The Ramsey Show - App - How to Handle Debt in Collections (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 4, 2020

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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. Open phones at 888-825-5225. What a wild week. Voice open phones a triple eight eight two five five two two five. What a wild week. I'm back to work for now three whole days after having been off for a month. It has been wild and had a buddy of mine. I was running to him last night.

He said, he said, but some of the stuff you've been through and some of the stuff I'm seeing about you this week. Do you ever do stuff on the air that you regret? And I went, good Lord, dude, I've been on the air for 30 years. Three hours a day, five days a week. That's tens of thousands of hours of opportunity to screw up. Of course I've done things I regret. I've been on stages in front of well over a million people in live audiences in the 30 years that I've spoken. Have I said some things on stage that were cringeworthy?

Oh, you bet. Sometimes intentionally, sometimes I go back and go, I don't even know where that came from. What was I too much coffee coffee before I walked out there? I mean, yeah. So, yeah, I mean, this is a fun world I live in because everything I do just about is live. And then worse than that, it's recorded and played over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. So, yeah, that's part of my life.

And so I get the opportunity you know the ones i really i told him i said that you know the only thing i really regret now i made some mistakes but hey you're gonna make mistakes if you're in the ring swinging right so i'm okay with that i've done some stuff that's cringeworthy probably wouldn't do it again but i was in the ring swinging i'm okay with that you just you know put your dukes up go at it you're gonna you're gonna hit some stuff sometimes you know it's okay the only thing The only thing, and I've quit doing these, the only ones I regret are when I've done rants where I attacked a person. And somewhere around 20 years ago, I made a decision that I don't do that anymore on the air i will attack an idea big time big time uh and there's people that i just from a

distance that i really don't like but that's not the point the point is for me to talk to you guys and to teach and i talk about an idea um you know and so you know but i i there's there's youtube out there of me floating around uh from the old Fox Business days when I had a show on there attacking an individual about something. And I wished I hadn't done that. And I teach our Ramsey personalities. I said, don't do that. And so there's lots of people out there that teach things that are opposite of me, that say negative things about me even. And I just don't want that.

That's one of the thing i don't do but i have man i tell you what we had we did a video one time with a bunch of coordinators in it from financial peace university and put pictures of those people in a brochure and it came out about two years later while we were still using the video that one of those guys was arrested for uh child pornography so you know what we did We threw those brochures away and we edited that video and that guy's gone, right? Because we certainly don't want to be associated with that. And we certainly didn't know anything about it at the time. But talk about cringeworthy. Jeez. And you remember the old guy, the crocodile hunter? Wasn't he lovable? Got killed, remember

him? And his kids are running around. They're precious now doing shows and stuff. And it was the show we all watched. And I used to do a joke, and it was in one of the old FPU videos. And it was a funny joke. But it was tragic. And I used to say, you know, if you keep playing with credit cards, you're going to get bet. You know, that guy that messes with those crocodiles one of these days, he keeps messing with those dangerous animals. He's going to get it. Well, he did get it, right?

And so it was completely uncool to leave that video out there, right? It was a funny joke while he's alive, but, you know, it was pretty bad taste and cringeworthy to leave it out. So we edited that video and took that joke out. And obviously we don't use that joke anymore. It's not funny because the guy got killed. Bless his heart, right? And it's not so i did a rant on monday about the over dramatic dramatization of the earthquakes in puerto rico and the fires in uh which are all bad things the fires in australia and i even made fun

of on monday get this i made fun of schools local schools last year a perfectly sunny day and there was a prediction of a line of storms coming through that might have tornadoes in it and they closed school and I was making fun of them all being wusses. Twelve hours later, Nashville gets hammered. Right. Talk about cringeworthy. That's cringeworthy. And so, I mean, three o'clock in the morning, I'm up because I got people calling me. There's stuff broken everywhere.

There's, you know, stuff we we own and jeez what a mess and people that we know are hurting and all this kind of stuff well i mean obviously i still think it's stupid that you cancel school the day before on the prediction that there might be a tornado but talk about bad timing to say something like that right before my own community all the the people I love, gets slammed. Because nobody, by the way, no one predicted the tornadoes Monday night in Nashville. There were no predictions of them. It was a thunderstorm. There were not tornadic activity predicted 24 hours in advance.

And we got hammered. This community is hurting right now. And so it would be bad taste wouldn't it not to leave that rant with that line up of course it'd be so immediately we took that rant off the air off the podcast and we edited out of the youtube account now we put the rest of the rant up without the tornado comment because it's bad taste. I mean, it's bad taste to talk about the crocodile guy after he died, you know, on video, even though at the time your point was still valid. But that doesn't matter.

But, you know, snowflakes are out there. Dave Ramsey has to be held accountable for his tornado joke. And we have to hold him accountable because because i'm a wuss and uh and he edited that stuff out and is hiding from it no i edited it out because it's in bad taste you goofus you know and it's really the worst possible timing to make that very valid point because they two actually have nothing to do with each other except that there's a tornado involved at exactly the wrong time 12 hours later we get hammered what are the chances of this it'd be like me doing the crocodile joke and the guy gets killed 12

12 minutes later you know i mean just be awful what horrible timing so yeah out of out of good taste and because my friends and my community are hurting, we pulled that stuff down. So in case you wanted to know, it was pulled down. There's a piece of the podcast that's missing from Monday because of my mouth. So if you want to hold me accountable for something, Snowflake, here's what you do. Listen to somebody else because I don't really care if you're in my audience. You're too stupid.

That's how you do listen to somebody else because i don't really care if you're in my audience you're too stupid that's how you hold me accountable so um yeah i'm going to be in here swinging and i'm going to be in here making jokes and i'm going to be in here cutting up and i'm going to call out wusses when i see wusses and i'm going to break stuff and i'm going to keep doing this i've been doing it for 30 years and that's why 18 million people listen to the show every day and it's not going to stop and if you want to bitch and moan about that you can but you're blocked on twitter already if i could block you off listening i would because you're too stupid to help so move on and go listen or do something else my gosh you people need to get a life. You're wusses. Seriously. But there's a difference in regretting this and being held accountable and apologizing versus having good taste in the middle of a cringeworthy moment and the world's worst freaking timing. I hope you understand the difference.

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It's the Dave Ramsey Show. Sarah is with us in Virginia. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How's your day going? Better than I deserve. What's up?

I just have a quick question. I'm 26 years old, and I am wondering if I should get term life insurance. You're single? Yes. No dependents? No, I have a long term. No dependents. Okay. So no one is counting on you financially to live? Correct.

Okay. Do you have any debt yes i do i have a car payment um student loans and almost with a credit card it totals about i would say like 30 okay all right do you own anything much no okay houses assets okay so forth all right. Well, if you were to pass away, the student loans are forgiven, the car would be given back or sold, and the credit card debt would get nothing unless you had money in your account, and that would be according to your will. No one would be left with a financial burden associated with you except the cost of burying you.

Okay? Correct. So because of that, I probably would not buy any life insurance. If you did, I would just get an uber, uber, uber small policy, just enough to take care of cleaning up, tidying up, so to speak, around you so that your funeral was not a burden on your family or something like that. That would be the only thing. And sometimes you have a little $10,000 policy associated with your checking account at the

bank or something that they just furnish you as a given thing. If you have something like that, that'd cover your burial cost, right? So you just don't have a lot of financial planning need for life insurance today. Now, were you to get married, I would get life insurance. Because even though he might not be counting on your income to live, he would have become accustomed to the double income in the household. And so once you're married, I'd go ahead and get about 10 times your income on you. And, of course, when you start having children, I would get 10 to 12 times your income on you because you want to be able to take care of

the family that's left behind because they're counting on that income. Your income disappearing from your family's life since they don't get any of it. You know, your extended family is not a big deal financially speaking. You see what I'm saying? So, no, I would not spend a bunch of money, if I spent any money at all, on life insurance in your situation. I just want to make sure you had enough to bury you and take care of the funeral cost, and that's all. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Matt in Kentucky.

Hi, Matt. How are you? Doing great, Dave. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I have a question for you. Recently, my father passed away, and in the course of his passing away, I was able to inherit some money. How long ago did it pass? Back in October.

So I've been listening to your show for, well, for a long time, um, but recently started to get into the baby steps. Um, we are, uh, for the most part, we're out of debt except for our home. And, um, uh, I have some debt that I borrowed against my 401K. My question was, I have some money that was left, and my question was, do you think it would be a good idea to go ahead and pay off the money that I borrowed from my 401 and to pay off our home? Yes, because that's what you would do in the baby steps, right? Those are the only two debts you have remaining? Yes, sir. Good. And how much do you owe on your home? About $100,000. And how much do you owe on the 401k loan? Probably about $10,000. Okay. And how much money's left? As far as straight cash, there would still be enough for an emergency fund.

No, I mean how much money do you have now in straight cash? Oh, in straight cash, it would be probably $150,000. Okay. So I'd leave you $40,000 if you became debt-free today. Yes, sir. And we would call that, at least a portion of that, your emergency fund, right? Yes, sir. And it sounds call that, at least a portion of that, your emergency fund, right? Yes, sir. And it sounds like because you said straight cash,

I'm guessing there's some other assets in his estate yet to be liquidated. Yes, sir. Okay. And that's just going to be? He had some IRAs and stuff, which we're going to leave and let those grow and do some different things. Very good. Very good.

You have a mandatory withdrawal over 10 years on inherited IRAs as of the first of this year. Yes, sir. So they're going to make you pull out a tenth of it a year. Yes. Okay. That's a new law that just came into effect. So be aware of that. But that doesn't change the strategy here. Yeah, I'm debt-free today.

You're baby step seven. Not a great way to get there. No, no, not the way we would choose to. But, you know, one of the things I think about in that is I think about the legacy of the person. Your dad was obviously good with money. I mean, unless he hit the lottery right before he died, he's good with money, right? Very frugal, yes. Yeah, and I'm guessing that you having your home paid off, a rainy day fund, and no debt at all,

that he's in heaven smiling about that. What do you think? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I would totally agree. I think that's pleasing to a man like him. And so I think about that when I'm using the money that he left me. Is this making him smile?

You know? And I think it would. So that kind of confirms the wisdom of the decision for me. Yes, sir. Hey, congratulations. I'm sorry, like you said, that this is the way you came by the money, but I'm glad you're being very intentional and thoughtful. You would make him proud, sir.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Ryan is in Florida. Hey, Ryan, how are you? Hey, Dan, I'm doing great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, I just got a call from a collection agency.

I can't really talk to them. They don't speak English, basically. I didn't know I had any money in the collection. I didn't know I had any debt owed to a credit card I had open. What's the best way to go about this? I have the money to pay it off. I don't want to defect my credit, but I also don't know what to do about it. So it is a credit card you have.

It's not something that's just made up. It's a real credit card. I called them. It's a credit card you have. It's not something that's just made up. It's a real credit card. I called them. It's a Target card. I called them, and they refused to tell me anything about it. Okay. All right. Well, why don't you call Target and pay it off and close the account and tell them why?

I tried that. I called them and asked them to pay the account. They just tried to transfer me to the debt collector, to collections. Okay. It's probably in-house, and they've farmed it out overseas is probably what it amounts to. They probably work for Target, at least on contract. Okay. In other words, they've not sold the debt.

So how much is involved? It's about $350. Good. It's probably about $100, and that's just the fines. And you're pretty sure this is accurate? You're pretty sure this is accurate? Yeah, this is accurate. I called Target themselves, and they said it's true.

No, I know, but I mean, even if Target thought it was true, you think it's true? It seems a bit high for what it is, because I remember spending about $100 for a friend over Christmas. Now it's around $300. Since Christmas? Maybe they put some keys and tags on there. Yeah. I don't even know the debt existed.

I thought I paid it off. But maybe I forgot. Okay. All right. So what do we do from this we learn some things number one is we get finances in a better condition and better organized so we don't have any question about it if somebody calls me up and says that i owe the money i know that's wrong because i don't borrow money and i know i don't have a target credit card so if Target calls me with an accent from a foreign country, I'm going to go bite me.

So, yeah, you need to get your stuff cleaned up. But, yeah, I would pay them. I would get an email from them verifying the numbers, not just do it verbally. And then I would make arrangements to send it to them. Do not allow them to have electronic access to your checking account to do a withdrawal because they lie, they're incompetent, and they will withdraw it. When you get this paid off, close the stupid Target card, and then you won't have these problems.

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You can find all of us, the Ramsey personalities, on YouTube, SiriusXM. You can download the Dave Ramsey Show app, and they're all on there. You can find your favorite podcasts out there, Google Play, iTunes, wherever podcasts are. You've got the Chris Hogan Show on how to become the everyday millionaire. The Ken Coleman Show on how to pursue your career passions, landing the dream job. The Business Boutique Podcast will be changed to the Christy Wright Show in April. We'll do a big announcement on that, equipping women to turn their passions into profits and live their best life. The Rachel Cruz Show, how to get control of your money and

create the life you love. That started as a YouTube show. It's a big YouTube show, but the podcast has turned into a big deal. Our Entree Leadership Podcast for business owners and how they can become better leaders, huge operation. The whole eight-episode series of Borrowed Future Podcast, a big hit about the debacle of the student loan industry. And, of course, The Dave Ramsey Show. You can find all of this. And if you just walk up and say, play The Dave Ramsey Show, Alexa will do it for you, or Google Home will do it for you. As a matter of fact, if you're playing your radio right now, I probably just activated it when I said that. I'll do it again. Play the Dave Ramsey Show. It's kind of fun to think about,

isn't it? Stay motivated. Hey, hey stay plugged in we're all here to help you in all these different areas of your life and from all kinds of different personal perspectives and so we're glad you're with us open phones at 888-825-5225 andrea andrea what was it tell me again andrea okay you didn't tell me again but i'm going with it hey how are you in California? I'm fine. And yourself? Better than I deserve.

What's up? So we have three options we can choose right now. It's either option one, just stay the course and go baby step two. Option two, pause the baby steps and pay off my mom's credit card first and then continue the baby steps and pay off my mom's credit card first and then continue the baby step. And then option three, go into storm mode because this month we'll be turning in the waiver to immigration and it'll take about six months to a year to know if he's denied or approved. You'll be turning in the waiver for what?

For immigration, for my husband's legal status. Oh, okay. And why are you paying off your mom? Wait, stop. I'm sorry. Why are you paying off your mom's credit card? We borrowed her credit card in 2016 to pay for our wedding and we borrowed it again when my husband almost cut off his hand. Ouch. Okay. All right. Um, so you're going to have to stop that, aren't you? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we found you about six months ago. So how much do you owe your mother for the use of her credit card?

We have $6,000 left on it. Okay. And how much money do you have, Annie? How much, like saved up yeah uh just uh emergency fund the 1000 okay good so you're working the baby steps one of your debts is repaying your mom and and your husband's immigration status comes into play how do you need money for that uh yeah one of the baby steps, the smallest baby step loan is a lawyer. So we're almost, that's actually the first one on the list.

So if he gets denied, more than likely he will get deported. And so he wants to go into store mode, save as much money as he can in case he gets deported. And I want to just do baby, option one, just follow baby step two. So what is the probability, 50-50, that he gets deported, 90-10? I mean, he is immigration and FBI prints came out clean, but there's always a 50-50. No, that's just worrying. I mean, what is your lawyer telling you? This is a slam dunk?

I don't know this stuff. I mean, he has a good outcome. He says he thinks that everything is going to be okay. Okay. So that's not 50- that's well for him no yeah i'm not asking about worrying i'm asking about what really is going to happen you can worry about dying when you walk out across the street but your probability of that happening is not 50 50 you see what i'm? And that's how you make these decisions.

You don't make financial decisions off of wringing your hands about vague things. This isn't vague, but I don't know enough about immigration law to tell you what your probabilities are. I really don't. And so your husband wants to pay the lawyer, not pay your mom and pile up cash to get ready for a possible problem. No, he wants to go into storm mode. Yeah. Yeah.

When will you know about his immigration status? It takes six months to a year. From today? From the, we turn it in on the 24th of this month. Oh, wow. That's a long time. Yeah. Yeah. And what's your household income uh it looks 60 okay i would think that in six months to a year that you should be able to pay off the lawyer the six thousand dollars and pile up some money yeah i think so too so um stopping and actually that puts you in the best position if he did get

deported because if you were debt free and had a pile of money versus if you just had a pile of money um that would not be a good position so, let's go ahead and just work the plan, but let's work it with incredible intensity, lots of overtime and no spending at all because we've got to get this debt paid and get it off of you because it's a big deal problem emotionally with it being owed to your mom or on her credit card. God help us with that.

If you ever use that again again you need to be smacked okay don't do that okay yeah don't do that but how much is the lawyer oh we have 1 600 left on it that's what i want to do just continue the baby steps yeah i think you work the lawyer then you work mom and then you pile up cash and you do it with great intensity because i think in six months you're going to have five to ten thousand dollars worth of cash and no debt and in a year you for sure would okay and if you got a year you've got six months to a year to find out now if you get different news and something different happens then you would stop everything and pile up cash, right, if you've got actual facts, not just fears. It's like someone calling me and saying, I think I'm going to lose my job.

Why? I don't know. I just sometimes people lose their jobs. Well, no, you don't stop on that basis. Oh, they laid off 60% of the people, and they said they're going to do another wave next week. Okay, that's different. We stop everything because you're probably going to lose your job, you know, and we stop everything and build up an emergency fund.

But that's how you analyze this stuff is what are the real probabilities. That's simple. Hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Sheila is with us in Florida. Hi, Sheila.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Thank you. We are currently in Baby Step 1. Just recently started that, recently started listening to you.

Have realized that 19 years ago we foolishly purchased a timeshare, which is only about a couple hours from us, and we've never used it. So we took your advice and reached out to the timeshare exit team, did our free consultation. Good. Unfortunately, with this particular timeshare, it could take some time, and it's an estimated cost of about $3,500. Yeah.

Our question is, do we get our baby step one taken care of and then take out a loan? Because, unfortunately, we don't have that kind of money to... No, I would not. I would put the $3,500 in your debt snowball. Okay. As if it was a debt, and when you would put the $3,500 in your debt snowball. Okay. As if it was a debt. And when you save up the $3,500, I would hire a timeshare exit team. They're reliable. And it does take some time, though.

That is right. And you can count on it taking a year or more in some cases. So count on that while you're tacking into this stuff. Hey, thanks for the call. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Adam is in California.

Hey, Adam. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. I appreciate it. Sure. What's up? So we're on Baby Step 2, and the next debt on the list is an inactive debt.

Currently, it's at $4,500, but we received a letter from the collections company yesterday saying that we can settle it for 20%, and I know it's considered inactive, but I'm kind of wondering if we should just hammer it out. You got the 20%? We do. Okay. Where did you get it? It was a Capital One credit card of my wife.

No, I mean the 20% that you're giving them in cash. Oh, I'm sorry. You can cash flow that out of one month's income? Is that the idea? Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah, I'd pay it for sure.

Get it in writing. You got it in writing. Yeah, we have the letter. Yeah, obviously. I'd keep that letter and keep a copy of the proof of payment stapled to it in hard copy in a file for the rest of your life. Because these people, they're incompetent and they're crooked and so they'll resell they'll resell a debt that's already been paid you'll get another collector call someday they do that all the time so keep up with it do not give them

electronic access to your checking account because they lie we got a check we'll get the check filled out and everything okay if you just send them a, that's fine as long as the check clears and it does so within the time frame of what they've offered you here. Okay. Then that's fine as well. No problems there. But, yeah, I would definitely take that for sure. Let's knock it out.

I will do that then. My wife wanted me to call just to make sure. So happy wife, happy life. Yeah, amen. And here's the good news. Here's the good news. The two of you are talking about this. You're both working on it.

You're making decisions proactively. You will never again have an inactive credit card in your life. Absolutely. That's our plan. And she's the one that hit me to you. So she's smarter than I am at this point. I think that was already established. Me too, brother. Me too. If you can't marry up, I have no was already established. Me too, brother.

Me too. If you can't marry up, I have no respect for you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. The first time I ever heard that was Mr. Zig Ziglar, the iconic, wonderful gentleman. I got the pleasure, because I was a huge fanboy, I got the pleasure of meeting Zig and Miss Jean while they were both still living. We became friends. fanboy i got the pleasure of meeting zig and miss jean while they were both still living we became friends and um uh you know we go i show up with my wife and he says dave you know i don't respect a man that can't marry up and i deeply respect you that's a good line i gotta tell you it's a

good line all right john is with us in north Carolina. Hey, John, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks, Dave. So first I'll just start and say yesterday I paid off all my student loans, so thanks for the motivation to do that. Wow. Yeah, it's exciting, right off my shoulders for sure. And with the new refi rates, my wife and I are currently in the process of moving our mortgage to a 10-year loan.

So with that said, my wife and I are currently in the process of moving our mortgage to a 10-year loan. So with that said, my wife got a recent promotion where she moved from about $100,000 a year to about $150,000 a year. We currently have a term life insurance over her, which covers her for about a million dollars for 20 years left, and we're currently 37. With that information, do you think we should add the extra $500,000 to cover that extra increase in pay if we're out of debt except for the home? Well, you don't have to, and here's why. What we're aiming at is if someone died, either one of you, is the pile of assets plus insurance big enough to take care of the one that's left behind? And so what happens is as you build wealth and get out of debt, your pile of assets is getting bigger, so your need of insurance is gradually incrementally decreasing. Now, we usually present it for simplification purposes of either on or off, like a switch,

but it is more of a gradient, actually. Because, you know, let's say you needed a million dollars, but you had a half a million. You need a million dollars income off of a million dollar lump sum to live if she died. Okay, let's just use that as an example. But you had $600,000 in a mutual fund. Well, you wouldn't need insurance except for that $400,000 that's missing. You see what I'm saying? Right.

And then the next year, if you had $700,000, you wouldn't need insurance except for the $300,000 that's missing, and so on, because you're reaching towards becoming self-insured, no need for insurance because your asset base is big enough to replace your income. And you're kind of in that middle ground. So I think it's okay to not add to it because if something happened to her, the fact that everything's paid for and you're debt free and the fact that, you know, you guys have a sense of control and I'm guessing you've started to build your 401ks and that kind of stuff too, right?

Right. troll and i'm guessing you've started to build your 401ks and that kind of stuff too right um right then i'm guessing you're okay financially to finish raising the kids if there's kids there or just take care of you uh off of your income if something happened to her especially with an extra million dollars laying around right we just have three foster kids now uh can we get some assistance with them um You see my point. Yeah, I do. So I'm kind of thinking maybe if I add for a short term to kind of carry us to where that wealth really starts to build. So maybe if I do like a 10-year term. That'd be fine, or even a five.

Even a five. You're going to be a long way along in five years because you don't have any payments. Right. Your house is paid for, too. Did I understand that? No. We're switching. We have about $230,000 left on that no uh we're switching we have uh about 230,000 left on that and i'm switching that to a 10-year uh oh okay and then i would do a 10-year yeah

okay throw another how old is she uh we're about 37 and you said that and she's in great shape she is yeah okay uh no no medical problems doesn't smoke not overweight no that's cheap insurance and dude Those are the killers right there. The weight and the smoking will kill you. It'll double your insurance. So it's inexpensive to buy a half million dollars on a 37-year-old. Gives you a lot of peace of mind. I would do it. All right. Thanks for your help. Thank you, sir. Check out Zander Insurance. Get your quote. They'll help you out.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Y'all jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Jimmy's with us in North Carolina. Hey, Jimmy, what's up? Hey, Dave. How you doing today? Better than I deserve, man.

How can I help? Good. Good. I appreciate it. Hey, I'm in the military, and I was able to transfer my post-9-11 GI Bill benefits to my son. So we're on baby step number five, and I was wondering, with that in mind, would you suggest still saving up for college expenses, or would you just take that post-9-11 GI Bill benefit and say, okay, baby step five is done?

Between. I think you got most of it done. It's a wonderful benefit, and I'm glad you have that. Thank you for your service. I appreciate it. It is one of the VA benefits that's actually excellent. Not all of them are, as you know. But that one's excellent. That one's excellent.

But here's the thing. You may want to do some things that require some cash that the stipend and the tuition coverage won't take care of. It's possible. And so I would save some for college, but I would say you're 90% done. And so if you want to do nothing for a little while while you go ahead and knock out your baby step six and knock out the house, that'll be fine. But be prepared to probably write a few checks depending on what type of

studies they go into and where they're going to study and all that kind of a thing but um i think you're i think they'll be able to go to college based on this i mean it's a stipend and it's they pay the tuition so it's a pretty simple thing but you couldn't run into a housing thing where you wanted to you felt safer with your daughter being in this situation rather than another situation where you want to write a check to cause that to happen. You'd want some money there to do that. So at some point, I would add some money, even if you just kept it in your name, to the, in quotes, college funding.

Even if it's a mutual fund in your name, you say, I just got this here, and if we don't use it when she goes to school, I'll just give it to her after she graduates or him after they graduate, whatever. And that kind of stuff. And that's what I would do. But you're 90% done. No sweat on the college. You got it covered.

That's what it amounts to. Worst-case scenario, no money at all anywhere. This kid can go to school on this for sure if they watch what they're doing. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We will be back. This is James Child, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Spotify, Pandora, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.