The Ramsey Show - App - How Can I Protect My Savings From Inflation? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

George Kamel & Dr. John Delony discuss: Building a home vs. buying one, Preparing for med school, Selling the house to pay off debt, Protecting savings from inflation. 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving, and storage studios, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, George Campbell, joined today by the infamous Dr. John Deloney. Some call it the dream team, some call it America's nightmare, and you get to choose today as you listen in. I don't think anyone's ever called us the dream team.

No, that was just me. That was aspirational. I appreciate your aspirations. Well, we are here for you, America. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. John Deloney, he can answer almost every question, but he's really great at the ones concerning mental health, relationships, boundaries, marriage, you name it. And I'll jump in on the money questions and nerd out with you. So if you're trying to get out of debt,

you've got some anxiety, you're going through a hard time like I am right now, John, very emotional to start off the show. But we're a dream team, so I'll pick up when you go through hard times. That's what we're going to do. That's a great teammate. Well, John is kicking us off in Knoxville, Tennessee. John, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for everything you guys do. Sure. How can we help today? I'm looking for some advice, opinions on hopefully purchasing our first home in six to eight months. Cool. And I can give some context on that.

Please do. All right. So I'm on baby step three B. So we have zero debt. We just had our second daughter one week ago. Congrats. That was a big thing. I appreciate it. And we have officially outgrew our 800 square foot home. It's actually in my dad's name. We've been living here for a while, and we're needing a bigger home for sure now. Are you paying him rent?

No, we pay all the land taxes for the 13 acres, so that's the majority of what we do. Awesome. One important piece of information is my wife and I, we have in, uh, or our oldest daughter currently in private school and we're not a fan of public and homeschool. So that has a big play to do with this new home that we're wanting to get into. In what way? Financially? So we, yeah, we live pretty far away from any kind of private school, about 50 minutes. We're driving one way now. So our first option that we have is my dad actually gifted us five acres of land. It's in our name. So we would have to build though, and that would require 60 to $80,000 in land prep.

So of course that takes away from the amount of home that we can build. And of course we're very far away from the school, almost an hour one way. So that's one option. That's on the five acres, you're an hour away? Yeah, correct. And that's currently where we're at now. It's just the next mountain over where we would build. And then our second option we're thinking about is moving to the city,

renting for a little bit, and then buying a house if we like the area, probably actually in the Knoxville area. We'd be close to the school, but then we'd be very far away from both my parents and my wife's parents. And our oldest daughter is completely against moving. So that's that part too. How old is she? Only eight years old. Okay. So there's a reason why we, as a society, have all pitched in and we've all said, hey, you know what? Let's don't let eight-year-olds buy beer or guns or drive because they're eight, right? So just for whatever it's worth, she gets zero votes. None.

No votes at all. Gotcha. You could move her to the moon, and if you're good parents, she's going to be fine. So she doesn't get a vote. I'll jump back in there. Let me back out a little bit. Let me tell you this. I've learned this the hard way with two kids.

I moved out to the woods, and it was good for our family. And from moving downtown Nashville to into the woods with two kids it's been awesome and my wife spends an incredible amount of time in the car and it definitely takes away from um so many other things that we had dreamed of doing simply getting to and from different places. And so I would much rather see you build a life worth living and then go to your parents on the weekends versus here's what you're trying to do. You're trying to keep your life exactly the same and you just added another kid and you'll have this value, which is where you'd rather drive two

hours a day than send our kids to public school and be invested in the public school system and help it grow and morph and change. We want to spend two hours in the day in the car. You see what I'm saying? You're creating all these variables for yourself, and then you're frustrated that your life isn't smooth. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yes, it does. Based on everything you just told me, I'm going with your second option, which is we're going to move into the city.

We're going to buy a house there when we're ready to do it. Maybe that means we rent for a year or two while we save up. How much money do you have saved right now for 3B? We currently have $15,000 for our emergency fund. We have about $10,000 towards the house, but in six to eight months, we should have about $30,000 to put down. So what I'm hearing is every six months you can save up another $20,000. Yeah, we have $3,000 minimum months going towards a down payment.

Okay, so that means $40,000 a year, which means in two years you could have $80,000 on top of your $10,000, which puts it at $90,000. And now we're looking at a healthier down payment because I'm guessing to live in the city is going to be more expensive. Yeah, but we're currently not paying rent right now, so that will play an effect with how quickly we can spend

if we move to the city, for sure. Great. The other thing would be just gritting your teeth for another 18, 24 months at the 800-square-foot house. Yeah. You just said.

That's definitely an option. It's rough, but it's an option. Yeah. Your eight-year-old say, oh, yeah, you get so few votes, you get to sleep in a tent in the backyard for the next two years. Don't do that for real. Hey, let me ask you, what do you pay in private school tuition? It's $400 a month.

Okay. And that's worth it to your family? Oh, yeah, for sure a month. Okay. And that's worth it to your family? Oh, yeah, for sure. Okay. Okay. Well, I think you have your answer. If you want to stick it out there for a while, do that until you can't stand it any longer,

and then we're moving to the city and probably renting for another year because we need a lot more money saved up because I want you to do this the right way, the smart way, and not with impulse. That means a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage with 10% to 20% down if you're able to, and have that payment be no more than a quarter of your take-home pay. So that gives you your timeline parameters pretty easily. You don't really have to wonder at that point. So start looking around and see what you can get in that area. And I'm sure there's some great spots you can rent, and it's going to

be a lot more than you're paying now because right now you're paying pennies. So that's going to be part of your budget. All right. Thank you so much. Yeah, man. Thanks so much for the call. Good luck with the move and the changes. George, I see this a lot where people just want to have all of it. You want the cake and you want to eat it. And they don't want it to be uncomfortable, right? And I made this mistake. I've talked about this from stage. Whenever my wife said she was pregnant, I thought to myself, okay, cool.

Nine to ten months-ish, and then I'll get my wife back, right? And I didn't even know what that meant. I just thought then we'll be able to go back to our crazy life we had when we were single. We'll just have another human, and they'll be fine. And then after a few months, after my son was born, I was like i was like it's probably gonna be a little bit longer probably another 12 months and then then all we can go back to the way things were and there's no going back right and so now they've reached they've crossed a new line which is oh we have a second kid and that would mean if we're going to choose to continue to do private school that's two tuitions and 50 minutes in the car here

and all of a sudden this life we had imagined is very different. It's more complex. You have to reconstruct your house every time you have a major change in it. Amen. And I lived in a 900 square foot house growing up. I feel like this dates me here, John, but we survived. Everybody lives. You sit on one couch.

It's fine. You don't need that much space. Well, you're not a huge guy. That's true. Thanks for reminding America. It's your show, America't need that much space. Well, you're not a huge guy. That's true. Thanks for reminding America. It's your show, America. 888-825-5225. well it's no secret we love talking money around here but we know not everybody feels that way and that's why rachel cruz and myself started thinking about what it would be like to talk money for those of you who'd rather just have fun. So last week, we launched a brand new Ramsey Network podcast

called Smart Money Happy Hour. Rachel and I, we dig into the stuff you and your friends would talk about at your weekly happy hour. Things like pop culture, what's going on in the world, and how you can afford the life you love. It's fun, casual, entertaining money advice that will make you feel less stressed and more in control of your money. Plus, we have a really good time. Some call it hilarious. That's a review from John Deloney on Apple Podcasts. Thank you for that one, John. You and Rachel Cruz are the original dream team. Wow. It's called Regis Philbin, and I took that as a compliment. I would take that all the way to the compliment bank. Regis and Kathy Lee. And we promise, while it's entertaining,

you actually will walk away learning something. There's some good takeaways in there. So if this sounds like something you're interested in, go ahead and subscribe to Smart Money Happy Hour wherever you listen to podcasts. That way you'll get notified every single Thursday when we release a new episode. We've got two out already.

It charted at number one. Number one, man. Congratulations. All weekend. Thank you. On the business charts, it's number one on Spotify and the business charts as well as Apple. And we charted at number one all weekend. Thank you. On the business charts, it's number one on Spotify and the business charts as well as Apple. And we charted at number 19 overall out of all the podcasts in the world, which is amazing. So thank you all for sharing, subscribing, leaving your feedback, leaving reviews, five stars, all of it.

We super appreciate it. The team has done an incredible job with this one. All right. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. Brian is up next in Bowling Green. Brian, welcome to the show. Hey, what's going on, man? Not much. How are you? What can we help with today? Well, I'm kind of in a crossroads right now. Right now, I'm about $48,837 in student loan debt. I'm in the middle of trying to become a doctor MD and I'm trying to get a good MCAT score and get in as I'm in between jobs. I'm just trying

to find something that I can do. And I have a couple of offers, a car salesman position, a retail position over at Sam's, or maybe try and find something in a hospital. I'm not sure who's going to be getting to me first, but what do you guys suggest? Well, on first blush, the hospital one seems like it would give you some valuable experience, since that's where you're wanting to go. Yes, it's just that they're taking forever to get back to me, and I'm looking at the pay, and hopefully, I'm not sure how long this interim of uh solid payments is going to last out i'm not

sure if they're going to extend it again depending on what happens in november and whatnot they're not going to and um here's what's concerning and so i've spent the um the last few years before I came to Ramsey Solutions researching the mental health of attorneys and lawyers. Attorneys and doctors and a couple other groups. The doctors who are successful, you can't keep them out of the medical service profession and I'm already concerned about why you would want to go to med school and also be considering a job selling used cars is this just a simply a I need it's a dollars and cents thing I can just make way more money doing this right now because if you already like well you know if it's worth it right now, or they're taking forever, dude, medical school is going to eat your lunch.

Why do you want to be a doctor? To be able to help people and do work that truly matters. To be able to take someone who's suffering and be able to help them out in a reasonable and impact their life greatly. So how can anybody in the world keep you out of a hospital right now? Sweeping floors, doing whatever it takes. Yeah. I mean, just not much there. I've been fighting for this for coming know coming on a decade now and i'm

i'm still plugging i'm still fighting i'm just trying to find some way to keep the lights on right now there you go okay that's that's what i didn't know that's cool and the other side of any sort of long-term dream like this right is i'll do anything it takes in the interim to make this thing happen so i honor that too man that's good good for you um i just want to make sure you know what you're biting off but you sounds like you this has been your dream for a long long time oh trust me i did quantitative analysis in organic chemistry trust me i know what i'm getting you've paid your debt hey if you can get through okay man you can get through much so um i'll turn over to george with the with the with the dollars and cents part of this um go ahead and buckle up for education institutions medical institutions

they move glacially just got to settle in man it's just the dmv it takes it's it's like the dmv if the dmv wanted to slow things down a bit. Ouch. Right. Are there other hospitals in your area that you've checked out? Yes, I've gone through the major ones that are in the area, and today I'm going to start applying to the smaller clinics, just literally anything. I would focus my energy on small clinics.

I keep hearing anecdotally about the shortages on everything from cleaners to people running gurneys to people running the morgue area. I mean, just shortages everywhere. And so, yeah, I would get my applications out all over the place. And in the meantime, if you want to go work at a wholesale club to make $20 an hour so that you can start stacking up some cash, that's great. And then you can move on. If you get a full-time role at a hospital doing what you want to do, that's great too. Yeah, I mean, you know, dreams are nice, but, you know, the rent's going to first. Yes, yeah.

You can't pay your light bill with, you know, dragon's tears. You've got to actually go make real money. I love that you're willing to do whatever it takes right now and willing to be scrappy about it. That tells me you're off to a good start. Don't take the delay as something personal. It's just, it's the nature of that beast right now. And so go just keep grinding and grinding. Someone's going to be lucky to have you. Thanks for the call, Brian. Appreciate it. Kelsey's up next in Baton Rouge. Kelsey, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you. I wanted to get your

advice. My husband and I are trying to make a difficult decision. We're on our debt-free journey and we've got two daughters that are young but exceptionally talented at gymnastics and we're trying to decide if we should sell our home to become debt-free and to be able to continue to support their gymnastics or should we stay in our home and maybe pull them out so that we can really kickstart our baby step journey? Wow. Why is selling the house your first option? We have a lot of equity in our home, and I guess sometimes we just feel like we'd be pretty happy in a more modest home. That's a reason to sell it, not so that we can be able to ship our kids all over the country. Yeah.

I'm really hesitant for you to use your kids as an excuse to make any sort of decision. You all need to make what's the best decision for your family and your living needs and your financial situation, and then the kids come on the back end of that. Sure. They can't carry the weight of their parents' hopes and dreams. We sold the house for you to do gymnastics, and now you don't want to do gymnastics anymore? Now you just want to smoke cigarettes? Yeah.

And they can't carry that weight. You know what I mean? They can't. We wouldn't want to do that. I will say we originally had planned on selling our home so we could quickly become debt free and have that piece since my husband's our sole provider. We're ready to get there. But then we recently had the thought that we could just take them out of gymnastics and make it work to stay in this house, which is where I guess. How much is gymnastics costing you? Gymnastics for both of them, total is $870 a month.

Wow. And that doesn't include travel, does it? It doesn't, but the majority of our meets are local, and I'm pretty sure we have the option to decline any travel at this stage since they're so young. So something in your gut says taking them out on the table? What is it? Um, it is a lot of money. Um, and if we took them out, I guess, crunching the numbers, either way, we end up hopefully with a paid for house at 40 years old, completely debt free. Um,

but one option is they're still in gymnastics, we're in a more modest home whereas the other option is staying in this home taking them out and and then we have a much nicer home that's paid for i would look at cutting all other expenses increasing income taking on side jobs and staying in the home and selling the home to me is a last ditch option unless you guys just hate this house and want to move anyways but that's a huge step to take just to keep affording gymnastics. Yeah. Again, I would not do this because of gymnastics. If gymnastics, if you're able to afford it because you've done this, fine.

I always want parents to ask themselves, are we keeping our kids in after-school sports and elite travel stuff to fulfill our dreams or for our kids? Because most kids just want time with their parents. I'm George Camel, host of The Fine Print and co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour podcast, hosting today with my friend Dr. John Deloney, host of The Dr. John Deloney Show. You can check out all of those shows on the Ramsey Network and wherever you listen to podcasts. Open phones this hour, 888-825-5225. Let's talk about your life, your money, boundaries, relationships, mental health issues. We are here to serve you, America.

Mike joins us up next in Columbus, Ohio. Mike, welcome to the show. Hey, good afternoon. Good afternoon in Columbus, Ohio. Mike, welcome to the show. Hey, good afternoon. Good afternoon to you, sir. I've been saving to purchase a home and have been looking for the last year or so. Hasn't been much of an opportunity on the market. I'm currently renting. I've built up a fairly large liquid cash position as I've been saving up, and I'm worried about the impact of

inflation on that particular savings. Sure. How much do you have? Currently in liquid, $105,000. Awesome. And where is that currently saved? It's currently in a bank savings account. Making probably 0.001%? Yeah. You can do better than that. Mike, you said disappointed in Mike. Now, have you heard about a high-yield savings account online? Yes and no.

For the most part, I've been just parking money and haven't really been thinking about it much. Okay. We love a savings account for that kind of short-term savings. I don't want you investing this money, but there are better options for savings accounts. And one is that online high yield savings account. I've got one right now. I'm getting 2.6%, which is incredible compared to what it's been the last few years. So interest rates have been climbing on those savings accounts, which is great. So you can do a lot better on that money if you moved it over. Interestingly enough, is that 2.6% compounded or is that annual? That would be annual, but it would get compounded because you get 2.6% every year. And so as you earn that 2.6, you're going to earn 2.6 on that amount now.

And so it's a great deal to keep your cash liquid. Yes, you could invest it in the market, but as we've seen, my 401k is down like 25%. So I'd be real upset if I was in the stock market. I'm not even looking at mine. John just doesn't look. Probably not the best. So Mike, that's what I would do if I was in your shoes. You're on to a great start. I mean, is that enough money to get you a down payment right now for the house you're looking at? Yep, it is.

And about 20% for the range that I'm looking at, which is pretty good. What's your hang-up? There's something not sitting in your soul right. What is it um immediacy of action because i'm looking to purchase a house right now i'm going i've been renting for a little bit i'm going to month to month okay because i had a house that was lined up uh with a good offer and it kind of fell through okay Okay. You working with a good agent? I believe so, yeah. Okay. I have a tendency, Mike,

to get frustrated with a situation and go do something to shake the snow globe and I make a mess. So the hardest part for you is to not let this 100 grand burn a hole in your pocket and your frustration with renting make you do, make a foolish long-term

decision whether that's to go dump all this money into an index fund and lose 10 of it over the next year because the market is still fluctuating and you need the cash or to go buy a house that you really don't like but you're just sick of all man you need to just be patient even if you have a friend you say hey your job is to make ask me these questions before i could do something stupid. You're not going to earn 20%. You're not going to earn back inflation. You're not going to earn back 8.3 or 8.6, whatever it is. You're not going to earn that back in a liquid account. You're just not. You got to make peace with inflation is what it is, but I am interested in holding onto this cash right now. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. Can I ask you one other question really quick?

Sure. How would you differentiate this from an emergency savings account, and how would you handle the two differently? I mean, I would keep them in different accounts so that I don't go into the cookie jar and then go, oh, that was my emergency fund, but I keep the majority of my emergency fund in a high-yield online savings account. And so that's where I would tell you to

put that home savings as well. Now they're different. So I would leave them in separate accounts. You can create multiple accounts with those banks. But I'm looking at the numbers now, you could be making 2,700 bucks a year right now if it was in a high yield savings instead of close to zero. That comes out to a little over 200 bucks a month. But let me tell you, Mike, the secret sauce is not the interest rate. It's Mike. You putting money away, living on less than you make, that is the secret sauce to beating inflation, not a savings rate. And you've done that. You've done it, man. I mean, how many people look up and go, I got 100 grand in the bank, and I'm ready to buy a house, and I'm ready to do it the smart way. So now you've done the work. You said 100 grand was enough to get this house, right?

So now it's the game of patience, like John's talking about, going, well, I want to buy the right house, and not just because I'm sick of renting. Because this is the biggest purchase you've ever made in your life, right? Yep. So I'm going to walk with a lot of caution, a lot of wisdom, work with a great real estate agent, and desperation leads to bad financial decisions. And when you can do it with patience and you're not in a rush, that's when you can actually get the best deal because you're not feeling impulsive to just get it now

and not negotiate and take your time and walk away if it's not a great deal. All right. So you've done great, man. The one move I'd make is just switching it over to high-yield savings account. And at least for now, you'll feel better making that $200 a month. So thanks for the question. It's a good one. And, George, you and I have talked about this offline just when we're hanging out in the green room somewhere,

talking about how we actually live these principles out in our own lives. And I have my emergency fund in the same place with my checking account. I may earn a high five every year, right, annually. For me, it's not worth, I need to pull up this bank, and I don't keep apps on my phone. So it's just a personal decision. I think the main thing is do you know where it is and can you get to it in the case of an emergency?

Is it liquid? Yeah, and we always say an emergency fund is insurance, not an investment. And a lot of people look at $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, and they're going, well, John, that's unsophisticated. You should put that. You could invest that money. That's the wise thing to do. It's not an investment.

It's meant to protect you. Yes, it's sleep insurance. There you go. I can go on a vacation, and if something goes wrong, that's fine. You got the money. Yeah, that's right. That's a good word. All right, Dave joins us up next in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Dave, welcome to the show. Well, thank you for taking my call today. Sure. How can we help? Well, real quickly, I'm 58 and a half, everyday millionaire, debt-free. I'm going to continue to work. When I'm 59 and a half and can utilize my 401k, is it okay to use it at that time to purchase a new vehicle and let that ride for a while and build back up and then purchase my wife a new vehicle and use that as a vehicle fund? Will you still be working at that point? That's correct. I'm still going to continue to work. I'm still going to continue to contribute to it. And I thought that might be just as simple as, as, you know, saving up and, and, uh, uh, using that fund for that. And you're completely debt free.

Yes, sir. Home and everything. Yep. Everything. I, I owe nothing, um, worth about, uh, 1.25. Way to go. And, uh, you know, we, we cashflow everything and, and, uh, just that's it. That's a lot of money to build up, you know, what a new vehicle costs. I thought, geez, you know, we cash flow everything, and that's a lot of money to build up. You know, what a new vehicle costs. I thought, geez, you know, if I can hang on with some old 2006 vehicles for another year, I can utilize that fund. But, you know, taking the current financial state of the country and everything, I just wondered if that was okay to do. So I want to ask a question to George. Dave, your question sparked a question with me, and so both of you answered this.

Why wouldn't Dave and or George, I guess, just stop making payments to the 401 and go ahead and just save up cash? It's going to take you a few months, but why would you end up owing yourself? I could do that, and I just wonder, is it six, one, half, the other? What would be the difference? I don't know. I guess my question is, why wouldn't you just save up and cashflow it with your income? I mean, you've done so great. You've stayed out of debt.

You're doing all this stuff the right way. I just wouldn't want to rob my retirement to start my retirement off as soon as you can pull the money out and rob the growth that's happening in that account. How much is in that account? One fund has right around 1 million and another one has about 200, 250,000. I mean, doing the math on what the compound growth of that account is today and taking 40 grand out of that to buy a car, it would just hurt me emotionally. And so I would go, I'm going to cash flow it and I'm probably going to make a different decision if I'm cash flowing it versus taking out of my retirement. And so I would just tread with caution there. There's nothing wrong with it. I just don't think you need to. And so I would just save up with your future income with savings

and do it that way versus robbing the retirement on day one. That's one man's take. But congrats, man. You've done a great job. Super happy for you. This is The Ramsey Show. our question of the day comes from blinds.com find out for yourself why they're the number one online retailer of custom window covering. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use promo code RAMSEY to get the best deal. All right, today's question comes from Marge in Florida. That's right, I said that right. Marge in Florida, that's right. All right, I've been going through various church videos on the YouTubes to try to connect to a good church in hopes of having a pastor inspire me to continue listening to his sermons.

Oh, boy. I thought I found one and was considering giving a donation. But when I went to the giving page on the website, there was a box I've not seen on other churches' sites. The option to give with stock or crypto. It surprised me because it's a new way to raise finances, but I'm not sure if there are tax implications. Have you heard of this happening and what's your take on this? Wow. This is honestly a first for me, John. I'm Googling it and there are many articles talking about how this is becoming a trend with churches offering this as an option why would the church accept a failing pseudo currency well that's the big question john that's where my heart's at you can give us cash check or just a

bucket of gravel we'll take that too yeah i mean my immediate take on this is a hard no yeah especially with this online church it's not a church she actually attends locally yeah so let me you can answer the stock and crypto part let me answer this um i don't believe in treating a church like a taco stand where you just go sample it until like when you ask yourself does this church entertain me what can this church do for me then you're entering into the conversation about church wrong um i would ask what can i bring to this particular group of people? How can we be with one another to help us get through the mess that is life? And not, is this person entertaining? Does this person inspire me today? There could be the greatest message in the world.

And if I've got the rockets, my guts aren't feeling good or something, I gotta go to the bath. I'm not gonna be inspired. So it's a faulty metric by which to judge a church. Find a place that you want to get invested in and just decide I'm going to be a part of this community. And then of course, if there's some,

like something that just violates your core values, then of course you can transition out. But it's just, it's just treating, it's like treating churches like Netflix. Like I'm just going to scan through and find that's just not how you do church. Yeah. The point there is

a huge part of it is community for sure. Now on the actual stock and crypto side I'm reading one of these articles and it's saying long time member Tim said he and other members were involved in Bitcoin realized there were considerable tax benefits to donating some of it. Which you know that's exactly why

we tell people to give to the church for the tax benefits. That's the heart that we want. And so the good news is you don't have to give in stock and crypto. You can give them if you truly trust the leadership team. I'm huge on transparency with church finances. If I don't know where the money's going, just like a nonprofit, I want to do my due diligence to make sure the money's being used wisely. And so I love when churches are very transparent about here's where the money's going. Here's what we're spending our money on. And my problem with doing crypto is, you know, if you give in Dogecoin and then Dogecoin tanks the next day because Elon sent a tweet out, well, now the kids can't go on the mission trip.

That's right. So this is a terrible stewarding of the money that the church is being given. So I don't agree with it just on a foundational level of churches accepting this. It's cool that they're trying to like meet you where you're at and be like, hey man, you like Bitcoin? We're cool. We're the cool church. But no, I have not heard of this. My take on it is no. And just all around no is the final answer. And I wouldn't. No, don't do it. I don't think my church accepts Bitcoin, and that is why I continue to go there.

So you do you, live your truth, but I will not be donating in Bitcoin because I want to actually see the church do great things, and I have not seen many people do great things through Dogecoin and fake meme coins, which they're going bankrupt and crashing and fraud and scams everywhere. It's like the whole thing

is coming, crashing down, John. I wonder if I'll be able to donate the curtains that I buy for my meta home. In the metaverse. If I could donate items, used items in the metaverse

to like a not real virtual fantasy church. That gives me an idea for an HGTV show where they renovate fake homes in the metaverse. Oh my goodness, this is incredible. And then it could really be, it could really be one of those moments

where they have the young couple and they're like 24 and like, this is Dan, 24, this is Susan. He dreams about websites and she mows lawns and their budget is 1.8 million. And they're going to spend most of it in, yes. This makes me happy. Well, hey, it's an interesting question, Marge,

and I appreciate you letting me know about it. All right, let's go back to reality, and Eric is actually with us on a real phone line in Ohio. All right, it's Lima. There we go, Lima, Ohio. Wonderful. Eric, welcome to the show. Thank you. Well, sorry, welcome to the show. Thank you.

Well, sorry, let me start over. Long-time listener, first-time caller. I had a question about a hospital bill. All right. My eight-month-old went into the ER. My wife stayed beside my daughter the entire time. I asked for an item on statement because the discharge paperwork, it said that they ran tests,

but they never ran tests. On the itemized statement, I'm getting charged roughly about $700 for tests that were never performed. Is there a chance, are these, what tests were they? COVID tests, RSV tests,

and other tests so sometimes well sometimes tests can they might draw one vial of blood and run five different spins off that one vial or they might

do a quick lung listen and call that a test. You're going to have a hard time fighting that because they get to classify what they consider a test. You and I might consider a COVID test, shoving that thing up your nose so far, it comes out your feet and all that. They might consider a COVID test.

We did a quick lung listen and we didn't hear any complications there. So we're going to count that as a COVID test. We did a quick lung listen, and we didn't hear any complications there, so we're going to count that as a COVID test and move on. And they're going to charge you $750 for that COVID test or whatever it was. I think you're going to be hard-pressed to push back on those tests. You can try. You can call the hospital administrator and ask for confirmation, but I think it's going to be hard-pressed.

So have you gotten any proof that they did conduct these tests? What was the read after you got the itemized bill and you called them back? We called them back, and they pretty much completely dodged the subject, changed the subject. They started talking about financial aid and how I can get financial aid to help cover the bill. They just completely changed the subject. They started talking about financial aid and how I can get financial aid to cover the bill. They just completely changed the subject when I mentioned about them. You might need to be the squeaky wheel.

And go in person. They've got a whole protocol for the phones. I'd go in person and sit down with an administrator. Because they're going to treat you as though you can't pay. And so they're... You see what I'm saying? They're trying to offload you to these financial aid. They think you have a question behind your question.

Your question is not, hey, you're stealing from me. You're charging me for tests you didn't perform. They think you're trying to say, hey, I can't pay this bill, and you're trying to take things off of the bill. And so it sounds like you could pay the $700, but this is more about principle. It's more of a moral slash principle. Yes. I'd almost rather go into collections for the bill versus paper service I never received. I have done that and I ended up

paying a bill out of collections, just so you know. I made my point. And then about a year later, my wife's like, are you done yet? And I was like, no, they didn't do it. And it was a hospital too. And she's like, okay, you let me know when you're done. And then I'm going to pay this bill. I've also played that game, John. It's just going to keep coming. I'm just like you, Eric. I was so angry. I was like, well, I was there for 20 minutes. How is this a $500 bill? And I have insurance. This is insane. And so I called, I was like, well, I was there for 20 minutes. How is this a $500 bill and I have insurance? This is insane. And so I called. I was like, I want to speak to your supervisor.

I turned into a male Karen. It was full blown. It was a nasty situation. And at the end of the day, they could not and would not help me. And so at that point, you just got to go, all right, I'm going to learn my lesson here. And next time I'm going to have to sign off on every single thing they do. And I will be sitting there watching them. That's the big thing is this sometimes is a $700 lesson learned for how I'm going to handle things next time.

But fight the good fight, Eric. I would be that squeaky wheel until you can fight no more. Do it in person. But yeah, do it in person. Keep calling. Leave voicemails. Email administrators and supervisors and vice presidents until you get this thing dealt with, man. Fight the good fight on behalf of a broken healthcare system everywhere. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to all the folks in the booth

keeping the show afloat, to my co-host, Dr. John Deloney, and to all of you out there listening, we appreciate you. We'll be back with you before you know it. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.