The Ramsey Show - App - My Husband's Ex-Wife Is Demanding $20,000 (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 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'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show, America. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Candace starts us off this hour in Miami.

Merry Christmas to you, Candace. Merry Christmas. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I kind of have a what would you do question in these shoes. My husband has been involved in a custody battle with a contentious ex who's also an addict for a while, and a guardian ad litem was assigned to the case. And he was assigned to pay 50% of the guardian ad litem's fees.

However, the fees have racked up so high, and we've been making payments that we can every month. But today in court, she said that's not enough, and the judge decided that we needed to pay her in full within 30 days, and it's over $20,000, and we don't have any money. And I'm just kind of wondering, what would you do in this situation? What did your attorney say to the judge we can't even afford an attorney she has three we have none the addict has more attorneys than you have her parents are billionaires oh okay um and so they're paying their half, her half of the guardian ad litem? Yes. Okay.

All right. Hmm. What a disaster. How old are these babies? One is 13. She's with her mom now just recently. the other one the younger one is 12 and he lives with us full-time okay and uh how long is this going to be ongoing forever until these for the next six years i mean i don't know we're really we've asked for mediation we've asked

to just to finish this um they've scheduled another date to talk about mediation but not agree to mediation. I've never seen something so hard. It takes months and months just to get a court date. Meanwhile, the guardian at Lytton gets paid every month. Yeah, and her bill to us, so think about doubling it, is in the thousands of dollars a month. And we only have a few hundred dollars a month we can pay her. Okay.

This is what happens when you don't have an attorney. Well, I don't know. I mean, if it was a one-time bill, you have a debt to a lawyer, a guardian ad litem, and you could just change where the debt sits. And if you have the ability to borrow the money, you would go and borrow it from the credit union, and you'd have a $20,000 bill at the credit union instead of a $20,000 bill at the other. That's not like going into debt. You're already in debt.

So that doesn't bother me. instead of a $20,000 bill at the other. That's not like going into debt. You're already in debt. Okay. So that doesn't bother me. The thing that bothers me is, what are you going to do six months from now when you've got to do it again? Yeah, or a month from now when she bills another $2,000. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We just don't make, I mean, I've been helping out as much as I can.

We've kept our finances separate because of the issues, but I've been helping out as much as I can. We've kept our finances separate because of the issues, but I've been helping out as much as I can. But, you know, he only makes $4,000 a month. And what do you make? About $6,000. Okay. And so you have $10,000 a month income. Yeah, but we're paying all of the one-child expenses,

including private school, and we're not allowed to take them out of private school. Okay. All right. So, I mean, if you're going to continue this battle, you have to find $2,000 a month in your budget, or you have to discontinue the battle. Well, we've tried to discontinue the battle,

but we said we want to finish this and wrap this up, have to discontinue the battle well we've tried to discontinue the battle but they won't we you know we said we want to like finish this and wrap this up and we just kind of get told well what the schedule something else for that like we're not really being given the option to just what is it what is it that the other side wants though they won't actually tell us um i'm guessing they want the kids back with her and other things too, but I don't think that's really going to be on the table as far as, even though the guardian ad litem doesn't love us for not paying, like she agrees that the situation is better the way it is.

But I just don't, I think the lawyers on her side are interested in making as much money as possible, so they have no problem drawing this out. Yeah, well, it's also a strategy to they have no problem drawing this out. Yeah. Well, it's also a strategy to starve you out, and it's working. Yeah. Okay. Well, you're going to have to get legal representation because you cannot afford to carry this on for three more years.

So if we go more into debt to get legal representation, just set aside people. Yeah, because you're getting ready to go more into debt to get legal representation, does that just set us up? Yeah, because you're getting ready to go more in debt anyway. Every time they send you a bill you can't pay, that's called debt. And so you've got to adjust your budget to be able to pay this to survive, or you've got to adjust the situation to fit your budget, and that means legal representation. And so you've got to get a lawyer to go in

and have some reasonable discussions with a judge here. It doesn't surprise me that the judge wants his guardian or her guardian at light and paid. That's logical. And you not paying is not okay. I get that from the judge's perspective. But the fact that this thing is tied up and is running, you know, that's just running sand through the glass here every time, I can't. It's untenable. It's just untenable.

It's not sustainable. So you've got to break the tie somehow. Surrendering, hiring a lawyer, or adjusting your budget to fit $2,000 a month, and that you adjust your budget by cutting expenses, getting rid of stuff, or by whatever. I mean, you could tell the guardian ad litem, we can either pay the private school or we can pay you. Which would you rather? So remove that requirement that the kid's in private school.

Remove that requirement. Help us somehow get our budget. Schedule a meeting with a guardian to light them. Go sit down and show them your budget and go, what would you do? How are we supposed to survive against the billionaire parents? And see if you can get some coaching here. Or maybe they've got a suggestion, a legal maneuver. I don't know.

But that would be one thing you could do is schedule a meeting with them. And I'd do that today and just share the situation. It's not that we don't want to pay you. It's that we don't want this to go on forever and ever, number one. Number two, we can't. We don't have the money because you've got these requirements put on us on this other kid. So, you know, you can go that direction. But I don't know how to solve it exactly.

But really, it sounds like as I go through it in my mind, there's three possible scenarios. Surrender, adjust your budget, or get legal representation that causes the situation to be adjusted. One of those three things. Meantime, you've got a $20,000 bill. If you can borrow that much plus 10 more to get you a lawyer, if that's what you want to do, I ain't got a problem with that because it's debt you already have i'm not telling you to go into debt you're in the debt you're there it's just a matter of where the debt sits it's like i've got credit card debt or i got a car debt you borrow on your car to pay off

credit cards there's still the debt it's still you're just moving the debt around um so this is not dave ramsey telling you to go into debt He's telling you to move it Because you're going to have to The court's going to make you on that You don't want to be in contempt of court On paying somebody the judge told you to pay That's not a good place to be This is The Dave Ramsey Show Support a small business this holiday season that does business right.

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How can I help? Yeah, my mom needs to move out of her house into another place because she's 85 years old and really can't live alone. She's able to self-care, but she needs somebody living with her, preferably one of her children. And I'm not exactly sure how to go about it. She currently lives on a property that's worth anywhere from $800,000 to $1 million. I took over her power of attorney six months ago, and she was spending more than she was taking in in her income. I got that fixed so where it's basically a wash right now. But I don't know if I should sell my house and have her move in to a new house that I acquire

or have her sell her property and acquire a house for her. I don't think she needs assisted living at this point. Okay. So at the end of this story, does she live with you? Yes. Okay, either way. And she can't live in the home that you're currently in? No, she needs handicapped access, and I live in a historic house.

There's just no way I can make it accessible for her. Got it. Are you single? We need a ranch. Yes. You're single? Yes. Okay. Well, and how many brothers and sisters? How many siblings? Two siblings. One brother, one sister. Okay. And there's $800,000 worth of property here? At least, yeah. Okay. All right. Well, there's a couple of ways you can do it. One is she could sell the property and she likely would have no capital gains on it. Right. Maybe. I don't know. How long has she had it?

Oh, she inherited it in 1981. I checked on that. She's not going to be paying capital gains on it. Why? It was worth $600 when she got it? She's not going to be paying capital gains on it. Why? It was worth $600 when she got it? No, I believe I was told that since she inherited the property, that they didn't have to pay a capital gain on it, but I could have been told wrong. You were. The value of the property at the time she inherited it is her basis if she makes more than 250 000 above that value than what it was worth in 1981 as a single person you can deduct up to 250 000 on your capital gains on your residence i think double

check that personal residence laws may have shifted so go back and look at that but um yeah well going through her stuff i found the appraisal that was made when she inherited it so what was that a lot more than uh like 185 000 yeah okay you need to get some tax advice then because i'm not sure dave ramsey needs to be giving you tax advice on this because I suck at it. But as far as the overall deal goes, she could sell the property plus or minus the tax problem, right? And she actually could go ahead and gift the brothers and sisters their portion of what they would get upon her inheritance. Or she may need that money to live, though. She's going to need it, Dave. You know, she didn't do any good financial planning when she should have. She's 85 years old.

She's got $800,000, though. It's all in property. I know, but, I mean, we're going to sell that, right? Right. So that now is money. There's $800,000 in the middle of the table. Now, what are we going to do? What's your property worth?

My property is worth $205,000. Okay. Would you like to, if you just bought another $200,000 property in your name, and you own the property, and she lived with you, you know, she could pay you rent. Could that be a very simple thing? Yeah, and I was thinking about doing that, but, you know, I'd have to sell my house in order to purchase another property. I mean, I have some money, but I don't have enough to put 20% down on another house. Right.

So what would be wrong with that plan? That was what I was calling to ask you. Yeah, I mean, should I sell or should I have hers and buy another house? Probably both of you, yeah. She needs the money out of this property. If she's not going to be living there, we need to go ahead and liquidate it. And she's not going to be living there. We've already established that.

You don't move in with her, do you? Well, if I sold her property and used that money to buy her another house in her name, then I could move in with her and keep my house. Yeah, that would be okay, too. I would bring it way down, though. I mean, let's get down to a $300,000 or $400,000 property and leave $300,000 or $400,000 liquid then. Oh, I was thinking far less than that. I was thinking no more than $250,000 on the property if she buys it.

Right. And then, of course, what I'm trying to think forward to then upon her death, what happens, and I guess you move back into the historic house because you may have kept it in that scenario, and I'd go that way you know so um yeah that's probably okay let's sell hers and have her buy a property for 250 that the two of you can live in and um you know the brothers and sisters agree that you are paid something for her care uh that you're being her caregiver because if you weren't there someone would be paid to be living there to take care of her and so that would be a reasonable thing and everybody's in on it we all talk about it over

christmas or thanksgiving or whatever and we have a plan and then when she passes you can liquidate that property and whatever cash is left and it's fairly easy to settle the estate out at some point so yeah that that takes care of her which is our biggest issue here we want to make sure she's cared for karen is in louisville kentucky hi karen welcome to the dave ramsey show merry christmas merry christmas to you what's up so my employer offers a roth 401k do you recommend doing the roth 401k to the match and then jump to the traditional IRA and backdoor Roth to get to the 15%? Or do you recommend doing the whole 15% in the Roth 401k and avoid the Roth conversion? If you've got reasonable selections, good mutual funds, and you're an employer 401k,

it's just a simpler life to have it all there. Okay, that's what I'm thinking because we ran into some tax issues last year and trying to figure out how to do that. Yeah. I mean, it depends on how your wealth is structured as to whether you can qualify for that back door or not. But, yeah, I think I'd put it all at the company unless your options just suck there. But if you've got decent mutual fund options, you take the match there.

You put the rest of your money there. You've got a total of 15% going in to retirement all in Roth, and you're getting a match. It's all in one place. It's simple. It's clean. That's probably what I would do. But, again, some companies, 401Ks, the options are just horrendous. And so you just, you know, I'd want to go over and go through the trouble to do the

backdoor Roth and have some good mutual funds, you know, performing at a much higher rate, in other words. So that's what you're looking at. Good question. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jasmine's in Denver. Hey, Jasmine. Merry Christmas to you.

Hi. Merry Christmas, Dave. What's up? Okay. So about two months ago, I was ready to do a second mortgage. My brother mentioned your name, and I chopped his head off. But now we have baby step number one done, and we're on for baby step number two. But I'm about to start student teaching in January, meaning I will not get paid for my time.

Are you getting paid now? Well, I'm actually, I work everything backwards. I'm an instructional coach for a charter school, and I just do contract work because I'm in school. And so I do get about $800 a month, $900 a month. And so that's how much I'm making. Total, we have an income of $46,000 a year. Right, and $10,000 of that's you right now at $800 a month, but you're going to go to

zero while you're student teaching. Yes. So would that be considered a storm coming, and should we pause on the baby step number two, or? It could be. How long is student teaching? It'll be until May. Okay.

Five months. Five months. Okay. Well, one of you is delivering pizza, though. What was that? You need another $800 a month. So somebody's going to pick up some extra work during this five years, five months, while you're doing your student teaching, rather,

to avoid going further in debt. But, yeah, if you cannot make it student loan, student teaching rather, to avoid going further in debt. But yeah, if you cannot make it otherwise, yes, you stop and you prepare for this five month drop in income. But I suspect one or both of you can make up that $800 deficit or maybe you can do that contract work a different time of day and keep that work. Because we're only $ bucks off here times five. 4,000 bucks changes your whole life.

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Welcome, where do you two live? Arlington, Texas. Alright, welcome to Nashville. Thank you. And all the way up here to do a debt-free scream. Absolutely. Love it, love it. How much have you paid off?

$184,000. Whoa! How long did this take? About approximately 36 months. Man, you've been getting it. And your range of income during that time? $140, and now we're about $230. Well, there's a nice little jump.

Yeah, that was nice. What do you all do for a living, and why did you get an extra $100,000 in income? Well, we were both cardiovascular x-ray techs, and then we both were in the field of x-ray working in the cath lab. But I decided to get into medical device sales so there was the big jump oh okay so you used all that knowledge to be the world's best salesman at that i don't know about the world best salesman best product knowledge you know the inside working is no kidding i'm right there alongside with the surgeons wow very cool very cool what great careers you two have excellent so i'm gonna guess and say this might be a little student loan debt.

Yes. Lots of student loan debt. How much of the 184 was student loans? Oh, actually, not lots of student loan debt. The majority of this was the house. Oh, you paid off your house? Yes, we did. I'm looking at weird people.

Yes, we are. Yo, look at here. I love it. Well done. Well done. So how much of it was student loan debt? We had about $6,000 in student loan debt. Very little.

Engagement ring. Oh. Credit card, a car, and of course the house. How long have you been married? Three years. Okay. And so at the time you get married, you come home from the honeymoon and start this process game on. Well, actually, when we started dating, I was actually on step 3B of FPU.

And Sean's like, where are you getting all this money from? And I said, oh, let me show you. And so I walked him through the baby steps and he was hook, line and sinker. And that's how we started. Just like that. Just like that. So while you were dating. Yes. So as soon as you come home from the honeymoon, you combine everything and game on then. Game on. His debt became my debt and we just went after it. Now, did either one of you already own this particular house? No. Actually, I bought it when we were dating and I bought the house with 20% down.

Okay. Very good. And so you were already rocking along, and then your 3B became the house. Correct. And then when Sean comes in, he had a little bit of debt to clean up, odds and ends still, it sounds like. That's correct. And we went backwards.

Yeah. Okay. She went back to baby step two. That's correct. Knocked it out and then worked her way right through again. Took out the house and everything. Boom! Absolutely.

Touchdown, baby! Mic drop. Mic drop, for sure. to knock it out and then work your way right through again took out the house and everything boom touchdown baby mic drop mic drop how old are you two i'm 38 years old i'm 30 and 47 man and you have a paid for house yes we do you don't have a payment in the stinking world no we don't no how's that feel it feels liberating it feels amazing it feels like we can walk into our FPU class because we're actually coordinators of FPU Legacy and Generation Next. And we just feel like we can just walk in and tell our story firsthand. Yeah, you can because you did it. Wow, that's great testimony. Well done. Thank you. Well done, well done.

Anybody in your family ever had a paid-for house? I think both of our parents eventually paid their houses off, but other than our parents, no. They were a lot older than you are now. A lot older than we are now. That is correct. Wow. So who were your biggest cheerleaders telling you, go for it, you can do this? Our family, definitely. And right now, let's say my sister, she went through my first class in 2017, and she has just been telling everybody about FPU, and I've been getting lots of phone calls and emails just from her telling her story. I love it.

Well done, you guys. What do you tell people now that the secret to getting out of debt is, because you did it at house and everything. I don't think it's a secret at all, but when you say 80% is behavior and 20% is head knowledge, it's 100% true. So I would tell people right now, get up. I know it feels like it's your seventh time down, but we say get up because you feel defeated. You feel like you have all these toxic messages of everybody telling you that you can't do it, the culture telling you you're always going to have that student loan or you're always going to have that house payment.

But we say get up. We say work your butt off. One job may not be enough. You might need a second job and you might need a third job. And then last but not least, we say tell your story. Sean, I think she can fill in if I'm not here. She definitely can. I think she's kind of dialed in. She is definitely passionate about Dave Ramsey, that's for sure. Well, I think she can fill in if I'm not here. She definitely can. I think she's kind of dialed in.

She is definitely passionate about Dave Ramsey, that's for sure. Well, I am so honored. And I'm so proud of y'all. You guys are just impressive rock stars, man. Well done. Well done. Well done. Well, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you.

That's the next chapter in your story, making this kind of money with no debt to be millionaires. It'll take you about 20 minutes now. Pretty incredible and outrageously generous as you go along. And you're already leading the classes and all that and sharing your story, and that's a sign of the spirit of generosity already on you. Amen. Well done. Well done.

Proud of you guys. Thank you. Man, I'm so proud of you. Well done. Man, you can do it. Woo! Get up! Get up! Get up!

Get up! Get up! Sean and Maria, Dallas, Texas, $184,000 paid off in 36 months, making $140,000 to $230,000. Count it down! Let's hear a debt-free scream! Three, two, one, we're debt-free! Yeah! That's amazing! Get up! You heard her. two one you know i swear half of doing this stuff is just believing you can you gotta go do it too it's all the hard work and the sweat the sacrifice

but there's a whole big chunk of it is just get up i love it maria well done very very well done you can do this there's no reason you can't do this stuff i'm talking to you yes you right there you you can do this stuff when are you gonna start i mean she 30 something years Freaking house is paid for. Been married 36 months. House is paid for. No debt in the world. All they did was follow the plan. All they did was say no so later they could say yes.

No is a complete sentence. And if your broke friends are making fun of your financial plan, you're right on track. Dave Ramsey's not realistic. Dave Ramsey's more realistic than you are. I'm not realistic. Dave Ramsey's more realistic than you are. I'm so realistic, millions of people are out of debt now because they just believed they could. That's how realistic this deal is. Well, you don't know. Yeah, I do.

Shut up. I do know about. I know about people that have hope, and I know about people that steal hope. And you're pretty much in one category or the other. Get up. Do what Maria said. Get up. Leave the cave.

Kill something. And drag it home. Get up. Make a decision. You keep doing what you've been doing, you're going to keep getting what you've been getting. This is not rocket science, people. You spend more than you make. You act like you're in Congress buying crap you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you don't even really like.

Get up. It's time to stop. It's time to stop. It's time to do something different. Try something new. What you've been doing has gotten you to where you are. How's that working for you? Time to change.

Time to change something. And your time, the reason that you think you accidentally tuned into this show today at this moment, and as my friend Rabbi Lappin says in the Hebrew, there is no word for coincidence. That'll preach. It's not an accident that you're here right now. This is your day. You. You. This is your day.

Are you ready? If I'm wrong, you can go back to your old ways. They're easy but here you got to live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else that's what you have to do around here you ready it's your turn you ready you ready ready set Ready, set, get up! Let's do it! Maria's on it, man. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I don't know. Sleep, sleep, sleep in hell. Wake it up.

You've got all your life. We'll see you next time. Thanks for being with us, America. We're glad you're here. Merry Christmas to you. We're glad you're with us. Joe is in Denver. Hi, Joe. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for having Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thanks for having me. Sure. What's up? So my question is, my wife and I have two, we each have school loan debt and one car payment totaling $74,000. And I have an I-bond that's a 30-year, started at $10,000, and it's 18 years in. And so it's at $28,756, and it's at 5.66% interest currently. And we foresee it maturing at about $55,000. And I'm wondering if it would be best to let it stay in and mature or to take it out to pay off a chunk of the debt.

Oh, I would use it to pay debt in a heartbeat. Definitely. I'd clear my debt up. You would not borrow on your cars or on student loans to buy an I-bond, and effectively, from a balance sheet perspective, that's what you've done. I mean, on one side of the column is assets, on the other side is liabilities, and when they offset, it's mathematically the same as having borrowed on your car to buy an I-bond. You see what I'm saying?

Yeah. Yeah, so I definitely would be chunking through my debts really, really fast here using that, and anything else I can get my hands on that's not in a retirement account. Okay. And am I correct in saying that if I'm using the I bond for school loans that they don't tax it? I know that's true on savings bonds, but I'm not positive on the I. I guess it does fall under that category, probably.

The interest rate on it doesn't, the interest isn't taxable. But the rate of return is not, the interest isn't taxable. But the rate of return is not that great. Here's the problem. You're making 5% on your money, and tuition inflation rate is 7%. So you're not even keeping up with inflation of tuition if you're using that to invest for college. So, no, I don't use bonds to invest for college. Matter of fact, I don't use bonds for anything.

But in this case, it really mathematically is not palatable at all. Rachel's in Illinois. Hi, Rachel. How are you? I'm doing well, Dave. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. What's up?

I just had some questions. I'm trying to get started with my debt snowball and i have gone through financial peace my understanding is you start with the lowest and you work towards your highest debts as far as paying them off to get some momentum correct but i have some interest i have some interest rates and payment plans that i'm not sure if it kind of changes the scenario so like my lowest loan is i have fifty thousand dollars of student debt my lowest loan is, I have $50,000 in student debt. My lowest loan is about $1,900. It's at an interest rate of only 3.86%, and I'm actually on a payment plan that's 20 years and contingent on my income. So I only pay about $130 a month on that. But my federal loan, not my federal loan, well, my private loan,

it has a 5.95% interest rate, and I'm paying $460 a month on my federal loan. Sorry, private loans, private loans. So I'm wondering if... What's the balance on that you said? What's the balance on that you said? My total balance...

No, on the private that you're paying $460,000 on. Total balance is about $40,000 across five separate loans. $460,000 is across five? Correct. Okay. Individual loans are what we list, regardless of the interest rate. You have one that's $1,900. What's your next smallest one?

My next smallest one is $2,180. Okay. That's also part of that federal payment that I make of $130 a month. $130 a month. Okay. Not the $460. Yeah. Okay.

What's the next smallest? Right. The next smallest is $3,450, and that is part of the $460 that I pay him off. So when you pay that off, it'll drop the $460. Yes, that's my understanding. But again, if I need to check, it's smallest to largest. Okay, and what's your household income? My household income between me and my husband is about, I would say, 65. I bring home about 44. Okay, and your total student loan debt was 50, you said, right?

Correct. Okay, and what other debts other than student loans have you got? We have a mortgage. My husband's been married before he owes over 20 well we we owe over 20 in attorney fees um things like that okay so he's not he has never been in a good financial position since the divorce i am the planner so i kind of help him i well i don't i help us from that arena good Good, good. Yeah, we're working together. We have debts.

We have an income. We are paying things off. Here's the thing. You're going to knock out those first three or four so fast that this discussion mathematically becomes irrelevant. Okay. Because, I mean, you're going to be paying at a rate of almost $2,000 a month towards your debt with what you've described to me. Okay. You should be.

And so, I mean, like three months from now, most of what we just talked about is gone. Four months from now it is, you know? And so you're just going to plow on down through there. See, if you make $65,000 a year and you pay $24,000 a year, you're debt-free in two years. Okay. Not counting the attorney's fees, but I mean, that's where we're headed, and I think you'll be able to do that. So the point is, it's all gone so quickly that the math stops being an issue.

The interest rate on the math stops being an issue, or the payment rate, the 460 versus the 130 and all that, stops being an issue, because it's just gone. And it's gone so fast that mathematically mathematically it just doesn't affect anything anymore. The type of things you're discussing matter if you're dragging something out 10 years. But you're going to be done so fast if you lean into this the way we teach you to do and you get really fired up and wired up and knock her out. That's what I would do. Phillip is in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Merry Christmas, Phillip. How are you? I'm doing well. How about yourself, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hi. So I have a rental house that my wife and I have,

and my dad has been renting it for the last nine years or so, and I've been informed he's wanting to move, so that's fine and good. Our question is, should we sell it or try to continue to rent it? Okay. It's been a very stable renter, so that's kind of why we've left it the position it's been in. Where's the house? It's about 30 minutes away from where we live. Is it paid off?

It is not. We owe roughly about $65,000 on it. Okay. What's it worth? About $130,000, $135,000, somewhere in there. Okay. Would you like to work as part of your financial plan and get it paid off in a few years and keep it as a rental? I struggle with that.

I don't know if I could handle somebody thrashing my house. But on the same token, it seems like a wise decision to keep it. It's not a wise decision if you don't want to deal with renters. Sure. Having a rental house requires you to deal with renters. Now, I don't have people thrashing my house because we screen a renter like we're hiring them for a job right so you know we take care of that kind of stuff on the front end we're so careful i haven't had a house trashed in a decade or more because we've just gotten really really good at um you know going through

the process of figuring out who can who can rent and who we're going to let in there i mean this is like it's like taking my daughter out on a date you better have your act together i'm getting i'm letting you move in a almost a two hundred thousand dollar asset here you know sure and so um you know we don't have animals in them we love animals i've got puppies i got a little shih tzu at home but uh um but i don't like dogs as a landlord and i really don't like cats so um you know that that kind of stuff right so i mean you can't get cat smell out of a house um it's just i mean you have to tear up the sub floor so you you just got to go in you got to look at stuff like that and decide what you're going to do.

And, you know, what you're going to allow in there. And if you're willing to be kind but firm and patient on who you put in there, then landlording can be a fine experience. There's nothing wrong with it. You don't have to be a meanie or anything to do it. You have to be tough, firm, kind, and firm. And if you don't want to do all that, though, it's okay. Just make the decision and sell the house. No problems. 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.