The Ramsey Show - App - How Do I Set Myself Up for the Future? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, help you do work that you love, and we'll help you create actual amazing relationships. I am Jade Warshaw. I'm joined by my co-host, best-selling author, host of the Ken Coleman Show, the man himself, Ken Coleman. And we will be taking calls all afternoon about your life, your money, your career, your work, your relationships, and how they all work together, how they all affect each other. Ken had a great idea. If you're interested in starting your own business coming up in the new year, you got some ideas, call us up, run it past us. We'll be a little shark tank for you and see if it makes sense. We'll poke holes in it, give you some constructive feedback. We'd love to do

that. Give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. And we will take your call. Matter of fact, we're going to see Makita. She's from Asheville, North Carolina. What's going on, Makita? How can we help? Hey, how are you? Thank you for taking my call. No problem. Did I get your name right? Yes, you did. Ah, winning. Yes. How can we help? My husband and I have a small dog grooming business. We currently have a lease to the location and I am not on the lease. We're looking at a different location so we can expand our business and they would like me to be on the lease. And the issue is I do not dog groom. I do all the office work, you know, all of that behind the scenes stuff. But if something were to happen to him, say he passes away,

I would still be on the lease. And I don't know the legalities of it, if I would be responsible for the remainder of the lease. I would say so if I'm signing it. I'm just trying to get some advice on what to do because we really want to go to this other location and expand our business. And leases don't come up very often, but it's just a big concern. So is your husband the other name that they're asking to be on the lease?

Yes. Does he have the same concern that you have? Well, if I passed away, he would be okay because he still does the dog grooming he would just have to figure out the rest of you know paying bills and all the other stuff i do yeah i mean first thing i'm just going to common sense this one i think there's two things i would be looking at uh one if you're concerned about this and I think it's a valid concern, I think you talk to the landlord about it, you know, and there's a reason why they want two names on the lease, right? And then there's a reason you have a concern on this. I would have a good old face-to-face conversation, look him in the eye and go, hey, how would you treat that?

You know, because if something happens to him, I don't have a business because I can't do dog grooming. I would start with that. The second thing I would do is I would also ask your husband if he's done any work in this, but is there any kind of insurance that the business could take out on him so that you could take care of things like this lease? If I was getting in a situation like that, I'd start with the face-to-face conversation and go, hey, I've got a concern about this. Obviously, this is the only exception here. I have no problem signing up for this based on any of the reasons. How do you feel about it? They go, well, I've got my reasons. They're going to walk you through this. There's a reason why

they have it. Maybe they make an exception. But I would also look at potentially the insurance policy on your husband through the business. and probably not very, very expensive, and that would take care of that type of legality. But I would just dive into it and look at what your options are. Okay, because I did ask him if they'd put in like a clause, a death and disability clause for him in the lease that we could find that great no well okay well my take on it is slightly different um i as a like if i'm a co-business owner with my husband i kind of would want my name to be on everything because i want to know that i have full ownership the same way he does and the same amount of skin in the game what the way my brain is working on this is you guys have this business. If the

business is healthy, I would just make sure the business has a certain number of months of retained earnings for down months, for if the worst happens. And in my mind, this is just Jade speaking now, if something, God forbid, were to happen to your husband, he's the one who knows grooming. He's the one who knows that. What would just happen if you hired another groomer and kept the business going? Or you guys worked on, my guess is that the idea is to keep building this business and maybe in a year or so or whatever, you do have more than just one groomer and he's kind of going on there. I just feel like there's a way to keep this thing going without –

does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, do you want that? Do you want that hassle? I mean, that's the whole point of your question. I mean, I don't mind the advice. I mean, I kind of like your angle. I'll go with Jade on –

Yeah. Yeah. What about the retained – I'll go with you on the retained earnings you have that set aside so you've got the the how long is the lease look at that insurance policy it's six years it's a six-year lease all right so you got you know i mean that's jade makes a very good point you guys are taking out money and you try to get to a point where that lease you'd be able to pay it off cash and walk away. But if you don't want to keep the business going, if that would be a hassle for you, we're talking worst case scenario. This is such a worst case scenario. And my bigger question is, I guess part of my question is, do you, are you not interested in

dog grooming as a business? You just like bookkeeping and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Cause in that part, at that point, it's kind's kind of like you're I guess you really are viewing yourself more as like I just work for this business it's not really my business like is that kind of where you're at like I love the dogs and everything but the actual art of dog grooming is very complicated I there's no way My brain just doesn't work like that. Well, I mean, I get that she doesn't want to be a dog groomer, but my question is,

long term, if he wasn't the groomer, is she interested in keeping the business going and just hiring another groomer? All right, so what's the answer? So the only issue is, because we're in a small town is um because we've seen another business go through that they've been through attempting they've had i think five different groomers in a year trying to get somebody in getting them in they leave it's just we're in a an area that's

really expensive to live in you don don't want to do it. It's as obvious as it can be. Yeah, then if you don't want to do it and we're playing worst-case scenario, then I mean, yeah. I would look into the insurance. Yeah. I know that that exists. I would kick the tires on it. I'm not an expert on it, so I wish I could give you some details on it.

But if it were me, I'd be calling my insurance agency. I'm assuming you guys have some type of insurance on the business anyway. And I'm going, look, what can we do here? I have never even thought about that. That's like a great idea. Well, it's because I'm wearing a cardigan. I'm feeling extra safe today. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just curious. I would definitely be curious to look into that because then the other part of me is like, okay, like if she's listed as an owner then maybe that's why they're requiring it but if she's not listed as an owner I'm fine as long as she's got insurance and she's not responsible for the lease that's all we want

to take care of because she didn't want to do this business yeah that's interesting I wonder what she would want to do if the worst were to happen these conversations man they're dark and twisty I'm not gonna lie it's like yeah that's a whole other segment you want to do it is a whole other segment if the worst were to happen. These conversations, man, they're dark and twisty. I'm not going to lie. It's like, what would you want to do? It is a whole other segment. But that's what we're talking about, guys. That's about to do it for this segment. Be sure to give us a call.

Think about what your question is and give us a call at 888-825-5225. And we will be here to chop it up with you. This is The Ramsey Show. All right, you guys are listening to The Ramsey Show. All right, you guys are listening to The Ramsey Show. I am Jade Warshaw. He is Ken Coleman. And hey, if you like this show, if you've been listening for a while, or maybe you just discovered us, I would love, love, love, love, love if you took a moment to share the show, tell somebody about it. And you can do that in a lot of different ways you can text your favorite episode you can use a little paper airplane button and you know send them your favorite clip that we might post or you can just go in there simply and like the like it subscribe it whatever that is that helps us so much it's totally free it's easy for you to do

and it's really just a way for you guys to show your support. And we appreciate it. Look, we recognize that without you guys, there's not a show. So we thank you for tuning in. We really, really hope that this resource is helpful for you. Right. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. There's a lot going on. And I want to talk about this right quick, Kim. A lot of you may have heard that Mint, right? The budgeting app Mint that we've all known about is closing its doors, right? Intuit is the big conglomerate that owns Mint. And a lot of people were using Mint to do their budget. And now Mint has said, well well we're closing our doors and a lot of people are looking out here for a new budgeting home enter ramsey

solutions where's the trumpet sound effect there it is there it is that's great so mint currently has four million budgeters ken that's a lot of folks and they're just telling four million people hey we're done see ya and not only that then they were like well let us give you some place to go why don't you sign up to credit karma so they're literally can pushing these budgeters into a platform that's not a budgeting platform it's really just a place for them to get into more debt. It's a Venus flytrap. It's a Venus flytrap. And so, you know, let me just be flat out honest. When I very first started budgeting and looking for, because back in the day I was on pen and paper, Sam and I getting out of debt.

And I remember a hipster buddy of mine was like, hey, you should try mint, bro. And I was like, OK. So I went on to try mint and I was like, this is not for me. And it wasn't. And then in my search for mint, I saw every dollar and I started using every dollar from day one. OK, all right. And back, let me tell you, back in the day, however many years ago, you know, it didn't have the bells and whistles that it has now.

And so now every dollar is sleek. I mean, it's a Lambo. It does all the things that you need it to do. And I just really want to formally invite anybody listening. If you're looking for a new budgeting home, because come January 1st is going to be a cold day and you're going to need somewhere to go inside and warm up your money. You know what I'm saying? So go over to EveryDollar. It's free. You can download the app for free and you can get started budgeting for free. And it works like a charm for free. There's also a premium version if you want to do a little upgrade and get just some more budgeting features that are going to help you even more, make it even more streamlined. Some people like

that hands-on approach though that they get with the free version where they can really be hands-on and other people, they kind of want to be like, Jadeade i need it to do a little bit more for me and if that's you that's fine we've got a premium version it's really cheap uh really inexpensive for you to use that one as well um and i know there's a lot of folks out there that are like jade you know what i'm gonna just i'm gonna take this as my cue to do excel or do pen and paper. But there's a problem with pen and paper, Ken. There's a lot of problems with Excel and pen and paper. And part of it is it's not keeping track in real time. Are you telling me that you take your computer with you

when you go into Publix and every time you make a purchase, you're adding it up in your Excel spreadsheet? No, what most of y'all do is at the end of the month you're like well the month is over let me go reconcile my budget and you pull out that old 80s calculator with the tape roll and you start doing your math and you realize wow i just went over budget 500 and the month is already over there's nothing you can do about it now you already went over budget it's after the. What would happen if you had a budget

like every dollar that was on your phone, not just your phone, it's on your phone and your spouse's phone. And in every single day, you're getting update on how much money is actually there. Those transactions are automatically going into the app, automatically updating. So you can automatically see when you get to the grocery store line, hey, I only have $179 left to spend. Well, I think, Ken, that it would change the way that you spend, which would ultimately affect your budget. That's correct. So I'm just saying every dollar is a way if you're looking for a place, we want you to come to EveryDollar. Matter of fact, I have a promo code. Let me just throw that out there. If you go to everydollar.com slash Jade, I myself will spend Dave's money and give you $15 off your first year. That's on me. Or let me do you one better.

Now, this is a little bit of a roundabout road, but let me do you one better. If you purchase on pre-order my book, which is Money's not a math problem, which is truly, truly at its core about budgeting. If you purchase this on pre order, I will give you three months of every dollar free, every dollar premium. I'm talking about the one with all the bells and whistles that comes as a perk. It's $10. So if you want to get three months for free to see how this thing is really working, go ahead and do the book. And that's another little roundabout way to get this. So there's methods, Ken.

There's layers to this thing is what I'm saying. Well said. Well said, indeed. Anything to add? No. I think that was perfect. All right. Let's move on.

Let's move on. We got Rachel. And I'm going to say Lafayette. There it is. Is it Lafayette? Yes, that's his actual name. Louisiana. Louisiana. For the history buffs out there, the man's name was Mar to say Lafayette. There it is. Is it Lafayette? Yes, that's his actual name. For the history buffs out there, the man's name was Marquis de Lafayette, and everybody goes, Lafayette, Tennessee.

Well, that's country. It's like, it's not Lafayette, it's Lafayette. Thank you very much. Well, this is Rachel, and she can tell us if we're right or not. Are we right? Is it Lafayette? It's Lafayette, yes. Okay, that's what I'm talking about.

What's going on, Rachel? How can we help? Yes. Hi, I have a question regarding an investment property that both my husband and I own. We purchased it using an inheritance with the intentions of using the profits to help supplement our retirement later on and also our children's secondary education. Okay. We paid cash for it two and a half years ago and we currently have $95,000 invested into it. We currently profit $750 per month after all of our expenses. The kicker is a few days ago, we had our annual HOA meeting where the annual budget for the complex was discussed, needed future projects, difficulties collecting HOA fees from several of the owners. We also learned that the current HOA fees are not meeting the current budget needs and are also not taking

into consider, oh excuse me, the consideration for the needed improvement projects. Okay. Therefore, we're anticipating a rise in the HOA fees next year. From what to what? We're not sure about next year, but we just went from 206 to 263 a month in HOA fees. And if you had to guess, what do you think it could get to? Like, what's your biggest fear? I would say like 350. Okay. If not more. So where does that put you?

What's that? In our profit? What would that put you what what's that in our profit what would that well no i mean you call because this is creating a problem for you so what what what is this making you consider this raising hoa um just with knowing all the issues that they're having i'm wanting to sell my husband's wanting to keep it i mean so real numbers what are you afraid of? If it goes up as high as $350, what does that do to your profit margins? Aren't you passing some of that along to your renters? If not? Yeah, we are going to go up on the rent. As you said. I'm afraid, yeah, I'm afraid that if we get into the 400s a month more people in our units are not going to pay the HOA fees and then it's just going to go downhill from there maybe with you know I think that you increase can I just cut in and I think that you're I think you're projecting a lot

of what ifs um because right now like you said okay it's gone up 60 bucks that's substantial um but you're gonna pass 30 of it over to your folks and you're gonna take some of it and instead of making 750 a month you're gonna make 720 a month and I would really cross that bridge when you get to it I think that to just go oh this is getting crazy I'm selling right away. I mean, what would happen if you just stuck in a little bit longer to really see where this goes? That's what I would do. I mean, Ken? Yeah, I agree. I think you trust your husband on this. Walk through the numbers, walk through your fears. Let's get some facts on this and let's move forward. I wouldn't get

out because of the Verizon HOA. This is The Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw, your host, joined by Ken Coleman, who is also your host. And we are taking calls all afternoon about your life and what's going on with your money and how it relates to the other areas of your life. So if you want to talk with us, give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225. And we would love to talk with you. We're going to go straight to the phone to Dennis, who's in Charlotte, North Carolina. How can we help today, Dennis? Hi, how are you, Miss Jade? I'm doing good. How are you, Dennis? I'm doing great. I'm super glad to be on here.

Awesome. I'm happy to talk to you. What's going on? Well, so a little bit about my situation. My mama, I'm 18 glad to be on here. Awesome. I'm happy to talk to you. What's going on? Well, a little bit about my situation. My mama, I'm 18 years old. She passed away last September at the age of 36 due to a drunk driver. Oh, gosh. And since then, I moved in with my pastor and my best friend, and I've been having trouble getting a job. My buddy and his other buddy started construction,

and I've worked with them off and on. But I get to start my first day at UPS tomorrow 4 a.m to 9 p.m I'm looking really much forward to it great hours good money $21 an hour okay just to start out but I got a little bit of trouble I've been not doing money like I said I got a credit card okay very stupid very stupid and I'm not it's not due or nothing but I've already spent 110 on that credit card my limit is 300 I don't stupid. And I'm not, it's not due or nothing, but I've already spent 110 on that credit card. My limit is 300. I don't want to go. I don't want to spend any more on it. Okay. And my papa has helped me out because I've had a rough couple of weeks. He gave me some money and my friends, when we go out to eat, I'll say, no, I'm not going to eat.

I don't have to. They'll pay for it because I got really good friends and I make sure that I put their money, how much I owe them back then. So I'm in debt to friends and credit card to around $340 something dollars probably. And I'm three days past doing my phone bill, which is $120. And I'm two days past doing my car insurance, which is $200. Okay. I got it all written down. Okay. And you've got $0, but you start the UPS job tomorrow. Yes. And when do you get your first paycheck? Okay, and you've got $0, but you start the UPS job tomorrow. Yes, ma'am. And when do you get your first paycheck? So today is orientation for 10 minutes. Tomorrow we go in for three hours at 4 o'clock,

but then Friday I go in 4 o'clock in the morning to 9 o'clock in the morning, my actual hour first day. But I will get that money next Thursday, but it won't be enough. I'll get next week's paycheck after Thanksgiving. Okay, so after Thanksgiving, assuming now that you've gotten two paychecks, how much money will you have? Because it's still the month of November,

so it's not like we've crossed into another month. How much money will you have once you get those two checks after Thanksgiving? I would want to say $600, maybe $700. And you've got shelter, you've got a car. Like, you know what I'm saying? You're living with your pastor and your papa. So you've got... My pastor shelter you've got a car like you know i'm saying you're living with your pastor and your papa so you've got so my pastor and best friend pastor and best friend

okay so with that six hundred dollars if you took that and you paid the two hundred dollars in car insurance that leaves you with 400 you paid the 120 on the phone and then you paid the credit card for 110 what about that and then with your next check you came in and you paid the credit card for 110. What about that? And then with your next check, you came in and you paid the 230. Sorry, I didn't get to write down what the 230 was for, but whatever that, that's your biggest debt and you paid that one final. How would that feel?

And then by Christmas time, you have no more debt. Perfect. But one, I got asked, what should, which I think is a pretty good question because the car is essential yes my car insurance will not be extended should i just let my phone go off for about a week or so so your car insurance is late when will they when would they lapse it they won't lapse it until the next month right it's just late at this point they send you a letter out the first day you don't pay it they'll send you a letter out saying it's been canceled by 12 on the phone.

That's not true. You have like three days after. OK, so let's make that final. Let's make that first priority because you need to be able to drive and you need to have insurance. So let's let that be the first thing. And if for some reason, if you're not able to cover that and they do lapse it, like call them up and be like i just got this job is there any way you can extend it what will that look like if they won't then you're just going to have to pop into another policy and until you can just don't drive your car like do not drive around without insurance and you're going to need you're going to need somebody in your circle one of these friends who's been spotting you some money you know

get them to drive you to work until you can get this money and get back with your insurance. Yes, ma'am. You got that? Ken Coleman's going to help you with this career side. Come on, Ken. I'm just really curious. You're only 18. You're very, very young and you've got plenty of time. So this is not a pressure question. I'm just kind of curious. I'm glad, by the way, you're at UPS. I think this is a great landing spot for you with all the trauma you've gone through, losing your mom. You're going to get great benefits there. Work your butt off. Just get stable.

Get your financial feet underneath of you and heal emotionally. But I am curious, what are you thinking about? What are you wondering about as an 18-year-old young guy about your professional future? Well, I'm a preacher, so I think about preaching a lot, but I want to be successful. I'm actually in the course of taking online real estate classes right now, so that's a main thing for me is pursuing real estate, but I want to... The classes are hard. They're online, and they're difficult, but I'm not a quitter. That's really what I do want to do.

And I'm not even sure if that's still what I want to do. I want to do a lot of things. Well, that's fine. That's fine. So are you thinking bivocational? You're selling homes during the week and preaching on the weekend? Is that what I'm hearing? Yes, sir.

All right. All right. Well, you've got plenty of time. I would say this. I want you to walk our baby steps out, okay? We've got our crisis situation, which really isn't a crisis because you have a place to land. You have a place to sleep. You got food. And let me just say this on the cell phone thing. Cell phone people aren't going to cancel your cell phone

because you're a couple weeks late. I love the fact that you're communicating with people and just telling exactly your situation. Look, here's where I'm at. I'm okay. I got a great job at UPS. It's one of the most respected companies in the world. You're good to go. So then get that $1,000. Once we get through this getting caught up on everything, $1,000 in your savings account. That's your emergency fund, right? And you have no other debt, correct?

That's just these small little things. Great. So here's the deal. Cut the credit card up. Today. Tonight. You don. Cut the credit card up. Today. Tonight. You don't need the credit card. That credit card, if you still have it open, it becomes an option for you when times get tough,

and it just keeps putting you behind the eight ball. And as tough as your life has been over the last year, you can handle it. You have got a spunk about you, a light that I can just feel coming through the phone, and there's no stopping you. And you've got support through the friends, through the place to stay. So you don't even need the credit card for what most people think they need it for. So cut it up, and not just cut it up. I'm going to challenge you, when this call is done, the next phone call you make to the credit card company and cancel it. And then once you've got a thousand dollars in your savings account, baby step one, since you have no debt, you are now moving right into what does a six month emergency

fund look like for you? Because you have no other expenses. I'd like to see a six month emergency fund for you, but three to six months will work. And now you begin to go into baby step four, where you begin to invest 15% of your income. You're probably going to have a great retirement count set up with UPS. Get familiar with it, with HR. Talk to them about it. Do your max contribution, and then go, go, go. And young man, you're going to be way ahead of most 18-year-olds financially, which gives you a ton of freedom professionally as you begin to explore things. You understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir, I do. And you got my word. I'll cut it up as soon as I get off here and I'll call. I like it. I love that. I love that. And just to get you started, I'd love to give you a couple of months of every dollar premium. So Austin's

going to pick up. Make sure you get started with the best budgeting app that is out there. I would love for you to have that. And matter of fact, you know what? Dennis is on point. Let's give him Financial Peace University because I want him knowing all the ins and outs. I want him completely financially literate. There we go. Can I say it? And let's add on to the gifts. Austin, let's also give him the Get Clear career assessment for him to just begin to think through. What does my future look like? Give him the book From Paycheck to Purpose, which is also the companion. And is there anything else?

And you know what? Why not? Give him one of my books. I was waiting for this. Look, I forgot that I had it to give away. Let's be honest about that. This is brand new. It's a rookie move.

It's a rookie move. It's okay. Rookie mistake. It's okay. Yes, give him Money's Not a Math Problem. I love it. Man, Dennis, he's what I call a superstar. A stud, really.

Great spirit for a young man who's been through kind of a bone-crushing, spirit-crushing loss. 100%. Loses mama at 36. Yeah, wow. I mean, that's tough stuff. What a bright soul he is. But I really like that he's surrounded by

really great friends, really great family, a pastor, a church, like people who really came in and it sounds like they just put their arms around him and made sure that he he knew he was God. Like he knew those people had him and I love that. That's, I mean, you can't

that's what it's all about. I love that. And I love the generosity, Ken. You came through with, you were like Santa Claus. I have the spiritual gift of giving away Dave's resources. It's just something you come with. Ooh, love it. Here to help people. I love it. It gives me chills. This is The Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. This is Ken Coleman to my right we're taking calls about your life and your money so give us a call the number is 888-825-5225 we've had a lot to discuss uh over the past several segments Ken and I don't know like if you guys listen regularly uh you may have listened yesterday and we had a gentleman call in. Let me just give you a

brief synopsis. We had a guy call in and he was a vet who was fully disabled, but he was still able to work. And so he had the GI Bill available to him to pay for some extended school. And because of the nature of his disability, he had, I believe, up to $65,000 of federal student loan forgiveness available to him, even though he only had $10,000 that needed to be forgiven. So he was trying to ask us, would it be right for him to basically take out a student loan that would not be used for education because he technically didn't need it, but that he could just use for life, like his mortgage and things like that. And we felt like there was a bit of an ethical dilemma there. And so we advised him, yeah, don't take out the money. You can live,

you can work. I know it's available, but it's for student loans. And in this case, you wouldn't be using it for your education. But during the break, Ken and I talked and I thought, I was like, you know what? This is tax dollars. I'd be willing to give them my portion, which is like 0.000019%. And it kind of just grew. And so we came back and we asked you, the people. Well, what was my opinion? Go ahead and tell them, Ken. You said I would get, I said, I'm not giving him mine. I'm like, no. You went Scrooge mode. No, I just went, I just, I just went personal responsibility mode. I'm not mad at that. Which gets called Scrooge mode no i just went i just i just went personal responsibility mode i'm not mad at that which gets called scrooge no i'm not mad at you can i oh no i get it so then you said

let's ask the people and so james apparently how did we do this we took you can drop a poll on youtube so we did a youtube poll and we got a lot of strong feedback in the comments as well i'll tell you what the numbers were and then you can guess which answer goes with which number. All right, okay. It was 67% to 32%. I'm telling you right now, the Ramsey audience, 67% went with Ken. I think you're right.

I think even though I was like Michael McDonald and taking it to the streets, nobody cared. Yeah, it was 67% no. Meaning they agree with me? Meaning, yes, no no that they wouldn't give their money so these are people who believe in rugged individualism personal responsibility

good on you folks i'm not mad i am not mad because honestly because because of you guys i am now 0.111119 which richer okay so thank you for giving me money back into my pocket. Love it. This is why I love this show. Can I, I must say, I do like the poll and I, I like doing this more often. I wish we could maybe do a text in and do live poll results during the show on certain issues.

When you are fearless leader, think it might be interesting. We should figure out a way to do that. I love that. I'm going to drop your personal cell phone number in the chat no but they got this ability to do this now these people these these tech people you give out a text number and then boom i just think it'd be great all right stay tuned you never know what we are here for the people well so they should have a voice they do have a voice i'm about to let let us hear chery voice all right and Reno and Reno look Ken you got me flustered

Reno Nevada I was thinking about how I was going to make fun of you next oh you were yeah I was like I was going to say Ken if you would stop yapping I can go to Cheryl and hear her voice and then I messed up and said Reno and then you made fun of me instead that's what happens I got him what's's going on, Cheryl? How can we help? Hi. Thanks for taking my call. No problem. My husband just retired the end of June, and we're still trying to get our retirement budget together.

But my kids keep thinking we've got all this money that we can spend on them. And I feel so broke constantly, even though we're not really giving them money. They've got trust funds that my parents set up for them when my parents passed away. And I just don't know what to do anymore. So Cheryl, these trust fund kids are hounding you for money? Yes. But you're not giving it to them? No. But you feel bad because you're not giving it to them? Yes. Well, I thought you said you feel broke, and I'm confused how you would feel broke because of them. I think you feel broke because of you all. okay we have we have more money than what we're telling the kids we have then how can you feel broke because i'm constantly being told we need money for this

we need money for this we need money for this so i mean it's getting to be Christmas. My daughter wants Christmas money. What? How old is your daughter? What? She wants to co-sign for a loan for my 17-year-old granddaughter to get a 2020 car because my daughter's credit is down to two. And do you want to know whose problem that is? Not yours. That's my daughter's problem. Yeah, it's not your problem. Cheryl, these I'm just this is your family and you love them.

But I am an impartial person out here. And I'm telling you, these folks are entitled. You have done the right thing. You have said, no, I'm not going to fund this and that. And I'm certainly not going to do it at your whim. If you feel the need to be generous, you can choose when and how you'd like to be generous for your family, but they do not get to treat you like grandma ATM and come to you whenever they feel like they need this or that. You're exactly right, and if I were in your shoes, I would not

feel bad about that for a hot second. Cheryl, what's the status of the trust funds? Do they already have access to them, or are they waiting to get access to them? I'm the only one that has access to them right now. My son inherited my parents' house as part of his trust. We ended up having to take a loan against that trust because they would not upkeep the house and the city has an ordinance where you can't have just weeds all over your front yard. So we ended up having to take a loan against the trust to pay someone to come out and landscape their front yard. The car for the granddaughter is a loan against my daughter's trust. Why are they loans, though? Because I wasn't about to co-sign because I don't want to make car payments.

Right. Okay. But my question is, does the trust say, is the trust delineating when certain amounts are supposed to be distributed to them and they're just not getting

what they felt like they were supposed to? Or is it something different? The trust gives my daughter $1,500 a month. And that's it, and she gets that? She gets that every month. And she wants above and beyond that, is that what you're telling me? And she wants above and beyond that.

All right, so let me... My son has a house to live in. Right now his rent is $275 a month to help pay for the sewer, the insurance, the property taxes, that type of thing. All right, Cheryl, here's the problem. Your kids know about the trust, and they have known about the trust for a while, enough to let their behavior be so immature and so lazy that they can't even cut their own grass. And you've got to take a loan. First of all, you didn't have to do any of this.

You've done it. I think you called today because you're at your wit's end. And should be. And you should be. But I will say you have a lot of responsibility here. And I'm not saying this to be mean to you at all. I'm saying that now is the day to you at all. I'm saying that now is the day for you to say enough is enough and you got to decide what you're going to do

here on this trust. I don't think they've earned it, but I don't want to get into the minutiae of this because I don't think that distracts from what you need to do. What you need to do is say, this is what you get. And if it were me, I'd change the trust to where they don't get any of it until they show themselves worthy and responsible of it. But at this point, they get what they get from the trust and you need to say, that's it. And there's no more asking mama for anything, which means you are going to say no to all these loans against you. This is over. And this is a family meeting, a come to Jesus meeting, where you make it really, really clear how things are going to be going forward, because these kids are manipulating you emotionally. You sound like an emotionally weary lady who actually needs to take charge and let the kids gripe and

complain. It's time for them to be adults i know that's not fun to hear but this isn't going to change until you cut them off and be okay with cutting them off show you're right ken i am not going to argue with that that is strong advice from ken coleman and i agree 100 thanks for hanging us with with us this hour be sure to join us next hour on the ramsey show