The Ramsey Show - App - How to Pick a Beneficiary (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 18, 2019

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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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Merry Christmas to you, America. We're so glad you're here. Lindsay's going to start off this hour in California.

Hi, Lindsay. How are you? Hi there. Merry Christmas, sir. Merry Christmas. How can I help? So my husband and I are in 86456 and getting ready to start putting money into our kids' college account. Cool. So my question is, yeah, I'm really excited about it. Should we stockpile each

account with $30,000 and just leave it alone and let compound interest do its magic and focus on the mortgage? Or should we just steadily invest in their accounts monthly until they go off to college so we can pay off their mortgage by more payment? Okay. Either one is fine. Maybe step five is address the situation of college. You can address it on a monthly basis or a lump sum basis. I'm just kind of like to get things done, you know, off my plate thing.

I don't have any at the end of the day. I very seldom have any emails in my inbox. You know, I'm that guy. And so what we what we tended to do would be to lump some and, you know, back calculate with your smart investor pro what you're going to need for that three-year-old when they're 18 and going to college and once you once you calculate what you need then you can back out at your current rates of return on your mutual funds what uh what lump sum would create that final amount when they're 18 and so 30 000 is probably pretty close actually and so you could do that, and then that's like baby step five is box checked, right? And we don't spend any more monthly cash on that again,

and we just move on to baby step six, and just every loose dollar then starts flowing towards paying off the mortgage. My personality style likes doing that one, but that's just my personality style. I'm a checklist person myself, so that works for me. Yeah, but there's not like by the principles that we teach or by good financial planning rules or by whatever is one of these better than the other. No, it's not. It's not.

It's not a problem either way. Because if you funded your kid's college, fully funded it, and then they get scholarships in a 529, and you go, oh, well, I've got all that money trapped in there. No, you don't. You can withdraw the equivalent value of the scholarship with no taxes out of the 529. And so if your kid gets a scholarship that you can show the value of it is $22,000 a year, you can pull $22,000 a year out of their 529 with no taxes. You've just got to have the backup paperwork to document it.

So if they got an academic scholarship or they got, even though they just signed up and got a bunch of scholarships, it doesn't matter. If they just, you know, if they got an athletic scholarship, any of that, then you're not going to be stuck with that money in there or having to move it to a family member which you can move a 529 to other family members but that's the way to go at it so yeah you're either way is going to be fine you're addressing the baby steps and you're going to send your kid to school that's amazing emily is in Massachusetts. Merry Christmas, Emily. Merry Christmas, Dave. What's up?

My question for you is I am on baby step number six. I'm single with no children, and I'm at the point where I would like to get will and trust set up so that if anything happens to me before I grow my family, my assets can go to my extended family and not to the government. There you go. With that being said, I have my parents as the primary beneficiaries for now. My hope is that I outlive them, but in the case that I don't, I'll have them as a primary. In the event that they pass, I need to pick a secondary beneficiary. I have one brother, two stepbrothers and a stepsister, and one niece. With that being said, I'm a little conflicted on what to do for my secondary beneficiaries because I feel that not all of my siblings would

cherish the money responsibly. I don't want to create conflict by, you know, only giving it to some of my siblings, but at the same time, I really wouldn't want to see the assets squandered. Yeah. How old are you? I'm 33. Okay. You're being very very wise Congratulations You're under no moral or spiritual obligation To treat everyone equally No one in this world Is treated equally I get discriminated against

Because I'm bald No one is treated equally Some people work harder than others. Some are smarter than others. Some are prettier than others. And their incomes and the money that they end up managing are therefore different. I cannot throw a football like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, so I don't get their paycheck. And so that's how that's. But that's the point. Point is, we're always going to have wealth inequality. You can't fix that.

Fair is what's at the county. There is no fair. And so the what's fair is someone that works twice as much ought to make twice as much. That's fair. It shouldn't be equal. Socialism is not fair. And so when you're looking at your will, if you kind of go through that lens, then you say, I do not have to do this. I'll give you an example

in the Ramsey household, okay? We're people of faith, and so we believe we don't own the money that we're managing it for God. And if you are not walking with God, you are not eligible to manage God's stuff. And so if one of mine goes off the ranch and decides they're going to be a heroin addict or run around in some kind of crazy, wicked lifestyle or something, they're not in the will. And it's not punishment. It's because they're not eligible to be a steward of God's things when they're not one of his children.

And so that's how we view it and by the way we've communicated that pretty clearly uh and so you what you get when you get our stuff is you get the responsibility of managing it it's not that you hit the lottery and so that's how we've communicated our stuff and our estate planning with our heirs and so you know at 33 years old if you're in good health i don't know that you have to stir the pot necessarily like i would as a 60 year old dad i need to stir the pot a little more and let everybody know exactly how i feel but uh i want to set you free from if you've got one of these siblings or half siblings that is misbehaving in their life you don't want to fund their misbehavior that is not an act of love.

When you give a heroin addict a million dollars, you'll kill them because they'll kill themselves with that money. And so when someone's operating with weakness in character or weakness in behaviors and you give them money, you expand the problem and the curse that is in their life. And so you don't want to hurt someone you love, and you will be hurting someone who's misbehaving when you give them money. And so you're under no obligation to give them anything, nor are you under any obligation to do it evenly.

And so I would just set it up today the way it is. And by the way, the good news about beneficiaries and heirs and wills, nothing's permanent until you die. so you can change it every year maybe one of them gets all better and they're got a whole clean life and they clean up their act and well we you know that'd be wonderful i'm not mad at people i just want to bless them when you give people money that are misbehaving it is not a blessing it's a curse this is is the Dave Ramsey Show. In a season of giving, what better gift can you give someone in the coming year than a new job? Business leaders, if you're looking to add to your team in 2020, get started now with LinkedIn Jobs. At Ramsey Solutions, we post on LinkedIn Jobs because we know the right person

will have an impact on our company for years to come. And LinkedIn Jobs matches the right person with the right job. It's no wonder a hire is made every eight seconds on LinkedIn, and over 600 million members visit LinkedIn to make connections, learn and grow as professionals, and discover new job opportunities. So find the right person for your team and give the gift of a rewarding new career. Get started today and get $50 off your first job post. Visit linkedin.com slash Ramsey. That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. thanks for being here america this is the dave ramsey show. Steve is in Pennsylvania. Hi, Steve.

Merry Christmas. Hey, Dave. Hey, Merry Christmas. I appreciate what you do. Love the show. Love what you do for people. Thank you, sir. How can we help today?

Well, I have a question. I've got input from two different people. I want you to break the tie. Okay. I'm going to retire in the spring. My job's kind of downsizing, going away. I'm 62 to retire in the spring. My job's kind of downsizing, going away. I'm 62 years old. I got $700K and a 401K.

I've got $630K in an IRA. I'll be getting a cash balance retirement from the company of $470K. So I'll have about $1.8 million in ira and managing my retirement out of that well how fun congratulations thank you touchdown baby so when i'm 65 also get like 12k a year from a previous employer and added 66 and a half my my, my social security will be about 3000 a month. And my wife's issue to stay at home, that'd be like half of that or $1,500 a month. Um, currently my, my monthly bills around 75 to 80 K. And if I actually, the only debt I have is my house. So if I paid off my house at $94,000, it would put my bills around $67,000 a month. I'm sorry.

You're spending six-year bills or $67,000 a month? I'm sorry, a year. My bad. Okay. I feel better. All right. Good. I didn't know whether you were like a rap music star or something.

I didn't know what your deal was. Okay. Yeah. So right now I spend about $75,000 a year. Okay, so $100,000 a year takes care of you. You've got a couple million dollars in the bank in your investments. You're amazing. And how much on your house?

My house is worth $400,000. I owe $94,000. So the $64,000 question is, should I take money out of my retirement funds and just pay off the house now yes or okay why would you keep a mortgage well was it a freaking baby yeah maybe in about seven years my wife and i might downsize well so what sell the house okay when you sell it they give you the money all right and it's not like you're spending the money. You're just paying off a debt. Okay.

Why would you keep a $90,000 debt when you're sitting on a couple million dollars? Okay, good. Well, I'm asking you. No, it's not a rhetorical question. Why in the world would someone have told you to keep this debt? Well, because my mortgage payment is like 700 a month so kept that money invested my back hurts just a little bit yeah i mean why would you keep it i can't think of a logical reason anybody would have suggested this

okay good so you broke the tie one person told me they thought i should probably keep it because of my low interest rate and then the other person told me just to kind of pay it off and be done with it so yeah well based on the low interest rate crap that person probably has one-tenth of the net worth that you have okay that would be my guess you're you're a saver man you're an investor you're not a debt guy all right sounds good dave you're gonna be free man by the end of the day write a check oh my gosh you did so good touchdown everyday millionaire well done man love it love it love it love it that's how it's done joseph is in maryland hi joseph welcome to dave ramsey show hi uh dave yeah i actually uh called in in last week and I told you about the truck that my wife and I have of about $55,000 in it.

And it's about $13,000 in negative equity, but we make $60,000 a year. So I was trying to figure out how to sell it. Honestly, have you had any insight on that? Well, you'd have to cover the 13 000 by borrowing the money who's the loan with on the truck uh it's with virginia credit union good go talk to the credit union about letting you sign a note for the amount of their current note that is really unsecured anyway they basically have a they don't have a fifty five thousand dollar car loan they have a thirteen thousand dollar unsecured loan and a forty something thousand dollar car loan right

so just ask them let you sign a note for the difference and sell it okay and then i would just pay them the payments you pay payments on that thirteen thousand because a buyer walks up and hands you $47,000 or whatever the number is. You did that backwards, $43,000. And when they hand you $43,000, then you take that over to the credit union and you sign a note for the difference. And the truck is gone. And you got a $13,000 debt instead of a $55,000 debt. But you probably need to go sit down with your credit union manager in person because

I'm not sure what level of brain damage is operating at this credit union that they loaned a guy $55,000 for a truck who makes $60,000. They must be smoking crack over there. So you probably want to sit down with them in person because that's the stupid butt loan i've heard of in a long time so yeah you need to really sit down in person because if you just call them up they're not gonna do it over the phone but i go sit down and go guys i'm in a mess here and by the way you helped me get there so you're gonna help me get out you're gonna let me sign a note for the difference and we're gonna get rid of this problem rodney's in georgia hey

rodney welcome to the dave ramsey show hey how you doing dave better than i deserve man what's up uh nothing much i had a quick question for you my wife has just accepted a new position that she'll be starting in january cool and wanted to know with her old 401k her other job is she supposed to take that and roll it to the new job or take it to a broker? Take it to a SmartVestor Pro and do a direct transfer rollover into an IRA. Here's the deal. Anytime you leave a company or a job, always take your retirement with you if you can by rolling it to a direct transfer, meaning the money goes not to you, it goes from your old company into the mutual fund company's IRA that you bought from. Sit down with a SmartVestor Pro.

They'll help you pick out some mutual funds that it'll go into. Then they'll send the paperwork to the 401K of our old job, and the 401K at the old job will send it directly to them. If they send it to you, they have to withhold 20% on it, and you've got a problem then because you don't have all the money to put in there. And so you need to do a direct transfer rollover. But you always take it with you because you've got more access when you're working through your own broker, and you've got more options,

and you'll keep up with it a lot better. People tend to forget and not watch what's going on with a 401K in an old company. And so I always take it with me. There's 8,000 mutual funds to choose from. All the mutual funds at your old company are available in the open market too. So I always take it with me when I leave. And I don't cash it out. I roll it over.

Direct transfer rollover is what I do. Good question. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for being here, America. We are so glad you are joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for being here, America. We are so glad you are with us. Well, I've heard every excuse in the book on why people don't get a will. I know.

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to be, and probably the more money you're going to spend on it but a good basic will is a really really smart thing to get in place and this is the time of year where you revisit stuff like do you have the right amount of life insurance do you have the right kind of will all that kind of stuff so stop putting it off get it done get our free will preparation checklist now this will cause your attitude to improve during the holidays no i'm just kidding i mean seriously it's it's awkward as crud. But it makes you remember and think about the things because you've got some downtime during the holidays. And you're going to think about New Year coming up.

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NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Audrey is in Virginia. Hey, Audrey, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm going to try to get this question out. I'm super nervous. But the reason I'm calling is that six months ago, my dad hired me to work for a company.

My mom and my dad want my husband and I to take over the company in about three to four years when they become full-time missionaries. But I want the company to be debt-free before we do that. My parents have almost $75,000 of personal and business-related debt. And my mom's the sole owner of the S Corp company, and she takes pay from the company every month. But she doesn't work for the company or have a job. And my dad is an employee of the company and gets a salary. And when I do the projections, my mom is an employee of the company and gets a salary. And when I do the projections, my mom's not contributing to the company. I believe hinders the company's growth

and their ability to pay off debt before we take over the company. And I just wanted to get your advice on how to handle this situation. How many team members? There are one, two, three, four team members. Okay. And you and your husband are two of them and your dad is another one. Sorry, no. My husband actually is not working for the company at the moment. My dad, another employee, myself, and then I actually included my mom in that as well. What does the

company do? Insurance restoration so general contracting. Okay all right and how long has your dad done that? He's been in the business for probably over 20 to 30 years but this specific business that he's opened they just reopened this about a year or two ago. And you've been there how long? I've only been here for six months. Okay. All right, cool. Well, there's a good couple of things to remember.

There's an old thing that John Ward, who was one of the original writers about family business back in the 50s, he does a Venn diagram of the three circles overlapping kind of think like you know the uh the olympic circles kind of thing right the three circles overlapping and the three circles are owner family and leadership okay and you can be you can be all three of those you can be a family member that's an owner and be in leadership and you'd be right in the center of all three of those where they all three overlap do you see what i'm saying but you can be a leader that's not an owner or a family member you could be a family

member that's not an owner or a leader uh that'd be your mother okay uh she's an owner but she's not in the leadership and she's in family. And so there's two types of pay that come out of any family business. There's the pay that goes to the owners of the business, which is the profits after everyone has been paid, okay? And that can be separated among the owners then, and then the people inside the business get paid for the jobs that they do. Okay? And so your mom should not be taking a salary out of this business under any circumstances. She should be giving distributions, she and your dad as the owners,

distributions from the business after it makes a profit after having paid its employees. Your dad is an employee. You're an employee. Okay. So after the employees are paid, if there is a profit, that is not your money. That's their money. And that can go out to your mom and dad. And that could be and should be, in this case,

used to get rid of this debt if they want to hand you the keys. Okay. That could be and should be, in this case, used to get rid of this debt if they want to hand you the keys. Agreed. And so we've got to reset this because you don't put people on payroll who don't work there. Yeah. That's just weird. All right. And people do it all the time in family businesses, but they do a lot of weird stuff in family businesses that's just wrong. And you pay people not because they're family that work there.

You pay them for the job that they do. For instance, what is your title? The office manager. Okay. You would get paid not for being the daughter. You get paid for being or the future owner. You get paid for being the office manager. And if you could not hire another office manager for that same amount that they're paying

you, then you're not paid enough. Or if they're paying you so much that if you hired another office manager at that rate, they think they'd be hit the lottery, then you're being paid too much. Yeah. Follow me. So the roles are paid appropriately. Your dad is the CEO. He's the, you know, CEO, COO, all of of those things he's running the business as the president of the company and he should be paid appropriately for that before there are any profits yes so the president doesn't work for nothing because they're an owner it's true okay so if you set if you separate all that stuff out as if they're not family members and pay people based on the role that they're in, whether they're an owner or whether they're a leader or whether they're a family member. Family members do not get money in family business.

Yeah. Only owners do. And only people that work in the business get paid on payroll. So once you have that kind of discussion with your dad, then he can go home and break it to your mom. You don't need to be the bad girl in this. Yeah, I think that's where I have the problem is separating it. Yeah, you and your dad need to come to a clear understanding

of how this thing needs to be run until it's handed off to you, and then he needs to go home and explain this to his wife. Yes. Not Audrey came in and is throwing her weight around as the office manager. That doesn't work. Yeah. Because you'll hear your mom with a mom voice in a minute, and you can't use your mom voice at business.

That's not allowed. No, not at all. And you can't use your whiny daughter voice at business either. That's not allowed. Exactly. Yeah, this is a professional discussion by people running a business about a professional succession plan. And so that's how the people, that's how the Ramseys that are involved in this business or not involved in this business get paid. Sharon Ramsey

gets zero money out of this company except for the fact that she and I are the owners, and when the owners take some money home, she and I are the owners, okay? She does not get any kind of paycheck from this company, nor has she ever for 30 years because that's just toxic. So once you lay all that out, then you can decide, all right, Dad, now we're running a business professionally. I don't really want this business if it's got debt. And, you know, we've got $75,000 to clear off here in three years before you all leave.

That's $25,000 a year we've got to take off before you all start taking money home. Yeah. We've got to lay out a budget for debt reduction and do some projections. Yeah, and I've done the projections, and they could actually probably pay it off in a year. Yeah, if they quit taking it all home. But can they eat if they do that? Yeah. Yeah, and I've done the projections, and they could actually probably pay it off in a year. Yeah, if they quit taking it all home. But can they eat if they do that? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Is he paying himself a salary? Yeah, he has a salary, and then my mom gets member draws. Yeah, but can they live on the salary? Yes, they can, absolutely. If they can live on his salary, I would throw everything else in the profits towards the debt because the debt being gone is a precursor to the succession plan working. Yeah, I agree. That sounds great.

You're not taking the money from your mother. Your mother is merely paying the debt off that she ran up as an owner. That's what I've been thinking and I've been discussing with my dad, too. You've just got to get this couch right in your head that somehow you're not trying to create a situation where you're somehow benefiting from this. Because this little company doesn't have a ton of value. No. You're basically taking over a concept and a customer list. Yeah, exactly.

It's not like you're getting handed a $20 million company or something here. I mean, there's four employees and you're a general contractor, so you outsource all of your labor just about. Yes, absolutely, all of it. And so, you know, there's not a ton of value in terms of the actual value of the sub-S here. So that's how you work it out. And you can do a lot of reading on family business. There's some wonderful stuff around on it.

I've been studying it for about 15 years. I think it's probably the next book I'm going to do because we're in the middle of it. I mean, we've had family in this business. My, the Ramsey kids that are adults, you know, are all in major roles inside this organization and have gravitated into those roles based on their competency and their performance, not based on their name, over the last decade or so. And there'll be a day that they'll be running this place and I'll be working here. Won't that be interesting?

It'll be awkward as crud is what it'll be. But that's part of what you deal with. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Blaine is in Oklahoma. Blaine, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve, sir. What's up?

Well, I'm just calling in. I've got a really good buddy, Wes Goldsmith, who has turned me on to Financial Peace University. And so I'm going through it with my wife at this point in time. And we are getting ready to attack on baby step number two. Good. And where we are at is we have got between $18,000 and $20,000 in liquid assets. And understand that we're supposed to hold back $1,000 for our baby emergency fund. And so my question is, is how much money should we hold back to make sure that we have enough liquid assets to pay off for next month for our January budget expenses? Well, I mean, you don't clean out your checking account.

You need the money to pay your bills. And so you need to sit down and say what check is going to come in at what time. And if you've not got checks coming in appropriately, if you zero out the checking account and you don't have the money coming in to pay your bills, then you shouldn't do that, obviously. So you would do that projection just based on your budget. But my guess is you're going to be paid next month from your job. Right, and our check times are, you know, I get paid twice a month, once in the middle of the month and once at the end, and then my wife gets paid once monthly on the 15th.

Right, and so you can lay out that and you can look at that pay versus the actual bills that you need to pay, and you would say, well, you know, that's going to, we need $1,500 to start the month, or we're going to be, you know, we're going to run out of money out of those checks before something's late. You know, so you've got some bills that may come due before you have the money to pay them with your paycheck. So you'd leave enough money in to cover that, but that's really all. You don't leave like $5,000 laying around or something. And that's kind of what I anticipated. And so, you know, towards the end of the month when we've got, you know, attacking the debt

snowball, if we've got a certain amount left over in liquid assets that were unspent, we're just directly paying that towards our smallest debt. Is that correct? were unspent, we're just directly paying that towards our smallest debt. Is that correct? Yeah, but all we're doing is we're laying out a detailed plan of how much money is coming in, and we're giving every one of those dollars a name, an assignment, before the month begins. And so before January starts, you will have already charted all of that out with your every dollar budget. Correct.

Because you would have charted out your income for January, what's coming in when, and what has to be paid. And any money that we find as a result of having done that would go towards debt. But you're not going to put money towards debt and then not know how you're going to pay February 1's house payment. Okay. You see, you're doing it all on purpose, and you would never on purpose put yourself into a pinch. But you also don't want to leave like $5,000 laying around to just be sloppy with this. That's not the point of this either.

So we need to move the majority of that $18,000 towards the debt, $1,000 set aside, and then enough to keep your cash flow wheels greased as you turn the corner on the months from the January month into the February month and that kind of thing. And so, you know, in other words, you wouldn't zero out your account in the last week of January and then not have the money to pay your house payment February 1st because you didn't get paid until February 7th or something like that. So you've just got to map that stuff out, and all you're doing is planning. You're just planning.

You're just doing money on purpose. And what's going to end up happening is right now in your brain, you're worried about a shortage. What's actually going to end up happening is you're going to feel like you got a raise. Because when you start assigning these dollars, they start working a whole lot harder. Very excited for your 2020, Blaine. You are going to have an incredible year. Samantha's in Idaho. Hi, Samantha. How are you? Hi, good. How are you?

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So we are definitely very good at own-testing baby step two. Good. And my husband has been working pizza for several, several months now. And we have a plan to pay off $150,000 with a debt in the next 18 months and with that it's it's been really hard with the pizza because my two-year-old cries for daddy he pretty much the entire time he's gone so we're wondering if you would be concerned about gazelle intense if he didn't do the pizza since we had such a quick payoff and we pretty much cut everything else out of our life. Okay, well, it's completely up to you. You have one child, right? Yes.

Okay. I think this is harder on you than it is the two-year-old. Yeah, it's hard when she cries like she literally just cried i kept my two-year-old grandson all weekend while my daughter took the two older ones to disney and so i've had a two-year-old my house for the past four or five days they just cry he won his mama he won his mama okay but i'm i'm not emotionally damaged by the fact he won his mama she's coming home it'll be all right and he's not gonna need counseling when he's 30 because she was gone for four days Okay? Yeah. But I'm not emotionally damaged by the fact he went to his mama. She's coming home. It'll be all right. And he's not going to need counseling when he's 30 because she was gone for four days. It's going to be okay.

Yeah. He's a resilient little twerp. He'll make it. And Papa Dave can hold him and love him and read him books and Mimi does. And he'll be okay. Okay. So this really is not going to affect the child, honestly. Yeah.

Now, you're talking to a crusty old grandpa okay but uh who's you know i've raised three and none of them died and so we're you know i didn't kill any of them almost did a couple times but uh tried to but but i i think this is just emotionally draining on you is uh and that's a valid reason to back off on the number of nights but i don't know what time your two-year-old goes to bed we We put that one to bed about 7.15, and there's a lot of pizza to be delivered after that. So you can decide what you want to do. It's okay.

I mean, or maybe you decide, okay, we're not doing as many nights. But I think you really want to get up under this and assess what is really important for your family over the next five to ten years. And obviously we don't want to completely miss out on a childhood. Obviously we don't want to damage a child emotionally. Obviously we don't want to drain your emotional tank to the point you can't breathe because all you're dealing with is a crying two-year-old. That will drive anybody nuts.

And so, you know, there's a balance here of all this that he's got to come in and support you support the two-year-old and you guys have to hit your financial goals and so uh you know we had a four-year-old and a seven and a nine when i was working 16 hours a day seven days a week starting this business and um none of them were permanently damaged by that but when i was home i was home i didn't turn on the television in the backyard rolling around or wrestling on the carpet or whatever you know or chopping wood together whatever we were doing playing behind the boat when i'm home i'm home uh i wasn't asleep or watching hbouns. And so, um, but when I worked, I worked to get things done. And, uh, Sharon, you know, took care of the emotional needs of the home place during that time. So it's, it's, it's hard. It's hard. And she'll tell you there's times during that two or three period of time,

she felt like a single mom. And that's kind of how you feel right now. Um, but that's a price we paid to get this business to where we are now and to be able to do the things. I'll just tell you, looking back on it, that our kids do not, if you interviewed any of our kids, none of them would tell you they felt like that their father was a workaholic or that they were shorted or that they missed out, he missed out on their childhood or any of those kinds of things because it just didn't happen. Although I did work really hard and it worked a lot but uh uh so i i think you're gonna be okay but if you need a little time off if you need you know you know if it's just getting rough on you it's okay to just say that out loud and

take a little bit of a break and or or just slow down you know maybe not five nights a week maybe three nights a week i don't care or maybe not at. I don't care. But I'm probably not letting a whiny two-year-old dictate the future of the family either. Matter of fact, I know I'm not. I love them, but I know I'm not going to let that. They don't set the agenda. I do. So you do at your house. Thank you for the call.

It's a good discussion. And I appreciate your mama's heart. You got a sweetheart. Merry Christmas to you, honey. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer. Kelly Daniels, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host.

We'll be back with you before you know it. Hey guys, it's Blake Thompson, senior executive producer for The Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rants, deathly screams, and the very popular Everyday Millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.