The Ramsey Show - App - How to Settle Huge Medical Bills (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 13, 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 done, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. It's your show, America. The phone number here is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Ryan starts off this hour in Seattle, Washington.

Hey, Ryan, how are you? Hey, Dave. I feel like I'm living a country song, but I'm doing better than I deserve. I hear you. How can I help? Well, so a couple weeks ago, my wife went in for emergency C-section, and we had our beautiful baby girl at 28 weeks gestation, and she's in the NICU, and that has been ramping up our medical bills pretty quick.

And unfortunately, we're on a medical sharing, a faith-based medical sharing company, our insurance that didn't cover us because we didn't meet the threshold of number of days to be on the plan before we conceived. And luckily, all of the baby's bills are covered under kind of the ACA and then some of the insurance stuff that we had retroactively purchased. But none of my wife's stuff going forward is. And we're already approaching the $150,000 mark. And as fate would have it, you know, we'd paid off all of our debt but not two weeks before all this went down and now we're just kind of feeling a little hopeless and figured we'd see if we could get a little inspiration.

Okay. What's your household income? Currently it's $90,000 and I'm the sole provider for us. Okay. And what kind of assets do you have? What kind of money do you have? Very little right now. I mean, I've got a couple and that are all paid for cash and then we've got our

our emergency fund um you own a home and we're no we don't we that was our next step was saving up for um that's a fully fund our emergency fund and then let's let's uh let's do two things, okay? Number one, then, the first rule is we're just going to let this sit to the side right now, and we're going to take care of mommy and baby. Okay. You can't do anything about this today, and you need to focus your energy on your wife and your baby. We'll get to it, okay? There's two reasons for that. One, you can't do anything about it today.

There's three reasons. Two is you need to concentrate on your family. Three is we kind of got to let the dust settle on this before we know exactly what to do, okay? So let's play pretend for a second. It's six months from now, and mommy and baby are all okay. And there's a $200,000 bill laying there because all of the bills have finally come in and we've totaled them. Okay. Then what you'll do is begin to work your way through those and have, you know, just,

you'll just develop a story, a narrative that is the truth, by the way, that is, you know, we don't have any real assets. We do have an income and we do not have the ability to pay $200,000. And you go and a hundred of that will be the hospital. One bill will be in one place, a big chunk of it. Right. And you go and you schedule a meeting as soon as you can get all the bills totaled and get everybody home and healthy, okay?

In other words, this thing is quantified. It's quantified. We know what the total is. Today we don't know what the total is. We just know it's bad. Right. But once we've got the totals and they're accurate, then we immediately, we don't wait two years, we immediately schedule a meeting with the administrator

at the hospital in person and go and sit down and say, thank you for taking care of my wife and for taking care of my child. I really appreciate it. We do not have the assets to pay a $100,000 bill. We make good money, but we can't do that. And we didn't have insurance in this, and you can explain the whole thing. And so what kind of relief can you give us? We're willing to do something.

We just, I'm sitting here saying, thank you. I'm not disputing anything. I'm not saying you're bad people. I'm saying I can't pay this bill. It's kind of a hat in the hand humility type thing. And the interesting thing is when you do that in person with people around the medical community, you generally get good mercy. And they'll probably look at you and say, if you'll pay twenty five thousand, we'll take care of the hundred. We'll settle it. You probably can settle it for a quarter on the dollar.

Now, individual small bills, maybe not. But the big chunks, you go take the time to sit down. It's a $75,000 meeting if they write off $75,000, right? So it's worth your time. And you go sit down in person and say, okay, $25,000, and I will pay that over the next six months. And you just load up and start paying $3,000 or $4,000 a month and get back on beans and rice, and you clear the thing, and you honor the agreement that you make with them to, you know, to settle all of

this. But the answer to your question is, you're going to be fine. You're going to work through this, but the way you're going to do it is you're going to be proactive, and you're going to work through this, but the way you're going to do it is you're going to be proactive and you're going to be grateful for the service that was provided and you're going to ask for mercy. Okay. And they'll give it to you. Because here's why. They're not getting the money. You don't have it.

I mean, when they look at it from their shoes. I got a guy who bothered to come into my office. He's not threatening me with a bogus lawsuit to try to get out of something. He said thank you. And he doesn't have any money. I'm not getting my money. So I might as well extend mercy, right? That's the equation if you're sitting on the other side of this desk.

And so that's why it happens. Plus, generally speaking, with a few exceptions, there's people attracted to the medical world are people of mercy. And so that's the thing. They're just not out to see if they can drain every drop of blood out of somebody. So that's how it's going. And so the answer to your equation is this. Two years from now, a year and a half from now, you're going to be just fine.

But you're going to have just fine but you're going to have to go get out of debt again oh well you got a beautiful baby out of it we'll work it out right all right yep you're right you're going to be fine man you're going to be fine and you know we'll walk with you we'll help you any way we can you call in here and uh we'll you know answering questions you got as you go along obviously anything you settle with these folks, you get it in writing, and you do not allow electronic access to your checking account when you're settling debts, whatever the scenario is. But you go meet with the big ones and get on the phone with the little ones

and work on settlements. I didn't have insurance. You're $200,000 in bills here. I can't pay them all. But if you'll give me a deal, I'll pay yours. And, you know, that kind of thing. And you just have you develop a thick skin and a narrative to work through this and you'll get through it. Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We're glad you're here, America. Thank you for being with us. This is the Dave Ramsey show. We'll see you next time. could find an affordable biblical solution to your health care costs based on new testament principles christian health care ministries or chm helps christian families churches and ministries

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That's chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Well, thank you for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We're glad you're here. Common sense for your dollars and cents. David is with us in Longview, Texas. Hi, David. How are you? I'm doing very well. Thank you very much. How are you, sir?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Sir, I'm going to ask an insurance question for you. Long story short is about a year and a half ago, I lost my job. And then I moved to take on another job, and I hurt my back that job, so now I actually can't work that job or that field anymore, at least in that place. I'm starting up a new company. It's kind of my side business that I've had going for quite a while, making that into my primary gig. But the insurance side of things for health insurance has kind of got me. One of the reasons why we picked where we

were, where we moved to is because the insurance that they had was going to cover a surgery that my wife has to have. But that specialist is in another state. And basically it's such a specialty thing that it's probably the only person in the United States that can do it. So every insurance policy that I'm looking at, I'm trying to make sure that that person is covered. And I've never played with an HSA before. I've heard you talk about them and their advantages. And so I'm trying to figure out if that seems more the way to go or if the other traditional kind of, you know, co-pay and then your co-insurance that's there. And I've got three plans kind of in front of me, two regular ones and one that's HSA.

And I just want to make sure that I understand. Do they all cover the guy you're talking about and the procedure you're talking about? Yes, sir. Okay, so they all cover that. That variable is equal with all three of them? Yes, sir. Okay. Then it's just a math thing after that.

And so the HSA basically is a, as you probably are observing with what's laying in front of you, is basically a high-deductible health insurance plan that generally pays 100% once you meet the high deductible. Is that what your offering is? It is. too good to be true because from the top tier of the regular plan, it's about $5,000 a year cheaper once you cover all of the premiums and then the maximum out-of-pocket because we know we're going to hit that with the surgery. I just don't want to step into quicksand on that one. The thing I don't want you to step into quicksand is on this surgery. I want to make double, triple sure that covers, and that's got to do with the individual carrier and what you get from them

you know in writing is is that going to be uh you know some kind of a problem if it's not going to be a problem then it's not too good to be true it is a hundred percent coverage above the deductible most of them are mine is okay and um and it's basically a high deductible health insurance plan. The reason it's so much cheaper is, you know, across the board of a large number of people, which is how insurance is calculated, right? It's not calculated on one person. Right. Most people's health expenditures fall under that deductible. And so by taking that large deductible, you are taking the vast majority of the risk on average.

And so the premium, thus, is much cheaper. It's just like if you had a car insurance plan and you had a $250 deductible or $1,000 deductible. It's going to be a lot cheaper on a $1,000 deductible because you're taking more risk at that point. And, yeah, I definitely would do that. And, um, but it is the thing you've got to dial in is you have to make triple quadruple sure that this main event that you've got here is covered.

And, you know, I'm maybe wanting to get that in writing from the, from the agent that's working with you on this stuff or from the carrier, one of the two, something along those lines. Azure is with us in Columbus, Ohio. Hey, Azure, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Well, I have a question for you. My 10-year-old had her first year of 4-H and took two animals to the fair. She got third place with her steer and got grand champion lamb. So she got the opportunity to sell both of those animals. Wow. And she made $6,300. Yay!

Yay! So she took $100 and bought a toy that she wanted. Good. And with $100, she's going to put in the collection plate at church. Good. We have $6,000 left to deal with. And I guess my thought was we have two other children, and I thought about taking $2,000 and putting that in each one of their 529 plans.

And I didn't know what you thought about that. They also helped with the, you know, it wasn't like the 10-year-old did the whole thing by herself. I mean, we've all worked on the projects. The 10-year-old also was the only one that has gotten money put in her 529 from my parents when she was a baby. The other two children didn't get that. So that's kind of what I was thinking. Okay. Well, I mean, if you feel like this was your project and she just got emotional credit for it, that's fine.

If this kid did all this work, giving it to their brothers and sisters, I am not okay with. But it sounds like it's more of a family project is what you're outlining. Then, sure, if you want to do that, you can. There's not any problem with that uh i mean i just want to make sure that this um 10 year old is not uh doesn't lose her her her zest for winning i mean she got paid big yeah for winning she did and so you can talk it through with her and say um you know everybody helped on this i helped the other kids helped your know, everybody helped on this. I helped. The other kids helped. Your daddy helped. Everybody helped.

Everybody, you know, we paid the feed, and we paid the light bill for the barn where the steer and the lamb were or whatever, you know, all that kind of stuff. And so, you know, help her understand that there's a whole village involved here. And so we think it's a good idea to put 2,000 in your college and 2,000 in your brother's college and 2,000 in your sister's college. And, you know, we'll kind of get her agreement on that. I don't know that I would force feed her on that. But I think you can make a reasonable statement, a reasonable case to a 10-year-old. And you sound like you're that kind of a mom uh but i'm not i i

want them to have i want her to have some buy-in because she did such a good job man and uh she can just kind of feel like feel generous as a part of this you know that'd be great david is in raleigh north carolina hi david welcome to the dave ramsey show, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I'm at the very beginning of my seven-step journey, and I know that the biggest thing for me, so I do have debt, but I know that the biggest thing for me is going to be I have a car payment of $468 a month. I think it's a 12% APR on it, and I still owe like $17,000 on it. So I'm trying to

figure out what my best option would be with that, because if I figure that part out, then it would definitely free up a lot of money for me to start putting towards my $1,000 and then start working on my debt. Yeah. Sounds like it's a noose around your neck. It is. What is your household income? I make about $26,000 a year. Yeah, okay. Well, a good rule of thumb is to not have a car that is more than half your annual income because you've got too much tied up in things that are going down in value, and that's why you're feeling the pressure of this. It's mathematically punching you in the face every month and going 12%. Pop, right? 400 bucks, pop.

It's a lot of money. Yeah, I'm selling this car. Okay. Get you a beater. Listen, I want you to get whatever you want as far as car goes. I want you to enjoy vehicles. But you're not enjoying this thing. It owns you.

Yeah. And if you'll get out of debt and continue to grow your career and continue to grow your wealth, you can drive whatever you want to drive later, pay cash for it. But right now, let's get a beater and get this mess cleaned up you made. Okay? That makes sense. Yes, sir. Yeah, let's talk about getting rid of it. Let's get a beater and get this mess cleaned up you made okay makes sense yes sir yeah let's talk about getting rid of it let's get way down in car i want you to drive a two thousand dollar car right now until you get this mess cleaned up and start getting some savings built up and then

save up and pay cash for a little better car but in no case even if you're paying cash should things with motors and wheels in your life all added together equal more than half your annual income? That's kind of a mess. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Support a small business this holiday season that does business right. I'm talking about Grip6 belts. It's the only belt you can get online with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. And the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable. I personally own a number of these belts.

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Grip6.com. David and Rebecca are in Richmond, Virginia. Hey, guys, I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congrats. Hey, thank you. Well done. How much have you paid off? We have paid off $106,017. Wow, very good.

And your range of income during that time? Range of income was $120,000 to $150,000. Cool. What do you guys do for a living? I am in the Army. I'm a logistics officer. And I work for the government as a victim advocate coordinator. Wow.

And what kind of debt was the $106,000? Well, before marriage, Rebecca didn't have anything. And then coming in together, $80,000 was student loans, $15,000 for a car, and $5,000 for a four-wheeler, and then $6,000 for a credit card. Uh-oh. Bought every toy in sight, huh? Oh, yeah. It was a great while it lasted, it seemed.

Then you've got to pay, huh? Oh, yeah. It was a great wallet last, it seemed. Then you've got to pay it off. Oh, yeah. So did you sell anything? We sold the four-wheeler. That was really about the only big thing that we sold. Cool. Okay. So how long have you two been married?

So we have been married for almost two and a half years now. Okay. So about a year into your marriage, something happened. What happened? Yes. So my husband was actually away for training, and at that time, we were stationed in Alaska, so there really was not much to do, and it was in January, and our internet ended up going out while he was gone, and they couldn't get anyone to come out for about three weeks. So during that time, I was just reading books, and he actually had a Dave Ramsey book sitting on the shelf. And our landlord at the time had mentioned that, you know, oh, you two can be debt-free, and I kind of just laughed at him like, Kevin, no. And I ended up reading the book, and my husband came back two weeks later,

and I had a whole new financial plan for us. It was a shock for him. Don't leave this woman alone with no internet she's dangerous oh yeah she'll read any book i was yeah it was a definitely a shock that's great fabulous well well done you guys very well done so uh david uh when you came home and she was all wired up you didn't have much choice but to jump in, huh? No, I just said yes, ma'am, and it's been successful so far. Used to following orders. There you go.

Oh, yeah. Good. Military will train you to do that. That's good. Very fun. Well, congratulations, you guys. So what is the key to getting out of debt? This is an impressive amount of debt you reduced.

For me, I think a big thing was communication um and just dedication to that and just being able to communicate with each other about the frustrations and you know everything that we're facing together um being able to communicate really got through it and just being able to stick to what we talked about together yeah you have to hold tight because it's a rough ride. Yeah, and I would say for us, too, because we were in Alaska, we actually lived in the North Pole right outside of Fairbanks. For us, we were fortunate. There was really not too much temptation to go spend money on a lot of things. We didn't have a lot of stores.

We had a Walmart for clothing. We had Old Navy. That's pretty much it to spend our money on. So it was a great place for us to be at the time. We're really appreciative. And we also credit that to our success to help us learn discipline by not having many options to go out and buy things. So now we just moved to Virginia about two weeks ago. We down from alaska where we were able to cash flow the trip um and i drive down and now that we have all these temptations again we don't need them anymore yeah wow you got control of it now well done very very well done who are your biggest cheerleaders your landlord i bet oh yeah kevin uh kevin lincoln up there in north pole um both of our parents

and uh ricky carlson which uh works for the acs financial readiness uh with my wife one of my co-workers and i would just come to her and tell her about either frustrations or you know like oh this got done um when i wasn't listening we were not necessarily seeing eye to eye on things. She would actually talk to both of us, pretty much just to give encouragement. Wow. We had a lot of people encouraging us along the way, even kind of smiling, like, okay, well, we'll see if that works.

Yeah, another one of my coworkers, I was telling her that we're doing Dave Ramsey, and at the point, her name was the letter, and at the point, she was kind of done, and she would just smile and come back to work the next day. Rebecca, I did not buy this at the store today because I did not have the money, and that's what Dave would want me to do. Another step. I love it. Yeah, another step. Well done.

Well done, you guys. Well, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired, which we will mail to you, signed by Chris. We're also going to send you a copy of his new book, Everyday Millionaires, because you're going to be one. And that's the next chapter in your story to not only get out of debt, but now to move on and build wealth and be outrageously generous as you go along. Way to go, guys. We're proud of you. Thank you. of you. Thank you.

Thank you. Very well done. David and Rebecca, Richmond, Virginia, by the way, thank you for your service. $106,000 paid off in 17 months, making $120,000 to $150,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah!

Woo-hoo-hoo! This is how it's done. Love it, love it, love it! Man, that's fabulous. Very well done. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Katie is with us in Traverse City, Michigan. Hi, Katie. How are you? Good. How are you, Dave?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay. So I am a newly single mom. I only make about $27,000 a year, which is about $1,800 take-home pay. I'm just having a hard time getting past the four walls and how to get past that and able to take care of my daughter better. So how old is your baby? She is two years old. Okay.

So you said newly single, meaning you're divorced? He actually passed away a couple months ago, so I don't get any child support or anything like that. Oh, my gosh. What happened? He was on a job, and he got electrocuted. And then he had a heart attack right after that, and it just kind of went from there. Oh, my goodness. I'm so sorry.

Is your family in your area there? Yeah. I'm about to move back in with my mom to kind of help things out. But even with my income as low as it is, if I am to move back out, I would still have the same struggle with the four walls and anything past that. Yeah. Well, you're right. This is going to be, the difference is you wouldn't have to be paying rent, and that's the biggest item on your list, is it not? Yes, it is. Okay. And so that is going to help a bunch. As a temporary measure. You don't want that to be your permanent game plan. What do you do for a living?

I'm a housekeeper. And then I'm also a volunteer firefighter, so I do that as kind of like a side job a couple nights a week. What does that pay? That's on a volunteer paid-on-call basis, so I usually get like $2,000 or $3,000 a year from it. It's not much. No, it's not much for two nights of your time.

That's more like volunteering than it is like getting paid. That's not a real part-time job. So here's the thing. What you're telling me, and I agree, is that you have an income problem. I think you can make you're taking care of your daughter i think you can feed her and you can keep gas in your car and you can live on a budget and watch what you're doing with eighteen hundred dollars while you're living with your mom but that's not your long-term game plan and you don't want to be doing that 20 years from now

so you ask yourself two questions is uh about how I can make more money. One is how can I make more money now with part-time jobs that actually pay, not a volunteer job, and that pays well. And it could be a side hustle. You could start your own business. I don't care. And then the second thing is you start asking yourself long-term, what can I do to change my career? What could you be doing two years, three years, four years from now that pay double what you're making? A lot of things, by the way, is the answer.

And what would you want to do? And what are the steps to get to be one of those? Do you need to take a class? Do you need to get a certification in something so that you can make more and have a better long-term career. And that's what you need to aim at. You don't want to be doing this five years from now. You won't be doing this a year from now. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

We're glad you are here. Mark is in Canada. Hi, Mark. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you, Dave. Sure. How can I help?

Dave, I make about $120,000 a year. And in the last 11 months on your program in Baby Step 2, we've paid off about $60,000 in consumer debt. Thank you. We've got about $60,000 in consumer debt. We've got, thank you, we've got about $5,000 left to go. And then our mortgage on top of that. We just have our $1,000 baby emergency fund. We haven't started into step three yet. We were just notified a couple months ago that my wife's mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. She's currently doing chemo and radiation. She's not a surgical candidate. And so the long term survival rates are fairly low. She's very sick right now. But on the other end of this, she should have a period later on this spring where she feels quite well and energetic. And during that time, we'd like to take her on a vacation. She's

been low income all her life. And we want to kind of bless her with that type of thing for both my wife and for her. I estimate we can do the vacation that we'd like to do to Vancouver Island for around five or $6,000. And we would do it all in cash. But it will mean that we have to push pause on everything, and I'm not sure if it's smart to do that without the emergency fund. It's an extreme situation. And so what you're saying is we're just pushing pause on our whole thing to take care of this deal.

That's what you're saying. It's not really pushing pause on our whole thing to take care of this deal you know that's what you're saying it's not really pushing pause on a baby step or not skipping a baby step or something like that we're just saying we're going to take the total money makeover thing and push pause and set it to the side because we got to deal with cancer and we got to deal with mom's survivability and all that kind of stuff and so it's it's an extreme situation so let let me get this right. You paid off $60,000 in 12 months, making $120,000. It was actually 10 months total. And I believe right now we're at like $62,300 that we've paid off. That's right.

And you only have $5,000 left? That's right. We're pretty intense. We're not going to fall off the wagon. Okay. Here's where I'm confused, okay? This is December. If you did $60,000 a year, that's $5,000 a month.

At the end of January, you would be debt-free. At the end of February, you'd have the money for the vacation. Or vice versa. The way that we were able to pay so much off is because we sold everything that wasn't bolted down, and we've pretty much run out of things to sell. So we have about $1,500 extra every month to pay off debt. $1,500 a month is $18,000 out of $120. That's not a very tight budget.

That's a fair statement. So, yes, I would stop and I would save the $5,000. But I also would tighten up my budget like it mattered to save the $5,000 because it does matter a lot. And then as soon as I had the $5,000, I'm going to push go again, and we're going to go ahead and knock it out. I'm going to have the game plan in my head, if I'm you, that we're going to go so bananas here that we do both of these things by March. Okay. Or a little after.

I mean, I don't know when you're talking about the vacation, but you said spring. But end of March, I don't care. Whenever the vacation is, let's just say we save for the vacation first, so that's done. Check, right? That's January, early February, whatever, right? Rest of December, whatever you want to measure it out. Okay? Check.

Done. Then we've got to knock out the other $5,000, and it's just a matter of we're doing this thing to prove it to ourselves that we're going to have that done by the time we go on vacation, too. It doesn't mean you don't go on vacation if you don't make it, but I want to lay the math out that way and be that aggressive. That sounds smart. Yeah, and the two of you go, okay, you know, this is you and your wife sitting there. Okay, we're going to do this because this matters that we take this trip with you. You take this trip with your mom. This Okay, we're going to do this because this matters that we take this trip with you. You take this trip with your mom. This matters.

We're going to do that. It matters so much that we're going to cut this, this, this, and this, and we're going to be in a position to do both things by the time vacation gets here. I mean, that's the kind of, you know, what you're doing is you're retraining your muscle memory on how you're handling money when you cut that deep. You're resetting. And then you'll have plenty of time to lighten up and do other stuff later. You know, you're handling money when you cut that deep. You're resetting. And then you'll have plenty of time to lighten up and do other stuff later.

You know, you're making good money. You're getting ready to be debt free. And you've got a real sad situation right now, especially here during the holidays and all, you know. So, yes, I would do every bit of that. I agree with you. My only caveat is let's tighten it up a little. Good question. Thanks for calling in.

Aaron is in Lexington, Kentucky. Hi, Aaron. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My wife and I are looking to move to a suburb just outside of Lexington for work.

It's considerably cheaper than in the city, obviously. But some of the areas aren't as nice, obviously. And we're still working on paying off some debt, so we're renting. And we've got, you know, a couple of options where we're going. But they seem to be, like, if we wanted to live in, like, a safer, you know, nicer environment, obviously they're still probably a little bit above our budget i just wanted to get your take on do we you know pay a little bit more and maybe me go deliver some pizzas or something to be able to to you know have you know like a nicer neighborhood because we i've got a newborn and my wife doesn't work she

stays at home so what is your rent now uh right now we're at 875 a month and what would it be if you moved into the thing you're talking about uh about 950 and why are you moving uh because uh it's going to be work's going to be a little bit closer um where i'm potentially taking a new job here soon. But I mean, what, 10 minutes closer? You're in Lexington. Yeah, so it'll still be roughly, you know, we're probably 40 minutes closer. Sorry, yeah, about 45 minutes closer where we're going to move to. It'll kind of keep us in between because we've got all of our family in Lexington, and my job will be about 45, 50 minutes away from the other direction from where we're moving.

And where is your job? It's in Corbin, Kentucky. Okay. Which is about an hour north of Knoxville. Yeah. Yeah, I know. Okay. Beautiful area of the country either way.

I mean, you can do what you want to do. That doesn't sound like a good plan for just a lifestyle thing. I have a seven-minute commute, so I'm a little spoiled, okay? But this idea of commuting 45 minutes so that I can be a little closer to her mama, that's a little weird. I mean, that's probably because you do the little closer to mama once every week or two weeks. You do the work thing twice a day, driving over there and then driving back. And so I'm probably going to move closer to work even yet,

which might change this equation. Yeah, the only issue was, you know, the further down you get, like into the London-Corbin area, it's really hard to find, you know, like nice real estate down there, and it's very few and far between. Yeah, Corbin's a pretty small town in the mountains, yeah, without a doubt. Yeah, and so, you know, that was the only reason. Berea, Kentucky was as far south as I wanted to go because it's, you know, you kind of lose some civilization between Berea and Corbin.

I think you need to go shopping down there one more time before you make that statement. Okay. I don't disagree with you, there's some pretty lawyers down there and sure yeah I mean there's a couple of hollers you go up you're going to hear you ain't from around here are you boy I understand that's how I grew up too so I understand right but

but you know let's keep gathering up here here's the thing I find when I have options in front of me that I don't like when I'm making a decision that sometimes the problem is I don't have enough options. And so I want you to gather more information. Gather more. I mean, delivering pizzas in Berea doesn't sound fun.

You know, it's not that big a town. So, I mean, I want you to gather options. So go do some more research down around the work area. Go do some research in some other areas. Just spend a little time on this. And all of a sudden, you'll start to see some housing areas or some subdivisions or some rentals, individual rentals pop up in front of you, and you'll go, oh, okay, well, maybe Dave is right. Maybe there's another way to do this.

Because everything you spend on rent is, you know, is burning while you're trying to hit your other goals. And the more you spend on rent, the slower you get out of debt and the slower before you buy. So I want to spend as less on rent as I possibly can and as less on gas commuting as I possibly can. So that's what I'm looking at. Hope that helps. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify?

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