The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: Of Course Your Banker Wants You To Stay in Debt! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 1, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze discuss: How to get started on the baby steps, Why you shouldn't keep your mortgage (to avoid fraud), Managing the will of a friend (and why you need a will). Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving in storage studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is done, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. We help people build wealth, do relationships the right way, and get in a career where they can change their lives and do work that matters. It's a show about your life. It's called The Ramsey Show.

Rachel Cruz, number one best-selling author many times over, Ramsey personality, and my daughter is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. The phone number here is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is Rob in Pittsburgh. Hey, Rob, welcome to the Ramsey show oh mr ramsey it is a honor to speak with you you too sir what's up hey yeah um i was wondering how um my wife and i can incorporate your baby steps into our financial planning um we kind of started off on our own and then um we found you so we are trying trying to just get that all integrated and incorporated. That's awesome.

So where are you guys at, Rob, financially? Where are you guys at with just income and debt and everything? So actually, I am going through a job change right now from the construction field to becoming a financial advisor. Oh, nice. Yeah, so we are on one income right now and that's roughly 50,000 a year. Okay. We have between my wife and I, we have $66,000 in our Roths. We have 90,000 in traditionals, IRAs, non-retirement mutual funds, we have about $44,000. And cash, we have about $40,000 as well. So we have no debt other than our house, which we owe $175,000.

Okay. Dang, you guys are doing great, Rob. Well done. Thank you. Well done. Yeah, well, the great thing about your numbers and you guys doing as well as you've done and being wise with it is that within the baby steps, you're jumping ahead many steps all the way to four, five, and six. So continuing, yeah, to put money in your retirement and then looking to pay the house off will be your next big goal. Do you guys have kids?

Yes, we have two kids. We have two 529 started with for them. Each with roughly $5,000 in it. But I have another just little question about the mutual funds that we have that are in non-retirement. We are down roughly 11% right now. And my other question was, should we wait for the market to rebound before we pull that and put it towards the house? I understand that that's the goal. I just didn't know what being down right now. Should we wait for it to rebound or just kind of put it towards the house now? Well, so you've accurately figured out that baby steps four five and six you do simultaneously so you have your emergency fund with the 40 000 in cash you're debt free except the house and that and you're putting money into your 401k putting money in the kids 529

and then any money we've got other than that we're going to throw it at baby step six which is pay off the house and that brings us to the discussion of them the mutual fund account with 44 000 at this down 11 so you're exactly you're asking the question you obviously understand this so you do know where you are you know how do we incorporate this you just live the you find out where you are in this process and four five and six is 15 of your income into retirement addressing kids college and everything above that that we can find reasonably with intentionality, we put on the house. So I'm going to put the mutual fund on the house.

Now, it is down 11%. Will it rebound? Yes. When? I don't know, and you don't either. By the end of 23, I'd bet big money it rebounds by then. But I don't know. I don't know.

Here's the thing I figured out. If you follow this process that so many people have followed that is so proven, $4,000 doesn't matter. Okay. And that's how much this account is down. Okay. I understand. If you make a mistake by pulling the money now and it jumps up 11% in Q1, you missed out on $4,000. Well, $4,000 doesn't make you rich.

Neither does in either direction, right? In other words, if I'm wrong and you pull it out now. I'm not mad at $4,000. No, no, but it's not the definition of rich, okay? Yes, yes, yes. It's not even the definition of a good car, okay? Right, right, right, right, right. So it doesn't mathematically, the arithmetic of it, it's not an emotional thing or a statement about wealth.

It's a math thing. And so does the $4,000 matter mathematically in whether you become rich or not? No, it doesn't. So you could do this either way, and it's not going to make you or break you. You follow me? I do. So if you want to wait on the market, wait on the market, but I wouldn't wait too long. Okay.

We do have two cars that are both paid for worth about $60,000. With where we're at now, would you suggest to keep them or to get rid of them? I suspect your income is going to be over $60,000 once you get moving here, right? Right. Yeah, so I mean, your income being $50,000 is a temporary thing. It's not what your income is going to be for the next five years. If you told me you're going to make $50,000 for the next five years and you had $60,000 worth of cars, yeah, you got two dead gum much car. But if you're going to make $120,000 average over the next four or five years,

which you are in household income, then, yeah, you keep those cars. So, you know, that's not thrown off. So what would I do if I woke up in your shoes? As weird as it sounds, I would cash that mutual fund out today and throw it at the debt. Because now I'm going to get on target. I'm just going to be on target. I'm going to put blinders on. I'm going to submit myself to this program.

I'm going to do this program exactly and with intentionality. And I'm not going to sit and try to figure out some way to shortcut it and ride the market or something or time the market. I'm just going to get out of debt well and what's fun rob is like just go on ribz solutions.com to the mortgage calculator and start watching even at forty thousand dollars you know how much interest you save by paying off your house early by applying this money to it and you can watch versus three months later though even on that it doesn't matter mathematically it's more of a thing of i'm going to do this thing pure and so 11 but damned i'm doing it you know yeah i mean that's um that's how i would do it and in other words here's another way looking at it what if you had enough in there to pay off your

house and but the market's down 11 paid off completely i paid off in about 30 seconds yep there'd be no arguing with me about it yep so why not take the 40 and going in the same principle yeah same kind of mentality but well done rob yeah man you got it we were going along and we found you and we decided to do your plan what do i do i'm like well you've kind of he knows the plan he knows the plan better than better than a lot of people yeah so better than people that i've been listening to you for 20 years and i just leased a car. You know, he's not that guy, you know.

So I bought a whole life insurance policy and took out a new credit card. Oh, my God. But I believe everything you say, Dave. We get those calls. I love those calls. All the time. Love those calls. Love those calls.

This is The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. rachel cruz ramsey personality number one best-selling author is my co-host today the ramsey goal planner with george camel dr john deloney and rachel cruz helps you every step of the way in your goal planning for 2023 they sell out every year did they sell out today today i don't i didn't get word of that okay they're getting close getting close yeah you left just a few just a handful left yeah we did two interviews i mean george did today about this so really okay so you're getting out there did some media hits yes yes but it's great it's a great goal planner it's not like as one lady said it's not a flimsy little calendar i was like no no no it is a serious serious planner i'm trying to get your mother to convert to it

because she uses that flimsy little calendar from wgreens. Yes, yes. That day at a glance thing or month at a glance, month at a glance thing. She's done that for like 40 years, I think. I think it's the same one. It's hard to, what is it, teach an old pony new tricks? An old me, me new tricks, yeah. But yeah, okay. Well, and it's different than just that, right? Like if you're just wanting just a simple calendar, you could print that off on Google.

This is like, has content, has goal setting, goal setting has i mean it helps you through many areas of your life not just spiritual part of your spiritual walk as well everything financial relational that's right there's something in there from uh dr john deloney george camel rachel cruz every day here it is all throughout the thing it's a beautiful as well it is a substantial uh gold planner it's a year planner and it will guide you and walks with you through the whole year and they are very very popular and they do sell out every year so if you're looking for a great christmas gift uh i suggest you go and get that like uh today that would be my suggestion ramsay solutions.com hit the uh hit the store and get the and get the old gold planner going there.

All right, Mary is with us in Toronto, Canada. Hi, Mary. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thanks very much, Dave. Thanks. Hi, Rachel. Hello, Mary. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. How can we help? Yeah, I'm curious if you could just want to get some advice or your advice on some advice that we had received about a mortgage. And we have a mortgage in first place on a home and then a line of credit that we don't have any. We haven't taken any money out, but that is in second place as a mortgage. And we're in a position where we can pay off that mortgage coming up soon. But the advice we were given was that we should keep that. So we have a mortgage in first place, line of credit second place,

and that would prevent anyone from fraudulently putting another mortgage on a home by keeping those two first and second place mortgages on there where did this advice come from a banker good bank a banker told you you should stay in debt what's mary and here's what's sad this is a particularly ignorant banker not only because the advice is ludicrous but it's asinine let me walk you through it okay here's the thing let's say you pay off your house is it different in canada let me say this is there any difference because she is in canada so i just want to throw that out there i i i cannot imagine that canadian law allows fraud okay it's not that it's no no no no no i try to answer right i'm answering rachel's question

i'm answering rachel's question okay so if someone fraudulently puts debt in your name of any kind including on your house it does not stand it gets removed and it doesn't cost you a thing you just have to go to the trouble of removing it. Mm-hmm. It's not like, and having a mortgage on your house does not protect you from that. They could still put. Attractive was his point. Do what? It makes it less attractive for somebody to pick up.

Yeah. Well, guess what? Mortgage fraud is not rampant in the U.S. or in Canada. It is the most difficult kind of fraud to actually accomplish for a crook. It's a lot easier to steal someone's identity and open up a credit card, like light years easier to open up a credit card in your name than to do this. And so here's what you ought to do on the basis of this moron's logic you should go deeply in debt and stay deeply in debt all through your life because

then you're less attractive to identity thieves that's how ridiculous this is you know so no absolutely not and um by the way don't ask the fox about the hen house. I'm going to ask a banker if I should stay in debt. That's like asking a dog if it's hungry. Oh, my God. 100% of the time you should stay in debt. It's what I live for is to put people in debt and keep them in debt. That's what Mr. Banker says. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. No, darling. No. It's amazing how they just play on the fear. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like, that's the interesting part. But, like that's that's the interesting but i mean that's the best you got that's the best i mean it would have been the argument that you keep your

money and put it in an investment that makes more than your mortgage interest rate yeah is at least logical and the argument say this one is not even this one's like fantasy screwed up stuff i mean no the number of paid for homes that get a mortgage placed on them um fraudulently is approaching zero it is a very very very small thing and if you're concerned about that type of thing you should have identity theft protection anyway all of you have in the states we would send you to zander insurance i'm not sure they issue it in canada but um i can't keep up with what canada doesn't know well but the only reason i didn't know if you're going to get into like mortgage law or like very specific it's yeah that are different fraud is fraud and so if someone

if someone's so folks if someone signs your name without a power of attorney to anything and they put your name in debt, you are not liable for that. There's zero times that you're liable for that debt. Yeah. Okay, so how would that happen? Can we just, like, go down that rabbit hole for a quick second? It's a very complicated thing. I mean, you have to sign as if you're her, and then you have to record it at the courthouse on her house.

Yeah. I mean, it's a complicated fraud. Yeah. It's very difficult to pull off because there's about three layers of stuff you've got to do very clearly. To your point, it's not just like a credit card. No, it's very easy to do a credit card yeah yeah i mean people do credit card fraud all the time right the mortgage oh look

point eight three percent of all mortgage applicants are fraud less than one percent yeah so there you go mary that's the applications and that's not even that's fair and that's not even the it was not even issued then yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, Mary, it's a non-issue. Yeah. So, no, you're. It's going to be like.0008 that it actually occurs, right? That's right, yeah. And so, it's just, it's a non-statistical thing.

But if you're worried about fraud, and you should be, because there's crooks everywhere, you should get identity theft protection from Zender Insurance. Everybody ought to have that. We buy it for all of our employees here, all of our team, all of our MC team members. It's a benefit of working here. It's one of our HR benefits because we believe in it that strongly because there's just something all the time. If you haven't noticed, Stinkin' call me all the time on my debit card and go, is somebody

using your account? Yes. Which I so appreciate. Is that you in Mexico? Yeah, I'm down there again. But I mean, it's, golly. You sound so sketchy. Dave. Dave's Cabo trips. This sounds so sketchy. Dave.

Dave's Cabo Trix. Hola, Dave. Hola. I do appreciate my bank, though. They're very on top of it in that sense. Like, I do get. Well, because it costs them money. Oh, yeah.

Not you. Yeah. That's why they're on top of it. Yeah. Well, I appreciate it. It's not. Yes, they're service oriented. And that's not.

It's good that they have some service. But it's. You complimented a bank. Well, but it's not, they, yes, they're service oriented and that's not, it's good that they have some service, but it's, it's not. You complimented a bank. Well, but it's, it's really not that altruistic. I mean, because it's their money that's going to be lost, not yours. Yeah. They're trying to protect themselves by giving you service. That's the thing. And you got to keep this amount of banks.

But Mary, that's a, that's a thing that comes up all the time. And, um, or doesn't come up all the time. No, I mean, the fear of this runs all over the internet yeah i'm just really shocked that a banker actually came up with this as the reason to stay in debt among all the other possible reasons that a banker could have given this is this guy's really lame so i mean he's like bottom fishing here serious but that's the way it is and glad you called mary there's nothing you know. Rachel, I've been doing this for 30, almost 31 years coming up on now here. And it turns out that 30 years from now when I'm not here and you're still doing this,

the questions will probably be the same. This is The Ramsey Show. so Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions. Which, by the way, you should stop by and see us. When you're out running around and over the hill and through the woods to grandmother's house, we go for the holidays and all that stuff. Come by and see us. We've got free homemade chocolate chip cookies, free coffee, free all kinds of good stuff over here and a big bookstore and you can watch the show being done on the glass every day live from one to four central between

now and about the 22nd after the 20 seconds you're going to get best ofs but you aren't going to come around here anyway after that so um yeah come around see us we've always got uh 50 to cut 50 to 200 folks standing around sitting sitting around, watching the show happen every time we do it live. And also, it's where the Debt Free Stage is, which is where Jerry and Brenna are, standing on the Debt Free Stage. Hey, guys, welcome. Thank you.

Where do you live? Dixon, Illinois. All right. Very cool. Welcome to Nashville. How much debt have you paid off? $87,000. All right. Very cool. Welcome to Nashville. How much debt have you paid off? $87,000. All right. How long did that take? 31 months. Cool. And your range of income during that time? It was $99,000 to we should be about $135,000 this year. Cool. What do you do

for a living? I'm a manager for an Ace Hardware rental department and I sell power equipment like chainsaws and stuff like that. Cool. And I'm an office manager at Pest Control Consultants, a pest company in Dixon. All right. Very good. Good. What kind of debt was the $87,000? We had $30,000 consumer debt, some credit cards, a loan to our dad, a couple cars, and

then the rest was our house. Oh, paid off your house. Wow. Good for you. You're young to pay off your household, are you? I'm 37. 33. Looking at weird people. Yeah. I love it go you two very cool what's this house worth about 150 i love it good for you very fun

how long you two been married nine and a half years okay cool but two and a half years ago something happened oh covid yeah yeah but other than that uh what happened that uh woke you guys up and got you on the path here so it was actually uh december of 2019 it was right after christmas i had a dream car in mind and i was entertaining the idea of i think it's time for mom to get a new car and being the wonderful husband that he is i mean i think he thought you know this is going to be her life lesson um i'm going to take her she thinks she's going to drive it home, but we're not. So we went anyways. And we were actually in a, we were in a seven year term for our vehicle that we had. So we were going to go upside down in it. Very casual, want the car. He goes and figures the numbers, comes back, the payment's going to be more than our mortgage. It was a big pill to

swallow. And I'm like, wow. So we just, you know, casually were like, okay, we're going to think about it. Walk out of there. We look at each other and we're like, this is crazy. Like, this is crazy. Something has to change. And we had, we had looked into doing this before we got our DVDs from my dad years before that, but this was the kicker. And we got lucky because COVID happened in 2020. So you couldn't go out and do much anyway. So that was extremely helpful. And that's where it kind of helped build the momentum.

So. Wow. Breakthrough. Oh, by heartbreak too, right? I'm going to go get a new car. I'm a car guy. And I knew doing so many loans back in the day that I knew we couldn't afford it anyways. Totally.

But she went to so many dealerships with me, I'm like, I'm going to go with her and just let her experience this. Yeah, let her see it. Yeah. Okay, so were both of you on board? Did you guys both leave and look at each other and say something has to change? Did one of you kind of feel it more urgent? Yeah, she always thought the idea of we shouldn't do car loans, but then I brought it home. It's my idea.

Let's go ahead and do this now. So I was actually two days before or two days after Christmas, all the videos started popping back up on YouTube. I was working out and I thought I took it home to her. Let's do this. You know, now it's my idea. So it's a good idea.

You know, Google heard you started like feeding you all the, all the content. Oh, that's so funny. Okay. So for the two and a half years, you said,

obviously there were parts that were kind of easy because it's not like you're traveling and going on vacation. You did it right in the heart of COVID and pandemic and quarantine and everything. So what was hard though? Because now we're kind of back to, yeah, we're back to life and moving and shaking, but you guys still were doing it. Yeah. Doing the plan.

For the first seven and a half years of our marriage, we didn't have joint bank accounts. So that was the hardest thing for me. Oh, yeah. Stuff in my childhood, just I was tight with my money marriage, we didn't have joint bank accounts. So that was the hardest thing for me. Stuff in my childhood, I was tight with my money. So I didn't want to let it go. But I think it was an episode I watched that first couple days before we started. And somebody came on and said something about combining your incomes is the only way to make it work. And I went home and said, let's do it.

Let's combine our incomes. Whoa, man. He just... All in. How was that though? I'm that kind of person. A lot of couples don't, still,

it's like, it's the pushback we get, you know, we get a lot of pushback on different things. So how, how did that change? It's the most hate that you get. For me personally,

yes, people. George called some people not to eat out and you, because of joint accounts. So how did it change your marriage? for something to hate on.

Way better talking about money. Yeah. So there's way more, there's more trust and everything involved into it. All of it. Everything's laid. So there's way more, is more trust and everything all involved into it. So everything's laid out. There's no secrets, which I would say for the most part, there wasn't at that point anyways,

but then it's just all right there in front of you. We're like roommates. Like you say, you know, we pulled our money in and we just blew everything else. You know, we bought our own stuff that we wanted to on the side. So yeah.

Yeah. Oh, congratulations. You guys. Thank you. Well done. And with two kids. How was that? Cause there's a lot of families that, that listened to the show and are on the side. Yep. Yep. Oh, congratulations, you guys. Thank you. Well done. And with two kids, how was that? Because there's a lot of families that listen to this show and are on that journey.

This one likes to go out to eat and have fun with the kids while I'm at work. I'm the fun. He's the fun sponge. So I'm the one that gets to do all that. So that's hard because we have a friend that loves to go and do things. And when the budget's gone, it's gone. And the kids understand that now, too. If they want McDonald's, how much do we have left in the food budget can we go oh no not this month

we'll have to wait till it resets and so they totally grasp it and understand how it works as well even our daughter in kindergarten her teacher came out and said she keeps talking about this dave ramsey who's dave ramsey so in kindergarten she you know and they know when the budget's gone yeah when does the budget restart so we can go to McDonald's or whatever. That's awesome. I'm big in the kindergarten demographic. That's one of my big demographics. Oh, my gosh.

Way to go, you guys. So cool. Very, very well done. Hey, we got a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you and the Live and Give Bundle and the Baby Stepsaires book, because that's the next chapter in your story for sure. You're on your way. And a one-year membership to Financial Peace University. If you haven't been through it formally yet, go through it. If you are, give it all away, whatever you want to do.

It's the Live and Give Bundle. All right, bring the kiddos up and tell us their names and ages. We have Aria. She just turned eight on Tuesday. All right. Hudson, he is five. Very cool. All right, so all the way from Illinois, have we been practicing our debt-free screams?

We did watch some old debt-free screams on YouTube before we came down. Okay. So we kind of got the format down. We know. Okay. That's good. A little bit of prep. Very fun.

Well, the cool thing is, is that they're both old enough to remember that time that their parents, during the pandemic, changed their family tree. So you guys are heroes. thing is is that they're both old enough to remember that time that their parents during the pandemic changed their family tree so you guys are heroes well done very very well done i'm looking at uh little kids whose mom and dads are heroes and change their family tree it'll never be the same because of what y'all have done so very very cool beautifully beautifully played it's good stuff jerry and brenna aria and hudson dixon illinois 87 000 paid off in 31 months making 99 to 135 count it down let's hear a One, two, three. We're debt free! Yeah! That is how it's done, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, man, I love it.

Very cool. So sweet. Very cool. Yeah, really. And they did, man, they paid off a lot of debt with that income in two and a half years. Yes, yes. that's like beans and rice yeah rice and beans they cut everything completely focused completely intense which is how you do it folks and if you don't know the debt snowball is what these folks are using it's where

you list your debts everything but your house smallest to largest debt regardless of the interest rate you pay minimum payments on everything but your smallest debt and you attack it with a vengeance like your freaking hair is on fire like your life depends on it you sell so much stuff the kids think they're next you're not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there you and your spouse are locking arms and there is no freaking vacations no way whiner get her done you got to lean in and go scorched earth and knock it out no just like that call the ambulance and get it done this is how it's done right you can't have years two and a half years

man i'm telling you these people were not moseying out of. They were running like their life depended on it, and now they're 100% free, house and everything. Very impressive. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly how you do it. This is The Ramsey Show. Teksting av Nicolai Winther Thanks for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host today. Stephen's with us in California. Hi, Stephen. How are you? Good.

How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? It's an honor to get to talk to you guys today. My wife and I recently inherited an estate from a good friend of ours. He was an elderly man that we took care of for about 13 years and he recently passed um and we're just nervous to navigate the probate process and the uh the county office that looked over the will it's a handwritten will said that we shouldn't need an attorney but we don't

know if we should get one anyways or how to navigate it. Okay. What is the size of the estate? How much money is it worth? Well, his bank account was not, I was a beneficiary, so they said that that stays out of probate. Correct. So they just wrote me a check for that. There is a mortgage on the home of about $150,000 still.

It's worth probably $350,000. And then he's got a car that's worth somewhere around $10,000 and just miscellaneous things other than that. Okay. Okay. So you took the handwritten will to the county probate department or probate office? The public affairs office is who wanted it. We haven't submitted the probate paperwork yet.

Okay. And he has no next of kin. He was a single man. We were the only ones that he really let into his life. We were next-door with them and and everything you know there's a couple hundred thousand dollars involved here in equity and um yeah so what would i do if i woke up in your shoes um the fact that it's handwritten doesn't invalidate it but it makes it uh have more potential uh bumps in the road it's not it's not as it's not as airtight uh necessarily it could be legally

i'm not saying it legally but it just it it raises the you know people people that you're dealing with her so i would talk to a couple of probate attorneys in that County and ask them what they would charge you. Have you priced the service of having someone run it through? Uh, the one attorney I talked to, she said she was going to get back to me and that was over two weeks ago and she hasn't called me back yet. Okay. So that means you're not using her. Yeah um so i mean i wouldn't spend uh two thousand or five thousand dollars to do this but i would spend 500 bucks and let someone else screw with it um in a heartbeat i would do that and so i would look for some because if it if it is as

the county affairs officer told you if it is a no-brainer for it to just go straight through it's not a lot of legal work for the attorney. But to have someone that knows everybody down at the courthouse in that area that can just walk down there and walk the thing through and knows the judge, and it's kind of like going to traffic court at that point. It's just automatic, right? Versus you walking through there and have never walked through this landmine before and do not know where the bombs are that you could step on, that would be me.

I don't know how to do that. And so I would personally, Dave, would hire somebody to go do that for me. But it's not worth $2,000 or $3,000 or $5,000 for something that consists of three whole assets, a bank account that's already handed off a car and a house that's mortgaged. So, no, I wouldn't spend thousands and thousands, but I would spend some money to have someone just that knows the path through the woods, so to speak. Sure.

And then do I keep his bills current or do I let that go into the probate process? What other bills are there? His mortgage, and then we just paid his car registration. We put insurance on his car because it's parked outside, and we don't want it to get destroyed or stolen. And you lose the asset. Yeah, I would do those kinds of things.

And if you don't pay the mortgage, you're going to have to catch it up later on. So what are you going to do with the house? We might put a 15-year on it and get it paid off quick and rent it. What's the interest rate? Right now, on that one. I think it's 4%. I wouldn't bother to refinance it. I would just pay on it.

Oh, okay. Just pay extra on it. You can pay extra on a 30 and pay it off in six. It doesn't matter. So you don't have to restructure it. It's a lower interest rate than markets, so I would just keep it. With being in his name, though. Doesn't matter. And being a va loan doesn't matter with that oh okay doesn't matter he died he died the mortgage stays in

place as long as you keep it current that's the law oh wow that's good to know yeah the um the deed of the standard boilerplate va deed of trust does not allow them to call the note in the event of death of the veteran. It just doesn't, as long as you keep it current. Now, if you don't keep it current, they foreclose on it, obviously. Right? So I would just keep it current, and I would go get an attorney, run it through, and then let's get the thing paid off as fast as you can. You've got a nice rental.

How much more complicated would it be if he had family that were going against the will and it's handwritten? Oh, well, all of a sudden you've got litigation costs now. Yeah. Because you've got a dispute that's got to go before the judge and you probably, I don't know, it might be $15,000, $20,000 now because you've got to fight with... Because of it being specific handwritten. No, no, just because you've got to fight.

If anybody wants to fight it, just cost it. See, the problem with the justice system is it has nothing to do with justice it has to do with you got to pay to fight even if the other person has absolutely no case yeah yeah i'm thinking about like mama bear legal forms how easy it is to get a will right online and do you know do a state specific will and how much more complicated it is when you don't have a will or you know a handwritten it's like they're in the middle right like it's the how much more complicated it is when you don't have a will or you know a handwritten yeah like they're in the middle right like it's the how much it stands up in the legal process it'll stand up just fine as long as it meets the exact same guidelines but it does put it more into

question if there's a dispute because you know what are they going to say they're going to say this guy you know this guy steven he you know my, my dad kind of had Alzheimer's and he went over there and befriended him and talked him into writing this thing out by hand. And it just lends itself more to the narrative of some kind of something like that. If somebody wants to argue about it. Yes. Yes. And you're more likely to have done it wrong because wills are state specific and um a written handwritten will is legal in every state but what is required whether it's a notary whether it's three witnesses a witness

those are different in a lot of states yep and so it's not a blanket federal law that dictates what a will has to contain to be valid it is different from from state to state. And I'm sure California is weird because California is weird on everything when it comes to law. All California laws are weird. And the other one that's really weird is Louisiana because they're French-based law rather than English-based law. And so you get all kinds of wacky stuff in Louisiana, too. And then you've got stuff like Texas and Florida where they just don't even have any laws no I'm kidding but uh but it's much more wild wild west in those areas so a lot of there's a lot of good legislation I'm just joking around but the thing is it is very

different and that's why you need the rest of you out there listening need to go to mama bear legal forms but let's just say again because I don't want to get like 73 lawyers sending me hate mail a holographic a handwritten will is 100 legal and airtight if executed properly according to state laws the only thing that could they only the only negative about it is or the biggest negative about it is one you could have done it wrong because handwritten means you did not get help usually and you might not have the right number of uh witnesses or whatever two if someone wants to argue about it it lends itself more to the argument that's the story that yeah that a weak old person was unduly influenced in some way right you know by the crazy stepmother or the whatever it is you know the arguments that people always have.

So what we always tell folks to do is get a professionally done legal will, legal will for your state from MamaBearLegalForms.com. And then if there are relatives, and this gentleman didn't have relatives, okay, but for the rest of you out there, we're just going to use this as a teaching session here. Tell everyone what the will says. Go ahead and have a reading of the will while you're alive so if you're going to piss someone off when you die go ahead and do it while you're alive to take a rap you're doing cocaine you get nothing just tell them okay your cocaine habit gets you kicked out of the will just go ahead and tell them now and that solves it and then when the cocaine addict shows up and wants their cut later

after you're gone, it keeps it down the lawsuits. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.

That's ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.