The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Take a Child's Approach to an Adult Decision (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 10, 2019

Anthony ONeal, Savings, Home Buying, Career   Tools to get you started:  Take TDRS listener survey to win a $100 Amazon gift card, click here: http://bit.ly/2krRePv 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/2JgzaQR 

live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Joining me this hour will be Ramsey personality and bestselling author Anthony O'Neill. His new book coming out shortly. It'll be here in early October, just a couple of weeks away. Debt-Free Degree, the step-by-step guide to getting your kid through college without student loans. So if you have student loan questions or questions about life and you're in the student phase, jump in. We'll let you talk to Anthony.

The phone number is 888-825-5225. Andrew is with us. Andrew is in South Carolina. Hi, Andrew. How are you? I'm doing good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? So I was just wondering, I've been following the baby steps for a while, and I've saved my $1,000 emergency fund and the three to six months expenses. I put away my retirement, and I'm debt-free as of right now. Good for you. But I just wanted to know where I need to go from here. If I could put more money into my retirement, I'm also trying to save to eventually buy my own house.

That's where I'd be putting the money. You're debt-free. You have your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. That brings you to Baby Step 3. If you want to be doing Baby Step 4, that's 15%, no more, 15% of your income going into retirement. And beyond that, I start saving for your house. Because as of right now, I have no expenses.

I live at home still. Yeah. How old are you? I'm 19, sir. Cool. How old are you? I'm 19, sir. Cool. And what do you make a year? A little over $20,000. I get raises every once in a while, so it kind of varies.

I go to college, so based off my performance in school, I get raises. I changed my mind. I would not be saving for retirement, and I would not be saving for your house. I would be saving to make sure you get through school 100% debt-free. I know you may have it covered, but even if you do, I want you to pile up a big pile of cash until you graduate. How long before you graduate? I should be done in about three semesters, sir.

Oh, excellent. And what's your degree in? Applied science with a focus in machining.esters, sir. Oh, excellent. And what's your degree in? Applied Science with a focus in machining. Okay, cool. What are you going to do for a living? I'm an apprentice right now. I work for a manufacturing company, and they're putting me through school,

so I'll probably stay there at the company. All right, cool. Well, I'll retract then. If you want to build your emergency fund and you want to put money into retirement, I would. I would not start saving for your house until you finish this degree. Okay. I would just pile up cash in the corner.

You could call it your house fund if I don't need it for college. That's the name of the fund. I'm saving for my house if I don't need it for college. But if something happens and they don't play through, maybe you lost the job for some reason or another, that kind of a thing, I want you to be able to finish this degree without any debt. All right. Okay.

Now, when you finish this and you finish your apprenticeship, what does your income go to? I'm not quite sure yet, sir. It can depend on how I perform throughout the rest of the program. Yeah, but I mean, is it $200,000 a year or is it $50,000? Probably closer to $50,000. I get paid hourly, so it'll be varied based on that. Yeah, and how much you work and all that kind of thing.

I get that, okay. Yes, sir. What I'm trying to figure out is the value of this apprenticeship and the value of this degree so if you get a job making 50 60 000 a year and you're 21 years old that's a pretty good gig right yes sir okay that's what i'm after i don't want you making 20 the rest of your life i really didn't think you were going to make 200 okay i'm just trying to get a feel for where you were and i'm trying to get you to think out there into the future why i'm bothering to do this and obviously it's something you enjoy doing the machining and you've got an ability to work with your hands and you see things in your mind how things should shape out and that kind of a thing and so you're going to take advantage of all of

that that's a good move um and then on top of that, how am I going to make any money? Because that's why we work. We don't work surely for the pleasure of it. We work for the pleasure of it and cashing the check. Both. Sarah is with us. Sarah is in Nevada. Hi, Sarah. How are you? Good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Thank you for taking my call. I'm sorry if my voice is shaky. I'm nervous to talk to you.

Go on. I am. I'm a new mom. I'm 40. I'm single. I currently live in Vegas with my parents. They had to move from Puerto Rico after the hurricane because they're 94 and 76. Wow.

And for the health care part of it, they're here because my baby sister lives here. I currently have no debt. I started a job about two months ago, and I make $40,000 a year. Good. And I just wanted to see what my next step is. I don't own a home, and I don't own a car. We split the car that they own here. They don't have any debt, and they're the ones paying the rent.

But I just didn't know what my next step was because I went out to pay for the baby. I just got my term life insurance with Zander. That's good. I just wanted to see what I should do. We know the baby's taken care of. Okay. Well, our reality is this living situation's temporary. The reason it's temporary is you're living with 94-year-olds.

Okay. That's not being cold. I'm just doing math. No. Okay. Yeah, I understand. So what that means is you have to prepare for your family, meaning you and the baby,

and that means you've done a great job of staying out of debt. You need to build your emergency fund as quick as you can to three to six months of expenses, six months in your case, because you may have to have housing later, and you may have to buy a car later. Yeah. And that's probably both going to happen within five years would you agree yes i mean the the statistical probability of you living with two 99 year olds is very low yeah well my mom's 76 okay yeah okay yeah well an 81 year old and a 99 year old i know yeah yeah so um but anyway either, I'm going to build up my emergency fund.

I'm going to build up a car fund and a I need to get my own place fund if something happens. Okay, that doesn't mean you necessarily need to buy right then, but you just need to be prepared and able financially to make a move and have a roof over your head for your kid. Yes. Then the next step would be to save have a roof over your head for your kid. Yes. Then the next step would be to save for a down payment on the house beyond that. Okay. And continue to grow your career.

And then we can start investing once we've got those things going towards your retirement and investing towards the baby's college. Okay. So do the housing and the car first. Yeah. Right now I need you to know the very first thing is an emergency fund. Yeah, I have $10,000

in savings. Oh, good. Okay. We call that your emergency fund. That's a pretty good one for $40,000. I'll take that. Okay. Yeah, let's build up another $10,000 or $15,000 to cover a move and a car. And then beyond that, we'll start investing for retirement and kids

college okay okay all right thank you that'll give you some margin uh when your life changes not if because your life's going to change this is the dave ramsey show MC Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization,

CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. joining me this segment best-selling author ramsey personality anthony o'neill welcome back anthony dave thank you so much sir for having me on you said uh national bestseller i'm about to we about to be number one day getting ready to be a number one yes it's about to happen the book is debt-free degree it's in pre-sale right. The step-by-step guide to getting your kid through college without student loans.

The actual ship date on the book is October 7th. You can buy it now. If you pre-buy it in the pre-sale section, you're going to get an extra $40 worth of stuff. It includes the e-book. It includes a video by Anthony and another video by Anthony and Meg Meeker of the Smart Parenting Conference. Lots of value there when you go ahead and pre-purchase it. You can do that at DaveRamsey.com and AnthonyO'Neill.com or call 888-22-PEACE and talk to the Ramsey concierge team. They'll help you out.

You and I are doing a whole bunch of stuff, especially you, around the launch of this book including a town hall on uh about student loans and about uh students that have gone through college without student loans that's going to be that that's a sold out event yes it's free tickets but there's majorly sold out yeah big time that's on september the 30th the week before that we're going to do a special hour here on the dave ramsey show about student loans about the student loan crisis and uh we want to hear from some of you that have questions about student loans and some of you that have gone through college debt free and you run into both out there on the road all the time dealing with college students.

The culture makes it sound like it's highly unusual to go through school debt-free, and yet you and I run into people all the time that do it. I just ran into a young lady who actually just went to school. She actually went to an in-state school, Dave, and she literally paid for all of it working herself without her parents' help through scholarships, grants, and working. And now she is graduating to be a school teacher. Now, was most of that grants and scholarships or was most of it working? 50-50. She said 50% of it was scholarships.

What did she do? Do you remember what her job was? Yeah, so she worked for Chick-fil-A during the day, and then she babysat at nighttime. Okay, so she worked a lot. What did she do? Do you remember what her job was? Yeah, so she worked for Chick-fil-A during the day and then she babysat at nighttime. Okay, she worked a lot. She did. She said she had about two to three jobs, depending on the season. But she said she just believed in working and she did say that her father said, hey,

you're not going to go into debt over this. But then some of her peers went to the expensive schools and borrowed a lot of loans and now they're stressed and she's actually enjoying being a school teacher because she has no debt no credit cards no nothing at all yeah but she was abused as a child she was made to work she was abused by good wisdom dave yeah i'm telling you so hey if that was, if you did something like that, you went purely on scholarships or purely on work or neither one, maybe your parents paid for it.

I don't care what your story is. We want to talk to you on this special one-hour event that we're doing here on the Dave Ramsey Show in a couple of weeks. And so email me at Dave on air. It's one word, no spaces, no dashes. Dave on air at Dave Ramsey dot com. Dave on air at Dave Ramsey dot com. And just say, I've got a question about student loans or I've got a story about student loans or I've got a story about going to school debt free. Yes, whatever.

And we want to feature some of both. We want to answer your questions and your concerns and address the principles that you're teaching in this new book, but also hear from actual human beings that have done it and or need the help or are in the middle of it. Maybe you're in the middle of your college journey. That's a good one. And you're about to make it. The young man I just talked to a few minutes ago, 21 years old, studying to be a machinist. Okay.

He's in an apprenticeship program and getting his degree, both, in that from a trade school. And the company that he's working for is paying for the degree, and he's going through an apprenticeship. He doesn't make much. He makes $20,000 a year. I think he was 19 years old, actually. But when he finishes the apprenticeship, he'll be making about $60,000 a year as a machinist. But wait, Dave, let's talk about this.

A 19-year-old making $20,000 a year? That's not much to you and I, but that's a lot for a 19-year-old. Yeah. And they're paying for his college. Come on now. That's a good all-out. And he's in an apprentice program. He's living at home.

There's no outside cost. Slam dunk. And he's debt-free. I like the sound of this. And he will be debt-free all the way through this process. Yes, sir. So this is who we want to hear from. We want to hear different things.

And we want to hear from we want to hear different things and um you know let's you know we want to hear from you yeah email anthony and i at dave on air at dave ramsey.com dave on air at dave ramsey.com we will make you part of the program the financial peace live series is kicking off this week you're heading out to uh austin texas for thursday night you and mr hogan i'll be in austin texas on the weekend speaking at a local church there but you're doing the financial peace live event thursday night there i'll be down in florida at a private event i'm speaking to okay and um so the first one's all i think it did it sell out oh it's oversold it's oversold so it's done you can't get a ticket can't

get a ticket okay all right well done then done so those those of you in Austin, Texas, don't you wish you'd have gotten your ticket. There you go. Okay. And same situation is coming up for the Financial Peace Live event in Tacoma, Washington. There's a few hundred tickets left for that. And Phoenix, Arizona, those are both Anthony O'Neill, Chris Hogan as well. Those events are going to be killer strong. And then I'll be with Chris Hogan down in Charleston, South Carolina, November the 20th to do that event.

The SMART Conference you and I are speaking at, November the 16th. Patsy Claremont came on yesterday. She was amazing on the air. I'm excited. No surprise. Yes. I'm excited about her. She's an amazing speaker.

We added her to the lineup to the SMART Conference there in November the 16th in Sacramento. So we are basically game on. This is the week it starts. And I think the church I'm at, I think, is it Champions Church that you're going to? I'm going to Champions Church, yes, sir. Thursday night. Okay, Pastor Champion. That's where I'm going to be, Hill Country Church on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.

Beautiful church. I'll be doing the service. And, of course, church is free. And since Austin is sold out and you can't see Anthony and Chris come to church, I'll be speaking on Sunday. And we'd love to have you at any of those. Just check it out. It's Hill Country Church there in Austin, Texas. Hill Country Bible Church, if I say that properly.

Pastor Champion will get on me if I leave out the Bible part, which we would never, ever want to do. So the book, the sales on debt-free degree are considerably above what we projected. We knew this was going to be a hot topic, but it didn't surprise you, did it? It didn't surprise me, Dave. And I think the reason why it's selling so well is because it's hitting a felt need our parents are actually seeing and noticing the fact that we have to help their young people you know dave the graduating grad college class of 1999 um are still paying back student loans on the average a decade later a decade later 20 years later or two decades later yeah two days Oh, don't tell me that.

I'm sorry to tell you that, Dave. 1999 was two decades. Oh, man. Thank you. But they're still paying back, Dave, about $10,000 of principal and interest, which is about half of what they borrowed back in 1995 to go to school. So they're like, if I'm still here 20 years later, I cannot even introduce this to my kids. My 20-year-old. Exactly. You graduated from college 20 years ago. You have a 20-year-old. You're getting ready to do this to my kids. My 20-year-old. Exactly. You graduated from college 20 years ago.

You have a 20-year-old. You're getting ready to do this again. Yes. It's generational curse. Generational curse. It's what the student loan thing is becoming. It is. It is.

And so this step-by-step plan and debt-free degree is actually, I believe, the answered prayer. It is the plan to help parents get their kids through college 100% debt-free. And I'm so excited about it because this is something that honestly I wish I had growing up because I literally lay out the entire plan day from seventh grade all the way through 12th grade. We talk about ACTs and SATs, when to start practicing for that, what AP classes and dual enrollment class should you be considering, How to have a conversation with your mom and dad or with your child about, hey, here's what we can bring

to the table, but the full responsibility is going to be carried on the child, but we're not going to allow you to make a kid's approach to an adult decision. We're going to guide you on this journey. Stop that. Say that again. We're not going to let our students take a kid's approach to an adult decision. That's what causes problems. That is the major cause there. Yeah, approach to an adult decision. That's what caused this problem. That is the major cause there. Yeah, that's exactly what happened.

It's like, I want to go there because my boyfriend goes there. I want to go there because the campus is pretty. I'm just going to smack you into next week. It is, Ben. It's just ridiculous. It is, Ben. It's a child's approach to an adult decision. God is here, and we're not going to let you do that.

Debt-free degree is mom and dad coming along besides junior and making some good, wise adult decisions. Yes, sir. And debt-free degree is called an adult decision. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personality. Thanks for dropping by, sir. Dave America, thanks for having me. Be careful in Austin, Texas. Yes, sir.

You too. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys. At the Dave Ramsey Show, we really value your input. It helps us to know what's important to you so we can deliver relevant content to help you crush your money goals. We just launched a brand new survey, and we'd love your feedback. It only takes a few minutes, and you'll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card. No purchase necessary. Take the survey at DaveRamsey.com slash survey or text survey to 33789. Jerry is in Iowa.

Hi, Jerry. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up? I got a question about, I retired here about three and a half years ago, and I have about $800,000 and a couple IRAs and a 401k that I'm planning on just passing on to my son. I don't need this money because I've got a real good pension and Social Security now.

And one of these places where I got the 401k invested, I've got about $200,000 of that is in one company's stock. It was actually the company I worked for. And this place I got invested, they're telling me I need an exit strategy. They're suggesting that I sell this stock. And I'm kind of wondering about that because year to date, that stock is up over 30%. And I'm just questioning whether this, if they're giving me good information or if they're trying to con me or I don't know what to do. I need some advice. Well, I guess I would ask why they're trying to con me or I don't know what to do. I need some advice.

Well, I guess I would ask why they're wanting me to exit. Yeah, they said I need an exit strategy because of my age, and I'm saying, well, I don't plan on spending this. Yeah. What's that? Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to spend it. I don't need an exit strategy. I'm going to be leaving it to my son, and it's going to get a stepped-up basis in it,

and so I'm going to have no capital gains tax. He'll have no capital gains tax on it. You will. Now, this is in an IRA, the stock? It's in my 401k. Okay, so it's already covered with tax. Okay. So, but the, yeah, but I mean, I guess I'm going to have to have a conversation with these folks in general. Because here's the thing.

Your financial advisor is not there to tell you what to do. If they think they are, you have the wrong one. They're there to give you advice and teach you on what they think you should do and why and then you make the decision so far they gave you a suggestion with no supporting information that sounds like they're bossing you around and that's kind of how it feels to you a little bit you're like why why would i want to do that and they can't seem to answer that the only thing i can think is that they're not making any money off of this stock for some reason. Yeah, it may be.

Or maybe they have a good reason and they just didn't bother to give it to you because they're stupid. So you ought to ask them if there's a good reason. Okay? I'm with you. Other than I think you're a little heavy in this stock. But I don't require an exit strategy from it in this situation if I'm you. I think it can just be handed off to your kid the thing is you can move out of that stock inside that 401k and pay no taxes

the only question is do you want to stay invested in it and you like the returns this year they may have some information they think those returns are just that are going to be a one-year blip and they think you know there's some real solid questions about the future of this stock. And I'd want to know that. Yeah. The reason I'm so heavy in that stock is that's how my company match was paid in my 401k over the years. And the stock has done well. Yeah, it's doing real good.

I've made tons of money on it. Yeah, if it had not done well, it would not be as big a percentage of your net worth. Right. And, obviously, it was the match, and you took the match in stock. Obviously, I'm taking free stock. My gosh, you know. So definitely doing that. So, you know, if they have a logical reason, given that you're going to pass this as an inheritance, that you need to exit, then they need to explain that.

Otherwise, I'm starting to question a lot of their advice at this point. Yeah, especially when they called me up out of the blue, suggesting that I find this exit strategy, so on. And I really started questioning whether they're on the up and up or not yeah the the i i doubt i don't run into many i mean there's a percentage of these guys that'll just churn accounts just to get fees i get that um but here's the thing if you sell the stock inside your 401k and invest in mutual funds inside your 401k, they don't get anything on that. They don't, okay. They would only get something on it if you move it outside the 401k and invest with them. But, you know, you've left it in the 401k, right?

Yeah, I haven't touched it. When I retired, I... I mean, your 401k is still with your old company. You haven't moved the money to an IRA. Exactly, yeah. I mean, you're 401k still with your old company. You haven't moved the money to an IRA. Exactly. Now, if you were to take all of the money in the 401k and roll it to an IRA in a series of growth stock mutual funds, in the process be cashing this check out, now they would make some money because they would be selling you the new mutual funds and the new IRA. Okay.

And in that case, you might be right. They might be trying to turn the account. But it may be that they're just looking at it and they're not understanding what your goals are, which is to pass it to your son. Yeah, because he's got, you know, another 25 to 30 years before he retires, before he'll probably touch this money. And it'll continue to grow. I really wouldn't want it to get much heavier in this stock because, you know,

the portfolio starts to be a little off balance, and I have a risk to it with the single stock being heavy, heavy, heavy. But there's nothing here that causes me to panic. And I'm with you. I want to know why you're telling me this. You need to teach me. That's your job. That's my money, not yours. And you need to teach me why it is you think I need an exit strategy

because I don't see it. And then if they can't do that, then you start to smell out the fish and you go, well, these guys are trying to churn this account. They're trying to make some money on it. But it may be just they didn't understand your goals. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt to start with. It may be that they think you're in a too risky a portfolio, which I would disagree with. I think you've analyzed that and you're okay with it.

That may be all it is, too, because the whole financial planning industry says, you know, once you're 60 years old, you're not supposed to be investing in equities. You're supposed to be moving off into money markets and bonds. And I disagree with that strategy. I think it's a wrong view of things. But it's so widely accepted as a theory that everybody thinks it's the truth, and it's not really the truth. I'm 60 almost, and I'm not going to be doing any of that crap.

I'm going to be right where you are, except for that single stock part. Hey, man, good question. Good to talk to you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for jumping in, America. We're glad you're here. David is with us. David's in Idaho. How are you, David? I'm doing good, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. My pleasure. How can I help, sir? Well, my wife and I are currently on baby step two, and we are renting a house in Boise. And the landlord approached me and said that he wants to sell the house. And he offered me a deal.

Eight years, he will carry the note 0% financing. And I was just wondering what your thoughts on that are, given our current position of paying down debt. If you're in debt still, you should not buy a house. Okay. How much debt do you have? All right, we're just $32,000. And what's your household income? $120,000.

So can you be debt-free in a year? Yes. Yes? Would he wait a year? Yes. Wait a year? Okay. He might.

He said he wanted to sell in the next year or two. Okay. But that was what he was offering. I need to be debt-free before I do this deal, and so I can close sometime around this time next year. And then if the price is a market value or below price at 0% interest on eight years, that's fine. Okay. Now, a couple of warnings on this. Do not put this where there's a balloon.

The payments need to be based on eight years. Because you get the seventh year and lose your job you can't refinance you lose the house with a balloon in the eight so don't do balloons you understand where you pay on it like it's a 30 year and then there's still a balance after eight years and then you gotta pay you gotta pay that lump sum balance we We're not doing that. So you've got to be able to afford the payments on eight years if he wants to do an eight-year deal, which that may be hard to choke down. I don't know. We've got to try that.

The second thing is no land contracts, no contract for deeds. You put the house in your name, and he has a lien against it, or we don't do the deal. Hope that helps you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm going to go. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Our scripture of the day, Romans 12, 18. Martin Luther King Jr. said, The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.

Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education. You know, I've never read that quote by him. That is excellence. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character, that is the goal of true education. Good. Shelby's with us in Texas.

Hi, Shelby. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm calling because I've been really careful with my finances, and so is my husband but my mother has not she is i think over four hundred thousand dollars in debt and she has no plans to do anything about it and it's all kinds of debt the way it's affecting me is that her creditors are calling me they've called my husband they've called his parents and nothing i say is

getting her to change anything i don't know what power what if there's anything i can do to get her creditors to stop calling us um well the first thing i would do is um ask them nicely then just say i have nothing to do with this debt. This is not my debt. And the fact that you're calling me on this debt is illegal based on federal law. The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act says they're violating the Privacy Act. A collector is not allowed to call and divulge to a third party, you, private information about someone else. And the fact that they have let you know that they're a bill collector on your mother means they have violated federal law.

And so tell them what you're going to do is you're going to start recording their calls and give the recording to your mother so that she can sue them. Okay. That'll help. Okay. That'll help. Okay. That's the nicest way to do it. The problem is when you're dealing with collectors, most of the time you're not dealing with intelligent life. No.

They tried to tell me that I needed to take over. No. No, listen. You're having a conversation with a scumburger who you can tell is lying if their mouth is moving. I'm not having a conversation with these people. I'm just simply going to tell them what is going to happen. If you call here again, one of two things is going to happen at my choice. Thing number one is I'm going to record the conversation so that my mother can use it to sue you. Or if you call here again, I'm going to use a sports air horn and see if I can deafen your stupid butt so that your ears don't work again.

And then you'll get the idea to never call here again because this is an obscene phone call. Okay. Either one of those options are fun. And you might as well have some fun because these people listen you can't fix your mama she's four hundred thousand dollars in debt all you can do is make these people wish they never called you again that's your best shot you can pray for your mom if your mom wants your help you can help her but you do not owe this money you do not have unintelligent conversations with stupid people do not bother This is not a conversation.

These people try this crap because ignorant people will pay their mother's bills, and you're not ignorant. You are not going to commit to paying any of this. You're not going to give them a dime. They've violated federal law, and they're either going to get recorded and sued or get a sports air horn. Your choice. And we can set you up for problems here because these people are scum,

and they're calling everybody in the town. And you know why they keep calling you? Because they're getting a reaction out of you, and if they know if they get a reaction out of you, they may end up getting money out of you. So you need to change the reaction that you're giving them to an unpleasant reaction. And you can be as mean or nasty on the phone as you want to be, but it's you doing all the talking and then you hanging up. And by the way, I know you're in the South, and hanging up is not a cause for you to lose

your salvation and go to hell. You can hang up on people who should not have called your house. We were taught growing up that if you hung up the phone on someone, that was like worse than smacking their sister or something. And it's just not, okay? Just to hang up the phone. It's a simple disconnect of an electronic connection. Everything's okay. No one dies from it. Everything's okay. and we really don't care if their feelings are hurt because these people are psychopaths they don't really have feelings they're credit card collectors so just you know just move on kiddo and you just have to you have to treat them like the scum that they are there's no way around it oh dave ramsey called credit card collector scum and i'm a credit card collector i don't like that you know what i don't care if you

don't want to be scum don't be a credit card collector because if you're a credit card collector. I don't like that. You know what? I don't care. If you don't want to be scum, don't be a credit card collector, because if you're a credit card collector, you're scum. These things are tied together. Scott's with us in Idaho. Hey, Scott, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So my wife and I are on baby steps four, five, and six.

We are currently building our first house, and I wanted to get your opinion on her reentering the workforce with a nine-month-old baby. I've run the numbers, and we can make it on my income alone, but if we really wanted to thrive and do things like pay off the house early or go on nice vacations, we'd probably need that extra income. What do you make? I make $60 a year. What do you make? I make $60 a year.

What do you do? I basically work on the business side of IT. Why do you only make $60? I'm fresh out of college. Oh, cool. So the business side of IT, if you get good at it, it's worth double that. Yeah. But that's probably the next five years, right?

Right. So I think you can work on your career and make more than she'll make reentering the workforce. And I kind of have a feeling the way this question was posed that she doesn't want to. She doesn't really have a desire. I mean, I showed her the number. She has a desire to rock this nine-month-old baby is what her desire is right am i wrong no you're not okay you lose the argument she wants to be a mommy she wants to be a mommy you have a fabulous career path that you are on sir you are going to be a great provider for your family and she wants to be at home with this baby you're getting ready to make everybody in your house miserable her the baby and then you all right sounds good i just

wanted to get a an outside opinion yeah it's not it's not worth the money that she would make it's not given that she doesn't want to do it now if you call me up and said my wife is a professional woman she's got six degrees in this. She wants to do this. She wants to go back to work with her nine-month-old baby. Then I would say, well, sure. She wants to go back to work. That's what she wants to do. That's great.

I don't have a problem with that. But she doesn't want to, dude. And you're just trying to work your financial plan out without getting a raise. And you're getting raises because you're in a field. If you'll go get good at your field, then in the next five years, your income should double. So if you can learn to do what you do well, your income should double in the next five years. I got guys working on my team doing what you're doing, making double what you make. But they're better at it than you are because they're not brand new out of college.

So you'll get there. You'll get there. You're on track, man. You're going to be fine. So, hey, man, thanks for the call. We appreciate you joining us. So here's the deal with ladies as far as I'm concerned. Again, it's one of the things that people don't like or whatever. So I have ladies on my team here that are world class at what they do.

And it is their goal in life to be in the professional ranks doing what they do. And it is their goal in life to be in the professional ranks doing what they do. And they have a baby, come back to work, and so on. Other ladies have a baby, decide they want to go home. We lose about 50% of them, roughly, around here. And I've got a young crew, a bunch of 27, 28-year-olds. And plus, we were our own worst enemy. We taught them how to get out of debt and live on a budget so they can afford to quit, right? And so we lose some of them, you know, when they have a child. But what a way to lose something. Isn't that wonderful?

Can you think of a better way to lose an employee if you're an employer, that they want to go home and take care of their baby? And they're able to do it because I trained them how to handle their money. Wow. That's like a touchdown, I think. That's pretty cool. And if you want to come back, we'd love to have you come back, too. It's what's the desire of your heart? Where do you want to go? That's a big deal.

Hope that helps you. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I am 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. Hey, guys, it's Blake Thompson, senior Executive Producer for The Dave Ramsey Show.

This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rants, debt-free streams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to The Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.