The Ramsey Show - App - Communicate Your Way to a Debt-Free Marriage (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 14, 2019

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Music 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 may mean you're heading towards being an everyday millionaire. That's right. The second week of the Everyday Millionaire book tour continues. Chris Hogan is in Houston, Texas today. And we'll be taking a call from him,

updating on what's happening with the Millionaire Everyday Millionaire's book tour as we're out here. And, man, it has been exciting. We had over 6,600 people in Garland, Texas, Dallas, Texas, on Saturday at our largest smart conference ever. It was our best smart conference ever, too. It was absolutely incredible. Everyone had a blast.

I had a blast. I mean, it was an incredible, incredible event. If you ever have the opportunity to attend one of these, you get to hear from some of the best communicators, best speakers, best thought leaders in every space inside your brain. I mean, it's pretty incredible. So, open phones this hour as we talk to you about your life and your money. It is a free call.

The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Chuck is with us to start off this hour in Arlington, Virginia. Hi, Chuck, how are you? Dave, I'm great, how are you? Better than I deserve, what's up? Awesome, happy new year. I'm recently engaged to my girlfriend.

Thank you, I did pay for the ring in cash. Woo-hoo! When are you getting married? Plans are early 2020. Still working on a date. Cool. Good. And hoping to pay for the wedding in cash as well. But my main question is in regards to buying a house. Obviously, with getting recently engaged, we're starting to have conversations about a house.

Sure. Here in the Northern Virginia area, houses can be pretty expensive. Yeah. So just wanted, as we're looking, just wanted to kind of get your advice, your expert advice on are we ready to purchase a home and how much, well, I know how much home we should buy, but how to find a home that is no more than 25% of our take-home pay in this area. Okay. Well, the magic to that is you might not be in that area.

You may be driving. You may increase your commute. Generally speaking, if you drop a pebble in the center of a major metro area and the rings, like on a pond, when you drop a pebble in the center of a major metro area, and the rings, like on a pond, when you drop a pebble in a pond, the rings that go out, generally speaking, the further you go out from the central business district, the cheaper it gets. Now, in your particular area, you've got several metro areas that are overlapping, from D.C. to Baltimore to Arlington in and of itself and so on.

And so it's not quite as clean as perfectly concentric rings. But generally speaking, the further you get out of town, things are cheaper unless you land on a mountain or buy some water or into the most expensive area in the world, which is possible. So all that to say is, I don't know. You do not get a pass on math based on the fact you live in most expensive area in the world, which is possible. So all that to say is I don't know. You do not get a pass on math based on the fact you live in an expensive area. You still have to be wise. So that's thing one.

Thing two, then, is, of course, you probably, it sounds like you've listened to us long enough to know that I'm going to tell you to not buy a home until you're debt-free, have your emergency fund, plus your down payment. You know that part, right? That's correct, yes. And I am debt-free, have your emergency fund, plus your down payment. You know that part, right? That's correct, yes. And I am debt-free. I've got about $80K in savings.

$55K is for the down payment on the house. $16K is in the emergency fund. Very cool. And how much debt does she have? So we haven't combined our financials or anything. Oh, I know. You shouldn't yet. You shouldn't yet.

But you should know. Right. So she's got about $5 our... Oh, I know. You shouldn't yet. You shouldn't yet. Yeah. But you should know. Right. So she's got about 5K. Oh, not much. Okay. Saved towards the down payment. Oh, so does she have any debt? No debt.

Neither one of us had debt. Wow. How old are you two? Um, I'm 34 and she's 31. Okay. All right. Well, cool. Yeah.

I think you just pile up money for the wedding, and the rest of it's used. The rest of the pile that you pile up between now and wedding date is your down payment on your home. I think it's okay to go slow buying a home. There is no federal law that says get married and buy a house the next month. And generally speaking, if you were 10 years younger i would give you a 20 minute speech not really but i would really push you hard to wait a year to buy you two are a little bit more mature getting married and so maybe not a whole year but it takes a year of living together being married to know how close to your mother-in-law to buy the house and to know how many

curtain rods you got to hang and all the stuff you're going to fight about you just get to know how close to your mother-in-law to buy the house and to know how many curtain rods you've got to hang and all the stuff you're going to fight about. You just get to know each other better after a year, and you'll make a better together decision after a period of time. So I know I wouldn't buy a house in your situation. If you got married in January of 2020, I wouldn't buy a house before summer. No, we have lived together. That's the one thing so we've gotten a little bit of practice i think we're close i really i just don't want to do

something stupid here just take your time more than i can afford don't just don't don't buy more than you can afford that's you know you know what the limits are i would stick with that 15 percent or a 15 year fixed rate where the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay you can do this uh it's just real easy to fourth of your take-home pay. You can do this. It's just real easy to look. When you look at nicer houses than you can afford, it's hard to go back to the ones you can afford. And, you know, that doesn't matter what the budget is. I mean, if you're looking at $2 million houses and you go look at $4 million houses,

it'll screw up your brain, you know. I mean, any time you go do that, and the same thing with a car. You go look at a car you can't afford, then you've got to go that cheaper version. It's like, oh, man, I wish it had that heads up on there, man. You know, I wish it had that. It's all that stuff. So you've just got to avoid that. So, hey, man, you're going to do all right.

You're going to do good. You're going to be all right. Hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life, your money. It is a free call danny is on youtube dave can you give me some pointers on how to budget on an irregular income i've tried i can't get to work

but i don't want to give up yet well you can't give up everyone budgets on an irregular income everyone does some are more extreme than others. I mean, if you have two full-time regular jobs, but you get paid every two weeks, you have two months a year that your income is different because you have those two magic months that you get three checks if you get paid every two weeks. So everyone has an irregular income. So the place you start is you don't try to use a budget template where every month is

the same because they're just not the same. So we're going to look at this month and we're going to do the best we can to estimate our income for the month low. And we're going to do a regular budget on that. Whatever doesn't, whatever we didn't do that we'd still like to do pay extra on debt go on vacation i don't know what it is but we're going to need to do some stuff that didn't make the cut on that budget from the estimated lower average of this coming month whatever didn't make that cut you just make a list of those things most important to least important if you make a

little bit more money than what you budgeted what's the first thing you're going to go to write a one beside that what's the next thing you're going to do two beside that what's the next thing you're going to do write a three beside that and so on down the list and when you get you know when you've got that list then you can just use that to reset your every dollar app is going and make some changes you can do it once a week you can and make some changes. You can do it once a week. You can do it once a month. You can do it twice a month. I don't care. And depending on how volatile your income is,

just how often you're going to have to update that list and update your budget. But that's how Sharon and I have done it our whole working lives. We have never had a 100% fixed income. As a matter of fact, most people don't when you really think about it. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Your goal this year is to get rid of your debt, but here's the deal. In order to keep your momentum going past January, you have to make small changes that get quick results.

That's why you need to attack your debts smallest to largest. I also recommend you look for ways to find extra money to pay off your debt sooner. It's there, I promise you. Take a look at your mortgage. If you call my friends at Churchill Mortgage and request a five-minute checkup, they can help you find extra money. Churchill Mortgage Checkup has helped thousands of my listeners save big. In just a few minutes, the Churchill team can tell you how much cash they can potentially save you, or they can

restructure your mortgage to pay it off early. Become debt-free in 2019. Call Churchill today at 888-LOAN-200, or visit churchillmortgage.com for your Churchill checkup. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Well, the Everyday Millionaire's Book Tour is in full swing. The Texas leg of the tour began on Friday with Dallas, Texas, and continues with Houston, Texas.

Today, Chris Hogan is on the line to update us on what's going on with Everyday Millionaires. Hey, Chris, how are you? Oh, Dave, I'm still rocking and rolling, my friend. Absolutely. The bus running okay? Oh, the bus is fantastic, and people are coming out in front of it, taking pictures with it, and you know, these signings have been amazing. Just to meet these regular everyday

millionaires all across the country has been so fantastic so far. Very cool, very cool, and we got to meet and talk to a bunch of them on Saturday at the Smart Conference, didn't you? Oh, Dave, I mean, it was absolutely amazing. I had at least 25 to 30 people come up and tell me, Chris, I'm one of your everyday millionaires. So that was exciting. The signing was amazing. And everybody's excited, Dave, and I am too, to keep going around the country letting people know the truth.

Now, tonight you are signing books in Houston, Texas, and giving away $1,000. Where and when? Yes, sir. We are going to be at the Books a Million in Katie Mills. That's right there on 5000 Katie Mills Circle. I'll be there tonight at 6 o'clock.

I'm going to give away $1,000. You have to be 18 years old or older to be able to enter, and you have to be present to win, but no purchase is necessary. So I'm excited to meet the people of Houston tonight. If that's the store I'm thinking of, I've done signings in there, and so have you before. It's right there off the loop, isn't it?

Oh, yes, sir. Yeah, absolutely. Right there in the mall, and it will be a great attendance tonight here. The people of it always turn out for us dave yeah they do so uh that and for a thousand dollars absolutely yeah yeah books a million six o'clock tonight a thousand dollars given away by our smart vestor pros in the area no purchase necessary must be present to win gotta be to be 18. That's the rules. Come on out for that. This is the book where we did the study. We took the study of 10,000 millionaires to find out what was real,

and we put the stories of the millionaires and the statistics. If you are wanting to read a research paper about our research, don't buy this book. That is not what this book is. This book has the data in it, but it has a ton of stories and motivation in it as well, because one of the things we've learned here at Ramsey a long time ago is that information without motivation, without aspiration, is worthless. It's dry and crackly and uh of course uh you know just fluff just motivation with no information is is worthless as well so we've got all the data

there but it is not a white paper on a research thing it's a chris hogan book chris couldn't do that if he wanted to he has to tell stories and tell jokes. It's how he's built. Right, Chris? Oh, absolutely, Dave. And that's what really changed my life. You know, plugging in with you and reading the Total Money Makeover a few years before joining the team, that was the thing that the light went on. I saw things different. And so that's what we're about. So we want to help people to understand what steps they need to take,

but more importantly, show them what steps to take to move in the right direction. 79% of the millionaires systematically save for retirement using Roth IRAs and using their company 401ks. Just because I have told you that to do that for years, just because Chris has told you to do that for years, doesn't mean that this is just regurgitated information. This is information that is now confirmed by more than just Chris's, in my opinion. This research project has absolutely nailed this down.

And we've told you for years that going to an Ivy League school does not ensure success. And we proved it with this data. And we've told you for years that being on a budget and not being in debt causes you to become wealthy. And we proved it with this data. So please don't expect to find anything really shocking here, except that the data is so airtight and confirms that a teacher is one of the top three professions that becomes an everyday millionaire.

Right, Chris? That's exactly right, Dave. And again, you know, for people to be able to plug in and read these stories of these people, regular everyday people from all around the country that made a decision for themselves. Yes, they had some tough times in their lives. Yes, they had different starting points. But the thing they have in common, Dave, 97% of these millionaires feel that they control their destiny. And that's the thing we have to remember.

We get to make decisions about our lives. And 62% of the public thinks they control their destiny. And that's the thing we have to remember. We get to make decisions about our lives. And 62% of the public thinks they control their destiny. 97% of millionaires. And let me just tell you, they didn't start to think they control their destiny after they became a millionaire. They became a millionaire because they think they control their destiny. That's right. And so the choice is up to you. Farmers don't plant corn if they don't think corn's going to grow. That's a great point. But, yeah, so we've got the Books of Million and Katie Mills tonight at 6 o'clock.

And then, Dave, after we get done, I'm going to hop on a bus. We're going to be driving down to Austin. I've got the signing at Austin tomorrow, on Tuesday, 6 o'clock, at the Barnes & Noble in Arboretum, right there off of 1000 Research Boulevard. So tonight's Houston, tomorrow's Austin. Again, $1,000 given away. Wednesday night, San Antonio, Texas, the Barnes & Noble at the shops at La Quintera, 6 o'clock there. Again, $1,000 given away. And then you guys are going to jump off the bus and on the plane head up to Colorado Springs, right?

That's right. Going to Colorado Springs where I'm going to be doing a smart money event there with Anthony O'Neill, walking people through the baby steps, plugging them in and pointing them to Financial Peace University, our nine-week course that is the plan and the process to help you start to take control of your money. And because you guys have got that event that night, that signing is at the Barnes & Noble Colorado Springs at noon, 12 o'clock noon on Thursday, Colorado Springs. You can find all of the schedule on where Chris will be in your city, when he will be in your city. There are still some tickets available for the Smart Money event with Anthony and Chris in Colorado Springs.

If you want to go, just jump on DaveRamsey.com and get your tickets as quickly as you can before they're gone. And then, of course, check all the live events, check all the book tour information at ChrisHogan360.com. ChrisHogan360.com. And it's at DaveRamsey.com as well. You can find it both places. So, Chris, y'all drive safe, man.

I'll touch base with you tomorrow. All right. Thanks, Dave. Every Day Millionaires, soon to be another number one bestseller. The number of books we have sold is astronomical. And we are really, really excited about it. And people are excited about this book. They are, you know, except for the ones who didn't want, they wanted, if you wanted to believe that it's not possible, you don't like this book.

If you wanted to believe that the government needed to fix your life and that the little man can't get ahead, then you won't like this book. Because it's going to destroy that mythology if you wanted to believe other mythology other lies that are being told from an ideological standpoint out there and you know well you know just you know the wages are going down and people you can't get ahead and things are bad if you want to sit around and do that, you're probably not going to like me in general, because I'm a glasses-half-full guy, not a glasses-half-empty guy, and I still believe that the American dream is alive and well. Oh, and by the way, with airtight research, not skewed by my belief,

the actual methodology is airtight. It'll stand up to any level of scrutiny. Done very well from a statistical analysis and from a research project structure. This Everyday Millionaires research project proves that it still can be done. I think one of the stats that's the most bizarre to me is 33%, one out of three of millionaires in America never made $100,000 a year. Because I know the math. I know when you make $150,000 versus making $100,000,

that other $50,000 goes a long way towards building wealth. You get a lot more of what we call disposable income. You know, it takes a certain amount just to eat, keep gas in the car, buy shoes for the kids, pay the rent. It takes a certain amount to do that, right? And any money you make above that, you can increase the quality of your life, your lifestyle, and you've got more money to invest. That's disposable income.

And the more disposable income, naturally, the faster you can build wealth. Everybody knows that. But people assume you have to make $150,000, $200,000 a year, year in and year out for 20 years in order to become a millionaire. And the truth is, you don't. I'd like for you to, but it's not a requirement. It's not federal law. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm going to go on a little rant here for a minute.

I took a call from a father who wanted to know how to plan for the care of his special needs daughter after he dies. Why is it that parents of special needs children are so deliberate in their planning while other parents have a tendency to be sloppy? Do the needs of your family matter less if something happens to you? Oh, I'm sorry. Did I just guilt trip you into getting some term life insurance? Well, then good. Your family needs you to step up. Having the right amount of term life insurance is a matter of personal responsibility.

If you want to use the new year as a reason for doing the right thing, then do it. Term life insurance is something every family needs, which is why I talk about it every day. It's not complicated, it's not expensive, and you need to do this now. Zander Insurance is the only place I recommend. Visit Zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282. Please learn from other people's mistakes and get this taken care of. That's 800-356-4282 or zander.com. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Chad and Lexi are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. Good. Welcome.

Where do you guys live? We live in Omaha, Nebraska. Oh, fun. Welcome to Nashville. Bit of a haul over here. Yeah. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so we just made it over here, and then we're heading back today.

Oh, wow. A little bit of a snowstorm on the way down. Do what now? A little bit of a snowstorm on the way down. Yeah. So you were driving. Yes. Whoa.

There might be one on the way home, too, huh? Probably. Wow. Well, welcome. All the way here through the snow, uphill both ways. That's right. To do your debt free scream how much debt have you paid off a little over 113 000 all right and how long did this take three and a half

years wow good for you and your range of income during that time uh started right around 94 000 and upward uh just over 150 good what do y'all do for a living? Lexi's a teacher, and I'm a sales manager for Enterprise. So why did your income go up $50,000 in three years? Yeah, it just, I mean, we got gazelle-like and found, just decided we're going to really dig in and help raise our income level. And so we've moved three times in the last five and a half years, and with each one of those was a promotion, an opportunity to grow our income. Okay.

Wow. Good. Okay. So you're moving up the ladder at Old Enterprise then? Oh, yeah. Very good. Good for you guys. Well done.

What kind of debt was the $113,000? A lot of student loans. I have my master's in education. So that was a lot of student loans. And then we have a van. Okay. Car loan. And how long have you guys been married?

Five years. Five years, yep. Okay. So a year and a half after you got married, something happened, and you guys got game on. What happened? I'll take the reins on this one, because he had the book when we were dating and when we were engaged, and he showed it to me and said, because I brought like $800 into our marriage. That was like it. And so he said, you know, you should read this. We need to get onto this. Um, and when we got married, it wasn't, I don't know. I just didn't

feel like it was the right time. I know that sounds stupid, but, um, I was finishing up my master's and we were just trying to make bare minimum. And then, um, you know, things started to fall into place. I got my job and he was was doing well in his job, and we started, basically, we had our first kid, and things were getting a little crazy. So, I started reading the book. I got on board right away, started a budget, and we just went hard after that, and honestly, never looked back. Like, we never really had any issues.

We just went, and here we are. Things went a little crazy. With your schedule, or with the money? With the money. We've also, I mean, one thing we want to add is we've cash flowed three kids during that time, which they're not cheap. No. So every time we had a kid, it was like, oh, my gosh, we have another kid in daycare or we have, you know, more debt. And we wouldn't be able to do this if we hadn't paid off our debt.

And actually, when we paid it off, that was the first month that we started paying for three in daycare. Wow. So it was like we paid everything off and now we can afford to keep our kids with us. Keep them alive. Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah, that was the story. Amazing. Very cool.

Well, well done, y'all. Thank you. Well done. What's the secret to getting out of debt? I think the biggest thing is just communication. You know, I truly believe that this journey has helped our marriage and keep us, you know, just really growing in our journey through this. And so communication and where we're at and I think just the delayed no. Obviously, we were able to grow our income quite a bit.

And the hard thing was we still felt like we were broke because we were broke. But just being able to have that delayed no and say no to a lot of things so now that we can start to say yes to things. Mine was having the three kids and spending most of my time with them. I had to find a lot of cheap things to do with kids in the Omaha area. It was actually kind of fun because we found a lot of really cool things to do for either free or really cheap. Even now that we're debt-free, I think I'll still continue doing those things

because the kids love it, we love it, and it doesn't cost a lot of money. So that's where we're rolling. It's amazing. When you need to look at something differently, you can look at something differently. You know, whatever it is, whether it's kids' entertainment or whatever the subject is. So three and a half years, you've just been married a year and a half you had three babies yeah what was the biggest budget fight one night when it all blew up what were you fighting over you tell me well we actually i think he knows he doesn't want to say

no you know a lot of times it was never really a big fight. We don't, I mean, I know this sounds stupid, but we don't fight a lot about it. We were on the same page pretty much the entire time. But I would say some little things that we had were he likes to go to Lowe's. Lowe's. Lowe's gets you. Lowe's will get you. Yeah, and I'll ask him at the beginning of the month, like, what's our budget look like for this? Do you plan on spending any extra money outside of our normal budget?

And he'd be like, no. And then he'd get a day off. And he was the one that brought you the book. Yep. And then Lowe's gets you. And then he would Lowe's your budget. He Lowe's your budget. Target Lowe's.

Yeah. He's opposing your budget. He Lowe's your budget. Right. Right. So he'd come back and he'd be like, well, I spent a couple hundred dollars. And I'm like, what? You know?

Yeah. And we'd figure it out. But, you know, I almost had to start budging in a random Chad budget because the random time that he spent, like a couple hundred dollars. Because random Chad can mess stuff up. Yeah, sometimes. And I could do mine. It's not all him, but you know.

Chad, you were going to tell a story. Is that the one you were going to tell? No, mine's a different story. I think the biggest thing was talking about we can't eat out as much as Lexi liked to before. And it was the restaurants and having to say no to going out to eat. Well, it's just a quick dinner date. Well, those add up a lot. But the great news is that Lexi has become an excellent cook here the last year or so.

Wow. And that's been a huge step for us. And something that we really enjoy doing now is cooking and prepping for the week versus just going out and blowing money eating out all the time. It's expensive. It really is. It really is expensive. And even now we question how we did it then. And we weren't.

Obviously, we were broke. But we think about the money we spent there. And we are like, wow, I can't believe we blew that much money a week just by eating out. That's crazy. Wow. Well, way to go, you guys. Who were your biggest cheerleaders outside your house? Our families.

Yep. You know, and all of them were super supportive. A couple other ones are doing the plan, too. And there were times where it wasn't even so much, like, from friends. It wasn't that they were saying we were crazy. It was just that, like, oh, well, good luck with that. Aren't you cute? Yeah.

Sarcastic. Nothing I would ever want to do, but good luck for you guys. But then after we did, we brought it up to a lot more people, and they're like, that's so cool. And we actually had a lot more after we did it, just to, you know, I think we did inspire a lot of people to at least jump on board and get the ball rolling. Having a testimony is a wonderful thing.

Getting one's a pain in the butt. Yes. Way to go, you guys. Absolutely. Very, very cool. Well done. And the book was all you. You just took the Total Money Makeover book and that was the game plan.

Yeah. I'm an English teacher, so I like to read. And as soon as I read it, I knew the steps. I knew what I wanted to do. I was in charge of our budget since I'm the one that does all the groceries and everything. And so I just said, okay, this is what we're going to do. We're going to start limiting these things. I mean, I got a little crazy probably at certain times.

I was like, you're not allowed to do anything. You can't do this. You can't do that. Stay out of love. And he's really good at listening. So, you know, for the most part, we did really, really well. Well, he wanted to work the plan. And so you guys were, you develop a plan and he looked at it, approved it, and then stick

to it. Yes. Yep. That's the, you got to work the plan. You got to plan the work, work the plan. Yeah. And so you guys were, you develop a plan, and he looked at it, approved it, and then stick to it. Yes. Yep. That's the, you got to work the plan. You got to plan the work, work the plan. Plan the work, work the plan. Yeah. Well done, y'all.

Very proud of you. Well, we got a copy of Chris Hogan's Everyday Millionaires book for you, because that's the next chapter. You're going to be everyday millionaires. You can plan on it. You make $150,000 a year. You don't have any debt. You should be.

You should be on your way. Awesome. Well done. All right. Chad and Lexi, Omaha, Nebraska, $113,000 a year, you don't have any debt. You should be. You should be on your way. Well done. All right, Chad and Lexi, Omaha, Nebraska. $113,000 paid off in three and a half years, making $94,000 to $150,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Well done! Great job. This is how it's done. They had three kids during the three and a half years. Boom, boom, boom, man, I'm telling you. That's wow.

And moved twice. Did you hear all that? You hear all the things they did? And so driving from Omaha, Nebraska to Nashville in the snow is nothing for these people. It's nothing. For me, that would go to banana. I don't want to move, and I don't want to drive from here to Omaha. And I don't want to drive from here to Omaha in the snow.

Wow. Look at me. I'm spoiled. Well, well done, you guys. drive from here to Omaha in the snow. Wow. Look at me. I'm spoiled. Well, well done, you guys. Very, very well done. We're proud of you. Hey, guys, you can do this. Jump on every dollar.

Get your every dollar budget going. Jump on Financial Peace. Get in the nine-week class at Financial Peace University. Then make sure you get the one-year membership to the whole Financial Peace online experience. And you can do everything, man. We'll show you how to do every bit of this, and you can win. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Micah is with us in Indiana. Hey, Micah.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? Hey, I've got a question on, I mean, I know your policy on life insurance, you know, 10 times your annual income. Because of past medical issues and medical history, the only term insurance I can get approved for is pretty expensive per month. The quote I got was for $750 for 20 years, it was going to be about $192 a month. Is that from Zander?

No, it's not. I called Zander about six, eight months ago and was talking to the guy on the phone. And some of the information I gave him, he said that they probably wouldn't be able to get coverage for me. Okay. All right. Cool. So you've had some pretty serious medical background there. All right. So what's the rest of your financial situation? In pretty good shape, really. The only debt I have left is $28,000 in a car, and that should take care of me.

Are you single? No, I'm married. How many kids? About two. What age? One's 16. One's getting ready to turn nine. Okay.

All right. And your household income? About $168. And how much of that is you? $120. About $120. Okay. All right.

So, so she makes like 50 a year? Yeah, yeah. About 40, between 40 and 50, yeah. Okay. All right. Cool. Yeah. All right.

Well, the whole idea is for your wife and children to be able to survive if something happens to you, obviously. Right? Mm-hmm. And $192 a month, that would be something i could not choke down for 750 okay right the thing i would want to learn is two things um the first thing i'd want how much do you own your home uh probably around 118 okay all right yeah. And how quickly will this car be paid off? I'm hoping in the next six to eight months. Good.

Or less. Okay. That makes sense. All right. So at this time next year, you and I are talking, you have a fully funded emergency fund, and you are 100% debt freefree, except your home, and your wife makes $50,000 a year, and you would have a 17-year-old and a 10-year-old at this time next year, okay? Correct. All right, so, you know, I might buy even less of that $750,000.

I might buy like $300,000 of it of it something like that and i want you to price and i want you to price um mortgage life insurance from your mortgage company so the only thing it does is pay off the mortgage that's another hundred in other words and so if if your wife had was debt free and $300,000, house and everything debt-free, because we had mortgage life insurance and had $300,000, that's not ideal, but she can make it. Sure. No payments anywhere, and one child just going into college, and, you know, one 12, 13 years old or whatever. So I might buy, like, a 10-year.

How long was that policy that that guy quoted you at 192 uh that was 20 years at 750 and i've actually got the breakdown here day from the same company um so if you want to talk and they did 250 500 and 750 um 10 years of 250 would be 50 a month. Let's do that. That's doable. Yeah. And right now I've just got me and my wife, we were married in 2000. So, you know, we've got, of course, the whole life insurance policies. We didn't know any better. They were $50,000 policies apiece, and I think the cash value of them is worth about $1,900 apiece.

Yeah, I would hold those because you're not insurable. Hold yours. I wouldn't hold hers, but I'd hold yours and dump hers. Even if I can get this other in place, you want me to hold that? Well, maybe not. Maybe not. No, I'd probably rather you buy $300 than $250 and dump the whole life. Yeah, that's a good point.

Let's do that and and i'm doing the 300 with you getting mortgage life and the mortgage life is cheaper because i think it's gonna be okay price it call your mortgage company say do you sell life insurance on the that pays off the mortgage just call customer the customer service and they'll probably sell it to you right there on the phone and it's probably cheaper per hundred thousand than what you're getting quoted if it's not if it's not just buy another hundred of that let's do 400 okay because you can afford it it's just a matter of what the value is now with your medical condition um it you know like if you have a cancer diagnosis and then you're cancer free the number of years you're cancer-free makes you first insurable

and then makes you even insurable at better rates. So is there a distance or is this a chronic condition? In other words, is this going to get – are you going to be more insurable five years from now? Yes, yes. This wasn't cancer, Dave. This was some stuff in my history with some alcohol. Okay. Yeah, that'll get you some stuff in my history with some alcohol. Okay. Yeah, that'll get you.

It's what I'm being told. If you stay sober, then, you keep your sobriety in place, and you get five years under your belt, that's going to be a whole different world. Right. And in five years, I'm looking to be well enough along. We shouldn't need a whole lot more insurance. Exactly. But you might be able to buy the exact same amount for half what you're paying five years from now. Correct.

On my wife, we were looking to dump the whole life and get her some sort of term. They did that in-house. I want to ask you on it real quick. It was a $100,000 face amount. It's going to figure out for her to $21 a month. She is a smoker, so he said that this is a renewable term every year. No. And you don't want to do that?

No, you don't do annual renewable term. It's not going to be the cheapest. You can go back to Zander on hers. You'll get a better deal there. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Yeah, you'll get do annual renewal term. It's not going to be the cheapest. You can go back to Xander on hers. You'll get a better deal there. Yeah, that's what I'll do. Yeah, you'll get a better deal there. You want to go ahead and just go ahead and get a 15-year level fixed on her. Y'all don't need 20s because the kids are old enough.

They're going to be grown and gone. Right. The point is, when are you going to have enough money, be debt-free, and the kids are gone? Those are your three variables to becoming self-insured. And you're going to have this house paid for making 168 cars going to be paid for the kids are going to be grown and gone in 10 years really i mean but so i wouldn't do more than a 15 on these um that'll give you plenty of time on both of them and um you know that's the i i think you're thinking

perfectly on this i completely agree with you Yes, I would drop her whole life. I'd run to Zander for hers. I'd pick up either $300 or $400, depending on how it compares out with the mortgage life on you, as a 10-year. I would reconsider all of this in five years and look and see where you are, how much you need. But you're considerably underinsured. But given your situation and what it costs, that's what I personally would do if I were in your shoes. I think you're what we want to make sure of is your wife and kids.

Okay. And they're going to be okay. They're not going to be like swimming in money, but they're going to be okay with what we're outlining here because they'd be a hundred percent debt free. She makes 50,000 a year. She's got a couple of teenagers and she's got $300,000 in her pocket. She'd be okay.

She can make it on that. It's not ideal, but it's pretty good. So good question. Thank you for calling in. I appreciate getting to walk with you on this. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Check with Zander Insurance. If you're thinking after that call, I need to get a quote, it's quick, it's easy.

It takes about 13 seconds, and you will get a full rundown. And some of the quote services you have to be aware of online, they take your name and sell it, and you'll get emails from 43 different people to give you quotes and it will drive you bananas zander doesn't do any of that they've got the whole engine built right there on their software to do the search and so they'll just churn the search out and it'll pop up there of the different companies and what they charge that zander can sell for you in your situation and again we recommend 10 to 12 times your income on 15 or 20-year level term because that's about how long it takes to be 100% debt-free. Kids are grown and gone, and we've got a pile of money in our mutual funds.

We're everyday millionaires. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top five most downloaded podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration, subscribe today.