The Ramsey Show - App - How to Talk to Your Kids About Coronavirus (Hour 1)

Episode Date: March 24, 2020

Dr. Meg Meeker, Anthony ONeal, Savings, Retirement Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where dad is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage, who, right now, has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm here with Ramsey personality Anthony O'Neill. We're going to be with you today Answering your questions in these crazy times And reminding you to just Try to be calm And try to be kind

Some of you are not kind When you're afraid And you need to be kind I love you Calm down You're going to be okay Phone number here is 888-825-5225. Welcome back, Anthony.

Thanks, Dave. Feels good to be back. So a lot of wonderful things going on around here. I don't know if I can get to all of them. It feels like I've got a stack of things to talk about, more than just answering you guys' calls, which Anthony and I will do. But Meg Meeker will be on with us later on in the hour. If you want to talk to Meg, she put out a wonderful article this week

on how to talk to your kids about money, about the pandemic, I'm sorry, about the coronavirus. That's good. And it was published in the Washington Examiner, and we'll talk to her about that coming up. So if you have a question for her about that, about how to talk to your kids, Dr. Meg Meeker, America's mom, is going to be with us in this hour. Phone number is 888-825-5225, and Zach will open up some lines right now so that you can get through on that.

Anthony, I'll be here to answer your questions this hour as well about life and about money. Before we dive into that, let me tell you that our leadership team here has been scratching, scrambling, clawing, hustling, and grinding, trying to come up with some ways we can help you guys while you're parked at home for 14 days. A ton of you are around America, and we found a whole bunch of ways to do that. And the vast majority of them are completely free or very, very close to free. And so, obviously, you can listen to this show, watch this show on YouTube, live streaming every day. You can follow all the stuff that Anthony does on his Instagram, his Twitter account, all those things, all kinds of his YouTube shows as well, or his YouTube account.

And there's all kinds of stuff, message there. This show's put out on youtube every day free live as well as in 600 radio stations and about 10 million of you on the podcast the fourth largest podcast in the world now thank you for that in addition to that this week yesterday we put up a new site daveramsey.com slash hope. Hope is here. Now's the perfect time for you to work on your plan, to plan while you're in a crisis if you are, to plan so that you never get in a crisis ever if you're not in a crisis, whatever. We're going to walk you through everything you need,

and we're going to do something at DaveRamsey.com slash hope right this second that is the first time we have done this in 30 years in business. But these are unprecedented times. So listen to this. This is going to blow your mind. You can go to DaveRamsey.com slash hope right now and click on the link, and we are going to give you a 14 day get the point 14 days free trial to financial peace university online so translation you can binge watch the whole thing while you're at home oh by the way the smart money smart kids lessons are all in there to teach your kids about money

oh by the way the legacy journey lessons are all in there oh by the way this comes with full use of the every dollar app oh by the way it comes with a baby strips tracker app oh by the way it comes with and it's all free in your 14 day free trial now some of you will binge watch it and turn it off and take advantage of just being free that's cool we're putting it in there to help you yeah well it doesn't cost us a ton to put it up online and deliver it to you we're trying to help some of you will continue on and stay in the financial peace community and the one-year membership and choose to pay for it after that and that's fine too we we welcome you all of you 14 day free trial to financial peace University at DaveRamsey.com. The Total Money Makeover audiobook is $1.99.

The Proximity Principle audiobook from Ken Coleman is $1.99. $8 Total Money Makeover books when you buy a case to give away to friends and family. That's the cheapest that has ever been. Normally over $100 for the homeschool curriculum for your high school students 1999 while you got them at home run them through the homeschool so you can go in there and spend about 20 bucks 30 bucks and have everybody in the family equipped and busy through this downtime i can't think of a better time to do this rather than binging that netflix series you know dave you're hitting it right on it while I'm sitting

here. I'm thinking of names and, you know, every single day, Dave, I'm jumping on Instagram live and I'm answering questions and I'm getting a lot of questions from millennials. What should I be doing during this time? And the number one thing I'm saying is get as much education as you possibly can. And you right now, I mean that total money makeover for a dollar 99 audio book. That is brilliant that I think anyone who just graduated from college, this is a great opportunity for you to get that. And then also to jump in and take the financial peace university class for 14

days for free. And this is what I want to encourage people is after the 14 days, stay in it because what we want to do is continue the education yeah and this thursday night rachel cruz and king coleman and i are going to do a live video broadcast from our website a message of hope you know hope is greater than fear yeah it's scary out there right now and john John Deloney always says, our other Ramsey personality, that when you're in a crisis, facts are your friends. Facts are what you need to be basing things on. And if you stay factual and stay off the television and you get different inputs into your brain, you're going to see your way through this weird, wild time in a different way, a faith-filled way, a hope-filled way,

not a Pollyanna, it's all going to be okay in a perfect way, but I'm going to deal with what I've got to deal with, and I'm not going to deal with things that have not yet occurred. I'm not going to deal with this big, bad, dark cloud that is, in my mind, is worse than it is when it is in reality. And we're going to walk you through some things to do, regardless of where you are with your finances this Thursday night at 7 p.m. Central Time, a live 30 to 45-minute broadcast with

me and Rachel Cruz and Ken Coleman. If you want to do that, text the word HOPE. It's completely free to 33-789. Text the word HOPE to 33-789. Anthony, there's just a lot of different things we're all doing around here right now, and all of it is free or very, very close to free to help you guys and to give you. This is the time not to say, I told you so. You should have had an emergency fund. You should have have had a budget you should have gotten out of debt this is the time

to say you're hurting and we're going to give you a hand yes and we're going to help you and then it is the time to say once you learn your lesson never go back yes sir that's it and that's one thing i'm doing on my youtube channel is um every single day i'm getting on there and i'm just walking them through okay hey i get it let's get you through this process. Let's give you some education. If you don't have a job, here are some jobs you should be looking at. I'm really speaking to that young person because Dave, they've never experienced something like this before.

And I'm trying to give them as much hope as we possibly can. Absolutely. All right. Anthony O'Neill is with me coming up at the break. Mick maker is with us and we'll take your questions about talking to your kids about the coronavirus. America's mom is with us. And we'll take your calls about life and money as we always do at 888-825-5225. We talk about it daily. Character matters.

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is made every eight seconds on linkedin get started today with LinkedIn Jobs and get $50 off your first job post. Visit linkedin.com Dave Ramsey Show. Our good friend, Dr. Meg Meeker, America's mom and regular Smart Conference speaker. As a matter of fact, she's been at every single Smart Conference we've ever done. She joins us for a little time here to answer your questions about talking to your kids about the coronavirus and about some of the things that are going on from a perspective of a medical doctor. She's a pediatrician, has worked with kids for many years, and knows what they're thinking

in a lot of cases, and thought it'd be fun to have her on today. Hey, Meg, how are you? I'm well. How are you, Dave? I'm doing great. So this was a great article. You put six ways to help your children handle the coronavirus pandemic. It was printed in the Washington Examiner.

Is there anywhere else people can get it, or should they just go to their website? I'd probably go to their website. Epic Times might have published it, too, but I know it'll be on my website, too. Just go to MeekerParenting.com. There you go, MeekerParenting.com. That's the best thing. Walk us through a couple of those that you think are the most important out of the six things on how to help your kids handle this because different kids take on different levels of stress.

I mean, even among my grandbabies, some of them just don't even notice, and some of them are, like, all worried about it. Right. And I found the exact same thing. I've had teenagers that almost paralyzed. They're so anxious. And then other teenagers say, I'm going on spring break to, you know, Fort Lauderdale. And so you've got the whole gamut. I think first and foremost, now speak about just what's happened by today. You've got to quell their fears. You as a parent

have got to talk to them, even if you don't feel it yourself. You've got to talk to your kids about, look, the chances of you dying from this virus, you just say that, is extremely low. To date, only one kid has died, and that's in China. So I think we really need to let our kids know and then tell them what is the virus and how is it transmitted. Very, very, very simple language to get them to kind of understand what we're dealing with. But it's not the bubonic plague. And I know that it's in the media, it's everywhere. But to date, it hasn't killed as many people as the flu and so it may be in a month or two very

very different but for now I think it's really important to tell kids don't be afraid and if they're really small just say you know what mom and dad have got this we're the ones that are supposed to worry about this not you I tell my patients that my job is to worry and make sure you're okay. So don't you worry. And that's the first place I'd start. Yeah, that's good. That's good. And they take their cues from mom and dad on how upset they're supposed to be. Oh, absolutely.

So if you run around the house and you're fretting and you've got a mask on all the time in the house, and there's some adults I've seen do that and wear gloves all the time, and you're constantly acting worried, kids are going to worry. It's really hard for kids to see their parents upset all the time and anxious. So as I said, you know, deal with your own anxiety, but do your best not to let your kids see through it. Same with your frustration. If you're going from working full time to being home full time and you're really having a hard time with your kids around all the time, you know, try not to let them know, you know, your frustration level.

Because all these things together can make for an emotionally volatile household. And, again, you want to really sort of dampen that as best you can. Yeah, my favorite tweet that I saw in the last 24 hours was a mom was homeschooling, because the kids got sent home from school, of course, and she said, yeah, homeschooling is going fabulously. Two of the students have been expelled for fighting, and the teacher got fired for drinking. I love it. I love it. You know, and it's really important, and I think it's important to tell parents out there, too,

your kids have gone from having a pretty tight schedule to now being home, but it's not summer, and it's not a free for all. So it's important to your mental health and to their health, get them on a schedule. You know, even if you have high schoolers say, here are the times we're going to be studying. Here are the times you need to be outside in the backyard playing. You know, here are the times you can be on your screen device, you know, for an hour. If you don't do that, you're going to end up with kids who are just on their devices 12 hours a day, and that's not good. No, especially right now.

I mean, it's never good, but especially right now because the more screen time you have, the more you parents watch the nightly news or the news channel, if you just keep on Coronavirus Central all day long, eventually you just end up in a rubber room. You do. You do. And I think it's really encouraged. I think it's important, too, for parents to try to create some fun activities for kids.

You know, we don't have to be, you know, kids are scared we're locked in our houses. We have a mandatory lockdown here in Michigan, which I'm going out to my mother-in-law's birthday party. She's 93. And I said, you know, anyway, and that's scary to kids, too, because why has life changed overnight so dramatically? And so, you know, to talk to them about that. The other thing that's important, too, is to get kids thinking beyond themselves. And what I encourage parents to do is to find somebody who has a need and, you know, get some groceries and send them to that person. Try to find a shut-in in your area who has a need. There's so many things that you can do that you can help your kids do

that'll make them understand that when life is hard, you roll up your sleeves and you help. And I think that's really important for kids. It's a character building opportunity. So Dr. May, this is Anthony. I love you. Hi, Anthony. Hey, you know I love you. I have a question for you. What about that senior right now? What would you tell a parent who has a senior that was looking forward to graduation, that was looking forward to prom? They were looking forward to some good, exciting stuff coming up. You know, some states have already said, hey, we're done with the school year. And so what about that parent that is trying to deal with the emotional side of that senior that was looking forward to a lot of things? What should we be saying to that young individual right now what was the theme of your senior prom social

distancing well i i never had a prom so i think always and forever baby that was mine i feel sorry for both of y'all. I had a good prom. Oh, good. You know, I think it's important. Parents have this idea, too, and this has sort of been the parenting mantra for the past 20 years. I want to make sure that life is good and comfortable and fun for my kids. And so parents now might go, oh, that's just too bad you don't have your prom. What are we going to do? Don't do that. You know, let them know, you know what? It's now my go, oh, that's just too bad you don't have your prom. What are we going to do? Don't do that.

You know, let them know, you know what, it's okay. You know, you'll have a prom later, or you're going to have a lot of fun in your life. But if you talk to your kids like this is a real, this is something that you should really feel bad about, you're really going to miss out, and I'm so sorry that you're not going to have your great graduation the way you want it. But don't, you know, talk to them as though they can do this. It's not that big of a deal. Everybody is inconvenienced right now. And life will go on. They'll be okay. They, you know, they'll have great graduation at a different time. But I found that tricky with parents in other aspects of kids kids lives is that they want they get very disappointed when their kids don't make the team or make the grade or this and sometimes they're more disappointed than the kids are living their life through their kids yeah so

you've got to say to your kids you know what you're a tough bird you got this i'm sorry no 30 year old no 30 year old that became successful ever said it was because of graduation night or because of prom night. Not a single one. That's more like it. And it's legitimate to grieve it a little, but just don't over-dramatize it. There you go. Meg Meeker is with us. Dr. Meg Meeker, one of our lifetime friends and speakers at Smart Conference.

Raising a Strong Daughter in a Toxic Culture is her new book that's out. Be sure and check out all of her books. And, Meg, one more time, your website so people can get this six ways to help your children? MeekerParenting.com. And you get all kinds of goodies there while you're off. There's lots of resources there. MeekerParenting.com. She's one of our favorites.

Dr. Meg, thanks for hanging out with us. Thank you. Thank you. If you do this one simple thing that we all do, you are literally at risk of being hacked and someone stealing what you've worked so hard for. Do you ever use public Wi-Fi? I'm talking about getting online at a coffee shop, a store, the airport, or even at home. Hackers can use a simple $100 device to mimic Wi-Fi, and with just a little bit of skills, they can take over your financial life.

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or this hour, this day, answering your questions about life and money. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Cheyenne is in Texas. Hi, Cheyenne. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? I'm going to do my best to hold it together. I never know when it's going to hit me, and I'm going to be ugly crying in the middle of Walmart. So about a week ago, I found out my husband was cheating on me. And he was not only cheating on me, he was cheating on me with a man. And I met him when I was in Bible college and I thought he was a true Christian. And in eight hours, I packed up all my stuff and I moved out and I don't have anything.

I lost my job. I lost my car because it was his. And I'm just, I don't know which way is up right now. I'm so broken. I can't even breathe. And I just need to know what to do next. I'm sorry, baby. So where, what town were you living in?

What town? I really don't want to say because it was an abusive marriage. Okay. Why did you leave your job? Because we worked at the same place, and he has a child that's eight. And I knew he would need the income more than I would, so i need him to have a job for our son yeah what did you do for a living he's my stepchild what did you do for a living um i worked i worked in customer service okay well that's good that's fairly easy income to replace then okay how old are you? I'm 29, going to be 30 this year. Okay, where do your folks live?

They live here in town. I'm only a couple blocks away from them, so I can walk, you know, if I need to, if I need somebody around me. So you're in the same town you were in, a couple blocks from your folks, and you need a car and you need some income, right? Right. Okay. What kind of money did you used to earn? It was like $500 every two weeks, about $1,000 a month just me. Okay.

And so how's your relationship with your folks it's great they really help carry me I mean we move my stuff out in 8 hours they're fabulous I wouldn't mind if you spent a few nights in their spare bedroom just emotionally to be in the comfort zone

right now for a little while would be fine are you in a good church I am good when you get off there with me for a little while will be fine. Are you in a good church? I am, yes. Good. Holler at your pastor. When you get off there with me, I want you to call your pastor, and I want you to sit down with him,

and not only for him to walk with you through this heartbreak, but also to kind of coach you and help you get your feet back under you emotionally to take some of your next steps. Because the first thing that happens is you just go through all the steps of grieving because your heart's just broken. And you're embarrassed, and there's all these other things,

even though you didn't do anything, right? And like you said, you just get in the middle of Walmart and have a good ugly cry right there on aisle three. You know, ugly cry, aisle three. And, but what ends up happening is that, you know, what you thought was going to be your future is not going to be your future. And you're probably going to have a better one because it was an abusive situation. It was obviously a bad situation. And so now what's your career going to be?

What kind of money are you going to make? What are you going to do with your life that has meaning for the next decade? And how are you going to plug into that and make some money to eat and pay your bills and smile and pay your bills and go on a trip and smile and pay your bills and kind of get back to a new normal and different rhythm, a different routine in your life. But you need a routine in your life again. Agreed? Right.

Now, so my point is, I guess it is, it's reasonable for your heart to be ripped out of your chest at this point, and it's reasonable to have an ugly cry on aisle three at Walmart. That's cool. I've got no issue with that. But if that's all you do, it's going to be a long year for you. And so I want you to begin, even though it's zombie like, I want you to begin taking steps towards an income and an inexpensive car. And if you begin taking some

positive steps, make sure you're doing some exercise. Make sure you're in a good prayer group and you're in church on Sunday and you're plugged in with your pastor and your parents and get some comfort around you and just walk with you while you're hurting. Emotionally, you've been in a terrible car wreck, and it takes a while to recover from a terrible car wreck. Is that okay? Definitely, yes. Yes, that gives me a little more direction.

Now, it's easy to just sit in the pile. So, I mean, I'm in my own little house. Yeah, it's just easy to just sit in the middle of the road and cry. Anthony, you've worked with folks as a pastor in your former role before you were here. As a pastor, what would you tell her? I love what you said, Dave. Take care of your heart and your soul right now. And it's okay to cry. And one thing you said when she gets off the phone, please do call, listen to Dave and call your pastor. And when you call your pastor, you just let it all out.

You know, let let him know what you're feeling, what you're thinking, what's what's the thoughts in your head. Cry. Get it out. Spend the next couple of days, few days. Take a week if you need to, to really just heal. But find the process in the midst of healing. What's the future? Dave said your future is probably better. I'm going to go step up and say your future will be better if you take control of it. But I definitely I'm sorry. I want to apologize to you on behalf of the men out there. That's wrong. We need to do better. And I believe that your future husband will be the king. He would treat you like the queen you deserve to be.

But take this time to heal and to be honest with your spiritual counsel and just listen to the wisdom that he gives you so you can move forward because you have a child, you know, and you have your life ahead of you. You know, just accept some help right now. Yeah. Because we all need some when we're hurting really, really bad. Accept a little help. And, really, really bad. Yeah. Accept a little help.

Yeah. And, hey, thanks for the call. If we can help you with anything, Cheyenne, you call us at any time. God bless you, honey. Yeah. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You know, I guess that last thing we were saying there is there's a lot of people right now that maybe not in that exact situation, but they're in a lot of situations where they are afraid.

Yeah. And the fear is legitimate because there's really something going on. It's not just the boogeyman's outside. It's not no one I know is sick, but I'm worried about the coronavirus. I mean, it's not that, but it is they've lost their job and they're afraid. And so some next right steps are the first things you do when you're in a crisis you put some next right steps in front of you and they do kind of feel like and it's okay to accept help from others that's my point there you go it's a normal thing for

us to be in community especially in crisis a friend of mine went up to uh a bunch of our team went up actually to help with the uh area in nashville they got hit by the tornadoes a few weeks ago yes sir and he said isn't it amazing that people who have never met that are three doors down from each other you walk into an area and you hear a symphony of chainsaws and people are working hand over fist beside each other and laughing and uh crying crying and in relationship that have never known each other before, all because of Christ has brought them together. Yes, sir. And a symphony of chainsaws.

I love that picture because I love a chainsaw anyway. They're just kind of a fun thing to run. It is. But kind of a boy thing possibly. But anyway, the whole thing being, though, that there's all this wonderful noise of activity out there and a community coming together for each other when different parts of the community were in need. Yes.

I mean, Dave, at the end of the day, we're stronger together, and we can accomplish more together. And so even in the midst of this crisis, right now they say a fifth of people have lost their jobs or the income. Hey, call out to your community. I met a young lady the other day on social media and she said, I just went through a divorce. And she says, I'm hurting because I didn't see this coming. I probably would have stayed in a relationship. No, don't go back to the relationship. Get to your healthy community that can help you during this time because we are stronger together. Yeah.

And the good news is there's a lot of people hiring right now. A lot of people hiring. Target just went up $2 on their payroll for their current staff, and they're hiring thousands more to do home deliveries and to do some delivery. So Uber Eats, man, great stuff. Because I tipped my Uber driver driver yesterday dave 40 bucks because hey thank you for taking the sacrifice to bring me food there you go and so tips is looking good right now anthony be liking some food yes sir yes oh that's good stuff anthony o'neill ramsey personality joining me to answer your questions here on the Dave Ramsey Show. Yeah. joining me this hour anthony o'neill ramsey, answering your questions. Julie is with us in New Jersey.

Hi, Julie. How are you? I'm good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my husband and I, we do not have any debt, thankful to you and to the Lord. And we do have about $450,000 in liquid cash. We do want to buy a home in the next

two years or so. And we also are going to have to buy into my husband's medical practice. My question for you is, do we take advantage of the market right now with some of our liquid cash? Because we have very basic retirement but like i said we have about 450 grand in liquid cash and we just want to know should we do something with it right now way to go that's awesomeness so what's it going to cost to buy into the practice and when will you do that yeah so we would buy into the practice practice probably in the next six to nine months, and it'll be about $170,000. Okay.

Well, we don't touch that because we don't know what's going to happen in six months, right? So for sure, $200,000 sits on the sidelines, okay, for that, because that medical practice is going to, buying into that's going to yield you a lot more than any stock market return is going to give you. That's going to be a better purchase. Yeah. Agreed. So that $200,000, so now we're dealing with a quarter of a million in addition to that that you've got sitting there potentially for a house.

And this is in addition to your emergency fund, correct? That's correct. Okay. And then what you've got to do is you have to decide from there what you feel like with your SmartVestor Pro or whoever helps you with your mutual fund selection, what you feel like the market is going to do between now and the time you're going to need the money. Okay. You said three years before you use it to buy a home. Is that what you said? Probably within the next two years. Okay. Two years. What do you think the stock market is going to do and why in the next two years?

I don't know what it's going to do. Obviously, no one does. I am a glass-half-full abundance mentality person, and I have a tendency, having survived several of these crises that were supposed to bring life on the planet to an end, and none of them did, were supposed to bring life on the planet to an end, and none of them did. But they did bring pain, and they did bring people losing money. But then, you know, I look up 12 years after 2008, and it's such a distant memory,

and some of you never even experienced it that are young. And I look back to 9-1-1, and I look back to Y2K, and I look back to whatever crisis, fill in the blank, that caused the stock market to dive, and how quickly did it come back, and did it come back, and is the American economy going to end on the coronavirus? Answer, no. And so I'm not taking a dime out of the stock market today. I've got millions of dollars invested in mutual funds, and they're all sitting there writing down and writing up.

So the question is, is it a great time to buy? Yeah, it's a great time to buy. How much is your stomach going to be in your throat because of this money being invested? So personally, I don't think I would tell you to put more than half of it into this and let half of it sit there so you got 150 to put down on the house if the stock market became worth zero which is not going to right but you got another hundred playing um or so uh that you know you might make 30 grand on it you know it might jump up 30 percent uh in in that two-year period of time and so uh you might make nothing on it um you might lose ten thousand dollars but you know you're probably not going to lose enough

of it that it keeps you from buying a home during that two years right you know so i would i would deploy some of it um and if you're you know if you have zero percent uh you're, you know, if you have 0%, you're 0% scared you could deploy all of it, I wouldn't tell you to do that. I could do it because it wouldn't bother me because I'm very comfortable with all of that. But that's different than, I just don't want you while you're awake at night saying, oh, I put that money in there and now I'm not going to be able to buy a house, you know. I don't want you having that conversation with yourself at one o'clock in the morning got it to the extent you're going to don't put any of it in right

no yeah um my husband's probably more like you than and willing to to you know put more in into the market so um okay and would you just do good you know individual stock no i don't buy any individual stocks way too much risk i always buy just good growth stock mutual funds and in the case of something like that i'm gonna buy a conservative category like growth and income maybe a little bit of growth so i might fit put 50 in a growth in income and 50 in a growth fund, and then the rest of it park it in the money market. And then you've got the other 200 sitting there for the practice buy-in, and you're going to be just fine.

So, Anthony, we tell people all the time it's very, very important to get an intellectual grasp on the risk and face your own emotions. Yes, sir. Absolutely. And that's something that I'm doing, Dave. I reached out to my smart investor pro last Thursday and just asked him, hey, what should I be doing during this time? Because I would like to invest a little bit as well. And I want to say this, Dave, because I can hear the young people out there thinking, oh, Dave just said I could possibly make maybe possibly 30% go up in some money. Hey, listen, you guys, listen to what he's saying.

If you have the money, she had $450,000. If you're still in debt, do not look to make an investment. Do not do that. Good. I want to say that because I hear millennials and young people thinking, oh, my goodness, I can make this money. No, take care of your debt. Well, here's the thing.

I mean, if you invest $10,000, we're talking about making three grand. There you go. It's not life-changing money. There you go, Dave. Thank you. And so do not go borrowing money on a stupid credit card to put money in the market because the market is down. Thank you. That's the opposite end.

There's one end of stupid doing that. The other end of stupid is taking the money out right now. Yes, sir. Because you're freaking out. Yes, sir. And so it's not the time to be either. Steady, steady. Yes. Slow and steady wins the race.

Yes, that's my thing. I haven't touched nothing. I've lost a lot of money, but I'm excited. No, you haven't cashed it in. I know. That's what I'm saying. Just on paper. Paper money.

Paper money, not reality. There we go. I like it. Good stuff. Jennifer is in North Carolina. Hey, Jennifer, how can we help? Hi, Dave. I appreciate you taking my call.

I have a question about an annuity that I have inherited. I don't have the first idea of what to do with it. Are you named beneficiary on the annuity? I am. Okay, then you can do anything you want to do with it. It's just coming to you like a life

insurance proceeds. You do not have to leave it in that annuity. Okay. How much is in it? Well, it is about $110,000. Okay, and how much debt do you have not counting your home? We actually do not have any debt, and we're just about paid off on our home. Very good. How much do you off on our home. Very good.

How much do you owe on your home? Yeah. We only owe about $10,000 on our home. Oh, wow. You probably got enough in the bank account to pay it then. Let's pay that off. All right. Get in touch with your SmartVestor Pro.

Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com. Sit down with them and verify that what I think is happening here is happening here. If you're a named beneficiary, that money is simply coming out. There's no taxes on it. It's just a beneficiary. It's like if you got life insurance proceeds, the same thing. You are not required to leave it in an annuity. I would not leave it in an annuity.

I would invest it into something if you are 100% debt-free, baby step seven, which it sounds like you are, with your emergency fund in place, no debt of any kind, house or anything, which that little $10,000, knock that out, and then go over into mutual funds and do your Baby Step 7 stuff. So good times, good times. Hey, thank you. We appreciate you joining us. So Anthony and Rachel and Hogan and I are the teachers in Financial Peace University.

Yes, sir. And we're doing something we announced at the first of the hour that we have never done in the history of this company, unprecedented times. For the next 14 days, you can begin a free 14-day trial of Financial Peace University Online. Completely free. That means that while you're stuck at home, you could binge watch the entire thing. You could watch through Legacy Journey. You could watch through Smart Money, Smart Kids and learn how to teach your kids how to handle money. You could get on every dollar budget all free.

You can get every bit of this. And you need to go to DaveRamsey.com slash hope. And you need to get this signed up. And you need to go to DaveRamsey.com slash hope. And you need to get this signed up. And you need to check out all the other deals we've got there. We've got tons of free stuff and tons of stuff at unprecedented discounts, like $1.99 for the audio book on the Total Money Makeover. The other thing is we are doing a message of hope on Thursday night at 7 p.m. Central Time on our website, a video message live.

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