The Ramsey Show - App - Never, Never Quit! (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

Dave Ramsey, George Kamel, & Rachel Cruze celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the show and discuss: Downsizing a home, Setting up finances with a spouse in assisted living.   Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6   Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pod's moving and storage studio, it's the 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. We help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, host of the podcast, The Fine Print, and, of course, Entree Leadership. And are we announcing yet your new endeavor? I think we are now, Dave. Okay. I mean, you're already letting the cat out of the bag. Well, that cat, he was scrambling in the bag anyway. But on Thursday, George and Rachel will launch a new podcast called The Smart Money Happy Hour.

Yes, we are so excited about this. It's more about smart money and less about drinking, but both are involved. We wanted it to at least feel inviting. In a happy hour, there's a level of calm casualness. We're not here to yell at you. We wanted this to be kind of your friends hanging out talking about money, or at least the friends you wish you had.

Or not. You can't apply to be Rachel's friend. She has enough. Does she? Yes. But we can apply to be your friend? You know, I could use some friends, Dave. I don't have as many as you'd think. George, I'm shocked. Does she? Yes. But we can apply to be your friend? You know, I could use some friends, Dave. Can you?

I don't have as many as you'd think. George, I'm shocked. But it's fun. We're just, you know, we're two money experts who happen to be friends talking about this stuff. You wish your friends were talking about it. Money, pop culture, entertainment. And that's what this is. We want people, you can send this to a friend and go, hey, you don't have to care about the Ramsey show.

We just want to talk about things that matter to you. And one of those things is money. One of the reasons we're launching that this week on the Ramsey Network is we're celebrating 30 years of the Ramsey show this week. Yeah, crazy. Can you believe it? And we're doing a whole bunch of fun stuff, including today's show. We'll have all the different Ramsey personalities on. George called it speed dating a little bit earlier, so for a couple segments each, each one of them will be with me today. Who's going to get the rose? Find out later.

Well, George, it's obviously you. So there you go. You're my favorite co-host that's on right now. Man, that $20 went a long way, guys. That's all it takes. But we had a good time this morning celebrating with our whole team. I mean, balloons, videos, telling stories. Did you ever think back then you were like,

one day I'll be celebrating a 30th anniversary of this show? No, I have thought ever since we've been on the air, we were going to get fired at any moment. And actually, we have been fired a bunch of times. The good news is that we work for ourselves. So when we get fired, it's just some local radio station. We had a guy in Alabama call me up one time and he goes, Ramsey, I've got to take you off the air.

And I'm like, why, man? What do I do now? I mean, we're always arguing with radio stations back and forth. We've got almost 700 of them, so there's someone I'm going to argue with all the time about something. And he said, you're going to kill somebody. And I said, I'm going to kill somebody? I'm like, how can I kill somebody? I'm telling people to get out of debt.

Are they going to die from getting out of debt? And he goes, no, your show's so boring, people listening to it are going to fall asleep while they're driving and run off the road and die. Oh, my goodness. That's amazing. He was serious as a heart attack. It was really pretty funny. But I started laughing. I said, well, I got it.

I don't even have a comeback for that dude, so just cancel it. It's all good. Of course, he's not in the radio business anymore. You're a lot of things, Dave, but i wouldn't say boring is one of them well yeah i mean it just it depends on where you're coming from you know so but yeah it's uh it's uh we have we told the team this morning we have failed a lot in 30 years we just didn't quit it's really the only difference uh we fail all the time i mean we the number of radio stations I have been on, we're currently on 680, I guess it is,

number two talk radio show in America today. Marconi winner, multiple radio hall of fame, all this other stuff, all these accolades nowadays. But, boy, we have been on, I think in some cities, we've been on everybody that carried talk one time or another. I mean, we've been all the way around the horn, like being in a small town and dating all the girls. I mean, it's just like it's crazy.

But we've been, and sometimes we've moved from the least one all the way up to the best one, and sometimes we've moved from the best one down to the least one in terms of signal size or whatever. But now it's moved so far beyond radio. I mean, there's 17 other places you can watch and listen and amazon i mean youtube and podcasts together are now bigger than talk radio on and our on our show anyway i mean there's about 12 or 14 million of them and there's a little under 10 million on the radio show so it's somewhere around 20 something

million total and uh used to be more used to be more than half was talk radio but talk radio is not uh in front and center with everybody like it used to be more than half was talk radio but talk radio is not uh in front and center with everybody like it used to be it's still very strong though still very viable but that's of course where this whole thing started so yeah and it's gone through a lot of iterations from it was originally called the money game um and uh then we changed it when it was just me after that the guys that started it with me. One has passed away, and the other one went on to do other things, and I kept going. And then we changed it to the Dave Ramsey Show, and it was that until about two years ago. Wow.

A year and a half ago now, I guess, we changed it to the Ramsey Show in honor of all these Ramsey personalities being my co-hosts. But, I mean, we have, God, George, I've screwed up more. The only thing I didn't screw up was I just kept coming to work every day. Showed up. Just showed up and cared and still love people. We all still love people here. It's kind of a core at the Ramsey soul here. We're here to help you guys.

We really, really are. It sounds like a cheese factory, but it's the truth. Because the only thing that keeps you going in the middle of all the corporate BS that you put put up with in a in an industry like the radio business radio business has got a lot of wonderful people it can be brutal it's got a lot of wonderful people but it's got a lot of sharks too and sharks and snakes and they swim together and um and you know they're just corporate and they they live on fear and they're worried about next week and they don't think long term often and then they end up doing stupid but mean illegal things and we've been doing all of that for 30 years it's been a you know there's a

lot of scars a lot of calluses a lot of process that goes with this but the great news is you know when i roll up at um stop to get a thing at the market this weekend down in the country here in southern middle Tennessee guy says hey you're Dave Ramsey man your stuff changed my life when were you listening 10 years ago you know I mean so I mean that's you know that that's why that's why that's why you put up with the sharks and the snakes to get to help that guy yeah you were talking about Churchill's story Winston Churchill and our core value of never give up and it reminded me of the Winston quote success is going from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

Yeah. And that's what you've done. That is what we've done. We were never the prettiest kid on the block. We were never the smartest kid on the block. We were never one of the cool kids. Never have been in anything we've done. In talk radio, either.

That was true. In TV, it's been true. In YouTube, we're not a cool youtuber you know uh there's many people you know we're not cool enough to be on tiktok thank god and um so you know all of that and yet uh we just kept coming to work every day and just kept showing up and just kept answering the call and somebody would call in and say you know i'm in debt i'm scared i don't know what to do. Or, you know, I just got an inheritance of $400,000. I don't know what to do. You know, whatever it is, there's all these life things and I don't know what to do. And we've

been here for 30 years answering these questions. Well, FPU, you know, we've affected 10 million families through FPU. With radio, it's hard to tell the impact and the ripple effect something like this has. Yeah, I mean, to date, we've got $50 million this year in January through September in debt-free screens. Wow. So, I mean, it's easy to say on the air, we've had a billion dollars of debt-free screens on the air. Wow. That's just the ones that came on the air. We obviously don't have everybody on the air, and a lot of people don't want to be on the air, so that's pretty crazy. A billion dollars of pissing off banks for 30 years. That never gets old. It doesn't get old. Well, I'm going to call this your 30th birthday, Dave, just to make you

feel good. Yeah, I mean, we could call it the 32nd anniversary of my 30th birthday. There we go. That'll work too. This is The Ramsey personality is my co-host today We are celebrating 30 years on the air this week with the Ramsey Show. And one of the things we did, and George, this was a lot of fun. All of us sat down, all of the Ramsey personalities, and did a 30th anniversary panel. And the video that we did of that is going to drop once a day. We're dropping several sections of it all throughout this week. So today you can get the first episode on YouTube.

I was just watching it. Tomorrow the next episode. And it's all behind-the-scenes stuff and laughing and us being family and cutting up and talking about the 30 years and the things that have gone on and three decades of amazing different people and the calls, our favorite calls, or saddest calls or funniest calls all that kind of stuff and so again be sure and check it out the Ramsey show on YouTube the 30th anniversary panel drops a video episode every day this week a new one so you'll be

able to check it out all week long and be able to get pieces of that and allow you to just plug into that series if you want to talk about your life and your money this is the place the phone number is 888-825-5225 chelsea's with us in dallas texas hi chelsea how are you hi dave i'm good how are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hi. So I was basically wondering, so just as a question is, should we downsize our home? What makes you think you should? So, okay, so we were active duty, and then we moved to like a reserve-type job with the military. So basically kind of lifestyle change. We bought a home. It was about're about 300 on it but we found out that it kind of um it's kind of eating all of our money or a lot of it it's eating a lot of our money um so so you went you left the military and as a

result took a pay cut i know no we just chose to get out of active duty and just go into like the river. So if you didn't take a pay cut, why is it a strain now and it wasn't before? I think we are just trying to be smarter with our money. Oh, so it was a strain before. The numbers really haven't changed, just your perspective. Yes, yes.

Okay. So what's the payment on this thing? So the payment on this thing so the payment um right now so we owe about 300 monthly payment is about how much is it it's like we're paying about 25 a month 2500 a month and what's your take-home pay uh about he makes about 120 so your take-home pay is about 8 000 i'm sorry 120 000 i know your take-home pay monthly is about 8 000 oh i'm sorry about 9 to 10 9 to 10 okay that puts your house payment at about 25 of your take-home pay so where's the rest of that money we recommend why is it tight you got big car payments? It's not super tight. I think we're just really nervous about inflation.

We have no other debt, but I really just want to pay off my house early. I think that's what it is. I'm a little bit nervous for inflation. We have two kids, and I think we could just be smarter. I think our house is like 2,700 square feet. I don't really feel like we need it. I think we're just, like, be smarter. I think our house is, like, 2,700 square feet. I don't really feel like we need it. I think we're kind of living in excess. We feel very blessed.

You're not living in excess. No, we're not. Two kids in 2,700 square feet in Dallas, Texas is not excess. And making $120,000 a year with a $2,500 house payment is not out of line. Do you need to turn off the news channel? No. Is it bad feedback? No.

I'm asking if it's giving your brain bad feedback. It sounds like someone has injected anxiety into your veins, and I'm going to accuse Fox or CNN. I don't watch the news, really. I don't. So where's all this worry coming from suddenly that wasn't there before? Because you said it was a fear of inflation, not the actual effects. Yeah, not really.

So I think we just felt a lot more secure under the active duty lifestyle. And it's kind of like, oh're like sending for not really sending for yourself but it's like you have to be smarter like we didn't have a budget before yeah and we you know we have kids either and now your husband's around more uh yes which i'm very thankful for seeing a connection here i don't know i'm thinking that's the problem do you guys have an emergency fund we do yeah okay so here's what i want you to do okay um the uh john dr john deloney says when we're looking at stuff like that and we have that sense of anxiety coming up we feel feel our shoulders tightening up. We feel our throat tightening up. You get a sense in your body that the worry has become too much, that we need to take up several series of deep breaths,

and we need to look at the actual facts, not the emotions. What are the actual facts of your situation? And that's what George and I i are easy it's easy for us to do because we don't live in your world we're just two guys sitting over here you know outside the trees and so it's easy for us to go that's a tree and so um you know forest and the trees thing right so you know if you get back from that there's not anything you've given us in facts that worry us and we're the first one to tell you sell something if you've been a goob and overspending we're i mean we'll tell you sell the car so fast

around here it's unbelievable right nothing about these numbers screams fire but what i do think is we may not be paying attention to what's actually happening with our money and that's where a budget can give you that sense of peace where you have it on paper and you go well this is what we're going to do we're going to follow the budget then you're not worried about what could come your way because you've got a plan for every single one of those dollars and you got plenty of the dollars you know she's but she said they started doing a budget and it kind of added to the worry because they're now seeing where it's going but what you do when you're doing the budget is you are seeing the effects of inflation right there in front of you every month you're seeing oh my dad gum gas bill doubled you know oh look at that the food bill went up oh would you look at that electricity went up 15 because it turns out fossil fuels create electricity for your emission

free car dumb butt and so um that's how that really works so you know i mean it's like it's not emission free i just want to get a little marker and write on the side as green as we thought your little car that says emission free i'm going to write on it no it's not too first but um anyway yeah so because the electricity has to get in there somehow you don't get a bucket of it every week so um anyway all that stuff shows up and uh is real and i think if you'll just look at the numbers set in the numbers with your husband the two of you always talking through it and say okay what are the facts what are my worries now what of those match up with the facts and facts are your friends to work through trauma or crisis or worry or whatever it is and um you know i mean all of us

that are ramsey personalities are dramatic people that's why we're on the air And so we have a tendency to enter into drama land if we're not careful. Yeah. And part of this, you said the mortgage is what's making me feel this way. And Deloney talks about this. He's going, I want to get rid of this mortgage. I don't feel safe because I owe someone something. Now, this is a very reasonable payment, but she's looking for the margin to pay this thing off early. She wants to get aggressive about this.

And that means making some sacrifices in the budget. We might need to cut some subscriptions or a gym membership and things that we didn't really realize are eating away at that margin. Yeah. So everything you told us, Chelsea, sounds like you're in really reasonable shape. Yes, I'm with you. I'd like for you to get the house paid off, but I don't hear anything here that calls you to sell your house. As a matter of fact, I would tell you not to sell it right now not based on the numbers you gave me um but i would look in the budget and see what else there is to cut that's um easier to cut than houses houses is the most expensive thing you get rid of you got to move and that's expensive it's distracting it's like a root canal it's awful

hassle and you've been in the military your stuff know, I grew up in the real estate business. Mom and Dad in the real estate business. Our furniture was trained to jump on the truck. You know, and you're the same way in the military. Everything's on wheels. You're used to moving more than most people. But still, I'm going to tell you, this is a good time for you to just sit in this moment in Dallas, Texas, and enjoy the moment because you're in a pretty good place.

And let's do work hard and let's be diligent and frugal with the money that's in the budget. Dallas, Texas, and enjoy the moment because you're in a pretty good place. And let's do work hard and let's be diligent and frugal with the money that's in the budget so we can pay extra on that mortgage and we can put our 15% away, put the money towards retirement, put the money away towards the kids' college and all of that. So special version of the Ramsey Show today celebrating 30 years. George Camelon for these two segments to celebrate that. And we will change out his seat

coming out of the next break. So we'll do that. George, thanks for joining me on the opening segment for this. I'll be back. You know it. Absolutely. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, joins me on the Ramsey Show today

as we celebrate 30 years on the air in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. James and Rachel are with us. Hey, guys, what's up? Oh. Hi. Where do y'all live? Temple, Texas. All right.

Welcome to Nashville. Good to have you here. So how much debt have you paid off? We paid off $148,000 in five years. Way to go. And your range of income during that time? From 60 to 140, back down to 100. Cool.

What do you all do for a living? I am currently a manager of a coffee shop, and he gets to stay home with our kids. Yeah. All right. I also freelance. I do personal training and uh i officiate sports on the side so it's great very cool we switch roles throughout this process yeah that'll work good for you guys and the debt 148 000 what was that so we had student loans

car payments best buy home dep, Target, the liquor store. No, I'm just kidding. And then we paid off our house in May. Whoa! Before we finished it up. Yes, sir. House and everything. Yes, absolutely.

Looking at weird people. Congratulations. Way to go, you guys. So you went from normal to weird. Absolutely. Dramatically. Yes. Well done.

Over five years. That's a bit of a trek. It was. It was. It was. So tell us the story. How did you get started on this Ramsey way? So we have a two-part to this story. I was just a knight, and Rachel went to the church for a ladies' night.

What were you doing? I can't remember. It's a ladies' company. I just had a vulnerable moment. I started reading a book, and my wife wanted me to read more, so I thought I was going to be intimate and just start reading. And I actually was reading a Shawn Michaels book and he was talking about retirement and then going back to church and then his realization about tithing and how, man, you know, that's where do you get that money from when

you're not tithing? And that was where our vulnerable part was, was we used to be pastors. And then we got to the part with our four boys where money just went everywhere except where it was supposed to go. And as she came home, I was in tears and shambles. And she just said, what's, what's going on? What happened? And I just said, we're not doing the right thing. We're not tithing. And she, ironically that night, she said, well, I have a solution. There's a Dave Ramsey thing at the church. And we said, we said what it is and she said it's to get you out of debt and i said well how much is it she said it's 100 bucks and i said it's a scam it's automatically it's automatically it's like we don't even have 100 bucks and then you can't borrow it you know you got to pay 100 bucks but i said i'll tell you what i'm a rule follower so i will do this and I'm going to show you this is a scam.

I'm going to follow it to the T. And she didn't know that was about to happen. And it went crazy after that. So not a scam. So how far in did you get before you figured out it wasn't a scam? Because that's exactly, by the way, what I would have said. Right. I would have said this guy's a snake oil salesman.

The very first we went, we signed up for the course, and it was that very first day. And I said, I'm in. Because it was just a lot of the things that you said, it made sense. And it resonated in my heart. And I thought, man, I needed somebody to take over what I wasn't doing right. So once you start hearing the teaching, then you start realizing, okay, this is lined up with Scripture. It's okay. Oh, absolutely, yes.

Everything was there. So the tithe kind of dropped in your lap that night. And that's kind of what got your wheels turning. Rachel, how were you feeling when it came to like just the money situation overall before you guys started this process? Were you at a point that you were stressed or were you worried about money? Like, was this a point that when he said, we got to figure this topic out that you felt relief or was it the first time you thought, oh, gosh, maybe we should.

Kind of where were you in that story? I think the tithe was the biggest part for me because I had grown up in the church and I grew up that that was a part of the understanding of being a good steward of your money is also tithing to the church. But when we stepped away from being pastors, we stepped away from a few things that just were traditional for me. And when he decided that we needed to be tithing again, it was a huge weight lifted off for me. It just felt like I was stepping back into something that I knew was right for us. And as far as our finances go,

as long as you gave me a grocery budget, I'm fine. I just want to be able to buy food for the kids. From there, I just let him take control and we did it together and it was so much relief. Yeah. And I want to say about Rachel that she shared with me, man, this has just been a huge weight. And I thought, why did you never say anything before? I didn't know this bothered you. And she said, because it's God's point to tell you it's not mine and if i would have told you you wouldn't have listened and you needed to hear it from god and i don't know how long she'd been holding on to that but it hurt to hear that but it made me feel good yeah absolutely so yeah and because when she did bring home a class it was a scam i'm a six on the enneagram

so i have a hard time with trust and so i'm a four, so I'm like, it's fine. It's all a scam. People are trying to hurt you. I completely get it. People often say that, and they say, I hope I don't offend you. It doesn't offend me, because that's exactly what I would have said. This guy, he wants $100 to show me how to handle his money. That's great.

I don't think so. And we had a second part to that. So once that first $38,000, we did it in eight months and we were we were going great and then life happens four boys braces for everyone cars more light bulbs back in the house and and and it took a while well three years ago um I had two heart attacks oh oh wow in a week and unfortunately at the same time don't cry cry, but I was in the hospital and we lost her dad in that same week. Oh, my gosh. And I just realized, like, this was it.

And I remember hearing a lot of your stories through your program and just, what do you leave behind? Yeah, you can leave all these things, but it scared me. So we buckled down and we took six months to go back into getting into that gazelle. And we paid off a hundred thousand dollars in the last 24 months yeah knock the house out oh yes what's the house worth three we bought it for 120 10 years ago it's worth just over 300 000 now phenomenal how much you guys got in retirement savings uh right now retirement we have 52 000 right great you're approaching a half million and then yes i don't know we're excited about that you're on your way good stuff Right now, retirement, we have $52,000. Right, right. You're approaching a half million there. Well done. Yes, I know.

We're excited about that. You're on your way. Good stuff. Congratulations. All right. Now that you've done it all, what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? House and everything. By what age?

41. I turn 40 in a couple of days. All right. Happy birthday. Yes. We were talking about this on the way here on the drive, and I said, I do think that the key is really just putting blinders on. It's so easy to look at what other people are doing, especially at the age we are. It's so easy to see that other people have, that other people want, that other people buy. And it's very important to put your blinders on, make a commitment to your family and just move forward with that. And then in addition to that, James added. Well, of course, all the budget and things.

But to me, the most important thing is that I realized through your program, this is not my money. And I go back every time you say, how long would it take for you to fire yourself if you were managing your family? And I was not taking care of my family and I should have been fired and so when you realize that it's not yours even the money the after the tithe and after the 15 all the money that you still have is not for you and I believe in the ministry of availability and if you don't take care of your stuff you'll never take care of anybody yeah so I'm not going to borrow from a credit card to go help somebody pay for groceries that's not responsible and so yeah way to go you guys we're excited beautifully done well done thanks all right bring the kiddos

up and give us their names and ages you want to introduce them yes so our oldest hold on we have to tell you real quick while they're coming up so what they have is rings we got them included i wanted to tell this in case people have kids we did our own little thing with their ages that we didn't know that they understood the concept of paying off debt so we made rings and we had it drooped all over the house if you see on the pictures the chain they cut down rings each ring represented a certain amount of money and also as a two-fold during the house payoff any money that they invested they paid the house off they helped and every bit of money until the house was paid off we returned 50 of their money back to them so when the house was paid off they they cashed in tremendously

we had one that was really dialed in i think we went broke that first month there was no celebration running out of time right quick what are their names this is reese this is kian this is liam this is link way to go guys hey we got a copy of uh baby steps millionaires total money makeover and a one-year membership to financial peace you can enjoy those give them away congratulations we're very proud of y'all very very well done all right james and rachel and the guys from temple texas 148 000 paid off in five years making 60 to 140000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

You guys ready? Ready. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Those chains are broken. I like it. This is The Ramsey personality, is my co-host for a couple segments here.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. So we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Ramsey Show. So, Rachel, you would have been how old when we go on there in 1992? Four years old? Yes, four years old. Yep. I forget my age. Daniel was born that year okay there you go I turned 34 this year but I had told everyone I was 32 I thought I was 32

so when I turned 34 I thought I was turning 33 and I wasn't I missed a whole I literally missed a whole year just gave it up so when you ask yeah I have to really think about it so do you at four years old do you have any memories? What are your earliest memories of this show? I remember having to pick you up down at Opryland, which felt like a very far drive from our house. And there was a little white building before you got into Opryland, and we had to pick you up there at 4 p.m. if we were going to grandparents' houses or something on the way out so I vaguely remember that yeah you would have

been six by then yes the first two years we were in downtown Nashville so I don't remember that yes and then when you guys moved offices to and you had your and Blake was there but the first in studio uh yeah in the office. And you weren't allowed to talk down that hallway. So whenever we worked in the summers, you couldn't talk because it wasn't soundproof. Yeah, we took an old closet in the office and turned it into a studio. It was connected to another closet, busted a hole through, and put the control stuff in there.

But none of it was soundproof. So people would walk down the hall of the office and be talking. It would go over the air. And so we put up crime scene tape that was yellow and put signs up no talking in this end so rachel's exactly right there's no talking allowed from one to four in the afternoon in that end of the office because our first studio that we built so we didn't have to drive across down yes to opryland at the uh wtn studios to do the um do the thing um at least we didn't have to drive but yeah it was pretty it was pretty cheap and pretty thrown together.

But that was our first studio. We paid cash for it. Paid cash for it. Yeah, you did. Everything as we've gone along. There we go. Chris is with us. Chris is in Winston-Salem.

Hi, Chris. How can we help? Hi. How are you? Great. What's up? So my husband and I have been married for 45 years uh we really um and uh did the larry burkett principles when we first got married and then we followed you so we're in

good shape financially but this is our concern my husband uh you know the best laid plans uh my husband is has a chronic disease and so he's had to move to an assisted living facility and we were doing okay when he was in assisted living but now he's gone to a nursing he's had to go in the same institution he's had to go to a full-time nursing care and this is costing us twelve thousand dollars a month we are still married you know of course and I still have a mortgage I mean we're debt-free from everything except the mortgage, and there's a reason for that, but my fear is that this $12,000 a month, that I'm afraid there's not going to be enough left for me to live on. Is there a way for me, without us getting a divorce, is there a way to sort of protect my income and my, you know, my financial interest?

How large is your nest egg? He was paying bills for him. How large is your nest egg? Oh, probably a million dollars. Okay. All right. What is the nature of his medical condition? What has he got?

Well, he's undergone so many medical treatments. He was originally diagnosed with polyneuropathy, and then he had a spinal surgery for that, and from that he had a stroke, and so things have just kind of gotten worse and worse. And he's only 74. I don't think anything that he has, from what I understand, nothing is going to kill him. It's just that, you know, he just needs help. He just needs nursing care.

And, you know, this is not something you ever think that you're going to have to deal with, you know. Well, it's deteriorated. You're saying his health is deteriorating due to these multiple conditions, but there's not a singular diagnosis. Something's going to kill all of us, obviously, but there's not a singular diagnosis here. Right, right. So if you go through two more years of this, that's $300K of your million.

Yeah. If you go through three years, it's $450K. And, Dave, I'm okay with paying his bill. I'm afraid if he lived another 20 years, it's $450,000. And, Dave, I'm okay with paying his bill. I'm afraid that if he lived another 20 years, I don't know. Do you think he is? I'm not wishing him dead. I'm just saying. I think $10,000 probably, you know.

Okay. And that scares me. I mean, this is a terrible way to be. No, no, it's not terrible. It's practical. I mean, he would want you to do this. No, no, it's not terrible. It's practical. I mean, he would want you to do this. He probably does want you. Y'all can talk about it.

You probably do want to do this. So, I mean, the other thing is I'm going shopping because the average nursing home bill in America is more like 75, not 150. Hmm. bill in america is more like 75 not 150 so uh and winston-salem shouldn't be double the national average um now he's got a really nice place yeah i think he is he's been there for six years he's been there for six years and he loves it yeah but it was uh it was assisted living before and it wasn't as expensive. Right, exactly, yes. So I think if he's going to need full care, you may need to move to a different place. Because if we knock $50,000 off of this bill, that changes the equation considerably.

Okay. Now, what's your home worth? About $830,000. And you owe what? $200. Why? Well, okay. We had long discussions about this because my husband is a retired minister,

and he gets a housing allowance, and this is the one thing that he says. He thinks, oh, I even think Dave Ramsey would agree. No, Dave Ramsey doesn't because you can get a housing allowance even without a mortgage. Oh, okay. You need to go see a different tax person. Your tax person doesn't know how to do housing allowances. You can take the HUD median rent plus any other costs that are involved as a minister when you're getting a housing allowance without taxes, without having a house payment.

You do not have to have a house payment to have a housing allowance, tax deductible. Oh, is that right? Okay. Yeah, so that's a mythology that runs all through the ministry. I'm so sorry you're facing this, honey. Y'all have worked so hard. You've done such a good job because you're millionaires.

Yeah. You're millionaires. And obviously, did you have long-term care insurance no because he couldn't get it because he was diagnosed with this neuropathy back when you know we were looking at this yeah i'm so sorry yeah i think you need to manage your costs for 150 a year i think you could do in-home care cheaper. Hire somebody full-time inside the house. That's what I was going to ask, Chris. Is that an option? Oh, I don't know.

That scares me to death to think about that. I didn't ask you to do it. I said full-time. Yeah. I don't know. We haven't talked about that. We'd have to look into it. I'm pretty sure you can staff somebody 24-7 cheaper than $150,000.

Okay. And use your house and bring in a hospital bed into the spare bedroom on the first floor, whatever's involved in the ambulatory issues and so forth. I don't know. I'm just throwing out ideas because that's all I'm here for. I'm useless except for that. But I'm so sorry. But I do think the 144 is not sustainable,

and so I think you do need to change something there. Just riding that horse off into the sunset is not a good plan because if he does live 10 years, you've got a problem at that rate. That's $1.4 million. And how much does law – I know they couldn't get long-term care insurance because of his specific diagnosis when they were looking. But in general, how much does it cover for? It would cover about three years of coverage. Because the average nursing home stay is like 2.8 years.

Yeah. Most people don't live once you go to a fully a fully assisted nursing home that's why i was asking not to be cold and not to wish bad things on the man for certain no our husband of 45 years i don't want him to uh to head off to heaven too soon i'm not after that that's not my point but we're trying to do a math analysis around this and the only and and one of the pieces of the equation is date of death. I mean, you're trying to figure out, you know, how long has she got to support this mathematically?

Because two years is not a problem. Five years starts to be a problem. Yeah. Before I head out, because I'm done now on the show today, congratulations on 30 years. A lot of hard work. Thank you. Helped a lot of people.

Proud of you. Thank you. Proud of you. Proud of you for joining in on this. It's been a good run. Yes. This is a 30-year anniversary of The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.

We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.