The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Use Single Stocks To Pay Off Debt? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 3, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Dr. John Deloney, best-selling author and host of the Dr. John Deloney ever-popular podcast and YouTube show, is my co-host today. So we'll talk about your mental health, your friends' or your relatives' mental health. Or your co-workers'. Which is much more fun.

Co-workers'. What? What? Already he starts with this. All right. So it's the problem with having a guy with two PhDs on. He's just intimidating. What can I say?

Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. 888-825-5225. We're going to continue our discussion of the largest legal fraud in America today in our third hour. It's called timeshares. They put people in a room and won't let them out for eight hours until they buy and then they screw you and they screw you and they screw you and they've made billionaires out of the men that started these things and uh it's a crazy

crazy mixed up world and we're going to continue to expose the timeshare companies. If you have been messed over by a timeshare company, which means you either have bought one or you haven't, you can call and talk to Kelly. We want to get you on in the third hour, or you can email me at DaveOnAir at RamseySolutions.com. DaveOnAir at RamseySolutions.com. Put timeshare scams in the lineup. Maybe you used to work for one of them, and you want to tell the truth about what goes on in the inside. We've had a bunch of those over the years.

We'll continue to get more of those. I'm gathering stories from consumers and people who have been screwed over by this crazy, out-of-control, multi-billion-dollar business that quietly continues to defraud people, and among them, the elderly. And it's just they're preying on people, and it's got to stop. So we're just pounding them. So third hour, that's what we're doing. If you want to talk about it, we'd love to have you.

Dave on air at RamseySolutions.com. Email us and let us know. We'll work you in. Kevin is in Dallas. Hey, Kevin, welcome to the Ramsey Show. What's up? Hi, Dave. dot com email us and let us know we'll work you in kevin is in dallas hey kevin welcome to the ramsey show what's up hi dave thanks for taking my call sure um so so i'm uh i i'm currently disabled and i was applying for term life insurance uh prior to me going on long-term disability, and I was denied my application.

So I went with a universal life insurance policy, and I'm not really sure what to do about whether I can find something cheaper that would be termed rather than sticking with the universal life. What is the nature of your disability? It's called hereditary spastic paraplegia. Basically, it makes it really, really hard for me to walk. Okay. Life insurance is going to be difficult of any kind,

and universal is no harder to get than term, or no easier to get than term. So if you've already got a universal policy, for goodness sakes, don't let that go unless you found something cheaper and got it in place in your hand before you released it. But you can go to Zander at zanderinsurance.com,

get on the phone with them, tell them what you're facing, and they will see if they can find a company that will write you. In the insurance world, they call that making a market, see if they can make a market for you, meaning find someone that will carry the policy in your situation. Permanent long-term disability is a statistical problem for the life insurance statistics and they generally will they give you a real hard time with it they just give you depending on what it is but most of it is very hard to get so xander is has got a way of doing it like nobody i've ever met they do a great job of really trying to serve you make sure your specific thing so go to xanderInsurance.com. So if you find yourself in that situation and you're unable to get life insurance,

at some point you're going to have to really reverse engineer out your life and start saying, I may have to save more aggressively than somebody else, or I may have to choose to not spend. I mean, you're going to have to go with the plan b right and there are some policies you can get small policies they're super expensive they're guaranteed issue they issue them to anybody no matter what you just have to say i'm alive okay and they'll issue them but that's probably outrageous they're they're like 20 times more expensive right and you know it's usually a 10 or 20 000 policy too it's not a you can't get a

500 000 guaranteed issue usually, usually. So, again, it depends on the nature of what's going on. And the insurance world has changed a lot, the life insurance world, because they're doing a much better job of not throwing the baby out with the bathwater on every category. They'll drill down into the situation and say, okay, in this situation, I think we can get this written. You know, for instance, if you just had the word cancer anywhere around your name, you were screwed. You couldn't get life insurance, period. Yeah.

I mean, it didn't matter, 10 years, 20 years, you know, your cancer's gone. Or heart. Or heart. You're out. Yeah, you're done. And nowadays, you know, it really does depend on the type of cancer. It depends on what the treatment was. It depends on what stage it was.

It depends on how long it's been since that you've been cancer-free before you try to get ridden. And you can get, you know, as a cancer survivor, you can get life insurance now, depending on, you know, the frequency and the proximity and all that kind of stuff. Christina is in Kansas City. Hi, Christina. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. I have a? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. I have a question about back tithes. My husband and I have been married for almost 10 years, and for the first time we are searching for a new church family. And for the last six months we have been setting aside our tithe and a fund, but we're not sure what to do with the money. We're wondering if we should just write a big check when we find a new church that we want to join.

That'll be fine. There's nothing wrong with that. You can find some local churches in your area to spread it among now if you want. Here's the thing. What we want to do is we want to be obedient to the scriptures, those of us that are people of faith, with our generosity. The tithe is the baseline for our generosity. But you can never stray away from why.

Why does God want us to be generous? It's good for you because he wants to make you into a generous person. And generous people are just more fun. They're happier. They're not depressed very often. They don't live in their own heads.

Yeah, it's not all about you. They live with eyes open for the communities. The purpose is not every jot and tittle, meaning every little freaking finite detail about the nuances

of which scripture or whatever, and God is not going to bless that because you gave it to a Baptist instead of a Church of Christ or whatever.

There's none of that. Don't get caught up in that. So the point is, you have set this aside. You are going to be generous. You're going to give it to someone. God's smiling. He's not wringing his hands about where it lands. Awesome.

Because it's for you. Does that make sense? Yes, that's great. Yeah, you're awesome. I appreciate it. I appreciate your character and your your your desire to be true to your faith and and i man that's just very cool that's a that's a person who's tethered into their virtue above and beyond experience right yeah like i'm

going to be this kind of person whether i've got got a category to send this to right away, this is who I am. This is who we are. And changing churches, man. It's just, it's like, for some of us, it's like going through a divorce. I mean, it's just because your social's tied in there and everything. Oh, my gosh. It's hard. That's tough.

You're going through a hard thing right there, kiddo. Good for you. That's inspiring, man. That's very neat. Very neat. It's for you. Giving. Yeah. It's for you. You give for you. This's inspiring, man. That's very neat. Very neat. It's for you. Giving. Yeah.

It's for you. You give for you. This is the Ramsey Show. Ever wondered how to save more money or pay off debt faster? What about the right way to invest? Listen, I've been there asking the same questions with no idea where to turn for answers. But here's the good news. You don't have to keep searching for answers.

Ramsey Plus shows you every step of the way so you know what to do with your money. Get the plan and the tools you need to make consistent small wins with money, and even some big ones, so you can see exactly how you're making progress. Then we can help you turn all those wins into better habits that last. You can be confident you're doing the right thing with your money, and that means no more debt, cash in the bank for emergencies, and a plan for your future. To start your free trial of Ramsey Plus, text TRIAL to 33789.

That's TRIAL to 33789. 33789. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. If you're tired of feeling stuck with your money like you'll never get out of debt or save enough for the future, it does not have to be that way. You can make progress with your money faster and faster and faster with Financial Peace University. Every dollar. It's all part of a Ramsey Plus membership. When you budget, when you get intentional with your money and you start learning the baby steps in detail with a group of people with Ramsey Plus, it changes everything.

You will make progress, and you'll make it fast, and you can start all this, including your new budget on every dollar, for free, starting today with a free trial of Ramsey Plus. Text TRIAL to 33789. That's TRIAL to 33789. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they'll remake your window blinds free. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It means even if you mismeasure, you pick the wrong color, they'll remake your window blinds free.

Free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSEY. All right, today's question comes from James in Texas. James writes, my wife and I pay our bills based on our income. Good, James. I earn more, so we split the rent 70-30, go 50-50 on the electric bill, and I pay for cable, water, and internet. When we moved into a new rental, she asked if she could hold off paying rent the first two months, and I agreed. What a saint. The third month, she was late with her contribution, and now she's going to be late again this month.

I asked her to manage her paycheck and other debts so that she uses the second check of the month to save for rent and electricity to avoid being late, and she got mad. She's a little late to the mad party. I'm already there. Was I wrong anywhere? Yeah, everywhere, James.

Yeah, you were just wrong before the whole thing started. A hundred percent, James. Every step of the way. We both are going to smack you around. Are you ready? I was helping her manage her pay. What a saint. More responsibly because paying things late is a bad habit to break.

You know what else is a bad habit? Being an idiot. Oh! James, what are you doing? It's like he's living with a co-worker, right? Like they're co-running a business. I don't know, man. Listen, dude, this is your wife.

You remember the part, richer for poorer, in sickness and in health. So when you're laying in the bed with the flu, I hope she doesn't give you as much crap about making you some chicken soup. Because you're sick, as you are, about making her be a grown-up and manage her money by herself. Oh, my God, dude. Really. Come on, man. So, yeah, here's the thing, son.

You guys need to put your money together. Together you work on it. Together you make decisions. And together we manage our money for the good of our family this is not your roommate the old marriage vows say unto thee all my worldly goods i pledge if you wanted a roommate you shouldn't have gotten married and if you want to divide up your life into mine and yours and you owe me this and that and i'll let you borrow this from it man just listen to that language that's not a marriage it's not a marriage that's a business arrangement it's not even a good friendship no it's not even buddies you know what we all had this friend in college that was like hey bro remember wendy's

you owe me 428 from like three months. The mustard that you used in the refrigerator door, that was like mine. So you got to pay for it. It's like $4 a squirt. Gosh, dude. Everyone had that friend. You know what I learned about friendship in college? I got around some guys. You know what the fights were about?

Who was covering the check? Like this is ours, right? That's just knucklehead college buddies. This isn't a husband and a wife. So, James, y'all have a pronoun issue, and that is y'all got to sit in a room and say what is yours and mine is ours. That's it, right? What's yours and mine is ours, and we got to do this thing from the

And you're not sanctioning irresponsibility, and she's not going to sanction you being a control freak, out of control, arrogant jerk. Yes. Nobody wants... Because I had enough adjectives in there. And I kind of want to hug you, man, know what i read this and after you call him an idiot i know hey that's that's a term of endearment for me i know i i i want to hug him because i

think he's actually trying to help and he's asking did i screw this up yeah yes you did you did but the that question it's just it is astounding that he could be that clueless though really i know but i wonder if that's even a real question it's endearing what that he could be that clueless, though, really. I know, but it's endearing. I wonder if that's even a real question. It's endearing. It's endearing that he's that dumb? Yeah, when he's like, hey, did I mess this up? And everyone's like, yes, of course.

Relationally, you get a sub-zero score here. No, I'm going to give him a one. No. Because he looked in the mirror and said, maybe it's me. Well, now she's pissed. Why did this woman wait this long to get pissed? I got to tell you, before the first sentence was over,

the hillbilly woman at the Ramsey house would have been over it. I'm just saying. I know, but she's getting a free ride here with this guy, this Romeo, who's paying for the internet. She won the lottery with this one. I'm going to give you a little time off

on that rent there just because I really like you. Listen, lady. I'll get the internet and the cable because that's what men in Texas do. Come on, James. Oklahoma City, Chelsea, get us out of this. What's up? Okay, I'm a little nervous.

You're going to have to bear with me. Okay. But I'm a stay-at-home mom, and I'm trying to start a side hustle planning murder mystery parties but I'm like almost totally blind and I'm not sure how upfront I should be with my clients about that because I don't want to be disingenuous with them since it is a visual medium involved but at the same time it's like it's my medical records is that really their business I'm i'm not sure what to do because i don't want to mislead people flip shoes you were going to a murder mystery place

would you care if the lady that put it on was blind not really unless unless they couldn't do the job oh ding ding ding ding ding ding ding you win the award Not really. Unless? Unless they couldn't do the job. Oh! Ta-da! Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You win the award. Can you plan awesome parties? Yes.

And to the extent that your site limitation would cause a mistake, you can go ahead and disclaim that on the front end, and people will give you a lot of grace. Okay. That's a good idea. I didn't think of that. But you go, look, but it's not a thing. I got this.

And if I don't got it, you can call me out on it, and we'll work it out together. But I got it. I've done 20 ticks of these or whatever you've done, and there's no problems and so on. Chelsea, you throw that head back and go. Yeah. Have at it, but just treat other people like you'd want to be treated. It solves almost all your business ethics questions. Okay.

And by the way, if I were your customer, that's exactly what I would want. I don't care if I'm coming in there to have a party and have fun. If the person conducting it is whatever, fill in the blank. I want an awesome party. I don't care. Until their whatever affects my party right but if it affects my party uh and it's an and i need to have a little bit of compassion with that person or a little bit i'd like to have had a heads up about that let's have a

conversation about yeah but so i don't get surprised because i really you know like i'll tell you i'll give you an example okay i went to check into a hotel a while back and uh we use only debit cards and the stupid debit card had gotten an algorithm hit for id for id right for id theft and i and then the people come back from the uh desk and they go well you're over your limit well honey my debit card don't have a limit okay this is freaking me it's got i can buy a car on my debit card if i want to right so but it's late at night i'm tired i'm exhausted and i can't get in a stupid hotel and i'm pissed at my bank i dial up my personal banker and i was unhappy with her can you imagine me doing that? Yeah.

To which she says, hey, I'll get this fixed in the morning. I'm at the visitation for my dad's funeral. Can I work on it in the morning? Wah, wah. To which Dave goes, oh, you're a butt to Dave. He says to himself, Dave the butt. So in other words, if I had had that piece of information, I might have been a little nicer to her, right? You follow me? Yeah. So just

give me enough information so that I can be kind if I'm the customer, if there's a mistake that might be related to the information. And Chelsea, I think what's going to cause you the most grief is if you walk into business deals self-conscious of something. If you think you're bringing an impairment to something, then you're going to not sell yourself as strongly. Go in with your head held high. You're going to do a great job. A community with you is going to help you fill in your gaps.

And you're going to go get it. The reason we know you're going to be good is you bothered to ask the question. That's awesome. You weren't arrogant and throwing around entitlement stuff or something. I love it. You just said, hey, how should you do this? By the way, folks, if you're wondering how to act in business, always ask the question, how would I want to be treated if the roles were reversed?

Do unto others as they would do unto you. It solves almost all your business ethics questions. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, host of the Dr. John Deloney Show. You can hear it on YouTube, Instagram. You can follow him anywhere great podcasts are carried. And it's very popular and growing very rapidly. If you'd like to ask him a question about anxiety, about relationships, about anything, you can call today at 888-825-5225.

You can email him at askjohn at ramsaysolutions.com, or you can leave a voicemail, and the team will get you on the show, 844-693-3291. Also, if you are a victim of a timeshare, if you bought a timeshare, got ripped off, you want to tell the timeshare sales story, the scam story on a timeshare, we're off, you want to tell the timeshare sales story, the scam story on a timeshare. We're going to be doing that in the third hour. I need to hear from you.

Email right now so Kelly can get you scheduled for that show. Dave on air at RamseySolutions.com. By the way, whenever you hear this, if you want to share your timeshare story, we're going to be doing several of these over the next several months. It's like my new hobby. I was going to say, I haven't seen you this joyful, Dave. Oh, this is such good radio. It's also such the right thing to do because it's the largest legal fraud in America. And when you get to looking at the people behind the scenes on this and how scummy they are, it is bizarre.

You've never seen that thing. I hadn't seen it until this week. Have you guys seen the old documentary, The Queen of Versailles? Did you see that? Yeah, that's a timeshare king. Yeah. Building a 90,000 square foot house with his wife who's 30 years his junior. Wow.

And all that that implies. 90,000, huh? 90,000 square foot house. The largest house in America. Yeah, so we're going to talk about that kind of stuff. It's fun. But that documentary was just a train wreck of people. It was such a sad just because they're just, it's just like, God, who lives like this?

Well, they do. Yeah, and that's who's selling you this stuff. So anyway, email us at Dave on air. I'm sorry. Yeah, Dave on air at ramsey solutions.com and in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt-free stage jimmy and stacy are with us hey guys how are you we're doing great how are you better than i deserve where do you guys live we're from not so much of chicago okay very cool good to have you guys and you're here to do a debt-free scream. How much did you pay off? So, as a married couple, we did $153,114.

Great. How long did that take? 18 months, 5 days. All right. And your range of income during that year and a half? So, that was $215,000 to about $250,000. Wow. What do you guys do for a living i'm a pharmacist

and i'm in the it very good good for you guys what kind of debt was the 153 000 um it's part of my student loan debt that's been following me around before marriage um so i you said as a married couple at the front of this so you're telling me that before you were married, there's other stuff happened? It's the student loan debt. It's been haunting me for a long time. But had you reduced it substantially prior to marriage? $96,547. That's pretty substantial.

Yeah, it took me quite a while to even get that as a single parent. But when we got married, it was just... Boom, just go through it fast. Yeah. Good for you. Well done. So how long have you guys been married 18 months uh no so well a little closer two years now okay all right so but the last year

and a half or so uh all through covid boom boom he was hospitalized um he had a surgery at the end of the year i had a surgery on my foot so we had a lot of really weird um things that sort of sidetracked us we were expecting to be done a little bit earlier but 18 months is still pretty impressive yeah yeah i was glad we were still able to get through i was sad going into 2021 with the debt but it's still february the end of february and you still did it in the pandemic year yes yeah we kept no interest on student loans oh i was so excited about that. Because you can make so much faster progress. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, when it's all said and done, I paid $85,039.94 in interest. Wow. From the beginning. Yeah. So what sparked this thing? So I heard about Dave a few years ago, and I kind of did Dave-ish, you know, where it's like, yeah, I want to do this, but then I, it was really hard.

My income wasn't there. I was supposed to be guaranteed full-time hours. I wasn't getting it. I was applying for jobs, not really getting a whole lot. So I was kind of driving all over the state of Florida to be able to make ends meet and pay my little student loan that I was getting, which was mostly going to interest. I was doing income-based repayment, which- You don't get anywhere.

Pretty much actually lower it. Going backwards. Going backwards, yeah. So when I moved to Illinois, I decided I was going to do the full baby steps. Now, I hadn't done Financial Peace University. In fact, he actually ended up doing it before me and he hadn't even heard of you. So I introduced him to you and he is the spender, the flashy guy. I wasn't sure that our relationship was going to go very far when I first started dating him because we were on different pages. And I will honestly say, I did not tell him he had to listen to you. That was the Lord there.

And he came to me one day after he started Financial Peace University and brought me his cut-up credit cards. And I was like, thank you, Lord. This is the one. I was like, I think this might work. I found the one. Yeah. And that was not me badgering him or anything. It's a smooth romantic move, my brother.

That was very romantic, Jimmy. Well played. I'm just saying, buddy. So, yeah. That, my brother. That was very romantic, Jimmy. Well played. I'm just saying, buddy. So, yeah. That's very cool. So, Jimmy, when you were hospitalized, was it COVID or something else? That is correct. Oh, really?

With COVID? Man. And you're a young guy. Not quite. I'm 40 years old. Yeah. Well, I'm 60. That's not old.

So, you're a young guy. So, I'm a young guy. All right. Very cool. Good for you. And so, you got out of it okay, though? Yeah. It'm a young guy. Very cool. Good for you. And so you got out of it okay though? Yeah, it was a pretty

rough ride. I almost died. Oh my gosh. Yikes. He ended up being out of work. I was able to take off work to stay

home and help him. I mean, he literally had to learn how to walk and have strength to walk and even hold a spoon. My goodness. Yeah, I'm just

thankful. You got a really nasty case then. Yeah. Wow. Well, I'm so glad you're here and everything's good. My goodness. Yeah, I'm just thankful. You got a really nasty case then. Yeah. Wow. Well, I'm so glad you're here and everything's good. So all of this and you still paid off $153,000 in 18 months? Yes, yes.

Wow. In the first two years of marriage. You guys are impressive. And he cut up his credit cards. Yeah. That's how he got me. That's it. That's it.

Wow, way to go, guys. Yeah. Very, very cool. And my daughter Isabella just graduated high school on, what's that? That's it. Wow. Way to go, guys. Yeah. Very, very cool. And my daughter, Isabella, just graduated high school on, was that Friday? Okay. Congratulations. Very cool. Congrats, Isabella.

Very neat. What a great year, then. Things are going well. How does it feel to be free? I can't even, it's just amazing. And I'm just looking forward to the future. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Just you've got to be focused and look at the end.

What do you want at the end, that point? What are you getting to? What was your big why? What was your big push? So I really didn't want my daughter ever being in debt. And she was with me when I was a new Christian. I started learning about Christian principles and one of those being the borrower's servant to the lender. And I look back and said, if I could do it all over again, I would have did it a lot differently.

But when we didn't really have the income, there was a time I thought we might actually be homeless. I know it sounds nuts being a pharmacist and not being able to get a job. I believe it. I mean, I literally was picking up shifts, driving all over the state of Florida. And I remember having conversations with her. And one of her prayers, she made a scroll. She was in a Sunday school class. She made a little scroll.

And the kids wrote a prayer that they had. Well, her prayer was for me to get out of debt. And I carried that around in my pocket up until I got out of debt in my jacket, my white coat. I carried it around. And when I would go to pull a pen out or something, I would fill it. And I know that I'm in this. I may not be enjoying every day and I may be stressed out some days. But I don't want that for her.

And she's so debt averse and um so yeah she has her first semester already paid for love it all right well isabel get up in this get up in the shot when they do their debt-free scream here you're part of this story very cool well way to go jimmy and stacy we got a copy of the legacy journey for you that's the next chapter in your story leaving a legacy changed your legacy now become very wealthy and outrageously generous in the process, and you've changed your family tree. We're so proud of you. Also got a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give away, pay it forward, get

somebody else moving, and show them how to do it. That's great stuff. Jimmy, Stacy, and Isabella from Chicago, $153,000 paid off in 18 months, making $215,000 to $250,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Five, four, three, two, one. We are debt-free!

Yeah! That is how it's done. Wow, what a story. This is the Ramsey, personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Tyler is with us in Fort Worth, Texas. Hey, Tyler, how are you? Hey, Dave and Dr. John, how are y'all?

Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help? Dave, it's such an honor to speak with you. My girlfriend and I, we attended your Reset Live event in Oklahoma back in January, and we really enjoyed it. Oh, thanks. It was my first time seeing you, and it was great to see the team, too. Thank you. Thank you. That was a good night. Dr. John, you're a great addition, too.

I'm a really interesting one. Thanks, man. Okay, so here's my numbers. I'm 22 years old, very recently graduated with a construction science degree, basically construction management. In two weeks, I start my new job at a company that I previously interned with. I'll be making roughly $60,000 gross and I will be living at home with my parents. Um,

I've been listening to your show almost every day for about a year and a half now. I'm on baby step two. Um, and here's some other quick numbers. I have $66,200 in student loan debt. No, they're dead.

No credit card, no car loan. Um, but there's some good news. I cashflow in my senior year of college and I have an additional $25,800 rate to be utilized for debt at this moment. Okay. So I also have, um, an E-Trade account with two single stocks in it that I was given, um, during my sophomore year of college. This was, um, unbeknownst to me, came out of nowhere. That value today is right around $13,000. So I basically have two

scenarios. I'm going to put that $25,800 towards the debt, which will bring me down to $40,000. And then I have two options. I can use that $13,000 and be out of debt, random numbers in 12 months, or not use that $13,000 and be out of debt in 18 months. Now the difference of six months, but my thought was I could, instead of investing those $13,000 into single stocks, I can put that into mutual funds and let that start growing now. So what do you think, Dave? Well, we teach folks to clean out any assets that they have that are not in a retirement plan

and use them to clear their debts as fast as they can because the shortest distance between where you are in wealth is not an A-Trade account. The shortest distance between where you are in wealth is to be debt-free and get control of your largest wealth-building tool, which is your income. So we're going to clean out everything down to $1,000. Okay. And we're going to throw it all at this debt, and then we're going beans and rice, rice and beans, no goofing off, no spending money, and clean the rest of this up really, really, really fast.

Yes, sir, yeah. I've been going back and forth with this for about a year now since I called the show maybe a year ago. I didn't know what to do with it then. Did I tell you what to do with it then? No, no, no, you didn't then. I talked to John and Anthony. Okay, so are you going to do it myself.

Yeah, I'm going to sell it. Okay, good. Yeah, do it right now. Yeah, today. Curtis is with us in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Hi, Curtis. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. How can we help? A little back story. In 2019, my folks started going through a divorce, and they own a construction company, and they volunteered to make me a 10% owner before the divorce was filed. It's been a two-year battle since then.

We've turned the company around a lot, and we did a mediation yesterday. And I'm kind of torn on how to do some of the financing of the buyout. You're buying them out? My dad is buying my mom out, and I'm just kind of helping him along the way. Okay, you're helping him by advising him. Correct, correct, yes. You're not cosigning for him? No, no, I can't, no.

Okay. Okay, and so what is the... So I don't know... Has the amount been determined? Yes. How much? $400,000. You guys have done well since 2019.

We've done very well. In fact... How much cash is in the business? As of right now, because we were going into mediation, I kept the cash very low, and we updated a lot of machines. So we walked into mediation with under 10 000 in cash well that worked real good for the mediation but it doesn't work real good for the buyout no but i'm exactly where i was two years ago financially okay so what kind of profit will this place generate in the next 12 months? I'm contracted for roughly $800,000. Profit. In that range.

Profit. Profit. We'll pay her off in 12 months. Right. I've also got other outstanding debts from machine purchases in the last... Are they short-term debts? Five years. Right. I've also got other outstanding debts from machine purchases in the last... Are they short-term debts? Five years.

We'll pay her off in the next 12 months. Okay. You have $800,000. You need $400,000. Right. Right. What am I missing? Yeah, what are we missing, man? This seems fairly obvious. Right. I've got a lot of numbers in my head the last couple days let me tell you what's really in your head what all of you are pissed off at her and don't want to give her the money

oh i have no problem giving her the money your dad does i know what well you probably okay and this is affecting your judgment. Because for me, it's a very simple $800,000 over the next 12 months. I think you two guys can figure out a way to get you a bologna sandwich out of that and pay this woman off and make her the ex-wife. Okay. Give her her money now. And then you go deal with your machinery and get your other debts cleaned up as soon as you can. This is a priority for a lot of reasons.

It's going to set you guys emotionally, relationally free to go do business again because having a bulldozer payment is way different than having an ex-wife payment. Exactly. They're kind of similar. I was going to say they're very similar. He's going to let they're very similar, but. It's going to let you say it first, but I mean. Backhoe, but yeah. There's a crane.

I don't know. But there's something about, that is as simple as math gets. Yeah. There's an emotional blocker is what it is. Big time. Yeah. So you make it a priority like you wanted to do it. Yeah.

And if you walk in and show up any banker on earth, hey, I've got $800,000 of contracts here. I need to make a, I mean. Well, you can just pay her out of cash flow. She can't do anything in the next six months anyway. So just pay her out of cash flow. Just pay her. I mean, if she gets her money inside 12 months, that's going to work in the mediation, believe me. For wrapping up a divorce that's already 18 months in.

Yeah, that tells me that's contentious and dramatic. Yeah, and a lot of moving parts. So walk me through, Dave, real quick. What would not going to cash in a mediation? Is that like some kind of move? I don't get the chess move there. Well, he's trying to prove he was broke in order to make the business worth less so that she only got a valuation of $800,000. Pay your mom and move on, dude.

Congratulations now, right? Being cash poor does not also mean equal broke. They look at net worth. They look at cash flow. You know, you don't value a business based on the number of dozers. And like a cash, you value a business based on its income that it creates. And that's what the valuation comes from. And it sounds like this was dramatically undervalued.

So I would have, yeah, I would have rather flipped that over and been able to walk out yesterday like this. Yeah, had a half million dollars in the account and paid her a half million instead of 400 and lost a little bit of the mediation. But there's a lot going on in this story that you and I are not hearing. That's true. I can promise you there's a lot of stuff here it's amazing how our full-on reality show for

the last 24 months yeah yeah get her paid off as you can man that's the bottom line of the thing that's the trick as fast as you want to do as fast you can possibly do that and um for future reference um be careful uh when you uh implement a short-term strategy that has negative long-term effects but feels good in the moment where you tried to make the company worth less because you bled it out of cash and bought all this equipment now you put the company deeply in debt so in short term, you fix the problem with your mom's mediation and your dad's mediation. But on the long term, you put your company deeply in debt, and you cause long-term problems for a short-term issue. And so you have to be careful in business or in your personal life.

It's like someone goes, you know, transmission's out again. I'm buying a brand-new $86,000 car. And so you fix a temporary problem with a permanent. With a five-year. Permanent problem. Yeah. And a long-term problem. And that's what everybody tends to do, but that's emotion-driven more often than it is.

Breaks my heart for that family. Logical side. Yeah, what a mess. What a mess. Dr. John Deloney, good show, good hour this, good hour on the show today. James Childs, our producer Kelly Daniel, our associate producer. I'm Dave Ramsey. We'll be back. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know

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