The Ramsey Show - App - How to Talk to Friends About Money Issues (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 5, 2019

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Where we talk about real life. Your life. We talk about how you can change the trajectory of your life.

That makes us a fairly unusual talk show. This is all about you. Yeah. And sometimes you're just downright entertaining. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Laura's with us in Nashville to start off this hour. Hey, Laura, how are you? I'm blessed, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? Well, Dave, I just had a question. I've recently purchased your book, Total Money Makeover, but I'm having some issues with being overdrawn through my bank and checks returned over the last week and a half or so. And my question is basically, what's the best way to get out of this situation so that I can start working on my Total Money Makeover? Okay. Do you know how to reconcile your checkbook or your checking account using your bank's website? No, sir. Okay. It's called balancing your checkbook is the thing.

And what you're doing is you're not just checking your balance every day. You actually know that I've written or I have used the debit card or whatever, these many charges that have not yet hit the bank. And if they were to hit the bank today, I would be in overdraft. And that keeps you from being in overdraft. And basically, obviously, you don't want to commit to more money than is in the account, and you've got to get the accounting part of that working. So what I do is contact your bank. Do you have online banking with them?

Yes, sir. Okay. Contact them, and they'll walk you through how to do that, because what you're doing is you're writing, obviously, writing checks or your debit card or whatever, authorizing some kind of withdrawal beyond what your balance is, right? Right. You know that. And it's very, very expensive.

Yes, it is. What are they charging you per hit? $33. Woo-hoo. Wow. Yeah, that'll add up fast. I mean, 10 of those is like some money, right? Right.

How many hits have you had? It's probably over the last week, six or seven. I was expecting, which that's my fault, I was expecting some money through my job that didn't come through. Yeah, you wrote checks on money that wasn't in the account. Right, and to pay some bills, and it ended up not going through because of a system change so yeah it's my fault oh it is it is and the thing is you've just got to never do that again the rest of your life

right it's just too expensive and too embarrassing and everything else and so it just creates too big a mess and um so you've got to just know what your balance is without having to check it every single day. And you should be able to run that, you know, with your standard bank software. Most of them have it. And once you know what it is, then the trick, of course, is don't write against something you think is coming ever again. It's got to be in there before you write against it. Does that make sense? Yes, sir.

Okay, now, how do we get out of this mess? We get out of this mess by prioritizing the the money that you do have did the system change did you get end up getting the money out of it no they're switching um payroll it was a payroll at the end yeah and so they still haven't gotten you the money right and it was they're switching paychecks. They're going to a totally different system. So it may be July before that's even available. Wow. What about the rest of your pay? Well, the rest of my pay is bi-weekly. I bring home about between $1,250 and $1,300, and it's coming through normal.

Okay, good. So we're going to use that. And then when the rest of that other thing comes in, maybe in July, in a couple of weeks, hopefully you'll be able to use that to get completely squared around. So here's what we do. We prioritize from most important to least important thing in your whole world. And so I'll help you with that. The first thing you buy with the money you have is food.

Not eating out, just food. You feed your kids, you feed yourself right whatever then the second thing you buy is lights and water was any of those two things what bounced no sir okay good so lights and water and food now we live to fight another day right how about your rent or your mortgage payment actually right now i'm living with my parents so i don't have oh that's wonderful okay that's wonderful that's helpful okay so basic necessities of survival are what we do first it's food shelter clothing transportation and utilities okay so you have a car payment yes sir is it current

yes sir good okay so what type of stuff bounced? Just normal bills that I have that I was actually trying to start getting paid off. So like debts? Small finance loans. Okay. Yeah, like finance loans, things like that. Yes, sir. Okay. So this is more than anything, this is embarrassing and stressful, but it doesn't really affect

your life today. So what you do is just make a list of those things. I probably would say whatever the smallest one is, I'd just go ahead and get it cleaned up. The payment amount, not the balance. Okay, so list out these checks, these bounced items. How many did you say there were again? About six. Okay, just list them out from smallest to largest item size.

And then let's just work through, get the little one knocked off, get the next little one. And so every time we do that that what do they total up to um without the charges they equal about i would say eight hundred dollars okay all right so it's going to take a little while to get through them um with your pay scale all right good so you just list them out smallest to largest like that and the the bank charges themselves you're probably not going to get out of, but you can go in and sit down and talk to your branch manager and try to talk them into waiving them, because unless you've been a serial overdraft.

If you're a serial overdraft, they just love you because they stay open on you then. Okay, but if it's a one-time thing and they're like, okay, they might cut you some slack and refund. The actual companies that are trying to charge you overdraft charges, too, for bounce checks, some of them will waive them if you just call and cry a river, and I'd try that because that's going to help you get through these that much faster and get them squared around. And just try to talk them out of it, in other words, as much as you can.

But just push through and list them smallest to largest or if one of them is really really super important uh it's not one of the items we touched on but it's a big big deal of some kind then go ahead and move it and make it first i don't care but the good news is by the middle to the end of july you'll be current again right that's what you know if august one, Laura's in a different world. Is that right? Correct. Okay, and never again. And then jump on EveryDollar.com and download the budget and get yourself on a budget

so you know where all this money's coming from and where it's all going to. EveryDollar.com is our budgeting software that's free to use. It's a free app for your phone, your iPhone, or your Android, or whatever. And you're completely taken care of there. Jump on there and start building out your budget. And then let's begin to work those baby steps. Once you're current and once you're out of overdraft, then you begin to work your baby steps and you lay out a game plan

to work your way all the way through. And, you know, get yourself up into some emergency fund. You're debt-free. You start building some wealth. You move out on your own. All those kinds of things. And that's where you're headed towards. And you'll be there shortly if you just be very, very intentional.

The bad news is you're learning an expensive lesson. The good news is if you learned it, you'll never have to learn it again. I haven't bounced a check in 40 years. But I had to learn that. I just don't bounced a check in 40 years, but I had to learn that. I just don't write checks if there's no money. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you 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 join together as the body of Christ

to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. austin is with us in charlotte north carolina welcome to the dave ramsey show austin

hello so my parents are looking to essentially co-sign a loan for my grandparents for them to move into a retirement community a lot of grandparents' money is wrapped up in their house and about 20 acres that they have. I was wondering if this would be one of the few exceptions where it might make sense. They both work in health care. My parents do. They make probably over $200,000. And I just am trying to figure out, should I sit down with them and say, like, this is a bad idea, or is this maybe one of the exceptions?

Well, there's not any exceptions. say like this is a bad idea or is this maybe one of the exceptions um well there's not any exceptions the cosigning is a dumb idea now then the question is how do we get at this problem without doing that um so they're cosigning for what them to borrow money to move into a retirement center so yeah there's no money down to remove into a retirement center it would be a retirement home. And basically the home they want, since they work in healthcare, they want their grandparents to be in a good retirement home. So they would like them to move into what I think they would say the best one in the area. And so I think the retirement home they're looking at is about 170,000, which their house, the grandparents are selling around 600. So there's no question that once they sell the house, that it will be a non-issue. The question is how long it will be.

Okay. So why would it take a long time to sell the house in this market? Sell the house and then move into the returns. They live in the same house probably over 40 years, maybe 45. So it is a little dated, and it's 20-some acres. It's a lot of land. Yeah, but it's worth $600,000. Why wouldn't it sell?

What area is it in? It's in Oklahoma. Okay. What would be wrong with just selling the house and then moving into the retirement center? Well, they're in their 80s, and so their health is deteriorating some.

So I guess the question is, is at what point would it make sense? Let's pretend that the house sold quickly. Like a month. Okay. There's a non-issue then right oh of course okay so sell the prop put the property up for sale don't go running off to the bank and getting a loan put the property up for sale let's get it sold at some price and move in i would do that uh before i would

co-sign a hundred170,000 loan. Now, who's going to pay the payments on the $170,000 loan if they co-sign? So they would. I guess the issue would be is if the house doesn't sell and they pass, I guess would be really, well, I guess the passing part wouldn't be the issue. It would just be if their house wouldn't sell. I mean, they have a 401K. I'm not sure how much.

But, again, I was just curious if that makes sense. Their house has been on the market. The grandparents' house has been on the market for about four months or five months. Oh, okay. So it hasn't sold what I would say quickly in this market. Right, right. I agree with that. Okay.

Do you have any idea how much is in the 401K? I do not know any of my grandparents' salary or anything like that so now i wouldn't i wouldn't be do you think there's 170 000 in there i don't think they would have talked about co-signing if there was a way for them i mean my parents are smart in the sense that i mean they've done a lot of they did your class years ago but um i mean it was years years ago yeah but i mean if there's 170 000 in there um doing my class obviously didn't matter because now they're trying to do something that i think stupid and was very clearly outlined in there so that that there may be more than 170 000 in there these people that are making these other assumptions could easily be making

that going through the idea of oh we hate to cash out their nest egg instead of doing that let's just borrow money um and uh so there may be three hundred thousand dollars sitting in that 401k i don't know uh and apparently you don't either so uh no there's not an exception for cosigning cosigning a hundred percent of the time is a bad idea and i would avoid it i'd find some other way to do this um if we discount the farm a little bit more and get it sold, I don't know. And, you know, also see if there's some ways to get the parents into the nursing home ahead of time and let the nursing home, you know, just pay monthly for a while instead of $170,000 up front. Maybe there's a rent-to-own process in there.

A lot of times there is in those situations. So there's other ways to skin this cat rather than just running down to the bank and co-signing a loan. Justin's in Midland, Texas. Hi, Justin. How are you? Hey. Hello? Justin?

All right, let's try Chris in Dallas, Texas. Hi, Chris, how are you? Hi, Dave, I'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I have a question about my daughter's 529 plan. She is five and a half now,

but we started it with about $1,100 when she was about one and a half. So it's been there almost four years. It has gotten nowhere, basically. And I understand it's stocks and it's going to go up and down, but it's only made like 150 bucks in the last four years.

On how much money? We started it with $1,100. Okay. Yeah, that's poorly invested. It doesn't sound like you're in good mutual funds. Right. And I actually just got off the phone with the advisor, and he said with the 529 plan they're kind of limited on where they can put the money.

Not really. Okay. So my question was, we, my husband and I, are just starting your baby steps. We're kind of half-assing it at the moment, but we are, we're getting there. So I'm looking at it as it hasn't really done any good for us at the time or the last four years. So should we cash it out since it's still really small and hasn't done anything and kind of use that as our thousand dollar emergency fund and boom we're already on baby step two what's your household income about 74 000 no i wouldn't i would roll it to a different 529 and maybe with a different advisor because it's obviously not

doing well but um here's the only reason I wouldn't. You make enough money to clean up your mess, and you're not really focused on cleaning up your mess yet. You're looking for some kind of easy way out, and cashing out your kid's retirement or your kid's college is not a good way to do that. The only reason I was wanting to do that was later on in the baby steps, we would be more focused into saving for her. Yeah, assuming you ever get there.

Right now, you admittedly aren't working it. Well, as of yesterday, my husband just started a second job, so we're getting there, and I've actually kind of been applying. No, I would not cash out my kids' college fund unless it really, really, really changed everything, and this doesn't change anything. It's not enough money to spit. You guys are going to have to get on plan.

Just stop adding to it. If you want to roll it to a different 529, I would. You're just going to feel like, even though it's technically your money, you're going to feel like you stole from your kid, even though you're going to put it back later. That's how you're going to feel. And it's not worth it. It's $1,000.

Tina is with us in Oakland, California. Hi, Tina. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm amazing. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Well, help. I'm one of those ones that give you a headache. I am going to be inheriting some money from my father that passed well-deserved money on our end. Anyhow, through the years, I have accumulated a disgusting amount of debt because I could not say no to people when they needed something or co-signed. As I was hearing you say, I'm like, yeah, that was me. So my question to you is I'm going to be inheriting probably anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000, and my debt is about $170,000 with student loans and credit cards and vehicles all in my name. And probably at the end of the day, I'm only going to have probably roughly $30,000 left over.

I wanted to know how you felt about an annuity, if that was something that's better for somebody who's 52 my age, because I'm concerned about putting it in like a 401k or a place where it's going to have pre-tax dollars opposed to already tax dollars. Well, it's going to grow. Well, to start with, i thought you said you're receiving less money and inheritance than you have in debt well i have 170 it hasn't been completely settled i'm going on the low end it's going to probably

be 200 and something but i don't know exactly until it's all settled um no i would not buy an annuity what i would do is first thing is become debt-free. The second thing is build your emergency fund out of three to six months of expenses. If there's money left after that, let's just start funding your Roth IRAs and, like you said, using it to load up your 401k. Start moving towards paying off your house. But no, I wouldn't do any annuity in your situation. Andy and Robin are in Eugene, Oregon. Hey, guys, how are you?

Good. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you very much. How much did you guys pay off? We did $84,000 in 24 months. Wow, excellent. And your range of income during that time? 80. Started at 80, went to 140. Cool, Big increase. What do you guys do for a living? I'm an educational administrator. And I work in insurance. So how come your income went up so much in two years? I went from a teacher position to kind of just moved up a little bit.

And I got a promotion. Okay, both of you. And a lot of overtime. Working your butts off, both of you. Good. Cool. What kind of debt was the $84,000? So we had about, we had $5,000 in taxes. We had $16,000 for our van. About $31,500 for student loans.

And $36,000 in medical. Wow. Okay. Cool. So what happened 24 months ago? What lit you guys up? I got sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we took the FPU class. Ah, Financial Peace University.

Okay. Very cool. Just your church was having it, or you just looked it up? It was a friend of mine actually told me that she was going to be coordinating the class with her husband and asked if we were interested, so we signed up with her. Ah, okay. All right. And both of you were on board from day one then i was kind of apprehensive about it until like the first class and then after that i was

i was full throttle okay here we go game on and so you guys have been married how long almost 13 years okay have you ever been debt free until now no no never okay how old are you i'm 37 36 okay good for you very cool so how does it feel you don't have any payments i cried it's very liberating it's it's we've been able to do some things for people and things that we never would have been able to do before. Absolutely. Absolutely. Very cool. So when people ask, how did you pay off $84,000, that's a lot, in 24 months, what do you tell them the secret to getting out of debt is?

Your why has to be bigger than your but. What's your goal? You know, you have to have your goal and you've got to work towards it. That is good. That's a great line. Your why needs to be bigger than your butt. So what was your big why? Me, I want to sail around the world, to be completely honest, and I can't be doing that with death. Right. And for me, I just want to help people. Okay. So generosity and travel.

Right. And this stuff's in the way. It's keeping us from doing that. We make too much money to be this broke, and so we roll up our sleeves and say, game on. That was it. That's right. Wow. Yeah.

We actually had the opportunity to coordinate an FPU class through our church, and it was exciting to go through it a second time as a refresher, but we are looking forward to now. I have staff members at school who are interested in taking it, so we're looking forward to doing one for staff members at my school. Oh, very good. Cool. Well, thank you for doing that.

It is very rewarding, and it's a great reminder to keep you on track, right? Exactly. Exactly. I think the biggest thing for us was switching to cash. Get rid of the debit card, switch to the cash. Big deal. That's a big deal. Okay.

Well, good for you guys. Very, very well done. What was the hardest part for you? Switching to cash. You know, I think the hardest part for us was giving up things that we were used to and buckling back. We didn't go, well, we didn't pay for vacation over the holidays or, you know, traveling to another location for a weekend. Or we didn't do those things anymore. We quit eating out. We found out we were eating our extra money.

And, you know, so just making sure that we cut back in all those places and making that adjustment. And our kids were on board with it. We're working through financial peace with them as well. And, you know, telling, I think for me one of the hardest parts was telling my son, you can't do Scouts for a year until we get it paid off. And so watching our kids make sacrifices for it too, that's hard for me. parts was telling my my son you can't do scouts for a year until we get it paid off and and so watching our kids make sacrifices for it too that's hard for me so it was worth it yeah definitely

that was one of the hardest parts for me and he will have no memory of it well he he might but he understands it you know and they do saving and giving with money they earn too and so they're going to understand it when they're older and appreciate it for sure. Yeah, amen. Well, congratulations, you guys. Very well done. Did you have more cheerleaders or people saying you were crazy? We didn't have anybody telling us we were crazy.

We had some encouragement to continue some things, but we definitely, Andy's parents were very big supporters, and she's actually here with us because she's going to scream with us. All right. Yeah. But we had many more supporters and people curious to know what we were doing. So we enjoy being weird. Yes. Okay.

You led the front of the weird parade. Yeah. Very good. I love it. Good. Good job. All right. We got a copy of chris hogan's retire

inspired book for you we want that to be the next chapter in your story where you go on and now and become millionaires and travel the world and be outrageously generous i think you're on track to do that you're doing well congratulations proud of you thank you very much you guys are heroes all Andy and Robin, Eugene, Oregon, $84,000 paid off in 24 months, making $80,000 to $140,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Ready? Three, two, one. Hooray!

Hooray! Great job. Absolutely great job. Man, that's incredible. Chris is in Kansas City. Hey, Chris, how are you? I'm overly blessed, Dave. How about yourself today?

Just the same. How can I help? Awesome. I've got a retirement question, and I don't know what the answer is, so I'm calling you. Okay. I'm of retirement age now, but not at full retirement. I don't need the income from the retirement. My question is, if I take my retirement now, between now and that period where I'm at full retirement, I'd get around $75,000 in retirement income, which would go directly into retirement funds over that

next period of, say, four years. Okay. Does it make sense? And I would still continue to work and make up the threshold of whatever I can make without being overly taxed on it. Does it make sense to hold off until full retirement age or have amassed that roughly $75,000 and have that in the kitty along with whatever my nutrition might come out of it.

Okay. Well, most of the time, I mean, this is a pension plan, obviously, right? No, no, no. I'm just talking about if I go on retirement for my Social Security. Oh, you're talking about your Social Security? Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, Social Security. Okay.

You're not talking about a pension plan with your company or something like that. Correct. Correct. Okay. All right. And again, I don't need the income so I can put all that into a retirement fund along with everything else we have. Right.

Well, here's the thing. We know with Social Security, when you die, the checks stop. Yep. And we don't know when we're gonna die um so which way do you end up with the most money well if you um die sooner you'll wish you had taken it sooner and if you die later you'll wish you'd taken it later so um we don't know we don't know i i know that uh what i will likely do um subject to looking at the tax situation, is I always get as much money that's going to die when I die out of their hands into my family's hands as I can. Because that way it doesn't die when I die.

Right. And so that's simple a concept for me. Now, you know, there may be some taxation situations that cause you to not do that that and you'd want to sit down and crunch those numbers to be sure um you know i wouldn't want you to refuse to go make as much money as you can make doing whatever you wanted to do because of this stupid calculation you know i'd rather i'd rather leave your career and you know uh unfettered and uh without any reins on it and just let you go do what you want to do and then take your social later if you want to.

If you're going to, you know, not earn what you're capable of earning because of that, I would not do that. But aside from that, just the concept of when I die, it's going to be gone, you know. And so I'm going to go ahead and take as much of it as I can take, as quickly as I can take it, turn around and invest it, even though I don't need it. Turn around and invest it, and that's the direction I would go.

So, good question. Thanks for joining us. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Our Scripture of the Day, Proverbs 14.23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Paul Meyer said, Productivity is never an accident. It's always the result of a commitment to poverty. Paul Meyer said productivity is never an accident. It's always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.

There you go. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Isabella, or Isabel, rather, is with us in Virginia. Hi, Isabel. How are you? Wonderful. Glad. Thank you. Good. How can I help? So my question today is about my husband and I own a rental property in our area, and we've been renting it out for the last 12 years, plus years. We've lived there for a year

and a half, so we spoke to our account. We do have capital gain on it. It's doubled since we purchased it. So we have always net pretty much about between $300-plus every month. So we do have debts that I'm looking into going through this, you know, financial university and be debt-free in the next couple years here. The other hand tool, we have talked about keeping it for the kids' education. So I'm not sure if we should sell it and take the, you know, plunge with the capital gain, which is a pretty hefty amount, looking at $55,000 to $60,000,

or should we just keep it and figure it out later? And I'm not sure what to do. Okay. How much debt do you have? $50,000, and that's due to loans and just credit cards. And what's your household income? Close to $300,000. Okay.

Well, you don't have to sell the rental to pay off $50,000 making $300,000, do you? No, no, no. And we have plenty. I mean, we have investments in 401K and stocks. This is just that I just hate owning money. I just hate. Well, you make $300,000. Stop your 401Ks.

Stop your investments. Stop your 401ks, stop your investments, stop everything, and pay the $50,000 off in, what, six months. Okay. You'd be debt-free in six months. Okay. That can be done. However, my main thing is the profit or gain that we can't seem to avoid. Is there a way to get around it?

No. You're going to pay capital gains if you take the cash out of the rental property. You don't need to take the cash out to pay the debt, though. We established that, didn't we? Correct. So why are you selling the rental property now? Well, at some point, we need to start a kids' college fund. You make $300,000 a year.

Correct. I think you need to get on a budget and quit spending money like you're in Congress. Well, the thing, well, I haven't, we live in a very expensive area. Oh, come on. You make $300,000 a year. Really? You're spoiled rotten. I mean, unbelievable.

You can hit your college goals, and you can hit this debt-free in a heartbeat. You need to cut up your freaking credit cards and stay home. Quit traveling, quit buying crap, and quit going out to eat every night. You make $300,000 a year. And you can hit your investment goals. You can hit your college savings goals. You start living on a written plan and doing this stuff on purpose. You and your husband need to sit down and really get serious about facing this stuff.

I mean, the fact that you all are this broke making this kind of money is what's known as pitiful. You really have to address this. It's really sad. And then if you want to sell the rental, you may have some capital gains on it. If you want to have a different rental, you can do what's called a 1031 tax deferred exchange and sell that rental and use the money to buy a different rental, and you won't have any taxes on it. But that is not your problem. Your problem is called lifestyle. That's what you're facing. And if you don't deal with that, you're going to wake up broke at

retirement with a lot of this really bad taste in the back of your mouth called regret. John is with us in Kansas City. Hey, John, how are you? Hi, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm a pretty short-time listener.

I wish I had heard about you a long time ago. But anyway, I'm 67 and retired in 2006. I'm just kind of wanting to run by my figures here. I'm kind of wondering, am I going to be all right as I get older? Okay. How much have you got in my credit union cash, I've got $64,000. And I have in a Morgan Stanley account, I've got $150,000 in an IRA and $100,000 in a regular. And a couple of years ago, this is kind of what worries me, is I took that out of those two things out of the American funds and put them in this annuity. Why?

Well, I was talking with my brother and this and that and the other, and he was going to do that, and I thought, well, you know, we decided, well, maybe I should do that myself to make sure that that's there and doesn't get lost somewhere along the line. But I'm kind of thinking, wow, you know, I'm missing out here on that part. I didn't know if I should do something. Do you have any income coming in? Yeah, I have.

My income is Social Security, and I've got two pensions. And that totals what? And that's about $3,100 a month. Okay. And then one of my pensions, that's another question, one of my pensions in the last about six years has been cut two times. Mm-hmm. So I picked up just a part-time job a couple of days a week,

and I make about $600 a month on that, which... Is your home paid for? My home is paid for. I'm debt-free. I don't have any debt. And what's your house worth? About maybe $160,000, somewhere around there. You're single?

Yes. Okay. All right. Yeah. So you're... I kind of wanted to quit this part-time job and then maybe draw, just take the $600 out of some cash I got on hand until I get to where I can draw my IRA. Well, you are where you can draw your IRA.

So what I would do is sit down with a good financial advisor. If you want to know who we recommend in your area, you click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com, fill in a little bit of stuff on you, and it'll drop down a list of the SmartVestor pros in your area we recommend. Here's what I would tell you when you sat down with me to do that. Those guys don't work for me, and I'm not in the investment business. But if I woke up in your shoes, is how I answer questions here on this show, and what I would do is simply this.

I would take the Morgan simply this i would take the morgan stanley i would take the ira and i take the other hundred grand um it looks to me like you've got about 350 000 there not counting the 64 in your simple cash account okay right 350 000 i would invest that as a group you know combine it put into, if it's in IRAs or whatever it is, put it into some stuff like those American funds you were in before, some good growth stock mutual funds. And I spread my investments across, I'm 57, across four types, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. If you want to go a little bit more conservative, the Smart Buster Pro will coach you on that. They'll teach you.

You decide what you want to do. You could do, instead of the aggressive, you could substitute that out for a balanced. But either way, let's say you made 10% on that money. Okay? 350 times 10 is $35,000. That's $3,000 a month. If you never touch anything except the income that the goose is, the golden eggs is laying,

all you take is the eggs. You don't touch the goose. The $350,000 is the goose. You easily could pull $1,000 to $2,000 a month in income off of that $350,000 if it's invested properly for the rest of your life and never touch the $350,000. And it would run in perpetuation. It would run out past your death, in other words. And so that's why you need to have somebody sit down and help you put this together.

You have enough money to live the life you want to live. You've done a good job. You're a good man. That puts us, our The Dave Ramsey Show, in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey Show.

If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.