The Ramsey Show - App - When You and Your Spouse Disagree on Money (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 26, 2018

The show about you

🎵 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, America. Thank you for joining us. It's your show because it's all about you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Trevor is with us in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Hi, Trevor. How are you? I'm doing great, Dave. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, me and my wife were working on the debt snowball. In July, I got laid off.

Kind of a blessing in disguise. I'm working again, making less money but a lot less stress. And so we wanted your input on a plan that we had to sell our house, to pay off all of our debt and kick-start us going and kind of start over. How much debt do you have, not counting your house? $53,000. And selling your home will clear that?

Yes. And how much money would you put in your pocket past that? Probably about $25,000 plus after, you know, realtor fees and everything. Okay. And so what's your household income today? About $80,000. Okay. So you just don't like the house?

We're not in love with it. We bought it four and a half years ago because we wanted to chase somebody else's dream, and then we're realizing it's not our dream. Whose dream were you chasing? Just society. Oh, I see. Whoever else. I see.

You know. Okay. So we're not in love with it, and we have different goals now. Our priorities have changed. Okay. in love with it uh and we have different goals now our priorities have changed so okay so where are you going to live uh well that was kind of in the plan with we could basically jump start through uh maybe step three and take the other money put uh some of the other money put it in as our emergency fund and then either rent for a short period of time where we built up more of a down payment or use the money and buy a smaller property

and smaller house that we'll enjoy. Mm-hmm. Okay. Hi. Hi. There's nothing wrong with any of this equation, but I will be straight with you. I'm afraid I'm hearing something else, that in order to be happy, you have to make less money. And that is not a script I want to join in on uh you can be happy and make more money and this idea that in order for your life to be good you have to take a dumbed down

job and you're not living to your potential and i'm not suggesting you go back into a high stress situation but uh doing something you love you could make double what you're making now, and it feels a little bit like you're surrendering, settling, dropping down into something. I don't know if I'm hearing that, but I'm afraid I'm hearing that. Well, actually, long-term goal, I do want to own my own business. This was to get me back working and to have an income. We were already planning long-term things, and we knew that getting out of debt was our way to get to where we wanted to be.

So, yeah, I want to make more money, but right now it facilitates me working and working on our future plans. Okay. All right. And so this move down in-house, you're moving more than half of house, it sounds like, ultimately. But even if you rent for six months or something, you're not moving back in this price range. If you were, it wouldn't make any sense. Yeah. And so this move down to half of the house is probably a three- to a five-year plan.

Correct. Okay. All right. a three to a five year plan correct okay all right because you're going to do something to get your income back up uh without having to completely sacrifice your soul at work i get that part i'm not asking you to do that but also there's a there's an equation out there that's floating around in the culture that i'm kind of working against subtly and that is is that in order to be happy you have to make less money and that's not an equation I'm going to participate in. I agree.

Because that usually means that you just didn't go do something that God designed you to do because you were afraid. And I don't participate in fear. But again, I'm not trying to destroy your family or anything like that. This is a sizable step back for you all in order to take big steps forward. As long as you don't take this sizable step back for you all in order to take big steps forward. As long as you don't take this sizable step back and settle in and make it your life, then I'm cool with that. That's kind of where I'm saying.

So I hope that helps. Good question and a courageous decision on your part to do that. James is with us in Rochester, Minnesota. Hi, James. How are you? I'm pretty good. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up?

Well, I got married last year, got your book as a present, never heard of you before that, and then I'm all on board. My wife is left, so she's kind of just going along with it, but, I mean, she's not gazelle, and I'm willing to be. How old are you guys? I'm 30, and she's 22, so she's kind of going through i don't know a fun stage she makes twice as much as i do a year and uh it's hard for me to say no we can't go out for dinner or no we can't go to the mall for a day um because she makes so much more than i do so you lost your ability to vote in the household based on the economics? That's pretty lame.

No, I still have a vote. It's like a compromise. She's just got two. You've got one. Kind of. That's how I feel. That's probably not how she feels at all. Okay.

Then stop feeling that way because that's not a good way to have a relationship. But you should not make decisions together based on who makes the most money, has the most votes. That's not a good plan, especially when one of you is 30 and the other one is 22. Okay? So you've got a little more life experience. Could we agree on that? That's right. Okay, good. And that's not to say she's inept at 22, but in this case, apparently she is in this particular subject.

So how are we going to do this? You start talking about what we need to do. We don't need to go to the mall. We don't need to spend so much money. We need to get out of debt. You start talking about what after you read my book instead of talking to her about how and why. You need to sit down together and dream and say, what if we were out of debt? What if we had no debt at all?

What if we had a million dollars? What would we do? What could we do? Would we travel? Would we give more generously to causes? What would we do if we had a million dollars? Well, what's the shortest path to get to that dream of being able to do those things the shortest path is to live like no one else so that later you can live and give like

no one else the shortest path is to be debt free and living on a plan and adults devise and plan and follow it children do what feels good it's a sign of maturity to learn to delay pleasure. Emotional maturity. Whether you're 22 or 52, it's a sign of emotional maturity. And so this is how you need to lead in your household. You need to serve your wife by helping a dream be born for this couple and what you're going to be doing. You need a big why and quit talking about what all the time.

And because she hasn't bought into the what, because she doesn't have a why. Somehow you got the why early in the discussion. Now you got to transfer it. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Are high health care costs getting you down? Are you confused trying to navigate your options? Do you wish you could find an affordable, biblical solution to your health care costs? Based on New Testament principles, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, helps Christian families, churches, and ministries join together as the body of Christ to share their major health care costs. Christian Health Care Ministries is the original health cost-sharing ministry. A Better Business Bureau-accredited organization organization CHM members share to pay each other's medical bills. It's not insurance. It's Christians financially and spiritually supporting each other. It's what Christian Healthcare Ministries has done for over 35

years, and our members have shared over $2.5 billion in medical bills. To learn more, visit chministries.org. That's chministries.org. Christian Healthcare Ministries is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. chministries.org. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are with us. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Marion is with us in New York City. us, America. We're glad you are with us. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Marion is with us in New York City. Hi, Marion. How are you? Hi, good.

How are you? I just want to say I'm a big fan, and thank you for having me on your show. Certainly. Thank you. How can I help? Okay. So I've been following your plan for around like a couple of months now. I have the emergency funds, and I'm working on Baby Step 2.

Good. And I have made progress, not a ton of progress, but some progress. My issue is I do have a chronic illness. I still work full time. I'm not letting it take over my life. Good. My question is, is how do I budget for my deductible? I recently switched health plans, so my deductible started again.

So because of the chronic illness, you're going to hit deductible every year, right? It's nothing. It's not debilitating and it's not life-threatening. Are you going to hit your deductible every year? No. Okay, so not because of this. Okay, what is the nature of this? What's the nature of the illness?

I mean, I don't want to go into detail, but it's a nerve pain condition that the doctors are unsure of where it comes from. Okay, gotcha. So what I would do is this. I'm really unsure because it's relatively new. Gotcha. Yeah. Well, what I would do is just try to estimate what you think it's going to cost you a year,

and the more experience, God help you, that you have with this, the better your estimates are going to be because once you've battled with it for five years, you're going to kind of know a five year average versus five months. You're kind of guessing at what it's going to cost you in a year, right? Right. And you just put that in as a budget item. So let's just make up a number, okay? If your deductible was $6,000 and you're going to run through your $6,000 deductible every

year, then that's $500 a month. If it's $3,000 a year, this is going to cost me out of pocket. That's $250 a month. And I just put a, you know, whatever, a line in your budget for medical expense, ongoing chronic medical, and just call it chronic or whatever. Just give it a name. And that's the money you set aside for that. Because it's kind of like we know it's going to come up,

at least for a little while. Now, someday, hopefully, you'll find a cure, and it's not a lifetime of this or something. I hope not. Yeah, but for now, you're saying it's predictable that you're going to have issues. We just don't know how severe or expensive they're going to be up into your future. And so for the next so many months, we need to just be budgeting as if we think we're going to spend X per year divided by 12 in your monthly budget.

I mean, my issue is that I'm literally, like, penny-pinching. I don't, like, see where i can make that happen so what i've been doing is i mean i decided starting next month i'm going to take out fifty dollars that's really all i can do right now um what i'm hoping over time i'll be able to you know take out more so why are we pennying? Have you got an income problem, a debt problem, or a spending problem? I definitely have a debt problem. I'm $60,000 in debt. I don't make a lot.

I'm a licensed social worker. And because of my condition, I had to switch to a job that had more flexibility. So I'm in a fee-for-service position as opposed to salary position. And I make anywhere from $1,300 to $1,500 net a paycheck. And you get paid twice a month? You get paid twice a month? Okay. And you said you're living with family?

No, I'm living with a roommate. I pay $9.75 for rent, each of us. So it's a lot. And I do get some help from family. Okay. And what is the nature of the debt, student loan? The debt is everything. It's credit cards.

Also, because of the condition, I was trying a lot of holistic things. It's medical. And then it's student loans is most of it. It's like $50,000 of it. So I have like a total of $60,000. Okay. So for the short term, we're going to make sure you take care of the most important things, and that's food in your pantry, not eating out, not eating out, food in your pantry, your lights and water and your rent and your transportation.

So food, shelter, clothing, and transportation and utilities. The eighth grade, we used to call that a civics lesson. What's a necessity? You do necessities only. The debt you've got is not necessities. You take care of the debt only after you've taken care of the necessities, and then you work as far into the debt as you can. And here's the thing.

You're either going to prepare for these medical expenses or they're going to be new debt. Right. Because they are coming. You told me that. That's why you called. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's not me declaring it. I'm saying you said i've got an ongoing medical how do i prepare for it you save and cover it so now that's our short term long term okay we got to get your income up and your out go down so you can knock this debt out long term but that has to do with your medical condition and has to do with your career and has to do with a lot of different things that you've got to face and so um but that's how i would you know begin to look at it get take care of the short term make sure you're taking care of you so that you can you know be prepared to take on the long term which is get your income up but uh we got to get past some of the medical stuff

and you've got to really start looking at this career really hard. Chop up those credit cards. It's time for plastic surgery. Tucker's with us in Atlanta, Georgia. Hi, Tucker. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, me and my wife are going through baby step two right now. In fact, we just paid off our second credit card today. So we are selling credit cards and moving on to student loans. Good. That is good news.

But so we're working through Baby Step 2 and we're looking at our budget and yesterday after church we had a big argument about tithing. And so we want to tithe 10% and I realized that we're not in a position to give

right now. We're trying to pay off debt so we can give later. But the kind of new model that I'm kind of adopting, and this is what I want to get your input on, is we have our 10% budget that we want to tithe. And so I was thinking about splitting that up and giving that to the church, and then having that extra 5% and kind of giving it to other charitable organizations that we believe in that are doing the, you know, doing the crisis mission, and so we're trying to, so looking at trying to give what we can to people who need it. But then she's on her way and wants to give straight 10% to the church and then give what we don't, what we can't give. You know, we're not in a position to give, and she wants to give this 10% to the church.

And we had a big little argument about tithing yesterday. So I just wanted to give you a little bit of a shout-out. Well, the definition of the tithe the definition of the tithe is when you look it up in the hebrew it's an old testament term and jesus reaffirmed it in the new testament is 10th it literally means 10th the word means 10th it doesn't mean 5th it doesn't mean 20th it means 10th now you can decide whether you want to tithe or not. You get to decide that. But if we're going to walk with Christ and I'm an evangelical Christian, which means I look for what the Scripture tells me to do,

I'm doing my best to follow what the Word of God says. And so what Dave Ramsey's opinion is doesn't matter. What Tucker's plan is or Tucker's opinion is. Doesn't matter. I'm looking for what God says to do in his love letter to me. And he says, Tucker and Dave, you're my kid. I'm crazy about you. I love you. And you can give or not give, and I'll still love you. But the best way to live your life is to give.

And all throughout the Old Testament, and Jesus reaffirmed it in the New Testament, is a tithe, a tenth of your income. Evangelicals have taught and believed for 1,500 years that that tithe is your baseline minimum giving, and it comes off the top before you do anything else, and it goes to your local church. So if you want a biblical answer, your wife wins the argument. That's the biblical answer.

Not your wife wins the argument, but she was correct biblically. Actually, both are probably true, but good luck with that, brother. 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. It's the only way to protect them until you're out of debt and have built up your wealth. You're only digging a deeper hole if you waste money on cash value plans since it robs you of the ability to make real progress. And that's why I send you to Zander Insurance, and I have for 20 years. That's where I get all my insurance, and they only offer the plans I recommend. It is not expensive. It's not complicated. And Zander will be there as your guide every step of the way.

Visit Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. You need to get this taken care of. 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. Thank you for joining us, America. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We're glad you are here.

Rodney is with us in Boston, Massachusetts. Hi, Rodney. How are you? First time caller. Hi, Dave. Hey, good to have you, man. How can I help? So my wife and I, we have zero debt, but we have debt on our house,

and we plan on selling the house next spring. Should we still pay on the debt of the house? So as soon as the weather breaks, you're putting a sign in the yard? Well, yeah. Like four months? Probably like May or June. Okay. All right. So like six months, plus or minus.

All right. Okay. It doesn't matter much. The thing I would do, though, is if you put the money into a savings account instead of paying it extra on the house, you have to write yourself a note that says, like mail yourself a letter that comes June 1st that says, if the house is not up for sale, put this money on the house.

Okay. So, in other words, if you waffle on this decision and the money gets spent on a bass boat, it wasn't a good plan. Right. Okay, because that's what happens to loose change. It tends to find its way towards an impulse purchase if we change our direction on the sale of the house. And I want it thrown at the house if you're going to keep the house.

But for six months, it doesn't matter. So the other part of my question would be, we have $69,000 currently in a savings account. So say we don't sell the house, how much of that emergency fund would you put towards the mortgage? An emergency fund should be three to six months of expenses. I doubt that your expenses are that high, $69,000. No. Okay.

So what would it take if you lost both your jobs? What would it take for you all to pay your bills for a month? For a month? Mm-hmm. Eat, keep the lights on. Get your regular bills. Eat, keep the lights on eat keep the lights on that kind of stuff i'd say three to four thousand okay so three to six times times four thousand six times four thousand is twenty four thousand so twenty five thousand of the 69 is the most you should hold. Okay. Which leaves you about 40 clear. Okay?

45 clear. And to throw at the house. And what's the balance on the mortgage? $208,000. Okay. Yeah. So hold that and add to it. I'd separate those two accounts, by the way.

I'd have a $25,000 account in a money market, and I'd have a $45,000 account in the future house fund or paid off the house fund. Okay. And if you don't put a sign in the yard by the 1st of June, take that money out of that account and put it on the house. Okay. If you waffle and change directions in your decisions, which you're allowed to do. You're an adult, by the way. All right.

Wayman is, who's up? Okay. Monica is up. Well, who's up? Okay. Monica is up. Well, who's up? Just make up your mind. I don't care. I'm getting signals from the booth that we can't repeat. Okay.

Wayman is in San Antonio. Hey, Wayman, what's up? How's it going, Dave? Better than I deserve. That's for sure. How can I help? No, I was just calling in today because I've been listening to you for about a year on and off. And right now we have about $105,000 in debt and $50,000 in cars, $22,000 in other debt, like credit cards and all that.

So $105,000 includes the cars? Yes, it includes the cars. $50,000 on cars. And what's the other $55,000 on? $33,000 on student loans. The majority of my wife's, about $8,000 on mine. And the $22,000 is on other credit cards and stuff like that. Got it. And what's your household income?

Well, I got fired from my previous job that was there about five and a half years, and we're making about $105,000, $120,000 a year. What did you used to make at the old job? Yeah, that's what I was making. Before? Yes, before. Okay. What do you used to make at the old job? Yeah, that's what I was making. Before? Yes, before. Okay.

What do you make now? Now I'm in real estate. I got my license in March and June. June was my first day in real estate. I've got two houses sold, six listings, and six pending closings by the end of the second week of November. So what is your projected income for that six-month period of time? I'm thinking maybe like $25,000 by the end of the year. And what does your wife make of the $105,000? She makes $51,000.

Okay, so basically it sounds like in real estate you're going to make as much as you used to make. Yes. Okay, good. That's good news. I guess right now what she's worried about is that she's bringing in most of the income because, of course, it's slow when you first start out. Only selling two houses between that long a span. And her thing is she wants to keep her car because she's saying she's making money to pay her car.

Okay, that's not how it works when we're married. That's how it works when you're roommates. You get to do whatever you want when you're roommates. But when you're married, it's for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. And unto thee all my worldly goods I pledge is what the old marriage vows said and so you know if you want to be divorced you get to keep whatever you want to keep but if you want to be married we are doing this together in other words if she gets cancer you don't look at her and go oh you just you can handle that cancer thing there by yourself and

those trips to the chemo you get to do that yourself. You're not going to do that to her, right? No. No, you would take care of her because we are now one when we're married, and it's in sickness and in health. And right now the house is sick, and so we don't get to be a princess and be selfish. That's not an option. Sorry. Yes, and that's what I was trying to explain to her is that we need it.

My truck is for sale already. I have it on the market. Good. As soon as I do some of these closings, of course, we'll have, if I can't get what I was asking for, what I owe, I'm going to pay the difference to get rid of it completely. Good. With these closings. And that's what I was trying to tell her, too, is I'll get a car cash, and then she sells her car, and then we'll have at least one car for right now well i don't know i don't know i don't agree with that i would get her a car and i'm not sure we're going to move down and out of her car if you can make 55 000 if you can get these closings and everything you've

got in the pipeline it sounds like your pipeline's pretty good it's just it's been tough from the layoff and the firing until now but if you the money that you've got piled the business that you have coming should create the income that you used to have if i heard you correctly yes and and like i told her it's like she's she's worried that it's not coming in fast enough and i told her they're all pending for closing by the second week of november everything should be closed those six more just two weeks three weeks from Which is two weeks, three weeks from now. I mean, so three weeks from now, all this goes away. So here's what I would do.

I would not sell her car today. I would sell your truck today. But I would say, I would tear this ridiculous philosophy that she has all to sunder. I'm not putting up with that crap. Okay? This idea that, well, I make money. I can keep my car my car well that's if your roommates that's just bs okay i'm not going with that so uh but but but the idea that i think she should keep her car and i think the two of you and i think you're going to be making enough money that then the two of you could work

through a budget that has not a hundred and,000 worth of debt, making about a little over $100,000, but instead has about $75,000 of debt, making a little over $100,000. If both of you are willing to roll up your sleeves and pay off $37,000 worth of debt a year for two years, we can keep her car. But if you're not willing to do that as a household, then you don't have a financial trouble. You have marriage trouble then. If she's not willing to join arms with you and fight an outside enemy that has come at your house, and instead she goes to her corner with her toys, you have a marriage problem.

Okay. But hopefully you guys can get on the same page when you back off of her car a little bit. You run around and start selling Mama's car, it's not a good way to get mama on board. Hello. So let's try that other approach, because I think it's reasonable financially to keep her car if your income goes where it looks like your income's going to go. But if it doesn't, then you may be looking at a different career, and she's going to be looking at selling her car, too, and you get her a cheap car to drive. You drive a cheap car while we get this mess cleaned up this is the dave ramsey show We'll be right back. Thank you for joining us, America.

We're so glad you are here. Gabriela is with us in New York City. Hi, Gabriela. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help?

Okay, I have a question for you. I've been doing the baby steps for a few months now, and I don't have any debt other than my home. Good. And I have a fully funded emergency fund. Good for you. But I wanted to know if I can take some money out for egg freezing. For what?

Egg freezing. Future fertility. Oh, oh, oh, okay. I'm sorry. That's okay. Out of what? Out of your emergency fund? Out of my fully funded emergency fund, yes.

Okay. And how much is in your fully funded emergency fund? I have about $60,000 in it. Okay. Good for you is in your fully funded emergency fund? I have about $60,000 in it. Okay. Good for you. And your household income is what? About $105,000. Okay.

Cool. Cool. Well, you're doing really well. You've got a big pile of an emergency fund, and you really sound like you've hit some things. And obviously, this is an emotional issue. It is. But the reason why I... And it's something that would mean a lot to you.

Sorry to interrupt. The reason why I'm nervous is because I'm not able to build it back up as fast as it started. So it makes me nervous to take a big chunk out. Okay. How big is the chunk? It's about a third. So $20,000 out of the $60,000? Yes. Okay. How big is the chunk? It's about a third. So $20,000 out of the $60,000? Yes.

Okay. Well, the emergency fund is there in case there was, obviously, an emergency. Captain Obvious here, right? Right. But if you think through, you're single? Yes, I'm divorced. You're divorced, okay. I have a son already, but I did, in case I remarry, want the option to have more children.

And how old are you? 39. Okay, all right. There's two things that are bumping through my head, and they're both working against each other. Okay? So I'll just say them out loud. Let's just process this together a little bit. Okay?

Thing one is I tell folks not to use their emergency fund except for emergencies. Okay? Thing two is this is very, very, very important to you, obviously. It is. And you have a window of time. So I guess what I'm going to do is I'm going to shop around and make sure I've gotten all the possible ways to pull this off. Is $20,000 the best, most efficient, most reasonable, most safe way?

Is there a $15,000 methodology? Is there a $35,000 methodology? Is there other things? Because I don't know anything about this at all, other than the obvious, the high-level understanding of it. But I'm going to gather more information. Anytime I'm buying anything for $20,000, I'm going to learn a lot. You may have already done all that, but I'm going to really push in on the research.

The more options you have when making a decision, the better decision you always make. You follow me? During that time, I'm also going to just be piling up cash like crazy, like my hair was on fire. Let's just keep adding and adding and adding and adding. But the other thing that comes into my mind is $40,000 might be an adequate emergency fund for you. And that's the juxtaposition. This is not an emergency. We can say that for sure.

But I feel like it is. It feels like it is. It feels like it is. But it's not an emergency. It's not an unexpected event. It's an an emergency. It's not an unexpected event. It's an elective luxury that's very, very, very emotional and very, very important. And that's a reasonable statement. But I think if I'm in your shoes, I might declare $40,000 in my emergency fund.

And then I'm okay. Because that ought to catch most of what would come your way. What kind of an emergency would come your way that would be more than 40,000? And extended unemployment would be the only one that would. Right. I mean, or some kind of major... I mean, I assume you've got good health care coverage. I do, but they won't cover it.

No, no, I'm not talking about that. I'm saying if you had a major health issue, you know, that would eat up $40,000. But it really wouldn't. I mean, to get through $40,000, if you got, you know, a deductible copay, that's a lot. That would be a million-dollar expense, you know. So it would be very unusual. I think you're okay at $40,000. And if you declare that, then we don't have to declare this an emergency i'm i'm just

processing this with you because i'm trying to figure out a way to do it okay um then if you want to soup your emergency fund back up later you can do that but you don't have to feel like you've violated uh a principled process to do this then okay that makes me feel better is that logical to you i think so yeah i think so yeah have you got uh good friends or family or pastor somebody counseling you and walking with you on the just the whole process on this and the decision making and everything you know not doing this in a vacuum by yourself. What? I've been told I don't have to worry about it.

But I am. By good counsel? Is that what you're saying? Not necessarily good counsel, but friends and family say, oh, you know, you're still young. Well, friends and family, I'll tell you all kinds of stupid crap. I'm talking about somebody that loves you enough to look in your eyes and go,

really, seriously, what are you doing here? I mean, or yes, you should do this, you know. But it's not just, I mean, it's somebody really thinking this through with you, not just casually over coffee going. Good accountability, good counsel. In the multitude of counsel, there's safety, and that's what I'm looking for. But I don't hear anything holding me back here in your situation. Very interesting question, though. Very interesting situation.

Thanks for calling in, and we appreciate you being a listener. Rami is with us in Columbia, South Carolina. Is it Rami or Romi? It's Romi. Hi. Romi, hi. How can I help? Yeah, I wanted to reach out to you.

I was recently cold-called by kind of a major insurance provider, and they were trying to sell me on some insurance products, so like, you know, term insurance and disability, which I agreed with them that I needed. But I felt like the prices they quoted me were rather high, so I went ahead and, you know, reached out to one of your recommendations and whatnot and got some other quotes that were a lot better. And I reached back out to them and mentioned it to them, and they had mentioned, yeah, well, those insurance companies aren't good. Their rating is not high financially.

You want to go with the more higher expensive insurance companies. They're going to be around in the next 20 years. We can't. We're going to show you. Yeah, so I was like, oh, okay. So I need to buy. So he basically described it as the Mercedes of insurance. You need to buy a Mercedes.

You don't want to be in like a Chevy. So I wanted to get your thoughts on that. Well, that's an absolutely ludicrous way to solve the objection. Okay. There are financial ratings for life insurance companies. If they do not meet a certain level of financial criteria, the state that you're operating in will not allow them to sell insurance there. So if they're almost broke, the state won't let them sell in your state.

So they have to meet minimum criteria to just financial solvency to do that number one number two if you have term and life insurance and your term life insurance company goes broke unless you're sick and can't get insurance you just go buy more insurance it's kind of like if your car did you check the financial uh stability of your car insurance company? Lord, no. Right. If they go broke, you just go get another one. You know, if you got progressive and progressive goes broke, you just get a different one. You don't think about, does progressive have the money to pay my claim?

You know? But you can look at the AM Best ratings of someone at Zander Insurance's website, and they are all financially solvent, as much as this goober that's selling you this stuff. That's a complete line of BS, Romy, is what it was. Okay, well, that makes me feel a lot better, because I went ahead and went with the less expensive option anyways, and the guy's like, I wouldn't do that for my family. I was like, oh, that's going to be kind of nervous now.

Yeah, you wouldn't, but you're in here selling insurance, and by the way, you cold called me. Right, right. Yeah, when they cold call you, that tells you one thing right there. But, yeah. Yeah, if you were doing investments with them, if you were doing whole life, life insurance with them, which we don't recommend, you'd be a lot more concerned about the financial stability because you have a savings account there then.

That's a lot more important then. But with term, it doesn't matter at all, hardly. Hey guys, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. This hour of the show is over, but feel free to check out our YouTube channel where we have over 2 million views each month of debt-free screams, millionaire hour clips, Dave rants, and more all free anytime, anywhere.