The Ramsey Show - App - My Parents Want Me to Get a Credit Card (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 13, 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, 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, best-selling author. My daughter is my co-host this hour here on the air. We're answering your questions about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225.

888-825-5225. Samantha is in Houston, Texas, to kick this hour off. Hi, Samantha. How are you? Hi. I'm fine. How are you guys? Great.

How can we help? So, quick question. I've been listening to you since January, and I've been serious since February, but I've been serious by myself. My husband, I've been trying to get him on board and he's just not having it. He's not, he's not wanting to, he's not wanting to budget like the gazelle intensity like me. He just wants to kind of budget and I want to 100% budget and be really strict. I don't want to make him feel like I don't honor him as my husband and I don't want to make him feel like I don't want to work as a team. So did you sit down and do a budget together and you ran him off by being strict?

I think that may have been what happened. Okay, give me an example of a category he thought you were cray cray on. Eating out, for example. How much did you have for eating out? I had maybe 50 bucks because I know he likes to eat out for lunch. He doesn't like to take lunch with him. What's your household income? About $6,500 monthly.

And how much debt do you guys have? $182,000. On what? Most of it is his student loans. That's around $133,000. My car, around $5,500 on his car. Both of our credit cards. That's pretty much what all of our debt is outside of the house.

You've got a lot of debt, but you have a pretty good income. Rachel, what would you do? Well, I'm curious. What does he do? What did he do with that degree? Pardon? What did he do? What's he do for a living?

Oh, he works for the city. He manages a health clinic for the city of Houston. Okay, cool. Yeah, but this is always tough. Getting another spouse on board is a question I feel like we get all the time. And I kind of have like a three-prong approach that I do. So like number one is your why. So sitting down and not, you know, not barking at them about the budget.

No, you're not doing this. I want you to do this, all this. Explaining your why. Like what is your why, Samantha budget. No, you're not doing this. I want you to do this. All that's explaining your why. Like, what is your why, Samantha? Is it because you're stressed out? Is it because you're fearful something happens? You don't know how you guys are going to be financially. Is it because you want to be able to live with the thought of like no payments and the

freedom that comes with that? Are you doing it for your kids? Like, figure out your why. And his. And sit down and have that conversation, though explain it to him like this is what's going on in me this is why i want to do it it's more than just 50 of going out to eat a month like i don't you know you probably don't even want that either like but i'm i want to do these sacrifices in order to get out of debt so that x and fill in that blank and have that conversation

and get his take as well so start with like the bigger picture, kind of the more emotional side and then get tactical. So especially for men, I find that if you can do progress, show visual progress, they're more apt to do the plan. So you just saying, Hey, we're going to do $50. We're going out to eat. Sorry. Like that's how it's going to be. He's probably, Oh no, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that. But if you say, Hey, you only have, we, if we choose to do this, it's only going to be X amount of months that this is how our life is going to be. It's not forever.

We're not going to do this for 15 years. Maybe it's 15 months or like you do the math and figure out this is how long it will take to get out of debt if we budget like this. And sometimes I'm just seeing that progress. They're like, okay, because there's hope on the other end because he's probably feeling like you just took all the fun money and now I can't do anything. I can't have fun because you just want to get out of debt. And it just sounds miserable.

But showing the progress, I think, is huge. And then lastly, Samantha, I would say, if those don't work, bring in a third party. So whether that's one of our books, maybe that's the podcast, maybe it's a marriage counselor. Like, I don't know what it is. But bringing in that third party for you guys, I think, can be extremely, extremely helpful. Yeah. So, Samantha, do you all have children? Yes, we have two children, 16 and 10.

Okay. Let me give you an illustration that's not going to happen, but it gets your attention emotionally. Okay? Mm-hmm. Right now, it's like his mommy is saying he can't have money to go out to eat. You're not being his wife. You're being his mommy. That's how this conversation feels. He doesn't want that. And you don't want to be that. Okay. Yeah. If instead you did what Rachel's talking about and you both had a really big reason, then he would be on board to make the decision with you.

And, you know, the example I'm going to use is not going to happen, but if one of your children were ill and you had to save $20,000 really, really fast to save their life, he wouldn't be bitching about going out to eat. Yeah. Because you'd have a big enough why. He doesn't have a big enough why. And so he's not willing to sacrifice the now for the later because he doesn't believe the later. It's not worth it.

It's not worth it. And so that turns you into the nagging wife or the mommy and turns him into the little boy or the husband whose wife is listening to some crazy butt guy on the radio and messed her up. Right. And I turned me into a cuss word. Right. or the husband whose wife is listening to some crazy butt guy on the radio and messed her up, right? And it turned me into a cuss word, right? Yes. So I think you guys back up, and if you start talking about what Hogan says, to dream in high definition, dream in HD, and quit talking about $50 going out to dinner. The $50 going out to dinner will solve itself when you both have a big enough reason to do this.

And by the way, you do. If you're looking at this and you have $182,000 worth of debt and it doesn't scare the crap out of you, you're not really dialed in, which translation, he ain't dialed in. This should scare him enough to go, as a man, as a husband, as a person, I don't want this thing hanging over my head. And it's like he should have an oh, crap moment, you know, but he hasn't yet. He hasn't yet. And when he does, it'll change everything.

So I think you back up and quit using me as a stick to beat him, quit using the budget to try to control him. He'll do all this stuff faster than you'll do it once he has a reason. As if your child were ill and you had to come up with $20,000. If you can get that in his head and go, if we do this for a short period of time, we can save this family's life. We can get out of $182,000 worth of debt because you make $100,000 a year. You make more than that. You're coming home with $6,500, you said, right? So yeah, you're probably making $120,000 a year. And so, you know, you can say, we make too much money to be this broke. We're not ever

going to be anywhere. We're stuck. We got to get out of this. The house is on fire. Run for the door. And you don't have to ask somebody to run for the door when the house is on fire they run and so you don't have to ask somebody to save money for their out of their lunch money to save their child's life if their child needs saving you know they do it there's not a human on the planet wouldn't give up their lunch money to save their child of course they would so all that illustrates is not that your child's ill or something like that but all that illustrates is that if you have a big enough why, everyone is willing to sacrifice to get to it. Good, good question. You're going to do fine. Hold on. I'm going to put you guys through Ramsey Plus for a one-year subscription, put the whole family and Financial Peace University, get him going

through the class with you. It's going to change everything. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Families all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs, whether they're anticipated or completely unexpected. For example, take the Olcheski family from LaGrange, Texas. Jeff and Carice had just celebrated the birth of a new baby boy. Shortly after, they had another expensive medical issue come up. They could have faced a huge financial setback, but thanks to Christian Health Care Ministries,

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Plus membership for a whole year as a virtual Financial Peace University coordinator, text LEADFPU to 33789. That's LEADFPU to 33789. Phil is with us in New York. Hi, Phil. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Rachel. How are you guys doing? Great. How can we help?

All right. So my parents don't have a retirement. They both are in their early 60s, and I'm just kind of wondering what you guys have as advice that I can give them. Are they asking? Well, I mean, not really asking, but they're definitely obviously very well concerned about it because they have to work pretty much.

They can't retire. Okay. All right. Because I'm getting ready to turn 60, and so I'm thinking, you know, when a grown kid comes into a grown parent's household and starts telling them what to do without being asked, it's kind of a weird thing. That's why I was asking. I see. We call that the powdered butt syndrome once someone has

powdered your butt they don't really want your opinion on money or sex so um the uh so you're gonna have to tread lightly in order to get traction is what i'm saying you know they will listen to you because they probably respect you i respect my kids and i listen to them but it's a very difficult conversation that direction um yeah and uh so uh there's going to be a lot of persuasion involved and so forth and i think i would just start with asking a lot of questions and maybe if you've had some uh have you had some success turning your money situation around at all oh absolutely yeah i i Yeah, I follow you, your teachings. Well, it might sound something like this. Hey, Dad, I've been doing this thing for about three years or whatever. I'm making up the story, okay? And this is what happened. And I did a couple

things. I got completely out of debt. And you know what? I'm able to really do some serious investing. And I know you guys are heading towards retirement. And if you'd like to do some really serious investing, I would be honored to show you what I did and see if it's something you wanted to do. And talk about your story more than like wagging your finger at him going, you're so stupid. You didn't ever save any money. And I got the answer. That one ain't going to work. Yeah.

But I think one of your questions is, you know, are you wondering to feel like how to direct them and what to do? Like if they do say yes, we'd love the help, what do they do? So to follow that up, do they have debt? Well, so I kind of have spoken to them, you know, about the idea of doing a debt snowball and such. And they've caught on to that very well, and it's been very good. They've started doing that, and their mortgage is very low.

Their expenses are very low. They're not spenders by any means. They just need to get organized and kind of be on top of it. Yeah, so I think that encouraging them to get out of debt, get that emergency fund in place, and then at that age, at 60, throw extra. Yeah, just throw everything at retirement. Go crazy. Right.

But if you got completely out of debt, but the house and the mortgage is low, then they could really jack up their retirement savings and they could really build a nice nest egg in 10 years. Right. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. But the trick of it is as you've probably heard us talk about before your most powerful wealth building tool is your income

and right now their income is being lost to two things debt and disorganization yeah and you get intentional get on a budget which you've got them doing you're getting them out of debt you got them doing that you've told them what to do and you can just walk with them be their cheerleader encourager uh and listen the other thing is every time they get a little bit more excited they can turn the heat up that much more in other words people it's interesting to me that when they get started they're not as uh they don't sacrifice as deep as once they've had a few wins and you start having some wins and you think i can do this that's the reason that snowball works then you get you go deeper you go deeper and you sacrifice at a place that five months ago you would have thought was crazy and now you're doing all this crazy stuff because you're willing to do anything to get clear well that was like alex on the debt-free stage

last hour that she talked about you know i oh yeah i was planning on 10 years paying it off and then eight years and then oh i was like really getting traction on 10 years paying it off, and then eight years, and then, oh, I was, like, really getting traction, so I could do it in six. Yeah, it's like that. It's the same thing. Once you start to see that light at the end of the tunnel, you can turn. Yeah, the momentum just kicks in. It's so strange.

You run a half marathon, and you look up after running for two hours. You can see the finish line. For some reason, there's enough left in your tank to sprint. Yeah. Because you can see it, and you can still run in. I wouldn't know. I've never done a half marathon. I'll i'll take your advice i'm not bringing that up i'm not gonna i tried i trained for about two weeks and then i thought this is stupid running is stupid why would you do it so

anyways kelly uh kelly in the booth said that it's in the bible only the wicked flee when no one is pursuing amen sister that's what kelly says so freaking men no not running unless somebody's chasing me it's terrible oh my goodness open phones at 888-825-5225 andrea is in baltimore hi andrea how are you hi Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel. It's a pleasure talking to both of you. You guys are like a genius when it comes to this money stuff. Oh, bless your heart. How can we help today?

So I just have a quick question. I make about $40,000 a year, and I want to save money over 10 years. That way I'll be like 55 by then. So I can work part-time and then fully retire at 65. I currently have what you call a bridge account. And right now it only has like about 22,000 in there. I was just trying to figure out my cost of living is around to live comfortably would be around like $1,400. And I just wanted to try to figure out a way so I can work part-time and do something I really like

and just keep my job now because I have really good benefits with it. So how much money do you think I would need based on a $40,000 a year salary? How old are you? I am 45. I'll be 46 at the end of the year. Okay. Well, the answer to your question is 8% of the nest egg will support you. You have a big enough nest egg to hit your goal.

And so if in your bridge account you had a half million dollars, that would be $40,000. Okay. And that's the answer to your question, but I think there's a different answer. I'm not waiting 15 years to do something I love. Well, the thing with my current job, no other job offers this anymore, so I am vested in their private pension. So? Well, the thing with my current job, no other job offers this anymore. So I am vested in their private pension. So?

So I've been there for like, it'll be close to 14 years at the end of this year. Yeah, but it's not worth being miserable. You make $40,000 a year. Who says you can't get a job making $80,000 doing something you love? Because I don't have a college degree. You don't have to have a college degree to make $80,000. Yeah, that's true. That's true. People do it all the time.

I mean, I could do that, too. Hey, listen, here's what I need you to do. I'm going to send you a book from Ken Coleman called The Proximity Principle. Ken does a show here on doing a career that you love, and it's going to teach you how to get into a career you love instead of just hating every day for the next decade because you have a nice pension. Wah. I'm not doing that. Gross.

And then you're going to read everything King Coleman writes and all the downloads that he has. And you're going to change your whole life with it by changing your career using his stuff. Most people's money problems come from not paying attention. That's why before I spend a dime of my money on something, I do the research and make sure it's going to live up to what it claims. Recently, I got a great pair of sunglasses from a company called Shady Rays. When you're looking for sunglasses, it feels like your options are limited. Name brand sunglasses cost too much and the cheap knockoffs are ugly and really don't protect your eyes. Discovering Shady Rays is a game changer. With Shady Rays, you can count on premium sunglasses that protect your eyes and are

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Open phones at 888-825-5225. Bo is in Melbourne, Florida. Hi, Bo. How are you? Hey, Dave. Hey, Rachel. I am so happy to be speaking to both of you. You too. What's up? Hey, so, yeah, just some quick background. Life is pretty good overall, I'd say.

I'm debt-free, got an emergency fund. I'm, you know, three weeks into a new job, which I am learning a lot and I really wanted to do for a long time. How old are you? 28. I'll are you? 28. I'll be 29 in September. Good for you. Congratulations. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Yeah. So, but with all that, my parents bring up every so often, and it's not the first time that this has come up too, just the topic of, well, you're doing all these great things, but you've got to think about getting a credit card for whenever you want to buy a home and everything too. And, um, I'm just, it's not the first time it's come up and I'm just trying to look for some ideas or pointers on how

to, you know, respectfully, you know, have this, um, talk to them about this, if this ever comes up again, cause I've made it clear that I'm following your plan and that I don't want to go into debt or use one. And that, you know, the other thing they bring up too is, well, if you get a home without a credit score, you'll have an insane amount of interest or you may pay more interest than you may want to, so it might be good to have it anyway. So that's the main point that they're bringing up. Well, I'll start and just tell you that the information that they have is not accurate. That's just simply not true. Okay.

Tens of thousands of people get mortgages every year that have zero credit score. You have to go, and they do not get penalized with a higher interest rate. They get the exact same interest rate. And all you've got to do is go to Churchill Mortgage that we've endorsed here for 20 plus years on the air. And it's called manual underwriting. And they check to see that you have a job. And they check to see that you have a down payment. And they check to see that you don't have a bunch of delinquencies on your credit. But if you have a zero credit score and there's no activity on your credit at all, you can get a home mortgage without a higher interest rate, and you can get a home mortgage.

You know, you have to have been steady on the job, and you have to have a reasonable down payment, but it's like they're actually checking to see if you're breathing before they make the loan, in other words, and that's how it's done. And so I don't know where Mom and dad got their information, but they're wrong. And I think, Beau, when a lot of people talk about getting a house without a credit score, there's some people that don't even realize that you can.

Like some people are like, oh no, you have to have a credit score. Then there's those that have information that's not correct. And that floats around a lot in that world. So they've probably read some article or heard a friend talk about it or something. But I think you having facts on your side is, it's probably the best bet. And I mean, it's, you could, you know, you almost frame it like, I appreciate that you guys are concerned. Like, I appreciate that. But what you're concerned about is something that is unnecessary because

of X, Y, and Z. I'm going to, you know, when it's time to buy a home, I save up my down payments. And this is the, you know, this is the route that I've chosen to walk down. You know, if you wanted to, you could actually call Churchill Mortgage and just say, you know, I talked to a mortgage company and they told me they were able to do it. And it's one that works through the Dave Ramsey organization and they're, you know, they're endorsed by them. And so they've learned how to do it. A lot of mortgage companies don't know how to do a mortgage without a credit score. The mortgage business has been dumbed down to where a monkey can make a loan. If the monkey can identify the number on the credit score, you got the loan, right?

That's all it is. And so there's lots of problems with that for the mortgage business, but, you know, when I got my real estate license 1,000 years ago in 1978 at 18 years old, the only way you could get a mortgage was they actually did underwriting on the loan, meaning they did a VOD and you did fill out a form of verification of deposit on your down payment and a VOE, a verification of your employment. And they made sure you were breathing and made sure that, you know, you didn't have outstanding warrants for your arrest and other stuff. You know what I mean? Just, just basically looking to see if you wanted to make a loan to this person instead of just looking at one number and going, Ooh, you got the loan. Right. And so, uh, that, the, but the business has changed and it is largely done on credit scores now. So, um, a lot of people just don't know the information, and then the other thing that happens too here is this is a bit of a boundary conversation with your mom and dad.

This is not a conversation I would have with one of my grown kids, even if they were doing something I thought was completely wrong. I mean, they're still preaching to you with their parent voice is what you used a while ago. You don't get to do that anymore when your kids are grown. When you're 29 and you're paying your own bills, you have to treat them like an adult and stuff. And so if I had Winston and Rachel were doing something that was out of line, I would not

come in and go, you're out of line and use my dad voice. I would come in and go, i'm i'm don't understand this and i've got a question about this and i'm worried about this and what do you think about this and i would ask some questions that way instead of coming in going you need to get a credit card because you're you're like 12 years old and you're going to do what i tell you to do and so that's the that you don't use the dad voice on your grown kids it doesn't work unless your grown kids are wimps. And you're not a wimp.

You're a 28-year-old stud. So, you know, just be kind to your mom and dad. As Rachel said, be respectful, thankful for, you know, your interest and your concern. I talked to Churchill Mortgage, and it turns out I don't have to have a credit card. And I'm really convicted, Dad, about not falling into this debt trap that all of America's fallen into. And I'm convinced that becoming wealthy is easier if I don't have payments. And so I'm just not going to fall into the trap of chasing a false god called FICO. I'm not going to worship at the altar of the great FICO.

He is not my provider. Oh, FICO, thank you. We bring you offerings of interest so that you can give us good things like a home. I'm not worshiping at this altar. And, you know, you don't have to be smart. I like sarcastic like me. You can be kind and nice and respectful. Yep.

And to your parents, you know, their perspective is they may never have thought about this. Like there's people, you know, obviously millions and millions of Americans who don't know and they don't follow this stuff. So you can enlighten them as well. Yeah, but I mean, it's like I was talking to a friend of yours the other day here in the building. And she was telling me about, you know, five years ago when they first got married, the mother-in-law would come in and would be upset if they weren't coming to their house for Thanksgiving. And, you know, was like going to tell everybody what to do and this is a grown woman she's talking to and the daughter-in-law said

well no we're not going to be there on thanksgiving we're going to our parents on thanksgiving next year we're coming to your house we do every other and that's what we do and this woman demanded that they were at her house every thanksgiving and there was no alternative and you couldn't and it was not leaving room for the grown child to the daughter-in-law, to make their own decision. And she said, well, of course we're not doing that. And I thought that was an interesting thing. Of course I'm not getting a credit card. And it wasn't like I'm mad at you or something, but of course I wouldn't do that.

I thought that was a great answer. It was a different position to take with the parent or the parent-in-law in terms of the way the conversation goes and so forth. So cool stuff. Marie is with us in New Orleans. Hi, Marie. How are you? How you doing, Dave?

I'm doing good. Good. How can I help? I need help trying to narrow down a career before I go ahead and pay my money for an associate's in business. In business? Yeah. Well, you can learn a lot. You can do a lot with an associate's in business,

or you can do any kind of business, and there's, like, businesses everywhere. So that's a fairly broad career. You've got a lot of options you could do with that. It's not going to be a magic wand that makes you successful. You know that, right? Mm-hmm. Well, it's not like you pay your money, you get the degree, and automatically you're a successful

person you know that right yeah i just don't know what i want to do so i feel like i'll have a degree and don't know what to do with it afterwards yeah what do you want to do marie like what would be a what would be a dream a dream career for you, dream job? I like creating products. Creating what? Products. These products. Great.

I draw up sketches of things that I feel will help parents and myself. I have two young kids. So I draw up sketches all the time. And I'm like, man, if I could just make this a product, that would help so many people. Absolutely. Yeah, that's something you could expand. You could learn how to do stuff with an associate's. But as you study the associate's degree and you look at the classes you're going to be taking, make sure there's some stuff in there on prototype design and on product design.

Because you like creating physical products is what you're talking about, not digital, not paper. You want to create a real thing that people touch and is manufactured in a factory. That's very cool. I would do it, Marie. our scripture of the day first john 5 16 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Mary Barra says, It's okay to admit what you don't know. It's okay to ask for help. And it's more than okay to listen to the people you lead.

In fact, it's essential. Jerry is with us in Youngstown, Ohio. Hi, Jerry. Welcome to the Daveown, Ohio. Hi, Jerry. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, guys. Good to talk to you. You too, man. What's up?

I need some advice on how to get out of some stupid that I did. I was totally debt-free, house, everything, whole business. I'm 60 years old. I have my own company. Last November, my accountant advised me it would help my expenses if I purchased a vehicle for my company. So I did that, and now I have a $30,000 car that I'm driving around, and I still have to pay for it. Well, then COVID hit in March, and my $100,000 income is now probably going to be about $50,000 this year. So I did my emergency fund.

I still have about $14,000, $15,000 left, but it's dwindling quickly, obviously. I did just start going back to work actually this week, so that's going to help out. So what would be wrong with selling the car and firing your accountant? Yeah, really. Isn't that the truth? No, I mean sell the car and fire your accountant. Really? Yeah.

Well, I do have some money that I could pay for it with, I guess. How much money do you have? Well, I'm 60 years old, so I have a retirement of about $570,000. I have another three other little odds and end IRAs, about $50,000. You can cash them out without any penalty. You're going to pay taxes on it. Right. I guess that's where the question comes from.

Should I do that? Well, the question comes, I still don't understand whether you have a car you wanted or your accountant wanted it. Well, they advised that it would help with my business. It doesn't. It doesn't. They're stupid so that was dumber than dirt i mean you didn't make you didn't make thirty thousand dollars because of that dadgum car no okay that's just dumb okay it is i mean think about it the guy's just he's trying to save you money by tax listen anytime you take a tax deduction it's not a hundred percent savings on your taxes he's running around save you money by tax. Listen, anytime you take a tax deduction, it's not 100% savings on your taxes. He was trying to save you on your taxes.

Well, I can save you on your taxes, give $30,000 to a ministry, and guess what? You have a $30,000 write-off, and you don't have $30,000 in debt. So, I mean, but guess what? You don't get a $30,000 deduction on your taxes. You get your tax rate times $30,000 as your deduction. That's why you need to fire your accountant. He doesn't know how to do math. And so really, really, really dumb advice.

I did get a new accountant. Yeah, I did get a new accountant. Good. Okay. We got that part solved. So the only question is, do you want to keep the car? If you had $30,000 piled up in the middle of the table, would you go buy a car right now just like that one if you didn't own that one?

I'd have to have something. I mean, my market service. Would you go buy a car just like that one if you had $30,000 piled up in the middle of the table? Probably not just like this one. I probably wouldn't need this much of a car, no. That tells you exactly what you ought to do, Jerry. This whole thing was birthed in a bad idea, and paying it off doesn't make it a good idea. If you want to pay it off and keep it, I'm okay, dude.

You've got plenty of money. I'm just challenging the whole decision-making process for you. I'm just pushing back on you to shake you up a little bit and make you think. Make you think. You don't need to do it because your accountant said it or because Dave Ramsey said do it. Either one. Justin is in Memphis. Wait a minute, that didn't do that right. There he is. Justin's in Memphis. Hi, Justin. How can Rachel and I help? Hey, Dave and Rachel. Thanks for taking my call. Sure.

Appreciate it. So here's the situation. My father passed away April 20th from COVID complications. And, you know, my dad was a great provider for our family in life and in death. And so my question is, my mom, who's in good health, she's doing okay. She's got a good church community around her supporting her and the family. She lives in Louisiana. My dad's taking care of her even in his passing.

She's taken in, gosh, over $10,000 a month in retirement. She's got all debts paid. She's able to be outrageously generous. She has been for years and can really even more now. So she's in good shape. No debt, house paid off, cars paid off, everything. My question is, she's also getting a significant one-time gift, well, not a gift, a payment in relation to my dad's passing of $250,000. And so she's asking me, what should I do with this? And so because of her financial situation, I just wanted to call you. I've listened to you for years,

and I thought you would be able to help me kind of guide her what to do with that money, where to put it. Like I said, she's got not only taking care of her bills monthly, but also has other retirement accounts. So anyway, that's my question. So, Rachel, we always tell folks to wait a little bit, right? Yeah, during the grief process, you never want to make any major financial decisions. Exactly, exactly.

So what I would coach her to do is two things right now. One is just park the money in a CD, just in a bank CD. Just boring as crud. It's not going to make any money. It's not going to lose any money. It's just parking it where it's safe because your dad's passing is still very fresh. It's very hard to make real clear decisions after being married to somebody. Sharon, I've been married 38 years.

Something happens to Sharon. My brain is not going to be working good for a while. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. been married 38 years something happens to sharon my brain is not going to be working good for a while yeah absolutely okay absolutely and uh the little bit of time uh gets your gets the fog of grief off your brain and it can be like up to a year six months to a year so buy a six month cd and do nothing that's thing one the second thing is i think I'm hearing, and if I'm wrong, you can tell me. It's okay. That your dad handled everything, and your mom is a little bit intimidated because she's never handled the money. That's not necessarily the case.

She paid their bill. Honestly, she paid their bill. I guess what I was trying to illustrate is that he just. That's not necessarily the case. Okay. She handled, she paid their bill. Honestly, she paid their bill. Okay. So she can. I guess what I was trying to illustrate is that he just. He had done a great job with the setup of the estate. Okay. That's great.

That's better news. Because what I don't want her doing, I heard outrageously generous and she's completely set up and she's grieving. Sometimes people give all their money away and they look up and realize that, or they buy a bunch of things when they're grieving, and they look up and realize they made a mistake. So you think she's got good guardrails to keep her from running off the road? Dave, she's teaching me the things that you teach. Okay. I mean, you know, I, you know.

All right. That's good. Anyway, so. Perfect. Okay. So, well, the fact that she was asking you what to do with it was okay, too. So what I would do is park that money. She's 100% debt free.

She doesn't need the money. She doesn't need the pressure of making a decision right now. And I want her to begin to meet after six months with a SmartVestor Pro or two and select one that she has a comfort level with. And you probably know this, that we're going to tell her that she needs to get a SmartVestor Pro with the heart of a teacher. And what that means is she's going to know what to do with the money because she's going to learn. And then I'm going to invest it in good mutual funds and let it be yet another stream of income for her and be another chunk of inheritance for the family.

But I don't want to do that today. I don't want the pressure on her to be learning about investments 60 days after she lost her husband. Absolutely. And the money is coming on Tuesday, and it's coming in the form of a check. And I told her, I said, listen, you can hang on to that thing. You don't have to do anything with it for right now. You don't have to feel any pressure about it. That's your thing, Carmen, kind of what my thoughts are. Yeah, you're right on to that thing. You don't have to do anything with it for right now. You don't have to feel any pressure about it. That's your thing, Carmen, kind of what my thoughts are.

Yeah, so you're right on track then. That's perfect. Yeah, just park it in a CD for six months and cry. Stay in the guardrails with the money that is there and is coming in so you don't mess that part up. And then begin to learn when you feel healed enough from someone in the business. Don't do what they say. Don't do what I say. Don't do what I say.

Don't do what Rachel says. Learn and then make your own decision. And that's what our SmartVestor pros are required to do is to be teachers. Yep, absolutely. But it's a tough time. The grief stuff is really hard. So sorry for your loss, Justin. So sorry.

And for your mom as well. Thanks for calling in, brother. Rachel, good job today. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Justin. Yeah. I'm so sorry. And for your mom as well. Thanks for calling in, brother. Rachel, good job today. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Absolutely. James Childs is our producer. Kelly Daniels, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host.

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. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made The Dave Ramsey Show one of the top four most popular podcasts last year. To get your daily dose of motivation and inspiration from the Ramsey Network, subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.