The Ramsey Show - App - The Most Important Investing Lesson You Can Learn (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 13, 2019

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

Katie is in Lubbock, Texas. Hi, Katie. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help?

Good. Okay, I have a question on life insurance um my husband and i are in our 60s and we took out life insurance um probably when he was 64 um the premium is 210 a month and it's term life um i got laid off from a job, so I'm not working. And I just want to see if we're still making a wise decision on paying that amount on just his salary. Okay. So what does he make? He makes about $70.

Okay. And you guys have children at home still? No, no. Okay. And do you have a home that has got a mortgage? No, paid for. It's paid for. Okay.

Yes. And how much is in your nest egg for retirement? Because of bad decisions when we were younger, virtually nothing. It's like about $60,000. All right. So what are you planning on living on at retirement? Well, hopefully I'm going to get another job. I'm looking.

As soon as I see the 64 thing on the app, it gets kind of tossed. But I'm still looking and thinking about maybe doing something on my own. So are you all saving for retirement and your husband's income? Yeah, we are, but we still have about $15,000 in debt. Oh. So we're trying to, yeah, we're trying to tandem each and not really share. On what kind of debt have you got? We've got about $15,000 in credit cards left to pay.

Okay. Have you cut them up? Oh, we don't yet. Totally. Okay. Are you on a budget? Oh, yes. We do every dollar.

So how quick is the $15,000 going to be paid off? Probably, we're thinking by December. I hope. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Okay. And then you guys are going to move on and get your emergency fund in place

and then stack up everything you can into retirement as fast as you can. Yes. Just wide open. Okay, what's your home worth? Oh, gosh, probably about $100. Okay, and how much life insurance is on him? $200. Okay, how much is on you?

None. Okay, all right. Yeah, I believe I keep the insurance in place. Okay. How much is on you? None. Okay. Alright. Yeah, I believe I keep the insurance in place. Okay. Because it's there to replace his income if something happens to him and you would still need that. Yeah. Because you don't have any money. You got a paid-for house and you'll be debt-free soon, but you don't have any money. Yeah. Right. Yeah, I'm going to keep it for a while, but as soon as you've got $200,000 or $300,000 saved, which you ought to have in a few years here, you may want to look at dropping it at that point.

Okay. Because the point is, are you okay financially when he dies? If you have a paid-for house and $300,000 or $400,000 saved, you'd probably be okay. Okay, that's great. I just want to make sure that we're not doing something really stupid right now. No, you're not. But you're going to have to play catch up here. You need to get on the horse and kick him hard, okay? Yes.

I'm going to send you a copy of Ken Coleman's book, The Proximity Principle, The Proven Way to Find the Career That You Love, and you're in the process of a job hunt and a career adjustment yourself, and it'll help you with that. So hold on. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

Amber's in Houston, Texas. Amber, how are you? I'm great. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a strategy and timing question. My husband and I are planning on being debt-free in February, but he went

today, actually, and had an interview, and he got a second job delivering pizzas. Yay. Yeah, and just because I know you're curious, they said $13 to $15 an hour is what the average pizza delivery person makes there. Cool. Yeah, so my question is, I am planning on being debt-free by February, now earlier, because of the job. And after that, we're going to have some awesomely timed, like a bonus, and the tax return is very small. But it should catapult our Baby Step 3.

Good. And then after that, I am planning on going to nursing school. So my income, my husband and I make $84,000 a year together. And when I leave my job, we're hoping because he's applied for a position within his current job where he would be getting an increase in pay, move up. And so hopefully as that goes through, he'll be making about $65,000 by himself. And so I'm going to be quitting my job and going to school full-time and hopefully getting some part-time work. But we are, I was thinking about your plan, where do you want to be in five years and what does it take to get there?

And so we want to move from our current house, we have a two-bedroom house, we want to move into a larger home in town. And so I'm wondering where do um like repairs on the current home and selling the home and um moving fall into our plan do i need to just stockpile money that we can while i'm in school until wait until i'm out of school or is that something that since that's the direction we're going do i just do it now how are you how are you paying for school? We qualify for Pell Grants. I don't know how, honestly, but I do that, and I also get scholarships that I apply for at the community college, so it's very minimal cost. Okay, so you're going to cash flow it with scholarships and Pell Grants and your incomes. Okay, that's good news.

All right. I don't care when you do the house as long as you're able to hit these other goals. Okay. And it would be after Baby Step 3. After Baby Step 3, certainly. You get that done. Don't talk about moving up in the house until you get there. But after Baby Step 3, if you can still go to nursing school and still pay the payment on the new house

and still do the repairs to your house to get it sold and move up. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. But I would not sacrifice nursing school, and I certainly wouldn't go into debt to do any of these things. I think nursing school is more important than when, you know, because what are you going to do, a one- or a two-year program? It's a two-year program. Okay. And the summers are actually off, so I will be able to work all through the summer as much as I want.

And the program is actually just a few hours a day. The latest is 2.30, so I could definitely take a couple hours of schoolwork and then go and do some more work. Yeah. But our other question is, after we do sell our house, we wanted to buy in a certain area in our town which has better school districts and stuff like that. And so we were wondering, would it be beneficial to rent until something we actually want comes available? Or would you recommend just going straight from owning to owning and just kind of determining when we sell based on what comes available that we might want? There's nothing wrong with either plan. Okay.

You know, the downside of the rental plan is you move twice. The upside is it gives you more patience, right? Right. And you can take your time and land not only in the right property that you want, but maybe the right deal on the right property that you want. You don't have to get in a hurry. But what you're lining out here is a whole lot of things at one time happening in your life. So you need to prioritize and say, if I start getting stressed out, I'm going to cut one

of these things loose at a time. And so you're doing a whole bunch of stuff at one time. That starts to sound like stress after a while. You got a lot of energy and you're going to be fine doing that. But I love your plan. It's a good overall plan. 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

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Thank you, guys. We appreciate you. Rick is with us in Seattle, Washington. Hi, Rick. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. So my question is about kids' college savings. And so my wife and I are 36 years old.

Last year in March, we became debt-free. Yay. Baby Step 2. Yeah, we finished our Baby Step 3 in August. So we're on 4, 5, and 6. Good. I have a 9-year-old and a 13-year-old. And currently we have $4,000 saved for their college and a $529,000, $4,000 each.

And my goal was is our home should be paid off in 5 to 6 years. And my kids will be 14 and 18 at that time. So then the hope would be that I could cash flow college for them. I'm just wondering what your thoughts are if, you know, working on that every year from here until, you know, we get the house paid off. We plan to do $2,000 into each kid. I'm just wondering if I should change my approach. No, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that.

It's how we ended up doing it. Back in the day, they didn't have ESAs or 529s when we were saving. We used what's still available, but we used an UTMA, Uniform Transfer to Minors Act, which you just open the mutual fund in the kid's name. You're the custodian, and so it's taxed at their rate. So it's not tax-free growth like the 529 or the ESA is, but that's what we used, and we saved up the money for their college that way. But by the time they got there, we were in a position wealth-wise.

Of course, we were debt-free and everything else. We just cash-flowed their college, and the UTMA is not designated to be used in college. And so we just handed them that money when they graduated. It was already in their name anyway, so it wasn't like we had to hand it to them. I mean, we just let them know it was there. They graduated it was already in their name anyway so it wasn't like we had to hand it to them i mean we just let them know it was there they knew it was there we transferred all the control of it to them after they graduated from college so they ended up with a nice little mutual fund coming out of college to get started and of course we cash flowed the college so in a sense you're kind of doing that plan a little bit, a portion of that plan.

And so I think you're just fine with that. The trick is you've got to play through because if you don't get this house paid off, you're going to have trouble cash flowing these two colleges, right? Yep, yep. No, I think I will. So, yeah, that's the plan. Our plan is to hit 42 years old and have our house paid off. I mean, right now we have a net worth of net worth of 270,000. So we're,

we're just going along and that's, that's the plan. We're, we're intense. You're doing the right thing, man. You're doing a good job. Keep it up. Love it. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Brad is with me in Phoenix, Arizona. Hey Brad, welcome to the Dave Ramsey show. Hey Dave, how are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? I just wanted a quick question about the – I'm worried about my shovel-to-hole ratio currently.

My wife and I currently have about $160,000 in student loans, and our take-home – I'm sorry. We make about $90,000 a year right now. However, next year, my VA disability, because I'm a disabled vet, will be decreasing substantially to where we'll only have about $70,000 a year. And I don't know. So what are your degrees in? So my degree is information technology and web development, and that's what I'm currently doing as a product manager.

My wife has her master's degree in psychology, but she currently is a stay-at-home mother and homeschools my 8-year-old. Okay. Did she ever get her license to do counseling? No. She's looked into it, but in order for us to go back to school, it would cost even more. No, she doesn't go back to school. She's got a master's degree in psychology. You can get your license to do counseling in Arizona with a master's degree in psychology.

Right. And she can get a job working as a psychologist, like a school-cut psychologist with her master's degree. But she's very content in staying as a stay-at-home mother with my son doing the homeschooling process and doesn't want to give that up. So I'm just wanting to make sure because the way I'm looking at it now is um we have you know if we paid it off or try paying this off in six years that's going to be like twenty seven hundred dollars a month and like thirty thousand dollars so you're the only one working you make 70 grand in it correct and how long have you been doing that i've been in for five years i recently took a a new job that gave me a pay bump to the 70s. What was the nature of your disability from the military?

Pretty much quite a few things that happened to me when I was over in Iraq. Anxiety, stress, PTSD, and spinal damage. Gotcha. How's the back? Hurting, but I will survive. Yeah. And how's the other stuff? Are your emotions healing? I am working with the VA to trying to better that.

It's getting there. There's just a lot on my plate always, so it's always a challenge. I understand. It's getting better. I understand. Thank you for your service and the price you it's always a challenge. I understand. It's getting better. I understand. Thank you for your service and the price you paid. I appreciate it. I appreciate the support.

So how much of the $165,000 is her master's in psychology that she's not using? So the $160,000, actually $120,000 of it is for her degree, and my degree I only owe about $35,000 on it. So we really only owe about $155,000. Okay. I appreciate that she is content, but she made a mess to get this degree, and she needs to find some way to create some revenue as a result of this degree. I'm not saying she has to go to school full or go to work full

time 40 hours a week and not see your eight-year-old i'm not suggesting that but um doing some counseling getting your getting your license to do one-on-one counseling and doing some marriage counseling or doing counseling for somebody um as some one-offs at least by god part-time to do something to offset the fact that she went in debt $120,000 to get a degree to be a stay-at-home mom doesn't work. Okay? She lost some of those choices when she made those choices. So your family needs the help from her.

And I love her being a stay-at-home mom. She loves being a stay-at-home mom. But you guys are broke. And so she's going to have to look at that, at least for the short term, some way to create some revenue from this. Hey, thanks for the call. This is The Dave Ramsey Solutions, David and Joanna are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Dave.

Welcome. Where do you guys live? Richland, Washington. Okay, which is near what? Spokane? About two hours south of Spokane. Oh, wow. What's it called?

Richland. Richland, okay. Very cool. Welcome to Nashville and all the way over here on the other side of the continent to do your debt-free screen. Yes. Love it. How much have you paid off? $416,000 in 28 months.

Woo-hoo-hoo! All right. And your range of income during that time? We started at about $120,000, went up to $150,000, and now we're at 100 okay cool what do y'all do for a living i am a field service engineer and i'm a nurse currently a stay-at-home mom love it very cool okay so what kind of debt was this 416 000 well we had about everything we had uh auto loans too we had uh student loans family, and a bunch of different credit cards, probably about 12. And a house.

Okay. And the house was the one you're living in or an extra house or what? No, actually, we sold the house during the journey. We bought $135,000 into our $166,000 of consumer debt. We sold the house. I took a different job, and we wanted to move closer to family. Oh, okay. All right.

So of the $416,000, what did the house sell for? $325,000. Okay, cool. And so you had about $90,000 to go other than that. Well, actually, the house sold for $325,000, but we owed $250,000. So we had $166,000. Yeah, but didn't the $416,000 include the $250,000? Yes.

Yeah, okay. So the whole $300,000 goes towards the debts, including the mortgage, right? And then that leaves you about $80,000, $90,000. You had the cash flow in 28 months. That's correct. Yeah. We sold the house at the end of it, but yes. Yeah, okay.

But it got you. Okay. So, and you must have sold some cars, too, then. Yes, we sold them both. Wow. Everything's gone. We got rid of them. Wow.

So, what did the cars sell for? Less than what they were worth. Of course. Way less. We were upside down, probably 15 on one and 10 on the other. Yeah, okay. We had $91,000 worth of car debt. You had how much?

$91,000. $91,000 of car debt. Yes. Our payment was just about as much as our mortgage. Goodness. You had some cars. What kind of cars were these? Well, I had a brand new at the time Silverado, fully loaded.

Maxed out. Yeah. She had a Chevy SS. Okay. All right. Chevy people, huh? Well, we were then. Gotcha.

Okay. So what are you driving now? I drive a Nissan Pathfinder. Yeah. I have a 2004 Cayenne. Okay. All paid for, of course. Yes.

All right. How does it feel to have done all this? I mean, you guys went crazy. Yes. All wild, didn't you? Oh, yeah. The weight just feels like it lifted off my shoulders. You guys were drowning.

I mean, you probably were trying to, you were going down the third time, weren't you? Yeah, I mean, it was, it feels so good to be out of debt now. It's just. What started this whole journey for you? 28 months ago, we were pretty much broke. We had just got married. We purchased a house and bought cars and um we really wanted to have a child um but financially we just couldn't we we were living

paycheck to paycheck and the thought of having a child was just overwhelming um but uh we had we went ahead and uh started the process uh i wanted to go have surgery. And on the way to have surgery, I would say it was the grace of God that we found your show, your podcast show. Wow. And it hit us like in our face. We needed to hear what you were saying. And it really sparked a fire in our hearts. Wow. It did. I mean, it was an explosion. It was. It really was.

Wow. So what did you guys do first? Well, we ordered your FPU home kit, but then we ended up just going to a local church. That was a good idea. Yes. And it was a good idea. But then within, before even we ended that class, we had sold the car. And it was just the rest of the history. We got, she got two jobs. I worked overtime.

We got gazelle intense. You did? We started to sell everything and work as much as we could. I mean, we had the life. Okay. So you sold the house. You sold the cars. You I mean, we had the life. Okay. So you sold the house, you sold the cars, you moved to Richmond to be near family. Yes. Took different jobs, and now you're completely debt-free, and that allows you to be a stay-at-home

mom. Yes. Which means the new baby did come. Yes. Yay. I love it. That's the way this story's supposed to work. Right.

Good job, y'all. Thank you. But I mean, as much stuff as you were amputating, I mean, you're throwing stuff out the window. You're going crazy. I bet your friends were making fun of you. We were weird. You know, when I sold my car and came home with this junker and they saw me driving that to work, they were like, what are you doing? Yeah.

You know, it just did not make sense why we did it. They just didn't understand. You are weird. like what are you doing yeah you know it just did not make sense why we did it and um they just didn't understand you are weird i love it i'm proud of you very well done you got your life back we did i mean that these places owned you guys uh yeah we we were living paycheck to paycheck and you set yourself free from slavery yes Yes, we did. You really did. Very impressive. Thank you. These numbers are amazing. You can do it if you try.

Definitely, we had a go, and we went for it. We just did not close our eyes, and we did what we had to. You know, Earl Nightingale used to say that what keeps people from hitting their goals is not what they're willing to do to hit their goals. It's that they're not willing to give up things to hit their goals. And you guys gave up everything. We did. In order to hit the goal. And then you gained it.

You gained everything. Your stay-at-home mom. Yep. I mean, look at what the trade. That was a trade. You traded two cars and a house for that. Right. And a mountain of debt.

A mountain of debt. That's just well done. Good trade. Thank you. Good trade mountain of debt. A mountain of debt. That's just well done. Good trade. Thank you. Good trade. Well done. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? Definitely being on the same page.

We could not have done it the way we did if we weren't on the same page. I imagine, yeah. We both had similar goals, and we just focused. We really did. I would say the budget, for sure. We both had similar goals, and we just focused. We really did. I would say the budget, for sure, really helped. And the process of just sticking to the baby steps is really what did it for me. I said, I want to get to the next baby step, and I just kept pushing. Yeah, we were always thinking, what would Dave do?

There you go. We listened to you all the time and we just put everything you teach into our lives. If Dave said to do it, that's what we did. We didn't ask questions. Dave said, what would Dave do? Sell the car. Okay, let's sell it. Wow. So we just listened to you a lot every day and we had to have that focus

every day in our lives to stay on the road. Very cool. All right. And you brought the baby with you. What's her name and age? Emily Rose. And she is 16 months. All right.

How fun. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. That's the next chapter in your story. You'll be there before you know it. You guys are killing it. All right. Making $100 a year now with Stay at Home Mom, $416,000 in 28 months. They sold it all.

Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Ready? Three, two, one. You're debt-free! I love it. Love it, love it, love it. Very well done, you guys.

Fabulous. How impressive is that? See, I start telling some of you what you have to do to get out of debt, and then you start arguing with me. You ever notice people call in and do that? They're like, Dave, what should I do? And I tell them, well, but I don't want to do that. What else should I do?

No, you ought to do that. Oh, but I don't want to do that what else should i do no yeah i'll do that oh but i don't want to do that what do i want to buy a house anyway dave then i only do i only be able to keep my car and not have any debt and i can't afford my car you know isn't it funny that people just argue it's fine it's kind of it's ridiculously humorous but these guys what they do whatever it it took. That's what winners do. They do whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. This is the Dave Ramsey

Show. Thank you. our scripture of the day james 122 do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves do what it says conrad hilton said success seems to be connected with action successful people keep moving they mistakes, but they don't quit. Kathy's with us in San Antonio. Hi, Kathy. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. It's so nice to talk to you.

You too. What's up? Well, I have a state problem that I don't know if I did this right. I was like the executor of my mom's will when she passed away in 2013. And they told me after I did all the stuff that I needed to get her house out of that, out of that, uh, out of her name. So I put it into my name and everything was supposed to be divided between my brother and my two sisters and I, There's four of us. And now we sold it, and they're telling me I owe inheritance tax on it. Okay.

And I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now. I'm not sure why you would have inheritance tax on it. The house, has it gone up in value since your mom passed away? Oh, yeah. She died in 2013. It's 2019. Yeah. So how much did it go up in value?

Well, we sold it for $80,000, and it was $62,350 in the year she passed away. Okay. So it went up $20,000 in value. Yeah, but I only got in the bank $69,287. So what is the inheritance tax? Texas? Texas doesn't have an inheritance tax.

There's not a federal inheritance tax on an estate that says. Oh, that's what it is. Okay, it's a federal. No, there's not a federal inheritance tax on an estate that says. Okay, and I think the other tax is over like $3.5 million, but I'm sorry. There is not a federal inheritance tax on a small estate. Okay. So you don't have inheritance tax.

Who's telling you you owe inheritance tax? Well, I don't know if it's inheritance tax or what. They're saying I owe money on the profit. Who's they? Oh, a bookkeeper told saying I owe money on the profit. Who's they? Oh, a bookkeeper told me I owed money on the profit. Okay. Your family, the estate, does owe money on the profit. The basis in the real estate is the profit from the time the value went up.

That $20,000 is taxable, but it's not an inheritance tax. It's taxable as a long-term capital gain. Long- capital gain yes okay and it's only going to be i mean it's not it's not going to be anything it might be fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars really yeah okay um but if it's all in my name because well what i would do if it's all in my name, because how do I do that? Well, what I would do, if it's all in your name, you're technically got to pay the taxes, but I would reduce those taxes. I'd split those taxes across as a cost across the estate, because morally, the estate owes the taxes. I'm not sure who told you to put it into your name, but it doesn't matter now. It's in your name.

So the house is in your name, and it's gone up in value twenty thousand dollars that is a gain during that time so what the house sold for minus any expenses uh minus sixty two thousand which is what it was worth at the time of her death were there any repairs done to the house while the time you owned it that were substantial uh yeah but they said since i didn't take them off when it was time i couldn't take them off now is that true too no that increases your basis you need a new bookkeeper well he wasn't one of mine he was just a friend check for me because i didn't know where to go okay here's the thing your basis is what you paid for something technically you didn't pay for this but the basis on it is the value

at the time she died so 62 000 okay your basis is increased by any capital improvements any major expenses you did approximately what were those well i saved all the receipts that I did any work in our house, and it was about $3,000. Okay, so $62,000 plus $3,000 is $65,000 is your basis. That is deducted from your net proceeds of the sale. After the expenses of the sale, the net proceeds of the sale, not talking about the mortgage, but the $80,000 or whatever it's sold for minus any commissions or closing costs or anything like that so if you netted i'm going to make up a number 77 out of the sale okay and you and you had a 65 000 basis which is what you put into it plus what it was worth when she died the difference in those two numbers is taxable at 15%.

So 77 minus 65 is 12 times 15% is $1,700. Oh, I love you, Dave. Okay. But you need a tax person, okay? I'm not a tax person. Okay, what kind of person do I need? Go to DaveRamsey.com and click on ELP for taxes and get someone to help you calculate this. Now that if I'm in your shoes and it's seventeen hundred dollars, you technically have to put this on your tax return because the house is in your name.

However, I would take the proceeds that you have in the account and subtract this tax bill from it before I split it four ways with my siblings because the tax bill should have also been on them. Yes, yes, I intend to do that. Okay, good. And so you just take whatever money you've got in this account now when it's all said and done minus whatever this tax bill is, divide it by four and write checks, and this puppy's over. Okay, thank you so much, Dave. So get your taxes done by somebody that knows what they're doing,

not somebody who has Google on their phone. So thanks for calling. Open phones at 888-825-5225. I'm not very good at taxes, but I'm really good at real estate, and that's a real estate transaction. So that one I actually do know the answer to. But double-check Dave's tax advice because most of it is wrong. I'll just go ahead and tell you that up front.

But go to DaveRamsey.com, click ELP, find a tax advisor, all of you, a tax preparer that knows how to do taxes right, a tax pro to help you walk through these kinds of things. Tyra is with us in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Tyra. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. It's such an honor to speak with you.

You too. What's up? Ten years ago, when I was 21 years old, I was involved in a settlement, and I decided to put about $400,000 into an annuity. I realize today that I could have made maybe about a million dollars if I invested that money on my own. It's through Prudential, and they're telling me that I'm stuck in it. And, you know, I've called Peachtree and all those other companies,

but it seems like a scam. My question is, am I stuck? Well, I don't know. If it is the terms of the settlement that you get it, you get the settlement off of an annuity, then you might be stuck. Okay. But if the annuity was just handed to you and you're the owner of the annuity, then you can do whatever you want to do with something you own. You're not stuck. You may have some tax issues when you move it around. And what I would do is sit down with one of the SmartVestor pros in person. Click DaveRamsey.com. Click SmartVestor.

It'll drop down a list of the pros in your area for investing that we endorse. They'll be able to sit down and look at the details of this, which I cannot see through my radio, and look at it with you and pick it apart and go, okay, yeah, this sucks, but here's some options of what you can do, or it's not as bad as you thought it was. But basically, yeah, a lot of these accidents, they attempt to settle them with a structured annuity because of the power of the present value of money, and it's a way that they don't pay out as much.

It makes you feel like they're paying out as much, but you're getting it over time, so they don't pay out as much. It makes you feel like they're paying out as much, but you're getting it over time, so they're not paying out as much. So hopefully you became the owner of the annuity, which would allow you to at least roll it to a variable annuity and some mutual funds inside of an annuity rather than this crap that you're in. And there's other possibilities as well. So get with a SmartVestor Pro. Click SmartVestor Pro.

It'll drop down a list of them in your area. They'll help you look at it and tell you what your options are. Learn, learn, learn. And that's how you know what to do. You don't do something because I said do it. You don't do something because somebody that I sent you to said do it. You do something because you understand your options and you choose one of those options and that's how you do it folks the most important lesson you can ever learn about investing is don't put money in something you don't understand ever never put money in something you don't understand if you can't tell somebody else how it works do not put money in it it's not any harder than that hey that puts us our the d Dave Ramsey Show in the books.

Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. Did you know you can now listen to The Dave Ramsey Show on Pandora and Spotify? For all the ways to watch and listen, check out our show page at DaveRamsey.com.