The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Invest When I Don't Make a Big Salary? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 21, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Dr. John Deloney is your Ramsey, to answer your questions about your life. And I'll help you with your money, and we'll both interfere with each other. It's what we do.

The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Mike's in Sarasota, Florida. Hey, Mike, how are you? Hey, gentlemen, how are you? Better than I deserve, sir. How can we help? Hey, first off, Dave, I just want to say thank you very much. Just over the last seven years, you've given me so much motivation just to kind of handle our personal finances and change

our family that it took about four years of convincing, but I was able to convince my high school that I work at to start with a personal finance class, and we just finished up our first semester, and I've never had more fun as a teacher teaching the subject, and we're helping a lot of kids along the way, so I just wanted to say thank you before I get into the question. Well, thank you, sir. Thank you for doing that. That's amazing. Good for you.

We appreciate you. We appreciate you, man. Proud of you. Yeah, thank you. So the question I have is actually in regards to my mom. She's only 70 in February, and my dad passed away when I was 18, and so I've kind of, you know, been looking over her finances since I've kind of, I've got a little bit of an understanding of things since then. She got about $180,000 sitting in an annuity that is kind of a concerning

product, because just to give you an idea, since 2015, it's only gotten about a 2% rate of return. And I've been working with a smart investor pro to kind of figure out a better plan. But she's got about $60,000 left on the mortgage, and we're kind of just trying to figure out if it's a wise decision to pay off the mortgage. She's taking out a monthly withdrawal of about $1,000 from that $180. And obviously, if that continues on, we're kind of worried that it's going to kind of diminish at some point in time. She's fully disabled and not working.

And so she relies on this income that she gets from the annuity that she had from my dad's life insurance. And then, of course, her Social Security on top of that. And so we're just kind of trying to see if it's a smart decision to take that chunk of $60,000 out of the annuity. Well, we've got to get the annuity working harder. If it were making 10%, that would be $18,000 a year, which would be $1,500 a month, and it wouldn't be self-destructing anymore pulling $1,000 a month off.

Okay. So, yeah, you've got to get this money moved into something that's not 2%. You're getting killed. Right. The thing is it's disintegrating. You're destroying it. The goose is laying the golden eggs. And so that's part of the equation.

Then how much is the house payment? It's about $1,200. So when you pay off the house, you wouldn't need $1,000 a month. Correct. Yeah, let's do both. Let's get the income up. Let's get the annuity invested better because now it's only $120,000. Okay. And let's get it invested better, and then let's not touch it because you don's only $120,000. Okay.

And let's get it invested better, and then let's not touch it because you don't have a house payment anymore. Does any of that change by any stretch? She's paid a pretty exorbitant fee when she first invested in this annuity for a living rider, so if it does go down to zero, she still gets roughly about $1,000 until she dies. Does that change the perception of it at all? No, it's because it sucks.

It's got a horrible rate of return. Yeah, it's been terrible. Yeah, and that's the problem. So you've got to get it. I mean, SmartVestor Pro may roll you into a variable annuity, which is mutual funds inside of an annuity that'll pay a lot better than she's getting paid. But this particular product that she's in is horrible. And so she's got to get it.

You got to get it invested better. But the bottom line is, even if it's not, it's a one-two punch. Even if it's not invested better, if she doesn't need the thousand anymore because she doesn't have a $1,200 house payment anymore, then we can leave alone whatever it is that you do with it right sure so let's let's pay off the house for sure but then the second part of it is let's get this money invested a little bit better and that'll help you hey Hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Hannah is in Montgomery, Alabama. Hi, Hannah.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Mr. Ramsey. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I'm a social worker in the Bay Area at a nonprofit. And I make about $30,000 a year. I'll be debt-free in February and plan on having my

emergency fund by the beginning of August fully funded, and then after that, I plan on moving out of my parents' home. Good for you. And so my struggle is, at that August point, is when I'll start investing 15%, and I don't know how to save above that. That's kind of my question with budget-balancing rent and other expenses that come with that that I haven't had to pay yet with this $30,000 income. I can't really get a second job just because I'm on call most of the time, so my hours would be uncertain. So just trying to get your thoughts on that. Well, you could do a second job.

You couldn't do the typical second job. I mean, your second job could be something that you do from home on your own time, a small business idea that you could set the computer aside and go if you got a call. So you do need to do something to increase your income on the short term. And on the long term, we've got to work on your career. Yeah. What type of social worker are you? In foster care.

So if I do go back to get my master's, my job actually will pay for it. And so it's a one-year program. So I think it would be worth it but i just um i'm not i'm not i think i don't think i'm ready yeah i'm just i'm planning on starting that maybe january 2020 i'm 2022 i'm in i'm in i think that's a great plan but let and then develop a career path that that uh triples your income, you just listening to how you have planned out your exit from your parents, the way you're executing it, the way you have a mind that is worth more than $30,000. There we go. You have a work ethic worth more than $30,000. And so I think, man, if you want

to trade a season, a one year of less than you are worth because you are getting a significant return, which is a graduate are getting a significant return, which is a graduate degree in social work, that's gold. That's a great gift. That's not a bad trade. That's a great trade. But at 30 years old, I don't want you sitting there making 30. Absolutely not.

And I don't even want you making 45 or 55. No, not with a graduate degree in social work. Yeah, and a lot of people do. Yep, they do. With that degree field. That's right. They take the state job, and it doesn't pay anything. That's right.

And they will take every shred of your soul in that work, because that's hard, gut-wrenching. Emotional work. Challenging. Yeah. So the answer to your question is yes, let's do some things to get your income up. Your plan to leave in August is great. Your plan for the Masters in January is even better. I love every bit of it. And is it okay to take a year? If you don't invest your 15%

and instead you pile up a little extra cash right now because things are close, that's okay. You'll get around to starting your 15% into your investments pretty soon. You're still young. You got plenty of time. The great news is you're thinking about this, which puts you way ahead of most people, because most people don't even think. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm going to go on a little rant here for a minute. I took a call from a father who wanted to know how to plan for the care of his special needs daughter after he dies. Why is it that parents of special needs children are so deliberate in their planning while other parents have a tendency to be sloppy? Do the needs of your family matter less if something happens to you? Oh, I'm sorry. Did I just guilt trip you into getting some term life insurance? Well, then good. Your family needs you

to step up. Having the right amount of term life insurance is a matter of personal responsibility. If you want to use the new year as a reason for doing the right thing, then do it. Term life insurance is something every family needs, which is why I talk about it every day. It's not complicated, it's not expensive, and you need to do this now. Zander Insurance is the only place I recommend. Visit zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282 please learn from other people's mistakes and get Thank you for joining us, America. Ramsey Personality, Dr. John Deloney, is my co-host today. As we talk about your life and your money, open phones at 888-825-5225. Rebecca's in Orlando, Florida.

Hi, Rebecca. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks so much for taking my call. I'm very grateful. Sure. How can we help? I have the Florida Prepaid program for both of my children. And my son doesn't think he's going to go to college. It's not the 529. I have a large IRS debt I'm trying to eradicate. And I was thinking of taking the money from the Florida prepaid plan to put it towards the IRS debt.

And then when my daughter's ready for college, I could just cash flow her. How much is in the prepaid plan? $23,000. And how much is the IRS debt? $55,000. What is the IRS debt from? It's from three years. I'm embarrassed to say my daughter was sick,

and I was in the middle of a divorce, and I was just trying to keep it on the table, and I hadn't filed for a few years. Okay, so it's just back taxes. Just back taxes. You hadn't filed at all. I had since filed. So you must be 1099 or self-employed? Self-employed, yes.

Yeah, okay. So what do you make? Well, this year with the pandemic, I'll probably make about 55, maybe 60. So you've got the IRS on a payment plan? No, I actually applied for an offer in compromise, but I haven't heard from them yet. You're going to be denied. Okay. You have to be able to show pauper status, absolutely no income and no assets to get an OIC through.

That's one of the great mythologies. How much did you pay for this OIC application? I put it down $6,000. Oh, man. Yeah. Okay, don't give me any more money. Okay.

Yeah, that's a... There's just very... I've been doing this 30 years. I've seen two of those go through. Two. And in both cases,

we were working with a tax attorney, and you prove that they have no assets at all and no income and really no potential of income. And so they really believe that you're virtually financially dead, and you're not. You make $55,000 a year, so they're going to put you on a 900-year payment plan. All right.

I don't cash out kids' college funds for debts, but the KGB around your neck, the IRS after you, is not going away. So, yeah, I'm doing this. Okay. All right. But be forewarned that what goes with it, the tears that you had a minute ago with the shame of not having filed because of all the stress and the horrible things you were going through,

you're probably going to have more of that feeling because you just used your kid's college fund to clean up the mess or part of the mess. And so that's why I almost never tell someone to use a college fund, even though it might make mathematical sense, is because you feel like a dog using your kids' money that you set aside for them. And I just want to warn you ahead of time, you're going to have that feeling, but it is still the logical thing to do. It's the right thing to do here.

It is the best thing for your kids, for their mom to get straightened up and get this debt out of her life, because the IRS has tremendously expensive penalties, interest, and they have almost unlimited power to screw up your life. You want to get them out of your life. Believe me. It's the only kind of debt that terrifies me for our clients. It terrifies me because I've seen what the KGB does to people when they decide they want to get rough.

And so I just don't want you on that thing. And I want you to get with one of our tax ELPs and get an installment plan working as soon as you hear that the OIC went sideways. And certainly don't – see, you listed on the OIC that this college money exists, right? No, because there's technically no cash value, and I didn't even think about it until after I submitted it. Oh, there's technically cash value. When you cash it out, you're getting cash. Yeah, I guess I didn't – yeah you know if they saw that on the application

they would have grabbed it they would have said no you're not you're going to give us that money so if i'm wrong i'll be happy for you and the oic comes through and they say you know we'll settle this $55,000 debt for $23,000 cash it out out and do it. But then you've got to really get in gear, and you've got to start working with your son and your daughter on how they're going to get their education paid for. They're going to get really good at taking the ACT test. They're going to get really good at working their butts off while they're in school. You're going to pick an affordable school, not an expensive famous school,

in-state, maybe a two-year program to get some of the basics out of the way really cheap, all of those kinds of things. Yeah, that's exactly right. And I'm going to recommend you be real vulnerable, sit down at a kitchen table, and walk your kids through what's happened, what we're going to do about it. Without blaming Dad. We're not going to blame anybody. You're going to take ownership for this.

This is a level of vulnerability. They're going to feel this tension on you and what kids do dave is they absorb that tension and blame themselves especially young kids and especially teenagers so this is a great moment for an adult to model hey guys here's what i did put food on the table wasn't right here's what i'm doing to clean it up here's what we're all going to do together we're all going to start budgeting we're all going to lean into this stuff and is all going to lean into this stuff. And is it going to be uncomfortable? Oh my gosh. There's going to be some value to your kids seeing the tears and seeing the plan and watching you live out of this thing. And there is a way to make meaning on the back end of this thing. Those tears will have value. It is not a conversation that you portray the end of the

world. No. It's a conversation that goes uh i screwed up and here's what i'm doing yeah and there's a redemption there's we're gonna make meaning of this and things are gonna change around here and we're all gonna do this at the table together yeah the good news is things are gonna change the bad news is things are that's right and so the vulnerability is gonna be hard the tears are gonna be real and the the walking out of this is gonna be tough you still gotta come up with 25 dollars, right, to pay this thing off. Pandemic or otherwise, you've got to get your income up, and you've got to get this thing knocked out fast, as fast as you possibly can.

Hang on, I'm going to send you a copy of Anthony O'Neill's book, Debt-Free Degree, and that will help the kiddos start to think that way and you start to think that way because you're going to be cash-flowing this, A. B, they are, too. You're going to be playing along. That's right. And C, we've got $25,000 more to clean up with the IRS if I'm wrong. And I wish I was, but I'm not.

Hang on. Zach will pick up and take care of you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Christina says, since student loans are interest-free right now, should I stop paying the minimum on all nine of my loans and focus all my money at my lowest loan in an effort to snowball?

Well, Christina, student loans are student loans and um whether they're interest free or not we're going to treat them the same we're going to list debts smallest to largest we're going to pay minimum payments on everything but the smallest debt regardless of what it is and we're going to attack it with a vengeance and when it's gone we're going to get the next one down when it's gone we're going to get the next one down that is the fastest way to get out of debt and we can add to that i would not wait on washington to fix your problems there's a lot of promises in the air that biden is going to forgive all your student loans he might he has control of both congresses it's it's uh logistically legally possible for him to get that through but it'll be a while and while

you wait around on one foot and then on the other for the blessings to flow from dc you will learn the lesson that blessings don't come from dc they come from grit and hard work and ownership if you think fourteen hundred dollars changed your life you didn't have a life man and you never will if you think that that's going to do it please don't sit around and wait on these guys to make your life this is the dave ramsey We'll be right back. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Michael and Tasha are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Good, how are you? Good, how are you?

Welcome, welcome. Where do you guys live? From Indianapolis, Indiana. Well, welcome to Nashville. Thanks for joining us in person. Thank you. Very cool. Congratulations.

How much debt have you guys paid off? It's about $108,500 in about 36 months. Way to go. And your range of income during that time? For context of the story, right before we were $105,000 to zero for a couple months. And when we started, we ended up back at $125, 125. Cool what do y'all do for a living? I'm a truck driver. I'm in health care. Okay cool so what kind of debt was this? All of it everything. You were normal. We didn't finance a dog or a cat but we financed everything else.

So cars, student loans, credit cards. Yes. IRS. No. No IRS. No IRS. Yeah, everything else though. Okay. Yes. Good. Wow.

Wow. Fun. How long have you guys been married? Going on 13 years this year. Okay. So three years ago, the story began and it sounds like it's a wild ride. What happened? Well, we first heard about you in 2013 and we got very intentional for about six months.

We ended up moving with our job and then just went right back to what we were doing the old way, the normal way, until 2017. In 2017, we decided to make a career transition, and that's where the $0 income comes for a couple months. And then that was kind of the point we hit that said we've got to come back to something. And we actually were living in our RV at the time. And I was digging through some paperwork to find some things and found your book, Total Money Makeover. And we kind of had a talk that night when she came home and decided we've got to submit. It's time. And so we cut the credit cards up and hit the plan. Wow.

Well, way to go, you guys. Thanks. Congratulations. There's nothing like sitting in an RV thumbing through paperwork with no jobs going, this prize, and we should probably do something else. Absolutely. Yeah. And we couldn't take that much with us in the RV.

So it was crazy that out of the things, that book was with us the whole time. So we knew what we should be doing. We just didn't do it. Wow. Yeah. And it kind of jumps out at you and yells at you. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

So you sat down that night. Things have got to change, put together the budget, get the jobs, get going, and game on. Yep. Absolutely. We decided we were actually in Florida at the time. We decided we'd put in for some jobs in Florida and back home in Indianapolis and go with what came first. Which was Indianapolis.

That's how you end up back there. Absolutely. That's home originally. Yes. All right, cool. So we both ended up with jobs back there, and that's where we went. Good. Wow.

And you're killing it. I mean, you're doing good. $125, that's a great income. Thank you. What was the state of your marriage? Take me back to that RV. Things are great. Are you on the same page yeah i think so i think the whole

time pretty much we were on the same page the normal i mean we had the normal you know couple disagreements things like that um so fast forward three years you'll crush this plan you've got new jobs you've got new dignity underneath you how's your marriage now? It's better. Even better. It's just calm. Yeah, all the time. You know, when you think about at that point, you think about the fights, the disagreements, which I think

everybody has, but at that point it was, everything led back to money. You know, even the conversation about, where are we going to eat dinner tonight? And how are we going to pay for it? And today it's, okay, where are we going to eat dinner tonight? And there's no second guess. We just go eat dinner.

Yeah. No money question, just a dinner question. It's what kind of food do we want? Yeah. I like it. Well done, you guys. So what is the key to getting out of it at 109,036 months? What's the big thing you realize that you've got to do?

You have to say no. We didn't go out. We didn't take vacations. We didn't do brunch. We did nothing. Everyone around us for probably the first year kept inviting us and then realized there was no point. So everyone left us alone. And we took turns talking each other off of the ledge. So that was good. There was no point, so everyone left us alone.

And we took turns talking each other off of the ledge, so that was good. Yeah, that's real strong. That's a big deal. Well done. How does it feel now? Great. Yeah, it feels absolutely great. Three years of sacrifice.

Was it worth it? Yeah. It was well worth it. How did you drag your little one along? Oh, he's been, he helped lead a lot, really. Like, yeah, he was cutting the links off of our, we had a chain hanging up. So he was the link cutter. He would overhear our conversations and he would chime in and say,

I don't know if that's what Dave would tell you to do. Jiminy Cricket in there. Yeah, yeah, he listens to the show. So he's got this wired into him now. He does. For sure. So you've got this wired into him now. He does. For sure. So you've changed your family tree for real. Yes. We have one other son also, but he's 20, and he's at work, so he could not make the trip.

So he was with us the whole time as well. Wow. Good for you guys. That's fun. Congratulations. So outside the two of you and your son, who are your biggest cheerleaders? Our family, friends. I work with an awesome group of women.

As soon as we came back to Indiana, I mean, they locked in, and they were cheering us on big time. That's cool. That was awesome, yeah. Very cool. Way to go, you guys. I'm so proud of you all. That's so cool.

Yes, amen. We appreciate it. Well done. So what's your son's name and age so proud of y'all. That's so cool. Yes. Amen. Amen. Well done. So what's your son's name and age? Let's bring him into the debt-free screen. This is Chase. He'll be 11 this weekend, actually. All right.

Happy birthday, Chase. Well done. Good stuff. Well, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. That, for sure, is the next chapter in your story. You guys have done so well. So proud of you. Congratulations.

Good stuff. Michael and have done so well. So proud of you. Congratulations. Good stuff. Michael and Tasha and Chase, Indianapolis, Indiana, 109,000 paid off in 36 months, making 105 to 0 to now 125. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. 3, 2, 1. We're

debt-free! Yeah! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. two one we're debt free this is how it's done well done you guys very very very well done folks let's get real for just a second some of you are getting close to your baby step four and you're freaking out because you know you need to save 15% of your income for retirement, but you do not know how to start investing. It's scary. It's okay to have a ton of questions. It's okay to be scared about something you've never done before.

Starting to invest is tricky. The trick is to work with an investing professional like a smart investor pro that has the heart of a teacher. And they can answer all those questions in plain English. They don't sound like Charlie Brown's teacher. Rawr, rawr, rawr, rawr, rawr. You ever talk to somebody that just has to hear themselves talk? No, these guys are going to help you understand. Because when it comes to investing, you need to know what you're investing in.

And when you sit down and work with a SmartVestor Pro who knows what the flip they're doing, they're going to help make investing easy to understand the heart of a teacher. Don't sit around and freak out. Do something about it. Text INVEST to 33789. That's INVEST to 33789, and you can start building wealth today. Of course, you can always click smart investor pro at dayramsey.com as well you enter your stuff it drops down a list of the guys and gals in your area you pick the one that you want to sit down and talk to and i always like to mention this dave

i just had that conversation right before the new year with the smart investor pro they put some things together for me as a teacher in a way that even sitting next to you for a year, I was able to grasp it a little bit better. And they walked me through some things. This is my money in my house with my family and my legacy. That's where I turned. And it was the most clarifying conversation around it I've ever had. Yeah. It was good.

And, you know, there's just power in that. Yeah. conversation around it I've ever had. It was good. And you know, there's just power in that. Because if you don't know how to do something, standing next to somebody that knows how to do it to show you is the best way to learn it. Not having someone do it for you. That's exactly right. When you have someone do it for you, you didn't learn anything. You still keep

all the worry. And I actually said, do it like, and he said, nope. I need you to look at this. And so you can understand what the implications of what you're saying are. I had to walk through it, man, and that's what a teacher does. I love it. Nope, not doing it for you. I'm going to show you how you are going to do it.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. Our scripture of the day, 1 John 5.14, and this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Dale Carnegie said, develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. Tim is with us in Tacoma, Washington. Hi, Tim. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. How's it going? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Okay, so a pretty simple question, but looking for some guidance. My wife and I have recently gotten to a good place where we have only the mortgage and a statement cash loan for $4,000. We have about $3,400 surplus in our budget per month after everything is paid. We're looking towards early retirement or retiring as early as possible.

So I'm curious to see if it would be best to take that 3,400 and invest or to pay off the loan which then we can use the house as a rental unit and for our area it would rent for about 2,500 a month okay i'm sorry you said there was a two loans a home loan and a small other loan yes it's a four thousand dollars same as cash um we got a new mattress recently oh crap okay and um and you don't have any money in savings i do yes i have 40 000 cash in savings i have 30 000 in my cryptocurrency stuff which i know tomorrow could be worth bagel. But for now, it's about $30,000.

Okay. And what is the mortgage balance? It is $190,500. Mm-hmm. $190,500. Okay. And what's your household income? So our net per month is about $7,300.

Our expenses work out to be about $34 or so. Okay. All right. Well, I've been leading people out of debt and into wealth for 30 years. And the process that we use is conservative in nature, meaning that I don't take a lot of risks. I'm not big on risk. And I like to – I mean, I take more risks than some people, but I – some people don't take any, but I don't put things at risk. And so being debt-free is a matter not only of being secure,

but it's also a matter – it puts me in a place where I'm secure, but not only that, it gives me in a place where I'm secure, but not only that, it gives me all that money that I was paying to the bank to build wealth with and to be generous with. And so that's the basis for everything that we teach and have taught literally millions and millions of people. And I tell you all that to say, then in light of that, the way we answer questions here on this show, and you're new to us, is to say, what would I do knowing what I know if I woke up in your shoes? What's the shortest distance between where you are and a stable, wealthy position?

Okay? Now, if that was me, I would write a check today and pay off the stupid mattress, and I would never again borrow money on something like that under any circumstances. I'd cash out the Bitcoin by close of business today before it's worth bagel. And, you know,

that's uber high risk at best. Crazy at worst. But it's uber high risk. Bitcoin people don't think it is, but it is. Anytime you're playing a currency of any kind, you're at the whim of the other traders of that currency. It's the only thing that drives the price. If you're trading yen, you're trading pesos, you're trading dollars, you're trading euros, you're trading

whatever it is. A currency is based on what other currency traders are willing to lean in against it, and that's all it's worth. It doesn't have any intrinsic value. And so same thing with gold, even. It's a supply and demand curve is what drives the price model. So it's just too high risk for me. I'm not taking that much risk. It's rolling supply and demand curve is what drives the price model. So it's just too high risk for me. I'm not taking that much risk.

It's rolling the dice. So I'm out of there. And I'm going to set aside some of the $40,000 for my emergency fund at three to six months of expenses. And then from there, I'm going to go to what we call baby step four, because you're out of debt and you have your emergency fund. That's one, two, and three. And I'm going to start putting 15 15 of your income aside towards retirement baby step five is to start addressing your kids college and baby step six is all the money above your emergency fund the 15 is going to come out

of your budget uh everything above your emergency fund that you have i'm going to start throwing towards this house to get the house paid off as soon as possible. Of the 10,000 millionaires that we studied in the largest study of millionaires ever done in North America, for Chris Hogan's book, Everyday Millionaires, we found two major components of their wealth, a paid-for home and a stacked retirement plan. If you have a net worth of $1 million to $5 million, most of the time, roughly one-third is in your paid-for home and roughly two-thirds is in your 401K. Those are actual researched data points of real millionaires. This is not theory. And so if you want to go at it at a different angle, you're not going at it the way that millionaires did it. And it's important to say, you know, best practices.

We're going to find the ways that most people do the successful thing, and we're going to emulate that. And it's easy to, A, be smart and to have what you think is a good plan, and you flip over a napkin and do the math, this at this percent and this at this percent. We can keep this. You can make that work out in your head. But when you ask the people who actually do it yeah they say man i don't owe anybody anything and i have uh money that i've invested steadily over time they weren't trying to get they weren't trying to get rich quick over time they weren't they weren't going oh bitcoin's gonna double in

90 days and so i'm gonna i'm gonna get rich quick and as a mental health guy what i can tell you is when i if i'm relying on everyone else to make wise good decisions over the next however long dave everybody's gone mad so i'm not doing that not doing that man well there's that all right deborah's with us in new york Hi, Debra. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay.

I have an issue with a security system, a home security system in my home, and I wanted to get your advice on how can I get out of the contract. I was told that I qualify to get out of the contract, but every time I speak to someone, I'm getting a run around. Well, the space that you're dealing with is a fairly dirty space. There are some good players in the home security business, and there's a whole bunch of stinkers. Sounds like you've got a stinker. Now, did you finance the actual equipment as well into the deal? Yeah.

That's going to be your problem getting out of the contract because you actually signed a finance contract on the actual equipment, and the monitoring is just part of the picture. Yeah, but they have a six-month guarantee money money back and it hasn't been six months yet but they said if you're totally not satisfied you know you will give you money back and then call them every day and if that doesn't work start calling them three times a day and record the calls make sure you've got information on your side. Yeah. In other words, just bug the holy crap out of them. Okay.

That's really all you're going to do because you're just trying to get people that don't want to honor their money-back guarantee to honor it. And you're going to be talking to somebody on the phone who probably has a – I want to talk to your boss. I want to talk to your boss. I want to talk to your boss. I need to talk to your supervisor. I need to talk to your supervisor. You can't make the decision today.

I need to get this wrapped up. I've talked to you people 63,000 times, and I'm going to talk to your supervisor. I need to talk to your supervisor. You can't make the decision today. I need to get this wrapped up. I've talked to you people 63,000 times, and I'm going to call four times tomorrow. So I need to talk to your supervisor. I know you can't make the decision, darling. Please put your supervisor on. And keep a spreadsheet. Send emails, too. So all those are time stamped.

And let everybody know, this is the 34th time. This is the 39th time. This is the 107th time I've called. Last time I talked to Bob. The time before that, I talked to George. And then willie are any of them still there willie quit man they all quit because they have to take our calls from people like her all day long in that in that scenario so that's the only thing i know to do uh you can hire an attorney if you want might cost you more than the whole package and uh but um just make a hobby out of them.

Just mess with them. And, you know, the squeaky wheel does get oiled. I mean, you just bother the crowd out of them. Eventually, they will relent. And all you're asking them to do is uphold the contract that they agree to, right? Yeah. Just keep your word. That's all we're asking.

Just keep your word. Hard to get people to do that, though, in today's world. That's for sure. All right. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. Thank you, John. Thank you, man. Dr. John Deloney, James Childs, and Zach Bennett in the booth filling in for Kelly today. I am Dave Ramsey, your host.

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. 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.