The Ramsey Show - App - When Should Couples Talk About Money? (Hour 1)
Episode Date: August 13, 2018The show about you...
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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show,
where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice.
I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. This is your show. Thank you for joining us.
The phone number is 888-825-5225.
888-825-5225.
Elizabeth starts off this hour from Texas.
Hi, Elizabeth.
How are you?
Hi, Mr. Ramsey.
How are you doing today?
Better than I deserve.
What's up?
Well, just to first give you a little bit of background about me,
the only debt I have is my home.
I was raised by a father who very much believes in not having debt.
So I was able to go to school debt-free and everything.
So the only debt I've ever had is a mortgage.
I am single but recently started dating this gentleman.
And I do know he has some debt. I don't know how much, but I do know he has some debt.
I don't know how much, but I do know he's mentioned his car payment, and I know he's
mentioned student loans.
And so my question is just simply looking for advice on how to breach the subject of
finances and working towards getting out of debt and why that's so important to me.
Okay.
How old are you? I am 34 years me. Okay. How old are you?
I am 34 years old.
Okay.
How old is he?
He is 29.
Okay.
Cool.
Very nice.
Good stuff.
Well, I mean, as you date longer, obviously you go into deeper subjects, right?
So it's a little weird to start pulling out financial statements on the first date, you know.
Right.
So I don't know how long you guys have been dating,
but if you're starting to talk about serious things in life and what you think about those,
money would be on the list.
And, you know, how far into this relationship do you feel like you are?
Well, we've been dating for about a month.
To talk, it could get serious, but we're still getting to know each other.
Okay.
There's no rush.
I'm hesitant to make too big of an issue of it yet.
He does know to some extent my feelings about not having debt.
What he doesn't know is that if we were to move forward, I need him to take this seriously.
Yeah, it's a deal breaker for you.
Exactly.
And to not say something feels like a lie, but I also don't want to rush in and overwhelm him on it.
And so I'm trying to figure out the best way to handle that,
because not mentioning that this is a deal breaker, you know, I'd hate for him to propose,
and then me go, oh, by the way. You've been dating a month yeah yeah oh yeah we're far away from being for proposing i'm
just saying in general between now and proposal there's going to be a lot of opportunities you
know for you to bring this up but um you know i think you just occasionally drop the hint and see
if he takes the bait on the discussion discussion without just having a define the relationship discussion around money
one month into it.
Right, exactly.
But, you know, sometime in the next few months for sure.
Most people will date on average about six months or more
before they get engaged.
That would be the averages.
And I don't know how long, you know, what you guys will do.
That's up to
you certainly but right but but you know it's just before you move towards an engagement there's
really four areas you need to have explored and have some agreement on uh and because all the
data tells us this on you know successful marriages if you are in agreement on these four areas
you have a very high probability of a successful marriage religion kids crazy in-laws and family
members and money yeah and if you you know so at what point are you talking about religion at what
point are you talking about you know uh the the crazy people in your family or his family and and you know, how what kind into that you don't say that in a casual but once you start getting serious you know that's something he would need to know if
that i'm not saying that's the case with you i'm just making up something right point is these are
serious subjects and as it gets more serious that's the same time frame as when you'd open
up all of these yeah and we have broached these subjects on some level, maybe not as seriously as we would need to eventually,
but all of these subjects have been talked about to some extent,
except for money not as much.
Well, then maybe you're running behind a little bit on that,
and you could talk about it through the lens of family.
Like, you know, we were talking about my parents the other day,
and, you know, my dad has always been this anti-debt thing and and i you know it's given me a lot of peace to not have
debt and uh so just bring it up you know but but you know you can take it where but those ought to
be running at about the same pace in in in terms of uh you know if it's serious enough to talk
about whether or not you'd have kids getting married it's serious enough to talk about whether or not you'd have kids getting married,
it's serious enough to talk about money.
And it's okay to bring that up.
And so, yeah.
But those are things that you ought to go through in the, quote, courting.
That's an old phrase.
But during the time that you're dating, these are things you ought to get to know about each other.
That's that, you know.
So, good question.
Interesting discussion.
Alex is with us in Boston.
Hey, Alex, how are you?
I'm good, Dave.
How about you?
Better than I deserve.
What's up?
Well, I am a graduate student.
I've been married for about a year.
My wife works.
And my question is, how much life insurance should I carry on myself?
What are you studying?
I am studying counseling.
When will you complete that?
About a year and a half.
Okay.
And do you have debt?
I have about $10,000 in student debt.
My wife has some student debt and some car debt and other things.
So I'm baby step two.
She makes $44,000.
How old are you?
I am 24.
Okay.
Do you have any idea what you'll be making as a counselor?
If I work for somebody else in the 40s,
if I do it myself, I mean, you know,
closer to 80 to 100.
Well, I mean, at your age,
you can pick up $300,000 or $400,000 for almost nothing.
The cost is just minuscule.
So I would pick up enough to replace your income,
even though you don't have that income yet, but you're heading in that direction.
And that would clean up student loans and leave her in a pretty good place.
The point is, 300 grand is just going to be pennies.
It doesn't cost anything when you're 24 years old, unless you have some kind of a health problem or you're overweight or you smoke.
But, you know, if you're normal height, weight ratios, that kind of thing, and in fairly good condition and you don't smoke, man, it's not going to cost anything.
Jump on Zander Insurance and you can pull a quote real easy.
You'll see what I'm talking about.
So I'd probably pick up $300 just to have, you know, a little bit there,
and that kind of is going to ensure what would be your future income.
And she needs some on her, too, by the way, to clean up, you know,
the mess that she would leave behind financially if something happened.
Again, for a couple of 25-year-olds, it just doesn't cost anything.
It's just a very, very small premium amount.
So check ZanderInsurance.com.
You put in your age, and like 13 seconds later, you'll have 10 or 15 companies pop up there.
And you'll see the pricing.
It shops among a gazillion different places, gets you the best price anywhere.
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Welcome back to the Dave Ramsey Show.
Joining me this segment, our own Chris Hogan, Ramsey personality,
number one best-selling author of the book,
Retire Inspired, America's Trusted Voice on Retirement.
Yeah, you guys, welcome back, Chris.
Good to have you.
Thank you, sir.
Good to be with you.
You guys hear me talk about the seven baby steps all these decades now,
our proven plan, and it works for
everyone you know chris i spent about half of my life and you do too defeating the lies you know
it's like i'm gonna dave you know i need to use the credit card because i'm gonna the airline
miles man or dave i'm gonna you know you can't you can't live without a car payment you can't
have a car without a car payment and And the mythology that floats around money, the myths that people believe,
the problem is not the myth.
The problem is not the lie.
The problem is that when you act on information that you believe to be truth,
when it's not the truth, it takes you in the wrong direction.
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and the map says how to go to Florida, but it takes you towards Canada.
You know, you've got information in front of you that's just straight up wrong.
It's a lie.
It's a myth.
And when you believe a lie, you're heading towards Canada instead of Florida.
Now, if you want to go towards Canada, that's cool.
But I said the map said florida and so if the map is to take you to being wealthy
and you believe lies and it's sending you an exact opposite direction and benefiting someone else
it shuts the whole thing down it really does and it sets you up for failure and so what you have
to do my friends is start to look and understand what is the truth.
What is the thing that's going to allow you and your family to have a better future?
And that's exactly what we've been telling people for years.
If you've grown up listening to that lie and you've started to believe it, it takes some change to get that out of your head.
You've got to change your thinking.
Yeah.
I remember growing up, people say the little man can't get ahead.
The little man gets ahead all the time. That's lie they do get ahead all the time and i had one friend of mine he said you know dave getting out of the hood was easier than
getting the hood out of me you know changing the way you think and understand and believing in what
you believe because you act on those beliefs and it takes you to canada yeah it takes you in the
wrong direction yeah you know there is a truth and it takes you to Canada. Yeah. It takes you in the wrong direction.
Yeah.
You know, there is a truth, and the truth is independent of your opinion.
Yes.
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That's right.
They had several key ingredients.
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these are good times around Ramsey Solutions.
Don't you want to read what
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This is The Dave Ramamsey.com. Get this bundle. Get yourself going, baby. We're here to help you. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
One question I get asked all the time is, do I need life insurance?
Listen, the whole point of life insurance is to replace your income for someone who counts on you.
So if you have a spouse or you have kids, yes, you need term life insurance.
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I can give you the advice and I can tell you where to go,
but it's really up to you to take that important step to get your family protected. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. In Spokane, Washington, Todd and Sarah are with us.
Hey, guys, how are you?
Good.
How are you?
Better than I deserve.
Welcome.
I see on my screen you're debt-free.
Congratulations.
Yes, thank you.
Love it.
How much have you guys paid off?
$92,000 in 28 months.
Good for you.
And your range of income during that time?
Due to bonuses and stuff, Dave, it was $105,000 and then down to $90,000, just kind of how the bonuses fell.
And extra jobs I worked.
Cool.
What do you all do for a living?
I'm a salesman for an aviation repair station,
so we fix those airplane parts you guys are flying around on all the time.
Cool.
And I stay at home with the kids.
We have four kids, and I stay at home with them.
Wonderful. Very cool.
So what kind of debt was the $92,000?
We were normal.
We had car loan, personal loans.
We bought a timeshare, which we ended up keeping, by the way.
Student loans, credit cards.
Medical bills from having kids.
Wow.
A little bit of everything.
How long have you guys been married?
We just had our nine-year anniversary this June.
Fun.
So a little over two years ago, 28 months to be precise, something happened.
What happened?
Well, Dave, we had just done one of those credit counseling things where they made the payments for us,
and we'd just gotten all the credit cards paid off, $40,000.
But we still hadn't made much headway.
I didn't feel like anything had changed, right?
And I'd heard about your show, and I was in Europe traveling for work,
and I just got a hold of the podcast.
And when you're traveling, you don't have data.
You download as many podcasts as you can.
That's what I listened to the whole time I was there.
And I was hooked.
I came home and got the total money makeover,
read the book on a plane ride to a customer in Atlanta,
and next thing I know I'm calling Sarah saying,
Honey, I don't care if the kids don't eat.
As long as they're alive, you need to read this book.
It's the most important thing you can do.
So, Sarah, you're like, what have you been drinking while you were traveling?
Yes, well, he told me, we're going to sell the boat.
It's going to be different.
And I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, what happened?
Wow.
So I read the book.
Within like a day or two, I did feed the kids.
But I let the housework be and the dishes be, and I read the book.
And, I mean, as soon as you start it, you can't not hurry up and finish it.
There's just so much good stuff in there.
So I was on board right away too
wow so you guys it just like um the light came on and you went let's go let's do it both of you at
the same time yep very cool and so uh todd comes home we sit down to a budget and off we go i
assume correct yeah there was a few you know little hiccups here and there and it's still a month
by month basis but we do a pretty darn good job of it i think good job cool okay so you read the
book what else did you guys do we took um we listened to the cds we actually took a vacation
together and listened to your cds on the trip down there and on the way home.
Just got more interested in everything, more detailed about it.
And then we took financial peace about five months ago through our church.
Oh, okay.
So towards the end of the process, you put the icing on the cake with financial peace and diversity.
Yeah.
Well, we wanted to be able to teach it, to be able to help other people.
And so in order to lead it through church, we needed to take it first.
So we'll actually be leading our first class this winter.
Well, thank you.
How fun.
Very cool.
Very excited about that.
Well, you are uniquely qualified.
Not many people that actually lead the class are completely debt-free before they do it.
That's pretty stinking cool.
It was pretty cool because we went debt-free during the class. So we were able to go to class and we completely debt-free before they do it that's pretty stinking cool because we
we went debt-free during the class so we were able to go to class and we're debt-free it was pretty
neat that's fun so uh what have you learned in doing this in the total money makeover in financial
peace university when people you know when you're teaching this class and that couple comes in that
goes i don't know if I can do this or not,
what have you learned to tell them they can?
You know, you've got to do these three things.
You've got to do these two things.
What are the main things to get out of that?
Communication, the budget,
and just making sure that both parties are invested into it
because if one of you isn't, you're going to be, you know,
dragging one foot forward, two steps back. So it's absolutely crucial that both parties are on board
and that you talk through the good and the bad, knowing that it's not going to be perfect right
out the gate. You're both going to have to work at some things, but as long as you stick together
and talk through it, you can accomplish this.
What about you, Todd?
What do you tell people?
Yeah, I think it's a lot of what everybody says, you know, teamwork,
the budget, but for me, too, it was just, okay, these extra jobs I'm going to go do,
this selling this stuff, it's not like before you'd go work extra and you wouldn't necessarily see that money, but now I can see it making an impact.
It motivated you to pick up those extra shifts or jobs.
Being able to measure and see the traction toward your goal is absolutely vital, isn't it?
Mm-hmm.
That's a big deal.
And it was hard at times because of the way the extra jobs and bonuses,
our month-to-month budget made little dents,
and then you'd get that big bonus check or whatever.
It was sad at the same time because it would come in
and you'd rewrite the check to somebody else.
That's when the needles really moved.
Yeah, that moves it along really, really fast.
Very cool.
Good stuff, you guys.
Very fun.
So during the 28 months, what was the biggest budget fight about?
Groceries.
She doesn't hesitate.
Four kids, six mouths is a lot to feed, so I was always harping on her about the groceries.
And you were wrong.
It really does take that much to feed those kids.
Yes, it does.
That was the biggest fight Sharon and I had.
I'll never forget, we had a big envelope argument about the grocery budget.
And that's how we started doing the envelope system, was over the top of an argument.
And that's 30 years ago.
So, my gosh.
Well, way to go, you two.
Very well done.
How does it feel to have accomplished this goal, to have climbed this mountain?
Amazing.
It's amazing.
I mean, I never knew about money growing up, and I just feel like I have such a better
understanding, and we've really secured the foundation for our future.
For our kids, I think our kids being able to see us do this and walk through this process
with us, knowing that hopefully they're not going to make the same mistakes that we did.
They would say things like, if I went to go to Starbucks, my kids would ask me,
Mom, is this in the budget? Are you sure you can afford to buy Starbucks this month?
They were totally involved with us and extremely excited to be done,
be out of debt so that they could get to start doing extra stuff too.
We all had to give up in order to do this.
Exactly. Very cool. And also I just think having the ability to give more i mean we're tithing for the first time
in my life dave and um it's just amazing to have that stuff freed up because we can do it and we
started doing that some months back but just getting things under control so you could do that
yeah we bought a stack of your books, the Total Money Makeover,
and we give those to people that we talk to that are interested in things like that.
Well, thank you.
So that's a really neat thing to be able to do, too.
Yeah, thank you very much.
That's very cool.
Very neat.
Well, we're going to give you a book then.
We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's number one bestseller for you,
Retire Inspired,
and that's the next chapter in your story.
We want to see you guys as millionaires now and outrageously generous,
continuing the outrageous generosity along the way.
So congratulations.
I'm proud of you guys.
Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
It's Todd and Sarah in Spokane, Washington.
$92,000 paid off in 28 months, making $105,000 to $90,000.
Count it down.
Let's hear a debt-free scream.
You guys ready?
Three, two, one.
We're debt-free!
I love it.
Absolutely love it. I absolutely love it.
That is powerful.
I love all these debt-free screams, but I'll tell you what.
When I think about our kids, we're little kids.
When we started the process and then we got out of debt,
and what it has meant now all these years later, now that I'm Grandpa,
I'm Papa Dave, and it's generationally has changed,
I can see, I can hear when they start talking about their kids that way
that they've changed their family tree.
And so if you listen carefully to these debt-free screams,
you'll hear that sound.
There's not many places you can hear the sound of an entire family tree being changed.
But you can hear it right there.
You just did, by the way.
This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thanks for joining us, America.
Our question today comes from Blinds.com.
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Jocelyn is in Central America.
Dave, I'm from Belize.
And I plan on visiting a friend in Georgia in the next few months. She told me I must have a credit card to do transactions in the America. Dave, I'm from Belize, and I plan on visiting a friend in Georgia in the next few
months. She told me I must have a credit card
to do transactions in the U.S.
I'm planning to bring a prepaid
card in cash, but I don't want
a credit card. Can I get by
without one? Well,
Jocelyn, there are
stupid people in every single state
in the United States, and your friend is
one of them in Georgia.
Yes, they do transactions in georgia all the time without credit cards i visit the i visit the
foreign state of georgia pretty regularly i'll be down there in just a few weeks as a matter of fact
unbelievable no you don't have to have a credit card to do a transaction in Georgia. They take cash everywhere.
A debit card is what most of us use that are not credit card people,
and or I carry a pocket full of cash, and I can promise you
there's enough rednecks in Georgia like me that I believe in.
Rednecks believe in cash, and I like cash.
So, you know, it'll work out.
They'll take cash almost everywhere you go.
Now, they're not going to take anything but American dollars.
So you're going to have to have an exchange done for your currency, of course.
But they'll take that and they'll take your prepaid Visa card or they'll take your debit card.
It is a Visa product or a MasterCard product,
just about anywhere you go.
But there's a few places that will only take cash.
But I don't know of anybody.
There may be one or two people in Georgia that won't take a debit card
and will only take a credit card, but I'm not even sure they can pull that off.
Now, I think you've got – I think your friend's being stupid.
All right.
Hope I wasn't unclear. Robin's in Springfield, Mass. Hey, got, I think your friend's being stupid. All right. Hope I wasn't unclear.
Robin's in Springfield, Mass.
Hey, Robin, what's up?
Hi, Dave.
Thanks for taking my call.
Sure.
How can I help?
I have a couple things.
Well, first, I'm in my 50s, and I've had student loans out for actually a while.
They had been on deferment, and they had never been delinquent or anything.
From your 20s?
I'm sorry?
You've had student loans for 30 years?
No, I've had them for a while, but I've had them on deferment.
Yeah.
How long have you had them?
Oh, about, I don't know, 7 to 10 years.
Oh, okay.
So you went back to school in your 30s and 40s?
Yes.
Okay, I got you.
All right, so how much student loan debt do you have uh it's just about 29 000 cool and what's your household income 42 okay all right and how
much other debt do you have other than your home i just like i live in an apartment and i just have
one i've been i took your course a year ago and I have one more bill to pay off before I can start really attacking the student loans.
I've been on the income-based repayment plan for three years, only paying interest.
Good.
In December is when I'll stay on the income-based repayment plan for one more year and then start just all the extra money I put in on it could go towards the principal?
Or should I put it to the standard repayment plan?
Doesn't matter.
Anything above interest goes towards the principal anyway.
Okay.
And you're going to have to get above the standard to get it paid off anytime soon.
How much extra are you paying on your debt a month?
I'm trying to pay close to $1,000 a month on my debt.
Okay, so 29 more months and you're done.
That's only $12,000 a year out of 42.
You've not got this crunched down really tight, but you've got it crunched down.
And so I'm going to tell you what we told you in class,
and that's pick up some extra income and tighten your budget up.
Do that written, detailed budget.
Get on EveryDollar if you're not using it, the EveryDollar app.
It's free.
And get your budget built.
Three million people using that budget form for um or app or whatever we
call the thing and so uh get that thing done and tighten that budget up tighten it up no eating out
no goofing off and because the deeper you cut in your life and the more you work in your life
the faster you get out of debt because it's a math formula. The higher your income and the lower your outgo, the more margin there is to throw at
the debt.
And so the madder you get, the more focused you get, the more emotional you get, the deeper
you sacrifice and the more you work, the faster you get out of debt.
And truthfully, having done this all these years, for 30 years, there's a higher probability that you ever get out the faster you get out.
In other words, the faster you get out, the highest probability you're going to get out.
And that kind of makes sense if you think about it.
People don't give up.
But, I mean, if it takes you 10 years or it takes you 10 months, there's a difference, right?
And 29 months is a while.
I think you could probably cut that back.
I'd like to see you cut that back
considerably um like i'd like to get you to 1500 a month instead of a thousand a month which is
18 000 a year which puts you out in about a little under two years 18 months to two years i think
that's where i'd like to see you but again that's going to mean no life beans and rice rice and beans tighter than you've been living
uh in order to be done with this because the thing is just lingering and when something's
lingering like that it becomes an emotional emotionally overwhelming like it's i'm never
going to get out of it you feel oh you feel like trapped stuck and that's when you have to hit
something in the mouth really hard when you're trapped and stuck.
You've got to punch it with viciousness.
And that's what I'm telling you to do right here.
So those are the things I want to see you do, Robin, to turn up the heat on this situation.
Jacob is with us in Annapolis, Maryland.
Hi, Jacob.
How are you?
Hey, Dave.
I'm good.
How are you?
Better than I deserve.
What's up? My question is, I've got like a little car that I commute to my daily job with, and I
have a pickup truck that stays at my house and that I use for side work that I do from time to
time. Basically, I want to sell my car and my truck and try and use that money to get one vehicle to consolidate.
Because I'm using my car now to do the side work, and the truck is just not worth anything really, and it leaks oil.
So I'm not comfortable taking it to my customer's house, and I feel like I'm tearing my car up trying to use it for my side work.
So what will the truck bring, $1,000?
Probably $1,000.
What will your car bring?
Probably $2,000.
Okay.
So what are you going to get, a $3,000 truck?
Maybe like a $5,000, $6,000 truck.
You got the money?
Not really.
Then how are you going to pay for it?
Try and borrow it.
Okay.
You just called Dave Ramsey and asked to go get car payments.
You did that out loud, dude.
I know.
It's hurting the work that I can do.
I know.
Get a $3,000 truck.
So should I just keep the car?
Get a $3,000 truck.
I know. A $3,000 truck is really close to a $1,000 truck. So should I just keep the car? Get a $3,000 truck. I know a $3,000 truck that is really close to a $1,000 truck.
Yeah.
So we don't want to drive it for long.
What's your household income?
Base, probably, without the side work, probably $95,000.
$95,000 a year, and we're sitting here arguing about $1,000.
Where's this money going?
Well, we're having our fourth kid in the fall, so we haven't really been saving.
Well, they don't cost much until they come out.
Where's this money going?
It just goes.
You're not living on a budget, dude.
You're living hand-to-mouth, worry-to-worry, problem-to-problem, fire-to-fire.
I agree.
And you're going to have to get up on top of this thing.
It's killing you.
You make too much money to be this broke, don't you?
I sure do.
Cool.
How old are you?
26.
Yeah.
And how much debt do you have, not counting your home?
We have about $2,000 on a card and maybe $24,000 on a vehicle.
$24,000? $24,000 on a card and maybe $24,000 on a vehicle. $24,000?
$24,000 on a vehicle.
Wow, I'm driving sweet since you're driving junk.
Yeah, we had a beater and it gave up.
Yeah, and you stepped way up out of beater, didn't you?
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, let me do this.
I've been right where you guys are.
If you're ready to change, I'll show you how.
I can teach you how to straighten this mess up.
But if you keep living like you're living, you're going to keep being broke like you're broke.
I don't want to have $1,000 discussions about cars when I make $100,000.
So hold on.
I want you to go through Financial Peace University as my guest.
I'm going to pay for it.
And then someday you find a young couple that's goofing up, you pay for them to go through and that'll be your way of paying
you back. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.
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