The Ramsey Show - App - Should My Mother-in-Law Move In with Us? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

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Thank you very much. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show. Where dad is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author, is my co-host today as we take your questions about your life and about your money. Mike is in Pensacola, Florida to start off this hour. Hey, Mike, how can we help?

Hey, Dave and Christy, thanks for taking my call. How are we all doing? Better than we deserve. What's up? Well, my wife and I are debt-free minus our house. We have an emergency fund. We're about to start investing in a 401K. And don't worry, we do not own Beanie Babies.

We're good. So I'm calling about our home. We're looking to relocate to a better school district in a safer neighborhood and you know real estate of course and this market's crazy i know nothing about it so we're looking to see if we should sell now and buy later being that we have the available funds for a down payment and we have the place to live in the interim for free, my father-in-law's house. He's being very generous.

As far as future predictions, will the market go down later? Should we sell our house, go live with him, and then buy later? What are your thoughts on that? I do not think this is a bubble. Okay. And that would be the only way it would go down. I think the craziness will slow, and the rate of increase in prices will slow, but I don't think this is a false bubble that's going to course correct,

and the house prices in Pensacola, Florida, are going to go down dramatically any time in the next decade. Okay, understood. What that means is if you buy and step out of the market. We're flooding the market. Yeah, what that means is as you step out of the market, every day you wait to get back in, the prices are going up for the rest of your life. So it's definitely not a good idea to sell now and buy later. It's a good idea to sell now and buy later it's a good idea to sell now and buy now

sounds like it nothing nothing nothing wrong with that because it's an even swap you're going to get the benefit of the heated market on the sale and you're going to uh have the problem of the of the heated market on the buy so i'm curious about this dave because we we got some calls like this last week and i was talking to you about this even off air. But are you thinking there's going to be any kind of dip? Because right now, like Nashville specifically with these cash buyers coming from California, so it's so much. People are paying so much over appraisal and list price. You're not seeing that go down.

You're thinking it's just going to level out and then keep going. I mean, I'm curious about this because we hear about this all the time. The only thing that dropped in 2008, 2008 is the first time in my 35 years of having a real estate license that prices across the nation went down. It's the only time I've ever seen it was in 2008. Now, I've seen particular markets bubble up and pop. And those have to do with particular things in those markets. But, you know, Florida does not have any of those issues. For instance, I'll give you an example.

I don't know what's going to happen in California because there's a mass exodus. People are leaving. There's a stream of U-Hauls of interstate going down the interstate leaving the state as fast as they can possibly flee, and they're going to Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and buying houses. And so what's that going to do to that real estate market? Eventually, if enough of that continues, mathematics tells us that that will hurt prices in California.

It hasn't yet. California is quite hot. You put a house on the market, it'll sell in three days right now in L.A. And so it's not like all these people leaving have affected. There's a dadgum many people there that, you know, that you take a while to empty the state, you know. And so but they are they are pouring out of there for sure. And those of us that are in the markets that they are coming to know it. I mean, we go out here at the commercial breaks right here and uh you

know we i haven't been out of this room to go out and meet people at a commercial break i don't think a single time in uh five months that i didn't meet somebody from california that's here looking at houses i mean every dadgum and so that's an example of a particular market that has unique problems, in that case, created by the governor. But and because COVID is not worse in California than it is in Tennessee and Texas. And so it's just absolute BS. But the but the bottom line is, you know, and we happens. A manufacturing plant shuts down, and that labor base was a big part of that market. Then you can see that market correct. But overall, just because it's going up does not mean it's going to come down.

Matter of fact, you have a hard time proving that. You know, I can think back. Again, I got my real estate license in 1978. I have seen very few times that you've seen prices go down from where they were four months before and stay down for more than 20 seconds. Yeah. I just wasn't sure if it was such a unique situation because of the amount of overpaying. Well, they're overpaying, but are they? It's just going to set that new bar. If enough of them are going to set that new if enough of them are doing it that is now the price that's the new bar yeah and so the

definition when i went through appraisal class and when i was getting my degree in real estate the definition of value of market value is what a willing buyer is able is willing to give a willing seller where neither party is in duress. So, in other words, if you're buying a foreclosure, that's someone in duress. You wouldn't count that in an appraisal. Gotcha. But if two perfectly healthy situations and they're paying a whole lot, even more than asking price, then, you know, where we're getting multiple offers on a property and that kind of stuff.

You know, put it on the market, you get 30 offers in a weekend. Those kinds of stories are happening all over. Then that is the new value. So when people say, I'm not going to overpay for a house, they're not overpaying. That's the new. Well, I mean, you know, you're overpaying what it would have brought two months ago. Right, right, right. And you're overpaying what it would have brought Monday.

Yeah. But by Tuesday, I don't know. Yeah, that's yeah because these prices are being driven up by this supply yeah because what has happened is with the lumber shortage right it's driven the price of lumber up the cost of new housing is going up new housing is also more harder to get out of the ground and so we have we have an inventory problem and so anytime there's a shortage of anything and there's more people chasing that thing than there is thing you that's a supply demand curve from the seventh grade economics class it drives price up yeah

that even works with beanie babies yeah when too few when too few people i mean when a big bunch of dollars are chasing too few things yeah then those things go up anything that has scarcity in other words you'd always see the price go up and so what will happen is is this market will calm down as the inventory gets rebuilt as the lumber factories get to building or you get to making lumber again at the same pace or an increased pace to offset this and the prices come back or they at least the lumber prices will come back down that i do think but that's not going to necessarily affect real estate values overall.

So anyway, yes, I don't have any problem with you buying right now or selling right now. But I would do both of whatever you're going to do. Not get out of the market. Whatever you're going to do. I mean, I'm enjoying watching the real estate that I own go way up in value. It's just awesome. I kind of like it. So, you know, and that's the stuff.

So, my goodness. Yeah, that's what I would do. I think it's time for you to move, sir. And I would. And I would buy when you move. This is the Ramsey Show. There's a stat that came out recently saying nearly one in three employees wants to pursue a more fulfilling job. If you're burned out at work and thinking about changing jobs come January, you need to start now to beat the competition. It can be hard to get hired in a crowd of applicants, but I

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Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. Nicole is with us in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, Nicole. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you, Dave?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Dave, I just want to thank you for your principles. My husband and I are on baby step three. My husband's father died very unexpectedly 19 days ago. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. My mother-in-law is 63 years old.

Her lifelong partner of 42 years died with no life insurance. She has car loan debt, consumer credit card debt, and a home loan, and her Social Security check is equal to her mortgage. So we are questioning you, sir, if this was your family, would you suggest us to have her file bankruptcy and stay in the home and have to, you know, stretch it and barely make ends meet? Or would we sell the house? And my husband and I are in a position where we have a walkout basement and we've given the opportunity for her to use those proceeds of selling the home and pay off her debt, and then use proceeds of the home to renovate our basement into a one-bedroom apartment where she can live with us, but not with us. So we were just curious to see what your opinion would be on everything stated. Well, what's the equity in the house? We're just curious to see what your opinion would be on everything stated. What's the equity in the house? She's got about $150,000 equity.

Okay. And she has a car debt and what other debt? $6,700 on the car and roughly $33,000 in credit card debt that she can't make the minimum payments even on. Right. Okay. And she was working for her husband. He owned a very small plumbing company. And when when she lost her spouse she also lost her employment he was a one-man show so the business has been dissolved what was she doing just running the

office just running the office yes sir okay all right oh what a horrible thing for her i'm so sorry yes sir yeah we're so grateful that we were following your plan and on baby step three that Oh, what a horrible thing for her. I'm so sorry. Yes, sir. We're so grateful that we were following your plan and on baby step three that we could come in and help with his afterlife care. It was such a blessing to be in that position and not have to go into debt to do so. Yeah. She's going to have a good pile of money even after she's debt-free. The house is gone. She can't afford to keep everything. And, no, she's going to have a good pile of money even after she's debt-free. The house is gone.

She can't afford to keep everything. And no, she's not bankrupt. She has $150,000 worth of equity. She's not even close to bankrupt. And bankruptcy would cause her to lose the house to the bankruptcy. So no, we're not doing that. So she's got to sell the house. It's sad.

And that pays off the debt. And then she's got $100,000 plus in her hand, and she gets a job. Right? She doesn't want to work. She's 63. I'm sorry. She can work. And 63 is not old enough to retire when you're broke.

She's hurting, and she's grieving, and that makes sense. But she's going to need to do something for money, number one, but number two, to keep herself occupied. She's still young. Right. She doesn't need to sit on her butt from 63 to 93. That's not good for humans. We need to do something.

Absolutely. And so, yeah, just to, but right now she's just hurting. So, I mean, we'll be gentle with her, but that's, we're not doing that. So, if it was my mom, I would not move her into the basement. No? Because I don't think it's necessary. If it was my mom, I would not move her into the basement. No? Because I don't think it's necessary. She's got $100,000, and when she starts working, she can get her a little rental apartment,

set the $100,000 aside, and in a couple of years, start thinking about buying a home again. Okay. With $100,000 down, and it'll be a different price range home than she's in now. But without the credit card debt, without the car debt, with the pain and the tragedy in her rearview mirror, and she's back functioning again in a career, by 65 she easily could buy a house. Nicole, have you all talked to her about the basement plan, or has she asked to move in? Has that been a point of discussion yet?

Oh, it's definitely, we offered. We've got a 1,000-squ thousand square foot lockout basement underneath our house. Yeah. So, and it's unfinished. It's a dirt floor. She's not penniless. She doesn't live in a basement. Well, even if we made it into a mother-in-law suite with her proceeds from the house.

I just wouldn't. It goes back to what you say a lot of times, Dave. Would you do that if it wasn't your mother-in-law? Would you have someone just move into your basement and build it out with their money? You wouldn't. We love her dearly. We think the world of her. If she was on the street and homeless, absolutely we would do this. But she's got $100,000 worth of options. I guess my question is nicole is like what is the why of her moving in with y'all is she unable to take care of herself

she doesn't want to work and this puts her up to where she doesn't want to work she you know she has the you know the old-fashioned mindset that renting is throwing money away it's not the time to be buying right now we all acknowledge that's not smart to do right now um but just looking at rentals you know she doesn't you, it would be more than what her current mortgage is. And she doesn't want to have to dip into that, that nest egg every month just to cover the basics, you know? And I mean, so it just made sense to, okay, renovate the basement and, you know, get her a nice one bedroom studio apartment down there. And then when she, you know, get her a nice one-bedroom studio apartment down there, and then she would own it. And then when she's elderly and needs our help, we're right there.

She doesn't own it. Well. You own it. Right. And she's only 62 years old. Yeah. This doesn't play well for 30 years. And when she gets ready to move on with her life, now she's got her money stuck in your basement.

True. True. I wouldn't make this decision today. I would go rent an apartment for six months after you sell the house and be debt-free, stabilize, let's get a better, brighter future picked out rather than I'm going to hide in the basement for 30 years. Okay. That's mentally what she's doing. It's escape.

It'd be different if it was necessary, Nicole. That's where I go back to. It'd be different if it was necessary. She needs your care for her health. She's unable to work. I would never tell you not to take care of your mom because she's right. She has $100,000 of cash, but she's right you have a she's a hundred thousand dollars of cash and she's young she can work there's no actual need base for this decision she's debt free you adore her and she doesn't want to work this is more of a choice than a need rinse a little

apartment over by the ocean over by the beach somewhere and goes for long walks and starts to reset her mind and heal from this grieving, go through the grieving process and just give her some time. And she needs to put her hand to something and go make some money so that she doesn't burn through the $100,000. Right. But I don't want her to rent for the rest of her life. I wouldn't suggest that.

And let's say that she became ill or something and was unable to care for herself. Yeah, okay. Or after six months, if we're still thinking this way. If you all want to do it, it's not the end of the world. But the problem is it closes down her future. It narrows the focus on her future to where she's acting like she's 83, not 63. Well, it may be hard for her to find a job, and it might be hard for her to rent those things now that she doesn't want to do and has never done before.

It's going to be a whole lot harder in five years after you guys have gotten all comfortable in the basement. She won't. She won't. It's either now or. And she can't go buy something then because the money's in your basement. Yeah. Set 30 grand of the seven. You know, now we've got 70 left.

Yeah. And now you feel bad because you've got her money in your basement. And now you've got to go sell your house to get her money out or something like that because she wants to move on with her life but i i think there's a second act here a third act an encore i don't think that this is the final curtain for her that's my point and so we don't want to build something out here that that acts like it's final curtain stuff and that's what that's what you're doing you're trapping her. So if you're going to do it, I'd wait six months.

Let's rent for six months. Let's get some of the grieving behind us. You're going to have to sell the house. You've got to sell the house. Get debt free. But get debt free. Go rent something. Put the $100,000 in a CD for six months.

Sit on it. Live on the Social Security check. Begin to think about career and then make this decision. And if you want to do it, I'm not going to be mad at you, but I wouldn't. I think it's narrowing our options too tightly. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225 in Las Vegas. Andrew and Shanae are with us.

It says on my screen you guys are debt-free. Congratulations. Thank you. How much did you pay off? $78,564. Good for you. Awesome. And how long did this take you? 364 days. Okay, there we go. The one year minus a day mark. Okay. And your range of income during that time? Our range of income started about $97 97 410 and then we finished at um 148 9 or 840 wow what do you guys do for a living i'm a police officer and i'm the office manager of a dental office how'd you get your income up so far in one year um i worked over 901 hours of overtime wow wow great place to go when you're broke to work

huh way to go andrew man i bet you're happy this is over yeah the wife's pretty happy too she has kids now yeah absolutely she was a single mom for a year so uh that's what that's what my wife said, yeah. So what kind of debt was your $79,000? It ranged from we had a personal loan for $42,000. We had credit cards. We had cars. And we had a $3,400 vacuum cleaner. Of course. Yeah.

What? Well, it does everything. Yeah. Or not. But yeah. Yeah. What? Well, it does everything. Yeah. Or not. But yeah. Right. So what was the $42,000 personal loan? What was that?

So we have two children, and I was a stay-at-home mom for about almost three years. And during that time, we thought it was going to be a good idea to consolidate a car payment and credit cards into a consolidation loan and we were kind of you know at that time we didn't know a whole lot about paying off debt and stuff and we thought at that time that was going to be our best option and then when my daughter was born she had a lot of medical problems and so we got behind on a payment and it kind of just downhill from there yeah I got you okay yeah that thing i'm trying to borrow your way out of debt lots of folks have tried that one you're not the only one way to go i'm so proud of you guys what started this uh this debt snowball this lit your fuse

because you guys went nuts i mean you were going after it 901 hours of overtime what started all this a year ago um so i had gone to a training with a co-worker and during the training, finances had got brought up and he was saying that he was getting ready to pay cash for a million dollar home. And I looked at him and I said, how is that possible? I mean, you have the same job, we're the same age, like how are you doing this? And he grew up in a Ramsey household. And so he started telling me about it, and I spent a couple more days away from the family at the training just looking this stuff up, came home, told the wife about it,

and we were just right then and there we started. Yeah, and we had kind of talked about actually the options of going bankrupt after that consolidation loan, like went to collections and stuff because we were having all those medical problems with my daughter. And so when he came home and was talking about that, it was like, well, we either do this or we file bankrupt because we're not really sure what to do. And we were so young that bankruptcy didn't obviously sound too enticing. So this was the only other option we had, and it sounded like the best thing. And we kind of just went full force. You sure did. So how did you plug into us? When we were at the training, he told me your name. And then my mom had told me about you when

I was in high school and stuff like that. But you don't listen to your mom when you're a teenager. Yeah. but you don't listen to your mom when you're a teenager. And so once I saw someone my own age living that way is when we started. I started listening to the podcast. Oh, the podcast, okay. Every single day I have all of the books, the audio books, that I listen to at least once a month. It's just we went crazy on it. Okay, all right, cool.

And so the budgeting and the whole process. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Sticking to a budget. Yeah. Inconsistency. I mean, it gets hard, especially when you have people that you're friends with or family that are kind of like, oh, well, and they live in the debt lifestyle, and they're okay with credit cards, and they're okay. Well, I want the points and I want this.

And so, you know, you have those people that kind of tell you what you're doing is silly and stuff. And so my my opinion is making sure your goals are and keeping your goals in focus because otherwise people really do try to talk you out of it. Yeah, there's a lot of naysayers, and it's just because they don't have hope a lot of times. Right. But who were your best cheerleaders? Oh, man, that's tough. I think each other, honestly.

We had some friends outside, but me and her, one of us would start to feel a little discouraged or something like that, and the other one would be like, hey, hey, hey, knock that off. Like, we got this. Let's do this. And so we just worked together as a team. It was probably the best thing. But we had some friends that stuck by.

Yeah. What kept you motivated? I know a year is pretty fast for you guys to do this, but there had to be some of those times where you were getting discouraged. What did you guys tell each other? What did you keep in mind to be able to stick with it? I would say it was the saying that Dave has is live like no one else, so later you can live and give like no one else.

So we figured if we took a year away from being able to do all the fun things and just really put our heads to it, we would have a lifetime of being able to do the fun things. That's awesome. And we have a four and a six year old. And so I think that was a lot of it too, because I really want to be able to, you know, send them to school and not have, if that's what they choose to do and not have to have a lot of financial things. I know I grew up, you know, with a lot of hard, like, financial situations, and I don't want that for my children. We've taught our kids this kind of thing, and, like, even my six-year-old, he goes out and he gets a job cleaning up dog poop for friends, and they pay him, and we teach him

how to, like, you know, spend, save, and give. So trying to show them a good way of living was a lot of motivation as well, just trying to make sure that they can see, you know, that you have to work hard in order to live freely later. That's awesome. So your friend, Andrew, who paid cash at your age for a million-dollar house, you know that that's your son, right? I really hope so.

Yeah. He's growing up in a Ramsey house. That's right. He's growing up in a house where Mom and Dad are living on less than they make. Mom and Dad don't borrow money. Mom and Dad know how to work their butts off, and you're teaching him how to work. You know?

I mean, it would do a lot of America good if at some point their kid had picked up poop for money. It could change this country. It really could. Yeah. He makes 80 bucks a month going house to house. Yeah. That's awesome. Whoa.

That's awesome. Wow. This kid's an entrepreneur. No pun intended, but yeah. Wow, you guys. This is incredible. I'm so, so proud wow you guys this is incredible i'm so so proud of you guys very very well done absolutely incredible uh so here's the deal we got a copy of the legacy journey for you that's uh the book about what happens now the live like no one else part now that you've done it and the legacy that we're just talking about with your kids

and we've also got a copy of the total Money Makeover for you to take and give to someone, because now, Andrew, you're going to be that friend that runs into somebody and starts their journey, and that's how this works, so paying it forward. So, again, we're just so proud of you guys. Very, very well done. All right, it's Andrew and Shanae. $79,000 paid off in 364 days with 901 hours of overtime, making 97 to 148. They are free. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Yeah! Amazing! You know, it's not hard to work that hard when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. That's right. When you can see that you're getting there.

Yes. I love that visual of how you said, that's going to be your son. Like, oh, you forecast into the future the ripple effect of this decision with that next generation and beyond that. That's incredible. Change your family tree, baby. You can do it. And I'm talking to you. Yeah, you.

You thought you were just in the car listening to the radio. And I'm talking to you. You need to change your family tree. It's in your power to do it. Now do it! Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY.

It's magic. You'll get the best deal. Today's question comes from Shelly in Ohio. I'm a 52-year-old woman with a B.A. in art and M.B.A. in management. I've been a stay-at-home mom for the last 10 years, but I'm ready to go back to work. I'd love to get into interior design. However, most jobs require design training, which I don't have. Our community college offers a two-year course and I can cash flow their program. Is this something worth doing at my age? This is such an interesting question and I think there's some different variables that I want to point out. First of all, at her age, her age I'm like absolutely you can do that if you want to and you can cash flow but

what's more interesting to me is if you think you want to do it I encourage people to do this a lot how can you get some experience in that to make sure you want to do it before you go take the courses because even if you have to have some education and training in this to do a full interior design, full-time job, it doesn't mean you have to have that in order to get started or to intern or to shadow or to have some position where you could make sure this is what you want to do before you do it. So I would encourage maybe a baby step. But as far as her age, I'm like, no, you absolutely could do that. People switch careers. They have encore careers.

What's the example of the Colonel Sanders? He's 63 years old before he ever um fried his first chicken fried his first chicken yeah yeah not i mean there's a lot of grandma moses never painted a painting till she was 88 years old she did 1500 works of art before she died at 100 and so you're not done do you quit don't talk to me about your age you're 52 i'm. You're pissing me off. You're not done here. You're not done. But the thing on interior design, there's so many ways to get at that, and there are many, many, many world-class designers who never had a class on interior design. They just had an eye for it, a knack for it and they developed it uh over time they studied with and around other people but they didn't necessarily go get a degree in interior design there's a lot

of them uh that do very very well and and you've got an mba in business so you know how to run the business part uh so i i'm with you i think i would use that ken coleman proximity principle and let's find an interior designer in your area and even if uh you did something really weird uh you're not making any money right now so why don't you just go work for them for free for 90 days and say I want to prove that I'm worth having me around and then work for them for a year and learn how they do what they do you're probably going to figure out that you can pick fabric yeah without a two-year. You're probably going to figure out that you can pick fabric without a two-year degree. That's right.

You're probably going to figure out you can pick a paint color without a two-year degree. And maybe there's some, for example, maybe there's some program that a lot of interior designers use to mock up what a room would look like to present to a potential client. And you learn that on the job or you learn that in this company that you don't have to go get a degree to do anyway. So even if there is some technical aspect that you want to know that would help you, you might be able to just learn it there. Yeah, almost in an apprentice type of a setting. Use that proximity principle. Yeah, I'm with you.

I think I'd get my feet wet. I don't think what you need is more education. I think you need some confidence. That's right. You're looking for confidence, and it's not found in education. It's amazing how many people ask me such a similar question, Dave, of, well, I need to go get another degree and another degree and another degree. And what they're really looking for is permission.

They're waiting for some piece of paper that's going to give them permission. I'm like, you don't need permission to go do this thing, to go try this thing, to go help people and learn the degree you think is going to be your gateway of permission. And more often than not, it's you actually doing the thing that makes you feel the confidence you're looking for. You have a four-year degree in art. If you decide you're an interior designer, you just are one. You just decided. That's right. Just print you some business cards, baby.

That's right. And then go pick some paint colors. And will you get better over time? Yeah. Will you stumble around a little bit? Yeah. You don't know how to necessarily source the lines of furniture or the fabrics or the paintings or whatever is needed to decorate that home and make it look like Magazine City.

But I think you probably know enough to start today. But if you want to build a little confidence, go work for somebody for a little bit. And getting your feet wet will give you not only the confidence, but it'll give you the skills. Dave, I think I took one class in college on speaking. And that's just because it was a part of my business management program. You know how I learned how to be a speaker? by speaking for the last 10 years yeah and that's and reviewing and every time you did a talk watching the video watching about looking at surveys that sucked

learning watching from other people it's just brutal to watch yourself yes it is you know you go back and review your own work in any work you'll find the errors more than anybody else will find them and you'll correct course, course correct, course correct, get better, get better, get better. That's called experience. But you know how you become a writer? You write. That's right. You know how you become a speaker?

You speak. You know how you become an interior designer? You do interior design. That's right. And so there's not a license required. You don't need permission. You can just go but if you need more confidence then we've decorated oh I can't think I can't count now thoroughly decorated and or redecorated using five different decorators

over the years or interior designers over the years and some of them with big time credentials some of them without uh but you know what we cared about we didn't care a thing about their credentials what we cared about was the work that they had done and were going to do can you do a good job and can i get there and that's all i cared about i didn't know you know as a matter of fact i kind of preferred they didn't have a long list of letters after their name from some school in France because that means they're going to charge me triple to go, I need a white wall. Well, I already knew you needed a white wall. You know what I mean?

So, you know, I just didn't, you know, it was less joy for me that way. More joy for Sharon probably, but less joy for me. And that's not to say you can't learn things in that field, but getting started is probably your best bet. Yeah, that's good. It's a big deal. Melissa is in Boise, Idaho. Hi, Melissa. Welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Thank you. Hi, Dave and Christy. Hi. Hi. I moved from California to Idaho in 2017, And now I have a job I really love. But I kept my house in California and I plan to retire in four years and maybe move back. But what I'm thinking now is should I keep the house for the whole four years, sell it and then put it into an investment property and then just pay cash for it and let it cash

flow? And then I just rent and live around and pay cash for it and let it cash flow and then i just rent and live around and travel around or is it better to just have that as my primary residence or would you recommend i just sell it now i'd sell it now why is that because i wouldn't long distance landlord for 20 seconds it's a nightmare and i own a bunch of rental property and i don't recommend it i just i don't recommend it and i don't know what california real estate is going to do it has done well in the past um obviously it has also been uh in my lifetime of 40 years working lifetime

of 40 years watching real estate it has been the most volatile market overall, meaning it goes way up and then it busts, and it goes way up and then it busts. And with the number of people leaving that state right now, I don't know what's going to happen to prices there. I'm a little shocked, honestly, with the level of exodus from California that prices haven't already gotten soft there. But they haven't. They're white hot so no inventory yeah yeah no it's no inventory we're in the united states i mean uh so the covid even though even though you pay recapture right now because if i right now i'm using it as my primary and paying california

taxes and i'm doing a roommate situation and gave them reduced rent. And I think if I wait until January to sell it, I won't have to pay $56,000 and recapture, or would you just take the money? Well, if you wait until January and save $56,000, I'll wait until January. But I'm not going to keep it five years. And, you know, I wouldn't have kept it in the first place. And so I'm going to begin the process of divesting and saying, you know, I'm going to live in Idaho, My investments are going to be in Idaho.

And when I leave Idaho, my investments will also leave Idaho. And that's what I would have you to do. It's almost never, I mean, so close to never that I can just say never, a good idea to become a landlord by default. In other words, would you have gone and bought that house to use it as rental property while you lived in Idaho? Answer 1,000 times is no. I live in Idaho. I'm going to go to a house that looks like something I would live in in California for rental. No, you wouldn't do that.

And so since you wouldn't do that, then keeping it is becoming a landlord by default. And it seldom turns out to be a great decision. Seldom. I mean, can you get out of it and make some money? Yeah, yeah. If you can get 56,000 help on the recapture by January, fine, I'm good with that. But long term, I'm not holding that puppy. Thank you for the call.

Christy, good show. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. This is The Ramsey Show. This is James Child, producer of The Ramsey Show. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.