The Ramsey Show - App - Can I Buy a Porsche? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 5, 2020

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Music 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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Caleb starts off this hour in Oregon. Hi, Caleb. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks, Dave. My question for you is, last Thursday, somebody broke into our garage and stole a bunch of stuff.

And it turns out that it was the previous tenant and the complex didn't switch to locks. My question is, if this happened to you, what kind of response do you think the complex should have for this? I mean, we lost thousands of dollars and stuff. Some has been recovered, but it's in police evidence, and we can't get it back. Others, like our late grandfather's tools, have not been recovered. Wow. And how do you know that the locks were not, that this guy used a key? Because the, so it's the maintenance man's adult son that did it,

and they used to lease the tent or the garage, and the manager told me they didn't switch the locks. Manager told you. Yeah. All right. And did you have insurance? We do have ranger's insurance, but I don't know how it works because the stuff has been recovered, but the police are saying it could take until the case is settled before we can get anything back.

Okay. Well, you need to talk to your insurance company about filing a claim for sure. Well, I think I would sit down with the apartment manager and ask them uh how much of this they were planning to cover since this is their fault and you know we bought like 300 in security cameras since then and uh and our deductible is 500 on the renter's insurance so for sure you know it'll be 800 out of our pocket yeah but i mean I think they ought to start writing some checks. This is just straight-up negligence on their part. I think if you were to contact an attorney, the attorney would probably tell you you have an incredible case

for a bunch of recovery and probably some punitive. I mean, that's just absurd. Yeah, it was pretty frustrating. The last thing my pregnant wife needs to stress over is some scumbag coming into our place and taking stuff. Yeah. So the locks are changed now, right? Oh, yeah, they're changed now. Okay.

We actually caught the guy on camera stealing packages from someone else the next night. So it's just been a lot of fun. Right. So the guy, he's obviously in custody, I assume. i assume they haven't gotten yet he's been missing in action okay they'll get him because he's dumber than a rock okay um well yeah i think you sit down with the apartment manager and uh and or their superior and just say look i don't really want to sit down with an attorney but if you guys don't start getting really generous over this really fast i'm gonna have to see what my legal rights

are because this is absolutely asinine you are so liable that you really ought to be just writing me checks to keep me happy right now and you know you don't have to be a butt about it but i mean if i were on the other side of that if i were the landlord i would have already made you an offer because this is their fault i mean they screwed this up okay you know number one we got a maintenance man with a with a son who's a criminal and he and we didn't change the locks and he's a criminal, and we didn't change the locks. And a criminal has the key. Now, these are known things. They know this kid. They know that the scum kid had a key.

And they're so stinking lazy that they didn't bother to change the locks. That's just incompetence. Now, you can be nicer than that, but that's where this stands. So, yeah, I think the first thing I'd always do is always confront the person that you're dealing with, you know, and just say, listen, let's try to work this out because you're just obviously very liable. As you can imagine, we are really, really, really angry about this. But on top of that, we're out a bunch of money, and it's all your fault. And so you guys need to you need to cut you need to

make us whole right here and so i'm expecting you to cut me a check today for five thousand dollars to cover my trouble and my stuff that's gone and if you guys don't want to if you guys don't want to begin a discussion about that right now then that's going to force me to seek legal counsel and i don't really want to do that, but I'm very angry. This is ridiculous, and I'm not going to yell at you or cuss at you. You're just the manager. But this is not okay, and it's not going to go away without costing you some money because you're liable on this. And then just see what they say.

All right. If they offer you a couple grand, take it and move on and go on your way, because that's probably about all you're going to get after you fight about this. But I would, you know, if I were the landlord, I wouldn't give you $10,000, okay? But I would take care of your stuff that got stolen, and I'd make sure that, you know, the locks are changed and the cameras are done, because it's my fault, you know? and sometimes we do stuff that's our fault we don't mean for it to be but some people work for us aren't competent sometimes it's just your fault when that happens and you have to

take care of it so yeah i i would i would be pretty aggressive about it i'm not gonna be mean to somebody not yelling and cussing stomping my foot and don't even have to be unkind but you do need to be very very very direct and um and if they don't react to that and they say no we're not liable and say well i guess we'll have to find out and i would contact an attorney for some legal advice at that point tracy is with us in minnesota hi tracy how are you Dave. I'm well. Thanks for taking my call. I have a question about my mother-in-law's finances. We anticipate that she'll need long-term care in the next five or ten years. She doesn't have any long-term care insurance and doesn't qualify due to some medical problems. She has no debt, lives on Social Security and a pension.

She'll be 70 this summer. She has $40,000 in the bank. And I've read places where people start, for lack of a better word, taking that money and putting it in a separate account outside of her name so that when it comes to needing long-term care, it looks like she doesn't have any money and would therefore qualify for the Medicaid services. I don't want to be a weasel about it, but at the same time, if she were to qualify for long-term care now, she'd be put in private care, and then after a couple of months, her $40,000 would be gone. So we want to use wisdom, but I don't want to be a weasel about it.

She does not own the home she's living in? She does not. She lives in a 55-plus community based on her income. I see. Okay. And you all are not in, like, super great financial conditions yourself? We have about $15,000 left in Baby Step 2. Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay. So you're not multimillionaire that you can just start

writing long-term care checks. Okay. Someday. Well, maybe, you know, but for today you're not. Yeah. Okay. Today I'm not. Well, you can't do what you're talking about. A certain amount of cash is protected under the act for Medicaid, and it changes each each year i don't know what it is this year but any monies or assets that you transfer out of someone's name in order to qualify for medicaid falsely is called welfare fraud and they can look back to five years and undo it and they can criminally prosecute so it's not just weasel it's criminal and so but there's a certain amount of cash she can keep in her name. We've been voted one of the best places to work in Nashville 11 times.

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One hire can change the direction of your company. Post a job today at linkedin.com slash Ramsey and get $50 off your first job post. That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. every risky job begs the question should i use an expert or can i do this myself now sometimes it's really obvious you don't pull your own teeth right and if you know nothing about cars you take your car to a mechanic you don't diy this stuff right but sometimes it's not so clear are your taxes simple well if so you can get some good software and do them on your own right or if they're not so simple you should hire a pro because they probably will make you more than they cost you now there's definitely some scenarios that require

tax pro like if you own a small business got a lot of different sources of income then don't risk doing them yourself get an expert but sometimes it's close so here's a way to find out takes about five minutes go to Dave Ramsey dot com slash tax quiz and take our quick assessment Dave Ramsey dot com tax quiz. No reason to pay a bunch of money to have someone do taxes that are simple, but no reason to pay a bunch of money that you didn't need to pay because your taxes were too complicated and you try to do it yourself. I don't do my own taxes. I can promise you that. Sean is with us in Georgia. Hi, Sean. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Hey, my wife and I, we're in baby step three. My wife recently left a federal

government job and she contributed $5,600 to a retirement annuity. That was a requirement of working there. She can't take the distributions until she's 62, but we can apply for her to be refunded her contributions. And I guess my question is, when we apply to refund it, should we have it added to the emergency fund, or should we roll it into a Roth IRA? Well, you can't roll it unless they will allow you to do a lump sum. And a lump sum distribution is different than a refund.

Now, they do have an option to roll it over to an IRA. Well, that would keep you from having to pay taxes on it. If you take it out, you're going to end up with taxes and penalties. It's post-tax. It's not just a regular 401K. It's post-tax. Oh, so there's no taxes and penalties. It's post-tax. It's not just a regular 401K. It's post-tax. Oh, so there's no taxes or penalties. Correct.

Oh, I would just take it out then and use it for your emergency fund. Wonderful. Yeah, just wherever you are on the baby steps. It sounds like that's where you are, right? Yes, it is. Okay. Yeah, you're on baby step three, finishing your emergency fund. Any money you can get your hands on without taxes and penalties,

I would get my hands on and do that with it. Absolutely, I'd do that. Hey, thanks for the call. Steve is with us, and Steve is in California. Hi, Steve. How are you? Good afternoon, Dave. The situation is that my wife and I are both in our upper 30s,

two kids aged 7 and 5. Right now, in terms of life insurance, we only have what we have through our employers. And I'm looking to expand and get into an additional life insurance policy. The situation is that my father-in-law is an insurance salesperson and is really kind of pushing us towards whole life variable annuity products, saying that he feels that for our situation, term doesn't really make sense. It's just kind of throwing money away when you can get a return when you have a whole life policy. He just kind of wanted to get your opinion on how to handle this.

Well, the answer to the question is very simple but the relationship is not exactly yeah and we've had a situation in the past when we had bought our house and got homeowner's insurance and had just bought it online and he wasn't exactly happy that we didn't at least go through him to try to get that. Our relationship is fine otherwise. It's just kind of that situation of not going through him would not be very comfortable. Well, the problem is that he sells crap. That's the problem is that he sells crap. That's the problem. What he's recommending is horrible and is one of the worst financial products out there.

And so I would never do that. The answer to the question is I would buy inexpensive term insurance from a broker that is the best price on the market, like a Zander Insurance, and I would do my investing anywhere except inside of a stupid whole life policy. Because here's the problem. The whole life policy, of course, is about 10 times, 15 times more expensive than term insurance, and the difference all goes into a savings account called cash value, whether it's universal life or whole life or index universal life or whatever, it goes into this cash value. And the cash value has a very poor

rate of return. It doesn't build at all for the first several years, meaning they keep 100% of your savings as fees. And then when it does finally grow, it grows at a horrible rate of return. But the worst part is when you die, you only get the insurance. They keep your savings that you paid extra to create. And so if you've got a $100,000 whole life policy with a $20,000 cash value and you die, you've paid a lot of money in extra above the cost of insurance to create that $20,000 savings. And when you die, your wife gets $100,000. Keep the $20,000.

It's ridiculous. And so it's a horrible product. But that's, you know, you're going to have all, you can't just say that to your father-in-law. I wouldn't to anybody else. It makes me wonder. Yeah, I wouldn't. It makes me wonder.

It's just what he's been trained to sell that. Oh, of course he has. Of what he's been trained to sell that. Oh, of course he has. Of course he's been trained to sell it. And there's only two kinds of whole life insurance agents, ones that don't understand how bad it is and ones that understand how bad it is and sell it anyway. And I suspect he just drank the life insurance company Kool-Aid and never has sat down and looked at it

and really understood how bad a product it is. Here's the thing. No one in the entire financial world sells that crap except agents that sell that crap. Financial planners don't. Brokers don't. No one, no guru like me that's on their air, no one tells you to buy that. You can't find a single person except people that sell it that believe in it that's how bad it is it's not like it's up for

debate it's just bad so now having said all that how do you handle your father-in-law with a boundaries issue because you've just got to be kind and gentle and not call him a crook right and yet somehow let him know you're not going to be buying that, that you've done research and you know, you don't, you don't go along with that. Um, you know, my father-in-law who is one of the sweetest, most wonderful men on the planet often votes wrong, but we get along anyway. You know what I'm saying? He thinks I vote wrong.

But he's not going to talk me into voting on that side, and I'm not going to talk him into voting on the other side. So we just love each other anyway. And maybe you can draw that line with this and just say, you know what? I love you. You're my father-in-law, and I want to respect you and so forth. But I am not comfortable with this product line, and it's not the direction we're going to go,

and you're just going to have to be okay with that. Just like if he were a Republican and you said, I'm going to vote Democrat, you're just going to have to be okay with that. I love you, but we just disagree on this, you know? And if he can't, then he has boundary issues, right? But you're not going to get in a debate with him because you can't win the debate. Here's why. If he wins the debate, you just have to buy some bad insurance. If you win the debate, he has to quit his job or be a crook.

And he's not, you don't want to win that debate. Let him come to those conclusions by himself. So I would just say be kind and firm and smile and make sure you and your wife are on the same page. Because this is her dad, right? And just go, you know, I don't, I really want to do this in a way that doesn't hurt your feelings because I love you. But I just don't agree with you on this product line. And I'm not going to go that way. And I hope you can understand that. and I hope you can respect my decision, just like I respect your decision to continue to sell stuff that I don't agree with.

And we'll just have to be okay with that. And, you know, I still love you, and you can still love me. But if he wants to, it's probably one of the most difficult relational positions you can be in where you are right now. If it was your brother, you'd just tell him to jump in the creek, you know? But your father-in-law is tough, right? That's hard. So it's a very difficult relational thing to walk along and be kind and yet firm and draw clear boundaries. But no, I wouldn't buy that crap.

Not a chance I'd buy it. Not under any circumstances. It's garbage. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. If you do this one simple thing that we all do, you are literally at risk of being hacked and someone stealing what you've worked so hard for. Do you ever use public Wi-Fi? I'm talking about getting online at a coffee shop, a store, the airport, or even at home. Hackers can use a simple $100 device to mimic Wi-Fi, and with just a little bit of skills, they can take over your financial life. This means you may think you're on your bank's site or app

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Download it today from your app store and be secure in seconds. Thank you for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Kayla is with us in Tennessee. Hi, Kayla. Welcome to the show. Hey, Mr. Ramsey. It's an honor to speak with you. You too.

What's up? Hey, I have a quick question. So tomorrow, my husband and I are paying off our last student loan payment. Yay! And never paid off a student loan before, so I want to make sure I'm doing this right. Should we call the company and do our last payment and make make sure they're closing our account or should we just go ahead and do the online payment and be done with it online payment should be okay that should wrap it up and then you can follow up the next week and make sure the account is closed up

but it should show it paid in full as soon as you do the submit button okay so no no documentation or anything from the you should you shouldn't need any. If you want to hit a screenshot or something and just save your screen that shows zero, that wouldn't be a bad idea. But I have not heard of student loans growing back after they were paid off. I've not heard anything like that. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Congratulations.

How much have you paid off total? Total, oh, gosh. This is, well, our student loan is $39,000. We paid off our car is $29,000. And we've got about $80,000 left on our house. I was actually paying that off before I got married. So we'll start back on the house after the loan. You're doing great.

Well done. Very, very well done. Thomas is with us in Alabama. Hi, Thomas. How are you? Good, sir. It's a pleasure to speak with you. You too.

What's up? I move every few years with my job, and I had this mentality that mortgage debt was a good idea. About a year ago, me and my wife got introduced to your plan and we went through the steps. We went through the first step and I paid all my debt off in the second step. The third step, we built up our emergency fund, but I still have about $300,000 in mortgage debt. And I don't live in any of the homes I actually rent now to try to save money. But I was wondering, do I attack this mortgage debt with the debt snowball? Or we're just kind of at an impasse. I don't know if I should start my 401k and start putting

money towards that and then throw the rest at the mortgage debt but since i'm not living in the home i didn't know which way to attack it you only own one property i own three sir three okay all right how much equity is in them um probably about 50 to 60 thousand dollars between all of them so you're not got much wiggle room in these things no with the cost of selling i would maybe break even yeah and you're not making much wiggle room in these things? No, with the cost of selling, I would maybe break even. Yeah, and you're not making much money on them either? No, it's about $7,000 a year. Yeah, plus or minus no repairs, plus or minus no vacancy. So you're not making much money on them? Yes, sir.

Yeah. I just sell them. They're not a blessing. on them? Yes, sir. Yeah. I just sell them. They're not a blessing. They're a reliability. Okay. So you would just liquidate them all? Yeah. You're not making any money on them.

Okay. Why keep them? They just represent risk, really, because they're not cash flowing. I mean, they're not really making any big money. And, you know, if you had a $10,000 or $15,000 item hit one of them, you're negative all of a sudden. You've got to put a roof on one or you've got to heat and air on two of them or something.

I mean, you can real easy get into negative on these things. You don't have much wiggle room in them. And so, yeah, I would just get rid of them. That's an easy way of looking at it. I love real estate, but I don't want real estate that's leveraged like that. It's not fun. I want at it. I love real estate, but I don't want real estate that's leveraged like that. It's not fun. I want wiggle room. Lots of wiggle room.

Margin, baby. Margin. Tony's in Texas. Hi, Tony. How are you? Wonderful, Dave. Thank you for everything you do. My wife and I have been following your advice for a number of years.

Consequently, our house has paid off. We're totally out of debt. Way to go. Thank you very much. We've been living debt-free for about, God, 8, 10 years probably. What's your net worth? I would say I've got $1.4 million in an IRA. I've got about $70,000 in my company's 401K.

I'm still working right now. The house, they say it's about $70,000 in my company's 401k. I'm still working right now. The house, they say it's about $150,000 in real estate, what I pay on taxes and stuff. Or what they say I've got to pay taxes. So my question is, everything's paid for. Everybody's happy. I've got $1.4 million. But I'd like to buy me a Porsche since I'm 60 and I'm thinking about retiring, but the government says if I take anything out, of course they're going to tax me.

How best can I do this? I've got probably a hot rod in the garage I could probably sell for about $30,000, and we've got about $60,000 in checking savings. So that's our current situation right now, and this is totally a toy for me. Nothing I have to do. It's just something I want to do. Okay. Well, I would have an emergency fund.

So how nostalgic is the hot rod in the garage? It's a 31 Model A. It's a customized Model A, so i could probably sell it for about 30 000 yeah i said how nostalgic is it how much are you tied to it emotionally oh nothing not at all okay it was just a goof off car okay exactly that's fun that's cool so it's a what year it's a 31 1931 ford model a i love it that's so cool man very neat and you can you can get 30 grand for that and you've got too much in your checking and savings you don't need a 60 000 emergency fund do you no it's just not for everything emergency yeah what's your emergency

fund what should your emergency fund be three to six months of expenses three months of expenses three months of expenses i would say probably about maybe 10 000 around there yeah say 15 or something and you got 60 in there so that's 45 and 75 so how much is the porsche uh 130 I would bank about $130,000. Okay. And what's your household income? It's about $140,000 to $160,000 depending. I'm in sales, so it depends on bonuses. I got you. Okay. If I were in your shoes, I would use the hot rod money and the money down to $15,000 out of the emergency fund that's bloated, and then I'd pull the balance out of your 401K. Would you say and take a loan against the 401K?

No, no, I'd just pull it out. I'd just pull it out. Just pay taxes on it. You don't have a penalty on it. You're over 59 1⁄2. You're going to have to pay taxes on it. And so, you know, you need about $70,000, it sounds like, give or take. And so you're going to be pulling about $100,000 out.

You're going to pull about $100,000 out of there. Okay. But I would definitely do that. All right, then. That solves that question. I was just wondering. I didn't know what the taxes would be. I always hear about taxes, so I always, like, feared that.

Well, whatever your tax rate is is what it'll be. I'm just guessing probably $30, on you know on 100 would in taxes and that leaves you 70 to put with the other money we've got to get the porsche and that's that's fine so because the court the porsche is a very very small percentage of your net worth it is a new car and yet you are millionaires almost two millionaire actually in your total net worth and uh so you you hit all the right things to have earned this car and uh to enjoy it and which which Porsche are you looking at the 911 okay new 2020 911 okay that's a beast it's a wonderful car yes absolutely hey man enjoy it you've worked your butt off. Did you start

out with money? Did you inherit a bunch of money? No, out of high school, I was digging ditches. I was one of those, you don't pay attention to school, you're going to dig ditches. Well, that was me. So I worked my way up through a ditch crew on a plumbing company and eventually became a plumber, realized that was too hard of work and started saving money for college. Took me about 10 years to graduate from college, but I did, and I've been in pharmaceutical sales ever since, and that's been about 25 years now. So that's where I'm sitting right now.

So you did not become worth $2 million due to inherited money. You earned every bit of it and saved it. Absolutely. Starting from a ditch digger coming out of high school. Good for you, man. My dad always said, save your money because you can't depend.

So that's what I did. There you go. Get you a Porsche. You earned it, everyday millionaire. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. our scripture of the day matthew 18 20 for where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them. Henry Ford said, coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress.

Working together is success. Shauna is with us in South Carolina. Hi, Shauna. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm doing well. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? I'm'm calling so my husband and i are finishing up baby step two um but my question is about three years ago before we you know got turned on to you um we bought a mobile home for our first house it's like a starter house with um intention to pay it off and rent it out. So knowing now how you feel about mobile homes, should I, I guess, should we go ahead and pay it off in Baby Step 2, being that, you know, it's not like a real house, or save it for Baby Step 6? Well, it's not a matter of how I feel about them.

That's not the point. The point is, is what's good for you guys, okay? And the problem with mobile homes is they go one way, down in value. Even if you got it paid off, it's going down in value. If you bought a $100,000 mobile home and you paid cash for it, it's going to be worth $50,000 in 20 minutes. And before you blink, it's going to be worth 50,000 in 20 minutes and before you blink it's going to be worth 10,000 right yeah yeah they go they go down in value 21 they go down in value you know and so

um the longer you own something that goes down in value the more money you lose do you understand so that that's the problem and so um know, how much do you guys owe on this? We paid, I think we owe about 50 on it now. Yeah. I think the sooner you get it sold, the better. Okay. I guess we go ahead and sell it now. Yeah.

Because here's the thing. If you own it five more years, okay, it's going to be worth $25. True. Okay. So now my question to that is, we obviously can't sell it for the $50-something we owe on it. We make enough money that it could easily be paid off in the next year and a half, two years, if we keep trucking on it like we make enough money that it could easily be paid off in the next year and a half two years um if we keep trucking on it like we have the balance or the difference the balance okay

uh well if you sold it you'd be dead for even sooner than that if you borrowed the difference i mean what would it sell for that i'm not sure i own some land i could put with it that would probably make up the difference um that would just require me selling the property as well do you want to sell a property not particularly but it would make it easier okay sure all right well it would give you a clean slate and you know if you can make it break even and get out of there and then buy a house that's going up in value and then pay that off. Okay, that's probably our best course of action.

That's the way that 10 years from today you end up with the most money. Okay. That's what it amounts to. And so let's pretend, how many acres are you on now? It's about four acres. Okay. let's pretend how many acres are you on now it's about four acres okay let's pretend you found a nice home traditionally built home on a five acre track that you could buy for 150 000 and you put that on a 15 year fixed and you sold the one you've got for and you break even and just

get out no you don't have to write a check but you don't get money when you sell the current acreage you have and the and the thing and then you turn around you pay off the 150 000 home very very very quickly because you're able to do that you've obviously got a great income you can pay off 50 fast you can pay off 150 you know fast and so then 10 years from today you're sitting on something that's going up in value instead of something that's going down in value, and all that time you've been on a better property anyway. Okay. Yeah.

Definitely think that sounds like a good idea. We hadn't quite put it together that makes a lot of sense. Thank you. It's just the problem is I'm afraid this 50 is going to turn into 25 before you blink. Mm-hmm. And I don't want it to go that way any further on you. And that's the problem I've got with these things. So, hey, thanks for the call.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. I've got a friend of mine who's in the mobile home manufacturing business. He's like, Dave, quit trashing us. And I'm like, I'm not trashing you. I'm just saying, I'm just looking at facts. And I'm not mad about it it's not like i'm a snob about i'm too good to live in a trailer or something like that that's not the point the point is is it goes down in value and you know the the purpose of this show is help

people get more money not less and so if you took seventy five thousand dollars and bought a you know a tiny little starter home in most areas, in some areas you could get it for that, versus $75,000 in a trailer and a double-wide, 10 years later that $75,000 home is worth whatever, $100,000, $100,000-something, and 10 years later that $75,000 trailer is worth $25,000. And that's just the way it works. They don't go up in value.

So it's the same $75,000. So that's why we talk about this stuff this way. So good question. I appreciate you joining us. Jennifer is with us in Louisiana. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave.

Thanks for taking my call. I appreciate it. Sure. What for taking my call. Appreciate it. Sure. What's up? Okay, quick question. I've got, I have two, well, actually I have three sons, but two of them are in college, and we've accumulated about $96,000 in student loans. Who's we?

Well, me and my ex-husband. Well, you know, they, we did the student loans for me and my ex-husband. Well, you know, we did the student loans for me and my ex-husband. So you owe the money. It's not in your kid's name. Right. I'm the borrower. It's a Parent PLUS loan. Okay.

Right, right. So what we want to do, years ago we bought some land, and we were going to use the timber to pay for our kids' college. So whenever we divorced, then I started doing the student loans. And then recently I just realized, because he used to take care of all this stuff, but then I just recently realized that we were being charged like 6.25 to 7.5% interest on these ever since 2014 when these loans started. So I want to get those, you know, I tried, you know, I thought about consolidating them and getting a cheaper interest rate, but then, you know, we decided, well, we, you know,

it might be best just to go ahead and pay those off. So I've got... You have money to pay them off or are you going to sell the timber now no well i mean we just we just cut timber a couple years ago and he my ex-husband reimbursed himself for the portion that he paid for my oldest son's college but um so we won't have another cut on that land you know for probably about another two or three years i do have, you know, in stocks and stuff, I've got probably about $520,000 right now. And then in an emergency fund savings account, I've got about $60,000. How much are the student loans? Well, it's $96,000, and we were going to split it, $40,000, $40,000 apiece.

Have you got both of your names on all of them yes my name is on all of them as a borrower okay and your ex husband is willing to put in his 45 yes because that's what we've agreed good and right now he'll put it in right now so has he got the money to put in his 45 right now yes he does good pay it off tomorrow okay pay it off tomorrow this was stupid you need to get it out of your life as soon as possible yeah i just didn't know you know i was kind of worried about i wouldn't be worried about anything i'd be worried about being attached to my ex-husband at the hip for $96,000. Pay it off tomorrow. You got the money in your checking account to pay your part.

Right, yeah. And, I mean, I guess that's all. It's hard to let go of that money when I'm trying to save. You have $500,000 in stocks. Why is it hard to let go of $45,000? I understand. I guess it's kind of a fear thing it's i'd be afraid of what you're doing because it's stupid it was stupid to do it in the first place and it's been really stupid to let it go on this long i'll get that crap paid

off tonight write the checks tonight both you and him that gets him out of your world. Good Lord, he's your ex-husband. That's the point. My goodness, no way. Well, that puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace,

and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Spotify, Pandora, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.