The Ramsey Show - App - How to Sell Your House the Smart Way (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 10, 2018

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. We invite your calls toll free and nationwide at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Tyler starts off this hour in Honolulu. Hi, Tyler. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm in the Army. I'm 19 years old, and I'm on Baby Step 1, and during the Christmas time, we have time to go home. And I was wondering, should I dip in my emergency fund to be able to go home? My godfather was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. Mm-hmm. Okay. What do you make of your?

I'm an E2 currently. I'm about to be promoted to an E3, so I'm making around $20,000. Okay. And you're 19. You live on base. Yes. Okay. And what's it cost to go home?

I was looking at Flake last week, and the cheapest one I found so far is $967. Where's home? Ocala, Florida. Big jump from Honolulu. Okay. Oh, yeah. Military doesn't have any way you can hop a ride, do they? They have something, a program like that,

but it's hard to get on it during the holidays for how packed it's going to be. So there's a chance. It's just if it doesn't work out and I didn't get that flight, then the flight might be even more if I'm trying to leave within three days. If you buy the flight, then you lost that money because you can't get refunded. Yes. You've got to use the ticket. This is your only chance to use the ticket. Okay. you lost that money because you can't get refunded. Yes.

You've got to use the ticket. This is your only chance to use the ticket. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, it's a decision you have to make. You're a grown man. Thank you for your service to the country. And it's a difficult decision because you're broke.

And, you know, you have to declare this an emergency to use your emergency fund. And if it's a vacation, and it's not a vacation, but if it's a vacation, then it's not an emergency, right? But if you're going to see your godfather who, you know, has been given a horrible diagnosis, you, in your mind and your closeness with him and so forth is an emergency. Or if you're using that to just rationalize going home and seeing your mommy for Christmas, then don't do it, right? But if this is something that you're that close to him and that means that much to you, then, you know, yeah, you would go do it probably. But you're declaring it an emergency and you're using almost your last dime. Okay. This is really, you're using almost your last dime. Okay. You're really cutting this down to the wire.

This has got to be a big deal to do this. It sounds like it is a big deal, but you've got to really put it in that category. It's not the medium deal category, and it's not the sort of kind of, I'd like to go home and I'm using this as an excuse category. It's got to be, this is something I'll regret the rest of my life, because this man means so much to me, and so on and so on. It's got to be this is something i'll regret the rest of my life because this man means so much to me and so on so on be on me it's got to be big deal category you see what i'm talking about yeah it is a big deal to me i lost my father to pancreatic cancer so it's hard to see my

godfather get diagnosed with cancer as well so it's hard to see anyone get diagnosed with cancer but whether you make this trip is dependent not upon the diagnosis, but upon your relationship to this person. If you're very, very close to this person, that's fine. If you met them once when you were three, and then they're declared your godfather, then you're using this as an excuse to go home. You see the difference? Yeah, this is the person that raised me since my father passed away. Okay, now, now, see, that's the difference.

That's what I'm talking about. So that's the way I'm thinking through this is, you know, what level of emergency is this because you're using your last freaking dime. Oh, and by the way, between now and Christmas, making $20,000 living on base, I don't know where your money's going. You ought to be saving a bunch. Yes, I recently just started your program. I got stupid once I first got my job.

Yeah, but basically, this is October, okay? So, I mean, you've got October, November, and December's check to work with, and you really don't have anything to do with money because your food and your clothing and your housing is furnished. Yes. So stay on base and don't party and put all your money in the account. Yeah, I've completely stopped. After all my bills and my budgeting, I can put away around $400 of paychecks. I'm thinking around, like, by the time I'm able to go back, I should have around $1,600.

There you go. There you go. Now we're thinking the right way. And you might even crunch that down a little bit further. Let's crunch it down as far as you can. You shouldn't have a lot of bills unless you've got some debts. But, because, again, your necessities are covered, food, shelter, clothing, and so forth in your situation.

So thank you for serving your country, sir, and I hope this works out for you. We appreciate the call. Jeremy's with us in Roanoke, Virginia. Hi, Jeremy. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. you for serving your country sir and i hope this works out for you appreciate the call jeremy's with us in roanoke virginia hi jeremy welcome to the dave ramsey show hey dave thanks for taking my call sure man what's up uh a couple years back i received the inheritance uh some of those mutual funds and some of those stocks uh roughly now it's 12 000 in mutual funds and about $5,000 in stocks. My wife and I are on baby step number two. We've got $24,000 in student loans.

My question is, should I cash out the mutual funds and all that and just pile it on the desk snowball? Yep, all of it, the stock and the mutual funds. Okay. Am I going to have significant tax when it comes to tax time? Am I going to be... Are they an inherited IRA? I don't believe so. Okay.

I think they said it was a single account or something of that sort. If it's just a simple stock account, a simple mutual fund account, your basis for tax purposes is what it was worth when you inherited it. You will only pay taxes on what it has gone up since you got the money. Okay. I think it's roughly $4,000 is what it has gone up since I inherited. And so you might have $1,000 in taxes. Okay. Something like that. that'd be the most so you know so if you cash it out you know holler at your tax guy

have them look at the what's called the basis your basis is your market value at the time of inheritance and the change in basis from that time what it was worth at the time you inherited it up to now is what is taxable and so there's zero tax on anything that you inherited at the time. So that's the deal. But, hey, thanks for the call, man. We appreciate it. But check your tax guy, and I'd set aside the $1,000. But, yes, we cash out everything that is not retirement and use it on baby step two

because we're getting out of debt so that we can build wealth. Because your most powerful wealth building tool is not an inherited stock account. It is your income. And we're trying to get your income back because right now it's committed to other people. Sounds like that old ugly woman, Sally May, is taking some of yours, student loans. And so we have to kick the ugly woman out. Old ugly woman, get to the curb. That's the plan with Sally Mae.

We want her out. We want a big-time eviction notice served right there. Just tack it to her forehead right there. There we go. You are leaving the building, lady. That's how this works. You can do this. You got it, man.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. You know what I've learned after talking to so many people who have been victims of ID theft? They feel violated and they have a sense of fear and intrusion. It can be overwhelming. It's scary and infuriating at the same time. People question your character. You try to figure out how it happened and you worry it's going to happen again. Then you have to deal with cleaning up the mess. Bill collectors, credit bureaus, even the police just make the nightmare worse.

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Rachel Cruze, Ramsey personality, and my daughter. Welcome back. Yes, thanks for having me back on. So you guys had a sellout in L.A. for this 2,000 people for this last marriage and money event in Irvine, right? Yes. Last Thursday. Money and marriage event. Money and marriage.

I know, it gets confusing. I'm sorry? It gets confusing. Yeah, with Les Parrott and you. Yes. And I actually talked to some people the other day. They were in here the next day or two later. Oh, yeah.

And they said you guys were just like stand-up comedy, that you two were having too much fun, you and Les. Oh, funny. Well, it's a funny event. I feel like we bring humor to some of the heavy parts of our lives, like our money and our marriage. But it was a fun crowd. I think I've said this before on the show,

but it is fun traveling the country because you get different personalities of different parts of America. And Southern California, they're always just hilarious and wild and funny. And they just are always a very lively crowd. So they're always fun. So it was in Anaheim, right outside of LA, and near closer to Orange County. And it was just great. Yeah.

I mean, they were super receptive. And our contents were honing in more and more figuring out, OK, what what people are needing, because people that are struggling with their marriage, you know, less has taken his content and really adapted it to the top things to take away of how to communicate more effectively and then getting to use those tools. And what I talk about and having these six different money conversations with your spouse and how crucial it is to be on the same page with also teaching some of our basic things like getting out of debt and budgeting and all that. But it's fun. It's a great event. We have one more left in Phoenix on November 8th, and there's still a few tickets there. And so you can check that out at DaveRamsey.com, RachelCruz.com, but we'll be there in Phoenix.

Love it. Three weeks. Love it, love it, love it. Well, it's very cool. And we actually had the same experience Chris Hogan and I did in San Francisco. Oh, I heard that crowd was amazing. They were electric. Yeah.

They were amazing. It was a fun, fun group. So, yeah, crowds and cities, I think, do have personalities. It's so funny, yeah. And sometimes different crowds in different cities. You know, I mean, it's an interesting thing, but it always comes up. Speaking of which, you and I will be this Saturday doing the, along with all the other Ramsey personalities and a bunch of our friends, doing a day-long smart conference covering every area of our lives in Kansas City. And I just got an email a minute ago.

It's sold out. Ah. And so we're actually going to continue to oversell a little bit because we have some people that don't show. Yep. So you can probably still actually get a ticket, but we've sold more tickets than there are seats already. That's awesome. And so we usually have a certain percentage that oversell because it's general admission tickets and people don't come for some reason or another sometimes. But I think we don't charge enough for the ticket.

If you charge a lot for the ticket, then they always come. So we don't charge more. So a sellout for this weekend. And the Smart Conference is so all-encompassing. And now with that and Ken Coleman talking about careers, it's like we're touching almost every different area of your life. Yes. I mean, and the people that are on stage speaking. I don't want to say that about myself because it sounds like I'm bragging.

But everyone on stage speaking is so good at what they do. So they're experts in their fields. They're great communicators. So you're going to have an enjoyable day in getting these, you know, amazing tidbits to apply to your life. I mean, every time Meg Meeker, Dr. Meg Meeker, who talks all about kids and money or kids, not money, kids. I mean, being a mom of two girls now, I mean, I'm like on the edge of my seat and I've heard her same talk a few times now, but it's still, there's still new things I always take away. And I'm always like, it just redefines where you are in different stages of your life,

whether it's your kids' ages, where you are financially. Even if you've been to a smart conference and you're in the area, still come because you can still learn new things depending on where you are in life. Now, she'll be talking about parenting, Anthony O'Neill talking about teenagers, Ken Coleman about careers, Chris Hogan about millionaires. What your talk is? Money, seven money habits for living the life you want. Okay, live the life you want.

It's based on Love Your Life, Not Theirs, my book. Right, the last number one book, and good stuff. I'll be closing the day out. Les Barrett will be, as I said, talking about marriage. This is Ken Henry Cloud on boundaries, and who am I missing? I'm missing somebody else. One of our other folks. Christy. Christy. Is Christy coming? Yes. On this one?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She'll be there. Okay. All right. I can't remember which one she's in and which one she's out because she's got so many different things going on. So she'll be talking about Business Boutique, equipping women to make money doing what they love. Very good stuff. So there's a little bit of everything in there. It's a day long. You'll leave smarter if you come to a smart conference. That's the hope. There's no way around it.

We're doing another one in Dallas, january the 12th it is not yet sold out and the phoenix arizona money and marriage event is november the 8th and so that's just a couple of weeks away and again that's rachel and less and that one is approaching a sellout there's about 2 000 tickets and i'm those I'm looking at the reports. As the CEO, I get the sales reports on the tickets. And so, yeah, I have to go. And it's just pretty amazing that these events, everything we're doing this fall is just jammed. I think there's like 14 tickets left to Business Boutique that Christy's doing in November.

It's down to nothing. I mean, it's almost sold out. Right, right. And then the next Marriage and Money event will be February 14th in Nashville. The Valentine's Version in Nashville. That's right. Very cool. The night of love. Speaking of things that are launching, the Rachel Cruz show,

the latest show in your episodes on YouTube and Facebook is coming out. It came out yesterday, right? On Monday, yes. Going Zoom Zoom again. And so the Rachel Cruze Show, what's the subject about this week? It comes out every two weeks, right? Yes, it's all about easy ways to save money fast.

So different things in your life, everything from, there's a segment, Woman's Day, the editor came in to Nashville and we did a whole segment on your kids' Halloween costumes and how to make them and it was so fun like so adorable so all

you parents out there with little kids Halloween's coming it'll be a great she's good for you do it yes and actually it was another girl that she works with over here so she's so that was great it was a great segment and then I walk through three of my favorite easy recipes to make at home

because money is always the number one area in our budgets that we bust, including myself. Food. Oh, yeah. It's groceries and how to eat. So the easy things you can make at home. So we get to do that. And then just talk through, yeah, just simple ways that we're finding people are saving money. Because the beautiful thing about in our world today in 2018, you know, we used to say, oh, deliver pizzas.

You know, that's it. But now there's so many things you can do with your time to save money. It's unbelievable. And to make money. And so it's great. Some great pact-filled content of that show. So yeah, you can check it out on YouTube or Facebook. Very cool.

Be sure and tune in. New Ways to Save Money. The Rachel Cruz Show drops every two weeks. We drop another episode out. And every single episode has more and more and more and more viewers. And your subscription. If you don't know about YouTube, some of you that aren't cool, and you're not all dialed in on this stuff like I'm not cool, I don't know this stuff.

It turns out on YouTube, if you go to someone's channel, like the Rachel Cruz Show channel, and you can subscribe to her YouTube channel, then any time she posts a video of any kind, it lands on the YouTube, on YouTube. It sends you an email and says, hey, there's a new YouTube. You can watch it. Yeah. Same thing true with this show or with YouTube's iPost. Usually the stuff that they're posting from this show is they may take a debt-free scream and repost it. Or they may take a rant

and repost it out of my show. That kind of thing. But Rachel's show is that. Are we allowed to talk about the other project you're working on regarding your YouTube yet? I don't know. I mean, you're the CEO. You could. I mean, will the date make it push back release? Because you have to

send it in like a month before in order for them to confirm. It takes a little while. Well, we probably shouldn't talk about it yet. We won't. There's something fun coming up, though. There's some cool stuff happening. Some cool stuff happening in Rachel's world. I think all the marketing people are like, oh, thank God they didn't say it.

So, yeah, it's probably smart we didn't say anything. But it'll be coming soon. Yeah, some stuff that people have been asking for. And we looked into it and it was like, yeah, we could totally do that. Yeah, Corey, our marketer back there, probably is going to pass out. He's hiding under the table. I know. It's like the nuclear war test.

He's hiding under his desk. I know. So, yeah, it was supposed to happen sooner, but we may push it out a little bit. But anyway, some fun stuff with the Rachel Cruze Show and all the messaging, because it's fun to be able to take subjects that you talk about on this show from getting out of debt and budgeting and helping people with their money and kind of just like put a little bit new twist, a little flavor on it in a different way. And so that's kind of what the Rachel Cruz show on YouTube and Facebook is about, what this new project will be about. So just other ways to stay encouraged on your journey wherever you are financially and hopefully to give you some good tidbits to make your life better every day because I'm in it with you. I'm a mom with two kids, married, and it's like, how do we do this life well?

So I'm right there with you, folks. So it's been fun. I'm not. I'm an empty nester. I'm an empty nester. He doesn't have a lot of hair. I'm living like no one else, so I'm not with you. I'm for you, but I'm not with you.

I hope it's going well. I hope it's going well. I want you to win, but I'm not with you. Rachel's right there with you. The Rachel Cruz Show on YouTube. You can subscribe to it. Don't miss it. Rachel, thanks for with you. The Rachel Cruz Show on YouTube. You can subscribe to it. Don't miss it. Rachel, thanks for stopping by.

Yeah, thanks for having me. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Spencer here from Smile Love. At Smile Love, we'll straighten your teeth and help you love your smile. That's what we do, and we do it for less than you'll find anywhere else. I guarantee it. I'm serious. We're talking about paying thousands of dollars less without sacrificing any dental expertise.

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and remember to use promo code Dave to take an additional $100 off. SmileLove.com, promo code Dave. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Elle is with us. Hi, Elle. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm good. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. Welcome. Where do you live? So I live here in Nashville. I'm originally from Kansas, though. Okay, cool. Well, welcome. Thank you.

Good to have you today. And you're here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, I am. Love it. How much have you paid off? I paid off $60,000. Good. And how long did this take?

It took me about three years. Okay. And your range how long did this take? It took me about three years. Okay. And your range of income during that time? I started out at $50,000 and then I'm in like the mid-70s. I picked up a second job towards the end of my baby step two. Oh, gotcha. What do you do for a living? I'm an accountant. I'm a CPA. Cool. What's the second job? So I kind of just did a part-time thing at the YMCA. Didn't earn a lot, but it kept me out of trouble. It kept me out of the stores. You look like trouble. Yeah. Target kept me out of trouble. It kept me out of the stores. You look like trouble.

Yeah. You look like trouble. Target can get me in trouble. Yeah. Target gets me in trouble. Oh, that kind of trouble. Yeah. Now that's possible.

Okay. All right. What kind of debt was the $60,000? It was all student loans. Ah. What's your degree in? So all accounting. I got my undergrad and master's degree in accounting.

Great degree. Great degree. Which obviously set you up to be CPA. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Excellent. Yes. Okay. Excellent. Excellent.

Excellent. So what happened three years ago? Is that when you got out of school? Yes. So I graduated. And when you graduate, they require that you do exit counseling with your financial aid. And as terrible as it sounds, I didn't really know what that final number was going to be. So I was kind of just doing my exit counseling, hoping for the best. And I saw how much I owed and it was terrifying because I knew what my

starting salary was going to be. And I owed more than my one year salary. Um, so I saw that and I saw my monthly payment and then I saw all these different payment plans and you know, I'm in accounting. So I knew the interest was going to add up quickly and yeah it was just it was very scary but I knew about the baby steps so I just decided that's the route I was going to take. Okay so where'd you know about the baby steps from? So I actually listened to the Dave Ramsey show when I was like in junior high and high school age. You're a financial peace baby. I know well kind of. So my dad is a farmer in Kansas. And in the summertime, I would drive tractor and combine. And all you have out in the fields is the radio.

I didn't even have a cell phone back then. And so, you know, I would listen to FM radio. And you learn quickly that they play the same songs over and over again. So then I learned about AM and I could switch to AM and listen to talk radio. So I'd listen to FM in the morning, and then I'd switch to the Dave Ramsey show from 1 to 4, a nice little three-hour break, and listen to talk radio, and then switch back to FM. So it was just a nice little break in the day. I have a strange new vision now of this show of you as a little kid driving a

combine that's bigger than a house, tuning in the radio as you're out here getting some, oh, we got a picture of it. Yes. What is that, wheat? Yes. My dad's a wheat farmer. So yeah, we would drive combine and cut the wheat. And you know, after that we'd have to work the field. How was the youngest you ever drove that combine by yourself um i would probably say like 12 or 13 maybe something like that yeah and i have two older sisters and they did the same thing so yeah you learn how to work yeah you grow up on a farm you learn how to work yes and you learn how to drive early yes yeah that too very cool all right so this was drilled in your head you come out of accounting you get the degree you look up go oh my gosh we're dead yes and so baby steps i gotta where's that guy from the radio

then what happened um well i just jumped right into it i so i went to kansas state university i moved to kansas city so it took me a couple months to get established but then i jumped right in um i started paying off my debt and then i kind of hit a little bit of a bump in the road. About a year into the process, I was in a motorcycle accident. And so I had to hit pause on the baby steps for about six to eight months. And I just paid the minimum. And then I picked it back up and was able to pay everything off. But I'm so thankful that I was working your plan.

Because I probably wouldn't have had an emergency fund in place. And that was so important that I had that. It was so helpful to me. It made this terrible situation that I was in so much more manageable. So I'm just so grateful that I followed the plan and had that set aside. You know, it's very important. So many vehicles in this story,

motorcycles, too much. Exactly. Good for you. Yeah. You know, it's very important. So many vehicles in this story. Combines, motorcycles, everything. It's just too much. Exactly. Good for you. Yeah. So how does it feel now that you did this? It feels amazing.

It's the best feeling in the world. How old are you? I'm 28. 28 years old. Another one of these rock star millennials I think about all the time. Very well done. Very cool. So you tell your dad and your mom you were doing all this stuff?

Yes, I did. I talked about the plan constantly. I was probably annoying throughout the process just talking about Dave Ramsey. But yes, everyone's kind of been in on the loop. Gotcha. Who was your biggest cheerleader? Probably my sisters. I have two older sisters, and they are also working the plan,

and they're working on paying off their student loans right now. So now I'm like, they've seen me pay them off, and they'll be next. So we kind of cheered each other on throughout the process. Perfect. Yes. Well done. Very good. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

I would say, obviously, the budget. You have to tell your money where to go. But I also think just being content with what you have that was such a big thing throughout this process is just learning to be content with what i had and not focusing on what's on social media and what everyone else is doing that was just so beneficial to me um yeah you just have to focus on yourself and what rachel says love your life not theirs yes exactly yeah wow way to go, you are a sharp young woman. I'm honored to have you on here. I'm proud of you.

I'm sure your parents are proud of you and your sisters. Way to go. Yeah. Thank you. Well done. You did it. You did it. You did it.

You did it. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you. Retire Inspired. That's the next chapter in your story to be a millionaire and you're on your way. You know the numbers. You can do this. It's very, very doable. Very well done all right

ellis in nashville sixty thousand dollars paid off in three years this is a motorcycle riding combine driving woman right here i'm telling you count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one I'm dead free! I love it! Yeah! Wow. Way to go. Absolutely amazing.

Very well done. Yes! Doesn't get any better. All right, Madison is with us in Atlanta. Hi, Madison. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? So I'm 25 years old, and since I graduated college, I've been working full-time and pursuing my master's degree while living at home. So I've been able to finish my education debt-free. But now that I'm finishing school in December, I'm looking to move out and start my way on my own, and so I'm just curious if you'd recommend renting for a while and kind of getting my feet wet, being on my own again, or buying a house with the money that I've been able to save from.

I'd rent a little bit unless it was a very unusual situation. I mean, not a long time necessarily, but six months or a year anyway. I'm assuming you're completely debt-free. Completely debt-free. And you have your emergency fund. And beyond that, how much do you have saved towards your house? I've got about $30,000 in the bank right now. Way to go.

Awesome. What do you do for a living? So I work in um federal hr consulting what are you doing now federal hr consulting yeah yeah okay and that's your degree was in hr your your grad work you did no i was actually um an english major so i thought about going to law school um wasn't necessarily the path I wanted to take. But I thought that was where I was in life. So this opportunity kind of fell in my lap, kind of a God-ordained opportunity. So here I am. Very cool. Good for you. Very well done.

Yeah, you've got a lot of money. I mean, you can buy if you want to. I don't mind, though. In your case, you've got so much money and you've done such a good job. You're only 25. I might take six months and just kind of take a six-month lease somewhere and just kind of get settled in and start thinking about, okay. It might actually inform what you have in the apartment or don't have in the apartment that you rent and where it's located. You might be frustrated with things you didn't realize you were going to be frustrated with, which would tell you what to have in the house that you buy. You might make a better, more informed decision on the house, which you'd learn by renting for that short period of time.

Probably would, actually. So I'm probably going to try that. But it's no problem to go ahead and buy. You meet all the guidelines if you want to buy. But, again, anytime you do that, we want to have a mortgage on a 15 year fixed as a maximum where the payment is no more than a fourth of your take home pay

on a 15 year fixed rate mortgage. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Michelle is in New Orleans. Hi, Michelle. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

I have recently gotten engaged. Congratulations. Thank you. I found out that my fiancé is about $250,000 in debt. He makes about $90,000 a year, but $47,000 of that goes to his ex-wife for child support and maintenance. I've never been in debt, and I honestly don't know where we would even start to get out of this debt. What do you make a year?

I make about $26,000 a year, and I work in the gig economy. And how old are you guys? I'm 36 and he's 38. What is his debt from? It's basically from the divorce. He owes about $70,000 to his ex-wife, $45,000 on a vehicle that he turned in for a voluntary repossession, $30,000 to her lawyer and his lawyer, and about $75,000 in credit card debt. And he got his butt whipped.

Yes, he did. His lawyer was awful. Yes. He ends up paying everything. Yes,. He ends up paying everything. Yes, he absolutely ended up paying everything. Whenever the divorce went through, he was making about $125,000 a year. Why does he not make that now? We went through the flood in 2016, and he lost his job, I lost my job, and so he's gotten back.

He works in the plant. He's gotten back to working, but he had to go with a different company, and they offered him $5 less an hour. Why? The other company never reopened? Right. Okay. What does he do? He works, he's a heat treater in the plants here in Louisiana.

Okay. All right. So he's working 80 hours a week. The other part of the story I want to get straight in my head, it sounded like you didn't know how much debt he had until after you were engaged? Yes. Why? I was not aware i was not very smart and i didn't ask him about his debt i've

never had debt it didn't cross my mind well it should have crossed his yes that you should have had this information prior to uh making a commitment to marriage yes that's kind of a problem like he was hiding it okay that bothers me more than the debt right this moment um and so what's his attitude about the debt um he really hasn't been paying anything towards it and i just don't want to start a marriage now that i know about the debt i can accept that i just before we actually set a date to get married't want to start a marriage. Now that I know about the debt, I can accept that. I just, before we actually set a date to get married, I want to know that we are on a plan to get this paid off. There you go. And that he believes in that plan and is committed fully to that plan.

Yeah. If he is, for whatever reason, has given up hope and it feels like he's stuck, he's just going to stay there or he just doesn't care or whatever about the debt if for whatever reason he's just going to wallow in this that's a deal breaker okay it's not the debt i wouldn't tell you to not marry him over the debt but i would tell you to not marry him over lying about it or not marry him over the fact that he wants to just stay in it. Because you're not going to be, you know, it's a long life full of hell for you. Okay.

If you, you know, think about it, 10 years, 15 years from now, you're still wallowing in this stuff. You're not going to be okay with that. No, that's what I absolutely don't want to do. Yeah. And so, you know, and if he's not going to be all in like we live on nothing, he probably needs to go back to court and adjust some stuff. Okay. And I don't think he owes $45,000 on the repo.

I think that's what he owed on the car at the time they repoed it. It was $70,000 he owed when they repoed it 70 000 yes what was he driving a suburban which i think is absolutely outrageous uh yeah and he rolled some negative equity into that to get to there okay and so that the 45 000 is the difference okay they'll settle that for pennies on the dollar you can probably settle that that for 10 grand, but the rest of the stuff, I don't know. I mean, the ex-wife thing, I don't know what you're going to do with that. How in the world he ends up owing her and these two attorneys. Wow.

You may be able to settle those with lump sums. I mean, you might walk up to her and say, here's a check for 30 if you'll go away. And she might take it, you might walk up to her and say, here's a check for 30 if you'll go away. And she might take it, you know, but you'd have to have the $30,000 is what I'm talking about here, not $30. And so, you know, you're going to put some money together here. And that means both of you are going to get your incomes up. And you both have to have a high desire to get out of money or to get out of debt and to make more money to do that. You have to both have this thing. And it's still going to take you a few years i mean if you guys just go bananas it's going to take you a few years so um that that's what you're facing and uh but the thing is folks

those of you dating out there it is not a deal breaker as far as i'm concerned it can be for you you can decide what you want to do it's your life but i don't tell people to not get married over debt i do tell them to not get married over the decision to stay in debt when you don't want to stay in debt because that's going to be when you can't be in agreement on money before you get married when money is the number one cause of divorce we can highly predict that your marriage is not going to last. Okay, if the number one cause of divorce you don't agree on, guess what? You're going to get divorced. I mean, it's a fairly simple equation here.

And so you have to be in agreement. So the $250,000 doesn't scare me. It scares me, but it doesn't terrify me to say this guy's not a keeper. I don't know if he's a keeper or not. I can't tell. He sure has a bad taste in lawyers. I know that because he got his butt whipped. But anyway, man, he ends up paying her lawyer.

His lawyer owes her $70,000 and half of his income. It's half. This is not his income. It's half. This is not a fourth. It's half. Good gosh. So, wow. Yeah. Somebody.

So, anyway. Yeah, this was not an equitable outcome. I have no idea what the situation was, but wow, what a mess. Anyway, so all of that's behind us now. The question is, are we committed to cleaning it up? If we are, then ready to go. Game on. That's fine.

Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Alex is in Pittsburgh. Hey, Alex, how are you? Hey, Dave, how are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Very good. Hey, we are newly married and looking to create a plan forward.

Good. Congratulations. Yep. Newly came onto your videos on YouTube. So as I'm going through, it looks like we are on step six. We're debt-free. We have six months of savings. Both put about 15% to 17 percent into 401k wow no yep not bad not bad to run into a plan that you've already done all of it yeah it doesn't happen all the time right really good for you okay so what's your question um yeah no kids no college fund so it's kind of like we're on step six. You got a house?

Yes. Mortgage is our only debt. Okay. And with that, we have about $15,000 extra in savings on top of our six-month emergency fund. Okay. So the question is, still about $48,000 on the house. It's worth about $100,000. And it's in a good rental area. So our goal is to move in about two to four years, and with that $15 extra grand,

do we use that to start paying off the mortgage more? Right now I do double payments, so we're already actively trying to pay that off quicker. But do we fully commit to paying off the house early or do we split it and keep doing the paying down of the mortgage and bulking up for a down payment knowing that we want to? I love real estate. And if you have a desire to own real estate, I really want you to get there. I do not personally buy real estate with debt for investment. And I don't tell people to buy investment real estate with debt ever.

And so you borrowing money to buy your next house, meanwhile keeping a paid-for rental, is the same thing as borrowing money to buy a rental, effectively. So you're not going to like my answer, but I would tell you to sell the rental, buy your next house. When your next house is paid off, save up your money. Pay cash for your rental. That would be a baby step seven issue. Hey, thank you for the call, sir. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys.

This is Blake Thompson, Chief Production Officer for the Dave Ramsey Show. Here's a tip. To keep from missing Dave's classic facial expressions to some of those calls, make sure you watch him live. Just visit DaveRamsey.com slash show each day from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern. Enjoy.