The Ramsey Show - App - Our Favorite Calls of 2023 (Part 7)

Episode Date: July 4, 2023

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods moving and storage studios, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author multiple times. My daughter is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Valerie is in Oakland, California. Hi, Valerie. How are you? I'm doing well, Dave. Thank you for taking my call.

It's a pleasure to be on with you today. Thank you. How can we help? So I was recently in a car accident that totaled my car or they're writing it off. Wow. Are you okay? Yes, I'm fine and grateful just to be alive. So they're writing my car off and offering me $15,000. So I use my car for work, and I'm a physical therapist that does home care, so I need a really reliable car. And, of course, my car was paid for. I'm on baby step number four. I have no debt.

I was working on my emergency fund. I have about $11,000 in it, trying to get to $25,000. And I don't know what to do about a vehicle now. Of course, I have a rental until the end of the month, but just feeling pressured to make a decision. Boy, you were driving a $15,000 car, and you have a $15,000 check. You go buy a $15,000 car. Yeah, it's not going to have all the bills in with it.

It's the same car. That car should have a market value that was totaled of $15,000 if you're getting a $15,000 check. You should be able to buy that car again. Right. I can't find that car again. It was a 2014 Toyota Camry fully loaded.

There's millions of 2014 Toyota Camrys. If there's anything in the United States that's Toyota Camrys, this is not exactly a rare vehicle. Okay. But I've only got like two weeks to find one, and I've been searching. I just haven't been able to find one. Okay, but I mean, you can find a car for $15,000 that is comparable in equipment, reliability, quality, miles to the one that was totaled. All right.

We know that because they gave you a market value. They have to pay you by the terms of the auto policy market value for the car. So if you had sold your car, you would have sold for $15,000. Okay. But I was working a plan Though I don't know it's just an inconvenience I guess It is it's a huge inconvenience

It is Valerie is the timelines what's stressing You out because you're like I'm researching but I have Two more weeks I'm assuming Until your rental is up Right I've got two more weeks for my Rental how about this Valerie what if You paid one more weeks for my rental how about this Valerie what if you paid one more month of a rental and you said or two or another an extra week of that just to give you some

breathing room to be able to find this because you should be able to find it yeah so Valerie let me tell you what's happening okay and what I'm pushing against and this is why it's messing with you I've not been fair I'm gonna be fair now I'm gonna tell you what's happening okay and what i'm pushing against and this is why it's messing with you i've not been fair i'm gonna be fair now i'm gonna tell you what's going on okay almost every time for 30 years i've talked to someone in your situation for some reason the human brain says we need to move up in car we need to celebrate the fact that our car was totaled by getting a much better car and so you've been out looking at new cars. Well, I wasn't intending to look at new cars. No, but they jumped in front of you when you were going down the road.

That car dealer lot swung around at the traffic light, and there it was in front of you. Right, but I was looking for a used car on that car lot, and today they're telling me that the used cars are costing more than the new car yeah this would be who that told you that the new car dealer that's a bunch of crap okay that was true for about five months during the back end of the pandemic when the mississippi ran backward and used cars went up in value it's the only time in history those two things have happened in one year it's absolutely a miracle the red sea parted that year too so but no it's not used cars are not more of do not cost as much as new cars that's not true anymore it was true for 20 seconds and it's not true anymore so you know i mean if you ask a new car dealer if you need a new car that's like asking a dog if it's not true anymore so you know i mean if you ask a new car dealer if you need a new car that's like asking a dog if it's hungry okay so no you need to go look for used cars you need to jump on

auto trader some of these other things and i wouldn't even go to a dealership like i mean i would just look online i mean you know just said just to be able to not have the emotion of being there on the car lot just go do some research online i be able to not have the emotion of being there on the car lot. Just go do some research online. I want you to fight with yourself about the idea of an upgrade. Because there's something about the human brain that says when we total our car, we have to get an upgrade. And that's why I was wearing you out about the value of your car a while ago. Because I was trying to break through that in your brain.

Because all human brains seem to do it. I've noticed it. But it's like, okay, time to get another get another car oh let's get a better one you know and so there's something about the trauma that you've been through with the car wreck there's something about this i didn't want to deal with all this now i gotta deal with it so while i'm at it now it's an emergency for me to have a twenty thousand dollar car instead of a fifteen thousand dollar car so i'm gonna pull five000 out of my emergency fund, which you should never use your emergency fund for something that is not an emergency. That's why we call it an emergency fund.

And so, yeah, this is what, but there's something about that. So I'm just pushing. That's a good point. I'm just trying to rattle you a little bit, Valerie, and say, hey, go find a $15,000 car. And then you're right back on track. Yeah, because I was sensing a little bit of this urgency and panic and frozenness of the timeline of like, I only have two more weeks. So giving her that extra week might calm her. But I think you're spot on because especially if she's already looked

at new cars, she said the bells and the whistles, like she said and and not that you can never have a nice car too well like make that a goal that's part of this plan once you get your emergency fund and you move on to baby steps four through six and you do some stuff you could step up and car then I mean it's not like you'll always have to drive a $15,000 car but for now it's going to be the wisest move to continue to go down the baby steps and let's just say out loud that a 15 000 dollar car today is so much better than anything i drove for the first 30 years of my life i mean the quality of the vehicle yeah the amount of life left in the vehicle was more than a new car in 1974 hadley i mean it was you know i mean so they they don't make them like they used to thank god you know i've got a 1960

corvette and it is cute and it's a frame-up restaurant we put a new engine and drivetrain in it so it's got a good engine and drivetrain in it, but you can't stop the thing in a 10-acre field with those dadgum horrible 1960 brakes. They don't make them like they used to. Thank God. Every time I go around a corner, it corners three times. You know, it's a marshmallow, and it's supposed to be a sports car. So it's cute, and it's an antique, but this, you know, a $15,000 car in today's world is amazing dad gum

nice car I mean it's it's you're gonna be okay everybody you too Valerie but everybody out there just this idea I gotta have a $40,000 car to be like be subsisting or something is it's America crazy this is the ramsey show jade washall ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones at 888-825-5225 our question of the day comes from neighborly your hub for home services. Spring is here and Neighborly can help you with your home and your yard and keep it all in top shape with the grounds guys, Mosquito Joe, Lawn Pride, Molly Maid, and more. So spend time and more time enjoying your home, not working on it.

Go to Neighborly.com and check out the service pros in your area. This is a great company. It is. And today's question of the day comes from Jonathan in the Netherlands. He says, we really don't feel the necessity or the urgency to follow the beans and rice style of Baby Step 2. I can imagine that it might feel nice to have no debt and we have no intention of getting further into debt. However, I don't feel it's worth living on rice and beans for three years to pay off $43,000 of student loans as soon as possible. As we're young, we're a young family, we're making $6,500 a month, and now we can use our income and

savings to buy a second hand, bigger car, make a garden, make our garden a bit nicer, and later in life we'll have more to spare to pay off those loans anyway. What are your thoughts on this? And what would be the benefit of still following the baby steps more rigidly? That's a really good question. And you know what, Dave, I hear this a lot. I think a lot of people are like, why do I have to be so urgent? Why do I have to be so intense? And I look at it a couple of different ways. Number one, the series of steps that we follow. This is a guy, you know, Jonathan, I don't mean any harm, but you're kind of just an ish guy, right? You're doing what you want to do. You're really not on our plan. And that's fine. You don't

have to be. It's your prerogative. But the way the steps work is you're doing them consecutively. And the first three, you're doing them with intensity so that you can get to the final four, which is really that wealth building area. So there's some method to this madness, but this kind of goes back to what we've talked about before. There is urgency because how many, I mean, I think about my grandmother who would say,

if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. And there is something to be said for that. I think a lot of people just coast through because they think, hey, you know, this is my plan. If I just go out like this, it's going to go, you know, check off the boxes like that. But you really don't know what's going to come your way. You know, God willing, everything goes fine. And, you know, you'll keep that income and everything will be perfect and everybody's healthy and everything. But you don't know that. And I think that you've got to live each day to the fullest. You've got to do the best that you can with each day that you're given. And when you've got debt, pay it off. You got $43,000 of debt and you make a fine income. It doesn't have

to take you three years to pay this off. You could honestly pay it off a lot faster than that and at the end of the day it all jonathan what she's trying to say is your plan sucks it sucks it sucks because it's not going to work people have been trying to do the crap you're talking about for 50 years and it doesn't work you can't sort of kind of get out of debt and ever get out of debt. It doesn't work. It's just actual that you can't find any proof text in the marketplace of someone who wanders along and lollygags and sticks with it and gets out in 10 years but plants his little garden. Well, give me a break.

Call the wambulance. You seriously this is ridiculous this is just somebody who doesn't want to sacrifice to win well period that but you're not going to win okay because there's no middle ground with this really now i've been doing this a long time it's not just that you're not doing our stuff. So please do not follow the baby steps. Please do not tell people you're doing Ramsey. No, he's not doing Ramsey. Because I don't want to be insulted by your abject failure. And I don't want my brand damaged by it. Okay?

Just because it's not going to work. Here's the reason, Jonathan. All right? The thing works like this. If you don't really with great intensity focus on a dramatic change in behavior where you have been going in the wrong direction, you will never change the behavior. We're not asking you to live on beans and rice the rest of your life or to live in a cave and collect lint and only come out on triple coupon Thursday.

But what you're doing will not actually work because it's not sustainable, because it has absolutely no energy. I just think I'm going to kind of wander. I'm going to get a nice house and it's all going to work out. No, it's not, Jonathan. No, it's not. Because no it's not because you're gonna get your freaking head taken off by life and you're gonna look up 15 16 years into your little marriage and go dad come we are stupid people we are still treading water and ask all these people

that are 45 and 50 years old that tried to wander out and then they found us and in 36 months they got out of debt and they do their debt-free scream they'll tell you they'll tell you your little plan sucks because it does it won't work is why it sucks and when you're lukewarm like that you say i have no intentions of getting back into debt yeah you will yeah you will you definitely will because you're not committed to the idea the the idea of where debt freedom will take you which is into wealth and into a whole nother realm of generosity then you could even grasp right now is not appealing to you as much as your garden give me a break seriously will not work jonathan will not work so you can go do what you want to do, but please do not associate my name with it.

Because I don't want to be tied to your failure and you go, I tried that Ramsey stuff and it doesn't work. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. Because we know that there's a high probability you are never going to get out of debt unless you attack it like your dadgum life depends on it you got to get so fired up and wired up that your character shifts your neuroplasticity moves in the way your brain works where when you see debt you recoil when you pull up next to a nice car at a traffic light you now no longer go oh that's a nice car you go that fool's got payments yeah well you know he right now he's stuck in comfort his life he feels comfortable

he says i don't think there's any need to get uncomfortable to change this i'm cushy the greatest enemy to get greatest enemy of excellence is not bad things the greatest enemy of excellence is the okay yep just fine i'm okay I'm okay. It's just fine. I'm okay. That's so true, Dave. No, you're not. You suck. You're not okay.

Your plan sucks. Yeah. It's pitiful, and it's not going to work. Dead is like riding a motorcycle. It's not if you crash. It's when you crash, because you will crash. Remember that. Ooh.

Why are you going to get motorcycles? I'm just saying. It's not if. It's when.orge georgian horses you and motorcycle look you won't get me on a bike it's not a matter of if you crash but when you crash that's debt they call them coma coma coma mobiles or something oh gosh that's even worse than what i said dave my wife told me i could have a motorcycle but she wouldn't be there so there you go that's how that works you and sharon you and sharon we i I could have a motorcycle, but she wouldn't be there. So there you go. That's how that works.

You and Sharon. You and Sharon. I think we have a lot in common, me and Sharon. No doubt about that. All right. Up next is Andy in Phoenix. Hey, Andy, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. What's up? So I'm in Baby Step 6, which I'm like three months away from being done with. Good. My job currently is a couple weeks starting a new rule change. They now are insisting that we all have credit cards to pay for our expenses. How were you paying for them? The company was paying for them.

And so now they want you to carry debt for them? Well, wow, that's interesting. So what it is is we put in on the credit cards and then we file paperwork and then they pay us back. I know. The corporate expense account on the person's credit card is the biggest con ever sold to employees in American history. Yeah.

And these guys, because this big old company can't handle their own credit card. Instead, they need to get you to borrow money to travel on their behalf. Right. And, you know, when I first started Baby Step 2, I paid off $28,000 in credit cards. How much are you spending every month on it? Well, right now, the company's paying for it, but it will probably end up being right around $5,000 a month. Put $7,000 in a separate checking account, run a debit card on it, because when you're running a debit card on it and you're realizing it's your own money, you'll never use it for anything except reimbursables.

And reimbursables will always put the money back in the account. You can travel the next month, reimburse, get the money back in the account, travel the next month, and you're not going to get burned that way. But this is a complete corporate scam. Has been for decades. This is the Ramsey Show. George Campbell Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America.

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Liz is with us in Anaheim, California. Hi, Liz. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi there. Can you all hear me okay? Absolutely. What's up? All right.

First off, super nervous, so sorry. No trouble. I really appreciate talking to you both. And I was in Jade's Zoom class. Awesome. Good, good, good. And Mr. Ramsey, you helped bring me back to God. Wow.

I'm honored. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I'm just going to read my question because I'm so nervous. So I have about $17,000 in debt. I'm about halfway through my debt snowball. It started last year. Let's see, my parents offered to pay my debt off and then I would pay them back when I'm able to. Should I go ahead and take this offer? But my thing is my parents, we have a strained relationship. We butt heads a lot. They don't

agree with the Ramsey plan, even though I've been following it, and they wouldn't have me continue to tie this to my church if I were to kind of do this with them. So I'm not sure what to do. Yeah, you know exactly what to do, don't you? I think so. Yeah, what should you do? Just continue with what I've been doing. Yeah. And just tell them thank you, but I love you, but I got to do this on my own. You're exactly right.

You're a sweet girl. You are. You're a sweet lady. Thank you for having a good heart the way you do. You have reached a point in your life that you're now a grown-up. They're no longer your mommy and daddy. They're your parents. They're now your parents.

My kids are grown like that, too. They actually have opinions that I don't always agree with. Can you imagine that? And you know what? I still love them, and they still love me, and they're allowed to do that and still be in the family and all that kind of stuff i don't get to control whether they how they handle their money nor do i want to i don't get to control uh whether they tithe at their church i don't get to control their spiritual decisions i would obviously have an opinion about all of it but it doesn't matter yeah i got opinions about

george too but he gets to make his own decisions. He's an independent adult, and we're friends. We can have a good discussion. We can have an argument, even, a fun argument. Sometimes we do that. George and I do, and Rachel and I do, my kid, everybody. That's all

okay to do, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about control. Yeah. And I don't borrow money from family on principle. If they said they wanted to gift it, even with the strings attached, I wouldn't take it. And so it went from a bad idea to a terrible idea real quick. And the truth is, you don't need them. You're going to pay this off fast.

You've been doing the hard work. It's giving you dignity to do the plan on your own without having to do this weird reverse allowance thing to your parents who you already have a strained relationship with. And it's only going to hurt the relationship if you take that money. Yeah, it is. It's going to make it worse, not better. And they're trying to be nice, but they're trying to influence you to do what they want you to do rather than rather than letting you be a grownup. And that's a control function is what that is. And they mean well. I don't think they're bad people. I'm not saying that at all.

But you can't let folks interrupt your spiritual walk, interrupt your financial decisions. You can learn and you can have discussions, but you can't let people have control over those things, regardless of what they do. So George is right. Even if it was a gift, if it had no tithing and we're not going to do any financial plan you agree with, which happens to be ours in this case, then that's a control function. And that's what you've got to stay away from so you you already knew what you needed to do you just it but then say this out loud liz here's what's interesting i can hear your voice i can hear it in your voice if you took this money you would feel like you were eight years old oh yeah i still feel like that a lot anyway with them yeah and that they they they return you to your childhood and so the reason i know i i could hear it in the way they're trying

to control and trying to lord over you and um yeah i've had to learn that here at the office with my son working here and my daughter rachel obviously on the air with me i've had to learn that here at the office with my son working here and my daughter, Rachel, obviously on the air with me. I've had to learn if I'm going to argue with them, I cannot argue in my dad voice. I have to argue in my friend that is arguing voice. That's a different tone, isn't it? Yeah. There's nothing demeaning in that tone. That's just like you and your buddy over coffee or a beer having an argument, right?

And that's kind of a fun thing almost. It's a joyful kind. It's a conflict searching for truth. It's not a conflict searching for control. Yeah. Yeah, that eight-year-old thing tells you the truth right there. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

And you're, what, 25? No, 32, turning 33 this month. Are you single? I'm single. Have you ever been married? No, my sister just got married actually a few weeks ago. That's wonderful. Okay.

I was just wondering, what I was probing at is if you had been through something that hurt maybe and that this was an open area in your emotions. I'm not Dr. John Deloney, believe me, but yeah, you just sound like a very kind, sweet person that is trying to find your own footing, And this is a really big step emotionally. Even if this made you a bazillion dollars and it doesn't, it's not worth the payoff. No. Yeah. So you're very kind, and I would just be that.

Mom and Dad, I love you. Thank you so much. You know, I think it's going to be good for me. I've decided it's good for me to work my way through this, and I'm going to do that. But I appreciate you cheering for me on the sidelines. Yeah. And just say that and just keep on trucking, kiddo. You're going to be out of debt in a year.

You're amazing. You've already done a great job. How much has your life changed in one year? Wow. You don't even know. I can hear it. I'm hoping to do my debt-free scream in the fall. I'm so excited.

I can't wait. All right, let's do it. We'll get it scheduled. I'll hold on and make sure you talk to Austin before you leave so you can get to him and make sure you get your debt-free scream set up. And you remind us of this conversation when you're doing the scream, okay? All right. All right, kiddo.

Way to go. Wow. Very cool. I'm proud of her. That's very neat. It's a hard thing to do. Yeah. conversation when you're doing the scream okay all right all right kiddo way to go wow very cool i'm proud of her that's very neat it's a hard thing to do yeah moms and dads it's a very difficult thing uh i think i think george um it's the most difficult stage of parenting having uh uh your children become adults and i hate that phrase i i was writing it in a blog thing i was doing the other day about work and um adult children that's i still don't know what to call my kids my kids that are adults because they're your kids they're not kids they're not children they're adults my offspring that are adults yes i mean you know i mean what do you call because adult children sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?

And so you've got to, moms and dads, you've got to, man. Well, the goal. It's hard. It's hard to not just, at Easter dinner, not to go, you know, that's a dumb butt thing I've ever heard in my life. But you just sit there. But they're adults. You know, I wouldn't say that to one of my friends. And so I'm not going to say that to a grown offspring or whatever they are.

That's hard. I love it. I think Meg Meeker said it. You know, the goal is to raise adults, not kids. Yeah, raise functioning adults, not functioning children. That's Andy Andrews, actually. There we go. Yeah, there we go.

I knew it was one of your friends. This is The ramsey show jade warshaw ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us america this is the ramsey show hey if you're new to us and a bunch of you are because our ratings and our listenership numbers are going way up quickly thank you for that if If you're new to us and you're just trying to figure out what all this baby step stuff means and where do you fit in and all this debt snowball stuff, go to RamseySolutions.com. Click on the Get Started button. It's completely free.

We're not going to charge you anything. And you can figure out where you are now and what your next step is, and we'll start explaining it all to you and customize it for you so again ramsey solutions.com click on get started christian is with us in greensboro north carolina hi christian welcome to the ramsey show hey dave uh yes uh so i was calling because i had a question. I have a $6 million worth of property here in the area and, um, Oh, almost $3 million,

about 2.8 million in, uh, in loans. Uh, my question was, do you think it's wise to sell some of my portfolio to pay off the loans and be debt-free, or should I utilize the monthly cash flow to pay off the loans fast? What do you think?

Well, congratulations. You've done a good job. You've got a good equity position, and you've obviously got a going concern. And there's a lot of different ways to attack the situation where you are. You can keep doing more of what you've been doing. Here's what I learned when I was 25 years old, 24 years old. I had $4 million worth of real estate, and I owed $3 million on it. So I did not have as good an equity position as you do.

Okay? I was about 75% loan-to-value. You're about 50%. All right. But I ended up losing everything because the bank got sold to another bank, called our notes. We had a lot of flip notes out of 90 day notes and it caught me and took me out. And what I learned from that going broke process in my twenties, 30 years ago was that, was that those of us that love real estate, people like you and me, Christian, sometimes we forget to measure risk. Common sense tells you, and actual business analysis tells you, that the more debt you have, the more risk you have.

Would you agree with that? Yes, indeed. Okay. And what I've discovered now over 30 years, not only of teaching these things, but of living a completely debt-free life, and I today own several hundred million dollars worth of real estate. And what I've discovered in that process, building that portfolio a different way over this 30 years, is that the lack of risk with having no debt has accelerated over the long haul the amount of real estate I can own because I don't make as many mistakes. I don't have setbacks. I don't have cash flow problems. I've always got cash. Can you imagine how much cash my real estate throws off with no debt?

It's obscene. Okay. And, uh, so, but, and that'll, I can buy another piece of real estate throws off with no debt. It's obscene. Okay. And, uh, so, but, and that'll, I can buy another piece of real estate with just cashflow fairly often. It, uh, because we've got tremendous rents coming in on these things now. So all that to say what I have learned from my personal walk and from walking with others is that where, where I know you will be the best off in 10 years and have the most wealth because of the lowered risk and the increased peace in your life, um, is if you were debt free. Now, do we have to burn everything down and do this

suddenly because you just, you and I had a conversation a conversation no i think you have a gradual process and you say okay over a year two years three years whatever it is i'm going to move in that direction because if i were in your shoes i would rather have four million dollars of paid for real estate than six million dollars of real estate with three million dollars worth of debt very true and that's about where you will be because your real estate will go up in value while we're doing this all right so how long you've been doing this apparently you've been doing it a while and you're good at it well i've been doing it since uh 2012 i actually used my w-2 to uh help me purchase property and i was also sleeping at the time yeah, okay, and 2019 I decided to leave my job because I was able to sustain Pay myself and uh yeah, and all the deals yeah, and so you're doing flips in addition to this

Yeah, well some some more so like For fun is my do flips maybe two three times a year, okay? Yeah, but good pocket money. Yeah, you can probably live off your flips, and then your other stuff just generates income. That's awesome. Well done. Good for you.

Well, here's what I figured out. When I'm doing a flip, I buy something differently if I'm paying cash, and when it is paid for, I am in no rush to sell it. So I never become a motivated seller or a motivated buyer. And I get better deals on the buy and I sell for higher on the sell because I got all kinds of patients with no payments. But when the payment's eating your back pocket out, it makes you want to jump and get rid of that thing you know what i'm saying exactly and i i've been following you for quite

a while and uh i would like to be debt free uh at some point uh that's why uh have you got any properties that are higher ltv that are 80 90 ltv uh no no like usually when I when I borrow it's really really low I mean you're at about 50% on the portfolio if you don't have any that are higher than that they're all about 50% no not at all okay because that would be the first ones I divest but since you don't have those what I would do is just look at the portfolio and go okay 10 years from now which one of these suckers do i want to own and start going okay i'm going to use some some cash flow and knock out a few and i'm going to liquidate i don't know a couple million dollars worth or million dollar million

and a half worth or whatever it comes out to be and you know between those two things have a two or three year plan to be free because again you're going to have you're going to be and you know between those two things have a two or three year plan to be free because again you're gonna have you're gonna be wealthier and you're gonna have a better life if you start with four million dollars of paid for real estate three years from today i'm not arguing with that i think i think he got a i think he got the nice dave version of that that was great well he's he the reason reason is because he's actually pulling it off. Yeah. He could probably survive 10 years.

Now, you start doing this nothing down real estate crap on Tic Tac, you're not going to survive 10 years. Yeah, that's true. All the guys that I knew doing that in any generation have gone broke, including me. But he's sitting in a 50 equity position so he's going to cash flow uh and if he manages the property well and he's been doing it a decade already yeah so that tells me he's really got his crap together but now we're down to the simple of

philosophy is you start asking yourself is this debt-free thing really better and the actual end result of the data is yeah you end up better not just a better feeling right you end up with more money well yeah you laid that out really clearly i think that he has a a good strategy for him and something that he can start walking towards which is really cool yeah those of you that are playing with real estate or want to play with real estate let me just tell you something you will never put in you will be less likely never you can always do something stupid you will be less likely to put a bum tenant in a property when you don't have any payments but when you got payments you're looking for somebody to pay those payments with their rent it's very and you're you're more desperate as a landlord to fill your vacancies, and you're more likely

to go, well, I know, I kind of had a bad feeling. Turns out she was doing drugs. Who knew? But, you know, I mean, whatever it is, right? And you put a tenant in there that's a bum, and then you've got a mess. They tear up the place. You go through, you still go through six months with no income. You go through an eviction.

You go through all this stuff, bankruptcies on them, everything else. It's a mess. But you won't overlook that if you're going, I don't think unless you really make me feel good that I'm going to let you have the privilege of living in my property because I don't have any problems now and I don't need you to bring your problems to me. That's such a good point. Yeah so you just desperate landlords make stupid

decisions like desperate people of any kind. And it ends up costing them more. Yeah and yeah you get you do get you get bit you get really bit and I've done both I've been both it's been a long long time since I've put in a in a weak tenant because I had to, because I haven't been there in decades now. And so I'm just really encouraging folks. There's a way to do this real estate thing where it turns out really nice, and there's a way to do it where you go broke. And Christian's in the middle. This is a good question. This is The Ramsey way. Just go to ramseysolutions.com today to sign up for our newsletter. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter.