The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Be Afraid to Be Weird (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 31, 2018

The show about you

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jim is with us here in Philadelphia. Hi, Jim. How are you? Good, Dave. Thanks for having me on. Sure. What's up? My wife and I work currently in Baby Step 2. We started this time last year with about $160,000 in debt. We've been gazelle intense and paid off $100,000 as of this month.

Yes. Sold my brand-new pickup truck, sold a race car. Wow. Sold everything. Wow. So we have an interesting situation. We have one child, and we're looking to expand our family. However, we're going to need to do IVF. We still have another $66,000 left to pay off.

What is your household income? We're making about $140,000 a year right now. So you did $100,000 in a year, but a lot of that was from selling stuff. Pretty much. What's the math telling you that it's going to take you to do this other $60,000?

If we continue on this course, we literally sold everything, so the rest of it's just going to be working really hard. I think it's going to be probably about another year, maybe a little bit more. That's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking when I saw that. Okay, cool.

And so what is the pricing model of IVF that you guys are looking at? Well, we actually met with a doctor a few months ago and got a ballpark of about $20,000. Just, you know, we haven't signed anything or started any processes yet. We're just still kind of shopping around. But $20,000 is what we're looking at. We've spoken with other couples, and it looks like it was kind of around there. Let me give you a little insight, okay? This comes up a lot because babies are important.

Having kids is a big deal. It's an emotional thing, and it causes people to change their financial directions and to violate things and everything else. So let me tell you, I absolutely know nothing about medical things. I am a medical idiot, okay? But I have actually been involved in this decision probably a hundred times over the years. And what I am hearing, even as late as last week, with couples that we are coaching on this, is that when they press in,

they find several different pricing models and prices. You don't just accept the first opinion you get on how you go about this. Okay? Right. In other words, I heard the other day I heard $35,000 for one pricing model, but that was like a guarantee as many times as you need to do it until you get a baby, right? Mm-hmm.

Okay? Well, that's not one we're going to do. Okay? And then I heard the other end of the spectrum. you get a baby, right? Okay. Well, that's not one we're going to do. Okay. And then I heard the other end of the spectrum. I'm hearing, you know, single tries as low as 7,500 a try. And but they want to sell you packages and or guarantees or whatever because they know you want a baby and they want to help you get there. I understand that.

I should probably add that this is also going to be for a genetic disease, so it's going to be a little bit more than just we're not having issues getting pregnant. It's just we're looking to prevent disease. Okay. That's cool. I've got no issue with that. But my point is it's still uh i don't think that's going to change the equation okay uh if i'm in your shoes i want you to not just

accept carte blanche that there's one way oh not not i mean not medically one way but pricing structure and approach to this paying for it there's only one way to do this is the twenty thousand dollar way and i've talked to friends and that's what they paying for it, there's only one way to do this, is the $20,000 way. And I've talked to friends, and that's what they all say. It's all $20,000 because they all went to the same doctor, and it's all $20,000. I want to learn about the $7,500 idea and try that a couple times. I'll gamble a little bit with the medical profession if I'm in your shoes, in other words.

And that helps me if I'm in your shoes, go, hey, we're going to take a couple months off, and we're going to take $10,000, and then we're going to go back at it again on the debt while we see how that works out. And then if we need to stop again and go at $10,000 and then go back at the debt again, that'll be fine. Yeah. Okay. My wife will be very happy to hear that. Yeah, I mean, I would do that. But don't just accept the one guy as the only way to attempt this, okay? Not in terms of the medical procedure.

I'm not talking about that. I don't know anything about that. But in terms of the pricing structure, and it has to do with, you know, whether they guarantee, you know, multiple tries, you know, you buy a package of five or whatever, all that kind of stuff. I've heard all kinds of ways of getting at this, and it's kind of weird to talk about it that way, but that's really what's going on.

And so just learn a little bit more, push back, get some other opinions, some other pricing structures, and then based on that, yes. You know, if you want to take a month or two off of Baby Step 2 and have the cash to do whatever you're doing and then go back at the Baby Step 2 again, and then if you have to stop again and try another time, that's fine. I don't have any issue with that. Do we just say, oh, no, it's $35,000 like this guy said the other day, which is absurd, and we're just going to stop everything and go do that because we've completely lost our minds. And because this is an emotional subject and it's very, very important to have babies, and I'm completely with you. Babies are the best things on the planet. I mean, it's awesome. I love it.

So, you know, that's what I would do. If I were in your shoes, that's what I would do, is just learn more about it, and then based on that structure, you're starting and stopping of your baby step two. Thanks for calling in. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Emilio is with us in Atlanta. Hi, Emilio. How are you?

Hey, I'm good. Hey, how are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I knew that was your response. I was just calling to see about something about the house that I'm living in. I'm going to try to give you a rundown real quick. My wife, her great-great-wait, her great-grandma had passed away,

and basically everybody that was living there, they had to leave because they couldn't pay the bills, and they didn't pay the bills and they didn't know what to do with the house they just let it go and my rent my lease was ended up so me and my wife we basically just moved in over here but she died without a will or a deed or anything like that so we've basically been living here almost a year now but the mortgage is still in her name and i'm trying to figure out what I should do with the house. I don't understand. Do we get in our name, sell it?

How much is owed on the mortgage? It's $95,000. Okay. What's the house worth? They said, well, on the paper, it's Nation Star. They said it's worth $120,000. I mean, if you put a sign in the yard, what would it sell for? Say that again?

If you put a sign in the yard, what would it sell for? I don't know, $95,000, $100,000. I'm not really sure. So it's not a deal. I don't know. This is my first time even living somewhere like that, like owning a house. I kind of don't understand. Okay, I'll tell you what.

We're going to walk through this together, but it's going to take us a minute, and I'm out of time heading into a commercial break. So when I get back, I'm going to figure out whether you keep this house, and if so, what are the steps you've got to do to get it, and I'll help you with that. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Let me tell you a story about two families that are very much alike in a lot of ways. Both families have two working parents and a couple of young kids. Each has debt and has struggled to make ends meet. But they're starting to make headway with their budgets and smarter decisions with money.

They have dreams and plans, and the only real difference is that one family has the right amount of term life insurance, and the other doesn't. Big difference. If one of the parents die, and that does happen, their well-being would be destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and other bills would be impossible, let alone saving for education or retirement. That's why every day I talk relentlessly about getting term life insurance. Just go to ZanderInsurance.com or call 800-356-4282

and see how inexpensive it really is. Be the family that takes those deliberate steps to be different and responsible it really does make you the hero of your story and it puts you on course for better things ahead All right, we're talking with Emilio in Atlanta. His great-grandmother died. Family couldn't keep up the house. He's moved in it and been paying the mortgage and wanting to know what to do, whether he should fool with this or not,

and whether he ought to try to buy it or work it out or however. Is that a fair summary of what you told me so far, sir? Yes, sir. Okay, so the granny owed $95,000 on the house. That's what it takes to pay the mortgage off, correct? Correct. Okay. And the next thing you need to do is you need to talk to a real estate agent

and find out what this house is actually worth. Because right now you don't know. Yeah, I don't know exactly. It's my wife's great-grandma. So I know when I look on Zillow, it says it's $103,000, but I don't know if that's even correct or not or nothing like that. Zillow's not always that accurate, but it's probably not that far off. We could use that for discussion purposes, okay?

If you found a house that was worth $100,000 and you could buy it for $95,000, that really wouldn't be that great a buy. That'd just be an okay buy. It's not like you're getting a great great deal to where you just went wow that's the best deal ever right this is i'm not sure if i'm like i even get kicked out could someone get it or should i leave or should i move or should i go back renting or well where do you want to be long term with it you want to own it um well my wife she we kind of do want to own because we i got a daughter she's four and my wife she we kind of do want to own because I got a daughter. She's four, and my wife, she's in school now, so we're just trying to kind of settle down right now.

Have you got... We like the area. It's, like I said, my wife's great-grandma's house, so she's been here her whole life, so she likes it. It's like about two and a half, three acres, and it's kind of in the country little part of Atlanta. Gotcha. Okay. And how old are you two? My wife, she just turned 20 yesterday, and I'll be 21 in a couple of days, so we're both 20 now. And you got one child, you said, and how much debt do you have? We don't have any debt.

Okay. And what's your household income? I make about $30,000 a year. I'm trying to also get in school, but I had to kind of work with the circumstances. How much are the payments on this house? I pay about $617 a month. And your wife doesn't work? Mm-hmm. Okay.

That's pretty tight on your budget. This is very tight on your budget. Yeah, and we just found out about you not too long ago. One of my friends from church, he recommended me to start listening to you. So now we actually kind of made a budget and stopped going out to eat, and we're already kind of, you you know trying to start it off a little better and good good for you okay well here's the thing if you wanted to buy the house the only way you can buy it is the uh the relatives that are involved that would be the heirs uh this would be

great-grandmother's children or grandchildren that would be the heirs since there was no will someone would have to petition the court you'd have to get a lawyer and go to probate court and probate court would have to rule that the house could be sold and would assign someone to sign the deed as the seller to be able to give it to you you're going to have to have a court action to do that that's going to cost three two or three thousand bucks to get all that done okay i don't think you need that expense right now yeah i don't with all the with the numbers you gave me in the situation you're in um now is anybody going to throw you out as long as that mortgage is paid i doubt you're going to throw you out? As long as that mortgage is paid, I doubt you're going to get thrown out. Yeah, because that's what I was thinking, too.

Should I? Because I also kind of want to actually start even going into real estate because I do construction. That's what I do. So I kind of, this house is kind of, it's not beat up. It's kind of beat up since like the last few years. She had like other relatives staying there, kind of beating it up. So, I mean, I don't know if it's, like, maybe worth more.

Maybe, you know what I'm saying, maybe we can flip it and get another house. You can't flip it unless you become the owner of it. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. Like, do I need to? You'd have to see an estate planning. My instinct is just hurry up and try to get it in my name or should I wait? Let me tell you what I would do if I were you. I would be willing to walk away from this house someday when you get –

I would treat it like you're renting it. You're probably not going to ever bother to own it, and if you do, you're going to go through a lot of hassle to become the owner going through this court action that I'm talking about. Okay? So what I would do is pay that rent or pay that payment as rent. I would not spend any money on this, and I wouldn't fret about becoming the owner today.

It's inexpensive rent in the Atlanta area. It's a place you like living. Any money you spend on it, just say, to fix it up, is money you're probably going to lose. You're probably not ever going to become the owner of this thing. Yeah. It's going to be a really strenuous process with the courts to become the owner of this because we don't even know who the heirs are.

Yeah. Well, I know a couple of the heirs. It's not that many that actually even know about it like i said we've been here for a year so i don't know like should i i'm not like should i be worried that i'm still staying here paying it or should i just keep paying it and no because that's not a bad that's you shouldn't be worried because it's not bad rent yeah but i'm just worried like can't nobody come and kick me out because it's not in my name. Yeah, they can come kick you out. The people that own it can.

They're the heirs. But they'd have to all get their crap together, and they're far from doing that. Yeah, and they're far away. They're, like, in another state. Yeah, but they're not worried about this is what I'm saying. Yeah. They're not worried about this at all. It's not bothering them one way or the other.

They're not going to get any money out of it when it sells because it's not worth much more than it's owed on it. If it was valuable, now there'd be some sharks in the water circling, right? But it's not got any value because it's not worth anymore. So you're not going to get kicked out. But someday you're going to want to move on, so don't spend a bunch of money on it because someday you're just going to walk off and leave it.

Yeah, because I've already done painted and scraped up the floor did a little something you know to make my wife a little happy because that's whatever money you spend whatever money you spend to make her happy his money is gone when you leave because there's going to come a day two years from now that you guys are just going to stand up and walk away, or you're going to go to the trouble to get the heirs to take the thing to probate court and get the deed transferred to your name. And you can probably do that, but again, it's going to cost you a couple thousand dollars, and you'd want to make very sure that the property was worth more than the mortgage before you did that, and you don't want to spend a bunch of money renovating this house

because you're going to very likely move on in about two years. But in the meantime, I just look at it as cheap rent to a place you kind of like living. And, you know, $600 rent in Atlanta is not a bad gig on two and a half acres. So I'm sitting there if I'm you for now. It's not hurting anything. You're not stealing anything. You're not stealing anything. You're not doing anyone harm.

The mortgage company is getting paid. They're happy. The relatives that aren't going to get any money anyway still aren't getting any money. Everybody's happy. But just look at it like you're a renter, and someday you're just going to move on. Quit worrying about being the owner. And then if you really want to be the owner, then get ready to spend $3,000 or $4,000

and six months of pain-in-the-butt court actions, and you probably can work this through if you can gather up all the people you need to sign on it. And that's what you're facing. So it's an interesting situation. But my guess is it's not worth any more than is owed on it. My guess is Zillow is probably fairly close on this. If we thought it was worth $200,000,

if the relatives thought it was worth $200,000 and $90,000 was owed and they were going to get $100,000 in their pocket when it's sold, those sharks would have already been circling. They would have been trying to figure out some way to get that thing sold and get the courts to do it.

When you die without a will, you have to go in and the judge has to authorize the sale of the asset and it has to go into a pool to be dispersed to the heirs just like it would in a will but it's just a lot bigger mess and dude you can't get clean title to this thing unless you do all that and you do not want to become the owner of it any other way than doing it properly and getting clean title because you won't be able to sell it if you don't get clean title so that's how you'll do it if you decide to do it later but for today i would treat it as cheap rent it's a rental house how much money would you spend on a rental house that you're going to move off and you don't own

not any that's what you would do hope that helps man thanks for calling in this is the dave ramsey show Okay, I need you to listen to this, because one normal routine that everyone does can cause total chaos in your life. Folks, I'm talking about the simple act of using Wi-Fi. When you're on Wi-Fi anywhere in public or at home, you're at risk of hackers easily seeing every site you visit and search you're doing online. It doesn't matter if you're doing it on your cell phone or your laptop.

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That's hotspotshield.com slash Dave. You can be secure in seconds. Download Hotspot Shield today. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Tristan and Lauren are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hello. Doing great, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. Welcome. Where are you guys from? We are from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, north of Tulsa.

Very cool. Welcome to Nashville. Thank you. And all the way over here to do your debt-free scream. Mm-hmm. Oh, how fun. How much have you paid off? $162,000 in 46 months. Wow.

$152,000 or $62,000? $162,000. $162,000 in 46 months. Very cool. And your range of income during that four years? Coming out of grad school, we were at $85,000, and then we made it to about $115,000. Good. Very cool.

What do you all do for a living? I'm a stay-at-home mom. And I'm a scientist in the petrochemical industry. Oh, very cool. Good, good. So what kind of debt was this $162,000? It was our house. You paid off your off your house yes i'm looking at weird people that's how we feel way to go you guys that's awesome so what's this house worth um 162

162 000 oddly enough there you go very cool very cool how old are you two? 35. 33. And you have a paid for $162,000 house. Good to be weird. In Oklahoma. That is awesomeness. You don't have a payment in the world. How does that feel? Fantastic. Freedom doesn't even explain it, really.

I'm guessing. And we noticed when we first paid it off, all of the things that were annoying before, we have popcorn ceilings. It's a 1970s house. It was just complete contentment that this is ours. We own this. And that's, yeah. Well, and if you want to change it, you'll have the money to change it.

If you want to update it or something, you can do that. Oh, yeah. That is true. Wow. Way to go, you guys. Very, very cool. So what put you on this journey four years ago? I'd say probably one of the things that led to it was that we didn't think we were living month to month on our paychecks,

but then we realized we were using last month's money or this month's money to pay last month's bills and that we were a month behind. And all it really took would be one big financial issue and then we'd be way way behind and so starting on the adventure one of the biggest things that we hit which was you know again freedom to us having that backup money having that emergency fund we actually had our heater go out and it was i think 20 degrees below fahrenheit i mean why i think it's super cold so our heater went out our parents were there and we're just like just buy a new one it ended up being four thousand dollars and it was no problem at all and that's the sort of freedom that you

can't pay for right that makes sense you sure can't it's uh you just it changes a uh crisis into an inconvenience is exactly what it does, having the emergency fund in place. So how did you get connected to us? What was the process here? Well, we were actually driving through Utah one time on a road trip and just randomly found you on the radio. Randomly on the radio is one of my best promotions. Flipping through the switch, just going right through all the radio stations.

Found you that way. It was great. Okay, cool. And then you came home and decided to do this stuff, or you were already doing it, or how's it work? No, we came home and decided to do it and immediately cut up our credit cards. And then it was about a year or two later

when we started the paint off the house, when we bought a house. Gotcha. Okay, very, very cool. So how long have you all been married? Seven years. when we started paying off the house, when we bought a house. Gotcha. Okay. Very, very cool. So how long have you all been married? Seven years. Seven years.

Okay. So four of the seven years have been game on with this adventure and getting the house paid off and so forth. Okay. Cool. And you brought your son along. How old is he and what is his name? That's Ben.

He's two and a half years old. Very cool. So he's happened right in the middle of all of this stuff then, huh? Yes. Oh, yeah. Right in the middle of getting the house paid off. That's perfect. Yeah.

And that was one cost, too. We did a home birth. All the money was out of pocket because, you know, home births aren't covered in health insurance. Yeah. Okay. Very cool. And one more thing we wanted to share. One of our monthly routines that we would go through is we have this final countdown, and we'd play the song Final Countdown by Europe.

And so every time we'd pay that payment, the extra payment, we'd write it down, and it was kind of our thing that made us super excited. Kind of our routine. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. Good. Very good.

And what do you tell people the secret to getting out of debt is? Just don't be afraid to be weird. Ah, okay. And yard sales? And yard sales, yes. We don't really buy anything. I think that's a point of pride is that our house is 90% plus secondhand from yard sales, thrift stores, whatever you can do to really cut down the cost.

If you're okay with somebody else having it before you, you can save a lot of money that way. Yeah, very cool. Good. Well, congratulations, you two. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired, number one bestseller, signed by him. And that's the next chapter in your story

for you guys to be millionaires and outrageously generous as you go along. And you're well on track to do that. Tristan and Lauren and Ben from Tulsa, Oklahoma. $162,000 paid off in 46 months, making $85,000 to $115,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Everybody ready?

Three, two, one. We're dead free! House and everything, baby! That's how it's done right there. I love it! Very well done. Very well done. Open phones this hour as we talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225

jim is with us in ann arbor michigan hey jim how are you good how are you dave better than i deserve what's up so i'm um starting my last semester of college here and i have about $20,000 in student debt. Recently I just sold my car so I have about $22,000 in cash but I didn't want to work during my last semester of school because I'll have 18 credits so I was just wondering how would you go about paying the debt off? Should I wait until I graduate and then pay off with what cash I have left or pay it off all now and then just try and make my way through school? Or what would you do? Your first goal is to never borrow again and finish school. That's goal number one.

We don't want to do anything that interferes with that goal. And so how much of this cash do you need to accomplish that goal? Well, I'm done paying for school. Hello? Hello? Yeah, you're cutting out. Okay, try moving around again. Did you say you're done paying for school?

You're in your last semester. Yeah, I'm in my last semester, and everything's all paid for. So all you have to do is eat now. Yep, and drive to school. Yeah, okay. So run your budget out on that, and that's not $22,000 for five months. No. Okay, so what is that, $10,000?

No, not even. That's like probably three. A month or total? Total. Are you living at home? Yes. Oh, okay. All right.

Well, that makes a lot of sense then. Yeah, so you're not going to not eat and you're not going to be evicted. The only thing you've got to have is a little bit of travel money and pay your car insurance and gas and that kind of stuff and a little bit of social money, but not much. Yeah, that's about $1,000 a month. Okay. And three months you graduate.

Then what happens when you graduate? Well, then I'll start working full-time. What's your degree for you? Mechanical engineering. Good, good. Have you got something lined up yet? Yeah, I have a couple things lined up. I just need to decide where I want to work.

What's your income range going to be? Hopefully around 65. Okay, and you graduate in Decembercember yep that's correct okay well let's first establish it doesn't matter because if you pay it all off today uh you can make it through to december uh because you're living at home you can pull it off if you wait until then wait until december to pay it off if you wait until january 30th to pull it off. If you wait until then, wait until December to pay it off. If you wait until January 30th to pay it off, it doesn't change your life one way or the other, as long as you don't spend this stupid money on something. So I'm going to set the money aside under lock and key and wait until January 30th

when you're settled in your new job, and then I'm going to write a check and pay it off. But I want you to graduate, no borrowing, and I want you to move into the new place in terms of your deposits and your utilities and your new city and whatever else, no borrowing, and then write a check and pay it off. Thanks for joining us, America. I'm glad you're here. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Austin is with us in Phoenix, Arizona. Hey, Austin, how are you?

I'm doing great, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? Well, I do have some advice on tackling the next chapter in my life, I guess you could say. For starters, i'm 25 years old a full-time student full-time job i have 3k in debt um but however in the next two years or so my girlfriend and i are going to need to pay for a wedding and most likely a new car

okay so how should i prioritize these two items? Cool. So what do you make a year? I roll in about $20,000 right now. When will you graduate? In two years. Okay. So that's correlating with the wedding then. All right. And what does she make?

About $40,000. She's also a teacher. Okay. All right. So obviously she makes twice as much as you, so she's going to have a better ability to save towards the wedding than you are. Oh, yeah. She's for sure the breadwinner. You have a car now? I do. I have a Honda Civic.

It's probably worth about four or five grand right now. Okay. And that won't make it two years? Mine will, but hers likely won't. Oh, what is she driving? A Toyota Camry. It's about 12 years old, and it's just, you know, coming into problems left and right now. Okay. All right. left and right now okay all right um well you need to keep your finances separate but be talking about them as if they were together okay meaning you wouldn't buy her a car and she wouldn't pay your debt anyway any wedding funds you could both put in however you wanted to and you have a

savings account towards wedding and she has a separate savings account in her name towards a wedding that we combine when we get ready to do the actual wedding okay so so you got three goals three thousand dollars she needs uh you know two three thousand dollars to move up in car and then you go save for a wedding what's the wedding budget do you have you decided um honestly though can my follow-up question uh is there like a set percentage of your annual income or like a guideline that well the average nationally regardless of how you pay for it uh including moms and dads paying for it the average is half your annual income that doesn't mean you have to spend that but that's the average.

In your case, that would be $30,000, and that would be absurd in your situation. Exactly. You know, so if you wanted my opinion, I'd probably say $7,000 to $10,000, and that means you're picking flowers off of somebody's property. Well, I'll be out there early in the morning then. You know what I'm saying. Well, I'll be out there early in the morning then. You know what I'm saying. So you guys, but the good news is there's no correlation between what you spend on the money and the success of the marriage,

or what you spend on the wedding and the success of the marriage, and there's no correlation between the size of the ring and what you spend on the marriage. So let's just pretend that we were going to use $10,000 as our budget, just for the fun of it, okay? Okay. Then you say, all right, you make $20,000, she makes $40,000. She needs $3,000 for a car. You need $3,000 to pay off your debt. And then we need to put $10,000 in the bank for a wedding. Uh-huh.

When you say it out loud like that, it kind of sounds like you'd probably knock out the car and knock out your debt, and then both of you start saving towards the wedding. And if you saved a third of it and she saved two-thirds of it, that would be based on the ratio of your income. So you put in $3,500, she puts in $6,500. After she gets her car paid off, or after she gets a $3,000 car purchased, and after you get your $3,000 debt paid. Okay, makes sense.

Now, that's kind of a way to lay it out. And so, basically, we need $16,000 in 24 months. Okay. Three and three and ten. Okay. And so you and ten. Okay. And so you just start doing your math that way and going, okay, we need to lay out our budgets to be able to pull this off. You need three, she needs three, and then you need 3,500, she needs 6,500.

I don't care how you split it up, but all I'm doing is just saying, develop some kind of a plan that feels like that so that you have a very clear target and then you're aiming at a very clear target. You may determine you don't want to spend $10,000, that you want to spend $12,000 on the wedding, or that you don't want to spend $10,000, you want to spend $7,000 on the wedding. I don't care.

All I care about is you say, what have we got to do to get there, and how many extra jobs have we got to work? Okay, great. Yeah, both of your teachers um well i'm going to school to be a teacher and she is a has been a teacher for what's this her fourth year now okay all right well i mean both of you could probably get some tutoring jobs as as extra income right now good as extra income anything you can do like that to create extra income would really help push this through so um you know but you just lay it out like that dude

and you just lay out a game plan and go how much money we need we got 24 months and let's just systematically work towards this and then if a parent decided they were going to put some money in the pool uh to help with this for the wedding that You know, I can't put in much, but I'll put in $1,000 or I'll put in $2,000 or $5,000. That would help a lot, you know. All of a sudden, that changes your whole goal situation. But I'm probably going to knock your dad out and her car out and then concentrate on the wedding.

I think you can do all three. And I don't care if you do it in that order or not. You do it in whatever order you think is best. But just develop a plan and work the plan. Kevin is with us in Des Moines. Hi, Kevin. How are you? Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Good. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. How can I help? Okay. I was just curious. I'm single. I have no dependents and no debt.

I was curious to know if the universal life insurance policy that my parents set up for me when I was a baby, if I should terminate that and take the surrender value and invest it. I'm now 26, and I don't know that I need life insurance. So I was curious if I should terminate that policy. Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. Yes. Just cancel it, send them a cancellation notice, cash the check, put it in a good investment.

You don't need life insurance today. I wouldn't buy life insurance if I were in your shoes. You have no dependents, you have no debt, and you're going to have this cash value. What's the cash value amount to? Oh, it's just under $1,000, $900. Okay. And then how much money do you have saved? I've got about $130,000 in investments right now.

Okay. So if you die, Mom and Dad can bury you out of that and everybody's okay? Yeah, and they're deceased. I don't know their original intent. But I didn't know if, say, will I be kicking myself 10 years from now if I go to get another policy if I terminated this one? No. And I develop some kind of medical condition, will my premiums be that much higher at that time? Yes.

And I wish I would have hung on to this current policy. No, I would cancel it anyway. The likelihood of that happening is fairly low. But is it possible that you had a cancer scare and you become uninsurable? That's possible. But that doesn't mean that somebody that doesn't need life insurance needs to walk around with life insurance. Just on the chance that someday you might be uninsurable. That's just a waste of money, dude.

And this stuff's ridiculously expensive and a bad investment anyway. So if you want some life insurance, I'd go buy some term. But I don't think you need any. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't. Okay. Would you assume, not to carry on too long, would you assume that my parents' intent at the time was maybe they didn't have the funds necessary to bury me if necessary at that time?

Is that why they put the policy into place? They probably were sold it as a savings vehicle. Okay. They were probably looking at it as an investment for your future that this cash value was going to be. That's how most of that crap is sold. Gotcha. And it was probably a family friend

that sold it to them. Okay. Gotcha. Alright. It's a trashy, bad financial product. It really is. So that's what I would do if I were in your shoes. Thanks for calling in, dude. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Sherry is on Facebook. Should I get an umbrella insurance policy to protect assets? Yeah, if you've got over a half million dollars and stuff, I probably would. If you've got an expensive home and you're starting to have some money. If you're broke, no, you don't need

an umbrella policy. If you're approaching a million dollar net worth, pick you up a million dollar umbrella policy. Doesn't cost but about $250 a year and that adds

to the liability coverage to your homeowners and to your car insurance. It's a really good buy in the insurance world. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. 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.