The Ramsey Show - App - The Best Calls of the Year So Far (Part 3) (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 28, 2023

МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. The phone number here is 888-825-5225. Dr. John Deloney, host of the Dr. John Deloney Show, is my co-host today. He's also the number one best-selling author of the book, Own Your Past, Change Your Future. Sarah is in Detroit, Michigan.

Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? My father-in-law bought a home for my husband's ex-wife

to live in about 15 years ago. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. This sounds hillbilly already. I'm having trouble. What in the world? I know. Your husband's dad bought your husband's ex-wife a house to live in yes and a moonshine still out back you know i don't understand the situation at all my family

doesn't do things like this no normal people don't do things like this. No, normal people don't do crap like this. It usually is the other way around. I mean, you know, oh, my goodness. Okay, so after the divorce. Maybe he's taking care of the kids. Maybe that's it. Was his grandkids there? His grandkids were there.

All right. Okay. Yeah. Somewhat more sane. Okay, but still stupid, but okay. So at the time, they had two teenagers, and I think one was about 10 years old. So this was about 15 years ago. So she's lived there since then. She doesn't pay rent.

Father-in-law has upkept the home. Oh, the house is not in her name. He bought it and lets her live there. Oh, the house is not in her name. He bought it and lets her live there. Yes, and kept the house in his name. Okay, good. Okay, that's better even. Is it? Yeah.

This is going to be a supernova. I can't wait. This is going to be great. So the kids are grown now. She still lives there. And I just happened to see a piece of paper that said title on death, the title to go over to my husband when my father-in-law passes away. So I guess my father-in-law is expecting my husband to keep the house up and pay taxes on it. I don't care what he expects. No.

As my wife told me once, John, I'm not doing chores for you after you're dead. Yeah. Okay, so here's the thing. Regardless of how it occurred, where it is today is stupidville. Can we agree with that? Yeah. So your husband needs to go sit down down have a cup of coffee with his dad and say dad uh i don't want to have to deal with this crap you need to deal with it now uh ex-wife doesn't have a reason to live there anymore free kids are grown and gone she needs to move on now it's not mean it's weird it's weird just say it out

loud she's lived rent-free for 15 years he did it because he's a grandpa's heart i got it i got a grandpa's heart right and grandpa's heart sometimes will cause you to do stupid butt things and he did a stupid butt thing but he needs to handle this before he dies what yeah okay so i don't even know i can hear in your voice he's not going to so your is your husband a wuss when it comes to his dad a little bit no dave of course he is he bought his ex-wife a house of course yeah okay so here you really you need to give your run down to walmart and pick your husband up a backbone. They're on aisle three. And you need to send him on over to his dad and say, Dad, I don't want this house unless you move her out before you die.

Because I don't want to have to deal with her. She's my ex for a reason. We don't want the house. Take my name off the deed or get her out, one of the two. Because I'm not going to have to deal with evicting my ex-wife. Because the day you inherit this, she gets evicted. If she doesn't move voluntarily. Right, which I don't think she will.

This is a free ride that comes to an end, my girl. Time to move. And when Dave starts talking French, you know he's serious. That's hillbilly French right there. That's right. Oh, yeah, redneckneck that's just not this is dumb go ahead sarah would it be an option for him to instead just feed the house over to the ex-wife since he wanted to if he wants to give it to her he can give it to her i don't care

this is a weird freaking family okay but i if i'm in your shoes i want to tell you what i'm trying to do with all my sarcasm and bombasticness is you think this is crazy, and you're right. That's what I'm trying to do is affirm you. Your feelings about this are completely correct. This is Strangeville, Stupidville, Weirdville. Let me affirm one more thing for you. There are three towns right together, and the intersection is ex-wife's house, okay? I'm so glad it's not just me it's not you there's 22 million people listen to this going oh my god there's another layer to this also you're realizing in real time your husband is uh like dave dave

eloquently said doesn't have a backbone and hasn't dealt with something that should have been dealt with a long long time ago and it's right for you to also feel that sense of who who is this guy when things get sideways he just goes oh it's gonna be okay this is x y this is somebody that's out of his life they went through a legal process and so you're right to call him on that as well y'all need to have that conversation because you're losing respect for him right here's the thing he's gonna deal with it or he's gonna deal with it or he's gonna deal with you You'll need to have that conversation because you're losing respect for him, right? Here's the thing. He's going to deal with it, or he's going to deal with it, or he's going to deal with you. He's going to deal with it with his dad.

He's going to deal with evicting her after he gets to the house, or he's going to deal with you. He gets to deal with this. It's not an option. He just gets to choose what he deals with. And the easiest path is go sit down and have a cup of coffee with his nutty father right and go dad no i don't want this house no i don't want your time share either don't leave me that either both of them are dumb right i don't want this and if dad won't deal with it then you two need to decide um are we gonna go through a legal proceeding and evict her and sell this house, and then she's going to sue us and all that,

or are we going to deed the house over to her and just walk away? No, I'm not giving it to her. There's no way. There's no way. She just needs to leave. This woman has had it. I've had enough of this woman already. This woman needs to move out of this house, okay?

My God, what a freeloader. And so, no. Okay, I was feeling guilty. No, you don't need to feel guilty. This is dumber than a rock so here's what okay here's the steps if it's me you need to sit down with your husband and the two of you need to address the fact that he won't address this john's right because this is going to put a splinter in your relationship you don't want to leave there number two then he needs to go

really he does need to go sit down talk to his dad very calmly nicely he doesn't have to be as crazy as i'm being on the air. I'm doing that to give you strength and remind you that you're normal and that what you're thinking is real. Because the voices I just gave were also in your head. So I'm just saying them out in the loud, okay? Now, he sits down with his dad calmly and says, Dad, this is weird. I don't want to have to deal with this. I don't want to deal with her. That's why she's my ex. And you need to move her out of there before you die.

Or you need to take my name off of this whole thing. If dad won't deal with it and he leaves him the thing that instant dad is ill. Your husband needs to tell his ex-wife she has 30 days and we're going to be selling the house. You've got to move. And your husband needs to handle this. None of this are you responsible for. He has to man up and handle this. It's his freaking family and his freaking mess, and he's got to do it. And you've got to kick him hard enough to get him to do it.

This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way, and that way isn't down. And if higher costs aren't enough, the wait times to see your doctor are longer, and it's harder than ever to get anything approved through the bureaucracy. So if you feel like the system is working against you, try a biblically-based alternative to health insurance, Christian Healthcare Ministries. CHM is a health cost-sharing ministry that's helped hundreds of thousands of families like yours take care of over $11 billion in medical bills since 1981. And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting

financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Okay, guys, when you are making your financial decisions and your analysis around your financial decisions, here analysis around your financial decisions. Here's a couple of rules for you that the wealthy people do. Okay.

They make their decisions based on the principles that are going to take them to their goal. Now we are sure after 30 years of doing this, that one principle is your most powerful wealth-building tool is your income. And when you get rid of debt, your probability and speed by which you become wealthy is increased. The more debt you carry, the slower you run towards being a millionaire. It's a math thing. And all the data is there with all the people who have done it. The second thing you need to do is you got to be really careful.

And this is a trap I fell into when I was young and stupid because I'm really, really good with math. And I'm really a math nerd way bad like pocket protector calculator on my belt math nerd and if that is you you will get paralysis of the analysis if you're not careful what I learned that wealthy people do is they don't get caught up in the nuances of the math. They do what we call big math, meaning they're looking at the big chunks and where that's taking them. And when I'm doing things here on the air with you, I don't use a calculator. I don't need one because I'm typically not doing nuanced mathematics.

I am looking at the big chunks. Now, what I mean by that is if you do nuanced math, you say, oh, I have $47,000 in an allied account that pays me 4%. Why would I pay off a student loan that is 2% or a mortgage that is 2%. I'm making four. I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. I'm making four and the student loan is seven. Why would I do that? Because I'm losing that money.

But then you actually do the math. What is 4% of $47,000? It's 800 bucks. What is the spread? 2% spread. And this is your leverage factor. And the whole thing thing all of this mathematical theory that you spend all of your brain power on if you're a super nerd like me

ends up being the cost of a pizza which proves that you are concentrating on the wrong things the right things to concentrate on are the big things the things that are going to take you where you want to go and it's not am i getting rich on i get because here's an example okay i use a discover card and i get two two percent back okay so let's help let me help you with this you spend a hundred dollars because it sounds like i got two percent two percent free two percent two percent two percent oh god i'm so smart i got two percent this is the super nerd inside your brain right but let's do it okay a spent a hundred and you got two dollars back you can can you imagine millionaires sitting around and thinking and going i think that's

great let's do that no broke people think that's great and they get all hung up on the two percent two percent two percent two percent it's two dollars but dave that's just one of the cards the other one has a five percent rotating cash back on restaurants this month i know so if i eat out enough i can become a millionaire for my five percent cash back again let's just take your whole eating out budget times five percent and by the way you gave away a hundred percent you got back five this is a debt i mean this is a wealth reduction plan not a wealth increasing plan because you're consuming 95 of the money you got five percent back but five percent ends up being five or fifteen dollars dollars i mean guys you're majoring in minors because you're super nerding on the math instead of actually looking at the nominal dollars that the math creates if you actually run the math formula out and look at the number of dollars you go i'm this is i'm so screwed

that i can't breathe this is dumber than a a rock. And I had to learn to do that because that's what millionaires do. It's called common sense. It's not a math formula. There's a concept. When you give away 100, if little Johnny gives away 100 and he gets back two,

how long does it take little Johnny to become bankrupt? Not wealthy, but bankrupt. This is a math problem. Is that a common core math problem right there? I'm just telling you. Wow. And then you get this thing, this thing from NPR.

This thing right here. Yeah, I resonated with this because this is part of this discussion we're having. Here's the headline. A lack of credit history creates financial obstacles for immigrants. And as a first generation American whose parents were immigrants, I resonated this because I went, oh my gosh, this is my parents' story. Here's what it says. What may seem like an immigrant cliche actually happens every day. Foreigners arrive in the U.S. with big dreams and a few dollar bills in their wallet. That was true for both of us reporting

the story. And it goes on to say the U.S. economy counts on you to borrow money and stay into debt. And the epitome of all this is the credit score, which often snares newcomers into a financial catch-22, penalizing a lack of debt history and pushing many to take confusing, sometimes costly measures. Besides that, we need to support the U.S. economy because that's our first goal. My first goal is not to support the U.S. economy. My first goal is to make sure the Ramsey family is taken care of.

The U.S. economy will have to deal with itself. They'll figure it out. So that's what immigrants do. It counts on you. It counts on you to borrow money and stay in debt. You need a credit score to live here. That's pretty much what they tell you. And so how do you get a credit score, Dave?

Well, you got to go into debt to get the score so you can go into more debt. To get the score. So you can go into debt to get the score. Oh, my gosh. So the great American dream, when you add this method to it, turns into the great American nightmare for a lot of first-generation immigrants. Oh, yeah. And they play this game because they were told they had to play the game. And then they realize, wait, where's the American dream?

We're broke up to our eyeballs in car loans, credit cards, personal loans, student loans, medical debt, mortgages. Now, your family was Middle Eastern. Yes. So we've done a lot of work in the spanish community uh people coming from various countries uh in the latin world and a lot of them don't have a trust of banks and so they haven't fallen for this if they're particularly their uh entry-level socioeconomic okay now they come in higher brow heavier cash users yeah heavier complete it's under the bed it's literally in a box under the bed i mean i'm not kidding it's not a metaphor it's a shoe box with hundred dollar bills under the bed because

they don't trust banks to not go broke from because they came from a banana republic of some kind that all the bank seat banking system was not reliable and so they don't fall for this because they're not going to go into debt now what they do fall for is other things title pawn and other crap you know but uh but what happens is people like your mom and dad they often get americanized in the worst ways they adapt to the culture and part of that is this toxic money culture that says you got to go into debt and where does that lead us well u.s household debt now surpass household debt now surpasses $17 trillion. Now, here's what's interesting, Dave, comparing that to the European Union, which has more households and yet less than half of that amount in debt, which tells me that debt is the most aggressively marketed product in American history. And we are so good.

America is number one in a lot of things, and debt is one of them. Marketing is one of them. And here's a great quote from a Stanford economic sociologist. Being financially responsible in the U.S. has come to mean borrow and repay. That pretty much sums up how you've been doing this for 30 years, Dave. Everyone was told, if you want to be financially responsible, borrow money and repay it back and do that over and over again until you die. And then maybe one day you'll hopefully be able to retire. It's insane. So I think it's time for a cultural shift here. Well, yeah, you just want to say, hey, don't, you know, you got here for the Statue of Liberty, don't give up your liberty. Don't sign up for slavery. Come here for freedom and you lose it.

Yeah. And first day, sign up for MasterCard. That's your first thing to do. You're looking for liberty, but you go get a Master first thing. Yeah, that's not our American distress. We can sign up for that. Our discovering bondage. Yeah, all for 2% back, don't forget. $2!

Land of the free, home of the broke. $2. $2, Bob. $2. This is the free, home of the broke. $2. $2, Bob. $2. This is The Ramsey Show. Ramsey Show Question of the Day, sponsored by Neighborly, your hub for home services. Most American homes have dozens of appliances, and chances are at any given time there's something wrong with at least one of them mr appliance a neighborly brand offers expert appliance service on your schedule visit

neighborly.com to find home service experts including a mr appliance in your area today's question comes from jonathan in florida i am 35 and my wife just had our first baby. I have roughly $43,000 in debt. My annual income is around $73,000. I'm wanting to start my baby steps, but I had a quick question about baby step one and two. I have a credit card that is maxed out at the $1,000 limit. If I pay that card off, can I count that as my baby step one and then tackle my debt snowball whilst i'm intensely putting a thousand dollars cash in my savings account no john that is so convoluted no no no because no maxed out credit card for a thousand dollars is not considered your emergency fund

your emergency fund is considered cash that you have saved your own money. So before you pay off your credit card, you save $1,000 cash. Then you start working to pay off your debts. And this might be the first one you pay off. I appreciate Jonathan's, you know, if I have a $1,000 limit, I just cash out $1,000, put that, and then throw it in my desk? The underlying bull crap in this question is that he's going to use his credit card as his emergency card. I know.

He's going to go cash out $1,000. So the next time he has an emergency, he's going to use a stupid credit card. So that's the underlying bull crap. Yeah, that's just. No. Sorry, Jonathan. Wish it was that easy. You know, Sharon, Rachel's mom, when I do crap like this, Jonathan,

she goes, you're scheming and scamming again. You're trying to find a shortcut. Quit scheming and scamming. Just do the work, boy. That's Rachel's mom. That's what I get. So, yeah, Jonathan, just you're scheming and scamming, Jonathan. Just do the work, boy.

Don't scheme and scam. I mean, oh, my gosh. That's it. You cannot scam your way into wealth, okay, you can't even trick yourself into it. And so no, we're not going to go $1,000 in credit card debt for the emergency fund, but we appreciate the question. So cute. Here's a more sophisticated problem.

So this was sent to me via Instagram. Appreciate all my Instagram people out there because they will send me things a lot and they're like, oh my gosh, what do you think about this? Or what do you think about that? And this one came up. You know, people might send me stuff, too, but I don't look at it. So I wouldn't know. You like read the messages or something?

Is that what you're supposed to do? Dave, I am part of the people. These are my people. So, yes, I get on and talk to people on social media. You could, too. Social media. You could, too. Oh, that's how it works. You could too. Social media. You could too. Oh, that's how it works.

They're real people out there on the other side that enjoy your stuff. You should get in and comment. I love them so much. I'm not going to get on it. And you should go and talk to them. Anyway, somebody, yes. So they're talking to you and they sent you this. Yes.

And I read the messages because I read my messages and they're like, hey, I want you and Dave to talk about it. And I was like, oh, well, perfect. We'll be on the show together. So this was from a New York Times article. And the headline was, I've hidden my trust fund for 15 years. Do I finally tell my spouse? So I'm ready for this. I'm a 44-year-old man and I've been married to my spouse for 10 years. We've been together for 15. Unbeknown to my spouse, I have a trust fund that provides me with a monthly income of $25,000. When we first met, I said that I worked as a consultant and they've never questioned it.

My spouse, a dedicated doctor, works long hours and doesn't like to discuss work when not on the job. Over the years, I have repeatedly assured my spouse that they don't need to work as my income is secure and stable. They are, however, passionate about their career and have chosen to continue working. I actively serve on various boards, but I have never held a full-time job and don't plan to. Our lifestyle is comfortably upper middle class, and I am content with that. My dilemma is whether I should reveal the truth about my trust fund to my spouse. My family members have always advised against disclosing our financial situation, but the weight of the secret is becoming too difficult to bear.

What do you do all day? He sits on boards. Oh, that's what he said. I don't know. Plays Wordle. I wonder how often like this kind of well we well we know that spouses hide things from one another that's a that's a consistent theme through life like that's a known thing um but this one was just interesting because i'm like okay 25 grand a month i wonder what she

thinks that he does to earn that amount of money. So anyways, what I would tell, the name is withheld. They did not disclose the name in the New York Times article. So yes, if anyone out there has this dilemma. No, no one else has this dilemma. Or the idea that you have a secret that is too unbearable to bear that is from your spouse. Listen, we always teach and talk about and believe that being on the same page with your

spouse is much better. So coming clean and telling them anything and everything when it comes to money, anything you are withholding is not only going to just lift the weight off your shoulders that you've been carrying around having to navigate. Because I think about this situation, which this is it's true i know it's a little absurd but if you do think about it i'm like the amount of like probably lies and deception that had to have occurred to cover the big lie to cover the big lie that's a lot of work in life and i don't know who has time for that so i'm just like free yourself you're burning an awful lot of calories

being a liar and and you've been with your spouse for 10, I mean, like, I mean, I think it's fine. And then you know what? She probably still wants to be a doctor because she's passionate about her work and that's great. But yeah, being upfront, honest, disclosing everything, regardless of whether it's a $25,000 trust fund or it's a secret credit card that you have, whatever it is, you and your spouse being on the same page is crucial to winning long-term. Yeah. trust fund or it's a secret credit card that you have whatever it is uh you and your spouse being on the same page is is crucial to to winning winning long term yeah so um yeah you should

have disclosed this day one and you should be continually you should not have any secrets from your spouse hello period i mean that's just a thing. You just cannot build a quality relationship on deception. Duh. Okay. So your family is screwed up, dude, because your family is telling you that your money and you're not needing to work is, is you, how they know your secret and your own freaking wife does not and your family thinks that's good your family's screwed up and then they left you money so you don't have to work that's screwed up so let me tell you if you're going to participate in the ramsey trust

it involves continually working because working is good for the soul like real work yeah doing work showing up and doing stuff you know this is not good this is not healthy there's nothing in this that's fun or and it's only 25 000 it's only 300 000 a year it's not like you're freaking rich i mean it's 300 grand jeez no i mean really no i mean it's not it's 300 grand. Geez. No, I mean, really? No, I mean, it's not 3 million. It's 300,000. And what has this guy not done with his life that he should have done? That's pretty good.

I agree. He should have done something with his life. Instead, he's the king of Wordle. I mean, oh, my God. I mean. No, really. I mean, I serve on boards. That's code for I don't do much i'm telling you

sir this is wrong it's wrong i agree i agree that it is it's deception and it's all glassed over as if my family has said we should not share our money information because your family thinks this money is a bigger deal than it is it's just some money more important than your spouse yeah and more important than your integrity in your marriage yeah yeah you've been living a long time in the in the soup of deception and it's it's poisoned you man really the cleanest best thing you can do you'll be like an alcoholic who sits down the bottle when you quit lying you're gonna have a cleanliness of soul that's gonna be so good for you and is she gonna be pissed well yeah of course that's going to be so good for you. And is she going to be pissed?

Well, yeah. Of course she's going to be pissed. She's been lied to for 15 years. Jeez. So, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Of course she's going to be mad. Yeah.

If she's not, she's a wuss. She should be mad. This is just nutty. Anger is a good thing. Yeah. In that situation. I mean, really, you're living a lie. That's why you had to put it out on the dadgum ethicist columnist page.

You have to go to ethics class to figure this one out. This is why we need ethics classes. Yeah, son. And, Papa, don't do this to your kids. You're better off teaching them how to work and give them no money than give them this crap. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here.

Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones, 888-825-5225. Carolyn is with us in Virginia. Hey, Carolyn, how are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

My question is about paying off my mortgage early. I just retired this month, and I want to know if I need to consider the tax implications of paying off my mortgage since the money would have to come out of my 403B. How old are you? 61. Congratulations. How much is your mortgage? $145,000.

And how much do you have in your 403B? Once they put in the partial lump sum, it'll be a little over a million. Excellent. Excellent. Yeah. Okay. So you're a millionaire. Look at you.

Way to go. Yay. What's your house worth? About $550,000. Way to go. Are you single? No, I'm married. Okay.

So that's your household situation or your personal situation? My personal situation, my husband has a 403B that's about $200,000. And he has Social Security and I have a pension that will help us live. Okay. All right. Yes, you'll pay income tax on the $140,000 that you pull out. So calculate that in and pay off your house today. Really?

Absolutely. I was just worried about how much. I think it's going to put me in the next tax bracket. That doesn't matter? Whoop-de-doop-dee for year zippy it's not it's not much money so the the deal is this okay it doesn't the way we can tell to do this is if we're wrong it doesn't matter you're still in great shape okay if you told me you had 250 000,000 to your name, that was your whole nest egg for your whole family, and I was going to clean out,

I don't know, $200,000 of the $250,000 to pay this house off, I would have pause on that, because I don't want to get you down to no money. Okay, and it doesn't matter that my mortgage is... Okay. Done such a good job. Thank you. It doesn't matter that the mortgage is only at two percent

or anything doesn't matter nope doesn't matter because you want to be free that's why you work this hard i really do i really do if the mortgage being at two percent mattered you would have borrowed another another four hundred thousand back when it was a two percent but you didn't go further into debt because it was so wise to have a two percent mortgage right the same apply just because it's smaller doesn't mean no no we're not keeping it's not a pet it's kind of it's not as ugly as other pets but we're going to keep it no no no no it's still ugly okay yeah still yeah because think about what you're going i mean if you if it was paid off and you had instead of a million you had uh i don't know what you're going to, I mean, if it was paid off and you had, instead of a million, you had, I don't know, what do you have, 800,000 in there, okay? Mm-hmm.

And you wouldn't go borrow money to put it in investments? No. Mm-mm. Yeah, same thing. Even if you could borrow it at 2%. So you're free, you're free, you're free. You did so good. Thank you.

Hey, how much of your, well, I know it's in 403B, so you didn't inherit this money. No, I didn't inherit any money. This is all just, what'd you do for a living? I was an educator in a public school. I was a principal of an elementary school. There it is. Yep. There it is.

Hey, well done. Love it. Congratulations. I'm so proud of you. Okay, by the way, number one career field for millionaires in the largest millionaire study ever done, done by Ramsey, engineers. Hog farm guy. Okay.

Engineer. Number three, teachers. Carolyn. Okay. I mean, come on. Teachers can't be millionaires. Well, you just probably ought to call Carolyn up and tell her that then. Oh, my gosh.

Apparently, you can be. Apparently, somebody did it. So there you go. Teachers, number three. Number two, accountants. Number four, business executives. Number five, lawyers. Doctors, MDs didn't even make the top five.

They're notoriously stupid with money. It's like a stereotype they're like music people or something there i'll tell you what the truth is truth is docs are like music people the music people in nashville that i know there's one of two types dumber than a rock with money or genius that they don't really there's no middle ground and i find the same thing with mds the mds are really smart with money or they're just arrogant and stupid it's just nuts and they i'm a broke doctor yeah you are you worked your whole stinking life to be a doctor and then you're broke yeah because you get off and they apply their oh well anyway yeah way to go yeah this flies in the face of the notion that the american

dream is dead that you can't get ahead. This is just a woman and her husband who they just lived on less than they made. They lived like no one else. And now she's going to live and give like no one else. And it's just, I love these stories because you don't see this in the news. You don't see this data point. $600,000 paid for house now. Right.

$800,000 in her now, 403B. He's gotb he's got 250 so they got a million dollars in cash that's right and a 600 000 are paid for house that we know of their net worth is 1.6 that's right that we know of 61 years old um and doing just fine thank you very much doing just good it's better than not million dollars is not enough yeah but it's more than you got So maybe you ought to go get it and then talk about whether it's enough or not. Everybody's got a dadgum opinion about something they've never done, right? You never ridden a bicycle. You should not criticize bicycles. I mean, come on. Do something and then talk about it. You just said something beautiful. Go get it is what you said. People want it given to them. They want the higher salary. They want all the stuff given to them but they can't manage it when they do get it given to them these are people

these everyday millionaires uh baby steps millionaires they are the people that go get it they get it but she didn't it wasn't like some big no it was like steady the tortoise not the hair it's not there jamie is in Washington State. Hi, Jamie. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Ken and Dave. My question is, is my husband and I are expecting to receive over a million dollars in a buyout situation, and we're not sure what we should do, if we should take it in one way or another. Party!

I wish, but I'm not that type. I'm kidding. I just couldn't resist. I was like, I'm not sure what we should do. I think I can find something. Okay. Wow, what happened? Was he hurt or something?

What happened? No, my husband was involved. He had a partnership in a business, and they decided to buy him out. Oh, cool. That's awesome. Okay. So you got a million bucks, and you're trying to decide what to do with that. Correct.

And we owe $390 on our mortgage, and that's our only debt. And our nest egg is $225 around that. Okay. Well, then we got $600 left because we just paid off the house. Okay. Now what are we going to do? because we just paid off the house. Okay. Now what are we going to do? How old is he? He's 41. Awesome. What's he going to do now?

We don't know. We kind of feel like the options are open. Yeah, like infinite. Yeah. I got $600K to play with. Yeah, let's go do something. We're not interested in maybe staying in Washington, but interest rates, we're concerned to move. Yeah. Well, you don't have an interest rate if you have a paid-for house. My interest rate's zero because I don't have one. Correct.

And yours is too now. What's your house for? So where are you moving? We would like to go back to Idaho, where we're from. Well, you can buy a house for cash in Idaho. They'll let you do that. Okay. Sell the house you got.

Sell the house you got. Put some cash with it. Buy you a house for cash in Idaho. Now, you don't know what he's going to do for a living yet? Yeah, no, not yet. Okay. All right. Should we take it in one lump sum?

Yeah, sure. Should we be concerned about taxes they don't want him around i'd get i'd get my money away from them okay they might they might screw this thing up and not be able to pay him later correct yeah okay whoa i just hit a nerve yeah correct yeah yeah get your money now yeah you're gonna have a little tax on it but oh well such happens when somebody gives you a million dollars but not gives you but you earned a million dollars and yeah pay your house pay cash for the house is step one step two is develop a game plan because he does need something to go to not just from. This is not his defining moment. It's the first act.

What's he going to do in the second act and the third act and the encore when he comes back out on stage and the applause continues? I'd like to give him a gift, Dave. I'd love to give him the Get Clear assessment along with From Paycheck to Purpose as he figures out the path forward. This is a great time for him to go, what do I do best? What do I love to do? What results do I want to

put in the world? He now has the freedom to do that. Whiteboard. Blank whiteboard. You can do anything you want to do. And you got the money to go do it. This is very cool. It's a great time, Jamie. I know it's sad for y'all in a lot of ways, but you really ought to just be smiling. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Ken. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to RamseySolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation.

Again, that's RamseySolutions.com and click Get Started.