The Ramsey Show - App - Don't Take a Monetary "Gift" If There Are Strings Attached (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 16, 2019

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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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jennifer starts us off this hour in Texas.

Hi, Jennifer. How are you? I'm doing well, Dave. How are you? I'm doing well, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? All right. Thank you so much for taking my call.

So my husband and I, we both have been through Financial Peace University. It was kind of, we did it two separate times, one me, one him. We just started, and we're both really on board. We're trying to get the first thousand dollars saved up um but we had been behind on my car payment just a little bit so i'm trying to figure out should i get my car payment card before i have the thousand dollars yes i do have okay before you start the baby step before you start the baby steps you're current on everything okay so i have some money in the dependent care flexible spending account.

Instead of saving that for Christmas, like we usually do, pull that out and get the car caught up. Yes. Right? Yeah, you're going to pay taxes on that, though. If you're running through FlexCare, they haven't taken taxes out on you yet. And if you don't use it for dependent care, if you use it for your car, you're going to get taxed. Oh, well, I mean, I'm already paying the daycare. Yeah, but you have to pay daycare with that money and then use the money you would have paid on daycare out of your regular budget to pay this.

You have to use it. You cannot write a check from the dependent care flex account to your car company. Right, right. Yeah, but you're just repositioning it. You're going to use that money for daycare and then use what you were spending on daycare to catch your car up. Okay. Alrighty. Thank you. Thank you.

Good job. Well done. A flexible spending account is called a 125 cafeteria plan, and that is where you're allowed to hold money out of your check pre-tax to pay for certain things that that particular benefit allows you to do. And that would be stuff like pay for daycare or stuff like cover your deductible or maybe buy with that money your disability insurance. You're allowed to do all kinds of different things with it, whatever your company's plan has outlined for that. But if you do not do one of the things that are within the plan and paying your car payments is never within the plan,

then you will get taxed on it and penalized because you didn't have taxes on this money, it's a very cool thing. So like if you put $1,000 in there and you pay $1,000 for your daycare, if you'd brought that $1,000 home, it would have turned into $700 because it's after tax, right? And so the government, in a sense, by you paying for daycare with pre-tax dollars, in a sense is picking up part of your daycare bill if you in the case where you have the ability to do this so that's what she's doing there and then that means she doesn't have to pay the daycare bill out of her pocket directly it comes out of this with payroll

withholding process and she can that frees up money in her budget to catch her car up that's what she and i were talking about that's code for all of that hillary is with us hillary's in tennessee hi hillary how are you hi dave How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? My husband and I are currently in the process of considering refinancing our mortgage from a 30-year to a 15. We currently have a 4.75% interest rate 30-year fixed, and we want to refinance, we've been given the option of a 3.25%, or we can get a 2.875% if we purchase additional points in the amount of $4,500. I've never really heard you speak about points before, so I wanted to get your opinion.

Points are prepaid interest. Thus, by paying points up front, you're prepaying some of your interest they're offering you a lower interest rate okay and you said 325 to 2875 yes and i've run the numbers um i'm a bit of a math nerd i think it will take us four years or 3.75 years to recoup the cost between a 3.25 to a 3.85. What's your phone balance? 3.13. So what does the 4,500 equate to, a point and a half? Point and a quarter? I guess.

Hold on a minute. So I'll just put it in. 4,500, 3,000, 3,000, 3,000, 3,000. Yeah, I was right. 1.4 points. One and a half points is probably what this is. Okay, so typically a point is equal to about an eighth of an interest, and that's about what it's an interest APR.

So this is cutting at three-eighths, and it's a point and a half. So, yeah, it could be between an eighth and a quarter. And this is more like a third. This is okay. It's not a great deal. Typically, the best deal, unless you just catch them at the wrong moment, is what's called a par quote with no points. Because typically you don't get your money back fast enough.

If it's an eighth of a point, it takes eight years to get it back. If it's a fourth of a point, it takes it four years to get it back. And you're saying this is coming out about a fourth, you think? Okay. So it looks to me like it's coming out about a third. It's okay. It's not a bad deal. Would a difference i'm sorry would it make a difference if we plan to pay off the loan in about six years well yeah because you're not breaking

even on this for three okay and if something else happens and you end up paying off the house even earlier really the only gravy on the biscuit is everything past three so if you paid it off in four years we're having this this whole discussion for one year. Okay. Which is nothing in this scenario. So it's not that big a decision is the point, about points in this case. But most of the time, for those of you out there refinancing, a par quote with zero points is going to be your best route.

I would probably go that way. I'd probably go with the three and a quarter here because then you don't have to worry about it. You prepay it whenever you want. You got a chunk of money in. Somebody passes away and leaves you a little chunk of money, and you knock it out three years from now. You're not going, well, I don't know. I paid those points, and you don't have to worry about it. I would go with a par quote. Zero points.

That's what I would do. Because we're not trying to break even, and you're going to pay this off so fast, it's not going to matter much. If you were going to keep the thing for 30 years, it starts to be a real discussion then, right? Sure. Because it stretches out your numbers, person. It stretches out over a long period of time. And if you haven't checked Churchill Mortgage, make sure you check them and get a quote too and make sure that the quote you have is competitive with them because they usually have some of

the best rates out there, especially on a refinance like this. Hey, thanks for the call. We appreciate you joining us. You typically want to do a refinance when you can save enough on the interest rate to repay your closing costs within two to four years, assuming you're going to keep the mortgage for two to four years. That's typically when you want to look at a refinance. In order to go from a 30 to a 15, you do not have to refinance. Let's say she had a three and a quarter at 30. Well, she would just keep it and pay it like a 15, and it'll pay off at 15.

You don't have to refinance to get from a 30 to a 15. You just pay extra on it. It comes out exactly the same mathematically. This is The Dave Ramsey 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 healthcare costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major healthcare costs. Christian Healthcare 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, Thank you. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Lisa is with us. Lisa is in Missouri. Hey, Lisa.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. My mom was diagnosed with lung cancer, and as a result she's decided she wants to sell her home, which is paid off, to give my sister and me our inheritance while she's still alive. My concern is tax implications because I think it would be considered a gift if she's still living.

So I wondered what your thoughts are on that. What's the home worth? About $120,000 to $130,000. That's sad. So, what's the prognosis on her lung cancer? It's not really positive.

I mean, she is doing treatment, but she has other underlying health issues that complicate it. Where is she going to live? I'm sorry? If she sells her home, where is she going to live? With my sister. Okay. All right. Because she probably, I mean, it doesn't sound like she's got a long time to live,

probably, right? Right. Okay. If her estate is under $20 million, which it obviously is, she can leave an amount to you all under the unified tax credit, the unified estate tax credit. Write that down, unified estate tax credit. And she needs to see, you need to see a local attorney that does estate planning or just really on the amount you're dealing with i wouldn't even deal with an attorney i would just

go to one of our tax elps and they can help you you have to she needs to file a unified estate tax credit form with her next income tax and that will keep it from being taxed as a gift tax and what she's doing is using up some of her estate tax exemptions. Okay. And so, yes, she can do what she wants to do. If she does that one form, there will be no gift tax and no income tax to either one of you. So she doesn't file income taxes.

I guess all of her retirement income is considered non-taxable. She will file this year. Well, actually, she won't. I told her maybe she should talk to a financial planner, and she said no. Well, this is going to be taxed at 55% if she screws this up. It's going to cost her $55,000 in taxes. Well, I don't think that she understands that. Well, yell at her.

I mean, in a sweet way, your mom has cancer kind of yell way, right? I understand, but, I i mean that's absurd if she she's unwilling to file one document to avoid fifty five thousand dollars in taxes being levied on her estate and they're going to come back after the two of you for this money well technically only me because my sister's half will be paid directly onto her home no my mom no you can't do that that won't work even if my mom co-owns the home does she already co-own the home yes ahead of time yes she well then it'll come back on you yeah it'll come back on you so just tell her you don't want the money i don't want a 55 tax because you're unwilling to file a one-page document mom that's cray cray okay that's just silliness now i mean there's no reason to not do this

if she wants to do it but it requires one stinking piece of paper but i want to stay off the grid so bad that i'm going to make everybody else be miserable no then just don't do it just don't do it put my money in your account and leave it to me in your will don't give it to me until after you die or don't give it to me until after you die. Or don't give it to me at all. But I don't want to pay 55% tax on it because you're unwilling to file one single piece of paper document. That's all this is. And she will file an income tax return. So that's the deal. I mean, it's just that's silly.

That's just silly. I'm sorry she's going through hard times. And I'm sure she's very emotional. And I'm sure she's bullheaded in the middle of all that. I's just silly. I'm sorry she's going through hard times, and I'm sure she's very emotional, and I'm sure she's bullheaded in the middle of all that. I understand all that, but still, you don't send the government 50 grand just because of that. That's silly. So I'm sorry that you asked, that you get my answer.

Steve is with us in Ohio. Hey, Steve, how are you? Pretty good, how about yourself? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yes, here in the next couple weeks, I will be receiving about three years of back pay from a previous job that I was wrongfully terminated from. And it's going to be in the attunement between $165,000 and $170,000. It just depends on how they prorate it out.

From my understanding, what that's going to do, because I am currently employed somewhere else, what that's going to do is count as income for this year. So I haven't been paying enough taxes with my current employer. They'll withhold on it. They withhold on it. Okay. And if they don't, you withhold on it and set money aside for it.

Well, that's what I'm getting into. And there's all sorts of things I need to worry about with regards to taxes, state, federal, local. And then mainly I'm looking at this as a huge retirement fund. I mean, I have a couple things I want to pay off, you know, two vehicles, which actually, believe it or not, we have equity in because I made sure I got such good deals on them. I don't blow money on a brand-new vehicle. I'll buy it with 40,000, 50,000 miles, you know, so it's not underwater. Okay, so you're going to write a check out of this money

and pay off your cars after you set the proper taxes aside. Yes. Yeah, that's fine. But what I'm trying to figure out is how exactly I should set the rest of my life. You would pretend like your company that you currently work for is giving you a $170,000 bonus. Okay. And they either are going to hold taxes on it or they're not. If they're not, you're going to go to see your tax professional, your tax ELP,

and calculate what you need to withhold out of that. My guess would be somewhere around 30% of it, about a third. I was thinking like 55, 55 to 60. No, there's no such thing as 55% tax bracket. No, not percent, no, 55,000. Oh, okay. Well, if it's out of 170, that would be about a third, yeah. Yep. $55,000. Oh, okay. If it's out of $170,000, that'd be about a third, yeah. And then what I'm mainly is

I'm trying to figure out who I should talk to and how I should set the remaining balance. Almost all of it, I'm going to spend a little bit, but pretty much the remaining balance for retirement and who to talk to for that and what sort of returns I could expect. Well, the first thing we're going to do is walk you through the baby steps with the money

that you have left after taxes. And so if you get $165,000 and we hold $55,000 out, you would have $110,000 to work with. The first thing we're going to do is make sure you're debt-free except your home. What do you owe on these cars? The one is $4,000 and one is $6,000. Okay, so $10,000 from $110,000 gives us $100,000 left. Do you have any money in savings for emergencies? A couple grand. It's $4,000 and $6,000. Okay, so $10,000 from $110,000 gives us $100,000 left. Do you have any money in savings for emergencies?

A couple grand. Okay, you need to have that at three to six months of household expenses. What's your household income now? Mine is about $45,000 a year. Okay, so I'd probably put about $15,000 in there for your rainy day fund never to be touched for any reason. That leaves $85,000 after your rainy day fund and you're debt-free but your house. Does that sound right? Yes.

Okay, then I'm going to start investing some of that. Do you have children? No. Okay, then I'm going to start investing some of that for retirement. Do you have a mortgage? No. You don't own a home? No, not yet. I didn't want to.

My fiancee is going to graduate with her doctorate next year. Okay, so you're married and buy a home. So what I would do is set aside about $50,000 of this or more for your down payment on your home in the future and just set it in a simple savings account, and then I would probably fully fund a couple of Roth IRAs and get started on your retirement savings. To do that, you need to go to SmartVestor Pro. Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com. You'll enter your information, and it'll drop down a box and let you choose the person in your area to talk to about investing. Also, you can click on ELP and find a tax pro in your area

to figure out exactly what you need to set aside out of this money and make sure that there's enough being taken out of this check, if any is taken out of the check, to be properly so you don't get in a pinch with the KGB, I mean the IRS. 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 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 davramsey.com slash survey or text survey to 33 789. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the brand new debt-free Scream Stage, Lenny and Aaron are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? We're doing great.

Hi, Dave. Good to have you guys. So I hear you guys are from Hill Country Church in Austin. I was just there yesterday. Yes. While you were there, we're here. I'm hanging out with your pastor on the stage. He and I were talking.

And you were doing the debt-free scream at the live event in Austin Thursday night, right? Yes. It was cool. Very cool. That was our dry run for today. Fun. Yeah, there you go. It's a dress rehearsal.

Yes. And then you fly all the way to Nashville to do the real one on the real stage. Yes. Very cool. Well, congratulations. How much have you guys paid off? We've paid off a little over $65,000. Wow.

How long did this take? 17 months. 17 months. All right. And your range of income during that time? It fluctuated. We started at around $120,000, and then we ended up at $150,000. Very cool.

What do you all do for a living? So I'm an HR manager for a tech company in Austin. I'm a business consultant slash test lead at a bank and software company in Austin. Okay. Well, Pastor Hawks and I were talking about this, that you guys, of course, Hill Country has taken their whole church through, Financial Peace University. Correct. So Celebration Church, and that's why I was down in Austin to speak at both of them, because

two huge churches are kicking off, a church-wide Financial Peace University process. Did you guys somehow get tied into that, or did you just accidentally, the coincidence just happened to be there? So our church has been doing FPU for a while and at the beginning of 2018 i kept seeing it in our sunday bulletin and so january 2018 i signed up on a whim i did not talk to lenny i just signed up late one night oh we started the following sund. Whoa. Surprise, hon. Got a thing we're doing here. It worked out, didn't it? Yeah.

How long have you guys been married? We'll be seven years in December. Okay. How often does she get away with this? How often do I do this? Just sign up for something. I'm telling you. That's cool.

So what kind of debt was this? So out of the $65,000, we had about 81% of that debt was accredited to student loans and a couple credit cards. Okay. So no car payments? No. No. Lenny drives one of the smallest, oldest cars on the road.

Yeah. 2004 Chevy Aveo. Hey. A car with four doors on it. So there you go. That's it, man. I'm proud. Life's good.

Good for you guys. That's fun. So what happened then when you were going through the class? Because you dialed this up. I mean, you went after it to do that much in 17 months. Mm-hmm. You dialed this up. I mean, you went after it to do that much in 17 months. We didn't have a strategy in the first class, but they asked us to write down our total outstanding debt. And I looked at Lenny like, well, what is it? I had no idea.

So he was like, I think it's like 50. And I was like, okay, I can live with that. But then we got home to do the assignment where you have to write out every single debt. And it was actually $65,300 something. $50,000 was mine. Yeah. Okay. All right. And then there was the credit cards. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And so we got into a bit of an, I mean, I was crying. I was like, there's no way we can do this. We were both about to turn 30. That was sort of my impetus to sign up. And we just kind of came back together. And I said, we both had the same idea, actually. And I said, I think we can actually, we can live on one income and we can do this.

And we had to wait a couple of months for some things to fall into place. Lenny was actually being promoted internally at his job. And so right before that happened in March, we drove to a bank. We opened a brand new checking account. We routed my direct deposit and we started this thing. Wow. Game on. Game on.

What was the hardest part for you all? Well, I guess we were thinking that we were going to be missing out on a lot as far as being able to travel or enjoy. But we're already kind of poor up until this point, so we didn't really miss out on too much. It was all a lie. And to be honest, it was motivating to know that we had a plan and we had a time frame. We stuck to it. And we are both now able to experience something that neither one of our families have ever been able to experience. And that's not, you know, be tied to anybody else's income.

Changed your family tree. Yes, it did. Wow. So proud of y'all. Very well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You just have to start somewhere. You have to make a plan. You know, I'm sort of the free spirit in this relationship. But once we have a plan, I'm really focused. And, you know, we

actually use some software to stack our debt. You know, we figured out we had the two credit cards plus 11 individual student loans. And, you know, we had our payoff date in mind. And so once we started, we were all in, it was so exciting when we paid off that first loan in full, that was so motivating. So this, it's not scary to live on one income. It's scary to start a new decade, still renting, no kids yet, and have no idea how you're going to do this thing. Yeah. And, you know, thinking about that is we had so many things going against us up until that point. So many things that, you know, the lies of the world and the enemy telling us that, you know, this is going to be way too long, but getting the plan, sticking to it and having the motivation of knowing that we came, we both came from somewhere that we didn't have this opportunity in our family.

And so being able to see that end goal, despite of all the obstacles, and having that plan to stick to it, you can do anything. Finance is one day. Who knows what's the next goal tomorrow? Amen. Amen. Well done. Yeah, success tends to breed success. That's very cool.

Good for you guys. Very well. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? Oh, man. We've had so many cheerleaders through our church. When we found out that we were doing our big FPU initiative this fall, we started to toy with the idea of getting involved. And then some of your, you know, Anthony O'Neill came and visited in the spring,

and that got us really just sort of fired up all over again. Anthony has a way of doing that. Yeah. So we'll be taking our small group through it this fall. Oh, cool. We shared our video or our story on video that the whole church got to see, and that was just really, you know, it's one thing to live it, but when you see the effect that it has on other people, that's just brought a whole nother, um, you know, reward to the whole thing. I love it. And so for me,

you know, along with what Aaron said, you know, one of my biggest cheerleaders and motivations through this process is knowing that my dad is a he's an immigrant from another country came here to try to make a better life for himself which is that did also going to england so i'm a first generation immigrant and knowing growing up my dad has always pushed us with only a ninth grade education pushed us to do anything and everything, and him knowing this process of going through and paying off the debt, I could always hear or visualize him in the background motivate me and knowing at the end that this is going to be something that's not necessarily just my goal, but my family's goal at Oswald.

Amen. Well, you're living out their dream. Yes. That's very cool. Very neat, you guys. So proud of you guys. Awesomeness. Very neat. We got a copy of Chris H proud of you guys. Awesomeness. Very neat.

We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires, signed by the man himself. You probably already got one, but I'll give you another one. And you guys, I'm so proud of y'all. And thanks for helping Hill Country in the fall. It's going to be a great thing with that whole church. That's a massive church and wonderful pastor there, wonderful Pastor Joe and Pastor Lori up at Celebration, too. We got to spend time with all of them this weekend. And they're just dear friends and good people.

And it's a wonderful, wonderful congregation you're a part of. So way to go, you guys. All right. Count it down. Lenny and Erin, Austin, Texas, 65,000 paid off in 17 months, making 120 to 150. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Love it! Love it! Man, that's awesome. Way to go, you guys. So proud of you. Now, we've got 110 churches simultaneously going through Financial Peace University in Kansas City. That whole city is going to be changed.

Three major churches, Hill Country and Celebrations, two of them, they're in Austin, Texas, doing it. And churches all over America. There's about 15,000 classes starting up this fall all over America. So maybe you need to be in Financial Peace University. Sean is with us in Tennessee. Hey, Sean. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Good to talk to you.

You too, man. How can I help? So we used to live in South Carolina, and we had a paid-for rental property there. We decided we were going to fix it up ourselves. So we gutted it. And then as life would work, we got a new job in Tennessee, moved to Tennessee and we're in baby step two. We have 16,000 in debt. Ironically, it's all materials for the rental property. So now we're deciding, do we sell the rental property in the state that it's in? What's it worth? If you sold it as it is today, what could you get for it?

Gutted the way it is, maybe the $16,000 we owe on the materials. And it's paid for. I only paid $22,000 for on the materials and it's paid for the house and it's paid for yes sell it for sell it sell it pay off the home depot loan yep be done move on with life yep you know how i decided that here's how i've worked through it so you can use this tool next time you're looking at something like this let Let's pretend you were debt-free, okay? Would you go $16,000 in debt to buy a gutted rental property in South Carolina? No way. Okay. Then you have the opportunity to undo that today by selling it.

You see what I'm saying? If you didn't own it, would you do the deal that you're in now? Do you see what I'm doing? Yeah. And that's your decision-making tool. It's called a sunk cost analysis. And you can do that with anything. You can look and go, there's a boat sitting in my driveway.

If I didn't own this boat and instead I had the $10,000 that it's worth sitting on my kitchen table, would I take the $10,000 and go and buy the boat? No, we haven't been on the lake in four years. Well, then it's time to sell the boat. Or, yes, I would go take the $10,000. We use that the boat. No, we haven't been on the lake in four years. Well, then it's time to sell the boat. Or, yes, I would go take the $10,000. We'll use that boat every weekend, and the kids love it. Okay, then it's a good buy. You keep the boat, right?

You can do that with everything you own. You just kind of undo. You reverse engineer the transaction, and you say, should I do that again? Yes, sir. So that's how I decide that so so fast is there's no possible way this would be illogical to go buy a gutted rental property in south carolina when you live in tennessee and go 16 000 in debt for the opportunity to own something that's a piece of crap you know no get rid of it sell it today get enough out of it to pay off your home depot loan or even if you

don't quite get enough be done out of Out of here. Move on with your life. New chapter. No stress. No debt. Life is clean. Life is simple. There is a value mathematically to that. Bridget is with us in Wisconsin.

Hi, Bridget. How are you? Hi, Dave. Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm calling to see if I should take an inheritance from my dad.

We are in baby steps four, five, and six, and my dad currently has three cashier's checks for me and my brothers of 10,000 each, and he's just kind of had them sitting there, and I just don't know if I should take it or not. There's been boundary issues in the past, and if I should just wait on it or... The only way I would take it is if there's no... I'm not taking it if it's got strings attached to it. If he's worm fishing and wanting to hook you in the lip, no, I'll pass. But if he's just giving you a gift, well, that's wonderful. Okay.

And maybe you just need to clarify that. Yeah, I think that if I had to sit down with him, I think that I could be clear before I would take it. Yeah, and just be kind. And, Dad, I'm really, really grateful. This is very kind. But as you know, other times that this has happened, it didn't go well. And my relationship with you with no boundary problems is more important to me than $10,000 is. So I'd rather not take it and us be on good terms.

But if you can respect and really call it a gift and you don't then question other stuff about us and you don't come back into this living room and da-da-da-da-da and make comments about my color, my paint on my wall or whatever, right? So, I mean, that's it. Should I talk to my brothers about them or they've trying to stay away from it for the same reason, just let them do their own thing? You know, if you were able to sit down with your dad, what do you think the probability is this conversation goes well?

Good. Good. I think it'll go good. Good. So it's happening. Things are moving in the right direction on this issue then. Once I put my foot down, yes. Yeah.

Okay. Well, you might tell dad to initiate with the brothers and he has no no no no no you misunderstand after your conversation of boundaries you and your dad come to agreement okay i see what you're saying he says to you i'm gonna go along with that and i still would love for you to have the money, and I promise not to be a twerp about it, okay? Dad, you need to say that to my brothers, too. Pick up the phone and call them and tell them that, because they're not taking it for the same reasons, and they won't talk to you about it. And encourage him to initiate and offer the flag of truce on boundaries okay this could be a real healing

experience for your whole family it sounds wonderful yeah that's what i'm hoping is that it's not yeah but if it doesn't go well if it doesn't go well then i would just tell your brothers i tried and it didn't go well and you guys do whatever you want to do right okay sounds good yeah you can warn them either way you know but i i think it'd be really cool if your dad turned the corner to the point that he actually reached out to them and said yeah you know i talked to i i you know i i talked to bridget and um yeah i kind of get where y'all are coming from and so i want to promise you that there's no strings attached and no crap attached to this check i just want to give you some money and i just want to bless you and i promise and you know if he does

that that would be a that'd be a big deal that's worth more than ten thousand dollars in most families because families are pretty screwed up by and large crazy in every family baby i'm just saying all right melissa's with us in Texas. Hi, Melissa. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm good. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So my husband and I started listening to you about six months ago, and we want to get an upgraded car. We're on Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6, and we make over $125,000 a year. You make what? You make how much a year? Oh, over $125,000. $125,000 a year. You make what? You make how much a year? Oh, over $125,000.

$125,000 a year. Okay. And you're buying a nicer used car. Yeah. So we want to know what criteria would you follow because I know that you say don't get a new car unless you're an everyday millionaire. Yep.

Which we're not. Okay. So, but with our salary, we could get a new car and so we would want to know like what now i would buy a one or two year old version of whatever you're looking for let someone else take the butt kicking on the depreciation and pay cash for it of course and the total of all your vehicles with motors and wheels and anything that sounds like vehicle uh it should always be less than half your annual income. What's your other car worth? The one you're going to keep.

Both of us? No, the one you're going to keep. Oh, the one that we will keep is probably around $7,000 or $8,000. Okay. And what are you thinking about paying for this one? Well, I don't know. I don't know what to... How much money you got saved for a car?

Oh, how much money did we get saved? Yeah, for a car. Right now we got about 20, but we're thinking maybe it's too much. No, it's not too much. Not too much. You'd have $27,000 tied up in cars. You make $125,000. You pay cash for everything.

That's not a bad thing. But I would buy a one or two-year-old. I wouldn't buy brand new. Perfect. What are you thinking about buying well we have two kids so i think i might get a van i don't know you can get a really really nice van for 20 grand yeah yeah we could yeah super nice i mean you can get all kinds of bells and whistles and you know one or two year old-old. And there's some of these minivans have got stuff on them, you know, that's more advanced than a freaking space shuttle.

It's unbelievable, man. I mean, they do everything. They do everything except feed the kid for you. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah, I mean, it used to be the big joke was, oh, you got a minivan. You know, it's like, oh, now you're officially an old person. You know, you're officially no longer cool, right? But minivans these days are freaking cool.

I don't have one, but I don't need one. So, hey, good call. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings, free samples, free shipping. Use the promo code Ramsey.

Stevens in Louisiana. I'm a student about to graduate with my degree in finance. I have a job lined up. I need a car. Do you know I have the money saved to buy a car? My parents are pushing me to buy a new car. Don't do it. Your parents are fools.

I don't want to be saddled with a car payment. Good. My question is how to find a reliable used car with a reasonable payment there is no reasonable payments pay cash for whatever you buy save up and pay cash that was easy this is the dave ramsey show Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.