The Ramsey Show - App - The Stupidity of Your Past Doesn't Define Your Future (Hour 3)
Episode Date: November 7, 2018The show about you...
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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show,
where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.
I'm Dave Ramsey, your host.
You jump in, we'll talk about your life, your money.
It's a free call at 888-825-5225.
Megan starts this hour in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Hi, Megan.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
Thank you so much for taking my call.
Sure.
What's up?
Well, my husband and I have quite a bit of debt.
We've been, we're in our baby step number two, and we've already paid a little over
$22,000 this year towards our debt, but we still have $174,000 left.
Yeah. have 174,000 left. Yeah, we have a little bit of credit card and medical, 14,000 left on a car,
and then the rest of it is 10 student loans that my husband acquired when he was young and dumb.
What's his degree in? It's IT. He went out of state to a private school for college.
So what's your household income?
We're at $133,000 a year.
Okay.
All right.
So how can I help?
So basically on five of the student loans are all under $7,000.
So we feel pretty confident that we can breeze through those pretty quickly.
Three of them we're making monthly payments on,
and then the two biggest ones total $80,000, and they're in default.
But they have called to offer a settlement of $8,000.
So I guess we're trying to figure out if we should accept the settlement.
I'm so confused.
I'm sorry.
You owe $80,000, and they offered to settle them for $8,000?
Yes.
They offered to settle for $8,000.
Yes.
These are not Sallie loans there was noviance
i think you misunderstood well they sent us the paperwork you have it in writing that they will
accept eight thousand dollars settling for 80 yes but i believe they will then send us the 1099 yeah well they have to that's that's not
their choice that's the law debt forgiven forgiven debt is income and so you'll get 1099 on it um
i do not i've never seen this program i didn't know this existed i'm learning something today
if you can validate if you can validate that this is learning something today. If you can validate that you can settle an $80,000 debt for $8,000, you send them the check today.
You take this deal.
Absolutely take this deal.
Your $1099 on the difference is $72,000 of taxable income, which is going to be taxed at 30%.
So that's going to be another $20,000 tax bill.
But, I mean, you're just counting taxes and everything.
You just settled $80,000 for $30,000.
Right.
That's what we're kind of looking at, which obviously we would then have to figure out how to pay the IRS back.
Well, you got until April to come out how to pay the IRS back.
Well, you got until April to come up with the $20,000.
Sure.
So you put it up at the front of your debt snowball.
So you move everything up to the top.
No, you just move the $20,000 up.
Well, you move both those up the top, yeah. Yeah, if we can settle an $80,000 debt for $8,000 today and $20,000 in April,
yes, you move that to the front of your debt snowball.
Absolutely.
Okay.
And then I know your answer is probably no,
but I have the ability to put that $8,000 on a credit card,
but I don't think I want to do that.
No, that's not.
You would do that?
The answer is not no.
The answer is yes, I would do that.
Okay.
Yeah, get this deal done before they change their mind,
because I've never heard of this anywhere near this good.
I do not understand why this is happening.
And so I'm really, really nervous.
I'm really, really nervous there's some part of this you didn't understand.
Well, from what I've read online and from what they sent me,
it's like because it's never had a payment on it and it's over 10 years old,
they're settling for, I guess, like 10% of what is owed on it.
So you found some evidence that this has happened before.
Okay.
I've seen online evidence of people having this happen before, yes.
Okay.
All right.
Good.
Well, again, I learn something every day on this show, and I just learned something today.
So I'm happy for you.
Yes, because here's the thing.
Today you owe $80,000.
At the end of the day, you owe $8,000 on a credit card.
In April, you're going to owe an additional $20,000.
Right.
That's what you're facing here.
Okay?
So in other words, we're reducing your debt.
We're not borrowing money.
We're moving the debt to $8,000 on a credit card from $80,000 to them.
And a future problem coming up in April of 20.
So, yeah, absolutely I'm doing this deal.
In a heartbeat.
Lock her down.
Get her done.
Thanks for the call.
Open phones at 888-825-5225.
You jump in.
Wow, what a deal.
Amazing.
John's in Milwaukee.
Hey, John, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Hey, Dave, how you doing?
Better than I deserve.
What's up?
Awesome.
Hey, Dave, so I'm in the process of transitioning out of the Army in a year.
I'm an officer in the Army, considering either going right in the workforce or going to grad school.
I currently have $39K in my Roth.
I have $70K kind of just sitting there in $28K in my emergency fund.
And so I'm just kind of getting a better understanding of would you recommend to continue investing
or should I save in preparation for my potential
transition to a full-time grad school student in a year?
Okay, so Army paying a stipend and they're paying for grad school?
Yes, so I do qualify for all those benefits.
Can you live on the stipend?
I mean, I have enough saved right now to easily get by.
No, no, no.
That's what I want to ask.
Can you live on the stipend that they're paying you?
Because they give you an income plus they pay for your tuition.
I would probably need a couple hundred dollars more a month, but pretty close.
So what are you going to study in grad school?
I'm going to get my MBA.
Okay.
With an emphasis in health administration.
Good for you.
Good field.
Okay.
I like it.
How long is it going to take?
Two years?
Yes, sir.
It's a two-year program.
What are you paying for it?
Well, it doesn't matter.
The government's paying for it.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Well, thank you for your service.
I'm glad we can do that for you as the taxpayers.
It's a good thing for you.
It's been an honor to serve.
Very, very well done.
Yes, you know, if you've got $70,000
extra cash laying around to help you get
through this, and you can commit to
living on the stipend plus $200,
that's $2,400 a year you're going to
eat into your savings, and you've got $70,000
and you're only doing this for two years, you only need
$5,000 to supplement, right?
Yes, sir. So you've got this thing completely padded up six ways from sunday you're going to make it
no borrowing right roger and i mean i have a 28 000 an emergency fund minus outside of the 70 000
your savings machine john well done man well done boom excellent job
love it i love it i love it. I love it.
Very, very cool.
Wow.
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Savannah's in North Carolina.
Dave, I'm in Financial Peace University.
I'm working on my baby step one.
The only two debts I have are my car loan and a personal loan.
Both combined are about $14,000.
I have about $1,500 in collections.
I was wondering how I should tackle those.
Should I include them in my debt snowball or focus on paying them off one at a time?
What we tell folks to do, Savannah, if you have an item that's in collections, an old bad
debt, I set it aside as a second debt snowball after you get rid of your current debts first.
Your current debt, you're not paying anything on the old bad debt. Your current debt, you're
paying payments on. So once you get those current ones gone, you have more money to work with
because the payments are all gone. Then you make a list of your second list, a second debt snowball, and it's a different
kind of a snowball, of your outstanding bad debts that are in default, that are in collections
that you're not paying payments on.
And then you list those smallest to largest, and you call the smallest one.
And if they're tiny, tiny, call them and ask for a verification of the amount and send them a check i mean if it's 79 get an email says it's 79 not 790 don't
just send the money if you got an old bad debt they dream up all kinds of stuff to add on it
you'll be fighting with them the rest of your life you thought you paid it you didn't pay it
so you need to get a verification of the amount they send you a verification of the amount. They send you a verification of $79. Okay, I'm going to send you a check today.
Boom, send them a check or whatever, right?
Do not allow them to have electronic access to your checking account under any circumstances on old bad debts because you're dealing with a bill collector here.
A few of them have integrity, but most of them don't.
And so you do not allow them to have electronic access to your checking account.
So you get it in writing, and you clear the debt.
You get the next one in writing, you clear the debt.
Now, if you get into some larger ones, you know, $1,000, $2,000 loans,
you may call up one that was $1,000, and now they say it's $3,000
with all the fees added on.
And then you have to negotiate for a quote-unquote settlement back down to what you originally owed, the $1,000.
And once you get that negotiated, then you get that negotiated amount in writing.
And then you send the money.
But in every case, you get it in writing, and then you send the money with no electronic access to your checking account.
And that's how you clear old bad debts and just go, again, smallest to largest.
Don't, and I wouldn't bother with these until you get your active debts
that you're actually paying payments on covered.
You know, real estate is an interesting topic today.
Did you know the market has slowed down?
It was in some areas anyway.
Most areas, I would say.
Some areas,
most areas
18 months ago,
12 months ago
were white hot.
You put a house on the market,
you might get four offers
by nightfall.
Nowadays,
there's a few markets
that are that hot,
but there's some markets right now that
have slowed way down and interest rates have ticked up a little bit they're not super high
but they've ticked up a little bit and the buyers are chilled the buyers have bought and uh their
prices went up and there's some fatigue some emotional fatigue in the market so you know
selling a piece of real estate's a little different today than it was 12 months ago.
Not huge.
It's not a problem.
The market hadn't crashed.
It's not dried up or anything like that.
But, you know, you really need a professional in your corner.
Home affordability has dropped to a 10-year low.
The median home price is now $250,000 nationally.
There's less inventory right now than there's ever been.
There's higher prices and interest rates are a little bit up.
So if you're going to buy or you're going to sell in an environment like this,
it's kind of tense.
You really need a pro in your corner.
Don't let a monkey sell your house.
And there are some people who got
real estate licenses who don't know what the flip they're doing just because it's your uncle
charlie doesn't mean he's smart as a matter of fact that may mean he's dumb don't use uncle
charlie don't use charlie over at the church i've known charlie for years yeah i've known
charlie too he's a great guy he doesn't know beans about real estate just because somebody is a great guy doesn't mean that they know anything about what they're doing
and everybody thinks that real estate is glamorous and all these people run into the business when it
gets good and then they run out when it gets bad they sell three houses you don't want somebody
who sold three houses selling your house you need to have somebody that knows what they're doing
with your largest asset.
That's the thing.
So our endorsed local providers are the top 10% of agents in your area.
They get an average of $5,000 more at closing for a listing that they take than the other agents.
This is what a pro does.
They know how to work the market.
They know how to price the market in such a way that you're going to do this.
And if you've got a multiple offer situation, they know how to manage that, negotiate on your behalf.
You really need a pro.
I mean, if I hired you to manage $500,000 for me and you were going to hire an outside consultant to get that job done,
you better hire somebody that's done it before or I'm going to have a problem with you.
Right?
Oh, he did it once, and now he's got a business card that says consultant.
That's what some of these real estate agents are.
I'm not mad at them, but you don't need to list your largest asset with them.
So, you want to find out who we endorse, the endorsed local providers? You go to DaveRamsey.com.
You click on ELP for real estate the front page of
DaveRamsey.com has got the ELPs listed and you just click on ELP endorsed local provider someone
I endorse they're local in your area yes they pay me a fee for the endorsement but guess what we use
a lot of that fee for hiring people here to make sure that you were taken care of got a huge staff 140 people check on these elps all the time there's 5 000 different
elps across america right now among the different types of elps that we work with and smart investor
pros and so we you know we have to follow up we have to make sure that you're taken care of and we do and so yeah
jump in there check it out click elp for real estate and you'll find the best agent in your
area that we endorse brendan's in washington dc hey brendan how are you good day how are you
better than i deserve what's up hey so the question i have for you is my wife and I are in Baby Step 6.
We both have about $3,000
in Roth IRAs each.
My question is, it's only in one fund
though, so I'm asking
is it wise to split those up
into the three
other different types of funds that you recommend?
Yes. Okay.
If you've got over $10,000, I start worrying
about diversifying it. Or if you're setting up a,000, I start worrying about diversifying it.
Or if you're setting up a monthly plan, I start worrying about diversifying it,
meaning that I spread it across the four types you mentioned,
growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international.
Yeah, I would do that.
And, you know, it's not a bad idea to what they call rebalance your funds ever so often.
If you have one category that sprints out ahead of the others or one category that lags behind the others,
you may want to go back occasionally and rebalance, meaning I'm going to move some of this on my 401k over into this other fund.
So my aggressive has exploded, and I'm going to back.
I don't want that.
It ended up being 50% of my portfolio.
My 401k balance is in one fund. Oh, I'm going to re want that. It ended up being 50% of my portfolio. My 401k balance is in one fund.
Oh, I'm going to rebalance that.
I'm going to spread it across those four evenly again.
And you can place that order inside your 401k and do that too.
So rebalancing, I don't become anal about it, but if it just gets to be an extreme situation,
it doesn't have to be, oh, one's 30% and one's 25 and one's 20.
Well, that's okay.
It's not that big a deal.
But when you get to the point that you're like heavy, like 50% or something in one of them,
or it's starting to be out of control where one fund is 5%, one category is 5% of the rest of it,
or something like that, and it should be 25%.
See, that's an extreme, and you'll want to go in and do your rebalancing.
So look at that about once a year.
Here's the interesting thing.
I've been doing it a long, long time.
I've never actually rebalanced.
Mine tend to rebalance over time.
One fund performs one year.
Another fund category performs another year.
Another category performs another year.
And so growth, growth in income, aggressive growth in international.
Brendan, thanks for the call.
This is the Dave time to buy life insurance?
My answer is typically now.
Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt
and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs.
That's when they're at the highest risk.
And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice.
This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents.
It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities.
I only recommend term life insurance since it's the most affordable way to get the right
amount of coverage and not break your budget.
Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.
These are the guys I personally use.
Term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps.
That's Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. Jonathan and Jessica are with us in Rochester, New York.
Hey, guys, how are you?
We're great. How are you?
Better than I deserve. How's it How are you? Better than I deserve.
Welcome. How's it going, Dave? Better than I deserve. I see on my screen you're debt-free.
Congratulations. Thank you. How much have you paid off? $102,730. Love it. How long did this
take? 37 months. All right. And your range of income during that time?
We started out at $94,000 and currently anticipate $120,000.
Okay. Very good. Very good. Cool. Very cool.
So what kind of debt is the $103,000?
It is $3,000 was actually my credit card, and the rest of that were combined school loans.
Student loans.
What are your degrees in?
I'm a nurse practitioner, so I have a master's degree in nursing.
And I have a bachelor's in business administration.
Okay, very good.
How long have you guys been married?
Three and a half years.
Okay, so you got married and started this, it sounds like.
Exactly.
So what prompted you to do this?
Because most people who get married just go further into debt.
Well, it's actually a funny story, Dave,
because my parents put me in an ex-fiance through your previous 13-week FPU.
Awkward.
And I failed that class, and the relationship ended as well,
but not before getting a house together with that person.
Oh, no!
Oh, I mean, you wrecked the car bad.
Real bad.
Oh, no.
Tell me you're out of that deal.
Oh, yeah, that's been out now for quite some time.
Thank God.
Yeah, for real, for real.
So the rest of the audience listening, do not buy a house with someone you are not married to.
And Jonathan yells amen.
I cringe every time you talk about that, Dave, and I'm glad you speak about it.
Oh, my gosh.
So the engagement ended, you flunked financial peace, you bought a house with her, and then what happened?
Well, then I got out of that, and I ended up meeting Jessica through a church group.
And she already handled their money very well, and she didn't have a church group. And she already handled their money very well,
and she didn't have a credit card.
And we got on the same page before we were married.
She was already chunking off her school loan she had through her RN degree,
RN nursing at the time.
And we combined everything after we got married, just like you say.
Very good.
Okay.
So did you tell her about your former class, Financial Peace University, that you flunked out of?
She knew all about that.
Yes.
Well, were you able to go back and pull the books out and use some of it to get out of debt? Actually, I was, and I reread Total Money Makeover before we got married
because I realized I had messed up and was fired up to get on the right path.
Perfect.
Well, you guys are very successful.
Congratulations.
Very proud of you.
What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?
I would say kind of foregoing luxuries and different experiences now
in exchange for relief of being debt-free in the long run
and kind of setting up motivational points for yourself,
what you think your future might look like if you're able to get out of debt.
For us, or at least for myself,
I've always wanted to be able to spend a few months in Spain every year once I retire,
so I kind of just kept thinking about that,
and eventually we'll be able to do that if we get out of debt.
Yeah, very cool.
What do you tell people, Jonathan, the key to getting out of debt?
Well, besides obviously marrying up,
the EveryDollar app and budgeting has been huge.
I tried other budget apps, and they didn't work.
Spouse and you being on the same page is huge.
And for me personally, I got a real struggle with contentment when we were getting out of debt
and just being able to look ahead and see that there's much bigger things than you can even imagine
once you tell your money where to go.
Yeah, live like no one else so. Yeah, live like no one else.
So later, you can live like no one else.
That's the only reason to do it, and give like no one else.
So they're flashing a picture of one of your old credit cards up on the YouTube channel periodically.
It has a black hole in it.
It appears firearms were used on this particular card.
That's correct, Dave.
It was some buckshot from a shotgun,
a 9mm, both Jessica and I
shot at that, and
instead of cutting up the cards, we wanted to
mix it up a little bit, and we were able to tape
it back up, and we kept that on our fridge while
we were getting out of that. Okay.
I recognize the 9mm hole. I didn't realize
the other was buckshot, but I see it now.
Okay. Yeah, well, a little violence
is in order.
Absolutely. the other was buckshot but i see it now okay yeah well a little violence is in order absolutely very good very good you guys well very cool who are your biggest cheerleaders i would say both of our parents were really helpful and um were the most excited for us
when we got out of that too yeah cool yeah. Well, that helps to have people in your corner that love you and are older and wiser and
saying, do this.
I wish I'd have done it when I was your age and all that kind of stuff, right?
Exactly.
Yeah, very, very good.
Well, we're very proud of you.
Congratulations.
We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired, number one bestseller
that will help you to close this chapter on debt and open chapter two,
which is where you become an everyday millionaire.
And you become outrageously generous along the way.
Yeah, you're on your way.
You guys are going to do great.
Very, very good.
The only thing I just wanted to add real quick is those other pictures besides my
beautiful wife and child that we cashflowed his birth were two motorcycles that I sold throughout that journey,
just realizing, you know, didn't want to ride them as much,
but that's why I got those pictures up there because that one older-looking bike,
I spent a lot of time and a lot of effort building that up to what it was.
Yeah, yeah, it looks like a cool bike.
It's got a lot of character.
Very cool. Yeah, that probably shed a tear when. It's got a lot of character. Very cool.
Yeah, that probably shed a tear when that one rolled out, didn't you?
Oh, yeah.
I bet.
You did some emotional eating, too.
All true.
Guilty!
Oh, well, good job, you guys.
Very good job.
Jonathan and Jessica, Rochester, New York,
$103,000 paid off.
Great story.
Then in 37 months, make it $94,000 to $120,000.
Count it down.
Let's hear a debt-free scream.
Three, two, one.
We're debt-free!
Yeah, baby!
Touchdown! There you go. i love it well done very very well done interesting so you know what the moral of that story is
your stupid stuff you did in the past does not right your future.
If you've done something stupid with money, you've made colossal mistakes with money,
do you know what that makes you?
Over 12.
Everyone has.
I mean, Jonathan, that was amazing.
What a deal.
There's so much heartache in that story with the fiancé and the house and the breakup
and I flunked out of Financial Peace University.
You know, all of the...
Yeah, me too, me too me too that's how i got to sit in this seat i've got a
phd in dumb the stupidity of your past does not define your future
try that again make sure you hear that and you wear it.
The stupidity of your past does not design or designate your future or dictate your future.
The decisions you make today will affect tomorrow.
So make new ones.
Ready, set, go. So make new ones. Ready. Set.
Go. Thank you. our scripture of the day john 14 27 peace 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
The words of Christ.
Martin Luther King Jr. said the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,
but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.
Brett is in Orange County.
Hey, Brett, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Hey, Dave, thanks for having me.
Certainly. How can I help?
Well, my wife and I just got married about a month ago.
Yesterday was actually our one-month anniversary.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
We're going through financial peace.
We're about five weeks in and we're on baby step number two. We're planning on
moving in to be here for a little while, but we're buckling down to do it. My question is,
I'm a self-employed, I'm a chiropractor, and I don't know whether I should pay my practice debt first or my personal debt first.
I don't know what the best way would be to handle that.
Well, legally speaking, it's all personal debt.
You signed for the debt personally, or you didn't get the loan.
Right.
So the business is an S-Corp. Yeah. But the S-Corp, you have a personal guarantee get the loan. Right. So the business is an S-Corp.
Yeah, but the S-Corp, you have a personal guarantee on the loan.
Right.
Yeah, and if you don't have a personal guarantee on it,
you wouldn't have gotten the loan.
So how much do you owe on your practice?
So on the practice is about $70,000.
Okay, and that's just a bank loan or what?
The equipment, credit cards, and a startup business personal loan.
Oh, so it's a series of loans.
It's not one loan.
Right.
Okay, so the credit cards are personal loans too.
I mean, technically speaking, this is all.
In your mind, and correctly from an accounting standpoint, you call it business debt.
But my point is, legally, that business doesn't exist as far as those lenders are concerned.
They're looking at you.
And you are on the hook for that.
So, you got $70,000 there.
What have you got, quote, unquote, at home?
At home would be about $265,000.
Counting your mortgage?
Nope.
My student loans are about $220 of that.
Holy crud.
Yeah.
And what's the other $45?
$30 in credit card and $15 on a car.
Please tell me you're making some money.
Yep.
So my wife brings home about 130 uh pre-tax and i this year i brought home uh just
about 70 pre-tax so far um part of the reason is having to pay so much obviously for my payment
through the business um by the time it gets to me and through taxes, it ends up being significantly lower.
Okay, so what's your top line on your business?
So, so far this year, I've collected about $200,000.
Okay, and not counting debt payments, what is your overhead?
About $6,000 a month.
Okay, so you're making a profit that's taxable of about $150,000, $140,000.
Well, by the time I pay my minimum payments through the company.
No, no, no, no, no.
Debt payments are not expensible.
Okay.
I'm talking about your profit and loss statement.
Your taxable income
over there before you pay debt payments
is about
$130,000, it sounds like. $72,000
is $6,000 a month.
And you made $200,000
top line, and if you're overhead,
non-debt overhead,
so you made $128,000 taxable
income, and she made $ so you got a 260 000
income that's good news okay good and now we're going to pay debt and yeah now that you know that
debt over at the business you pay your minimum payments on everything and so the answer to your
overall question is i would just list these things uh smallest to largest put them all together
because a they're all personal debt,
and if you want to pay the minimum payments over at the office
on what you've categorized as business debt, that's fine.
That's your minimum payments.
But in terms of how you order your debt snowball,
which one do we pick on next,
we'll jump back and forth between the house and the office
by having one list of debts, smallest to largest.
So the last thing you're going to end up paying is your student loan debt.
It'll be the biggest one, right?
Right.
And you got 70 plus you got about another 45 at home of other odds and ends.
So you got 110 you're going to wipe through in the top of your debt snowball.
On the bottom of your debt snowball
is your $225,000 student
loan debt. Does that make sense?
Yep. We're going to
integrate them as if they are one
list, even though you may write
the checks out of two different locations.
Is that okay?
Sure. Yep. You're doing good,
man. You're working this through.
You've got a lot of debt, my brother, but the good news is you've got $260,000 income to attack it with.
And you've got $300,000 total, $330,000, making $260,000.
Yeah, you can probably do this in three years.
But you're going to be on beans and rice, rice and beans. You're not
going to be living Orange County life.
You're going to be living no life.
Work all the time.
Spend no money. Pay down
debt. Because here's the cool thing.
You get the other side of this and you don't have any payments
with that income. Ding, ding.
The stuff you'll be able
to do. Oh my
goodness. It'll be worth it.
Three years, that's what I'd do.
Justin is in Lansing, Michigan.
Hey, Justin, how are you?
I'm doing well.
How are you, sir?
Good.
How can I help?
Good.
I have a question about a public utility easement.
So someone bought property next to us and they built a house,
and then we were asked to sign an easement
agreement that would pay us a whole dollar to get these new neighbors electric service.
And so we really want to help them out, but we don't really want the line on our property. And
so I asked the utility company if they'd be willing to negotiate that dollar amount. They
said no. They said ask the neighbor. And so my question question to you is would you ask the new neighbor
to pay for access to the electric through your property okay you don't want the line on your
property not really but we do want to help the neighbors out okay um you want to make them put
it underground uh we did ask about that and they said it was going to be about five times more expensive
to your problem not your problem right that's a utilities problem you want to go across my land
you want to go across my land put it underground yeah we did ask and the neighbors said that that
would be five times more expensive for them um i don't know if five times is right.
So what does five times amount to?
I'm not sure.
They didn't give us the dollar amount.
But, yeah, just one dollar didn't feel like fair compensation for use of the land, really.
So that's why I was curious what you'd do.
Well, I think the thing is this.
It's not the dollar.
And even if they give you $10,000, you don't really want the line there right and so you know i'd rather rather than have compensation i'd rather than just put it
underground and we'll give you an easement underground and we're going to give you an
easement where you can't come back and dig up through the middle of something we're going to
give you along the edge somewhere is that right yeah we did ask for the edge yeah yeah they're
going along a property line or a cro line or clipping across a corner or something, right?
Correct.
Yeah, I mean, I want to be a good neighbor, but I don't necessarily want a power line in my backyard.
Yeah, exactly.
So, yeah, I'll be happy to let you come across, but it's just got to be underground,
because I don't want a power line in my backyard.
It's not about the money, is it?
No, not really.
I mean, we figured if we were to ask for something, we could put it, you know, towards the house or anything.
We don't have any debt.
But the thing is this.
You get ready to sell this house someday, you've got a power line in your backyard.
We would actually have two because we already have an existing easement to power us.
But then we would have, yeah, an additional power line.
What's the difference in two lines and one line through the same space?
It wouldn't be through the same space, really.
It would be creating another easement that goes north and south versus east and west.
Okay.
So, you know, you're going to be surrounded by power lines now.
Which we don't want.
Exactly.
So, yeah, put it on the ground.
I won't be a good neighbor, but I want to look at a power line running down my north-south boundary, you know.
I love you.
I'm going to be happy to help you.
Sorry if it's inconvenience to you, but, you know, no.
It's the beauty of private property.
It's not being mean.
It's just I don't want a power line in my backyard.
So there you go.
That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books.
We'll be back with you before you know it.
In the meantime, remember, there is ultimately only one way to financial peace,
and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.
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