The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Carry Another Person's Baggage Around (Hour 3)
Episode Date: June 18, 2020Relationships, Insurance, Debt Tools to get you started:Â Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly.../2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQRÂ
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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.
My co-host on the air today on the Dave Ramsey Show, Ramsey personality, Dr. John Deloney,
joins us, open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. You guys jump in and we'll talk about your life and
your money. We have announced earlier today that one week from today on thursday june the 25th rachel cruz chris ogan and i are
going to be doing a free hour and a half to two hour live stream event called what now
covid 19 and your money now that we've come this far through this process, the pandemic, the pandemic shutdown, what now?
That's an important conversation to be having.
It is, and this is exactly the time to have it.
And it's a different conversation than it was 90 days ago when we said we need to give a message of hope,
which is calm down, be nice to each other, this is going to be okay.
We talked about you a lot, factsacts are your friends, quoting you.
And none of that has really changed, but now we've moved through this further,
and now we need to say, okay, what's next?
What do we do now?
What now?
What do we learn from this?
What now?
Thursday, June 25th at 7 p.m., if you want to watch,
we'll have about 1,000 folks in the audience here at Ramsey Solutions.
And those tickets are gone.
They were free, and they went in about 20 minutes.
And you just text the word CONTROL to 33789.
Text the word CONTROL to 33789.
Chris Hogan, Rachel Cruz, and me for an hour and a half to two hours,
Thursday, June 25th at 7 p.m., a free live stream called What Now?
Tell your friends.
Tell your Facebook groups.
Tell your friends at church.
Tell your Financial Peace University groups.
Everyone tune into this.
That's three rock star, world class minds and speakers for free.
That's a deal.
It is a good deal.
It is a good deal.
But, you know, these are unusual times,
and we need to do some unusual things here at Ramsey to make sure we're there for you guys.
Kristen is with us.
Kristen is in Wisconsin.
Hi, Kristen.
Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
How can Dr. John and I help?
Hi.
Thank you for having me on your show. It's such an honor to talk to you.
You too. What's up?
I have a question. It's a friendship question.
I'll play you just a little bit, and then if you need more details, I'll let you know.
Just about friendship and forgiveness.
I had a real good friend that I was friends with for a while,
and we had a falling out about a year ago.
And she still, I still have not, we still have not gotten forgiveness,
hard to get forgiveness from her.
What was the falling out about?
Well, she let me borrow her bike.
We are both in our 40s, and her daughter is a teenager, Oh, well, she let me borrow her bike.
We were both in our 40s, and her daughter is a teenager and has a bike,
and I took it to a horse show in Kentucky, and it was stolen.
So I got home, and the week I got home,
my mom actually went into the hospital for a brain hematoma.
And so I did not respond right away to this.
I didn't pay for the bike and I didn't replace it right away.
And I was just really stressed out. And anyway, she had wanted me to meet her at the bike store to buy her daughter a new bike.
And I just told her that's not good.
You know, that's really not reasonable, or it was an old bike.
Anyways, and she has plenty of money.
Anyways, I did wind up paying her $500 for the bike.
$500?
Yes.
This is a bicycle or a motorcycle?
I mean, bikes are expensive, Dave. I mean, well, this is a bicycle or a motorcycle? Bikes are expensive, Dave.
I mean, well, this is a nice bike.
I know they're expensive, but this is not like, okay.
This daughter had a, what age is this daughter?
14.
Nicest girl in the world, but mom definitely holds a grudge.
So what's your question?
So I see them every day because we board our horses at the same barn. And, you know, it's been a mental struggle for me just going out there and being ignored and, you know, not even I'll say hello.
And it's just I'm not even treated like I'm a human being anymore.
And I'm not asking for her to be my friend.
I just, I'm sorry.
I've written her notes.
So have you, yeah, this is messy.
Have you just taken her aside and said, I'm sorry?
I've tried. Have you just taken her aside and said, I'm sorry? I guess I haven't really gotten that close to her.
Every time she sees me walking to her, she walks away.
So it sounds like you have a choice to make, right?
So you had a traumatic moment in history.
You lost somebody's bike.
I think it is fair to replace their bike.
And now again yeah
whether it's a 500 bike or a 200 bike doesn't matter how much money they have if they're
millionaires or gajillionaires you lost the bike and you need to pay for it um and come to some
terms with that and of course we want people to be sympathetic to us especially when we're in times
of of you know tragedy in our own homes.
But it sounds like you've got a decision to make.
Do you want to carry this around with you?
Or do you want to take the first step and say,
hey, I'm sorry, and I should have taken care of the bike differently.
My mom was in a bad situation.
I didn't handle it right.
And I'm sorry.
And you can move on.
There may be a difference on who's at fault, who's right.
In my personal life, I've decided, I decided this several years ago,
I don't care anymore.
I'm not going to carry other people's baggage around,
even if they should have been more sensitive to me,
even if they should have handled something differently.
I'm not going to carry that because it weighs me down.
It hurts my knees, it hurts my shoulders, it hurts my neck.
I'm not going to do that. And so I'm going to go first.
I'm going to reach out and say, I played a part in this separation, and I'm sorry.
And I wish I'd handled it better, and I didn't.
And I hope you forgive me.
So that would change the language of the way you describe this story forever, if you do that.
In other words, the language would never have anything to do about uh nice young
lady but her mother carries a grudge it would never have anything to do with she's got plenty
of money she could buy a bike never have anything to do with well she should have understood my
mother had a hematoma we would never say phrases like those again you would just say yeah i was
wrong right i didn't pony up the money as quickly as I should have.
I didn't react well to this.
And if she can't accept that, then you've at least set it all down.
But when you qualify all of your apologies with qualifiers,
it takes the sincerity off the apology.
Well, you never get to put the bricks down.
And if this other mom called me, I'd be telling her the same thing, right?
I'd be telling her the same thing.
Say you're sorry and put it down.
Just forget it.
Move on.
Nothing's worth that.
And then if she still won't talk to you, she just won't talk to you.
That's her baggage to carry, not yours.
Believe me, there's some people who won't talk to Dave Ramsey, I can promise you.
And I've blocked like 15,000
on Twitter.
Does that count?
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The main difference between houses that sit on the market when you're trying to sell a home
and the ones that actually sell are real estate agents who know what the
flip they're doing and this starts with you knowing the value of a good real estate agent
it is worth it to find a high octane high protein experienced agent who cares about getting you
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It never pays to settle for a subpar agent because you're kin to them. God help you or because they're in your church god help you or because you're friends
with them now this is your largest asset don't turn this over to your friend's buddy's brother
who just got out is going to get their little feelings hurt wow get the right person to sell your house. Go to DaveRamsey.com slash agent and find
the real estate agent that is a pro in your area that we recommend. Believe me, we have
vetted them. The things that people do to keep from hurting someone else's feelings.
Isn't it unbelievable, man? Isn't it unbelievable? They will waste hours of their life.
They will buy things they didn't want.
They will.
It's unbelievable.
Buy insurance they don't understand.
To avoid one hard conversation.
They will buy a timeshare because they went into one of those stupid timeshare presentations
and are afraid they're going to hurt the scummy timeshare agent's feelings.
The things we will do to not have a hard conversation.
Yep.
It's unbelievable.
Christian is with us in Oklahoma.
Hi, Christian.
How are you?
Hi.
I'm good.
How are y'all doing?
Better than I deserve.
What's up?
Hi.
Thank you for taking my call.
So last year I got divorced.
I'm 32.
I'm a single mom and teacher.
I have a two-year-old.
And so I'm basically just on baby step two, trying to work through that.
And I started to look at my insurance and trying to find the cheaper rates and such.
I was wondering about life insurance since my son is only two.
And obviously if something were to happen to me,
then he would go straight to his father, who is extremely financially stable, very good with money.
How much do you recommend that I take out?
Well, anything you would need to supplement his care or want to supplement his care,
you would need to take that much out and so
uh if he's cared for then that takes care of one of your problems if one of the problems that would
happen if you were to pass away um you know who counts on your income and those people need to be
supported and so the good news is it doesn't cost a lot at your age if you go to zanderinsurance.com
and get an easy quote they're really quick and easy to get.
And, you know, you can buy a couple hundred thousand dollars for little to nothing at your age.
Do you need to have the full 10 to 12 times your income to make sure your whole family is taken care of if something happens to you?
No.
No, you don't in this situation because the only dependent you have is also dependent upon his dad.
And so he would go to his dad who's apparently perfectly able to take care of him.
If you do get life insurance, his dad, your ex, is not the beneficiary.
The beneficiary is a family trust that would be formed upon your death.
And the money goes into that trust for that child
and you set the terms of the trust it is not in control of your ex so educate me on that a little
bit i get to i form a trust and then i get to say how the person who's who's going to take my
my son or daughter i i get to dictate how they're going
to spend that money on my kid how the trust is going to spend the money on the kid okay
they don't have any you know you could say so for instance uh sharon and i when our kids were
minors you got minors at home uh we had a our will stated that upon our death, if we both passed away,
that the money from our life insurance and all of our assets would go into a trust for the minor children.
A trustee is given the job of doing what the trust says.
Okay.
And so we set up that trust then to first and foremost to pay a monthly amount to the person that's taking care of them.
In this case, an uncle or an aunt, okay, they would go to.
And so that gives them money to raise our kids monthly.
Right.
Because they're taking on the expenses of food, shelter, clothing, all this stuff for kiddos, right, medical, everything else.
So we give them a monthly amount that was substantial but not making them millions of dollars, right? Medical, everything else. So we give them a monthly amount that was substantial, but not making them millions of dollars, right? Then we also said that when they turned 16,
they could pull up to a certain amount out for a car. Okay. And when they get ready to go to
college, they could pull out enough to go to college. And if they had a major medical event,
they could use that money, some of the money in that trust for the major medical event they could use that money some of the money in that trust for the major medical event not to buy the uncle or aunt a new house though right okay it's not in their control the guardian
is different than the trust excellent trustee so you you mentioned two important things i think
it's important to touch on one is if you're going to buy life insurance make sure you have a will
too many people have a will right and have a will that always have both gonna direct that money and the second thing is when
anytime somebody gets separated they get divorced and they it creates a snapshot
of the other person mm-hmm and so right now this other person's good with money
right now this other person's being a good dad and we tend to not buy life
insurance but once,
and who knows what that picture is going to look like five months from now, five years from now, ten years from now.
And so I always want someone to think as though I'm in control of the situation.
Someone else is going to have to take care of your kid maybe.
Right.
Something happened, and, you know, you'd want enough life insurance to do the things we talked about a minute ago then.
And, you know
we went even further and said that we'll be invested in these types of mutual funds we went
even further and said you know upon successful graduation from college a certain amount percentage
would be distributed to you the kid and then at 25 another percentage and we didn't hold it over
their head their whole life we won't be quote trust fund babies right but i got just it got distributed all before they were 30 that of course is all gone now because
they're now once they graduated college yeah they're not minors they're not minor children
anymore so that doesn't that that item doesn't exist anymore gotcha now the estate plan is our
grown kids will take over the stuff we manage a certain amount of assets for god today and they
will take over that responsibility right to manage those assets for God.
That's the next version of that.
But in her case, for today, you don't have to be too freddy about it.
But, you know, as things progress over the years, you're going to want to get some life insurance.
You can do it now, get a couple hundred thousand now.
Again, $250,000 at 30 years old if you're healthy.
If you're not overweight and don't smoke, it just doesn't cost anything.
It's just very, very inexpensive.
And zanderinsurance.com, your quick, easy quote there will prove that to you.
The good news is, Christian, that you're thinking about these things.
And that's very intentional living, and that means you're a good mom.
It also means you're a good planner, and you're going to end up doing just fine financially because of that trait that you have there.
It's very, very important.
But you're obviously monitoring the other stuff. name um someone that i'm not willing to be married to as the trustee of my money
on behalf of my child someone else would be the trustee now obviously he's going to qualify to
be the guardian he's the dad and i'm not saying he's a bad guy or a bad dad but he doesn't get
to manage the money because it'd be highly you're setting up a situation where the trustee then
because they can move the money around if they violate the you're setting up a situation where the trustee then because
they can move the money around if they violate the terms of the trust they can get sued for it later
these kids grow up and go my uncle freaking raped the trust my money yeah you know so you can't you
know you can't do that stuff but um and you can it's pretty serious uh penalties for getting into
that kind of stuff but i just don't set the thing up.
We had a separate guardian and a separate trustee.
So the person managing the money is distributing the money to the guardian to take care of the kid.
I like it.
And that keeps a good arm's length situation there.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show. show. Most people's money problems come from not paying attention.
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That's ShadyRays.com, code RAMSY. All right, Mike and Julia are with us in Clear Lake, Iowa.
It says on my screen you guys are debt-free.
Congrats!
Hey, thanks, Dave.
Thanks.
How much have you paid off?
$164,051.
Woo-hoo!
54 months, 51 months?
51.
51 months.
I don't want to add anything to it here.
And your income average during that, or your range during that time?
68 to 82.
Good for you.
What do you guys do for a living? Um, I am a manager, a ready-mix concrete plant manager.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm a camp director for a non-profit organization.
Good for you guys.
What kind of debt was the $164,000?
Uh, we had student loans.
We had a couple different vehicle loans, credit cards,
a house that we were not living in after we got married.
What, the house?
Did you sell the house?
Eventually, we did get it sold, yes.
What did it sell for?
$60,000.
Okay, so you paid off another $100,000 in four years and three months.
Tell us the story.
What happened?
Yeah, so, well, we got married, and that's really what started us on this journey together.
We paid cash for our wedding, which set us up really well right off the bat, but of course,
we had all this debt that we came to the marriage with, and, you know, I remember when we were
dating, coming to Mike one night, and, you know, I'd listened to your show, actually, and I think
you had encouraged, you know, like, before you get married,
you need to talk about debts and things like that.
I remember going to Mike and saying,
I have almost $60,000 in student loan debt.
You know, and he was just very nonchalant,
very, like, normal about the whole thing.
He was like, oh, yeah, that's about what I owe my house.
And so we had to really learn a lot.
And what had started me, I hadn't heard of you
until we'd been dating for about six months.
And my dad actually had given me the Total Money Makeover.
And so I read that, and I started to learn how to budget and stuff on my own.
And I kept saying to Mike, like, you've got to read this book.
Like, it's so good.
Like, I've kind of started this, going on this journey.
And he's like, oh, I don't really read a lot of books.
And I was like, oh, okay, great.
I was like, well, there's this podcast, right?
And he's like, I don't listen to podcasts.
And then finally we got married.
Mike doesn't get out much.
Before we got married.
Mike's a cement guy, right?
He was, he was, right?
So, Mike, how did you finally get connected to us, Mike?
So we finally got married.
And right before we got married, I'd found a class, a few classes.
A small town about 30 minutes from us, and I said, look, how about the class, right?
Like, he kind of thought about it.
He was like, yeah, sure, I can do that.
Oh, we found a way to get him.
All right.
Yep, that was it.
So we went to class.
We started budgeting together.
We started off, you know, I'd been doing this on my own with my own budget before we got married.
And so I was like the super nerd going into this, right?
Like I was trying to like pinch every penny possible out of our budget every month.
And Mike was like not really on board at first.
And so he was the one who kept breaking the budget.
So we fought a fair amount, you know, just initially in the first few months and stuff.
And it took some time before Mike agreed to like stop contributing to retirement, things like that. And he finally did,
but then shortly thereafter had lost his job as well. So, and that job loss just came at a time
that was right before summer camp was starting for me. So my busy season was coming up. I was
pregnant at the time. And so Mike was like, you know what? He's like, you're going to be really
busy coming up. I'm looking for a job right now.
How about I do the budget and balance the checkbook?
You know, we've been doing it together, but he hadn't really been doing the nitty-gritty details.
And so that in itself completely changed spending habits.
So he was breaking the budget to very diligently following it, which I was not perfect either by any means.
I'm not trying to give that impression.
But that was a huge change for us.
And, I mean, honestly, other than that, like we just kept plugging away,
had a couple babies along the way.
We went to a few live events of yours in Des Moines and Minneapolis.
Yeah.
And so that just kind of kept us connected and motivated throughout the time.
But, yeah, then what really kind of just ironic in the whole thing,
we're getting really close to being done, right?
Like this was a few months ago now, and we're getting so close.
We know we've only got like maybe like another month left.
And Mike hits a deer with our primary vehicle.
Come on, Mike.
Come on, Mike.
You ever been to Iowa where there's deer?
They're all over.
You don't hit a deer a month before you're done.
So here we're like, oh, my gosh, this is going to put us back.
We were so close to being done.
And we were like, oh, by the end of the year,
we're going to get this in kind of thing.
So Mike looks around.
Here's where he redeems himself, right?
So he finds us a new vehicle for the family.
And we head up and we go and we pick up the vehicle.
We traded in a pickup truck that we had.
We weren't really using anymore.
Got more for the trade-in on that, plus the insurance money from the totaled vehicle.
And when I was a little money left over, we're in the car on the way home,
and I said to Mike, we've got enough left over that we can be debt-free like this minute.
And he looks at me, he goes, let's do it.
Very cool.
In fact, the new-to-us car on the way home was our debt-free moment.
I love it.
Hit submit on the button right there on the phone on the way home was our uh our debt-free moment i love it hit submit on the button
right there on the phone on the drive home that's totally redeemed yourself yes touchdown baby
touchdown well done well done well done oh man that's fabulous how does it feel now that you've
gotten here oh it's awesome it it's a big relief to know that it's done.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's almost surreal.
You know, like I think it just, you know, having this journey for over four years,
like it took so long and it just became our way of life.
You know, not going out and not doing a lot of extravagant things.
Have you been able to kind of breathe now that you're free?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Okay. So the budget feels a little different now, that you're free? Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.
So the budget feels a little different now, huh?
Yes, it does.
Yeah.
I mean, we both just commented to each other that first, you know, those first paychecks
that come in that we weren't immediately sending right back out.
Yeah.
Such a good feeling.
Yeah.
How old are your kids?
We've got quite a span.
Yeah, we do.
So from a previous marriage,'ve got a a 20 year old
and a 13 year old and together we've got a three-year-old daughter and an eight-month-old
daughter wonderful wow good for you guys that's awesome who was your biggest cheerleaders outside
the two of you i think you know we stay stayed kind of private throughout the journey but along the way
we did find friends of ours that we learned were also doing it and so it was kind of neat along
the way we like we would start to talk about it and we would talk about our journey together and
like yeah it was it was kind of this neat thing like we'd get together you know to see each other
like hey how's your how's your uh your journey You know, kind of thing. It was just fun to be able to talk and just like briefly encourage people.
And we did have support from family and extended family.
And actually a lot of that, I think towards the end,
we made one of those like paper chains, kind of drug,
like hung it around the living room.
And every chain was like $100, right?
So like it was long, but we were at the end.
And so people would come over to our house and we'd talk about it. It actually became
this huge talking point where for us it was a visual motivation was why we did it. But
people started like, what is that for? Like, what are you guys doing here? Kind of thing.
So yeah, we definitely came across people that thought we were totally crazy and this was not
possible to do along the way.
But it was neat to kind of find those cheerleaders of ours, you know, kind of hanging out in the corner.
Well done, you guys.
We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires.
That's the next chapter in your story.
Thank you.
I've got a feeling Mike's going to coach some guys that he leads along the way and say,
Hey, guy, hey, younger dude, I'm going to put a knock that he leads along the way and say hey guy hey younger dude i'm going to
put a i'm going to put a knock i'm going to knock on your noggin here if you don't get this going
you're going to you're going to be able to coach some guys up now this is very cool plus or minus
a deer but yeah look both ways look both ways while you're driving yeah all right mike and
julia clear lake iowa 164 000 paid off in 51 months, making $68,000 to $92,000.
Count it down.
Let's hear a debt-free scream.
Three, two, one, we're debt-free!
Yeah!
Woo-hoo!
This is how it's done.
Never gets old.
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from all my fears eleanor roosevelt said you gain strength courage and confidence by
every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
Oh, I like that.
That's good.
Got to face it down.
I like it.
How many of you have had an oh crap moment sometime in 2020?
Yeah, I think.
Culture-wide, right?
How many of you lost your job or were furloughed or thought you were going to,
wondering how you're going to keep food on the table, pay the light bill?
How many of you said, never again?
Never again am I going to be in this situation.
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Some people are still in a state of shock,
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Michelle's in California.
Hi, Michelle.
Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
How can Dr. John Deloney and I help?
Thank you so much for taking my call.
I really appreciate it, you guys.
Sure.
Yeah, so here is my question. I often find myself beating myself up for some of the stupid things I've done in the past.
And I know you talk about your rearview mirror and your windshield.
So how do I park that in my rearview mirror so it doesn't keep coming up?
I want to do something that I learned from David Kessler. Are you ready, Michelle?
I'm ready. Close your eyes, and I want you to picture a purple elephant
in your driveway. You got it there? He's in your driveway. I got it. In your driveway. You got a
purple elephant in your driveway. You got it? Yes. All right. So you have just proven to all of America that you can control your thoughts.
It's a choice.
Yes.
And it's a decision.
And I know that sounds trite and it sounds easy.
And it was a revelation to me, A, when I realized that I get to decide the thoughts that I ruminate on
and I get to decide the thoughts that I dismiss.
It was also a revelation to me when I found out you can get addicted to stress hormones
and you can get addicted to the chemicals that rush through your body
when you have shameful thoughts and self-hatred and self-loathing.
That can be a chemical addiction that you got to work through.
But at the end of the day, you make a decision.
I'm done beating myself up.
I'm going to treat myself like I treat other people in my community.
Do you often, Michelle, let me ask you this.
Do you often talk to yourself in a way that you would bop somebody in the nose if you
heard them talking to the lady at the cash register?
Oh, that's a good way to look at it. Yeah.
So here's what I want you to do starting today, right now. I want you to start being nice to my
new friend, Michelle. Because she has courage and she called into a couple of dudes she's never met
and said, help. And she's got strength and she's kind and she did
some dumb stuff like we all did and starting today you're going to be nice to her yeah be nicer to
her than you would the lady at the cash register for goodness sakes that's a good i love that
picture that's a great picture most people talk to themselves in a way they would never talk to
anybody else they're just mean to themselves yeah yeah right on it's true yeah
and it usually revolves around the stupid stuff we've done i mean i made a brand out of my stupid
stuff oh man i haven't got started on my brand work i made a career based on my stupid stuff i
did yeah yeah i've got i've got closets stapled shut because the skeletons are banging to get out
right so yeah we're all there, Michelle.
And I think it's when you decide I'm going to stop being addicted to the chemicals that flush through my body when I think about the dumb things I've done.
I'm going to start treating myself with the same dignity and care that I treat everybody else.
And then I'm going to start taking ownership of my thoughts.
And I wish it was harder than that.
It's not.
Sometimes we need to go talk to somebody.
Sometimes we need to have a friend or two or a group in our life that we can lean on to say, hey, man, I'm really being mean to myself right now.
And they'll just rattle your cage and say, well, stop it because I like Michelle, right?
But it's that decision moment.
I'm done being rude to myself.
I'm done being ugly to myself.
I can't control my thoughts.
And then you get connected with some folks that are going to hold you accountable to that.
Good word.
Good word.
Maurice is with us.
Maurice is in Georgia.
Hey, Maurice, what's up?
Hi, Dave.
You and Dr. DeLonghi.
Thanks for taking my call today.
Our pleasure.
I have a question for you about paying off my home.
That's free, other than my home. And I have a question for you about paying off my home. That's free other than my home, and I have a money market account.
In that money market account, I have $80,000, and I have old left on my home, $90,000.
So should I take that money out and pay off my home, or what should I do?
Well, it seems like it's $10,000 short.
Where are you getting the other $10,000?
The other $10,000, that's what I'm thinking of.
Just go ahead and just wait and pay it off.
I'm going to get the other $10,000.
Do you have any other money saved?
Just the $80,000, and I just have $1,500, of course, for my emergency fund.
Okay.
Well, we need to reset your emergency fund.
You don't have any other debt, right?
No, sir, I have no other debt.
Your emergency fund should be more than $1,500.
It needs to be three to six months of expenses.
What's it take to operate your house for a month times three or six?
Let's move some of the $80,000 into the $1,500 account to get there.
The rest of the $80,000 I would put on the house.
What's your household income?
Currently right now I'm passing around $60,000.
I get a VA disability check from the military as well.
You said $50,000, 5-0?
No, that's 6-0.
6-0, 60,000, 5-0? No, that's 6-0. 6-0.
60,000.
Okay.
I'm sorry.
All right.
So if you said we're going to put $15,000 into the emergency fund, so now we've got $16,500 sitting there.
I just made that number up.
That means you would have $65,000 to put towards the house, and you would be $25,000 short.
How quickly can you pay off the other $25,000?
Maybe nine months to a year.
Yeah.
Maybe.
$2,000 a month would be a year.
Okay.
Yeah, I think you can do that that and that's what i would do yes i would go
ahead and throw that 65 at the house today because your interest rate on your home is higher than
they're paying you on this money market plus a magical thing happens when you pay it towards
the mortgage the mortgage goes down and uh you can't get the money back out and go buy a bass
boat with it accidentally so um it forces you to finish the plan.
If it's just kind of sitting there sparkling in that account, it's a little bit tempting, a little bit scary.
People do weird stuff.
And I wouldn't go there.
So, yeah.
Then let's go ahead and knock out that other $2,000 a month.
And a year from today, you'll have your home and everything paid for, Maurice.
That's pretty incredible, dude.
I'm smiling right now just because his whole life, Maurice, your whole life is about to be different.
This is very cool.
You're going to owe nobody nothing.
I mean, not a house payment.
When you don't have a house payment, something, you don't have any payments anywhere.
You'll be holding to no one.
It just changes the way you breathe.
I mean, it does. It changes the way you breathe. I mean, it does.
It changes the way you walk.
It's amazing.
It changes how you negotiate.
It changes how you look at your work, your relationships.
It just changes everything.
I mean, slavery is a real thing.
The borrower is slave to the lender, and that's a real thing.
I mean, and so when you're not a slave anymore
because you're not a borrower anymore, it changes that.
So proud of you, Maurice.
You've done a really, really great job working on this.
And obviously you've been a saver.
You piled up this money from somewhere.
And you've done a really, really nice job.
Incredible.
John, great job today, Dr. John Deloney.
Thanks for letting me join you again. I love sitting next to you at this table. Thanks for hanging out. We love having you
here. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Thanks to Zach Bennett filling in
for James Childs this week and Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave
Ramsey, your host. 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 Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. On your
smart speaker, you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey Network skill. From there,
you can listen to all our shows. Ask Dave money questions like,
how do I invest my money? Or what is the debt snowball? Find out more at DaveRamsey.com slash smart speaker.