The Ramsey Show - App - When Are You Going To Clean Up Your Financial Mess?

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

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 Rachel Cruz number one best selling author host of the Rachel Cruz show and co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour. My daughter is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jamie is in Tampa, Florida. Hi Jamie, how are you? I am doing good, how are you? Better than I deserve, what's up?

Well, the basic question I have is what I should do with my mother-in-law's situation. Man, if I could answer that I'd be rich. My in-laws gave us a piece of property in 2006. We couldn't afford to build on it at the time so we saved and we ended up building our house in 2012. After a couple of visits from my in-laws, they ended up asking us if they could build a small home on the back of our property. The property that they gave you?

Correct. So it's titled to you and your husband? Correct. They were living in upstate New York. It was a lot. My mother-in-law taking care of her home and my father-in-law. And she was, you know, talking to my husband daily, multiple times a day about what a struggle it was.

So we felt like, yes, this was a good idea. We could help them, um, when they lived here. And so they sold their home in New York and used that money to build a house in the back of our property. Well, during the building process, we kind of all realized at the same time that technically they did not own it, that we owned it because it was on property in our name. It caused a huge fight. My father-in-law like stopped the builder from building and we had a couple of days of discussions.

I'm sorry. Why was this a surprise? I guess because we never really had conversations about it. You don't need a conversation. They deeded the property to you. Did they just forget that they did that? Or did they think when they were building on the property that automatically the land under that is, is theirs? Like, is that what they thought? Right. That's the assumption. Yes. Because they were paying for that house. They didn't think about the land underneath the house. Yes.

So this was 10 years ago. Every six months for the past 10 years, we've had a fight about ownership of their home. My father-in-law passed away about three years ago. My mother-in-law since then has just become more and more angry about the situation. How old is she? She is 80 and in very good health. In January, there was a huge fight where she accused us of doing this on purpose for the sole purpose of taking her home, in essence, taking her money.

She wants to be able to leave this home to her kids equally and her will. So we assured her we were never going to deny her access to this home. Like she said, you could kick me out at any time. Well, we're not going to do that. But it's just constant, the fighting. So now we haven't spoken to each other since January and she got a lawyer to send us a letter accusing us of elder exploitation and demanding a hundred and eighty thousand dollars lump sum payment. And what is your all's net worth? Net worth probably over a million. How much land is involved in the total tract? An acre.

No, no, no, I mean the whole property. Including yours. Yeah, an acre. How do they build on the back of an acre? It's an accessory dwelling. It's just a one bedroom, one bath, 900 square feet. And that's how the county defines it as well. We share all the utilities like it goes through my home. She built a tiny house on the back of your acre? Oh yeah, I should have clarified.

It's a tiny house, yes. Oh jeez. So she's not only not speaking to you, she's in your back window. Oh yeah. Eight feet away. Sorry, Jamie. That's not funny. No, every lawyer I talked to said the same thing. It's terrible. Every lawyer you talked to said the same thing, which was what? Basically that yes, she may have improved a property.

This is the exact words of one. The value of those improvements is largely offset by her continued occupancy. Meaning that she's gotten $180,000 worth of value out of it by living here. There's not a tiny house in the back corner of an acre on no planet is worth 180 grand. True. It's just, oh my god, the drama of some people. Okay. Yeah, so many. I thought there was a hundred acres and she was in the back 40 or something.

Oh no. No, she's in the back window. This is bizarre. Oh my gosh. So what are you going to do, Jamie? We don't know. Morally, I feel like I should give her money, but it would require me more getting her home. No, I don't morally give her anything.

Okay. Okay. No, you didn't do anything wrong. I agree and the Funny part is the son-in-law stopped construction on the tiny house My god the brother-in-law Her son-in-law our son. Yeah No, no the husband the husband the mother-inlaw, the father-in-law stopped construction cause he's mad at them. The father-in-law? I thought you said it was the son-in-law. No, father-in-law. Okay. And he died. He stopped the construction. Yes. Yes. Correct. Of the tiny home.

All right. So, um, what a horrible trying to do something nice that went bad story. Correct. So, no, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm just gonna hire an attorney. You've got the money. Okay. Go give somebody 10 grand and keep her tied up

till she dies. Oh wow. Geez. I mean, that's really all you can do here. Because she's not going to, you're not going, this relationship's not going to be healed. This woman's lost her marbles. And we can't find them. They're somewhere in the backyard near a tiny house. Near them, near Jamie.

Right next to you, Jamie, wherever they are. That's where the marbles are. Oh, shoot. I mean, really, there's not a- Well, you want reconciliation. I mean, the perfect world is that there is reconciliation. Is your husband, Jamie, is your husband on the forefront of this emotionally and in it, or do you feel like you are more holding the pieces together

of everything that's happening? Do y'all both have emotional ownership in it, or is it more you, more him? Well, no, we're kind of equal in that but I'm kind of the go between right now because he has completely written her off. Okay, because that's her son, so I feel like his weight in this is so key to him. He needs to make the decision because it's the most painful for him. Yeah. But if it was my situation here, I would just say, you know, you hired a lawyer, so I guess we've got to,

and I would just stall and file continuances and do in-depth depositions with every expert on the planet and just tie it up for five years and then it won't be there, it's awful. But I mean, that's all you can do. Other than try to make an angry old woman that did a crazy bad deal happy, I don't know how you do that.

I know how you do it for the rest of you listening, don't do this. Ever. Couple of cool things going on around here right quick. Dr. John Delaney and I are in the middle of a six-city tour We've been running in and out of Nashville this week because we were in Louisville last night We were in Durham, North Carolina with several thousand folks and tomorrow night will be in Atlanta You can still get your tickets to that and then a week away

We'll be over in Phoenix and then to Fort Worth and then to Kansas City Kansas City sold out Fort Worth is almost sold out you but you can still get a ticket and Phoenix is a little bigger venue. You can still get a ticket there for sure at Lana If you want to come tomorrow night, you can get tickets, but thank all of you for turning out It's been a lot of fun We were in Deepak the Durham performing arts Center last night and it was kind of fun Rachel. I sent Rachel a picture. She and I were on that stage 11 years ago in 2014 doing the Legacy Journey Tour at that

time and some of these venues like this, the famous people that do the venues, it's very cool because you can go backstage and you got like Ozzy Osbourne signed the back wall or Metallica or you know John Lennon or something like that and then there's Dave and Rachel signed the back wall you know and so but so I took a picture of it and sent it to Rachel to remind 11 years ago we were on that stage but thank all of you for turning out for these things we appreciate it we're having a good time John and I are by the time we get done with six cities We're gonna get good at this and so we're getting better every night already So love to have you do that and all of you that purchased the book build a business

You love that was launched last week my latest book teaching small businesses the clear path of Mastering the five stages of business to grow and run your business properly. Thank you so much for that. One week after a book launch, you get the the lists, the bestseller lists, and it came out number one. Number one bestseller. So thank you guys for that. We appreciate you. And the New York Times picked it up and ran it on their bestseller list. Their bestseller list is not based on number of books sold, it's just based on, I don't know, I think they like it or something. I don't know what they just, they just decide what they're going to put on there. And so they put it on at number five on New York Times, but it was

the number one selling book in the week by numbers. So that makes it according to book scan and so it shows up on all the all the bestseller lists that use the actual sales to categorize the bestsellers which I kind of thought that's what a bestseller is but anyway that's how it works so thank you guys we appreciate you very much and this one is really fun Rachel so Ramsey fans tell us all the time that groceries are one of the largest line items and it's a frustrating line item in your every dollar budget it's frustrating because you know like you

have to get a mortgage for eggs these days or something right and so 59% that's six out of ten people say it's a challenge to save money on groceries without sacrificing quality. So we've been working on this behind the scenes and going okay where how can we help our audience by partnering with someone in that world to get you guys the best possible deals and so forth? And we ended up settling on the folks at Aldi. They've got fresh meat, organic products.

We got some claps in the. Got some Aldi people out in the audience right here in the live studio audience. They give you a great selection. They've got fresh meat, organic products. Their Aldi exclusive products are fun. They're sassy with their labels like Ramsey is, so we like them. And they're really good quality and they're really cheap.

The lowest prices of any national grocery chain. And shoppers say big. The family of four can say $4,000 a year shopping at Aldi versus some of the others. And so they're a brand new sponsor, a brand new partner here. And Reginald, you know, the young moms that you run around with and that you know

and that are in our family, Aldi's a big deal. Well, it is because it's a simple grocery shopping experience if you've been. And they make it quick. It's not overwhelming. I feel like some other of the competitors you walk in and it's just like this acres and acres and acres of land of grocery aisles.

It's really simple and honestly, it is. It's the prices. After you get done shopping, you look at the total and you're like, oh my gosh, but it's all good stuff. It really is. The quality, their meats, their produce, all of it. So I know it is one store in all of my content and for years and years and years,

when we talk about groceries, I always mention Aldi even before they came on as a partner with Ramsey, but because it is true, that is what you get. You save money and you get good quality products, which is what we're looking for. And it is, it's when we talk to families, and I know this, having three little kids, it is the number one budget buster is food.

Like when we do our every dollar, but even, I hate to say it, we're at the end of the month. And I went in today and did my transactions and I may have upped our grocery line items. I was like crap, we have one more week, I gotta get stuff. It's just, you just end up spending a lot. But with Aldi, you're able to do it in all these trips

and get good quality stuff and keep it within the budget, which is- Well, when we started talking about this, gosh, about 18 months ago, with our internal team, our broadcast team, and they're like, okay, go find a partner. And Rachel's like, go get Aldi. Well, yeah, because-

Because you're like the focus group sitting in the room. Well, and it's growing too. And I think it is the fastest growing grocery train in America right now. So they're popping up, even within Nashville, like they're popping up everywhere. So there should be one near you guys. And so if you are a family or not a family,

like whoever you are, if you need to save on groceries, when it comes to your budget and your money, Aldi's the place to go. Well, we're really proud to have them as a new partner. Yeah, they're amazing. Good quality stuff at a good price and no frills and good sassy labeling, I like it. Their marketing is fun.

They're icon of people. And all their, I don't know, I'm seeing them more and more on social media and stuff, they're funny. Oh, that's cool. That's good. Good, so stop overpaying, start shopping at Aldi. Go to aldi.us to find an Aldi store near you.

A-L-D-I dot U-S. James is in Chicago. Hey James, how are you? Good, how are you guys doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? I have a situation with my car I want to get some matches on. So I have a Jaguar. I owe $38,000 on it. It's a 14% interest on the loan. You really wanted a Jaguar, didn't you? I really did, yeah. Things have changed now. The Jaguar doesn't run. And the Jaguar dealership quoted me $35,000 to replace the engine. What the flip? What'd you do to this brand new car, dude? Yeah, that's the thing. I'm not really sure. Um,

something happened with cylinders and maybe it's potentially oil, but the engine shot, um, it costs a lot of money just to tear down that engine. So I think a lot has to do with the labor cost also. So they, uh, instead of fixing the engine, they suggest replacing the whole thing. What year model is this thing? This is a 2018 Jaguar wagon, the Jaguar XF Sportbrake. So it's kind of like a pretty rare Jaguar. So somehow you blew the engine on a relatively new car. I did, yeah, less than 80,000 miles. That's weird. But it was 2,000 miles over my warranty. So I had no warranty. My question I guess is I'm

really stuck. Wait a minute did you do you I mean that's very strange from a mechanic standpoint. Well did you get a second opinion James or did you just go to the dealership? So the dealership, the only people who have diagnosed it, I have gotten other quotes. Did they give you a cause? What caused it? Was it your fault or the engine failed? The engine failed. Like you didn't change the oil ever in 80,000 miles or you ran the oil out, forgot to put the plug back in at the Jiffy lube and it blew that I mean did something like that happen or the stupid engine just failed at 80,000 miles But my understanding the engine failed there is not any

Signs I failed it car was not due for an oil change, it was not leaking oil, anything like that. Okay, so there's two possible ways you go and probably both of them. Number one, I'm contacting an attorney. I would sit down and talk to the general manager at the dealership in person and I would say 2000 miles over warranty, you need to call Jaguar this ain't cool this is bogus this engine should not have failed Jaguar needs to stand behind this engine even though it's out of warranty they need to do it as a PR campaign because otherwise we're gonna have another PR campaign that's gonna be ugly and you

don't want that one yeah and I'm gonna sit down with them general manager not the people in the shop the guy running the dealership and then I'm gonna go see an attorney if they won't fix it. Okay? I'm not sure you got anything to stand on, but I'm going to do that. The second thing I'm going to do is I'm going to buy a used Jaguar engine from a salvage yard and have anybody but this dealership change the engine out. And that will be eight or $10,000.

It will not be $35,000 dollars and you need to fix the car it's too expensive to just let it sit there melted down Joey is with us Joey is in Cincinnati hi Joey how are you? I'm doing well. How are you both doing? Better than we deserve. What's up in your world? Well, I've had a very stressful past week. I found out that I was pregnant with my second child and my partner was just not ready to take on that responsibility, so he left. The good news is that I don't really have much debt. I just have a car payment. And now I'm just confused on where to go from here.

I started out with your debt snowball, and since I only have one thing, I was ready to, you know, attack it, pay $1,600 a month extra and wipe it out by the end of this year. But now since the baby's coming, I don't know what to do. Do I still do that? Do I save for the baby? Like, what do I do at this point? I'm just so confused. I'm sorry, kiddo. How old are you?

32. So I feel like I'm too old to be having these problems. Who's the dad of the other kid? Same guy? Yeah. I'm sorry? Yes. So you have two children with the guy that left? Well, yes. One and then one baking in the oven. Yeah, that's what I mean. Okay. I count baking. Okay. Um, all right. What do you make? Um, after taxes with no side hustles, it's 4,500 a month that I take home by myself. Um, I started listening to your show a few months ago,

so I started doing side hustles. Now I bring around like 5,500 homes. I just don't know if that's sustainable long-term as the pregnancy gets further. No, it won't be. It won't be, that's not reasonable. You've gotta take care of you and the baby as you progress.

In the early stages, you've gotta work around maybe morning sickness or something, but you can work for a while longer, but then you're gonna run into this. So no, what we teach folks to do when you have a baby on the way or you're facing some kind of a storm of some kind is stop the baby steps, stop your debt snowball and pile up cash. So I want you to stack cash. I want you to get the biggest possible pile of cash you can get between now and baby. Treat it like you're paying off debt. Okay.

Have you got health insurance? Yes. Okay. So can you save $2,000 a month? Definitely. I can definitely do that. What could you save? What's the most you could save? With the side hustle, I think maybe like $2,800. Okay, I'm going to call it $3,000 for five months. That's $15,000.

And then it slows down to maybe $1,000 a month as you reach towards the delivery date. Okay? So maybe you're going to have between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars piled in an account. That gives me a lot more peace for you delivering this baby with a smile. Okay. Yeah, have you got health insurance? Yes. Good.

Okay. So you need to contact them and find out what your out of pocket is going to be for labor and delivery with your health insurance policy. And with appointments, OB appointments and everything. Yeah. The whole thing. I want you to have a baby budget. Okay.

To get ready for that part of it. So here's what happens at the end of this story and it's going to be a great story. At the end of the story, you come home with a brand new beautiful baby and you've got 15 or 20 thousand dollars in the bank. You write a check and pay off your debts and you finish, you start your baby steps again and you build your emergency fund. And now you're a mama bear against the world and you're gonna be one of those warrior princesses that goes and makes things happen as a single mom. You're a hero. You're a hero. You suck at picking men but you're a hero. Or he sucks. No, he sucks.

He sucks but you picked him. Yeah, I mean, he's awful. Oh my gosh. And besides that, I don't know the laws in Ohio but most states have a law that if you make a baby you get to help pay for it, men. And so I'm gonna go ahead and contact Human Services in your area and find out what we can do

to get this deadbeat jerk to start writing checks for these two children. How old, how old's your first one? He's 12 now. He's 12 years old. You've been with this guy 12 years. 14 years. And your heart. That's, that's a, that's a, a grief in and of itself. That's a relationship. I mean that's a divorce. Did he mention the fact that he needs to start writing checks to you for kids?

Well he asked me how much money I want. I'll tell you how much money I want. I want a third of your salary. To be honest, all of my emotions because this this has been so shocking, because I had an IUD so I wasn't planning for this, all of my emotions have just been spent on like surviving and not dealing with it. I agree. But at some point in this process, he gets to be the financial daddy whether he wanted

to be or not because that's what the law says. And I don't know what child support ratios are in your state but you need to find that piece of information out and you need to let him know that that piece of information is coming his way that I can do yeah because I mean if he start writing you a check right now for three grand a month wouldn't make me mad it helps these numbers right it does it

definitely does and how much I want to make it I don't want responsibility so I'm leaving tough buddy you made a baby the law says you got responsibility that's how this works no do you have a good support system around you do you have family or anyone I haven't a church that I started going to and I also have like an international students group that I volunteer at and while they're like little kids they feel like family to me. Now I want you to go sit down with your pastor at the new church and with no shame say this is where I am and I just want to let you know I'm here trying to learn

about God and learn about and start my life fresh spiritually because this is a new church to me and I and I've got these sit this situation with these two kids and I'm by myself and see if and I think you'll see if it's a decent church and it probably is you're gonna see some wonderful people start putting their arms around you in a lot of different ways But they won't do that if you don't tell them okay, they're not mind readers Okay, I know You're gonna be okay as a matter of fact you're gonna be better than if this hadn't happened. You're gonna be okay You're stronger than you think you are right now.

Yeah, you're at the bottom of it emotionally, right? From a relationship breakup, the news of a pregnant, I mean, yeah, you're at the, it's exhausting, I can only imagine. So it goes up from here, it really does. But yeah, I mean, we run into single moms all the time on the show and it is incredible, incredible what they do when they rise to the occasion and you're going to be that. You're a great mom already. I mean, you have a 12-year-old. So, man, we are cheering for you. I did want to

ask from a financial standpoint, how much do you have left on your car to pay off? You said it's your only debt. Yeah, so I have 14,000. Perfect. Okay. That's great. Yeah. Cause to the number like a big lump sum and it's no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want you to pile up cash. I know, but that was two months ago. She already did it. She already did it. Oh, you already put a lump sum on. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought she said you want to. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. So, yeah. But to the numbers earlier, Joey, you could see that, yeah, I mean, by the time baby comes and when you come home, everything's good. You'll have this car paid off.

Yeah. When baby comes home and you're healthy and the baby's healthy and there's no problems and you don't need this money for anything, you write a check and pay off the car that day. You're free. So you don't really lose any ground net-net on your get out of debt plan. Okay. We're just doing the hokey pokey a little bit. We're setting it to the side and then lose any ground net-net on your get out of debt plan. Okay. We're just doing the hokey pokey a little bit. We're setting it to the side and then we're going to put the right foot in and the left

foot in, right? Okay. Thank you both. Hey, Joey, listen. If you need us, we're here. You call anytime, okay, kid? Okay. We got you.

Have a great day. You call that pastor today. You call Human Services and find out what your rights are on child support. Those are two calls you make today and you start stacking cash, stacking cash, stacking cash. You're gonna be fine. You're a lot stronger than your voice sounds right now, I can tell. This is The Ramsey Show. This is the Ramsey Show. So Dr. John Deloney and I are on tour. We were in Durham, North Carolina last night. We're in Atlanta tomorrow night, April the 25th.

Doing the Money and Relationships Tour. We'll also be in Phoenix on May the 5th. Fort Worth on May the 7th. Kansas City on May the 9th. You can still get tickets to these, Kansas City on May the 9th. You can still get tickets to these except Kansas City is sold out. I think there's some singles in the seats available. If you want to sit apart and there's more than one of you, you could come. Or if you want to come as a single, you can get into Kansas City, but they're basically gone there.

RamseySolutions.com slash tour, we'd love to have you. If you're on YouTube or podcast, click the link in the show notes. Rachel, last night, one of the things Dr. John and I talked about was one of the topics that the audience selected, the audience votes on the topics each night for these was the marriage advantage. And we were telling them that one piece of research that's been out there, I think it's been done probably

five or six times, I've seen it over 30 years, I've seen fresh versions of the same research, has confirmed, the most recent piece confirms what we call the success sequence. And these numbers are statistically mind blowing to me. Okay, the success sequence is this. If you are a millennial or younger and you

graduate from high school or higher and have not had a baby yet and you get a full-time job and have not had a baby yet and you get married at age 20 or older and have not had a baby yet. In other words, if you graduate from high school, get a job and get married at age 20 before you have children. You have a 97% probability of being outside of poverty in the middle class. Only 3% of the people that follow that basic sequence that was very standard in 1960. You would be shamed in a neighborhood if you didn't do those things in 1960. If you had babies out of

wedlock, meaning you weren't married when you had babies, you had a 97% chance. You graduated from high school. You graduated from high school. And you got a job. You got a job. So you are being effective. And you get married at age 20 or later, and then and only then do you have babies. And you're married, you're not shacking up,

you're not my partner. We're not, it's not any of that, okay? It's, that's, when you follow that sequence, you have a 97%, there's very few things in this life that you have a 97% chance of doing very few things I'm not sure I have a 97% chance of getting home without getting in a car wreck. I mean really that's those numbers I'm sure I've staggered. They're staggering. You're right about that point taken Everybody in the booth is nodding about Dave's driving.

I drive like I'm in a race all the time and I have my whole life. But aside from my driving, that's not the point, okay? 97 percent. I mean, so if you like Noah Teenager, tell him here's a 97 percent chance that you're not in poverty in America, that're in the middle class just do these simple things in freaking order it changes everything the audience was sitting there with their mouth open was going through this stuff and then the we start pulling out the other numbers which if you're thirty five years old and you're married, your net worth is on average 15 times higher

than a single female and 5 times higher than a single male. Interesting. Single meaning including people you live with that you're not married to. Wow. Well, again, because it's two incomes coming together. It is two incomes coming in. But guess what? There's two incomes coming in if you're shacking up but they don't count. To that study. Correct. Yes. Because it's not a household. And you can just decide, I'm going to leave. I don't want the responsibility.

You can just decide that and thus you end up with it. Totally. Men in their 30s and 40s make 26% more income that are married than unmarried males in the same bracket. I think our wives must be whipping us like a rented mule and sending us out the door. That's all I can figure. Get your butt out there and get to work.

I mean, you have a reason to work. You've gotta pay for stuff. Yeah, because it's more than you. I mean, yeah, there's totally. There's a nobility to it. I don't know, there's a lot of reasons for it, but that's the actual data. These are actual facts and we can

suppose we can have you know theory theorize about what causes that yeah but it's very interesting the advantage of a good long-lasting marriage oh men in a good high quality marriage live nine years longer than men that aren't. I know she's nagging on me about eating that again. Don't tell me I can't eat that again. You're bothering me. And quit trying to make me healthy. You're killing me. As a matter of fact, you're not. You're making me live ten years longer on average. I mean that's isn't that interesting? Women live five years longer on average. We're not, we're not as much help to you as you are to us. You're welcome. You're welcome. Oh man.

You know what? And from not in no data, just Rachel's life, I know so many great single women. So many great single women. I don't know where all the dudes I'm like, guys, come on, come on guys, make the first move. Come on. But man, they just, the first move is become a great single guy. That's a big move right there. I know, but be eligible, be an eligible bachelor. Yes. Yes. There's some old phrases. It's funny is so many girls on our team like that we do like, you know,

shoots with and content, all of them, the ones that are single are like literally, if he says, I own a home, they're like, oh my gosh. Cause the amount of guys that just don't, they're just kind of like, I'm good. I'll just, it's just like, there's not this like feeling of proactiveness as much, right? I know it's not true for every guy. So I'm not gonna like, you know, stereotype.

Yeah, so I wouldn't paint with too broad a brush. But there's that. Yeah, I know. But I do find that a lot of girls that are in their late 20s and early 30s, that are, you know, they're ready. They're like, I would love to be married. But all these guys that they meet, it's just like, man. I gotta find somebody that's up there.

Yeah, and if they own a home, they're just like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. He owns a home, right? So it's just like, man. You mean he's got a job? Yeah I know so oh man that's interesting though that's good data it's very interesting yeah it is and you know these are things you can control they're variables you can choices in your life which you make choices yeah yeah and you can control your choices and create when you

control the controllables, your path to high quality relationships, to happiness, your path to wealth, you have a higher probability of hitting those. And so that's very interesting. You know the other one we throw out, and this was a big hit on Instagram, but that the data shows us that couples that can agree on four things have a very high probability of staying together if they agree on these four things before marriage. The number one cause of divorce in North America is money fights and money problems.

So when you can agree on money, what we're going to do with it, how we're going to handle it, debt, savings, investing, all that kind of stuff, lifestyle, all that. When you can agree on that ahead of time, not perfectly, but align on the values around it, the principles around it. Number two, agree on religion. Be in the same religion and regularly attend a house of worship of your religion, whatever it is. And number three, agree on kids.

Are we gonna have them, how many, and how are they gonna be treated? Who's gonna run the house, us or them? Are we helicopters or are we in charge of the asylum? And number four, how do we deal with the extended family? How you deal with his mother, her father, whatever, all that stuff. How do we deal with all that? And so extended family and it tapers off like that. I mean, but if you can be in in-depth pre-marriage counseling agreement on those four things, your probability

of your marriage sticking is very high. I can give you about four other variables that will get you up in the 90 percentile that you will still be married twenty five years later it and and so you graduate from school graduate from college again regularly attending a house of worship make fifty thousand dollars a year or more household income

put all these things in there the numbers just go up up up and up on probability of success and these are controllables. This is the Ramsey Show. 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. Rachel Cruz, number one best-selling author, host of the Rachel Cruz show, co-host of Smart Money Happy Hour and my daughter is my co-host today. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Katherine is in Pittsburgh. Hey Katherine, how are you?

Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for having me. Sure, what's up? Hey, I am getting involved in my mom's estate. She's 74 years old and her husband is 77 years old. They are both retired and they live on an income between Social Security and retirement of about $47,000 a year. My mom had inherited from her sister on a payable upon death account a fairly decent amount of money that she spent, like, within a month before a family member contested the will. And ten years later, my mom is being forced to pay that money back to the tune of $160,000. And my mom is not in the position.

They own their house free and clear. But I'm not sure exactly how to navigate this next step. They're charging her with embezzlement because she has not paid this money back. So she can either go to jail or somehow if we can come up with some soluble financial plan. So she's in credit card debt to the tune about $125,000. So she does not qualify to put a loan against her house which would it's probably around $250,000 value. I'm confused how she lost this.

Yeah, exactly. Payable on death is a simple thing. It is, but it... Unless she fraudulently did a transaction, there shouldn't be any criminal involved. The will does not supersede payable on death. Well, according to the court and the lawyers that we've had, which I'm not saying they were quality lawyers at this point, I mean,

it's just been in the court system for 10 years that it's just been back and forth between that lawyer. And this is my aunt's estate. And when she died, she didn't... the lawyer that designed her will three months prior to her passing from cancer was... he left his her husband completely out of the will, didn't acknowledging, didn't recognizing. So that's why part of this reclaimable estate comes into play because they were married over 15 years. So he's entitled to 50% of her reclaimable state, which she had left the house to my mom also with her daughter. So they're co-owners on that house. What's the status of that house?

He's living there. He's living there. The whole plan was my aunt to... So she's the co-owner on it, but there's no ruling against her on that. Correct. Why can you not offset that? Well, we offered to give him the house in exchange because he's lived there all these years, but he doesn't want the house because he's in the early stages of dementia and his family just wants the money. Could you sell the house? Then sell the house.

Well, the other person that owns the house isn't on board to sell the house. My aunt had given, when she wrote in the deed, she gave us a dollar amount. If we wanted to buy each other out, this would be the dollar amount. So I presented that offer to the other owner and said, hey, you know, I'll buy you out.

And she's like, I don't want to sell. And I'm like, okay, what do I do now? Then the lawyer says that I have to do a partition lawsuit in order to force the sale, which then goes to public auction instead of market. So you get half the price of what you would if you actually sell on the market. No, not necessarily.

No, it doesn't necessarily go to public auction. The partition sale can just demand the sale within 90 days and you put a real estate agent on it. Okay. So I know that that's an option. That's where the money needs to come from because apparently she's got to pay this back. I'm a little shocked. I'm not an attorney, but I was under the impression pay on death superseded any will. But I don't know know I'm not an attorney and I'm sure I'm not an attorney. Why didn't she put her husband in the will? Was she of sound mind? Is that what he came back to and said? No, she was of sound mind. He doesn't read or he doesn't write and

she was afraid that his family would take advantage of him because they've always just been like that. So she put my mom in charge so that my mom would always make sure that he had a place to live the taxes and insurance were always paid and yada yada yada so that was the ultimate plan but of course he we can't talk to him or anything because of this case that's been happening so yeah I'm gonna force the sale of the other house and find the money to pay this back there you're mom and dad's house, what's it worth? Around 250. Okay.

And the balance on this judgment is how much? 160. Okay. And she's got 120 in credit card debt. Right. So I don't like this. I don't like anything in this conversation and you don't either. It's not fun.

Um, but before I go to jail, I'm selling my house. Well, that, and they live in Ohio, so I wasn't sure that... My lawyer's checking in to see what those laws are, if they can force that sale or that lien on that sale. No, no, I'm talking about your mom and dad's house. Right. But yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's in Ohio. This property and this... But they have changed this... Right, but yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's in Ohio, this property and this thing is happening in West Virginia. But they have changed this. What I'm also confused about is, are they saying because

it was a federally insured bank that she wrongly took the money on a POD account, on a paid on death account, and they're calling that a federal crime? She's actually been charged with a federal crime. Correct. Yes. You're sure. Yes. Yes. Most definitely. Okay. Then they had to, then they had to, because it's a federally insured, an FDIC bank that, you know, monkeying with them makes it a federal crime is the problem. But I don't understand how she monkeyed with them. I think it's, I thought it was a civil matter, but I'm again, I'm not an with them I think it's a I thought it was a civil matter but I'm again I'm not an attorney I'm just aghast at this whole story so that's what our we went from a our paid

because he doesn't do our paid lawyer he doesn't do criminal law and again it's this it's my uncle's family that's forcing the state to file these charges against her. It's not the state, it's the Fed. Um... Yeah, okay. Okay, so that's... It's FBI. And that's what the public sector is saying that...

If you monkey with a federal bank, it's the FBI that files the charges. Well, that's why we don't understand the embezzlement charges because technically she was entitled to this money... That's what I mean....because it was a stable upon death account. I don't understand them either. So she don't understand the embezzlement charges because technically she was entitled to this money. That's what I'm able upon death I don't understand them either It doesn't make sense if you were if you did a fraudulent transaction and stole the money out of the account I can imagine that the feds would get down on your head that makes sense, right? This was not fraudulent in any way. It was simply functioning off of the POD the paid-on-death. I don't know again I'm just I'm practicing law here on the air, which is really dumb because I'm not any good at it. So, yeah, I'm forcing the sale

of the other house with a petition. If I can't pull that off, your mom and dad have to sell their personal home if there's no other way to stop these criminal charges because I'm not putting a 74-year-old in jail. I will sell my home before I do that. I'll sell her home for I do that. So I but I can't even imagine how we got here but you don't sound like someone that's blowing this out. It sounds like you actually know what you're talking about and so that makes me think I don't because I don't know how we got here. Wow scary. Man. People do your will. Tell everybody in the will how it's working and then tell the rest of them to shut up before you die. If you're gonna piss

people off do it before you die. One last hurrah. Our question of the day is brought to you by Yreify. If you've got defaulted private student loans that means you don't have any momentum. Well we get that no judgment but also nobody's coming to bail you out. So take charge at Yreify.com slash Ramsey. They offer refinancing to a low fixed rate built just for you. You can get back on schedule and then get them paid off it's cool private student loans that are in default that's the letter Y R E F Y dot com slash Ramsey might not be in all states today's question comes from Ian in

Louisiana my partner my partner and I recently had our first kid before we were together. I used to save money like crazy. Fast forward to now and I realize she has a massive amount of credit card debt and student loan debt. She also has a mortgage on her house that's very high. She has a job, makes her payments fairly regularly, but there's no sense of urgency to pay anything off. For the first time in my life, I feel like I can't save high. She has a job, makes her payments fairly regularly, but there's no sense of urgency to pay anything off. For the first time in my life, I feel like I can't save any money because I'm trying to keep her and our household afloat. I don't know if there's a situation, I don't know if there's a solution, but there's a resentment building in me and I don't know

what to do." Well, this goes back to what we were talking about in an earlier segment last hour of playing house and just trying to do life together. And it's not working. Yep, it's not working because, I mean, I don't know if there's a solution. Well, you guys are living together and you have a baby. Maybe you get married and go to about seven marriage seminars.

Or a lot of therapy. Yeah, and or. Yeah, and start working together as a team. And all of a sudden, stuff starts moving and happening. But this whole idea of just trying to play like we are married and we're doing life together, but we're not really. And because of that, she has these over here.

I have this over here. You can't build a life together. You can't you can make a human together but you can't seem to pay your bills together well one I mean seriously it's that means this is what hey she has a house you don't that's a good point yeah you know so I mean so what would I do if I were in your shoes? I'll stop all the sarcasm. It's hard for me, but I will stop it for a moment. It's a spiritual gift, but I'll stop it for a moment. Okay. What would I actually do if I sat down with you and was not just poking fun at you? I would say, young man, the best thing you can do for this young lady, for you and for this

baby, for your future, the highest probability of you being able to have a quality life and build wealth is for you to get married. As a part of getting married, sit down with a good marriage counselor and act like you're doing pre-marriage counseling. It's too late, but you need to do pre-marriage counseling and start learning to work together. I would put you into our class Financial Peace University where you both have a point of discussion about debt, about budgeting, about living on a plan for our future. But you're hovering around the fringes of this throwing grenades back at her and she's been doing the best she knows

how to do while you stand on the outside looking in and it's time for you to step up you made a baby so step up take care of business be a man and the two of you sit down together get married and start planning a future together and then you have footing to have a discussion about honey I need to be in it's very important for the future of our child and the future of our marriage that we are on the same page on getting out of debt, on the same page on spending,

on the same page on saving money and investing for the future of this child, on the same page with money in general, and we've gotta spend some time and effort on that. It's time for us both to do adulting stuff and I've let you down to this point but I'm not going to anymore. And I would be very proactive in that discussion and in that part of your relationship and then and only then do you have the footing relationally, legally, everything else to

bring her to the table and have a serious adult discussion about let's both be grown-ups and let's get this mess cleaned up. So, but yeah, that's what I would do. Now I don't know if you're gonna do any of that. I kind of doubt it actually and so I think this is gonna be, if you don't I'll go ahead and tell you what's going to happen. You're both going to struggle and this kid is in a world of hurt because it's parents are nuts. That's what's really gonna happen if you don't fix this. So it's gonna be a long, hard life.

And so, but you can turn it around. Lots of people turn it around. They just make a decision today, I'm going to change. And you, that's the beautiful thing about human behavior. You can just look at it and decide that stuff. That's simple. Dave is in Phoenix. Hey Dave, how are you? New and low. Thanks. How about yourself? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Yeah. So, uh, my wife and I,

we're hoping to gain perspective around our financial situation and whether it's reasonable for us to start thinking about scaling back from, you know, a traditional nine to five situation. How old are you? 39, yeah, we're both late 30s. Okay, and what's your net worth?

It's around 2.8 million. Way to go. Great job. What is it you want to do with your life? Uh, well, you know, maybe travel for a long time. I hope you're not going to tell her to sit on your butt. Yeah, you know, do nothing. No.

Yeah, I mean, we've been, you know, we, we put off traveling. We've been together for about eight years and you know, we've got something that we've wanted to do. And so I know that you can travel and still work and stuff and, and, and, and we would still want to work and, and earn an income and what do y'all do? What do y'all do for a living now? Yeah. So she does hair,

kinda like hair and makeup stuff, and then I do online stuff, like e-commerce stuff. So you don't have a nine to five? Yeah, that's it. That's a nine to five. It's nine to five. You do e-commerce in your living room? Is it flexible or you have to be on the clock at nine with your job?

You work for somebody else? I do, yeah. I work for a company so I'm employed. Oh, I misunderstood. And is she on her own? Does she freelance or is she working like for an agency? So she does a chair rental but she's still a regular client so she services. Yeah. Okay. All right. So she services. Yeah, okay Yeah. All right. So where's the 2.8 million come from? Just like 20 years of being frugal and Working hard, but you said you were 30 39 39 39 Okay, yep

And then there was some liquidation of some stocks and that sort of stuff. Is your house... It's broken up between... Oh, sorry. Is the 2.8 include your home? No. So we actually rent, funny enough, but the 2.8 is broken down between... There's about 1.8 in cash that sits in like CDs and high interest index accounts. Why? And then there's about a million in... that sits in like CDs and high interest 9% of me is 90,000 bucks a year you're losing.

So yeah, you need to get that invested. That's a sidebar though. So you need to get with a SmartVestor Pro and sit down and start laying out an investment game plan. But yes, you could start doing freelance with your skills from the road, from your laptop, and you guys can travel, and your wife could go to two weeks a month and you guys could travel and your income wouldn't drop that much.

What I don't want you to do is do nothing because it's not good for the soul. Yeah. Your soul is better when you are serving. You're happier when you find some way to add value to someone else's life. And just going around the world and collecting margaritas doesn't do that. Might for a year. It does not. It does not do that. Somewhere around the 11th day it starts to go away.

I'll tell Cabo Dave that. I'm just telling you. I'm speaking, Cabo, I'm speaking from experience, somewhere around the 11th day. But I'm still plugged in when I'm in Cabo. Yes, you are, you are. Anyway, this idea that we completely retire and kick back at 39 years old and have no gainful anything is not a good plan.

But you guys can shift what you've been doing. You can change how you're doing it though. Yeah, for sure. And I would. I definitely sure. And I would. I definitely would. And I would get a house, Dave. And get a house and get that money invested. Yeah.

Great job though. Well done to both you and your wife. Yeah. Incredible. Great job. Incredible. Young millionaire. Wow.

It's amazing. Our Every Dollar team has multiple free trainings for you this month. Every dollar is about more than just budgeting, it's about how to handle money. And it is expanding and growing and the services built inside of it are new every week and so we're constantly growing. This team is doing an incredible job. So if you want to learn how to handle money get in the EveryDollar app and you can join live to learn how to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle in just 90 days. We're going to give you a step by step walk through of the EveryDollar app and you get your biggest budgeting questions answered live in the Q&A. Almost 200,000 people have done this. They've just done these trainings. I mean

millions of people have downloaded the app but a couple hundred thousand have done these trainings so spots are limited up now. It's a free training. Go to everydollar.com webinar. Jennifer is in Seattle. Hi Jennifer. Welcome to the Ramsey show. Hi, thank you. What's up? So my husband and I moved back to my hometown about a year and a half ago with our four kids. We purchased a pizzeria that was failing. We basically purchased assets because no processes, employees, we had to change everything. And my question is,

do we continue or do we close? We are currently, we have cut all costs, you know, cost of goods are down, all of that. Why was it failing and why is it failing? We have cut all costs, you know, cost of goods are down, all of that. Why was it failing and why is it failing? Great question. It was failing because the previous owner was using expired products, the culture of the employees was toxic. So we were able to turn all that, we turned the culture and we're slowly going upward,

but we made mistakes in the beginning that are basically have us by the throat. My husband and I are not taking a wage, so we're basically on off tips. We almost lost our house last year. We can't pay our taxes, but I don't know what to do. We don't feel like this is forever. I'm ready to move on, to be honest, but I don't know what the wise decision would be. And the one person that I wanted wisdom from

was you in this arena. It's been rough. It's scary. You work your fingers to the bone, then you got bony fingers. 100%. Yeah, It's no fun. Okay so here's what you need to do. You need to have a logical reason to chart an increase in profits forecasted over the coming 12 months okay so like for

instance what were your profits three months ago for the month profits we haven't been to be honest we've been just slowly going backwards so you're not you're not you're not moving up well, no, no, no, we're not in the profit arena. I think I guess my my Statement about moving forward is you know, we're losing less and less. We are not we are month to month. Yeah, so you're not profitable We're not no and we took advice from a business owner we trusted we've never been in business We were debt free when we moved here and we didn't know, you know, what you don't know, you don't know. So how much debt do you have? All sorts. We have a lot. Personal credit cards, we have 37,000. We were slapped with an $8,000

penalty from L&I, from an employee that we inherited. We didn't know. We had to fire our accountant, so that gets all put on me. And we owe like $15,000 to the DOR. And then we purchased the business by an owner contract, so we owe him about $115,000. $115,000 or $50,000? Sorry, $115,000. $115,000. $115,000. Yeah. So you didn't have any cash when you started? We had a little bit from the sale of our house and where we came from, and we put everything here and bought a house.

What did you guys do for a living before you moved there? We were pastors. We did fine. We took your glass, we taught it, it was great. And we've actually encountered three personal traumas within like a six month period after everything started to fall apart. So our mind space is not in a good spot. And you know, so we're stuck. So, where's the perfect? There's two things that determine when you walk away. Number one thing you determine is when you're out of gas.

And I don't know where your husband is, but you're out of gas. I'm out of gas. You ain't got any fight left. You're fight all left. No and I'm super strong. I didn't say you're not strong. I said you're out of gas. There's a different thing. You can have a car that is very powerful but when it's out of gas it sits. It doesn't matter how strong it doesn't matter how many horsepower the engine generates it's out of gas. So yeah, the second thing is, Henry Cloud wrote a wonderful book called Necessary Endings. Henry's a good friend and one of the best writers I think on the planet on these kinds

of things and he says in anything, whether it's a job, business a relationship uh... whatever you have a necessary ending when you lose hope logically that the future is getting better uh... a crazy example in other words would that has nothing to do with your story would be like if you're married to an alcoholic and they promise they're going to get better they promise they're going to go to, they promise they're going to go to rehab, they crash, they go to rehab, they crash, they go to rehab, and you finally go, I don't think this is going to get better, this has to end, and you end the relationship with the alcoholic. Okay?

That's an example. In business it would be, I can't see logically a business way out. I don't see how this is going to turn a profit before we all starve to death over here. Yeah and and I don't hear the profits coming. I mean if you told me there's some kind of a chart with the profits and it was hockey stick up and to the right and we were just at the bottom of the hockey stick but we're heading up that's a plausible hopeful thing that we could reach and get a hold of but so far I haven't heard that you guys even know how to make a profit with the pizzeria so what are you can you sell the assets like they were sold it

to you I think so yeah we for sure have a contract and we thought about that. We actually reached out to a business broker, a real estate agent. Yeah. If they would just take over your contract with the former owner, that would be a win. Okay. And then you go clean up the credit card debt, you go clean up the 8K, the 15k, you can do that when you get jobs again. Yeah, right. But that 115 if someone else can take that over is what you're saying? Yeah. The contract of the business.

Yeah, if the former owner that you owe money, the 115 to, would agree to let someone else take over and release you from liability on that contract, and that's all you get for the business business I'm gonna call that a win. Me too. Okay. We'll be having a party. Yeah. Yeah and then you go have to fight through the rest of the debt. How hard is that to sell? It's not that hard at all and I don't know what assets are here but you got a pizza oven you got restaurant goods you've got a somewhat of leasehold improvements I assume you're leasing the building.

Correct, yeah we're in a big grocery store on a popular highway to the beach. But you don't own the real estate? No. No. Okay, but you've got this location and the lease would be assignable as a part of this too, and you could get out of that. So if you can assign the debt to the former owner and assign the lease and call that a day,

I'm probably taking it because I think you're out of gas and I don't think you see your way to sunshine. I don't know. I don't, I don't hear it. Would your husband agree, Jennifer? Does he feel this too? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we are, we're loyal. We don't quit. We just keep going. Listen, winners quit all the time. We quit doing stuff that's stupid. Yeah.

And beating your head against the wall. You know, you quit doing stupid stuff. I quit doing stupid stuff all the time. I quit all the time. It's called experimenting. I found something that didn't work. The hypothesis didn't play. Okay. And your hypothesis in this didn't play. guys go get some jobs and get get your emotional Sanity back your spiritual sanity back and you can actually relax and lay your head on the pillow again You've been through hell. I can hear it I'm letting this thing go if you can get it sold

I'm gonna work real hard to get it sold in the next 90 days and get my life back and then go back into the pastor or go back into something else. Krista is in Asheville, North Carolina. Hi, Krista. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Oh my gosh, hi. Hi, what's up? So I was calling because I have some questions about how to combine

my finances with my fiance. We're getting married in 12 days. Yay! I know you guys really preach, you know, combining your assets and finances and I really want to do that. Unfortunately, my fiance is really just kind of crushed by student debt and he recently had a loan go to collections last week and so that kind My fiance is really just kind of crushed by student debt. And he recently had a loan go to collections last week. And so that kind of turned our world upside down. And now I'm not sure how to move forward with combining our assets.

How much student loan debt does he have? Oh, he has around 80,000. And what does he make? He makes $22 an hour. Why? So he's a physical therapist assistant and he went to a private university outside out of state so he really just collected quite a bit during that time and The loan that went to collections was you can make $25 an hour at Target went to collections was you can make $25 an hour target yes we are he actually just in an application yesterday he's moving on to a different job and has his

degree in physical therapy yes so how much is he is he making moment did he get his PT he has his PTA. Oh for assistance only. And PT assistants don't make $22 or he just has the world's worst job. I don't know what they make. A PT generally makes in 70 or 80 grand. No he makes an average of about after taxes he makes about $42,000 a year. I mean that's the market for a PT assistant with a PT assistant certification. That sucks. Yeah. I wouldn't pay money to get that degree.

I know and I mean we've moved on from that. He's looking at new jobs with great prospects. We're excited about that. That's good. What are those going to pay? Do you know more than 42? Yeah. What are those going to pay, do you know? More than 42? Yeah, so the first year he'll be making around $26 an hour, but after the first year he'll bump up to about 39.

Okay. And what do you make? Working for an Heiress. Okay. I'm self-employed, so I make, my monthly amount kind of ranges every month, but I average about four to five thousand a month.

Profit taxable income? After everything, it really kind of drops down to about thirty-eight a month. You're not making any money either. How long have you had this business? This, this is my second year in business. Okay, is it growing? Yes! Good, it needs to. Okay, good.

Good, because I mean, if you're going to run your own business, it's hard work as you've noticed you want to make more than minimum freaking wage. Absolutely. Yeah, okay. Good, because I mean, you're pouring on the colds girl to do what you're doing, I can tell. Alright, so you're going to have a household income of approaching $100,000. Why can we not pay off $80,000 in debt? $100,000? Where are you getting that? He's going to $39 an hour.

In a year. And she's making $40. Yeah. That's where I got that. Well I got that in a year though okay but I mean right why can you not pay off 80 you can first you could not be in collections and get current on the payments and then you could just pay the stinking thing off in the next year and a half two years so that's kind of when I'm asking advice wise I really want to set up our first year of marriage for success you know I really want to tackle up our first year of marriage for success. You know, I really want to tackle this debt. Yeah, exactly. Unfortunately, I have to, for this to make sense, I kind of have to give you a really

quick backstory about our past year and why we're in this situation. I live in Swannanoa, North Carolina, and I live in one of the neighborhoods that was completely wiped out in the flood. Our home is still standing, but it needs some repairs. And shortly after that, about three months later, we had both of our cars converters stolen out of them, rendering us with no cars to get to and from work. So I had to take out two additional owned cars. Why did you not put converters in? Just why didn't you get a converter and put in it? It's illegal for a California emissions Prius to have an aftermarket part in, so insurance throwed them off as total losses,

gave us $800 and said sorry. And obviously $800 is not enough money to buy a car, so. Wait a minute, wait a minute. If they write it off as a total loss, they have to give you the entire value of the car. Right, which they deemed at $800. I don't care what they deem it to be. It wasn't $800 before the converter got stolen. I agree.

You have to go back and fight your insurance claim. You got screwed. I know. So you own the house that got gutted? Yes, and our house is not gutted it's still standing and it's completely paid off. So we're living in it? We just yes. Okay but it still has damage from the floods? It does have some damage it needs about it needs a new roof on our our property it has our house and it has my trailer in the backyard which is where I hold all my inventory for my business and it needs a new roof because

things are leaking all over my merchandise. Okay. Which is going to cost around 8,000. Okay. So honestly I'm trying to figure out what do I tackle first? Do I pay the car loans, the trailer roof, or do I immediately start tackling? What is your, are you doing your business online? I have a storefront and I have business online, but one of my stores got completely wiped out in the flood as well. So that's where- Where's the bulk of your business coming from? Online or storefront? Storefront. Rent a storage, a mini storage, even if it's inconvenient because you don't have eight thousand dollars for roof and you can't let your inventory get ruined. So move your junk, move your junk.

Okay. And then start saving money. And then what you've got to do is you have to prioritize the, you have to prioritize these issues, okay? We have a roof, we have car issues, we have a roof on the house issue, and we have $80,000, okay? This has nothing to do with why you called by the way. You still are going to combine your finances because you've combined your life

and you've got as much mess as he's got. When your roof is leaking all over your inventory that's probably worse than being behind on your student loans. So you know you got you guys are sitting you both are walking into crisis upon crisis so you just got to prioritize how do you eat an elephant a bite at a time. So let's force rank what we're doing with these things. Let's work our butts off and every dollar we can squeeze goes to force rank number one. Every dollar we

squeeze goes to force rank number two after that. And so I'll help you get current on the student loans, one, move the stuff to mini storage. Then number two, build the roof and bring the stuff back out of mini storage. Number three, upgrade your cars and get moving again on those. Just do something like that and you lay it down.

And you guys have got enough money combined if you both get in gear and both work 27 hours a day. I mean, you're just going to be working like maniacs to clean this mess up and it's a metaphorical mess as much as it is an actual mess. How much do you guys have on the cars? I have a $12,000 loan on my car and he has a $7,000 loan on his.

Okay, those cars were worth more than $800. I don't understand how you accepted $800. I would not have accepted that. If you're gonna total my car, the policy says you have to pay the whole bill, the value of the car. And so you may need to contact an attorney and go back and fight this insurance company on this.

But what they're doing is they're trying to dodge anything in your area on claims, because they've gotten slaughtered on claims in your area And so they're screwing people The state farm I appealed it and I reported it to the state agency Unfortunately, my claim was just kind of Denied so I was given a final offer of $800 again and they said that was the best thing to do. Yeah, I can give you a final offer. I'm gonna sue your butt, State Farm.

Is that who it is? No, it's a local company based in Nashville. Okay, yeah. I'm gonna file suit on them. For 15 or 20,000 bucks, I'm gonna give them a hard time. So you've just got some things like this you've got to line out some stress points and decide okay this month we're gonna attack this one this month we're gonna attack this one. The other possibility is load up everything and leave and go somewhere else and rent a house and start your lives with careers and your storefront in a new location and sell the property and that will clean up a bunch of the debt.

That's a possibility too. 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. Rachel Cruz, number one best-selling author, host of the Rachel Cruz show and my daughter is my co-host today. Betty is with us in Dallas, Texas. Hi Betty, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, thank you for taking my call Dave and Rachel. Sure, what's up? So my husband wants to take a HELOC and I am opposed to it. He wants to help his nephew out who is in a big amount of debt, close to $100,000.

His nephew has $200,000 in debt? $100,000 or $200,000? $200,000. His nephew has $200,000 in debt? $100,000 or $200,000? $100,000. $100,000, I'm sorry. And your husband wants to borrow money on your house to pay your nephew's debt? Yes. And we're immigrants, we're doing well for ourselves, and this nephew is back home. Back home where is back home? India. In India okay.

How old's the nephew? He's pretty young. I'm sorry. How old's the nephew? He's 22 or 3. Oh my god, how did he get into a hundred thousand dollars in debt? Yeah, he started a business that didn't work out well. He had quite a bit of loan and then they're like payday loans, personal loans, so it kind of doubled up in one and a half years. And I assume you guys don't have any, I assume you and your husband don't have any money. No, we don't have that much money to give them. We're actually building up trying to build up our emergency fund right now. We don't have any other debt but we don't have that kind of money either. So it's driving a big divide between me and my husband. Well, there's two things at play here. Okay, the thing one is you're right, you should not take out a home equity loan

to bail out your nephew. It's really sad that your nephew's in that situation, but it is not your responsibility to ruin your life to try to make his better because he's not going to pay you no he's not okay so basically you're taking out a home equity loan to give your nephew money not to loan him money because it's a it's a scam it's a delusion for you all to believe he's going to repay you. He's not going to repay you, okay? So if you take out this loan, sir,

if I were talking to your husband, I would say if you take out this loan, you are borrowing money to give a gift to someone, and you don't have the financial strength to give a gift this size right now. I wish you did, I wish you had two million dollars and you could send him a check for 100,000 and your life would still be okay, but you don't.

So you can't. And no, you can't put your personal home in jeopardy to bail out a 22 year old who made a mistake who's not going to repay you. That is the answer to your question. Now, the overlay and the problem is, the situation is very cultural because in your culture, it would be very normal to bail out an extended family member. In America, it would be crazy. You'd be going, what? Right? But in

your culture it's much more normal isn't it? Yeah, but we would think like five thousand or ten thousand dollars at the moment. Right. Yeah. Well I mean even an American might do that one. Okay, but I mean your culture is much more extended family oriented than we Anglos and American would be, right? And so I want to be sensitive to that. And the other thing is, in your culture, sometimes, and I don't know your situation in your household, but I am really close friends with a couple of Indian families, and they've had to work the guy not the guy the man realizing he's not in charge it was hard it was harder for them than for some he's like he's like used to giving orders and everybody says what does what he says yes and that's happened sometimes yeah happens sometimes. Yeah, yeah, and that's what's happening here. He thinks he's gonna just bull his way through this and his wife

standing in the middle of the road going, no, you're not leaving. You're not driving the car right now. You're not doing this. And so I don't know how to reason with him other than to meet him and say, it is normal in our culture to want to help and I appreciate your love for your nephew, but you can't make your love for and say, is normal in our culture to want to help and I appreciate your love for your nephew, but you can't make your love for your nephew damage your love for me and your love for our home. Our home is more important than your nephew.

Our family, our marriage is more important than your nephew and you can't put him ahead of us. That's not fair, it's not right and I'm not going to go along with it and we're not going to do it and I but I appreciate I appreciate how why you want to do it you're a good man you're a generous man you're a helpful man but we're not going to borrow money to give it to someone who can't pay it back and won't pay it back yeah and he's already paid about $30,000 or so into this beyond the hundred thousand that your husband has. Yes that was

against my will but he has done that. Okay so Ken I don't even know if you can stop him if you won't sign the HELOC, I don't know, does Texas require that you sign the HELOC? Yes, it does. Don't sign it. We need mine because the house is in Boaturning. Yeah, then don't sign it. I refuse to sign it. Yeah.

That's hardball, but hopefully we can reason and talk this through from a relational standpoint. How old are you guys, Betty? You and your husband? We're in our mid-forties and we have a couple of teenage kids. Yeah, yeah. That's your responsibility. Yeah, yeah. And his. We've paid for this kid's college, everything, but he hasn't actually done it. Where's his, what's his family situation in India? Why is his mom and dad not doing it? They are ministers, so they don't have a steady income, but they do have an income.

But we've been still helping them over the years, and I'm not against that. Yeah, but putting your home in danger, putting your home, right, taking equity out of your home. No. Yeah, that's where the line is drawn for sure. Well, not doing it, not doing it, not doing it, Betty. Hey, we're gonna be in Dallas, Fort Worth,

in Fort Worth, actually, in about two weeks. Dr. John Deloney and I, if you guys would like to come, bring your husband, I'd love to meet him. He might not wanna meet me, but yeah. Anyway, I'll give you a couple tickets. We'd love to have you and maybe that night will do some good hanging out there with us. We'd love to do it.

We'd love to help you any way we can. All right, Taylor's in Lansing, Michigan. Hi, Taylor, what's up? Hi, how you guys doing? Better than I deserve, how can I help? So I am literally about to have my last class of college tomorrow. Yay What's your degree in?

Psychology, okay. What are you gonna do? so well, I had intended to go on to do more school because With psychology, there's not really too much you could do at a bachelor's level. Unfortunately, I really dragged my feet This year and I did not get into grad school. I only ended up applying to one. But what my question is, I'm trying to scramble for plans now and I want to know if it would be smarter to like live and go back home to where I'm probably not going to make as much money because there's a lot less opportunity there. But I imagine expenses and everything would also be a lot lower or if I should you know go to the big city where I have the potential to make a lot more money. Go the big city it's time for an adventure brother. Head out load up the truck and head to Beverly.

Nate is with us in Chicago. Hi Nate, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey Dave, how are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Yeah, so I'm just looking for some personal advice about my career with the new things that have just came to light regarding our family company. Um, the wearer machine shop, I'm the eldest on, I'm 43 and we I run it with me and my father. And I've long suspected that the company makes a decent amount of money and that my father kind of not necessarily hides it from me, but doesn't really tell me about it.

And that that way he can kind of keep my pay wherever he wants it to be. And it recently came to a head this last year. And I basically found out that he's willing to lie directly to my face and tell me things that are not true in order to make, make that, make that be his, his reality basically and I just don't know if I should stick around or if I should just bolt out of here because there's no integrity and trust anymore and I just can't

can't deal with it or just looking for some advice you've already decided yeah for the most part yeah I mean if you're working for anyone else that did that and wasn't your father, you would have already been gone. Oh yeah, most definitely. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely some fear involved, some loyalty. I want to be loyal, but at the rate of what it's costing me, it doesn't seem to be worth it, I guess.

Well, you have to be careful what you're being loyal to and if you really believe the disrespectful things you just said then you would be crazy to be loyal to that. Right okay. I mean an extreme example if your dad was doing cocaine you're not required to be loyal. Right so we're not required to be loyal to misbehavior. Right. Just because there's DNA involved. Yeah. How's your relationship outside the office? I mean, obviously this has taken a toll on you guys. Yeah, there isn't one. Yeah, there isn't one. I work with him on a daily basis

and I have not spoken to him in five months. So that's how, that's how strange it is. You work in the business and you don't speak. That's correct. Yep. I understand it sounds insane and it is 100% is, but I have not talking. How many people work in about five months? How many people work there? We have about five. Y'all are weird.

It's very weird. It's very weird. I mean you're sitting in the middle of an acid bath and act like you're not burning up. No, I'm definitely burning. You need to leave yesterday. This is strange. Yeah, it's very strange. Yeah, I mean, yeah. What kind of comp, or you don't have to answer that, what kind of job would you do when you leave?

What would you be? Same field. Which is why I missed what the comp was. Yeah, I mean, I could do the same field. I could be a machinist. I have experience in carpentry. I also, you know, I got a side hospital where I do custom furniture. And there's plenty of places you could do that and not be in competition with him directly.

Correct. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good point. Yeah. There's no reason to further dishonor him by stealing his customers and taking them over to his competitor or something like that. No, I wouldn't want to do that.

Or even working for his direct competitor. I mean, I'd just find some other gig, but you're in Chicago. It's a huge market. You can find a machinist job. You might find one making more than you're making now, and you'd at least be able to sleep at night. I'm sorry man this is heartbreaking it's so sad are your parents still together is your mom is your mom around she's around but they haven't been together for okay I was like 12 okay yeah. Yeah, no. Shocking. Yeah, it's very shocking. It's very weird. We, you know,

he's constantly told me too that there's never any, somehow we're a company that's been around for 30 years now, but there's never any profit every year. So he keeps telling me that. And, and, you know, I believed him for a while, but at this point it's just by deductive reasoning. There's just no way. I mean, we also have like 15 to 20 rental properties and 90 percent of them are paid for so you know where's all this money going I don't know he won't tell me and you know yeah it's a push through and no it's not really good okay he has stuff he has stuff broken in him you can't fix. I'm aware of that.

So the only chance you have of having any connection to your dad is to not work there anymore and then rebuild a relationship outside of there that's not based on any kind of business or any kind of business or income connectivity. Right. Where you're your own man, he's his own man. And just like you have some friends that do stuff you don't completely agree with, but

you're still friends. And that'll be your dad someday. After he gets over being pissed off and further pissed off about you leaving. Yeah, that's probably going to be a while. Yeah, it'll be a hot minute. But, um, Nate, I'm sorry. You have already made your mind up and I'm going to push you out and say, you really shouldn't be there another week. Okay. If you were, listen, if you were,

if I had someone that worked inside of Ramsey that wouldn't speak to me, they wouldn't make it five minutes, much less five months. We don't have people inside of our building that don't talk to each other because they're mad. I mean, that's just stonewalling and childish and weird and so it's impossible to operate and Have an environment and it'll be better for all the other team for you to not be there Because they smell all of this tension in the air. Oh I mean actually with you guys working with heavy machinery this might even be a little dangerous

Because it's so distracting. Yeah. So I, you know, I'm, man, please go on and move. Make, you know, one of the things we say around here, Nate, all the time, and this is, I'm gonna say it to you, when your spirit leaves the company, take your body with it. And your spirit leaves the company, take your body with it. And your spirit left five months ago.

So take your body with it. And it's gonna be great for you, and it's gonna be better for your dad, it's gonna be better for the other people that work there. And then you guys can reconnect at some level later, and you can just feel sorry for him that he acts this way. Yeah, and I mean, and for your quality of life, Nate, I mean, you think about all this stuff

Ken Coleman's doing around work and how many hours you spend at work, all of this, but I'm like the direct correlation of having a level of peace of life is actually enjoying your job and liking your job and it being a positive environment versus walking in to not only a toxic environment, but the layer of the family on top of it.

I'm like, it's just like, that's gonna eat away at your quality of life, Nate. So for you, I mean, yeah, it is, you will, I think you said it, but you'll sleep better at night. I'm like, there's a weight that is lifted off when that happens, but man,'s that's messy I'm sorry. No that's it's hurtful. That's bad. I'm so sorry. Oh some people's children. Man. Open phones here at triple eight eight two five five two two five. One of the things we've learned and we teach in Entrez leadership all the

time and I think I even mentioned it in the new book, Build a Business You Love, is when you're in a family business and Rachel and I are in one where you're working with family, the relationship at work can the family business can not be no more functional than the family is. So the family is dysfunctional and doesn't do conflict and doesn't confront reality and doesn't encourage each other and isn't self ish or selfless rather than selfish then they're not going to be that way at work. So you don't find family businesses that are functional when the family is dysfunctional ever. It's impossible and so that's what we're running into with this situation. It's really really tough. This is the Ramsey Show.

This is the Ramsey Show. If you're buying or selling your home it's a big deal. You want an expert in your corner, not somebody who got their license three weeks ago. Your Aunt Sally should not sell your house. You should put a pro in your corner. This is a huge asset. And you don't owe Uncle Charlie, who got his license three weeks ago the opportunity to list your $700,000 house. No, you get a pro in your corner, you get somebody that knows what they're doing and somebody that's got a track record of selling 30 to 300 houses a year.

Somebody who's actually done transactions that has high octane, high protein and knows what they're doing. If you want to find those, we found them, we vetted them and they're called Ramsey Trusted Real Estate Pros and you can find them for free at ramsysolutions.com slash agent. So if you're buying or selling, but somebody knows what the flip they're doing in your corner, man, come on. It's a serious amount of money you're paying in commissions and or you're causing to be paid in commissions depending on the situation but either way you need to get

somebody in your corner that knows what they're doing because they do a lot of transactions and they're smart they're not brand new sorry if you're brand new but I wouldn't list my house with you and I've got my real estate license in 1978 so I've been around this business for a long, long time. Darla's in Charlotte. Hi Darla, how are you? Hey, I'm good, how are y'all? Better than we deserve.

What's up? So my question is, do I throw all of my savings at what is now our debt that my husband brought into our relationship if he is not on board with the baby steps. How long have you guys been married? About a year and a half now. Okay, and you've not combined finances up to this point? We've done a little bit.

We have a joint account. So he likes being in debt and wants to stay there. He's let me work on credit. We've gotten two credit cards paid off. No, that wasn't my question. He feels like it's necessary, like it's normal. It is normal, but normal sucks and is broke. It does, yep. How much debt does he have? I think with his student loans I think the total is around like 80 or 90. And how much do you have in savings? About 50. What's your new household income now that you're married? Uh, about one 10.

And he doesn't want to get out of debt. Well, yeah. And there's no like, um, he's not interested with you Darla. It'd be like, okay, yeah, let's pay this off. Yep. I'm curious. Let's talk about this. I mean, it's none of that. It is pretty much like, I don't really care.

So, um, he's, I guess so. It's none of that. It is pretty much like I don't really care. So... He's... I guess... So, Ramsey used to be a cuss word in our relationship, so I let it go at the beginning. I was on BabySep 4 or 5 sticks before we got married. And so he's... I mean, just through casual conversation... Let me stop you for a second, okay? Ramsey wasn't a cuss word in your relationship.

What was a cuss word in your relationship was that you were on two completely separate pages on money. Yes. Yes. And you use me to blame for that. But that's not my fault. No it's not. Okay it's your fault. Yes. All right. Yes, I was very assertive. Okay. I was very assertive. I was. I'm so aware.

I like it. That's funny. That's funny, I like it. Now you know to pull back. Yeah. Oh, I did. I didn't, I don't think we talked about money until we were married and then it was like, okay.

Yeah, and how's that working for you? You know. Yeah. We're getting there, I think. Darla. Darla, Darla. Man. Well. So I'm struggling.

Well, yeah, y'all aren't on the same, I mean, in my book, you're not on the same page financially. And so right now, no, I mean, it's, I mean, I, yeah, but I think working together out of a checking account is good, but you guys have to align values wise before you go tactical. You're not going to succeed financially and you're gonna struggle with all of your decisions because they're all attached to money in one way or another.

Yes. Every time you get ready to do anything, vacation, where we're going for Thanksgiving, it's all going to come back to somewhere in somebody's head a dollar amount and it's going to be a discombobulation because you're not aligned and aimed at the same target. So you're going to struggle relationally until you all solve this. That's what's bothering me. It's not a Ramsey thing and it's not you shoving something down his throat thing.

It's a honey, we've gotta get aligned. We have to be on the same page here. Yeah, with our life, because that's it, Darla. I'm like, you know. Our life is not aligned. Yeah, I mean, you're a year and a half in, you're already feeling this tension, and this is not a fun way to be married. You know what I mean?

You both have to feel that. We're not just two separate people who are just be bopping know, basically like roommates. You're married, this is your spouse, right? That you went to the altar and gave vows to for the rest of your life. And so you want this to be an enjoyable relationship, right? Like you both do.

And so aligning on these things is part of that. And so that means for him to step up and say, okay, there's a subject in our marriage that we are not aligned with, and it's gonna continue to cause conflict, and it's not gonna make this marriage enjoyable. So we have to fix that subject together. Withholding your savings from him as punishment

is not a method of coming together. So no, I'm not throwing the savings at the debt until we get this solved, but what it does highlight is how desperately you all need to solve this equation of agreeing on how we're going to move forward with our life and coming together on that. And you may need to sit down with a good marriage counselor. Yes.

And, you know, we've got, we need to get on the same page because, you know, he's got a blueprint for a two-story, you got a blueprint for a tri-level, and've got, we need to get on the same page. Cause you know, he's got a blueprint for a two story, you got a blueprint for a tri-level and y'all are gonna build a pretzel. You know, it's gonna be a mess. And so it's not, that's not, you know. So getting aligned, even if, even if you both, I'd rather you both be aligned that everything

that Ramsey says is stupid. And both of you agree to that than to be where you are. You got a better chance that way than you do the other way. And don't, for God sakes, don't ever make this about Ramsey ever again for your sake because it's not a matter of, it's a funny thing to say that the word cuss word, I get that it's a funny thing to say that the word cuss word. I get that, it's a cute joke, but what it says is that your opinion about this was not respected by him.

And he blew off, well, what you say doesn't matter. I'm not gonna do it that way. And he's not respecting your input. That's what it is. It's not my input that's the problem. It's that he doesn't listen to any idea you've got he wants to do what he wants to do and That's a problem. That's a problem when you're married. Yeah, or the way you were communicating it was Disrespectful shameful, you know what I mean? Like it's it could be a both-and probably some of both. Yeah Alex is in Dallas. Hi Alex. What's up?

Hi, Dave. Hi Rachel. Thank you so much for having me sure. How can we help? So my question is should we trade my wife's car now since the terrorists are going to make cars more expensive? Who said the terrorists are gonna make cars more expensive? Just you know colleagues at work friends just you know Colleagues at work, friends, just, you know, you're gonna need that. Oh, they're economists, huh? Yeah. No, they're not.

Okay, so tariffs are not gonna make cars more expensive unless they're coming from another country. Okay, we were thinking of buying a Toyota, which I guess would be coming from another country. Well, you're buying a brand new Toyota? Yeah. How many million dollars is your net worth? I'm not, I'm not a millionaire. Okay, you shouldn't be buying a brand new car then. They go down in value too much.

You ought to buy a used one. Okay. And they don't have any tariffs on used cars. Okay. So no to buy a new car basically. No to buying a new car unless you have a million dollar net worth. Because a new car is the thing that goes down the fast, the largest thing that we all buy that goes down the fastest in value. You lose 70% of the value in four years on a brand new car. And you can't afford to financially mathematically to take that kind of hit until you've got substantial net worth. And so, let someone else take the butt kicking the first year or two years.

Buy a one or two year old Toyota. They got a great, by the way, you get a low mile Toyota. Toyota is a great car. Rachel's husband drives a Toyota truck and you know they're fine vehicle. But get a two-year-old one and let someone else take the butt kicking because it's gonna lose 25% when you drive it off a lot. So you know you're much better off to let someone else do that until you've got a substantial net worth. Thanks for the call. Our scripture of the day, 2 Corinthians 9, 10. now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

Paul Samuelson says, economists have predicted nine out of ten, let me try again, economists have predicted nine out of the last five recessions. It's coming. economists have predicted nine out of the last five recessions that's about right yeah becky's in dallas hey becky what's up hi thanks for taking my call sure how can we help i have a question for you here uh... my husband retired about six months ago and i'm planning on retiring probably in the next year, year and a half.

We purchased a second home last year, about a year ago, in another state so that we could have a place to stay when we go and visit our grandkids. We are debt free except for that house that we just purchased. So my question is, we have a large amount in investment accounts. How much? About three million. Okay. How much do you own this house? About 375. Okay. Should we take that money and pay that off? Yes. Out of the investments? Then I'm thinking we could take the monthly payments that we're making and put that back in every month.

That's my thought. My husband, I think he's a little nervous about taking that much out of the investments just with the way the stock market is going. It's what? It's 10%. Yeah. Do it by the night. Okay.

I just wanted to get your opinion. It's 10% yeah do it by the night Okay, I just wanted to get your opinion if we were taking 90% out I'd be nervous with him Yeah, but it's nothing okay, and listen. It's a second house if you can't afford to pay it off. You shouldn't have it Right well we debated that when we were gonna buy it it. Should we, you know, take it out and pay cash? Yeah. I think you can afford it and I think you should pay it off tonight. Okay. How's that feel? All right. Thank you.

How's that feel? It feels good. Yeah. Well, we've been debt free for five, six years now and we decided to do this and so this is really the only debt we have and so it would be nice to be debt-free again. I gotta tell you you'll I think you'll physically feel the weight leave. Yeah. Okay thank you. Thank you. Have a good day. You too. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Now keep in mind they are over 59 and a half and they have no penalties on their retirement. We never tell people to cash out retirement to pay off debt, but when they're, you know, in their earning years, these folks are above 59 and a half and retired. Pass that. No penalties.

Yeah, no penalties is important. So if you call us up and say, I wanna pay off my credit card debt and I'm 37, no, I'm not gonna tell you do that because you're gonna get hit with the taxes and the penalties. And retirement specifically, other investments. Other investments, definitely cash them out.

But anything where you're gonna get penalized and taxed, no, I think we'll pass on that one. anything where you're going to get penalized and taxed, no, I think we'll pass on that one. So, and you know, with three million, they can afford a second home. Yeah. They're in good shape. That's not a, cause a second home-

And a $375,000 is reasonable. Yeah, even if the second home is blamed on the grandchildren, it's still a toy, still a second home. You still, they have hotels in that town. So you don't have to have a second home. But you can afford the toy. In this case, it's a toy that goes up in value, which is kind of nice.

You can afford the second home or the third home when it is a small percentage of your net worth. And then you're just fine with it. It's not producing any income. It is going up in value, but it's not producing any income is going up in value is not producing income and so while your money investments are producing revenue the pristine income that whole thing

good stuff the stuff jared is in phoenix hey jared welcome to the ramsey show i gave her a chill they stick a little sure what's up i've got a question about a toy or a classic car. I've got a 1967 Camaro and I'm debating on whether or not to keep it or to sell it. I'll take it. No, I'm kidding.

I've had it for 25 years. Dave was seven then. Dave's probably like, I remember that car. You remember those Camaros, Dave? No, definitely. It's a great car. How did you end up owning this car, Jared? So I've had it for 25 years. I got it when I was 15 as part of earning Eagle Scout.

It was part of my turning 16 and making Eagle Scout. Why would you sell it? It's a toy and I don't play with it. So that's kind of where I'm torn is it's it's kind of an heirloom had it for a long time got a lot of memories with it. How old are you? I'm 40. Do you have kids? I do. Is that anything to pass down to them? That's kind of I was thinking originally but they really haven't shown any interest in it. I don't take them on drives with it.

So yeah, it's just sitting there. Exactly. Yeah. Older cars, they're made out of metal. I live in Phoenix. It gets hot. It's only comfortable to drive, you know, three months out of the year. And you're not doing it to like pay off debt or anything.

You're just saying, I just have this space and this car is taking Up space and I don't use it Yes, we're in baby steps four or five and six. Yeah. I Don't know I guess it's up to you So I've got you Dave. I'm looking at a I didn't mean to look at Dave up to you, Jared I mean well in the past weeks Dave you were talking about doing the putting the money in the middle of the room and burning it or not burning it, but you're kind of walking into it backwards. If I had $40,000, would I go buy that car today?

I did that analysis. I don't think I would, but I feel like in 20 years, would I wish I had that car still when I'm retired? And I think the answer is yes. And that's where I'm torn. If the car was simply a 1966 Camaro, and that's all it was, with the way you've described the situation, I would sell it. I'm having a hard time telling you to sell it if you bought it when you're 15 with your Eagle Scout money.

Right. Because there's only one of those. That's exactly why I'm torn, yes. Yeah, and so I, and there's nothing pushing you to sell it. There's nothing that says you need to sell it in this discussion so far that I've heard. So. Is it taking up space?

Are you, where is it, like physically? It's in the garage in my house. Okay. Is your wife annoyed by it? No, no, she loves the car too. Okay. Okay. It's just like, you know, having a boat but then you don't ever take it to the lake. I mean, yeah. It's not a boat you bought when you were 15 when you're Eagle Scout. Right. If it was a boat you never took the lake, I'd sell it. Right. But, um, I mean, I, um, just the sentimental

aspect of you, you know, you've had this car since you're freaking 15 years old and it's tied to the Eagle Scout thing. And that's the first thing in a very short conversation, I've learned the tie, the emotional ties, it didn't take long for it to come to the surface here. All of those things tell me that there's only one

of these and, and, um, things tell me that there's only one of these and yeah, there's no sin in selling it. The only downside in selling it is that you'll never get it back. Right. That's simple. And so, you know, you better be real, real, real comfortable with that. Um, I, you know, I bought a car when I was 16 and, um, I destroyed that vehicle before I got rid of it. I'm in three engines, two transmissions. It was hit on every side. Eventually I ran 280,000 miles on it.

I do not want that car under any circumstances. Dave drives from the beginning of the show. You know, I don't want that car. I don't have any sentimental... But if I found a 1974 red Monte Carlo in perfect condition, I might buy it and put it in my garage. But I wouldn't want that car, the one I had. It's probably in a cube somewhere in a salvage yard. But if it got that good an ending.

But yeah, that's, you know, you just gotta look and go, okay, you know, when I'm 60, when I'm 70, am I gonna wish that? My grandpa passed away, he had a 1967 lime green pickup with three on the tree. When he passed away, they sold that truck, I wish I had bought it. Because I drove that truck, and I wish I had that truck. But there's only one and it's gone. For the 60s, just like a great decade of cars, I feel like that's the emotional attachment

people get to. They're not great cars, they were just real cars. That's all. That you didn't plug in. Yeah, that you didn't plug in and they didn't catch on fire. There's all that. That puts us out in 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.