The Ramsey Show - App - Do I Need a Long-Term Care Policy? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: April 5, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book, Debt-Free Degree, is my co-host today. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

You jump in and we'll talk to you about your life and your money. Marissa is with us. Marissa is in Portland, Oregon. Hi, Marissa. How are you? I'm good. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

So my husband got a life insurance policy before we were married, and it's one of those policies where he paid into it, and then it had some sort of investment. So it has a $30,000 cash out right now. And we've since obtained two other policies for him that are way cheaper per month and give us more in life insurance. It gives us the 10 times his income. Yeah, you've got term insurance, and you're getting rid of this crap. Good.

Right, yeah. Yeah, this one is $267 a month, so I've actually stopped paying on it, but we still have this $30,000 cash out. And so I talked with an Edward Jones person. I was thinking of putting it either in an IRA or in our kids' college funds, but she suggested transferring it over to a long-term care insurance policy. Why? How old are you guys?

He's 42. Oh, you need a different broker. Your broker's an idiot. Yeah, it didn't sound right to me. She's trying to make a commission. You need a new broker. Okay. So that's what I thought.

Here's the thing. There's long-term care insurance, nursing home insurance. Your chance of using that before 60 years old is almost zero statistically. Right. Okay. So you don't buy it until you're 60. But if you're 60, unless you've got $10 million, you buy it. Okay.

Okay. Now, having said that, there are two types of long-term care insurance out there floating around. Originally, when the concept came out, and it is an excellent concept to take care of nursing home above 60 is simply like uh health insurance you just pay a monthly premium and if you get sick they pay your hospital long-term care insurance you pay a monthly premium and if you need care in home and your policy provides for in-home care or you go to the nursing home your policy provides for nursing home they pay the nursing home right that's what you pay you pay and they pay that's the thing the newer kind is where anytime the insurance business starts

bundling something you're getting ready to get screwed with the exception of bundling homeowners and car you do want to bundle that but everything else are trying to bundle investments with insurance you're about to bundle investments with insurance. You're about to get screwed. Long-term care has now started selling a product like that crappy whole life policy you're getting rid of where it has an investment element to it, and you can put a bunch of money in it, and then you never think about long-term care again. And so this agent's trying to take your $30,000 and put it in one of these whole life type long-term care policies

where you're going to do an upfront payment and you're about to get screwed. Right. Okay. Again. So that's why I'm telling you not only don't do it, but run. Because there's only one reason that agent would recommend that, or two reasons. One is they can't add, or two, they're crooked.

Okay. Because it's a bad, bad, bad product. And if they can't add or they put their commission ahead of what's best for you, you don't need to work with them anymore immediately. And it's not because of the brand you mentioned. I'm not mad at Edward Jones. There's doofuses at almost every company, and you ran into a doofus. So what should we do with the $30,000?

You cannot roll it to an IRA. You can take it out and invest it but it long to our whole life life insurance is not pre-tax you can't roll it to an ira now you can take it out and invest it in a mutual fund in your name or you can take it out and invest it in mutual funds for your kids college and you know do a 529 or something which is probably what i would do if you're on baby step five you'll get a decent rate of return that way. Okay. Well, we have not. The only debt we have left is the house.

That was the other thought is if I take that out. You can throw it at the house. You can throw it at the house or you can throw it at the kid's college. But you don't need to throw it at retirement. You're already doing 15% towards retirement, right? Right. Marissa, do you have anything invested into your kid's college fund? Not a whole lot. That's one area that we've kind of slacked on.

How old are they? They're 8 and 11. Yeah, I would do it. I would click SmartVestorPro at DaveRamsey.com, RamseySolutions.com, and you'll find the SmartVestors there. Sit down with you. They're not going to try to sell you crap like this. They do stuff the way we teach here, consistent with that,

and with the heart of a teacher where you understand it. By the way, let me tell you this. You have a really good nose because you smelled a rat. You didn't know how stinky the rat was, but you smelled a rat. Something didn't feel right. And I want you to learn to go with that didn't feel right yeah long and i want you to learn to go with that feeling that's a really good feeling to listen to yeah it's called the holy spirit speaking to you absolutely and god god's kind of whispering in your ear don't do it

yeah if it feels funny you know why because it's funny if it feels weird you know why it's because it's weird that's why it feels that way and we need to learn to trust ourselves in that kind of thing, especially when you've got a good nose for it like Marissa does. Yeah. Very, very good stuff. All right, Anthony, let's stop for a second and do a little class on long-term care. I pulled out my cheat sheet here. Okay.

I need to get that too. The average claim on long-term care is 4.2 years. So when someone goes into a nursing home, they, on average, pay 4.2 years, which means a whole bunch pay less time, a whole bunch pay more time, but the average. So the chances of you paying a nursing home for 10 years is almost zero, in other words. Okay. Okay. But a lot of people do go in, and a year, two years, three years, they pass away.

Yeah. But 4.2 is the average. 17% of the claims are all that last more than five years. Wow. So from 4.2 to 5, it gets rid of 83% of the people. Wow. Okay. So if you got a five-year policy, you're probably okay.

Yes. Like 87% of the time, right? Yeah. In other words, statistically. So that's one thing you want to look at. You do always, when you're getting long-term care, want to get an in-home care feature because you can get in-home care many times cheaper than a nursing home, and it's not unusual for the quality to be better because it's like having a personal trainer

instead of being in a weight class with a bunch of people. Okay. Right? In other words, you've got somebody right there. You've got a nurse coming in checking on you. And you're on. That whole kind of thing. So look for that.

Doesn't hurt to look for an inflation kicker. The coverage kicks up a little bit every year, but the cost kicks up a little bit every year. And so you need to get long-term life insurance unless you have a very high, high net worth. Okay. And you said $10 million. I just made that up. But, I mean, it could be $5 million if you want. The bottom line is, do you have the cash to pay for the nursing home out of pocket?

60 years old and before, the chances of you going into a nursing home are like.0 something percent. It's almost nothing. Wow. But every day you live after 60, it goes up. Now, I've got hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate. I'm 60. I'm not buying long-term care insurance. Right. We'll hire a nurse to take care of old Dave if he goes out of his head,

and somebody will take care of him, I hope. One of these people around here. I make sure of it, Dave. So, I might get accused of being out of my head sooner rather than later. But it is a vital part of financial planning only after you're 60.

We strongly recommend it at that point for most people setting. This is The Ramsey Show. This time last year, we didn't know how our lives were going to change. We didn't have a clue that COVID, job loss, and homeschooling were about to take over our daily existence. And you may be feeling like last year got away from you. Maybe you lost complete control of your money. Or maybe you had to find a new job quickly to make ends meet.

The bad news is a lot can happen in a year. But the good news is a lot can happen in a year. Which is why now is the time to think about where you want to be this time next year. And if you're looking for a proven plan to get back on track, our number one bestselling book, The Total Money Makeover, will walk you through the seven baby steps for getting out of debt faster, creating a budget you can stick to, building real wealth, and becoming outrageously generous.

Get your copy of The Total Money Makeover today at the online store at DaveRamsey.com or call our Ramsey Concierge Team at 888-22-PIECE. That's 888-227-3223. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Debt-Free Degree, is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and about your money. Jared is with us in Los Angeles. Hi, Jared. How are you? I'm good, Mr. Ramsey.

How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, I was calling because, sadly, my wife and I found you guys a little too late. But in December of 2020, we got into a fleece, and we want to get out of that. And currently, we are on baby step number two. But the problem is we put all of our savings and got down to the $1,000 of emergency fund towards our debt to pay off a credit card and one debt.

So now we have a lease that now I see that we should get out of immediately, yet we don't know the next steps we should take. Okay. Well, we've got to gather the next steps we should take. Okay. Well, we've got to gather up some numbers to ascertain the damage. Yes, sir. All right. The first number is you call the fleece company and you ask them what the early buyout is, which is effectively your payoff for today.

Have you already done that? Yes, sir. It is $38,740. Okay. And so this is a long-term fleece, isn't it? Was it a five-year? It's only a three-year. A three-year. Okay. $38,000. Have you looked up the value of the car yet? Yes. Because it's a 2021, KBB actually doesn't even have we can't even give you the

value so i looked at a 2021 2020 it's a honda odyssey the 2020 if i trade it in it's 34 000 if i go private party the range is 36 to 38 okay but that so yeah um hypothetically if you could sell to an individual then you could probably get out of it whole right because if you can sell it for 38 and you can give the fleece company 38 and they give the title to you then you've got your deal and you're out right yes and that's that's the that's the goal here um That may be tough for two reasons. One is it's freaking brand new. And two is if somebody's going to buy a brand new car, they're going to buy a brand new car. And two is it's a very expensive car because it's, you know, $40,000.

And not a lot of people walking around with $40,000 in their pocket, buying off a Craigslist. When you get much up above 20-something, you start to get a little bit less transactions, private sale. A lot of transactions then are dealer of some kind involved. Okay, so it sounds like you probably get a dealer to pick it up for like $34,000 or $36,000 maybe, right? Yes. Leave you a couple grand in the hole. What's your household income? $138,000. Well, that's good news.

Okay. Well, the only thing I would know to do is to stop the debt snowball temporarily and pile up the cash to get this transaction done. And then you've got to figure out a way to get the car sold to someone for somewhere in that 36 range, hopefully. And you put, you know, you're going to need another car, obviously. And so if we budget $5,000, $7,000 or whatever for a car, and we need three for this, you need $10,000 to do this,

it's going to take you a couple months to gather that up, right? Yes, I have. The problem is we we got a van which are already was humbling you know those are three kids in cars you know you bought a i mean you bought the bentley of vans the honda odyssey i mean yeah i know it's a fabulous car i mean rachel cruz will sell you one she likes likes hers. She can be a Honda salesman, I'm telling you. Is that what she got? It was a Honda Odyssey, wasn't it?

In the video, yeah, that was an Odyssey. Yeah. Sharon, a Rachel's is. Yeah. Yeah, okay. I thought it was. I thought it was, yeah. So, anyway, yeah, she thinks it's the best car since sliced bread, but yeah.

I actually love it now. It just took me a while to realize. Yeah, I mean, it's that whole thing you move into the van stage of life yeah that's a tough move it's a midlife crisis looking for a place to happen but uh yeah so anyway aside from that yeah you've got to figure out a way to replace this thing now how much debt do you have other than this so outside of the lease, we have $95,000. What is that? Student loans? No, we got solar panels on our house as well as a HELOC.

Okay. And the HELOC is less than half your annual income, right? Yes. Okay. So we're looking at $130,000, and you make $130,000. And so if you could be debt-free in two years and keep the car, that might be a possibility, too. Just keep paying the fleece until you're debt-free, and then once you're debt-free, pay the fleece off early. Buy it on out for yourself and keep it if your wife loves the car and you are thinking the van is cool now. Yeah. I mean, you could thinking the van is cool now. Yeah.

I mean, you could treat it like a car debt. I wouldn't have signed you up for this thing, okay, for a lot of reasons. But you're there now, and getting out of it is going to cost you $10,000 out of pocket in a replacement car minimum, a little $7,000 van of some kind. And you've got this really high income so what kind of trajectory is your income on is it going to shoot up from here yes it's good i'm supposed to get a raise this year we were thinking of getting out of the lease because now i feel stupid and getting a cheaper car um because in the long term we don't think

we want to buy this car we rather get something that we can hold for a long time, something cheaper. But we wanted to see your opinion. I'm fine getting out of it. I'm trying to figure out a way. Is there a scenario in which you keep the thing is what I was trying to figure out, but now that you're there. But if you want out of it, that's how you get out of it. You've got to pay the difference in what somebody will give you in 38.

Yes. And then you've got to also have on top of that money to get something to drive. Yeah. So what are you driving? I have a paid off Toyota Camry. How many kids do you have? We have three kids, five, three, one. Okay, so you're into another used van of some kind, right?

An SUV of some kind, right? Yes. Okay, all right. Well, you can do this, but you're going to have to buy a nice enough van that is as nice as your car, that it becomes her car, because the federal law is mama gets a good car. I was just about to say that. That's what I want. I law is mama gets a good car. I was just about to say that. That's what I want. I want her to get the good car.

Yeah. So that, you know, it's a $10,000 move here. Okay. So how quick can you scratch together 10K if you stop everything? If I stop everything, that's what we're trying to figure out. I figure we learned that I eat too much, so I got to stop that. Well, that's really not're trying to figure out i figure we learned that i eat too much so i gotta stop that well that that's really not a financial thing no no i eat too much out i should say eat too many i'm messing with you me too chocolate donuts but what's that got to do with money okay

now you're getting personal i think 10 000 um we can get done in six months to eight months. No, I think you can do it in three. Yeah, I was about to say, man. You make $130,000. Right. How much is this fleece payment? The fleece payment is $585,000. That's not as bad as I thought I was going to get $7,000.

Okay, good. All right. Good. Okay. Yeah, I mean, tighten that budget up. Because the quicker you get this thing done, the faster you can get started on your debt snowball without the 500 coming out, the faster you're going to be out of debt. And so, you know, if you're ever going to turn up the heat to white-hot intensity, you know, blue flame level, baby, it would be to get rid of the van. Yeah.

And by the way, the faster you get rid of it, the more it's going to bring. I mean, if you wait six months this car's not going to bring you anywhere near what it'll bring today right yeah so we need to get out of this thing pronto yeah as a matter of fact if you have the ability to borrow the 10 000 i probably would do it and just get it done because you're going from 38 000 down to 10 yeah yeah i would i would go ahead and do that if you can find a deal where you do a trade-in and walk out with a usable $7,000 van and you eat the three, and so you have a $10,000 loan and that car dealer sets you up with a little car loan, I'd do that deal. Because that's moving down in debt.

Yeah, because we're going to go down, obviously, in a lot of cars. A bunch. But you're cutting your debt by 75% on this. From $40,000 to $10,000. I think I did that math right. Yeah. Close enough. $30,000. Yeah, you're right, Dave.

This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Jordan and Natalie are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? We're great. Hi, how are you? Welcome. Where do you live? In Bakersfield, California. Wow, a bit of a trip to Nashville. Yep.

Kind of wild times to be coming in and out of California. Yeah, it's nice to be out here. It's a little different. Like we're walking around like normal people and stuff. Yeah, like normal. Are they going to let you back in? It wouldn't be the worst thing if they didn't. All right. How much debt have you guys paid off?

We paid off $350,000. Holy! Wow! How long did that take? It took three years and three months. Whoa! Three years and three months. Way to go.

And your range of income during that time? It was $270,000 to $310,000. Excellent. What do you guys do for a living? I'm a journeyman lineman. I'm a stay-at-home mom. So you're working all the time, aren't you? Lots of time.

30-hour, 40-hour, lots of hours. Yeah, you've been kicking it, man. Yeah. Wow. So was there an apprenticeship to do that? Absolutely, yeah. There was a five-year apprenticeship I went through and then became a journeyman. Okay.

Because you're making some bank there, but you're working hard. Yes, sir. Yeah. We love it. Well done. Well done. What kind of debt was the $350,000? That was our house.

You paid off your house? Yeah. In California? Yeah. I'm looking at weird people, way to go that is that is a man how old are you two i'm 29 and 31 with a paid for house in bakersfield california yeah mic drop that's pretty incredible guys wow that's awesome so tell us the story what inspired you to do this um well it started a little ways before the three years and three months.

My parents got me the total money makeover when I was 20. And it just started working, actually making some money. And, you know, got credit cards, had a car loan. And I read that book. And it just, I stopped all that. And then we got married. And we had no consumer debt at that point. Then we bought a house, um, that we stayed in for a few years and then wanted to move into a house that we'd be in for the next 20 years or so until the kids were out of

college and everything. And, and buckled down and said, Hey, we, we don't, we don't want any of this around for our kids. And, and, uh, just knocked it out as fast as we possibly could. Wow. So the jump from 270 to 310, was that you just taking a bunch of overtime or is that your normal increases? It's just all overtime, even just up to, that's way more than my base, you know. I just was working.

All of it was overtime. Yeah, just working, working, working. How many hours a week were you working during that three years? It averaged like 65, but there was lots of weeks that were 80, 100. Wow. Some good pay, but a lot of long hours. Right. That's hard work, too.

That's not like 80 hours sitting at a desk. Climbing poles and towers and stuff like that and the rain. And so the fires out there in California, so that was, you know, a little. It can get dangerous. Yeah, yeah, it can. But we get good training, and I'm pretty damn good at what I do. There you go. I like that.

Good for you, man. And you have a paid-for house. Yes, sir. So what's this house worth? $550. Oh, that is so neat. I'm sorry, man. I'm just sitting here.

I'm looking at millennials, and I'm seeing how she's holding your hand real tight, brother, because she's got a good-looking man who paid off the house. What would you say, as a young couple, was the hardest thing throughout this this journey i would say the time that we had to sacrifice without jordan there um just meet with the kids and yeah how many kids you got we have three kids what ages eight six and one oh yeah you had a big job too yes you're like a journeyman mother yeah that's pretty serious i mean and he's gone i mean he's just gone 80 hours i mean he's not there he's there to sleep and leave again that's it exactly yeah wow so sharon said when we were starting this business she was a single mom with a husband

i was gone i was working like you're working you know i mean it was for about three years you know about the same thing you did but it set us on it set us into a trajectory that we never went back to because of that. The momentum you create off of this will slingshot for decades into your future. Exactly. Well done, you guys. So how does it feel to have no payments in the world at freaking 30 years old? Wow. It's surreal.

It's awesome, too. I love what I do, and I really enjoy working, but not that much, you know. So the phone rings now, and I'm like, we have dinner plans, or we're doing something with the kids. I'm like, I'll just hang out with the family now, you know. And so it's been, it's just such a blessing not to have any burden of any kind, you know. Where you were taking everything before. Everything. I was the guy.

If they needed, if the power was out, they called me, you know. you were taking everything before everything i was the guy if they if they needed if the power was out they called me you know that's simple yeah when you're sitting down with your kids when they are 20 21 years old and you tell them why uh to avoid debt what would be just because it just robbed us of the time that we could just be together as a family. And it just was an extra burden. Like, I had all these worries about, you know, I didn't, I mean, we didn't have any other bills, but just, I don't know, there was something inside me that just didn't want to have to pay anyone else besides ourselves and our future and my kids' future. And I don't know.

I guess it's hard to explain. Natalie, what do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? Just staying focused. For us, we had a lot of talks about the things that we could do when we were done. So just motivating each other and encouraging each other that it's just temporary. To push past. Yeah. To delay gratification.

Push through these 60 and 80-hour weeks. Yeah. The initial plan was like seven years, 50K a year. You know, that's how we wrote it out. And then once we got going, we're like, well, if we just dig deeper and cut deeper, we can cut this time down and be done, you know. Just see the other side and see that light. Yeah, when you can see 3.3 years, you can stretch for it. Yeah, yeah.

Reach for the tape, baby. Exactly. I like it. I love it. Well, congratulations. We're very, very proud of you. You're an impressive young couple. If you just take what was a house payment, you're going to be wealthy.

Yeah. Very, very wealthy from 30 to 65 i mean that's pretty stinking incredible so uh you you're going to be in an amazing place and uh yeah it changed your family tree if the kid if the kiddos get the message about hard work and living on less than you make and avoiding debt and this is how our family became wealthy. If they get that message, then they'll carry it into the other generations. They'll get it. It's not going to be optional for a long time. They'll get it, all right. I like it. That's very good.

I love it. Well, we've got a copy of Rachel Cruz's book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, for you guys. And that will be part of the continuation of this whole process for you. That's our latest New York Times bestseller from Ramsey Press. So good stuff. All right, Jordan and Natalie from Bakersfield, California. $350,000 paid off. House and everything.

They're weird. They did it in three years and three months, making 270 to 310 with 85-hour weeks. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Woo-hoo-hoo!

I love it! This is exactly how it's done. It's not often I'm speechless, Dave. That's true. It's not often. They're amazing. Yes. A young couple, 31, 29 years old, said, hey, we're going to...

Here's the other thing to take note. There's a lot of doctors and lawyers that would trade income with him. Absolutely. And they're $250,000 in student loan debt. Yes, buying themselves. Yeah, I mean, this guy, he's killing it. He found a trade, and he knows how to work that trade, obviously.

Went through the apprenticeship to become a journeyman, and is more than providing for his family. I mean, they're going to be very wealthy. Yes, sir. I mean, they are very wealthy. Pretty incredible. Fun stuff. Fun stuff. Yeah, they're going to be very wealthy. Yes, sir. I mean, they are very wealthy. Pretty incredible. Yeah. Fun stuff.

Fun stuff. Yeah, you're right. They're probably almost billionaires now. Oh, man. Half a billion, you never understand. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture of the day, 2 Corinthians 4.18. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. Since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

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Annalise is with us in Provo, Utah. Hi, Annalise, how are you? Hi, doing good, thank you. Good, how can we help? So, my question for you today, so my husband's looking back, looking at going back to school and getting an EMBA, and while he's back in school, we're looking at me being a stay-at-home mom with the kids. And we're just trying to decide whether or not we should sell our house while he is doing that.

What are you going to be living on? Yeah. So we will be living on, he makes about $52,000 a year. So it would be about $2,700 a month. I'm sorry, I got the impression he was quitting his job. He's not? No, he's not quitting his job. He will be doing an executive MBA, so he'll be working during the day, doing school at night, and

then I'll just be at home. And so why do you have to sell your house? Because it would make our house payments then be half of what we're bringing in during that time. I just know whenever we've talked about it, he's like, well, we're going to have to sell I'm sorry, I thought he was keeping his job. He is. He is. He is.

But I will be getting rid of mine. Oh. Why? How much do you make? Why are you getting rid of your job so he can go to school at night? So I can stay home with the kids. Okay, so we have two goals at one time we're trying to accomplish. He wants to go back to school, and you want to quit to stay home with the kids all at the same time.

So it has nothing to do with him going back to school. It has to do with you quitting your job. It works just to make it so we don't have to do child care. Currently, I just work weekend night. But with him going back in school, you need more time to study. That would generally be the time during the weekend that he would watch them, but he would now need that time to be able to study. I don't think the house is a problem here, Dave.

What do you think it is? I think they're trying to do too much at one time. But you're saying you now work at night and weekends, right? Yeah. And so he keeps the kids, and then you don work at night and weekends, right? Yeah. And so he keeps the kids, and then you don't work during the day, and you keep the kids while he's at work. Yeah. And the problem is him keeping the kids at nights and weekends

wouldn't allow you to work anymore. What do you make? I make probably around $38,000 a year. What do you do? I'm a nurse. Why don't you change shifts? Oh, because either way you've got daycare, right? Yeah. It's the same difference, I see.

And it sounds like you really want to be home and raise your kids right now. Yes, yes. So it's not because the daycare bill is you. You want to be at home with your kids. Well, if you quit and come home, you can't afford this house. So, yeah, you've got to sell it. Now, then let's decide whether he's going back to school or not. That's a separate decision, really. Yep.

They've all gotten tangled up just because of who takes care of the kids at night. That's the only reason they got tangled up. The bottom line is when your income goes away, this is not a house you can afford. That's what you told us, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you're going to go rent so you can stay home.

Mm-hmm. So when he finishes the EMBA, does that change his income automatically or just hopefully? Hopefully. It should hopefully change it to about what both of us are making currently. That's a gamble. How are you paying for it? So his work might pay for it, or if not, we were going to save up to pay for it. Okay.

And is it a two-year program? Two years, yep. Well, I mean, the other option is to grit your teeth and you hang on with a 50% house payment for two years until his income goes up, but we don't even have a guarantee his income is going to go up at the end of that. So I do think you're moving down in-house to make this happen. Okay. Here's the problem. You can hit goals, but seldom can you hit four of them at once.

And we've got the goal of this house, we've got the goal of you being at home, and we've got the goal of this house, we've got the goal of you being at home, and we've got the goal of him finishing the MBA, right? And they're competing with each other because they all affect money in the house, hold. And so the least of the three is the home ownership, and that's why you went there. Now I'm catching up with you. Is that logical? Yes, yep. And then the next most important is either either the mba or you staying at home

they're probably somewhat equal in importance in your all's minds both of them have to do with your future so you're betting on the future here yeah i think you move down and you get in a real good solid position and you have figured out how you're going to pay cash, no borrowing for this MBA that might work. Yeah. And I will tell you that I'm a fan. I said this in another hour today already. I'm a fan of the EMBA programs. I'm a fan of education.

I am not a fan of you thinking it's secret sauce and that somehow this is going to make your future easy. It's not. Not a fan of you thinking it's secret sauce and that somehow this is going to make your future easy. It's not. I've got folks on our team that are smarter than or more educated than and that make more money than the MBAs on our team make. But they don't have MBAs. And so it has to do with your ability to develop business acumen and your ability to go out and leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home. Having letters after your name does not mean you're going to be successful.

90% of success has nothing to do with that. Oh, Dave, you're wrong. That's what America is saying. I'm a doctor. I have an MBA. I am successful. Well, I mean, I'm just telling you the character quality. Let me tell you what a broke doctor is, one that doesn't work much.

That's what a broke doctor is. You know what? Lawyers are a dime a dozen that don't make spit. Yes. They're everywhere. Yeah. And so it has to do with work ethic, perseverance, critical thinking skills, the ability to go in the marketplace, observe trends, and step on them. I mean, this stuff, MBA can help you do that.

Yes. The knowledge can help you do that. But what you don't want to fall into is the trick that says, oh, the only thing keeping you from being successful is you don't have a degree. If that thought ever goes through your head, just yell at yourself, wrong! Okay? Is education important? Absolutely.

But is that what's keeping you from being successful no we all know educated fools that are broke yep all of us know them they collect degree they collect degrees like a thermometer i mean they're everywhere they're out there all over the place don't be one of those and don't fall into that trap in your mind that's what's holding you back because it very seldom is. Speaking truth, Dave. Otherwise, I wouldn't be sitting here without an MBA doing this.

So it's okay to get one, but it's not a magic pill. It's not a silver bullet. 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. This is James Child, producer of The Ramsey Show. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.