The Ramsey Show - App - Life Does Not Consist of Just the House You Live In (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 10, 2019

Debt, Retirement, Home Buying Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show. For debt is dumb, cash is king, and a paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. It's 888-825-5225.

Starting off this hour is going to be John in Nebraska. Hey, John, how are you? I'm doing great, doing great. Good. What's up? Well, my wife and I are running an FPU class, and one of our students, if you will, before they got to us and Dave Ramsey, they lumped all their credit cards and all their debt and everything into a 10-year house law. Okay? Into a 10-year house loan. Okay?

Into a 10-year house what? And into a 10-year house loan. They only own their house. Okay, and they have a 10-year mortgage. Okay. Yep, 10-year mortgage, sorry. And that's their only debt. Okay. So we were talking about it, and they want to know,

and we were wanting to find out, do they start investing their 15%? Did they do their emergency fund? Since it was some of their old debt into this loan, where do they go from here? Yeah, the problem is you can't pay off part of it and have any effect on it. Your house payment remains the same regardless of whether you reduce the principal or not. And so once this is lumped together, you can't really unring the bell. So how much do they owe on their home? They owe about $109,000.

And what's it worth? It's worth about $180,000. Ooh. So they took it all? It's worth about $180,000. Ooh. So they took it all the way out and made a mess. Yeah. Okay. What's their household income? Their household income is right at $60,000.

How are they affording this house? They have $190,000 on a 10-year loan making 60 000 a year no no no i'm sorry maybe i said that they owe 109 oh 109 yeah oh yeah that's okay yeah i feel better already all right good yeah yeah i was like wait it's not they're not that far out it's okay so they've got a big house payment though they do got a big house payment, though. They do have a big house payment. That's all they're paying, and they're actually doubling their house payment from $1,000 to $2,000. Yeah, they don't need to do that. And trying to get out of it.

Yeah, let's just take them where they are. I mean, we didn't meet them before. We met them where they are. And so they don't have any debt except their home, which puts them on the baby step three. They need to build an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Have they done that yet? They are on their way. You know, like I said, they just went to FPU and were sent through baby step three.

Yeah, I'd take them through three and into four and then five and then six. I would not be paying extra on the house right now. Okay. They need to put all of that into the um into their emergency fund until they get that built and then they need to put 15 of their income into retirement and um and if they have kids we'll move them on to return you know maybe step five doing doing something for college appropriate to their college situation with their kiddos and then we'll move them on and then start paying down the house extra.

The big thing is you need to, you know, the thing I would do if I were coaching them one-on-one is I would call out that this is a very dangerous thing because you did not change your habits. You just changed the situation. So you have to use the power of Financial Peace University to change your habits because otherwise it's going to feel like you've gotten some relief here and you could go back to your old wicked ways really quickly and easily. Molly is with us in Texas. Hey, Molly, how are you? I'm doing great, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. What's up? So my husband and I are 25 and 26 years old. We're completely debt-free. And right now we are maxing out our retirement accounts and we're also saving for a house. So my husband's in the military and our plan was to buy a house in eight years when he separates. But there's also a possibility that we could buy before that, depending on where we move in the housing market and stuff. So anyway, my question is kind of two-part.

First of all, should we continue to prioritize maxing out our retirement or slow down our retirement savings so that we have money to pay for a house if we decide to buy a house before we leave the military? Yeah, I would leave you at maybe step four, 15% of your income going into retirement, and everything above that is where I would save. But I wouldn't put more than 15% of your household income into retirement. What is your household income? Right now, it's about $110, but it should be up to about $200 within the next year when I graduate from graduate school. Cool. What's your degree in? It's a PhD in statistics. Look at you. Way to go. Good job. What are you going to do? That's a great question. We currently live in the middle of nowhere, so I will do whatever

anybody will pay me to do. Well, I mean, what's your career plan with a Ph.D. in statistics? I'd love to work for a company analyzing data. I'm really interested in one specific company that does focus on hiring military spouses, but working remotely is basically my only option at this point. Yeah, cool. Well, data analysts are very, very valuable in today's world in business. Business people that aren't doing a good job with their data probably aren't going to be with us in 10 years. So you are in a sweet spot with the way the business environment is going.

So good for you. Well done. Yeah, I would limit your retirement contributions to 15% of your household income at any given time. So today it'd be 15% of 110. Later it might be 15% of 200. And above that, I would save aggressively to be able to pay cash when you are in a place where you know you're going to be there a while and you're in a good real estate market. Okay? So how do we know what that amount is if we don't know where we're going to be buying a house? Well, you can't have too much.

So let's just go ahead and pile it up. I mean, listen, if the worst thing that happens is you piled up $300,000 or $400,000 in addition to your retirement in the next eight years, I don't think that's a bad thing. Sure. So should we be doing that in mutual funds or in – If you think it's going to be longer than five – a portion of it if you think it's going to be longer than five years. Okay. But the portion, you know, I wouldn't dump it all in there today, but, you know, if you're sitting there with a couple hundred grand later and you want to move 100 or 150 of it over into mutual funds because you think it's going to be four or five years before you take it out, that'd be okay.

That's fine. The number of five-year cycles in the stock market that make money is 90-something percent, okay? The number of three-year cycles in the stock market that make money is only about 60 percent. So if you're only going to leave it alone three years you stand a one in three chance of losing money and so that's why i use the five-year mark to say you know don't put money in mutual funds unless you're going to leave it alone at least five years and kind of pretty much said that for 30 years and it's still working the numbers of the historical data on the stock market still back that suggestion up. So, hey, you're doing really, really good.

Well done. No shock a PhD in statistics has her mathematical act together, though. There you go. 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. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually

supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years. And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Sandy's with us. Sandy is in Missouri. Hey, Sandy, how are you? I've been better, but I'm glad I'm talking to you.

Cool. How can I help today? Let's see. I'm 68. Husband is 70. Lost our home to foreclosure for a con artist lawyer that doesn't have malpractice insurance. I moved out in an apartment and I got about $100,000 in savings. I have a debt of $5,000. All my credit cards are paid off. And I don't know where to go from here. I'm sorry. Yeah.

How long were you in that house? 40 years. How long have you been married? About 46. Yeah, okay. Well, when Sharon and I went broke and lost everything, we weren't your age, but we still know the emotions. One of the things it does for you is it helps you instantly get a firm grasp on what's real and what's important. Things you thought were important turns out aren't maybe, right?

Yeah, right. Like you guys got each other. You got $100,000. You have a roof over your head, and you have food on the table. Your heart is broken, and you're pretty pissed off, and I don't blame you for both. But you really do have a lot of blessings in your life. And that's kind of one of the things Sharon and I did when we went broke. You didn't go broke, but, I mean, you lost your house, and that just kicks your teeth in emotionally.

So I understand. So what would I do from here? 68 and 70, you said, right? Yes. Okay. Are either one of you earning an income? We both are. Oh, are you?

Okay. So what's your household income? About 95. Wow. What do you guys do? Well, my husband's in customer service and then i have my own uh business that i i work part-time out of my home okay so you guys are doing well we have a we have a pension that brings in 48 oh okay all right so 48 is the pension and then you're earning another 50 or so right yeah well that's pretty cool that's a nice

number i didn't expect to hear so that's good all right so we got a hundred thousand dollar your income we got a hundred thousand dollars in the bank we got five thousand dollars in debt and we're starting over on housing right right okay well let's see if i were going to walk you up our baby steps i would set aside a percentage of this $100,000 as your emergency fund, three to six months of expenses. I would allocate some of the rest of it to a down payment on a modest home that you could get paid off really fast. So you live in where in Missouri? In St. Louis. St. Louis area, okay.

Yeah, Chesterfield. Okay, so now that your life has been readjusted to an apartment, what is a modest house price? Well, I mean, I don't know, you know, because of the legal procedures, I don't know if we have to wait three years for a foreclosure or whether there's no history there of the foreclosure because it wasn't done properly. So I don't know if I can go buy a house next year when this lease is up in June or if... What was owed on your home?

What was your owed on your home that was foreclosed uh 245 okay and what was it worth um probably if if we were able to keep it up and the banks didn't there were legal things in that that uh it would have been worth a hundred thousand more so like 350 okay all right but in its current state is probably worth about what was owed on it that it would have been worth $100,000 more, so like $350,000. Okay, all right. But in its current state, it's probably worth about what was owed on it. Okay, all right. Well, no, because it wasn't up kept and waiting for all these years

with this attorney that conned us. There weren't any repairs made for a number of years. Okay, so what if we spent three years adding to the $100,000, making $95,000 a year, living very, very conservatively, and we had a plan to buy a home in three years, and you were to say we're going to buy a $150,000 condo that we're going to pay cash for? Could we do that?

That'd be $50,000. That'd be, say, $50,000 a year for three years. Okay. Here's where I want to take you to. I want to take you to a paid-for home for your retirement. That stabilizes a lot of things. It helps with the scars of a foreclosure. You don't have that insecurity anymore.

You don't have to fight with a house payment of any kind, even if it's a modest home. And I don't care if you move up later on again, but I want to get you into some kind of a little modest condo or something that we pay cash for in a few years because that stabilizes the next 20 years of your life. And then we can add to the $100,000 for an additional nest egg to stabilize your life with as well. Okay. So, I mean, if you guys can continue to bring in $95,000 a year for five or six years, we can do a lot with that. Right.

The biggest problem you're going to have is healing emotionally and not using the rearview mirror, but instead using the windshield. Yeah, that's why I'm looking for help. Yeah, it's just when you get mad and you get hurt, you can spend all your time looking in the rearview mirror. And sometimes that even becomes bitterness, and none of those things are going to be productive for your future. If you had a clean heart and hadn't had your teeth kicked in, and you just called me up and said, I make $95,000 a year, I have $100,000 in what we do, it's a lot easier to run that math out forward because you're not looking back and you're not mad about this lawyer.

So I want you to try to go an entire day and not use con artist lawyer in a sentence. Which is really hard because you're really mad. And I don't blame you, but there's nothing to do about it. I mean, he didn't have malpractice insurance. There's nothing to do about it. You've already put this to bed. Now you've got to put it to bed. Don't you?

Don't you? Yeah. Don't you? Yeah. Yeah. I know you're hurting, honey. I know your heart's broken, but it's okay. Life does not consist of the house we live in. Walk in there and give that 46-year man a hug and go, hey, we started out, we were broke. Sharon and I started out, we were broke.

When y'all started out, we were broke. Sharon and I started out, we were broke. When did y'all start out, were you broke? No, there's a history of other bad lawyers. We were doing pretty good. We just lost it all. When you got married, you weren't broke? 46 years ago? Huh? Right. Well, I think you need to stay away from lawyers.

I know. That's why I'm calling you. Well, I'm not a lawyer, thank goodness. Right. Yeah, but my point is, when you started out 46 years ago, you and your husband, did you have anything? I mean, we were in an apartment with, you know, $30,000. Yeah, Sharon and I started out in an apartment eating off a card table. We didn't have any money.

Here we sit 38 years later, blessed. And here you sit 46 years later, blessed. Lots of people don't have it. They don't get to finish the story with the person they started with. And you're getting to finish the story with the person you started with. The story's not done yet. Turn the page. Let's move to another chapter that last chapter sucked it's got to get better in the next chapter so let's look forward and let's work towards paying cash for a little conservative

modest condo and then let's start saving money and building some wealth. And if you've done something stupid or trust the wrong people, that makes you a human being. Every one of us have done something stupid, and we've trusted the wrong people. And it's just, there's just some people out there that aren't good. That's sad, and they really are. So you've learned the lessons, and you'll probably keep learning some more.

I hope you don't learn any more as painful as that one but uh you'll get there you're gonna be okay kiddo windshield not rearview mirror windshield not rearview mirror windshield that's where the grace is rearview mirror where the pain is windshield not rearview mirror. Look into the future. Don't live in the past. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. We'll be right back. Young is in Virginia. Hey, Young, what's up? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. How can I help? Yeah, I wanted to ask you two quick questions. One is whether I should sell my house or not. I'm currently in Baby Step 2. I have about $38,000 of debt, and my wife will end up with about $350,000 of student loan debt from dental school. The complicated part is my parents are living in my house right now,

and my wife is living about 60 miles away from me. She'll be done with school in nine months. And at that point, I'm wondering if I should sell my house and really start from scratch using whatever money comes from the sale to pay off our debts. Yeah. What do you make? About $105,000 a year. $105,000. So she'll probably come out and make $100,000 to $150,000 roughly.

Right. Not buying into a practice. And so you'd have $200,000 to $250,000 to work on the debt. What's the equity in your home? I think I have maybe $40,000 to $50,000. Okay. And what do you owe on it? Oh, about $300,000.

Okay. So yeah, I was very normal. So the $40,000 to $50,000 doesn't really help that much. Getting rid of $300,000 does, depending on where you guys are anticipating living. So we're trying to stay pretty close to here since we've been going to this church for a while. And we want to try to stay close to church. Yeah, the complicated part right now is because my parents went through a lot. So they are living in my house right now.

For free? Well, you know, I've made my parents pay some of the utility, some insurance and a few things. But, yeah, the mortgage is on me right now. And so once I move out of the house with my wife, then, you know, it'll be very hard for them to be self-reliable, self-reliant. Okay. Well, we got to get that going. I mean, that's because I don't see you putting your parents Into the street as homeless people Yeah, I know

So, you know We have to work on a plan to You know, a 12 month plan for them To get in a situation where they're sustainable So what is their income? Oh, I think they do about $50,000 together. $40,000 to $50,000 together. Okay.

And how old are they? During their late 60s. Okay. All right. Yeah. Okay. And so if they make $50,000 a year, why can they not rent a small apartment? Lots of people who make $50,000 a year, why can they not rent a small apartment? Lots of people who make $50,000 a year do.

Yeah, that makes sense. The one thing is because, again, my work is here in Virginia, and my wife goes to dental school in Baltimore, and I'm not able to stay with her the whole time. So I'm living here in Virginia. I have the house. I'm living with my parents. Well, my parents are living with her the whole time. I'm living here in Virginia. I have the house. I'm living with my parents. Well, my parents are living with me.

I understand. I'm just saying nine months from now, when you need to sell the house, we have to have a plan for them to have a life that doesn't involve homelessness. And so we need to start talking about that with them now so that it doesn't sneak up on them. I mean, you and I have already had more of a conversation than you and them. Probably, yeah. Yeah. So you need to sit down with them tonight and go, Mom and Dad, look, when my wife graduates in nine months, we've got to get this house sold because we can't afford it because she's got a big pile of student loan debt, and we've got to get that dug through.

And so we've got to start talking about where you guys are going to live in nine months. And, you know, I want to help you. I'm not going to just dump you in the street, but we've got to start developing together a game plan, and I'm going to be your biggest cheerleader, and I'll even help you some. But this house is no longer going to be in the picture nine months from now. So we've got to work together for a plan for you guys. Okay.

If you said that conversation to your mom and dad as an opening line, how would that go? It won't be easy. They expect you to care for them 100% for the rest of their life? Well, I don't think they do. The one thing is my parents, you know, I mean, I don't want to take the back mirror view. I want to stay windshield, take a windshield approach. But my mother had cancer. My father went through bankruptcy. Until that time, we had to take care of my grandmother who had a stroke and all of that.

So it's been a little messy up to now. Well, I think you can just say that. Just say there's been a lot of pain and you guys have been through a lot and i and again we're going to walk with you we're not dropping you we love you but we also have to make plans here for the future we can't just sit here in this house it doesn't work anymore after nine months and so um you know he get you know i know mom you know i know the cancer thing still scares you i know dad you've been through the bankruptcy i know losing grandmother i know all of those things still hurt uh in the midst of that we're still going to have these discussions about how about where we're all going to live because i'm

not going to be able to keep this house because my wife has $350,000 in student loan debt. And so we cannot repeat this financial pain generationally. So I have to do something, Dad. I mean, and I can help you guys. I mean, we'll help you. But we're not going to all just pile in this house and live together and try to make it work out and us take care of you. So you make enough money to live, and let's start getting on a budget and i'll you know let's go through financial peace university together you can walk and hold their hand and help them make these decisions but um if you're

not allowed to discuss this then you've got family issues but if you're allowed to discuss it gently kindly and firmly then you've got a good healthy family where you can have these discussions. Sometimes culture plays into the discussion. Some cultures are more you take care of your parents than others, no matter what, no matter how toxic or ridiculous the situation is, you're supposed to still take care of your parents in certain cultures. And so that, you know, and it's guilt-tripped if you don't, you know, that kind of thing. So you got to deal with all that, but it's all right there in front of you. You can do it.

All right, Larry's with us. Larry's in California. Hey, Larry, how are you? Hey, Dave, how you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have two questions and they're sort of unrelated, but the first one has to do with a pension payout. And I know everybody's situation is different. So you have to make the decision on your situation. So I have a pension

from 30 years of work in aerospace. And I had one that was paid out like a year ago, and I temporarily took employment out in California, whereas I was in Florida for those 30 years. So the first one, I took a lump sum payout, and I rolled it into a Roth IRA. Of course, I got hit with the federal tax and California tax, and I had to pay a big amount of money taxes last year. So I have another one that I can actually collect now, but I'm trying to decide, do I take a pension payout like an annuity or would it make better sense to you know pay it out uh roll it over into a a um a you know traditional ira and then just pay the taxes uh you don't have taxes on a traditional ira rollover you only pay taxes as you move it out of that ira but right i always

a hundred percent of the time i roll a pension to a traditional ira when i can and here's why when you die you lose the money exactly if it's in an ira you don't lose the money and it's invested in good mutual funds which will pay probably almost double what the stupid pension is playing paying while you're. So it's better alive and better dead. And so you roll it to an IRA. But I wouldn't have rolled it to a Roth. You've got your teeth kicked in with those taxes, man. It might or might not have been the right thing to do.

I don't know. But for sure, I'm rolling it to a traditional IRA. And that way, you've got control of the money, invested in good mutual funds, sit down with one of our smart investor pros, and they can help you work through all that and show you. You need someone in your corner with the heart of a teacher that'll walk you through that, and that's what our SmartVestor pros are.

Click SmartVestor at DaveRamsey.com. Kent is in Montana. Hey, Kent, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dan, thanks for taking my call. How are you today? Better than I deserve, sir. How can I help? Dan, I've been kind of 32 years old and been really bad with money and just started listening to you here over the weekend and really intrigued by what you're teaching and how to go about doing it. I'm about $150,000 in debt between bad mistakes on get-rich-quick schemes and credit cards and vehicle loans and a house loan.

Just kind of wondering what your advice is to go about getting debt-free. Cool. So how much do you owe on your home? I owe about $40,000. Okay. And how much on credit cards? Right now, it's right around $15,000. Okay.

How much on the car? $9,000. Okay. So you've got, like, $90,000 on Get Rich QuickSims? No, I have. I've bought out credit cards with loans. I've got about one loan for $15,000, and then I've got another loan. I think it's sitting at $15,000, and I write about $10,000 in Get Rich Quick schemes,

you know, getting credit cards to buy the product so you can, you know, get rich fast, whatever. So what kind of a get-rich-quick scheme did you get into? They called it Kong and Water and Magic. I guess you had to buy these products and then try to sell it over Facebook. Well, advertising is not cheap, so you spend a bunch of money on that. And I didn't have the money to do any of it to begin with. And to buy the products was right around $12,000 to do it. Okay. All right.

And so what's your household income? I'm right at $80,000 here in the summer. The winter will probably drop. Okay. So what do you do for a living? I joined the railroad, got laid off, and now I'm in construction. Okay. Good.

All right. So what did you learn from losing money on the Get Rich Quick things? That it's pretty much what you say. It's not everything it's set up to be. Well, I just, I mean, you don't get rich quick. And this is pretty much what you say. It's not everything it's set up to be. Yeah. Well, it's just, I mean, you don't get rich quick. Most people get rich slow. Exactly.

And you spend a lot of money doing it, and you get nowhere. And so very, very, very few people become wealthy in a short period of time. The vast majority of millionaires that we've studied, and we've done the largest study of millionaires in America ever done, over 10,000 millionaires we've studied, the vast majority of them took over a decade minimum, usually two decades, somewhere in there, to build their first million dollars. Now, there are occasionally somebody that just strikes it rich, right? That's why they call it strike it rich. It's like a gold strike. It's a rarity.

It's a low percentage play. It's a lottery ticket. And most of us know most of those aren't worth anything. And so what I would tell you is just to, you know, you kind of mentioned that in your opening to me, so I would just say make sure that what you learned from it was that, okay, I'm going to use a different system or a different mindset, a different philosophy about wealth in order to get some, and that is I'm going to be the tortoise rather than the hare. You remember the old Aesop's fable, the tortoise and the hare, and the tortoise wins every time I read the book? Yep. Yeah, so now you've been trying to be the hare. It didn't work.

You lost the race. I did that too, by the way. That's how I went broke in my 20s. Only I did it a lot bigger than you. I had lots of zeros on the end. I got a PhD in DUMB. So you can turn this around. You're just going to have to get very systematic

and become a marathoner rather than a sprinter and just lay into this thing. So what we're going to do is we're going to put you into a Financial Peace membership, which includes the nine-week class to Financial Peace University. It includes one-year connectivity to the EveryDollar app. I'm going to pay for it. I'm going to give it to you, okay? If I do that, will you and your wife

commit to going to the class yes sir okay and we'll walk you through exactly how to get on a budget and and from that then start to analyze your situation and begin to work your way through these debts and you can work your way right through these these are very doable but you've been just uh stumbling along and every time you stub your toe, you borrow $10,000. Yeah, exactly. Because that's what these increments are. They're all $10,000, $15,000 all the way up through here. And it's a $10,000 car, 15,000 credit cards, 15,000-hour loan, 15,000-hour loan, $10,000.

I mean, that's just, you know, it just doesn't work. So we need to do $10,000 increments the other direction and get this mess cleaned up and so it's going to take you a couple years of sacrifice and watching what you're doing and limiting your lifestyle and being very intentional with every dollar but you'll be able to turn it around and we'll show you exactly how to do that in this nine-week course with the one-year membership so don't don't take it all in it's all included and it's all free i gave it all to you all right stephanie is with us in virginia hi stephanie how are you i'm doing good how you better than i deserve what's up so um about 12 years ago my husband purchased our house i wasn't with him he bought it it when he was younger. And when

he bought it, he had it as two mortgages. One mortgage is the main mortgage that has all the taxes. The second mortgage, our biggest issue is that the second mortgage in about three more years is a balloon payment. His first mortgage was like a first pay. How much is the first mortgage? First mortgage as it sits right now is $120. What about the second? $19. Okay. And so what is the value of the home?

We try to refinance because his interest rate is like 6 and 8. And two years ago it was 125. Okay so you owe more on the house than it's worth. Yep. Okay and what's just in the beginning a baby step one so. Okay all right what's your household income? Take home is about 50. Okay all right well we've the house has to go up in value. You have to pay down the mortgage in order to get it refinanced, or you're going to end up selling the house. Okay. Because in three years, you have a balloon due, and you don't have the money.

Yeah. In three years, you could probably, well, you should be able to pay down that, pay off that second mortgage in three years. Why don't we just do that? Yeah, we'll pay, and, you know pay and of course we'll pay in the mortgage. No, no, I mean really. I mean really pay off $19,000 in three years.

How much is that a year? 19 divided by 3, quick. Math, not good right now. $6,300. Yeah. Okay. $6,300. That's $500 a month. You now have a goal. Get on a budget, and you need to put $600 a month on this mortgage until it's paid off or more.

When we get in Baby Step 2, would I put that as part of the debt to help? I would put $600 a month in my budget as a payment on this debt because you don't want this three years to sneak up on you this has to be gone in three years i understand that makes sense and yes totally totally that's why we were just kind of sitting here like wondering what to do and especially with that coming up because his first mortgage was the first 10 years of like interest only, and that surprised us. The great news is that you called me with three years left, not three months left,

because it would be hard to do $6,000 a month for three months in your situation. But you can do $600 or $700 a month and be done with this thing. It's very doable. I don't know what your other debts are, but if you want to keep this house and not get foreclosed on, that's your assignment. Oh, that's serious. That's why you never take out a balloon mortgage. The balloons pop.

All of them pop. And you're going to lose your stinking house. It's a problem. So you have to do this starting this month. Ready, set, go. Andrew is on Twitter. Dave, do you think I should have concealed carry insurance, or do you consider it a gimmick? I would look at the particular coverage.

Some of them I've read are gimmicky. Some of them give pretty good coverage. And then I would just consider your viewpoint on firearms. I do not have concealed carry permit, and I carry every day. So, unless I'm in a state where it's not legal. But I also, the chance of me actually using that firearm is zero. I will run. So, that's my philosophy.

You'll have to almost kill me to get me to draw that thing out. So, it's just too, there's too many implications. So, yeah, you just got to have a philosophy about how you're going to handle your firearms. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.