The Ramsey Show - App - They Paid Off $448,000 in 16 months! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

Debt, Education As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey Plus TODAY: https://bit.ly/31ricKt  Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

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. Anthony O'Neill, number one best-selling author, featured in Success Magazine this month, is my co-host here on the air today. And the phone number is 888-825-5225. So do you feel more successful now that you're in Success Magazine? More successful?

No, Dave. I felt more successful when you allowed me to join the show with you, man. Oh, that was really brown-nosed. That was great. Yeah, just butter them up there. See, the success magazine doesn't pay me money. You do. Well, that's true.

There is that. But see, that's a bought and paid for advertisement right there. You know, man. Oh, my gosh. I don't, but I think for me, waking up, seeing this, and just seeing my story mixed in with our mission and message, I am extremely happy because we're helping and we're serving people. Yeah, make sure that somebody in the personalities team helps you with this. You need to get that done up in a full-on display box oh for your home

and we need another one here in the office okay the first several of those i got like that over the years years ago yeah it does it may make it's um it makes you feel good that you open up a magazine there you are and it's like yeah i'm really doing this stuff and it's working and you had a number one bestseller that's a big deal that's it's in the same same list of things you know and um you know some magazines are the newspapers I've been in, I wished I hadn't been. But lately, by the way. But, yeah. But anyway.

But the, yeah. You should have that as a keepsake. You don't want to necessarily do every single thing you ever get in because you're going to be in a bunch of stuff over the years and it'll get weird. But your first few like that, like I was in People Magazine on the book tour with the very first book. Matter of fact, I was younger than you. Wow. And that People Magazine is on the wall right here in the hallway. Exactly.

And so that's a nice memory, you know, that's 30 or 25 years ago or whatever, when the first book financial piece hit the New York Times. The same week I was in People. That was the first time I'd hit the Times and the first time I'd been on a bestseller list. And so, you know, you need to mark those things. So do the personalities get to join you on the wall back here? Yeah. Yeah, there's plenty of wall. Yes.

Matter of fact, y'all can just take it all over. I'm done with it. It's all good. No, you can't take it all over. I'm done with it. I'm done with the ego wall. So you got to have an ego wall for a while, though. It's a good thing. It's a good thing to stop and say, thank you, God, for the blessing. Yes, sir. Thank you to the publicity team for putting it together.

Yes. You acknowledge all that, but you also acknowledge a milestone and saying, hey, that's nice. So if you guys pick up Success Magazine, five-page spread on Anthony this month, and it's a great read and very, very proud of you. Thank you, sir. And I definitely want to say on the air in front of 17 million people, thank you, Success Magazine, for helping us and helping me. And actually writing down what you said without screwing it up.

They didn't change one word. Which you can't always count on. Yes. Sometimes people in that world just make up crap you know and then you have to go well they just made up that crap they just lied about that it's just like you know and sometimes it's good sometimes not good but it's either way but this was straight up they did a great job with it straight up and dave when i sat down with them and did the interview and also not just the interview dave i forgot to tell you this but

i'm doing two interviews with them for video to go on their social media to go on a website and when we first hit the sit down um interview with them i'm thinking it's going to be like a half a page maybe a page but no it's five pages yeah yeah it's it goes on forever let's answer some phone calls crystal Crystal is in Greensboro, North Carolina. Hey, Crystal, what's up? Hi. It's a pleasure to speak with you all. You too. How can we help?

So I have a question. It's probably a common sense question, but I have a situation. My car is currently in my ex-husband's name as well as my name. And I'm unable to renew my vehicle registration because he owes about $1,800 in personal property taxes on his car. I owe about $6,700 on my car, but I can't keep riding around you know with expired tags so um why do you have expired if your name is on it why can you not get tags because his name is still attached to it and whatever car is in his name everything is put on hold oh so the personal property taxes keep you

from getting tags yeah exactly but how long is how old is the divorce uh we've been divorced for about six years now so i should have been gotten his name off the car yeah what's the car worth uh probably about 3,500 oh geez yeah yeah whole thing's not worth fighting over it It's not. Do you have any money? Yeah, I've got money saved. How much? But I'm looking for a house. How much? About $8,000. Okay.

Does he own anything? Does he own anything? Does he have a car that's worth $2,000? I'm not sure if his car is paid off or not. Does he have anything he could give you that's worth $2,000 so you can go and pay the $1,800? No, sir. Hmm. Well, here's what's running through my mind.

I'm bouncing these numbers back and forth okay 1800 versus 3500 that's not a play i want to make no uh 1800 of his bills i don't want to pay no i don't like that play right um you owe 6700 it's worth 3500 is his name on the loan uh yes his name's still on the loan and you have eight thousand dollars um it's not a very good move but off the top of my head i can't think of another one uh tell the bank to come get the car do a voluntary repo oh my goodness yeah that's going to mess up your house yeah yeah then i need a car yeah but if you pay if you pay this car off at six thousand seven hundred dollars and it's worth three thousand and you put another eighteen hundred in it we're now approaching nine or ten thousand dollars you have

invested in this car that's worth three thousand five500. Because you can't get tags on it, and broke boy, you can't get any money out of him. Right, right. I don't know how to get you out of this. You could spend money on an attorney, but suing a rock, it's still a rock after you sue it. Right. You hit a rock with a hammer, it never bleeds. In other words, you can sue his pants off, and he won't have any pants, but he still won't have any money.

Right. Suing somebody doesn't make them have money. You follow me? True. Now, I guess you could garnish his wages, you know, and then get the stinking thing. But still, you're going to owe $6,700. If you take the $8,000 and you pay the car off,

that still doesn't get it out of his name. Exactly. It takes $9,000 to get this car debt-free and in your name, and it's worth $3,000. Yes. And I can make an appointment at the DMV for us to, you know, go get it signed over just to me. But that's all the way in December, and I'm in pain.

Oh, I didn't know you could do that. That's what you do. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's the best. I didn't know this was an option. I thought you said you couldn't do it. I was about to ask that question, but the music came on.

I'm not a fan of her doing a repo day. That's why I was asking the question. I don't like it either. I'm just trying to figure out how to get out of it. But I thought as long as that dadgum 1800 is standing out, she can't get a transfer. Right. But if she could take him in there in December by the ear and get it out of his name, that's what you'd do. Let me tell you a story about two families that are very much alike in a lot of ways. Both families

have two working parents and a couple of young kids. Each has dead and has struggled to make ends meet. But they're starting to make headway with their budgets and smarter decisions with money. They have dreams and plans, and the only real difference is that one family has the right amount of term life insurance and the other doesn't. Big difference. If one of the parents die, and that does happen,

their well-being would be destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and that does happen, their well-being would be destroyed. Paying for the mortgage, utilities, food, and other bills would be impossible, let alone saving for education or retirement. That's why every day I talk relentlessly about getting term life insurance. Just go to ZanderInsurance.com or call 800-356-4282 and see how inexpensive it really is. Be the family that takes those deliberate steps to be different and responsible. It really does make you the hero of your story, and it puts you on course for better things ahead. Anthony O'Neill Ramsey personality is my co-host today here on the air,

who was supposed to interrupt me while I was making a mistake during that last call and didn't do it. So the difference is, in some states, a personnel tax or a personal effects tax or whatever affects a lien on a vehicle. In our state, it does not. So some states it does, some it does not. And so then if it does affect the lien on the vehicle and was keeping her from transferring the title, which you grew up there. Right. So you actually knew this. And I'm sitting here.

I don't know what the crap I'm talking about. So you should have jumped in. But she has the ability to get that removed by going down to the DMV. Then that's a much better suggestion than my dangerous voluntary repo suggestion. Oh, yeah. I was just waiting for a break day to come in there and just, you know, take care of you.

But the music came on. Waiting for a pause. Right, right, right. But all she had to do was just go down there. As long as she has proof saying that she is divorced, she can go down there and make an appointment. And immediately they will go in the head and take that off of her car and still hold him liable for his issues and his stuff. But I wasn't a huge fan of her doing a repo because that's not a fan of it either.

Somehow she's got to get shed of this guy. Yeah. Six years later. Yeah. So, you know, I'll tell you what does tell us. I don't know her situation exactly you what it does tell us. I don't know her situation exactly, but it is a reminder. The things that you don't button up in your life will come back and bite you in the butt.

When you don't have a will, it's going to mess up your family for a year or two trying to get through the mess that you leave behind. When you say, okay, I've got a trust, but you never move the title of the stuff into the trust, you never follow through on those details, you're pledged according to a lawsuit to do X or Y and you don't go do those things, you leave yourself open to just get hammered later. You do. And so there's a possibility. I'm not sure in her situation, but there's a possibility this all should have occurred like the day of the divorce. Absolutely. Or within 30 days of the divorce.

She should have gotten this done a long time ago. She should have got it done, actually, within the first 36 days of their of divorce being efficient yeah probably i don't know her whole story but sometimes people get uh sloppy okay finally the divorce is over but i'm not gonna worry about getting the beneficiary of my okay my husband is my beneficiary on my life insurance but i'll get that change later no get it changed now you're gonna leave the guy who's divorced rich when you die. Right now. Go change that tomorrow. I'm going to change the beneficiary on my 401k now. Right.

You know, I'm going to do that quick claim deed on that house now. You know, and so button the stuff up, man. I'm not saying I'm not yelling at her, but I'm just saying sometimes we go like, Oh, I'm just out of emotional energy for dealing with this twerp. Yes. No, I don't care. Shut up. Yeah.

Throw your shoulders back and finish. Yeah. Get it done. Whatever it is. I mean, when you leave your old job and you're sick of that job, roll your 401k over. Yes, sir. Finish up. Do the details.

Roll it over to an IRA. Always finish the details. There's something about wealthy people, and it's not because they worship money, but they somehow say, I have to finish the details. Finish the details. And they know all the details before they go into it, Dave. And she was married, but let's talk about how the single

people who are buying cars together and doing stuff together like they're married. Look at the situation that you could be walking into in the future that's why we say do not do just really nice because what you just described is super stupid super stupid but people are doing it that's just super stupid they're doing it i'm buying a car with my girlfriend yes this is super stupid very very this is a way to not have a girlfriend nor a car yes you end exactly. You end up with neither one, and you got the bill, too.

Yep. This is super stupid. Yes, it is. Running around acting like you're married. Because what you are, let me just tell you, from a legal standpoint, you can ask your lawyer, because I'm not one, but you just created a general partnership, and there is no partnership documents. Yep.

What happens when your partner becomes disabled? Come on. Disinterested. Yep. Has drug use. Yep. Just generallyinterested. Yep. Has drug use. Yep. Just generally takes off. Yes.

And disappears, and you can't find them. Yep. They call them a partner in a relationship sense, but let me tell you, from a legal standpoint, you are in a general partnership with no partnership documents. Yes. You do not have a way to exit the partnership legally. Yes. And so, because you entered this on stupidity, you're going to leave it on stupidity. Yes. You do not have a way to exit the partnership legally. Yes. And so because you entered this on stupidity, you're going to leave it on stupidity.

Yes. And that situation would have been much harder to get out of if she was in, if they were in that is that same situation as the last caller because they don't have any paperwork showing it that there's no divorce. Exactly. There's no end to this. So now, now we have to go back to what you were recommending. Oh, so now my girlfriend, my boyfriend didn't pay his personal tax.

Oh. See what I'm saying? Oh. That's what I'm saying. We just really got to make sure that. The dangers of shacking up. Come on. The dangers of acting like you're married when you're not married.

Wow. The dangers of doing things together. Yeah. We want to buy a house together. No, you don't. No, you don't. We want to buy a car together. No, we don't.

No, we don't. We want to get married together. Now we're you don't. No, you don't. We want to buy a car together. No, we don't. No, we don't. We want to get married together. Now we're talking. You see, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, you make that decision, it changes everything. Yes. But, you know, the number of times, and it's some of the saddest stories I've had to do

with one-on-one coaching over the 30 years, but it hasn't been that often. But it's happened enough that it just scares the crud out of me where you're going along and, you know, they're engaged. But they move in together and buy a house together. Yeah. And she gets killed in a car wreck three weeks before the wedding. Guess what? Yeah. He owns a house with her mama.

Yeah. Because he's not her heir. Oh, man. And there's no will. Oh. Or they dump all their money in a bank account with both names on it and he put in a hundred thousand and she put in five thousand before they're married and she gets killed in a car wreck has cancer and dies has gets hit by the milk truck whatever the scenario is right yeah or you. Or, you know, guess what? You know, her father now, her mama, whoever her heir is, her natural heir, because there's no will,

has now got access to half of this guy's $100,000. And I'm trying to go, well, yeah, this is what we call stupid tax. Yeah. When you do something stupid and it costs you money. Yeah. And I have paid so much stupid tax. So it always breaks my heart when I'm talking to have paid so much stupid tax so it always breaks my heart when i'm talking to somebody's got stupid tax but it is stupid that causes it yeah and you

just lost money because you did something stupid yeah so buying houses combining accounts buying cars you know all this you know run around acting like you're married when you're not it's so freaking legally relationallyally, financially naive and stupid. Last year, Dave, I did a one on one with a young couple in their mid 20s. The young lady called me and she did a combined account with her boyfriend, combined account with her boyfriend. She woke up one morning. He's gone. All the money is out of the account because they had

combined accounts and she said she filed a police report she said the police officer said that because you all joined the account together he didn't steal nothing he didn't do anything criminal and i'm sitting there like and i'm going to be like see i, I told you, do not do that. He needs a butt weapon. Right. But it wasn't criminal. Right. Oh, my God. So that's what I'm just saying. I pray people hear us. Well, you know, I don't want you to get conned.

And that guy was a straight up con there. Yes. I mean, he's straight up gigolo. I mean, he's just sleeping for money. And there's cons out there. Man. There's cons out there. Man. There's cons out there. It is.

There are. But even if they're not, bad things happen in some of these situations, and it's just like, you know, well, I looked up my old boyfriend on Facebook, and so, you know, we're not going to really do this marriage thing after all. But he really wanted your car. But you know what, though? Here's the truth, Dacre. You said this, and i believe this to be true good people make bad decisions when they are emotionally hurt yeah hey i do and so

i believe let me tell you the dumbest things i've ever done in my life when i was desperate yes or when i was embarrassed yes yes are those kinds of things and those are emotions they aren't anything else yes right before i lose money, it's usually desperate or stupid. Desperate is right before stupid. Yes. Embarrassed is right before stupid. I get mad. Oh.

It's right before stupid. You know, these are the things that cause you to lose your butt on stuff. Yes. Because you're not thinking and you're not treating this like a transaction. Because, by the way way it's a transaction oh my gosh there's a little fodder for your next anthony o'neill rant on youtube i could do that y'all see it next week there we go here upcoming attractions this is the the Dave Ramsey Show. Anthony O'Neill Ramsey, personality number one best-selling author, is my co-host today here on the air.

Scott and Deidre are with us in Oklahoma City to do a debt-free scream. Hey, guys, how are you? Hey, Dave, how are you? Welcome, welcome. How much have you guys paid off? Well, this is going to sound high. This includes our mortgage, which we just paid off well this is going to sound high this includes our mortgage which we just paid off in september it's 448 000 wow and how long did this take well it took 16 months okay and your range of income during that time well and we are a bit older i am uh 56 and uh just retired our income uh 16 months ago was uh a combined 250 000 we're both retired now so this is a little unusual

it's now 60 000 okay works for me i like it everything's paid off, huh? Yes. But during that 16 months, you had that big income to work with to hammer that $448,000. Yes, and we do want to say we had a sizable savings. And we are both, this is our second marriage. We just got married at the start of that time period, and we just aggressively attacked this. So tell us the story story how did this come about well uh Dieter and I both have listened to you I've listened to you since the mid-90s and I've always been a Dave Ramsey fan but um we didn't always put the practices into place um We got together. Both are very much on the same page. We talked about this. And it's just amazing when, you know, a husband and wife can be on the same page, the power,

the focus, and, you know, what you can achieve when you both have your heads together. Yeah. Now, Scott, let me ask you this. We've never had that before. We, we both had spouses that we weren't on the same page with, so we couldn't just do it alone. Wow. So Deidre and Scott, tell me this, this is Anthony. Uh, what was during the 16 months, what was one of the hardest things you two had to, um, encounter or go through, uh, throughout this journey? One thing that's been hard for me is having the money combined because I always had a good income. And in my first marriage, my husband refused to have our money together. And so I have, I still kind of struggle with this feeling of guilt that I'm not just spending my money. And we talk about everything, but even if I buy a little extra

at the grocery store, I have this, I kind of have this thought inside me that this is not just my money. And so that was hard for me. And I wanted to be together with the money. But after so long of not having that unity, I just always had this feeling that I was doing something wrong because it wasn't just my money that I was spending. That's very interesting. Very. Yeah. Not that unusual. What about you, Scott? Well, I have always been very good with, you know, finances. I was raised, my parents, they're Dave Ramsey people themselves, and they haven't had debt in 20 plus years, including a mortgage. But kind of a similar situation. My former spouse, we just weren't on the same page as far as finances. You know, we did have a combined

Deidre and I, we had a sizable savings when we first got married. And I did always have the – I had the mentality of normal people that everybody has a mortgage. And, you know, I was willing to save money but not put extra money toward the mortgage because I thought that was normal. It is. Yeah. But we don't want to be normal anymore. Good. Good. You're officially weird now.

Yes. So the interesting thing is that when you were both married to spouses who wouldn't work with you on money, in the back of your mind you kind of had this thing, gosh, if I could just get on the same page, it'd be easy. And then when you actually were together with you two, it wasn't as easy as it was in your head, was it? Right, no. Right. together with you two it wasn't as easy as it was in your head was it right no right and we we still had a lot of money to come up with we just got uh we saw the light at the end of the tunnel and it wasn't a train um we just got super aggressive um one example is i I have a pickup truck that was paid off. It was valued maybe $25,000. And I just literally woke. We were in the middle of this real intense period of just paying things off.

I just woke up and decided, what am I doing with this truck? You know, I'm a city boy. I don't haul things, and it's just sitting in the driveway. We're always together. Right. And so right now we are a one-car family, but, you know, we're both – I'm retired. Deidre is semi-retired. And so I sold the truck off, and then that got our mortgage down to – we just – the intensity just got more and more.

We saw the end, and we just attacked it. We both were doing DoorDash and Grubhub. And, you know, like I said, I'm 56. I was delivering food to college kids, and they're looking at me cross-eyed like, what are you doing? But we just both humbled ourselves and we just got paid off. This October here is the first month we haven't had a mortgage payment and it feels awesome. I'm sure it does. I'm sure it does. So, Scott, real quick. You know, I speak to millennials every single day. That's that's my job.

And 20 seconds and less. Tell me, what is one thing you would tell a millennial right now who's listening to the Dave Ramsey show and listening to you two's story? Well, I think this, yeah, the millennial generation, they just have the mentality that debt is normal. Student loans are normal. And, you know, you don't have to rack up thousands of dollars in student loans. You can work hard early and you won't have to rack up thousands of dollars in student loans. You can work hard early, and you won't have to later. Wow. I agree. Well, you guys are in really great shape. I'm proud of you.

How does it feel? You're debt-free. You're officially weird, house and everything. It feels awesome. Well, way to go, you guys. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. Without a doubt, you guys. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Everyday Millionaires. Without a doubt, you are there. You're going to be there before you know it

if you're not already with your investments. You're retired early. Congratulations, you guys. House and everything. Scott and Deidre, Oklahoma City. $448,000 paid off in 16 months, making $250,000. Then they retired, now making $60,000. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Awesome! Well done. Well done, well done, well done. You know what, Dave? As a young man listening to them, I heard something that you called out earlier that just really even convicted me personally.

It was like they chose the wrong spouse in the beginning. They weren't on the same page. They were not equally yoked. And then now that they have the right spouse, it was even hard, like you said, to love being on the same page. But it's the best thing for them now yeah but it always seemed you know there's it's always like if i could just get that everything would be okay yeah and then when you get over there you go it's still hard it's you know because there's never there's never a fantasy situation it's never going to be this thing where everybody just sits down plays patty cake and sings and sings Kumbaya, and it's all perfect.

Right. You know, it doesn't work that way. But what it does do is it gives you a framework to do the hard work of communicating about your values. It isn't like Dave and Sharon Ramsey don't have an argument or a discussion about buying something or about a donation to a charity or something. They go, I don't want to give into that. I don't want to give into those things. Or, you know, you want to buy that? You're kidding me. This is still, and it's not like we don't want to give into that. I don't want to give into those things. Or, you know, you want to buy that? You're kidding me. This is still and it's not like we don't have the money. Right. That's not

the point. The point is we still have the discussion and it still brings out the differences in the way we look at life. And it forces us to deal with those. So there's not a better framework than the discussion of money and purchases and generosity and budgeting to force your values onto the same page, to create unity in your marriage.

It's pretty incredible. But there is nothing that's easy about it. Yes. But usually there's no shortcut to any place that's worth going. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. anthony o'neill ramsey personality joins us today as my co-host we all know that personal finance is 80 behavior 20 head knowledge the truth is if you don't understand your behavior the 80 you'll find yourself falling back into the same mistakes or you're trying to white-knuckle your way through the baby steps because you didn't really change what's inside of you.

Rachel Cruz's new book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, goes beyond the baby steps and gets into the root of your choices and mistakes. Some of the roots in our life are like dandelions. They need to be dug out because if you mow over a dandelion, you know what you get? More dandelions. You get more crap in your life, right? And so you go all the way get the root out then the whole thing changes and the yard's beautiful right same thing isn't true in the garden of your life and so you need to know who you are what needs to be fertilized and made more of what needs to be dug out me too that's what i went through and she explains the psychology the strengths the

challenges that come with each of her brand new seven money tendencies when i know my tendencies to be a spender rather than a saver it helps me make decisions when i know my my wife's tendency is more about scarcity than abundance where i'm an abundance guy then i know how to have a discussion with her yeah and so knowing what's going on under the hood of yourself, and man, it just changes everything in the money process. We're going to throw in $150 of free stuff when you pre-order the new book today. It's Know Yourself, Know Your Money. It actually will ship in January.

And check out including a free financial coaching call with a Ramsey Preferred financial coach. Don't miss out. Pre-order online at DaveRamsey.com. Know yourself, know your money. The third number one bestseller, I predict, by Rachel Cruz. Landon is with us in Charlottesville, Virginia. Hi, Landon. How are you?

Very well. Thanks for taking my call, Dave, and thanks for what you guys do. Sure. Thank you. How can we help? Yeah, my question is related to maybe a refinance-type situation. My wife and I, fortunately enough, we paid off our primary residence this year right before COVID hit, so that was a lot of peace for our house. But we still have a rental property that has about 40 percent debt tied to it roughly 140,000 probably worth around 300 and so I've looked at maybe refinancing that to a 15-year

note to reduce the rate but since I would have to get a commercial product that doesn't really necessarily make a whole lot of sense but I thought wonder what your thoughts would be of maybe doing a cash out refinance on my my primary resident to get a really good rate, roughly 2%, 2.5% on a 15-year note, then pay off the rental, which would then obviously significantly increase the cash flow and obviously allow us to maybe pay a house off a little bit quicker. I'm reluctant because I don't want to put the primary residence back under a mortgage ding ding that's the last one yeah yeah that remember that part where you said i had peace during covid yeah no more peace i remember that part that was early in the conversation but it still rings in my ears it was a wonderful phrase and i don't i would never steal that from you you finally got there i'd sell the rental before I did that. I don't want to sell the rental. What's your household income? Around $150, give or take, but it varies.

So how fast are you going to pay off $140? Yeah. We got some money. I mean, if we put our nose to it, we could probably do it three to five years probably. You got some money. What's that mean? We've got a little bit of money. We've got like $40, $ a an account that's um that's

not the emergency fund yeah correct okay so now we only got to pay off 90 yeah i like this i like this yeah and what's the interest rate yeah uh right now it's at some five percent oh whoopty doopty just pay it off dude don't refi man don't refop-dee. Just pay it off, dude. Don't refi it, man. Don't refi it. Just go ahead and just pay it off. You got $90,000 at $150,000. You can have it actually paid off in about two and a half years. Three to five years is too long for me.

Four grand a month and you're done in under two years. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, that answers that. Yeah, and then the refinance cost makes the savings on the interest irrelevant because you're doing it so fast. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, that answers that. Yeah. And then the refinance cost makes the savings on the interest irrelevant because you're doing it so fast. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. That's true. Landon. That's true. Don't hang up the phone and refi your home. Do not do that. He's not going to. So, Landon, let's kind of walk back through what we just did for you.

And so you can do it again for you, and other people can too. You were using two parts of yourself to make the decision, and they were in conflict, your heart and your head. Your heart's where you measure risk, and that's where you said, I was glad during COVID I had peace because I didn't have a mortgage. My head got over here and started doing math, and I'm trying to crunch these numbers and save on the interest rate. Yeah. Okay? And they got in conflict with each other. Now, when that happens with me, and both are valid ways of making a decision, but when they're in

conflict with each other, something's wrong, because they both have your best interest at heart. No kidding. I mean, heart and head. But I mean, they both have your best interest, your heart and your head do. So one of the things I've learned to do is I learned to take the math and turn it into dollars, which is what I just did. I didn't do it physically on this call. But what we said was the amount of actual dollars that you're going to end up saving, given that we reduce this down to 90 and you're going to do it in two years or so the amount of actual dollars saved by getting a two or three percent versus a five is very small okay and so it it becomes not worth it when you shift your strategy around and you say how can i have a math strategy and a heart strategy

a head and a heart strategy that are running parallel. And that's when it suddenly goes, it's a no-brainer. We know what to do here. The heart and the head are lined up. We measure risk in the heart. We do math in the head. And so you've got both of these things lined up, and you're heading the right way. And what happens is we either go heart or we go head. We go all about the emotions and the risk risk and we can feel it all over here on

one hand and people make decisions only over there and they don't do any math right well that'll get you killed right sure will or they just do everything with the math and they don't take into consideration i just put my house back at risk which he knew he wasn't gonna do and he knew we wouldn't we're gonna i'm gonna tell him to nope i would not tell him to i'll actually scream at him but this is your show but landon here's the key thing though you said it we have to put our heads down and we have to go after it okay this this plan that me and dave just gave you will only make sense if you honestly just take these next two years and aggressively go after it yeah he's making 150 48 he ain't got any other bills yeah he you know and that's good rental. Keep that rental.

I mean, because here, what's the end of this story? The end of the story, he's got to pay for a house, pay for a rental. Ding, ding. This guy's heading on millionaire status real fast. Real fast. I like that. Well done. Well done.

Well done. Gosh, home run. Hannah's in Fargo, North Dakota. Hi, Hannah. How are you? Hey, Dave. I'm doing pretty good. How are you doing today? Better than I deserve.

What's up? I am calling because I'm curious if I should pay off all my debt first or if I should continue to make payments on my debt and take out a student loan to go back to school or if I should save up before I go back to school. What are you going back to school for? That's why I'm debt-free. I'd like to go back to school for medical coding and billing. Okay. What do you have right now school for? After I'm debt-free. I'd like to go back to school for medical coding and billing. Okay.

What do you have right now? You have a bachelor's? No, I do not have any degree whatsoever. Where'd you get this idea? Yeah. I like data entry, and I want to go back to school at some point, and I'm just curious if I should do it before I'm debt-free or if I should do it after. Yeah, but I mean the medical coding and billing thing where'd you get that idea um it's one of the

degrees offered at the local technical college and i did previously have a job where i was in data entry and i really did enjoy it i just didn't enjoy the boss i had okay gotcha okay how much debt are you in right now, Hannah? Right now, my debt balance is $13,870.76. Okay, how much money are you making right now a year? A year? I'm making $1,846 a month, around $1,850. $22,000 a year, $22,000 a year. $22,000 a year. All right.

So we do need to get your income up. That's clear as day. How much is this program going to cost you? Because we're not going to tell you to take out student loans. I don't want you to do that. But at a technical school, you should be able to cash flow this. How much is it going to cost you a year per semester to go to this program? Real quick.

It'll cost me like $7,000 a year. $7,000 a year. All right. And so an extra job does that for you? I already have two jobs. You need some new ones. Jobs suck. Yeah.

How old are you? I'm 21. Okay. So we've got to make enough money to eat and pay seven thousand dollars a year and not pay anything on the 13-8 except the minimums and if you're back in school they probably will stop your minimums yep and then pay cash as you go that's what you were saying right anthony yes sir all right that puts us out of the dave ramsey show in the books This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. On your smart speaker, you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey Network skill.

From there, you can listen to all our shows. Ask Dave money questions like, how do I invest my money? Or what is the debt snowball? Find out more at DaveRamsey.com slash smart speaker.