Don't Take Financial Advice From Broke People

This is the Ramsey Show, where we help you win in your life. We want you to win with your money.
We want you to win in your work. We want you to win with your relationships.
888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. We'd love to coach you up.
Alongside George Camel, I'm Ken Coleman. And if you've got questions about your money, we'd love those.
If you've got questions about your work, how about the income? I want more income. I want to start something.
Should I do it? George and I will take those questions as well as we team up. So I need to point out George is playing hurt today.
I'm so proud of him. He's hustled.
So brave. He's not feeling well.
He's not under the weather, but you're flirting with it. I think I didn't play in the dirt enough as a kid.
Yeah, yeah. You can look at me and guess that.
Yeah, but you're playing hurt. I'm proud of you.
We're going to make it.

He's got the sinus issues.

I'm doing this for America.

How's your throat?

I think we're going to be all right.

Okay.

I sound okay.

I think you sound great.

So we're cheering for George today. I look good, and that's half the battle.

That's debatable.

But he's going to give you his all.

I know that.

And George and I have a lot of fun.

If you're new to us, know that we're going to give you the same answers

and coaching you're used to, but we're going to have fun. At least we're going to try today.
The more you say it, the less I believe you. So let's prove it to them.
Oh, I see. You like that? Well, you got the snark already.
Yeah. Okay, that's why people come for George.
All right, Amber's up in Houston, Texas. Amber, how can we help? Hi, how are y'all? Good.
How are you doing? Good, good. Okay, so I own a home.
I purchased it five and a half years ago. I purchased it because I was pregnant with my son.
And at the time, my son's father and I, we were just dating. We never married.
I somehow got him on the deed of the home unknowingly at the time. That's what was happening.
I asked the lender if he could be on the house in some way. She added him to the deed.
I did not realize that until two years in when I refinanced my house and we were at the time ending our relationship. He moved out and he has held the deed over my head since then and will not take his name off.
So it's been a few years since we've separated and we went through custody court and he told me that if I gave him full custody of our son, he would take his name off the house and I would owe him no money. And then we had another mediation and he said if I paid him $100,000, then he would take his name off.
So I'm going to pay him to get off the house, but what I'm trying to understand is how much does he actually get? What is a fair offer? I know it's whatever the equity is. That's up to you and the lawyers.
I mean, there's no math formula here. What did he put down with the house when you guys bought it? Nothing.
So he put down nothing. Did he make half the mortgage payments? He did make half the mortgage payments for the two years he lived there, and he helped pay the taxes for those two years.
That's what I would do. I have offered him, yeah, I offered to pay, he put in about $24,000, but he wants $100,000.
He said, I will not take anything less. Yeah, well, I want to be able to dunk a basketball.

There's a lot of things I want in life that I'm not going to get.

He doesn't get to decide.

This guy's just a low life.

He's an absolute scumbag.

Yeah.

So I said, I think it's a fair offer that I give you what you put in.

Has the house appreciated?

Yes, it has.

I bought it. It was $300,000.
Now it's worth about $425,000. Okay.
And after all of your fees, I mean, you could, maybe the lawyers decide, all right, he's going to get part of the appreciation on top of what he put in, but no more than that, which is not $100,000. He's only put in $24,000.
I put together a very detailed spreadsheet. I put down the down payment, the earnest.
I've paid everything to get into the home. Is your name on the mortgage solely now? Yes.
He was never on the mortgage. Okay.
He was only on the deed, but he's holding it over me. And he says, if you're nice to me, I'll take my name off.
If you're mean to me, I'm not going to. And it's been this back and forth.'s, that's what I want to dive into for just a moment.
Um, the psychology of this. Yeah.
Um, other than just closure and what you shared so far, is he being on this deed at this moment causing you any other real grief or problems in life? Yes, it is. How? Well, because I want to move forward.
I'm in a new relationship and we're planning on getting engaged. And, you know, it's really causing a lot of problems in my new relationship by having this tie to my past.
And so I was going to tell you to wait him out a little bit because I think this guy's just a scumbag and I think he he's trying to bully you. Yeah, 100%.
I think there's two tactics here. You just go scorched earth and come with all the records and get in front of a judge and let the judge decide.
I think that's probably the one. I was going to suggest maybe you wait him out a little bit, but with this new relationship going on, you need to get this guy off and clean him up.
So here's the deal. We can't help.
You're going to need to get in touch with your lawyer. Do you have one? I've talked to three, and they told me that we could go and send him a demand letter, and I told him I was going to get an attorney, and he said, I hope that you do, and I hope we spend every dollar in equity to pay for these attorneys, and you get nothing.
Good. Well, when you win, he's going to have to pay fees.
Yeah. That's going to be part of this deal.
So what you're going to likely go for is a quiet title action, which will resolve this dispute over the property ownership. And so that, again, I'm not a lawyer, but that's, I would pursue that action.
That's the only way to force him to sign something. Yeah.
Cause I do have a lot of evidence. I mean, he, when we went through custody court, he would record conversations that we would have that I did not know.
And he would talk about the house and said, when I buy my house and I move out, I will sign my name over. So I have a lot of evidence to show that he's very much said he would take his name off and wanted no money, you know, tried to bribe me into giving me full or giving him full custody of our son.
That's great. Yeah, it's been a black belt.
What are you planning on doing with this current guy? You guys going to live in this house? Let's say that you get this ex off of this thing. What's the plan? Well, I would like to keep my home.
You know, it's got great schools. It's a great house.
And so we would like to get him off and then, you know, be able to move forward and make decisions without having to go to closing with him. And, you know, I was just curious, I was going to go a different direction if the answer was different, but I'm fine.
Yeah. So he, he has a house and he wants to sell his house and pull the equity out of his, and we want to keep mine.
And then, you know, be able to make decisions after that. But yeah, it's just kind of been a headache to be able to make any decisions with him.
Of the three lawyers, you need to go back and interview them all one more round, and you need to put them under the microscope of what would you do. Tell me what your next three steps are, how much time you think it's going to take.
Tell them about his threat to try to draw this thing out, which, by the, I think he's full of crap because if he tries to draw you out, he's going to have to pay legal fees. So I wouldn't be scared by this punk.
This guy's a punk and I'd keep the meticulous records and all the evidence of everything he said he's going to do, text messages, emails, phone calls. This is not going to be fun.
I hate you're going through this, but it's part of the messiness, you know, when you get involved with someone you're not married to. And I hope you don't repeat that with this next guy.
I hope you wait until you're actually married to add him to the mortgage or the deed. This needs to turn into a PSA right now, George, for all of the young people that are listening or middle age, I guess it doesn't matter how old you are, and you're thinking about buying a house and you think, oh, it doesn't matter to dot the I's and cross the T's.
This story, I hate this, that Amber is the poster child for why we say don't do this. I would not buy a house to anyone I'm not married to.
Family, friends, boyfriend, girlfriend. If we are not legally, lawfully wedded, no thank you.
It's going to cause chaos down the line and financial and legal mess. And that's the calls we get on this show.

So if you need any further proof, there it is.

And if you're a dude out there who thinks that what this guy's doing is okay and you think you want to do this, can I just tell you something?

You're a turd.

And this guy.

Well said.

This guy needs a visit.

I can't say it any better.

The guy needs a visit with me and a wiffle ball bat.

Just smack him around a little bit.

Maybe a pickle ball. Well, a pickle ball paddle will do some damage, but not really hurting.
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The Ramsey Show continues. Thrilled to have you with us.
Alongside George Camel, I'm Ken Coleman. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but the early Black Friday sale is here. I just don't like where we're at as a culture, to be completely honest, that we've got to have an early Black Friday, but here we are.
We're trying to get it knocked out.

You know what I mean?

I don't want to be that guy.

Now, if you're shopping on Black Friday,

you're too late.

See, there's the problem.

This is a sign of the apocalypse.

At what point do now we go past early Black Friday?

Have you seen the movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger

and he's trying to get the toy for his kid?

Yeah.

That's what I feel like is happening in today's world. It really is.
So, hey, Ramsey Solutions didn't start the problem, but we're going to meet you where you are. So we've got an early Black Friday sale.
You can tell I'm thrilled about it. We get your hardcover books for only $12.
The audio books for only $8. That's a really good deal.
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And so many more great books. Go to ramsysolutions.com slash store to check out all the Christmas deals.
ramsysolutions.com slash store. You can click the link in the show notes if you are on YouTube or podcast.
I love the show notes. Lots of good things in the show notes.
Let's go to raleigh north carolina kennedy is joining us there kennedy how can we help hey how are y'all doing well we're having a blast what's going on with you good so what i asked the girl when she called was i just graduated last october with my conchology license and you guys may know or like your wives like it takes a while for like a clientele to build up so you're not like a guaranteed paycheck you know every two weeks once a month you're kind of just stepping out especially me as a christian just stepping out in faith just knowing that i'm going to have clients this week that are going to pop up that i didn't know i have scheduled on monday so to know how to budget but not having a set paycheck for tithes, groceries, rent for the salon, rent for my house because me and my sister are just going to move out this coming up Saturday into a house right down the road for my parents. So learning just how to budget everything, but also I don't know what I'm making, you know, one week to the next.
How long have you been doing hair? Full-time since March. So I started renting.
The rent is $450. I have a girl that rents the other slots.
I rent the whole building. She gives me $300 a month, so I just have to pay $150 out of pocket.
So I've been paying that since two months ago, but I've been doing hair since early March. So what have you been averaging since early March? What have you been averaging income? What's that look like? I wouldn't say that it would go over $600 from the salon that I make each month.
So I would say somewhere between like $450, $550. Some months it can be closer to a $600.
How are you surviving? How have you made it since March? That's well below poverty level. It is well below.
So my rent, like I told you, the rent for that place is 150. So I've been living at home.
My car is paid for. I don't have any payments that are going out.
So just moving out, my rent each month is, I know you guys are going to laugh. my rent um is 375 for the house and 150 for the lawn mama and daddy told me they said i know that you don't have enough for it but because of the house it was a good friend of my dad my dad wants to eventually buy it so he said if you you know budget and you're smart with it he said me and mama got this wherever there's any lack but he said if you and sailor want to move out he said i think it would be a good idea he said if you guys would like to go ahead and go and we'll cover everything else you know as long as you guys are out shopping and blowing it you're saying mommy and daddy you're going to pay your rent if you move out they'll pay 1200 bucks no so i don't pay 1200'm saying if you moved out.
No, she's already told you. They've moved into a house.
That's $375. That was a friend of their dad's, and the rent's $375 for both you and your sister.
Yes, sir. All right, but still, I mean, sweetheart, you've put lipstick on a pig.
I mean, I'm telling you, you're still absolutely, you had no money, even with that rosy picture you just gave us. Yeah.
So I don't, I mean, I feel like it's the wrong, I mean, George, I want you to answer a question, but you got to do something in the meantime, because there's not much here to budget. I can teach you how to budget with an irregular income.
But right now, like Ken's saying, it's not enough to pay the bills. And so we need to get something more stable.
Because right now, let me tell you the math on this. You are making $3 an hour.
Yeah. Three.
Count that three. Yeah.
There is no job in America paying $3 an hour. You somehow found it.
And so you need to go get other jobs while you get clientele. And if that means word of mouth and I get them on a schedule, great.
But we're not going to sit around the salon for seven hours a day hoping we get a single client. Yeah.
You would be better off. Go ahead.
Sorry. I do have a part-time job.
So I work at a grill that is right down the road. So my salon, we're out in the country.
So I work at a grill that's on the other like little small town in between like my house and the salon. Well, how much money are you making off of that? That's no more than $120 once a week.
Again, you are one shift at the grill is not going to pay the bills. Kenny, there's nothing funny about this, and you are just broken up.
You are chuckling your head off on the other end of the phone. And I don't know how to say, sweetheart, this is awful.
You need to make more money. You're not making any money at all.
Is anyone doing salon work full-time in your area? Well, the girl that rented from me, she just graduated, too. So we're both, quote-unquote, full-time building client but you just told us you live in this you live in this little teeny tiny area out in the middle of sticks is that what i heard not in the middle of sticks but it definitely is not like like i'm about an hour and a half from raleigh more towards the beach so it is a small town but it's not out in the stick but it is definitely i apologize i was a little loose with my description no you can say no you can say point is is that yeah i think you need to be moving into raleigh and get yourself a full-time job at a very successful salon like you've got to make some moves because i just don't know how much clientele you can build in this little place that you're at am i right yes or without yeah with that well that's what we're gonna steal everybody else's, and now we don't want to, I'll tell you what, I can't imagine that would go over well in a small town.
I'll tell you what my barber did, Kennedy. You work for a place that's booming, you build up your clientele there, and then eventually you can go out on your own, and those people will follow you.
Yes, sir. That's what I did when he started off on his own, left his old place that was kind of giving him leads, if you will, giving him the clientele.
And then he moved out. And so that's what I think you need to do.
We need to stair step this into just going, well, hopefully I'll have, you know, 70 people on the books in a few months. Cause it's been, it's been a while, it's been six months and we're still making a few hundred bucks a month.
Yeah. Can you do anything else besides cutting hair? Like, can you do nails? Like who's doing nails in that little town? Well, there's nobody that does nails and people they've asked me, they're like, would you do that? I know I could, even though that's not like, people get their nails done like once a week, we've got ourselves, Kennedy, I threw that out there as a Hail Mary and I threw a touchdown pass.
Start a nail salon this afternoon or do it in your living room for crying out loud. Little small town, these women need their nails done.
We're talking hands and feet. That's money.
Yes, sir. So if you can do it, do it.
My point is, what you're hearing from George and I is, I appreciate the budget question, but in order to make a budget work, we must have something to budget. I would start doing nails.
And if I could be the person in your little town that does nails, then I can grow the hair thing too. But boy, oh boy.
And this is a word of mouth business. So maybe you do a referral bonus if they send someone to you go in your town to get their nails done well where i'm at that's where they all come because so the closest town would then be would then be maybe driving 20 25 minutes so i got some lady who retired i got some of her clients but she had a couple girls in there before me but because they would all quit and leave then all her clients because had a good amount of people, probably, you know, she was booked up.
She told me she was booked up every day, so I believe her. Well, again, your first reaction was priceless.
You said, people have told me I need to do nails, so I think we just found the next business for you. And then you can expand over time.
Unless you move away. Yes, sir.
Right now, you don't have the luxury of doing whatever. We've got to find the thing that's going to pay the bills, then we can expand.
I tell you what, if I lived in that area, I would invest in her. I'd go, what does it cost? What do we need? What's the startup? How much nail polish would we need to buy, Kelly, to get started? I'd want to know.
And I'd go, we're starting it today. What do we need, a couple chairs? I'm going to buy the chairs.
I need a little tub with some water. Tub with water.
For the mani-pedis. I don't know what my wife does.
I've got to ask Stacy. But I think I would go, let's start it right now.
Ken goes more than Stacy. I think we can all agree on that.
True story. Stacy has talked me into a couple pedicures.
Change your life. I don't like it.
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Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Alongside George Campbell, I'm Ken Coleman.
Excited to have you here with us, folks. 888-825-5225.
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Today's question comes from Claire in Illinois. My mom has asked me to pay $20,000 for a Parent PLUS loan.
My parents had planned to pay a good portion of my school debt so I can be financially independent and set for my future. As I was going into my last year of college, I paused school to take care of my dad, who was ill.
I also worked to save money to go back to school. My dad passed away, and things have changed for us financially.
He was the breadwinner, and my mom stayed home. She does not have a very well-paying job now and has an additional debt of about $60,000.
I still owe $10,000 on my student loans. She also wants to charge me rent while living with her after graduation.
I have a job ready once I get my degree, but I was hoping to live at home to get my financial situation set for my future. The average income for the career I'm pursuing will be $45,000 to $60,000.
Am I wrong to ask her to pay her portion? loaded question here man there's been

some trauma to the family. Yeah, it feels like there's a lot of tension.
There was a lot of plans. My parents had planned.
We planned, we planned. Well, dad passed away.
The plans changed. And now when mom's asking you to pay for this Parent Plus loan they took out for.
And the Parent PLUS loans are tricky because parents are co-signing for their kids with a very high interest rate. And so they are very difficult to pay off.
And if you didn't agree ahead of time on who's going to pay, it gets messy. So it sounds like they said, hey, we'll do the Parent PLUS loan.
We'll take care of it. Now mom is in a different situation.
She's broke and stressed.

And so I think, you know what? We go, mom, I'm going to take this on my shoulders. It may set me back for where I wanted to go, but it's the right thing to do for the family.
That's my take.

As the daughter, I'm going to go, all right, this was a loan for me, for my degree. You're probably

going to be making more money than mom is. So I would just go, all right, I'm going to pay my

share as I can. I agree.
I wouldn't disagree at all. I think now the tension about I wanted to live home and not pay rent.
Mom's making me pay rent. I would also, you know, get over that too.
Because if mom, if mom wasn't there, you didn't have that supposed safety net, you'd have to be paying rent. So it's not a punishment.
It sounds like mom needs the money. I agree.
All this is going to require some mature conversation for sure. So interesting stuff.
Oh man. Also, reminder for everyone out there, get term life insurance in place today.
I know, listen, there's no stat, Ken, that says you have a higher chance of dying if you get term life insurance in place. There's no correlation.
Yeah. So get it in place because you don't know what life's going to at you, and it can cause a really difficult situation for your family if you do pass away.
So 10 to 12 times your annual income, a 15, 20-year term should do it to get you self-insured by then, and head to Xander.com, and they can help you get that set up. All right, 888-825-5225 is the phone number.
Back to the phones. Paige is joining us now in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Paige, how can we help? Hi, George and Ken. Yes, I wanted to reach out.
I just started my journey. I just got introduced to the Ramsey Show and everything.
So I'd like to start my journey, pay off debt. The only problem, you know, I have a question and possibly asking for some guidance here.
How should I introduce this goal, you know, of being debt-free to my husband? He is a farmer. We both work full-time.
He's also, you know, a farmer outside of work. And that tends to be, you know, him purchasing a lot of tractors, parts, any equipment to the farm.
And he's going into debt for this? Currently, he only has one loan out for a tractor, but he likes to purchase a lot of the older tractors that need a little work. How much is he making off of this farm? That I do not know.
I have a sense that you guys have uh separate finances what's that i have a sense that you guys have separate finances you got your accounts and he has his accounts am i right that's partially true yeah we do have a joint account that we kind of just throw money into the joint account is here's what i'm comfortable sharing as part of my life. And then you have separate accounts that go, this is none of your business.
Right? I'm my own man. I mean, I'm pretty, I'm pretty open and honest with like the stuff that I have.
I don't really have much. I have my vehicle and then a card.
He's not. Yeah.
You just told us he wasn't. A little bit more.
Yeah. Yeah.
And you're just chuckling. Just like, this is just fantastic this is normal everything's fine

my husband's not telling me what he's got in his account i don't know how much debt he has i don't

know what he makes and i'm on my journey you said my journey that sounds like a solo journey you're

about to go eat pray love while he does his thing yeah page we are not george and i are but well

george is in a bad mood but he's always in a slightly bad mood i'm in a great mood i'm in a

great mood today we're not trying to be dark but there's nothing funny about what you're telling us

Thank you. George and I are, well, George is in a bad mood, but he's always in a slightly bad mood.
I'm in a great mood. I'm in a great mood today.
We're not trying to be dark, but there's nothing funny about what you're telling us. Right.
Nothing. No, it's a hard truth, really.
And I think you're laughing not because you think it's funny. I think you're straight up worried about it and you're nervous.
So first of all, welcome. I also laugh to numb the pain.
Right. I get it.
My therapist is saying the same thing to me before uh do you find that funny right and then i immediately start sobbing and yeah but you know here's the point page i'm trying to kind of get your attention um so glad you called us the heart of the question is how do i introduce this to him and um you're gonna have to introduce this to him, not as a demand, because you guys are already literally on separate pages. And so I think this has got to be a secondary conversation, George.
My take is we bring up the Ramsey way and all that as a secondary item to what we believe is fundamentally the most important conversation.

And I might suggest marriage counseling on this, even if he doesn't feel like you don't have to go.

Hey, I'm leaving you and they're not threatening anything.

And I don't sense that from you.

You're a very sweet person.

I think you're a very positive person.

But I think this has to be a hey, you know what?

I'm rethinking some stuff and blame it on us. Say, I started listening to the Ramsey show and I actually called.
And these guys, George and Ken said that they, for decades through this company and through this program, recommended that married people have joint finances. And here's the reason why.
And do we have an article or something, George, that we could give her? I know we've got some resources that we could give her to where she could kind of read it and set her up for the conversation. But I would like to give her that if we can do that.
And Kelly will help you with that, I'm sure, in some way. But I think that's the first part of the conversation, George.
What do you think? Well, you want to lead, like Ken said, you don't want to be on the attack. He's going to shut down like he probably has before.
And so you want to lead with I statements and then with we statements, not with you. Hey, you need to be more transparent.
I don't know what's going on with this farm. You need to say, I don't feel safe financially.
I don't know what's going on financially. And I think we could do better as a family.
I want to see us build wealth. I want to see us have margin and options and freedom.
And to me, that means debt freedom. And I've been following these folks at Ramsey and it's a common sense show.
And if you're a farmer, you're probably a common sense kind of guy. So I would try to level with him in the language he understands.
And then go into, I've been learning about ways we could handle money that make life a lot easier. Can I show you the plan? And maybe you watch a video, maybe you read a book, you know, my book, Breaking Free from Broke, or go through Financial Peace University and go, what do you think about this? And start the conversation.
So you leave it open instead of a tight, angry conversation. But you also need to lead with the why.
Why do you want to do this? What is the emotion that's underpinning all this? And if he loves you, he better care when he sees you opening up about this. And I assume he does.
Yeah. Okay.
Yeah. Then it becomes, okay, what's the game plan now? We both agreed, this is where we're at.
This is the reality. This is where we want to go.
And now we seem to align that this is the best plan to get there. That part's easier.
It's the first part that's going to be more difficult. These hard conversations where he's tended to shut down.

Let's load them up, shall we, George?

Here's what I'm thinking.

I'm thinking financial peace.

Let's get them connected in that.

Let's get them Breaking Feet from Broke, your great book.

Let's also do the OG, Total Money Makeover.

And the reason we want to give you these things, Paige, is because if you just start going, hey, I'm reading this,

and I'm watching this YouTube video, and you share with him,

he may think it's a fad or bad pizza, but if you continue to bring it up and talk about it as a part of this, hey, I want us to get on the same page, here's why, I think that's going to lead to the ultimate conversation, which is you don't want to have any debt. So hang on the line.
Kelly's going to take really good care of you. Paige, we're excited to have you here.
Stay with it. Don't guilt him.
Don't nag him. Just dive into it.
And I think he'll get to it at some point. I think he's a common sense guy.
And I think he'll really eventually get to this point where he goes, oh, this makes a lot of sense. So hang in there.
All right, quick break. We'll be right back with more calls.
This is the Ramsey Show. All right, Dave, you have some strong opinions.
Possibly, yeah. Yeah, I think so.
Okay, because you really prefer credit unions over big banks. So 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'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, and you'll have free access to over 33,000 ATMs.
Hey, you guys know how much I hate banks in general, and so for me to do this is a big deal. Talk to our friends at Fairwinds and check out the combined checking and savings bundle that they created just for the Ramsey tribe.
You guys, it's incredible. Yeah, you guys, it's so easy to join Fairwinds no matter where you live.
So go to fairwinds.org slash Ramsey to learn more. That's F-A-I-R-W-I-N-D-S dot org slash Ramsey.
Welcome back to the Ramsey show. Alongside George Camel, I'm Ken Coleman.
Thrilled to have you here. We're taking your questions about your money, about your income, your work, moving up, and your relationships.
And always thrilled to have you folks with us because we do this show for you. 888-825-5225.
888-825-5225. Let's go to Miles in Fresno, California.
Miles, how can we help? Hey, good afternoon, guys. Hey, I had a quick question about paying off my student loans.
I have about $55,000 left to pay off. I have the funds.
I just want to pay it all off at once. But, you know, I have family members like, oh, don't do that.
Just do big chunks at a time. But if I have enough cushion after I pay it off, I just want to take care of it.
Do you have enough cushion? Well, I guess in my standard, I do. So I think after I pay off my loans, my family and I would have about 35,000 left left after that.
Yeah, it's a no-brainer. When you say my family, who are these people? Oh, my wife and we have a daughter that's almost two, and then my wife's pregnant right now.
No, no, no, no. George is saying...
No, I'm saying you said who's telling you not to pay it off? Is it your wife or in-laws? No, no, no. In-laws, my parents, parents they say oh just do it chunks at a time okay follow up follow up do they pay your bills no they do not why are you letting them have a vote and what you do with your money uh i get i think i just try to if a big decision like this i try to get as much information as possible and then you know sometimes that kind backfires.
Yeah. But you know what? The answer is you respect them.
And so that's why you called us. Presumably you respect us as well.
I would hope. Maybe not.
I don't know how. I don't know how.
I think we do. It's going to set up your family for success by paying off the loans.
And you have $35,000 worth of cash left over. It's not like you're down to zero.
And even then, you know, we would tell you, pay it off, keep $1,000 in your savings for an emergency fund. But this case, you're in great shape.
I'd pay it off as soon as the phone call. In fact, I kind of want you to do it while we're on the phone here.
I don't even understand their financial argument for why to pay it off in chunks. We don't care.
We're not even going to discuss it because it's not, you made a great point. It makes no sense.
I loved your question. Do they pay your bills? I was going to ask, do they tell you what to wear every day? Are they doing meal planning for you? They don't.
No, I do all that. No, I take care of my family.
I know you do, Miles. You know why you called us? Because your gut and everything in you has told you to have a backbone and do what you want to do, but you thought, well, I'll call these two guys and see what they think.
It's like being in handcuffs and saying, well, don't unchain all at once. I mean, you want to just take, you know, snip off a link here, a link that just get rid of it, man.
It's not doing you any favors. What's the total payments add up to for these student loans every month? Oh, 700 a month.
It's ridiculous. You just gave yourself a raise.
Yeah. Miles, am I am i right you wanted to do this but you called us for one last opinion that's exactly what it was then do what you were going to do george and i agree with you it's not you agreeing with us pay it off and actually i'm putting you on hold right now because you need to be uh paying it off now there we go inside of two minutes go onto the website and hit pay.
If this were a video call, like if we did that, we would have him go right now and do it in front of us. And watch him do it.
100%. To celebrate the payoff.
Yeah. You know what we would do? Then we'd make a snarky video to his parents and his in-laws.
Say nana nana boo boo? Yes. I hope they don't say, I'm not trying to disrespect.
No, I'm kidding. Of course we wouldn't do that.
I don't want to rub it in their face. I'm sure they're wonderful people.
But again, it's his financial life. He's paying all the bills.
He's going to be the one with a freed up $700 payment. George, I don't know that I've ever respected your snark more than what you just did.
I just wonder, am I the crazy one? Am I so common sense that it's now insane? No, but I thought I loved how you just went, do they pay your bills? I mean, you challenge his manhood. Wow.
I've never done that before. Miles, you're the only guy that I've ever known to get challenged by George on the manhood scale, and George just did it.
So add that to my resume. Put that on my LinkedIn, guys.
Miles, I hope to have you hanging up on us here momentarily to go pay this off. I still see you in the queue.
He's hanging on for dear life. Yeah, Miles, there's nothing else to say, my friend.
We're moving on to Paige. Paige is joining us in Kansas City.
Paige, how can we help? Yeah, okay. I didn't think I'd be nervous, actually.
I'm like, oh, why are you not ever going to answer? You know what? George gets us all the time. Everybody's nervous to talk to George.
Just act like you're talking to me. I'm the everyman.
What's going on? Sounds good. Hey, so we are military.
We're getting ready to move in the next six months, and we'll be buying what will be our third home that we've bought and sold and moved. Wow.
And Dave briefly mentioned that he didn't fully agree with a VA loan, that it wasn't the best kind of loan to get. So my question was, we will be doing probably close to 50% down payment rolling off the equity of our current home and looking to do a 15-year mortgage.
So is it still, like, I guess, what is his reasoning behind the VA loan that it's not as significant to the loan? Well, generally, when people go after these VA loans, they do it because there's virtually no down payment needed, no PMI, and no minimum credit score. And so people do it because, truthfully, they're broke, and it allows broke people to buy homes, which makes them broker.

And I hate that for our veterans.

I think they deserve more.

And on top of that, there's funding fees between 1.25% and 3.3% of the loan amount, which can make your overall payment and overall interest higher.

And so a lot of the times, it just seems like, wow, what a benefit I'm getting, and you're actually not getting the benefit you think.

There's also strict property requirements. And so you also have no equity when you enter the home, which is risky in a market like we've seen the past few years, where it hasn't been gangbusters like it was years before.
Now, in certain situations, which might be yours, with 50% down, and if you have a service-connected disability, you can get the funding fee waived, which can make these a decent option. Is that you guys? Okay.
Well, no, we don't have...

He's... service-connected disability, you can get the funding fee waived, which can make these a decent option.
Is that you guys? Okay. Well, no, we don't have, he's still active duty.
Okay. So we don't have, we wouldn't have that.
I didn't realize that was attached to the VA loan. So here's what I would do.
I would contact our friends at Churchill and have them run the numbers. Hey, I want the 15-year fixed rate conventional, and I want to see the 15-year VA loan with our down payment amount and our home purchase price.
And they'll show you the numbers. They'll show you what the closing costs are, what your monthly payment will be.
And I'd encourage you to go with the one that makes the most sense, that has the least amount of fees. Okay.
So if that's a VA loan, it might win in this situation where we go, okay, that makes sense. But you might find the 15-year conventional with your down payment, where you guys are at, might be the better deal.
Okay. Yeah, we're all about better deals.
It's not a never. It's just that people who tend to trend toward these loans have nothing down, and they're broke, and they're about to take on way more than they can chew.
Okay. That definitely makes sense.
Yeah. Well, thank you for your service.
Yeah, absolutely. And well, it sounds like they've done it right.

Like just can-

50% down.

That's amazing.

That's because they're rolling equity

and they didn't get upside down.

They didn't get too much going on in their previous stops.

And they didn't hang on to the properties.

That's right.

Where they went, well, we should keep it as a rental

and be long distance landlords because that's smart.

That's right.

And you got three mortgages.

I could tell you had a warm feeling on your face

when she said 50% down and a 15 year mortgage. I mean- That mortgage.
I mean, you don't get that question very often on the show.

What do you think about this, George? How about 50% down and a 15-year mortgage?

You probably thought you were being punked. Honestly, that is a very rare situation

to get. Most of the time it's, hey, we can put 3% down on a 30-year.
That's the calls we get.

And they have a bunch of debt, no emergency fund, and they think, well, home ownership is the

All right. Most of the time it's, hey, we can put 3% down on a 30-year.
That's the calls we get.

And they have a bunch of debt, no emergency fund, and they think, well, home ownership is the right next step because everyone told me.

All my family, Ken, said we got to buy a house.

What are you doing?

Why are you throwing money away on rent?

I'm tired of that rhetoric.

It's causing a lot of people to stay broke and become broker.

Going to hit you with a post-election question, see where your head is at. You've seen where mortgage rates are at.
You're watching this stuff all the time. Tick back up a little bit.
Do you have a gut, a feeling about the real estate market in general for our audience? Because a lot of people are thinking, do I buy now? You know, Fed has kind of moved another quarter point, didn't do much. What are your thoughts on real estate? And should we buy? Should we be sitting? I think rates won't change drastically over the next six to 12 months.
So if you're sitting on the sidelines waiting for some magic to happen, don't. Because if things do change drastically, I'm guessing home values will spike up, even if rates go down.
And so you're not going to really get a benefit. So if you're ready to buy a home, you're out of debt with an emergency fund and a down payment, go ahead and buy.
Don't wait until Trump gets into office in January. Don't wait for the housing market to do a special thing.
Just buy when you're ready and don't let anyone else influence you. All right, good.
Simple answer. There it is.
But I don't think anything drastic is going to happen. Yeah.
It's my take. I love it.
That's essentially your TikTok of the day. Because people are out there watching all this stuff And I thought, I want to see what you're thinking.
Clip that to your TikToks. There you go.
TikTok, TikTok. We got to get out of here.
Good hour, George. Always good.
You held up good. I got it.
Cantankerous, but joyful spirit. Yes, absolutely.
This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show, where we help you win in your life, specifically

with your money, in your work, in your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number.
We would

love to coach you today. 888-825-5225.
I'm Ken Coleman. George Camel is alongside in

his snappy Gap Kids denim coat. It's actually Oshkosh B'Gosh.
Thank you. It's a good guess.
Oshkosh is the better brand. It's high quality.
Yeah, it's good stuff. Trey is going to start us off this hour in Cleveland, Ohio.
Trey, how can we help today? Yes, sir. So me and my wife are having a bit of a disagreement when it comes to rental properties.
And we started off getting into real estate about five years ago and we purchased our first house and turned it into a duplex. And her parents have been in the real estate industry for like 20 years and they have a specific way of doing things.
And I recently discovered Dave Ramsey and, you know, trying to remain debt-free while building wealth. And, you know, they, she is more along the lines of pulling, getting a HELOC to snowball, being able to purchase more properties.

But I'm more along the lines of, you know, just save money, pay for it with cash, because if you do the HELOC, well, yes, you might be able to buy more quickly.

You're not really building wealth.

You're just building debt.

And adding risk.

If that makes sense.

Right, right.

So you know what you want to do. We're going to give you the same advice you would give your wife.
You have a better chance of convincing her. Why is she not convinced yet? Is she just so starry-eyed at what's going to happen with this property and all the money she could make? Well, I think she trusts her parents because her parents have been doing it that way for, like I said, 20 years.
And then they're more towards the end of you know they have a couple dozen properties and now that about everything's getting to the point where it's paid off seeing the the big dollar signs at the end of it and i guess trying to explain to her that you can still do that but without the risk and paying cash she just i guess she wants to expedite it with a shortcut. And to her, that's the HELOC with the variable interest rate that puts your home at risk.
How much of a conversation have you had around the risk part? Because it feels like, I'm going to take a guess. Tell me if I'm wrong here, Trey.
My guess is because that's the way her mom and dad have always done it. She loves her mom and dad.
She looks up to them, massive respect. So they have huge influence, but she, because of that, she's never even looked at the downside of this.
Is that true or false? It's true, but you know, I, I was, I grew up in a very poor family and I'm not going to say I've made the best financial decisions in the, in our marriage. And, you know, as we've had kids, I've tried to change the way I do things.
So, you know, even though I might have some good points, there's maybe a trust thing there that it might not be the best decision based off that. Okay.
So you're saying she doesn't trust your opinion? Pretty much. Okay, but that's

really not the question that I asked. The question that I ask is, have you sat down with her and

talked about the risk of all of this and walked through it and forced her to confront it? And when

I say forced, I don't mean in your attitude and your posture, but just confronting her with,

hey, if this doesn't go well, because you were laying it out beautifully a moment ago, and I

just wondered if you've actually sat with her and showed her a worst-case scenario, because that's

I'm wondering if you've done that with her. And you said no.
Is that true? Yeah, that's correct. Yeah, blame it on us.
But I don't think that her trusting you has anything to do with you making a good case. These are facts.
George, what would your three or four talking points be for him? If you were coaching him up and then going, all right, Trey, head into the kitchen. She's waiting for you.
Well, most people are either motivated by the math side or the emotion side. It sounds like she is, again, starry-eyed with the math on paper going, Trey, this is a no-brainer.
This is a no-lose situation, right? Right. Because she's never gotten burned on a real estate transaction, and maybe her parents haven't.
And she's about ready to cash in on some stuff, right? Is that what you told us? Well, her parents have. Her parents have.
That's my point. So there's a fallacy here that because I haven't been burned in the past, everything's going to be fine in the future.
And Dave tried that. He went bankrupt doing real estate the risky way.
And then he restarted and went, all right, I'm only going to pay cash for my next investment property instead of shortcutting it. And yes, it takes longer.
But listen, when you get there, that thing cash flows amazingly with 100% equity. And then you can roll that into the next property in the next one.
And you move slower, but you move with less risk. But it sounds like she is convinced her parents' way is the best way.
And therefore, the math may not work here. And so you may need to go, listen, I'm a part of this marriage.
I have a vote. I'm not comfortable moving forward with this and putting our home at risk with a variable interest rate HELOC with extra fees on top of that.
Let's just move slow. And if that means we're not real estate moguls by the time we're 40, so be it.
We can build wealth despite not having 17 rental properties. But truthfully, people who are into real estate like that, their risk meter is broken.
They generally don't have a lot saved. They're not putting money away for retirement.
They're just hoping the next house deal works out and that will provide them their retirement income. But we get the calls when they took out the HELOC and things didn't work out.
And so I would encourage you to show her some of those calls from the Ramsey show. You can just Google Heloc Rental Ramsey on YouTube and probably find 17 calls where things went sideways.
What do you think about that one, Trey?

No, no, I like that. I like that a lot.

Just say, hey, will you watch this clip?

The horror stories.

Watch this clip with me real quick.

And she's going to go, well, that's not going to happen to us because I figured it out.

We're going to do it the safe way. And the truth is, he locks at risks for your life.

The bank can take away your home if you miss her default on a payment.

And the other thing that I'm concerned about for Trey is that all of the stuff we're telling him, I think, is potentially effective.

The challenge, George, that I'm worried about for Trey is her mom and dad.

If they're cheerleading on the other side, I don't know what kind of position. You don't want in the middle of that I think it puts you in a tough you're the bad guy Trey is that is that possible that no matter what you say they're cheerleading on the other really possible they're the only result is that it drives a wedge in your marriage that's it right and I think you make this conversation bigger than that and say it's not about the HELOCOC.
This is driving a wedge in our marriage. We're misaligned on our strategy for building wealth for the next 20 years.
And I want to get alignment on that before we make any moves. No, absolutely.
That might take some time. I don't know that there's one conversation that's going to convince her.
marriage therapy there. Because here's the thing, the hold that your in-laws

have on your wife is massive massive and what does she think this next house is going to do for her is this just a stepping stone to get another heel locked for the next one yes yep do you see where this is going this is going to be an endless chase of more. For what? What is the reason?

I want to know why.

Because her mom and dad.

Because mom and dad.

They've got the success.

I want to build up like mom and dad.

She sees them going, well, we made this,

and she wants to do the same thing they did.

You compound how much she loves her mom and dad,

how much she respects them,

plus mom and dad have a couple of trophies.

This is a tough situation for Drew.

Here's an idea.

When mom and dad pass, we'll inherit their real estate portfolio. Boom.
We don't have to add risk to our life right now. Let's wait.
We'll inherit their hard work and we don't have to put our lives in jeopardy over the next house that's going to make us wealthy. Tough, tough conversations coming for Trey.
Hang in there, man. Share your heart.
Hold the line, because this is going to take a while, I have a feeling. This is The Ramsey Show.
Listen, I know a lot of you would rather watch paint dry in slow motion than file your taxes, but thankfully, you don't have to dread filing when you've got Ramsey Smart Tax. It comes packed with everything you need to file online before the big deadline.
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That's RamseySolutions.com slash Smart tax. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show.
Alongside George Camel, I'm Ken Coleman. 888-825-5225 is the phone number.
888-825-5225. So we've got new people joining all the time.
We've taken a couple calls today, people that have been just tracking with us for just a few months. And so if you want to find out more about the baby steps,

the stuff we talk about, find out where you are.

Are you on track?

You can take a quick quiz that will check your progress,

and you get a personalized plan just for you.

This is super encouraging for you, just clarity to know where you are

and where you need to go.

So head to the show notes and click on the link titled,

Are You On Track With The Baby Steps? Are You On Track With The Baby Steps? And take that quick quiz, and it will help you out big time. head to the show notes and click on the link titled are you on track with the baby steps are

you on track with the baby steps and take that quick quiz and they'll help you out big time 888-825-5225 is the phone number naples florida is where we go next and beverly joins us there beverly how can we help hi i'm in trouble and i need some help okay Okay, we're here for you. What's going on?

Okay. I wrote a book.
I hired a company to market it and distribute it in the whole nine yards. And it started off at $2,000 and escalated into $60,000.
They never told me in the beginning I had to pay for the printing of the books. They never told me that they were going to a website and they would, they never told me that I had to have a domain and a hosting company on top of that $2,000.
So they were just big shysters. The end of it was they kept telling me, yes, my money's coming, my money's coming.
They owed me like $140,000 in royalties, which never came. And the end of it was that I did a merchant dispute because they were supposed to do an audio book which they never did so I put a four thousand dollar dispute in on that and they they said that unless I paid up my whole amount that I owed them which was that four thousand dollars they would.
They would cancel my account, which they did and never did the book. So they canceled my account.
Now I'm out $60,000 trying to figure out how to pay it. I assume none of this was real.
Yeah, I know. The royalties weren't there.
There was never a book. Did you ever get a copy? Did people buy the book? Yeah, I wrote the book.
I wrote the book, yeah. Right, but my question is, is if they told you you were owed royalties, that implies that you actually sold the book.
It takes a lot of book sales to get $140,000 in royalties. A lot.
Right, well, they promised on their promissory, their original contract thing, that they would distribute 8,000 books. Yeah, but I got to know.
All over the world. Yeah, but I got news for they would distribute 8,000 books.

Yeah, but I got to know.

All over the world.

Yeah, but I got news for you. Selling 8,000 books doesn't equal to $140,000 in royalties.

Both George and I are best-selling authors.

So, I mean, you just got completely scammed.

Do you actually have the book in your possession now, at least, the electronic version?

Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

And do you have the rights to sell it on your own now?

Yes.

Okay, so is this publisher a real publisher? Well, I thought they were. Well, no.
Have you done any homework to see do they actually have – is this a phantom company or does this company exist somewhere? well i've been doing a lot of research on this since this happened and i found out that they

have six different websites that I can connect to each other. Only one of them is registered in the state of Florida, and the other five are not registered in either New York or Yeah, this is a scam company.
They might actually put the book out to tell you, oh, look, we actually printed the book, but I would get a lawyer involved if you want money back. I mean, you're going to have a tough time telling the credit card company, hey, can you clear it for me? It was fraud.
You spent the money. Well, the problem is I've been trying to get an attorney, and I called the biggest one in the country, and they said, no, it's too old because this is going on a year and a half, even though the last final thing was only a couple weeks ago.
I've been working with them this whole time. And then the next person, the next little attorney, they called, they said, well, have you ever been turned down by an attorney? And I said, yes, well, they don't want me.
So I've been trying to find an attorney, and no attorney will. I mean, you know, I don't know.
What do you do for work? I'm retired. Okay.
And the other part, the other problem is I'm 79 years old. So what is your income? 24 years.
My personal income and part of the business is about 1700 a month, which I have one of those debt reduction programs working.

Oh, no.

Beverly, you need to never get on the Internet again.

You are getting scammed left and right.

No.

These companies, what they do...

So they're paying off one.

Well, what happens is they tell you,

stop paying your debts, instead give us that payment,

let your credit score tank,

let the creditors come after you with lawyers and lawsuits. And then we'll try to settle the debt for less.
Yeah. Right? That's how it works.
Yeah. Well, yeah.
There's red flags in every corner. What can I do? And I hate that they, I mean, you were preyed upon by these companies.
And so you need to go be on the defense for the rest of your life to go, I'm not going to ever get scammed again, and I'm going to fight to get this resolved. And you may not get a resolution.
That's the hard part. You may need to swallow the harsh pill going, this money I'm never going to get back, and it hurt to get scammed.
Yeah, I tracked it to a real person. I found a real person that has a real address and a real house.
What are you going to do, roll up to their house with a baseball bat? You've got to get a lawyer involved. I might.
I told them, and I said, you know, hell has no fury like a woman scorned. Yeah, that's the truth.
With a computer. That's the truth.
Yeah, but you've got to find some upstart young lawyer who's looking to make a name for themselves.

And I would contact the credit card company, explain this,

and say, listen, this was, you know, obviously you took out the debt,

so it's not a straight-up fraudulent activity,

but you were defrauded,

and therefore you have no ability to pay back this debt.

Do you have anything in writing saying that we're going to give you this $140,000? I have a service agreement, yes. Okay.
I mean, I would find a lawyer who's a year and a half is not, you know, 50 years old. And I hear something in your voice, Beverly, you're like, eh.
But you just spouted off one of the great quotes of all time, by the way, one of the truest quotes of all time, that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. And I would put that scorn into finding a young lawyer who is not some big firm.
And I would, I'd find somebody that's straight out of law school that's looking to make a difference. I'm telling you, I would put that energy into that.
That's the only shot you have. And you know what only other option is? I mean, you're going to have to pay the $60 back over time, and you have an income of $1,700 a month.
Yeah. Do you not have Social Security? A lifespan of 10 years.
Well, I hope you got longer than that. But do you not have Social Security coming in? Yeah.
Yeah, that's part. That's what's.
Oh, I thought you said. Well, you said in the business.
In the business. You said something about your business.
No, the whole everything. I mean, that's my income.
My husband gave me $500 a month to live on, and I have a small pension. I haven't even worked part-time my whole career, and then I have my Social Security.
So is your husband still alive? Yes, but the problem is all our money is his money. He retired at the age of 50.
Beverly, you buried the lead here. This is a whole different phone call now.
Well, I know, but he got screwed twice because of this company i mean company the same company this one that yeah i did he publish a book too no no no but he they told him that the money's coming they would all they need to do is get uh 14 i know five thousand dollars to pay the distributor so i begged him please let me do it for five days he, I'll have the money by Friday. So I said, let me loan that money for five days.
I did five days, 10 days. So his money is in this too.
Well, he got his money back. He was able to do a charge back and get his money back.
See, this is the problem. You guys are living separate lives and you're 79 years of age and your husband's like, well, sorry, Beth.
That's on you. Figure it out.
Yeah, I know, but it's his money and his, you know, from his parents that he inherited. How long have you guys been married? Really? 40-some years.
The chances of you guys combining finances after 40, I mean, I hope it happens. Oh, no, we do.
I mean, I don't. You just said it's his money.
You literally just, like, gave him a pass. He's like, sorry, Bev.
Good luck with the $60,000 debt. I got my money back.
I'm over here playing Parcheesi and golf with the fellas, and you're stressed out of your mind. This doesn't make any sense to me.
This dude needs to help you out.

He's your husband.

If we don't laugh, we cry. That's a tough situation, Beverly.
I'm so sorry. I'd file all the complaints, try to get the chargebacks, do whatever you can to fight this.
But just know you might not get a resolution. 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 punch. 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.
Jeff Zander and the team at Zander Insurance makes it easy and affordable. I've used them personally for 25 years.
They're the only people I trust. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.
I talk to people every day who want to know how to do better in two areas, money and relationships. That's why I'm pumped to bring the Money and Relationships Tour to a city near you.
Join me and Dr. John Deloney for a night that will challenge the way you think about this stuff and possibly change how you live forever.
Starting April 21st, we'll be in Louisville, then on to Durham, Atlanta, Phoenix, Fort Worth, and Kansas City. Grab your tickets at RamseySolutions.com slash tour before they're gone.
Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. 888-825-5225 is the phone number.
888-825-5225.

Alongside George Campbell, I'm Ken Coleman.

Excited that you're with us.

Let's go back to the phones.

Detroit, Michigan is where we go.

Deleese is there.

Deleese, how can we help today?

Hi, yes.

I am trying to figure out if I should sell my RV at half price and just cut my losses now.

Tell me more about the RV and what the debt is on it and all the nine yards that we don't know. Okay, so it's $125,000 18-foot RV.
I now owe $105,000 on it. I've sold, I've gotten out of debt out of everything else.
My house is gone. My car is paid for.
All my credit cards are now gone. And so this one thing I've had online now for a few months for $85,000 is seeming to go down more and more.
Now, I have $100,000 from the sale of the house, and I was just wondering if I should just go on and eat that, try to sell it and eat the other costs, which is anywhere from $40,000 to $50,000. Yeah, because this RV is going to continue to go down in value.
So what do you think you should be listing it for? Because clearly $85,000 isn't low enough if it's been online for a couple months. If you want to get rid of it quickly, we've got to lower it.
So that would be the difference that you would have to eat, right? So what do you think the right price is? Well, when I went back to the dealer, which I know is the worst place to go. Yeah, they'll give you about some pocket change for it.
Yeah, they were talking about $60,000. And the one or two buyers that I did have got away from me either because the van wouldn't start at that time because I hadn't been driving it for three or four months.
As I say, I moved. Not a great first date when you're trying to sell a $100,000 vehicle.
It wasn't, and I'm truly afraid of this whole $100,000 thing. Plus, I understand now that this over $100,000 that I was going to use for my retirement will have a capital gains tax against it.
And I don't know how much that'll be. Like, how much should I even put aside for that? It depends if it's short-term or long-term and how long you've held the asset and what your income is.
I just sold my house in April, and my income is $150 a year, $160 a year. Okay.
And where are you living now? I live in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Are you renting? You said you had the profits from the home.
Where'd you go next? Right. I'm renting an apartment.
Okay. So you're renting an apartment right now.
You have $100,000 from the home sale. Do you have anything else in savings or retirement? I have a small retirement from the government, probably a pension, I guess.
I'm 61, so I'm kind of downsizing everything for a possible retirement in the next five to ten years. Okay.
Well, remember, retirement is not an age, it's a financial number. You need to be able to retire and cover all of your expenses and still have margin left over.
So that's the plan I want to get you to, and getting rid of this RV is likely part of that. Why did you get the RV in the first place? Crazy lady.
I got it during COVID. I had to get out of the house.
Everybody was living with me in the house, and both my parents passed during that time. So it was just an emotional buy, more so than anything.
I did make 48 states, but it still was an emotional buy. Okay, so you owe $105.
Top dollar, do you think you could get $75 or $80 private sale? I think so. I'm new to this, so $75.
Yeah, it's at $85 now,. Let's say worst case you sold it for 75.
You would owe 30 in order to clear the title. So you take 30 out of your 100,000 profits.
That leaves you with 70 grand. Right.
But it frees up that giant payment. What's the payment on this thing? It's 768 a month.
Okay. So you'd get a raise right there just by getting rid of that payment and the interest.
Exactly. It's $700 a year for the registration.
And you've got insurance and all the other maintenance. I mean, that's an expensive toy, so I would get rid of it ASAP.
There may be a better seasonality with the RV in your area. I don't know how many people are trying to buy an RV in November.
Yeah, I know I'd have to wait until spring again, but I just didn't know if it would look good. If you're thinking like I'm thinking, I need to...
Well, think about it. You make an $800 payment for the next six months until we get into warmer weather.
You just spent a lot of money to try to hope to make more profit while this thing continues to go down in value. So I might cut my losses now and take 75 for it instead of 80.
I absolutely concur. That is exactly where I was going when I asked you that question on what do you think the right price is in the open market, not to a dealer.
And let's make this thing attractive and get rid of it. Thankfully, you got the cash to be able to get whole on it and get it out of your life.
Yes. And then we need to figure out for the next five or 10 years, we need to make up for lost time and start shoveling away money into retirement accounts so that we have a nice nest egg.
Exactly. Will I get caught on the capital tax thing if I put the money on the van? Capital gains? Do you know that there's capital gains tax on the sale of your home because generally first time hearing about it okay you may not have capital gains tax i would talk to a tax pro to have them look into your specific situation but if it was your primary residence you were there two out of five years you know about you know in your single you'll likely have up to, I believe, $250,000 in appreciation without taxes.
$250,000 in appreciation. So if you bought it at $250,000 and you sold it at $500,000, you're fine.
What was the purchase price? I bought it at $285,000. I sold it at close to $400,000, I.
Okay. See, you're likely fine.
I don't want to

speak out of turn depending on your situation, but you're likely not going to have capital gains

on that 100,000 that ended up in your account. And even if you did, you're talking zero to 15%

for your situation if you hold it long enough. So again, I'd get in touch with a tax pro,

make sure you're fine on the tax side, but I'd use that cash and get out of this RV

and never go into debt again on a depreciating asset. Yeah, absolutely.
Thank you, Denise. There's an RV.
There's a lot of zeros on the end of RV mistakes. Yeah, that's so true.
Let's go to Holly in Columbia, Missouri. Holly, how can we help? Hi, guys.
It's an honor to talk to you. Well, I a little nervous but i'm excited my question my question is um i've worked part-time my entire life um and i've never been responsible with money i even have a bankruptcy um and how old are you i'm 32 um yeah i had a really bad marriage and we did some really bad things with money and, um, just went to a lot of debt.
Um, but now I've been offered honestly the opportunity of a lifetime, um, honestly, and I'm worried and I'm anxious only because I'm going to be making really good money, and I really don't know how to manage it.

So I'm calling in.

I've listened to you guys for a long time.

What do you make now, and what will you be making?

Well, right now I don't have a job because I just moved to Missouri,

so I'm just now getting back into the workforce.

But I will be making $20.17 an hour.

$20.17 an hour?

Yes, sir.

Yeah.

So that's about $40,000.

Yes.

Okay.

And you're going to I don't want to screw this up. How do I make sure I make the most of this? Okay.
Is that your question? We've got about a minute. So here's the deal.
If you can learn to manage a little, you can learn to manage a lot. And so that is, you haven't had a great track record, but that doesn't mean you can't improve.

And so I'm going to gift you one year of every dollar premium to help with this.

And a budget is going to be your best friend.

It's going to be the boss and you're going to be the boss of it.

When you make it, it's going to be the boss of you during the month. Because you said, this is where my money is going to go.

Every single cent of my take-home pay is going toward debt payoff, to the rent, to the bills, and you're going to learn to live on less than you make. That is the key.
And along with that, Holly, I'm going to send you my book, Breaking Free from Broke. It's going to walk you through this entire process, start to finish, from how to get out of debt, how to build wealth, how to avoid money traps, and how to finally get control of money instead of it controlling you.
But I'm proud of you. You're making great strides.
Thank you so much. A new chapter for Holly.
Yeah, way to go, Holly. It's exciting to see you start to make your way and do take advantage of this offer that George has given you.
This is going to help you so much just to know where your money is, know where it's going, and half the battle is just simply knowing. It feels like a Saturday morning cartoon message that all came back to me.
Yeah, this is The Ramsey Show. Listen, guys, I've heard just about every excuse for why folks think they can't get ahead with money, so let's go ahead and settle this right now.
The truth is you get to decide what happens with your money. And if you want to

start winning with money, you have to get on a budget. The Every Dollar Budget app makes it easy for you to plan every dollar you've got coming in and every dollar going out.
Plus it's free. So no more excuses.
Go download Every Dollar in the App Store or Google Play today. welcome back to The Ramsey Show.
Alongside George Campbell, I'm Ken Coleman. Thrilled to have you with us.
888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. George, what's the best way to make the most of your money? Is this a true question? Because I think it's the budget.
It is the budget. Every dollar makes it simple.
It is our world-class budgeting tool.

Helps you plan your spending track expenses and save for what matters most to you.

When you keep a pulse on your spending, you start to be able to make progress on your money goals,

and you do all that with every dollar.

You can download every dollar for free in the App Store or Google Play

or click on the link in the show notes if you're partaking on YouTube or your favorite podcast app. All right, Honolulu.
Oh, boy, I wish I was there. I'm telling you, Honolulu.
You ever been, George? No, I'd love to go. I didn't think you'd been.
It's lovely. Should we do a couple's trip? We should.
We should absolutely do that. I think you would look great in a Hawaiian shirt.
Thank you. We'll get matching ones.
Absolutely. Grace is there.
Grace, how can we help today? Hi, thanks for taking my call. Sure.
I have been working the baby steps for about two months now, and I love my budget, but my husband does not. So I'm wondering how I can get him on board.
We've talked about it.

We've sat down and done the budget together.

He'll agree to it.

He'll say he understands it, and then he'll just blow it up.

So when you say blow it up, what does that mean?

What is he overspending on?

Is there a certain category?

It's pretty much nonsense.

He'll just try and spend money on things to keep him busy,

working on his car or spending on food and drinks at work. Sorry.
And what is your goal by doing this budget? Did you guys agree on why we're doing this? So that's where I tried to start, and he likes to live life now. He can't really see the purpose of getting rid of all of our debt and then being able to buy a home and really fulfill our dreams.
Have you told him that it scares you, he's okay living like this, knowing that you're going to be broke later on? Yes. What does he say when you share your honest feelings with him? He kind of downplays it he'll apologize and then say he understands it but his behavior won't change well he clearly he doesn't care about you all's financial future he's being selfish going i just want to do what i want to do and no one gets to tell me and I work hard for the money.
Is that about right? Yes. He actually said that the other day.
Oh, well played. Look at that.
It's like you've done this a time or two. I can just hear this guy.
I know him. He means well.
He's a hardworking guy and he's just like, ah, she's always nagging me. I'm just trying to get a little snack here.
He has no vision. I got a little hobby here working on cars.
I got to get the stuff for the...

Grace, you got to cast vision.

You got to cast a vision with this

or else it's just going to feel like a process.

It's going to feel more like nagging every time.

And so, number one,

if he really...

Is this car hobby making him money?

No, and it's not like a bunch of money,

but it's just one thing after the other. Does he have a fun money line item in the budget? Let's say 50 bucks? We do.
Okay, how much is it for him? Well, we share it. It's $300.
Okay, I think you need to split this out so he knows exactly what his amount is. Because that's confusing.
Do you spend 250 and he gets 50?

Do you both spend 300 and you go, well, we're over 300. I would split it out.
So you have Grace's fun money and his fun money. And if that's 150 each, and that's what you guys agree on,

you get a hundred, he gets 200. It doesn't have to be equal, but you guys have to agree to it.

And that becomes the spit shake because it sounds like there's two categories, food and his hobbies.

Right? Yeah. If you can get those in check, you guys will make progress.
Yeah. How much debt do you have? We have $27,000 that I can track, and then he has a credit card I don't have access to.
Oh, boy. That's a problem.

It's a military star card, so he can't spend it on anything but, like, gas and anything on post or clothing and sales.

Okay.

But is there a way you can have access for transparency and accountability?

Yes.

I've been asking for that for a while, and he just kind of puts it off.

Hmm.

Are you sure he can't make any frivolous purchases on this card? No. Okay.
Because I'm thinking, I've been to a gas station. They sell a lot more than gas.
Yes. And so I think you have a right to accountability and transparency in your own marriage with what's going on with your money.
So I think there's a deeper thing going on here. Usually it's one of three things.
It's either there has been a lack of trust, and there's a reason they're hiding this. There's been some trauma, maybe from the past, that makes them kind of want their own separate little parachute in case.
And then there's also financial infidelity where there's spending addictions. There could be more nefarious things going on here.
And I think you have a right to get to the bottom of it. I agree.
And it's, I don't think you need to do this in an attacking way because that's going to get him to shut down, but you do need to say we have not been on the same page. You agreed that we need to get better with our money.
You're going to get out of debt we said it was going to take this long to get out of this much debt this much a month toward the debt and so far it's been derailed by random frivolous spending yeah that's very frustrating i think you have a right to be frustrated i do i think this is a marriage issue i think this is, I think this is a sitting down with a therapist if we can't get it hashed out over a nice date night. It's so funny you say that because I know that.
Usually this is a symptom of way more. Yeah.
What was the other conversation about the marriage? yeah just um about what the spending habits and how he reacts to it makes me feel, how that shows me how he cares and doesn't care, and then it applies to other parts of our relationship, too, where he'll kind of do the same things when it comes to feelings and opening up. Yeah.
It takes two healthy people to have a healthy marriage.

It takes two emotionally mature people to have an emotionally mature marriage.

And I'm not,

we only know one side of the story.

There's usually three sides,

his side,

her side and the truth.

But so far from what you've told me,

he's got some work to do to kind of grow up and go,

I got married.

And that means it to become one.

I don't get to live however I want.

It affects other people. It affects your future too.

Exactly.

The thing that I'm

concerned about, and if he was on the phone

I'd say this, you're not just

buying a handful of Slim Jims

at the convenience store

with this credit card.

It just concerns

me greatly. Why does he need this credit card.
It just concerns me greatly.

Why does he need this credit card?

He doesn't.

He doesn't need it.

Let's shut it down.

Well, it's not that simple.

He's cut her out of this.

This is why this is a marriage.

I'm with you, George, but I mean, this is a really...

Well, if he's saying, I'm not doing any spending on it,

it's no big deal, then go, all right, let's cut it up then.

We have our debit card. We're going to use our own money.
That was something we agreed on. I'd like them to discuss this with a therapist in the room.
I think we need a third party at this point, Grace. He's not listening to you.
I cut up my credit cards and it made him so nervous. He was like, what if we need it for an emergency? And I was like, that's why we have the emergency fund.
We make so so much money we don't need it but it scares him so I can understand why he thinks good for you wait so all of a sudden he gets to be scared and you don't I know yeah but grace good on you for leading this you're modeling the way for him I'm trying no listen you are keep doing it but I do think this is a therapist in the room so that we have an objective third party who's a professional, and you share your real concerns and your real feelings. He's got to address this, or else this will – if you all don't address it now, meaning he's participating, this will pop back up, and when it does, it will be really bad.
Yeah, that i want him to be scared he should be scared he should be scared for his financial situation right and this is just exposing it by cutting up and he should be scared of what he's doing to his marriage yeah there we go that we got some we got a rise out of grace on that one all right grace you know what to do it's not going to be fun or easy no but it's the only path i wish i could snap my fingers and go well grace just tell him this one sentence and he'll just change yeah this will be hard this will be hard but it is worth it it's worth it well i appreciate the motivation from you guys thank you well listen listen we're rooting for you yeah listen we're rooting for you okay so hang in there all right for all of you listening uh so hang in there. All right, for all of you listening via YouTube or podcast,

this show is about to end.

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