The Ramsey Show - App - EVERYONE Needs a Will! (Even You) (Hour 3)

Episode Date: December 23, 2022

Rachel Cruze & Dr. John Delony discuss: How to best help step-children, Why EVERYONE needs a will, What to do with equity from my home, Paying for a wedding while in debt. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 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 Studio, what is happening in America? It's the Ramsey Show. We're hanging out to have a conversation about your life, your mental health, your relationships, your work, and your money. I'm John Deloney, joined here by one of the greatest people you will ever know, Rachel Cruz, and we are taking your calls live, 888-825-5225. It's 888-825-5225.

Let's go out to Gretel in Fargo, North Dakota. What's up, Gretel? Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon to Dakota. What's up, Gretel? Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon to you. What's happening? Well, I got married to a guy who got divorced, and it was, well, the divorce was fine, but we found out that, I found out right after I got married to him

that the divorce paper had been so unfair with all the debts that she put in towards my husband's name, which he didn't know. And what he agreed with it just for peace and stuff. And like the student loan they made together during their marriage was put on all to his name. And for the past five years, we've had quite problems with every year. She is homeschooling the boys and she wants us to help with homeschooling. as far as I know, and what is written in, um, in the, um, in the divorce or like, like generally child support should cover education and other stuff. And that what's in the court system in Minnesota says, and, um, um, but now we, I, me and my husband decided that we should not help her with the finances.

Like she wants us to pay $200 a month toward homeschooling. And I told my husband that instead of putting it in, um, cash, then let's put it towards the boys. Like we spend more time with them so we could have more time because we see them hardly ever at all. And even though in a divorce paper, it's just supposed to stay every weekend, but she's taking them most of the time. So I said instead of that money giving towards her well she had the the divorce paper had been unfair so it's just fair enough that we put um the money instead towards seeing the boys and then she could um like okay gretel what yeah yeah yeah what's your question with um what is that like food and stuff yeah gret. What's your question, hon? With, what is that, like food and stuff?

Yeah, Greta, what's your question? Yeah, the question is, are we morally obliged to fund this woman? Like, is it okay to financially support her because she is in financial struggle right now? Okay. And to me, yeah. So first, we're going to follow the divorce decree.

And what the divorce decree tells us to send, we're going to send. You, as the new wife, can look at the divorce decree that your grown-up husband signed and say this wasn't fair but you choosing to waste one second of energy being upset about that is a choice you are making to be miserable don't do that yeah you married in it's what is and we're going to pay it off because that's what we all agreed on in court or that's what he agreed on in court. Yeah, we paid off. We paid off everything. Good deal, good deal. Yeah. So, hold on, hold on.

I am way more, I'm way more concerned when I'm thinking about the health and wellness of these kids outside of the four walls. I'm way more concerned that when they're 14, 15, 17, 18, one of them is going to look their father in the eye and say, hey, the court said you could visit me every weekend. Why didn't you fight for me?

Yeah, that's the thing. No, no, no. That's a choice you all make. Okay. I would not do things above and beyond the court order unless we sat down as three adults or if she's remarried and agreed on, hey, there's been some different needs and if we can be adults about it, great. And if we can't, then we'll go back to court and see what we need to do. But no, somebody can't just say, hey, by the way, I decided to do a new thing. You got to give me more money. That's not how that works. That's why the court has a decree

that everybody agrees to and everybody follows. If your kids are suddenly unsafe or your husband's kids are unsafe, they are in a home where they're not eating, there's not heat, there's not basic necessities, then y'all have to step in and you probably have to get an attorney to help you with that.

And this isn't about winning and this isn't about punishing her. This is about taking care of those kids. And I'm saying if she's in financial straits and needs to start charging you guys for $200 every month for homeschool, it doesn't make any sense to me. But here's what I want to do. I want to start this whole conversation by we're going to follow the divorce decree. We're going to follow what the thing says.

I'm going to go get my kids every single weekend. And if you don't want to give me my kids, then I'm going to take you to court because those are my children and I'm going to see my kids. I'm going to pay the child support every single month as written. I'm going to take care of it. If you come to me as an adult and say, Hey, there's some specific needs and here's it, but you getting $200 here, we're going to put in this account over here and we're going to do it. That's just makes this whole thing a mess. Don't do that. Follow the plan as it's written first. Let's do basics. And then if y'all want to have adult conversations about specific needs beyond that, and y'all can all three agree to be adults, cool. And if you can't, great. Then let's move on.

Through your experience, John, working with families, blended families, how, what percentage and I guess that doesn't matter matter what qualities do people have that make this kind of situation like really good for the kids versus putting them in the in the middle and it's and it you know it destroys them like what what's the like what are the things that that she gretel and her husband things that they can be doing for themselves to grow and say hey we want to become healthier for this situation what are those characteristics that you see within families that do it really well? Almost without exception, they choose, we're going to be very adult-minded about this. And every bit of our energy can be focused on what's the greatest environment we can make for

these children. And that means I'm going to put down my jealousy every time I see her with her new husband. I'm going to put down my insta-rage that comes over me every time I see him with that woman he cheated with me on. Now they're married because going to war after court, going to war during court, it helps nobody. And then this situation, what's happening here is these children are becoming pawns. It's a way for potentially for ex-wife to get some more money. Yeah. It's a way for them to, she's not following this. So I'm going to do that.

You cannot use your kids as weapons. You can't, you can't, you can't, you can't. I have been astounded over the last, I don't know, 15, 20 years, watching adults be adults. Like I've learned from watching divorced couples say, yeah, I mean, we were married and we were in love and we had plans that didn't work out. And we have three kids. And so we meet every month to talk about what's going on in our life. We're able to be civil at child conferences. We all show up because we're grownups.

Yep. And we are sad in the car, but we're adults. And dude, it's beautiful when people choose to put maturity above. What I want in the moment. Yep. Yes. Good. So be adults, everybody.

Be adults. We'll be right back. Hey, this is The Ramsey Show. I'm John Deloney, joined here by Rachel Cruz. It really helps us out. You don't have to buy anything. It takes 13 seconds. If you will do us a huge favor, share the show. And yes, it is self-serving.

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importantly, to help put this show in front of other people who need it. The life-changing advice, the life-changing plans that we offer folks. Thank you so much for being with us and thank you for helping out your neighbor by leaving positive reviews and by hitting the subscribe button wherever you consume this show. All right, let's go to Cameron in H-Town. Go Strohs. What's up, Cameron? Hello. Thanks for having me. I'm 62 years old. I was fortunate to retire two years ago. In that time, I gave my two adult daughters $60,000 apiece to buy houses. So they're set. I have $450,000 in my IRA.

I have a paid-off house worth about $250,000. I have two new vehicles. And everything's paid for. The IRA, my wife is a beneficiary. The house is in both my wife and my name, and cars are both our name. Do I need a will just yet? I'm thinking I can wait until one of us are gone and then line it up. But the way things are set up right now, I feel if I go, she gets everything. What do you think? I need a will?

I think you needed a will 25 years ago. And here's where I'm coming from on that. One, I was the dean of students at a law school for about five or six years. I forgot how, about five years. And I got to to see have a ringside seat to What happens in probate court what happens when? relatives come out of the woods when kids sue their parents when cousins sue their their their aunts It's madness and So you have man you have done an incredible job financially. Here's the second thing.

I have spent a chunk of my career doing death notifications, showing up with police officers in the middle of the night when somebody's lost their spouse, when somebody's lost a child. And the number of times I've had a spouse look at me and say, I don't know what to do next. I don't know where stuff is. I don't know where the paper is. I don't know where this is. I don't know who to call.

And a will helps consolidate all of that information into a single place. And it also, you have conversations about what do you want your funeral to look like? Where do you want to be buried? What do you want these things? And those are not pleasant conversations. They're not fun. We've had them so many times in my house. Now it's just become routine.

But it's absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. It gives the executor of the will, if you were to pass away tomorrow and your wife is grieving like she's going to and doesn't know what day it is it gives the people in that you care about in your life an opportunity to walk in and say okay here's what happens first here's what happens second here's what happens third it helps direct the courts it just it just cleans it just makes it all easier yeah okay and cameron and god forbid something happened to you and your wife together, right? You would probably want this stuff to be passed to your kids at that point. So it just gives direction and it takes out a lot of the hoops and stuff that people will have to jump through with your assets.

And so it just, it makes it smoother. And to Cameron, they're not that expensive. You can get, you know, state specific wills. Mama Bear Legal Forms is a great website. You can do an online form, especially if it's not a complicated estate. You can just do a will online, you know, pay some money

and it's done. Like, it's not that expensive. That's what I did mine, Karen. I did mine with Mama Bear Legal Forms. It's a simple will. I just don't have a lot, and it's straightforward. Just very similar to your situation, except you get way more money than me. It's just straight across the board, and it's simple.

And it just says it goes to here. Just get it notarized and go to the site. Sir? Get it notarized, do it online, and get it notarized, or do I go to a website? Just go to mamabearlegalforms.com and follow the process there, and it'll just walk you right through it.

Or if you've got a buddy who's an attorney at your local church and they can work, I mean, there's a bunch of ways to do it. I did it with Mama Bear

because it's a sponsor on the show. It's a group that we've had a relationship with a long time. And they make it very easy. They make it, dude,

it was so easy. I've had a super complex will with seven different parts and all the, this one was very simple and straightforward and that's why I went with it. My wife did it too. Yep will with seven different parts and all that. This one was very simple and straightforward. And that's why I went with it. My wife did it too. Yep. So just, yeah, follow that. They direct you, basically hold your hand through this process because it's a weird process, creating your will and all that. But Cameron, you've done a fabulous

job. And this just is one of those safety net things. That's just really wise. So yeah, it's something that we tell people all the time. It's stuff you don't want to think about. But life insurance and a will are two things. And you need life insurance if someone is dependent upon your income. You need life insurance. Even you stay-at-home moms out there, you need life insurance on you. Because if something happens to you, then dad has to sit there and say,

OK, who's going to help with the kids? How are we going to keep life afloat? And so, man, that is the one thing. I'm like, if anyone, if everyone out there could have term life insurance, we've heard just the horror stories on this show of people that pass on sudden things and then the spouse has nothing

and they have to go and go back to work, maybe plug back in when they weren't. I mean, it's just, it's heartbreaking in the midst of like a really really hard time so term life insurance our friends at zander recommend them um and getting that and everyone needs a will a will a will because again it it's it's not that expensive and it just makes all of this so much easier when you have a legal document that says here's where everything is it just makes it it makes it smoother and i'll take it one step further cameron um if you haven't already you sound like somebody that probably has already done this but for everybody listening keep that something that you update once a month once every three or four months once a quarter

um and i'm behind on mine so so I got to go do it. Keep on a single piece of paper somewhere where everyone in your home knows where it is, all your passwords, where the bank account is, where the information is, so that if something happens, who to call. So if something happens to you, it's as easy as possible. Here's what we're going for. 100% of us pass away, Rachel. What we're going for is, can I set my wife up in a situation where when I go, she has the blessing to just spend some time grieving.

She doesn't have to spend time wondering how she's going to eat. She doesn't have to spend time wondering- Who's the insurance agent? Who's the person? It's all right here. And she gets the blessing and privilege of just being sad for a long time. And that's what we're going for here. And she gets the blessing and privilege of just being sad for a

long time. And that's what we're going for here. And you know what, John, it's funny. I'm in my mid thirties. So both of our Winston's parents and my parents, both active, you know, working, living life. It's great. Both, which applause to them have set us all down as separate families, right? We have with the Ramseys and then the Cruises have done the same with us. And Winston's parents, every other year, they sit down with the grown kids and they say hey here and his dad does that he hands over a sheet of paper and it's everyone imaginable and then he has another list of of the financial I mean they are so open because it's like and then and then we go through scenarios if something happens to me if something happens you know to my mother-in-law if something both happens here's and and who's on the who yes i mean it's all right there and then the ramses we've done

the same thing we do it once a year and it's like and as a and as an adult child i'm so thankful so all of you in your 60s and 70s who have adult children have these conversations and i know it's awkward it's weird it's terrible the res, we've done it for so long. And we call it the when Dave dies meeting, which is so terrible. My dad was a homicide detective. He's like, hey, I'm going to die. So in our house, I've had to be careful that not every family talks like we do. Totally, totally.

I know. But last Christmas, my dad brought the updated will in an envelope. And he goes, hey, this is where this is. It was like a Christmas present. And it was a Christmas present. It really, I mean, we joke about it, but y'all in a time of crisis, like parents that do this and have these conversations and plan, it is, it really is. And for you parents who are 60, 70, 50, I promise you when you have all this written down, you will sleep a little bit deeper because you, you've thought it through, you know where it all is. You'll where it all is.

You'll be good to go. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. welcome back to the ramsey. Taking your calls this hour. I'm Rachel Cruz with Dr. John Deloney. Next up, we have Brenda in Battle Creek. Hey, Brenda, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you. Absolutely.

How can we help? Well, I recently sold a house and I have equity from that house. What do I do with it? Right now, I have it in a money market. It just sold. So I mean, that's why I haven't invested it yet. Um, but, um, I, I have a 401k, I have an IRA, um, and my financial advisor suggested going to a CD for this money. Why? I don't know. Are you going to use it to buy more property soon? Well, possibly. I don't know whether I'm going to use the money to maybe buy a fixture upper and flip it. That could be a possibility. Yeah. You know, there's so many possibilities that could happen with this money. I just want to make sure that I'm getting the biggest bang

for the buck in the shortest amount of time. I wouldn't lose a second of sleep over that. Okay. Rachel and I were just talking about this off air also put a price on peace and a price on your time like you got it in a money market just let it sit there what else do you have Brenda do you have any debt no and where are you living now

actually I have a house that is completely paid for so everything's paid off. Amazing. And you have good cash in the bank? Well, that's, that's from the sale of the house, but yes. Is that the only cash you have? Is this 140? As cash? Yes. Okay. So if I were you, Brenda, I mean, I would, I would put some of the savings away.

Are you single, married, kids? I'm single. Single, okay. So if I were you, I would get six months of your expenses, price that out, take some of that from this 140, put aside. I would just keep that in a money market account. And then this 140, yeah, I mean, at this point, it's kind of like, okay, you're at baby step seven, is what we would say when you look, because you have no mortgage, you got nothing, right? So you are just sitting on, just for fun, we'll say $100,000 for easy math. So there's three things

you can do with money. You can give it, you can save it, and you can enjoy it. And, you know, at this point, Brenda, I would encourage you to do all three. If there's, I would give some of this and find someone, something, a ministry, a church, or even just a nonprofit, something that you love. A friend's kid is going to college, just get some mystery check, you know? Yeah, find some way to be generous with some of it.

I would enjoy some of it. I don't know if you need to upgrade a car, if you want to go on a great trip or something. And that's the thing, too. I have been saving my entire life, so I can't even hardly afford to let go of $10. Oh, Brenda, I'm about to send you on a vacation. Brenda.

Brenda. Brenda. I don't spend money at all. Brenda, how old are you? You need to enjoy some of it. I'm 51. That's not that old. I thought you were about to say 111.

You're 51. It feels like it some days. You're halfway home. You are halfway done. Oh, my gosh. You are halfway done. I am working full-time still. I'm trying to start two businesses.

I just need some direction and how to get my businesses going so I can enjoy the rest of what I have without worrying about maybe spending $10 for lunch. You, you, oh, Brenda, you are chasing peace as an external metric. You're never going to find it out there. Right. You're not.

And if you get these businesses stable, you'll enjoy that for about 11 and a half minutes. Gotcha. And then you will either have to deal with Murphy's law. Something will spin off behind you and you have to go solve it. Or you will just knock something over to have something to go fix. Cause that's who Brenda is. You're going to buy a house. That's a piece of trash and fix it up.

Fix it up. Cause that's exactly. Cause I got nothing else going on in my life. Right? Right. I, I, I like to stay busy, I like to stay busy. I like to stay busy, and I like to have my hands in stuff all the time,

and I like to make money. I like all those things. And if we're not careful, being busy is our drink of choice. Exactly. We become alcoholics, except we're addicted to busyness or addicted to the next deal, then the next deal,

then the next deal. And then that deal doesn't get us our hit anymore. So we got to go get two deals and then we start getting real itchy. And so I want you to make yourself go on a vacation. I want you to make yourself give some money away to somebody. I want you to make yourself give some money away to somebody. I want you just to bless the abs,

just shower somebody with giving, okay? Right, right. Make yourself do it and just sit in it, okay? Just sit in it. If you hate it, then you never have to go on a vacation again. Just give it a shot. It's pretty awesome.

Okay, but I am kind of looking towards maybe cutting my full-time job now. Am I going to? How much do you make now with your full-time job? About $40,000. $40,000, okay. And then how much do you make between the two businesses that you're spinning up? Well, I'm just starting them up, so I haven't really made anything yet. And then how much do you make between the two businesses that you're, that you're spinning up? Well, I'm just starting them up.

So I haven't really made anything yet. Okay. So how would you make money? It's going to be like a hobby. Okay. So how would, what kind of work do you want to do then? Um,

well, it's kind of, it's kind of incorporating a couple different projects, but basically it's going to be, um, helping women that have been traumatized. Um, um, I actually went through that and when I was going through that and nobody was there, but since that, all these women that have come to me for advice, I mean, I've been life coaching

probably about 10 hours a week now. I mean, not paid, not really anything. I'm just explaining to them how I've been going through this. And it's helping them. And I want to get together with these women and just know that they're not alone. That's awesome. That's amazing. And it's so empowering and so uplifting now because of where I was to where now where I am and I can see, you know, I dug myself out of that hole and I want to help other women to know that

because when I was in that hole, I didn't see the, I didn't see the light. Well, I hear, I hear the, the passion in your voice and not to make this sound transactional. I had to ask this question, but for life coaching, is that something you think career wise that you may start making a living off of? Like, hey, I can start counseling people or helping them or mentoring them, but it's going to be quitting your full-time job to do that? Not really.

Okay. It's just more of a gift of your heart that you just love to do it. It is. Okay. Because I don't feel like I should get paid for that. Yeah, that's fine. You know, I just don't feel like I should get paid. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you don't have to. I just want to make sure that, I just don't want you to quit your full-time job because you need to eat. You need to have an income coming in, even though you have a great, you know, $100,000 left over after your emergency fund, which is awesome. And you could live off that for a few, you know, if you want to take a break and be like, Brenda's going to chill for 60 days, you know, go chill. That's great. I think you are. You can. But I'm saying mathematically you can with your money because you have no payments and you have $100,000 in the bank.

So if you wanted to, that's an option for you, which is amazing. But also, I don't want you to quit your full time job without at least an idea of kind of where I where I want to go, because it doesn't sound like the two businesses that you're starting up are paying anything. You said they're basically hobbies. And then you have this mentorship thing on the side, that's your heart and your passion, which you just love to do, which is great. So yeah, I would, I would start to kind of narrow down Brenda. Um, here's, here's what I recommend you do. Nothing. Um, this purchase, uh, for somebody with your background, this is a, this is a culmination of a season. And I want you to just sit for six months and just leave the money where it's at. Like Rachel said, I would pull that money out for your emergency fund, pull it into an account where it goes.

But just sit and let the smoke clear on this and continue living your life. Don't quit your job yet, but give yourself about six months to let the smoke clear and say, okay, what's my next move? And you're going to have a lot clearer head in a few months. That's great, Brenda. Thanks for calling. You're awesome. This is The Ramsey Show. ស្រូវានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលានដែលា� Psalms 4, 8. In peace I will lie down and sleep.

For you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. Harry Kemp says, The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream. Harry Kemp. All right, let's go to Kevin in Tampa, Florida. What's up, Kevin? How we doing? Good. How are you guys? Thank you for taking my call. You got it. What's up? Hey, so I just got engaged to my girlfriend or fiance now. Congratulations. Thank you so much. We're just trying to figure out how to prioritize saving up for the wedding

as well as paying our debts. She has $10,000 total just in student loans, and I have $29,000 and $9,000 in credit cards, which I plan to pay off by the end of this year, and the rest of that in student loans. Okay, so what's your question? Oh, my, my question is, um, should I, since I'm planning to pay off the credit card, um, and what,

what are your thoughts on kind of like putting a pause on my student loans while I save up for the wedding? Um, we plan to have the wedding in 2024. So it's pretty far days out. Yeah. I mean, my answer may change now. I thought you guys would be getting married summer of 23 or something.

I was like, if that's the case. Why are you waiting so long? Just because we wanted to get our finances right. No. No. Kevin, just get married yeah go to the jp today go congratulations brother you're married you're fine you guys you're doing it you're and you you're gonna you're gonna do it so much faster and more motivated together when you're

married and you guys are yeah you don't don't feel like you have to get your finances or not before you're getting married or even having a baby you're good so so i should save up for the way or we should save up for the wedding now uh yeah i would do both i would simultaneously continue to pay off your debt but i'm okay with you putting some cash aside yes for the wedding i don't want you doing that for two years though kevin so i want you guys getting married i want y'all y'all are broke you don't need a hundred thousand dollar wedding that you're paying for yourselves how much getting married. I want y'all. Y'all are broke. You don't need a hundred thousand dollar wedding that you're paying for yourselves. How much do y'all make a year? Um, I make 65 and she ranges, uh, right now she's a travel nurse, but she's planning on just getting a staff job, uh, early next year. Okay. So right now she's probably making like

one 50, uh, probably able to save up 20,000 by the end of this year. And then she's probably making like $150,000, probably able to save up $20,000 by the end of this year. And then she's going to go to staffing, which is probably like around $80,000. Okay, awesome. So, yeah, I would encourage you guys to get married sooner. Way sooner. Way sooner. I would continue to work on your debt and your debt alone, so paying off your credit cards. Let her be working towards her $ 000 and student loans and then you guys have a total and say hey by this date we would love to have this

amount of money so we can start planning a wedding so that could be christmas of this year whatever it is and so it may not be it's not going to be a huge wonderful thing with flowers everywhere it's gonna be wonderful but it yes it's gonna be tempered because you guys are paying for it and that's great that's great people spend so much money on weddings and i'm not mad at that but man we spend more effort and energy on that versus the marriage so i'd rather get you guys married and have a decent wonderful beautiful wedding um that you're that you're paying for and then you guys together at that point tackling the rest of this debt together.

Sounds good. Thank you so much, guys. You got it. And Rachel, I've not heard, I'm sure they exist. You may have some friends. I've not heard one person, not one,

who went ahead and did a super lo-fi, low-key wedding during the COVID years. And with the intention of, we're going to go ahead and get married now and we're going to throw a big party down the road. I've not heard one person say, I wish I could take that back. No.

Not one. And then what's funny too is a lot of them don't even go back and do the big wedding. It's like, we're married. We're married, we're old and annoying. We have money and we want to go travel. I don't want to be with your family anyway. Do our own thing.

We want to. I've not heard one person say, you know what? I wish we'd spent a hundred thousand dollars and blown it out for these photos oh my gosh no we had winston had one of his best friends was getting married may of 2020 it was a destination wedding so we were all we had everything booked you know we were going when it was in the wedding of the whole thing and of course you know cancel yeah cancel and so uh we got a text from him and he was like, hey, tonight, get on Zoom at 6 p.m.

So we get on Zoom at 6 p.m. and there's literally 200 people in the Zoom. And it's just them two in the backyard, both parents and then like a pastor. And they just did it. And now they're killing it. They have a baby now. Life's great. Oh, they're just moving on. And so weddings are wonderful.

I don't want to be the one of those people like, you never need a wedding. No, weddings are fun and they're beautiful and they're exciting and you celebrate something beautiful in life I'm all for it but they are so they can be so overrated yeah yeah

they can be so overrated so Kevin get married Kevin get married wait till 2024 go now Kevin get married this weekend this weekend

and send us the photos if you send us the photos we'll both put them up yes Kevin if you get married this weekend both Rachel and I will post the photos we'll you send us the photos, we'll both put them up. Yes. Kevin, if you get married this weekend, both Rachel and I will post the photos. We'll even do something else. I don't know. We'll send you some gifts. We'll blow this up, Kevin. Have premarital counseling first.

Do the responsible steps. That's enough for Rachel. Let's go to Debbie in Jacksonville. What's up, Debbie? Hi, John. Hi, Rachel. Thanks for taking my call. Of course. What's up? My husband and I were in our mid-50s. We have our primary mortgage, and we have a home that we're currently using as a rental, that mortgage. Otherwise, we're debt-free. I am not sure where to focus our extra funds, on the primary mortgage or on the rental. One caveat of the rental property is that eventually we'd like that to become our primary.

It's in a retirement community that we love. We're just not ready to go there yet. Our primary mortgage is, we have about $320,000 left on it. The home is valued at about $550,000. Our rental property, we owe about $210,000, and its value is about $320,000. When are you going to retire? Probably 10 years. I'd focus on your primary first.

No, the rental. Okay. Debbie, I'd sell the rental. I know you don't want me to say that. Even though that's where they're going to live, but it's going to be 10 years. In a decade. In a decade.

It's fair, fair, fair, fair. Good job, John. I would sell the rental and then you would owe $110,000 and you would knock that out in a few years and then you could start socking away cash. But the difference between now and 10 years, if you'd met the 10 year ago John Deloney,

that dude was a train wreck. And I'm not super got it all together right now, but you should have met that dude. That dude was nuts, right? Like who knows what the world's going to look like in 10 years. I would not be paying 10 years worth of mortgage interest on a half a million dollars for a decade. I just wouldn't do it. But that's me. If y'all just have to have to have to hang on to it, then it ends up becoming a debt, right? Well, yeah. And in 10 years, Debbie, think about if you do all this, you pay it off, how much cash you guys are going to have freed up from your mortgage once you pay off your primary mortgage

and investing all of it and then what your house currently will be worth, your primary, and in 10 years, all of that together, you guys could get something awesome and maybe a better location, a better community. Who knows what this community is going to look like in 10 years or be? I mean, yeah, there's so much. If you have kids, one of them is going to have twins and say, mom, will you come live by us?

Who knows what's going to happen in 10 years, right? Um, that's just, that's just my thought on it. That's a long, if you're telling me two years or three years or something, then that's a totally different proposition there.

Sure. Sure. All right. Well, thanks for your advice. Absolutely. Real quick for hang up. How does that sound?

You don't like that, do you? I know you don't, but tell me how that feels. No, no, it feels okay. Hey, so hold on real quick before we hang up. How does that sound? You don't like that, do you? I know you don't, but tell me how that feels. No, no, it feels okay. I've heard Dave talk previously about, you know, he doesn't really like rentals unless you can pay cash, and he usually gives the advice of selling the rental. And so I, in my heart, knew that that was the right answer.

But I was just wondering if given the caveat that, you know, we were hoping to end up there, if that shed a different light on the situation. It did for me for about 0.5 seconds, but then I gave you terrible. Almost, you almost got Rachel. I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no. Yeah. Sorry, Debbie. That's it. You know in your heart, though.

And you know what? It's going to feel so good. It's going to feel so good when you throw that at your primary mortgage. Yeah, because right now, I mean, you're looking at being done, right?

Well, actually, she said it's worth $300, right? Or $350. Yeah, but I mean like... Throw $130. Close at it. Yeah. Yeah.

I'd much rather do that. For sure. And in 10 years, you never know what's going to happen. All right. Hey, Rachel, thank you I'd much rather do that for sure in 10 years you never know what's going to happen alright hey Rachel thank you for hanging out today I want to thank Austin, Kelly James, Ben, Zach, Andrew, Will Kelly's not even here

I'll even thank you Will it's good to see you showing up here at the last minute thank everybody thank you America for joining us listen take care of each other. Be kind out there. And we will see you soon. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show.

Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.