The Ramsey Show - App - Bankruptcy Will Try to Take Your Marriage (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 18, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios. It's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. Kristen starts us off in Louisiana this hour. Hi, Kristen. How are you?

I'm good. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Good. Well, we're going to be starting. We're right in the very first throes of Financial Peace University, and we own a farm that is separate from our mortgage. And we are facing very possible foreclosure on that separate piece of property. Do we, at this point, since we've sold a part of that farm trying to help fix, and it's all going to principal. So they're still showing us late, and it still looks like we're going to be foreclosing at some point. So they screwed you over on that.

Yes, and they have multiple times. It's our fault. I mean, we got into it when we shouldn't have. So is this your main business, or is this a side deal? This is a family farm we're fourth generation on, but this is a separate piece that we have bought since. Do we at this point file bankruptcy just to have a date where we're actually debt-free business and personal, or do I keep going to get debt-free with my personal? How much personal debt do you have?

$196,000, and that includes our mortgage. Okay. How much of that is your mortgage? Mortgage is $161,000. So you have $30,000 in debt. Okay. Yeah. And then the farm, do you have debt other than the land? Yes, we have tractors and cattle. Okay. And how much is owed on the tractors and cattle?

Tractors is $28,000, cattle is $16,000. Okay. And are they with the same bank as the land? The cattle is, the tractors are not. Okay. And are they with the same bank as the land? The cattle is. The tractors are not. Okay. And this venture to the side with the tractors and the cattle is different than the fourth generation farm. It's a different piece of ground. The tractor and the cattle are on the family farm. The piece of property is a different ground. What is the piece of property worth?

Not as much as we have out on it. What's it worth? Probably somewhere around $250,000. Okay. And what do you think it will bring? You think it will bring $250,000. What do you owe? $270,000.

Okay. And is this with one of the farm institutions, or is it with just a local bank? No, we have it financed. It's with a local bank backed by the Farm Service Agency. And there is a prepayment penalty if we were to sell it all. Uh-huh. Okay. Which we would still owe anyway if we sold it all.

Okay. They're going to take the cattle, too, is the problem. Because what they're doing is they've got this stuff cross collateralized and so they've got it they've got it set up where they can pull the string on whichever end they want to pull it on it sounds like uh it sounds like a really rough piece of paper in terms of your rights are probably all gone um i'm guessing but that's i've been in that situation you know where i sold a piece of property and all the money went into the other thing because they pulled that string so um well

and even if we if we liquidated everything farm wise we would still be in debt the other farm that you own or the other farm that's fourth generation you don't own yet do you um the mortgage our personal mortgage is there but it's only a piece of the property the our no in terms of my in-laws yeah who's it titled to who owns it um part of it is us and part of it is my in-laws okay we have 15 acres they have the other 220 and part of it is my in-laws. Okay. All right. We have 15 acres. They have the other 220. And the 15 acres is your home, basically. Okay. All right.

You don't have a lot. Yes, but it's rented right now. We're renting down here in Louisiana. The home is rented? Yes, because we had to move jobs, so our personal mortgage is rented. Where is all of these properties? Arkansas. Oh, okay. our personal mortgage is where is where is all of these properties arkansas oh okay okay the way i the way to my tangled mess no it's just it just took take some minute to unpack it it's a complicated thing and and uh how old are you two 28 28. Okay. All right.

That's how old Sharon and I were when we filed bankruptcy and started over. Good to know. And so the things I remember always to tell people because we've been there is regardless of what happens with the farms, the family, the banks, the cattle, the tractors, you two hold on to each other. This stuff will take your marriage, kiddo. Don't let it have your marriage, okay? We've gone through worse. Listen, nobody goes through this without putting a strain on your marriage because he feels his self-esteem is at the lowest it's ever been since you've known him.

And you're more afraid than you've ever been since he's known you. This is a chemistry set that will explode if you're not real careful. Okay. So I'm just going to say it out loud. Nobody is immune to that. And it sounds like you guys are working on it and you've got it on the table where it's in front of you. You can see it and it won't kill you, but I'm going to say it out loud and keep it on the table. Okay, that's more important than the rest of this discussion. The rest of the discussion sounds like this.

Are you still there? Yeah. Okay. What I would do if I woke up in your shoes now knowing what I know is I would let this run its course. I'm going to work to try to sell the property. I'm going to continue to try to sell the tractor and the cattle and the, for that matter, the bank corners you and you have no place to go and they're taking money that would be food on your children's table and, you know, they're becoming just Gestapo tactic type thing, they's no benefit to it. Very limited benefit to filing today versus filing after the property is foreclosed on and the cattle is repossessed, okay, if that occurred. Because after that happens, that's when they're going to come to you and say,

we want the difference that the property did not cover on the loan or they're not. And you might say, okay, let's say you're $20,000 in the hole on the property did not cover on the loan or they're not. And you might set, okay, let's say you're $20,000 in the hole on the property. If they came to you for $20,000, you might settle that with them for two grand. And you wouldn't want to file bankruptcy over two grand just because you were stressed earlier. So let's play this on through, doing the best you can do, getting the property sold before foreclosure. If you can work it out with them to sign a note for the difference, getting the cattle liquidated to be able to cover some of this stuff, getting the tractor liquidated. If we can, let's try to figure out. And then if at some point one of them comes after you and forces you into a corner with a gun, you may be forced to file. But I would put that off if I can, if

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Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Dave, my question is actually regarding my parents. I found out a couple weeks ago that they are basically broke. They are in tremendous debt. They still have a mortgage on their home, quite a substantial mortgage on their home. And I'm trying to figure out a way of advising them what to do, where to go from here as far as getting out of this debt, selling their home, possibly maybe looking into a rental somewhere.

My mom had asked me about a reverse mortgage. I don't really know much about that. She is also considered bankruptcy. They do have a little bit of equity. What do they owe on their home? Okay, let's see here. They owe their first mortgage, they owe $167,825. They also have a line of credit of $30,145.

So they owe a little under $200 on the home. What's it worth? If they were to sell, I would say after selling, this is being conservative, about $275,000. So you think the house would go on the market for around $300,000? Right. Okay, all right. I think they could probably list it for, you know, $330,000 after it's all said and done. Okay, that's what I was asking for. Maybe coming away with two cents.

So what other debts have they got? Okay, they have probably around $44,000 in credit card debt. Okay, what else? That's it. They own their car? They own their car, yes. They have an older vehicle that's been paid for. One?

Just one vehicle. Okay, and what is their income? Okay, they're both retired. He's 75 1⁄2,'s 66 and a half. Their income is basically Social Security, his Social Security, her Social Security, and then they have an annuity that pays them payments monthly, which the total of all three is $3,763. How much is in the annuity? The annuity they get payments from, I don't know a whole lot about this, but I saw a paperwork

that said as of the end of December of last year, the balance was $64,504. Okay. So basically we have $100,000 in equity, we have $64,000, and we have versus a $44,000 debt. And they don't make enough income to pay their house payment. That's how they've gone into credit card debt. Their house payment is a little over $1,000. By the time they pay both their house payments, $200,000 worth debt cannot be supported on three thousand dollars a month correct that's how they got into credit card debt because they're paying their house payment and then they use credit cards

to live exactly exactly i figured out they probably they have around forty five hundred dollars of expenses so they're in the hole they're in the hole. They're in the hole. A couple of grand a month, which is $24,000 a year, is going to be added to this credit card debt until they go bankrupt. If they don't stop. They're in a death spiral. Mathematic death spiral. Okay.

So the house is gone. They can't afford it. Right. Can't afford it. and no reverse mortgage will touch it because reverse mortgage only makes a loan of 55 to 60 percent of the value of the equity and that's they don't have any equity if you put apply that figure to it so besides that reverse mortgages are horrible but aside from that so we're selling the house and uh i. Where do they live in Chicago? We're actually about an hour outside Chicago in Indiana, Crown Point, Indiana. Good.

Okay. So there's a chance we find them a little condo for $100. I've been looking into that. That's very hard to do. I know. I know. But it's just, I mean, here's the thing. So you're not opposed to getting another mortgage on something small? I don't want them to have a mortgage.

They don't make any money. They have a $3,000 income. They can't afford a mortgage. I mean, I, you know. And they got $44,000 in credit card debt. So I will take their $100,000 equity and buy them something if I can pay cash for it. But otherwise, I'm going to pay off their credit card debt and let them rent.

Okay. Because I do not want them back in a mortgage again. And I hate to cash out this one asset, this annuity, although it probably sucks. Yeah. But if you cash it out it's probably

going to have taxes on it hey jump online and get with one of our smart investor pros and unpack that annuity with them and see if you can get up get them out of it if you can get them out of it and clear the credit card debt i would rather than be in a paid for house with almost no money and be debt free credit cards and everything, a paid-for condo. And I would liquidate that annuity. I would liquidate that house. I'd pay off the credit card debt, and I'd buy something for cash with what the cash was left

and try to leave $10,000 in an emergency fund, and they're 100% broke with a paid-for condo of some kind and a $2,000 a month income to live on, and they make it out on that. Okay, so you do think they should get rid of it, cash out this annuity? Possibly. That's why I said you need to sit down with a smart investor pro. I don't know what the implications of that are, because without getting into unpacking the entire annuity on the air,

which I'm not going to do. We've already unpacked their entire situation on the air. So just sit down with somebody and look at that. That's a possibility. But I can just tell you 100%, they can't afford this this house there's no scenario in the mathematics you gave me here where they afford this house unless you guys write them a check for you know 100 000 bucks or something if you got an extra 100 grand laying around maybe they keep their house you pay off the credit card debt you pay down the mortgage you pay off that second mortgage maybe they can

make it on the first mortgage but um unless you got 100 grand you can throw at this they don't keep this house and it's just that they've already spent all the money because basically that they were just they were asleep at the wheel financially and um the credit card debt is not because they were irresponsible it's because they had a burn rate above their income and they've been covering the burn rate for existence that's what's going on here mathematically it's so hard to work through these things though because tina because it's just so emotional you love your parents and you wanted good stuff for them just like you love your kids and you want good stuff for them and the sad story is unless somebody's got some money to throw at this, there's not going to be a really super wonderful fireworks going off financial happy ending to this.

It's going to be a struggle all the way through because of their ages and their incomes, and that's where they are. So that's the thing. Hey, thanks for the call. Guys, did you know if you invest $100 a month from age 30 to age 70, you're going to have around a million dollars in your mutual funds and your 401K? $100. Some of you spend that at freaking Taco Bell.

$100. $100. And you don't have to have this phone call with your daughter that this lady just called. A hundred thousand dollars, how much it would change that situation? One hundred thousand, one tenth of that,

how much it would change that whole situation I'm just talking about. They probably wouldn't have gotten in a couple of these things. But, you know, you cannot spend all you make all your life and end up anywhere except dependent on social insecurity. And it's tough to live on social insecurity. It's not enough money. It was never intended to be a retirement plan.

It was intended to be a supplement to your retirement plan. And when you don't have a retirement plan, it's your whole retirement plan. I mean, you're on the Alpo budget. It's not good, y'all. It's such a sad situation that Tina's facing. When it's your mom and dad, it breaks your heart. And that's where Tina is. And she kind of, like she said, she just discovered this. So they've kind of, from their shame, have hidden it all these years. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America. Charles is on the line in Washington, D.C. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Charles.

Thanks, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Great to hear. I'm currently in baby step number three. I'm single with a long-term girlfriend and need help figuring out if saving for a down payment should be my main priority as I start to move into the next stage of my life. Okay. Well, it just depends on how quick you want to buy a house. Yeah, it's a good question. I don't know. I've started to save and have about $35,000 saved up

for a down payment, but honestly, I don't even know, have a plan on when I want to buy a house. Right. Okay. Then it would be okay to stop now and start your retirement savings and come back. And then when you get ready and you do have a plan, then you come back and stop your retirement, restart your Baby Step 3B when you're ready, and add to the $35 the 35 at that point. Today, just piling it up to pile it up with no plan, I wouldn't do that. Okay.

So I currently save about 6% towards retirement, but I guess that's where I'm at. I mean, maybe it's a time where I can, like you say, just maybe raise my retirement and cut back on what I'm contributing to the house until I start getting closer to that time where I actually want to buy. Yeah, until you can see into the distance where that is. And so, you know, one scenario that might play out that would be sort of typical would be that the serious girlfriend becomes a fiancé, becomes a wife, and, you know, that process of engagement and all that kind of stuff, getting married, all that might take a year or two somewhere in there.

I don't know. A year anyway. And then, you know, then a year after you buy after you're married, you would buy. And so once once that timeline, if that timeline did occur, once it's kind of set, then you can kind of judge, OK, I need to stop my retirement again and really lay into this because I'm going to want to pay off her debt, and we're going to want to buy a house, and we're going to want to do these other things, and you would temporarily put the retirement on hold to pull all that off again. But today, it's so vague. I think $35,000 is a good start, but when this starts getting dialed in and you've got

more of a direct timeline, then that will inform you with the math. You just back into the math of how much you want to save at that point. Yeah, no, that's great advice. I guess really the issue is me kind of pushing it to that next level with my girlfriend, right? But we're both debt-free right now, and I think the future looks bright. Okay. Yeah, I mean, and I'm not trying to push you. I'm just saying, you know, whenever you're ready to do that and you guys say, okay, now there's a ring on her finger, okay, we're getting married on this date,

and about a year after that we're going to want to buy. And so, you know, based on that, we're going to stop the retirement and add into this $35,000. And that's probably the way this will play out. It would be a normal way for it to play out. There's nothing wrong if it played out differently. Let's say that you guys didn't get married, and you're not dating anymore, and you're a single guy, and you want to buy a house.

Well, you could do the same thing. You say, I'm going to set the date out here to buy a house, and I'm temporarily going to stop this. But once you know your date certain for whatever reason that's then how you can kind of back into your math and the direction you would go so hey thanks for the call man and good luck with that open phones at 888-825-5225 michael's in charlotte hey michael how are you hey dan how are you i'm good. I had a quick question. Okay. So I'm 18 years old.

I make about $8,000 a month, and I have about closer to $10,000 saved, and I'm looking at buying a house. Do you think it would be better to get a foreclosure and just fix it up or put 20% down on one in the future and take a 15-year mortgage out? A foreclosure you would have to finance as well, correct? If I waited about two or three months, I have about $30,000 I could put towards it, I would say, roughly. Oh, so you would buy a small, cheaper-type house that's foreclosed. Or you could buy a small, cheaper-type house that isn't foreclosed, either one.

So the difference is whether to buy an expensive house or a cheap house. Okay, I got you. I got you. Okay. And what are you doing for a living? I do sales, sales and construction. Good for you. Well done.

You're bringing in some money, man. Very well done. And you're debt-free? Yes, sir, 100%. And ahead of my bills. Okay. Do you have an emergency fund? Yes, sir, 100%. And ahead of my bills. Okay. Do you have an emergency fund other than this $10,000 saved? I have about $4,000.

Okay. I want you to have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Are you living on your own or at home? I'm living at home, but I pay most of my stuff myself. Okay. So if you were to move out and into a house that you bought, what would be your expenses and kind of run your budget out? And you need three to six times that as your rainy day fund in addition to purchasing the house.

And then if I'm 18, by then maybe 19 years old, yeah, I think saving up and paying cash for a little house to get you started would be great. You're probably going to turn around and sell that house and use it for the down payment on the house that you buy later. But you can make some money on it. And obviously, you're not afraid of work. And you can get in there and clean it up and turn it into some equity in it. I love that idea. Be very, very careful.

Go slow. Don't get fever on buying something. But yeah, you save up and pay cash for a little property and get you started over and above your emergency fund. I think that's an awesome plan, and I definitely would do that in your situation. Hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thanks for being here. Troy's in New York City.

Hey, Troy, how are you? Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a question. I am tired of living paycheck to paycheck. I need your help on clearing this up. Okay. Well, there's really two things that affect that, the income and the outgo, right? Yeah. So how much debt do you have? In total, I would say $38,000. Okay. On what? Student loans, car payment, personal loan, and two credit cards. What do you owe on your car?

I owe $2,400. $2,400. What do you owe on your credit cards? That would be about $6,000. Okay. And so you've got a pretty substantial student loan then around $20,000 or so. Yeah, $23,000. Gotcha. Okay. Cool.

And what's your income? Last year, $85,000. Okay. And I assume you're renting? Yes. how much is your rent 600 that's a deal in new york city i still live with family oh okay all right how old are you 26 okay cool all right well you make good money and you don't have a lot of personal overhead, what it takes you to eat and get by. And so it sounds like more than anything, you've got to get just really intentional with these dollars. That's called a budget, giving every dollar an assignment before the month begins. Because right now, your money's just going back out the door like it's on fire or something, man.

Exactly, exactly. You're spending money like you're in Congress or something. I don't know where it's going. But, I mean, you make $85,000 a year. You have $600 rent in New York City. You ought to be debt-free $30,000 out of $85,000. What? In under a year.

And not have a payment in the world. But you're just going to have to really make that your focus rather than, focus rather than partying or whatever it is you're doing with this money. I don't know where it's going. But you need to sit down and do a written game plan where, okay, this is my check here coming in. This is how many dollars I have coming in this coming month. And just start this coming month and say, all right, that month, here's what's going to come in, and here's what I'm going to do with it. You give each dollar a mission, each dollar an assignment.

And the easiest way to do that is the EveryDollarBudget tool, which is free to use. And just jump on. It's our budgeting tool that's absolutely incredible. Takes you about 10 minutes to put together your budget. And you can do it on your iPhone or your Android or on your desktop, whatever you want to do. And just jump on EveryDollar.com and download the apps for your phone or desktop, whatever you want to do, and just jump on everydollar.com and download the apps for your phone or whatever, wherever you want to keep it. But I want you to make every dollar behave.

I don't want you to wonder where all this money went anymore. And as soon as you do that, you're going to have this smack yourself in the forehead moment where you go, wow, where's all this money going? You're going to feel like you've got to raise. Those numbers will shame you, and you're going, crap, I've got to do better. I mean, it's going to give you that wake-up call, that cold water in the face thing, and then you're going to do better. So the good news is you've got a good income.

You don't have a lot of overhead, and so you ought to be able to attack this and make your money behave and really get some sense of traction sense of power about this this is the dave ramsey show Adam is with us in Boston. Hi, Adam. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How was your weekend? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Well, I had a question for you. My beautiful wife and I have $210,000 in student loan debt. And I was wondering if we should sell our home and pay it all off. Who's the doctor or lawyer? Good question. My wife is. Okay. What's her income? Well, we recently had a child, so it's part-time right now.

So she's about $70,000. She's a doc? Yeah, optometrist. Okay. So will she be going back to work? Yeah, probably another half, another six months. Okay. And so what will her income be going forward? What's her normal year working? About a hundred. And what do you make? 130. Okay. So you have a $230,000 income at that point. Well, there would be no need to sell your house unless you just don't like it.

No, we do like it, but it's just that the student loan debt is just so high. Yeah, well, $230,000, you ought to be able to pay off $210,000 in two years. Okay. Are you living on your income now with her working part-time? Mostly, yeah. Yeah. So let's mostly live on your income when she goes back to work and apply 100% of hers to the debt, which is $100,000 a year for two years.

Isn't that $200,000? Yes. You're debt-free for two years, isn't that $200,000? Yes. You're debt-free in two years and some change? Yeah, if we were able to do that, if we were able to commit that much of our income to the debt. Why would you not? Well, it's just tough. We recently had a child. I'm saying when she's back at work full-time, if you have a $230,000 household income,

why can you not make it on $130,000, which you're making it on now? Because we're just scraping by now. So you're trying to get out of debt. You have a $210,000 problem. It's a big problem. It's going to require out of debt. You have a $210,000 problem. It's a big problem. It's going to require some scraping by. Right, yeah. You're scraping by on $130,000.

Yeah. You just said that out loud. We're not desperate. Yeah, I know. Yeah. What's your house payment? I have an adjustable rate mortgage, and so if you include property taxes, it's $2,200 a month. Okay.

So here's the thing. You're probably not going to pay this debt off anytime soon unless you all decide that it is a big problem i've talked to you two minutes and it's a bigger problem to me than it is to you so when you all decide that if you decided like if we don't pay this debt off in two years our child is going to die i mean if you get really that's obviously absurd that's not going to happen? But if you just decided this really freaking matters, I need to – you weren't getting ready to sell your house to pay this debt off. So give up two years of your frou-frou lifestyle and pay off your student loan debt.

Get mad about it. I would rather give up two years of my frou-frou lifestyle and be debt-free and keep my house than sell my house and then just continue on spending like I'm in Congress or something. But you're going to have to get serious about this, and it's going to matter to you more than it matters now, or you're not going to do it. Cassandra is with us in Lansing, Michigan. Hi, Cassandra.

How are you? I'm good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a question. We are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a question. We are just starting Baby Step 3, and I'm feeling the pressure of college for three children. I bet.

I have one in college now doing the nursing program. Good. And she's been working hard. She pays for a portion of it we cash flow debt doing baby steps to helping her out good good for you thank you i have a senior in high school well he'll be a senior this fall so obviously gonna have to help him and then two years after him i have another child what's your household income 150 okay You're probably delaying retirement a little bit because these are coming at you pretty fast. There's four or five things to remember when planning for college.

The number one reason people go into student loan debt is they go to a college they can't afford. Number one problem is college selection so we select a school for the remaining two kids that is affordable in-state tuition maybe even the first year or two at the community college to knock out the core curriculum stuff and then transfer make sure that transfers before you do it over to the in-state tuition school okay and um that that's a good, inexpensive way to do that. So number one problem with students, number one thing causing student loan debt is people go to colleges they can't afford. Right.

And you've got a good household income, but you've got three kids coming at you. This is going to be really tight around there for a little while. Are they all three going to be in there at one time? No. The nurse will graduate. No, two at a time. Yeah, the nurse will graduate. They'll be graduating in two years. Yeah, you're going to be two, two, two. You're going to be in there at one time? No. The nurse will graduate. No, two at a time. Yeah, the nurse will graduate. They'll be graduating in two years.

Yeah, you're going to be two, two, two. You're going to be two for, yeah. Okay. So college selection is the first thing. The second thing is just tell everybody plan on working while they're in school. You worked while you were in school. I worked while I was in school. That's not child abuse.

Right. And you don't have to do that if you're rich, but if you don't have any money, you've got to work. Right. And so I don't mean work flopping whoppers. I don't have to do that if you're rich, but if you don't have any money, you've got to work. Right. And I don't mean work flopping whoppers. I don't want to make minimum wage. I want to get a good job, like a nanny job where you can make $20 an hour or whether you walk dogs or cut grass or something where you make some money. Okay? Yeah.

My daughter, I got her a job at one of the local hospitals. Yeah. And she's making $16 an hour. Ding, ding. There you go. That's what I'm after. Exactly. Good for you.

And we did exactly that. We made her go to the local college and then transfer into the university for her bachelor's. Perfect, perfect. We're going to continue the program you've already started because it's very wise. Third thing is the taking of the ACT. Take a class on how to take it take the test take another class on how to take it take the test again most schools are now super scoring meaning they take your highest science score from your three tests your highest math score from your three tests or however many times you take the test

and they compose a super score that is your highest of all the different tests and that will help you big time not only on just getting admitted but also for applying for scholarships which is the fourth one and that's apply for scholarships it's like your young man's full your senior in high school this is his year he gets to apply for a thousand scholarships that's his new part-time job right now that's exactly what i told him okay Okay. One more question. Okay. Ever recommend you start doing retirement and baby step four? I was wondering if we should continue not putting into that until we maybe fund them a little bit better for the college. Yeah, I'm going to get the college lined up and have it in sites.

I think in three years you're going to get the college lined up and have it in sites i think in three years you're going to know how how much you can start putting towards retirement but you're probably got retirement on hold right now we and we've actually our retirement we've done pretty well with so we're okay well off there right now so if you stopped adding temporary if you stopped adding or lowered what you're adding temporarily to cash flow college and keep them out of student loan debt, that's a temporary measure. It's not a permanent thing. And this is not a frivolous purchase that you're engaging in your children's education. I mean, it's a big-time important purchase.

So you're doing really good. Everything you're describing to me is world-class. I mean, you've done good on your retirement you're in good shape the nurse you know there's went to community for they she went in and you know everybody's yeah but that's your big things and um obviously you're talking to them and thinking about it with them on their field of study which is also important, parenting, that you parent your youngster and guide them in a field of study that is reasonable. Not something they hate. I don't want them going in something because my daddy wanted me to go into it, but it needs to have some common sense application in the marketplace.

Don't go studying something that you can't get a job doing. I mean, it's a disaster. It's a waste of your education at that point, or largely a waste. Economically, it's a waste. You can say that for sure. You get other benefits from it, but it's not worth the money at that point, especially when you're fighting to get through it like you guys are. Well done.

You're doing really good, Cassandra. I think you're much further ahead of this than you think you are or feel like you are. Sounds like you got it on the run. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify? For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.