The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Handle Debt in Collections? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

Dave Ramsey, Ken Coleman, & George Kamel celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the show and discuss: Getting back in the job market as a recent widow, Selling a house to pay off debt, Dealing with debt in collection. 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

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🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, 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 they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Open phones this hour, Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, host of the Ken Coleman Show, best-selling author of the book From Paycheck to Purpose, is my co-host today. Special week here on the Ramsey Show. We've had all the Ramsey personalities on with us today at different points being co-hosts because we're celebrating 30 years the 30-year anniversary of this show starting thank you guys some of you have been with us the whole time out there

and both of you we're thankful for it's a little bit bigger than that but this is a special milestone you know we were talking about it during the break. You know, very few people in our world do anything for 30 years. You know, people don't stay in jobs for 30 years anymore. Sadly, we don't see as many 30-year marriages as we used to see. You know, 30 years would be three decades. That's quite a journey. And what's so great about it is it's just full of the same formula

the same mission just helping people get control of their money to be able to change their life and it's fun as we see new people new generations coming in and consuming the show differently to see how the show's evolved yeah and and from talk radio to podcast to youtube to all the different venues and the various people carrying podcasts now all over the place. You know, the fine folks at Amazon Music are carrying us now. Spotify, of course, Apple, Google Play, all of them. You know, it's everywhere now. And we appreciate all of you that listen to it, however you consume the show.

We appreciate you being there. We all sat down, all the Ramsey personalities, and did the 30th anniversary panel where we all sat and uh actually cut up yeah we had a good time told stories it was a little bit i'm glad there was someone there to kind of direct the traffic because yes you get that bunch of people in the room is like trying trying to nail jello to a tree that's true but uh we got through it and uh filmed a an episode or a series of episodes that'll be posting on youtube the first one posted today we'll post one every day this week on the 30th anniversary panel talking about the show and uh the things

we love about doing it the things we love about you guys out there uh and celebrating all of you of course and so check out the ramsey episodes, again, popping on YouTube today and every day this week. A new version is dropping, and be sure you check those out. Pretty special production that the team put together. Yeah, a lot of fun, and we get to share so much about what the show has meant to us as we've seen so much transformation, transformation the role the small role we get to play in it uh some great experiences some great laughs a lot of tears it's a wonderful wonderful conversation a lot of fun it's a show that actually brings hope in a world where the most shows just

bring anger and uh so there's plenty to be angry about no doubt but um we're going to choose to wag more and bark less and that's what we're here for. So we're here to help you out. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host this hour, this half hour. Mary is in Seattle. Hi, Mary. How are you? Hi, I'm great.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my question is this. My husband passed away in january of this year oh my and thank you thank you um i have two young children um who i now am i will be having to support them you know and i have been a stay-at-home mom for essentially my entire adult life, so I have no real job experience to put on my resume. And facing employment, you know, with child care costs,

a minimum wage job just isn't going to cut it. So I'm trying to put together a plan to establish myself in a career where I can take care of myself and my kids. How old are you? I'm trying to put together a plan to establish myself in a career where I can take care of myself and my kids. How old are you? I'm 25. How old are the babies? They're three and two. How old was he?

He was 36. My goodness, what happened? Suicide. Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Thank you. Oh, my goodness. Oh, wow. Yeah. It was obviously unexpected. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Um, was there any life insurance involved? Um, there was a $50,000 policy in my daughter's name that's in a trust until she turns 18. Who put that in a trust? The life

insurance. He had left it. That was the only insurance he had through his work and it was in her name. So the insurance automatically put it into that trust because she's a minor. They did say that I'm able to go to court and become the custodian of it,

but I'm not sure if i should do that or you should i think you're getting scammed by the life insurance company okay um the money was left to your daughter it was not left into a trust and them sticking it into a trust arbitrarily is way over the top okay there was no will so it's not their job they they overstepped their bounds but anyway yeah i'm going to deal with that later. But in the meantime, we've got to get you working because you've got to feed two babies, girl. Yes. I'm scared with you, and we'll help you.

Do you have any support, any family around you in the immediate area? I, you know, I'm in Washington right now. I'm actually in a couple days moving back down to California to be closer to them. Okay. I'm actually in a couple days moving back down to California to be closer to them. So I'll be close to the emotional, you know, and presence support of my family. I'm not expecting financial support from them. No, but will they be able to support you in watching the babies during the day? What we're trying to figure out is what are our real costs going to be,

and I'm glad you're moving close to family. We're going to need that for a job, by the way. I'll explain that in a second. But will he be able to help with child care? I will be about two hours away from them. So it's a little bit better than 20 hours, but as far as day-to-day child care, I'm going to have to pay someone or figure out something. Yeah. Well, there's a lot going on here. What we want to start with is just what you're good at doing. And I know you've not had a long work career, but the fact that it remains you have talent. And whether that's people talent or process type talent, that means details and organizational things, or maybe it's in a creative nature. What you've got to focus on right now is for the long term, what am I talented at? And with some additional training, I can be quite skilled. If we're going to have to make more than minimum wage, which you're going to be able to. So long term, we want to look at talent and skill and what you're going to love to do short term, if you can make $20 an hour at Target, which you can, or working for any big box retailer

that's paying really well like that, if we just got to get some income in quickly, we're looking for something in the $20 to $25 an hour range. There's a lot of remote work right now. You're just looking for something that you know you can do. It's not a function of you have to have all this training. It's I can do this work. But I want to help you give you can do. It's not a function of you have to have all this training. It's I can do this work. But I want to help you, give you a head start. Two things. I'm going to give you a book, From Paycheck to Purpose.

I'm going to give you the Get Clear Assessment, which is going to give you some real direction. And then I'd love if you'd be willing to schedule you to call me on my show where I can spend some more time with you and come up with some very specific ideas in that area. Hey, you hold on. Austin, I'll help you with that. Ramsey's going to walk with you, honey. Yeah. We're also going to put you through Financial Peace University so you can learn how to handle money and keep it under control while you're doing this. We'll help you with the career and the money. Yeah. That's

what we're here for. You hold on. Austin, I'll pick up. We're going to give every bit of it to you as our gift. Hold on. ken coleman ramsey personality is my co-host open phones at 888-825-5225 javier is with us in Cleveland, Ohio. Hey, Javier, how are you? I'm doing well. Thanks for taking my call, guys. Sure, man. What's up?

So my question is, I'm in Baby Step 2, and I have about $15,000 in consumer debt. Now, I know Baby Step 2 is pay off all your debt except for the house. So my question is, should I sell the house to pay off the debt or should I keep the house and continue paying it off as I have been? I would keep it unless there's some reason to sell it. Do you like it? Yeah, I love the house. The only problem is the house is about 20 miles from my current job, so I will need to buy a car. I think there's about $20,000 in equity in the house. Where'd your car go?

Well, I was living in Colorado the last two years, so I didn't really need a car. But now I'm back in Ohio, so I definitely need a car. Well, I mean, how long have you been in a house that you own 20 miles from work without a car? So I just came home. I've owned the house for three years. I had tenants in there previously. So now that I'm living back in the house, I'm going to need a way to work. So I can save for a car. I'm staying with a relative at the moment, closer to my job.

Gotcha. Okay. What do you make? I net about $3,000 a month. Okay. And how much debt do you have, not counting the house? I have about $15,000. Okay.

And do you have any money at all? I have my emergency fund, and I have about another $700 saved up for a vehicle. The emergency fund, you mean Baby Step mean baby step one one thousand dollars or three to six months just baby step one okay all right so you have seventeen hundred dollars to your name you make three thousand dollars a month and um and the house is worth what i believe it's worth about 120 and i owe 83 on it okay all right hmm how much Hmm. And what'd she say you owe? Oh, let me, you haven't got a car yet. Correct. What's the other debt already? So the 13,000 is a credit card consolidation, and I owe another 2,000 on an old title loan. Okay. So if you had, if you sold the house,

you'd probably net, it sounds like $20,000 or so, right? Let's just call it that for the discussion purposes. If you had $20,000 cash in the middle of your kitchen table right now and you did not own a house, would you go buy that house with it? I would probably buy that house with it, but I don't think it would be a bad idea to take 13 of it, pay down that credit card consolidation, and take the rest to buy a vehicle. I just think it's better that I got into the house at 4%

versus buying a house today at 6%. Yeah, but 6% when you're broke doesn't matter right and right now i mean we're sitting here discussing you buying a seven hundred dollar car right how old are you 26 so if you sell the house and you use that to jumpstart your life and solidify your life and you launch into a career and you launch into a reasonable car and you're 100% debt free and you get on a tight budget and you use all of that to build your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses and then you save a down payment to buy a house two years from now, that will be a successful ending if you sell the house and you screw around for the next two years and sort of do this stuff um you're going to end up wishing you'd kept the house right but if you want to lean in and do the financial peace university stuff hardcore selling the house will catapult you into wealth more than keeping it well

you see how i'm doing that yes sir but i mean you got to use every ounce of the money coming out of this thing to cause your life to be excellent and a solid foundation and we're living on a tight budget we're not spending everything we make we're going to accelerate this career get the income up ken uh beyond where it is yeah and uh you know let's double your income in the next four years. Yeah, this is not about making things better in the temporary. This is about changing the course of your life. And if it becomes the catalyst for that, absolutely agree.

I think it's the right move. You have to commit to the whole plan. 100%. The whole process and go, okay, I'm going to take classes, get certifications. I'm going to change jobs again. I'm going to get the parts of my life that aren't stable stabilized. I'm going to change jobs again. I'm going to get the parts of my life that aren't stable stabilized. I'm going to get plugged into a good church. I'm going to get my life straightened up. I'm going to do everything right. I'm going to be clean as a whistle.

I'm going to be working this budget tight and watching what I'm doing. I'm going to be losing weight. I'm going to do everything, man. I'm going to get this whole thing going. And if you use this house money to do all of those things, you will end up a millionaire because of selling the house. Because you're not driving a freaking $700 car for the next nine months, making $3,000 driving 20 miles for the opportunity to make no money. And be careful with who you surround yourself. If you sell this house, be careful who you surround yourself with.

A lot of broke people giving bad advice and telling you to live it up a little bit this is about discipline and diligence walk our baby step plan out and then diligently stay with it don't get too tempted to buy a house after you sell this house if you got to rent for a while just walk this thing out and then you're going to be in really great shape you'll be ahead of most people your age yeah yeah hang on we're going to put you through financial peace university as our guest to help you do all of that javier hold on all right mike's in daytona beach mike what's up hey thank you for taking my call sure how can we help situation yeah my situation is as follows i had lost my job back in COVID. A year later, everything started to go very well. And now I have a salary making more than I've ever made. However, things went to collections during that time period. So now I'm curious, do I pay off what's in collections? I'm

not being bothered by any of the collectors. The only debt I have currently is a van and I owe about 13 on the van. And then I have my rent a van and I owe about 13 on the van and then I have my rent and internet and what have you yeah so how much do you how much is in collections uh probably 25 grand okay from what uh consolidation loan and credit cards okay and you you legitimately owe the money you just weren't able to pay it at the time correct yeah i can look at my credit report in the past i saw they were there but i'm not being hounded yeah i've seen they've been charted off and sold the third parties already being hounded isn't the issue you morally owe the money sir you took money from someone you

need to give it back to them correct yeah um but do i focus on those first and just do snowball effect of the smallest to largest now i'd knock out the car if they're not hounding you i'd knock i'd run two debt snowballs let's run the first one on active debts clear the car any other debts you have that are active you're paying payments on clear all of them and then i would work a debt snowball on the old dead debts smallest to largest now how long has it been since you paid on these on the debt collection yes sir oh probably three months i went online and i saw okay i have money and i got you you settled but i just yeah i mean i

negotiated and said hey i can pay you this much now, and we settled on the payment for the collectors. But there's still more that I owe. I was doing a snowball effect. Okay, so you've settled some of them, but there's still some outstanding. Correct. Okay, when you settle them, make sure you get it in writing that they're accepting X amount, whatever the amount agreed on, as settlement in full. Get that in writing that they're accepting x amount whatever the amount agreed on

as settlement in full get that in writing email or otherwise yes sir i already have that and print it out good good hard copy printed out so you don't lose the email later because it will come back to get you but yeah you need to go through and settle the rest of them after you get the car paid off that's what we're going to do what are you making now household income is monthly after taxes is $13,000. Oh, good Lord. You're going to blow through this in no time. Of course you're going to.

Yeah. We had $3,000, but I had lost my job. Yeah. Okay. The great news is you got a great new job, and you're going to clean up your mess fast. Good. Yes, sir. Yeah.

Go do it, dude. Absolutely. There's no upside to not paying what you owe a it's an integrity issue b it's a legal issue c it's a credit issue uh d did i mention it's an integrity issue and the right thing to do i think i mentioned that yeah go do that one yeah and you know it's just going to come back i mean these things it's like a splinter it eventually will fester and cause you a problem it's just a matter of whether it's five months or five years and so you want this stuff out of your life you want your you want when you look in the rearview mirror you don't want to see headlights

you don't see blue lights but coming around and around and around this is the ramsey show We'll be right back. If you haven't heard, we're changing out the Ramsey personalities every few segments today. George Camel, Ramsey personality in for the last two segments of this hour today. Doing that because we wanted you to hear from all of them. We're celebrating this week the 30th anniversary of the Ramsey show. And be sure and join us on YouTube for the 30th anniversary panel, which is all the Ramsey personalities, including me, all sitting around talking about the show. Talking about you, the callers, you, the listeners, and we appreciate you. Be sure and check it out on youtube the first episode dropped today there'll be a new one dropping every day for this

week as we uh take that rather lengthy interview that we did and spread it out over a few days well over 30 years i mean we're lucky to just get one hour of tape in that panel well there's a lot to talk about a lot that's it exactly in the lobby of ramsey solutions elijah and caitlin are on the debt-free stage hey guys how are you doing good better than i deserve where do y'all live um nashville tennessee oh you're right here neighbors yes sir awesome and all the way from down the road to do your debt-free scream how much did you pay off one hundred and twelve thousand five hundred,532. Way to go. And how long did this take?

36 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? From $65,000 to $180,000. Wow. Nice jump in three years, dude. Yes, sir. Three years, you triple your income.

That's awesome. Yes, sir. Very cool. What do you all do for a living? So he originally worked with hospitality, and I was with an attorney, but then during COVID hit and we started our own cleaning business. Your own printing. Cleaning, sorry.

Cleaning business. Yes, sir. Oh. So both of you all in now on the business. Yes, sir. And it is working. It is working. Working your tail off and cashing the checks.

Yes, sir. Way to go, guys. Proud of you. Very cool. Crushing it. Good stuff. All right. What kind of debt was the checks. Yes, sir. Way to go, guys. Proud of you. Very cool. Crushing it. Good stuff. All right. What kind of debt was the $113,000?

We had $37,000 in student loans, around $20,000 in credit cards, and then the rest was medical and cars. Oh, wow. Okay. How long have you two been married? Four years. Okay. and cars oh wow okay how long you two been married four years okay so a year of marriage you kind of go along normal and then three years ago one year into your marriage you take off on this how did

all this happen how'd you get started on this rams on the ramsey way um i guess in 2019 well our parents have always talked about you and and father ryan i took economics with greg carson no way yes i love him yeah you know coach carson started the curriculum he was the first person to teach it in high schools and now it's been taught in tens of thousands of high schools 48 of high schools have taught it in north america and greg carson is a lot of the reason the way he teaches it man he's he's into it he is amazing i went up and spoke to their class the other day up at Father Ryan. Oh, wow. Okay.

That's awesome. So, yeah, we started there, but we didn't really follow like we should. My mom always had the envelopes out, had the debt snowball going on. I was like, eh. I was a little kid. I didn't really know. 2019 hit, and like we said, COVID hit, and we were terrified because he got laid off from his job in hospitality and hotels. Sure.

Everything shut down. Everything. And then my attorney, who I worked for, was like, we're cutting hours. There's just nothing we can do. Sorry. So I was cleaning. We love to clean. He loves to clean.

We're OCD. So I was like, you know what? Let's take that and run with it. And we did. It got so busy when I you know what let's take that and run with it and we did it got so busy when I opened the business that I had to pull him out um I was like please come help me he went to work at Kroger because he got laid off and he's just not a man to sit at home so we did that and I pulled him in and I was overwhelmed I was like please come work for me please help me I'm you know and it took off from there. Please come help me at work.

Please come work for me. That might have been harder. Yeah. I had to convert the business license to the husband and wife, but it was so awesome. So, y'all doing residential or commercial? Commercial and residential. Okay. What's the bulk of it?

Mainly residential. We're mainly in West Haven. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We love it. Yeah. There's a good living to be made there.

It is. That's brilliant. Everyone's living in their own filth during COVID. They're like staring at their dirty house. Yes. They're like, I will happily pay for someone to clean this up. Yeah. It was wild.

I thought we weren't going to have any business because of COVID, but like you said, everybody wanted to be clean. And not everybody was as freaked out as everybody wanted everybody to believe. Right. Exactly. Y'all are scared of work. That's for sure, sir. Good for you guys. Impressive for you guys impressive yeah you're just i mean you took control man that's a powerful stuff so what made you decide at that 36 month mark to go was it all the layoffs

you've got oh crap yeah we got really scared and we were like we don't ever want to be in that situation we don't ever want to know where you know our meal is going to come from or how we're going to get our kids you know fed and taken care of we're like no never again we were getting things in the mail like oh hey you do not have to pay your mortgage this month you can just you know they were doing that whole weight thing and we're like absolutely not you know we cannot do this but um after that he got on board and we both got on board it was me i was more the spender he's looking at me like tell them you're the spender. What was the hardest thing to stop spending money on that really just crushed you?

Going out to eat. Oh. Going out to eat and doing stuff. As a family, we had to do a lot of stuff inside, free stuff. Yeah. Wow. That was hard. That's a tough one, but it was worth it.

It was so worth it. Yes, well worth it. So you pay off $113,000 in 36 months. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Stay focused, stay disciplined, because all of our friends, all our family, I mean, we had family members that were like, we're not doing the Dave Ramsey, we're not going to eat crackers and bologna. And I'm like, he's not saying that.

We got a lot of... No, it's beans and rice. Beans and rice is so much better. You can put so much flavor. But yeah, so that, I mean, that's kind of... Yeah, you live like no one else later, you get to live like no one else. So now that you're debt-free, what are they saying?

They're asking us how we did it, so we're letting them know. Not to mention you guys have worked an amazing amount of hours i mean you have worked your tail ends off seven days a week for the last two three years yeah are you going to be able to hire some folks and slow down just a little bit now we're trying speaking of that um mr blake thompson he works here uh we cleaned for him we have for two years and he gave us the book um you had he had it signed for us at christmas and we were over the moon you signed it and it was uh entre leadership oh and it was like the next step for our business is like wow okay we're here we got this debt free

now let's work on building this so wow what a coincidence that blake thompson the original producer all the time to get in here he was was in here earlier. He was so excited. We were excited. He was there to give it to us. And it was, I don't know, just like the next step. He must have not known you were here today. He would have been out here. Yeah.

That's full circle on the 30th anniversary. It's wild. Think about Blake, the original producer, and you guys running with him. And Greg Carson teaching in our high school. The whole thing. That's just, if you keep at it long enough, it will eventually get through to you. Exactly. It will. It took me a while but excellent job you guys are incredible i'm so proud of you proud of your business exploding and your courage and how you went out there and prove the american dream is alive and well it is so um if the uh hotel lays you off and the

attorney lays you off all they did was cause americans to, oh, I don't know, free enterprise system. Let's go start something and make more than we were making anyway from you people. Yes, sir. Here we go. Game on. Prove it out. I love it. Awesome.

I love it. It's powerful. Powerful. That's a good thing. It's amazing the number of highly successful businesses that were started by someone who was a wee bit desperate and had been put down by someone else or cast aside by someone else, so to speak. So very, very cool. Good stuff.

Good stuff. How's it feel now that you're free? Amazing. So good. A weight off of our shoulders now. We can breathe. We got more books for you. Baby Steps Millionaires, because that's the next chapter in your story for sure.

Financial Peace University, one-year membership. And a Total Money Makeover book. Maybe that's how you can answer the questions from somebody that's asking you. Give them a copy of that book. That book's helped about 8 million people. And you brought your daughter with you. We did. Bring her up.

Let's introduce her. Tell her her name and age, please. This is Eliana, and she is 11. Oh, beautiful. All right. Very cool. Well done, you two. Proud of you.

You're heroes. Thank you. Excellent job. Elijah and Caitlin and Eliana from Nashville. $113,000 paid off in 36 months, making $65,000 to $180,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free. We're debt-free. Well done, you two. A small business started, a family tree changed. There's a lot to love about this story. They're an impressive, impressive family. A lot of good things happening there. Beautifully done, you guys.

Beautifully done. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. Our scripture of the day, 1 Corinthians 9.24. Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Winston Churchill said, never give in, never give in, never, never, never, and nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force, never yield to the apparently overwhelming

might of the enemy never quit never quit never quit which is our secret around here george for 30 years we uh failed a lot but we just never quit uh lots of people smarter than us lots of people uh richer than us lots of people that have big companies behind them uh opening doors for their shows and doing other things lots of people owned by other companies behind them uh opening doors for their shows and doing other things lots of people owned by other companies we were a freestanding show meaning that we own it we syndicate the show we have to get the radio stations in each city to take the show we have to negotiate with a podcast company to carry the podcasts uh we have to do it all we have to pay for all of it uh we reap the benefits from all of it. But we have done a lot of stupid stuff.

But the only thing we did that continued to work was we just never quit. Keep showing up. For 30 years. We are standing on the shoulders of giants like you and many of the leaders that came before me, Dave. So thank you so much for providing hope for so long to so many. Thank you. It's been a good ride george it's been a really really good ride a lot of fun the ramsey gold planner is up for sale

on pre-sale uh we'll be coming out very soon and shipping them to you uh get you ready for 2023 there's a devotional each day a full calendar each day a layout on everything stuff written by rachel cruz dr john deloney george camel me uh other ramsey personalities all the way through the thing the ramsey gold planner is a must-have for your 2023 planning uh it is always a big seller it always sells out meaning we don't buy too many of them but it's available on pre-sale right now and you can check it out at ramsey solutions.com for those of you that are into the planner christy right ramsey personality years ago started this and as she has moved on to other things we have converted the idea to just the ramsey gold planner and it is completely redone

new cover new everything beautiful beautiful piece for next year and we want you to get it pre-ordered and get it done andrew is in boise idaho hi andrew welcome to the ramsey show hey guys thanks for having me how y'all doing better than we deserve what's up thanks um my eight-year-old son uh accumulated about 120 dollars in cash and he's been asking if he should have it in the checking account or keep it in cash and throw it in envelopes or should we put a portion of it in savings just account or keep it in cash and throw it in envelopes, or should we put a portion of it in savings? Just kind of want to get your thoughts on that.

Very cool. Good for him. Good for him. Where did he get that? Birthday, and we got the Ramsey chore chart, and he's accumulated quite a bit from that also. Cool, cool. So you're working the Financial peace junior system with the three envelopes the give save and spend envelope yes sir yeah i would keep it divided into those and

when the save envelope gets big enough you can go down and open a savings account that's what i would do for an eight-year-old a checking account assumes he's going to be using a debit card or writing checks and doing transactions from that account. I really don't want him doing transactions at eight years old. If he's going to do transactions, that's at the toy store, and he's going to take a little cash down and buy something, or the sporting goods store or whatever and buy something. But he can just take cash out of his spend envelope for that.

That'll be just fine. We're not going to be using the checking account actively. Now, I do move kids into a checking account in their teenage years so that we can teach them how to reconcile the account we used to call it balancing a checking account uh it is a good idea even though hardly anyone does it anymore to learn to actually write a check to fill it out uh admittedly i've not filled one out in a very long time the checks that are written here at ramsey are all automated including my personal account uh and most people use electronic bill pay and those kinds of things. George, do you write checks? I just wrote a check today, Dave. Did you? How many dummy checks do you write

a month? Probably less than one. I'd say in a year, I probably do four or five. Okay. And usually it's to save money so I can avoid transaction fees. You know, I'm frugal. But it's a great skill to have. I'll do that, but I usually have the cash in my pocket. So I'm still an old cash guy. But I want to teach kids to do transaction. The method of having a savings or checking account in their teens, Andrew, is just to be able, as a dad, as a mom, to put your arm around them and teach them how to do these transactions.

It's not to set them free and act like they're adults. They're not old enough to even drive yet or buy beer so we're not going to turn them loose with two thousand dollars in an account but uh i actually put my kids clothing money into their checking accounts when they were fixed 15 16 17 living at home and let them make their own clothing purchases and uh that that taught them you know the difference in banana republic and old navy you know i mean it teaches you the the difference in the budget here that jerk costs what and suddenly when it's coming out of your account even though it was my money that went into your account it wakes you up right and so it really taught them budgeting and then

when they went off to college they already knew how to operate a budget and they already knew how to live on a set amount and they already knew how to operate a budget, and they already knew how to live on a set amount, and they already knew how to operate their checking account. And so we set them up. We're training them to be good adults is what we're doing. It's not actually just to give a teenager freedom. I don't need to give a teenager freedom. I want to teach them. I want to teach them.

That's the goal. And then with that comes some freedom. With that comes some liberties. But this is not to just like, oh, we now have given you a piece of plastic and a cell phone, and so that's a rite of passage into adulthood in America today. Oh, and your own Facebook account. This is dumber than a rock right here. And once they start earning money and actually getting some paychecks, then it's time to go,

okay, we can do the checking account, get a debit card. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, if you're going to turn over like uh you know our kids were making lots of money doing odd jobs for other people babysitting mowing grass whatever that kind of stuff so that can all go in there but it's not um i want to teach you parents this this is so and this is so countercultural and it sounds mean but it's it's your children are children by definition legally until they're 18. And so I can't tell him what to do with his money when he's 16 is the sign that you are a wuss, not a parent. Okay, you can tell him what to do.

He doesn't have any money until he's 18 she doesn't have any money i don't care if they earned it or not it's technically not their money they live in your household it's technically your money legally speaking now i'm not suggesting you take their money and go buy cocaine for you with it that's not what i'm talking about okay but i am saying this idea that somehow that they you don't have rights as a parent to teach your 16-year-old how to handle money he or she earned doing something out there in the marketplace is absolute BS. You are shirking your duties as a mom and dad. It is your job to put your arm around them and kick their little butt and teach them how to handle this stuff. You got to tell them to take a shower and you got to tell them to brush their teeth so they don't have free reign here yeah kids the inmates don't run the

freaking asylum and so you know they but parents are turning them loose with thousands of dollars cell phones and then wonder how they get tied up in sex trafficking you know wonder how they get sucked into stuff because they don't have the emotional or mental maturity to deal with some of the issues that we stick them into they are still children by definition more is caught than taught and so you got to model this stuff too if you're if your kids see you doing stupid butt mistakes with money and swiping that credit card that's what they're going to learn is normal and okay yeah so if you just turn them loose in the wild you know you that's not your job you didn't toss them the car keys they never had a driving lesson that'd be suicidal

i thought that's what they did in the south just let them go at 14 put them out in the field where there's no trees and other people but yeah drive your truck across there whatever but i mean but still it's no you don't do that you You give driving lessons. You give money lessons. You give work lessons. You give technology lessons. You're not going to live with your nose stuck in a screen. And so you're going to have some balance here. This is a tool.

It is not an obsession. And so on. And we just walk kids through this stuff. But my friend Andy Andrews says our job as parents is not to raise great kids, but to raise kids that become great adults. And that is a different goal. That's wisdom. And that changes everything. And so that's your job, moms and dads.

So, Andrew, you're a great dad. Thank you for teaching Financial Peace Junior. If you don't know, folks, that's a box of teaching aids to teach kids 12 and under how to handle their money and learn to do chores, get paid for them like a capitalist not a socialist and you don't make money just because you breathe you work make money when you work that's how this works in the real world boys and girls that eight-year-old has a higher net worth than most adult americans think about that that's sad lock that in bucks in the bank all right george good job today good job james andrews zach ben and austin in the bank. All right, George. Good job today. Good job, James, Andrew, Zach, Ben, and Austin in the booth. Congratulations on the booth dudes and everybody else on 30 years of this show.

This is The Ramsey Show. 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. 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.