The Ramsey Show - App - I Bought a Truck and Rode the Bus Straight to Entitlement! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

Debt, Career, Relationships, Insurance, Saving, Home Buying As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

I'm out. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money, your work, your careers, your relationships. Whatever you want to talk about, we are here for you. I'm your host, George Campbell, host of the Fine Print and Entree Leadership Podcast, joined today by fellow Ramsey personality, Dr. John Deloney, best-selling author, host of the creatively named Dr. John Deloney Show. John, how are you? Excellent, George. If I turn the microphone on here.

He's learning. Doing great, man. How are you? He's learning. I'm excited to take some calls today, help some people. Let's do it. Let's go. Let's go to the phone lines. Open phones, 888-825-5225 is the number. You give us a call. We'll talk about whatever you want to talk about.

Jeff joins us in Pittsburgh. Jeff, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Good afternoon, gentlemen. How are you today? Great. How can we help? Okay, so I'm 53 years old. I lost a 34-year job to COVID in 2020. I've recently found another job, but unfortunately, I'm kind of in a depressed area where I live, and I had to take a job, a similar job, but I'm making less than half what I worked my way up to in my previous job. I have some cash savings. I have my home. I own it flat out. I paid it off in 14 years, took a 30 out, paid it in 14. Very frugal. I live way below my means. I'm very cash heavy. I have a small IRA. And moving forward, I'm just not sure what direction

to go with my earning power being a lot less than what it had been. Jeff, what were you doing before you got laid off? I was a GM at an independent-owned dealership, a car dealership. Ah, okay. And car dealerships have just been a mess the last couple of years. Yeah, yeah. What are you doing now? I'm a GM at an auto repair facility. Okay. So what were you Yeah. What are you doing now? I'm a GM at an auto repair facility.

Okay. So what were you making? What are you making now? Uh, well, I made my most money in my entire life. Um, I made like $70,000, um, from 16 to 2020. That's the most money I ever made in my life. Four years in a row. That's what I made. Now I'm making like less than half of that. I'm working salary, and I'm going to make about $34,000. Wow. Is there room for this to go up if the car market kind of trends back? Well, I'm working for a repair facility, not a car dealership anymore,

so I'm sure the car dealership is going to rebound. I'm just wondering, I mean, you can make more than that in a different career altogether with your experience. Are there options out there? I'm about an hour north of Pittsburgh. There's not a really great job market where I live. I've been looking since I got hired, to be quite honest with you, because I knew I wasn't

going to be happy sitting where I'm at. But I guess my biggest question is I want to talk today was about the money that I have and where I should, in this situation, what I should be doing with it. But before George jumps into that, I think the key about where you're going to put your money is how long-term or short-term is this situation? Right. And are you going to move? Are you going to – I'm going to use a word here that's got a clinical component to it,

and I'm not meaning that here. When we go through what you went through, which is job loss, there's some data out there that tells us that's akin to losing a loved one. And we often don't grieve it that way. We just get pissed off, and then we grind it out and have to go get another jug because we've got to eat. And when our spouse passes away, we know we've got to take some time and process and grieve this. It's hard, and it stinks, and you've got to sit in it,

and then you've got to decide what's next. And often we run, and, man, you're worth more than $34,000. And I don't mean that in a spiritual sense. No, no, I understand. It took me 34 years to get to that point,000. And I don't mean that in a spiritual sense. No, no, I understand. It took me 34 years to get to that point, though. There was many, many decades where I made $30,000, $40,000, $50,000. But those years, honestly, I disciplined myself to save money and get my house paid off. Yeah, it's incredible what you've done. Yeah, it's remarkable what you've done.

It's just going to, when the fog lifts here or when you start um leaning into okay what's this thing actually going to look like for me if you make peace with 35 grand you're a gm of a place you love it man i'll high five you all day long but george is going to talk about the investments and where to put park your money and stuff but man a lot of that's going to depend is this a temporary situation for you are you going to sell this house that you've lived in, move somewhere? No, I don't think I'm going to sell my house. I'll be honest with you. I love my home.

I love where I live. Okay. I have two elderly parents in the area. I'm probably not going to move. Okay, so that's helpful. And so you've resigned yourself. This is it. And I live in a depressed or dying community, but if I can make $35,000, I'm going to make $35,000.

I just got to figure out what's... I'm not saying that's not going to go up a little bit, but I don't think it's going to double. Okay. Okay. Okay. So let's talk about the financial aspect here. How much cash do you have?

What if I'm in $450,000? $450,000 in a savings account? Where is this? Yep. Yes. I have it in a savings account. Wow. You've done incredibly well, Jeff. Yeah, man. Way to go. You're an absolute rock star. What's in the IRA? Well, up until a couple days

ago, probably right around 100. What happened a couple of days ago? I think the market grabbed in it. I think the market took a little hit, didn't it? Yeah, a little bump. Nothing wild. I mean, you shouldn't lose half your money in there. No, no, I didn't say half, but I'm going to say probably a little less than I had last week. But, yeah, probably right around $100, Mark. Okay, and what's the house worth? $250. Awesome.

Dude, are you a millionaire? You're a millionaire, brother. Are you getting close? I'm not a millionaire. Not yet. You're getting there. Yeah, net asset. Yeah, I have some, you know, I have a, yeah, I? I'm not a millionaire. Not yet. You're getting there. Yeah, net asset. Yeah, I have some, you know, I have a, yeah, I guess I'm close.

That's awesome. Jeff, you are a millionaire. Sit in that for a second, okay? Right. You know what I mean? And you topped out at $70,000. You've bucked every trend available. What an absolute stud, man.

That's incredible. So this $450,000, I want to put it to use. I don't want it just sitting there in a savings account. Do you have any retirement options other than your IRA? I do not. Everything I just told you is what I got. I have some other small assets that add up to a little bit more cash, but I'm not planning on cashing them in unless I have to.

But I own everything. I don't own anybody. I don't own a credit card, nothing. Awesome. Well, dude, this is good news. I definitely want to put this to work and let this money grow for you so that you can have an awesome retirement. So I'm going to take advantage of every tax advantage retirement account I can before moving into taxable investments and just a general brokerage account if you're investing in index funds or mutual funds, so that you can let that money grow. I would connect with a SmartVestor Pro if you aren't already working with a financial advisor that you love that's got the heart of a teacher. And they can walk with you for your specific situation and tell you exactly where this money is going to be best put. But I don't want it sitting in a savings account for sure.

Were you just saving it up for the rainy day? Before this all happened, I was earning a decent amount of money every month on that account when I was getting almost 3% on it, but now it's getting 0.55. Yeah. Well, even 3%, if you can get 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 in good growth stock mutual funds, I'd rather you be doing that and this money can grow to a million dollars. What kind of risk level is that? Because I'll be honest with you, I'm not a good investor. I'm can grow to a million dollars. What kind of risk level is that? Because I'll be honest with you, I'm not a good investor. I'm not savvy on that at all. What kind of risk factor are you talking? Well, there's always risk, but if you're doing mutual funds, you're very diversified.

We teach four different types. Our SmartVestor pros can walk you through all of that, help you explain it, and you'll still be in control. You'll be making those decisions. Just jump on to RamseySolutions.com. Connect with one. We're rooting for you, man. You're doing well. Sorry about the job loss, but life's not over. You've got a long way to go. Way to ramsey solutions.com connect with one and we're rooting for you man you're doing well sorry about the job loss but life's not over you got a long way to go way to go man this is the ramsey show You've got a lot on your plate, a job, your home, your marriage, and your growing family.

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Open phone, 888-825-5225. Darren joins us in Alberta, Canada. Darren, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you guys doing today? Great. How can we help? So I am just starting out as a young family. I have one little kid, 22 years old, and have absolutely zero financial sort of savvy, if you know what I mean. I'd never learned how to treat money. I could have saved a ton when I was younger, but didn't.

You said you're 22? And now we're stuck living. 22, yes. Oh, you act like you were like a very old man with no time left. That's what it kind of feels like. Dude, most people wish they learned this stuff. No, you haven't started yet, brother. You're good, man.

I don't know. And that's kind of why i'm trying to turn this all around because at the moment how things are going it looks like i'll be working till i'm 80 wow well we can change that i don't want to do that why do you feel that way what's your financial situation do you have a lot of debt i unfortunately we do well actually fortunately we do not have much only about about two grand in credit cards. Just recently starting to look into the baby steps. But every time we try to get our $1,000 emergency savings put down, since it's winter with COVID, my hours are cut.

There's no work really going at the moment, so we end up cutting into it just to pay our ordinary bills. We don't eat out. We don't our ordinary bills. We don't eat out. We don't spend extra money. We don't do anything. And I've already started running DoorDash and taken on as many extra side jobs as possible just to make sure we have enough. How can we change things enough?

What do you do for a living, man? What's your day job? I run a hydrovac truck for an environmental company. You'd think it'd have a little more work, but winter has almost no work, and competition is beating us out. Yeah. So what do you make a year, man? About $40,000.

$40,000. Is that all of the household income? Yes. My wife doesn't work. We have a little boy at home. So you owe $2,000. Yeah. I managed to wheedle it down. I'd like to get rid of the credit cards entirely. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So I'm going to let George walk you through the baby steps, but I want to back out 30,000 feet, okay?

Okay. Brother, you're in a better spot than you think you are. It's cold, and it's been dark the last few months, and you sound beat down. How old's your baby? Eve's eight months. Eight months. So I want to tell you, I've got two little ones myself. You're in the season of eight months when it's exhausting.

You can't go outside because it's negative zero where you are. All of this weighs down on you. The way I hear in your voice is like you're under one of those anxiety blankets, those weighted 50- or 80-pound blankets or 40-pound blankets, and your soul has left you. You are not in bad shape financially, brother. You are way ahead of the game. I think the question you and your wife need to ask yourself is, is this where we want to live? If this is going to be their financial reality of the job I work in now. And by the way,

since I was 22, I've probably had five to six to seven different jobs a couple of different careers so you're you're good man but i want you to look at this with optimism not with it's all coming down because you're 22 man you are just getting started you only owe two grand the number of calls we get from 22 year olds who owe 100 grand is is is astronomical right so you're in a good spot i I want you to look at this through joy, not through it's all over. Is that cool? Okay.

All right. Good foundation there. So Darren, it sounds like to me that you don't have a lot of margin in your budget every month. I've actually never even made a budget. Well, today is the day, my friend. I'm going to hook you up with Ramsey Plus.

That's our year-long membership, and it's going to get you connected to every dollar, our budgeting tool. Austin will pick up after our call is over and get you connected with that. I also want you to go through the Financial Peace University videos with your wife. Do this as a family. Start budgeting, and you're going to see where your money is going because right now it sounds like you're not really sure why there's no money left at the end of the month. And so I want to know where your money's going. Because right now it sounds like you're not really sure why there's no money left at the end of the month.

And so I want to know exactly where that's going. We did crunch it all together, and we did figure out exactly how much more we would need to accomplish just the bills. Good. And you may need to pick up some extra side jobs. You may need to supplement that, find something you're good at, and go see if your neighbors need their driveway shoveled.

I mean, it can be anything. Get creative. This is not forever. It feels like it is, but this is a short rut. At the moment, I actually even make donuts on the weekend just to cover up that. Fantastic. That's awesome. At some point, you're going to have to have a hard conversation about,

is this the job for you, a job that doesn't offer any work in the wintertime? That doesn't sound tenable or sustainable. And if competition's eating your company alive it may be time for you to say okay in two years where do i want to be do i want to be a nurse practitioner in five years i want to be a nurse in two years do i want to own my own truck in three years do i want to have a mechanic whatever those things are start planning for those things now um but man there's a lot of yeah we've already done this we've already done this you gotta start this thing with your attitude brother and say sweet this is falling apart sucks now i'm on to the

next now what's gonna what's you know me what's gonna happen be there for me and my family go get it man yeah you're 22 with two grand in debt you're gonna look back at this six months from now and you're gonna be out of debt you're gonna be working on that fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses and then you're not gonna be out of debt. You're going to be working on that fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. And then you're not going to be worried about the hours and what's going to happen. You're going to have what we call financial peace. And after that, you're going to begin investing and saving for that kid's college and paying off the house early and doing all kinds of amazing things. And so I want you to dream about that future and let that vision fuel this fire where you go, you know what? I'm going to do whatever it takes right now.

I'm going to look back and say, remember when things were crazy at my job? There was no hours. We were doing whatever it took to get by. And those are the stories you're going to be able to tell your son. And so get plugged into the stuff. I'll have Austin pick up and make sure you get connected to Ramsey Plus, and that will walk with you along this journey to make sure that you know exactly what the right next step is. Perfect. Thank you for that, Darren. Good call what the right next step is. Perfect.

Thank you for that, Darren. Good call, John. Yeah, man. Man. But it is interesting that a 22-year-old guy who thought my life's over, I have two grand in debt, I thought he was going to say, I'm 64, I have nothing in retirement, I lost my job, and I have $100,000 in debt. And almost all of the time I hear somebody with that level of despair yeah there's

there's life circumstances going on somebody's marriage is in trouble someone's got an eight month to hold and they're in the doldrums of winter in canada right whatever it may be and it's easy to see a little roadblock block a little speed bump as this giant mountain and it's just not you just got to back out far enough and go all right man i thought this was going to be it i'm 22 dude i was a high school coach when i was 22 and since then now i have a youtube show i mean who knows where this thing's going yeah uh but you got to get out there and hustle and you got to say all right this isn't working this ship has got a hole in it so i got to get another boat and go find another job yeah and that's a great reminder

for anyone listening because no matter what age you are you always feel like it's too late for me. Right. Right? And I mean, I'm 42 and I just lost my job. Or I'm 18 and I don't know what I want to do with my life. It's all over. It's not. It's never too late to take control.

It's not over. 62, start over again. Yep. Start over again. 72, start over again. Just keep getting back up. Keep getting back up. Keep getting back up.

Good reminders there. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, Ramsey personality and host of the Find Brent Podcast. Joined today by my friend, Dr. John Deloney, host of The Dr. John Deloney Show. Both of those shows you can find on the Ramsey Network or wherever podcasts are found. Open phones this hour. It's a free call, 888-825-5225. Let's talk about your money, your life, your relationships, your career, whatever keeps you up at night, your fears, your dreams, your nightmares.

John is not afraid to go there, and he will. Let's go to Josh in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Josh, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, gentlemen. Thanks a lot for having me. Absolutely. How can we help? Talking about your fears in life, so I feel like it's a great introduction here. Perfect. Bring it on. Come on, dude. I'm active duty army. My wife and I, the two kids are stationed at Fort Bragg and we're brand new to starting financial peace.

We started about Christmas the last year. And I felt like we've always been financially savvy. But until starting your course and figuring out that I've got a negative net worth, that was pretty revealing. Josh, first, man, brother, thank you for blessing me and my family with your service. I'm grateful for you. And, dude, I remember distinctly one of my best friends in the world. His name's Todd. He's a banker

when he did my net worth with me and it was negative and he laughed so hard he almost threw up he was laughing so hard i was in disbelief man i remember that moment man it's a good friend i'm pretty good i'm pretty good nope not well hey that's step one that's right that's right that's right you're doing great so what's your circumstance brother yeah so um we just started financial peace christmas well november of last year um i bought a 2022 toyota 4runner attaboy they always make the bad decision right before they join i love it okay right before we're right? It's about a $47,000 truck. I financed 37 and I had 20,000 in the bank. And so of course, very first thing after we started doing financial peace, also my wife was pretty apprehensive about it. I threw all but a thousand dollars at it. And so I only, I've got 17,000 remaining on it. Now the, where, where things get a little

bit scary or sketchy for me is, um, I've got, uh, a pending religious exemption, um, with, with this COVID vaccine. And, uh, the threat is looming that they're going to separate those of us that get denied exemptions in June or July. And so I'm paying off right now about $3,200 a month towards this truck. Our net take home is about $5,300 a month. So at $17,000 owed on this, I can have it paid off in about five and a half months, or should I sell the truck and I could get about $32,000 in pocket by a $12,000, you know, get from point A to point B? Hold on. You can only get 32 grand for this truck?

I guarantee you can get more than that. Guaranteed. No, no, sorry. Maybe I didn't express the numbers right. So if I can sell it for 50, or even sell it where I bought it at. There you go. Yeah. You'll saying you'll net $32,000. Exactly. I'll net $32,000. And then what I spend, let's say $10,000, $12,000 on a vehicle that's safe for my family. And then I've got back to having $20,000 back in the bank for our three

to six month emergency fund. If you get separated at June and July, are you going to lose this income? Yes, and that's where things are scary for us because, I mean— What's your household income? So right now, well, I make gross $5, 5400 but we live on base so i bring in uh 3500 because they take away your your housing yeah your housing pay right this car feels like it's a large part of your world net worth income the car yeah yeah and that's the point it's like i mean i i feel the whole reason we bought this vehicle is because you you know, I've tinkered around on $8,000, $10,000, $12,000 vehicles.

And my wife's like, hey, I'm tired of driving these. And so, you know, I just finished a special operations training here. And so I'm thinking, oh, man, I just rode the bus straight to entitlement and was like, yeah, I deserve this nice truck. And now I've got a 40-star truck. There is no group of people that I know of that are more awesome, more brilliant, and make more ridiculous car choices than my friends who are in the service.

And you know that, dude. At least you didn't get a Jeep with big tires. You want the family car, so good for you. Josh, let's skip to the good stuff, Josh. Sell the truck, man. Yeah, I want to take what might happen in June or July off the table. Okay?

Okay. That's clouding this thing. You might lose your income, and there's a reality to that. And if you think in any job, for any reason, that, hey, come summer, I might be out of a job, then obviously you need to be doing what's best for you and your family. Like, what's that going to look like? How am I going to earn a living? All that.

Let's take that off the table right now. George just nailed it. This is too much car for your household income right now, whether you had this or not. You got a $50,000 car and a $60,000 income. It's too much as is. So I would tell you to sell it. If you told me I got into Special Ops team, I'm going to get deployed, but I'm going to be there for the rest of my life. And making $65,000, I would tell you to sell it. If you told me, I got into special ops team, I'm going to get deployed, but I'm going to be there for the rest of my life and make it 65 grand, I would tell you to sell the car anyway.

And I know your wife doesn't want to keep driving that. I get that. It's just that y'all have a dollar amount situation that you got to deal with. A reality. You got to think about it this way. You said you're tired of driving the car, but you're about to be tired of being broke, man. And I'd much rather you be tired of driving the car. And so make a good

decision for your family. One day, it can be your goal to get that car again when it makes sense for your income and your family. But right now, you've got a mess to clean up. Appreciate your service, man. Appreciate you, brother. All right. Let's go to Amy in Dallas, Texas. Amy, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, guys. How are you? Great. How can we help? So I am in Baby Step 7. Awesome. 32 years old. So, George, I'm about to finish. Boom.

We're in the same boat. You're incredible. Yeah, and so now I have seven brothers and sisters, and I'm second to the youngest. And so I'm trying to figure out how do I get them to take my advice? If you figure this out, Amy, you'll be a billionaire. Yeah. The short answer is you don't.

And I can tell you that. My oldest sister, shout out, Melissa. Good job. But my oldest sister, I got her Dave's latest book, Baby Step Millionaires. And she said every dollar app has been a lifesaver. And she's now got her husband on board. So I'm so happy. So ecstatic.

But the rest of them are a little more hardheaded. And my adult nieces and nephews, I think I can convince them if I get them the teen stuff that you guys offer but i want everyone in my family to just be able to feel how life-changing it is to be financially free and be able to do whatever you want so amy they dave's talked about this his he's got a number of family members that that don't even do this program and i've got family members that i've bought the books for and they don't do the program. So the reality is you can't, you can't be responsible for extended family members taking, feeling the peace and joy that you have. What you can be responsible for is you living that out every single day.

So they're around you. They see the kind of peace you have. They see the good decisions you're making and you hope that people go, Hey, I want some of that. What is that? And then you've got a copy of total money makeover or baby step millionaires. You can hand them and then say, if you want to know more, let me know. Right. Yeah. I mean, you've got to lead by example and they've got to get to a point where they're in so much financial pain. They go, well, Amy has so much peace. I'm just going to,

all right, fine. Like they're going to give in eventually maybe. And maybe they don't. Maybe they don't. Maybe they live their whole life and they never follow this stuff. And you got to love them regardless. That's how family is. And I'm in the same boat. I've got family members who I'm like, oh my gosh, how are they not doing this stuff?

Right. But the best thing I can do is just lead by example and be encouraging to them and their situation and only offer help when they ask for it. But me going to my family, giving them unsolicited advice about their financial situation, like they're not calling into the show. They're not interested in my advice. Right? So you are amazing, and they're going to look down and go, wow, 32 years old with a paid-for house.

If Amy did it, maybe I can too. Exactly. I'm going to ask her how she did that. And that's the key. There's no magic sauce. Keep plugging along. Keep plugging along. But if you figure it out, how to convince everyone around you to do this stuff.

Holler at me. We'll write a book. We will write a book together. I love it. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, host of the Fine Print Podcast, season one available now on Ramsey Network and wherever you listen to podcasts. Joined today by Dr. John Deloney, who does his show way more often.

Are you guys like three shows a week now, John? Yep, we're running and gunning, man. Wow. Well, I'm enjoying it. Team's doing a great job. You're doing a great job helping people. This is more long-form mental health, relationships, boundaries, a lot of things that we touch on on the show, but you go deep with callers.

Yeah. And I love the way you do it. You do it with humor. Just the format allows for a little bit longer conversation, but yeah, we love it, man. So check that out on YouTube or podcast, wherever you like to check out that stuff. We're going to the phones now. Free call, 888-825-5225. Miriam joins us in Sacramento.

Miriam, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, gentlemen. I have a question surrounding what I need to do or what would be the best financial thing to do with regarding home purchase. My husband unexpectedly passed away three months ago. Oh, man. So sorry. Miriam, I'm so sorry. Thank you. He was 57. What did he pass away from? A heart attack. Oh, my goodness gracious.

I'm so sorry. I'm going to be 53 next month. We had already planned on, we both had pensions at our company, and we had already planned on retiring at the end of this year. And we were going to be actually moving to East Tennessee, as a matter of fact. And we had set ourselves up financially for that and with pensions and 401ks and whatnot. However, now I'm in a situation where I do want to still continue that plan, although now I want to move it up by a couple of months. So right now I'm thinking probably September-ish timeframe. And my question is, because now I have approximately $650,000 in life insurance and both of our 401ks, which I realize I can't touch all of mine now because of

my age, but I am trying to figure out if it is a better financial sense to go ahead and purchase a home in Tennessee with, you know, some of that money. And that way I don't have a contingency when I go to sell my home in California or wait and go ahead and sell, you know, in the summer, early fall timeframe, use the equity from my home, which I estimate to be somewhere around 350 to 400K and then use that to purchase a home in Tennessee at that point. What's the rush? What's here in Tennessee? The rush, well, for one, I just want to retire, which was what we were, like I said, planning on doing this year anyway. Sure.

We were both ready. But what's in Tennessee? We were going to wait. Tennessee is closer to where I grew up in Indiana. Okay. But it's also where two of my, one daughter and son-in-law are planning on going, and they have grandkids, or I have grandkids, they have the children, so then that way I'll be close to them.

Okay, so I'm going to say some things that are hard, okay? Is that okay? Yes. Okay. So, man, obviously the love of your life passes away suddenly at 57. I mean, the devastation there is clear, right? And we all experience that. What most will blow by and I know is weighing on you heavily is y'all had plans.

Yep, we did. Like y'all breathe the same air. How long were y'all had plans. Yep, we did. Like, y'all breathe the same air. How long were y'all married? 18 years married, 20 together. There you go. So, I mean, you were together for two decades. So he's an arm and a leg of yours at this point, and vice versa.

And y'all had plans. And the decoupling, that loss and that grief and that I'm the heartbroken. I've lost my life partner. I've lost half of me is one thing. And then having to do the hard work of saying we had plans together, but what are my plans going to be going forward? And what I've seen over the past two decades is people will try to continue the plan that, quote, unquote, we had. And then get somewhere and realize this isn't what I want to do with the back half of my life. And you're only halfway done, sister, right? Right. You're halfway done and so the the generic common wisdom i tell anybody is don't do

anything for six to nine months or a year just sit the what's complex about that is you live in california i know you want to leave and i want to high five you there too right so it's it's a little bit faster you telling me hey i've got grandkids i'd want to make sure they're going to move there before i packed up and you know what i mean so there's a lot of moving variables that man we can go all in when it's both of us because even if the kids don't show up forget you guys we live in east tennessee it's beautiful it's cool we don't have income tax if you're now moving because they they're probably going to move there or maybe or you see what i'm saying oh i get it i get it

they are moving they've actually made the decision that even if they don't transfer with the same um company system that they're currently in and i'm in they're going anyway and it's largely due to obviously the state of the state of california um and what's being shoved down all of our throats so so why not move next month it's just a matter of when. Oh, yeah, no. And so I should have qualified for this. I should have said that I'm not looking to do this immediately right now.

I'm looking to wait and make my decision until probably April, May-ish. And the reason for that is because my son-in-law will be finding out around that time if he is able to go ahead and move to our sister company there. Okay. But, again, they're still going to go regardless. My thing, too, with moving out of California is when I moved here from Indiana, I never planned on staying more than a year or two, but I got into a retirement system that has been going to be very lucrative for me, but I have not wanted to stay here for the 30 years I've been

here. I've been itching to get out. And now I'm finally at that point where I'm old enough to retire, mostly due to my husband with military pension and, you know, just regular pension and that sort of thing. So I'm blessed in that sense. But I'm ready. I've been ready to go. We were ready to go, but I've been ready longer than him because I've been in California longer, not wanting to be here. That makes sense. I love it. I love it. So Mike, George, speaking of this, I would take that life insurance money and park it in a simple index fund. If you're going to buy a house over the next six months, I would sit it right there. I would love to see you sell your house and take that equity to buy a house instead of holding two houses and have something happen in the interim.

Yeah, exactly. I would wait until your plans are more firm, sell the house. I would use the equity. And with the life insurance money, like John's saying, I would invest that with index funds or you can work with a smart investor pro and they can walk with you through the best way to invest that money so that life insurance is made so that you can live off of that money in case something happens. And so we want to make sure it's invested wisely so that you could peel a certain percentage off of that every year and use that to supplement your income so that you can have a great retirement if that's your plan. But you have an automatic draw out of his 401s and whatnot, right? Currently, I'm only receiving his pension because as it stands right now,

because I'm still working 100% time, I make enough that I don't have to dip into any of that. Great. And that's with a mortgage in California. So when I go to Tennessee and effectively have no mortgage, I'm not going to have to touch the 401s or life insurance or anything. So you'll just live off the pension. So that may change it.

If you get some firm plans here in a couple of months with your in-laws, I mean in your kids, then yeah, if you've got the pension set up to where you're living off that money and you want to go ahead and buy it, I'd be okay with that if you've got this steady income stream coming through. And I would do it with cash. You have the money. I would purchase a home in cash when you do decide to move. And with that life insurance being invested, it's still a wise idea. And with that 401k, you may want to look at rolling that over to an IRA so that you have some control over that. So I would work with a financial advisor just to walk with you through this process

and make sure that the legacy that you guys have built with this money is well spent, well taken care of, well invested. Yeah, we absolutely love you and we'll be with you every step of the way here. So don't hesitate to call us back. I would love to see you the next three months. Start dreaming about what do I, Miriam, want this to look like.

And that's going to be hard and heartbreaking and grief-filled, but also beautiful and optimistic and joy-filled as you begin to turn that new corner of what the rest of your life is going to be. Heartbreaking stuff. Yeah. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to Ben running the board today, Austin phone screening, and Kelly Daniels, our producer. We'll be back with you before you know it. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life?

Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.