The Ramsey Show - App - How to Have a High Success Rate With a New Marriage (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 15, 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. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America, because it's all about you. The phone number here is free at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Kurt is with us in Boulder, Colorado. Hi, Kurt. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I am a junior

in college, 20 years old, and I have a full-ride scholarship. Two years ago, right before my freshman year, my father suddenly passed away of a heart attack and left me $50,000 from his will. Now, that money has been put in a bank account, and I've left that untouched for two years. And I've been a longtime follower and listener of yours, Mr. Ramsey. I read Total Money Makeover when I was in high school, and so I felt like the best plan of action would be to call you and ask for your advice on the steps going forward with this money, because as you say, you know, nothing's going to happen unless I do something with it.

Yeah. I'm sorry. That's a tough thing to go through at your age. How's your mom doing? Oh, she's doing well. You know, it is a tough thing to go through. But financially, she follows your baby step program. She's on step number six.

Well, it sounds like he left everybody taken well care of. A good man. Okay. Well, the good news is it sounds like unless something fouls up, you don't need the money to get through school. Am I right? Yes, sir, and I have no debt whatsoever. Okay.

The way I would look at this is I would look at it as an insurance policy that ensures that Kurt is going to graduate debt-free regardless of what happens. Okay. So if the scholarship blew up or something weird got sideways or something like that, then we know you've got the money to finish and not have to borrow money. That's its primary use is to make sure you graduate 100% debt-free. Its secondary use would be after you graduate, you would do something with it. You might buy a car.

You might move up in car or something. You might start some investing at that time. The more serious investing, you might think about buying a home at that time. So you'll have some use for it after college if you don't use it up. And I'm thinking you're not going to use it up. I'm not expecting anything bad to happen. But we'll use it up and i'm thinking you're not going to use it up i'm not expecting anything bad to happen but it's we'll use it for now primary use is the insurance policy then two after college we would use it for wherever you are in the baby steps and whatever purchases you need to make and investments you need to make at that point so all of that said

i'd probably sit down with a smart investor pro and I'd probably put 30 of it maybe in a very conservative type growth stock mutual fund, maybe like a growth and income fund. And I might put the other 20 of it in just a money market. That way it's not going to earn much, but that's kind of your safety net. The other money is invested a little bit better, and it might go up. You know, you might make $3,000 or $4,000 a year on it for the next couple of years. That'd be kind of nice and add some money to it. So when you graduate, it's more than $50,000. It ends up being, you know, $55,000 or $60,000 or something, something like that.

And it's not going to do that if you leave it just in a simple savings account. But yeah, so sit down with one of the SmartVestor pros in your area, the people we recommend that don't work for us in the investment business, and you know where they are, just click smart investor at DaveRamsey.com. They can help you do some of each, you know, some in a money market, some in an investment because, you know, you're in a pretty safe place. But I just really want to make sure that, you know, no matter what the storyline is of the next two years of your life,

that you graduate completely debt-free, because I think that's honoring not only to good financial planning, but it's certainly honoring to your dad's memory. And he obviously did a great job taking care of his family in life and in death. So, wow, pretty incredible. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You know, we don't ever like to talk about losing somebody like that. And I have, over the years, had friends that passed away,

and then their kids are my kids' age, and, you know, they become secondary kids to us since we're in their lives. And, you know, sometimes they pass away, and, you know, They become secondary kids to us since we're in their lives. Sometimes they pass away, and they're spouses in our life, and we watch them go through the struggle or not. And don't you just see, you guys see this too. It's not just me. It's not just because I'm this money character. But isn't it, in one sense, maddening and saddening, and on the other side of the coin, I guess, really just honoring that when someone actually has a will, actually has life insurance, and has actually taken care of their family in the event that they die before they think they're going to, right? Because we all think we're going to live to be 100 and be in good mind and still be, you know,

skiing Black Diamond down the mountain, right? I mean, we're still going to be doing everything at 100, right? But we're not. And we're not all going to make it. As a matter of fact, none of us are going to make it. We're going to make it to, we might make it to 100, but you ain't going to make it much past that. You ain't going to make it. Do you know that? So so you you know what an honoring

thing wouldn't it be cool if your son your daughter was that young man he calls up and said you know my dad took care of my mom she's in baby step six my dad took care of me and um by the way he handled his money by the way he handled his money, by the way he handled his life insurance, by the way he handled his will. See, you can do all that. You can go get your will today, and you might be 32. You might be 26.

I got bad news for you. 26-year-olds die every day, too. So you need to get your will done. You need to get your life insurance in place. You need to have a plan for your life, and part of having a plan for your life is having a plan for your death. I don't want to get your will done. You need to get your life insurance in place. You need to have a plan for your life and a plan. Part of having a plan for your life is having a plan for your death. I don't want to do a will.

I might die. You're going to die. And doing a will does not increase the probability of your death, nor does it decrease it, by the way. So you better get ready. You better get ready. And it's the way you say I love you to your family. It's the way you look in the mirror at yourself and you say, I'm looking at an adult. I'm looking at a grown-up who took their responsibilities to their family seriously.

That's a big deal, you guys. That's a big deal. It's when you quit living for Friday night. Thank God it's Friday. Oh, God, it's Monday. You start actually having some vision for your life. It changes everything. And then maybe, hopefully not,

but maybe your son or daughter is, Kurt, calling me someday. And my dad took good care of us. That's a pretty cool statement, you know. That's a pretty cool statement. A know. That's a pretty cool statement. A lot of worse things could be said about you, and a whole lot of worse things could be said about me. But that one, I got taken care of. I may not make it through this hour, but that one is taken care of.

I can promise you that Sharon, the grandkids, oh, even those kids, they're all going to be okay. Financially, they're going to be just fine. Spiritually, they're going to be just fine. And because the part that I had to play in that, and I don't get to make all the decisions, but the part that I had to play in that, those decisions were made. Because I decided a long time ago I'm going to be a grown-up. Adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good.

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Kyle is with us in Tulsa. Hi, Kyle. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, David. Great to be talking with you. Sure. What's up? Yeah.

Me and my girlfriend have been going out for a little over a year now. And she has two kids. And we've talked about over a little over a year now and she has two kids and we've talked about marriage a little bit and i'm trying to figure out i have debt on my own so i'm trying to figure out how to like prepare my life um my future um that way they can have a good future too and you know it makes sure everything works out okay you said you have debt is that what you said yeah i have yeah yeah i do okay how much debt do you have uh it's about um 17 000 okay and how much debt does she have she has roughly about the same she um okay he has a car and what does she make uh she makes 25 uh 25 a year what do you what do you make the same yeah we both work at the same place you both make 25 yeah so

you have a if you were married you'd have a fifty thousand dollar income with thirty four thousand dollars worth of debt did i understand that right Okay. And when would you be talking about getting married? I'm not sure. I mean, that's kind of what's up in the air right now. Yeah. Just trying to think through it. Okay. Well, I mean, the main thing is not whether or not you have debt.

It's whether or not you are in agreement on how you're going to handle money, meaning that we're going to be in agreement that we're both going to attack this debt with a vengeance, and we're going to get rid of it so that we can build wealth, so that we can have a great retirement, and these kids can go to college, and so on. How old are you? I'm 25. How old is she? 22. And she has two kids. What ages? Yeah, a four-year-old and a six-month-old. And a six-month-old. Okay. Yes. So she's recently gone through a divorce? Yeah, or a breakup. Yeah, it's kind of messy. Mm-hmm.

Okay. All right. Well, what I would tell you is this. You want to make sure that the two of you sit down with a pastor and a marriage counselor and get some detailed in-depth family counseling because you're going to be an instant dad yeah and these little kids don't come with a training manual yes and so um you know you and she you know um you want to make sure that you're going to be able to speak into the raising of these kids. And if mama bear rises up and says you're not able to speak to that, and yet you're paying the bills and living and married and so forth,

that's going to cause problems in your marriage. So, you know, the management and the encouragement and the discipline and the nurturing of the kids can become a real sticking point in a blended family. And so you want to make sure that you guys have worked all of that through and that you've worked through the money decisions. We're going to stay out of debt. We're going to save and invest. We're going to get out and get rid of this debt. We're going to stay out of debt. We're going to save and invest. We're going to get out, get rid of this debt. We're going to be on a budget together. We're going to have a plan. Here's the reason I'm bringing that up. The data that we have from doing this for 30 years is the number one cause of divorce in North America today is money fights and money

problems. There are four things a young couple need to be in agreement on, and if they're in agreement on these four things, the data points tell us they have a high success rate in their marriage, a very high success rate. Number one is money. Number two is kids. Number three is religion. And number four is dealing with the in-laws the extended extended

family because there's because there's crazy in every family and you got to know how to deal with it okay oh yeah and so uh if you guys can the two of you can in your pre-marriage counseling get a real flow chart a real template on how to deal with the kids that you're both going to be in agreement. You're going to love those kids like they're your own, and you're going to be consequently speaking into their nurture and their discipline as if you were their biological dad. Right. And you're going to set that plate up.

You're going to put that on the plate ahead of time. The same thing with the money. We're going to combine our money. We're going to be in plate up. You're going to put that on the plate ahead of time. The same thing with the money. We're going to combine our money. We're going to be in agreement on where we're going with the money. We're going to be in agreement on our religious affiliations. We're going to be in agreement on dealing with in-laws. Because, in other words, you can't let mother-in-law get between you, as an example. That kind of thing happens all the time.

If you can get those four areas covered, all the data tells us you have about a 90 success ratio with your marriage one of those four things is where almost everyone trips up and you got two of them right now that are bothersome so you really need to address them you have a very young fiance with very young children recently coming out of a toxic situation danger danger yeah okay and so take your time and i'm not saying you're not not to love the woman i'm not saying she's not a great woman she probably is all that's fine but just take your time and get detailed in-depth pre-marriage coaching and counseling. And by the way, people that do in-depth pre-marriage counseling have a very high success rate of marriage. All right.

Because good marriage counseling done ahead of time, good pre-marriage counseling, will keep a bad marriage from happening. Right. It'll ruin it. It'll ruin the engagement if it's good stuff, if the engagement needs to be ruined. And if there's too much toxicity and you're not going to survive anyway, it'll blow it up. And that's what you want to do. I mean, tough, tough discussions.

You want to have those before you get married, not after. I mean, marriage is tough enough when you got everything lined up, but when it's not lined up, oh my goodness, can you have a mess? So, hey, there you go. Thanks for joining us. Taylor is with us in Seattle. Hi, Taylor. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So i just wanted to get some advice so i am a nurse um i've tried different um sectors of nursing and have finally you know found what i'm passionate about and i love it um the only problem with it is that now i want to become a doctor in that field because i am loving it so much um the deterrent being i don't want to be $200,000 in debt for medical school.

Well, that would be a good idea. Well, yeah, and the only advice I'm getting from people is you either go $200,000, $250,000 in debt, or you join the military. So my question for you is do you know of a better way to do it, and do you think it's worth it to go that much in debt for a career where I will make $250,000 to $300,000 a year? I can't quite get my head around what the right route would be. Well, you may. You may. You may not, too. We don't have control over that.

The only way that works is if it works, and sometimes it doesn't work. So, no, I don't ever tell people to go into debt, ever, not even for that. So what would I do if I were in your shoes? Military is an option. The second thing I would look at is the MD-PhD programs where you get a fellowship and you go to work for a university, basically. For instance, Duke has one of those. They're hard to get into, but if you can find one of them and get in,

basically the premise is that you become an employee of the university working there, and then the school is free. But your income drops to near nothing. In your case, probably the last one is the best one, is I would look for one of the big hospital companies to fund it. And in return, you would have to agree to work for them for a certain number of years. And they're recruiting heavily docs, especially going into some of the underserved areas. And so you might end up working a rural hospital or something

that wouldn't be your first choice for three years after school, but then they would give it to you free. There's a payback. It's kind of an indentured servant plan, if you will. But check out that. That's what I would look into. Listen, there are some basic things that you should be doing to take care of your family. A roof over their head, food to eat, even if it's rice and beans, a car to get you from A to B, and term life insurance.

Term life insurance is an immediate need no matter where you are in the baby steps since your family is at no greater risk than when you're in debt. That's why I tell you to get 10 to 12 times your income in coverage to replace those lost dollars and do it with a 15 or a 20-year guaranteed level term plan so you can make sure your family is protected long term. The only place I send you is to Zander Insurance. They shop all the top insurance companies and they're committed to serving you. That's why I use them and why I've recommended them for over 20 years.

Whether you prefer to work online or you need personalized assistance, you pick your path. Go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Please, please get this done. It is an absolute necessity. Tulsa, Oklahoma's calling. Gina's on the line. Hey, Gina, I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations.

Thank you. I am so excited, Mr. Ramsey. And other than faith and family, you have been the biggest blessing of my life. Well, I am honored. I'm proud of you. Congratulations. How much have you paid off? Just over $76,000 in almost 28 months.

Good for you. And your range of income during that time? $73,200 down to $66,000. Okay. So your income went down. Tell me about that. I paid almost $49,000 over the first 27 months, and I had $3,300 of consumer debt left, and $24,000 left on my house in the last two weeks

and sold my rental property, which you told me to do. Okay. All right. So that's how I bumped from baby step two to baby step seven within about 10 days. Got it. Wow. You paid off your house and everything. So what's your house worth? Oh, don't get too excited. It's a double-wide trailer. I'll take it. It's paid for.

Maybe $35,000 to $40,000. You probably won't remember the call, but I called to check with you and was trying to do a handicap remodel on my home because my mother lived with me. And you told me to sell my rent house that I had from a divorce. So that's what cleared everything. Okay. And now you're set. I am. Well done. And very blessed. What do you do for a living? I'm a full-time teacher and part-time administrator in a small school in Oklahoma. Very cool. Good for you. What kind of debt was

the $76,000? Sounds like 24 of it was the trailer. Well, altogether, $30,000 of it was the house from the beginning. I had a car, which was $18,000. I had five student loans left after 30 years of paying them. Wow. Seven medical bills because I had three surgeries within 15 months, and then five personal debts. Wow. How old are you? I am 49.

And you are 100% debt-free. Yes, sir, I am. And celebrating daily. Every single day. I love it. How does it feel to not have a single payment in the world? Oh, I can't even tell you how much lighter it is. My stress is less.

My motivation is more focused. And I may never get to be a millionaire, but I can also see the light at the end of the tunnel now. I don't know why you wouldn't. You've got 20 years left making $70,000 a year. You ought to be a millionaire. Yeah, I am very excited about where the future goes with us. Congratulations. Thank you.

Proud of you. Did you have people cheering you on or saying you were crazy? Not to my face. So whether they wanted to be or not, my children and their spouses were my group text accountability partners, and everybody was very supportive. But if they downplayed me, they didn't do it to my face. I didn't have a gut.

You were on fire. Not really. So when people hear that you're debt-free, house and everything, and they say, how did you do that? What do you tell them the key to getting out of debt is? You did it. Well, everyone says the budget and the cash envelopes are key and they definitely work but the thing that worked best for me was being honest with yourself from day one only knew uh you're the one that knows how much you can cut and how much you're willing to do without and only you know if you can do more um i'm a salaried employee because i really couldn't do anything to increase my salary and with my health issues

and my mom i don't really have marketable skills or time to do manual labor. So I had to be content with cutting things and changing things in my situation and be content with my progress and had to work to try to commit to the balance between contentment and covetousness. Wow. Good for you. You've worked this.

You've worked this in your head. This is well done. We've done very well. We've shared this. You've worked this in your head. This is well done. Very well done. We've done very well. We've shared financial peace and taught it a couple of times, and we've even brought the Spanish version to our parish in this last year. Wonderful. So I'm excited about that.

Wonderful. Thanks for doing that. Wow. Look at you. Congratulations. What was the hardest part of this whole thing for you? Oh, Lord, patience. Patience is not my strong suit. So when I pulled up a 30-page credit report that documents my stupidity since I turned 18 and looked at all the money that went through my hands and how different my children's life and my life would be, it was very hard to be patient and wait for that check to come in each month

to do what I needed to do with it. So 30 years and four degrees later, my student loans was the last debt i paid off except for my house well done well done yeah it is hard once you get going it's hard to wait on the money it's like i'm looking forward to getting paid because i want to see what the progress is each time yeah i can drop it on the on some debt yeah yeah it's it's a different thing you've really it sounds like just listening to you in this two-and-a-half-year period of time have really personally transformed, haven't you? I have.

I've been on a journey, and I have been able to embrace my faith even more, and that has helped me to bless others. In fact, just two weeks ago, I got the tax information because I kept back some money in case I had to pay capital gains on the house, and it came in a lot less than what I had planned on, so I was able to bless a family in South America through a program and buy them a house. Wow. So it has been a blessing not only to me, but to others.

Mr. Ramsey, and it all started with your program. Very powerful. I'm so proud of you. Very well done. Very well done. You are a hero. thing not only to me but to others mr ramsey and it all started with your program very powerful i'm so proud of you very well done very well done you are a hero you played this well and it's just beginning because the next chapter is where you do become a millionaire and you're continue to be outlandishly outrageously generous as you go along well played well played we're going to send you a copy of chris hogan's book retire, to make sure that happens, signed by the man himself. Thank you. It's a number one bestseller, as you probably know by now.

Gina in Tulsa, Oklahoma, $76,000 paid off in 28 months, including student loans that have been there for 30 years. Did this making 73, now down to 66 a year. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream three two one i love it yeah there you go man well done well done tony is in springfield hey t, Tony, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, sir.

I have a retirement question for you. Okay. I have a little over a million dollars between my 401K and my Roth IRA. I'm 64 years old, and when I turn 65, I plan on starting to withdraw about $4,000 a month. And if I start taking from Social Security, I can get $4,000 a month. And if I start taking from Social Security, I can get $2,400 a month. Or if I wait till I'm 70, I can get $3,400 a month. So my question is, when I turn 65 in a year from now, do I draw the Social Security at $2,400 and take out $1,600 for my 401k forever? Or do I wait till I'm 70 and then just take out $600 or $700 for my 401k?

Yeah. Neither one is necessarily mathematically big time better than the other one. The only thing that comes into play for me is, A, I don't know what they are going to do with Social Security long term. I'm not predicting the failure of it, but it's mathematically a disaster. And so eventually someone is going to have to build up the political capital to deal with the disaster that is Social Security. That might mean trouble for me and you, you know, in how much we get or when we get it.

The other possibility is that you die before you get your money. Exactly. And, of course, it's gone forever. So based on those two things, I generally take it as early as I can take it, as often as I can take it, even if I don't need it, so that I can just plow it back into my life and all of that you know the wonderful job you've done saving and investing is going to be there that is going to survive you it'll go to your ears regardless but your social security won't so I'm going to take it early often just in case I'm not predicting bad things for you

or even from the government but just in case there's more downside than upside with that puppy for sure right so so did you start out a millionaire do people give you money you inherit a lot of money a lot of work a lot of savings a lot of side side jobs and a lot of not spending the combination just kind of worked over the years. How much have you inherited? Zero. Okay. Both my wife and I have a high school education, never went to college, but we just worked hard and smart and invested. What was your career? I was in the building materials for a long time, and I've been flipping houses for probably 20 years.

I was doing one or two houses a year when I was working. And then when I retired nine years ago, I've been doing two or three houses a year, just kind of playing with it. And it's just been fun. And it's been financially great. Yeah, well, you're doing it all with cash, it sounds like. Well done. Well played, sir.

Well done, man. There's another millionaire starting from nothing. But you can't do it today in America. Yes, you can. He did it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. One of my favorite parts of this show is hearing your debt-free screams. You guys are our heroes.

You've kicked debt to the curb and you've saved for the future. Now we want to celebrate with you. If you have lived like no one else and are currently in baby steps four through seven, well, it's time to enjoy some money. And the perfect place to do that is on board our first ever Live Like No One Else cruise in March. That's right, just a couple of months away. But get this, it's not too late to book your cabin, so don't miss your chance.

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Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jordan's with us in Little Rock. Hi, Jordan. How are you? Hey, Dave. How's it going? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Hey, my wife and I are on baby step six, and we've just got the house left as our debt, and so we've got a lump sum. We've got about $30,000, and I'm trying to decide if I just want to throw it all at the house or if I want to try and invest it into mutual funds and make some money off of it. What is your home worth?

It's about altogether, about $330,000. Okay, and what do you owe on it? About $250,000. Okay. Well, let's pretend you didn't have that $30,000. Okay. Why would you have not gone to the bank and borrowed another $30,000 on your house to invest it? I don't want to get another loan.

Okay. Well, what if you just refinanced and had a $280,000 loan instead of a $250,000 loan? Just to reduce the monthly payment? No, I'm saying you had a larger loan by $30,000 than what you have today. Okay. And invested that $30,000. Mm-hmm. Why haven't you done that hadn't thought of it okay um well i was hoping you were going to say i haven't done that because

i was trying to get out of debt and i'm borrowing and borrowing money is putting me further into debt but um but the the bottom line is that uh the all the millionaires that we have studied, the vast majority of them, one of the key data points in them getting to millionaire status is they paid off their home early. We didn't talk to any of them, not one out of the 10,000 millionaires that Chris Hogan and our team interviewed, not one said, I became a millionaire because I borrowed money on my house to invest in mutual funds. They all said, I paid off my house as early and as quick as I could. I didn't borrow any other money of any kind.

And so what that information tells me, as applied to your question, is I would pay off my house as quickly as I could because I'm trying to build wealth as quickly as I can rather than trying to borrow my way into wealth. Okay. Because effectively by not paying it down, you understand you're borrowing it, right? Yes, I do. Okay. That's the opportunity cost on your money.

So, yeah, I'd pay down the mortgage as fast as I can in Baby Step 6. When the house is paid off, then I will max out in mutual funds all retirement accounts that I can possibly get my hands on, plus some more. And you live and give like no one else. That's Baby Step 7. Phyllis is with us in Tulsa. Hi, Phyllis. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Thank you. What's up? Okay, here's my dilemma. I am 67 years old, recently divorced. Good Lord. After 24 years, I was left with quite a bit of IRA divided. I don't know how to invest it. I'm rolling it over into an IRA. And I don't know whether to go medium to high risk or low to medium risk. Are you, do you have any other income coming in? I have Social Security.

And I'm going to actually, in the end, need some of that to live on, but I've got about $260,000 to invest. And I'm afraid to put it in medium to high. Afraid it will lose money that I don't need to be losing at my age,

I don't think. And so do I keep it in low-risk mutual funds uh so do i keep it in low risk mutual funds or do i i'm not sure what your uh advisor is calling low medium and high but let's just talk this through for a second okay okay most of the time what they call high risk if you look at it over the scope of 10 years the number of times you would have lost money in any given 10 year period of time is less than 1% of the time. And that's the, that's a standard mutual fund investing. Like I'm, I'm 58. That's what mine are invested in. And that's what

a lot of advisors call high risk. So, uh, but now you're not. So the point being that you could put money in there, you can put the 260,000 in there today. It might be worth 240,000 at the end of this year. And then it might be worth 300,000 at the end of the next year. And then it might be worth 290 at the end of the next year. And then it might be worth 350 the next year you see. And so, but the bottom line is over the scope of the years, even though it's going back and forth, you don't get hurt on a roller coaster if you don't jump off i don't want you on a steep roller coaster a scary one but i i you know so my point is is that high risk in some of these scenarios again i'm not positive how they've categorized this i want you to sit with your advisor and learn some more so that you're not scared and if your advisor doesn't have the heart of a teacher click smart investor at dave ramsey.com

and find someone in the network of people that we endorse and we recommend and um they'll help you with the heart of a teacher and you can actually learn this stuff but what you want to look at is the long term because here's the thing you're not going to take the money out you just need the income off of it right and if you can make 10 a year on it that's 26 000 a year it's a couple grand a month right i was told that if i don't invest in least medium that if inflation raised i would definitely be losing a lot of money. Agreed. Agreed. And so, and again, I'm not worried about the words high or low, medium, or high risk, because none of these are in Las Vegas. We're not going to Las Vegas, okay? That's not what we're doing here.

We're investing. And so this is like, is this a good neighborhood to buy a house or a medium neighborhood to buy a house? Both of them, you're buying a house, and buying a house is a pretty safe thing, right? But one of them might be a little better than the other. That's all these words mean in this scenario. So this is not like rolling the dice and you're going to lose the entire $260,000. That's not on the table if this advisor's worth is salt. So you need to get in there and understand what they're talking about and say,

okay, if I leave this alone 10 years and all I take off of it is the income, what are the chances that I'm going to lose money percentage-wise over the history of this kind of an investment? If I look back 50 years on this type of an investment, how many times would I have lost money between 67 years old and 77 years old? And I think on the high risk, even they're going to tell you very, very low, like almost never would that have happened in the last 50 years. And so if you're leaving it alone 10 years, because you do not need to touch this principle, you do need to live off of the income, though, to have that extra couple thousand dollars to go with your with your Social Security security and that needs to be

your budget i don't want you eating into the actual goose i don't mind you touching the golden eggs but the 260s the goose that's laying them you leave the goose alone that's your principle and that's how you set this thing up and uh work yourself through with that but sit down again with your advisor and really understand. I think you're going to find that what they are calling high risk is not really in the scope of the world. High risk. It's the highest of the three things you're looking at. But compared to Vegas, compared to gold or Bitcoin or stupid stuff that people do which is ultra ultra high risk single stocks compared to that this is not even on the same planet with those so this is like is this is

a good neighborhood a medium neighborhood which is it and you're just looking at it that way and sit down and learn that from them and ask them over the last 50 years, if I had invested at high, what percentage of the time would I have lost money? And they can actually run a pro forma out and show you that. You learn from them. Learn from them. Take your time. This is up to you to make the decision, not because Dave Ramsey said and not because your advisor said.

It's because you learn from me, you learn from them, and then you make your own decision. But I think that's what you're going to find. So good question. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We're glad you're with us, America. Listen, when you're dealing with financial people, tax people, real estate people, mortgage people, estate planning people, advisors for your investing. Depending on which insurance, a lot of times all they've learned how to do is sell. And you don't want a salesman. You want a teacher. You want to learn.

Because it's not their job to make your life decisions. It's your job. Their job is to teach her. You want to learn. Because it's not their job to make your life decisions. It's your job. Their job is to teach you. And if they can't teach you, then they don't get your business. You walk away. In every case, people, you need people with the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman around financial products. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

This is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to the Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify? For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com slash show.