The Ramsey Show - App - How to Prioritize Money From a Settlement (Hour 2)

Episode Date: August 7, 2019

Budgeting, Savings, Debt, Home Buying   Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://b...it.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE   Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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. Tiffany starts us off this hour in Iowa. Hi, Tiffany. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for taking my call. Sure, what's up? I don't even know where to start on this.
Starting point is 00:00:51 Me and my husband, I'm 35, he's 36, and he's at his peak of income at 58 a year. And we have seven kids, and we're eating it all and groceries and mortgage. So 50% of our income is going to house and food. And I don't, and God has blessed us to keep us afloat somehow, but our numbers don't match up. And so $400 a month carries to the next month. And so trying to figure out how to get out of this. I just found out about you a week and a half ago. Okay.
Starting point is 00:01:30 Well, there's obviously two sides to this equation, the income side and the outgo side. Why do you feel like he's peaked at 58? Why can't he make more? He's the highest paid in his company, and so the only way he can do it is by quitting, but he's also a pastor, a full-time pastor, and so to take on his own company would be next to impossible for time-wise. I'm sorry, he's a bivocational pastor, so he has a job in addition to the $58,000, or the $58,000 is his pastoral income? No, he's a pastor and he's a painter.
Starting point is 00:02:12 Oh, okay. So he does both full-time. Gotcha. And the pastoral position does not pay? No. Okay. All right. Okay.
Starting point is 00:02:25 Well, a lot of pastors are bivocational. That's not unusual in America. As a matter of fact, almost 80% of them are. And so that's not an unusual thing. You do have seven kids to feed, and that's a priority over him being a pastor. Right. Okay. And he's the highest paid in his company, but he's not the highest paid in Iowa.
Starting point is 00:02:48 I mean, there's maybe doing painting. I don't know. But, you know, we have to explore the income side of this equation. It's part of the equation. There's two sides to it, income and outgo. These kids are not going to eat less. They're not. They're going to eat. You have seven kids to feed you have to feed them right and so you're going to feed them you're a good mom he's a good dad you're gonna do that i you know i feel sure of that okay and so um i doubt that
Starting point is 00:03:18 there is um that you are majorly wasteful with your money in some way. I doubt it with that kind of an income and that number of kids. How much is your house payment? $1,100. Okay. That's pretty tight on a $58,000 income. You've got a pretty high house payment, but you've got seven kids. Here we go again, right?
Starting point is 00:03:41 So this is doable, but I'm going to encourage you to work on both sides. Now, the budget, doing a properly executed budget will help you. You will feel like you've gotten a raise because what you're doing is develop a game plan for the money before the month begins, you and he together, and you stick to that game plan, then you'll get more efficiency out of the money and you'll feel like you've gotten a raise. So the budget works, a zero-based budget. Go on everydollar.com. It is free, and I'll give you Financial Peace University and put you through the whole class if you all want to go through it. But EveryDollar is a free budgeting app, and all it does is tell you to do this.
Starting point is 00:04:36 You figure out what your income is for the coming month, and you give every one of those dollars a name on paper on purpose. Not a general feeling, not a few categories that are ish. We say this is what we're going to spend on this item, period. And every single dollar of his income has to be allocated to some category before the month begins, before the income comes in. And then when it is, you're going to feel this efficiency kick in, and you're going to get a better use of the money.
Starting point is 00:05:12 Okay? It's not going to fix. It's not going to be a magic wand. It's not going to make this easy. It's going to make it easier, which right now, as you're telling me, it's untenable. You're rolling $400 over each month, which tells me you have a bit of a budget already going. But I want you to fine-tune it and use the process I outlined very, very carefully there.
Starting point is 00:05:34 And then the other thing is you have to have some honest discussions about, you know, we chose to have seven kids. God chose to bless us with seven kids. And, you know, so what are we going to do for income in this situation that's different and a different career and uh that may or may not mean he pastors for a while doesn't pastor for a while i don't know his first obligation biblically is to his household take care of your own household or you're worse than an unbeliever. That's scripture. And so your first obligation is to your household before it is to be a pastor,
Starting point is 00:06:14 especially an unpaid pastor. So it may be that the little church he's pastoring needs to start talking about paying him something. And that's not greedy, and that's not wrong. He's providing a service as a pastor, and the pastor should be paid. Don't muzzle the ox while he treads out the grain. Again, Scripture. The people that do the work are worthy of their hire.
Starting point is 00:06:40 They're worthy of their money. And so, again, the little church may not be able to give him anything. I understand that. But he may have to make a choice for a period of time to take care of his seven kids until some of them aren't home. They grow up and move on, and then maybe you can lighten up your budget a little bit. Or maybe he changes his day job and gets his income up. Those are things you guys have to seriously consider. Because what you're doing on what you're making is you're doing a pretty good job already. You don't have a lot of wiggle
Starting point is 00:07:10 room. This isn't somebody who calls me up and they're just being wasteful with money. You don't have waste in your budget much, but you will find some efficiencies if you'll start doing the budget properly. Hold on and Kelly will pick up and she's going to get you signed up for Financial Peace University. And that's going to include every dollar and every dollar plus, which is the budgeting system. It all hooks to your bank account, and we're going to give it all to you as our gift. Thanks for serving the Lord the way you and he are. And then you guys have got to make some prayerful, honest decisions about your family and about what God's calling you to do there.
Starting point is 00:07:48 Mateo is with us. Mateo is in California. Hi, Mateo. How are you? Good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:07:58 Well, I wanted to thank you because you saved me and my wife from buying a house when we weren't ready. All right. We got married a month ago and we decided to just pay off her student loans in total and complete. So I have a... I'm just nervous because we're done
Starting point is 00:08:13 with debt, but now I have emergency funds. I have to buy a car pretty soon and I'm saving for a semester because I got a 90% scholarship to go get my MBA. Good for you. Hold on. We'll work on this together after this commercial break.
Starting point is 00:08:28 Sounds like you got a good start on things. We've been voted one of the best places to work in Nashville 11 times. You want to know how we do it? Well, our team has been using LinkedIn jobs for years to find the best people from all over the country to come and help us change lives. Think about it. LinkedIn has more than 600 million active members. I'm talking about people who come to LinkedIn to make connections, grow their careers, and discover new job opportunities. In fact, 90% of LinkedIn users are open to new opportunities, but not actively scanning job boards. This means LinkedIn Jobs gives you access to an entirely different demographic. Don't wait. One hire can change the direction of your company. Post a job today at linkedin.com slash Ramsey and get $50 off your first job post.
Starting point is 00:09:48 That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. We're talking with Mateo in California. He's got several things on his list after getting out of debt, including finishing his emergency fund, getting a car, and getting some tuition going. It's about how far we got in the discussion. So you cleared up the student loan debt. Did I understand that right? Yes, yes. Fortunately, we ran into you in time, so yes, we did. Good. And how much do you have in your emergency fund? We have about $7,000, which is
Starting point is 00:10:44 three months, but I just don't feel like it's enough. Seeing that my wife, she actually left her job teaching because she didn't enjoy it, but she started a company, a cooking class company. She's also doing a bunch of side hustles, so it's not like she's not bringing any income. But yeah, just with what you spoke about with having a three to six months, I heard you say that it's better to have a bigger emergency fund when you can't count on as much money. Right. So while having that big emergency fund, uh, or saving towards that, saving for, to buy a car, cause we, we decided to pay out, um, the, the rest of my lease until
Starting point is 00:11:23 next June. Cause I'm never going to do that again, obviously. But then saving for the final semester of a pretty expensive school, I mean, I got a $105,000 scholarship and there's $20,000 that I still have to save up for, but that will be due in about 28 months. Okay, stop, stop, stop, just a second. Okay. So you have $125,000 in tuition,
Starting point is 00:11:47 do you? No, no, no, no. And a hundred of it is being furnished in a scholarship? Yeah, approximately. For what? MBA, it's at Pepperdine. It's extremely expensive. It's the most expensive school in America. Yeah. Oh, it is. It is literally the most expensive school in America. It's one of them. Yeah, it's up there. So why would you pay that for an MBA? I don't know. I never even thought of going to this school initially.
Starting point is 00:12:20 I did want to get my MBA, and I got introduced to someone in the program who was offering a scholarship to five individuals who wanted to be Christian business influencers. And so they offered me the scholarship, and I thought it was too good. Okay, so you need $20,000, and you guys make what? What's your household income? About $70,000 currently. It's our first year working full-time, so we don't know that yet, but that's what I'm estimating. Okay. And when is the MBA program supposed to start?
Starting point is 00:12:56 It starts in about two or three weeks, but I don't actually have to pay that final semester until the end of that, or throughout the final semester the first four semesters are paid off completely and then the last one is up to me i see okay all right so you've got uh two years exactly it's a 20-month program right okay and um and during that time also you're going to need a car, you were saying? Yeah, so this lease ends next June, and so I need to get a car. And so I'm saving up towards that. But it just seems, you know, like I got out of debt,
Starting point is 00:13:37 and I was like this is going to be great. And it is great, but there's a lot of things now to do. It is great, but then you added to the list, a bunch of things on the list. Okay, so basically all you've got to do is start backing this out and say, okay, $20,000 in 20 months, $1,000 a month, and between now and June, which would be 11 months, I need $6,000 for a car. And I'm just making that number up, okay, which is $500 a month. And so $1,500 a month coming out of your budget between now and June buys your car for $6,000 and has you on track at $1,000 a month savings
Starting point is 00:14:26 to pay the $20,000 when it's due 20 months from now. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. And then along with that, though, I was thinking about, okay, so when do I start investing? After you get out of school and get your car bought and get these other things behind you. Everything else is on hold right now. And you're going to live with only a three-month emergency fund until then, too.
Starting point is 00:14:50 Okay, so three months. Keep it at three months. Don't go to six. No, don't worry about going to six until we get the car covered and the tuition covered. Okay. All right. Now, I do want you to – I'm not mad at Pepperdine. It's one of the most beautiful campuses in America as well.
Starting point is 00:15:08 I mean, sitting there on top of those cliffs in Malibu, it's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. It is a wonderful Christian college. I'm actually a fan. But their cost is just absolutely ludicrous. The good news is most of it's being covered by you. But you know you can get an mba for 20 grand yeah i i was gonna wait till i can pay it in cash and then when i got this opportunity to fund it well you're gonna pay it in cash yeah yeah but not right off so here's my here's the
Starting point is 00:15:39 reason i bring all that up is you need to have all of this stuff dialed in because I don't want you in this program and emotionally invested in it and then somehow you didn't understand some detail and it end up another 40,000 and you call me back and go well I had to finish so I went 40,000 hours of student loan debt I'll come out there and choke you yeah okay don't do not do not get so invested that you go back into the land of stupid okay because there's plenty of places that you can be a christian with an mba for a bazillion dollars cheaper than 120 grand yeah again the good news is it's not all out of your pocket only 20 grand's out of your pocket
Starting point is 00:16:25 but if things don't turn out the way they've been presented to you or you didn't understand the details and you misunderstood then you need to step back and walk away and go get a $15,000 mba from someone else and keep reading your bible and be a christian with an mba yeah do not go forty thousand dollars in debt just to get a degree from pepperdine it's not worth it okay it's not there's no one going to give you extra money because you went to pepperdine after you get the degree no one okay that this idea that where you went to school causes you to make income is mythology. There's zero research to back that up. Zero. Again, you're coming out of pocket with about what an MBA costs right now, about $20,000.
Starting point is 00:17:17 So I'm fine with what's been described here. I'm just warning you ahead of time. Do not get sucked into the rabbit hole here, Alice, and not be able to get out. Just don't do it, man. Don't do it. So if this doesn't turn you down in your details, make sure you have clear understanding of expectations of money. When? How much?
Starting point is 00:17:38 Exactly. This is the whole picture. This is the whole picture. Is this the whole picture? And you ask this 42 times, and you this the whole picture and you ask this 42 times and you get the whole thing dialed in here because you really are going to one of the most expensive schools in america so hey thanks for the call open phones at 888-825-5225 that's 888-825-5225 charmaine is with us in new york Hi, Charmaine. How are you?
Starting point is 00:18:05 I'm fine. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Good. Okay, so right now I am on disability. I'm on workers' comp, and I have been for a few years. So we're on one income plus my workers' comp.
Starting point is 00:18:27 We're about, outside of the house, the mortgage, I mean, we are about $213,000 in debt. Good Lord, on what? On student loans, it's about $165,000. Whose are those? Mine. Have you been declared permanently disabled and are receiving SSI? Not yet. I'm fighting SSI with a lawyer, and we're still in court back and forth with my employer and workers' comp. So we're towards the end because it's been three years, so we're kind of towards the end.
Starting point is 00:18:59 So hopefully something will happen between now and the next six months. Yeah, because if you have federally insured student loans and you've been declared disabled and are eligible for SSI, those loans are forgiven. Great. That is very good news. Yeah, it's big news. And then that gives you the ability to work on the rest of this stuff. Are you doing better physically? Physically, I am doing better, which is why I wanted to go back to school for a more professional degree. Yeah, let's get some of this other stuff worked out before we start talking about adding expenses
Starting point is 00:19:32 to things, though. And let's get the disability and the student loans forgiven and all that stuff working before we do that. This is big news, guys. You need to stop and listen. The Fed decided not to raise interest rates. That means you've got a small window of time before rates rise again. Here's the deal. Most people are paying too much interest on their largest expense,
Starting point is 00:20:05 their home. So you're freaking crazy if you don't take 10 minutes to call Churchill Mortgage right now and see if they can save you money before rates rise again. A mortgage through Churchill could save you thousands, or better yet, reduce the time until you're debt-free. Can you imagine how it would feel to no longer have that payment looming over your head every month? Just go to ChurchillMortgage.com or call 888-LOAN-200. Their team of experts will give you more clarity about your options and more peace knowing you're saving significant money in the long run. Call 888-LOAN-200. That's 888-562-6200 or ChurchillMortgage.com I suppose most of you know this, but there are six of us Ramsey personalities,
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Starting point is 00:22:19 Common sense here. Hey, we're everywhere. And we're even on your smart speaker. All you got to do is say this. Say this. Try this. Play the Dave Ramsey show. Uh-oh, I just activated your Google Home.
Starting point is 00:22:33 Or Alexa didn't know when I said that. If you say that, it'll do it for you. So you can stay motivated. Check out DaveRamsey.com slash show. And you can see all the different podcasts and shows that we have and all the different places to watch them, listen to them, however it is you prefer for us to help you, to be of service to you. Hector is with us in Texas.
Starting point is 00:22:56 Hey, Hector, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Mr. Ramsey, huge fan. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, to make a long story short, I bought a house about three years ago here. My wife and my two children and I were living at my mother's because we sold our house and we had a different area.
Starting point is 00:23:15 So we bought the house. We fixed it. It was a fixer-upper. And we're debt-free. Followed your program. Got an emergency fund saved up and everything. Investing in retirement and everything. Good, good.
Starting point is 00:23:28 Thank you. Yes, sir. Now the only problem I have is, unfortunately, I found out that the people who sold me this house sold it to me because we have rowdy neighbors, and they're very loud. I work nights, so when I get in the morning, I go to sleep right now to the sound of a skill saw and wake up to the sound of banging hammers because our neighbors are so close. And they're very rowdy.
Starting point is 00:23:53 We've had to call the authorities on them a couple of times late at night. My question to you is this. I want to move. I talked to my wife, and we've been praying about it. I started praying about it. I want to move out of here and get a better neighborhood, a nicer home for my children. And I got in contact with an EOP. My thing is I'm kind of nervous because I've got the emergency funds taped up, but I know I can get about at least $100,000, $110,000 out of equity out of this house.
Starting point is 00:24:26 But I don't know if we should, you know, what to do. Should I just, you know, put the house on the market, go get an apartment for right now? Let's put the house on the market. And when it sells, then go find another one to buy. Okay. What's wrong with that? No, it's just, you know, having to transition again is just hectic. But, again, I'm willing to take a chance.
Starting point is 00:24:51 Well, the pain of the move is temporary. The pain of jerks next door is permanent. Yes, sir. Oh, my God. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'm telling you, Mr. Ramsey, it's ridiculous. It's crazy.
Starting point is 00:25:02 Yeah, you got some yahoos over there, man. Oh, my God, Mr. Ramsey. It's ridiculous. It's crazy. Yeah, you got some yahoos over there, man. Oh, my God, Mr. Randy. It's crazy. Yeah, I wake up on a Saturday morning, Saturday night, Saturday morning, at 1 in the morning to people singing karaoke, and there's, like, dogs fighting or something. Oh, I like that. Yeah, okay.
Starting point is 00:25:20 Well, I mean, so you can pull $100,000 out of this. What's your household income? About $145,000, $150,000. Oh, you're making great money. Yeah, I wouldn't put up with that. Let's put the house on the market. Here's the thing. There's two things that can happen.
Starting point is 00:25:36 Of course, when you buy a house with $100,000 down, we're going to put it on a 15-year mortgage where the payment is no more than a fourth of your take-home pay on a fixed-rate mortgage. You know that rule, right? Yes, sir, I do. Okay, then we're going to do that, and then you're going to get about the business of getting that house paid off because you make really good money, and you don't have any debt except a house. So you're going to be in really good shape. Now, you put the house on the market, and if you were to accept an offer on the house, then what we try to do is go find a property without going crazy and paying too much and being too desperate.
Starting point is 00:26:10 I'd be out there poking around and looking ahead of time and try to identify something. But, you know, when your house sells, when it goes under contract, then you go put a contract on the other house contingent upon the sale of yours, the closing of yours, and set the closings up right next to each other. Okay, and just one more small question if you don't mind, Mr. Anderson, and I'm done. I'm investing right now the 6% in a Roth, and my job offers me 6%, but it's dollar for dollar on 1%, and up after that up to six it's only you know uh half so should i just be investing nine percent at my uh you get all that you get all that match you can get whether it's 50 or 100 match you get all of it okay so put enough in to
Starting point is 00:26:58 get all of it because here's the thing the hundred percent portion you doubled your money it's like you put money in a mutual fund and made 100%. That's unheard of, right? The other portion is half, right? Yes, sir. So you still made 50% on your money. There's no mutual funds pay 50%. Thank you. Okay, so you're making 50% on your money.
Starting point is 00:27:18 So you take all the match, whether it's 100% or 50% that you can get. Those are great deals, and, of course, it's all in a Roth, like you said. Hey, really good question. You got this nailed down, man. You're doing great. You just got to make this move, and life will be great. You'll be glad you did. Open phones at 888-825-5225.
Starting point is 00:27:37 Alex is with us. Alex is in Missouri. Hey, Alex, how are you? I'm great, Ramsey. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yeah, first of all, congratulations on your new building. Well, Alex, how are you? I'm great, Ramsey. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yeah, first of all, congratulations on your new building. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I'll try to make this
Starting point is 00:27:52 quick. I'm 24 years old, married. I make about $40,000 a year. My wife is stay-at-home. We're in baby step two, have $18,000 in debt, and I just picked up a second job to plan as to pay off by the end of the year. Great. My wife has two more years to finish in school, college, before she can get her teaching degree. Good.
Starting point is 00:28:16 My question is 529 plans. My dad very diligently saved some sort of 529 plan for me, but my job does not require a degree, and there's a lot of room to move up in it. So my question is, what are the typical, how can that be passed between person to person and without me asking my dad specifically i don't like to just ask for help or anything like that but what can he do with that money uh of course with tax penalties and all that for himself if it's not used for school before i ask him can he transfer it to my wife and use that for her school. Is the 529 in your name? It is in my name.
Starting point is 00:29:08 And are you over 18? I am 24. Okay. Then the 529 is not in your dad's control. It's in your control. Okay. So technically... And you just transfer it to your wife and use it.
Starting point is 00:29:22 Now, if you want to give the money back to your dad, he would have to use it for school or it will be taxed at his tax rate plus a 10% penalty. Okay. So I would not do that. I mean, I don't think that's a good use of the money. A better use is to send your wife to school with it. Correct, because I was planning to cash flow whatever we could, but having this 529, it actually fell quite a bit.
Starting point is 00:29:46 Yeah, the more money you throw from the 529 at her school and don't have to cash flow, that cash flow can be turned back towards the debt, and you get out of debt faster. Perfect, exactly. Okay. Yeah, that's what I would do, but the rules on the 529 used to be that only brothers and sisters could use siblings could use a 529 now family members can and that pretty broad definition of what a family member is so you're in pretty good shape there amen thanks for the call this is the dave ramsey show Thank you. Christine is in Indiana. Hi, Christine. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi.
Starting point is 00:31:01 Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So, I am married, 36 years old. Your phone is breaking up. Can you speak directly into it, maybe? Yeah, can you hear me any better now? Nope, I'm going to put you on hold. We'll come back to you when we can find out what's happening with your phone. David is in Massachusetts. Hi, David. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Starting point is 00:31:26 Hi, how are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm not in debt or anything. I don't have any debt besides, you know, a $2,000 medical bill from a few years ago. So I'm getting a settlement from a car accident I was in, and I don't know what is the best approach of using it. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:31:51 I don't know. Are you hurt from the car accident? I mean, have you got surgeries or things that you need the money for? No, no. I bruised my lungs, and I bruised my ribs, and I got a couple of scars on my face but other than that um no not at all all right cool a little scary to hear car horn right if you're talking about a car accident you're getting a settlement from i'm just saying we're all we're all kind of braced ourselves right there okay so how much how much settlement are you getting dude probably 50 000 wow okay
Starting point is 00:32:30 and when's that coming um it's already been about four months since so i would say within maybe another four three or four okay and what do you make a year? What do you mean? I make about $40,000. My girlfriend makes about $30,000. Okay, and so you don't have any debt but $2,000, so we would clean that up. Do you have any money in savings? No, no, because I'm actually looking into getting a car because of the car accident, you know. You did not get money for the car already no i did but it got paid off oh so you got paid off and the bank took it all to pay it off and that got rid of your
Starting point is 00:33:13 car debt exactly okay so one thing we got to do with the 50 000 to buy a car right yeah because i was upside down on the loan but i got you Gaffrey Shire. You're done now. You're debt-free. That loan's all cleared, right? Yep, 100%. Okay. So now we've got to buy a car, though, out of the $50,000, don't we? That was my question, yeah. I didn't know how much I should spend on a car, you know what I mean, and stuff like that. You should never own vehicles, things with motors and wheels, totaled up to be more than half your annual income.
Starting point is 00:33:46 So the very most you would spend in your case would be $20,000 because you make $40,000. I would not spend that in your situation. I would personally spend by about a $10,000 car in your situation and pay cash for it. Yeah, exactly. And I don't own a house. I would be renting, but I'm actually living with my sister right now. Okay. Well, that would leave you $40,000, and you'd need to set some money aside to get some deposits and get your own place and rent for a little while.
Starting point is 00:34:18 And then we would set some of the money aside beyond that for your emergency fund. A good emergency fund to be ready for when life happens is three to six months of your expenses, whatever your expenses are, times three to six. And that would be when you're in the new place renting and so forth. And so in your case, again, that's probably about a $10,000 or $15,000 emergency fund. Okay. Okay, so if I spend $10,000 on a car and I spend $15,000 or $15,000 emergency fund. Okay. Okay, so if I spend $10,000 on a car and I spend $15,000 for the emergency fund, that's $25,000 of $50,000. That leaves us $25,000.
Starting point is 00:34:53 You're going to spend about another $3,000 or $4,000 getting out of the house and putting your deposits down and getting your rent started, right? Exactly. Okay. So that's going to leave us about 20 now. And now we've got to figure out what we're going to do with that money long term. And there's two possibilities. You could begin investing into your emergency fund. I mean, into your retirement funds, or you could use that for a down payment on a house later on.
Starting point is 00:35:21 What I would do is just put it in a savings account separate from your emergency fund. $15,000 over here in one savings account, you label that emergencies only and you never touch it. You have no debt. Oh, we got to pay off the $2,000 medical debt, but I did only use five. I rounded the five up a while ago anyway. So you set the other $20,000 over here to the side and don't touch it. And since you don't have any payments except the rent, let's get on a budget and add about $10,000 to that $20,000 in the next year or so. And then talk about buying about a year after you rent. So probably take out a one-year lease and use that year to, you know, finish physically healing and, you know, finish your financial healing after you get this money. And so all I did here was just systematically go through a plan of what are some smart things to do with this $50,000
Starting point is 00:36:14 and what is the best order of priority of those smart things. And so no car debt. The medical debt is gone. You've got an emergency fund, and we've got a head start towards a possible future down payment on a house. Good stuff. Landon is with us in Florida. Hi, Landon, how are you?
Starting point is 00:36:38 I'm good. Thank you for taking my call, Dave. Sure. How can I help? My wife and I are 25 years old uh we make about two hundred thousand dollars a year and we are uh debt free other than our home amazing what do you do for a living uh we're we're self-employed we uh uh have a line of of uh like rubs and spices that we we wholesale you're doing great at it way at it must be good stuff how can i help
Starting point is 00:37:06 um thank you um we uh uh just found out we're pregnant with our first child and our my in-laws uh they live about six hours away they they want to move and be closer to the the new grandbaby which would help us out because uh we work a lot and uh so it would help us uh our home sits on about an acre and a quarter and uh we're thinking about having them just baby, which would help us out because we work a lot. And so it would help us out. Our home sits on about an acre and a quarter. And we're thinking about having them just build a house on our property so they could be right there and help take care of our new child. But I wasn't sure what the tax implications would be for us.
Starting point is 00:37:43 And we can't subdivide the property, so I just wasn't sure what would be the implications of having another house be built on the property. It would be very confusing and convoluted. Number one, you may have trouble getting zoning to approve it, because if you can't subdivide it, they're probably not going to allow two single families on a single lot. In most zoning areas that'd be very unusual anyway now if they if they do and you were to build it uh you can't sell it ever you're stuck and so no that's not a good plan do they have money that they're bringing
Starting point is 00:38:20 with them when they make this move? Not a lot. They'll be able to sell their house, and they own their house free and clear, and they're retired but pretty much just living on Social Security. Right. What will the house bring? About $230,000. Well, they can buy a $230,000 house in Florida. Where do you live in Florida?
Starting point is 00:38:44 Naples. Oh, good Lord. Yeah yeah of course you can buy a house there they're just not going to have one right next door to you but you know they got a car and you got a car and you'll be fine just big naples isn't that big i mean you can be across town and it's 20 minutes i mean right right i i just we thought because they're older than she was adopted so they're you know we might be taking they're older than she was adopted, so they're, you know, we might be taking care of them in a few years, too. So we thought maybe.
Starting point is 00:39:08 But let's not build a piece of real estate that can't be sold. Yeah. You're going to get, you're building a white elephant here to serve a singular purpose. And five years from now, ten years from now, you're going to be stuck in this, and you're going to have this convoluted deal with them. How are they going to get their money out and all this kind of stuff? Is your wife the only sibling, the only child? Yeah, she is.
Starting point is 00:39:34 Okay, well, that makes it easier because at least they'd leave the whole thing to you when they die, right? But still, you've got a piece of property there that's highly unusual, very hard to market. I'd much rather than just buy the house next door you know or a house five doors down or something and and if you're making killer money uh and it's newfound money so i'm guessing you're banking a bunch of it so you could even take some of that if you want to give them some money and help them get into the property you know a few doors down. That's fine. But, no, I definitely would not build a house on your property. That would not be my plan.
Starting point is 00:40:09 Definitely don't do that. Hey, thanks for the call. Congratulations on your success. Sounds like you're killing it. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back before you know it.
Starting point is 00:40:36 Hey, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for the show. You know, you can listen or watch anywhere with the Dave Ramsey Show app on your smartphone. Catch the full show or watch the highlights and check out Dave's upcoming guests. Head to the app store and download it today.

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