The Ramsey Show - App - Mom and I Co-Own a House but I Want Her To Move Out

Episode Date: May 23, 2022

George discusses: Buying an investment property while you still rent, Taking a job with less pay but better benefits, How much you need to retire with dignity, Buying mom out of a property that you co-own. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

🎵 From Ramsey Network, this is The Ramsey Show, where we help you get control of your money, get ahead in your career, and get on the path to being well. I'm George Campbell, your host, and I'm flying solo today. So give me a call, 888-825-5225. call. 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. If you need a little bit of motivation, a lot of people call in for affirmation. They think they know what to do. They just need someone to tell them it's the right move.

I'm happy to help you do that. 888-825-5225. Brady kicks off this hour in Dallas, Texas. Brady, welcome to the show. Hey, George. What, welcome to the show. Hey, George. What's up, man? You're killing it flying solo today. I appreciate that vote of confidence. Thank you. I'll make sure Dave hears that comment. What's going on with you? Hey, good, man. Good. I've got a real estate question for you. My wife and I are both

27 years old. We've got two little kids, a three-year-old and a two-month-old. And for the past five years, we have been Airbnb hosts. But the catch is we haven't owned the properties that we've Airbnb'd. We've done rental arbitrage where the landlord gives us permission to rent out their place, right? So we've done this for five years and it's gone great. It's super fun. We just save, save, save, pile up cash, don't touch any of it. But we don't have any equity in those properties. And so my question is the place we live right now, we actually don't own as well. We rent, but it's so dirt cheap and we love it so much that we don't really want to move anywhere. But we desperately want to buy a house so that we can have equity in, you know, a hard asset.

So my question really would be, I know obviously with the Ramsey plan and the baby steps, like we're supposed to live so much right now and we're saving so much money because it's so cheap, could we possibly buy an investment property first and just pay that off aggressively while we still rent where we live? I don't see anything wrong with that. So what's your rent right now? Our rent is just $1,200 a month, but we're on like 11 acres and a great house and it's really quiet and super beautiful. What's your household income? It fluctuates. I'm self-employed, so it's anywhere between 200 to 300. Wow. Great income. That's awesome. Are you working full-time while doing these Airbnb hosting? Yes. Yeah, we are. Okay. Well, I'm okay with you doing this, but it doesn't sound like you're, are you going to pay cash for this piece of property? No, we're not going to pay cash. We would probably get like a 15 year fixed mortgage,

like you guys recommend. And we typically would, I mean, we'd obviously put 20% down, do all that. We've been aggressively paying for the down payment and we're ready to pull to pull the trigger we just don't we're just kind of torn on what we should do yeah what i don't like is now you're paying two housing payments a month right and you can float it with your income but i'm also going well why couldn't you pay cash for an income like that what's stopping you guys from just piling up a bunch of money? Where's all the money going right now? I mean, we're just saving it. So it's either going to retirement or it's just kind of sitting in a checking account. And you guys are completely debt-free?

Yes, totally. With no mortgage payment because you're renting? Right. Yeah. I mean, how quickly could you scrape up enough cash to just buy it outright? I mean, it would definitely take another probably year, two years. I mean, again, just with the market being absolutely astronomical right now, I mean, you can get like a double wide for $300,000, you know? And so in order for it to be an attractive rental that's an Airbnb, it's kind of hard to just

pay cash for anything that isn't a dump. Yeah. I just, with investment property, you have increased risk because ideally we have people staying in it constantly, but as we know, that's not always the case. And you have one, you know, another variant of COVID comes out and all of a sudden no one's traveling and all of a sudden your Airbnb is sitting there and you're still making a mortgage payment. And so I just don't like that increased risk in your life while trying to pay your – now, you have a very reasonable rent comparatively to your income. But I also just want to challenge you and go a year is not that far away, man. You're 27 years old. You're crushing it.

You're making $300,000. You could save up for a year and have a little bit of patience. I think what's happening, now prove me wrong, but you're getting a little starry-eyed, right, at the upside of, man, I have my own property, and we're building that equity, and someone's renting it out, and all you see is the upside, and you kind of delete the risk out of your brain. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Yeah, I think I definitely have had like a starry-eyed, you know, I hate not owning an asset that has equity in it. So I just, I feel like I need to really park it into something that's stable, you know? hoping you net enough profit to cover the mortgage plus a little more. And so that's what I want for you. As a 27-year-old, you got two kids.

I want you to leave a legacy. I don't want you to have stress hanging out in your life. Are you solo income? Does your wife work outside the home? No, solo income. We both kind of run our own business, so we support each other and do our own thing, yeah. Awesome.

Well, you're a sharp young couple. I'm just going, dude, you make $300,000. Could you live off $100,000 and stack away $200,000? Yeah, that's true. To me, I'm going, that feels – I mean, it fluctuates, though. I'm self-employed. Sure.

I mean, that's high years. But it sounds like you also can kind of create as much income as you hustle for. Yes, that's true. And so to me, I'm going to dangle that carrot and go, man, how cool would it be to pay cash for my first investment property? And eventually, I do want you to have your own place. I know you're paying $1,200, and it's a great spot, but I also want you to have a fixed expense because that rent can go up at any time. And we've seen that happen in this market where people are calling us going, my rent went up 67%. What do I do? You don't have that when you own the place.

Yeah, that's true. So long term, I want you to also look into getting a primary residence. And later on, dude, you got your whole life ahead of you to get into the investing world. And so if I'm you, I might save up, pay cash for my primary residence if you want to do that. Okay. And then you get, the world is your oyster residence if you want to do that. Okay. And then the world is your oyster because now you don't have that $1,200 a month payment in your life, and now you can save up real quick to get that next investment property. That's true, man. That's true.

Okay. I really appreciate it. That definitely gives me something to think about. That's what I'm here for, just giving you something to chew on, Brady. Way to go, man. That's an impressive guy right there, making $200,000, $300,000, running the Airbnb hosting. Now, the rental arbitrage, what he was explaining, this is an interesting phenomenon. I just learned about this. This is where you rent a place out and you go to the landlord and say, hey,

do you mind if I basically sublease this place as an Airbnb? Now, the amount of landlords who will say yes to that, few and far between because they don't want that liability in their life of strangers being in and out of their property, and you're the one making a profit off of it. So this is a rare situation. Brady's lucked out in this case, and I hope it works out for him. He's got five under his belt, which is impressive, but he's upset because he doesn't have the equity, because he doesn't own the place. And that's one of the biggest problems with rental arbitrage. So if you want to get into real estate investing, here's what we teach. Here's what we've always taught for many, many years. Pay off your primary residence first, then pay cash for investment properties. I know that sounds like a million years away to most of

you who want to be investing gurus. But guess what? It's the way you're going to do it without going broke. It's the way you're going to do it with financial peace, without that risk in your life, especially as you have a family, you've got young kids, man, what if they could grow up completely debt-free and never see their parents struggle with money? That's the kind of life I want for my family. This is The important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org slash budget.

That's chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a Ramsey Show. I'm George Camel, Ramsey personality and host of the Fine Print and OnTrade Leadership podcast. You can check out both of those shows on the Ramsey Network or wherever you listen to podcasts. So when the team gets together at Ramsey Solutions, we talk a lot about our mission to change America's toxic money culture. It makes us mad to see people get trapped by debt or to watch kids sign away their future for a student loan. And for the folks who work here, this is not a J-O-B. It's a mission to change lives.

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Let me help you take the right next step with your money and your life. Angela joins us up next in Los Angeles. Angela, welcome to the show. Hi, thank you, George. How are you? I'm doing great. What's going on with you? Well, I am a 23-year-old mom and I have two little ones. They're two and one years old. I'm currently on baby step two. So I've already completed my first baby step, a thousand dollars of emergency fund. Awesome. And I've been listening to the show for like three weeks. I want to say no, and I love it. So thank you. I have a total of $23,000 in debt, student loans, credit cards, and a car payment. And I have an income right now of $47,000.

Okay. But the only part that I feel isn't the best is the work environment I'm in right now. It is toxic. It is a little mom and pop shop. And I feel like it's literally draining me every day. So I've been applying to different positions. And I recently got a call from the school district saying that they're very interested in me and are ready to give me an offer. But when I asked about the pay, the pay is about $7,000 less than what I make right now. So they're offering $40,000, and you're making $47,000. And you're going, should I take this to get out of a toxic situation while I'm in debt? Yes. Now, are there any other reasons other than the salary that you're looking at this job?

Yes, there is. The current job that I'm at, again, it is a mom and pop shop, so the benefits aren't there yet, like the days off, sick pay, stuff like that. I don't have a retirement plan, which is something that I'm really bummed out about. And I also don't have the health insurance, or it's not the best health insurance, but they take out a big amount from my paycheck. So I opted out of it. Oh, you opted out. So do you not have health insurance right now? No, just my kids, but my kids have it through their father. Yeah. Okay. I would get health insurance today.

Okay. That's a scary situation to be in because we've seen too many sad situations where people bankrupt over medical bills. Yes. So I want you to make sure you get that taken care of. Our folks can help. RamseySolutions.com. Click on Trusted Pros. We've got health insurance pros that can help walk you through what your options are to make sure that you're taken care of there.

So let's talk about the job. Are you moving into a different career field or is it the same type of work? No, right now I'm in, it's the manufacturing side of things, but I would be going to a school district. So kind of the same, but it's all clerical work. Okay. My question is, are there other jobs out there that could pay you $47,000 or more so that you're not taking a dip in income? I want to say yes, but because I don't have a degree, they're not going to pay me what I get paid now. I live in the outskirts of Los Angeles, so it's hard to get the same pay.

Have you let the school district know, hey, I appreciate the offer so much. You know, I was making $47,000. I don't know that I can make the jump down to $40,000 by taking this role. Is there any way you can meet me? Would they be willing to do that? I did ask because there were going to be raises, and I guess after a six-month probation period, they gave me a few cents, but it's stages. So that would be the first stage would be a few cents. Okay. On top of that, yeah. Well, you know, benefits are something to take into consideration. When you take into the cost of health care on your own versus the school district, which I imagine has a much better health care program, then you might go, you know what?

I'm going to be paying $7,000 out of pocket for all these benefits, and so I'm okay taking this hit because the net result is not slowing me down from my debt snowball. Does that make sense? Yes. So I'm not saying don't take it, but I would proceed with caution. Make sure that you've looked at all your options. Look at what their health care program is. Look at what it would cost you right now to get health care and whatever other benefits you don't have that might be covered to see how that would affect your net income. Because I don't want you to slow down your debt snowball. So the question is, if we take this job, how do we not slow down the debt snowball?

Could you do side hustles? I know. Are you a single mom? No, I have my partner. Okay. The auntie. So child care is taken care of? Yes. Okay. I would see if there's any side hustles to make up the gap temporarily

and then see if maybe you take a different job six months from now as you keep exploring to get your income up. I don't want you to just stay at 40 regardless of if you have debt or not. Especially living even remotely. If you can throw a rock near L.A., that's an expensive place to live, even on the outskirts. And so I want you to get that income up as high as possible. Are you and your partner sharing expenses?

How does this work? So, again, I started listening to you guys, like, I want to say three weeks ago, and I've been telling him about it, but he's still not open to the idea of joining our account or anything. So right now it's just me, and then it's just him. He takes care of his stuff, and I take care of his stuff. But when it comes to, like, the kids, we both combine. Okay. And he's a father? Yes.

Okay. Well, I want him to have more skin in the game here. I mean, we're not playing roommates. We had kids together. So let's step it up and let's have him go through Financial Peace University. It's going to be my gift to you guys. Your job is going to be going, hey, we're not okay right now. We're in a scary place. I want this dad out of my life. Will you go through this nine lesson video course, have some conversations and actually plug into it. Put the phones away and just dial in. Would he be willing to do that? I'm sure he would. Okay. So if you hang on the line, I'll have Austin pick up.

We're going to gift you guys Financial Peace University and Every Dollar Premium. That's our budgeting tool. I want you guys to get on a written budget for all of your expenses and that's going to all be

inside of Ramsey Plus. There's a lot of tools and resources for you there, but my goal for you is to not slow down the debt snowball, because right now you're paying off this $23,000 in debt. How much is the car worth? $11,000. Okay, and what do you owe on it? I want to say the $11,000. I just got it not that long ago. Oh, okay. Yeah. You could clean that up, but you're going to turn around

and have to get another car for probably $6,000. So it accelerated slightly. Yeah. Okay. Well, keep tackling. Are you doing the debt snowball, listing out smallest to largest? Yes. I currently have all my things written out, and I've been attacking them so far.

Everything's been going good, and I can breathe a little. Good. That's what I want for you, Angela, breathing room, margin. That's what this program, this plan is all about. So hang on the line. Austin will pick up. We'll gift you guys Ramsey Plus for one year. That includes all the videos in Financial Peace University and every dollar premium or budgeting tool. If you do this stuff and you get him on board, it's going to

really help out the process. That's my hope for you. And good luck with the job transition as you make that jump. And please, please, for the love, get health care. Everyone listening, if you don't have health insurance, get it today. There's no reason to bankrupt on health insurance, on medical bills. It's a dangerous situation. listening to The Ramsey Show. If you don't know me, I've been on the Ramsey team now for nine years. I feel like I grew up here. And when I started, I had a negative net worth. I had a bunch of student loan debt.

I racked up some credit card debt. And I went through Financial Peace University. When I first started here as an intern at an attempt, and it absolutely changed my life. Got out of debt in 18 months. Met my wife here who works here at Ramsey Solutions. Beautiful love story. We'll save for another time. And back in December, we paid off our mortgage reaching the elusive baby step seven at 32 and 30 years old.

And let me tell you, it was worth it. It's worth it. All the sacrifice to get out of debt, to get rid of your mortgage payment, to invest for the future, to have the emergency fund. It's worth it. In case you're wondering if this Ramsey plan stuff is really worth all the sacrifice and all the trouble when you could do it your way. But here's what I found. My way wasn't working. I thought George's plan was fancy. I thought I was smarter than the system and I was there to beat the system. And it turns out the system is rigged against you. And so a better way to do it is to just rise above the system. And once I did that, I realized, oh, I don't need a credit score. That's right. Because a credit score just allows you to get more debt. And if we're saying no to debt, then we don't need a credit score.

And so we got our mortgage through a process called manual underwriting because we didn't have a credit score. We got a 15-year fix. We had a big down payment, and we paid it off in 26 months. And now we're free in our early 30s on our way to Baby Steps Millionaire status. And so my hope for you is that you feel the same hope, that you feel inspired to follow this plan, to maybe come here and do your debt-free scream one day, to be Baby Steps Millionaires, to live and give like no one else. That's what Dave Ramsey has been teaching for years, and that's what I'm here to help you do today. So give me a call, 888-825-5225. Barbara joins us up next in Philadelphia.

Barbara, welcome to the show. Thanks, George, for taking my call. I just have a question. My husband and I are in our mid-70s, and unfortunately we just started investing about two and a half years ago. We just wasn't sure about the market, so we never really got into it, but we were trying to save as much as possible. And I'm just trying to figure out with what we have now how we can live to be comfortable,

if we are living comfortable now, with what we do have. Okay. What's your income? Well, we clear, we're both retired about 10 years. We clear about $75,000 a year. We're debt-free. Our home is worth about $75,000 a year. We're debt-free. Our home is worth about $600,000, and we have about $125,000 that we did take and invest just two years ago, and we have about $25,000 to $28,000 in savings right now, and we don't have any debt.

I'm trying to figure all that out. Okay, so your home is paid for. No mortgage payment. No. So you've done really well, except that you haven't invested. Because you've got some money saved. The house is paid off, which means your expenses are really low, I assume. Right.

Right. They're about $1,400 to $1,500 a month. Okay. So at $1,500 a month, multiply that out, you're going to have some margin left over. You're telling me that your expenses are about $18,000 and you're pulling $75,000. Right. Which tells me we can invest a whole big chunk of that because you could live another, what, 20, 25 years? Lord willing, yes. Lord willing, the creek don't rise. And so, do you feel comfortable right now? What's kind of got you worried?

Just the fact that we should have been saving a long time ago. We spent a lot of money just helping our family out, our kids out, for weddings, graduations, and stuff like that. We took some trips here and there of things we enjoy and did things. And we just came across you guys a couple years ago. And just by listening on the radio while we were traveling, sorry, we didn't catch you before now. But we did buy a car last year for $38,000 that we paid cash for. We wondered if that was the best thing we should have done, whether we should keep it or still keep it or maybe sell it and get something less or what.

Is that your one car? We have a truck that's been paid for for a number of years. Okay. I mean, comparatively to your income, it is a lot. It's a lot of car. We recommend no more than half of your annual income be tied up in things with motors in it because they're going down in value.

And so you can't take the hit as much when it's, you know, you're making 75 and your cars are worth 50 going down in value. Yeah. And we do have some, we have a few antique cars that we thought about, you know, if we needed to sell in the future, we could. We enjoy them. And that's another question that we were trying to figure out now. We just want to make sure that we're covered pretty well, that we don't have to worry and that our family can take care of themselves now and we can just, you know, continue to save and like you say, invest some more. Yeah. Is this income all coming from social security and pensions? Right. Okay. Well, you're not in dire straits. I mean, yes, you haven't invested as much as I would have liked, but you also have a paid-for home, you have an emergency fund, and you have this income coming in that's guaranteed for now.

Right. And so you're not in a terrible situation. What I would do is make sure that long-term, you know, with long-term care, do you have that in place? No. Okay. What I don't want for you is all of your money is depleted within two years because, you know, one day, God forbid, you're in a nursing home and it costs $100,000 a year. Right. And all of a sudden the kids are trying to take care of you.

We are healthy. We try to stay healthy. We don't have any medical issues. So we just enjoy life as we can and just trying to, you know, make every day count and try to save as much as we can for the future. And that, so I just wonder, you know, I love your advice. I know you're giving good advice. And I just want to find out exactly where we do stand from what you're saying now. Yeah, I mean, I would just do a budget every month. There's only three things you can do with that money. Give, save, spend. So

I'd allocate as much as you'd like to giving. 10% is a good baseline. Beyond that, make sure you're saving as much as you can and investing that money. Don't leave it sitting out in the checking account because you're scared of the market. Because in 20 years of riding the wave, your money will grow. And so don't get scared. Yeah, we did have some in the money market, which wasn't really getting anything for a number of years. And then that's what we took and saved to invest what we did to have the $125,000 we have now that we're investing. Okay. Keep that invested. Are you working with a financial advisor? Yes, we are. Okay, good. Make sure you've got a trustworthy advisor? Yes, we are. Okay, good.

Make sure you've got a trustworthy advisor in your corner, because especially at your age, you've got to be very wise with this money. And so I don't want the market to take a dip, and you get spooked and take all the money out, and now it's not even beating inflation, and you need this money long-term for retirement. So I don't think you're in a terrible situation, but you may have to adjust your expectations of what retirement would have been, could have been, should have been. You may not be able to go on extravagant vacations every year, but you can still cover all your bills, sock enough away in investing, and spend some and enjoy it. All right. So as long as you feel good about it. Appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for the call, Barbara. That's an interesting situation where you've got a paid-for home, you've got money in the bank for the emergency fund,

but you haven't done a great job of investing. So I want to encourage everyone out there listening. Barbara's done a great job. They could have done better on the investing side. But when you don't have a mortgage payment and you have an emergency fund, it changes the situation. And obviously they have Social Security and pensions, but let me tell you young folks out there like me, I just saw a headline that's saying Social Security will be depleted by 2033. Well, it sucks for me, doesn't it? Especially sucks because I've been paying Social Security out of every paycheck since I've been working, and I don't get to see the fruits of all that money that the government handled so wisely.

They're so good at that, aren't they? So do not depend on Social Security. Don't even depend on your pension because those can go bankrupt. That's not a guarantee for life. I want you to have the ball in your corner, which means you're investing your own money into 401ks and IRAs and good growth stock mutual funds diversified across four types like we teach. That is what is going to give you security. Don't rely on the White House. Don't rely on one single company to cover your retirement. I want you to retire with dignity, to leave a legacy, to leave an inheritance to your children's children.

That's the kind of life I want for you. And you can get there. And if you're 60, you still got time. And if you're 20, you have even more time. But quit fooling around. Avoid the traps. Be consistent. Live on less than you make. Don't let lifestyle creep take over your income. It's those kinds of things that will allow you to build wealth. Not the White House, not NFTs, not crypto, nothing fancy. Do boring, consistent stuff, and you'll be okay. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm George Campbell, your host today. You are listening to The Ramsey Show.

Give me a call, 888-825-5225. We'll talk about your life and your money. Maria joins us in California. Maria, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you so much for taking my call. It's such an honor to speak with you. I'm honored to take it. How are you doing? Doing okay. I've got a tricky situation with my mom, but I just need some help deciphering through. Okay. About seven, eight years ago,

my mom was off of social security. She's been disabled for about 25 years. Um, she sold a home in Las Vegas and had the cash for a down payment, but she had no monthly income. So she could not get a home loan on her own. Um, she proposed to me to get a house together. So we did hearing, uh, California, she put the down payment. Me and my husband have been making the mortgage, utilities, repairs on the house all these years. Recently, she's made some comments that she wants her own space, which me and my husband's family, we have kids, our family's growing, so we all kind of need our own space now. But her comment that got me kind of swirling into a frenzy is that she wants to leave her portion of the house to me and my siblings when she passes. So me and my husband are kind of like, we don't want to keep putting money into a house that we may have to part with eventually. So I guess I'm just wondering, how would I buy her out? Or do I just sell? And do we just kind of go our separate ways that way? Because she is only living off of Social Security income.

And yeah, that's basically it. I just know that she wants to leave something to my siblings when she passes, and I didn't know that she was using the property to do that originally. So is she wanting to leave the property herself or the proceeds from the property, the equity? The proceeds. Okay. So you have no problem getting out of this house. Do you want to stay there if she leaves? I would like to stay there because we got such a great deal on it back in 2015, but I'm not like really emotionally attached. I'm okay with leaving if we have to. I just want to make sure I do right by her and right by my husband. Well, I think if you're saying to me you want to stay in this house, but you want to buy her out of it, is her name on the title or the mortgage?

Nope, just me. So do you have an agreement in writing that says she has part ownership of this house? There's no agreement in writing, no. It's just a verbal agreement between me and her. So what is her involvement financially in this property right now? What is there to buy her out of? I guess the down payment she put down. So she put the down payment down. So would she be okay just getting the down payment amount back, or is she wanting a percentage of equity? I think she is wanting a percentage of equity from what it sounds like. And I don't know how that works. So that's- Well, you never put anything in writing, which makes it a whole lot more complicated

because now it's how I feel versus how she feels and what's enough. And, you know, what was the down payment versus what was the property worth when you got it? So it was worth $360,000. She put, I think, about $180,000 down. Wow. So she has, I mean, 50% is really what she put down. Do you think it's fair to give her 50% equity of what it's currently worth? I do. I mean, I think that's fair. Because she's only living off of Social Security, I know she doesn't have much. Well, it sounds like she's not in a place to leave anything to anyone because she's broke. Yeah. It sounds like she needs the money.

That's true. Because here's what happens. You give her the money that then goes to you and the siblings, and then you and the siblings now need to have the money to pay for her because she can't afford to live. And if we did split ways, one of us siblings would have to get another loan for her because she still doesn't have an income to get her own. Does she have disability income? Disability and Social Security, yes. Okay, and that adds up to what? About $1, 1300 a month so where is she going to go if she moves out i've been trying to get her to think about that and i think she realizes

what a sweet deal she has living with me right now since i'm pretty much paying for everything but neither of you want this situation to continue, it sounds like. I mean... I think we've got to figure out where she's going to go before we kick her out. No, totally. And that's also why we've kind of been dragging our feet is because I don't think she really has anywhere to go unless we were to sell and she could buy something cash.

That's my feeling is that you guys might need to sell or do a cash out refi, if not just to give her the money she needs to survive. So I don't know. We might be forced into an option because she has not done a great job of taking care of herself. Is she able to work at all? No. Not nothing from work from home or anything like that? What's she doing all day?

Nothing. She's on medication and sits in her room all day. That's also something that bothers my husband, but I mean, it's my mom, so I don't know how to pick these battles. It's not an issue of laziness. I just want her to have some purpose to wake up every morning. And so if that's even a part-time job remotely that she can do from home, I think she needs that. How old is she? She'll be 70 this year. Okay. But she has her wits about her. I feel like she could do some freelance legal stuff.

She used to work in a law office, and I've really tried to push her to do that. She's got to use her brain at least. Mm-hmm. So what's the house worth currently? Right now, I haven't gotten an appraisal or anything, but when I did a refi last year, it was about $700,000. Wow. That's good news. Yes. And how much cash do you guys have outside of the home?

Do you have liquid savings? Me and my husband do. We have about $25,000. Okay. And that's your emergency fund, I assume? Okay. Yeah. I mean, to get her the money she needs, you would have to do a cash out refi. And it's less complicated because her name's not on the title or the mortgage. So the only reason to do the refi and cash out is to give her the money so that she has a place to live. And again, I would try to find something to pay cash so that she doesn't have any fixed expenses and she's able to just use that $1,300 to eat and have basic needs met. But there's no extravagance here. She's not retiring and having a great time.

This is going to be bare bones because what I don't want is you and the siblings to have to cover her life for the next 20 years. We don't know how long she'll live, so we've got to have a plan in place to get her taken care of. Okay, okay, okay. But that's a conversation you need to have with her, and have you had that hard conversation where you go, mom, you're broke, and I want you to be able to have your own place, but you can't afford it? Right. So what does this look like? And I'm okay if she stays with me. Me and my husband have talked about that.

If we bought her out, she could still stay with us. I just want her to understand this is our home. I don't want to have to – I don't want any resentment to bubble up over this either our home. You know, I don't want to have to. Yeah, I don't want any resentment to bubble up over this either. Right. All right. All right. I'm so sorry going through that, Maria. Yeah, it's a tough situation. There's no easy, happy ending for a lot of people here, which brings me to my next point. Take care of yourself, people, because I don't want your kids to have to do it for you. I don't want to have to take care of my parents. I'm happy to do it because I love

them and they've worked so hard to provide for me, but putting your kids in a situation where you're a burden to them is not going to be fun for anyone, especially as they try to build wealth and live their financial lives and we're turning around and trying to fill the leak over here because mom didn't do a great job investing for the future, making sure she had a plan in place. And so that's not a knock here. I just want everyone to have a plan to retire with dignity. And you can do it. But it's going to take some hard work, some sacrifices, some hard conversations, some boundaries. But it's all so, so necessary and so worth it. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show in the books.

My thanks to all the folks in the booth keeping the show afloat and for you, America, for tuning in. We appreciate you guys. We'll be back with you before you know it. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from the Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to the Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.