The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Stay Home Due to COVID While My Wife Works? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: December 14, 2020

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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show. For debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Chris Hogan, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author a couple times over, is my co-host today, the voice of the everyday millionaire in America. Open phones as we talk about your life and your money at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Mark is in Asheville, North Carolina, to start off this hour. Hey, Mark, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, fellas, thanks for taking my call. Sure, man. So my wife and I are new to the Baby Steps. We're currently in Baby Step 2. We've been paying off some debt the last two months or so. We got about $6,000 in debt.

It's on a personal loan of mine. It's our last little bit. We owe about $150,000 on our house. And we have $350,000 roughly in a brokerage account invested in single stocks. And I'm just curious what your thoughts are on whether we leave that there and try and do this on our own or kind of what we do. Wow. Where'd you get that? Well, yeah, yeah. My wife's father passed away when she was a teenager,

and this has kind of been in this account since then, basically, 15 or so years. My goodness. Wow. Chris? Well, I'm just curious whether we just don't even touch it and kind of work everything on our own. Yeah, Mark, I'm going to tell you something, buddy. What's your thoughts on what sets us up? I'm going to tell you right now, you all have been blessed, obviously,

because an inheritance is something that someone intentionally leaves to you. And if I'm in you all's shoes, I'm going to use this inheritance and this blessing to be just that. I would begin to sit down with a smart investor pro to walk through and talk through where you are, but also beginning to really look at liquidating this to begin to move you forward to attack the debt and pay off the house. The rest of that money that's sitting in there, I would move over into growth stock mutual funds and look at this as a long-term play for you all's investments. You've got an opportunity to fast forward through these baby steps

and put yourself in an incredible position. How old are you all? We're both 32. Goodness gracious. What's your household income? About 75. What's the house worth? About $400,000 roughly right now.

It kind of went sky high this year. Very good. So let's went sky high this year. Very good. So let's play pretend for a second. Let's close our eyes and say we've got $25,000 sitting in an emergency fund in a money market account. Okay? Okay. You don't have a debt in the world. No house payment.

Nothing. Okay? Nothing. Okay. And you got $175,000 invested in mutual funds with a SmartVestor Pro, which will double roughly every seven years if you don't add anything to it. Oh, but you're going to be adding to it because you don't have any freaking payments anymore. So now your ability to invest as a baby step seven person is going to be amazing how much you can invest. If you just invested a house payment, the old house payment on $150,000, what's your house payment, $1,700? It's about $1,300 right now. We put down a big chunk.

Okay, so if you just put $2,000 a month away from age 32 to age 62, that's tens of millions of dollars just not having a house payment. It'll probably be about $12 million at your age. Just paying yourself a house payment. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy. So not doing it would be... What do you mean by capital gains? That's just part of it? There is no capital gains.

Capital gains is not based on your debt. Capital gains would be in the... Oh, capital gains on this account. On the account, the brokerage. Oh, you might have. Has the account grown since she inherited it? Yes. How much has it grown?

How much was it when she got it? Well, it's right around what it is now, really. Has it grown? You know, she paid for grad school. She paid for grad school. Has the – because capital gains is based on the growth of the stocks. If the stocks have grown while she has owned them, you will pay 15% on that. And so that would come out of this.

But it doesn't change my advice, dude. Yeah. I would be on a written budget, a detailed plan. Every dollar has an assignment, the two of you working together. And I would promise myself with a Smart Investor Pro I'm going to start investing in my 401K max, my Roth IRA max where I get to $2,000 a month invested in good growth stock mutual funds growing tax-free, if at all possible. And that alone will make you worth tens of millions of dollars,

and that's the legacy her dad left her. If you play this right. Now, if you go buy a bunch of stupid stuff with it, and you've got a $70,000 bass boat in your driveway, somebody ought to smack you. Okay? But if you'll go do the right thing with this, you're going to have all the money you

ever wanted to do anything you ever wanted including be a blessing to others yeah it really will and and and just put them in a whole nother stratosphere financially dave uh what a blessing you know and it again thinking it through having a game plan and i tell people you've got to have a plan for your money because everyone else does. Look at the commercials. They're coming out with cars now that can park themselves. Did you know that, Dave? No, I wasn't aware of that. Okay, I never get that tired that I can't put it in park.

Okay, I can do that. But, I mean, there's always something out there, the latest, greatest thing. And so we've got to have our own value system of what matters to us and what we're chasing down. And so, Mark, I hope you'll go sit down with your wife, talk this through, replay this for her, and you guys really get connected. Get over into Ramsey Plus and work as a team. And I'm telling you, your kids' kids' kids will reap the benefits of her father's blessing to you all if you play your cards right. So I lied to him. Oh.

Okay. Uh-oh. He's not going to have $10 or $12 million. He's only going to have $7 million. Well, he can't make it on that. So. He's not going be two thousand dollars a month invested in good mutual funds at average rates of return from age 32 to age 62 would be seven million um let's take it to 30 let's take it to 72 just for the fun of

it just to see what would happen no i think that's gonna get us closer well yeah i know but i did the math wrong in my head apparently so i have to to admit that. So let's see here. Did we get the calculator going? Oh, that has to be wrong. It's $23 million, so it couldn't be. That couldn't be right. Actually, it is. Yeah, so $7 million, but you keep doing it for 10 more years.

That's right. That compound interest on $7 million. Holy gramoli. Either way, I think you're going to make it, my brother. All right, Robert is next. No, he's not. He's going to be up after the break. So there you go.

Power of compound interest. Edison called it the eighth wonder of the world. Yeah, and it is not a lie. I mean, the mindset, when people get that light bulb going and understanding when you invest, not only is the money you put in growing, but the interest is growing interest. And so compound growth becomes this thing that's just a big financial hug. Think about that. Coming from the guy who just loves hugs.

Well, you know. He's huggable. I am huggable. He's huggable. You the mean one, I'm the good one. Can y'all see a dirty look over the radio? Let me retract that. Can you see a dirty look over the radio? Let me retract that.

Can you see a dirty look over the radio? I'm just saying. I want hair wiggled. You made me nervous right there. Well, you should be, Mr. Huggable. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. The very last thing Christmas should give you is stress. So our famous $10 sale is going digital. For a limited time only, you can instantly get our most popular audio books and e-books, all for just $10 or less. Get my number one best-selling audio book, The Total Money Makeover, read by me.

If you're serious about getting your money in order for 2021, The Total Money Makeover is a must-have. Plus, it makes the perfect gift. Or learn what it takes to build wealth with our Everyday Millionaires e-have. Plus, it makes the perfect gift. Or learn what it takes to build wealth with our Everyday Millionaires e-book. And as a bonus, for the first time, we're adding Debt-Free Degree and our latest audiobook, Redefining Anxiety, by Dr. John Deloney, to our new digital $10 sale. It's not too late to invest in yourself or a friend this year. Skip the lines and shipping delays and shop our new digital $10 sale at our online store at DaveRamsey.com today. Or call the Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They are 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 Ramsey to get the best possible deal. All right, here we go. Today's question comes from Eric in Ohio.

He says, I understand funding of the 401K match than Roth concept. All things being equal, where do the HSA contributions fit into this concept if HSA is being used as a retirement health care expense. Giving long-term care statistics, what amount of money do you think is a reasonable retirement HSA that the HSA should have in it? Well, a couple things here, Eric. You're bringing up two different things. With the HSA, I mean, you've got a great opportunity as an individual to contribute up to $3,550 per year, and as a family, $7,100. But long-term care,

this is almost, think of them like a tag team partner. Long-term care insurance is something you want to have in place by age 60 to make sure that if you do go into a nursing home or need assistant care, you've got money or an insurance policy, the long-term care, to take care of it. Yeah. Yeah, long-term care insurance is an essential part of financial planning at 60 years old and beyond. If you have a net worth of under $10 million, otherwise you'd probably self-insure through it. If you got $10 million or more, you'd probably just hire somebody to come to your house, right?

I mean, you wouldn't go into a nursing home. And so at least that's the way people that I know are handling it. But otherwise, you can use the HSA for long-term care expenses, and so funding it could help you become self-insured and not need a long-term care policy. Oh. I think maybe what he's hinting at. Okay. And that's okay, too.

But fully funding the HSA as an account, the savings portion of the account, as an investment would really be a baby step seven tactic. You've maxed out all your retirements, and you still want to hide some money from the government legally. I fully fund my HSA every year. It's invested in mutual funds, and I've never used it for medical expenses. I always just cash flow my medical expenses. Consequently, I've been doing it since George W., and that's when HSAs were invented,

is in his administration. And I've got like $250,000 in that account. So you're looking at that like a health emergency fund. Yeah, that could be my long-term care policy in a sense. Okay. If I wanted to just pay for long-term care, that's the first place I would pay for it out of. Okay. And I'm just letting it grow as an investment.

It grows tax-free or tax-deferred, just like a 401k or traditional IRA. And so it becomes an investment if you're not using it for health care anytime soon. Okay. And so little stuff, like a deductible, I mean, if one of us had a tiny surgery or something, and we had a $1,000, $2,000 thing, we'd just pay that. Just pay it. And we'd leave the HSA alone. But that's in a high net worth situation and baby step seven situation.

That's right. Prior to that, you wouldn't use it except just to cover chronic stuff, stuff where the money's going in and going out every year. But the HSA, we're huge fans of that around here. And this is the first time I've ever seen the question come up as a long-term care issue. But you do need long-term care insurance. Hey, what dollar amount is it that you think that someone is self-insured? What would you say? You know what?

I've got a cheat sheet laying around here somewhere on the long-term care insurance. And I think it's important, while I dig that out, just to touch on this whole subject a minute because it's such a good subject. We're such a proponent for long-term care insurance yes without a doubt and the the reason is is that 75 of you ladies will outlive your husbands and so the typical thing that happens is the um i can't find it the typical thing that happens is the um you know you you lady the papa goes into the nursing home, burns through $50,000 to $100,000 a year for a couple, three years, and burns up the nest egg, cracks and scrambles the nest egg. And so the typical long-term care stay, that's what I was looking for the cheat sheet on. Is it under my, oh, maybe it is.

Nope, nope, it's got its own thing over there somewhere, James, but that's okay. I'll find it later. Bottom line is, is the typical stay is not that long. So it's a $300,000 to a $500,000 event is typically the max. It's very unusual to hear somebody going over $500,000 in nursing home care. But the problem is, for most people, that's everything they got. That's right. But if you're sitting on a, you know, everyday millionaire situation, they got $5, $10 million, and they got a half million dollars sitting in that HSA or $300,000 sitting in that HSA,

they can pay for their nursing home or in-home care themselves and self-insure it, and it's all tax-free because the HSA going in is tax-deductible. Going out for medical, there's no taxes on it. And so it's a very, very good program. That health equity company that we endorse is who we've got our HSAs invested in, and they've got good mutual fund options in there. And we'll do that. So yeah, it's important. And again, if you're out there and you're a millennial, and you've got parents or whatever that are in their mid-50s, please bring this up,

because you want to make sure that that policy is in place by age 60. And don't overdo it, because your chance of using long-term care insurance in a nursing home setting or in-home care setting prior to 60 is one-tenth of 1%. But as soon as you turn 60, it's like all hell breaks loose. The statistics get really high. Very dramatic increase that you're going to need some kind of care in your last couple of decades, two or three decades of life. And by the time you get in early 60s, the price goes up astronomically. So you want to be proactive.

Love your parents enough to bring it up. Just tell them, hey, you saw two bald guys talking about this stuff. And mom, dad dad i love you and do you have this in place and and if so you're just asking and that's doing it out of love not out of greed there you go robert is in orlando hey robert welcome to the dave ramsey show hey how are you guys doing today better than i deserve man how can we help so i will be starting law school next fall uh i'm 23 years old, and my only debt is a $17,000 car loan that I might sell depending on where I move to. Currently, I make $32,000 a year and have about $15,000 in safe stock.

Hopefully, that will be able to grow to about $20,000 before I start. I do have an emergency fund as well as a Roth that I contribute to every month. My question is, should I use that $15,000 to $20,000 to pay for rent and living expenses while I'm in law school, or just take out enough student loans to be able to pay for those living expenses and just focus on school? Robert, did you really just call the Dave Ramsey Show to ask Dave if you should take out a student loan? Are you new to this, Robert? Are you brand new? As a matter of fact, I am. Okay. All right.

Well, let me keep him calm. Then you just be nice to him, Chris. Don't scare the man. I'm the nice one. Robert, here's the thing, buddy. I love the fact that you've got a career track. I even love that you know the direction you want to go. But here's what I want you to avoid.

We have a $1.7 trillion epidemic going on. Excuse me, billion-dollar epidemic going on. It's going to get to that pretty soon. Oh, it's brilliant. With student loans. It's a situation. And so what I don't want you to do, I want you to chase your dreams, but I don't want you to grab student loans. I really and truly don't.

You've got an opportunity to look at this and start to think. I've got friends that have done this, my friend, where you're enrolling and going to law school at night while you're working. And it might take a little bit longer, but for you to come out of that without student loans would be a game changer. The stories that we've heard, Robert, over the last 20 years, 25 years of doing coaching with people financially that took out a law school loan. They're $200,000 in debt and all on the premise that this was all going to work the way it was supposed to work, and life never works exactly the way it's supposed to work. And so they end up not passing the bar. And let me tell you what your law degree is worth then, economically speaking. Not so much um or so they end up deciding they want to be more of a public servant and they want to work for the government as a lawyer which means you get

paid squat but you've got big old student loans that you've got based on the fact you were going to be a rich lawyer someday and so it doesn't turn out the way people think it's going to turn out always there's all kinds of different things that happen. It takes longer to get the law career started and get the income to go with it, all those kinds of things. So you put yourself in a dramatic disadvantage when you take on these student loans. And so that's why we're always trying to talk people out of it. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money.

It's a free call. Chris Hogan, Ramsey Personality, author of the number one bestseller, Everyday Millionaires, is my co-host today here on the air. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. We'll be right back. Chris Hogan, Ramsey Personality, joins me today as my co-host. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. On the debt-free stage, in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Kirk and Emily are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Great. We're good.

Welcome. Where do you guys live? Springfield, Illinois. All right, welcome. And how much debt have you paid off? $77,000 in five years. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? Started around $25,000 and it's up to about $55,000. Cool. What do you guys do for a living? I was a stay-at-home mom during this time. And I worked in insurance and then taught guitar lessons on the side. Okay. Very good. What kind of debt was your $77,000?

It was our house. All house. Paid off your house? Oh. I'm looking at weird people. You have no debt in the world. Nope. It's pretty great.

Yeah. How old are you guys? I'm 30. I'm 32. And you're a paid-for house? Yep. Nope. It's pretty great. Yeah. How old are you guys? I'm 30. I'm 32. And you're a paid-for house? Yep. You are straight-up weird. I love it.

I'm so proud of y'all. Well done. What's this house worth? Around 80, 90. Okay. And you own it by God. Yep. All right.

What caused this? Who started this journey? Well, definitely our kids. Okay. We found out three years ago. We were expecting. That's what really spurred us on. In like the month after that we found out we were pregnant with our first,

our air conditioner and furnace had to be replaced too. Sure. And we were already on the path of paying off the house early by that time. But in like the three months after that we saved about twenty thousand dollars wow yeah i worked like seven days a week about 12 13 hour days every day yeah so you had to get some money so you went and got some money yeah yeah that's where you get it work i've heard that's fantastic so all right which one of you is the saver and which one's the spender

he's probably the saver okay i'm probably a little bit more of a spender just a little yeah just a little bit so it sounds like you guys have been very on task yeah yeah yep it definitely um i feel like we were we've always been like when when I met Kirk, he never had debt. And we went to open our checking account after we got married, and he didn't have a credit score. And so they were like, well, we don't know how to. He had to have all this extra identification and stuff for opening the checking account. And I was like, well, that's kind of weird. He's off the grid.

Pretty much. When I was pretty young, I read Steve Martin's autobiography. And when he talked about never having a credit card and never wanting one, it just really struck me because I hate the idea of the burden of owing anybody. And when we got approved for our mortgage, I was like, well, that's great, but I don't want this. And we just worked as hard as we could to get it paid off. I love it. Very, you definitely made some serious sacrifices working as much as you did. I mean, that's a big deal. It really is. Uh, what'd you, what did you learn about this process of paying off the house? You got to do something that you like. Yeah. And, um, you know, sometimes you just

have to get past the feeling of wanting to buy like whatever you want. For me, it's guitars. I love guitars, but I have enough of those. And, uh, you know, every, every spare penny that we had, if you would find change on the ground, it's like never spend found money. We would just take that and put it away. We also started a business on the side. I play violin. And so basically all week he would work and then teach guitar lessons in the evenings. And then pretty much every weekend we would play a wedding. So we started playing weddings.

And we just worked so hard and learned to be patient too. It was something that took a lot longer than, I don't know. I'm normally not a very patient person. So learning long-term, setting long-term goals was really good. But she's really the budget whiz. Emily's actually studying to be a CPA right now. All right. So, you know, the biggest lesson that we've learned is listen to your spouse, whoever it is. Just listen to each other.

There you go. Very good. Very good. So who were your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you who was cheering you on you got a paid for house at 30 and 32 right yep family for sure parents and my brother helped me fix like every single thing on our cars and he taught me from a really young age how to fix my own car and and that helped out a lot. Oh, yeah. I was having a car payment for a long time. Did your friends think you all were weird? Yeah, we didn't tell a lot of people.

And then, yeah, I think now that we're mentioning it to people more, they're like, well, that's kind of strange. Well, I wouldn't want to live like that, so that's fine. I had some friends think I was weird when we asked for a VCR instead of getting disney plus yeah that might be weird very cool guys i'm so proud of y'all well done heroes how's it feel to not have a payment in the world pretty great wonderful especially in the middle of weird times like we're in that's actually how we finished this was we got our stimulus payment and put it towards the house.

Yeah. So we had savings set aside for emergency fund and then the extra expenses after. We just decided that at that point it would even out. If we paid off the mortgage at that time, we could still save that much more and get it back to where it was. So we took care of it. Fabulous. Well done, you guys. We got a copy of Chris's book for you, Everyday Millionaires.

And that's definitely the next chapter in your story. So we'll get the kiddos in the picture for the debt-free screen. What are their names and ages? Sammy is two and a half. And Henry is nine months. All right, go Henry. Here we go, buddy. I love two and a half. And Henry is nine months. Alright, go Henry. Here we go, buddy. I love it. Very cool. Alright, Kirk and

Emily, Sammy and Henry. 77,000 paid off in five years. They have a paid for house and everything at 30 and 32 years old. Ding! Did that making 25 to 55 thousand a year. They are heroes. Well done, guys.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. One, two, three. We're debt-free! Yeah! Hey! Oh, man. Oh, man.

Oh, man. Way to go. That's about killing it right there. Yeah, it's a big deal. 30 and 32 years old. If you're out there and you're sitting and you're going, well, man, how'd they do it? Well, they decided. And then they made sacrifices.

And then they worked a plan that actually worked. You have an opportunity to do that as well. Just make the decision today and then decide. And truly, get plugged in. This plan works and it's helped millions of people. And we're helping the young, young people own homes outright, which is awesome. Yeah, I mean, it's – you're so right, Chris, that, you know, the only difference in their story and some of you listening,

if you've been listening a while, if you're listening first time today, you're just trying to figure all this stuff out, but the only difference is they decided. Yeah. They just decided. Really did. And some of, you know, you've done that about other things where you just decide. You know, the old joke, Yogi Berra, you say, when you come to a fork in the road, take it, right?

But, you know, that's a decision. Yeah. You've got to go somewhere. And so, you remember that time you decided to ask her to marry you? You remember that time you decided to go get that degree? You remember that time you decided to go get that degree you remember that time you decided to move to that other city and it changed everything yeah it changed the whole trajectory of your life and so decisions are so powerful and the interesting thing is they're not

necessarily permanent you don't have to decide something in it and then never change it again right but if you decide something positive you could never change it that's right that would work you know find something there's some things i never ever again do again in my life yes you know there's some things i always do in my life those are decisions i always tithe as a christian i always give a tenth of my income i always save for emergencies i always invest i'm always an incredible tipper i always i mean you got some you gotta have some decisions that you make and you know i never ever will do business with american express again under any circumstances there's some decisions you need to make right absolutely there's some

decisions you make and you say i'm not gonna i'm not gonna be treated like that that's right and you know the beautiful thing is we live in the greatest country on this planet, and I'm biased because it's the only one I've lived in. We don't need anybody's permission. We get a chance to decide and try. You don't need a permission slip. Like when you used to go out in the hallway with your kids. To field trips.

Yeah. My little Hogan had to sign them. Yeah. Not anymore. You're like a grown-up. I'm a grown-up. You don't need a permission slip anymore. That's exactly right.

You can just give yourself permission to pay off your house. Way to go, Kirk and Emily. Proud of you guys. Touchdown, baby. They're weird. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. This year's been hard for everyone. I'm betting you know someone who had a really hard year. Maybe they got slammed.

Maybe it was medical bills or maybe they lost a job. Well, they shouldn't have to struggle like that ever again. And they don't have to. This Christmas, you can give them some peace of mind. Help them feel hope with Ramsey Plus. It's our step-by-step money plan that helps people get out of debt and get their life back on track quickly so they can finally save money for their future.

Because once you're not sending all your money to the bank you can breathe easier when the next emergency hits because you've got an emergency fund you can give someone ramsey plus by going to davramsey.com slash store that's davramsey.com slash store ed is with us in tamp. Hi, Ed. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Chris. How are you guys? Great, man. How can we help?

Well, my question is I have not been able to work since the COVID came along, and my wife has not missed a day. She got a promotion to kind of like in charge of the whole department, and she's going to get a $20,000 year raise starting in January. We finished Baby Step 3. Wonderful. Thank you. And in January, we're going to talk to a SmartFest Pro. Now, Beth is going to have to do, like, a lot of traveling,

and she's going to be working long hours. And she would like me to just stay home, take care of the dogs when she's out of town, take care of the yard, the house, just take care of them, because she's going to come home and she's not going to want to make dinner. The dogs? Pardon me? Stay home to take care of the dogs no no no there's no kids no kids uh no grown okay yeah what is she making

well she went from uh 48 to 68 and i have not been able to work. I've got some of those high-risk people with the COVID, and my doctor told me that I really need to take this stay-at-home thing seriously. You've got what kind of a problem medically? Upper respiratory. Upper respiratory, okay. Yeah. How old are you? I am respiratory. Okay. Yeah. But even when I was – How old are you?

Our plan was I am 60. Okay. All right. I was planning on going back to work once the vaccines were available, but we'd still been able to save, you know, about $1,000 a month putting it in the bank, and she's going to get this big bump in her raise. Which she gets whether there's somebody at home to watch the dogs or not. So you think it's a bad decision?

Well, I don't understand it is what I'm saying. That's why I'm being sarcastic. I mean, if you are – now, there's a couple of caveats i do understand you're not working if you have a health concern with upper respiratory and covet i sure no trouble but that may be let's just call that um let's just reach out there and say a year from now for whatever reason vaccine or whatever other reason that that's no longer a concern you are a 61 year old man and your job is to sit at home and watch the house? Yeah, I know, I know.

That's just weird. It doesn't make any sense. Plus, I feel really guilty, you know? I'm not trying to guilt you. It's just strange. I've always worked, you know? Yeah, right. I've never been unemployed in my life.

Right. Well, Ed, here's the thing, buddy. I think, you know, you being conscious of your health situation, I think is one thing. But you have opportunities to be able to work from home. You've got opportunities to be able to do things where you're not encountering other people. So I don't think you just throw in the towel because your wife got a $20,000 raise. And if that's what her thought is, I to suggest you sit down and and really kind of speak yours uh your thoughts your feelings to make sure you guys are getting on the same page all of this is the other side of a health concern okay if there's a health concern right we're sitting down

you're on the bench okay i got no issue with that at all but the other side of a health concern there's just great dignity in work there's not much dignity in watching the dogs there's just not i mean they go out twice a day and you feed them i mean there's just not a lot to do here so um you know it's uh uh no i think i think if uh it's going to be good for your mental health regardless of your bank account for you to be doing something as soon as you're medically able to do so with wisdom. Right. And so, no, most of the time I hear, honestly, when something like this comes up, there's kids at home and she's making $680,000. Right.

Not $68,000. Yeah, no, it's a zero and a comma. And then she wants to, you know, then she wants you to stay home and take care of business because she's out there killing it. Right. Okay, we can talk about that. But, dude, $68,000? Well, here's the other side of this coin, too, Dave. He said she's going to be traveling a lot.

So that means he's not going to see her. And so he needs to have something to pour into. So, Ed, listen, sit down and have a conversation. You guys talk, and if you can't get an agreement, you might need to reach out and get with a marriage counselor to help you guys kind of navigate this and make a long-term decision. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Jennifer is with us in Atlantic City. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave and Chris. Thank you so much for taking my call. I really appreciate it. Sure. Okay, I live in New Jersey, and this summer I was notified by EasyPass in New Jersey that our payment wasn't being processed.

So I called EasyPass to correct the issue with my credit card. But, of course, this summer no one was working in E-ZPass. I couldn't get a hold of anyone because of COVID. Everybody's working from home. I tried. My husband tried. Anyway, we ended up changing the information online with the credit card, straightening it out, what we thought was for ourselves. And I just went to my mailbox and I just found out we were reported to collections because the situation that we thought was rectified was indeed not. So it is truly no fault of our own. We're just having a hard time in the state of New Jersey trying to get any kind of public employee to respond. So I'm just curious, what do I do now? It's $175. I'm going to say the total charge was maybe $75.

Well, you know, this is not the first time I've heard easy pass sucks. You've heard that before too, haven't you, Jennifer? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, they kind of have a reputation like Comcast. You know, it's just like, when you hear it, you just go, oh, it's hard to find intelligent life over there. It's like the DMV or something. So, and then worse than that, they all decide not to work. So, you know, work from home entails work, but not for everyone.

So, ouch. So what are you saying? You did not pay your bill on time because the account was screwed up. You went online, thought you fixed it, and it was still screwed up. Yes, but it kept on saying you have to speak to someone um you have to talk to someone from easy pass to correct this problem and you never could try yeah and we could the summer we couldn't and we just assumed okay well we updated the information ourselves i guess we're okay but then today i go and i find out now it's up to 175 dollars and

we've been reported to collections. I've never been reported to collections. Well, it's not like they're going to come to your house or something. Don't worry about it. They're not working that hard. So, and collections is aggravating. I mean, it may have dinged your credit or something, but whoop-dee-doop-dee, it's not the end of the world. I don't know what to tell you.

I mean, you're asking me how to motivate a government employee. I don't know what to tell you. I mean, you're asking me how to motivate a government employee. I don't know how to tell you how to do that. Okay. You know, I'm sorry. I'm being smart, but it's also the truth. I mean, how do you get somebody who can't lose their job for incompetence to work? Yes. I'm feeling very frustrated.

Yeah, angry. Yeah, I get you i'm so uh or you know i mean it'd be okay if they said look uh we're not going to charge you anything because we're not getting our work done over here that's different but instead they're like trying to ding you like triple for for this thing so um i don't know what i would do in this situation is i would just continue to be a bother to them until i got it fixed and And I don't know. I mean, you know, just like every morning I've got to get up and I've got to make my E-ZPass call, and then we'll go on with the rest of our day until we get somebody with a brain,

plug two brain cells to rub together to try to get our way, work through this problem, and get this charge removed down to the original charge and then get it paid. I don't know what else to tell you. I don't have a good answer for you, but I do share your frustration. You can tell. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life?

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