The Ramsey Show - App - The Financial Advisors I Talked to Are Giving Conflicting Advice (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 8, 2020

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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, Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author a couple times over, and my daughter is my co-host today here on the air. We're taking your calls about your life and your money at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. And Rachel is kicking off, our live events team is kicking off a uh no october 28th special live stream event on the theme of rachel's book that comes out in january know yourself know your money she'll be joined by the one and only dr john deloney and the one and only dr henry cloud you're the only one not a doctor yeah well ian cron's on there as well is he yes yes so we're doing um enneagram and money as well uh just understanding self-awareness and all that and so i don't know if he's a doctor he might i bet he is i'm sure he is pretty smart he's a pretty smart i bet he is so yeah i'm for sure the only non-doctor but but i'm the only lady so i'll take that there we go you'll have insights just you

to that know yourself know your money uh and this is all about the way really what causes you to make your money decisions and do things and if you can understand that you can become a better version of you socrates said know thyself know thyself, know thyself. And, you know, the unexamined life is not worth living, he said. And so when you know yourself, when you've examined yourself, you say, I'm a saver, but I've been a toxic saver. I'm a spender. I've been a toxic spender.

Or I came from a family like this. I don't want to be like that. Or I naturally lean to scarcity mindset versus abundance. Or I enjoy buying quality things and items where my spouse wants all quantity and cheaper and more. I mean, like, it's just there's so many ways that we're wired in our tendencies and how they go. And when you get this dialed in, it accelerates you on your money journey. Absolutely. Oh, it's amazing the self-awareness that comes, which is one of the reasons I wrote the book,

is I'm like, when you can unpack and understand who you are, you can apply that to your money and win so much faster, so much faster. So this event I'm excited about because, like the book, it's know yourself. There's that self-awareness piece of learning you, but also knowing your money. How do you apply it to your money? And that's what this event is. And so pretty stinking strong lineup.

Deloney, Henry Cloud, Ian Morgan, Ian Cron from Enneagram stuff, Rachel. These are all bestselling authors, except Deloney, which he will be soon. And I mean, this material is deep and solid. It's pretty cool. You can it's only fifteen dollars and you can register starting today at DaveRamsey.com. It's going to be, good God, $15? Well, you can buy the book, and it's $25. So you can add the book on to your tickets, and it goes up to $25.

Okay, so you get the book essentially for $10. Yes, exactly. If you add it on. That works. October 28th, so a couple days before Halloween, we're going to gonna let you look in the mirror and hopefully you won't see something scary and you might because we all do we all have stuff about ourselves like what's no but this is uh yeah it's it's really fun content again because at ramsey most of our events when it comes to money is it's the how and this event we're just diving deeper into understanding you and kind of unpacking your story, who you are, what causes you to handle money the way that you do.

And having Dr. Henry Cloud, a psychologist, John Deloney is like the emotional wellness expert of the space. Ian is such a great one for this event as well, because the Enneagram was a great tool that I've used just in the self-awareness and to be like, okay, yeah, that's so interesting. And so kind of unpacking all of that with him. So it's going to be a really fun event. I'm genuinely, probably selfishly, very excited about this. This is like right up my alley. Obviously, I wrote a book about it, but I love it. There you go.

Wynn is in Fort Worth, Texas. Hi, Wynn. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. Hey, Rachel. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

Hey, so my fiance and I are about to get married in January. Yay! And, yeah, we're excited. And she has a truck payment, and I believe she only has about $5,000 left-ish on that truck note. It's just a loan from her parents and I think 3%. So my question is, with the money that I have in savings, should I go ahead and help her pay that off so we go into our marriage debt-free? Or is that something that, I know you say you shouldn't really combine your finances until you're married. So what's your thoughts on that? I'll give you the short answer. When? No, don't pay off the truck right now. And the reason is,

is because again, like you said it, you said it is don't combine your finances until you're married. So you guys going in and wanting the ambition of, hey, we could be debt free once we get married or before we get married. Awesome goal. But I think the moment you guys say I do, the vows are exchanged. You can leave on the way to the reception. Just get on your phone, pay off the truck, and then you are free and clear. But just wait till that wedding day, because sadly, not that this is going to happen to you guys, but there is, I mean, we've heard countless stories over a few decades of fiancés or even people who are just dating, paying each other's debt, starting to work together,

and stuff happens. And they're like, oh, wow, all that money just left with her or with him and sadness all around. So, yeah, I mean, it's more just the abundance of caution. And again, we are people that we teach, obviously, debt-free living, but we also teach you don't have to be debt-free before you get married. You don't have to be debt-free before you have a baby. Your life events are still going to happen. And then the exciting thing is that you have the money. So once you guys do get married, it is then your money together, y'all's money, and you can pay it off quickly. Exactly.

The only thing I would add to this is you guys need to get a little more detailed on what the flip's going on with each other. Because you're at ish, I think, I believe, were the words you were using around the balance on her truck, and that means you don't really know. So by, you know, close of business tonight or the next time you guys sit down together, go through each other's financial stuff in great detail because we're getting ready to combine it. One hundred percent disclosure so that if you were to call me this time next week, you would say she owes five thousand three hundred forty two dollars to her father.

But you said it was a parent loan, right? And it's on the truck and the truck is worth nine thousand six hundred dollars. I looked it up on KBB. And so you know what you know that you're getting into. And both of you know that you know that you know. Some of the most damaging things that we find happen in the first year of marriage are where someone kind of thought they knew, but there was another zero. And it really wasn't kind of even close. So I don't think that's going on here, dude. I think you're fine but uh but i'm

just going to challenge you as a part of your pre-marriage work sit down and you could even say okay if we were to do a budget together if we got married tomorrow what would this month look like and you could do a mock like they do a mock draft at the nfl right you could do a mock budget that said here's what it would look like And that will cause you to have some interesting discussions. Yeah, money fights money problems. It's a big part of marriage. That's a very normal thing. So to avoid that at all costs is key.

Worth it, worth it, worth it. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, my co-host today here on the air. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. folks i love telling you about well-made well-thought-out products today i'm talking about grip six belts i don't know about you but I'm not a fan of traditional belts. They never fit right, and they're uncomfortable. Grip 6 belts are unique. Owner BJ designed a truly modern, minimalist belt made of high-quality materials with no holes, no flap, and no bulk. And the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable. I personally own these belts in different styles, and talk about affordability I personally own these belts in different styles,

and talk about affordability, Grip 6 belts come with a lifetime guarantee. And that means if you no longer like or fit the style of your belt, you can replace them for free. Plus, I like the way these guys do business. Grip 6 is determined to help build and modernize American manufacturing. To learn more and get this month's Dave Ramsey special, visit GRIP6.com. That's GRIP6.com. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author, is my co-host today here on the air. Donica is with us in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Hey, Donica, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel. Thank you so much for taking my call today. Sure. What's up? So my husband and I, we're on baby step two. We recently welcomed our first child, our baby girl, four weeks ago.

Yay! Thank you. So we are our household income is one hundred and forty two thousand and we have that a debt balance of one hundred and forty eight thousand. We throughout the pregnancy this year, we actually were still we were saving for the arrival of our baby, but we were also paying off that we paid off about $30,000. But we were wondering, should we sell our house in order to kind of speed up the debt payoff process? The $148,000, does that include your home? It does not. What is the $148,000? What kind of debt is the $148,000? $109,000 of that is student loans, and the rest is consumer debt, one car loan and credit card.

How much is the car? The car is $9,500. We is student loans, and the rest is consumer debt, one car loan and credit card. How much is the car? The car is $9,500. We got rid of one car. This is the only car that we have right now. And you paid off $30,000 so far. We did, yeah. How long did that take? We started off our payoff journeys January 2nd of this year,

and we stopped last last month we had her we had victoria a month ago so yeah we stopped in the last month or so to kind of get situated okay how much would you get from the house if you sold it um the balance is about 212 000 we're hoping that we can sell it for a little over $300, maybe $300, maybe $305. Okay, so around $75. Yeah. You like the house? We are grateful for it.

We don't see ourselves staying here for longer than two more years, honestly. But we are grateful for it. But we would have somewhere to go. Our parents, they have a couple extra rooms in their home. So we're wondering, should we make this large sacrifice? We would be willing to if it means that we can, you know, pay off our debt and get on to, you know. Okay, so I answer questions on this show about what would I do

if I woke up in your shoes knowing what I know about getting out of debt and how it leads to peace freedom all that kind of stuff okay right um and so here's the way i would map it out if i were you guys and that way you get a real clear picture of the trade-off number one you are not in a position to move in with your parents i would not do that okay if you sell, you're going to rent. Okay. That's what I would do. Okay? You have a new baby.

You have a good life. You make $142,000 a year. You don't need to be in your mama's basement. Built-in babysitter, though, but it will keep going. I'm a mom with three. I'm like, spoken like a pro. Kind of be nice. Keep going.

Keep going. I think we're picking up three of them in the morning okay anyway the um so the uh anyway let's map it out if you sell the house if you don't sell the house okay okay if you don't sell the house i think you're on a 45 to a 50000 a year debt reduction, beans and rice, rice and beans, which puts you out of debt in somewhere around three years from today. Okay. And I did that based on $30,000 done in nine months, and you were pregnant. Yes.

Okay. So now things are going to be normalized a little bit. You can cut this lifestyle down to nothing. You can just have one singular focus babies here and that is for three years fifty thousand dollars a year and you are done okay okay uh and that's going to be three very long very tough years because you are going to have no freaking life during those three years right okay that's that's possibility number one possibility number two is you sell the house and you still have a year to get out of debt while you're renting and then you're going to start saving to repurchase so if it takes three years to get out of debt staying there

and it's three years before you're ready to buy again, even though you sold and are debt-free, that's what I would weigh out. Okay. And so then you can also reach out there and say, seven years from today, if I go this way, this is where I'll be. If I go that way, this is where I'll be. And seven years from today, you're going to be in a different house anyway. You told me that.

Right. Seven years from today, you're going to be debt-free either way. Yes. And seven years from today, you will have either sold this house and been a renter for a little while and then saved up and bought the house, or you will have had this house and you will sell it. It will be worth more five years from today when you sell it and move into the seven-year house right so so there's not a right or wrong here that's what you're

saying either way you're going to get there yeah and i think for you guys i mean donica since you i mean i we talked to some people and they're like no no i'm in my dream home oh should we sell it and it's like this like sadness i mean it's just terrible you know that you know that departing with that house but you've already kind of emotionally detached from it. You're like, oh, we'll be out in probably three years. So almost the emotional side, it may be easier just to just to go and sell it, move out, accelerate that debt free journey and then save up and then pay pay for another house later for that down payment.

But again, neither one's right or wrong. I honestly think mathematically seven years from today, you're going to be in about the same place either way. Okay. I see it. The way I laid that out. So I don't care. But here's what Rachel did pick up on, okay? You already sold one car.

You said, well, sell something else. Now I'm ready to sell the house. It's like you guys are ready to get out of debt. There's this, I'm selling everything, right? Yeah. That's you communicating that to us. This is the way your spirit's working right now and so uh that's what rachel picked up on and she's got you selling the house for that reason right right but but mathematically i think you're okay so i think you just have to sit down and weigh out uh but i would personally i would

not advise you making this kind of money with a brand new baby. I don't think you need to be in your mama's house. Okay. I just don't think it's necessary to accomplish these goals. That is, and the advancement of these goals is so small due to that decision that it's definitely not worth it in my mind. Okay. Yeah, we did have some reservations about that. Because if we rent, we would probably be spending the same amount that we're paying on our mortgage.

We pay $1,500 a month for our mortgage. We were probably going to spend the same amount here in Florida. Yeah, that's fair. And you might even have a little better house, too. That's possible. You might move up a little bit if you did that. I don't know. Here's another thing you can do that will help you with the decision is gather real facts not concepts

go shopping for rentals this weekend it may make you throw up and you say i'm staying in my house or it may make you go my god i can rent that for 1250 bucks oh my god i'm selling this house you know and so uh i don't know i don't know what kind of marketplace you're in, but sometimes when you put real facts on your ideas, your ideas don't have the shine anymore. It's so true, though. I'm like, the facts take the emotion out very quickly, right? It's like you can kind of dream up this whole thing, and then you go actually see, no, this is literally what will happen. You're like, oh, wow, okay. And it does.

It helps make the decision. Yeah, like, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Matthew's on Facebook. I come from a very dysfunctional, toxic family. How do I set up strong boundaries with an entire family in order to protect myself and my wife? The boundary conversation, it's a big one. I mean, I would say for sure it's going to have to be

something that you, if you're married, that you guys sit down together and say, okay, here are the things that we're going to have to put into place. And then once you and your wife decide that it has to be communicated to the other family. So I don't know if that's boundaries around money. I don't know if it's time. I don't know what boundaries specifically you're talking about. I don't think you said, no, but yeah, it has to be clearly communicated. And usually with the more unhealthiness that's in a family, the harder those boundaries are going to be received, if you will. Well, that's accurate. And reading into the wording that you used, I think you've probably got some pretty messed up people here. You didn't just say

toxic. You didn't just say dysfunctional. You said dysfunctional and toxic. So, I mean, you like put mayonnaise on the bread here, buddy. So pick up Dr. Henry Cloud's book, Boundaries. I don't predict pleasantness in your future, but I predict more unpleasantness if you don't deal with this. So deal with it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Rachel Cruz Ramsey personality is my co-host today here on the air this is the Dave Ramsey show Lisa is with us in Tampa Florida hi Lisa how are you um hi Dave and Rachel hope you're having a

blessed day we are how can we help yeah um I um my I'm not 60 and my husband is too. And we've been FPU coordinators. I could do a commercial for you for about seven years. Thank you. And it's been such a blessing to us. And, you know, I can testify we've seen lives changed really forever. And because of your teachings, my husband and I are heading into retirement looking pretty darn good. And we had a 15-year mortgage, and our house is going to be paid off six and a half years early next year. Yay! It's awesome. So I'm so excited about that.

But as we're heading into retirement, this is my question, Dave. I have two very dear friends who have pointed me in the direction. I'm interviewing two financial advisors, and they have very different opinions. You know, with us being 60, one says a trust is good. The other says I wouldn't do a trust if you have beneficiaries. And one says, well, let's put some of your money into annuities. And the other one says I don't like annuities, because right now my money, a lot of it's in the stock market,

and we're just looking to get a little different opinion and maybe get some of it a little less aggressive. So what do you think? Are either one of them SmartVestor Pros? I don't know if they are. Well, then they're not. My friends recommend it on the news. Then they're not. Okay.

So the first thing I would tell you is get a third opinion, and that's get with a SmartVestor Pro off our website. And that's not just to send you to them for business. That's not the point. The point is what you're running into is a philosophical problem that the financial world has. And the financial world has. And the financial world is taught to be arrogant.

They're taught to tell you what to do because you don't have a brain. And then roll their eyes, in a sense, if you don't do it. Instead, what we teach you, and you know this from Financial Peace University, is your job as the owner of the money, the manager of the money for God, is to get someone with the heart of a teacher, and then you learn what the options are. And I don't care what they say. You have enough information that you decided, based on the information you gathered, whether this is right for you. So what is your net worth? We have saved now about $750,000. Excellent. I don't know why you would need any annuities in that, personally. Okay. Yes. The only advantage

that the annuity gives you, the variable annuity gives you, is it can give you a guarantee of principle if the market turns down, and it can give you a guaranteed floor on the rate of return. But as you know from Financial Peace University, we don't teach variable annuities unless your house is paid off, unless everything's maxed out, and then unless you are really worried about one of those two things inordinately worried about it because you're going to pay an extra fee for the annuity

and your money's going to be trapped yet again and so the that's what i didn't like about it's going to be trapped yeah again it was to start with in retirement and now it's trapped again and so i don't i'm 60 i don't have a dime in annuities because I'm very comfortable with market fluctuations. I'm very comfortable with principal fluctuations on my accounts. They're not going to make or break me. They're not going to make or break you. You're millionaires, and you're going to do fine, okay? So I do utilize trusts, but only for estate planning purposes

because my net worth is in excess of $25 million, and that's the only time you get into net worth issues with estate planning, meaning the federal estate tax does not kick in until then. Okay. And so I've had to utilize some of them, and I'm also using them in a couple of places just for risk management. And the last piece I'm using a trust for is a couple of places just for risk management. And the last piece I'm using a trust for is a transfer of this company to the kids. Is it true what he says, though, about the trust,

that if you have beneficiaries, you don't really need a trust? Well, it depends on what you're using the trust for. You can use a trust for saving money on estate taxes. You don't need it for that. You can use a trust to execute your wishes. If you have beneficiaries and a will, you don't need it for that. Right. The only thing it could save you, you're in what state, Florida?

I don't think you've got much of a probate tax in Florida. I don't remember. But your state probate tax, it might save you a little bit on that. It's not worth the cost or the hassle to run your life out of a trust. I wouldn't do it. Right. So two strikes. Two strikes against whoever said those two things. I did it in my annuity, and I didn't.

Yeah. But the point is, I want you to get with somebody where you learn, and you're not even doing what Dave Ramsey says. You're doing what Lisa knows to do. And, Rachel Rachel it's just so important to get your hands around you and Winston make your own decisions you don't come ask me what to do no in fact I tried to ask you once you're like you guys go figure it out I was like no really tell me tell me what to do but no there there's something really truly about understanding the entire process and sitting down and doing that and like he said but it's Mike, that you make the decision that you're comfortable with. Because the moment you start to be uncomfortable is when I think anxiousness comes in, right?

Some anxiety and like, oh, I don't know about the future. Did I make the right decision? To be confident in the decision you're making is get off the facts. Yeah. And I don't ever want to care what George told me right. His guilt effects. Yeah. And I don't ever want to care what George told me. So even with a medical doctor, Sharon makes fun of me because I question everybody. It's like, you need to tell me why you're doing this. I'm not going to just trust you because you've got a white coat. You know?

You've got to tell me why we're doing what we're doing. A lawyer. This is the way to go. Okay, why? I'm giving you a lot of money here to teach me why I'm going to take this legal action. And I think the reason people don't is it's intimidating to admit, hey, I don't know what's going on. So I feel safer just saying, you just take care of it. Okay, okay.

Right? Digging into all the details, it's intimidating. But you have to, to be able to get the answers you need and you want for your life. Well, you don't have peace if you don't. If you don't make the decision, you don't get peace. If someone else makes your decision, you don't get peace, and you don't get the results. On the extreme, this is how these athletes lose all their money. These actors lose all their money.

They give it to a guy, and then they go, where'd my $100 million go? I have no money. Because the guy screwed off with the money you know freaking bernie madoff or something right and so you don't turn your money you earned over to someone else you use them to teach you and you make the decision they might implement it with you because they brought a good idea and that's your financial person right but you don't put money in something you don't understand and lisa you you're you're gonna do great with this you've done so good i'm so proud of you millionaires way to go

everyday millionaires right there talking to them and teaching fpu seven of the years that's awesome man very very cool aaron is with us aaron is in cincinnati hi aaron how are you hey i'm doing pretty good thank you guys for taking my call. I recently just finished Hosing's book, The Everyday Millionaire, I think it was. Yeah. So my question is, I'm on baby step four. My company matches 6% of my 401k. We do have an employee stock program.

Should I put my money there? No. I know the Kranji team isn't a big fan of individual stocks. No. We teach rock, paper rock paper scissors we call it the i want you to take 0.15 times your household income and that number is our goal okay 15 of your household income so how much is that uh i make 45 you make you make 45 000 a year? Yeah. Okay. So that's going to be like $7,000. Okay. I'm just making that. That's pretty close.

Okay. So we've got to get to $7,000. The first thing you do is match. Your company have a match? Yeah, they match up to 6%. Okay. So 6%, and we take 6% of times your, and how much of that is, how much of the $7,000 we need to get to is that? Not enough.

You're not there yet. Okay. So we're going to do the company up to the match. Now, is your company 401k or Roth? Yes. Perfect. Okay. Because match beats Roth beats traditional.

That's the rock, paper, scissors. Except it can't go but one way. Okay. Match beats Roth beats traditional. So you do the match first, then you do the Roth, and if you still haven't gotten the $7,000, then you Roth beats traditional. So you do the match first, then you do the Roth, and if you still haven't gotten to 7,000, then you would do traditional. In your case, you're going to be able to do Roth all the way out with individual even if you had to, but probably just all in your company 401K is going to get you there, too.

This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Ramsey Personality, Rachel Cruz is my co-host today. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and new promos all the time. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Doreen in Montana. She visited DaveRamsey.com to ask, I was wondering once Baby Step 2 is completed,

is the plan to save only for an emergency fund? I want to also have some savings in the anticipation of a non-emergency item such as vet bills, car repairs, vacation, home improvement. Does all this come after the emergency fund is complete on a sort of save as you go basis? Yeah, so your emergency fund is going to be definitely your next goal. And then everything else after that is what we call sinking funds. So you'll have different funds that you say, okay, I'm going to put a little bit of money each month into these funds. And so when something does come up, you have a vet bill, car repair, you just take it out of that sinking fund. Sinking funds are something we've talked about for a while.

I feel like we haven't done a ton of like dives, or I haven't, teaching into these. But they're really crucial, and they're very helpful to stay ahead. Because when things do come up, because they will, you actually have the cash there. You've been saving for it. And instead of even taking it out of an emergency fund, you have some extra cash on the side for these yeah these times it's basically saying christmas this year will be in december and so you should plan for that yep save a little bit of money set aside for christmas um now i personally would say you're gonna budget uh i mean you're gonna have money in your budget and if you have a reasonably small vet bill you're

just gonna put that in this month's budget if you have a reasonably small vet bill, you're just going to put that in this month's budget. Yes, that's fair. If you have a reasonably small car repair, you're going to put that in this month's budget. If you have a $3,000 vet bill or a $3,000 car repair, that comes out of the emergency fund. That's an emergency. If your transmission goes out, that's an emergency. You don't need a separate sinking fund to get ready for someday your transmission going so unless you're in some kind of extreme situation with pets

you should cash flow 98 percent of vet bills out of your monthly budget as they come up now i'll say winston and i we have a line item in our budget for gas and repairs and whatever money is not we don't spend on gas or repairs kind of floats over to the next month so we just kind of keep it going that's not a bad idea on car repairs because that does build up that way it becomes a little savings account for that's kind of our car repairs of how we do it now but you how you pay for tires that are a thousand bucks exactly but i will say with this you're not having a you're not having separate savings accounts for each of these little things no no no so you have to be pretty diligent to say okay no we've had this amount of

money in our account that we see that percentage goes to this this this you have to be pretty diligent to say, okay, no, we've had this amount of money in our account that we see that percentage goes to this, this, this. You have to be on top of it because it's easily, you can, you know, you just start to pile up some money and then suddenly it starts to just disappear because you end up spending it. So you do have to be diligent with those sinking funds. Yeah. But you know, let's say you got two, three kids. Okay. You don't have to have a line item for the pediatrician. Right. You can just cover that when it comes up.

Yes. And you don't need a sinking fund for that. Right. Either one. If it came up and it was a big problem medically with a child, it would be an emergency out of the emergency fund. Fair. And so that, you know, your fur babies would be the same thing.

Right. You know, so we've both got dogs and we don't have sinking funds for the dogs. Some really bad jokes there, but we don't have sinking funds for the dogs. Those dogs are in trouble is what happened. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Michael is with us. Michael's in Dayton, Ohio. Hi, Michael.

How are you? Hey, Dave. Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. Michael's in Dayton, Ohio. Hi, Michael. How are you? Hey, Dave. Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Yeah, so in June, my wife and I switched to a different Internet provider. And after we did that, we were expecting it.

They sent us a bill for the unreturned equipment. So we sent it back, and we received confirmation that the provider received it. And then in August, we received another bill for $59 for a supposed third piece of equipment that we never received when we first began the contract with them. And they've continued to call us asking for payment for this equipment. And then after three attempts of trying to resolve this, trying to explain that we never received anything, if we had it, we would give it back to you. You've already received two pieces of equipment. And so now they're saying they're sending it to collections.

And so while I want to stand my ground and not pay for something that we never received, should I attempt to fight this or should I just pay the fee of $59? It's up to you. I mean, but here's the thing. You're going to have to get above the idiots you've been talking to. Right. And they are idiots, because if you talk to someone and you explain something like that and they can't help you get resolution on it,

instead they just open a collections file. I mean, this is somebody whose parents are cousins. You're going to have to get above them. All right? collections file i mean this is somebody whose parents are cousins you're gonna have to get above them all right and so you know i'm gonna have 59 dollars worth of butt chewing just for the fun of it somewhere in this organization right uh at some point you may pay it at some point you may get mad enough you hire an attorney and sue them but um but the that's the problem you know the number one consumer complaint with cable companies is the incompetent employees. And there's like Comcast stories. There's Verizon stories that are all, I mean, they're like a YouTube phenomenon.

Rachel, you know what I'm talking about. Oh, yeah. And they cycle through them. I mean, these people don't stay at these jobs. Well, especially the debt collectors. That's a whole other industry. But it's almost the same thing. They're just in these cubicles, they just and they quit 90 days later.

I mean, like the the amount of rotation that they go through. The chances of talking to the same person are very low. So that's it. You got to keep going and going and going. And it's a pain. So honestly, I love the conviction, Dan, but you may get a few months on the road and just pay the $59 because you're just tired of it, which sounds like you're surrendering. And I hate that.

The justice part of me is like, no, don't pay it. But there gets to a point of your quality of life that you're like, you know what? It's just, oh, it's not worth it. I have to pick out a few of those to do every year to get it out of my system, and the rest of them I let them go because I'd have a real pile of them. I'm a hillbilly, and I will fight you just because it's fun. And so I have to check myself on that because I end up with this big pile of fights that I picked. Well, I didn't pick them.

I'm going to finish them. They started it. You didn't start this. But it's just, you know, at some point, you get too much of this crap in your life by these incompetent people. So which cable company is this? This is our local. It's called Spectrum.

Okay. All right. And that's the only thing I've done so far. Yeah,. It's called Spectrum. Okay. All right. And that's... Yeah, the only thing I've done so far. Yeah, you're in Dayton, Ohio. Okay. So everybody in Dayton now knows that because we just told them. This cost them a lot more than $59 just now.

Yeah. So Spectrum, hire some competent freaking people. Solve this guy's problem. I'll tell you what, Michael. I'm going to put you on hold, and Kelly's going to make sure we have your contact information. If anybody at Spectrum has a backbone or a desire to actually do real customer service, contact us. We'll put you in touch with Michael, and we'll give you credit for cleaning up this mess if you want to do it. So what are the odds they do it?

Oh, no, they won't. They won't do it? You're as cynical as your old man kelly's in the booth going zero okay but we'll give them a chance we trashed them on the air we'll give them a chance to fix it i'll go back and say you guys are wonderful people you fix michael's problem i will recant if you fix it if you don't fix it michael that could have been the justice you needed just that call Just to put the truth out there. Yeah. So people know.

I used to do that more on this show. I used to tear stuff up like that. But then I figured out. Then I figured out. Well, I figured out. I was getting used. The people calling in. I was.

They were using me like a weapon. And so I had to quit doing it. But occasionally I can still. About once every decade now. I still sneak in and do one to Spectrum in Dayton, Ohio. There you go. I feel better already. It's just cleansing.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. It is sad that they tell us that now 76% of credit bureaus have errors on them, and 34% of the credit bureau reports have errors on them that are so egregious that it would keep you from getting a loan or keep you from getting an apartment or whatever in other words they it's a complete it's wrong it's not accurate right it's one thing if you don't pay your freaking bill but it's just like this piece of equipment doesn't even exist ends up on this guy's credit bureau report it's a complete lie. And it wasn't anybody done with malice. It was done by stupid people who didn't care enough to fix their problem.

Well, and it screws up everyone's life involved of it, right? Like, oh. Like half the credit bureaus. Yep. Reports are screwed, you know, by stuff like that and by just it's on the wrong account. The person entering the digits didn't have enough digits to enter digits. And they just, oh, God. You know, crooks make me mad.

Incompetence almost makes me madder. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast. It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.