The Ramsey Show

What Are You Willing To Sacrifice To Get Out of Debt?

November 21, 2024 1h 27m
πŸ“ˆΒ Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a Free Personalized Plan πŸ“±Watch the full episode for free in the Ramsey Network app. Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: "My fiance hasn't filed taxes in 20 years..." "I asked my parents if they can forgive my loan," "Should I rent out my house during the NFL Draft?" "My brother co-signed a car with my late father," "I'm worried grandkids will blow their inheritance," Support Our Sponsors: 🌱 Get 10% off your first month of BetterHelp πŸ₯ Learn more about Christian Healthcare Ministries 🏑 Get started today with Churchill Mortgage πŸ”’ Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe 🏦 Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle! πŸ₯— Save 15% on your first Field of Greens order with code RAMSEY πŸ’€ Visit Helix Sleep for special offers! πŸ’» Visit NetSuite today to learn more πŸ—‚οΈ Use promo code RAMSEY for 18% off at The Nokbox πŸ› Get started with YRefy or call 844-2-RAMSEY πŸ” Visit Zander Insurance for your free instant quote today! Next Steps πŸ“ž Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET or click here! πŸŽ„ You could win $5,000 in the Ramsey Christmas Cash Giveaway! Enter today. 🩺 Find the Right Health Coverage During Open Enrollment πŸ’΅ Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! 🎁 50 days of Christmas deals are here! Get 30% off meaningful gifts. πŸ›³οΈ Live Like No One Else Cruise Listen to more from Ramsey Network πŸŽ™οΈ The Ramsey Show Β  🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour πŸ’‘ The Rachel Cruze Show πŸ’Έ The Ramsey Show Highlights πŸ’° George Kamel πŸ’Ό The Ken Coleman Show πŸ“ˆ EntreLeadership Learn more about your ad choices.Β https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

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Full Transcript

live from the headquarters of Ramsey solutions. It's the Ramsey show where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships.

I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Ken Coleman, number one bestselling author.

Ramsey Personality is my co-host today.

Open phones here at 888-825-5225.

Thank you for joining us.

Liz starts off this hour in Mobile, Alabama. Hi, Liz.
Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you doing? Better than I deserve.
What's up? Me too. So I am with someone very committed that I find out he's not filed tax.
He's been having taxes taken out of his checks and things like that, but he hasn't actually filed in about 20 years. And I'm trying to figure out the rest of my life, basically, because we're very committed.
He's 10 years older than I am and wants to retire not where we currently live. And I don't really want to go because this is where my job is and I'm not ready for retirement.
I still have about 10 more years before I can retire. And I just know that once I leave there, leave here, then I have to start over.
So a little advice, maybe. I don't know.
I mean, how do you feel about planning your future with someone that's in jail? Not real confident about that. Yeah, I'm pretty confident that's where he's going.
Yeah. Failure to file federal income taxes is a federal crime.
2,581 people were incarcerated for that last year. Okay.
It's go to jail. Do not pass go.
Do not collect $200. So, I mean, Mr.
Off the Grid, or whatever the flip is going through his redneck brain, is to have a serious problem and to the extent you're connected to him you're going to have a serious problem they will catch up with him okay they're not good at a lot at the irs but they're really good at collecting taxes okay so why has he why he, pray tell, not filed his income taxes? I am not 100% sure of that answer. I just know that there was a history of no job, and then so he didn't have to do that, obviously.
But he did i don't i don't really know what the thought process was there so i can't i can't answer that one 100 it sounds like there wasn't a thought process that's what it sounds like um so i know okay there's just a lot of red flags there if you were my little sister i would just tell you to rethink whether you're going to be committed to this guy. If he is going to clean up his act and get caught up on his filings, maybe that would entitle him to your attention.
But he's not entitled to your attention right now because this is not a good guy. I don't think he's evil, but he's really slothful.
This is dangerous. This is dangerous, Liz.
Liz, if he's willing to withhold information from the federal government, and Dave's made it really clear what the consequences of that looks like, what pray tell is he willing to withhold from you? Just two pray tells in one call. I know.
Sorry, that just jumped into me. It's such a great phrase.
Liz, I think Dave was really crystal clear with you, but I would dump this guy until he cleaned his life up. If he will not get current on his taxes, that's a deal breaker for me.
If you're my little sister, I'm going to make you do that. Okay? Now, if he wants to get current and not go to jail, I can actually walk him through that.
And I'll give you a little quick overview because now that I've stirred this up, there's other people sitting out there going, oh, God. Yeah, okay.
So here's what he can do. You can go to RamseySolutions.com.
You can in touch with one of our tax endorsed local providers. And if you will proactively go to the IRS, you usually can file about three, maybe four years worth.
And they will call, they will let you get back on the grid. And there'll be no criminal charges.
The criminal charges do not occur when people come to them i've never seen anyone get criminal charges that were we we were we walk them out of the out of the dark into the light into the irs office with a professional and get them caught up okay that he's going to be okay if he that, but if they find him and he's trying to hide, oh, that's when you get in trouble. So he can get with a tax professional, probably file about three years, maybe four years worth.
They will call it even. They'll call it a day, and he's going to have to go back, dig up his W-2s, and figure out what's been withheld withheld he may not even owe a lot of taxes he may have had so much withheld that there's actually money due to him well not with the penalties and interest he's gonna get but anyway you see what i'm saying it might not be it might not be a hundred thousand dollar problem but it is a problem it's like a big deal okay so? So if he's going to date my little sister Liz and ask her to commit to him long-term in the form of marriage or something long-term, big brother Dave is going to say, uh-uh, unless you're willing to get current on your taxes and stay current, because I don't want my little sister Liz married to a jailbird.
Yeah, and God only knows what he gets her twisted into, too. I mean, I'm not trying to just pour on here, Liz, with the things that could happen, but this is so bad, and I don't like the idea that he wants you to move, start over fresh.
I mean, this relationship is really jacked up, and I think a pause is necessary. I really think this is a relationship issue is all this is.
This is a money issue. It's not your problem, and it shouldn't be your problem.
Yeah, and it's going to show up in a whole bunch of places here. Oof.
It's going to be a problem. It's funny that you say that, Dave, because the IRS loves when you come knocking on the door.
They love to collect your taxes, but boy, oh, boy, they get mad if you haven't sent it in. Oh, man.
They will turn it into a... Oh, I'm one of their favorite hobbies.
They've got their own office here auditing me. They just live with us.
But, you know, I hate those people. But I'm not like a proponent of, you know, like I think the federal income tax system is a wonderful thing.
I don't. I think it's horrible.
I think it's an out-of- control, arcane, horrible process. I'm not any of that, but I'm just saying when you don't file taxes, it's not you're making a statement about them.
You're making a statement about you. That's correct.
Yeah. We love our freedom more than we hate taxes.
And so that's the issue here. Well, it's a matter of integrity to do what the law says, even if you with it i agree you know so that that thus you should go to jail if you break the law that's yeah oh be careful liz be careful you've been warned hon and uh now you know open phones here at 888-825-5225 by the way that what's tied to that is this.

Tom Stanley that did the book Millionaire Next Door many years ago.

He's passed away since.

It was 1992.

He did a book later on billionaires,

and the number one character quality he found among the self-made billionaires was integrity.

Hmm.

That's kind of like the opposite of the spectrum of Liz's guy yeah this is the ramsey show all right dave you have some strong opinions possibly yeah i think so okay because you really prefer credit unions over big banks so why why is that well credit unions for one thing are non-profit, which means that the members, the customers, own the credit union. So any profits that the credit union makes goes back into customer pricing.
So you get better interest rate on savings, cheaper checking, and so on, that kind of thing. But what's more important than that, though, is the fact that the customer is the owner changes the spirit on the credit union.
So I find very few credit unions that aren't very customer centric. Yes.
Well, and I think we have found one that is incredible and that's Fairwinds. They are an incredible credit union that is really out with the heart to help the customer.
You know, that's why we're partnering with them because they're, they've got a scope to be able to handle the Ramsey audience and they're the right kind of people with the right kind of values. And they've done a really, really good job with customer service and the deals that they're offering.
The Ramsey tribe is incredible. Yeah, absolutely.
And you're right, their customer service is unbelievable. Winston and I just signed up and we got an account.
And I'm not kidding. It took less than five minutes.
It was so user-friendly. The step-by-step approach was unbelievable.
And then the next day, my phone rings and it says Fairwinds on my phone. So I answered it and talked to someone there and they said, yeah, they give calls to every new customer.
And so again, they just really care about your experience. And I so, so appreciate that.
So again, you guys, I know it can be a pain to switch banks or to open up new accounts, but Fairwinds, again, they make it so easy. Plus anything that you can do at a traditional branch, you can do with them at fairwinds.org or on their app.
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Patrick is with us in Denver. Hi, Patrick.
How are you? What's up, Dave? I'm good. How about you? Better than I deserve, man.
How can I help? That's good. So I'm 23 years old, and I have a loan.
I owe my parents $10,000 right now. For what? It's anloan, uh, about $8,000 is for my car that I

use for work. I'm a farrier.
Um, and then about $2,400 is for a few previous months of rent that I needed help with.

Okay.

So I asked them with. Okay.
Um, so, um, I, I asked them to forgive, forgive the loan and they got upset with me. They said I was ungrateful and they, that I needed to work harder.
Um, and so I was already kind of on the hunt for a part-time job so that I can, a second job so that I can pay off the debt quicker. Good.
But so right now I'm, I've got about 25 clients as a farrier. So I trim and shoe horses.
Right. So what does a 23-year-old farrier with 25 clients make in Colorado? What kind of money you make? Well, so like before gas and tax and supplies and all that good stuff, I'm probably going to make about $15,000 this year.
So not very much at all. Probably like closer to $10,000.
That sounds more like a side hustle than a job. Right, right.
And so I really anticipated just being able to grow my business quicker, which is why I was more comfortable getting these loans. Like they're not huge loans, but.
What's your question, Patrick, how can we help you? Um, so I asked my parents to forgive the loan and I, uh, and they got upset with me. You told us that and like, I had, I struggle already with my, how upset did you ask? No, I said you told us that already.
Oh, okay. I'm sorry.
That's okay. So like, how do I, um, the thing is I,

I, um, the thing is I, I, uh, my parents, I didn't go to college. I became a farrier and I'm the youngest of five kids.
And my parents have given my other siblings, um, help with college. And so that's why I was comfortable asking them to forgive the loan.
But well, I guess, I mean, you're probably going to tell me just, just get a second job and pay it off. I'm going to tell you get a real job.
Yeah. You already have the second job.
$10,000 is not even survival money, dude. Right.
Do you, are you a farrier because you love horses i do yeah okay then how does one make 40 000 how does one make 60 000 how does one make 80 000 working with horses i don't know the answer you probably do correct right and so that's why i asked for them to forgive the loan we need to quit talking about it stop stop patrick patrick stop we don't need to talk about forgiving the loan they're not going to forgive the loan they told you to go get a life and pay them so let's go get a life and pay them answer ken's question why what does it take to make 40 000 or 80 000ing around with horses? Well, you can make good money as a farrier if you have a lot of clients. You need like 100 or more clients.
No, you have 23, you make $10,000. 100 would be $40,000, and that's gross, not net.
That's still not good money. The answer, Patrick, is not to double down and say, well, I'm not good at marketing my services.
Well, that's a lesson that you've now learned, and Dave's right. So what you do have is a decent side hustle.
But the answer is, the question is, what must one do to get a $60,000 or $80,000 or $100,000 job working with horses? We're creating a ladder here. Also, the answer should be, well, Ken, I would have to go work for a large ranch, and I would start out here, and a lower-level ranch hand is going to make $32,000.
I'm making this up, Patrick, but you know the answer to these questions, or you could go get the answers. And you have now got to get serious to say, I've got to take care of myself, and I can't even take care of myself on $10,000 to $15,000.

So go get up the next level or the two or three rungs up the ladder in the horse industry.

And if you can't do that, get into some other type of thing with a ranch.

While you're thinking about all that, just go to work for Amazon 40 hours a week and

throw boxes or FedEx and go work 40 hours a week and throw boxes right now, $20, $25 an hour and go make $10,000 right quick and hand it to your dad. Okay.
Yeah, I'll probably go be a stripper. Okay.
Oh, that'd be great. Yeah.
A farrier stripper. Fantastic.
That's a novel idea. That's great.
It's a whole different motif for stripping. Apparently, he's got the clothing.
I guess he's got the chaps. Oh, you're killing me here.
I know. He did it.
This kid's not serious. No, you're not, Patrick.
That's not a serious answer to what we just were trying to do. I think I know why your parents are angry with you, Patrick.
I'm kind of getting the understanding now. Well, I'll just go be a stripper.
Oh, brother. That's not even funny, really.
I mean, it's just weird. It's gross.
Okay, so go get a job, honey, and make you some money. That's the answer to your question.
All right. Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Ellie is with us in Rockford, Illinois. Hey, Ellie, what's up? Hi, Dave.
How are you guys doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome.
So I have to say, first of all, our son introduced me to you a while back and we live completely debt-free mortgage and everything, and you have changed our whole family's life. So thank you so much for that.
I'm proud of you. Way to go.
Yeah. But the question is, so my husband's job is relocating us for the next two to four years.
And there is potential that we will continue to

relocate every two to four years until he retires in 12 years. The house that we are in right now, it is paid off, but we're in an area that really never increased with the market.
So it's probably only going to go for 150,000. The houses in the market that we're moving to are going to be more in that $300,000 to $400,000 range.

And that is going to mean that we would have to go back into debt if we choose to buy a house. The job does provide a $3,000 a month stipend, an increase in his wages, as well as overtime.
So all of that together makes it worth the move. So we're kind of trying to spend the next 12 years maximizing what we're doing to get to a good spot in retirement.
But, Dave, I've got to say I've done the beans and rice once already. I don't want to live in a beans and rice apartment.
I don't blame you. The question is, should we buy a house or should we rent when we're moving every two to four years? Probably in most markets you're going to be renting.
Here's how you can do the equation, okay? Ask the real estate agent to run some numbers in a five or a ten-mile radius of the neighborhood you're looking in in the new city. Here's the numbers you want.

I want to know in the last three years what the average rate of appreciation is.

How much are houses going up?

2%, no percent, 10%.

Okay?

The second number I want to know is called DOM, average days on the market.

Okay?

And those numbers will run together.

Okay?

Here's what it'll sound like.

Thank you. I want to know is called DOM, average days on the market.
Okay. And those numbers will run together.

Okay. Here's what it'll sound like.
If you hear a zero or a 2%, you might hear 270 days average on the market. That means it's not going to go up in value and it's going to be hard to sell.

That neighborhood you rent in. If it says we're going up 10% a year for two years or three years

or four years, and the average days on the market seven, well, you're going to make some money, and you can get out of the house. If you get those two statistics, they'll tell you mathematically whether it's worth buying or not.
But you don't want a slow market, and you don't want a non-appreciating market. You're going to lose money on a two-year or a three-year horizon.
For free tools and resources to help you reach your home goals, go to ramseysolutions.com slash real estate or click the link in the show notes. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get 10 different answers.
Economic growth or a recession. Business taxes will go up or down.
AI will help us work or it will replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball.
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Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America.
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Today's question comes from Hayden in Wisconsin. The NFL draft is coming to my city next year, and I own a house close to where it will all be held.
People in my neighborhood are renting their houses out during that time for upwards of $10,000. I have an opportunity to make enough money to make a huge dent in my credit card debt.
I'm 27, I earn $95 to be a kid. mom and dad what's going on and go, I'm renting this house out and it is going to massively change my situation.
I would love for you to stay in any other time for any other situation. My house is your house, but I hope you understand and hope you guys can get a hotel and maybe it's 30 minutes out.
I hope you find something. But I would actually tell mom and dad, I'm renting it out for the 10 grand.
Wouldn't even blink. I completely agree.
I was wondering what you were going to say to say i completely agree the only thing i'm wondering with some of this wording is um if you have absolutely already decided before they asked that you were going to do this yeah then ken's answer is correct if they asked and then you thought oh you know i could i could probably do 10 grand. I'm starting again.
You know, it's like, correct. If they asked and then you thought, you know, I could probably do $10,000.
I'm starting to get, you know, it's like, eh. But by and large, yes.
Just tell them they're going to have to stay somewhere else. And it doesn't crush his dream.
Yeah. If he wants to go to the NFL draft, go to the NFL draft.
It's really not that big a deal. I mean, and I can't believe people are paying that.
Well, we had the NFL draft here in Nashville. I just, I think it was three years ago and I took my boys down.
I'm friends with several guys on the NFL network and they showed my boys the red carpet and they got to go behind the scenes. But Dave, it was unbelievable.
But were people paying people $10,000 for the week? I don't know what the rental was, but I can tell you that the streets were absolutely packed and it has become a massive event. I believe it was in Kansas City last time.
We're talking hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people were on the street, the Broadway, Nashville, the main road, on actual draft night. It is a massive thing.
So it's kind of like a golf tournament. Was it Milwaukee probably? It'll be in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee, that's where it is. Okay.
Well, no, that's not true because they do it in NFL City. It'll be in Green Bay, the Green Bay Packers.
Okay, well, now let me help you then. So now.
There will be a so now be a real shortage of housing and that's why they're getting that's why they're going to get it's like augusta everybody in augusta georgia it's a little town and it's a one-time thing yeah yeah you're going to get he's going to be driving in yeah i agree or stay 30 45 minutes out that's what i mean he's gonna be driving in yeah okay i got you see that papa papa's gonna be driving in and by the way where are you going hayden no you're not going to draft you're leaving town i guess huh and uh going to vegas for the weekend i don't know but yeah but uh yeah you know figure out what you're doing here and don't go blow the 10 grand while you're gone i love that he wants to knock this debt out love this idea and if you can get a windfall of cash because of that, that's awesome. I'm in.
Camille is in St. Louis.
Hi, Camille. How are you? Hi, how are you, Dave? I'm welcome to the blessings.
And I'm just, I feel like you're the preacher to my soul for finances. And thank you for that.
Amen. Bless your heart.
How can we help? Yes, my baby brother, God bless him. I love him with all my heart.
He co-signed on a vehicle with my father and unfortunately our father passed away oh no um yeah he was my best friend um the original loan amount for the car was over 55 000 so there's been no payment since his death and my brother said well when i sat down at signing they if anything happened to dad, it would be paid. I said, they lie.
You didn't read the fine print. I told you not to do this.
So on and so forth. A settled company sent him something in the mail saying that they were released to lean for a subtle amount of $8,400.
But I'm reluctant. Cause I'm like, are these people even legit? How do I, like, what do I tell them to do? Yeah.
There's a tiny possibility that these people, while they were ripping your father and your brother off with this car loan, that they put credit life insurance on this loan, that if your dad died, the life insurance would pay off the loan these are the type and by the way credit life insurance is ridiculously expensive a horrible product never buy it but i got a feeling these are the type of people would sell that to your dad and your brother because they sound like um people that are an easy mark for con. And so your brother might have heard them right.

They might have said this credit life right here will pay off the loan.

So first I want you to investigate with the lender

whether there was credit life insurance on the loan.

That's the first thing you do. You call the lender and you ask them that, or you have your brother do that.
They won't talk to you because your name's not on it. And then if it is not and he can settle it for $8,400, that sounds like a bargain.
Where's the car? It's in his possession. It's literally right outside the house.
It's parked. He starts it once in a while.
He's scared to drive it in case he gets pulled over and it gets impounded he says i have no way of getting it out so it's literally just sitting there and i'm confused as to why it hasn't been repossessed me too they probably just don't know where it is i mean it's 2020 so it doesn't have all these newfangled tracking devices blah blah i know but they don, but they don't know where, I don't know. I mean, it sounds like they're not hunting it down too hard.
If you can settle a $55,000 debt for $8,400, we want to do that. What he would do is call them and get proof that they are the holder of the loan.
Who is a settlement company? Are they the actual person i should be negotiating with

and are they had do they do they have the title to the car are they you know send me proof of the debt and if he gets proof of the debt and scrape together eighty four hundred dollars and gets a fifty five thousand dollar car for that that's going to not be bad okay okay but i What kind of feeling he's got credit life on this thing?

So if he did go, why would they even want $8,400? Shouldn't it just be wiped away? Because they didn't look at it. They didn't have, because they're incompetent.
Okay. Okay.
Credit life. I'll look into all those things you mentioned.
Thank you so much. Thank you, darling.
Appreciate you calling. Wow.

The co-signing thing, um, people always do this as if everything's going to work out perfectly. And in case you haven't lived long enough, I got a clue for you.

Nothing ever works out perfectly. Nothing goes exactly like it's supposed to go ever.

And, um, co-signing I've done it and i've had people do it for me and it's stupid it's just dumb it's even in the bible that it's dumb proverbs 17 18 says one lacking in sense cosigns for another god just said you're lacking in sense that's pretty strong yeah there's no wiggle room there yeah so don't co-sign you get in situations like this this is a bizarre one right here but uh i mean who who co-signs and thinks the person's gonna die that's not one you come up with usually but it happens obviously and uh man what a deal what a. So do not co-sign.
And do not buy credit life. Don't take out a loan of this type, period.
But for sure, credit life insurance is somewhere around 200 times more expensive than term life insurance. Dave, real quick, what would be a default answer to a family member or friend who comes to you and says,

will you co-sign? Because it's a tough and emotional situation. What would you say to

honor them, but also keep that common sense? I would say I can't do that because if the bank

is not willing to do the loan, then there's all kinds of problems that are going to happen. And

I would never want to be crossways with you and you not paying something and I have to pay it would cause me to end up being crossways with you and I value our relationship more than that. That's textbook.
No. All that to say no.
No. This is the Ramsey Show.
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That's betterhelp.com slash Deloney. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, number one bestselling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose, is my co-host today.
Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sherry is in Orlando.
Hi, Sherry. How are you? Hi.
Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve.
What's up? So I'll keep the question short, and then I'll give you the background. Basically, I opened a new business about two, three months ago.
I am not really getting any sales. I'm doing a standard advertising.
I'm selling on Amazon right now. I'm doing advertising through them, social media, like WhatsApp, friends, family, to try to get the word out, and I'm still not getting anything.
I'm wondering, is there something that I should be doing more? When would be the time to say, this is just a failed business idea, and to just stop and cut my losses? What are you selling? So specifically right now, it's a clothing brand. And right now, I'm starting with formal dresses for breastfeeding.
I am actually the only one that sells that. There is no one else that sells that, which makes it very even more difficult to understand why there is no sales, really.
Well, can I take a stab at why I think, and I'm a guy, but I have three kids. I just don't think a lot of women that are in the breastfeeding stage are going to formal events, and therefore there's not a lot of demand.
So from my personal experience, that's the reason I came up with this idea, is because I had a very hard time finding this and talking to a lot of people in sort of the community, friends, family, there seemed to be a demand. There seemed to be people, women, that are interested in it.
Have you done any research to go, what's the market? Your sales indicate that's not set. Who's the Walmart of those type addresses? And if there isn't one, we now have us starting to get a clue.
Who is the dominant player or two in that particular wardrobe sector? Did you develop the product, or are you selling someone else's product? No, I developed a product. There is no one else that sells the type of product that I am selling.
Okay. All right.
The short answer to your question is there's a wonderful book and you want to pick it up by Dr. Henry Cloud called Necess okay okay and the the way we ascertain whether to end anything a relationship a job uh an employee in their job with working for you, close a business, move a tenant out, is when we lose hope that there is an actual way to success.
When we've tried everything and we cannot see a way to success. We can't see our way to success.
So let me give you a weird example.

It has nothing to do with your question. Okay.
A lady is married to a guy who has an alcohol problem. He's been in and out of the rehab three times.
She loses hope that he's ever going to quit drinking. She doesn't see a way to success.
So she ends their marriage. You follow me? And so you've tried if once you've tried everything that you know how to do to get this product out um and it's not it's not selling then then yes we declare that a miss we declare that a failed business and it doesn't mean you are a failure it means that that idea didn't work.
And I've been running Ramsey Solutions for 32 years, and the number of ideas that we have launched that didn't work are too numerous to count. We have sucked so many times.
It's unbelievable. Okay? Now, you guys all know us for the things we're successful at, but we have tried and failed at so many things.
So this might be just one of those things that your heart told you this was going to work, but your statement of there is an actual demand for this product has not, the marketplace is not telling you that. If you are getting the message to ladies that are breastfeeding and they are not buying this dress, then if you're actually targeting them with your marketing and you're getting the message to them, the message is in front of them on Facebook or it's in front of them on Amazon feed or LinkedIn or whatever it is you're doing, however you're getting the message to them and they're not buying it, then the marketplace is telling you there's not as much demand as your heart thought there was and this is the end of the program.
Now, you might say, okay, I think I could do this or this. Okay, good.
Then try those two things and if you still don't get it moving, then you just, you don't want to get delusional and just go, I'm going to keep going no matter what. No, no, no.
Sometimes the marketplace is looking at you and saying you missed it. Yeah, I agree.
Before you launch anything, quick little lesson to anybody out there. It's worth doing research to see who's in the space that you want to be in and how many are in the space, who's winning, why are they winning.
And those are just basic things that you want to look into so that you don't get into something that your heart's totally engaged in, but you didn't do the head work. And that's the logical research to see if there is a market.
Supply-demand is economics 101. If there's no demand, then there's not a supply of customers is the way you want to look at that.
And then the other thing is, if you're starting something like that with the way she's selling it on Amazon, that's her distribution methodology. So just buy a very, very small run.
I agree. And set up a manufacturer that can turn them real fast if you get a bunch of orders.
But don't fill up your basement with something that's not proven. Um, and don't spend a bunch of money

on a credit card to run the marketing with some Amazon marketing program crap. Okay.
Use real cash to pay for your marketing. And when you sell a dress or two, you can reinvest that cash and back into some more inventory and some more and do this as a side hustle.
Don't go all in on something that you've not proven. It's proven when people actually give you money for it.
I was in a meeting this morning here at Ramsey, and they were, you know, the leadership team was presenting me with this thing, this prototype thing we've been working on. And they're like, all the customers are just eating it up.
And I went, so how much money we collected on it? And they said, well, we haven't gone to that stage yet. And I said, oh, so you figured out we can give it away.
Yeah, right. That's right.
Next stage is can we get money for it? Oh, there's that. That's right.
Oh, then we'll find out if this crap's real. Okay.
That's funny. Because it's real when people give you money for it.
We've seen what people do at NFL games when the cheerleaders come around with free T-shirts. It's like they're handing out gold bullion.
Grown adults are acting crazy for anything free. That's a very good point.
Very interesting. And, you know, if you thought you had a demand, you've got to prove it by collecting money from the customer.
That's your social proof that the product is doable and is going to make sense lexington kentucky kelsey's on the line hi kelsey what's up hi dave how are you doing better than i deserve how can i help good i was calm because i wanted to know when an okay time would be for my husband and i to start trying to have a baby now and make that were financially stable. Now.
Right now. Right now.

That's what I'm saying but he wants to pay off the house no we have no debt no no Dave would you be more clear with her please no you need to have babies you need to have them right now well call. No, right now.
I'll go work on that. Thank you.
No, seriously. The thing is, people have this thing in their head because the media has told them that children are so expensive.
They're not that expensive. The first couple of years, you buy some formula and diapers, and you have to pay the pediatrician's Porsche payment.
But other than that, after that, they start eating your food and stuff. And they're really not.
It's this idea that you have to somehow be wealthy to raise children is absolutely asinine. Poor people have raised lots of children, and functional ones too.
They learn to work. They learn to clean house.
They learn to be good kids. And so, no, no, no, no, no, no no no no no no no they are not those two things are not connected same thing with getting married you're ready to get married get married as long as you're both on the same team and you're in agreement about what we're going to do with money it's time to get married okay we're going to get out of debt you don't have to get out of debt before you get married we don't tell people that never have in 30 years on this show and we don't tell people to to not have babies.
Now, I would say the exception of that would be, okay, you're four months behind on your house, and he hasn't worked in two years. Well, that's, you know, okay, now we've got to fix some stuff.
We're in crisis mode. But I have to pay off my home before I have babies? Nah.
Nah. Nope.
Not from this show.

We never said that.

No.

He's going to be thrilled with that answer. Oh, he's going to love us.
Can't wait to see that. He's going to love us.
This is The Ramsey Show. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships.
Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author of the book, Paycheck to Purpose, and host of the Ken Coleman Show.
He's my co-host today. Melinda is with us.
Melinda is in Spokane. Hi, Melinda.
How are you? Hi, I'm healthy and well. Thank you.
Good. How can we help? I am.
My question, it's about estate and inheritance. We, on our property, property we i call her my mother in love um someone she um put a adu manufactured home on our property and we love her and she wants to leave that home to my daughters adult young adult daughters, eventually.
And it has a DMV title. And looking into, she wants it to just be a very simple probate avoiding kind of a thing.
So if she adds the girl's names to the title, I just want to make sure that there's no unintended consequences. Would she lose her homeowner's exemption? Is there any risk to adding

names to the title ahead of time? I don't know because I don't know the law in the state of

Washington, and that's what you'd need to find out.

I'm not worried about the insurance, but because this is a DMV title, a Department of Motor Vehicles title, it's more like a car we're dealing with title than we are a house. and so um and car titles are sometimes dramatically different from state to state as to how they're handled what i wouldn't what i would tell you to investigate with the dmv is um is is there a mechanism there in the state of washington that allows a pod paid paid on death, is what that stands for.
And so you could put it, you could put it, it's almost like the beneficiary of a policy that can you put that upon death, this transfers to your daughter automatically. And it may be, it may be.
For instance, some states allow you to do that on a bank

account, that a simple savings account at your bank can have a POD on it, a paid on death to someone, and it goes directly to them then. It's not an issue of the will or probate at that point.
But the mechanics of it is that there shouldn't be any tax issues.

Does she owe money on the property, on the mobile home? No, it's paid in full. Okay, that's good.
What's confusing to me is that, I'm near Spokane in Idaho, if she pays property tax for the same, you know, she gets the same kind of a tax bill that we do for our home. So she pays a personal property tax on it because she doesn't own the dirt under it, right? You do.
Yes. Okay.
So she's not paying property tax. There might be a personal property tax on a mobile home in that area.
That wouldn't be

unusual at all. But she does not get a real estate because she doesn't own any real estate.

Right. Now, can I interfere in your situation? Yes.
Don't do this. Okay.
Your grown daughters

are going to own a mobile home sitting on dirt you own this is going to cause a conflict okay she needs to leave it to you because it's sitting on your property and then you're going to promise her you're going to leave everything to your kids and so whatever wealth this represents will ultimately go to your your kids, but it's going to cause, I mean, your daughters can't do anything with it. It's sitting on your land.
Exactly. Yeah.
And I think what I appreciate about what you're saying is we are in a situation where everybody is so amicable and there's no conflict right now that it just wouldn't open up opportunity. Yeah, but let's say your daughter wants to sell this thing.
Yeah. Now she's got to hook up to it and haul it somewhere and sell it.
Mm-hmm. Or she's going to come to you and want a piece of dirt under it given to her.
Mm-hmm. And then you're going to have a next-door neighbor that has nothing to do with anything because your daughter wanted to take this money and go buy a whatever.
And everybody's still happy and amicable, but it's just really awkward. You're just begging.
You're begging for conflict in this that's so interesting i love hearing an outside perspective on that yeah it's up to you you all do whatever you want to do and i think your mother's sweet mother-in-law is sweet as she can be and she's trying to do a sweet thing here but i i personally wouldn't do that um and i if i were your mother-in-law i wouldn't do it because I don't want to cause potential trouble between my grandbabies and their parents. You know, I want to keep this thing clean.
The cleanliness of it is a big deal. Yeah, I agree.
I just think whatever it's worth, I'd sell it and then just keep the money and then eventually put it. I just keep it super simple.
Well, or if she does do that, go ahead and have an agreement with your daughter that immediately upon mother-in-law's death, she's just going to hook up to the thing and sell it. Yeah.
We're going to get rid of it. Right.
And turn it into money, and you take that money, and that was a blessing from your grandmother, and that's good. But we're not going to leave it there and rent it, sitting on, having a rental property in a mobile home next door to you, Mel because my guess is land that you own that's just starting to get start awkward it wouldn't be on their land if it wasn't the mother-in-law exactly so it's like they don't want it there when she's gone exactly well i mean unless one of the daughters moved into it but then you've now we've you know we've we've continued this so it's it's just there's all kinds of you'll end up being a caller on the show later i'm afraid open phones at 888-825-5225 jake is with us in miami hi jake what's up hey dave good uh thanks for having me on certainly how can we help so i just wanted to get some guidance um my wife and i recently got married about two years ago um we're doing the budget, you know, month to month, every dollar.
We're doing great. It's just it's harder for her sometimes to cut back.
And I've been doing that a little bit before we got married, so I'm a little bit more used to it, and I'm a little less materialistic. I don't really spend a lot of money on myself and, you know, all that stuff.
You don't have children yet, do you yet do you no no no children yet so okay the reason is she feels like she's having to cut back to uh there's no vision in this and meaning the two of you need to agree that we were trying to get somewhere with the management of this money and whatever that is, we want to save up money to buy a house.

We want to get out of debt.

We want to do this or we want to do that.

You need to have something big that you're both agreed to, a why.

Why are we doing this?

Right now, the only why is you put her on a budget.

That don't work.

All right?

If she agrees with the why, she will want to sacrifice to get to the why, and you won't have to talk to her about it. I'm a spender, but it's easy for me to cut when I have a good reason because I'm going somewhere.
This is the Ramsey Show. Statistics show that half of Americans don't have enough life insurance or they don't have any at all i don't understand this john why don't people want to take care of their family they think they're not going to die or something well i used to be one of those guys i didn't even think about it and one of my buddies said hey the only reason to not have life insurance is if you hate your wife and kids and i immediately went and got term life insurance that's a gut For decades, Dave, I've sat across people who've lost a spouse.
They've lost somebody important to them. Me too.
They don't know what to do next. You're going to have a crisis here.
You know, you got two options while you're sitting and talking to a young widow. She's concerned about how she's going to invest all this money properly and not mess this up, or she's concerned how she's going to eat tomorrow.
That's exactly right. These are the two options.
It's saying I love you to your family. Term Life Insurance.
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Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Julia is in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Hi, Julia. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.
Hi. Hi.
Hello, Dave. So my husband had a stroke a year ago, and he hasn't been able to work, and I had to quit also to be able to care for him.
And so we've gone through savings this last year, and so I'm at a point now I need to dip into our 401k. And I don't know whether I should just do like a three month chunk.
Should I do a six month chunk? Um, he probably will not be going back to work. Um, maybe hopefully six months, maybe a year down the road.
Um, I don't know. I didn't know what financially I should do about that.
Wow.

Sorry. How old is he? Yeah.
Well, he'll be 50 in January. Whoa.
What a devastating thing. I'm so sorry.
He was definitely the breadwinner of the family, and so it has been difficult. I can imagine.
Wow. I'm so sorry.
Well, what we always want to do is to get what's going to get us to sustainability, and sustainability is not going to come from draining the 401K. It's going to come from someone creating an income there.
So what were you making at your old job before? Maybe 10,000 a year. Oh, you weren't working much? No, no.
It was, I mostly was pretty much taking care of the kids. I have a college-age daughter, a high schooler, and a middle schooler.
And so I just kind of worked here and there. Well, I worked an office job around their schedules, kind of a thing.
What was he making and what did he do? He was a computer programmer. He was a senior software computer programmer, made well over $100,000.
And what you were kind of saying six months, 12 months, I mean, what are the doctors telling you about his recovery?

Well, we just got approved for disability. So they definitely see that he's not going to be going back anytime soon.
He feels like he keeps saying that he would like to go back and he'll say three months or six months. I don't know.
I mean, we would love for him to be able to go back in six months.

How long ago was the stroke?

Almost a year ago.

And how has he progressing as far as his healing goes? Um, so he's still paralyzed on one side of his body. He has a little bit of movement in one of his legs.
his one arm doesn't have movement yet he mentally he's there

he has

he has, um, difficulty getting things out. Like he can't type on a typewriter.
He can talk or typewriter. That's old, a computer.
Um, so he has taught, like he can check emails. He can't respond.
It's just not there yet. Um has been able to do a few little things.
Like he has picked up his phone sometimes and been able to text. If you were at work all day, can he care for himself? No, no.
No, I have to be with him at least every couple hours. He has to go to to the bathroom and I have to help him.

How much is the disability?

It's $3,500 a month.

What does it take for you all to survive monthly?

I've cut back as much as I possibly can.

And, you know, we're like $6 8,000 a month. Okay.
Um, but we just got approved. This is our, for, uh, last month was our first, uh, check that we were able to get from social security.
And so this next, this the second month. Okay.
So where is the $8,000 going?

Help me with it.

You got a huge house payment?

No.

We have $1,300 of a house payment.

I have a car payment.

How much?

$430.

Mm-hmm. Food.
For payment, $430.

Food, kids are expensive.

You know, Internet.

Okay.

No, none of that adds up to $8,000.

Well, we have. I got $1,700 plus food, and the kids don't get expenses their dad had a stroke i know i have a daughter in college um so we what's what's the tuition on that monthly tuition actually we just got it approved for, um,

FAFSA gave us a,

it's not FAFSA.

The government gave her enough to cover this month,

the,

this semester's tuition.

So I'm not out any more money now.

We had to prove a bunch of stuff.

And then we're not at $8,000 because she gets a job while she's in school yes to cover her expenses is she living at home no no she's in an apartment she had i worked all summer yeah she's gonna have to self-support she's gonna have to have self-support yes she doesn't have a choice she has a choice that's where you are okay because's the thing. All right.
You guys have got to get your outgo within your income because otherwise you're going to burn through the 401k and then you don't have a plan. Right.
There's nothing you can do then. Okay.
So we've got to do something to get incomes coming in, in addition to the disability.

I don't know what that is or how that is. Yeah, I was going to ask really quick, what kind of work did you do before, Julia? I have a psychology degree, and I was an office manager.
Okay, great. Great answer, because I'm just going to say this really quickly.
Yes, you have to be anchored at home, but it sounds like to me you could put in a pretty good day there with some slight interruptions. Remote work.
Remote work right now. Well, he goes, we have physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy that I take into.
I probably could do for two or four days. Well, but, Julia,, you're in a desperate situation and I want to be very sensitive to this, but this is where friends and family come in.
You are the breadwinner now. And so we got to have friends and family that we rely on if, and maybe the kids, one of the kids can drive and they tell me, we got to figure this out to get into this therapy, but you can do remote work.
You can't be in a burn rate of five thousand dollars a month and survive. You can be making twenty to twenty five dollars an hour in a remote situation doing off the same kind of work you did as an office manager's organizational in nature you could be a remote assistant.
I want you to do the research on the type of work you could do because I think you'd be surprised the kind of income you can make. You have to make that right now.
He's not going to be doing coding anytime soon, the guy you described to me. No.
No, he tells me he is. I know, but the guy you described to me is not.
No, I know. He's not even sending an email back.
So not yet. I hope he is.
I hope he heals. I hope the therapy kicks in.
But I'm saying if this takes 12 months and you're 3,000 coming in with disability and 8,000 going out, that's a $5,000 burn rate. You see what I'm doing? That doesn't work.
You've got to get the burn rate down and get the incomes up a little bit. It doesn't have to be, you don't have to make $100,000 a year, but you've got to get to survival level mathematically where you're breaking even.
And when you do that, then if you need to take a little out of the 401k for one little short period of time, fine. But do you want to just burn and burn and burn and burn and burn this 401k because you didn't make those other two adjustments? No, you do not.
No, no, you do not. That's not going to be at the end of a 10 year discussion on this.
Where are you? You don't want to have done that. Um, you can, but you don't want to, you want, you want to begin to make the life adjustments to the finances, to the math that fit with this tragedy that you guys are going through.
Man, you got a tough sled here, girl. Yeah, I'm sorry.
And yeah, friends and family helping your church helping people coming around you, put their arms around you and helping with different things. It can be financially helping, but it can also be taking him to speech therapy because you can work that week that day day.
It can be something like that. A 17-year-old can step in and do some of that too.

But you can't just be the provider to two grown girls anymore. You do not have that option,

at least for the next 12 months. It doesn't sound like.
It sounds like they're going to

have very limited lives, and that's going to be part of their story when they're 30,

that when I was 17, my dad had a stroke. It's part of our story.
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Got just a moment before they're all gone, boys and girls. Justin's in Des Moines, Iowa.
Hi, Justin. How are you? Hey, I'm doing great, Dave.
Thanks for taking my call. Sure.
What's up? Well, yeah, I'm a grandfather of six, so not quite up to your level yet, Dave, but I'm catching you. Okay, good.
Well, I have two of them actually have graduated high school within the last three years. And, you know, I gave them a book.
I gave them your total money makeover book when they graduated as a graduation gift. And kind of inscribed in there some things that I learned from the book that I found really interesting and really helpful through life.
Just basically winning with money makes life a heck of a lot easier. And I'm now at the point where I actually have a little bit more money and would like to give them to them now rather than wait until, you know, I'm dead and gone and try to help them pay down on some of the debt that they do have.
They do have, both of them have car loans. One of them has some credit card debt.
And what I don't want to do is become an enabler. I don't want to be, grandpa will give me, you know, $2,000, $3,000 a year if I go ask him.
You know, it's just right now I'm working and, you know, I'd like to set them up to succeed. And I thought maybe of opening a Roth IRA for them

and putting a little bit towards that in there.

But I do know they have this debt out there

and your principals would say pay down the debt first.

So I wanted to get your thoughts.

The best gift you can give them is for them to follow your financial example. That's a bigger gift than money.
You can give someone who misbehaves with money money, and it will leave, obviously. You give someone knowledge, and they'll always have money.
So if I were in your shoes, I would tie the gift to a behavior that I want. So, you know, I'm willing to give you a gift of up to X number of dollars.
You said $2,000 or $3,000, right? Yeah, about. Okay.
I'm willing to give you a $3,000 gift. And the way I'm going to do it is that's a match on you paying down your debt on your car

so if you pay down your car by three thousand dollars I'll put another three thousand with

it and we'll knock six off your car if you pay down your car nothing other than pay the monthly

payment I'm going to give you nothing you're right gotcha that's what I would do no that's

Thank you. your car nothing other than pay the monthly payment i'm going to give you nothing you're right gotcha that's what i would do no that's that's great no i was thinking of something along that line i just what i hate is i don't want them to come to you know thanksgiving as you always say when it's not a loan but no no no i don't think i don't yeah i don't want them to think grandpa's gonna lecture me again about about paying down my debt this time.
No, I'm not going to lecture at all. I'm just not going to give you anything.
Right, right. I like it.
You know, I would wrap this in like a cup of coffee in a discussion and say, I know that if I give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If I teach him to fish, he eats for a lifetime.
Right, right. Well, that's what I was trying to do with your book.
Yeah, and so this is me talking to my grandson if I'm you. I'm telling him that.
And so what I want to do as your grandpa, because I love you more than life itself, is I want to make sure you learn some of the principles that will cause you to become very successful. Not because I lectured you, but if you learn those things, you're going to make a lot of money.
And one of those is getting out of debt. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to help you get your car paid off.
And what I'm going to offer you is if you want to pay extra on your car, every time you pay extra on your car, I'll pay extra that same amount. You just send me the receipt and I'll send it right into the bank and up to $3,000 because I want to teach you to get out of debt.
Um, and that's'm doing this honey because i love you and this is this is this is wisdom and i'm not going to pester you about it if you don't do it i'm just won't send you any money i'm not going to send you any money anyway i'm gonna send it to your bank right right oh i love that idea thanks dave yeah but just couch it in a in a, teachable cup of coffee, right? Yeah, I think that's right. And I would also say model it.
And you said it best. They watch it.
So instead of sitting them down at Thanksgiving and Christmas and being the grandfather that's teaching and harping, they're not ready for it. And, you know, the old phrase, when the student is ready, the teacher appears, that's kind of true.
But in this case, you know what I'd do? I'd be talking in earshot so they could hear you talking about your investments. And, you know, it's one of those deals.
I do that with my kids on certain things. I talk to my friends about certain things that I want them to hear, you know, and so I'm not telling them this.
I'm just going, well, you know, I thought about this the other day, talking about the election and politics in my house. One of my kids doesn't see things the way I see things, and we've never had an ill word about it.
Oh, no. Yeah.
I know. Right.
I know. But you know what I do? I'll talk about things in earshot, and then they know what I think, and I'm not telling them what to think.
They know what I think, and I've never sat down and said,

you've got to think this way, you've got to do this, but they know,

and I think the same thing what Dave was saying.

I think modeling the way and letting them see it, and it's a part of everything that they come in contact with you,

they'll pick it up, and they may not agree with it at first,

but I just think that that truth, which is what we teach,

is I think the best model on finances.

That would be the approach that I would take as the grandfather.

Yeah, more is what Rachel says, more is caught than taught.

Yeah, classic.

And that's a great line.

That's a good line.

It's from the old book, Smart Money, Smart Kids, that she and I did about teaching your

kids how to handle money.

I mean, I think about that with my grandpa.

Yeah.

My grandpa Ramsey was, I mean, he saved every penny.

Yeah.

I mean, you're there, you're pulling a nail out of the board, you straighten the nail

out, you put it in the coffee can.

Thank you. about that with my grandpa yeah my grandpa ramsey was i mean he he saved every penny yeah i mean you you're there you're pulling nail out of the board you straighten the nail out you put it in the coffee you knew it you just saw it enough and he had you know he had the garden out there and we go work the garden wise because that's why we get vegetables and they're you know they're better to start with but they're also cheaper and so um you know everything you know everything was a lesson built into everything.
And, uh, he was head cost account in alcohol, aluminum, right. And, uh, always drove a used car and always had money in the bank.
Always, you know, always in great shape, very conservative. And, uh, but I, I was, I was, I was a cool dude.
So I went and bought a Jaguar and making all this money in real estate. And I went and bought a a jaguar that i couldn't afford and i wheel up in the yard down there with a jaguar and he comes out and he goes what is that so grandpa that's a jaguar he goes really he goes what that cost i told him he goes dad come that's awful i said awful so it's a one of the finest automobiles out there and he goes yeah what'll that car be worth in 10 years and i said well it'll probably be worth you know and he said i said but it's it's a great investment he goes honey my investments go up that's great yeah just such a classic way of confronting that just ask questions right my investments go up right and you know that's uh 35 years ago that story happened and i can see it and feel it right now it's fresh yeah so that that's the power grandpas have you gotta be careful with it that's right you You get the opportunity to kind of say things or do things that they're sick of their parents doing.

They'll put up with you.

Yeah.

There's a little extra kind of.

So model it.

Talk about it all the time to everybody, not to them.

Don't preach it to them. And I'm thinking to myself, what do you know?

You're driving a 10-year-old truck.

And he had more money.

Oh, yeah.

Buried in the backyard, right?

Than I had, for sure. I didn't have two nickels rubbed together, but I was looking good.
Right. Yeah.
What an idiot. This is The Ramsey Show.
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A question there comes from Eddie. I have $1 million in my 401k, but after I pay taxes, when I withdraw funds, I will only pocket about 600.
Am I still considered a 401k millionaire? Yes. Today, your net worth, what you own minus what you owe equals over a million dollars.
So Yes, you're a millionaire. That is the definition of millionaire.
And people say net worth millionaire. Well, that's redundant.
That's like saying your car is blue, blue. No, it's just blue.
That's it. I mean, that's it.
So that's the whole thing. So there is, you know, if you, what you own minus what you owe.
Now, it doesn't mean that you won't have those taxes and it doesn't mean that doesn't affect it but today you have a million dollars now if you took it out you only had 600 after paying taxes then you wouldn't have a million dollars anymore ta-da that's how this works wow that was good it reminded me the old Steve Martin thing. How to be a works.
Wow, that was good. It reminded me of the old Steve Martin thing.

How to be a millionaire.

First, get a million dollars.

How to be a millionaire and not pay taxes.

First, get a million dollars.

Then don't pay taxes.

That was a great comedy bit.

But, yeah, that's back from the 70s.

Yeah, that's it, though.

And the good news is this, Eddie.

You're using the Ramsey Network app, so I'm guessing you're under 80.

And I'm guessing this money is going to continue to grow,

and that net of taxes, when you take it out someday soon,

you'll have more than a million dollars anyway.

So it's a question that really doesn't matter at this stage of the game john is in vancouver washington hi john welcome to the ramsey show i'm really glad to hear your guys's voice i was worried that i'd get somebody who wouldn't understand this question okay so i got i got night hunting equipment so scope, Nod's, night observation device, helmets, lasers. I got all the gadgets, but I owe $20,000 on my car.
I could get right around that if I sell that equipment, but I really don't want to sell it. I'm not going to lie about it.
about it okay i have other stuff what are you hunting at night that you're so amped up about this coyotes i was thinking hogs or something yeah okay i knew i knew it was something legal i didn't i wasn't going to accuse you of poaching but yeah okay let's see and's see. And you're in Washington State, so yeah.
Yeah. You got some.
What's your income? So my base wage is $99,000. Right now I'm on track for $150,000.
Mm-hmm. Okay.
What's the car worth? I believe it's worth like $32,000 single? By the time I looked at Marketplace. No, I'm engaged, but not married yet.
It really hasn't got anything to do with the fact that I empathize with the equipment, and I think it's cool. It hasn't got anything to do with that, okay? The principle is can you become debt-freefree very very quickly without selling this equipment or without selling this car you're making 150 you're a single guy you have one debt of 20 000 yeah yeah you you know what what would you how much of your lifestyle will you sacrifice

to keep the hunting equipment and get the car paid off in three months?

Well, and that's the thing.

I'm still going to work the same amount of overtime

because my phone's ringing like crazy right now.

That wasn't what I said.

So I would likely make that in three months, three, four, three, five months.

I know.

You make enough to pay the car off in three months.

You told me that.

You make $150,000.

You can pay the car off in three months and have absolutely no life during that three months and keep your stuff.

Yeah.

So there's a third thing we can sacrifice here.

We can either sacrifice the hunting gear, we can sacrifice the car,

or we can sacrifice the next three months of your life.

Right.

I'm going with C,

the next three months of your life.

Keep your car and keep your hunting gear.

But if it's going to take you three years

to get out of debt,

we're selling all your crap.

Right.

But it doesn't take you three years. game changed and if the game changed and i lost my job that stuff would go right out the door i'm not worried about that i just feel like i make enough to not sell it and then end up rebuying it if that makes sense yeah did somebody tell you to sell it or is this just your idea you know if it took you a long time to get out of debt i would sell it but i don't regardless of whether you buy it back later all that crap but the bottom line is you could do this really really quick and and while you're really tired from working all the time and you're pissed because you can't go out to eat and your girlfriend's pissed because you won't take her out to eat because you're not doing nothing but getting a stinking car paid off in the next 90 days i'm talking february one you're done right okay you got no life if you're willing to do that yeah that's what i do that's what i personally would do because i don't think you the same thing's true of your car you sell it you're going to get another one later stuff.
Right. Now, part of that also entails that you raise your right hand and quit buying crap for hunting.

You got enough.

Right.

Forever.

I mean, you don't need anything for a long time.

The outfit you just described to me is world class.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

And here's the benefit. When everybody's mad at him and he's mad at himself, he goes out late at night and shoots a coyote.
It's good therapy. Or six of them.
Okay. It's like a video game.
Yeah, they don't have a bounty on those hides in Washington, do they? No, they don't. Oh, darn.
Thought we could make this into a side hustle. Okay.
I going there i like that that's a good call all right just open season because the dadgum things are eating everything you would change your advice to rice and beans living in a tree and shooting coyote skins right but the uh uh yeah have some fun with this but the the principle is not the hunting gear stuff, John. The principle

is you quit buying things you can't afford, and you have been, because you had a car debt, you shouldn't have been this invested in this hunting gear. You got that out of order.
You're admitting that. And the principle is that you can pay all this stuff off very, very quickly by working like a crazy man.
And that's what I would do. And then you're going to go into the marriage with zero debt and a well-equipped or well-equipped um gun safe and so um that was this nice slip there clipped clipped i see what you did there see what i did there yeah lots of clips yeah lots of mags there yeah but the uh fun that's fun yeah i mean it seems true with your boat same's true with your collection coach purses ladies seems true with whatever it is we're dealing with i mean what at what point do we have to sell off all this junk it's if we can't get out of debt super quick without doing it then the junk has to go you sell so much stuff the kids think they're next you put the dog on ebay the cat on craigslist you've said this for years and i think you're right and this applies here if he were to sell all that equipment fine but it doesn't really necessarily curb the behavior that of this discipline will and and it's the quick fix doesn't really help stop the problem that got him there yeah if you got to go do nothing nothing but work for 90 days and you go okay next changes

things next time i'm not buying stuff while i got and have a car debt because you know in a sense

we financed a bunch of hunting gear against a car in one sense i think you could make the case yeah

that's kind of what happened here yeah and so the way we're going to undo that's just go crazy for

a short period of time see C, none of the above.

That puts us out on the Ramsey Show in the books. Hey, you're still here? What are you doing? You do know that the rest of today's show is playing right now over on the Ramsey Network app, right? All you got to do to finish the episode is search Ramsey Network in the App Store, Google Play Store, or just click the link in the show notes to download the app for free.
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