The Ramsey Show - App - Preparing for Life After Divorce with a New Baby (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 8, 2019

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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. Thank you for joining us, America. We're so glad you are here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Dean in Atlanta starts us off this hour. Hey, Dean, how are you?

Hey, happy new year. Happy new year to you, sir. How can I help? Well, so we're at the precipice of paying off the house, which is just getting me jolly and excited. Me too, man. Way to go. Well, I want to make sure before we pull the trigger on this that I'm trying to get all my details 100% correct. So here's the basics. We owe $105,000 left. I have $75,000 in our emergency fund fund i'm self-employed and so my business account liquid

we have about 90 000 we can play with so the question is can i pull a little bit from the emergency fund to pay off that 105 i guess the two the two accounts equals about $165,000, $170,000. We pay the $105,000 out of that. I still have $60,000 left and bill back the emergency fund quickly. What is your household income? We're about $350,000, but that's gross because I have a low overhead business, but I still got to pay my taxes, prepay, and all that. Okay.

Because that's an unusually large emergency fund. That's why I was asking. Three to six months of expenses being $75,000. You got some heavy expenses. Is it your household expenses? Yeah, I think we might have overdone it uh we're debt free i mean it's yeah i know so what would it take to operate your your personal emergency fund should be for your household expenses regardless of your income so what does it take to operate

your household per month probably 10 $10,000. Okay, then an emergency fund will be $30,000 to $60,000. So we're at least $15,000 high, right? Well, then I could pull for it. You see what I'm doing? Okay, and so can you justify being in the three to six months range by having only $60,000 in your emergency fund and be illiquid in the business

for a short period of time until, with your fabulous income, you rebuild your business-retained earnings somewhat in order to pay off the house. Can you do that? Yeah. Oh, yeah, because I have seasons, and I'm going into my new season now. So I have contract books solid through the year. And so... So how quick will you...

Okay, let's pretend your new emergency fund properly calculated is $60,000. Okay, which gives us the money with the business liquidity and the extra $15,000 to pay off the house. You follow me? Yes. If you do that today, you have zero business liquidity. How quick can you build some business retained earnings back up? 30 days to 45 would probably get me $20,000. Yeah.

Let's wait 30 days and do it. Okay. I wouldn't do it today. And then the question is, a lot of people say don't pay it off because of the tax write-off, but I don't know much about that. Is that a factor to you? Well, no, but let's walk through why. Before we do that, because I don't want to forget this, it's rambling in my head for some reason,

what does your wife say about this paying off the house thing? You know what? She is not as excited as I am. She's much, much more cautious. So I'm really trying to adapt to her. But she sees. So if I say wait until you have enough to have $20,000 in your business account and $60,000 in your personal account, she's going to like that answer? Correct. Which is wait like that answer. Correct.

Which is wait about 30 days. Okay. So pay it off in about 30 days. About the middle of the end of February, you're going to knock off the house somewhere in there. If your cash flow projections are correct, I've got a feeling they are. You're not a novice. You're making too much money to be a novice. So now back to the tax write-off thing.

Okay. A tax write-off is this. You've got $100,000 to start with. It's not much. What's your interest rate? Three and a half. Okay. So we're talking about $3,000 worth of interest in a year, give or take, $4,000 if we want

to round up. Okay. $4,000 worth of interest in a year. And, you know, you're in a 39%, 37% tax bracket this year. And so if you write off $4,000 as a tax deduction, which means you'd have to be itemizing. I suspect you are, though. Yeah. And if you write off $4,000 in a 30% tax bracket, then that saves you $1,200 on taxes.

Do you see how that works? Yes. Okay. So you're sending the mortgage company $4,000 to keep from sending the government $1,200. Gotcha. So keeping an interest payment in order for the tax deduction to be there is your only reason for keeping a mortgage is mathematically stupid. Gotcha. You see, because you're trading $4,000 for $1,200.

Yes. Yeah, so pay it off. All right. Good call, man. Congratulations. You are killing it. Very proud of you. Very, very well done. All right. Good call, man. Congratulations. You are killing it. Very proud of you. Very, very well done.

All right. Vladimir is with us in San Antonio, Texas. Hey, Vladimir. How are you? How are you doing, sir? Thank you for taking my call, man. Sure. What's up?

All right. So I've been listening to you, right? And one of the topics that you talk about is dealing with debt collectors. Recently, one of them called me, and I've been, currently I'm on baby step two. I've got my $1,000 already, so I'm taking care of my debt snowball. And one of my smallest debt was for $754. Now, spoke to the guy, negotiate, negotiate, and to the point that now I have it down. He's willing to make a deal with me for where I pay my debt for $400.

Okay. So that's taken care of. But my next thing is my biggest one is $20,000. Now, if I start attacking that, just I've tried doing the math in my head, and it's not going well for me. I don't know how to go about taking this, taking care of this, or where I don't go completely broke. You understand my question? Like, I don't go completely broke

and completely... Well, you don't want to get below $1,000, and you want to take every dollar you can squeeze out of your budget and still eat and pay your lights and drive your car and that kind of stuff. But extra money we can squeeze out of the budget beyond living, and living on beans and rice goes towards the debt.

That doesn't cause you to go broke. Okay. So going broke, going broke, you couldn't buy groceries, right? And you buy groceries before you pay off the debt. True. And that's what I've been doing. And I do have the EveryDollar app. Perfect. That's what I've been doing, and I do have the EveryDollar app. When I do calculate all that, it's saying I'm supposed to have at least $134 left.

But my thing is, I'm not trying to put too little to get the car paid off, but I'm not trying to put too much either. So I'm trying to watch the... Yeah, well, the math should tell you what you can do. And the math will also tell you you may need to sell the car. It might tell you you need to get an extra job. The math will talk to you. And the good news is you're having a conversation with it.

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Zoom, zoom. That's what is happening to the everyday millionaire books. They are zoom, zooming off the shelves. Our rate of sale is unbelievable. You people like this book. Thank you. We are honored. And Chris Hogan, the author of the book Everyday Millionaires, How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Too, is on book tour.

Yesterday, we launched the book. He was in and still is in New York City doing media there and did a big signing there last night. We asked him to check in once a day while he's on tour, and he's there. Hey, Chris, how are you? Oh, Dave, I'm doing fantastic. How'd the signing go last night? The signing was absolutely fantastic. We had over 110, 120 people there.

We had a great opportunity to connect and get the signing, but I've got to tell you about the contest winners. You know, we're giving $1,000 away at each one of these book signings, where no purchase is necessary, but you have to be present to win you about the contest winners. You know, we're giving $1,000 away at each one of these book signings. There are no purchases necessary, but you have to be present to win. And the lady that won was Sarnette Ferguson. She's from Queens, and she had already decided that if she won,

she was going to donate the money to her church for a new program to be able to help more people in the community. So she already had the heart of giving and was so excited to be able to win. Wow. Very cool. Very cool. What a neat lady and what a neat story. That's fun.

Yeah, that's right, folks. We are giving away $1,000. The SmartVestor Pros have sponsored the book signings in each city, and so we're giving away $1,000 of their money in every city. You must be present to win, and no purchase necessary. And you guys are leaving New York this evening and heading over to Chicago, right? That's right, Dave. I've been busy today.

I did several radio hits. I was over at Wednesday doing a Facebook Live. I just finished up at Yahoo Finance. I've got a couple more hits to do, and then I'm going over to see Neil Cavuto. Then I'll fly to Chicago, land there. Then I'll be doing Good Day Chicago in the morning, about five radio hits, then going over to do Windy City Live before I do the Chicago book signing over in Skokie at Barnes & Noble at 6 p.m. in Chicago. Tomorrow evening, exactly. And then you guys will leave after that signing and head to Nashville, and I'll be doing a bunch of media here on Thursday,

and our big town hall, our big millionaire, everyday millionaire's town hall here at our offices and our conference center on Thursday night. You and I will be doing that together. That's going to be fun. That is going to be fun, Dave. I'm really, really looking forward to that. And again, people are so excited about this information. They're lit up.

They're speaking about their dreams. They're looking at their process and dealing with money. And they're ready to chase down every millionaires for themselves. I saw some of the pictures of the book signing. And like you said, there's a lot of people. There's a big signing. Congrats. But apparently you did a little talk and then did some question and answer. What are some of the

questions people are asking? Oh, people are asking me, what should they do? I mean, we had a lot of people that were there that were in their 20s. They were asking about what they can do to get started. You had people that were there that were baby boomers, that were in the process. They were already plugged in to Financial Peace University, our nine-week course, and they were asking about how to fast-forward their process. And so it's just, you know, from all walks of life, and people just are plugged in, they're hearing this message,

and they're believing that it's possible for them. So I'm excited to keep spreading the word. That's the thing. Everyday millionaires, what we discovered, folks, is that they didn't inherit their money. They did not go to prestigious schools. They were steady investors. And by and large, that was the numbers anyway.

And, you know, there's no magic to it. They just did the right things over and over and over again. And the things you hear about here on the show every day, oddly enough, and detailed, airtight research of the largest study ever done in North America of millionaires, over 10,000 millionaires studied, and so this is definitive. These statistics are not debatable. This is what wealth looks like in America today. The American dream is just alive and well, isn't it, Chris? It sure is, Dave.

And you're not excluded from it. What we have to do is, as I've been telling people, sign our own permission slip. Give ourselves the right to be able to plug in, plug into a process, follow it, make sacrifices, and do what's necessary. That's it. So, all right, folks, if you're in the Chicago area, the Nashville area, Friday will be Dallas. It will be at the Barnes & Noble at 6 o'clock there in Dallas in Lincoln Park. And then Saturday in Dallas we'll all be there for the SMART conference, the day-long conference that we're all there.

Chris will be speaking there and signing books there as well. So good stuff. Very, very good stuff. Well, congratulations, Chris. Stay strong, man. You got this. Well, thank you, sir. I look forward to talking to you again tomorrow.

All right. Chris Hogan, number one best-selling author and Ramsey personality, out on the road with the Everyday Millionaire's book tour. You can pick that book up anywhere great books are sold. You can certainly buy it here at DaveRamsey.com or ChrisHogan360.com or Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Books A Million. Anywhere you want to go that there are great books, you'll find it there. Costco's got them. Everybody's carrying this book. It is a white hot product.

And we will know in about seven days when the actual news comes out on the technicalities of the bestseller list. But we are pretty sure this is a number one bestseller, probably by 2X and over number two. It's sold a bunch. It's doing very, very well. So we're very excited by it and for it. And if you want to learn how to be a millionaire, the best way to do that is not talk to your broke friends or listening to a politician who wants your vote, but instead actually listening to what real millionaires say.

10,000 of them. And they will tell you what the data points are. What Condoleezza Rice says is absolutely true. It doesn't matter where you're coming from. And the data shows that, by the way. What matters is where you're going. Caleb is with us in Dallas, Texas. Hey, Caleb, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call, and thanks for everything you do. Absolutely.

How can I help? Yes, so my wife and I, we are on kind of baby step 0.5. We're working on our emergency fund and have about 400 plugged away. But we recently had a medical situation come up and, you know, haven't been able to pay on it. And it went to collections and is now $82,000. So I was just curious what kind of advice you would have for us for how to handle that.

You did not have health insurance? No health insurance. Why? Because at that point, we turned it over. I've gotten a little bit smarter. I'd like to take Switzerland, and it's gotten my wife signed up. I'm covered through my work, but it just wasn't affordable for my wife and daughter to be on. Obviously, that's a wrong statement.

It was very affordable compared to where you ended up. That's very true. You couldn't afford not to have it, which is the case of everyone. Okay. So you have $82,000 due to what? What kind of a procedure? Well, we actually lost a son and ended up staying in the hospital for four days. Oh, my God.

I'm sorry. When did that happen? That happened in July. Oh, my goodness. An accident? No, no. My wife was pregnant and we lost our son. Oh, I see.

In the pregnancy. I see. Okay. Okay. And what is your household income? My salary is about $55,000, and I earn somewhere between about $18,000 to $25,000 in commissions every year, so somewhere around $25,000.

Does she work outside the home? No, sir. She's a stay-at-home mom. Okay. Here's what I'd do. I'd schedule a meeting in person, and it may take you several calls and some persuasion just to get the meeting, with some folks in the administrative offices at the hospital,

because most of the $82,000 is the hospital. There's some other bills from other people, doctors or whatever, lab reports, whatever, but most of it is the hospital, probably 50, 60 grand of the 82. Sit down with them, and first thing you tell them is, thank you for taking care of my wife and walking with us through this unbelievable tragedy. We don't have anything but good feelings towards you guys for doing everything you were supposed to do, and I assume that's true.

That is very true. Okay. I mean, so you're not coming in there to wave a finger at them or to accuse them of anything. You need to get that off the table real fast. So start with gratitude and just say thank you, and then ask for mercy. And say, we lost a child. We're in a fog. I don't make $82,000.

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Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. It's common sense for your dollars and cents. Jessica is with us in Toledo, Ohio. Hi, Jessica. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi. Thank you, Mr. Ramsey. Hey, what's up? So, my husband and I are in baby step three. We got out of debt October of 2018. My husband, so I'm five and a half months pregnant, and we have a two-year-old. My husband announced recently that he wants to divorce me, and he left the day before Christmas, and I just want to know what to do financially. I do not want to go back into debt.

I want to provide the best I can for my daughter and our upcoming child, and I want to be showing them the best way to live that out as well. Oh, my goodness. Bizarre circumstances. What in the world happened? Our pastor and all of our evangelical Christians, people are wondering that, but an affair is part of it. Oh, okay. Because is part of it. Oh.

Okay. Because his timing is amazing. A pregnant wife, and on Christmas Day, he moves out. I mean, that's pretty smelly. Yes. Yeah. Well, I'm sure you're simultaneously angry and hurt, and I'm sorry. Wow. What an incredible thing you're facing.

Are you working outside the home? Do you have a career? Yes. I have a full-time career, and I make about $42,000 gross. And what does he make? About about 50 to 55 okay all right have you seen an attorney yes and what does the attorney tell you um well i don't agree with the matter so i don't want to file for divorce so i'm waiting on him to make that steps himself okay don't have a problem with that, so I'm waiting on him to make that step himself. Okay.

I don't have a problem with that, but I want you to be protected because basically, you know, a guy who leaves a pregnant wife and a baby leaves himself in a position to be owned by you. Yes. And that attorney needs to be willing to do that because that's how these, you know, child support to the max and then whatever else we want to get. And if there's, I know you don't want this divorce, but it may not be up to you. Yes. And I hope for and pray for reconciliation with you. But right now you've got a very, very, very bizarre situation. And it doesn't look real good with the facts you gave me anyway.

I'm sure there's more to the story that we're not going to cover on the radio. But if this thing does tip and does go the way it appears to be going to a divorce, a friend of mine that does divorce recovery, has a divorce recovery ministry, says that divorce turns a marriage into a business transaction. And that's the switch that will have to flip at some point inside your mind and certainly already has flipped with your attorney if you have a good attorney, meaning how much financial support are we going to get out of this guy for you to start your new life? And that certainly is a minimum of child support, but there's a lot of other stuff I'm going after if it's this guy. This guy has really stepped in it.

You want to piss a judge off? Leave a pregnant wife on Christmas Day. I mean, that just really pisses a judge off because judges are human, you know? And so he's not in a very good negotiating position, like has none ability whatsoever. So anything that's his may be yours is what I'm saying. And that's okay. I'm fine with that, to take everything he's got so that these kids have a future because he's walking off and including his income. So you've got to get in a position to do that.

And to the extent that that does or doesn't come, then you start running your life on $42,000 plus or minus whatever other support you get, right? And so how much debt do you guys have? Did you say you just got debt-free and started your emergency fund, right? And so how much debt do you guys have? Did you say you just got debt-free and started your emergency fund, right? Yeah, so I can thank him for helping me pay off my student loans. Yeah, well, that's the least he was going to do. But any retirement plan he has or anything else is probably coming to you. We have very small retirement plans right now. Again, you need to get all there is to get because you're going to need it.

So how much is your house payment? $750 a month. Okay. And you can probably make it on that if you want to, but you're going to be maybe looking for other sources of income, and it's going to take a while for you to really start getting financial traction again. But the first goal is to tread water and make it on $42,000 and keep the house payment current until we get this settled

and we know what we're getting from him. But he's paying all this child support. He's paying it on time. He's paying anything else that he's supposed to pay according to the settlement that comes out. Or you're going to have to be very diligent, not as an act of vengeance, although

that's tempting, but as an act of mother hen protecting her chicks. You're going to need the money that the court says he's supposed to give you. But I think you can probably budget with no debt and make a $750 house payment on your income. It's going to be tight, but I think you can probably budget with no debt and make a 750 house payment on your income. It's going to be tight, but I think you can do it, don't you?

Yes. My other concern is maternity leave. I didn't hear that. Maternity leave. My other concern is maternity leave. Oh, maternity leave. Okay. And so it's unpaid?

I have half of it will be unpaid. I have 60% paid for six weeks and then the following six weeks okay your phone is muffled you need to speak directly into it i have uh 60 pay for six weeks and no pay for the last six weeks and you're five months pregnant five and a half yeah five and a half, yeah. Five and a half, okay. All right, so third trimester, barely. All right. We're coming up on it anyway. Okay, so what we need to do is pile up as much money as we can pile up and then see if you may be in a position you don't take the entire maternity leave.

Okay. You may go back to work early. No law says you have to. Yes, I had to with my last one, too. Okay. But I don't want you to, but I don't want you to be in this whole situation, and you don't want to be in this whole situation. So if you're physically able, you you know one option is to get back early uh so that uh you don't drain out this emergency

fund that you just built and uh and the other thing is how much of and how much can we add to that emergency fund just really piling up cash aggressively between now and the time baby comes and uh again you've probably already done a lot of this stuff, but any extra work you can do, and I don't know how you're going to do that five and a half months, but anything you can do to create extra income, selling stuff, is there something we can sell? Is there something we can liquidate of his that the attorney says is okay? And just turn a big pile of cash, a big to get ready to fight number one but number two but

number one get ready to cover the maternity leave time off but all baby steps are on hold right now no retirement savings no investing of any kind and you're squeezing every dollar out of your budget anything you can do any money you can get from him during this time, like if he's going to help you pay the house payment or anything like that, any money that you can squeeze out out of your budget, you're going to throw into a pile here to get ready for the maternity leave, and that will hopefully give you the ability to take the whole maternity leave or at least a portion of it. So I'm so sorry you're facing this it sounds like

you got a pastor and a church around you to walk with you through this and that's a good thing you're gonna need some people on you while you're doing this in your life while you're doing this and it's a tough thing you're walking through i'm so sorry what a disaster man Man, some people's kids. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Thank you. Thank you for joining us, America. Scott's with us in Oregon. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Scott. Hi, Dave.

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I'm trying to decide whether or not I should stay in college or whether you'd advise any other changes to my financial plan. The reason why I'm asking is because I'm kind of getting a late start to college. I'm 39, and my wife and I are in baby step two right now. I'm not using debt to pay for college

in fact I get I have private scholarships and I get kind of check about every six months for $2,500 to $3,000 so how much is college costing you out of pocket? it's not costing me anything out of pocket okay then why would you quit? so because so I could

I could move towards baby Step 3 faster if I focus on working extra jobs and things like that. Oh, I got you. Okay. What are you studying? IT. Okay. When will you graduate?

In two and a half years. Okay. And you're how old? I'm 39. And your household income is what? So last year we made about $75,000 combined. I also started driving Uber this year, and so I'm bringing in an extra $500,000 to $1,500,000 a month. Good.

But I'm not sure if I can continue at that level with Uber and also continue to focus on my studies as much as I need to. Okay. And, well, you need to focus on them enough to graduate, but I'm not that worried about your GPA. I've got a whole lot of IT people working here. I've never not hired someone because of their GPA. The question is, can they do the job? That's all I want to know, right?

Right. And that's what I'm after as a hiring employer. Yeah, I already work in IT. In fact, I've been in for four years. I'm just trying to fast-track my career with the degree. Yeah, and so your GPA doesn't matter then. And again, I'm not trying to destroy your grades, but if you make a B or a C instead of an A because you're earning some extra income driving Uber, oh, well, that's my point.

But obviously, if you flunk out, we can't do that. So you've got to finish. So that's what you've got to gauge on your own thing. No, I think you stay in school. I think this two and a half years is a really tough time of your life while you clean up debt, your household, and you guys are making some, you're doing a lot of things at the same time. You're getting out of debt. You're trying to finish school.

You're doing all this stuff. You're just burning the candle at both ends. But you can survive that for a short period of time. And two and a half years is not 20 years. It's two and a half. And you're not being deployed to Afghanistan. You're just going to school and driving Uber. So this is

doable you can do this and um i think you make it man i think you make the turn and you keep working at it and you guys keep budgeting and you keep um keep trying to find every way you can to you know cut expenses and increase income while you finish this degree and is there any way we can fast track the degree that's the other thing Can you get out any faster? And then what does all that mean to your income? It should mean something to your income. I suspect it will. Jonathan is with us in Lynchburg, Virginia. Hey, Jonathan, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for having me, Dave. Sure, what's up? Yeah, I was wanting to know just like how to get started on paying off my student loans. Okay. Do you have any other debt?

No, sir. How much student loan debt do you have? $29,000, roughly. Cool. How old are you? 23. Cool. So you just get out of school?

I quit university roughly a year and a half ago, going on two years, and picked up a year and a half program at community college and finished that. So you're finished? Yes, sir. And your degree is in what? I got a welding certificate. Okay. All right. And so are you a welder yes sir cool what do you make um roughly 29 000 net okay and you just started right um i've been about six months yeah okay any opportunities for overtime or side gigs? Right now, I'm at a new job.

I was at the old job for five months and upgraded and have been at this one for a month. Perfect. Not a whole lot of room for overtime. Not yet. Okay. But you've already seen a way to increase your income by looking around and thinking about what I can do with my welding certificate that makes me more money, right? Yes, sir. Keep asking that question over and over because we need to add as much income. I take it you're single.

Yes, sir. Do you live at home with your parents? No. I live with one roommate. Okay. And you said the only debt you have is the student loans. Yes, sir. Okay.

What I'm going to prescribe to you is a tough gig how many hours are you working 40 40 cool okay if it's not welding then on the side i want you to pick up another side gig of some kind increase your income and i want you to get on a written budget go to every everydollar.com. Download the Every Dollar Budget. It's the best budgeting app in the world. It's free. Download it for your phone and or your computer and use it for free. And you give every dollar of your income an assignment before the month begins in that app. And that's your plan. You lay the plan out.

You plan, and then you work the plan and you stick exactly to that and you have no life all you do is work and pay debt and if you do that you can be debt free in two years okay but you're going to have no life i mean you're not going to be out partying on friday night right your friends are going to think you're crazy yeah and you're going to be getting out because you're going to be working and you're not gonna be out partying on friday night right your friends are gonna think you're crazy yeah and you're gonna be getting out because you're gonna be working and you're gonna be getting out of debt but 15 000 a year you probably can make that as your side job and uh delivering pizzas you can make that three three four nights a week okay and um and you just work your butt off and throw it all at the debt and make all the money that comes in behave. No wasted motion.

Everything's mathematical efficiency, and that's what the budget does. And the more you do that, the faster you'll get out. You actually can probably get out of debt in about 18 months by doing what I'm talking about because you only got $29,000 in debt. $15,000 a year for two years gets you out of debt, but you can do more than that because you don't need your whole $29,000 to live on now. Right. I do also want to add on that my dad also has parent-student loans that I'm

currently helping him pay. Was that your agreement? Yeah. When he took them out originally, the agreement was that you would pay them? It wasn't so much a spoken agreement when it happened, but he's always helped me, and once I started working, we've just kind of helped each other. And how much is that debt i think it's around 18 000 okay well let's pay off your 29 first if you want

to give him some money as you go along that just slows down how fast you get out of the 29 but i wouldn't pay extra on that other loan until you get your 29 cleared up because that's not your loan that's his loan and we've got this weird sort of handshake maybe agreement that you're responsible for some of it okay and i think you probably need to clarify what your moral responsibility is on that other loan with him at some point you don't have to do that today but what is our agreement here dad what is your expectation of me on this loan uh because i don't feel like i'm on the hook for all of it and i don't really want to you know if i got if i came into some money am i supposed to write a check and pay off 18 000 you know what am i supposed to do here and you need some clarity on that it's all

a moral agreement with your dad because you're legally not responsible at all. A parent plus loan, your name's not on it. It's his name. But if you feel like you have promised him, then you would want to keep your promise. That's the moral aspect of it. But I think there's a lot of fogginess around what your actual obligation there is. Some point, again, in the coming months, as you're getting close to paying off your 29, then you kind of need to quantify exactly when you are going to be done by knowing exactly what of that loan you are responsible for.

And that's how I would look at this. So, hey, good question, man. You got this. You can do it. Appreciate you calling in. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. This is James Childs, producer of the Dave Ramsey Show. Once again, you made the Dave Ramsey Show one of the top five most downloaded podcasts last year.

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