The Ramsey Show - App - Expert Advice for Handling Money the Right Way (Hour 3)

Episode Date: May 31, 2018

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Rebecca starts off this hour in Fargo, North Dakota. Hi, Rebecca. How are you?

I'm doing good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I was just calling so I could get your advice on a decision that my husband and I are deciding to make to get out of debt. So last year around this time, my husband and I decided that he was going to take a job as a civilian contract worker over in Afghanistan as a paramedic. And we were planning on just having him do it for a year, but that year mark has come and we didn't make the progress that we were hoping on our debt. We're currently in baby step two. Why? And so we're, what? Why did you not make the progress you were hoping?

I am a special ed teacher. And so last May May my contract was not renewed for the next school year, and I was having a hard time finding another job. So we kind of went a year on just his income because I was struggling to find a job as a teacher where we were living. Gotcha. How much debt do you guys have, not counting your home? Currently, we have $80,000. Left? Yes. What did you start with?

We started with, what were we at, $130,000. Okay, so you paid off $50,000 with him being overseas for a year. Yes. Part of that was we sold his truck, and we sold a couple things to pay off that debt. Wow, so you didn't make much progress at all as a result of him being overseas. Correct. What does he make? What was that?

What does he make? Currently, he makes $95,000. Okay. And I'll be starting work this fall. I got a job as a special ed teacher, and I'll be making $38,000 to add to his $95,000. And so we were looking at having him stay until December with my added income, and then we're also going to be selling our house because we're moving to a new area where we'll be renting.

So the profit that we make off of selling our house can be thrown at our debt as well. But the issue that I'm struggling with is, I guess, more on a personal level where I'm getting a lot of feedback and backlash from my family of, you guys are crazy, like this is going to be really hard on you and the kids with him gone, like you shouldn't be doing this. He's already been gone. Yes, he has. Is everybody okay?

Yes, we are. Okay. How many kids do you have? I have two. Okay. How often has he come home? He was home in March for a two-week leave, and he'll be home here the end of June for another two-week leave.

And then go back for six months. Yes. Does he have one more two-week leave during that six? Yes. He figures it will be somewhere around end of October, November, that he would be able to come home. Is he safe? He is, yep.

He's in a clinic setting. He does not leave the base. He's over there as a civilian and works in a clinic setting as a paramedic. There are civilian contractors that are in situations that aren't always safe. That's why I was asking. Yeah, yeah. He is not a safe base. That's why they pay so high. It's a danger zone. Yeah. It comes down to it's highly inconvenient, the other thing. So, well, the question is not what your family thinks. I mean, it's sweet that they're so helpful.

Yeah. But, you know, helpful with their opinions and their support and their encouragement and everything. But, you know, the bottom line is, you know, is it worth it to you and your kids and your husband to suffer through the six months to hit this goal? I don't think you're crazy. I think you're doing an extreme thing that's very difficult. I wouldn't tell you not to do it, but I wouldn't tell you absolutely you had to do it. So, you know, it's a hard enough thing that you're doing that it has to be something that you, the kids, and him hold hands, you pray about it, you talk about it, and we're going

to do this. It's only six months and we're going to do this it's only six months we're going to do this military families do it all the time yes it's their job it's what they sign up for but um you know you don't have to you're not in the military so he can come home and make you know considerably less than he makes there as an emt in fargo or wherever you're going to live with your move, and you'll get out of debt. The question is, is it worth it to you all to accelerate this? And some families do better with stuff like this. I personally couldn't do it because I'm such a wuss and such a homebody.

I mean, I don't have kids at home. I've got two dogs and a wife, and I'm an empty nester, and I can't stand not being home for an extended period of time. All of my travel is in one-, two-, and three-day spurts these days, and so I can handle that. But this idea of me being gone from sharing for six months, I couldn't do it. But that's not to say you're wrong for doing it. It's just I'm weak in that area. I can't do it. But that's not to say you're wrong for doing it. It's just I'm weak in that area. I can't do it. I'm wired different.

But there are families that steel themselves to this and are able to do this, and it's not a strain for them like it would be someone else. What your family is saying is that they don't understand how you can do it because to them it seems such a sacrifice. They couldn't do it is what they're saying. But that doesn't mean you can't do it. If you want to do it and both of you are in, I don't think you're crazy. I just think you're doing a very hard thing, and you've got to make sure it's worth it.

Yeah. Is that okay? Yes. Yes, thank you so much. Sure. Hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Y'all jump in.

We'll talk about your life and your money. What if you never had another student loan payment? What if you never had another bill from a credit card company? What if you never had another car payment? What if you never had another car payment? What if you never had another house payment? That's hard to even think about, isn't it? What if you had no payments? Breathe that.

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Dollar Plus built in. It's about $300 worth of stuff, and we are offering a deal on it in May. This is the last day of May, and you can get it right now for $109. That price is normally $129, and it's $300 worth of stuff. This is the best value we've ever had. Check it out. Text the word DEAL to 337089. DEAL to 33789 or go to DaveRamsey.com. Hey, business leaders, are you hiring, posting your position to job sites and waiting and waiting

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They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, which means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds for free. They have site-wide savings happening right now, plus you take an additional 5% off at blinds.com slash Ramsey. Jessica's in Texas. Do I include old debts in the debt snowball or just the current ones? I have a couple of old debts that are still on my credit report, and I'm not sure if or when to pay them off. Well, they're debts you owe. You should pay them off morally.

Legally, you want to pay them off. They'll come after you eventually. And from a credit standpoint, the only way you'll ever clear up your credit to get it to a zero is to clear up all bad debts. So, yes, you should pay them off. I would pay them off after you pay off your active debts. So if you have debts that you're actively paying payments on and some that are old bad debts that you're not paying payments on, I would have two separate debt snowballs.

Do your active debt first. List them smallest to largest. Pay minimum payments on everything but the little one. Attack the little one. Work your way right down that list. When those are all gone, you're going to have a lot more cash every month because you don't have any payments. Then you call the smallest one of the inactives,

and you begin to work out your deal with them on what to pay them. And many times if it's an old debt, it will have tripled or quadrupled because they go crazy on adding collections fees, and it goes bananas. So what I tell you to do is just go back and settle it for what you originally owed. It might have been a $2,000 debt, and now they've got it to twelve thousand well i will give you two thousand you know that's what i owe and um yes technically some interest is due and you can be all kinds of technical if you want but you know the technically the the whole thing's messed up so just get in there and get it straightened out and take care of it as fast as you possibly can by settling it for about what you originally owed or less, something like that.

And always get it in writing that you've settled it and never give someone electronic access to your checking account when it comes to collectors, that is. Now, again, we give electronic access to my checking account all the time for stuff like paying your cable bill or whatever. There's nothing wrong with that, but what I'm talking about is don't give collectors access. Scott is in Washington, D.C. Hey, Scott, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave, how are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Great. So my wife and I are 26. We're one year out of college. We have gross household income of $125,000. Way to go. We have about $68,000 in total debt, and I'm wondering what to pay off first with our savings. We have about $25,000 in the bank. I'm just in a 1% interest savings account, and I want to eliminate some of this debt. Yeah, I would. Great. I'll just list your debt smallest to largest, and I'd pay minimum payments on everything but the little one. Let's take the first $25,000 on that list and knock it out. So you said you've got how much in that total? So 68K. So of that 68K, 30K is my wife, but she is on the federal student loan repayment program. So that pays 10,000 per year or 833 per month towards

her loan. So if we don't touch that in three years, it's paid off by the government. In three years? Yeah, in three years. Yeah. Okay. And then I have $20,000 of student loan debt. Most of it is around 4% interest. And then we have $18,000 in a car loan at about 3.2% interest rate. So we have $25,000 in savings. And we're not really working with the $30,000 of her debt right now just because that's being passively paid off right now. Yeah, so why is she on a three-year plan for forgiveness?

Is she doing some kind of underserved work? No, sir, it's not the forgiveness. It's the federal student loan repayment program. It's different than the forgiveness one. So this is an active repayment by the government. They're paying $833 per month directly into her student loans. I got you. Because she has, what does she do? She works for a congressman. Oh all right so she's that that's i get it okay because that's an unusual program it's a great program and that's i just want to make sure i understood what it was okay good it is it's a great benefit yeah so i'm going to ride that out

and i'll tell you how to handle that in just a second let's circle back but that really basically leaves you with about thirty thousand dollars worth of debt, not counting that $30,000, and you've got $25,000 of it in the bank, right? Yes, sir. About $38,000 total between my $20,000 student loan and $18,000 car loan. So you're going to be debt-free by September no matter what we do, not counting her loan. Right, right. Because you're going to throw $25,000 at something,

and with your income on a tight budget, you're going to clean up the rest of that very, very quickly. Right. We do have a high rent in D.C. We spend about $2,300 a month on rent, some other things like that. So if you throw $2,500 at the $3,800, how quick do you think you're going to pay off that other $3,300? Probably six months to a year oh way too long too long way too long to pay off 13 000 make 125 grand okay you need to get on a budget man you didn't make

you're going to make getting out of debt a priority or you're not going to get out of debt we just cleaned out your freaking savings account. We've got to get this done. I mean, you need to get it. I was hoping to leave about $5,000 in the savings account and then use $20 of that to just get rid of one of those loans. What do you think about that? Well, what we teach folks to do is work what we call the baby steps. Baby step one is $1,000 in the bank. Baby step two is take all assets other than the $1,000

that are not in retirement savings and throw them at the debt. And so I'm going to take you down to $1,000, and I'm going to throw it all at this debt, and I'm going to get you on a beans and rice, rice and beans budget. You make really good money. Let's clean this up. If you screw around with this and half-butt do it, you're going to lengthen this by triple.

It's going to 3X what it should be on how long it takes you to clean this mess up. I want you to get these things cleaned up real fast and then put another $25,000 back in the bank fast. As a matter of fact, I want you to put your emergency fund back in the bank, plus whatever the balance is on her student loan in case she has to quit that job. Then she can write a check for whatever the balance is. I don't mind it paying out over the next three years, but I want enough money, extra money, in your bank account to pay it off so she's not having to stay there if the environment became toxic

or something like that. Right. I don't want her golden handcuffs holding her in there because you didn't pay that off. You know what I'm saying? It's a great benefit until it's not a great benefit. So first goal is take $20,000 and pay off one of those two debts. I don't care.

$25,000. Let's get it down to $1,000, and then let's get on a tight budget. Knock out that other $13,000. I'll give you about, let's see, one, two, three, maybe five months to do it. You need to do it by Christmas. You need to be debt-free by Christmas, other than her loan. And then I want you to start saving your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. As soon as that is done, I want you to save up in addition to that whatever the balance is of her student loan.

And then we'll move on and start investing in Baby Step 4 and start putting money in your 401K. And that's what we teach. And that's what's helped so many people is to follow that exact plan. It's an intense, very focused plan. But the funny thing about behavior stuff, and personal finance is all about behavior, is that there's no real middle ground. You're either on or you're off. And when you go on with this, you've got to go all on because you've got to get cleaned up so you can get some money back in savings.

I don't want you running around without a big savings account for long. So we've got to get right back to that as soon as we can. Hey, thanks for the call, man. You guys have started really strong. You're making good money. Your rent is outrageous. And don't blame it on D.C. It's because you rented something too expensive.

It's your fault. But other than that, you really are on D.C. It's because you rented something too expensive. It's your fault. But other than that, you really are on fire. You've got a great income. You've got a great benefit on her student loan. You've got a great plan. Somehow you've started with this pile of money in the bank. I mean, you've got a good, hard start here. So let's take it and run with it.

Take it and run, man. You've got a good thing going. Well done. Very well done. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. take it and run man you got a good thing going well done very well done this is the dave ramsey show So So you think you don't need ID theft protection? Well, think again. The Equifax data breach is a perfect example of why everyone needs to be protected. Over 143 million people, which is half of American adults, had their social security numbers, dates of birth,

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Detroit, Michigan. Andrew is on the line. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Andrew. Thanks for having me, Dave. I've got a question for you. I'm thinking about selling my car here just to kind of accelerate baby step two. The car is worth about $20,000, and I owe about $10,000 on it. And I've done some tables on about $85,000 in debt total.

And I feel if I potentially sold the car and just kind of downgraded the vehicle, I could probably accelerate this and get out of debt just a little bit faster. What's your household income? About $100,000. You like the car? I do enjoy the car, yes. Okay. The rule of thumb I use is this. Do all your vehicles, anything with a motor or wheels, add up to more than half your annual income? So what's your other car worth? Do you have another car?

Nope, just this car. You're single? Yes. half your annual income the second thing is can i be debt free if i keep this car and be debt free except for my house within two years and does this car allow me to do that so basically if you sold this car and bought a ten thousand dollar car with the equity debt free you will have reduced your debt by ten thousand dollars right correct and so for instead of80 to pay off, you'll have $70 to pay off? Correct. So the car does not make you debt-free in two years? I would keep it. But if I was going to keep it, what I would do is really go crazy on this debt. I mean crazy, because you're single. I mean, I would, if you can't pay it off

in two years i'd pay it off in just close to two years that's forty thousand dollars a year though that's a lot that's you know three thirty five hundred bucks a month yeah yeah i've actually ran some tables and looked at the budget and i think i can uh with selling some things potentially get it done by christmas of next year if I really buckle down a little bit. But that's a little bit more aggressive and work some additional things outside of what I do possibly. If you're willing to do all that, I'd keep the car. Okay. Since you like it.

Since you like it. Now, if it moved the needle $30,000 instead of $10,000, I might look at it, you know? But it doesn't move the needle that much it's it's moves it one-eighth of the deal 12 move in your debt you follow me okay i am yeah so it is you know what i'm looking for is if i'm going to give up something i love i want to see some impact you know and it's not enough impact given that it's a car you like. And the car is not outrageous. It's not crazy given your income. It's actually right in line.

It's a car you would buy for cash or you're debt-free. It would fit with being a reasonable car purchase for you. Lillian is with us in Pasadena, Texas. Hi, Lillian. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thank you for having me. Sure.

What's up? Yeah. So I've actually done your course a couple of times, and so I'm finally ready to take it seriously this time. And so I've been working for about three years now. I'm single, and I make about $250,000 a year. Wow. And I have student loans. I've actually done pretty well. I paid off pretty much three cars during this time.

And then a student loan. I have two student loans remaining. And pretty much all of my credit cards are gone, so I don't have any of that. I still have two more student loans that I need to pay off. Unfortunately, I lost my car in Harvey, so I had to take out a new car loan to pay off that car. And then I had a business loan. You make $250,000. Why did you have to take out a car loan?

Well, because I didn't have the mobilized loans at that time. And one of the reasons why my income increased a little bit is because I became a partner with my company, so that's kind of my projected income. Gotcha. So what do you do? I'm a physician. Great. Okay. So you haven't been making $250,000 for the whole time then?

No. That's just what you make now? Close to about $250,000. Okay. been making 250 for the whole time then no that's just what you make now okay so today today looking forward though you make 250 you've made some mistakes in the past you've been on and off the wagon so to speak and now you've looked up and the only thing left is how much in student loan debt um i have about 60 um 63 000 um in student loans and then my car loan. And then another thing too

is I kind of give away a lot of money. So like I pay for a lot of I'm pretty much paying my mom's mortgage and then like helping her to pay certain bills

and things like that. And then I notice that I give a lot in offerings and things like that. What is your question? So my question is trying to figure out the best way to mobilize my income in order to pay off the loan. Because my goal is to pay off the student loan and the car, which is about $80,000 by the end of this year.

The car is $80,000? The car and the student loan together about $80,000 by the end of this year. The car is $80,000? The car and the student loan together are $80,000? Yeah, the car and the student loan together is about $80,000. Is that all the debt you have left? No. Well, I took out a business loan to become a partner, and so that's an additional $235,000. So I want to hurry up and try to pay off these loans

so I can become more aggressive of paying off that loan. Okay. So you make two. Let me summarize. You make $250,000 a year. You're completely out of control with your money. You have no freaking idea what you're doing. Oh, you actually do know what you're doing.

You just haven't bothered to control your impulses and you have an amazing amount of money that you make 250 000 a year but you have 80 000 plus 230 was it and so so 310 makes you debt free yeah but i also put on the. Here's what you should do, but you won't do, okay? You should quit paying anyone else's bills, and you should get on beans and rice, rice and beans, and you should pay off $150,000 a year for two years and be 100% debt-free two years from now. But there's nothing in anything that you've told me

that indicates you're going to do that. Nothing. Because you are doing all these silly things that you know are silly and you're just doing them and then giggle and you're you know you're going to have to really grow up about this because you're going to be one of these stupid broke doctors if the rest of your life if you don't and they're stupid broke doctors everywhere they're worse than stupid broke athletes they really are and so you make so much money that's why it's stupid you're making 250 000 a year and you're in debt up to your eyeballs you have to do something about this

so i'm gonna pay for you to go through Financial Peace University one more time. This time it better stick. Kiddo, it's time. You know, you have an amazing intellect, but you're going to have to add wisdom to your intellect. You couldn't have gotten to where you are in the medical field if you didn't have a strong intellect and making partner as quick as you made. So you've obviously got amazing skill within your career. So now let's add wisdom to that and maturity to that, and let's land your personal life in the land of grown-ups.

You can't pay everybody's bills. You're broke and deeply in debt. Broke and deeply in debt, people don't need to pay other people's bills. So hold on. I'll have Kelly pick up. We're going to get you back into Financial Peace University for one more year of membership and go back through the classes in a local group, go to the lessons in a local group, and get your act together, girl.

Don't look up five years from now and go, I made $250,000 the last five years, and all I did was pay my mama's mortgage. I got nothing to show for it. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't live like that anymore. Life is too short. You've worked too hard to make this kind of money to be this broke.

You deserve to be doing better than this, but it's completely on you to do it. And you can. You can do this. You got this. I know you can do it. And if you need some help, you call me back. I'm here to coach you. But sometimes part of coaching is kicking your butt.

That's what you just got was a butt kicking. Did you feel it? I hope you did. That was for you. It's because I care about you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. For years, I refused to endorse any company that claimed to get people out of timeshares. I told my listeners it's a horrible product and that, unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of options. Then a few years ago, I sat down with Brandon Reed, the owner of Timeshare Exit Team.

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Yes, you will write them a check, but they stand behind their guarantee. They will get you out or they'll give you a full refund. Call 844-999-EXIT online at timeshareexitteam.com. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 22.6 Train up a child in the way he should go And when he is old, he will not depart from it You know, a lot of people don't realize, that's Proverbs 22.6. You know what Proverbs 22.7 is? The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.

What if we just took the numbers out and read it straight through? Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's old he'll not depart from it. The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender. Hmm. Interesting. Teach your kids not to borrow money? I don't know. Maybe.

Walt Whitman produced great men, and the rest follows. Yes, it does. Well, here's an interesting thing. I just saw this the other day. The National Association of Realtors reports that 80% of the people who do not own a home want to own a home. Homeownership is still a big deal. It's still the American dream. But most people that don't own a home, out of those 80%, they don't think they can.

Well, maybe they can't today. I always tell you not to buy a house when you're broke to get yourself out of debt, build your emergency fund, and then save your down payment, getting yourself ready to go, right? We always tell you how to do that. But there's a way to step-by-step getting yourself positioned to buy a home and to do it in a way that works, in a way that's fun, in a way that the home is a blessing to you. Check out one of our financial peace classes. Get with one of our endorsed local providers in the real estate business,

and they'll show you how to get yourself ready to be a homeowner because it is a big part of your long-term wealth building plan to be a homeowner. Now, I tell you not to buy a home. It'll set your wealth building back if you buy a home when you're broke. It'll slow down your financial progress, not speed it up. When broke people buy houses, it makes them broker. That's why they call them mortgage brokers broker and broker and broker but the the truth is is that owning a home long term is an essential part of a good strong financial plan it's in all the millionaire data as a matter

of fact when we study millionaires we see paid off homes in there as part of their great net worth. Michelle is in Kansas City. Hi, Michelle. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. My husband and I are in Baby Step 7.

We're debt-free. Our house is paid off. Our annual income is approximately $143,000, primarily most of that coming from my husband's income at $106,000. My question is in regard to life insurance, term life insurance. Our net worth at this point is approximately $1.2 million, and I'm feeling some insecurity about if he were to pass away, that the income stream would be significantly reduced, leaving me with two minor children ages 16 and 13. Okay.

Well, what we want to do is have his income to be replaced by investments that are already there or by investments that are put there from life insurance or some combination of that. Okay? Okay. And so if he's making $100,000, you know, we take 10 to 12 times that, so you need a million dollars in investments making 10% to create $100,000. Does that make sense? Yeah. need a million dollars in investments making 10% to create 100 grand.

Does that make sense? Yeah. I mean, right now we have about $850,000 in retirement and about $184,000 in an investment account and $170,000 in a savings account. Okay. All right. And $170,000 in a savings account, if it were invested, and $185,000 were invested. Retirement, you can't get to

if something happened today. You're too young, right? Right. I'm 49. He's 55. Yeah, but if he dies today, it's 10 years before you can get to that $800,000.

Correct. Without penalties, okay? Now, you could get to it, but you're not going to starve, obviously, but we're trying to create an income for you. You'd have $300,000 or $400,000 to invest, but you're right. You would be coming up short. So I might pick up $500,000 or $600,000 on him for 10 years, 10-year term or something like that.

You see what I'm doing? I want to take your $170,000 or $180000, plus $700,000 or $500,000 invested. We'll get you by easily with no pain at all until you turn 59 1⁄2, at which point you've now got access to the income off of that other $800,000. And, oh, by the way, by then the kids are grown and gone. Right. And so it's just you then, and you're sitting on a couple million bucks. Right.

He currently has about $200,000 in life insurance through his employer, but I've challenged that that's not quite enough. And he says, well, you know, we seem to be doing okay. You know, why do we need more? And it's just my own insecurity about will I be protected. The math thing is all it is, okay? If your insecurity is a feeling that's illogical, then, you know, we can argue that away. But I think you have a point mathematically.

And so it's just, you know, you sit down and show him and go, what I've got to do is I've got $170 in the savings, which really should be invested. That's too much sitting in savings. And then $185 sitting over here that i can get to until i'm 59 and a half by the way during which time that 800 will become 2 million it'll double if you leave it invested okay so by the time if we get you to 59 and a half the kids are grown and gone you're going to be a wealthy widow i mean you're going to be fine okay but uh not where we want you but that's you're going to be in great shape financially so the the point is you got 200 000 from three different sources 170 185 and 200 that's 600

grand you follow me so if you want to put another couple of hundred thousand maybe 500 000 with that it's not a bad thing. And it doesn't cost that much as long as he's healthy. Is he healthy? Overweight. It's going to be very costly. It's going to be very costly then. Obesity in your late 50s is tough.

He can get it, but it's going to cost a lot of money. And so, you know, you do have six hundred thousand to to work with without touching the $800,000 to make it 10 years. And so that's a $60,000 income if all of that's invested without touching the $800,000 and your income. Okay, so you're not going to be exactly where you are now, but what we're talking about buying, you can go price it and decide do you want another $400,000 or $500,000. There's a mathematical case to be made to what you're saying. The question is, is it worth what you're going to have to pay with him being overweight? Right.

And you just price it out with Xander. Go to Xander Insurance and look at it and put his weight down and see what he comes back. And it's just expensive. When you're overweight or you smoke, your life insurance doubles. I think that's his concern. He doesn't smoke, but the weight could be an issue. He might not be able to get it, depending on how overweight he is. Anyway, price it out and then make the decision based on the numbers,

not based on a feeling. Okay. Your feeling is based in logic. I will back you up on that, okay? Okay. But let's just take this all the way to ground now and get the facts in front of us and go, okay, I'd really like to have another $300,000, but I'm not going to pay $30,000 a year for it. Screw that.

I'm not doing that, okay? Do you think that's out of bounds? No, I made that up, okay? I'm not going to pay $30,000 a year for it. Screw that. I'm not doing that, okay? And do you think that's out of the question? No, I made that up, okay? I'm just saying. But if it comes out as $300 a year, well, buy it. Shut up, you know? Yeah, I hear you. You know, you just look at it, and you make a value judgment and go, how much risk?

Because worst case, we know you and the kids are okay. You've got a million four plus a paid four house. Today. Yes. Today. Way way to go by the way excellent job thank you what a great job you guys have done what what kind of careers um he's in health care management and um i'm i'm a social worker okay so how long ago did he start his 401Ks? He has been a saver all of his life, probably from his early 20s. How much of this was inherited? About $80,000.

Okay. So you guys are everyday millionaires. You started with nothing. Yeah. Yeah. Way to go. I'm proud of you. Excellent job.

And now you're doing what you've been doing all along, which is just being intentional and thoughtful and logical and careful. And these are the people that build wealth. Because the reason you're asking this question is how you got here. That's very well done. You're a classic model for this. Thank you. Thanks for letting me ask you some questions. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books.

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, this is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show. Are high healthcare 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 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.