The Ramsey Show - App - FINALLY! A Car Rental Company That Accepts Debit Cards! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 5, 2019

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, 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. If you were not with us last hour, you did not hear the big announcement that caused the change in the opener there. And here's the story. Last March, as I have done many times on this show, I have lamented, ranted about the fact that rental car companies mistreat those of us that are debit card holders.

We have inconsistent service. They always roll their eyes in contempt like we are the redheaded stepchild and we're to be mistreated and we're second-class citizens, and we're sick of it. We're sick of it. And I was lamenting that, and James in Fort Myers was listening to me. His wife is the senior vice president of brands for Dollar Car Rental. And so he texted his wife, Susan Jacobs, who was in a meeting, Dollars Owned by Hertz,

with a bunch of the Hertz executives and some really creative people and said, Ramsey is doing it again. He is ranting about car rental people not taking debit cards and how he wants to find one that he could tell everybody to go to. You need to do this. Susan called us. We sat down with the dollar car rental team, and they're amazing. They're absolutely, completely revolutionizing the way car rental is done,

and they actually care about their customers, and they actually got the memo that our frustration about debit card users being mistreated. And so they have very quickly, for a company of that size, since March, we've been in several meetings, and they have completely revamped their entire operation at Dollar Car Rental to where if you are a debit card holder, this is big news. I'm so excited about this because I don't have any credit cards, and I haven't for 30 years. I only have a debit card.

I can now walk up to the dollar car rental counter. They will take my debit card if I'm 20 years old and I have a driver's license. No credit check. They don't hold one of your children in the vault. They don't point a gun at your mother's head. They don't hold $15,000 out of your checking account. They do hold $200 for incidental hold, like they always do at any debit card transaction of size. And so it's incredible. It's incredible. So anywhere that you want to go and rent a car from Dollar Car Rental,

walk up to the counter, and you only have a debit card, and you're 20 years old and you have a driver's license, they're going to treat you like a human. Wow! It's amazing! It's pretty cool. And so we started talking, and they got excited about some of the other stuff they're doing, and I'm not ready to tell you about everything yet, because we don't have it all done.

We just got this first piece done. And in the process, they said, we want to sponsor the show. And we said, well, we can't. We're sold out. We don't have a sponsor on the studio. We'll show you the studio sponsor. So now I am proud to say I am sitting in the Dollar Car Rental Studio. It is, by the way, the same studio I was sitting in yesterday,

but today it is called the Dollar Car Rental Studio because they heard you. They got the memo that you, the customer, actually will react to this. I announced this last hour, and chat rooms and blogs and stuff are exploding everywhere with this news. The Dave Ramsey, the Ramsey Baby Steps community on Facebook exploded. The YouTubers' chat exploded with this news. Now, here, it gets even better, though. I can't believe it gets better, but it does get better. If you sign up for the Dollar Express rewards in advance by going to their website, dollar.com slash Ramsey, dollar.com slash Ramsey,

that lets them know you are a Ramsey debit card user. You're a Ramsey tribe member. Then you don't have to go to the counter. You just walk out and get in your car. Oh, this is so good. This is so, oh, finally, finally. Oh, man, I have, you know, I've had some debit card some some of these brands would take a debit card some places they wouldn't take it another place and they were inconsistent and you

had to have a ticket from out of town and you had to do this and you had to you had to do the hokey pokey and you had to turn around twice and um you know oh man you just walk up you're 20 years old you got a credit you got a debit card and you got your driver's license, and if you're a Dollar Express member, you don't even walk up to the counter, you walk straight to the dad-blamed car. This is what it's all about. I have had a lot of experiences in business in 30 years, working with large organizations and small organizations, and it is so fun when I find people who are, you know, number one, they have the intellect.

And number two, they have the emotional capacity to actually get it. They get the memo. And they go, well, this kind of makes sense. Let's just do it. And they took a huge company and retooled it since we started talking about this last summer to where now, just a few months later, we're able to sit here and tell you about this. This is pretty amazing. A lot of stuff like this takes four years to roll out, you know, but not if you got the right kind of people involved. And, you know, people are the deal.

And big company, small company, people are the, you know, smart people that care. They're just hard to come by. And this team, we have so enjoyed working with them. They're so much like our team in that they get it. They know how to pivot. They know how to float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, get stuff done, you know, for the customer. They're fans of you

guys. And so now I want you to be fans of them. I'm a fan of theirs. Dollar.com slash Ramsey. Join the Dollar Express Rewards. Even if you don't have a plan to travel right now, go ahead and do it. It doesn't cost anything to get in the thing. And it lets them know you're a Ramsey fan if you do it at dollar.com slash Ramsey. And a little hint, inside baseball, that's going to mean even more later

if they have identified you as a Ramsey fan. Because there might be some other things you, there is on the whiteboard. And we're just not quite. I can't tell you about them yet, because then you'd want them. And I can't. And I'm not ready to give them to you yet. But make sure that they know when you go, even if you don't know the dollar express thing, which I don't know why you wouldn't do that. But even if you just walk up to the counter, you're hearing me right now and and you're driving towards the airport, and you're just going to get a car,

just walk up there and tell them you're a Ramsey fan, and they'll put it in the system. And for sure, go to Dollar Express Rewards at dollar.com slash Ramsey. That identifies you when you use that URL, dollar.com slash Ramsey. It says, I'm in the Ramsey tribe. I appreciate you guys doing this for us and making travel easy, and it's free to join, and you sign up. And you don't have to have a credit card anymore. You just are a regular person with a debit card.

Oh, so nice. So nice. And I'm just kind of proud that we had enough muscle with all of you being out there that a company like this would listen and I get to connect you two. I'm proud of that. Yeah. Debit cards. Dollar car rental. 20 years old.

A driver's license and a debit card. That's it. That's it. Touchdown, baby. Touchdown. Wow. This is the baby. Touchdown. Wow. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. With more frequency than you know, I get calls and emails from people dealing with the recent loss of a spouse or a parent. You can hear the struggle and the heartache that they've been experiencing.

And at a time they should be grieving, what breaks my heart the most is the strain and tension that they're going through because of money, especially when it's a situation that could have been avoided. If you have a family, it is your responsibility to have term life insurance. It's one of the things you do to say I love you. And yes, this is an ad for Zander Insurance. But since this is one of the most effective ways I have to get my point across, so be it. For over 20 years, I've been telling you about the importance of term life insurance and protecting your family.

Listen, you need to check out Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. I can't say it enough. Protect your family. It's what you're supposed to do. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Wow. Honored to have dropping by the Dollar Car Rental Studio, our own Paula Faris. She's a senior national correspondent for ABC News. You've seen her on The View.

You have seen her everywhere, all over ABC. She used to be one of the co-hosts of The View, as I said. And she's got a wonderful radio podcast, ABC radio podcast, called Journeys of Faith with Paula Faris. It is one of the top faith podcasts out there today. She's had the big dogs on there, like Luke Bryan and Hillary Scott and Ben Shapiro. I was on Ben's last week. Oh, there you go. I saw you tweeted about that. Yeah, everybody liked it. Well was on Ben's last week. Oh, there you go. I saw you tweeted about that. Yeah, everybody liked it.

Well, most everybody, not everybody. But Tim Tebow, Kelly Conway, Robin Roberts. And now I'm going to do it today, and it'll come out later in the spring when you guys come off of hiatus. Welcome. Thank you, David. It is an honor to be here,

and as we were talking about in the break, big fan of you, big fan of Financial Peace. My family, I think, is more excited about me doing this podcast with you than anybody else that you just listed. Oh, my gosh. Well, they got a pretty low bar. But, hey, we appreciate you coming by. This is cool. And so, really, it's kind of a little bit unusual for ABC to do a podcast called Journeys of Faith.

You must have had some muscle to pull that off. Well, here's the thing. You know, I went through a tough season. Just to rewind a little bit, I'd been anchoring weekends at Good Morning America for four years, and I was co-hosting The View, and I was fried and just burning the candle at both ends. And I really sensed that God wanted me to do something a little bit different.

So in the spring, I told my boss, as I said, I don't want to anchor the weekends anymore. I don't want to do something a little bit different. So in the spring, I told my boss, as I said, I don't want to anchor the weekends anymore. I don't want to do the view. I'd rather just work Monday through Friday on Good Morning America filing reports. But I also want to launch this faith podcast that I really felt God impressed upon my heart to launch this. And it came out of my own deep faith. You know, I'm a believer.

But I know that there are so many others that we interview that we don't give them an opportunity to talk about their faith whether that's christianity judaism whether they're muslim hindu we don't give them an opportunity to talk about it you know that's the one part of the interview we'll cut out so i wanted to give people a mainstream platform to talk about what they believe why they believe it and how it gets them through the ups and downs of life. And thus, the podcast, Journeys of Faith. Well, it's so politically incorrect to walk over into faith.

What are you talking about? It's like as a minefield. You're not supposed to go there. And for ABC to let you do this is a pretty big deal. Yeah. You know, I'm really grateful, and they have been completely supportive of it. And I think I was a little nervous going into the first season. We wrapped the first season.

We did an eight-week season one, and I was a little nervous going into it, how it would be received. And when we were active, we were one of the top faith podcasts. We're on hiatus right now until the beginning of March, where we'll start season two again. But I'm so grateful. I think there's a real hunger and thirst, especially considering the climate that we're in. We're so divided and so divisive, and we can't pull up a chair and talk to somebody that we don't agree with. And that's with this. I mean, I talk to a Muslim. I talk to somebody that we don't agree with and that's with this i mean i talk to um i

talk to a muslim i talk to an atheist people that i don't necessarily see eye to eye with but everybody is entitled to their own faith story and i think it's important to just sit down and listen to people in this moment and respect where they're coming from regardless of whether or not it's where you're coming from if you do get kneecap to kneecap with people whether it's over an audio or whether it's an in-person um and you really do get inside their life it is so much more difficult to be uncivil and to be prejudiced totally it breaks it down i was on ben shapiro's podcast last week that aired on sunday and he and i were talking about that and in his long

form interview means an hour long but um it was the same thing we're talking about the lack of civility and you know what is this what solves that and and it is you know being together i mean if you don't have any friends that aren't like you you know you're pretty narrow-minded by definition by definition, by definition. And so you need some friends or at least some good acquaintances. Maybe they're not your closest friends. Totally. But I mean, my crew that I run with, I'm going to share values with and those kinds of things.

But one ring out or two rings out. I need some people that are a different color, a different sex than me, a different religion than me. And if you can't talk about it because it's not allowed to discuss it then it makes it worse and i think that's what happened has happened when we've scrubbed everything clean totally religion and it's allowed it's not allowed people to be authentic but if you think about the more profound conversations that you've had with people it always goes back to some form of god it does and it's usually somebody that you've had with people. It always goes back to some form of God. It does, and it's usually somebody that you don't agree with.

Yeah. But just learning to sit down and listen and have respectful dissent, and it breaks it down. Like you said, if you actually get to know somebody, put the keyboard courage aside. But if you take the time to get to know somebody and just come to the table, I think that's what we're supposed come to the table well i don't even have to have dissent it's just interesting intellectually to learn from someone that's

different right and you have to be ready to explain the hope that is within you and how do you do that you do that by informing yourself and listening to other people and really digging into why it is you believe what it is you believe. So I mentioned a couple of the people, but let's go back over some of them that you interviewed for season one. And what are some of the things that you went, wow, I didn't see that coming. You know, I learned I interviewed Reza Aslan, who is an author and religious scholar. I learned a ton about Islam, you know, and I graduated from a Christian college with a Bible minor, and I studied other religions.

I learned a ton about Islam just by sitting down and talking with him. Luke Bryan has gone through more tragedy than I think any of us will ever experience in this life, losing a brother, losing a sister, losing a brother-in-law, and just seeing how his faith, he wouldn't be able to press forward if it weren't for his faith. Talking to Tim Tebow about identity, I don't think anybody has failed so spectacularly. You could say, as Tim Tebow, you know, he chalks up the NFL to a failure, but it's these big conversations we're having about identity.

What if your identity is all in football and baseball and your radio show? What happens when all of that is taken away from you? So we're able to have these really profound conversations, and everybody's story is so different. It's been so different, and I know that for me personally, listening to other people's recount their stories and their journeys, it's only deepened my personal faith. It really has.

On the list here, Luke Bryan, Hillary Scott, Ben Shapiro, Tim Tebow, Kellyanne Conway, and Robert Roberts. I actually know all of them. Sherri Shepherd, Melissa Joan Hart. I don't know Kellyanne. What was that like? That was a controversial one. I got a little bit of pushback, but here's my thing.

I also want paradoxical figures. Season 2, I'm dying to get Snoop Dogg on. Snoop Dogg released a gospel album. He's had this resurgence, and he has had this conversion to Christianity. These paradoxical figures that we might write off. But Kellyanne is an interesting figure.

Just because she was on Trump's administration, that was what it was? Yes. So anybody that hates Trump just hated that immediately? Of course. Okay. Yes. Didn't even think. They didn't even use their own brain.

Doesn't even think. Think outside of your paradigm. No, we can't. We can't listen to any. Tolerance is only one way, Dave. Exactly. Remember? Exactly.

But her story is pretty fascinating. Her father deserted her at a young age, abandoned her and her mom when she was two or three years old. Being able to forgive him, working through the forgiveness, how her faith keeps her in the White House, how she's able to challenge the president. You know, that was a really fascinating one from my perspective. Marla Maples even, you know, had some great insight. The second wife of Donald Trump had some great insight. Sherri Shepherd and Melissa Joan Hart. So we've had some pretty great guests

and season two is filling up, including an episode with you. I'm very excited to learn about your journey of faith. You've lowered the bar. You've had trouble with booking. Oh, stop. I have not. I'm telling you, you are a big deal, Dave.

You are a big deal. I'm a legend in my own mind. No, you a big deal. I'm a legend in my own mind. No, you're not. You're not a legend in your own mind. This is fun. Good stuff. So if this does what you want it to do, what's it done? You know, if it does, I mean, I think we can measure success through metrics.

But for me, it's going to be successful if it inspires people and if it encourages people and if it gets people to the table to just sit across from someone that they may not agree with and listen and respect them. Go subscribe right now. Thank you. It's the ABC radio podcast called Journeys of Faith with Paula Faris. Rich, good conversations that'll give you insight that maybe you didn't have otherwise. Journeys of Faith with Paula Faris.

Thanks for stopping by, Ms. Paula. It's been my pleasure, Dave. Thank you so much. Honored to have you. Okay. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Why in the world would you trust some random guy in a cube when getting your mortgage? Do you really think he cares about your long-term money goals? Well, he doesn't.

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Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Brad is in Wichita, Kansas. Hi, Brad. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Well, I've got a quick question for you. I think I might already know the answer to it, but I wanted to run this by you. Basically, our snapshot of our financial situation is we gross about $67,000 a year. We have $66,000 in consumer debt between a few credit cards, two cars, and a student loan. We're in the middle of baby step two. We're making good progress on it. The future is bright for us on that.

But one question I had was about a car that I bought when I was stupid, rolled one car into another car into another car, ended up we're about $8,000 to $10,000 upside down on that car, depending on private party value versus trade-in value. I know Financial Peace University, and what you say in that is sell the card, get rid of the debt as fast as possible. I've heard a couple of callers call in, and you would recommend that when they're quite a ways upside down,

maybe just ride it out, depending on the situation. So what do you owe total on the car? What do you owe on the car total? What do you owe on the car total? The payoff is $23,500. So it's worth around $15,000. Around $15,000. $15,000, $14,000, $13,000. Okay.

So it is one-third of your debt then. Absolutely. What do you owe on the other car? Okay. All right. Yep. And so it is one-third of your debt then, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And what do you owe on the other car? The other car, we owe $12,000, and we just got a new engine put in it under warranty. We should have that paid off probably by the end of the year. You owe $12,000. What's it worth?

It's worth about $8,000. Okay. So it's in the whole, okay, $12,000, $8,000, $12,000. What's it worth? It's worth about $8,000. Okay, so it's in the whole... Okay, $0.12, $4,000. Ouch. Okay, and so we've got $35,000 of the $66,000 is card debt, and the rest of it's credit cards and student loans? Yeah, $15,000 of it is student loans, and the rest is credit cards. Okay. Yeah, you're about normal. Yeah.

Okay, so if we can turn 23 into 8 on debt, that moves the needle pretty substantially for you. It's like a fourth of your debt is gone. It does. Right now we're slotted to be debt-free by the end of uh the end of 2020 is what i'm looking at um if we were just to trade the or sell the car and move that that would knock almost six months off of our snowball so okay do you like the car i do um it's got like 70,000 miles on it we bought it brand new um so that's the one issue that I'm kind of having trouble letting go of is how reliable it is. It's got a warranty up to 100,000 miles.

But I know a lot of the cabins don't have that. The value of your vehicles is less than half your annual income. And you can be debt-free inside of two years is what you're telling me. So you meet the guidelines to keep it if you want to fight through it and it just becomes a matter of preference then um if it violates either one of those i'm going to tell you to sell it it's you know because you're violating common sense but you're under both of those the value of the vehicles is less than half your annual income and you're 100 debt-free a baby step two debt debt for everything but the house in less than two years and so um you know if you want to fight through it that's fine and so really what it comes down to is is

do you like the car enough to be gazelle intense for six or eight more months because getting rid of it cuts that cuts that much off and that's just a you just put both those things on the scale six months of uh scorched earth lifestyle, right, or eight months more of that in order to keep this car. And if you like the car, I'd probably keep it, you know, and fight my way through. It sounds like it's doable. What's your wife say? She's good either way.

We're both gazelle intense right now, putting a lot of things that we wanted to do on hold, and we're all about it. So we're good to drive a beater car if we want. We don't really care what others think about us. Well, that's good. So you've made the proper changes in your spirit and in your character, and you're working together, and we're not worried about who's looking in on this and what they think.

We're going to do the right thing for our family. And so what I tell you for now, let's keep it. And then sometimes what happens is you get down towards the finish line and you can see, I saw this car be done today. And when you see that, in other words, when you're around that one-year mark, one year out instead of two years out like you are today, everything else is paid off except this car because this is the largest debt, right? Yeah, and when you get down to that, then you reach over and you go, sometimes people sell them then.

You know, it changes on you, you know. I don't care. It meets the guidelines to where the car is not so burdensome that it falls in the stupid column. And, you know, you're just not there. And, you know, those guidelines because you've been through Financial Peace University. So you knew, you know, you knew what I was going to say already. But good, good, good discussion. And it's not the most promising thing in the whole discussion is how you've got your head around this and the place you are in your spirit about this.

So, you know, you're submitted to I'm going to do what's best even if it isn't pleasurable today. I'm going to live like no one else so later I can live like no one else. And I'm willing to drive like no one else so later I can live like no one else. And I'm willing to drive like no one else so later I can drive like no one else. When you get to that place, it positions you to really make the progress. And that's more important than the actual decision then in your situation

on whether you keep the car or not. I'm proud of you. I think you're going to do great stuff. Jennifer is in Washington, D.C. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. It's great and Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. It's great and an honor to speak with you. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? Okay, so we're currently on Baby Step 2, and so we have about $7,000 in credit card debt, and we have about $37,000 in our cars. So we were looking to pay off the credit card first, and then we think we can do the cars in about a year. But we're also putting money towards a 529 college fund for our children.

One is 16 and one is 4. And we're also maxing out our TSP. So our question for you was, should we stop the TFP and or the college fund until we pay off the cars and the credit card? That's what we teach you to do. Okay. And the reason is very simple. The math helps some, but the biggest thing it helps is when you declare with your actions,

I am all in. I'm clearing this debt we're not going to do anything we get this debt clean we're not going on vacation we're not going to see the inside of a restaurant unless we're working there we're getting out of debt we are doing this thing you know how long have you been married uh about six years okay let me tell you how you got married. He focused on you. Well, that's true. In old-fashioned terms, we would say he courted you, right? He focused on you. He gave his full attention to you. And that's highly attractive, and it moves the needle.

What we give our full attention to, we win at. When we ignore something or halfway do something, we get halfway results. And so that's what I have seen on teaching people to get out of debt as a precursor to building wealth. And you're not going to be out of that TSP or that 529 for very long. You're going to knock this out very, very quickly, right? Right. And I guess my other question would be, do we then up the TSP and 529 after we pay off

that debt, or do we wait until we get the three to six month emergency fund built up? You get the three to six months built up, because if you don't have that and an emergency occurs, you have two choices, going back into debt, which is blaspheming, or cashing out your TSP to fix your transmission. That would be bad. So we have to build the emergency fund and then tear into that. And then you'll put 15% away. You're going to be okay.

You're going to be okay. You're going to get to both of these things because you're not going to be out of them for that long, the TSP and the 529. So that's how we work. We work the baby steps one at a time. So, Jennifer, hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover. It explains why and how to do these baby steps,

but why I tell you to stop and why I tell you to start and why this has been so successful with so many millions of people. If you'll read it, you'll completely understand what I'm talking about. Hold on, and Kelly will pick up. The Total Money Makeover is on its way. We'll be right back. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Dave from Baltimore dropped by with a question. Hey, Dave, how are you? Hey, Dave, I'm good. Good, man. How can I help you today?

Hey, a question for you. I've listened to your show long enough to know that whole life policies are generally four-letter words. Yes. But we're trying to help my mother-in-law with the situation. I'm trying to wonder if it ever makes sense to keep paying on a policy where there may be a benefit that we could put to good use. And specifically, the policy is for about $100,000. She is 81 years old and fairly good health.

It'll be level payments of about $3,500 a year for the next, until she's 100. We're just trying to figure out what to do. There's no cash value to it. Do we stop it altogether, or do we keep paying with the idea that at some point we can put that money not to the insurance company, but to some other use, whether it's college education or charity or any other reason? I know normally we would never continue, but is there any case, taking sunk cost, would you continue?

Yeah. Why is there no cash value? We think, as we're learning more about the situation, that there might have been a lapse at some point in time where some of that cash was lost. Where they used the cash to pay the premium and keep it open. Exactly. That's possible.

That's the best we've learned so far. Well, I would want to know the answer to that question, but let's pretend that you have accurate information and it's zero. So basically, we're measuring 3,500 against 100,000 if we're going to be cold, and just look at the math, right? Basically, yeah. So 10 years would be 35,000. You still come out 65,000 ahead if she passes anywhere in the next 10 years. Right. and if she passes anywhere in the next 10 years, if she passes anywhere in the next 20 years, it would be $70,000. You'd still come out ahead,

not counting present value of money. But then the longer we go into this equation, the worse it gets on present value of money. So, yeah, I mean, if everybody's got the money, you're going to get a return on it. Who's the named beneficiary? At this point, it's the family. And I think there's not a big need among the family.

I think it's more a situation, can we put that money to some good use in her name or for some other reason? Okay. Well, I mean, it's a simple thing in terms of you can put money to good use any other way if you want. You can put the $3,500 to good use. So who's going to pay the $3,500? The family as a group? She still has some assets, and as my wife's starting to manage those, they're using those funds to possibly continue to pay those premiums.

Which lowers the estate value by that much, but we're increasing effectively the estate value because the same people that would have gotten the estate are going to get the beneficiary. That's right. Okay, so nobody's getting cheated in this and coming up short. And everybody's, how many people are involved in this? There are five, five kids, and so far they're all in agreement. And my wife's sort of leading the analysis.

Yeah. I mean, if she doesn't live to 101, I mean, I'm being cold here, okay? I'm just doing math. We're not trying to kick Granny off or anything. But if she doesn't live to 101, you come out. But if she lives to 101, you probably broke even. Yeah. Because that's $70,000.

And that $70,000 is probably worth $100 had you invested it during that time. So give or take, maybe even less than that. But life expectancy, she's already beyond normal life expectancy. Here's a good question. What's her family history? How long did her mom live? Well, her mom lived up to about 85. And although she's got some health issues as her son-in-law, I will say she's pretty strong-willed, so I think it may go for a while.

Right, right. Okay, and her dad? Her dad, I don't think lived quite as long. I want to say into his 70s. Okay, so we don't have a family history of living to 100. Right, no. Okay. history live into 100 right now okay but uh i mean i'm again this is very cold to discuss it that way but that's the only way you can analyze it because it's that's how the life insurance company has

analyzed it uh you know it's an actuarial table they've got life expectancy versus the premiums and so i think you keep it i'm gonna ride it out uh because you know you're so far into it now um and that wouldn't be true if you were a young person. But because mathematically we're so close to death, that's the only reason this starts to become mathematically palatable. Again, it's kind of an awkward conversation, but that's really what we're looking at. Absolutely. You look at the history of it, and just as you said in the first hour, it was a horrible investment. But at this point, is the money better served from the insurance company to some other good uses?

Well, I mean, it'll go to the family, and the family can do something with it. I'd rather have them have it than the insurance company have it. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, I'd probably keep it. All right. Great. Thanks.

Thank you. Appreciate you coming by. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Grady is in Athens, Georgia. Hi, Grady. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, first off, I am a full-on Dave Ramsey Knight, and I want to thank you for your program and your business. Thank you. My wife are in baby step four right now, moving towards seven, and it has definitely been a life-changing experience. So thank you for that.

Well, we're honored. Thanks. How can I help today? Yeah, my question today is dealing with my parents. They're at retirement age. They have never budgeted, and thankfully they actually have a very good income with how they've set themselves up, but they're just looking at their monthly budget and trying to get things sorted out.

So I'm helping them process through that. But through that conversation, I came to find out that my mom has around, I think when she bought it, about $40,000 in gold bars. And all the advice that I've heard from you and others is that gold bars is definitely not a good investment option. So my question for you today would be, if you had gold bars, how would you look to sell those? I would talk to the same people that we bought them from or somebody in that industry

and start to get some pricing and try to figure out who can broker that and who we can sell them to. There's plenty of people that buy them, but I don't have a set place to go. But, I mean, the gold world is its own world, and you just pick up the Internet and start to find people in your town and then just start to price them out. And how did you come up with the value? So that was – it's kind of loose right now um i believe that's what my mom my mom had said she didn't oh she said but you don't know how many exact exactly how many ounces and you haven't multiplied

that by the gold price per ounce that's out there right now no i don't okay according to her she said it's gone up so i I know that there's control. Well, that would not be true. Well, depending on when she bought it. Depending on when she bought it, I mean. But it's gone down a lot lately. I don't know how long she's had them. But I would find out how many ounces she's got

and just jump on and see what the spot rate is on gold, what's it selling for per ounce, and then start trying to figure out who is buying gold in your area that will pay you somewhere around spot rate for it, because they retail it out. They love retailing these gold bars out at a little better push. So, you know, I just get in there and learn about how these transactions occur. But, I mean, pawn shops will buy them.

Gold dealers of all kinds will buy them. Sometimes the larger jewelry stores in pawn shops will buy them. Gold dealers of all kinds will buy them. Sometimes the larger jewelry stores in the area will buy them. But you've just got to find people that deal in gold bars because they're going to want to buy them for resale. And it's a commodity, and that's what you're looking at moving it for. But if you can get it somewhere around SpotRaid, I'd move them out of there in a heartbeat is what I would do. Hey, thanks for the call. I appreciate you joining us. You know, 78%, that's move them out of there in a heartbeat. That's what I would do. Hey, thanks for the call. We appreciate you joining us. You know, 78%, that's like 8 out of 10, 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

That means if you drive down your street, eight houses have too much month left at the end of the money. And let's say that the government shut down and they didn't get a paycheck for a while. Or let's say that they got laid off, or let's say something else came around, they could not handle a basic emergency because they're paycheck to paycheck. That's no way to live. If you want an easy way to help people, don't gripe at them. Lead a Financial Peace University class.

And you don't even need to have taken the class before. You don't have to have a master's degree in finance. We do all the teaching. You just need to have that willingness to help people have a better life, to help people have hope. Over 5 million people have been through these classes and have come out equipped to pay off debt and become everyday millionaires. Get the details on leading a group at DaveRamsey.com

or by texting LEADFPU to 33789. Text LEADFPU to 33789. We need some folks to coordinate classes right now all over America. We've got more people than we do classes. It's time to get this going, people. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener

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