The Ramsey Show - App - Should You Pay Employees More Due to Inflation?

Episode Date: April 21, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Ken Coleman discuss: Facing difficulty qualifying for life insurance, Should you pay your employees more because of inflation? Buying a house for your kids. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, 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, Ken Coleman. Ramsey Personality is my co-host today as we answer your questions about building wealth, doing work you love, and creating amazing relationships. It's book launch week here at Ramsey. Dr. John Deloney on the road with his brand new book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. It is selling, we've sold tens of thousands of copies.

It's been an incredible week. Thank you for your response to it. Dr. Deloney is doing a book signing tonight. For those of you in KTAR country in Phoenix, he'll be at the Tatum Boulevard, Barnes & Noble at 6 p.m. tonight questions doing a talk and signing your books doing pictures whatever else we need to do it's all there so come out come out come out if you're in the phoenix market thanks for joining us open phones again as i said 888-825-5225 rob is in denver to start off this particular hour hey rob how are you

i'm doing well how are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys? Better than I deserve. What's up? Awesome. My current life insurance company won't let me add my 14-year-old type 1 diabetic son as a rider on my life insurance. So I started a new application process with Zander, and I hope to get him covered.

My bigger concern is that being a type 1 diabetic, it seems to make sense to prepare him with a life insurance policy now that carries him into his adult years. The Xander rep I was working with said I can't get him his own term policy until he's 18. I'm worried the older he gets, the more expensive and harder it will be to get his own policy. He's healthy otherwise. He's an athlete, active, and involved. Any recommendations? I wouldn't worry about it now. In terms of starting to think that far into the future,

some strategies you can do. But no, even if you could buy life insurance today, I wouldn't. Okay. Because the 14-year-old does not create an income that is in the event of his unbelievable and horrible event of his passing, you would miss him, obviously, but you would not be losing an income that the family counts on. And so I wouldn't worry about that. I'd make sure you have your emergency fund in place for medical needs

and that you're taking care of him, of course, with your medical insurance, all those kinds of things in place. That's more important than anything else right now. And it sounds like he's doing a good job of treating and, you know, living his proper lifestyle and those kinds of things which is vital for a diabetic uh diabetes as you are discovering is uh actually as bad or worse than cancer or a heart attack for someone to get life insurance uh and that's because that's why that's because the long-term prognosis it affects the the death rate among that population and so absolutely uh uh as he starts to move into adulthood and starts to take on responsibilities and people are counting on his

income a couple of things he can do um number one i would continue to check with if you know 10 years from now okay when he's 24 he's out of school he's got his first job he could check with zander because life insurance world is changing every single day on what it will cover stuff that they wouldn't even talk about covering 30 years ago they cover now and don't even think about it because they've just got better statistical actuarial numbers on you know say a cancer survivor or uh certain types of heart procedures and and they've got better data on it that that take the fear out of them having to write a check is what they're worried about always so anyway uh keep checking back number one number two there is a process in the life insurance world for adults called a guaranteed issue.

They're typically smaller policies, and they're typically about 5 to 10x what normal term is, expensive. But you can get a $10,000 policy, a $20,000 policy. An example of a big one is you can get mortgage life insurance, which I do not recommend you get if you're insurable. By term insurance, it's one-fifth the cost. But if you buy mortgage life insurance through your mortgage company, it's a gimmick insurance, but it's almost always a guaranteed issue, meaning that there's no medical. They just cover you. Okay.

But it's about 5X. So if you've got a $200,000 policy on a $200,000 mortgage, you're going to pay five times for it what you would have paid for a $200,000 term policy. Okay? Still not bad. Still you've got at least the mortgage taken care of if you died with a couple little kids and a wife, right? So you go get those things until you build enough wealth. And then the last thing, of course, is to stay out of debt and become wealthy as quickly as possible and become self-insured.

He's got a million dollars in mutual funds and no debt at all when he's 35. He doesn't need life insurance. His wife will be okay. Agreed. And if he's winning financially, if it is a little bit more expensive than maybe for the rest of us, he can still afford it. Dave, I love your advice of checking back later. There's no way to make predictions on this, Rob, but I'm not kidding you. I listen to an enormous amount of sports radio in the car, and I kid you not,

I heard a company the other day advertising on this very issue. So I think it's the ball continues to move. You know what I mean? Xander and other insurance companies, there are going to be options, and if he's financially secure, he's going to be able to afford it. If you're hearing something on sports radio it's probably guaranteed issue yeah okay yeah it's um you know it's probably not a policy that you would get unless you're uninsurable yeah but if you're uninsurable then there's a cut you can backfill with a few of these expensive policies

right great savings plans great budgeting not building up a bunch of expenses that are left behind if something happened to you and of course most of all managing your health that's it and um sounds like he's very healthy young athlete well it sounds like he's got parents that are on the ball because it's everything to do with um diabetes is tremendously affected by lifestyle yeah and i'm not a medical person but i've been around the insurance side of this thing for a long time and we see it all the time so that that's that's what you're looking for but he's going to be okay rob and uh because he's got a great dad and mom and uh and it's not going to be something that uh that's going to be easy it's not a hot knife through butter to take care of but you can do those things and and take care of it for sure good question open phones at 888-825-5225 now again i'm not an expert on diabetic anything but

a lot of the things that drive life insurance prices are under your control that's correct smoking and obesity are the two biggest things that will cause your life insurance to double or triple. And these are two things that are under your control. You know, it makes me think of Jay Cutler of Nashville Native, played at Vanderbilt, went on to play in the NFL,

type 1 diabetes, played in the NFL. I mean, he took care of himself, still does. So you can, while it is a serious disease, I have a first cousin who has it but she manages it well and there are ways that you can be healthy even with that condition absolutely absolutely so you know i you quit smoking for a year yeah you get your life insurance half off it's the truth yeah half off yeah i mean it's it's pretty stinking incredible yeah so these are these are things you control and and it's weird how all of these things in that case not in rob son's case

yeah type 1 to 14 it's not that it's not the case not a lifestyle problem that's right but uh but but you can control a lot of stuff out there folks this is the Ramsey Show. Most people know me as the guy who did stupid with a lot of zeros on the end. I made my first million dollars in my 20s the wrong way and then went bankrupt. That's when I set out to learn God's ways of managing money and developed the Ramsey Baby Steps. By following these steps, I became a millionaire again, and this time the right way. After three decades of guiding millions of others through the plan, the evidence is undeniable. If you follow the Baby Steps, you will become a millionaire and get to live and give like no one else. My new book, Baby Steps Millionaires, is now available for purchase. When you order my new book, you'll learn how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth and how you can do it too. I'll walk you through how to invest, build wealth,

and bust through the barriers preventing you from becoming a millionaire. Baby step your way to becoming a millionaire. Get your copy today at RamseySolutions.com. That's RamseySolutions.com. It is not good that man be alone. I'm so excited we can go to football games again. I'm so excited that we can do our events again in these arenas. We're back. Yeah, we've been doing them for a while now. We're going to be in Las Vegas May the 5th doing an event. We'll be in Orlando in May doing an event

and doing our Entree Leadership Summit in Orlando in May. It's almost sold out, like four tickets left of that thing available. And guess what? The Smart Conference is back. And what happens if you go to Smart Conference, Ken? You get really smart days. sold out like four tickets left of that thing available and guess what the smart conference is back and what happens if you go to smart conference ken you get really smart day that's exactly what happens see just like that october 22nd in dallas this fall tickets are on sale now uh ken coleman will be there he'll be talking about getting a career a job that you love that you're passionate about and that you make more than you ever made in your life.

Yay! All the Ramsey personalities will be speaking. We'll be speaking on personal growth, on leadership, on, of course, money. Of course, Dr. John Deloney will be there with information out of a new book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. Pretty incredible stuff. And our special guests will be Craig and Amy Groeschel from Life Church. He's the pastor of one of America's largest churches.

And they'll be doing a session on marriage. It's going to be incredible. Tickets are just $39. It is over half sold out already. I know October 22nd sounds like it's a long way away. But you guys know that all of the concerts and all of the sporting events are selling out early. And so we're no exception here at Ramsey. So get your tickets right now.

Before they sell out, go to RamseySolutions.com slash events. I'm so pumped. This is so cool. Life is so good. Good stuff, good stuff, good stuff. Rebecca is with us. Rebecca is in Indianapolis. Hi, Rebecca.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So I'm the CFO of a small business, and I would like to know how Ramsey or other businesses that you know are determining what fair pay is now considering the recent inflation. Most businesses can't afford to just do a sweeping 8% payroll increase across the board. And even if they can, it doesn't mean that that increase is appropriate for all the roles, but employees and managers don't really want to hear that. So I'm just curious what other people are doing. Well, with i would reset the table on the people that work for you okay uh people at ramsey hear me say regularly uh your raise is effective when you are i i you know we have never given an inflation raise in the history of this company, nor will we.

Okay? Well, you are paid based on two things inside of our company. You are paid what the position pays in the marketplace. And that's fair, and that's right. And truthfully, anybody that's got a job out there you're paid what you can be replaced for with rare exceptions no one pays you twice what you can be replaced for uh they pay you what you can be replaced for that's cold hard facts i know it's mean i know it's nasty but welcome to adult land okay you get paid what you can be replaced for number one number two part of what affects what you can be replaced for, number one. Number two, part of what affects what

you can be replaced for is how good at what you are at what you do, how excellent you are at what you do, and that makes it harder to replace you. And so excellence and, you know, killing it and dragging it home, when you're adding value to an organization, they want to add value to your paycheck. And so we are adjusting our comp around here, and we've had some pretty dramatic upward adjustments in some categories based on what that position pays in the marketplace because the cost to hire a project manager, the cost to hire a dev 2, a dev 3 developer that writes code a cost to hire an administrative assistant has gone

up pretty dramatically in the last 24 months more than any 24 months i remember in 30 years of doing business okay and ken you've seen this in the career data so the first thing you need to do is keep a comp study going and really know what each position, what you'd have to pay if you were going to replace that person, because the marketplace is now, if you are a dev 2, you can demand X. And if you're a senior level software engineer, you're six figures plus, maybe 200,000 plus. And so that's what you can get somewhere else and so if i don't pay you that you're going to leave and go take that and so that's the way

the business is is you you do that now but that doesn't mean we give everybody eight percent raises because the news says inflation was eight went up eight percent you can't afford to do that number one number two it's not fair number, it doesn't make sense from a business perspective, though. From a business perspective, as a CFO, your job in hiring is to get a rate of return on every dollar of payroll. And that's based on their productivity, not based on inflation. That's right. And I want to add in really quick, Rebecca, listen, to help. And by the way, you need to communicate this.

But the reality is, is let's play this out. They think that they should get a bump for inflation. So if we play that reasoning out, that means you take it away as soon as inflation begins to subside. And they wouldn't be cool with that either. So this conversation is never built on and should not be built on inflationary pressures in the economy. It's about profit and loss. And as Dave said, value. And it's the marketplace does set the bar. The marketplace does. And so I would tell you this is not a compensation or inflation issue. What you have is a leadership issue. And this is hard, but you've got to communicate this properly to your team.

And one of the ways that you need to do this is I would really engage with SmartDollar. Ramsey Solutions, there's nothing comes close to what we offer the business marketplace in helping their employees get control of their finances, like we do with individuals on this show. Every day, we help business leaders help their team get financial peace in the form of smart dollar, and it's one of the most sought-after benefits throughout the nation. And I've been on Fox Business News with Maria Bartiromo talking about this. This is one of the greatest benefits that leaders can offer in a time like this, because here's what we know.

Everybody that works, and I'm speaking as an employee, a team member of Ramsey Solutions right now, every one of us has all the tools that we need to adjust our lifestyle, our budget to the inflationary pressures. It's called a budget. It's called financial peace. And I think that's what you need to invest in them because this is going to not only help them deal with the increased cost in gas and groceries, just using two buckets that are real right now. It's a real stressor. But if we can help them manage their day-to-day budget, their monthly budget, and win in the now, you're also setting them up to win in the future. They're going to stay with you a long time.

So I think smart dollar and leading your team through how to handle their money in times like this to where inflation, yeah, it sucks, but it's not rocking our world. Well, again, here's the thing. We share profits with our team. That's correct. We do a profit-sharing program. And so Ramsey Family does not take all the money and put it in our bank account. When there's profits, we share it with the team.

The systematic process that we use to do that, we did it since we're a little bitty company. And so we believe in sharing. But we've never paid someone based on what it cost a gallon what a gallon of gas cost uh you don't want to be paid on that no because at one minute it's five dollars another time it's two dollars yeah and you well you want me to cut your pay it's a roller coaster in half let me cut your pay it makes no sense you know the worker we're using the gas pump index to set your pay this month that That'd be popular, right? And so we don't pay based on what the costs are at the grocery store.

But here's the weird thing, okay? All of these inflationary things have driven up wages in almost every category. That's right. And, oh, guess what? That adds to inflation because almost every good or service you buy has built into the cost of it payroll. Yeah. And so you buy a loaf of bread. It's not just the cost of the wheat.

That's right. Or the plastic around it. It's the cost of the guy who baked it, the guy who delivered it, the gas prices that delivered it, the gal who said on the shelf, whoever it was. Right. So labor, labor, labor, labor, labor, fuel. Oh, there's some wheat in there. And there's your bread, right? And so all the increase, you know, labor went from $10 an hour to $20 an hour all of a sudden.

And guess what? That shows up in your loaf of bread. Yes. And so, but also that means that the guy buying the loaf of bread went from $10 to $20 an hour because that's what it takes to get to hire somebody in entry-level positions these days. So I don't have any of those positions. But all of our positions, just about every category we have, our comp studies, we've seen tremendous increases, not based on inflation,

but based on what it takes to hire someone into that position. And then that becomes an element of inflation with trickle-down economics. For those of you that don't know what that means, this is The Ramsey Show in the lobby of Financial Peace University on the debt-free stage, Brett and Mary are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Good. Cool. Welcome.

Good to have you guys. So where do you guys live? Harrisburg, North Carolina. All right. Cool. Welcome to Nashville. And how much have you paid off? $burg, North Carolina. All right, cool. Welcome to Nashville. And how much have you paid off? $127,000.

All right, very good. And how long did this take you? 35 months, almost 36. Okay, cool. And your range of income during that time? It started out at $127,000, and then thanks to COVID, it went down to $97,000. And then back up to $118,000. And this year, we should be back to where we started 127 cool what

do y'all do for a living i'm a counselor for a large hospital system in the charlotte area and i'm a network engineer and a voice over ip specialist ah very good good for you guys wonderful what kind of debt was the 127 15 of it000? $15,000 of it was typical Sally Mae, and then another $12,000 of it was one of those 10-year student loan forgiveness programs that we figured out doesn't work. Yeah. And then $100,000 of it was our mortgage. Oh, look at the weird people. Paid for house. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop.

Well done, you guys. What's the house worth? The current market's $325 Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop! Well done, you guys. What's the house worth? The current market's $325, $350. Nice! And it's all yours! Yep. Cool. How long y'all been married? 18 years. You ever been 100% debt-free since you've been married?

Nope. Nope. First time. I love it. How's it feel? Feels great. It does feel great. So tell us a story. What happened three years ago that got you started on this? A couple of things.

I know you're a car guy. Well, we're both members of a local car club in the area. And just by coincidence, on the way home from those meetings every month, your show was on. And it was just on the radio one day when we started the car. And it started out as just entertaining to listen to and then it just started to make more sense the more i listened to it then i started to bother them yeah and then so you know i just started listening to it every day um you know on my walks and then um it just it just made sense what you were saying made sense. So we just got focused on it, basically.

The 10-year student loan, when I see those statements, you don't have to make any payments on them, but that doesn't mean you're not charging interest. And when I see those statements come in with all that interest on them and just the thought that we might have to pay all that back one day, realized we needed to. Yeah, you've got to clear this up. And then once you got started, you just plowed. Yeah, you've got to clear this up.

Now, once you got started, you just plowed on through the house and everything, huh? Yep. Wow. Funny story about this, though, because he kind of put us on the plan without having a conversation to me about it. Oh, uh-oh. So I'm going to be honest here, Dave.

Your name was cursed a little bit at my house. I can imagine. I can imagine. He violated every counselor's law. Yeah. Until we sat down and went over the budget and I saw that there was a budget

for a vacation and I saw that there was money in my new car fund and I saw that there was money, you know, how it was strategically placed. Wow. And after that,

I was like, okay, sold. I'm done. I'll be quiet. Wow. Just like that? that wow that reminds me of what here's the deal she don't go along but she can be bought she can be yeah yeah yeah that's right that was that was after the student loans were paid for yeah yeah oh yeah he wants to make

that clear yeah happy wife happy life i mean we all know that yeah we didn't we didn't do any vacation or any of that when we were paying off student loan debt. For sure. But you got now where you can, and then you did the normal stuff. You should have been doing it. Baby steps four through six. Right. Where you're enjoying your life but being intentional, and then you knock the house out.

Right. And it still knocks out. Because you had a very small mortgage, and you knock it all out within the whole 36 months. That's very impressive, y'all. Very well done. You're heroes, man. I'm proud of you. Very cool. Thank you. We're honored to be here be here too so thank you so much for having us well we're honored to have you you're you're powerful this is good stuff okay now brett and mary you've

done it you're a hundred percent debt free house and everything first time in 18 years of marriage what is the secret to getting out of debt when When someone says, how did you do that? What do you tell them? Having a written plan, having a budget. We were never terrible with money. We never got into serious money issues. I'd throw just one day I'd decide to put $300 on the mortgage. Next month, $400 on the mortgage.

But I didn't have a plan because I didn't want to spend too much because I didn't know how much money we had because I didn't have a written plan. So once I saw on paper, it's just like getting a raise. It really is. You realize how much. You can have a car fund, the vacation fund, and pay extra on the mortgage. And pay extra on the mortgage. You can do it.

And we knew every month exactly how many extra dollars we had to pay on the mortgage. So that's what we did. All right. exactly how many extra dollars we had to pay on the mortgage so that's what we did all right so dave i've got to ask because for years decades you said if you live like no one else later you can live and give like no one else and i'm not going to ask a give question because i got to ask a live question you're totally debt free you guys are members of a car club is there like a dream car coming is there one already in the driveway do we know what are we looking at here well believe it or not there's no car coming but um we're actually on our uh honeymoon also on this trip here because

we didn't have the money to do that when we got married oh that's awesome and so that's first there we go we are on vacation we're paying for it and we're on vacation good it's great good for you guys where all are you going nashville and what else just that was our dream to come to nashville that's it and at the, so we're doing it 18 years later. That's a way to go. I love it. Ha ha! Well, welcome.

We're so glad to have you. That is so good. All right. Now, once you do all that, you've got to buy a car. What's the car? Yeah. You guys are car people. Come on.

You dodged the question to get husband points, and it was a good move. It was a good move. In his defense does he has collected cars over the years and one he inherited which was his father's and it was a 1984 um mustang and so he has other mustangs um we're probably going to work on the fun for me because i'm rocking 239 000 miles on a honda so come on all right okay you're up so there you go you're up you're up you're up to bat no but i haven You're up. You're up. You're up to bat. No doubt.

But I haven't decided because I'm going to cry when I let go of that car. Wow. That's so cool. Tears of joy. Well, I love my car. I just love it. Dave. Trust me.

We saw your Raptor earlier, sir. It's down there in the reserved spot no doubt about it i love it good job guys that's fun you're fun well this is what it's about living and giving like no one else and it just in your all's case what i keep hearing over and over again was a you got together and b uh just the intentionality it took the uh it took the sloppy edges out of what was already a frugal lifestyle already a fairly reasonable lifestyle you were not out of control as you said brett but all you did was just tighten it up by being intentional by making everything behave and do what it's supposed to do what you wanted it to do you get to choose and you chose uh wisely well done very

very well done. Good work. Good work. Proud of you guys. We're honored to have you here with us. Well, thank you very much for that. Thank you very much. Got a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires for you. That's definitely the next chapter in your story, how ordinary people built extraordinary wealth, how you can, too, a bestseller.

We're going to give you also give you a copy of our bestselling book we've ever done at Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover. You can give that to someone else and stir up a holy ruckus with them, get some stuff going on there. I love doing that, so good stuff. Thanks again, guys, for being here. Brett and Mary from Charlotte, North Carolina, $127,000 paid off, house and everything in 35 months. They're officially weird, making $127,000.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Boom! You've got to love it. You've got to love it. You've got to love it.

We've had in the last month or so a 24-year-old, and a 74-year-old, and everything in between. And since the first of the year, almost $22 million in debt-free screams. Wow. Pretty incredible. Pretty incredible. 22 million dollars in debt-free screams wow uh pretty incredible pretty incredible and uh get to talk to millionaires baby step millionaires every day uh as we go out and sign books and as they call in here are people meeting people that have been doing this stuff and you're listening

today maybe for the first time i sure hope That you think this is more than mere entertainment. I sure hope you decide to go change your life. It's why we show up and do this every day. It's for you. This is the Ramsey Show. Thank you. Ken Coleman, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Our scripture of the day is 1 Peter 5.10. And the grace of God who called you to his eternal glory in Christ after you have suffered for a little while

will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

One of his better quotes. And he was a quote machine for sure. Wow, what a man. All right, Kay is with us in Denver, Colorado. Hey, Kay, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Thank you. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve.

What's up? I lost my husband seven months ago to cancer. Oh, my. And we never decided whether we were going to purchase the home for our three kids or whether we were going to make a large down payment for them. And now I'm kind of like, what do I do? Your three children are grown and you wanted to buy them homes as adults is that what you're saying yep yep that's what we're saying okay all right wow so you're obviously in a very good position financially i um ran into this book in 2009 called Total Money Makeover.

And it just stopped Frank from my, we own a business and it just stopped our life and we just turned around and got ourselves debt-free. Wow. Wow. Okay. I'm so sorry. How old was he? He was 64 going on 46. I love that.

I want that on my tombstone. I love him already. What a great guy. Oh, my gosh. And you have three kids, and they're all grown. Are they all married? They're all married. Okay.

All right. And what is your net worth now uh four million good for you okay and so you're talking about buying a house price of what per kid i'm i have one in portland so kind of five hundred,000. I have one here in the Denver area, so another $500,000. And I have one in Minnesota, and I think I could do $300,000. Okay, or $500,000 or whatever. So $1.5 million would leave you at $2,500,000, right? Yeah, but that includes my home.

Yeah. So cash, big i have three million yeah it's a pretty big hit cut your cash in half um but a million i just got from from him so in my mind um you know he's paying for two out of the three kids right now. How old, and you're how old? 57. How old are they, the kids? What's the range? 38, 36, 34. Okay.

Are you planning to stay in the business? Are you going to sell the business? What's that paying you? I'm planning to stay in the business, and it could pay me anywhere from, you know, like this last year, I really didn't work, and I made $50,000. I'm sure I won't go back like I was, so I don't know, $50,000 to $150,000, $200,000, probably what I could make a year. But for the last five years, we kind of retired in 2017 because this cancer hit four times. And so I would work and

that would be our play money. We'd kids here we do this or we do that okay i um love the idea of helping the kids and um uh but but the pre the caveat has to be that you're okay first. And a million and a half out of this is, it's pushing my fear button a little bit for you. Okay? It's not a million and a half out of 11 million. It's half your cash. And so I'm probably going to do this in two stages if I'm you,

like a max of $300 per kid, and so that uses a third of your cash, not half of your cash, right? And that might buy the one in Minnesota or wherever it was, the full house, I don't know, and to be the down payment for the other two. And then you're working and making $200,000, and you look up and your net worth is $5 million five or ten years from now, and you pay the other two off, you know? So if I was going to buy the kids a home, I was going to keep it under a trust

and I was going to have the house. So they couldn't borrow against it. So they couldn't, you know, ever get in trouble. And so if I do that, I kind of lose that. I had a friend that paid for his kids' houses, and all he asked for was a letter from each of the kids and their spouse promising to never borrow a dime again of any kind. And in return, you get a house.

And, you know, you're going through financial peace and so forth, right? And so that's the commitment on their part. Rather than trying to protect them from themselves, the best way to protect them from themselves is not be somebody they need to be protected from. And so if they won't be willing to commit to not turn around and mortgage it i don't want to give them one so the other um the other piece of this is i have one that um good to fair with money one that's fair and one's fair to terrible yeah so and so that you know so you know

so you're gonna have to prove to me that you're worthy of this by quit being fair to terrible. Because otherwise I'm giving a drunk a drink. I have no desire to give somebody a house that's going to turn around and it be a curse to them rather than a blessing. The whole purpose of this is to be a blessing. And I agree. And we agree to that and I understand that. But what if they can't qualify for a $300,000 home or $250,000 home? Well, it may take a little while to execute all this,

which will also give you time to grow some more wealth. No one says you have to do it all today if they're not ready. Okay. We started the discussion assuming, I was assuming they were all ready, but I may want to rehab the behaviors of one of these and get commitments from the other two, and this might take a year, during which time your money is invested and it's going to go up. And, you know, because you're probably not touching any of this,

you're probably just going to make enough to live on, I suspect. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's what we've been doing. One of the things I've learned is that generosity sometimes is hard work. Surprisingly. It's not giving somebody $20 at the gas pump. Surprise and delight, you know, random generosity. This is $300,000 to somebody that you love and that you know you could be is 300 000 bucks to somebody that you love

and that you know you could be doing harm to if you don't do it right so it's going to require a process and you're grieving and they're grieving so um yeah i don't think the husband you're describing to me is going to give the kid that's misbehaving with money money was he that guy was he in the neighbor no he wasn't but his biggest pet peeve is all these kids rent and as you know rent is crazy right now and it just that was just his thing i i agree i'm a real estate guy too i like it i love the idea of them all having paid for houses but i want that to be a blessing to them and that entails them a handling money

well be committing to never borrow money again otherwise undoes everything that his legacy your legacy that you're trying to do is doing so i would just let this unfold a little bit over time here let's give this a little time you guys continue the grieving process it takes a little while to breathe um you're doing awfully well on the phone here thank you for that that's um because i was about crying just listening to you um but the um yeah sitting down with them and going okay guys i don't know what i'm doing right now but i'm kind of thinking out here in the near future uh fall next spring something like that we need to be talking about doing this and here's what I'm thinking, and here's my worries, and here's what I think I'm going to ask you to do.

And you all start processing that, and, you know, you can do whatever you want to do, but that's the way we would probably do it around here if we were doing it. So there you go. Wow. Ken Coleman, good show today. Thanks, sir. Good job to James, to Ben, to Kelly, Zach in the booth. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host.

We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, this is ultimately, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace. Christ Jesus. Dave here. You can find all of our shows with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. It's the only place to listen to the entire back catalog of episodes.

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