Life Happens — Don’t Let It Wreck Your Finances

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ramsey Show - "Life Happens — Don’t Let It Wreck Your Finances"

Release Date: August 15, 2025
Host: Dave Ramsey
Co-Hosts: Rachel Cruze and George Kamel

---

Introduction

In the episode titled "Life Happens — Don’t Let It Wreck Your Finances," Dave Ramsey, along with co-host Rachel Cruze and guest George Kamel, addresses various listeners' financial challenges arising from unexpected life events. The discussion emphasizes maintaining financial stability amidst crises such as divorce, job loss, debt accumulation, and unforeseen expenses. Throughout the episode, Ramsey provides actionable advice grounded in his well-known principles of budgeting, debt elimination, and wealth building.

---

1. Navigating Divorce and Debt

Caller: Mary from Canada [00:44 - 07:07]

Mary seeks guidance on managing debt amidst marital separation. Her husband lost his job two years prior, leading to substance abuse and significant debt accumulation.

• Financial Snapshot:
  • Mary’s Income: $140,000 - $150,000/year
  • Total Debt: $125,000 (includes vehicle loans, credit cards, and a line of credit)
  • Mortgage: $155,000 on a home valued at approximately $500,000
  • Savings: Mary has $1,800; her husband has $12,000

Dave Ramsey's Advice: Ramsey recommends selling the house to clear the debt and start fresh, emphasizing that Mary cannot afford to maintain the debt alone. He states, “You gotta decide where the pain is... it’s not worth it. I would want a clean fresh start after this tragedy that you're going through” ([04:05]).

Key Quote: “What's the house worth? Probably 500.” – Mary ([02:37])

---

2. Managing a Large Financial Settlement

Caller: Carrie from Denver [10:06 - 13:45]

Carrie received a $350,000 settlement from a car injury and is unsure how to manage the funds spread across multiple accounts.

• Financial Snapshot:
  • Settlement Amount: $350,000
  • Current Allocation: SEP IRA, Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, brokerage accounts, CDs, and high-yield savings

Dave Ramsey's Advice: Ramsey advises consolidating accounts and consulting a SmartVestor Pro to optimize investments and ensure the money works effectively. He emphasizes the importance of financial education: “Your big goal is to get the other side of the learning curve” ([12:03]).

Key Quote: “Your surrender and financial struggles are your own, not his.” – Dave Ramsey ([03:55])

---

3. Building an Emergency Fund Amidst Struggles

Caller: Amanda from Wisconsin [44:43 - 50:07]

Amanda and her husband have paid off $125,000 in debt and are working towards building an emergency fund but face setbacks due to unexpected expenses like vehicle repairs and home flooding.

• Financial Snapshot:
  • Income: $125,000/year
  • Debt: Paid off
  • Emergency Fund Goal: $30,000 (currently $6,000)
  • Monthly Savings: $500

Dave Ramsey's Advice: Ramsey encourages maintaining aggressive savings by treating debt payoff like a job: “I'm gonna take every one of those dollars that's coming in. I'm gonna stop the 401k temporarily” ([47:26]). He stresses the importance of rebuilding momentum by adhering to a strict budget and maintaining financial discipline.

Key Quote: “Just lay it out and look at it like that. You have to bust through it.” – Dave Ramsey ([50:07])

---

4. Protecting Personal Accounts from Unauthorized Use

Caller: Virginia from Pennsylvania [29:07 - 32:37]

Virginia, a new listener, is concerned about a co-owned account with her adult son, which she believes is unnecessary and could impact his financial independence.

Dave Ramsey's Advice: Ramsey advises removing her name from the account to prevent potential financial liability, stating, “You cannot carry a 33-year-old around and change his diaper” ([29:28]).

Key Quote: “You don't owe anything anymore.” – Dave Ramsey ([30:22])

---

5. Advising Against Joint Home Purchases Without Marriage

Caller: Kathleen from Indiana [58:07 - 66:50]

Kathleen considers buying a home with her unmarried boyfriend while keeping her current townhouse, raising concerns about financial risks without legal protections.

Dave Ramsey's Advice: Ramsey strongly advises against purchasing a home with a non-married partner, labeling it “financial freaking suicide.” He recommends selling the existing property to avoid complicating finances and potential foreclosure risks ([59:19]).

Key Quote: “Buying a home with someone that you're not married to is financial freaking suicide.” – Dave Ramsey ([59:05])

---

6. Handling Market Fluctuations and Relocation Decisions

Caller: Tim from Utah [63:07 - 73:10]

Tim and his wife bought a house in Salt Lake City before a market downturn and are contemplating moving to the East Coast to reduce mortgage payments.

Dave Ramsey's Advice: Ramsey advises against relocating solely based on temporary financial strains, suggesting they hold onto their Utah property as prices rebound: “It doesn't make any sense at all” ([63:07]).

Key Quote: “You should just sit there and let the thing come back in value.” – Dave Ramsey ([64:06])

---

7. Balancing Financial Planning with Family Health Crises

Caller: Ken Coleman [81:16 - 85:00]

Ken faces financial planning challenges due to his mother's passing and his father’s recurring cancer, balancing emergency funds with potential medical expenses.

Dave Ramsey's Advice: Ramsey recommends placing funds in a high-yield savings account for immediate liquidity and advises focused budgeting to handle specific financial needs without depleting emergency reserves: “I just put it in High yield Savings and just forget it's there” ([83:18]).

Key Quote: “When you're broke, a $30 item is an emergency. When you're doing really well, a thousand-dollar item is not.” – Dave Ramsey ([50:07])

---

8. Overcoming Debt Through Strategic Budgeting

Caller: Josh from Arkansas [117:57 - 126:33]

Josh and his wife have $87,000 in consumer debt and are debating whether to aggressively pay it down or restructure their approach.

Dave Ramsey's Advice: Ramsey emphasizes the importance of a unified financial plan and strong communication within the marriage. He advises focusing on the "why" behind debt elimination to maintain motivation and avoid relapses: “Set clear goals and believe it's reachable” ([123:30]).

Key Quote: “It's the only way to get through it, is to get, is to bust through it.” – Dave Ramsey ([52:05])

---

9. Maximizing 401(k) Contributions Effectively

Caller: Ken Coleman from Miami [97:33 - 103:38]

Ken seeks advice on whether to front-load his 401(k) contributions or spread them out throughout the year to maximize investment returns.

Dave Ramsey's Advice: Ramsey advocates for front-loading 401(k) contributions to maximize investment growth, noting historical trends favor lump-sum investments over dollar-cost averaging: “I would write a check today and pay off your house” ([98:11]).

Key Quote: “Mathematically, even if the market goes down after you invest, it will have gone up more by the end of the year 90% of the time.” – Dave Ramsey ([101:49])

---

Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Dave Ramsey reinforces the core principles of financial responsibility: budgeting meticulously, eliminating debt aggressively, and planning strategically for emergencies. By addressing each caller's unique situation with tailored advice, Ramsey emphasizes the importance of resilience and informed decision-making in safeguarding one’s financial health amidst life's unpredictabilities.

---

Additional Resources Mentioned:

• EveryDollar App: For budgeting assistance ([00:04]).

• SmartVestor Pro Services: For investment management ([13:45]).

• Legal and Estate Planning: Recommendations for handling joint finances and protecting assets ([67:56]).

Notable Quotes Compilation:

• “You gotta decide where the pain is... it’s not worth it.” – Dave Ramsey ([04:05])

• “Mathematically, even if the market goes down after you invest, it will have gone up more by the end of the year 90% of the time.” – Dave Ramsey ([101:49])

• “Buying a home with someone that you're not married to is financial freaking suicide.” – Dave Ramsey ([59:05])

• “When you're broke, a $30 item is an emergency. When you're doing really well, a thousand-dollar item is not.” – Dave Ramsey ([50:07])

By meticulously addressing each caller’s predicament and providing clear, actionable steps, Dave Ramsey exemplifies effective financial guidance, ensuring listeners can navigate their financial crises without letting life’s unpredictabilities derail their economic stability.

Transcript

[Dave Ramsey]

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today 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. Rachel Cruz, number one best selling author, host of the Rachel Cruze show and Ramsey personality. My daughter is my co host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Mary is in Canada. Hi Mary, welcome to the show.

[Rachel Cruze]

Hi. Thank you for having me.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up?

[Rachel Cruze]

So we. I'm in a situation where I've been married and my husband lost his job about two years ago. And there's been a bunch of different circumstances that leading me to think that unfortunately this relationship. So in preparing for that, because we do have some debt that accumulated, especially in the last two years, I'm just kind of wondering, like, should I pay off some of this debt before we officially separate to make things easier or how to proceed with that?

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so what's going on with him?

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, he lost his job two years ago. He took that very, very hard and it affected his mental health significantly. And he's been really struggling with that and we've been trying to support him. Unfortunately, in dealing with that. Some of his choices have been not the correct ones, you know, going into substance abuse and, and things like that.

[Dave Ramsey]

So he's got, he's an addict. Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And so I'm sorry, that frames up. That frames up the whole thing a little differently. Okay. All right. And so what do you make a year?

[Rachel Cruze]

I make about 140 to 150,000 a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And how much debt do you guys have?

[Rachel Cruze]

So we have about 125,000 in debt and then our mortgage.

[Dave Ramsey]

And how much is on the mortgage?

[Rachel Cruze]

155,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's the house worth.

[Rachel Cruze]

If we were to sell it now? Probably 500.

[Dave Ramsey]

Substantial equity. And 125 in debt is on what?

[Rachel Cruze]

So there is one vehicle that's there and then how much? There is about 50,000 on the vehicle.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

And then there's 7,000 on credit card and the rest is a line of credit.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. Okay. And do you have any money saved that's not retirement?

[Rachel Cruze]

About 1800.

[Dave Ramsey]

Eighteen hundred dollars?

[Rachel Cruze]

Eighteen hundred. I have $1,800. He has about 12,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. So you don't really have the option of paying off the debt if you're leaving anytime soon. So the debt is going to get, the debt is going to get divided up in the divorce, is it not?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, but right now he has no income to understand.

[Dave Ramsey]

So that'll be his problem after the divorce. These are based on the choices he's made. That's his issue. It's not gonna be your issue anymore, right?

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, no, but I think legally I will have to give him some money monthly. I'm hoping to do it in the lump sum.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Out of the house. Yeah. So I would sell the house and clear the debt and clear him and start fresh. That would be my strategy. But that's all part of the divorce, I think. I have no idea how this crap works in Canada.

[George Kamel]

Have you talked to a lawyer, Mary?

[Rachel Cruze]

I did and it's. The answer is definitely we'll have to pay him something. And you know, selling the house is. I like. Ideally I would like to avoid that. Because you want to keep it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why?

[Rachel Cruze]

For the kids, a little bit. It's, you know, it's where my support is, you know.

[Dave Ramsey]

But you got $125,000 in debt. You don't have a way to clear.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Who's driving the fifty thousand dollar car.

[Rachel Cruze]

Currently? That's mine. We had two paid cars and then.

[Dave Ramsey]

One that's gonna be sold. Unless you sell the house.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because you can't afford it. You can't do all of this, Mary. You gotta decide. You're gonna have to decide where the pain is. And your support's in that neighborhood. It's not in that house.

[Rachel Cruze]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I mean go down the street and rent an apartment in the area and that's good. Cause the kids. Listen, the idea that you keep the home is gonna make the kids okay. The kids aren't o. Their dad's an addict and worked in two years. The kids feel all of this in the air already. It's already established in your household. So the kids are already going through trauma. And moving is the least of their traumas. Especially if you just move down the street and keep them in the same school and so forth so that I don't know what you're going to do. I'm sorry you're facing this. It's awful. But you need 125,000 and you need enough money to write him a check for him to go away. And I only see one source of that.

[George Kamel]

And that all has to happen simultaneously.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. For her to have a good life.

[George Kamel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, if she keeps all this debt and keeps this house and you know, and just basically boots him out and she takes all of this as her responsibility.

[George Kamel]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's going to be very difficult.

[George Kamel]

For sure. For sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's not and you know, it's just. To me, it's not worth it. I would want a clean fresh start after this tragedy that you're going through.

[George Kamel]

Yes. And you may still have some leftover from the sale of the home with everything.

[Dave Ramsey]

It depends on what we got to pay him. I mean there's $350,000 worth of equity.

[George Kamel]

And paying him one time fees. What she's hoping like a one time.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So if you pay off 125k out of 350.

[George Kamel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You've got two and a quarter left. If he goes away for 100, you got 102. 5. But he's not going to go away for 100 because he's going half the house.

[George Kamel]

Right, Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

So it's. It's a problem.

[George Kamel]

Yeah. And I understand Mary. The wanting the stability of the least amount of change possible for the kids. Right. Like I do understand that mindset of as much as we can keep the same.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. But that better.

[George Kamel]

But.

[Dave Ramsey]

But drives you into a trap.

[George Kamel]

What I was going to say is your role as a mom and a parent is going to help override a lot of that. Like, I do think there can be a. Not a false sense by any means, but an overreaching of a belief of like, okay, but if this stays the same, everything's gonna just be a. Be a little bit better. But I think you as an engaged mom, not a stressed out mom, not a mom that's panicked all the time because of money, but you have the margin emotionally because you've set yourself up financially for your kids. Like that is as much of a gift than trying to create the same similar situation.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, if the kids stay in a home situation, you're exactly right. If the kids stay in a home that is full of financial stress.

[George Kamel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's not a net positive.

[George Kamel]

Yeah, that's right. Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's a net negative. And that's what we run into all the time is this idea that somehow the home is gonna make this whole thing better. And it's not. What makes it better is for you to get in a place where you don't have. Cause you've been fighting demons for a while. I mean, they're coming at you from everywhere. And so you got, you got financial stuff coming at you, you got all this addict stuff, all this conflict and anxiety with the husband. I mean, of that gone, man. It's a breath of fresh air. I'm sorry you're going through this though. Horrible.

[Chris Hogan]

Hey, quick reality check. AI isn't just for sci fi nerds. And Silicon Valley Tech Bros anymore. It's the new weapon of choice for every scammer with fast wi fi and bad intentions. Identity thieves could be using AI right now to steal your info in ways that would have sounded impossible just five years ago. We're talking voice cloning, deep fake videos, filing bogus tax returns, draining your bank and retirement accounts, and even home title fraud. And it can happen fast, so most people don't find out until it's too late. So as someone who has had his identity stolen before, I don't mess around. I use Xander ID theft protection because it keeps up with today's threats without the crazy price tag other companies charge. You get real time monitoring across your whole financial and digital life. And if something does go down, they'll give you the full white glove treatment. Like 247 restoration services by pros based in the US and up to $2 million in stolen funds and expense coverage. So you don't need to live in fear, but you do need to be smart about protecting your identity from thieves. So go to Xander.com or call 800-356-4282 and get yourself protected.

[Dave Ramsey]

Today. Carrie is in Denver. Hey Kerry, how are you?

[Rachel Cruze]

Hi. I'm good. Thank you so much for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. What's up?

[Rachel Cruze]

All right, so about two years ago I got a settlement from a car injury and it was for quite a lot of money. It was for $350,000 which is like the most money I've ever seen or ever expected to see in my life. So I think I way over complicated it. I felt really weird about putting all of it into the, into the brokerage account. So I split it up and now I've got like 10 different accounts. And my question is like, should I combine a lot of these?

[George Kamel]

What accounts are they?

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, so I've got a SEP IRA, a Roth IRA, a traditional IRA, a brokerage account, two CDs and a high yield savings account.

[George Kamel]

That's called diversification. You do have a lot. They're not all terrible though.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, everything's fine. The only thing I would probably roll your suit CDs into the high yield because they're paying about the same and the high yield doesn't have any penalties. But that's a minor detail. That's a minor detail. But overall they're not all different accounts, they're all different methods of. I mean you've got some retirement things you did which are wise. You've got some short term things that you did that you may use some of the money, like to buy a house or something in five years. That's the brokerage account. And then you've got some money that's just sitting there liquid, meaning it's not at risk at all. It's just sitting. It's not earning anything hardly. And that's the high yield savings and the CDs. So it sounds like someone gave you some pretty good advice.

[Rachel Cruze]

I've been listening to your show. It's actually you guys.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, wow. Okay. Well, there you go. The people that advised you were geniuses.

[George Kamel]

I'm just kidding. Pat yourself on the back there, Dave.

[Dave Ramsey]

Those people, those people that helped you, they're just smart. I'm just saying. Yeah. What I always tell folks to do. Listen, you're. You mentioned something that's very important. This is amount of money I never thought I would see. So what that amounts to is I'm doing something I've never done. And so I feel intimidated and inept, which is normal. That would be normal to feel that way if you're doing something you've never done before. Right. And so I would want to go on a learning journey more than just listening to our YouTube clips or something. To where you begin to say, okay, I, I felt that way at first, but now I. Over the last three years, I've learned all these different things and I've had these different experiences with these investments, and now I feel very comfortable and competent. And that should be. That's your big goal, is to get the other side of the learning curve on this. And it's not a panic. But I want you to feel confident and I don't want you to ever. To where? Five years from now, three years from now. You're not saying that anymore, which also means you're not going to make any mistakes.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. So, yeah. So I would tell you to go to a SmartVestor Pro, is what I'm saying. Go to Ramsey Solutions and click on SmartVestor. Find a SmartVestor Pro in your area, sit down with them, and have them look over what you've done and, you know, and if they would do anything different or if you want to move the accounts with them, that's fine. And just begin to learn, you know, what we're doing and where we're going from here.

[George Kamel]

Yeah, it's great. It's very well done.

[Dave Ramsey]

Very smart. Yeah, it's funny. All right. Lauren is in Ohio. Hey, Lauren, what's up?

[Rachel Cruze]

Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel. Thank you so much for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure.

[Rachel Cruze]

So I'm 30 years old I have been following the baby steps for a little over six years, probably about seven now. I got out of debt. I have an emergency fund. I was able to pay cash for a car last year, and I've.

[Dave Ramsey]

Way to go.

[Rachel Cruze]

Thank you. Thank you so much. I've been ready to start saving up for a house I'm currently renting. But I've also been in a relationship with someone for eight years. He's 49 and is not very financially responsible. And I think I need some advice on next steps to take.

[George Kamel]

Dang. So your financial transformation happened while you've been dating him. Like you said, you went. You did all of this. Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes.

[George Kamel]

And what.

[Dave Ramsey]

And meanwhile. And meanwhile, he did nothing, pretty much.

[Rachel Cruze]

He cleaned up some tax problems that he'd had in the past. Good.

[George Kamel]

He's now legal.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes. But he's been financed vehicles. And now he has one working vehicle and one non working vehicle, and they're both financed. And he's very upside down.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so exactly what is your question?

[Rachel Cruze]

Exactly? My question is, do I need to take care of myself by getting out of here, or is there something else I can do to help them, you know, see the light, quote, unquote?

[George Kamel]

Well, have you guys. Have you guys talked about it? Had conversations over the last eight years.

[Rachel Cruze]

About money for many, many years, and.

[George Kamel]

You raise these concerns that it makes you nervous and kind of fearful with his financial patterns. And what does he say?

[Rachel Cruze]

He basically, he either becomes very defensive, like, I'm. I'm doing this and I'm doing that, and if I just change this one thing, this will all go away and. Or you think I'm so bad with money and finances.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Yeah, I kind of do. Yeah.

[Rachel Cruze]

I just don't know where to go from here.

[Ken Coleman]

Is it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Is it time to, you know, face the facts?

[George Kamel]

I mean, a question I always like to ask Lauren is, do you look at him and think what a winner he is? Do you?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, there's no. There's. There's that. Yeah, that's in there. That's.

[George Kamel]

Do you want to be married to that?

[Dave Ramsey]

You don't. You don't respect him, do you?

[Rachel Cruze]

No, I don't. Yeah, I don't at all.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, it's not a matter whether he's holding you back. It's a matter of what do you want to spend your life with?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Yeah.

[George Kamel]

And I'll say this, Lauren. To me, it's not about the money. You know, a certain amount of money that he's worth or whatever. It's the values and the patterns at which he lives his life. And when those are in conflict with how the value system at which you live your life, that's a really hard marriage. To be a team and to enjoy life together. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're gonna make him miserable.

[George Kamel]

You're gonna make him miserable.

[Dave Ramsey]

And he's gonna. No. And he's gonna make you miserable. But I mean, you need to understand that, you know, just. Just standing beside him makes him. The reflection is not good. You know, I mean, it's. That's the truth. I mean, your. Your very presence reveals his deficits.

[Ken Coleman]

And so I often feel like his.

[Rachel Cruze]

Mother rather than his boy.

[George Kamel]

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Well, because you sound like the responsible one, the one that lives in reality. You know what I mean?

[Dave Ramsey]

I think you've already made your call before you called here, hadn't you?

[Rachel Cruze]

I might have. Yep.

[George Kamel]

I'm sorry, Lauren. That's hard. I mean, eight years, that's. Yeah. Do you guys live together? Are you guys gonna have to, like, separate? Okay. Yeah. So it's gonna be a big. Yeah. This is a big. A big breaking. For sure.

[Rachel Cruze]

Absolutely.

[Dave Ramsey]

And here's the other thing. It's been eight years and this is not. And it has been discussed over and over and over and over. He's not gonna change.

[Rachel Cruze]

That's what I was afraid you'd say.

[Dave Ramsey]

So when you. When you announce this and he says, oh, I'll change, he means it. But he still won't.

[Rachel Cruze]

But he still won't. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Do you think I mean, the pattern. I just know.

[George Kamel]

Well, Annie's a 50 year old man. Do you know what I'm saying? I'm like, it's not like you guys are both 24 year olds. And he's like, trying to figure out the world. I'm like, dude, yeah. You got like 12 years on. On me and my husband.

[Rachel Cruze]

I don't know.

[George Kamel]

You're 50, 19 years old.

[Dave Ramsey]

50. I'll tell you what I would do is I would pick up the book necessary endings by Dr. Henry Cloud. I think it will inform your intellect and soothe your emotions.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

As you. As you decide. As you decide to walk through this, because it's. We're doing an emotional thing with an intellectual discussion. And that's. That's a hard. You know. And then when you get into it, it's going to be emotional. And because you're not a psychopath, so. And you like him, you love him. You don't want to hurt him. You're not a mean person. We're not trying to bully someone or gaslight them or something like that. It's just. You're just going, this is just not going to end well. I don't want to be sitting here 40 years from now. That's what you're saying. The trajectory on this sucks. And you just don't respect him. And it's hard to do in depth. Close relationships with anyone you don't respect.

[George Kamel]

And his response to you pushing a little bit of conflict. When it goes defensive and you start getting blamed, that's going to be your relationship, not just with money, but other things. Right. That's the value system and the paradigm he lives in. And yeah, you don't want a partner like that.

[Ken Coleman]

You know, Sam.

[Dave Ramsey]

I've seen people do everything possible to get out of debt, selling stuff, starting side hustles, canceling subscriptions, giving up eating at restaurants, even turning off the air conditioner in the summer and sweating through it. But most of them don't know they're overpaying for their phone plan. With Boost Mobile, you get unlimited talk, text and data for just $25 a month. That's it. And that $25 never goes up. No contracts, no junk fees, and no tricks. So do the math. It's not that hard. And go to boostmobile.com Ramsey restrictions apply. See boostmobile.com Ramsey for detail. If you're tired of living paycheck to paycheck and feeling like you can't get ahead, join one of our free every dollar trainings. These are new trainings every month, and they're all hosted by one of the Ramsey personalities, Rachel, when are you doing the next one?

[George Kamel]

Next week? I think maybe Wednesday.

[Dave Ramsey]

Coming up soon.

[George Kamel]

I did one this week. Yeah, they're great. They're really.

[Dave Ramsey]

We're showing you how to stick to a budget and you find thousands of dollars of margin. Everybody that goes through it, we show you here. You can do this, this, this and this. We give you a list of things. It's always thousands of dollars of things you can do to start turning the corner and so ask any question during the live Q and A. George was saying yesterday that the live Q and A is excellent.

[George Kamel]

Oh, yeah, well, it's fine. It's like this show. I mean, you get to people jump on.

[Dave Ramsey]

Except you can actually get through.

[George Kamel]

Yeah, you're there.

[Dave Ramsey]

So sign up for [e-mail] webinar free every dollar trainings free that I mentioned. They're free. Chances in Sacramento. Hi, Chance. What's up?

[Ken Coleman]

Hey, how you doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. How can we help, Man?

[Ken Coleman]

This is cool. So I'm actually calling about. I'm calling on behalf of my mom. I'm a small business owner. She works for me there. She's getting. She's 62, and she was having a little bit of a tough time getting laid off at different jobs she was working at. So now she just works for me. And it's pretty, you know, low stress, but I'm just concerned about, you know, what I can do as a son to help her out with her future retirement and kind of where she's at right now. I have a list of, you know, some of the different amounts that she currently has. Whenever you're ready.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. What do you make? What's your income?

[Ken Coleman]

So I. I bring home 83,000, but take home is about 73.

[Dave Ramsey]

And that's on this business?

[Ken Coleman]

On the business, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And what are you paying her?

[Ken Coleman]

45,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

Makes 2240 hours.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. You were getting ready to say something. On the 83, you make profit in addition to that?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, that's just my salary.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so what's the. What's the business make? What's your profit that you get paid, that you can pay taxes on?

[Ken Coleman]

Oh, these are. This is good. I'm getting. I'm getting a lot better at this. So last year was 1.5, 1.4, and we made a profit of about a hundred thousand.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good.

[Ken Coleman]

This year we're gonna do.

[Dave Ramsey]

You made a profit of 100,000 after you paid yourself 83.

[Ken Coleman]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you made $183,000 personal income.

[Ken Coleman]

Correct.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because you own 100% of the business. Right?

[Ken Coleman]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, that gives me. Tells me what you've got to work with to try to help her, other than the 45. Okay, so what does she have? Does she have any money saved?

[Ken Coleman]

Yes. So currently there's $97,000 in an annuity, an indexed annuity that's going to mature next year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good.

[Ken Coleman]

91,000 in a individual brokerage account, 57,000 in a traditional IRA, and almost $7,000 in a Roth IRA.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good, good. Okay. What I would do is take her and sit down with a smartvestor pro in your area, a broker that we recommend, and help them develop a plan to get all of this money working together. She's got about. Almost $300,000 there. 250 anyway, and get that all working for her, keeping her hands off of it. Let her build a sustainable budget on the 45. And if she just leaves it alone and keeps Working in seven years, it will double. So instead of 250, it'll be 500.

[Ken Coleman]

Man, that's. That's good news. Yeah, that. That seems a little bit better than the amount I was looking at.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, because this is a little slim. It's not enough. But she's only 62, so, I mean, she can work as long. As long she keep working, you can keep paying her. And then, of course, you know. Do you have many. How many employees do you have?

[Ken Coleman]

So we have eight guys in the field, and three of us are management, with my mom being one of the managers.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. Well, I mean, if you can find. If you wanted to start, you can talk to the smartvestor pro about that too. What's called a simple 401K or simple IRA. It's a 401K for small businesses. Costs nothing to get it started, but you do have to match up to 3% what people put in. But you. She could continue to put money in that, and you can match her then, and you can help her that way and help her fund her Roth IRAs every year in addition to having this money invested. Well, so there's some things you can do here because you're making some money.

[George Kamel]

Yeah. Chance, did she have a age that she was wanting to retire and you guys were trying to figure out if she was able to, or is she great to work for longer to get this built up?

[Ken Coleman]

No, my family dynamic is kind of. You know, my dad had an injury a long time ago, so he's not in the picture. And my mom is kind of not looking at me, but, like, I just. I want to be a good guidance for her. So she.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm looking at her to work to 72.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. She's ready to work for as long as she'd like to. And even if she's not, I'm still gonna pay her, you know, or take care of her, do what I need to do.

[Dave Ramsey]

Ye. Well, I mean, be careful about that part of this. Let's develop a plan that has the dignity of sustainability on her own, where she doesn't have to be.

[George Kamel]

Is she gonna be a problem in the workplace for 10 years considering she's gotten laid off so many times, or is it she? You good? She's good in her role and everything.

[Ken Coleman]

My sister passed away, and after that, she left work for a while, and then when she came back, all of the, you know, the other admin ladies were younger, faster, and I gotcha.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[George Kamel]

Okay. Yep. Now that makes sense.

[Ken Coleman]

And we don't have any Property in, in our family. Like she doesn't own a home. She's renting right now and the rent is a little bit higher than, I mean it's like 1400 bucks.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, it's a lot. So I think you sit down, develop a plan with a good smartvestor pro and that will tell you what you're going to do and also will inform her, I think she's a while. And, and I think, I think that, you know, I think it's good. I don't think that's bad. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm Getting ready. Turn 65. I plan on working and not because I have to, but because I enjoy it. And so this is what I do. And I don't really have anything else I want to do. So that's perfect. So you know, she's got that same situation. She gets to work with her son who's got. Who's loving her and taking care of her and so forth. And so she can stay right there and earn an income and meanwhile contin putting some money in, meanwhile investing this current money that she has better than it's invested now so that it'll produce more because it's not, you know, it's probably not doing that well right now. So you do need to reorganize the money that she has. And that's why I'm sending you to a smartvestor pro to help you figure every bit of that out. Virginia's in Pennsylvania. Hi Virginia. How are you?

[Rachel Cruze]

Fine, thanks. I'm a new listener.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, how can we help?

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, my question is, is it make financial sense for me to continue to be the co owner on my 33 year old unmarried son's financial account? No, I opened these up for him when he was an infant. Yeah, so.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, this is like a man and he doesn't need his mommy on his account.

[Rachel Cruze]

I'm trying, really. Not that he's irresponsible, but I'm really trying hard.

[Dave Ramsey]

He's 33. If he's irresponsible, it's his problem.

[Rachel Cruze]

He doesn't make a lot of money.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't care.

[Rachel Cruze]

So. Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I mean, really, you cannot carry a 33 year old around and change his diaper. Honey. I mean.

[Rachel Cruze]

I don't. I was always told there should be a co owner on bank accounts.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm sorry, say that again.

[Rachel Cruze]

I was always told there should be a co owner.

[Dave Ramsey]

Who told you that?

[Rachel Cruze]

My parents.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, okay. Shocking. Okay, no, let me just tell you. Rachel's sitting beside me. She's my daughter. She's in her 30s. The number of bank accounts of hers that I'm on is precisely zero. Not even close.

[George Kamel]

It's hard to let go, Virginia. That's a good boundary.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's a good boundary.

[George Kamel]

He needs to fly and be free. And if he makes mistakes, he's gonna have to learn it as a man.

[Dave Ramsey]

Goody.

[George Kamel]

I'm glad you're a first time listener though. Glad you're here.

[Dave Ramsey]

Martha listens to her favorite band all the time.

[Ken Coleman]

In the car, gym, even sleeping.

[Dave Ramsey]

So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on.

[Ken Coleman]

Expedia to see them live. She saved so much, she got a seat close enough to actually see and hear them. Sort of. You were made to scream from the front row.

[Dave Ramsey]

We were made to quietly save you.

[Ken Coleman]

More Expedia made to travel.

[Dave Ramsey]

Savings vary and subject to availability.

[Ken Coleman]

Flight inclusive packages are atoll protected.

[George Kamel]

Switching banks can be a hassle and I totally get that. But when Winston and I opened up our Fairwinds account, we were shocked by how quick and easy it was. It just took a few minutes online. We didn't have to block off an entire afternoon or track down paperwork. And the next day we got a personal call from a Fairwinds specialist just checking in. I couldn't believe it. When I answered my phone and I was talking to them, I was like, y' all are the nicest people. Now, if you're working hard to save money, get out of debt and build a future, you should have a bank that supports that, not fights it. That's why I recommend Fairwinds. They created these smart checking and savings bundles specifically for Ramsey fans. Plus they have a great app and you have access to over 33,000 fee free ATMs and more than 5,000 shared credit union branches across the country. So you can have access and withdraw your money just like you're used to. No matter where you live, don't settle for a bank that slows down your progress. Make sure you choose one that helps build you up and helps you win with money. Visit Fairwinds.org Ramsey and open your smart bundle today.

[Dave Ramsey]

Fairwinds.org Ramsey Fairwinds.org Ramsey FairWinds is federally insured by the NCUA. If you like the show. Thank you. We could use your help. Click the Follow button, the subscribe button. Share the show. Send somebody a link. Click a Share button if there's one on your platform. We appreciate that. Oh, those five star reviews, they're very helpful too. Thank you. Thank you very much. All that pushes the algorithms around and causes people to see the show on the platform that you're on, whether it's Spotify or Apple or Google Play or YouTube or wherever you are, wherever you're hanging out. If you're on talk radio, just tell people about it. It's that simple. Thank you guys for sharing it. We appreciate it. Brianna is in Texarkana, Texas. Hey, Brianna, what's up? Or Brianna. Is it Brianna or Brianna?

[Rachel Cruze]

I go by either, but it's Brianna.

[Dave Ramsey]

Brianna. Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

How are y' all today?

[Dave Ramsey]

Good. How can we help?

[Rachel Cruze]

I was giving y' all a call. We're kind of in a pickle. We're currently renting and our landlord is selling the house and gave us 30 days to move out.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

So we've got a couple of options. I'm in touch with contractors in the area because I work with them. We looked and bought a house Yesterday that was 1300amonth for rent, which is. Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, what are you paying now?

[Rachel Cruze]

1150.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, cool. That's good. All right.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay. We do have some debts right now. We have, we have two cars that we are paying down a lot on and a Discover card. So total in debt is about 25,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

So I've got two options. I can either start paying a little bit more in rent and, you know, push our. We want to eventually build a house or we can. My sister told me we could go ahead and get a loan out of camper and live on her property so we can rat hole a lot of money for a down payment on a house and start building.

[Dave Ramsey]

Take a loan and buy a camper.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, take. Yeah, I know. Take a loan out for a camper.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I got it. You just said that out loud.

[Ken Coleman]

Well.

[Dave Ramsey]

No. Yeah. So no, we're not going to finance something that's going down in value while we're trying to get out of debt to save up money to buy house. It's working against you. You're swimming upstream. Not only is it going down in value, but you're paying interest for it to go down in value. Right. Oh, and by the way, you're living in a camper. There's that too.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. I'd go rent that thirteen hundred dollar house in about the next thirty minutes for. It gets away.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[George Kamel]

What's your hesitation, Brianna? I'm just curious. Is it that.

[Rachel Cruze]

I guess it's just you feel like.

[George Kamel]

You'Re throwing money away renting?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, in a sense. Yeah.

[George Kamel]

Okay, the two. What do you guys owe on the two cars?

[Rachel Cruze]

I was 17 on one and then four, 600 on the other.

[George Kamel]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

What do you guys. What's your household?

[George Kamel]

What do I make.

[Rachel Cruze]

Where last year we did 125.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[George Kamel]

Oh, that's great.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you should be able to clean this up. You beat debt free in a year.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. And also.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, no, no, no. Wait a minute. No, you didn't. You said that like you didn't believe it. I believe it. You made 125,000. You only owe 25,000. Your rent's only 1300. You should be dead free in a year. You're not on a detailed budget. Y' all are still going out to eat and partying.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, we started doing the Every Dollar.

[Ken Coleman]

App as well last week.

[Dave Ramsey]

Right. You're just getting started, kiddo. Listen, don't worry about the Every Dollar app, but if you were organized, think about this. If you make 125 and you pay off 25, that means you have to live on a hundred thousand dollars. Oh, my God.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You could do that.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

Your cars are not out of control. They're not good. I want you to get them paid off. The 17,001 is concerning, but you make good money.

[George Kamel]

Yeah. What do y' all bring home every month? Do you know after tax, what hits your bank account every month for income?

[Rachel Cruze]

Every month? Let me think. I'm easily 1700 every two weeks, and he's at like 1500 every two weeks.

[Dave Ramsey]

6400.

[George Kamel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, something's wrong. You guys got a big tax refund, didn't you?

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, not. It was about 2000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, and how much is coming out for 400?

[Ken Coleman]

1Ks.

[Rachel Cruze]

6% out of mine, so 100. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. So stop that.

[George Kamel]

Yeah. And that pays for the difference of the rent.

[Rachel Cruze]

And we do have an 18 month old, so she's in daycare.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but that's. That's not. That's not causing you to be broke. You're making plenty of money. Okay? So here's the thing. Here's what I want you to do. You're in. Talking to you for a few minutes. You are. You make too much money and you're too smart to be this broke, okay? Because if I run into somebody that's either dumb or they don't make enough money, I can't fix the dumb. But I can help. I can help. If they don't make enough money, you're not either one. You're smart enough to do this, and you are not. And you make plenty of money. So here's what I want you to do. I Want you to pretend like I hired you for $130,000 a year to take over Brianna's budget and make it behave. Make every one of those dollars scream like it was your job. And if you didn't do your job, you were gonna get fired. And that's the everydollar budget. I'm gonna take every one of those dollars that's coming in. I'm gonna stop the 401k temporarily. I'm going to adjust my take home pay by another 200 bucks a month so that you don't get a tax refund. And that's the $2,000, because a tax refund means you gave Washington too much money and then they gave it back to you in April. Santa Claus does not live in D.C. that was your money you got back. And so you lay all of that out and you make those adjustments. And then you take the money that's coming in, which is now about $7,000 a month, you pay 1,300 out of it. You buy some food, you buy some daycare, you put the electric bill on there, and then you got some money to attack this. Run the ringer on this debt, kiddo. And don't be talking about living in a camper. You make $140,000 a year. Let's get this done. Okay, you can do this.

[Rachel Cruze]

We have paid off. We have paid off a lot. Like easily 20,000 this past year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good.

[George Kamel]

Okay, that's great.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you did it one more year plus. If you did it one more year plus a little, you're done.

[Rachel Cruze]

Because the cars, we originally started with 1600. It was 16,000 on my Highlander and 9,000 on his car. And we've paid it.

[George Kamel]

That's great. Brianna, what's the Discover? Hey, what's the Discover card? How much do you guys owe on that?

[Rachel Cruze]

18,000.

[George Kamel]

18,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Is that cut up?

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, yeah, it's gone. Okay, good.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you just got. You discovered freedom. Good, I'm glad.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right. Hey, get on that every dollar budget. We're going to put you in with Kelly. She's going to give you the upgrade where it connects to your bank and you can drag and drop everything automatically. And it's going to change everything. It's going to show you exactly how to walk these baby steps. And I want you to step on this money like it was your job.

[George Kamel]

Yeah. Get the $2,600 car paid off this month.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[George Kamel]

Find $2,600 out of that budget and do it like extreme stuff. And this is extreme. Like the grocery budget. You're shopping inexpensive.

[Dave Ramsey]

No spaces and no vacations and no campers. No campers. No, no, no. That's going to set you back. It's going to cost you a year and a half to two years in this. Don't do that. No. Your sister's sweet. She's just not smart. Don't do this. No. She was generous to let you live there. I shouldn't say that, but. That was nice, but no. If it led to her suggesting financing a camper, then I'm not going to. No. That's dumb. Don't do that. Don't do that. Go get that other house. You're going to be there two years because it's gonna take a year to get out of debt, build your emergency fund. Then you got to build a down payment. You might be there three, but that's it. After that, you're gonna buy a house.

[George Kamel]

Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then you're gonna move on and become wealthy. This is what you're gonna do. Because you make too much money and you're too smart to be this broke. So you're heading that. You're doing good stuff. Keep it up, keep it up, keep it up. We're here to help you, and we're gonna hold you accountable. Hang on. Kelly's gonna pick up. We'll get you tied into that. Every dollar app. It's interesting. That's interesting. I. I mean, the camper.

[George Kamel]

What's interesting?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I just. I'm trying to think. What. What mindset?

[George Kamel]

Well, because it feels like rent. I could see it. I could. That it feels like you're throwing money away and at least you have an asset. But understanding of the asset ends up sometimes being underwater. It's like a car. Like, you borrow at the high end. When you try to sell it, it's not. You can't even recoup it. So it's just. Yeah, more details and research in it. Brianna. But good luck to you guys.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good question. Thanks for calling in.

[Dr. John Delony]

This show is sponsored by Better Help. All right, listen. These days, it feels like there is so much advice related to mental health and wellness and what you should be eating and what you should be doing. It is insanity. There's so much noise, noise, noise everywhere, especially when we're scrolling. And all this noise on the Internet and on social media can lead to information overload. So it can be a struggle to know what's real and what are some things you should actually try in your home. Here's the truth. Using trusted resources and talking to a live Therapist can help you break through all this noise and get you to where you want to be in your personal life, in your relationships, and your mental and emotional health. If you're thinking about starting therapy, contact my friends at Better Help. BetterHelp is 100% online therapy, which means it's convenient and affordable and it's super easy to get started. Just fill out a short online survey and you get matched with a licensed therapist. And as the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a wide variety of expertise. BetterHelp is rated 4.9 out of 5 stars based on over 1.7 million reviews in the app store. They are for real. So talk it out with Better help. Visit betterhelp.com Ramsey to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp. H E L p.com Ramsey.

[Dave Ramsey]

Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz Ramsey personality number one best selling author. My daughter is my co host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Amanda is in Wisconsin. Hi Amanda, how are you.

[Rachel Cruze]

Doing? Great. Dave, thank you for taking my call. And Rachel, it's awesome to speak with you as well.

[George Kamel]

Oh, well, we're glad you called, Amanda.

[Rachel Cruze]

Thank you. Currently my husband and I with our four children, we are on baby step number three and we've currently paid off about $125,000.

[George Kamel]

Oh my gosh. Congratulations.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, it's been a lot of work but right now that we have more wiggle room in the budget, we're struggling with momentum of trying to get that full on emergency fund filled up. And part of it has to do with we had a couple of emergencies this past year that weren't life threatening but they are big financial burdens that we are struggling to throw that money at it to save up to that large amount versus when we were paying down our debt. You know, it was easy you know, throwing like you know, 3, 500, you know, at a things at a time per month and watching that steadily go down. But we're just, we're kind of struggling with the momentum of needing to get that emergency fund up so we can keep going forward.

[George Kamel]

How much you guys have in the account now?

[Rachel Cruze]

6,000.

[George Kamel]

Okay. And your ideal number that you guys are shooting for?

[Rachel Cruze]

30,000.

[George Kamel]

30.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, that's three to six months of expenses.

[Rachel Cruze]

No, that's just at least like a couple of months right now.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I'm saying 30,000 is three to six months of expenses. What's your household Income?

[Rachel Cruze]

Last year we had 110,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, all right. Okay. It's pretty hefty. You may have. That may be part of the problem. You may have such a big goal you can't see getting there. And you're throwing how much at it a month to build it it or how much can you throw?

[Rachel Cruze]

Right now we're throwing about 500amonth.

[Dave Ramsey]

You didn't get out of debt at that speed.

[Rachel Cruze]

No, we didn't. It's. And that's.

[Dave Ramsey]

Where were you throwing at it? What were you throwing at the dead. A month?

[Rachel Cruze]

Oh, gosh, like a couple thousand. Yeah, yeah, at least.

[Dave Ramsey]

Listen, baby steps one through three are gazelle intensity, like your hair is on fire, scorched earth. No eating out, no relaxing, total focus, zero lifestyle. No vacations till you get that emergency fund bill. So it's $2,000 a month going in there, which is a 15 month schedule from the beginning, but you're 6,000 in. And so it's a 12 month schedule for you to get there. But you've got it. I mean, you got to lay it out and look at it like that. What happened was as y' all got out of debt and relaxed.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, guilty.

[Dave Ramsey]

You didn't, you didn't keep your intensity through this. Once you get the baby steps done, baby step three done, then you can relax and start 15%. Be intentional instead of intense. Put 15% of your income into retirement and start towards the kids, college and those kinds of things. But.

[George Kamel]

Yeah. What does it take a month to run your household, Amanda?

[Rachel Cruze]

It takes about 3700 and change.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so let's call that four grand. So three months is 12, 24 is six months. So I don't know if you need 30 or not.

[George Kamel]

Yeah, you could go, yeah, you could.

[Dave Ramsey]

Call it 20 for now and just go get it finished. That's 14. That's seven months. At $2,000 a month.

[George Kamel]

Yeah, that probably feels more doable.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. At $500 a month, you're going to get there in about 18 years. No, you can't. No wonder you lost momentum.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Last year one of our vehicles that we had paid off the motor decided to die. And after crunching it, it's just cheaper to put a new motor in, which is going to be about 10 grand. We have a second vehicle that again, everything's paid off that we're using, but it would be good to have the actual truck back on the road. And then we had a huge flood and the furnace died. So we're heating our house with a Pellet stove, but we need a new furnace, which is like another 10, and I think that's probably why that came from.

[George Kamel]

Yeah, you feel overwhelmed for sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, you got to take care of those things. So you may want to go with a used motor from a junkyard into the truck rather than a new one.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, we've been through, like, multiple mechanics. It's one of those situations where it's a known issue with the vehicle, like, around the 180,000 mile mark. Didn't know that when we bought her, but, you know, even if it's a used or refurbished motor, it's still around, like, the lowest. Was like 8,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But I mean, yeah, you're gonna have to clear those and plow through this. Thank God you're out of debt.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, it's painful watching the eagle sit there and, you know, in the furnace and it's like. And it just felt like we lost our momentum because we were starting to save up for the emergency fund. And I'm like, how do we get the momentum back?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, well, I mean, it's saying, okay, thank God. Okay, with the same intensity that you use to get out of debt. And thank God I was out of debt, because if I wasn't, I'd be really screwed right now with all those payments going on. And so then you're going to be the other side of this, and you're going to go, okay, I got the furnace, the car fixed, I get the emergency fund done. And thank God I'm in that position, because then something else is going to come up. 100% of us have things happen.

[George Kamel]

Well, and the hard thing is, too, I think we can kind of all live a little bit in a fantasy world that life's trajectory is just straight up, up, and it's not. It goes up and down. You know, the trajectory is going up, but there's going to be ups and down seasons. Like, we've talked to many people that they were on, you know, baby step three and almost complete, and then something happens and they got to drain it and build it back up. I mean, that. That is life. But the encouraging thing is, I mean, that you guys have a plan number one, you know what you're doing, and just take it one bite at a time. When you look at the whole thing, it can feel overwhelming of like, oh, my gosh, we still have to get 20,000 emergency fund. And we have this 10,000. This 10,000. Just do one thing at a time and look at the numbers of it to know, okay, if we really sacrifice and keep at it. We can put 2000 away a month, 1500 away a month, and you just start building on that. And then also you think about too, your jobs, you know, getting raises, like things happen too, with income throughout this process.

[Dave Ramsey]

The good news is the other side of it and the other side of it looks like this. When you don't have any payments, the truck is fixed and the furnace is fixed and you got $20,000 in the bank. It's going to be the weirdest thing. Here's the weirdest thing that happens. What is defined as an emergency changes because when you're broke, a $30 item is an emergency. When you're, when you're doing really well and you got margin in your budget, a thousand dollar item is not an emergency because you just put it in the budget. And even later on it gets to where a $10,000 item is not an emergency as you build some wealth and you just don't end up using the emergency fund because, you know, you starting to get margin in your life. And by the way, you're moving up in a little bit better cars so they're not breaking all the freaking time. And you're staying ahead of the maintenance stuff on stuff so it doesn't break on you. And you get more life out of things because you keep up with it, all that. So the good news, and that's, I'm talking three years from now for you, Amanda. Not today. Today you've got another year of really tough. Roll up your sleeves. You got a year of tough and you're not done. You're not done. You got to get through this. And then. But that's the only way to get through it, is to get, is to bust through it. And as you said, to regain your momentum, there's not a magic thing. But when you set a clear goal and you believe it's reachable, it gives you energy. When it's a vague series of things attacking me that I don't know how I'm going to handle it steals your energy. So break it down step by step. Here's what we're gonna do first, here's we're gonna do second, here's we're gonna do third, and we're gonna crank it up again. No lifestyle, no nothing till we get this mess. CLE.

[Chris Hogan]

Okay, Rachel, the Internet officially knows too much about all of us.

[George Kamel]

So much, George. I mean, our names, our addresses, even our relatives names. And what's crazy is even if you opt out, data broker websites can still get Your info don't like that.

[Chris Hogan]

And just a year ago, get this, the average person had about 300 pieces of personal data floating around online. Now it's over 600. It has doubled in a year.

[George Kamel]

You guys, that is so concerning. Because that info then can be used in phishing, scams, impersonation, and even harassments. That's why George and I both use and love Delete Me.

[Chris Hogan]

Yes, Delete Me scrubs your personal info from hundreds of these data broker sites, not just once, but all year long. And there's real privacy experts behind the scenes doing this, not bots. So this is digital hygiene. We all need.

[George Kamel]

We all need it. And then they will send you a detailed report showing exactly where they found your data and what they removed. And you can even request custom removals if you have something specific you want them to look out for.

[Chris Hogan]

Exactly. And this is not being paranoid, this is staying protected. And so far, Delete Me has removed my info from 240listings and saved me 94 hours of time it would have taken me to it.

[George Kamel]

I love it. And you guys, in a world where strangers can google your grandma and get enough info to scam her in just two clicks, Delete Me gives you peace of mind.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes.

[Chris Hogan]

So go to join deleteme.com Ramsey for 20% off. And that discount brings their annual plans down to about nine bucks a month. So go check it out. Joind delete me.com Ramsey.

[Dave Ramsey]

Amy's in Minnesota. Hi Amy, how are you?

[Rachel Cruze]

I'm good. How are you guys doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, I wanted to call and ask about my company credit card. My husband and I worked really hard to pay off all of our debt and we have our emergency funds saved and we've been also saving to buy our first house sometime in this year. We went to our local credit union to get approved and we did get approved for a loan. But the person that we spoke with there asked me about a $17,000 debt that was showing on my credit report and I realized it was for my company issued credit card. I'm a secretary at an accounting firm and I was given this card when I first started working here and I use it to book travel for employees, order office supplies, pay different company bills, but it never occurred to me that it would show on my personal report.

[Dave Ramsey]

So is it an American Express?

[Rachel Cruze]

No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Good. Okay. Because theirs are going to show on your report and they're going to try to hold you liable. So I would go to your supervisor and tell them you need this canceled Immediately.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay, this is ridiculous.

[Dave Ramsey]

It should not be on your report. You did you sign for. To be liable for this company?

[Rachel Cruze]

No. And from what I was reading, you know, we're a smaller company, so I'm like, listed as an authorized user.

[Dave Ramsey]

Authorized user should not. Is not liable for the bill.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. So that's why.

[Dave Ramsey]

So it shouldn't show up on credit bureau. But your bank is a huckster, so your. Your boss's bank is a huckster, so you need to get away from this.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay. I was. Yeah, I wasn't sure if I was getting the right information from the credit card or from the credit union person we talked to about the loan.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, if it shows up on your credit bureau, it's not something they've taken your Social Security number and put you on the account somehow.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, yeah, I'm an authorized user.

[Dave Ramsey]

I know authorized user is not liable, but that doesn't. Should not be reported. Sometimes they do that, though. And so, yeah, you got to be really, really careful. And so I would just tell your boss just to, you know, To. To shut it down. Shut down the account or shut your name down off the account. I don't want to be on the account at all in any way. If you want me to book your travel and stuff, you're going to give me your card to do it. I'm not put. I'm not putting my name on it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay. Okay. Well, I will do that. I appreciate.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't want to be liable for it, and I don't want it reported on my credit bureau. Yeah, I worked hard to get out of debt. Now I got a $17,000 debt that's yours on my credit report.

[George Kamel]

That's what parents are starting to do with their kids, putting their kids as authorized users so that it builds their credit, which is that same whole same crap.

[Dave Ramsey]

And it's not supposed to show up. Yeah, it's not legal, but they do it all the time, so. Because here's the thing, what is reported on your credit bureau report is what you owe. When you're an authorized user, you don't owe anything.

[George Kamel]

Your name is just attached.

[Dave Ramsey]

Should not be on this.

[George Kamel]

It's just that her name's attached to an account that does owe.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, exactly. But it's the same thing as the kids. It's exactly why she's getting this. She's probably not liable on this account. They probably haven't screwed it up. Up. But the best thing to do is just to get it out of her name completely. And then you don't have to worry about it.

[George Kamel]

That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's not going to show up anymore.

[George Kamel]

How. How crazy is that? That you're like, we're out of debt. All this. And you go to your credit union.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you're like, I'm sorry, you got $17,000.

[George Kamel]

What?

[Dave Ramsey]

We can prove the loan in spite of that. But.

[George Kamel]

Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

And he acts like she owes the money. See how that happened?

[George Kamel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

See how that looks? That's the purpose of a credit bureau report. But it's false, right?

[George Kamel]

Right.

[Dave Ramsey]

You know these companies, man. Snakes. Kathleen is in Kansas. Hi, Kathleen. How are you?

[Rachel Cruze]

Hey, Dave. I'm good. How are you doing?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Rachel Cruze]

Thanks for taking my call. So, pretty straightforward question. My boyfriend and I are going to be buying a house together, and my question is, should I keep the townhome that I currently own and rent it out for extra income, or should I sell it, take the profit, and stick it in investments?

[Dave Ramsey]

Kathleen, you're not gonna like me.

[Rachel Cruze]

You're gonna ask why we're not married.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I'm gonna tell you.

[George Kamel]

Maybe that too.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, that might come up in a minute, but we're gonna start with the idea that buying a home with someone that you're not married to is financial freaking suicide. Do not do that.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

One of you decides to leave, you can't get off the mortgage.

[George Kamel]

There's no protection.

[Dave Ramsey]

One of you gets disabled, you can't get off the mortgage. If he dies and he doesn't have a will. If he dies and he doesn't have a will, you own a townhouse with his mother. Yeah, it's a bad idea. It's a bad idea. Okay, These are the people that call us later. Yes. After they do the thing you're gonna do, and then they call us going, dave, I'm so screwed. What am I going to do now? Please don't do.

[George Kamel]

The boyfriend leaves and doesn't. Stops paying, he just disappears, and then you're on the hook for the whole thing or you're gonna get foreclosed on or. You know what I mean? Like, it's just. It's not. Not good.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, no, no, no. Do not do this now. Then. Then. And then, if you were married and you did and you did buy it together, that would be okay, obviously. So if you're gonna do this, you got to get married. So I'm really meddling now. But then if you're going to do this, you'd have to keep debt on one or the other in order to keep the old place. And I wouldn't do that. I'd sell the old place. Okay, but don't sell the old place and buy this with your boyfriend. You're going to do it anyway. You're going to do it anyway. You're how I stay in business. You're just going to keep coming back. She's going to do it anyway. Everyone listening knows it. Oh, bless your heart, darling. I'm so sor. Please don't do this. Please. We love you. We don't want this.

[George Kamel]

We're here, Kathleen.

[Dave Ramsey]

If it goes, it's not a prosperity plan. It's a poor person plan. You're gonna be poor people. Don't do this. Don't do this. Please don't do this. It's not a matter of romance. It's a matter of stupidity. Tim is in Utah. Hey Tim, what's up?

[Ken Coleman]

Hey, Dave, quick question. So my wife and I were self employed. We own a business and we currently own a house in Utah that we bought in May of 2022. Long story short, our house has dropped in value like $85,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why?

[Ken Coleman]

So the market just dropped. We bought the week before interest rates started going up. And so then interest rates went up and we have touched our. Just south of Salt Lake.

[Dave Ramsey]

Bull. Salt Lake is a boom town. It's exploding in price. It's almost unbearably.

[Rachel Cruze]

Our whole. It is.

[Ken Coleman]

It's still expensive. Our house was expensive, but our value, the value has gone down quite a bit since when we. Since we bought.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm sorry, I don't believe. I think you've got bad information.

[Ken Coleman]

I.

[Dave Ramsey]

Gave you. Who gave you the comp? Who gave you the comps?

[Ken Coleman]

Our realtor works for your real estate.

[Dave Ramsey]

Agent, came out and looked at the house and said the house that you bought in 21 is worth $85,000 less in salt Lake City.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. And we have friends that just sold under contract and their house is undervalued. Yeah. Yep. So here's my question though. So we are, we don't have any other debt. Like we're pretty smart financially, but we don't like how much our mortgage is. And the other aspect is we travel to the east coast for work six or seven times a year. And so we're looking at buying a house in the east coast by some friends and we'd be able to lower our mortgage payment about 1200 bucks a month.

[Dave Ramsey]

Six or seven times a year?

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Kamel]

For how long at a time? How long at a time?

[Ken Coleman]

About a week at a time.

[Dave Ramsey]

So for seven, six weeks out of 52. That doesn't, that doesn't determine your domicile.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, no, but if we moved to where we're looking at, our mortgage payment would also be 1200.

[Dave Ramsey]

You'd never live there.

[George Kamel]

No. But you're moving there full time, saying no.

[Ken Coleman]

No, we're talking about selling our house in Utah and moving and moving to.

[Dave Ramsey]

Terminal the whole year.

[Ken Coleman]

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

So what's the six or seven times got to do with it?

[George Kamel]

Well, that's just the reason why they're.

[Ken Coleman]

Moving like traveling as much.

[George Kamel]

He just.

[Dave Ramsey]

So are you working in Salt Lake City while you live on the east coast?

[Ken Coleman]

We own a company and with my, we work remote so we can work anywhere. So my question was though, for us to move, to sell our house, we'd owe our mortgage company a little bit and then moving costs and closing costs and everything. It would cost us probably about $40,000 which we have in the bank to move and it only saved us about twelve hundred dollars a month in payment and mortgage payment.

[Dave Ramsey]

It doesn't make any sense at all.

[Ken Coleman]

We're trying to decide.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, doesn't make any sense at all.

[Ken Coleman]

We're trying to decide should we just take that from 40 grand then to put it towards our house? That's the only debt we have.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I would just sit there and let the thing come back in value. You got no reason to move. You don't have a reason to move. You're only over there six times a year. You can get a hotel six times a year or nothing. I mean it's nothing.

[George Kamel]

So wait till the house gets.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're spending, you're gonna go $85,000 and $40,000 to move. So it's a hundred and twenty thousand dollar swing you'll never recoup. Buying a home these days can be a real dog eat dog situation. Just when you think you found the right house, somebody else swoops in with a better offer. So you need an edge home buyer. Edge from Churchill Mortgage can help you win against the competition with the ultimate triple threat for home buyers. One, your pre approval is handled by real humans, not just a computer. So you're positioned like a cash buyer even without the cash. Two sellers love a sure thing. So Churchill backs your offer with a $10,000 seller guarantee. If your loan falls through, the seller gets $10,000, which takes away their fears about financing and gives them another reason to say yes to your offer. And three, Churchill secures your rate for 90 days so you don't have to worry about the Interest rates going up while you find the right home. It doesn't cost you anything extra. And if rates drop, so does yours automatically. With Home Buyer Edge from Churchill, you're not just another buyer. You're a top contender. Go to Churchillmortgage.com to arm yourself with the ultimate home buying edge today. That's Churchill Mortgage. This is a paid advertisement. Homebuyer Edge and Seller Guarantee are available for qualifying borrowers and select loan types only and are not available in all states or locations. NMLS ID 1591 nmlsconsumeraccess.org/housing lender Salt Lake City is the 10th hottest real estate market in 2025 in the U.S. it's up 9% year over year in prices, and it is 35% higher than the national average on median house prices.

[George Kamel]

Okay, this is such a.

[Dave Ramsey]

Just to make sure.

[George Kamel]

Just a classic Ramsey move.

[Dave Ramsey]

Just the. No, I'm serious.

[George Kamel]

I am too. This is exactly what happens when we debate at dinner as a family. We're always pulling up Google to prove our point.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's great. Well, I mean, it wasn't like I made this up. That was my point.

[George Kamel]

I know, I know. But you proved it.

[Dave Ramsey]

I did proved it. Locked that down. Christie's in Indiana. Hey, Christy, what's up?

[Rachel Cruze]

Hey. So my lot's happened over the past year with my family. Me and my husband have been married for about 14 years and we're deciding to moved because of his job from Indiana to D.C. and we're deciding to consolidate my mother's house also and move her in with us. She owns her house outright. We still carry a mortgage, but I'm just trying to figure out how to protect her money in this whole process if something were to happen. Divorce, death, What? May I just have no clue how to walk into joining our household and making that happen.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why are you.

[Rachel Cruze]

I'm the only child that looks out for her. So. Her husband had a stroke a year ago. He's in a facility. He's. He's like a three year old in a grown man's body. She lived with my 92 year old grandma who passed away about two weeks ago.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, I'm sorry.

[Rachel Cruze]

There's just no one here.

[Dave Ramsey]

How old is your mom?

[Rachel Cruze]

72.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so why does she need care at 72?

[Rachel Cruze]

She just doesn't get around. Good. She uses a walker. Probably could use a wheelchair at this point. She was looking into a townhome here and I'm like, well, that doesn't make.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sense if you got a wheelchair in your future. With a walker.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes, I know. I know. And you know, there's, you know, there's some family close, and I said, if she needed help, would you help her? You know, right now she lives on an acre. She has a, like a seven or eight bedroom house. It's just too much. So we've been.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't. I don't doubt that, but I don't. What I'm trying to figure out is why she's moving in with you.

[Rachel Cruze]

Because I have a conscience.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, she doesn't even need you. I mean, she's. She's only 72, but she doesn't sound.

[George Kamel]

Like she's in great health.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, she's not. She does need us. She does need us.

[Dave Ramsey]

All right. All right.

[Rachel Cruze]

I don't know why she panics. You know, even she had help with her husband.

[Dave Ramsey]

And how many brothers and sisters do you have?

[Rachel Cruze]

I have one sister, my brother. I have a brother also, but we haven't seen him and show.

[Dave Ramsey]

So what's the house she's going to sell? How much money is she going to put into this deal?

[Rachel Cruze]

Probably maybe 700,000. And I have some other cash things that were moved around, annuities and stuff. We had hired prior to all of this going down. We had hired a estate lawyer when her husband had a stroke, and they moved some of her money around so that she wouldn't lose it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why would she lose it?

[Rachel Cruze]

Applying for Medicaid.

[Ken Coleman]

They.

[Dave Ramsey]

She put him in a welfare nursing home. And she has $700,000?

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, no, that's. That's going to be what we're going to get from the house because she owns the house outright, and that's something they said that the government wouldn't take with.

[Dave Ramsey]

I know, but this is Medicaid. This is Medicaid is welfare. She put him in a welfare nursing home. Home. Wow. And she had the money to not do that?

[Rachel Cruze]

No, we used all of our cash assets initially, and he was not in there for about a year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, so she's broke. Other than the house?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Does she have any income other than.

[Rachel Cruze]

What she gets from Social Security? No.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. What's your house going. Is your time? What's this proposed purchase going to cost?

[Rachel Cruze]

We. We actually made a offer on a house for a little over a million.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. You need to see an estate planning attorney. And the house would be purchased in an llc, and she owns a portion of the llc, and you own a portion of the llc. Okay. And then here's the tricky part. You have to do a bunch of legal Work to determine what happens to her portion of the LLC upon disability or death. Or if you guys just want to sell, because otherwise you're gonna get trapped and your siblings are gonna be pissed, and your brother will just reappear at the most inopportune moment looking for his part of the 700k that is called your house. This is really messy. It's going to be very difficult to do this well and it not end poorly. That's why I was asking all these questions about her care. Okay. It'd be one thing if she just moved in with you and you took care of her, but when you put her money in this house, she's now your partner. She's 72, and she's in ill health, and she dies, is that going to force the sale of the house that you live in in order to give your sister her part of the inheritance?

[George Kamel]

Are you going to save the money to buy her out?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, you got to have 350,000. Or is it going to be 350,000 plus what? The house has gone up in value. So now the house is worth 2 million, and your mother's share is now worth 1.4 million. And that means you owe your sister 700,000. This is not going to go well if y' all aren't real careful.

[Rachel Cruze]

She was planning on giving the whole portion to us, her initial offer.

[Dave Ramsey]

How's your sister feel about that?

[Rachel Cruze]

She doesn't know. Want to take care, help her out.

[Dave Ramsey]

She doesn't want to help her out. 700 grand worth.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. This isn't gonna go well. Okay, you guys are, you know, you haven't thought this all the way through, and so it can be done, but you're going to have to lay out every possible negative scenario and have in writing in the LLC documentation what's going to occur. Your mother gets dementia. Your sister says that you are signing checks illegally for her. Her, who's got health care power of attorney. What happens in the event of death? At what point do you have to liquidate to pay your sister out? What does the will say about your mother's portion of the LLC? Because she owns over 50% of the house you live in, and that. That. That tail is going to wag that dog. You following all this?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

It's messy. That's why I was begging, trying to figure out a way to not do it, and I wasn't being in compassion.

[George Kamel]

Are you married, Christy, with kids and stuff?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes. Okay. Yes. So here would be a question for me, because this is sort of what she did? The house she lives in now. My grandma did the same exact thing. Sold her house, built onto my mom's, and they didn't have any paperwork, so.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but you didn't have any heirs that questioned it?

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, you know, she did just pass away two weeks ago, but they. They knew that that was sort of like the. The cost of taking care of my grandma and letting her live there.

[Dave Ramsey]

Does your mother have any siblings?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

And that was your grandmother's house that just died?

[Rachel Cruze]

Not technically, no.

[Dave Ramsey]

Whose names it in?

[Rachel Cruze]

My mother's.

[Dave Ramsey]

You sure?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yes. Because she built it in 1974.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

They just remodeled it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, if your mother puts all of this money in this house and this house is in your name 100%, you've duplicated that family mess. But, yeah, it'll. That'll work. It'll keep your sister out of it. But I think your sister probably never gonna speak to you again when this is over. Cause you took $700,000 to care for an elderly lady for a few years. It's pretty heavy pay. A lot different than the Medicaid nursing home she put her husband in, so. Man, this is messy. Your sister's gonna be pissed. I can see it coming a mile away. I'm gonna get a call from her. That's what's coming next. Y' all gotta work this through, and everybody's gotta talk about it, and it's gotta be documented. And you need some legal advice that's a lot better than. Than I could give you, because all I can tell you is it's going to be a dead gum mess. The Ramsey show question of the day is brought to you by why Refi defaulted? Private student loans can wreck your peace of mind, your finances, your relationships. Why Refi offers hope with custom refinancing based on your unique situation and ability to pay. Visit yrefi.comramsey today. That's the letter y r e f y.com ramsey not available in all states.

[George Kamel]

Today's question comes from Alexandria in Texas. I'm currently going through a divorce and recently found out that my husband has taken out credit cards in our children's name. He racked up significant amount of debt and emptied his retirement account to pay it off. He keeps telling me it's not possible to pull credit reports on our kids, but I don't believe that that's true because now he wants me to sign paperwork that absolves him from any wrongdoing regarding our kids. No good.

[Dave Ramsey]

Not happening. Your husband is scum. Anybody that would soon Screw his own kids over is scum. I mean, who takes out. That's just absolutely the. I mean, to start with, identity theft is illegal. It's criminal fraud. Okay, so your husband is a criminal. Oh, and who do you steal from? His children. What a jerk. No, I am not signing any paperwork. Except paperwork puts him in jail. That's the paperwork we're signing on him. So now go talk. Go talk to your lawyer, darling, and tell your lawyer to send him back a little note that says lo EL oh, lol. Got to be freaking kidding me.

[George Kamel]

You're saying O L. O L. O L. Yeah, whatever.

[Dave Ramsey]

I know, but it's. Laugh out loud, you fool. Okay, so you have got to be kidding me.

[George Kamel]

Oh, yeah. And you can freeze your kids?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yes. You can pull kids credit reports and you can freeze them. We know this because we did it when Rachel was. When they first started allowing freezing. Rachel was still a minor. And all of our children entered their adult life with a frozen credit report. Nothing had ever been on it. Nothing could get on it.

[George Kamel]

Well, and you do it, too, to protect them from ID theft. Just in general. Like with their Internet. You know, the Internet.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you need to freeze it because their father's to going, okay, well, and that will keep him from. If they actually check the credit before they issue the credit card. They won't issue it if it's frozen. Next time he tries to do this. Because there will be a next time. This guy is a serious con artist.

[George Kamel]

Sorry, man.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, here. This is interesting. Listen to the verbiage. He keeps telling me it's not possible PUL Credit reports on a kiss. But I don't believe that's true. So here's. Let me help you with this. Anything this guy says is not true. If his mouth is moving, he's lying. This is a guy who would steal his own children's identity for his own personal benefit. So nothing that comes out of his mouth can be trusted. So the only thing that can be trusted are the actual facts and the behavior, not the verbal wishes. So, no, you can pull credit reports on your kids. You can freeze credit reports on your kids. I have done it.

[George Kamel]

And I would. To make sure. I mean, if he says he paid it off, who knows, you know? So I would pull those credit reports to see what the status is.

[Dave Ramsey]

I would file a criminal on him. I'd have the police, I set him up and say, hey, somebody stole my kids, stole my kid's identity. Oh, it was him. Absolutely. And then let him figure that one out. Definitely. So. Because I Don't want this guy near them again. This is unbelievable. Carlo is in Miami. Hey, Carlo, what's up?

[Ken Coleman]

Hi. Hope all you doing are well.

[Dave Ramsey]

We are.

[Ken Coleman]

I wanted to ask your opinion. My mom, in February, late February, she passed away from her 10 year cancer battle. I'm sorry and I appreciate it. And in her passing, big family squabbles with the scraps left behind. Long story short, I have $110,000 sitting in my bank account. My wife and I tomorrow are going to go get a biopsy for her. They think she possibly might have cancer. And her father that lives with us, his cancer came back and we're dealing with that. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it's been, It's a rough 20, 25, but yeah, we're still blessed to be here and making decisions and trying to make things better. So.

[Dave Ramsey]

I assume you and your wife have health insurance?

[Ken Coleman]

Yes, sir. Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Does her father have health insurance?

[Ken Coleman]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right.

[Ken Coleman]

So my biggest, my biggest dilemma is this. I've always been a saver. I've. We're, I believe on baby step number five, if not six, we're, we're doing rather well. We just turned 40 this year. And I'm trying to balance keeping funds in the reserve for if things go south and living life now. We had a hard time with that with my mother. You know, traveling with her at the end was very difficult, but we made it happen and we made our memory. So.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, I'm sorry. What an amazing amount of challenges. I would just throw that in a high yield savings account for six months because in six months you're going to have a lot more information on these, both of these situations. Okay. You know, how expensive a fight have we got? How long a fight have we got and how much are we going to look at alternative solutions that our insurance won't cover? Okay. And that would be true in either case, but certainly true in your wife's case. Right. And then with her dad, does he have money and how much is he going to, you know, above is out of pocket after insurance and then is he going to try or do anything other than that? That is going to be expensive.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay, well, he doesn't have much. He, he lives with us. We have in laws, quarters and he has Medicare and Medicaid. So most of all of his treatments have been, you know, covered from that. Yeah, it's just, you know, I want to do right by him. He's been a workhorse, much like my mother, his whole life working.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. But I don't think That I don't think you're gonna have a hundred thousand dollars of medical bills with him.

[Ken Coleman]

No, no, no. Absolutely not. Okay. But, you know, I don't know what the future holds, so, you know, I have the monies right now in a Schwab account. I could put that in a high yield savings.

[Dave Ramsey]

I just put it in High yield Savings and just forget it's there. It's just sitting there. And then as soon as you actually can quantify these situations a little bit in terms of how long is this going to. How long are we going to be in this fight and what's the actual out of pocket expense from these two different fights, then that tells you if you can invest and begin to do some other things with some of that money. Well, let's pretend. Let's pretend that it's a minor issue with your wife. Okay. And it's. And it's nothing. We're done six months from now. It's way in the rearview mirror. The biopsy was benign. No problems, no issue. We're done. Done. Okay. We had a few hundred dollars in deductibles or whatever some CO pays. We're done. Then you don't have to worry about this 100k for that purpose. I'm not going to leave it around for vague worries, but I'm going to leave it around for specific worries.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, one of the reasons why I've left it there in that account also is she's attempting to do a career change, which is drastically going to change her income. She currently makes about $100,000 a year, and her career change could drop us about $30,000 a year. So it's a pretty big shortfall that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Can you not live on what you make?

[Ken Coleman]

Well, in Miami, it's a little.

[Dave Ramsey]

Can you not live on what you make with her career change?

[Ken Coleman]

Yes.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you can't, she doesn't need to do the career change.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah. I mean, it is a luxury, and she wants to do it to be home.

[Dave Ramsey]

More luxury is fine, but can you. If you can't live on it, you can't do it.

[Ken Coleman]

It. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because if you got to feed your household $30,000 a year, in three years, this money's gone, and then you're screwed. You got a burn rate on this, man. So you don't create sustainability from savings. That's a completely different subject than you called with. But yeah, you've got to create a budget that you guys can live on. So if you can afford to live on without touching this money. Her career changed she can do it. If she can't, if you can't, she can't do it.

[George Kamel]

Or you guys change lifestyles, you gotta change something.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but this hundred thousand not gonna save you on that. Not even gonna come close. So no, that won't work. But, but having it set aside to make sure you turn the corner on some cancer diagnosis, until you turn the corner, I'd let it sit there. Many of you listen to the Ramsey show because you're sick and tired of getting nowhere with your money. You work too hard to live paycheck to paycheck with no money in the bank. But here's the deal. Just listening to the show won't change that. If you want different results, you have to do something different. We've helped millions of people save money, ditch debt and build wealth. And you can too. But you gotta have a game plan. And that begins with our get started assessment. Go to ramseysolutions.com startnow. Take the free quiz and get your free step by step action plan. If you've had it with money stress and are ready to take control of your money for good, go to ramseysolutions.com start now. Welcome back to the Rams Ramsey Show. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality number one best selling author is my co host today. Open phones at 888, 825-5225. Melissa's in New Jersey. Hey Melissa, how are you?

[Rachel Cruze]

Hi, how are you?

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve. What's up?

[Rachel Cruze]

So my husband and I have been married for 18 years. We have separate accounts. I'm a teacher, he was a construction manager, a project manager for a long time. Now he sells.

[Ken Coleman]

He.

[Rachel Cruze]

Got laid off from two jobs within the past two years and now he's self employed and he's building a business on his own. In that process we had our rental property that we originally lived in when we first got married. We had two kids, two family home. We bought it together after we got married and, and the down payment was an account that my husband had. It was $50,000. His dad died when he was around nine years old and the mother put all of the father's Social Security checks into an account to help it grow. And that's what he wanted to use that account for to put the down payment on that house. Then we remodeled it with our wedding money. We lived in it for about 10 years and then we bought a single family home but we kept it as rental. So our joint, our only joint account was where the house rental income was going into when I was not working Because I was a stay at home mom for 10 years. We also had a joint bank account that was originally his and he just added me on.

[Dave Ramsey]

What's your question, honey?

[Rachel Cruze]

My question is, is we sold our rental property and we. He told me it was going into the joint account. And I was sitting at the Starbucks signing papers, and the $475,000 that we made on the house was going into his only account, his sole account.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why'd you sign the paper?

[Rachel Cruze]

Because he told me that we would lose our house, we would lose everything because we have no money to live on, which we. We didn't. We would have to sell our house.

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, you wouldn't lose everything if he just changed the account, put it into the joint account.

[Rachel Cruze]

Well, he didn't.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, I'm just saying I wouldn't sign the papers till he did. Why didn't you say that?

[Rachel Cruze]

Because our dynamic is based on a lot of intimidation and fear and I.

[Dave Ramsey]

So when is the divorce?

[Rachel Cruze]

I know. Well, I trusted him to take care of our finances because he's very financially savvy and that's, you know, we kind of have our roles. We kind of let our. Each other take care of our. You know, what we. Our strengths are. But now he. He won't let me see the money. He told me the money is his and his mother's money. It's not my money. He did all the remodeling on the house.

[Dave Ramsey]

He's confused.

[Rachel Cruze]

So. I don't know what my rights. I don't know what to do.

[Dave Ramsey]

The only rights you have are in divorce court.

[Rachel Cruze]

Okay? Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

That's the only place you're going to get. That's the only place you're going to get a legal right.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You have moral and ethical rights, but he's ignoring those. Yeah, but New Jersey will take half of that money and give it to you.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, I mean, I don't know what he did with it. I have no access to anything. He has stock accounts, investment accounts, divorce.

[Dave Ramsey]

Divorce requires discovery. And if he hides any of that, it's a. It's. It's a criminal act.

[Rachel Cruze]

Right? Well, he says that I am a teacher because I put myself through school. When they hear me, I know half.

[Dave Ramsey]

Of this is yours.

[Rachel Cruze]

I know.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, then quit acting like you have to go through all this. What he says doesn't matter.

[Rachel Cruze]

I know.

[Dave Ramsey]

When the. When the law detel tells him what to do, it's going to be interesting for him.

[Rachel Cruze]

You're right. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

I mean, you know, it's up to him. Does he want to.

[George Kamel]

Because, I mean, it's a. This is a marriage issue, Melissa.

[Dave Ramsey]

Obviously, you got.

[George Kamel]

You guys do not have.

[Dave Ramsey]

You have very little marriage left.

[Rachel Cruze]

Absolutely.

[Dave Ramsey]

Hanging on by three.

[George Kamel]

Are you wanting something different? Like, what are you thinking? Do you feel.

[Rachel Cruze]

I want. I want a divorce, but I'm afraid that I'm gonna have nothing. We live a very, very nice life.

[Dave Ramsey]

The only way you would have nothing is if he hides it all. And your attorney. So weak, he lets him get away with it.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Yeah.

[George Kamel]

Are you working now?

[Dave Ramsey]

You're probably a millionaire.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Yeah. I make. He. He was. When he was a project manager about two years ago, he made about almost $218,000 a year. And I right now make about $80,000 a year. I'm a teacher. But the. The bills that I. My bills that I pay toward the house and whatever Random needs. My. I have two teenagers. Whatever they need. By the end of the day, I don't have much money to put away to.

[Dave Ramsey]

Here's what you need to do.

[Rachel Cruze]

You know, You. You have a job. You can pay for it. When I asked him for money, that's exactly what he says.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, this guy's not.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, yeah, so you should be giving me money now.

[Dave Ramsey]

You. Here's when you. When you're overwhelmed, what you need are. Is information and facts. And information or facts that are coming from him are not information or facts. Because we know him to not be a reliable source. Okay, I'm not a lawyer in New Jersey, but you need one. So if you go sit down with an attorney and say, okay, here's what I do know. I know we had this 475. I know we had this stock account. I know we had this. How can I be protected in this process? And the attorney will explain it to you.

[Ken Coleman]

You.

[Dave Ramsey]

What the laws are in New Jersey. You can have a consultation with an attorney, a divorce attorney, and it probably won't cost you a dime to do a consultation and gather information, because you're functioning in fear, not on facts. And when you're in trauma, when you're in a dramatic situation like this, your emotions are making the decisions, and they're not making good decisions because they're not based on facts. And so if you just cut through all that and go, facts are my friends. Facts are my friends. The way he makes me feel is not a fact. That's a feeling. The fear of, he may have stole all this money. I may never get any of it. I may be broke. I may be homeless. That's not a fact. That's a fear. Okay. The facts are you have a teaching job. It's really good. The facts are that New Jersey requires child support to be paid when you have teenagers. The facts are that New Jersey will require some kind of property disposition, probably around 50% each. Those are the facts. Now once you have those facts and you go, gosh, half this money is mine. The law says that now, then you can go back and say, bubba, if we're going to keep this together, we're going to have to go see a marriage counselor and everything in this house is going to change. Change. Otherwise we're not gonna be able to keep this together. I've spoken with a divorce attorney and I have an appointment with a marriage counselor. Which one do you want me to go to?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, yeah, I. I'm gonna do that.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, but you do all that from knowledge, which will make you much calmer.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Because all these things, things are spinning out in your head. And he's activating a four year old version of little Melissa who thinks she's going to be on the street.

[Rachel Cruze]

And you're not.

[Dave Ramsey]

You're not, honey. You're going to be okay. And I hope you don't have to go through this. I hope the guy can be woke up and you can save your marriage. That would be neat. But at this moment, you don't want to be married to him. I can hear it. And nobody does. Nobody wants to be married to the guy you've described for the last few minutes. So I'm sorry, so sorry. But yeah, go get some actual information. And that gives you power. Buying and selling a home is a big deal and you want an expert in your corner fighting for you to get the right deal at the right price. That's why we only recommend Ramsey TR trusted real estate agents. They're handpicked pros who know their stuff, listen to your needs and have your back from the first call all the way to closing day. To find a Ramsey trusted agent near you, visit ramseysolutions.com agent ramseysolutions.com agent coordinating a financial Peace University class is a great way to stay motivated on your own baby steps journey while you help other people. When you lead a class, you get access to the FPU lessons, the premium version of every dollar and additional cost, content and perks, all for free for an entire year. You also get support from a community of other coordinators and our team of experts resources to help you lead the class. So far this year, we've seen over $100 million in debt paid off and money saved in FPU classes. If you have a passion for serving other people, this is a great way to do it. Go to ramseysolutions.com FPU. Get your first class started now. Brian's in Minnesota. Hey Brian. How you are? Are you.

[Ken Coleman]

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

[Dave Ramsey]

Better than I deserve.

[Ken Coleman]

What's up guys? I had a quick question for you. I guess I'm in a predicament that's not necessarily a bad one. So I am 26 years old. About how it was about five years ago in the market was pretty cheap. I have 130,000 in savings doing nothing for me. I only have 95,000 left on the mortgage. So I guess my question was what's your opinion on what I should do? Is if I should pay it off earlier with the money I have saved saved. Should I invest into something or just keep it in a high yield savings account?

[Dave Ramsey]

Where'd you get 130 000?

[Ken Coleman]

I'm very frugal. I'm a good saver. I've worked for every penny of it and nothing's been handed to me. And yeah, it's good save money. I guess.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you're single?

[Ken Coleman]

No, I get married actually next December.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, congratulations. Does she have any debt?

[Ken Coleman]

No, she's got no debt at all. She makes 80k a year and Yeah, I guess we don't know what to do right now.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sounds like a match made in heaven.

[Ken Coleman]

But it's kind of. Kind of too good to be true. It's kind of. Yeah. What now?

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

So I don't want to be sitting here wasting money on when my mortgage is only 3%, then at the bank I'm getting 4% of my money.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

So I'm like, well, I could pay my house off and live pretty generous, generously with my life, obviously have some kids and go from there.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

But I guess I'm kind of stuck on what I should do.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. If I woke up in your shoes after doing what I do for 35 years, I would write a check today and pay off your house and I'd have no payments. Take your shoes off. Walk through the backyard. You'll find the grass feels different.

[Ken Coleman]

I thought about doing that. Yeah. I just got off escrow this past week and that was a nightmare and a half. Sounds like the biggest scam I've ever been through before. And I'm also like, you know, I just want me to be done with this loan. I'll just be done.

[Dave Ramsey]

But each month I've been telling people to pay off their mortgages in situations like this for 30 years. Years. I have never had someone call me back and say, gosh, I really regret doing that. That was bad advice. Never had somebody tell me it was a bad idea. And by the way, Brian, if you hate being debt free, you can always go get you another mortgage. So I would write a check and pay it off today, hun.

[George Kamel]

Amen. Hallelujah. Yeah, just Brian.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's very cool. Good for you. Rick's in Las Vegas. Hey Rick, how are you?

[Ken Coleman]

Hey, Dave. Hey, Rachel. Thanks for taking my call today. Appreciate it.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure. How can we help?

[Ken Coleman]

So I have a 401k question for you. I'm just trying to plan for next year. I max out my 401k every single year, not only as an individual, but from the company contributions as well. This year it was 23,500 for individual and I think 46,000 from the company. So 70 grand total. My question is next year I'm debating on whether I want to front load it all by February. We get a huge profit sharing check every single year and I max it out in February. Is it better to do that or is it better to spread it out throughout the year?

[Dave Ramsey]

Well, we have taught in our world dollar cost averaging for so long that people sometimes avoid the lump sum. And so, and that's kind of what brings your question to bear. So what I do is I fully fund mine in the first month of the year.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And the reason is this. Okay. The only reason you would spread it out throughout the year is if emotionally you can't handle the stock market going up and down and you're gonna freak out. But that doesn't bother me a bit because I don't even look at, I just put it in there and I'm thinking I'm probably never going to touch it. I'm probably putting it in there for Rachel's kids because I'm not probably going to use that money anyway. But the, and the niece and Daniel's kids. But anyway, it's not just Rachel's kids, but the Rachel's kids are like, whoo hoo, yeah, Papa Dave. Yeah. But anyway, the. Yeah. So the point being that mathematically, even if the market goes down right after you put it in, by the end of the year it will have gone up more than it went down 90% of the time. That's the history of the stock market. Okay.

[Ken Coleman]

Okay.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so, you know, sometimes you get a bear market that lasts over 12 or 14 months, but very seldom, you know, if you go back and look at this, look at the track record of the stock market, look at the S and P charts. Okay. And you know, look at how many times, you know, so what ends up happening is the entire lump sum is earning money all year, or 1/12 of the lump sum is earning money, then 2/12 is earning money, then 3/12 is earning money, and then 4/12 is earning money. So the point is I'm making those S and p returns for 12 months while someone that's spreading it out is not getting the same dollar result that I'm getting. That makes sense.

[Ken Coleman]

Sure. Yes, it does.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I lump sum it for that reason. But you can't do that if you can't emotionally handle two months later, Trump burps and the market goes down or he throws a tariff on some bizarre country that we never heard of and the market goes down or whatever it is. Right. And so you don't know what's going to happen out there on the short term. And so you can't be freaking out all the time if you're doing, doing that. Yeah, but you lump some yours at the first, don't you?

[George Kamel]

Yes. And depending on age, for sure, your mindset should always be long term.

[Dave Ramsey]

Right.

[George Kamel]

I mean, if you're, you know, 61 and you're looking at retiring, there's something there. Yeah. So I mean like it's, it's, there's not really a point.

[Dave Ramsey]

Unless you're 58.

[George Kamel]

That's right, 49 and a half or whatever.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. In my case, I can, I can touch it if I want because I'm.

[George Kamel]

65, which would be, I could see that having a different psychology, but when you're, when you're younger than that, you know, when you're in your 40s, 40s, 50s, 30s, all of it, you know, it's long term anyways.

[Dave Ramsey]

If you're not thinking in five year blocks of time or longer, you shouldn't be putting in a 401.

[George Kamel]

That's right. That's right.

[Dave Ramsey]

Even at my age.

[George Kamel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

You need to be thinking long term. And so I'm thinking past my death because again, I'm probably not going to ever touch that money. I've got plenty of other stuff generating income without touching that. And so that money's probably, is all in Roth too. So it's all going to pass completely tax free. It's awesome. So yeah, that another reason I won't be touching it. So. Yeah, that's the thing. Which also kind of we can sidebar on that for a second. Rachel. It's a good teaching point. And I didn't think about this when I was your age and teaching this stuff and I was your age and doing this stuff and building the wealth. But now, now that I, as, as I'm hitting these milestones, 65 and all that, I'm starting to understand 72 and a half. You have, if you have traditional IRAs or 401ks that have not yet been taxed, you have required minimum distributions that are beginning. You have to begin to take it out because the government wants their tax money. If it's in a Roth, it is growing tax free. And there's no RMDs, no required minimum distributions. I have moved over the years, 100% of ours into Roth and paid the taxes on those lump sums. It's. I did that. Even the matching portion at Ramsey, where I match myself, has to be. It's required to be traditional. But each year I roll it to Roth. So I don't have anything that's not Roth now at my age. So this is really beautiful. Not only is all that growing tax free for me, but then also I don't have RMDs. I wasn't, I never. I couldn't spell RMD. Yeah, it's just a required.

[George Kamel]

No, no, no. What's the dollar amount?

[Dave Ramsey]

The dollar percentage. It's a chart. It's a percentage.

[George Kamel]

Percentage of more each year.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Because they want to get their taxes.

[George Kamel]

Yeah, they want. Yeah, they want to get their taxes.

[Dave Ramsey]

Require you to begin to cash out traditionals. But if it's not traditional, you're not required to take it out. And it's continuing to grow tax free. And with the new Biden Secure act, the legislation was passed under President Biden. If you do an inherited IRA and it's a traditional, all the taxes are due within 10 years. You have to cash it out over 10 years.

[Ken Coleman]

Years.

[Dave Ramsey]

If it's a. There's no taxes due on a Roth, none of that applies. So when I do leave it to you, the kids, as an inherited IRAs or beneficiaries, then that, that is zero tax on it. None and no required distribution. So getting that stuff moved into Roth as you get old, if you can pay the taxes, if you can figure out a way to pay the taxes, it voids all that stuff. I didn't even think about all that stuff when I was in my 30s. I was just chunking money in there like crazy. And now I look back and go, man, that Roth Stuff's freaking genius. We've all done dumb things with money. I've done them with zeros on the end. One of the biggest mistakes I see people make with money is not having a plan for it. You got to have a plan. You got to be intentional. And you need to get a budget. You have to tell your money where to go so you're not wondering where it went. Our budgeting app, EveryDollar, helps you do just that. It's the easiest and fastest way to make a monthly plan. For every dollar you've got coming in and going out, now's the best time to get started before the ridiculous holiday spending season gets here and sucks you in because you didn't have a plan. Don't let that happen. You're done making that mistake. Go download every dollar for free. Free in the App Store or Google Play. Today, 7 out of 10Americans die without a will. Listen, if you hate your family, make a big old pile of money, make it real complicated, and die without a will. They will fight for the next 15 years, and they'll hate each other. You will completely shut down all their productivity because they'll be screwing with your stuff. Unbelievable. Howard Hughes, one of the richest men in America at that time, died with two and a half billion dollars in 1976. It took almost 10 years to settle. 600 people filed a claim. 22 of his legal cousins ended up with a money was split among 22 people. The judge finally decided almost a decade later. Guess who got most of the money? The lawyers. That's how that works. So if you want to. If you want to do that, that's fine, but that's called dumb. Okay, Get a will.

[George Kamel]

I love it.

[Dave Ramsey]

In less than five minutes, you can find out if an online will works for [e-mail] willquiz or click the link in the description. If you're listening on YouTube or podcast, it is your job to love your family. Well, make sure you have life insurance and you have a will. So when you go, we'll knock 25% off a will. If you want to do one online, we'll help you do that. And you'll use the promo code will month, because August is creative. Will month. Will month. Michelle's in North Carolina. Hi, Michelle. What's up?

[Rachel Cruze]

Hi, guys. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm honored to be talking to both of you.

[Dave Ramsey]

You too. How can we help?

[Rachel Cruze]

My boyfriend and I started dating in April and we're really in love and thinking about getting married. This October, he's in about $60,000 worth of debt, and I'm out of consumer debt. I just have my mortgage. I have about a $500,000 net worth with my house and my retirement. And my parents helped me buy my house house as a gift. And my dad is saying that I should get a prenup before getting married, especially because we haven't been dating that long. So I'm wondering what your thoughts would be on that.

[George Kamel]

I mean, yes, you. I mean, you. You started dating, and we'll get married within six months. Is that right?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, seven, but yeah.

[George Kamel]

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

How old are you?

[Rachel Cruze]

34.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Wow. Well, the thing is, your dad just doesn't trust the situation.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, that I get.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. And if you don't trust the situation, you should get a prenup. But if you don't trust the situation, you probably should be engaged a little longer until you trust the situation.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah. Yeah. One thing I'm worried about is this would be his second marriage, and he has a child from his previous marriage, and he's been having some custody issues there. So I'm definitely worried about what could happen with my finances and my home once we combine everything. And, you know, if his ex wife.

[Dave Ramsey]

Takes care of a long time. Well, you're marrying into that.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so if he spends, you know, y'. All, if you have combined finances and you all have to spend some money on custody, that's going to affect your income and your savings and your investments. Right. It's not going to cause you to lose your home, but it is gonna, you know, that's what you're getting with the package.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, unto the all my worldly goods I pledge. That's the old marriage vows, remember? Yeah. So, okay, our rule of thumb. When I first started, I told nobody, no one should get prenup because you're planning your divorce, and if you like your house more than you like him, you shouldn't get married. And that's what I used to tell everybody. Okay. I don't say that anymore exactly that way. I have said a couple times on weird things. Like one lady called up and her boyfriend, her fiance, wanted a prenup because he had a vintage sports car that was worth $100,000. And I'm like, he likes his car more than he does you. You don't need to marry him. And so that I'm willing to say, okay, I come down on your dad's side. Almost on that. But Where I am trying to keep things moving is assuming that you really feel a thousand percent about him, that he's okay and he's aligned on getting out of debt, staying out of debt, living like you live. You're going to live on a plan. We're going to combine our finances. We're going to make life together. We're going to make decisions together in unity. If he's completely trustworthy on that, then the only reason I would do a prenup, and if he's not, by the way, he's not ready to get married. Yeah. Okay. And that's something you got to solve. And I'm not going to put you on the spot and ask you that here, because I don't think that. I don't think that's the case. I sense this guy's. The way you're describing him is solving solid. Okay. He's got outside issues with the child support, possibly, that kind of stuff. But. So anyway, the reason we tell people to do prenups these days is if there is an extreme difference in net worth. Okay. He has negative. Negative net worth. And you have $10 million or $5 million. Okay. You don't. You've got 500,000. So it's not extreme, but it is enough that I get your dad. Okay. I understand him thinking that. And your dad actually gave you the money to get this started, so I get that too. Okay.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

I'm not. I'm not mad at your dad on this, but. So yours is not extreme. But the reason we tell people to do that when it's extreme is actually not the person you're marrying. I'm not trying to protect you from them. I'm trying to protect you from his ex wife thinks she can keep you guys in court forever because he married a girl's, got some money. I don't want to send her that message. And he could just look at her and go, I don't have any access to this. I got prenup. And shut her little emotions down because there's. Or the crazy relative of whoever that comes along and thinks, oh, hey, this guy hit the jackpot. And you go, no, he's got a prenup. So that it kind of helps the outside crazies more than the two of you. Does that make sense?

[Rachel Cruze]

Yeah, it does. Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so I.

[George Kamel]

It's probably a short timeline.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's probably because, you know, if you had told me a little bit more lengthy engagement and you guys went through financial Peace University together, you were completely aligned and you go through good strong pre marriage counseling counseling, I would probably say no. I'm on the bubble with yours, though. I might, I might in yours. I'm not. I wouldn't be. I wouldn't think you're stupid if you did it one way or didn't do it the other. Okay. If you do it or don't do it. So, I mean, if your dad thinks you're just crazy, I would disagree with your dad. Okay. But he, if he's just saying this is a wise suggestion, you should consider it, then I would agree with him on that. Okay. And if, and also a wise suggestion is for you, you guys to spend some time in pre marriage counseling and deal with, okay, what comes up, up when we got a $20,000 legal bill to fight the crazy ex on the kid. Can you handle that emotionally?

[George Kamel]

And when you guys get married, Michelle, like to the point that you're so unified that this $60,000 of debt is yours too.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah. You get it paid off immediately.

[George Kamel]

Yeah. And you guys solve it together.

[Dave Ramsey]

You get it paid off immediately.

[Rachel Cruze]

I'm on board with yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so if you guys can work through that kind of stuff, the length of the engagement becomes less stressful for me. I will tell you this. The data tells us, and there's lots of data on this, that a six month engagement period and a three to four month dating period prior to that marriage within 12 months of being within 12 months of meeting has a very high probability of success. And as you shorten it statistically, the probability of success goes down. And as you lengthen it dramatically, five year engagements are bullcrap. Okay, Painter, get off the ladder. Right. And so, you know, as you lengthen it, it doesn't make sense because the relationship gets strained for all these other reasons, then we're just playing games. So, but anyway, that's the data that we have on marriage stats. And so you're a little bit short on the data. It's not a deal killer. But you know, because that incorporates, hey, I met you last weekend, let's go to Vegas and we're married. You know those, don't those only make it in the movies. Okay. And because they wake up from the hangover and like, oh, what did I do?

[George Kamel]

They get an annulment like Rachel and Ross. Sometimes it works.

[Dave Ramsey]

Rachel and Ross. We have a friends reference.

[George Kamel]

I'm so proud of you.

[Dave Ramsey]

So anyway, all of that. End of speech, machine shell. So I hear what your dad's saying. You hear what your dad's saying. Because you're you're not a child. You're 34 years old.

[Rachel Cruze]

Yep.

[Dave Ramsey]

And so it's not, you know, I. I think you solve for those concerns for you, not for your dad. And if you can get to where you're a thousand percent solid, if you want to not do one, I'm okay. And if you got a little itch and you want to do one, that's okay. But it's also an indication you're probably, probably need to do some more work before you go to the altar. Our scripture of the day, 2nd Corinthians 1:4, he comforts us all in our troubles so that we can comfort others when we're troubled. We will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. Margaret Thatcher says no one would remember the Good Samaritan if he only had good intentions. He also had money. Josh is with us in Arkansas. Hi, Josh. What's up?

[Ken Coleman]

Hey, Dave. Thank you for taking my call.

[Dave Ramsey]

Sure.

[Ken Coleman]

How can we help? Well, my wife and I finally sat down yesterday evening and filled out the everydollar budget, and upon doing so, figured out that we have roughly $87,000 in consumer debt. Auto loans, credit cards, secured loan, that kind of thing.

[Dave Ramsey]

That was an old crap moment.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah, you could say. And we pay about $4,000 a month towards that debt. And we visited a little bit this morning about it, and she kind of seems to want to just like keep chipping away at it. And I'm of the opinion that we could get rid of the truck payment, get rid of the secured loan, which together are about $69,000 worth of that, and be in a much better position.

[George Kamel]

And how would you do that?

[Dave Ramsey]

What's the secured loan?

[Ken Coleman]

So the secured loan is 32,000. It's in a private credit union. And one of the reasons she wants to keep it is they still pay us interest on the full amount, regardless of whether we borrow.

[Dave Ramsey]

Also, you have enough savings in there to cover it, and that's what's secure. So you borrowed your own money, correct? Yeah. Okay. All right.

[George Kamel]

So how much you guys have in savings total, Josh?

[Ken Coleman]

Roughly 10,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

No, you got 30,000 over the.

[Ken Coleman]

In the toe. In the savings total in that account. 36.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. And you owe 32 on that?

[Ken Coleman]

Yes, sir.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then you've got a $69,000 truck that I guess you're driving.

[Ken Coleman]

No, well, the $37,000 truck.

[Dave Ramsey]

Oh, 37.

[Ken Coleman]

Honestly, it's part time vehicle. I have a work truck that I drive most days.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. All right. And your household income is what better one.

[Ken Coleman]

160, 165.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay. Our experience with this process is, is that people come to the right conclusions at different speeds. You went straight to, here's what we do. I'm going to fix this. She's still processing all of it. And so when I'm going to interpret her, I might be interpreting her wrong. Okay. I think when she said, I want to chip away at that. This, she said, I'm still thinking this through. And for now, let's just kind of do our budget. Like we just figured this out scary.

[George Kamel]

Enough 12 hours ago.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, I've had a whole 12 hours to process this. Okay. So I'm more wired like you, Josh, isn't that I can make a decision in about 30 seconds. If it's the wrong one, I'll just make another one. My wife, on the other hand, likes to cook for about three days before she comes to the same conclusion. But if I try to get her there faster than she gets there, things don't go well at the Ramsey house. And so I've learned to slow down a little bit on that. The other thing that we find a lot of times with folks that are brand new on this stuff is that it's real easy again for people that are wired like you. And you're not wired wrong, but it's just the difference in you and your wife. It's real easy to go straight to the tactical before we've clearly and thoroughly discussed the why.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, to be fair, I'm part of the why, so I'm buy and sell vehicles. I mean, I don't.

[Dave Ramsey]

I don't know. Why are we. No, no, no. Why are we cleaning this up?

[Ken Coleman]

Sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

Why does this matter? We want to build wealth. Okay, good. Why do we want to build wealth? We want to build wealth so we can change our family tree. We have three precious kids. We don't want them to be broke. We want to leave an inheritance to our children's children. That's what a godly man does. Why are we doing this? We want to do this so the stresses off our marriage. We want to do this so that we can be outrageously generous. We want to do this so that we can travel. And if you get those things all dialed in and high definition and both of you are excited about where you're going, then it's easier to endure the pain to get there.

[Ken Coleman]

Sure.

[Dave Ramsey]

So you guys probably didn't spend enough time dreaming yet.

[Ken Coleman]

Well, I think kind of what I was getting at is she is probably concerned that I'm gonna Go. You know, two months from now, I'm gonna go. You know what? I changed my mind. I want to get another truck.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah.

[Ken Coleman]

Because I've done this before.

[Dave Ramsey]

Okay, that's. That's fair. And you know, and if you say that out loud to her, they'll probably give her comfort.

[Ken Coleman]

Yeah.

[George Kamel]

The awareness of the patterns of what it was.

[Dave Ramsey]

Yeah, that's fair that I'm aware that patterns there. And I understand how this is not. I don't have credibility to talk about this. But here's the difference, honey. The difference is I was doing that in those days for one reason. Now we've got this big why that we both agreed on, okay? And in our case, we went broke. And for Sharon and I, we were very unified on yelling at the mirror, never again. I will never be in a situation again where some butthole banker puts his foot on my neck ever again. Redneck mad. 35 years ago, and I'm still pissed. You follow me? That was my why. That was my why. It drove me through this stuff. And Sharon had been so terrorized by the whole process that that was a fair why. Other families that stand on the debt free st. They say it was for the kids. We had to change this for our family tree. It wasn't for our kids. Our kids just got the benefit of eating while we were doing it. I mean, that was it. We weren't like, who the little children? We weren't that way. We were like, no more freaking bankers. But other people are like the little children. I'm doing it for the children, you know? And it's okay. I don't care what your why is. It just needs to be big and.

[George Kamel]

Noble and to get you through the hard times because.

[Dave Ramsey]

Aligned on it. And then. And so that if you went to go buy another truck later, she would go, yeah, but we agreed on the why. And that truck's messing up my why. We're not doing that. And she could call you out on the why, not the truck, okay? And if you guys, I think if you'll let her cook a little number one, number two, you, high definition in detail. Write it down. Put pictures up of the trip we want to go on. We want to do a worldwide cruise. I don't care what your why is. It just needs be to. To be a real driving reason to get the mess cleaned up so that we can get to do that thing or be that thing, okay? And when you guys do that together, then she's willing to sell your truck. Then she's willing to give up the thing. But yeah, if she. Both of her not wanting to do both of those things probably could easily go back to. She's worried you're going to want to go back and get another truck for sure. She's trying to keep money in the credit union, even though it's secured again against it.

[George Kamel]

Yeah.

[Dave Ramsey]

Just to keep you from getting on the truck. So. And the more time that passes, the more intense she's going to get, because the more she's going to trust you're not going back to your old ways.

[George Kamel]

Yeah, yeah. And. And Josh have a really detailed plan out of like, okay, how per month, what do we think we can put at this debt? If we sell this. This. This, like, start to map out some actual plans. Very tactically, very detailed. And I think that helps too, because conceptually, if it's like, we'll just cut our lifestyle and the grocery budget needs to be cut in half. And, you know, you start thinking through these things, it can be way more difficult because you almost can't even see the end or the process how to get there. You're just kind of like, looking at today and you're like, oh, gosh, that's gonna be hard. So the whole plan has to be fleshed out. And the end of the plan is the why. Exactly what you're saying.

[Dave Ramsey]

And then if you get off that plan to go do something stupid, you can call each other out.

[George Kamel]

Or if life happens, you pause the plan to figure out life. And then we do that together.

[Dave Ramsey]

We do that together. You don't get to go, oh, I changed my mind. I'm not doing this whole thing we laid out. Well, the only reason I agreed to the whole thing was we laid it out and we're sticking to it. And so then you've got a thing. It's a plumb line. It's your guidance mechanism, and you're sticking to the whole thing. Rachel's exactly right. Look at all of that.

[George Kamel]

But the encouraging thing, though, is that 32 out of the 87 is gonna be cleared up. Cause you have 36, so that's four. And then you have another 10. That's 14,000.

[Dave Ramsey]

And you get rid of $37,000 truck, the whole thing. You could really make a bunch of progress real fast.

[George Kamel]

Yes. Yeah, y'. All.

[Dave Ramsey]

So I don't disagree with your tactics, but I under. I'm trying to help you understand. And I'm trying to understand with you why she's tapping the brakes here. And I think we. I think we discovered that. So it's a great call, Josh. And you guys are going to do great. You're going to be fabulous. That puts us out of the Ramsey show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of peace, Christ Jesus.