The Ramsey Show - App - My Parents Are Cancelling My Car Insurance (Hour 2)

Episode Date: December 30, 2021

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Live Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the pain of home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, host of the Fine Print podcast, among others, is my co-host today. Open phones as we talk to you about your life and your money. This is a weird talk radio show because it's about you.

It's not about me. Not about it. Not even about George. Shock. I thought that was going to be the answer, Dave. Shock it. It's not about me not about it not even about george shock i thought that was going to be the answer dave shock it it's all about george no no it's not no sorry george not about me my feelings are you guys so it's weird because most talk radio is about the guy on the microphone and we're not the hero in this story you are we're just showing you how to do it open phones at 888-825-5225. Asheville, North Carolina. Glenn is with us. Hey, Glenn, how are you?

Hey, doing great, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. I really appreciate all you do. You too, sir. How can we help? Our family's been very blessed in that our children are registered with, through my wife, are part of a Native American tribe. And so they pay money into, I guess it's kind of a trust fund for them that they can't access till they're 18 and then they disperse it for a few years after that. We have seven children and they're all registered. So my approximations, the oldest is 16 right now. And my estimates are that when they turn 18, it'll be in the neighborhood of about $250,000 to put each beginning. So each So each, correct, yeah.

So my question for you was, I mean, I have some ideas, but I wanted your opinion on what kind of things should we be doing in the home to teach them about money now as well as make sure that once they get it, they don't squander it because we know a lot of other people that are in the same boat and, you know, they buy cars and end up in a ditch in a few years. And, you know, it's pretty sad. I know it's not $10 million, but to us it's pretty substantial. Oh, it is substantial.

It is. And this happens a lot, and we've worked with a lot of tribal situations because the money has turned out to not be a blessing because it's caused people, as you said, to fall into addiction uh to fall into a lack of a work ethic because they think they've got it made without working because they're on the tribal dole and um it's uh it's had a socio-economic effect that i don't think anybody really saw it was an unintended consequence across the board right uh certainly certain individuals have used it to be a blessing and others it's it's really damaged their life which is really sad and so we've seen that so you guys are this is probably what cherokee correct yeah okay all right cool yeah been there

been to that harris yeah so um the uh sure i mean i was born in marible so cherokee north carolina just up over the hill from us yeah so uh i, yeah. Yeah. So I've been around this my whole life. But it's just become extremely profitable because of the casinos in the last few decades for a lot of the tribes. So anyway, all that to say, it's a little bit like growing up in a wealthy family, only the family didn't earn the money. Right. And so you have to guard your kids about against the dangers of wealth which are sloth addiction and misbehavior sloth meaning laziness okay and so we had to teach the ramsey kids as an example growing up that they had that they're entitled to nothing don't talk

to me about entitled uh you know a ramsey kid get jacked up growing up if they start acting entitled and especially if they start acting like my dad's on the radio so i get to do so and so i really jack you up you start playing the dave card rachel can tell you stories from her childhood that left scars and so because it's just because i was not going to have our kids turn out as a reality show because we built wealth and i wanted to quite the opposite the wealth needs to be a blessing and the money is not the problem the problem is how you react to it and so what you have to start teaching your kids as early as possible is that this is this is not you hit the tribal lottery this is you have a tremendous responsibility with great blessing comes great responsibility

and i want you instead of feeling like you had like you scored a touchdown in the super bowl and like you did something fancy because you hadn't done nothing you just hit the dna lottery that was it that's all you've done right you're entitled to nothing here. So instead, you need to take this money and see it as a responsibility to your family, your own future family, to yourself, to your community. And so wealth is a responsibility, and I want you to feel the weight of that. We did that through a spiritual lens saying we don't own it. God owns it. We're managing it for him so we have the responsibility to be faithful to be trustworthy worthy of trust in this and so there's going to be a lot of dad speeches in your house if you're

wise and you know teach them to work teach them to act like this money's not there if they act like the money's not there they they act like the money's not there they'll be just fine and that money then can be a blessing and they can hold it with an open hand with a generous hand they can hold it with a hand towards the future um all of those kinds of things and and so but it can be done you can teach a kid in a rich family work ethic you can teach them integrity you can teach them character uh you can teach them delayed pleasure uh you can teach them integrity you can teach them character uh you can teach them delayed pleasure uh you can teach them the generosity um but but where this all falls down is when it becomes very all about me all about me all about me that's the entitled arrogant

mentality that that sometimes the in a sense it's like a trust fund baby right right yeah so uh Smart Money, Smart Kids is the book that Rachel and I did that was the number one bestseller that addresses how to raise kids and teach them how to handle money. We talk about this kind of stuff in there. I'll send you a copy of it. George, what do you want to add to that? You've watched Rachel and Daniel and Denise around this place. Yeah, there's zero entitlement and all work ethic. And what I've seen, Glenn, is that money is going to make them more of whoever they are.

And so whatever they are at age 18, well, that's how they're going to handle that money when they get that $250K. So what I want you to do is raise them in the best way you can. Walk them through the principles of smart money, smart kids. Have them go through Financial Peace University, maybe as a family. And then you can start to go, hey, what are your goals? This money can then flow through that framework that you've worked so hard to build to where they go, cool, we're going to cash flow school. We're not going to take out any debt.

We're going to get ourselves a car. We're going to have a down payment for the house. We're going to have a fully funded emergency fund. And what that's going to do is catapult them into their adult life. While their peers are hanging behind with all these student loans and car payments, they are able to have a paid for house at 24.

Yeah, here's the deal. They can be college educated with zero debt and be millionaires by 28 loans and car payments, they are able to have a paid-for house at 24. Yeah, here's the deal. They can be college-educated with zero debt and be millionaires by 28 with the numbers you gave me. Yeah, and that's kind of what I told them. I said, you can work because you want to, not because you have to, at a very young age. The rest of your life, and you can learn the real value of money, which is not what it does for me, but what it does for others. Yeah. It's the most valuable thing a kid can ever learn. of money, which is not what it does for me, but what it does for others.

It's the most valuable thing a kid can ever learn. And sometimes it takes us kids until we're 50 to learn that one. And your kids don't have that option because if they wait until 50, this is going to screw up their lives. And it's a scary, scary thing. I'm glad you brought it up. I've not answered that question here on the air. I've answered it behind closed doors with a lot of discussions with tribal leaders because they're facing this uh because it's created in some cases not every case but there's too many times it's created kind of a welfare state mentality rather than the blessing

that it should have been yeah uh because the the tribes are you know they're dispersing the money to the tribe that's the money they're making in the gambling industry, which is a boatload of money. Boatload of money. And so I'm glad the young men and young ladies are being blessed. It's a good thing. Let's just make sure that they understand they're blessed so that they can be a blessing. when we talk about giving like no one else i'm always impressed with zander insurance and their commitment to helping others during the holidays zanderander has donated over $350,000 by pledging 25% of all sales of their ID Theft Protection Plan

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and nathan is with us in san antonio hi nathan how are you hello hi david and george thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So basically, I'm 23. I've been living at home with my parents for the last six or seven months since I graduated college. And I've basically just been saving money because I knew ahead of time that my job was going to have me relocate. And I am relocating in the next week, and I've been planning for that. And I have a beefier emergency fund than $1,000. Not that much.

It's only about $10,000. But I'm basically just planning on using that to move with. And the one thing my parents were helping me out with was my car insurance. And just yesterday, they kind of dropped it on me that they want me to take over that well before expected. I was planning to pick that up a bit down the road after this policy expires and we have to renew it. But I've budgeted out my expenses with my income

and I could easily do it. It's just a matter of I feel like they're kind of like dropping this on me at the last minute. And it's not something that I've really factored into what I'm going to be doing over the next few months. And it's just so short notice that I don't know if I should just do it to make them happy because they kind of gave me an ultimatum about it that if I don't do it, then they're not going to drop me from the insurance or I'll have to leave the truck here at my house, which is not really feasible. So I just kind of wanted to get y'all's advice on that. So what's the insurance cost? Is this like a large expense? I mean, it's going to be like $250 to $300 a month.

But basically, I've already done my zero-based budget on every dollar, and it's just not something that I factored in. And I could easily just pay the full six-month sum up front and take the hit on my um as like a moving expense i guess um but yeah it just caused like unnecessary friction at the last minute and how much is your truck worth my truck is worth about uh i would say a little less than 15 000 What do you owe on it? I owe $3,500. Okay, and you have $10,000 in savings, and how much are you making at the new job? I'm making right now... No, at the new job when you move. Right, well, I'm kind of working the new job right now. It's just been work from

home, but now that I'm relocating, it's actually going to be the same pay, but I'm kind of working the new job right now. It's just been work from home, but now that I'm relocating, it's actually going to be the same pay, but I'm getting a raise in April. Right now it's $35, and in April it'll be $45. That's good. Okay, nice raise. All right. It sounds like this is more relational. I feel your frustration towards your parents more than it is the actual amount of the insurance. Yeah, that definitely played a role.

We talked about it yesterday, and they just see how much stress is all causing me this move. It is from where I am now to Florida, which is halfway across the country, and I don't know. I really don't know what it is i think they feel like i'm somehow a big liability because of the far drive that i'm taking um and they just kind of like hit me with this when we've been talking for a while that's no i think they i think they finally got you off the payroll and they looked up and went hey we can

get rid of the insurance too i don't think they look at you as a liability i don't think they finally got you off the payroll, and they looked up and went, hey, we can get rid of the insurance, too. I don't think they look at you as a liability. I don't think they're trying to crash your little boat. I think you're going to be fine. They just want to cut the apron strings. That's all they're doing. And I agree. I agree they're a little bit rough about it because they could have given you more of an emotional on-ramp or a mathematical on-ramp to catch up. I'm not disagreeing with you on that idea, Nathan.

So here's what I would do. I would go to RamseySolutions.com and click on ELP for insurance. Have one of our ELPs shop your car insurance and get the best possible deal. I think you might be overpaying at $3,000 a year, even at 23 for a $15,000 truck. That seems a little rich to me. I might be wrong, but let them shop it for me, okay? Then when they shop it, you can put car insurance on a monthly, as you know, and if it's $250 a month, put it on the $250 a month and just tighten your little every dollar budget up

and make it work. And if you got to work an extra job a little bit, you got to work an extra job a little bit. It's just a little – it's not a devastating blow, but it's heavy enough weight that they dropped on you suddenly that it knocked you back on your heels a little bit. George is right. This is more emotional than it is mathematical.

But it's heavy enough that you felt it, right? Yeah, exactly. But you can do it, and you're going to be glad you did it and i don't think they're out to get you i don't think there's any malice in this at all i think they just didn't do a good job of cutting the apron strings they used a machete instead of a scalpel right right yeah a blood instrument you know it's like they just didn't they just didn't give you good you know they should have said this six months ago. Dude, you're moving out, and you're taking all of your crap with you, which includes the insurance and the soccer trophies, okay? You're out of here.

We want the bedroom. I'm putting a pool table in there. I mean, they need to tell you what's up, right? And so. Yeah. You're making the truck payments, right, on your own, or are they doing that? Well, they did for a while and then after um i would say a couple years ago basically i'm just paying them and they're they're kind of like paying for me um and i have like 3500

left yeah so when you get moved and get settled if you've got 3500 left pay the truck off that day yeah that's what i'm looking to do and they kind of know that i've been um binge watching your show and then i'm like kind of laid out my desk snowball i do have some student loans um so this is a three thousand dollar offset so you can use the truck and deliver uber at night or pizzas at night or you can pick up a job cutting grass on the weekends and you'll have an extra six thousand bucks in no time and it'll offset anything and then by the time april comes around you're going to be okay you're gonna be in great shape. You're going to get the $10,000 raise. Everything's rocking on.

You're going to be just fine. It just was heavy enough and it was sudden enough that it caught you. And so it's a 20% math problem, 80% relational emotional problem. Yeah. And part of it is adulting. Adulting just sucks. And when you're leaving your early 20s and you start going, oh, crap, I have to pay for insurance? No one told me how expensive this was.

Yeah. You start to just kind of feel like you got punched in the face a little bit. So I think once you get on your feet and you get out on your own, you've got a good income, you clean up the debt. Yeah. Those payments are gone. You're going to have that income back in your life, and you're going to go, okay, I can breathe a little bit. Amy is on the line. She's in Atlanta.

Hi, Amy. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hey, Mr. bit. Amy is on the line. She's in Atlanta. Hi, Amy. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Mr. Dave. How are you? Good. What's up? Hey, Dave, my son is 22, and he bought some land before the market went up,

and now he's selling some land, and he's going to end up with about $25,000. Where should I help him to put that money? We talked about what they call the like-kind account where he just holds it to move it into another real estate in case he buys some more real estate. But I don't think right now he's going to do that because the real estate is so high right now. Yeah, if he does a 1031 tax-referred exchange, which is what you're referring to, he has six months to select the real estate. So if he's not going to buy a piece of real estate in six months,

he's just going to cash this out and pay. The capital gains on it is only going to be like $3,000. Okay. If he makes $20,000, he made $20,000 profit? Yes. Has he owned it a year no no no he made ten thousand dollars profit oh ten profit okay has he owned it a year um yeah okay then it's 1500 bucks 15 on your profit yeah so just pay the pay the tax don't worry about, and do something smart with that profit. He should. He's 22.

He's out there buying land. He's already got this stuff on the run. Yeah, and as long as he's debt-free, I don't know his financial situation, but I want to make sure that he's following the baby steps and that he's doing things that are right for his financial future, not getting into investing too early in the real estate business. Yep, that's it. That's how it works.

Parents, when you're going to cut them loose, and you should, gradual is good. Sudden is hard for them. It's easy for you, but it's hard for them. This is the Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Brad and Julie are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave. Welcome. Where do you guys live? We're just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, in Cartersville.

Yeah, welcome to Nashville. Thank you, sir. And all the way up here to do a debt-free scream. Yes, sir. How much have you paid off? $676,997.39. Woo! How long did this take?

Five years. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? Started off at 75 and ended at about 175. Wow. What do you guys do for a living? Well, so currently I just ended my 28-year career with one of the country's longest family-owned and operated wineries in California. So I just finished my consulting with them, and I'm going to reinvent myself. And Julie?

I am starting my own small business. I create unique handbags. All right. That's fun. Good for you guys. Thank you. So you were living in Atlanta consulting Napa? Not Napa.

The Livermore Valley. Oh, okay. Yeah. But yeah, so I was a director of operations. So I was passing the torch to the person who took over my position. Yeah. Plus helping out on some IT type of things. Very cool.

Good for you. So $677,000 over five years. You pay off your house? Yes. Hey! Two times. Look at the weird people. The California house and then the Cartersville house.

Wow. Yes. Wow. Yes. Do you still own the California house? No, we do not. Sold it. Okay.

All right. We sold it, and we came out very well. I can suspect that. Yes, sir. Yeah. Very well done, you guys. Thank you. Okay, so what happened that put you on this journey five years ago?

Well, in December of 2015, a week before Christmas, my dad passed away, and then the very next day, I found out I was losing my job. Oh, my gosh. So it was a dark time. Yeah. It was a really dark time for me. And, you know, I was freaking out. You know, I realized, you know, sitting down and doing the bills, we're $1,000 short every month.

$1,000. You know, too many bills, you know. I mean, car payments, 401K loan, a HELOC, a bed. If we had the checklist of stupid from you, Dave, we ticked every box and added a few. Okay. Under miscellaneous. Miscellaneous, which is refi. Roll the car loan into the refi.

Oh, yes. Two cars. Start over 30 years. Yes. Kick the can. Kick the can. But, you know, at that point in life, didn't even realize. Kick the can. Kick the can. Yeah. But, you know, and at that point in life, didn't even realize there's a can.

Didn't care, right? Yeah. You're young enough. I'll work my way through this. You can make the payments. Yeah. No biggie. We're still eating, right?

Until you can't. Until you can't. And then you're a thousand bucks short. Then what'd you do? Well, then it was, you know, we realized like, oh my goodness, you know, it's just us. You know, we didn't get anything from my dad's estate. You know, this is us, no one to go to for help. I mean, I'm a huge talk radio guy. So, um, I couldn't tell you how many times I was driving home from work, hearing you on the radio and then listening to two minutes and going to the next channel because it's like, what's this get rich quick

guy? You know, there's no way until I was in that position. And that's why we got to thank you, Dave. I mean, you literally saved our life. And I'm hoping that we can touch somebody with a similar story as ours because I eventually stopped and I listened. And when I got home that night, I said, we got to check this guy out. He came home, and he was like, Julie, I heard a guy on the radio.

And I'm like, okay. He's like, yeah, I really think we should get out of debt. I'm like, okay, Mr. Amazon. I'm the free spirit. I'm the free spirit. She's the nerd. I'm the nerd. And so, yeah, so that was in February of 2016.

And then we signed up for FPU. Yep. And I got to give a shout out to Kim and Garrett, our coordinators. They're awesome. We still talk. And, yeah, we just went gazelle from there. It was actually funny because I was like, I have no job. I'm sitting in these FPU classes.

I'm like, Dave, I'm not going to be able to pay this off. But once we started going through the classes and working the snowball, whatever we could throw at it, it's like, oh, wow, I think this is possible. And I must say, anybody out there that's thinking about FPU or what is it, if you have an opportunity to do it and we've gifted it before, do it. You're going to feel weird the first two weeks, undoubtedly. You're going to feel like Julie said, what am I doing here? What am I doing here?

But you meet a lot of, and I encourage you to go to the actual class. You can do it online or, you know, through DVDs. Go to the class. Go to the class. Meet other people. Realize you're not the only ones with these problems. Yeah. And actually, I hate to say it, but I felt better.

We felt better coming out of the class by the third week because we realized we had a lot of debt, but we were nowhere near some of the other folks in the room. But the other thing is, and this goes very, very true for single folks, you probably feel the worst because you feel like you have nobody out there. But, you know, folks like us, you can all relate. You all have death. And that's what's happening right now in this country. We've got a huge problem.

What's going on with the, you know, with the health care situation right now and all that, now is the most critical time for folks to shut the cards off, get down, get your feet dirty, and hammer it out because it can be done. It's not going to be fun. It's not like, oh, this is awesome. You know, I'm not, you know, who doesn't like to go get a $5 coffee and treat you like royalty, you know? Just my watch. So, Brad and Julie, I'm looking at the numbers and I'm just like in awe. How did you guys pay off $677,000 in five years making what you make?

Did you sell some stuff? What happened? Yeah. Well, yes. We'll get to that in a second. Yes. Okay. So our biggest one was our California house.

That was like $188,000. And so we paid that off in September of 2020. And we're like, cool. And then we're like, let's move. And so then we decided, we were originally looking at Tennessee. We've settled on Georgia. And so we were like debt-free for three months.

And then we bought the Georgia house and moved across the country in January of 2021 and sold the California house and then paid off the Georgia house. Okay. And had a nice chunk of change left over. And yeah, getting back, but prior in California before we actually paid that house off, oh yeah, it was everything. It was comic books, musical instruments.

My Disney stuff. I sold my motorcycle. Wow. And what was cool was the dude that I sold my motorcycle to, I gave him a screaming deal. He came out the night before, looked at the bike, came back the next morning with cash and

he came into our house and I think you have some of the photos there. We had a mortgage chain going down our hallway. So this guy's filling out, we're filling out the paperwork and I'm like, you know, and I see his face. I go, you're wondering about the links on the wall?

He's all, yeah, what's up with that? So we told him, Dave Ramsey. He goes, oh, I know about Dave Ramsey. I go, yeah. I go, you're helping us pay our debt off right now. He goes, that's awesome. And I go, you know, for me, I love selling my motorcycle to a guy who appreciates it he actually brought his high school friend from north from southern california up to northern

california and they were going to go on a bike trip and it was like you know what everything happens for a reason it all works out yeah so and now you're 100 debt free and you can buy a bike anytime you want exactly so what's your first big thing you're gonna do now that you're out of debt you know quit your job apparently well yeah we already did that but yeah yeah we did that you know but i mean i've never been happier i mean our i think that's the thing dave it's like what what's going to be your big thing it's um i don't know you're looking at things differently right yeah uh well dude we got a copy of the legacy journey for you that's the next chapter in your story to move on and be baby steps millionaires you're right on your way to do that we just got ken coleman's new book just

in the mail a couple days ago so that's actually perfect timing for the job excellent all right well let's count it down brad and julie currently of atl Georgia. $677,000 paid off in five years, making $75,000 to $175,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! That dude's about to run through a wall. Hopefully not this glass. This is triple pain.

He's not getting through it. But, man, what an inspiring couple. Wow. They're on fire. Way to go, heroes. Proud of you guys. Very, very well done. That's how you live life, man.

Get after it. Get it. Get it. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Robert is in Baltimore, Maryland. Hey, Robert, welcome to the Ramsey Show. What's up, gentlemen? How are y'all?

Better than I deserve, sir. How can we help? All right, so on Friday, my wife and I are closing on the sale of our house. With the money we're getting from that, and we're moving into a downsizing to a two-bed, two-bath trailer that my cousin is renting us. With the sale of that plus the difference in our living expenses, we're going to be debt-free in about six months.

And in about a year or so, we plan on buying a bigger, better house. I have a young son and plan on having more here in the future. Good for you. So my question is, between now and then, should I get myself smart on real estate so I don't have to have a real estate agent? Or is it worth biting a bullet and just paying for that agent and trying to save money wherever I can? Very seldom does the buyer pay the agent anyway. Typically the seller pays the commission.

Yeah, because the housing market is so hot and I don't know what it's going to be like a year from now, I was thinking if I wasn't having a buyer's agent, then it would be kind of a checkmark in my column for negotiations. Yeah, it would be if all things were equal, but all things aren't equal. This is not amateur hour, and you don't want to buy your largest asset with no professional assistance, never having done this before, and try to negotiate in one of the hottest marketplaces in the last hundred years. It's exactly the wrong time to not have someone in your corner.

So you definitely need a buyer's agent. They will make you more than they cost you. Okay, great. Because they can actually cause the negotiation to occur, and when you're trying to do it one-on-one, the chances of that happening, unless you bought a – I mean, I bought 2,000 pieces of real estate. The last house I bought six months ago, I bought through a real estate agent, and I've got a broker's license.

But I'm not active in the market market and i don't need to be negotiating up in this market messing with all these people it man and i guarantee you i made money on that transaction matter of fact i bought two properties this year come to think of it uh two two houses this year and both of my use a real estate agent on yeah now we bought a huge piece of development land my son-in-law manages all our real estate, and he managed that transaction. He's a broker too, but, I mean, that was a little different play. That had zeros on it. But a lot of people do go, well, Dave, I can save on the 3%, the 6% if I do it myself.

And I had some family try that for sale by owner, and it was a nightmare. Now, here's the thing. Here's what's interesting. The agent or the people selling the house put it up for sale by owner to try to save the commission. And you know when the people come to buy from a for sale by owner, what their thinking is? Well, they don't have to pay a commission. So I should be able to get a better deal. Well, you can't both save the same commission.

It's not mathematically possible. And so you're going to end up splitting it down the middle, and you're going to end up screwing up something in the transaction that's going to cost you a lot more because of your lack of knowledge of how the transaction goes down than the little bit of commission. Commission's not your problem in this market. There's a lot of problems, and there ain't one of them. Hannah's with us in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Hi, Hannah. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi there. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can George and I help? Okay. So I am, let's see. Basically, I've been not in debt, but also not broke. I've been, see, I'm trying to get my background here.

So backstory, I just came into $300,000 of liquid assets because my father passed away. I'm sorry. It's fine. It's kind of a redemption story. It's sort of interesting. But we hadn't found him for 17 years. So, through this, he resurfaced, and we were all joking, wouldn't it be funny if he died a millionaire? It turned out he did basically. And he left this to us four kids and we split it four ways. So, um,

basically I have gone to, from just kind of being the average, uh, average girl that's not really planning for the future to now i have this chunk to i have this opportunity to do something smart so how old are you um i'm i'm kind of old i'm 36 oh you're ancient i can't believe you how do you get around 36 i don't know people are telling me i'm old. I got socks older than that. Oh, my gosh. You need new socks, Dave. You do, actually. Yeah. But, yeah, so, I mean, I went to college late, and then I've just been working really hard.

How much do you make? So, currently, I haven't even done the math on that, 20 bucks an hour. It's not something to frown at, I don't think. Where did that come to? 40,000 a year, maybe? Yeah, $45,000. $44,000 or something like that, yeah. So, and that's, no, I currently, I have, I'm down to $2,000 of debt. I've never had much debt. I've stayed out of it. I did get a college degree because my grandma offered to buy me one, i don't have any student loans um i

wouldn't have gone to school so what's your question for us today so my question is mainly well here's the other side of the story my husband and i both run our own businesses and we've gotten to the point where we both agreed that having our own property to do it is going to be ultimately um the smartest way to do it. I thought you made $20 an hour at your job. What kind of a business do you have? Oh, currently, well, I have my own personal business that I'm starting. Oh. And it's not like underway because I don't have a place to do it.

So I've got a lot of materials. What kind of business? It's a pony operation, basically. We've got, I've got, this is, people think I'm crazy. I've got three ponies that I've managed to keep through leaving my parents' house, going through college, everything. I've supported them the whole way. And they do, like, pony rides, and they do, ultimately, I want to be doing equine therapy. So I've been educating myself on that for a while.

What does your husband do? He's a pro recording engineer. He's got a full pro studio that he bought for himself, and he's already got albums out there. One more time, then I'm going to circle back. What's your question? My question is, what the husband thinks is we should just go ahead

and spend this on a property or a house because we've got it. And then we basically, he's talking about being house poor, get a place and then have no mortgage. And wouldn't that be awesome? And my thing is, yes, but I have, you know, a lot of 83,000 is like IRAs and the rest is stocks. And my thought is, well, if you put it into one hard asset, then none of it's working for you. And advisors are telling me, oh, this is a great time to get a mortgage because it's at like 3% interest at the most to get a mortgage. So my question is, do I go into a mortgage or do I go ahead and just spend this chunk on a house and continue being who I am, which is a girl who just... Gotcha. Okay. So I wouldn't do this unless you've got a paid-for house, but it sounds like you don't need this property right now. So I don't know. You said

you had some single stocks going on as well. I would get a new financial advisor if they're telling you to go into debt and they're telling you to invest in single stocks. The reason they want you to go into debt is they don't want you to use this money. They would rather make a commission on this money when they invest it for you. They have a little bit of a conflict of interest in their advice, to say the least. There's a lot going on here. All right, so I'm just going to be real plain with you, kiddo. Pony Lady meets Recording Engineer. pony lady meets recording engineer. Two ideas, both of which have a high probability of losing your butt,

losing money running these as full-time businesses. And so do not invest in the property to do either one of these business ideas. Rent the property to do these business ideas on a commercial basis. Invest in and buy a home and pay cash with it with this money. That way you can't get to the money and screw it up and then go live your life on your income. Go create some income to build your businesses with and to grow your pony business and for him to grow his recording business, but all on a rental basis. Do not buy commercial recording studios. Never.

I'm in Nashville. You know how you get the next country music star's attention in Nashville? Waiter. And so they're on every corner, and there's a dadgum recording studio in every trailer in a 50-mile radius around here. It's ridiculous. Don't put money in that, period. And your pony business is a hobby. It's not a business. It's never been a business.

It's been a hobby since college. So it's okay to try to grow these things, but do them on rental properties and own your house paid for cash to protect you from you. That's what I'm hearing. That's a little blunt, but that's what I heard. This is The Ramsey Show. This is James Child, producer of The Ramsey Show. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.