The Ramsey Show - App - I'm 25 with $172,000 in Car Debt...What Do I Do? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 10, 2019

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Music Music 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. Thanks for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Matthew is with us in San Angelo, Texas. Hi, Matthew. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you, Dave. Sure. How can I help? Okay. So I'm absolutely nervous about this. That's okay. So I'm 25 years old and I have getting up there to about $200,000 in debt, zero of its student loan and zero of its home mortgage. It is literally all in vehicles.

Okay. It is vehicles and personal loans, just unsecured debt completely. And I don't know what step to take to get out of this right now. All right. And so you said you're 25 years old. Yes. What's your household income? It's right under, it's about $180,000 a year.

Cool. What do you do for a living? Uh, I'm a pumper in the oil field. So I just make sure that oil and gas comes up whenever it's supposed to. Mm-hmm. And what are the, what are the vehicles that you've got a hundred and, uh, something, almost 200, how much totaled at exactly? It's about 172,000. Okay.

And so what do you owe that on on what kind of cars or vehicles is this um it's well one of them is a camper so i guess that's not really a vehicle but anyway um how much do you owe how much do you owe on the camper 15,000 okay all right give me another one okay then i've got a toyota tundra that i owe 20,000 on actually 19 but um and then i've got a toyota tundra that i owe 20 000 on actually 19 but um and then i've got a um chevy silverado that i owe uh 32 and then i've got a nissan ultima that i owe 30 and then there is a dodge Grand Caravan that I owe $25,000. Mm-hmm. And then there's also a trailer that we owe $21,000 on. You're married?

Yes. Yes, sir. Okay. Does your wife work outside the home? She actually, we own a restaurant in addition to this, and she takes care of all the stuff that goes on there. Mm-hmm. Okay. And how many kids do y'all have? We have two and one on the way. Okay. And what ages are they?

Four. One is about to turn a year in two weeks, and the other one is like a month. Not, hasn't even been born, so it's like I'm growing. Gotcha. Okay. So you have two adults and one, two, three, four, five cars. Yes, sir. Why? So one of the trucks is for the work. It's my biggest tool. It's the primary thing that I have to use whenever I work out here, you know.

Which one is that? That's going to be a Chevy. The Silverado? Yes, sir. Okay. And so you need a truck to go on the job site. Yes. But there's no rule that said it had to be a $30,000 truck.

There is no rule that says it has to be a $30,000 truck. All right. And why else do you have five vehicles and two drivers? Okay. So the Tundra, I was convinced, which I've been convinced now, otherwise, after listening to you, that I don't need this truck. It's actually a backup truck. In case the Silverado goes down, I'll have something that I can work in.

I'm still in the 30 days with the Tundra, so I'm going to take this one back. I'm going to get this one back. Okay. So, yeah. All right. And then the other one was the Nissan Altima, and we had two kids at the time. And then the Dodge Van Caravan, we just stopped because we found out we were having another Okay, so what does your wife need to drive?

The Dodge Grand Canyon. Okay. So if you kept the Silverado and the Dodge and sold everything else, what would be wrong with that plan? I really don't think there is anything wrong with that plan. I don't know how to sell something that I have a loan out on. I'm not sure how that all works. Okay.

Well, you can talk to one of these 19 dealers that have been selling you cars left and right. You have a car addiction. Yeah, yeah. So, but here's the thing. Let's just take an example, okay? Let's say the Toyota that you owe $21,000 on. Let's pretend it's sold for $16,000. You'd need $5,000 with the $16,000 to have $21,000 to give to the bank so that you could get the title.

Okay? And the way it works in most states, and you can check there in Texas and see how it's done when an individual sells a used car. But in most states, what happens is if I'm buying the car from you, you give me a bill of sale, the keys to the car, and I drive off with your car and i give you sixteen thousand dollars you take that 16 plus five that you've saved up and you hand the bank 21 they send you the title you sign it and send it to me okay that's how the mechanics work in most states but check with one of your dealer friends there you got lots of dealer friends and they'll teach you how to get rid of these cars and you can get them sold and that'll get rid of most everything you'd be down to fifty thousand dollars in cars uh and you making 180 you ought to be able to pay that off really really fast if you leaned on it couldn't you yeah yeah

we yeah we don't really do much of the saving thing we're kind of frivolous sinners yeah you're you're frivolous on cars for sure yeah you're i never i never heard anybody you guys have an addiction it's crazy so yeah you got it's killing you man you got more cars than i've you know wow so anyway you get rid of them and then we got fifty thousand dollars worth of car debt on the dodge and the and the silverado if you want to keep them, and then we've got $50,000 worth of car debt on the Dodge and the Silverado. If you want to keep them, you can afford to get them paid off. And you say, okay, $4,000 a month is $48,000 a year. That'll just about pay them off in a year.

Yeah. Get yourself on a written budget and say, we're going to put $4,000 a month on cars, and we're going to be completely debt-free. We're selling everything else, and we're not going to buy anything else ever unless a we pay cash for it and b we get rid of the other one yeah you don't keep a spare on stuff that goes down in value and you make enough money to save up and pay cash for a different truck or a different car or if you had a problem i mean let's say the silverado went down well you go rent a car go rent a truck for a week or two you can afford it yep yeah i can you know and so

yeah and you just you know but but when you're driving a silverado a nice on a construction site, that's a good way to get it torn up anyway. So I probably wouldn't be driving a truck that nice just because it's not practical. But it doesn't hurt anything. You can afford to screw up $30,000 worth of truck. You cannot afford to screw up $172,000 worth, which is why you're calling me. You start to kind of wake up and go, this is starting to look weird. Because it is. It's like a car addiction.

Yeah, sell it all, baby. Sell it all. Get yourself out of debt. This is the Dave RamZ Show. We've been voted one of the best places to work in Nashville 11 times. You want to know how we do it? Well, our team has been using LinkedIn jobs for years to find the best people from all over the country to come and help us change lives. Think about it. LinkedIn has more than 600 million active members. I'm talking about people who come to LinkedIn to make connections, grow their

careers, and discover new job opportunities. In fact, 90% of LinkedIn users are open to new opportunities, but not actively scanning job boards. This means LinkedIn Jobs gives you access to an entirely different demographic. Don't wait. One hire can change the direction of your company. Post a job today at linkedin.com slash Ramsey and get $50 off your first job post. That's linkedin.com slash Ramsey. Terms and conditions apply. Thank you for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We're glad you are here. Cliff is with us in Columbia. Hi, Cliff. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We're glad you are here. Cliff is with us in Columbia.

Hi, Cliff. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks. Hi, Dave. Hi. How can I help? First of all, I want to say thank you. Appreciate everything you do for everyone.

Thank you. I hate to think of where I've been 17, 18 years ago had I known about you, but right now my wife wants to retire, and we have three rental properties. Our house is paid off. Cars are paid off. No debt. Anyway, we do owe on the rentals, and I think we're going to move once she does retire.

So I thought I heard you say do not keep rentals through a long-distance rental situation. So, anyway, I do have enough money to pay off at least one of the rentals. And so I didn't know if I should do that or hang on to that money to make a move or to repair the deck on the home that we would sell. Just want your thoughts on all that. Okay, so you're going to move from Columbia, Missouri to where when you retire? We're going to start exploring that here in the fall, possibly down your way or Alabama somewhere, something like that.

Okay, all right. And so your home is worth what? I would guess minimum $180,000. Okay. And how much is in your nest egg in your retirement funds? Let's see. I got about $220,000 in a 401K, and she has $165,000-ish. another 100k in cash and other retirement funds. Good.

She is 10 years older than me, so I would have to continue working. I'm just trying to figure out. Also, on that, the minimum, everyone tells me I just need to pay for health insurance, but... What do you make now? Oh, together we make about... No, what do you make? She's going to retire.

Oh, about 45. What do you do? Work in a casino. And how old are you? I am 53. Okay. So what do you want to do for the next 20 years? Still trying to figure that out, actually.

Okay. Well, I think where you're going to move and what you're going to do with your life will play into the equation, okay? But I don't see you not working for 20 years from 43 to 63. How old is she? She will be 64 at the end of this year. Okay. Well, I mean, easy enough because you start a small business of some kind and make 40 or 50 or 100 or whatever and control your own time so you could travel some with her or some stuff like that

but not working for 25 years or 20 years at your age is kind of silly really i mean you you got to produce something and so um anyway so the house that's 180 is paid for right correct okay and the rentals uh rental number one what is owed on it? About $32,000. What's it worth? $75,000, $80,000 maybe. Okay, so that's like $35,000. And the rental number two, what's it worth?

The other two I bought together. So I have them under one mortgage payment, basically. But anyway, I owe about, I think, $75 on those. Depending on the payer, and what are they worth? I would say $180. The total of them? Correct. $90 each. Okay. All right. So you got $180 coming out of your house. You sell these rentals. You got 135 coming out of that. What price range home do you think you guys would buy when you move?

Oh, I would probably stay in just the two of us. So I was looking under 150 anyway, maybe. Okay. You got about $300,000 in your pocket after you sell all the property. Okay. Okay, you got about $300,000 in your pocket after you sell all the property. Okay, and you pay cash for $150,000 and you buy some rentals in the area for cash that you are going to live. Okay. That's what I would do. And I would use some of your $100,000 to fix up the house and fix up all of them, get them all ready to sell, and get them all sold once you are ready to execute your plan.

There's no rush because you don't have your plan figured out your plan has to include where you're going to live and what you're going to do with your career after she retires but once you determine those things if i'm in your shoes i'm just going to liquidate all of it and go pay cash for my home and with whatever cash i got left after that i'll buy some other rentals that I pay cash for, and you would have zero debt, and the rental would be in your area. You probably won't have three. You might have one, but that's okay. It'd be paid for.

Right, right. And you can save up and buy another one for cash later if you want. Okay. Yeah, you know, build a real estate portfolio, but in the area that you're going to spend the next quarter century of your life, the next 25 years plus. And, you know, so this is a you don't want to be running back and forth from Alabama to Columbia, Missouri for the next 25 years managing three little houses. That just drive you nuts, man. And so now you're much better off. I just liquidate all of it and move the money if I were in your shoes.

So, good question. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You might also get a little tax analysis done and see what your basis is, your adjusted basis on these properties. And you might want to do a 1031 tax-deferred exchange on the rentals. And that could, you know, moving the money from those into another rental and not pay any capital gains tax will be a really, really nice thing.

And a 1031 would help you do that. Haley's with us in Lubbock, Texas. Hey, Haley, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? All right. So, first on caller, we recently completed Baby Step 2.

Good. Yeah, so that's really exciting. A little bit of a back story before I ask my question is my husband and I own a remodeling company. About five years now, going pretty good. the backstory before I ask my question is my husband and I own a remodeling company about five years now going pretty good. Um, I have a day job as a property manager and makes decent money, but I really am sick of dealing with tenants and I'm about to do my real estate license and sit for the exam. So what my question is, is we're about to come into a pretty good lump sum of money and we're wanting to spend it wisely.

So I have two plans. I want to complete Baby Step 3 and then get a good start on Baby Step 4. Good. Or I want to quit my day job, have a year's worth of living expenses, and just launch my real estate career and focus on our business. What do you make at your day job? $35,000. Okay. How much money are you coming into?

$28,000. Okay. All right. And how much of that will be gone when we do Baby Step 3? Because we're definitely going to do that before we talk about anything. Right. I want to set aside $12,000. Okay.

So then that leaves us sixteen thousand dollars you make 35 that gives you 16 or that gives you six months to get started right and then i want to put a healthy chunk of that into retirement you can't do all of it you can't do all yeah if you put a healthy chunk into retirement it's going to delay your ability to go do this uh real estate gig okay because when you quit you know when you you're going to make nothing for a while. Right. Like six months. Yeah, six months of your income is, oddly enough, $17,500,

which is about what's left over after you fund your emergency fund. Okay, so you're saying do my emergency fund, hold off on retirement. Hold that money for your transition. The other thing you can limit, and if you have money left, let's say you start making money at four months instead of six. Well, you got some money left. Then you would plunk that over into a Roth at that time. But up until then, I would hold that money as my transition to real estate fund and go ahead and get your licensing. Make sure you probably have a real estate license if you're managing a property. But make sure all your stuff's lined up before you make the leap and stop your income

so that you can go into making money as soon as possible. Do you know who is a prime target for identity theft? Your children. Kids have no debts or credit history. Their personal information is just as easy to get, but the theft could go completely undetected for years. Every day all over the country, young adults are starting down their own path in life by opening a bank account or renting their first apartment, only to find out that they somehow already have credit card debt, a mortgage, or even a criminal record. It's devastating,

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Hi, Jack. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for having me, Dave. Pleasure to speak with you. You too. How can I help? I'm wondering if it would make sense for us to downgrade our house and sell to get something a little bit cheaper in order to be debt-free and have roughly our three months emergency fund. We've been on the plan for a couple years and made some progress,

but it just feels like it remains tight every month, and I'm wondering if we should make a move to kind of get rid of baby steps one, two, and three. Is the house what's causing it to be tight? I believe so. What's the house payment? We're accelerated biweekly, so it's $1,273 per payment. It works out to about $2,750 a month. And what's your take-home pay a month?

On average, it varies between about $6,500 to $7,000. Okay. Well, the biweekly's increased it a little, but not that much. And so your house payment's about 40% of your take-home pay. Yes, that's what my calculation was roughly. Yeah, that's not sustainable even if you were debt-free. Right, yeah. So, you know, if you called me up, you said,

I'm debt-free with an emergency fund, but I can't seem to get ahead because I have a house payment that's 40% of my take-home pay i would say you probably have too much house is your income shooting up to where this is going to self-correct uh not drastically it'll continue to go up it's commission sales um so it's a month's variance some can be a bit higher and there is some lump some payments with commission bonuses yeah but i mean like as you're in you're in commissions. You control your results. Is it going to double in two years? Probably not, no.

Okay. Because really, I mean, if you're going to be around this income for an extended period of time, this house doesn't fit. Yeah. And it's not necessarily I'm selling the house to get you out of debt or I'm selling the house to move forward. I'm selling the house because you bought a house you can't fit. Yeah. And it's not necessarily I'm selling the house to get you out of debt or I'm selling the house to move forward. I'm selling the house because you bought a house you can't afford. Yeah.

That's what I'm asking you. You just can't. It's very difficult to win financially with a house payment of 40% of your income. That's why we recommend you keep it down around 25, because that gives you wiggle room to do the other things of life. Investing for your retirement, your kid's college, staying away from debt, saving up, paying cash for cars and couches and trips and so forth. But, I mean, you guys are house poor. That house is eating your lunch every month.

Yeah, I'd probably sell it. Trevor is with us in Utah. Hi, Trevor. How are you? Hey, good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

Okay, so I've got, sorry, I'm nervous here. It's okay. So about two years ago, my mom gave me a financial aid to University. I went to a class with her. And then from then, I met my wife. We got married. Two weeks after that, she started chemotherapy due to cancer. And so I put off school, same with her.

And then so that was now last year. We're about a year past that since. We had to move into her parents' house just due to financial circumstances. But during that time, we happened to pay off about $10,000 of my debt. But now that we're moved out, her parents gave her a car before I married her. They pay the payments on it, but they will give the title to us once it's paid off. But they're right now asking for help paying it down.

But at the same time, in six months, or excuse me, a year, we're wanting to move out and do an internship for her and how is your wife's how's your wife's health now she's good she's finally doing good back to normal so the cancer is in remission yeah we every three months she goes up into checkups um but so far so good cool. And so what do you make a year?

Let's see, $15 an hour I do part-time because I'm back in school full-time. So I make about $700 a paycheck. What are you studying? Automotive technician. When will you graduate? In six months. Okay. And what does she do and what does she make?

Right now she's a manager for a vacation rental property. She makes about the same but on a full-time 40-hour week. She makes $700 a full-time? No, excuse me. She does $15 an hour for $40 a week. Okay. But that will change because she will be going back to school in august so she'll be kind of back to part-time uh same pay as me right now does that make sense um and what is she going back to school for uh digital design okay and And how are you guys going to afford for her to go back to school?

You're broke. We both are getting a Pell Grant, and we get about $1,000 extra from that leftover. And she has a scholarship from that, from the school. How old are you two? I'm 23, and she's 22. What does her parents owe on what does your parent her parents owe on this car it's right now uh fourteen thousand dollars it's a car you can't afford

yeah so i would tell them to sell the car okay um do you have any suggestions on how to bring that up with them uh i we we make no money we are broke um we're both in school we're 23 we can't afford a 14 000 car we really wish you would sell it okay yeah i can't i can't imagine paying payments on anything right now we're on you know what a pell grant is yeah i know it's for poor people yeah they don't drive fourteen thousand dollar cars you're right okay and so you don't qualify for a pell grant if you have a fourteen thousand dollar car and um and you shouldn't so the car needs to go away You guys need to get a beater car. The good news is you know how to work on cars.

And so six months. I'm not sure how you guys are going to eat for the first. I think she needs to put off school until spring and let you get out of school and start making some money. Matter of fact, I know she does. Yeah. And you guys need to get you a little one bedroom apartment and start your lives off now that the cancer is behind you. And you need to arrange your finances in such a way that you're being responsible. And that's an inexpensive, paid-for car, a couple thousand bucks, one-bedroom apartment.

She delays school until you get your six months done. And then you make some pretty serious money as an auto mechanic and support her while she's going through school and um you can support the family while she's going through school and then when she comes out with her digital design both of you have a good income at that point you're going to be doing very well but you've got to work towards systematically towards hitting these goals and uh that's what it amounts to. And you can work on your debts as you go along,

but just don't be adding any debts to it. You have to pay cash for her school. It's the only possible way. Hope that helps you, sir. Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. It is what we do here.

It's common sense. Living on less than you make. Living on less than you make. Living on a written plan. No one accidentally wins the Super Bowl, and no one accidentally becomes wealthy. Wealthy people starting from nothing don't wake up and go whoa i'm a millionaire how'd that happen it's a series of intentional acts very thought through

matter of planning laying out your life and saying this is where i'm going and this is how i'm going to get there living on less than you make, living on a plan, staying out of debt, having money saved, being outrageously generous. These are the formulas for a great life. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Well, if you want to learn how to work these baby steps and get out of debt once and for all,

so that you can build wealth, so that you can be outrageously generous, the number one best-selling book that has been on the best-seller list virtually for almost 20 years now, it's on the best-seller list again this week, is The Total Money Makeover. It is the roadmap. It is the roadmap. It is the plan. It shows you how to do the seven baby steps. It's the baby steps on steroids. Every detail.

We've got it on sale right now at DaveRamsey.com for $15.99. The Total Money Makeover. It gets to the heart of the money problems. It gets to the heart of the money problems. He gets to the heart of the money solutions. You. You're the problem with your money. That's the bad news. The good news is you're the solution.

Just go to DaveRamsey.com, TotalMoneyMakeover1599, or call Ramsey Concierge Team at 888-22-PEACE, 888-227-3223. Noel is with us in Los Angeles. Hey, Noel, how are you? How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? I came across you about a month ago, and I've been listening to you religiously on YouTube.

I have to thank you for the work you do. Well, thank you. What I've realized is that over the past year or so, I was actually unknowingly kind of doing your program. I downsized a lot, got rid of an expensive truck. I've owned a business for the past four or five years that in the last two years began to kind of tank. But about nine months ago, I started working for another company and sales in a different industry. I started making money again.

I also got married, and I got a kid on the way. All right, good for you. Yeah. And in this new company, actually, I got promoted after about eight months to a manager position. Wow. But to my surprise, two days later, after signing the offer letter, I got fired. So now I'm at a crossroads and I I'm kind of getting myself back out there. Why did you get fired?

Yeah, yeah, it's kind of a weird thing, right? I mean, I got an offer letter. I got promoted by the VP and went through three different interviews, two different personality tests, interviewed with like seven different people, and signed the offer letter. And then I was going to become the fourth sales manager. And I guess the other three didn't want me to be part of their crew. But basically I was told that I can't be trusted and the decision had been made.

So I felt like it was a moot point to argue. Wow. They clearly, yeah, yeah, completely blindsided me. So what kind of an industry was that in? They do outdoor remodeling. It's a pretty big company, $100 million company, and it's completely unrelated to my business. So what are you doing for a living?

What are you going to do? So, you know, I did get a severance package. I do have a little bit of a runway. But now I'm at the crossroad where do I revisit my old business and relaunch it now with, you know, a couple years of wisdom and experience? Because I was very dumb as a young guy. You know, I had people involved in the business that I shouldn't have. And we were able to see great success in the first couple of years,

probably more than we should have. What kind of a business? In the coffee, specialty coffee importing and wholesaling and branding and marketing. My family, they're all coffee farmers in Latin America, so I just kind of put my American connections together. How old are you? I'm 30 years old. Okay.

All right. And how quick do you think you can start making money if you jump back in the coffee business? Well, that's the thing. I need to inject about $50,000 worth of capital into it. Why? Well, because I guess I have business on hand that I could grab, but that's the cost of acquisition, if you could imagine. No, I can't imagine. I don't understand.

You're buying business? Yeah. So the model that I had tons of success is that I supplied companies with their break rooms, like big companies, tech companies, with the machinery and high-end coffee on a regular basis. And so in order to get those accounts that are probably worth $100,000, even a couple hundred thousand dollars a year, I have to put up the investment of the cost of machinery. And you think you have all those accounts just laying there to just pick up just like that? No, I don't think so, but I think I could get some.

How much money do you have? On hand, I probably have like $14,000. Okay, and your severance package is that? That's it? Pretty much. They still owe me some commissions, probably totaling to about $8,000. Okay. Well, you don't have $50,000, so you can't do that. No, I don't. Oh, the deal.

Right, so the question is, do I borrow it? Do I look for a partner? No. No, you take the money that you've got and you go get some. What we've had real success doing is you're used to hunting elephants. Elephants are more rare, and they're harder to kill. You need to hunt rabbits. There's lots of them, and they're easier to kill.

So go get you some small accounts and get those making money. Then take the money from those and then reinvest into your business and get some more accounts. And then get you some more accounts, and then get you some more accounts. I'd rather you have gradually built and have 25 small accounts rather than one large one that you went into debt to create. Right. It's a better business model anyway because you're more diversified among your customer base. That's right, yeah.

And then if you wanted to pick off a big one later after you've got some money flowing and you got some money in your account to buy the machines that's fine but we don't have to start with one or two large businesses that create they take fifty thousand dollars that you don't have you got fourteen right i wait if fifty thousand will create you two hundred thousand or a hundred thousand dollars in50,000 will create you $200,000 or $100,000 in income, $14,000 will create a pretty good income. Yeah. So take the money that you've got, and let's go get some smaller customers that are easier to find anyway. And let's get them going and get the cash flowing so that you get the wolf away from your door.

I've got a feeling you can start making money pretty quick, but just, you know, go at the speed of cash. No debt and no partners. Okay. You can do it. It's just a slower methodology, but it's a much more stable business model that will allow you to win. So hold on.

I'm going to send you a copy of our book, Entree Leadership, which is our Super Bowl playbook of how we've run this business from starting just like you did in my 20s on a card table in my living room to where we are today, a major national brand, several hundred million dollars a year in revenues. And so we'll show you how we do that. It's the whole Entree Leadership movement of small business people, and the best-selling book is the cornerstone of it, and we will send you a copy of it.

Hey, congratulations on the baby on the way. It looks like you've got lots of wonderful things right in front of you. Yeah, go run you a business, man. That's what we need right now. Open phones at 888-825-5225 we're glad you're here uh melissa is on twitter any suggestions on how to tell your adult child that financing a dog is absolutely insane three thousand dollars and twenty five dollars a month for snoopy Snoopy will be dead before the loan is paid. She lives with her boyfriend, not us. Melissa, one of the most difficult parts of parenting is once your kids are grown.

It's been difficult for me because I don't get to tell them what to do anymore. Now, I actually, some of them work on my team, so as their CEO, I can tell them, but I don't get to tell them what dog to get. I don't get to tell, I can tell them, but I don't get to tell them what dog to get. I don't get to tell them how to raise their kids. I don't get to tell them what car to buy. I don't get to tell them stuff anymore. They get to do that by themselves. And so the only possibility you have with grown children is to treat them like friends.

And if this was your friend that was a good friend of yours, how would you have this conversation? Well, you wouldn't use the words you used in this tweet. You would be more persuasive and less mother voice. Don't use your mom voice. Use your friend voice. And you know that you may still lose, will likely lose, the argument. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey guys, this is Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer of The Dave Ramsey Show.

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