The Ramsey Show - App - People Who Are Living Life Debt-Free (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 8, 2018

The show about you

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Jay's with us in Colorado Springs. Hi, Jay. How are you?

I'm doing well, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. Jay, is lining up investors to take a percentage of the profits in an investment the same thing as acquiring debt? No. Because if there are no profits, the investors get nothing. Right. Okay.

So that's not looked at as, in your mind, I'm tired of trying to outsmart people, and I love your show because you just keep everything so simple, and I don want to try and outsmart dave ramsey on this no it's not what it is is a partner and if their silence are limited is that the way to go because we i've heard before partnerships are the only boats that don't sail yeah exactly um but it's it's it's what we what you would call an equity position, meaning they're an owner in the business. Now, they may have limited rights as an owner, but you're taking on partners is what you're doing. What are you trying to do, Jay? Build an 18-unit apartment complex.

Okay. All right. And you don't have the cash? No. Okay. All right. Well, there's a methodology that was used in the old days that's still available to you called syndicating a piece of real estate. You set yourself up as the general partner and set investors up as the limited partners. The limited partners can have have they certainly are limited in their input the general partner runs the show uh and they can be given the lion's share for

instance of the tax write-off the depreciation schedule can be given to them um and the general partner traditionally in those models takes less of the depreciation schedule, but gets a fee for running the thing and has a position of ownership, obviously. And you can do up to, if the laws are the same, I've not looked at it in a few years, but I think you can do up to 31 or 33 under the Blue Sky provision, up to that many limited partnership units without it becoming you selling stock, and then you get into a whole other kind of securities violation and so forth. But you would check with your state and check current securities laws to find that out. But, yeah, you can do that.

You can do what's called a limited partnership or syndicate a piece of real estate. It can be very, very messy and time-consuming for the money you get out of it. So what will it cost to build the complex? About $1.2. Okay. And how much do you have? I've got about $100. Okay.

That you can put towards this or period? Yeah. No, that I can put towards this. Okay. What is your net worth? Well, I haven't calculated that in a while. My guess is right around $300,000, maybe $400,000, and that's a ballpark. Yeah, okay.

Well, if you want to get into the real estate syndication business, that's what you're getting ready to do. This is not at this stage of your investing life with your net worth and so forth, this is not a method for you to buy an apartment complex. It's a method for you to get into business running a bunch of limited partners and a bunch of paperwork and a bunch of bookkeeping and stuff it doesn't sound fun to me honestly uh i mean i've been around that world my whole life and i um so what would i do if i woke up in your shoes um i don't borrow money and I don't do partners, and so I would not do this deal in your shoes today. I would rather, what I did do when I was in your shoes was I bought a piece of property that made money for 100 grand cash, like a nice rental house. And then I saved my money and invested and bought another one.

Then I saved my money and invested and bought another one. And, you know,'ve got a tens of millions of dollars of real estate now but it it didn't start that way it was very gradual and it it seemed like it took forever about drove me crazy jay to be honest with you but um but now you can do whatever you want to do but if you're uh the the stuff that we teach is you're right. I don't teach people to go into partnerships and I don't teach people to borrow money. There is one benefit to borrowing money. And I don't think you're going to qualify for it in this situation. There's one benefit to borrowing money on a deal that size.

It is typically non recourse debt on a deal that big, meaning that the bank doesn't look to you. There's no personal guarantee. The only thing they have is the property. They typically want to see more cash involved than $100 down on $1.2, though, in order to do that. But it's non-recourse debt, which is different than borrowing money for a say a rental house you would have you it would be a mortgage that you'd have your name on personally liable as well as they would have the property as collateral but on large real estate transactions it's what's called non-recourse meaning there's no personal guarantee they're not looking for

someone you know they do a hundred million dollar office tower in the skyline, you know, and they finance that. A lot of life insurance companies do the financing on those things. And most of that, the vast majority of that, is what's called non-recourse debt. Veronica is with us in Detroit. Hi, Veronica. How are you? I'm good.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Yes, so I recently just enrolled and have been accepted and enrolled in law school for this upcoming fall. And I was offered a full tuition scholarship, and so I have to pay for tuition, which is great because I really, really wanted to avoid debt. The thing, my question for you is, though, is that, of course, the scholarship covers tuition, but it doesn't cover, of course, things like living expenses, books, and things like that.

So what I'm trying to figure out is how I can stay out of taking out student loans to cover those things when most of the time they really, really encourage you not to work during at least your first year of law school. Yeah, law school's difficult enough without working, you know. I don't want you to flunk out for sure. So can you live at home? It's about an hour from home. So that's one thing you could do. Yeah, that's one option if I could commute. I don't know yet about that. It would be interesting to try to do that.

It would be very difficult. Yeah, in Michigan with the weather, it's kind of like iffy. You've got a very difficult situation. You're going to have to make a difficult choice of some kind. It's going to be like between now and the time you go to school and every summer, you're going to be working like an absolute maniac to save up the following nine or ten months' worth of expenses. Or you're going to commute. Or you're going to work while you're in school.

Or some combination of those three things i don't know what it is but um if i'm you i'm going to try to get so many hours all summer long that i've got enough banked to take me through the year and then do that again next summer most time you finish law school in two years and two two you know four semesters basically and so i'm going to use that time to put the money aside for the winter. Hey, business leaders, are you hiring, posting your position to job sites, and waiting and waiting and waiting for the right people to see? Well, you need ZipRecruiter.

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That's right, free. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Dave. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Christine is with us in Fresno. Hi, Christine. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, I'm a small business owner, and we're on baby step two. We have a car loan, a business loan, and a mortgage.

I'm just wondering about the order to pay things in. We're working on the car loan right now. The balance is $24,000. Our business loan is right around $112,000, and then we have a mortgage of $140,000 on our house. Okay. The business loan, it's a business loan, so it's a seven-year payment, so we're actually halfway through that. Good.

Our mortgage is a typical mortgage. It's a 30-year mortgage. So, yeah, just wondering. What we teach folks to do is to separate their personal debts from their mortgage and the mortgage is paid off in what we call baby step six baby step two is called the debt snowball and so you save a thousand dollars as baby step one then baby step two is you pay off all your debts except your home listing your debts smallest to largest and pay them off in that order then you move on and finish your

emergency funds start retirement kids college and that takes you up to baby step six where you start paying extra on the house so we'll set the house over to baby step six and that leaves us two loans in your mind this is a business loan but it is not a business loan you signed personally for it it's a personal loan the. The law does not consider, your business does not have the ability to borrow money. You borrowed the money and used it for business. And so legally speaking, it's consumer debt is what it is. So you have two debts, $24,000, $112,000. What's your household income? Right about $115,000, me and my husband. Good for you. Way to go. You're

killing it. What kind of business is this? Physical therapy. All right. Way to go. Very well done. Okay. So we're going to knock the car loan out as fast as we aggressively can, paying minimum payments on everything, and accept that car and just dump money on that until it's gone. It'll be gone in a few months. It won't take long. And then we're going to attack this business loan. And, you know, a lot of people have $100,000 in student loan debt. Some people have a student, a business debt. Some people have other things. But $100,000 when you're making $150,000, you can knock that out.

You're probably done with $140,000 worth of debt. If you did $70,000 a year, you'd be done in two years. And that's very, very aggressive. No life. I'm completely leaning in, and I'm getting out of debt. If you did $70 a year, you'd be done in two years. And that's very, very aggressive. No life. I'm completely leaning in and I'm getting out of debt. But you're paying big chunks on this business debt anyway. I mean, you're scheduled to do it in three and a half anyway. So we're really not accelerating it a whole lot to be done in two, or two and some change, whatever it works out. But that's how I would do it. I would line them up in that order and treat the business debt like it's a student loan

or like a credit card debt. And it's just a big one. And that's what it amounts to. The good news is, even though you're in a pretty decent-sized hole, you've got a good-sized shovel. You're making pretty good money. And the numbers you gave me are very, very doable. And the good news is, obviously, you guys are doing well on the income side, so you can use all of that to clear this as quickly as possible. Hold on.

I'm going to have Kelly give you a copy of our number one New York Times bestselling book on business called Entree Leadership, how we started our business on a card table in my living room and grew it where it is today. And it's our playbook for that. Hold on. I'll have Kelly give you a copy of that. Colin is with us in Chattanooga. Hi, Colin. How are you? Doing great, Dave.

How are you doing today? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, so my question is, me and my wife, we're both 21. We're graduating next December from college, and I just found out that I have a pretty large brokerage account that was under a custodian account that came into my ownership a couple months ago. And I'm just wondering what I should do with that money.

We're both debt-free. We have no student loans or anything like that. Wow, very cool. I'm just wondering what we should do. We have $5,000 in savings,. Wow, very cool. I'm just wondering what we should do. We have $5,000 in savings, $3,000 in our emergency fund. I have a Roth IRA with like $1,000 in it. Then I also have a 401K for my part-time job with close to $700.

And you graduate when? You graduate when? We graduate in December. Okay. With your degrees in what? My degree is going to be in finance, and hers is going to be in psychology. And that is part of the question, too, because she's going to want to go into her master's program afterwards and get her master's in school counseling.

Okay. All right. That would make sense in that field. That's a typical track. So how much is in the brokerage account? The brokerage right now, it's in some single stocks, so it kind of fluctuates from day to day. But as of this morning, it's close to $54,000.

Okay. And what will the master's cost? The master's is going to cost close to $30,000, but we have $20,000 left in a 529 plan that was under my name for me. But with scholarships and stuff like that, I've not had to use all of it. Okay. And you can take the credit for the scholarships and move it. Okay.

Very good. Yeah. Good deal. So we have $20,000 for the grad school left. Well, you've obviously done very well. And your family has done a lot of really good planning up to this point. Because I hear 529, I hear a brokerage account that was a custodial account. I mean, somebody's done a really great job of setting you guys up for your early years.

So are you going to stay in Chattanooga? No, that's the thing. We're both from Colorado, actually. So we want to get back to Colorado after she finishes up her master's program. Oh, so you're going to stay there to do the master's. Yeah, we will stay down here to do our master's because it's the school we're in currently. They have a really good program for school counseling. And there's a possibility she could work on campus, too, and get some tuition credits as well to make it even cheaper.

Okay, so here's the deal. You're debt-free. Your emergency fund is a little low. I want to beef it up a little bit to a full three to six months of expenses. You've got that miscellaneous $5,000 that could be moved over, and that makes you $8,000, but you're still a little low. You need three to six months of expenses. Then we need to have enough money set aside to make sure she goes through the Masters

between the 529 money and a little of the brokerage account so um you know we got to just add those numbers up so let's say we threw i don't know uh five thousand dollars extra into the emergency fund and we threw ten thousand dollars to go with the 20 and the 529 over in the i want to get my master's debt free fund. Yeah, for sure. So the 529.20 plus 10 from the brokerage account does that fund. You need five over there. So I took 15 out of your brokerage account.

Did you hear me? Yeah. Okay. And then the rest of that is going to be used after you move, probably to purchase a house. Yeah, that's the hope is to put as big a down payment as we can down. And so now what we're looking at there is we're talking about somewhere around $40,000 is in an account. Do we want to let it ride in single stocks up and down over the next two to three years before you make this move?

No, I don't want that kind of volatility. I want that in something safer because I'm going to use it inside the next two to three years, and I'm more concerned about it not going down than I am how much it goes up. Okay. Because that makes for buying a house. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure. So if you were going to leave the money alone 10 or 15 years, I would move it into mutual funds.

I'm probably going to move some of it into some real conservative mutual funds, something like a balance fund or a growth in income fund, or maybe even a maximum risk would be something like an index fund. So you could move some into that, and I'm going to put some in a money market, but I'm closing the brokerage account. Okay, cool. There is, in the brokerage account okay cool there is um in the brokerage account it's broken down there's like 30 000 of it is divided between

two mutual funds okay if those are fairly uh conservative mutual funds then i'd leave those alone let's use the other money towards the two goals i set up earlier and then that's going to leave you about five to maybe move into one of those mutual funds and then just shut the account down. Okay, and what are the tax implications of me pulling all this money out? There shouldn't be any. If it's a custodial account, it should have been taxed as it went along. There might be some long-term capital gains on it. But if you pull $15,000 out, if the whole thing was subject to that, it would be 15% of that.

So we're talking about $2,000. So that's your maximum. But get some tax advice to be sure. I doubt you have a zero basis in the account you're going to be pulling out, the amount you're going to be moving around. But sit down with a SmartVestor Pro in your area, and they'll help guide you through what I just talked about. But it's a fairly simple outline. The good news is you've got some good background in your family to lead you in this, and you guys are set up to win.

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sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events Paul and Stephanie are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Awesome, Dave. Welcome, welcome. Where are you from? Tacoma, Washington. Very fun. Cool.

And here to do a debt-free scream all the way across the United States. Awesome. How much have you paid off? We paid off $109,000 in 23 months. Good for you. Excellent. And your range of income during that time? We started at about 80 and we're up to about 100. Good. What do you guys do for a living? I'm a project coordinator for an electrical company. And then I work on a natural gas pipeline, so I hang gas meters on houses. Perfect. Cool. And what kind of debt was this $109,000?

$9,000 was student loans for me, and the other $100,000 was our house. Oh, you paid off your house? We did. You're too young to have paid for a house. That's completely weird. I love it. Way to go. How old are you guys?

I'm 27. And I'm 29. Unbelievable. Wow. What is this house worth? About $220,000. Unbelievable. How long have y'all been married?

A little over two years. Oh, my gosh. So we actually paid it off in November on Black Friday. We went to the only place that doesn't give you a discount that day and paid off our mortgage. The bank! Yes. I love it. All right.

So, I'm trying to do the math. $220,000. But what was it worth when you bought it? I bought it a year before we got married, and I paid $143,000, and I put $30,000 down. So, $113,000 was the loan. So, you were already rolling along then. And he paid off the $13,000 during the year that we weren't married. Right.

And then when we got together, there was $100,000 left. Yeah, on the last two years then after marriage. So you've been married two years and paid off the house in two years and the student loan. Yes. Wow. Very cool. Paul, I mean, you guys are so whack. This is so weird.

How did you know to do this? Your parents must have something. My grandpa was actually awesome with money he paid off his house when he was 32 and so um my parents weren't quite as good as he was but they uh they started doing the financial peace class um and so i sat in on those and i i just always had it from a young age i was good with money and how many years ago did they go through that class? That was about eight years ago. Okay, so you're like late teens. You're like 19 or 20 years old then, and you go through the class with them when they're going through.

And plus, you looked up to your grandpa, and he was smart. So you're a financial peace baby with a smart grandpa. Yes. All right. And so you guys start dating, and you're getting engaged. And Stephanie, you find out you're married to a weird guy. Yeah. Or you're about to be.

Yeah. Because you've got student loans. You're kind of just normal. And he's got a house. And he's already tracking to pay it off. And so how did that discussion go down? I want to hear that. I was actually nervous about that conversation.

Because you knew how frugal McDougal he was. Well, not only that, he had the house, but then he had like a $30,000 paid for car at the time, too, which was really cool. And my car was worth like three grand. Yeah. And so it was, I remember it being really difficult. He asked me about like if I had any debt. And I didn't want to tell him that I did, but I didn it being really difficult. He asked me about, um, like if I had any debt and I didn't want to tell him that I did, but I didn't want to lie. Um, I knew things were going really well and I wanted us to, um, you know, keep going in our relationship. Um, you thought

he would dump you over the desk. I didn't think so, but I didn't want him to know. I was embarrassed, you know? No. And he's's not obviously we got together um no i remember like the moment he asked like oh do you have any debt and i was like yeah yeah and then your cute look yeah yeah and then i actually had to add it up and i actually had um about fifteen thousand dollars total so at that time he kind um, told me about you and my dad had listened to you on the radio a little bit. So I knew a little bit, but I didn't, I didn't know like their actual steps or anything. I just knew the name. Um, and so I downloaded the audio book from the library, the total money makeover. And then, um, I paid off, um, the rest of the student loans,

except for the big one, the 9,000, uh before we got married, and then we cashed for the wedding and then did the rest. And, Dave, she was so great. As soon as that moment happened, she was the nerd. It switched. He was sorry he told me. She took off. Here we go. Here we go.

Which made you know you were okay. Yeah. Doesn't matter if you have any debt. It's the fact that you're not going to stay in it. That's right. That's what matters. Yeah, very good. But, I mean, you guys have got such a head start.

I mean, you're making $100,000. You're not even 30 years old, and your house is paid for. Your cars are paid for. You don't have a payment in the world. You are, I mean, is your grandpa still living? He is. I bet he is doing a jig. Yeah. He's got to be just thrilled. I bet he is doing a jig. Yeah.

He's got to be just thrilled. Oh, yeah. They're excited for us. I bet. I bet. And I bet he's done really well financially, hasn't he? He has. He retired at 40 and makes more on retirement than he did when he retired.

He's doing okay. Yeah, I think he's doing all right. So, yeah, you can look out there in the future and go, that's us. Yeah. Way to go, you guys. Way to go. So proud of you. I know your family is.

Wow. That's pretty impressive. Very fun. Well, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you. Well, let me do. Let me stop because I'm just I'm just babbling because this is just so good. What do you tell people the key is? I mean, you got your house paid off at 27 freaking years old.

I think it depends on where you're at. But first of all, the budget, you know, making sure you got the logistics and understanding your budget and where your money goes. And then the sacrifice, knowing that you're delaying that gratification, but that it's going to be better in the end. And then just staying motivated through it. What about you, Stephanie? Yeah, I mean, for me, the hardest part, or the key that worked well for me was just having that determination to keep going.

There were times when it would kind of just wear on you. You know, you get tired of, okay, keep telling myself no, you know, to all the little things and looking back now though they're just little things i can't even remember what they were probably shoes or something i didn't need you know um but yeah just staying motivated and it really helps to watch the show and to see the screams and um yeah just keep going you guys um you have to look around you at your friends in your same age group and go, wow, we are actually on the same page and hardly anybody is.

I mean, you can't take for granted how quickly you joined into this in your relationship. I mean, one discussion while dating and boom, game on. We're on the same page. I mean, the number one call i get is how do i get my spouse on board you know how do i get my spouse on board you can't take that for granted because that's that is such a because you've set this tone in your marriage that you guys can do anything now because you can do it together yeah and you learn to talk through and work through and sacrifice together to win and live like no one else so later you can live and

give like no one else you're you can live and give like no one else. You really have set yourself up. That's so impressive. So very impressive. Well done. Well done. Love it. Love it.

Love it. All right. We do have a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired, because that is the next chapter in your story, millionaires, and outrageously giving along the way. Very cool stuff. Paul and Stephanie, Tacoma, Washington. $109,000 paid off in 23 months. Oh, by the way, that's their house and everything.

Making, wow, making 80 to 100. Count it down. Let's hear your debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Wow! Wow! Scream. Three, two, one. We're dead free. We're getting more and more and more of these financial peace babies, which means more and more and more of you parents are changing your family tree. More and more of you aren't doing it, but then your kid is coming along 25 27 years old and you're you know

you were changing your family tree see that dad and mom they put put him in the class with them at 19 years old they're working their system they're not perfect and that set him up and the same thing with her her dad's listening to the show it set him up it set him up. And the same thing with her. Her dad's listening to the show. It set him up. It set him up. You can break the cycle off of your legacy. You can change your family tree. You can do this. You got this.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. I get asked all the time, when in the baby steps is the right time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents.

It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance, since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. Emily is in Lubbock, Texas. Hi, Emily. How are you?

Better than I deserve, Dave. How are you? Just the same. How can I help? My husband and I max out our RAs every year, and we put it up to the match for his TSP, but that doesn't bring us to the 15% mark. With that extra, should we just put it in mutual funds, or should we go ahead and put it towards the house? The reason why I ask is I want my house paid off real bad, and I think we can have it paid off in about two years if we do that. Yeah. And how much above the 50, above, when you max out everything else, how far off of 15% are you, dollars?

I think we're probably about 10%. So all of that amounts to only 5%? It may be more than that. What is your household income? About $200,000. Okay. So $30,000 is our target. And you can do $11,000 in two IRAs unless you're over 50.

How old are you? Well, you're 30 years old. Okay. So you can do $11,000 in the two Roth IRAs. And he can put 15% in his TSP. What is his income? His income is about $75,000, but we only put up to the match, which is about $5,000 a year. Why?

You said you were having trouble getting to your 15%. Well, I guess we just put up to the match, and then I was just wanting to put the extra towards the house. Yeah, that's different than what you said. I'm sorry? I said that's different than what you said. Okay. All right,.15, there's another $11,000. Okay, so if you max out his, that's $11,250 in his, $11,000 into that other would be $22,000.

So you're $8,000 then shy of your 15% going into retirement until the house is paid off. How much do you owe on your home? About $194,000. Okay. And how much extra are you paying on it now, not counting this discussion? About $4,000 a month. So $48,000 a year. And if we added another $8,000 to that, by just maxing out the Roths and maxing out the TSP for real this time, like you originally said,

that puts us at $56,000, and you'll be done in three years and some change. Almost between three and four years. And if you do that, if you stop a bunch of this other stuff, you might be done in two years. So all we're discussing here is a year. No, I wouldn't miss out on all that retirement growth for that. And I want you to get the house paid off as bad as anybody. I'm Mr. Get-Out-Of-Debt Dave, right?

But, yeah, I mean, you're making $200,000, so if you want to throw $22,000 into retirement for now instead of $30,000, because the other eight is going to have to go just in mutual funds, which is the original way you formed the question, then, yeah, I probably would do that, just throw a little extra at the house. But it's not – I think you need to go back and match his TSP before we have this discussion, though. Okay. And then basically to get to the 15%, you'd be at $8,000 left over,

which on top of the $4,000 a month you're doing now would be $56,000. You see how I'm doing that? Yes, sir. Okay. That's what I would do. And the only reason I'm doing that is your income is so stinking high that, A, you'll be able to do any catch-up you want to do later, but, B, you're already putting a ton of money into retirement by just maxing out the two Roths and maxing out his TSP. So that's what I would do.

And then, of course, when you knock the house out in three years or three and a half years or whatever it turns out to be, when you knock all of that out, then you're going to have to go and build wealth other ways because you're maxed out. So you're going to be buying real estate that you pay cash for and buying mutual funds that you invest in or whatever you do. That's what I do are those two things. Lynn is with us in Canada. Hi, Lynn. How are you? Good, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up? I'm part of a blended family, and I've been married for one year, and I've been together for almost three years. My husband wants a paper divorce to get financial aid for his kids. You've got to be kidding. You've got to be kidding. You've got to be kidding me. No. That's absolutely absurd.

No, I'm not divorcing my wife so I can get welfare. Well, the thing is... You're really going to argue with me about this, aren't you? Well, I don't want the kids to be disadvantaged because of my assets, but... Wang. They're not disadvantaged because of your assets. They're disadvantaged, but we're not going to give them welfare. Oh, well.

Like, I don't believe in out-of-state education. I believe, like, if it's a grad school professional, like, medical, dental law or something, yeah, maybe I'll fund that. I'll give them a loan, but... No.

We're not going to get them... They don't need to be in debt to their stepmother either. This is also a bad plan. If you feel so inclined to pay for your stepchildren's education after one year of marriage, that would be a gift, and it would be unusual. So what would that gift should be it'd be a gift if you did i mean if you give them a dollar if you give them a hundred thousand dollars it would be a gift what is your asset base it's about 3.2 okay and what is his he's broke 200 200 000 and he wants to do a paper divorce

so his kids qualify for welfare education well he makes about 100 he ought to be ashamed of himself i mean he makes like 200 he makes 100 200 a year he's got 200 makes 100 a year What do you make? I make about 400. 350 Canadian. And how many children are involved? Four. And how old are they?

17, 15, 13, 11. Two young ones are mine. Did they think that he married a gravy train? Are they ungrateful and entitled? I don't know what they think. Okay.

Oh, so you've not had conversations with them? I feel I would help them out as much as I would help my own, but I don't believe in out-of-state education. I believe in responsibilities. My children went to in-state school, and all three of them are successful. And so did I. Yeah. And, you know, my parents helped out with some, but it's not just a full-time job.

So here's the deal. Here's the deal. If you want to help, it is your money. You have the right to set the deal. If you want to help, it is your money. You have the right to set the terms. But I feel that because of my asset, they couldn't get their loan if that was what they wanted. You don't want them to get a loan. If they want to commit financial suicide. That's their problem. Yes, but because of my assets, they can't.

They won't qualify. Oh, darn. So you're being married to him is preventing them in Canada from getting a loan? No, it's actually, we just live across the border from each other, so we're just like two hours away. And because of Canadian taxes and because of the businesses I own, he was supposed to move up to Canada, but due to some medical problems of his daughter, he isn't. And, you know, so we really haven't even lived together as a married couple.

Yeah. But on paper, we're very... Do you know how strange this is starting to sound? It is, and it's been really hard. Yeah. Be very careful, darling. You've not been married but a year. You've not even combined your households yet,

and you're already up with your sweetheart for paying for these kids' education. I'm not... Like, I'm fine contributing some. Yeah, some, but very little. And that's only, and listen, I only contribute when they do stuff the way I say do it, because I have their best interest at heart, not because I'm a control freak. But I don't fund people's stupidity.

I don't participate in their insanity. And you shouldn't either. That's not an act of love. That is an act of enabling and you are in a wicked weird situation. You need to be very careful because there's a reasonable probability that you have a mess on your hands.

I mean, wow. Scary, scary, scary. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show on the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer. Blake Thompson is our senior executive producer. And Kelly Daniel is our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and we will be back. Hey, it's Blake, chief production officer for the show.

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