The Ramsey Show - App - Should We Sell Our Home and Live in an RV? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: August 17, 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 debt is dumb, cash is king, and a paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, George Camel. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Dan is with us in Ventura, California. Hi, Dan.

How are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, George. I'm doing pretty good. I was in your studio audience last Thursday, and it was just wonderful. Well, thank you. Seeing you all in person, it was so reassuring. It just made me just lock down on the baby steps.

Cool. When I got home, I was back home in Ventura. I'm a little confused right now because I thought I was in baby step six. And my question revolves around spousal support. So I'm wondering where spousal support fits in the baby steps. I just finished my divorce about three months ago, and my world has been quite rocked for the last year or so. I'm sorry.

Yeah. So alimony, wouldn't that not just be a budget item, George? Yeah. Is this just ongoing support? What's the details of this? Yeah, the basic details are I'm obligated to pay $2,000 a month until February next year. I mean, I've already paid off the attorneys and lump sum payments,

and all the bad part of the divorce is over except for the spousal support. So I'm 58 years old. I own my home. I make about $102,000 a year. And I've been just cash flowing it. But I do have the emergency fund of about $15,000 I could use just to pay it off 100%. So is this a one you could lump sum the spousal support if you wanted to? Well, now that's a good question. And the marital separation agreement says I'm supposed to pay her $2,000 a month

until for 11 months, which ends in February. And you can just do that out of your budget, can't you? I have been, and I can. Yeah, I would just call. It's not really a baby step item. It's a budget item. A budget item, okay. Yeah, you have a $2,000 expense in your budget that's going to go away in

February. Right. It doesn't affect your baby steps. That's what I think. I don't know. Do you think it's a different way to do it? Yeah, I wouldn't consider it as debt. I wouldn't say, oh, you're in baby step two now. You've got to pay this thing off. It's just a budget line item, and once it's done, you're going to give yourself a raise, and you can continue on in the baby steps after that. But you said you have no debt except the house, right? That's correct. No debt except for the house. And I hope to be on your debt-free stage in about four years. That's great. Do you have margin left over after the spousal support to put extra on the mortgage? No. I have a part-time gig. I'm also an electrician on the side, so I'm able to make, you know, maybe $1,000 extra a month. But it's tight right now, very tight.

In fact, I'm trying to make some behavioral changes. So you owe her $12,000, six months of $2,000, right? Yes, sir. How contentious is the relationship? I think that answers it. It's not good. Okay, because here's why I ask. You could just do the $2,000 a month for six months.

That's fine, and you're done. If you called me up and you said, I have five years of back alimony, I would call that a debt. And that's a lump sum that you've got to catch up. But this is a monthly obligation that you are current on, and it's not a debt. It's just a payout. Now, depending on how contentious, here's an idea to throw into the soup. Might not be worth anything. But you might have your attorney ask her attorney, if he pays us off in a lump sum would there be a discount more than willing to pay it monthly

but if you want all the money right now would you take less than 12 000 and i'd use my emergency fund and clear it up if you got a deal okay plus gets rid of her i did yeah yeah exactly that's what i was thinking to kind of get it out of my life. We're no longer using attorneys. We're communicating through email. I asked that question about two months ago. She says, absolutely not. You have to abide by the agreement. Sure, then I'll do it.

That was my answer right there. Sure. Yeah. Happy to. Just leave it alone then. Forget it. Okay. Okay.

My idea. You've already tried my idea. Forget it. Yeah. I did. Thank you very much. Because sometimes people need money or they want the lump sum enough to give it a discount. If they're not going to give it a discount, we'll just sit on the money and pay it out monthly,

which it sounds like she prefers anyway. So it's all good. That's fine. I think so. That's the route I would go. Yeah, and once you hit February, then you've got $2,000 back in your life to pay down that mortgage. And it sounds like you want to be intense about it and get rid of that thing. So, I think you're in a good situation.

Like Dave was saying, I think you just make these monthly payments out of your budget and be done with it in six months. Brad's in Memphis. Hey, Brad, how can we help? Hi, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I have a what would Uncle Dave say question.

We've been struggling through this for a little while. We recently did our debt-free scream in April after paying off $196,000 in 27 months, and we're now in Baby Steps 4, 5, and 6. My wife and I have been moving towards selling our house ever since we finished Baby Step 3. We have made a lot of bad choices in the past with our money, and now that we've changed our behavior, got out of debt, actually have money, we don't want to mess up. Good. If we sell our home, our realtor told us we'd net more than $100,000 after she ran some comps.

And we bought the house just three years ago with a va loan and zero down this is before we got smart found money though yes um so we make 160 uh the mortgage is currently at 310 and uh a new piece of information we recently got was we both have government jobs and have been given eight weeks to get the COVID shot. Neither of us are willing to do that. We've been able to use a religious exemption in the past for things like the flu, but they have no idea if they're going to allow that for this COVID shot. That being said, we do want to sell our house with the equity, buy a piece of land, and live in our paid-for RV while we save up for building a home in cash. We both receive VA disability, equaling about $30,000 a year. And so if we both lost our jobs, we would barely be able to survive. But we're debt-free.

With a piece of land and RV, we could survive without the jobs until we could find something to replace it. How many kids? Two kids, sir. What age? 15 and, sorry, a little nervous, 13 and 15. Okay. That's all right.

And, um, uh, all of it sounds good, but the RV part to me, it sounds like hell to me to live in an RV with two teenagers. Um, I see where you're painting and I see where you're going. I'd probably be looking at maybe a used trailer, like a $5,000 one, because that way I'm not losing much money when I get rid of it. And then start looking towards building very, very quickly as you land in your new careers. Hey, I'm Christi Wright. Listen, I know how easy it is to feel anxious in our crazy, busy world. That's why I want to tell you about an app called Glorify. Glorify is the number one daily worship and well-being app, and it will give you tools that will help you ease stress and anxiety in your life.

Just search for Glorify in your app store. It's free to download and use. And if you like it, you can access their entire content library at half price by using the promo code Christy. So download Gl glorify today george camel ramsey personality is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. If there's one thing that 2020 taught us about investing, it's this. You cannot invest alone.

You absolutely need someone in your life who knows the market better than you and helps you make smart decisions. I love do-it-yourselfers, but DIY investors, well, the data tells us that we mess up when we DIY on investing, especially when there's a global crisis. You invest in the wrong things. You get caught up in trends. You make rookie mistakes. You can build a portfolio based on what you read in Reddit.

God, don't do anything based on what you do in Reddit. Trust me, you don't need to add any unnecessary stress in your life. You need to get some people in your corner that can help you. Let 2020 be your wake-up call. Never again let your investments be at the mercy of the emotions of a global crisis. Go to RamseySolutions.com slash SmartVestor. Get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros, and they'll sit down with you and walk you through this.

Sam's with us in Oahu, Hawaii. Hi, Sam. How are you? Hello? Hi, Sam. I'm sorry. You have the wrong number. Okay.

That works for me. I did have the wrong number. You're right. That's Sam in Honolulu, or Oahu, Hawaii. I pushed the wrong number. You're right. That's Sam in Honolulu, or Hawaii. I pushed the wrong button. Hey, Sam. How are you? Hey, Dave.

Hey, Dave. How are you doing today? Good. You sound a lot better now. How can I help? Okay. So, I'm in baby step number two. I have my $1,000 emergency fund.

My car was my first debt to pay off on a debt snowball. I had like $800 left on that, so I paid that off early. And I also have other loans. So I have a $2,000 loan. I have an $8,000 loan, a $9,000 loan, and an $11,000 loan. The $11,000 loan that I have is with the same bank that I took my car loan out from. And since I paid off my car early, I wanted to get my title from the bank. And because I have a defaulted loan with the same bank, they won't release my title. They're saying it's cross-collateral for that loan. And the debt

recovery department for that bank contacted me, and I guess they wanted a lump sum for the loan, and I don't have that money right now. What did they offer you on the loan? He didn't offer a lower amount. He just said if I could pay the $11,000. I asked him if I could maybe make payments on it, but he said now we would have to go to court, and he's threatening to sue me for the $11,000. So I have no idea what to do.

I'm not sure if I paid off the card. how long has it been since you paid how long has it been since you paid three years it's been three years since i paid that loan what's your car so uh my car is worth 7500 the thing is i'm a full-time uber driver so i need my car i wasn't saying get rid of it i'm just trying to figure out what's going on all right so um okay so uh what are you making what kind of what's your income i make about four thousand a month that's good okay yes all right um so the eleven thousand was later on in a bit snowball that's why i wasn't planning on paying it now i was going to take care of the next loan that was in line after my car. What you've run into here is what's called a dragnet clause. Standard loan documents with the typical commercial bank

allows them, if you have a loan and it's in default, to cross-collateralize and hold your collateral. I ran into that with commercial paper. It wasn't a car loan deal, but it was something else when I was going broke. I thought I had cleared this property, and I thought I was going to be able to move it and take care of something else. And I go in, and the bank's like, oh, no, we're going to keep that deed. Thank you very much.

And I ran into the exact same thing. And it's pretty much an emotional gut punch because you think you're making progress, and then they take you out. So what's the name of this bank oh it's the hawaii state federal credit union okay which is the name you need to remember the rest of your life that keeps you so pissed off you never borrow money again because you now know what it feels like to be screwed right i'm never borrowing any money from them ever again this is just or anybody ever because of the way they treat you. Ever, yes.

Yeah, mine was called SunTrust, okay, just to give you an idea. But anyway, just remember, for 30 years you're still pissed off. I mean, I'm never borrowing money again because of the way these people treat you. So, you need to scrape up some money really fast and make them a lump sum offer like five grand for this 11 and see if you can discount and pay it off. Okay. Stop everything and pile up cash and make

them a lump sum offer. Okay. Would it be wise to possibly take out a loan for the $12,000 and pay them that? It would be wise to take out a loan for $7,000 and settle the $11,000. Okay. Because you already have an $11,000 loan. If at the end of this conversation you have a $7,000 loan, we made progress.

Okay. I'm not telling you to borrow money. I'm telling you to move some of your debt and make it more efficient lord yeah so you haven't paid on the thing in three years the car is not worth seven on a repo lot it's not worth three they don't want your car it's an emotional play they've got on you okay they don't really want a three thousand dollar car because that's what it'll bring on repo lot if it's a three thousand dollar car because that's what it'll bring on repo lot if it's a seven thousand dollar car it's not gonna bring anything so they're not

they're not going to come out of this in a good shape so call them if you can get a loan get that lined up and offer them five and settle at seven and get it in writing that that's a settlement in full. Uh-huh. And what if I do that and they're not willing to take the seven? They will. You're just going to have to mess with them a while. You're just going to have to be hardcore. Because it's been three years. Where have they been? They weren't all hoppy and excited to go to a lawsuit two years ago.

Why not? You know know it's just because you activated it when you called wanting your title and they went oh we got this guy we got this guy by the nap of the neck we're gonna shake him a little bit and that's what it feels like happening oh it's exactly what happened the borrower is slave to the lender and you are experiencing that i did too i remember this feeling. It makes me mad just hearing about it again. It gets you fired up, doesn't it? Oh, yeah.

I mean, it sounds like they've got some leverage on you, and I want you to take some control back. So be in communication with them and say, hey, here's what I can do. Take it or leave it. I haven't paid this thing in three years. You could have seven grand today. How does that sound? And I think they're going to go, okay, we'll take it.

They may not in the first conversation. They may mess with you a little bit. You could have seven grand today. How's that sound? And I think they're going to go, okay, we'll take it. They may not in the first conversation. They may mess with you a little bit. Just go, listen, when you decide you want some money, you call me. In the meantime, I'm going to be sitting over here waiting for your call. And hang up. Hang up the phone. Okay.

I would imagine he's being rude isn't he yeah and he's not gonna take he seems like he's not gonna take anything but the 12s but that's his job don't believe that crap it's it's just a job to him it's not his money yeah it's been really stressing me out yesterday and by the way listen to this his job is to put a checkmark in the box beside your name. That's it. And he can't put a checkmark in the box beside your name until he gets some money from you. So you got leverage over him. He needs the checkmark.

Okay. Dude, get some swagger back here. All right, I'll do that. Get some swagger back. Okay. This guy, you ever heard the phrase, got you buffaloed? You ever heard of that phrase? No. got you scared but it means he's got you scared he's got you cornered he's got you thinking he's got you whipped and he hadn't got you whipped he's just a duber in a cubicle

making phone calls and he needs a check mark he works at a bank at one of the worst jobs in the bank. It's a better job to clean septic tanks than what he's doing. Don't let him put you in the corner, dude. Throw your shoulders back, step back up into it, punch him once, and then hang up the phone. Call me when you grow a brain, bozo. Hang up. That's what you do. Mess with them. Because that's their job.

It's just a job. It's not you do. Mess with them. Because that's their job. It's just a job. It's not even a good job. This is the Ramsey Show. Most teens are graduating high school with no clue how to handle money the right way. Ridiculous. If your teen is prioritizing visits to the drive-thru over saving for their future, we can help. Our fully digital Foundations in Personal Finance self-study course will walk your teen through how to save an emergency fund, buy a car with cash,

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Text SELFSTUDY to 33789. in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt-free stage joshua and jennifer are with us hey guys how are you we're great hello dave welcome welcome where do y'all live greencastle pennsylvania all right welcome to nashville and all the way down here to do a debt-free scream how much have you Welcome, welcome. Where do y'all live? Greencastle, Pennsylvania. All right. Welcome to Nashville. And all the way down here to do a debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? $63,000 in about 15 months. All right. And your range of income during that time?

158 to 156. We're in that small amount that went down just a little bit because of COVID. Ah, okay. All right. Cool. What do y'all do for a living? I'm a dental hygienist. Engineer. Engineer. Ah, so dental hygienist was tough during COVID. It, okay. Alright, cool. What do y'all do for a living? I'm a dental hygienist. Engineer. Ah, so dental hygienist was tough during COVID. It was tough. There was no way to

work. Right. Yeah, very difficult. Are y'all back to work now? We are. We were only out for about three months. Okay, well that's good. Yeah. That's good news. Wow, what kind of debt was the $63,000? Home equity and a car loan. Ah, okay. What did you buy with a home equity loan?

Well, new kitchen, countertops. Basically, we sought financial advice, and we were told everyone has a car payment, and you always should use your home equity. Where did you go, the bank? The bank. I know. Yeah, don't ask the bank if you need to borrow money it's like asking a dog

if it's hungry oh my gosh way to go guys all right that's fun so what happened 15 months ago that made you change your direction we would month to month we would do things go out have fun and we never had any extra money and every month I would listen to him kind of complain, you know, we make too much money to not have anything. Yeah. And it just hit me one day, we need to do something about this. And I finally got him on board. It was really hard.

Being an engineer, he's really good with money, numbers type thing. I'm the geek. He's the geek. He didn't think he really needed help. Convinced him to watch Financial Peace University with me.

Oh, wow. It was hard, but he did it. It's about a 12-year journey. I read the book 12 years ago and took some persuading. Ah, okay.

But I didn't give up and, you know, I want other people to know too not to give up. You know, just make little comments here or there. And if it's meant to be, it'll happen.

And it did happen. And he listened, and he was totally on board. Wow. Sometimes the pokes aren't so subtle, but we pick up on them. Eventually, yeah. So what finally happened that made you go, okay, I'm going to watch? I'd say she was very persistent. And then, like she said, I love to have toys.

I had a Mercedes. I enjoyed it. Then we had kids, and it didn't fit car seats. So many years of being the good spouse or trying to do things correctly, get point blank, get pissed that everyone else has new vehicles. They get to do cool stuff. And we're $2,000 to $3,000 a month on credit cards,

never missed a payment, never paid interest, but nothing to show for it at the end of it. Never a sense of traction. No. Nope. Living month to month. I get paid one time a month. It's like, woohoo, it's spent before I even get it. Never a sense of traction. No. Nope. Living month to month. I get paid one time a month.

It's like, woohoo, it's spent before I even get it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then the best part for us was we went and got a new car. And we got a really good deal on it,

of course. But they ran our credit score. They didn't even bother to run Jen's because she's like, the guy's like, I've seen five people have a credit score as high as yours. It's almost perfect. So we know what that means now.

We're really good friends of debt collectors. Oh, my gosh. That is cool. So you have this I love debt score, and you realize, oh, this is not what winning looks like. We've got to do things differently. I think we watched FPU probably three or four times. That chain episode in the first really got to me. So you've known this stuff for a decade, but it took a while to get through your hard head,

it sounds like. We read the book first. And then I find Financial Peace University online. I don't even remember how I came across it. But we both started with the book, and we were really into it, and then we never really did anything with it. But Financial Peace University was recent. That's when you got in gear 15 months ago. Yes.

Okay, good. All right. Way to go, guys. Okay, so now you're the other side of this with all the gyration and the emotions and everything else. And you fought your way really fast through 65,000. Once you decided to do it, it was game on. And the numbers indicate that. So now what is your advice to someone that's listening that's going, I don't know if I need to do this or not.

I don't know if it will work or not. What is the key that you picked up that changed? What broke you loose? What was the breakthrough, the principle? The financial freedom. Once we didn't have those payments anymore, and we saw this money that was actually coming into us, and we realized what we could do in the future,

it was a total game changer. It was incredible because we made a plan at the end of 2019. We're like, that's it. We're doing this. We got some things. We started really saving for the kids' college. And it's like, we're just not going to get there. So December of 2019, we printed out the baby steps one through seven, posted right beside our computer, and we started marking off each one.

January 2020, we hit the ground running and then COVID hit. Here comes March. During the whole time we're listening to you, we're like four walls. Just worry about four walls. We continued paying on the car payment, but then any extra after the car was paid off,

which was April, we just put it in the bank. Then even when we went to pay off the home equity on April 1st of this year, we took them a check for $12,000. That was the rest of the home equity. We're sitting in the drive-thru because the lobby is closed. I'm like, oh, by the way, you have $86 closing costs. I'm like, we just called the guy yesterday, and he said this is it.

So every time we're trying to pay stuff off, there's this little caveat clause hey you owe more money it's like you can't get rid of them nope no so i want to walk away after i pay for something i'll think twice about it yeah yeah wow way to go guys way to go how's it feel now that you're free wonderful it's just a feeling i never thought i would feel i never thought we'd get i mean i knew we would get there but when you're starting and you feel kind of hopeless like looking at this big amount of money to pay off you're like i'm it's going to take forever but once you really get gazelle intense and get into it it's a great feeling we even had some motivation along the way so february of year, we also took a church class.

They were doing FPU at church. We know the people facilitated. One of the things was cutting up the credit cards right away. It was like the second week of class. We still had credit cards. We just couldn't let it go. It was like the sense of it. You almost couldn't.

It was one, really. We just couldn't let it go just in case. I don't know. It was a little security thing. Just in case. What if what happens? So what happened when you clipped the security in half? We had the kids do it.

We made the kids do it as a memory for them to not ever do that. Don't ever take a credit card out. And it felt great. It felt liberating. Yeah. It wasn't as scary as you thought. It wasn't. No.

I'm living without it. Yeah, it wasating. Yeah. It wasn't as scary as you thought. It wasn't. No. Like, oh, I'm living without it. Yeah, it was not. Yeah. I was more concerned with kids cutting themselves than the actual credit card. Seriously. That's fun. All right. You brought them with you.

What are their names and ages? Alex and Adam, and they're 9 and 11. All right. Very cool. Good stuff. Well, way to go, you guys. We're very proud of you. We've got a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give away to somebody else.

Hopefully, they'll read it and do it. And we've got a copy of the Legacy Journey for you because that's what you've done. You've changed your whole family tree. Congratulations, you guys. Very, very well done. I've got one more thing for you, Dave. Okay. As we're coming down here, we're looking at all of our finances real quick,

and we just looked at all of our retirements, Roth IRAs, the equity in our house, and then we realized, oh, my God, we got $950,000 already. And then if we look at our three vehicles, which are two really old ones, plus some jewelry, we're just over $2,000, over a million. It's like, wow. We're almost there. Everyday millionaires. Almost 2,000, over a million. It's like, wow. We're almost there. Everyday millionaires. Almost there, yep.

Woo! Incredible. Love it. That's awesome. And at the end of this month, we're in baby step four. I love it. Well, congratulations, you guys. Very well done.

Joshua, Jennifer, Alex, and Adam from Pennsylvania. 63,000 paid off in 15 months. Everyday millionaires. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three,000 paid off in 15 months. Everyday millionaires. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! That's the way that happens. I love it. Yes! This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Our scripture of the day, 2 Corinthians 1.4, He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

William Arthur Ward said, Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character. Amen. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. George Campbell Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. You jump in and we'll talk.

Jennifer is with us in Pittsburgh. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? Well, so my grandmother passed away like a year or so ago and then my mom just passed away like two weeks ago.

Oh, my. I'm sorry. Well, my mom was drinking and they were estranged and anyhow, the grandmother left Oh, my. I'm sorry. was she was a bit of a hoarder. She was a heavy smoker. She died in the home. This was my grandmother I'm talking about, my mother. And so I called a few realtors and had them come, and they decided to get an inspector to look at the house. The inspector says that there's a bad roof leak from the chimney and that the foundation is really bad. There's gaps around the exterior. Some walls need to be torn down.

The slab is cracked. Yeah, let's stop a second, okay? Is there any debt on this estate? No. Okay, so your grandmother didn't have any debt. No. Did she have any heirs? Did she have any children other than your mother? No heirs did she have any children other than your mother no did your mother have any children other than you yes my brother but he wants no part of any

of it it doesn't matter what he wants there's no will okay all right so you and your brother are likely the heirs you'll have to get a court order in probate court in order to sell the house and the judge will take the proceeds and tell you what to do with them which would be to spread them to you and your brother if he doesn't want the check you can you can take it at that point but um yeah you don't need to get in a home repair deal here. I would sell this piece of garbage house like it is, as is where it is. Right, that was my question. Yeah. My question was, do I do that through a realtor, or do I do it alone?

I'm just afraid I don't want to get – You need to get a real estate agent, but you need to get one that's up for the task. Not all real estate agents know how to sell something that's just trashed. They need an investor or two in their pocket, because you're going to sell this at wholesale and below. Okay, so you do recommend absolutely using a realtor and not doing it on my own? Absolutely. You have no idea what you're doing. Okay.

All right, fair enough. That was my main question. What would you guess the house is worth? If it was all fixed up and nice, just give me a guess. Well, it's in a really small town with lots of mobile homes. This is a really old home, so I would say $100,000 or less. So if you could get $54,000, it would be a great day. I agree.

Cash. Yeah. Cash. Yeah. Cash. Okay. So you need a real estate agent. You can jump on RamseySolutions.com and click on ELP for Endorse Local Provider for real estate agents. Talk to two or three of them in that immediate area. Ask them for some help.

See if one of them, just say, I talked to Dave. I've got an investor property. I'm not doing any work to it i'm going to sell it as is where is i'm gonna make somebody a deal do you want to do a quick deal okay i can do that can i ask a second question is that okay sure all right so as i said my grandmother passed away in the house um like over a year ago and then my mom um she she was a drinker and she ended up dying from that in the hospital a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago. And so I'm not one of those people that have the

grief clouding. I've been dealing with this my whole life. So my question is, my mom started to try to get a lawyer to try to get the money, but she was never sober enough to do it. So it's never been signed, but there is a lawyer there willing to work with me. My question would be, since my mother never owned my grandmother's house, can they come after me for my mother's medical bills if I get any money from this estate? You'd have to ask a lawyer that in that state where she passed away i don't know this is the problem with not having a will and you know the estate is liable for the estate's bills your mother inherited the house but she never really inherited it because the the transaction was never completed uh and so it probably passes directly to you and bypasses her medical bills.

But I'm not a lawyer in Minnesota, so I can't tell you for sure. But since your mother never took possession of the property legally through the courts, then it would never stand for her medical bills. That's my theory. But my theory is worth exactly what you paid for it. So you're probably out of to contact an attorney as well because you're going to have to run this through probate and the judge can tell you when you run through probate you're going to have to get a court order in order to sign the deed you can't just go i'm the heir because the title company will not accept that and the deed is not valid when you sign it without a court order.

So you're going to have to get a probate. A probate court is where wills and estates are handled. And you're going to have to get, you will have to spend some money on that. But I would do that as a part of the sale. And then I would get in the car and go back to Colorado. And let the real estate agent and the lawyer handle this from long distance. And you go back to work. And don't spend any more of your emotional or time bandwidth on this don't clean out a hoarder's house it's one of the most grotesque possible things you can ever have to do it's gross just gross oh all right up next is jennifer

and jennifer's in pittsburgh wait a minute is that who I was talking to? Going to Leah in Minneapolis. Oh, my gosh. I've got too many things. I've got Leah. I've got all kinds of things. Kelly, help me out here. There it is. Leah.

Hey, Leah in Minneapolis. Same question almost, right? Almost the same question. That's wild. Dave, I have to tell you how thankful I am for you. My dad got a total money makeover to my high school class, and I've never had a penny of debt. All because of you. Wow. I'm for you. My dad got a total money makeover to my high school class and I've never had a penny of debt all because of you. Wow. Good for you. Um, yeah, it's a similar question. Um, my grandmother passed away, uh, a year ago and her house is in the middle of nowhere on a farm in Minnesota,

where I was from. And I have such a strong nostalgic connection to it. And I'm all the way down at step six of our plan, so I've never had debt. I've got my smart investor, I've got my full emergency fund, and I'm ready to find myself a house. And I just am so connected to that farm that I'm toying with the idea of taking it over, but it needs a full renovation.

The thing about being in the middle of nowhere is there's no return on that investment. Like nobody's going to buy that house from me for what I would put into it. So I'm wondering what you think of that with the financial situation I'm in. I appreciate your heart. And the older I get, the more nostalgic I get about things. But this is not an investment in real estate. This is an investment in romance of the past. Sure, I understand that.

And that would make it usually a really crummy investment. Yeah, I see that. It kind of breaks your heart to say that out loud but um i mean i think of my grandmother's farm that was out in the middle of nowhere in missouri and of course it was sold off when she passed away many many many moons ago but um you know and the old house was torn down now they farm over the whole thing it's big you know it's out in the middle of that flatlands. It's just big crops of big, big rows of corn or rows of soybeans right through where she used to live. And it kind of hurts your heart a little bit, you know. But it also, it's just the drumbeat of life.

I mean, there's a journey we're on here, and you're not taking anything with you. That's why there's no rider trucks following horses. Sure. So if I'm you, i'm selling that i'm not investing in romance yeah i think you you let it be a sweet memory and you honor that and you grieve what you're losing here but leah it sounds like you've got big dreams for your life and you want to build and live this life and i don't want you building this big old thing in the middle of nowhere i think you need to live your dreams and let it be a sweet memory. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show and 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. Did you know you can listen to the Ramsey Show on your smart speaker? Just tell Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri to play The Ramsey Show podcast. Check out all Ramsey Network shows on your smart speaker today.