The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Buy the Moldy House My Mom Lives In To Fix it Up? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, 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, Rachel Cruz. Ramsey personality is my co-host today. We're taking your calls about life and money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Happy New Year, America! It is time for you to get a fresh start on your money, and part of what we're doing at Ramsey to help you do that is we're launching a brand-new book today by Rachel Cruz. It has been over a year in the making. Know Yourself, Know Your Money is officially on sale. Another number one. I'm pretty sure we haven't gotten the numbers in yet.

We won't for a week, but I'm pretty confident of that. Congratulations. Thank you. It's exciting. It's weird weird it's always weird with book launch day because again it's a project you worked on for so long and now it's out there and yeah my hope is people love it and it helps them i mean it's kind of a new way of looking at the way you handle money and it's really dives into your decision makingmaking, how you're wired, why you do the things you do, and it's really exciting. I'm looking down the back of it, and I knew we did this, but now that I look at it in this setting, it's pretty impressive.

The endorsements on the back of the book are Marcus Buckingham, Dr. Henry Cloud, Candice Cameron Bure. Is that how she pronounces it? I love her. I love her so much. Yeah. Well, I mean, you loved her back when she was on Full House when you were a little kid. So there you go. Bobby Bones, of course, our buddy here in Nashville that's a country music icon. Radio DJ.

Radio icon, I guess I should say. Christine Kane, another icon. And The Minimalists. So, and apparently their new Netflix thing may have dropped. Because I'm getting some comments on social about my appearance on it. Yeah, I think it's out. So I think it must have hit. So those guys are great.

The Minimalists. Oh, they're awesome. We love them. Awesome, awesome. And they obviously love you. It's quite a wonderful quote. I did their Minimalist Challenge. I write about it in the book.

But it's fascinating because it's all about understanding so one of the tendencies is do you do are you quality or quantity when we talked about the seven tendencies earlier in the show and so i am quantity like i would rather have inexpensive things but have 20 pairs of earrings versus like one nice pair of earrings so that's always been my bent it's always kind of how i've shopped. And I just had so much crap. Like I have so much stuff. So there are minimalist challenges. You take a calendar month

and every day, whatever the date is, you use that number to give away something, sell something, throw it out. So if it's the 14th of the month, there's 14 items around your house

you got to get and get rid of. And you do it every, and it's, number one is so great. Just minimizing your life and just getting stuff it's a lot i mean oh i can't remember the number now i can't do the math that quick but yeah i write about in the book but it's amazing so it's they're they're awesome and i totally believe in their message because i mean it's and again so much of even this book there's that level of not letting stuff absolutely consume you. And I think that's a level and a reason people just go into debt.

And I think a lot of life problems masquerade themselves as money problems. So you look at a debt problem and it can either be through consumption of things you can't afford. There can be a contentment issue. There could be a planning issue. You're not planning your money well. So you're using debt. I mean, all of it, it all fits together in this huge cycle, and I love kind of connecting all the dots.

Know yourself, know your money. So one of the tendencies is quantity versus quality, and as you say in the book, neither one are bad, neither one are good. It's only when you go to the extreme of one of them. That's right. Yep. So the moderation is ideal, right? You kind of have both of everything.

I know a lady in our neighborhood who would buy coupon stuff, and she had like 7,000 jars of peanut butter in her basement. Not quite, but it felt like it when I was a little kid. Like enough jars of peanut butter to last you into the millennial, right? And I was a little kid, so it was a long time ago. So I mean- So that could even be a scarcity mindset, too, of like this fear of, oh gosh, oh gosh. That's almost like a prepper before there were preppers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. so i mean that could even be a scarcity mindset too of like this fear of oh gosh oh gosh that's

almost like a prepper before there were preppers but yeah but our coupon are that gone crazy i don't know but i mean that's a that's a yeah that's almost i mean that's like it is hoarding it's a borderline it was real organized so it wasn't hoarding but um but yeah the uh she had the organizer lady come before she was born too but so but yeah the and one of them one of the spectrums that you that we gauge ourselves on in the book is experiences versus things things yeah so when you spend money on on an experience or a thing would you rather go out to eat or would you rather have a nice shirt right exactly and where And where the tension can be in this, it's not as much as the extremes, but relational tension comes up a lot in this. So married couples, when you value spending money on different things or different ways, that's where conflict can come in.

You are experienced off the chain. Yes. And Winston is not. No, he's all things. I mean, even when we were first married, it was like our first, I think it really was our first year of marriage. We'd go out to dinner and he'd always get water. And I was like, please just get a glass of wine or get a Coke. Like, I don't care.

Just like, let's get a drink and enjoy. And he's like, babe, I'm good. I'm good with my water because I can take my $7 and go buy a two liter Coke or a bottle of wine or whatever it is. And for a while, it just always frustrated me a little bit. I was like, man, just like enjoy. He's like, I'm good. He genuinely was so good. He's like, I'm good.

And then as I was like fleshing out this book thing about stories, I was like, that's it. Like that's a prime example of he just doesn't really value experiences. He enjoys it and it's fine. But where I want the whole elaborate thing, he's like, no, I'm good. And yeah, it just makes me laugh. Even our Christmas lists, our Christmas lists are 100% different. I'm like, I want a small gift card. I want a Zoom membership with the kids.

I want all this experience. And he's like, I want Alexa light bulbs so I can turn on my living room when I can say, Alexa, turn on the living room. Clap off, clap off. Yeah, that's Winston. He's like, no. Because for him, it's like I value, if I work hard and make money. I didn't even know Alexa light bulbs were a thing.

Oh, yeah. Lord Jesus help us. We won't get to the conspiracies of everything. But anyways, so I'm like, yeah, that is a real thing. So when you budget and sit down as a couple, especially if you're getting out of debt and you're having to make sacrifices, where you're putting your money, there can be tension. So there's just the warning flag of that, that that's where conversations can come into play. Saver versus a spender.

Yes, that's a tendency. And again, extremes, not good. You don't want to be a hoarder on the saver side. You don't want to spend everything you make on that side. But being able to name it. So are you experience or things? I'm experience. You're experience, okay.. So are you experience or things? I'm experience. You're experience.

Okay. Yeah. Are you quality or quantity? Quantity. Or quality. Your quality. Yeah. I don't really care.

You buy a lot. I do. You're a spender. I'm a spender. I'm definitely a spender, but if I not quite. But I'm not going to. If I go to buy a whatever, I want the best one. A pair of boots. You don't need like.

Yeah. I have no desire to have six pairs of boots. I'd rather have one really good pair that I can wear the rest of my life. Yeah. Get some good cowboy boots. Yeah. That's. I've got a pair that I've had for 20 years.

Yeah. There you go. That's it. That's it. We'll probably have them for 20 more. And they look great. So shut up. But yeah.

Sure they do. Sure they up. Sure they do. Sure they do. Sure they do. They polish up. It's an old-fashioned thing. We used to polish our shoes, not throw them away. But, yeah. So, know yourself, know your money.

Rachel Cruz's new book is out on the stand. You can find it anywhere great books are sold. Amazon, DaveRamsey.com, RachelCruz.com, Target. Barnes & Noble, BooksMillion, Barnes & Noble, Walmart. You can find it. It's out there. Good Morning America in the morning. Be watching at around 815, 820.

Rachel will be on talking about the book, so check it out. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. What if I said you could totally reset your money in 90 days? Last year, you might have felt out of control of everything in your life, including your money. But it's a new year, and it's time for a new way of thinking. You can take back control of your money. So if you're ready for a reset this year, then join me, Rachel Cruz, Chris Hogan, and Craig Groeschel at Reset Live, our free live stream on january 12th we're going to walk you through exactly what you can do

in just 90 days to kick start a better year with money we'll help you dream about the life you really want and set solid goals for you to make it happen then we'll show you faster ways you can pay off debt and save money make the reset live day one rsvp for the free live stream by texting reset to 33 789 text reset to 33 789 rachel cruz ramsey personality is my co-host today here on the air it's book launch day for her new book know yourself know your money there is a virtual launch party January 6th that would be tomorrow night for most of you in January 7th Thursday night Wednesday and Thursday night two different virtual launch parties at 7 p.m. Central Time.

And that's at rachelcruz.com. You can go live and ask her your money questions and participate in this book launch. If you'd like, we'd love to have you. Again, just go to rachelcruz.com and sign up for the virtual launch party Wednesday or Thursday night this week at 7 p.m. Jesse is with us in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Hi, Jessie. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi. Thank you so much for everything you've taught. We are just having a lot of fun. My husband and I built our dream house four years ago. We went into the steps, baby steps, about 15 months ago, and I didn't think we'd get through them as fast as we did, but we're already on step six. Wow. Great. Yeah, we feel good. So I'm kind of a nerd. I punch the numbers every day and I've gotten a little addicted to this mortgage payoff calculator. Good. And so, you know, I arbitrarily picked a number to save for our two kids for college.

They're currently ages six and eight and we're putting $150 for each kid into an ESA. But I'm seeing if I, you know, I don't want to borrow and rearrange these steps because I know that's my pet peeve when people call in. But can I or should I lower that dollar amount in the ESA in order to put more on the house or should I just leave that be, just stay calm and just pay it off? We're currently saving cash for a barn, so anything extra right now we're putting aside to build our barn. I'm just wondering your thoughts. How much money do you guys have saved in the ESA so far?

Each in the ESA, only about, I'd say, $4,000 for each kid. What's your household income? About $200,000. And what do you owe on your home? $217. And what's the barn cost? We estimate it at about $60,000. Go ahead.

We have $25,000 saved currently. Okay. So $200 a month is $2,400 a year. Mm-hmm. That doesn't really move the needle on barns or houses. Okay. I mean, you can if you want, but it's not really going to move it that much. What's moving it, what has moved you along so fast, is your attention to detail and your intentionality.

I mean, you have this wonderful income, and you're using it to accomplish your financial goals. Way to go. Touchdown. So technically, to answer your question about rearranging the baby steps, you know, we just say baby step five is saving for college. We don't say how much because it ranges so much whether you got little kids older kids what your household income is all that kind of junk as to what you can put in and still accomplish your baby and still be putting something towards baby step six but um if you wanted to back it down to fifty

dollars it's okay but my point is it's $2,400 a year. Yeah. Like I said, that mortgage calculator on your website is amazing, and you can see what an extra, you know, we're paying $800 extra a month on our mortgage currently. And saving for a barn. And saving for a barn, yes. So when you get the barn finished, so you're estimating if you stay on your current path, the barn will be done and the house will be paid for when? In about six years, five years.

Five years, yeah. That's what I was going to guess. Okay. So doing this changes it four months. Okay. Okay. I made that up, but I'm not far off. It might be five months. It might be five months.

It might be three months. The Dave calculator. But it's $2,400, I mean, over five years. So that's $10,000. That's right. Yeah. It's not going to move the needle. If it changed your payoff on your home by five years or three years or something like that, yeah, maybe.

But when it changes it by a month or two months or three months, nah, I wouldn't do it. And, Jesse, what's your husband, what's he saying? Is he on board, too, or is he kind of like, oh, we can kind of chill a little bit? Oh, yeah. No, he started listening to Dave in an AM radio van when he was a landscaper when we started dating.

So he's so chill, and he just says, you know, the growth that we'll gain in the ESA is better than the low interest on the mortgage. Keep the growth on the ESA account and keep it as it is. Keep it going, yeah. So the technical baby step answer is you can do either. I probably would stay with your current plan because I don't think it moves the needle that much to change it. And I think you'll be glad you put money into the essay. I'm really not even worried about the growth on the essay versus a mortgage amount.

You know, that would lend you to say, I'm going to load the essay up. I'm going to put even more in. But right now you're touching the base, which is what you want to do on Baby Step 5. You want to do something towards kids' college. And then you moved on to do the other stuff. Yeah, and she's an example of the nerd, not quite on the extreme, because I don't think you're unhealthy by any means in that sense, but she's running numbers, she's calculating.

It's almost like you want to be gazelle intense through these baby steps, and you're not supposed to. You're supposed to back off. So the fact that you guys are saving for a barn, I think it's awesome. Like, yeah, you can just take a a breath even though you're crunching the numbers and you're seeing the difference of what you're paying just an interest even for two years of a home having a mortgage versus not i think all that's awesome that you're well what a free spirit doesn't understand that is that when nerds like uh jesse and me are running these numbers that's actually

fun for us well she said i had a lot of fun calculating these numbers. We're not fretting. It's not bothering us. This is like what we do instead of watching Netflix. We would rather run numbers on something. It's just more fun than watching an Oprah rerun. So we actually get joy out of this. I know it's hard for people to grasp but don't think that way.

But all the nerds are out there going, yes, spreadsheets rule, yes. And so, you know, but that's, you know, again, if you turn it all the way over to where it becomes an obsession, then you're wrong. And she didn't. No, she didn't. That's what I said. But I'm saying she's a perfect example of a nerd.

Yeah. Because she's loving it. And her husband's just kind of like, hey, we got this. Yes. Yeah. So very, very intentional. Good job, Jessie. You guys have done a wonderful job with your money. So proud of you. Yes, I don't think there's Oprah reruns anymore. Oh, well, probably is somewhere.

Ben is in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Hi, Ben. How are you? Good. How are you guys? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Well, I have a bit of a morality question for you

um so my wife and i uh trying to pay off our debt so i used to be driving uh like a really cheap drunkard car um and now you you always say that like mama gets the good car, right? And we actually moved over New Year's, like Christmas, New Year's. Now, she lives, or she's five minutes away from her work, and I have about a 40-minute commute. So I've been driving, like, our good car, and she's been driving the Junker. It just, it doesn't quite feel right to me that that it's that way but i'm worried about the reliability of the the junker obviously well i don't know what the law is in canada but in the united states it's illegal for you to drive the good car

i'm kidding it's federal law mama gets a good car. Does she care, Ben? Is she good? Or does she want the nice car? No, she doesn't care. This is just something I have a problem with. You have like a conviction that like, oh, you feel bad that you're driving the nice car and your wife's not. I think you're okay. Because you guys are only going to be in babysit two for how much longer?

About 10 months. Yeah. Why don't you switch every other week yeah i guess you could do that i don't know i just made that up i have no idea but i mean it has to do with it has to do with how everybody feels about it and more than it does the reality obviously if the stupid car breaks one of you's got a problem and canada is a bit we bit cold this time of year so um you know i you know you don't want her stuck out in the cold, for sure. I mean, that literally could be dangerous, depending on your situation.

But she's five minutes from work. I know, it still could be dangerous. Yeah, absolutely. But the, I don't want to walk four minutes in that stuff. But the, yeah, I, you know, you can switch out or you know as long as the thing is not giving you any trouble you can drive it i i it's all it's a joke but it's about marriage relationships and you know understanding sacrifice all the way through this thing so you're not an evil guy either way ben it was a joke but everybody gets the joke because Mama Gets the Good Car has a sense of gallantry to it, civility to it.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. I'll see you next time. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, number one bestselling author, launching a new book today, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, discover why you handle money the way you do, and what to do about it is my co-host today. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best possible deal.

Today's question comes from Marilee in Nevada. I just paid off my student loans back in June. I just finished the legacy journey through Ramsey Plus and would love to begin a giving category in my monthly budget and baby step three. I already give 10% of my income as a tithe to my local church, but I am wondering how to create something a little more. How do I address the numbers? Is there a recommendation on how to start giving past your tithe? Do you have any recommendations on which organizations to get started with or even how to begin giving? I want to do my research before I give money away, if that makes sense. Yeah, that definitely makes sense. I mean, we always recommend 10%

no matter where you are in the baby steps. And the whole process of the baby steps is to give a little until you can give a lot. And obviously that a lot, huge explanation point is on baby step seven. Once you have your house paid for, you have no debt, kids, college is taking care of your funding retirement, then you're able to give a ton of your income because you have a lot of all your income coming in because you have no debt. So if you do still want to start giving a little bit more and you're on Baby Step 3, I think that's great. You can. I would up it maybe just a few percentage points right now. I really want that emergency fund for you because once you have that stability,

then you're going to be able to give beyond that 10% for sure. So I would recommend just a few percentage points if you want to right now. A lot of organizations, especially if they're 501c3s, they have to publish their budgets on their website. They have to make that public.

So you can go in and look to see how much of the money coming into the organization is going to fees or administration or to the actual mission of what they're doing. You can look at all of that, get a feel, talk about it. I mean, we take giving pretty seriously here at Ramsey. What we talk about is how much you spend on your retirement account and investments. Is the time you need to spend on what you're giving? I mean, you as a believer, you have been given resources and to put it back out to help people. You want to make sure you're doing it really efficiently. So I think you researching organizations is smart. What to get started with? I mean, anything you're passionate about.

That's, I think, one of the best things about our world today is through the Internet, social media, there are so many organizations out there. Anything you love and have a heart for, whether it's foster care or rescuing people out of human trafficking, digging wells for freshwater in Africa, helping the homeless community. I mean, like anything that you have a heart for, there's probably an organization that helps with that mission. So just research. I would start there of what you love. Yeah. And we have chosen to give substantially to a few with the Ramsey Family Foundation not to give $500 to a bazillion different people and spread it out thin.

Instead, we'd rather make an impact on a handful. And so if I were in your situation, merely just getting started, I would just pick one for now. There's always more valid needs and valid ministries filling those needs than there is money that you have. Anyway, there's always more. And so you cannot be everywhere. And don't try to be everywhere. Don't dilute, and don't give a dollar to 500 organizations. Give $500 to one or whatever it is.

You're much better off to do that. Your life's much simpler. You won't get as many emails. You won't get invited to as many dinners. You get charity fatigue. You do. You do. You get philanthropy fatigue, and so you're not going to get there with all that. Just keep it real clean and real simple and do some research like you're saying you're going to do. You do. You get philanthropy fatigue. And so you're not going to get there with all that.

Just keep it real clean and real simple and do some research like you're saying you're going to do. And the way we pick the ministries that we support, we usually know something about them or their one degree of separation. Personally, one of the Ramseys do. And or one of the Ramseys has a passion for that category. And that's how they end up in the, it is a very personal thing with Ramsey Family Foundation. It's how we do it with our giving as a family. And so that's how we would recommend you do it. And I, you know, in your case, once you finish baby step three, beyond the tithe,

if you want to just put a flat a dollar amount to start and go, okay, I'm going to do $500 more a month or whatever, just make up a number. I don't care what it is. Once you get further along, I'd recommend a percentage. In addition to the 10% on your tithe, I would give another X% to other things. And that's how we do it at our house. And then no matter what your income becomes over the years, you've still got your formula. And you'll always

be, as you make more, you'll always be giving more automatically. And you don't have to stop and rethink and all that kind of stuff. You can choose to increase your percentage if you wanted to later on, but that's not always necessary either. Don is with us in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Hey, Don, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, how's it going? Great, man. How can we help? Question about where to put my retirement fund. So I'm 11 payments away. My wife and I are 11 payments away from being out of our inverted 3B. And then we will have, you know, we'll be right into the retirement section of it. So,

so if I know your order of retirement typically, but if I max out my Roth 401k at work, um, she's a contract bookkeeper, so she can do a Roth, um, 401k set up for her. And then we could do Roth IRAs. But I have an option at work to do an HSA. So I'm wondering if I should do an HSA because that's kind of like double tax incentivized. I don't pay taxes going in or coming out. I know I don't get the growth that I would, but I'm just trying to figure out how to best place that last little bit. The HSA, if you use it for medical, is a double because you take the tax deduction. It's not really because you take the tax deduction and then you don't pay taxes on it as you use it.

And so it's really just once. And you can get the growth on it. Check out a company called Health Equity. That's who we have our HSA savings with, and they have mutual fund options. I have never used my HSA for health issues, knock on wood. Consequently, I've got a couple hundred thousand bucks in it because I just load it up every year. It's yet one more way I can max out things. And once your home's paid for

um you know you max out everything so you take advantage of everything at your fingertips and that would be both roths uh both 401k roths and the hsa but you get a tax deduction when you go into the hsa and you don't pay taxes on it when it comes out. So that is like tax-free use of that money if you use it for health. So would you use that before the Roth IRA? No, I would use the Roth first because it's tax-free growth regardless of what you use it for. Okay, that's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure. Thank you. Hey, thank you for the call.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Carrie is in Dallas, Texas. Hi, Carrie. Happy New Year. Hey. Hey, Dave. Happy New Year to you, too, and thanks for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? Okay. Okay. So, your problem, child. I have lots of credit card debt to the tune of $70,000 in credit card debt. Wow. Bless your heart. Yeah. And I, you know, purchased my first home four years ago almost,

and lots of things went wrong with it but that wasn't all the debt and I was given advice from a friend a year ago to just stop paying the credit card debt. They were all zero percent and all the interest rates started. I knew they were about to skyrocket and it was going to get to the point when I couldn't even make minimum payments anymore. And so they just said, quit paying, just stop paying. And I did try to call several of them

and they weren't willing to negotiate anything with me. They didn't want to talk to me because I was current on everything. Yeah, of course. And I had always been. Of course. So now they're all coming full circle. All right, I'll current on everything. Yeah, of course. And I had always been. Of course. So now they're all coming full circle. All right.

I'll tell you what. Hold on. When we come back from this break, we'll get the rest of your story and see if we can help you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. We're talking with Carrie in Dallas, Texas. She ran up $70,000 in credit card debt.

As the interest rates went from zero to full-blown, as they always do, she was unable to make the payments. Her friends suggested she stop. And that's about how far we got in the conversation. What else is going on, Ms. Carey? Yes, sir. Well, I started working your program last month. I reached out, and a financial advisor found me, and we've already met.

She's got me on a budget um she i've done plastic surgery i've done all her homework we're meeting friday again for the new update things are actually going great i was gonna say you actually while you're out of control you're starting to feel in control i'm more in control i mean that's the first time i've ever been on a budget before um i i checked out every dollar but i think with all this default debt i felt that you need a budget or y n a b.com uh was better for me i don't because of all this unknown i don't know i don't know um you need to get on every dollar okay yeah it's going to be much better you just need to run two debt snowballs is all okay so i've got all my default debt um i settled or i just settled and paid two of them

i knocked two of the cards off myself I got summons for two others through the same collection agency or law firm. And, um, I did get a lawyer for the first one and could kick myself cause I realized I can do it myself. Um, so we, he settled for me on the first one. And then I guess it gave me the template to know how to do it. So that's what I paid for, but I settled the second one. My question is, on the debt snowball with those, they're going to be coming at me, you know, the different amounts are coming at me. And once it goes, I get a summons i've got to settle those out no you don't so i don't okay um they can sue you but they can sue you but in

texas they really can't do anything well i thought they could get control of my bank account which would be not in te Texas. Not in Texas. I thought they can't... Can't garnish your wages. Well, you don't need to give them your bank account information. Right. Well, I figured I could just switch bank accounts if that were the case. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, so we're not going to let them create the emergency. We're going to let you create it. So all of these, this entire $70,000 is in default? Yes, sir. Okay. And what other debts do you have? I only have my home loan, which I owe $178,000 on that.

You're current? I have a car. I am current. I'm current on everything else the car seven i owe seven thousand perfect and what's your income i still owe 12,000 my income is 78,000 okay and i'm also working i've been doing Uber Eats on the side delivering, and I was able to pull in $500 last week. Way to go. That's awesome. I'm planning to just keep attacking that as well.

You're inspiring. I mean, you're inspiring. You made a huge mess, and then when you decide to do something about it, you got a template from the lawyer, you met with a financial advisor, you're working your plan, you picked up an extra job. Made a budget. You got a template from the lawyer. You met with a financial advisor. You're working your plan. You picked up an extra job. Made a budget.

You made a budget. You're doing everything. You are really on fire. I'm so proud of you. For what I do. So I am, and I just want to keep this fire. So as you get little summons, if you want to stop and settle those, that's fine. But if you get one that's a huge one, just let it sit.

There's one coming up. It's like $8,000. It's $8,200. And I told them. I spoke with them on the phone, and she wasn't willing to talk to me. She wanted me to make a good faith payment. I said, we're not doing that today. I just need to know what you would be willing to settle for so I can, you know, plan for that and be able to give that to you in a month or two.

And she goes, I can't do anything with you right now. That's good. Then hang up. Listen, go ahead and slam the phone down just for the satisfaction. Just for the satisfaction. The woman, if she's going to act like she's a test pilot for a broom factory, treat her that way. Okay. That was her decision, not yours.

That's all a technique. That's called intimidation. And don't let them do that to you. You've got a plan. You're on fire. You've got a system. And so what you're going to do, here's what's going to happen, okay? You have three different summons and or collectors coming at you, and you have $2,000 sitting there.

This is in the future. This is in the future. What you're going to do is you're going to mess with every one of them. You're going to go, I got $2,000. Who wants it first? If you take it, you will get that as a settlement on eight thousand dollars that's behind door number one if you don't then we're going to go to door number two and whichever one of you calls me back first that's who's getting this money i'll get back to the rest of you later

when i got some money and this is a game show baby you know and just have some fun with it right and then you know how to settle it you've got the template to do that get it in writing and do not allow them electronic access to your checking account that way they don't know where the flip it is right and they don't clean you out on the rest of your plan that i did settle on this law firm i did the two that i settled on i do not need to pay online or anything like that or because it is in a settlement am i safe to just go online and pay them, or do I need to do the cashier's check every time? What do you think?

If online means they have your bank account information, do not do that. Yeah, I would think they would. Do not do that. Don't do it. Okay. Okay, that's what I thought. I just wanted to ask. Because once they have that, if they're unscrupulous, and some of them are,

they can turn around and clean out your bank account. Okay. So you're going to get around to working with everybody we're not trying to ditch them we're not trying to be a deadbeat we're just not going to be abused and we're going to play them against each other until we get through this so i need to start with my default debt snowball smallest to largest on that i do have three cards that are current um i'd knock them out if you can get a smaller amount i'd knock them out first snowball, smallest to largest on that. I do have three cards that are current. I'd knock them out if you can. That are smaller amounts. I'd knock them out if you can.

Knock those first? Yeah, go ahead and knock them out. Okay. That's what I thought, but my advisor was telling me different. Well, normally what we tell you, what your advisor was trained to do, and normally what we tell you is run two debt snowballs. Run your current stuff and pay it off first and let all the stuff that's in default just sit and once you've gotten rid of the car payment and the three active credit cards everything but your house then that gives you more cash flow to deal with the stuff that's in default that's our normal routine you got a few of them

coming at you right now and so if you want to uh kind of dodge around a little bit head fake and jump in and out of that and jump over knock out one of those summons that's okay there's not a bad thing here okay what i don't want you to do is i don't want them threatening you or giving you a hard time or bossing you around to become the priority instead you set your priorities you have power over money for the first time in your life, Carrie. Use it. All right. You make the decision.

Don't worry about them taking me to court then. Nope. Because sometimes you feel pressure to settle before court. We can settle after court just as good. Not worried about it. Okay. But I thought that they would do the full amount plus court costs. Nope.

Well, they will. But we're also going to negotiate that down to 10 cents on the dollar. Okay. And they're going to be happy to get it junk debt it is junk these aren't junk debt it is junk debt it's credit card it's in default it's called junk debt okay that's what it is because they all say they're representing the card itself it's just well i don't give a crap third party they either own it or they don't but when they get ready to sell it they're going to sell it for a nickel on the dollar right and so that's what it's worth to them it's junk debt it's it's it's almost a year since they've been paid they have their probabilities they know their probability is almost zero it's five percent

chance they're going to get paid and the fact that you're working with them gets them all excited. You actually have a phone number that works. Everybody else in their database doesn't. I mean, that's who they're dealing with. And so you're like a unicorn for them. They're so happy to talk to somebody to abuse you. Carrie's great. Carrie, you're doing great.

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