The Ramsey Show - App - My Late Husband's IRA Is Going to His Parents (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, 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. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey personality,

number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. He's featured in If You Got Your New Success magazine. Well, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today. He's featured in If You Got Your New Success magazine. He is featured in a five-page spread. We just got him in the mail today. Very impressive. Congratulations.

Thank you, Dave. Thank you. Good times around here, I'm just saying. Amen. Sitting next to a star. Well, I've been sitting next to one for five years. It feels good to finally be one, you know? Good stuff. We're here to take be one, you know? Good stuff. We're here to take your calls about your life and your money.

The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Karen starts off this hour in Houston, Texas. Hi, Karen. How are you? Hi, Mr. Rinsley. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? So my husband and I are about to become debt-free this Thursday. Yay! And we've been living with my parents for the past four months after our lease ended because we knew that it would help us speed up our payment for debt. And now that we're there in a couple of days, we are looking towards the next step. So my husband said, okay, we have to come up with our emergency fund and then save up at least 10% to purchase a home. And the thing is that we started interviewing realtors. And if that was

too early for us to do it, you can tune me out about it. But we interviewed realtors because we have a young daughter, and she will be starting elementary school next fall. And our goal was to have a house and be settled in the house by next August and purchase during the summer, which would have given us plenty of time to save for a 10% down payment. Okay. However, while we were interviewing realtors, one of the realtors that we really, really liked told us, hey, you know, you don't have to pay 10% because right now the interest rates are so low.

She said, if you pay 2.5 interest on a mortgage, that is a much better deal. No, no. You can get a 5% down on a Fannie Mae. That's what they're suggesting. Oh, okay. But she's saying because interest rates are low, go ahead and buy even though you don't have the money. Right. She said we could do 5%.

We don't have to wait until next summer. She said if you do that, you're going to have a way higher interest rate. Yeah, because she's an economist as well as a realtor. Mm-hmm. Who said the interest rates are going to be higher? Way higher. Way higher. No, she just said that because they're...

Wait a minute. This is a real estate agent that wants to sell you a house, right? Right. Yes. That would make 3% off of the house. Yeah. Way higher, huh? You don't have a good real estate agent.

You have somebody that's got her commission check at her interest not years okay yeah she's a really good sales lady though she sold you yeah not yet that's why i called you no but she sold you on this bogus concept yes the bogus concept is is that interest rates are going to be way higher next summer if she knows that i'll'll give her a Nobel Prize in economics. Because nobody knows what interest rates are going to be next summer. I never dreamed they'd be this freaking low for this long. No. They've been down forever.

Yeah. You know how long it's been since we've had even a 4% interest rate? We haven't even seen four in years yeah so what i don't know what way higher is yeah because she just mentioned to us that if we purchased the house sooner that she would get her commission check sooner yeah yeah pretty much karen she's thinking about her she's not thinking about the best interest for you and your family. Dave and I are thinking about the best interest for you and your family. This better not be an ELP, is it? Is that one of the ones that you recommend?

Yeah. Yes. Yes, sir. Okay, cool. I'm going to put you on hold. I want to find out who it is, and we'll kick their butt. It's absolutely unconscionable. It's absolutely asinine.

So, no, I may kick them out of the whole program. So, I'm going to find out what really went down here. But, oh, my gosh. No, darling. No. Patience. You've lived in your mother's house to pull this goal off. For God's sakes, pull the goal off.

Yeah. You know? And you can buy a house for 5% down if you want, but don't do it on the premise that interest rates are going to be way higher from a real estate agent that wants their commission right now. Give me a break. Yeah. Yeah. Way higher.

Patience. Dave, I mean, you're nice, and you can't buy for 5%. That's Dave. I'm going to say no, wait. Well, I mean, you can buy for, you know, you can get in for nothing. But the point is the decision-making process that you're using is broken. That's the point. It's not the 5% or the 10%.

It's I'm going to buy early because interest rates are going to be way up. Doubt it. Yeah. Doubt it. Don't know. But neither does said realtor. And I'm not trying to collect a check. I pretty much gave you free advice, which is probably worth what you paid for it.

But please hold on and have Madison pick up, and I'd like to know the name of that particular ELP. And, Madison, you got the gist of the call. Just turn it over to that team, and we'll figure out if there's still an ELP tomorrow. Oh, jeez. See, this is what the problem is. We endorse like 5,000 people in the ELP and SmartVestor program, and so we have to constantly

manage and make sure that they're putting your interest up first. And 99% of the time, they do. They do. Occasionally, we get one that doesn't. And that was bad advice. Yeah. Straight up bad advice. And inconsistent with what we teach.

Absolutely. Which you should not go to someone I endorse, and you get And inconsistent with what we teach. Absolutely. Which you should not go to someone I endorse and you get advice inconsistent with what we teach. Oh, Dave's wrong about that one. Get you a credit card. You know, oh, geez, I'm going to shoot you. You know, it's just like that. Okay. All right.

Moving on. I'm on the radio live here. Yes. Erin is in Manhattan, Kansas. Hey, Erin, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Anthony. Hey. Thanks for taking my call. Thank you for calling in. How can we help?

My husband passed away about eight months ago and a couple of his 401Ks had his parents named as the beneficiaries and after that they were started before we were married and it just wasn't ever updated.

How long have you been married? His dad, we were married for seven years. His dad doesn't want the money like he wants it to come to us. So you have children? I don't know how to do that. I'm sorry? You have children? Yes, we have two boys. How much money is in these things?

About a little over $200,000. Okay. Oh, my goodness. All right. We're coming up on a commercial break. I'm going to try to get my breath. And I want to come back and walk you very carefully through this. And we'll see if we can figure out exactly what to do, okay?

One last question. Is your husband's mom on board with you guys getting the money as well? She actually passed away a little bit before he did. Oh, my goodness. I'm so sorry. All right. Hold on. When we come back from this break, we'll talk it through with you, okay?

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We're talking with Aaron in Manhattan, Kansas. Our husband passed away after seven years. He neglected to change the beneficiaries on his IRA. His mom has passed away, leaving his dad as the sole beneficiary on his IRAs and 401Ks. So his dad is receiving a total of about $200,000. Grandpa wants to give the money back to the grandkids and to the daughter-in-law. Is that a fair summary of what you told me so far, Erin? Yes.

Okay, and how long ago did your husband pass? About seven months. Oh, my goodness. I'm so sorry. Thank you. Okay, so had he changed the beneficiary, just for information's sake, you would then have what's called an inherited IRA, which you would be required to take out one-tenth of per year for ten years or more

and pay the taxes on it. That's what happens on an inherited IRA. Okay? Your father-in-law now has that, and he has an inherited IRA. He's the beneficiary of these funds. And there's no penalties on them, but there is taxes on them unless they were Roth IRAs. Were they Roth IRAs or do you know? Half of them were Roth, so about $100,000 were Roth IRAs. Were they Roth IRAs or do you know? Half of them were Roth.

About $100,000 in Roth. Okay. No taxes on that and no penalties on that. He can simply cash that out. It's in his name then and we need to have him gift it to you. The others he will cash out and pay taxes on and gift you whatever's left over after taxes, which will be probably, he may get hit for 25% to 30%, maybe 40%, okay? And so that $100,000 is going to come up and look more like $60,000 or $70,000, okay,

after he pays the taxes that are going to be due by him. By the way, if it was in your name, that would have been the same thing. Now, how do you transfer a $150,000 to $170,000 gift from him to you without any gift taxes? He needs to see his tax person, a tax attorney, or a really, really good CPA or estate planning attorney, either one, okay? Because the rule is that if you transfer more than $15,000 in a year to an individual, the individual gets taxed on gift tax, which is going to be about 55%,

so we don't want to do that, okay? But he can transfer. Have you got something to write with, Erin? I am, yes. Okay. Or you can go back and listen to it later on the podcast. He can transfer any amount of money if he uses a part of his $20 million estate exemption, his estate tax exemption on the federal level.

It's called a unified estate tax credit. And so he reduces what he can pass later from his estate unless he has an estate north of $20 million. This is not a concern. But he's going to use up $170,000 of his estate tax credit. And he can do it and not pay any gift taxes and he can hand you a check after he's paid the income taxes on the traditional portion for the difference, and then you can decide what you're going to do with it with the family and working paying off debts, making sure that everything's stabilized at your house and got your emergency funds in place and so forth.

Thank God he is willing to do this. Yes. You would have zero legs to stand on legally if he wasn't just a good man. He's a good man. Yeah, obviously. $200,000 worth. Yeah. He loves his grandbabies.

He loves his daughter-in-law. And, you know, he's a good guy. Most people that are good people would do this. But that's the process. He's got to pay the income taxes after he cashes it out, and then he can gift it to you, but he needs to fill out some paperwork with his income taxes called a unified estate tax credit. It's a simple form. There's not a lot to it, and it keeps him from having to pay gift tax on that large a gift.

Okay? Okay. Thank you. Erin, I want to ask you a question. Dave walked you through the practical. How are you and your family doing? How are your kids doing? Well, it's, you know, day by day. As best as we can do. Outside of your husband's father, are you surrounded with the local church and local

community, especially your kids? I mean, are you surrounded with the local church and local community, especially your kids? I mean, are you all surrounded by some good people? Yeah. Yeah, we are. That's good. How old are the kids? 13 and 4. So your husband was in his 40s?

He was 45. Yeah. Wow. What happened to him? A lot of different things kind of hitting him at once. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Yeah. Oh, my goodness.

Well, if we can help anymore, you let us know. That's your technical answer, and Anthony's right. I went straight to the practical and tactical and all that. Well, if I can just add, you've helped us out tremendously. My husband and I had our dream meetings every week and we planned and so even with this, we're going to be fine. We were in a good place because we had your guidance through it all.

Well, if you need any help, you holler back at us here on the air or off air, and our team will help you any way we can, okay? Okay, thank you. God bless you, darling. Open phones at 888-825-5225. It would not have changed the mathematical outcome much because, in this case, Grandpa was a good man. Yeah.

If he was not a good man, it could have been a $200,000 swing. And last hour, you and I were talking about, you have got to button up your paperwork. Yeah. I don't remember if it was last hour or first hour. It was the first hour. Two hours ago, we were talking about it. But the lady that called in with her car

and didn't get the title transferred after the divorce. Yeah. So you've just got to be really, really crazy detailed about all the money stuff. You've got to have the right beneficiaries on your... I even brought up beneficiaries on a 401k. We were talking about it. Yep. It's a sad story, though.

It's so sad. And this is not about Aaron, but it's just... Thank God that Grandpa's a good man, because if he wasn't a good man, that family would be $200,000 poorer just because of one piece of paper. Yes, sir. You didn't close the loop on it. So when you get married, you change all your beneficiaries, you change all your account names. Yes, sir. You go through line by line by line.

Every piece of paper paper every car title everything changes yes when you get divorced everything changes yes get the will redone yes if you've got a five-year-old will and everything was left to your ex-husband the will doesn't care if it's x come on it's a name by name yes and you Yes. And you just left all this money to this guy you don't marry to him. Don't do that. Get your will updated. When you have major life events, go through every piece of paper and update your stuff. It's how you say I love you to your family.

Yeah. There you go. And obviously, they had done a lot of things right, but that one little thing. And again, thank God he's a good, solid guy. But how many times do I get that call and Papa doesn't want to turn over that money? He's like, now he's being controlling. Now he has this issue or that issue. Now he thinks he's got that thing.

And it's a $200,000 discussion. And let me tell you, if it's $2,000, nobody gets all torqued out. Right. When it's $200,000, nobody gets all torqued out. When it's $200, people get weird. They get weird. They get $200K worth of weird. Yeah. Now, Dave, let me ask you this question because, you know, I'm single.

So, like, right now, my inheritance and all my stuff is going towards my four parents and my siblings. So, to us single people, when we do get married, let's say I get married on friday how long does it take the process when should i even start the process to start moving thing over to my wife before the marriage okay okay you don't you don't actually uh you date it after the marriage to the marriage okay but you can say will as of this date okay and that's the date of the wedding or the date after the wedding day after the wedding or whatever and you can go ahead and fill out the paperwork okay and um most of it you can do online these days. Okay.

And you can just jump in and change your beneficiary on your 401K. Yes. But you've kind of got to have a ridiculous checklist. It's like, you know, you ever go, I know you have, you bought two houses, but house closing, I mean, there's like a stack. A stack. Of stuff. Yes.

And your life, there's car titles. Yes. There's bank accounts. Yes. There's bank accounts. Yes. There's retirement accounts. Investments. And, you know, your will.

Yes. Everything has to be adjusted to fit this stage of your life and then you don't have these things. Thank God in that situation

that that's a good man. Wow. Yeah. That's scary. Very. This is the d of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Jillian and Trace are with us. Hey, guys, welcome. Hi, Dave. Hi, Anthony. Glad to be here.

What's up? How are y'all? Good to have you guys. And where do you live? Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Oh, well welcome to Nashville. Glad to be here. Good to have you. And how much debt have you paid off? $27,286.01. I love it. Good to you. Every dollar and every cent counts. Every penny. And how long did this take you? Seven months. Good. And your range of income during that time?

$85,000 to about $95,000. Cool. What kind of debt was the $27,000? Majority of my student loans and then his truck payment as well. Okay, cool. Yeah. So how long have you two been married? Less than a year, actually.

Coming up on a year. Yeah, we were engaged whenever we started taking FPU, and then we got married in the process and just worked as a team and just tackled it. Just said boom. Yeah, he married into the debt, so sorry. He had a car payment. Yeah, yeah, true, true. I was about to say, wait a minute.

You had education, he had the entertainment. That's right, that's right. So the Financial Peace University, before you're married, how does that happen? Well, so we were talking about it on the drive here, just kind of talking about what was our aha moment. I've had it. And it was one day at work. I was super stressed out. And it was one of those days where I went to went to his office and I was just like crying.

And I'm just like, I don't like love the role that I'm doing at work. And like we got all these bills to pay and everything. I just I don't know what to do. And, you know, a couple of weeks before that, I was talking to a girl I work with. Her name's Katie Cruz. Hi, Jeff and Katie. They were our like biggest cheerleaders. They're awesome people.

But her and I were talking about I don't even know know how we got on the topic of credit cards and everything. And I had just gotten one that I was super pumped about. And she said something about, and I was like, oh, I'll only use it in case of emergency. And she was just like, eh, there's a better way. And she started telling me all about Dave Ramsey and everything. Turns out her and her husband were FPU coordinators. Ah. Yeah.

So they encouraged us to come take the class. And then so in that aha moment. Sucked you into the cult. Yeah. In the vortex. Absolutely. That's it. I love it.

So whenever I had that like aha moment or just that like overwhelming sense of just stress, I went over to his work and he told me, he's just like, okay, would you feel better if we took FPU? And I was just like, yes, 1,000%. Yes, absolutely. And so, like, I signed us up that night. Wow. And we started a few weeks later.

Best decision we ever made. For sure. Wow, just like that. Mm-hmm. And in the process, the wedding happens, and then you come home from the honeymoon, and you completely finish this up. First order of business. Well, kind of, sort of.

So, we got engaged, and we actually had an April of 2020 wedding planned. Oh, man. But we were kind of impatient, and we kind of marched to the beat of our own drum. So we actually eloped back in November of last year. Yes. Thank you. Mainly for tax purposes and stuff, but honestly, it was the best thing. I mean, God works in mysterious ways, for sure.

Yeah, it turns out to have been a genius, prophetic move. Exactly, yeah. Wow. And the money that we didn't have to spend. Because you wouldn't want to be married in the year 2020. Right, exactly. And my mindset was, I'm like, okay, if we get married in 2020, it'll be really easy to remember anniversaries. If it's like 2036, then we'll be married 16 years.

But I'm so happy we got it done in 2019. I think you can deduct a one. Yeah, exactly. Easy math. Easy. Totally. 16 minus one. Okay.

Yeah, good. Yeah, for sure. Good for you guys. Thank you. So along this journey, what would you say was the hardest thing over the seven months? I would say giving up the convenience of going out to eat, cooking every day. You know, sometimes it got tough. Sometimes we wanted to break down, go spend some money at the restaurant,

just kind of kick back and enjoy it. But, you know, we just stuck to our guns and did the grilled cheese and ramen noodle nights. Ramen noodles. That was a big staple for us. I know Dave, you talk about like tuna fish or something was your like poor people food. Like ramen noodles and grilled cheese and ramen noodle nights. Ramen noodles. That was a big staple for us. And Dave, you talk about tuna fish or something. Was your poor people food. Ramen noodles and grilled cheese was ours. And so I don't put it in my face.

So gourmet grilled cheese does not appeal to you. If it's your broke people food, you can't do enough with it for it to not be broke people food. There's no tuna fish on this planet cool enough to make me want to eat it. Exactly. If it smelled tuna fish, my net worth goes down. So I have to ask you, how old are you two? I'm 26. 34.

34, 26. Young people. Yeah. Millennials. Well done. I was telling Dave before y'all came on, I said, I just love seeing young people get on the stage. I love seeing all people, but I just love seeing young people. So speak to that young person who's watching you right now saying, you what um i want to be debt free but i'm cool i'll do it later on

why should they attack it right now well i mean at least for me and you know for the single people like get your accountability partner but for the couples and everything just work as a team like you know trace and i we we don't fight at all. But before we got engaged, before we got married, any of our little, like, spats that we had were always money-related. And it was like, oh, well, he's picking up the bill at the grocery store. I'm picking up the bill at the restaurant and everything. Whereas whenever we came together as a team, as a unit, then that's whenever we really saw the success happening.

But as far as, like, just don't put it put it off, the end goal is baby step seven. Why would you want to just prolong that? So just get it done and go gazelle in tens, get it done in seven months or however long it takes. Grow together and dream together. That's right. Dream together for sure. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

I would say budget. Stick to the budget. Know where all your money's going. That was the first thing we noticed was most of our money was going out to eat. We spent like $1,200 in eating out the month before we started taking FPU. $1,200?

Yeah, that's basically our rent payment that we paid in groceries. And you ate it? Ate it, yes. It was ridiculous. Now Dave, I've got to call this out. They weren't you ate it. Ate it, yes. Yes. It was ridiculous. Now, Dave, I got to call this out. They weren't just eating it. They were drinking it, too. Just a little bit.

Not too much. There's something going on there. Wow. That's very cool. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's, I remember 100 years ago when I was doing FPU, I was teaching. I dropped by a class, and the guy did his budget and he goes yeah we spent 1250

eating out last month a country old country boy and he's like yep i figured out where our retirement's going we've been eating we've been eating bellies two bellies in that belly it's easy to do it's easy to do and uh you know i'm so proud of y'all yeah and your biggest cheerleaders were your buddies and who else yeah um our families yeah uh my sister and brother-in-law they um they did fpu or not fpu but they followed your program you know they read the book and just i remember at one point i was in college and i need to take a summer class and um you know i called my sister and i was really stressed and it was like 500 bucks or something. And I didn't have that.

And so I was actually looking at a credit union or a payday loan or something like that. And then she was just like, Jillian, do not do that. I will pay for the class for you and everything. And then just moments like that, now that we've taken it and learned the principles, I realize I'm like, wow, they were doing Dave's principles. And I didn't even know it. and they're, like, they're almost a baby step seven, like, they're looking to pay off their house in, like, two years, and then just, so seeing them, and, like, they're just, their goals for us, and it's just, yeah, just our family and our friends.

Yeah, you can reach over and pay your little sister's 500-buck tuition. Yeah, yeah. When you're not broke. When you're not broke, yeah, for sure. There you go, that's pretty cool. Yeah. That's very cool. That's a great, that's a great, you know, testimony to keep you're not broke. Yeah, for sure. There you go. That's pretty cool. Yeah. That's very cool. That's a great testimony to keep you.

You look back on that and you go, that's something I want to be. Yeah, totally. I want to live like no one else so later I can live and give like no one else. That's the dream. That's the goal. For sure. Well done. Very, very proud of you guys.

Yes. Congratulations. You're rock stars. Got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, of course. Everyday Millionaires. You're going to be one before you know it at this rate. Well done. All right.

Jillian and Trace, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. $27,000 paid off in seven months, making $85,000 to $95,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! This is how it's done.

Wow. Very, very cool. Man. I like it. I like it. They got a great start. Yeah. One year in, they're debt free.

I mean, 26 years old, old 34 year old their future is so bright yeah you know really sharp young couple so i mean anthony and i get to meet the millennials like that all over the place so those of you that always want to run down millennials you'll have to get through us because we think the millennial generation is incredible absolutely dave there's some dead beats but there's dead beatsats in the boomers, too. Absolutely. So, you know, there are these young people like this right there. It gives you hope.

Yes. This country's going to be okay. Yes. We're going to be all right, you guys. We're going to be all right. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture today, Psalm 128.2, You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Margaret Thatcher said, I do not know anyone who's got to the top without hard work.

That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but you should get pretty near. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but you should get pretty near. That's pretty good. I like that. Right now, I want to ask you something. What if you never again had to question what to do with your money? What if you were like that young couple

that was just doing their debt-free scream, where you had a plan, you were getting out of debt or out of debt, so that you can live your dreams, so that you can be outrageously generous. Does that feel impossible? It's not. You just need the right plan, and that's what Ramsey Plus is all about.

It is one membership that coaches you step-by-step through our best products so you always know you're doing the right thing with your money. You'll be guided through our three big hitters, Financial Peace University, that couple right there went through, the premium version of EveryDollar, our budgeting app, which is world class, and our new Baby Steps tracking app. And you get a ton of different courses and tools and access to financial coaches. Ramsey Plus is the whole package, and you know you're doing the right thing with money. You can take a free trial and see if I'm telling the truth. Check it out.

A free trial at DaveRamsey.com slash FPU. DaveRamsey.com slash FPU for a free trial for Ramsey Plus. Check it out. Watch some of the videos on FPU. Do the budget on the budgeting app. Look at the Baby Steps Tracker. Look at the groups and the communities. All of it's accessible during the free trial.

We don't mute any of it. You can check it all out. You can see if it is what we say it is. It's helped millions and millions and millions of people. Tyler is with us in Illinois. Hey,'s helped millions and millions and millions of people. Tyler is with us in Illinois. Hey, Tyler, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Mr. Dave and Mr. Anthony.

How are you guys doing? Great. How can we help? Yeah, so I'm hoping you guys can speak some wisdom into my situation. I'm 22 years old. I'm currently, well, should be a senior in college. I'm on my fourth year. I'm about two and a half years out from my degree. A little backstory, out of high school and into college, I struggled with intent and direction, which we know is very important.

I kind of felt like I had a means but didn't have an end. So right after high school, I went into college, community college, because it was just the normal thing to do. And then after that, I went to my four-year degree and I've switched majors a few times. So that brings me today. I've got about two years left in business school and I've got about $20,000 in loans. And it wasn't until about last month that I kind of decided that I wanted to go into real estate. And so after looking into it and talking to a guy I know who owns a broker locally, I've realized that obviously I can go into real estate a lot cheaper than I can go get my degree and just trying to figure out

where I should go from here. The job that I'm working now, I could probably pay off most of the rest of my education at school if I go that route, but then I probably wouldn't be able to put as much time into real estate. So just trying to decide which way I should go okay so you're working at a place that gives you enough money to finish your degree probably close I might have to take a little bit loans um to finish off it's the same job I've been at for six years okay well and so you like you like a year a year and a half? Probably about two and a half years left. I thought you said you were entering your senior year.

Yeah. I'm in my fourth year, but not curriculum-wise. Oh, I see. I got you. So I guess all my friends are seniors that I graduated high school with. They're all seniors, and they're all graduating, going on, and I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going

this is a tough situation right here because there's a lot of young people like you and yourself halfway through realize that this is not what they want to do I am at the place to where real estate while Dave is a huge he place to where real estate, while Dave is a huge,

he's huge in real estate. I don't know at 22, if I, if I'm comfortable saying that's the route that you're going to want to go for the rest of your life. Then you have two years invested into education. I like the route of you finishing this debt free because he says a business education, correct? Mm-hmm.

Yes, sir. So I like that route because you can still use that, but as long as you can do it debt-free. I don't want you to drop out now, waste this $20,000 to go pursue something that you may not like in the next five years. Because real estate, Dave, you can speak into this into this it's hard especially in the first year or two yeah so uh tyler i got my license to sell real estate when i was 18 years old right and i sold real estate full-time while i was in school worked 40 60 hours a week while selling real estate while i was taking a

full load and finished in four years uh it was um very difficult to sell houses to people when I was 21 years old, 22 years old, because I didn't have much credibility. And so I actually grew this Tom Selleck-looking mustache trying to get a little credibility, and I wore these goober suits that – I mean, I'm walking around in disco suits with a Tom Selleck mustache trying to sell houses, right? And this is the early 80s, and people are. And I'm trying to talk people into this. And I worked so hard that I actually did make some sales in spite of my age and my obvious shortcomings. But it's a very difficult road because you're trying to convince someone as a very young person that you have the expertise to help them market their most expensive asset. So it can be done, and you can become proficient and professional. And I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's a very difficult thing for

you to actually make some money in the next, say, three years. During that three years, I'd love to have you finish your degree. So I have a degree in finance and real estate, a business degree, that I got while I was selling real estate all the way through college. Okay? And I still have my real estate license to this day. I'm a broker. And so I don't do anything with it other than it, you know,

runs the ELP program and I buy some property from time to time. But I love the business. It's a wonderful business. I would tell you to stay with it and, you know, keep working it part-time while you're working your other job full-time while you're going to school full-time. You're not going to die from hard work. You can do it. And you'll be learning some stuff about the real estate business. The second reason I would – number one, I'd love for you to have the business education under your belt when you go into real estate, because then you can do a lot of different things with real estate,

because you see things that other people don't see because of the academic underpinning. Okay? The second thing, and I want to say this real carefully because I'm not trying to be hurtful, but I think what you described to me in yourself was that you have changed directions many times. Yes, sir. It's probably going to be healthy for you emotionally to finish something. Yeah.

Right. You need to finish something. And that's another reason I don't want you to change horses. The degree fat track that you're on is usable in a lot of different ways throughout the rest of your life. Pay cash for it. Work like crazy. Exactly what Anthony told you. And if I'm you, go and get your real estate license, and that'd be your third job.

I mean, school's a job and full-time job to pay for school. And then just be hanging out. Be the real estate rat like a gym rat, you know, where you're hanging out with the guys and the gals that are good at it on the weekends. And Sunday afternoons, your buddies are goofing off, and you're at an open house watching, seeing how it's done. Yeah. And that's a time you might not have been working at the other job. And all of that's going to start putting tools in your belt, and you're going to make some sales.

You'll get out if you keep scratching around. But I think the full-on change to that is probably premature. Yeah. I think it is premature. It is. But, you know, you can do it. You can pull it off. And if you go pull it off, you can say, Dave Ramsey said I was nuts, and I did it anyway.

That's okay. You can do that. I'm not saying you're nuts. I'm not saying you're crazy. I think you're having some good thoughts. And I'm with Anthony. I love the business. Yeah. And I think in talking to you that you're going to I'm not saying you're crazy. I think you're having some good thoughts. And I'm with Anthony. I love the business. Yeah.

And I think in talking to you that you're going to do really good at it because I think you're articulate and I think you've got good people skills. Yeah, I do. And, Dave, this is one of the main reasons why I talk about it in my book, Debt-Free Degree. Have a vision before you go into college. Yeah. You've got to play through a lot of money. You've got to play through. You can't change horses three times.

Yep. It'll kill you. Financially, it'll kill you. Emotionally, it'll kill you. Yep. All this stuff. Man. That puts us out of the day.

Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you. Before you know it, in the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey guys, this is Kelly, associate producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know over 16 million people listen to The Dave Ramsey Show every week? And a lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find the station near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.