The Ramsey Show - App - Here Are a Few Different Ways To Sell Your House (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony discuss: The logistics of selling a house, What to do with an annuity, Pausing baby step 2 to set up a "strike fund", Pre-planned funeral arrangements. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving in storage studios, it's the 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. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships.

Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, host of the Dr. John Deloney Show, where they talk about relationships and mental wellness every day. You can check it out as a podcast. It is very popular. He's also number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. Shelly's going to start this hour off in Kansas City. Hi, Shelly. How are you? Yes, hi. So glad to talk to you both. You too. I have a question. I am trying to downsize my home, and I'm not sure if I should buy or sell first and I don't want to get into a bad financial situation so was wondering what your opinion is on that well I've noticed that

the real estate market has slowed down have you noticed that yes definitely okay and what that means to me is is if you were to buy another house and then it took two years to sell yours, that could put you in a pinch. Yes, understood. So I'm going to sell yours first, and then I'm going to buy another one, or I'm going to go rent somewhere until I buy another one, one of the two. It might entail a double move. It might entail doing something we used to do back before real estate went crazy white hot

was we used to do a contingency i will sell mine to you contingent upon me being able to find one in the next 30 days okay so they can write a clause into the contract. You can write anything you want to in a contract if you can get them to do it. Okay. I've got a family member who sold their house with cash recently, and in the contract they are renting it back from the buyer for 60 days. That gives them time to get moved into their new place. And so they've actually sold the house, and now they're renting it for like a dollar a month it was just written into the deal um so there's a bunch of different ways you can do that i actually did that i ran in mind back for almost three months

uh last year oh your your other house yeah when i sold the big house on the hill okay so what amount of time would you suggest knowing that I need to go out and look and find somewhere else? I mean, can you go as long as rent it back for six months? Whatever you can talk somebody into. Whatever I can get the... Whatever you can get somebody to do, you know. Now, here's the thing. The more crap you put on it, the harder it is to sell your house, right?

Right. right so so what we did what we did in our case was we went and uh were already shopping before i were sold we looked at other properties we went and viewed homes we looked at neighborhoods we decided okay we're going to move to this neighborhood and here's three houses on the market i'll buy this one tomorrow if our sales and when i was sold that one was gone but there was another one that popped up that was pretty similar and we jumped into it and it made a good deal and it was just fine so kind of have it narrowed down the type of thing and the area and it might even be that the house you look at today is still on the market when you get ready to buy the one you pick out.

And then it could be fairly simple, and you would go, oh, you know, I'll be gone as soon as that seller is gone. The only reason we had to stay in our old one a little bit longer wasn't because we didn't find the other one. It was because the guy that we bought it from wanted to stay. So it was like a chain reaction thing. He wanted to stay, so we had to stay. And the buyer buying mine didn't need it right then, so it worked out perfectly. But, again, that was 2020.

It was a different world. 2021, it was a different world. But, yeah, crazy stuff out there. Yeah, anything you can talk somebody into. But what I would do is go ahead and select where you want to be. Jamie's with us. Jamie's in Indianapolis. Hi, Jamie. Welcome you can talk somebody into. But what I would do is go ahead and select where you want to be. Jamie's with us. Jamie's in Indianapolis. Hi, Jamie.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Hello. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I just have a question. I am already retired.

I retired early from teaching. And I've had an annuity since about 2000, and it's worth a certain amount, but I could start taking $12,500 per year from it now. And my question is, should I start taking that $12,500 per year and doing something with that money, or just leave the money in there, which currently has, it's worth about $190,000. Can you do a lump sum rollover? I probably could. It's categorized as a retirement annuity, but I bought it personally with my own personal money after tax money. Mm-hmm.

Okay. All those years ago. I've not checked into whether i can actually do this this is a fixed annuity so it's paying like five percent yeah yeah i think you can do better than that on two hundred thousand dollars so if you let's pretend that if you were in mutual funds you you got 10% average, and you're making 5% on $200,000. That's $10,000 a year you're missing out on. Right. $1,000 a month almost. So if I'm you, I'm going to discuss moving that to a better investment than a 5% investment.

I don't own any annuities of that type. I'm 62, so I'm retirement age, and I don't own anything like that. All of my money is in good mutual funds, in IRAs, 401ks, that kind of thing. So what I would do is just tell you to go to smartvestorpro at ramseysolutions.com, which is an investment advisor. We're not in that business, but we recommend people that are, and they can help you. They'll teach you to do it the Ramsey way, and they'll help you learn about it, and you'll get a lot more comfort in being able to move that way. It's a pretty standard thing for a teacher.

Give me a quick breakdown. What's an annuity? An annuity is a savings account with an insurance company. Oh, so they're doing this for them, not for us. Exactly. All right. Insurance companies cannot sell investments. They're not in the investment business. Insurance brokers, insurance agents are life insurance licensed. They're not securities licensed. So if they sell any kind of an investment, it'll fall under the annuity headline. There's two types, fixed and variable.

Fixed is what she had. A lot of teachers have them. That's how I knew that. And most of those are around five percent that's how i knew that and uh then there's which those are that's kind of like buying a cd they lock them in at five the bank is making 12 on them and they're keeping the seven yeah okay they're making um i mean life insurance companies are the largest lenders in the commercial real estate world. Wow. Most of your apartment complexes, shopping malls, skyscrapers are financed by life insurance companies. The money came from whole life policies and annuities

that you put with them. They pay you a fixed amount. They put the money back out at a higher rate in the mortgage world is where a lot of it is. And so that's how they make so much money. Wow. They make a lot more money on that stuff than they do on the actual insurance

products. On the policies. Yeah. So kind of follow the money thing. And it wakes you up. Variable annuities, however, are okay in certain circumstances. I don't own any, but a lot of people do because that's a mutual fund inside of an annuity.

Okay. And there's a place for that in some cases. So you can look for a variable annuity if you can't do anything else. At a minimum, you need to roll this to that but maybe you just need to go do some good investing with it straight up this is the Ramsey show The Dr. John Deloney Ramsey personalities my co-host this hour one of my favorite people on the planet has just walked in uh we're so honored to have him in Nashville today. A new book is out. Sean of the South, officially known as Sean Dietrich. If you're not reading Sean Dietrich, I don't know how you know possibly how to exist in the South.

One of the things I discovered going to your event last night, Sean, was that we can actually use your material for training the people that have moved to Tennessee or Alabama from California we can train them how things work wow that's uh I guess that could be used I'm not sure how y'all do things with Tennessee because I'm still kind of falling out with your football team well once every 15 years you whiner give us one give us one i believe we've just eliminated our alabama's margin for error is all we've done the statistical oh gosh all right let's get to it there's a new book thank goodness another book by uh sean with the sean magic on it you are my sunshine written about a very personal point in your life where your wife, Jamie, said it's time for you to do something big. And when Jamie says do something, Sean does it.

Smart man. Happy wife, happy life. And so you guys decide you're going to go on a little adventure. Tell us about it. Yeah. My wife had a cancer scare when we first got married, and it was traumatic for us because, you know, waiting, this waiting period you have, you don't know what comes next. And it's almost worse than the disease itself. And I've heard that from many people.

So she made me make a promise during this period of our life that I would do something big with her, which was to ride a 350-mile trail through four states. And in the heat of the moment, I said I'd do it. And many years later the pandemic happened and i'd forgotten all about this and she cashed in on her promise oh and uh i really had no choice in the matter so the allegheny trailhead so is this the appalachian trail well it does ride through the appalachians but it never it does cross the appalachian trail well it does ride through the appalachians but not it never it does cross the appalachian trail one spot but no it's not the appalachian trail and so you did a you did bikes right it's a limestone trail uh and we rode from pittsburgh all the way to georgetown virginia and my groin is still recovering i was gonna say you're still walking with a limp

a little bit yes i'm shorter after it's all said and done. My Preparation H stock has done really well, and now I know why. See? This man knows. How long did this take? This took us longer to complete than it takes most people to complete veterinary school. I think it took us about three weeks. Some people complete the trail in about a day or two.

Whoa. Yeah. That's pretty beastly. Okay. was about three weeks and some people complete the trail in about a day or two whoa yeah that's that's pretty beastly okay so this three weeks had to be uh you had you're a collector of stories i read your column every morning and um sometimes i'm laughing sometimes i'm crying uh but i cried an applebees commercial so i'm an easy kid so but hey i'm not you got me this morning this morning you got me this morning sean and i i'm not a crier like dave is and not you got me this morning this morning you got me this morning sean and i i'm not a crier like dave is and man you got me well i am a crier i i try the dog stuff gets me because i'm a dog guy yeah me too and so man it just uh and this new one you got that was abused this blind because of her abuse is crazy yes she is she's a real gift uh she's a real gift to us

so anyway the adventures on the trail what happened give us give us some good ones from the book the book is you are my sunshine a story of love promises and a really long bike ride well you know to be quite frank with you uh i've always been a pretty fearful person that very very much so actually and i find that getting out here expanded my boundary just a little bit and it it helped me get over some of that and so jamie and i both were very active now compared to how we were before this book before i wrote this book and we're less afraid of a few things and that sounds pretty melodramatic but it's true uh just just expanding our boundary walking outside i hate snakes i hate spiders you're very intimate with snakes and spiders on the trail uh i'm afraid of poison ivy deathly afraid

of poison ivy no longer i mean i can walk right through it and i know you know maybe i'm going to go through some pain or maybe not so uh you know it happened during a very fearful time the pandemic was a very fearful time so um were people weird on the trail during that time or yes they very much were uh they were because of the pandemic because the pandemic had nothing to do with the uh bearded alabama in their midst it could have been that uh it was very strange on the trail during that period of time some people had uh they they would hold their breath as you passed by and other times they'd you know they had no problem with it at all yeah miniature version there's a three mile loop over near my house because it's a wooded trail that i was doing during that time with my dog and i'd get

out and do it every morning early because i got fat and so i was having to do something get rid of the fat i'm just we're out there walking every morning and um there was this couple that would freak out i would see them every third morning you know but they would like walk off into the woods like 50 yards up into the woods i'm like something's gonna bite you and it ain't gonna be a covet you know it's like wow they were freaked i mean but it's like like i had invaded their trail yeah there was a lot of there was it you we met so many different people on the trail we really did get a little snapshot of america i met people from out west i met people from overseas and everybody dealt with everything very differently so sean and i met several years ago his uh book the stars of alabama had uh came out in 2019 uh it had

in it what i call sean magic which is his ability to weave a story together in a way that grabs you by the heart the throat the stomach whatever wherever it needs to to get a hold of you to make you react a world-class storyteller um gosh you are my sunshine uh i already picked up i i just random opened it a while ago and started reading, got down into the story of the pastor that fixed your bike when it broke. Oh, yeah. You know, I just got sucked into it. It's just like, I can't, I'm going to have to finish it.

I'll have to start it tonight. I'll probably finish it by morning the way I go. I think I'm going to give you a raise for all this promotion. Well, it's good writing. It really is. I'm not a good writer. I'm really good at marketing but i really like reading people who know how to write and this is this is fun well and i'll tell you like i was telling you off air um i i consider myself like the thing i'm obsessed about is a good storyteller

and i was raised in a house with garrison keeler and raised in a house with lewis grizzard and ladies in a house with my parents really um uh taught us to curate good storytelling and my mom's an english professor so i i am attuned to great writing and is i don't know how you have the output you do i don't know how you continually get me to stop in my crazy busy life and exhale a little bit and so it becomes this existential gift you give us every morning just to just to breathe i mean i can't i can't i read i can't wait to get into this man can i come back here every week yeah anytime you need you've done more for my mental health right now we just we traffic in so much fluff and then it's it's so refreshing to see an actual ray of sunshine sit

down thank you next to us and and provide a gift to all of us, man. You're great at what you do. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. I don't know what I'm doing. The current book is You Are My Sunshine by Sean Dietrich, Sean of the South, the story of he and Jamie, his wife, taking the Allegheny Trailhead in Pittsburgh

and making it all the way several hundred miles and all the stories along the way you will not want to miss that you will not want to miss the stars of Alabama and you can register and sign up for the email delivery I guess is what I did where is that where do you get that um you might just have to google my name okay okay it's like you got a website or something yeah you can find my I should know this I'm sorry i should too you know but um anyway yeah it's spelled the cn that's right s-e-a-n yeah yeah very good stuff so what was your favorite stop on the trail my favorite stop would have been uh the end it was it was long and arduous and and you can look at me and i'm kind of built like herman munster i don't need to be competing in athletics.

So it was nice to be done. What's one big takeaway you had? One big takeaway would be that you can do a lot more than you think you can if you force yourself to try. Yeah, and I love what you said. You got out there, and it stretched you, and you didn't return to the same shape no we hike we hike jamie and i about three times a week now before this we would have never gone out and done anything like that yeah wow good to see you my friend i'm so proud of the proud of your success and uh folks check it out sean dietrich sean of the south anything

he's writing the new book you are my sunshine you do not want to miss this writing uh it will uh i'm getting on a plane in the morning flying to california it's gonna make that plane fly faster that's the way that works well good to see you my friend thank you thank you check it out this is the ramsey show ДИНАМИЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Brayden and Tristan are with us. Hey, guys, how are you?

Fantastic. Good to have you guys. Where do you all live? Tremont, Utah. Oh, fun. Welcome to Nashville. And how much debt have you paid. Where do y'all live? Tremont, Utah. Oh, fun. Welcome to Nashville. And how much debt have you paid off? $54,400. Good for you. And how long did that take? Seven and a half months.

Good for you. And your range of income? I was about 60 during that time. Cool. What do y'all do for a living? I work for Dominion Energy, natural gas company in Utah, pre-construction rep. I'm an insurance specialist for a group of hospitals. Oh, wow. Okay, cool. What kind of debt was your 54? It was our house.

Oh! Whoa! You have a pay... You're weird! Looking at weird people. How old are you? How old are you guys? I'm 26.

25. Goodness! You're insane, weird people. That's right. Wow! What's this house worth? About 320. Of course it is. Oh, my people. That's right. Wow. What's this house worth? About $320,000. Of course it is.

Oh, my gosh. Look at you. And 100% debt-free and everything. Yes. Yep. Unbelievable. Okay. This is a great story already, but tell me how this happened.

What's your Ramsey connection? How'd this whole thing come down? Yes, for sure. So when I was 19, I got a truck and went $30,000 in debt for it. And I started a new position at a grocery store. One of my best friends, Jace, mentioned your name to me because I was talking about the new truck. And he said that you can help us get out of debt.

And so I went and looked up your website and YouTube and watched all the videos. And I found Financial Peace University, the take-home kit. So I went and ordered that. And then me and Tristan were dating at the time. And so I thought it would be great to take together. So we started taking that together. He's a real romantic, isn't he?

Right? Hey, I got this financial class we can watch. Fun date night. Oh, yeah. Big time. Your heart started beating so fast. Oh, yeah. Watch it down in the parents' basement. So, so yeah, we'd, we took that class together.

Once we started taking the class, we didn't really have a financial foundation of what we wanted to do or what we should do for investing, saving. And I want to know how to get out of debt. So we started taking those classes and you went running across the street, the stage, and was yelling, get to Zelle Intensity, and you got to run. That moment just changed me. It lit a fire up under me, and it hasn't gone out since. Wow.

Same with Trust Into. So we started working the plan separate. I learned how to budget, do a zero-based budget, haven't missed one since. Anyways, we got married May of 2016, and I was still in debt with the truck. We were about $21,000, $22,000 left. So we hit the ground running. We knew what we were going to do. We did some mock budgets before we got married. And that December, we paid the truck off, which was amazing. And then when we were dating and engaged, we made a crazy goal to bring our first child into, we wanted to bring our first child into a paid-for home. It's just

something we both felt very strongly about. And so we started working that plan. We got, we paid off the truck, we got our emergency fund fully funded. And then from 2017, the summer of 2017 to October, 2021, four years, we in baby step three B we're just renting. It was cheap rent the whole time. So we stacked up, we paid 173,000 for our down payment. I'm just looking at you in awe. Who are y'all? So we did that. I feel like i'm in the matrix man like yeah i i don't know we were just gazelle intense we didn't stop we just kept going it was a big deal to us 73 down yeah and then you knocked the other 54 out that's correct yep meanwhile it goes up in value yes it did big time yeah and so fast forward to today

baby on the way baby on the way? Baby on the way. Baby girl, January 4th. Yay! Yay! Yep. All right. The story is just like they had a plan or something. I didn't know what day it was for most of my- 19th year.

The year I was 19. And to think, man, good for you, dude. Wow. Thank you so much. And what'd you say your salary has been this whole time? Right now we're about 110, but during that it was about 60 or so. Wow. You got to make a million dollars a year to pay off your house, man.

Yeah, seriously, right? That's what they tell us. How many people told you that everything you were doing wouldn't work? Oh, like so many. So many people. Most people. How do you keep going with everybody telling you it's not going to work? Oh, like so many. So many people. Most people. How do you keep going with everybody telling you it's not going to work? There's our Y right here. Our little girl, yep.

We didn't even know she was coming, but she was our plan the whole time. Bro, she's never going to know what you went through. No, she's not. She's going to know two parents who just smile a lot. That's right. And crack up when the roof leaks. That's right. crack up when the roof leaks that's right unbelievable man

man that's just well done you guys very very well done you're powerful couple thank you so much powerful you are well on your way you're going to be so wealthy and so generous and you have truly changed your family tree because you're working at a grocery store at 19 years old. And a guy says, you paid what for a truck? You need to eat the Ramsey stuff. Yep, that's right. And here we go. We end up with Financial Peace University as our date night.

Wow. Hey, man, it keeps kids from making out. That's for sure. Hey, so, hey, y'all don't come from money? No. Is this new for both of you? Yeah. Or this level of discussion andality for sure yes yeah i'm just just watching you two it looks like this is new it's like y'all have created something out of i mean y'all took machetes and headed off into

the jungle and cut your own new path that's right made it happen but family proud of you they cheer oh yeah yes for sure yeah they got to be standing back going wow yeah yeah they've been awesome That's right. Made it happen. But family proud of you? They cheering you on? Oh, yeah. Yes, for sure. Yeah, they got to be standing back going, wow. Yeah, yeah, they've been awesome. Yeah, that's good. Good for you. All right, so you're exactly how old again?

I'm 26. And 25. Baby January 4th. Yep. $350,000 paid for house, 100% debt free, making 110, so millionaires by probably 31 if the income doesn't change dramatically up and it's likely to is the trend in these situations so it might be 30 but um and depending on how fast the house goes up too that'll affect it but that's probably 30 31 somewhere right in there wow look at them they're both nodding like yeah david's in our spreadsheet we know we kind of already run these numbers david's in our spreadsheet we know we

kind of already run these numbers dave we have a spreadsheet at home we know this yeah we know yeah this is uh pretty pretty stinking cool all right what do you tell people the key to be to being here where you are absolutely budgeting you have to budget but um being on the same page with your spouse you can't you can't do it if you're not on the same page. You don't have the same goals. How many times did you argue? About money. About money.

Yeah. We really haven't had a money fight. We really haven't. We've always been on the same page, same goal. It's made it so much easier, and it's made our marriage just so much better. And nothing's going to get in the way of the goal. Exactly. I want to go on a trip.

You know, well, we got a goal. Exactly, yep. And we can go on a trip anywhere we want to go, by God, now. Yes, we can. So what's the first big thing you're going to do with money now? We already went to Hawaii to celebrate. To celebrate, yep. Now we're just saving for our baby, so.

I haven't been to Hawaii yet, man. Oh, my gosh Let's celebrate. Yeah. Now we're just saving for our baby. I haven't been to Hawaii yet, man. Oh, my gosh. Golly. Hey, listen. The number of times 18 and 19 and 20-year-olds have asked me, like, what do I need to be doing right now? And over the last few years, my answer has shifted to work like mad because you're going to open your eyes and be 25, 26, 27. And that 25, 26, 27-year-old you is going to be really glad you didn't go to the bar and you took another shift and you didn't buy something stupid and you put some money in savings.

And y'all are a walking testimony to that. That's a God's truth. That's a God's truth. Unbelievable, you two. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Kyle Lee, you're inspiring me, man. An old man, you're inspiring me.

I'm grateful for you. Thank you. Well, you guys are why we come down here and do this. We're so proud of you. Thank you. You're heroes. You're absolute heroes. We got the Live and Give Bundle for you, which is the total money makeover book for you to

give away and inspire someone. Your lives are doing that, but this will help you as well. The Baby Steps Millionaires book, because you are on your way. That's your next chapter for sure. Financial Peace University, one-year membership. Again, you've been through it so you'll be giving that away i would imagine but whatever you want to do it's the live and give bundle enjoy it very very well done brayden and tristan from utah wow

54 000 paid off in seven and a half months that's house and everything rock stars count it down let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Woo-hoo! Amazing! Wow! Moms and dads, if you've got a 16-year-old and you can turn them into one of those,

you're a good parent. This is The Ramsey show We'll be right back. Our scripture of the day, Luke 12, 6 and 7. What is the price of five sparrows? Two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. Brene Brown says, Worthiness does not have prerequisites.

You're a big Brene Brown fan, aren't you, John? Yeah, she's a smart Houstonian. Oh, really? Yep. She's from my neck of the woods there, yeah. James is with us up next in Detroit. Hey, James, what's up? Not much, just trying to get some advice.

Cool. How can we help? Well, I owe my parents $50,000. I'm happily willing to pay it all back, the faster the better. Now, I work for one of the big three auto manufacturers, and I make about $100,000 a year. And next year, we're expecting a strike. So I'm wondering, do I pause baby step two to build up a strike fund in order to weather that storm? And then after that, immediately give them everything I have down to my last thousand

and then get a loan to cover everything that's left. How long have you been there? At GM? Sorry,'s not the auto manufacturer one of the big three yeah it's not hard to narrow it down but I mean yeah go ahead how long have you been with GM seven years okay all right you not had a strike during that time. I don't think. Have you? Uh, no, just the last contract. Oh, there was the last contract. When was that? Four years ago. So you did strike four years ago.

Yeah. For how long? It was about two and a half months, three months. Really? I missed that. Okay. All right. So, um, given the current environment and your seven years of experience,

what is your prediction on this strike that comes up next year? Would you say it's a 50-50 chance, a 10% chance that you strike? What would you guess? I can't really. No, I mean, I know it's a guess i said guess what's your guess based on what you know because i don't have one i'd say it's more likely than not seen as this is the best labor market for the worker we've had in decades so you think it's greater than a 50% chance? Yeah. Then, yes, I would stop everything and I would pile up cash.

All right. And then the day you get a new contract signed and the storm blows by, you write mom and dad a check. And my goal would be to have enough cash to just pay them off. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. If I don't have have enough get a loan so i owe the bank and not my parents yeah i don't think you're going to have a contract for at least a year yeah and if you're going to do this this is not an excuse to go spend money it's an excuse to not work the debt snowball today and not not beyond the total money makeover baby steps today but instead push pause and pile up a huge storm fund as it

with the same intensity you would be using to pay off the debt and so i'm guessing in one year you're going to have 50 grand because you're going to work extra you're going to live on you'll take all the ot you can get you're going to do everything you can get to get extra money and you're going to live on nothing and you're going to pile up cash like you were getting out of debt. Instead, you're going to have a pile of it. So my goal would be to say when the contract is signed, we write mom and dad a check. All right.

Let's make that the goal if you're going to pause. And if you've got a greater than 50% chance of something happening, and that's not based on drama, that's based on your experience of what's out there, what happened four and a half years ago um you're you know you're looking at you're working in the middle of all this every day you've got a more of a sense of it than i do i really don't know what's going to happen with i don't have any clue i don't even have a good hint so i'm going to go with you on that but i yeah i would just do that but let's have the gold clear in it if you're gonna if you're

gonna pull that if you're gonna make that move yeah that's that's my it's my one caution man it's gonna that's gonna be hard not to spend that money piled up in an account exactly be diligent steve is with us steve is in pensacola hi steve how are you i'm better than i deserve dave how are you just the same how. How can I help? Thanks, Dave and John, for taking my call. I'm 73 years old. My wife is 71 years old. We are completely debt-free. Household income of $70,000.

That includes an adjunct teaching position as well as Social Security. We have not purchased funeral arrangements for ourselves. Do you recommend that we do it so our children don't have to take care of it and if so pay all at once or do it over uh time maybe you can do it both of our parents did it it saved us a lot of heartache when they passed away a couple years ago okay um i would invest the money that you would pay for this instead of giving it to them. Okay. Because the inflation rate of funeral items is around the normal inflation rates, around 4% normally. I don't know how much inflation in this current inflationary market is at the funeral world, but I don't prepay anything, but I would set the money aside.

And so go into the funeral home completely pre-plan every detail have a file at your house with every detail in it and a file at the funeral home with every detail in it so that they don't have to make any decisions and have a savings account over at the bank that has that exact amount of money in it and tell them where that is and tell them where the file is and if something happens to you they walk in get the file out and use the money uh if you put the money in a mutual fund that's fine that's what i've done uh and uh but the pre what we have told people from for the last 30 years is pre-plan with as much detail as you think is going to give comfort to your family in your case sounds like a lot of detail um and then do not prepay all right that's the plan that we use um do you did you specify in

your will where you want to be buried or do you care i have not in the will okay left that alone um and uh you know what that's all all shifted around, and you just caught me. I don't think I've addressed that in the file. Yeah, yeah. The Ramsey file. Yeah. There's a lot of other stuff covered. I've got some friends of mine that are very specific.

I want to be buried in this place, in this particular home. And then, I mean, for me, I don't care. It's not that. I won't be here. I'm not worried about it. But it is comforting the more decision the more indecisions are already made that's right the less the people behind have struggle while they're grieving right well and there's always the one cousin that thinks dave should be back here in east tennessee and somebody wants him in asheville

someone wants him in frank so yeah yeah and uh you know i always really like the lake yeah but i'm not there so but yeah it's it's a thing so yeah he's right though when his mom and dad passed the fact that it was prepaid and pre-planned they just walked in and it was all done sign the paperwork is done it was all set up and it is is um you know death is enough there's enough grief and sometimes even trauma around death to have everything to not have that on you is a big release big time yeah yeah so anything you can do to pre-plan we're all for it but i've talked to people that were 40 years old their dad died or their grandpa died and it was a mess so they end up in the funeral home two weeks later and give the guy six or eight thousand bucks or ten thousand twelve thousand fifteen thousand bucks whatever it is to prepay

and pre-plan if you put that 15 000 in at 40 years old and leave it till you're 80 it's like a million dollars who are you king tut you know you don't want to you don't want to do that that's what prepaying does now in his case 73 i don't know, you don't want to do that. That's what prepaying does. Now, in his case, 73, I don't know his life expectancy is necessarily. I didn't ask for details. But, you know, I guess normal would be, well, he's there. But, you know, if you've got 10 years, money's not going to grow as much if you're 73 is when you're 40. But still, I would set that in an investment.

I don't have a funeral fund in mind. I've just got money that the family can access, obviously, to cover it. But the actual, you know, at one time I had it all detailed out, and it shifted and moved, and I should go back and redo that. It doesn't take that long to sit and think about it and write it down. Oh, sure. And stick it in the file with the will. That's right.

You know, it changes people's lives. I think it's a healthy exercise, too. But, yeah. Hey, be sure and check out all the deals at RamseySolutions.com at $10 right now, including Ken Coleman's Get Clear assessment. You do not want to miss taking that. I took it the other day. It's life-changing.

It's good stuff. Dr. John Deloney, good show today. Thank you. Well done, James, Andrew, Zach, Ben, and Austin in the booth. The booth dudes who did it again. I'm Dave Ramsey. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace,

and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.