The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: Rich Parents Are Disowning Their Kids to Get Need-Based Scholarships (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 1, 2019

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Joanne is with us, and Joanne is going to start off this hour from Maryland.

Hi, Joanne. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. It's such a pleasure speaking with you. It's such an honor. Thank you so much. Sure. How can I help? I just want to get to the point. So I had a small online business account. I had a small business last year, and I opened an account with a major bank, which I had since closed last year also. But during the time when I opened the checking account, I also opened a credit card, which I used one time and purchased a small item for less than $100. I had paid that off. And recently this year in April, I got a statement from the bank

stating that I owe them money for late charges. And I called them and tried to resolve this issue and come to find out the payments that I made last year were reversed by them. But they didn't notify me or give me a call to let me know that they had done that until I called them this April. Why were the payments reversed? And that's the reason why I was calling them, because there was no explanation. And every time I called them, I've been transferred to multiple departments, and none of them could tell me exactly why they were reversed. Okay. So what did you, you paid a payment out of your checking account, correct?

Out of my savings account. Out of your savings account. Okay. Do you not go back and look at your savings account and make sure that it balances? Well, when I look at my account, it showed that it posted on both accounts in my savings and in the credit card statement. And then three weeks or a few weeks after that, they came back and told me that, no, we credited your account back. We would lose the payment. But there was no explanation as to why they did it. Okay, so you – and that was a year ago.

It was last year. Okay, so you knew it, though, at the time that it came back, right? No, I just found out actually this April. So you don't look at your checking account to see a reversed charge but once a year? No, I did not. That was my problem, I guess. That was my issue. I did not look at that account and since I had not been happy with their customer service, I actually closed my account with them. And then they just sent me

a statement this April and actually I spoke with the provider. And then they just sent me a statement this April. So how much money do they say you owe them now? It's not much. It's only $60.55. $60 on a charge that's under $100? Yes. So those were actually late fees. For a year?

That I owe them. Yes, that's what they told me that I owe. And you've not been getting statements from them saying you owe money? Well, this is the first time actually I look at the statement. Oh, actually in April. That was the first time I received a statement showing I had a balance sheet. Okay, here's what you need to do. What company is this?

Bank of America. Oh, of course it is. Okay, so you've learned two lessons if you're smart. One is you don't deal with mega banks like Bank of America because they're stupid. Yes. Okay. The second lesson you've learned is you have to watch and take care of business better than you have been. You didn't open your credit card statements for a year,

and you didn't look at your savings account to see that the charges had been reversed for a year. That's not taking care of business well. That's true, and I understand that. So this is what's called $60 in stupid tax. Not looking at your statements or opening them for a year is stupid, so it costs you $60. Should I be concerned about this in the future? Would it bite me in my behind? That's going to show that you have late payments on your credit bureau report for a year.

Oh, well, I guess that wouldn't matter because I'm trying to follow your steps. Yeah, that doesn't matter much. But here's the thing. When I do something stupid and it costs me money, I call that stupid tax. I have paid a lot of stupid tax. And the good rule about stupid tax is never pay the same one twice. Okay. Okay. And you're paying a $60, which is a fairly light tax.

I mean, that's not too bad for not opening your statements and not watching over your business well and for doing business with companies like Bank of America. So you learn two lessons, both for $60. That's a bargain. That's a bargain. Write the check, close the account, be done with these idiots because you technically legally owe the money. I don't know why they would reverse a perfectly good payment.

But what the heck? Do it anyway. You know? Because it's Bank of America. They're stupid. They just have no soul. And the best thing to do is not do business with them. So, yeah, that's what I would do if I were in your shoes.

You know, it's kind of like this, guys. Same thing. I never did this, but I had a whole bunch of friends that did this because i grew up in real estate business so i knew better but a lot of people when you're leaving a rental property they just move off well the lease is up and you just move off and you go well i want my deposit back because the property was left in good condition don't do that that's going to cost you your deposit a bunch of times with a bunch of landlords because they're going to come in and nitpick apart the condition of the property and keep your deposit instead you should always meet the management company or the landlord or whoever on the site after you have moved out and get a signed agreement that the property is in as to the condition the property is in and the amount of the deposit that's going to be returned.

And the fact that you've completed the lease legally and in full. You should check into a property when you lease it. You should check out into a property when you lease it. You should check out of a property when you lease it with documentation. When you don't, you're going to end up paying stupid tax. Well, I paid the rent and moved off. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that. And then they go, well, we had to replace the carpet. You go, well, the carpet was fine when I left.

Well, no, we're taking that out of your deposit because there was no agreement as to the condition of the property when you move out. It's the same kind of thing. You have to open your mail. You have to look at your business. You can't stick your head in the sand and ignore stuff. You can't half-butt do business transactions as an adult out here walking around and end up anything but losing money as a result.

And that's what happened to her. That's what happened to those people I'm talking about. I've done stuff exactly like that, too. I can't think of an example off the top of my head right now, but believe me, I've been as stupid as any of you have ever been, and it still catches up with you, and it still bites you, and I still pay stupid tax. That's the thing. So, perfect.

That's how you do it. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us, America, and for participating in this show. 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 health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry.

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. The college student loan crisis has pissed everybody off. We're all sick of it.

We, the taxpayers, are sick of being on the hook for $1.6 trillion in guaranteed student loans. Yes, we're on the hook for it because if you people that owe it don't pay it, the taxpayer picks up the bill. That's how this works. And oh, by the way, if it's forgiven, the taxpayer picks up the bill. So you getting out of your student loans doesn't mean that the nation got out of your student loans. It doesn't mean that there's still not a $1.6 trillion drain on the economy. So it sure has brought up a lot of discussions about the value of college

and the importance of a university education and the stupid stuff and the illegal stuff that people are doing in order to get their kids into school we've got the hollywood elites that um you know bought their way into ridiculous situations tried to get free school you know kids that are supposed to be on the rowing team and aren't all that garbage just straight up fraud and go to jail don't pass go now we're having to deal with a district attorney and it's all in the spotlight and tabloid headlines and so here comes another group of fraudulent misfits in the culture dozens of college students from well-to-do families now this didn't say millions it said dozens. It's all over the news as if this is an epidemic plague on our culture.

It's not. It's just another handful of crooks. Dozens of college students from well-to-do families may be getting money reserved for poorer families thanks to a legal loophole. They are giving up custody of their own children what scum this tactic is legal but ethically questionable do you think says andrew borst the director of undergraduate admissions at the university of illinois chief among his

concerns financial aid money is limited money we give to one student is money not going to another student well besides that it's fraud ethically you're not poor you shouldn't be taking poor people's money that was set aside for poor people to go to college that's what a pell grant is it's poor people, people that don't have money. I'm afraid if I save too much money, my kids won't qualify for financial aid. Well, no crap. I'm afraid if I get a job, I don't qualify for welfare. No kidding, doofus.

What kind of morons are you people? This is unbelievable. Here's how the scheme worked. Families near Chicago. Oh, here's a shock. Thank you, Chicago. Jeez. You mean there's financial problems in Illinois?

This is new news. Would give up legal guardianship of their children to relatives or friends. Students would then file for financial independence, which effectively opened the door to financial aid that they would not have been able to access while under the legal care of their parents, who had the freaking money to send their kid to college. The University of Illinois started investigating after high school counselors from, quote, fairly wealthy neighborhoods had called in to inquire about low-income orientation programs they were unfamiliar with. The university dug deeper and found a pattern of students entering into legal guardianship, though they were still supported by their parents. Thank you.

Well, I'm glad they dug it out. So it's just like saying, I'm going to move all of my grandmother's million dollars out of her name so she qualifies for Medicaid nursing home. We're going to move it out of granny's name. How can we get the assets out of granny's name so the nursing home doesn't get it? See, that's called welfare fraud. They have the ability to look back five years and undo your illegal transfers of wealth for you to illegally qualify for welfare nursing

home called Medicaid nursing home. The only way you get free nursing home is your own welfare. The only way you go to college and the government pays for it based on your income is based on the fact that you don't have any money. You're poor.

I've been poor. I know how it feels. I'm not mad at you if you're poor. This is not poor shaming. It's not what I'm doing. As a matter of fact, I'm quite much taking up for the people that qualify for these things legitimately. If you qualify for a pell grant legitimately take it i'm fine with that go to college it's wonderful then maybe the next

generation you won't qualify this is awesome but wealthy parents legally disowning their children so they can qualify for need-based financial aid unethical it should be illegal if it's not if it's unethical at a minimum i mean that's like a slam dunk but illegal i don't know if it's illegal but it should be this is just it ought to be just like these you know these hollywood socialites who, you know, paid their way for their kid to get into school. This is just nuts, you guys. This is just nuts. Listen, no one likes it when the system, someone busts the system and rigs it against why it was put together. It makes all of us get our back up because we all believe in justice at some level.

Now, some of you believe if you can screw someone, you should be able to, and you can get away with it. But most of us have a sense of honor, a sense of decorum, a sense of ethics. We don't treat other people. I would never think of that. I'll give you another example. In the state of Tennessee, you can get $3,000-something per year under the HOPE scholarship if you're an in-state student going to an in-state school.

That money is provided by the people who lost the lottery. The lottery in Tennessee generates billions of dollars and has paid billions of dollars out in Hope scholarships. I hate the lottery. The lottery is a tax on poor people and a tax on people who can't do math. It's a horrible thing. I campaigned against it when it was up for a vote. I knew we were going to lose.

People wanted the lottery. You got the lottery. The vast majority of people who play the lottery are in lower-income zip codes. The Hope Scholarship Program in the state of Tennessee, in the state of Georgia, and other states who do the same thing, is 100% people who can't do math and poor people sending middle-class people and rich people kids to college. I can't stand it. I've been a loud mouth about it for 20-something years.

I hate it. Now, how ethical would it be when my kids went to the University of Tennessee for my kids to take the Hope Scholarship money? That would be completely unethical. It would be so hypocritical, it would be unbelievable. So no Ramsey kid of mine, my three, went to the University of Tennessee, my three graduated from the university of tennessee my three graduated from the university of tennessee received any of the tennessee lottery scholarship money if i'm going to preach against

it and say how horrible it is that the government has institutionalized taxing poor people and stupid people these are the only people that play the lottery. If we're going to tax these people, if I'm against that, how wrong would it be, how hypocritical would it be for me to accept that scholarship for my own kids? Of course I didn't take it. Folks, we have to have some ethics. We have to have some honor. We have to have some dignity. You know, there has to be a sense of decorum out there and you know this is not a widespread epic thing this is a handful of stupid people almost all the

other article i said read on this that is almost all through one law firm and so we ought to go and disbar those lawyers and we ought to you, we ought to investigate whether or not this is actually technically welfare fraud. You know, at least put a couple of these people's names on the front page of the paper and embarrass the crap out of them for being the scum that they are. At a minimum. It's not an epidemic, though. What is epidemic is what's always been epidemic. There's always a crook out there in the pile somewhere. And it just shows up and becomes very emotional around a subject we're all pissed off about,

like student loan debt. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Chris is with us in Connecticut. Hi, Chris. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. It's an honor. Thanks for having me. Sure.

What's up? That last rant was a good lead-in for my question. I need help from mean old Uncle Dave to help articulate the craziness of a family member's actions. We have a family member who wants to go to grad school at a state for $60,000 a year plus living expenses and started a GoFundMe page to raise the money. They have undergrad loans still. They live at home. They work full time.

And in their post, they address the questions of why don't you choose a state school or a cheaper school and said those programs are too competitive. And if one school accepts you, you go no matter what because you will never have another opportunity. And they say they do not approve of working or discouraged by the school for fear of failing out. We love this person, but there's so much wrong with this that I don't know where to start the conversation. And I know what to say, but I know you'll say it better. Why are you going to start the conversation? Because, I mean, we don't want her to start out her life in debt and in paying off her loans in 20 years. I mean, knowing what I know, I wish I knew it at her age.

We want to help. Okay. This doesn't sound like someone that is going to be persuaded to me. That's why I ask. I think that this is an arrogant person who's got everything figured out. No, she really isn't. She's normally a very sweet girl, and this kind of took the whole family by surprise, and the whole family's pretty upset about it, but no one really knows what to say.

How old is the girl? I think she's 23. Okay. And what relation is she to you? Wife's cousin. Your wife's cousin. That's fairly distant. It's not like it's your sister. No, we're all pretty close it's not like it's your sister okay well i don't think you've got much of a footing to do a persuasional talk here but um if you were going to you just have to rebut the stupid stuff that she's saying i mean you just have to go through and go, this is just simply not true. Okay?

The idea that you have to go to this school to be competitive is not true. The idea that you have to go to a school that requires you to not work is not true. What is the field of study? Nurse practitioner. Okay. They do generally require or encourage you to not work in that field of study when you're doing your final, you know, when you're doing your grad work, because that is very intense. So it's a wonderful field.

And $60,000 is not bad. Only she just doesn't have the money. Would you recommend her paying off her undergrad loan? No, I'd be fine. If she called me, if she could figure out a way to go for cash i'd go for cash while the undergrad sat until she gets out and finishes her nurse practitioner then use that income to clear up the undergrad i wouldn't want to add to the hole that she's in but this here's the thing anytime someone in making any decision i mean virtually any decision says there's only one way to do this.

That type of fatalism is flawed logic. It's the same logic that says, oh, there's only one person on the planet I was supposed to marry, and that one got away. I will never get married. No, there's more than one that you can choose from. There's only one house. You know, I only have two jobs I can choose from. No, there's a only have two jobs i can choose from no there's a whole lot of jobs you can choose from you know i mean anytime you narrow your choices down and create a drama

around the fact that you made the choice says that your critical thinking skills are broken does that make sense yeah it does you know and so that that's where i would attack this and just go you know it's kind of almost a pat on the head and just say, calm down, sweetie. There's other ways to become a nurse practitioner. This is not the only school to go to. It's not the only one you can get accepted to. And there's other ways to fund going, you know. And so what you're doing is trying to create your ideal world here where you don't have

any consequences and get to do whatever the flip you want to do. And no one is liking this. We're all looking at you thinking it's stupid. We think the emperor has no clothes, and I'm going to be the kid in the street that says, dude's naked. I'm going to call you out and say, this is bad logic. It's bad for you. It makes you look dumb and immature, and you're not dumb and immature, but you really are acting it. And there's other ways to become a nurse practitioner than this school.

It's not the only school on the planet that will ever accept you. What a load of horse crap. You know, lots of people work and do other things. They don't do much while they're in nurse practitioner school, but it's very tough to get through. It's a tough, it's a rigorous study program. It really is. It's not one that's easy to work, but she already got her nursing certificate, and she just wants to go to nurse practitioner level?

I don't know exactly what her undergrad was in, but she's working as a medical assistant right now. I mean, if she could pass her nursing bar ahead of time and go ahead and be a nurse she could probably do some practicum stuff and get paid for it while she's doing this um she might even get a hospital company to write the check and take her to nursing practitioner if she agreed to work for him for a few years and go you know that that's a way to get the thing scholarshiped there There's all kinds of ways to look at this. And once you decide that fatalism is not your methodology for your critical thinking skills, meaning I go into drama mode and go, oh, there's only one way to do this,

and this is the way, and you're telling me I can't live my dreams. That's just so immature. It's just so childish. Would you recommend with that being my wife's side of the family that my wife take the lead on this instead of me? Whoever has enough credibility with her. Because you're telling someone you love something that they likely are not going to hear, and the only way they might hear it is if they truly believe the person delivering it loves them. Deeply.

I mean, because you think about somebody delivering you news you don't want to hear who are you going to hear it from someone you really trust and that you trust that they don't have a conflict of interest and you trust their wisdom and you trust the fact that they care about your life that's who you'll hear wicked tough news from right yeah i mean because that's why you know somebody in uh you know new hampshire sends me hate mail about something i said i'm just like that's humorous you know or you troll me on twitter that's just humorous because the likelihood of me changing my behavior being accountable to one of you that i've never met is just a mean butt i'm i don't i'm not going to but one of my best friends walks in here who's written five best-selling books and goes,

Dave, what you said on the radio the other day was really, you were off base on that. I'm going to hear that from that guy, right? Yeah. He can deliver me. Because, in other words, if you're going to smack somebody in the back of the head, you first got to get your arm around their shoulder and give them a hug. So your hand is in position to smack the back of the head. Well, you know, you said something the smack the back of the head well you know you said something

the other day on the show about uh you know someone who's doing uh something not smart and everyone else is saying oh yeah that's great good for you and behind your back they're saying that was dumb well just tell them that you know just tell them that so you know people are talking about you behind your back about how stupid this is and no one's got no one loves you enough to got enough courage to sit down and look at you and say hey i really want to challenge some of your logic here because i don't think it's good for you it doesn't affect me it doesn't affect me you go do this my life is not going to change because i'm not giving you any money and i'm not going to pay any of your debt so it doesn't affect me at all i just care about you and i think you've got some flawed logic

here and and i think this lack of wisdom is going to bring pain into your life and I'm going to love you enough to tell you when maybe someone else didn't. That's your only way to set this up and it is probably your wife, not you. But even then, I think this girl is so invested in this path emotionally that it's going to be, she not asking you know yeah she's not asking she's telling everybody that's why i said arrogant she's not asking for advice she's telling everyone this is the way it is you people and that's why i don't think she's going to listen that my grandmother used to say those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still so that's why i don't

argue with people on this show i answer your question you know you hear me call people call in and they ask me the same question four times after i've already answered it trying to get a different answer that they want you ever heard that yeah i finally just hang up on them because i'm wasting my time they didn't want an answer they want me to agree with their stupidity and i'm not going to and i move on to the next caller so hey i appreciate that you care about your cousin. You're a good man. Your wife's cousin.

It's a good thing. It's hard to watch people you love do stupid stuff and embarrassing things. And most all of us have a family member or two that do. But if, you know, your wife can try it that way, man, I'm just going to give you low probability of success. I think this girl's already got her mind made up. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Anthony is in Georgia. Hi, Anthony. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. Thanks for having me. Certainly. How can I help? Well, I'm 20 years old, and I'm a full-time college student, and I also do work full-time. I make about $30,000 a year and right now I rent an apartment with a roommate and pay about $480,000.

That's including utilities and rent. And my question was, would it be smart to maybe get a jumpstart and possibly buy a house? I have no debt whatsoever and my school is still paid for until I graduate. And right now I'm just kind of saving up money. When will you graduate? It will be May of 2021. I'm entering my junior year now. What are you studying? Finance actually. Cool. And where are you graduating from? What school are you in?

It is the University of North Georgia. So you're in what city? I live in Gainesville now. The home campus is Dahlonega. I know Dahlonega. Beautiful little town. I didn't realize the University of North Georgia was there. Okay, cool. And so when you graduate, the likelihood of you working in your finance degree in Dahlonega, Georgia, is almost zero. Yes, that is true.

The likelihood of you moving to take full advantage of that career is very high. What would be your plan then? Are you planning to move? Am I on track there? I am planning to move more towards Gainesville, South Carolina area, because right now I do actually live in Gainesville in the apartment I have. Yeah. And I just comm commute to Long Island.

What, do you think you'll stay in Gainesville and work out of there when you graduate? Is that your plan? It is, yes. It was my plan. Okay. Because there's usually, I mean, when someone graduates from college, there's a high likelihood. That's as high a likelihood time of changing cities as any time in your life, really. Because typically you're going to take your first job in your career field, and it's not unusual for you to choose to move to a different city during that time, okay, which means that buying a home would have been a mistake.

So it would be okay to buy if you want to now um i i probably wouldn't because two things are two things happen between now and 25 years old a high percentage of the time not always but a high enough percentage of the time you get married graduate from school and move those are three things um and all of those things would affect the house that you own um so i probably wouldn't i all i was in the real estate business when i was in college had my real estate license selling and i lived in a town just south of knoxville called merrillville tennessee not that far from where you are in delonica really and uh because other side of the mountain range there is all. And I found a little house that was, back in those days, very inexpensive. Nowadays, it would be so inexpensive, you wouldn't believe the number if I told you.

But I almost bought a house when I was 20 years old in Maryville, Tennessee. Actually, Alcoa, Tennessee is where the house was, a little adjoining town. And 18 months later, I graduated from school and got married and moved to Nashville. Owning that house would have been a huge mistake. Okay. And I couldn't see any of that when I was 20. By the time I was 22, all the other things had happened. And so it's just a – I'm not saying that's exactly what's going to happen to you just because it happened to me.

That's not my point. But the point is that you are at a stage of life where transition is a way of life. And so it's a good reason to not buy right now. But if you feel very, very, very sure you're not going to leave Gainesville in the next five to ten years, then, you know, you want to go ahead and buy. You can. Your income is going to change, and so you're going to end up moving up in-house later just because your income changes, because I hope you make more than you make now after you

get this degree. So, you know, that's another thing to look at. There's just a lot of transition in your life, a lot of reasons. Renting, when you've got that much transition going on, is not wasted money. It's buying patience. It's giving you patience is what it's doing. Patience to wait and do something more solid, as permanent as the purchase of a home is, and so forth. So that's just my speech.

You can do either one. I'm not going to be mad at you. You put a big down payment. You stay out of debt. You put on a 15-year fix where the payment's no more than a fourth-year take-home pay. The guidelines we always use, you put a big down payment, you stay out of debt. You put on a 15-year fix where the payment's no more than a fourth-year take-home pay. The guidelines we always use, you'll be fine. And you can even sell that house later, probably. Gainesville's a wonderful town.

Should have an active enough real estate market that you're not going to get stuck in it. Dahlonega is more of a little resort town, as you know. And beautiful, beautiful area. All right. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com, the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. Free samples, free shipping. The new promos they run every month. You'll save even more.

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samples forever and there they are right in my hands look at that hey today's questions from eric in texas we're about to be on baby step six, paying off our house. We also have a rental property. We owe $113,000 on the rental, $288,000 on the main house. Our rental has always had a good tenant. Should we snowball the houses, pay the lesser one first or the main house first? In the event that your rental is close to your main house in price or in mortgage amount, I always pay the main house, your personal house first.

If your personal house is smaller, I certainly would pay it first. In this case, the rental is about one third of the house. And so I would go ahead and pay it. And let's go ahead and get it out of the way. That is what I would do there. So you're right. Yeah. In this case, because it's a very small in ratio to your house, go ahead and knock that out real fast, and then you can use all

those increased cash flows from the rental as part of the equation to get your house knocked out. So very, very cool. Congratulations on being at baby step six. Christian is with us in Michigan. Hi, Christian. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome. So I'm a 28-year-old pastor in a suburb of Detroit, and I'm calling you because I need your advice. My wife and I have no debt outside of our home. Between the two of us, we make about $75K a year, $60K of which is through my pastoral income.

We have about $100K in our business account because we flipped two houses. We also invest 13% of our income into retirement, and the remaining balance on our home is $92K. I know you typically suggest paying off your house at this stage, but I'm expecting a great reduction in income because I'll be planting a church in a poor inner city neighborhood in two years. With that said, what do you think I should do with the 100K, and do you think I should consider being bivocational in the future? I think you're thinking this through well. Good job, and thank you for your heart and for the way you're looking at this pastor i appreciate you you got a real mission field there um yeah uh yeah you're probably most church plant pastors

are bivocational um that's a pretty standard thing because you just don't make any money and you got to support your family and so it's it's paul making tents you know it's Paul making tents. You know, it's that thing. So that's going to be part of the equation. And in your case, I would not pay off the house. I would hold that cash because this is going to be a very transitional time. You're going to use some of your money to survive while you live out God's call on you here. It's all his money anyway. We're managing it for him. And so I would have the sense that he probably gave you this money to help with this plant,

meaning that you eat out of some of it while this plant happens because you're probably not going to make anything there for a while. And so I would do my best to earn enough bivocationally to not hit this and not burn through it. It sure would be cool if the church plant and your bivocational income was enough to support your family, and you ended up never touching it. And two years from now, you go, okay, this is all stabilized. This is now a predictable environment. I can take this money and pay the house off.

That would be like the best outcome of all. But I'm okay with you giving your life away to the gospel that we also give some of your money away in the process. I'm okay with that. I appreciate who you are. You're a good man and you're laying your life down for it. Thank you, brother. I appreciate you.

We can help you as you're doing this with financial peace or anything. You let us know. We'll be generous to you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for the show. You know, you can listen or watch anywhere with the Dave Ramsey Show app on your smartphone.

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