The Ramsey Show - App - The More Options You Have, the More Power You Have (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 24, 2019

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you're here. 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Starting off this hour is Jerry Chris in Texas. Hi, Jerry Chris. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up?

So my husband lost his job four months ago, but we had a fully funded emergency fund. So we were good. We recovered. It was awesome. He did the Ken Coleman way and started reaching out to all of his friends. He found a friend that had a company that was looking to hire here in San Antonio. We had dreamed about moving to San Antonio, so it all worked out really well. But our emergency fund had to cover the move because it was a contract to hire, is what he got offered. So they didn't cover any moving costs. So our emergency fund is depleted and our house is under contract and it's going to close on the 31st of this month, so next week,

which is great. We should get about $150,000, maybe a little over $150,000 in equity. Cool. What's your husband going to be making? Well, right now he makes $120,000, but it's contract higher. I got that. So he's on 1099, right? Yes. He's technically self-employed.

So what was he making before uh 95 oh this is wonderful what a blessing this is but they are talking about taking him on full time that'll be awesome when they take him on full time they might offer less than 95 000 what he was making before well i might not take it yeah we're we're just kind of at this point where we're just not sure what to do moving forward with buying a new house we followed your advice and we are in a rental so that we can learn the city and know the layout um we're in a rental for a year just park your equity in a money market account until this job thing gets settled and until your lease runs. What'd you do, a six-month lease? No, we had to do

a year. Okay, well you got a year then. Okay. The job will settle down. You'll be able to qualify for a mortgage if that ain't trouble when the job settles down, and you'll have your equity in an account, right? And you'll use some of it to put your emergency fund back. Right, right. And then the question also is, we were really hoping the equity in this, that we would get out of the house, would buy us a new house, but a $140,000 house is not as great of a house

as we were hoping for, and we need to buy in downtown San Antonio because that's close to where he works. So taking out a mortgage or not i've been to san antonio a bunch of times it ain't that freaking big you have to live in downtown san antonio you can live in the burbs around san antonio and be downtown 20 minutes right absolutely um we yeah yeah, we like downtown. Okay, that's better. I like it. That's better.

He needs to for his job is BS. I like downtown is okay. So how much of our dream, do we settle? I mean, we just keep going back and forth. And the last time we bought a house. You've got a year to decide. Okay. You've been there 20 got a year to decide. Okay. You've been there 20 minutes and you like downtown.

Great. By this time next year, you may not. Okay. Shop around. Learn the real estate markets. Look at a bunch of properties. Let me tell you. Let me tell you what happens with decisions that are big decisions.

The more options you have, the more options you have the more power you have the more options you have the more likely it is that the bad ideas are going to stand out like a sore thumb and the good ideas are going to stick their head up and it's going to be very very obvious how god's speaking to you when you only have two options and they're both bad that means you don't have enough options you need to find it and so the way you do this is you just go look at real estate. Your hobby for the next year is learn this town, learn what's selling where for what, learn, learn the vibe of the neighborhoods, learn the traffic patterns and the flow, how long it's going to take him to get to work. Oh, that particular already artery stopped up

every morning at his drive time. Forget that. Take the 45 minutes to do a 10 mile run. I don't want to fool with that. That sounds like LA or no thank you this is san antonio you know and just kind of learn the town get the vibe of it get the pulse of the town and say okay i got you know write down have five or six different neighborhoods and price ranges that are options but in no case are you going to buy something where your payment is more than a fourth of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed after you put your down payment down but just take your time you're okay you got time but work work the system get some options get some options you gotta you gotta have a lot of different ways of looking at things and then all of a sudden you'll go oh there it is there it is it's like you know

when you're job hunting if you have one possible person trying to hire you well that looks pretty good until you got somebody wanted to hire you for more and then you got somebody wanted a better situation another better situation so you get like three or four different job offers because you got out there and dug around scratched around got some got some options all of a sudden you got a lot of power as you consider this. Options give you power. They give you margin. They give you your emotional rest.

You have peace from them, and that's what you're going to do here. Good job. You guys are going to be in great shape. This is going to turn into a huge blessing. Michelle is with us in Ohio. Hi, Michelle. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi.

Thanks for taking my call. Sure. My husband and I are going round and round on a decision. Okay. We have paid off about $180,000 over the last four or five years. Way to go. And we are down to our mortgage and a $19,000 second mortgage to be paid off. We have our emergency fund, but the question is, we're at that point,

do we put back the three to six months? Do I have the power to answer this question? He's sitting right here. I know. I'm asking you. Are you wanting to follow our system, or are you just wanting to go round and round? Well, I know what your system says, but here's the other thing. We're looking to sell the house in three to five years.

That doesn't matter. It doesn't matter? Why would you keep a mortgage? Just because you're going to sell the house? I guess for my safety or my security. Your safety? Your security? No, not safety.

You've been four and five years paying off $180,000 so you could get safety and security. You're right at the edge of the finish line. You need to bust through the tape. If your second mortgage is less than half your annual household income, it goes in baby step two, and you're still in baby step two. Okay. Well, okay. It's only $18,000.

Yeah, the second mortgage, so get that paid off. Well, I guess we were debating. I was saying take half of what we have available to put towards the second mortgage and half towards our three to six months. You can make up your plan if you want to. I don't care. But that's not the best plan. No, I'm not mad at you.

It might be a better plan. I don't know. It's just not my plan. Okay. If you want to do your plan, it's okay. That's cool. But's just not my plan. Okay. If you want to do your plan, it's okay. That's cool. But our plan is real clear. The second mortgage, if it's less than half your annual household income, goes in your baby step two.

But if you want to do, you know, Sarah's plan or, you know, Michelle's plan, that's okay. I'm not mad at you for that. That's why I asked you if I had the power to make the decision. So it's okay either way. That's why you're going around and around is you're just, you're trying to decide which is the smartest way. And I think this is the smartest way. So there you go.

Thanks for the call. This is the Dave Ramsey show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs based on new testament principles christian health care ministries or chm helps christian families churches and ministries join together as the body of christ to share their major health care costs christian health care ministries is the original health cost sharing ministry a better business bureau accredited organization chM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually

supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35 years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. our question of the day comes from blinds.com they have a 100 satisfaction guarantee a lot of places have that kind of thing but this means even if you mess up they guarantee the blinds meaning if you pick the wrong color, they'll remake them. You mismeasure, they'll remake them. I love these guys. Use the promo code RamseyBlinds.com. Megs in California.

Is a trust the same as a will? No. How do you know if you need one versus the other? Everyone needs a will. Not everyone needs a trust. Everyone that's 18 needs a will. It dictates what happens to your bank accounts and it's something as simple as i don't have anything and so i'm 26 and i don't need a will yes you do you have a freaking car and a bank account you're making it hard on your parents or something happens to you

they have to go through 73 hoops with a court and get some judge to get your $14 out of your bank account. Get a will. And you can't transfer the stinking car without the court's permission. Get a will. Everyone needs a will. Not everyone needs a trust. A trust is a mechanism that typically will do one of two things or both. It will protect you from some estate taxes in some situations. In a more complicated estate plan, there's a need for a trust.

An example of a need for a trust would be if you have minor children and both of you die, a husband and wife both die, you would have a trust that all of your assets and life insurance are left into to care for your minor children until they're of age. The income off of the investments from that pile of money inside that trust would support your children until they reach age. But that trust is formed only upon your death as an instruction of the will. Wills always form trusts in those situations. You can get into more complicated estate planning if you want.

Sometimes you have a trust for parking a piece of real estate, but most of the time you don't. All of my real estate except one piece is owned in LLCs. My personal residence is in a trust. In our state, that's the proper way to do it, but very few people need a trust until you start getting something more complicated. Everyone needs to go to MamaBearLegalForms.com and get a will. Or if you've got a complicated estate, go see. That's it. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Sarah is with us in Michigan. Hi, Sarah. How are you? Good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my husband and I were gifted your class for a wedding gift from our pastor.

And we started classes, and we wanted to secure Baby Step 1 right away. And I have a small 401k. When I say small, it's got like $1,700 in it, and $1,200 of it is my vested value, and it's available for withdrawal would you recommend doing that no emergency fund no okay it's it's small so it really doesn't matter much but on on the philosophical basis i would leave it alone here's the here's the here's what happens if you pull it out you're going to be if it's even if it's eligible for withdrawal you're going to be hit with a 10% penalty and your tax rate.

If you're in a 20% tax bracket and you get a 10% penalty, that means you're hit 30%. It's like borrowing money at 30% interest. We would never do that. Okay. Now, again, it's a couple hundred bucks here. Okay? Right. So it's not the end of the world.

It's not going to change your life. It's not going to be go, oh, that one time I did that, I won be a millionaire no it's not it's not that big a deal because the math is so small but i'll just stick with the philosophy because i've just learned that if i always do smart things even if the numbers are small i'm building muscles and smart things you want smart thing muscles and so don't don't take it out danny is with us in tennessee hi danny what's up oh i'm just calling about a retirement plan that me and my wife talked about and we want to buy a house in jekyll island why and i don't know if i need to why go out there do a loan why do you need to buy a house in jekyll island for a retirement plan?

That's where we want to live when we retire. Oh, won't you buy it there when you retire? Well, I'm hoping to in three years from now. Good. Do it then. My question is, I've got probably a half a million in 401K. I've got 80 grand in savings in our checking and i've got five rental homes plus my home so should i sell one or two of my rental homes and just actually outright pay for it and jekyll when you get ready to move but i wouldn't do it now I wouldn't do it now.

You wouldn't do it now? No, you're not moving for three years. Correct. I was just going to sit there empty for three years? Well, probably two or one and a half, and I'll take my vacation, and what long weekends I can go and update it the way we want it. Well, if you want to do some work to it, buy it want it well if you want if you want to do some work to it buy it in time to do the renovation before you want to move into it so buy it six months early but i wouldn't buy it three years early you don't want a three-year renovation

project that's not fun well i'm in the construction business so that's why i'm asking okay if you want a three-year renovation project you can do that that's not fun to me okay i can't i can't imagine that being pleasant for your wife oh honey let's go to jack lyle and i'm going to swing a hammer all weekend while you smell sawdust i doubt it well but let me ask you this should i sell one or two of my rental homes and outright pay for it or take a personal loan out at the bank? I don't borrow money, so what I'm going to do is to set you up in retirement debt-free. So how much money do you owe on these rentals? Anything? Okay.

Right now, like I said, I've got $500 in my 401K. I got that. I've got $80 in the bank.. I got that. I got that. And $80 in the bank, and you've got five rentals. What do you owe on the five rentals? I really don't know, but I clear after everything is said and done about $2,200 a month. Okay. Well, the equity is all that matters.

The $2,200 won't be there when you start selling them. So what will the house in Jekyll cost? What do you plan to spend there? I'm looking at maybe $2,000, $2,200, and then put another $100,000 in and just update and everything. Okay. So you want a $350,000 house in Jekyll in terms of what you put into it. What will your personal residence sell for when you get ready to move to Jekyll? Okay, right now my house is worth $340,000, and I owe $140,000.

Okay, so there's $200,000 of your $350,000. We need another $150,000 to pay cash for Jekyll when you go into retirement. And I've got one of my rental houses that I own in my neighborhood that I owe roughly 40 on, and I could sell it for 170. Okay. There you go. 180.

We're getting there. So if you sold your house and that house, you could pay cash for Jekyll Island, and you'd still have $580,000 plus your other four rentals. Correct. And we want to get those paid off as quickly as we can during the time that we're working towards retirement. All the data tells us that we've got to, that as you go into retirement, your highest probability of becoming wealthy and staying wealthy is debt-free and continuous investing. Those are the two things we find when we study millionaires. And so I'm not going to jackal and putz around over there and, you know,

mess around and tie up a bunch of money and borrow a bunch of money and pay a bunch of interest so I have a weekend project for three years. Pay cash for the property when you buy it by selling off enough rentals. Pay cash for the renovation, and you can replenish some of your cash if you need to with the sale of your personal residence when you do finally make the move to Jekyll into a debt-free property that you're going to live in the rest of your years. Well done. Good job, sir. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money.

It is a free call. Our debt-free degree scholarship giveaway is happening right now. Together with our friends over at Speedy Prep, we are giving away $10,000 in college scholarships. We're yelling and screaming about the stupidity of student loan debt, and we're going to help $10,000 worth of somebody not take out student loans. A $5,000 scholarship and two $2,500s. No purchase necessary. Go to anthonyoneal.com or daveramsey.com slash scholarships and register for these scholarships for your high school student, with your high school student, and by your high school student. For goodness sakes, don't be borrowing money for college. Have you not noticed how much pain is out there around this? This is the Dave Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Matt and Kelly are with us.

Hey, guys, how are you with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Hi. Welcome, welcome. Where do you guys live? We're from St. Louis in Collinsville, Illinois. Wonderful. Well, good to have you guys in Nashville.

Welcome. All the way down here to do a debt-free screen. Oh, yeah. How much have you paid off? $118,400. Awesome. How long did this take? It took us 20 months.

Whoa. And your range of income during that time? We started at 85, and we finished around 107. Way to go. Good job, you guys. What do you guys do for a living? I work in IT for a life science company. And then I work part-time for a church and stay home with our daughter.

Wonderful. Very cool. What kind of debt was the $118,000? It was a car and our house. Oh, you paid off your house? We paid off our daughter. Wonderful. Very cool. What kind of debt was the $118,000? It was a car and our house. Okay. Oh, you paid off your house? We paid off our house. I'm looking at weird people. Wow. And you did this in 20 months? Yeah. I mean, you hardly made, I mean, you lived on nothing. Yeah. You were completely intense. Did you have money in savings or did you sell something? Yeah, had some money in savings so we paid off the car pretty instantly how much was that and that was around 12 000 okay and then we decided you know we're not going to set back we're going to attack our house like it's in baby step two and we just went after it okay so yeah done done just like that i mean and you did it in like 18

months then yeah yeah wow we both took side jobs so matt started reselling stuff on ebay and on facebook and then we both became secret shoppers to bring in additional income to just really work work work yeah okay and you were living on nothing i mean you're on beans and rice yeah but you have paid for a house that's right yeah completely weird yeah how old are you two so i'm 35 i'm 39 and you have a paid for house. That's just so weird. What's this house worth? So it's around $130,000. How fun. Yeah. How long have you guys been married? Five years. Five years. Have you ever been debt-free during the marriage? No. No. Wow. Have you been debt-free during your adult life? No. No. All right. Wow. Way to go, you guys. What started all of this 20 months ago?

It was me. I started listening to your podcast, and I would say we were Dave-ish. So I started telling Matt everything, and he kind of said, I think I have a better plan. I think I have it figured out. So we had planned a trip to Charleston, and I'm in charge of what we listen to on the way down. So for 12 hours, we listened to nothing but your podcast, which changed his mind. That's brutal.

And then on the way back, I knew if we kept listening that he would have time to process and just hear everything you were saying, hear the questions people were asking. And so literally on the way home, we paid off our car. On the way home? On the way home. We're calling the bank. Pull out the smartphone, move the funds. We did.

We paid off our car. We got on the phone, decided to make a change with our financial advisor, fired them, got on your website, made appointments with your financial people. Wow. Got on Zander Insurance, called the bank about our house to see about getting the PMI off. So we just, from that point on, we were on it. Just game on. Yeah.

Once you process something, you process it, don't you, man? Yeah. Wow. That's pretty incredible. This is a pretty seriously productive road trip. It was. Wow. You're staying in the car until you get this right.

Yeah. Wow. You're staying in the car until you get this right. Wow. But the net result is you're 35, 39 years old with paid-for house. I'm impressed. So did you have people cheering you on or people thought you were crazy? Yeah, we had a lot of people cheering us on, lots of friends and family. And then it helped we teach the FPU class. Oh, yeah.

And so that really, you know, helped hold us accountable and push us, too. So they're, like, all watching and cheering you on now. This is so cool. You get to play this back off of YouTube later in the class. Every time you teach the class, you get to play this. Yeah. Well, you ought to. Yeah.

You ought to. You ought to brag about it. You're weird. It's amazing. So wonderful. You're winning. Yeah. I love it. You're weird. It's amazing. So wonderful. You're winning. Yeah.

I love it, guys. Congratulations. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? I think just being mindful that we are called to be good stewards of God's money. Amen. So I tell people, because sometimes people say, you guys are just Dave Ramsey freaks. And I'm like, no, I love Dave Ramsey, but he reminds me that ultimately God is the one who gives to us. Amen.

And so everything we bring in, everything we do is just stewarding what he's already given us. Preach it. Yeah, that for me. We love you, but most importantly, it just reminds me and roots me in the fact that ultimately everything comes from him. Good, good. I've done my job then. Yeah. And ultimately, the budget is a big one.

Being on the same page, working the budget together, and being in agreement is really big. So during the 20 months, once the road trip is over, I love this plan. I'm going to tell somebody, I can't get my husband on board. We'll put him in the car and don't let him out until he agrees. We're just going to drive around and listen to podcasts until you agree. Oh, my gosh. Other than the, once the road trip was over, what was the biggest budget fight? The time you went, ugh.

I think how we budgeted. What's that mean? Matt was a marathoner, so Matt's the nerd. So he would want to sit down and do these really intense, like, three-hour budget meetings with Excel spreadsheets and an hour and a half in, I'm on Facebook, I'm trying to do laundry to not do the budget. And so I think our biggest fights were over what it would look like to budget productively. And so as we continued to budget, we learned what worked for us. Yeah, you had to shorten that to budget meetings.

Simplify the process. There's very few people, Matt, that will sit there for four hours. Get in the car. You're not getting out until we get the budget done. We could use the car thing. Oh, wow. Good for y'all. Good for y'all.

Very cool. How does it feel to have no payments? It's still a little weird. It is. But it feels great. Surreal. Yeah. Yeah.

But it's awesome. It frees us to do more things and think about more opportunities that we can do so absolutely i think one of the first things that happened to us was we felt like like 300 pounds was lifted off our shoulders number one and then the second thing was this sense that oh wait i can give now yeah at a different at a whole different level yeah i mean tithing is one thing but i I can just, anytime I see something, I can just give. I can just randomly, and it won't affect my family. We'll still be able to win, you know?

And the math on that is outrageous generosity piece is what I love about it. Well done, you guys. So proud of you. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you. Everyday Millionaires, you are on your way to doing that. Thanks for leading Financial Peace University and being a great example for your classes. We appreciate that. Very, very proud of you guys.

All right, Matt and Kelly from the St. Louis area. $118,000 payoff in 20 months. Making $85,000 to $107,000. House and everything. They are 100% debt-free, not even 40. Shut up. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free. Yeah, baby. How you doing? Yeah. It is amazing to me what happens to people when they decide. That road trip, you guys just decided. You came home unified and decided we're going to do this.

We're going to work together, and we're going to push past the details and the rough edges, and we're going to do this. We're going to do this. So much so that before they even got out of the car on their way home, the cars paid off. Before they even got out of the car on their way home, they fired their bogus financial advisor. Before they even got out of the car on their way home, they already called the bank and said, you're ripping me off a PMI. Before that, I couldn't even spell PMI.

Once you decide, you will not be denied. But you have to decide. You ever met people that just decide? It's the dignity of being human. God gives you the dignity of just choosing. You can just decide to change. You can just decide to be nicer to your wife. You can just decide.

You children are going to start behaving or pain is going to be in your life. You can just decide. I'm not going to work there anymore. That guy's a jerk. You get to decide. Don't smile at me, Kelly, when I say that. You get to decide. And when you do do there's great power in that this is the dave ramsey show Thank you. jason is with us in california hey jason welcome to the dave ramsey show hey dave how are you better than i deserve what's up here you go uh well i am just curious i recently

moved out to california um from chicago where you don't need a car necessarily in Chicago, but you definitely need one out here in California. So I moved up in firms as well, and everyone out here leases their vehicles, these kind of luxury electric vehicles. And although I'm tempted at that luxury side, I follow you and, uh, your teachings, uh, pretty to heart. So, um, I'm just looking to see how much car I can afford and, uh, what you would suggest, uh, trying to, trying to find a vehicle out here. How much money do you have? Um, I have um i have about 10k in savings um 15k in investments and uh 20k in retirement um i pay about 2100 in rent uh and my income is uh close to 120 okay uh well it sounds like your your car is um i would not use my emergency fund to buy a car, and so I don't, you know, I think you have $25,000 that's non-retirement money to work with. Did I understand that correct?

Yes, that's correct. How much of that is your emergency fund? I also have. Oh, go ahead. Well, I also have $8,000 saved already for a vehicle. Oh, okay. You didn't mention that. Yeah, I'm, yeah, sorry. Okay, okay. You didn't mention that. Yeah.

Yeah, sorry. Okay. So what are you thinking of spending on a car? So initially I was thinking about $8,000 to $10,000, but working so hard to get this money up to $8,000 already, I'm almost aiming for like a $ to five thousand dollar car until i can actually afford something that is um more my preferred taste which would be um what everyone's driving and leasing around here but i'd like to purchase it yeah yeah i think you can drive ten thousand

and do that you make 120 you make 120 you got saved. I'd put two with it. And, you know, then restock your emergency fund and then start saving for a move-up in car. Okay. But, yeah, I think you're safe to drive a $10,000 car in this situation. And then you're talking about moving up to like a $30,000 used Tesla or something, right? Yeah, that's the goal. Cool. That'd be fun. And you pay cash for that and you

make 120. I don't have a problem with that at all. As long as you don't use your emergency fund and you don't go in debt. It's pretty simple. So, and then that keeps you freed up to go on now, once you get past this car decisions and start actually investing in something that goes up in value. All right, let's go with Brandy next in Pennsylvania. Hi, Brandy. How are you? Hi. Hi. Good. How are you? Hi. Hi. Good. How are you? Better than I deserve.

How can I help? Okay. So I just started your class about three weeks ago at our church. We started on a Wednesday. By Friday, I had my emergency fund. So Baby Step 1 was done. I'm typically the nerd of the two of us. Well done.

I kind of was hoarding that money. I was hoarding that money, so I put it in the emergency fund. So now with baby step two, with the snowball, the only debt we have is, well, not the only debt, but the only debt that we're paying on right now that we have are two vehicles. Everything else is already in collections. How do I handle that? Okay. What do you handle that? Okay. What do you owe on these two cars? Well, we just bought them both this year, between $35 and $40.

Each? No, no, together. Okay, and what's your household income? A little over $50. Okay. You have too much in cars. Say it again? You have too much in cars. Say it again? You have too much in cars.

I know. So which one are we going to sell? His. That's great. Yeah, okay. And so what is his car worth? $12. Oh oh not much yeah so you have the expensive car well yes yeah i have a minivan so okay well the total of your vehicles in value even if they're paid off should never be more than half your annual income.

So when you finish and the smoke clears, you don't want to have over $25,000 tied up in cars if you make 50 grand. Okay. And your dadgum van is close. What are you going to put him in, a $1,000 car while you drive a $29,000 car? I don't know. If we have to. Well, we could go another direction, and that's sell your stupid van. True.

Yeah, because it's the bigger problem of the two. You have $37,000 in debt. What is owed on his $12,000 car? It's 12 it's owed. Oh, 12 owed and 12 value so you can break even on it? For the most part, yeah. Okay, so you owe $25,000 it's owed. Oh, $12,000 owed and $12,000 value so you can break even on it? For the most part, yeah. Okay, so you owe $25,000 on this van? Yeah.

Okay. You're not going to like me. Actually, I love you. I love how boring you are well the math is telling me that your car is taking up all of the car value that you should guys should have tied up in other words again coming back when you finish you should have cars not worth more than $25,000 you owe 25 on this van what is it worth probably not much more than that yeah about that yeah and so that means so if you have a $25,000 van and you shouldn't have more than $25,000 tied up in vehicles he's walking right your van's gone

it doesn't make sense to your family you you bought too much right it doesn't make sense to the family right and it clears up a bunch of your debt. So that's what I would do. Again, later on, you'll be making more money. You'll have more money. You'll drive whatever you want to drive. But Sharon and I, we drove like no one else. So later, we could drive like no one else. I drive whatever I want to now.

But back then, I drove a hoopty, you know, to get my butt out of debt and to get this stuff straightened out. And so you pay a price to win and um you just you just got all impulsed up and mama bear and mama bear wanted a van for the kids and with all the goodies for the kids and protect the children because it's safe and all this stuff and you do all these through all these rationalizations that we all go through and you bought too much fan i'm sorry i'm sorry'm sorry. I love you. I hope you still love me. Sell your van. I just saved your husband. This is great.

Jason is with us in Delaware. Hey, Jason, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. How are you doing? Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? All right. This is my dilemma.

I'm a small business owner. I've been in business for two years, and my mother just laid me this news that she needs me to basically take over the house. We'll keep it. She needs you to take over the house? Correct. She's leaving the country. Are you living in the house? No, I don't live there. I moved out a while back. And she's leaving the country. Are you living in the house?

No, I don't live there. I moved out a while back. And she's leaving the country. Why doesn't she sell her house? Because her house is pretty much not worth much, and it's on a variable interest rate. Why doesn't she sell her house? Is it worth less than she owes on it? Correct.

Oh, what does she owe on it? I believe she owes about $180,000 left on it. And what do you think it's worth? I don't know much about it because I've never been a homeowner. So maybe it's probably worth about $80, $90. There's something wrong with this entire equation. That doesn't happen unless your mother's done some unbelievably

stupid stuff. Do you have children? Yes. Would you do this to your children? I wouldn't do this to mine. It doesn't sound like a mother that is giving a blessing to her son. Right. So mom needs to sell her house or deal with the foreclosure or deal with whatever she's got to do to get out of this.

You're not taking this house over. I'm sorry, mom. The answer is no. I love you, but this is a really bad idea. Yeah. I'll coach you. I'll walk beside you. I'll support you emotionally and is a really bad idea. Yeah. I'll coach you. I'll walk beside you. I'll support you emotionally and be your biggest cheerleader.

I will not take over your payments and pay for your mistakes. What happens legally with that debt? Because you're leaving the country for good. Well, when she comes back, they will arrest her. No, I'm kidding. I don't know. I have no idea. They'll probably just sue her and get a lien against her and probably nothing. But unless your name's on it,

it's not your problem. It actually could turn into criminal if she is not showing up for a court date or something and she's held in contempt of court. But she needs to deal with this. She doesn't need to just walk away from it. She sure as crud doesn't need to hand it to you, and you sure as crud don't need to take it over. This is The Dave Ramsey Show.

Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.