The Ramsey Show - App - Will We Have Enough in Retirement? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

you're listening to the ramsey show where we help people build wealth do work that they love and create amazing relationships from ramsey network i'm your host host, Jade Warshaw. Next to you, next to me is Ken Coleman. We're taking your calls about your life, your money, your career, and you can get involved in the conversation. It's a live show, so you can call us at 888-825-5225, and we'll get you in as long as it's a good question. That's right. You got to get through the screener. That's right. You got to get through the screener. All right. Laura got through the screener. She's in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Let's see what she's talking about. That's right. You got to get through the screener. That's right. You got to get through the screener. All right. Laura got through the screener.

She's in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Let's see what she's talking about. What's going on, Laura? Hi. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. We're glad you're here. So my husband and I are on baby steps four, five, and six.

We have three kids, four and under. And we plan on moving next year. And we're talking about uh leaving both our careers and moving to another state and starting a business wow y'all don't like to sit still or chill do you no that's my husband that's not me what state are you what state pennsylvania um we're in pennsylvania now but we're looking at Wyoming, Idaho, or Tennessee. Big sky. Somewhere a little more conservative.

Okay. A little more land. Yeah, we're the land of the free down here for sure. Tell us about the business. What would this business be? We've been debating about it, and we think a donut shop um but i was sat on a bakery before i love to bake um my husband also loves to be in the kitchen we love to i need my heart to be my heart needs to beat for a second i'm uh listen i have so many questions i do too i mean all right

so hold on a second jade before you go. So what does he do now for a living? And what, I guess, both of you, what do you do for a living? He works on the family dairy farm. I supervise a unit of analysts for a law enforcement agency. What do you guys earn together? $130, $135. $130. Who makes what?

Break that down. I'm at about $100 and he's at about 35. And when you say the family dairy farm, it's his mom and dad's? His aunt and uncle. His aunt and uncle. And he's only making 30K? Yeah. How old is he?

35. All right. I'm sorry. Let me tell you something. That is not enough. No. that let me tell you something that is not enough no but what's also not good about this equation is that for me okay i'm gonna say where my objections are and you correct me where i'm wrong you've got a great income between the two of you you are in baby steps four five and six which

means you really do have three to six months of expenses. But then the idea is we just up and move to a place we've never been and we open up a donut shop, which we've never done before. And we're going to quickly make enough profit to sustain our lives. It's not going to happen. Can I pop the bubble? Yes. Tell me what's going to happen that's going to make this happen exactly as you've said it. So the idea is when we move that he would most likely work, and I would be starting the business from home, like a cottage food industry. Yeah, yeah.

So he'd be working and having the main job, and I would be working on that. Okay. So we're ready to go full time. And what would his main job be and what would he be making? We haven't figured that out yet or. Okay. Looking long term, at least a year out. So this is a dream.

Yeah. A dream without a plan is a wish, right? This is a wish that you have in your heart. Ken, let's make this into something that is. All right. So let's take the current plan and let's try to put some brick and mortar around it. All right. First of all, he's 35 years old. I don't know what his work history is, but he is at his age with his ability. I'm going to suggest gently that he's grossly underpaid for what he could be making in the world of work. Would you agree with that, Laura? Yes, I agree. Okay. He's working for aunt and uncle Larry and Mildred and he's on a dairy farm and they're

underpaying him or he's doing a job that quite frankly, that's what it earns. And he's okay with that because your mama's bringing home the bacon to the tune of a hundred grand so i mean that's pretty great so um what i'm gonna do is is he's gonna get a better job and he's gonna get a job uh with any kind of skill any kind of experience he can that is at least double what he's making this is all minimums by the way jade this is my minimum plan okay Okay. So he needs to be doubling his income at a minimum with a path for growth, for heaven's sakes. All right. And then you need to do your best to stay within your industry or something that is transferable

and make similar money. Yeah. You need to still be making a hundred thousand. So we go to Wyoming, Tennessee. What was the other place idaho idaho all right and so we've increased our income and then uh at night and on the weekends you are cranking out with two or three signature donuts not 20 different types of donuts you really just you're right ken two or three or three bangers. Something really creative going, this is my best shot. And I'm not going to spend any money on growing this business other than the materials, or I say materials, ingredients I need to make my best donuts. And I'm going to sell those donuts to people at church. Coffee shops. I'm going to give them away at places.

And I'm going to test my donut. And I'm going to see what people say when they bite into my donut, right? And then I'm going to go, what's happening here? All right, is it better than everybody else's? And if I've got something, then we figure out what are the next steps to grow the business from home. But I think this is a pure side hustle testing play before you try to launch this business and make any money that would go towards living expenses. So I know I took a little bit of time with that.

Nope, that's right, Ken. But that's the process. And oh, by the way, you still can move to a place where you like the politics and the values and whatever, whatever, whatever, all in the middle of that plan. Yeah. I think Ken has laid this out beautifully. I don't have a whole lot to add to it except to beg and plead with you to take his advice because it's like the best laid plans, right? If you don't plan for the what ifs and you get out here and let's say, I don't know you very well, Laura, but you might actually be a terrible cook. We think you're great, but what if nobody likes the donuts? So what Ken said is so true. By the way, I got to add this. Have you had five daughters donuts locally?

Oh, show you're right, Ken. So guess what? I know her. I know the lady who owns it. Oh, yeah. The founder. Her daughter and my daughter are friends. So I have had the chance to talk to her at a birthday party and ask questions.

Here's why I'm going to share this. Okay. You know how expensive $5 donuts are? They're pretty high. They're pretty high. But they're pretty freaking fantastic. Listen, I'll pay the price in more ways than one. I'm about to shock some Ramsey people right now, Ramsey Show listeners,

because y'all are cheap because we've told you to be. Let me tell you what a dozen donuts, $5, it's over $50. Yeah. Okay? Look at the lady on the front row. Lady on the front row but they are she was like they are cuss like they are flavors you're not gonna get first of all the donut is this tall i mean it's massive it is unbelievable very specific flavors it's a meal here's my point

laura here's what i'm trying i'm not trying to get you to copy what she's doing what i'm saying is she's making margin on those donuts, a lot of margin, but the value exchange is there. You've got to figure out this donut business because you cannot feed babies and pay the bills on donuts unless you're selling a lot of donuts or you're selling a premium donut. I'm just giving you a little business 101 lesson here to figure this thing out. It's all fun to go, I want to bake donuts. Yeah, but you'll starve. Yeah. The move is not to go dream about business spaces, go get a space and just be like, and I've got 39 flavors and you just grand opening the way to do it is the way Ken said, where you start small, you start on the ground level,

you let people taste it. Let the people decide. That's great advice. Ken Coleman, this is the Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Ken Coleman. We're your hosts for the day, which means we are the ones taking your calls about your life, your money, and your career. So if you want to get involved, you can give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225 and we'll get with you. Hey, Ken, let's talk about real estate for a moment. Oh, I love talking about real estate. You know this.

I do too. Selling a house the Ramsey way makes home ownership a blessing instead of a burden. We talk about that all the time. We have a set of parameters around here that we teach people how to buy and sell the right

way. And so the Ramsey Trusted Program was created to kind of help push this forward. It's the only way to find an agent that you can trust to keep you on track with what we teach here at Ramsey. And this will help you get the best offer on your house or find the right house for you. We send some of the top agents that are in your area. These are people

that we trust. You review their stats, you get to interview them, and you get to decide which one ultimately that you want to work with. And so these Ramsey Trusted Agents, they have years of experience, guys, and they are going to help you make wise decisions when it comes to pricing, marketing, making, or even choosing the right offer. So if you are looking, whether you're buying or you're selling, this is for you, okay? You find a Ramsey Trusted Agent for free, by the way, at ramseysolutions.com slash agent. And I always tell people, I love my Ramsey Trusted Agent. She's great. She's wonderful. And that's all I have to say about that. All right. So check it out. All right. Let's have to say about that. That's great. So check it out.

All right, let's go to the phone lines. We've got Brooke and Raleigh in North Carolina. Come on and raise up. What's going on? Hey, yes. My mom is worried that she does not have enough to last her in retirement. And I mean, to the point that she's like worried it's being anything, like it's not a necessity. And I have tried every which way I know how to, um, to tell her and show her that I think she's more than okay. I think a lot of her fear is coming on. We lost my dad suddenly last spring. Um, and then she also retired this June, um, which was the plan before my dad passed. And so we've kept to the plan that she was able to retire.

But I think it's just, I think she's just a lot of fear is there without his income and everything. That makes sense. How old is she? So she is 66. Okay. And how, do you know what the nest egg is? Do you know what she has? I do.

So I, and just for a background too i'm an only child and we have a really good relationship so i've been helping her with everything um so her nest egg the retirement nest egg um is about 750 000 okay and does she have debt no debt including the house including the house excellent and she owns and so for real estate they have a little vac she has a little vacation home um that's worth 200 000 that's paid for um and then a part of the other plan was when my dad retired they were going to move next door to us they already owned a piece of land next to us we did move that up once he passed away just because i am my only child and we both felt better with her being closer okay that she's living there and that was paid cash for okay um the house and all she built a house and so now we are in the process of selling the house that they had lived in. Okay. That's going to bring another about $250,000.

Okay. And the house that she lives in now that's paid for is worth about $265,000. Okay. So you got the $750,000 nest egg. Here in a minute, you're going to add $250,000 from the sale of the other house to it. Everything is cash. Is she using the vacation home? I guess for now, keep it until she's not using using the vacation home I guess for now you know keep it on the keep

it until she's not using it anymore but I mean does that generate revenue the vacation home no so that was one thing my dad actually bought that um a year before he passed and it was kind of like that it was somewhere that we went every um a week out of the year for as a family and he didn't want it to be rental it's like ours as far as as a family it was going to be our little place listen over a million bucks is here um the way to look at this and i i still want her to sit down with maybe a smart vestor pro to really get her head around this if she's not because sometimes you know i think that you're really helping her and doing a good job but sometimes you want the person with the degree and the letters after their name to tell you. But the way I'm looking at this is kind of, I'm looking at the average return on this.

So even just the $750,000, if you think of her average annualized rate of return, if it's in good growth stock mutual funds, she should be somewhere around 10%. And so if you think, hey, can she live off of just the growth couldn't she's got no debt in her life can she live off of 75 000 a year my guess is the answer is yes yeah right now she started drawing social security um in january off of my dad's because he always made more than she did he worked part-time for years and um she's only getting in like 2600 and i've tried to do a budget like worst case scenario um and out and also including like insurance and taxes for the year for growth properties and i mean worst case scenario she would have to draw

like an additional 600 a month okay if she wanted to, but I want her to be able to enjoy it too. And that's what I'm trying to tell her, that if she wants to go and get a meal with a friend for $10, it's okay. Probably, it sounds like your dad did a great job handling this, and she kind of deferred to him. And maybe he encouraged her to, you know, cut back over the years so that they could have this great nest egg. And now it's here, and maybe she's used to looking to him for you know what we do next and you know that's

understandable the office it was the opposite he was the spender and she was the saver but he made more he made his income was quite a bit more than hers right and i think the thing is now i think too without the comfort of that income. Yeah, she's scared. She's really scared. You know, here's what's interesting. I think Jade's advice is absolutely, as what I was going to say, I think she's spot on. I would get her with a smart investor pro in your area or two, let her meet with two or three. And she gets to pick the one she wants that she's most comfortable with. That's the advice we've given for decades. And this additional income from the

house goes on top of the $750,000. Now, let's just say you're Mrs. Calculator. I am. I'm going to give you a chance here because I always go to Jade. She loves this. She's 66. She's 66. Let's just say, what does the $750,000 turn into in 10 years if she doesn't even touch? Well, she's adding the $250 from the sale of the house. That's what I'm saying. I want you to be able to make this case, but a smart investor pro will do this with her. But if the daughter's trying to get her to listen, but Jade's right. She's not going to listen to you.

She needs a pro to tell this. But just the $750 alone over the next 10 years is going to turn into a sizable chunk of change. But let's just say it's a million. The million at the time she's 76, what's that going to be? Well, let me start by just saying a lump sum is going to double every seven years. That's why I was saying the $750,000 example. What's the $750,000 going to be 10 years from now? Well, Ken, I just turned it to a million.

I'm sorry. Well, you were throwing me off. Okay. I was trying to just stick with the $750,000 because that's what she has now. And, Ken, I just turned it to a million. I'm sorry. Well, you were throwing me off. Okay. I was trying to just stick with the $750,000 because that's what she has now and that's plenty of money. We're trying to prove it to her. Okay. And that's what I want to make sure. I want to make

sure I'm not crazy. You're not crazy. I feel like she's good. No, trust me. I feel like she's okay. Survey says it's coming. All right. So if we say just for the next 10 years, $750,000, she doesn't add anything to it uh average rate of return let me get that decimal out of there because it doesn't want that there it will be 1.8 million dollars ding ding ding all right and that's her doing nothing that's just the

750 and i think we add the 250 on top of all this, and all that's going to just burn away in a good way. It's just going to keep moving and investing. So I think the SmartVestor Pro is the way to go. Have a pro who's got great bedside manner. You're just the prophet in your own town. You're too close. Yeah, that's what it is. Jade's right.

You're right, Jade. I mean, it's 100% what's going on. We're going to go meet with her. She's not? No, no. I just want to make sure I'm not leading her down the wrong road. Let her see this show. Play this show for her. Go into the Ramsey Network app.

You know what? That's it. Go into the app or show her on YouTube. Here's the deal. What's your mom's name? It's Ann. Ann. Listen to me, Ann. You're not okay. You're great. You are in great shape, Ann. You need to go have a lunch every weekend with the fried green tomatoes. Have some fun.

Join the YMCA and take a swimming class. You know what? You're going to be okay. You're going to be good. Because even with the million, if we did a million for the next 10 years, it's 2.4 million. Even if you do nothing to it. It's fantastic.

Mama is good to go. She's fine. I love when we have good news, Ken. I love when we get to give the good news. And in this case, it is very, very good news. Compound interest is always good news. It is. This is The Ramsey Show.

You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade. He's Ken. Give us a call. The show is live, so if you want to talk to us, call in. 888-825-5225. We'll take your call about your life, your money, and Ken will hit you up with that career advice. Although you do jump in on the money, and you do a good job, Ken. Oh, yeah. You know, there's a microphone in front of me. That means I'm going to say something. And it's going to be good. All right. Lee is here.

He's from Washington DC, our nation's capital. What's going on, Lee? All right. Thanks so much for taking my call. I was actually calling because I recently, yesterday I was laid off from my job and I was contemplating if I should pay off my credit card debt, which I was initially going to pay off before I got laid off, but I'm wondering if I should change my priorities. What happened? The company, so I worked at a startup, and they just couldn't afford to continue to pay me.

I had just started that job in July, July 1st, so this is the first month. I got the job through internship because I was interning with them for two months, and then they hired me on, and now they've laid me off because they couldn't afford to pay me. Well, first of all, I'm sorry about that.

That stinks, and it's happened to all of us. What were you doing for them? Software sales. Okay. So I was a sales development representative. What's your confidence level? I'm sure your brain has been running 100 miles an hour. What's your confidence level of getting another sales job or something else in that field or just anything?

What's your confidence level in the next 30, 60, 90 days? I'd say in the next, I think that I could confidently say that I could be placed in the same role with a different company at least in the next 60 days. Can you survive from a cash standpoint? What's your cash situation, your bills and everything that you've got responsibilities for? I do. Yeah, I can survive right now. I have about four months of expenses saved. Do you have any debt besides the credit card? Yes. Yes, I do. Okay. Yeah. I mean... Jade, walking through that whole situation. In this situation, I hate that you got laid off.

And you're kind of in a transition. And so we would tell you to pause the baby steps. So for all intents and purposes, you're on baby step two, which is you have debt and you need to clear out your consumer debt. And so because this kind of storm has happened, we'd say pause that, stack up as much cash as you have. It sounds like you have four months of expenses, but you also have debt. And so because this kind of storm has happened, we'd say, pause that, stack up as much cash as you have. It sounds like you have four months of expenses, but you also have debt. And so if I were you, I'd continue to make the minimum payments on all your debt because you want to stay current, you want to stay on top of things, but I wouldn't pay anything over it until you land that next position.

Okay. And can I please, please, please, please ask you to get to work very quickly? It doesn't even mean, you know, if you've got some things that are working in the industry, that's fine. Play out the interview process. But I would be doing some type of part-time job or maybe something full-time until I had something, something that's just a gig kind of a thing, the gig economy, you know, and keep income coming in. Here's why. Let's say that this thing plays out like you think it's going to. And within 60 days, you're back and up and working.

Now, all of a sudden, we're right back in the baby steps like Jay just told you. And now that four months worth of expenses is all going towards the debt. But I want you to keep income coming in in this time. That's where you actually turn a really sucky situation into a better situation by going, all right, I got laid off. That sucks. Taking a pay cut, but I'm at least bringing money in. And Jade, if he could, let's say, make enough money in a gig to take care of his four walls, and I'll let you explain that then i like his position once he gets back up on the horse that's excellent matter of fact i might

keep a little bit of the gig while i get back on the horse so that you can pay off this debt as quickly as possible because that's the goal i want you to when once you land the job the money that you have in savings i want you to use that to pay off the debt. That's the baby steps. Baby step number one is you keep $1,000 or you get $1,000. You stash it away. That's your starter emergency fund. Baby step two is you pay off all of your debt except your mortgage using whatever extra money you have laying around and to Ken's point, side hustling and doing all those other things. So you said you have four months of expenses. At this point, if I were you, that money goes to the debt. And then after the debt is cleared up, you save back up that four months of expenses or up to six months if you wanted to. And then you move on from there and you start investing at baby step four. So that's how I

would run this if I were in your shoes. Very good call. Let's go to Maggie. She's in Tampa, Florida. What's going on, Maggie? Hi, thank you for taking good call. Let's go to Maggie. She's in Tampa, Florida. What's going on, Maggie? Hi, thank you for taking my call. You got it. I'm getting a little anxious. We were, my husband's 76 and I'm 69, and we just bought a house. We wanted to downsize from the one that we had that was bigger and i'm getting a little anxious because the house is taking a little long to sell it's been on the market for six months so you sold one and you moved into another house before you sold the other one yes and so are you about to be paying two mortgage payments no no the other one is paid off. Okay, good. The one that we're selling is paid off. Okay.

Okay. So we thought it would sell really fast, but with the market, the way it's going, it's been a little longer on the market. How long? About six months. What is your real estate agent telling you about your current listing price? Oh, we just lowered it some. When was it? It was at $575,000 and we just lowered it to $569,000. Okay. So I just saw this headline today. Today. We're seeing the Florida housing market begin to contract a little

bit because it was exploding. And now we're seeing it contract. In fact, many people feel like it was overpriced, overheated. And so you're in Tampa, which is the Tampa area, which is certainly one of the better markets in Florida. So I think if you've got a really good real estate agent, and if you don't, I would highly recommend that you go to ramsaysolutions.com slash agent and talk to some of the trusted pros there on that site that we know. Because in this current market, I think patience is the game. And listen, six months for a house listed in Tampa? I don't think that's crazy if your pricing is right. Yeah, I agree.

I agree. Tell me, is there anything on fire, though? Because, of course, everybody wants their house to sell. Was the plan to take the proceeds from this sale and put it on your current house? Or did you buy your new house? Tell me more about that. No, I put some down. So we owe $326,000 because the house was $430,000.

Okay. So we just want to pay the house. We don't want to have that. Sure, I got it. We don't want to pay the bank any interest. Sure, but you're not... We didn't have to. But what Jade's asking you is, are you in a financial squeeze because this thing has not sold yet? No, we're not.

All right, then be patient. This is all about making sure your pricing is right and then just hold. Yeah, just hold. I definitely don't want you to put a price that's too low because you're anxious and you just want to move it. I agree with that. You're not. Everything must go. You're not in that mode. So just, you know, you got to know when to hold them.

Sit tight. I'm going to do a little bit of forecast. I'm no real estate pro, but as you know, I pay way too much attention to the headlines. Okay. Forecast for us, Ken. I pay attention to what the Fed is doing and what they're saying. We are in a presidential election. I would not be surprised given where we are right now. We're seeing unemployment tick back up over four point. I think it's 4.1 the latest the latest job report last month job report we're starting to see a softening in the labor market all of this in a presidential election this is exactly what the fed set out to do jerome powell is on record as saying we've got to raise interest rates and it is going to cause pain in the employment market

and pain in the employment market okay and then when we see interest rates high for the home industry mortgage rates this creates a cooling of consumer demand of course and consumer confidence which in then in turn theoretically theoretically drops inflation well the so all that to say make it late and put it in more lame layman's terms because the cooling is happening because everybody's holding onto their money. That's exactly right. And so what's happening is people are also sitting and waiting to see what happens in the next quarter or the fourth quarter as it relates to mortgage rates. I think you're going to see a slight rate cut in the third or fourth quarter.

And I think you'll start to see people move back into the housing market. So I would sit tight if I'm in a position where I'm listing. I'm going to list it and stay with it. But I think you're going to see an increase in home sales as we look to the end of the year. All right. I love that because that's been the issue. Not enough homes on the market, not enough supply to meet the demand.

You heard it first. You heard it here from Ken Coleman. Let's see. Is he correct? This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show, your scripture and quote of the day. Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way to get the prize.

That's 1 Corinthians 9.24. And then Simone Biles' Olympic opening ceremony is today, by the way. I will be watching. I'm a big fan of the gymnastics. Me too. Well, she said this. She said, I'd rather regret the risk I didn't take. I'm sorry, let me read it again.

I'd rather regret the risk that didn't work out than the chances I didn't take at all. Yeah, I like that. Can we throw that scripture of the day back up there? Yeah, put it back on. I'm going to do something I've never done before, James. Are you going to preach? I might. It says, do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?

Run in such a way to get the prize. So there it is, a little biblical case for there are winners and losers. And maybe we shouldn't be giving trophies to people who lose soccer games 11 to 0. See what I'm doing there? Yeah, just leave that right there. We got a bunch of soft people coming out into the real world because they think everything needs to be handed to them. And scripture says right there, everyone runs the race, but only one of them wins.

And I got news for you. It's the dude or the gal who breaks the line before everybody else. And that's the person, by the way, that we will see in the Olympics this next two or three weeks gets the gold medal. So you're telling everybody else to quit whining and... I'm just saying, you don't deserve a trophy or a medal if you don't place. That's right. Work in a way, live in a way that you place.

And if you don't place, it's because you didn't work hard enough or you aren't good enough. So man, I'm just, I'm so tired of all the whining in this world. Stop whining and get to work or get some self-awareness. There's a reason why I'm not trying to play pro basketball right now. I'm five foot eight. I'm white and can't jump. Okay. There's three reasons. Keep going, Ken. I'm just saying. I'll give you the slow clap. This is the only thing I can do is actually talk on a mic. It's like the only thing I can do. Quack, quack. Some of you will get that. Some of you will not. Yes. Good job, Ken. You know what I'm saying? You're right. No, you're 100% right right i'm not trying to be mean i'm just it's the truth you got if you listen we're here to help you win yes and and you need to understand that winning with money is the same

as winning in a race you know you got to put the work in you got to be disciplined so all right enough one day at a time enough of that so for some reason that verse got me all fired up i i think it should that's That's very good. People needed to hear that, and people needed to know that, Ken. All right. They did. Let's go to Matt. He's in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

What's going on, Matt? Hey, Jade. Hi, Ken. Thanks for taking my call. You bet. Question. So I'm 30 years old. My wife and I are in baby step two.

We were looking forward to getting out of debt next spring. However, there's a parent plus loan that is in my former stepmother's name that morally I do feel obligated to kind of at least take over the principal amount of that loan, which is about $60,000. The problem is... Okay. Sorry, go ahead. When you said the principal amount, what's the rest of the amount? What is it with interest? So, yeah, about $38,000 worth of interest has accrued from the time they began being

dispersed till now. I was told that it was being worked on and taken, quote, taken care of. However, obviously, obviously that's not the case. So. Is your name on it at all? Is it connected to your? It is not. Okay. So this is just you saying, I guess what I want to ask you is initially, and this is what I always ask people with the Parent Plus loan, it's horrible and it causes so much division. The question I want to ask for you is when this loan was taken out, what was the decision? Like, what did you guys decide? Did you say, okay, we're taking out this loan and it's up to you to pay it, Matt? Or was it, hey, we're going to help you out as your parents. We're taking out this loan. We'll pay it.

Or was it a half seize? seize like what did you guys decide so yeah the the intent was i would have my own private loans which which i got and i'm about four thousand dollars from being paid off on those and then the the parent plus loan would be taken care of you know by uh by them and it kind of fell through the cracks and i'm obviously a little upset how'd you find out about it out of the loop on this um well so my my father and now former stepmom got divorced and the loan is in her name oh okay now i see why you're feeling the need to step in and do this. What's your wife say about it? We're kind of in alignment with, you know, morally, I should pay the principal, but the interest, that was not my doing.

So I don't feel responsible to pay that interest. I'm good with that. I agree. I'm good with that. I feel the same way. That feels... Case closed. It's case closed because I think honestly for you, I applaud you because you looked at the situation and said,

this woman stepped into my life. She was here for a season. She did this thing, which in her mind was a good idea. Obviously it wasn't, and it didn't pan out well for her. I think that you're a really good guy for stepping in there and even saying, Hey,

let me, let me take care of the principal. What does she say about all this is she's trying to say no pay the whole thing tell me what her stance is on this yeah so i got like we got something in the mail last week uh like a letter on a certified letter i guess basically recommending paying the 98 000 which includes the interest within 30 days from her from her oh that's bad that's rich so there was like legal action like she's trying to get into that that's what it sounds like but but if we're

going the legal route again like my name's not on it so there's no you know yeah um yeah that certified letter is a joke on her completely but you know that tells you where she's at this is going to be interesting it is going to be interesting i think that i don't know what your relationship with her is i'm guessing it's not wonderful if she if she started with this is this where she started on the conversation where had you been talking up until this point yeah we talked last fall when this was still you know in forbearance interest wasn't accruing and And I said, you know, just let me know what I need to do. Like all, and I even started then, like I don't feel responsible for this interest. I don't think you should pay this full amount.

I agree with that because, you know, you're my former stepmom. All right, hold on. What did she say when you said this to her in person? So this wasn't in person. We used to have a great relationship, but then when everything happened with the fallout between her and my dad, you know, we don't, we're kind of just on text messaging terms. Got it. Oh gosh. This was all over text. You know. Yes. The only positive is it's in writing. That's the only positive. So what was her answer via text when you said,

I'll pay the 60 or whatever it is? So the last text I had from her was she's going to see if there's a payoff amount and what they would take for a payoff amount. Oh, like a settlement? And then you've not heard anything else until this letter? I haven't heard since. That was last week when I got the mail. Wow, okay.

So that ratcheted up pretty quickly. Yeah, she escalated that quickly. Listen, I think you stick to your guns. And I think that you, in many ways, I actually do like the fact that you kind of have this text message chain. I think if this goes further and you need to settle it in some other way, it'll be good to have just kind of some written document. But to Ken's point, she is on the loan. And so legally, really, she's liable for it. And she should be thankful that you're a good guy stepping in. And by the way, she has no leverage. So don't

give her any emotional leverage. This certified letter feels like a tactic to me. Yeah, it is a tactic. Like I'm going to fire a shot across the bow. And I think I would just laugh and just say, you missed. And let me tell you how this is. I'm a good person. I'm a person of integrity and character. And here's what I'm going to do. And I'm not going to pay a nickel more than that. And that's how it's going to go down and just look her and call her bluff. I mean, in poker, that's what you do. You think you got the cards uh you call someone's bet and i think in this case you you've got the cards she doesn't because 60k that's a pretty penny how long will it take you to save that up right quick because we're about to go out oh to save it up

oh geez well with our other debt we have about 40 a little under 40 000 left and everything else so uh we were going to be out of that by next May. Okay. You do that first. From there. Yeah. I ran the debt snowball with the 60K and it pushes us out to like spring of 27. Okay. And by the way, I'd let her know that.

If I were you, I would obviously finish your debt snowball first. I'd even put your three to six months in first and then I'd tackle this because it's not your debt. You're doing it out of the goodness of your heart. And I'd want to make sure that you're squared away first. And honestly, yeah, that's the way I do it. I don't want you to miss out on any time because of this. And so keep moving forward through your baby steps and weave this in at the right point that makes sense for you and your family. Good to host with you, Ken. Thanks for the guys in the booth for making the show happen. This is The Ramsey Show. Bye.