The Ramsey Show - App - The Best Way to Tackle Payday Loans (Hour 2)

Episode Date: November 22, 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. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. It is a free call at 888-825-5225. Erica is in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Erica.

How are you? I'm great. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. How can I help? I'm currently just working with my fiancé. We're getting married in January. We're really trying to tackle a lot of our debt,

but we're a little unsure how to go about it. We have a couple payday loans that have a really high interest rate, and they take about $400 every two weeks to pay. My thought is to tackle those first, if we have an extra $800 to throw at all of the other debt. But I know that some people are saying smallest to largest, and I'm kind of just unsure as to what to do next payday lenders knock them out okay they're first because they're killing you yes erica once you pay those two things off foot in one of those places again. Agreed.

Ever. Ever. They might as well have put a gun in your face and stolen your money. They're slimy. Yeah, we're definitely feeling that now. They're slimy, slimy, slimy businesses. The interest rate is 400% to 800% annually. This is ripping off poor people.

You follow me? Definitely. Definitely. It's definitely cutting into our wedding budget. We're definitely feeling the pressure. We have said never again. Yeah, good. The never again part's where you want to go, because here's the thing. When I do something, when I get really, really desperate,

that's usually followed by me doing something really, really stupid. Right. That's how you end up in one of those places. You get so desperate that you get double stupid. So the trick is, do what you said. Get everything cleaned up. Get your emergency fund in place. Live on a budget so that you never, ever again are so short of cash that you allow someone to rob you blind

okay does that make sense definitely now have you been through financial peace university yet we have not would you go through as my wedding gift if i gave it to you and your fiancee oh god yes that's amazing okay thank you now i want you to go through it now includes as my wedding gift if I gave it to you and your fiancé? Oh, God, yes. That's amazing. Okay. Thank you. Now I want you to go through it. It now includes the kit to go to the class,

a one-year subscription to EveryDollarPlus where it connects to your bank, and a one-year subscription to the online version of Financial Peace University so you can watch all the videos online and follow up and check out and interface with other people that are in the class all over the nation and all over the world. So you hold on. Kelly will pick up, and we will get you signed up for the class. The only thing we ask is you promise to attend all nine weeks.

If I give it to you free, you've got to go do it. And then the second thing is when you're rich someday, find somebody that's got some payday loans, and you pay for them to go through financial peace. Or pay for ten people to go through financial peace when you're rich someday. Yeah, well, why not? Pay it forward. I mean, what better gift than the gift of freedom?

There you go. Carly is with us. Carly's in Fargo, North Dakota. Hi, Carly. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve.

What's up in your world? Well, thank you for talking to me. I've recently, my grandpa passed away a couple months ago. I'm sorry. Thank you. And I just found out that he's left me a little bit of money and they have some debt that i have and um i just recently found out the amount is going to be about 15 to 20 000 that he's uh left me how nice and how much debt do you have i have about 40 000 total in debt and what is it i'm not sure

i have about um 35 of it is student loans and there's a really big one that one chunk of that is like $13,000. And that's the highest interest one. And then I have about $3,000 in credit card debt and $2,000 in medical. Okay. And what are you making? Well, I just personally I make about $21,000 right now. And my fiancé, we just got engaged just before he passed away, actually. He makes about $30,000. When will you be getting married?

Do you know yet? Well, we have a tentative date that's pretty far in the future. But ever since I started listening to you, I've heard you say that you shouldn't put it off. So I've been, I don't know, reconsidering doing it sooner. So I'm not sure about that. Yeah, let's roll it up and get moving here. Yeah, I agree with you. Okay, cool.

So here's the rule of thumb on an inheritance, okay? I like to think of your grandpa sitting in heaven watching you do with $15,000 whatever you're going to do. And when you do it, it's so cool, it's so smart that it makes him smile. Yeah, I really want to, you know, do the right thing. Honor his memory. Okay. And so if I'm your grandpa, what would make me happy is, if I'm thinking like him for a minute,

because he obviously was pretty good with money. He left everybody a bunch of money when he passed away. If I'm your grandpa, I would like to see you get out of debt, but only if you're smart enough to stay out of debt. Right. And I do the every dollar budgeting, and that's really been helping us in the last couple months. Great. Have you cut up

your credit cards yet not yet but today you're going to have you got them with you um i don't have them right now okay when you get home tonight i want you to cut them up say i promise i promise okay you chop them up because i don't want you to go back in debt if you use grandpa's money to get out of debt and then you go back in debt that's gonna make grandpa frown right i don't want you to go back in debt and if you use grandpa's money to get out of debt and then you go back in debt that's going to make grandpa frown right i don't want that and so we got to chop them up we got to be on the budget you're doing those two things very smart you're talking to the fiancee about how money's handled that's going to be part of our marriage going forward the communication and the cooperation and when we combine our incomes after marriage and we combine our debts after marriage we're going to attack this and become debt-free as soon as possible.

You know, you're doing some growing up. Good for you. Well done, well done, well done. Based on all of that, what I would do if I woke up in your shoes is I would work the debt snowball with the $15,000. And that is I would list these debts smallest to largest. And I would take the, do you have the $1,000 baby step one done? No, we have. Okay, then the $1,000 Baby Step 1 done? No, we have. Okay, then take $1,000 and do that.

That leaves me $14,000, and then I'm going to pay off the credit cards and the medical bills, and I'm going to throw the rest towards the next smallest student loan, regardless of the interest rate. And then I'm going to stay on that every dollar budget, and I don't have any bills now, except these couple student loans, and I'm going to attack them with a vengeance, and we're going to look at this wedding date and start talking about, you know, hey, we're going forward. If we're going to do this, let's game on, man.

Let's do it. You got it. You can do this. And then when you look back later, you say not only did we use the money to get out of debt, we changed our habits and our view of debt and we never went back in debt. That would be honoring to your grandfather's memory

because it led you to being wealthy. It led you to changing your family tree and someday when you pass away maybe old grandma will leave some kids some money. There you go. A godly man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, the Bible says.

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This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Terry is in Lake Ozarks. Hi, Terry. How are you? Hi. I'm a little frustrated today, but I'm hoping you can help me out. Oh, give it a shot.

So I was wondering if you had any tips on negotiating some medical bills. My daughter, a couple of months ago, she was sick. I called her a pediatrician, and when I told them the symptoms, they said we needed to go to the emergency room. We went to the emergency room. We kind of questioned whether we needed to go, but we were told by three people that she needed to go. So we picked an emergency room in our network, and we went, and they weighed her. They took her temperature, and they had her look at her toes and then sent us home and said there's nothing wrong with her. And then I got a bill.

So we got a bill for over $700 for that. And then I got a bill today saying that the doctor that she saw at the emergency room was an out-of-network doctor. There was going to be an additional $300, $323 for this. And I did call the emergency room once trying to negotiate with them. I even asked them if, because we have an HSA and a high deductible. So I asked them if we could, because they didn't run any tests and things like that, if we could pay cash and not run it towards their deductible. She told me that's illegal, that I'd have to use my insurance, and that there's nothing she could do.

So I don't know if there's any, like, do we just have to pay it, or is there any other ways to, like, negotiate some of this bill? Yeah. Well, what you're saying is that the charge you feel like is unreasonable for the service provided. Yes. And it sounds like it based on the way you described it. Yes. And the problem is you're dealing with people who are typically paid by insurance companies,

and so nobody ever looks at this until a real human actually gets charged, and that's you. So number one, I'm going to call my pediatrician, and I'm going to ask them to advocate for me and call the emergency rooms. I send them down there. You weighed them, and you took their temperature, and you charged them $700. You've got to be kidding me. Okay. And if not, I'm going to chew my pediatrician up for sending me down there.

Right. Okay? Don't send people down there because that's stupid. Okay? That's ridiculous. Right. So, you know, all of you are out of control. I'm going to chew somebody up here.

I'm going to have a little fun with this. If I'm going to have $1,000 out of my pocket, I'm going to have some fun with it. Now, keep in mind, conflict for me is fun. So I'm going to have fun with this. It's not fun for me. Yeah. I'm willing to try it because I'm pretty mad about it. Yeah, you ought to be mad.

And the other thing then, see if you can actually find somebody that has a brain and is in charge at the emergency room. Is this a private thing or is it a hospital? It's a hospital. Okay. Well, call the hospital administrator. Just call them and just go,

this is stupid. Listen, if I pay this bill, let me tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to spend another $700 buying a half page ad in the local newspaper telling people how you screw them. Okay. Because if I have to pay $700, I'm going to double up on it and I'm going to spend $700

harassing you people. Have you ever heard of social media? Have you ever heard what happens when something like this goes viral on Facebook, Mr. Administrator? Now that's after I've been nice and tried to get them to first use some common sense and not overcharge their customer. Right. Okay.

Now, you know, if they had actually done some things to check the kid out or something, but you're saying no tests were run. No. They drew no blood. There were no x-rays. There was nothing. They weighed her. They didn't hook her up to a monitor. They didn't blood. There were no x-rays. There was nothing. They weighed her. They didn't hook her up to a monitor.

They didn't even check her lungs. They thought she had meningitis, and the doctor said the way she was moving her head around was that there's no way she could have had meningitis. That would be $300. Yes. Yeah. Give me a break. I'm with you.

I'm getting mad now. So, yeah, I call the hospital administrator and mess with them. And if you can get a meeting with them, go down and sit down with them. Go, this is just unreasonable. I don't mind paying something. They saw her. Right. But here's what they did.

Right. Here's what they did. Right. And, you know, it's crazy. So, yeah, you do pay for people's expertise, not just their time and not just what they do. You pay for the fact that the guy looking at the kid rolling her head around actually knew something about, or if I'd have watched the kid roll her head around, I couldn't make a deduction about that because I don't have any medical knowledge, right?

So I can't tell you anything about it. But a doc who's actually studied, you're paying for their knowledge. I get that part. But, you know, you're just being sloshed around in an out-of-control system and not fighting back that's why high deductibles are good because it makes you fight back and you just call them on their stuff but yeah i'd get your pediatrician to uh to reach out to the hospital and see if they can help you and i would call the hospital administrator and see if they can help you and i would call the doctor as well and go dude you were in there 14 seconds head rolls around

that'll be 300 bucks really you know and i'm just going to call them on it ultimately you you technically owe the bill you will lose if you go to court you know you went in there and paid it but i guess from now on you will have a different approach to this process. The old joke, I can't get out of my head hearing that. The doctor, this MD who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year has a plumbing problem. He calls the plumber. He's been trying to fix this faucet for weeks. He can't get it to quit dripping.

And the plumber walks in and he takes a screwdriver and just touches the edge of it, and it quits. And he goes, you know, that would be $200. And he goes, you just touched the thing. You made me $200. He goes, I'm a doctor. I don't make that much. And the plumber goes, I didn't make that much when I was a doctor either. It's a great old joke.

All right, Brandon. Brandon's with us in Los Angeles. Hey, Brandon, how are you? Hi, David. I'm doing great. It's an honor to speak with you. You right, Brandon. Brandon's with us in Los Angeles. Hey, Brandon, how are you? Hi, David. I'm doing great. It's an honor to speak with you. You too, sir. What's up? So I'm 12 years old. I moved here from Boise, Idaho with my mom to pursue acting. And so right now I'm a background actor making around $2,000 to $2,500 a month. I'm on Baby Step 2, so I have my $1,000 fund saved, but I owe $30,000 in student loans.

So I was wondering, and I guess part two is, should I join right now? I've just got SAG eligible, which means I got three SAG vouchers, and being SAG eligible, you earn more. So instead of $12 an hour, you earn $20, and you're up for better roles. But it's all mostly roll of the dice, you know, just how acting goes. So I don't know if I should continue being gazelle intense and paying off my student loans and get a normal job and then pursue the dream after or join SAG and hope to make more money with it and

save the $3,000 for the SAG eligibility. You pay $3,000 for SAG? Yes, and it's growing every year. And how much more would you make in the coming months if you were doing that based on what the calculation you're giving me? Well, you'd make $1,000 more a month, wouldn't you? Yes, if I got the rolls. The thing is they say sometimes it's far and few between. Some people don't get as many rolls, but then it just depends on your look. Well, you don't get the rolls, but SAG doesn't really get you the rolls. It just opens up a few more rolls.

You can take non-SAG stuff, right? Well, they're mostly unpaid. Say again, your phone broke up. Non-union. Wait a minute, I lost all I heard was non-union. Your phone's breaking up. Try one more time. Are unpaid when they are non-union, mostly.

Okay. All right. Again, it broke up. I'm not sure. I'm not an expert on that. I don't know the answer to your question. You've got to just sit down and do a financial analysis. Does joining this union make me more money or not?

On the short term, am I going to get my $3,000? If you're paying $3,000 to join it, are you going to make $3,000 more quickly because of that? And am I otherwise blocked out of doing the types of jobs I want to do? And I don't know anything about that world, so I couldn't tell you. I'm not a member of a union, so I don't know anything about that world so i couldn't tell you i'm not a member of a union so i don't know how that works in your world um unions are hit or miss some of them are worth it and some of them are a bunch of baby steps is the right time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt

and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk. And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive, and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. Or call 800-356-4282.

Zander.com. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Nathan and Michelle are with us in Wilmington, North Carolina. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, how's it going? Better than I deserve. I see on my screen you're debt-free.

Congratulations. Yes, we are so excited. Very cool. How much have you guys paid off? We have paid off $293,000. Wow. How long did that take? Four and a half years.

And your range of income during that time? $101,000 to $130,000. Way to go. What do you guys do for a living? I'm a physical therapist, and my husband is a Marine Corps pilot. Awesome. Very cool. Very cool.

And so what kind of debt was the $293,000? Hey, Dave, it's Nate. Hey, it was pretty much everything. We had student loans. I had a car. And then our house. Oh, you paid off your house? Yes, sir.

How old are you two weird people? I'm 34. My wife's a little bit younger than me. And you have a paid-off house? Yeah. That's so strange. Yeah. Does it feel weird?

Yeah, it feels awesome, though. Do you know anybody in their early 30s with a paid-off house but you not our immediate friends now well done you guys very cool i love it what an incredible thing you've done i mean you're making 130 000 you don't have a payment in the stinking world you are on fire you're going to be able to do so much. Very well done. What happened four and a half years ago that started this journey? Well, Dave, I've got a buddy, and I've got to give him a shout-out. My friend Jake Dyer, we were in the same squadron. We were working on a project, and he had this podcast on. I had no idea, but it was Dave Ramsey's show talking about this crazy stuff about, you know, paying off your house and, you know, instead of owning a BMW.

And essentially I started reading your book. And for a little while you were kind of a customer in our house. You know, I started talking about, you know, Dave Ramsey would do this, Dave Ramsey would do that. And eventually convinced my wife to read the book and pretty much started our journey for financial peace. So, Michelle, how long did he cuss at you using my name before you ended up reading the book? It was a couple of months. It was a couple of months. And we actually ended up reading it together, which was probably the best thing.

We read it aloud to each other. So we actually had some really good conversations out of it. It almost felt like we were in premarital counseling again, but it was great conversations. Cool. Okay, so when you started reading the book, you're like kind of eye roll, I would have been, and you're like, oh, God, okay, but I'm going to do this

because he wants to do it. He won't shut up about it. So as you're going through the book, money makeover and you guys are having these conversations where did the switch flip for you michelle where you said hey i think we can really do this and i think we really should do this i think it took me honestly it took me a little while through the process just because um my was very, very intense through the whole process because we never really stopped from baby step two to baby step number six. But I think the closer we got, probably about halfway through it is when I really kind of got really, really on

board. And just because I could really see the end of the tunnel, and I started getting really excited. And actually, this is kind of crazy, but I really felt the Lord speaking to me. And one Sunday, and I decided to ask my pastor if I could teach FPU at the church. And so then that winter, we actually, a couple of years ago, we actually started teaching FPU, and that was about the time whenever it was like, you know, let's go all in. And so we've actually taught FPU three times now, and that really is going. Yeah, there's no way to not be fired up about it when you're the teacher.

Yeah. You'd be a hypocrite otherwise. Yeah, right. Good job, you guys. Very fun. Very fun. Well, that's powerful. Yeah, so you're telling me that, Nate, you said you're a Marine jet pilot?

Marine OSPRI pilot, sir. A Marine what? OSPRI. OSPRI. Oh, I didn't hear you. Okay, I know what an OSPRI is, yeah. Okay. So possibly you're saying, Michelle, marine pilots might be intense.

I'm shocked. Just a tad. Very cool. Very cool, you two. That's fun. Well, thank you so much for leading the class, and thank you for your service to the country, Nate. I'm proud that we had a little part of your story. You guys are an incredible young couple, man.

This is amazing. I mean, you're in your early 30s. What's this house worth? It's about $240,000 to $260,000. I love it. That's so fun. How does it feel

to not have a payment in the world in your early 30s? It feels amazing. I just feel like we have so much freedom and i feel like we can do anything at this point you know we can set our goal and just go for it i feel like we can do anything at this at this point definitely so what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is because you did it i mean you're you're a walking testimony you you did it you it can be done so nobody can tell you it can't be done you did it what do you tell them the key is i think the biggest thing is if if you're a couple you just have to stick with it and you have to follow the

baby steps in order and you can't pick and choose and i've told my friends like you really have to go all in and just trust that the process will work because it really does work. You work the process, the process works. That's exactly right. Well, you're submitting yourself to a new way of handling things that you've never done before. And if you don't submit yourself to it, you do lose. Or you make it difficult on yourself at a minimum. Well done, you two.

Very proud of you. Did you have more cheerleaders or people looking at you like you were crazy? We kind of had a small group at our church that we were going through the FPU process with that kind of helped cheer us on. And some of our friends kind of had heard of had heard of heard of you but um you know we're definitely on the fence so we just kind of leaned on the ones who are more more uh you know the cheerleaders but definitely definitely both you know family was probably the biggest uh the biggest uh pressure you know as far as uh thinking this process was weird but we just uh we just kept kept our nose to the grind and how's your buddy, the other Marine that introduced you to the whole thing, how's he doing?

He's doing great. They're still on, I think they're on babysit maybe four or five. Good. Or they're working through four, five, and six, and they just relocated back to near Holland Wall of Tennessee. Oh, yeah. Neighbor up here then. Okay.

Yeah, and they love it. Very cool. Well, we've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book, Retire Inspired, for you. Number one bestseller. Want that to be the next chapter in your story? You're well on your way to be millionaires and outrageously generous along the way.

Nathan and Michelle, Wilmington, North Carolina. $293,000 paid off. That's their house and everything. Not even 35. They did it in four and a half years, making 101 to 130. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! That's how it's done right there man Doesn't get any better than that Wow Wow So he's going wide open She's running But he's going so fast she can't catch him And then she Is in church one Sunday And the Lord speaks to her And she's running, but he's going so fast she can't catch him. And then she is in church one Sunday, and the Lord speaks to her,

and she's teaching Financial Peace University. Boom. All in. Mic drop. You hear how that goes down? I'm always interested as to how we choose to make transformative decisions. The Bible says, be not conformed to this world. Oh, by the way, if you didn't know this world, 70% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Most people are broke. Normal's broke.

Be not conformed to this world. Don't be like this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12.2 This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Tishla is with us in L.A.

Hi, Tishla. How are you? I'm good. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? So our business was destroyed in a fire in June, and the insurance hasn't even started to build it back yet.

But our monthly bills are being covered right now by business interruption insurance. And my question is on whether or not we should be working on baby step number two during this time, or if we should be stacking money away for once our business opens back up in case our customers have found somewhere else to take their vehicles. What kind of business? We have automotive repair that we've had for 19 years. Oh, I'm so sorry. It burned when?

It burned June 28th, and the building inside the building is all gutted. It's up to the building owner's insurance to do that part, because that's how the lease read. But the insurance is just dragging their feet because they don't want to pay what the contractors want. So the negotiations go back and forth and we're still waiting for that. When are you going to be released from the lease? If they don't get started, they should. I'm sorry? We have two years left on our lease. No, no, no, no. They should release you if they're not

if they don't start building back very quickly. There should be a clause in the lease that allows you to get out of the lease if they're not going to rebuild within usually six months. They say that we're supposed to have an answer this week. That's supposedly what's supposed to happen. Yeah. What does your lease say about letting you out of the lease if they don't rebuild promptly? I honestly don't know that answer.

You need to know that by the end of today, and you need to tell that landlord if they don't start rebuilding very soon, you're going to be forced to look somewhere else. Okay. Because you can't sit here and wait on these. The landlord fighting with the insurance company is going to put you out of business. They haven't even started, and it's been six months. Yeah. That's absurd.

And they say, like, eight weeks to rebuild once they start the work. Okay. So you need to look at your lease, because most leases say the landlord has a certain period of time to rebuild, and then you are still held to the lease. Are you paying lease payments? No, the insurance covers that. Your insurance? Yes, it does.

Your insurance is paying lease payments for a building you don't have use of? So what it does is it covers all of our monthly expenses, our business monthly expenses. So they went through them all and deemed which ones were approved and which ones weren't. And so they pay the... Do you realize how absurd it is that this landlord continues to get paid and he's not even giving you the access to the building? Yes. That's crazy.

Well, we should go in and do any of the work we want and pay ourselves, but we're waiting for the insurance to approve it because it's supposed to be covered by his insurance. I got that part. So we have done all of our stuff. Like anything that was ours to rebuild, like we've already went in and done what we can do. We're just waiting for them to do the sheetrock, electrical. But in the meantime, you're out of business.

Yes, correct. I mean, they need to get their butt in gear here. I know. We call them, like, every week. We email all the time. Yeah, you need to. The landlord and his daughter are doing the same emailing, copying us on the email. I don't care.

I don't care. It's not your problem. Your problem is you're out of business. He has a problem. He ought to go in here and fix this building so he doesn't lose his tenant. And then fight with his insurance company. This is crazy. Because, I mean, the amount it has cost you in lost business is far in excess of the cost of the repairs.

Yes. And you continue to pay him rent through your business interruption insurance, and you don't even have a building. So, yeah, you need to leave and go get another place very soon if they don't do this. Yeah, the problem with that is that we tried looking for a place. You're out of business until these people get their finger out of their ear. Yeah, but automotive is very hard to find building space because the cities don't allow automotive repair in very many parts of the city. I know. And there's not anywhere we tried to find a place to go even temporarily because they would have paid to have a group. So at this time next year, what are you going to do if you're sitting here at this same space this time next year?

Right. That's our worry. Yeah. You going to sit here another year and wait on this? No. You're going to go broke. Right. That's what's. You're going to sit here another year and wait on this? No. You're going to go broke. Right. That's what's going to happen.

Exactly. The answer to your original question is you're correct. You're not in any baby steps. You're in a crisis mode. You need to pile up as much cash as you can pile up. What is the cost of the repairs to get you back up and running? About $300,000 is what the quote is. They got several quotes, but about $300,000 is about where it falls. Yeah. And what's this building worth? Oh, it's a huge building. I mean,

I would think it would be close to a million dollars, maybe more than that. I mean, it's huge. It's very big. I mean, we're able to put nine lifts in the building plus have a huge showroom. Okay. So it's a very large building. It's on a large lot. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, you guys cannot use the fact that it's tough to find another location as a reason to sit indefinitely.

You have to have a plan B. You have to have a plan B. You have to have a plan B. We kind of do have a plan, not a plan B, but like we can file a complaint with the insurance commission because they are dragging their feet, which is what we're trying to do right now, and see if that will help. They protect people kind of like the way BAR protects automotive repair customers

from when they're having problems with that. Hypothetically, you're in California. It's not like the Insurance Commission isn't busy. Right. No, and that's what they say, too. They say that they're so overloaded with things coming from, because we're very close to where the fires in Santa Rosa happen, Napa, that area, we're very close to that.

So they're saying that everything is so backed up. But our claim was in way before that. Yeah, it doesn't matter. The thing is that all that matters is this isn't started. And I'm amazed that the landlord is continuing to collect rent. I'm amazed that you can pull that off in California. Oh my gosh. For a building that is not being used. It's not usable. Well, our landlord is 95 years old, so his daughter is

actually kind of taken over because it was very stressful on him. What's that got to do with it? That's not got anything to do with it. They're still collecting rent on a building they can't use. Yeah. I don't care who it is. I don't care if they're 95 or they're 5. I'm talking about you.

You're paying rent through your insurance on a building for six months while no repairs have begun. This is just unbelievable. Tishley, you're going to go out of business if you don't set a drop-dead date on this. If you don't set up a time and you need to look at your lease and see when you can get out of the lease and you start looking for another property because otherwise I'm going to be talking to you next Christmas about how you went bankrupt because you sat around and waited on a 95-year-old and a 5-year-old

and a butthole of an insurance company. And while you sat around and waited on a 95-year-old and a 5-year-old and a butthole of an insurance company. And while you sat around and waited on them, you went out of business. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to have that conversation with you because you did nothing. You need to be people of action. And you need to have another location to move to by March if they don't have this done, if they don't have it well underway. And, you know, because there's nothing moving here.

I can just smell this, and it stinks to high heaven. And the landlord's getting all his rent. I would call your insurance company today and stop paying that rent immediately. Immediately. I'm not paying rent on a building I can't use. Not a chance that that lease holds that. You need to go see an attorney and see what your rights are under this lease because you're not being treated properly by anyone in this deal.

Wow. Unbelievable. I've signed a lot of leases in my life as the landlord and as the tenant, a bunch of them. And, you know, a landlord that doesn't post haste put a property back together the tenant has rights and almost any lease i've ever seen to escape the mess and you gotta have a place to escape to to her point i don't disagree with that but i'm long before i'm out of business for six months i'm gonna find another place this is just nutty. Oh, so sorry for you. What a mess. Such a horrible thing

to have to go through. That puts this particular hour of the Dave Ramsey show in the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer. Blake Thompson, our senior executive producer. Kelly Daniel is our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll be back. Hey, guys, it's Kelly Daniel, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, this hour of the show is over, but you can find our podcast on iTunes or Google Play. We're everywhere, for free, here to serve you.