The Ramsey Show - App - DAVE RANT: You Can't Beat the Credit Card Companies! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: March 13, 2020

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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, America. We're glad you are here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Walter is with us in Atlanta. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Walter. Hey, thanks for taking the call, Dave. Sure, what's up?

All right, basically, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to handle the situation, which is I'm newly married, and my father passed away last year. I've never been really into credit card debt, so I did have zero as far as debt. But with the inheritance money, I did have my car and my house. So I took the inheritance money, paid off the car, paid off the house. Like I'm newly married, so I'm actually living with my wife in her house now, renting out my house, and I have $100,000 left. She has a lot of student loan debt, and she's not interested in trying to really take care of it.

So I'm trying to figure out what should I do with the extra money that I have left. How much student loan debt does she have? $200,000. Good Lord. Is she a doctor or a lawyer? No. We said I went through her finances, and basically she went into deferment for a while and did the minimum payment,

didn't know she was paying less than... What is her degree in? Communications. A master's? Yes. In communications? Yes. And how long ago did she graduate?

2013. Okay, so this was probably $150,000 when she got out. $125,000, something like that, yeah. So she has no intention of addressing the student loan. I'm curious. What's her plan? Her plan is to... Die with it?

It almost seems that way. She said basically she'll do the payments and pay it off in 20 years, or that she's hoping to get a job that's going to do some type of student loan for business, some magical way it's going to take care of itself. How old are you two? I'm 40. She's 41. Okay. Well, there's two problems on the table from the information you've given me. Okay. Well, there's two problems on the table from the information you've given me, okay?

One is that you guys are not working together and are not in agreement on finances because one of the top things as we study wealthy people, people who win at money, okay, one of the top things we find in the data points is that the husband and wife are on the same page and they're in agreement. You all are not. And so that's strike one for you're going to be able to become wealthy. Strike two is when we did this millionaire study that we just finished that's in Chris Hogan's book, here's an interesting statistic. When we asked the question of the general public, do you think your destiny financially is in your control? 62% said yes. When we asked millionaires if they think their destiny is in their control,

and by the way, 90% of them did not inherit any money or enough to become a millionaire, so 9 out of 10 of them were first-generation rich. When we asked them, is your destiny in control, as opposed to 62% of the public said yes, 97% of the millionaires said yes. Now, what that indicates, Walter, is hope. That says back there when they were broke that they believed that if they planted corn, they would grow corn. Yes, God has to bring the rain.

Yes, God has to bring the sun. But they believed that if they controlled the controllables, that they could get out. What I'm hearing behind your wife's statements is a very sad loss of hope. She feels overwhelmed and doesn't believe she can ever get out. That is the second data point in our conversation that says you all are not going to be able to build wealth. We have to fix those two things for you guys, Walter. We have to help her have some hope, and you two have to get on the same page,

or you're not going to win with money. You would be a unicorn if you did. You'd be highly unusual. Now, what is your household income, sir? $130. That's excellent. And the property that you paid off, what is it worth? It's worth $222.

Excellent. Okay. If I could get the two of you on the same page, what I would do would be set about, I'd throw the $100 at her student loans, and I'd set about a two-year plan on paying off the rest of them, on beans and rice, rice and beans, and I'd be debt-free in two years. Or I would sell your property and be debt-free in 20 minutes of her student loans,

one of the two. But I would not keep those student loans around like they're a freaking pet. No, no, no. It's just spiritually, emotionally disastrous, not to mention financially and mathematically, because they indicate to her that she feels trapped, and the only way she's going to get out is dumb luck. And that tells me how hopeless she is, and it makes me feel sad for her heart, because she's kind of got an attitude about it.

She's kind of blowing it off, but below that attitude is this deep sense of feeling of feeling trapped yeah i'm sure it's a lot so i'm sure she's overwhelmed yeah i'm sure and the good news is she's got you the two of you can do this together and you're not overwhelmed uh i mean you can sell a rental property and be gone tomorrow yeah but i wouldn't do that unless we can agree to be on the same page and unless we can, as a result of that, cause us to hold our chin up and be very hopeful about our future. But right now she's stuck in victim land, and we have to get her out of that land.

So I wouldn't make any major moves today until we can solve her hopeless issue and until we can solve getting on the same page issue. As soon as we can solve that, I would either use the $100,000 and your income on a tight budget to become debt-free, or I would sell the rental property and become debt-free instantaneously, one of the two. But I'll tell you something. Here's what I'm going to do.

I want to try to help with this because my heart hurts for her broken heart. She's stuck. And if I give you Financial Peace University, our nine-week class, for free, try to help with this because i just my heart hurts for her broken heart she's stuck and if i give you financial peace university our nine-week class for free can you get her to attend with you i'll do my best i mean she's not on it but i would definitely like i'll get her to do it she'll do it yeah just as a favor as a favor to you it's's completely free. I'm not making anything. I'm losing money on this, okay? But here's the thing. Do not go, Walter, without her because it's going to drive a wedge in your marriage

because you're going to get more and more and more excited about being debt-free and building wealth and less and less and less hopeless. Meanwhile, she's going to be on the other side, and it's going to drive a wedge between you, and I don't want to drive a wedge between you. I want to help you guys pull together and pull her up out of this mud that she's in. So hang on. I'm going to give it to you, but please don't go to that class without her because it'll make it worse.

It's going to make your young marriage, your young tender marriage worse, and I don't want to do that. I would rather you just find some other way to get on the same page. But that's what's going on here. Hang on. Kelly will pick up, and we'll get you signed up for Financial Peace University as my guest. It includes the one-year membership to Financial Peace, which is the whole thing online as well, plus every dollar plus is included. Wow, the whole thing.

Hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of stuff. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. If you do this one simple thing that we all do, you are literally at risk of being hacked and someone stealing what you've worked so hard for. Do you ever use public Wi-Fi? I'm talking about getting online at a coffee shop, a store, the airport, or even at home. Hackers can use a simple $100 device to mimic Wi-Fi, and with just a little bit of skills, they can take over your financial life. This means you may think you're on your bank's site or app or securely making that purchase online,

but hackers could see and steal that information. That's why I trust CyberGhost VPN. CyberGhost thinks about cybercrime so you don't have to. You can try it for free for seven days, protect up to seven internet devices, and keep all of your internet connections secure. That's CyberGhost VPN. Download it today from your app store and be secure in seconds. This is the show where we talk about money in a way everyone can understand it and in a way that applies to everyone. The danger of these simple concepts is those of you that view yourself as intellectuals, those of you that view yourself as sophisticated, sometimes you look at something that's simple

and you don't understand how profound it is. Like the borrower is slave to the lender. Oh, but I use credit cards to get my miles you actually think you're going to take on a multi-billion dollar company who studies your behavior more than you study your behavior and come out on the right end of this stick that doesn't make you sophisticated that makes you blatantly stupid think Think about it. Did you know the credit card is the most aggressively marketed product in the history of humankind? Nothing has been sold to anyone in any culture in any kind of a volume close to the credit card, no product line or service has had anywhere near as much money spent on marketing and sophistication to sell it to you.

Hundreds of millions of dollars a year is spent to sell you this product. And then you're so stupid that you think you're going to get away with using it for free. If you do, it's going to be a short-term thing. Or if you think you do, you left out some of the variables. Example. When you spend using cash, it activates the pain centers of your brain. You have an ouchie moment when you hand over Uncle Benjamin Franklin. Dad, come! I just bought dinner!

When you lay Uncle Benjamin Franklin in that black plastic tray known as his coffin because he's going away and he's not coming back you put him inside that little visa or american express fold over vinyl thing that the server brings you and you lay uncle benjamin franklin in there you have a moment with Uncle Ben. Uncle Ben, I'll never see you again. You know this is happening. When you pay with plastic and I interview you 24 hours later, you don't know what the total was on the bill. You can't tell me what you spent.

You don't know what you spent at the gas pump because you stuck a card in it, you pumped the gas, and you walked away. You can't tell me what your gas bill was. In the days that we used to walk into the market and lay money down on the counter, and then they would give you change because you didn't round it off when you were putting your gas in, we knew exactly what we spent on gas in those days. Today, you don't even know what your gas is. You don't know. I use a debit card.

I can't tell you what mine was. Can I tell you what it cost to fill up my truck the other day? I don't know. I didn't notice. Just stuck the card in, put the gas in, drove away. I'm just like you. Cash activates the pain centers of the brain. There's two or three things that activate memory.

Memory is activated primarily by pain, fear, heavy emotion of some kind. Positive, pleasurable emotion will activate memory. That's why you smell something and you remember a girl you dated in high school smell activates that memory that's what happens and so it's that that's the process so so here's the thing if you can't remember it it means the pain centers of your vein brain were not activated and when we do surveys with what you spent on that meal, as you walk out of the door of the restaurant, you can't tell me what the total was.

Oh, it was around $25. Around $52. I don't know, $56, $57. I don't know. I don't even remember. I think I left the tip. Left the big tip because I've been drinking. You know, now you really can't remember anything, right?

So this is how people handle their money and yet you tell me you're going to beat the credit card company you spend 12 to 18 percent more on average when you use plastic than when you use cash that's what all the studies show us because you don't feel the pain and the world's worst place is the grocery store they are the best marketers on the planet The best merchandisers on the planet is a grocery store. Man, they know how to put the food at the right place. Old-fashioned example, the easiest example, is the bread and the milks at the back, right? Because everybody that walks in a grocery store is buying bread or milk, and they have to go through the full length of the store and have every opportunity to impulse on some kind of jar of peanut butter

and jelly mixed together, pre-mixed for you. I don't know what you're impulsing on, but there's something getting your attention. It must be those new peach Cheerios I heard about today. And guess what? All the stuff is at the eye level that gets your attention, and they pay for the shelf position as you walk to the back to get your bread and milk, and you can't walk out without spending money. The aisles are designed for you to buy stuff, and when you use plastic at the grocery store,

you have no idea what your grocery bill is, and you spend more. You spend more on clothing. Oh, yeah, throw in that accessory. Oh, yeah. You'll pick up other people's tab at the restaurant. I'll buy you dinner tonight. Not thinking anything about it. Just drop 50 bucks.

Never think a thing about it. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't be generous. I'm not saying you shouldn't accessorize. And I'm not saying you shouldn't enjoy some purchases at the grocery store. I'm just saying you ought to do it on purpose. And if you think that credit card use, even if you're paying it off every month, costs you zero, then you are a very naive individual that has been influenced by an industry that has spent more to influence you

than any other industry in the history of the world. That should give you pause. That should give you pause. That should give you pause. If anybody else was selling you that hard on anything, your shields would go up. But for some reason, when it's credit cards, we're like, oh, no, Dave, I have this figured out. I'm 26, and I've got this figured out. I'm 26 years old. I make $42,000 a year, but I'm going to beat up on old Discover cards.

They don't know anything. I've got them beat. I'm getting those Discover points, not costing me a thing. You know how stupid that makes you sound when you say stuff like that? I'm making all my money on my airline miles. You know, I've met with thousands of millionaires. I've never met a millionaire who said, Dave, you know, I made all my money on my airline miles. You know, I've met with thousands of millionaires. I've never met a millionaire who said, Dave, you know, I made all my money on my airline miles.

Dave, my breakthrough was my Discover Points. I'll pay mine off every month, Dave. I'm beating up on the credit card company. I'm getting the use of their money, wink, wink. Millionaires just don't say stuff like that. Now, some of them use a credit card. They do pay it off every month. But I got to tell you, their lifestyles are so conservative.

Besides, you know, when I set them up next to you, middle class people are spending everything you make and trying to convince me that I'm a troglodyte because I don't use credit cards. Well, I'm not broke anymore. This is a multimillionaire troglodyte you're listening to. Why? Because I started understanding that behavior affects your ability to build wealth more than all your little math tricks you think you see all the variables on. The borrower is slave to the lender. It doesn't say except airline miles. The borrower is slave to the lender. It doesn't say except discover points. The borrower

is slave to the lender. It doesn't say except I got 0% interest on my new car, which lost $7,000 when I drove it off the lot, so it's not really 0%, is it? How stupid are we? I mean, you're going to hand me a nickel in front of me while you're picking a $100 bill out of my back pocket and call me smart. Think, people. Think. Think.

If someone's shoveling stuff down your throat at this rate, to the rate of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and their ability to sell and to market to you is beyond any other sophistication of any other marketing program. There must be money in it. Follow the money. Follow the money. So I don't have any credit cards.

I have two debit cards. You can do what you want. But it's working for me. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We talk about it daily. Character matters. When I'm looking for team members, I'm looking for men and women who have character. People with character care. They care about the work they're doing, and they care about the people around them.

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Visit LinkedIn.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Adam and Bailey are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hey, Dave, welcome. So glad to be here. Well, welcome.

We're glad you're here. Where do you guys live? We live in Bluffton, South Carolina. Which is where? It's about 25 minutes from Hilton Head. Okay, cool. Well, welcome to Nashville. Thank you.

And all the way up here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir. How much have you paid off? Let's see. $32,883.60. Very cool. And how long did this take? 12 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? About $96,000.

Very good. What kind of debt was the $33,000? One day we were living pretty normal. We had a couple car loans, a few credit cards, and we hit some student loans here and there. So, yeah, just your average normal individual. Okay, cool. How long have you all been married? Gosh, 14 years. Okay.

We didn't practice that question. That's okay. No trouble. No troubles. So, what happened 12 months ago that lit this fuse? Well, our story with you actually started about eight years ago when we initially had some issues. A young married couple made some dumb decisions financially. Had a house that we foreclosed on.

And through about 2011 time period, we went through that entire ordeal. Months and months of trying to go back and forth with the bank until we finally completed the foreclosure process. And it devastated us. It was really, you know, it was tough on a young family with two kids at the time. And luckily, the church that we were attending at the time had provided financial peace that January. So we decided, you know, we were tired of living the way we were. So we went ahead and took the course, loved it, you know, got some initial, you know, feedback and positive results, but then we kind of ished our way through the next five or so years, and that's kind of where the real story picked up. So last January, he forgot to mention he's in the Marine Corps, and we had new orders. We were at a

new duty station, four kids now, and last January, 12 months ago, we were on the couch at bedtime, flipping through our phones, watching TV. And your Ramsey Solutions Nashville Town Hall came on. It was a Facebook Live event. And so we were like, oh, Dave, we remember him. And so we started watching it again. And we just started communicating with each other what we wanted our goals and plans to be. He's coming up on retiring from the Marine Corps. What's our goals? What's our plan? And we realized we had nothing.

We had no money in savings, no plan. And so from that night on, we just hit the ground running. Wow. Wow. Yeah. So you drug out the old financial peace materials? We did. Dusted it off

our bookshelf and just got right back to work. And we were determined to do it for real this time. No more ishing. Okay. That's good. Very good. Well, thank you for your service. Appreciate that. And congratulations, you guys. Thank you. So who was your biggest cheerleader then outside the two of you? Well, we had a lot of cheerleaders in the family. It's kind of interesting for me. Halfway point, he probably doesn't realize it, but Chris Hogan wound up being one of my cheerleaders. So I'm stationed at Parris Island, South Carolina, where the recruit training happens for the Marine Corps on the East Coast. Chris actually came out to an event with a bunch of other civilian individuals last summertime.

I remember. And so I got to meet Chris and talk to him for a few minutes. And that was, again, that was about halfway through our current debt-free journey. So I kind of told him my story. He gave me the Momentum Theorem coin and just kind of reinvigorated my passion and desire for this. So I've had that coin on my desk ever since. And it's just been a daily reminder that, you know, making sure that you're intentional in everything you do, but making sure that you rely on God to really, you know, multiply what you do.

And that's kind of kept me on track. Cool. Cool. Now, he walked through here a while ago. Did y'all talk to him? We did. I got to see him. Good.

Because I saw him out there wandering around. I didn't know if you got a hold of him or not. We did. Good. Good. Very good. Very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys.

That is neat that you can have that coin laying there and go, okay, I got this. Absolutely. There's a good visual reminder sometimes is a nice lift. Yes. Like when people put their thermometer on the refrigerator door or whatever, they're working their way up or down or whatever it is they're doing. Some kind of a thing like that always helps. That's very good.

And Dave, I wanted to tell you, we were coordinators too for you through our church. We just finished our class last Sunday. Oh, thank you. At Water's Edge in Beaufort. And so our class paid off $178,000. Wow. Just during the nine weeks. Yes, thank you. At Water's Edge in Beaufort. And so, our class paid off $178,000. Wow. Just during the nine weeks. Yes, sir. Wow. And the coolest thing that we like, out of the

67 credit cards they started with, 61 credit cards were cut up and turned off before the end of the course. Oh. A lot of gazelles. We got 90% of them. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's not bad. Well done, y'all. You're good coordinators. Well, thank you. Thank you for doing this. So now that you're coordinator and now that you paid off $33,000 worth of debt,

what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Well, Dave, I know you won't believe this, but it's amazing what you can do when you have a plan. But to have a plan, you've got to have that why in your life. And that's kind of what Bailey and I sat down that night on the couch and figured out what our why was. Why are we doing anything? Coming up with the fact that retirement, deciding there was time for us to change our children's future, you know, our family tree. You know, that was the why. And then you backwards plan from there.

And then you make sure that you stick to the plan. Yeah. Perfect. Bailey? For me, absolutely a dream, a goal, a plan, a why. You've got to have the budget. I mean, you've got to have it down. You've got to visually see.

That was one of our problems. Our money was just flying out the window. You've got to not only do it, you've got to stick to it. Yes, absolutely. That budget. You can't do it without the budget. Because you were making plenty of money. Right.

It was sloppy. Budget was just... We felt like we were living paycheck to paycheck. And when we looked at the numbers, we realized that we were deciding. We were choosing to live paycheck to paycheck. We didn't have to. No, no. Yeah.

Every dollar has a purpose and a home. Well done. And you brought the kiddos with you. What are their names and ages? We have Xavier. He's nine years old. We have Eliza is seven. And then we have twin girls, Phoebe and Piper, who are four years old.

All right. Good old twins. We love twins. My wife's a twin. And those are identical, aren't they? They are. Beautiful girls. Beautiful family, you guys.

Well done. Thank you so much. Well done. Good. We got a copy of Chris's book for you. I'm sure you probably already have it. Everyday Millionaires and How Ordinary built extraordinary wealth and how you can too you're that's your next chapter in your story to be millionaires now that's right after the

marine corps you'll go on and do in your next career life is great man again thanks for your service and very well done you guys we're proud of you thank you thank you so much all right it's adam and bailey xavier eliza phoebe-free, paid off $33,000 in 12 months, making $96,000 a year. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! I love it.

Welcome. Man, that's amazing. That is fun. You got to love twins because one automatically raises her hands and screams, and the other one draws back. That's just the way it's supposed to be. It's perfect. I love it.

Very, very cool. Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. Find out for yourself why they're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings with free samples, free shipping. Use the promo code Ramsey at blinds.com. Thomas is in Alabama. My wife and I are debt free except for our house. We're currently on a 15-year mortgage, making additional payments, investing 15%.

My struggle is with having a savings goal each month. So far this year, we've been saving around $4,000 a month. Is that good or bad to save? And should all that savings go to our mortgage? Yes. So baby step four is you put 15% of your income into retirement. Five is kids' college. Everything else goes on the house until the house is paid off.

You already have your emergency fund in place. That's baby step three. You should not be doing any additional saving beyond 15% of your income. It all ought to be going to five or six, or five and six, five being kids' college, six being paid out on your house. You start reducing your house at $50,000 a year, that's $4,000 a month, $48,000 a year. You start reducing your house mortgage by that, you know, the house paid off in 20 minutes, dude. It's going to happen so quickly, and you're going to be in a really, really good place.

Well done, Thomas. Very well done. And so, again, your savings should stop once you have your emergency fund. You do 15% investing, that's different than saving, into your retirement plans in the four types of mutual funds that we talk about. Growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international with long track records. Then you start your kid's college. No kids, no need for college, all that kind of stuff. You skip that one, move on to baby step six, start throwing the extra cash at the house.

There's no additional savings. All that goes at the house. That's a baby step six item. So very good. Very good. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. our scripture of the day first corinthians 15 33 do not be deceived Bad company ruins good morals. George Washington said, It is far better to be alone than in bad company.

Well, there you go. You do become who you hang around with. You know that, right? I was in New York the other day, and I noticed all those people up there have accents. You become who you hang around with,'t you yeah you do i mean people even even within a certain area of the country there are different dialects if you're really attuned to listening for it you can tell someone who is born and raised in middle tennessee versus east tennessee the dialect is slightly different.

Different twang, different southern, different sayings. Yeah, you can hear it. You become who you hang around with. Did you know your income will approximate, be within 10% to 15% of the average of your 10 closest friends' income over a period of about 10 years? If you hang out with people who make good money, you will start to make good money because you learn to think like they think. You learn to see the world like they see the world.

If you hang out with people who are victims, oh, you can't get ahead. If you come from our side of the tracks, you can't get ahead if you come from our side of the tracks you can't get ahead the little man can't get ahead you hang out with people who eeyore is their spirit animal yeah you'll be a victim too if you hang out you know and i'm serious because what happens is is it becomes an echo chamber in a good way. You're hearing back things that you need to hear over and over and over again, like you can do it or you can't do it, and that's obviously not a good way then. So be careful.

Choose carefully who you spend time with. Now, I'm not suggesting you be snobby to someone, or I'll talk to anybody. I mean, I don't even care if you're from Kentucky. I'll talk to you. I'm kidding. I mean, I'll talk to anybody. I'll talk to any religion or anything.

I'm not going to argue with you. I'm not going to allow you to be belligerent to me about something, but I'll sit down and talk to anybody. I love people. I like the give and take. I like the variety of life. I enjoy seeing things and listening to someone passionately be wrong. I'll talk to anybody.

I'm fine with that. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not suggesting you shun people or you're too good to have a conversation with someone. I don't go over there and that's sort of the tricks. That's not what I'm saying at all. But I'm talking about who your crew is, who your internal circle is, your tightest five or ten people. Those are the people that have influence in your life. Your speech patterns will approximate them.

You will watch the same movies and read the same books. You will develop eventually the same belief systems and value systems. If they go to church, you will. If they read the Bible, you will. If they pray, you will. If they're improving their character, you will. If they pray, you will. If they're improving their character, you will. If they are working out and taking care of their body, you will. If they're watching their food intake, you will. The closest five or ten people that you spend the most time with that you can see, who's going to carry your casket? Those six people, that's who I'm talking about.

The ones that are in your life, your crew, your posse, whatever you want to call it. You're going to be like them. You cannot keep it from happening. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. First Corinthians 1533, George Washington said, it is far better to be alone than in bad company. If you hang out with whining victims, you will begin to see the world through the eyes of whining victims.

If you hang out with triumphant victors, you will begin to see the world through the eyes of triumphant victors, you will begin to see the world through the eyes of triumphant victors. People who are victorious. They're champions. They're what we call successful. In whatever area of life that it is you want to emulate and cause that to happen. Now, again, I'm more than happy to talk to anyone, but I'm talking about who I spend enough time with that they influence everything down to my speech patterns.

We know this because we don't allow our children to run around with juvenile delinquents because our children will become a juvenile delinquent. If little Johnny down the street's a weed head, your kid runs around with little Johnny, your kid's going to be a weed head. Now, maybe that's okay with you. It's not my value system. I didn't want to raise weed heads. So we didn't let our kids run around with weed heads.

Pretty simple, isn't it? You're going to become who you hang around with. You're going to become who you hang around with you're going to become who you hang around with choose john is with us john is in sioux city iowa hey john how are you i'm good how are you better than i deserve what's up well my wife and I grew up with a great inner circle like you're talking about, so we're very fortunate, and we are on baby step number seven right now. Wow, look at you. Everything's paid for. Yes.

How old are you? 29, and she's 27. And you have a paid-for house. Yes. What's your house worth? Paid $120,000 for it. It's worth $185,000 right now. Good for you, man.

What's your household income? $135,000. Way to go. Boom, boom, man. You're on fire. How can I help? So we have just under $100,000 in the bank, earning pennies. So we're trying to decide if we should take that money and buy a new home with it

and sell our current home with the increase in value. And pay cash for it? Yes. Yes? Okay, because we don't want that money just sitting there in the bank, not doing anything. But we also don't want to get into rentals. We don't want to be landlords.

And we don't want all of our eggs in the stock market either. Okay, fine. I mean, if you have a paid for three hundred thousand dollar houses that have a paid for two hundred thousand dollar house and you're 29 years old making 135 000 that doesn't make me anything but happy for you okay go do it all right no debt this is an awesome plan knock it out man you got this mike's with us in minnesota hey mike how are you good how are you dave better than i deserve i'm short on time go fast um so i'm just wondering i'm 24 i'm working on the family farm and i'm at the point where i don't know if i should stay in the business or get out

okay why why would you get out um because there Because I don't have very much control. I do a lot of the labor, and there's a lot of debt. Okay. And why would you stay? Because it's what I love to do. So you love the land and you love farming, but you don't like the situation. Correct. So what if you just did your own deal?

Well, it's kind of hard because if I leave, I'm going to leave my dad, or my mom and dad, in a deep, deep hole. Mm-hmm. You didn't put them there. Well, no, but he bought them. At 24 years old, they're not your responsibility. Correct. But he always says, I bought this parcel of property so that you could farm with us. Okay.

Yeah, but did he ask you? Well, no, I was too young at the time. All right. So he made an assumption of what you were going to do with your life. ask you? Well, no. I was too young at the time. Alright. So he made an assumption of what you were going to do with your life. So I think you sit down and say, Dad, I know it's always been your dream for me to take this farm over and I love farming and I love working with you. I'd love to do that.

I am unwilling to do this on the way we're doing it. So we're going to have to work to get this place out of debt and we're going to have to work to get where I'm not doing all the work. And I know I'm only 24 and I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but I don't want to plug into what's going on here. So we got to change what's going on here if you want me to plug in and just have a kind, calm, clear conversation. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it.

In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey guys, this is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country.

To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.