The Ramsey Show - App - Is It Okay to Use a VA Loan? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: August 26, 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, Dr. John Deloney. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. Here on the air, open phones for you at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. In Iowa, Bryson is calling.

Hey, Bryson, welcome to the show. How can Dr. John and I help? Hey, Dave, it's a true honor to speak with you. Thank you. You too, man. Hey, so I just resigned from a position that I'm a teacher, and I resigned from my position back in June. And they're trying to say that I broke contract and that I'm going to owe them $5,000, and they're going to take me to small claims court. I'm in baby step two right now, and I was wondering if I should be saving money for, you know,

I do end up having to pay out money, or if I should just continue paying off debt because there is a possibility I might not have to pay. Okay. What was the $5,000 for? Well, they are trying to say that that is a fee that I owe them because they are going to incur costs needing to hire and train new staff to replace me. Did you violate your contract? So I did not violate any laws with the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners. Yeah, that's not what I'm asking. Not that you broke any laws or anything, but most K-12 teachers sign annual contracts for precisely this reason,

to keep somebody from quitting in the middle of the summer. Yes, I did sign a contract to return back in March, and then I did actually reach out for legal counsel, and they told me that I should be able to resign as long as I do it before June 30th. But, of course, I am breaking the contract. Why did they tell you that? If you had a contract, why did they tell you you could break it? Because they said that I was not breaking any laws with the Board of Educational Experiments. Who is your lawyer?

I go to a private association here in Iowa. Oh, you didn't talk to a real lawyer. You talked to an idiot. Okay. Because let me help you with this, okay? The law is one set of things. John's pointing that out. And because you didn't violate any laws doesn't mean you didn't break a contract.

For instance, you signed a contract to buy a house. Not closing on the house and keeping your promise on that contract, you're liable for getting sued for that, but you didn't break any laws. You don't go to jail. You didn't break any real estate laws. You've not done anything criminal. You've not done anything according to the real estate commission or anything else. It's not criminal.

It's not even a civil law that you broke. It's just you violated. You didn't keep your word legally and there are costs with that so that's what we're trying to ascertain so yeah you need to talk to like a real attorney and yes you need to stop your baby step too because i think you're probably going to be writing a check okay you're going to lose that's my prediction okay because you got bad advice now that i'm not a lawyer i'm just a guy who's signed about eight bazillion contracts in the last 40 years in business. And they're real.

And I've held people to them. I've been held to them. And, you know, when it wasn't convenient and so forth. And so, and, you know, there's a spirit of the contract. And is there a COVID, you know, a force majeure clause because of COVID that you could get out? I don't know. You need legal advice. And, yes, you need to stop your baby step two and pile up some cash because you're either going to spend some money on a lawyer and or give them $5,000.

I've been around city boards and municipal boards and state boards of education my whole career and i've never heard of a financial clause but i have heard them where they'll go they'll take your license from you your teaching license they'll suspend you so they're serious about that for again for precisely this reason because it costs some money they want to plan for the fall right yeah and now they got to go run replace the fall right so you probably with an attorney if there's a force majeure, which is meaning in case of war or national calamity, earthquakes, hurricanes, COVIDs, and so on, a lot of contracts are being broke. People are walking out of a lot of contracts right now on force majeure. And because, you know, I've had some with these live events where we were not able to hold the live event because of the municipality changed the rules. And they said, you can't do it.

And yet I've got a contract with XYZ Arena. Saying you'll show up. Yeah. But under the force majeure, you know, I'm walking out'm walking out, and I'm out clean. I bet there's a lot of people learning French these days with that. I mean, honestly, I've signed contracts with that phrase in there my whole life. I never thought in my life I would see a thing where I actually activated something because of something similar to an act of war.

Wow. But it dates back to well it dates way back but i mean the last time you saw stuff like that really activated was world war two things shut down right i mean they repurposed factories and started making tanks instead of making refrigerators right and so uh you know all of a sudden those you know there's contracts that people were held to or not held to and so it became standard operating procedure in business to have that. So anyway, you need an attorney, dude. I'm not one.

But I think that it sounds like you got bad advice to me on the surface, and I'm afraid you're going to lose that. So you do need to stop your baby step two and get ready. And, yeah. And it may be that, man, something came up, like you say, something happened. I've, again, been around educators that are good people. They want what's best. They got into that business because they like helping people. And maybe you can go sit down and have a conversation, and they'll work with you.

Well, I think you might settle it. It doesn't feel good. Maybe you pay $1,000 to an attorney, and you settle it for $2,000 or something. Because those costs are a little bit nebulous. How are you actually going to prove exactly what it costs you to replace a teacher? But the meta on that is if you have an expense coming up down the road that's probably going to happen or maybe going to happen, plan for it. It's coming, right? Yeah.

And if you can't absorb it in your budget, which this is beyond that, then, yeah, you've got, you know, there's a hurricane coming. Right. So you better get the plywood, right, for the windows. That's what we're saying. And, yeah, that's a time you push pause on your baby steps and you get ready for the hurricane. Same thing as, you know, a good version of that is a baby's on the way. Okay. You know, it's a good version, right right and it's not a negative situation in other words

but we say stop everything get ready and um do that uh not not directed at bryson because i don't know that we didn't get into the whole situation but i think it's fair to comment in the middle of this that um when i got in real estate business in 1978 and people wrote a contract to buy a house you you know what they did? They bought the house. Nowadays, they just kind of think it's like an option. It's just a holding period. I'll just lose my earnest money.

I'm not going to do it. I changed my mind. I'm just going to lose my earnest money. And there's a specific performance clause in a real estate contract. You can get your butt sued. Absolutely. And you can lose. And the court forced you to close on the house you said you were gonna you ought to not enter in and shake hands in a pledge and enter into a contract now again this is not directed at bryson because i don't know what all

up he was up against we didn't get into that but just in general one of the attributes of people who are successful in area every area of their lives is extreme fanatical levels of integrity. I tell folks I gave my son my face and my last name. That's all I gave him, right? And I've got to defend both of those. And my face isn't pretty. I've got to lock down on the integrity of my name. Well, you are in radio, so there you go.

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We're talking about your life and your money. Liz is with us. Liz is in Los Angeles. Hi, Liz. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. I have a quick question.

I currently have an RV, which I live in, and my car will be paid off in about a month. I owe $17,000 on that, So I will have it paid off next month. And I wanted to get your opinion because I want to just, I full-time in my RV and I don't want to buy a house. So I wanted to get your opinion as far as what would be the income. So when I do retire, what amount should I be saving? Currently I'm doing $700 a month in my Roth and $400 in my 401K. Good for you. Well, you're saving a lot of money. You're how old?

Yeah, and I have 46, and I have $25,000 in my savings. Okay. Well, well done. Very well done. Is the RV paid for? No, that's the thing. I do owe on the RV. Um, after I was paying my car, I owe 45. Okay. And so your plan is for the next 45 years to live in an RV. Well, my grandmother has given me property. She has given me property. Um, I'm not sure it's all paid for. She owns a couple of houses.

But I'm like, oh, God, what are the taxes going to be on that? So I'm not sure if I want the property. Okay. So you owe how much on the RV again? $45,000. Okay. And is it worth that? Oh, yeah, it's brand new.

It's brand new. So you put a large down payment. What's it worth? What did you pay for it? I paid $65,000. I haven't paid off anything yet. Okay. Well, I can answer.

I mean, there's several lenses through which you would look at this situation. Lens number one is, what do you want to do with your life? How do you want to live your life? You obviously like being in a situation where you can roll, right? And that's a lifestyle decision. I've got friends that retired, bought RVs, and you can roll, right? And that's a lifestyle decision. I've got friends that retired, bought RVs, and are RVing, right? And they sold their house. And so, I mean, that's a lifestyle decision, and you get to decide that.

I don't speak into that, and it sounds kind of cool, actually. But financially, it's a horrible game plan long term, because 40 years from now 30 years from now this rv is worth zero versus owning a home would have gone up dramatically in value during that same period of time with the exact same price so you know if you're asking me financially is it a good can you absorb the blow yeah i mean you've got this land coming to you and some other stuff you'll be fine but if i said you know what is a strategy for building wealth and creating a stable financial platform to live my life and retire with it's not going to be an

rv the rv is going to be a uh a toy on the side of this program, not a method of handling my housing that is financially efficient, because it's going down in value. You're turning $100,000 into zero instead of $100,000 into $500,000. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. So it's not a rush. It's not a panic. It's not to say, oh, you're stupid and you need to sell it today.

I'm not saying you need to sell it today and you need to run off and buy a house. I'm not saying that at all. I am saying that for a 40-year game plan, it doesn't work. So you need to accentuate your game plan. You need to add to your game plan the ownership of a piece of real estate that you pay cash for eventually or pay off eventually. And that could be five years from now. I'm okay with that. But is this a 40-year game plan?

Answer, no. It's not a good 40-year game plan, even with lifestyle and so forth. So open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. There's something, John, I wonder what it is about us, and I don't know if it's appealing to you, but there's something that I want to retire and I want to see the world. And the RV kind of scratches that itch, that retirement particularly.

But I've known people that in their 50s or 60s or even 70s, that their game plan literally was they sold their personal residence, bought a $100,000, $150,000 RV, which in five years is going to be worth $25,000. Right. And I don't know if it's how we were trained in the culture, if it's just natural human wanderlust that I want to see things and do things. But we all watched Vegas Vacation too many times, and Wally World was closed. Well, I'm watching it even happen with younger folks wanting to buy five acres instead of just a traditional suburban home or wanting to buy 25 acres., five acres instead of just traditional suburban home or wanting to buy 25 acres.

Well, you did. Right, I did. You just did green acres. I just, man, we moved back to 1704. That's the galonies right now. Oh, man. Yeah, one good thing, a quick tip for America. When you buy a house, make sure you can drink the water.

That's something we're learning on the side there. Oh, no, not the new place. Yeah, we'll get it fixed oh it's just a good uh just a filtration system so they tell me they didn't mention that in the youtube videos that i watched before i bought this place though so that's good but all i have to say is i think there's this idea that i think it's a deeper idea than like i'm laughing about it but i think we have this notion that our life is something to be accomplished and then a period at the end of it. And then we can have fun with what's ever left. And we have this, like, I've just got to put my time in, live in this tiny little house and do suburban and go to schools that I don't really like and shove my kids in programs that don't really benefit anybody.

So that I can say I'm done with that part and then I can live. And then what I find so often is that's when you get faced with the illness that pops out of nowhere. You get a financial crisis or suddenly COVID shows up, and you realize that you have burned this extraordinary gift, which is your one life, trying to just get through it. So then you can buy a house on wheels and drive around, right? And it just would radically shift all of our lives if we started saying, who do we want to be? Who do we want to become? Way upstream. And what kind of people do we want to grow our kids into?

What kind of people do we want to be? And if buying that RV, like you mentioned, if that's part of it, man, it's not a good financial strategy, but it's a fun way to live, right? Well, I think some combination between America moving off the farm into the factory, right uh is responsible for the assembly line and um then the union comes in and says okay if you if you put in your time then you'll be okay and then we put in social security that kicks in at 65 so we declared the finish line finish line is 65 and if you can make it to there, and Chris Hogan's been fighting uphill against that with the retire inspired. He said, retirement is not an age, it's a number. Right.

And if you read the research on retirement, when people get to this magical place, this fantasy land where I just get to do nothing. When that's your goal, I get to just wake up and sit in my chair and call it. They die. They die. Everything around them falls apart and sit in my chair and call it. They die. They die. Everything around them falls apart, including their self. They die. Yes, they fall off a map. It's just the number of people who go fishing for a year and then die.

Yeah, that's just what the data says. It's just, yeah. And we've all known them metaphorically and in person. Absolutely. Anecdotally in our lives. We've seen them. We've walked with them. They've been friends and friends of my dad's or whatever that kind of a thing and i knew this guy you know from

the barber shop you know and whatever but but that because there's no purpose and um it's like i'm finished across the line you finish the marathon so you're laying in the grass trying to recover pouring cold water over you and then a few months then you have to get up a few months later to the car and your legs don't work and you're a few months later you sit with your friends and you're laughing about the time you fell over at the finish line and then you start to realize oh the nine months i trained for this that's what that was that was the adventure texting my friends the funny memes as i'm falling apart training and having to force myself to get up and having my wife say get out of the house and go run and that was the adventure

the race was just the the cherry on top of that sunday man exactly wasn't the good stuff and so i but i we hear the memes or i did when i was a kid i mean i remember earl nightingale saying success is not a destination it's a journey And that's all we're saying. That's right. And so, and again, that's not directed at her, but she just got me thinking about it because I had a lady that worked here who I dearly love, and she was with us for a long time, and she and her husband are RVing. They retired.

It sounds awesome. And they are having a blast. And I always just kind of go, and I knew a guy that was a neighbor of ours when I was growing up as a kid. His goal was to, you know, complete his job. And he was going to buy an 18-wheeler and drive truck so he could see the nation. And a sleeper cab, take his old lady with him, right? You know, leave the grandkids back wherever. I don't know.

It's a weird thing we have. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney is my co-host today here on the Dave Ramsey Show, Ramsey Personality. We're talking about your life and your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Literally, open phones. Wyatt is in Baltimore. Hey, Wyatt, what's up? Living the dream, Dave. How are you?

Just the same, same brother how can we help uh so i'm finishing up step two uh i'll be finished uh at the end of september cool uh moving into step three uh i'll be finished uh around april uh so i'm looking to buy a house soon great my lease is up in July for my apartment. Perfect. I'm a veteran with a disability rating. So I was just wondering, since I have the disability rating, is it okay to use a VA loan since I won't have any of those fees? Yeah, it's always okay to use a VA loan, but a VA loan is more expensive than an FHA or a Fannie Mae.

Fannie Mae, a conventional loan, is the cheapest loan because of the fees, the funding fees. They waive those when you're disabled, which you brought up. So you obviously know that. And so that makes the VA loan not more expensive. It's not less expensive. It's just about the same now. And so it's a fine deal. There's nothing wrong with it for you to come in and do this.

Thank you for your service, and, yeah, just be watching the paperwork, man. And don't use the VA loan ever, any of you out there, because you can get in for nothing down. Nothing down means you're not ready to buy a house. That's what nothing down means. Yeah, you're not ready to buy a house. That's what nothing down means. Yeah, you're broke. I was going to have about 5% to 10% down in that time frame, but I wasn't going to do zero down.

Yeah, that's perfect. But you're aware that the VA has a program. The seller can pay 100% of the cost, and you literally can walk to the closing table, sign the paperwork put down not a single penny and buy a house if you're a veteran which is dangerous as crud and a bad idea but uh the the concept being of course that this was a good way to help veterans get a home uh you know after they have served and so that that's the idea, which is the whole thing is oxymoronic because this is supposed to be a benefit for having served,

and it's yet more expensive unless you get the fees waived or some of the fees waived due to your disability. So in your case, 5% to 10% down, the fees are waived. If you want to use the VA, that's fine. What I would do is talk to Churchill Mortgage and have them run the numbers on a VA for you and have them run the numbers on a va for you and have them run the numbers on a conventional in your case with the fees waived it might be the same or a little cheaper uh it may you know there's no there's nothing patriotic about using the va loan um it's the veterans administration for god's sakes and they're um you know they do

some wonderful things for veterans but they're also do a bunch of things where they're just a large bureaucratic mess. And so, anyway, get in there, and I'd run the numbers out both ways. With 5% to 10% down, you can do a conventional and just look at it and go, okay, here's my costs that way. With my fees waived due to my disability as a veteran, the VA loan, the costs are this way. And A versus B, which one do you want to do then and just look at your options but if you did not have the disability I could tell you the numbers won't come out to your favor but that gets your fees waived and makes it somewhat palatable hey thanks for the call man I think I think what sorry to cut you off I think what you said is important

is there's nothing patriotic about it right right? And I understand this impulse to want to do things that make me feel good, that make me feel a part of something. And so I've got a PTA group, and we're all buying this stuff. Or I was a part of this particular industry, and this is the insurance that this industry uses. And it's easy just to go along with it sometimes and not just do the extra step and run the numbers on it. Right.

And, you know, and some things start out there in their origins as patriotic. Right. But over time, the thing they were set up for is not that way anymore. Right. An example of that is savings bonds. People used to, you know, that was to finance the war. Right. In World War Twoi an investment in

your government and and you're you know you're you're supporting by by war bonds you remember the old the old posters you know we don't we it wasn't our era but i've seen you've seen the posters and and the savings bond is the leftover vestiges of that so i i've talked to people over the years ago well i just feel like it's my duty to own the savings bonds. No, it's not. They don't do anything. What are you financing? An $84 trillion deficit?

And Trump and the drunk Congress are putting another $8 trillion on there just because we wanted to stimulate something? We wanted a non-COVID COVID or something? Oh, my God, no. There's nothing patriotic about this at all. It's just a bad interest rate. That's all it is. But it had its origins in something that was patriotic. We were banding together.

The nation was not run by an island of misfit toys like it is now. All this dissension and nonsense. I mean, the government was governing. It was a neat idea. Stop the craziness, Dave. Well, I mean, the government was governing, you know? It was a neat idea. Stop the craziness, Dave. And so, you know, there was something to, yeah, we're going to, we've got to, you know, we've got to band together and beat Hitler, you know, and Mussolini.

And, you know, we can't allow this. It's the evil. And so there was a thing going on there that was reality. But, you know, 80 years later for you to own savings bonds? No. No, absolutely not. So same kind of a thing. You just kind of, like you said, you don't want to join the club unless you know what the club is about.

And take the extra step. Yeah, do the math and take the extra step. I love it. Good question. All right, James is with us in St. Louis. Hi, James. How are you? Hey, Dave.

I'm doing well. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm looking at a business acquisition. It's a family-owned business. My mother's been in business for 24 years, and I'm looking to buy it from her on an owner finance. I calculated the weighted average of the profits over the last three years to be about a net profit of $160,000 a year. That's after paying the CEO about $90,000 a year. Who's the CEO? Your mom? Okay.

My question is on owner financing. How do you set up the owner financing to ensure that she is comfortable and knows she's going to get her money and i'm comfortable and know that the money is going to be there uh month to month or how do you set that up well i don't borrow money and i for sure never recommend that you end up owing your mother money on a traditional owner financing deal that doesn't mean don't do it i'm going to take you somewhere don't panic okay but uh in other words I wouldn't put whatever, what are you talking about as a sale price? Have you discussed one? Sale price, I'm calculating on four to five times on a 20 to 25 percent. That's good. That's accurate. Between like $640,000 and $800,000, somewhere in there.

So we'll call it $700,000, okay? Just for fun, okay? So you could put $700,000 somewhere in there. So we'll call it $700,000, okay, just for fun. Okay, so you could put $700,000 at a set interest rate to be paid out over 15 years. Okay, then that would be like a normal way that normal people would do this. The problem is COVID hits, and beyond your control, or some other thing hits, 2008, 9-1-1, and you have a four- or a six-month period of time that your particular business, the niche that it's in, is absolutely dead in the water. You can't pay mom no matter how bad you wanted to, and now you've got a really sticky situation that I wouldn't want anybody in. So I don't do that.

Here's what I would tell you to do, and I don't consider this to be debt. I personally wouldn't do this, but it's at least the closest way to avoid that kind of a sticky wicket. Now, what I do is I say, how little can you work for if you're running the business, James? Could you work for 50? So for our family, we're looking at like a minimum of $60. Okay, I'm going to call it $50 because that would put $40 on top of the $160. That gives me $200. I'm going to give mom 100% of the profits above your salary until she reaches her $700 or whatever your number is.

Can you say that on a monthly schedule or is that like an end of well whatever you can do it monthly you can do it quarterly um yeah i mean we calculate our profits the month following here because we run commissions on them and we pay out bonuses on them and so i i close the books monthly and i can drain all the profits off except my salary throw them to mom now the key element there is if there's no profits because of pandemic or whatever, mom doesn't get anything until the profits start back. Y'all got to have that ironclad in writing. Yeah, this is a written agreement.

And the other thing is you get out of the debt really, really fast because this is going to be like a three or a three-and-a-half-year plan is what it sounds like to me, maybe a four-year plan. But you're going to be out of there really quick and then you're going to have the whole thing as your income, which is awesome. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today here on the Dave Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Mike is with us. Mike's in Seymour, Indiana. Hi, Mike. How are you? Good, Dave. Hi, John. How are you guys? Great. How can we help? All right. So about two and a half months ago, unfortunately, I had a grandfather pass away and found out that he put everything in a trust. He owned four properties. He used to be a farmer, so he had quite a few farms. I ended up with one of the farms. It was my great-grandfather's home place, so there's about 35 acres, buildings, house.

My question is, we are currently in baby step two, and we are doing the debt snowball. We took FPU 10 months ago, so we know you're planning everything. It's working great. My question is, what do we do with this money that we are getting in from the renters? The house is being rented by one couple. The farm ground is being rented by another farmer. And then the buildings and the grain bins are being rented out by a farmer. So basically I have three renters.

What should I do with that money? Should I save up because it's a rental property, so there's going to be expenses, unexpected expenses? What should I do with that extra money, or should I put some of it towards my debt snowball? You probably do need to set some money aside for the upcoming expenses in that business account, the rental business account, and just not touch it. A little miniature rental emergency fund, so to speak.

We'd call it retained earnings in business. So how much rent is coming in a month? It doesn't come in a month. The crop only comes in twice a year, right? Right. The land rent is just once a year. It's one cost, but the rent for the house is $800 a month. What about the grain bins? How often often they come in uh once a month not once a month once a year i'm

sorry okay roughly about nine thousand dollars a year on that and what about the land what's it rent for a year um it's 6400 okay so you got 15 000 that doesn't have any cost associated with it the house might i mean won't you put a couple grand, you know, next couple months' rent of the house in there, you know, $1,500, a couple thousand dollars, in case the heating and air goes out or something like that. You've got to keep the thing running for the renter, right? Right, and luckily, before my grandpa passed, I believe he got everything of that fixed. Yeah, but I'm saying, you know, 100% of houses break.

Right. So, yeah, you need cup set it the next couple months aside and then from there start taking it and it's just part of your income and you use it on your debt snowball so where is the property the property is in michigan i'm i live in seymour so it's about four and a half hours from here. That's where all my family is. And for today, your plan is just to keep it because it's been in the family forever? Yes, yes. I have no intentions on selling it at all. Good. Okay.

What would be a good way to, like I said, the farm ground and the buildings and everything is just a once-a-year payment, and I can go up there and do that, but what would you recommend to get the monthly payments from the renters that rent the house just send a check in the mail or is there an app or a bank program what do i do there's a program at your bank called ach which is a is it like like if you have your utility bills drafted out of your checking account. If you don't use a debit card, if they're drafted directly out of your checking account, then that's using what's called ACH. Your bank can let you do that, and you have to get the permission.

You have to get written permission from the customer on the other end, and that's the way we do our rental properties now. We draft the tenant's account. We do not want to collect monthly checks. It's a pain in the butt. We hit a button once a month, and boom, $800 comes out of their account, goes straight into your account. Okay.

So talk with my bank about an ACH account. Yeah, that's the best way to do it. Because you're not set up to take debit cards. You're not in a business, right well or credit cards or anything else and so a lot of times landlords do that if they've got multiple properties uh but uh but but the easiest way is ach and it's really you have you get a copy of one of their blank checks they write void on it you have to have that you have to have the routing number their account number you enter it into a simple little program and boom it just sets up and it auto drafts uh

trick is the tenant obviously has to have the stinking money in there at the first of the month because here comes the rent there you go but it's a great way to get paid and get paid on time and it's low hassle and everything else so uh great great great deal so dave i i don't want to wade into too deep of political waters here um but but I have a personal question based off this question. And you're sitting here, so here it is. I sat several years ago, I was in a meeting next to a sociologist from Romania. And she made an offhanded comment about something along the line of the following. She said, I am having a hard time wrapping my head around how Americans view their

soil, their dirt. And I said, what do you mean? And she mentioned several things about dirt and soil. But one of the big things was, she said, where she was from, you had to prove lineage to buy dirt, to buy land. And this idea that you would ever sell family land was such a foreign, strange concept. And it was this 500,000 year legacy. And she put in 10 minutes, she gave me a perspective on this is why people will die for a plot of land because their great, great, great grandparents are buried here. So I fast forward that to this gentleman's question at what point do you say this is sentimental this was my granddad this is my granddad's but you're in baby step two you have a lot of money the best thing you do is sell how do you help somebody decipher between this is

legacy land this is family farm and dude you're broke and you need money. How do you help somebody navigate that? It's very emotional. Yeah. Not Romanian emotional, but American emotional. But we're not that old yet, right? But, well, we have a different DNA. That's right. Because our ancestors came off a boat with nothing and they homesteaded that. And so it's four, five generations max.

Right. You know. And so there's no vineyard that's in France that's been in the family for nine generations. There's no such thing. Right. It's logistically year-wise impossible. So there's a little bit of a different thing. And Americans are more, in general, we're more transient and more transactional. But we're all boat people at the end of the day.

Okay. We all came off a boat. Okay. So, and, I mean more transient and more transactional, but we're all boat people at the end of the day. Okay. We all came off a boat. Okay. So, and, I mean, by and large. So, it's a little different, but it's still that thing, because that was his great-grandfather's. 35 acres. And a house. That's right.

Four and a half hours away in Michigan. Mm-hmm. It's not 35,000 acres. It's not 350,000 acres. It's 35 acres. It's a little plot of land. It's a sweet little farm. But it's not 35,000 acres. It's not 350,000 acres. It's 35 acres. It's a little plot of land. It's a sweet little farm. But it's mine.

But it was my grandpa's. It's almost like I got a chest in my office that was my grandma's and that kind of stuff. It's nostalgic. And if the building's burning, you're going to be carrying that sucker out to the parking lot with you, right? Yeah, I got my great-great-great- my grandmother's grandfather's Bible, and he was a circuit riding preacher. It's in my office upstairs sitting on that chest from my grandmother.

So, you know, you're right. That Bible's leaving, and I'm jumping off the balcony, right? Right, right. So me and the Bible are getting out of here. You ain't got a shot, but I'm going, okay? So, you know, but that's not— I can't get my Bible. It's that same kind of thing.

Yeah. It's the exact same place in your soul that it touches and so you got to say uh at what point would i sell that bible for a hundred thousand dollars right if it meant saving the life of my child because i had to buy a surgery if it meant uh that my family was completely offset. When would you sell your $15,000 wedding ring and you've been married 15 years? The last thing. The last thing.

But it would be sold before I would be homeless, before my child would be perpetually ill because I held on to something, you know, an item. Right. Because these are items, is what they are. They're very important emotional items, but they're items. They're not people. But they can go from Granddad's Farm to this cool car to...

I wish I had my grandpa's old truck. Right. I'd give anything for that old truck. I drove it a little bit in college when my car was in the shop. Three on the tree, baby. I'd give anything for that old truck right now. So it's okay to lean into

legacy. Yeah, you should. You can sell your wife's wedding ring. To cherish that heritage. I hope my sons keep some of my guns and some of my cars and stuff. I hope they do. Sharon of my guns and some of my cars and stuff. I hope they do. Sharon don't want them, so they might as well. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

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.