The Ramsey Show - App - In Order to Win, You Have to Quit Caring About What Other People Think (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 21, 2020

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-8255. Starting off this hour is Rebecca in Virginia.

Hey, Rebecca, welcome to the show. Thanks. Thanks so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my husband and I recently started Baby Steps in November. We started Baby Step number two. We've gotten good momentum going. In December, um, baby step number two. Um, we've gotten good momentum going December. We're able to pay off my car and most of our credit card debt. And

this month we had budgeted, um, to pay off a thousand dollars to finish off credit card. And then we just have about 28,000 left in student loan. Great. We have a baby who's due. So we have one toddler and then we have a baby due in March. So we were looking again and trying to decide, is it good to continue the plan of like trying to go ahead and knock out the rest of our credit card debt this month? Or would it be smart to go ahead and set a little extra money aside for savings just because we know expenses are going to increase a little bit when this baby comes. And I have paid maternity leave, but that pay is going to drop a little bit because I get hourly pay as a nurse. And so what will be coming in while I'm on maternity leave will be a little less than what's been

coming in. So we just weren't sure if it was good to go ahead and save up a little extra or just keep things rolling with that snowball as we've got it going. Now, we tell folks when they have a baby on the way to push pause on the baby steps, do not work the plan. Instead, pile up cash. And that way, if there's any kind of a hiccup with the delivery, there's some money laying there. Okay?

$1,000 is not enough in that situation. Yes. Now, once baby comes and baby and mama come home from the hospital and everybody's okay, then we can push play again. And your budget will adjust based on your income changes during your maternity leave. It sounds like your income's going to go down. And based on your expenses going up some with another baby in here. And so your budget will change, but then your need for cash is not going to come from that.

You're just going to adjust your budget, and that simply means you still have to live on that. You still have to live on your income, and you still have to take the difference and throw it at the debt. So any money you save above $1,000, when you push play again on your baby steps, in this case your baby step two, your debt snowball, after you come home and you and baby are fine, then you push play again. You take any money above $1,000 at that point and throw it at your debt snowball

because you're back in the game. And then any money above your operating, your household, and your budget that you can squeeze out, you throw at your debt snowball. It's probably going to be less monthly because of the things you outlined, your income going down and some expenses going up ever so slightly. It shouldn't go up that much, but you'll have some diaper formula and some other stuff that you will see some expenses change. But they're not dramatic.

It's very, very doable. Kids cost money, but they don't cost as much money as people go on and on and on like they do. And so, you know, again, early years you've got the pediatrician bill. Early years you've got the diapers and formula and that kind of stuff. But past that, they start eating what you eat, and they start living in the house that you already were keeping warm, and so on. They start riding in the car that you were already driving. And so it doesn't really add huge expenses unless you have a huge number of kids.

But if you have a moderate number of children, you don't see a major shift in your expenses long term. So all of that to say, you'll get back to work after maternity leave, and your income will go back up, and you got a great career as a nurse. You'll be able to knock the rest of the student loan out, and then you'll move on towards building wealth. So very good job. Good stuff. All right, Greg is in Connecticut. Hey, Greg, how are you? Hey, David, I'm doing well, thank you. You know, first, before I actually say anything, I want to just thank you and your team for giving me hope.

If I didn't have hope, I wouldn't be making this phone call, and I wouldn't have started my journey. Wow, well, thank you. Thank you. How can we help today? So I guess I have a main question. I have an IRA that I opened in the early 2000s, and I found out that they're penalizing me $10 for a statement fee. And when I called up them, they said that my account was dormant and that I didn't know what that was.

They just said that I was not making any contributions. I just want to know if that's legal. Oh, it's definitely legal. It is enough to aggravate you and make you think maybe you've got it in the wrong place. Is this at a bank? Yes. I never heard of them. Um, so I actually thought it was through, uh, where I had my 401k through my employer.

And so when I called fidelity, of the bank in California, they somehow took it over from another bank. Well, what I would do is just move that. How much is in that account? I have over $1,300. Okay. Yeah, just get with one of our SmartVestor pros and do a rollover, an IRA rollover, and let's get the money invested in a good place and some good mutual funds

and get it away from the bank. Typically with an investment broker, you're not going to be charged a torment fee on an account that they have that's active, that's growing, that they put money in, you know, that you're investing with. So it's not a ton of money, but it's just aggravating, and what you're doing is you're investing with so it's not a ton of money but it's just aggravating and it's you're kind of what you're doing you're sweeping out the corners and getting the details all lined up and making everything march towards your new wealth plan and that's very smart of you so yeah i wouldn't leave the money there an ira in a bank is a bad idea just like a savings account in a

bank's a bad idea we don't use banks for investing. They're not good for that. They use them for checking accounts, maybe for parking your emergency fund, but that's all. All right, up next is going to be Ben in South Carolina. Ben, let's start the call, and I may have to put you on hold through the commercial. What's up? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I'm in the military, and my wife and I just bought our first home, and I got a VA loan. And I just didn't know what to do with my career being in the Navy and where to go from here. I'm on Baby Step 2, and we owe a little bit of debt. Well, I wouldn't have told you to buy a house, and I wouldn't have told you to buy a house on a VA loan while you've got debt.

And if they're moving you around all the time, I wouldn't have told you to buy a house because of that. But you have now. So I wouldn't worry about it until you get transferred. But if they transfer you to a different location, then I would sell the house and rent at that point. In most cases in the military you're not in a position to make money selling a house because you're not there long enough for the house to go up enough in value for the uh to cover the expenses of reselling it and you end up getting caught with houses everywhere you're wherever stationed and so i i would next time

they move you i would just sell that house. That's all I'd do. Hey, thanks for your service. I love talking about companies that know how to do business right. You've heard of Grip6 belts, right? Well, if you haven't, it's the only belt you can get online with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. I'm talking weightless. And the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable. I personally own a number of these belts, and they're so comfortable, you forget you're wearing it.

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Sean is with us in Oklahoma. Hey, Sean, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for having me, sir. I appreciate the time you've given me. Sure. How can I help? I have a pretty big question, and I'm a general contractor in the oil field. I'll give you a little bit of background about myself. Like I said, I'm a general contractor in the oil field. I'll give you a little bit of background about myself. Like I said, I'm a general contractor in the oil field. I've been one for about six and a half years now. And I've accumulated debt. I owe on a truck, a camper. I have student loan debt, some hospital bills. But my biggest problem is I've been pretty irresponsible and haven't done taxes since I started general contracting I do have a CPA working on everything right now um the process is still going well right now um but my other problem is unfortunately I have a felony charge that I cannot afford to fight anymore um work is pretty inconsistent as a general contractor, and I can't even say for

Baby Step 1 right now, and I'm wondering whether I should try and take care of my debt or if I should try and fix this bill anymore and just put everything I can possibly make towards getting another lawyer. Well, obviously I don't know the details on the felony situation, but when I hear that word, it scares me. Me too, honestly. And because that typically means jail time. Yes, I've already served my jail time. Oh, you already have.

Yes, sir, I have. So what are you fighting then? I'm trying to appeal it. I have an assault and battery on an officer, and unfortunately it looks very, very bad on paperwork. But I didn't do the charge, and I listened to the wrong advice from my lawyer. I should have had someone else.

But it is what it is now, and my only option is to fight it if I choose to. Yeah. So did you plea it out? I pled no contest because that was my lawyer's recommendation. Right. And it was a bad idea. Because now you've got this huge black mark on you. Yes, sir.

Okay. And so have you talked with an attorney that gives you hope that it can be overturned? I talked to a lawyer in Oklahoma City for the appellate court, and he charged me a $5,000 retainer to file the paperwork to appeal it. The appellate court denied my claim. And he said basically he's done at that point, and if I choose to use him for anything else, it's another $5,000. I obviously cannot afford that every time.

I thought about getting a different lawyer. The appellate court denied your claim. What's the next step? They said I can go through the felonious court system and then after that it's supreme court if they deny my claim how old are you i'm 31 and i just turned 31 last year what do you make when you're when life is good and you're out there working hard and you're not distracted, what do you make? I can make up to $600 a day almost.

I can make anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 a month. But work's very inconsistent, and I've been struggling for quite a while now. I'm about to give up on everything, honestly. Does this felony charge keep you from doing that work? No, it probably doesn't. No, sir, it doesn't. Yeah, they probably couldn't care less in the oil field. Okay.

No, it keeps me from being a company employee in a lot of spots, unfortunately. Sure. Because I have filled out several applications on... Sure. When was the plea or the no contest and the time served? When was that? 2017. I put no contest and the judge gave me... So how long have you been out?

I've been out almost two years now. Okay. Where in Oklahoma are you? I live in Tulsa. Okay. All right. Cool. All right. Well, I have a son that's about. Okay. All right. Cool. All right. Well, I have a son that's about your age, all right? And so what I would tell him if he is in exactly your situation is this. You have been through a life-altering situation.

You've been through a mess and there's probably a lot of value for you um in putting it behind you i don't know anything about criminal defense just some vague understanding of all of that so i'm not an expert on this but it sounds to me like when you're down to your only option is basically two options, one of which is the Supreme Court, I'd say your chances are pretty slim to none that you could throw a lot of good money, a lot of energy, and a lot of distraction after trying to get your name cleared, and it probably never happens. That's what it sounds like to me. I'm just listening to a very short version of your very long story though so i know that but based on based on what you told me um i think there's a

great value for you spiritually emotionally financially in putting all of this in your rearview mirror and step on the gas and head off into your future with a smile. And let's go make a bunch of money and work our butts off and clean up our debts and pile up a bunch of money, start and run your own business, in which case, by the way, you work for yourself and you don't need a, you don't have a need for a background check with an employer or something like that. I did not have a felony conviction. I did have a bankruptcy that I filed when I was about your age, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. And it does leave a mark, and there's some things that even now,

30-something years later when I fill it out, it doesn't count that much against me now, but it's still some places that they just don't want to you know you can't do that if you ever file bankruptcy so forever i can't do that and forever you've got a felony and so you're gonna you know you've you've lost some rights you've lost some some access to some things forever but i don't know that you've got a real um i don't know enough about it because i'm not an expert but what you told me made me sound. It's several years behind you. You've had legal advice that took it to a pallet court.

They slammed your door shut on that. It doesn't sound good, man. It doesn't sound like you're going to. You could spend $100,000 and get nothing in 10 years of your life and get nothing on this. Meanwhile, you could have gone ahead and had a life. And so I'm going to recommend you go ahead and get a life. There's a great church there in that town that's a good friend of mine named Craig Rochelle. He has a church called LifeChurch.TV.

And I want you to go call those people and go sit down and talk to one of their pastors. And I want you to get some advice more than just this radio show. Because I think you need somebody that's guiding you in your spiritual walk as well as your emotional decisions because you have been through hell. And I want you to have a bright future, and it's probably going to require you put some of this stuff in your rearview mirror and move on. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I heard a statistic recently that absolutely blew my mind. In the U.S. alone, over 3,000 people die every day without life insurance. Now, I don't want to sound unsympathetic, but this drives me crazy.

What are people thinking? I don't understand how taking care of your family is not a top priority. Most of you probably just not a top priority. Most of you probably just spent a bundle on Christmas on things you really didn't even need, and now you're making New Year's resolutions that are focused on yourself. But if you want to use the New Year as a reason to do something right, like protecting your family, then take care of it right now before it's too late. Term life insurance is something every family needs, and that's why I talk about it every day. It's not

complicated, it's not expensive, and Zander Insurance is the only place I recommend. Go to zander.com or call them at 800-356-4282. Please learn from other people's mistakes and get this taken care of. That's zander.com or 800-356-4282. On line five, Brian and Amber are with us from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to do a debt-free scream. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Welcome, welcome. So congratulations, you did it. Thanks.

Thank you. And you actually got through on the phone line. Yes. This is our third time trying. Yeah, I understand there's an adventure you've been through just to get on the air, and we're glad you persisted. So this is a long time coming. How much debt did you guys pay off?

We paid off $87,000. Cool. And how long did that take you? About 24 months. All right. And your range of income during that time? We started about $84,000, and then this year we ended at, well, this year that just ended, we ended at $126,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living?

So I work for a school district as a behavior analyst, and I work for a major shipping and distribution company. Okay. Very cool. What kind of debt was the $87,000? So we had just around $ 37,000 in student loans. Um, we had a loan with Brian's parents cause they had to help us out at one point and then the rest was car loans and credit cards. Okay. How much of it was cars? Uh, 16,000. So you guys were kind of normal. Yeah. A little bit of every kind of debt. Yes. All right. So, wow. How long have you been married? Just over six years.

We just hit six years in December. Yeah. So what happened 24 months ago when, or plus or minus, when you decided to get out of debt? What was the story that got you started? Well, we had talked about paying off debt because it was putting a lot of stress on us and everything, and we were trying to kind of do our own thing and trying to outsmart it, but never actually working a plan. And then about 24 months ago, my wife had found your podcast and showed it to me, and we started listening to it, and I'm big on common sense.

And everything that you had said just made perfect sense and started listening more and more and just started working crazy amounts of overtime and just started knocking off the little debts like crazy. Yeah, and that gave you hope, enough to go to work and take on the extra hours. Yeah. Wow, way to go, man. Congratulations. Very proud of you guys.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal job. So how does it feel to be debt-free? It feels amazing. Like, just the weight off your shoulders. Like, when you're in debt and you're taking on new debt, you keep thinking, like, well, we can do that minimum payment. We can make that minimum payment. But when it all adds up, it's just so much on your mind and then when something happens out of the norm and you have that emergency

and you don't have the funds to cover it it's just so stressful so now like you know just even things as simple as taking our dogs to the vet and figuring out that they need you know a $400 medication and we can actually budget and pay for that and not charge it, it just feels amazing. Okay. Yeah, it does. It gives you just that sense of room, that sense of margin in your life. There's a piece to that, isn't there? For sure, yeah. I'm so proud of y'all.

Well done. Who are your biggest cheerleaders? Probably our families, but also each other. Like, definitely we have different personalities when it comes to money. Like, Brian's a math nerd, and I'm definitely a spender. So there were some hard conversations at times where he kind of had to rein me in a little bit. But it definitely brought us closer in our marriage. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

You did it. You paid off $87,000 freaking dollars. So one thing that I always, i people say they're struggling i always tell them is like you have to have a why and i always believe that you should have three whys because there's three things that like you said that you can do with money and on baby step two i think the main focus was like you know saving slash getting out of debt, like securing, giving ourselves that solid foundation, which we knew later on then would allow us to give and enjoy and all that. And it kind of just is a transitional thing, but we always had those three whys. And every time we

do a budget meeting, my why was sitting next to me, my wife, my family. And, uh, you know, that always just made me, it didn't matter how many hours i worked or anything like that if i got tired i thought about that and i was fine absolutely absolutely that's cool man that's very good that's a good it's a good way of looking at it a good way of breaking this down good job very very cool very cool so what's the next thing you're off to what are you gonna do now well right now right now we just finished building our fully funded emergency fund. So now we're setting some sinking funds aside for a vacation, and we're going to be saving for a car at some point.

We don't need one yet, but we just want to make sure we're prepared when that time comes. No more debt. No more debt. I love it. You broke the chain forever how old are you two uh we're both 32 we just turned 32 in december yeah i'm one day older than her ah oh man okay very cool well well done you guys very well done we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you everyday millionaires that is the next chapter in your story where you're going you are on your way baby you did it you did it brian and amber harrisburg pennsylvania 87

thousand dollars paid off in 24 months making 84 to 126 count it down let's hear a debt-free scream three two one we're debt-free yeah that's how it's done yes absolutely amazing absolutely cool now 24 months 87 000 what do you get out of that i get 43 500 a year i get almost four thousand dollars a month while making 84 now let me help you with that budget 84 after you take taxes out comes home and then you pay out 48 and he kicked it up he got it up to 126 with the overtime but they started at 84 that's how they started their debt-free journey they were on beans and rice rice and beans there was no ish they weren't sort of doing this crap they They leaned in. They were wide open, deeply sacrificial.

Their broke friends were making fun of them. People rolled their eyes. But they paid off $87,000 in two freaking years. So one of the things you have to do if you really want to win at almost anything in this life, but certainly at the idea of handling money, is you have to quit caring what other people think. Because you're not going to get cheerleaders from Instagram. Because Instagram is all about overspending and acting like I'm something I'm not. I know I got two million followers on Instagram. My Instagram page

is obviously not all about that, but there is all kinds of things that you can do to decide I'm not going to be influenced by other people. I'm not going to set up my life to keep up with the false word that's out there happening in America, telling you you have to do these things you have to do these things the number of people that don't even cook anymore people have lost their minds they only eat at restaurants now i i eat at restaurants all the time i can afford to we understand that restaurant eating at a restaurant is 80 entertainment and 20 food and you can't afford that crap when you are broke you can't afford to do that when you're brian and amber and you're paying off four thousand dollars

a month they were kicking butt you guys now i, they're all smiley and happy and doing their debt-free scream and everything sounds. But I want you to understand, that young couple, that 32-year-old couple, when they were 30 years old, they were grinding, man. They were hustling, man. They were grinding, man. They were hustling, man. And they weren't worried about what their broke friends think they didn't even have time to see the eye roll they were working overtime and when you get there that's when you're going to turn your life around

as long as you're worried about your little friend who says you can't have a little lot latte frappe then you know you're going to be broke. You have to make a decision on what your real motivation is. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. One of my favorite parts of this show is hearing your debt-free screams. You guys are our heroes. You've kicked debt to the curb and you've saved for the future. Now we want to celebrate with you. If you have lived like no one else and are currently in baby steps four through seven, well, it's time to enjoy some money. And the perfect place to do that is on board our first ever Live Like No One Else cruise in March.

That's right, just a couple of months away but get this it's not too late to book your cabin so don't miss your chance this caribbean cruise is going to be an incredible seven days at sea on a stunning new ship with amazing experiences i'm talking all of our ramsey personalities and other world-class entertainers. We're stopping in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and Turks and Caicos. It's going to be an amazing, debt-free celebration designed just for you. Don't miss the boat. Head over to RamseyCruise.com today to reserve your room. our scripture of the day first corinthians 15 58 therefore my beloved brothers be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Roger Staubach said, there is no traffic jam along the extra mile. That's true. Jacob is with us. Jacob's in Florida. Well, maybe he's not. Well, I can't seem to get rid of it. So, all right. Where do you want me to go now that he disappeared?

One? All right, let's try that. Chris is with us. Chris is in New York. Hi, all right. Where do you want me to go now that he disappeared? One? All right, let's try that. Chris is with us. Chris is in New York. Hi, Chris. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks a lot for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? I have a question. I'd like to get your opinion. I currently take out 9% of my paycheck, and my company matches 6%. And they also recently I signed up just at the bare minimum for they offer an employee stock purchase plan. And it's a very, very good, stable company, big, big orthopedic company. So they're going to be around for a while. And the good deal is that it's 15% off of what the public can buy the stock.

It always is. All employee stock option plans are exactly the same. And I know from listening to you that you personally do not get involved, as you say, in individual stocks. But would you make an exception in in that regard no not at all no the only way i would do it is after you're uh up into baby step past baby step four are you debt free except your home uh no uh no i owe about uh twelve hundred dollars, on a credit card. Then that's about it really. Okay.

You need to get that cleaned up. Do you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses? Not yet. No, I'm working on that. Okay. We teach people not to start investing until you've done those two things. And at that point, I would tell you to start putting 15%. You put 15% of your income into retirement.

And that's 401Ks or Roth IRAs or Roth 401Ks. Then on top of that, it sounds like your company is going to give you a match, which is wonderful. And we recommend you put that into four types of growth stock mutual funds, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. And I spread my personal 401K that way across those with good track records, with long-term track records that way. Above that, when you start talking about buying a house, if you want to do some other investing at some point and you want to buy some single stocks and you want to buy single stock in that company that's fine that's fine but i don't want you to i don't want you to do it because it's such a great deal because it's not that great a deal 15 off it's not that great a deal

and i'll prove it to you go pull your very big very stable company, and look at the 52-week high and the 52-week low, you're probably going to see a 15% move in the two. And so the discount that you got can evaporate in about an eye blink when you're playing with single stocks. And so it's okay to do that, but no more than 10% of your total net worth needs to be in the single stock. And, you know know you're really not cheating the system everybody that has an employee stock option plan is 15 off everybody does but the

volatility will make that go away in a heartbeat because you're playing a single stock so it's okay to do it but you need to have all these other things done before you do it and only then and then i would only have no more than 10 of your net worth tied up in single stocks in one company because here's what i ran into many many many years ago procter and gamble took a huge hit and i and it's probably this might have been 25 or 30 years ago procter and gamble is a huge big stable company but they went through a period of time they took a huge hit and i sat down with this long-term employee who had worked for them for 40 years and i'll this is where i learned one of the places many times i saw this story and i just decided i'm not going to do this and this lady the sweet lady had worked

with him forever she had 750 000 in her 401k 100 of it in png stock and it suddenly became worth 300 that's what the that's what can happen to you when you're playing a single stock and you're not diversified. You've got everything tied up in that she bet her whole existence on Procter & Gamble. That's a dumb bet. I'm not picking on Procter & Gamble. I don't care what company. Fill in the blank. Don't bet your whole existence on one company.

That's just dumb. You know, don't have all your eggs in one basket, we say in the investing world. So that's why I say if you're going to play single stocks, even your company single stock, even with a discount, don't have more than 10% of your net worth in there. Because let's say she had $750,000 in her 401K, and $75,000 of it was in stock, and that went in half, and that became worth $37,000. She would have lost $37,000 out of $750,000 instead of half of her money.

It substantially changed the quality of her retirement because she was not diversified. She was stuck in this one stock in arguably one of America's best companies, in arguably one of the most stable companies that you can think of. I mean, Procter & Gamble is not exactly a volatile, crazy world. You know, they're not. It's not exactly like a tech stock or something. This is not a startup, for God's sakes. It's a huge monolith of a company.

And to think that it would, you know, just, but they went through some earnings issues back then. And I have no idea what their stock's doing now. And I'm not saying don't buy Procter & Gamble. I'm not saying do Procter. That's not the point. The point is, the story is a true story. And this sweet lady lost half of her retirement because she violated the idea of diversification. And she had all of her money in one place. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes, spread your portions to seven, yes, to eight, for disaster may come upon the land.

Jacob is with us in Florida. Hey, Jacob, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. Appreciate it. What's up? I have two quick questions. Hopefully I can get to it quick. First one is my wife and I are 31 years old, and my question is should I sell my tax-free structured settlement

for a lump sum of $2.1 million to pay off debt and invest the rest for retirement? What in the world did you get a tax-free settlement that size for? That's a good question. It's too long for that situation. My mother had passed away years ago. So it's just something that was orchestrated through the – So they are paying you X number of dollars over a long number of years

that amounts to a total of $20 million, and you can sell it for $2 million or something like that? Yeah, the aggregate is about $6 million today. It pays out until 2060. And then if I were to sell today, the cash value is about $2.1 million. So I'm just trying to see if we really just want to set up for retirement and do the right thing with money, of course. Yeah.

What I would tell you to do is to sit down with a financial advisor. If you don't have one, click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com. One of our SmartVestor pros can sit down and help you calculate this. And you can figure out what the discount rate is, meaning what interest rate they have used to calculate the net of 2.1 as a settlement offer on this. And then you can determine can you invest and make similar rates of return or better rates of return. I would rather have the money in your hands and have it invested. And, of course, you would be debt-free in the process, too, and you've also freed up your income.

So I like the idea of taking it i just don't know how deeply they're discounting the net present value of this and that's what this offer is based on it's a financial formula and so you need someone to sit down and calculate it and if they say your discount rate on this thing's 20 then someone's trying to slay you you know in other words they're they're using a 20 percent rate of return to determine this value and that would be crazy you would want a lower discount rate which would give you a higher settlement amount then in this situation so i don't know who's offering to buy this whether it's the existing annuities getting ready we'll sell it

out for that but you need to get into it and figure out what the figures are, and that will tell you whether to take the offer. But if it's a decent offer on the discount rate, I'm out of there. I'm taking my cash. Being debt-free, I'm going to invest my cash. I'm going to be back in control of all this money. Wow, what a deal. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books.

We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free screen live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.