The Ramsey Show - App - Leave the Cave, Kill Something, and Drag It Home (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 25, 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. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225 Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Starting off this hour is Todd in California. Hey, Todd, welcome to Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Hey, what's up? Just kind of a quick question. A few years ago, I took a fair amount of money, about $600,000, and I gave it to a company to have it professionally managed. And it has grown, let's see, 8.5% over five years, and that's before fees. And so it seems like it's not performing very well. Is that your take on it?

I would have to look back at that exact period of time and see what mine have done uh but you'd have to compare it to uh some other indexes i mean you could look and say what did the s&p do during that time okay during that exact period of time and you could just pull that up on google do it in about minutes. But if you're not at least pacing with the S&P, then why are you paying fees? Right. No, I agree with you. Because you can blind drop it into an S&P index fund and make what the market makes. And I can't tell you exactly what the market has done average through that five-year period of time off the top of my head.

But it sounds like you're low. I agree with you, especially pre-fees i think you would have done better than that average over the five years so do a little investigating that way um i will tell you that one of the things i heard in the way you said that is part of your problem what i heard was i gave I sent my kid to boarding school, and then I don't like the way the teachers acted. No, you need to be the parent. You don't get to send them to boarding school. These dollars are your kids.

And you have to watch, you don't turn them over to someone else to be managed. Okay? You turn them over to someone else to advise you on how you are going to decide to invest your money. Now, if they're managing it and they're you know, that's how you've decided to do it. That's fine. But you need to be involved. But you can't. There's no hands off. You you got to be more hands on than the way you describe this scenario when it went down uh that that you know you really and the good news is you're asking this question so it means you are somewhat hands-on so i just want you to get a little more handsy with this a little more a little more palmy with this uh and so i i

don't i don't turn a blind eye to any of my investments or businesses and just hope someone is taking care of it. I'm constantly watching numbers and metrics on business, on investments, on whatever I'm involved in to see that it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. And when it isn't, then I'm drilling down. Now, the good news is you're saying mine isn't, so I am drilling down. Good. Okay. So the second thing you might do other than just check it against an S&P is you might interview another advisor and say, hey, is there someone else that I feel better about?

Because what I want you to do is not have someone to tell you what they did with your money. I want someone to teach you what you should do with your money that's the difference in a teacher and a salesman but you can't just toss them the keys to the ferrari now i want to be sitting at leached in the passenger seat and know what's going on with it so let's let's run it let's run it that way so click smart vestor at daveramsey.com sit down with one of the smart vestor pros and talk to them. Your guy may be okay. He may be doing okay.

I don't know off the top of my head if that number is crazy or not. It sounds low, but I can't off the top of my head tell you what it should have averaged in the last five years. I can go back and do this for some of you that are listening okay you know the average rate of return on the s&p over since it began is 11.8 so you ought to be making just under between 11 and 12 on your money average over a long period of time okay now in the last 10 years um the s&p has done 8.28 average okay the last 20 years it's done uh seven okay my personal mix on my mutual funds did eight and a half so i beat the s&p on the four mutual funds i talk about that i personally invested my 401k in on a 20-year basis by a point and a half a year.

In the last 30 years, the S&P has done 10.89 average. Mine has done, my personal pick, and it's not rocket science. I'm not beating it by much, but I'm beating it. 11.5 versus 10.5. So about a point versus 10.75. so about three-quarters of a point. Over a 40-year period of time, the S&P's done 11.8, what I just said a minute ago, and I've averaged about 13 on mine over 40 years, okay? So, but the last few years are brought down by the 2008 mark and the huge dip in the market and then a huge recovery in the market and it's gone crazy since then so um you know that that's what you're

looking for is to look at that and so can you pick funds that beat the s&p well yeah i have and i haven't spent a lot of time doing it all i did was ask smart mr pro to pick me out some that have beat the s&p by their track record and they did and i picked those four that was hard wasn't it so it's not like this is like some big rocket science thing or you have to have oh yeah well i'm not dave ramsey well you don't need to be uh because dave ramsey doesn't personally i don't sit and comb through the tangles of the stock market every morning that dropped me nuts i'd lose what little hair i've got left so i'm not screwing with that stuff i'm investing in things i understand and i'm picking the funds based on how they did against the s&p and that's how i manage my personal investments my personal 401k mix, my personal IRA, and it's really not rocket science.

There's just not that much to it. So that's the point, Todd, is I've got a great SmartVestor Pro that he brings me some stuff. We talk about it, and, you know, once a year we look at it again, and we adjust, and we go forward, and I've consistently beat the s&p doing that and so you're you ought to at least be doing that or you shouldn't be paying them a fee again you know just buy an index fund four line four is with us angela's in california hi angela welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave nice talking to you how you doing better than i deserve what's up okay i'll get straight to it. So I'm 30 years old.

I've been terrible with my finances thus far. I'm a first-gen college student, and my parents were also really bad with their money, so much so that they're now in their 60s, and they can't really retire. They don't own a home, and they're just, yeah, I just didn't learn a lot from them. Unfortunately, I found you late in life. I only started listening to the Dave Ramsey show about a month ago, but it's just got me thinking about my money and it's almost frightened me. Don't get mad. So I am in a very interesting situation. Being a first generation college student and my parents not having a clear understanding of how to navigate

me through the process, I decided to go to school and get my master's thinking that my degree would be my golden ticket. And I did something that's not necessarily the most practical. I've always been interested in filmmaking, so I decided to go to film school. Okay, I'll tell you what, hold on. When we come back from this break, I'll hear the rest of your story. I'm not going to yell at you. We've all done stupid stuff, kiddo.

I'll see if I can help you. We're going to find a way through it. This is the rest of your story. I'm not going to yell at you. We've all done stupid stuff, kiddo. I'll see if I can help you. We're going to find a way through it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is big news, guys. You need to stop and listen. The Fed decided not to raise interest rates. That means you've got a small window of time before rates rise again. Here's the deal.

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knowing you're saving significant money in the long run. Call 888-LOAN-200. and more peace knowing you're saving significant money in the long run. Call 888-LOAN-200. That's 888-562-6200 or churchillmortgage.com. We're talking with Angela in California, first-generation college student, decided to get her master's in filmmaking, and that's about how far we got in the discussion. Hey, Angela, how can we help? Hey, Dave. Okay, so as I was mentioning, I made a really big decision to go to get my master's degree, and within a short amount of time, I'm amassed a huge amount of debt.

So hold your breath. It's a grand whopping $125,000, and it's a huge investment, right? And the rate of return, there's an opportunity to have a high rate of return, but it's a huge risk and there's absolutely no guarantee. So I woke up one morning just kind of terrified, thinking about what I had just done and realizing how much I've actually taken out. And again, as I mentioned, I don't have a lot of people around me who've been able to assist me with, you know, healthy finances. And so I kind of was just calling to get your general advice. I have a year left. And in that time, I have the potential to amass another $25,000 of debt, which would bring me to a whopping $150,000. And I don't know, I just, I started freaking out thinking maybe I should drop out of the program and find something more practical so that I can

really tackle the debt because I can't have this looming over me for the rest of my life. So yeah, I just was calling to see what would Dave do, WWTP. And so are you working? I'm currently working

part-time, not making a ton. Okay. And your master's work is part-time, not making a ton. Okay. And your master's work is full-time? Correct. For another year? Yes, I have another year left. It's a three-year program, and I finished up two years. How are you paying your living expenses?

So I've been paying them half with student loans and half trying to save up my own money. But again, I'm so limited on the number of hours that I'm able to work that I'm only able to really take care about half of my expenses per month. Okay. And you complete your filmmaking degree curriculum for a year more. What will be your next step? what are you going to go do well um i'm i'm wanting to continue writing writing is actually really lucrative there's

opportunities to sell scripts and and you can make a nice return on that um in an ideal world i can sell some scripts and potentially pay this debt off very quickly. But again, there's just no guarantee. And I guess that guarantee... Well, there's no guarantee in anything. So the only guarantee is your ability to hustle, leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home. That's your only guarantee. Yeah. Yep.

And so is there any reason you can't write scripts now? Yeah, I can. I can. Yes, absolutely. I have the time to. You know, it's really just a matter of making the time and forcing myself to sit down. And I will admit that's not something I'm only doing it for my classes, but I could be doing it outside of class as well. Yeah. And so what could you make?

Scripts can follow on average for like 80 grand. So it's a really great way to make back that money. And again, in an ideal world, I could make that really quickly, and I would put it immediately towards all of my debt so that I can get debt pretty faster. Yeah. I mean, I would be okay with you just not getting much sleep and writing a lot of scripts while you're doing your master's and making the money doing that to pay for your master's.

Totally. And then if you got to put a little bit on your debt that that'd be okay during the next year but then after the next year when you do graduate then you put it all on the debt okay but if you can make if you can make 80 to 100 grand a year you can you can pay 25 that's doable and you can finish and you can eat and uh i don't care if you have a social life yeah i guess i should not care about that either well i mean you got to decide because earl nightingale used to say that the problem with setting a goal the people don't hit the goal. It's not because the goal was too hard.

It's because they wouldn't give up what they had to give up to get there. Well said. Yeah, and I'm totally willing to make the sacrifice. Again, your show has been actually very inspiring for me and just got me thinking so much more about my finances than I ever did before, and I'm trying to pass it off onto my parents so they can pick up a little of your wisdom. So what would you say the chances are that I talk to you from a year from now, and you have hustled and hustled and hustled and grind and hustled and grind, and you've finished this master's, and you've sold enough scripts, you've done enough writing that you pulled in 80 to 100 grand, and paid cash for your the remaining portion of

your master's maybe you paid nothing down on the debt yet but you were able to eat and you finished the master's degree during the next 12 months i think you can do that i'd say that yeah i'd say that i'm hoping i'll be calling you back for a debt free screen yeah well no that would be your first step and then a year later uh you know a later, now we're out of the master's program, and we're working full-time, full tilt, wide open. I mean, we're going for the Super Bowl now. And so now you make $150,000, and you pay off a bunch of this. It may take you a little time to clean up this debt, but I think you can do it.

So I don't think the career is that far-fetched, because the way you're talking about it says to me that you know how to go do this yeah you're right you're more really scared and yeah you're more confident in the fact that you can land this this is not a pipe dream this is not a some kid who just sat down and said oh i think i might want to go to hollywood I mean, you're over there in the middle of it doing it. You actually have five people you can call when you get off the phone with me, don't you? Absolutely.

Yeah, I thought so. You're already starting to build your network. You already got your hands in the business, and you're going to make a great living in the filmmaking business, whether it's script writing or whether later on you move into other things and production and directing or whatever you're going to do you know whether it's um that you know it may be just it may be commercials there's a wonderful wonderful uh living to be made in that so i don't care where you end up but i don't i don't think this is, you know, I would not have brought you to where you are,

but I don't think it's the end of the world, and I think you can do it. And the main reason I think you can do it is I think you know how to go turn this into money right now. And it'll be more so 12 months from now when you finish the degree. I don't think this degree is going to land you as much as your your creative talent is the degrees i mean i i can imagine people don't give a rip whether a producer has a degree or not or whether a script writer has a degree or not they just care if the script sucks right and so i i you know i'm the same way here and people we hire our content people i mean i care if you can write i don't care if people. I mean, I care if you can write. I don't care if you've got a journalism degree. I care if you can write.

I don't care if you've got a communications degree or a master's in that. I just, can you write? And when I read it, am I lifted? Am I inspired? Does it sound like something that should have come out of this brand? Did you recognize all that, or does it bore me to tears? Can you write, you know? And you can.

I think you're going to be fine. You're going to be great. Now, keep going. You don't have to go into debt to finish this, but you should finish it because you ought to go earn the income to do it like we're talking about. Derek is with us in Newark. Hi, Derek. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Good afternoon, Dave. How's it going today? Better than I deserve. What's up? I just had a quick question. I have a stepdaughter who's 19 and a son who's 17. So she's obviously going into her junior year in college.

He's going into his freshman year of college. He's in a service academy. I bought them the Anthony O'Neill book in regards to the five mistakes to avoid while in college. Any other steps that I can take to kind of get them kind of, you know, now that they're out of the house, kind of help them with their finances and getting them a solid foundation? Yeah, I would just be real coaching them that they're making the money that they have in their possession behave and that they're avoiding debt and i'd be all up in their business okay and do you recommend um i've never personally taken financial peace university but we do follow your principles um do you recommend placing them in like financial

peace university like online or is it kind of still too young for that what's your recommendation on that they're not too young if they're willing to do it um It's, you know, I took my kids to it when they were 14. They were too young. But I rolled their eyes and didn't want to watch their dad on video. But now they all work here, so it's okay. Yeah, you're never too young to be smart about money. And Financial Peace University, certainly for a teenager that's willing, if you drag them against their will, it's a waste of time on anything.

But if they're willing to learn, it'll teach them. Thank you. our question of the day comes from blinds.com they have a 100 satisfaction guarantee that means even if you mismeasure you pick the wrong color they will remake your window blinds for free. And they got free samples, free shipping, new promos every month. Use the promo code Ramsey. It's magic. Jonathan is in Georgia. I'm on baby step two, getting out of debt. I'm wondering what options are available for a parent if they've co-signed on private student loans with their child.

Current balance is $70,000. My 31-year-old son does not pay on the debt in a timely manner. I often receive notices in the mail about the payments being late. Do I have any options for recourse in this situation? Should I start making the payments? You co-signed it. It's your debt. You're going to pay it because he's not.

Might as well just accept it. Just put it in your debt snowball. You have a $70,000 student loan debt. Well, doesn't that suck? Remember that next time you get ready to co-sign something. Co-signing is stupid. I have done it, and I had to pay the debts that I co-signed for because the dupes didn't take care of it.

One poor soul co-signed for me back before I went bankrupt, and they ended up paying for me. I had to go back and pay them later. Co-signing is stupid, says it in the Bible. Proverbs 17, 18, one lacking in sense signs surety for another. If you actually read the contemporary English version, it says, cosigning is stupid. That's exactly what it says.

It says it in the Bible. 17, 18, Proverbs. Look it up. It's stupid to cosign for someone. The reason is, think about this, okay? The most aggressively marketed product in the world is debt. They want to sell you debt so bad. They want to loan you money so bad.

But you suck so bad that they won't loan you money without a cosigner. That means that you're not going to pay the bill and yet along comes grandma and says i'm gonna help out my boy that's just straight up stupid because if your boy can't get a loan it's because he sucks he He's horrible. I mean, they will loan a dead person money. They will loan a dog money. And if they won't loan your boy money with a cosigner, that's a sign. Read the sign. Never cosign.

Never cosign. People need a cosigner because they're not going to pay. Maybe they wanted to. Maybe they had full intention of it. But they're not going to pay. Maybe they wanted to. Maybe they had full intention of it. But they're not going to pay. They don't have the capacity. There's something wrong with the deal. That's why the bank is requiring a cosigner.

So never cosign. You end up paying it. It's just stupid tax. When I do something stupid with money and it costs me that money, and I've done it a bunch of times, y'all. I'm not picking on you guys. I've done every one of these things done myself.

Every time I do something stupid with money and I lose the money, I call it stupid tax. Cosigning is stupid tax. And, my friend, you're getting ready to pay $70,000 in stupid tax. Ouch. That hurt. That left a mark. John is with us in Florida. Hey, John, how are you?

Good, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. My pleasure. My mother is 79 years old, and I helped her sell her house, and she got $10,000 more than what she was asking for, and the guy really wanted it. It was a conventional loan, and it appraised for that and net net in the end um she's uh she's gonna she's gonna really do well on this home she owes 38 000 on it and we were supposed to close on June 27th. But the problem is, is when she purchased the home, the title

company, it's a modular home, which in the state of Tennessee is seen like as a car. They were supposed to convert it to a fixed home, and they did not. So when the title company went to get the title all taken care of, the mortgage company doesn't have the title, and it's really being seen as a car versus a house. So the buyer's lender wants the title at closing because they're going to sell the loan, okay? So the mortgage company that my mother has the loan with is not being very helpful. They're trying to tell us that they will find out if they have the title or not,

and they were supposed to have it to us by July 5th, and they didn't have the answer then. And then they said July 22nd, and the person at the title company called the mortgage company, and they're supposed to get back to them today with an answer. I'm feeling that the mortgage with my mother's modular home has changed hands a couple times, and this mortgage company is in the process of being bought. So I'm not feeling real confident that they either have the title or not. And so what the title company is telling me is, if they will turn the title over to the title company, then they'll do all the pre-work so we can use the buyer's mortgage company.

To me, the only thing that really sounds, and I was patient enough to say, okay, well, let's see what they're going to say. Well, they're supposed to have the answer back to the title company today. And I'm not real confident with that. So here's my question to you. And I want to make sure that, um, I'm not putting myself in a bad situation. What I've been told. So my mother owes $38,000 on the home. My, my, i'm willing to write the check to to pay the loan off so they will send her a letter saying that there's no mortgage on this home and no lien so she can take it down to the dmv and basically now my mom's 79 years old i live in florida she lives in tennessee she lives in kentucky she moved in with my brother but we've sold the home we think and the and the buyer is being patient

with all this but my question to you is you can apply for yeah if you pay it off and have the paperwork you can apply for a lost title it's not it's not the dmv it's not the dmv but you'll have to find out where to to do that and maybe your brother can run with her uh if it's in tennessee nashville's the capital of tennessee and you may have to just run down to one of the state buildings in nashville it's like a lost birth certificate a lost car title you can if you've lost your car title you can apply for a lost title and 10 bucks and they'll make it over or whatever they charge and might take it might it might take a week or to get it or something or they might print it out on the spot i can't remember i've done it though i've gone down and gotten a lost title on a car i've never done it on a mobile home but i don't think it's the same exact piece of paper with the

exact same thing so you need to find out exactly what the process is because i'm with you i'm thinking they can't find this title because this file's changed hands a bunch of times and they don't have it that's my bet so here's my only issue so my brother's a paraplegic and he's got bed sores right now so he can't you have a title company in the state of tennessee doing this deal for you, though, right? Yes. Pay one of their paralegals to go down there and take care of it. Well, they said that they really can't take care of it because they're not of the person of the title, meaning my mother's going to have to go down there. You shouldn't give them a power of attorney to go take care of it.

Give them $500 and tell them to get their dadgum thing fixed. All right, so you think I'm safe if I pay this thing off? I'm not going to get it. As long as you can get a payoff letter from the mortgage company saying there's no longer any debt owed. And then you can staple that and get the title scrubbed and get a replacement title, meaning there's no lien on the title because I have this piece of paper in my hand. But if they'll issue you a payoff letter that says, if you pay this amount, you'll have zero debt,

and you can get a payoff letter sent to the title company, you should be fine. Title companies should be able to tell you this. They should be able to walk you through this. If not, you need to move it to a different title company and then give them a little extra money to run point on this for you since your family is elderly and troubled and everything else. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. mckay is with us in Utah. Hi, McKay.

Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, question. So my wife and I are about to have our first child next week. Congratulations.

Thank you. We're on baby step two, and our only debt is the $13,000 that we owe on my wife's car before paying for all the hospital bills for the baby. We have $19,000 in savings. Um, so both, both myself, but especially my wife are nervous about pretty much completely emptying our savings to pay off the car considering we lose her income and I'm going to start a new career as a middle school teacher. So I was just curious, do you think it's a smart idea to empty our savings? Any advice that you have for us? Well, I wouldn't until baby comes and mommy and baby come home from the hospital and everybody's

healthy. I'd leave the cash position there until then. I wouldn't push play on your debt snowball. But if baby and mommy come home and baby's healthy, mommy's healthy, and there's no issues, you have $19,000 and $13,000 and you're getting ready to start your new career, you know what your income is, right? Yeah. And you're going to be able to eat on that income, aren't you? Yes.

Okay. So there's nothing to be nervous about about the career. It's a pretty stable job, this thing called teaching. Good point. Yeah, I think she's nervous because it'll be pretty tight and i i'm i'm more comfortable with that idea and i think she's getting bought into that well you need a budget you guys need to lay out your plan and go okay here's what we're going to make and you don't have to do it this week you do it after the baby comes home okay and so celebrate

and enjoy just leave the money sitting there. Celebrate and enjoy this event. Make sure that there's no hiccups. Because I don't want you to be debt-free and need some money for something around this delivery and not have it. So we're going to just sit there on the money for right now. But then, you know, in 45 days, you're working at the new position. You know what your take-home pay is going to be. You can look down and, all right, let's do a budget on that. Okay, well, that makes me feel more confident because we can actually write out, use the EveryDollar budget, EveryDollar app, and write out exactly where EveryDollar is going.

And I can feel comfortable then that this is not unwise. But just kind of taking a shot in the dark, I don't know. I'm talking about having an overall plan. I feel comfortable in that plan. And, yeah, I'm going to come down. I'm not going to have any savings for a little bit because I'm getting out of debt. But then the first goal after we're debt-free other than the house, maybe step three is where we would be.

The goal then is build the emergency fund. Three to six months of expenses. Boom, you're there. That's how you do it. So, you know, you're not going to have $5,000 or $6,000 as your only savings for very long. Pretty quickly, you're going to have more savings than that because you're immediately going to use your every dollar that's freed up in the budget to go rebuild that with. But wait till baby comes home and you have your new budget and you have your new income and the smoke's kind of cleared. It may be 30, 45 days before you make this move.

It does not need to be six months before you make the move. After the dust settles, let's pull the trigger. Let's get on with it. Denise is with us. Denise is in Miami. Hi, Denise. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? I have a leased car. I'm coming to the end of the lease in December. Now, in the past, I've struggled to pay for this car. It's very expensive. It's over my budget.

Long story. And I have, I can't remember what it's called, but I've taken two payments to the end of the lease that, um, I think you defer them. Is that what it's called? Anyway, the lease is up in December. So when I turn the car in, I'm still going to owe these two payments. Plus the car has got probably more than double the miles on it. So I'm going to get hit with that as well. I don't know what to do. I'm listening to your book right now.

I've got about an hour left to go. What's your household income? I'm divorced, so I get alimony and child support. I rent my home. I have four children. They're two are in college, two are in high school. Do you work? I do.

I am a beginning real estate agent, so I'm truly trying to get that job going. I teach spinning. Okay, so what is your household income? It's about $11,000 a month. Wow. I'm a very rare case. So what in the world, how much money do you need to write them a check for in December to make this whole mess go away?

I haven't done that math. Okay, how much is your car payment? $1,232 a month good lord yeah i'm you know what in the world are you driving what do you think a mercedes benz sounded like a bentley oh my gosh all right so 1200 bucks okay so 2400 bucks so you're double what's your miles mileage penalty and how many miles are you Oh, my gosh. All right. So $1,200. Well, I got suckered in. Okay, so $2,400. So you're double. What's your mileage penalty, and how many miles are you going to be over? Well, I think I've signed up for $12,000 a year, and I'm at probably $16,000 a year. So you're $4,000 a year over for how many years?

Well, I leased the car for 33 months, and it's coming up, 33 months. So you're going to be 10,000 miles over? At least, yeah. Okay, and what's the penalty per mile? I'm not really sure. I'm sure it's like 20 cents a mile. Yeah, probably 15 or 20. So that's another two grand.

So two $1,200 payments is $2,400. The mileage overage is about $2,000, give or take. So we're talking about less than $5,000. You make $11,000 a month. Yeah, but I have other expenses. I have rent. I know. I know.

But between now and December, you ought to be able to scratch up $5,000. Between now and December, you should be able to scratch up five grand. Okay, yeah. I'm trying. No, I mean, you need to. You make enough money. Good God, girl. Well, my point was, my question was, should I turn the lease at now?

Yes! Yeah, turn it now. No, turn it in December. It doesn't do any good to turn it in now. You still are going to owe it through December anyway. Might as well drive it. Quit driving the wheels off of it because every time you drive it, you're going to get those mileage penalties.

But you might as well have the use of the car. You're going to pay for it either way. Then what do I do in December when I need a car? Well, we've got to have $5,000 to get rid of this one, give or take take and we need to have saved up enough to buy a car and you're gonna move way down in car oh for sure yeah like five or ten thousand and that's that much more you need to save exactly okay so here let me stop you for a second what i'm hearing is a very, very, very busy lady who's also disorganized. Absolutely. And you have a lot of money coming in,

and you're used to living pretty high on the hog, as we say in Tennessee, and you're going to have to trim that back and get yourself under control, kiddo. Mm-hmm. You need to dial back your activities a little bit and dial in your organizational skills a little bit. Okay. Because otherwise this thing's going to hit the wall, isn't it? Yeah.

Oh, it already has. I mean, it's coming. Yeah. Okay. So you hold on. I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, and it's going to help you. And you call me back as you're working through this if you need some help. I'm not going to pick on you.

We're going to work on this together. Don't you do any more $1,200 car leases. Oh, my goodness. That's absolutely crazy. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. It is a free call.

The car fleece is the most expensive way to operate a car. And all you're doing is just delaying the fact that you need to make a decision. See, anytime you take payments on something, all you're doing is kicking the can down the road. All you're doing is saying, I really can't afford this, but I'm going to act like I can. And so she's driving a $100,000 car with a $130,000 income and she can't afford it. I've done that.

You've done that. And you're not going to get ahead when you're doing that. It doesn't work. Hope that helps you. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniels, our associate producer, and phone screen. I'm Dave Ramsey Show. This episode is over, but if you heard about a product or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry.

We list everything that is mentioned during this episode in the podcast show notes section. Thanks for listening.