The Ramsey Show - App - Starting Over After Chapter 7 and a Brain Injury (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 12, 2018

The show about you

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave 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. We're glad you're with us, America. Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Joanna is with us in Savannah, Georgia, starting off this hour. Hey, Joanna, how are you? I'm great, Dave. How are you?

Better than I deserve. How can I help? My husband and I are in the middle of Baby step two. We just reached our halfway mark, and his mom is no longer able to take care of her home, and we were wondering if it would be a good idea to sell our home and take over the mortgage payments for her until we are finished with baby step two and three and able to save our down payment for a mortgage. Okay, you currently own a home. Yes, sir. All right.

And where is she going to live if you do this routine? She is going to live with her sister. And the home is a home that my husband has grown up in. He grew up there. And it's an emotional decision. And so I don't want to let my emotions get in the way of what's best for us. Well, I don't want them to get in the way, but I don't want to discount them. Personal finance is personal.

And so I don't want my wife selling her diamond ring that you know that's emotional and that's personal and that's reasonable okay as an example okay and so we didn't sell it when we were going broke there you go it wasn't that big a diamond so it didn't matter but um you know the same thing here so i guess what you need to back up from and say, I like being nostalgic about things. I'm getting old. I like legacy things. I like old things that other people that I loved touched and held and treasured. I like having those things in my life.

A house is a little bit difficult to be nostalgic about. It's large. Is this got a lot of like a lot of land with it? Is it multiple generation or is it just a subdivision house and happened to be where he grew up it um does have land with it and it's where he grew up and the issue comes in with um i would love to have the house right now our um mortgage is very affordable and it's allowing us to accelerate Baby Step 2 very quickly. Whereas if we purchased her home or took over the payments for her, that would be almost doubling our house payment.

Okay, and so what's her house payment? How much is her house payment? $1,700. Okay, and what's your house take-home pay? $6,500 a month. Okay. Now, it fits within a quarter that we talk about, a fourth of your income going,

a fourth of your take-home pay going out to a house payment. That's reasonable. It does slow down your baby steps. And so what is that house worth? I would say it's probably worth around $300,000. And what is owed against it? She wants $200,000. No, that wasn't what I asked. I And what is owed against it? She wants $250,000. No, that wasn't what I asked.

I asked what's owed against it. That's what's owed. Oh, she owes $250,000? $210,000. $210,000. So there's $90,000 worth of equity. They've given you the equity? Yes, sir.

Okay. So you would move in and rent the house for the equivalent of the house payment until you're able to purchase the home on your own mortgage. Because you can't take over her mortgage. You can't do that. Right. You would be a renter with an option to purchase the house for the loan balance for a number of years until you get your other debts paid off.

Now, how much other debt have you got? We've got $54,000 left on student loans. Okay. All right. Okay, so she moves out, you move in and rent it, you sell your house. Oh, how much equity will you get out of your house? Maybe $15,000, not very much at all. Okay, so that will accelerate the baby step to a little bit.

The payment's not too high. That doesn't bother me. Do you have any idea what the interest rate is on the loan? No, sir. She refinanced about two years ago, so I would imagine that it's not very high. Yeah, that's reasonable. So it's reasonable to assume you could get a mortgage that was a very similar rate and payment when you get ready to purchase it after you get out of Baby Step 2 and get your emergency fund done in Baby Step 3. But it's going to take you a little while to do that, a little bit longer, because you're $800.

It's $10,000 a year more to live there. Right. Hmm. Well, I don't know if I would do it just because of emotions, but this is not a bad thing. You're just a renter. Here's your worst-case scenario. You're a renter. You've sold your house.

You're renting your mother-in-law's house, and you realize you can't afford it. And so then your mother-in-law will do what she would have done if you say no now, and she will sell the house, and you will have to move. Because if you say no now, and she will sell the house and you will have to move. Because if you say no now, she needs to just sell the house, right? Correct, yes, sir. Okay, so you could try it and say no later. No harm, no foul. Okay.

But you don't want to sign a contract and be obligated. We're going to go in here, we're going to try it, we're going to rent it for the payment, and we want a written contract that we are renting it for the payment. Is there brothers and sisters anywhere? There is a brother. Anybody going to be pissed off about the fact you're getting all this equity given to you? No, sir.

You sure? As far as I understand it now, there will be. Yeah, I think we're all having coffee in one big pile and talking about this. This is how families end up not speaking to each other generationally. Okay, so, yeah, we're all going to talk about it, and we're going to do this in writing. I want you to lease it with an option to purchase it for the mortgage balance. Okay. Lease it for the payment with an option to purchase it for the mortgage balance,

and then, just like you were a renter somewhere else and you decided you couldn't stay, then she would just sell it then, and that's no different than her selling it now, except it may have gone up a little bit in value and she may get a little more money out of it. Okay. Yeah, it doesn't hurt to give this a try. The only thing that hurts is $800 a month more rent, but if this is a place you see yourself living for many, many, many years, hurt to give this a try the only thing it hurts is 800 bucks a month more rent but it's if there's if this is a place you see yourself living for many many many years like the rest of your life

maybe i'm probably giving a run at this and partly because of the emotion here the emotion's okay personal finance is personal and that doesn't mean it's situationally ethical or the the truth changes it just means you look at it and you go hey that that item you know that car sitting in the driveway i rebuilt it from the time i was 13 to the time i was 19 with my dad and he died two years later i'm not selling that car that car sitting in the driveway i bought it three weeks ago and i was stupid and smoking crack when i bought the car i'm selling that car there's a difference and that both of them are a car both of them are sitting in the driveway both of them are a transaction that needs to occur but we're going to factor in you know that there's something real about the connectivity to the item and it's

reasonable people would acknowledge that connectivity. You cannot do personal finance without it also being personal. That's why people don't get out of debt, because they don't get mad enough. And you've got to get mad. Getting mad is personal. It's like, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. We make so much money and we're broke. How stupid are we?

We're about to change our lives. See, that's all personal. That's real stuff. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know that if you combine the data breaches that have occurred in the past 12 months, almost every American has had their personal info compromised or hacked. Over 50% of our listeners and viewers tell us that they or someone in their family has been a victim. And 70% of those folks have had it happen more than once.

See, this is unbelievable. Once thieves get your info, the risk never goes away and they can use it whenever and however they choose. It truly has become an issue of not if, but when. That's why the only plan I've ever recommended is through Zander Insurance. I actually sat down with them and we put together a plan that I felt provided the best protection, but didn't waste dollars on things you could easily do yourself or were just gimmicks. The key is getting protected before you're a victim and it's too late.

Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. We are all at risk, and it doesn't make sense to wait. Numbers don't lie. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Thanks for joining us, America. Ryan is on the line in Washington, D.C. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show, Ryan. How are you doing, Dave? Hey, man. How can I help?

A couple of years ago, I had a traumatic brain injury where I didn't have insurance but it kind of cleared out like everything I had saved up and now we're back on track. I'm living with my mom and I found you online and it's the first time I have like I want to say 5,000, like 500 saved up at IRA. And I'm just looking for what's the next step and just looking for that support. Okay. Wow. So how are you doing medically? Luckily, medically, it's just, you know, playing day by day.

I found a neurologist that's solid. it's just you know playing and day by day i found neurologists are solid we get um medicaid down and just try to work slash stay healthy and save save a little bit of money but until i found you online i didn't you know have the discipline to at least save okay so you're able to go you're able you're able to go back to work then good yes man that's got to be a big relief how old are you uh 28 wow what caused the brain injury uh unfortunately an assault but not really focusing on that just sure you know just curious man you've been through hell okay so you you you were down and out. It cleaned out everything. Did you file a bankruptcy? Yeah, my discharge is actually next week.

So you filed a Chapter 7? Yes. Where you cleared off all the debt. Okay. Did anything survive the Chapter 7, like student loans or IRS debt or anything like that? Unfortunately, I didn't get into the student loan trap. I saw a lot of my friends going into it, so I tried to at least, like, work. I've always been a worker.

So no student loans, and is there any debt at all after the bankruptcy? No, sir. Okay. All right. Cool. So what are you making now? I want to say 13 at the job that I work, 13 an hour, but I also coach lacrosse. So that job is 25 an hour to 50, depending on if I do private lessons or anything like that. Yeah, man. Oh, man.

Oh, man. You are are back good for you i mean if you can coach lacrosse back from a brain injury you've come all the way back congratulations thank you lord very good okay i appreciate it i appreciate it so how do you start over you start over uh wiser and uh less naive about financial things. So whatever kind of debt that, you know, ended up in the bankruptcy, it's a reminder to avoid that, right? And we know that an outside variable, a horrible tragedy, caused your financial trouble.

But had you had a pile of cash and absolutely no debt at all, you probably could have survived that. So that's our new goal is to become wealthy without any debt. And so as life's opportunities and problems come along, you're in a better shape to tackle either. And so how can we quickly, most quickly rebuild your financial life now that you're rebuilding your overall life? And that's the stuff you're hearing me teach every day. That's get on a written plan, a budget, avoid debt, build up an emergency fund, and then begin investing long-term.

And as you're able to get out on your own again medically and financially, you'll do that to reestablish yourself as a single young 28-year-old guy that doesn't live at home. No shame in that game right now, but long-term you'll want to be out, right? Just like you'll want to have the dignity of your whole life. So that's a cool thing. But the basic stuff we talk about here, saving for emergencies, investing, being generous, avoiding debt, living on a written plan, a budget,

jump on every dollar and get that app. It's free, and start working that. And have you been through Financial Peace University yet? No, sir. Everything's just been through watching you on YouTube personally. Okay, cool. Well, I want you to go through the class. It's nine weeks long.

It's one night a week for nine weeks, and will pay for it i want to be part of your recovery okay thank you i appreciate it i really do the only thing i asked is if i give it to you i want two things one is i want you to promise to go to every class and number two someday when you're rich and famous i want you to give it to some guy who had a tragedy uh definitely will man that's one beautiful thing about coach I get to at least help the kids. Yeah, absolutely. You get to pour into kids so that they don't get into messes like you've been through, hopefully. Not that it was your fault.

I don't mean that. But my goodness gracious, man, you're cool. I'm proud for you. You're doing good stuff. Hold on. I'll have Kelly pick up, and we'll get you into Financial Peace University. Michelle is in Watertown, South Dakota. Hi, Michelle.

How are you? I'm good, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Certainly. How can I help? Well, I just started your program in August. I have currently paid down $3,000 in debt. That's just the debt.

Actually, that's the debt I was making payments on, monthly payments on. But now I need to start on my debt that's in collections, which is about $17,000. And I've already received a lot of, like, settlements in the mail for less. Like, I had a $1,700 bill that they would take $700 for. Now, a friend of mine was telling me that that $1,000 that was forgiven, that I have to pay taxes on that at the end of the year. And I was just wondering if that was true. That is true. Debt forgiveness, except on a mortgage on your home is taxable income,

and they likely will send you a 1099 for the amount that they forgave. Oh, okay. So what's your household income? It varies probably about $45,000 this year. Okay, so let's say you're in a 20% tax bracket as an example. Okay, let's pretend. If you were in a 20% tax bracket and you had $1,000 in forgiveness, that didn't cost you $1,000.

It only cost you $200. Right. Okay, so it's still a good deal. Well, yeah, yeah. You're going to have about $200 per thousand that is forgiven that will hit your taxes if they 1099 you. If they don't, you have no obligation to list it. And I would just wait until they do that, if they follow through on that. And the larger the forgiveness is, the more likely they will follow through with the 1099 and send you that.

But as you get that, then you will owe the taxes. So, yeah, I'd get ready for some taxes at tax time by April that you may have in addition to that. Now, if you had a large return coming because you're over withholding, well, then in that case, see, it's just going to lower your return because you need to change your withholding anyway. So good question. Thank you for joining us. Open phones this hour as we talk about your life and your money. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com.

You do not need a second mortgage to make your home over. If you get brand-new custom window blinds, it kind of feels like the whole place is redone. With Blinds.com, you also get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you're going to save money. Check out the promo code Ramsey at Blinds.com. It is in Illinois. We are looking to have our first legacy meeting with our family.

The meeting will consist of adults and minors. How often should we have these meetings? And do we share specific dollar amounts with everyone or just share with each individual what will affect them? Annually would be your meeting, and I only share with people who are emotionally mature enough to handle the numbers. I don't tell a four-year-old that you're worth $10 million because they will go to kindergarten and tell it. Okay? And they're not emotionally capable of handling that information. Our children, in our case, did not know our wealth.

As a matter of fact, when we finally did unveil it and they were in their early 20s, it was shocking to them because they were raised like regular people but had a lot of wealth in the background. And so I didn't want to mess up their childhood by them making assumptions about things they didn't need to make assumptions about. But then as we presented it to them, it was presented as a responsibility, not a woo-hoo, we hit the lottery. Because as for me and my house, we serve the Lord. Meaning that you don't own anything. You're just managing it for God. And that takes a little of the woo-hoo off of it. So they need to be emotionally mature to share it with them. And we do it about once a year. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Based on New Testament principles, Christian Healthcare Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major healthcare costs. Christian Healthcare Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization, CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills.

It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years. And our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, John and Maddie are with us.

Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hello, we're good. Welcome, welcome. Where are you all from? San Antonio, Texas. I love San Antonio. Great town.

Yes. Well, welcome to Nashville. Thank you. Good to have you. And you're here all the way from San Antonio to do your debt-free scream. Yes, we are. We are. I love it. How much have you. And you're here all the way from San Antonio to do your debt-free scream. Yes, we are. We are. I love it.

How much have you paid off? About $300,000. Yay! And how long did this take? Took us five years. Five years and six days. Five years and six days. I love it.

And your range of income during that five years? It's been right at about $200,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I work for a bank in IT support. And I'm in quality assurance at USAA. Woo-hoo!,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I work for a bank in IT support. And I'm in quality assurance at USAA. Woo-hoo.

Woo. All right. Good. Good town to be in USAA. Military town. Good. Very cool. So what kind of debt was the $300,000? It was everything you could imagine.

A couple of mortgages. Mortgage on land, mortgage on our home. She had 401k loans. Credit cards. Everything but student loans, pretty much. You paid off your house, though. The house is paid off. You guys are debt, debt, debt free. Yes. I'm looking at weird people. August 18th. I love it. You don't even have a house payment. How old are you two? 50. 50? And 51. And 51. 39 and holding. That works.

I'm loving it. Well done, y'all. Good. Thank you. How does it feel to not even have a mortgage? It hasn't even sunk in yet. Yeah, it's weird. It feels great, though. It's awesome.

Yeah, there's going to be money flying around everywhere. I mean, you're making a couple of hundred and no debt of any kind. Wow. All into investments and retirement. Yeah, that's called margin. Yeah, you're making a couple of hundred and no debt of any kind. Wow. All into investments, retirement. Yeah, that's called margin. Yeah, you can be generous. You can travel and do investments. I mean, do whatever you want to do now.

Way to go, guys. So tell me the story. What happened five years ago that got you on this journey? So it probably goes back a little further than five years, but we were at a point in our marriage where we we paid attorneys and we were headed for divorce whoa we have uh we have a huge family we have six kids between the two of us so a lot of stress with a blended family a lot of chaos and uh just both of us spent money like crazy and and uh we paid six thousand dollars to attorneys and we were i left the house to

took our youngest child and and just saw no hope and um and a friend of mine invited me um to see you um you were doing a total money makeover event and she invited me to go see you and i didn't know who you were but i didn't want to be at home with him so i said sure i'll go see you and i was at the arena yes I was like 5,000 people the Friedman Coliseum yeah yes and so we I went to go see you and

a lot of issues that I hadn't dealt with from my childhood and from from life and I just stuffed them down and I was spending like crazy and I didn't know that I was the majority of the problem in our relationship. And then when you said, if you have a problem with money, it's not the money, it's you, it just kind of lifted blinders off my eyes.

And I realized, okay, I'm the problem. And that I had to do something to get all that out, to fix myself. And so I went home and I begged him to give it a shot. And I bought your starter kit when I was there. And we started our journey then. Yeah. We took the 13-week FPU class at our church. We started back to church after a long separation from being regular attenders

and went through a marriage recovery program. And we just go to a marriage recovery program. And we just go to a really awesome church. What church is it? City Church in San Antonio. It's what? City Church. City Church, yeah.

Yes, it was God just working in our lives from the moment, you know, forever, but really from the moment we started this plan, just everything started getting better and we were closer together and we were on the same page. And it was just amazing and it it took us thank you 15 months to pay off that all of the non-mortgage debt 100 and almost 110 000 we sold everything inside anything that wasn't nailed down in our house i mean when the switch flipped with you two it flipped didn't it yes yeah you went from whole hog spending stupid all the way over to wide open smart.

Yes. Yeah. Wow. That's a true 180. Yeah. It was like the horses that you talk about in your FBU classes. We just got together, and nothing was going to stop us, and we ate beans and cheese every day. We still eat beans and cheese.

We're going out to dinner tonight at a fairly extravagant good and we're stressed out about it good no you didn't take this woman on a date brother but we've we've stayed plugged into it and just never never given up i mean we we've had the opportunity to lead your classes at our church and we now lead it at two two separate campuses and we worked with just dozens of families and oh my god and singles and and pray with them and coach them and and it's a lot of great stories it's kept us on the right path yes yes and i wanted to tell you that our 13 year old um started this journey with us when she was eight she went to our classes and while

we're coordinating she's she calls it the youth coordinator. She passes out papers and everything. And so she is totally on this plan, and she goes to school, and she gives her teachers mortgage advice and stuff like that. She's just totally on the plan. And a few of our other kids have taken the class, but we're going for all six of them to be in there and be on the program with us.

You know, we really haven't stopped living either. I mean, we've had to buy a vehicle along the way. We cash flowed that. We put all new solid oak floors in our home. And we cash flowed a trip to Japan to see a couple of our grandkids. Wow. By the way, we have seven grandkids. That's awesome yeah so uh uh go back to five years ago you call him and say come home let's try this

what were the next i don't know i'm going to guess at a period of time three to four months like this marriage is just hanging on by a thread, and you say, okay, but let's try this together, and we're not going to spend like we were spending. How did that next three to four months look like from the, I mean, almost gone to we're going to turn and try this. It had to be pretty bumpy. Yeah, it was. It was hard to trust her.

Right. She'd spent her whole life living this way with just chaos with money and debt. How long did it take you to trust her. Right. She'd spent her whole life living this way with just chaos, with money and debt. How long did it take you to trust her? It probably took a year or so, really, to see that, hey, I'm seeing the action, not just the words, right? Well, I mean, that's 100%. But, I mean, probably within a few weeks, you kind of had to raise your eyebrow and go, wow, she's really doing this. I mean, you really had to see that, a little bit of glimpse of hope. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. It just, it grew. Yeah. The trust grew over time. Well, the moment I got home from your class, I was going through my drawers trying to sell stuff. I mean, what can I sell? So I sold jewelry. I mean, you know, he was seeing that I was generating income from this jewelry.

And he's like, oh, okay. And I'm telling him, put it toward the credit cards. She had an eBay business that would rival anybody. Just amazing. She sold some of my blue jeans for $50 a piece. Collecting dust, you know. And God has redeemed every bit of that in this marriage. And I've got to tell you, there's no way you've taught that many Financial Peace University classes without your own marriage story causing people's marriages to be healed.

We tell our story before our classes. I'm sure lots of people come up to you and go, wow, you got real on that, and that changed my life. You've got to hear that. The power of story. We've had the chance to tell our story, and we do it frequently with a marriage recovery group. Not just FPU, but anyway. We brought a lot of couples in from the marriage classes into FPU. And vice versa.

A lot of it's money issues. Well, and there's a Bible verse, Proverbs 14.1, that says, The wise woman builds her house, and the foolish woman tears it down with her hands. And I was that foolish woman, and I don't want other people to go through that, and I don't want to be that. You're now the wise woman. Right. Thank you.

But I want to share that with other people. Yeah. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you. That is your next chapter. Thank you. The Outrageously Generous and Millionaires. I'm so proud of you all. What a great chapter. Thank you. Be outrageously generous and millionaires. I'm so proud of y'all. What a great story.

Thank you so much. Well done. Well done. And man, absolutely cool. John and Maddie, San Antonio, Texas. $300,000 paid off, but that pales in comparison to the fact they're still together. Five years and six days making $200,000. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Ready? Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Woo! Wow! Amazing! Amazing!

Now, you don't really get that on other radio shows. Wow. Unbelievable. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Denise is with us in Denver. Hi, Denise. What's up?

Hey, Brother Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Hey, Brother Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? First of all, I'd like to say I pray that the Lord continues to richly bless you. Thank you. And your service, because you're just awesome. Freaking awesome.

Thank you. Thank you. Hey, quick story. My husband and I lived in one zip code our whole life. We're 57 and 58. And a year and a half ago, we just packed up and moved out here to Colorado from Ohio. We increased our income by about $25,000 a year. We came out here not realizing this is our fault, how crazy the real estate is out here it's um nothing we've ever um been involved with so we made a quick decision when we came out we purchased

and you're going to cringe a manufactured home we paid cash for it um and the lot fee was like $690 a month, which seemed to be high, but this was just supposed to be temporary. So fast forward to today, we are in contract to buy a home up in Berthoud, Colorado, and we had an offer in our house for cash, all cash offer. We're supposed to close on our home this Thursday to buy the new one, and then next Thursday was this one. Well, apparently our realtor did not stress to the buyers how they needed to put in this residential application. Long story short, the kid whose mom is buying the house for him does not have a job.

So he's probably on the verge of being disqualified to buying this home and we're freaking out because we took just on monday a 60-day loan out of my husband's ira because it was kind of oh my god why did you do that well yeah that's exactly what i've been saying to myself all night because we we just thought we'll just it was was going to be a temporary transaction. I put it back in right away and no penalties. Okay, did you close on your deal? No, it's supposed to be on Thursday. So what happens if you don't close on Thursday?

What we're being told is we have this option of putting 3% down and do a recast as soon as we sell our house. And I wanted to know what you felt about these recasting of loans. What if you don't close on Thursday? I guess the deal is going to be they have backup offers already on this other home. Okay. So this is not the manufactured home. This is a home you're purchasing. Yes.

The manufactured home actually was standing to make $10,000 to $12,000. How much of an earnest money check did you put down? We put $3,000 down. You're probably going to lose that if you don't close. Right. Does your contract have a contingency on the sale of your other home? No, they would not allow any contingencies. Out here, a house gets listed and almost sold by the end of the day.

Yeah, sometimes, yeah. It's crazy out here. It's a hot market, yeah. So here's what you're doing. You're getting desperate, and every time I get desperate, I get stupid, and you're about to get stupid. You need to not close on this house Thursday. Let it go. Let it go house Thursday. Let it go.

Let it go. Okay. Let it go. That's what I'm telling myself. It's just a house. My husband's at work. It's just a house. It's just a house.

And, you know, we feel like we're throwing away $690 a month to just... Yeah, you may be, but it's just a house. And $690 ain't your problem. You're getting ready to make a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar problem. And then if your house doesn't sell over back in Iowa for two years, you're up a creek. Well, the house is here in Longmont, Colorado. We're sitting in the manufactured home in Longmont. Oh, it's the manufactured home that the kid's not closing on.

Yeah, his mom's in Ohio. Oh, okay, it's not in Ohio. It was an all-cash deal. Okay. And we just found out yesterday from our realtor, which he assured us the kid had already put this application in four weeks ago when they put the offer in. Uh-huh.

And we just found out he didn't. You just need to sit there in your manufactured home until you get it sold. When you get it sold and when it closes, only then can you close on another purchase. And if that means you rent for a little while in between, it means you rent for a little while in between. You're going to end up stuck with two houses. Yeah, I know. Don't do it. I needed you to be honest, and I knew you would.

Don't do it. I love you for it, brother. Well, I appreciate that, but don't do it. What happens is this. Everybody does this. I do it. You've done it. You get caught up in the narrative of this, the story of this,

and it starts to feel like you're stuck and you have to do things. But you don't have to do anything. That's what I told my husband last night. We don't have to do anything. That's what I told my husband last night. We don't have to do anything. It's just a house. I know. It's just a house. You remember how your heart felt big and open when you moved to Colorado

and you were going to try a new adventure? I know. Everybody called us crazy. This is the opposite of that. I know. Your heart feels like it's in a cage. Yeah. I told my husband I feel cornered right now exactly feeling we have you know why you feel cornered is because you're cornered because i'm cornered that's why you feel cornered you are so here's here's what you do

here's what you do when you're cornered you throw up your hands and you walk out yep i did that last night i walked out when my husband was talking to the realtor i said i can't even listen to this anymore it's not a matter of not dealing with it i'm not talking about avoidance i'm talking about i'll be happy to close on this deal when my trailer sells. When my trailer is sold. My trailer hasn't sold. I can't close until that happens. And so if you guys need to dump us in the street, dump us in the street and go on to the next guy. And that's probably what's going to happen. Oh, well, there's a house on every corner in Denver.

You'll get you another house. And don't get desperate because as soon as you feel cornered, as soon as you feel desperate, as soon as you feel forced, that's when you do stupid stuff. And this realtor is feeling desperate. They're trying to get you to close on something you shouldn't close on. It should have been a contingency to start with, but now we're going to make it one because you're just not going to close. Because if you do, you're going to regret it. You're going to end up owning both of these houses for 10 years, and then you're going

to have a real problem. It's going to end up owning both of these houses for 10 years and then you're going to have a real problem it's going to damage your finances it's going to take you a decade to recover from a bad decision walk away or tell them just we're going to tap the brakes boys and girls until this thing closes if we can get this closed then we'll close but if we can't then we're not going to be able to oh we're going to go to the next guy. Well, I understand. You have the right to do that because I'm not closing on Thursday. But if you want to wait on us, we'll be happy to close on it. We'll keep our word, but it's got to be based on this thing selling. And I would walk.

That's exactly what I'd do. Calm down. Mark is with us in Indianapolis. Hey, Mark, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for your service, sir. Thank you. How can I help? Well, I'm 60, and I have six rental properties,

three that are free and clear and three that have small mortgages. And I just always assumed that we would probably just sell one at a time, basically about now. I'll start now. And then that would be prior to your retirement. And a friend of mine said, well, wait a minute. You better ask Dave what he would do. The reason I thought we needed to sell them,

I thought that Social Security had a limit of around $14,000 or so that you can make per year before they penalize you. And he says, wait a minute. He said, on long-held investments, I don't know that that applies. I think this is passive income and doesn't apply. You need to check that out. I agree with him. I'm not positive.

But I wouldn't sell a good investment just to change my Social Security stuff. Social Security is not that big a part of the equation. These properties, if they're good properties, I'd keep them even if it does mess up Social Security. Well, they're profitable. You know, we've been, I guess you'd say successful with it, but they're not, you know, they're just bread and butter rentals,

three-bedroom, one-bath houses. That's the best kind. They stay rented. There's a big market for them, right? Yeah. Yeah, but as you, as I know you know from experience, I mean, when you're 60, 55, I'm not saying you're that old. But I'm saying you've been through it with renters. Well, if you don't want to fool with renters, that's a different equation.

But I'm not selling them to get out of a Social Security problem. It may or may not cause you a Social Security problem. And maybe passive income may not come up with Social Security. But you may want to sell them anyway if you just don't like dealing with renters anymore. But overall, is real estate a good investment to carry all the way through retirement? If you don't mind messing with it, yes, it's a good investment. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, guys.

This is Blake Thompson, Chief Production Officer for The Dave Ramsey Show. Here's a tip. To keep from missing Dave's classic facial expressions to some of those calls, make sure you watch him live. Just visit DaveRamsey.com slash show each day from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern.