The Ramsey Show - App - Don’t Forget That Personal Finance Is Personal (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 22, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss:  "Should we downsize our home to become debt free?" "How can I get my finances back on track?" "Should we pause retirement to make ends meet?" My mom got married to someone we don't know and didn't sign a prenup" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Here's an EveryDollar deal just for our listeners: get a 14-day free trial PLUS $15 off your first year of premium. Click the link below and start budgeting today! www.everydollar.com/jade Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Jade Walshaw, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today as we answer your questions here at 888-825-5225. Dave is going to start off this hour in Indianapolis. Hi Dave, how are you? I'm doing just fine, Dave. I have been a major fan and listened to you for over 15 years. I have read the Total Money Makeover. I have done it practically, though, by myself. My wife has

never been on board with it, but I have got myself to a place to where I am debt-free except for my mortgage, but I'm 63 years old and I owe $150,000 on a, on the mortgage. The house is worth about 400,000. Um, we have about $90,000 on hand in cash and what I have been thinking. And I wanted to ask you, and I'm so very, very honored again, to be talking to you right now. I respect you very, very much in your whole cast there that you have. I'm trying to think this out, think this through. No credit card debt, no nothing. We don't even have a car payment, and absolutely nothing. But the thing of it is, is that I think that we should downsize from the bigger house that we have for a lot of reasons. But I think moreover, I'm not as disciplined as I could be, and I do

realize that you cannot treat your program like a la carte or like a buffet. You just can't miss the step. You can't do one thing, and I've gotten myself to this point by listening to you and listening to the other examples, but I haven't done it the correct way, and there's no way to do it, but if I downsize by a $300,000 house or maybe a $310,000 house, I'll be totally debt-free and set myself up in a better position to retire. Dave? I had a very bad argument with my wife last night. She doesn't want to move? That is correct, sir.

Yeah, don't move. I will not. I mean, we have a nice house, but it's big, and it's the maintenance of it. She Yeah, don't move. I will not. I mean, we have a nice house, but it's big, and it's the maintenance. She doesn't want to move. She doesn't want to move. That's right. You're 63 years old. There's a chance you're going to spend 30 years with her.

Yeah. You don't want her pissed off for 30 years. All right. Yeah. Okay. pissed off for 30 years all right yeah okay now what i what i think is fair is to say the reason i brought this up is because i'm scared i'm afraid we're not gonna have a good retirement and i was trying to figure out a way to stabilize us. If we're going to stay here, I'm going to have to have some help from you. You're going to have to help. We're going to have to work together. I can't carry this by myself

and you be an anchor while I'm trying to move this forward. I can't do it. That's why I brought up something as bizarre as selling the house because I'm tired and I'm scared and you have to help me if we're going to stay in this house. Otherwise, we're going to have more of these fights because I'm scared and I'm tired of doing this by myself. And if you want to stay in this house, I'll go along with that.

But the trade-off is you got to help. You got to get on board. That's a fair ask of her. I'm sorry? No, that is perfectly reasonable. I thought you would see it from more of a financial standpoint. Yes, just downsize, have no mortgage. But the personal aspect of this is kind of outweighing that.

And I appreciate it. Yeah, because it's not just your money. It's not just your house. It's not just your decision. And unfortunately, in times like this where you do know best, it doesn't mean that you can just go and act on it because the two of you are a unit. And you opened up the call with, I've tried to get her on board before.

Have you ever talked to her in the way that Dave just laid out? No, I haven't done it in that manner. I have a tendency of not talking, not communicating that well with my wife the way that you just presented that. Yeah. You know, and sometimes Sharon and I, when we had been married about 10 years, we spent about a year and a half in pretty intense marriage counseling because we were attempting to kill each other and it wasn't going good.

And, you know, a few times since then, we've still used that marriage counselor has become a lifelong friend, by the way. We still will use her such as a lady. Sometimes we'll call her and let her referee on something we cannot get through and we'll say hey margaret you ready to referee we're going to come over for an hour and um she says okay and we come over we drop a fee on her and she referees for an hour and but but we both respect her enough that we think we can guide our way through something. We can't figure it out. Even after 40 years of doing this, we cannot get on the same page. It doesn't happen very often.

But occasionally we get something we're both bullheaded about. Usually one of us will let back and go and let the other one go. I mean, is it really a marriage if you haven't attempted to kill each other? I mean, let's be honest about that, Dave. Until you reach that point, you cannot officially call it yeah oh so true i had a lady one time she said we've been married 35 years and we've never had a fight and i said that's because you lie okay okay man oh man healthy conflict is healthy conflict is healthy. Conflict is healthy. Don't avoid it.

So, yeah, Dave, you're no different than any of us. In other words, you're the same thing. But I think the point is, is you're grasping at straws because you cannot see a way to do this and keep the house. And there is a way to do this and keep the house. You've got enough years left. You have 90,000 in the bank. If we threw 60,000 of that at the 150 we've only got 90 to go and if we knock out 30 a year for the next three years you're 66 and the

house is paid for and she's in the house she wants to die in so let's try to go at that way but baby doll that means 30 a year that's 2,500 a month and we've not been doing that because you're not doing that and we got to do that together if we're going to stay in this house that's 2,500 a month and we've not been doing that because you're not doing that and we got to do that together if we're going to stay in this house that's the cost of the deal yeah I think that if he lays it out as you so eloquently did which clearly you learned in counseling I think he'll be all right I've used this technique at home yeah yeah no I mean you just got to talk it out and say, look, I and Dr. Dr.

John Deloney, when he's on here, a lot tells people, look, have you bothered to tell them how scared you are? Have you bothered to tell them how angry you are? Have you bothered to tell them not just you need to get on board? That's ridiculous. Nobody wants to do that. If you bother to tell them how excited you are about enthusiastic, how much this makes me smile. The idea of being debt-free and we don't um uh i mean all spouses have a tendency to say you know i thought you

got mind reading lessons with that marriage with that marriage certificate and you didn't oh you were supposed to tell me yeah tell me this makes you smile you have to tell me this makes you smile. You have to tell me this makes you scared. Because otherwise, you don't know. Yeah. Makes you tired. Good advice, Dave. That's good. Good.

You know. Fun stuff. Jade Warshaw, Ramsey Personality, this hour, all here for you people. This is The Ramsey Show. Jade Warshaw, Ramsey Personality personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us america we are so glad you're here hey guys uh time of year this time of year can feel really crazy busy the goals you set uh with uh vacations around they can seem distant or fuzzy but the thing is the kids are going to be back in school in the fall. We're going to hit a whole nother gear and then you're going to blink and

it's going to be 2024. You need a plan now to refocus on the goals that you set this year, like getting out of debt, building wealth, taking care of your mental health, maybe pursuing that career change that you love. Join me and the rest of the Ramsey personalities at Smart Conference in Chicago. We'll be there September 15th and 16th, and we'll show you exactly how to reach those goals. You'll learn how to get money smart, relationship smart, career smart, smart. You'll leave with tons of encouragement. Rachel Cruz, Dr. John Deloney, Ken Coleman, Jade Walshaw, right here to my right, and

George Camel, all speaking and teaching you. Smart Conference is Ramsey's biggest event of the year. We want you to be there in Chicago with us in September. Early bird tickets are on sale, $79. Here's the thing. The early bird pricing is about to run out. You want the good price? Do it now.

RamseySolutions.com slash events smart conference chicago in september don't miss it this is the ramsey show thank you for joining us hey guys if you like what you hear please hit the subscribe button and the follow button and uh leave a nice five-star review it's a big big deal. It changes everything for us. We appreciate that. And, of course, share the show. If you're watching or listening on a method that gives you to electronically share, clip a link, or push a share button, that's good.

Or if you're just a listener, a viewer, a talk radio, TBN, whatever, just tell people where we are, and we appreciate that. We know a bunch of you are doing that because there's a bunch of new folk hanging out so thank you thank you thank you thank you nicole is with us in atlanta hi nicole welcome to the ramsey show hi thanks for taking my call sure what's up okay well i am a newly divorced single mom of five children. Two of my children are handicapped. I have been a stay-at-home mom since 2020, and all of my children are under the age of eight.

So daycare would definitely be too expensive for me. I have three of them are going to be full-time in school in the fall. daycare would definitely be too expensive for me. I have three of them are going to be full-time in school in the fall. So I have really been praying about, you know, finding a job that suits the needs of my family, both financially and with my time. And what I've felt led to be looking for is remote jobs. When we were in the midst of our divorce, I looked at your budget outline and was trying to see like, okay, how can I make a budget? Because right now I am living off of the Social Security disability for my two daughters to make sure the mortgage gets paid the lights stay on

and you know i have other um government assistance to help with food and health insurance that were covered you kept i got the house and i got um my vehicle that was paid off my name was on his vehicle, but he got it. And, but that doesn't matter to the debt collectors. My name is still on it. So I count that as part of my debt. He was supposed to pay attorney's fees, but he hasn't that that's on me. I do not count any child support or alimony because he hasn't paid any.

And, um, so I just, I have just i have to find how long have you been divorced six months and why have you not gone before the judge and said he's not paying the car payment and the child support and the alimony i have i've gotten um I've got the ball rolling with them either collecting the money from him or collecting him. So, you know, he's, they've just, the problem is they can't find him. Man. Okay. Yeah. He just took, he just took off. Uh, he still calls and I have an idea of where he's at. So I've done all the necessary things to try to hold him accountable, and it's just a slow process because he's not even in the state. How much is your house payment?

My house payment is with taxes and insurance altogether, so it's $1,085. Okay. All right. Yeah, you've got a I'm sorry what a mess you've been through kiddo I'm sorry um yeah I was just trying to grab it some money there and you've already been grabbing at it and it's not there so um so what what is what are the prospects on this you feel like you're going to be able to pull this plan of yours off? So I have a wonderful support system, thankfully, with my family and my church. And I have told church leaders and everything that these are the needs that I have,

and I think that this is what I need to make to have ends meet. My question was, when I was looking at your budget breakdown that I had Googled at the time, I had no income to put into it. So I was thinking, okay, what do I need to ask for as salary in order to make my ends meet. And so I kind of did the budget backwards. I put my mortgage in, and that's supposed to be 25% of my budget, so I did my mortgage, you know. But you don't have an income that is a permanent thing, right? I mean, you've got portions of your income, but you don't have your career income figured out yet.

No, but I'm trying to figure out what i need to make she's trying to reverse engineer it and i don't think you get to this i don't think you get to decide a job based on what you need to make you've got to decide on the right job um and yeah you need you need to you need to be identifying that i need to make this much but i mean because you need to make that you can't walk away from some other things you've got to look at what you can figure out here yeah anything at this point anything that you find that's work from home that starts today take that until you can find what i've been doing side hustles um doing like uh my brother and my sister have a side business that they do and I've been doing their social media networking for them so that brings in a little bit I've sold about half of the things that I can sell so far and I'm still

going through things to try and sell them that's got an end to it yeah that's very short term so you said you said you said three of the kids go to school in the fall then you've got the two that are at home even you working from home I mean just because you're at home, you still got a parent's morning out where you can send the kids to basically a free daycare for three or four hours twice a week. So that would really be a time that I would hunker down and get some work done. And then the other times I would have to work at night when the kids are in bed, because they all go to bed early enough that I could stay up for three or four hours. Something where you're at home, you can set your own hours, maybe look into like virtual assisting, that sort of thing. But I think you're right. I think you're on the right path. I think

that you've just got to start getting those prospects lined up instantly because the selling stuff, the side hustling, it's good that you're doing something, but that, like Dave said, that's got an end to it. And that end is coming really quickly. The good news is your kids are also going to school very quickly. So luckily that's lining up for you, but stay on this judge, stay on whatever that pathway is to get that alimony and to get that child support. Because right now that, that would be a huge lifeline for you while you get all of this set up and

stacked up. And thankfully you've got a good network and a good community there to help you out. Yeah, when we're helping people in financial crisis, now your situation was brought upon you by different things. But one of the things we always do on the, okay, what can we do short term to get the income moving? because if we can get the wolf away from the door, you can relax a little bit. And then the second part is what's my long-term plan? Yeah. Okay. But they can be two different plans. I've got a good long-term plan that's going to come out of my short-term plan, but my short-term plan is breathing. Oh, four walls, baby. Breathing. I mean, just keeping the food in the house and the lights on and that kind of stuff. This is The Ramsey Show.

Jade Walsh, our Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt-free stage billy and melissa are with us hey guys how are you we're hi we're okay we're excited and we want to throw up all at the same time oh gosh well don't do that don't do the second one get you through a few minutes here without that yeah we'll just stick with the excitement part hey how much debt have you two paid off? We paid off $470,000. Okay. How long did this take?

It took us a little over 12 years. Wow. And your range of income during that time? Yeah, the range of income was $70,000 up to $180,000. Wow. Love it. So what do you guys do for a living? So Melissa is a stay-at-home mom and i am a personal trainer uh gym owner and now i'm

helping other gym owners uh coaching them with their with their business and good for you wow well done good nice income good jump over 12 years what kind of debt was your 470 000 uh well it was a house. Yeah. Wow. All right, all right. All right, people. Credit card debt, student loans, a loan with a parent, a car. Medical. Medical. We had a guy that I knew from jujitsu. He said, listen, I can put a fence around your yard, a beautiful fence, and you can pay me later. I said, awesome.

That was part of it. Oh, wow. Yeah. Pay me later was real. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. The jujitsu fits.

It shall ever be known as. Exactly. Yeah. Wow. So, how much is this paid for house worth? I would say about $450. Yeah. Way to go. And how much do you guys have in

your investments uh everything else is about 300 okay so you're almost a baby step millionaires way to go guys how old are you two i'm 38 yeah i am 43 i love it well done boom boom boom boom boom okay so 12 years ago, things changed. Oh, yeah. What happened? Oh, man, we had a huge wake-up call one day. I was married to my beautiful wife and getting ready for work. It's a knock on the door, and there's a really nice but really scary-looking guy on my stoop.

Our car had been hooked up to his tow truck and that was our wake-up call. Our brand new car was repossessed and that was when we realized we had a problem. We were in complete denial. I didn't even know that there was a risk of that. I had never heard of it. I didn't realize it could happen and it did. Did you realize that you were that far behind on the payment did not I just swept everything under the rug we started getting letters for our house that they were going to foreclose on us goodness so it was bad yeah so what what do you attribute to that was it just you guys had your heads in the sand or was it

were you going through a hard time financially how do you well we were just spending more than we made um actually it was funny after we got on a plan and um we realized that we actually had more money once we were on a plan um we actually we had less money coming in as an income once we got on a plan, but we had more money beforehand, and we were in so much debt. So, yeah, it was crazy. Wow. It's not that unusual. There is, I've never seen any actual research done on it, but having met with and almost experienced repossession there's something you feel this weird combination of being stolen

from like violated and mixed in with this intense shame yeah like it's my fault that the thief is in my driveway there's a weird vibe there y'all know what i'm talking about yeah it kind of comes up in your throat. And you talked earlier about throwing up. This one's real. Yeah. But that is a serious wake up call. Yeah.

And so when that happens, you're like, oh, and by the way, there's letters on the house and maybe they weren't kidding. Yeah. Well, it's so public, too. It's like when you get those letters in the mail, no one sees those but you. But when the guy shows up on your street with the tow truck,'s like billy where's your car oh yeah yeah we had an argument that night going to go pick it up so that was stressful oh i bet wow so this moment happens you realize our money is a hot mess talk about what happened next yeah honestly, God just really used you guys.

We were in a small group with our church and never heard of you guys. And he just casually mentions it. And after that, we went home, did a little research and we drank the Kool-Aid hard. Come on now. Yeah. We're so weird. Yeah we uh we did everything we went through every single step did you do financial peace university or you just times oh wow three yeah three and then uh one got interrupted for some reason we were doing yeah third time it got stopped for some reason i can't remember why maybe yeah it was a hurricane sandy yeah Yeah. So, yeah. So, we did that. Then we led it several times for our church. And, yeah. It was.

So, you got plugged in, stayed plugged in, kept doing the class because we all know that keeps you motivated. Yep. Yep. And we did Legacy as well. Yep. Yep. We did that on our own.

Did everything. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Like you said, drink all the Kool-Aid. Yeah. Absolutely. And then also, just to mention, we also applied the same principles in the business.

So all of that debt was from previous stuff. Personal. Yeah. No business debt. But the business, yeah, we never took a credit card for the business. That's great. Yeah. Yeah.

Very, very cool. Very cool stuff. Good for you guys. Well done. Well done. All right. Now that you've done it, house and everything, on track to be

Baby Steps Millionaire soon. How's that feel? Amazing. I love what you say about how the grass feels under your feet on your own property when it's not owed to anybody.

And it's so true. It's so true. Yeah, I agree. It's incredible. Our lives have totally changed. There's just a different feeling. Our marriage. Yeah, I agree. It's incredible. Our lives have totally changed. There's just a different feeling. Our marriage was already, I would say it was great, but it's gotten even better. Our family has gotten better.

Life is just way better. Yeah. Way to go. Your business, probably making different decisions there. Absolutely. Yep. You said calmer, wiser. Yeah.

Yeah. Steady. The whole thing, that's generally what happens. And feel a lot more in control a little less desperate yeah yes yeah that's uh you can sell easier when you don't have to sell amen good for y'all well done you guys what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is well being on the same page is a big part of it we were listening to the call before and and my heart goes out to couples that are not on the same page

because we were in such a desperate situation and we knew we had to get help because we didn't know what else to do. And so his leadership was really big in that, but just being same mindset, same goal. Yeah, it's been a huge blessing to do it together. I think that's even more important for us is what it's done to our marriage and our family. It's quite a miracle for us to be standing here and just to think of the change that's happening in our lives and in our four children.

It's a huge blessing. The other thing I'll add is we put a lot into growth. I heard somebody else say that also and I agree with that we invested heavily in our in ourselves in our marriage our emotional health that's good give entree leadership a plug that was definitely a big part of it so that was I would say those two things are what jumps out to us very cool way to go you guys we're proud of you you got the kiddos with you what are their names and ages Alyissa is 12 uh olivia's eight sophia's five and her son julian is two all right very good we've also got the live and give box for you the baby steps millionaires book since you're almost there the total money makeover book and a financial peace university membership and you can of course give that away to someone as well all right right, Billy and Melissa, Alyssa, Olivia, Sophia, and Julian from Clarksville, Tennessee.

$470,000 paid off. House and everything. Did it in 12 years, making $70,000 to $180,000. Count it down. All right. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right, here we go. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free scream. All right, here we go. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Way to go, you guys! Man, that's awesome. Financial Peace University, three times. Three times. Legacy journey.

They did it all, Dave. Man, that's amazing. Fully committed. Very cool stuff. This did it all, Dave. Man, that's amazing. Fully committed. Very cool stuff. This is The Ramsey Show. Jade Walsh, all Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Our question of the day is brought to you by Neighborly, your hub for home services. If you need work done on your home but don't know who to trust, you don't have to stress.

Neighborly is your single source for just about anything you need done around the home. Go to Neighborly.com to find available home services near you. All right, today's question of the day comes from Andrew in West Virginia. He says, I've paid off $42,000 of debt. I built my six-month emergency fund and finally started Baby Step 4 last March. I'm considering pausing retirement investing so that I can make ends meet with how expensive everything has become with inflation. I was very excited to begin saving for retirement, but at this point, I just don't see another way for me to make ends meet without pausing investing for the foreseeable

future. Interesting. My mind immediately goes to something's off in your budget because I'm like, where's the other 50% of your income? Because let's just assume you're giving 10% off the top. Let's pretend that. Let's pretend your mortgage is at 25%. and then you're investing 15 percent there's still 50 and you have no debt where's the other 50 percent going that's my first thought dave so either i think he has a house payment that's too high or we don't know his income that's true we don't know his income could could have an ultra low income that's true you're trying to do this on 25 000 a year you can run into that that's facts um but if you're making an average low income. That's true. You're trying to do this on $25,000 a year. You can run into that. That's facts. But if you're making an average household income of $65,000, $70,000 a

year, this is not a problem unless you got something else off. Something else is off. I would recommend him check his budget. Yes. Check your mortgage, see what's going on. And honestly, check out that lifestyle creep because a lot of times what happens is you pay off your mortgage, see what's going on. And honestly, check out that lifestyle creep because a lot of times what happens is you pay off your debt, everything's going well, and you start increasing your lifestyle, but it causes you to not be able to do the things that you still need to do. And one of those things is invest. So there's a lot of unknowns in this equation, but check with the budget because the budget holds it's like blood work it tells you all things that's brutal um the you know here's the thing let's think about it okay what

of the budget items that we're talking about could inflation affect okay okay food food uh electricity water yes and they have gone up some in some areas depending on the area um the uh gas for your car yes okay um and that could be pretty substantial miscellaneous crap at um walmart yeah there's always the target crap yep yeah um but here's the thing. The inflation rate was nine point six percent. Let's call it 10. OK. And so let's say you are making one hundred thousand dollars a year to make it easy. And we're dealing with 50 percent of your budget. And we're dealing with not all of that has an inflation figure applied to it. Right. I're not even talking about $2,000 or $3,000 here a year that inflation has changed your budget. Yeah.

So I don't think you are identifying the correct culprit. I agree. Matter of fact, I'm positive you've not identified the correct culprit. Inflation is not the culprit. No. identify the great culprit inflation is not the culprit no it is a low income a high house payment or some lifestyle creep or some combination of those things so um yeah i agree but this is a great moment for me to talk about budgeting since we're talking about budgeting if you feel like you're in a similar situation if you're like hey the hey, the math ain't math-ing, I'm running out of money at

the end of my month, you need a budget. And you are lucky because for just a limited time, guys, I feel like the ShamWow guy, for a limited time, there is a deal that we're offering. It's got my name as the promo code and you can get every dollar, which is our budgeting software, and you can get it for $ off now that's pretty substantial considering that the normal price is 80 so 15 is a big discount 15 15 yeah more than 15 that's right 15 is a big discount and not only that but you get a free 14 day trial so you can test it out and that's for a year yeah that's for a year oh that's right whole year the whole 65 a minute or a month it's for a year to have the right. That's the whole year. The whole damn year. It's not $65 a minute or a month.

It's for a year to have the EveryDollar Plus. That's a good deal. It's a great deal. And so this has your name on it. Yes. All you have to do. Why is it my name on it? Well, Dave, if you want one, they'll give you one too.

But for now, this one is EveryDollar.com slash Jade. Well, there you go. Don't be salty about it. Go sign up today. Get your money right. Trust me, you're going to love it. It's the only budget that I use. We're going to give away Dave's money, and we're going to use Jade's name to do it.

All right. There we go. Every dollar is literally the world's best budget. It is. It's the world's best budget. I've been using it since day one. Day uno, since we came out with it. There we go.

Rachel is with us in Los Angeles. hi rachel how are you hi dave i'm doing well how are you better than i deserve what's up as expected thank you for taking my call and i thank you for everything that that you did for us we appreciate it but my question is around my mother's trust in my three sisters, well, my two sisters and I, so three of us total, and just making sure that we're protected. So she actually, my mother, got married a few weeks ago to somebody that we don't know. We've never met before. He has two kids um i just want to

that's a little weird are you all estranged no no not at all yeah it was a very strange situation um a little dramatic but yeah that would be fair we're very close i thought we were i thought we were close is it someone she's known for a long time as friends and they just got married or just this guy out of the clear blue sky? Yeah. So, yeah. So she does know him. She's known him for a few years.

And he's been kind of chasing her. She's been kind of pushing him off. And then they've been dating for a few months and then decided to get married. Oh, yeah. What's your question? So I just want to make sure that my sisters and I are protected with our trust. She doesn't have much, but I am the executor of the trust, and they didn't sign a prenup. So if anything happens to her or both of them, I just want to make sure that I'm not going to bat like Jan.

What's in the trust? I know for sure the two properties are. They're titled to the trust. The trust is the owner of the properties recorded at the courthouse. I believe so. Okay. Then they can't be sold without your signature. Okay. You're the executor sold without your signature. Okay.

You're the executor of the trust, right? You're the trustee. Yes. Okay. I mean, you need to see your lawyer. I'm not one, but we use trusts in our estate planning. And if the, a trust is like an LLC or a corporation in that it is a standalone legal entity that acts like it's human, and it has a name, and the name can own things.

And so the building that we are sitting in is owned by a trust, and so it's not in Dave Ramsey's name. It's in the name of the trust. And so for the building to be sold, the trustee has to sign the documents that's who manages the trust um so if um so however the if the trust dictates that the uh trustee has to follow the direction of your mom and she says for you to go sell it then you have to follow the direction of the trust. You might be forced to sell it, but she can't go and sell it if it is titled to the trust without the trustee's signature in most states.

Now, you're in California, lots of weird crap in California on the law, weird laws, and I am not an attorney. Please go see your attorney and at a minimum verify that the trust is actually holding the title of the assets it's entitled to the trust um how else would it be able to be in the trust well sometimes people form a trust and then don't retitle the property oh and so the property is not really in the trust they They just kind of wish it was. It's called an unfunded trust, meaning you didn't actually move the crap into the trust.

You built this trust to protect everything and then you didn't move the stuff in there. And so it's of absolutely no value. There's nothing in it. It's an empty lockbox. Interesting. Yes. And so, you know, I have a lockbox, but there's no money in there. You know, so there's no money in there. You know, there's no documents in there. So, Rachel, go see an attorney, your attorney, if you have one that's meant to help put the trust together.

Hopefully there's a family attorney and say, all right, I want to make sure I'm able to do the things that the trust is asking me to do as the trustee. And I need to verify that the properties have been listed in the name of the trust. And tell me what happens if mom gets influenced by this husband that I've never met to go do crazy crap. What happens then? And get some legal advice so you're ahead of the curve on this. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade. If you love the show and want a deeper dive on your money journey,

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