The Ramsey Show - App - Stop Buying Things If You Want to Clean Up Your Mess! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, 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. This is common sense for your dollars and cents. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Tanya starts off this hour in Maryland. Hi, Tanya. How are you? Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. My position was eliminated at the end of last year, and I had the decision to make whether to take the annuity for my pension or to roll it over. But now my decision has a new factor.

I've been recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and so it's no longer just an issue of what's good for me but how to make the most of the money for my family, and they're not very financially astute. So I'm looking for some factors and some things to look forward to, what to do with both my pension, and I do have money in a 401K as well. I'm sorry, Tanya. Thank you. How old are you?

59. Okay. And how much is in your 401K or in your retirement plan? Okay, so the lump sum amount of my pension is about 550, and I have 700K in my 401K. So a million two. Yep. Wow.

Worked real hard. I used my sevens to pay off my house, and my house was paid off. Good for you. What's your house worth? About 420. Wow. So you're worth almost $2 million, huh? Imagine that.

Wow. Imagine that. Well done. How much of that did you inherit absolutely none okay not a dollar what was your career what'd you do for a living uh i was an it project manager okay but i too the it world did me well got So, um, you have children? I do have children. They're grown. Um, and I know how many, I have two. One is, um, 31. The other is 37. And you said not financially astute. No. Okay. And I'm married. I'm sorry? I'm married as well.

Okay. But neither child or their spouse handles money well? No. No. And the funny thing is I got that Dave Ramsey package, and we sat down as a family with my stepchildren every Sunday at the church. You know, we had this tutorial. I think it stuck. Some things stuck, but it didn't stick enough. So, these are stepchildren?

Those are my children. I do have a stepdaughter as well. She's in her forties. Okay, alright. And are you currently married still? Yes. Okay. Alright, and so what is your plan uh if this pancreatic cancer does not

go well for the estate what are you planning to do with the almost two million dollars so and that's one of the things that i'm not 100 sure because one thing I would have liked to have done is to left some kind of, not annuity, but some way to provide my husband some kind of monthly income to cover the household needs. I mean, it's not going to be much because the house is paid off, you know, taxes, insurance, and, you know, utilities and stuff like that. How long have you been married to him? 27 years. Okay. Why would you not leave more than

that to him no i wouldn't mind leaving it all but i wanted to see if there's a way that i could leave it in such a way that it would be paid or in such a way because not i don't still want to burn through it there's any way to set up like a fund i don't have a problem leaving it to him i understand so you're afraid he might burn through it as well oh yeah oh yeah the the constant talks of motorcycles and boats yeah all anyhow already happened regardless of my illness okay um well what i would tell you to do is see an estate planner. You've got a large estate, and you're trying to put together probably a trust that is left in control of someone other than your family that handles the money on behalf of your family because we're afraid your husband or your kids or your stepkids might go through the money. And instead, you want it to be a blessing to them, not a curse to them, right? Exactly.

And an annuity is, there may be some annuity investing that is part of the plan, but if you leave him the house and a couple hundred thousand dollars or something and you put the rest of it in a trust to be doled out to the children, and you can sit down with your kids and say when you complete financial peace university and you live on a budget and you reduce debt and increase savings for a year the trustee will be notified to release money to you oh that's interesting i mean you can put all kinds of weird stuff in a trust that requires them to grow up and behave

because I'm not going to release money to you when you don't handle money well because it's a curse then. It's not a blessing. Exactly. You're not helping someone when you give them something they can't control. You're bringing harm to them. So you could do something like that. I doubt you'll probably do that with your husband,

but I wouldn't hesitate to do that with my kids. Yeah, I don't think I could do that with my husband, but I like that idea. You might leave him a couple hundred in the house, and then the other million or so into two or three, depending on what you want to do with the stepchild, into trust. And you can give the trustee very specific actions. And then sit down with the kids. Bring them all in one room, husbands, wives, everybody at one time,

and say, you know, the pancreatic cancer, the doc says I've got this long to live, and so I want you to understand exactly what i'm doing and how this is going to go down and here's what you're going to get if you continue to misbehave nothing oh i like that but you're going to get if you will yeah i work too hard for this and i don't think i'm being i'm giving a drunk a drink here i don't want to be an enabler even from the grave right exactly and so i'm gonna i'm gonna put in here that on going to put in here that once you've done a budget and you've positively managed your situation, then a certain amount will be handed to you.

And two years after that, if you've continued to positively handle the situation, another certain amount could be handed to you. And then two years later, if you've continued to live in a responsible way, the rest of it will be handed to you or then two years later if you've continued to live um in a responsible way the rest of it will be handed to you or something like that i mean you don't want to hang it over their head for 25 years it's too much trouble but but at least get them on the right track and on the straight and narrow financially so to speak um this is the discussion we have with our kids we had the benefit of having it when they were very young growing up. And then, you know, when we actually opened up and they realized how much wealth we had built, it was kind of shocking to them.

And we said, look, you know, you don't get any of it if you're not living this way, if you're not walking with God and if you're not behaving. And because you have a responsibility to manage this for God, because we're Christians. That's how we see it. So see an estate planner and talk that kind of a thing through with them. And congratulations on doing so well financially. I'm sorry for your diagnosis, Tonya. Breaks my heart with you. We're crying with you, praying for you, kiddo. Let us know if you need any help as you go along through this.

We'll help you any way we can. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches,

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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. Rob is on Facebook with a really good question. Dave, when I'm going to ZanderInsurance.com and I get my quotes, how do my investments figure into how much life insurance I need? Ha! You're getting it! I like it!

Very cool! Well, the more investments you have, the less life insurance you'll need. Because when your nest egg is big enough to support your family off the income of your nest egg if something happened to you then you don't need life insurance so if you have investments of a million two and your family can live off of 80 or 90 thousand dollars a year million two invested properly should generate that then you don't need life insurance because your family's not counting on your producing of an income to eat they can live off of the income that the nest egg creates so as you reduce debt

you lower what the family needs and as the kids grow up the older they get the less the family is going to need it takes less to support a 19-year-old for three years than it does a three-year-old for 19 years. And so, you know, the older your kids get, the less you need. The less debt you have, the less you need. And the more life insurance or the more investments you have, the less you need. And so a simple primitive calculation, but it's probably going to be fairly accurate, is we always say about 10 to 12 times your income is your need. Okay? So let's say you make $60,000 a year.

10 times will be $600,000 is your need. 12 times will be like $700,000, $800,000, right? Okay, so let's say $750,000 is our target, and you look down in your investments and you've got $450,000, $800,000, right? Okay, so let's say $750,000 is our target, and you look down in your investments, and you've got $450,000. Well, then you would only need another $300,000 to leave with those investments for mama to be okay, for your income to be replaced. Now, that's assuming your family can live on your income that's being created if you're not there.

And so if you need 750 000 and you look down you have 150 000 it's so cheap i probably go and buy the 750 but uh but if you've got you know half of that money or more than half of that money you can just buy less life insurance as a result because the whole idea is the money plus the, the money you have in your nest egg plus the insurance invested needs to create enough income to replace the fact that you're not going to be there to produce an income. That's how it works. So for most people, the one they're listening right now, they don't have a big nest egg. They're still getting out of debt. Their kids are young.

They're getting started. And so you just need straight up 10, 12 times your income and 15 to 20-year level term at Zander Insurance. And later on, you know, you don't have to buy it. Now, my wife, if I die today, she's in pretty good shape. Trust me. I mean, she's going to be all right. We got financial peace. But I'm only 59, and I'm in pretty good shape.

And so life insurance is still not that expensive. And we still have some term insurance on me, SWI. Sharon wants it. It's not even logical. We don't need it. Whatever. She said I'd rather have that than another diamond. Buy me that.

All right. You got it. Of course, this woman's have that than another diamond. Buy me that. All right. You got it. Of course, this woman's been broke, so she knows how it feels, and she don't want to be broke again. Not like that little $3 million is going to change everything. It's not. She's in much better shape than that little $3 million policy, but I bought her a little policy.

That was her birthday gift. But she doesn't need it. It's ridiculous, really, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I can afford it, and it's what she wanted, so she't need it. It's ridiculous, really, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. I can afford it, and it's what she wanted, so she can have it. But, you know, most people, the thing is you're trying to replace the income that the household is counting on, and you need to do 10 to 12 times that income on you and on your spouse. Now, if your wife doesn't work, your husband doesn't work, then you need to cover what they do.

I mean, if your wife takes care of three kids at home and cooks meals and is a tutor and is a carpool champion and all these kinds of things, then, you know, if something happened to her, dude, you're going to have to hire Mary Poppins. And it's going to take $ forty thousand dollars a year in salaries to replace what mama does there so what do you do with that about ten times that so you need four hundred thousand five hundred thousand on mama right as a full-time mom creating no income because you have to replace the duties that she does or you got to quit work and come home how you going to do that so we get life insurance in place it's very inexpensive when you buy term insurance it's the proper way to do it never do investing inside of insurance always do your investing somewhere else

maggie's in georgia hey maggie welcome to the dave ramsey show hey dave thanks so much for having me sure what's up so my husband and i got got married back in December, and we just recently started listening to the show about a month ago and are a little bit overwhelmed because we owe around $450,000 or we're $450,000 in debt. $180,000 is his pharmacy school student loans. $18,000 is one car that we have. And then we just purchased a $250,000 house like two weeks ago. So we're overwhelmed and don't really know what to do.

So I thought, well, let me call the Dave Ramsey show and see if he has any advice. What's your household income? We bring home right around 135 okay so you're not working outside the home i yes i am so he's a poorly employed pharmacist then well we gross around 170 and then bring home 130 okay i'm sorry i misunderstood no you're 170 all right well um 180 000 should scare the pants off of you it does it's terrifying you need to start acting like that and quit buying crap okay if you were really scared you wouldn't have bought this house no you're right if you're really scared you wouldn't have bought this car so you need to quit buying stuff you get on a tight budget and live like somebody that makes $50,000 a year.

Okay. No life. No vacations. You don't get to see the inside of a restaurant unless you're working there as your side hustle. Okay. Scorched earth. If you'll do that, you can clean this mess up pretty quick without selling the house. Without selling the house.

What about the car? I'd keep the car. It's not killing me here. But you're going to have to, you know, you're going to have a shock to your system. And people around you are going to make fun of you and wonder if you've lost your mind you're going to cut your lifestyle that far otherwise you're going to wallow in this for a decade right but if you if i could get if i could get you to act like you live on 50 000 and you put 75 to 100 000 a year towards debt you're out of debt in about three years.

Not counting the house. Well, 75 times 3 is 210. 70 times 3 is 210. And so, you know, no more 401k investing. You're not doing anything except chunking big, hairy payments on this stuff. And you can do it that way, or you can take 15 years and wallow in this, which is what most people do. I don't want to do that.

That's what most people do, though, isn't it? It is. Well, and it's a mindset shift from I felt like I was going to be in debt the rest of my life to listening to this show and thinking, wait, we don't have to be in debt forever we actually great news is yeah the great news is you're in a you have a really big shovel i mean you make 170 000 a year as a young married couple that's pretty stinking impressive the bad news is you're in a really big hole with this nice shovel so right you got you but you got a big enough shovel to dig your way out but you're going to have to shock your system.

And I mean, there is nothing going to be purchased at your house. You're going to live like broke college students because you are broke college students. And if you'll do that, you can turn this around pretty quick, kiddo. And we'll be here to help you. You call me. I'll encourage you. I'll lovingly fuss at you as mean old Uncle Dave, but I'll encourage you, too. I think you can do this.

You sound like smart people to me. Just did some dumb stuff. You can turn it around. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Darren is with us in Illinois. Hi, Darren. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Illinois. Hi, Darren. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call.

My pleasure, sir. How can I help? I have a question about children's funding of college education. So my family just made Baby Step 7 this year. Way to go. We have everything paid off. Yeah, thank you. I have the 529s fully funded for all three kids for their undergraduate degree.

My middle child is currently a sophomore in college, and she can graduate debt-free from her undergrad, but she believes that she wants to go to medical school, which I haven't prepared for. So I have two years before that would happen, but I know that that's a couple hundred thousand dollars as well. I probably have the cash to do it, but it would probably bring my cash situation down pretty far if I was to fund that fully. So I'm just wondering your advice on do I go back into baby step five and start putting more money in a 529, or how would you handle a sudden need to go to medical school by one of your children? Well, the good news is you're in a position to do it. It's just where you pull it from.

And what's your household income? About $200. Okay. And that's another element that makes you able to do this. And you've obviously done a great job handling money. You're 100% debt- 100 debt free you got all the kids college covered you've got an extra 200 cash you just don't want to use it you don't like being that low on cash after having been through all you've been through to get here i don't blame

you okay so i'm going to coach her just like i coach anyone um even though she's got the money or you've got the money uh we're going to limit the damage in order to get the MD, in other words. So medical school is not unlike undergrad in that the cost range between school A and school B is dramatic, traumatic. And what happens to most people if they get accepted to law school or they get accepted to medical school, they're just so thrilled that they actually got in that they don't even consider what that school charges and they don't consider that they should go try to get in a different one because and so in other

words they're just so happy the car loan got approved even though it's a bentley and they can't afford it but it by god it got approved right and so it's a very emotional thing because it's a very it's obviously rigorous study to get there right and so we've got to guide her through that process to where um don't get accepted to a medical school where you're going to expect your dad to write a five hundred thousand dollar check because we're not going to right and there's medical schools that'll charge her that you You know that, right? Absolutely. Yeah.

So, you know, we've just got to decide we're going to go to the cheaper medical school, and we're going to have to get accepted there. So we've got to keep that at the top of the list. Then I'm also going to have her. They're very rare, and they're very hard to do. But if we can get her into an MD-PhD program, the MD-PhD program is basically a program where you work for the university as a proctor usually while you're in med school, and tuition's free.

Oh, I've never heard of that. Very difficult to get into. There's not that many slots. They're very picky about it. It's like getting approved for a fellowship or something like that. It's a lot of GPA, a lot of politicking, but for $250,000, I'm going to work on it

pretty hard, you know? Absolutely. And there's several of those programs around the nation. I've got a friend of mine, his kid just came out of Duke with an MD on that program, MD-PhD program. Zero cost for med school. That's pretty sweet. so that's a possibility the last possibility is something we'll add in the equation so cost of college where they attend

look at the md phd program very hard to do but possible even harder to do and slimmer are there are some drug companies that really love for doctors to feel good about them because doctors are the ones that write the prescriptions. And so there's some scholarships in the farm world, in the pharmacy world, and in the pharmacology world and so forth. And there's some scholarships out there floating. There's not many of them, but with some of the large hospital companies because there's a shortage of doctors, for instance, in rural America

or in inner cities. And if you promise to serve them on contract, almost like taking a military gig, you know, you promise to serve in the military, they'll pay for your med school. But you can look at those and decide, you know, what is reasonable there, what the process is, and, you know, the mix of those three things where we're being very intentional about this process rather than just very emotional and whatever it costs i got accepted we have to do that daddy right well it's even emotional for parents because you want your you know you're proud to have a kid as a doctor exactly exactly you know and i got to

tell you be willing to do things you wouldn't normally do yeah i mean i talked to for instance dentists all the time that spend four hundred and fifty thousand dollars to become a freaking dentist yeah you know and they don't have the income potential that an md does the dds doesn't and so but it's i'm just so happy I got in a dental school. I don't even look at what it costs. I'm just going. And there's this combination. It's an emotional pride thing that just causes you to blind you. And so we're just going to be logical about this.

And we're going to be thoughtful, and we're going to be wise. And then if I'm in your shoes, if I'm the daddy, I'm going to write the check, and I'm going to work the cash out between your fabulous income and your cash position. You've got two, three years to get prepared. Lastly, I would make sure she really wants to be an MD. Yeah, agreed. She's a sophomore, and that could change between now and the end of school. I'd love for her to shadow a doc for three days and keep their schedule.

Yeah, we're actually going to set that up this summer. Yeah, because, I mean, she might discover she doesn't like blood or something. I don't know. You know, probably not. She did work in the ER last year. She did an internship in the ER, and she loved that. Okay, well, she's obviously a bright kid and obviously very driven and very focused and very goal-oriented, and you've got to be proud of her.

So I want to back that. I want to do it all, but I just want to do it wisely so that in the name of med school, we don't go into the land of stupid. Exactly. And I've heard so many on your show talking about their med school debt, and I don't want my kid to be one of those. Well, they won't be. You've got the money as long as we don't sign up for something that's just crazy.

Right, right, exactly. So you've just got to do a little rearranging. You've got to do a little rearranging of where your income is going to go for the next two years, and you're tracking with her. She needs to really hit that gpa because our super high gpa in this not only gets you into med school gets you into many different med schools potentially and it sets you up for some of these other things the super high gpa is just going to be vital in this in this setting so her investment into this is going to be lots and lots of hours on

the books in the undergrad so but obviously she's a bright kid and a good kid so you got to be lots and lots of hours on the books in the undergrad so but obviously she's a bright kid and a good kid so you got to be proud as a dad good questions darren thanks for being thoughtful about this open phones at triple eight eight two five five two two five our question of the day comes from blinds.com satisfaction guarantee 100 satisfaction guarantee which says even if you screw up on your order they will remake your window blinds free the wrong size wrong color whatever and you get free samples and free shipping and new promos check out ramsey as your promo code bob is in kentucky i recently completed my daughter's faFSA documentation, and in the application it asked for the amount of money in your parents' savings. Since we're loyal followers of your philosophy, we had $50,000 in savings.

It seems as if we're being punished for not having any debt and any aid our daughter may receive. How should we deal with this? We have a purpose for our money and our savings for her college, and I have a Roth IRA along my 401K. Can you comment? Well, the only thing having savings will keep you from getting in the FAFSA is income-based or Pell Grant type things,

and Pell Grants are for poor people, people that are on welfare. And you're not on welfare. You're not poor people. You don't qualify for Pell Grants. You're not being punished. It's like saying I'm being punished because I have a job and I can't get welfare. Well, no. So now what Pell Grants are for? Scholarships, most of them are not income-based. Most of them are based on merit, citizenship, you know, other things. So, no, you're not being punished. You just can't get Pell Grants because you're not poor. Oh, well,

this is the Dave Ramsey Show. Dave is in Ohio. Hi, Dave. Welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Pleasure to talk to you. You too. What's up? Hey, I've followed you for an awful long time,

and I have a trust about 18 years ago, and now my daughter's going to be graduating from college next year. I don't feel like I need it anymore, but I feel like I've already got some time into it, and I really haven't kept up with it real well. Just with houses and stuff, I have everything paid for and baby step seven and all that stuff but um should i just convert this to a will or get out of the trust or it'd be fine i mean you can just you can just decant it i mean you can move the stuff out of it and then just have an estate plan a will up. What's your total net worth?

Probably with the house, maybe 1.5. Okay. Well, you don't have an estate tax problem, and the only reason for a trust would be to control some of the assets for someone that you don't feel like can control them, or you're trying to accomplish some kind of other process. But there's not an estate tax reason for you to have a trust. Should I be going into a will? A will.

Well, you need a will anyway. There should be a will that dictates terms to the trust and handles the beneficial interest of the trust when you die. So you need a will anyway, whether you have a trust or not. But if you want to use just the vehicle of a will, you can talk to a good estate planner. You've got a large enough estate that you need to have a professional estate plan done with a good estate planner. You're going to spend a little bit of money on that, but it would be worth it.

And clearly define exactly what's going to happen with each item. So you just feel like she's responsible enough to handle it if you just left it to her. Oh, yeah. Yeah, actually you're right i do have a will piece of it it directs it directs everything to the trust right like i said i just haven't done a good job of keeping it up yeah you need to review you need to review your documents and everything with a net worth your size um you know every two to three years you need to sit down with your estate planner and even if it's just to remember what you've got and make sure and so forth.

And it sounds like you haven't been titling things as you bought them all to the trust either, right? Yeah, well, I just paid off my house, so I was able to. That hasn't really gotten put in there fully yet. The house was directed towards the house originally. Okay. I didn't know if I had to do anything special since I've paid the house off. No, not necessarily.

You never retitled it to the trust. It's still in your name? Yes, that's correct. Okay. Yeah, it won't be hard to do then. So, yeah, just get you a fresh estate planning attorney. Sit down, look at the whole thing, and decide what you want to do. If you do not have an estate plan or a net worth of over $20 million, you don't have a federal estate tax problem.

And at that point, you've got to start using some trusts and you've got to start using some marital exemptions and some other things. You have to get a little fancier to keep the government's hands off the money that you've already paid taxes. They want to charge you again when you die. But when you're under $20 million, you're in good shape right now. That's the current estate tax law. So no reason to kind of pay to keep it up right now at all.

No, no. Since she's responsible and you don't have to worry about someone else managing it on her behalf, you just want to leave it to her. It's a fairly simple thing. Now, once you've gotten it all in place. Well, I'll be getting married next year, too. I have plans to get married next year you do uh anyhow yes okay all right well i mean that you may want to consider that in this process obviously you would leave you don't want to

take care of your new wife as well as your daughter so yeah yeah that's what we had planned to do exactly so you just got to figure out how to do all that in the distribution and the other thing i'd recommend once you've kind of gotten this game plan lined out, and right before you go to full documentation, I would sit down with both of them, your fiancé and your daughter, and say, this is what my plan is. This is what I'm going to take care of you this way, you this way. And before I put all that down in a formal will and spend all the legal fees to do that i want to make sure everybody's got their head around that and does anybody have any questions or

anything you'd rather have different done or whatever and um you know it's kind of have a reading of the will while you're still alive you know so that they know they know what's going on and um you know our estate has gotten so. We do that every year with our entire leadership team here at the company as well as our family. We have a formal meeting of what happens if Dave dies this year. We call it the Monty Python meeting because I always just say, I'm feeling much better. Well, I followed your plan.

She's going to finish next year college debt-free. Did all the things that you teach, and it works. Well, I'm proud of you, man. Well done. Good stuff. Yeah, I would get an estate planning attorney to get some help, but I think you probably do not have a need for a trust right now. It doesn't sound like to me.

Hey, thanks for the call. Matt is with us. Matt is in missouri hey matt how are you good day how are you better than i deserve how can i help so i'm recently engaged congratulations we are thank you and we are planning our wedding and it's going to be next year so that's going to be about 15 000 i'm paying off a ring which is 6 000 that's almost gone and i got it down to about 2 000 and i have 40 000 in student loans so my question is i'm using my gi bill to go back to school i do work full-time but i go to i'm going to go to

school at night starting in the summer i'm sorry and did. Why do you have student loans if you're using your GI Bill? I went to school previously before I joined the Air Force. Oh, okay. So this is second go-round. I got you. So now you're trying to complete your degree after the Air Force and getting married. I got you. Okay.

Yes. So I have a full-time job. I work for an intelligence agency. Make pretty decent money. But my question is, should I use the, since we're saving and trying to pay for this wedding, would you use the GI Bill money, the BAH that I get paid, and just throw it at my student loan per month? You're talking about the stipend that's in addition to paying for your tuition? Or are you talking about using your tuition money for your wedding?

No, it's the stipend money. Yeah, the stipend money is just part of your income. That's part of your GI benefit in addition to they paid your tuition. I wouldn't use tuition money, but your stipend money is just for you to use however you want. You're making a living, and so part of your budget, your income, is your working money and your stipend. And when you put all of that at the top of the budget and then of your budget, your income, is your working money and your stipend. And when you put all of that at the top of the budget and then in the budget, you're trying to accomplish a couple of things, and that's buying this ring and paying off this wedding.

And you're probably not going to get to the student loans until after you're married. Sure, and I'll take my question. Sorry, I probably worded it wrong but um we've got a budget for the wedding just off of our salaries right now and the gi bill stipend will be just extra so i didn't know if i should just take that and throw it at the student loans while we have the wedding under control no i would get the wedding fund finished just quit treating the stipend as a separate part of something it's just part of We have the wedding under control. No, I would get the wedding fund finished. Quit treating the stipend as a separate part of something. It's just part of your income.

You don't have $15,000 in the bank yet for the wedding, right? No. So everything added until you do. And did you borrow money on this ring? No, it was on a USAA card. there was no interest on it for a year so borrowed money on the ring okay you borrowed money's interest free on the ring so get the stupid ring paid off and get the wedding funded from any place you can get money except tuition don't use your tuition money for that you can't anyway because job bill pays direct, don't they? They do.

Yeah, so you can't hijack that money anyway. But every other dollar you can get your hands on, get that $15,000 funded, get that ring paid as fast as you possibly can, and get those two things out of your life. And then probably you're married and that student loan is going to be staring at you still. Then the two of you combine your incomes and let's finish getting out of debt. And you finish your degree without taking on any more debt. So, hey, good question.

Really appreciate it. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Appreciate your service, by the way. Thank you for serving your country, sir. I'm glad we were, we the people are paying for your degree after that. We should. I'm happy to do that kind of thing. It's one of the few good uses of my tax money.

Most of it's a waste out there. But, you know, supporting you folks in the military, it'll allow me the freedom to sit here on here and yak every day because you put your lives on the line. We appreciate you. Well, that puts us out of because you put your lives on the line. We appreciate you. Well, that puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Madison filling in for Kelly. I am Dave Ramsey Show.

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