The Ramsey Show - App - Prenups Tell Your Crazy Extended Family to Shut Up (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 8, 2018

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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'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. When the show is finished today, I will be flying to Phoenix, Arizona. We are doing an Entree Leadership One Day event there tomorrow, all day. Me and Chris Hogan and a couple of other guys, we're talking about leadership and business. And it is going to be an incredible event.

We have 1,500 seats available. We have sold 1,400, which means it's basically a sellout, but it's not yet. So you can still come if you're in the Phoenix area, or you can get to the Phoenix area like I can by tomorrow. We would love to have you. It's an incredible one-day event on business and on leadership, particularly you small business folks, but people in any area of business and leadership,

or ministry for that matter. We've got a couple of nonprofit guys speaking up. Bobby Grunwald is going to be with us, and he is the brainchild and the driving force behind the YouVersion Bible app, which if you have a phone and you have the Bible on your phone, you've got that. It's over 200 million, maybe approaching 300 million people now have that on their phone around the world in all kinds of different languages and everything else. And it's absolutely incredible.

And it's just going to be a great day. If you want to learn about leadership, I'll be speaking. I'll be doing two lessons. Hogan will be doing a lesson. And Bobby will be with us. We'll have other guests there. It's going to be an incredible, incredible day. So if you're interested in Entrez Leadership one-day event, you can be there in Phoenix tomorrow all day.

And, of course, in addition to that, this particular event is going to be live-streamed. So you can actually watch it. You can get your company together. You can get your sales team together, your leadership team together, and watch the event as a live-stream. You can find out about the tickets for any of this at DaveRamsey.com. Excited to head back to Phoenix here in a few minutes. In the meantime, David's on the air in Decatur, Alabama.

Hi, David. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a question on a pre-nut. I'm engaged to a girl.

I'm 56, and she's 40. And under what conditions would you think a prenup is the route to go? How do you feel about those? Well, when I first started doing coaching, I'm so strong on couples working together and combining their lives and in the process combining their checkbooks that I used to say never do a prenup. And after coaching for many, many, many years, I have changed that just slightly.

I now say almost never. The only time I would do it is if one party has extreme assets and the other one has none. And it's not even because of the person you're marrying. It's because extreme assets cause crazy people in your extended family to get crazier. And their influence and their weirdness is pretty much, you know, you pretty much put a gag on them when there's a prenup. It's just shut up.

You don't have any say over that. And so, like, for instance, let's say the lady you were marrying had $3 million and you had nothing. It would be good for your brother-in-law to know that you've got no access to that money because of a prenup. And that way he doesn't think you get to open a pizza joint with him with your new wife's money, that kind of stuff. You know, it just kind of shuts the family up, you know? And sometimes families need a good shut up. And so, you know, that's the kind of thing.

It's just where there's extreme stuff like that. So what is your net worth? About $2 million. Okay. And her net worth is very small. Okay. Very small. I would do one.

And I have four children from a previous marriage, too. Yeah. And so thinking about that, too. I would do one. And I have four children from a previous marriage, too. Yeah. And so thinking about that, too. I would do one. And then the thing I would, because, you know, you've got an extremely large net worth. You're worth $2 million. And the kids from the previous marriage, eh, whatever. You know, you can leave all the money to her. I don't care.

It doesn't matter to me. You're not required by... Well, I want to be careful to leave that to them. Yeah, I know, but you're not required to leave them money. There's no moral obligation, nothing else. If they're a bunch of deadbeats, you may not want to leave them the money. Yeah, they're not. They're great. You see what I'm

saying? But I will do this. I will tell you this. If you've got a bent towards making sure that they get the majority of the wealth, I want you to leave her a big chunk. If you're willing to marry her, big time. Big time. And I was thought about getting even a life insurance policy, too. No, no, two million's enough.

Well, you've got to split it between four kids. Oh, well, call the Wambulance. That's enough. Yeah, there's enough. You've done well. By the way, you did got to split it between four kids. Oh, well, call the Wambulance. That's enough. Yeah, there's enough. You've done well. By the way, you did great, David. Congratulations, 56 years old. Thank you.

Did you inherit a bunch of this money yourself? Oh, no, I didn't inherit anything. No, I was an engineer until I was 55 and worked in nuclear power. But I started buying real estate when I was in my early 30s. And so I basically slid off my rental property income since I was 55. Way to go, man. Yeah. Good for you.

So you made decent money, $100,000, $150,000, $200,000 a year, whatever, and you just banked the crap out of it and bought real estate. Yeah, I was doing the day-to-day plan before you came along. Yeah, before they were, yeah. We're about the same age, so you've been doing it longer than I've been talking about it, for sure. Good for you, man! I was kind of raised by people that felt like you did. Yeah, common sense.

Yeah, just common sense kind of people, regular people. I'm proud of you. Yeah, the thing I would do, in other words, we're saying a prenup is she gets nothing in the event of a divorce. But in the event of death, this is the woman you married. Yeah. And she, you know, big chunk, dude. Yeah, I definitely feel that way. Yeah.

And even if I did a prenup, I would have, there would be something for her there, I think, too. I don't know how those work exactly. You can have it say whatever you want it to say. Yeah. You just dream it up and tell the lawyer to write it up. It's not rocket science in that regard. But you're in a situation where it'll keep your kids from feeling weird towards her, her feeling weird towards your kids.

And by the way, when you change the will to include her, go ahead and read it out loud for everybody to hear it while you're there. Sounds like a good idea. I definitely think you have to be open and transparent about this. Well, it keeps everybody from suing everybody after you die. Yeah, I don't want that. You just look your kid in the eye and go, she's getting this. It's mine.

It's not yours. This is what I said. Yeah. And then your kid is going to stay shut up when you die someday, because that's what you said you wanted to do. But people get all twisted up and say, well, Daddy didn't really mean that. Daddy got taken advantage of. And they get all stupid and hillbilly, you know.

And that's what happens with these things. So go ahead and read your will out loud and let everybody know about the prenup. It's okay. There's nothing wrong with it. It doesn't mean you don't love this lady. Obviously, you love her. But we're going to take care of her at your death. And if you want to take care of her in the event of a divorce, you can.

I don't see any obligation to do that at all. She came into it with nothing. She can leave with nothing if she wants to leave. But, you know, with Sharon, I mean, I just told her we've been married 36 years. If she leaves, I'm going with her. So that's how that works. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options?

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chministries.org. Thanks for joining us, America. James is with us in Youngstown, Ohio. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, James. Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? My brother left me $12,500 when he died. But he did not leave it to my mom, dad, my sister, or any of his kids. And I'm seeing what I should do with them as I'm in baby step two.

Why did he leave you the money and no one else? He wasn't talking to them when he set this up to my parents or my sister. Was he when he died? Yes. And he never changed it. Okay. Well, it's not a lot of money. It's not $1,250,000.

It's $12,000. No, no. It's $12,000. Right. So, obviously, there's conflict and strife in your family. So I'm guessing everyone has a big opinion about this, don't they? They don't even know about it yet. They have no idea that it has been left to me.

When did he pass away? In September. And how did he leave it? In life insurance or a beneficiary or something, or what? In a 401K. A 401K beneficiary. Okay. Yes. Well, you understand that's taxable when you take it out.

Right. And since it was left to you, you're going to pay the taxes on it. Okay. And so it's not $12,000. I don't know if I should roll it into something. Even if you do, it's an inherited IRA is what it turns into when you roll the that's what you can do.

But even then, it's taxable when you take the money out. So if you take the money out and give it to them based on $12,500 you will have paid taxes for them. Okay. So we don't want to do that for sure. That's not right. But if you want to cash it all out and pay your taxes and after taxes divvy it up, you can do that.

There's nothing wrong with that. And, you know, I don't know. I mean, you've got to look at your family situation and say, what is the right thing to do here? I guess the main thing that matters is, I guess, two things two things well main thing is what would your brother want you to do um he should have gone back and changed it it sounds like because it sounds like he was back on speaking terms with his kids and his parents right right and he didn't do you think he'd want you to divide it up? I think with the kids, my parents are pretty financially stable, and he would have hiccups with my sister quite a bit.

Okay, so you can just make a decision. Say, I think this is what he'd want to do. It was all left to me, and I don't know what to do, but this is the best I can come up with. I'm going to give some to the kids. mean you could do that right but your sister's going to be she's going to be all twisted anyway isn't she right i mean she never really got along with them when he died or beforehand yeah and your parents don't need the money so they're are they going to be upset about this no they. They're not worth over $3 million. Okay.

So your sister's upset about everything anyway all the time, so we're not going to worry about her because you're not going to make her happy no matter what. Right. Yeah. Okay. And if you want to give some of the kids, that's fine. But here's the deal. Cash it out and set the taxes, and then after tax, give them money,

not out of $12,500, but more like out of nine grand okay what would you put it in because they are under 18 oh geez how old are they two six, six months, and seven. How are you not speaking to a two-year-old? He was talking to the kids. He wasn't talking to the parents, my parents. Oh, okay. I thought you said he was estranged from his kids.

No, not from the kids. Okay. Okay. Why did he not have them as the beneficiary? Um, I don't know. He set this up before they were born, and... Okay. What do you make a year? I make 50. Okay. And my wife makes, it's $104,000 together. If I were in your shoes, what I would do is sit down with a smart investor pro, and I would open three accounts in the kids' names called custodial accounts,

mutual funds in the kids' names, and you're the custodian. You watch over the money for the good of these kids on the behalf of your brother. He should have left this money to his kids, not you. And that's what I would. I wouldn't keep any of it if I were in your shoes. These are little kids. They have nothing to do. I thought these were grown kids that were mad at their dad, the way you were talking about this earlier.

But this is a little two-year-old kid. They don't know anything. And so, yeah, I'm going to roll this into an inherited IRA and manage it for them. You can let somebody know that it's in your name, but you're going to take care of it for the kids. And if anybody doesn't like that, they can bite your ankle. You know, it's yours. You can do with it what you want.

But I would set it aside in an inherited IRA, let it grow. At some point, you could roll it into mutual funds in the kid's name with yourself as a custodian. But in my mind, if I'm you, I'm going to keep control of this money and manage it for these kids, and I'm going to give it all to them at some point. And I'm going to manage it for them. That's what your brother should have been doing anyway. So good question.

Thanks for calling in. Dylan is with us in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hey, Dylan, how are you? Hi, Dave. It's an honor to talk to you. You too. What's up? So I am actually recently married to my high school sweetheart. I'm 25. We were just married. We were just married last month. Wow. Yeah. And so now I have a question. She had no debt prior to the marriage. I have student loans is all, $20,000 of which is not accruing interest right now, and $9,000 is.

I'm wondering what your recommendation would be for the best way for us to tackle those. Well, I would list your debts smallest to largest. I would pay minimum payments on everything but the little one, and I would attack your smallest debt. And so break these apart regardless of if they're accruing interest or not. Let's just knock them out. How much do you make? I'm actually finishing up school right now.

I'll graduate in May from pharmacy school. Good, good. And my wife, she's a nurse. We probably together, because I'm still working, I just don't have as much time. Together we probably make about $60,000. Yeah, but it will be $160,000 next year. Mm-hmm. Right?

That's the plan, yeah. If you pass your boards and you're a pharmacist, you're making six figures, you'll probably be making $60,000, $70,000 as a nurse in Grand Rapids. Well, part of it is I'm considering residency, which pays considerably less. We have right now saved up probably about $24,000. And so I guess my question is should we pay that on the $9,000 right now? No, I want you to get out of school first.

Okay. Let's get out of school with adding no more debt. Don't borrow another dime. That's your first goal. So I didn't know a pharmacist had to do a residency. They don't have to. It's kind of depending on what your career path is you'd like to follow. So I'm really interested in, like, health system administration,

management-type things, and those generally, to get in a hospital roles like that, do require at least a one, maybe two-year residency. And what does that pay? I'm in the application process right now. No, no, not the residency. What's the career field pay if you go that route rather than a pharmacist? I would say about $150. About the same thing. So why would you go that route rather than a pharmacist um i would say about 150

about the same thing so why would you do that um job satisfaction okay and as a resident you'd make 24 uh about 50 about 50 okay 40 to 50 yeah all right well then have you got the money to finish school and then decide whether you're doing the residency or not? Through May? Yeah. Okay. All right, Lee. As long as you've got the money, make sure you're finishing with adding no new debt.

And then aside from that, beyond that, list your debts, smallest to largest, and pay them off in that order. And start now. And work it as hard as you can work residency or not part-time job now or not together as a household attack the debts in that order hold on i'll send you a copy of the book the total money makeover we'll show you how to do this our wedding gift Identity theft has become an epidemic. Data breaches are being reported every day, and hundreds of millions of people have had their identities stolen, sometimes multiple times.

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I see on my screen you're debt-free, man. Yes, sir. Congratulations. How much have you paid off? I paid off $53,000 in 18 months. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? $60,000 up to $75,000. Cool. Very good job. Well done, man. That's excellent. What kind of debt was the 53?

All student loans. Wow. So, I mean, you must have lived on nothing. How'd you do this? A lot of hard work and support from the family. I graduated. Mom gave me the financial PCDs for my long commute to work. Got on board. I paid off $10,000 right away. And then I became normal. So a couple years after that, I discovered podcasts. And I was like, I've got to look up Dave Ramsey again and get back into it.

So I started listening. And I started dating my fiancee, and it kind of gave me that why. It was kind of a catalyst to my debt-free journey. Then picked up a couple of side jobs, and then got a new full-time position to kind of increase that income, and then just started hammering it out. Way to go, man. Congratulations. So have you gotten married gotten married are you still engaged

uh just engaged i get married next next year oh cool well congratulations very good very good well so the the key for you getting out of debt was the extra jobs and what else um just kind of hard work and determination, just kind of putting a nose to the grindstone and just getting after it. And I had a big why. I have been blessed with so much, and it was time for me to pay the price to earn those blessings. So I just wanted to get it done before getting engaged so that down the road I can provide for uh

family kids you know all that there you go well done good stuff who was your biggest cheerleader um i think my fiance is one they're supporting me along the way along with my parents but instead of pom-poms they uh they carried credit cards in their hands, so I worked on that on them. That works for me, man. I love it. So, cool. Very cool. Great job.

Well, congratulations, sir. I'm very, very proud of you guys. Well, well done. Well done. All right, it's Daniel in Cincinnati, Ohio. Daniel, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. That is the next chapter in your story. We close the debt chapter. We're going to open chapter two, and that's where you become an everyday millionaire and outrageously generous as you go along. And you get married, and you have kids, and you

take care of life and wife, and hey, you're going to be in a great place, man. You're going to be in a great place. Daniel in Cincinnati, $53,000 paid off in 18 months, making $60,000 to $75,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I'm debt-free! Yeah!

Yeah! This is how it's done. Well done, well done, sir. Fabulous. Milton is with us in done. Well done, well done, sir. Fabulous. Milton is with us in Florida. Hi, Milton. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thanks for taking my call. It's an honor to speak to you. You too, sir. What's up? My question is, I've been contributing to my 401 cases. I was 25 years of age. I'm 51 now. And I'm just trying to find out.

I currently put 17% into my 401k. I know you say it should only be 15%, but I was trying to play a little catch-up because for the first 15 years, I was only contributing 8%. And by the age of 40, I started contributing 17%. So I'm debt-free. I have my emergency fund, and the only debt I have right now is my house, and I'm hoping to pay that off in the next five to six years. So my question is, should I take 7% of that 17% and fully fund a Roth IRA and then continue contributing the 10% to my 401k so that as far as tax implications, you know, the Roth is going to grow tax-free, and I can let that sit while I'm retired and just you have that kind of as backup money. But I don't know if

if that's going to make a difference in for my retirement i i currently have a 12 return rate on a 10 year um on 10 year return rate of 12 percent on in my 401k so i'm just trying to figure out what's going to get me um what's going to put me in a better position if i start if i start opening the Roth IRA and fully fund it until retirement? Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. You're going to have enough in your 401k that you don't need to touch this Roth IRA for

many, many years. And it will continue to grow well past up into your 70s, maybe 80s even before you touch it. You may never touch it. And it continues to grow completely tax-free. And so the math is going to say tax-free, tax-free, tax-free. You can do $6,500. If you're married, you can do $13,000 over 50.

Your limit is $6,500 on a Roth IRA. And, yes, I would do that. I would not do it as part of my 17% plan. I'd do it as part of my 15% plan. I'd do it as part of my 15% plan. Does your 401K have a match at work? Yes, it's 4% on the first 8%. Okay, then let's do 8%, and then let's do $6,500 each. And I think that's going to put you around 15%,

and I want you to concentrate on paying off your home faster than you were. Because you said, I hope I can pay off my home. I don't want you to concentrate on paying off your home faster than you were because you said I hope I can pay off my home. I don't want you to hope. I want you to lay out a game plan and do it. It's not a hope. It's not a wish. It's a game plan. We lay out the math. We're going to put this much extra on in a month so that by the time I'm 60, I'm 51, the sucker's

gone and you get rid of it and then you go back and max out everything uh for the last few years of working you're going to be fine you got plenty of money you're doing a good job you're saving aggressively you're thinking you're paying attention you're making your money behave you're the kind of guy that ends up an everyday millionaire you've got all the all the attributes uh there's somebody that's going to end up there. So get that house paid off. Limit your contributions to 15% and baby step four until your home is paid off. And so we're going to do the 8% and get the match.

We're going to do two fully funded Roth IRAs. If you are married, 6,500 each. And if that leaves you at 14.8% or something, well, so what? It's okay. 15% is where you want to be, right around there. So good question, sir. Thank you for joining us. You're doing a good job.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Lisa on open phones, I'm sorry, Andrew on Twitter says, when do you suggest not spending more than 25% of your take-home pay on housing? Is it safe to assume that includes property taxes as well? When do I suggest not spending more? I never suggest you spend more. I don't understand your question. The wording has got me confused.

I don't know how you not spend more. Can't figure that out. Okay. Anyway, so that out. Okay. Anyway, so here's the thing. Don't spend more than 25% of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed rate. If you spend less, that's always a good thing. Because the whole point here is get the house paid off and avoid debt of other kinds because you're not house poor. When you have a 35% of your take-home pay, 40%, 50% of your take-home pay as your house payment, then you don't have any money left, and you end up,

oh, I don't have any money to buy a car. I'm going to get a car payment. Oh, we can't fund the kids' college fund. The kids are going to get a big student loan debt. Oh, oh, debt, debt, debt, debt, debt, debt, debt. And it's all the mathematical result of your house owns you instead of you owning your house. That's what house poor is. You have no wiggle room left in your budget because too much of your payment went to your house payment,

went to your budget. Too much of your income went to your house payment. It ate you up, and that's what you want to avoid. So that's the point. And, yes, principal interest, taxes interest taxes insurance is your house payment. P-I-T-I. And so yeah, that includes insurance, includes property taxes. And no, you don't get a pass on math if you live in California. Math still works in California. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thanks for joining us, America.

We're glad you are here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sean is in Lexington, Kentucky. Hi, Sean. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for taking my call, Dave. Sure. How can I help?

Yes, I was calling to find out what is a good starter stock to invest in and how much should I invest? Okay, I don't invest in single stocks. They're too much risk. They go up and down and sideways, and even the people that supposedly know what they're doing lose their butts doing that. Instead, I invest in good growth stock mutual funds, which a mutual fund would have 90 to 200 different stocks in it.

That way, if one of them goes sideways, the rest of them are hopefully doing okay, and you come out ahead. If you spread your money across several things instead of putting it in one thing, that's called diversification, and it gives you safety. Do you see what I'm talking about? Yes.

So I invest in good growth stock mutual funds. Now, it's in stocks, in growth stock mutual funds, but the stock selection in those funds is done by the fund manager, and you can look at that fund and say the guy or gal or group of people picking their stocks in this thing have picked stocks that have given me a rate of return of 14% average for the last 22 years. And I can go, oh, well, that's a pretty good fund.

I think I'll buy that one. That would be an example, okay? And you can find mutual funds that have averaged 10% to 12% somewhere in there in the last long periods of time, 20 years, 30 years, that kind of thing. And so you're looking at their track record, and that's the type of thing I invest in. I don't own any single stocks. I don't go buy such and such a company and then try to figure out by Friday if it's a good idea and jump back out of it. I don't fool with all that.

The people that I meet that are wealthy, the majority of them are slow and steady. They're the tortoise. They're not the hare. The hare runs around all over the place, looks cool, and gets nothing. Loses. The slow and steady, ugly tortoise that everybody makes fun of is the one that wins the race every time I read the book. And that's how investing works. And that's how you'll want to do it.

If you need some help with that, Sean, jump on DaveRamsey.com and click SmartVestor. And because you're getting ready to be a smart investor. And put in your information. It'll drop down a list of the people we recommend in your area. I'm not in that business, but we have people that we recommend, and they're called SmartVestor Pros, and one of them will be happy to sit down and begin teaching you so that you learn, and you do it because you understand it, not because Dave said to or somebody else said to. JJ's in Champaign, Illinois.

Hi, JJ. How are you? Wet to the ears. How about you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? I am currently renting a home, $300 a month, and renting a shop at $600 a month. And I need to move out of the shop in 13 months,

within the next 13 months. I just passed up a deal because the wife and I could not agree. There was a property sold about a week ago to $210,000 that I could have had on a rent to buy at $1,300 a month that would have had both the shop and the house. Now, I am looking at probably $900 to $1,000 a month for the next shop I'm going to have to rent because the guy I'm renting from was doing it for a good deal to help me get started. So what can I do the next time something like this comes up? What kind of business have you got?

Agriculture repair, engine repair mostly. Okay. Diesel. How long have you been doing it? I grew up in the business. No, I mean, how long have you had your business? Since the first of this year. Okay.

And so how much have you made since the first of the year? About 45. Before expenses or after expenses? Before. Okay. After expenses, about $5,000. $5,000. That's after all personal expenses, and there was some tools purchased and things like that.

Okay. There's not any personal expenses in business. I'm not talking about your grocery bill bill i'm talking about your business your business has an income coming into it and it has business expenses going out which would be tools shop rent and that kind of stuff parts anything you buy like that right and so um okay that that would not have had the parts included in that. If you're going to include the parts in that, there's about 120 to 130 so far this year. Okay, your wife was right. You did not need to rent a house.

Your business is too young, and you're a rent-to-own, and you don't know what you need yet, and you're not even sure what you're making yet. So what I want you to do first is, as a business guy, I want you to get your accounting straight. And the accounting works like this. I want you to go to DaveRamsey.com and click on ELP for taxes and sit down with one of them, one of the tax guys or CPAs. They'll help you put a bookkeeping system in place for your business.

It's not rocket science. It's not that difficult. It's sixth grade math. And all it is is this. Your income in business is called your gross revenues. It's the total you bring in. It sounds like parts and everything, but that's around $100,000. Then your expenses are parts and tools and

shop and everything else right anything associated only with the business and you need a separate checking account and a separate set of books as if you were working for someone else and your job was to run their business you don't pay your rent out your house payment out of that or your house rent you don't pay your car payment you don't pay your grocery bill or your electric bill out of that. This is only business. And then when you have all the income of business going into that account and only business expense coming out of that account, what's left is called profit. And that's what you're going to pay taxes on.

And that's what's going to tell you whether or not you can afford a house. But with the numbers that are floating around this conversation, I can't tell if you're making any money, dude. It doesn't sound like you're making much. And you need to be real careful on a business that's netting, you know, having a net profit of $20,000 that you're taking on a $12,000 rental for a shop. So obviously you need a shop, but you need to get the cheapest possible thing because every dollar you spend on business expenses means you don't have that dollar to come home. And you need to get a real handle on your hourly rate and how you're billing out your jobs, your mechanics work, and so forth here.

I don't know how you're billing it, whether it's piece rate, hourly rate, or what, but you've got to get that really dialed in so you can tell if you're making money on each of these jobs and if you're making money overall and how much you're making. Then that will tell you when you're ready to start talking about possibly thinking about buying a house someday. That's when you're out of debt, you have your emergency fund in place, and you're working some of this other stuff. But, dude, you desperately need a separate checking account and a complete set of books, which starts with this profit and loss statement that I just outlined for you.

And a CPA can help you put that together. It's not going to cost you hardly anything to get that done, but it's going to be the difference in whether you stay open or not. You're going to end up working for somebody else if you don't learn how to run the business. I think you're really probably a really good diesel mechanic. Right now, you suck at business, and so you can be great at your craft and not be good at running a business. So let's get the business skills up with the mechanic skills, and then you're going to be rocking and making some money. You got that.

You can do it, but you're not doing it right now. I can tell by talking to you. So, hey, get that. Your wife was right. Now was not the time to do this other deal. Let's get stabilized. Get this business where it's running right, and then you can tell whether you can afford something or not.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. We appreciate you joining us. Dave, I no longer have life insurance through my workplace. I applied to AAA for term life and was denied. I have no health problems, but I'm afraid to apply again for fear of being denied again. What should I do?

Well, there's no fear in being denied unless you find out why you were denied. If you're dramatically overweight, but you don't have health problems, then you're not going to win. You're not going to get it. If you're smoking like a chimney, there's something else going on. I don't know what's going on here, but you need to find out. Go to ZanderInsurance.com. Sit down with them, Rodney, on the phone. They'll help you.

They'll lay it all out, and they can help you figure out why you were denied and if you would be again or not. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Kelly Daniel, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know that in 2017, Dave Ramsey Show listeners paid off $50 million of debt? That's pretty impressive. And it could be you this year. Keep listening for more inspiration.