The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Take Social Security as a Lump Sum? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: November 25, 2019

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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 dumped, cash is king, and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Kristen starts this hour off in South Carolina. Hi, Kristen.

How are you? Kirsten. I'm sorry, Kirsten. I'm okay. I'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? We are in open enrollment, and we have an option to use the child care FSA, the $5,000 a year.

We are in baby step two, and I just wasn't sure if that was something that we should take advantage of or not take advantage of at this point. You have your children in daycare? We do. You're paying them more than $5,000 a year? About $13,000 is what we end up paying per year. Gotcha. Okay.

And so you can run $5,000 through this pre-tax for an expense you're going to have anyway while you're in baby step two right yes so what the fsa is it's called a cafeteria plan or a 125 plan they're nicknamed both and um it allows you to take certain items out of your check before taxes as an employee benefit, and then use that before-tax dollar to pay your bill with. And so what it saves you is your tax rate on this money. So what's your household income? About $177. Wow, okay.

So you're in a 35% bracket, and so about $2,000 is what this is going to save you. So in order to get home with $5,000, you've got to make about $8,000, right? Okay. You follow me? Yeah. So if you take $8,000 dollars of your income you do not run it through this you bring it home the eight thousand will turn into five thousand after taxes and then you've got five thousand to pay the daycare or you can take five thousand dollars

of your income and put it into this and it'll pay the first five thousand of your daycare saving you about three thousand,000 in taxes. Okay. Does that make sense? It does. This is not a new bill. It's a bill you've got anyway, and the government's picking up 30 cents on the dollar for you. Okay.

Yeah, I just wasn't sure. I mean, I guess when you break it down, it's not a whole lot. We just won't have quite as much at the beginning of the month through go towards debt but i guess at the end it'll come out it'll come back anyway when were you paying the daycare bill at the end of the month um yeah but it gets reimbursed so i have to submit the receipts before it will come back but like a month later or i'm i'm sure i have we've never done it before so i don't know exactly how long it takes to come back, if it's weeks or a month or days even. I have no idea. Yeah, okay.

So you've got a little bit of cash flow sidestepping to do to get it figured out, but it's going to save you about $3,000 a year, so it's worth doing. Okay. Have at it. Thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Susanna is with us in Florida. Hi, Susanna. How are you? Hi, how are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help?

Well, I have a lot of debt and I was wondering if I should file Chapter 7 bankruptcy or not. How much debt have you got? Total is $259,000. That includes my mortgage. How much of that is your mortgage? $148,000. And what is the other $78,000 in cars and $33,000 in loans, credit cards, and medical bills. What's your house worth?

About $175,000. And what's your household income? My husband and I make about $160,000 a year, but after taxes it totals up to about $87,000 to $90,000. Okay. Okay. How long have you been married? About six years. And you handle all the money without his looking at it?

Yes. Yeah. So you're pretty scared. Very. Does he know where everything is? Yes. He knows how bad this is? Yes, he's aware.

Okay. All right. Well, the great news is you're not bankrupt not even close you're scared because you're disorganized and you're behind and you don't know what to do next and you don't have a plan and so you're overwhelmed but you're not bankrupt did you say you make 160 000 a year yeah and? Yeah, and then after taxes and because you also pay child support, it's about $87,000 to $90,000 a year. No, he didn't have child support that's $70,000 a year. How much is his child support?

He pays $720 a month. Yeah, okay. That's more like it. That's $8,000 a year. So that does not describe from $160 to $90. What else have you got coming out of this check, pray tell? Like health insurance. Yeah.

401K? Yes, that as well. Yeah, okay. And how big was your tax refund? This year we're expecting $11,000. Yeah, there's part of it. That means you're having them take $1,000 a month too much out of your check. That's part of it.

So your take-home pay, if you stopped your 401K, even with the child support coming out, and you adjust your W-4s, is, if you're making 160, should be about 135 or 140, and I think that's where you're going to land after you make some intelligent adjustments to this check. And then we've got all kinds of money to clean this mess up with. I would sell a couple of cars.

You guys are car nuts. Yeah, that was our biggest issue. Yeah, that's like over in the crazy column right there. Yeah, they've got to go, both of them. Okay. And don't tell me you want to file bankruptcy to keep these cars, because you can't keep them if you file bankruptcy unless you keep the debt so these cars these cars are stupid land

i wanted to get rid of um the cars and just keep my house yeah i think you keep your house i think you keep your house and you sell your cars get you a couple get you two $2,000 cars to drive, roll up your sleeves and get on a tight budget, get your W-2 changed to where you take home $1,000 more a month, stop your 401K. We're going to get you on a detailed written budget. And the great news is, other than your house, you're going to be debt-free in about 18 months. Does that sound good? Yep. I'm going to show you how to do it if you'll stay with me.

Hold on. Madison's going to pick up. I'm going to put you into Financial Peace University. You can turn this thing around. And, oh, by the way, he's going to help you instead of standing on the sidelines and watching you carry all this weight by yourself. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ

to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry, a Better Business Bureau-accited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. John is in Ohio. Hey, John, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Thank you, Dave. How are you today? Better than I deserve. What's up? I need some advice on a decision on Social Security. I'm 69 and 9 months, and when I filed, I took the file and opted for the suspend. And so now I have the decision of taking the higher Social Security, which would be around $28,500, or taking a lump check for $94,000, which will drop me back to the $21 i think that i would have received at 66 and uh i have no i did not i'm learning stuff here you mean you cannot take social security and they will offer you a lump sum buyout it you can't anymore oh the apr The April after I filed in February, they terminated that option. So they're either today you can make $28,000 a year or they'll give you $94,000.

I'm sorry? $2,800 a year for the rest, you know, for retirement. I'm sorry, $28,000 a year, $2,800 a month. What are you saying? $2,800 a month. Okay, so $30,000 a year and some change, okay. Right. Or $94,000 one time?

Well, $94,000, and then from now on, I would receive $2,100. Okay, so if you made 10% on the $94,000, you would break even. Right. Because we put $9,000 with the $21,000, we're right back up to where we were. And, by the way, when you die, is going to give your but your heirs zero but if you die with ninety four thousand dollars in a mutual fund that will go to your heirs right take the 94 i if i take the 28 and i when i die and i make it 10 years my wife would uh her benefit would be a higher rate then. Yeah, that's okay.

It's not going to be enough to offset the loss of $94,000 to your estate. Well, that 94 is before taxes. So I'd probably end up with 70, 75 after taxes. You're going to have a hard time beating this. I mean, it's up to you. I am always about, anytime I can get money out of one of these deals particularly a government deal and get it in my hands i know i can do better with it this is not a mathematical slam dunk but uh you're going to be your estate is going to be eighty thousand dollars after taxes richer when you die because of this transaction plus then you've got

to make money on that 80 000 while you're alive to try to break even on the difference in 21 and 21 000 or 2100 a month 2100 oh i did that wrong too okay and so um so we've yeah you easily could do that because again the twenty one hundred dollars a month annualized would be twenty five thousand dollars right and otherwise you got thirty thousand and some change so you only need about six thousand bucks off this 80 grand to break even yeah you take this money and you invest it in a mutual fund, you'll be better off while you're alive and better off when you're dead. Okay. If you're willing to invest it in a good mutual fund

and get with your investment broker, if you don't have one, get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros and they can help you do this. But I had no idea. I've never heard of that program before. I just learned a lot but uh it sounds like a pretty typical way of calculating a benefit uh the equivalent of a pension benefit in this case it's the social insecurity movement i'm surprised they didn't actually give you a little more on the lump sum because their rate of return on social security

sucks so bad so but either way it's okay we'll take it i'm out of here man 94 000 pay some taxes on it invest that money that will offset more than 700 a month which is um about eight thousand dollars a year again if you were to invest that well now if you put it in a savings account at one percent you're not going to make as much a month but you'll be better off%, you're not going to make as much a month, but you'll be better off when you're dead. Your estate will be better off. So I'm taking the money and I'm getting it out of the government's hands and I'm going to do a lot better with it than they would have done for me on my behalf. So, hey, thanks for the call. Open phones at

888-825-5225. Chris is with us in North Carolina. Hi, Chris. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Very thankful for your ministry. It's changed our lives. Just finished FPU last night, as a matter of fact. Wow.

And, yeah, I had a question for you about IRAs, Roth versus traditional. My wife and I, I'm 53, she's 51. We've got some money in traditionals and some money in Roths, and I'm calling to ask what your opinion is on what makes sense as far as converting the traditional to Roth and payment taxes on it now instead of later. It makes sense mathematically if you're not going to touch it until one of the last things that you do, which is probably the case. I'm guessing you have a pretty good amount in these nest eggs, correct? Yes.

How much is in traditional total? Combined? In the traditional. Yeah, my wife and mine. Oh, yes, yes, sir. Both of ours combined? Yes, sir. $790,000.

Whoa! I thought so. Okay. And how much is in the Roth? $300,000. Way to go, dude. And how much money did you inherit? My wife just inherited an $80,000 inherited IRA from her dad,

and about 20 years ago I inherited $30,000 inherited IRA from her dad, and about 20 years ago, I inherited $30,000 from my dad. So the rest of this you're self-made? Yes. Way to go. And you're 53, huh? An everyday millionaire. Well done, sir.

Proud of you. All right. And so what's your household income? Well, that's the kind of tricky part, is I a um like a 1099 um sales agent so it'll vary but you know it's been as low as 80 recently to as much as 170 so i'm going to say you know 100 110 somewhere in there probably on average okay cool good and how much other assets do you have other than these uh do you have any other investments other than this money um just our house is it paid for uh no i still owe um 267 000 on it okay so here's what i would do if i have a choice between paying the government because i cashed out because i rolled some of this

money from traditional to roth or off my house, I would rather pay off your house. So let's make that the first order of business. When the house is paid off and you're in baby step seven, then I, if you have more than 10 years before you're going to start pulling the money out, you're probably going to be better off, uh, rolling portions of, or all of this to a Roth, only if you are going to pay the taxes separate from the account. I don't want you to cash out the money out of the account and pay the taxes

because that creates a mathematical break-even. You might as well have just kept it in there. Okay. But if you scratch up, let's say your house is paid off and you wanted to roll $100,000 of the $700,000. It's going to cost you $20,000, $25,000 in taxes. You scratch up $20,000, $25,000. Instead of investing it somewhere, I'd roll it and go ahead and pay that tax

and let the rest of that grow from this point forward tax-free. And you can do $100,000 at a time if you want to or $200,000 at a time whenever you scrape up the cash to pay the taxes. But scrape up the cash to pay the taxes, be up the cash to pay the taxes be debt free on the house before you do it and make sure at that point that there's more than 10 years before you're going to touch the money unless your household income changes i don't think you're going to get all of this worked out i think most of it's going to a lot of it's going to stay in traditional and that's okay millionaire well done sir well done very proud of you wow this is the dave ramsey show Thank you. We'll be right back. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Brad and Michelle are with us.

Hey, guys. How are you? Hey, Dave. Great. Welcome, welcome. Where do you guys live? Georgia. Georgia.

Just like that. What part of Georgia? Monroe, Georgia. What's that? Right outside of Athens, Georgia. Oh, yeah. Okay. Beautiful area. Fun. Welcome to Nashville. what part of georgia monroe georgia right outside of athens oh yeah okay beautiful area fun welcome to nashville and up here to do a debt-free scream how much did you pay off 225 000 dollars

i love it and how long did this take you approximately eight years okay and your range of income during that time i think we started started out with $60,000 and we're up to $155,000 now. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm a crane operator. And I'm a county worker. Work for the county government juvenile court. Okay.

Great. Cool. So $225,000 over eight years. Did you pay off your house? We did. I'm looking at weird people. Touchdown. I love it. Way to go you guys very cool very cool what's this house worth uh about 175 oh that's nice very nice so you paid off everything including the

house everything including so the 225 was 170 how much do you owe on the house? $134,000. $134,000. And what was the other $100,000? Credit card. Well, when we started out, we were not married. We'd gone through divorces, bankruptcy. He had to be retaught how to manage money. I had to just learn because I had no clue. He's the nerd. I'm the free spirit, if you can't tell.

And we've had credit card debt. I was a stupid person. I had a mobile home at one time, just several different things. We had some tax debt that we had to take care of. Like I said, he filed bankruptcy. So what happened that caused you to turn everything around? We wanted our second part of our life to be better. We were in our early, early 40s, just turned 40, I did, and we wanted to live the second part of our life not worrying about how are we going to pay this bill or what are we going to do?

How are we going to live? We thought about getting our retirement started and that's where our thoughts are now. We're thinking about retirement. During this time we've been able to cash flow some things that have been great. It's just an amazing thing. So you get remarried. We get a fresh start, 40 years old. We want to clean this up.

Yes. And it's time to, you know, straighten up and fly right, so to speak. What did you do from there? I mean, you're married, so you sat down and talked about it? What happened? Well, we were together, actually. We had not gotten married when we took the financial peace course. We did that.

We started that. Okay. Eight years ago. Actually, we did the class in 2011 okay yes and then we were together for a little while we worked on that and we got our debt down to minimum and we bought the house and we actually paid the house off in six years okay um we did that because our goal we we got it we financed it but we wanted to pay it off and we we worked hard on that i mean every penny we had good for you into our budgeting went to our house um and you know the things that we were cash flowing good

for you so you're are you 50 yet oh yeah yeah but you got a paid for house and you're 100 debt free yes how's that feel it's awesome it's a feeling like you never would ever thought you would feel i never i thought i would die making a house payment. I thought that's the way you live. Yeah, that's the way everybody lives. Yeah, and oh, my goodness. I've talked to my friends about it. Some are like, y'all go.

That's awesome. And I'm like, you got to do it too. And it's a wonderful feeling. I'm still in shock. I'm still in shock thinking, okay, we got to put the money back for the house payment, you know, like we did every week when we did our budgeting. But not now. Not now.

How does it feel to be completely free? It's amazing. Yep. It's hard to explain. It's just liberating. Yeah, that is a good word. Liberating is a great word. Well done.

Very cool. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is you're 50 years old everything's paid for house and everything you're a success i think the key is working together i mean if you don't do it together then you're fighting a losing battle yeah there's no way amen that is that's one of the biggest things um in my past life mary before we didn't do that i managed all the budgeting and it was horrible management because i'm not a numbers person but now that is our thing we get if he's out of town working we're still on the phone talking about it but have a goal have your have

your goal what do you want to do um and and go forth i mean cut out the bad stuff and just you just got to say get tunnel vision on what you want to do and how you want to handle it. And just being able, you can't imagine it. I couldn't imagine it, being debt-free. But then when it happened, I'm like, oh, wow. We did it. Oh, my gosh. Look at that.

It's a blessing. It really is. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? I would say each other. Yeah, each other. Our friends, we have some negative Nancy's in the background. You know, it's so funny. At work, I'd okay guys this is what because people talk well i don't know what i'm gonna do about this that and i'm my dad let me talk to you and i've even i've loaned out our cds

i've loaned out the books i mean we bought a case of books to give to our friends the total money makeover we did that for presents people's like oh thanks. But then people got excited when they started reading it. And I do have some friends who are actually working towards it. My daughter and her husband, we paid for them to do that when they first got married. Oh, that's good. So that was one of our gifts to them. And they're actually implementing it. Well, that's a good gift to you.

They won't end up in your basement. No, no, negative. Not with four children, no, sir. no sir i love it well you guys are impressive very well done very well done very proud of you really really good job so financial peace university eight years ago how did you do you do you remember as you're walking, because eight years is a pretty long slog. That's about normal, by the way, to get your house paid off if you go through FPU. So you did it perfectly.

But how did you stick with it? Because so many people just quit and they fall off the wagon. Well, she's the one that actually got me to go because, honestly, never heard of you before uh we started and my story and your story is it's fairly similar in my early my she says her former life and i started kind of i was in the housing and stuff like that and buying and selling and flipping and doing things like that i was in the same situation you were i lost everything um so we basically i think we're like poster children for the dave ramsey system we actually it was the hardest thing for me to do we rented a house for about almost a year and that

was the hardest thing for me to do after you've owned a bunch of real estate it's hard to be a renter i did that too that's very hard and then we we bought the house and just day to day like you say one bite of elephant at a time there you Yeah, and all of a sudden the elephant is gone. It's gone. I love it. Well, congratulations. Very well done. Thank you.

Very proud of you. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. You're going to be one soon if you're not already. Very well done, y'all. Very well done. All right. It's Brad and Michelle down in Atlanta, Georgia, north of Atlanta, in the Athens area. $225,000 paid off in eight years, making $60,000 to $155,000.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo! Woo! Well done, you guys. Very well done.

That's how it happens right there. A little bit at a time. I was talking to a billionaire one time, and I asked him, if I wanted to be you when I grow up, what do you do? And he says, there's a book you need to read. I said, I like reading books, especially billionaire-recommended books. What am I going to read? He said, it's called The Tortoise and the Hare.

He said, every time I read that book, the tortoise wins. End of story. See, that's what it is. It's a bite at a time. That's how you eat an elephant, a bite at a time, one step at a time. You just keep at it. You just keep at it. You just keep at it.

I know you get tired. I know life happens. I know you get the flu. I know you got a car wreck. I know you lost a job. I understand, but you keep at it and you keep at it and you keep at it and you keep at it and you keep at it and you keep at it. That's how you do it. You just get on fire. And you say, that's it. We are not going to get this close and stop. What got us here won't take us there, baby. We got to do some new stuff and we got to turn it on. What got us here won't take us there. What are we going to do? And you keep at it.

And you keep at it. And you hustle. And you grind. And you at it and you hustle and you grind and you grind and you hustle and then you'll look up and go dad blame we're on top of the mountain we just paid off his house we're not even 50 years old we have a paid for house shut up wow this is the Dave Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, Colossians 3.17, And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Johan Gardner said, to speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant. To enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch heaven. Oh, that one's good. I like that. To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant. To enact gratitude is generous and noble. But to live gratitude is to touch heaven. I love that. Well, if you're kind of talking about it here as we're heading towards the end of the year and you're saying, you know, we've got to say goodbye to the old neighborhood

and we're looking for a new place to call home. Buying a house is one thing, but buying and selling at the same time, that can be a little tricky. The stakes are kind of double. The details are double, not to mention there's usually a tight timeline. And you got to have an expert to help you get this timeline synchronized. It's the synchronized swimming of real estate. That's why it's important to have a quality real estate agent on your team. You don't want some jumpy amateur that doesn't know what they're doing managing the sale or the purchase of one of your largest assets. You need a trustworthy, experienced agent to guide you, and that's why we've created a network of top real estate agents from across the country who follow the principles we teach

so that you don't have to wonder if the person you've hired is the real deal or not. We call them our endorsed local providers, our ELPs. Go to DaveRamsey.com slash agent or click ELP anywhere on our site and find a real estate agent that will take care of you. This is too complicated for some amateur to handle. You will get burned. And the friendship that you thought you were helping by giving them the listing gets strained because they're not a pro.

You don't owe your friend. If your friendship has to be purchased, it's not a pro. You don't owe your friend. If your friendship has to be purchased, it's not a real friend. Evan is in Tennessee. Hi, Evan. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure.

What's up? So in March of 2016, I was diagnosed with cancer and as part of that I basically just said screw it and focused 100% on that what ended up happening was I got evicted from my apartment my car got repossessed and now that I'm all better I've been back at work for quite a long time. Well, that's wonderful news. It's pure luck that I was able to do it as quickly as I did. But I'd say more than luck. I was going to say, beating cancer wouldn't be called luck. Yeah. It took a lot of intervention, both medically and divine.

Yes. So now I'm at the point where I can start getting things back together. I've got a pretty good job that gives me some great medical benefits, which is my number one concern for very obvious reasons. Sure. But now I'm at the point where I need to start getting the eviction taken care of and start kind of cleaning up my records so I can get back to living somewhat of a normal life. Gotcha. How much do you make now? I gross $40,000 a year, but after the insurance and my medical care, I come around $28,000.

Your insurance is $1,000 a month? Yes. For one person? Yep. Okay. Well, that's pretty ridiculous in Tennessee. So you're obviously not on a group plan. I actually am, but it's a relatively small company.

It's about 200 people, so it's not a very well-negotiated group plan. Yeah. Have you priced just personally like a Blue Cross Blue Shield policy? I have, and it'd be about $1,200, $1,300 a month, and I wouldn't get the coverage limits that I get with my group plan. Yeah, okay. All right, good. Okay, so you're making $40,000, you've got $28,000 left over after your health insurance,

and you want to go back and clean up some of this mess. Do you have anything that is current debt that you're paying on, or is it all old bad debt? It's all old bad debt that's in collections or been processed. Okay, so you've got an eviction, and you've got a repo, and you've got some old medical bills. Yes. Okay. How much got an eviction, and you got a repo, and you got some old medical bills. Yes. Okay. How much has the eviction contacted you? They have not contacted me since I left the unit.

Okay, so you don't know if you owe them anything. I do know that I owe them stuff because it's on my credit report. What's it showing on your credit report? $4,500. It's showing on the credit report. What's it showing on your credit report? $4,500. It's showing on the credit report. That's good news. All right. And what about the car repo?

What are they showing? Just under $7,500, so like $7,420-something. Gotcha. Okay. And how much in medical bills? That's actually the good news. I say one of the benefits, but one of the good things that happens when you get cancer is everybody comes

out of the woodwork to help you. So I've only got roughly about $1,000 in medical bills, and that's from the last year. Okay. All right. Well, let's just take this in order of smallest to largest, and let's pay the medical bills as soon as possible on your budget. Be clear of that.

Make sure if any bills that are old bills always get in writing that the amount you are sending them clears the account. Okay? You're either paying it in full or you're settling it or whatever, but if I send you this amount then i can send then the account is cleared and you keep that in hard copy form not e-form print it off print it off and staple a check to it showing or some kind of copy of proof of payment showing that you not only got from them this is what clears the account but you cleared the account by sending it

to them and you keep that in a file for the rest of your life now then we'll go to the eviction and i would just contact the management company and you can always do better in person on especially on that one okay and so what i would do is if you can meet with the manager of the apartment complex or wherever it was that you were, the company you were working with, sit down with them in person and not, you know, not making any excuses. I let it all go because I was fighting cancer and I should have been more responsible, but I was fighting cancer. And so I've gotten, you know, I've recovered from the cancer. That's in my past in my review mirror so i'm trying to go back and make right now my credit report shows forty five hundred dollars what do your files show and what will you take if i give it to you today

in settlement in lump sum okay and then if they give you if they say a thousand dollars will settle this then you hand them a thousand dollars and you get a receipt and you get it in writing that that account is cleared for that. Now, the car repo, you can probably settle it for a quarter on the dollar. I have no idea what the landlord will do. They're all over the map. They may want 100%. They may look at you and go, this is five years ago. I thought I'd never see you again.

I'm so glad you're here. I'm sorry you had cancer. Sure, we'll take a grand and be done with it. Or they may go, we're adding fees to this. You know, I don't know what they'll do. But whatever you do, do it in lump sum. And if they want more money than you have, you say, I'll have to get back to you when I've got the money. But now we at least have a conversation going.

Okay? And I can't give you more than i have and i will not pay payments so just a little bit of information that's kind of driving me getting this together i'm getting a six thousand dollars in january perfect so my goal was to get the eviction knocked off first because the eviction is keeping me from renting certain places yeah but you can get both that and you're not they're not gonna they're gonna settle with you go see them okay go sit down with them and clear clear the medical and clear the eviction with the six

thousand okay you'll be able to clear both of them with that and then you can start working on i mean that how old is this repo uh the repo happened in june of 2016 so it's yeah two and a half years old yeah they'll probably take a dime on the dollar they might take a grand too because they they can't find you and they figure you didn't make it i mean they're just gonna be happy you show back up. You know, they're going to mouth about it, and you're going to have to argue with them, but I bet you can get them to take a grand on that. So you might be surprised how quickly this all clears up for you, brother. I'm sorry for what you've been through. Thanks for calling in, and thanks for going and making it right.

That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. 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. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.