The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Help My Sister Go to College Debt-Free? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 26, 2021

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Thank you. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast, joined today by none other than Dr. John Deloney, best-selling author, host of the aptly named Dr. John Deloney Show,

and we're excited to take your calls, America. It's a free call today and every day, 888-825-5225. We can talk about money, relationships, emotional wellness, mental health. Most of that I'm going to delegate to John. No, I want to watch you answer those questions. John, you want to watch the world burn, man. Come on. That would make me happy. I'll answer mutual fun questions

and you answer relationship fun. And you know what that is? That creates mutual fun. I wish, if it was a band, he'd do the little drum solo there. We only had 11 listeners, and we just lost half of them. We just lost them. They were like, you know, we're leaving.

Well, for those that are still with us, we are so glad you're here. And we have really a lobby crowd that I think is electric today. The lobby crowd is riveting. I wish you could be here to see it, America. The building's on fire. Come visit us. There they are. If you're watching, you can see them. America. The building's on fire. Come visit us. There they are. If you're watching, you can see them there waving nicely at the cameras.

So we're taking your calls, 888-825-5225, and we're going to kick this hour off with Dave in Lansing, Michigan. Dave, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you. I appreciate you taking my call. In a nutshell, my mother is 98 years old. Just recently, her health is declining rapidly, so we put her into assisted living, which is about $8,000 a month. Now, she has approximately $160,000 cash in a bank, and she has just over a million dollars of investments. Nothing crazy being from the generation that she's at, so it's just stocks and bonds.

Now, would it be better to run out the money from the bank first or take the money from the stock market or from her investment with a fear that the stock market might crash or go down significantly? That's a great question, Dave. And it does bring me some joy that she has done well financially. I mean, usually you get these kinds of calls, John, and they're like, we have zero dollars in the bank. She's broke, but she's in a good spot. And so I wouldn't worry about the stock market crashing, but I would say she's 98. Now is the time. You invested all this money so that later you can use this in retirement. And so I don't think there's anything wrong with using that

investment money. If you want to start with the cash, that's fine. You've got a big pile of money there. Obviously, leave at least an emergency fund there. It sounds like in assisted living, though, that's all of her expenses, $8,000 a month, all in? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Is that the only place in town? That seems pretty high from the ones I've looked at recently. No, that seems to be the going rate. There's a little bit less, but I guess it's the style of living that she was hoping to have at this time in her life.

Well, yeah, she got a million dollars in the bank, I mean in investments in the bank. So, yeah, she's earned that to ride out that last time there. Yeah, I'm fully on board with George there, man. I'm thinking if it's me, I think I would – is the will all done so this money that's in her savings would be dispersed when she passes and everyone knows where it's going? Okay. Yeah, all the – yes. Yeah, I think I would – It's an interesting thing.

She's never had a financial planner. There was somebody at the bank that said, yep, we'll help you along, and they obviously have done well. But, you know, they lived very prudent. They didn't have boats and cottages. Yeah, that's the joke here internally that Dave says all the time is, I'm not telling anybody anything my grandmother didn't tell me, right? That's how they lived. They had this awesome thing called common sense

and another awesome thing called math that they could do. And they continue to do it. And ta-dada you end up with a million bucks in the bank i would probably start with a cash just for ease um until you could sit on the financial planner and begin to see which one of these things you could liquidate um and in what order is there any um any of this stuff have to be withdrawn that i don't know any of this dispersed retirement fights okay and you're saying there is no financial planner in the picture currently there's no advisor no i would i would work with one to make sure that we make the best use of this money for the remainder of her life i mean right now you'd be okay with a million dollars and we're talking under 100k a year all in for her care

it would take i mean she'd have to live another 10 years to get close to draining the investment account, which I mean, she could live to 108. That's happening. I mean, she sounds like she's just going to keep on going, man. But I would say work with a financial advisor. We, of course, have our SmartVestor pros around the country you can reach out to in the Lansing, Michigan area, and they can help teach you and help you understand what the best route to go is with this money to make the most of it to get the most bang for your buck here. But you're in a great spot. There's nothing wrong with using a big portion of that cash.

I would leave some of it liquid, but you could use it for the first year as you try to figure out the next steps and what the financial advisor recommends, and they may have a different answer than we do, John, but you asked for our opinion, and there it is. All right, well, I appreciate your help, guys. Hey, man. Enjoy your day. Just for the record, your mom's lucky to have you, man. It's awesome that you are able to and willing to sit

and walk through these decisions with her in the last few years of her life. Too many folks that I run into and that I talk to have nobody. And so good for you, brother. That's awesome. Yeah, well, I appreciate that. Appreciate it. You're restoring my faith in humanity, man.

Love to hear it. That's encouraging, John. I feel like there's a crisis going on where you see a lot of parents, they sacrifice for their kids, and now here they are, and the kids are having to take care of the parents. And this is a very different situation that Dave is in, where he's just helping mom navigate what to do with this pile of money. That's a much less stressful place to be.

Yeah, and let that be the light on the hill for everybody. Have a million dollars in investments and $150,000 in cash so that when your time comes, which it will, your kids are wondering what's the best, most strategic way we can do this, not how are we going to do this. That's a very different conversation. It's a totally different conversation. I love it. No stress there.

Well, John, before we head to this break, you're crushing the Dr. John Deloney Show. I've been tuning in, and the way you've been handling these calls, especially in some of the people's darkest moments, it's inspiring. I'm glad you're on the team. For those that don't know what this show is, what are you doing day in and day out that's different from the Ramsey Show? Man, we are taking calls not around money.

We're taking calls around the calls we took today that we recorded today was just found out my husband's cheating on me. I don't know the next steps. And just found out that my mother's going to be passing away. And how do I tell my kids? And it's everything from parenting to relationships to my kid just got this mental health diagnosis at school. And we love him, but we're tired of all these programs. What do we do next? And so it is sitting with people when they feel like the wheels are falling off.

And then we just walk through it. Man, we have a lot of fun. We laugh. James and Kelly are a lot more joyful on that show than they are on this one. And, man, it's a great time together. Well, I'm glad you're on the team taking those calls. And it must be an honor to be the first person they think to call. I'm going to call Dr. John and get his thoughts on this.

Yeah, it's a pretty cool place, man. That's cool. Well, we're happy to help here today. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. This is The important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org budget. That's chministries.org budget.

Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey-trusted provider. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, Ramsey personality, joined today by Dr. John Deloney. We're taking your calls on money, on life, relationships, emotional wellness, you name it, we'll give it a shot. So we are here for you, America. And on the line right now, we've got Leah in Sacramento, California. Leah, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can John and I help? So my husband and I have a piece of property up in Northern California near Tahoe. We're listing the property for just over $300,000.

It's actually two parcels, a larger one of about an acre and a smaller one of about half an acre. the county offering to put batteries on the smaller parcel and to lease the parcel for the next 15 or 30 years for about $30,000 a year. If it's 15 years, we get $450,000 over the next 15. If not, we get $900,000 over the next 30. We'd still be able to sell the larger portion, but we're kind of concerned about trying to sell the smaller portion after 15 or 30 years if we do accept that. So I just, I don't really know if we should just continue to list it as one piece and try to sell it and get kind of the lump sum right now, or look at this option to lease the smaller parcel out and get this $30,000 over the next 15 or 30 years, depending on the contract. Okay.

Why are you concerned about your ability to sell in the future? It's, I mean, it's bare land. It's near Tahoe, which is great, but there's a river that goes through it, and you can't build a certain, I guess, proximity to the river. And then you also can't build a certain proximity to the road. So it just kind of makes it a little bit more difficult, I guess. It's been on the market for about a year, but we've had it for a few years, just trying to clean up the property and clean up the title on the property and things like that. So when it comes to Bearland, I'm always kind of concerned about the So when it comes to Bearland, I'm always kind of

concerned about the difficulty when it comes to selling. Do you guys owe on this? No, we're in Baby Step 7. We don't owe on anything. Fantastic. Well, that puts you in a different spot where you now have options. What is your household income? We make about $150,000 or $ or 150 000 a year okay and other than that what are your next goals i mean do you guys want to get into real estate investing because in baby step seven you've got lots of options there to build wealth to give to do some things are you guys wanting to be in the investment real estate business long term um yeah that's the plan um i'm a licensed marriage and family therapist right now. And I do a lot of crisis work on the weekends and my husband is in real estate.

So I'm looking to kind of leave the crisis work when my kids are a little bit older and kind of start helping my husband more on the real estate side. So that is the plan ultimately, maybe in the next couple of years. So he started with this piece of property and, um, so what I would, what I would tell you is if I could, if I could secure a lease for, what are we talking? I mean, we're talking almost nine X over 30 years, year return. Um, I would sign that today and sell the bigger piece. Again, this doesn't bear out over time, but a philosophy that I live by that I was given by a guy when I was younger is I invest in dirt because they stopped making that a long time ago.

Now, you can buy stupid plots of raw land in the middle of southern Utah or useless. Having a half-acre plot or an acre plot next to Lake Tahoe, even with the restrictions, I can't imagine you're not able to unload this. Even if you sell it at a reduced cost in 30 years, you still have made a million dollars, 10X what you were going to sell it for, right? Okay, yeah.

And so the beauty of your situation now is you've got an acre to sell that you can hold cash on, and you've got a long-term lease on dirt that you're still going to own into the future. So to me it feels like you can't lose either way. Okay. Yeah, the way I'm thinking about this is based on whatever your next goal is, which it sounds like you're wanting to step away from the workforce maybe for what you're doing right now.

And to me, you don't need that $300,000 today. There's no fire to put out with selling it today and getting $300,000. So I like the idea of locking it in for 30 years and making almost a million dollars. I mean you can just invest that money if you want, and that becomes a whole new nest egg for you guys 30 years from now. That's incredible. So because you're on Baby Step 7, if you were like, hey, we've got a pile of debt over here we've got to clean up, I might say, hey, let's sell that thing, get rid of this debt, and we can restart on real estate investing down the line. But because of where you guys are at, you have options, and that's the beauty of Baby Step 7.

You guys have done really well. Thank you. Way to go. Thank you so much for the call, Aya. Awesome. All right, we're going to zach in dallas texas zach welcome to the ramsey show hey george and thanks for pronouncing my name right i actually thought you were going to misspell that yeah z-e-c-h kelly's a great help i will say that how you doing i'm pretty good um wondering if you and dr john have some tips on how i can help kind of coach my

sister-in-law through the college application process without scaring her stressing her out with all the things that go with it what what has put you in this coach role are you just wanting to help her she asked for it um part of the question if you have a tip on this i want to ask her if she will help me with it and talk to her mom about it as well but it's also because like i'm pretty much the only ramsey follower in the family and i know like i've watched barb future i watched your uh fine print episode on the student loan crap and i don't want to see her go through that i want to see her succeed on what she wants to do because she's a very talented girl.

She wants to go into performing arts and stuff and she's filling out some process, some applications and stuff, but I'm trying to figure out how to talk to her about some of this stuff, like the dangers of loans and stuff and how to avoid those. Go through the process.

So part of the reason I'm asking for help, I'm a little too practical and I don't know how to just, if I go into this blind, I'm going to say something that's going to scare her out of listening.

Yes. So here's an important thing I want you to hang on to and I want you to wrap your heart up in this, okay? You cannot make her do anything. You cannot coach somebody that doesn't want to be coached. You can only reach out and say, I would love to help if you're willing to accept it. Or I'd love to go to take you to coffee and

talk to you about the student loan, talk to you about how to apply to colleges, but you're inserting yourself into a process you haven't been asked to enter, and that usually ends up in messed up relationships. And so you're asking for an invitation to a party you weren't invited to. And I think your heart is good, and I'm glad you're asking for that invitation. I say go for it. But don't approach it with, hey, y'all aren't that smart, and I just watched a documentary

and I'm going to teach y'all about that. I've had my friends who are vegans do that to me. I've had my friends who are fill in the blank. They watch a documentary and they call and, uh, Hey, we need to go talk about this. And it usually ends up in, Oh my gosh. So it's best to say, Hey, I would love to reach out to you. And, um, I'd love to love to uh if you'd be interested in this conversation what we're going to do is hang on the line here we're going to send you a copy of um anthony o'neill's debt-free degree that i'm going to send it to you for free and you can give that to her and you can say hey i got a gift for you i would love to sit down and talk to you about how to apply for college how student loans work and see if we can come up with a solution there.

I want you to not just have a lot of info about how much student loans suck. I want you to have some info on how to actually apply for college, how to get scholarships, how to take two years of free community college, if that works in your state, and then how you transfer that on and on and on and on. Go with some information and some data, not just a fired-up spirit. Yeah, and I think even getting her to maybe watch the BARD Future documentary with you. Hey, Friday night, hey, you want to hang out? Let's catch up. I've got this great documentary if you want to watch it with me. That could open up the conversation to where maybe she's starting to ask some questions,

and that's when you can step in. But the phrasing of it, it felt like, hey, she needs some coaching. It's like John's coming into me and saying, George, I'm going to be your personal trainer. And I was like, John, I didn't know I was overweight and need to get fit. Well, now it's a personal attack. Well, I mean, let's be honest. Who are you going to trust, America, when it comes to fitness? Me or John DeLong?

But, hey, that's actually a great thought is when you walk up to somebody and you look at them and you're like, you need to get in the gym. I've got a workout plan for you. I mean, no one's going to listen to you after that. I'm immediately upset. That's right. If you knock on somebody's door and say, hey, I just had my life changed, and I'd love to share it with you. Are you interested?

Then you might get an audience there. That's a different spirit. But I love the heart behind it, Zach. We're rooting for you as you coach her through this college process to get her to avoid student loan debt. This is The Ramsey Show. Work doesn't have to suck. There's a reason you can't shake the feeling you were meant for more than just another J-O-B. 61% of people aren't even engaged at work, let alone doing work they love.

That's why Ken Coleman, America's career coach and national best-selling author, wrote his new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. And it's available for pre-order right now. If you're looking to change jobs, get hired, or trying to figure out the work you were uniquely made to do, you need this book. Ken walks you through the proven stages that landed him his dream job and thousands of others. Plus, if you pre-order From Paycheck to Purpose today, you'll receive our Get Hired bonus

pack valued at over $100 for free. It includes the audio book, e-book, resume, templates, the Get Hired digital course, and more. Pre-order from Paycheck to Purpose at RamseySolutions.com. If you aren't strapped with student loan payments, odds are you know someone who is. Millions of people are putting their lives on hold. They can't buy a house or have kids because they're stuck. Or even worse, they're waiting and waiting and waiting for the government to save them with student loan forgiveness. What a joke.

Our team has produced a brand new documentary feature film called Borrowed Future and it is out now. It uncovers the dark side of the student loan industry and exposes how the system is built to work against you. to arm parents and students across the country with the truth that you do not have to take out loans to get a college education. You can graduate debt-free and avoid the predatory student loan industry. Borrowed Future is available to watch now, and you can find it on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, or at BorrowedFuture.com. Dude, I'm excited about this, man.

So pumped. The feedback has been... Yeah, it's burning through, man. Incredible. We are giving this away to teachers. I want to america know that i didn't know that if you are a teacher or if you are a youth pastor you've got you are leading teens in your life we want to show this for free so you can access this go to bar of future.com you can scroll down and click on the link if you are a teacher or in that in that realm where you are trying to influence the next generation, which is a difficult task.

And so to have an 88-minute documentary you can push play on that says it for you, that is a game changer. So I'm real excited. And you did a great job in this, John, really unpacking what you've seen because you've been in the education world for a long, long time. And I love it. You loved it so much you left. Well, I mean, I do.

I believe in it and I love it you you loved it so much you left well i mean i i do i believe in it and i love it um and i think it's important for our country i think it's important for individuals and it's got to be another way got to be another way man yeah it's not the only path we've got to reimagine student loans aren't the only path college isn't the only path and we are we're very pro-education we always have to caveat yeah we love education you've got to do it the right way. And you don't want to leave college with $100,000, $50,000 in student loan debt wondering, wait, I thought this was supposed to set me up for adulthood. No, I was there, man.

We had six figures. And I remember pacing my house at night. My wife was asleep wondering what we were going to do. And I was still in school. So, I mean, it was like the meter was still running. You know what I mean? And I didn't, I mean,

that's one of the most desperate feelings of my life. Not having enough money to pay my bills. The meter's running. I'm just racking them up because I'm halfway through a program and I don't know how we're going to do this. Like, I just don't know how we're going to figure it out.

And so, yeah, it's, there's, I love it. I'm all in on college and universities and we've got to do it a different way. Yep.

It's hard, man. Check it out. Borrowedfuture.com or Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and Google Play. All right. Open phone lines this hour. The number to call is 888-825-5225. Bob joins us in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Bob, welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hey. Thanks for having me, guys. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Thank you. What's up, man? Well, I turned 62 years old this year, and that means that I could potentially, well, I will have access to my self-employment pension.

So you talk about education. I am an educator. I teach boating education, as uh drive a boat on the water very cool and um how long have you done that for bob i've been doing it for a good part of 12 13 years now very cool man prior to that i was uh self-employed as a mobile disc jockey which part is all that good stuff stuff and prior to that working at a pharmaceutical company realized that i didn't really want to work in corporate america but anyway well the first time i took my boat out i recognized in short order i probably should have

had some classes on how to even do what i'm doing he needed you bob where were you bob i'm glad there are people like you out in the world keeping the water safe from people like me. So what's up, man? I do my best at it. I really do. And on top of that, I really, really enjoy what I do. So I'm really blessed. And so the challenges that I have, notice I didn't say problems.

The challenges that I have are all first world challenges. I do have debt and I have money to pay it off. I'm just looking for some common-sense advice here on how to go about doing that. Now, again, emergency fund, taking care of plenty of money in the SEP. Between my wife's 403B and my SEP, we have plenty to cover these debts. However, I just want to throw these things at you. We have a mortgage. We put solar on top of our house, and I purchased that as opposed to leasing it.

We have a car loan, and my son has a loan that I want to get some advice on. He's working towards becoming a commercial pilot. So the loan rates could be a little better. And I think with my credit rating, I might be able to do well, too. So talk to me on what would be the best way to pay these off. So, Bob, you said you have a car loan for your own personal debt. You've got the mortgage, your personal mortgage, and a car loan. That's it for you? The solar loan as well. Oh, I thought you said you purchased it

outright. Oh, you took a loan out. Yes. Okay. Well, again, purchase as opposed to lease. Oh, lease. Okay. All right. So you've got the solar. I collect the solar renewable energy credits. In New Jersey, they're very forward-thinking, and for each SREC, I'm getting $220 put right into my bank account. Okay, all right, so here's what we teach is the baby steps, of course, the debt snowball, and you said you already have an emergency fund and you have the cash to pay for it. Is this cash in the retirement accounts, or is it liquid in a savings?

Yes, it is. Yes, it is. So you don't have the money in a savings account in cash to pay for it. You would have to dip into those retirement funds at this point. That is correct. Okay. What's the car loan? How much on that? It's $23,000. And what about the solar? The solar is $43,000. Woo! That's going to take a while to ROI on, even at $200. Well, because I have an electric vehicle, that actually has taken it down to, according to my calculation, if I included that without the electric vehicle charging, my payback is 7.67 years. Is that what the salesperson told you?

Or is that when you include the gas too? I did take the 30% federal tax credit. Okay. All right. So the car loan is going to go first, Bob. So that's what we have to tackle first. I don't know what the car is worth. Is it worth more than $23,000?

Yeah, it's a 2020 Tesla. So it's roughly worth... I paid $50,000 for it, so I'm going to say it's probably $45,000 now.

Well, if you want to do it the Ramsey way, you're going to have to line these up from smallest to largest. If I'm you right now, Bob, truthfully, I'm probably selling the Tesla until we're in a better financial spot. Well, household income, it varies because of my business, but it's generally between $150,000 and $200,000. Okay. So, I mean, you can hang on to the car there. You got $20,000 left on it? $23,000. $200,000. Okay. So, I mean, you can hang on to the car there. You got $20,000 left on it? $23,000.

$23,000. So, we got about $66,000 total in debt that is non-mortgage, Bob, from what I'm hearing. And with your income, could you not pay this off in the next eight months? Yeah. It should be done in less than a year. Pay that off. Your car? Pay off everything.

And do it with your income. If that makes the most sense that's you know i could i could definitely do that so i would love to see you and your wife just buckle down for 10 months and pay off the solar and pay off your car and then knock out this mortgage how much you got left in your mortgage uh it's uh 60k oh bob what are you doing bob you could be done with this whole thing in a year. Done. Max two years. Then you're, what, 64? And then you're doing somersaults out in the street with no shirt on because you don't owe anybody any money.

And then you could be like, you know what, I don't work on Wednesdays just because I don't want to. How much do you have in retirement accounts? Well, that's like I said. We have first world problems, $2.5 million. Oh, my gosh. Bob, I retract this entire phone call. You're not allowed to call me anymore.

Let's go back to square one, Bob. In fact, this is normally a free call. It's in my set. Yeah. No, you're killing it, dude. You're crushing it. I wouldn't touch the retirement, Bob. You can cash flow this whole thing and let that retirement grow and not unplug it quite yet.

Absolutely. Yeah, pay the stuff off before the year's over. And stop touching debt, Bob. Stop touching debt. Get away from it. No more debt, no more loans, no more anything. You can do this, man. You got this.

You're a Baby Steps millionaire. We just got to follow the plan to a T to do it the right way. This is The Ramsey Personality, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast. My co-host today, Dr. John Deloney, bestselling author of Redefining Anxiety and host of the Dr. John Deloney Show. We're taking your calls on pretty much everything, money, life, relationships, mental health. Give us a call, 888-825-5225 is the number. Marie joins us in Cincinnati, Ohio. Marie, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you so much. Absolutely. How can John and I help? Well, I purchased a house six years ago for $27,000. I worked on it, which I've always loved to do. And I recently sold it for, well, actually

sold it for 237. And then after commission and tithe and giving to my church, I have 188,000. Way to go, Marie. Congratulations, Marie. How did you do that? How much did he put into it and repairs? Well, I did a lot of the work. Well, sadly, my husband passed away January 31st, so we were doing it together. He's with the Lord Jesus. It isn't easy, but it is hope that, you know, we will see each other. So we did it together, and then he got sick, and then I just, I've always known how to have tools. I mean, I've always known how to do things. So we bought it for $27,000 when the market was not so hot.

And we put in, like, the things that we couldn't repair, like the roof and the electric and the plumbing we put in about 30 000 um and so that's how we did it wow wow you number one so we're so sorry for your loss sounds like your husband was an incredible guy huh he he really was it it's um it was difficult, really, really difficult. But, you know, it would be harder without Zika. So, you know, it's been hard. It's easier now, but, I mean, it's only been since January. Well, yeah, and it's okay for it to stay hard for a long, long time. Y'all were together for a while, and he sounds like he was a great guy. And, man, I'm so sorry for your loss.

And on the other side, congratulations for seeing this project through and finishing it. And, wow, $188,000 y'all cleared. Wow. So what's your whole financial picture, Marie? Are you okay financially? Obviously, you've got a big pile of money here. Do you have a primary residence that you're currently living in? Well, I'm actually, when I sold my house like two weeks ago, let's say two and a half weeks ago, I moved in with my sister who's down the

street. We're super close. It's just she and I together. And so my expenses went from no homeowner's insurance or any of those things to my monthly expenses of like $300. I don't have a car payment. I don't have credit card debt. I don't have a school loan. I just have my monthly expenses. I can live on nothing because that's just the way we were raised. My parents were immigrants from Santiago, Chile, and they taught us how to live

with little and make money in this beautiful America, so we did. What a legacy. That's awesome. So now you're sitting here, you've got no debt, and you've got a pile of cash, and you're not looking to buy a house anytime soon, because you're living with your sister, and you've got a great situation there. Right. Because the long-term goal is to, I'm going to help my sister get her house ready and then we're going to sell her house and then we want to buy land. But it's just, I just don't know what to do with the money now because I'm not going to be doing that for another year and a half. I don't want to sit in a bank doing nothing. Sure.

So it's still a pretty short time horizon if you're talking about 18 months from now. So I wouldn't go throwing it into the stock market because of the volatility. From now to 18 months from now, you could lose money. So I get that you don't want to put it in a bank and it's not going to grow by much. In a money market account or a good high-yield savings account, you're probably looking at about a half a percent. And so it's not super exciting to see that money grow at such a slow pace. But right now what I want to do is protect this money more than I want to see it grow astronomically because of the short time horizon. Now, if you said, hey, five years from now I want to do this, I would say, all right, let's put it in some good mutual funds and watch this thing grow for five years. So a high yield savings account would be your best bet right now for that

$188,000 as you figure out what those next steps are. And make sure you have an emergency fund in place. Do you currently have three to six months of expenses? I know you don't have a lot of expenses. I don't. I just have, that's all I have is $188,000. To your name. Okay. So I'm going to take six months of expenses, which for you that might be really low, but you can park that in a savings account and don't touch that. That's just for emergency situations that are unexpected, urgent, and necessary. So maybe $15,000, $20,000 you put in a savings account, yeah, or in a checking account. And when your transmission falls out of your car, it will be annoying, not catastrophic.

No stress. Got it. Got it. Do you have anything in retirement? Do you have a nest egg that you've been growing? I don't. I never worked corporate. I raised my sons as a stay-at-home mom, and then when my sons became men and they didn't need me, which was great,

I kind of went back to my love, which is I'm an artist. I just take vintage things, take them apart, and put them back together as jewelry and things like that. So my income has never been good, and so I've never had a retirement. Did your husband leave you with any retirement from his professional career? Nothing. Okay. No. And how old are you professional career? Nothing. Okay. No. And how old are you?

I'm 54. Okay. That actually changes the conversation. Yeah, the big question mark for me is how are you going to live in retirement? I mean, if you burn through this $188 in cash and you bought some land, you'd have $0 to your name and nothing in retirement to even pay for those expenses. So that's my bigger worry right now is that you may need to get a job to bring in some income to start to build a nest egg for the next decade and park that money aside. And maybe we don't start doing investment property

until we know we're in a good place for retirement. Do you have any sort of health insurance, life insurance, anything like that? Nope. Yeah, you may want to consider, not may, I'm going to strongly recommend you sit down with a Xander representative and walk through what it would look like to get some health insurance over the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years. Were you able to cash flow your husband's illness? No. You know, the illness, he was an amazing person, and he did construction as his career.

Okay. But he died. It's kind of embarrassing, even though he's not here. He died of alcohol abuse. Okay. Okay. embarrassing even though he's not here he died of alcohol abuse okay okay and um and so with that said you know he had his good days and his bad days um and so he didn't leave anything he didn't do anything as far as savings or thinking of the future. That was always my job. That was always like put money aside or go get the regular job or go do the shows that I would do. It was never on his radar.

So Marie, here's what I want to do. We're going to give you a year subscription to Ramsey plus, and I want you to sit with your sister and I want together. I want y'all to go through every one of these lessons together. Everything from a $1,000 emergency fund, paying off your debts, which y'all have already done, to

baby step three and four and building an emergency fund and then talking about insurance, talking about investing and it's going to lay it all out there for you and I want y'all to do this together because you're going to need somebody to walk alongside you and she's going to need someone to walk alongside her because y'all are going to be learning this stuff for the

first time in your 50s. And it's going to alter your dream. I'm telling you right now, it's going to alter your dream, but it's going to be right. And it might be for the first time in 50 years that you sleep

all night. Okay. The first time you think about the future and your heart doesn't start racing on you. Okay? Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Does that sound good? It does. It sounds great. It'd be pretty cool, huh? To sleep. Yeah. Yeah. Or to not worry if we get sick,

we're going to be bankrupt, right? Yeah. Yeah. And that's why I called, because this is a lot of money, but it's all I have. That's right. So it's a lot of money, and it's not a lot of money all at the same time. And Marie, one more step for you. I want you to go to RamseySolutions.com.

Click on Trusted Pros. I want you to get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros to teach you what you need to do with this money when it comes to investing. I think this is now your retirement nest egg. This is not land fund money. Absolutely not, yeah. So that's what you need to do with this money when it comes to investing. I think this is now your retirement nest egg. This is not land fund money. Absolutely not, yeah. So that's what you need to do. Appreciate the call. We're rooting for you.

That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, producer, Kelly Daniel, and Austin, screening the phones back there, and you, America, and, of course, Dr. John Deloney. We'll be back with you before you know it. This is The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.