The Ramsey Show - App - Challenging Items on Your Credit Bureau Report (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 19, 2018

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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 am 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. That's 888-825-5225.
Starting point is 00:01:06 If you didn't know, almost 51% of the schools, the high schools in America today, teach our high school curriculum on personal finance called Foundations in Personal Finance. So there is a ton of high school juniors and seniors and a few sophomores out there. Millions of them literally have graduated now from that curriculum over the years. Occasionally, we get one of the teachers like Mr. Ridenour over in Oklahoma at Cowett High School, who's teaching the class. Thank you, Mr. Ridenour. And one of the students calls in, and that's what we've got. Josiah is one of the students, and he's there in Oklahoma. Hi, Josiah.
Starting point is 00:01:35 How are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So we were sitting in our PSL class, and we saw that you had your live show going on, so we decided to jump in and watch, and we had the crazy idea to call and see if we could get on here and talk to you about some stuff.
Starting point is 00:01:53 Okay. How can I help? Well, we collectively came up with a few questions, but we narrowed it down to one, and I think the one question that everyone is wondering is, is college worth attending? Is college worth attendance? The short answer is yes. It is worth attendance. I believe in college. I believe in education.
Starting point is 00:02:15 And from a monetary standpoint, what you pay out, you will gain back. But the downside of college is two things. One is that we have told people for so long to go to get a college degree because that's how you're successful that people started to believe that a college degree causes success. A college degree does not cause you to be successful. Your own perseverance, your own grit, your own scratching and clawing, your own caring about your job, your own becoming better and better and continually learning. These are the things that cause you to become successful. The college degree is simply one of the tools in your belt that helps you to do that. The second thing about college is that you need to be careful what you pay for it.
Starting point is 00:03:02 Because what we're talking about here is you said is it worth it meaning if i pay out a certain amount of money am i going to get that much and more back that would make it worth it now so what you have to do is limit how much you pay out so are some colleges worth what they charge no they're not they're overpriced blown up and an ego puffed up with their name and nobody gives a rip where you went to school all they give a rip is do you know how to do stuff and do you do it that's all they care about and so you know no not all college is worth it and if you get a degree in something stupid like left-handed puppetry or you go get some nuanced degree because you want to study dandelions or something, and that's your only thing.
Starting point is 00:03:48 I have a Ph.D. in picking dandelions. You're going to be broke your whole freaking life, and you should be because you're stupid. So instead, get a degree that is actually usable around your passions in the marketplace and that adds knowledge to and makes you more valuable. So an example would be, in my case, I have a finance degree, a business degree. In that process, I learned a lot of accounting. I learned a lot of marketing.
Starting point is 00:04:15 I learned a lot of statistics. I learned a lot of those kinds of things. I use those things every day running this business, every day. My college degree was very, very valuable to me in running this business every day my college degree was very very valuable to me in running this business did it cause me to be successful no did where i go to school cause me to be successful no not even close did the fraternity that i joined or didn't join cause me to be successful no so you, that's not worth it. But, you know, if you study something like that,
Starting point is 00:04:49 my son got a degree in business and marketing. One of my daughters got a degree in child and family studies, and she is in the ministry, which is perfect for her. Another one of my daughters got a degree in communications, Rachel, and she's a world-class speaker and communicator. So that made sense. It added value to their world. And so, yes, academics, being smarter than just having a high school degree, gives you an advantage, assuming you studied something that you're actually going to use
Starting point is 00:05:16 and you didn't overpay for it. A hundred percent, I would tell you to go to college. If I had a child that was a teenager right now, they would be virtually forced to go to college in a reasonable-priced place at a reasonable-studying degree if they lived in my house today. I believe in education. It gives you an advantage forward, but it is not what causes you to be successful. Do you see the difference, Josiah? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:43 Really good question coming from your class there. Thank you for narrowing it down to that. It's a great discussion because there's a lot of people running around saying now you don't need to go to college. College is done. The days of higher education are over. No, they're not. You know, being smart's a good thing. You know, being knowledgeable's a good thing.
Starting point is 00:06:01 Do you have to go to college to be successful? No. But, I mean, do you have to have to college to be successful no but i mean do you have to have a sharp tool on your belt to be successful no but it helps you know it helps it helps giving you you know and that's why i continue to read you know i've read a bazillion books on leadership that i didn't learn in college and so why because it helps i'm a better leader if i know more about leadership and so that's what comes into play here. So I am not on this bandwagon of no, college is too expensive,
Starting point is 00:06:30 and the student loan crisis is caused by the greedy colleges, and so we all ought to just boycott education and all be dumb. No, I'm not on that bandwagon. No, thank you. I think you ought to go to school. But I think you ought to pay cash for it. I think you ought to study something that's usable. And I think you ought to do it at a school that's not overpriced and uh and there's
Starting point is 00:06:49 plenty of them out there that do a great job that's not overpriced the university of oklahoma there's fine school nothing wrong with being an okie or a sooner either one it's all good so um you know that's what i would do if i were in your shoes dude good question thanks for giving me an opportunity to get up on my soapbox because I really do believe in education. I really don't believe that you have to take out a student loan. As a matter of fact, I can mathematically prove it to you that you don't have to take out a student loan to get an education. So you just got to decide on how you're going to get at this, boys and girls. That's neat.
Starting point is 00:07:21 Great, great great great so exciting that these teenagers now we've had so many millions of them go through this curriculum that now years later they get married and they come in here and they're 25 years old they're doing their debt-free scream and dave i took your stuff in high school that's pretty cool it's been going on that long but it's only recently that we've gotten a larger block of the high schools teaching this Foundations in Personal Finance. And by the way, if you're a school out there and you'd like to get this curriculum, get in touch with us. Even if you can't afford it, we'll go into the community and try to find someone to sponsor it for you and pay for it to bring it in there.
Starting point is 00:07:57 And if you're in a community and you want to sponsor this curriculum and put it in your high school, get in touch with us. We need the help because we're only in half the high schools. We've got the other half to go. And it's important that people learn these kinds of things, and they have great teachers like Mr. Roddenauer there at Coweta, I think I'm saying that right, high school in Oklahoma, Coweta, Oklahoma. So good stuff.
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Starting point is 00:09:43 or call 800-356-4282 it really is the best value out there zander.com or 800-356-4282 Thanks for joining us, America. Well, your time as a business owner is too valuable to waste. If you own your own business, every minute not spent working on the business costs you money. On average, business owners spend 120 hours a year working on their taxes. That's like three 40-hour work weeks, okay? Partnering with a tax pro gives you that time back. You delegate this, and then you go working on your business like you should, right?
Starting point is 00:10:49 To find the tax pros that we recommend in your area, particularly for small business, they can even help you with your bookkeeping and everything, go to DaveRamsey.com slash ELP and click on taxes, or just on the front page of the website. Look for the ELP taxes for tax prep and they can help you with your small business needs and let you get back to doing business what a neat idea open phones at 888-825-5225 jose is with us in miami hi jose how are you how are you doing sir better than i than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:11:26 I'm 20 years old. I live with my parents. I'm a dispatcher for the city I work for. I'm going to be a police officer soon. And my beater car is actually giving me some trouble. My parents have been kind of pushing me into getting a new car. But I'm really looking forward to the future. And at the age of 25, I want to buy a house. But I'm not sure what to do. Okay. Well, I don't know that you need a new car, but I'm really looking forward to the future. And at the age of 25, I want to buy a house, but I'm not sure what to do.
Starting point is 00:11:47 Okay. Well, I don't know that you need a new car. You just need a better car, right? I guess, yeah. Yeah. So what do you make now? I make roughly $2,120 a month. Okay. And you're getting ready to become a police officer, did you say?
Starting point is 00:12:05 Yes. In the next eight months to a year. Okay. I'll be joining the academy. Good for you. And what will that do for your income? It will increase substantially. While I'm in the academy, they'll be paying me a salary of around, I'd say like $48,000 a year. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I know that that's going gonna be a big boost and i was also
Starting point is 00:12:26 thinking that's a factor that'll be soon right okay well i mean what what i would tell you to do is have a plan to do all three things one is move out two is save for a house and three is buy a car cash you don't have any expenses right now you live at home right right You don't have any expenses right now. You live at home, right? Right. You don't have any debt, right? No, no debt. Okay. And so what's your current car worth if we sold it?
Starting point is 00:12:55 I'd say $3,000, but I have $12,000 in savings, and that's going to keep on going up because every paycheck I get, I only spend on what I need, and I put the rest into savings, which is roughly $1,000. Good for you. What would be wrong with buying a $9,000 car? Nothing wrong at all, actually. Okay. And write a check for it and trade your $3,000 in or sell your $3,000, one of the two. But that would take $6,000 of your savings.
Starting point is 00:13:22 You'd still have $6,000 in there. You can continue to pile up savings then. Okay, one thing down. Now we've just got to think about buying a house, and we've got to think about when you're going to move out. Do you want to move out and be on your own and rent for a little while, which I recommend before you buy, by the way? Do you want to do that?
Starting point is 00:13:38 Do you want to start renting on your own before the academy or after the academy? I think after. Okay. Because I'll be eating. You'll have a big pile of cash then when you come out, right? Yeah, I will. Okay, good. Then so let's just set the timeline.
Starting point is 00:13:55 When will you graduate from the academy? I'd say next year in either June or July. Of 19? Yeah. Oh, awesome. Okay. So this time next year, you've got your own place. Yep.
Starting point is 00:14:13 And you have a pile of money in the bank, and you're going to keep piling up money because your income will go up even more once you graduate from the academy, right? Yes, sir. Excellent. And then you just keep piling up cash. There's no huge rush to buy a house when you're 21 years old or 22 years old. You've got plenty of time to buy a house. If you want to, it's okay.
Starting point is 00:14:33 But what's going to happen is in a few years, you might run into some young lady and decide to get married. When that occurs, you will discover you have bought the wrong house. And you will have to sell and buy another house. Not always, but sometimes that happens. So she might not want to live in your house. She might want to live in our house. And that sometimes makes, you know, might not be a bad place to start marriage. But, you know, you're going to find yourself moving again maybe.
Starting point is 00:15:01 But it's okay. It's okay. If you live there three or four years, you make some money on it, that'll be okay. And, you know, I don't know when you're going to meet someone and get married. And so, and you don't either. So, or if you will, you know, that's going to be up to you completely. So anyway, yeah, I like your plan. So let's go buy a car now, about a $9,000 car.
Starting point is 00:15:18 Let's leave $6,000 in savings. Continue to live there and continue to pile up money as high as you can pile it. And when you graduate, then you'll have a nice pile of money go rent someplace for about a year and uh then think about buying at that point that'll sound okay sounds perfect so that's going to put you summer of 2020 you might be looking for houses yeah it looks pretty soon to me yeah that you know you're gonna be way ahead of the average bear. You already are, though, sir. You're 20 years old.
Starting point is 00:15:47 You're way wise. You're really on top of it. I wish I could get 50-year-olds to think like I'm getting you to think. Very good. Nicely done. Ellie's with us in San Antonio, Texas. Hi, Ellie. How are you?
Starting point is 00:16:00 Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? Okay. Well, I've been trying to figure out what to do. I have a traditional IRA, and I have about $100,000 in there. And I've gone online to check. And I know you've told some of your viewers about converting to a Roth, which I'm really considering,
Starting point is 00:16:27 because we do have some money in our savings, which I can pay the taxes on. But, you know, I've talked, actually I've gone to a few of your, a couple of your SmartVestor pros, just to kind of, because I'm not really satisfied with the with the people we have right now so um everyone that tells me tells me it's not a good idea even though i have the money to pay how old are you you know how old are you i'm 52 okay well that's because you're right on the line you it won't be how much other money do you have saved other than this $100,000? Well, outside of retirement? Outside of this $100,000 that we're discussing converting to a Roth,
Starting point is 00:17:16 in addition to that, how much money do you have? We have $60,000 in the savings in the money market, which $20,000, I guess, would be our emergency fund. You don't have another 401k account? You don't have another $400,000 laying somewhere else? Well, my husband has a 401k through work, and he also has a traditional IRA. how much is in your retirement accounts total yes ma'am oh sorry um about 625 okay that's what i was after all right good then then it is okay to convert this because you're not going to touch this and it's going to continue to grow
Starting point is 00:18:02 decades after you're 70 even up into your 80s completely tax-free the only way the analysis works that it is bad to convert it is if you say i'm going to start pulling it out aggressively at 65 and i'm and i'm already 52 then it really would make sense to leave it in the traditional and that's why you're getting the advice you're getting but when you consider you have the other 600600,000 to live on, I think you're probably going to be okay, and you're probably going to leave this account alone. It's the last one you touch. You let it grow tax-free forever and ever.
Starting point is 00:18:34 Amen. Yes, I would convert it. But that's why you're getting that advice, because if it was a standalone account and you had to start accessing it, if it was your entire nest egg at 100K, then you would have to start pulling it out and start using some of it at 65. You're already 52. It's probably mathematically unpalatable to do that. You're probably better off to leave it as a traditional.
Starting point is 00:19:01 But given that you will not have to do that and you can let it sit there another 20 years on top of that or 15 years on top of that or maybe never touch it and it grows tax-free then no i'm going to convert it so that's where we get to thank you we appreciate you calling this is the dave ramsey show Thank you. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major healthcare costs. Christian Healthcare Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry.
Starting point is 00:20:14 A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window covering. Site-wide savings happening right now, plus take an additional 5% off at Blinds.com slash Ramsey. Blinds.com slash Ramsey. Christopher's in Colorado.
Starting point is 00:21:21 I looked at my credit report through TransUnion and noticed a bill in collections. But when I call the number, they say they can't help me without my social security number. I gave them my name, address, and phone number, but they will not budge. We do not know what this bill is, and I can't get a copy of the bill. Any suggestions? Tell them you give them the last four digits of your social, and usually that will clear it up. But you're not sure they're not a scam.
Starting point is 00:21:55 Here's the thing. Federal law says there's a Federal Privacy Act that says they're breaking federal law if they give me your credit information without your permission. And so they're trying to make sure it's really you. So I could call them up and give them your name and your address. I can find that easy enough, right? But I wouldn't have your social unless I'm a crook and I've already completely hacked you and scammed you, right? So they're trying to verify that they're not breaking federal law to verify that it's you before they give you your credit information. They should do that, by the way.
Starting point is 00:22:39 That's the proper way for them to behave. But usually, if you say, okay, here's the last four digits of my social. Does this match the account? And then when they say no, you say, well, we've got a problem because you've got this on my bureau, and those are the digits of my account. And you posted it on my credit bureau, which has that social on it. And so you're going to remove this from my credit bureau now and um or if they come back and go yeah that's you uh or that's the four digits last four digits we have then you're pretty safe to go ahead and give them your whole social and get this file and find out what's going on
Starting point is 00:23:17 52 of the credit bureau reports have errors in them it is a disaster of an industry anyone else was in that incompetent they'd be out of business but they're just equifax and transunion they're just a disaster and so yeah you have inaccuracies all all the time that happen because they just download these entire batches of files and they just slop up their database is what it amounts to because there's no quality control on it whatsoever. The only quality control is the consumer comes back around and goes, Uh, not me. It's not me.
Starting point is 00:24:02 Now, here's what you do if it's not you. You send them a letter snail mail certified letter return receipt requested so you have proof of the delivery date you have to get proof of the delivery date to be able to enforce it the federal fair credit reporting act says that when you challenge an item on your credit bureau report, they have to send you proof of the 1st, December the 1st, they are forced by law, regardless of the accuracy, to remove that item. And so another thing you could do is just straight-up challenge it and just say, this item is not accurate. If the people don't respond and prove to you that it is accurate,
Starting point is 00:25:05 then it'll be removed. The problem with that in your case is that you did not dig the dandelion out by the roots. You just cut it off. And you know what happens when you cut off a dandelion? Two grow back. And so what's going to happen is you can get it removed, but they're going to re-report it, and it's going to show back up because you did not dig it out of the root, meaning the people that are reporting it did not correct
Starting point is 00:25:32 their files. So they're going to report it again. It's going to pop back on there in a year or two until you get this inaccuracy cleared up or get to the bottom of it and find out it is actually you, and you clean up whatever the issue is. So anyway, back to your situation, I would simply give them the last four digits, and if they verify that, then I would not be afraid to give them the whole thing, and I would have them send me the file out, and let's look and see what it is,
Starting point is 00:26:01 and try to figure out what's going on. But they are not supposed to release your information to someone that can't prove that they're you. It's a violation of the Privacy Act. So, you know, the Federal Fair Debt Collections Practices Act and the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, both federal law dictate how you interact with bill collectors and how you interact with your credit report. And Federal Trade Commission has a great website on that, ftc.gov. You can go in there and learn all kinds of things about your rights and how to apply pressure to cleaning up some of the messes that are laying around on your credit. And it's a good idea.
Starting point is 00:26:46 I mean, I went back, even after I went through a bankruptcy, I had things that were wrong and were reported inaccurately and were reported improperly following the bankruptcy, and I had to go back and clean those things up 30 years ago. So I spent a lot of time doing that. So my credit bureau actually has almost nothing on it. It's almost 100% well, by now it's 100% clean. There almost nothing on it. It's almost 100. Well, by now, it's 100% clean.
Starting point is 00:27:07 There's nothing on it. There's been no activity of any kind for well over a decade. And so it's been frozen for a decade. So it's just nothing on there. It's just got my name. That's it. And, you know, my address, my phone numbers or whatever else, you know, that kind of data. But there's no accounts of any kind whatsoever. You'll eventually get there if you quit borrowing money and go back and, you know, clean these things up.
Starting point is 00:27:31 And you do need to address this. Don't let it just lay there. James is in San Francisco. Hey, James, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, good afternoon. Good afternoon. How can I help? So I'm on the Baby Step 2, and i'm at a fork in the road um i already paid
Starting point is 00:27:48 off about 8 000 of consumer debt in the last six months good and i make about 70k a year um so right now i have car payment for six thousand eight hundred dollars and i have a student loan which i'm still in college so i don't have to pay on it yet for five thousand and i'm coming up on the next cycle and they're asking how to allocate the next student loan i'm wondering from your advice if i should stop the snowball and cash flow the next remaining of my schooling, or if I should just continue my snowball on the car or on to the student loan that's open already. Oh, just stop all borrowing. The first step to getting out of debt is quit borrowing.
Starting point is 00:28:38 Okay. And if that slows down, and therefore you have to have the money to pay tuition and cash, which will slow down your debt snowball, oh well. But no more borrowing, no more new loans. Stop that. And then cash flow your way out of school. If you don't do anything but graduate from school with adding no more debt,
Starting point is 00:29:01 and you're not able to pay off any more debt but you can graduate debt without without adding any more debt that's a success and then when you get out of school you can run your debt snowball and clean everything up but if you can do if you can get out of school paying cash for school from this point forward plus reduce your debt well that's a super touchdown man you killed it thank you but your first goal would just be break even on the current debt just pay minimum payments and graduate from school without adding any debt that's goal one if you can just do that we'll call you successful uh and if you can do that and pay more on the debt wow that's super successful so very very, very well done. Hey, thanks for calling.
Starting point is 00:29:45 Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. It is a free call, and some say the advice is worth what you pay for it. Eddie's on Instagram. Dave, I've got $35,000 in debt, almost $10,000 saved for an emergency. Should I put $9,000 on my debt? That's what we teach, Eddie.
Starting point is 00:30:06 In the Total Money Makeover Baby Steps, we tell you to use all non-retirement savings towards your debt in Baby Step 2 until your debt is gone. And then use all non-retirement savings towards building your emergency fund until that's done. Then start retirement savings in Baby Step 4. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America. Jonah is with us in Dallas. Hi, Jonah. How are you?. Hi, Jonah. How are you? Doing good, Dave. How are you?
Starting point is 00:31:07 Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome. I am a student at DBU in Dallas, Texas, and I'm 19 years old. I'm currently a freshman, and I am in debt. Before I went to school, I purchased a new vehicle that was $26,000, but at the time I was working in fast food, and I was making at least $40,000. However, I am currently on my own. I have financial aid and all that stuff, but my real question is, how do I get out of debt and still continue to go to school here at DBU and manage my money properly? Because in your words, I've made stupid mistakes with my money.
Starting point is 00:31:46 Okay. All right. How much is your tuition? Tuition before my financial aid is roughly about $60,000 a year. $60,000? Yes. Okay. And financial aid is not loans.
Starting point is 00:32:05 It is actual help, grants toward that. How much aid do you get? I have about $35,000. Okay. So you're paying a $25,000 a year tuition. And what is VBU? DBU is Dallas Baptist University. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:32:24 I'm sorry. I thought you said V, but D, Dallas Baptist University. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I thought you said V, but D, Dallas Baptist. Okay. All right. And so it's $60,000, and it's down to $25,000, which is double what it costs to go to school in Texas. And what do you study? Are you in seminary? No, sir.
Starting point is 00:32:42 My degree plan is PPE, which stands for politics, philosophy, and economics. And what do you intend to do? My goal is to graduate here, go to law school, and then from law school go work in Washington, D.C. And the bigger goal, overall goal, is to become president of the United States one day. Okay. All right. Well, we need to shoot high, so there we go. Okay.
Starting point is 00:33:09 All right. And you have no money. Are you working? I am. I currently make, before taxes, $1,560 a month, so $1,560 a month. However, I still need a payoff this semester, and I need to pay my car, insurance, and cell phone. Okay.
Starting point is 00:33:35 Well, I'm confused how you're going to make $20,000 a year and pay $25,000. Right. So how it's broken up here at DB is uh it's broken into two semesters my financial aid uh so far has covered almost everything um for this semester alone uh due to the scholarship along with my financial aid from the government so you have you have in addition to the 35 000 in financial aid you got a scholarship. Yes. It's called Christian Leadership Scholarship. How much is the scholarship? I'm sorry? How much is the scholarship? It pays 40% of my tuition.
Starting point is 00:34:15 40% of 60 or 40% of 25? 60. Okay. Okay, now we're getting there. Because you had me at 25 a minute ago Okay, now we're getting there. Because you had me at $25,000 a minute ago, but now you've got $25,000 out of pocket, right? Right. All right. And so you've got almost nothing out of pocket between your scholarship and your financial aid. Am I right? Almost.
Starting point is 00:34:41 This semester alone, I have to pay. Six times four is $24,000, right? Right. So you get a $24,000 scholarship and a $35,000 reduction. That would put you at $1,000 out of pocket to pay a $60,000 tuition. Roughly. However, this semester, I owe... No, exactly. This semester, I have to pay out-of-pocket $2,220-something.
Starting point is 00:35:10 Why? However, I currently don't have my financial aid award letter in front of me, and I don't have the actual cost of attendance in front of me. Oh, so you're giving round numbers. So you need a couple thousand dollars, but it's not much. You've got almost all your tuition covered. Right. Okay, and then you've got $20,000 a year coming in,
Starting point is 00:35:33 and you have a $26,000 car that you need to sell tomorrow. Exactly. Okay, and we got rid of that. We got rid of that debt, and you get you a beater, and you live on $20,000, and the tuition's covered. You've got to come up with some other odds and ends but you can live on 20 grand and cover the tuition and the little bit of tuition you have to cover and cover your books and that gets you through school i like it all right awesome yeah i mean you're basically going to school almost free and you're making twenty thousand
Starting point is 00:36:01 dollars a year to eat and cover the part that's not almost. Right. And, yeah, you can do that. I mean, you're just going to live real tight, but you've got to get rid of the $26,000 car. It doesn't fit in this equation. It's killing you. It's the parasite on this program. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:36:19 Yeah, it's sucking the blood out of your whole plan here, man. And so that's why it's got to go. It's nuts. Yeah, if you do that, I think you can make it. I don't know of your whole plan here, man. And so that's why it's got to go. It's nuts. Yeah, if you do that, I think you can make it. I don't know how you're getting through law school. That's the next step. But you sure did figure this part out. So very well done, sir.
Starting point is 00:36:34 You've got to keep that scholarship, whatever that takes. I don't know if that's grade point average or what that is. And you certainly have to continue to get the financial aid because this is an expensive school. But you've gotten it all covered. I can't argue with a couple grand out of pocket to go to school. That's great. Well done. Very well done.
Starting point is 00:36:53 You keep figuring all that out, you might end up president. All right. Art is with us in Orlando, Florida. Hey, Art, what's up? Hey, Dave. Appreciate the call. Listen, my question is I'm 65. I plan on working another two years to when my wife turns 65 and we can both be covered with Medicare. I have about,
Starting point is 00:37:15 currently about 350 in a 401 at work and 120 in my Roth account. So between my Social Security and a defined benefit pension at the end of my work career, I should have enough to live on. I have no other debts. The house is all paid for. Everything else is taken care of. So I guess my question is, once I do retire, should I look at pulling the money out of my 401 and then reinvesting it in the Roth account? I would roll it at least to a traditional,
Starting point is 00:37:56 so you've got control of the investments and so forth. But you've got mandatory withdrawals on a traditional that begin at 70 and a half. Right. If you convert it to a Roth, you're going to pay all your taxes up front, and that's not going to make mathematical sense unless you leave that money alone, that account alone, probably 15 years. Yeah. And so, you know, it's not a big deal to just leave it as a traditional.
Starting point is 00:38:26 I probably would. It's probably not worth messing with. I just hate giving the government money up front like this. We've already kept their hands off of it this long. Let's keep their hands off of it all the way through. Yeah. I guess that was the question is basically because when I do retire, between the Social Security and the pension, I feel like I can fund my living.
Starting point is 00:38:45 Yeah, you won't need the money and you're gonna and you're gonna be then forced to pull it out of a traditional beginning at 70 and a half your mandatory withdrawal rates and so yeah that's that's there i mean you can you can change it if you want to do a rob but you gotta have in mind that you're not gonna touch it until 15 years later because it doesn't make sense otherwise um but i i'd probably just leave it i'd probably leave it in a traditional not worry about it and then you have the mandatory withdrawals you don't need the money you can turn around reinvest it in something else if you want at that time you've done very very well congratulations great job on saving money man i mean you really did this love it love, love it, love it.
Starting point is 00:39:26 So, yeah, I'm probably just going to get with like a SmartVestor Pro or whoever does your investments. If you don't have somebody, get a SmartVestor Pro to help you. Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com to find them. And just do it. I always tell people when you leave your company, whether it's retiring, quitting, getting fired, whatever, always take your 401K with you, meaning roll it to a direct transfer rollover into a traditional IRA.
Starting point is 00:39:52 There's no taxes when you do that. And I would go ahead and do that first when you retire. But then as you reach 70 and a half, if you want to move some of it into roth to keep from having to do the withdrawals you can but in a sense you're withdrawn at all when you pull it into a roth because you're paying all the taxes it's the same thing so i i'm not i'm gonna probably just leave it alone but roll it to roll it to an ira traditional put it in some good mutual funds this is the the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Blake, Chief Production Officer for the show, and here's a little tip for 2018. Go download our revamped Dave Ramsey Show app from the App Store. We're always listening to your feedback
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