The Ramsey Show - App - Is It Smart to Move While Paying Down Debt? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 7, 2018

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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. We invite your calls about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jeanette is with us in Asheville, North Carolina. Hi, Jeanette.

How are you? I'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? My question is, my husband and I are, we think we're ready to sell our home and move closer into our neighboring county for better Internet service and access to schools and closer to our church. We bought our home about four years ago. And my husband recently just took a sales job where he needs everyday access to the Internet,

and it's just we have very poor service where we are, no access to cell phones. And so we've been working the baby steps for about two, two-and-a-half years, and it's paid off about $75,000, and I'm still just left with my student loan to pay off plus our mortgage. What's the balance on your student loan? About $55,000. Okay. And how much is your home worth? Last appraisal was about $215,000. And what do you owe?

$165,000. Okay. So you'll get a little out of it, not a ton. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All right. And your question's what?

Is it smart to sell? Well? At the stage we are now, we have a three-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old. And I know, you know, selling and buying and that whole process is a headache and, you know, stress. But at the same time, I'd like to get settled somewhere where we're going to grow our family, be closer to schools, have internet access. I would be closer to my job. We would be in the territory my husband covers and just build a foundation there. And I'm not opposed to downsizing either. We live in North Carolina.

What's your household income? Currently it's $105, but that is going to grow when my husband starts getting more clients. And he just took this job? Yes, sir. He was on the other side of the business in the kitchen operations manager. Now he's in the sales. There's two possibilities if I'm in your shoes. You can do whatever you want. You're adults. But you're called to ask me what I would do. And what I would do is

one of two things. I would either sit tight and let his income come on up, and the kids aren't going to school right now anyway. Or what we did when we were in a similar position to you, our kids' worst school age would be the difference, was we actually sold our home and rented in the district that we wanted to be in. And if you want to go ahead and make the move now for the convenience that you're outlining, it's not really for the school district today, but you're not going to be out of debt.

And I'm not going to tell you to move. And I'm also going to guess and say where you're talking about moving is more expensive than where you live now. It depends on which area of the county, yes. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, if you want all of those things, I would sell and rent for maybe about a year and a half, two years. Okay.

And then buy again. By then you would be debt-free and build up a good emergency fund and a good down payment. And then you're ready to buy. Also, by then we'll see what his income really does in his sales position. And it might help you make a much wiser choice in terms of how much to buy it off on the house uh you might be get a lot nicer house by doing that's what i'm saying you might you know let's say his income goes way up which would be awesome we don't know that today today you can't

buy on what might happen but if his income, zoom, you could buy based on that. And so I would either sit tight and wait on that to happen and just bear the inconvenience for 18 to 24 months and get out of debt, get your student loan paid off during that time, and your house will go up in value, and you can make a move then with that equity and with whatever else you're able to save. Or move and rent and get your debts cleaned up, get your emergency fund in place,

build up your down payment, and buy again. Either one would be fine with me. Would I move and buy again? No, I would not. Not in your situation. I don't think that's wise. And I think then you're just stacking up rationalizations to buy something you're not really in a position to buy right now.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Tanya is in Atlanta. Hi, Tanya. How are you? Hi, Dave. Fine. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? Okay. So I've been dying to talk to you. I'm going to do it really quick. I'm kind of nervous. But my husband and I, we have a house with two kids and we're thinking of selling. We have outstanding debt. We took out a second mortgage. So it's totaling about $204,000. And then we have other debt, which is totaling about

$60,000. So we weren't sure if we should sell and just roll it you know all over and then pay what is your home worth um right now i don't even know how much it's worth but it's on the market roughly roughly roughly what's it worth uh i don't know 360 okay and and what do you owe on the first mortgage? $190,000. And what do you owe on the second mortgage? $50,000. Okay. So that's the $240,000 against $360,000. All right.

I got you. Right. And then you've got another $60,000 in debt. Is that what you said? Correct. And that's on what? That's on car. How much is the car?

How much do you owe on the car? Roughly is about maybe $19,000. Okay. We have credit card debt was about $10,000, and we have like a Home Depot loan that we can log a kitchen with, which is about $11,000, and then a $20,000 for my parents. $20,000 to your parents? Yes, yes. Okay. All right20,000 to your parents? Yes.

Yes. Okay. All right. And what's your household income? Between me and my husband, monthly is about $5,400, roughly. That's your take-home pay? Yeah, a month between the both of us. Okay.

So you're making about $85,000 a year, probably? Probably, yes. Okay, all right, cool. All right, do you like your house? We do. Okay, I would keep it. Keep it. And I would get in the business of paying off my debts.

If you pay off $30,000, if you get on beans and rice, rice and beans, and you pay off $30,000 worth of debts per year you would be debt free in two years debt free in two years that okay my goal was three but we can do it in two well 85 minus 30 leaves 55 not counting taxes okay right and that's that's the numbers i'm using i'm not doing anything super you know brilliant. I'm just looking at the big numbers. Is this doable? Yeah. You stop all of your 401K contributions. You stop doing anything. You put your life on beans and rice, rice and beans,

because we want to keep this wonderful home, and we're not going to sell it to pay off all these stupid debts that we have. We're going to cut up our credit cards, and we're going to get after it. That's what we're going to do. And that's the plan to do here. So, hey, thanks for the call. We appreciate you joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Hey, this is Dave Ramsey.

You know, most of us have gotten behind on our bills at one time or another. That's nothing to be ashamed of. It happens. And many of us know the embarrassment that comes with those harassing calls from collectors. Some of these guys are just scum. But then there are the collectors that are just plain crooks. These are the guys that take it a step further and they violate the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on a daily basis. They're breaking the law and they need to be stopped.

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from bullying and threatening you anymore. CollectionBully.com. Go to CollectionBully.com today. That's CollectionBully.com. Well, we really do believe in the saying, go big or go home around here. Go big, babe. Go big. That's the thing, man. So our summer car giveaway was sponsored by Carvana and of course ramsey and what we decided to do was give away four wonderful slightly used experienced automobiles for twelve thousand

five hundred dollars each that's fifty thousand dollars worth of cars given away throughout the month of may the people that came to our website at DaveRamsey.com, they'll purchase necessary and put in their email, gave them the ability to be in the drawing. Lots of people sent me sad stories on Twitter, like I need a car, Dave, and we weren't giving it away based on how bad you needed a car. It was a random drawing. So I appreciate the sad stories and I hope you can work your way through it and I'll try to help you work your way through it.

But it was not based on merit. It was not based on anything. It was a random drawing of people who registered at the website, and you could register up to once a day. You could register more than that, but it wouldn't be counted. It would not be put into the drawing. We had a little thing to catch you people that were trying to stuff the box. So anyway, pretty cool stuff, cool stuff and of course great stuff going

on you know like graduation gifts for the graduate survival guide for only twenty dollars when people came to DaveRamsey.com and that's you know another best seller yet again and that kind of stuff and so very cool stuff the thing is uh we had one car that we had not yet given away from the month of May and Alicia in fort lauderdale is on the line alicia you just want a car oh my god oh my god david for real for real i wouldn't lie to you oh my god i'm shaking right now i love it and i'm shaking oh my god very cool thank you so much, Dave. Thank you.

So it sounds like maybe you need a car. It sounds like you need a car. Yeah, Mama and I needed a car, yeah. Mama and I. So you live with your mom? No, I'm taking care of her. You're taking care of her. She lives with you.

Yeah. Okay, all right. How old are you? Yeah, I'm 45 going on 46. Yeah, so what kind of car you got now? None. None? None. None? None.

You did need a car. You go from walking to car right now. This is awesome. Oh, my God. God answer my prayer, Dave. And this is not just some little hooptie car. I mean, this is a $12,500 car. Oh, my God.

Thank you. Carvana is going to let you pick from over 1,000 cars that they've got that meet that guideline and deliver it to your door. Oh, I can't go pick it up? Either way, right? Life is good. Life is good. I'm so proud for you. Very cool.

How many times did you enter? How many times did you enter? From May 4th every day. From May 4th every day you. Very cool. How many times did you enter? How many times did you enter? From May 4th every day. From May 4th every day on. Very cool. Yes. And the very last car we give away was the one that God had set aside for Alicia. I am truly blessed.

I'm proud of you, kiddo. Proud of you. Thank you, Dave. Very cool. Congratulations. That's fun. Well, you hang on,oud of you. Thank you, Dave. Very cool. Congratulations. That's fun. Well, you hang on, and the team in there will pick up. We'll make sure we've got you set up and get that car out to you in the next,

however quickly they do all that stuff. It's not going to be two years, but it might not be two minutes. But it can't be too soon if you're walking. Oh, my gosh, that's good. That's the way it's supposed to be. I feel like Santa Claus. Very cool. Right here in what? Santa Claus in June. I's supposed to be. I feel like Santa Claus. Very cool. And right here in what?

Santa Claus in June. I'm going to try to remember what month it is. But yeah, in June. There you go. Christmas in June. I love it. Well, that is cool. I can't think of anybody better than that to get that car.

Oh, I know you thought you were the one, but it's okay. It's okay. You never know around here. We go big, man. So you just keep hanging on and hanging with us, and we're going to teach you. And, you know, maybe the way you're getting your car is you're going to just have the money because you're going to handle it well because you're hanging out with us. We appreciate you being here.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. That was serious fun. Brianna is with us in Washington, D.C. Hi, Brianna. How are you? Hi, Mr. Ramsey. How are you? I'm kind of nervous. No trouble. Excited to be speaking with you. You're fine. We've never lost a patient. How can I help?

Well, currently, I'm working through Baby Step 2. I've been working on it for about, I'll say, a couple of months. My total debt is $24,000. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I make $24,000 annually, but my total debt is about rounding up to $7,000.

It's mostly student loans, but a few personal, I'm sorry, a few health loans. I want to go back to school to pursue nursing. It's been a passion and a dream that I've always wanted to pursue, but I don't want to take out loans and I want to cash flow it. My question for you is, should I wait to cash flow my education before starting and just continue to work through the baby steps while also saving for school or should i just just be throwing all my money towards saving for my education right now

so you want to be a nurse yes sir and what do you do now right now i work in um food service okay all right um how old are you? I'm 23. Okay, good. Have you figured out, have you studied up on where you might go to nursing school and what it would cost? Yes, sir. I want to go to the local community college, and I know that'll be about $8,000 a semester for me. And they also do, you know, guaranteed acceptance with a lot of major schools in the area. So I know, like, as far as after my two years, I can get a good deal at going to a bigger university. So this is a four-year plan? I mean, what have you got to do to get your nursing degree? Do you already have a degree and you're just adding on?

Oh, no, sir. Is it a two-year system? No, sir. I would be pursuing my bachelor's. Okay. So you're going to get a four-year degree in order to get into nursing? Yes, sir. Two years at the community college and two years somewhere else?

Yes, sir. Okay. Good. Good. Excellent. Okay. So we need to study out what that costs and then how we can pay for it. All right, there's two things that come to mind.

One, obviously, is anything we can do to get your income up and clean out this little bothersome $7,000 worth of debt, and that's just like the six extra jobs that we all talk about around here all the time for a short period of time um you're young you can do that uh the second thing that comes to mind is how can we get someone to pay for your school so you don't have to um obviously the military is an option for that they're always looking for nurses the second thing is there's a bit of a shortage in a lot of areas on nursing. And I might check with some of the hospital companies.

Some of the companies that own the hospitals may be in your area there or maybe even another area that you'd be willing to move to. And if you could get on as, I don't care if you work in the kitchen and food service at that hospital, they might have a scholarship program for their employees in order to get nursing. And sometimes it's a thing where they'll pay for it, but you have to agree to work for them for so many years after that in order to get your free education. But I would love for you to do something like that. And you work full-time for them that and you know you work full time for them and you go to school evenings um and they pay for you to go through a nursing program a lot of them

have things like that and so i'd start poking around and talking to them and uh you know i would change jobs in a heartbeat if i could get a somebody to pay for your nursing degree in the process but that's the way i'm going to start thinking about it that that would be a lot easier jobs in a heartbeat if I could get somebody to pay for your nursing degree in the process. But that's the way I'm going to start thinking about it. That would be a lot easier than paying for it, doing that or doing the military or something along those lines. But I would not go $100,000 in debt, period. Nursing is a fabulous career field.

Lots of opportunity. Lots of job security. And, you know, you can move up. You can continue to study and move up through the process and, you know, go from LPN to RN and so on. And nurse practitioner. I mean, there's a lot of things you can do here. And so it's a great career choice. It is not a great career choice to go deeply in debt to do it.

And there is none that does that. So we're going to find a way to either cash flow it as we go by working extra and working different jobs and more jobs and or getting employed by someone who wants nurses and is willing to pay for it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. For years, I refused to endorse any company that claimed to get people out of timeshares. I told my listeners it's a horrible product and that, unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of options. Then a few years ago, I sat down with Brandon Reed, the owner of Timeshare Exit Team. Brandon walked me through the timeshare industry, and I learned that you can't sell them, and you can't even give them away.

And then we talked about Timeshare Exit Team's process. Every ownership situation is different, which is why they have more solutions than any other company. And that's when they earned my respect. Don't call any of the imposters out there, and there's a lot. The only timeshare exit company I stand behind is Timeshare Exit Team. They have exited thousands from their timeshare burden this year alone. Yes, you will write them a check, but they stand behind their guarantee.

They will get you out, or they'll give you a full refund. Call 844-999-EXIT online at timeshareexitteam.com. In Los Angeles, LaVoyle is with us. Hey, LaVoyle, how are you? I'm all right, and yourself? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? All right. Well, I don't have no homes or investments, but I've saved up some money, probably like between $40,000 and $50,000.

Wow, great. And I really don't have any debt, but I was just wondering, with the knowledge you have today, if you was in my position, what would be your first move as far as investing it? Way to go, dude. Well done. What's your household income? Depending on how hard I work, between $3,000 to three to eight thousand a month okay excellent very good and you have forty thousand dollars cash and you do not own a home and um you do not have any debt no no very good we don't have credit neither though you know i've kind of been living on

under the radar yeah well that's not a bad thing a bad thing. The good news is you're not calling me up paying a bunch of debt payments, so that's good news. Well done. Well done. Well, we teach folks the steps to building wealth. They're called the baby steps, and the first step is to become debt-free, and you have done that. Baby step three, then, is to have an emergency fund just for rainy days of three to six months of household expenses.

So what's it take your household to operate in a month? About a couple grand or three grand or what? For the whole month, I would say budgeting $2,000 a month. Okay. And so if we said three grand, times three to six months of expenses would be nine to eighteen thousand somewhere in there would be your emergency fund uh if we if for the fun of it if we wanted to round that and say ten thousand bucks is set aside to do nothing you never touch that money unless it really starts raining in your life and you have a real problem okay yeah

that's your rainy day fund and that would leave you 30 000 to do something else with um have you thought about buying a home yeah of course i just know that's not enough money to do it but uh yeah i've been i've been listening and what i heard real estate is the way to go so well owning a home long term is a way to go you live in an expensive market obviously and it's going to be very difficult to do there um so uh you know i start exploring what what you're going to need for your down payment we know we've got 30 000 of it and how much can we save up and then put them if you did a mortgage no more than a 15 year fixed rate mortgage where the payment is no more than a fourth of your take-home pay, and that's what we're going to start working towards.

And you can get a mortgage. You're going to have to have paid taxes on all your income. It can't be off the grid as far as that goes. You have to be able to prove your income. And if you can prove that income for two years with no credit score whatsoever, you go to Churchill Mortgage, and they'll help you do what's called a manual underwriting loan, a manually underwritten loan, which is no credit score, but you can prove, you know, you pay your landlord earlier on time, You can prove your stability on the job.

And obviously you can prove the cash in your income. And those things will get you into a traditional mortgage without any trouble. It's a little more trouble than just doing it by FICO score, but it's certainly not, you know, it's not undoable. So I'd start working towards that. That'd be my next thing if I were in your shoes. And then somewhere around this discussion, you start investing for retirement. And if you need some help with that, you go to DaveRamsey.com and click on SmartVestor, and it'll drop down a list of the SmartVestor pros in your area that'll sit down with you,

help you get your Roth IRAs going, and let you start becoming an investor in some good mutual funds. But truthfully, LaVoyle, the way that we see most people become millionaires, as we've studied them for years and years and years, is that they steadily invest in their retirement plans. They buy a home when and only when they can afford it and when they're debt-free and they stay out of debt. And then they turn and get that house paid off in about 10 years or less. And so you work, you know, take that 15-year mortgage out and then work to pay it off early, and then you begin to really plow money into your 401K at work and or your, you know,

from Roth IRAs and good growth stock mutual funds. Nyra is with us in Lexington, Kentucky. Hi, Nyra. How are you? I'm great. How are you doing, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world?

Well, I'm a late bloomer, as you might say. I'm 59 years old. I raised five children by myself. Just got the last one graduated last year. Woo-hoo! Yes, thank, praise the Lord. But I had to refinance my house to help my children with their education so they didn't have to take out such large student loans. Presently, I own a home, but I owe still about $40,000 on it about eight and a half more years, and I'm 59. So do I stick it out and finish paying for this house, or do I sell it and

rent for my last few years, or what I do. What's your household income? About $35,000 to $40,000 a year. Okay. And you owe $40,000 on the house? Yes, sir. That's all? Yes. And you don't have any other debt?

I have a credit card with about $1,000 left on it. I've been working really hard at paying that off. But other than that, that's it. Have you cut it up? I have. Good, good. Okay. And it's zero interest. Yeah.

That doesn't mean we won't keep it. It's, you know, ugly is ugly. It doesn't matter just how ugly, right? Yes. Okay. All right. So, no, I think you keep this house. You're 59.

You make 40 grand. You only owe 40,000 bucks. You did it, kiddo. I mean, keep this house. You're 59. You make 40 grand. You only owe 40,000 bucks. You did it, kiddo. I mean, let's go ahead and get that 40,000 knocked out. If you get that credit card knocked out, let's get on a budget and get focused. But wouldn't it be cool in five years from now to have that house paid for? It would be great. It would be 65 years.

I'm trying to pay an extra 200 or 300 a month on the principal when I can. No, you don't need to do it when you can. You need to do it all the time. When you get you on a five-year plan, that's $8,000 a year for five years extra on this mortgage. It's got to go away because I want you to be 65 with that house paid for and no payments anywhere in the world in a paid-for house. That sets you up for pretty good retirement.

Have you been saving anything for retirement? I have not. My daughter had to have heart surgery. She had two strokes and she had to have heart surgery when she was younger. So I had to take out all my 401k to be home with her. Wow. So I only have about 15,000 in my 401k and I have my emergency fund though. I have about 14,000 saved in that 401K, and I had my emergency fund, though. I have about $14,000 saved in that. Good, good. Okay, well, you're on the right track.

Yeah, let's get this house paid off and plow some money towards your nest egg so that, you know, by the time you hit 70, you've got a nest egg and a paid-for house. And that's where you want to move towards. And you've got 10 years. So you can do this. This is very doable. Hold on. I'm going to

send you a copy of the book retire inspired by chris hogan and that's what you're heading towards is i want you to retire inspired and zach will pick up and he will get that out to you okay eileen is with us in kansas city hi eileen how are you hi dave i'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm calling to say that I am cash poor. I'm a retired widow and debt-free. House is paid for. Have a lot of savings, about $650,000, and the house is worth about $275,000. So there's $925,000.

How old are you? I'm 74. So why are you cash poor? You have $650,000. Well, it's in IRA and an annuity. Yeah, but you can start taking income off of that. I get paid monthly from those. You can start taking a really nice income off of that.

Well, I get about $1,700 a month from those two. On $600,000? Well, that's after taxes a month. That sucks. That's horrible. Well, yeah. Well, the way it's set up. I tell you what, you hold on. We come back from this break.

I want to help you because you're getting hammered. All right, this is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish 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 join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs.

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You said, again, you're 74, is that right? Correct. And you have $650,000 invested, and you have a home that's worth about $275,000, and the 650 is currently paying you $1,700 per month. After taxes. Okay. Now, let's do some basic. Let's just stop.

My social is about $23,000, $25,000 a month. Okay, good. My Social Security. So I'm getting about $48,300, and that's plenty to live on. But I don't have the cash for the big items that I can see coming up, such as the house will need to be painted. I'm thinking around 8,000. I have about 10 windows that are original to the house that need to be replaced.

I'd like to travel. And my car is a 2002. And the $650,000, you said some of it is in an annuity? It is. Half of it is in an annuity, and half of it is in an IRA managed funds with Fidelity. Everything's with Fidelity. Okay. Do you have an advisor?

I do. Okay. And why has your advisor not done – well, let's kind of walk through this for a second, okay? If this money were invested the way I would have it invested if I were in your shoes, I don't do investing for other people, okay? I just teach. But were it invested in a series of good growth stock mutual funds. I'm 57. Mine's invested one-fourth each in growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international. At 74, if you wanted to be a little more conservative,

you could substitute the aggressive growth for a balance. But either way, you know, you should be earning north of 10% on that money. 10% of $650,000 is $65,000 a year. You're currently pulling $18,000. You're getting hosed. Wow. Okay. So what do I do? Yeah, if you had $5,000 a month coming in instead of $1,700,

a lot of the things you just asked me about would be solved just out of your monthly budget. Am I right? Absolutely. Absolutely. So if you're $650. Well, the way they've got it set up, the money should last me until I'm in my 90s before I ran out of money. That sucks, too. Okay, and here's why.

If $650,000 is making 10%, that's $65,000, right? Mm-hmm. Yes. Did we touch the $650,000? No. You should be getting $65,000 off of of this and the money lasts forever you follow me well i'm not making 10 i know i can tell and they got this i'm thinking this annuity must be sitting in a stupid fixed annuity and you're probably making cd rates on half of your investment portfolio, which is ludicrous.

Well, it's going to be, this October will be, I believe, five years, and I can take that money out without any penalties. That's exactly right, and you're going to. And you're probably going to leave this investment advisor. You need to get somebody that teaches you and shows you what to do. You're smart enough to make these decisions by yourself with some guidance, and that's what an advisor does. They don't do it for you.

They don't tell you what to do. They make suggestions and teach you, and you decide what to do. Now, if I were in your shoes, I would start shopping and learning about how I can invest this money so that I have a better monthly income that does not destroy the goose that's laying the golden eggs. The goose is the $650,000. We don't want to touch that. But I want the income that it's producing to be a lot larger without ever touching that and without it absolutely being destroyed by the time you're 90.

That's just crazy land. Okay. So here's what I want you to do. I don't know where to find an advisor that's going to help me that I can trust. Number one, you're going to trust them only to do one thing, and that's teach you. So the person I trust with your money is you. I don't want you to hire a babysitter, a full-time nanny for your money. I want you to hire somebody to teach you and then together, based on their guidance and you understanding what you're going to do,

not because Dave Ramsey said or not because an advisor said, but you're going to make the decision because this money was given to you to manage by God, and you're going to make that decision. So the way we put together, we have a network of investment advisors that we recommend. They do not work for me, but I endorse them. And the way we choose them is that they, number one, have to have that heart of a teacher because I want you to learn. Are you okay with that? Yes number one, have to have that heart of a teacher because I want you to learn. Are you okay with that? Yes.

Okay, good. Because you already know pretty good what you got. I can tell. Well, I know what I have. My husband, who passed away about six and a half years ago, was the one that took care of our investments. And he did invest the money himself and manage it. Me, I don't know enough about the stock market.

I mean, I know you have to diversify. I understand all that. But right now, I'm paying for advisory fees. Okay. I don't mind paying for advisory i don't mind paying for advisory fees but here's what i think happened okay i think when he passed away you guys just kept doing whatever was being done before and you never questioned it's kind of been on autopilot and your call to me because you can't even paint your house and you're a millionaire you're you can't even go on

a trip yeah you can't even go on a trip and you're a millionaire. And so your call to me is autopilot ain't working. It's time to take the wheel again. You've seen all these autopilot cars are crashing, haven't you? Yeah, we need to drive our own car. That's what we need to do. And I'm not shaming you. I think you're a very bright lady.

So here's what you need to do. Go to DaveRamsey.com click on smart vester you'll put in a little bit of information it'll drop down a list of the smart vester pros in your area and and Eileen let me just tell you you have a good bs detector and if you sit down anytime with anyone including if dave ramsey endorses them and you feel like you need to take a shower after you meet with them then you need a different person don't be slimed okay sit down with them and and get a good feeling a sense of trust but not blind trust.

Do they have the heart of a teacher? Do you leave the meeting understanding things that you didn't understand before the meeting? That's called I learned, which means you were in the presence of a teacher. If you don't learn something every time you meet with your investment advisor, something's wrong. You should learn something that you didn't know before their job is to teach you to make your own decisions that's their job they're an advisor that's that's what that means give advice and so click on smart investor and it'll drop down a list of them meet with more than one if you want take your time time. There's nothing on fire here.

But, darling, you are not broke. And you shouldn't be living like you're broke. I'm not trying to get you to be a spendthrift and blow all your money. But you need to be enjoying your life a little bit. You guys worked really, really hard all your lives, you and your husband, to get to this point. And he had you set up to be taken care of. And they're starving you to death per month right here you're getting hosed so go go get some other advice and learn learn learn learn learn learn and i'm going to move some of this money around if i'm you and i'm going to invest it a little

differently so that it's giving me a better rate of return so i can live off of the returns without destroying the principle now what i gave you was an example. I'm not saying you get 10% off of this. But my point was to do some easy math here on the radio and give you an example of what you could do and why you're way off receiving only $18,000 a year of income off of $650,000. Wow. Ouch. a year of income off of $650,000. Wow.

Ouch. Thanks to James Childs and Zach Bennett in the booth taking care of business today. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and you, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show. I get asked all the time, when in the baby steps is the right time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps

because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to zander.com or call 800-356-4282. These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com.

Or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com.