homeless. And so that's. That's what you're set up for. And that's going to Be good for you. You're going to, you're going to learn some good things about Elliot. That Elliot can work and Elliot can stay on the job and Elliot can keep focused and Elliot can push through because Elliot freaking has to now. And I think it's gonna be wonderful for you. It's gonna be the best thing ever happened to you. Maybe. I kind of like your parents. I think they're pushing you out of the nest and saying, fly little eagle, fly.

[Caller]

Otherwise, like Dave says, you become a turkey.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. If you stay in the nest too long, eagles become turkeys. But the.

[Caller]

That's science. I can't explain.

[Dave Ramsey]

It is science. It's definitely. It's evolution, you know, and so is it de evolution. It's de evolution, de escalation. Yeah. Fly a little turkey. Fly. I mean fly little eagle, fly. You're going to be fine. But you're going to have to get your button gear like yesterday. And if you can't get more than 40 hours at the airport next door there's a place called UPS and they'll let you throw boxes. It's Christmas time. They desperately need your help. Over there. The Amazon warehouse, it's out there in the middle of nowhere. This looming beacon of light for Americans purchasing things will hire you in a heartbeat to work in their warehouse. Right now they are stepping and fetching. It's Christmas time and so you're not going to have time to worry about motivation because you're going to be at work all the time.

[Caller]

That helps. I found that when I'm distracted by work, I'm rarely bored and I'm rarely broke. That's a good combination.

[Dave Ramsey]

My grandmother used to say there's a great place to go when you're broke to work. So it's wisdom. You know, here's the thing. This could be the best thing that ever happened to you in your whole life if you decided is. And you know, no excuses. No excuses. Go get it. Go get it. Open phones at Triple 882-55-5225. Diane is in Phoenix. Hi Diane. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. I'm short on time. Go straight to your question.

[George Camel]

I hear you. I hear you, Dave. Thank you. I hope you guys are having a blessed day. I have an annuity question. My mother recently passed away. I'm the executor of the estate, the annuity. The beneficiary was my sister. Not a problem there. However, my question is my mother. When the contract the annuity came mature last fall and my 91 year old mother had no idea what to do or what they were talking about or what they were asking her for. Had to make a choice of taking a lump sum or monthly payments for the next 10 years.

[Dave Ramsey]

Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. She died. When she does, the beneficiary gets a lump sum.

[George Camel]

Well, that's not what they're telling me, and that's why I'm calling.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, no, no. They. They don't have a choice. They're trying to con you. Absolutely. They do not have a choice. They're trying to get you. You can elect. You can elect to take payments, but you are not forced to stick with her contract. She died. The beneficiary gets a lump sum.

[George Camel]

Okay, what is my next step? Is there to tell me there's nothing I can do?

[Dave Ramsey]

Tell them there is something I can do? I'm going to the insurance commission and file a complaint on you crooks.

[George Camel]

There you go. That's what I needed to know. David, I'm walking into my lawyer's office right now as well to talk about the same subject. So. Yeah, thank you.

[Dave Ramsey]

Absolutely bogus dad gum insurance people. So they love to get you on payments rather than giving out the money. They don't want the money to leave them their control. And so they're like presenting two options and acting like you only have one. Nope. Now, they will offer you payments, option, a contract, again as a beneficiary, but never. You're not forced to take it and never take it. Time to get out of dodge for your sister.

[Caller]

Anyway, take that lump sum and invest it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And don't do something good with it. That's not leaving it with them. This is the Ramsey Show. What up?

[Caller]

What up?

[George Camel]

It's Dr. John DeLoney from the Dr.

[Caller]

John DeLoney show with some amazing news. The latest episode of United States of.

[George Camel]

Anxiety is available right now exclusively on.

[Caller]

The Ramsey network app.

[George Camel]

This docu series follows real people from my show as they embark on a.

[Caller]

90 day journey to transform their lives.

[George Camel]

And I personally walk alongside them every step of the way.

[Caller]

Okay, now here's a sneak peek of what the new episode is all about.

[George Camel]

And don't forget to click the link in the show notes to download the app. What's up, Kelsey? So I've lived with crippling anxiety for as long as I can remember. How do I stop it from constantly coming up in different areas of my life?

[Caller]

What does crippling anxiety mean? Paint me a picture of that. All right, so you ready to jump in?

[George Camel]

I'm ready to jump in.

[Dave Ramsey]

We're gonna check in with Kelsey.

[George Camel]

30 days, 60 days, 90 days. I cannot even function because I am just crying. My mom left us when I was 4. I truly felt like for a while I had no family.

[Caller]

She's experiencing things that really hurt a long time ago. Tell me about this boy.

[George Camel]

He triggers me a lot. Scared of losing Paul. Scared of doing the wrong thing. Scared of not being enough.

[Caller]

It just feels like it would be.

[George Camel]

Exhausting to be Kelsey. It is. Whenever somebody's playing whack a mole with their anxiety, when it just keeps moving.

[Caller]

That tells me the underlying system's not okay.

[George Camel]

How do I get my inner child out of this relationship? Because I feel like she's running the show.

[Caller]

One of two. Two people that's supposed to never leave took off.

[George Camel]

How is this. How is this burden your burden?

[Caller]

That's right.

[George Camel]

To the one person who should carry all of it. Did you ever tell that little girl that it wasn't her fault? I don't know what to do.

[Caller]

You either have to choose to let this guy love you, or you gotta choose to let this guy go.