The Ramsey Show - App - It Always Seems Impossible Until You Do It (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 20, 2018

The show about you

Music Music 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. Our phone number here is 888-825- 5225. That's 888-825- 5225. Starting us off this hour, Ken is in Knoxville

heading your way soon, Ken, for the Florida UT game this weekend. How are you, brother? Doing all right. Doing better than I just heard. I hear you. How can I help today? I'm living in a house that's completely paid for, no mortgage, property taxes up. But now my 88 truck is broke down, and the house needs painting,

so I don't think $675 SSI a month is going to take care of a lot of this stuff. So I'm thinking a reverse mortgage might be a good idea for me. I've been going back and forth with AAG. How old are you? I'll be 70 next year. Okay. All right. What's the house worth?

About $70,000. Okay. And SSI is all you've got, income? Right. Okay. So you're disabled? Yes. Okay.

What's the nature of your disability? Cyanica. Okay. Are you single? Yes. So your whole household income is $675 a month? Yep. Okay.

I don't like this place. It's tough to make it on $675 if you didn't have taxes and you didn't have insurance and you didn't have a truck that broke down and that kind of stuff. So how many years have you been making it on $675 a month? Oh, about three. Okay. What did you have income before that? Just you were working some?

Right. Okay. All right. Well, here's the problem. There's not a good answer in this scenario because you're struggling with income, as you know. No kidding. Right? Mm-hmm.

And the reverse mortgage is the worst mortgage on the planet. It's the most expensive with fees. And here's the problem. I'm afraid this is exactly what's going to happen to you. There's a huge problem with reverse mortgages nationally because if you don't keep your taxes paid and you don't keep your um your insurance paid and you don't keep the home in good repair they foreclose they foreclose on you and uh 20 of them are in foreclosure right now because what happens is the thing only pays up to a certain point it'll only pay up to 65 of the value of the house and then it quits paying you and then you've got a mortgage on the house but you can't pay the taxes because you no

longer have the income right and then they foreclose on you and you lose the house. And that's what's bothering me. I mean, for the short term, for the next year, it would feel a lot better to have some income coming in. I mean, you could get, you know, you'd probably double your income, right? And that would feel a lot better. But for the long term, I'm afraid we're setting you up for an 80 year old version of you that ends up without a house that's what scares me do you see what i'm saying right so i

don't think i'm gonna go that way you got any family that can chip in and help a little bit um they're in indiana my mom's 91 uh my sister's there. You mean like a loan or something? No, just some help. I mean, financial help. I mean, just some money. You know, I think if I can get... I mean, I don't even know how you're keeping the lights on. How are you keeping the taxes paid?

Oh, I don't live that well. Yeah, beans and rice for sure well yeah well not quite that bad but uh now i have a lot of art that's stored i'm an artist but you know to get a website and and all that takes money and uh to be able to get around without a car is, you know, pretty rough. I hear you. How much is your art all worth? Probably thousands. I sold a painting just last year for $5,000. Wow, good for you. But I don't have any way to exhibit. I mean, have you got a $5,000 painting laying there that you could get a dealer to buy for $1,000 and that gets you a truck?

That would be possible. I'm on bicycle. I guess I could take the bus around. No, I mean, call them. Have them come out the house and look at them. Oh. Have them come out and say, I got a painting here. I sold this one for $5,000 last year.

I'll sell you this one for $1,000. You can make $4,000 profit on it. Take that $1,000, and let's get you a truck, and then let's move some other paintings, and then let's get you a website. Mm-hmm. Ah, now I'm feeling better. I'm feeling better. Now we've got some income.

Oh, yeah. Well, you know, I've got a lot of paintings. They're not all worth $5,000, but probably a few hundred paintings. Yeah. I mean, if you can sell a few of them cheap and kind of get your seed money and get started, you see what I'm saying? I don't want you to give away the whole caboose, but if you can sell a couple of them cheap just to kind of get off the dime, because you're on the dime right now right right and that gets

you off the bicycle i know but you get off the bicycle back into the truck and then you got you know and then you then you then you sell another one and we get the website going that's like in you know we're selling a couple of these things cheap to get things moving again because you kind of got painted and you kind of got painted into the corner, no pun intended. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, I know that. I mean, this truck's been disabled for a few months now, and I'm feeling it. Yeah.

But a bicycle only goes so far. Do you know a good dealer in your area, a reputable dealer in your area? That's one of the things. I've been checking around. Some of them have good reputations, some bad. I mean, what if you contacted one of them and said, hey, if you'll post this stuff on the website, I'll put X number of paintings on your website for a percentage.

And then you've instantly got a website, and you've instantly got an income. And you need to buy one of them for $1,000 because I've got to get a truck. Mm-hmm. That's a good... Yeah, kind of go in business with one of them a little bit. Kind of do a joint venture type of a thing. Mm-hmm. Well, I can ask some other artists which ones are

reputable and which are not reputable. If nothing else, let's sell off two or three real cheap and get you some money to get out of the corner. The website. Get you a website, get you a truck, and stay away from that reverse mortgage. Because I think

the reverse mortgage will solve your problem short term, but it's maybe going to create bigger problems long term. You see what I'm saying about that? Right. And I don't want you to go get a regular mortgage either, and the house is not worth enough to sell it and move down. I mean, you could do that if you had to. You could sell a $70,000 house

and move into a $50,000 condo or something, and that'd give you $20,000 to start, you know, get your paintings up and running, and get the truck up and running, and that kind of you $20,000 to start, you know, get your paintings up and running and get the truck up and running and that kind of stuff. But that's your worst-case scenario. I'd rather go the first route we discussed. Well, I think there's hope, and I think there's hope in your talent. You turn your talent into money here, brother.

You call me if I can help you further. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. you've heard me talk about id theft for years and how it's only a matter of time before you become a victim but i ran across some numbers that even surprised me and shows the real nightmare that people go through when they become a victim. Of the 16 million victims of identity theft last year, yes, 16 million, 26% of them had to borrow money from family or friends. 22% of them lost even more money by taking time off work and 900,000 victims took out payday loans. This stuff is a freaking nightmare. That's why the only plan I have for my family and my entire team is through Zander Insurance.

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and top thought leaders in leadership and business coming in to speak. This guy, everybody loves his session session everybody loves his books and that includes me i'm a serious fan and i'm blessed to say he's also my friend pat lincione is with us from california hey pat how are you brother good dave what's up with you gonna make it man gonna make it i'm listening i'm listening to your show and I'm just like, don't put me on. Just keep taking these calls. These are fascinating. Well, that last guy, that was an interesting call. It really was.

Yeah. I hope we can help him. It was great, and it's like, God bless him. Hope he follows up on that. Amen. I hope, because he's pinched. He really is. That's a tough situation.

So we've got our Entree Leadership Summit coming up in May with Simon Sinek and Marcus Buckingham and Henry Cloud and Chris Hogan and Peyton Manning and you and me. And it's sold out. Completely sold out. And you're doing a conference in Dallas called the UnConference. And it's sold out. And it's completely sold out. Yeah. What is an UnConference?

An UnConference is just, and you kind of, you inspired us, Dave. We love going to yours because when you go to your conference, you're known, and it's the other people that are there and interacting with the speakers. We're just having a conference to celebrate organizational health, and we're going to have people there that have turned their companies around by making them healthier, and it's changed the bottom line. It's changed the nature of the employees that work there and their lives. So we're just going to go there and encourage people, teach them how to do that and celebrate that

and help create a movement. This is our first conference ever day after 20 years in business. Wow. And so people are going to be coming there to learn about how great companies like Chick-fil-A and Southwest Airlines do it. And we're going to be listening to everything from wineries like the, you know, what Silver Oak is coming, their executive team users, all these interesting companies that are going to share with us how they're making their companies better. Yeah. And, of course, if you don't know Pat, folks, he's written multiple bestsellers.

The one we use around here every day is The Ideal Team Player. But the book that is the cornerstone, of course, is The Advantage. And the thesis of that book is that the mental health of your organization, your organization's internal ability to do conflict and do life together, it's a bigger advantage than smart people or anything else. Did I get that right? That's right. You know, everybody thinks it's about strategy and intellectuals.

You've got to be good at those, just permission to play, but creating the right kind of culture and health internally, it's the biggest competitive advantage. And what do you see the elements of that culture are? I mean, when somebody says culture, that means a lot of different things to people. Somebody wants to slap some values on the wall or something, and then that's over. Obviously, that's not it. But by culture, what do you mean?

Yeah, it's really how you get things done day to day. Do the leaders know how to have good argument and trust each other and make decisions? Are they clear? Do they really know? What are we trying to do here, and are we all on the same page? Do we tell everybody all the time, and do we put just enough structure in place to reinforce that? It's like a healthy family, you know?

A family might not have all the money in the world. They might not have graduated from the best schools, but there's love. They spend time together every day. They pray together. They work together. They care about each other. They're going to do fine. They tell each other the truth yeah that's a big one isn't it oh my gosh and it just doesn't happen in so many organizations they talk about each other behind

each other's back but they don't tell each other to their face like here's what i think you can do better because i care about you yeah and you know you got to have that trust to be able to do that obviously you got to be able to you know know that i care about you and so the my my suggestions coming out of the fact i care about you um but uh you know one of the conversations we've been having around here is to try to get our folks to be better fans of our customer, better fans of our fans, to know our customer better, and then make decisions based on that, not based on what someone else inside the building wants you to do. If you impress somebody inside this building and the customer's not impressed, you missed the mark. And that conversation is going on around here at a rapid fire right now.

And it's the same thing. It's truth-telling. To be unclear is to be unkind. That's right. And people don't get that. Our society says, affirm everyone and everything, and that's how you become friends. And that's a betrayal. Yeah, it is, because you're telling stupid people to stay stupid.

Yeah. That's a dumb idea. At least I didn't upset them, though. Oh, yeah, yeah. They're not offended. That's true, but there they sit in their mess and still there, you know? And that's the thing, because when I was stupid, if somebody tells me I'm stupid and I get it, it saves my life.

Oh, and you're indebted to them forever, and you admire them for that. Yeah, but I got to know that they care, and they're not just being toxic and abusive. That's the other part of it, right? You know, I sat down, Dave, with my 12-year-old son the other day, and I said, Michael, because I gave him some difficult feedback, I said, you know something? There's a saying that every great CEO has to be slightly unreasonable. In other words, they have to push people out of their comfort zone and get them to do things.

And I said, a great dad has to do that, too. So I know it feels like I'm being a little bit unreasonable. It's because I love you and I want you to get better. If every leader understood that and didn't try to tell people what they wanted to hear or avoid a difficult situation, that would make organizations and people's lives better. But when we sacrifice that to be a quote unquote knife, there's something actually kind of cruel about that. we were talking about that the other day using those some of those same phrases maybe they came from you i mean i don't know we were talking about this idea that if you want unreasonably high levels of x of excellence

you have to be unreasonable absolutely and that means in a temporary moment that person you're trying to inspire is going to be frustrated with you while they're growing. Yeah, because they're getting busted. And you can't back off. And let me tell you something, Dave. I'm always tempted to back off, and it's not in their best interest. It's really selfish on my part. Yeah, and I think I've gotten more blunt on the radio here doing this show because of that.

And it's just because i care so deeply but i'm also so much more confident in the old days when i first started i was just trying to be nice to everybody i want everybody like me well that lasted about 45 minutes and then somebody didn't like me you know but so i kind of gave up on that part but then i'm from the south which by nature means we have to be passive aggressive we have to say bless your heart which really means i'm going to slit your throat, right? And so instead of just going, you know, that's dumb, man. Don't do that.

That's dumb. You just said that out loud. Does that sound dumb to you? And that's become the radio thing is me just, I just, we love our listeners and these people calling in, and I want to help them. And the best way to do that is give them the truth, right? Well, let me speak for your listeners, because there's plenty of people that listen to your show, I know, because they tell me, that aren't necessarily in a place in their lives that they've probably heeded your advice,

but they still listen to you. And it's because there's something fascinating, and the people in my office say this too, about how you give people advice in a way that gives them tough love, which can be hard to hear, but there's enough care in there and enough wisdom. And there's something that's fascinating about watching that. And, you know, and God bless her, they say in the South, Dr. Laura got a little too negative for a while, and it was a little too cruel. But then there's all these other shows where people are like,

oh, good luck to you, you can do it. And there's something about the world wants to hear somebody give people real advice and even air it on the side of truth in order to help them. And it's fascinating whether they're – I think a lot of people listen to you, Dave, not just for the financial advice, but just for the practice in knowing how to talk to people in love. And anyway, that's just my two cents for whatever. I bet your listeners are going, that's why I listen to them. Well, you know, the thing is, I think maybe that's why I connected to the message of the advantage of mental health of an organization so much.

We screwed that up when we first started this company. I was just nice to everybody. I wanted everybody to be happy, and I was nice to everybody. And in the name of being nice, I didn't tell them when they were screwing up. And I would get progressively angry at them, and they didn't know why. You know, Dave, I think what I tell companies, I like to say this in a little bit of a controversial way, I say you should be brutally intolerant

of a few things. Because everybody's intolerant of everything. If your company stands for anything, you need to be brutally intolerant of people that don't like that. And that actually allows you to embrace everyone else. But if your company wants to be a good fit for every kind of employee, it's going to

stand for nothing. Southwest Airlines is brutally intolerant of people who don't care about customers and jump through hoops for them. And that's a good thing. And they're intolerant of people who don't have fun. They're a fun company. Yeah. They really are.

That's one of the other things. Good stuff. Pat Lencioni, ladies and gentlemen. All kinds of wonderful things happening there. Check him out at patlincioni.com. What's the website, Pat? It's just tablegroup.com, all kinds of information, free stuff. Good deal.

And other connections. See you soon, my friend. Thanks for coming on. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Spencer here from Smile Love. At Smile Love, we'll straighten your teeth and help you love your smile. That's what we do, and we do it for less than you'll find anywhere else. I guarantee it.

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smile, get started today at smilelove.com and remember to use promo code Dave to take an additional $100 off. smilelove.com, promo code Dave to take an additional $100 off. SmileLove.com, promo code Dave. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Nathan and Alicia are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Doing great. Thank you. Welcome. Where do you guys live? Independence, Missouri.

Love it. Welcome to Nashville. And all the way here to do a debt-free screen. Yep. How much have you paid off? $62,000. Good. And how long did this take? 30 months.

Good for you. And your range of income during that time? $55,000 to now $110,000. Whoa, doubled it. Yeah. So, somebody get a job or what? Yes. Okay. I went back to work.

Okay. What do you do for a living? I'm a nurse. Okay. I'm a firefighter. Perfect. Thanks. Good for you guys. What kind of debts the 62,000? Well, we had student loans. We had a basement repair. We had car repairs. We had two vehicles, credit cards, just the normal. And then we had our kids on credit cards, too. We had adoption debt and IVF debt as well. Wow. Wow. I mean, you had every kind of debt out there.

Yes. You were like normal on steroids. Yes, pretty much. How long have you two been married? Just celebrated 10 years in June. But two and a half years ago, something happened. What happened? Well, we had nine-month twins at home that had just gotten out of the hospital six months before. They were born at 29 weeks.

We had a three-year-old at that point in time with 22Q deletion. And we wanted to do so much more for them. And we just couldn't. We were playing credit card games and just didn't. And so we borrowed the $100 from my mom over there and took Financial Peace and did it. Wow. Wow. So you said we're tired, we're broke, we're sick.

We're sick and tired of being sick and tired. Yep. We're going to class. Mom gives you the money. Yep. You go to Financial Peace University. And then what happened? We drank the Kool-Aid.

Okay. It was a little slow at first, but I think for a while I didn't want to get rid of those credit cards. But once I bought on the whole thing, going through the class and getting gazelle attempts, starting everything, just looking at it differently. And then I went back to school. That was part of that money is that I finished my RN. I had my LPN, but I finished my RN during that time, and so that we increased our income. Way up.

Yeah. You changed the size of your shovel dramatically during that time. Most of it was that last year once I graduated. Yeah. I mean, basically, you know, you increase your income $55,000, you pay off $62,000. So you did most of that in the last year. That makes sense. Yeah.

Because you just shoveled the whole thing onto that. Yeah. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. How hard was it to go back to work with babies like that? It was hard to adjust. But over the time, I've learned I'm not a stay-at-home mom, to be

honest with myself. I love my babies dearly, but... That doesn't mean you don't love them if you want to have a career. Exactly, and I had been told that by a lot of people, and so... You kind of had to get past the work and mom guilt? Yes, very much so. The guilt trip that's out there. Yes, exactly. Well, good for you. We need good nurses. Yes. So, good. I'm glad you're doing this.

Yep. Good for you. Not everybody has to work outside the home, but some people want to. So, there you go. Okay. And in your case, it doubled your household income and cleaned up this mess. Exactly. And you'll be able to do for these kids in a way that you wouldn't have been able to otherwise.

Yep, exactly. Well done, y'all. Very, very well done. So how does it feel to not have any payments? You guys have been under the thumb for a long time. Yeah. It's amazing. We can start working on retirement and getting ready for the future and get these kids college taken care of and not have that over our head.

You know, just trying to pay for the couch or the car or whatever else. We don't have that. Will you ever go back in debt? No, no, absolutely not. Been there, done that, played that game for years. Yeah. Were you ever debt-free during your marriage until now? Oh, absolutely not.

It was as soon as we paid off one card, go out and get something else at the place, put it back on the card. I mean, it just was normal for us. Exactly. Yeah, we can't be without a payment. We have to fix this. Yeah. Yeah, I hear you.

Well, well done, y'all. Very well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You have to want to and have a why and have a plan and have a budget and follow all that stuff. That's big. That's big. You're a Y.

You've got three beautiful little Ys, right? Yes. They are definitely. Very fun. Good for you guys. I'm assuming Mom helped with the money to go to the class. I'm assuming she was a cheerleader. Who else was a cheerleader?

We had a big group of people from church through FPU. Yes, their whole church. And then we had a couple guys from Nate's Fire Station, McNabb and Simpson, that were like, I told you so. Yes, they used to see me sit there and mess with the credit card game of trying to make a few points. Yeah. And now I have all that time back to us. Yeah, so they've been trying to convert you for a while.

Yes. Several years. Heard of you then a while. Yes. Several years. Heard to do that. I love it. Very good. Very fun. Good for you guys. And you brought the kiddos with you.

What are their names and ages? We've got Robbie, that's six, and we've got twins, Dean and Ruthann. Okay, and Dean and Ruthann are how old now? Three. Three. All right. Very fun. Cool. Good for you guys.

Well, we got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. That's the next chapter in your story. And it's Robbie, Ruthann, and Dean. Nathan and Alicia, Kansas City, $62,000 paid off in 30 months, making $55,000 to $110,000. Great story. You guys changed your family tree. I'm proud of you. Thank you.

Congrats. Count it down, kids. Let's hear a debt-free scream. You ready? You guys ready? Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Well done.

This is how we do it. Did you hear that sound? Did you hear that sound? Did you hear that sound? Don't miss it. It was there. It was real clear. It was the sound of a family tree being changed, you have the dignity and the ability to just decide to change.

You could be the last one in your branch of the family tree that lives hand to mouth. You can decide that. Now, sometimes bad things happen to people, I know. I've had bad things happen to me, and in some cases it was nasty, crooked people doing things, and in other cases it was my own stupidity that I brought it into my life. All of us got a little of both, don't we? I'm afraid I have more stupidity than I do nasty people around me, though. I've shoveled most of both out of my life,

and the more I keep away from nasty people and I keep away from my own stupidity, the better every area of my life gets. My spiritual walk, my relationships, and the wealthier I get. Because the thing that steals your money is your own stupidity and other nasty people. And you have to learn how to put up the shields and keep the crooks away from you, the people that have a vested interest in taking your money away from you. And you have to learn to protect you from your biggest enemy, which is in your mirror. That gives you the ability to change your family tree.

You can do this. People just like you do this every day. Dave, you don't know about where I do, too. Man, I've been doing this a long time. Five million people have been through Financial Peace University. You don't think we've seen people like you? We've seen people dumber than you. We've seen people that got messed over more than you.

We've seen people that had bigger challenges than you've got that still made it because they made a decision. Is it easy? No. Winning is never easy. If it was easy, we wouldn't call it winning. It's just worth it. The hustle, the grind, the grit, the living like no one else so that later I can live and give like no one else.

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness. You get to decide. Ready, set, go. Go. Mark and Natalie are with us in Maryland, and I see on my screen you're debt-free. How much have you guys paid off? We paid off $99,225 in 14 months. Great job. And your range of income during that time? $120,000 to $160,000.

Cool. What do you guys do for a living? I have my own home inspection company. And I'm a training coordinator. Good for 160. Cool. What do you guys do for a living? I have my own home inspection company. And I'm a training coordinator. Good for you. Okay. What kind of debt was the 99,000? It was two cars.

Her car was 7,600. My truck was 16,000. And then my student loans were 18,000, and her student loans were 58,000. Okay. How long have you guys been married? We loans were $58,000. Okay. How long have you guys been married? We've been married for five years. Okay. So what happened that got this started

14 months ago? Yeah, so I had started a new job and I was at work one day overhearing my boss telling somebody that he had just bought two new cars. And he was saying, you know, he had bought this car with his wife and, you know, they had paid for it.

They paid it in full that day and they were at the dealership and he saw the car and said, you know, I like this car and I have the money. I think I'll get it and paid for it in full that day. And I just remember sitting there thinking, who does that? Like, who am I working for? And I went home and told Mark and I said, you know, he just bought two cars and paid them off that day. Like, isn't that weird? And, um, a few weeks later, Tom had been telling me, yeah, you and Mark should really come to this financial class that I'm doing. It's called FPU.

Uh, I do it on the weekends and a lot of our coworkers and staff are going with their spouses and family. You guys should come. And, um, so we went and it was perfect timing because we were pregnant with our our son oh yeah um yeah and it was great from there it was wonderful so your boss talked you into this and introduced you to this that's neat yeah yeah very. That's great leadership. Very fun. Okay, so you pay off $99,000 in 14 months. You must have sold something or had some savings or something. So we didn't really have much of a savings, but I just started doing a lot more home inspections, and I was very fortunate enough to have the business grow a little bit more. So it was pretty much just all hustle and grind and a lot of nights away.

And, you know, it was pretty much getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning and finishing work at 9.30 at night. Oh, okay. So you just burned the oil up, man, burned the midnight oil. Okay. And living rice and beans. Yeah. Good for you guys.

Very cool. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now that you've done it? I would say for me the key is just having that monthly meeting and having that communication between each other and the budget and going through it together was really important. We were able to not only talk about the budget, but just other things going on in our life at that time, and it really helped us to be on the same page.

I think that writing down the goals really helped a lot. Actually, halfway through this process, I was working my full-time job, and then, as you said, your side hustle, which was the home inspection business, and halfway through this, I was actually able to do my side hustle and turn it into a full-time job. So I think writing down the goals really helped out for us. And then, like you say, knowing why you're doing something, and the process was really important,

but it's more knowing why you're doing it and having that goal and knowing that Natalie was pregnant. That really kind of woke us up with our first child and all that. Very cool. Well, well done, you guys. Very well done. I'm proud of you. Who was your biggest cheerleader?

I guess your boss was one of them. Yeah, he was definitely one of our biggest cheerleaders. And all of my coworkers, you know, it was so great to have that encouragement at work. And we were all kind of going through it together. And, you you know we would share stories and um it was just wonderful to have that support system now what a great environment to be working in where everybody's rooting for each other rather than tearing each other down yeah that's great yeah that's phenomenal sounds like this guy's a great leader well done you guys

proud of you we got a copy of chris hogan's book for you retire inspired and of course that's the number one bestseller and we want that to be the next chapter in your story that you're millionaires and you're on your way to doing that and of course outrageously generous as you go along okay thank you thank you mark and natalie Thank you. Thank you. Mark and Natalie Frederick, Maryland, $99,000 paid off in 14 months, making $120,000 to $160,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. Debt-free!

That's the guy screaming that was working 16 hours a day. Did you hear that? He was busting it, man. I love it. Way to go, you guys. Very well done. George is with us in Atlanta. Hi, George.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for having me. Sure. What's up? I am getting over bronchitis, so my wife is going to do most of the talking. Okay. But what we're debating is selling our home or hanging on to it.

Okay. And so she'll give you all the particulars here we have all written down. Gotcha. Okay. So what's your name, ma'am? Hey, this is Lucy Budwick. Hey, Lucy. Good to talk to you.

You too. So do you like your house? Yes. Okay. So the only reason to sell it is to get out of debt is that the plan yeah we don't have credit card debt we don't have um our cars are all paid off um we have gotten rid of all of that debt other than the house now we do have a second mortgage on the house from um redoing the kitchen and redoing a bathroom in the home. How much is the second mortgage?

The second mortgage is about $47,000 or $48,000. And how much is the first mortgage? We've got about $103,000 left. Okay. So $150,000. What's the house worth? About $289,000, maybe a little more. And what's your household income?

$130,000. Okay. And what's the problem well um my question is is if we were to move we've got a two and a half percent mortgage right now which is really good we've got about nine and a half years left to pay it off so um one of the things is the upkeep on the house the things that are still needing to be done to the house to just keep it in shape. And also the lot, it's a very large lot that we have. So there's yard maintenance that needs to be done. So you don't like your house. We can't do ourselves anymore.

So we're having to pay somebody to do that. So you don't like your house. You don't like the maintenance and you don't like the yard. You don't like the maintenance, you don't like the maintenance you don't like the house you don't like the maintenance you don't like the yard right i would rather not have as much yard um and save on that you don't need to move financially but you want to move yes and no you don't need to move finance you haven't given me anything that says you need to move financially you make 130 000 a year and fifty thousand dollar mortgage and that's the

only debt to your name that is not a strain okay not even a close strain you got no debt hardly i mean you're going to get this all cleaned up in no time but so there's nothing there's nothing driving you to move financially but if you don't like the house it's okay to move yeah if we would move it would come out you know my question is do we get a smaller house our kids are one is out of college one is just going into college um you know do you move and get a smaller house with a lesser of a mortgage now the interest rate will be higher and then you're back to another 10 or 15 year mortgage yeah but you're not i mean you're not going to keep this mortgage that long, making this kind of money.

How quick can you pay off $150,000 making $130,000 with no kids at home? Pretty dadgum quick. Yeah, I mean, it just seems like you could do it like in five years really easy. Yeah. And that's the question. Do we just buckle down and pay this amount?

You could do that on a house you like, though. Yeah. I think you're moving. And a house you like, though. Yeah. I think you're moving, and I think you don't move up. Don't move up $100,000, but let's move, and let's get the proper house that you like, and get yourself in a position, and then let's dial it in and pay it off. The interest rate's not going to matter because you're going to pay it off so fast. So this little bump in interest rate's not going to be that big a deal.

I think you're moving. Whatever you want to do, but that's probably what I see in your future. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys, this is James Childs, 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.