The Ramsey Show - App - Grandma's Making Money by Charging Her Grandkids Interest (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 10, 2018

The show about you

🎵 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. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. Merry Christmas to you. We're so glad you're with us. Dylan is in Champaign, Illinois. Hi, Dylan. How are you? Hi, Dave. It's a pleasure to speak with you, sir. You too, sir.

What's up? So I actually have a unique opportunity to go back to my former employer, and it would be a gross increase of $22,000 in my salary. Wow. Yes. And so obviously, financially, it makes total sense. And my wife and I are actually in baby step two, and this would clearly be a great financial move. My main question is, would it be smart for me to go back?

I had a negative experience when I was there originally just because I was out of college. And I think the pressures and the rigors of the job made that experience negative. I'm wondering if, since I have more experience now, if that may change. How long ago was this? Two years. Okay. Was the negative experience your fault or theirs? Actually, I would think it would be more of just the market.

The market, obviously, at that point for their business was turned down, and so obviously the pressures of profitability were at the forefront of their mind. So if the market turns down and the pressures build up, these guys become jerks? Yeah. Okay. Not where I want to work. They don't know how to control themselves. How large a company is this?

This company is actually a fairly decent-sized company. I would want to say 1,000 employees. Okay. All right. That's a medium-sized small business then. I mean, it's up to you got what you've got to look at is this do you see yourself enjoying the ride there for a decade and if you don't then you're making this decision for the short-term money okay and as soon as things get bad again you're

going to be gone again because they're going to be jerks again. And if you want to play that, you can play that. There's nothing wrong with that. But I prefer to say I want to look at a long-term career move. Now, if you say, gosh, you know, I didn't handle it well, 70% of the problem was on me because I was green out of school and I didn't know how to handle people and how to interact with people that are under stress, you know. And so I'll put that and then 30% of it was on them,

and I think I can deal with that 30%. And maybe the management, the leadership team there, has learned some things since I was there, too, about themselves. And so, you know, there's some positive changes there. But if it's still just a bowl of acid, and you're going to jump back in a bowl of acid for $22,000, I wouldn't do that. Okay. So you just have to decide which it is, which of those it is.

But I'm not telling you to put a spin on it or to rationalize it, but I am saying there's a legitimate thing you can say, gosh, that was my fault. I mean, I've had situations in my youth that I can look back and go, it was my fault. And I put myself in a position that I didn't know, and I didn't know how to handle it then. And I know how to handle it now. And, you know, and you could just say, and if it does blow up, at least I know where I stand. And I know how to handle it. And I know when to walk. And I don't have to have another negative experience.

I'll just be gone. And that's where you go. So, hey, thanks for the call. It's an interesting question. Adam is with us in Columbus, Ohio. Hi, Adam. How are you? I'm doing well.

How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I'm currently on AB sub 2, just about to finish up with that. But I have kind of a peculiar situation. Sorry, I'm a little nervous. That's okay. I'm a little behind on a student loan right now.

I've been making payments to a collection agency for about four years now, like a reduced interest rate program. Right. But in the meantime, they periodically give me a call and offer me settlements significantly less, but up until now I really haven't had the means to save up that lump sum. But since I paid off all my other debt, I've saved up a significant amount of money that I think I can come back to them and settle the remaining amount. So I just wanted to figure out how to navigate that more responsibly.

I think you just call them up and say, in the past you all have made me offers to settle. Is there one of those on the table today? Okay. And see what they say. Let them name it. You don't name it. And if they put a settlement on the table based on the situation today,

and you say, well, you're close. Can you do a little better? No matter what they say, you say that. Okay? And see what they do. And then let them name another price and if you want to go with that one or you want to shoot them a little bit lower than that, an offer, you can. But don't make an offer until they've made you two. Okay. It can be a pleasant conversation on your end. I don't know how pleasant they are.

Collectors, you know, use different tactics with people all the time. But, you know, you can just say, you know, I wouldn't say you've got a certain amount of money. I wouldn't say anything like that. I would just say, you know, in the past you guys have made offers to settle. Is there one of those on the table now? And if not, then if not, you can make an offer and try to stir it up or you can move on to the next one how many of them have you got um they usually call me every three to six months now how many how many different how many different loans do you have um it's four but it's packaged into one loan okay Okay. And so what have they offered you before on what kind of balance?

Right now the balance is about $48,000, maybe a shade under that. Most recent offer was like $12,300. Really? If I can recall. Yeah. It's significantly lower. And you've got $12,000? I've got $11,000.

I think it's close enough to negotiate. Yeah, and if they come back and say, well, that $12,000, you say, gosh, I think I could do $10,000, or can you do a little bit better? I think we can get there. If you can do a little bit better, I think we can get there. And just let them. A little bit better in their mind might be $8,000. So just let them name the first two numbers.

Okay, and get everything in writing, obviously, before. Obviously, and no electronic access to your checking account, and otherwise it didn't happen. If you're dealing with a collector and it's not in writing, it didn't happen. Yeah. You can tell they're lying if their mouth's moving. So, yeah, it's a scummy industry. There's a few good guys, but they're so few and far behind, they're hard to find.

So, hey, good question. Kylie is going to be up after the break. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us. We've been partying here at the Ramsey Solutions organization all morning. We announced the staff being surprised everyone had 15 buses take our 800 team members to Green Hills Mall. Each of our 800 team members was given $1,000 to spend at the mall for their Christmas present. We had a blast.

Feel like Santa Claus. It was so fun. And Mall Security let me drive around the Segway all around the mall, which was absolutely little boy time fun. Every little boy ever looking, every guy looking at me had a four-year-old little boy inside of him on the driver thing. They were jealous I was getting the drive. It was so fun. This is the Dave budget each month. Pure Talk USA offers smarter wireless with unlimited plans starting as low as $20 per month. Thank you. and our 4G LTE network provides the fastest Internet speeds like more expensive carriers.

We operate on the largest GSM network in the U.S. to ensure you receive reliable coverage virtually anytime, anywhere. Plus, you can keep your same phone and number and add multiple lines to save more. We're so confident you'll love Pure Talk USA that we invite you to try our service risk-free. Just visit puretalkusa.com, enter promo code SAVEDAVE, no spaces, and receive 50% off your first month. That's puretalkusa.com, promo code SAVEDAVE. I was just handed some ad copy. Apparently, we're having a Green Monday sale.

What the crap is Green Monday? Do we need another color for Christmas? Let's have a Red Tuesday or a Purple Friday. Let's have Skittles. Oh, my gosh. Do we need another day to celebrate to sell stuff? Oh, my gosh. Well, we're having Green Monday here at Dave Ramsey, I'll just tell you, because apparently it's a thing that I don't know about.

I guess I'm going to have to Google it at the break. All right. Are you starting to panic about getting all your shopping done before Christmas? Did you miss out on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Well, you have Green Monday. Yeah. Whoa, you're kidding me. It's the biggest online shopping day in December.

It's also known as Cyber Monday Part 2. And it's another excuse for us to put something on sale. That's really what it is. But that's okay because it's a good buy for you if you can get stuff on sale, even if we have to make up colors to do it. So there you go. We can save 79% on over 40 of our best-selling books. $10 sale on the Total Money Makeover.

$10 sale on almost every one of our number one best-selling books. And there's a bunch of them, Ramsey personality books included. The Adventure Pack for kids, the top-selling kids bundle, only $43.99. Green Monday deals in soon. And then we'll come up with another color. So there you go. We need to have red something. It's green and red.

Isn't that Christmas green? Red, green, white. Is that the Christmas color? We've got to have white something. Black. I don't know. That's when the retailers went in the black. I know what that was.

Oh, well. Anyway. The stuff I get myself into. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Kylie's in Wichita, Kansas, as promised, after the break. What's up, Kylie? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. How can I help? I was calling because I'm in baby step number two, and I'm about to pay off one of my first loans. So I'm going into that second loan. I know that you like to do from smallest to largest, but my next one up is actually to my grandma, and she uses that as monthly income because she invested in me, paid off my student loans, and helped save me on some of the interest.

And then she's also making a little interest off of me. So I was wondering if it would be okay to skip that one and keep paying her the monthly income that she's used to receiving and then move on to loan number three and do student loan last. How much debt do you have? I'm about 41 now, down from 47 when I started. And how long is it going to take you? I haven't done the math on it for sure,

because I don't know how to do the math on how long it takes, but I'm guessing about two years. Okay. All right. Well, you paid off six. How long did it take you to pay off six? About four months. Okay.

And so at that rate, that's 18 a year, right? Right. Three times six would be 18. And if you do 18 a year from now until, you'll be done in about two years. So how much of the $41,000 is your grandmother? $13,000, and it's for the student loan at 2%. Okay. And so when you pay her off next year instead of this year, how is she going to survive?

She sold a lake house after my grandpa passed away, and she never bought another house. And she's going to take the money that you give her and invest it, and that's going to give her an income? Correct. She paid for her car in cash, and she has just invested in my cousins and their cars and houses and things like that. So she's getting income from all over the place. Yeah. So she would take this money and invest it? Likely, yes.

So she could do that this year? Sure. Or next year? Sure. So it doesn't matter? Okay. And then how do we calculate that as far as paying extra? I know that that can take some off of the loan because everything that we've printed out laid it down with how much I was paying her.

So is there a program or how would we calculate when that's for sure paid off? You can pick up an online equation to do it, an online calculator to do it. But basically, let's say that your balance today is $13,000, and you give her $3,000 next month, and now your balance is only $10,000. Did you print out an amortization schedule that has the whole list of payments with the thing? Okay. Yes. If you pay her down to $10,000, slide your finger down the page until the balance is $10,000.

And if that moves you forward 16 payments or whatever, then that's where you would pick up from there. Oh, okay. Does that make sense? Yes. So slide your finger down the page to the next closest balance and you'll be close to that. But the point is you're going to be done with this so fast that it doesn't change anything.

Your grandmother is still going to need to take it, whether it's this year or next year, and reinvest it. Because you're not going to not pay her off so she gets an income for the rest of her life from you. Right. I was just nervous that she's using that money and expecting it, but I didn't think about her reinvesting it, but that makes sense. Well, she's going to have to do something with it when you pay her off eventually.

So the decision needs to be made this year or next year by her what she's going to do with it. And so she can do it this year just as easy as she can do it next year, so I'd keep it right in line. But you can do it. If you want to put it to the back, it's not the end of the world. You've really got about three big loans left anyway, and so it's not like you're knocking off tiny little ones here that we're having a big discussion about. But she's going to have to deal with the fact you're paying her off

eventually anyway, whether it's 12 months or 24 months. Benjamin is in Midland, Texas. Hi, Benjamin. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

I had a question about prenuptial agreements. I've heard you talk about couples with differing net worths. Mine's more cultural. I have a girlfriend who's getting, I'm getting serious with her. She's down in South America. I trust her fully. She's wonderful. She's got a real big family, and I wanted to

know if you thought that might be a good idea to sign a prenup. No. Her family doesn't have any rights to your stuff in a divorce. Okay. She does, but her family doesn't have any rights to your stuff in a divorce. Okay. She does, but her family doesn't. And, you know, if you come into a marriage with things in most states,

in most states you'll leave with those things, even without a prenup, by and large. But you don't have any money. Mm-hmm. I mean, and so what you're thinking is a legal document's going to make her crazy family behave, and it's not. They're still going to be large, and they're still going to be crazy, if they're crazy. But I'm guessing, based on the fact that you're worried about this, I mean, my wife has a big family, too, and I didn't think anything about needing a prenup because she had a big family. Okay.

Yeah, I was just thinking that might be a good thing to protect myself. Protect yourself from what? I don't know what kind of financial problems I might be getting into with an international marriage, and I was curious about that route. I don't know much about it. Well, I assume she's going to marry you and live in the U.S., right? Yes. Okay. Well, there's not any.

The only thing you've got is just depending on the, some cultures, the older generation depends on their kids to feed them more than other cultures. It's more true in a Hispanic culture to take care, financially take care of your parents, that the kid is the dad's retirement plan than it is in the Anglo culture, in an English-based or a French-based culture. And so, you know, it's not unusual at all. But, you know, what you've just got to know is what are you promising

without what's your undisclosed or unintended consequence of coming into this. And that has to do with you learning her family and asking her stuff like, what are you going to be expecting? I mean, I was meeting with a young couple several years ago. They were going through their pre-marriage counseling, and I was meeting with them about money stuff. And I'm hearing this young man talk about his mom, who's a single mom, and his mom and his mom and his mom and his mom, and it's obvious him and his mom are real close, and his mom's not handling money well.

And I said, so if she gets in trouble financially, where's she going to live? And he said, oh, she'll live with us. And the fiancé looked at him and said, do what? And so it was a no-brainer in his mind that mom would move in. And if you're facing stuff like that, a prenup's not going to help you. You've just got to understand the culture that you're buying into and what goes along with this particular lady. What is that involved?

And it's not that there's a large family. It's not that it's international. It's what are the expectations? I don't think you've got any legal problem. And no, I would not say there's a prenup. But the things that are making you worried, that are causing you to think about a prenup, you've got to address those prior to engagement or at engagement in pre-marriage counseling. And if you don't have all that stuff real clearly laid out, it is one of the number

one causes of divorce. Number one is money. Number two is in-laws. Because there's crazy in every family, and if you think there's not crazy in your family, it's you. This is the Dave time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt

and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance, since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282 these are the guys i personally use

term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com. Or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, James and Jen are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? We're great. Fantastic. Where do you all live? Loveland, Ohio. Which is near?

Just north of Cincinnati. Oh, cool. Okay, fine. Well, welcome to Nashville. About a five-hour drive then? Yep. Perfect. Or longer if there's kids.

There we go. Well, good to have you down here to do your debt-free scream then. Yes, we are. And how much have you paid off? $298,886.98. Oh, my gosh. Like 300 grand. Or around there.

Okay. Just a closer, give or take. And how long did it take you to pay off $300,000? Ten years. Like 300 grand. Or around there. Okay. Just a closer, give or take. And how long did it take you to pay off 300,000? Ten years. Okay, cool. And your range of income during that time? It was from about 115 up to 220. Wow.

And a couple years ago, it took a big hit when I moved jobs. Okay, cool. And what are you down to now? About 150. Okay, very good. What do you do for a living? I'm a CEO of a insurance technology group cool cool what about you jen uh i was a teacher and then about 12 years ago when we had

my oldest daughter ally we i took time off to be a stay-at-home mom and i've been a stay-at-home mom ever since um going back and forth for a couple months here and there doing some preschool teaching and things like that so cool cool so i'm to guess and say 300 grand in 10 years, this is your house. Yes. It is. You paid off your house. We did. Everything.

I'm looking at weird people. How old are you guys? I just turned 39. Wow. And I'm 40. 40 years old in a paid for house. Yes. That's so weird.

I love it. It feels great to be weird. I love it. Well, you're the best kind of weird. So how much is this house worth? It's 328 now. Wow. Good for you guys. I love it. Well, you're the best kind of weird. So how much is this house worth? It's $328 now. Wow. Good for you guys.

How does it feel? You don't even have a house payment. Wow. It is peaceful. Yeah. Really. I mean, you can do anything you want to do. We can do anything we want.

We're so excited for the future. There's just money everywhere. I don't know about that yet, but we're getting there. It's not going all out to the bank. I mean, the house payment's the big one, you know? Wow. Wow. Very cool, you guys.

So what put you on this path 10 years ago? So we had just moved, and so we had a new baby and a new job and a new house and a new city. And watching the account balance go down a little bit each month, and I came to Jen and said, this doesn't look right. I make too much money to not know where all the money is. And I had talked to a guy named Buck at work and he pointed me toward the Dave Ramsey show. He said, you got to listen to this guy on the radio. He knows what he's talking about. So I listened for a while and got the book and went through it. And I came to Jen and I said, Jen, I think we ought to do this. Yeah. And I, uh, I was kind of hesitant at first cause I was like, I don't really want to go on a

budget, James. Like we don't really need to do this. Um, that just doesn't sound okay with me. And he, I could see his passion about it. He was, you know, he really wanted to do this and the good wife that I am. I said, okay, James, I said, we'll do this for one month, one month. We'll track it. We'll do it. We'll see what happens. That was 128 budgets ago. So I have to say I was hesitant at first, but once we got into it, I needed it. I like the security. I like having boundaries. I like knowing the limits, and it makes me feel safe. Rachel says, Rachel Cruz says it's permission to spend.

Yeah. So you're buying stuff at the grocery store, and you don't feel guilty. No, exactly. You know, people buy food, and they feel guilty because they're out of control. Yeah. They don't know if they just spent their light bill money, or they pay the light bill, and they don't know if. No, exactly. You know, people buy food and they feel guilty because they're out of control. Yeah. They don't know if they just spent their light bill money or they pay the light bill and they don't know if they just spent their food money. I mean, and there's no reason you should feel guilty about those things for sure.

And it's permission to spend, permission to enjoy the money at that, you know, in that slot that it's in. I think the mindset change from feeling like it was a constraint, thinking of a budget as where you're not allowed to spend more than a certain amount or it's cutting back, to the mindset of we've set aside this money for this purpose. Go spend it for that. So every month for 128 months, you've done the budget. Yes. Wow.

There's a lot of learning there. Wow. Well, there is, and a lot of adjustments, and a few stumbles along the way. Oh, yeah, absolutely. What was the biggest budget fight you had in 10 years? You know, I will say, of all the opportunities I've had to be wrong, and she's shared those with me over those 10 years. Wow.

The fights that we've had have really never been about money. They just haven't. We've had plenty of reasons, but just not money. That's been a piece for us all the way throughout. It has. Because being on the same page at the beginning of every month made all the difference in the world. Very cool.

Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you. So what's the secret to getting out of debt? Two things. You have to do it together. So I would spend my time setting up the budget at the beginning of the month and putting every possible thing that I could imagine for that month in there. And then we'd sit down for a budget meeting, and she'd point out the nine things I missed.

Because that's the only way it works, right, is that everything's in there. And any one person by themselves is going to miss or go off track. So that was the first one is you have to do it together. That's great. And the second is continue to be faithful with it. For those months where it's really, really tight, and you put all the essentials in the budget, and then you look up and realize you're $200 in a hole. So we had one of those.

It was about $270 in a hole, and we went through and cut it back to where we were at zero. And then a week later, shows up in the check from the gas company for $276. Ah, there it is. If you're faithful, it works. Yeah, God will show up in it. Along the way, there was so many confirmations over the years that we were doing the right thing. That this is what God wanted us to do. We were on the right path.

Just keep being diligent about it. Keep doing it. Just keep going forward. So you're like 30 years old when you start this. You're like 40 years old when you're done. Yeah. During that 10 years, who was your biggest cheerleader? Each other.

Yeah. Yeah, outside of you two. And our kids. Our kids. Outside of your family. That's right. Outside of your family. Our church has been a big support in us.

We're getting ready to do a new series in January. They're going to use our story to help inspire others. Oh, for Financial Peace University? Yes. Wow. So that's been lots of doors opening, lots of blessings coming out through this, and so we're really excited about that. But they've been huge supporters of us and friends.

You know, they didn't always understand it in the beginning, but as they saw what we were doing, they were like, this is so cool. I can't do this. You've got a $300-something thousand dollar paid for house, and you're not even 40. Oh, my gosh. Wow. Yeah.

Good for you. Well, I'm proud of y'all. Well done. Thank you so much. Thank you. Well done. Thank you for making the trip down here. Oh, we were excited to do it.

Yeah. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you, and also in January, we're going to send you an Everyday Millionaires book. Awesome. Thank you. The brand new book, because that's where you're on your way to be. You'll be Everyday Millionaires before we know it, and outrageously generous as you go along. And you brought the kiddos to help in the debt-free screen.

We did. We did. Good. And their names and ages? They're Allie, who's 12, and Lana, who's 10, and Will is 8, and Elise is 6. All right. Very cool. And have they been practicing for five hours in the car of their debt-free screen?

They have. I love it. Very good. Very good. All right. James, Jen, Allie, Lana, Will, and Elise, $300,000 house and everything paid off over 10 years, making $115,000 to $220,000 to $150,000. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. You ready? Three, two, one. hear a debt-free scream. You ready? 3, 2, 1. We're debt-free! Whoa! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! This is how it's done.

Right there, man. Right there. That's fun. Wow. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos that they run every month, you'll save even more.

Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Rules and restrictions apply. Today's question comes from Terry in Virginia. Dave, how do I explain to a family member that they should use their savings to pay off their debt instead of taking money out of a HELOC? Well, one way you're paying off your debt and the other way you're moving your debt. So I guess it just depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to get out of debt, paying it off would be getting out of debt. Moving it would be moving it.

And that's how you explain to them but i have a feeling that this person is not really trying to get out of that i think they're just trying to screw around with money but if your goal is to get out of debt there's only one way to do that and that's pay off the debt not move the debt moving debt's a bit of a joke. Doesn't work. Hope that helps. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thanks for joining us, America. Verna is with us in Portland, Oregon.

Hi, Verna. How are you? Hi. I'm good. Thank you. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, I have a question, of course. I own two homes. Well, I'm buying two homes. course. I own two homes. Well, I'm buying two homes. I don't own them yet. One is a rental.

I owe about $78,000 on it and some change. And the residence that I'm living in that I'm buying, I owe about $135,000 on. My question is, my income right now is higher, so I'd like to pay more on them than the amount due. Which one should I pay off first? What's your income? $62,000. Good. Okay.

How old are you? 55. Okay, good. So when you retire in ten years, the main thing that has to happen is your personal residence needs to be paid for, right? You don't want to go into retirement with a mortgage on your house. And if you have a mortgage on your house, you've got a problem. If you have a mortgage on a rental, you can sell it. So I pay off my home first.

Well, that was easy. I'd like for you to get them both paid off before you get to retirement. That'd be my goal, right? And it should be yours. Right. Because if you're sitting there with both of them paid for, you keep both of them. But if you've got to flip out of one of them because things start getting tight at retirement, you don't want it to be your residence.

You want it to be your rental. And so I'm going to normally pay off my personal residence first just because in general of risk. In your case, the risk is getting to retirement age and not having it done. And you've got to have it done. You've got to have it done. You want to go into retirement with a paid for property for sure. Raymond's with us in St. Petersburg, Florida. Hey, Raymond, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, how you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve, son. I'm trying to get there. I don't want to take up too much of your time. I'm a person about time. I have a couple questions. I'm just now starting, and I don't know anything about 401K. I'm a truck driver, and the first question is, me and my wife, we barely see each other,

but I want to do the financial piece, which I know is kind of hard for us to do. But I bought the books, like the Total Money Makeover, the one you had on sale for $43,000, with the Total Money Makeover and then the workbook. And I bought the Retire Inspire, and I bought a couple other books, and I bought some books for friends. But my question is, how do I stop a 401K? Because, like I said, this is my first time ever having one, and it just started, and it's only 3% being taken out.

You get in touch with HR and payroll department and have them just put a stop on it. You can do that any time you want. It's a temporary stop while you work through the baby steps, of course. And is your wife reading this stuff with you while you're on the road and she's at home? Is she reading through it? Are you all talking about this all the time? Sir, I bought, Mr. Browns, I bought a book for her and me. Oh, good.

Because we're really trying to get on this. Good. Very cool. Well, the good news is that Financial Peace University, Financial Peace University is online, and so you can actually go through it together if you're not together. Lots of military families, for instance, do this. You can go to a class in your local hometown and take the nine lessons.

You can also take the nine lessons online when you're a member. And you ought to do both, really, but in your case, if you're gone all the time, she could go to the local class and go see the first lesson. And then you watch the lesson online. And then you all talk about it FaceTime that night when she gets home, when you get out of the truck that night or the next morning or whatever it is. And so you can track right with each other by using the online aspects of Financial Peace University. And EveryDollarPlus is online as part of the membership as well and that that connects all your bank transactions to where both of you are watching that and both of you have access to it and so

again uh we've got military families where one of the spouses is in the sandbox they're deployed uh you know in the middle east somewhere and as long as they've got Internet access, it's almost as if you're sitting down every night together at the kitchen table. You can keep up with the budget. You can keep up with the spending. You can keep up with the lessons. You can do everything together, and it absolutely makes sense. So I'm going to put you through Financial Peace University as my gift.

Merry Christmas. I'm going to put you through financial peace university is my gift merry christmas i'm going to put you in the one-year membership and that'll give you access to all those things i'm talking about every dollar plus the class the local lessons the online classes everything so it's like a combination um home study and go to the class or either or both kind of thing you can do it all so hold on and i'll have kelly pick up and we'll get you signed up for that ben is in fort lauderdale hi ben welcome to the dave ramsey show thanks for having me how are you doing better than i deserve what's up well i just wanted to call for some advice my wife and i are on baby step four or five and six

uh or actually four and five, and six. Actually, four and five. We don't have a home. So we paid off all of our debt, $55,000 in a year and a half. And we did baby step three. We have three to six months. Right. We saved for a down payment, and we just started investing.

And my question is, we want to relocate in about six months, and we're wondering if we should wait to buy a house until we relocate or start the process of finding a home now and, you know, just making calls and looking at homes, or if we should get our feet on the ground to where we're planning to move first. There's no wrong answer. I mean, you're going to have to invest in some travel and a lot of online hours if you're going to buy as you make the move. Otherwise, you make the move and you rent and you look around and learn the neighborhoods and learn everything. So real estate is a large purchase. Anytime you're making a large decision, he with the most information wins. And so you've just got to gather information. And you sound like, just talking to you, you're a guy that gathers information.

And so that's natural for you probably. But, you know, you need to learn the neighborhoods. You need to learn the square footage prices. And, you know, stuff in this neighborhood sells for $2.20 a square foot. Stuff in this neighborhood sells for $2.70 a foot a foot and um you know you start to learn that stuff and the other thing you want to almost get you a map of the city out and draw some lines down some of the main thoroughfares because in almost every main thoroughfare on one side of the road is across the tracks and on the other side of the road is across the tracks you know on the other side of the road is across the tracks.

It's like you're on the other side of the tracks. You know what that means? It means one neighborhood is better than the other. It's considered more prestigious than the other. And that can be all kinds of different ways as you move out of town. It doesn't necessarily extend all the way down that line of that main thoroughfare, but there's invisible lines in every city that uh that people that live there know where they are and you want to learn those lines because otherwise you get fooled and you say well houses over there are really cheap and then you find out well they're really cheap and

that's why they're really cheap and so you know you start to find out there's stuff going on there it's not necessarily the bargain it looked like like you discovered something no one else in the whole town knew or something that's not usually the case so anyway more information the batter puts you in a really good place to win and um so if you want to gather the information and work really hard make a few trips there um and more maybe more than a few really become an expert on that marketplace before you make the decision then you're fine to go ahead now. But if you want to just wait and, you know, live there a little while, it seems to become second nature.

Most of us know when you live in a city for a little while, you start to go, oh, I kind of get it now. There's something that people attribute to that area that they don't attribute to that area, this other area. And, you know, it it's prestige it's ridiculous the old joke is and it's true the first time i went into appraisal class i was taking in college and the professor teaching how to do appraisals said there's three things that dictate the price of real estate location location and location and it's amazing to me that this dumpy butt little house built in 1958 is worth a bazillion dollars because it sits on that particular corner.

And, you know, that corner is just a thing. And it's humans that make it a thing, but, you know, that value is really there. It's location, location, and location. So that's what you want to learn about when you're buying a home. You want to find out where you're going to be, what the trends are, how are things moving, how's the growth patterns. You know, people moving out of there, people moving into there. Is this a regentrification area? What's going on with it?

The whole thing. And once you learn those patterns, then you can make a really good selection. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. 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.