The Ramsey Show - App - Proven Solutions to Everyday Struggles With Money (Hour 1)

Episode Date: May 30, 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 am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. We're glad you're here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in and we will talk. 888-825-5225. John starts us off this hour in Cookville, Tennessee. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, John. Thank you, Mr. Ramsey. How you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So here's my issue right now. Me and my wife are about $35,000 in debt. And just like any normal person, we decided to finally get our lives right

and start working on this debt right in the middle of having a baby. So what I've been dealing with is I'm a full-time firefighter, and I've been working that job and another job on top of some things on the side pretty much just to keep us getting by. My wife just had our daughter in February and just found a job as a nurse. Yeah, we're super excited. Just found a job as a nurse and I'm having a real problem. I'm just wanting some advice from Uncle Dave. My wife got the job mainly so I wouldn't have to work three jobs just to keep us treading water. But a part

of me is having problems letting go of that second job because in my mind, if I work that second job, we'll get out of debt quicker. But it has been a strain on us. And I did forget to mention, I'm also in school full time. So it's been a bit of a hectic home life for a while, and I'm trying to let this second job go, but at the same time, I don't know if I should concentrate on this and get this debt knocked out. I'm just looking for some advice. Gotcha. Okay. What do you make as a fireman? My salary is about $34,000 a year. Okay. You get overtime as a fireman? It is very situational. the way our overtime works is there's only overtime when we are super low on personnel and it's it's very infrequent all right

so 34 000 we count on what is she making as a nurse now uh right now she's going to be making on average um somewhere around eighteen hundred dollars month, and this is just starting like last week. Okay, so she's not working 40 hours. She is working 40 hours. It's just low pay. She's an LPN, and she's going to be making $1,150 an hour. That's very low pay for an LPN. It is, but she applied to almost 20 places.

You know, this isn't from lack of trying. This is the first place that we give her an interview as crazy as that sounds. All right, so we're going to call that 24 for the fun of it. And so then what were you making at the second year? You dropped the third job. That one's out. The only one we're discussing is the second job. What are you making at the second job?

So with the second job, I brought, before tax, it was around $12,000 last year is what I made. About $1,000 a month. And that was working. Okay. I'm sorry? About $1,000 a month. Okay. Yeah, yeah, roughly.

And so what are you doing? What's the second job? I'm working actually at a doctor's office in a paramedic role, pretty much acting as a nurse. Gotcha. The pay's good. I'm making about $16 an hour doing that. But it's hard to do that. Full-time job, which is a 24 on, 48 off, leave that, go to the doctor's office, leave that,

go to school. And it seems like I've got barely enough time to breathe most of the time, which is why she decided to leave the home and go back to work. I got you. Okay. I have barely enough time to breathe most of the time, which is why she decided to leave the home and go back to work. I got you. Okay. Well, the trick is on $58,000 on your all's budget, how quick are you going to clear the $35,000 if you're not working the second job?

See, that's my hope. And here's why I'm really torn about it is my plan was to be able to pay this off in anywhere between 18 and 24 months, depending on how much she's bringing. You ought to be able to do that without the second job. Okay. You think we'll be safe with that? I hate to be in debt that long. I think you ought to be able'll build it in 18 to 24 i mean that's 17 500 a year is 24 months on 35 000 and then and making 58 you ought to be able to do 17 a year that ought to be a lay down you ought to do it faster than that so somewhere between really 12 and 18 it ought to be done

out of your 58 get on beans and rice rice and beans budget um if 35 is your only debt other than your home if you don't have if you didn't forget to tell me about a car payment or something but uh no that's car payments and everything it feels like a lot more to me i guess because for so long we were living on just my salary yeah you've been and your income just doubled almost right right which is a huge relief i just i've worked a second job for so long it's hard for me to let go. I know, but the point is, I'm not going to let you let it go either if it benefits your family substantially, you know. But the deal is, you're going to be debt-free in 12 to 18 months without the second job.

If you do the second job, you're going to be debt-free in probably eight months. Okay. And so that's your difference it's a four month shift or five month shift is what it is and is it worth it to you to be out of debt for four or five months sooner uh if it is work the second job if it's not don't and you can you're the only one can compare that but that's the numbers you're giving me that's how they shake out and i'm okay with it either way. I think you're on fire. You're both working together.

You're both sacrificing for each other, for the good of your family, for the good of the child. And, you know, you're setting a tone that you're not going to live like this anymore. You know, we're going to get our incomes up, and we're going to get rid of all this debt, and we're going to get our life back. And, you know, you're scratching and clawing and doing it. So you're the kind of people we're here to help, you know, and it's what we want you to do. So I'm proud of you. I think you're doing good work.

Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. John follows me on Twitter, at Dave Ramsey. Do you guys have a teen toolkit I can teach my youth group? Yes, absolutely. Right now we have a product called Generation Change that is for youth pastors to teach their youth group. And you can get in touch with our bookstore or our stewardship, our church department. Either one, they can help you do that.

Just DaveRamsey.com and they'll be able to look up Generation Change. Just do a search on the site. It'll pop right out and it's there. It's a great, great series and it'll help you be able to teach your teens as a youth pastor. Excellent question. Dave, I know you're against credit cards and debt. My question is, how are we supposed to

build credit with no credit cards? Andre says on Twitter. Well, you're not. What? I'm not. Well, why will you build credit? What do you need credit for? So you can borrow money.

Why are you borrowing money? So I can build my credit. Why are you need credit for? So you can borrow money. Why are you borrowing money? So I can build my credit. Why are you building your credit? So I can borrow money. Why am I borrowing money? So I can build my credit. It's a dog chasing its tail. People spend their whole lives doing this stupid exercise of worshiping at the altar of the great FICO.

You are the first generation listening to me right now that believes that FICO is necessary to have a quality life. Everyone else used to think money would do it. Getting out of debt and having savings, having investments, having a net worth and having an income. These are actual measures of financial prowess, actual measures of financial success. The FICO score is not an indication that you're good with money. It's an indication you've paid a lot of debt payments on time. That just means you're stupid.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. For years, I refused to endorse any company that claimed to get people out of timeshares. I told my listeners it's a horrible product and that, unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of options. Then a few years ago, I sat down with Brandon Reed, the owner of Timeshare Exit Team. Brandon walked me through the timeshare industry, and I learned that you can't sell them, and you can't even give them away.

And then we talked about Timeshare Exit Team's process. Every ownership situation is different, which is why they have more solutions than any other company. And that's when they earned my respect. Don't call any of the imposters out there, and there's a lot. The only timeshare exit company I stand behind is Timeshare Exit Team. They have exited thousands from their timeshare burden this year alone. Yes, you will write them a check, but they stand behind their guarantee. They will get you out or they'll give you a full refund. Call 844-999-EXIT online at timeshareexitteam.com. Lisa is in Minneapolis. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Lisa.

Oh, thank you so much. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up? I love when you say that. Okay, so I just started listening to your show a couple months ago, or like, let me say, like two months ago. My boyfriend and I are getting pretty serious, and we're planning to get married. We haven't gotten an engagement set yet, but he turns out he's $280,000 in debt with student loans. Wow. Is he a doctor? Yeah, he's a doctor and he's a chiropractor and he's not actually practicing chiropractics where we live. Why? And it really

just doesn't make sense for him. Like, unless you own your own practice and want to have that be your lifestyle and build it up over several years, working for someone else, the max you're going to get is like 60 or 70 a or $70,000 a year, and he makes more money now doing remodeling as a project manager. He's really skillful, and he does woodworking on the side. So you spent $280,000 for nothing? Honestly, I think it's really amazing, the education he did, but as far as like economically, like, yeah. I don't think it's amazing. I think it was stupid i i think he actually feels like it's stupid now too and he started school when he was

just 19 he was um he's really bright and he comes from generational poverty and had no one to advise him otherwise and that's the other issue is what does he make what does he make now? He makes $80 to $90, depending on how many hours he does. And what is his view of this student loan debt? What is his view? He feels totally crushed by it. I've been kind of breathing down his neck about it the last couple of months to deal with it, and he's finally starting to take it seriously. He's doing income-based repayment, but it's still gaining interest,

and I'm not willing to be 50, like 56 years old when it gets so-called forgiven and we get banged with a tax bill. So I don't think, I'm not doing that. What do you make a year? I make $22,000 a year. I work in like a social work type job, and I'm looking, I'm in the active steps right now of interviewing at brokerage houses and getting my real estate license. Okay.

All right. I don't want to do this anymore. It's burning me out. So what's your question? Well, my question is we are looking at buying – I guess it just sounds ridiculous now that I'm saying it out loud, but we've always wanted to buy rental properties and build up like landlording and maybe doing some flipping because we'd both be skillful in that, I think. But we're looking at buying a triplex in the area for about $300,000. And I'm bringing, like in our potential marriage, I'd be bringing about $100,000 to the marriage.

I have never had any debt. You've got $100,000 cash? No, it's in my Roth, so it's not liquid cash, and I don't want to touch it until we're old. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, no, I would not tell you to buy investment real estate with debt to start with, and I certainly wouldn't tell you to buy investment real estate in the disastrous mess that you're marrying into.

So you guys have a— Yeah, he's so great. tell you to buy investment real estate in the disastrous mess that you're marrying into so you guys have a yeah you have great you have i didn't i don't doubt not doubting that he's only great if he commits to cleaning this up he's yeah he's ready i just think he we both are kind of like oh my gosh honey like where do we even start like yeah i mean fifty thousand dollars a year for five years and you're done i I feel like we can do that. I think you can too. He just doesn't believe it's possible, and I'm trying to get him to read this book that you have. Well, let me tell you, the number one cause of divorce in North America today is money fights and money stress.

It's my number one hot button too, and I'm already freaking out about it because we're not engaged. And if you guys cannot get on the same page in lockstep on this subject, as big a mess as he's got, that should be a deal killer for you. Totally. And he's sitting down with me on Saturday morning for three hours to start hammering out a budget. Then you're going to be fine. But all the data tells us on marriages that if you can agree on four things prior to being married if you agree on religion money kids and in-laws and how to deal with them

then you actually if you can if you can handle those four categories you have a very high statistical probability of a successful marriage even if there's a ridiculous mess like he's got you'll just fight through it together it's just a battle you take on together. You can fight through all kinds of stuff when you do it together. But if he's just like, oh, I'm hopeless and I'm a victim and I'm going to wait 20 years to get out of this and you got a hole burning in the side of your brain over this, this is not going to bode well for your relationship. So you've got to be on the same team.

You've got to be pointing at the same target with the money. And my view of that would be that you attack this debt with an absolute vengeance, and good Lord, no, you don't need to be buying anything right now. Christine is with us in New York City. Hi, Christine. How are you? Good. How are you doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay. So my husband and I will be done with Baby Steps 2 and 3 probably this summer, maybe August or September. Awesome. And so I'm kind of excited to move on to 4, 5, and 6, but I kind of have something tripping me up because we have our house that we live in, and then I also own a condo that I rent and I'm probably going to be selling that sometime within the the next year or so because I know that my my tenant wants to kind of get her own place and then we either want to my husband I want to either um either move to

a bigger house or do some sort of renovation to our house because we kind of don't feel like it's our forever home the way it is right now. So I'm kind of confused if I'm going to be on Step 3B, or am I really working Steps 4, 5, and 6 and just trying to pay down my condo? You're working Steps 4, 5, and 6. You're paying down your home. My home. And then you may sell your condo or not sell it depending on what your decision is on that and then you may use the money to move up in home or you may use the money to do

a renovation but there's you're still just doing four five and six fifteen percent of your income into retirement and kids college if that's a necessary thing and and then you know pile on to the getting your home paid off and we can use this condo to do that or we can use the condo to fix it up or whatever and okay so any extra money i throw at my house okay i was thinking i should throw at the condo okay no no we're getting rid of your getting rid of your mortgage because the condo is a temporary thing right you're going to sell it you told me that it's just a matter of when it's right exactly so that's why i didn't know if i should just be stashing money or paying down but okay so throw it at my house

at your home above college and retirement yeah that's maybe step six of course and yeah you're going that direction that's going to be very good for you um and you know just a side note i've owned a bunch of real estate my life and there's no such thing as a forever home. Right. You just move. You move as your life changes. Right. And, you know, we've got kids.

That's where we're kind of in a holding pattern anyway. We've got kids. We don't got kids. We're empty nesters. We're beginners, dinks, you know, double income, no kids. You know, there's different stages of life, and, you know, you need different housing needs during those times. There's no such thing as a house that serves your needs all the way through.

You may tolerate a house all the way through one way or another. Some people do that, and there's nothing wrong with that. You didn't do anything wrong. But this idea that you're not living the dream in your current home, just, you know, enjoy where you are. And if you want to move up, let's move up. That's okay. If you want to fix it up, let's fix it up. Because we want to make it more livable for this stage of our life.

All of that's fine. Hey, thanks for the call. We appreciate you joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. If you've been wondering about some of the terms that I mentioned on the show, we now have a great new video series called What Is. George Camel, the host of the Dave Ramsey video channel, takes on the various topics and explains them in an easy to understand way. Plus, George is funny, if you didn't know.

His latest video, What Is Dead Consolidation, is now at the Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel. A lot of funny stuff here. But also you'll learn something in the process. If you've got lots of debt from lots of different places, you may have looked into this option. So check it out to learn how this actually works and why it might not be the best plan for you to consider. To watch more in the series, visit our YouTube page today, Dave Ramsey page, the Dave Ramsey Show page on YouTube. Hundreds of millions of downloads. It blows my mind.

Thank you, guys. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. By the time I was 26, I had $4 million worth of real estate, and then I lost it all because I didn't do it the right way. That's why I feel so strongly that buying real estate is an incredible way to build wealth, but only when you're debt-free and do business with people who have your best interest at heart. My friends at Churchill Mortgage have been showing people how to build wealth through real estate for over 25 years. Their whole program is engineered around having better information

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This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591, Equal Housing Lender, 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. Paul and Shannon are in Billings, Montana. I see on my screen you're debt-free. Congratulations, you guys. We sure are, Dave. Thanks. How are you?

Better than I deserve. Well done. Well done. So how much did you pay off? Well, we paid off $200,000 in 10 years. It was just our mortgage. But $87,000 of that we did in the last 13 months. Whoa.

Okay. All right. And your range of income during that 10 years and that 13 months? Well, when we first started, after we got married and bought a house, combined we're about $60,000, and now we're up to about $140,000 between the two of us. Gotcha. What do you guys do for a living?

Well, I work for the state of Montana in law enforcement. I am in my real estate appraisal, and I recently went on my own to be self-employed. Cool. Very cool. All right. So this is your home is all it is. You paid off your home, your debt-free house and everything.

Yes. I'm talking to weird people. Very good. I love it. Very good. So what happened that the turbo charge kicked in 13 months ago? Tell me about this. I tell you what, you know, we listen to a lot of stories about people

and how they get out of these big mounds of debt and we just always thought it was great we got married and we were right on the cusp of going into debt but after listening to your radio show pretty much every day Shannon talking to cutting up the credit cards and we never even went into debt pretty much you know because of what you teach except for a yeah. So we started just attacking this thing, and we could kind of envision the way our lives wanted to be. Once we were debt-free, we could buy what we wanted and do what we wanted. So we just went all in, like you said, crazy people.

We didn't buy anything fun or do anything fun for about two years. We threw it all in the house and 100% worth it. Okay, but what happened 13 months ago? Because you paid off half of it in 13 months. Yeah, we had just been going along and paying off what we could, and then we just decided we were sick of it, and we wanted to be done with it, and we thought we could do this in 24 months.

We could be totally done. And as we started going, we just threw more money at it and that's about the time i i started working for myself and found out we had a little more we could throw at it and we ended up doing it in 13 months instead of 24 wow good for you how old are you guys i'm 43 and shannon's just about to turn 40 and she's being modest too because she um she was working for a company, and actually her boss ended up passing away. So she had no choice but to start this thing up on her own,

and she's been kicking butt for the last two years like you can't believe. We're very proud of her. Good. Way to go, you guys. How does it feel to have everything paid for, house and everything? We don't even know what to say. I mean, you just kind of wake up smiling. I'm telling you.

Way to go. Congratulations. Very well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I think pretty much it's just being hyper-focused on not being satisfied with having any debt, making small payments on stuff. Just get it done and just go start buying stuff and having fun, saving some money. I mean, it's very easy once you set your mind to it. We did have some visual aids, you know,

little spreadsheets where we'd knock the month off with a highlighter and it just went really well once we were on the same page. You got to be on the same page with your spouse for sure. Absolutely. Well, well done, you two. Very, very proud of you. Congratulations. Did you have people cheering you on or saying you were crazy? A little bit of both.

Some people we know just thought we were crazy. Our parents were really supportive of us. But, yeah, it wasn't easy, but completely worth it, I guess, is the main message I want to say, which is just a wonderful thing. Now, will you ever go back in debt? Why?

No! No reason to. Now that we're here. Well, you make $140,000 a year, you don't have any payments in the world. You're well on your way. We've got a copy of Chris. We're doing really good. Now we can kind of already see the light at the end of the tunnel towards an actual retirement, no second jobs for us. We're going

to pull the pin on our jobs here before you know it and just go do whatever you want. There you go. Love it. Very cool. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you. That's the next chapter in your story to be millionaires and outrageously generous along the way. Retire-inspired, number one bestseller.

Congratulations, you guys. Thanks, Dave. Yeah. Yeah. I said thanks, Dave. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't hear you. Okay.

Hey, we wouldn't have done it without you. Hey, you did it, man. I'm proud of you. Paul and Shannon, Billings, Montana, $200,000 paid off in 10 years, 87 of which in the last 13 months, making $60,000 to $140,000. That's their house and everything. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Love it! Well done, you guys. Very, very well done. Beautiful. Absolutely fabulous. Ariana is with us in Seattle.

Hey, Ariana, how are you? I'm good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up hi so okay me and my husband we are a single income family my husband's active duty military and we are seven thousand dollars in debt with credit cards with nine different cards and with auto loans we have thirty thousand dollars in debt um so with that being said, since it's nine different credit cards,

we're on baby step number two, I believe, of just starting the debt snowball. And I was wondering, do I still have to make the minimum payments on the other credit cards, or should I just knock out a credit card and not worry about that taking a hit on our credit? No, you make minimum payments on everything except the smallest card and you're the smallest debt and then you attack the smallest debt when it's gone you take the payments you used to use there and any other money you can squeeze out of your budget and attack the next one down what's your household income um only at 32 000 a. Your cars are insanity. Yeah.

We have a $9,000 loan on a 2013 Xterra and then a $22,000 loan on a Ford from 2012. With a $32,000 income. That's smoking crack, kiddo. Yeah. There's no way. That car's got to go okay but so i did my research on that as well and we're under when it comes to that so you're under what so we we i was looking at selling it and we are under ten thousand dollars we're negative ten thousand dollars

on a twenty two thousand000 car? Yeah. So we paid it six months ago, and we got it six months ago, $24,000. We brought it home, and I just looked up how much it would be on Kelly Blue Book, and it said it was $14,000. Dealer trade-in. Dealer trade-in? You looked at trade-in. You didn't look at retail sales. No, I looked at a cash offer.

A private sale offer? Mm-hmm. Okay, sometimes there are all these numbers. There's no car that loses $10,000 in five or ten months on a $24,000 vehicle. It loses half of its value. What kind of piece of crap is this? I don't know, and that's why when I did the math, I was like, oh, my God. Yeah.

Did you have negative equity in a car you rolled into this one? No. So we got cash for our old vehicle, and we used that towards that vehicle. What kind of car is this? What it i had a 2012 for we have the one that is the 22 000 piece of garbage what is that that's a ford explorer okay your numbers are wrong something's wrong in the numbers okay that car is not that the car a ford explorer did not drop ten thousand dollars in eight months unless you wrecked it. I mean, it just didn't.

You're getting some bad numbers somewhere. You're putting something in the Kelley Blue Book wrong or something. They're not that bad a car. So, yeah, you cannot survive with car payments, with car debt that is equal to your annual income. You should not have car debt. You should not have car debt, period, but you should not have cars that are more than 50% of your take-home pay. And yours is 100% of your take-home pay.

This is why you're starving to death is these stupid cars. You're way over on your cars. Something's got to give here, kiddo. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry,

a Better Business Bureau-accredited organization CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Health Care Ministries has done for over 35 years, Thank you. Frenzy Live Events, chministries.org. Thanks for joining us. Caitlin is with us in Tampa. Hi, Caitlin. How are you? I am really, really good.

I'm so happy to talk to you. You too. How can I help? I'm a little bit overwhelmed because I was told by my co-worker about you and the more I was watching your videos the more I realized how out of control me and my husband were with our money and I don't know where to start like I've already made a budget

and I think I made a good budget and I talked to my husband we're on the same page that we want to be debt free and have a house but there's so many things that, according to the different videos I've watched yours, that I also noticed that we don't have done like a good nest egg or we don't have an investment. I don't have a 401k. He does. And our savings is only like $2,500. Okay, cool. What's your household income? I think the total is like around $100,000.

Wow, that's great. How old are you guys? I'm 27. He's 29. Perfect. And how much debt do you have, not counting your house? Oh, I don't have a house. $23,000 for the student loan and car total and a few thousand in medical, I think, like around $3,500.

And then I think like $1,000 something for our phone. Okay. All right. Well, what we teach folks to do is, like you said, to do a budget. We have a budget system out that's free to use called every dollar you can download it for you can download it for your iphone or your android at every dollar.com or you know on you know in the app store whatever you want to do and i'll help you build your budget in about 10 minutes you and your husband look that over when you do a written budget usually

you feel like you got a raise because you're like, where is all this money going? You're going to discover that you're wasting money. You're going to discover that money is going to disorganization and so on. And when you do that, then we find money in the budget. What are our first goals? We have a process we teach called the baby steps, and that's the first thing to do, the second thing to do, the third thing to do, one baby step at a time. Your first baby step is to save $1,000.

Well, you've already done that. Check. You're at $2,500, right? Mm-hmm. Okay. Then baby step two is take everything above $1,000 in any non-retirement savings or investments, and we're going to throw it at your debt,

and we're going to throw anything else we can find in the budget towards your debt listing your debts smallest to largest payoff balance and paying minimum payments on everything but the little one attacking the little one with a vengeance when it is paid off you go to the next one when that one's paid off you go to the next one when that one's paid off you go the next one it sounds to off, you go to the next one. When that one's paid off, you go to the next one. When that one's paid off, you go to the next one. It sounds to me like you've got about $30,000 worth of debt with $100,000 income. You should be debt-free in a touch over a year. That's $2,500 a month. And does that mean that after that, then I save for the house,

or do I save for the retirement or make a better net? After that, you go to Baby Step 3, which is a fully funded emergency fund. We raise that $1,000 up to a proper rainy day fund, which is three to six months of expenses. Then after three is where people start saving for houses. We always call saving for a house Baby Step 3B because four is 15 of your income going into retirement so sometimes after you get your emergency fund in place before you

start saving for retirement some people will pause right there for a year and save up a good down payment on your save up a good down payment on your house. And, you know, that's what we call Baby Step 3B. And, Caitlin, the book that outlines all of this that, you know, on the bestseller list for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of weeks is called The Total Money Makeover. And I'll send you a copy of it free. You hold on, and you and your husband go through that book together, get on every dollar, and get your budget going, and we'll show you exactly what to do step by step.

The baby steps on steroids. That's what the Total Money Makeover basically is. It's exactly what to do and why to do it, in what order, and it'll show, you know, there's no question. The only question is whether you're going to do it. If you do it, it'll work 100% of the time. Tony is with us in Jackson, Mississippi. Hi, Tony. How are you?

Just fine. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? We have consolidated everything, and we have two more payments left. My question is, do we refinance our home since we bought at a higher interest rate 15 years ago? Well, that's not going to have anything to do with the – I would not roll in debt if you refinanced your home,

but I might refinance my home just to get rid of a high interest rate, yes. Okay. In two months, we'll have everything else paid off. Okay. So you'll be debt-free except the house. Yeah. What is the interest rate on your home? $7.25.

Woo! Okay. I know. Yeah, you can probably get $4.25 right now on a 15-year fixed if your credit's decent. Okay. And so that's going to save you like 3%. What's your loan balance? Like $150, $140. $140, and $150.

Okay, so every 1% that you save is $1,500 a year. Saving 3% is $4,500 a year. So if your closing costs were under $4,500, you'd break even the first year, and after that everything would be gravy. Yeah, this is definitely something you need to refinance you need to do it today and go ahead and put it on a 15 year fixed while you're doing it uh get in touch with churchill mortgage they can help you do that but you're definitely a candidate to get that done if your credit is clean enough that you

can get it done i would do that immediately well because rates are ticking up right now they're not jumping up but you know three months ago four months ago we were at three percent and we're four and a quarter now it's just real quietly sly just slipping out there just a little bit at a time and i would go ahead and get my refinances done folks if you haven't gotten them done i don't know what you're waiting on i'd go do it right now. Eric is with us in Fredericksburg, Maryland. Hi, Eric, how are you? Good day, sir.

It's an honor to speak with you. You too, sir. How can I help? I have a question. I'm on Baby Step 1. I'm in Financial Peace University. Awesome class. I'm learning a lot. My point is I have a car that I have a lean on, and I'm trying to sell that one,

and I got myself a beater, like you said, and your baby steps and all that. But my thing is every time I try to sell the car, I've had seven serious buyers for it, but when I tell them I have a lean on it it it's like they get scared and just walk away um i don't know if i should keep the beater i've invested i think a little too much than what i expected but it was i think i was far more excited uh getting on your program than really thinking about it and doing paying this car off well i think what you need to do is find out what the process is in the state of Maryland. Most states, it's very normal to sell a car with a lien on it. That should not spook a buyer.

It does all the time, though. I explained to them it takes about two to three weeks for the title to get released, and I think that's where everybody gets scared. I mean, that's normal. You give them the car. You give them the car. You give them the keys. You give them the bill of sale. And they drive away.

That's normal. If they get spooked on that, they just don't know how to buy a car. I mean, I've done it a hundred times. It's just there's not that much to it. I can't, you know, you just haven't found a buyer yet. That's all it is. But, again, double-check and make sure that that's the proper way to do it in the state of Maryland. And find out from your lender how quick you can get the title.

It sounds like you've already verified that to be about two weeks, but maybe you can get it in-house and, you know, you can take them over to the bank and the title's sitting there at the banker's, on the banker's desk, and, you know, we can just do the deal right there and you don't have to wait on it. Maybe you can work that out. That way you don't let one of these fish off the hook again but i think there's something else going on if lots of people buy cars with with leans on them lots of people happens all the time and um so i would not i wouldn't sweat that a bit thanks for the call open phones phones at 888-825-5225.

You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Cindy's on Facebook on a 20-year level term policy. Can you renew after that term's over without a new health exam, or would it be too expensive? Too expensive. There's a guaranteed renewal, but it shoots way up. You're much better off to go ahead and get another policy and do the health exam if you continue

to need insurance. The point is, over that 20 years, you should have built wealth, gotten out of debt, and gotten your kids out of the house. And so, during those times, you should have enough money that you become self-insured. Hey, it's Kelly Daniel, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know

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