The Ramsey Show - App - Dave’s Tips on Buying a Used Car (Hour 1)

Episode Date: April 29, 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Caleb starts this hour off in Portland, Oregon. Hey, Caleb, how are you?

Good, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. I just had one quick question for you. Okay. So my wife, we're almost done with step number two. My wife has nothing. She has one closed account on TransUnion and on Equifax. She has three closed accounts. They've all been closed for over a year.

She has nothing else reported. How long does it take for it to get to the zero score? If they've all been closed and have zero balances for over six months and she's gotten to an undeterminable, a zero score, something else is wrong. There's something else on the credit that you're not seeing somewhere. Isn't there something better than the credit card that she's using? Do you have a mortgage do you have a mortgage no mortgage no no nothing there's nothing on there okay uh there's nothing else has her name on it that's a debt somewhere floating around that maybe even you're not seeing there but you

just know it exists negative nothing nothing okay i mean i we you know no one knows it's a high it's a highly guarded secret of exactly how fico operates but our experience has been with tens of thousands of people that when you have closed accounts with zero balances no activity on your credit bureau of any kind not open and zero balances no outstanding bad debts nothing zero zilch it's completely scrubbed which is what you're describing that six months to a year your score becomes undeterminable or zero and you know that's what happened to me back in the day um now i you know i can't tell from, you know, without looking at this, what you're seeing or not seeing there. But that's the concept, and that's what we've seen. But I don't have a guarantee of that.

I've just watched a whole lot of people do it, and that's what's happened. Is it possible FICO's changed something? You bet on it. I mean, they change stuff all the time. So I don't know. I'm guessing they're picking up something somewhere that's still active with her name on it. I mean, they change stuff all the time. So I don't know. I'm guessing they're picking up something somewhere that's still active with her name on it. That's my guess. And if you can't get this fixed, you might just have to get rid of her.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Belle is in Illinois. Hey, Belle, how are you? Hey, good. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. How can I help?

Well, I'm calling today. We are about $50,000 upside down on our house. How? And what was that? How? Well, we kind of got pushed into buying the house and taken advantage of by family. And then about a year after we bought the house when we bought the house I had said I was worried about our roof and then my family told us like no no the roof's good it should be good for like 10 more years you know you don't need to be saving up to fix it and

then like right after we bought it it started raining in our house so we needed a new roof and the roof was so bad that we had to redo the entire roof, and it ended up costing about $15,000. And you put that on as a second mortgage? We did a cash-out refinance, and we had already paid too much for the house when we bought it, and then when we went and talked to the mortgage company um they kind of felt bad for us so they the appraiser i think he kind of valued the house a little bit more than what it's worth you know what that's just absolute bull that did not happen mortgage companies do not

feel bad for you and over lend to you now i don't know who told you that song and dance but that's just a crock okay that does not happen how old are you i'm 27 okay i mean unless the unless your uncle owns the bank mortgage companies don't go oh these poor little people let's loan them too much money that is not a thing that mortgage companies do we had a realtor come out and look at it and he pulled comps for the area, and the most that houses are going for is like $75,000 around here. And, I mean, we have $109,000 on our mortgage left, and he said we'd be lucky if we got like $60,000 for it,

or $70,000 for it because of the condition it's in. Did you talk to one of our ELPs? Yeah. Okay, that's who told you that. Yeah, and we're looking at having about $10,000 of repairs that we need to do to the house. So what's your household income? It's about $50,000 a year. Okay.

I think you're going to be living there a while. Well, we're struggling really, really hard right now because we're struggling just to make ends meet. We're trying to work your program. My husband's starting a second job today. Good. But, I mean, as of right now, we're behind by like $500 every month. And just to save up for these repairs. What do you owe?

Well, we don't need to do repairs right now. You've done enough repairs for a while. So how much do you owe? Well, we don't need to do repairs right now. You've done enough repairs for a while. So how much do you owe on your cars? We owe $16,000 on our cars. Okay. On each or one? All together. And we've tried selling them.

What's the most expensive one? They're both about the same. About $8,000? They're actually upside down as well. And you've got high interest rates on those too, don't you? No, it's about 3%. We have really, really good credit. We've been able to squeeze and stamp by and not miss a payment.

What else have you got debt on? We just have a little loan for $8,000. Okay. And then that's it. Okay. And so what does he make a year? He makes $50,000. Oh.

And then he's going to be starting a second job. I've tried to look into doing other jobs, but I stay home with our kids because the kind of jobs that I've been able to find, they won't even pay for daycare. So I've been trying to just be as frugal as possible with groceries and things like that. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to have to work your way into selling one or both of these cars, covering the upside down, either by borrowing um or by him working an extra job we're going to have to get your income up and his income up and you're going to get on a tight budget the numbers you're giving me are not that far off um i think you can do this i think you can turn

the corner it is going to be a very difficult two years ahead of you it's going to be difficult you've made a whole series of bad decisions and now they're all kind of piled up and it's the old game uh the straw that broke the camp breaks the camel's back and that's where you finally hit to it hit critical mass on you but um i mean i heard like seven things you guys did in this one conversation that led you there i've done a lot of stupid stuff too honey so i'm not picking on you but that's how you got there that's how you got there and you're not a victim of this you're the main thing you're a victim of is stuff too, honey, so I'm not picking on you. But that's how you got there. That's how you got there. And you're not a victim of this. The main thing you're a victim of is your bad, impulsive, rash decisions.

And aren't we all? Aren't we all? Me too. So I want you to go through Financial Peace University, our class. I'm going to pay for it to help you guys walk through this. You're going to get your income up. You're going to get on a tight budget. You're going to sell a couple of cars.

You're going to get your income up. You're going to get on a tight budget. You're going to sell a couple of cars. You're going to turn this around. And then the last thing you'll be doing is paying down this house to where you can get it sold and get out from under it. And you look and see what I did and learn each of the individual lessons so you don't repeat those mistakes. There's several of them there. Hold on. Kelly will pick up. We'll get you signed up, kiddo. I get asked all the time about what people need to do to improve their family's money situation. Two of the most overlooked things are term life insurance and disability insurance. Both plans make sure that you have income to pay bills and take care of yourself and your family if something were to happen. For term life, you need to carry 10 to 12 times your income,

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Today's question is from Jay in Arkansas. I'm 43 with a household income of $140,000 and $83,000 in student loan debt. Other than that, our only debt is the mortgage. Do we have enough time to pay off the debt build wealth and live and give generously sure you're gonna pay off that debt in two years that would be 41 000 41 500 a year and you would be debt free in two years out of 140 you'd have to get by on 100 grand? Give me a break. Of course you can do that.

Definitely. Guys, that's a simple thing you can do, by the way. One of the things that causes you to have hope is the numbers. Sometimes you get hope from the motivational talk, the coach at halftime, right? And sometimes I'm that guy. Sometimes you get hope from me kicking your butt and getting you moving. Sometimes you get hope from other things. But really, if you'll just sit down and crunch the numbers, you start to go,

oh, there is a light at the end of the tunnel that's not an oncoming train. And it's some simple big math numbers. It's not anything that's rocket science here. I'm not really doing some detailed analysis you i look at the shovel in the hole how big a hole are you in how much debt have you got counting your house and or not counting your house either one usually not counting your house and then how big a shovel do you have what's your income in that case we've got a good size shovel 140 000 a year that's a nice income in case you didn't know the average household income in america right now is 59 000

so that's substantially above average but he's got an above average student loan debt too the average student loan debt's 37 and he's sitting at 83. But look at 140 versus 83. And you start asking yourself, how fast can you pay that off? Well, after taxes, you're not getting home with 140. And if you actually wanted to eat, you're not going to pay off 83 in one year. 140 minus taxes minus 83 equals zero, right? And you're not going to have any money. So we're not going to do it in one year.

Well, what if we break it into two years, like I just said? Half of that's $40,000, $41,000 each year for two years. Out of 140, that's very, very doable. So that guy should be, if he gets on a budget, quits going out to eat, sells so much stuff that the kids think they're next, takes an extra job, lives on a budget. Did I mention he needs to live on a budget?

And his wife is helping him, and they're working together if he's married. And if you do that, he should be debt-free in about 18 months, but a maximum of 24, not counting his home. Making 140, you should pay off 83. But it's just a ratio of $140,000 to $83,000. What if he told me he had a debt of $150,000? Well, it would be $50,000 a year for three years, right? That's $150,000 divided by three.

You follow me? And just can you do that on making $140,000? Yeah, you can do it. But that's going to be a long three years, and they can do it. They can get there. So you just start to look at basically how long is it going to take him to knock that out. So he's going to be 45 years old, and he's going to have a mortgage only. Can you become wealthy doing that?

Sure, you've got 20 years left to invest. You build your emergency fund, and you start investing 15% of your income. If you invest 15% of your income for 20 years, you'll be a millionaire, most of you. Certainly if you make $140K. Oh, and by the way, way during that 20 years you're probably going to get a raise or two so we're really not projecting accurately because we don't know what the raises are going to be but a linear projection of 140 for 20 years at 15 that would make him a millionaire investing in good growth stock mutual funds inside his 401k and Roth IRAs, just like we talk about over and over and over and over and over again.

Of course, Dave Ramsey doesn't know anything about investing. He's good for getting out of debt, but Dave Ramsey doesn't know anything about investing. No, I've just turned more people into millionaires than anybody else. That's all. But I don't do anything that's, you know, that's investing as a hobby, and I don't do anything weird, and I don't do any that's investing as a hobby, and I don't do anything weird, and I don't do any get rich quick, and I'm not trying to play a bunch of risk. I simply want to invest in something steady.

The tortoise wins the race. Every time I read the book, the hare loses. And all these people run around with flash and dash. He who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished, the Bible says. Get rich quick will get your face punched in. I'm going to start buying and selling real estate. I have no money, but I'm going to start buying and selling real estate 100% down. I mean, 100% financed.

You're going to go bankrupt, is what you just said. It's just a matter of when. Because the economy is going to cycle when the economy cycles all the stupid that you're doing is exposed warren buffett said when the tide goes out you can tell who is skinny dipping when stupid gets stress tested you can tell what's going on with it it's revealed as stupid when you're making a ton of money and the economy is on fire and white hot you start thinking well i think i can I think I can do whatever here. And you think you're stupid is covered by just sheer prosperity.

But that doesn't mean it's not stupid. But when stupid gets stress tested, it'll show up. Don't have to get fancy, guys. Get out of debt. Use your income as your most powerful wealth building tool, and become a millionaire and retire with dignity. I'm sorry. I wish it was just some big fancy thing, but it's really not.

That's it. That's the whole thing. And if you want something more sophisticated than that, then you're not following the data points that millionaires follow. You're following something you read and something stupid on Motley Fool or something stupid, which is aptly named, or something stupid on, you know, CNN money. Well, there's two things that don't go together.

I mean, think about it. Really. So, I mean, really, why don't you just study what rich people do and do what rich people do? Why is this hard? If you want to be skinny, talk to skinny people. Go, how'd you do that? I stayed away from the cookies and I ran five miles this morning.

All right, there's your plan. Why is this hard? It's hard because I like cookies. That's the problem. But the problem with my money is not that it's some big complicated thing. I don't understand the secrets of the rich. No, you don't want to control the person in your mirror. That's the problem.

The problem with my money is the person in my mirror. If I can get this guy in my mirror to behave, he can be skinny and rich. Diego's with us in Bakersfield, California. Hi, Diego. How are you? Good, yourself? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help you?

I have a quick question. Pretty much, we have a house, a mom's house, so we're paying her the mortgage to live there. My girlfriend's about to finish school, her extern, possibly December, January. She's going for an ultrasound technician. So we're wondering, once she starts working, paycheck and save it to pay off, should we buy the house straight out from my mom, or should we invest it?

Well, I would be 100% debt-free first, except the home. Do you have any debt except the home? No. Okay. Then secondly, I would build an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. We call that Baby Step 3. Okay. And once you've got that rainy day fund, then I would start investing 15% of your income into retirement.

And beyond that, I would pay off your house early. Now, Diego, you don't have your girlfriend's name on the house that you bought from your mother. No. Good. You should not have a house. You should not own a home with someone you're not married to. You will get yourself in all kinds of crap. So technically speaking, this is your house, and she's your roommate.

Yes. Okay. All right. Legally, that keeps you in pretty good shape, and as long as we understand that. The problem for her is, unless she's got a ring on her finger called marriage, if she uses her money to pay off your house, that leaves her pretty vulnerable, and I would recommend to her not to do that. I understand.

So, you know, if you're going to start living life towards the future together, then that's why the law is all set up around marriage. And it gives her protection, you protection, and lots of other benefits, by the way. So, hey, thanks for the call, man. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. One Dental is a company I've been telling my listeners about because I know these guys will save you money at the dentist. One Dental is a dental savings program that allows you to go to one of over 158,000 dental practice locations nationwide and save on things like cleanings, dentures, root canals, crowns,

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It really is that simple. And unless you want to blow your emergency fund, everyone needs to go to the dentist. Folks, this is a no-brainer. Join today at OneDental.com. That's OneDental.com. Steve and Leanne are with us in Columbus, Ohio. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave.

Welcome. Oh, great. Welcome. I see on my screen you're Hey, Dave. Welcome. Oh, great. Welcome. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you. So how much have you paid off? $290,000.

Wow. How long did that take? About four and a half years. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? We started at $150,000, dropped down to $80,000, and back to $130,000. Okay, cool. What do you all do for a living?

I'm in software quality assurance. I'm an office manager. Very cool. Good. So what kind of debt was the $290,000? Well, at the time that we got married, I had a house that was in contract that hadn't sold yet that was 120 once that sold that knocked that off but it was upside down so that came with a 401k loan and a family loan credit cards and student loans a little bit of everything oh my gosh okay

yeah so you guys had everything in the world. But you still got your mortgage on the home you live in then? We do, yeah. Okay. All right. Cool. But $120 of it, plus or minus, of the $290 went with the sale of that one property? That's correct.

Very cool. Okay. So when did you all get married? Four and a half years ago? Yeah, going on five years. Okay. All right. So that's what started this whole journey.

When you started combining your finances, you said, we've got to attack this. Tell me the story. Yeah, so when we combined the finances, I saw how bad we were in debt. And I actually couldn't tell Leanna at first. I had to kind of wean her into that one and get her ready for it. Okay. Steve was already on your plan prior to our marriage, so he was really on board with you for a while. I was not, and even when we did FPU, I was still skeptical.

And then just something clicked with me about two years ago, and I came home from work and said, Steve, we need to sell my car. And so I was leasing a car. We sold that car, pretty much broke even. And from then on, I was just totally on board. So what do you think clicked? You know, I think it was a God thing. I think he was just really working on me, and all of a sudden just, I don't know, I can't explain it.

I just had this overwhelming feeling that, you know, this has to, the only way this is really going to happen is if the two of us work together. And that's exactly what did it is our communication and we had an end goal in mind and we were finally on the same page okay so steve's just kind of keeping steady pressure pushing and then the holy spirit's just whispering to you until you hear exactly exactly i was kind of the one that budget. We'd do a budget, and then I was like, yeah, okay. I can go and do my own thing. But once I was on board, it was, no, that is what we're going to do. To the point that I think sometimes Steve is like, oh, my gosh, I've created a monster.

Went the other way. The pendulum swung all the way across. A little bit, yes, sometimes. So now that you guys have done this, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I think the biggest thing is working together. It cannot be done alone. Ironically enough, Dave, we made way more money before I was on board, but we were paying off less debt. Our salary dropped due to a job change for me, and yet we were just going full steam ahead,

because by that point in time, I was on board. And I think that made all the difference, working together. Sure does. Sure does. Okay. So what advice would you give Leanne to a husband who's got a wife who's sort of doing this stuff-ish, right? Right, right. How should he work with her to get her to come around? Or for that matter, a wife with a husband. I would say patience. Steve, do you have anything to add to that? I think part of it is just knowing how your spouse reacts to things. If they get overwhelmed, you have to be delicate and make sure you've got the right timing

and you come with the right message and make sure that husbands should be coming to their wife with a loving manner and trying to understand what their whys are in the future. And then start to kind of work towards addressing the why as opposed to the what. Mm-hmm. Definitely. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well done, you guys. How does it feel now that it's cleared up?

Oh, it feels amazing. Absolutely. It just totally changes everything. Yeah, it does. Yeah. You've got a great income now, no payments but the house payment. You should be able to really win at this stage of the game. Congratulations, you guys.

Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you. Were people cheering you on or people saying you're crazy? We had a lot of support. We picked up a lot of side jobs in the last few months of paying off debt, and there were definitely people who thought we maybe were going off the deep end. Well, you did. You're off the deep end. Well, you did.

You're off the deep end. You're debt-free. That's the deep end. Nobody swims in this water. I mean, if they've never swum in this water, it is the deep end. I get it. Wow. Very cool.

Yep. It was totally worth it. Well, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you. We're going to send you. That's the next chapter in your story for you guys to be millionaires and outrageously generous along the way, okay? Awesome. Cool.

Steve and Leanne, Columbus, Ohio, $290,000 paid off in four and a half years, making $150,000 to $80,000 to $130,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free. That's how it's done. Love that.

Fabulous. Great job. Jonathan is in Atlanta. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Jonathan, how are you? I'm doing great, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve.

How can I help? I got a quick question. I make $54,000 a year. All I have is a house payment and a super-formal K loan payment. And I just started listening to your show. I got $5,000 in a CD. That gives 5%. And I got $1,000 in cash and savings.

And I was wondering, which one do I pay off first, the 401k or the house? How much is the 401k loan? It is almost $10,000. Okay. And how much do you owe on your home? $20,314.04. Okay. We'll pay off the 401k loan.

You can't pay off a 401k loan by the month extra you have to just pile it up so you're going to put another 5,000 to go with your 5,000 and then write a check and pay off the 401 so your first goal is just keep adding to that $5,000 account until you get it up to the 401k loan balance and then reach over and pay it off and be done with that boom that's over then be putting are you putting any money into the 401k now other than paying the loan yes i am i'm putting another three percent okay i would stop that temporarily until we get this money saved up and get this loan paid off and then keep it stopped temporarily do you get your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses in place when

you've got both of those things in place, then I would restart your 401K. And you ought to be able to do this really quickly. I mean, you make good money. You don't have a lot of debt. And you've got a very, very small house payment, very small house mortgage anyway. And so let's get on a really detailed written budget. Jump on EveryDollar.com and get your EveryDollar budget going. It takes about 10 minutes to set it up on your iPhone or on your Android.

It's free. And that'll get you under control. Get EveryDollar barking. Make it all work like it's supposed to work. EveryDollar's squawking and doing its thing. EveryDollar's screaming. You're making EveryDollar behave. And first thing is build up that of the $5,000,

stop the 401k, get the 401k loan paid off, build your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, then restart the 401k to the tune of 15% of your income going in at that point. Then we'll reach over and pay off the house. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Marie is in Toledo, Ohio. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Marie. Hi. How are you today? Better than I deserve.

What's up? My mother has a Parent Plus school loan of about $20,000 in her name right now. And I was wondering if it is possible that we can refinance that loan into my name if the Department of Education does not allow Parent PLUS loans to be refinanced to the student's name. No, they do not. You cannot refinance it. The only thing you could do would be to just go borrow the money on a personal loan and pay it off. But there's no Parent PLUS or minus a kid loan

where the kid can come in, refinance, get it out of her name. And so what is your household income? Mine is about $40,000. That's your household income? Yes, that's me. Okay, just you. Okay. And you have other debts?

Yes, I have another small school loan of about $ or 4500 and then a car loan for about 7500 okay all right and your mom took out the parent plus loan in her name for twenty thousand dollars and was the agreement for you to pay that um yes uh this was about eight years ago that she had done that um it was originally about 18 000 of course interest and i had paid my way through school in the meantime so it gained interest and then um i began paying on it i believe about three years back but i haven't been able to gain much traction and it's kind of causing a financial burden in our relationship. So I wanted to know if it was possible. Why is it causing a strain in your relationship?

Are you not paying the bill? No, I am. Okay, so why is it causing a problem? Because it is affecting her and, I guess, their financials, too, and we're trying to see if it is possible to get it out. So how is it affecting her financials if you're paying the bill? Honestly, I'm not totally sure. Let me just tell you, here's what I think I'm hearing, okay?

Your mom took out a loan in her name. You promised to pay that back when you were in college and that was the deal you all made you have kept your promise most of the time and now are keeping your promise because you are paying it monthly yes sir okay that's the deal she signed up for yes and so um you know i don't know where she's got a complaint unless you're not paying the payment if you're not paying the payment she's got a complaint because that's the bargain you signed up for yes so um i guess it really should not be causing her any hardship unless she's trying to borrow money somewhere else. I'm unsure of that.

Okay. I just know that it's kind of causing a burden on her, so I wanted to know if I could get that off of her to put it on me since it is my educational loan. Well, if I could hear that there was a reasonable reason that it was causing a burden, it might be worth you going to the trouble to refinance it by getting a personal loan and getting it out of her name. If it's not, I want you to pay the minimum payments like you've agreed to and pay the minimum payments on your car

and then pay off your $4,500 loan as fast as you can and then pay off your car as fast as you can and then pay this loan off as fast as you can. Once those two are paid off, you should have extra money to be able to plow into this thing and knock it out. That would be the normal debt snowball that you would do. Now, you know, it's not costing her anything. So I know she's not having trouble buying food because of it. The only thing I can think of is she's trying to sell a house or buy a house or something, and this loan is being in her name is hurting her.

Or she's just got her panties in a wad and just decided she's going to be mad about this, which is kind of what I think this is. And you're just trying to get it out of her name just so that there's no tension in the air, and you don't really have a reasonable way to do that. In other words, you can probably go get a 10% or 12% interest loan and pay this 5% loan off. But that would be stupid unless there is some real hardship here. And I cannot perceive what that is in talking to you because you don't know what it is. It's more of a vague thing, which makes it feel like that she's just trying to change her mind. And that's what it sounds like to me.

So I don't know. You get into it sounds like to me. So I don't know. You get into it and figure it out. But I think you get in there and get it paid off as quick as you would as if it was your own $20,000 student loan. But it would be in the back of your debt snowball after you paid off these other two debts. You're taking an extra job yourself. You're on beans and rice. You're working your way through it as fast as you can. You want to get it paid off.

You promised her you would pay it, and we want to pay it as quick as we can. And you didn't do good in the past. Now you're doing good. All of that kind of stuff is all part of the equation. But let's get her paid off as fast as we can. Thanks for joining us. This is the Dave Ramsey Show at 888-825-5225. Cliff is in Raleigh.

Hi, Cliff. How are you? Hey, Dave. I'm doing well today. How are you doing today, sir? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I just wanted to let you know about our situation.

My wife and I recently got married about five months ago. And about a year and a half ago, we met you and we kind of looked at our financial situation at the time when we were engaged. And we were a little over $65,000 worth of debt. Pretty normal stuff, you know, student loans, car loans. And we started on your strategy. And recently we became debt-free. And on the last Friday, we built up our emergency fund for six months. Way to go.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It really is an honor getting to talk to you today you too how can i help well basically we want to see you know with being five months into our marriage i know we do need to start investing we're 27 and 28 years old but also we want to save for our house so what would dave do in our shoes well we always talk about when you have your baby step three done of three to six months of expenses, some people, before they start baby step four, they pause and build up their down payment to buy a house. And that would be baby step three B, we always call it. And so if you want to pause right there in the middle and not start your investing for a month or a few months or a year or something while you save up a really good down payment and get your first house on a 15-year fixed rate where the payment is no more than a fourth of your take-home pay, then that works there. And then once you've got that saved up, then you're buying a house with no debt, with your emergency fund intact, and with a good solid down payment.

Then you start your 15% going into retirement, maybe step four, and move your way right on out. And that's what we do. So, hey, thanks for the call. All right, Christian is in Houston, Texas. Hi, Christian. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? So we are actually outside of the bank about to pay off our car loans. We will be debt-free in hopefully a few minutes. Yay! Yeah. So the question is, so I have been working since we got married.

We've been married for three years. And we have a six-month-old daughter. She had heart surgery when she was born. So she is currently on my insurance, which is wonderful. It has a very low deductible, covered at 100% after that. So we've paid hardly anything for all of this. Hopefully in the next two to three months, I'll be able to stop working. The question I have is, we had my husband on Christian Healthcare Ministries before,

but she is not fully covered under that because she has that pre-existing condition of the heart surgery. There's nothing coming in the future that we know of but there's always a chance of something done so the question is his insurance has like a $7,000 deductible and a 30% covered co-insurance so super super bad for us the question is is there any other option we have for coverage for her that you know of?

Well I would look at his insurance as a possibility and um okay uh the seven thousand dollar deductible doesn't bother me thirty percent copay forever uh it's that's what it is for now he's actually i mean all the way past the seven thousand and everything uh the out-of-pocket max i believe is fifteen 000 oh okay that's not bad at all so we that's what we could hit every year yeah yeah um his insurance doesn't sound bad you also could just price an independent individual hsa with somebody like a type of a blue cross or somebody like that just get with one of our endorsed local providers for insurance they'll help you price that out and compare that to the insurance he can get. And I would put him and her on one of those two, all of your family, because of her special

situation. 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. Catch the full show or watch the highlights and check out Dave's upcoming guests. Head to the app store and download it today.