The Ramsey Show - App - Gold Is Just a Rock That’s Yellow, Not an Investment (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 27, 2023

Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman answer your questions and discuss: "I'm paying my parents a mortgage payment and it's uncomfortable", "Should I invest in gold instead of my 401(k)?" from the blog: Why Investing in Precious Metals Is a Bad Idea, How do I start a Roth IRA? from the blog: How to Start a Roth IRA, Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Enter The Ramsey Cash Giveaway for a chance at $3,000! https://bit.ly/TRSgvwy Shop our bestsellers during the $10 Sale! https://bit.ly/TRS10Sale Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 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 studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of the book Paycheck to Purpose, is my co-host today. We invite your calls about your life, your money, your career, your jobs, your relationships, whatever it is.

We'll talk to you about it right here as we do every day. 888-825-5225. Alex is in Seattle. Hey, Alex, what's up? Hey, Dave and Ken. So I made kind of a silly mistake when I was a little younger. You're the only one. I know, right?

Everyone else has it right. Nobody makes silly mistakes when they're young. That never happens. So what did you do, man? So I bought a house. I bought a house with a mortgage. Got really low interest rate. However, instead of refinancing a few years later,

I went to my folks and asked if they would pay it off, and I could just pay them at 0%. I'm realizing that was now very silly now that I'm following your program, especially it's affecting my relationship with them and some of my other family members. So I'm trying to figure out what the best decision is to kind of pull out of that

and maybe do something like underwriting with Churchill. I start talking to them about that. The concern is because I haven't had a payment or a mortgage for so long now that I'm not going to be able to do underwriting. So I'm trying to figure out what the best way is to get a regular mortgage again. Okay. Churchill Mortgage can help you do manual underwriting that does not require a credit score. Right.

They're going to have to establish that you pay your utilities on time and you can prove that you pay your parents timely with simply your checking account history can't you yes okay that that's the conversation we had so far yeah and you so we can prove you paid the payments and you prove you pay your light bill you prove you pay your water bill you can prove you pay your water bill, you can prove your income, I assume. Right. What's your income? Yes. $105,000.

Okay. You've got a great income. How old are you? 27. What's the house worth? It's currently worth $600,000. And what do you owe on it? $296,000.

Okay. So a 50% mortgage should not be a reach. Correct. It's not a big deal. Tons and tons of equity. You've got a great income. How long have you been in this job? Five years.

Yeah. Stable, good income. And you can show that you paid your parents timely, right? Yes, I can. It should be a no-brainer for a manual underwriting. And if the person you're talking to at Churchill Mortgage can't figure that out, ask to speak to their boss, because Churchill Mortgage specializes in this, in manual underwriting, because we teach people to do it all the time, and we send them a lot of business,

because they're a sponsor for 25 years, and they'll take good care of you. Somebody there will, for sure. So get on the phone with them, and they'll walk you through this you somebody there will for sure um so get on the phone with them and they'll walk you through this uh we do it all the time i mean it's not it's not this is not a problem so what's the strain with the other family members what are they talked about uh i have a few family members that are happy with you of course but i ignore those um the other ones were worried i didn't i didn't get a mortgage with your parents. Why are they not happy with you for having a mortgage?

No, I'm happy with Dave Ramsey, but I ignore them. Oh, I thought you said your parents and your other family members weren't happy with you. I thought he was putting a strain on your relationships. Oh, sorry. So, some of my... I've had other family members ask my parents for money so i am feeling the stress of i was permitted yes and they were permitted no well that's not your fault agreed but they're mad at you no they don't know about it.

That's the bigger thing. Okay. All right. And is there a stress with your parents? There wasn't at first. They always give me advice. However, it feels like the advice is now more the money talking sometimes. Okay.

Yeah, the borrower is slave to the lender. Indeed. And there's people in every family that don't like Dave Ramsey, including Dave Ramsey's family. What? Say it's not so. It's something I've come to live with, Ken. Yes.

You're doing well. You're doing well with it. It's working out for me. If you only piss off half of America, you can still make a really good living. And help a whole lot of people. And what we end up with is people that didn't want to be helped. And that's the problem. I want to make sure people don't miss this, Dave, because we've taught this for a long, long time.

But this is a family who the parents wanted to help this young man out. They did. And even though they wanted to, it still changes the dynamic. What is it about this that why we create this boundary, why we preach this boundary? Well, it is a spiritual law. The borrower is slave to the lender. And the Bible doesn't say, except in cases where it's your to the lender. And the Bible doesn't say, except in cases where

it's your mother and father. No, it doesn't say that. Or except in cases where everyone likes every... No, it doesn't say that. It says 100% of the time that you borrow money, you take the position spiritually, mathematically, relationally, of slave.

Now, you might have a very kind and gentle master that is very classy. When we went broke 30-plus years ago, Sharon's dad loaned us some money to keep a car, and he's the kindest, most saintly man, gentle, quite the opposite of sharon's husband and um you know and he he um you know we worked our way through got it paid off and he he never one time made us feel uncomfortable by his actions or his attitudes but i can tell you sitting at thanksgiving dinner felt different yes until i got that cleared that's good because it's in the air you can't change it you can't fix it and uh did it make me more uncomfortable than it did sharon because it was her dad yeah yeah i did of course but it doesn't but you know it doesn't matter it's a slave master

relationship you change it so when you loan your friend money they are no longer your friend you can't keep that from happening. Your friend is a secondary thing. Their primary relationship is now slave and master. Yeah. And it changes the dynamic. It changes the spirit in the air. You can smell it when you walk into Thanksgiving dinner, and you can feel it. And mom and dad, in this case, are probably pretty cool people.

They're just trying to help again, but now they feel the real need to help. That's right. And now they've gone over the helpline and gone into the controlling line, and now they're starting to interfere that's correct and uh they don't really have the right to do that except that they are owed 300 296 000 which kind of changes the it does changes your focal cords just a little bit when you say it out loud this is 396 000 yeah and you're going on vacation what right no it's just like you they may be uh This is $396,000. Yeah.

And you're going on vacation. What? Right. You know, it's just like you. They may be pressuring him on professional moves. Yeah. You know, and this is great maturity. That girl you're dating spends a lot of money. That's right.

You can get real controlling. That's true. I mean, you can get all into crap when you don't have the right to, but you've changed the relationship. So, you know, the old joke, but you've changed the relationship. The old joke is if you loan your brother-in-law $100 and he never speaks to you again, was it worth it? In some cases, yes. That's what I mean.

You've changed the relationship. That's what's happening. This is The Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. If you like this show, we appreciate you. We do not have a $300 million advertising budget, and we don't have a football stadium named after us like, or somebody like that. excuse me um but the uh yeah we're just like in here scratching and clawing and trying to help you folk and it's what we've been doing for a long long time if you want to help us uh if you would share this show tell people where you're listening to it you can share

that by a link if you're on a podcast or youtube or you can tell people where the radio station or on tbn or wherever it is you're you're watching or listening or how let people know leave a five star review please everybody that does that's very helpful you one star people you need to go somewhere else mama said if you hadn't anything nice to say don't say nothing at all so there you go no thank you and of course you can subscribe and follow and all those appropriate things all those things help this show move right to the front we are now in the top 11 i think it is podcasts in the world of any category and that's because of you guys thank you thank you thank you we've had over a billion views on youtube because of you folks thank you thank you thank you we've had over a billion views on youtube because of you folks thank you

thank you thank you and hey we recently announced that smart conference weekend is going to be in chicago illinois this fall september 15th and 16th friday night all day saturday and we hear over and over again from people that the smart conference is the event that lights a fire under their butts to take control of their whole lives their relationships their mental health their anxiety their money their career their job it's our biggest event of the year all the ramsey personalities are speaking on all the different subjects of your life and you will leave smart that's what we do and so with vip tickets you're gonna have a chance to meet the ramsey personalities r Rachel Cruz, Dr. John Deloney, George Camel, Jade Warshaw, Ken Coleman, me.

And you're going to get amazing seats and a cool swag with a platinum package. If you're on like Baby Step 7, that includes a first class dinner with me and all the personalities after the event is over on Saturday evening. We're going to go to a nice place. There's only 60 of those. Those will be a small dinner for just a few of us. We're going to go to a nice place. There's only 60 of those. Those will be a small dinner for just a few of us. We're going to have some fun together. We're going to laugh and answer questions and sign books and all that at that. So that's the Platinum.

The VIP is very limited. The Platinum is extremely limited, like I said. The general admission tickets start at just $79. So we'd love to have you guys in Chicago in September. RamseySolutions.com slash events uh did you know that you were going to dinner with some folks can i knew that i didn't know how many but i like the uh it's always fun to meet those fine folks first time we've done that format i know we have uh breakfasts and lunches at this last smart conference here but this is

going to be fun yeah be a lot it won't be chicken nuggets there either. Dave likes the good food. So it's going to be nice. Well, I just, yeah, I'm spoiled is what it is. I mean, live like no one else later. You live and eat like no one else. Oh, see, I like that. That's good. Kevin's with us. This is Kevin.

Corpus Christi. Hey, Kevin, what's up? Not much. Thanks for taking my call, Dave. Sure, man. How can we help? I am retired. I was lucky enough to leave AT&T with a 401k and a retirement, both. I live off the retirement and Social Security.

After taxes, I net about $4,500 a month, which is fine for me because everything is paid for. My house is paid for. My house is paid for. My ranch is paid for. Everything's debt-free. I'm over 70 years old. So in about a year and a half, two years, I'm going to have to start taking cuts from my 401k automatic payouts. The government makes you do that. Yeah, your required minimum distribution

yeah right i don't use that money it just sits there it was making money under the trump administration it's kind of losing money right now yeah but anyway uh i don't really know what to do with that money because i don't need it but i wouldn't mind my gut feeling is to invest it in gold no no no we don't put anything in gold. No. If you don't need it and you want to let it sit somewhere, let it sit in a good mutual fund. That's fine. That would do better than gold? Oh, absolutely. I own some gold cufflinks, and that's the only gold I've got.

Okay. I just don't want to do anything risky at this point. Well, risky is gold. Gold is much more volatile. If you look at the price of gold on a chart, it's way up and way down, much more than the stock market is, a lot riskier. And it does not yield the net return. The average annual rate of return on gold sucks.

Really? Yeah, it's awful. I don't know that much about it. I've just heard that gold was a good investment. Yeah, usually from people that don't have any money. That 401K will just be part of my daughter's inheritance. That's cool. You're going to pull that money out of the 401K that we're talking about

because you're required to, and I would just be moving it into good mutual funds in the process. I think I'm going to ask a question on behalf of maybe new listeners. Maybe somebody's never heard you talk about this. Why are you so emphatic about gold? And well, we know why it's up and down. Why is it so up and down? Because the way it's sold is, well, if the dollar gets hurt, you need gold. I mean, that's the fear message that's behind this why is gold so volatile gold is a commodity okay it's a it's a it's a rock that is yellow okay you have barrels of oil you have uh precious metals diamonds commodities corn commodity and commodities are all traded 100 based on people's perception of shortage if the perception is that there's a no shortage that there's too

much of it the price goes down so like the the old movie orange juice futures with trading places with eddie murphy which was a mythological future okay there weren't orange juice futures but um but it was fun for the movie's sake but the all that is is you're you're betting on and commodities are all more volatile than investments that actually create revenue. So an investment that creates revenue is a company that's running that makes a profit. Home Depot makes a profit. Microsoft makes a profit. And it's either a lot of profit or not much profit.

Apple makes a profit, a lot of profit. And so their stock goes up based on the fact that they are creating revenue. Gold and corn and oil does not create revenue. It only trades based on scarcity. And people's perception of scarcity is greed and fear. And it's like, I'm afraid, so I'm going to rush towards it. And if a whole bunch of people rush towards it, it creates a shortage and the price goes up. But that's the only thing that causes the price go up the gold did not become more valuable just more people were chasing fewer bars that's all it is supply demand drives it up

and so anytime you're investing in a commodity you are at the mercy of the psychology of the marketplace everybody's scared or everybody's greedy and they're chasing two things so that's the only way price is established where if you buy a piece of income producing real estate price is established based on the income it creates not based on oh it's real estate you know it's not oh it's a golden rock okay so the golden rock has no magical qualities it's a rock it's a golden rock diamonds don't have magical qualities they're a little clear thing and they're not necessarily a girl's best friend that is a marketing slogan by people who sell diamonds. Yes.

Because diamonds do not go up in value. I've got quite a lot of them hanging around my wife. Yes. Yes, you did well. And let me tell you how much they've gone up while I've owned them. Not. Right. At all.

Right. So for people that are seeing these headlines. The return is called marriage. Yes. But there is no actual investment return on the stupid things. They're a complete waste of freaking money otherwise. So give us 30, 40 seconds on these headlines that people are seeing, and that's why we get this call in gold.

They're seeing, oh, the dollar's in danger. China's making moves. Russia, it's in the headlines all the time. What should they do when they hear these headlines about the dollar and it's the danger in the dollar? Well, number one, you can't run to gold there's nothing magical about it okay number two brazil and china and russia are large land masses but russia and brazil are not large economies their gross domestic output is very low texas has a larger gross domestic production than Brazil. Texas is a bigger economy than Brazil. So do you think that Brazil and any of their little

friends are going to snipe the dollar? Not a chance. They're going to have to do business with the 800 pound gorilla and we do business in dollars. So they're going to be at our mercy still ken coleman ramsey personality is my co-host today on the debt-free stage in the lobby of ramsey solutions sean and ashley are with us hey Hey, guys, how are you? Better than we deserve, Dave. Welcome. Good to have you. How much, where do you guys live? Virginia Beach. Oh, cool. 757.

There it is. All right. Right there. And how much debt you guys paid off? $83,892. Good for you. And how long did that take? 28 months.

Good for you. And your range of income during that two and a half years? $65,000 up to $130,000. Whoa. Doubled it. Doubled it. What do you all do for a living? I'm a stay-at-home mom, and I also do hair on the side.

And I'm a construction project manager. All right. How'd you double your income in two and a half years? A few promotions and a good side work gig. A lot of side work. Ah, okay. What was your best money maker side gig? As a general contractor working out of town, just doing general contracting work on the side or just various construction projects.

Okay. So like build a deck for somebody or whatever. There's good money in that. Really good money. Yes. Yeah. Good for you. Good for you.

Well done. Thank you. What kind of debt was the $84,000? Everything. Everything. Credit cards, student loans, cars, you for you. Good for you. Well done. What kind of debt was the $84,000? Everything. Credit cards, student loans, cars, you name it. Y'all freaking normal. Yeah, very normal. That's awful.

I'm sorry. I'm glad you woke up. How long have you been married? Two years. Yeah. Two years? Yeah. So you started this right before you got married?

Yeah. We canceled a wedding, and we used that to pay some of our debt off. COVID did that. She's a trooper. Oh, the COVID thing. Yeah, okay. Well, yeah, we're not going to do it now, so let's just get the debt off. Okay.

All right. And then we get married and keep going. Yep. All right. Good for you. Way to go. What kind of debt was the $84,000? You told me it's all the different things.

What was the wake wake up call that you get connected to ramsey how'd you find us well um our story started a little bit before um we started paying our debt off um in may of 2019 um we were three weeks away from having our son lucas um we unexpectedly lost him and we found ourself um in a church. Ascent Church is where we go. Shout out to Thomas and Helen Lane. They follow your principles and they started their church completely debt-free. So that is when Sean had a friend give him the Total Money Makeover book. Yep. The Craddock family, Dave Craddock uh went through your program did his uh debt-free scream years ago and um he just gave us the total money makeover and we're off to the races from there listen to the podcast so your heart was broken absolutely and you the

worst possible tragedy that you can think of yes and you end up in church. Yep. Praise God. Praise God. Yeah. Yeah. And, well, that's a good place to heal a broken heart. Yes. And get plugged into families to start teaching you how to do life. And part of that is money. Yes. How to do life. And so read this book. Yes.

Yeah. And then you go, gang. Yes. Okay. While we put everything together and walk through this COVID stuff and get married and all the stuff we got to do here now. We're going to work on the money thing. Way to go, y'all.

That's very cool. That's very cool. I'm so sorry for what you went through, though. Thank you. Thank you. Can't think of anything harder. Wow. I'm also struck by the fact that you decided to, no, it was COVID and a lot of people were canceling weddings.

You didn't have a choice. You didn't have a choice, but you didn't just cancel it. You said we're moving the money from this. We could have rescheduled and we chose not to. How much was that? How much money? It paid off all of the debt that I brought to our marriage. So it was about $15,000.

How did that feel? And here's why I'm asking this. That's a big time move. And I think a lot of people wouldn't do that. Then you could excuse that. But what was your head and your heart saying to you? Were they fighting each other or were you on the same? You both were like, nope, this is absolutely jumpstart.

God really was leading us to, I think, to this. I don't really think it's worth one day. The rest of our lives, we have to celebrate our marriage it's not just all about that one specific day you got married you just didn't have the big wedding exactly yes and i think a lot of it had to do with um our son he was supposed to be in our wedding and he wasn't there so just a multitude of things led to the decision. Sean also sold his truck. So we both sacrificed during this. Talk about that, though, the jumpstart to that. When you do that much, not everybody can do that.

Let's acknowledge that. But you made some pretty big moves that knock a lot of debt out quick. What does that do for your momentum? What did it do for you? It's huge. It was a huge momentum boost. And it just reaffirmed that we were on the right path. It gave us the total momentum that we needed to just stay on the plan.

And Ashley came up with a great idea to build a debt thermometer that we were just a visual way that we could kind of see where we're at with the debt journey. And just seeing the massive chunks that selling the car did and taking the money that we have for the wedding and put it towards the debt it was it was huge contractor sells his truck that's real tell me about it so what was what the truck sell for oh uh 25 000 i think so that's a 25 000 move 15 000 move and boom boom boom and here we go game on yes and uh we make decisions to live and we're in a good church and we're walking through the the live, and we're in a good church. Yes. And we're walking through the grieving process, and we're fighting and scratching and clawing and working extra.

And wow. Yes. Wow. What a radical two and a half years. Very. Very much so. Yes. Yeah.

Very wild. Good for you all. I'm proud of you. Thank you. You're warriors. You have fought through. You fought through. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is um definitely the budget i think everybody says

that um but also just doing it um life is going to continue to happen and um you just have to keep going um yeah yeah and understanding that you know we're here to be good stewards of god's money and when you have that mindset the uh the truck you have or the vehicle you have, it's a little less important. It's not yours. It's his, and you ask him, is this smart? Yes. And he goes, nope.

And you go, oh, God, it's a stupid truck. So you cry a little, and then you cheer when it leaves. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Well, way to go, y'all. Very, very proud of you. Congratulations. Thank you.

We've got the Live and Give box for you, the Baby Steps Millionaire's number one bestselling book, because that's your next step, your next chapter in your story, the Total Money Makeover book. Now you'll be able to give it to some guy you run into, some gal you run into at the church that is needing to get started. You'll be that guy now. That's pretty cool we also um have been fortunate enough that we just ended uh leading our first

financial peace class oh wow yeah so that was really awesome thank you thank you it's an honor yeah and you it's an honor to lead it and boy you really get it when you're leading it for sure that's right now we've also got a financial peace membership in this box for you and you'll be able to give that to somebody that's deserving now that your coordinator is in leading classes thank you for doing that y'all are fun very very cool good stuff all right bring the kiddos up and let's introduce them and hear their names and ages so this is vivian vivian is six years old um this is amelia amelia's two and Zoe she's five months old oh boy look at what a great pick you guys are awesome very well done all right Sean and Ashley Vivian Amelia and Zoe Virginia Beach 84,000 paid off in 28 months and boy talk about a life changed 65,000 to 130 income count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one

love it wow very well done it's amazing that in the middle of such heartache uh and you step into spiritual transformation you step into life transformation you chip in and like she said life's gonna happen you just got to keep going yeah i i just think of scripture and the imagery there of beauty from ashes and out of unbelievable pain of losing that little little boy they decide to jump start by moving the money from the wedding that he couldn't be in that's that's incredible incredible grace um and and transformation it's really powerful stuff and then to see look at those little precious princesses up there they have no idea what mom and daddy have done for them yeah not yet not yet they'll look back oh man oh lady back in ought 23 changed our family tree

they'll be telling their grandbabies that ken coleman ramsey personality is my co-host today the question of the day is brought to you by neighborly your hub for home services spring is here and neighborly can help keep your home and yard in top shape with the grounds guys, Mosquito Joe, Molly Maid, and more. So spend your time enjoying your home, not working on it. Go to neighborly.com and you can find service pros near you. April is National Financial Literacy Month. All month long, teachers and students in classrooms across America are taking time to talk about the importance of learning good money skills. So we get some questions from students this month.

Today's question is from Catherine in South Carolina. She asked, my parents are paying for college. I have a paid-for car, and I have a six-month emergency fund. I want to start a Roth IRA, but I don't really understand it. What is it, and what's the best way for me to start one as a junior in high school? Well, that's papa dave on that one okay well you have to have an earned income to do an ira of any kind uh and so you have to have some kind of income that you pay taxes on so you have to file a tax return showing your

income and uh you can put a maximum of six6,000 or your earned income. So if you make $1,242 working a teenager job of some kind and you file a tax return on it, you can put $1,242 into a Roth IRA. So I would not do that unless your parents are in unbelievably fabulous wealthy financial situation my parents are going to pay for my college can mean a lot of things it could mean these are broke people hoping they can figure out how to do this that they're going to borrow the money to do it uh that they're going to do whatever uh they do it uh that they're going to do whatever uh they may mean that they've got eight million dollars in mutual funds so paying for

your college is not even doesn't even break a sweat if that's the case then you can do a roth ira but if they're if there's any question at all any probability at all that they're not 1000 easily going to do this not not want to do it but gonna do it can do it have the money to do it then you need to not do a roth ira and save the money for college in case the bottom falls out of your parents world and the best of intentions leaves you i had to take out student loans because my parents said they're gonna pay it my dad went broke in my junior year because he was so far in debt doing nothing down real estate yeah could this happen yes this could happen right this could definitely happen in this world so i don't know where your parents money is coming from but you need to before you commit to

not saving this money for college i would not put money money in a Roth IRA until I knew I had college covered. You need to be able to cover college if they don't, unless they're just unbelievably wealthy. I would not do a Roth. But if you do do a Roth, you can do up to your earned income and up to what you do. Now, Ken, in our case, when our kids, Rachel included, were teenagers, we were in very, very, very good finance.

We were multimillionaires, okay, in good financial shape. So we knew college was covered. We had no question about that. And all that stuff was done. I had extra money to put into something. And so every dollar that they made, I filed a tax return on each of the kids paid the taxes so whatever they made babysitting working at ramsey selling books off the back table at a seminar which they did do uh whatever that wherever they work working at the mall i added it all up as much as i could honestly say that they made file a tax

return on that and then put that much in their roth ira and twelve hundred and thirty dollars was one on one year that's's why I remember that number. Um, and one of them was $5,000 one year. And one of them was, I don't think any of them maxed it out ever. I don't think any of them made, maybe Rachel might've made $6,000 one year cause she could go make money. She, she was the moneymaker, but, uh, you know, so we maxed them out and it didn't max them out, but we put a couple thousand, 5,000, 4,000,

2,000, 1,230, whatever it is, and then it just sat there, didn't add anything to it in college because they didn't do tax returns when they were in college. They came out of college, though, they had a lot of money already in Roth IRAs. That's fantastic. I mean, it wasn't hundreds of thousands, but there was a real good start for the hand them that account when they got married and came out of college and took off they had a real good leg up so you can do that if you're up at baby step seven and you've got all kinds of room yes but should a teenager fund their own roth ira almost never a teenager should uh fund their college before they're from the roth area

it's a education as bad as we all are mad about it being overpriced, as bad as we are mad at people getting degrees in stupid butt stuff that they shouldn't, go get a good degree from a good college. Don't overpay for it in something that's actually usable in the marketplace. Don't get a degree in German polka history. Okay? There's only one thing you can do with that. Get a Ph.D. and teach other people German polka history. Okay? There's only one thing you can do with that. Get a PhD and teach other people German polka history.

There is no outlook for that. So, you know, if you're not doing that and you're going to invest money and go to a state school and spend $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 in tuition and go through and get a four-year degree in something that's usable, you'll get a better rate of return on that $30,000 or $40,000, $50,000 than you will putting that same money into a mutual fund. Education's still worth it when done right. When done right. That's right. Yeah. And where it applies to something that you want to do with your life.

Yeah. You know, the question that we put before parents and students is, is it the only way? Is it the best way? Is it the only way to get qualified to do what I want, or is it the best way? And if the answer is no to either one of those, there are other ways. And let's be clear, that's still education. Just because it's not a four-year school, you're still going to have to get educated.

Go to school, go to tech school. That's right. And do whatever. I mean, I don't care what you're doing. But listen, if you stop learning after high school, you're going to struggle with your income the rest of your life that is correct no matter what you do and if you stop learning after college i read three books in the last month that were non-fiction i mean you have you cannot stop learning you have to read something you know turn off tiger king and go be a better person right oh? Oh, my gosh. Right? And so take a class.

Go to a conference. You know, watch a live stream. Do something that you learn something today. Here's one. Sit down with a successful person that's 20, 30 years older than you and interview them like it was a book report on their life. Sit down with people who are way ahead of you. Pedro's in Hartford, Connecticut. Hey,

Pedro, how are you? How are you doing, Randy? Better than we deserve. What's up? Yeah, I'm dealing with a little strange situation, and I just wanted to get a second opinion to see how I should tackle this. Okay. Yeah, to get straight to the question, so our landlord is currently want to charge us for an electric bill that got fixed. And I believe the price is like around $2,500. I'm sorry, the electric bill. Yes. The cost of electricity into the apartment?

Yeah, so here's what happened. So we were able, so the previous landlord um gave us the green light to use uh one of my dryers that we purchased and we install it in the basement now he told us that this is like an electrical problem that the the somebody else is getting billed under that electricity that we're using for the dryer but he told us that he's going to fix that. Um, fast forward four years later, um, we have a new landlord now, but she told us that, um, the currency never got fixed. The electric currency never got fixed. And, uh, you know, we, we messed up and not telling her that we were using the, um, her, um, the electricity to dry our clothes under her bill.

So she blamed us, basically. But, you know, we had a conversation the day before yesterday, and I told her, like, listen, we didn't know that the currency never got fixed. You know, our previous landlord told us that it was okay for us to watch the clothes, that he was trying to handle it, but apparently he never handled that situation. Yeah. Is there anything written in the lease about this in any way? Not any written down.

I do have his contact information, and then the only thing that we have is that. You do have what? No, we have his contact information. The previous landlord contacted us. No, no, no. I'm not talking about that. I said, is there anything in the written lease about this at all? No. There's not anything

in the written lease. Tell your landlord you have moved out, right? We're going to move out, but she... No, I'm not paying $2,500. It's not on you. And this is a verbal disagreement. And she's going to have a heck of a time collecting

it. It's on her. a heck of a time collecting it. It's on her. She's owned a house and didn't know where the dadgum current was going. That's on her, not on you. So it's on both of you for doing a stupid butt deal and not getting things written down and fixed and watch how business is done, but it's going to be a hassle. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back

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