The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Sell My Rentals While the Market Is Hot? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

Debt, Savings, Home Selling As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

Live Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is done, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today as we talk about your life, and he's pretty good at that, your money, and I'm pretty good at that. We'll work on it together and make sure we help you out.

That's what we're here for. We are here to give you advice to help your life better. It's free, and some say the call is worth exactly what you pay for it. The phone number is 888-825-5225 dave is with us in santa maria california hi dave how are you all right i'm fine dave and john thank you for taking my call sure i'm 75 my wife is 74 my home is paid off uh we're 600 000,000. We have $600,000 in savings and investments. We've been debt-free for 15 years. We just purchased a half-ton pickup to take our RV and travel around the country.

And in closing the RV, the finance manager wanted to put a $2,500 extra fee on top of it for an extended warranty. I said no, and then my wife and the finance manager both were on my case, because I wasn't going to spend $2,500 for that extended warranty. In three days, the wife loves me, but she still kind of has a

no-sign joint every now and then making a comment about, we should have got the warranty. I said, I don't feel like it, honey. We got the truck. Let's move on. Oh, you did not buy it. Huh? You did not buy the warranty. No, I didn't. You stood your ground

against the finance manager and your wife. Way to go, Dave! Woo, woo, woo, woo! You win the argument. You win the argument. Yeah, you win the argument. Yeah, well, you win the argument. Let me tell my house. Yeah, you win the argument. I'm in my house. I have my wife. Yeah, well, you win the argument. Let me tell you what to tell your wife, okay?

Extended warranties are a freaking scam. The finance manager would have made more money on selling you that warranty than selling you that truck. Okay? Here's the numbers. 50% of that $2,500 was going in that dealership's pocket as a commission. Now, let's back up a second, and you and I open up an extended warranty company for a second. Okay?

You want to go with me on this trip? Let's pretend we're going to open an extended warranty. And was this on the F-150 or on the RV? F-150. Okay. So what we would do if we were going to sell extended warranties on an F-150, which, by the way, is a fine freaking truck, okay, but let's just say we wanted to do that. And we would study the F-150s and we would say, okay, out of 1,000 of them,

the items that we're going to cover with the warranty break 14 times on this one and 18 times on this one and 26 times on this one. And so our cost per 1,000 F-150s is X of actual repairs. Does that make sense? Okay. If we're going to open a warranty company, our cost of doing business is fixing the truck, right? Right.

And we've got really good mathematical data on the probability of that actually occurring and what each car costs on average to cover you want to know what that number is it's 12 percent of the 2500 in other words out of 2500 dollars about 280 bucks is the actual estimated repairs of the average F-150 during the warranty coverage. Yeah, well, where's the rest of the money going? Well, I already told you, 50-plus percent goes to commissions, and the rest of it goes to profit for the warranty company and or overhead for the warranty company.

So you would have paid $2,500 to actually get about $280 worth of coverage, which you should self-insure through. You have $600,000 freaking dollars. You are a genius. You smelled a rat, and you stood up for your rights. You win. Your wife was looking for peace of mind. Let me tell you where peace of mind comes from.

$600,000 in the bank, not a warranty. Rockstar. Well done, Dave. You bank, not a warranty. Rockstar. Well done, Dave. You get to tell her you won the argument. But be very careful how you tell her that. He's been married a while. He knows how to do this. I don't want to win the argument.

I love my wife. There you go. It's not a matter of loving your wife. I love my wife, and she's wrong sometimes. Did you tell her that? No. Not like that i don't i said i just said how long i've been married 39 years i'm gonna tell her gently but i'm not gonna i'm not gonna also say you were right we should have got the warranty because the warranty is stupid their scams extended warranties are awful never buy them. Man, I hope both of my new Dave friends are married this time next week.

That'd be great. Yeah, well, I mean, you got to couch how you cover it. Of course. All services, okay? We don't want to go in and go, You've been married 39 years. That's hard, though, when you're in the dealership. The guy who's having a cow, you know why?

It's $1,250 out of his pocket. Well, then he did whatever he salesman wants to do. He got the wife involved. Oh, yeah. What a scumbag. And he thought he had them. What a scumbag. Man, thought he had them.

But let me tell you, you get $600. You know how you get $600,000 at retirement? By not doing stupid stuff like that. By not doing stupid stuff. By smelling a rat like that. Oh, man. So I went into an appliance store one time with Sharon. We had to have a new washer and dryer.

And I thought the guy had recognized me the way he was talking. And it's a part of my world. Sometimes I get recognized. Sometimes I don't. And it's okay either way. It's not like ego. But the way he was carrying on, I thought he knew who we were. So anyway, we're like, have you got one with a dent in it?

And ha-ha, I want to get a deal. No, I don't. Okay, okay. Well, we'll take that one. And he goes, well, you need to get, have you got one with a dent in it? And ha-ha, I want to get a deal. No, I don't. Okay, okay. Well, we'll take that one. And he goes, well, you need to get the extended warranty on it. And I started laughing because I thought he knew, like, who I was. He knew how I stood on it. And he's like, no, no, no, really, you need to get this.

And I'm like, no, no, no, I really don't. Then I start to realize he doesn't know who I am, and he has no idea. He's just trying to sell me an extended warranty. I'm like, no, dude, I don't buy extended warranties and then the guy goes dave ramsey does and i'm like what yes and he goes yeah dave ramsey comes in and buys stuff all the time and he always puts an extended warranty on it i would have paid money to see your insurance face right there just i'm looking at my wife and she looks at me and i said, I have it on good authority that Dave Ramsey does not come into this store.

I am positive, and by extended warranties. And he goes, oh, yeah. I mean, he bows up. So I hand him my real, I pull out my driver's license, and I hand it to him. And he goes, oh, bleep. Busted. And starts backpedaling. Oh, Mr. Ramsey, oh, bleep. Busted. And starts backpedaling. Oh, Mr. Ramsey, I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. I said, listen, dude. I said, Sharon, we need to leave because I'm really angry right now. And this man is using our name inappropriately. And I'm afraid I'm going to say something that will be a true Dave Ramsey story that he can use later. And we need to leave quickly. Oh, we'll do something. We'll fix you up, man.

It's no problem, no problem, no problem. And so we left. Yeah. And we went to Lowe's and bought them at Lowe's. Yeah. And the next day, the manager of the store called the office and said, can you come over here? And I said, sure. Went over there.

He goes, man, we looked it up. We've got a Dave Ramsey on file, but he lives in another city nearby that does have extended warranties and we've been telling everybody it was you and we were wrong and we've sent an email to all the stores telling people not to do that anymore please don't talk about us on the radio hey i like the fact that when he said would you come by because i would have said no man i got stuff to do i like that you said yeah i'll be right over well this was i was having too much fun by now gangster yeah yeah it gangster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, yeah, I got to see what this is.

And I went in and bought stuff from that other guy many times after that. I bought several things from him. That was a good move. My new friend. That was a good move. He's my new friend. This is the Ramsey Shack. Hey, y'all. I'm Chrissy Wright. When the busyness of life has you feeling overwhelmed,

you need to renew your mind and remind yourself of who God created you to be. That's why I'm a huge fan of Glorify, the number one daily worship and well-being app for Christians. With calming meditations, guided prayers, sleep aids, and worship music, Glorify helps you grow closer to God. Download Glorify for free today in your app store. And if you like it, you can unlock all of the features at half price by using the promo code RAMSEY. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Do you feel like you're constantly running, but nothing you do ever moves the needle? In your money, in your life?

That's normal for most people. Normal is frustrating, exhausting. Normal sucks. But you can live the life you want. You don't have to be normal. You could be debt free. You could actually have breathing room with your schedule and your money but that does not happen accidentally it takes a game plan and that's what we want to give you we want to give you a game plan we're doing a game plan live stream tomorrow night tuesday september the 28th dave ramsey me christy wright and george camel will help you set

a foundation that makes your goals possible. Christy's going to talk from her book, number one bestseller, Take Back Your Time. And George is going to be talking about goals, and I'm going to walk you through some money stuff. We're going to give you a game plan. Oh, did I mention it's free? It's a free live stream, a full-on Ramsey Live event, completely free. Don't be normal. You've got to get new information if you want new results.

Get the plan that gets you where you want to be. To register for a game plan live, text GAMEPLAN to 33-789. You want to watch this tomorrow night? Text GAMEPLAN, all one word to three, three, seven, eight, nine. Dr. John Deloney Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Travis is in Fort Worth. Hi, Travis. How are you?

I'm doing all right. How about you? Better than we deserve, brother. How can we help? Well, my wife and I both have kind of newer cars. I paid mine off last, about probably six months ago, and she still has about $6,500. We would have had everything paid off,

but we ended up, both of us had a baby last February. And we haven't done any payments on it in a while because we've done so many payments on there and I was wondering to know if we should sell my vehicle to pay the rest of hers off and then have probably about $15,000 to $20,000 left over to throw on other stuff. Are you out of debt except that? Yes.

So my wife just has the 6,500 that she owes left on the 2019 terrain, and I got a 2017 Camaro. I know, but you don't have any other debt anywhere? Student loan debt, medical debt, credit card debt. We're already paid all the hospital bills and everything. Okay. So the only debt in your entire world is $6,500. Yep.

Okay. And what's your household income? It's about $50,000 to $60,000. Okay. And you guys are what, 24 um she just turned 28 i'm 27 i'll be 28 next month and you said you both had a baby i'm assuming it's the same kid yes okay you said that kind of funny i thought whoa i'm sorry we had a new child we had a new child. We had a new child. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We, we, we. Okay. We, we, we. Yeah.

So all I want you to do is I want you to get on a written budget with our EveryDollar app. It's free to use. Matter of fact, I'll put you guys through Financial Peace University, and we'll pay for it. I'll pay for it. And we'll sign you up to Ramsey Plus membership, which will get you into Financial Peace University. It'll also get you on the EveryDollar app premium. And the two of you, you and your wife, sit down. Now, that gift is a $100 gift.

If I give that to you, you have to promise me you'll use it, okay? Yeah, we've done it before, but we'll do it again. Okay. Well, I know you're not on a budget because you can't tell me how much you make. So I know you're not on a budget because you can't tell me how much you make. So I know you're not on a written budget every month. Well, yeah, the reason why I'm saying I was trying to get an estimate because my wife just started a new job, and I kind of added the numbers before then. Okay.

Yeah, but your monthly income needs to be, every dollar of your monthly income needs to be allocated to this, and I want you to roll up your sleeves. Do you have any money saved other than $1,000? We got about probably $3,000 right now because she was not working for six months. But she's working now. Yes. Okay.

You both have a paycheck now. You can pay all your bills now. Take two of the three, put it on the debt. That leaves you $4,500. You get your $1,000 Baby Step 1. Now we attack that Baby Step 2 debt like it's a gazelle running from a cheetah. You remember. And you knock it out as fast as you can, and you keep her car.

There's no reason to sell your car. You can keep both of them. You need to get them paid off, and then you need to build up your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses with a new baby in the house. And that is the process. It's funny how the first baby especially changes the landscape of the brain. Right. Well, and he mentioned one thing that I might consider, which is he may be walking out to that driveway and looking at a Camaro that can't fit a car seat or something, and he wants it to be – it might make him feel noble to sell the car for his wife,

but it may also be that it's an impractical – it was cool when you were a high school kid or you're older now or something, but maybe not. If you need to sell the car for other reasons, there's nothing wrong with that. Right. But you don't have to sell it to get out of debt. No, you make enough money, pay off the car. The math works. yeah you may be time to uh move to a family car at this stage again i had a camaro before our kids were born yeah um i bought sharon a new camaro for

christmas before our first child was born and then i drove it and totaled it that is the the most newlywed gift when you get your wife something that you really want got us a bass boat and a shotgun it's like a kid buying a tonka truck for his mother for mother's day yeah it's like same thing it was a berlinetta camaro t-tops huh yeah yeah i totally so is it so this is a we've just i'm just gonna derail the show for a second. Okay. Is a Corvette a upgraded Camaro, or are they different cars? Well, they're both Chevy, and the Corvette's more expensive than the Camaro. So it seems like the Camaro is. They're not the same model.

No, but, you know. Is it like a Chevy guy can max out at a Corvette after he had a Camaro? Yeah, I've got one. Okay. I guess, and it's not total. It's not total to my knowledge. It's sitting in the parking lot. You didn't buy it for Sharon?

No, I bought that one for me. For her birthday. Straight up. I'm 39 years married, so I'm way past doing stuff like that. I would have loved to have seen her face like, thanks, David. Yeah, it had a red bow on it. I mean, come on. It's like a Lexus commercial. Except it was a Camaro. Except it had a red bow on it i mean come on it's like a lexus commercial

except it was a camaro tricked out like i wanted exactly man what a loving guy what a loving guy you're a great husband wow this is just too much therapy on the air greg is in phoenix hey greg how are you i'm doing pretty well good how can we help well i just paid off the last of my debts with the exception of my mortgage um my effective yeah right uh my effective increasing income now is fifteen hundred dollars but i have not been saving for my two kids college since they were born seven and eight years ago. And I have no idea where I should be at and how much I should be allocating towards that

per month once I get caught up to where I should be at. That's a great question. At the current rate of tuition increase, you're probably going to want to have about $3.9 million. Yeah, right? That should get both of them through, give or take. One year. Yeah.

At a private school. Yeah. Now, it depends on where you want to send them to school, obviously, but you can get projections on state schools. In state schools, you can get projections on state schools in state schools and get projections on private private is running about 4x to 5x of what state schools are running right now um and that's probably going to be true in the future um i'm guessing i don't know what's going to happen to poor higher ed but um now we tell folks after you're out of debt you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses that's baby step three baby step four 15% of your income going into retirement.

You're well past that one you said? I'm set at that as well. Okay. Then 15% of your income going into retirement is four. Baby step five is kids' college. Money left over past that is baby step six. Click SmartVestorPro at RamseySolutions.com. Sit down with one of the people we recommend for investing advice, and they'll give you

some exact numbers and help you dial in what you need to be saving for the kiddo's college. You're a good dad to take care of this. You're being a grown-up with a good execution on a good financial plan. Well done, sir. I'm sure most of you have seen the news recently about ransomware, cybercrimes, identity theft, and more and more data breaches. If you thought it was bad before, let me tell you, it's gone off the charts and it's out of control. It's impossible any longer to just bury your head and hope it doesn't happen to you. Today, it really is a matter of when it will happen and not if. We all live in this cyber world and need to make sure we have the best protection possible without wasting money.

That's why Zander's ID Theft Protection Plan is the only one I've ever recommended. They combine smart cyber protection and prevention services to help reduce your risk, and their team of dedicated experts takes over the work if you become a victim. They even provide $1 million in stolen funds protection, and kids are free on their family plan. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Grant is with us in Phoenix. Hi, Grant. Welcome to The Ramsey Show.

Hey, Dave. Thank you for having me on. Sure. What's up? Hey there. So my question is, I own three homes right now, two of them which I own outright, and the market out here in Phoenix is kind of crazy, and I wanted to know if you think it'd be worth selling them and hanging on to the cash for a little while and reinvesting later or taking that money and putting it towards what I owe on the home I live in right now. If you sold both of them, would the home you're in be paid off? It would. And how much would you have left over?

None. Okay. All right. So I owe about $490,000 on the home I'm in right now, and I could sell both of my homes for, you know, right around that. What's your household income? I make about $200,000, and my girlfriend makes about $60,000. Okay. All right.

So your household income is $200,000 because your girlfriend is your girlfriend. Okay. Yeah, okay, income is $200 because your girlfriend is your girlfriend. Okay. Yeah, okay, yeah, $200. How old are you? I'm 31. You're doing really good, man. Congratulations. Thanks, sir.

Well done. Appreciate it. This is going to feel extreme, but it's what I have done, and it has worked has worked out okay i'll preface it with that i would sell them and i would pay off my house and then i would use up the fact use the fact that you make two hundred thousand dollars a year and you have zero debt of any kind and you're 31 years old to pile up a pile of cash and by the time you do that this market will have calmed down and then buy an investment property with cash and then when that one is sitting there with cash and you don't have a house payment and you have rent coming in and you make two hundred thousand dollars

a year you can pile up money to buy the second rental property with cash even quicker and then when those two are paying rent and there's no payments and you don't have any payments on your house and you make two hundred thousand dollars a year you can pile up the cash to buy the third one even quicker. And that's how I started buying real estate the second time, and I've not been forced to sell any of it ever again. And I'm not in any financial stress ever again by doing that. It's a little slower, but it's a little more sure. And 20 years from now, you'll be ahead of the guy who leverages into them right and honestly i probably over purchased on the home i'm living in

but i did that based on the rent i was receiving from both homes that are paid off in attempts to cover my mortgage but um that's my biggest payment I have to worry about every month. And the thing is, you make a lot of money, and you've got somebody special in your life, so you may even be making more money if you were to marry. And so you've got nothing but upside on this, and you'll be a surprise at how quickly you can save up and pay cash. Now, rule number one when you're buying investment real estate is you do not pay full price.

Okay? So when you have $200,000 saved that it took you four years to save or three years to save after your home's paid off, you use that to buy a $250,000 or $300,000 appraised house, not a $200,000 house. You get a deal when you have that kind of cash, and you wait until you can find a deal. There are no deals in this current marketplace, hardly. I mean, very, very hard to find a deal right now, because any old thing will sell quickly and for too much money right this second.

And so it's a good time to be getting out of the market it's a horrible time to get into the market and i'm not necessarily i don't really care if the market's hot or not i just don't want it to be so hot that there's zero deals because i'm always looking for a deal we don't buy real estate at full price at ramsey that's not an investor that's what investors should never do that so i want to turn you into a cash investor that's looking for a bargain, and you wait until you get a bargain, and you're a cash investor that's looking for a bargain, and you wait until you get a bargain,

and you're a cash investor that's looking for a bargain. You get the pattern here. There's a pattern to this. And, dude, it's going to set you free. It's going to put you in a whole different place. Now, very unpopular with the I borrow money for everything crowd, but I'm from the I don't borrow money for anything crowd, and that's who you called.

So I think we could do the math, Dave, and let's say we're here in Nashville and people are overpaying, but the list price is X and they're paying $25 or $50 higher than that. And let's say you buy that house and it corrects down $50. Saving money for six months the math works out in your favor even though no i don't know that the market is going to correct down okay but i think that's i think all that's going to be is just there's going to be a little less shooting up okay and it's and the frenzy is going to come off of it okay when the frenzy comes off when supply catches up with demand,

then when people aren't running up to the front door and nailing offers to the front door, it's crazy. When that stops, then there's actually a foreclosure that can be bought out of the deal. There's a bank-owned real estate that can be bought out of the deal. There's other stuff you can find, you know, a state house. Two sisters own a house. They live in Chicago. The house is in Nashville. it's been sitting there on the market for a while they don't want it they never wanted it in the first place they just got stuck with it or airbnb

whatever yeah whatever it is you get a deal whatever the cause of someone becoming a motivated seller but in a market where there's seven buyers for every house that goes on the market 20 minutes after it goes on the market that no one has to take a deal. And what I'm saying is after, let's say, a year, the frenzy level's off, you're holding cash here. You didn't lose by not having a rental property. You actually did okay by just piling up cash. Because, again, you're going to use the $200,000 cash to buy a $300,000 house.

That's right. Or a $260,000 house or whatever it is. And so you make your money back on the deal. Right. The fact that you're buying at a bargain in a marketplace where bargains might exist, in a marketplace like we're in today, they don't exist. That's right. Just because of the simple, the frenzy.

The frenzy took all the foreclosures out of the market. But you can feel like you're losing right now and you're not. Yeah. That's a good clarification. And you're not. You're not.ard's in pensacola florida hi richard how are you hey dave what's up uh first i want to thank you so much for all your great advice over the years uh you've been like a little angel on my shoulder, the voice of reason. Bless your heart. Man, what's the devil on the other shoulder like? The devil's my wife on the other side.

Whoa! She doesn't understand budgeting. You're going to need to call my show after you get off this call. What's up, man? How can we help? I love her 33 years uh anyway quickly i'm 66 years old my wife is 56 years old i have two beautiful successful daughters we're debt free um i've got about 75k and a roth and i've got about 50,000 in cash

and my two daughters they uh the house that we live in is worth about 400,000 in cash, and my two daughters, the house that we live in is worth about $400,000, and they don't need the inheritance, and they're not interested in it. They don't want the house. And I probably know your answer, but is a reverse mortgage ever a good idea? No. Dang. Yeah. The interest rates are higher, and the default rate is higher because these things

are a dadgum mess i mean when washed up movie stars are pitching them on tv right next to walk-in bathtubs and snuggies you know it's not a good deal okay well i want to buy a motorhome and me and my wife want to travel around the country. Well, if you want to move down to the house, I'm okay with that. Yeah. Gosh, she doesn't want to move. She loves this old house. Yeah. We just did it.

We just moved into half the house. We're doing it this week, as a matter of fact. We sold our house. We're moving into half the house. Now, we used some of the money to buy another vacation house, and you could use some of the money to buy a motorhome and be the same thing. So if you moved into a $300,000 house and bought a $50,000 motorhome, you know, that would have been an okay move.

I would do that, but she won't. Yeah, well, she doesn't have to. I mean, you can rent a motorhome, too. You don't have to buy one. They go down in value horribly. They're horrible. We rent boats. We don't buy boats. We rent them when we want to use one. Well, it's not a bad thing, because they go

down in value like crazy. So, yeah, reverse mortgage is a really bad, bad product. And I would stay completely away from it under any circumstances. It just has a mess. The average default rate with typical mortgages is 3%. The average default rate among reverse mortgages is 18%. That gives you a hint right there how bad these things are. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, 1 Peter 4.10,

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as a faithful steward of God's grace in its various forms. Edmund Burke said, Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Darcy's with us in Houston, Texas. Hey, Darcy, how are you?

All right. How are you guys doing today? Great. How's it going? Oh, joy. So what's up? How can we help? Well, basically, I just need some guidance, some real guidance.

I've done Financial Peace University a very, very long time ago. So and I was it. I tried it, failed it, tried it again, failed it, kept going back and forth, and now I'm back around to it again. I'm now at a position where I'm a disabled vet, and I work full-time, so I'm receiving money. I'm receiving like two incomes. I'm a single parent.

I'm trying to basically just figure out what to do. I have a kid that's going to college in a couple years, and I have nothing. I have nothing for him, but fortunately, because I was a vet, I still have, he'll be able to go to school in-state for free. Why did you fail FPU? You said you took it several times. Why did you fail it? Uh, because I couldn't, uh, I wasn't working, uh, when I couldn't, um, due to part of the things going on with my disability or

whatever, I was unable to work. What is the nature of your disability, honey? Uh, it, it was physical, physical and mental. Okay. So at one point I wasn't able to work, but now I am working a full-time job and I'm able to do this day by day. And I also hopefully here, I'm also looking for another job within the system to pay more money. So what do you make off a disability? Disability, it'll be at $40,000. And what do you make on your other job? On my job, after taxes and everything, it'll be $31,000.

I just did that. How many kids have you got? Two. And how old are they? 16, 14. Okay. You did not fail FPU because you lost your job. That's not true.

You failed FPU because you lost your focus. And that might be true because of some of the mental things you're facing. I don't know. Yeah, I agree with that. Or it could be. It was more like me. I was just lazy. I don't know.

You've got to decide that. I'm not going to put it on you. You've got to decide. But thank you for your service, by the way. But you can do Financial Peace University making $40,000 a year, and you didn't stop getting that disability when you lost your job. Oh, no, I wasn't. No, no, no, no, no.

I wasn't making anywhere near that at that time. Gotcha. At nowhere near that at that time. You were making your disability income, didn't you? Yeah, but it was. Yeah, no, no, no. Not till later. But it wasn't that high it wasn't all

the disability income has been adjusted yes it has it has increased oh we're in the glass uh oh hold on i lie about that number a lot so wait a minute what's the real number i i think i'm 44 so are you are you here's the question that? I think I'm 44. Here's the question that every person's got to ultimately decide. You've got a 14-year-old, a 16-year-old, and they're important. They're your why. But also, you have to look in the mirror and decide, I'm ready to change my life.

Oh, yeah. I'm ready. I'm ready. Then listen. Then your past doesn't matter. Yeah. All you can control is tomorrow morning. That's it.

Yeah. And you've had some hard challenges and some ugly challenges. You've seen war. You've seen all kinds of mess. And here you are. And what you get to decide is what tomorrow is going to look like. Are you ready to change your life? Oh, yeah. Most definitely. Are you certain

of it? Oh, most definitely. Most definitely. It's going to have to change the way you talk to yourself, the way you think about yourself, the way you champion yourself in those kids, the way you look at them and say, hey, we got free college in the state. We're going to run with it and you can breathe.

The way you start saving money, follow the baby steps. It's going to be a totally different way of talking to darcy are you ready of course i am you can't say people like me don't win you can't say that anymore because people like you now win because that's you are different people yeah yeah that's what that decision does. Are you ready? I don't trust you yet. I don't either. I am ready.

I am ready. Are you going to count the cost of what it's going to cost? You may have to get new friends. You may have to tell your kids, hey, y'all got to get jobs. You make $71,000 a year now. And you're broke. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not now.

Not now. Not now. I have almost $30,000 in no. Not now. Not now. Not now. I have almost $30,000 in the bank right now. And how much debt do you have? Huh? And how much debt do you have? And that I don't know the answer to. Darcy, how much debt do you have?

I don't. You know. Really. What do you owe on that car you bought? You know what? I don't. I paid off my car already. I don't have any debt on that car you bought? You know what? I paid off my car already. I don't have any debt on that. Student loans?

No student loans. Credit cards? I don't have any credit cards. Medical debt? Medical debt, that's a different story. I have a son that's special needs, and that is from that. I'm still fighting with the insurance on that one. Other than that, what kind of debt have you got?

My house note. Okay. Other than those two things, what have you got? And I had a loan, stupid me. I had a loan and I'm like at 18 on that, and I'm thinking about just double, because I've been doubling up on my house because I was like, well, let me go ahead. Before that loan happened, let me double up on my house or whatever, and that's what I've been doing.

Darcy, listen, listen. You're creating chaos, and what you need is peace. You're trying to double up over here, not pay over there, call insurance company over here, then triple up over here, not pay over there, call insurance company over here, then triple up over here and go back and not pay that. And it just creates this chaos, this frenzy. And what Dave's trying to give you is peace. So here's what we're going to do.

You hold on. Kelly's going to pick up. I'm going to sign you up for a fresh class of Financial Peace University. I'm going to pay for it as a part of a Ramsey Plus membership. And that's how you access Financial Peace University now. It also includes the EveryDollar Premium app. And Darcy, this time I want you to follow orders like you're in the military. And bring your boys along with you. This time I want you to do everything exactly like we tell you to do it.

No variance. I want you to stick with it exactly. Because you never heard me one time back when you went through FPU tell you to pay double on your house while you're sitting on a stupid 18% loan. That's so discombobulated, kiddo. And you can do better than this. Even with all the different things you got in your life, even with the different challenges. But you need a very, very clear path and a very clear line.

And you don't get off the line. You stay right on the line. One foot in front of the other. Follow the recipe exactly and we'll make some great gumbo. But if you go make up your own stuff, don't expect it to turn out, because that's what happened between the time you left Financial Peace University the first time and now is you never once applied the exact recipe. And it would never have you paying extra on your house.

It would never have you dealing with that. You don't know what's going on with these medical bills. You don't have a clear, organized, precise plan. And that precision is where your piece will come from. It requires some extra work. And you kind of sweat and have a little stress while you're doing it. But the end result is you are now on top of the numbers managing them they're not managing you and you get to choose your heart from this

point forward you want to live in chaos and payment to payment to payment to or do you want to work really hard for a couple of years and breathe and choose your heart that's the way it works you can do it kiddo hold on. Kelly will pick up. Good show, John. Dr. John Deloney, James Childs, Kelly in the booth. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast.

It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.