The Ramsey Show - App - My Siblings Disagree About Our Late Mom's House (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

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Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm 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 a paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the bmw as the status symbol of choice i'm dave ramsey your host dr john deloney ramsey personality host of the dr john deloney show is my co-host today on his show he talks about anxiety mental health issues of all kinds boundaries relationship, relationship questions. So we certainly will weave those in between the retirement questions today, like they fit or something, but we will anyway.
Starting point is 00:01:12 And open phones at 888-825-5325. Hey, I'm pretty anxious about retirement, Dave. Yeah, we'll find out what anxiety is when it comes to retirement or something like that. But, hey, if you want to talk to John, this is your day to do it, or you can call his show at 844-693-3291 and have a chance to have your question featured on the show. Or you can email in at askjohn at ramseysolutions.com. To start off this hour, Lisa is with us. Lisa is in Saginaw, Michigan.
Starting point is 00:01:41 Hi, Lisa. How are you? Hi. Hi, how can we help? My mom passed away a little less than a month ago. Oh my, I'm sorry. Thank you. I have five siblings. One is diagnosed with paranoid schizophranics. And then I have two that are pushing to sell my mom's house right away. And two that want to hold on to it for a few months to let it sink in. And they don't want to rush at getting rid of stuff. And they're
Starting point is 00:02:21 both putting me in the middle. And I don't know what the right thing to do is. Is there a will? Yeah, but her will just states that when she passes, that the house will be sold and it gets split between us. Yeah, okay. But it us. Yeah. Okay. But it doesn't say, you know, like how long. Who is the executor of the will? My sister that wants to hold on to it till, for, you know, a couple months at least.
Starting point is 00:02:57 And then my brother that lives out of town wants to hold on to it for a couple months because he wants to come back in the summer. My one sister, she's saying she wants to sell it while it's hot market. My other brother wants to have us think about selling it to his stepdaughter, which I already know that answer is right off the bat. No way. I'm so sorry. His wife couldn't even come to the funeral, so I'm not letting it go to her family.
Starting point is 00:03:27 Yeah, I'm sorry. How old are you guys? What's the range on your siblings? Youngest, and I'm 51. And the oldest is... We're losing you. Lisa, are you there? Yeah. Okay, you cut out.
Starting point is 00:03:43 The oldest is what? Oldest is what? is what 64 okay 64 i'm gonna give you i'm gonna give you the answer and then john can fill in the cracks uh from the emotional standpoint as well the answer is it's not up to you you don't have any say in this, and neither do your other brothers and sisters. The will is very explicit and very clear. The executor of the will, they are called executors because the word means execute. They are to execute the will,
Starting point is 00:04:20 what the person's will was, what the person desired that passed away. Your mom's will named an executor and told them to sell the house. That is what will occur. And it's not up to you. And it's not up to your other brothers and sisters. They don't get a vote. This is not a democracy.
Starting point is 00:04:40 They don't get a say. And so the executor is being wise and saying, we're going to wait a couple months and let this kind of calm down, let folks have time to come in and pick up an item out of the home for nostalgia purposes, let people have a little bit of room to execute. The market's not going to cool off in two months. It's okay. That's kind of what my first impression was. but it's not up to you the other one
Starting point is 00:05:06 starts pushing and pushing the other one the other one's pushing because they're broke and they want the money yeah that's the only reason they're pushing but they don't have a vote so i think your job is to encourage your sibling who is executor, to do what the will says and do it with wisdom and grace and kindness. And that's all their job is. Nobody gets to decide anything except the executor. By the way, the executor doesn't even get to decide anything. Their job is not to decide.
Starting point is 00:05:40 Their job is to do what it says to do. It's to carry out. To execute, to carry out. To execute. To carry out. Does that make sense? Yes. And that takes a lot of pressure and a lot of emotion off of everybody once all of you understand you don't have a vote. That's right.
Starting point is 00:05:57 And there's a unique role somebody can step up and play. Dave's right. Will says, here's what's going to happen to that house, and here's who's going to happen to that house and here's who's going to make that decision so that's that's written somebody can step up and that might be you and say this has been determined and the person who will make this final decision is the executor all we can do is choose to support her or to tear this family apart. And I, for one, refuse to tear this family apart over a couple of months, over some nonsense.
Starting point is 00:06:32 And everybody grieves differently. I grieve by trying to go solve everything. Other people I care about grieve by just wanting to sit and absorb. Everybody does that differently. Dave's right. One of your brothers and sisters is going to be broke and need the money. The other one wants it for their family.
Starting point is 00:06:47 Everyone's got these ulterior motives, but at the end of the day, they're all grieving. And so if somebody steps up and says, enough. I've heard everybody's opinion. I'm done listening to you
Starting point is 00:06:58 talk bad about my older sister. I'm done listening to you talk about why your stepdaughter needs it. Done. I refuse to engage in this conversation. When she's ready to sell this house, we'll engage
Starting point is 00:07:09 in that conversation. And then you can call her and say, I've got your full support. I'm fully supportive of how you want to do this. You want to put the house on the market in two months? I'm in full support of that. And I'm done with the conversation. Period. And you can send a strong
Starting point is 00:07:25 message through your brothers and sisters that this type of backbiting and um hurting each other cutting each other we're done it's over y'all can do it amongst yourselves but you're not going to include me and i will not hear it with my older sister it's the the difference in you getting the money now are you getting the money in two months is not worth destroying relationship with everybody in the place. That's right. And that's the message for the sister or the sibling that's broke and wants their money. And if the stepdaughter wants to buy it and pay full market value and go get their own mortgage and just be a normal buyer, they're more than welcome.
Starting point is 00:08:00 But to the extent that they get a special deal, the answer is no. Yeah. I think he wants to give her a discount. Yeah, I'm sure. And that would be the paranoid schizophrenic's daughter, right? No, it's the other brother's daughter. Okay, I was just guessing. Okay, missed.
Starting point is 00:08:19 All right, but yeah, this is how families play together. But John's exactly right. Yeah, that's, you know, this is the stuff that how families play together. But John's exactly right. Just throw your hat in the ring in support and just call everybody to unity and love. This is what mom would want. Mom would not want y'all all fighting over two months. We hear you want to sell it now. We're not gonna, so stop.
Starting point is 00:08:59 Yeah. Imagine a world where people never have to worry about money ever again. At Ramsey Solutions, our mission is to teach people how to get out of debt and build lasting wealth. And if that means we have to take on the toxic money culture that says you need debt to get ahead, then we're okay with that. We've seen millions of lives changed, and front-end technologies. Or if you're a UX designer or an SEO and content marketing specialist, we'd love to talk with you. Together, we will disrupt the toxic money culture in America. Find out about all the available jobs by texting careers to 33789. Text careers to 33789 to find out about all our open opportunities. If you've ever made a dumb decision with zeros on the end because you didn't have the research done, well, that would make you like most of us.
Starting point is 00:10:20 Me too. Most people make choices based on feelings or opinions, especially when buying a house. But when it comes to this real estate market, this is not an amateur hour. Feelings are not your friends. Facts are your friends. Dr. John Deloney says that all the time. So find out what you can actually afford, not what you like. Research what's trending on home prices. Talk to a real high-octane real estate agent in your area to get the facts.
Starting point is 00:10:50 Get with one of our ELPs. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash agent. Get an agent who will help you make smart decisions because they have a proven track record of dealing with this market. ramseysolutions.com slash agent. Our question today comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. That means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, you mess up,
Starting point is 00:11:14 they'll make your window blinds over for free. You get free samples, free shipping with the new promos they run all the time. You save even more. The promo code is Ramsey. All right, today's question comes from Cassie in Wisconsin. My husband and I recently decided to move closer to family, but since making that
Starting point is 00:11:31 decision, my sense of security is crumbling. We lost two businesses when the pandemic started. We sold our house for a good price. However, the area we are moving to is more expensive. We are completely debt-free, but with the current economic landscape, I'm freaking out that we're putting
Starting point is 00:11:48 ourselves in a shaky position. How do we know that we haven't made a huge mistake? Hmm. Dave, how do you tell somebody to know if they haven't made a huge mistake? I kind of have a default answer to that, but before I just throw it out there.
Starting point is 00:12:07 I, um... You know, it's not permanent. You can undo anything you're doing. Like, if you go there and it doesn't work out, you can leave. How do you know you haven't made a huge mistake? So it's not a huge mistake. You might have made a mistake. Yeah, you might have screwed up.
Starting point is 00:12:23 You don't know. But is it life-threatening? No. No. Is it going to ruin the rest of your life financially? No. Not unless you stay there in the middle of the huge mistake. But if you get over there and it's a mistake, then you leave.
Starting point is 00:12:37 Yeah. But I can't tell what all is going on here. If you sold everything and you lost your business and you don't have any incomes and you're moving to an expensive area, that would be like a good thing for you to be freaking out because you don't have any income. You should be freaking out. But that's going to happen if you stay where you are. You don't have any income. So the lack of income that I think I'm reading here is, you know, you're debt-free, but you don't have income.
Starting point is 00:13:07 You still have to make money even when you're debt-free. And I read this more – I'm assuming that they've got – they figured out they've got to get jobs. I read this more as something that's happened to me several times, which is I know what the right decision to make is, and I make that decision, and I still wake up in six months, and you get that, do we do the right thing? And you just feel like you're on unstable ground, and so you've got to circle back to, again, the data, right, the facts.
Starting point is 00:13:37 Why'd you do this in the first place? Is it the right move? Yes, it is. You probably woke up, and you don't have any community anymore, and you've got to go make friends again, and you've got to go figure out all those things that are not fun to do, but that slowly help your feet settle into the sidewalk. Right.
Starting point is 00:13:53 Well, and you decide to move closer to family. And the great news is you're closer to family. The bad news is you're closer to family. That's right. But I might be sinking into the fairyland view of being near mom might not be quite now mom's nearer to you oh my god but i've left his jobs went somewhere new i knew all the reasons why i left that job and then dave whenever they finally replaced me at that old position i think oh i don't know why it just gets me a little bit
Starting point is 00:14:26 and uh the the world keeps turning without me there yeah you realize you realize you're it's not yeah we can exist with or old employees call and say hey they that cool thing idea you had they just changed it now they're doing something else it's three four years ago i still think oh man that was a good i i suddenly realized i had a little bit of my identity still attached back there. Right? Well, that would be human nature, though. That's right. And so I've got to acknowledge it, and then I've got to realize, well, I live here now.
Starting point is 00:14:50 And as you pointed out, how do you know it's not a mistake? You don't. So live into it and make the best of it. It's an adventure, baby. If you realize it's not great, move. It's an adventure, baby. This is how it works. Yeah, I think that's true.
Starting point is 00:15:02 And you're debt-free. You set yourself up for this kind of move right yeah there's a uh an old movie i think it was called parenthood with steve martin in it oh yeah there's a bunch of one-liners in that thing they're fabulous uh but at the end of the i mean he goes through all this turmoil with family stuff and it's just driving him crazy all this anxiety all this angst and jobs and loss and all this. I mean, I don't even remember what all it is. But it's like a constant.
Starting point is 00:15:28 The whole movie is a constant state of crap. And at the end of it, he's getting on a roller coaster and he's riding the roller coaster of life. Yep. Is the metaphor. And he's enjoying the ride. That's right. With the ups and the downs. And it's a beautiful scene at the end.
Starting point is 00:15:44 The beautiful metaphor for the whole thing. Because that parenthood yeah yeah it's going to be you know that is moving close to family that is changing cities it's an adventure so uh it's still let's say let's say you move um from uh what the city you're in and you move to the more expensive place and two years from now, you're miserable. Economically, it's not working out. Relationally, it's not working out. And if you want to call it a huge mistake, you can call it a huge mistake. If you just want to call it a mistake, we can call it a mistake.
Starting point is 00:16:17 So two years from now, what would you do? What could you do? Load up the truck and move back. Or go somewhere else. Or start a third possible city. That's the beauty of America. It is still, as many people don't agree with this, but it is still free. And you can just decide, I don't want to live in California anymore.
Starting point is 00:16:43 And a whole bunch of people did, and they left. Oh, man, they did. And I don't want to live in new york anymore and a whole bunch of people did and they left right and uh you know and i don't want to live near my mother and you leave right and i do want to live near my mother so you go right and you you know these are options you can just decide and the so the cool thing about a decision is if it's the wrong one, make another one. Yeah. And just because it's uncomfortable doesn't mean you made the wrong decision. Right?
Starting point is 00:17:12 And we see that with breakups. 100% of change is going to be uncomfortable. There you go. We see that with breakups, with moves, with new jobs. They're always uncomfortable. Right? And we often, we're so obsessed with our feelings that we feel less than what we imagine perfect is going to be. And we think, well, we screwed that up.
Starting point is 00:17:30 No, you didn't. You didn't. Right. It's going to be uncomfortable for a season until you get friends, until you get a community, until you get a church, until you all find your date spot, until you find the place where everybody knows your name, whatever those are. Or two years, you wake up and realize this isn't the right move for us yeah let's get out of here one of our operating board members wrote the wrote our ramsey newsletter last week and the whole opening thing was i hope this week has been uncomfortable for you yeah i hope this week you've had conflict that was healthy yeah i hope this week that you've been
Starting point is 00:17:58 pushed to be better i hope this week you've been undone and the uncomfortable conversation pushing someone else to be better i hope this week that you've gone outside your comfort zone and it scared the crap out of you. I hope this week, because otherwise you're not living. That's exactly right. Yeah, that's good. We are addicted to comfort in our society. Yeah. Addicted.
Starting point is 00:18:15 That's very, very good stuff. Very good stuff. So hang in there, Cassie. Hang in there. Yeah. Make the move. It's an adventure. Ride the roller coaster.
Starting point is 00:18:24 Do it. Have at it. And if it's bad, ride the roller coaster do it have at it and if it's bad just undo it yeah just go back you're debt-free for a reason i don't know if i should pay off my house i don't know i've got the money in my checking account i don't know if i should pay off my house pay it off pay it off if you hate being debt-free you can go get a mortgage people people don't do it but if you get in there and you, you can go get a mortgage. People don't do it, but if you get in there and you go, you know, this is the dumbest thing I ever did. I hate being debt-free.
Starting point is 00:18:51 I can't stand it. I really enjoyed having that mortgage payment. I want another one. The mortgage company will sign your butt right up. That's the beauty of America. You'll be right back in there in no time. If you pay off all your credit cards and cut them all up, and you don't like it,
Starting point is 00:19:06 they will give you another one. There'll be one in your mailbox Tuesday. Don't worry about it. You'll have another shot. Oh, my gosh. They'll give a dead person and a dog a credit card, so they'll definitely give you one. Oh, Lord. This is The Ram.C, guys. How are you? Hey, Caleb and Danielle are with us.
Starting point is 00:20:05 Hey, guys. How are you? Hey, Dave. We're doing good. Welcome. Where do you guys live? Indiana. Princeton, Indiana.
Starting point is 00:20:11 Princeton. Near Evansville? Evansville, yes. All right. Cool. Well, good to have you guys. Thank you. And all the way to Nashville to do a debt-free scream.
Starting point is 00:20:19 That's right. And how much did you pay off? $46,500. $857,000. Okay. All right. Very good. And how long did you pay off? $46,500. $857,000. Okay. All right. Very good. And how long did this take?
Starting point is 00:20:30 28 months. 28 months. And your range of income during that time? $60,000 to $80,000. Cool. Good for you guys. What kind of debt was the $47,000? It was more like normal stuff like credit cards, medical bills, car loans, student loans.
Starting point is 00:20:46 Student loans being the biggest chunk. So you were just normal. Yeah. A little bit of everything, just bopping along. How long have you all been married? Since 2016. Okay, so five years? Yes. All right.
Starting point is 00:20:56 And of that five years, two and a half of it almost was spent getting out of debt. So you were married a little while and you look up and go, this is no no so tell me the story how did you get connected to us what was your inspiration on this um well a little backstory we're coming from different families of how we manage money some of them just don't know how to do it right some of them are just organized and we just came together as like a clump when we got married we were like we don't want to live in debt i love it that's what most people do yeah we don't want to live in debt so we were like okay what can we do so we struggled along when we first got married we're like we're going to try and figure out how to pay it off we just got a credit card started using that for a little bit um come in 2018 we go to church and our church
Starting point is 00:21:38 was holding the financial peace uh university there it is so we're like hey let's just do this we'll try it and i'm being the free spirit. I'm like, I don't really want to be told where my money goes. And he's like, I got this. So I was like, okay, we'll just go through the class. We did it a little bit. Probably it was in November of 2018 and December of 2018. That's when we first started like, let's hit it hard. We're going to start with his student loans, pay this car off. We cash flowed three cars during that time. We had a baby during that time. Wow. So so it was just like let's get it done um covid happened so that kind of put a pause on it yeah but we were well everybody's spending it buying tvs and everything we put it
Starting point is 00:22:15 in what we call our own emergency fund and called it the covid fund so i wouldn't touch it because i didn't want to spend it on tvs or a new or whatever. And that's what we used as my student loans. So you've had a problem with TVs in the past? TVs, radios, anything. Just nodding his head. Yep. Always trying to get that bigger size TV now and then. Always wanted something bigger. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:22:37 That's awesome. So we just finally just got to the point where like, let's just get it done. I'm tired of being in debt. And I want to change my family tree. Way to go. So the class gave you the framework yeah and then you go through the struggles of the ups and downs and the covids and you push on through and knock it out yeah how's it feel now that you did it different feels like a weight's been lifted off that's for sure yeah it's nice not having student loan companies just hounding you for monthly payments each time
Starting point is 00:23:05 and realizing being on the monthly minimum payments that you're hardly getting anywhere because the interest is already catching up almost to the exact amount. We have extra money. We're like, what do we do with it now? Yeah. You feel like you got a raise. Yeah. You got control of your most powerful wealth building tool now, your income.
Starting point is 00:23:21 You guys are amazing. Way to go, rock stars. Thank you. How is your marriage different? It worked on a lot of the communication part of it. It was more like I'd sit there and try to hide money from them when we first got married and be like, oh, I bought
Starting point is 00:23:33 this and it's brand new. Where'd this come from? We just sat down with like, let's budget together. Let's talk together. We started talking more and communication more. We're able to talk a lot better and we don't have the fear of, oh, no, what did I buy, and what is he going to get mad at kind of thing. We're able to be like, okay, I can buy this.
Starting point is 00:23:51 Okay, I can't buy this. The Target bags under the bed. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. In the closet. Yeah. Hide in the trunk. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Yeah. That's powerful. Full disclosure, there's a Clinton list to that. There really is. There's a simplicity to having it all right there. Yeah. And you don't have any side deals going, anything else. It's really, really clean.
Starting point is 00:24:14 Good for you guys. Very good. So your financial peace university class cheer you on? Were they cheerleaders for you? They were. They were a big part of it. We went through it again just this like during covid just to try and get a refresher and be like okay let's keep going good and uh the t the
Starting point is 00:24:31 coordinator for it was really proud of us when we came to church and was like hey guess what we paid it all off oh that's awesome so yeah very good you guys very good so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now that you've done it? I would have to say that sitting down together and actually discussing everything in regards to where the money needs to go, actually writing it out and following it, you know, basically making your own roadmap and working together to figure out where the road bumps are that you got to start planning for on the side as well as keeping up with your regular utilities and mortgage and everything else and keep it visual so you can see where your goals are going so you can see what you're going to do so when you start paying off your debt you can have like a pie chart in a way and color that off okay we got there okay we got this and then just
Starting point is 00:25:18 keep going that's good so how do you encourage families with young kids when they're in the middle of this and a pandemic and homeschooling? It's crazy, but just start it. Once you start going, you'll get to the momentum where you see a change. You see it, and you just keep going. I've heard a rumor that if you don't buy your kids everything they want, they still manage to survive. Is that true? They're still standing. I get told I
Starting point is 00:25:45 get hated a lot every single day, but I'm like, it's not in the budget. Our four-year-old now, she used to sit there, I used to say, well, it's Dave Ramsey's fault. It's not in the budget. So she started saying, it's not in the budget. It's not in the budget. This is why this next generation doesn't like me.
Starting point is 00:26:02 I can't wait until she starts dating someday and looks at somebody and says, that's not in the budget. Exactly. See? You've wired it in at a young age. I love it. Yeah. Where'd you get that money? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:16 That's so perfect. Well, well done, you guys. We're very proud of you. Excellent, excellent job, heroes. Man, you took control of your life. You're debt free. 28 long months. And you brought the three kiddos with you. What are their names and ages?
Starting point is 00:26:35 Aiden is 10, Presley is 4, and Ryman is going to be 1 at the end of the month. Oh, wow. Okay, cool. We've got a copy of The Legacy Journey for you. That's the next chapter in your story to go complete the uh changing of your family tree and of course the uh he's pulling mom's hair that's great and uh of course the total money makeover for you to give away as well so caleb and danielle aiden presley and they got their hands full evansville indiana 47 000 paid off in 28 months, making 60 to 80. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.
Starting point is 00:27:08 Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! That's how it happens right there. Oh, that's seriously fun. Man, that's amazing. Very well done, you guys. Very well done.
Starting point is 00:27:29 I mean, you got three littles that size. It's chaos. It is. You don't know what day and what month, what year it is, and you're trying to homeschool everybody and still keeping that goal in mind and keeping enough, like that last shred of sanity to say, nope, not in the budget. We've got to keep doing it. We've got to keep going. We've got a bigger goal in mind. keep it enough like that last shred of sanity to say nope not in the budget
Starting point is 00:27:45 we gotta keep doing it we gotta keep going bigger goal of sanity it's the last boundary we cannot cross it's not in the budget wow so you remember uh a thousand years ago before there was much facebook there was a thing called myspace yes so the dave hater club goes all the way back to myspace there was a teenager group on myspace titled i hate dave ramsey and it was all the teenagers whose parents were doing our stuff and they were told no oh it goes all the way back those people are now 35 years old hey if you were a part of the i hate dave ramsey myspace group yeah and you're in your 30s please write in, Kelly. Let her know.
Starting point is 00:28:25 What happened? Let Kelly know. Yeah, we'll put you on. We'll do like a whole I used to hate Dave Ramsey. I used to hate Dave. Well, maybe you still do. And now I'm debt free. That'd be fantastic.
Starting point is 00:28:33 Maybe you were trained at an early age to hate Dave Ramsey, and it's stuck with you. Yeah. Maybe your parents used me like she did as an abusive tool. That's right. As a weapon. Dave Ramsey said it. It's not in the budget. It's Dave Ramsey's fault. That's what the budget. It's Dave Ramsey's fault.
Starting point is 00:28:45 That's what she said. It's Dave Ramsey's fault. That's right. Now, I'm going to go out there and those kids are going to hit me. They are going to hit me. At the break. Yes. That's what's going to happen.
Starting point is 00:28:51 Her son is eyeballing you right now. Yeah. He's like. Oh, that's fun. Well, there's a lot of things I get blamed for that I didn't do, but I did do that. You did do that. You did do that. And one day, when she recognizes what a changed family tree looks like, just how different her childhood was than her friends in school, she'll say, ah, that day wasn't so bad after all.
Starting point is 00:29:16 Yeah, my mother. My mother, she says, not the budget. I remember my mother. Her mother's the hero. Yes, that's right. That's it. Her dad's the hero. This is the Ramsey Show. our scripture of the day proverbs 11 24 and 25 one person gives freely yet gains even more
Starting point is 00:29:58 another withholds unduly but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Margaret Thatcher said no one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions. He had money as well. Poor people are generally not fed by poor people. Starving children are not fed by poor people. Generally speaking, that's how that works. Poor people. Starving children are not fed by poor people, generally speaking. That's how that works.
Starting point is 00:30:26 So the ability to live like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else is the highest calling of money. It's the highest calling of this subject matter we deal with around here. If you're a business owner or leader, listen up. Financial wellness benefits are the thing now in the wellness space. They're no longer really optional. The team here at Ramsey Solutions, we just did a survey, a piece of research, and found that half of all employers say their employees are stressed about money, but only 18% feel responsible for their employees' financial well-being. Well, no one's responsible for someone else's well-being that's an adult,
Starting point is 00:31:03 but you are responsible as a business leader to pour into your team money, stress. If it's following your employees to work every day, it's killing your bottom line. And it creates turnover, missed work, lost productivity, even possibly dangerous situations because someone's not concentrating in a manufacturing setting. You've got to fix this if you're leading out there. Get our team's report for free and learn how to make it right. Text wellness to 33789. That's wellness to 33789.
Starting point is 00:31:39 Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Huda is with us in Winchester, Virginia. Hi, Huda. How are you? Hi. Good evening. Thank you for taking my call. Sure.
Starting point is 00:31:52 What's up? I'm going to start a new job in August, and they are offering me a retirement plan. It's the hybrid retirement plan. This plan has two parts. The first part is the defined benefit plan, and the other one is the defined contribution plan. I don't understand how they work. It's my first time having a retirement plan. I'm going to work in the whole school system. Okay. All right. Well, the defined benefit plan, you don't have any choices in.
Starting point is 00:32:28 They're just going to do it. The other is optional and I would not do it. I would do Roth IRAs and good mutual funds before you invest in their retirement plan. And if I decided to choose there, what is the difference between the um uh between the roth
Starting point is 00:32:48 ira are um the roth and the other one you have control of what it is invested in and it grows completely tax-free when you put it into a roth ira you don't have any control in a defined benefit plan of any kind it is defined by someone else not you thus the phrase defined benefit plan of any kind. It is defined by someone else, not you. Thus the phrase, defined benefit plan. On the benefit side, it is a benefit, meaning they're giving it to you. So obviously we take money that's free, regardless of if it's poorly invested or not. But not free money, money that you have to put in, a defined contribution, that means you contribute. No, thank you. I'm not going to put money in something I don't have any control over and is stuck there when I leave. So not really a good plan.
Starting point is 00:33:32 I avoid those. They're not the end of the world, but it's not where I would put my money if I woke up in your shoes. Pretty simple. Megan is in San Antonio. Hi, Megan. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?
Starting point is 00:33:48 So I'm 44 years old, and I've already saved a pretty good nest egg. I had a goal of saving a million dollars in my retirement by the time I was 40, and I finally hit that at 44. Way to go! A 44-year-old
Starting point is 00:34:03 millionaires. Very nice. My question is, I do still have a car loan and a home mortgage, and I'm starting to think about potentially investing in rental property. And I'm wondering, do I need to pay off my car and my house before I start saving? Yes. Okay. And then after that, save to purchase a rental property with cash.
Starting point is 00:34:32 Exactly. That's what I did. Okay. Several hundred million dollars ago. That's what I did. Very nice. I got out of that after I went bankrupt, started over, never borrowed again, got our house paid off, used all of my income to pile up and buy another rental property,
Starting point is 00:34:48 then pile up and buy another rental property, then pile up and buy another rental property. And every time you have a paid-for rental property, you know what they make next year? A lot of money because there's no payments on them. And every time you have another one, you can buy another one even faster. It snowballs in your favor this time. So you are apparently making bank. What do you make? Well, I make $130, but I am one of those people that I feel satisfaction from seeing money in the bank.
Starting point is 00:35:14 So I started saving early on, and I'm still putting about 20% of my pay into my retirement. I guess that was my next question. I would temporarily stop that now that you're a millionaire. You can't really use that money at your age. I'd temporarily stop that and clean this car and this house up. Do you have any emergency money that set us out at all? I've got my savings of around $4,000. $4,000 is your entire non-retirement savings?
Starting point is 00:35:45 Yeah. You had a singularretirement savings. Yeah. You had a singular focus, girlfriend. Wow. Wow. You had a goal, and you were a pedal to the metal on that goal. I'm so proud of you, though. Yes. It won't take long to clean up the other.
Starting point is 00:35:58 You got $130,000 income. I would temporarily stop, because can you sense for just a second if i just speak it it hasn't happened yet but can you kind of breathe in what it's going to feel like to have no car payment and then take another breath what i feel like to have no house payment to go with your million dollars right that'd be amazing yeah because it sets you up then to go go to the next level on the wealth building. Because here's the thing. Oh, man, the numbers are astronomical.
Starting point is 00:36:30 Here's the deal. Your retirement, I assume, is invested in good mutual funds. Yes. Okay. If you don't add to it at all, it will double roughly every seven years. Okay? Really? So you're 44. Did you hear that voice yeah really so you're 44 at 51 it's 2 at 58 it's 4 at 65 it's 8 if you add nothing to it oh okay okay so that's why i'm okay
Starting point is 00:37:01 with you temporarily stopping for a moment here and knocking the house out. Okay? So we know that that's going to happen. In addition to that, we also know you're going to do some additional savings because we can't stop you from doing it. It's how you're wired. That's a wonderful thing, by the way. So if you do additional saving and investing, including buying rental properties with cash and so on, I would project that fairly conservatively,
Starting point is 00:37:25 if my $8 million was accurate on just the doubling, right, that fairly conservatively you're going to have $20 million when you get to $65 million. Oh, golly. See, this is what happens when you hit this stage. But now one component of that is you can invest even more. You know, I throw money, like when my house is paid off, I throw money in an index fund just to pile it up to pay cash for a rental property, okay? Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:37:53 So you save it in an index fund. Yeah, I just throw it into a mutual fund until I have enough to buy a house or buy a property that creates income. Okay. Okay, and then you go buy another one, then you go buy another one, then you go buy another one. And, of course, every time, as I said, every time you do that, you've got that money freed up.
Starting point is 00:38:05 So you could sit there and put 20% into retirement and put your house payment plus $2,000 a month extra into this index fund to buy rental property with pretty quick. And see, now we've added a whole other dimension to the $8 million because we're back to saving 20%. And that's what got you to a million to start with so you've done you've set yourself up if you play this through to go to the next level the first level of wealth is one to five million dollar net worth you've blown that out of the water because of your age you're you're gonna i mean you can really screw this up you're gonna beat that up okay but if you don't screw it up you're going to go that next level which is deca millionaire 10 million or more and you really if you'll focus just a little bit you're going to be at 20 million and megan will you do me a favor will you have some fun yeah i well it's hard like i have been trying to travel more. Good, good. I do, yeah. Money is for generosity.
Starting point is 00:39:06 Enjoy your life. For fun and for investing so that you can do more generosity and more fun. Yes, enjoy your life, too. That's all it's for. That's the only three things you can do with it. Wow. John Delaney. That's incredible, man.
Starting point is 00:39:17 What a neat lady. Very powerful. Way to end the day. Love it. Way to end this hour. James Childs is our producer. Kelly Daniels, our associate producer. I'm Dave Ramsey.
Starting point is 00:39:24 We'll be back before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to end this hour. James Childs is our producer. Kelly Daniels, our associate producer. I'm Dave Ramsey. We'll be back 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. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast.
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