The Ramsey Show - App - They Paid Off $220,000 of Debt! (Hour 3)
Episode Date: July 21, 2021Debt, Insurance, Retirement, Budgeting Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started: Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage ...Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE
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Welcome Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions,
broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios,
it's the Ramsey Show.
Where debt is dumb, cash is king,
and the paid-off home market has taken the place of the BMW
as the status symbol of choice.
I'm Dave Ramsey, your host.
You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money.
Christy Wright, Ramsey personality.
Number one best-selling author is my co-host.
We have launched her new book for sale last week, Take Back Your Time.
The guilt-free guide to taking back your life.
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You've got to check it out, folks.
And all the goodies are with it on the pre-sale.
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Go to RamseySolutions..com get signed up for that the phone number here is 888-825-5225 shelly is in san
francisco hi shelly how are you good dave thank you for taking my call i'm a long-time listener
and i love the show thank you awesome how can we um okay okay So when I was in my 20s, I worked for the government and I traveled a lot. I was all over the world. I had to move residences many times and kind of lost track of a couple things. And I feel like I have, I feel like I remember opening a Roth IRA and I just feel like I lost it. And I was thinking about
attempting to try to find it. And I just don't know the best way to go about it. And if I start
calling, you know, banks or institutions that I think it could be with, you know, what department
do I ask for to try to track this down? And also, could things that I've lost track of been turned over to the state as, like, lost property?
Yeah.
How old are you?
I'm 41.
So this is, like, 20 years ago.
Yeah, like, yes.
15, 20 years ago.
Yeah.
Yeah, it could have been turned over because if an account goes completely inactive
and a bank can't find you, regardless of what kind of account it is, they will do it.
So you think this was probably with a bank?
I thought it was with Bank of America.
And I did go talk to them, and they tried tracking some stuff down.
I don't have, like, the greatest confidence that it was, you know, fully researched,
but they said they didn't find anything and nothing was turned over to the state.
And I've lived in three different states as well, so it makes it a little more complicated.
Well, the Department of Commerce does the accounts that are turned over in each state.
So you can contact the Department of Commerce in each state,
see if your name's on a list there.
That's a fairly easy process.
Okay.
And then, you know, you've got Bank of America,
and what are your other options?
What are the banks?
It was a bank IRA, you feel like.
I feel like it was, and it could be with Navy Federal.
I don't even know if they do that.
I have to check into that.
They do.
And so, yeah.
And there may be other stuff out there that I've lost track of as well.
So I may just do it with everyone I think it could possibly be with and check both.
Yeah, they ought to be able to drop your social into their system with written permission from you
and just see if anything shows up, an old checking, an old savings, an old Roth, anything,
with Navy Federal or with Bank of America.
And you just think you may have gotten an incompetent due, but the branch at B of A,
which really wouldn't be that unusual.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, they had some other stuff messed up in my accounts as well
which you know looking at it i'm like oh you know my name is wrong and things were wrong about the
information that they had on file with me so i didn't have the greatest confidence that it was
a thorough search yeah yeah well you didn't have confidence in the person who's doing it's what
you're telling me so and again, that's not that unusual.
So, yeah, I think you're on it.
I would hit the Department of Commerce in the three cities.
I'd hit Navy, and I'd hit Bank of America. And if you can think of a couple more, hit those, and then call it a day and go, this is a lesson learned.
Yeah.
All right.
You know, and I just lost it after that.
Well, and I will say, if you don't get someone competent at the places that you call, I mean, my go-to is I'll always just call back.
I call back the next day, get a new person.
I'm like, hey, like it's my whole first time calling.
And maybe that person might be more helpful.
And, you know, give that a try a few times.
Hopefully, you'll get someone helpful in the lineup.
Yeah, and the same is true of the branch.
You walk into a branch, just go to a different branch.
There's another one.
And, you know, you can get,
you know, say, hey, I need a little
help here. And
the good news, Navy Federal is probably pretty
responsive because she probably was,
like she said, she was working for the government at the time
and they're probably going to be of help
to her more so
than B of A. That would be my guess.
All right, Bronson's with us
in Santa Barbara. Hi, Bronson.
How are you? Hey, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up?
So I just got married about three weeks ago. Congratulations. Thank you so much. I'm very
excited for the future. And I just graduated college before that. And I'm about to start law school in about a month.
Good.
And, you know, being married and everything, you know,
now I have to worry about, you know, another person with money and everything.
And being in law school, you know, I won't be able to work, you know,
my nine-to-five job every day.
So I'm just looking for ways that I can capitalize the most
in what you suggest for, you know, coming out of law school.
I assume your wife is working.
Yes, sir. She's a real estate agent.
Okay. So you've got income to work with for your household, right?
Yes, sir.
Okay. So exactly what's your question then?
So I make about $2,000 a month off of passive income,
and that's going to be basically what I'm bringing in during law school.
So what's the main way that I don't want to just, you know,
keep putting money in the bank and just, you know, have it stored there.
No, there's not an I anymore.
There's a we.
Yes, sir.
You got married, and so your household income is going to be used to pay your household bills in your law school.
Yes, sir. In the 2000 and any commissions she makes on real estate and all of that.
I have a full-ride scholarship.
I was valedictorian in my class.
Wow.
Good for you. Yeah, got-ride scholarship. I was valedictorian in my class. Wow. Good for you.
Yeah, got a good scholarship.
So I won't be paying anything, actually, for law school.
Well, then your household will work the baby steps.
And you first save $1,000 and make sure you're debt-free
and then begin to build an emergency fund.
But this is your whole household, not just your little $2,000.
It's the money she's making as well.
We're all putting it in one pile, and we're going to say these are our goals.
Go ahead.
Get on a budget, a real budget, an every-dollar budget, Bronson,
you and your wife on a shared budget.
That's going to be the tool that helps you do what you're asking us about
on a budget,
together, on paper, on purpose. The money you bring in, the money she brings in,
all your expenses, that tool is what's going to help you work that plan.
Here, I'll help you with it. We're going to give you a wedding gift. I'm going to send you a copy
of the Total Money Makeover, and you and your spouse get to read that as a wedding gift. And
then it'll get you rolling right down the baby steps, man.
That's what it'll show you how to do.
Hey, congratulations.
Valedictorian, married, free law school.
Yeah, come.
Wow.
Awesome.
This is The Ramsey Show. If current times have shown us anything, it's that the least expected events can and will happen, and we have to deal with it.
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Great rates and a simple process mean there's no excuse to not get this done, people. christy wright ramsey personality is my co-host today if you're in debt you're out of control
with your money well i know how that feels i've been there myself been a long time ago but i've
been there and i do still remember that feeling you feel like you're fighting a losing battle
like you're stuck in a hamster stuck in a wheel am i ever ever ever going to get out ahead gosh i wish i could get ahead of
this well it doesn't have to be like that when you attack this debt like your life depends on it you
take back your life and your paycheck and then you begin to build the life you really want. And we can show you how to do that.
We've shown millions and millions and millions of families how to do that.
In Financial Peace University.
In this class, you learn our proven plan.
It's a clear path that's helped millions of folks pay off their debt.
And begin to build wealth.
A lot of them become baby steps millionaires.
And, you know, you stick to a budget.
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Now, Christy, you guys have a big event coming up for Life Balance next Wednesday, right?
Yes, we are talking about why you get out of balance in the first place, which is important to know if you're going to fix this feeling that you have.
And I just want to help people get it together before their life gets back to crazy in the
fall, which we know that August is around the corner.
School schedules, work schedules, all the things are filling up.
So we are doing a free live stream session with me on Life Balance Wednesday, July 28th, 7 o'clock Central Time
on YouTube and Facebook. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash balance to get your spot and join me and
I'll be giving you some tips to get balanced before your life gets back to busy this fall.
Wednesday, July 28th, one week away, 7 o'clock, free on Facebook and on YouTube.
So just text BALANCE to or go to RamseySolutions.com slash BALANCE, RSVP today.
That simple.
Christian is with us.
Christian is in Austin, Texas.
Hi, Christian.
How are you?
Hi, Dave.
Doing well.
Yourself?
Better than I deserve. How can I help? Hi. Christian. How are you? Hi, Dave. Doing well. Yourself? Better than I deserve.
How can I help?
Hi.
Yes.
I have a question.
So my father just passed away at the beginning of the year.
Oh, my goodness.
And he was kind of in charge of all the money between him and my mom. And he didn't really believe in like,
or understand investments.
So he thought his retirement would be owning rental properties.
And with my dad passing away,
my mom is now,
she has to take care of all the rental properties.
And that's like not her only source
of income she has a pension from a teacher retirement but um so she's just trying to figure
out whether to sell or keep the houses and what she should do. How old is she?
She's 58.
5'8". How old are you?
27.
Okay.
And how many houses did she inherit?
She has two rental properties
and then the house where she lives at.
Okay.
Are they paid off?
Yes, they're all paid off.
What are the rental properties worth?
I would say the two rental properties would net to like $350.
Each or total?
Total.
Okay. All right, good. Good. Where or total? Total. Okay.
All right.
Good.
Good.
Where are they?
They're in El Paso, Texas.
Okay.
All right.
Well, I'm sorry you guys are going through this.
It's a hard, hard time for all of you.
So is your mom, when she talks about these rental properties, is it scary to her or she just hates them or she just doesn't know what to do?
Or what comes out of her when she starts talking about them?
Yeah, it's kind of like she's scared.
My brother's helping her with one, with collecting the rents and kind of being a property manager at that for one of them and the other one is pretty easy but
you know whenever an ac breaks or something breaks at the house like she has a point of contact
but she's just trying to figure out because the house that we that she lives at she can't really
afford it so she's trying to figure out whether to get rid of that one
and buy a different one.
Is it paid for, too?
Yes, it's paid for.
Why can't she not afford it if it's paid for?
Just property taxes are really high.
Does she not have any income?
She does, but with property taxes and like all her living expenses it just covers it
it just covers everything so how much are the property taxes
uh so for the one where she lives at i think it came out to like $14,000 for the year.
Mm-hmm.
That sounds high.
Sorry?
I said that does sound high.
What's this house worth?
That one, I would say anywhere from the $200,000 to $300,000 range.
So a $300,000 house in El Paso, Texas has $14,000 in property tax?
Yes.
That's weird.
Okay.
I'm a little shocked.
Okay, so it's $1,000 a month.
What's her income?
I think her income is about $3,000 a month.
So she doesn't work?
No.
Why?
Just with COVID passing away, she's just waiting for, she's also a teacher,
so she's waiting for school to go back in session and start, like, substituting.
Okay, you have a temporary problem and you're coming up with a permanent solution.
Her income is not $3,000 a month.
She's a teacher.
Her income is $7,000, $8,000 a month,
including all these rents and her teacher's income.
She can easily afford this house.
And selling the house is a permanent solution for a temporary problem.
Okay.
Are you saying, Christian, she does not want to go back to work?
Is that what you're really trying to say?
Yeah, she doesn't want to.
Yeah.
But I kind of...
But she doesn't have any money except these two houses, right?
And the pension.
Yeah.
You can't quit work on $350,000 at 58 years old.
Sorry.
You don't have enough money.
So if you sell these two houses and put money in investments and take her pension, too, she's going to have a paltry income.
She's just hurting and grieving from the loss of your dad, hon.
Yeah.
And so what we've got to do is help her get healed and get past this.
She's just feeling vulnerable and weak and doesn't feel like she's got the stuff anymore.
And we've just got to pump her up a little bit and help her get back into the classroom.
It'll be good for her healing anyway.
And so, you know, she needs the income.
Now, if you want to sell the properties off and put the money in mutual funds and not have to deal with them, that's fine.
If you want to hand them to a property manager and you and your brother help with the property manager and the property manager
be in the point of contact collect the stink and rinse it'll be worth the fee to do that and she'll
probably make more money on these two properties if they're managed well than she would on 350,000
in mutual funds so that part your dad was actually right about. But they're more hassle. And I don't want her having to be the point of contact 90 days after she lost her husband.
On a heat and air problem.
I want you to put a property manager on these properties or I want you to sell them one of the two.
But I don't think she needs to sell her house.
Her house is not the problem.
And she is going to have to get back in the saddle.
It's going to be good for her.
So, man, I'm so sorry.
You guys got a lot of pain there.
A lot of stuff you're working through. I feel it with you. But you can do it, and I'm glad she's
got you in her corner. So square your shoulders, put your arm around your mom, walk her through
this. You can do it, man. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Christy Wright Ramsey Personality is my co-host today.
In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage,
Brennan Clinton are with us.
Hey, guys, how are you?
Good.
Good, how are you?
Welcome.
And where do you guys live?
Indianapolis, Indiana.
All right.
So good to have you guys.
All the way down here to do a debt-free scream.
How much did you pay off?
So we paid off $222,228.
Oh, goodness.
Yeah.
How long did this take?
About six years, just under.
And your range of income during that time?
About $135,000 to $195,000.
Awesome.
Cool.
What do you guys do for a living?
I'm a sergeant on the police department.
And I work for a utility provider, engineering.
Okay, cool.
So I'm going to guess with six years and $200,000, you paid off your house.
You nailed it.
Awesome.
You guys are rock stars, absolute weird people.
Yeah.
This is fabulous.
Yeah.
Well done.
Well done, well done.
Amazing.
Man.
So what in the world started you on this process?
Well, that's an interesting story. Probably about two years before we got started,
Brent approached me and said, hey, your cousins are doing this thing called Dave Ramsey thing
where you pay some money to go learn about how to handle money.
I was like, honey, so I'm a police officer and I have the gift of skepticism.
And I was like, hey, we got to pay money to learn about money?
I think that's not right. That doesn't
sound right. So about two years later,
my buddy approaches me about it while we're sitting there
in a car at work. And he's like, hey, man,
he kind of knew about our situation and everything
that was going on. He's like, hey, you should read this book.
And it was your book, The Total Money Makeover.
And so I went home and
I was like, hey, honey, we got to do this.
I read the book in, I think it was two days.
I was like, hey, we got to do this. And so she was a little bit reluctant at the time because she's like, oh, now that's your idea, we got to do this. Like I read the book and I think it was two days. I was like, hey, we got to do this.
And so she was a little bit reluctant at the time because she's like, oh, now that's your idea.
We got to do this.
She's like, I remember bringing this up.
I like that.
Yeah.
So I was the reluctant spouse initially.
And then she kind of became the reluctant spouse.
And we kind of moved past that initially or a little bit down the road.
So, yeah.
Yeah.
Good job.
So y'all went all in what did
y'all did y'all have other debt in addition to the house yes yeah so we had our uh about 20,000
in student loans uh we had 28,000 or 29,000 in a truck uh about the i'm sorry that was our suv
about 36,000 in a truck and then the rest was a mortgage so and that same time we uh cash flowed
a bunch of stuff we did about 30,000 in our house renovations.
She got an MBA.
Then we had IVF and some other surgeries along the way.
And then some more vehicle purchases up and down just between vehicles and whatnot.
So a lot of different things happened.
Wow.
But you did it.
Yeah.
All the way out.
No house payment or anything.
Yeah, it's awesome.
You're so weird.
You're so weird. How old are you guys? I'm 35. No house payment or anything. Yeah, it's awesome. You're so weird. You're so weird.
How old are you guys?
I'm 35.
I just turned 33 today.
Today.
Happy birthday.
Yay!
That's awesome.
No house payment.
What's this house worth?
Our neighbor just sold theirs for about $300, so we're thinking somewhere pretty close to that.
Yeah.
That's got to feel great.
It does.
35 years old
but paid for 33 years old haven't paid for a house it's all for everything no debt no payments
anywhere nothing it's weird it's a really weird feeling but it's awesome kind of surreal isn't it
yeah yeah very very very no payments okay what's the story on this t-shirt so um our police
department we actually host a lot of the financial peace classes.
Oh, okay. Yeah. So I've coordinated several of those along the way. And it's just kind of the
joke of I'm not your financial advisor. This is not financial advice. Do your own due diligence.
And so it's basically, I have had people approach me quite a bit like, hey, which funds should I be
in? Which funds do you do? And I'm like, hey, look, I'm not going to give you what I do. But
I'll show you kind of the process, the thought process on what you should be looking at and how to pick funds if that's something you want to do.
Or go find somebody who's going to help you out.
Teach you how to fish.
I'm not going to do it for you.
Absolutely.
100%.
Well, thanks for leading it at the police department, man.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
We've been doing it for about the last five years.
There's a picture that we sent in.
That was me and our lieutenant.
He's actually getting ready to retire.
There it is.
Yeah.
So we've been doing it for the last five years.
He started it up before me, and then I jumped on board to help him out in any way that I could.
And now he's retiring, and so I'm getting ready to take over.
All right.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
Congratulations.
Thank you for leading.
It's a lot of fun.
So what's the secret?
What's the secret to getting out of debt and, in y'all's case, all the debt, even the house?
Communication.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a big one.
Yeah, you've got to be on the same page.
Obviously, we were not initially, and it took us a while to get on the same page.
But once we got there, then once the trains started rolling, it was so much easier.
Yeah, definitely say being consistent too, you know, keeping your goals in focus
and understanding why you're doing it.
That's a big thing.
I mean, we bought a house right when he wanted to start Dave Ramsey,
and it was stuck in 1978.
So we had a lot of renovations to do.
And I wanted to, you know, house loan or credit cards.
But he's like, nope, we're done.
So we took a step back and cash flowed the whole thing,
and now it's all paid for.
And it's beautiful, too.
Updated.
So it's great. There you go. Really, really nice. And it's beautiful, too. Yeah. Updated. So it's great.
There you go.
Really, really nice.
Well, congratulations, you guys.
Yeah.
Thank you very much.
Very, very proud of you.
And again, thank you for running the class at the police department. My experience with law enforcement guys and gals is that if I can get them talking about this money thing,
that it really big-time impacts their marriage. Yes. Because it gives them a chance to talk about stuff that otherwise they might get them talking about this money thing, that it really big time impacts their marriage.
Because it gives them a chance to talk about stuff that otherwise they might not have talked about that they needed to.
Yeah, I 100% agree.
There's a, you know, obviously there's a lot of stuff going on with law enforcement and the stress and everything else that can happen.
And so if you've got something outside of the work to talk about and kind of make sure you're talking constantly with each other, it definitely helps a lot.
Yeah.
Definitely helps.
You need that connectivity, and it's real easy to get all walled up
with all the stuff you've got to see and do every day.
Absolutely.
And the stress and the weird world that we live in and the whole thing.
I'm sure it's like pulling a thread, right?
It's like you start talking about the money and the budget,
and actually you get to more layers of maybe where you're missing each other in communication
or some other stress that the money was then kind of highlighting.
Yeah, I'm sure Brynn would know about that a lot more because I like to put up those walls quite a bit, and she breaks them down, though.
She does a good job at it.
That's a fairly normal process.
I'm proud of you guys.
Well done.
Thank you very much.
Well done.
And again, thank you for leading the class.
That's very, very powerful.
Absolutely.
We've got a copy of The Legacy Journey for you.
That's the next chapter in your story.
You're on your way to being Baby Steps Millionaires.
You're going to be there before you know it.
It's going to be awesome.
And you guys fit the mold exactly.
I mean, that's perfect.
Where you're going to be in five years is going to be absolutely amazing.
What that house will be worth, what your funds will be worth, all that.
Man, ding, ding.
Yeah, it's going to be great.
And thank you for all the work that you're doing.
It's really impacting our police department just having this program there.
Definitely can tell it's changing the lives not only of our police officers, but the civilian
people that we have that come through the class as well.
It's great.
Sure.
Awesome.
Well done.
And we got a copy of Total Money Makeover.
I'm sure you'll find somebody to give that to and help out along the way.
And so we're so proud of you guys.
Very well done. Thank you very much.
Absolute rock stars, man.
35, 33 years old.
Paid for house. $222,000.
Paid off in
six years. Making $135,000
to $195,000. Clinton and
Brynn from Indianapolis. Count it down.
Let's hear a debt-free scream.
Ready?
3, 2, 1. hear a debt-free scream. Ready? Three, two, one.
We're debt-free!
Yeah!
That's it, baby.
Woo!
Woo!
Bring it.
That's fun.
That is very fun, you guys.
Very well done.
I am amazed as we get into these Baby Steps for Millionaires, how many of them, you know,
we found out the number three career out of the 10,000 that we studied.
Number one was engineer, number two was accountant, number three was teacher.
But how often they're married to a policeman.
Oh, wow.
I didn't know that.
There's often, I don't know that there's often
uh uh i don't know there's something going on there and it's um but they're working the baby
steps and they get the millionaire net worth and um i'm calling them baby steps millionaires but
that's where they get to right and it's happening it's happening and those guys i mean you look at
this they're making 195 between5,000 between them.
You know, they probably bumped it up doing some OT and stuff to get this thing knocked out.
But, you know, even if they're making $165,000, you know, whatever, right in there between them,
and they have no house payment, and they're $35,000 and $33,000, the numbers real quickly get there. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
The sky's the limit.
Yeah.
It's how fast they're going to have a million-dollar net worth with their 401ks and IRAs and, you know, the value of the paid-for home.
It's going to be classic because usually the house represents about a third of the first $1 million to $2 million in net worth.
So very, very, very cool.
Fun stuff.
I love it, I love it, I love it.
This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. our scripture of the day matthew 7 16 by the fruit by their fruit you will recognize them
do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
Benjamin Disraeli said,
The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example.
Woo!
That one will preach.
Open phones here at 888-825-5225.
Thank you for joining us, America. Jason is in Phoenix.
Hi, Jason.
How are you? Hey, Jason. Excuse Phoenix. Hi, Jason. How are you?
Hey, Jason.
Excuse me.
Hi, Dave and Christy.
Thanks for taking my call today.
Sure.
What's up?
So my wife and I, we're in baby step three right now, and we are working on a six-month emergency fund,
which is going to be just a little over $41,000.
And we're halfway there and expected to be done just around March
of next year. And we have a couple of changes that we can make right now that will save us some
money, but we're a little bit hesitant to make those changes until we get that emergency fund
fully funded. And those changes are, one, we can change the deductible on our homeowner's insurance
from $1,000 to $5,000,
and we can drop comp and collision on a vehicle that's worth about $6,000.
And those combined would save us about $1,000 a year,
but we're not sure with the increased exposure of changing those
if we should wait until we're fully funded or make those changes now.
I would kick the homeowners deductible up.
You already got $20,000. You can cover a $5,000 deductible. I would kick the homeowner's deductible up. You already got $20,000.
You can cover a $5,000 deductible.
I would not drop the comp and collision.
Okay.
Yeah, I'd let that ride.
It's not that bad a buy.
Most of your savings out of this that you're discussing is coming from the homeowners.
Correct.
Yeah.
I mean, the comp and collision on a $6,000 car is not that expensive.
No, it's not.
Yeah, that's not.
Yeah, that's not the big savings here.
And it's, you know, I bought a – when I discovered that was – because there was a guy out there 1,000 years ago, like before I even started,
that I went to one of his seminars, and he always talked about dropping comp
and collision, dropping comp, and self-insuring on your vehicles.
And so I was kind of always early on when I first started doing the show,
I always thought about doing that and thought about telling people to do that.
And I bought a Jeep for like $4,000, $5,000, an old used Jeep to put down in my lake house many, many years ago.
I don't even have the Jeep anymore.
It's gone.
But it was like $3,000 bucks and i got the quote on it and and
it was like a hundred dollars or something to put comp and collision on this little dinky butt you
know ragged jeep and i thought you know i i really for a hundred bucks i'll do that you know and so
it really wasn't it's worth it and now i even look at an expensive car and i go it's it's worth it to cover it so i
generally cover them i've got one vehicle that i don't have that on uh at one of our uh vacation
properties but um but it sits most of the time so uh it's a little harder to justify it but
yeah i generally speaking if you've shopped it with one of the endorsed local providers
and you've got a good deal on your comp and collision, I recommend keeping that.
So good question, though, man.
Thank you for joining us.
John's in Oregon.
Hey, John, what's up in your world?
Well, I have a question for you here.
Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you and Christy.
Sure.
I bought 160 acres about 30 years ago and built it up from scratch, built the roads, the house, the barn, the irrigation system, the well, the septic, and all that sort of stuff.
Anyway, I'm at a point now where I'm thinking of selling them 70, and people are interested in buying. So I wanted to know what provisions I should consider
if I were going to try and do a happy, happy deal
because I think the banks are probably going to be reluctant
to loan on this much property.
What's it worth?
Probably $750,000, $800,000.
It's tough to say.
This is a weird market where I'm at.
Why would a bank not loan if somebody put down a large down payment?
Well, I really haven't talked to them.
I thought they were kind of allergic to renting on acreage.
No, I mean, they may require 40% or 50% down or something, but you are too.
Right.
So, listen, I don't sell a lot of real estate.
When I sell a piece of real estate, I don't want it back.
So, happy-happy means they put down so much that if I have to go through the hassle of a foreclosure,
then I'm happy to take it back.
So, if it's worth $750,000 and somebody puts down $350,000 and they don't pay,
you get it back for $400,000, you put the $350,000 in your pocket,
yeah, that's probably going to make you happy.
But you've still got to deal with all the crap.
That's true.
I'd rather not do it that way.
Yeah, I would rather take a few dollars less for the property
and not carry note on it.
Okay.
And I know the government has some program where they'll finance people,
but I was a little reluctant to get into that three-party deal.
Well, you don't have to.
That's the buyer.
Right.
You're not going to get in the borrowing business.
But, yeah, I think if somebody has $350,000 down on a $750,000 deal, they probably can get financed for the balance of it.
I believe they can through something.
You know, again, you can check some of your local credit unions or whatever.
Talk to a couple of realtors in the area that are going to maybe help you sell it.
And they probably know if they sell small pieces of land or not small.
That's 160
acres uh he says small ranch on the computer screen here and i'm like yeah that's that's
yeah that's a pretty good size one uh by tennessee standards maybe not by montana standards but
anyway so um but yeah a talk to your local real estate elp they'll have a way that the buyer can
get this financed and i wouldn't carry the note if I were you.
Because I think by the time you get that back in a market that's good enough,
as this is right now, then you're going to get your money.
You want your money now.
Yeah.
And then it's just one less thing that you have to deal with,
less stress, less worry for you.
Brody's in Utah.
Hi, Brody.
What's up?
Hey, I've got a bit of a problem with a debt collector. I've taken care
of all my other debts and I have $3,400 left on a rental lease that was broken like three years ago.
I called them multiple times and they're just rude. I offered them $700 and they're just like
hanging up on the phone.
They don't even complete a full sentence.
They like read their little script and then they're like, okay, see you, click.
You offered them $700 on a $3,400 deal?
I did.
Okay.
And it's from a broken lease?
Yes.
Okay.
Have you talked to the original landlord i have not it's like a student housing
development in saint george and i'm not really certain what avenues to you're screwed okay
well you can't make someone take less i mean it's the it may take thirty four hundred dollars to clear it um but um
and rude is a technique with the bill collector it's a technique they're supposed to be making
you upset that's their job because when you're upset your brain doesn't work
yeah they definitely scramble when you get mad you do stupid stuff right when you get your feelings
hurt when you're scared and that's what they're trying to do.
They're trying to push you back on your heels.
And so just be real calm and collected and go, you know, call them back and go, okay.
700 causes you to hang up the phone.
And I understand you're being rude, and that's a technique.
And good luck with that because I'm not going to get upset.
So do you want some money?
Because I'm trying to give you some money.
And if you want some money. Because I'm trying to give you some money. And if you want some money, tell me what kind of money you're going to settle this.
Have they made you any kind of an offer?
No.
Okay.
The first time they told me pay in full, and if you're not going to work with us,
then we're going to put it as some throwaway line saying that you're in
trouble with us crap yeah we're going to put you in double secret probation yeah thank you dean yeah
yeah yeah really yeah making stuff up yeah i'm just gonna make crap up here uh that's what they
do so yeah uh i don't know the only thing you can do is just keep bothering them.
Maybe you become more of a bother to them than they are to you.
That would be a fun change of pace.
Give them a taste of their own medicine.
Yeah, no kidding.
It's been kind of nice being able to use that little vindictive part of my body that's just ready to go.
Channel that energy.
Yeah, just don't cause you to not think because that's their job.
They're trying to get you where your emotions are overriding your wisdom,
and that's where you don't want to go.
Good job, Christy.
Thanks, Ben.
Good job, Ben and Kelly in the booth.
I'm Dave Ramsey, your host.
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. Praise Jesus.
This is James Childs, producer of The Ramsey Show.
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