The Ramsey Show - App - This Type of Life Insurance Sucks (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us, America. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author many times over, and co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour show with our own George Kimmel, all on the Ramsey Networks. She's my co-host.

Oh, and my daughter today. Political correspondent this week as well. So if you need any politics networks she's my co-host oh and my daughter today uh political correspondent this week as well so if you need any politics uh i love politics she's our internal update on this and she has way too much fun no i just love watching the conventions i love all of it so i'll be watching now i'll be watching the democrat in in august i'm watching all of it all of it every speech everything i love it so much i do i love it but in the meantime we're gonna we're gonna harness all of that energy to help you folks right here susan's with us in new orleans hi susan how are you hi i'm well thank you so much good how can i help well Well, I'm learning how to navigate my finances

alone for the first time in 30 years. And I hope that I'm not confused, but I have a $750,000 variable life insurance policy that I've had for about 20 years. It's something I carried after leaving one of my employers. And I've recently looked into this to try to understand more, and it has about a $1,500 cash value. Wow. After years of paying hundreds of dollars a month in life insurance, and it's premium. Wow. You said recently alone.

Are you widowed or divorced? I'm divorced. Okay. After how many years of marriage? 30? Yes, sir. Wow. I'm sorry.

That's a heartbreak. And who's this policy with? Which company? It's Metropolitan. Yeah. Okay. All right. Typically what a variable universal life policy applies to is, obviously it's a type of cash value policy that you pay extra for beyond what you would pay for term,

and the extra goes into an investment, and with variable it generally is mutual funds that you select the mutual funds, or they select them for you with a rubber stamp situation, and you don't even realize you did it. But basically, it's going into that. Then they take all of their fees out, and so you don't get anywhere near the return that you would have gotten. Nationally, the typical variable is about a 4.7% rate of return

on an investment that, not counting fees, should be yielding north of 10. So it's an absolutely bad product, but I cannot, it's hard to fathom that you paid 20 years and only got $1,500 out of it. That's hard to believe. That's what it shows me, and it's one of those things where I never really... Have you called them? No, that's on my list, but I just wanted to really start to understand more about the policy yeah um so that i had some information it's possible that it is a uh a dumbed down product that was sold as an hr benefit through a benefits company and by dumbed down i mean that they didn't

charge you enough over what the actual life insurance was for there to be any going into savings hardly. Okay. And so I don't know what you've been paying, but the policy is $750,000, so it's less than a million-dollar policy. How old are you today? I'll be 65 in September. So you bought it when you were 45. And was it guaranteed issue, meaning did they make you to go through a medical? No.

No, it was one of the benefits that I signed up for when I went with that employer. Right, but they did not have any medical check. Like if you bought a million-dollar policy, they're going to check medical usually. Yeah, no, sir, not any of that. So guaranteed issue is what that's called, and that is a standard in the benefits world. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's a more expensive type of insurance because they're taking more risk because they're not checking people's medicals. Does that make sense?

Okay. And so you're probably paying a lot more of what you were paying, a lot more of it was going towards insurance versus if you had just bought a regular variable universal from them out in the open market and done a medical. So that's part of where you got ripped off probably. And my other guess is that if I knew the premium amount, it probably wasn't enough to

have a lot spilling over into cash value so it's very possible that what you've learned is true i'm i'm sad to say now the good news is you can stop doing it you have a hole in your pocket you don't keep putting money in it um and then we need to ascertain even if you need life insurance at 66 years old or 65 years old. So do you have assets? I do. I don't have any debt except for the mortgage on my house. And then I have two fixed retirements, one from my military service, one from my current employer.

Is there any children that came on late in the game that are still dependent upon you? No, sir. Okay. So financially speaking, not emotionally or relationally, but financially speaking, no one's counting on you. So if you didn't leave life insurance from a dependent standpoint, the family's not going to be damaged. No. I would like to have life insurance that would cover any mortgage amount I would have,

so my children wouldn't assume that. They don't assume it. The house will cover it. Okay. Yeah. You don't need to leave your house mortgage-free by paying this policy. And buying another policy at your age or my age is not usually a good mathematical plan. So how much money do you have in your nest egg?

I have about nine months' worth of expenses. You have a retirement nest egg of any kind? Well, the 401K I had during my marriage, and I did not leave my marriage with that. Okay. So he got that. And so you don't have a, quote, pile of money in a retirement account somewhere? No, I don't. Okay.

You're living off the pensions, and that leaves you just fine. Correct, yes. Yeah, okay. Are you still working, Susan? I am. Okay. What do you make of it? And I'd like to you still working, Susan? I am. Okay, how much? Yeah, what are you making? And I'd like to keep working.

I love what I do. So I'm not in a rush to retire. Good. What do you make? About $100,000 a year is my salary. Good, good for you. Okay. And what's the balance on the mortgage?

$218,000. And what is the house worth? $325,000. $325,000 to $350,000, I guess. 218. And what is the house worth? 325. 325 to 350, I guess. Okay. So if you were to pass away tomorrow without life insurance, the kids would sell the house, there would be $100,000 on the table, they would pay for a funeral, and the smoke would clear,

and they would all get a little bit, correct? Correct, yes, sir. Okay. I'm not buying this life insurance policy another day then. And I agree with you. That was my first reaction. But then I'm thinking, I mean, and the premiums have gone up every year. Yeah, they do.

It's FIH. Yeah. But this is hundreds of dollars a month for years that I have been paying. That doesn't mean you want to keep doing it. No, but I just made the bad decision with that investment. Yeah, I think you probably did, but as they say, water under the bridge. But I would call them too, Susan. I want to call them and make sure I understand it.

Because in ideal, they left off a zero or something. I don't know. Maybe there is more in there. It was a typo. It's possible, but I think with it being a guaranteed issue and I think with it being a benefit, they lowered the price on it so low that they didn't put enough in there to cover the insurance. Yeah, but it was just so expensive just for the insurance side. I know because she didn't do medical, but man.

That's because variable life insurance is a complete ripoff. It's the payday lender of the middle class. But, you know, she's, and here she is 20 years later paying into it. I'm so sorry. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. If you invest $100 a month from age 25 to age 65 in a decent growth stock mutual fund,

it will be $1,176,000. So you should be taught this in the sixth grade so that you start investing in your 20s because it doesn't take a lot to become wealthy. Our last caller put hundreds of dollars a month for 20 years into a rip-off life insurance policy. My point is, if she had put that money in a fruit jar and just stacked it in the cellar, she would have a whole lot more than she has in that policy, like tens of thousands of dollars. I mean, she's putting in, what, let's say 200 a month, okay? That's $2 hundred dollars a year in uh and so in 10 years that's twenty thousand dollars twenty five thousand dollars

in uh in 20 years that's fifty thousand dollars would be stacked in her cellar if they if they have 1500 as her cash value what that tells you is they screwed her that's what that tells you okay she not only didn't get a rate of return she got a negative rate of return they stole from her savings to pay for high-priced life insurance that's exactly what that product does by the way if however she had not put it in the cellar and it wasn't fifty thousand dollars and she had instead put it in her 401k or which she lost in her divorce but uh or negotiated away in the divorce or whatever happened there or she put it in just mutual funds hundreds of dollars a month for 20 years it would have been several million dollars.

And so that's how bad these cash value life insurance products are. It's not just a little bit wrong, it's millions of dollars wrong over 20 years. Millions with an S. Lots of millions. That's just bizarre to think about and if you wonder how the uh as a buddy of mine used to say all the time there's uh two main towers in the skylines banks and life insurance companies and in the old days particularly that was true in the skyline of the average city when you drive in, there's two towers, there's two sets of towers, banks and life insurance companies.

And who you think built those? Well, it wasn't built by Santa Claus. You built it with your money getting screwed by those people in both cases. Yeah, so instead of $200 going to an insurance policy, she could have paid $30, $40 for a term life. And then you would have had $150 to invest. Right? Like that's the problem is the difference in what you pay. For a million dollars a term, you could buy that easy at 45 years old.

And so you buy inexpensive term insurance for the time that you actually do need life insurance. Half the time she kept this policy, she didn't need it. She kept it because it was an investment. in air quotes an investment larry is with us larry is in kansas city hi larry how are you doing better than i deserve cool how can i help so a little backstory i uh come from seattle and i ran a company there for 10 years. Basically, we got it from $2 million to about $17 million when I left. And now I live in Missouri, close to Kansas City. And I came across this business here that the couple that owns it, they're elderly, and they're willing to sell it.

I guess I just kind of came across. I was buying blades for my mower, and this place, they sell mowers. They're turn mowers, and they're number one in three states i believe here so i don't know how much they want for the business or anything but um i've never had experience buying a business and it's a small family business what was the business you were running before from 2 to 17 i was a steel flashing business and uh also created a store within the production. You were the CEO? I was just the general manager there.

Oh, okay. So you had other leadership team that helped you do that, not just by yourself. Yeah, the owners and then there was me. Ah, gotcha. Okay. Yeah, but the owners were pretty absent. They just invested into new machinery pretty much, and that's it. Yeah.

Okay. All right. And so you're thinking about buying a lawnmower business just because you stumbled into it? Sort of, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, we advise and coach about 10,000 small businesses under Entree Leadership brand across America. I do a podcast every week called Entree Leadership where we talk to small businesses.

And I will tell you, running a small business is too tough to do something that you just stumbled into. You better really care deeply about it because it's going to take a part of your soul. Yeah, they've been here for 50 years already. I know. I'm talking about you. I'm talking about them. Yeah, yeah. They love it.

You stumbled into it. You need to love it to do it, number one. So you need to search that part of your heart. Don't just buy a small business because the numbers work. That makes for a long day and a lot of stress no fun at all okay it's just too tough there's too much too much rough and tumble too many splinters too many black eyes too many problems uh you better love it so you better love something about machinery you better love something about the people that buy that kind of machinery the people you're serving guys and gals

that run lawn care businesses uh the guy who just desperately needs a zero-turn mower for no apparent reason, all of these people, you better care deeply about them. Now, then I'm going to find out, you know, a solid P&L, a profit and loss statement, and the value of the business has nothing to do with the gross revenue. It has everything to do with the net profit. Yeah. After everything is paid to do with the net profit. Yeah. After everything is paid, what is the real profit? And that should match the last several years of tax returns,

and I want to see both of those before we even talk about anything. Okay. And then let's pretend you said they're in several states. It sounds like it's maybe a $10 million plus top line, is it? Well, he mentioned that they sell about 300 mowers a year. Plus they have a service. Yeah, probably not. It's probably not 10 million.

Plus they have 300 mowers. I mean, 300 mowers, yeah. Yeah, that's a few million dollars okay um no I was wrong okay it's gonna it's not gonna be 10 million so let's pretend the thing after everybody has been paid managers and everyone as if you were an absentee owner is bringing in a hundred thousand net net net profit after all the smoke is cleared, it's worth a maximum of four times that. Okay. 25% rate of return on your money.

So if it brings in $100,000, it's worth $400,000 max. And I don't care what the inventory is worth. They can sell off the inventory and get more than they should sell off the inventory. Because the inventory has only got a value to the extent you can turn it over and turn it into profit. Well, we've got a 50-year name. Name's not worth anything except to the extent it brings in profit. Business is not a hobby.

Business makes money. And money is how you measure the value of a business, period. Not people's feelings. And people like you're talking to have a lot of feelings. And I don't want to be mean or anything, but I couldn't give crap less about their feelings yeah when we put a valuation on this business it's based on the actual numbers not based on they've worked really hard or based on their very sweet people or based on their service to the community i'm great all to the extent you

make a profit otherwise you have a hobby or let's relabel the thing nonprofit on purpose instead of accidentally. Okay? So that's how you get into this and lay it out. And you got some digging to do before you figure out if you really want to do this or not. And I'll go back to my first point, Larry. You better love mowers and people that buy mowers. Because it's going to take a whole lot of your life if you buy this business. It's what you got to do, man.

You got to lay into it. You know that from, man. You've got to lay into it. You know that from your experience before. You've got to lay into it. This is The Ramsey Show. If you want to win, winning is an intentional act. As a matter of fact, it's a series of intentional acts that causes this thing we call success. No one accidentally wins the Super Bowl. They practice, they work, they plan, they strategize, they lean in, they focus exclusively

on their task. No one accidentally stays married 40 years. No one accidentally raises good kids. No one accidentally is successful with their career. No one accidentally builds wealth. It's not random. It's a series of intentional acts. One of the intentional acts is planning and making every dollar behave. Every dollar needs an assignment. If you don't make your money behave, you will always be broke and wonder where it went. You have to make your money behave.

You have to be a lion tamer with a whip and a chair. And that's what a budget is. You're making the money behave. Every dollar gets an assignment. That's why we named the world's best budgeting app that we built that tens of millions of people use every day. We named it EveryDollar because every dollar needs an assignment. When every dollar is aimed at winning, you will win. It's that simple. When you want to work the baby steps, we'll show you how. When you want to work together in unity with your spouse, we can help you do that. EveryDollar, the budgeting app, will do every bit of that. It'll keep the pulse on your spending, make progress on your money goals. That's why it's the world's best. You can download EveryDollar for free in the App Store or on Google Play or at EveryDollar.com.

Winning is an intentional act. Heather is with us in Nashville. Hi, Heather. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Um, my husband and I are on baby steps four or five and six, and we want to be intentional about how we plan our finances for our family. Um, with a recent change two years ago, my husband's mother passed away from ALS and we learned that, um, it was familial ALS. Normally no one knows why anyone has it. 90% of chances are or cases are unknown but 10% are actually familial with a genetic marker. So we learned that she died of familial ALS and and there is, at this point, a 50-50 chance that my husband will have it. Did her parents have it? There's no way to know.

Her father had it, and she has a sister that also died from it. Wow. Oh, Heather, I'm so sorry. Thank you. Is there testing to see if he has the gene? Are you able to find that out? He's got the marker. You said he's got the marker.

Well, there is a test available. I mean, you get half of your genes from one parent and half from another, so that's where we know there's a 50-50 chance. And there is a test to identify one of the 20 most common. Oh, so there's not a singular marker. Correct. It's not a singular marker, but she wasn't able to be tested before she got it happened so quickly.

If they don't know what the markers are, I'm just curious. I'm not questioning. It's not passive-aggressive. I'm just truly curious. If they don't know what the markers are, how do they know it's familial? Well, they actually identify it as familial because of the family history. Just the history. The pattern. But there's not any actual matter it's just a highly uh the statistically unlikely pattern yeah okay precisely that makes sense but it's been my husband's how old is your husband he's 40 wow okay so you guys are checking those markers just to yeah will y'all run that test to see out of the 20 genes?

For peace of mind or whatever? It's interesting you ask that. My husband has decided that he doesn't want to do it because he just wants to live every day to its fullest and not plan for a death, but we want to be financially stable and make the right decisions for our family. So I'm just looking for some advice. Wow. So I'm sorry looking for some advice. Wow. I'm sorry for the reason for your question, but it's a great question. The answer is do the exact same things we teach everyone,

but it's going to be with much more seriousness and attention to detail. For instance, you know, if you've been listening, Heather, that we tell everyone to have a will and everyone to have a detailed explanation of the will to everyone involved in the will. Okay? Okay. And so if his brother thinks he's going to get something and he's not, you need to tell him now.

Okay? That kind of stuff is what i'm talking about my guess is in the situation you're saying he's going to leave everything to his children and his wife or to his wife to take care of his children right yes and we have very young children um a six-year-old and a six-month-old and we didn't make the decision lightly to have a second child when we knew that there was that potential. Did he have life insurance in place? Yes. And we both have like $750,000 in life insurance, term life with about 18 years left.

Okay. That's good news. Okay. Good. Good. Well, we're not dropping that for sure. And we're going to have a detailed will. And, you know know he needs to um

what is the name of that book oh there's a book a thousand years ago i endorsed this book letters uh letters from dad i think it's called google oh you don't have your computer open i got my phone though uh you got your phone whip itip that trusty phone out. See if letters from dad's not a thing. And I actually did this for about three years and then I dropped it because I was lazy. But the guy. Oh, yeah. Greg Vaughn. Greg Vaughn.

Yeah. That's it. Green cover. Yeah. That's it. Okay. It was 25 years ago. You were a little kid.

And so it's writing letters to your kids. And he sold like a wooden box, and each kid had a box. And write letters to your spouse. And so these would be treasured items later in your life was the idea. It's a legacy piece. Makes you cry when you read the whole book, okay? And it made me go do it for a while. I did it for two or three years.

There's a wooden box somewhere in Rachel's life. I have no idea where it is but um it's got four letters in it or something but when she was five but um i made a run at it so but that kind of stuff you know and videos um or occasionally just throw them in a in a drop box or in a file somewhere you keep them i would just be cognizant about legacy things with the kiddos. Does that make sense? Sure. Probably more serious than the average bear. But make sure your will, your life insurance,

your details of the estate plan are in place so that if you ever get a diagnosis, you don't even have to think about that. It's already done okay we're not rushing around and trying to do it in a period of months or whatever before we have to before we loses the ability to do it or something like that right go ahead and do that kind of stuff it's a healthy exercise for everyone listening by the way i have a very detailed estate plan that i did not drop the ball on and it's how one of the ways you say i love you to your family is you you take the stress of how they're going to make it and what

they're going to do and what they're going to do with this and that and who's going to fight over what all that stress is gone because all handled while you're alive and uh in detail and the more of that you have the more peace you have on this issue and then he can do he can do what he's decided to do and go about his life and live and heather the the medical side um did insurance cover it for his family that has gone through this how does that how did that play out i'm just wondering for medical bills on your behalf did not have insurance okay and it actually happened very quickly within two months of diagnosis she had passed oh my gosh we had missed some of the initial

signs and warning signs so we know what to look for at this point but there is an average life expectancy between two and five years yeah diagnosis i've lost two friends to it and both of those were over two years so from from a medical bills side, right, does insurance, do you have you guys like looked through, do you have adequate insurance that if this did come, that most of it would be covered? We do have adequate insurance. I'm not sure to what capacity because, you know,

you never know the longer you're alive, obviously, the more expensive it is. Right. Yeah, the more I know about that kind of thing, the more I build my emergency fund up, the more peace I have. I would probably have just some more cash. Yeah. Okay. There's really nothing.

Our assets are accessible, have real estate. Yeah. No big change to what you're doing. Just lay out a detailed plan, and everybody knows the plan plan which you should be doing anyway and um uh uh you know make sure your insurance is there whatever's not there make sure you got cash to cover and then i'm with him go about living your life i like that that's pretty cool this is the ramsey show our scripture of the day first 1 John 5, 14. This is the confidence we have in approaching God,

that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Henry Ford said, if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses. Oh. I like it. Helen is with us in Virginia Beach. Hey, Helen, what's up? Hey there.

Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my husband and I are looking into buying a house probably in the next four years, and we're starting to budget out for a down payment. And I'm a long-time listener and I've heard you all talk on the show before about building your deck.

And I was wondering if you guys could go into a little bit more detail about that as far as your down payment plus your closing costs and your inspection and all of that. And if you could give us kind of an estimate on how much we should be planning to set aside in addition to a down payment. Okay.

Well, I mean, you're going to have a few things that you pay for in the closing costs, and a good real estate agent can lay out what is normal and customary in your area. One thing you'll want to buy if the seller does not provide it and you don't negotiate it from the seller is a title insurance policy. Typically, if you're getting a mortgage, the mortgage company is going to make you buy one for them, and you can buy a simultaneous issue for just a few dollars. But you need to find out what that's going to be in your situation.

I assume you'll be getting a mortgage. More than likely, yes. Title insurance ensures that the title is clear, that there are no clouds on the title. Never buy a piece of real estate without title insurance. I bought thousands of pieces of real estate. I've never bought one without title insurance, okay? And I've actually had a few claims, and I'm really glad I had it. Because sometimes people screw the title up and do it improperly, and then you've got a mess on your hands that's tens of thousands of dollars.

Doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it's a mess. So title insurance is one thing. Again, if you're getting it with your mortgage company, it's required. Because they want to have policy covering them. You can get a simultaneous issue for a few hundred bucks that covers you as well. So that's one thing. The second thing is you're going to have prepaids, they're called. And you're aware in most house payments today, you have a house payment that is principal and interest to the bank, and they also collect approximately a twelfth of taxes annually and a twelfth of insurance annually so that they can build

up the escrow account with those two things in it to pay the taxes out of that and pay the homeowner's insurance out of that to ensure that the taxes are paid and the insurance is paid. That's why they do that. And to set that up will usually be three or four months of each of those. So whatever your property tax is, bill is four months of that. And whatever your homeowner's insurance is, four months of that to set up your prepaids, they're called. It's prepaying and setting up that escrow account to be able to do principal interest taxes and insurance, PIT piti as you go along typically

there'll be a survey fee usually that's not super expensive it's if it's in a neighborhood 75 to 200 bucks typically there's an appraisal usually 500 to a thousand dollars somewhere in there depending on your area um and so you're going to these miscellaneous things that fall into the heading of closing costs. And depending on your area and what your tax rates are and all those kinds of things, you're probably looking at about 3%. Okay, awesome. But again, what I would do, since you're such a planner and you're doing this well in advance, get in touch with one of the Ramsey trusted real estate agents in the area and have them give you an example of a house in the neighborhood you might be looking at okay here's what a closing uh document might look like a closing statement and you can say okay there's those things dave was talking about line item down through there and um then you're going to be able

to say okay on that house a three hundred thousand dollar house it was uh three thousand dollars oh okay so it's one percent oh so now it's six thousand dollars okay it's two percent right uh that kind of stuff that's what you'll be able to figure out and it'd be fun for you as a first-time home buyer to see all the items that make up this vague category of closing costs because they all actually do make sense they're not rip-offs they're all things that you do need you do need a survey you do need an appraisal you do need title insurance you do need to set up your escrow account all those things are fine there's nothing wrong with them but when you add them all up you kind of get a sticker shock moment you go they're ripping me off of these

closing costs and no you're not really you just gotta know what they are and so dig in there and figure out what they are and that that'll help you get a good solid estimate because it does change from area to area. And a lot of it is based on the cost of insurance and the cost of taxes in your area. That'll throw this number a bit. Are you going to pay any points up front, which I wouldn't recommend? But are you paying an origination fee, which typically you are going to pay, which is a point or a half a point or something like that to get into the loan all of that's going to be figured in there and again a good real estate agent can help you map all that out and also Rachel we've

got a great website on our stuff at ramseysolutions.com slash real estate that goes into a whole bunch of that stuff it's a information hub. And there's just so many details. I mean, as you were even just talking, I was like, oh my gosh, it's just so much. And that we have so many, so many blogs, articles, points of contact for people in your area to go and to get, yeah, to get this all. Because sometimes I feel like you, it takes a little bit to actually learn it so go to ramsay solutions.com slash real estate and go and read research and again you can find uh ramsey trusted pros there uh on that website too if you want to call just like you mentioned to reach out to somebody yeah and just well it's okay to nerd out on it one of the things when you're doing something the first time is it's always scary because of the unknown yep and so the more you

know the less fear there is and so just dig in get get sample closing statements on a property the size you're talking about looking at and then you can back into it and tell every every bit of that all right allison is with us in new jersey hi allison how are you hi david such an honor to speak with you and Rachel. I follow you on Instagram and I just have to say I love your post about all your Walmart finds and all your books and everything. Thanks, Allison. Appreciate that. How can we help? Um, so I'm in a really difficult, uh, situation right now. Um, and I don't know what to do. So I, um, I'm getting a little emotional. So I, um, I'm in my early forties.

Um, I've been in a long-term relationship and my boyfriend is not sure if he wants a baby and I, I want a baby and I'm, I'm running out of time. And my question is, I don't know if I should, um, take out loans to be able to even just start the process and afford like egg retrievals, or if I should get a second job, I just feel like honestly, kind of like trapped. Um, and I'm not sure what to do wow i'm so sorry that's a harsh harsh situation um well how much i mean alice i know there's two things go ahead well women that are yes that are at your point and they freeze their eggs you know they kind of go through a process to say you know can i you know freeze time for a little bit while it kind of go through a process to say, you know, can I, you know, freeze time for a little bit? Well, it kind of buys you time.

How much is all of that? Have you looked into all that cost-wise? I have. I've met with a fertility clinic, and it will be about, well, they think that I'll need multiple rounds just because of my age. I did have an initial screening, and it looked like I had some empty follicles. They did a retrieval, actually, and it wasn't successful, but all my numbers went up. And so it looks, anyway, things are looking better, like, physically,

but it's really expensive. So it would be, like, probably, like, for three or four rounds, which the doctor thinks only that will be about like $70,000. Just for egg retrieval? Well, for all of it. I mean, a single round of IVF is around $7,500. Well, I guess that means for everything if I end up, you know, having to use a sperm donor. This is an emotional and a very important topic because nothing's more important to me than babies.

I love babies. And so I want you to do this, but I want you to do it in a wise way, not in a way that, because 70,000 is not the number. Well, get a second opinion. You need to get six more opinions. Yeah, you need to go shopping on this kiddo. because I think you can do a simple egg retrieval. I'm not a doc. I'm not throwing out a number. I have no clue what that is.

I mean, we've done we've talked about IVF on here many, many times and 7,500, 12,500 in there, not 70 grand. And that's the full freaking procedure. So you need to get that. That's that number is not right. I want you to check. And then you've got to decide about your relationship issues and how you're going to go forward with all that, too.

That's a whole other bucket. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus.