The Ramsey Show - App - Why Money Causes Guilt, Shame and Cynicism (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 24, 2018

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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, America. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225.

Teresa is with us in St. Louis. Hi, Teresa. How are you? Hi, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Thank you for taking my call.

My husband and I are selling our vacation home, and we're going to end up with about $138,000 in cash. And we're trying to figure out where we should invest that at. We currently have about $120,000 in cash on hand. We have no credit card debt. I'm maxing out on my 401K and a Roth IRA through my work and have some stock. You guys are doing well. What's your household income? We're about $120,000.

You're killing it. What do you owe on your mortgage? $55,000. I'd pay that off today. That's easy. You don't even have to wait on that. You've got the money already laying there to do that, right? Correct. Okay. And then... Correct. Correct.

We owe $8,000 on a truck. And $8,000 on a motorcycle. Okay. Okay, now we're debt-free. And now we've got, after the stuff comes in from the vacation home, you're going to have $175,000 left over. Does that sound right? That's right. Okay, what are we going to do with that? That's my question.

I have an IRA through work, a Roth IRA through work. I'm maxing out on that. My husband does not have one. Can we start a Roth IRA through him with another $6,500 a year? Yes, you can. But that gets rid of $6,000 out of $175,000. But, yeah, you can do that, and you should, in good mutual funds, good long-term track record mutual funds. Absolutely.

So both of your – and so what I'm going to do is max out everything I can get my hands on, retirement-wise, both Roths, both 401ks, anything you can, just load it up. That's what we've been doing. Okay. Keep the government's hands off of as much of it as we can. Let it grow without tax or grow tax-deferred, whatever it's doing. Get all the matches everything you can just completely max all that out and that's what we're doing and then

the only thing left to do is just start investing and then you decide what you're going to invest in with the 175 i buy two things and so i i'm pretty comfortable with that i have found that wealthy people generally find something that they understand and they like, and that's what they invest in. They don't do super crazy, sophisticated, weird double-backflip investments. They just do something that they understand, and they do it. The typical millionaire, in other words, becomes a millionaire in their 401ks and with their paid-for house, and then they have other investments,

and they buy stuff that, you know, they have a small business or they have whatever. So what I would tell you is I buy real estate that I pay cash for as an investment, rental real estate, and I invest in good growth stock mutual funds just straight into the stock market and so you could do either or both of those depending on what you want to fool with but uh 175 000 about your pretty good rental house in the st louis market and if you don't mind the idea of that and working with a renter and making sure that you know they don't tear up stuff and uh that you're you know you do a good job of screening them, vetting them before you come in,

and you're kind to them, but you're firm with them. They're going to pay you, or you have to move them out, and you do all that kind of stuff. Real estate will make you good money, especially paid-for real estate. It's very, very nice. I've got a bunch of it. But if you don't want to fool with all that, get i would pick some good mutual funds and go that way but the point is there's no shame in your game by keeping it simple somehow people have the idea that primitive or simple is bad and the contrary the contrary the truth is the contrary to that.

The truth is that the typical person who builds a net worth of up to about $10 million does keep it very, very clean and very, very simple. Sarah is with us in Seattle, Washington. Hi, Sarah. How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you, Kelly, for taking my call. Well, we'll let Kelly answer your question if you want. What's up, Sarah? I'm just calling to get a little bit of advice on how to advise my parents to get long-term care insurance.

My dad is 67 and doesn't qualify. He has some health issues. My mom just turned 60 a couple months ago, less than a couple months ago. And they were talking and my dad says, well, the amount for the insurance doesn't fit in their budget. And to which my mom says, that's short-term thinking. i'm thinking then you need to cut the budget what's their household income um well that's a good question they are retired missionaries so they have not made a ton and my dad is now retired and my mom works as a receptionist so i don't know exactly what they're you may not fit in their budget okay i mean they may have to buy a very very limited policy if they don't have hardly any income.

What's wrong with your dad that he doesn't qualify? Well, he has diabetes and had a kidney transplant. And so he's attempted to get it in the past and hasn't been able to. I tried to do what you said, the powder butt syndrome stuff or whatever it is. You know, say, you know, what works for me, but try to stay out of it. Our relationship doesn't get too good when I get too much into their details. But apparently, like last year, I encouraged them to look into it, and I think they talked with an ELP, and I think he didn't qualify at that point. So if you can't talk about this, are they going to do it or not? I mean, how can I help?

Well, my mom called me and told me all of this. So I think she's on board of trying. I guess my question is, I guess, how to convince them that it's important. I think your mom already knows it's important. The only question is I don't know if they've got the money to buy much of a policy. It sounds like they're pretty broke to me with what you're describing. I don't know. I mean, some people come off the mission field not broke, but sometimes they don't.

And so you just got to, you know, it sounds like you're trying to fix something a lot harder than they're trying to fix it. You can't make them do this. And so I think you can answer your mom's question. Yeah, I mean, if there's any way I could get it into my budget, I would get it into my budget. But it sounds like his health, he's older than her by 15 years, and he's, or no, I'm sorry, by seven years, you said. But his health is worse. And typically 75% of the ladies outlive their husbands statistically, nationally. And so the one that I'm the most concerned about going into a nursing home

and eating up everything is him, and we can't get him covered apparently. So I don't know what to tell you other than just to try to coach your mom from afar, but there's no magic pill to make them do what you want them to do. This is the Dave time to buy life insurance? My answer is typically now. Life insurance is not part of the baby steps because it's needed when your family has debt and not enough savings to provide for their financial needs. That's when they're at the highest risk.

And no matter where you are in your baby steps, it's a necessity, not a choice. This includes working husbands and wives, as well as stay-at-home parents. It's pretty expensive to replace those stay-at-home parent responsibilities. I only recommend term life insurance since it's the most affordable way to get the right amount of coverage and not break your budget. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. These are the guys I personally use. Term life insurance is inexpensive and your family needs this no matter where you are in your baby steps. That's Zander.com.

Or call 800-356-4282. Zander.com. Reno, Nevada is up first this hour. Daryl is with us. Hey, Daryl, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Mr. Ramsey. Pleasure to talk to you. You too, sir.

What's up, man? Hey, I got a little bit of a different question. I haven't really heard you talk about it on the air before, but just a little bit of background. My wife and I, we were in baby step two. We have been working the snowball since last October and we are $12,000 away from kicking Sally May out of the house and we'll be done. We're so excited to do our debt-free stream next, hopefully next spring. So we're on our way. But we are coordinating our third financial peace class.

And one of the things that keeps coming up that we're trying to figure out and also help advise others is, you know, we're a single income family. My wife stays at home, so our health insurance cost is just outrageous. Sure. And last month, no news to anybody else. Anyway, last month we had to go through a renewal. It went up again. And so we're spending like $1,200 a month to carry the family on work insurance. And, you know, it's okay insurance, but everybody in the area is kind of dealing with that.

Our pool to choose from is just everything's expensive here. And so one of the things that I've been in. Oh, I know. And it's infuriating. And one of the things I just want to, I kind just want to buck the system and throw it all away. And one of the things we've been looking into is these Christian health share ministries. And I think for a while you guys might have even been endorsing one for a while. I can't remember.

We have. Anyways, we've got some other families in our class that are single income, just paying $1,000 a month for health insurance. But then we can do a family on the health care ministries for like $450 a month. That's about right. I wanted to get your take and see if it's something, especially in Baby Step 2. My wife and I have talked about it. We're a little more comfortable when we have a fully funded emergency fund. But now, I don't know, we're just trying to navigate that, and I wanted to get your take.

We do endorse Christian Healthcare Ministries. It is one of our sponsors for the live events and for some other things over the years. Full disclosure, I have a group healthcare plan at our company here that's Blue Cross Blue Shield that is my personal health care. And I'm real careful on the show, as you know, or even through Financial Peace University, not to recommend to people to do something I don't do, that kind of a thing. But I'm in a little different situation. I've got a decent program available to me. And so Christian health care ministries, the bottom line with the thing is it's technically not insurance, as you know. It's called sharing, and it is based on the book of Acts

where Christians band together and share each other's burdens. In a sense, it becomes a cooperative then is what it's doing. And I would never suggest going into something like that that did not have a long or even the possibility of going into something like that that did not have a long track record. And these guys have 30, 40 years of having never missed a single claim. Now, you have to read and you should read very carefully as to what it covers and what it does not cover and know that. And they've got a couple of plans. You can buy the upgrade plan that covers different things and that kind of a thing. Family plan, their singles plan, all that.

They've got a normal, you know, an array of products, so to speak. So learn what's covered and what is not covered. Learn how it works because it is technically not insurance. You're technically, if someone else in the program chose not to share, then where would you be, you know, technically? But they've never failed to make a claim. So it's worked for 40 years, you know, I mean, or whatever number of years, but decades, right? So I'm comfortable with its credibility in that regard. It is different than insurance. And we get, our brains get dialed into how health insurance works, and this has got some nuances, some differences to it.

So learn what those are, number one. Number two, know that I don't personally do it even though I do believe in it. Number three, the only way I do it is if they had a long, long, long track record, which these guys do, and it is Christian health care ministries. And so and their definition of that is, is that if you use tobacco or alcohol, then you don't qualify. And so they're pretty hardcore in that regard. And so you need to be aware that that's there, and that's a limiting factor as well. And they want you to

affirm your faith as part of the process, your Christian faith as a part of the process. And so that's who it's for and how it's laid out. But once you know all of those nuances and you know those differences and you can see them, we would not have endorsed it if we didn't think it had

credibility. Right, and I guess if I could ask one follow-up question. So if we were to go through that, being in Baby Step 2 and all that kind of stuff, one of the things that my wife was a little concerned about, one of the ones we were looking to that has the long-term track record and we're okay with all the requirements, we're evangelical Christians, all that kind of stuff, and we're normally pretty healthy. So it seems're evangelical Christians, all that kind of stuff, and we're normally pretty healthy.

So it seems like it's a good fit for our family. But like one of them, you know, you pay out of pocket, kind of like an HSA for $1,500 and stuff. So if you're in Baby Step 2, would you recommend, if we did go that route, to set aside the $1,500 to insulate you against those? No, you've already got $1,000 in Baby Step 1, so you're close enough. And if you run up over, just budget your other $500 into your budget flow. You might have to slow down your debt snowball a little bit in Baby Step 2

to cover some bills if you had an event, right? Right, right. It's just like carrying a large deductible, as you said, in an HSA or something. But I'm going to take that part of the risk on for sure and so forth. But, yeah, Christian Healthcare Ministries is the one that we endorse. Hey, man, thanks for the call. April's with us. April's in New York City.

Hi, April. How are you? Hi. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So I want to know whether or not my husband and I should move in order to get out of debt. We don't like our house.

Okay. So if you were out of debt, you might be moving anyway. Right. Okay. Absolutely. The balance on the mortgage is $255,000. The value, what's the value? About $480,000.

Okay. All right. And our debt, other than the mortgage, is about $80,000. Mm-hmm. Does it make sense for us to move in order to get out of debt? Well, I mean, if you did and put $120,000 down at the next place, could you afford to make that happen? Yes.

Okay. Because that would make you debt-free, and you should have about $120,000 left after expenses and everything, and $80,000 of debt had paid off, right? Right. So, yeah, that seems to make sense, because you want to move anyway. I do want to move so badly. Yeah.

Now, are you going to move up in-house, equal house, just different area, or down in-house? Different house, a little bit up in-house. So the mortgage would be, the monthly mortgage would be higher um but on a 15 year fixed rate on a 15 year fixed rate yes and your payment will be no more than a fourth of your take-home pay yes okay if you can do all of that and you get out of a house you don't like into a house you do like there's no downside to this move okay but you know the point is we're trying to get out of debt house and everything long term so we've got to aim at that and um you know go there as fast as you can so appreciate you joining us open phones at 888-825-5225

jessica follows me on facebook.com slash Dave Ramsey. How should someone using your plan go about creating residual income? Well, there's only one way to create residual income that's not some kind of Internet scam. And when I hear someone ask a question about residual income, I usually think scam because that's usually what it is referring to. Okay, so let's just kind of get that out on the table. Residual income is income that comes in steadily that you don't work for. It's unearned income. It's investment income is what real residual income is. And or you create some kind of a business.

I have royalties on a book I wrote in 1992 that I got a check in yesterday. That's residual income. It's continuing to come in, right? I'm still making money on a book I wrote in 1992 that I got a check in yesterday. That's residual income. It's continuing to come in, right? I'm still making money on that book. Wasn't a big check, but it's still a check. Shut up. Okay.

So, you know, but it's residual income. So royalties are residual income. Investments create residual income. Investing in good mutual funds. Owning rental property. Rental property is residual income. The renters pay the rent, assuming that they get to stay. All that kind of stuff every month, right? And so that's residual income.

But don't fall into this, you know, people using some term that sounds sexy and get yourself into some crap. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions, Toby and Christy are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Good. Good, Dave. Welcome. Where are you from?

Teutopolis, Illinois, near Effingham. Oh, very good. Well, welcome to Nashville. And all the way here to do your debt-free screen. Yes. I love it. How much have you paid off? $275,000. Wow.

How long did that take? Six and a half years. Good for you. And your. How long did that take? Six and a half years. Good for you. And your range of income during that time? We started at about $100,000, and now we're just over $170,000. Cool. What do you all do for a living? I'm an assistant professor.

And I'm a shop manager at an auto body shop. Very good. Cool. Cool. So I'm guessing with the size of that debt and it being six and a half years you paid off your house yes i did i'm looking at weird people good job you guys well done well done very cool so that's house and everything you got no payments in the world right how's that feel awesome i? So tell me the story.

What happened six and a half years ago that put you on this journey? Well, my sister-in-law was telling me about the Financial Peace University class she was attending, and she was telling us about budgeting and paying off credit card, and I kind of just passed it off at the time because we already followed a budget. And then I caught you on the radio show a few weeks after that, and I really liked your no excuse attitude for paying off debt so i came home and suggested to toby that we should go to a total money makeover one day event and so we did that and we decided to give it a try and so we where

was that event held kansas city okay very cool cool. And that got you guys going then. Yep. So we started to do that and we finished Baby Steps 2 and 3. And we had just finished Baby Step 3 in October 2012. And then just a few short weeks after that, our entire world kind of fell apart when Toby was diagnosed with four brain tumors. Whoa. So at that time, we went into survival mode for a year or so while he was in and out of the hospital having surgeries. During that time, we also cash flowed about $15,000 to $20,000 in medical debt and medical bills.

And we also made the difficult decision to sell the family business or close it at the time. And so we liquidated that and we got about $50,000 from that sale. After he was back in good health and working full time, we sat down and looked at our budget and how much we had to pay off on the house. And we just knew we had to finish it with his health history. So we just made the commitment and kept moving forward. Wow. So go ahead and just beat brain tumors in the process. Yeah.

Good for you. Thank you. Well done, man. That is awesomeness. Couldn't have done it without these guys. I bet. I bet. Yeah, you guys have fought through some real stuff and paid off the house while you were at it.

Unbelievable. Very, very cool. Well, life does happen while we're making other plans, doesn't it? Yes. And you just push pause for a little while and took care of business and then push play again, right? Right. So, good for you. What do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is?

A lot of hard work and perseverance. Discipline. Her discipline. He's pointing at her, for those of you that can't see through your radio. Very cool. Great. And so you've got the lineup with you, the kiddos with you. Give me their names and ages.

We have Callie, 16. Megan will be 15 next week. Carmen is 10, and Taylor is 7. All right. Very cool. So the kiddos, and they've struggled through this whole thing, too, with you, obviously. Yes, they have. Did they learn anything in the process?

I think so. I hope so. Good. Okay. Well, congratulations, you guys. We're very proud of you, and congratulations on beating the brain tumors, man. That's an incredible story. Thank you.

Very cool. And now here you sit with a paid-for house. Yeah. What's that thing worth? It's probably $350 to $380. Very nice. And it's yours. It's yours.

It's yours, by the way. Nobody's coming to get that one. Nope. It's yours. I love yours. It's yours, by the way. Nobody's coming to get that one. It's yours. I love it. That's a different feeling. Folks that have never been there, it's a different feeling after you've been through stuff like you guys have been through. Or Sharon and I went through losing everything. And nobody's coming to take my house.

It's mine. It's paid for. Very well done, you guys. Very well done. We've got a copy of Chris Hogan's book for you, Retire Inspired. Number one bestseller. That should be the next chapter in your story. Millionaire status.

That's what we're going for next, and outrageously generous along the way. So congratulations, you guys. Thank you. Thank you, David. So have the girls been practicing the debt-free screen? They have, at least the younger two, anyway. Yeah, okay. So the teenagers are too cool.

Yeah. I got you. Okay. All right. Toby, Christy, Callie, Megan, Carmen, and Taylor from Effingham, Illinois, $275,000 paid off in six and a half years, making $100,000 to $170,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream.

Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Well done. Well done, well done, well done. Man, absolutely fabulous. Congratulations, you guys. Our question of the day comes from blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee that means even if you mess up,

if you mismeasure, I could have done that. If you pick the wrong color, I could have done that. They will remake your window blinds for free. I love this company. Blinds.com gives you free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos we run every month, they'll always save you some more money. Use the promo code RAMSEY.

The site is blinds.com. Jason is in Florida. My son will receive $60,000 from an accident settlement when he turns 18. He is very responsible. He's the one that got us listening to you. But I fear that giving that amount to an 18-year-old is a recipe for a disaster. Do you have any advice on how we can help him steward this well? Well, I would begin talking about what we're going to do with it, and I would already have it planned out.

What are we going to spend it on? Are we going to save it, invest it? Are we going to use it for college? Are we going to buy a car with it? Are we going to give some of it? What are we going to do? And I suggest you try to do more than one thing with it. I would allocate some of it just for fun. I would allocate if you need to pay for college out of it, you know, allocate the bulk of it for that. If the purchase of a small, inexpensive car needs to be in there, that would be good. But whatever you're going to do, go ahead and plan it now. So it's not like when it comes, it's like a yawn when the money comes like okay now we just do what we'd already planned see that's part of what doing a budget does it keeps

you from spending money impulsively and that's what you're doing here you're just going to give the sixty thousand dollars write it on there and go what are we going to spend on what are we going to do with it what are we going to invest it how much are we going to give and go ahead and start talking about that and get his agreement on it and you know i would even contract with him that that's what he's going to do in other words after we write this out it could be a simple you know a couple lines on a yellow pad of where the money's going to go and he's agreeing to it and i would have him sign it and date it and uh then when the money just to help guide him and remind him that when his brain was calm, that he made this wise adult decision. And then when he gets the money and decides he wants to do something stupid with it, you can remind him he was not stupid earlier and he just got stupid.

And we don't want to be stupid. It's a bad idea. It caused you to be broken, have this horrible taste right on the back of your tongue. I mean, if you've had that taste on the back of your tongue, you know what it is? Regret. Yeah. Having done something stupid, particularly with money, and then you have pay stupid tax because the money's gone,

and you have this horrible taste in your mouth called regret. Man, what if I had dot dot dot what if i had not done dot dot dot oh my goodness it changes everything doesn't it yeah don't don't live with that that's the nastiest of emotions regret so make good decisions on the front end, and it slows those down. You don't face it that way. You don't get into problems. So take your time.

Lay out a budget for any kind of windfall before it comes in. Any kind of check that's coming, you're going to get a bonus check. You got this coming. Go ahead and give every one of those dollars a name, just like you do with your income. And then you won't live with that taste in your mouth called regret. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us, America. Joey is with us in Chicago. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Joey, how are you? I'm doing good. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, my dad is 52 years old, and he is absolutely destroying our family's finances. He's never been good with money. And about eight years ago, we were about $25,000 in credit card debt. Unfortunately, around that time, my mother was in an accident and passed away. The only upside to that was the settlement was enough money to clear all of our credit card debt

and cover our mortgage for a couple of years. Well, if you fast forward to today, we're back at $20,000 in credit card debt, and he's barely able to keep his head above water. How old are you? I'm 17 years old. Oh, my Lord. Okay. Yeah.

Well, let me help you with something for a second, Joey. Okay, we aren't in credit card debt. Your dad is. You're not. You're not in credit card Joey. Okay. We aren't in credit card debt. Your dad is. You're not. You're not in credit card debt. Okay. So you understand the difference is that someday you'll

be on your own and you're not liable for this. Absolutely. Okay. And so he's run up credit card debt again. You're observing this. Are you an only child, the oldest child or what? Oh, well, I'm actually the middle child. He has four kids, two of which have moved out, and obviously in the next couple of years I'll be moving out as well.

Right, okay. And so your question is what? What can I do to try to help him get on the right track as well as making sure I'm preparing myself for my financial future so I don't end up in the same rut that he's in. Okay. Well, I think you're already preparing yourself for your financial future. You're 17 years old.

You actually know the Dave Ramsey Show exists. Go figure. So, I mean, that alone puts you way ahead of the game of most people, so you know what to do, and you obviously have observed some things you don't want to replicate from your dad, even though there's probably some things that he does that are good things, not necessarily money, but he's probably got some good traits that you do want to replicate and carry forward. So, well, the first thing is that you learn to stay on a budget.

You learn to stay out of debt. You learn to save money for emergencies and invest for the long term you don't spend more than you make um you don't get credit cards and carry them around so that's how you prepare for your future and obviously you're going to have to handle your own uh school uh and you know and so you have a lot of work ahead of you but that's okay you'll be fine as far as you goes now as far as him um there's not many men on the planet that will take financial advice from their 17 year old middle son absolutely you have the powdered butt syndrome once someone has powdered your butt they really

don't want your opinion about money or sex and so he's probably not looking for your advice, even though he knows he's probably wrong. So you're probably not the man to speak up and cause this to happen. That's my guess. So what are we going to do? Well, there's a couple things you could do. One is, is there a person in his life, particularly another man, that he respects their business ability, their money ability, or even just their spiritual walk?

Mm-hmm. Well, definitely our pastor. And my pastor has tried helping them in the past, but it seems like no matter who's talking to him or how they're trying to help him, he just doesn't seem to either comprehend any of it or want to replicate any of it, and he's very stubborn in being his own man. Okay. Well, I think if I were you, I would talk to your pastor again.

You know, I find people every day, I've been doing this for a lot of years, and I find people every day who two years ago wouldn't listen, but now they listen. Five years ago they wouldn't listen, but now they listen. Five years ago they wouldn't listen, but now they listen. So all of us, you know, the stubborn comes and goes with all of us, and being our own man comes and goes. But if the pastor, you know, just leans in, and I think most pastors, if they're going to make an error, it would be on the side of being too soft, not too hard.

And so I might might if i were you ask your pastor to turn up the heat just a little bit more okay and just spend a little more time with your dad and push on your dad on this subject and not mention that you are involved because you're not involved because you can't fix it and you keep your mouth shut because you're not you're not going to do anything but make things worse. Very true. Yeah, because he's going to go, he's going to do whatever he wants to do. And then, you know, at the end of having done everything you can do,

I mean, you know, if you wanted to give him a total money makeover book or something, you could do that, but you're going to be real careful. I was thinking about doing that for like Christmas or something. Just say, Dad, this is something I read read that i liked i thought you might enjoy it because you like business or something like that not like uh hey you're really fat here's a book on how to not be fat that doesn't work right that's insulting you follow me and so you know instead you would just say uh just kind of blow it off and not make it a big deal. Oh, Dad, it would change my life.

I would feel so good if you would read this. No, don't do any of that crap. Just kind of keep it nonchalant and just go, hey, I read this. I thought you might like it because you like business stuff or something like that. And just see if he picks it up. He may throw it away. He may put it on the coffee table as a coaster for the next two years and then open it. We don't know how this is going to work.

But at least I'm an outside expert. Your pastor is an outside influence that does have or could potentially have the credibility for him to listen to. Some people aren't going to listen to anybody. And so you have to be willing to go, I love my dad in spite of his incompetence in this one area of his life, and I'm just going to love him where he is. That's all I can do. And you may do that your whole life. You know, he may go to his grave doing this.

And so your love is not conditional upon, you know, whether he handles money well or not. Your respect for him is not even conditional on that. But you're not going to take financial advice from somebody that's misbehaving with money, so he's not going to speak into your life on money issues. But that's all. That's all. I don't speak into people's life on growing hair because I can't seem to do it on top of my head. So I don't tell people how to grow hair.

So if you can't do something, you shouldn't tell other people how to do it, right? You shouldn't even have an opinion that's loud about it. But people try all the time. So just kind of keep that in the back of your mind there, Joey. Hey, thanks for calling in, man. Open phone is at 888-825-5225. Jay is in Jackson, Tennessee. Hi, Jay.

How are you? I am doing slightly better than I deserve and working on getting better. Good. How can I help? Well, I just wanted to say, first off, I'm a lifelong listener, thanks to my mother and my grandmother always playing you in the car when I was a kid. Wow. And now I listen to you as an adult.

I have not always practiced as good as I should have, but I'm working on that now as well. Gotcha. How can I help today? Well, I'm calling to ask about a specific debt that I'm working on paying off. Funny enough, like Maggie, I've decided it's totally okay for me to work 70 hours a week and actually deliver pizzas specifically. Okay. I have called the office to make an offer on this debt. They have given me a

counteroffer. It is 75% of the balance, which I know is a little high. I've never heard anybody ask you about debts over a judgment on an eviction, which is what this is over. So I understand that may be a little different. Yeah, it is. But they have refused to give me a written agreement on the payment. Okay. Even if you were to bring them a check, they will not hand you an agreement? He said if I come into their office, I will get a receipt. But they will not give me a payment agreement beforehand. That's fine. That's fine. But I don't get a receipt, but they will not give me a payment agreement beforehand. That's fine.

That's fine. But I don't get a receipt. I get a statement that says this judgment, this eviction debt is 100% cleared upon this payment, not a receipt that says you paid the money. A receipt that says you paid money doesn't mean that you paid but 75%. You still owe 25%. What he had stated is it would be, he called it a receipt, but also saying that that's what would be sent to the county clerk to mark that it is paid off and done. As long as you have something in your hand that says the debt is settled in full and it's in writing,

you would be fine. You'd be fine. Okay. So 75% on an old eviction debt. It sounds to me like you're dealing with an individual landlord, not a corporate landlord. I am dealing with a law office that is representing the apartment complex. Okay.

Yeah, you probably got about all you're going to get. Okay. I'd take the deal. And I'm willing to pay that amount. That's totally fine. Yeah, go in there and pay them and get her done. But get it in writing that says the debt is settled in full. This payment means I no longer owe any money.

And it needs to say that real clearly where you understand it and you can see it or don't give them a check. And, you know, that's how it works. And they know that if they're in a law office. Just don't let them bamboozle you. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Hey guys, this is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. I'm excited to announce that we're now carried on 600 radio stations across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsay.com slash show.