The Ramsey Show - App - Is It Okay to Use Autodraft to Pay Bills? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 17, 2019

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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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Well, we only have about a month left in this location.

We have built a new building south of here, a couple of exits that our entire team is moving into. There's about 900 of us at this point. And we're spread all over about a two-mile radius around here. All we do is drive back and forth to meetings these days, it feels like. So we're actually going to get all under one roof. We've got seven podcast studios, one television studio, and two studios broadcasting radio shows on the glass in the lobby. The lobby is absolutely stellar

you guys when you're visiting nashville and to be sure you put ramsey solutions on your list of things to do and come by we got a cool lobby now with complete with coffee shop melissa's and they're making homemade cookies for everybody and coffee and it's all complimentary to our customers when they come in and anybody that's a visitor. In other words, our team can't come down and scarf all the cookies, but they're for you guys. And so make sure you plan to do that down if you come into Nashville after August because we'll be moving next month into that building. So we've only got about a month left to broadcast from this studio.

I've been in this studio for 17 years. So a little bit nostalgic. But it's kind of like selling an old car. It's a sweet old car, but the newer one's a lot nicer. So, yeah, we'll be making that move. You guys make plans to come and visit us in the month of August or September thereafter in the couple of exits or September thereafter in the couple of exits south of here in the Nashville area. We're trying to get it all arranged with the folks on Google and on Maps and everything

so you can find it because it's a brand new area. And honestly, it's in the middle of a dadgum field stuck out down in the country. So it's the growth pattern of the city. Everybody will catch up to us eventually. We always go places before other people do. It's part of our standard thing here. Plus, the land was cheap down there, so shut up. But anyway, so that's what we're doing.

And looking forward to having you guys visit us there. But about a month left here in the studios, all of these broadcasts. And I'm starting to be pretty aware of that. The older I get, I think the more nostalgic I get. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Holly starts off this hour in Salt Lake City. Hi, Holly. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. It's a pleasure to talk to you. You too. What's up? Well, I'm calling because I've got a question. I've been on the phone with mortgage people all day, and I thought I'd better get your advice before I get too far. Okay. We bought a fixer-upper home about six years ago in a really good area and then we

had to put money into it. So we took out a second mortgage on it to finish the repairs and do an addition. So I guess my question, what I've been looking into doing is to refinance and then wrap the second into the original and then refinance to a 15. I'm just trying to decide if that's a better route or to just hurry and pay off. What's the interest rate on your first? Our first, we got it at a 3, so that's what's held us for a long time. And how much is owed on the second? $70,000. And what's your household income?

About $140,000. Okay. And what's the balance on the first? $165,000. Okay. I would not pay off the second, and I would not refinance at all. Okay. Okay.

And here's why. Okay. You can't get 3% today unless you pay a bunch of points okay and so your your first mortgage is going to go up okay and your second mortgage is going to go down the second reason is second mortgages go in baby step two as if they're a credit card if they're half of your annual income or less. Okay. And yours is right at half your annual income, which means it's a lot, but it's not so much you can't knock it out in a few years.

What's the interest rate and terms on your second mortgage? It's a 7%. And how much other debt have you got? Nothing. That's it. Does it have a balloon on it? No. Okay.

Is it amortized, meaning it has a set payment? Yes. Okay. And over how many years? Ten. Okay. And so you're going to pay it off in two. Okay.

And you're going to be debt-free other than your first mortgage, and you're going to preserve that 3% first mortgage. If it is a 30-year mortgage, if you simply will calculate what the 15-year mortgage is and pay the difference, you pay a 30 like a 15, it pays off in 15. Okay. So you don't need to refinance to convert the first to a 15. You don't need to refinance and let your first mortgage go from 3% to 4%. That would not be a good idea. Yeah. And we certainly don't want to, but we let your first mortgage go from 3% to 4%. That would not be a good idea. And we certainly don't want to, but we do want to get rid of this second.

So that's what I would do, and that's what our baby steps in the Total Money Makeover book would recommend if you read it detailed about second mortgages. That's the guidelines. So good question. Thank you for joining us. Jacob's in Albany, New York. Hi, Jacob. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. It's such an honor to talk to you. You've helped me out so much over the years, and I just want to say thank you. So my question for you today is I'm on Baby Step 3B. I have my Baby Step 3 saved up, and I'm trying to figure out how much intensity i should kind of be putting towards the down payment on the house or um whether or not to put some in retirement or actually spend some of it i'm just trying to figure out how to organize that part it's completely up to you how fast do you want to buy a house the faster you want to buy a house the more you're going to

sacrifice cutting into baby step four temporarily and the more you're going to not do anything else temporarily the faster you want some people got like house fever you know like they got to buy a house tomorrow they're going to buy kind of thing okay and then other people are like well someday i'd like to get a house you know so it's completely up to you and the math is obvious isn't it the more you spend on lifestyle and the more you put into retirement the less is going into the down payment fund and that's not evil as long as you're pretty laid back about the house but you can't be intense about retirement and house down payment at the same time because they're pulling at each other.

That's right, yes. Okay. So you just got to kind of, you know, just sit down, do a little soul searching. Are you single? I am, yes. How old are you? I'm 26 years old. I'm sorry?

I said 26 years old. Okay, 26-year-old single. And what's your household income? What do you make? $65,000. I'm a public school teacher. Oh, good for you. Okay, cool.

Thanks. Well, there is absolutely no rush. There's nothing that says if you don't own a house by X year old that you're a failure or something. What you don't want to do is avoid homeownership throughout the whole scope of your life. You know, plan to be a renter your whole life is a good way to plan to be broke because rent goes up every year basically so but but what we want because so we wanted to stabilize one of our most expensive line items on our budget which is our housing so you want to buy eventually but if it takes you three years instead of two years because you actually went on vacation oh well you know whoopee not the end of the world.

Nothing to freak out about. So you just sit down in your prayer time, your quiet time, and you just go, okay, I'm sitting on the back porch with a cup of coffee. What do I want to do first? This is my money. And you get to decide, and you'll be fine either way, as long as you get around to doing all of it eventually. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. you could find an affordable biblical solution to your health care costs based on new testament principles christian health care ministries or chm helps christian families churches and ministries

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That's chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Joyce is with us in Cincinnati. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Joyce. Hi, Dave. I so appreciate you taking my call. Sure.

What's up? Well, we just found out that my mother, who is a millionaire but has never heard of you, has terminal cancer. What we can do ahead of time to plan for the inheritance that's going to be coming in. Everything's taken care of as far as her bills and everything until that point. So she has a full estate plan and a will. Yes. And everyone knows and a will. Yes. And everyone knows what it says. Yes. Good. So the whole family is on the same page as far as what's going to occur when she does pass away, whenever that is.

Well, not so much. But she says this is what's going to happen. Well, she is in charge. It's her stuff. Right. So if someone doesn't agree, they're what's known as doesn't matter. Exactly. Okay.

So it wouldn't hurt for her to go ahead and tell them all that. Yeah. As her last instructions. Because here's what happens. You can stop a lot of estate plan and siblings and cousins squabbling over stuff if you go ahead and handle it while you're alive. Right. And that's part of what we're trying to figure out how to do now. What do you mean?

Read the will out loud in front of all of them and let her look at all of them and say this is the way it is yeah but we're spread out all over the country and it's called skype it's called skype or telephones everybody get on a conference call and mama said this and this is mama's stuff and she needs to take a strong stand because to the extent she tries to not say this stuff out loud is to the extent y'all are going to fight about it later. So if she'll go ahead and kind of deal the blow now, it's a good thing. Because all the drama happens when everybody tries to say, well, Mama really said this at Thanksgiving. Mama didn't mean this.

Mama did that. Mama promised me this. And none of that really matters. All that matters legally is what's in the will because that's what's going to happen nothing else is going to happen right and that's why she did all the planning good now good yeah because she knows that we're about as dysfunctional as it can well good for her i like her already i'm glad how old is she she's 89 oh good for her. I like her already. I'm glad. How old is she? She's 89.

Oh, good for her. She beat cancer once, but this one she's not going to. She's not going to beat this one. I'm sorry. Sorry you guys are facing this. I guess my other question is I would like to figure out what to do with this money after, you know, once I get the inheritance. Yeah. So where on the baby steps are you guys? I'm on step two.

Okay. You're single? Yes. Okay. And the problem with that is I'm 63 years old. That's okay. That's all right. Well, if she's 89, you should be 63. That makes sense.

So baby step two is you work your baby steps. How much money will you be receiving roughly in inheritance someday? Probably three-quarters of a million. Okay. Okay. Okay. Great. And so how much debt do you have? How much non-mortgage debt do you have?

I have $40,000 non-mortgage. And how much mortgage debt do you have? $60,000. Okay. So $100,000 of $750,000 makes you debt-free. Did I do that right? Yes. Then you do an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses,

and the rest of it's invested for college. I'm sorry, invested for retirement and for wealth building. And, you know, you should have $600,000. You've got $50,000 in an emergency fund, $100,000 debt-free. That leaves about $600,000 invested. That should create somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000 to $60,000 a year in income if you invest it with a SmartVestor Pro and do a good job. Right.

I did just switch everything over to a SmartVestor Pro because I was not happy with where it was. Okay, and you already have a nest egg. Yes. And how large is your current nest egg? A small one. Well, it's only about $40,000 right now. All right, good. Well, you'll be getting Social Security plus 40 to 60 a year off of the 600 invested,

and you're 100% debt-free, and that will easily allow you to let that money grow, because you won't need it all. No. You won't even need all the income off of it. No, because everything will be paid off. Well, and you're going to be living on a budget aren't you yes because one of the ways i get one of the ways i gauge if i'm doing the right thing with an inheritance is does it make the person who's leaving me the money while they're sitting in heaven watching me does it make them smile

okay you see what i'm saying and guess what You being debt-free and living on a budget would make your mom a smile, wouldn't it? It sure would. Yeah, so you're honoring her memory by properly and with wisdom and frugality managing this money. Mm-hmm. That's what I'd do. And, you know, you're going to be okay. In the meantime, you continue your track because, I mean, we don't know. She might push this cancer back five years, and you go get out of debt and build you a nest egg.

I'm in. Right. Well, that's kind of what I'm doing right now. I just have my top three debts left. I mean, I've paid off everything a little. But let me tell you, you guys are going to spend some of this money fighting with each other if she does not get everybody on the phone and tell them. All at the same time on one conference call so you have all of you know all of you heard what she said

right no one says oh when she was on the phone with me here's what she said no we're all on the same same page yeah and on the same page and this is none of their business it's her money she gets to do with it what she wants if she wants to leave it all to one person that's her right right not suggesting that i'm not suggesting that but i'm not suggesting that but you don't have any anybody that says they're entitled to this money says my inheritance it's not your inheritance until she says it is right that's how this works. So there you go. Good question.

Thanks for the call. Folks, we always tell you to, you know, get online and get your budget at Mama Bear. MamaBear.com is the name of the budget. Get your will done or get to an attorney and get your will done. But once the will is done, a good rule of thumb is have a reading of the will while you're alive. Tell everybody what the freaking plan is. That's the thing we're doing here. Tell everybody what the plan is.

The thing where the dysfunctional family with the crazy stepson and the trophy wife and the lawyer with big bushy eyebrows and ear hair in the lobby in the study with walnut lined paneling, having a dramatic reading of the will and it surprises everyone. And it's got unusual, you know, unusual clauses in the will and all this stuff. That only happens in one place in the movies. No one in real life does that crap. It doesn't happen that way. And so it's really good for you to just tell everyone. You can give them all a copy of the will if you want ahead of time.

Here's a copy. Our estate plan these days, because it involves this huge business as well, and it involves Ramsey's, Ramsey Kids, Ramsey Grandkids, my wife, and lots and lots and lots of ministries that we support, because it involves all of those things, we have this massive meeting once a year with the leadership team here at the office, here in our company, with all the Ramseys in one room, and we cover what's going to happen if Dave dies in the next 12 months.

And every year it changes a little bit. They're a little more glad when he dies. It's a morbid freaking meeting. I'm in there discussing my death. But you know what? It gives the family great peace. It gives the organization great peace to know we have what's known as a plan. And everybody's on the same page.

We're all pulling the same way. As for me and my house, we serve the Lord. So you're not even inheriting money. You're just inheriting the responsibility to manage it for God, because you don't own it anyway. This is the Dave Ramsey Solutions, Kurt and Eileen are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hi. Welcome.

Where do you guys live? Meyerstown, Pennsylvania. Which is near? Lebanon. Okay, cool. Well, welcome to Nashville. Good to have you guys. Thank you.

And all the way down here to do a debt-free scream. Yes. Love it. And how much have you paid off? $300,000. All right. How long did this take? Five and a half years. Wow. And your range have you paid off? $300,000. All right. How long did this take? Five and a half years.

Wow. And your range of income during that time? That was between $100,000 and then we ended up around $175,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm a spec analyst for a steel company. And I'm self-employed. I wholesale products to stores. All right. Very cool. Good for you guys. So five and a half years and three hundred thousand i'm guessing with those numbers that this is the house it is i'm looking at weird people you don't have a mortgage no mortgage wow you're weird dave i'm

so glad i heard you call me weird i love it i'll normal sucks you don't want to be normal amen way to go man i'm so proud of y'all how old are you two i'm 55 i'm 52 and you got to pay for a house yes we do what's this house worth about 160 i love it man you are heading into retirement going this is awesome well done well done so what put you on this track five and a half years ago to get your house paid off well we got we met each other about six years ago um so we've been through previous marriages ourselves so uh this is our way to join lives and do what we knew was right and get out of debt be weird and and uh and have a good retirement for ourselves. Gotcha. Okay.

So how long have you been married? We've been together eight and a half years. Eight and a half years. Okay. Very good. And we'll be married six years at the end of this month. Okay. So as soon as you got married, you decided we're going to tear into this house and get it knocked out.

Correct. So how did you guys get connected to us? Well, it was all the debts, not just the house. Oh, okay. It was before the house. Yeah. Good. So how did you guys get connected to us?

Well, I've been through the Larry Burkett program growing up. Oh, yeah. And then when we met, we got involved with her church, and they had your FPU class. Oh, okay. We went through it, and then we started going to his church when we got married and we saw a need um in that church where people had very little money at retirement and we just felt it would be beneficial if we could teach this program uh to the church and that's what we did so you've been leading fpu classes yeah we taught three classes wow Wow, thank you. Yes.

It's fun, isn't it? It changed my life because I struggled with it in the beginning. I actually hated your class. You're not the only one. I'm a cuss word in some houses. You were not. You were. I made my husband continually go over that budget with me monthly to keep me on board. That's okay.

Good. Good. Well, you guys decided to work together, and that's really, really important. And here you sit with everything paid off, house and everything. Cars, house, jewelry, furniture, everything. You don't have a payment in the world. Nothing. It's incredible.

How's it feel? Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Good for you guys. So when you're teaching a class now, you have a paid-for house. You're walking testimony. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Good for you guys. So when you're teaching a class now, you have a paid-for house. You're walking testimony.

Yes. When they say, how did you do that? What do you tell them they must do if they want to get out of debt? Work hard. Yeah. I work 60 hours a week. Ooh. So I was able to do that in my position.

Mm-hmm. So take extra hours, make extra income. Exactly. All right. What else? And we were determined, though, based on the extra hours, we're not going to blow that money. It's going to go. I don't mind you doing it, honey, and being away from the house, but we've got to be determined of where it's going, as you say.

And it worked beautifully, and she's been wonderful. Wow. Very cool. Good for you guys. Very, very well done. So when you're doing this, five and a half years is a long slog. That's a long time. Yeah.

It is. Believe me. Who were your encouragers, your biggest cheerleaders? We really didn't have many around our close circle. Obviously, I listened to you every day. Obviously, she didn't. But for me, you were my motivation, obviously, for obvious reasons. But then, obviously, teaching the class for both of us was absolutely, yeah. Did they all know where you were? You told them your story and everything?

Yes. When we talked? Yeah yep yeah when we met i probably own had a card to every store imaginable a credit card and so how many credit cards did you have i have a stack i don't know you held your hand up like this a stack like two inches of them probably more than that i had a stack of cards i love it your plastic surgery was real right and it was relatable to a lot of the people that were in our classes that they had the same situation going on and it was hard to let go of that plastic because i'm a gift giver so my husband did did well with me yeah well and now you don't have any payments you can be a gift giver that's. If you give like no one else later, you can give like no one else.

Amen. I love it. You can just go get gifts and it's no big deal. I have a gift room, not a guest room at our house. I love it. Well, and you don't have a house payment. That's right. That's right.

That's so good. Good for you guys. Well done. Well, we're proud of you here. I can tell you that. Thank you for leading a class and thank you for going out there and changing your life and proving it can be done. Thank you for all that you do. Very well done. Well, we're proud of you here. I can tell you that. Thank you for leading a class, and thank you for going out there and changing your life and proving it can be done. Thank you for what you do. Very well done.

We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. You're going to be one soon. If you're not already, you're on your way. Well done, you guys. You're going to go into retirement set. Yes, we will. Wow. Ding, ding.

All right. It's Kurt and Eileen from Lebanon, Pennsylvania. $300,000 paid off. That's their house and everything. They're officially weird people. They did it five and a half years it took, making $100,000 to $175,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free. I love it. I love it. I love it. Well done, you guys. Beautifully, beautifully done. Man, that's fabulous. Wow.

House and everything, baby. Don't you wish you were there? Well, go do the steps. Chelsea's with us. And we better push the right button if I'm going to get Chelsea. Chelsea's with us in Dallas. Hi, Chelsea. How are you?

Hi there, Dan. Great. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, I just found out about you. I've heard your name lots, but I just got engaged with your program. I started and finished a total money makeover in the same day last week.

Wow. And talked to my husband husband basically forced him to watch a ton of youtube videos about it about your program over the weekend oh my gosh we bought the financial peace university today oh my gosh we already had a thousand over a thousand dollars in savings so that's good good on the baby step two he sold his beloved high school truck about 15 minutes ago for $5,000 cash. Wow. And that'll pay off our first four debts that we have. Look at you.

So we're on our way. You are on fire. Get after it, kiddo. We're trying. My question is this. We have a lot of bills and expenses that we auto-charge to our credit cards, honestly, so I don't forget to make the payment. It just goes right from our checking account or immediately charges to my credit card, and I don't really think about it. Really, I'm not even for sure

what's going in and out at this point. We're still so new to this. My question is this. As I'm working paying off debt, do I keep things auto-charging to my credit cards or auto-deducting from my checking account, or should I halt all of that and begin writing checks, paying bills as they come to me? Right. Well, I would auto-deduct from your checking account. I do that. It just has to show up in your budget. You've got to say, okay, I've got this much income coming in, and this item is paid auto, and you can use your every dollar plus to line that up and take care of it. It'll show you exactly what to do, okay? That's your app for your phone, the budgeting app that came with Financial Peace University, okay?

And so you get your budget laid out on that, and auto-deduct from checking is okay. We want to do away with credit cards. You're going to find out if you haven't already. And so you're going to convert the ones that are on a credit card either to a checking withdrawal or a debit card withdrawal. And the debit card, of course, turns around and comes out of the checking account anyway. So we're doing away with the credit cards. So you'll move those. There's no panic.

I mean, if it takes you a month to move them over, that's fine. How many are on the credit cards are auto-drafted? I would say probably five things. Honestly, Dave. Well, it won't take you 20 minutes to change over five things to your debit card. If you already have a debit card on your checking account, just switch it over to that. Go on to the account that's doing the withdrawal, and just change your card out.

That's all you do. And use a debit card number instead of a credit card number. That's what I do. Thanks for the call. Bridget's in Los Angeles. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Bridget. Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. My pleasure.

How can I help? Hi, Dave. My husband and I started looking into our debt and we have decided to start tackling it and getting rid of it as soon as possible. Great. I heard about you through a coworker and this past Saturday, I was just hooked on your podcast, just hearing people's stories and just learning how to best do this. Cool. We were able to scrape up about $10,000 from savings. I have a side business apart from my full-time job.

So, some money that I have there along with like I was saving like in a Corvidale account as well as our 401k. So, we're able to scrape up about $10,000 through all of those methods. We have about $15,000 in credit card debt and we have a $13,000 personal loan from a credit union. So my question is, should we use these funds to pay off one of these debts or at least make a good dent in one of them? And if so, which one should we tackle first, the credit union or the credit card? Okay, you have more than one credit card. Right, yeah. Those are not one debt. That's one category of debts.

Each card is an individual debt. Okay? Yes. And what we teach folks to do is to list your debts in baby step two after you've saved $1,000, anything above $1,000, not counting retirement. I would not cash out a 401K, and I would not cash out a cover deal. You didn't do that, did you? No, not yet.

Don't. Just stop adding to them temporarily. So how much of the $10,000 that you were counting is in a retirement account or a college savings account? That would be about $5,000. Okay, so you have $5,000 in cash, not counting retirement and college. Yes. Okay, that's what we're going to work with. We're not going to cash out your retirement or your college, because you're going to get

penalized and taxed on that, and it's going to hit you to the tune of 30% to 40%, which is higher than the interest you're paying, so you wouldn't do that. Okay? Okay. But I would stop adding to those. Do you have auto-draft on your check or checking account going into those accounts? Yes, I've stopped doing that. Good.

I actually stopped it this weekend, and also we have like a whole life policy for the kids, and so I stopped that today too. Yeah, and we will cash that out. Any little bit of cash that's in, that's fine. We can cash that out. So what's your household income? It is $128,000 per year. Great, great.

Okay, so we have $5,000 cash, and let's work the baby steps then. Baby step one is save $1,000. So that leaves us $4,000. Am I right? Right. Okay. And we're going to apply that to your smallest debt down to your largest debt. And so what that's going to do is knock out your smaller credit cards.

Because the personal loan is one big loan, right? Right. Okay. So you're going to be debt-free in probably about a year or a little less. Okay. The only part that I didn't, you know, Dave, is that we do have a mortgage and our mortgage is about $3,300 a month.

Okay, that's fine. It's not that big a deal. We tell folks try not to get a mortgage more than a fourth of your take-home pay. Yours isn't. Shouldn't be. Okay. It should be right around there,

but it's a little rich, but it's not the end of the world. I'm not going to panic and sell a house. I just want you on a written budget jump on the jump online and get the every dollar app it's free the budgeting app and you and your husband sit down i did that on sunday okay did you and your husband do the budget together we did great well you are you're on fire man you're on track you that's the thing so did you feel like you got a raise when you did the budget? Like where's all this freaking money going? Yes, I did feel that way.

That's a normal feeling because what happens is when you get organized, you recognize the waste. And we all blow money when we don't have a plan. And when you have a plan, you suddenly go, well, we have to stick to the plan because we want to get out of debt because we want our life back. We're going to chop up these credit cards and we're going to pay them off in order we'll get rid of this personal loan because we don't have any payments life's going to be good right right yes you got this i do have one more one more question for you dave i do have some student loan debt it's about 60 000 it is deferred right now but it is going to start being due soon within the next few months. So they've already sent me notice where their terms, the payment per month is about $570 per month, but I was looking at my options online, so I can do the longer term, so it'll

lower the payment to about $230 per month. We don't want to do a longer term. We want to do a shorter term. We're trying to get out of debt. Okay. Okay, because I thought about using the snowball effect for the student loan debt. Just pay your minimum payment, whatever the minimum they make you pay is. That's going to slow down the numbers I just gave you because I didn't know that when we

were talking about that. So you're not going to be out of debt in a year. It's going to take you between two and three. Okay. And you'll have no payments then but a house payment, and that's going to feel great. But you're going to have no life during that two to three years. You're going to be on beans and rice, rice and beans, kiddo. Well, you know, the house will be worth it.

We've got a pool, so. Well, you got your entertainment, then you're staying home. So, you know, what do you want to do today? We're swimming in the pool. What do you want to do tomorrow? We're swimming in the pool. What do you want to do on Saturday? We're swimming in the pool.

You got your entertainment, kiddo, so let's get after it now and clean it up. This is good. Got it. Love it, love it, love it. Very well done, Bridget. Proud of you. You're on track. If we can help more, you call us back any time.

Any time. Well, our question of the day comes from blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It means even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color, they will remake your window blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSEY to get the best possible deal.

Today's question comes from Jeremy in Iowa. My fiancé and I have about $80,000 in debt between two car loans and student loans. I can't get my fiancé on board with knocking out debt before we get married, and I'm wondering what I should do before I say I do. She owes about $50,000. I owe about $50,000. We have a combined income of $100,000. Well, we don't have an income, and we don't have debt until we are married.

And once we are married, then there's a we, and it's completely we at that point we we you become french right then that's how that works right and so um until then uh you're dating a girl that is in debt and she's dating a boy that's in debt and that's how this works now what you need to do before i say i do is you need to get on the same freaking page there are four data points that all the marriage statistics tell us must be circled data point number one the number one cause of divorce in america today money fights and money problems i can't get my fiancee on the same page sends up flares warning warning warning you have a problem in the number one area that causes divorce warning warning warning you need to resolve that one way or the other oh that was harsh

doesn't really sound very romantic papa dave ain't real romantic he's too old so here's the deal you're gonna have a long life that's gonna be miserable trying to keep somebody who will not say no to themselves happy so get in some good pre-marriage counseling get on the same page go to financial peace university get on the same page as part of your pre-marriage counseling and get on the same page or do not get married. Ooh, that was harsh. I suspect she'll come around, but not after you're married, before you're married. We need to be two grown-ups. We need to be on the same page. It is the number one stress point in marriage.

The other three are religion, religion kids and in-laws if you're on the same page on religion kids how many to have and how to treat them do they run the house or do you all that kind of stuff do the inmates run the asylum or not you know and in-laws what are you gonna do with the crazy people in your family or her family because y'all got crazy people in your family everybody's got crazy people in your family if you think you don't have crazy people in your family it's you everybody has crazy people so you how you gonna deal with crazy people how you gonna do with the kiddos and uh what we're doing about religion what do we believe do we believe the same things and are we in agreement about money if you're in agreement on those four major data points you have a very high statistical chance of your marriage prospering and staying together

those are the four big ones that tear people apart there's other stuff too we can get into later if you want to do a full marriage seminar but i'm not a marriage counselor i've just read the data over and over and over because i'm sitting square in the middle of it with with people i've been married 12 years and my husband doesn't work much it's gonna be a long life for you kiddo you should have thought of that before you married him he was cute when you were dating him he ain't cute now he's just a slug you know this is a problem you have to work on this stuff at a time this is is The Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify?

For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com.